Welcome back to Ravnica cubers! This is the Guilds of Ravnica cube update and I think it's coming at a good time. This one is going to be a little different than normal. In addition to talking about the swaps that occurred from the new set and the cards that didn't quite make the cut, I'll also be speaking about each of the five guilds in GRN and their main cube strategy. This will shine a spotlight on what each color pair is attempting to accomplish and should clarify why certain cuts were made or certain cards were excluded. Let's get started.
White
In Out
History of Benalia is a bit slow in token creation but you more than get your mana's worth by the end of the Saga. Originally, it didn't look like this would be impactful enough without other knights to pump on the third turn but as it turns out just getting one great swing out of the tokens this makes is enough. The bodies are big enough to matter in combination with whatever else you have going on and the vigilance has proven to matter as well in aggro mirrors. I'm a fan.
I really like the concept of the Expertise cycle in that they provided you with an interesting source of card advantage stapled onto an additional effect. Unfortunately, most of them really need to hit something relevant with the free cast trigger and if you don't, you are left overpaying for a mediocre effect. It's just too unreliable, especially as a four drop in aggro decks where you really need to be threatening lethal and not just packing the board more full of idiots. The competition just led to this never making main decks. That's a quick way to get booted out of the cube.
In Out
Mentor is a really nice ability for cube because of the prevalence of tokens. It should be pretty easy to pump up a couple of things an even if you cant, an easy to cast 2/2 first strike is on curve already. This isn't a slam dunk inclusion but it is a nice upgrade.
Knight of Meadowgrain's lifelink is about as inconsequential as you can get. In essence it's just a hard to cast 2/2 first strike. In this regard, I'd much rather have Mentor than lifelink, especially when it comes with an easier mana cost.
Didn't Make the Cut
Dawn of Hope is much better than you think it is. White usually does not get card advantage like this. That alone makes this worth considering. Definitely better in control, this churns out chump blockers, gains life and draws cards. Unfortunately, it does all of these things a little too slowly for cube. There isn't that much incidental life gain in cube so unless you are creating the tokens with this, you probably can't draw cards. That means you need at least six mana to reliably be able to even block with your tokens profitably. I really like this card, but it's just a bit too slow.
Conclave Tribunal is an expensive removal spell whose entire worth is on the back of how cheap you are able to make it with convoke. Here's the problem though, if you are tapping three or four creatures to reduce the cost, you aren't attacking with those creatures. Sure, sometimes you get brickwalled and need to remove something but I would just rather play any of the many, many two/three mana removal spells that allow my creatures to attack after the blocker/problem is removed. Control decks won't want to play this at all because of lower creature counts and not wanting to tap their blockers to get rid of a single threat. This is one of the more overrated cards in the set for cube, in my opinion.
Didn't Make the Cut
Bounty Agent has a lot of targets for its ability in cube but the fact that it completely relies on your opponent having and playing one of them at an opportune time relegates this to a spot in sideboards and nothing that anyone is fighting over in draft. Without the body, the card is not very good in regular limited, let alone cube, and while I really like the ability, the rest of the card just doesn't stand against the competition enough to justify its inclusion.
I mentioned the prevalence of tokens earlier and that's the reason that Divine Visitation is worth mentioning. That said, it's just so expensive. You need to cast this and then chain together consecutive token making cards for this to pull its weight. That's relying on a lot of things to go right and if you don't have that exact curve, this card does literally nothing. The power is there but this is just so bad when you draw it later in a game or when you are behind.
In Out
Dissolve was a borderline playable as I keep waiting for another playable two mana counterspell to come along. Sinister Sabotage is almost strictly better as putting the card in your graveyard turns on all kinds of synergies as opposed to hiding it at the bottom of your deck. This is an easy upgrade.
In Out
The sorcery speed of Silent Departure hasn't proven to make that much of a difference in the decks that want it as they tend to tap out on their turn anyway a good portion of the time. Instead, Flashback provides utility to a minor effect that is appreciated in graveyard based decks as well as tempo.
