Introduction
Hello everyone and welcome to the Kaldheim Cube Update! I'd like to talk about the set mechanics before we get into the individual cards so I don't have to continuously repeat myself. Understanding the feel of the mechanics themselves is going to be critical in properly assessing the cards that utilize them. I'll be doing this in all future sets as appropriate from now on.
- Snow
It's important that I specify that I run snow basics in my cube. This means that every basic land is going to be a snow land and drafters will have access to as many of them as they want from the land box. They will not need to be drafting them in packs. This means that all cards that reference snow lands will essentially be counting all basic lands instead. This makes the snow cards a lot more powerful and consistent than in a regular limited format where you have a cap on how many snow lands you can realistically obtain. It's a lot more like constructed in that respect. Cards that might not be on your radar as cube playables will go way up once you take off the restriction on snow lands. This is especially true in my cube where most decks just won't be running 10+ non-basic lands because of how I'm collating the packs. Decks are going to have between 12-15 snow lands on average and that is a very high level of density, guaranteeing these effects are going to be live at all times.
- Foretell
I love what Wizards has been doing with these mana smoothing abilities in recent sets. Foretell goes a little ways towards allowing players to have cards that are relevant at all points during a game and help mitigate non-games should one player stumble on mana. It's played very well in my experience and has allowed for a lot of opportunity for players to maximize their mana while providing just a little bit of mystery with the right density of effect. The ability shines once you have even a little bit of redundancy and luckily there are a lot of cards that could be players in the right cube. Being able to split the mana cost of your spells across turns has felt great and allows players to more readily maximize their mana. It's been worth the small amount of tempo loss and while aggressive decks can punish you for spending mana without immediate impact, I think that's just good gameplay. It's important that the spells are still at or above rate at their base mana cost in order to be considered. They can't require Foretell to be playable as sometimes you just won't have time to wait an entire turn to get your effect. Most of the times the mana cost is going to be comparable to the Foretell cost plus 2 but it's still worth considering. Lastly, a quick note that Foretell plays really nicely with Flash by widening your toolbox and forcing your opponent to constantly have to think about your exiled card. A lot of these cards are either Instants or have Flash and it plays well.
- Boast
Boast provides an additional effect if your creature attacked in a given turn. In addition to determining how powerful the effect is, it will be important to assess how often you are actually going to be able to trigger it. Does the creature have evasion? Most of the time you can't guarantee more than a single activation with any sort of certainty so it needs to get it's mana's worth in one go. Small effects that add up cumulatively just aren't going to cut it.
- Modal Double Faced Cards
The previous version of Modal Double Faced Cards (MDFCs) were regular cards on the front side with lands on the reverse. These proved to be very powerful in principle as they provided early game consistency with late game utility. It improved your mulligans and made it more likely that, with proper decision making, you could cast your spells and have a functional game of magic. These do not do that. This brand of MDFCs feature a creature on one side and an artifact on the other. Two full cards that need to be assessed both separately and together. There is a very real sense of complexity creep here that is going to scare some people off. There is a lot going on with each of these cards; too much to realistically remember unless you see them frequently. That means you will have people flipping them out of their sleeves during a draft and gameplay just to remember what they actually do. I'm generally okay with that as cube demands quite a bit more complexity than your average format but it's definitely a cost. That said, having the option to have two separate, fully functional cards and only take up one spot in your deck is incredibly powerful. Because of that, even if these look underwhelming their actual power level is likely a little higher than you expect. That doesn't mean they should all make the cut though. We really need one of the sides to be playable on its own to justify the complexity these cards create. The ones that have two underpowered sides just aren't going to get the benefit of the doubt that the sum is greater than the parts.
With all of that out of the way, let's get to the actual set review.
White
In Out
Usher of the Fallen has the ability to get underneath the opponent's blockers and affects the board when you use the Boast ability. There is going to be a decision point on whether it's better to Boast or play out more creatures but oftentimes the correct play will just be to maximize your mana. A 1/1 token isn't a significant boon by itself but it gets augmented pretty well with Anthems and Equipment while not extending yourself into a wrath. That's a lot of utility on a one drop.
Mardu Woe-Reaper just has a much less relevant upside. Neither gaining life or graveyard hate are furthering your own agenda and while there are times that they can be helpful, being limited to a Warrior creature type makes it difficult to rely on. There just isn't a critical mass of Warriors to draft. Usher has a bigger, more reliable effect at the same mana cost and creature size.
In Out
The obvious comparison to be made with Glorious Protector is going to be Restoration Angel and I think it's an apt one. Resto is more of a blink enabler that can fuel combos or ETB effects while allowing you to keep your board presence and blanking single target removal spells. Glorious Protector kind of does those things but on a delay that you may not have control over. Because the exiled creatures don't come back right away, you aren't furthering your board by playing this so you probably aren't accelerating your clock so much as you are maintaining it. The real value here is the wrath protection as you essentially trade 1 for 1 with any wrath and keep your whole board in play. This isn't as good as Resto but it does a passable impression.
Stonecloaker exists as a reactionary play that protects your creature from removal but because it must return a creature on casting you can't actually further your board state with it. This makes it a difficult play on curve and usually relegates it to more mid range strategies that don't mind playing fewer, more powerful threats that you really want to protect. Even then, it doesn't block well which limits the usefulness of the flash as you can't really ambush anything without trading. It's a very fair card and cube has passed it by.
In Out
While it's worse than all of the other wrath variants when casted for five mana, the ability to cast Doomskar for three opens up a lot of utility. It provides you with some extra mana in the late game to allow you to follow your wrath with a relevant play. It lets you clear the board a turn earlier than normal should you be facing a particularly aggressive start. If you are playing multiple Foretell cards in your cube (which you probably should be), it even gives you the ability to mask what your intentions are. There are only a couple of cards that it could be when in exile but those cards require drastically different strategies to play around. Even when telegraphed, it's not really something that an aggro deck can reasonably play around. You can use this to get rid of two creatures if it's the best option or you can just continue to play with it looming above the opponent if they are obviously holding back. There's a lot of play and power to this.
The question was never whether Doomskar was going to be included, but rather, what would be replaced. The options were either Shatter the Sky or Realm-Cloaked Giant. The Giant has some interesting play patterns and while it's more expensive, I also really like the fact that it comes with an extra card, even if it's not an exciting one at face value. While the card draw on Shatter the Sky doesn't always trigger, it almost never triggers for the person casting it and can be an active detriment against mid-range decks. This is close but I'm going to err on the side of giving the Giant more testing. Shatter the Skies will stay close on the sidelines in case I see the need for a swap at a later date.
