M14 Set Review for Cube

The early bird version of the set review without pictures, hopefully to follow soon but I seem to have forgotten to do it for the last set...




Ajani's Chosen 0.1 (C cube)

Only ever likely to get a slot in the agro enchantress style decks, which are clumsy at best, and this is fairly expensive for such a deck. There are not enough enchantments to make this playable outside a dedicated deck and within a dedicated deck this is top end and unlikely to offer any return synergy like a Sigil of the Empty Throne offers.



Angelic Accord 0.3 (C cube)

Quite cute with Pule of the Fields and Wall of Reverance (I assume the latter works out) however a card that in reality needs too much support. I like enchantments as win conditions and I like ones that can have impact on the turn you make them but not enough top rate cards give you four life and certainly none of them are cheap enough (Goldenglow Moth?!?) to be firing this off as quick as is needed for cube viability.



Archangel of Thune 0.9 (B cube)

I want to write this off as rubbish but the memory of how badly wrong about Sublime Archangel I was is making me tread with more caution. As a control card this is not as effective as many fairly similar dorks such as Baneslayer Angel or Restoration Angel. Costing five however makes it rather top heavy for an agro deck and leaves this card squarely in the midrange category. It has less immediate impact than Sublime and less board presence than Baneslayer which will always be far preferable to either agro or control respectively. While not many midrange decks have established themselves into the cube meta yet it is a style of deck that is rapidly becoming more potent in my cube. Should you reliably expect to get to five mana by around turn five and also expect to have a selection of dorks in play most of the time which you are probably using to win with then your deck is midrange and may well prefer the Archangel of Thune to any other flavour of angel. If you can gain life the turn you make it she is particularly naughty and should very quickly give you a huge board advantage. Unlike the Baneslayer or Sublime in such a deck she is not so contained and will tend to yield you some advantage after they have killed it which is exactly what a midrange deck wants from its dorks. The fact she is a pretty serious threat that gets terrifying quite quickly is still the reason you play her but the added value for your dorks pushes her over the top for midrange archetypes. She is also utterly unfair with a Kitchen Finks and should you go to the lengths of throwing in a sacrifice outlet she will give grow as big as you want, along with your life total. If midrange continues to perform well in the cube this is exactly the kind of card that will shine however my gut is to sling this into the B cube for being expensive, narrow and clumsy, time and testing need to be applied here.



Banisher Priest 0.7 (B cube)

Fiend Hunter was really underwhelming in cube play as tempo decks didn't have much use for a 1/3 they had to be precious about losing and control decks didn't want unreliable expensive sorcery removal effects. The same will apply to control decks for the 2/2 version however agro decks may well be a bit more interested as two power makes it far less insignificant when attacking. Agro decks also have things like Mother of Runes to help protect it and make the lower toughness less concerning for those builds. It is also offers slightly less utility than Fiend Hunter which can exile your own docks so as to protect you against mass removal while this can only target opponents stuff. It fits better into the role it would play in the cube but is still rather unexciting, too many dorks have comes into play effects that will re-trigger should you lose this making it risky as well as unreliable removal. White is also less devoid of 3 drop tempo cards than it was when I excitedly added Fiend Hunter and so ultimately I think this will reside in the B cube.



Bonescythe Slither 0.2

Worth putting aside for that tribal Slivers deck as it is really rather pokey should you have made sufficient Muscle Sliver equivalents prior to casting it. Sadly as with all Slivers so far the only real home for them is the narrow tribal build.



Celestial Flare 1.2

I am presently running Wingshards in my cube as non-targetted sacrifice effects are highly effective solutions to a large number of the most awkward fatties and threats in the cube. Wingshards is especially brutal given the high number of haste monsters floating around the agro lists which this does not help against however it costs significantly less. Infact it costs exactly what it takes to turn poor removal into playable removal, consider Dark Banishing and Doom Blade or Putrify and Abrupt Decay or Arc Lighting and Arc Trail. My main concern for this card is the double white in the cost making it slightly more awkward to cast or even just represent while also representing counter magic. The trade off for it not having storm but costing one less seems entirely fair and reasonable. You also then get the added perk of being able to take out blockers which isn't great tempo as removal goes but will at least allow you to pressure when you do have an advantage. I cannot see the cube supporting both this and Wingshards but I would not be at all surprised if Flare did win out after some testing by virtue of cost and broader application.



Devout Invocation - no slot

No clue what was being considered when this pile of poo was made. Why seven mana? Why do we need to tap the men? Why so bad?



Fiendslayer Paladin 0.6 (C cube)

I vastly prefer this to any of the other protection knights white has in abundance. Paladin en-Vec is likely the much better card but you would only ever play it as a way to hose colours which is neither very fun or very skillful. This Paladin is more playable against a random matchup and will still be extra good against black and red mages without being quite such a dull and unfair hoser. Most of the time however Knights of Meddowgrain are just going to be the preferable choice despite their lame creature type. Essentially I like this card as it is more fun, fair and balanced than the alternatives such as en-Vec but not becuase it is more powerful and so I can't really justify ever giving it a slot.



Hive Stirrings 0.2 (C cube)

Good in tribal slivers but probably not enough. Bad in everything else.



Imposing Sovereign 2.3

This is most akin to Thalia, Guardian of Threben and will occupy much the same kind of slot within certain agro white decks. It is an especially weak body being fairly unexciting in combat and vulnerable even compared to Thalia however its effect is presently a lot more powerful in cube than Thalia's as well as not affecting your stuff. Creatures are the most commonly played card type in the cube after land and for two mana having all their unable to attack or block from the get go while advancing your own board position is huge. Many red and green agro decks are packed full of haste monsters which this really rather ruins. Control will be on the back foot to it if trying to make use of speed bump style dorks such as Sea Gate Oracle against it too. Being a human is nice but lacking a second type will make it slightly less popular in some of the other less common white tribal themes such as Soldiers or Knights. Not an exciting card but a fairly effective one that should give a reasonable boost to most agro white decks against the vast majority of the field.



Master of Diversion 0.1 (C cube)

A number of years ago this would have made the cut, it is actually a fairly good tempo card and gives white weenie a bit more reach. It is now sadly a bit too small or lacking in other perks to compete with things like Battlefield Medic, who is not all that hot himself.



Path of Bravery 1.1

Hmm, a situational Glorious Anthem with a built in life gain trigger. Usually in the sorts of deck where your life will be noticeably lower than your starting total having a life gain effect is going to be more valuable than the global pump. In any match where life will be close to your starting total this should immediately bring you back up to the threshold and be of use for your dorks. It can make you vulnerable to being burned to the face and having all your dorks shrunk at instant speed and might periodically run the risk of being a real waste of space however you run that risk with Honour the Pure and Crusade as well even if to a lesser extent. Normally I would be more wary of a card so dependant on the game state and so easy to turn into complete garbage however the design is rather elegant for this card and its effects work together as well as with its natural home of white based agro decks. It has a little more scope than Crusade etc as it will pump all your dorks, not just the white, and so may well be best suited to BW tokens style of deck. The lifegain aspect on an effect you want anyway will encourage the use of interesting cards like Ajani's Pridemate although we are not quite there yet. Overall I am tentatively going to put this in the A cube but would not be surprised if it turned out to be way too unreliable and simply worse than Glorious Anthem.



Seraph of the Sword 0.4 (C cube)

While this is perfectly playable in a cube format it is not exciting. It will be really tedious for some decks and just a somewhat overcost flier to others. Fliers and dorks are hardly ever bad so the card would work out fine but at four mana you really want to be looking at planeswalkers not fancy hill giants. I just don't see this card doing enough, as an agro card it is costly with limp aggressive stats and abilities while for control it just doesn't achieve enough reliably for a four mana card.



Soulmender 0.5 (C cube)

This is just too cheap and convenient not to see play at some point. Soul Warden is probably better in most situations but they are different enough that you can't rule out the Mender. Ajani's Pridemate is not enough but is the sort of card that will make the little Soulmender viable in certain strategies. Likely to crop up with Martyr of Sands and Serra Ascendant but more so in modern than in cube where singleton makes it less worth the effort of including those synergies.


Steelform Sliver 0.1 (C cube)

This is perhaps fine as filler for the tribal slivers deck if it ends up white however it is pretty awful and not the desired level of power for a cube deck. While it might seem the most appropriate card for some list at some point all that probably means is that a tribal slivers deck isn't good enough yet to be competitive.



