A Knight's Quest
Power 8
Design 6
A top down design stemming from the idea I wanted a removal saga with the removal mode specifically not first. White Knight is a card I wished to pay some homage to and this was a pretty perfect fit for such things. The trick here was getting the card to be cheap enough to remain a playable removal option, without having it be stupidly powerful. At five mana this is just not going to be reliable or effective enough removal being so delayed and sorcery speed. While the card is a two for one, the final mode requiring a sacrifice and only reimbursing a Clue token really takes the sting out of things. Power wise this is a little too playable and rounded, winding up in most decks that can play it. It should probably cost double white. The first strike should also be vigilance, or even nothing, but has remained as is for tribute based reasons... The card is at least quite fun and interesting to play both with and against which is a good thing. The top down stuff tended more that way.
A Soldier's Lot (cut)
Power 8
Design 6
This is a classic example of a saga I over tuned. It should absolutely cost 1W but it is exactly the sort of card I wanted pushed. It helps in all the ways I wanted to and has done little damage to the format. It is played a lot and that is the issue with overly pushing cards. It is however yet to be anywhere close to resembling oppressive. Really, the design I want for this is a read ahead version that costs W and starts at stage two or 1W and starts at stage one. The thing keeping this fair in my cube is the frequency with which games near the end of libraries. This is a low powered card which also reduces library size which lowers the overall power of your deck. This can be risky. I do like the card, both in flavour terms and to play with and that is a big part of why I am reticent to balance it more in line. I cut this rather than rebalancing as I have been trying to find a way to fix this for nearly a year now and have failed. The card isn't needed and takes up a bit too much play time for the returns. All a bit too many moving parts, those cards should be saved for more exciting and impactful stuff.
Accursed Rack
Power 6
Design 6
This is from the third print run, a"mini expansion" to the set containing 77 new cards. There was quite a narrow design remit for what I was after from those cards to include some tools that gave aggressive decks a bit more game, diversity, and reach. This is one such tool. A simplified Sulphuric Vortex come Black Vice. I did not make many cards that put a clock on the game, largely because I don't like that level of tension in my magic! That is a silly bias, especially as it isn't fully true, only sometimes. Regardless, effects like this are needed in the game, and more so than normal in my cube with its longer games. So far this has performed fine. It isn't very exciting but it does the required job.
Acorn Charm (cut)
Power 2
Design 3
This is the result of forced design. I was enjoying doing cycles, the forcing of a thing inspires however there are plenty of misses along the way. This is one such card. My cube is very modal already and so Charms are not in that high of a demand. Neither are the nominally low powered cards and things that mostly just cycle. This card would struggle in an environment that craved all those things. While very cute and fitting, this just has no chance of getting sufficient play in a cube setting.
Advance Guard
Power 7
Design 7
Really happy with this little fellow. Power and playability are where I like my cards (more playable than powerful as it turns out!). This guy isn't an auto include because you don't always have a high enough plains count and the power level isn't that high. Even so, lots of action for this guy. Lovely little flicker support card, control speed bump, or rank and file beatdown curve play. Could probably have done a better job at finding a more scouty looking dork but it is too late now, been playing long enough with this iteration that this is now what it is! This is a fairly boring foundational card but you want a good portion of your cube as those and this guy is a really great example of such things. Cards like this let you have fun with your fun cards. The cards I have found play best are the various card advatage two drops, be they low powered dorks like this that come with a bit of value or the two for one draw spells. They are just really really welcome and provide a fantastic foundation upon which to start a game. If you are going to be making two drops that can attack face this is about as civil as one can hope.
Advance Scout
Power 6
Design 6
This looks better than it is. Sure, you play this in the aggressive decks and it does a fine job. Scry 1 is pretty minor and it is a consistency perk on a tempo card. The card is not something you often want outside of an aggro deck either, you are losing too much value and power if you try and play this in a midrange or control deck. There are more powerful one drop threats on offer and much better means of obtaining consistency on offer in my homemade cube. I think this is just so much more than one would expect on a real magic card that it seems like it must be great where it is in fact, just OK. It is good for games. It is how I want my narrower OK cards looking but it is hard to get much more complimentary than that.
Adventurer's Bundle
Power 8
Design 6
I really liked the green version of this that produced 2/3rds of a Clue, a Treasure, and a Food. It was a little on the potent side but played so nicely I was happy to leave it alone. Or not as the case might be as I made this, another iteration! It is 3rd printrun card. This is not quite as universally good but it still packs quite a punch in terms of power. This can get a two for one, it can be a ramp spell with extras. The ceiling for this is high as well as broad but it does make you work for that. Ideally you need a reasonable dork count for the Map to be that good. You need the right sort of spells and curve or a lot of mana to make the Junk work and Powerstones need to be almost built around to be getting it done. I feel like these aspects allow the card to get away with packing so much punch, probably it is just bias allowing me to give it a pass. I just really love casting spells like this and am well aware that much in the way of nerfing would quickly make it unplayable. It might be the combination of slightly too much power and too much token messing around slowing down and clogging up games does for this card but for now I am perfectly happy. I do not always play this when I can and but I often do and when I do it is usually great. That is a pretty good description of where I would like most cards to wind up.
