Battle for Baldur's Gate Preliminary Review Part IX

 

 0 - unplayable in 40 card singleton

1 - effectively unplayable

2 - has low tier constructed decks it might go in

3 - has mid tier constructed decks it does go in

4 - pretty powerful stuff with several potential homes, able to perform well in lower powered cubes

5 - powerful stuff that is either just too narrow or has too many superior alternatives

6 - fringe cube worthy

7 - cube worthy

8 - cube staple

9 - unpowered cube bomb

10 - powered cube bomb 

Draconic Muralists 1

Expensive for a tutor but then considering it is on a 4/3 body it looks about as cheap as a tutor can get. Needing this to die does detract from the appeal and only finding dragons, especially for a green card, does make this rather too narrow for most things. 

Candlekeep Inspiration 1

High potential ceiling but not an effect blue much cares for and needs setup on multiple axis. 

Altar of Bhaal 7

This looks like it has a chance of unseating the long time cube staple Recurring Nightmare. While Nightmare was a once feared card of incredible reach and power it has rather fallen by the wayside in cube of late due to low tempo and vulnerability to things like graveyard disruption. Altar is a fraction more costly to use than Nightmare with that two mana upfront cost. It also can only be used once a turn, and the most notable drawback compared to Nightmare is that you cannot loop dorks. That probably matters less now as well as you mostly want to make tokens into fatties and then force the opponent to have to deal with the fatty rather than saccing it off again to the Altar. It does however stop you just getting abusive with the likes of Ravenous Chupacabra. It also stops you triggering on death effects which is annoying but it mostly reduces synergy potentials than raw base power. Altar is also rather easier to answer than Nightmare as it sits in play rather than hiding in hand. So with these many minor downsides compared to Nightmare what does Altar offer us as an upside? Just the adventure mode really but it is quite a big upside. It is fuel if you need it for the Altar. It is proactive and reasonable tempo and not even devoid of threat. It makes this card not simply dead weight in hand while the early tempo war rages. It isn't powerful but it turns your card from a luxury late game tool to a well rounded card. This is a long way from a bomb but I do kind of prefer the design and suitability of it for cube than I do Nightmare. Who knew a 4/1 menace for three could make such a difference to a card! 

 Undermountain Adventurer 2

Cool card with a good sum-of-parts element but ramp and value start to lack bite where this comes in on the curve. 

Ancient Bronze Dragon 1

Too slow and conditional. Where is my immediate impact? My security against removal? I am not even into Sneak Attack effects with this... A seven drop with only a combat damage to player trigger that doesn't even look good when combined with a Sneak Attack is quite the achievement, and not in a good way. 

Vexing Puzzlebox 2

This is quite fun and is one of the first cards I have seen that makes dice rolling less awful in magic. This has an OK floor and can be scaled up to do some scary things. The floor isn't good enough for cube and the ceiling requires too much build around from cards that are themselves a long way off cube viability. I might try this out for some fun but I cannot advise doing so if you are in the market to win games. 

Wild Magic Surge 3

A kind of Chaos Warp that is cheaper but more inclined towards returning a problematic card. You might get lucky and hit the only/last artifact, enchantment, or planeswalker in a deck and have this be a very solid instant speed two mana Vindicate! You might also just two for one yourself, give them some free EtB triggers and simply not do what you want to do with your removal. Not unplayable but not the kind of card I like to play with unless I really have to. 

Banishment 2

Flash is lovely on your Banishing Light cards but I am not sure it is worth a whole extra mana (without cycling for 1 of course!) Wiping out all of the same things isn't making up the difference either in singleton. Yes, you can clear out a whole pile of tokens but you are likely down cards and mana if you do. It is situationally useful but rarely a thing which is getting you ahead. A fine card but not one that makes the cut anymore now that white has premium removal coming out the ears. 

Stoneskin 3

I see this and I think Colossus Hammer. Play this with the likes of Doran and Assault Formation and you have a very scary card indeed. It is a bit Tower Defence for that kind of deck but likely better and probably does enough to power up that style of deck a tier by itself. I don't think we will be seeing such things yet outside of the casual formats but it is now more one to watch. 

