Welcome to the Shadows Over Innistrad Cube Update! This was one of the more interesting sets in terms of cube in recent memory. There are tons of cards that are worth talking about and a good amount of them favor aggressive decks which is a novel thing. Usually there are only a couple of aggro cards each set and this one has tons. As always, I'll be talking about most of the cards that are debatable but if I miss something you are curious feel free to ask. I'm also officially starting a watch list for cards that just need more time and experience to assess properly. I'll mention when I put a card on it and when I do, I will keep it in mind for future updates if cards aren't pulling their weight and I have a better idea of how good they actually are.
Let's get going!
White
In
Out
I think Archangel Avacyn is the best 5 or 6 drop in white for cube now. It's great in either control or aggro and can swing a game in its favor immediately. The transform is not optional so it can lead to some awkward board states should something else die unexpectedly. Hitting your own creatures is a real drawback but giving this flash means you have the opportunity to gain so much value that it's tough to feel too bad about it you lose a couple of creatures.
Geist-Honored Monk is actively good when you are in a good spot on board but I've never been a huge fan of creatures whose power and toughness scales in this way. It just makes it underwhelming when you are behind. The best part about this are the tokens and there are enough other ways to get those already. Archangel is just so much more powerful and consistent.
In Out
Always Watching is another anthem with a very relevant upside in the form of vigilance. Sure, it doesn't hit tokens but that limitation makes for interesting deck building decisions. The rate is great and most of your creatures probably aren't going to be tokens anyway. Giving vigilance always plays better and is more exciting in practice than it looks.
The flash on Stasis Snare is really only relevant against red decks playing big haste creatures. It's phenomenal against those decks but otherwise its almost exactly like Journey to Nowhere as it only hits creatures. It's fine but replaceable and looks more interesting than it actually plays.
In Out
Declaration in Stone is a very interesting removal spell. You can use it to efficiently counteract token strategies or use it against single targets. In a pinch you can also target your own creature to draw a card if you have something that is disposable. Other than that it's pretty similar to Journey to Nowhere except that you don't have to worry about enchantment removal. Once your target is gone, it's gone for good. That, along with the uniqueness of the investigate effect gives Declaration the edge here.
In
Out
I was pretty impressed with Town Gossipmonger in limited and I have heard tales of it being productive in cube as well. It's very easy to flip since it doesn't require mana and once it flips the other side is pretty good as it gives the aggro decks a mana sink once the game gets going. Three toughness is a pretty big deal as it lets it survive a lot of things that it otherwise might not be able to. I don't think it's that far off from a generic 2/1 for W in terms of power and is infinitely more interesting to play with and against.
Expedition Envoy is a generic 2/1 for W that is infinitely less interesting to play with and against. Gosh, that sounds familiar. I've said before that we are at the point of saturation for white one drops and I am certainly fine cutting the uninteresting ones as we get more.
Didn't Make the Cut
A note on Delirium. You are very rarely going to be able to reliably trigger Delirium in a timely manner. You are definitely going to be able to get creatures, instants and sorceries in your graveyard. The fourth card type will be the hard one. Fetch lands aren't plentiful and neither are enchantments, artifacts or planeswalkers going to be killed often enough to rely on. Therefore, I am going to base all Delirium cards on their base modes only. Delirium is a rare bonus only. This card is a very expensive wrath without Delirium and obviously not cube worthy. If you don't see Delirium cards mentioned you think are good enough this is probably why.
Watch List
Thraben Inspector is actually very close to playable even if it looks underwhelming on first glance. A creature that even indirectly draws a card when it comes into play is always playable for a control deck as it makes it more likely they hit all their land drops and gets them to the late game more reliably. Cracking the clue isn't very expensive and it plays very well in practice. Aggressive decks will value the card draw and the cheap body but it's a combination of a little too expensive and too low impact for them to value it too highly. I don't want to cut a 2/1 for W for it but I am going to put it on the watch list for future assessment.
Blue
In Out
Thing in the Ice is a nice defensive body for control decks while also providing late game utility and power. In the right deck this is an actual win condition while still being playable out of the sideboard to slow aggro decks in less spell heavy builds. It has a lot more going on than Wall of Frost which, while being a bigger and more effective body, can do nothing except block. There is not that much of a difference between 4 and 7 toughness making that difference smaller than it looks initially.
