Back to Battle (cut)
Power 8
Design 2
Just born out of the desire to represent each mechanic once. This felt like a flavourful and safe way to implement this more exotic of mechanics. Initially this had no cycling but was far far too narrow and situational, without enough raw power to offset that. Even with the cycling it is rarely the sort of card I want to be adding with a basic Swamp usually winning out. I really like the aesthetic of this one but it isn't the sort of thing you want in cubes. I will briefly retry this one if I succeed in getting a good aristocrats archetype going but I suspect this just becomes broken before it is sensible to play. This is just a polar card inherently, either doing nothing, or going wildly over the top and dominating. This is the sort of card I probably need to consider "banning" rather than cutting as this is liable to cause some problems in a constructed setting.
Backlash (cut)
Power 4
Design 7
Recoil but sorcery speed and unable to hit lands. This is super balanced and very on point but it isn't all that good. This only answers things when there are no cards in hand. This can be pretty brutal against tokens at least. It is to Vindicate as Memory Lapse is to Cancel. A tempo play but not really an answer. Removal is good enough that this saw little play. Gold cards need to be bit better than this to be worth it, ideally more exciting and enticing too. Flavour wise this fits Dimir but in practice it would be a better cube card as a mono card. Perhaps hybrid is the way to go with this one. I would likely still cut this even if it did have the minerals as generic efficient gold removal is not where we want to be. This managed to fall at the hurdle before that by not actually being an answer, in colours with plenty. I would generally rather play Repulse and the like to this. Aid my plan rather than randomly hit at theirs.
Bad Homburg (banned)
Power 3
Design 1
While this still kindof amuses me in the general naming of things sense the card is pretty poor. It doesn't feel like a magic card, the colour pie feel is off, the made up mechanic doesn't help with that, it isn't very powerful, and worst of all, it is boring. This is banned in the sense that I wish to annul the design. I want it stricken from the record and not played or considered part of the set.
Balduvian Bones (rework)
Power 4
Design 2
A tribute to Drudge Skeletons, but a bad one. This is a card that just slows down and clogs up a game. It isn't even very powerful. Having to keep one mana open to protect this, and more mana to have it offer strong defence. No thanks. There is very little threat here too, it is just a very low power, mana intense blocker. Most of the time this wildly underperforms, every now and again it dominates a game and no one has fun. This probably should just be a 2/1 with no deathtouch mode. That makes it a bit more rounded and a bit less potential to be fully oppressive. Regenerate might need to cost a touch more then, perhaps a Phyrexian mana on top, or just 1B, that sort of thing. I've not put much effort into trying to fix this as it seemed so dull without offering much you want from a card. Regenerate is not an inherently fun mechanic and needs using cautiously and sparingly. Really this just wants to be River Boa without the landwalk. I'm surprised such a card never came to be in black, seems very reasonable considering. While I have given this the rework tab I am only going to be bothering if there is some perceived need of a more River Boa version of this in black. Otherwise I am leaving it to collect dust.
Balduvian Dragon
Power 9
Design 6
An early design I used as a benchmark for the upper power level I wanted. Each colour got a top rate 5/5 for five with colour pie posterboy flavours and this was reds. It is a superior card to Thundermaw Hellkite and was a blend of that and Shivan Dragon conceptually. This thing hits like a train. Generally this does 5 and then either wins the game the following turn or dies before getting there. Firebreating (and strong fixing) means this is able to hit for around 15 in two attacks. That is usually all she wrote. This is a powerful card but it is also direct, all that power is focused, both upon the card, but also where red wants to be going. This means every inch of that power is deployed and ensures this Dragon gets work done.
Balefire
Power 5
Design 6
I used this design premise a lot on cheaper cards with a hefty cycling mode slapped on. They worked out really well on the whole. Interesting cards that provide lots of options but are sufficiently punishing to keep all nice and fair. This initially just hit dorks and it was fine at that but one of the less powerful of the extended cycle. Mostly I slapped on the planeswalker mode as planeswalker removal was a little thin after the first printing and they were being a little rampant thanks to initial over tuning. I am pretty happy where this has ended up. I was tweaking and fixing the format rather than directly buffing this card but it was a card that could handle a buff. This card does get a lot of play but it is a little begrudging. People play it because they have to rather than because they want to. Removal that really gets the job done is a good description of both this card and what you want in cube.
Baloth Scales
Power 7
Design 6
Conceptually I like this. Ravenous Baloth felt like a perfect candidate for having this living weapon treatment. It gives a nice lifegain, Batterskull vibe, as a colourless option for all. The card plays well and is about right power wise, although equip 4 might be more reasonable. It gets plenty of play but isn't any where near ubiquitous. The only critique I have of this is the somewhat inelegant wording where I have forced likeness to the original. I could probably just clean that up and still get the message across. Much as I would like to take the credit for good design here it is really that Ravenous Baloth is good design and both living weapon and for Mirrodin! are good mechanics.
Barastyr, Director of Souls
Power 6
Design 5
This is a second printrun card made as part of a push towards empowering mono decks as well as trying to give legs to an as yet dormant aristocrats archetype. This guy was fine but overall less of a card than Bastion of Remembrance. Devotion requirement reduced to empower a little but also increase relevance of that side of the card. As with mana curve, going up in devotion is not linear, each one is harder work than the one before it. He is still perfectly playable in a midrange mono black deck that has some hope of meeting the devotion needs but he really wants to be in a sac deck. The third print run really got the sac deck up and going and while this is a good fit and a pretty spot on card balance wise, it is one of the dullest, both for you and your opponent. Indestructible cards are a little tedious, especially those with nasty state based effects... As such this may well be the excess support card that gets the chop.