The life loss attached to Vapor Snag hasn't mattered as much as it did in constructed where you had multiples. It's a nice bonus but while Vapor Snag was strictly relegated to tempo decks, Silent Departure hits a wider swath of what blue decks try to accomplish.
Radical Idea and Chemister's Insight are the Jump Start version of cube staples Think Twice and Deep Analysis. The swap from Flashback to Jump Start changes the benefits of the cards from pure card advantage to that of card selection and graveyard interaction. This is great for graveyard strategies for horrific for control decks that want to keep hitting land drops and fill their hand of options. If you have strong spells matter themes then I can see going deep for Jump Start but these aren't better than the existing options. Flashback is just as effective in the graveyard as Jump Start except you don't have the card disadvantage of having to discard to recast.
Didn't Make the Cut
I was originally considering putting Unexplained Disappearance in over Vapor Snag (see above) but felt uneasy because this really is not that powerful of an effect. I liked the graveyard synergy more than the 1 life loss but it wasn't that much better. That line of thinking brought me to a better inclusion in Silent Departure and left Unexplained Disappearance with a perfectly explainable reason to disappear.
Surveil 2 is quite a bit better than Surveil 1 and Mission Briefing can be a very powerful card. Now that that is out of the way...this is not close to Snapcaster Mage in terms of power. The 2/1 body on the Mage is everything. Costing 1U instead of UU is huge because it doesn't restrict your mana base when casting things that already have a lot of U in their casting cost. Surveil is a nice bonus but it's not a replacement for the body. If you don't have a good target (yes, this does happen) you still have a 2/1 body as a fallback. This is greatly appreciated in tempo decks while still being good in control because it can trade with an attacking dork. Mission Briefing will likely only be playable in control decks and even there the hoops required to jump through are real. I think this card is fine but is likely overhyped. I'm starting with this out and see how it does elsewhere. I'm always open to adding cards later if they prove themselves in the wild.
Didn't Make the Cut
Dream Eater isn't the next big finisher that blue is looking for mostly because of the body. A 4/3 for six is terrible. Yes, it has flash, but you can't actually block anything meaningful when it comes down so all the value is in the text beneath that. The bounce ability and Surveil 4 don't work together at all and this just kind of feels like a Frankenstein's monster of things stapled together. Tempo decks love the body and bounce but hate the casting cost while control decks love the Surveil and flash but hate the body. This really needed to be a 4/4 or do something more coherent to an actual strategy.
In Out
Doom Whisperer is a five drop I can get behind. Normally, black creatures have some sort of downside if they are aggressively costed but this has pure upside. Some will look at the Surveil ability as bad as it costs too much life but even if you never use it you are still up a huge stats monster that is almost impossible to block. The fact that it fills your graveyard and sets up future turns for you is a great bonus if you aren't too far behind on life and board state.
Bloodgift Demon was always fine. Games typically don't last that much longer after people start playing finishers like this so you never really drew that many cards before the game ended or someone killed it. The advantage with Doom Whisperer is more controllable even if it's both more expensive and less direct card advantage. The body is also much better and the addition of trample makes a big difference in certain matchups.
Didn't Make the Cut
Midnight Reaper is probably an upgrade over Grim Haruspex as even though you lose the surprise in Morph, you gain the ability to replace itself instead of only triggering off of others. This is a good card as that makes a huge difference. However, we are still looking at non-token benefits and that limits it quite a bit. The life loss is also not irrelevant as I need to be careful about how many cards have incidental life loss associated with them as it really does add up in both deck building and game play.
Ritual of Soot is yet another black sweeper that isn't better than the existing options and I don't want more. Sure, you can "control" the damage here by playing a lot of expensive creatures but so can your opponent. This is likely a sideboard card against aggressive decks and while it's good in that role, it's not something I prioritize highly and neither do prospective drafters. This would be very difficult to main deck in most cases.