Adventurous Elf
Power 7
Design 6
A slightly more versatile green iteration of Advance Guard. Seems very reasonable given green is the colour of fixing and white has the flicker stuff to empower such things. So, despite being technically better, I have rated it no higher and it has performed no better, nor has it seen any real difference in play. Still a great support card. The design it however not something I feel deserves any credit what with it simply being a Sylvan Ranger with an extra power. When you want a card, find one that is nearly good enough and give it a simple little facelift! A strategy I have used throughout the cube where I am in need of staples.
Aether Beast
Power 7
Design 6
Quite the beast indeed! At worst, a 4/3 lifelink for 3 which is a substantial threat for the cost and generally wants some form of answer. Where this really shines is in concert with any other energy cards where by it either offers to generate a tonne for you, or if you need, a way to cash in pre-existing energy for a quick life hit. It is all just rather efficient. Especially if you can find some way to pump it. Create some nutty feedback loop using some kind of energy pump effect for example. This could be a 4/2 body just to calm it down a little and it would still get sine action. I am happy enough with where it stands as it promotes a selection of archetypes. It is also just a dork you can easily kill and pull ahead. The card is a little polar but does good and interesting work for the energy archetype.
Aether Blast
Power 7.5
Design 7
Better than Prohibit that is for sure! This is a very solid early game hard counter that gets a little less efficient as the game goes on. All told it is likely better than Mana Leak, although a similar sort of card. If you have other energy it is just a good card, if not then it is still a tool you can play to address certain aspects of your deck. I really like the way that you feel like you get value if you counter a cheap card, even when you are down on mana, you get compensated with some energy. It is a feels good where normally there is a feels bad and I like that. Equally, you are glad of being able to counter that five drop because you happened to have some other energy lying around so that feels good too. Big fan of this card, the only thing I dislike is how clumsy the wording is given conceptually how simple and clean the spell should be.
Aether Forcemage
Power 5
Design 6
A doubly dangerous card. Things that can give hexproof to your stuff hark back to the likes of Mother of Runes which isn't exactly a fun card. The other danger here is that producing energy when dorks EtB is liable to go infinite with dorks that produce token dorks for an energy cost. If this were to be printed into a set for constructed it would have to state nontoken creatures only. This was actually based on the Sylvan Safekeeper but struggled to find a sensible looking balance point between unplayable and broken. Increasing the cost and size helped a little with that. I like giving green disruptive tools of this nature but I wouldn't say this is the best implemented. So far the card has been fine. The cost of protection is such that this doesn't feel too oppressive and has this as more of a producer of energy than consumer. As far as Mother of Runes cards go, this plays kindly enough that I feel it must be a win! It is an energy card but only really one you want in a creature heavy deck, this makes it pretty narrow. Relatively low power on top of being narrow means this is either going to need a bit of a buff or cutting. When you know a card has good reason to see less play you are kinder on it but is means you are also getting a lot less testing on it to make informed choices. All I would do to this presently is make it a 2/2 which seems pretty insignificant.
Aether Fungi
Power 5
Design 8
Comically this is one of my favourite cards from the set. It is a Thallid that makes more Thallids, via energy. What could be more fun! The side quest of making as many of these as possible! I have got to over ten a couple of times. I somewhat want to put some protection mechanism on them but they are already busy enough. It is just me being biased and wanting to improve upon cards I like to play. Really this is just a cute energy producer. It gives you a good amount of control as to how much you wish to invest in returns. There is a significant upfront cost to this keeping it all super fair. I suspect as the format speeds up these will become less and less viable. They are already narrow, needing both an energy deck with good energy payoffs, but also a deck that is sufficiently slow. Luckily they are my sort of fun so they are getting plenty of play for now!
Aether Technician
Power 4
Design 5
A surprisingly low powered card given how strong Whirler Virtuoso has been. This could probably lose the blue cost to activate, or gain an extra power and still really only see play in energy decks. The card is a cute support option in tempo blue decks, artifact decks, and energy decks. It provides a lot of choices even if it isn't bringing all that much raw power. It is the kind of card I like but it is on the fringes of the cut line as it stands. Energy being a little thin is keeping it above water at present but I do plan on giving it a little buff simply to remain relevant. Presently the removal of the blue cost on the tap ability is my favourite way to push this.
Aether Weaver (cut)
Power 4
Design 5
This is just low powered. It would get a lot more action if it had energy on EtB rather than when tapped but then it is just a shrunken Servant of the Conduit and not exactly fresh design space. Not that being a Rustvine Cultivator is fresh design space... I figured the energy aspect would make it more interesting but really you just want this for mana most of the time which makes it a drain on your energy decks. As a source of energy it is so slow and low powered that it isn't much use on that front. Even bumped up to a 1/2 I doubt this would get any play. I do like that card and energy could do with a couple more cards and so I will try and get this to where it needs to be. That being said, I did a Gilded Goose energy rip off and that is doing a fine job where this failed. I suspect any fixing I now do to this encroaches on the design space of the Goose.