Barbed Arrows (cut)
Power 2
Design 4
Updated Serrated Arrows. I wanted to be sure there were colourless removal options. This is cute but simply too low impact to get much love. It either needs power or impact and it has neither. There just isn't much demand for a card like this so while I could buff it a bit that isn't really useful. I could buff it a lot and generate demand for it but that is worse! I tried to fix it but ultimately think the correct solution is to cut it and let it be. That being said, it works double shift with proliferate and that is a subtheme I really want to try and work into the set. If I can manage to do that somehow then this has a good chance of getting a call up.
Bastard Root Pixies
Power 5
Design 8
Somewhere between Memnite and the negative of a Basking Rootwalla we have this tricksy little card. I was just trying to experiment with things I find fun and this happened. It has not had loads of play but it has delivered when it has. There are some very nice synergies with this card but it doesn't hold its own at all well. There is a good chance this doesn't last unless I somewhat force support and payoff for it. Being a 3rd print run card it is still somewhat in the testing phase.
Battlesinger (retuning)
Power 8
Design 5
Part of an adamant cycle aimed at giving a boost to mono decks. A little over tuned presently and will lose the first strike or have the power buff reduced to one, the latter being the plan for the 4th print run as it presently stands. The card is very swingy and offers little to no downside. The floor is pretty acceptable given how extreme the ceiling is. Not only is it a perfect fit for most white creature based strategies but it is also the kind of thing white lacks much of elsewhere. Only narrowness is keeping this from a higher rating. I dislike how pointed this card is, it feels a little forced. It is my least favourite of the adamant cycle and also one of the most powerful. Investigating and team buffs do not even have synergy with each other and this is still good.
Beckoner (reworking)
Power 2
Design 2
Rather unnder tuned. This was an attempt at Afterlife meets the Fiend Hunter style of card. Given that the conceded spirit trades with this you might as well just play a removal spell and not have an expensive sorcery speed answer. This should likely be a 2/2 or 1/3 body to mitigate this issue. Probably even a 3/2 or 2/3 to make this card resemble good. Not quite sure why I made such a clearly under tuned card. I think when you are deep in the tank having designed hundred of cards you can lose sight of the obvious from time to time. I don't much need what this offers presently and so this is going to be near the back of the que for a reworking.
Beckoning Grave (cut)
Power 4
Design 4
Wanted more planeswalker removal and more graveyard payoff cards and churned this out. It was a mistake. It is both boring and fairly unplayable. You just don't want your removal so conditional. It isn't that this lacked power, it just lacks the ability to entice more than most other removal spells on offer. A very high ceiling rarely makes up for a dodgy floor. This is the kind of card that is interesting for a constructed format but of little use to most limited ones.
Been, Green-Thumb
Power 8
Design 6
Cryptolith Rite on a walker. I have always loved Rites, and lots of cards like it, in that they are typically fun build around do nothing enchantments. The issue is that build around do nothing cards are bad in cube settings. Simple design solution, slap the fun thing on something else otherwise playable. Perhaps something that helps to support the thing that needs building around. Been makes plants, he then lets those plants tap for mana. Play wise this is a funny one, in that it can be utterly out of hand thanks to the scaling, but is typically one of the fairer calmer walkers. On curve this is just making plants and being slow vulnerable ramp. The fight is what threatens to push this card into the realms of good. It is nice to have more incidental fight on green cards. Turns out it is hard to make fair green feeling pure removal. and so to provide some necessary access to it for cube play it is best to hide it on other cards! The fight isn't the most flavourful for our gardener but it makes this an ideal little support card for green that plus some holes and offers some fun scaling. I think I shall lop the starting loyalty down to two. This, as with most playable three mana walkers can get out of hand. Being able to remove something the turn it comes down really exacerbates that potential.
Benalish Archangel
Power 8.5
Design 6
One of the benchmark five drop cycle and modelled on Avacyn and Baneslayer. Indeed, this has had versions with lifelink and first strike, both of which needed toning down to the eventual vigilance. It was simply way too swingy and hard to tangle with either of those punchier keywords. This is still a monster of a card, it is either a free kill on an attacker complete with a very threatening body, or it is that threat but deployed super safe at the end of turn. The ideal control dork in many ways, certainly as far as those without card advantage or protection baked in. Even without lifelink this is super hard to race as it is such a well statted dork, often having eaten up a threat already.
Benalish Captain
Power 6
Design 6
While representing as a tribal card this dude pretty much buffs all the white dorks and a bunch more! As such this is basically just a Glorious Anthem on legs, which makes it more polar but also somewhat more playable and interactive. I have certainly had some of my quickest losses from this dork beating me up something savage. A white aggro card pretty exclusively but at least a build around with good payoff and as a top tier archetype.
Benalish Lancer
Power 6
Design 5
An Icatian Javelineer with an extra power. I always liked the card and wanted to update it with power to keep it viable. This is a fine way to make the card playable but it isn't the most interesting. This is just a 2/1 with upside more than it is a Javelineer at heart. You don't play this outside of aggressive white decks that often making it a pretty narrow card. I somewhat over produced one drops and tended to do so in a fairly boring way. This is because I didn't know what was too much as one drops have almost always been a bottleneck in real cube. I would happily now cut this for a more interesting one drop should I make one, this is just filler and in a category of cards I have a large depth of options on.
Benalish Medic (cut)
Power 3
Design 2
Needs an "until of end turn clause" it turns out else it doesn't work as intended. To be honest, could easily have this also tap to gain a life, and/or be a 1/1 as well. Initially this was not a plainscycler but it was basically unplayable without it. Even with it is not an exciting card, it is so low power and early that the modality it brings is a lot less than with most of the others. Would rather have a Plains in my deck than this most of the time still which is pretty damning. You have to be pretty consistently shite to still not get action with a landcycling for one thrown into the mix. I remember damage prevention effects being quite good in limited, but this is like 25 years ago. Turns out if I want a Samite Healer in teh cube I am going to have to make that an incidental part of an all round much better card. Likely one I give vigilance too...