Colossal Whale - no slot

Blue is out of ways to directly kill things with the new legend rules stopping clone cards ruining all our fun. The Whale sadly isn't going to be getting it done in their place, at seven mana and needing an attack to get to work while only being a poxy vanilla 5/5 and combined with returning all things eaten once gone the Whale is underpowered, vulnerable and very slow.



Dismiss into Dream - no slot

Apparently seven mana is the new cost for blue to be able to kill stuff. As an effect on a dork and for far less mana this would be useful in things like Opposition builds. As a seven mana enchantment this will never be worth it.


Elite Arcanisst - no slot

Look, its the worst Isochron Scepter ever.



Seacoast Drake 1.9

I cannot believe I am giving this such a high rating as it is so very dull. It does not get much duller than Lumengrid Warden and a common keyword ability is not my idea of excitement in a card. We all know that excitement doesn't mean good and dull doesn't mean bad. Some of the most powerful cards ever printed have fewest words on them. So, what is good about a 1U flying 1/3? In isolation, not all that much is the answer otherwise the white version of this card would be in the cube. However it is about the best tempo dork a blue mage can make on turn two. Three toughness is golden, allowing you to block most early agressive dorks and utility critters while surviving a lot of cheaper removal options. Flying is also golden and will help the card scale much better than other cheap stat heavy dorks into the late game. The Drake will offer a lot of added security for and against planeswalkers, even just nibbling them for one per turn keeps most walkers fairly well in check. Most blue dorks that cost two require further mana investments to do things (Voidmage, Snapcaster, Waterfront Bouncer, Lighthouse Chronologist), require specific conditions to be good (Spellstutter Sprite, Phantasmal Image, Augur of Bolas) or simply fail to affect the board much as they are so stat light (Looter il-Kor, Etherium Sculptor). The best comparison is the Lighthouse Chronologist who gives you decent board presence and scales up as the game goes on. The difference is that Chronologist becomes amazing in the very late game but is really nothing special from turns three to the late game while the Drake will still be very pesky throughout the midgame. Seacoast Drake is also far more able to be aggressive than most other blue two drops despite only having a single power. It will be very good in agro blue decks and still pretty good in the more midrange style decks. It will work very nicely with Cloudfin Raptor, Grand Architect and any equipment you care to name. This is the perfect filler card for a selection of blue based decks and should get a healthy amount of play.



Galerider Sliver 0.4 (C cube)

This is one of the few slivers that has some application outside of a pure slivers archetype all be it not very much. A 1/1 flier is not all bad in the right deck and with the odd changeling or even one of the many creature type shifting effects in blue it could be quite fun and powerful. Despite this I think it is too niche to be dragged out of the C cube more than once in a blue moon. One of the best slivers for the tribal deck however costing just one and providing a very useful ability.



Jace's Mindseeker 0.1 (C cube)

I hate cards that rely on what is in your opponents deck to determine their strength. The body is certainly not exciting at six mana and so you have to really want the effect, mill strategies can find far more effective cards and any other strategy for it is just banking on hitting something sweet. Icky card, no thanks.



Glimpse the Future 0.1 (C cube)

Expensive and sorcery for what is only really card quality and not card advantage. As such you are only likely to ever play this in a deck that wants to fill up its yard and then only as terrible redundancy for
Forbidden Alchemy...


Tidebender Mage 1.2 (B cube)

This is right on the boarder line between A and B cube for a few reasons. Firstly the deck that most wants it is a tribal merfolk deck which is itself only supported with B and C cube cards and not possible to do while just drafting from the A cube. Secondly it is rather a swingy card that will be acceptable to run blind in a tempo blue deck but will only really be cube worthy when facing red or green decks and will wind up in sideboards more than anything else. Sideboard cards are not the kind of thing you want to fill up a cube with and so despite its great tempo and ideal cost I feel as if the B cube is its rightful home. With some nice playable ways to change creature colours this would easily get an A cube slot.



Warden of Evos Isle 0.7 (C cube)

This card is big part of a very appealing little flying theme M14 has on the go for blue. It is fully a support card as flying Grey Ogres don't cut it in the cube. With enough flying dorks in an agro blue deck this could be a real help as such strategies stretch your mana very thin. It is all a bit too easy to get excited about cards like this, I am imagining all the good blue fliers in the cube and how good they would be at one less mana, UU Vendilion Clique anyone? Mulldrifters for four? Consecrated Sphinx at five?!? It all sounds rather mental and over powered but then if you sit back and consider the kinds of draws where that will be hugely relevant and it is not all that many, on top of that the Warden is easy to disrupt and so shouldn't be getting all that much play. You will just be better off for the most part having another top quality 3 drop flier instead of trying to make all your other fliers better. Never overlook a card that makes things cheaper however, they always seem to find a home somewhere, I for one will certainly try a few different builds out trying to abuse this fellow.



Windreader Sphinx 0.5 (C cube)

I guess this is a fixed Consecrated Sphinx but it really doesn't excite me much. Seven mana is pretty killer and to be at its best requires some support. You will neither kill people as fast nor obtain as much card advantage as you would from the Consecrated variety but Windreader should still kill people while getting you card advantage. Being so similar in this instance is a disadvantage however as you are not really looking for redundancy in cards like this, simply raw power and aptitude for the task. Powerful enough for cube, perhaps, but still far too second rate to ever be happy about it it.



Bogbrew Witch 0.1 (C cube)

A cynical part of me thinks this is an attempt to make the game of Magic more appealing to the rapidly expanding market of female gamers. If so then my only comment would perhaps be that the marketing departments responsible would benefit from downsizing. Moving on, I first read this card as costing three which would make it very interesting for cube play. At four you get a very unimpressive body complete with a slow and limited card advantage package even if it would work incredibly well with Volrath's Stronghold. You also need to dilute your decks with disjointed and arguably under powered cards so as to make your Witch close to playable. This is certainly the weakest of the three in the set however it does greatly increase the value of the other two and so you would probably have to go the whole hog and play all three if you wanted to play some.



Corpse Hauler 0.1 (C cube)

A sort of handy little filler dork that might have been good enough a while back. Now black has enough filler that this sort of thing shouldn't ever see play.



Dark Prophecy 1.6

This is a very interesting little spell. Life for cards at three mana is how black rolls in the cube and so where does this fit in and how does it compare to the alternatives? It is as restrictively cost as Necropotence however I wouldn't be that desperate to play this outside of mono black that much, perhaps the occasional BG or BW deck would appreciate it but usually you can find more reliable ways to gain card advantage when in more colours. It has two perks over Necro and one big drawback that is the fact you need to trigger it rather than just paying life at will ensuring you need to have your deck well set up to use it at all. The perks are that you need not forgo your actual draw making it a safer card to drop down. You also get to draw cards immediately not wait till the end of turn which is reasonably significant in tempo decks and given that this needs abundant cheap dorks to trigger will almost exclusively see play in tempo decks. Compared to Phyrexian Arena it has only one real advantage and that is that you have the potential to get a lot more cards a lot more quickly which again makes it more suitable for tempo based decks. The conclusion is that Dark Prophecy has the potential to be more effective than Necropotence and Phyrexian Arena however it is vastly more restrictive than either, having only one archetype in which it can excel and forcing that archetype to be built in a certain way. Although nothing alike as a card the limitations imposed by Champion of the Parish are very similar, he only goes into a white weenie deck and when you chose to play him you are forced into building your white weenie deck with a heavy human count. Although I typically don't like adding the very niche cards into the cube Dark Prophecy is both very powerful and rather interesting making me far more inclined. The deck it slots into already contains a large number of great support cards for it such as Bloodghast, Gravecrawler, Carrion Feeder, Death Cloud, Skullclamp and black has many more powerful cards to further supplement should it desire such as Cabal Therapy, Smallpox, Bitterblossom, Braids, Cabal Minion, Recurring Nightmare and the list goes on. When it comes to sacrificing dorks black is the colour to be.


Festering Newt 0.2 (C cube)

While this is generally better than Festering Goblin, not just for the synergy with all the Cauldron and Witch malarkey but also for its inability to target your own guys. It will however probably still never see play on its own. Festering Goblin is only ever played as a filler card and as such its creature types are fairly important. Both being far more useful than salamander or lizard or whatever the Newt is I can't see this doing anything other than humouring people who want to have a go playing at Witches with their Bogbrew.



