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
Westfold Rider 6
Reworked Cathar Commando which is a card holding its own in cube. Rider loses all instant speed elements, both flash on deployment and ability to Disenchant. For that loss Rider offers that Disenchant at no mana cost. As removal this is more efficient but as utility Commando offers a bit more. I certainly prefer the Commando as a card as it is more option rich but that doesn't mean it is better. It is close enough that you can go with your preference. There is a small chance you might be able to support both although white is not exactly short of ways to answer artifacts and enchantments. My preference is for utility and I do not think my cube will support both this and Commando so I am only giving this a 6/10 rating.
Shire Terrace 6
Comparable to Evolving Wilds although probably a bit better. Also comparable to Ash Barrens although in that case more rarely better! This is playable but probably not needed in most cubes. Any budget ones will hoover this high quality land up. Playable cheap sac triggers can be a real perk too.
Gollum, Scheming Guide 3
Assuming just 50/50 on the trigger then this is basically just a dodgy Glint-Sleeve Siphoner. While not unplayable this card is unreliable and not even all that powerful.
Doors of Durin 2
Loads of power but tough to setup. A bit wishful to be a sensible cube card but can certainly be both powerful and fun.
Fall of Gil-galad 5
Loads of power but very slow, situational, and easily disrupted. Two counters, two scry, two draw, and a fight is worth multiple times the cost of this card. Even this slowly. The thing is that you need dorks, you need the right ones at the right time, and you need them not to be getting killed. Curving with this is likely dodgy. I may test it because of the sheer raw power but I don't much love it. Mechanically it is clumsy.
Forge Anew 3
Sigarda's Aid but slower and more value based. Worse for most applications but useful as redundancy for those kinds of plan in singleton settings.
March from the Black Gate 4
This would be great if it were not so easily disrupted. There are just not going to be enough other armies about to get the ongoing value from this if and when the token gets killed. Certainly this is powerful with support but without it you just have an inflexible and unreliable Luminarch Aspirant.
The Bath Song 5
I love everything about this card. Well, nearly everything. Four mana sorcery speed things that don't affect the board are difficult to love. They are even harder to play... This is however an incredibly sexy support card. Drawing four is a lot of cards, discarding two is good fuel for the bin and enables loads of synergy. Shuffling stuff back in is actually great in cube and is appealing to any slower deck and a pair of blue mana turning this four drop into a 2 mana investment is pleasant, if a little tricky to use. All bundled into one this card adds up to way more than Expressive Iteration however in practice it is most unwieldy. Even with good synergies in your cube you are likely better off with cheaper draw or cheaper loot and mill effects.
Moria Marauder 7
Well now, this is just a Prophetic Flamespeaker for one less mana. Yes, you lose some nice toughness and yes, you lose trample. The latter of which rarely matters and the former of which we are more than happy to lose for that cost reduction. This represents a lot of potential value as well as a lot of potential damage. No one likes to leave the doublestrike dork unchecked, things can go wrong very fast if they do. Power wise this is comfortably cube worthy. It might not be better than Robber of the Rich however. It is more fragile, less immediately active, and rather harder to cast. I may end up cutting this for being a little polar on the play pattern. Sometimes it will come down and utterly dominate a game giving obscene value on top of scary damage output. Other games it will sit there as a limp 1/1 getting little done, or just roll over dead to some incidental damage. Oops, Wrenn and Six etc.
Last War of the Alliance 3
Lovely white card advantage saga. Neither powerful enough nor very suitable for cube but I still want to play it! Great flavourful design.
Display of Power 2
Fork effects are not great in cube and expensive ones fair worst. Sure, you could probably set this up with some cheap instant burn and Fireblast for the win but you are just going to get a lot more out of stand alone spells. Bonus Round just seems like the better tool for the job in basically all settings however.
There and Back Again 5
Another saga design triumph. Love the merging of flavour and mechanics here. Insane value overall, the old 6/6 flying haste for five mana that comes with a free Mountain, a tempt, and a Panic effect. All with a leaving gift of more treasure than you are ever likely to need. Indeed the treasure aspect is so potent I can well imagine people just immediately saccing off Smaug to do some kill with all the treasure. Beastly. Except that the dragon comes last and prior to that you have paid five mana for a slow bad rampant growth and a potentially useless Panic! I fear that overall this might just be too slow to be playable. Invest those five mana on nothing and hope you are still alive to enjoy the slightly above rate dragon. With bounce and an array of other token hosing effects fairly rife in cube I fear this is just too risky to play. Just pack a nice safe, and immediately useful Thundermaw Hellkite. A saga can get away with mincing about when it costs three but a five drop one I fear cannot.
Bitter Downfall 2
Interesting but unlikely to be getting it done. Mostly this is just 4 mana below rate removal. Sometimes it will be nice at one mana but mostly in those settings you already ate a two for one and this didn't represent enough value to offset that.
No comments:
Post a Comment