Young Blue Dragon 4

Much as I love this card it is all very mana inefficient. It is competing with Mulldrifter and I am not sure it wins out. Yes, this card lets you have your cake and eat it but the cake here is old and dry. Neither mode is good returns on investment and so when you combine them you do not wind up with a great deal. At least both modes on Mulldrifter come closer to the mark on value for mana. I want to like this but I really can't see it packing sufficient punch to last. 

Hezrou 2

The adventure is cute and decent value but it is very situational. It could win the game all by itself but equally it could never do anything. A super flanking 7 drop turdfrog is not the back end that makes up for the rarely useful front end.

Breath Weapon 2

Sounds like the weaponization of halitosis. This is a fine card but it isn't exciting or powerful or critically the best of this kind of effect and so I do not see it getting much cube action. Two damage isn't the sort of thing that kills a dragon anyway so not much of a boon. I would probably still be playing Pyroclasm in a dragon deck if I wanted a little two damage AoE spell. 

Circle of the Land Druid 3

Much as I am a huge fan of Satyr Wayfinder the getting of land being an on death trigger mostly kills this card. When you want land you want it now so the time this would be most useful it is in fact not. I might well still run it in a self mill deck but I wouldn't ever run it in a more conventional setting like a would Wayfinder and that makes it entirely unsuitable for most cubes.  

Basilisk Gate 2.5

I thought they were giving Wolf Run to gates as well as Cabal Coffers! Gate of Alexandria, Strip Gate, The Gate of Pendrel Vale, Mishra's Gateshop?! Then I saw this was sorcery speed and I clamed down again. This is fine. some utility for gates decks and most importantly yet more gates to reach that all important critical mass. 

Sculpted Sunburst 3

A five mana Wrath that lets you both keep your best dorks or might let you keep one of your worst while they keep nothing. Interesting and very close on power level but sadly, when it comes to Wraths you generally just want the cheapest possible option and don't care about frills that might eek out tiny edges. This is playable but not really good enough. 

Battle for Baldur's Gate Preliminary Review Part VIII

 

0 - unplayable in 40 card singleton

1 - effectively unplayable

2 - has low tier constructed decks it might go in

3 - has mid tier constructed decks it does go in

4 - pretty powerful stuff with several potential homes, able to perform well in lower powered cubes

5 - powerful stuff that is either just too narrow or has too many superior alternatives

6 - fringe cube worthy

7 - cube worthy

8 - cube staple

9 - unpowered cube bomb

10 - powered cube bomb 

Modify Memory 1

Too expensive for this effect in 1v1 play.

Eldritch Pact 3

A potential finisher or just a big draw spell. I most want to play this in a deck with Titan's Nest! This is certainly narrow but it is also interesting, scalable, and powerful. 

Neera, Wild Mage 1

Cascade fun times! Uncapped cascade in terms of mana too which can get naughty and indeed has to do so in order to be wroth doing what with you giving up the original spell. Even so, the six mana price tag on what might as well be a wall in terms of board presence, renders this a fun EDH card, even with the combo potential to slap an Emrakul on the top of your deck and play it immediately with a Gitaxian Probe following Neera. 

Topaz Dragon 1

One of the worst of this cycle of cards. Unimpressive at both ends although at least the adventure is an instant giving it mild combat trick vibes. 

Stonespeaker Crystal 1

Where Sisay's Ring and Relic of Progenitus meet. Too costly to be utility and not efficient enough to be ramp. 

Young Red Dragon 6

Love Bathe in Gold. That is a great way to spend a couple of otherwise wasted mana. Great for control, midrange, and tempo decks. The back end however isn't very efficient, even if you ramp into it with the adventure. Luckily it is relevant thanks to the flying and is cheap enough that you will expect to cast more often than not. Neither half of this card brings much power but they are both useful and playable. This has a chance of making it. It will help sort out your early game, ideally ramping you into something potent ahead of curve to pull you ahead allowing you to then continue pushing that advantage with some late game gas. The dragon is enough of a card to make the adventure somewhat free and thus all rather appealing. Sadly I think the raw power leaves it failing to compete all that well in cube without a bunch of empowering synergy at which point it is going to be too narrow. 

Thriving Gate Cycle 3

In terms of fixing we have things very similar and things functionally identical. Great for budget places and good on space economy but not powerful enough for most cubes. What these do that is interesting and useful is bring the total number of gates to an impressive count allowing for an all gate mana base should you wish. Not the most powerful gates we have seen but none the less a significant contributor to the archetypes massive rise in power with this set. 

