Pacifist Fish Friend
Power 5
Design 7
Having worked out that good companions lead you down a fun gameplan and offer a means to help close the game I set out to do a fixed iteration of Thassa's Oracle. Drawing cards is a lot of fun and it is the thing Simic does best, perhaps as it struggles rather more with doing other things! Conceptually I think this is genius but in practice I wonder if it is the sort of thing I should encourage. The Golgari companion is one of the most popular and beloved but it always results in best of one matches and epic slow games. I fear this will do much the same. It is fun trying, and somewhat fun to play against as you are getting left alone more than usual! Overall I think the strategy is a bit dodgy and I think this is a little under cooked to be helping to bring the archetype to the meta. I want to keep it slightly under par but still playable and I think it probably needs the slightest of buffs to get there. More testing needed on this one but it isn't problematic as it stands.
Pacify
Power 6
Design 5
Pacifism is a lovely flavourful card. It is one of those cards we got in Mirage like Rampant Growth that felt like it was an Alpha card it is so core and on point. I got my copy free on the front of an Inquest magazine as a kind of early spoiler to get people excited. It worked with me, I loved the art and still find Mirage to be one of those enchanting sets. I absolutely love this art and felt that this rebalancing was merited, even if it isn't really "my card". Time has not been overly kind to Pacifism so I made it Arrest and dropped the cost to one and that makes it playable in cube! Not the best removal spell but playable. It is a bit more interesting than some sorcery speed removal spells as it functions a little differently and has some counterplay.
Palisade (reworked)
Power 2
Design 5
This was one of those wild misses. Having little experience with fortifications I was just testing the waters with a lot of these designs. Turns out this is basically just a Treetop Village without the useful land part. As such this got a significant upgrade with the straight up addition of "get a forest on EtB" and that made it playable. Not even good, just playable. Likely we need to add a bit more, such as trample or the ability to un-fortify somehow if desired. That might get it near being good.
Pandora's Mox
Power 5
Design 6
The design challenge of a balanced Mox is a fascinating one. You couldn't print this into many formats safely in real magic without it breaking things but my relatively safe format with a mere 1000 or so cards and this is safe as houses. Indeed, this is pretty interesting design. It is fair in that you don't get a burst advantage over the opponent but you will get a mana advantage overall fairly quickly. The other big thing here is that you get control over when you drop this down making sure that you are able to minimize the very real and significant risk of giving the opponent two Treasure. I have played this in decks that are notably mana hungry, those that could really use the extra fixing, and places with artifact synergy. It has been fine powerwise and super interesting playwise. Printing this in the real world and it would at least come in tapped which to my mind stops it being a true Mox like card.
Paradise Engine (reworking)
Power 3
Design 6
Springleaf Drum in vehicular form. This is a bit weaker in that it has summoning sickness itself, and that it is far easier to remove. To offset this I made it cost zero, like Paradise Mantle! That is not enough to get it playable which is no shock given that Springleaf Drum has never shone in cube and had very little time within cubes. I like this card but it needs a significant boost to get there, likely tapping to produce Treasure, perhaps an option on Treasure and another comparable utility token such as Food. I do like this card in principle, it is just problematically underpowered.
Paradise Tree
Power 8
Design 6
Its a BoP but in tree form. BoP is iconic for magic, and for green. You need a lot of cheap green ramp and there is not a lot of room to manoeuvre in the design space. Especially if you are looking for clean. I always felt aggrieved at how bad Utopia Tree was, and so I did the thing proper justice for my set. In hindsight, it was absolutely for the best this didn't cost one at the time but that doesn't stop it feeling real sad in the obvious comparisons. We don't need to go into how this plays, that is well established as it is a BoP! It is a bit more robust in the face of removal but offers less as a body. No sneaky attacks for the win with this plant wall...
Pastures
Power 8
Design 7
Pang Tong, the Humble (cut)
Power 8
Design 3
Something off with this one too. It got lots of play and was pretty good but I think the inspiration behind making it is the reason it is off. I wanted a way to punish the legendary tri lands cycle. This guy can blow up legends. Done. But no, land destruction on a dork, and really random land destruction at that, the kind you can just feely play in any deck with no real downside, isn't a punisher, it is a random shitshow of a mechanic. Legendary landwalk would be a better means of punishing and that would still be a long way from good. Basically this just killed good things, then got flickered to do it again. It basically never Fogged. This got cut just because it didn't play well nor did it feel like a real magic card. It was absolutely powerful enough seeing consistent play. Turns out modular cards eventually start to have diminishing returns so in the design seat it is worth saving them for when they are really good or for some reason necessary. This card certainly isn't either of those things and should make way for better things.