Berserker Class (retuning)
Power 4
Design 6
The class cards were all very top down. It made for some interesting cards that took a while and some playtesting to evaluate and understand. People like this card but it doesn't seem to be all that good. It is a bit all over the place and not very good in any real direction. The first mode is fine, but really it is unreliable, underpowered, gold removal. That is the bulk of what this card is. The second mode is nutty situational. Really you want to pull the trigger and win immediately. Or be pulling the trigger when you are so far ahead you are in no risk of just falling over dead. Level three is just too far away to be relevant, it isn't even very good. The odds on it reliably prolonging your life usefully are pretty slim. I think this card should swap levels two and three around and probably drop the cost a little somewhere down the line. Worth working on due to how much people seem to like it.
Big Hungry Frog
Power 7
Design 6
I let a friend design this one and for some reason was completely blind the the obscene power level it obviously had, and I am not quite sure why. I reckon I just didn't want to undermine their design by changing it... It was a 2/4 and the sac required no mana, otherwise the same card. It was oppressive. Really hard to win past, impressive board control, and ultimately became quite threatening by itself. Certainly with the low threat level of the dorks kicking around it was one of the clear best on offer in the early cube testing. The not insignificant nerfs have put it in a much more sensible stead. Still quite a powerful tool in the right setting but not so much raw power you want it in every setting. A nice fun and flavoursome card though. I like how it plays and feels so on that basis, good job my mate.
Birds of Fortune
Power 6
Design 7
I am a huge fan of this card, one of my favourites in the set. It is the Ornithoper of value (as opposed the the real one, which is of tempo). By itself this is doing nothing. It is low cost, a bit of tempo perhaps, a bit of a power reduction in your deck, for a one time chump at best. Start pairing it with things however and the card starts to be a lot of fun. There are plenty of ways to buff it, or have it tap for mana, or my personal favourite, ninjutsu it! Do any of that kind of jazz and this jumps from a low impact cantrip to a very cheeky efficiency wet dream. A support card in the purest sense.
Black Carriage
Power 5.5
Design 7
Another 3rd printrun card aimed at giving aggro decks more diversity and tools against control strategies. This hits hard, dodges counter magic well and sorcery speed removal even better. This kind of card is a royal pain for control decks and is a welcome tool to the format. The power is on the low side but it is sufficiently appropriate at its job to see play. It could reasonably be a 4/4 or just be pay two life to animate. That would help it perform better in the more creature focused games. Being a new addition I am not in any rush to jump the gun and make any changes based on initial impressions. The cards that are only a little bit off benefit from being left in the format so you can get a better idea of why and how they are off which tends to result in a better fix solution.
Black Energy (cut)
Power 3
Design 4
I managed two Black Lotus tribute cards in the set. Both were experiments and not serious card suggestions. This one was interesting and fair but relatively low power, and too narrow to be worth a slot. This probably needs flash, and might want a 4th energy or perhaps a cycling mode before it is getting exciting as a cube potential and at that point the tribute aspects are long gone. This can do some cute and bursty things in a contained way but it is bad design for a limited format. If you want energy dump cards they are going to be better received on cards that do other things as well. This is one of those cards that might be interesting in constructed, but for limited was always going to be a miss.
Blast Mine
Power 6
Design 6
A cute EtB Field of Ruin effect that you can use as fixing for yourself or disruption against a overly colourful deck with insufficient basics. The intent was to make sure manlands didn't become oppressive but it seems as if that was achieved just by making the manlands fairly small and tame. This is used far more as fixing and almost never on opponents stuff. It is a versatile and useful card but it isn't all that powerful or impactful. Lots of play but not much to write home about. Lands are hard to interact with and so I was a bit too mindful in set design. I produced lots of reasonable solution cards like this, most of which fell flat because I had ensured there were no targets worth having answers for! This only really survived because it is a bit of an Evolving Wilds in disguise. The card plays well and would have gotten a higher design rating if it were not for being quite so wordy. Hard to call this a clean card.
Blasticore
Power 6
Design 7
This was one of those cards I expected to either be broken or unplayable and was surprised when it played roughly where I want cards too. The card is playable, helps plug holes in decks, feels really Masticore like thus ticking that tribute box (mechanically at least, not the most visually convincing), and is relatively interesting and different. I wouldn't go so far as to call it fun and exciting but I will happily settle for balanced and interesting on a card I was sure was going to be a problem child! It plays pretty well and is surprisingly fair without being a swingy mess as it might first appear. This is more of a blue and green card than anything else as they are the most in the market for the removal element. Blue is also quite keen on the meaty stats.
Blastwave
Power 6
Design 5
Storm's Wrath but made modal. This is a fine and colour appropriate mass removal tool with a bit more playability and interest. I toyed a lot with giving it a four both players mode but feared that might push it too far. It probably gets away with it and might be a good way to help red aggro decks if they need a boost. A bit like Fiery Confluence gives them a real out to a lot of situations. Mass removal is dodgy to make too playable, people do not like walking into it unexpectedly and this would likely be such a card. That being said, I have somewhat done that for most colours so why not give red a break. Red tends to have the least effective of the colours that have mass removal with their mass removal.
