Welcome to the Ikoria cube update! I've been having a blast with Ikoria drafts on Arena so far and I'm really feeling the benefit of increased play time with a wider variety of cards than I'm used to. It's a great set for limited but one that doesn't really translate all that well to a cube environment. It consists of a number of extremely synergistic strategies that rely on critical mass of certain effects to function, particularly Cycling and Mutate. In cube, we need to look at Mutate as an ETB effect and it will be examined as such. Cycling cards retain the flexibility the mechanic provides but we won't be looking at any cycling matters cards. Companion cards are their own animal and I'll be talking about all of them in detail. I won't be talking about the tri-color cards at all as I don't support that strategy anymore. Yes, you can mutate the mythic cyle for hybrid but it's not worth figuring out where to slot these in the list. I also won't be playing with any of the Godzilla alternate arts just to limit unnecessary complexity and confusion during drafting. Lastly, I'll discuss several cards from the Commander 2020 set but these decks seem to contain even fewer relevant cube cards than normal. Let's get to it.
White
In Out
Luminous Broodmoth passes the vanilla test, but only barely in light of white's aggressive slant. The real draw is its triggered ability that allows you to get a second go with any non-flying creature that dies. This ability has far reaching applications and has proven to be very powerful in the recently added Nightmare Shepherd. Broodmoth allows you to retain the original body in addition to triggering all dies/ETB abilities a second time at no additional mana cost. This allows you to continue to forward your game plan without having to worry about saving mana to trigger something that might not come up. Sacrifice effects in black allow you to have full control over your triggers even in response to removal, limiting the damage should your opponent immediately point a removal spell at the Moth. When chump blocking and chump attacking results in an evasive (and untapped) replacement, the prospect of racing this becomes daunting. As previously mentioned, the key is that this ability is stapled to an acceptable body that allows you to continue attacking if you slant aggressive or block if you are moving in a more grindy direction.
I've already had several people ask me while drafting if Brisela, Voice of Nightmares is in the cube and I've had to explain that she isn't because she is terrible. While this seems like a minor annoyance, it does remind me why I don't play cards like Gemhide Sliver despite its usefulness. It gives people false expectations and can negatively influence a player's experience with the cube. The fact that Gisela is "just" an efficient body makes me feel less bad about her removal. She's powerful but only interacts well in combat and doesn't do anything particularly unique.
In Out
Realm-Cloaked Giant has gotten enough positive review that I feel justified in my initial reaction to it. A relevant but unexciting body stapled to a slightly overcosted Wrath effect has proven to be good enough. Say what you will about the creature but a 7/7 vigilance is going to be involved in every combat and eventually will have to be answered. Decks don't have unlimited removal, despite what people seem to think, and this goes way up in value when it doesn't take up a slot in your deck. If you don't need the wrath you are going to be very thankful to have a fall back plan and it also lessens the blow of using your wrath on a single creature when you know you are getting more value later on. Control decks need a fine balance of reactive and proactive cards drawn in the right order and Realm-Cloaked Giant allows you the flexibility to have both at once, which will not only make it a higher draft pick but a card that will almost never get cut from the deck due to its inherent utility. Not having to worry about it being a blank against an opponent with no creatures goes a long way towards improving the decks' consistency and lessening the amount of dead draws you might have.
The real question is whether the extra creature is better than the life gain provided by Fumigate and I feel pretty comfortable saying that it is. Unless you have life gain synergies, the life gain isn't going to be enough to stabilize you as it on average really only buys you a little bit of time unless you are playing against exactly creature based burn. Wrath's already have a stabilizing effect and adding a potential win condition (even an unexciting one in a vacuum) is going to be more impactful on average.
In Out
I was initially pretty bullish on Gideon Blackblade largely due to an initial poor experience with him in War of the Spark limited. I kept drawing him with one creature in play, I would give that creature an irrelevant keyword and then the opponent would either kill the creature and then Gideon in combat or would immediately point a planeswalker removal spell at him. He never lived to untap in all my time with him. While this highlighted his worst case scenario, it's hardly his average case. After getting more experience and seeing him play out in his other scenarios I've come up a lot. Part of the issue is that I was looking at Gideon as a planeswalker and he isn't. He's a creature that can't block that has an activated ability. Looking at him in this lens, he is a much more impressive three drop creature than he is planeswalker and he isn't looking at the same competition for a slot. When Gideon works, he's very powerful and presents a very real clock while allowing your other creatures to race (lifelink/vigilance) or push through damage (indestructible). The ultimate likely won't come up very often but it's a relevant safety valve if you really need to use it.
I like the ability on Kinjali's Sunwing a lot but it needs to be put on a better body. The Sunwing just doesn't pressure the opponent at all so you badly need to already have a board presence to leverage the ability. Gideon is just a much larger threat at the same cost.
Didn't Make the Cut
Cartographer's Hawk is a mean joke. Knight of the White Orchid was long a cube staple for its ability to help the aggro deck to hit its land drops while providing a functional body at a reasonable cost. It's fallen out of favor in my cube due to its awkwardness outside of mono white and Cartographer's Hawk could have been the replacement. An evasive, single pip two drop that does the same thing. Unfortunately, needing to return it to your hand is crippling. Even if it only triggers after combat you still need to spend mana to recast it and while that's not a problem per say in Commander it's supremely awkward in cube. You don't want to be spending your turn three or four recasting the Hawk so if it gets you lands when you need it most (early in the game) you aren't pressuring your opponent with it at all as you can't attack with it for two more turns at the earliest unless you have enough mana to immediately recast it. This needed to be a one time ETB effect and it would have been great. As it is, it's too awkward and fights against its own game plan.
Verge Rangers is another attempt at the same ability and it fails for slightly different reasons. It doesn't ramp you because you can't play extra lands with it but it does thin your deck and smooth your draws while having a functional body that is a decent attacker and blocker. The fact that it doesn't restrict itself to playing Plains off the top is a great bonus, and even non-basic lands are good to go. This is still an aggro card but it fits into a wider range of aggro decks than Cartographer's Hawk does. The problem is that you still can't use it's ability if you are on par with your opponent. This is an actual blank if you are on the play, which you are definitely going to be if you have the choice. Cartographer's Hawk was a completely acceptable body even without the ability, this isn't. If you aren't taking advantage of the ability, this is a very below average cube card. So how often do you think you can play the lands? If past cards are any indication, and I think it's a fair comparison, not nearly as often as you need to be able to for this to make the cut.