Aetherling
Power 5.5
Design 5
Very aware this is already a card name but I just couldn't think of a better name, indeed, this feels like a more appropriate design for that name! Being an energy card and all. So, I took the name, sorry to those who are confused or offended. This is a rare example of a card that has eaten a double nerf. The phase out cost was just two and it used to be a 2/3 as well. It was simply too reliable of a threat at that. The format was slow enough that some control decks were using this as a kill tool without much or any energy cards. It is still a fairly effective win condition but you do need to support it, the power is low and the speed is glacial. In the energy decks it is a nice payoff card that lets you have a long game plan and provides a selection of options on how one can go about building. This was nerfed as hard as it was as it is not the kind of card that is super fun to play against. It also doesn't hurt it as much in the energy decks that have other energy generation methods, and those are the places this card was designed to support. It is not a card I love, more of a necessary evil. It does at least seem to offer quite a lot of archetype options for just one card which is a juicy payoff from the design side of things. It is also good to have some cards that are good at closing games so that things don't go on for ever and ever. This gives you an excuse to scoop to the boring deck and put an end to their durdling.
Aethertog
Power 4
Design 4
An energy riff on Psychatog with the 'recycling of cards back into the library' mechanic I tried to bake into sufficient cards within the set. The card is strong as far as the more polar energy builds go but isn't too playable outside of energy lists. While certainly powerful in the right build this is one of the narrower cards in the set overall. I am happy with it being the Atog representative of the set and feel like I did a reasonable job of designing for the type. Sadly the recycle mode isn't all that useful as a general support card as the decks that want this tend not to need or care about it. It works fine balance wise but doesn't serve any extra purpose or help enhance the cube as a whole, which was part of the intent. Feel like I could toss a discard to get an energy mode onto this to really make it Psychatog like! That would help up the early punch this offers. Turns out that creatures that get +1/+1 for an energy are just quite good in the energy builds as they can look pretty lethal pretty quickly. That is the main way in which this guy is getting action.
Air Elemental
Power 5
Design 4
This naughty card started out life as a four drop and was a little oppressive. It essentially shuts down a lot of combat and can be a bit of a tedious soft lock in control decks. I increased the cost to five and toyed with increasing the ward value. Ward 2 is probably correct power level wise but the card being one of those that has the potential to be oppressive has me in two minds as to if it should be intentionally underpowered a little. Five is certainly the right mana cost for this effect of card, and for five mana the size is on point. I was also trying to do a top down recreation for the alpha elementals (Earth, Air, Water and Fire) that updated their power level and made them playable. Conceptually I like the original cards and felt like they needed upcycling rather than a tribute. This is why the names were directly stolen, and why the sizes and costs are often as they are on these specific four. They were a late addition to the initial print run and so got less vetting and review than most and it showed. They are also quite top end cards, and as such wound up being some of the most imbalanced cards on offer. Even at four mana this was arguably one of the tamest! Play wise this is a decent midrange and control tool that can stall the board very effectively while also representing a reasonable win condition. It is however clunky and offers little value. It is shocking in the face of mass removal and can be awkward against dorks with good EtB effects. As such this is seeing relatively little play now. It is a little polar for my liking, and a little restrictive in how it plays but it is different and flavourful and not too powerful resulting in a nice playable and different card to swell the thin ranks of blue dorks.
Akki Ping-Flinger
Power 6
Design 6
A 3rd printrun card designed to help me learn. Grim Lavamancer is a fascinating card. He has stood the test of time and been fairly well established. Unlike other established cards he has yet to really see any proper redundancy, certainly not to his level of playability. That is why I am toying with cheap red dorks that can output damage, it is a really hard thing to get right. The swing from oppressive to unplayable is rapid. I did an energy version that is a little underpowered. This is more of a mini version and less of a sidegrade. So far this is performing roughly as I would want, if also perhaps a little low key. I would consider this a synergy card, either you want to pair it with other pingers or things that buff damage, ideally both. And generally best suited to an aggressive build where pings can meaningfully pressure life totals a bit quicker.
Albino Dragon (cut)
Power 5
Design 5
A fairly dull card but at least a clean and simple one. It was designed to help plug holes in the cube and is part of the second print run. It is a mana sink and a meaty threat higher up the curve. I was very pleased with how white this felt. I was also pleased with how playable it was and how it seemed to occupy empty design space yet remain so clean and simple. People are never super excited to play this card, it is mostly a padding option, but it is none the less a fine one. It also plays a lot better than it does in terms of providing excitement. Power and role wise it is comparable to "Hidden Dragon" but as far as play pattern goes it is quite the upgrade.