Path Away
Power 7
Design 4
The black part of the free spell cycle from the third print run. I couldn't find a name/art combo I liked flavour wise to fit the "Mana Something" system the other four had and so this just did its own thing. I wanted a Fatal Push kind of card in terms of removal power and really should probably just have been more direct with that desire and had the card hit mana value four or less targets. The power and toughness combined is a bit clunky and makes this seem a lot less like a magic card. If I really want to stay away from mana value but keep a restriction then going power or toughness seems better in almost all ways given the benefits of hindsight. Of the free spells black does have some of the most notable, with a wide array of viable kill spells. Blue certainly has the best free spells but the black ones, the playable ones at least, feel the most numerous, and free spells in black feel the most colour pie appropriate. As such I will likely put more effort into improving and keeping this one. Regardless of how you feel about Force of Will I think cubes should have at least one black removal spell for dorks that can reasonably cost no mana.
Path of Progress (reworking)
Power 3
Design 3
Not enough thought went into this. It is clearly underpowered and I would likely have realized this if I spent any time thinking about what this would look like at two mana. Assassin's Trophy is not all that. Giving away mana in a slower format with plenty of ongoing value and mana sinks is also really dodgy. This would be too good at 1W instant but could likely be either WW instant or 1W at sorcery speed and be totally fine. The kind of card you play when you have to rather than because you want to. I'll fix this to be one of those as soon as I have space in a print run or find myself in need of more white removal. It is pretty low priority being such a dull card with decent redundancy.
Pause
Power 8
Design 5
Ice without the Fire and compensated for that with a scry. Arguably this is still a bit good. One of those Remand like cards that timed correctly has a real Time Walk feel to it. This is like Opt but with a disruptive component. There is far too little cost in playing it. There is some but that mostly comes in nominal power density. Regardless, this should probably be a "you may tap target non land permanent." Those two subtle changes stop it being broken but allow it to avoid being dead ever which would make it utterly unplayable. Like I say, it isn't broken, it is just a card that is way too cheap and easy to play to have the occasional Time Walk ceiling.
Peach Garden Tithe (banned)
Power 6
Design 4
One of the better catch-up cards but still, this card would just be a better designed card without it still. Tithe is a great card and this is a crack at it. A loss of the white colour feel for some consistency on effect. Much as this is good rate it is not really needed in my cube, you would much rather get one plains and one dork for your card and mana. I may rework this at some point to replace the catch-up, perhaps just lose it and keep the card clean, but only if the format feels like it needs a card like this, which it presently does not.
Pearl Dragon (retuning)
Power 8
Design 6
A little good. I plan to tone this down stats wise, 4/4 is probably where I wind up on it. I might even remove the vigilance. This is perfect top end for white. It is meaty by itself but scales up pretty rapidly with other dorks in terms of power. Sometimes it is enough just as an anthem into an alpha strike. The combo of massive flier plus much meatier weenies all at once is quite a consistent way to close out the game. The embalm gives it some legs and makes you less worried about playing this card in a world full of spot removal.
Pearl Knight
Power 6
Design 9
Emblematic white card. This feels so on point for what the colour is trying to do. Pleased with literally everything here, the balance, the name, the art, the colour pie adherence, the homage paid to White Knight. Where it falls down a tad is that it is a WW card and really only has one home. In a white weenie deck this is a solid card that works with what you are about but it is a bit low value and hard to cast in almost all other places. An aristcrats deck might want it if it were not for that narrowing all white casting cost. Even so, I want a couple of heavy cost mono cards in the set and this merits one of those slots for sure.
Pearl Trident Illusionist (cut)
Power 1
Design 2
Blue gets a lot of these illusionisty style one drop dorks that tinker with things in a novel way turning types and colours into others. I felt this needed representing in my efforts and tried real hard to make it playable. I failed. I have another attempt set in my draft file that has been there a year now and I can't fathom how to design it so it is useful and not just broken. The improvement to make to this one would be removing the mana cost on the tap but also losing the disruptive element. The land should only also become and island, and should still have its original functionality. This stops this acting like a bad Rishadan Port but also means it can be a viable energy source. The thing is that even then, it is pretty low power and rubbish. Much as this style of card feels very magic, I struggle to think of any that have ever really performed, not just in cube during some period, but also in limited and constructed. Sleight of Mind has done more work over the years than all of these combined I think and it is a silly limp card too! Despite seeming pretty futile I will continue to have a crack at solving a card like this. The challenge is a big part of the fun.
