Narmare
Power 7
Design 5
Watchwolf brought into the current power levels. This card is fine but struggles to excite. Somewhat the trouble with Selesnya in general. It is the right sort of thing for a gold card but a little too cheap and thus a little automatic for the most part. I have no real objection to the card beyond feeling like I could make something a little more exotic. I do like the tension between quite wanting a 3/3 out of play without wanting to give away cards. Beyond that this is really a bit of a placeholder awaiting something to come and surpass it.
Nath, Green Giant (retuning)
Power 9
Design 6
A little pushed and in need of having the loyalty brought down to 3 to even start to look fair. From the bin and extra land drops is one of those things that is going to limit design space. Not that I want to make Strip Mine but it is certainly an example of a card you simply couldn't allow in a format with this. The various sac lands are problematic enough. The +1 is nice and works with the general land theme of the card, helping you to make those two land drops a turn. The -2 is where the card is a little much, mill fuels the bin and then recursion to boot. That makes up for a lot of tempo and protects Nath as well. In addition to lowering Naths loyalty to 3 I suspect I will drop the -2 to either one and two drops or just be a Raise Dead.
Natural Breakwater
Power 8
Design 7
Nature's Command (reworked)
Power 7
Design 6
Instant was foolish on this, it made for some horrendous blowouts in combat. It also just made it a very safe tool in control to try and loop things with. Incredibly powerful with the 5/5 Eternal Witness regardless! This has been nerfed to sorcery speed and rightly so, it is still pretty impressive at that. It turns the combat trick into more of a planeswalker solution, in that it typically lets you force some damage through. The weakest mode is the token, although it is the least situational. The best is usually the Regrowth but it is the least tempo. Even at sorcery speed this has a very Cryptic and Kolaghan's Command vibe too it, while feeling very green.
Naughty Faerie (cut)
Power 2
Design 2
Turns out these modal one drop dorks are just of no interest. The power is always too low and you typically one want one mode most of the time when in the building stage. The modality is thus of litle interest resulting in a card that is just underpowered.
Nayan Elf
Power 8
Design 6
This was going to be Jund colours (and named differently) to play counterpoint to Noble Hierarch but then they made ignoble hierarch and so I made this instead. While the power on this is likely the highest of all the mana dorks in the set not tapping for green does make this harder to just run any old place, you want at least one of the colours this makes in your deck. This has a ceiling above that of Noble and Ignoble but has a floor and an average performance below them. One of the better mana dorks in the set but like the Hierarchs, a lot of that power is obtained outside of the mana production aspect of the card.
Necromancer
Power 7
Design 7
Gem of a card, shocking Gravedigger has cost 4 mana all these years! There is an argument for this being a 1/1 but it isn't a big deal. Black isn't all that much about pushing early tempo and this isn't often an early play either, coming in a bit more like a Snapcaster Mage. The various cycling creatures really help push this, they allow it to be a curve play with good consistency. At two mana this effect just feels like a cornerstone colour defining card akin to Negate or Rampant Growth.
Necromancer Class
Power 7
Design 8
My clear favourite of the class cards. Super flavourful and able to pay tribute to a lot of this sort of thing from Heroes of Might and Magic to real Magic. I was super happy to be able to find a way to steal some of my favourite artworks in the game without it getting in the way of those actual cards. I avoided any art stealing that was found on a card that I had much association for which meant almost any famous or powerful cards. The saga/class framing allowed for that thievery. This is a value card through and through, some mill and a Raise Dead to get you going, a bit of support and your card back, then a powerful and flavourful but slow resurrecting of your dead dorks as skellies. Lastly we have a one hit shot at Necropotence, or more accurately Necrologia. There is a lot in this card but it is generally value and not pushing through raw power itself. They are all also value in somewhat differing directions and thus not immediately marrying up in many archetypes.
Necromancy Amplifier (cut)
Power 4
Design 6
An odd card trying to pay homage to Heroes of Might and Magic. This is quite fun but it is a build around and as such not overly suitable for limited play. Also not entirely sure why I threw that last mode on, it makes the card seem like a real magic card with all that extra text! This is certainly a synergy or direction one could push for in a format. I always liked Desecrated Tomb but never felt like it had the support to build around and this is packing similar vibes.
Necrosavant (retuning)
Power 8
Design 6
This is a Viscera Seer that comes with a buddy. Phenomenal support card for your aristocrats lists but perfectly viable in any old deck. This is card quality, board presence, and utility for a pretty good price. I have nerfed the cards power down to 0 but that isn't making much difference. It would do more to nerf the card if it were on the token! You are at least happy getting that into combat! Regardless, the low nominal power of this card keeps it somewhat in check with the high synergy and support aspects making it a useful little tool.
