I am really thankful that this is the last small set for the foreseeable future. The anticipation of the new set is just so much greater with large sets because you don't already have an idea of what the set is going to do. Rivals of Ixalan is just...more Ixalan...that means a ton of tribal cards that don't have synergies in my cube and fighting for the scraps of whatever is left. Even considering the heavy focus on tribal interactions, this isn't a very good set for cube. The mechanics aren't cube friendly and there is a real lack of individually powerful cards. There are still some standouts but even those are heavily dependent on what type of cube you are running. I'll cover all the goods here and leave you with a hopeful eye towards Dominaria. Let's go.
White
In Out
Skymarcher Aspirant is one of the better 2/1 for W as flying is a very good ability for a stalled aggro deck to gain in the late game. Ascend isn't that difficult to get in a deck that already wants to go wide with tokens and removal/pumps in the form of enchantments (which count towards Ascend). A note on ascend moving forward. Ascend is best in decks playing a lot of permanents like Green and White and worse in the other three colors since they have a lot of instants/sorceries that don't add to the permanent count. Even in the GW decks, I think ascend will only be active a small percentage of the time for cheap cards. Expensive cards are much more likely to trigger it due to the land count being higher at that stage in the game. Either way, cube is too powerful and fast to include cards that require Ascend to be effective. The cards need to be cube worthy on their own in order to be included. Cards that are only good with Ascend activated will not be included.
Just cutting the lowest hanging fruit. The separation between the different 2/1 for W is very low and as a vanilla human, Elite Vanguard is the least interesting.
In Out
Just moving Lingering Souls over from the gold section to white since it makes the cut in almost every white deck regardless of whether the player is playing black or not.
Griffin Guide just isn't as impressive as it used to be. The consolatory 2/2 flier just isn't as good as it needs to be. The best part about the card is easily the aura part and that's not where you want to be in cube.
Slaughter the Strong suffers on two fronts. One, it lets your opponent choose how to retain their creatures. In cube, where games are won and lost many times due to individual threats not being answered, this is a huge drawback. It's also only good against certain boardstates and never guarantees you to be ahead when the card resolves. It's just too unreliable.
Bishop of Binding is an interesting take on the Fiend Hunter type of card in that it will sometimes be able to attack effectively. Unfortunately, four mana is a huge sticking point for something that absolutely can't block and can only sometimes interact in combat. I'm willing to pay three mana for an effect like this but in aggro decks (where this is best) you really need to be slamming finishers for four mana. This is good, but behind the curve a bit. It needed to have a different wording on the pump ability or have a slightly larger body to work out better.
In Out
Warkite Marauder is one of the better tempo two drops because it does several things that those types of decks really appreciate. It can prevent flying blockers from getting in its way, it can shrink large ground blockers into chumpers (which is doubly great because you probably have tiny creatures attacking) and it can shrink toughness to allow for larger creatures to be burned with red spells. If your opponent wants to block, they really need to leave back multiple blockers every turn. This leads to more races which is what the tempo decks really thrive at.
Gilded Drake has been on the fringe of being cut for a while. It really only good in two situations. Either your opponent has a better creature than a 3/3 flying creature and your life total is high enough that you can survive the attacks. Secondly, you have a bunch of bounce spells that you use on the Drake to permanently keep control of the stolen creatures. In practice, this doesn't really happen. You rarely line up your spells with the Drake the way it requires and more often than not you draw the Drake without a good target to steal. It's usually just okay. Warkite Marauder will further tempo strategies more effectively.
Didn't Make the Cut
Like with my previous discussion on Ascend, blue decks are unlikely to reliably hit the necessary permanent count to trigger it. The difference between two and three cards drawn is huge and most of the time you will have to fire this off for reduced value (and at a nonsplashable casting cost to boot).