Heap Gate 4

An untapped gate, a fixing gate, a treasure producer (and thus storage lands of sorts). This does a lot to the point you might play it and other gates in a non-gate deck. Mostly just more good gates to get you going in your gate archetype. 

Swashbuckler Extraordinaire 2

Some nice utility here but without other treasure generators this is not enough. Even with them you still need good dorks to empower with this resulting in an overly narrow card. Yes, it is broad in application technically but that average performance level is not sufficient to get it near a cube deck and so it requires supporting to boost that power level which is where it becomes narrow. 

 

Mystery Key 0

Card draw does not want strings attached. Having a dork that gets through is way too much in the way of strings rendering this unplayable despite an OK power level. 

Underceller Sweep 2

This is powerful and a lot of value but it is too slow for the kinds of places you might consider it. 

Traverse the Outlands 1

This has impressive scaling but it is too conditional and too late in the game to be of much use. Ramp wants to be earlier in the game. 

Taunting Kobold 2

Lack of any evasion means this is rather a one shot affair most of the time making it even less powerful and power was certainly the thing lacking. A cheap and unique card resulting in something that might get play despite seeming objectively useless on the face of it. 

Windshaper Planetar 2

Comically flash is so good that a five mana 4/4 flier with it looks reasonable. The effect isn't totally dead either, you might get to save a planeswalker. Still, neither exciting or quite powerful enough for cubes. 

Caves of Chaos Adventurer 6

Quite a punchy body with some immediate value and then both some value and threat there after. This would do OK in cube and it looks reasonable power wise but I fear red simply has too few slots at 4 mana and they are filled with some of the most impressive and scary threats. 

Battle for Baldur's Gate Preliminary Review Part VII

0 - unplayable in 40 card singleton

1 - effectively unplayable

2 - has low tier constructed decks it might go in

3 - has mid tier constructed decks it does go in

4 - pretty powerful stuff with several potential homes, able to perform well in lower powered cubes

5 - powerful stuff that is either just too narrow or has too many superior alternatives

6 - fringe cube worthy

7 - cube worthy

8 - cube staple

9 - unpowered cube bomb

10 - powered cube bomb 

Githzerai Monk 6.5

The power is low and the cost is higher than I would like but this is a bit of a Time Walk in a lot of cube situations these days. This can push through for a big alpha strike as the final part of a nice curve or from a long drawn out stalemate. It can equally buy you that key turn as the control player when under pressure. I don't feel like I want a five mana 3/2 flier in aggro, midrange, or control, however it seems like it will perform well in all of them. I think it will struggle to get play due to that low power trapped in a high cost card but if it can then strong performance might well let this innocuous break into the mainstream.

Contraband Livestock 2

I actually kind of like this card. Much as I typically hate the randomness of the dice roll cards on a removal spell as clean as this it simply adds a nice dynamic as to calculating when it is a good call using it and indeed on what. You might well need to aim it at one of your own things and hope to make a 4/4 which is cute. Sadly I don't think this has enough raw power to get there. Removal has come along a very long way indeed. A few years ago we were all Declaration in Stone and Valorous Stance this would have had enough power to compete. Alas now it looks pretty laughable in the face of Prismatic Ending, March, Solitude, Winds of Abandon, On Thin Ice even. It is basically an Over cost Pongify but in the best removal colour rather than the worst. 

Wrathful Red Dragon 6

Too polar sadly. Against red and green decks this is an absolute beating of a card. Against the Esper colours however it is eating spot removal and losing tempo. Average performance of this is probably fine for most cubes but you really want cube cards to be more even in performance than this if you are aiming at the best quality of games. 

Ancient Copper Dragon 2

I do love treasure but without haste or some protection this is not the kind of six drop you can afford to run in cube. With the right support this can get rather more interesting. The average mana generation per hit is over 10 which is going to allows for some stupidly big turns. One hit effcts like Sneak Attack and Shallow Grave seem like the best way to try and use this card at which point why are you not just playing Eldrazi? What is this middleman adding?

Storm King's Thunder 1

Fun but way over priced. Copying stuff is best done on the cheap rather than having the ability to scale. This is the kind of card you need to have a huge pile of treasure to go mental with! 