In Out
Legion Warboss might not be quite as good as Goblin Rabblemaster but it does have one advantage. The tokens you make are only forced to attack the turn they come into play, instead of every turn like with Rabblemaster. That, combined with Mentor, is a good consolation prize for not being able to pump yourself. This is one of red's more powerful three drops as the damage output gets out of hand quickly if left unchecked.
Lathnu Hellion represents a lot of damage but the lack of trample really hurts it. Rabblemaster gives more bodies to act as sacrifice outlets and it represents more power over a longer period of time. This is a pretty solid upgrade.
In Out
Goblin Banneret might not look like much at first but it quickly becomes a must kill target. The pump ability is just so efficient and synergistic with the Mentor ability. Every time this attacks it should be able to be bigger than at least on other creature. Late game it becomes a 5/1 or 7/1 that will easily trade with any blocker put in front of it (without first strike). That's a lot of mileage for one red mana.
Rakdos Cackler is a terribly uninteresting 2/2 for R. I mean, sure, you can also cast it with B or make it a 1/1 but let's be honest. 99% of the time it's a 2/2 for R. Goblin Banneret does so much more than that at the same initial cost.
In Out
Goblin Cratermaker is the Torch Fiend I always wanted. It holds value independently of its ability to destroy an artifact as both a body and a removal spell. When the destroy ability is relevant it will be huge. Note that it also destroys colorless planeswalkers, of which, there are a few in cube. This is flexible and should find a home in main decks a large percentage of the time.
Dismissive Pyromancer was fine but the rummaging ability is just so damn underwhelming. The fact that both abilities require tapping and use of mana really restricts how good this card can be. It can't attack or block effectively due to a combination of its abilities and size (respectively). It still holds a lot of value but it's harder to utilize to its fullest.
In Out
Bloodrage Brawler will fill the graveyard for decks that are interested in that (there are quite a few red cards that are) and for all the others, it's a very large body for the cost. It trades up pretty easily and quickly outclasses everything else on curve making something that really speeds up the clock if you don't have the right starting hand.
Lightning Mauler has been underwhelming mostly because Soulbond is underwhelming. Without the ability to blink or sacrifice repeatedly, you get one use out of the haste ability and that is typically best utilized on whatever you can get. The problem is, the sacrifice decks usually aren't straight aggro so giving haste isn't really the best boon and being a 2/1 for 1R is not a good consolation prize.
In Out
Experimental Frenzy is comparable to frequent cubers Future Sight and, more recently, Outpost Siege except that you don't have a limit to how many cards you can play. The hand restriction is a real cost and almost forces you to not play this until you have exhausted your resources. Once you are there, of course, this provides a ton of additional gas and all red decks do eventually get to the point. Once you are ready, you can get rid of it and play your full grip of cards again. For all of this to occur, the game would have to last six turns or so after you played this and I don't think that is very likely. I think it much more likely that you either win because of this or have to destroy it because you drew the one answer you need and can't afford to not be able to cast it. This is a ton of value and is splashable. Outpost Siege has proven to be very good mostly due to the Khans ability and this should serve a similar role but on turbo.
Commune with Lava never really panned out the way I had imagined, mostly because red decks just don't have that much mana available. The most common scenario was to cast it and then get one or two extra spells and a land at most. That's fine, but Experimental Frenzy represents a much higher upside and greater consistency.
In Out
I know, I know. The punisher mechanic. Browbeat. This time..shall be different! In all seriousness, Risk Factor is much better than Browbeat. One less damage but you get to cast it twice is huge. This very well might not be strong enough but I think it's worth giving a shot. Everyone always liked to complain about how bad Browbeat was but it was never as dead as people made it out to be. The decision did matter over the course of the game, you just need to cast it as early as you draw it. The less information the opponent has about your hand and their potential life total the better. The times this is terrible is when people are behind AND draw it with an empty hand AND their opponent is at a ton of life. Yeah, that happens, but every other time it's value and worth a trial run at least.
Consuming Fervor struggled mostly due to red decks needing to reserve to much space to burn spells. That means that the correct call was to just throw it in the first creature you could and cross your fingers. Sometimes you got there but red can't afford to just throw away card advantage like that when they live so close to the edge of the opponent stabilizing.
