Talaria (cut)
Power 6
Design 4
A bit of relatively low key equipment that does the things you want. This provides great reach and racing potential. This is the way the white weenie deck breaks through the stalemate. It is targetted at what white needs and made much more efficient for them to use making this rather the white card in all but colour. That is certainly marks against it. It is also pretty boring which isn't ideal. Things that are not threats or in some way proactive, certainly anything in that camp that isn't an answer, such as this, tend to be a bit parasitic in function and a little polar in gameplay. I am less fond of such cards and require a higher bar on card fun to make the cut. There is nothing too wrong with this but equally little right and so it made for an easy cut simply to make space for other things to have a go.
Tales of the Fish (reworking)
Power 8
Design 5
This was far too good and saw a lot of play for it. A lot of stats on a useful body, less likely to be bounced into oblivion than usual what with you being a blue player and reducing the number of others in the draft statistically! The island at the end is juicy, it makes this a two for one and helps keep you curving. It makes this such a feel good thing to flop on turn three. It is like Blade Splicer when you have Ephemerate in hand. It is the second phase that really pushes this a bit too far however. Mostly just a mana but sometimes more obnoxious value is offered. It can help force through attacks or bypass countermagic. A free Twiddle is not to be sniffed at, and bye god is it free considering the other things you are getting for you three mana and a card. So yeah, this was too much and saw a lot of play and so while I am reworking it I am not in any rush to do so. I got too hung up on being a good tribute to Teller of Tales that I resisted changing the starting body. That is the easiest way to chill this out. I'll probably roll out a 2/2 token version of this for its second go once it has had enough time out.
Power 8
Design 6
Tawnos' Bauble (cut)
Power 3
Design 5
Conjurer's Bauble meets one of the brothers attempts. Certainly one of the most bauble like baubles with a very minor effect for 0 mana and a delayed replacement. Great in high synergy settings, a bit less so without. In some singleton combo decks this will be just the ticket but in general cube play this is just not doing enough. My prowess deck isn't high tier but if it were this might make a comeback.
Temporal Archmage (cut)
Power 5
Design 5
Felt like a Time Walk effect was needed and so with all the clean and neat design space on that front taken I went with it in dork form. To avoid flicker etc abuse this has some extra clauses. Despite this the card should be somewhat of an upgrade to your staple five mana Time Walks. Somehow despite this and being in a lower powered format, this just didn't get much love. Turns out a 1/1 body might well just be a drawback in the kinds of deck that might want a five mana Time Walk. I may tone the blue down a bit and see if that was holding it back but I doubt it. It might start to see play in more midrange dork decks where the body is going to do a bit more work. Time will tell but I am not trying to push this. Time Walks are typically some of the least enjoyable things in magic and so they need to be printed a little lack lustre if at all.
Terrorize
Power 8
Design 6
A cute nod to the original removal spell. I wanted a black kill card that has the Terror target restrictions but was already well aware of the slightly dodgy design of such things. Cycling is the fix for those sorts of problems and land cycling felt ideal on this one making the card a lot more purposeful. There is a reasonable argument this should be three mana, I could at least consider making it instant if so. That being said, if I am to have a sorcery speed interactive card I am always happier when it has cycling so it still has some modes of action at instant speed. So far I have liked what this does and as such am inclined towards overlooking quite how pushed it is.
Tropical Birds (cut)
Power 6
Design 3
Arbor Elf meets Birds of Paradise. In my head I was completing the cycle of Avacyn's Pilgrim, Elves of Deep Shadow and my own Burnwillow Elves with this one. Every form of GX mana dork catered for. A rather unnecessary cycle and a bit of a narrow card. I don't have quite enough lands with types on them to make this viable outside of a few archetypes. In a real cube with Triomes and Sacs and all the rest of it, this would be a very potent BoP like sidegrade. In the homemade cube this just isn't worth a slot. The format is just going to be better off with a reliable mana dork, even one with less potential power, that can just fit into more archetypes.
Power 9
Design 6
The Big Burns
Power 7
Design 7
I was surprirsed to see this design space still open and so quickly nabbed it while it still is/was! This is a dull looking card on the surface but being instant and being an additive damage based removal spell this is a pretty rich and full card. It gets a lot of play, not for being really powerful but just for being really on point. I think this card does a great job of showcasing how great magic can be without any added complexities. There is quite enough going on already!
The Black Death (cut)
Power 4
Design 5
I think this is underplayed for the power level of the card but I don't think it is busted by any means. Mostly this is an OK mass removal spell but it is hard to put to good use and it is a little different to others making it a bit slower to catch on. This does have a weakness to decks going super wide but then almost all other Wraths solve that problem. Odds on in a control setting this is not your only Wrath and if so it going to get the job done. Although a scalable Wrath effect it is not ideal as for it to be a partially one sided effect you need way more dorks in play. Situationally this could be amazing but that is sufficiently rare than you are unlikely to play it on the off chance. I don't think it is viable to make this XB, that feels oppressive. Instant speed might be a boost you could toss at it. Mostly the problem with this is that it is hard for it to outperform Wrath at either end of the spectrum, it can, but mostly it doesn't. Reliability is more important that ceilings when it comes to answers and that is where this is falling down.