In Out
Unraveler is just a better version of the Living Guildpact. For one more mana to cast, and at the same loyalty, you get a huge boost in power in the first ability. The minus narrows in scope but increases in power making this feel more like a balanced Jace, the Mind Sculptor than Guildpact turned out to be. I still think this is on the chopping block as weakest blue planeswalker but it's definitely better than the Living Guildpact.
Didn't Make the Cut
Startled Awake is certainly cube level on a power level but isn't on a fun level. Similar to Jace, Memory Adept and other non-interactive mill cards it's a reusable effect that is lethal in two uses with a limited deck and isn't a terribly fun way to win with or lose to. The cube community finally came around to keeping this effect out of cubes and I think the trend will continue with this one.
I was excited about Epiphany at the Drownyard at first until, like with Steam Augury before it, I actually played with it. With these types of cards it's really difficult to make them playable if your opponent has the choice of what you get. It either needs to get a large amount of cards per mana spent or it just needs to be extremely inexpensive to the point where it doesn't matter what happens. This is too mana intensive to get a large amount of cards and doesn't have enough impact at lower mana costs. It's a trap.
Black
In Out
Asylum Visitor is so much better than I had originally thought. At first, I thought that the opponent drew the card when it triggered on their turn. The draw triggers on both upkeeps but you draw both times if it does. Only losing one life per card is probably on average better than triggering Dark Confidant when you factor in the probability of drawing a land. While it looks like it could draw more cards it's more likely to only trigger a couple times at most. That said it presents a real clock and the madness is a nice bonus that will probably not come into play terribly often. Being a power bigger and having an extra possible trigger makes it much better than Blood Scrivener which was not great in cube. I've been impressed so far.
I have been very unimpressed with Pain Seer so far. I knew it wasn't ever going to be a reliable card drawer but it's been even less then that. It's basically a Grizzly Bear that people have been hesitant to trade in combat with because of the perceived upside. Asylum Visitor is much better.
In Out
Relentless Dead is interesting in that it acts as a discard outlet and recursive threat if you have the available mana. That won't always be the case and sometimes you just aren't going to be able to pay for his abilities. The thing that puts him over the top is that he can actually block which hasn't been typical of this card design. Also, he has menace so he attacks fairly well when combined with other threats. This guy is pretty good in either control or aggro and does have random Zombie synergies although that won't be the main use of the card.
Even in a deck entirely designed to maximize its abilities like the constructed Aristocrats deck, Grim Haruspex is a role player. It serves a purpose but isn't a cog in the machine. Same in cube but in an environment that only sometimes can abuse it. Playing fair magic it has been just okay and never spectacular. Relentless Dead has a chance to do more work.
In Out
Heir of Falkenrath has really impressed me with its raw power. Even late in the game, a 3/2 flier for 1B is very strong. Sure, you need to discard a card but at that point you should have an extra land or so if you are planning around it. Early game it's just absurd as black should be able to discard something without caring too much. The power is that it's not mandatory to discard so if you don't want to or can't afford to discard you don't have to. It's a 2 for 1 if they kill her but the upside is real.
Mardu Strike Leader was a little too mana intensive for what you are getting when you Dash it as the body isn't big enough to get more than a single token. When you did it was great but it always just traded with something since it has no evasion. If you ever had to cast it you felt bad because it wasn't a great rate which makes it sit in hands awkwardly sometimes.
Didn't Make the Cut
With tokens and a constant mix of utility creatures and single powerhouse creatures present in cube, edict effects have always been underwhelming. Instant speed helps To The Slaughter and there are time when it will spike a planeswalker but only after it gets to use its ability. The only reason Chainer's Edict is still in the cube is because of its flashback ability. This doesn't have that kind of utility and if you aren't hitting a planeswalker this is just bad.
Mindwrack Demon is a pretty nice evasive threat that will make the cut in some cubes. I like my mix of powerhouse four drops and I don't like this more than any of the utility options available. You are also almost always losing life which is a real cost as you are actively losing that race against itself since it doesn't have haste.
Didn't Make the Cut
Everything I said about the four drops for Mindwrack Demon I can also say about this. I've played a lot with this card and while it can be very difficult to kill, in a cube with limited graveyard interactions and discard abusers compared to limited it loses a ton of value. The discards mean a lot more and the body isn't nearly as impressive when compared to the rest of the cube. It's still good and certainly playable but it's a much slower clock than something like Abyssal Persecutor and it's much more mana intensive to actually give evasion. I'm not convinced.