Alchemist Class
Power 5
Design 6
I did fifteen class cards as I really enjoyed designing them. This is one of the only Class cards that has not been nerfed since original conception. It turns out I liked to make them a bit too good. The delve looks like it might be dangerous but in practice is pretty minor. It allows for some big turns and is quite interesting but beyond that it not super impressive. The six mana and zero tempo gain to get to that point rather offsets any of the broken delve things you might be getting upto. It is also, counterintuitively, at odds with the first stage. Yes, it fills up the bin giving you some fuel to get delving with but the thing is that when you are playing this card it is because it is good at filling the bin and you are doing that because you have recursion effects and escape cards you want to use. Delving stuff away quickly burns through resources and is a bit at odds with those grindy sort of strategies. Deathtouch to all is powerful but it is also situational and locked behind a nice 10 mana wall so all in all it is pretty fair. Really nice to pair up with some fat green trample dorks! Mostly a support card but certainly playable anywhere able to consistently cast it. A card quality spell with this much extra utility and synergy potential can't go too far wrong! The floor is decent regardless. The main reason not to play this card is that it is not a threat itself. Really this is a Grisly Salvage with a lot of extra words! Normally I would mark down for that as I tend to prefer cleaner cards but the flavour on the class cards is significant and so I am happy enough with the outcome. Especially as I have wound up cutting a fair number of the class cards for being too wordy and onerous to parse. The class cards were all top down designs and so I like how this feels. Typically I sourced my opinion of what a class looks like from games other to MtG. Interesting to see which ones feel like they fit in the world of magic, this does well I think on that front.
Ambrose, Haphazard Inventor
Power 7
Design 7
A nice rounded red planeswalker that is perfectly playable in isolation but offers some scaling within artifact synergy decks. Initially the sac to Shock was a +2 effect but this proved too polar. Killing a thing and going right to 6 loyalty with hard to contend with for the opponent and so a mild nerf was handed out. That combined with the slight power creep incurred with the second printing put this about bang on where I want it to be power and playability wise. As all planeswalkers should, this is a relatively low tempo play that will make up for that with flexibility and, should you protect it for long enough, value. It feels nice and red whilst also feeling like a classic form of planeswalker with the holy trinity or removal, board development, or value modes. This is one of the calmer walkers in the cube. The fact that it sits where I want it to on power level is testament to way in which walkers are over performing in the meta. As I address that I suspect this will fall to a six on power, which is still fine.
Ambush Cobra (cut)
Power 3
Design 4
Kind of boring card it turns out. I was really happy with this in design but as far as play goes it is pretty unimpressive. As a body it gets very little done. This means it is either a 1GG three damage to a dork, or it sits in play doing nothing until it eats some removal. There is of course the chance for it to be obscene if you buff it sufficiently you get to chew through your opponent' board. I am yet to see that happen. I thought this was quite a cute way to help green with interactive creature removal that didn't stray from the colour pie. In practice this card is a bad dork and a bad removal spell. It is likely just dead design space as it feels like the moment it is good in either of those categories, that the card becomes broken. I suspect there is no fair and balanced middle ground to be had.
Ambush Spider (cut)
Power 8.5
Design 5
Basically just a Icefang Coatl. It is cleaner without the snow requirement, and obviously better too. Swapping flying for reach does little to remedy that either, this is a defensive card primarily and has little offensive power as it is, reach is basically flying as far as this goes. I thought this being Simic would keep it in check and help with their general struggle with answering dorks. Turns out not, the card just has way too high of a floor. You play it anywhere that can cast it. Frequently I am seeing this in four and five colour lists. That means it should probably eat a nerf in some way but there is relatively little wiggle room here. The only things I can really see are quite drastic such as upping the cost in some way and that likely kills the card rather than fixing it. As it stands however it is a chunk above the curve in my cube. It has had several blowout games where it was the card that won the game, and it has done this without ever performing poorly. As such I have side lined it for now, I do not love a card that feels like you have to play it whenever you are in those colours.
Amethyst Powerstone
Power 8
Design 6
A part cycle from the 3rd printrun. I didn't have enough mana rocks in the meta, all the non-green decks barring a few aggro ones seemed to want at least one mana rock and this was putting undue pressure on them. As such I churned out a pile more, the easiest way to do such things is with a cycle. I had previously made about as many individual mana rocks as I had in my normal cube, but the homemade cube had a higher demand on them, in addition to the weaker ones being less well suited. I had made a much less powerful colourless version of these that scared me a little based in its ability to be explosive ramp. It was painfully unimpressive and didn't do much even after getting a buff. This gave me the confidence to rework it into coloured cycle as seen below. I made all six pairs of non-green colours. Probably there should be a life cost somewhere along the line, likely one or two when using the exert mode. Certainly these are played a lot but they have not been over performing, the exert is used more often to fix than specifically for the burst. In a vacuum these are better than Signets, probably Talisman too, but in my format they are likely calmer than Signets simply because of how many powerstone generators there are floating about. In most cubes blue mana rocks tended to be the best but I think there is very little to chose between them. They are seemingly equally good when in your colours.
An Angel's Duty (reworking)
Power 8
Design 4
This has proved a little oppressive. I had assumed that the being a token would be a sufficient nerf to this threat that the power was on point. In reality the single populate card along with a bunch of things that can flicker enchantments led to it almost being more upside than anything else. Getting repeat 4/4 flying tokens with ease got quite out of hand. Really it was more the fault of the flicker effects being a bit good but this was certainly one of the most effective things at highlighting it. I have toned down phase II significantly as it was providing rather too long a period of immunity. This card was a bit rushed through the design phase and it really shows. I'm not entirely sure where I am going to end up on this one but it wouldn't surprise me if I didn't manage to fix it and bring it back. There are a lot of saga cards in white and this is quite low down the list of them in terms of good balance and fun.