Admiral's Order will be best in a tempo shell against blue decks where it is able to protect second main phase spells from being countered since you will always be attacking. Other decks will just wait to cast spells in other phases when this will cost three again. Costing three mana everywhere else is playable but unexciting. In control shells this is just much worse than the existing three mana counterspell options that guarantee their value on every cast. The cost reduction just isn't reducing the cost where you need it to be since it only hits certain types of spells during a very specific window.
In Out
Replacing Nekrataal with Ravenous Chupacabra is the easy upgrade but I think it's also correct. We gain an extra toughness but lose first strike. This isn't a huge concern because getting the Chupacabra in the graveyard allows for reanimation shenanigans. We also get a huge upgrade in ability as regeneration is almost completely nonexistent and you can now hit both black and artifact creatures.
Didn't Make the Cut
If you strongly support black aggro, I think Grasping Scoundrel is an easy inclusion. It replaces any one of the many 2/x for B creatures with drawback that cubes are littered with. I do not support black aggro myself so, this will remain on the outside.
Tomb Robber is another one that probably goes better in a black aggro shell than anywhere else. Unfortunately, discarding a card AND paying a mana are way too steep a cost to use the ability in cube. I can see pitching all your lands and expensive spells for a bunch of explore triggers and going all in on this but having to pay mana for each trigger takes away the explosiveness that this really needs. The fact that it's a terrible top deck later in the game only hurts it.
Didn't Make the Cut
The entire cycle of Elder Dinosuars are severely underwhelming. The white, blue and red ones are way too expensive, niche and boring, respectively to even be discussed as cube cards. I'll get to the green one later but for now, Tetzimoc suffers from a really specific problem. The competition for black finishers is just too steep. Tetzimoc acts as a delayed and telegraphed Plague Wind. This is powerful but not nearly as impactful as the surprise effects of Massacre Wurm, Demon of Dark Schemes and even Noxious Gearhulk. It certainly can't stand up to a cascading value machine like Grave Titan. Kokusho is the most easily considered swap but Tetzimoc doesn't have the same synergy with black that Kokusho does and the body is really underwhelming if you are cheating it in play.
In Out
Dire Fleet Daredevil is a really good card for cube. It works at all stages of the game, is a great top deck late, despite being a passable two drop creature. It gives red potential access to some effects it is otherwise not able to utilize because it targets the opponent's graveyard. I also like that while its good in red aggro, it works really well in red decks that attack the game from different axes as well. It's also splashable!
Ash Zealot is a much better two drop on turn two than Dire Fleet Daredevil but it's marketedly worse at every other phase of the game. In practice, the graveyard ability has hardly ever come up beyond hitting yourself with the red flashback spells. Double red is also not trivial as I look to support red beyond sheer aggro.
In Out
Rekindling Phoenix is a very annoying and persistent threat for red decks that aren't all about the haste. So many of red's upper curve creatures have haste that it's nice to get one that is able to give a little bit of variety and spice to the lineup. This can be a repeatable sacrifice outlet in RB decks or just a beater in aggressive red decks, or a defensive stalwart in decks that need a good blocker. It's just so effective no matter the board state or pace of gameplay. That makes for a good cube card.
Territorial Hellkite has a lot of text but in essence it's just another hastey beater. Having to attack every other turn is really awkward and it doesn't do anything interesting outside of being forced to use as a blocker for a turn. Rekindling Phoenix fits more red archetypes and should be a more heavily main decked card.
Didn't Make the Cut
A riff on Mogg Fanatic, Fanatical Firebrand is both better and worse. Unfortunately for the Firebrand, Mogg Fanatic has been left out of cubes for years now. This is fine on turn one but even then I think I'd rather just have the two power attacker.
Tilonalli's Summoner falls into a really specific category of card that does not work well in cube; Sabateurs. This is a little better on average because its able to firebreathe out tokens to deal a little damage. Unfortunately, if your opponent can block this will always be what is blocked and I'm not sure if this is cube worthy even with Ascend active all the time. You just aren't ever going to have X be that much. Even for 2 or 3 this is probably best in a deck looking for sacrifice fodder. It's just too mana intensive to get out of hand from anyone unless you are casting this on turn 11 and are flooded.