Didn't Make the Cut
You're going to see a theme with the Mythos cycle. The card needs to be fully functional and impactful without needing to use the wedge casting cost. Unfortunately, Mythos of Snapdax relies on a symmetrical effect that is going to be too difficult to take full advantage of. This effect is almost never worth it in cube and while the Mardu effect is much better, it's still not something I would ever expect to be able to do reliably.
In Out
This is a fairly close swap where I'm taking the prospect of being able to replace your counter magic when you really don't need it over potentially filling your graveyard by a single card. A single instance of Surveil 1 in your deck isn't going to go very far towards providing graveyard support as it is only marginally better than Scry 1. Surveil really adds up in multiples or when the single instance is greater than 1, as is seen with Dream Eater. Cycling has a lot of versatility and play to it that Surveil doesn't. You can cycle when you need to find some board presence, an answer to something that has already resolved, when you are counter flooded, or just to smooth your draws and find mana to name a few.
In Out
Sea-Dasher Octopus is right at home in the blue tempo deck as another Ninja of the Deep Hours variant. While the base body isn't the most exciting you are almost always going to be able to draw at least one card due to the Mutate ability and being able to Flash this in outside of combat prevents this from being a dead card if you don't have a functional board or a way to already push through damage. The one thing that might hold this back is that it does open you up for a two for one if the opponent allows the mutate to resolve and then kills your creature before damage. It's also going to be very rare that you are using the Mutate ability for anything other than the ability as the anemic body prevents you from being able to upgrade anything other than a 1/1 token. The Mutate being so cheap makes it much easier to Flash this in and then still hold up counter magic or removal to push past blockers and it has played well so far.
I've been really unimpressed with Stratus Dancer even in the tempo shells. It's just such an awkward sequence of events and while you can say it's skill testing it also just feels like wasted potential in cube. The only home for Stratus Dancer is in the blue tempo deck which is very proactive and can get caught in an awkward state if it is trying to get use of the flip ability. Oftentimes the correct move is to just flip it as soon as you can if you aren't playing on curve just to assure you can put pressure on the opponent. With no other morph cards to veil this ability it's not hard to play around when you can just completely ignore the 2/2 body.
Every time I read Voracious Greatshark I always want to be able to counter a spell and then eat an attacking creature with a surprise block and that just isn't what this card does. You get your pick of either a Desertion that always gets a 5/4 body or a Flash creature on its own. This is still a great choice and provides a pretty clear upgrade over the aforementioned Desertion just in terms of sheer playability. Five mana is a lot to hold up for a conditional counterspell and not being entirely reliant on having to counter something provides options. Options are very strong in cube.
Kasmina provided a deceptive stream of value by committing to the board, providing card selection and disrupting the ease of your opponent to interact with your permanents. The problems start when you are playing Kasmina onto an empty board. Kasmina benefits from having creatures and planeswalkers that can take better advantage of the static ability but also isn't what a tempo deck wants to be doing with four mana as it neither pushes through damage nor threatens to finish a game. Her other abilities fit well in a control deck to sponge a little bit of damage and provide a little value but it's hard to say she has ever been worth the up front mana investment when you look at what else four mana can get you in cube.
In Out
Shark Typhoon is a really deceptively powerful card. Cycling is just a very good ability and when you line this up at different values of X you see that there really isn't a point where you aren't getting a good deal. Normally, these types of effects are slightly below curve at all points and you are paying for the flexibility. Shark Typhoon sidesteps this because of the fact that you can do this at instant speed. Because the creature token has flying it doesn't matter if it isn't very big, it's evasive and is likely to be able to attack successfully even at lower values of X. When it gets larger, you are all of a sudden eating a creature mid-combat and then presenting a clock to your opponent while drawing a card in all instances to boot. The cycling mode is so good that I don't really ever expect the Enchantment mode to be used. If your opponent drops this as a six mana enchantment they've either made a serious error or are absolutely about to win the game, there really isn't another scenario.
Gifts Ungiven really only works with Unburial Rites when you can abuse the ability to force all the cards to go to your graveyard. If you aren't doing that, this is entirely too fair as your opponent has the full knowledge of the threats they can handle and what they can't. In a cube as large as mine you just can't rely on two card interactions and this almost never gets played because of that.
Cube designers and drafters need to be cognizant of the density of Delve they put into their cube or deck, respectively, as the mechanic does not play well in multiples. Cards with Delve inherently consume each other's resources and it's important to allow these to breathe on their own to maximize their power and consistency. This is especially true of Ethereal Forager because the bulk of the power here isn't in the cost reduction but the attack trigger. While this is technically playable without exiling anything to Delve you are giving up a lot to do so. If you are able to get a single trigger off of this then it's worth the price of admission, with almost no caveats to what card you are returning. Note that this doesn't cast the card but return it to your hand, allowing you to gladly target counterspells and other reactive cards that would otherwise be awkward if it casted automatically. Being limited to only cards it exiled itself is restrictive but realistically, you aren't going to be attacking with this more than a couple of times anyway. Either the opponent will deal with it or the game will end so even exiling two cards that can be returned is fine. The body is big enough to be able to reasonably attack through other mid ranged fliers and depending on what card you are returning, you might not mind trading with a potential blocker as you still get your X for 1. There is a lot of value caught up in this as well as game to game variability that makes it a respectable option.
Delver of Secrets just does not hold the same power in cube as it does in constructed where you can reliably curate your deck with Ponder effects to guarantee a flip as soon as possible. In cube, you just don't have the redundancy necessary to have this be anything more than a "good" chance of flipping and when the fail state isn't a functional card in any way, it's hard to justify inclusion. Tempo decks cannot afford to stumble, needing it to play it on curve and flip as soon as possible to apply pressure. Delver is dramatically more powerful when it is played and flipped before the opponent is able to respond to it and that just doesn't happen in cube with any sort of consistency.
Didn't Make the Cut
Stapling Cycling 1 onto a card is going to make it powerful regardless of what the card does, let alone that card drawing you four cards. As a six mana sorcery that doesn't win the game and forces you to take your entire turn without affecting the board, I'd say this is going to be cycled close to 90% of the time. I'm still interested for decks that care about instants/sorceries in the graveyard or those digging for powerful interactions. As a value cycler it's still good but pales in comparison to something like Think Twice and Hieroglyphic Illumination's more reasonable total cost and output.
