Because there are so many reprints, and I never actually go that into them, I won't be including them in my review (exception: cards that used to be higher rarities before M14). And yes, if you realize how short this set review is compared to the others, you'll recognize why I'm doing it. Let's just say I'm quite busy these days. However, absolutely feel free to bring them up in the thread, if you want my opinions on any specific reprint from this set.
Judging Rubric Get It Away From Me — A card which should never be considered by anyone sane. Bad — It's not really worth cubing with at all. Cuttable — It's workable, but it's not cubeable. It's on the cuttable side of borderline. Borderline - It's got potential, and requires more testing. Your call. Cubeable — You can add this and probably get the wide concensus. It's solid. Not broken, but solid. Cube It — Stapled to the god damn cube. Run it. Run it like the wind.
WHITE
Celestial Flare
A new spin on the Edict effect which changes the way that the card plays. The restriction actually makes the Flare better, pushing it between the randomness of the Edict effect with the choice of single-target removal like Pacifism. In giving the player choice, albeit often choice they need to work to getting, makes Flare a very viable removal spell. On the subject of Pacifism, Flare also removes the constant weakness of the Edict in that they don't go well with Pacifism-esque removal spells, and this is much more relevant in white, so that's a plus. The double white is significant, but given that this is a removal spell that will often be saved for the mid to late game, I don't see it being that much of a problem. Cubeable.
Charging Griffin
This is essentially an Assault Griffin which is weighted on the side of aggro over control (midrange kind of hangs out on the center). This is not necessarily a bad thing, as white's 4drops are often control-heavy monstrosities like Coalition Honor Guard and Seraph of Dawn. Nonetheless, the extra toughness the Charing Griffin has over its brother is only a small boon, and this has to be weighed against a weakness in blocking which can be quite important. In the end, I think that any conceivable difference between the two is difficult to see, and given that the Assault Griffin isn't currently cubeable anyway, I'm not interested in its newer family member. Cuttable.
Dawnstrike Paladin
5-drop is a lot and a lack of evasion really hampers its ability to be more than just a well. With only 2-power, swinging with it will often do nothing in the lategame except for gaining meagre amounts of life. Castle Raptors and Seraph of Dawn are examples of far superior cards. There isn't room for the Paladin compared to the options we have. Cuttable.
Hive Stirrings
Significantly worse than Raise the Alarm if you're not playing a Sliver theme. If you are playing a Sliver theme, it can be a really good card to support the archetype. Cuttable.
Master of Diversions
An interesting card, heavily geared towards the aggro deck. Certainly I think of it as better than tapper such as Blinding Mage, and even the recent Haazda Snare Squad, which has done good work in Dragon's Maze Limited. I think it's about on par with your average Chapel Geist or Avian Changeling, if not a bit better in the aggro deck, but there may simply be too much competition in the 3CMC slot for it to work. Borderline, on the side of cuttable.
Sentinel Sliver
A bear if you're not supporting the Slivers archetype, a meh supporting card if you are. I don't like it much. Cuttable.
Soulmender
1/1 is bad, pure lifegain is meh, mediocre lifegain is worse. Not really a good card. Get It Away From Me.
Overall: A few interesting cards, a great gem in Celestial Flare (how far it will go in cube remains to be scene), not too bad overall.
BLUE
Messenger Drake
An easy comparison (although certainly not the easiest) that can be made is with this and Spire Monitor. On one hand, both cards offer you the mechanisms required to gain card advantage, with the Monitor ambushing threats. Furthermore, the Monitor's flash can be very important to the control decks who hold up counters. However, the Drake is a far more consistent card, in that it will almost always get you a card if something happens to it.
Which brings us to the easiest comparison that can be made: Gryff Vanguard. Is the 1 less toughness worth getting the card upfront? Short answer? Yes. There is no longer answer. Nonetheless, while people should be thinking about playing the Vanguard before the Messenger Drake, I can certainly see cubists playing with both in order to offer control decks the finishers they need to really work. Borderline.
Seacoast Drake
I have an irrational hatred of Concordia Pegasus, and now, Seacoast Drake. 1-power makes the Drake far too low-impact to be cubeable. I'd rather just another another Merfolk Looter functional reprint over this. Get It Away From Me.
Trained Condor
A very interesting card, reminiscent of Wingcrafter but very different for two reasons. One, it's on attacks only, making Condor more aggro-centric than the Wingcrafter. Two, it's a 3 drop and it has 2-power, which means that it has a high chance of significantly impacting the board by dumping effectively 4-powers of evasion on T3 (coupled with a 2-drop). This makes the Condor a very significant option for the decks which want to support blue aggro, blue tempo, blue fliers, and in essence all the non-control decks that blue doesn't traditional do well and yet has potential to. Through it, it definitely has potential to make it in the cube, but it all depends on whether it meshes well with the blue decks your cube can already facilitate. Borderline.
Zephyr Charge
A mana-hungry card that isn't worth a card by itself. Play the Condor before you ever think about this. Get It Away From Me.
Overall: Dear baller there were a lot of reprints. Didn't leave us a lot to talk about. Nonetheless, the Condor is an interesting pickup in a sparse selection, so we didn't lose out completely.