In Out
Jadelight Ranger is a value machine. No, you cannot really control what happens when you explore and certain decks are going to be disappointed that they got lands instead of counters or vice versa. However, there is so much value guaranteed (especially in green), even if things don't flip according to your wishes, that the floor on this is higher than it seems at first glance.
I always want Yeva to work better than she does. Almost always you are flashing in green creatures at EOT with little consequence as you don't have meaningful instants to give you more options in green and you aren't surprising flying creatures because green doesn't interact in the air well. The limit to green creatures makes this much worse in multicolor decks as it restricts the targets that this works with. The biggest mark against it is that it just never gets played in the main deck and is almost always underwhelming when opened in a pack, frequently wheeling multiple times and being a comfortable late pick.
In Out
I really like Thrashing Brontodon. Green is definitely in the market for above the curve creatures and even though this does have to sacrifice itself in order to utilize its ability, you are only going to do that if it's necessary. Without power or swords, the cube's answer to artifacts and enchantments can be much more reactionary and situational as opposed to having to be as cheap and direct as possible. Oftentimes this will just be a vanilla beater but when you need to use the ability you are going to be thankful that its an option.
Call of the Herd, like with Griffin Guide above, has lost a lot of value over time. At least with Griffin Guide you had the upside to randomly spike a game because they couldn't deal with an evasive threat. The best case scenario with Call of the Herd is hoping that taking two straight turns to cast a Centaur Courser is going to do it. Even with the inherent card advantage, creatures have come so far that you can't afford to take a turn off to flash this back until so late in the game that it's completely irrelevant. It's just too low impact and slow.
Didn't Make the Cut
Tendershoot Dyrad is really interesting because while it's clearly not a good enough card without having triggered Ascend (my baseline for being included), it attains ascend almost trivially quickly if you play it on curve and is insane once you have it. The problem is that if you lose the Dryad, you lose all the power as the 1/1 tokens it leaves behind are not of much consequence. Compared to something like Whisperwood Elemental which ends the game slower but has much more meaningful tokens that it puts into play, I err on the side of reliability. I'll also say that losing to this feels really bad as it snowballs embarrassing quickly and getting tokens each turn makes it feel helpless when you don't have the removal spell. I tend to shy away from these epic boom // bust cards in cube.
Ghalta is a really gigantic creature that attacks. You might not have to pay a lot of mana to cast it and that's swell. Unfortunately, it's really boring and the other green finishers all leave something behind or retain value upon being casted. This just feels like an all-in "hope you don't have removal, lol" and I'm, again, not a huge fan of these cards.
In Out
Captain's Hook will essentially function as a cheaper version Whispersilk Cloak. Menace isn't as good as unblockable but pumping power by two is huge as it makes any creature likely to trade up in combat if blocked and makes event tokens annoying threats. The "drawback" of destroying the permanent shouldn't come up too much in most cases as this is a very aggressive equipment and should further those strategies.
Not being able to pump power or toughness really hurts Whispersilk Cloak as it only functions as an attacker, not being able to assist if things are going wrong. It also grants shroud which is not fun or interactive and on the list of banned keywords for my cube. One more down!
Didn't Make the Cut
I'm already running a couple of expensive artifact finisher utility cards in Obelisk of Alara and God-Pharaoh's Gift and I don't think I have room for another one. The Immortal Sun is better than Staff of Nin for those running that but I would much rather have the flexibility allotted by Obelisk of Alara than this. It's good at turning off planeswalkers in cubes where they are extremely powerful but in mine, they are pretty well controlled through limiting their numbers and cube size. As it is, you will likely be playing this for the remaining abilities and while they aren't bad I prefer the existing options in this slot as more fun and focused. This just casts too wide a net. I think it's good but not needed.