Gnawing Zombie 1.3

Another card like Sea Drake that is really rather dull and low power but manages to offer a lot of desirable things all in one neat little package. Black, like blue has a narrow selection of two drops most of which have one toughness. Lots cost BB or have drawbacks and very few are zombies. This bad boy is safe, easy to play, strong on the defensive and offers a vast array of synergy from lifegain, to sacrifice outlets, to creature type, even as a finisher with hard to stop damage. Despite not being outstanding on the offensive I suspect lots of agro black decks will still play this card as it will do so much for them overall. Oddly it is the control decks that I suspect will not play this so often but it should still see enough play from just the cheaper mono black decks to warrant an A cube slot, even if not exactly a prestigious one.



Grim Return 0.1 (C cube)

Very hard to abuse on fatties and unlikely to ever see play in a reanimate style deck however it does have some alternate use as a sort of counter to removal that also triggers come into play effects again... All a bit situational for my tastes. It is not even competitively cost when compared against other cube reanimation effects.



Lifebane Zombie 0.7 (B cube)

M14 is padding out black quite nicely with new zombies that are of playable power levels. Black is not in great need of three drops however, zombie or otherwise, especially not one toughness situational hosers. Against white or green decks this is fine but it is really not the sort of card you want to play in your maindeck blind being really quite weak against black and red decks on the whole. It is rather awkward as a late game topdeck as it is rarely going to hit even against a white green mage. Not the worst card but not exciting enough to be pulled out of the B cube and too situational to start out life anywhere else. It is bad etiquette to go looking for hosers from the B and C cube!



Liliana's Reaver 2.2

With black having so few straight up solid dorks this will get a slot no trouble but as black continues to play catchup well with the other colours in terms of depth in quality dorks this could well slip out of the A cube. This is a four mana spell that only has three toughness and requires you to make contact before you get any further value from it. Most of the time this will just be a midrange one for one kind of card. If you just get in one hit however you suddenly have a huge amount of value from the Reaver making it more than worthwhile. Burst mana in black makes the card more interesting, as does the creature type. Even the mana cost is rather pleasing as it can easily be played outside of mono black decks. The deathtouch makes it better in the end game where it will be facing up against fatties resulting in a fairly well rounded dork that should see lots of play despite my prediction that he will infrequently deal combat damage to players. The fact that when he does make contact makes it likely the game is well on its way to over will ensure that people make some highly unfavourable plays to keep it from hitting them. A high power card that is surprisingly free of stipulations and drawbacks for a black card allowing you to comfortably throw it into any old black deck. He probably does fall into the category of dorks that basically say "answer me or lose" such as Master of the Wild Hunt or Baneslayer Angel however to answer him all you need is a three power dork thus making him far far less scary.



Rise of the Dark Realms 0.1 (C cube)

Nine mana, ouch. I'll stick to my Living Death and Patriarch's Bidding thanks, I don't need all your dorks as well to win in the kind of deck that might want this effect.



Shadowborn Demon 1.5

This is a tricky little card that is typically black with its irksome upkeep, unlike the refreshing Reaver. Obviously a five mana 5/6 flier that kills almost any dork in the cube when it comes into play is amazing and alone would be one of blacks top dorks. Not being able to kill Baneslayer Angel is likely more annoying than not being able to kill any demon but not enough to detract from this rather serious card. Sadly however you must assume that when you play this card it will be requiring a tribute of your dorks each of your upkeeps. Six is an awful lot of dorks to have in your bin and will only happen in the very late game unless you have some sort of Survival of the Fittest or dredge style deck. When you start to look at it assuming the upkeep must always be paid it is a completely different style of card much more akin to a Ball Lightning or a Blastoderm. It is quite expensive for that kind of a card but then makes up for it by having a lot of effect on the game. In close long games where he is not in a deck with things like Bloodghast to really power him up he should be taking out their best dork and then allow you to trade creatures for their planeswalkers. Against control decks however trying to take him all the way will probably result in you just costing yourself the game through card disadvantage. I can't actually see this getting much play outside of BG Nightmare/Survival decks or agro black decks. Midrange and control won't have the support to make him better than a Shriekmaw most of the time while agro decks will have the sacrificial chumps to hand and the burst mana to power him out early and really dominate the game. Shriekmaw is more reliable and more versatile in its primary role and although less exciting as a dork it remains much safer and should be the card of choice in the majority of situations over this new Demon. I will try it out in the A cube in respect for its raw power however I anticipate it not getting enough play to remain there.



Syphon Sliver 0.1 (C cube)

Meh, another fine sliver for use only in tribal decks.



Tenacious Dead 0.2 (C cube)

A bit restrictive and costly on the return effect to use as sacrificial body as you need to have the mana up as it dies. Also too low impact and the wrong creature types to be used as synergic filler.



Xathrid Necromancer 1.2

I have always loved a Rotlung Reanimator who has himself seen a reasonable amount of cube play back in the day. The biggest problem with old Rotlung is that clerics were an awkward and uncommon creature type to be filling up on. Humans on the other hand are powerful and abundant within the cube making this newcomer vastly more interesting. Sadly however black has very few humans itself making this a card that will rarely see play in mono black decks. Its casting cost is fine for this but it is a big loss for the mono black archetypes which love to sacrifice things and have new toys like Dark Prophecy to play with. I mostly see this getting play in the various incarnations of BW Pox and BW tokens decks that are strong in cube as white has the most humans to offer. Blue also has a high human count but has far less in the way of synergic or abusable cards to put with the Necromancer and his posse of humans. If black had way more humans or this triggered of non-token zombies then my rating for this card would be into the threes but as it stands it is a little light on homes or support to be worthy or much higher.



Academy Raider 0.3 (C cube)

Argh! Why so harsh on red looting effects? Looter il-Kor this is not being easier to block, 50% more mana and having a much more restricting loot due to the requirement of discarding before drawing. All said and done there are situations where I might want a card not unlike this for my deck which is a little painful. This is a terrible card but after Faithless Looting there is a rather huge gap in power before the next lot of red looting effects of which this is one of the better ones...



Awaken the Ancient 0.2 (C cube)

Haste is a pretty useless ability to give to the mountain as presumably it is not all that hard in any situation to enchant an old mountain rather than a fresh one. Trample instead and this might be good enough just as a very cheap fatty. As it stands it is vulnerable and offers very little value.


Barrage of Expendables 0.1 (C cube)

Strictly worse than Goblin Bombardment and with no real application in combo I don't see Barrage being used as weak redundancy in that area either. A cheap and useful card none the less and so having a copy stashed away won't hurt...



Blur Sliver 0.3 (C cube)

Great for the sliver deck and potentially the sliver-Bidding combo deck, otherwise useless.