Anarchic Alchemist
Power 7
Design 7
A highly versatile support card that plays really nicely. There is a huge degree of option density here. The power level is fine. Worst thing about this one is I frequently confused it with Ambrose just because they cost the same, begin with an A, and have a vaguely similar artwork at a glance. This is probably one of my best designed cards higher up the curve, but that is probably because this is a bit of a pseudo-two drop! This ambiguity of cost makes this a very odd card when it comes to deck inclusion. It never seems wrong to play. It can output six damage by itself making it quite the impressive reach tool in more aggressive decks. It is also just a dream for a midrange player.
Ancient City (cut)
Power 6
Design 6
City of Traitors and Ancient Tomb the inspiration here. I was very wary of this in design and felt it was potentially one of the most dangerous cards in the set. In practice it has been absolutely fine. The costs of colourless mana and coming in tapped mean this is quite the fringe card, typically only making an appearance in slower decks with fewer colours, and only with some half good reason for doing so. I was going to have it only be able to exert for mana so as to be a more awkward card to use but it really doesn't need that in this meta, nor can I really see it getting out of hand. There are far better ways to get a bit of mana burst than this in the format and the perks of getting a boost up the curve (rather than a permanent mana advantage) are a lot less than you would expect with great answer cards and lower powered threats. I cut this because it is essentially a narrow utility land that I would rather have as a talisman style card.
Angel of the East (reworking)
Power 7
Design 4
Avacyn (5) always felt like it was two cards in one. A big threatening flash flying threat, and a dork that counters removal. I wanted to break that down into two cards and this is the latter part. I think this got nerfed to a 2/3 as it was proving quite a swingy card. The difference between four and five mana is absolutely greatest when on a situational trick. While a lot less powerful than Avacyn, the effect could be leveraged that much more effectively resulting in a pretty impressive card, especially in the lower powered format of my homemade cube. This is a reasonable tool for white and the necessary sort of thing to help counter control decks and mass removal being so dominant. The design is a bit clunky however, I didn't love having to make the EtB tapped clause. I also don't much like the feel of the cost and body, something feels a bit off flavour wise with it. Decent enough card getting a good amount of play and doing the right sort of thing in games. I will continue to fiddle with this to get it more where I want it. The power is OK but the play is less ideal and the feel of the card is just a bit off.
This is my proposal for a rework that will come in the 4th print run. Cleaner and leaner. Arguably more powerful but should play better overall.
Angel of the North (reworking)
Power 7
Design 3
Very powerful two for one tutor card. You are never short on targets if you don't want to be and so this gets a lot of action. The body is useful even if not all that threatening. It should probably be a bit smaller, or a touch bigger but on a more expensive card. Design wise this isn't perfect and could use some tweaking. Double white is probably sensible but as it was an enabler I felt like I wanted to keep it a bit more splashable to see what it might help enable. Broadly I like the effect on a higher end of curve body, I just don't love these numbers yet. This was a very early design and it shows. There was no purpose to the numbers, they were just plucked and stuck on. A 1/4 body is a poor choice. I think as a starting place I would now make this a 4/4 and cost it at five. That would play a lot better and serve more of a purpose beyond being game slowing value.
Angel of the West
Power 8
Design 6
One of the original landcyclers produced. It started out as a 2/5 and was clearly over powered, it could even be a 2/4 and would still get plenty of play and hit the table plenty of times. I plan on making it a 3/3 mostly to help move the cube towards a higher average power than toughness. These vanilla top end land cycling cards have been great. My initial 10, a four and a five drop dork for each colour with a single keyword were so good I made multiple further cycles of more exotic cards while nerfing the originals and they still all get loads of action. They are a pretty core element of my cube, a bit like the sac lands in most other cubes. They are the glue holding a lot of archetypes together. The kinds of cards you are somewhat hoping to see when drafting so you can help hang your deck on them. Simply by existing the bar for card quality spells has risen massively.
Angel of the South
Power 7
Design 4
One of the most egregiously wrong cards I designed. One I got so wrong that it was still broken after the first round of nerfs. Not only do I under value flicker effects, I printed a boat load of good things to flicker, all in all resulting in a card that just did it all. It was supposed to be a low powered support tool for synergies and it wound up just being one of the best white top end cards on offer. The current version is still pretty potent and it is a low way worse than where it started off! In general I printed too many cards with high toughness and low power and this is a game slowing thing to have done. It is really noticeable with the angels and something I will be slowly trying to remedy a little. Turns out that the game is better with an average of high power than toughness. Sadly I assumed the other way round would be best given that I think life totals should be higher.