Didn't Make the Cut
Erratic Cyclops is almost an Izzet card as it is nearly unplayable in all other color combinations except mono-Red burn. As it is, it's just too narrow of a card. Without pump spells you are likely looking at a single pump of 2 or 3 each turn and for four mana that's not going to cut through the front lines very effectively. Sure, it blocks for days which works well with the Izzet spells matter strategy but it's not something I want to dedicate a slot in red to and it's not better than the existing options in Izzet proper.
If you are in the market for straight creature removal, you can do worse than Lava Coil in red. It's an extra mana over Flame Slash and you get an exile clause. It's still only two mana so it's a nice inclusion for cubes looking to curb graveyard strategies a little bit but I'm not in the market for that at the moment. The combination of this being a sorcery and not hitting players leaves it on the bench for me.
Didn't Make the Cut
Direct Current is, like the Jump-Start cards above, very similar to a cube card with Flashback, in Firebolt. To cast both twice you end up paying the same amount of mana over two iterations but the main difference is that while Firebolt is cheap then expensive, Direct Current is middling in both instances. That, combined with the fact that you have to discard a card to cast it the second time make it noticeably worse when compared to Firebolt. Taking into consideration that Firebolt is on the fringes of cube playability and we have a solid reason for this to not be included.
In Out
Kraul Harpooner is essentially a split card. On one side it's an efficient body with Reach and on the other it's a Plummet. Note that it can be both if the target is a 1/1 flying token and that the fight trigger is not mandatory...if you don't want to trade with that flier you don't have to. How good is that? If you support green aggro strategies its amazing as it gives green an easy maindeck card that responds effectively to fliers. The real question is whether or not it's good in the guilds green comprises. Gruul and Selesnya will likely be happy to maindeck this while there is almost no chance that Simic will and Golgari will be more deck dependent. I think that's enough to get it in over the competition.
Experiment One is a relic of green aggro strategies that never panned out. As it is, it rarely makes main decks and when it does it hardly acts as the boon against control strategies that people make it out to be. Evolve fares very poorly in cube as its just too reliant on when you draw particular cards and whether or not everything goes right. This one won't be missed.
Didn't Make the Cut
If you support green aggro in your cube you can do worse than Pelt Collector. Very similar to Experiment One in practice (it essentially has Evolve), if you are happy with the Ooze in your cube you should be happy with this. Experiment One was put on the watch list a while ago (and subsequently removed, above) when I dropped green aggro and this is even more aggro than that, so this is outside of my wheelhouse.
Nullhide Ferox joins the growing list of huge X/X for 2GG creatures in green. Unfortunately, hexproof leaves this on the sidelines. Yes, I understand that you can pay to remove it (and so can the opponent) but I just don't want to even go there. The discard ability has never been relevant on a card so I'm ignoring that entirely.
Didn't Make the Cut
Hatchery spider is completely reliant on the Undergrowth ability to even be a playable card in cube. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to control all the levers involved with that ability. You need to have a lot of creatures in your graveyard in order to cast a good enough card and you need to actually reveal that card in the top X as well. Then, the card you reveal has to be useful. Too much has to go right in a strategy that is too narrow to control without warping large aspects of the cube.
Didn't Make the Cut
Chamber Sentry goes down as my least favorite card in the set and one of my least favorite cards of all time. Why? Well, you pay X mana for a 0/0 creature. Let's say you pay 5 green mana. You get one +1/+1 counter and the ability is unusable because you don't have that many counters. In order to use the ability, you have to cast one mana for each color only as the additional mana literally ruins the card. It's the least intuitive card I've seen in years. It looks like a card they wanted to give Sunburst but couldn't and just made it work without the keyword. Add to that the lack of 5C synergy in my cube and this is an easy pass no matter how effective it might actually be.
