I have been quite pleasantly surprised with previous supplementary products for cube. Oftentimes, I have overlooked cards that were very powerful and come upon them later to find out what I had missed. That trend will probably continue with the Commander 2014 cards but not for lack of trying. I have also removed the five Swords from the cube for lack of interaction and fun. I have talked about this previously but needed some cards to replace them with. Lots of cards to talk about so let's get going.
White
In Out
I love Hallowed Spiritkeeper so much. The vigilance seems a little weird on a card like this but, strangely enough, once you get enough creatures in your graveyard it allows you to shut down the ground defensively should your opponent not want to give you so many tokens. You can still attack during this so the vigilance is actually quite powerful. The fact that the tokens have flying is icing on the cake. This is also very dangerous post-wrath as it automatically gives you replacement creatures for your decimated force that can attack immediately.
Both of these cards are going to give you a very similar effect for a similar cost. Emeria Angel is a little more expensive but gives you a stronger, evasive body. The big problem with Emeria Angel though is that she actually costs 5. In order to not waste her ability you need to cast her and then immediately play a land...that way, even if they kill her that turn, you still get a bird out of the deal. Afterwards, you get about a bird every other turn to two birds every three turns....depending. The problem is that that is a long time for you to get that value...usually it doesn't last that long. it think the most birds I have ever gotten was two. I think you are going to get more tokens with the Hallowed Spiritkeeper on average for a lower cost and much less time/effort.
In Out
Jazal Goldmane wins games. White is always looking for some sort of Overrun effect and we have gotten a couple in the last few sets in Soul of Theros and Dictate of Heliod. This is a little cheaper and comes attached to a completely reasonable body for the cost. There are plenty of games where you don't ever activate the ability and you aren't disappointed. It is that flexibility that makes this worthwhile. This reminds me of a Mirror Entity whose ability is optional but a little bit more all-in. You can't really just attack with one huge creature like you can with Mirror Entity. They are similar but different. I don't want to cut Mirror Entity because I think both are good enough and I want this to be an effect white has more access to.
With taking swords out of the cube I now gain some flexibility in cutting a couple of the sub-par cards I had included merely because they destroyed an artifact. I still want this effect in the cube, of course, but I can be a little more selective in what I add. Kor Sanctifiers is just okay as the body is horrible for the cost. This costs four mana. You are never casting this for just the body unless something has gone horribly wrong. Even then....it's not that exciting.
In Out
Steppe Lynx has been a powerful fixture in many cubes since it's printing all the way back in Zendikar. I have been stubbornly leaving it out on the principle that it is never going to be as good as it is in constructed because you cannot reliably have fetch lands. Also, late game it is pretty much a blank that has no power or toughness. The problem with this attitude is that, really, how different is this than Savannah Lions? If you assume that every turn for the first four turns you are casting a land this is BETTER than Savannah Lions. You don't need best case scenario to justify this inclusion because the common case scenario is already good enough. Sure, there are going to be times when you awkwardly don't have that fifth land and can't really do anything with little Kitty but most of the times that is because you have already attacked once or twice and that is really all you can ask for. I need more redundancy in my one drops because I want to see a couple each draft. The only way to guarantee that is to actually include enough in my list.
It turns out that unless you reanimate Angel of Serenity it usually does not do enough to be good enough for cube. The ability is a little too grindy and white is the color least likely to be involved in a reanimation deck. This is just not exciting enough when compared to the need for another good one drop in white.
In Out
Seeker of the Way has really overperformed from my expectations. I knew it was good but I underestimated the power of one activation of prowess. It is probably better that you aren't triggering it more than once per turn since the surprise of activation is so powerful and you want to save your resources. Casting Lingering Souls or Midnight Haunting the turn this attacks is very powerful and it pairs very well with any non-green color.