Chandra, Pyromaster 3.7

Well this is one of the best walkers we have seen for some time, probably since Liliana of the Veil. It is also a good margin better than any other red walker on offer. For just RR2 instead of R3 for Firebrand you get an extra loyalty, significantly more value from the +1 and a far more widely useful and reusable second ability. The walker that this most reminds me of is Jace, the Mind Sculptor primarily because of the 0 loyalty  card advantage effect. Obviously Brainstorming is vastly more powerful than the Elkin Bottle sytle effect on Pyromaster but then plus loyalty on the protection effect and extra starting loyalty make up for this a bit in other ways. Red also has very little in the way of card draw which this really nicely covers. Ultimates matter very little on most walkers, having two powerful and useful top abilities like Pyromaster is vastly more relevant. All the best walkers all give you a choice as to which of their abilities is most helpful, the weaker ones tend to simply force you to always play the same one first, often over and over again. Certainly the 0 ability is weakest on the turn you make her as you will have 4 mana tied up in having cast Chandra and if curving out will have also made a land already however it is quite easy to set up something useful with library manipulation or careful play. Pyromancers ultimate looks reasonably limp at first look as it is a little unpredictable and sometimes dangerous. It won't work with some of your big hitting spells either as they will be X spells. On the flip side however it is rather cheap to use making it more viable than many of the big ultimates and will do one of two things that are both desirable, the first is a tutoring effect which red otherwise has very limited access to allowing you to find something like a Wildfire you need to seal up the game. It will give you more consistency in having appropriate outs in situations as well as bolstering builds reliant on specific cards. The other good thing the ability will do is, like most good ultimates, win the game. In fact, it should do so often enough quicker than most other ultimates. Presumably you have done them at least three damage in getting your Chandra to seven and by that stage in the game it is altogether fairly likely that a humble Lightning Bolt cast three times is going to end things. Sure, you are not getting what seems like great value out of your seven loyalty when you just cast three one mana spells however that is rather missing the point when it is sufficient to outright take the game. With red having immense redundancy in burn I can see this ultimate being fairly dangerous. The plus one effect is remarkably good compared to the various other attempts on red walkers in the past and for the various things you may want from it it is also impressively effective. You can ping off something little and get back your Phoenix at the same time, you can force through damage past their fatty in the latter game where pining dorks loses its value somewhat and still apply a bit of extra pressure to their dome directly. It is not quite as good defensively but then backed up by five loyalty for only four mana it is still vastly better than anything else red has to offer. The concern I have for this card is where exactly it will fit in. In a control deck it is certainly better than Firebrand but it is still not in the same league as Jace, the Mind Sculptor. With any sort of counter magic you would need additional library manipulation to have the card draw ability be much use. Control decks are also less interested in stopping things from blocking. I am sure it will get some play in control decks but not close to as much as one might expect if one was just looking at the power difference between this and other incarnations of Chanrda. Red agro decks on the other hand tend to end their curves on or by three mana although the abilities would suit red deck wins very well while being more consistent than Koth. Perhaps the raw power of this new red walker will allow for different builds of agro red of which some are happier to go higher on the curve. Red has had less success in forming midrange decks, in which Pyromaster would be perfect, than other colours. Again, perhaps the raw power of this card complete with its card advantage and utility package will allow new builds of midrange red to form. Even if midrange has little success with Pyromancer and red deck wins remains best unchanged there is still much scope for new Chandra as red has plenty of unusual and competitive archetypes ranging for artifact based decks like big red to non-blue control decks all of which could definitely be interested in the saucy new walker.



Dragon Egg 0.2 (C cube)

Cute, fun and a rarity in that it is a cheap dragon. Sadly it is effort to make useful and not powerful enough to be worth that effort. May perhaps see some play in a quirky tribal dragon deck.



Goblin Diplomats 0.3 (C cube)

A fun little card that has acceptable stats combined with the ability to mess with your opponents attacking and blocking plans. He will allow you to break stalemates and force races where you are favoured but these will be fairly situational. Red decks typically don't generate a good defensive posture otherwise this could be used in stalemates as a way of killing off their weaker critters. Perhaps I am being overly harsh on the card but I don't think it does enough reliably to be worth inclusion in any deck, even a tribal goblin one. Despite this I like the card and think it is fun and interesting.



Mindsparker 1.0

Hmm, I wish this had haste just so it was an easy rating and allocation. As it is I remain in two minds, in its favour red lacks many decent board presence three drops with this being one of the best now available. It blocks very well and can attack fairly safely, even late game if backed up with instant burn. Its hoser ability is fairly broad and works well with most red strategies while remaining strong throughout the game unlike Lifebane Zombie which get weaker as time goes on. All in all I am inclined to throw it into the A cube both to encourage more midrange red decks and to test out tentatively how objectionable I find hoser cards to be. While this card is still fine to maindeck blind and won't be dud against non blue or white mages it wouldn't be close to playable without the hoser effect as a random bonus.



Molten Birth 0.2 (C cube)

I have a Krark's Thumb in my C cube and this is one of the better cards you could hope to pair with it and yet it still wouldn't be worth it. I am not really sure what to make of this card in a more serious sense, it is pretty mediocre if you lose the flip, win it once and it is a fine card and win non-stop and you should be winning. To be honest, if if you had a Krark's Thumb in play it is still a whole load worse than Lingering Souls. A fairly different card that might one day have a home but at present I just don't see a place for this.



Ogre Battledriver 1.2 (B cube)

Well, this is a lot of monster but sadly it is all the wrong way round so to speak for the cube. Compare this to Hellrider which is the same size and costs the same, the Hellrider comes down and immediately has an effect on all your previous plays. Battledriver however comes down and then does nothing until you make another play giving your opponent loads of time to respond and/or disrupt you. Hellrider scales with all your previous plays as well as future ones while the Battledriver is only relevant to the latter. As such Battledriver is a fairly uninspiring end to a curve and really needs to have things like Grave Titan and Siege-Gang Commander in the deck to follow up with. This makes him pretty much exclusively a midrange card which is something red does not excel at presently. As such the card is too narrow to deserve an A  cube slot despite his obvious high power level. Potentially very brutal when setup with a Living Death as it has the desired combo effect while not being weak in normal play situations.



Scourge of Valkas 1.3 (B cube)

This is very close to good enough and may well have had an A cube slot if it had come before Thundermaw Hellkite. A 4/4 flying fire breather for 5 is going to end games fast. The comes into play effect is a bit difficult to abuse with few good dragons and fewer cheap ones around. Having said that a single ping is fairly useful in the cube and so doesn't really need to be abused to be worth having, even if it seems a bit lacklustre on a five costed dork. The card this competes with for a slot is Siege-Gang Commander and it is fairly close, the triple red cost of this guy is one of the biggest drawbacks in that comparison for Scourge against Gang. If all the new midrange red stuff does allow for a successful midrange red archetype then perhaps there will be space for both in the A cube.


Striking Sliver 0.3 (C cube)

If you really want a red one drop for your slivers tribal deck...



Young Pyromancer 2.7

This little critter is really rather neat in a few decks including the mighty red deck wins. He is cheap and offers lots of value in an easy to support manner. He has some great synergy with some already powerful cards like Fireblast, Gut Shot and Lava Dart and would really help the Ogre Battledriver to perform well . Goblin Bushwhacker, Hellrider and Legion Loyalist are A cube mainstays and also all really benefit from a cheap viable red token generator for which the Pyromancer seems to be the man. I also really like the potential for this dork in a UR spell heavy deck as there is great overlap in synergy with cards like Delver of Secrets and even Kiln Fiends and friends if we are going nuts! I wouldn't want to play this in a deck with fewer than 8 cheap triggers however once you get to the critical mass of triggers I suspect this guy will be your best two drop (except perhaps Snapcaster Mage...). A cheap tempo card that offers not only extra value but also good synergy is going to be a hit.



Elvish Mystic 3.5

Mmm, yummy. I don't know at want point I would stop adding Llanowar Elves to my cube so long as they keep printing them. Version three is not the stopping point at least. As for adding redundancy we are getting a little past that already with the myriad of variations on green one drop mana critters to chose from. Now it is more about specialisation as to which package of mana critters best supports your build. Unsurprisingly the archetype gaining most from this functional re-reprint is mono green tribal elves. Beyond this I am unsure how many decks will specifically want 3 Llanowar Elves instead of producers of other coloured mana. Mono green control decks don't want to over invest in easily killable and poorly scaling one drops and mono green stompy isn't very good in cube. Perhaps Elvish Mytic is the tipping point for stompy viability?! Despite a lack of need for three identical elves in most decks having all three will greatly open up the colour in drafts and sealeds allowing more people to consider green as an option. If I open a pool with less than two one drop mana producers, no Garruk Wildspeaker and no Eternal Witness I pretty much rule out any green based deck on the spot. While not a rule to be strictly adhered to it serves as a pretty decent guide and also highlights greens dependence on a few of its colour pie cornerstones to be good. What I most want is the Avecyn's Pilgrim / Elves of Deepshadow equivalents for red and blue, although mostly red, and if anyone from the design team is reading then a Grove of the Burnwillows style drawback would be handy too. Even so, I'll take this new elf and stick it in the cube without hesitation. It has nicer art than Fyndhorn Elves at least meaning it will see more play...



Garruk, Caller of Beasts 0.5 (B cube)

This monstrous incarnation of Garruk is all a bit at odds. He is a whopping six mana yet does very little for the board state. You might as well cast most of the things you would be putting into play with him and so all you are doing is drawing a pile of dorks every turn. The painful irony with this dork is that in the cube, by the time you have ramped him to use his ultimate you will not have any dorks left in your library due to his +1 effect. Once you have filled up your hand a bit the -3 ability is going to be more useful for having a powerful turn but really for six mana you want a lot more from your walker. This Garruk is very narrow, rather expensive, far too linear in what he can do for you and really devoid of any suitable homes. There are more effective ways to draw cards than this and that is really all this is doing for you and so this shouldn't really see any play. One of the weaker walkers yet to see print but still not so rubbish as to completely rule him out of finding a use.



