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
Dawn of a New Age 7.5
Fascinating card draw for white. Very cheap with potentially impressive scaling and good synergy. All very white feeling for sure. This is bad at 0 dorks, acceptable at 1, good at 2 and getting pretty insane pretty quickly there after. There is probably a point at which there is too much and you would rather have the life than yet more cards. I think that is a number that is going to be impractical to achieve in game play given that you probably have already won should you have a board that wide! One thing I do like about this is that each extra card is that much further away that it doesn't scale too foolishly, it calms down relatively quickly. Like the difference between 4 and 7 counters is probably negligible in 98% of cases. When a whole Ancestral Recall can be overlooked as negligible you know your scaling issues are not a problem! So yeah, I want to love this cheap white card draw tool. The thing keeping me a little more wary is that conditional card draw is dodgy. You want card draw to get you stuff, not needing of the stuff to get anything at all. Dawn of the New Age is not drawing you into land like Night's Whisper should you find yourself coming up short. I think that this is just cheap and powerful enough to get past such teething problems. I can happily hold something to ensure this is getting me at least two cards, that isn't going to be too much of an imposition. I can see a lot of turn 4 flashback Lingering Souls and pop this. That is two draws pretty assured and might well be 4 just from the Linger. This has lots of nice clean lines but it is a mid to late game draw spell not an early one. It is a bit Path to Exile or Ancestral Vision. Not ideal used early, not doing too much right away. Even though I predict an average count on this well above two that isn't an accurate portrayal of the card. There will be loads of those irrelevant 6 or 7 counter casts that only give a couple of actual cards. There will also be those times you wanted to play it but couldn't/shouldn't because it was zero or one trigger. Even so, too much to pass up. At two cards it is still 6 life better than Night's Whisper. That is a long way from irrelevant. Then imagine those sweet times when you do get 3-5 cards from it on top of those life!
Flame of Anor 8
This puts Prismari Command to shame rather. It is probably going to just about outclass Kolaghan's Command too which is really rather more impressive. I only have 15 wizards in the cube but they are all good, all cheap, and mostly within red and blue. More could easily be added too and indeed might simply because Flame of Arnor is so good. It is one of those cards that can carry some synergy cards along with it in it's mighty wake. All three modes are great, they are reasonably costed and often things you want to be doing. If you ever get to do both for three mana then you are going to be pretty far ahead. Great utility, reasonable tempo, and impressive value. Little here one can dislike. I wonder if this card is good enough to bring the likes of Wizard's Lightning back into the fold? Doubtful but funny that it is even a consideration! Just to re-iterate, this is fine without a wizard, fine value for mana and great utility. When you do have a wizard the card is about as powerful as a spell can be. We are talking same discussion as Ancestral Recall sort of power!
Lost Isle Calling 2
Obviously too narrow for the cube without a radical push on scry rebuild. This is however the most impressive payoff I have seen for it. Draw seven and take an extra turn is a pretty tasty combo. You should find a route to victory from there. Reminds me of Alrund's Epiphany.
The Balrog, Durin's Bane 7
The design here seems pretty poor. I do not love the evasion, simple trample would have played better even if it lacked the flavour aspect. You can probably fire this off on turn three with ease in a deck tuned to do such things. A few treasure, a sac land, a bauble. These are all common and good and a long way from the end of the list of black and red cards that empower Durin's Bane. It is also punishing. They probably can't block it so have to use removal and then eat a gross two for one. This all sounds very win more, you either have a card in hand that is blank, or you win the game or make significant inroads to such ends. I suspect this is ultimately not that dissimilar to Murktide Regend in cube, a bit more brutal but also a bit harder work empowering. This feels like the lame mix of a bit on the situational side and a bit on the powerful side and a bit on the polar side. It will just about see enough play to stay in cube but in games it will either dominate quickly or be pretty blank.
Aragorn, Company Leader 2
Narrow and underwhelming on the power front. This would struggle to get into a tempt themed deck.
Elrond, Master of Healing 3
OK power and sufficiently meaty. To get this even close to interesting you need both more scry and more counter giving/having stuff than you can really do in most cubes without specific theming. I wouldn't play this as a mono coloured card so as a gold one there is little chance.
Fall of Cair Andros 6
Not doing enough prior to the 8 mana mark and as such probably a non-starter. It will dominate the game if you can get to 8 mana but you are going to have to work pretty hard at that. This can get pretty insane with red mass removal, an Earthquake could win up getting you an army very capable one one shotting anything! An a deck looking to get to 8 mana would want some of those red mass damage spells. Despite this having some interesting synergy and good late game it is very much a build around card and thus probably too narrow.
Rally at the Hornburg 6
One of the best two mana token producers to date but I am not sure where wants this. Humans typically have little interest in red, and red tends to want goblins when making tokens. These kinds of two drop have been falling off in cube lately too so I don't expect this will get there at the moment. Certainly going to work out well somewhere.
Rangers of Ithilien 5
Steal effects are about as polar as they come. Huge value and tempo swings that can completely upend a game. Those that sit on dorks or have target restrictions are additionally polarizing as they easily answered or must sit in hand dead. Much as this card is probably decent in cube I am not going to bother with it as it won't add too much. Sower of Temptation is a little more consistent and I am well off that! If this is your sort of card then go for it, it will perform fine. My idea of a more reasonable and balanced Control Magic effect would be Blue Sun's Twlilight. Not better, just liable to give better play experiences.
Faramir, Field Commander 4
I think this is just too much of a Hill Giant. I can't believe I am already tuning down white card draw but there we go. This is all just a bit slow and narrow. I want this sort of thing on my three drops.
Lembas 6
Lovely design. A super food! Some cute synergies, generally very playable. This offers much for many different decks. It is very Chromatic Star. This is about as support card as you get but that is no bad thing. This is a card that probably winds up lowering the power level of cube but it would absolutely increase the consistency and the game quality. I am not sure this is packing enough punch for the mana to actually make many decks however and so probably isn't going to last in cube despite being so lovely and so playable and rounded.
Glorious Gale 6
The best Remove Soul I think. A counterspell I have found playable in cube but not good or satisfying. I think there are just better options but if you want to tempt then this should be part of your support package for doing so.
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