Some people are going to be very high on Mythos of Illuna because of the easy comparisons to Clever Impersonator except that you can't blink the token so outside of having a cube able to take advantage of the Temur ability, there just isn't a reason to make the swap. I've always found that Clever Impersonator underperformed as you didn't copy noncreature spells as often as I'd hoped unless you have a really high density of broken planeswalkers and as a Clone variant, it's just not very good. Mythos of Illuna isn't any different and the fight ability is a total blank if you aren't copying a creature which is some feel bad and awkward synergy.
Didn't Make the Cut
I really like the concept behind Eon Frolicker but that drawback is horrendous. The idea here is obviously that your opponent won't be able to alpha strike you or deal with your permanents during their extra turn. The reality, of course, is that you are just giving them an opportunity to add to the board or stack their hand in preparation for when your shields are down. Allowing them to essentially draw a card and double their mana is not worth the above curve creature.
Black
In Out
I'm cautiously optimistic about Call of the Death-Dweller despite its restriction to only cheap creatures. The real draw is in being able to potentially bring back more than one creature with upside. If you are able to bring back your Gravecrawler and Relentless Dead with menace and deathtouch, respectively that's going to be pretty helpful even in the late game. Being able to stack counters on your single target is also great because menace and deathtouch go very well together. The combination of abilities allows this to retain value whether you are ahead or behind and while this isn't a game ending reanimation spell there are a ton of relevant targets once you consider other colors that don't naturally have recursion. I'm excited to see this in practice and get actual cube reps with it because I think there is a chance that it over performs.
Dance of the Dead suffers from just being insufferably wordy and impossible to understand unless you've played with it before. It's over complicated and unintuitive and while it serves a valuable function, it's just not worth the mental tax. People look at it and just immediately pass it without reading it.
In Out
Part of making a 720 card cube work is balancing redundancy with power to make certain strategies work. Aristocrats is a real deck but it's a much better one when you have as many Blood Artist effects as possible. The trick is finding ones that are good enough to play without flooding the cube with subpar or overly narrow cards that black is unplayable unless you are doing exactly Aristocrats. Bastion of Remembrance is a really nice alternative as it provides the mandatory drain effect on a difficult to interact with permanent. The real key though is that this comes with a token to get the value train rolling. Even though this only triggers off you own creatures, it's still going to be played and appreciated for its effect.
Smallpox never really worked as a deck without more dedicated land destruction and while I like the disruption it can provide, it has proven more difficult to abuse than I thought. This is in large part due to my cube's size and construction but it's not something I want to warp my black section around. It will be better for its absence.
In Out
Heartless Act is one of the most powerful Doom Blade variants ever printed and I firmly believe it should be played in every cube unless you have a powerful +1/+1 counter strategy and even then it isn't a blank as the second ability would suddenly be relevant. This is just a really easy inclusion as two mana removal spells are still at a premium in a cube without broken synergies and power.
I've been less and less impressed with Edict effects the more prevalent tokens become and the less replacement level creatures become. Back when it didn't really matter which creature you killed, as long as you reduced the opponent's board presence, Edicts were fine. Now you are looking at utility creatures, tokens and must answer threats in almost every deck. Cube just isn't an environment conducive to this effect anymore. On a side note, I did Flashback this once....it was decidedly mediocre.
Didn't Make the Cut
Everyone is going nuts over Grimdancer and I just don't understand the hype. In retail limited, yes, this card is going to be very good but in cube there just isn't room for generic keyword soups that don't contribute to any particular strategy. The combination of abilities is very strong as they allow it to be relevant at most stages of the game whether you are ahead or behind. But are you playing this over Vampire Nighthawk? I'm sure not. Losing one power and just having all the abilities is significantly better in a color that doesn't have the most effective aggro plan. This is my pick for most over rated cube card in the set and I don't think it's particularly close.
There is a lot of value in adding cycling (with upside) to a reanimation target but Void Beckoner falls just short as an 8/8 really doesn't need Deathtouch at all. This does function as a pseudo removal spell if you can take advantage of the Cycling trigger correctly but three mana isn't cheap and you do have to work for it compared to a regular removal spell once you consider you are likely trading creatures in the exchange as well. That makes this a 2 for 2 as you trade creatures and replace this with a new card. That's not quite enough in a rare cube but I can see this being an interesting addition to Uncommon cubes looking for a flexible reanimation target that can put itself in the graveyard.
Didn't Make the Cut
The power in Dirge Bat is entirely caught up in the Mutate ability as generic body is fine with Flash but uninspiring. The Mutate is powerful but you are paying a premium for it at a steep cost of six mana and the need for the Mutated . The upside just isn't where it needs to be as upgrading to a 3/3 body just isn't great. Flying is a nice bonus but without being able to trigger Mutate multiple times this is just an expensive Shriekmaw that won't give you the good half unless you pay the premium price.
I think cubes pushing black aggro as a main theme probably should just include Hunted Nightmare but it's not a fit for mine. I only have so many slots in black for cards whose only purpose is to pressure the opponent's life total with no ancillary benefits. When ahead and leveraging a removal spell this will be difficult to deal with but it's awkward when the only target for the deathtouch is something that is coming at you against a more aggressive deck. Black is just going to be the less aggressive deck a good amount of the time due to its construction in my cube, oftentimes grinding out wins over time as opposed to worrying about any sort of opposing stabilization.
Didn't Make the Cut
Three mana one for one removal spells with no upside are not where you want to be in cube so I'm definitely not adding one that only better on the low percentage chance that you can scrouge up GWB exactly.
Even and odd is a difficult thing to control in limited and while it makes for a cool build around strategy, a single removal spell is hardly worth crafting your entire strategy, even one that might kill more than one thing. The problem is being unable to control what your opponent plays meaning this will range from being a Plague Wind to being uncastable due to the cost it will take. The swings aren't worth the cost and lack of control.
Didn't Make the Cut
I'm a big fan of the ability to play your opponent's cards out of their deck. It's flavorful, powerful and provides interesting variety to the gameplay. Mindleecher is a very powerful effect if you are able to flip something useful. The fact that you only have one shot at it (due to not having more than one card with Mutate in your deck) makes this much more of a risk/reward than I feel comfortable with. Unlike the last several Mutate cards you are very likely to upgrade whatever you are Mutating to a significant body with evasion but upgrading something is not the same as adding to your board so you had better be getting something worthwhile for it. If you flip a land you are going to feel miserable. If you flip a relevant spell it will feel great. The option to play this out on turn six is an option but not exciting and well below the power curve. For the amount of mana you are putting in this needs to have a consistent effect or be repeatable.