Pebble Charm (cut)
Power 2
Design 4
Even without the abundance of good landcyclers in the format I don't think these little charms would have made it. Just having to have the red upfront to go and get a mountain rather ruins the fixing element of these. Sure, with an appropriate dual these can help fix a splash but that is a best case. The problem after that is the low power and thus low relevance of the other abilities. Neither come up often at all and so you just have to play this in your deck as a dodgy EtB tapped Mountain and that it not worth it.
Peer Pressure (cut)
Power 4
Design 5
This got cut neither for being too powerful or too weak,nor for playing badly as such. This is just a core spell that has way too much messing about. I don't want my Duress to take five minutes to resolve. It is a one drop and does one drop things yet it be acting like it some fancy four drop. I made a fair number of cheap saga cards and most didn't make the cut. This I think is the best example of why, the card is pretty balanced (somewhat underpowered but still perfectly playable) and I think it is really interesting too. It is just adding too much to an already intense game. This sort of thing really leant into the chess-Magic vs poker-Magic problem I was having with my cube. I think another issue here is poor naming, it breaks the immersion a little. It just doesn't tie the art and the mechanics together properly. I had no idea quite how important that side of things was until after the fact. While this might have failed as a game piece it was a huge win in terms of learning things.
Pentad Construct (cut)
Power 4
Design 5
This little fellow is pretty interesting. His base power level is nothing to write home about. Without synergies this is just about playable but it isn't good. It does however have combo potential red flags all over it. It is one of those generic looking support cards that could have tonnes of applications in tonnes of different places for a whole host of varying reasons. While all this is true for magic with its tens of thousands of cards. With my rather smaller and more contained pool, played in a limited setting, this never really did all that much. A paradoxical card this is too weak to see play and yet still too dangerous to actually print. I will periodically toss this back into the mix to see if anyone has managed to solve how it is used or some random new card really gives it the synergy boost this wannabe support card needs.
Penumbra Baloth
Power 7
Design 7
Boosh. Big fat green beast. Pretty spot on. Lots of stats, reasonable threat level. Penumbra Spider did a pretty good stint in cube and really over performed. I have even seen the original Bobcat and Wurm do some work back in 2005 cube! I felt duty bound to continue the Peunumbra cycle and am happy with my offering. This rarely wins games but it applies a lot of pressure and does what you want a card like this to do. It is a bit like Esika's Chariot if that card was more reasonable in power level and didn't have quite the snowball to it! Most decks are happy playing this what with is essentially representing tempo and value in a pretty raw and direct stats based form, while being mid enough in cost to appeal to aggro and control.
Pernicious Seal (reworking)
Power 8.5
Design 4
Overshot the power level on this one. I reasoned that the decline of Pernicious Deed in other cubes implied I needed to give this more help. My format winding up a bit slower than expected made this quite obnoxious. It has been reworked to have simply X counters, not the confusing Prismatic Ending mechanic, which, while useful as a design tool, is confusing and counter-intuitive to players. Also, this really didn't need a two mana assistance... As it is now the card is not only a mana cheaper to use than Deed overall but it has the advantage of being free when you want to use it. This can lead to some really devastating swings and some really hard to navigate around situations for the opponent. This is a very powerful control tool, absolutely perfect for how a control deck wants to play. I think I'll just try and keep this fair by allowing for a little more power creep in my homemade cube in the right areas. I may also just remove the activated ability and force you to commit. That might well drop it back below Deed in power as you then really struggle to use this on curve. I like this decidedly non-blue control tool but I don't know that it should be a thing. It is quite all encompassing with not all that many downsides. Pernicious Deed dominated an area of magic, I might well just be used to and condition for this rather than it actually being a good thing at all. Will simply test more and try and become more objective on the matter. Certainly this is a card on a couple of watchlists for cuts and changes.
Perril, the Whole Package
Power 8
Design 6
This had a lot of looks over the design process being a tribute of sorts to my wife. She doesn't like spiders. At all. This card does live upto its name and is a genuine draw to Selesnya. This is a model planeswalker offering top rate removal, top rate card advantage, or top rate board presence. This does everything you want it to and well. It is exactly how you want a planeswalker to work for you. Not broken buy any means, you need to have this stick about for a while to secure a game with it. Value is easy to find and spiders are heavily weighted in the defensive department. Perril stops you losing well and she then helps you win pretty slowly. I like green white having a nice heavy hitter. The colour pair is flourishing in my cube and is getting about the most play I have ever seen GW get in any cube. Cards like this one really help with that.
Pestilence
Power 8
Design 7
Thrashing Wumpus was great. Interesting, really black feeling, and yet oh so clean. Sadly five mana 3/3s are comically laughable and there has been little in the way of Pestilence or Wumpus dorks since. This is simply a modernizing of Thrashing Wumpus. It took a little tweaking to get the numbers right but I am happy with this. I started out at four mana like actual Pestilence but it was oppressive. Five seems correct and this stat line lets you use the ability a bit more freely. I am happy enough directly stealing the name here too, it just feels right for this clean and iconic effect. I feel like this card should already exist somewhere by now, perhaps even as an uncommon in a core set...