Into the Wilds 0.4 (C cube)

This is an interesting card despite appearing to be just worse than Oracle of Mul Daya. Being an enchantment has its perks over being a dork in the sorts of decks that want this effect. It makes it much harder to remove which is important in theme enablers such as this. In addition to this it works well with things like Enchantress's Presence. Sadly for a ramp card it is expensive and really needs support from library manipulation to be doing what you need. This may get pulled out an played in the odd obscure deck and it might be the most suitable option for the desired effect however I doubt it will ever be that impressive.



Kalonian Hydra 3.6

Ooof. This thing seems to be the Baneslayer/Titan/Hellkite of this base set in that it is a totally unreasonable dork that will abruptly end games with alarming frequency. The card most akin to this is Wolfir Silverheart but the more I look at the Hydra the more I think it is the better card. Certainly there are situations where Wolfir is going to be better for you, when you really need to be getting that +4/+4 bonus attacking immediately or when you have some useful scaling effects like lifelink to take advantage of. The Hydra however is safer, more reliable and more serious and this is just on its own, I haven't even begun to talk about the abusive synergies Hydra has to offer. The Hydra does not need you to have other dorks in play to be powerful and can be a total beating all on its own making it safer and more reliable. Having your soulbond guy killed in combat or even in response to the soulbond can be devastating. With the Hydra you have to kill it or die in short order. As five mana finishers go it is by far the fastest usually killing in three turns including the one you cast it unlike Baneslayer who takes five and Thundermaw Hellkite who takes four. In theory Wolfir can output more damage across those three turns even if soulbonded to a Phyrexian Walker however without any form of evasion it is fairly easy to stall out Wolfir. It is the trample on Kalonian Hydra that ensures it is a really serious threat, you cannot hope to compete with it on the board and need a way to tap it down, perpetually bounce it or simply get it in the graveyard or exiled. So, as a stand alone threat it is one of the best Magic has to offer, what does it do to supplement other cards and archetypes? Although it barely seems relevant once you have an active Hydra green has a wealth of creatures that are going to appreciate the inflation of counters including Experiment One, Strangleroot Geist, Kavu Predator and Scavenging Ooze from just green with lots of cards and effects from other colours asking to be abused similarly. The Achilles Heal of this card is the small window where it has only four toughness where it is a risky blocker and more vulnerable to red burn and the odd removal spell like Dismember. As such I most want to run this card in decks where I can offer it haste such as red green beats including some of; Sarkhan Vol, Reckless Charge, Hellraiser Goblin or even Lightning Greaves. Perhaps in such a deck Orge Battledriver would find a home! All in all we have here a self contained game ending machine that I expect to see getting frequent play in cube as well as other formats.



Kalonian Tusker 0.1 (C cube)

Green no longer needs to share Watchwolf with white however gone are the days when a vanilla two mana 3/3 got it done. Green far from needs two drops leaving the only home for this as an optimistic tribal beasts deck...



Manaweft Sliver 0.2 (C cube)

A nice functional reprint of Gemhide Sliver that will really help a multicolour tribal archetype.



Megantic Sliver 0.1 (C cube)

A lot of monster and lots of pump but too much mana really to make any sort of cube slivers list. I'll throw one in to the C cube if I get one just to temp silly people into playing it.



Predatory Sliver 0.5 (C Cube)

Another cornerstone for a slivers themed tribal deck and important redundancy within your main creature base.



Primeval Bounty 0.9 (B Cube)

This is a pleasant card that I rather like. It is slow to get going and costly to make and I am somewhat unsure of how one might try to use such a card within the cube, although there are many options. It probably isn't worth the trouble of specifically setting up an Academy Rector mechanism to play it however it may well still be fine to include in a deck already doing that sort of thing. The fact that it is costly and powerful but still an acceptable card to hardcast really work in its favour for such strategies. It could also see play in a green control deck, either many colours or mono however it would need to play a relatively high creature count, especially for the multicolour version which is typically very creature light. Without creatures you are not applying any pressure with Primeval Bounty as you have no targets for the +1/+1 counters and don't get to trigger the token generation effect. The final home I can see this in is an enchantress build where it fulfils many roles within the deck yet is still an enchantment to ensure the build is consistent. Enchantress decks are very rare in the cube however as the key components are incredibly narrow, the deck is very hard to build properly and not quite tier one when it is.



Savage Summoning 0.4 (C cube)

While I appreciate the sentiment and various applications of this card it is really not the sort of thing the cube needs. It is mainly a way to counter certain strategies for a few kinds of deck and so is going to be narrow and unexciting. It will also be too inconsistent for play in singleton, not to mention annoying with Strangleroot Geist! In reality there are basically no creatures that are better in the cube if you both add a green to the cost and provide them a bonus +1/+1 counter making this card incredibly situational, probably better as a combat trick than a way to bypass counter magic.



Scavenging Ooze 3.6

I already have this in the cube but with its release in a base set there is now no excuses for not doing so. It can be a bit tedious to play against as it feels like a hoser against loads of cube decks but it does give green a lot more viability and keeps in check a few of the more tedious archetypes. A really solid all rounder that can be effective in agro or control and one of greens best cube creatures.



Sporemound 0.3 (C cube)

I have always loved a landfall mechanic card, I tried to run Glazing Gladeheart in the cube when it was released. This is very much in the same sort of category as it is a low power card with potential abuses that are unlikely to be worth the effort in reality. I want to make fun land based deck with Explore effects and this sort of dribble but I can't recommend doing the same yourself. Synergy only gets you so far against raw power, if you are making this on turn five and they are making Kalonian Hydra you are not looking very clever, even if you are able to make two lands a turn.



Oath of the Ancient Wood - no slot

This scales too badly with itself, enough enchantments to make it not awful and you won't have enough creatures to reliably pump. Its pretty terrible anyway, not sure I would be interested in it if it also triggered off your creature spells too.



Vastwood Hydra - no slot

Modular for green at last, which would be a lot more fun if this card wasn't horrendously over cost. Once it is seen how underwhelming this card is in all formats perhaps we will be treated to some playable green modular effect dorks. This is just an embarrassment next to the other Hydra in this set.


Voracious Wurm 0.2 (C cube)

Certainly the sort of card I love however rather like Angelic Accord but way more so this is a card you need to invest in gaining life the turn you make it ensuring it is not really a two drop unless it is a really awful one. Fun but still likely not good in a life gain themed deck.


Witchstalker 1.4

This is the best of the various new fair dual hoser three drop dorks. It is the best despite it having the weakest actual hosing ability which to my mind works in its favour. Really what we have here is a 3/3 hexproof for three which is not to be underestimated. Getting occasionaly counters and growing will be infrequent and minor leading to more interesting decisions without being tedious, restrictive and frankly unfair for the blue and black mages to cope with. I think I prefer this to Troll Ascetic even without the counters effect. Losing regenerate on a hexproof monster is much less of a big deal, especially a two mana regenerate which can be a real drain on your tempo if used too often. Overall the decks that want to run beefy hexproof dorks are going to be most about the tempo in which the change in two to three toughness from Troll to Witchstalker is going to be much more useful than regenerate for two. Not a mind blowingly good card but worthy of getting a go, particularly as green is very light on three drop tempo dorks and incredibly good at making three drops on turn two.



Bubbling Cauldron - 0.4 (C cube)

This is probably the most playable card from the set of three on its own. As just a lifegain card you are going to be better off with cheaper more powerful effects like Zuran Orb or dual purpose cards like Vampire Nighthawk. If however your deck has uses for lifegain and a sacrifice outlet then this starts to look quite interesting. Miren, the Moaning Well is often used in this capacity as it is a relatively painless way to obtain the desired effect however when you are sacrificing small dorks like Bloodghast the Cauldron is wildly more efficient in cost and returns and might therefor become worth the spell slot. This also works very neatly with Dark Prophecy single handedly fuelling all costs of the draw. The more I think on it the more it seems like this card can get a lot done for specific builds of mono black agro, unfortunately for Cauldron the timely printing of Gnawing Zombie pretty much ensures it will get minimal play.