The Cycle of Despair
Power 8
Design 5
Invoke Despair given the saga treatment. I found it quite interesting breaking down cards that neatly fit into sagas and seeing how they worked. Turns out taking a card powerful enough to get a ban and then removing a mana results in a pretty good card, even if you slow it down a touch. This got a lot of play and while rarely game breaking it was painful and typically slowed a game down. It is not over powered and it is quite interesting as a thought experiment. As a card to play with it doesn't do what I want in terms of being a value tool, a disruption tool, a source of fun, or a means to improve the quality of games. As such it is a very likely contender to be trimmed. My favourite thing about this card is that it gives black enchantment removal of sorts! All while feeling spot on colour pie wise. That is basically the sole thread keeping this from being cut.
The Dead (Cut)
Power 4
Design 4
I tried to roll all the many little black recursive dudes into one neat card. Sadly I think the correct cost for this to recur is closer to two than three. This would be fine if black wanted cheap aggro dorks but it seems not to. At two to recur I suspect it is beyond oppressive in a variety of shells but at three it is barely playable in any. Perhaps making it a 1B 3/1 is the way to go given I can't find a clean way of balancing the numbers on a one drop. Ideally I would find the perfect clause for the trigger so that it was playable but also had a reasonable cost. I want a one drop in this role so even if the fix is the 3/1 two drop I'll be revisiting something like this!
The Fascist (cut)
Power 6
Design 3
This has undesirable play patterns. It is a little too playable in your main deck as it stands and so I have added a mana cost on the ability to deter from that being done quite so much. Despite that I am not at all a fan of this one. It just feels messy and ugly and I don't like it. Not the design, not the clause, not the execution. It is just off. It fits the bill well enough but I would prefer to fully rework.
The Flood (cut)
Power 3
Design 3
Flavourful but undesirable. This might be useful in some constructed lock deck but for limited play this is just not a tool you look for. Expensive non permanent removal with no threat or value attached. All the hall marks of a card unplayable in a cube setting. Probably just as well too as this is clearly going to be really dull and lame when it is working as intended.
The Great Wall
Power 8
Design 8
One of my absolute favourites. When I have this I wanna go big red. I want X spells and firebreathing. I love this cycle and this is my favourite of the lot. Not just because red gets most fun with all the mana but because I like the way this card feels.
The Grid
Power 6
Design 7
Not often one gets inspiration from civil engineering... This is a versatile little energy swiss army knife that will convert your energy into any of the main resources in the game at a reasonable rate. It also drip feeds a bit of energy income as well. The supply alone isn't enough to justify this, you need to have other energy sources. That being said, this is a decent card that gets put into most energy lists.
The Hive (retuned)
Power 7
Design 6
This is not the first cube I have ever designed. Waaaay back in the day, twenty odd years ago I tossed together a bunch of cards. The resolution on the art I sourced online was enough to show quite how dated the project was. Printed out on a home printer then cut out and put over magic cards. It wasn't really considered at all, just a collection of whacky ideas, all set at the power level of the power, I was essentially filling out a vintage cube all at the top power level. It felt like the early cube was too polar. I mean, it was, you had the broken power at one end and then like, Penumbra Bobcat at the other end of things. I added a lot more redundancy in funky places and messed around with crazy ideas. It was ugly, it didn't play well, it was barely legible despite being typed, such was the poor quality of my wording. Despite most of the cards being unprintable due to being broken or not working or breaking the game in too many ways, there were some very cool ideas in the set. I revisited it when doing this to see about anything I wanted to carry across. This was one such card, the original art was just a green fractal pattern and it was broccoli themed... The only change I made was to give this ward. I have since reduced the ward value from 2 to 1 and the card is playing great. It is a real handful for creature decks but not insurmountable. It was nice to be able to carry some design ideas through the decades. Really shines a light on power creep in dorks too, that a card like this would be considered equivalent to something like a Mox in my eyes twenty years ago!
The Horror, the Horror
Power 7.5
Design 9
Lord of the Pit was the big swinging dick when I started playing magic. My mate had one in his deck and it made all my cards look pathetic. He fuelled it with Breeding Pit and smashed my face in. Poor Thallids. Regardless, this card holds a lot of nostalgia and I was really happy with the way I have managed to pay tribute to it. This is a super versatile card that is ultimately build your own Lord of the Pit body. It is usually more of an Edict that makes a mini Lord of the Pit but it does do all sorts. I have sacced this to itself to remove an enchantment. I have gone all in on the devour token. I have sacced all the initial tokens immediately to something else. I have sadly just used this as a big old pile of chump blockers... I love the tension between holding up the Thrulls for sacrificing them and the damage they inflict you in the process. This card is very powerful but it isn't broken and it is fun and interesting and as such I have no desire to change it.
The Hurloon Two (reworking)
Power 4
Design 3
This is the original design for this card and it turns out to be pointless. It just occasionally was an extra card that was super boring and vanilla. Your aggro game is not going well when you have paid six mana for a 2/4. There is no real way to combo with this. Sure, it is flavourful for Boros but it makes no sense mechanically. It has no tie in with the companion clause nor does it suit the archetype you are aiming it at. As such it has been reworked towards being an anthem and is a lot more suitable as such. I settled on giving new creatures than enter a +1/+1 counter. I want to make the statline less defensive as well, likely a 3/2 or a 3/3 as in anthem mode this gets more maindeck play than I would like.