Original Version
Current Version
Angel's Wings
Power 6
Design 9
My attempted tribute to Serra Angel turned out so well that I repeated the premise for a selection of other classic dorks. This was the first and is easily the cleanest and best of the lot from a design perspective. Powerwise this is fine. I bumped the equip cost up from 4 to 5 as it was prooving to be one of the better sources of reach and game ending pressure on offer in the initial print run. I didn't want a colourless card having quite so much pull. The powercreep incurred from the second printrun however likely made that tweak much of a muchness. The card is fine and was fine and does what you expect it to. A relevant body at a playable cost that comes in a couple of parts giving you some assurance of value and a bit of utility going forwards. Certainly a lot more options and power than the Serra Angel!
Angelic Embrace (cut)
Power 3
Design 2
This was my effort at making a card with the miracle mechanic that was fair and a balanced. While I achieved that, I did not design a card worth designing. Pure lifegain like this is a bit of a hose card in cube. Against all non (red) aggro decks this simply clogs up your deck and reduces your action density. I failed to understand the point of the miracle mechanic. It is swingy and random. It isn't about providing game balance, it is about providing massive memorable moments. As with many of the cards I made, I like this if it were an option within a set being used for a constructed format. For a cube setting this is not the sort of thing you want, even if it is pushed a little and made as convenient as possible.
Angry Ogre
Power 6
Design 6
Not the most exciting card of all time but plenty powerful with just a tease of choice enough to make it a little interesting. This card gets a decent amount of play and is close to 50/50 as to which riot mode is chosen. For me that is a win by itself. The card is meaty enough that it does get some play in midrange although it is mainly an aggro tool. It is just one of those rank and file cards you need there to help make up the numbers such that aggro decks are viable. In that it is pretty perfect design. It is on point power level wise. It showcases a mechanic cleanly and very well and does all this while being incredibly simple. The inclusion of this card does not tax players brainspace, it supports well and it does so at minimal cost to the format. It is how you want you padding cards to be. It just does its job so that other cards can shine.
Annulify (cut)
Power 3
Design 5
I was very happy with this one. A nice reasonable colour shift, a fair and appropriate application of cycling, and a cool cheap interactive card. There is even a whole pile of things you really want to be hitting with this as some of the most archetypal key components and powerful cards are hit by this. However, despite all this cool work on Annul it remains pretty unplayable when you can play spot removal that you don't need to keep mana open for, or just generic removal that hits anything. This might be good as a constructed sideboard tool against specific things, but in a cube setting you rarely want anything resembling Annul, least of all in white. I doubt this would have seen much play in blue but still, lesson learned. Just because something thematically fits a colour shift does not mean it will work mechanically. Moving it back to blue is the fix here, perhaps even improving the cycle cost to a 2/U as well. It just then doesn't feel like it was empty design space. I have just tweaked Annul then and I'm not sure if it needed tweaking in the general sense. Feels like it is just not a cube card but remains a fairly elegant magic card for other settings.
Answer (cut)
Power 6
Design 5
The pinnacle of removal! This one sort of felt like it designed itself. Like it is the Platonic ideal of removal that all removal aspire towards! Then simply cost accordingly for the meta. The only real choice here was if it should have cycling or not. Being all into my consistency and playability I obviously went for it and have no regrets. I can appreciate this might be a real turn off for a purist. The card would be more elegant without. It might need to then cost three.. I think I am talking myself into this rather. On point as this card might be it is not that powerful nor is it that interesting. This is the sort of thing I might well trim for more exotic and fun cards. Gold cards as removal you could find comparable version of within one of its colours is a bit of a waste. Sure, this is the most effective removal spell. Congrats.
Antimagic Serum
Power 6
Design 6
This is a 3rd print run card than in many ways is a reworked card. I made this cute artifact spellbomb type thing using white Phyrexian mana that could cycle and/or Disenchant stuff. Mechanically it was interesting and fair but to read and understand it was overly tedious. Those kinds of effects want to be clean, clear and simple. I also really wanted to ensure there was playable but fair access to removal of all kinds of things for all kinds of people. This is simply the cleaned up version. Very playable, very fair. Not so exciting but at least a card with a lot of option density and that allows players to really play the game.
Apprentice Artificer (reworking)
Power 3
Design 4
Really low power level here. Perhaps trading the haste for two or three energy upon EtB is the best way to fix this. I had not invested much effort into rebalancing this as there are too many looters already and they are not the most desirable form of card quality on offer. This is a bad looter, a bad energy card, and a bad body, all relatively speaking. It looks fine on paper, like a reasonable pile of things for your mana, but the end result is just a card that barely gets any play. You can even abuse being hellbent to turn this into a pure draw tool but it is still a long way from where it wants to be. If suddenly looting is all the rage or I am really short of energy cards I'll put some time into reworking this properly but as it stands that is a long way off and not quite so simple as with most cards that have been cut. Perhaps I'll just make it a Servo generator as well as or instead of being a looter. Moving towards a one drop also feels like it might be the push this card needs.