I gave contributors to the set some flavour text rights. The main contributor only took up my offer twice, and one of those was this jibe at my poor use of punctuation. It has no relation to the card.
Petrification
Power 8
Design 7
Very powerful, very playable. This harks back over twenty years to a long standing joke. My playtesting group made use of proxies and some people were better than others. One of the most loosey goosey among us notoriously failed to label his. One evening he was packing a control deck and was running Swamps as Wrath of God. The night went on. There was mild intoxication. One observer noted Dave had a Swamp in play. "I thought those were Wraths Dave?" Oh shit replies Dave. "Pretty fucking good split card there" remarks the onlooker, "the Land/Wrath." And lo, behold the land Wrath made card. This is super playable. I quite like it despite it being pretty well played anywhere at all white. Control players love it beyond all belief. As do midrange players. Aggro players pack it and suck up that EtB tapped land feeling for the ability to have some game swinging outs that wouldn't otherwise be at all suitable for them. This card is basically the Winds of Abandon of my set. It is a playable Wrath or a playable non-Wrath. And modal Wraths really scale up a lot more than most other things going modal. This is likely a little too good but I think it plays sufficiently interestingly and well that it should stay. It just adds a good dimension and keeps people on their toes!
Petty Pilferer
Power 6
Design 6
Flash and flying push this pretty far. When Elvish Visionary is playable this is looking downright good. And it is super playable but it is not that often super impactful. It is the kind of card that leads to good games. You have stuff to do, some options. the cost to include is low, and it all adds to consistency. This carrier equipment very well and blocks 3/1s really nicely. Beyond that this doesn't do too much and that is great. This would remain playable with just flash or just flying, it would be fine and still see quite a lot of the action it gets now. It could even be an on death trigger to draw the card! One of those changes sounds like it probably makes sense but I am entirely disinclined to rock the boat when things are working so nicely as they are. This is one of those cards everyone is happy to see. You like it because you get to do stuff and draw cards, it feels good. They like it because you didn't counter their spell or bounce their thing with your open mana. Winners all round. And while that is all well and good in isolation it is why we have a format where the value of nominal power is so high and the value of card draw is so low.
Phoenix (reworking)
Power ?
Design ?
This must be the card I have fiddled with most. Red has to have a Phoenix. A 2/2ish flying hasting recursive dork. It is one of the most magic things consistent throughout the years and I'll be damned if I don't follow suit. Thing is, I just can't get it to land. I have tried a lot to do an all encomapssing one, seems sensible, makes it most playable in limited setting given usually a synergy card. Also lets me pay maximum homage to the type. At this point however I would happily settle on one or two designs that are not all encompassing and lead on one type of support synergy alone. I have struggled generally with making recursive dorks that can do so repeatedly, I suspect it is because their power is so linked to answers, support, and overall speed in the format rather than their own inherent power relative to normal cards. Either way, I'll keep trying till I get there, so far it has been bombs and duds all the way. This iteration below is cute and one of the more balanced but it feels least like a magic card.
Phyrexian Dictate
Power 6.5
Design 7
And so we enter the long section of Phyrexian cards. Many of which are existing cards with an added Phyrexian Mana or one of their cost, made Phyrexian. Here we have Murder given the boost of the latter treatment and isn't it delightful? Clean, balanced, and interesting. This is one of the missed ways I felt Phyrexian Mana should be put to use. This card is not as interesting as Doom Blade but it is a fair bit better. It is certainly a lot more of both than Murder! This approach has been a really useful way to get some quite heavily used design space into my cube with very clean and neat text.
Phyrexian Fire
Power 6
Design 6
Not the best or most exciting use of the phyrexian mana but a fairly reasonable card with a fairly red feel. This is super-Char! At sorcery speed however the card is fairly uneventful. I would much prefer a closer to 50/50 split of instants and sorcery speed but spells in the format but it turns out it is jsut a lot safer and easier making the sorcery stuff. The card is pretty narrow despite appearing realitively flexible and direct. You need to be heavy red or quite aggressive otherwise the heavy red/life cost starts to get prohibitive. This remains in the cube mostly because it is a four damage spell and there are fewer of those kicking about. If this was just some Searing Spear knock off then it would be long gone making space for a more interesting card.