Intellect Devourer 4

A bit of a Gonti sidegrade, and ultimately a downgrade. The main perk here is getting to have a 3 for 1 rather than the 2 for 1 Gonti offers. Sadly it is much worse all round as the body you get is less useful and the card you get is far far less useful. You also do not gain any information over your opponent which sounds minor but I would argue is a significant part of Gonti's power. You critically give them a decent window to kill Devourer and get their card back most of the time as well which turns your 3 for 1 into a 1 for 1 and removes the only upside this had over Gonti. I think the low impact of this card given how far up the curve it is will ruin the performance. Sometimes it will absolutely own the game but a lot of the time it will do relatively little. It is also the kind of card that you can play around when you know it is a threat which all but kills the ceiling on the card. 

Hammers of Moradin 4

Comically close to good in 1v1 for a card with myriad. This is just a little costly and vanilla for the effect but it is a powerful high tempo means of pressuring an opponent. A tapper and an attacker in the same card is right up white weenies street, they can just do a bit better for raw power, options, or consistency when it comes to three drops. 

Ancient Silver Dragon 1

Comically this card has an ability that is actually a drawback in 40 card decks. This literally has a quicker clock for decking yourself than it does for killing them... Pretty awkward. Fun, and powerful, but random, and dangerous, and all sorts of narrow. 

Explore the Underdark 3

Despite the cost this will feature in gate decks due to both the ramp and tutoring and be pretty impressive in those decks. Too slow elsewhere.

Earthquake Dragon 2

For when you really want to go all in on the board! You have to have nearly 10 mana of dragons already in play before this looks like good value for mana at which point a Wrath is bending you over so hard. Recursion is cute but like, how often is it going to be a thing given how unwieldy this thing is to begin with? Much more likely playable due to the high CMC for use with the likes of Nourishing Shoal than it is to play as intended. 

Fraying Line 1

Cute flavour card but really just a (too) slow Wrath. 

Mighty Servant of Leuk-o 6

It should be relatively easy to crew this with two dorks in cube as you can over crew and still get the draw. Crew 4 is a lot though. It means this will be offline some to a lot of the time. That is probably OK as it is pretty hard not to get value out of this. With 1 hit you are drawing 2 cards and if they try and kill it with removal then it is a two for one. This is cheap and threatening and tough to answer. If you can expect to crew it then it is going to be scary. I am not sure how many decks that is and how often they will want a card that isn't brimming with consistency. This looks to have enough power but might lack the appeal. Looking forward to testing it. 

Battle for Baldur's Gate Preliminary Review Part VI

 

 0 - unplayable in 40 card singleton

1 - effectively unplayable

2 - has low tier constructed decks it might go in

3 - has mid tier constructed decks it does go in

4 - pretty powerful stuff with several potential homes, able to perform well in lower powered cubes

5 - powerful stuff that is either just too narrow or has too many superior alternatives

6 - fringe cube worthy

7 - cube worthy

8 - cube staple

9 - unpowered cube bomb

10 - powered cube bomb 

Nine-Fingers Keene 3

Another nice powerful tool for gates decks. Ward of 9 life is eye opening too! It makes this almost something I would look at to play without gates in my build! 

Pact Weapon 3

A lot going on here. Draw, discard, protection, buffs, life loss. Mostly this is random, unreliable and bad! You cannot rely on this for protection unless equipped to very specific cards. You cannot rely on this for threat without top of deck manipulation. You cannot rely on this for value either without the means to be attacking. All in all this seems like a big old waste of cards and mana. Good fun though! Stupidly powerful ceiling too. 

Crystal Dragon 2

This feels close to there but not quite. Rob the Hoard does a cool thing for a nice price. Sadly it is a little narrow and one of those scaling into the late game sort of cards you would prefer not to have as your adventure. You want to have usefully played it before it is time to make the dragon. The body is of course low low power for the cost in cube but remains nominally quite threatening and useful to have and thus adds a good amount of value to the adventure mode. Ultimately this is much the same sort of card as Timeless Dragon but cannot really compete with it on power level. 