The Introvert
Power 4
Design 7
Intentionally designed at fairly low power as this is clearly a tedious card to play into. This has split opinion in the playgroup which I always really like, although sadly opinion is so polar on this one that everyone still hates it. Either they think it is scary too good or they think it is unplayable bad. While I have found it interesting and flavourful it has not done enough to really deserve its slot. Seven mana is simply a wild amount to fork out when this would be good. You are likely too dead and just need to Wrath. I could buff it to overcome this issue but that would likely make this even more hated. As with a couple of the companions, it is maintaining the colour balance of the cycle that is keeping it in the cube presently and not its own merits. I have no real wish to rework this nor any better ideas as to what I could do as a Dimir companion. A small stats boost might be a consideration but I fear this is one of those cards without a sensible balance point.
The Last Leonin
Power 5
Design 6
The white mana double dork. The least useful of the bunch too, white just has the least impressive mana sinks apparently, or at least doesn't play them much. I have never much like the Leonin so the notion of this being the last one brought me some entertainment. Rather than cut this I think I am simply going to try and design a wider array of white mana sinks and see what I like and what works. I am not trying to force this card for cycle completion reasons. That is only really something I care about for balance on a type. Companions basically are the only thing I would like some degree of consistency across the colours. I just want to keep this guy because I love mana doubling, it has proven fun. The fact that this guy isn't says a lot more about the rest of white than it does about it.
The Last Samurai (cut)
Power 8
Design 3
This was just needlessly good. That made it dull, you just played it all of the time in suitable decks and occasionally outside of them too. Too good cards need to be interesting else they are taking slots away from potentially interesting stuff. The nominal power level here was low enough that it was a long way from broken despite being "too" good. Power variation is a fine thing but it is a subtle tool not to be used with random abandon as it was here. The logic of "slap a legendary tag on it and call that quits on the obvious overdose of power" does not constitute good or clever design.
The Leviathan (cut)
Power 3
Design 4
Another one of these romantic love letter nostalgia cards for me. Obviously 13 your old Timmy me fucking loved this big fish. Magic must have a massive unwieldy blue fatty. I'm bad at big cards and this was an early one on top of that. Luckily it was top down and as such it faired rather better than the high mana value cards I designed bottom up. This was a little too narrow, ideally being rather the mono blue card. You want to cast this for 4-6 mana and have deep dive up. That isn't something you can do unless you are mono. The suspend is all a bit slow. Pay 4 do nothing wait 4 turns and hope not to be dead? These are problems but the killer is simply no evasion. This needs trample, or things that perform a similar role in allowing this to threaten properly. Big stats and no evasion appeal to no one. I might get round to a rework but I don't hold out much hope of making a fun and played card that sits in this big blue slot. The card is already a lot wordier than I would like. It'll be a lot easier to include a massive blue fish if I sort out a Reanimate archetype for the format. Whether or not that is a good idea can only really be found out by trying it!
The Menagerie (cut)
Power 6
Design 4
Comical how far you can push vanilla stats on tokens, especially with added time delay. This is an incredible rate, and it is in a cube of relatively low power, akin to an unpowered cube in the 2015 era, and yet it still underperformed. That makes me like the card for some odd reason and I do quite like the elegance of it, but it is not an exciting card and it commands too much logistically to be worth it.
The Naturalist (banned)
Power 8
Design 3
Turns out this was pretty rubbish as a companion, it ruled out too many dorks, but it was great just in the 40. This could get wildly out of hand fast. Even the trample was just good, the bloodthirst could quickly snowball. The companion prerequisite however was another of those feel bad ones that forced you into not playing a load of your good cards. It had a flavour aspect to it but no mechanical one that ties in. This just isn't a card I wanted kicking around. I wanted an energy companion within Temur colours as well once I realized the companions should somewhat be archetype signposts if they cannot be fun archetypes in their own right. This being the vacant Temur pairing thus became where I would try and design an energy companion.
The Plunder of Zimzam (reworking)
Power 9
Design 3
Oops, really rather a bit good. Dragon is good. Pyroclasm their stuff is pretty good. A pile of treasure, also good. This is just the whole package, a threat, tempo, disruption, value. I am working on toning this down, less treasure, symmetrical damage etc. I am not working very hard though as red has plenty of good five drops and dragons and the format has plenty of sagas. This is card very much not needed. When generically good stuff is over powered it is very parasitic in terms of diversity and interest. This card is just taking a slot of a more purposeful card. This is the kind of thing to just sit there in a slot and never get moved in and out, where as a healthy format should have most slots in archetypes as variable not lock ins.
The Purge (cut)
Power 8
Design 4
These kinds of cards are regarded as one of my specialty, and not in a good way. Just a generically good saga that dumps loads of different flavours of tokens into play. While this is certainly not the most egregious of those as it actually does clear things up and only adds one new token to the game in each of your turns. Still, not a thing to be over done and this was not the most gripping of cards. A casual three for one with piles of utility and tempo. Somewhat flavourful but if anything a little dark. Well named at least given the original artwork. I was going to use this set of cards as a teaching aid for young people and this is one of a selection of cards that would be best not included in that...
The Pyramids
Power 9
Design 6
The Revered Goat Mother
Power 8
Design 5
As standard, a slightly pushed planeswalker that slightly over performs! This should probably just have -1 starting loyalty so that when the Infest mode is useful you don't also have a planeswalker on the back of it to really steal the game. It doesn't happen loads but it isn't amusing when it does. Beyond that I like the clean and purist planeswalker form this takes. I also like the internal synergies and tensions. Life gain on the dorks to repay life spend on cards, and then said dorks die to the Infest mode. If it were not for the card being a little over tuned I would have given this at least a 7/10 on the design front. It is just a really classic feeling planeswalker.
