Top 19 Black Targetted Discard

I always complain about how little black targetted discard there is. Turns out their is loads, quite a lot of it is good too. The issue is that there is not enough of the generally playable one mana options for one person, let alone two people in the colour, not that there are not enough total to have black fully covered for its potential needs in the discard department! I have done one of these before but it was a bit of a mess. It had all sorts of cards with all sorts of different kinds of discards ranging from Liliana of the Veil to Wheel of Fortune! As I have done more of these top X lists it has felt ever more pertinent to compare stricter categories as it is much more useful for cube design, deck construction and understanding the things that make those kinds of cards good. Trying to argue if a Hymn to Tourach is better or worse than a Vendillion Clique is hard to do and relatively pointless. Discussing the merits of Despise against Harsh Scrutiny however is more pertinent!

Discard is blacks main form of disruption. It is most akin to countermagic in that it can deal with anything, it is one of the few things than can stop instants and sorceries from happening and it suffers the drawback of being time critical. While black uses some generic discard effects to gain card advantage or punish certain strategies it is all about the targetted discard for disruption. It is one of the biggest pulls to black. It is also why black is the most common colour alongside blue in legacy and vintage where you need to have some interaction with spells and their potential to be cast so as to not get run over by broken things! Most modern or legacy black decks are over 10% one mana targetted discard cards. A turn one play of such a card will give you complete information and generally keep you safe to obnoxious things your opponent might do to you. In cube you can't really have 10% of your deck as one mana discard cards as their are not enough, the options become too weak too quickly and the good ones get hoovered up very quickly.

Discard is pretty simple to assess in terms of potency. You are really only looking at cost and range of targets. One mana cards can have a much lower range of hits than a two mana discard spell and still be a better card. The three mana plus discard spells have to come covered in bells and whistles to even get a look in. Another strong comparison to countermagic! The one big difference between the two is scaling. Countermagic stays good, it arguably gets better if it is the hard kind. Targetted discard gets worse. As such you get loads more value from discard cards with alternate uses than you do with countermagic. The cycling on Miscalculation does not make it better than Mana Leak on average. Just having your card do what you want it to do better is the most important thing. Consider Inquisition of Kozilek and a card that was basically the same but had cycling and could only take cards that had CMC two or less. Such a hypothetical card would probably be better in cube than the mighty Inquisition as it wouldn't have any scaling issues.




19. Mire's Toll

This is bad. It is bad because it scales the wrong way. It gets better as targetted discard gets worse. In the late game this will be better than a one mana Coercion (as you can hit lands) but that isn't going to be much help against a lot of decks. This would be an OK sideboard tool against counterspell decks if it was not for the fact there are already enough of those for this to have never been needed even in singleton cube. I still strongly suspect I would play this over actual Coercion however. One mana is not a significant tempo cost which is important when investing in something that has no effect on the board. On turn one this is useless and that is really when you want to hit targetted discard against most lists. You might as well play Raven's Crime over this if you want a turn one play.


18. Blackmail

This is the locked version of Mire's Toll. It is better upto the point where you would have three swamps in play and worse past four. Turns out that is a huge improvement. Lots of decks don't get much past three swamps, nor all that quickly. Lots of other decks rapidly empty their hands. This will typically hit most of players hand in the midgame. If you were on the draw against a player who made three one drops you would have full range on your turn two. The range on Blackmail is surprisingly good. It often has more targets than a turn one Duress or Despise, sometimes even Inquisition. The issue is not so much with the range when used as a turn one play but the fact that you don't get complete information. That and you get the worse half of the cards to discard. I would rather chose from two random cards than three chosen cards on turn one. Odds are you are going to get something more damaging from the randoms even with less information. Sneaky opponents can mislead you with what they show in a Blackmail. While this is a good card design attribute it doesn't help the power level. Blackmail does scale well with other discard more so than most and as such I have played it in Rack themed black decks before which want a heavy number of discard cards.


17. Despise

I felt this should have performed better than it did. Most decks have targets for it and the range is fairly wide. It wasn't terrible but it just didn't do what you wanted it to. Creatures don't get held as much as spells. If they already have a dork in play taking away another is fine but it isn't good. You would be better off with spot removal. While planeswalkers are a nice addition on top of the original Ostracize it turns out not to be too much of a help. The average planeswalkers per deck is not much higher than one, if even that. On turn one you are rarely wanting to take away the walker either, you want to take away the curve play. The adding of planeswalkers to the target range helps a little against creature decks but it doesn't help enough against the creature light decks. Ostracize was always either OK or terrible and Despise has a slightly improved all round range but not enough to make it generally playable. Fundamentally you are still just better off in terms of tempo and consistency if you run spot removal instead.


16. Distress

Two is the fair price for this effect, three is just bad and one is super strong. This card would be a whole lot more interesting at 1B, as it stands it is just a bit too fair for a card as narrow as the cost makes it. Only a heavy black deck can really run this and a heavy black deck has more appealing alternatives on offer like Hymn to Tourach.

15. Distended Mindbender

Super powerful but sadly super inconsistent. For those few times this comes out on the cheap saccing off something that has served its purpose like a Wood Elves and then going on to hit two things in their hand then it is pretty game ending. Mostly however this clogs up your hand in the early game and is too hard to cast before the cast trigger ceases to get good value. That isn't even the floor of this demanding card!




14. Lay Bare the Heart

This was set to be the best two drop Distress for cube until they changed up the planeswalker legend rules. Now this misses far too many things. My cube has 43 legendary cards prior to the changes which is an impressively high 8%. I have 28 planesalkers which will take the number of things this misses up to 13% or so. That is a little too much for a targetted discard card at two mana. With just the 8% miss rate it would have been OK. Not too many of those cards were critical things to deal with, only really Jitte is super savage that you can't take it. A number of the bigger legends are puerly cheat in cards and putting them in the bin is helpful rather than disruptive! At 13% and with a lot of potent game ending cards in that group this is just too poor now.



13. Mardu Charm

While a three mana Duress looks pretty bad when you put it on an instant that has other potent modes of use ensuring it is never dead then you have a surprisingly strong card. This card is a lovely disruption tool that is good in every matchup. A three mana one for one targetted discard spell does need alternate modes to carry it but it turns out that you have a pretty good card when that is the case. It is the colour requirement that really holds this back in cube. Not only is it narrow and hard to cast it is also in colours that are not commonly seen together.








12. Addle

Not far off Distress at 1B but enough that it isn't quite potent enough for cube use. It is pretty hard to miss with this, you know what you want to hit and what colours they are, often even what is the main colour and which the splash. Despite these things it is still lame when you see something you didn't expect to see and want to take it but can't. Or even more gutting, simply not being able to take than Ugin... So while Addle rarely misses it still doesn't hit the most relevant target as often as you need for a two mana card of this nature to be a big deal.