Amethyst Dragon 6.5

Expensive but very suitable. This is pretty punchy and direct. Explosive Crystal solves a lot of problems, hits reasonably hard, is never dead, and is impressively versatile. The Dragon just hits hard and fast in the air and is a lovely thing to have on the back end of an adventure. Given how suitable and playable this appears it really puts into perspective how stupid Fury is as a magic card. If the adventure on this was scaled back a bit in cost and power the card would get rather better. Taking up a five slot in decks really puts focus on the relatively low power of the deployed mana on this card but even so, this is just spot on for the sort of thing you want in cube and so I expect it to see play and perform well even if it winds up not lasting due to being a bit fair and dull for a top end card.  

Pegasus Guardian 3

Although the front end is good it needs to cost 1 mana for a body on the back that bad. If the 3/3 were better then I would be very happy with a 2 mana flicker adventure. As it stands this is just not enough raw power at any point or overall on the card. 

Ghost Lantern 2

Cool and cute but a bit back to front in that a Raise Dead scales as the game goes on while the equipment is something you want out early to get the most scaling potential. All in all too underwhelming and slow to be of interest. 

Beckoning Will-o'-Wisp  5

Half an Anthem on flying body. This is a lot less card than Benalish Marshall but it has the important bits and is a whole lot easier to play. It is arguably better by itself as well. I would certainly rather have a 2/3 flier than a 3/3 vanilla dork. Much as this is playable something like an Accorder Paladin is probably going to compete which means it just doesn't have the required power. 

Guardian Naga 2

Close to good enough but all just a bit over cost and under useful.

Rug of Smothering 1

Nice life gain storm effect but on a three mana 1/3 it is hard to conceive of a home for this. It is symmetrical I guess so works with Kavu Predator...

Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm 1

The ward is too small to keep this as safe as you need it to be. Three colours and a narrow effect that is either wild overkill or a do nothing. I might play this in tribal dragons but probably not.

Sailor's Bane 7

At four mana this looks good, at five it is probably still fine. This means we are looking to have at least four things that trigger the cost reduction and considering it checks stuff in exile as well that should be pretty easy. In many ways it is a more convenient Murktide Regent as it doesn't consume resources to cheapen thus not getting in the way of delve and escape cards. Lack of evasion does significantly reduce the threat of this fatty but only compared to Murktide, not in general. We are still very happy with our 7/7 ward 4. Red simply can't kill it, green is going to be sad about not having the biggest thing in play, and white or black will need to take the turn out to kill it. Imagine playing this for 2 with a Negate up only to have them pay 5 or 6 on a premium removal spell and walk into that Negate. Game ending savagery that is quite easy to imagine happening. Much as this is a high synergy card it is exactly the right sort of synergy to fit in with blue in most cubes.

 

Rescuer Chwinga 6

Whitemane Lion gets a mild upgrade with more relevant types and the ability to bounce a broader range of stuff. Useful little support card but a little on the narrow side to be worth it in most cubes considering the low raw power level of the Chwinga. 

Split the Spoils 1

Fact or Fiction meets Nature's Spiral. This is a good amount of value and a reasonable cost for it but it is so late in the day before it gets good that I can't see it ever making the final cut. It is simply not worth the risk of running into random graveyard hate let alone having a card that does basically nothing for the early and mid game. 

Moonshae Pixie 1

A little heavy on the costing for what has to be a card used in an aggressive deck which is the only sensible looking thing you can do with this card. Also, blue aggressive decks don't get all that much out of giving things flying, they often already have evasion. 

Sapphire Dragon 2

Over cost Negate with big late game payoff. Good but not good enough. I would likely rather run the three mana hard counter with Awaken and that has not been something in contention for a long long time. 

Thunderwave 1

As soon as you are doing less damage than the CMC of the spell you might as well be playing X spells like Earthquake. The upsides here are nice but not reliable and certainly on the situational side.

 

Balor 6

This makes me think of Elder Gargaroth with a dash of the Neon Dynasty dragon legends. Gargaroth was very powerful but rarely seemed to perform all that well in cube. It was simply too easy to bypass the trigger. Balor is a little smaller and has rather less rounded abilities. They are hard to gain value or tempo with and will often still mean that Balor trades one for one with a tempo loss when killed, even with destroy effects. Balor wouldn't seem out of place in cubes, he would be flashy and threatening, and plenty powerful. I just imagine plenty of more suitable or direct cards will perform better, notably the various decent 4 and 5 power five drop threats red has with haste as in addition to their other abilities, often EtB ones.