The Thing
Power 7
Design 8
Big fan of this one. I love the way that this all works together. It is a really sturdy dork that is hard to answer but really easy to contain. As it shrinks then costs mana to bring back up this card just feels a bit like a a battle all by itself. It took a little jiggling to find the point on the curve best suited to a card like this and then to get the numbers right for it.
The Torch of Defiance (retuning)
Power 9
Design 5
If this were more reasonably powered I would love to ship this a more respectable design ranking but the truth of it is that this card is too much. At four mana it would be too mediocre and I don't have too much wiggle room to fine tune the card without quickly losing the relevant flavour. I am going to at least try it at 1RR so as to make it that touch more exclusive but I fear it is still going to be pretty wild. This card just puts you so far ahead, it kills a really substantial thing, gives you a big burst in mana for a nice follow up turn and then does its best to ensure you get a two for one. It is the mana boost that is most oppressive. This is effectively a one mana card but it also allows you to have six mana on turn four which is even ruder than getting a cantrip Flame Slash! So yeah, probably need to think about ultimately banning this one.
The Valley of Death
Power 9
Design 6
The Weave (retuning)
Power 8
Design 4
Similarly to the Torch of Defiance, the saga cards that return mana at a later stage are pretty impressive. Those big safe turns are really swingy. This card is worth playing even if the energy is doing nothing. Just banking that mana at no card cost is a big deal for most decks. Much as it rarely seems as if this was the reason you won a game I suspect it was often the first domino in a cascade of things that resulted in you winning. I am knocking the mana return down to a single blue and I suspect this will still get played most of the time, including decks with minimal energy cards.
The Wind
Power 6
Design 6
Not entirely sure how I feel about this one yet. It seems really dangerous but thus far has performed very reasonably. Not too busted but absolutely reasonable enough to find itself in a variety of blue builds. Just that sort of time buying reset vibe that blue often needs to deal with big dorks or many dorks. I think it is actually the stats that put me off this card, the wind just feels like it shouldn't be a 1/4 but I have no better idea of what to make it. It is a rubbish threat as a 1/4 which is happy enough, that is where I want the card.
There and Back Again (cut)
Power 6
Design 6
Cute and flavourful but overtly a LotR card and as such a little jarring relative to the rest of the set somehow. Also, sufficiently gold without sufficient interest or power to be cut. While this is clean and elegant and appropriate it is boring and not required. You do need some boring cards in your sets, but you want them all to be required.
Thopter Technician
Power 6
Design 7
A Monastery Mentor style card that is less polar and better suited to the colour and its archetypes. This card is used a lot, it generates value in tempo, midrange and control builds helping to stabilize the board, control walkers and ultimately act as a threat. In decks with artifact synergies it goes above and beyond providing a continual supply of useful little artifacts to key off with. This is a perfect cube card that helps bridge the gaps between arcehtypes and keep things interesting all the way to the drafting process. It should probably be a 2/2 but that feels a bit close to Mentor's design space.
Thieving Bastards (retuning)
Power 6
Design 6
All is well with this little blue dude excepting one thing - saga cards. You can hold a saga pinging between two modes near indefinitely with this. It isn't super problematic with this being so easy to answer but I think I may well up the mana cost to 1U to calm this when it does happen. This guy also resets persist and undying cards. Turns out removing counters can result in bigger value swings than adding them! Much as this is a good utility card it is a bit small and fragile to toss in any old deck. Either you have good synergies with it, or you are a tempo build.
Thor, Thunder God
Power 5
Design 5
Mostly this is just an enchantment you can use as a control tool and ultimately a win condition. You are not turning this into a dork very often nor do you really want to. In dork form this is far easier to answer and despite those big numbers and impressive looking indestructible, this isn't doing impressive work very often in combat. This is a kind of top end prowess and control tool. Prowess however is not top tier in my homemade cube and control decks do not commonly use Izzet colours resulting in this seeing less play than I was expecting. Being a gold four drop that does nothing by itself is always a danger.... This card is always going to be one of those fringe on the edge cards but I fear it is rather too far already and should be falling out of rotation if we are being honest with ourselves.
Thought Atlas
Power 5
Design 5
A looter with utility and some late game insurance baked in. This provides a lot of card quality and some supporting tools combine with near endless late game. I am shocked this doesn't get more action than it does. Seems wild that this isn't an auto include in most decks. I originally had this enter untapped and exerting to loot and it didnt see any play which was reasonable. This buffed version seems like it should be good and so it must be other favours in the meta affecting the relative value of looting rather than the balancing of this card. It could be that access to raw draw is greater and more affordable. Or that graveyard payoff is less exciting. It could be that burning through card resources can be dangerous in the set. Likely a mix of all those elements. It is just odd as this never got love, and that it took a while to figure out those facets of the format, it is like we were subconsciously aware of the issues and steered clear of the loot cards automatically.
Thought-Knot Rats
Power 7
Design 6
Duress on a 0/1 Rat, my creativity knows no bounds! The lack of power on this Rat is quite important, it would be all too relevant if it could output damage as well as Duress. This is a lot more dangerous than a spell despite being twice the cost simply because it is so much easier to recur and reuse dorks than it is spells. You can all but lock out control players with a card like this. As far as discard goes this plays pretty well. It is never fully dead and rarely effectively dead either. It gets a reasonable amount of play without being too oppressive. It is generally less polar than most discard too. This is a cube friendly hand disruption spell and those are real hard to come by, certainly the cheaper ones.