Arcane Amplifier (cut)
Power 8
Design 5
This is a little bit good in all dimensions. As a cost reducer it is too hard to disrupt and would be obscene in a storm style deck. And then it has a very potent late game cash in when it is value not mana that you require. Basically this is a mana rock that goes above and beyond. It is narrow certainly and there are no storm decks to abuse it in the format, however control decks are still pretty well able to take advantage of it more so than I would like. For being a bit good and a bit narrow I took it out to allow for more testing on other cards. Making it more expensive would kill it, as would reducing the range of things it reduced the cost on. The only fix I can see for this is to add a cost to the sac, probably two or three mana. That probably keeps it about right power wise but it is still a bit narrow for my liking, hence the side line rather than fix strategy presently implemented. I like cost reduction cards but they need to be approached very carefully which is not what I did here.
Arcbound Simulacrum
Power 7.5
Design 6
This is one of many cards where I am trying kill off several design quest objectives in one card. The fateful hour miracle was one such card, this is the one trying to sneak in the modular mechanic without being overly narrow. That card design is just a rework of the original Solemn and does a good job of being a more modernized all round support card. A value and utility Pilgrim's Eye perhaps. The investigate is on a leaves play trigger rather than on death which is perhaps a mistake. The card is plenty playable already being consistency and value for any colour(s). Due to the leave play trigger it gets a bunch of extra play in flicker builds. It is a little pushed and could easily eat a nerf but it is a great bringer of consistency and so I am a little reluctant to do so.
Archangel of Rebirth
Power 6
Design 5
Initially a 4/5 with vigilance as well but it was all a bit overkill at that point. As it stands it is still a lot of monster with a lot of utility but it is a bit clunky and aimless to be getting all that much action. It is a bit slow and defensive for the more aggressive builds and it needs an array of good targets to be worth it in slower lists which is often not the case. Power wise this is pretty good but play wise it not getting much nor impressing when it does. I could likely get this rather more action by dropping it down to a five drop but severally nerfing the body. Being a style of card that is in low demand there has been little in the way of incentive to improve upon it. The templating looks so wrong on this with hindsight, how far I have come in a year! I want to find something wrong with this just so I can template is better and make it look like more of a real magic card.
Archaeological Findings
Power 6
Design 6
I loved powerstones so much I wanted to just make more things that made them. This was the simplest of ways I could think to do so. This has a very high ceiling but in those contexts it is a build around and that is fine. There is enough incidental stuff such as cycling kicking around that it is pretty hard to have this be useless in a deck and that keeps the floor pretty reasonable. I do like this card but much like the Adventurer's Bundle, there could well be some bias at play...
Arcing (reworking)
Power 9
Design 4
Quite probably the best burn spell in the cube. The replicate should be four mana and that would put this better in line.. This is a Shock, it is a Fireball, and it does a pretty good job of being some spells in between those as well. Kill two things for four mana is not uncommon and is pretty impressive. It is from the second printing which is both why it is so potent in the first place and why it isn't already fixed for a more appropriate cost. Burn is already a flexible tool in magic, it doesn't need extra, and if you do give it that love, then the power needs toning down more than was done here. This is going to cost four to replicate and will still be one of the best burn spells in the cube
Ares, God of War
Power 6
Design 7
I really enjoy the Torbran take on red Glorious Anthem cards but Torbran is a bit narrow and a bit powerful. This is my attempted to create my own cube version of the card. This gets the job done, it is not too powerful and not too narrow. It allows for some nice scaling on certain cards making it a cool building tool. I tried version at five and three mana but four is very much the sweet spot for an indestructible version of this effect with some devotion based upside, or indeed downside! I like the way this plays sufficiently that I want to provide some means of redundancy to the effect. I have a couple lined up ready to go for the fourth print. They are super clean and simple, more core set versions of Ares. Hopefully the redundancy will allow for some really good insight into how best to support such things. One version somewhere along the line has haste which is mostly a blank line. Either it does nothing or it is wild overkill as the passive effect tends to get the job done when your devotion is seven!
Argent Crusader
Power 6
Design 5
This is a tribute to Hearthstone and the early days of the game where the card of this name was everywhere. It was removal, it was a decent threat. It was immediate impact with low risk. There would just be a couple of turns in the midgame where each player took it in turn running their Crusaders into one another! This dork is cheaper than the Hearthstone version but otherwise the same. He is powerful and versatile but not the most exciting of cards. He feels a good fit for Boros but occupies more of a generic card slot than being anything exciting or fun. In many ways he is just a Flame Tongue Kavu with a bit of utility about him. A kind of modal FTK.
Assassin Class (retuning)
Power 8
Design 4
This has been pretty oppressive. Level 2 is surprisingly annoying and level 3 is downright terrifying. This card is a 3 for one with disruption, lots of disruption, and reasonable early tempo. It is unpleasant to play against and feels like quite the losing battle in any slower game. I don't have much plan to change up the effects the card has, they feel flavourful and are things you want access to. I do however think I can liberally splash about some extra mana on the various stages of costs, two or three, and have that get this in line. 3,4,5 is likely the best stop from here. It is a somewhat ominous card and as such I want it under tuned. There are a load of cards that needed a bit of down tuning but play fine and so got left in. This has been removed until fixed so as not to sour things.