Bleak River (cycle of five)
Power 8
Design 6
I wanted to create space efficient cycles of dual lands that were lopsided like this. I designed several but these were comfortably the most powerful. One colour for free makes these as good as basics as a floor for their fixing. Two life is a minor cost if it lets you do the thing you need to do. You don't want to lean on these too hard but they keep things super consistent. While I like how clean and efficient these are I am wary that they enable a lot of splashing and heavy gold decks. If that gets to be too much these lands will very much be in the firing line. These are lands tailor designed to a cube setting, in that they are quite successful but they are not a land I would suggest was ever printed into any real format other than commander.
Blessing
Power 8.5
Design 7
While this is pretty on point in balance for a normal cube, in my slower cube Anthems really shine. And this is a very powerful one. Hard to remove and very hard to beat in a long game where both sides are using creatures. Which is of course most of them on both accounts. Also fantastic with token producers and army in a can cards of which there are many again. This is a strong pull to Selesnya and is a little above where I would like it to be power wise relative to the meta. I like the elegant design so am reluctant to tweak this in any way. Turns out this is such clean, elegant and on point design Wizards have done one of their own for the upcoming core set replacement thingy. Really quite chuffed when about getting a spot on card. Had a couple of similar and one other exact clone thus far and hoping for more.
Blood Knight
Power 7.5
Design 5.5
This was highlighted as my card design most like modern card design. Certainly it is not a card I much like, it is just a pile of stuff. Add enough lines of text and become playable circa The Questing Beast. Despite my dislike of the card is it plenty powerful and winds up getting play in a lot of archetypes. It seems to be the right kind of enticing. While certainly one of the more powerful cards in my set it is certainly not over performing. It is a much better threat than it is defensive card and it is pretty easy to lose tempo when trying to deploy this. I think this might be a case of accidental good design. It might jsut be that this looks like good design because it it is one of very few cards I managed to pull off like this and is just in demand due to scarcity. I had a vague rule of trying to have no more than 3 distinct things going on in a card. I think on a couple, this included I decided the keywords only counted for half.
Blood Altar 4 (cut)
Power 5
Design 2
My original design for this was cleaner but didn't actually work. I spent a long time trying to get this to where I wanted it, and mechanically this is about there. It is however an eyesore of a card now. It is hard to unravel and decipher and goes against all the design principles I set for the project. I wanted to support aristocrats builds and I wanted to do so with a spread of card types so that it was not as inherently vulnerable as the real cube iterations. This card is relatively powerful. Arguably it does its job better than Zulaport Cutthroat - it's real cube counterpart of sorts. The thing is it is just a do nothing on its own and real hard to include as such. There are a bunch of ways this could be fixed but it is such a mess of a card I might as well just start again from the ground up and produce some cleaner and nicer support cards.
Blood Tap
Power 5
Design 6
Where Cling to Dust and Treasure Cruise meet there is this! This is a card very sensative to changes in the format. This is the second printing after a double nerf and while it is probably about right for where the meta was, for where it now is the original is likely closer to the mark. The original only cost B and three exiled cards to escape and was impressive ongoing value at that. This card is also a lot of ongoing value but it costs a lot of cardboard and works poorly with other escape cards. It makes for good filler but that isn't overly where you want to be in this format. There are better ways to draw cards and better ways to consume graveyard resources. I really like the design of this card but do need to wait on the final fine tuning of the escape cost until the meta has settled. The tempo, the value of cards in the bin, and the value of cards drawn, all change, and with this being a one drop and impacted by all three metrics, it is impressively sensitive.
Blood Tides (cut)
Power 4
Design 5
A card I felt the design was cute on but that ultimately isn't the sort of card you want in a cube. For constructed sort of things this is an interesting build around tool like Cavalcade of Calamity. For cube it is just a bit of a do nothing that rules out play with too many other cards. With the right cards this is a very potent anthem effect but there are too many wrong cards for this to be anything other than parasitic.
Bloodbraid Centaur
Power 8
Design 6
Here is what I got when trying to pay tribute the beloved Elf. I took away the cascade which is obviously the thing people love. This card seems nutty good but it only performs well, it is not very scary or oppressive and certainly no cascade dork! On average this is a mana more expensive than a Bloodbraid Elf, sometimes two mana more. This is also drawing land much of the time, the Elf is always more gas. Certainly there are timing issues, bad synergies, and all that jazz with cascade but that is where the fun lies! This is a well balanced gold card that is on point flavour wise and really exemplifies the difference between the magic cards I have made and real ones. My "fixing" process is really good at taking away the things you love....
Bloodlust (cut)
Power 3
Design 4
Rancor meets, well, Bloodlust as it happens. Kindof Immolation as well but mostly the first two inspired this. There is all sorts of interesting going on with this card but sadly it is a little fair, a little situational, and mostly just suffering from not being an answer or a threat. It is just very hard to get people to put cards like this in their deck. Card is fine, it is just overall a parasitic kind of effect in a cube draft setting. Unless the card is really fun it just isn't worth it. This is also a bit of a mess in terms of wording and so on that basis alone it is probably something I would look to cut or rework.
Bloodmaw Predator (retuning)
Power 8
Design 6
This is above the curve. At the very least it should be a 3/1 but I am not sure that stops it being a premium threat. This hits very hard as a 5/4 haste and a bonus ping. Mostly it is played as a 1RRR card but apparently that hasn't really stopped this performing. Mark is a bit of bonus synergy and scaling potential, and just being able to toss this down as a 3 drop and have it be OK also really help keep the card versatile and performing well. Despite the pushed power level and being a seemingly fairly generic beater of a card this one is interesting and plays well and will hopefully do so better post nerf. The subtle adventure cards that support otherwise situational and narrow key words are a group of pretty successful cards on the whole.