I have not been disappointed by Knight of Glory but I also want to remove protection from the cube for lack of interaction. Taking protection off this card and it isn't that much different from Seeker of the Way due to the low toughness even if you trigger Exalted. Take into account that white often wants to go wide with many attackers and Exalted counts for even less. This is a pretty parallel change in power level and I really like the reduction in protection.
Didn't Make the Cut
If you could trigger Angel of the Dire Hour's ability through cheating it into play we could be talking about something interesting. However, having to cast it from your hand makes this virtually unplayable. Yeah the ability and body are still pretty good but the cost is way too high. I want higher toughness or more flexibility. To cost seven and be good you need to be very, very good. This is not.
I almost added Comeuppance, and not just because it is one of the most fantastically named cards I have ever seen. I think the ability is very powerful but four mana is a lot. In theory, you are paying this much mana in the hopes of plague winding your opponent. In practice, that only works if you have creature with base stats or higher power than toughnesses. I don't think that will matter too much but once you know your opponent has this it is very easy to play around, similar to AEtherspouts. It's just too much mana to have to keep up each turn. If you hold the mana up instead of committing to the board and your opponent attacks with one creature you either have to use this for reduced value or you...what?...wait for your opponent to go all-in while not doing anything? It turns out that with both this and AEtherspouts you need to cast it whenever you have the chance regardless of how much value you are getting. They just aren't flexible enough and the best case scenario isn't going to happen a high enough percentage of the time.
Didn't Make the Cut
Nahiri is a very boring planeswalker. I have talked ad nauseum about how boring putting a 1/1 token into play is. The equipment clauses here are pretty much blanks so you are looking at speeding to the incredibly uninteresting ultimate. I am only talking about these planeswalkers because they are planeswalkers and high profile cards...but god are they terrible for cube (most of them).
Containment Priest's main function is to hose reanimator strategies and things like Show and Tell and Sneak Attack. The later two aren't in my cube and I don't think reanimator is doing so well that it needs specific hate yet. While I do have things like Recurring Nightmare and Natural Order in my cube, I don't think the density of these effects is enough for this to be anything other than a sideboard card in most cases. On a related note, white is interesting now because there are so many Grizzly Bears that have various effects (Hate Bears) that you can really take your pick with whichever ones you want because all of them are "good enough". I am happy with the ones that I have right now but the options for customizability are endless and I really like that if you find a problem with a certain strategy doing too well there are many options for help. Thanks for reminding me to talk about this card Jeff!
Containment Priest's main function is to hose reanimator strategies and things like Show and Tell and Sneak Attack. The later two aren't in my cube and I don't think reanimator is doing so well that it needs specific hate yet. While I do have things like Recurring Nightmare and Natural Order in my cube, I don't think the density of these effects is enough for this to be anything other than a sideboard card in most cases. On a related note, white is interesting now because there are so many Grizzly Bears that have various effects (Hate Bears) that you can really take your pick with whichever ones you want because all of them are "good enough". I am happy with the ones that I have right now but the options for customizability are endless and I really like that if you find a problem with a certain strategy doing too well there are many options for help. Thanks for reminding me to talk about this card Jeff!
In Out
Treasure Cruise has proven itself in constructed and while I was not doubting its raw power, I wanted to see, on average, how much you are casting it for. It turns out that you are often just paying one or two mana and using this as a late game dig for answers/gas and then immediately play those answers/gas. That is incredibly powerful and I am glad to add it now that I have seen it in action.
See my explanation for Comeuppance, above, because AEtherspouts is being taken out for the same reasons.
In Out
Both Into the Roil and Repulse are very similar. The big difference here is that for one more blue mana (to get the same effect) you gain the ability to shave a mana off the cost and gain a reduced effect. This flexibility has been shown to be very appreciated when I have seen Into the Roil get played. I think this might get played as a Repulse about 75% of the time and a Boomerang 25% of the time but that 25% of the time is worth it. Note that this also hits nonland permanents instead of just creatures. In practice that shouldn't matter too much since creatures will be the primary mode used but the increased functionality is not to be underestimated.