11. Transgress the Mind

Now this Distress attempt comes with a perk and a downside making it that little trickier to evaluate. The perk is the exile and the downside is that it doesn't hit cheap things. Cheap things make up most of the cube. This card cannot hit 65% of the things in my cube. While many of those are not so important late game they are still things you want to take on curve. If you are on the play you cannot take away a two drop with this and that is a problem. Also, most of the reactive cards are cheap, removal and countermagic are common targets for these kinds of cards and this misses far too many of those. While exile is lovely and very scary to play against this card is too ineffective at doing what you mainly want it to do. A potentially terrifying sideboard card but not something I ever want to run maindeck blind.


10. Mesmeric Fiend / Brain Maggot

These are the kind of Oblivion Rings of hand disruption. At their best they a Coercions at a 1 mana discount plus a free 1/1. At their worst they eat a ping and cost you tempo and often value too. The reason to play these cards is creature synergy. If creatures are that much more valuable than spells in your list then these are pretty good options. Maggot even has the enchantment tag for even broader synergy support. Even decks with removal struggle against these cards. They will force certain bad plays. Lets say I see your hand of Arc Trail and Vindicate, I will obviously take the Arc Trail and you will then be forced into Vindicating the 1/1 at a tempo loss if you want your Arc Trail. You might need the Vindicate for something else and so you will simply have to wait and hope to get it back some other way. Many cards are time critical in magic and so taking a card away for a few turns over its window of premium utility is nearly as good as getting rid of it. Ramp cards and other discard effects are prime examples of things that scale down and lose loads of value when sat under a Maggot or Fiend.


9.   Unmask

A fantastic card that was a staple back in the day in both cube and other formats. Before we had Thoughtsieze or Inquisition and back when heavy black decks were still tier one. Back when combo was a far bigger deal and back when Necropotence was a big name. When we had all those things this was kind of the black Force of Will. Deal with a thing for no mana but two cards. These days most decks don't have enough black cards to be able to comfortably pitch to this nor do they have enough reliable card draw to easily stomach the two for one. In constructed decks this is still a great and useful option but in the drafting cube I found it has become to narrow.




8.   Cabal Therapy

One of my favourite cards of all time and something I have happily run in singleton drafting cubes where it is about as weak as it can be. There is little more satisfying than hitting with Therapy in the early turns of game one as good as blind. Getting a two or three for one blind in constructed with it perhaps! Therapy has great synergy with other discard as they give up the required information. It also works great with things like Gitaxian Probe. Most of where you see it getting used in cube these days is in combo decks where a sacrifice outlet is required or there are loads of graveyard synergies going on. A doubly great card in that it is good at doing what it was designed to do while also doing a load of other useful things.




7.   Harsh Scrutiny

Unlike Despise this card wildly out performed expectation. It turns out that a look at their hand and a scry is all really good, especially on turn one. It is not the end of the world when you miss and it is still great when you hit a low value card. Just getting that much information and setup that early on a card neutral spell is fantastic. It is like Peek and Opt rolled into one. This card is much more about being quite consistently card neutral while yielding info and choices, it is not about disruption in the way most other targetted discard is. Sure, it will sometimes disrupt synergies or curving or value but that is not why you are playing it. It happens now and again and is a big perk but you don't need it for the card to be good. This is certainly more Opt than it is Force Spike and should be played in a less disruptive capacity. Great filler, great one drop, so so disruption.


6.   Doomfall

This was another surprise performer. It has some major things helping it along. It is an edict or a Coercion for starters. Much like Mardu Charm this carries it a long way. The edict aspect is certainly worse than the other two modes on the Charm combined, often just worse than four damage alone, and it is sorcery. On the other hand the discard effect has a wider range and critically both halves exile. That exile aspect is really what pushes this from OK to good. Unlike Transgress the Mind this will hit any card it needs to making this far scarier to play against as anyone with key cards in their deck and far better against answer decks in a longer game. The exile also hurts a lot on the edict, it makes that Kitchen Finks no longer the obvious choice. While this is far too slow all round to be much good against quick decks on its own it still complements other cards very nicely. Deluge their weenies away and then edict the big threat they follow up with for example. While only OK against aggro decks the card has proven incredibly good against midrange, control and combo decks too.


5.   Kitesail Freebooter

This new addition has not had too much testing yet but early indications suggest it is a big winner. The lower range than Fiend or Maggot doesn't stop it being good disruption and info while the flying and 2 toughness make it a far more relevant body. This is just a nice rounded little card that does a lot of work at all stages of the game. The 1/1 bodies need creature synergies to make them playable, this has enough gas to be worth playing as a stand alone. It does most of what a Fiend/Maggot does with their EtB effects and then it is better at staying in play, far better at blocking, enables raid, controls planeswalkers and is generally a pain in the arse!



4.   Duress

This card has gotten better and better over the last decade or so. Removal is more important for most decks as is threat diversity. Both of these things lead to far more non-creature cards being played in most archetypes. Green ramp decks now have Karn, Ugin, Sky Sovereign, Garruks and Nissas as well as card quality non-creatures at the low end. Against the creature heavy decks you typically want to be hitting the non-creature cards. While they may be fewer in number there are still usually enough to mean Duress rarely misses. They are more commonly held back or top end cards further helping Duress hit them. Duress has always been a premium anti control and anti combo card. Now it is also a fine tool against aggro and midrange decks so much that you are pretty happy running it main in most cases.


3.   Collective Brutality

One card that has hurt Duress a little in recent years is this gem. They have a bit of an overlap in range and as such running both maindeck against a blind meta is can be a little too much. This is the card Doomfall wishes it was! Despite this being generally weaker removal and categorically weaker discard Brutality more than makes up for this with its own perks. You have the extra drain mode to increase the utility, you can do multiple modes at once, you can enable your own graveyard synergies, and most importantly Brutality is only two mana. This card gets it done. It is pseudo card quality, it is good in every matchup and it is comparably good in the early game to the late game. For actual discard this card is one of the weaker effects on the list but the combined package is so potent and versatile you just don't care. This is one of those cards I find I am happy running in any black deck, it feels more playable than Fire / Ice!


2.   Inquisition of Kozilek

No real shock as to the top two on this list. Inquisition is actually closer in power to Thoughtsieze in cube than it is in modern or legacy. In cube life totals are more generally relevant (as in most matchups do make two life a cost, even if small) while in constructed there are far more matchups where it simply doesn't matter at all. Indeed Death's Shadow makes it a perk to nug yourself for 2 in those constructed formats! Also there are many more cards like Force of Will and Gurmag Angler and the like in the constructed formats which further empowers Thoughtsieze. Inquisition hits 3/4 of the non-land cards in my cube. More importantly it hits basically every relevant card you could play in the first two turns. If you take their only two drop play for one mana, one card and no life cost you have actually gained tempo! Inquisition hits basically all the spot removal spells and most of the counterspells. It might miss Force of Will but it is super hard, even impossible, to Force of Will something after being Inquisitioned. Inquisition is a cheap, clean and reliable disruption tool. It is the best discard tool against the aggressive decks and top three against all others.


1.   Thoughtseize

Still the big number one. It is just the reliability you desire. This will disrupt all strategies and it will do so from turn one. Opening with this card makes you feel super safe. You take away the scary thing, the thing you ultimately can't beat or their only early game. It is super hard to miss with this and most of the hits are brutal. Assuming you don't misplay this will take their best spell. You can win games basically with just this card if your opponent has a shaky keep. Arguably blacks best card ever and certainly the most widely played.

