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
Borne Upon a Wind 3
Two mana is a bit much for this. It might be cute in some combo decks to just be able to utterly own control players but in general it isn't going to be worth. Just play Quicken or Scouts Warning or whatever one mana or cheaper effect you need to power up the types you want all flashy. Better yet, play Teferi Three.
Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff 4
I like that this does work for all players but it still isn't enough. The power is low and the effect is inconsistent. Pretty sure I would just rather be playing a Talisman or a good dork. Certainly not unplayable but a bit aimless. I do very much like this as a two drop when you have a follow up Bauble or something in the way Ledger Shredder is but in cube that is way to irregular to add much value to this.
Stern Scolding 8
67 of 231 creatures in my cube dodge this giving it an impressive 71% hit rate on creatures and a 38% hit rate on all spells in my cube. That is nearly a high of a hit rate as Spell Pierce and Stern Scolding is a hard counter and not a Miscalculation. All this data to say that I think this is going to be amazing. Dorks are the most played type in cube by a long way and the most important to keep on top of. Stern Scolding covers all the scary early turns and retains decent power and amazing tempo into the late game. I think this is comparable to Fatal Push for power and playability in cube, quite possibly better as so many of the smaller dorks they answer have EtB effects that this also handles. No bomb or anything but a really solid, rounded, cheap, and reliable disruption tool that most blue mages will pack whenever they can.
The Ring Goes South 0
What a silly card. Mostly useless but with extreme scaling. I think this is mostly just Wizards challenging EDH players to see who can do this for the most.
Press the Enemy 2
Way too conditional and not all that exciting even then. If it were any spell you could deploy then then would more online more often and able to do the sorts of things you need of it. As it is I am always just playing Venser over this for me safe 2/2 in the hand and none of this free spell in the bush nonsense. There will be the exploits for this, most likely things like Crashing Footfalls. As such I can see this sneaking into some modern decks.
Palantir of Orthanc 3
A bit slow and lacking in board presence for my liking. It is also unreliable and somewhat controlled by the opponent. All together I don't like this card, there is a lot here so it might just brute force itself into getting play with raw power but probably and hopefully not. It is a bit slow to get going and once it does it poses nearly as much risk to you as it does the opponent in 40 card decks. That level of risk on what I consider to be a luxury card does tend to rule them out.
Slip on the Ring 1
So limp compared to Ephemerate. Flicker really wants to cost 1 mana... Or at least do more than this.
Arwen, Mortal Queen 7.5
Grey Ogre but indestructible. Certainly quite the power creep. Just at that I think this would see play. Just a super safe body you can empower or use for attack triggers or simply to hold something off forever. Throw onto this very strong baseline of indestructible Grey Ogre the ability to protect another dork for one mana and add +2/+2 stats with double lifelink to the board then you have quite the card. Anyone with Arwen is going to be super hard to beat down. This is the kind of card that is not only hard to beat but that can be leveraged easily into a winning position from. It isn't the card that wins the game or score the goal, it is the one that provides the crucial assist as it were. I am not sure this will be very fun to play against but I do not doubt it will perform impressively.
Radagast the Brown 7.5
Yeah, this is just solid. It is a little value based for my liking as a card in the four slot however green is much more accepting of this than other colours. Odds on this is getting a card when it comes in with green having many dorks, few of which wizards or avatar. I suspect you are getting that first trigger. As such this is already better than a 2/5 that draws a card as it will be drawing gas and may even be offering card quality. Relevantly, further to the initial package it is threatening to get more gas and likely needs answering, which isn't always easy through five toughness. A 2/5 body isn't very threatening but it is a lot of board presence and will do a good job of slowing the pace of the game, which is exactly what you want when you have a powerful card advantage tool on the go. The trigger fuels itself pretty well too as each dork has a chance to find another dork hopefully keeping you in triggers for the rest of the game. Radagast does like a deck that is not only dork heavy but also pretty beefy on those dorks. If you are all 1 mana elves you are getting very few triggers while those 4 and higher mana value dorks should be hitting every time. Even so, just the initial trigger and the threat of more probably secure Radaghast enough play. No bomb but sufficiently solid. A long long way better than Vizier of the Menagerie! The initial getting of card and having a tough body make this better than Guardian Project and Beast Whisperer too for general cube use even if it is unlikley that Radaghast outperforms them in more constructed settings.
Isildur's Fateful Strike 1
This is just bad, would be fairly bad in cube even if you could just cast it. EDH card.
Flowering of the White Tree 8
This might be a bit much. I might have mentioned that cube has about a quarter of its dorks as legendary ones. Glorious Anthem effects are generally pretty powerful and this is a two mana one with upside, significant upside. It isn't that the power level here is going to be too much, it is more that the card will just be baseline good most of the time and then every now and again it will egregiously win games because you happened to curve with legends. Some random one drop legend, into this, into almost any random aggressive three mana legend and that is all she wrote. Those won't be fun games, they will just be over. Tedious though this will be in a cube it is going to be a lot of fun in constructed where you can build the legend deck and have this be consistently disgusting! Between Mox Amber and this there are some pretty serious payoffs for playing a heavily legendary deck. There is likely enough of them now too that you can do a pretty aggressive list without too many non-legends padding out the lower parts of the curve.
Lost to Legend 1
Too narrow on target range kills this removal spell before we get going but it isn't all that impressive even if it could it any non-land. Unexpectedly Absent was cut a fair while back now and it is clearly worlds more playable than this! I am always surprised when a card so obviously weak is printed and often spend longer considering them trying to work out why, or what it is that I am missing.
Elrond, Lord of Rivendell 2
Not a fan of this either mechanically of flavour wise. Elrond is a big name. Like, a really big name, and he is a 3/2 with pissy scry and tempt abilities. This isn't "Young Elrond" either, this is Lord of Rivendell. Big miss. Not a big miss that will irk however as this is not a card I will be playing and thus I will not be seeing it to irk me. I suspect this will apply to many others as well!
Ent Draught Basin 2
This is nearly good but it is not only crushed by cards that are actually good like Ozolith Shattered Spire, but it is one of those awkward cards that isn't a threat or answer and as such has twice as high of a bar to clear. Still, this is a cheap way to slowly and safely empower your team of weenies.
Phial of Galadriel 7
Cute. As a mana rock I am not buying. For the lifegain it is too narrow and whatever. For the card draw however? Hellbent is relatively easy to achieve if you build towards doing so and double draws are powerful, especially on a mana rock. This is cheap, the mana ramp helps you get to hellbent and the hellbent effect can take over pretty quickly. Certainly only a card you are playing in low curve proactive decks but a card with a decent shot of cube effectiveness.
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