Boneyard Mycodrax reminds me a lot of Tarmogoyf which sounds great but just isn't. Tarmogoyf has always underperformed in cube as an undercosted fatty. Adding Scavange is a cool upside at the cost of being completely unplayable outside of the most dedicated self mill decks. Even there it doesn't have any sort of evasion and black is constantly shifting its graveyard contents through recursion making this less impressive.
Didn't Make the Cut
Daring Freebonder is a very aggressive creature that is almost guaranteed to trade with something the turn you cast it. Being limited to sorcery speed on the indestructible trigger probably makes better gameplay (that's an incredibly annoying on board trick to have to play around) but it doesn't do it any favors in the power department. This could find a home in the most dedicated black aggro decks but is largely unhelpful elsewhere.
In Out
I was extremely impressed with Burning Prophet during my time with it to the point that I was consistently excited to draw it. Opponents both felt that it was somehow not worth their removal while also lamenting the amount of incremental value it ground out. Smoothing draws is very strong in aggro decks that don't have use for extra mana and in control decks it provided late game selection while acting as a relevant blocker in the early game. It's also a natural fit in the Izzet spells archetype. Inexpensive utility creatures that are playable in multiple archetypes are one of the best type of cube card and I love the idea of diversifying red's color pie so it's not just all in aggro every time. It's not going to blow you away but it will surprise with the value it accrues over the course of a game.
I'm kind of amazed at how bad Mentor turned out to be in cube. Unless it's on a creature with power 3 or greater it almost never triggers. Legion Warboss creates it's own suite of creatures that trigger it but with no evasion, Legion Warboss just always dies after a single swing. The other variants of this effects either threaten more damage more quickly or have some other way to make them better attackers which make them harder to block profitably. Legion Warboss might still make the cut if it was a unique effect but we are almost flooded with this effect at this point and I'm interested in increasing the variety in red a little bit.
In Out
Forbidden Friendship is a strict upgrade over Dragon Fodder if you aren't taking advantage of the creature type. Adding haste to one of the tokens isn't a huge upgrade but Dragon Fodder was such a role player card that it's exciting to be able to make it even a little better.
In Out
Weaponize the Monsters is another payoff to being in the sacrifice deck and a red non-creature spell that isn't burn. Having to pay two mana per sacrifice does limit the explosive nature of the ability but the clock it presents is very real as two damage per creature is a lot. Being able to point this damage at any target is important because it allows it to be useful in various board states and when you aren't in a position to actually kill an opponent. This is very much an engine card and represents some much needed redundancy in this effect.
Blast from the Past was a fun addition but it only reminded me of why I opted to not add un-spells in the first place. The old ones just aren't very powerful and this is way too mana intensive. Regardless of how many different modes this card has they all boil down to the same thing. It's a burn spell that you are almost always never going to have enough mana to actually use in the way you imagine when you draft it. This is an example of a card so over-costed that it almost doesn't matter what options it provides as you are just unable to use them and even if you did, it's just never worth it.
In Out
I'll always prefer black border cards to silver border just from an aesthetics perspective as I really don't like the look of the silver border cards. Flame Spill is a black border functional reprint of Super-Duper Death Ray and while I can respect those that prefer the flavor or wording of SDDR, I'm always going to err on the side of black border.
Didn't Make the Cut
I really, really wish that Fire Prophecy could hit players. If so, it would be one of the better burn spells in addition to one of the more interesting ones. Burn spells are notoriously simple so I'm always on the lookout for powerful ones that add a bit of spice to the game play. Only being able to hit creatures is just too restrictive, despite the powerful added effect.
Shredded Sails is an interesting case study in how flexibility does not always equal playability. Shredded Sails is always going to live due to the Cycling effect and being able able to answer fliers or artifacts are two relevant options that you are going to be thankful you have access to when it's relevant. At the end of the day though, this is incredibly reactive and doesn't further any game plan. What deck actually wants this? In regular limited it's an easy addition as it helps you dig to your bombs while providing a unique effect your deck probably lacks so it isn't just dead to a troublesome permanent. In cube, you need to be doing something that is furthering your own strategy with every card you play. You just don't have the slots in your deck to waffle around with generic value. Cards like Manic Vandal and Qasali Pridemage see play because they give decks an out to dealing with troublesome permanents without taking up a slot in the deck. Even if you don't use it for that purpose you still have a relevant creature that has power and toughness. Cycling 2 isn't quite the same thing and the value in thinning your deck by one card really varies from cube to cube. If you have more combo interactions maybe you see more value in being able to dig a little deeper. This isn't a bad card but it also isn't one that people are going to be pushing to play.
Didn't Make the Cut
The first time I played Mythos of Vadrok I just naturally assumed that it could hit players so I spread out the damage to the creatures and then tried and failed for about a minute to point the extra 1 damage at my opponent. Eventually I figured out that I couldn't do that and the damage went to waste. The Jeskai effect is nice if you are trying to push through damage but without it this is just an expensive Arc Lightning that can't make use of the miscellaneous damage...which is what makes Arc Lightning good in the first place.
I understand and appreciate that they don't want all Phoenix cards to do the exact same thing but good god did this card need haste. Without haste this is a fairly costed flier that can come back once and...not even be able to block? The recursion ability is almost trivially inexpensive once you have the Feather token but you need to Mutate to get it and that only impressive after you've returned it to play if they deal with it. It's just to slow and cumbersome compared to the other four drops in red.
Didn't Make the Cut
Fireflux Squad is a nice combo piece for decks running planeswalkers and a random Eldrazi as you can make a token with your planeswalker and then cast this on curve to sac the token and put something stupid into play. It's kind of a round about Sneak Attack effect except you don't have to have the card in your hand. If you aren't utilizing that strategy you are looking at trying to upgrade early game attackers into mid range or late game threats and it loses a lot of luster and excitement.
Agitator Ant is really only playable in a very aggressive deck that just wants to get rid of blockers no matter what and is confident it's favored in a race. You aren't forced to put the counters on the Ant but you also don't get the counters until the end step so you can't leverage them the turn you cast it. Your opponent will always get the first swing and that needs to be something you don't care about. They get to choose where their counters go too so they aren't forced to put them on something that will just chump attack, further pigeonholing the places this is good. My cube has too many creature mirrors and aggro/tempo decks to feel comfortable that you are the only one that is going to be able to make use of the ability.