Bloodseeker
Power 7
Design 6
More cards designed specifically to support an archetype. This is better than Zulaport Cutthroat. It is a more relevant and resilient body with baked in recursion. The escape cost was four before and that small change turned it from oppressive in any deck to just a fine and balanced card. I'm happy enough playing this as filler in a lot of random decks provided I have an OK dork count. I actively want this as one of my main payoffs in an artistocrats deck. I have absolutely now over produced support cards for this archetype and as such some are going to get culled simply to sort the ratios out. This is not exempt from that and might suffer from being a little less interesting than some others despite being reasonably well balanced and highly suitable.
Bloon Brigade (cut)
Power 4
Design 5
Shockingly this has underperformed. I assumed this was going to be a similar ballpark to Smuggler's Copter. A small Thundermaw! But no. As it stands, it isn't really playable. Crew 1 might get it there and will be my first port of call for a rework to get this to the right power level, otherwise we might need a more drastic rework to find an appealing and clean balance point. It just isn't quite enough of a power level to get over the barrier to entry for cards that need other cards to do stuff. If this came with crew it could cost a 3 or even 4 and be better. Looks like if going to crew 1 doesn't help I'll move to trying this with an EtB goblin at three mana. A little similar to some other cards I have but if that is what it takes to make vehicles work.
Book of Eternities
Power 7
Design 5
This has been reworked to just give away two life each time it is used. This was for convenience reasons rather than balance, it was just tedious keeping track and cleans the card up a lot. All told, a card with ongoing draw at a relatively cheap rate along with a reshuffle and life gain use is often played in a wide array of decks while being just the ticket in the control builds. This was one of the premium colourless ways to reliably draw cards and would up in a lot of slower decks. As time has gone on more of that has become available and people have moved away from the really grindy decks more. This still gets action but nowhere near what it did at the start. I think it looked really good appraised in the context of other cubes but as people realized how much card advantage was on offer the value of draw dropped and this fell off a bit. I quite like where it is at power and play wise now.
Block of Blocking (cut)
Power 2
Design 3
Pithing Needle feels like a core card and effect. Hard to get cleaner than Pithing Needle so I aimed at more playable, and failed. This really needs to be an EtB card draw and then it is too good at two mana and likely not good enough at three. Perhaps just get a clue when it comes in? Fundamentally this is obviously bad design, if you want to sacrifice it, why are you playing it? It should at least cost zero to sac so that it is removal proof. All told it is hard to make a Pithing Needle appeal in cube and as such it is either going to seem wildly over tuned or far too weak. This is the latter of those two. You would think that with planeswalkers so rampant that this would perform better but seemingly not.
Bloom
Power 7
Design 6
Another card in the ever long quest to find suitable side grades for Llanowar Elf. Really this is a Wild Growth side grade, and really it is just a downgrade. It has no synergy with things than untap lands, nor can the mana be used for stuff in the opponents turn, even post combat! It is not a huge downgrade, it is still a pretty reliable one mana ramp tool that is resistant to removal when compared to the alternatives. A fixing component could be added but I am quite happy with how clean it is. It gets more than enough play and so I don't feel any need to buff it if that is also going to messy it all up! While it may not be as potent as Wild Growth it is nicer to play with. For some reason I have always struggled with how I do auras on lands. It irks me and I fixate and fiddle with the enchanted land... Bloom solves that for me, although sadly fortifications very much do not!
Blue-Horned Wurm
Power 7
Design 6
Part of a cycle of five drop cyclers. All with a single colour pie key word. No where near the playability or utility of the land cycling vanilla dorks at 4 and 5 mana but still getting a good amount of play. Sometimes smoothing out decks, sometimes padding them out, and sometimes just working with some cute synergies. This one is probably the best of the lot, being meaty, easy to rush out, and with a consistency affording keyword. This is an impressive threat and can really shut up some lists which is well worth it for the low cost of inclusion. Certainly this is the most likely of the cycle to have a stat shaved off in the name of balance. Cycling is a lot less potent on a spell than landcyling and so this set of dorks packs rather more punch that the various vanilla dorks with the landcycling. While not the sort of card you would ever usually play in cube as they are just big dumb dorks, they are a reasonable rate for the cost, this one especially. The cycling makse these kindof baked in card quality, and it gives you a form of pseudo protection against getting blown out. Usually you wouldn't play a fat trample dork with no value or anything else going on because a cheap removal spell costs you a load of tempo and puts you behind. Cycling means this isn't clogging up your hand early if that is a problem and you don't have to run it into a Doom Blade type of card if you are not in the mood to do that. Not what I would call exciting cards but they have added a good degree of consistency to the format overall which is great.
Body of Work
Power 6
Design 6
A fan of this one and I can't quite place why. It has some scaling, some synergy, but it is just some fairly vanilla dorks. It is not tricksy or option dense, or any of the normal reasons I like cards. I just like casting it, I feel a warm embrace of safety and the joy of value! I experimented with the wording as it is rather the essay for such a simple card. Not sure I like it much but then I don't like the oracle version either!
Bog Sisters
Power 7
Design 6
The only original land cycler of the 10 that I have not nerfed. This has the giant spider problem of being not especially threatening while being impressive defensively. It makes it feel more situational and less like you turned your land into gas than is the case for the others. I could probably make this a 2/3 or a 1/4 and it would see about as much play (which is lots), nor would it perform all that much worse in games. The dork land cyclers in black are some of the best as black has so many Raise Dead effects to pair them with. All told I am happy enough with this. It is flavourful, clean, and brings consistency to games but a 3/3 might be a size that plays a bit better overall.
Bog Wailer (cut)
Power 3
Design 3
Just a filler dork I had made, cut from the first printing for being too dull, then reworked for the second printing as I felt I wanted more reasonable tools to pressure planeswalkers. This is a reasonable little beater on attack or defence but it isn't quite good enough at either to appeal. It is just the continual victim of incidental removal and doesn't seem to do much towards progressing your game. I might revisit this one if the format speeds up and has more need of a dork like this but hopefully I will have some more exciting and interesting cards capable of doing what I want.