Thraben Cartographer
Power 6
Design 6
I can't take too much design credit here, this is midpoint between Thraben Inspector and Spyglass Siren. Inspector is one of my favourite cards and so I wanted to ensure I had that sort of thing kicking about. I think this guy might even be better than Inspector in my cube. A map is simply more utility and tempo than a clue. Not saying it is more powerful but it is better suited to a small white dork. When digging for the things you need it is cheaper, and often affords a rather more relevant board after the fact. I frequently end games, both won and lost, with a pile of clues. I can't think of a game that ended where I had a map in play. To be fair, I have generated significantly more clues than maps in my time but still.
Thraben Palisade (cut)
Power 4
Design 5
Wall of Omens rejigged. This is notably worse than Wall. That extra turn of blocking thanks to the lower upfront cost does not make up for the significant delay in when you can get your card back. This fails to work nicely with flicker effects either. Low impact or quality cantrips appeal a lot less in this format than most other cubes and the tempo is not so great that you want walls in your slower decks. I'll happily pay a little more for a little more on a value dork in this format and that all edges this out of contention. Absolutely there are formats where a card like this would be amazing, but in the homemade cube as it is we are a fair way off that.
Thragtusk Grazer
Power 7
Design 5
Versatile little card inspired by Ravenous Baloth. The framework of four drop four powered dork you can cash in for life but with a pile of added extra utility. It is nice to have access to things like Naturalize in cube and limited formats, but is really hard to find in forms you can readily play main deck. The Naturalize is just insurance, the rate isn't good but it is healthy having it smatttered about the place. If anything it makes me want to have the card cost at 3G so more access is granted to it! The regenerate is the interesting mode. It makes this quite a good tool to extend into many forms of mass removal while also just being tedious disruptive effect you have that your opponents have to account for. It is not that often you will want to sac off a 4 drop dude to regenerate another, usually the four drop is going to be the best dork dying. Even so, powerful ability not to be sniffed at. Overall a card that gets thrown into a lot of places for being so rounded. Being so effective against mass removal and removal in general is always welcome, especially on the higher cost dorks.
Thran Artifice
Power 7.5
Design 9
One of my absolute favourites. The art and original Mana Vault is one of my all time favourites and nostalgia pieces. One of those early hooks that got me into the game. I was super happy to be able to represent this card within the set and really happy with how the representation panned out. This is a kind of Urza's Saga style card. The initial version made two clues and it was way too good. The single clue keeps this fair enough to not make it into every deck but it is still pretty strong. You do not need many other things to use powerstones on before this is quite an impressive return. All by itself this is 3 mana for a 3/3 and a card with some delay. Not shocking, and super easy to scale up. I think I need more Gorilla Shaman style cards in the format that can gobble up those powerstones!
Thran Historian
Power 6
Design 7
Another one of my very favourite cards. Turns out I just really love a powerstone and this is one of my favourite ways to make them. Some cute utility dork that has an activation cost and comes with the stones to pay for them. This guy even makes more powerstones with the mana you generate with him so you can go full circle with the thumb twiddling. Powerstone heaven! In some ways this is a very over priced mana dork, in others it is a work of art and a bomb!
Thran Lotus (cut)
Power 3
Design 4
Turns out I might have used Thran as code for a design style. This is one of those experimental cards that I never had any real intention of having in the cube but wanted to make to see the ways in which it could be used and have it as potential for constructed events. Obviously at some point I'll make something that combos with this overly effectively and then there is a 99% chance of this just being a banned card, with a 1% chance of it returning to the cube for being such a cool interaction.
Thran Mox (cut)
Power 4
Design 7
Mox are the ultimate design challenge. They are iconic and incredibly hard to make reasonable. Likely impossible to do so across multiple formats. Essentially it is only a matter of time before a Mox is broken. This one certainly isn't in my cube but there are still decks you would play it in. Not enough of those, and not exactly busted when it is viable, but I at least passed the challenge of making a playable Mox that isn't broken! Much like the Lotus, this was never really expected to last, just used to probe. Unlike Thran Lotus this is a reasonable card with a reasonable chance of contributing to a game in a good way. For now it is a bit narrow to be worth running but it isn't going to take much in terms of increased ways to use the mana and higher tempo for this to start being desirable.
Three Cup Trick
Power 4
Design 8
Quite a low power card selection tool but one I am a big fan of. This has some Gifts Ungiven vibes to it. It is Sleight of Hand, it is Consider. Sort of... This lets you play some mind games with the opponent in a little mini game. It then gives you some card selection and helps to fill up the bin. Really this is only playable in a deck with strong graveyard synergies as you want to force the opponent to put back the graveyard based card rather than the "best" card whatever that may be. I designed this long ago when it would have been powerful enough to make the cube. With not quite enough potent graveyard stuff to push it this could do with a boost. I am not sure instant is enough but it is going to be hard to buff it much beyond that without making it a rather wordy and clumsy card. Dare we step into the realm of Gitaxian Probe and let it be Phyrexian mana to cast? Sounds pretty wild! But it does help keep that text box clean. I guess it could be put on the back of a land MDFC style but that is also a bit extreme. Mostly I think I'll focus on making the graveyard synergies more impressive.
Threshold Horror
Power 5?
Design 6?