Didn't Make the Cut
I mentioned earlier how I didn't want to miss out on great cards in this update like I have in the past. I was going to originally add in Reef Worm but then came to the conclusion that it was probably too cute. It is an all-star in a reanimation and sacrifice deck since it is very difficult to just kill but the problem is that all of the creatures are vanilla and you need to get to the 6/6 before you get anything worthwhile. It's a little too reliant on being cute to be useful. We need things that have even a little bit of base value and the shenanigans are a bonus.
Teferi is horrible and everyone saying that he is powerful should be ashamed of themselves. His first ability is pretty good but doesn't affect the board at all. His second ability is terrible. Sure, you can ramp yourself but it costs six mana already to cast so what are you ramping to? His ultimate is equally useless. Note that all this applies for cube. It might be good in Commander...but it's terrible in cube.
In Out
The most common use for Malicious Affliction is probably going to be chump blocking and then using it to wipe out two creatures after combat. However, I also imagine you are going to be sacrificing a creature and then casting it to remove to attackers a good percentage of the time as well. The double black hurts but being able to take care of multiple creatures at instant speed is very powerful. I still wouldn't add this to the cube though unless I already had a removal spell in mind to cut.
Which brings us to Ulcerate. It turns out that the payment of 3 life is pretty darn huge when it comes to using this defensively to destroy aggressive creatures. You aren't saving life in the long run and there are enough spells already that use life as a resource.
In Out
I am pretty sure that Flesh Carver is the strongest card in Commander 2014 for cube and one of the strongest cards black has seen in quite a while. The base body for the cost is fantastic. A 2/2 with intimidate for three that puts a 2/2 in play when it dies is very good. Add in that whenever you sacrifice any creature (including tokens) you put TWO counters on this and you are looking at a win condition. It works perfectly in the sacrifice deck and is very threatening on any board.
Tormented Hero is another hold over from the aggro plan removal from black. The heroic trigger was never a factor and without it it's just another aggro one drop that is forgettable.
In Out
Murderous Redcap is coming over from the gold section since it is hilariously more powerful in black than it is in red. It's still playable in both of course but this is almost always drafted and played in black decks as opposed to red.
Skeletal Vampire is the weakest of the expensive drops in black, mostly because of how slow it is. Even treating it as a very difficult to kill creature, it's still a 3/3 that ends up almost always sacrificing a bat the first turn or two. It's pretty good in the sacrifice deck but so are about a thousand other things that don't cost a million mana. I am excited about reducing the mana costs a bit.
Didn't Make the Cut
I think Ghoulcaller Gisa is powerful. I think. It's pretty expensive and the body is pretty bad for the ability. But that is so many zombies! Unfortunately, I just don't think it's better than the existing five drops. I am, however, excited about seeing this literally anywhere so I can see it in action. This one is in the reserve list for maybe being added at some point.
Ob Nixilis is probably the only defendable planeswalker that could be added from this set. Most of that is due to the weakness of monoblack planeswalkers. Even having a slot available in my list, I still don't want this guy. His +2 ability is horrible and his ultimate is good but not realistic to attain. That means you are playing the very powerful minus ability but I don't want to play planeswalkers that do nothing but make tokens...it's just not fun and it's boring as hell.
In Out
I see a lot of people underestimating Dualcaster Mage. The most common complaints are that it is only good if your opponent is casting good instants or sorceries. The fact of the matter is that you are getting a decent body (due to also having flash) for the cost. Their spell still resolves but your copy will resolve first. If this is a counter spell you get to counter their counter. You are going to be getting something out of this effect. Red decks don't need a ton of extra reach with all of their burn spells and this is going to give them a great and unique form of card advantage. I really like this guy.
I was always a little luke warm about Guttersnipe. I was hopeful he might overperform in the counterburn decks (mostly Izzet) but it turns out that those decks also don't run a ton of creatures making this a giant target for any removal the opponent has wasting away in hand. Add to that that he is horrible in other decks that DON'T have a ton of instants/sorceries and I don't feel bad about this cut. At least Dualcaster Mage just needs to resolve to have his effect instead of live for a couple of turns.