In Out
Starnheim Unleashed is at worse, a 4 mana Serra Angel and at best a game ending threat that demands an immediate wrath effect. It scales very well in between these extremes as well. A 4/4 flying, vigilance for 2WW is above rate but not something that is game breaking. Being able to get that on turn three, even at the cost of your turn two, isn't game breaking either but does a very solid job of gumming up the ground and pressuring your opponent. As you scale later in the game at 5 and 7 mana you are looking at a control finisher. Playable in both mid-range and control decks, this should provide a flexible, powerful effect that you shouldn't feel pressured to fire off right away but still rewards you if you have to.
I absolutely love the Confluence cycle but the white one has underwhelmed. It is really only useful in a control deck against aggro and even then I have found that gaining life and putting a token in play doesn't actually stem the bleeding, it just buys you a turn. Gaining 15 life is good against burn or after a wrath but when drawn without a way to handle a board, it just doesn't hold up. When ahead or at parity, it doesn't do enough to break through either due to the underwhelming nature of the tokens. The enchantment clause just isn't relevant enough of the time when paired along with two other modes that are equally low impact.
In Out
Shepherd of the Flock has gotten some good reviews and I'm a big fan of the Adventure mechanic so I'm looking forward to getting some reps in with the Human Peasant. Gating has always been a boom or bust mechanic and having the gating ability be optional allows this to function normally as an aggressive two drop when that's appropriate. Returning creatures to your hand instead of blinking them sets your tempo behind but does allow protection from wraths. Being able to target any permanent allows you to rebuy planeswalkers, sagas and other useful goodies in response to their own demise. There's a lot of play here for a very small investment and I think it can serve a role in the white aggressive decks.
Temporal Isolation is a holdover from when I first started my cube and just pretty clearly isn't strong enough as a Pacifism that's overly complicated and doesn't actually answer a creature if it has any sort of utility abilities. There are a ton of creatures like Young Pyromancer and Consecrated Sphinx that don't really need to attack to bury you underneath card advantage and value. Isolation does nothing to combat these. Creatures have just come so far and attack in so many other ways outside of combat for this effect to be useful anymore.
In Out
Elspeth Conquers Death provides a clean answer to a meaningful permanent, taxes your opponent's mana and then returns a threat to play at an increased size. These effects are delayed, yes, but powerful. Sagas have played out very well in cube and this has been very effective in the Magic Online cube and I expect similar results here.
Faith's Fetters suffers from the same problems that Temporal Isolation does except that it's twice as expensive. The main draw here is gaining 4 life and being able to hit any permanent. For four mana though, they would usually rather have something that is a cleaner answer to something or answers multiple things at once. Elspeth Conquers Death does a number of things at only a single mana more.
In
Sword of the Realms is going to be the main mode on casted here as it will make it very difficult for your opponent to interact in combat effectively. +2/+0 and vigilance means your creatures will be able to trade in combat on either side pretty easily and the ability to return creatures back to your hand makes it difficult for your opponent to do so profitably. A two mana equip cost should allow you to recast inexpensive creatures and immediately equip post combat or move the Sword between targets should that be more strategically beneficial. There is an aspect of repetitive turn to turn gameplay here that sends out a warning flag but there are enough cool interactions that it shouldn't get too repetitive from game to game. Halvar himself is really just a free bonus should you not have any creatures and need to play something that affects the board immediately. His abilities aren't going to come up very often but a 4/4 for 2WW is an acceptable consolation prize when the equipment isn't what you need.
Out
I really like the Living Weapon aspect of Ancestral Blade and the cheap Equip cost but it's just not anywhere near as effective as Sword of the Realms. It served a purpose in the really low to the ground aggro decks and I love the design space but Halvar just feels like a rarity upgrade in terms of sheer power and utility.
Causing lands to ETB tapped has been established as an effective way to combat slower decks when played on curve and can allow an aggro deck to really press an advantage. Getting them to delay a removal spell or a wrath can be the difference between deal lethal and your opponent stabilizing. Coming attached to a functional, evasive body is important too. The tax ability works in tandem to further delay when a late game spell can be used to stabilize. This will shut off most planeswalkers, wraths, and late game utility spells as well as making it nearly impossible for your opponent to double spell as long as one of them are taxed. Valkmira won't come up as often but Absorb 1 is a very annoying ability against go wide decks that won't be irrelevant as it can offset an Anthem effect or gum up combat math in a creature mirror. I don't actually think full control decks will be all that interested as they would much rather just cast a wrath and be done with it. This card is mostly about Reidane.
Out
I had originally viewed Hanged Executioner as a Midnight Haunting with upside. The downgrade to sorcery speed being offset by the ability to get extra tokens should this be blinked. The problem is that Midnight Haunting isn't that good anymore and there just weren't a lot of decks that were in the market for this effect. This is too slow and low impact for aggro decks, too expensive and clunky for control decks, and go wide mid-range decks can usually find something comparable without trying too hard. It doesn't pressure the opponent's life total, and you don't want to block with the creature because you want to use the exile ability. It's just reasonable to hold four mana up from turn to turn which means you were often using this as a 7 mana removal spell that gave you a 1/1 token and that's just not going to cut it.
Didn't Make the Cut
Sigrid plays out a lot like Glorious Protector, above, as a Flash creature who can eat something small in combat and/or remove something temporarily. Her 2/2 body prevents her from being able to ambush anything outside of an aggro deck. Mid-range and control creatures are going to be able to attack over her. Utility creatures aren't attacking or blocking and neither are mana ramp creatures so they can't be targeted by either ability. Even when it does work, you don't want too many of this effect in your cube due to the inherent risk associated with it and I prefer both Glorious Protector and Skyclave Apparition due to the less restrictive nature of their exile clause.
Blue
In Out
Waker of the Waves represents a card I wish I had stuck to my guns on. I correctly identified it as an effective card filtering effect that put a reanimation target in the yard that would provide value but not a game breaking effect. I wasn't sure if I wanted to cut anything for it and as it turns out I rather like the gameplay associated with it more than a card that just filters at a slightly better rate. Omen of the Sea is an effective card that will eventually provide more value but has less interesting gameplay interactions. Waker is just a more interesting card that goes into an actual deck more readily.
In Out
Behold the Multiverse is another in the vein of effective fringe level cube cards like Glimmer of Genius and Deep Analysis; four mana card draw spells that have a slight upside. I only have so many slots for this effect and I think I like Behold the best. The key here is being able to split the cost across a couple of turns. This allows you to maximize your mana on the turn you draw your cards so you can actually cast some of them immediately. It also allows you to hold less mana up if you are planning on playing this at end of turn. Digging four cards deep is already proven to be strong, I just didn't want to always have to pay 4 mana for it.
Hieroglyphic Illumination is another in the four mana card draw spells and I think the upside of Foretell and Scry 2 offset the Cycling option by a fair margin. Illumination is better when things are at rock bottom in terms of mana availability but Behold has more play and has a significantly higher upside.