Phyrexian Ghoul
Power 5
Design 6
Hogaak was too big, that was his problem. Turns out zero mana cards scale with size better than most... This isn't just small Hogaak, it is small buffed Hogaak and even that buff isn't enough to overcome the size penalty. Obviously the rate of delving and convoking to stats are not as impressive here, nor do we have trample, so I am not being entirely forthright but it is the case that the Phyrexian mana is a buff and a cool one at that. As is being able to cast this more conventionally from hand. I really like this card, it has a real Scrapheap Scrounger vibe to it but feels and plays better. Sadly, there is not really an archetype that in the market for this. I want to try and push a more delve self mill build in my format as they have been some of my favourite to play in other formats. I think as the payoff for graveyard stuff reaches a point this will jump to being pretty desirable and played.
Phyrexian Judgement
Power 8
Design 7
This is the Toxic Deluge of the set. Very happy with this nice clean black Wrath. This is absolutely a sidegrade on Wrath although mostly an upgrade. It feels very black and helps neatly fill out the ranks with the various effects you need to make magic magic.
Phyrexian Library (retuning)
Power 4
Design 6
Irritatingly the correct cost for this seems to be between one and two Phyrexian mana. At this cost the card sees almost no play and yet at one less the card felt oppressive, like Bitterblossom back when it was good, but less interactable with. My hope is that I can revert to the cheaper variant of the card ultimately with a gentle bit of power creep. I love how this card looks, feels, and plays and so am keen to get it working. It feels super black and everyone loves to draw cards.
Phyrexian Oppression
Power 8
Design 5
It is Thoughtseize but a little better as you get the option on paying mana or life. Technically this is a two drop and thus wouldn't work with some effects but regardless, it is a mild upgrade to one of the best black cards ever made. How is this reasonable in a format of lower power than your average unpowered cube? Simply that targetted discard is rather less impressive in cube, especially ones without combo. I was able to dump a little more raw power into these effects without too much concern that they would upset anything. Much as I am happy with how this plays and the power of it I think I missed rather with the art work. Snakes are not the most Phyrexian of things and the resultant card just feels a bit off.
Phyrexian Workshop (cut)
Power 5
Design 5
I wanted a land that threatened inevitability, like a Kessig Wolf run or a Keldjoran Outpost! Much as it felt like it should be a thing I didn't really know why. I also knew I didn't want it oppressive as lands can be hard to interact with. As such this was made an artifact land to be a nerf. There is no wild synergy for this to enhance while rendering it a lot more removable. This landed about right but is a bit dull. It takes a while to overtake a game with a card like this. It certainly seemed to work best with any of the powerstone engines. Ultimately this is a card that is both low impact and narrow and so while I do like the card and how it plays it is for the best of the meta that it is cut.
Plague Bearer
Power 6
Design 7
Somewhere between Yawgmoth and Plagued Rusulka lies this core set looking dork. Very happy with this, it is clean, it is black, it has a lot of options and synergies going on. Being as defensable as a Grey Orge there is relaitvely little chance of this eevr being too oppressive.
Plan a Direction (cut)
Power 6
Design 3
This is a bit too much rather unnecessarily. It is a support card no one needs and it is sufficiently messy on top that I think I would cut it even if I were not cutting the whole cycle of these pseudo gold cards. I do quite like this card as a thing to play with but it is just bloating the cube to keep it in.
Pick Axe (retuning)
Power 7
Design 6
Mostly I love this but I am in two minds. Only red decks play it, apparently 2 to equip is no deal but at 1 it is all good. I thought I was being cute with these variable costs making cards more widely playable but still allowing me to give them a bit more identity and power push. I think probably I just can make this 1 to equip and give it to all the colours. It it pretty powerful but just plays pretty nicely. Bonesplitter or Paradise Mantle rolled into one.
Plan Ahead
Power 8
Design 10
There is nothing too special about this. At sorcery speed this would be reasonable anywhere. In my more cube power level format where card draw is at a low in value this can be instant and not be utterly silly. What is universal about this card is how good it feels to have in hand and cast. It is so nice to have a simple clean Divination at a proper rate. You can sit behind countermagic or bluff countermagic and fire off this instead. It feels great every time. Drawing cards is one of the best things to do in magic both mechanically and enjoyment wise. The high rate of enjoyment this was dealing out inspired rather more two mana draw two effects to arrive on at market!
Plunge
Power 8
Design 6
Originally this had no mana cost on the flashback and was pretty oppressive as you can imagine. I love a Cabal Therapy card a bit too much. This however is a tempo card that affects the board unlike Therapy and as such cannot get away with having a free mode so easily. Unsummon has ever been fringe playable in cube, there is always a small window where tempo peaks and the really cheap bounce spells are where it is at for interaction. Cube has always been ripe for a solid one mana bounce spell in blue. I pushed the boat out a little harder than I needed to but I am not unhappy with the result. This card keeps people honest. It plays well and affords a reasonable amount of synergy, interaction, and a whole heap of choices. It can get away somewhat with being so powerful because it is neither a threat nor an answer all the while being card disadvantage. Usually that would spell doom for any cube hopeful.