Ug Fish (Merfolk)

I always like to try and build as many new cards into cube decks as possible after a release. Ixalan has mostly had filler cards in terms of the stuff I added into the main cube. While Seeker's Squire is great it is hardly a card you can build around! Typically the more interesting cards are those which don't make it into a drafting cube. The most obvious archetype in cube that I could see changing as a result of Ixalan cards is merfolk. Not only did the fish get some cute new tools, their own Kira and a token generator, but they also got the potential for a new colour!

Green was the only support colour that you didn't really look at for your merfolk deck. The other three all offered minor perks, the odd fish and some juicy removal. Green had least fish and no useful removal to offer. Now with Ixalan green now offers some very appealing merfolk. Some good value and tempo cheaper fish and critically the first good tempo one drop merfolk ever! While getting a single one drop may not sound like it would make that much difference to a deck when it is a tribal deck like this it really can. One of the biggest weakness of the fish is how few decent one drops and disposable two drops it has on offer. Splashing for one drops is normally a weak plan but given what the fish deck most needs it might well be worth it.

There are some issues with splashing green beyond those of consistency. It will also depower devotion cards and things that work with Island count such as Vedalken Shackles. It makes cards like Force of Will harder to pitch to. I have often used Grand Architect as another Lord in fish builds and he also gets less powerful as you include non-blue dorks. All in all Kumena's Speaker is going to have to do a lot of work to justify it with all the compromises you have to make to house it. One drops are the workhorses of decks and so it really could happen.

Adding green gives another psuedo Silvergil Adept in the form of Merfolk Branchwalker. It might only draw you a card a third of the time but it is a good value and tempo creature that once played is very disposable. Leading with a Lord is vulnerable to removal, leading with a dork like Branchwalker or Adept on turn two puts you in a great position. Cheap value merfolk are what you need for tribal empowering cards to shine. While not as big of a pull to green as Kumena's Speaker the Branchwalker is none the less a significant pull to green and far easier to house in the base blue build.

Ixalan also brings a pile of evasion dorks to the table in the form of River Sneak and Shaper Apprentice. These empower raid style cards and the Lords and can combine with older cards like Gaea's Skyfolk and Triton Shorestalker to afford a bit of a theme and a good deal of reach. This deck is very good at getting past blockers. While I haven't gone extreme on exploiting that you can easily do so with Edric or Bident of Thassa if you wish.

Kopala is a nice upgrade on Kiora even though functionally the card is weaker in many cases. The extra synergies from Kopala make up for that power difference with ease. The last of the new fish tools is the big one - Deeproot Waters. This card is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand it is exactly what you want as a fish deck to get the most out of your Lords and to give you a healthy ongoing supply of disposable bodies. On the other hand it is a three mana investment that does nothing on its own. Fish decks typically fall behind on turns one and two and then start to pull back as they amass lords and mana. Getting the Waters out may just set you back too much at a critical stage. If you hold off and make it a couple of turns down the line you will have missed out on a couple of free merfolk and greatly reduce the cards overall value. It is also a little awkward in that it has bad synergy with one of merfolks greatest assets - the Aether Vial. A turn one Vial would solve all your early tempo issues and allow you to pull off some extreme swings in turns 3 and 4. Using Vial on your dorks means you miss the trigger on Deeproot Waters. You probably could get away with running both as Vial is so good on turn one and fairly useless later in the game, especially if you have some of the filtering tools I have added into this list.

All in all merfolk got a lot of new tools to play with in Ixalan and while they offer a lot to the archetype none of them come without some cost. It is not just a case of inserting these new cards into the archetype as direct upgrades to older cards as is what usually happens when affinity, elves or goblins get a new toy. To use these new fish you will have to reconsider how you go about making your deck. Fish having several ways of building it in the first place makes this even more variable! Goblins has loads of builds but it is a fairly solved archetype in cube terms and so a new goblin will be pretty obvious if and where it fits. Fish decks have build options but being more of a tier two deck it is far less solved in the cube. New cards mean new potentials all over the place. At least Kopala is no fuss to add, she even makes it easier to play with equipment! The rest of our new toys however greatly complicate things!

Given how many of the more exotic and powerful non-merfolk cards seemed to have some lame interactions with the newer offerings I made this deck a very pure list. Rather than rely on Jitte or Shackles this list is very direct. It is one of the highest actual merfolk count fish deck I have done in cube. It doesn't bother much with removal or countermagic, the aim is simply to amass fish and kill them. It is probably most alike to a white weenie deck running mostly fliers like Suntail Hawk! This list has a bit more interaction and trickery up its sleeve than most white decks and it also has a bunch of value tools as well. This list will goldfish pretty well but may struggle a bit more in practice.


25 Spells

Chrome Mox

Cursecatcher
Aquitect's Will
Triton Shorestalker
Kumena's Speaker

Noble Hierarch

Shaper Apprentice
Gaea's Skyfolk
Silvergil Adept
Merfolk Branchwalker

Master of Pearl Trident
Lord of Atlantis
Coralhelm Commander
Harbinger of Tides

River Sneak
Kiora's Follower
Chart a Course

Kopala, Warden of Waves
Deeproot Waters
Merrow Reejery
Merfolk Sovereign

True-Name Nemesis
Jace, Cunning Castaway

Master of Waves
Opposition

15 Lands

Mutavault
Tropical Island
Breeding Pool
Misty Rainforest

Botanical Sanctum
Yavimaya Coast
Filter
Check

Forest
Flooded Strand
Polluted Delta
5 Islands





There is quite a lot of room to alter this list. Jace and Chart a course are nice value cards but I mostly put them in as they are new. Bident or Edric may well simply be better ways to get value in this highly evasive and creature heavy deck. There are plenty of merfolk you can shave as well if you wanted a higher individual card power level and more interaction at some cost to the power of your synergies. The evasive two drops are all OK but they are not powerful or exciting, just on theme and suitable. Green potentially gives you so many playable two drops that you really don't need them all! I am not used to having more cheap merfolk than I need and defaulted to playing everything and a little bit more!

Hierarch seems like a reasonable fit in the deck as the only non-fish. If I am splashing one drop green merfolk I can get away with ramp dorks as well. It is my Aethervial replacement in some ways. I don't think you want to go overboard on the one drop ramp however as it doesn't work amazingly with your curve. Mox is a far better ramp card as you want to skip the one drop rather than the two drops. There are only a couple of three drop cards you want to lead with compared to loads at two. If more decent one drop merfolk saw print I would replace green ramp with them for sure.

Opposition has always been a way to go with fish decks in cube. Part of the reason for doing so was that it was a good way to disrupt and interact with creatures as a mono blue deck. Typically the Ux fish decks just used spot removal instead. The issue with Opposition in earlier fish decks is that they had relatively low creature counts and relied on keeping some in play. When you are powering up your Opposition with cards like Wall of Omens and Eternal Witness you are pulling ahead if they are controlling your dorks. If you are going to use Lord of Atlantis to empower your Opposition you are in way more trouble when they kill it. Anyway, with this build being so creature heavy and having a token generator and still having the problems of the mono blue builds and their lack of creature removal the Opposition seemed like a great fit.