In Out
Icy Manipulator that can't tap lands, requires snow (basic) lands and is restricted to a single color may not sound exciting but it's going to do the job most of the time. Coming in at one mana cheaper in total doesn't hurt. Yes, the upside of Icy is higher as it can keep someone off of a color of mana but most of the time it's just used to turn off an attacker or clear a blocker and this does that job just as well. Most blue decks can find a usage for a tapping effect so this should see main decks a good percentage of the drafts it is in.
Psionic Blast is a color shifted Char and not at all an effect that is in blue's color pie. It's not terrible as a damage based removal spell but the pie break really bothers me. I'm completely okay with blue needing to branch out into other colors if it wants direct removal and I actively don't want it to have burn. This isn't really a cut based on power level but on aesthetics and feel.
In Out
Avalanche Caller may look unassuming but it's a nightmare to play against for an aggro deck. Being able to use three mana to create a hexproof 4/4 blocker is going to brick wall decks that are trying to attack through this in the early game. In the late game it provides a win condition as making multiple 4/4 attackers adds up in a hurry. In a tempo deck you are looking at a much more aggressive slant to the gameplay and it gives you a mana sink that kills your opponent. This demands removal regardless of the deck it is in and is a very fast clock when unopposed. I'm okay with the hexproof here because it's temporary, limited to the lands and can be easily answered if you can kill a 1/3 creature. The upside is just tremendous.
I'm a big fan of creatures that smooth your draws and help you filter your hand but with supporting blue tempo decks I find that I'm much happier with cards like Looter il-Kor and Ghostly Pilferer as they can pressure an opponent's life total in addition to improving the quality of your draws. Sigiled Starfish did his job but just doesn't provide enough oomph, being largely only playable in the defensive control decks.
In Out
Ascendant Spirit is the most snow dependent card we will see in this update and probably demands that you handled snow lands as I do. You just won't have enough to make this playable if you are restricting access to them. That said, this does a decent impression of Figure of Destiny as a one drop that accrues abilities and grows in time as you invest mana into it. It demands a lot of mana but if you can get it to the middle stage it's a real threat meaning they can't just ignore it. Good in the early game if you want to just upgrade it once and great in the late game when you can just turbo out the last stage over two turns. Never impossible to answer but something that does demand attention is a good place to be.
Faerie Seer is fine but just nowhere near the power level of Ascendant Spirit. Blue one drops have always been very underwhelming and I'm really excited to find another one that has a chance to shine.
In Out
I was very bullish on Thassa's Intervention when it was released and I've come around somewhat to the modal flexibility. I still don't think you are ever going to be thrilled with either ability but having the option of either one should let this find it's way into many a main deck and that's what we want. Acting as a Supreme Will that scales into the late game and provides actual card advantage is a better way of looking at it than I had originally. The good reviews elsewhere don't hurt.
Bident of Thassa provides a ton of value for go wide decks that want to close out a game. The issue here is that it just doesn't do anything that blue decks can't already do or need. The blue tempo decks already have a lot of evasion which makes the activated ability kind of unnecessary unless you are playing a mid-range deck that can't really take advantage of the static ability. Blue also has a bunch of access to card draw and restricting it to successful attacks makes this a very awkward top deck when behind. It snowballs, but in a very win more way as opposed to something that can pull you back into a game you were otherwise losing. It's not bad in a stalemate but just doesn't justify the expensive mana cost. Most damning of all, it just doesn't get played.
In Out
Sea Gate Stormcaller is another card I was down on initially but this time it was because I just didn't understand what the card did functionally. I was too caught up in the underwhelming Kicker ability that I failed to grasp the power of it's base mode. There are a lot of cards that this can copy at any stage in the game that will be exciting from burn to removal to card draw. Turning your Ponder into actual card advantage or super charging your burn spells will make the late game draws better while committing to the board. I still think there is a bit of additive distraction here but the floor is just higher than I had originally thought making this a playable option instead of a bulk mythic rare.
Merfolk Looter is a very close comparison to Sigiled Starfish, above, except that you trade a more proactive looting ability for the complete inability to block effectively. The same things apply here in terms of wanting my utility creatures to fit into multiple decks and Looter just doesn't do that as well as the other options anymore.
In Out
I cut Jace, the Mind Sculptor due to popular demand with my playgroup and it's role in the early days of my cube. With cards coming out that have only increased the base power level of the cube, I no longer feel that Jace is unbalanced. He's still one of the stronger options in cube but he fits alongside powerhouses like Oko, Thief of Crowns as an interactive strength as opposed to cards like Umezawa's Jitte that are just oppressive and impossible to deal with. I like having some cards like this in a cube of this size since you don't have to see them every draft like you would in a 360 card cube.
Thassa just doesn't do enough for four mana. I was aware at the onset that the odds of her ever becoming a creature were remote and that the tap ability was prohibitively expensive. These both turned out to be accurate. I was hoping that the blink ability, combined with the two marginal upsides, would be enough to allow this to shine. While there are times that it comes together, it's just a tough ask for someone to put this in their deck and hope. Four mana is a lot for a card that does nothing on its own and only provides value with other cards. I'm also not a huge fan of the indestructibility clause as it usually plays out pretty poorly. When it's good, it's obnoxiously difficult to deal with in a way similar to Purphoros. I'm still in the market for blink enablers but I'd be much happier with ones that are cheaper and/or fit into multiple decks with the blink as a benefit and not the whole card.
In
The main mode here will probably be Hakka, Whispering Raven as an undercosted flier that provides some utility strength. Note that returning Hakka to your hand isn't optional so it forces you to make an actual decision when it comes to your attack step. Being able to chip in for some early damage and filtering and following that up with a late game option that attacks on a very different angle is powerful utility. Hakka can act as an early game blocker in slower decks that are more primed to take advantage of Alrund and having that outlet means he will never be stuck in your hand. The Scry also sets up the draw ability on Alrund so you can guarantee drawing a card or two. As a five mana play, Alrund doesn't get the job done but the combination of the two mana option pushes this into playable territory.
Out
Like with Thassa, Deep Dwelling above, Clocknapper only works in a dedicated blink deck. If you can't repeatedly blink her she just doesn't do anything meaningful at all. When you can, she pretty much revolves the entire game around herself in a really unfun way. I know that cube is all about the cool interactions but it's also about fun, varied gameplay and the cool factor of Clocknapper runs out after you've abused her once. There isn't enough blink support to play her reliably and when you do, it isn't fun gameplay.
Didn't Make the Cut
Depart the Realm doesn't provide enough utility to compete with bounce spells like Into the Roil and Cyclonic Rift because you aren't getting anything additional for using the Foretell ability. Saving a mana on the cast is nice but it isn't worth paying 2 mana to Foretell it unless you are really dedicated to a certain density of Foretell cards to mask each other's effects. This needed to do something additional when Foretold to justify the extra mana but as it is, it's not better than the existing options. The ceiling just isn't that much higher than the floor.