BLACK
Accursed Spirit
This has the potential to do a lot of damage, but it's just inferior enough to the other options in black's 4drops. Cuttable.
Blood Bairn
This is strictly worse to Nantuko Husk (simply because of Pillory of the Sleepless). Technically, if I were being obtuse, I'd give this the lowest possible score because, even if you wanted this kind of effect, there are so many functional reprints of the Husk that you should never be looking to play this. But, about the card itself, it's a Gray Ogre with a mediocre body that is often dangerous to use effectively, and so rarely used at all. Certainly the option to do it is relevant from time to time, I maintain that Devouring Swarm is superior despite the double black because it gets more mileage in those situations (e.g. removal at times when a temporary +2/+2 pump does zilch). There are too many good options in black to make this worth it. Get It Away From Me.
Corpse Hauler
If this card's ability had cost a bit more and reanimated the creature rather than simply Disentomb, I would pause to think. But as it stands, It is a mediocre bear with an ineffectual ability that isn't really worth the mana and the loss of a guy. Cuttable.
Deathgaze Cockatrice
Deathtouch is a very powerful ability, but 4-mana is a bit much. I think it's absolutely a fine card, but not one I'm all that interested in playing. Borderline, on the side of cuttable.
Festering Newt
A strict upgrade to Festering Goblin (can't hit your own creatures for the awful 2-for-1), if you're looking for that kind of thing. But I don't think we are. Cuttable.
Liturgy of Blood
The times when this allows you to dump plays in one turn are far outweighed by the times when you get nothing out of the Dark Ritual. It's just far too expensive for what it does. Cuttable.
Minotaur Abomination
Big fat, but vanillas like this without any evasion is not what we're looking for. Cuttable.
Undead Minotaur
Again, vanillas like this with mediocre stats is not what we're looking for. Frankly, I prefer Nantuko Husk over this. Get It Away From Me.
Overall: More boring to white and blue. Mediocre creatures all around, and no real interesting new removal spell to consider. Also, how on earth did Blood Bairn, my writeoff card in this section, get the biggest passage? Strange.
RED
Academy Raider
Certainly this is the best red looter we've gotten since they started making them (eh, an argument can be made for Mad Prophet due to its larger size, but I digress), and given the trend since red looting became a thing, I'm quite excited for the future. However, this card itself is not quite good enough. There are many small ways that it could've become testworthy: haste, which might've made it too good but only barely; making it a 2/1 rather than a 1/1, which would've definitely made it too good; or making it cost RR, which I'm actually quite interested in as I believe it is the most complex one out of all the options to evaluate. Nonetheless, in the reality that we live in now, this card simply doesn't do enough, especially given the significant chances that it will brick against your opponents larger red or colorless creatures. Cuttable.
Blur Sliver
We have had our share of 2/2 haste for 3, and some superior cards to boot, including Ronin Houndmaster, Suq'Ata Lancer and Inner-Flame Acolyte (the best of the bunch, probably). Until we have crammed all of those cards in, there won't be any room for this. Cuttable.
Marauding Maulhorn
Big big stats for a relatively cheap price, compared to Tenement Crasher and Flameborn Hellion. The attacking clause is a significant drawback, but it's 3-toughness means that anything it trades with is a significant body, and the 5-power means that it cannot be ignored. It is quite a strong card, certainly a fascinating upgrade to Talruun Minotaur, and potentially even better than Crusher Zendikon, although I think in this case the attacking clause makes it a bit worse. Borderline.
Regathan Firecat
1-toughness is the bane of the Firecat's existence. This is the option of the Maulhorn: it will almost always trade down, making it only slightly better than a Wall of Torches. Get It Away From Me.
Seismic Stomp
Worse than Falter, and even Falter itself has been knocked out by superior variants in the time since such as Ruthless Invasion. Get It Away From Me.
Striking Sliver
A few things make 1/1s better. First strike is not one of them. Get It Away From Me.
Overall: A varied selection, with some interesting cards but mostly flop.
GREEN
Advocate of the Beast
This is an interesting card where you can pull out statistics legitimately to determine how strong it can be. However, for a fairly common creature type, Beasts don't end up in the cube that often. In my cube, for instance, I can count about... 8-10? And quite a few of them are outside of green, making it less likely that the Advocate will work with them. Without its ability, it's simply a mediocre 2/3 in a field of potential 3/3s. Of course, this may be different in your cube, and in a Tribal Pauper cube the Advocate does have a lot of potential, but just looking in mine, I don't really see it happening. Cuttable.
Elvish Mystic
For a lot of people, this will be the card they need to kick out the last Boreal Druid or Avacyn's Pilgrim out of their cube, or they will simply make room for it in addition to them. You should too. Manadorks are awesome. Staple.
Groundshaker Sliver
For 7 mana, its stats simply are not enough, even with trample. We are not in need for more topheavy threats, especially since we've gotten the Walker of the Grove from MMA. Cuttable.