In Out
So Teferi is bonkers. It's perfect for control decks as you are able to use some mana both on your turn and keep up reactionary spells on your opponent's turn. It's both card advantage and removal as the tuck ability is way better than I gave it credit for. The ultimate is fine but the power remains in the plus and minus ability. Easily the best planeswalker for Azorius on the whole so far.
Historically, tappers have been very underwhelming in cube. There is just so much competition and ways to gain value with your creatures outside of simply attacking that it's very difficult to just remove one from combat each turn and have it be good enough. That said, Minister of Impediments is probably the best one because you don't have to pay mana to activate the ability. It's light years behind Teferi in terms of raw power and versatility, hence the cut, but it remains one of the more unappreciated Azorius cards on the spectrum.
Boros is the most straightforward guild in that it is an aggro deck through and through. With a good suite of removal and efficient creatures it is looking to end games quickly and without running too many lands. This makes expensive spells much worse than they are elsewhere and makes cheap, interactive spells much better. Efficient creatures for their cost that can help push through damage are at a premium here.
In Out
Both Aurelia, the Warleader and her Fury pale in comparison to Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice both from a casting cost perspective and one from gameplay. While Aurelia herself might be the most common target of her abilities she can also target other creatures and white's token making abilities should make her Mentor ability shine. The 5 toughness is the key though as she is extremely difficult to kill in combat or with burn meaning she should be able to Mentor multiple creatures through a game.
In Out
Tajic is a very powerful creature. Three power should be more than enough to Mentor a couple of things and his first strike ability makes up for his low toughness making him difficult to block. Yes, he dies to burn but while he's out he will be the only thing that can be targeted. This might not sound great as he already has a target on his back but when you have an evasive or more imposing threat that needs answering and your opponent isn't allowed to direct burn their way, it's very good. This is a lot of power for only three mana even if the best use is waiting until turn five to attack with first strike mana available. Keep in mind all you need is the threat of activation, most of the time that will be enough to dissuade blockers from making you actually use the mana in question.
Master Warcraft struggles from being a really cool effect in the wrong colors. The most common use of this card is to just make all your creatures unblockable. Yes, it technically does a lot more than that as it can be used offensively or defensively but it never actually gets used in either of those ways. Boros doesn't waste time blocking at all so it's a little awkward and expensive for such an ability.
Didn't Make the Cut
Deafening Clarion isn't a bad card but it is a misleading one. It's powerful if you are behind because you can clear a board of small threats, the lifelink clause is good at parity and when you are behind and the ability to choose one or both provides a couple interesting corner cases where you can wipe small creatures and get in with a bigger lifelinker. That said, this is really confusing to see for people drafting the cube. RW does not have a big creature theme; that's GR. This would be good in GWR where you splash white or red for removal and go over the top but it's actively at its worst in the deck it's "designed" for. I can't cut cards that work well in the guild and do their job to direct drafters in a clear direction for a guild strategy for something like this.
Swiftblade Vindicator is the kind of card that most cube owners look at and get super excited for because they dream of how good it is with equipment. I, on the other hand, tend to hate cards like this for cube because when you don't have equipment, which is most of the time, it's terribly underwhelming. I don't even run the swords (best design decision I've made) so this is even less exciting for my list.
Dimir is one of the slower guilds focused on control and reanimator strategies. Card advantage, removal and finishers, as well as graveyard interactions are key while tempo cards and cheaper, efficient beaters are less important.
In Out
Notion Rain is a great Dimir card because it fills the graveyard while giving card advantage, perfect for both reanimator and control strategies. This is especially good when looking for answers as it is able to dig four cards deep when you are at your most desperate.
Recoil does a nice job but suffers from being more of a tempo card in a color combination that doesn't really have a tempo deck. It wouldn't be too bad but its just a little too low impact on average.
Didn't Make the Cut
Etrata, the Silencer is poorly positioned in a control deck. She can either come down and play defense for a couple of turns against aggressive decks or she can hit right away, remove a threat and disappear after dealing a couple of damage. A four drop in Dimir has to actively move towards winning the game and this does more to stabilize and prevent you from losing it. It's a really cool card but not something that moves the needle as much as, say Hostage Taker which is the competition for this.