I really do not like Pongify and Beast Within cards because they just answer something by creating a different, likely lesser, problem. And yes, a 1/1 flier is probably significantly less damaging than whatever you are answering but at sorcery speed and three mana (even with Foretell) you are paying a lot for something that other cards just accomplish more cleanly.
Didn't Make the Cut
Cosima will pretty much exclusively be played for the creature mode as it enters play and can block for a turn without other investment. The Omenkeel won't synergize with other Vehicles and is a 3/3 with no evasion that requires another creature to be useable. That's obviously pretty bad so we can focus on Cosima herself. A 2/4 for 2U isn't great but it can certainly block for a turn against aggressive decks before exiling herself. You only really need two land drops to feel good about her effects as drawing two cards and getting a 4/6 is strong for the mana investment. It's also very slow though and it's impossible to get any sort of immediate value out of this. When stable or ahead you can afford to spend a couple of turns with this in exile, accruing counters, only returning it when you are satisfied. This still gives your opponent a couple turns to pressure you while you spent a card with no immediate impact. Needing a land to return her is what really turns me off though because even if you are happy with the number of counters, if you don't draw a land she is stuck in exile. Yes, that means you must be drawing gas but it also means you are down a card with no clear idea of when you can recoup. The games where you have to leave her in play as a vanilla 2/4 because you need the blocker are going to feel bad and you will wish she was nearly any other card in your pool. The ceiling is very high but it's also too far away for my liking.
Didn't Make the Cut
I really like Graven Lore and I think it's an easy upgrade over any of the Jace's Ingenuity type cards people may be playing. It's on par with Dig Through Time in total effect as it will be able to scry 3-5 cards on average in addition to digging deeper if you bottom anything. The problem is that it does cost five mana so you aren't going to be able to cast any of those cards until the following turn. Dig is good because you can get it off for cheap and immediately cast your cards drawn. This is probably the best five mana card draw spell they've printed so far. There are only so many slots available for big card draw though and I'm opting for cards like Thassa's Intervention and Mystic Confluence that are able to provide other effects or versatility instead.
Time Warp effects have always been a bit underwhelming in cube because of their propensity to be expensive cards that really just draw a card if you are behind. While they can provide an extra attack step when ahead it usually isn't worth the mana investment when they take up your whole turn. The whole reason why Time Walk is busted is because you can play it while both players are developing their mana and/or in conjunction with other effects to fully utilize the extra turn. Taking your whole turn to cast Alrund's Epiphany usually isn't going to be worth it and the Foretell cost doesn't change that. Creating two evasive bodies adds power to the effect but not enough to make this the finisher it needs to be at 6 or 7 mana.
Black
In Out
Dread Wanderer slipped through the cracks initially as I wasn't convinced on the reliability of its recursive ability, and then I forgot about it. Since then it's proven to be an effective tool as a recursive one drop that supplements both aggressive decks and Aristocrat decks. It's not difficult to get Hellbent in the late game and this is another effective way to accrue value over time.
Yahenni is much more focused on being a streamline aggro card. It doesn't benefit from being able to sacrifice multiple things a turn and his combination of abilities strongly pushes being proactive. Attack with haste, kill some blockers to attack for more damage and be able to threaten indestructibility in the face of removal. It loses a lot of luster the more grindy and value oriented your deck becomes and that's where it starts to lose shine. Dread Wanderer does a better job maintaining utility in the grindy decks while still being a boon to aggressive strategies.
In Out
Burning-Rune Demon's Final Parting ability can do a couple of different things. It can provide you with the second best card in your deck to follow up your Demon play. It can also act as a Gifts Ungiven ability by getting two things that care about the graveyard, thereby shutting off the inherent disadvantage of letting your opponent choose what you get. This is a very good reanimation target at any point in the game being both a fatty and a card advantage source in one.
Massacre Wurm shines against the go wide aggro decks but is really awkward elsewhere. Control decks don't have very many creatures in the first place, let alone ones that die to its ETB effect. Mid-range decks have the creatures but, again, not every board state has the utility creatures in play to punish. It's just very dependent on your opponent's deck in the amount of value it is able to accrue. When it's not wrathing and winning the game, it's just not doing very much at all.
In
Valki does a solid job as a Mesmeric Fiend that makes up for being restricted to exiling creatures by packing an extra power and being able to become a copy of whatever is exiled. This will have some interesting consequences and even though you won't be able to take advantage of any ETB effects, you will be able to grow him in size, abilities and open up interactions with other cards in play. Note that you can do this at instant speed as needed and that it doesn't specify until end of turn so you only have to pay for it once. This would be enough for cube consideration but it's the planeswalker side that really puts this card over the top. Tibalt provides a powerful set of abilities, incorporating removal and card advantage into an expensive but extremely flexible shell. This card is great early game and late game and while there is some risk associated with Valki whiffing in the mid-game, the upside more than makes up for it. This should work in aggro or control shells and its flexibility allows it to retain usefulness throughout a game.
Out
Graveyard Marshal always had an uncomfortable synergy with black decks as they often want creatures in the graveyard but don't really want them there for the purposes of exiling them. Fuel wasn't the problem, it was breaking up your synergies that was awkward. It works best in aggressive decks that can make best use of the 2/2 body but three mana is a steep cost for the token and you often just had better things to be doing with your mana. Double black casting cost and the non-prevalence of black aggro decks to begin with are just further detriments.
Didn't Make the Cut
Poison the Cup provides a marginal benefit (Scry 2) at the cost of reduced efficiency. Black doesn't boast any Foretell cards so you aren't guaranteed to play the guessing game with it in exile. The benefit just doesn't make up for the awkwardness of having to take a turn off to get the effect. If you could Foretell over one turn it's closer but needing to wait until your opponent untaps their mana increases the risk of failure unnecessarily. Premium removal is some combination of cheap, unconditional and provides ancillary benefits. This is unconditional, but the benefits aren't significant enough to outweigh the increased cost.
I wouldn't even be talking about Bloodsky Berserker if I didn't keep seeing it pop up in the community discussions as I don't think it's particularly good at all. A two mana 1/1 that requires at least one activation of its ability is far from exciting. Black decks really don't want strictly aggressive cards and aggro decks don't really want a two drop that can't attack unless you clear these conditions. Casting two spells per turn is hardly a guarantee and while it's possible to do that on curve, you likely aren't doing it more than once. I probably wouldn't play a 3/3 menace for 1B if that was just straight up what was printed on the card. It doesn't align with black's goals and it's floor is downright embarrassing.