Bogardan Rager (cut)
Power 6.5
Design 4
This played fine and was reasonably balanced but it is just boring. Being an aggressive proactive card the Phyrexian mana mode basically offers no interesting choice. Either this is a one drop that hurts you or it is not good, either power wise or at that point in the game. With that in mind I cut this dude to make room for more interesting cards. Turns out, don't put Phyrexian mana on tempo cards, you are not really offering choice by doing so.
Bolt-Tongue Kavu
Power 8
Design 6
A Flame-Tonge but with energy. And thankfully not prone to shooting itself in the face. This is a significant upgrade to the card it pays tribute to without much of a buff. This tends to just get played regardless. Energy synergy or not. Aggro or control. A disruptive tempo based two for one with synergy and flexibility is just lacking any real drawback. Tweaking this down rather immediately undoes the tribute work and so I have left it alone for now. Hopefully I'll gradually powercreep the format such that this is more like a 7 - 7.5 range of card.
Bone Dragon
Power 7
Design 6
5/4 is the right statline for this balance wise but it is relatively minor. I like where this is at, a big game dominating threat should you have the resources to load into it. If you are on the back foot this is a bit of a precarious means of control. While I wouldn't say I am excited by this card it does feel better than the various attempts magic have had at this kind of a dragon in terms of flavour. It also achieved what I set out to with the design parameters fairly well. This is playable and powerful but absolutely not for every deck.
Bontu's Inquisition (cut)
Power 4
Design 5
Despite how nuts this would be in modern and even my other cube, I have trimmed it from the homemade cube. It simply packs too little range and punch. My cube is slower and has higher average mana value cards. This hits too little and could easily hit three or less mana value targets and still be a little underwhelming. I don't like the idea of directly buffing a card already good in other formats but I may eventually get over that odd bias and fix this design for its intended meta. The fix is somewhat simple and that is to assure a draw if it misses. The problem with that is that then it is just a better Peek. I guess we can force the discard if there is an option on it. Presently we are not missing discard in the cube so I am in no rush to bring this back to the fold, that being said, this is one of those cards I have begged to be a real card for so long - it feels rude not to play it now I have it!
Boomer Mage
Power 6
Design 7
This one is pretty fair but very popular. Offering lots of interaction and options for a relatively low cost keeps enticing people in. Somewhere between Venser and Man-O-War, this is one of the ways in which you can make Disperse a playable cube card without going to Brazen Borrower lengths! This card plays pretty nicely too. It is not the most imaginative but it really achieves on the important metrics I am measuring a card's design performance on.
Boomtown Builder
Power 5.5
Design 7
Gets quite a lot of play being a great support tool for at least three distinct synergies. Spells matter decks like this, as do energy matters, and artifact matters! Despite all that Boomtown Builder is a little on the fair side. The power is just relatively low. Most powerful thing to do with this is generate infinite Servos and that is yet to happen! I may make this a 1/2 just to bring it more in line with the power level of the format but it seems risky given how much action the card already gets.
Boros Command
Power 8
Design 6
This is a second printing card that is based on one of my own first printing cards. Ultimately I will probably retire one of the two as I don't like cards getting in each others way in design space where possible. You don't want redundancy in modal cards. Neither is weak, this one trades away a "create Treasure" mode for the Disenchant and gains the kickered option of lifelink, while also being instant, all making it rather more powerful. The only downside is being gold rather than mono red. Certainly this one is also more interesting but that might not matter too much given how much narrower it is. Power wise this is most suited to a gold card. Design wise it is a bit of a fail in that you are just always going to play this when you are able to consistently play it. This is probably always a two for one, can be better, and can offer significant tempo swings from the low cost as well as the lifegain. I suspect if this is the chosen one it is liable to get toned down in some way. I think this card has 26 modes given that you can do each iteration of the modes with and without the kicker, as well as the disenchant being a modal mode itself! I think my favourite thing about this card is when you play it as a tool to maximize lifegain. You smack a load of your own dudes, perhaps even toss out some extra for that bonus life per dork hit.
Boros Titan (cut)
Power 8.5
Design 6
Homage to the Titan cycle and the most classic of Boros cards - Lightning Helix. I made this pre-Phlage and likely wouldn't have bothered with him at all had Phlage beaten me to the punch. This dude performed very well indeed. I was expecting it to be worse than Inferno Titan but it turned out to be better. A massive pile of life is just better than firebreating and splitting up your damage. It is just unrecoverably hard to race. One Etb and one attack represents a 24 point total swing. Much as I like where this sits power wise and flavour wise and am pleased with my self for the tribute, it is a pretty boring card that, despite being technically new, feels like a well trodden path to play. I randomly made a lot of Boros cards in the second printing so side lined this just to give a bit of space and test things that needed it more.
Bounce (cut)
Power 5
Design 5
I was really pleased with the design of this but I really don't like the feel of the card. It is perfectly powerful enough and should be playable. I love me an Unsummon effect. There is just something about this that makes it highly unappealing. It doesn't look clean. It is also mostly a one mana sorcery or a Boomerang. The latter is a little over priced and blue intense while the former is just not getting you the kind of advantage and interaction you are looking for. I cut this for lack of play and lack of appeal although I still think it is fine. I might simply try and re-art this with some cute or comic pic and see if that makes a difference. Probably it is fine, and it isn't an aesthetic issue so much as it is a sufficiency of supply. We are not short bounce effects and so the less enticing ones fall off in play dramatically compared with where you might expect them to be.