Politely Decline
Power 7
Design 7
Actual Counterspell took quite a nerf being gold and conceding five life. Luckily for it, the place one most often finds a counterspell is with white mana, and giving little to no shits about life total. On paper this sounds multiple levels of unplayable worse. Like, stick this drawback on most other cards and you are getting laughed out of the room. Sorry what? a BR three damage spell that deals you five in you own face? No thanks. Anywho, this is a fairly boring hard counter that does the job and does so as reasonably as such things can be done. There is a reasonable degree of life concession cards in the set which in turn somewhat fuel some of the various life payment cards out there. Should you be packing in that department the five life from this suddenly looks a lot more exciting and will usually equate to a pretty good deal for you. The real strength of cards like this is foundational. It is clean and simple and very easy to understand what it does. Indeed it is like one of those signpost cards that points you in a direction. It provides that very familiar magic framework to build upon without being convoluted and complex.
Pony Drake (cut)
Power 4
Design 6
Adorable little guy! In a world where curiosity effects and blue tempo skies were packing results I think this dude would have put in good work. It is an OK support card in a few places but this didn't have enough power to push those places by himself at all and they were generally pretty fringe and low tier. As such this guy doesn't see enough play, he is too do nothing to and low impact to play without specific purpose and those are hard to find. I could push this card by adding some stats and cost, if this actually hit hard and threatened then it would start to have its own pull. I would rather however try and provide more support/payoff to a tempo skies blue build so as to get this version of the card viable. A harder proposition but hopefully a more rewarding one if achieved!
Pound of Flesh (retuning)
Power 2
Design 4
This scales the wrong way with its own function. Turns out you really don't want your expensive cover all removal to get worse as it takes out better things. You kill a one drop with this you are not happy it is only doing you one, you are pissed you lost out on two mana. Take out a six drop with this you are not however chuffed about the three mana you are up, you are butthurt from the six life you just lost that is probably going to mean you still lose. This card should cost BB and it is probably still not getting a lot of play. At 1B it might start to actually become good enough to see more consistent play. Not sure we want such a card floating around. Not the most dull of spells but I am not sure it is adding too much.
Power Plant (cut)
Power 3
Design 3
This is just a bit annoying. The card itself isn't great, if you want much coloured mana this is going to be a real drain. It is an energy source but actually not a very impressive one, it is effectively a significant ongoing cost and the return is slow. Not as slow as the blue energy land rather awkwardly but helping to get it cut rather quicker! This could be made more appealing with various tweaks, lower the energy cost on coloured mana to one, remove lift cost on coloured mana etc. At some point it becomes reasonable fixing but I don't think there is any point it fulfils the design criteria of being an energy source land. Utility lands in cube just don't sit well, I should accept this and move on.
Powerstone Array
Power 6
Design 8
One of my favourite cards. A bit like the Cabal Coffers of the set, although narrower and weaker. Initially you could make any coloured mana with this and it was a bit too universally playable. At just colourless you need to work at recuperating the payoff from this. Powerstone Array is capable of turning a mana profit relatively quickly but that is just in powerstone mana, it takes rather longer if you want just regular mana. As such most decks trying to use this will have most of the payoffs as things that work directly with the power stones. This is probably a little better than it should be but is sufficiently narrow in application that it does need to be pushed to get the required play. Regardless of that, the card is really fun to play and build with and has not been flagged as oppressive or anything by the opposition. It is quite the wank around card and players like to be given time so thy can wank around doing their own shit or just killing you.
Powerstone Truffler
Power 5
Design 5
My love of powerstones became apparent after the first printing and so I got to making a bunch more. The easiest and simplest stuff is usually a one mana card, and of those the 2/1 dork iterations of things tend to be the most so. This is a funny card. It is green but in a kind of subversive way. Green has better things for making mana and less ways than most other colours of making mana. That being said, temur is where the energy stuff is and there is some reasonable overlap with energy, artifacts, and powerstones. Green can often get splashed into Izzet decks and this is one of relatively few green mana dorks you are ever happy splashing. This is a funny card in that green isn't too excited to make 2/1s nor do 2/1 dorks have all that much in common with the game plan of a powerstone deck. This is quite a lot of card for the mana but it isn't aligned. As such it gets mediocre levels of play.