Neigh Singer (retuning)
Power 8
Design 4
I need to bring the adamant trigger in a little bit, and have settled on support 2 thus limiting the ceiling reasonably significantly. This was so unfair when it hit a wide board. I am happy with the floor of the card and how playable it is but when it fires on all cylinders it is hard to compete with. My format is just a little bit too slow and board stalling for cards like this not to be dominant. All the global buffs over perform and this one is already pushed. Of the cycle of these adamant cards, against all the odds, this and not the cantrip burn or counterspell, is the most unbalanced! The change to the buff will hopefully rectify that.
Nemesis of the Sun (retuning)
Power 8
Design 4
Another attempted planeswalker homage as a saga and another miss in terms of power. This is just too much card and should be a 2W spell. At that it might be a little unimpressive and underplayed, likely closer to a 5/10 on the power scale. Read ahead wold help but probably not quite enough. Conceptually I like these cards but in terms of balance and play I am a little less enamoured. Ideally I would give this an escape cost but not entirely sure how to sensibly template that on a saga.
Neptune
Power 5
Design 7
The art on this one makes it seem a little comic. The phasing is spot on here. It lets you have a fatty that still feels blue. Offensively this is not much better than a 2/4 and defensively it is worse still. The activated ability gives you some nice late game but it is all very expensive and hard to use in any capacity all the way through the early and mid game. Phasing isn't a great mechanic but I am happy with how it is represented here. It works nicely for allowing something a little exotic without going off-pie, and it is pleasantly flavourful. I have seen this crop up in all sorts of decks from aggro via midrange to control. The only real constant was that Neptune is only played in heavy or mono blue decks, other colours can provide better options for this kind of thing. Neptune can be a punchy finisher in aggro. Some far value in midrange, and just a versatile utility tool that offers cute synergies with mass removal, early stats, and some instant speed mana sinks. I dislike how little I actually usefully get to activate him and wonder if a little tweak would make him play better. Perhaps costing the activation at 1UU but reducing the stats to a 4/3 would make this all more interesting?
Nevinyrral's Tale (cut)
Power 4
Design 6
A top down card designed to reflect the story of Nevinyrral in the game. Mostly this is down to my love of this card and art, and the saga-ification of them instigated by the Necropotence class! This was not quite such a hit however. It is interesting and hard to understand what exactly it is doing for you. It got a bunch of intrigue play but no-one cracked it and it wound up cut. No clue what to do with it in any real capacity. Perhaps print a bunch of stuff that can sacrifice enchantments? It gets bonus points for being enigmatic if nothing else! I do like this card but strongly suspect it is not an overly welcome or sensibly thing to try and fit into the cube.
Nicola Tesla (retuning)
Power 8
Design 6
A bit of a wild one here. This is from the school of trying to get the companions to in some way marry up with at least one of the synergies in the colour pair. This one is a little good presently being something that is found not only main deck and in the companion slot, but also both in energy decks and not in energy decks... I am quite pleased that it can be found in such an array but it implies the card is a little pushed. And it is. I will chip away at it in a few ways and places. An additional casting cost would ensure it was mostly a companion all by itself but might be a bit much with other tweaks. Sorcery speed on the pump is the other big change to consider. That will stop this being such a scary threat and require you to expose yourself to some risk, some counter play, and do some more setup. All viable but a big downgrade. Might even be able to reduce the cost to three energy at that point. All told this card is a bit much in that it provides a powerful means to get energy then gives you a very meaningful way to spend it, usually ensuring with a couple of dorks and a single attacker slipping through is fatal to someone without an instant removal spell or other saving trick.
Night of Drakes
Power 7
Design 6
This is already a rework of a cheaper card that made 2/1 faeries for one less initial cost. The card was silly but the nerf made it not feel like it was making faeries anymore, hence the rework. I like this card. It is taking the good from Lingering Souls and improving upon it as far as I am concerned! While the gold nature of Linger is cool, it doesn't add to the playability of the card in cube. It is powerful enough in general to clear that hurdle but that power is part of the problem. Comically this single colour iteration providing the same stats at one less mana total is still less powerful. Turns out you are looking for a stats multiplied by bodies affair most of the time. Two 3/3s is probably going to do more work than one 7/7 most of the time for example. And yes, here that halving of the bodies halves the scaling with anthems and sac effects and so forth, all while increasing vulnerability to bounce effects and so forth. Night of Drakes is sufficiently less potent than Liongering Souls that it doesn't really have a home. It is not an aggressive card, or a value card. It is interesting and versatile board presence but it is in flying form meaning that although it is at a reasonable rate, it is still not very impressive on the stats front. I really like it in decks with mill and discard as it feels like great value then, kindof like a blue Roar of the Wurm!