Jitte would probably be fantastic in this list as a better or additional way of controlling creatures. Hexproof or equivalent dorks go fantastically with Jitte as do evasion dorks. Kopala also helping out a lot. Kopala's ability helps your equipment avoid tempo blowouts which is obviously good. As Kopala takes the slot of Kira, Great Glass Spinner it is an even bigger jump in power as Kira had negative synergy with equips. Not only would it need double the mana to get something equipped it also gave your opponents a window to get in removal past Kira. The only reason I didn't run the Jitte in this list is that I knwo how good the card is and what it does. I want to see hoe the deck performs without that crutch. While the same is somewhat true of Opposition in that I know how it works I can at least more easily compare how it works in this list compared to older versions of fish I have tried. Opposition is a card that is much more build dependent than Jitte.

Beyond the cards covered this list includes all the merfolk classics and auto includes. All the lords, or all the good ones at least. All the actually powerful merfolk at 3 and 4 mana and all the playable ones at 1 and 2 mana. Aquitecht's Will I guess doesn't fall into any of these categories and has pretty much become a staple. It does a lot for a cheap cycler that empowers island walk, adds to devotion and now also triggers Deeproot Waters! I look forward to seeing how merfolk decks evolve and put the new tools to work.

UW Treasure Control

Classic style control decks have gotten a lot of tools recently to help them compete better in cube. This deck showcases some cool new Ixalan cards as well as some other things that greatly help this kind of deck. So what are the problems facing the classic permission style control deck in the current cube meta? It could be summarized broadly by saying it was stretched too thin and made too vulnerable. Threats offer more tempo (or more threat I guess) while being either more resilient or also coming with some extra value. Mass removal, spot removal and countermagic has not improved much over the last 15 years of magic, it has gotten a bit deeper, a bit more redundant and a bit more exotic but it has had nothing on the power creep of threats. Trying to control everything in cube as a blue white player has felt like juggling where each new set adds an extra ball (or whatever one chooses to juggle with, fruit?) into the mix.

With threats generally being better than answers it is a bad idea to try and react to things. The proactive strategies do better in magic now adays. Using your mana to be proactive greatly reduces the value of countermagic. For a good while tap out control decks using little to no countermagic were the only really competitive control decks. Several things have come together to ease this particular issue for the classic permission control deck. One is a healthy number of top quality threats that can be played at instant speed thus synergizing well with countermagic. Another is a couple of cheaper cards that can be sufficiently threatening despite such a low mana cost, either it is a gradual feed of mana that empowers the card or a period of time or some other stipulation like graveyard size. Ashiok is perhaps the best example of such a card although it is not in the classic colours. The last is access to burst mana that comes in a controlling guise. All these various things allow control decks to still rely on countermagic for a chunk of things while giving themselves the ability to be more proactive. Here is a list showcasing some of these tools. It is an amalgam of a deck I played and one a friend played against me but I think it takes the best aspects of both.


23 Spells

Swords to Plowshares
Oust
Thraben Inspector

Wall of Omens
Treasure Map
Cyclonic Rift
Search for Azcanta

Arcane Denial
Remand
Mana Leak
Baral, Chief of Compliance

Nimble Obstructionist
Gideon of the Trails

Supreme Verdict
Settle the Wreckage
Commit // Memory
Restoration Angel

Spell Swindle
Fractured Identity
Mystic Confluence
Archangel Avacyn

Torrential Gearhulk

Ugin, the Sprit Dragon

17 Lands (including Field of Ruin)





So lets take a look at some of the cards and what situations or problems they handle well. In this list I ran Nimble Obstructionist which is a nice all round utility card. It gives you a much bigger safety net against cards like Emrakul, the Promised End as you actually have a tool to stop them stealing your turn. Disallow can also help in this sphere but it is a much weaker card all round than the birdy. Obstructionist can be a surprise 3 damage to an attacker which is OK, most usefully however it can come down EoT and do a lot of work against planeswalkers in the early game. Planeswalkers have been a huge part of the problem for control decks as they struggle to deal with them due to lack of board presence and quality hard removal. Killing planeswalkers with removal is never good value so you really want to counter them or attack them where possible. Obstructionist is a card that doesn't weaken any aspect of your deck while at the same time making it more robust.

A good way to look at the permission deck is like a net trying to catch things. Playing against diverse threats means you need a bigger net however for the most part making a bigger net is akin to stretching the net you have which makes the gaps wider! This in turn means things will start to fall through the net. You had to choose weather you wanted a fine mesh that let nothing through but with a low area coverage or a deck that was full of big holes but that could potentially cover all areas. Obstructionist and several other new cards have enabled the control player to extend their net without having to increase their hole size!

Next up we have a pair of cards that have combined to greatly help out in multiple ways again. Torrention Gearhulk and Commit // Memory do a tonne of work. While it may seem a bit over the top I have found most heavy permission decks really want a way to reuse their decks. A lot of games go long, many cards are drawn and milling yourself is a possibility. Further to that you may really need to reuse certain cards before the game is done. I have used a lot of Elixir of Immortality in UW control. I have splashed green for Primal Command and Bow of Nylea style things. I have even run Mistveil Plains all to give me that reshuffle. The issue is that all these cards and plans are not great outside of the reshuffle which comes late. Seeing such cards early hurts you. They are a dead card or at least a very low powered one for much of the game and many matchups. Memory is free, it comes on the back of Commit which is a very nicely playable and rounded card. Now, you don't often play Timetwister in control decks because paying mana to give your opponents a load of cards is pretty dodgy. Having the option free on the back of something is still nice and is still a lot better than milling yourself but it is only a mild help. What pushes it through the roof is the ability to fire it off at instant speed on the back of a Gearhulk. This way you get first go on the new cards with all your mana up and you have a massive dork in play to give you a leg up on the tempo side of things.

Gearhulk itself is an all round win in control. It is arguably better than Snapcaster in the control builds even discounting the synergy with Memory. Snapcaster is never more tempo than playing the spell you give flashback to and using two mana to do something else than a 2/1. Snapcaster is value and utility and that is what makes it so good. It isn't bad tempo but it can be better. Gearhulk on the other hand gets more and more impressive in terms of tempo the bigger the card you recur. Past a couple of mana on your recurred spell and you are getting a huge swing. Further to that a 5/6 is pretty relevant while a 2/1 not so much. Gearhulk gives you everything! Tempo, value, utility, and a flash threat.