Assassin's Guild Mentor
Power 7
Design 6
I was worried this would be oppressive but it is actually one of my better efforts at a gold card. It is the right kind of fun and enticing for the owner, without being too powerful or overbearing at the receiving end. There is enough in the build requirements for this that it isn't ubiquitous. Certainly this is powerful but it isn't insurmountable regardless of what you are. This card is a lure, a reason, and a direction. It has that magical fun factor that is hard to find.
Atrophy (cut)
Power 6
Design 5
Not much to say here, one of the dullest cards on offer. The right kind of dull though, you want your removal to the point. This card gets a bunch of play, it is never broken but it does help with good games. You want some number of cards like this in your cube and much as I would rather not use up the valuable gold slots on them it just feels appropriate here. It is the cleaner, standard version of "Answer". I have cut this not for any reason other than it is gold and there is enough removal. Above par removal in gold is wasted cube real estate. I made a lot and a lot of it is good like this one but it is absolutely a great place to trim for a leaner cube.
Attuned Druid
Power 5.5
Design 5
Initially a two drop 1/3 this got dropped in size and cost so as to be a better support card. The pump is not very efficient and is typically only used when it allows for more efficient attacks. Occasionally you will go all in on one dork but that is rare and not overly successful. This is much more of an energy source than a payoff card. I am presently testing it without the nontoken caveat as multiple friends have suggested it is a real feel bad design on the card. While I appreciate that it does make this card incredibly scary with the various dorks out there that can pay energy to make token creatures! The power on this one is pretty low, on top of being a little narrow, but it is a fun card with synergies and scaling and all that good jazz. Being a low impact narrow support card means I do need to push this a bit to really be able to justify it in the cube. Allowing instant speed pump sounds like it would make this rather more oppressive. Perhaps we could do that if the card were scaled up to a three drop or higher. Being a one drop and an energy source already suggests that might be a bit too much card.
Attuned Seeker (cut)
Power 7
Design 2
I felt like energy needed a hoser. I was wrong. I also made this too good as a stand alone card. A snowball card and not a fun or interesting one. Power level was decent but play pattern was shocking. Lesson learned, cut and move on. Even moving past the bad design or failed attempt to do what it was aimed at doing, it is still a narrow aggro beater. Don't put ward on a snowball card. That is the real takeaway here. This was bad design without the ward... The ward only compounds that.
Augment (sidelined)
Power 7
Design 5
A significant upgrade to an existing card at not only half the mana cost but instant speed as well. As far as cube cards go you really can go nuts on auras. They pretty much need to be broken before they even begin to be playable. Augment draws two cards for two if you can connect with a dork with the promise of a card a turn there after each time you can repeat! That is a whole lot of gas, worth working for! Sadly in blue this is narrow and situational. Without a strong blue tempo archetype this is a pointless inclusion, and even with it, it is the kind of card you cannot have too much of. A very enticing Curiosity. Cards like this are part of why I like blue tempo decks so much. I do hope to try and have a viable skies style archetype that can be drafted but it is going to be a delicate process getting there. You certainly don't want it being the best, or among the best decks. Presently I am too far off that for this to even be playable but once it looks like this might start to do something I'll slip it back in and see how it plays out. This is a very powerful card potentially but can't reach that potential because the support it needs doesn't exist. That is just as true, if not more true, for most other cubes.
Augmentation Table (cut)
Power 4
Design 5
Supposedly a fixed and more generally playable Carrion Feeder effect. I was wary with this as Carrion Feeder can be quite oppressive. This hoowever saw no action. My aristocrat archetype was too limp after just the first print run and so a sac outlet was not required. Especially one that is a do nothing by itself. Really these sorts of things want to be on creatures to increase their playability. In the right deck this is probably egregious power but not sure that deck even exists in my cube. I will revisit this once I get an aristocrats style build viable but it is probably best abandoned and replaced with a more rounded and playable alternative.
Auraforge Mystic (cut)
Power 3
Design 2
A narrower and weaker version of the Angel. Less elegant in design for that matter too. A versatile card but not one I am excited about or at all proud of. It is playable enough but just not something I massively want. If for some reason there are archetypes that really want some enchantment tutoring, cheap enchantments for that matter, then I can see a revisiting of this card, likely without any balance changes. As things are presently this is not getting much play. A 1/2 body is not exactly value, would probably just rather play Idyllic Tutor if I wanted such things, and I really don't! This is the kind of card that you wind up making when you have no real agenda. I was just making cards and this felt like a white thing to do
Azorius Command
Power 7
Design 6
A second print run card that is part of a cycle of big gold spells. This is really a fixed Ojutais's command, which is a card I always liked but that never quite cut it in cube. The rejigging of abilities isn't a power buff per say but it does make the spell more suited for a control role while also being more rounded. The foretell is also a pretty big perk allowing for efficient use of mana and big turns. People seem to like this card. The power level is high but not quite yet oppressive. It is the sort of card I like more in gold. A pull to the colour pair that would be too often auto included if mono. Modal cards are great in cube but they do tend to see a lot of play, tucking them away in the gold section limits that and helps balance things out. You get to play the cool versatile cards in the cube without the downside of seeing them all the time and becoming bored of them.
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