0 - unplayable in 40 card singleton
1 - effectively unplayable
2 - has low tier constructed decks it might go in
3 - has mid tier constructed decks it does go in
4 - pretty powerful stuff with several potential homes, able to perform well in lower powered cubes
5 - powerful stuff that is either just too narrow or has too many superior alternatives
6 - fringe cube worthy
7 - cube worthy
8 - cube staple
9 - unpowered cube bomb
10 - powered cube bomb
Borborygmos and Fblthp 6
Very powerful card. Stats, immediate effect, value, resilience, reach, removal, interaction. This somewhat has it all. Just expensive and gold. Very gold. Worth a test, three colours is super easy in this world of Triomes. I am expecting this just to be a little light on the play despite it being clearly more than enough card to tangle in cube.
Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree 1
Just a bit slow, and potentially dangerous. Would be an amazing sideboard tech for control mirrors!
Polukranos Reborn 5
Leatherback Baloth has had quite the upgrade here! Addition of reach is nice and the ability to upgrade it into a Wurmcoil Engine is also cute. Much as this is a whole lot of card I don't think I want it in cube. Triple green is relatively prohobitive on casting and the card is really just a pile of stats. Vulnerable to basically all the types of removal beyond combat. Worth a test but doubt this is any good for cube.
Glissa, Herald of Predation 6
Power creep is so stupid now I don't even know where the mark is anymore. Like obviously this is more than powerful enough for cube in most eras of magic, but now? Is this just a bit slow now? In a world where Grave Titan doesn't cut it do I want the watered down gold version even if it comes at a discounted price of one mana? I am assuming not. Just a bit narrow, a bit pricy, and a bit slow.
Elesh Norn // The Argent Etchings 8
What a dumb card. Just far too much power splattered inelegantly around the place. For one thing I dislike all these really pushed versions of the same legened so soon after one another. I don't want to be curving Elesh Norn into Elesh Norn. I am fine with a bit of this but there is just so much so close together. Where to start with this...? So it does have the vulnerability of just dying to removal but as we saw with the recent Sheoldred, there is a power level where that is totally acceptable for a four drop. Elesh Norn seems to meet that mark. The body is bulky but fairly mediocre. The passive effect is a tedious tax that will hurt smaller and wider decks rather more than slow control ones. It will none the less have some immediate impact on the game. It probably wouldn't be enough with just those things, close but a bit random and lackluster to break into the cometitive world of cube four drops. The transform however is rather off the chart. Pay and sac three is certainly a cost but it is reasaonbly achieveable and low cost in white. Assuming you cull three 1/1 dorks you instantly turn four bodies and 6/8 in power into five and 10/10 respectively. Not a bad start. A 4/2 upgrade with a body, and some added wrath protection. Always scary when stage I of the saga is already up. Stage 2, casual attack for 30 basic with your 5 incubated dorks and more should you have others. Pretty game ending unless you had to dump a lot of board into blocks. And then just incase you didn't win, have a board clear, except you get Elesh and any tokens back. So you know, somehow, if they survived all that, just do it again. This card has a lot of reach and a lot of safety built in. It is a relatively low risk play at relatively low cost that is going to terrify opponents. It is quite a midrange sort of card but that is super well suited to cube. 8/10 feels harsh but for a four drop that can drop you behind to most two mana removal spells or do little in a game where you cannot find three other dorks to bin or the opponent is just mashing in your face with some big flier too quickly for you to do anything about.
Guardian of Ghirapur 7
Somewhere between Restoration Angel and Flickerwisp lies this peach. It is pretty fair but it is also spot on for what white wants at the moment. Now blink is off teh ground white is hungry for anything that works well with it. Flickerwisp is a better blink card but this being a single white and having two extra toughness makes this way more rounded and playable. And powerful frankly. People are going to feel really god about curves with two drop EtB effect dorks into this the following turn. Perfect little tool for cube. Nice body, nice effect, nice price. Super fair and reasonable but invovled. The kind of card that makes the game good.
Sword of Once and Future 3
Fire and Ice is on the verge of being cut. This is less powerful and narrower than the only Sword I run. I suspect it is worse than several others too. Power crept well past these in the last couple of years. They are a bit missleading as you often don't spot it being the Sword that lost you the game when they do however they really stand out as winning the game when thy do. Assuredly this is a poor cube card and thankfully the last of this overly drawn out cycle.
Trancendant Message 2
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Got to love this. Overkill and not all that good but I can think of little more fun than drawing a billion cards while all tapped out at instant speed. Mmmm. There will be good places for this novel blast of a card but drafting cubes will not be one of them.
Invasion of Tolvada 1
Overcost, sitautaional and gold all rule this out as far as a reanimation spell. The back side being costly to get to and slow and low power don't add a lot to tempt. Best thing about this is flicker potential. Otherwise very poor.
Invasion of Ravnica 7
This is quite close to the mark. Five mana to exile something in any colour isn't a great deal but it is teh kind of insurance a lot of decks like to have. Being able to then convert that up into a 5/5 dork for a mere cost of 4 damage seems powerful. Removal on the front side helps a lot with that of course. You really don't need two colour gold cards to be triggering this. A Council's Judgement on 5/5 legs for five mana is very very good. Some damage/time conceded to get to the legs keeps it fairer, if more swingy of a card. I don't love this but I can see it getting play and doing an OK job. A bit like six mana Ugin. Just a bit of an insurance policy. Most colours have something they are not great at interacting with in house.
Zurgo and Ojutai 5
Cool design. Great value, security, and reach. All while being nice and option dense. Sadly this is both too far up the curve and way too gold for most cubes now.
Invasion of Tarkir // Defiant Thundermaw 8
This has an air of Bonecrusher Giant. The old two mana shock into 4 power dork vibe I guess! Here we have a sorcery speed two mana shock that can scale with cards in hand but mostly won't. We can call it 2.1 damage if you really want and it will lead to some cool stories. We might even see some crazy have all the dragons in hand one shot combo with this in some daft against the odds deck which will be fun! A two mana sorcery speed shock is poor and abilit to flicker, battle type, and potential to be more with dragons in hand do not make up for this quite. The option to flip however probably does. Especially as in red you have plenty of burn. You can nibble this somewhere fairly freely then convert it up at end of turn with a Searing Spear or something. Then you can safely attack with your dragon and get the attack trigger shock and presumbly be really ahead at this point. You have paid 4 mana, you got a pair of shocks and a 4/4 dragon in play. Sounds like Glorybringer may have some competition! You can also just attack this and get at your dragon but that is likely a lot riskier to missing attacks and more liable to be an over extension. Red of all colours is keen to get face damage in so it can burn people out and skipping on five of that to potentially walk into removal is bad. Overall I do like this card a lot. It is roundedly playable and gives a lot of interesting choices. I fear it will just win some games pretty hard when you kill something relevant on turn two having made a one drop and then go on to fairly quickly or freely flip it and have it just end the game for you. I do prefer Bonecrusher Giant in that it is fairer, more consistently jsut good and never mediocre or bomb like. Oddly this might make Invasion a better card overall as I almost never skip on playing Bonecrusher as it is too reliably good. This you might have to be feeling to play rather than it just being an auto include in red decks.
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