This is an attempt to mashup Tarmogoyf and Death's Shadow. Shadow is one of my favourite cards, and indeed archetypes. I thought I would dip a toe into trying to recreate some of that fun in a cube viable way. Absolutely an experiment card that as yet has not done all that much. That might imply it is too low power to tempt people but I suspect more it is lack of knowing how and where to use this. Given a little time I think this will start to see a bit of play. It can get very large! Thankfully no evasion means it is going to be somewhat contained. I threw the cycling on just to avoid it having that dead card fail feel. It is the kind of crutch I will happily remove should the card establish itself in a role. A bit of cube insurance! I kindof whish I had made it 2 or 3 life to cycle instead, would have been cooler and more interesting. Might find a way to key into a life matters mini theme. Really this is just an experiment in process and beyond that it is pretty hard to make any claims about it beyond the hopes and intentions.
Thrill Giant (retuning)
Power 8
Design 5
This is a little too rounded and is winding up getting play everywhere. I wanted more tools to handle token splurges and I wanted more Shatter effects. The card is basically never dead and always does something useful and well that is awkward to otherwise squeeze into a list. Really I think the main fix for this card, as has been the case with other overly playable modal tools, is to up the colour intensity. It is not the raw power here I mind, simply that this card is getting played all the time. A 2RR cost would do a good deal to calm that down. Still a great card for a red player but not a splash option. Cards that keep people honest in cube are useful and this is one such card. It is a bit of a Chain Whirler in that if you play into it and they have it, you probably lost. I don't want too many cards you need to be aware of in the format but I think generally being aware of over extending with one toughness dorks is a pretty reasonable practice. As such I like how this is just a generic "keep you honest" tool and not the type one must burn onto the backs of our retina like Settle the Wreckage!
Thundercloud (cut)
Power 5
Design 4
This is a design to order card. Blue has lots of fliers at this stat line and mana value throughout the years. I was lacking blue dorks and blue cards in the mid mana range and so I set to making a card that was a vanilla playable representation of such things. The resulting card feels like some super generic amalgamation. Like an AI knockoff three drop so generic is manages to stand out. The card is very boring but it is also fine. It is quite a good planeswalker control tool but not a great threat. There is too little value to be had here for the midrange decks to get too excited. As a threat it is too small to be relied on heavily and so is really only a card you would play in a tempo list, for which no heavy blue one arose and none as yet seem top tier. I may return this card as a placeholder for this kind of thing should archetypal demand arise but it is not being missed much while it sits on the sidelines. I would certainly rather have a good and interesting card in this slot like Vendillion Clique or Brazen Borrower!
Thunderhog
Power 5
Design 4
This is what I think of when I think of what a Gruul card looks like. It is fat and direct. Some angry beasty coming at you hard without any frills or silliness. This is a potent card but it is pretty dull. It is the kind of thing you want in a red green beats deck but people do not gravitate towards those as they tend to lack agency and can be too little of an experience. As such I am in two minds on this one, cut it because it is a little too narrow and dull, or keep it because it is so on point? It certainly gets play, about the right amount. Ultimately cards like this wind up being placeholders till something better comes along.
Tidal Flats (cut)
Power 6
Design 1
Tidespout Djinn (cut)
Power 4
Design 4
As with most of this cycle, it is not an easy balance. The card is just a bit expensive for how it plays out. Either you have a fat but fairly useless card, or you have a slow outlay of utility, which is rarely enough swing to make it worth it. Either you want a card like Upheaval or Cyclonic Rift that clears, or you want a more Aetherling card that will end the game. Sometimes you want something in between but when you do it wants to have a reasonable body that will put in the work on top of the ability to do some bouncing right away. Really this needs to be more of a five drop (probably smaller and/or restricted more in the bounce), or it needs flying. I was being too rigid with the cycle and tried to say consistent and as clean as possible but in doing so I have hurt the functionality of the cards.
Time Helix (cut)
Power 9
Design 3
Oops, this needed to be 8 mana. Way too playable. Island early with game winning power late at an attainable price. This just always felt like such a free win. There is no cost to playing it and so when it was bad it was fine, and that is unacceptable for a card that has a game winning ceiling as often as this can. In most other cubes the tempo is enough that a seven drop is a bit too much of an ask but mine is sufficiently slow that this is a problem card. While 8 might "fix" it as far as the numbers go, I probably just shouldn't, it still won't ever feel all that good. While Time Walk effects are flavourful for magic they are not actually at all good mechanically and should most probably be hidden in planeswalker ultimates and the like rather than be made more playable, if included at all.
Titania's Warpath (retuning)
Power 8
Design 6
A popular card but largely due to it being rather pushed. This has been reworked to cost double green and only affect non-token dorks in the second step. It was just too easy to convert this into wild amounts of value. The card has a nice green feel and flow to it, it is very rewarding to play and has that delightful ability to scale it up. It also gets away with the power a bit more by being green and by not messing with opponents too hard. A rare example of a card that does seem worth the effort to tune properly and to hold a covoted saga slot.
To Battle!
Power 5
Design 6
The soundbite from the paladin soldiers in Hearthstone is haunting, this card is made in their image. Shockingly this card isn't all that. It is a bit slow acting and hard to leverage into a win. It seems great, gets played a lot, and just never seems to make a difference. When it wins almost any two mana dork would have been better. It tends to just gum up and slow down games. It looks like it should be at least a 6 on power level and I just can't give it that based on a significant sample size of its performance. I love the card, I think it is super clean and totally on point for white. It just feels like a real magic card, a card that should already be. But yeah, it is substantially less good than Bitterblossom, and in a lower powered setting!