Two mana 3/3's with a drawback have happened before and have never been good. This is much closer to playable even if it does have the mostly irrelevant Skulk ability (for its body). However, I don't like that the discard is mandatory as it limits the amount of decks that can reliably play it. I don't think it's bad and if you support black aggro it's probably quite playable if you do. I don't have that much emphasis on the strategy so I am going to instead include the other new two drops instead.
Red
In
Out
Village Messengers is a more reasonable Reckless Waif. It's better on both the flipped and nonflipped sides as it can actually get in for some damage and isn't brick walled as easily. It's still probably on the lower end of red one drops but it's more reliable and consistent.
Reckless Waif has too big of a range between its best case and worst case scenarios. The floor on this is abysmal. It's to the point where if you don't play this on turn one it's completely unplayable. The flipped side is just not strong enough after turn three or so to pose enough of a threat for the hoops it has to go through.
In Out
Red has a history of getting 2/1's for R with some sort of weird drawback so it's refreshing to see one with an upside instead. Sure, the upside is the most irrelevant thing ever in cube but....still...at least there isn't a downside. That said, it's an obvious inclusion.
Altac Bloodseeker hasn't been as good as I'd hoped. I had visions of burning blockers and getting this guy to deal combat damage to the opponent but it only ever happened like once. Just too reliant on using other resources to go all in and a lot of the time those spells are better pointed at the face.
In Out
Sin Prodder is so much better than the punisher mechanic would at first suggest. The fact that this has menace is what makes this playable. It's not just about the punisher mechanic on the card, this guy can actually attack and get through by itself. This makes it acceptable if you whiff a few times on the ability. Even in the case where you are binning lands without damaging the opponent you aren't drawing those lands and it feels great to get rid of excess lands. Even minor damage adds up if this isn't dealt with.
I've been trying to find an excuse to cut Siege-Gang for a couple updates and kept finding a better option or talking myself into keeping it in. As it is, it's just really mana intensive and has been outclassed by the other expensive options. I had thought I had one too many for a while so it's nice to find something to trim.
Didn't Make the Cut
Scourge Wolf is not nearly good enough with double red in its cost without Delirium.
Goldnight Castigator is great if you are attacking and horrible otherwise. The nine toughness is super irrelevant and it isn't as good as the other aggressive red four or fives.
Green
In Out
Rabid Bite is a sorcery-speed, one-sided Pit Fight. I'll trade the surprise aspect for no chance at trading creatures as it greatly changes what you can kill things with. All of a sudden a utility creature can kill another utility creature without trading. That's a huge upside.
In Out
Tireless Tracker is a very grindy card. It really only takes one land drop for you to feel good about its body and the fact that you can cash in the clues at any time after you get them means you should feel a lot better about this getting involved in combat. If this gets to actually stay in play for a while you are going to bury your opponent in card advantage. Even if you are drawing lands with it, they only fuel future triggers.
Deadbridge is just a big vanilla creature and while I did win a game due to the scavenge ability it's really slow and the sorcery speed hurts a lot in cube. Scavenge is an ability that they designed to be very difficult to abuse and in cube that usually ticks down the value a lot.
In
Out
Green gets even more card advantage in the form of a cheap, efficient beater that also gives late game versatility. It can be a little awkward when you really need the card advantage and it's flipped to the other side or when you have plenty to do and would rather have the cost reduction. However, you do have some control over it flipping and in practice it has shown to be worth the awkwardness. For only two mana up front it just does so much.
Zealot has lost a lot of power over the years. It's gone from a really effective creature to a really weird naturalize. The body just isn't worth the cost anymore with damage not stacking and with no swords in cube this is now replaceable.
Didn't Make the Cut
Pack Guardian compares very similarly to Yeva, Nature's Herald. Both have flash and are four power for the same cost. The difference is the extra wolf token vs. giving other creatures flash. Yeva has been only okay but is infinitely more interesting and I don't want both included. Also, lands don't grow on trees so it's not a free wolf.
If you could get Deathtouch or if this just had Deathtouch I think it would be good enough. Leaf Gilder always plays much better than it looks but Delirium just isn't reliable.
Watch List
Seasons Past is really swingy. There are game states where it can return five or six cards of varying ranges of usefulness and in those games this is a huge bomb. However, there are also games where this is no better than a Restock; and that has been cut from the cube before. The thing is, Restock wasn't that bad and this has a much higher upside. I am going to put it on the watch list for now because I really want to have the better idea of the floor and ceiling of it before I cut something.