Didn't Make the Cut
Lukka is a very interesting planeswalker but ultimately I think it's an easy pass due to my cube's construction. Like with Fireflux Squad, above, I think you need to be able to abuse the -2 as a pseudo Sneak Attack by only running Eldrazi-like creatures in your deck. As a fair cube that doesn't utilize those strategies, the -2 loses a ton of steam and you will need to be able to rely on Lukka's other abilities. Unfortunately, you can't accrue value from his +1 until the turn after you cast him meaning he will likely do nothing the turn you cast him other than spin the wheel and hope you hit something on your -2 ability. That's not a recipe for success. My advice is to abuse his -2 or don't play him.
When Red Sun's Zenith was in my cube I never saw it get drawn more than twice in a game which puts a nice frame of reference on how often I expect Yidaro to be casted for free. Cycling this does slightly increase the chance of you drawing it but not by a significant margin. It's a great creature if you are able to cast it for free but without multiple copies that's a pipe dream and this isn't worth paying the full cost for in cube.
In Out
As previously mentioned, I'm not a huge fan of straight up Naturalize effects in cube but I like Wilt more than Return to Nature so this is an easy upgrade. I'm still looking to swap this out in 2030 when green gets another playable noncreature spell.
In Out
I understand the irony of the previous statement as I add in a green non-creature spell but I'm merely cutting chaff. Fight spells are at their worst in cube where the interaction is so powerful, cheap and plentiful but Ram Through is a huge upgrade to the merely okay Prey Upon. Instant speed is significant with this type of effect as is a one sided fight. The trample clause isn't irrelevant with green but I don't expect it to come into play that often. Again, this is likely getting cut when we get another playable green non-creature spell in 2030.
In Out
Okay. Now I really, really understand the irony but this is more of a creature spell to be fair. I believe I misevaluated The First Iroan Games when it was released. I determined that it wasn't that difficult to deal with whatever creature go the counters which would prevent card from being drawn. While you can play this on curve to pressure your opponent into needing to use a removal spell while leveraging the 4/4 body when it's most relevant, you can also just play it later on and better guarantee being able to draw two cards with your other creatures. At worst this forces your opponent to react to what you are doing instead of being proactive about their own game plan. There is a lot of value in that and these abilities all happen on their own without further input from you. At only three mana this isn't the fastest card but it does give green a unique effect that plays quite well in the mid-range shells that I'm trying to improve.
Dryad Greenspeaker ended up not being the value machine it was in core set limited. I was hoping that the evaluation would translate better but in cube you really needed the body to matter more. It's a decent blocker but that's not what green is trying to do. This needed to be able to attack or ramp and it does neither. It does provide card advantage but not in a way that the green decks want to play.
In Out
This is the type of Naturalize effect I like to see for cube. Most of the time this is going to Mutate on a creature and upgrade one of your lands to a 3/3 creature, a great deal for only four mana. However, it also has the ability to mise your opponent with a single Terastodon trigger. It won't happen all the time but when it does it's going to feel incredible. You won't be able to kill creatures but as this is green that's not terribly surprising. This will slot in perfectly in pretty much any green deck that isn't trying to ramp.
Kessig Cagebreakers was added in an effort to boost up the Golgari graveyard deck but I think I pushed a little too hard. This card ONLY goes in that deck and is stone unplayable elsewhere. I like having cards that are plants for archetypes but even in that deck it needs to untap and be able to attack in order to accrue any value. The body does allow it to reasonably survive a combat but the Golgari deck has proven to be more of a grindy mid-range value graveyard deck and less of a turbo self mill deck which is where this really shines.
In Out
Hey look! Another Mutate creature in green that deals with troublesome noncreature permanents. This is essentially the same card as Sawtusk Demolisher as it is an undercosted fatty that attacks well and has some utility. This will rely a little more than Sawtusk on having a target for the Mutate but it also pulls double duty as Reach isn't an ability green has a lot of access to in cube so it's nice to have a maindeck out to fliers if you are getting pressured. Trample allows it to attack pretty effectively as well so this should retain utility in all stages of the game. Note that for both of these cards that green has access to a lot of cheap nonhuman creatures that should allow fairly consistent access to make the Mutate ability live.
I'm finding that green has the most success when it's just pushing over the top of the opposition. It matches up better against aggro when that happens and it can leverage the other color it's paired with to maximize the appropriate synergy. Pure value creatures are fitting less well in those decks and while cards like Jadelight Ranger play out pretty much as expected, it's also not doing what you want when you want it to. Sometimes the library behaves but when it doesn't you're left with lands you don't need or counters you don't want and the value is wasted. It's also really awkward when you reveal a card you don't want to bin because you are stuck with the 4/3 creature and no real value to speak of. If you could control the triggers and pick one or the other it would work out better. As it is, it's extremely replacement level and is often getting edged out by synergy pieces or more aggressive bodies.
In Out
Kogla, the Titan Ape is another card that serves as an ancillary way to deal with artifacts and nchantments. In addition, Kogla has a good ETB and is reasonably costed at six mana. The protection ability isn't likely to come up every game but there are enough Humans in cube that you can realistically have one or two in your deck by sheer coincidence so it isn't a blank and is obviously powerful if you have access to it. This is doubly so if your humans have ETB effects as it allows you to rebuy them as it turns into an engine as well as an offensive threat. Triple green isn't great and this is stone walled pretty effectively by opposing tokens but there is a lot of value in this card and it's big enough to force a double block which is going to be more difficult when it kills something on ETB.
Avenger of Zendikar has gone in and out of the cube a number of times and every time I say the same thing. Without a density of fetch lands it's too difficult to guarantee the value needed to make it worthwhile as a ramp finisher. The more non land ramp you have the less effective this is as it makes less tokens and has a lower chance to put multiple counters on the turn after you cast it. This is one of the better blink targets but despite having such a significant board presence it also takes forever to finish a game sometimes. Ramping to your seven drop so you can comfortably chump block isn't where you want to be. I know that's not everyone's experience with the card but it just happens sometimes. I didn't really miss it the first time it left and I don't expect to miss it this time either.