Bouncing Bolt
Power 6
Design 6
Forked Bolt meets Lava Dart meets that 3 mana actual rebound burn spell! This is like Dart in that you want to play it most in decks with prowess triggers, followed by decks that have damage buffs that you can reap double the benefit from. This gets less two for ones than Forked Bolt and does so less effectively when it does get them. Not being able to take out a two toughness thing is also an issue. This card is on the narrower side of the generally playable cards but good synergy and scaling potential help it keep up with the other burn spells. You play this if you have to and it is OK, or you play it when it fits and it does some cool stuff.
Bouncing Strands
Power 7
Design 6
Another successful bounce spell for blue, and one that starts off at three mana! This is a kind of scaling repulse. Bounce more stuff and more types of stuff than Repulse but have to pay a steep cost to get that card neutrality. When this hits two or three things it can be quite a big play, and while no Cyclonic Rift as far as blow out potential goes, the impressively high floor makes this a frequently played card with an impressive deal of effectiveness. If you ever blow a Rift at two mana it feels horrible. Doing this at three feels good a lot of the time. Both feel game winning when you clear their board out although typically that will cost more in the late game with this than Rift.
Bounty (cut)
Power 4
Design 2
One of the only big landcycling spells I have designed where it is sufficiently low powered than playing it isn't exciting, or done often, nor impactful when done. Mostly this should just be a Forest in your deck. I am not overly impressed with this cycle however and may simply cut rather than fix. It is just a bit unreasonable having such game breaking effects on lands. It isn't even that they are high powered, they are not, they just do a lot and so give decks a lot of bonus late game but in a really random way that doesn't feel good really for anyone playing.
Brain Fart (cut)
Power 4
Design 4
This is a very odd card indeed. On paper just a sidegrade on a Memory Lapse or An Offer You Can't Refuse. It costs you one less overall to deploy than Lapse while your opponent is two mana better off than they otherwise would be. In theory that should make the card more playable and less oppressive. In practice it makes the card a lot scarier, especially for early use, which is where Memory Lapse tended to shine best. Using this early is just asking to get overpowered by tempo. Using it late and you are then scared of some synergy with the treasure or big blow out. Overall this card loses suitability and winds up being a worse Memory Lapse. It also has that scary aversion thing going on with the potential for some real feels bad moments all round. If combo decks start to be a thing this is the sort of counterspell they tend to want to help them force through. I have no plan to rework this but it is not impossible the meta shifts to a place where this would be viable again.
Brambleghast
Power 4
Design 4
Some of my favourite archetypes involve Golgari graveyard synergies. Cards like Vengevine, Bloodghast, Gravecrawler and that kind of jazz. Fair tempo based fun with a twist. I have slowly been making cards that might support that sort of a thing. This is a 3rd printrun card and so one of the more recent offerings as I am yet to have it as a regular and reasonable option in the cube. The graveyard synergy cards I find are really hard to design, if they are too good they just get played everywhere but if they are not good enough they don't promote the archetype at all. This falls into the latter category in that you wouldn't play this without synergies. Those synergies could be sacrifice ones as well as graveyard ones at least, and might well be better as such. The body is just insufficiently relevant without being enhanced in its use somehow. So, despite fully ripping on Bloodghast I seem to have made a worse card. Turns out being a 2/1 is very relevant. Seems wrong to encroach that much on existing design space but if I still appear to need it down the line then I guess I'll go there.
Bramblehold (cycle of 10)
Power 8
Design 7
These are the shockland equivalents for my cube excepting that they don't have the land types, these felt good enough as it was. The Salve lands! Obviously better for slower decks but some of the best fixing on offer regardless. Some of the most popular fixing as well as they cards are simple. Once down they do their thing. You don't have to consider how you are using them once deployed. You do also get some agency with them which helps make them a little more interesting than a lot of lands. Very happy with where these sit power wise and with how they play. Conceptually these were a way to ensure there was a bit more life floating around the place as a proxy for actually changing the rules of the game and having 24/25 life. Turns out not to have mattered that much as the tempo in my cube is rather less important than most other cubes and so there felt rather less need of more life. Even so, these lands just do their thing in just the way you want dual lands to operate.
Brazen Incantation
Power 7
Design 7
A cycle of card quality spells from the third printrun. All of these bar the blue see plenty of play. The blue is fine but there is just more than enough more precise card quality. Conceptually this cycle started out as Tutor style cards as per the Mirage/Visions cycle in the first edition but got cut down to just the black one, which in turn got cut due to lack of play. These are nice little filler cards that do exactly what you want card quality to do. These feel more like wild cards than anything else, a random MDFC land of sorts! Given that we didn't need card quality effects much and these still see play I am pretty happy with the results. The fact that the blue one doesn't get nearly as much play as the other four makes me confident that the power level is about right.
Brooding Oozepod
Power 6
Design 7.5
A funny little card that is slow but choc full of value. The power level is fair at best, and arguably a bit polar. This does nothing for 4 mana and can just lead to you getting run over, equally it is a lot of card if you are given the time to get there and can dominate a game. What I love about this card are the various interactions it has going on. The untap is cute, it works really well with a selection of equipment, even vehicles. Proliferate is also cute, if somewhat slow. I am not sure I got the numbers quite right on this one but the concept is great. Very much the kind of card that could lead to more cards with similar concepts. Just dorks you can pay to untap have a lot going on it turns out!
Brooding Spider
Power 8
Design 5
Initially the spider tokens came in untapped and this was a very oppressive card. Doubly so as it was incredibly defensive and as such would really draw out the game, gaining more value in doing so, and sapping the joy out of the opponent. The dorks coming in tapped has helped a little but the cost needs to be 2GG at least, and even then the card will still be top tier power level. It is obviously a Giant Spider tribute hence the initial reluctance to tweak the cost. The main issue with this card is that it really slows down a game just by blocking well and attacking poorly. Obviously it generates value over time too greatly incentivizing you to prolong the game.