Colorless
In Out
Leonin Scimitar is the most uninteresting and mediocre equipment in the cube. It has a job and it does it acceptably. Neglected Heirloom is only just barely better as it can rarely flip if you have the right card in your deck. There aren't a whole lot of transform creatures in cube but any upside is fine especially since it doesn't change your deck building strategy.
Boros
Didn't Make the Cut
I like Nahiri but I wish that planeswalkers weren't so similar. At first they all made tokens and now they all draw cards with their plus and are removal with their minus. Rant over. I already have Ajani Vengeant in Boros and I prefer that to Nahiri. I think Nahiri is certainly playable if you prefer her but I have a special place in my heart for the big Leonin planeswalker. Also, tiebreaker goes to his unreal ultimate which is more exciting by a country mile. I limit gold to one planeswalker per combination in case you were confused.
Golgari
Didn't Make the Cut
This big frog is kind of like an abyss that will randomly draw you cards if you keep playing magic. If you don't have more lands this becomes unsustainable pretty quickly. Other than that it's just a big beat stick and Golgari has more interesting options. The dream where you "go off" isn't happening reliably and this color combination values its extra lands heavily.
Gruul
In
Out
Arlinn Kord is an absolute house that acts as a threat, protects herself and destroys worlds in her spare time. Absolute...house.
Domri Rade is difficult. He only goes in creature heavy decks and even there he only really works if you have bigger creatures than your opponent. While those are both Gruul-like things to do, he's just not that interesting. He costs three mana and that's carries his value because and is kind of unexciting most of the time.
Orzhov
In Out
Sorin turned out to be a little more interesting than I had thought even if I had accurately predicted its power level. The plus ability is extremely interesting to play with providing both offensive and defensive applications and the ultimate is a realistic possibility. Sure, it tokens like planeswalkers do but they are evasive threats that line up really well.
Utter End is a pretty good card but wasn't providing anything that Orzhov didn't already have access to in spades. This is a change simply in excitement level.
Didn't Make the Cut
The new iteration of Sorin is very similar to the rest of the planeswalkers released this set. A plus ability that draws cards and a minus ability that serves as removal. For six mana you can't afford to miss with the life loss of the plus ability and while the minus ability is good, it's just really expensive. I was pretty high on this at first until I realized that they basically carbon copied all the planeswalkers from a template. Excitement and uniqueness waned.
Anguished Unmaking is basically Utter End but you pay 3 life instead of paying a colorless mana. While paying the life is a real cost I think its still better and a likely upgrade. However, black and white already have a ton of removal spells between the two of them and this is certainly not better than Vindicate. I'm looking for unique and exciting effects in gold that provide the guilds with abilities they don't already possess. This is very good but redundant.
Rakdos
Didn't Make the Cut
Olivia is a fine body for the cost because it has flying but the ability takes a turn to get going and runs out of gas very quickly. It doesn't let you sneak a better creature in play than you already would be able to and the vampire clause is irrelevant. Is getting a counter and gaining haste worth a single card each time you cast a creature spell? Some people are excited but I don't think so. This loses an absolute ton of value the later in the game it gets casted. With only one in your deck you can't trust getting this early and it's just too hard to rely on triggering it more than once or twice. If that was enough I say play it but I don't think it is.
Land
In Out
Westvale Abbey is an interesting utility land in that it provides control decks with chump blockers and incremental value in the late game while also serving as a win condition for token decks or aggro decks that have been stone-walled on the ground. It is certainly more interesting and has a higher ceiling than Reflecting Pool. The pool can't fix your mana and is at its best in decks that have a lot of double color costs in their spells. It's always playable but rarely exciting.
Conclusion
I'm glad I officially added the Watch List as it gives me a new perspective to evaluate cards. I've been doing it unofficially before but now I have better tracking of it. Less likely that cards fall through the cracks. This was a very good set and I expect more of the same from Eldritch Moon. I really hope there aren't more Eldrazi shenanigans but it does seem to be the prevailing theory. Oh well. Even if that's the case it looks like they are differentiating them from each other enough to feel unique. Comments are welcome!
See you under the Eldritch Moon!
I'm glad I officially added the Watch List as it gives me a new perspective to evaluate cards. I've been doing it unofficially before but now I have better tracking of it. Less likely that cards fall through the cracks. This was a very good set and I expect more of the same from Eldritch Moon. I really hope there aren't more Eldrazi shenanigans but it does seem to be the prevailing theory. Oh well. Even if that's the case it looks like they are differentiating them from each other enough to feel unique. Comments are welcome!
See you under the Eldritch Moon!