Thief of Sanity is an easy upgrade over Nightveil Specter due to its easier casting cost, easier casting of stolen spells and being able to select a spell. I don't run Nightveil Specter because unless you are playing the mirror, it can take three or four turns to be able to start playing cards and that's way too slow in cube. Thief of Sanity lets you cast the spells immediately, regardless of what they are and you get card selection as well. The issue is that in the slower, control decks that Dimir works with, this is going to be a lightning rod for removal and the damage it deals is largely irrelevant. Without a diversity of threats, this is a little out of place. It's still powerful though and I love the ability. I'm going to put this one on the watch list as a possible future addition because I think it has potential. The thing holding me back from adding it is that it doesn't do anything until it actually connects in combat and it gets held back by most creatures in combat fairly easily.
Didn't Make the Cut
I wanted to talk about both of these cards collectively because if the card was Discovery // Concoct, this would be a slam dunk cube card. The card advantage associated with Discovery is great for such a low opportunity and mana cost when attached to a big, splashy reanimation effect like Concoct. As it is though, Connive and Dispersal are both grossly overcosted and inefficient for cube. Oh well, we can't always have what we want. Discovery is essentially a two mana Preordain but that's not an effect I feel I need more of, especially in the gold section.
Didn't Make the Cut
Lazav holds a lot of value as a two mana creature. It comes down early, gives you a little card selection and does some blocking. Later in the game he starts copying whatever creatures are available for added value. The thing holding him back is that instead of a static mana cost to copy, he has to use the CMC of the target. That prevents him from being able to overperform too much and keeps him mostly fair. You also don't get any of the ETB or cast bonuses of the creatures he copies, just the stats and die effects.
Golgari is a slower guild that is built around the graveyard and incremental advantage over time. Resilient threats that come in waves and answers for everything an opponent can muster are the name of the game.
In Out
Assassin's Trophy is probably the best removal spell in cube due to its versatility and effective mana cost. The downside is relevant if played in the early game but once things are stabilized, this is all upside. The only question is how many straight removal spells to include in Golgari as black already has the removal end covered for creatures. I think three is a good number for now as I do want a bit of variety in effects.
Journey to Eternity is a sweet card but ultimately, it's not that easy to transform it. If you don't get the sacrifice cards in black then you are playing this very fairly. That can work, and it works well in Golgari, but the competition is stiff and you are looking at a couple of turns before you actually flip this and are able to start profiting off of it.
In Out
Underrealm Lich a perfect Golgari card. It's difficult to kill, feeds the graveyard and gives you card advantage, perfect for grindy games won through incremental advantage and inevitability. You likely won't be able to use the indestructible ability too many times over the course of a game but that's okay. It's likely that the fact that it's always available will dissuade opponents from targeting it with removal in the first place. In addition, if you are able to get a couple of turns out of the first ability it will have done its job.
I really like Baloth Null but once I separate my personal feelings from the card, it's just objectively not that powerful when compared to Underrealm Lich.
Didn't Make the Cut
Vraska is one of the few planeswalkers whose ultimate is really relevant for assessing her overall worth. I really dislike alternate win conditions like this in cube and this one is especially stupid. Otherwise, she works really well with the sacrifice theme in black but I think I like Vraska, Relic Seeker more even though she is less synergistic with the rest of the guild. The plus ability for Golgari Queen is just so low impact compared to the plus for Relic Seeker. The same goes for the -3 ability. The guild is slow and grindy enough where you don't mind paying the extra mana for a much more powerful card.
Izzet decks utilize tempo cards to keep opponents off the board while they deal small amounts of damage over time with evasive creatures and spells. The decks can have lots of spells and only a few value creatures or they can be comprised mainly of evasive creatures and a few, effective spells to keep an opponent of balance. The gold cards should prioritize card advantage and tempo and while you can build a UR control deck, it won't be the typical build so those cards are prioritized less so.