Brothers of Fire (reworking)
Power
Design
A bit of an all rounder and as such a little overtuned. Likely the correct balance point for this is either a 2/2 that pings for 4 mana not 3. Reasonably it might need to be 1RR on top of that too. I do like the card and I am not really sure why. It is one of those attempts to bring forth the feel of old school by updating a pre existing card to to make it playable by more current standards. This is certainly more of a midrange tool than and aggressive one which is always nice. Options and synergy pour from this thing too which is more than nice. Mostly I think I just love mana as a red player, it feels great. This is a playable mana dork in red that doesn't feel out of place colour pie wise.
Brash Bombardier
Power 7
Design 6
Broadside Bombardier arrived on the scene after I started this project and so I was introduced to it rather than discovering it and my god what a silly card. I instantly hated it and felt like it was an egregious overshot in power level. This was me simply trying to rework the card in a way that seemed like a reasonable cube power level. This is still a fine card, a little polar but interesting enough. It is the sort of thing that feels very red and that other things work well with. As such I am pretty happy keeping it in the cube despite it being somewhat of a protest design!
Brown Bear (sidelined)
Power 5
Design 5
Conceptually I like this. It feels right to have a vanilla dork representing. This card is balanced, it is reasonable, but it isn't all that interesting. It is also not something green is often looking for. If you can ramp, why not do that and skip this kind of low power way to get going. Cards like this add more to constructed settings than they do for limited ones. That and not really needing testing to properly appraise got this side lined for space concerns as soon as the second print run arrived. If I can get a green stompy archetype then this is probably worth a second go but I am not exactly trying to do that. Stompy isn't the most fun nor has it really even been a thing short of a few short early years in constructed magic. A far cry from cube!
Buff
Power 5
Design 5
Despite how juicy this seems it is still a bit situational for cube and gets relatively little play. It is a much better card than Giant Growth even if it is a bit less pure. It is a safe combat trick but it is still a risky card. It is also a low impact card and that is part of the problem. If there were more all in aggressive decks I think this would have more hope but in the current state of the meta the demand on this is real low. You cannot reliably cycle this when you need to and it is a situational card that thins the deck without being a threat or removal. The power level needed to overcome those hurdles typically isn't a fun power level.
Burning Confluence
Power 8
Design 6
Very high power all round card that can be a little aimless. It isn't clear where you are playing this, or why! The sweeper mode is useful but quite situational, and increasingly so the more you deck tends towards the aggressive. On the flip side, the potential three cards is efficient and desirable, but far less achievable or reliable as your deck has more reactive and high mana cost cards. That mode gets better the more aggressive you are resulting in a card that is a little at odds with itself. Treasure is good for everyone but short of combo decks it is not a reason to play this card. You may toss out the odd treasure because you have a specific plan with a specific need of mana or fixing, or because you don't want to risk or need the full extent of the other modes. It is just the leftovers of the card really. Power level alone ensures this gets a lot of play. I am yet to fully decide if this card is net positive or not. Is it good when the aggro deck randomly wins a game by catching you out with a Wrath? I think I like the diversity this card brings. I am also aware however that putting too much power and modality on a card is a risky design practice to be using with any regularity.
Burning Effigy
Power 5
Design 7
I like this little guy. Less good than Swiftspear but also somewhat of a different card. This offers less aggression and tempo but does a better job of retaining relevance into the late game. The tension between firebreathing and playing spells is a little interesting, at least for a one drop! I love a clean card with internal keyword tension! Generally this is only played in mono red decks of the more aggressive nature and blue red spell synergy decks, again of an aggressive lean. As such this guy is on the narrower side. Especially given the Izzet tempo decks have not come all that close to top tier as yet.
Burnwillow Elf
Power 7
Design 7
A fusion of the Burnwillow Grove and the Elves of Deepshadow. I like the look and feel of this card and the power is on point. It is mostly just a Llanowar Elf sidegrade that sits in open design space and helps make up the numbers in key areas. These cheaper support spells are key to a cube and very limited in design space. As such I am more than happy with slight differences between these sorts of cards, both real and of my design. This is one of my favourites because it feels like it should exist, is super balanced, super playable, and feels right on the aesthetics front. The one issue I have with the card is that it is a bit more phaffy upkeep than the likes of Llanowar Elves with the life changing. It is a lot less annoying that it is on a land and there is plenty of that kicking about. This is likely one of the last life giving cards I would cut but I do over do it a bit on the ones that are ongoing on activation.
Burnwillow Grove (cycle of 10)
Power 8
Design 6
I have long wanted Grove of Burnwillow to expand into a full cycle. I have also wanted to experiment more with Horizon Canopy style lands in preference to cycling ones as a means of increasing consistency. Not wanting to directly copy the original Grove of the the Burnwillows and being happy to push the power of lands in my cube I came up with these. Canopy lands are much better in aggressive decks both because they have less use for excess lands and because they care less about taking damage. This cycle is more at odds in that the life aspect suits slower decks more while the sac part favours the more all in builds. That helps keep these lands somewhat in check. Mostly these are just good fixing, they get sacrificed for cards here and there but for most matchups mana, and using more of it, is the determining factor of the winner far more than how many cards one has or sees. These are pushed lands that offer a lot of consistency at very little cost. The kind of card I want to push. The only thing I dislike about these cards is the issue with the previous Elf but more so. These lands are just constantly poking your opponent and it is not with enough compensation to be anything other than a bit annoying.
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