Didn't Make the Cut
Varragoth provides a repeatable Imperial Seal effect that sets up your future draws but does so without the benefit of knowing how your opponent's turn changed your game plan. It's important to know that this is not card advantage since the card is going on top of your deck and not in your hand. That's a big difference when you tutor for one thing and your opponent throws you a curveball and now you are tutor locked for the next turn. While the deathtouch does facilitate attacking, and therefore use of the Boast ability, it's not a very fast clock which limits its usefulness in aggressive decks. Since it only accrues value when attacking, control decks won't be able to leverage it as a blocker and set up their draws. In either case, it doesn't give any value until it's able to attack and on curve you are giving up your whole turn to Boast, setting up your next draw but doing nothing else of value. It's probably at its best in the late game and even then it's a very slow tutor effect.
I have an unreasonable affinity for lifelink in black creatures as it shores up a significant cost that black has: using it's life total as a resource. Eradicator Valkyrie is a Gisela, the Broken Blade that trades first strike for lifelink and upgrades flavor text into a Boast ability. Most of Gisela's power was tied up in the first strike as it made it a nightmare to deal with in combat on either end. Valkyrie is really only able to tangle when unopposed as the three toughness all of a sudden becomes a greater liability. The Boast being tied to attacking, and needing a creature to sacrifice, and costing mana is a lot of small hoops to jump through for a relatively small gain. Black four drops can all provide value immediately through either haste, ETB effects, or act as a massive upside engine in the case of Kalitas. Valkyrie is too slow, fragile and resource hungry to break through the competition.
Didn't Make the Cut
Tergrid isn't likely to steal many permanents when she is in play. Discard spells won't be as good by the time you get to casting her and there aren't a ton of forced sacrifice effects in cube as they just aren't very good in general. A 4/5 menace for 3BB isn't anything to write home about so you do need to be taking advantage of the ability. You can't even steal instants/sorceries which gives your opponent slightly more leeway in playing around it when it comes to the discard clause. Tergrid's Lantern also falls short but for different reasons. When pressuring your opponent's life total, Lantern is a clock on on its own, especially when you are able to justify paying the mana to untap it. Getting to that point though can be rough. An aggro deck can just repeatedly take damage and not care because it's going to be able to out pace your artifact that didn't effect the board on turn four. In order to really leverage Lantern you need to be able to pressure your opponent's life total or completely stabilize and rely on Lantern to do the entire job itself. In both of these scenarios it's not doing anything until it's winning the game. That makes the floor way too low as you can't afford to pay four mana for something that can be reasonably ignored for three to four turns. Neither side is exciting and both sides can be ignored for a reasonable amount of time.
Didn't Make the Cut
Egon makes up for a lot of the risk associated with not being able to pay his upkeep cost by drawing a card when it is sacrificed. A 6/6 for 2B that replaces itself on death would be quite strong if you are able to attack a couple of times but that just isn't a guarantee here. Exiling two cards from your graveyard is a steep cost and one you likely won't be able to pay if this is played on curve when the creature is best. Playing this as a blocker and immediately sacrificing it to draw a card isn't good, even ignoring the fact that you don't get to draw a card at all if it dies any other way than being sacrificed to its own ability. It actively works against your graveyard synergies and is unlikely to remain in play for more than a turn or two at most. Note that exiling your cards isn't optional so if you would rather sacrifice him than exile the last two cards that have synergy in your yard, you can't. You have to exile them, removing the strategy of picking and choosing only the expendable chaff and leaving the goods. Throne of Death just isn't any better. Drawing a card isn't worth three mana and exiling a creature from your graveyard even if the Throne fuels itself by forced milling. The mana investment is likely to prevent you from casting whatever it is you draw and you won't be in a position to start cashing those cards in until the late game anyway. In the late game I'd rather just have Egon. Throne is seriously low impact and restrictive and Egon is way too unreliable to justify the complexity associated with these cards.
Didn't Make the Cut
Six mana wraths don't work out very well in cube as it gives aggro decks too much time to pressure your life total and it's overly punishing to have such a critical spell be stuck in your hand as you miss on late game land draws. Destroying planeswalkers just isn't that much of a bonus because the control decks are the ones more likely to be relying on planeswalkers as late game win conditions making it more difficult for that effect to be in your favor. This is all to say that the power of this card is entirely wrapped up in the reanimation effect and being limited to only your own graveyard cripples the effectiveness. This is more of a mid-range wrath that pays you off for clearing a board stall more than a typical wrath would. Even given that X=6 because of snow basics, there just isn't a guarantee that you will have something meaningful to reanimate. Black creatures are already recursive so paying a premium to bring one of those back is less appealing than it otherwise would be. Even returning a planeswalker isn't that exciting when all it's doing is resetting the one you already had. I'd much rather opt for cheaper, more reliable wraths.
Red
In Out
Rakdos Cackler is just a pretty near strict upgrade over Falkenrath Gorger, despite the downshift in rarity. The madness clause on Gorger is just completely irrelevant which means it's just a 2/1 for R. Cackler is a 2/2 for R and has cross synergies with +1/+1 counters. Yes, you won't be able to block but if you put Cackler in your deck you aren't planning on doing that anyway. Even in the game states where it becomes necessary to start throwing your 2/2 in front of other creatures you are likely already going to lose and it wouldn't make a difference anyway. Cackler also can be played in black decks that want to be aggressive without using one of their slots for something so dedicated to that one strategy.
In Out
While most of the excitement associated with Dragonkin Berserker is tied up in its late game Boast ability, the reason why the card is good is the efficient, first striking body. Ash Zealot always performed adequately because she was difficult to block and had haste more so than the triggered ability. Berserker trades haste for an easier mana cost and the Boast ability. This keeps it relevant in the early game, where it's difficult to block, while threatening to take the game over once you have the mana to start churning out dragons. If you are able to make a single dragon from this ability, it's worth it. Anything more than that is gravy. And if the threat of activation is enough to force your opponent to use their removal spell on your two drop, that's fine too.
Stingscourger does a good job of generating tempo and removing a blocker from play but the Echo cost is just too great. You are almost never paying the 3R to keep the creature around unless you are playing this in the late game when the bounce is much less impactful. This gets played more because red aggro decks need a critical mass of one and two drops as opposed to the decks actually being excited about playing it.
In Out
It's not difficult for an early turn Bomat Courier to draw you two to three cards over the course of a game. Red aggro decks empty their hand quick enough that discarding your hand is easily mitigated and this turns into draw X cards instead. A Raging Goblin with upside has proved to be borderline already with Legion Loyalist and Courier presents a significant upside over that. Because of haste you are almost guaranteed to be able to at least replace itself and if your opponent wants to use a removal spell on your one drop you are probably coming ahead in the mana exchange and can't be too upset anyway.