Pre-empt
Power 7
Design 6
This is fine but not too exciting. It adds to consistency and the density of core black effects. It isn't too powerful (although I really did want to cost it at 1 at which point it very much would have been!). Even when it is disruptive it isn't too feel bad as you always have to go mana down to use it. All in all a pretty healthy card for the format, especially impressive given that it is a discard effect and they are not well liked. It also solves the issues inherent to discard effects in limited settings by having cycling. Being a swamp is still a lot better than being a discard spell against a hellbent opponent.
Prejudiced Edict
Power 7
Design 6
I like where this wound up. It is an incredibly reliable removal spell that comes with all the usual perks associated with sacrifice bypassing an array of defensive abilities but yet has near the precision of a targetted removal spell. Power wise it should perhaps be sorcery but interactive sorcery cards always feel like such a wasted opportunity to get more game for your card! This being symmetrical and occasionally not being able to hit the thing you want is just about enough to justify where it is at. Cube is also chock full of dorks with protective abilities that exile quality white removal scythes through while black has to go the long conventional route through them. I like a high density of powerful edict effects in black, it feels on colour and lets black keep better pace with the quality of what white has on offer. This is pretty premium creature kill but it is super replaceable and so not important. It probably follows in the general trend of being the defacto standard black removal spell following in the line of Terror, Diabolic Edict, Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, and Infernal Grasp.
Pressure Point
Power 7.5
Design 6
The red Sylvan Library! Really like how this plays, particularly in my format. Absolutely this is one of those cards that is likely just too much for many real magic settings. With slow games, small libraries, and lots of draw this is a card that really lives upto its name. It forces you into discarding things you don't always want to and it puts you under a very real time pressure to get the job done. It does this while providing outstanding ongoing card quality and stocking the graveyard for of gas to power out anything that uses such resources. I very much enjoy the way this plays. It might be a little polar, vastly better on curve than drawn late. Regardless I think it is a nice tool to have. I am always happy when I find a convincing way to give a typically off colour effect like card quality to a colour in a flavourful way. The savvy among you will have realized that this is certainly just a bad looter early. A rummager without a body. As soon as you are hellbent this is simply top rate card draw. Quite the incentive to an aggressive red mage to go all in.
Pretty Polly
Power 8.5
Design 8
I designed this card before Ragavan and felt like it was far too good. Since Ragavan I am totally fine with this sidegrade on BoP. That is entirely where this card came from, wanting more BoPs and exploring the existing nearby design space. This makes treasure rather than mana but needs to attack to get the treasure. Not always better than Bop but generally so and potentially in multiple ways. Calm that by making it legendary. Give it pirate theme cause that really fits and we have quite the winning card. I considered having the treasure tapped, and while reasonable from a power perspective, it does take the card away from functioning like a Bop. Generally the best one drop mana dork in the set but not by so much that it is a problem.
Priest Class (reworked and cut)
Power 5
Design 3
While quite flavourful these top down class cards are not generally my finest work, I missed the mark by quite the margin with this one. Level two is far too powerful for one, and the card has no real cohesion at all either. I have re-cost the abilities and moved them about (such that this is a functional enchantress card by having the draw mode on level two) and the card plays a little better and is rather more fair. It is still however a fairly aimless card that is overly complex and doesn't add to the game in a particularly positive way. As such I kindof gave up trying and caring and just cut it instead.
Primal Behemoth (retuned)
Power 5
Design 6
This is now also uncounterable although that matters relatively little. An odd card that acts a bit like it has haste in that it generally gets that first hit in, but also just acts like a normal dork that can block and has to wait a turn to attack. While this has been popular it has under performed. It is just stats, and even with a slap to the face for upto eight, it is still real easy to fall behind when your six mana spell is answered efficiently. This was supposed to win you the game, not be some shit slow Lava Axe that didn't finish the job and winds up costing you everything. I am pleased the card is popular and like the flavour of it, I just think it might be a trap and seem rather better than it is. I'm not looking to trick people like that and so if I can think of a small but reasonable buff to sling this guys way I will. Reach seems like it might be the best shout in that regard. Feels like that is minor enough while ticking both the mechanical and flavour boxes the card has. Uncounterable seemed to win out in the end.