Pyromancer's Gauntlet 0.3 (C cube)

This could be quite a lot of fun and would work well in a couple of OK red decks and will likely be used now and again but is too narrow and unreliable to be worthy of ever having an A cube position.



Ring of Three Wishes 0.1(C cube)

Probably directly better than Planar Portal as having the time and mana to use this more than three times should mean you have utterly won or can't ever win. Having said that Planar Portal has never really shined in the cube, even in days of old where dorks were less able to kill you in short order meaning this is unlikely to shine either.



Staff of Death Magus 0.1 (C cube)

Although I know that three mana is too much for this effect in the cube I am still drawn to this lifegain card. This is quite safe, reliable and painless lifegain for black which could be just the ticket in control decks so as to fuel its card draw. Ivory Tower has long been used in this sort of role in mono black control builds and is probably still just about better than Staff of Death Magus simply for its cost. Ivory Tower can be irksome to take full advantage of while Staff just drips life in as you do your things. Even so, if it does get any play it won't exactly be exciting, it will just do the role intended acceptably or otherwise and have very little impact on an infrequently built deck.



Strionic Resonator 0.3 (C cube)

While I have no idea at all for any worthy applications of this card it rather reeks of combo and so is worth stashing one away in case a deck for it ever crops up. I like unusual effects in general and so while this seems to be of limited use and on the expensive side it can't be entirely overlooked.



Enchroaching Wastes 0.1 (C cube)

Rather an insult compared to Wasteland and probably a chunk worse than Tectonic Edge as well. Still, uncounterable and easy to recur land destruction, even at insulting prices is hard to overlook.



Overall this set is quite good for cube, it plugs a lot of holes and offers quite a few new cards that should become mainstays. It has some interesting themes and adds an impressive amount not just to the main decks but also many of the silly themed decks that are never tier one but often surprisingly competitive and fun. Slivers is probably now viable as would be a quirky life gain agro deck. This is my top list for cards from M14 for the cube.


10. Gnawing Zombie
9.   Dark Prophecy
8.   Seacoast Drake
7.   Liliana's Reaver
6.   Imposing Sovereign
5.   Young Pyromaster
4.   Elvish Mystic
3.   (Scavenging Ooze)
2.   Kalonian Hydra
1.   Chandra, Pyromaster

Updated Top Planeswalkers List

Right, this list needed updating as meta shifts and new cards get printed, the old one was looking a bit tired and frankly wrong in several places. I'm not going to do a bit talk about the ins and outs of each as that goes on forever and would likely be a large duplication of the various reviews of the cards. This is just the walkers that have seen at least one outing since my last list so a selection of the very worst walkers are no longer included. I am guessing at Pyromaster as I have not played it yet and based on my over excitement at most recent walkers it is a ranking worth taking with a pinch of salt.



1.   Jace, The Mind Sculptor
2.   Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3.   Garruk Wildspeaker
4.   Liliana of the Veil
5.   Gideon Jura
6.   Chandra, Pyromaster
7.   Jace Beleren
8.   Tezzeret, the Seeker
9.   Karn Liberated
10. Sorin Markov
11. Timayo, the Moon Sage
12. Chandra Firebrand
13. Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
14. Elspeth Tirrel
15. Ajani Vengeant
16. Ral Zarek
17. Garruk, Primal Hunter
18. Ajani Goldmane
19. Vraska, the Unseen
20. Ajani, Caller of Prides
21. Jace, Memory Adept
22. Garruk Relentless
23. Koth of the Hammer
24. Chandra Nalaar
25. Sarkhan Vol
26. Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
27. Venser, Shaper Savant,
28. Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded
29. Domri Rade


The big changes are Knight Errant dropping down to second as she is far less game over when you are not making her early with Sol Ring and Black Lotus. In the more midrange environment Mind Sculptor just offers more value and utility. Beleren has also shot up the ratings as control decks increased in popularity. The rest of the top walkers have not changed much however there has been much shifting about of the tier two planeswalkers from 12 to 23 or so in this list. This is mostly the result of having played them more and becoming more attuned as to how and where each should be used. Meta shifts have increased the value of the midrange suited ones as well.

RG Survival Beats

Red-green beats is one of my favourite archetypes, it is simple, elegant, direct and pure. It seems as if it is always close to viable in every format but in cube it is a healthy tier one deck. It is far easier to draft than Zoo archetypes, which are the most similar to it in cube, and it is more consistent as well. Zoo many have slightly more potential synergy and higher card power level but with the abundance of superb monsters about the power level difference is ever declining. This particular build was an attempt to see if I could retain the immense tempo and consistency found in the red green beats archetype while including some late game effects and utility into the list. Much of the core of the deck is the same as any other red green beats deck I do, you want the best tempo dorks on curve with a smattering of ramp and burn.







23 Spells

Llanowar Elves
Orcish Lumberjack
Kird Ape
Faithless Looting

Lightning Bolt
Basking Rootwalla
Birds of Paradise

Fauna Shaman
Lotus Cobra
Kavu Predator
Tin-Street Hooligan

Survival of the Fittest
Punishing Fire
Flinthoof Boar
Burning-Tree Emissary


Chandra's Phoenix
Squee, Goblin Nabob
Pyrewild Shaman

Vengevine
Bloodbraid Elf
Ghor-Clan Rampager
Hellrider

Thundermaw Hellkite

17 Lands

Taiga
Stomping Ground
Wooded Foothills
Mountain Valley

Grove of the Burnwillows
Rootbound Crag
Karplusan Forest
Raging Ravine

Kessig Wolfrun
Treetop Village
4 Mountains
3 Forests








Often I play Rancor in these kinds of deck however Vengevine is one of the most important cards in the deck meaning every non creature card you can trim is a huge perk to a key part of your plan. Bloodbraid also works poorly with Rancor and makes it less likely to recur a Vengevine solo. Red green is usually fairly removal light as it relies on having better dorks in play and this list is light even by red green standards. While this makes the Survival style cards better it can cause you issues. The bloodthirst creatures have been a huge help in resolving the problem as they are often as good or better than removal when you have a tempo lead yet still provide synergy with the engine cards. They are also fair better than removal or a combat trick when you are a little flooded or threat light (which is basically the same thing in red green beats) as you can get something on the go. Sadly Pyrewild Shaman is just not good enough for the cube, his bloodthirst is nice but not even close to Rampager. His body is a pretty pathetic threat and the recursion is just too expensive, by the time you have the spare mana to do it you will still be losing despite the card advantage it can offer. I would definitely replace it future versions of this build. In creature heavy formats a Flametongue Kavu would be another way of increasing your removal output and not diminishing your creature count, it would also be fairly easy to dispose of if not appropriate in the game with all the discard in the deck however it is very slow and not wildly impressive on the board. Scavenging Ooze, Boggart Ram-Gang and Tarmogoyf are all very powerful common red green beats contenders and work nicely off the back of a Burning Tree Emissary however I found myself almost exclusively wanting either Legion Loyalist or Strangleroot Geist when drawing or searching. Lightning Mauler is also a very interesting card for both this build and the archetype in general although I didn't consider it at the time of playing.


Low burn counts also make Chanrda's Phoenix worse and with no way of tutoring up any part of the Punishing Fire Burnwillows combo and a high chance you will need to aim burn at dorks not faces it is far from at its best in the deck although still worth playing unlike the Pyrewild. With Vengevine being my most abusive monster to quickly recur this seems like one of the best decks for Burning-Tree Emissary as it allows some of the most convenient and fast free Vengevine off a turn one Faithless Looting. Emissary is one of those cards that when optimal is really quite effective yet when picked up late in the game is highly disappointing much like Steppe Lynx. I am much happier playing it in this deck than I would be in decks without the discard options this has as I can easily get shot of it when it is a weak bear. Orcish Lumberjacks is a card I always ram into red green beats decks and sometimes even into Zoo decks even when the mana base is not optimally suited for it. Despite only really having seven things to sacrifice I am happy running the Lumberjack for much the same reasons as the Emissary, in fact it is so abusive when you get a good draw for it that it is worth it any way. It means more I can make the most suitable mana base and not worry about making my Lumberjack unplayable.