Didn't Make the Cut
Ionize feels like an Izzet card that would have been a slam dunk in earlier version of the cube back when Undermine and Absorb were popular and effective. This is better than those as it's easier to cast but not by much as the damage is reduced. The top end of Izzet is pretty set in stone and even the lower end of the guild is so efficient and good at what it does that the barrier to entry is really high. Ionize is good but that's just not good enough to get the job done with the slots available.
Hypothesizzle is a powered down version of Prophetic Bolt in that it doesn't target players and you only dig two cards deep instead of four. I don't have room for another five mana effect like this so this is an easy exclusion.
Didn't Make the Cut
Ral, Izzet Viceroy is only good in the spells matters iteration of Izzet where the -3 is able to shine effectively. If you can't get value out of the -3 the card is actively bad because the plus ability, while it does fuel the -3, just doesn't do that much. Dack Fayden does just as good a job of fueling your hand and graveyard except that it's way less mana and it has a minus ability that can be way more game changing if you are able to fire it off. I can't justify paying two extra mana for something that serves a very similar role and power level.
Selesnya is an aggressive, creature based guild that relies on a combination of go-wide token strategies and go over the top creature strategies. It tends not to play very many instants or sorceries as it just drops so many threats that other decks struggle to keep up with the raw efficiency and value associated with most of its spells. The flexibility is one of its greatest strengths as it is able to win at any stage of a game depending on the matchup and many of its cards are able to play defense just as effectively as they play on offense. Able to deal with problematic permanents of all kinds, it relies on the white removal to deal with creatures.
In Out
Knight of Autumn does it all. It gives you a chump blocker and life boost when behind, can deal with problematic artifacts/enchantments without being relgated to sideboards and, when all else fails, it can just be a big beat stick. These main deck Naturalize effects are something that I put a lot of emphasis on as there is so much value in not just being stone dead to an artifact/enchantment because you didn't want to main deck your situational removal. This is good at all phases of the game and is always affordable.
Fleecemane Lion hits the right notes for Selesnya but it struggles due to how expensive and fair its Monstrosity trigger costs. Five mana is a lot to hold up over consecutive turns and while you are making a legitimate threat, other decks can usually afford to just ignore the 3/3 and focus on other targets while you hold up the protection mana. This also has the added bonus of removing a card with hexproof from the cube...although this was a low level offender.
Didn't Make the Cut
Trostani Discordant is so close to being a slam dunk cube card. It creates tokens and acts as an anthem. If it was an enchantment I think it would be a toss up. As it is though, the body is just so bad. Yes, it blocks effectively but it's essentially a wall which Selesnya does not need. By making it a creature they made it fragile and while you get to keep the two 1/1 lifelink tokens, it's not much consolation when you lose your anthem effect. And no, the last ability is not relevant 90% of games and will never be relevant unless you are playing blue.
March of the Multitudes is a really cool card that is the definition of win more. The dream of getting a ton of tokens out of this is just that, a dream. It doesn't matter how many tokens you get out of this, it's expensive and impractical. If you already have four or five creatures in play you are probably winning the game. If you aren't, a couple of 1/1 lifelink tokens isn't getting through whatever is preventing you from swinging in the first place. Where this really shines is when you have four in your deck and you can chain together two or three. In a singleton format, this just doesn't do enough. Secure the Wastes works well because it is splashable and the perfect follow up to a wrath in either control or an aggressive deck. It's also as efficient as the effect can get, making X-1 creatures where X is your mana. This makes X-3 which is a significant difference.
Surprisingly, this wasn't a banner set for cube. Most of the main colors had minimal updates as only Red really benefited from this set in a significant way. Boros and Golgari were able to make some pretty solid upgrades but the other guilds were nearly untouched. This speaks to the power level of the guilds in this set as most of them have clear goals and gameplans which makes further inclusion difficult. The next set should be very interesting as both Gruul and Simic are in need of direction and their cards are much more fluid in power level when compared to the other guilds. I look forward to seeing what is offered. See you next time!