Nightscape Wisp
Power 6
Design 8
This is great. Nightscape Familiar was great and this hits a little cleaner for cube. The body is perfect for a familiar in black, it is useful late and defensively, and a little resilient to removal without being at all unreasonable. It is also a nice flavour win. Mostly you are playing this for the affect and the body is just flavour and drawback. Regardless, this is a cute little ramp spell heavy black mages are usually happy to pick up and play.
Nimbostratus (retuning)
Power 7.5
Design 7
The blue version, probably a little pushed all told! A 0/2 seems more reasonable given that the Invasion block familiars are providing the bar for such things. Be in the best colour for such things and have a nice healthy chunk of toughness as well as flying? Why not! The one thing keeping this cool is that I have no storm or combo in blue, nor really and big blue archetypes that are high tier. Aggro decks are not excited by this, nor really are control decks. It is the midrange and the big mana and of course the combo that want this. Still, getting plenty of play and doing fine which is more testament to how much people want to play with this kind of thing rather than how good it and the things it supports are. BLue is also one of the trickier and weaker colours to go mono or near mono with.
Nip Tuck
Power 5
Design 6
Lat-Nam's Legacy has always been a favourite of mine but of late singleton combo has less need of the utility it provides and power creep has all but chased it out of town. Here we have not only taken a mana off the cost, we have also given you an option where to put your card, should you want to just hide a spell and get it back soon, or ensure you don't see it for as long as possible. Technically this card has one downside to Legacy and that is the lack of hellbent mode to draw two. It probably didn't need to do that but it is not like it does much to affect why you play spells like this. There is not lots of library trickery you can do with this to gain much value nor is there any large need of card quality cards. This gets play and it is fine but the lack of immediacy is a turn off for people in the face of other options. If quirky mechanics like cascade and miracle build up and the synergies intensify this could increase in demand but it is in a perfectly acceptable filler place at present and that is well enough. Instant speed does set it apart nicely from some of the other card quality offerings.
No Globes
Power 5
Design 6
Negate is already the perfect magic card and so trying to do one was always going to be a downgrade. A UU solid counterspell feels very blue, and so while I am not a big fan of the parasitic nature of the heavy mana colour cards in cube I don't feel like I could have done a much better job at paying homage to Negate. I will try of course!
Nogginbog (cut)
Power 3
Design 2
Too narrow to be worth a cube slot, you simply can't play this in decks without swamps, and it is pretty bad even in a deck with them. What use is card quality when you already have both your colours? Not none, but a whole lot less that is for sure. Odds on this working on turn one are also minimal further lowering the value of the card. One of those designs that didn't get properly thought about because it was part of a cycle.
Norin the Batshit
Power 6
Design 8
Big fan of this guy. Just your utility belt Savannah Lion. Never is he better on the board but he allows for a wide array of casting modes, the preferred of course being cantrip and flash at 2R! At no point is he really impressive but he is generally good value and typically won't inconvenience. I love how this card is just key words and how a great deal of complexity arises out of their combination. I also love how this is found in aggro through midrange onto control. Each is happy enough with the deal this offers. It is not an auto include in any either implying almost perfect balance. A quite red take on Thraben Inpsector, an inverted one if you will.
Nyx Goblin (reworking)
Power 8
Design 6
I have been reasonable at making Savannah Lions that have some alternative interest while being little else when actually on the board. This boy however was quite the overshoot! The bestow cost was upped to 1R and was still somewhat savage. I am consider a move to 2R but that might well kill it entirely. The other alternative is removing the flash. This is probably the sensible choice but I was blinded by the desire to make combat tricks. Without the flash this is just a buff and that really fails to excite. That being said, this is brutal early in any sort of tussle for tempo. You think you are trading and suddenly their guy grows, kills your guy, and gains an on death trigger to turn into a 2/1. That is a big old swing and often too hard to recover from. Probably R and sorcery speed is too low impact and narrow, while 2R and flash is a bit cumbersome which means there might not be a sweet spot for this dork at this scale. Hopefully the meta will naturally move a little such that there is a viable sweetspot for this guy, if so
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