Volcanic Fallout is a middling effect at a premium mana cost. Not being countered just doesn't matter that much as blue decks won't be the ones you are playing this against. You won't be playing this in aggo as it nerfs your own creatures which restricts this to control decks, likely out of the sideboard. The two damage to players isn't worth the extra R mana over what is already a middling cube card in Pyroclasm.
Didn't Make the Cut
Magic has a long history of printing burn spells that only deal damage to creatures and the only ones that ever get played in cube are the ones that provide some other form of value as opposed to just being rawly efficient, such as Abrade. Demon Bolt allows you to break up the mana cost while Tundra Fumarole provides colorless mana. Neither of these upsides are worth including burn that can't deal lethal to your opponent. If Tundra Fumarole allowed you to carry the mana over into the next turn it would be great but this only carries it through to the end step. That allows you to cast both a removal spell and commit something to the board on the same turn, but since it doesn't make colored mana you are still restricted to what you can actually do with it.
Didn't Make the Cut
There are only so many slots available for red five drop creatures with flying and haste. At this point I think most of them are somewhat interchangeable and you can probably just pick whichever you have an affinity for and not notice the difference too much. Goldspan Dragon making treasure tokens can get cute if you are stretching for colors of mana (not something that comes up in cube all that often, especially with red decks), or if you are playing a rampish deck (also not really red's purview). But getting a treasure token as the only benefit to this is somewhat underwhelming considering you have already obtained five mana and shouldn't really need more than that under most circumstances. Treasure tokens have a lot of value in the early game where you are developing your mana base and can accelerate in a meaningful way. Players will find a way to use the mana but it's a much less enticing benefit than Removal or killing your opponent.
Assuming you don't have access to very many Giants, Quakebringer only provides value when it's in play. Triggering this from the graveyard is a big part of its power and while it still serves as a fatty and a one sided Sulfuric Vortex, losing that versatility does hurt. The body isn't really that impressive considering it's a vanilla creature so you really need to be getting multiple activations out of your Vortex ability. This just doesn't compete with the existing options and I'd rather play Goldspan Dragon given the choice.
Didn't Make the Cut
Birgi has some applications in a storm package (which I don't support) but in fair, magic she doesn't really do all that much. You might be able to squeeze an extra card out of her but it's not exciting and just isn't going to make main decks considering she does stone nothing if you can't use the extra one mana. Harnfel isn't much better. It's prohibitively expensive at five mana and you are unlikely to do anything with it other than ensure your land drop the turn you cast it. Since you only have so many chaff cards you discard you probably won't want to waste that effect with no return. Discarding excess lands in order to get two bites of the apple is very strong but discarding a marginal spell for that same hope is more dicey. I just don't think any deck is going to be excited about drafting or playing this and if you are in the market for late game card advantage in red, you'd be better off playing any of the Experimental Frenzy style cards instead.
Didn't Make the Cut
Toralf closely resembles Alrund, above, as the equipment has a built in ability to be cast as the creature later in the game should that be beneficial. Toralf's Hammer allows you to Lightning Bolt something at the cost of 3RRR and a creature that can tap. The ability to split this up over several turns maeks it manageable, if incredibly slow. Unfortunately, that's all the equipment does outside of you having a Legendary creature laying around (spoilers, you probably will only have one or two in your deck at most). Not being able to enhance the equipped creature in any way makes it harder to swallow breaking the effect up across multiple turns as you don't get anything for the mana investment until the end. Toralf himself works great in a deck with a lot of burn spells as it essentially gives all of them trample but to anything else instead of just a player. Splitting your burn up every time is really powerful and that chip damage adds up quickly. There are some specific combos with big burn spells that will just end a game outright and getting a 5/4 trample on top of that ability keeps him relevant in the field but I really wish that his ability affected himself (it's noncombat damage only) so he was more self contained. There isn't a red creature I'd want to cut for Toralf just based on power level alone and while I'd be open to testing out the Hammer, it's just so slow. You get nothing for your initial 2RR investment and while breaking it up over several turns makes it more likely that you can squeeze the mana in, you are giving up something to do that. It costs 6RRRRRR (12 mana) to deal 3 to two different things. There are just more immediately impactful cards that will accomplish more.
Green
In Out
Esika's Chariot makes 4 power of creatures for 4 mana in addition to a 4/4 vehicle that makes additional 2/2's if it's able to attack once. Even if this were to trade in combat immediately, you got three 2/2 creatures in addition to trading with something in combat. That's obscene value. Your opponent would need to remove both of your 2/2 tokens in order to prevent that from happening and if they use a removal spell for that purpose, you still have the vehicle to copy any other tokens you may have. This definitely works better in decks that have a variety of tokens so you can upgrade on the potential 2/2 but works just fine if you don't happen to have any. This goes very wide, very fast and it's nearly impossible to cast this and not end up ahead on card advantage. This isn't likely the card that will win the game for you but it's going to go a long way towards putting you in a position to allow your other cards to.
Spider Spawning was product of attempting to give Golgari decks more of a payoff for their graveyard synergies and the low power level of green's non-creature spells, but it's just too low impact for cube. The 1/2 bodies don't matter in the same way and triggering this without looping it isn't good enough. I wasn't that high on it to begin with so this was inevitable.
In Out
Vorinclex having haste is what ultimately puts it over the top and into "problem" territory for opposing decks. It's very aggressively costed and acts as a great curve topper for mid-range Gruul and Selesnya decks. The counter abilities are not flavor text either. Shutting down your opponent's planeswalkers while super charging your own is significant. It also doubles your +1/+1 counters and has smaller benefits that will pop up less often. I want green's finishers to actually end a game and this does a more effective job of it than most.
I really like Greenwarden of Murasa but if I have to be honest, it's really just a durdling value machine. Six mana spells need to actually end a game, not prolong it. Greenwarden is a lot of fun to play but sometimes just doesn't do anything if you don't have good stuff to get back. The body is really set up to die quickly and trigger the second ability but at no point have I ever played this and felt like it was winning me a game. Six drops have to do more.
In Out
Battle Mammoth is a really aggressively costed beater that ensures it at least replaces itself when answered. The card draw ability likely won't be triggering very much beyond itself dying since it paints such a huge target on its own back but that's okay. There are going to be games where the opponent only has burn and can only target your smaller creatures. This puts your opponents in a position where using their relevant removal is immediately punishing and if they do have to use it, you get an opportunity to refuel and keep the pressure on. Trample is a great addition here and further allows you to push damage. Being able to Foretell when your mana isn't coming together allows you to bring this out as early as turn three with some acceleration when your opponent is really unlikely to be able to match it on board.
Season's Past is another six mana spell that doesn't end the game but prolongs it. Similar to Greenwarden of Murasa, but harder to set up and wildly inconsistent in how much value you are able to obtain from it. Because all the cards go to your hand, you can't cast any of them until your next turn which delays the value. It's pretty easy to get punished for this when behind as you can't afford to spend six mana and take a turn off when you are behind.