Primal Shrine
Power 8
Design 7
Primordial Pools
Power 5
Design 6
Pretty comfortably the best of this whole cycle as a beater. One evolve trigger is super easy to achieve and lets you attack with a 2/4. That is relatively hefty and robust which is essential if we are even to consider using manlands. It is also relatively good stats for the activation cost. The second evolve trigger is still not exactly a chore and turns this into a house. Hefty and efficient. The fourth trigger has yet to occur, likely it is pretty win more at that point. With that all said and done, this is mostly a colourless land with high colour requirements to use. It isn't coming online in a good way early either. I often find my first activation is just using two spare-ish mana to turn this on and grow it without getting an attack in, just a kind of way to prime it for an efficient attack later. I often then never use it... This cycle of lands are underpowered because they are such poor duals. This might be the best as a dork but the dork part is their secondary function. It is hard to escape being poor at your main role without being near broken in others such that they are the main role. If this was a pain land or even an EtB tapped land this would be quite a different tale. Much as these dual manlands are flavourfull I suspect the cube would be far better served with a smaller cycle of five mono coloured manlands that did a better job of producing coloured mana.
Prismari Confluence (retuning)
Power 6
Design 7
Toying with the idea of making this six mana. As it stands you are only playing this in a deck with some artifact count. That might sound narrowing but it is most of them. At six this is easy to make pretty broken relatively consistently. At seven it can still suck a lot. Torn between safety and playability! This card is incredibly powerful as draw cards and do damage are the two purest and most direct things in the game. They are both almost always good, both support most strategies directly and powerfully, and they tend to scale inversely, meaning when one is weak you will have the perfect thing to hand in the other mode. This all means that very few thopters get produced. The odd blocker or means to turn on a synergy piece. Occasionally they are used over damage to take out planeswalkers when there is a high degree of confidence that is likely to actually happen. However you are playing this card it is flashy and powerful and provides a lot of reach and is thus a reasonable draw to Izzet and artifact synergies. For that I like this card. I also like how this doesn't feel degenerate and must play as my other draw/burn combo cards have all been.
Proud Eagle
Power 7
Design 5
One of the more snowbally cards of the set. Rather than just walk into mass removal a lot of players will open this and just churn out some birds. Before you know it you need to Wrath away this one drop and his team. Your white weenie opponent has five lands and a full hand and you just tapped out to answer his one drop on turn four while already having lost a third of your life! Flying arguably makes this a little good. It walks right into the plan of go wide and buff up that aggresive white likes to implement. I fear this is one of those cards that is over powered but due to control being a bit over tuned and aggro the opposite. A card like this that keeps that matchup well in check, is a welcome thing in cube. Probably I should just make the boast 3 but then the card would be pretty poor. For now it plays fine and does the right sort of things, if a little well. One to keep an eye on but hopefully a card that can stay. It seems well liked and does good work.
Proven Khenra
Power 6
Design 6
A filler dork that is just generically fine. The low cost makes it a viable aggro card. The embalm helps it be viable in midrange decks and the protection from tokens makes it decently powerful and relevant as a card in the format. It is a bit of a filler card but it has enough going on to not be dull, without being complex and busy and detracting from the big names!
Puddled Fields
Power 8
Design 6
Puff of Smoke (banned)
Power 8
Design 1
One of the most oppressive catch-up cards. Although it sort of works in a fair way with the turn order it is way too swingy. A playable but weak card sometimes and a really oppressive early game counter other times. Polar and in all the the worst ways for everyone.
Pumpkinate
Power 6
Design 6
This has since been closely printed in real magic highlighting the fact this doesn't technically work. It also needs to be able to enchant food.... Regardless of this small error I rather like the card. It is a reasonable rate, gives blue something it really needs, and does so in a way that feels flavourful and on colour. This gets some play, mostly in decks that have no access to white or black. Rarely are people thrilled to be playing it but they are pretty happy when it comes to actually casting it.
Pureheart Filly (cut)
Power 3
Design 1
Not quite sure why I did this. Really pointlessly dull card. I think I thought white needed some more generic 3 drops. I certainly delivered on those exact two things and nothing more. This is mostly a 3/3 that does nothing. Sometimes it gains 3 life and sometimes it gains lots of life but most of the time that doesn't matter much. What matters is you spend quite a lot of mana to do nothing that exciting or efficient. Sure, some stats but odds on this is getting answered in a way that costs you value and/or tempo. Not where you want to be. Especially for a card so painfully dull!
Puritan
Power 7
Design 6
Not exactly exciting, nor powerful. This is just rank and file cube stuff. This is a cheap body making it pretty playable and it has the means to answer enchantments. Useful to have but not the kind of thing you play dedicated removal for. This is the kind of card that really greases the wheels of cube. It keeps it all ticking along nicely. The perfect kind of modal for limited play. Best in more aggressive decks but happy enough anywhere feeling like it needs a bit more early plays or enchantment removal. I am toying with making this protection from tokens instead of vigilance. I think it is a more interesting and flavourful mechanic to give the card and an affect I want to have a bit more of floating around. I might even drop this to a 2/2. I have never been a fan of humans that stray higher than two on stats, it just feels wrong.
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