Didn't Make the Cut
Azor reminds me a lot of Brago, King Eternal in that it's an evasive threat that really only functions if it is able to attack. Other cube designers really like these effects but I've found myself less interested in it than them. I like this one a little more than Brago because the effect only has to trigger once to be potentially game breaking. The power and toughness also supports this being able to trigger if blocked as it can only hit an opponent so many times before the game ends. Ultimately, I'm not running Brago as it is and I only want so many Azorius control finishers as it can also function as a tempo guild. I like Dragonlord Ojutai better as a cheaper, easier to cast finisher that has a similar effect on the board but whose protection effect is a little more permanent.
In
Out
Journey to Eternity is very much being tried out. I can see a future where it gets replaced for something that has more immediate impact and doesn't run the risk of being a literal do nothing. I'm trying it out because the flip ability is just so good. The mana fixing land on the flip side is a really useful consolation prize for those that can't use the reanimation effect. It's pretty easy to trigger in black with so many sacrifice effects so I want to give it a shot, especially since a replacement was easy to identify.
Meren proved to be way too grindy and slow to be functional. Her ability is very powerful but oftentimes she just doesn't live long enough to reliably trigger her ability. Her body isn't bad but it's not big enough to really do anything offensively either.
In Out
Freeing up a slot in the Orzhov gold section results in the inclusion of one of the really good catch all removal spells that I wasn't playing. It's just a really solid card that has posted good results in most lists and now I have room for it too.
Moving Lingering Souls to the white section for some bookeeping.
Didn't Make the Cut
Profane Procession has done nothing but impress since I first saw it. However, the cost is much harder to pay in cube than it is elsewhere. Even over two turns, eight mana is a lot to pay for a removal spell. Yes, I understand that you have repeated spells out of this meaning it's very unlikely for you to be mana flooded but there isn't a clear path for this to enter the cube list. Against any sort of aggressive deck, you can't afford to be spending your whole turn removing a single threat. This is a fantastic sideboard card against decks with fewer, more significant threats but there are many games where you will sideboard this out and wish you just had a cheaper removal spell so you didn't fall so far behind. The contenders are very strong in this guild and I don't see room.
Didn't Make the Cut
It's strange in a format like cube that has no shortage of amazing creatures that Act of Treason effects are just so bad. Part of it is that you can't afford to draw situational cards when you are behind directly because the creatures are so punishing. The other part is that so many of the creatures are good because of utility effects that are independent to their power and toughness. This is a long winded way to explain why the -3 effect is so bad. If the effect was repeatable, it works pretty well in the sacrifice deck but this is costed to only be able to use probably once per game, twice at most. The plus effect is good but overall, this card is just too slow and clunky for cube.
Didn't Make the Cut
This card is terrible. It's my absolute least favorite planeswalker of all time. I truly think this is even worse than Gideon, Champion of Justice as a card that does nothing unless your board is full. This functions as a one turn do nothing as you pump its loyalty and then you repeatedly use the minus ability until the game ends or you run out of loyalty or creatures and are forced to use the plus. There is no variety in gameplay, this is not interesting or powerful and I am only talking about it to talk about how terrible it is. Shame.
Didn't Make the Cut
I really like that both sides of Hadana's Climb // Winged Temple of Orazca trigger the turn they are put into play. That goes a long way towards making these playable. Ultimately, I'm passing because of the difficulty to be able to reliably flip the enchantment. With other +1/+1 counter support, it's possible to flip this quickly but if you don't have those interactions (and it's not a guarantee with a 720 card cube) this flips two turns later if your creature survives. I like that if you don't want it to flip for some reason you can get around it by targeting a different creature you control but a single counter on one creature per turn is just not enough impact for a gold card if you can't guarantee a flip. Keep in mind that this does nothing without having creatures in play and putting a meaningless counter on your mana dork isn't worth the cost.
So long, Ixalan. It was nice knowing you but I can't wait to planeswalk over to Dominaria. I have a really good feeling about that set. With the pedigree of that plane, how can Wizards let us down? See you in a few months!