With this deck potentially going a bit later into the game due to Survival of the Fittest gimmickery I decided to risk the Kessig Wolfrun, a card I often lose to but can never seem to get working well for me. Normally I favour early game consistency that late game reach and value in decks where I plan to win most of my games with early game tempo. I was however worried that the slight reduction in threats and tempo to accommodate the Survival would mean I needed that little bit more to force through wins. Many of my red green builds have two or three five drops that really help end games like Overrun, Wolfir Silverheart and Thragtusk and this list simply didn't have the room for them making Wolfrun more appealing, certainly far more worthwhile than Pyrewild Shaman!

Overall the deck worked very well, I easily found my Vengevine, put it in the bin and recurred it by turn four, usually along with another beefy four drop haste dork. Although you do lose a small bit of tempo the turn you spend mana making Survival or tutoring for guys however you seems to regain it the following turn with even more power than other builds usually output. When you don't draw the engine bits the deck is simply a very consistent and powerful beatdown deck. Squee is perhaps the most cuttable card after Pyrewild as it really does very little without some of your engine cards. After the Vengevine (complete with Freewalla for half teh trigger) you don't really need to abuse the Survival effects that much.

Tempered Steel

This is the other popular variant of affinity although it far more resembles the robots style modern deck. It makes lots of fast and annoying dorks with a few high powered synergic finishers to round it out. It has less mana issues than the other affinity cube deck I posted. It is also less prone to not drawing enough dorks however it relies fairly heavily on a couple of cards to win games and can misfire easily enough through not seeing one of those in much the same way. Being only really white you miss out on some of the juicy coloured cards available to the archetype. Also you have more non-artifact cards than most other affinity decks which can present some issues as well. Beyond these somewhat minor differences the deck is essentially the same as any other affinity deck, it makes over powered and undercosted dorks on mass and then finishes you off with combat trickery or evasion if the initial tempo surge wasn't enough to outright kill you.


This list hails from a time before I banned Mana Crypt which does hurt the deck a fair amount but isn't enough to stop it being tier one at all. I would be fairly happy to exchange it for a variety of cards including Chrome Mox, Aether Vial, Terrarion, perhaps even a  Mox Diamond or just another dork..

Overall it is one of the more robust builds of affinity as it has some removal, some disruption, some card advantage while being less vulnerable to things like Pernicious Deed. You also typically have more evasive monsters in the heavier white builds due to the Glint Hawk however after playing the deck it was the most cuttable card by far and would likely have been better as the Idol instead.

Stoneforge Mystic is a real boost to the build giving you the ability to get your choice of incredibly high powered equipment. Despite having slightly few artifacts than alternate versions the Cranial Plating is just as good in this build due to the extra evasion and so having two chances to draw one rather than one is excellent. Inkmoth Nexus is also at the best it gets in this deck as it has multiple copies of the Plating to abuse and becomes a terrifying 3/3 if Tempered Steel is down.



26 Spells

Mox Opal
Mana Crypt
Memnite
Ornithopter

Hex Parasite
Arcbound Worker
Court Homunculus
Glint Hawk

Springleaf Drum
Skullclamp
Chromatic Star
Dispatch

Cursed Scroll
Signal Pest

Arcbound Ravager
Ethersworn Canonist
Phyrexian Revoker
Stoneforge Mystic

Cranial Plating
Myr Retriever
Myrsmith
Steel Overseer

Porcelain Legionnaire
Tempered Steel
Tanglewire

Frogmite

14 Lands

Blinkmoth Nexus
Inkmoth Nexus
Mishra's Factory
Darksteel Citadel

Ancient Den
Vault of Whispers
City of Traitors
Ancient Tomb

Scrubland
5 Plains

Other Possiblities

Vault Skirge
Blade Splicer




The Myrsmith is a bit of a luxury card as it is slow, awkward and vulnerable however it does work very well will a wide number of the cards in the deck while being more useful and proactive than a Thopter Foundry (not to mention easier to play) and less risky than a Genesis Chamber. Steel Overseer is much the same sort of slow optimistic card however you really want a high dork count of a cheap artifacty nature of which there are slim pickings. It actually doesn't matter all that much, you could play a fairly wide selection of cheap junky dorks that did nothing much at all beyond getting pumped by Tempered Steel and you would still win most games in which you drew it. I was going to use Golden Myr as an example of a junky card that would work but as I thought about it I realised it would probably be better than a lot of the cards I actually did play....

I don't recall having ever given specific matchup advise for a deck in this sort of post but I feel compelled to do so with this one, more so because it is unique to the deck and therefore perhaps less intuitive. When playing this against red deck wins or a cheap heavy burn based deck the best strategy is to hold back making dorks in the early turns. If you play them out they just get burned away and you run out of steam having done very little. Ideally you get to make a turn three Tempered Steel and then follow it with the mighty Ornithopter that turn and a couple more random artifacts on the following one. Playing like this means they cannot efficiently burn away your threats nor can theirs compete with the size of yours. You will be a few life points down but will have the board and resources to comfortably win. If you don't have the Tempered Steel it is pretty bad for you in that matchup to the point of it being worth trying to stall while retaining some dorks just to try and draw it.

With mid-range decks all the rage at present this sort of deck is a perfect meta choice as it crushes them in a hilarious manner. Often they have cast one or perhaps two very low impact spells that you basically ignore while you cruise to victory on the back of an absurd tempo lead. Not only is this deck fantastic against mid-range decks of all flavours it is also potent against anything you care to throw at it. It is fast enough to keep up with combo decks and powerful enough to overwhelm control decks. It also seems to cheat compared to other agro decks and leaves many of them wanting as well. It is good fun to play and nicely different, even compared to other affinity decks which are seeing little play as it is in my cube with the components no longer residing in the A cube.

Miracle Charms

This is a rare example of the hybrid archetype of combo control. In the way that midrange decks are a halfway house between agro and control decks this is part combo deck and part control (there is also agro combo in things like Foodchain Goblins, elves or even some affinity builds). It is fairly rare for these archetypes to work but when they do they are one of my favourite kinds of deck. You get to dictate the flow of the game but always are able to threaten the win out of nowhere. This particular list was inspired by the deck "Lucky Charms" which was featured in one of the deck techs from the PT before last (PT Gatecrash I assume). It was a fairly standard three colour control build however it went heavily overboard on the Charms to give it a reasonable chance of hitting a four card infinite life combo. While any four card combo is pretty bad as a pure combo, when all the cards are excellent in their own right within the deck you can get away with it, especially when it is not your main plan. The idea is to get a Boros Reckoner out, give it lifelink and make it indestructible with Boros and Azorius Charms then shoot it and continually redirect the damage to itself until you have infinite life. With only one copy of each card and it being a shaky combo to being with I needed more ways to win and things to be doing. A more standard control deck wouldn't really benefit a huge amount from the various effects on the Charms and so I decided to pair it with a heavy miracle theme as there is good overlap in the card quality effects and Entreat the Angels gives you lots of dorks to be lifelinking to great effect. Already being in UWR and having an abundance of card quality and two or less costing instants I couldn't resist the Isochron Scepter as well giving me plenty of stuff to be getting on with. Here is the final list I ended up running:



24 Spells

Chrome Mox

Swords to Plowshares
Brainstorm
Mystical Tutor
Sensei's Divining Top

Boros Charm
Azorius Charm
Izzet Charm
Fire / Ice

Lightning Helix
Snapcaster Mage
Isochron Scepter
Spellskite


Lat-Nam's Legacy
Arcane Denial

Boros Reckoner
Trinket Mage
Detention Sphere

Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Time Spiral
Terminus

Temporal Mastery
Entreat the Angels
Bonfire of the Damned

16 Lands

Celestial Colonnade
Sacred Foundry
Boros Garrison
Ancient Den

Hallowed Fountain
Steam Vents
Arid Mesa
Scalding Tarn

Flooded Strand
Volcanic Island
Plateau
Tundra

Mystic Gate
Cascade Bluffs
Plains
Islands


While fairly atypical as control decks go it performed better than expected. The vast degree of card quality in there to support the combo and miracle aspects more than makes up for the thin filling of control cards. Usually a control list will have around four counterspells and about two fat top end dorks which this deck rather lacks in. As I previously mentioned though, this is a combo control deck, the midrange equivalent between combo and control. You sacrifice some of you control meat for the combo fluff, things like Mystical Tutor become worth the card disadvantage while cards like Fact or Fiction are a little to unwieldy.