In Out
I have been very impressed with Monastery Swiftspear in constructed so far. It is certainly much faster and more reliable than Magus of the Scroll, which is so much worse than Cursed Scroll because it is a creature. Add into that that this is definitely not a one drop but more like a...six drop? I don't know, you don't want to cast this until really late game and even then it has been really bad because you can't tap it immediately if you do cast it later on in the game. Monastery Swiftspear will probably not always trigger Prowess, but the threat is there. Having two toughness naturally is nice because it can swing through a token or two on threat of activation alone. I don't think this is going to light the world afire but I do think it is one of the stronger one drops in red.
In Out
Rakdos Cackler coming over to red instead of Rakdos due to not needing those cards in black. It opened a slot for the gold section for something more interesting. Red still needs its one drops so I don't want to cut it altogether.
Without equipment, Spikeshot Elder is just awful. Cutting the swords makes this even worse than it already was situational.
In Out
Cheaper and much more aggressive, Rabblemaster works well with tokens as well as being maybe the best aggressive three drop in red. Many of those slots are taken up by utility creatures and burn so it's nice to get another creature in there that pressures your opponent. Ruinblaster isn't bad but it's a little expensive and in practice it rarely amounts to much more than a four mana wasteland. If they don't have a target (which they don't always) it's a real bummer. This is a pretty big upgrade.
Didn't Make the Cut
Giving all your creatures haste is pretty strong but not worth a land that comes into play tapped and an additional mana. A lot of those creatures already have haste in red and it's just not that exciting either.
Feldon of the Third Path is pretty sweet but I don't think there is a slot for him right now. He is in an awkward zone of being a creature that really wants to be an artifact. He should be pretty good in reanimation style decks as it makes repeatable monsters over and over without removing them from the graveyard. It also shouldn't be terrible in some decks that have a flying creature in the graveyard since it almost acts as burn. However, it is a lightning rod for removal and probably won't live long enough. I would probably add it in if it had haste but it's a little too slow and doesn't do enough on its own. I am keeping my eye on how this performs elsewhere though because I think it does have a chance.
Feldon of the Third Path is pretty sweet but I don't think there is a slot for him right now. He is in an awkward zone of being a creature that really wants to be an artifact. He should be pretty good in reanimation style decks as it makes repeatable monsters over and over without removing them from the graveyard. It also shouldn't be terrible in some decks that have a flying creature in the graveyard since it almost acts as burn. However, it is a lightning rod for removal and probably won't live long enough. I would probably add it in if it had haste but it's a little too slow and doesn't do enough on its own. I am keeping my eye on how this performs elsewhere though because I think it does have a chance.
Didn't Make the Cut
Daretti is another example of the new planeswalkers that are exciting (allegedly) in commander and awful in cube. This might not actually be bad at all if you support an artifact subtheme...but I don't so it's unplayable.
In Out
This is a pretty parallel swap out. I haven't been overly impressed with Krosan Grip, mostly because the split second is super irrelevant and it never makes the maindeck. Song of the Dryads still deals with pesky artifacts/enchantments but also can deal with any other permanent making it a pretty big upgrade for the same cost. Sure, it makes them a Forest but that isn't terribly disappointing when looking at the alternatives. Green doesn't get removal like this ever so I rank this higher in green than it would be in any other color.
Didn't Make the Cut
Some people think that Freyalise is going to be good in cube simply because she makes 1/1 tokens. I don't discount the power of that but I do discount the level of intrigue. Boring card is boring.
I was excited about Creeperhulk at first and even had him going into the cube. Then I tried to talk about why I was adding him in. He seems really sweet when you have an abundance of other smaller creatures since you can make them all huge and swing for the win. The problem is that in that scenario you already have a bunch of other creatures. He's pretty terrible on an empty board or a depleted board and doesn't do anything if your creatures are already big. This is why I talk them out. This happens all the time.