In Out
Vivien will pretty much always come down and immediately make a 3/3 beast due to the nature of her -2 ability. Being able to choose between reach, vigilance and trample allows you to best handle the current board state to either protect her more efficiently or to press your advantage. A 3/3 body is also the largest token we've ever seen on a planeswalker plus ability, so that's something. The passive abilities allow you to lower the inherent risk of the -2 ability as you can cycle through smaller creatures as they are revealed or gain a mana advantage if you have a creature in hand but can't afford both it and the creature on top of the deck. Five mana is a lot but this provides a lot of card advantage and board presence while also giving you information for how to better plan your turns and leverage her abilities. Three loyalty isn't a ton but at a higher loyalty this would just be nearly impossible to kill in combat due to how well she protects herself.
Garruk Relentless, much like Arlinn Kord, promises a wide array of abilities, options and play variety but struggles to realize that potential in practice. Garruk can be very powerful but only if your opponent has a creature with two power so you can flip him. While this happened enough of the time to be relevant, you basically have no decisions to make at all as the only option is to make a 2/2 Wolf. Using him as a removal spell only feels really bad and it does happen. Vivien costs an extra mana but you get a whole lot more for the investment.
Didn't Make the Cut
Putting cycling on a ramp spell is actually a huge deal as ramp has some dead draws late in games once the mana base is secure and being able to just replace a spell you don't need is huge. Is that worth your ramp costing four mana? This casted on turn three off of a mana elf gives you seven mana on turn four. That lets you cast all but the most expensive payoffs in the cube. I had cut Explosive Vegetation because you were so often pressured that spending four mana and interacting with the board or opponent was becoming increasingly risky and this doesn't help with that issue. It shores up one of ramps main weaknesses but doesn't address the other. I don't think it's fair to expect your ramp spells to do everything though, it's just an inherent flaw with the strategy and the main reason I'm trying to diversify green's options. If you're playing Explosive Vegetation this is a huge upgrade but if you aren't, this doesn't change what you didn't like about that card enough to warrant bringing it back.
Titanoth Rex is so close. Putting Cycling on your reanimation target is great as you don't have to worry about using other cards to get it into the graveyard.. It's weak to removal spells as it provides no value outside of combat and doesn't have haste but this does force your opponent to actually have it as it kills in two swings. The problem is that it's really only playable in reanimator as nine mana is just too much to be able to cast in any other deck except the most rampy of ramp decks and those decks badly need their finishers to give them something as it's their entire game plan. If this was a little smaller and less expensive I'd probably add it as a reanimation piece that you could reliably reach in your Gruul and Ramp decks without too much trouble. Nine mana is just too much and being restricted to one deck makes it too narrow.
Didn't Make the Cut
Glademuse is such a weird card as the first time I read it I just assumed it was the typical green creature that punishes blue decks by drawing cards when your opponents interrupted your turn. But no, this allows that player to draw a card in addition to their spell which seems terrible. While you can leverage this to your advantage by playing a lot of instants yourself, you just have no control over the symmetry. If your opponent just casts Doom Blade on your end step after you casted this they draw a card and you get nothing. The body isn't even a good attacker which makes sense in the more defensive Simic and Goglari decks but is hardly a pull for the card.
Mythos of Brokkos is probably the worst of a very bad cycle for cube. Restock has value because it can return any card type to your hand while this shaves off a mana but restricts you to permanents only. If you pay the Sultai cost you get the upside of being able to essentially Demonic Tutor and Regrowth except, again, you can only actually get back permanents. Not being able to target instants and sorceries is a severe restriction when you are paying such a restrictive cost and the base ability isn't nearly good enough for cube as Restock was cut ages ago.
In Out
It's unclear what combination of constant abilities Crystalline Giant would need to have in order to be worth a card as a 3/3 creature for 3 generic mana considering you are guaranteed two of them before you are able to attack with it. A 4/4 flyer is obviously nuts for 3. A 3/3 hexproof first strike is also very good. A 3/3 reach trample is....well, less exciting. The big thing is remembering to play this before attackers so you get your first ability counter right away. I like that this is a functional curve filler in many different types of decks but won't be oppressive as long as they don't get hexproof right away. If they do, well, magic is a game of variance and it won't come up often enough to be too troublesome.
Brittle Effigy was a functional piece of removal that just doesn't make the cut in decks at the same rate that it used to. As the average power and synergy level of the cube has risen, generic expensive removal has lost value. Four mana is a lot to hold up but I do like the play pattern the on board removal spell creates. It's definitely skill testing on both sides and I've seen as many people leverage it's power without actually using it as have bungled themselves into a loss because of it. At the end of the day though, it just doesn't see play and that's a pretty good sign that it's time to move on.
In Out
Ugin was originally not included because I was worried about his play patterns, not his power. The static ability is mostly flavor text so you are looking at making a 2/2 each turn or using this as a removal spell that stays around afterwards. It turns out that the play variety provided by using the +1 is both fun and powerful. Even if that is all you are doing turn after turn it's really enjoyable to rebuy your face down cards afterwards and for six mana this does a lot of work. The -3 doesn't kill everything but is always going to have a target as the vast majority of permanents in the cube can be targeted by this.
Seven mana is a lot more than six and a good number of decks that are able to get to seven mana don't play the density of creatures necessary to allow God-Pharaoh's Gift to succeed. Control and ramp decks mostly have finishers and a couple of utility creatures and would rather play something that actually finishes the game the turn it's casted. This can pressure the opponent but has proven to be a bit slow and expensive.
Didn't Make the Cut
Sanctuary Blade is the worst equipment I've ever seen. You take away the powerful and interesting aspects of the Sword cycle and somehow make the protection aspect less fun and more oppressive. This is just awful for creating good gameplay and nobody should play this in their cube.
Didn't Make the Cut
Despite what the Companion mechanic is doing to constructed right now, it's been very fun and rewarding for limited provided you aren't facing it every single match. With the size of my cube it's not going to come up that often which lets it shine and provide extra build around cards for drafters. Unfortunately for Yorion, it's just not very good. Starting with 60 card is a massive ask for any deck and while it's likely easier in cube than regular limited due to the density of playables in the average draft deck, you are still adding in a lot of filler to make it work. It dilutes your synergies and increases the odds of you not drawing the cards you need when you need them. Without Companion I'm not excited in this card at all as I'm off Blink as an archetype all together. It just never comes together and is better as an incidental interaction than a mainline strategy. The other Azorius cards send better signals for what's available in the color pair and finish games more effectively.
Didn't Make the Cut
Zirda suffers from having a Companion restriction that is actually near impossible to have happen in cube. There just aren't enough permanents with activated abilities to make a functional deck so you are hard locked into playing this for its base cost. If you have a lot of ways to abuse the static ability then you might consider this as a combo piece but I don't have the right pieces in place for this to succeed.