After my first attempt at a miracle theme deck I learned that the top end power spells were really good and that the cheaper more disruption style cards were not worth the effort. I didn't even include Entreat the Angels in my first go as I thought it was over the top and clunky. After seeing how good Bonfire of the Damned was I concluded Entreat was likely very good as well but had not got around to getting one and testing it until now. Suffice it to say it was the best card in the list acting as the main win condition and also working very nicely with the Charms. You can win out of nowhere much earlier than normal control decks, setting up an end of their turn Entreat for just three angels and then attacking them is generally game over in two turns and is hard to race if you lifelink them up.  In a deck as dedicated to card quality and miracle support as this Entreat is an incredibly reliable win mechanism and is hard to stop, with cards like Divining Top making it very easy to play at the end of an opponents turn.

Any deck with a Fire / Ice and a Lightning Helix begs for an Isochron Scepter, more so with an wealth of card quality and other saucy 2 or less costed instants. It transpires that Boros Charm is rather rude on a Scepter with it being able to make itself indestructible and throwing four damage at someones face or their walkers every turn brings the game to a fairly short close thus acting as another solid win condition. Even Azorius Charm which is pretty underwhelming in cube sits very nicely on a Scepter giving you continual advantage and decent control over the game. Oddly the Swords to Plowshares is one of the most cuttable cards from this list as the charms and ease of using miracles gives you lots of control over creatures. Swords is not that exciting on a Scepter nor does it have any real synergy in the deck beyond just being cheap and powerful.

The deck easily holds out against agro or control strategies in the early and mid portions of the game as it has highly flexible and very cheap disruption. It is the later portion of the game against any matchup where things can start to slip away from you if you have not managed to do something powerful such as imprinting something good on a Scepter or summoning a flock of angels. As such you have to perfectly time your moment to erupt out of being a control deck and change gears to a combo deck and just race for the finish pouring your resources away like it was going out of fashion. This is usually the moment you don't have an efficient answer card in hand, if you are losing card advantage or tempo in your answers you need to be doing something else, seems obvious really.

Decks like this are surprisingly powerful and do consistently well in all cube meta games. They are also tremendous fun to play, the only downside is that they are rarely intuitive to play and never even close to easy.

Bannings: Mana Crypt

It has been a long time coming but it is time to retire the Mana Crypt in my cube along with the rest of the power. I used to argue that only combo benefited from the Crypt with agro decks having too little colourless requirement and control never wanting to risk the life loss in a long game. As combo is the weakest of the three main archetype groups I was happy leaving in a card well above the power level to give level the playing field a little. Sadly now the meta is shifting towards a meta with midrange decks dominating a lot more which changes the dynamic of who wants a Crypt. Agro decks are playing higher curves and more expensive cards to have a little more game against the midrange decks and more combo decks are doing well as they are highly effective against midrange decks. Now midrange, agro and combo all compete for Crypt and make up a much higher portion of the field than they did a year ago. Combo also needs less of a boost with midrange being more prevalent. Crypt is not just a very high power card but it is also very random and swingy. If you get it in your opener with a few cards to play off it quickly then you will really struggle to lose however off the top late game it is rather a dead draw. While you may be able to do some great fun things with an early Crypt it is not so fun for your opponent and doesn't lead to good games of magic. Another issue with Mana Crypt is its unbalance in draft formats compared to more constructed ones. In draft decks all tend to look a little more midrange regardless of the intended aim of the deck and are also much less powerful making a highly powerful, swingy card that excels in and against midrange decks such as Mana Crypt a liability. We have had some good times but in the name of better Magic I am banning Mana Crpyt. This will weaken blue more than anything else with cards like Trinket Mage and Tinker losing some power but as it has remained the best colour consistently I am not concerned about this change. My banned list looks like this at present:

Black Lotus
Sol Ring
Mana Crpyt
Mox Jet
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Mox Emerald
Mox Pearl
(Time Vault)


Strip Mine
Tolarian Academy
Library of Alexandria

Time Walk
Ancestral Recall
Cunning Wish
Mana Drain

Fastbond
Living Wish

Buring Wish

The power of the Wishes entirely depend on how you play them in the various ways of doing a cube ranging from pointless to vastly over powered. They really helped round out tight 40 card card decks but were a bit of a cop out in deck design and really just made everything more complicated and tedious than it needed to be. I could have changed the rulings on them rather than just banning them but either way, they make for better cubes when not included despite being very difficult cards with lots of choices and utility. Technically Time Vault should be on this list but I have never had or wanted one, it seems like the Wishes in terms of what rulings you use with it determining whether it is broken or terrible, it is also just a tedious card as soon as it becomes playable. Library of Alexandria is probably the most likely card within this list to become unbanned as the format is a little too fast to reliably be able to abuse the card. Without the cheap universal artifact ramp it is hard to recover the tempo loss incurred by going nuts with the Library early. That said, it would still be very unfair in control mirrors even if man lands are currently one of the best cards in those matchups! I do still like the occasional rotissary, or even a draft, with all the power included. Sure you get some dud games and blow outs but it makes you appreciate the calmer fairer formats and is really exciting to do now and again.

Dullard.dec

I don't do enough control decks in these example lists mostly because they tend to be reactively built and are usually jst a pile of fairly homogenous control cards. It is hard to really define them as archetypes beyond their colours with a few exceptions. While this is not what I would call an exception it is not a typical control deck at all. It is very light on threats and wins far more slowly than the newer cube control lists which pack really good top end dorks like Titans, Angels, Dragons and Sphinxes all of which end games fast. I wasn't going to bother doing this list at first but the games it gave were so extreme I decided I would. When building it my aim was to not include all the cheesy cards that are found in most control decks these days like Snapcaster Mage, Cryptic Command and the previously mentioned top end threats. It is not my fun having your first few turns disrupted by cheap control cards and then just losing to a Wurmcoil Engine you can't answer and so my intent was to be able to play a control deck that was more fun for both players. Suffice it to say I missed the mark and made one of the most tedious long winded boring decks for both players I have come across in cube, and that is saying something. In one game I got a Sword to Plowshares on an Isochron Scepter and cast it so many times my opponent was over 70 life at one point. I ultimately managed to win on the upkeep of the turn I would deck myself (after already having cast a Time Spiral once) with another seven Lightning Bolts to the dome totalling over twenty cast in all from a Timayo ultimate to take the game...


21 Spells

Lightning Bolt
Swords to Plowshares

Wall of Omens
Isochron Scepter
Fire / Ice
Lightning Helix

Memory Lapse
Arcane Denial
Lat-Nam's Legacy
Cyclonic Rift

Detention Sphere

Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Wrath of God

Gideon Jura
Timayo, the Moon Sage
Temporal Manipulation
Time Warp

Austere Command
Time Spiral

Devil's Play
Aurelia's Fury

19 Lands

Desolate Lighthouse
Celestial Colonnade
Thawing Glaciers
Sacred Foundry

Hallowed Fountain
Steam Vents
Arid Mesa
Scalding Tarn

Flooded Strand
Volcanic Island
Plateau
Tundra

Azorious Chancery
Mountain
Plains
4 Islands


Although I messed up in regards to having fun games I did at least make a challenging deck to win with. Much of this was down to it simply being weaker than a typical cube three colour control build however it is still probably just about a tier one deck. With a lot of control decks these days all you have to do is plan how you are going to survive up to casting one of your five or six drops that should single handedly stabilize or win you the game. With this list you are relying on planeswalker ultimates, Colonnade or X spells to win the game for you all of which are very slow and serve other main purposes within the deck. You will be faced with the option of using Devil's Play to kill a dork from the bin on say turn seven and will be needing to think about if that will leave you sufficient tools to physically win the game rather than if it is just a sensible play right now.


I decided to go heavy on the taking of extra turns however they were primarily weak blue versions of Explore. With so many X spells the deck is mana hungry and the main ways you have to generate advantage are incremental once a turn effects from planeswalkers, Scepter and Thawing Glaciers meaning despite the lack of attackers the time walk cards supported the overall approach of the deck. Being so light on threats means you make their removal worse while ensuring you have the maximum number of answer cards making it more likely you take it to the extreme late game where your cards are at their most powerful. Although an arduous task to win with the deck it was yet a joyous coming together of long term planning that made it feel very satisfying in the way having finished a marathon is.