In Out
Hexdrinker can act as another cheap body for aggressive decks or come down in the mid to late game and move immediately into leveling up. Either way, it needs to be dealt with eventually and I like that there is a window that exists where your opponent can respond to it before it really gets out of hand. My historical opinion on shroud and hexproof has been to hard exclude them from the cube but green needs the help. I want to have more reasons for people to be excited to draft it. As long as it doesn't come up all the time and has some good play, I'm open to a little bit of it. Hexdrinker is a really good card and should provide a boon to a color that needs an infusion of excitement and staying power.
Lignify is in the same boat as both Temporal Isolation and Faith's Fetters as an enchantment that temporarily and awkwardly answers a problem. Lignify turns the threat into a decent blocker which can still be annoying in some matchups. The real qualm I have though is that it's a color pie break that green doesn't really need or want. It's always a late pick that doesn't make main decks and people don't side board it in. It doesn't further any strategies or have any good interactions. Good placeholder for a while and not much more than that.
In Out
Old-Growth Troll is going to be a nightmare on turn two when ramped out. It presents a lot of damage in a hurry and provides further value upon its death. Being able to choose between mana ramp and more board presence ensures relevant value throughout the game. This allows the owner of the Troll to be as aggressive as they want as trading in combat is all of a sudden great as you are the one ending up ahead. It also works fantastically with bounce as you can have this die, ramp you and then recast it as the original creature after bouncing to start the cycle again. The only concern would be the triple green casting cost but green is best suited to this sort of thing due to it's mana ramp support. It's just naturally going to have better mana than the other colors.
Bramblecrush provided a unique and powerful effect back when there weren't really ways to directly deal with planeswalkers. Since then, we've gotten more cards that can do that and this has felt less special. Even when played this was more necessary evil than an exciting addition to any deck. Green already has a bunch of ways to deal with artifacts and enchantments and dipping into other colors for the planeswalker removal feels right.
Didn't Make the Cut
Blizzard Brawl is probably the best fight variant we've seen yet but I've been so burned on fight spells in cube that I'm extremely wary of cubing with another one unless it makes up for the inherent deficiencies. If this was an instant it would serve a secondary purpose of "countering" a removal spell and turning it into a two for one in your favor but the risk scenario is still pretty big when they can just kill your creature in response. "If they don't have removal" is just too big of a risk scenario when it's also dependent on you having a creature and them having a creature and the sizes lining up in your favor. It happens, but when it doesn't it's very frustrating. Fight attached to creatures is where I'm staying for the foreseeable future.
In Search of Greatness has some restriction issues that tempers my excitement for it. Scry 1 on every turn has proven to be fine but not worth a full card. That means you are going to have to take advantage of the free spell ability for this to be worth putting in your deck. That ability is fairly restrictive as it doesn't count itself and the free card has to cost exactly one more. You also have to be in a position to take advantage of the mana you saved. Casting a three drop for free and then passing the turn with three mana up you can't use didn't actually help you at all. This opens an avenue to double spell that you need to be able to take advantage of. These kinds of cards do nothing until they do something and I don't like the boom/bust potential. It CAN do things, most of the time though, it just won't.
Didn't Make the Cut
If you support five color nonsense than I think The Prismatic Bridge would make a great addition that is a lot of fun. You can abuse it by only playing completely broken creatures and planeswalkers or just play it for value if you have a robust amount of targets. Mana dorks are pretty unexciting to flip over and if you are playing 5 colors there's a good chance you have a couple of blanks in the deck just for consistency and ramp's sake. Esika herself is much less exciting. Vigilance is awkward here because I don't want to attack and then block, I want to ramp and then block. The four toughness is tough to take advantage of when you're using her to cast your spells. The legendary clause just isn't going to come up super often either. I don't support five color strategies so I'm out on this based on how underwhelming Esika is but if you are looking for more things in the vein of Golos, Tireless Pilgrim you can do worse.
Didn't Make the Cut
Tyvar Kell is entirely too reliant on Elf tribal to have a home in cube. I talk about all the planeswalkers though so here we are. The ultimate is a complete blank in cube and the plus really only targets the Elf tokens that Tyvar makes which is slow and unexciting. The best part would be the mana ramp but so many of the existing elves already do that so it won't turbo ramp you any more than you already are set up to do. Yes, making a token every turn has a certain amount of power and it does self synergize but not to the point where I'm looking to replace any of the existing planeswalkers. They can make bigger tokens already and have secondary uses that support existing archetypes.
Toski has a massive gulf in floor to ceiling. When it's going, you are drawing multiple cards a turn and absolutely running away with a game in the vein of Edric, Spymaster of Trest. When you aren't doing that you paid four mana for something that is getting stonewalled by their 1/2 utility creature. If this didn't have to attack then you could use this as a good blocker that keeps you alive until your creatures are able to start pecking in for chip damage and pulling you ahead. Four mana is just too much for something this low impact.
Azorius
In Out
I really like the Pathway cycle as lands that ETB untapped but don't push people into playing 3+ colors. I'm happy to play the whole cycle. Scry 1 doesn't make up for ETB tapped and all the temples have gone down in my land ranking as I've played them more and more.
Didn't Make the Cut
I like the base design of Niko a lot as a planeswalker that has an ETB effect and doesn't have an ultimate. I just hate the combination of what it actually does. His top two abilities are really awkward in a tempo deck that won't want to return it's own creatures to its hand or plan around being attacked by the opponent. Control decks can best utilize the middle ability but as this doesn't protect itself and has such a low starting loyalty it's probably only going to be able to use it the turn you cast it unless you already had an overwhelming board presence. This just isn't very good when behind and does nothing to actually pull you back into a game. The best use for it is just to put as many Shard tokens into play as possible and ride their value as long as possible. That won't be bad as Shard tokens are very strong but I'm not wasting a planeswalker slot on something that is so one dimensional.
Boros
In Out
Showdown of the Skalds might look a bit weird as a four mana "do nothing" card in Boros but it also provides a ton of card advantage for a guild whose biggest concern is closing the door. This "draws" four cards and doesn't have to be played on curve to be good. In fact, it's probably best later in the game when you can completely devote your turns to it. Playing this and then ensuring a land drop will be awkward for the first turn but your spells are so cheap that it's not unrealistic you can actually use one of the spells that turn too. You should likely be able to cast the rest of the spells, while boosting your creatures, on turn two which will go a long way towards pushing the deck over the top. It's interesting that the third turn provides counters but no additional cards but it's not bad, just awkward. As a unique effect in Boros this gets an easy trial slot....Boros just needs so much help in having interesting and powerful guild cards.