Spell Swindle is an interesting one. It works nicely with Gearhulk being a big instant but it isn't like Memory in that it isn't good enough with Gearhulk to make them any sort of combo you specifically want together. Spell Swindle gets it work done all by itself in a couple of ways. It allows you to have a big burst turn and stabilize. Mana at a given time is a big deal for control. Having access to an inflated ammount for a specific turn makes a huge difference. If you can slap down a threat or mass removal and still have mana up for disruption then game on. Another way the card helps is by being really awkward to play into. If you are facing five untapped mana of which two is blue you are a whole lot less keen to cast a big thing. Spell Swindle by itself doesn't do huge amounts to disrupt how your opponent can play however when you combine it with a multitude of other 4 and 5 mana high impact instant or flash cards it gets really uncomfortable. Trying to play around several fairly blowout big cards just leaves a lot of players without any good safe lines of play. A five mana counterspell seems horrible but a Gilded Lotus with flash on the other hand sounds amazing, try thinking of this doing the job of the latter rather than just being the former. This is a big card that enables other big cards rather than taking up the slot of a big card.

Settle the Wreckage has been another very useful tool. While the card is a lot less like a Wrath than I had hoped it is still a fantastic card for control. Careless players will simply run into it and it will be like a good Wrath. Others will play around it and as such will be greatly slowed down by it. Sure, you won't gain as much actual card advantage nor such a huge tempo swing in one go but you will get a lot of out just having the card in your deck. Generally they still need to offer you up a couple of threats to bait it out and you still come out ahead, just not as ahead as you would be to the careless player. It is most like Wing Shards but a little better so far even with the extra cost. It deals with all the same problem cards, monstrous Fleecemane Lions, manlands, vehicles, haste dorks and so forth but it also exiles them too which is nice and it will go as wide as your opponents attack regardless of storm count. Settle very much falls into the group of cards that mean your opponents lines of play become increasingly risky as you get to 4 or more mana.

Gideon of the Trials is decent in control builds. He allows you to develop a bit of a board and he has great synergy with Wrath effects. You can slap him down and buy loads of time fogging their threats and force them to over extend into a wrath. If they diversify and flop down a planeswalker you can use removal on their dorks and use Gideon to beat down on their walker. Gideon is very unlikely to win you games but he does a good job of being like both a Wall of Omens and a Celestial Colonnade at the same time. He also provides a niche form of protection against some obscure combo decks.

Treasure Map and Search for Azcanta are some of the less obvious newer additions. Both are somewhat similar in that they are low impact cheap cards with a mild tempo cost that are able to generate a lot of value in a lot of areas over time. The cards have the feel of Sylvan Library or Divining Top combined with Ancestral Visions! Beyond that they start to differ more in how and where they are good. Azcana is lower impact but it is also less onerous of an inclusion cost. The big swing cards available now make two mana do nothings far more playable in control. Further to this the comfort of a graveyard reshuffle makes looting much more appealing in control. Azcanta drip feeds you card quality and potentially graveyard fuel for as long as you want it. Then it is a land that gives you a bit of extra burst mana in the mid to late game and finally some extra gas and mana sink utility. It helps a little bit at every stage of the game. For the low low cost of 2 mana and 1 card you will end up with a whole lot more far enough down the line. Four scry, five mana and a couple of cards isn't even that impressive of a showing for the card. It is like a safe mini planeswalker!

The Map is a bit more costly but the payoff is a bit more swingy. You need to invest five mana and three turns in it to flip it and all you get in return for this is three scrys for one. The mana split helps but if you are trying to flip it quickly it isn't a negligible cost by any means. When you do flip it however you get a whole lot of power and options. Ideally you flip at their EoT so you get to untap with four extra mana or the extra draw with potentially two more mana. You can flip right away if you are desperate but that only generates 1 mana there and then and uses all your treasure. Flipping this EoT usually means winning, either a boat load of cards or mana as the situation commands will tend to get the job done.

Field of Ruin is another relatively fair card like Nimble Obstructionist that does a lot for this archetype. Short of playing Waste Lands the UW conrtol player is pretty cold to utility lands. Trying to beat a Kessig Wolf Run is a nightmare. Field of Ruin is a far better control fit than any other land control option and costs very little to add into a list. The top of library control it gives is not at all to be sniffed at either. Very useful card all round and likely one of the main go to colourless lands for control decks going forwards. The synergy this had with Out and Commit (and Unexpectedly Absent) was noticeable and relevant as was the synergy with Settle the Wreckage and thus presumably Path to Exile. Lots of decks simply run out of basics in my cube and so the more cards you have than will compensate your opponents with lands the less they collectively end up giving away.

Lastly we have Fractured Identity. Pretty silly card that is terrifying to play into. What it does that no other card does is remove a planeswalker favourably. You both get at least one activation of the planeswalker and you both use one card. You however have an active walker and they don't. You might even be up a little bit of mana on them although you are still very happy with a one mana deficit when you have a four mana walker fighting for you. This card allows you to fall behind a bit enjoying luxuries like Treasure Map. It lets you make plays you otherwise might not because you really had to counter any planeswalker that might get made against you. It lets you be more flexible in how you use your other premium coverall removal such as Council's Judgement. It is exactly in the same group of cards that can wreck you and needs respecting.

Although I claimed this list was an amalgam of two decks I cut the Aetherling from it despite it being in both decks. Aetherling has been the most reliable control win condition for as long as it has been a thing. While it does a great job of ending a game it is a super hard card to play. You really want 8 mana and a Force of Will in hand or like 10 mana and a counterspell, that is when you feel safe dropping it down. In this list however it was a far far more rapid threat and felt more like Entreat the Angels in its threat level. The difference between this list and older builds are the Ixalan additions. The treasure generators and the things that flip into lands give you access to those 8-10 mana turns you need to get your Aetherling into play safely and they do so on or close to the turn six mark. While six mana is often a turn six thing for control decks 8-10 mana is very rarely a turn 8-10 thing. Past the six mana mark you start to frequently miss land drops resulting in an incredibly slow and clunky win condition. One you have the Aetherling in play you only need a couple of mana to have it remain nice and safe meaning treasure is a pretty good route to getting it out in a more relevant time frame.

As you can see, this list has a selection of terrifying things. You could be well up on the board againt it and have loads of gas in hand but facing into six untapped mana and a couple of cards in hand from this list and the wrong move will kill you. Your big walker might get Swindled or Fractured, your team might get Wrathed or Wrecked, you might run into an indestructible Archangel or a mere 5/6! There are no safe paths to tread. Blue white control decks finally feel like they have caught up to the various kinds of threats thrown at it. They have enough depth and range in their threats and answers that you can draft the archetype with reasonable confidence and have it be very competitive.

Winding Constrictor .dec

Time for a bit of a theme deck. I don't expect this to be tier one by any means but it has a lot of depth in support and even in payoff while containing a lot of independently powerful cards. I first wanted to do this when Reyhan was released but never got round to it. Then again, when Winding Constrictor came out it looked even more appealing. The last couple of sets haven't offered all that much to power this kind of thing even more but we already have plenty. The issue for this deck will not be lack of cards but rather lack of space. The more synergy you ram in the better that aspect of the deck gets, each card with +1/+1 counter synergy improves. The problem is that you leave very little space for solid interactive cards which you will need to not fold to certain cards you might face.

The deck wants four kinds of cards, things that improve +1/+1 counters, things that are improved with +1/+1 counters, things that give or gain +1/+1 counters and then some interaction, removal and disruption.