In Out
Duplicant has long been a card that I have overlooked merely because of it's initial cost and I had never played with it. After having played with it a little bit, I now see that it really is quite powerful. It acts as colorless removal while also being a threat. Add into that any sort of shenanigans with it and it is really top notch.
All the swords are getting cut because my cube has protection from un-fun, noninteractive cards and mechanics...like protection...and especially double protection.
In Out
Gilded Lotus isn't the best card but it is pretty good in decks that want to build up to a lot of mana. I can see this getting cut in the future but I wanted fun cards to replace the swords and there aren't a ton of artifacts that I am terribly interested in.
All the swords are getting cut because my cube has protection from un-fun, noninteractive cards and mechanics...like protection...and especially double protection.
In Out
Spellskite is awesome. I honestly thought it was already in my cube until I looked at the list a couple of times. Maybe I had cut it previously, who knows but it's good enough to get in (again?) even if I wasn't cutting swords. It's obviously not great in aggressive decks but it takes a hell of a beating and is really tough to deal with. It protects your other creatures from spells and abilities as well as having 4 toughness it blocks for days.
All the swords are getting cut because my cube has protection from un-fun, noninteractive cards and mechanics...like protection...and especially double protection.
In Out
AEther Searcher overperformed my expectations when I have seen him in play. Sure, the ability is swingy, but if you pick him early enough he can really give your deck some direction. It helps that you can cast the spell from your hand or library so even if you draw it, it doesn't lose any value. This makes it so you can go crazy with whatever card you are selecting. I was very impressed. Also, his 6/4 body is really much better than I thought at first glance.
All the swords are getting cut because my cube has protection from un-fun, noninteractive cards and mechanics...like protection...and especially double protection.
In Out
Originally I had included Deal Broker until I realized that there was already a copy of it in my cube. Therefore I am changing this to Trusty Machete. It helps keep the equipment count up (man they have slacked on making cube worthy equipment lately, huh?) in the absence of the swords. It is also very good in its own right as the extra toughness boost is worth way more than the indestructibility of Darksteel Axe. Keep those aggro decks happy.
All the swords are getting cut because my cube has protection from un-fun, noninteractive cards and mechanics...like protection...and especially double protection.
In Out
Fanatic of Xenagos was my favorite card from Born of the Gods and one of the few successful Tribute cards. The trick to Tribute (punisher mechanic) is that you really need to not care which option is picked...ever. I think there are times when you want him to have haste but most of the time it really shouldn't matter. It's a big body for the cost and will always have trample. Pretty strong for a three drop.
Kird Ape is pretty bad when you don't have a forest and that is going to be the most likely scenario. I don't like Loam Lion for the same reason even though so many other people seem to love them. I don't know, maybe this is just personal preference but these are so much worse in limited than they are in constructed Zoo decks.
In Out
Tymaret works well with the sacrifice theme and is a pretty resilient threat on its own since you can trigger its second ability at instant speed. It's not fast but I think that is okay since the sacrifice deck is much more grindy anyway.
Rakdos Cackler moved to mono-red as previously discussed.
In Out
Sarkhan was in the cube previously and I really enjoyed him in concert with any sort of gain control of effects. He was a blast to play with and never felt un-fun to play against. Most of that was due to his abilities never causing him to go up in loyalty (which is ever so flavorful). I really feel like this is a fun addition that gives some more card advantage to Rakdos.
Murderous Redcap moved to mono-black as previously discussed.
This was a pretty successful set update. I was able to get rid of the swords and update some of the hybrid cards to a more reasonable location while adding in some more exciting gold cards. There were some pretty exciting cards to add and I was able to get rid of a couple of cards that were no longer relevant in a post-swords environment. It is a little difficult to be too excited about Fate Reforged when we still know next to nothing about it. However, I am sure as soon as details emerge so will be excitement for cube. Until then, enjoy!