Torrential Archmage
Power 5
Design 4
Big Snapcaster Mage. Worse too for a variety of reasons. Indeed this is only better when you are hitting exactly a three mana spell and then all you are getting out of it is a toughness and perhaps a bit of mana fixing. On one and two mana spells this is not all that impressive of a rate. It also lacks the flexibiltiy to be deployed cheaply. All in all this is a fairly mediocre card but it is pretty blue and well suited to cube play. A two for one with good utility. I could buff this in one way or another but it would have to be pretty minor. It doesn't feel all that necessary with this already getting enough play and not exactly having a play pattern that is super exciting. This actually feels like more of an uncommon card than it feels a rare. Really what is going on here is that I have tried to make a version of a card that is already pretty perfect in design and as such my offering just feels substandard, despite being fine.
Town Centre (cut)
Power 5
Design 5
By far and away the most played of my various utility lands and the last to be cut by a long way. It is direct and solves an issue white somewhat has in ability to draw cards. You can easily find this so that it is a reliable tool to ensure you never run out of gas. The issue is that it is still five mana total to draw a card plus the land coming in tapped to begin with. This is all a very slow process and lacks power sufficiently that you are probably just already dead. Mostly you don't use it and it is slightly inconvenient. Sometimes you do use it and you die more slowly. This might be viable for some constructed control deck but in limited cube this is not the sort of tool you want to populate the meta with.
Town Sherriff (cut)
Power 4
Design 3
I had a couple of goes at making white Fiend Hunter style cards that I felt fixed some of their fundamental issues. While I might have achieved that with this card I certainly failed in many other design aspects and added a whole load of new issues. This is just a mess, too many tokens, too finickity. A big problem with this card is that you often want to use this sort of thing to generate tempo more than you want specifically the removal. As such, giving away Treasure is all very dodgy, you need to be taking out pretty big things to ensure the Treasure concession isn't going to bite back too hard. And what is the point of ostensibly a 3 mana sorcery speed removal spell you can't even use early or on cheap things.
Tracker Class (cut)
Power 8
Design 5
This was popular but I suspect mostly due to how much card it is. This offers a lot with the first mode just being an efficient scalable tempo play that really lends itself to the Selesnya game plan. Level two is ongoing value which everyone loves and that pairs perfectly with a tempo first act. The final mode would hasten up the win by finding your most appropriate finisher, or perhaps an answer to the situation at hand. You didn't see the third mode that often because the first couple carry so much weight themselves. All in all this is way too much card without any real downside. There is some reasonable flavour here and it is popular so trying to keep it seems like a goof plan. The issue is that any rejigging I do to it is going to sully the card and make it worse in power level. Odds on that is a feel bad situation and will stop people playing it. A downgrade to where this needs to be feels like a snub most players will not accept. At least not quickly.
Train of Thought
Power 7
Design 5
We looked real hard and we found the design space between Serum Visions and Preordain. This card is good, real good. It is sometimes even better than Preordain. The card you immediately draw is going to be of slightly lower quality than Preordain but only slightly, while it will be a chunk better than Serum Visions. The real key is that the next card is also good too. This is the most consistent overall as it has the highest chance of both the scry being put to maximum use. All really minor, all these cards are good! This is just solid clean card quality. People know where they are with this and so it gets a good amount of play. Being decently powerful helps with that too. Regardless of all that, it is not a novel card by any means and so it will be much higher up the chopping line when alternatives arrive. Blue is already well stocked for card quality and I have a couple more in the pipe lines, as well as some fixed and retuned stuff returning. all of which doesn't look great for this little performer.
Tresserhorn Reaver (banned)
Power 7
Design 3
Too polar, too pushed, and wildly inelegant. As previously mentioned, this is not how you solve problems. Shame, I really like the art on this one, I feel like it is an aesthetic win despite being such a mechanical flop.
Trevorchahnezzar (retuning)
Power 6
Design 6
One of the few walkers actually in line to get a buff. Or at least a tweak. Probably we are going to start at 4 loyalty so as to unlock Demonic Tutor mode from the get go. Then I'll chip away and make the blood just a +1. This dude is not all that because he struggles to generate value while he also struggles to impact the board and protect himself. Certainly if he comes down, kills of a relevant X/1 then sticks around long enough to fish out a bomb then he has been worth it. Mostly he comes down, does some ineffective looting and then you or he get killed. Much as this is a low key walker it is very much still one that is doing things you are almost always going to want or put to some use within a game. Just because he is low impact does not make him bad. Serum Visions is low impact. They still need to kill this and he will still do useful stuff in the mean time.
As an aside, this is the only walker I made who does not have a real life person corresponding to the card. Finding suitable art for walkers is a little tougher due to the way they are framed and typically posed. I love this pic and felt it worked well. Brain fixated on this as a name and it was fun to say and had reference value so stuck. I don't have have any friends called Trevor. If I make any they can retroactively claim this card.
Trial of the Dead (cut)
Power 8
Design 6
Sadly this doesn't play too well, it is all a little brutal and oppressive. It can be unreasonably swingy too. I like the way this looks and quite like the play pattern and feel of it. It just works out as being better than Wrath in a lot of settings. It is punchy enough to do what you need a Wrath to do against the decks where that is important. Against slower decks this will mop up after something that splurged out a load of tokens and get a few bargain hits as well but then it will give you some chumps and stop them making anything else too good for fear of getting it caught in an Edict. I am not sure this is playable if I tune it down too much as the card is pretty indirect. It is most likely one of those cards that is sufficiently dodgy from a concept point of view that it jumps from bomb to unplayable as you adjust the power level without ever passing a sweet spot.