In our first group we have;

Hardened Scales
Winding Constrictor
Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
Corpsejack Menace


In our second group there is;

Avatar of the Resolute
Inspiring Call
Amourcraft Judge
Servant of the Scale



In our third group we have the bulk of the cards; (arguably some of these should be in group 2)

Experiment One
Scavenging Ooze
Walking Ballista
Lotleth Troll
Hangerback Walker
Tireless Tracker
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
Rishkar, Peema Renegade
Renegade Krasis
Flesh Carver
Den Protector
Drana, Liberator of Malakir
Yehenni, Undying Partisan
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

Verdurous Gearhulk

In our last group we have loads of options too but far less space;

Thoughtsieze
Inquisition of Kozilek
Collective Brutality
Go for the Throat
Abrupt Decay
Maelstrom Pulse
etc.
Some one mana ramp is likely well worth some space

Mixing that lot together I got this list. I went super light on group four cards so as to maximize the synergy cards for a first run sort of deck. That way I get to see which cards are weaker and what I need more of. I expect some of the higher power cards that are off theme somewhat like Kalitas or even Scavenging Ooze may well be easier to cut after testing. I expect I will want to replace them with some more removal. Some of the deeper cards may also turn out to just not be worth it. Looking mostly at that Servant! Due to the high power of a couple of specific interactions it feels like some creature tutor effects may well be a nice way to power this list up. The importance of Walking Ballista is why I am running the Den Protector but something to find it from the library is probably worth finding space for.

24 Spells


Experiment One
Elves of Deepshadow
Birds of Paradise
Thoughtsieze

Hardened Scales
Servant of the Scale

Winding Constrictor
Scavenging Ooze
Walking Ballista
Lotleth Troll

Avatar of the Resolute
Abrupt Decay
Hangerback

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
Rishkar, Peema Renegade
Flesh Carver
Inspiring Call

Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
Den Protector
Drana, Liberator of Malakir

Corpsejack Menace
Armourcraft Judge
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

Verdurous Gearhulk


16 Lands

The main engine cards for this deck are the things that increase the +1/+1 counters added to things. The Constrictor and the Scales are nice cheap things that increase the number of counters by one, which in most cases is double. The Corpsejack Menace is always a doubling of the counters which can get out of hand with a couple of cards but for the most part it is just a bigger, costlier version of the Constrictor. Lastly we have Reyhan who essentially gives all your creatures modular. Reyhan in particular gets very out of hand with the Menace. Assuming the Menace is in play the whole time then Reyhan comes in as a 6/6 and will give twelve +1/+1 counters to something upon death! So all these cards significantly improve the value and efficiency of creatures with +1/+1 counter on them and ways to give and gain them. Value is all well and good but messing around to get bigger guys for less mana than you otherwise might isn't all that great of a plan. A good plan wins a game and while having bigger guys can win games it doesn't do so directly. A lot of decks will either disrupt your plan and leave you with small guys and weak cards or they will kill you before you get round to killing them. I would love to have thrown in a Survival of the Fittest and a Recurring Nightmare so I could more reliably abuse my best interactions but that seemed even more durdly! At least the list I have presented is fairly proactive and redundant. It might not always have the best synergy cards together but it doesn't hang about in getting some killing done!

So we have things that buff counters but what about the things that +1/+1 counters buff in return? Armorcraft Judge and Inspiring Call will draw a pile of cards. They are both pricey cards and they need to be appropriately setup however they are pretty abusive. While I don't much like Inspiring Call it does seem like it counters the things you are most afraid of - Wraths. Being able to draw so many cards is another reason to be a little off cards like Survival and Nightmare, in you manage to hit a big draw on the back of a Hill Giant or mass removal counter then you have all the gas you will need. There is also Avatar of the Resolute which is a substantially lower payoff than card draw but none the less pretty dangerous. The trample and the impressively high floor on this card make it well worth including. It is one of the better finishers in the deck despite being one of the cheaper cards. Ideally it is not made on curve but it is still better than doing nothing.

Servant of the Scale is the Arcbound Worker of the deck. Calling it a payoff is perhaps generous! Unlike Avatar this has a low floor and as such really isn't great on curve. Ideally you want to wait till you have your Constrictor or something in play before dropping it down. Although I have them just in the dorks that have and gain +1/+1 counters section both the XX artifact dudes are amazing in this list. They are some of the best scaling cards with the support and some of the best payoffs for dumping a load of counters on them. Both get very dangerous very quickly and will be a focal point of the games.

The rest of the deck is made up of a smattering of removal and disruption and a healthy dose of top rate stand alone dorks (and Nissa) that have, gain and/or give +1/+1 counters. Drana is a little slow as she comes with no counters but the deck has very little in the way of flying. She is also one of the few ways you have to carpet your board with counters thus empowering Thopters and the like. Nissa is the other but she is an obvious lock in being significantly less conditional and again, a stand alone good card. Renegade Krasis can get it done but it felt a little bit wishful. This is the only chance the card has in cube really and so I should probably let him have his chance! Rishkar is pretty nuts in the deck. She is very versatile and high power level as a stand alone. In this deck she is also a +1/+1 giver and mild payoff card. While you won't be tapping your dorks for mana that often the option to do so is great and the fact that most of your dorks will be able to is also nice and convenient.

Lotleth Troll is another decent finisher like Avatar. The trample allows you to push through and the regenerate allows you to go big with less risk than with some other cards. Also being a zero mana ability to apply counters is nice. If you have a Troll, a Constrictor and some cards in hand that Troll could become pretty huge without warning! Gearhulk is another no brainer for the top end simply for extreme power level on top of +1/+1 synergy.  Flesh Carver is a good all rounder with high power level and mild +1/+1 synergies. The sac outlet aspect should be more useful than usual however with the modular aspect to some of the cards. Kalitas on the other hand far less so and is seeming more and more like something I should cut... Experiment One and Scavenging Ooze are just decent cheap cards you can throw out on curve and that work with the decks theme. With the options on synergic and powerful card declining as you get lower in CMC for this deck the good cheap cards feel like lock ins as well.

This list will crush any midrange deck. It has good cards to be able to go toe to toe in the early parts of the game and then in the mid and late game the synergy elements will simply be way too much for other midrange decks to handle. Aggro decks will give you less chance to do your thing but having generally good dorks is a great way to survive an aggressive strategy. Just surviving and getting to do a bit of +1/+1 counter shenanigans should close out those games. Combo decks are the main problem for this kind of thing, it is too slow and value focused to put up a good enough clock and it has far too little disruption to slow down the opponents. Control decks won't be a pushover and getting to do insane counters things won't happen very often against them but it will still give them a good game. For a fun themed deck this looks far more potent than most, if not all, of the others I have looked at on this blog. It also has a substantially deeper pool of cards to choose from. In the right meta this deck could be tier one.

Winners and Losers from Ixalan

Arguel's Blood Fast - big win

Much as I liked this card I was not holding out for it to be great. So far however it has been superb. Two mana is not too much to pay for a do nothing. Plenty of cards like Night's Whisper, Signets, Sylvan Library, etc. are a tempo cost to play and are not too onerous. It is three or more mana do nothings that are super hard to play in cube and even then you can, you just have to build around it heavily. So, once Blood Fast is in play you have a near infinite supply of clues provided you pay two life per crack. That is great. It is very very good against slower decks. You get to spend your mana and you get to do stuff without over extending. I know a good card when after losing to it in game one my opponent taps out to use three mana removal on it on turn three - I had even drawn a card as I had ramped with an elf.