I'm comfortable saying that Boros Reckoner probably should have been cut a long time ago but there just wasn't anything exciting to replace it with. Outside of a couple of cards from the last Ravnica set, Boros hasn't gotten any love in a long time. I'm just excited to give something a trial run that looks somewhat promising.
Dimir
Didn't Make the Cut
I really want to play cards like King Narfi's Betrayal but it's just so hard to guarantee value when it's blind off the top of the deck. Similar to Gyruda, Doom of Depths (a card I wouldn't be playing without Companion), missing is a real possibility. Yes, you are probably going to hit something but hitting something and HITTING something are two different things. Despite costing three mana you really don't want to be playing this on curve as flipping a five drop you don't have the mana to play is back breaking. You also can't cast creatures from the entire graveyard, only the cards you milled so it limits any intentional interactions you might be trying to set up. That's really what kills it for me, as you can't gain advantage from clever gameplay and are entirely reliant on the top four being favorable.
Golgari
In Out
I'm pushing more for turn one mana consistency rather than rewarding greedy mana bases by removing the filter lands. I do like me some filter lands but I think the Pathways are more what my environment needs.
Orzhov
In Out
I'm not actually sure how good Hidden Stockpile is but I've been staring at it as a self contained engine for the Aristocrat deck for a while now. It does all of the things it needs to do all by itself. It creates disposable bodies, sacrifices them and does so for profit. It's also very inexpensive. There's a really good chance this doesn't last long but since I had a slot open I wanted to try it out while I have the opportunity.
Good god was Kaya's Guile disappointing. I love modal card and even I was underwhelmed. There just isn't any combination of abilities that is worth the mana investment even at instant speed. All too often you don't care about the graveyard ability, the sacrifice ability is too easily played around, and the gain life is only good in certain matchups. This plays out the same way every time. You put a spirit into play and then pick one of the other three modes that happens to be relevant but rarely good. You aren't even exited to Entwine this because it's so rare you want to waste the mana. Just blech.
Didn't Make the Cut
Kaya is really strong but I'm still limiting my guild sections to one planeswalker per section for now. That means she is up against Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Sorin plays out exactly as the go wide Orzhov decks want and is quite good in the aristocrat shells as well for one less mana. Kaya has more loyalty for more mana and provides the normal, boring but good trilogy of plus card advantage, minus removal and ultimate whatever. Her plus only works if you have targets for it and does nothing to protect her beyond your current board state. In fact, it doesn't do anything at all unless your creature dies. That delayed value is hard to stomach when it comes at a cost of five mana. Her ultimate is really only going to affect herself and it's not unrealistic for you to not have gained any advantages on your way to firing it off. Sorin has a better set of abilities that fit into existing archetypes more smoothly at a cheaper cost.
Rakdos
In Out
See Azorius discussion, above.
Didn't Make the Cut
I was all set to replace Falkenrath Aristocrat with this until I realized it didn't actually have haste, I had subconsciously added it the first ten times I read the card. Losing haste makes this significantly worse than it otherwise would be and it turns it from a game ending threat into a slow, girndy card. Having to tap when you sacrifice something gives your opponent away to prevent damage for a turn, something Falkenrath Aristocrat doesn't abide. You may be able to get counters more reliably here but if you can't attack, it doesn't really matter, does it?
Simic
In Out
Lumbering Falls is really expensive and slow and while I like man-lands I'm not just going to force mediocre ones in for the sake of it. The 3/3 body isn't big enough to force it's way through and hexproof is pretty wasted on such a below rate threat.
In Out
Koma presents as a supercharged Verdant Force that's harder to cast but much more impactful. This is guaranteed to resolve and make at least one 3/3 if you time it correctly during the second main phase and immediately pass to end step. Your opponent gets to respond before the token enters so there is a small window where one has a chance to answer it cleanly. After that it's much more protected and drops power and toughness onto the board at a pretty remarkable rate. The abilities can be a bit of additive distraction as making 3/3 tokens every turn is already obscenely powerful even if you never use the abilities. This is another expensive draw into Simic and probably the last one before they start competing wtih each other.
Rashmi is a fun card but not one that's intensely powerful. She ends up acting as more of an enchantment than anything else and needs to wait a full turn before she is able to start triggering her ability. That's a big window for an opponent to have a clean answer to a vanilla 2/3, a big risk at four mana. When she works she's great but most things at 4 mana are and gold cards could use some more guaranteed value or tremendous upside.
In Out
Speaking of tremendous upside, Edric provides a lot of it. I cut Edric a while ago because he didn't align with Simic's goals of being a rampy control color. This was when green didn't really do anything other than ramp and blue didn't have a great tempo game going. A lot has changed since then. Blue tempo is real and I've been happily pushing green into more of a mid-range beef strategy that's been supplementing the aggressive and tempo strategies nicely. It plays better with others and is less self contained. This means a lot more opportunities for Edric to be a card that decks want to play. In a vacuum it's always been one of Simic's more powerful cards and now that the guild's goals align more closely with it's gameplay patterns, it's a welcome addition. All of this said, I'm still cutting the hell out of this as soon as we get another exciting Simic card for all the same reasons I discussed with Toski, above.
Trygon Predator was a personal favorite card of mine from back in the day but if I have to be honest, he's been outclassed in a lot of ways as creatures have gotten better. A 2/3 flier is pretty standard stuff now and needing to actually connect to a player in order to get the destruction effect is pretty handcuffing. Creatures whose only value come in combat like this are fairly restrictive and tend to disappoint. When there is a target that needs answering, Trygon Predator just isn't a guarantee to get hte job done.
Land
Didn't Make the Cut
This is expensive enough that I wouldn't expect many aggro decks to be in the market for it considering it doesn't help you cast your spells. Mutavault gets played because it doesn't tax the rest of your turn to animate it and you can threaten the creature early. Vigilance isn't great here because you still need other lands to do anything with your mana and you won't have enough mana to do that total until the very late game. The 4/3 body isn't relevant enough for a control deck to be interested either. It's both too expensive and doesn't do enough.
Conclusion
I definitely did not expect what Kaldheim threw at us from Snow to MDFC Gods and while the complexity got a little higher than seemed necessary, it also gave me a lot that I'm happy about. I love Foretell and am really happy that my investment in Snow basic lands paid off beyond Modern Horizons. The next set up is Strixhaven and it's been revealed to be an enemy color set. That's extremely exciting and I'm hoping it continues to provide direction and new cards for Boros (Lorehold) and Golgari (Witherbloom), two guilds that badly need help. Orzhov (Silverquil), Simic (Quandrix) and Izzet (Prismari) are in a good place but I wouldn't say no to a new addition or two in Orzhov (Silverquil) either. I'm especially excited about the color identities being explored beyond the Ravnican definitions: maybe that's what some of these guilds need to really shine. Gold sets are always fun to talk about so here's looking forward to going back to college.