Winota's value is going to be entirely dependent on the density of Humans in your cube. Because the trigger only looks at the top six cards to search for a Human you need to make sure you have an abundance of them available. You can't put one or two powerful ones in and expect to flip them every time. If you balance it right, she is probably the most powerful Boros card in the cube. If you can't, she is going to be extremely underwhelming a vanilla 4/4 for 2WR. It all depends on how you value your cards. I prefer consistency over potential so it's a miss for me.
In Out
Gyruda is the first Companion I really think is a good fit. The base creature fits perfectly into the Dimir control/reanimator strategy as it fills your graveyard while presenting a game ending threat for a control deck at a reasonable cost. You aren't guaranteed to be able to reanimate something but the percentage is very high and you don't need to hit very hard for this to pull away with a game. The Companion clause is very doable and will require some interesting drafting and deck building decisions. Without Companion I don't think this is necessary very close but it's perfectly fine as a card in your deck if you don't get there. Playing this on curve as an extra card is ridiculous and will be very satisfying.
Dragonlord Silumgar performed pretty well in its role but was a bit awkward with targeted removal spells because you give the stolen card back immediately. I'd be totally fine keeping it in but I only have so many slots, Gyruda is great, and this was the weakest offering in Dimir.
In Out
Fiend Artisan succeeds as a creature that feeds the graveyard to allow itself to grow larger. There is some natural tension in the ability being sorcery speed and forcing it to tap, neither of which allow you to take advantage of the body. This works best with cheap, utility creatures and tokens because using the ability is almost prohibitively expensive. This plays much better in the late game where you can better leverage its ability and body. Being hybrid helps here as the black guilds would likely play this because they are already taking advantage of the graveyard and sacrifice synergies. Selesnya, Gruul and Simic likely won't be interested due to the divergence in strategy.
Nyx Weaver is a nice combination of abilities that allow it to be relevant at most points in a game but its ceiling just isn't that high. It's only good in combination with other cards as part of a dedicated graveyard deck. That's largely what Golgari is trying to accomplish and in those decks this does serve a role, it's just not as good as Fiend Artisan.
Didn't Make the Cut
Skull Prophet is a pretty pushed uncommon as it ramps and fixes your mana while also providing utility to fill your graveyard and acting as an actual attacker as a 3 power two drop. It just doesn't stack up well against Golgari's other guild offerings as even something like Nyx Weaver acts as both an enabler and payoff while serving as a functional blocker. The difference is that it does all of those things at once. Skull Prophet threatens to be able to do one of those things once per turn and with 1 toughness you can't even pull double duty as a blocker that taps for mana/mill during your opponent's turn. I love the design but the overall power level just isn't there.
Umori has a very easy to accomplish requirement as it's not difficult at all to fill your deck with creatures (the only card type that is at all realistic to do). The problem is that you're giving up a lot to do that as you are greatly restricting your ability to respond to what your opponent is doing. In a format with so many must answer threats and board states, playing another creature isn't likely to be sufficient a good amount of the time.
Didn't Make the Cut
Chevill has the potential to act as a bit of a brick wall against aggro decks as a good blocker that increases the power of your removal spells as the game progresses. Drawing a card and gaining life is a great set of bonuses for when you are able to get rid of a creature but being limited to only one target at a time really causes some hangups where this will sit in play for a couple of turns doing nothing other than holding back an attacker. Purely defensive, it's not good at pressing an advantage or furthering a board state. It merely promises benefits down the line. However, if you are able to kill one of your opponent's creatures several times I feel like you are already winning that game.
Didn't Make the Cut
Jegantha is a little harder to Companion in cube than you might think because so many of the most powerful cards cost double mana of something. Going through my red and green sections there were only a handful of cards that have a single pip past three mana in both colors combined. That means this likely gets restricted to 3-4 color decks if you want to Companion (you do) which limits my interest greatly. If you don't get this in pack one, it's a difficult ask to cut some of your more powerful cards since the base card is so meager. A 5/5 for 5 is a decent blocker that can add a couple of mana the next turn, allowing you to either press your board advantage, ramp into your late game threats, or fix your mana depending on your needs. However, I'd be hard pressed to play this over any of the other late game drops in cube and decks only need so many. If you aren't Companioning this, I'm not interested.
In Out
I've been trying to get a card like Sprite Dragon in the cube for a while but they have all been just a hair too weak or restrictive. Triggering on any noncreature spell and getting counters instead of a temporary boost are huge improvements. As a two drop with haste, you only really need to put a single counter on to be on par and anything more than that begins to push it out of range of both damage based removal spells and other flying creatures. This is a great payoff to the spells deck and is an exciting pull into the colors.
Bloodwater Entity has a good ETB and works well with the spells deck but presents a slower clock and is more easily ignored past the initial turn. Returning the spell to the top of the deck is also not the same thing as drawing a card. If you do that and your opponent does something on their turn that renders that card less helpful, there's no going backwards. You can't wait and do something else as you are locked in to that card. Sprite Dragon is going to be a more significant threat and less of a role player.
In Out
Speaking of exciting pull into the colors, Lutri is amazing. An automatic Companion due to basically not having a restriction in the singleton cube environment, Lutri will get played in any deck playing red or blue for sure. There is so much cheap interaction in cube that Lutri easily present a game breaking effect for as cheap as five mana. Whether you are doubling a removal spell, a bounce spell or just drawing an extra card this also drops a creature in play that can trade with someone mid attacks or provide an extra attacker on end step. This being face up for all to see is a double edged sword because the opponent can play around it on some level to avoid being too blown out but they also know this is on the edge of being played every game. Either way, this is probably the strongest Izzet card in the cube and one of the better gold cards overall.
Izzet Charm is obviously a good card and is nearly always played in the main deck of the Izzet decks but it's also incredibly replaceable. It doesn't do anything that the colors don't already do as your average Izzet deck is filled with counterspells, burn and card draw. I'm more interested in filling the gold section with unique, exciting effects that are also powerful and fit in the decks they support. Izzet Charm checks some of these boxes but nobody is excited to open it, it doesn't fill a need and it doesn't pull anyone into the colors.