On the flip side of things the card is still very good against aggro. You get some control over your life so you can fairly easily engineer this to a flip at which point you have extra mana or extra life to play around with as you see fit. Aggro red players only have a couple of turns to close out a game once you flip this on them so long as you have some chump dorks to toss down. The flip turns out to also be fantastic against non-aggressive decks. I have already won from saving an Ishkanah from exile by saccing it for life in response to a Swords to Plowshares and then later being able to recur it. I think what put people off this card is that Greed is bad and this has a worse effect than Greed and it is the same total mana at 3 draws apiece after which Greed becomes more efficient. The thing is Greed is a four mana do nothing, you simply can't hope to play it without it really setting you back. Greed also becomes dead very fast which Blood Fast really doesn't. Extra mana is good, lifegain is great, cards are great and it turns out sac outlets are pretty great too! While not the best card in the set by any means this is certainly the standout so far based on expectation.


Treasure Map - win

In much the same vein as the Blood Fast this was a surprising win. While I am not sure if it is a bigger win it is certainly a much bigger surprise. This is certainly a super slow card but it is fairly easy to play and use without it hurting much in any sort of slower deck. The payoff when you do flip it is so huge and so flexible that it is well worth that initial investment. If you are out of gas then an influx of double draws for three turns goes a long way. Alternatively if you are under pressure that explosion of mana can turn the tide. Enough other things are making treasure that this thing can and has drawn well over three cards in a game. It feels a bit like a super Think Twice. You get to split up your payments so that the cost is far less expensive. At five mana for the flip trigger and land side you would still play this, in some decks it would be better and certainly as a late draw it would be much more relevant. For the most part however being able to split up the five mana into a two and three ones means the mana cost of this card is fairly negligible for a lot more decks. That with being a colourless card I expect this will wind up getting play in some unexpected places. The scry is very relevant too. With a card like Ancestral Visions you have literally spent one mana and one card to do nothing for four turns. Map feels much more like 3 mana and a card but you get to scry so it is helping and it is relevant. Most decks looking to play the longer game will be able to get some good value out of this. What I got most from cards like this that give a mana return late in the game for a tempo cost initially is that they lend themselves to big haymakers. Cards like this actually let you increase your top end. Cut some four and five drops and replace them with a couple of six plus drops and the odd low end card (including this map) and then use cheaper spells and scry to survive and then have a massive swing with an Ugin or something and take control.



Chart a Course - win

Some awkward interactions with prowess guys is what I most learned about this little gem. Intentionally used precombat for extra prowess damage and Delve Fuel. A huge flavour win using Chart a Course in this way to setup a Treasure Cruise. All very nautical. This is just a good solid card we will be seeing a lot of in a wide array of cubes and archetypes for many years to come.







Jace, Cunning Castaway - mild win if that

I was surprised at how many people were pretty cold for new Jace. Most people I spoke to seemed to think it was just a weak card. While this is no bomb it is certainly a decent card. Of all the various three mana planeswalkers printed so far none have been bad. Literally none. Ajani was the worst but mostly due to being narrow. It still saw some play and still does now and again, I have won with it and lost to it plenty. The next worst 3 mana walker is Saheeli Rai and she had a whole archetype form around her! Three mana planeswalkers are just dangerous cards. They come down quick and become the focus of the game even if they are not going to be doing critical damage any time soon. Every turn they live they pull their controller ahead a little more. A three mana walker can be substantially less potent than a four mana one and still be the better card.


Cunning Castaway felt like a comparable power level to Nissa, Voice of Zendikar. Both quite slow and quite low impact but both still effective cards. Nissa is a little better suited to green with green having such a high creature count and a relatively good chance of making a turn two three drop. Although Jace is a touch harder to house I think he does a lot for the cost. His low end was making a 2/2 which would typically trade up due to forcing attacks on Jace. The result was usually trading even on cards and mana but the Jace would also absorb some damage. It had a somewhat Wall of Omens feel when you were behind. If however you were ahead when you make the Jace it is pretty brutal. The ultimate threatens fast and the options to get card quality or some board presence is great. The illusions only die to spell targetting which makes them substantially more robust than Phantasmal Bear. I nearly threw a game when my plan was to kill and illusion with a +1/+1 counter from Rishkar, fortunately I did some reading! It feels like Jace generally pulls you a little bit ahead even when it dies immediately while still having the capacity to dominate a game. You don't play this like a Mind Sculptor, a card that if you stick in play for a couple of turns you should be pretty odds on to win. You play this more like a Rogue Refiner except once in a while it will win the game.



Ranging Raptors - rather polar

So far this has been incredibly polar. Against the aggressive red player it was nuts and outperformed Courser of Kruphix. In one game I milked it for four lands! On the other hand against control decks it is little better than a Grey Ogre. If decks have few dorks and don't need to attack to win and don't have damage based removal then the card is pretty awful. That is a lot of decks but not most and given how good it is in other matchups the average is quite possibly still high enough for this to be cube worthy. I don't love polar card and I don't like unreliable cards either so this will have to work extra hard to keep its cube slot but so far so good.



Spell Swindle - win

Yea, this hits the mark. It is a little on the clunky side but it does seem to easily lead to a win if it hits a relatively big card. Four plus CMC has been the aim so far. After that it is like you have infinite mana! You can just make big plays in total safety. You do need some follow up to this but that is fine, the kinds of deck that pack a five mana (non-pitch cost) counterspell are very rarely in that position. It is almost always mana restrictions that get them. In the slower games they have to play safer and leave up loads of mana and that means expending your hand significantly slower. While this is obviously on the weak side against fast decks you have card quality and filtering for that. The card still isn't dead, it is just slow but the same is very true of things like Mystic Confluence, Cryptic Command and so forth. They may stall a bit more effectively but Spell Swindle lets you take control and win. It is exactly what you want in the midrange and control games and that is enough to carry it.



Explore dorks: Merfolk Branchwalker / Seeker's Squire - very mild lose

Fine cards but very much filler. The black will get a lot more play but it isn't strictly better, black just has far less of that kind of thing. These are very much a worse late game top deck than anything that directly draws a card or cycles away. They are also a little unpredictable early. Say you have the black one and they are hitting you with a Goblin Guide. If you are missing lands you very much want to hit a land but if you are flooded you really want a 2/3. If you also had a Wall of Blossoms in that situation you are 100% making it instead as it is reliable and has a higher floor. The black one is still a great and much needed addition to black but the green one may not stand the test of time with green having so much like that already that reliably does its thing. Overall these might be a bit annoying but they are very strong in the early game even when you get the less desired mode. With the early game being so much more relevant than the late game Branchwalker could very easily wind up being a decent chunk better than Elvish Visionary say.