Triangulate
Power 8
Design 6
I made a lot of iterations of Lay of the Land. It is a core green effect that is nice and fair and leads to greater game consistency. What I really like about it is that Lat of the Land is quite significantly underpowered and can have a heaped helping of extra juice slapped on. I actually made this card along with the first set of cards but never took it to print as I had more than enough Lay of the Land effects already. I was mildly concerned this would be too powerful but having seen the other well pushed cards of this nature all performing entirely fairly, and finding the replicate one to be a little too narrow, it was time to wheel this out. The various card advantage two drops I had made were some of the best and most enjoyed cards and this was a pretty free extra to those. In play this is good but not insane. It sorts you out for curve and colour making it about the best thing you can have in a screw. It doesn't feel like it does too much beyond that. The deck thinning is sometimes more dangerous than beneficial. Often this is unable to get the full three lands as you have run out, or perhaps your hand is simply full enough that you will be discarding. I have no idea why I saw fit to make this instant, should pretty obviously be a sorcery but being green it isn't actually making all that much difference. It makes this a pretty impressive control card if you ever happen to find yourself in a control deck containing green and with sufficient basics. This card, even if made sorcery, would be too good for most other formats, the homemade cube just about gets away with it due to how all the various scales are balanced. High powered so tempo cost is relevant. Low deck size so high basic count needed, and potential decking risks. Loads of card draw and mana consistency cards throughout the format being the main thing keeping this from being broken. You just don't need what it is doing, likely a lot of that is baked into what you are already doing. This is often then overkill. Regardless, still a very strong, very playable card.
T-Rex (reworking)
Power 5
Design 5
Despite having the appearance of ticking all the correct threat boxes this doesn't quite get it done. The problem is that the body just isn't very threatening, it is super easy to kill, both in combat, and with removal. It isn't big enough relative to the cost to make the trample work for it. It is just going to die to some tokens. That would be OK if it had more impact but the damage outlay isn't enough. This should perhaps have a couple more power so that trample can spill over, or I could pump the enrage up to two damage and make this a really scary card you have to tiptoe around. A card that would become worth pinging yourself. Sounds dangerous but also interesting and fun, which are certainly two things it presently struggles with.
Tsunami
Power 6
Design 6
I was super wary of giving such a significant effect cycling. The thing is, this is what blue needs and so a playable version seems reasonable. This is card disadvantage as it is! And as far as Wraths go it is fairly laughable being 50% more costly and failing to actually kill anything. Regardless, this has been fine. It is a bit slow and tedious but it is reasonable and fair. Sorcery very much keeps it that way, even at 8 mana this might still be real tedious as an instant. It feels as if it is played more as a way to cope with non-creature stuff more than anything else. Like, if you want to answer dorks there are better tools in most other colours to help. It is when you are trying to control things but are just going to lose to the 6 powerstones, 8 clues and 12 food they somehow have... Not to mention the many non-token artifacts, enchants, and indeed planeswalkers all populating the board. Either this is a bad Wrath in mono blue and Simic, or it is a pretty passable Oblivion Stone.
Tum-Haal the Necromancer
Power 8
Design 7
A very powerful planeswalker, modelled on escaping Elspeth. I really like the notion of the shrink modes only recurring planeswalker. This guy packs a little more punch than Elspeth however. Both do tokens, sure, that helps build the board and protect the walker. Useful staple of walkers but rarely the mode that is getting anyone excited. This guy has an Extinction Event style affair for -4, which should quite possibly be -5. It is pretty devastating, so much so that you really try and avoid stacking up mana values if you know you are facing it. If you ever have this come down and hit two or more of your non-token dorks it is just devastating. While it feels crushing at the time the inability for this walker to close out a game meaningfully by himself nor grow so as to secure his position and control means you are still in the game. That just about keeps him reasonable. The -1 is the glue holding this all together. It is a bit swingy, the average life is around where I want it but if you ever get four or six it feels like an joke. Reasonably it should just be the 1 life per creature but it starts to feel somewhat less relevant then. What I like most about it is the ability it has to self fuel. Somehow there is something real necromancer feeling about burning through your library as a way to generate resources. This one ability not only supports himself but works very well with a fair number of other cards and allows this guy to be quite the synergy piece. A card you can find with mill that can then mill more. The extent to which he supports novel synergies and builds is a big part of my reluctance to tone him down. He is good but he doesn't dominate in quite the same way other snowbally walkers do and for that reason alone he plays and feels loads better.
Two-Headed Giant
Power 6
Design 6
Red has always been the most direct colour and as such simple red things have a habit of being a lot more playable and/or effective than simplicity elsewhere. This guy is quite a serious threat. He is awkward to stop, trades up pretty effectively, and has an impressive clock on him. You wouldn't consider playing a card like this without the cycling but given the high nominal power, the suitability to task, and the importance of consistency, this dude puts in a good shift. Doubly impressive what with red having some of the best five drops in the format. This is effectively a card quality spell. It smooths curves and draws and general consistency. Adding quite a lot of punch when you do play it makes up quite well for the lack of punch it is providing when cycled.
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