Didn't Make the Cut
Rielle is a massive engine in the right deck as she allows you to churn through your library with alarming speed while also quickly turning into a lethal threat in her own right. Three toughness and no evasion almost guarantees that she won't survive the combat but she's taking something down with her and once your library reaches a certain threshold you won't mind her dying so she doesn't deck you. The issue here is you need to either have heavy looting or cycling synergies to actually trigger her so my cube just isn't the right environment to allow her to shine.
In Out
Even without power and other broken cards, Lurrus is just fine in cube. One of the main reasons why is that it's completely playable even without using Companion. While it's not a great blocker, the lifelink can really come into play if you can leverage your removal spells against a slower deck, allowing you more leeway to use your life as a resource as so many of black's cards demand. The real draw is the activated ability and with the quality of cards in cube you don't need to use this many times before the value really gets out of hand. Whether you are rebuying aggro creatures, taking advantage of sacrifice effects or just getting late game value this ability is going to be very relevant. While it's not impossible to companion, getting it early helps as it does draw you into using a larger variety of noncreature spells to mitigate the drawback. Playing a lot of cheap creatures isn't difficult and this goes well in any number of decks due to the hybrid mana.
Five mana is a lot of mana for a reanimation spell and in order to make this worthwhile you really needed to be able to use it twice. While that did happen on occasion, it wasn't the norm, and neither was milling it so you have easy access to the Flashback ability. With Orzhov taking more of an aristocrats role, this was getting more and more awkward to fit into your deck. Lurrus is a great upgrade.
Didn't Make the Cut
Much like with Gyruda, above, Obosh has a relatively simple Companion requirement but it comes with a cost. Not being able to have any even CMC cards hurts the Rakdos decks more than not having odd cards hurts the Dimir deck. As a control deck, Dimir has access to a lot of relevant interaction at two mana but the Rakdos deck relies on curving out with board presence and removal. One mana allows access to the main discard spells but missing out on two drops prevents use of many engine cards like Blood Artist and Goblin Bombardment which really hurts the deck's ability to function as intended. Obosh is a good card but if you are going to play an Obosh deck it really is a completely different deck than the rest of the guild which makes me feel comfortable leaving it on the outside.
In Out
Selesnya is one of the few guilds that doesn't have a representative planeswalker and it's finally going to get one. Ajani greatly surprised me with how well he played out and it's mostly due to his static ability. Vigilance is a great ability but usually isn't worth paying extra mana for which is why you don't see it a lot. Giving all of your creatures vigilance makes it very difficult to interact in combat, especially in a guild built around going wide. The -2 was obviously fantastic and the ability to use it twice in a row from the start is huge. Gaining life is not exciting and one of the reasons I wasn't excited about this when it was initially released. You can't argue with results though and this has performed admirably.
Every time I play Voice of Resurgence I have this image of going wide and tall because of all the times you are going to trigger its ability. Then I play it and opponents just don't do that. They kill it and then deal with the token it makes or they just ignore it completely. It retains a lot of its perceived value against control decks packing a lot of counterspells but it doesn't hold up the same way as it once did. It's more of a hate card than I like and there are more powerful options available now.
Didn't Make the Cut
Frondland Felidar is a fairly large creature where vigilance really matters because of the inexpensive tap ability. Vigilance isn't a very well represented ability in cube so it's highly unlikely you will be able to turn your other creatures into tappers but if you can, this stacks up pretty well against the competition. Selesnya used to be one of the best guilds in terms of power and consistency for its gold cards but it just never got any better. It's now one of the weakest so I'm always looking for unexpected additions.
Kaheera is completely reliant on having a certain density of Cats, Nightmares, Elementals, Dinosaurs and Beasts in order to be a Companion or be a functional card. Cube does not have a density of any of these creature types so this is an easy pass.
Didn't Make the Cut
Parcelbeast is a surprisingly solid card. The body is very defensive but goes well with the reusable Coiling Oracle ability. The power is really tied up in the ability so I don't expect this to be attacking that often but Simic decks are so rarely aggressive that I don't see that mattering all that much. Rare cubes have an abundance of power in what used to be a bare bones guild. Lower rarity cubes haven't been able to share in any of the spoils and I think Parcelbeast is a value engine that will fit nicely.
Keruga is another card that doesn't have a particularly difficult Companion requirement but one that is too debilitating in cube. Not being able to play one or two drops isn't going to work in a format where a lot of the best interaction costs less than three mana. Counterspells, mana elves, utility creatures, etc. all cost less than three and the Simic decks really rely on those to allow it to get to its late game. The prevalence of aggro and tempo decks are going to leave you unable to take advantage of the extra cards you might draw because they're going to be able to pressure you too heavily. The base card isn't nearly powerful enough without Companion as Simic already has plenty of access to card advantage and doesn't need to stretch for more.
Didn't Make the Cut
Kinnan just isn't good unless you are doing something very unfair with the static ability. This allows you to boost up your mana elves and mana rocks at the cost of a fragile, inexpensive creature taking up space on the board. If that's something you are excited about then feel free to include Kinnan but don't expect it to do anything else because everything else about this card is extremely underwhelming. This gains some value in powered cubes where pretty much every game is warped around cheating on mana but in an unpowered list it just doesn't have the same appeal.
Didn't Make the Cut
If you are still playing the Tri-Lands this is an easy and obvious upgrade as you just get to tack on Cycling 3 and basic land types for free. I'm not so it's more about why I cut the Tri-Lands in the first place and whether these are now secretly better than one of the individual dual land sets. In a smaller cube where you have constant access to fetch lands, I think it's pretty hard to not include these; there's just too much value. In my cube you don't see fetch lands all the time though so it's not as common of an interaction. And while Cycling 3 is a good bonus, it is expensive and will take most of your turn to do so. The main reason I'm not adding them though is that I moved away from 3 color support and I think my cube is better for it. I'm keeping these in the back of my mind but I feel comfortable passing on these for now.
As expected, there were a lot of cards whose power doesn't translate from Ikoria limited to the confines of cube but that doesn't mean we didn't get some important additions. I'm very interested to see how public perception of Companion changes over time and I think I'm reaping the benefits of a larger cube here because they just won't show up as often. If they were guaranteed to show up every draft I can see that getting frustrating. The next set is the yearly Core Set which typically means fewer cards to talk about and at least one powerful mythic cycle. I don't expect anything different this year. I miss not being able to play in person with people due to Coronavirus and I'm greatly looking forward to hearing that flick of a sleeve on the table in the near future. Until then, take care of yourself and be safe out there. We'll be slinging physical cardboard in no time.