Rigging Runner - big lose

This is great when it is great but it turns out that isn't all that often. For optimal use this needs to be played with a one drop before it or alongside a one drop with haste both on turn two. If the former is your route then you need to also spend your saved mana else you might as well have just run a two drop of which all are more powerful than a 2/2 first strike. The upside on this is pretty minor and has a very narrow window in which to occur. The downside however results in a pretty shocking card and it occurs far too often. This is actually most like a Burning Tree Emissary in performance, only good when you get use from the mana saving/generated. Rigging Runner is only good in a pretty optimal deck full to the brim of premium one drops. As a backup filler card this is shocking. The risk reward matrix for this thing just comes up looking very unfavourable. The power of a one drop is low, the value is all in the bargain pricing. The conditional one drops lose most of this potential value and result in just being very low powered cards.



Hostage Taker - mild win

This Gonti come Sower of Temptation is pretty interesting. I found I was saving it until very if I could late so that I could immediately cast the hostage thus avoiding a window to have this removed. It is quite a risky card to try and get big rewards from. One game my opponent had to use it on a Torrential Gearhulk and it was very much an all in play. If I didn't have removal I was going to die to the tempo and value of the play however if I did have removal the extra EtB trigger was going to swing it for me. The last couple of cubes I have played have been really silly affairs. Between this, Gonti himself, Fractured Identity and Ashiok a shockingly close to 50% of the recent games in my cube have been won with the opponents cards.

Hostage taker gives options, you can go for a big risk big swing play, you can hold him for a mild yet safe late swing or you can play him on curve for a bit of a tempo buffer. It is this utility that makes him good. Gonti is far safer and well contained and Sower offers much bigger potential swings. Hostage taker isn't more powerful than either but he is much more versatile and can do a reasonable impression of either, occasionally even both! I may wind up cutting this eventually for being a gold card but with Dimir presently having so few cube worthy cards this is pretty safe for now. While his body isn't exciting it is sufficiently hardier than Sower and commands immediate removal while the target is still exiled. Any card that forces immediate removal use is decent even if it is a 4 mana 2/3...



Rampaging Ferocidon - win

In a constructed setting where you have the best versions of the aggressive red decks this doesn't look all that exciting. It is slow and expensive compared to what red likes to do. As such I wasn't wetting my pants over this in the review. Vortex and even things like Skullcrack are often better lifegain prevention and as for threats, basically all the red three drops in my cube are better than this. I have a (likely bad) tendency to look at cards in their optimal archetypes more than the more average cases. That was where I stumbled a bit on this card. Obviously it is good but it didn't feel like it was offering better alternatives in those best cases. Well, in sealed and draft this thing is a bomb. It is arguably one of reds best three drops because it does so much all at once. It is fairly robust, it is super hard to block when you are under pressure, it applies more pressure if you are looking to develop your board and it negates all your lifegain outs. Pretty simply, you need to remove this sharpish or it is going to do for you. It is a touch easier to answer than Vortex but given how much disruption it causes it is over twice the threat level of a Vortex. Expect to take four or five from this a turn... Obviously a three toughness dork is quite killable but against red you have blown your removal on that Goblin Guide, Swiftspear, Harsh Mentor and/or Firebrand Archer. You sit there taking beats from cheap dorks holding removal for their three drops then you probably just lose that way instead. It is pretty much for that reason that flipwalker Chandra is so potent in aggressive red decks. Ferocidon is all round very scary to face off regardless of your archetype.




Sailor of Means - lose

Predictably the power level of this card just isn't quite there. In the ideal case he holds off loads of attacks and ramps you from 3 to 5. In most cases you either have more important things to do on 3 than this or you don't have this. It is very sad to peel this off the top in the late game. I have had this already be the best card in my deck in a specific matchup, the issue was how weak the card was in the other matchups. While it may be a very suitable card it is too polar in when and where you want it for a card with such a low power level. You really need those weaker cards to perform across the board. I am sure I will use this in some applications as a nice synergic support card but I can't really justify this a drafting cube slot.




Kitesail Freebooter - win

While I am sitting pretty at under 50% hit rate for this card I am still not disappointed with it. Often it is the information I need to make a big play in safety. You are rarely expecting a two for one with this. Your value comes in the form of inconvenience and delay on your opponent while getting a useful body and information. A 1/2 flier isn't super relevant but it is better than most utility bodies. It was triggering raid effects, looting with Cunning Castaway, holding off Lingering Souls and even applying additional pressure to planeswalkers and life totals. Both Birds of Paradise and Deathrite Shaman significantly out perform  the conventional 1/1 body of mana elves in cube when just talking about the bodies rather than the tap effects. Kitesail Freebooter has both those advantages of +1 toughness and flying over Ravenous Rats and Mesmeric Fiend cards and it was noticeable over relatively few games. A 1/2 flier is probably over three times as useful as a 1/1. Lovely little tool for black.



Ruin Raider - win

I was thinking this was just going to be a clunky Dark Confidant and perform poorly. Turns out it is much more like  dangerous version of Rogue Refiner / Phyrexian Rager. I was super happy tossing this down, drawing a card at EoT and then trading with some medium sized dork. If I wasn't under pressure it served as nice two for one removal bait. It is a mild problem getting raid when you are under pressure but easier and less painful than you might think. Plenty of black dorks can't block and recur anyway. Then you have the Kitesail Freebooter who you might as well attack with as you are not trading it off in combat if it has eaten a relevant card. This is certainly a proactive card and so isn't the complete Phyrexian Rager. Stalling with this sans raid on an empty board as a control deck is poor. The thing is you don't really play Dark Confidant and Co. in slower decks these days either and so I can't really call this narrow in any comparative sense. While still not as good as Confidant it is far less fragile and far less of a loss when it is removed. It is much easier to get a two for one or more with Raider than Confidant. Raider is more rounded, it is fine in most matchups while Confidant excels against slower decks when it comes out too early and dodges answers for a bit.



Settle the Wreckage - mild lose

This is still cube worthy but it isn't by any means replacing Wrath of God cards. You will just want a balance of mass and spot removal styles. Against aggressive decks this is pretty good but it is something you can play around. If you suspect or know they have it you can extend into it and just hold back an attacker or two. An example of why this is weaker than a Wrath in a more general sense; I had a game with massive board stall that went of for ages. I eventually "broke through" with Ishkanah who I cast a couple of times to amass seven spiders with which I could use my 14 mana over two turns to win the game. Settle the Wreckage did nothing while a Wrath would have ended that plan. He also had a Condemn in his hand. Settle scales badly with other removal restricted to taking out attackers. Most slower decks can limit their losses to Settle or simply kill in other ways. It is very much a Wing Shards kind of card both in power and in function. A nice tool to have and an acceptable level of power for the cube but not a great substitute for a good old Wrath.


Field of Ruin - mild win

I had not considered how valuable having a low cost on-tap shuffle option for both libraries would be and it turned out to be a pretty big perk to the card. I had lines of play where shuffling away Commited enemy threat was very relevant. This card not only brings a good degree of security against the scary lands in the cube but it also comes with a wealth of options and interactions which further enhances this brilliantly designed card. Still not a bomb by any means but a lovely tool for all to enjoy!