Hunt the Weak
The effect is probably the best removal spell green has ever gotten (one can argue about it vs. Utopia Vow), but 4 mana is a hefty price for this. However, from experience, the sparse +1/+1 can make smaller creatures significantly stronger, which gives dual functionality to the card. I think it has promise, although whether that pans out remains to be seen. Borderline, on the side of cubeable.
Predatory Sliver
Playing a Slivers theme? Great! Not playing a slivers theme? Bear. Cuttable.
Rumbling Baloth
This is the first time we've ever gotten a simple 4/4 for 4, but we're also at a stage where we have many, many options in the green 4drops slot. Frankly I'm more interesting in Wildheart Invoker for its potential in the lategame and as an option for ramp decks. I don't think the Baloth excels in this competitive environment. Cuttable.
Sporemound
A very interesting 5-drop that has a lot of potential in the lategame. While a 3/3 is nothing interesting to look at, the capacity to generate many 1/1s is, and could make this card cubeable. Frankly, I have no idea - less about this card than probably anything else in M14. It remains to be scene. Borderline, in every sense of the word.
Wow, what a weirdly bad way to end a Set Review.
Overall: Green has a lot of interesting cards, both borderline and cubeable, and is definitely the most interesting thing to come out of M14.
Finally, I can say this with no obstacles... onwards, to Theros!
I'm rather impressed by Master of Diversions and think it will be making it in. Kor Hookmaster is actually probably worse as while it has an immediate effect, and a defensive effect unlike the master, it doesn't have nearly as much long-term impact. The hookmaster, while strong for sure, only really shines when played about turn 5-6, whereas this guy is amazing on turn 3.
I've found that Celestial Flare is actually really easy to get maximum value from. By just having dudes on the ground, their large evasive beater is going to be the only thing attacking most of the time, and given that it's a large evasive beater, it's probably what you want to kill anyway. It also busts up gang blocks easily. Given a little tricky footwork it's not too hard to tempt them to attack or block with just their biggest ground guy either and they're unlikely to play around the effect when it's on a single cube card.
I think the condor is better than you think it is. While it's true that blue creatures are normally evasive anyway, blue hardly has any creatures so in blue tempo decks the majority of dudes are non-blue and non-flying in general.
Maybe I'm wrong but I prefer the 4/4 to the invoker. It's a body that can bash through most things and block pretty much everything without evasion and that really can't be said about a 4/3.
Also avacyn's pilgrim is actually better than the mystic. The amount of double green is not as high as the amount of white cards in the cube also green decks are generally heavy green and as such don't have much trouble hitting the second green source
Also avacyn's pilgrim is actually better than the mystic. The amount of double green is not as high as the amount of white cards in the cube also green decks are generally heavy green and as such don't have much trouble hitting the second green source
When I saw that Lanxal removed Avacyn's Pilgrim from his cube in favor of Elvish Mystic, I thought the same thing. Lanxal, would you care to discuss this further?
I'm rather impressed by Master of Diversions and think it will be making it in. Kor Hookmaster is actually probably worse as while it has an immediate effect, and a defensive effect unlike the master, it doesn't have nearly as much long-term impact. The hookmaster, while strong for sure, only really shines when played about turn 5-6, whereas this guy is amazing on turn 3.
Has Master of Diversion lived up to this high praise in testing?
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MAGIC 2014 SET REVIEW
Quick and dirty M14 set review!
Because there are so many reprints, and I never actually go that into them, I won't be including them in my review (exception: cards that used to be higher rarities before M14). And yes, if you realize how short this set review is compared to the others, you'll recognize why I'm doing it. Let's just say I'm quite busy these days. However, absolutely feel free to bring them up in the thread, if you want my opinions on any specific reprint from this set.
Follow this review with the MTGS spoilers.
Judging Rubric
Get It Away From Me — A card which should never be considered by anyone sane.
Bad — It's not really worth cubing with at all.
Cuttable — It's workable, but it's not cubeable. It's on the cuttable side of borderline.
Borderline - It's got potential, and requires more testing. Your call.
Cubeable — You can add this and probably get the wide concensus. It's solid. Not broken, but solid.
Cube It — Stapled to the god damn cube. Run it. Run it like the wind.
WHITE
Celestial Flare
A new spin on the Edict effect which changes the way that the card plays. The restriction actually makes the Flare better, pushing it between the randomness of the Edict effect with the choice of single-target removal like Pacifism. In giving the player choice, albeit often choice they need to work to getting, makes Flare a very viable removal spell. On the subject of Pacifism, Flare also removes the constant weakness of the Edict in that they don't go well with Pacifism-esque removal spells, and this is much more relevant in white, so that's a plus. The double white is significant, but given that this is a removal spell that will often be saved for the mid to late game, I don't see it being that much of a problem. Cubeable.
Charging Griffin
This is essentially an Assault Griffin which is weighted on the side of aggro over control (midrange kind of hangs out on the center). This is not necessarily a bad thing, as white's 4drops are often control-heavy monstrosities like Coalition Honor Guard and Seraph of Dawn. Nonetheless, the extra toughness the Charing Griffin has over its brother is only a small boon, and this has to be weighed against a weakness in blocking which can be quite important. In the end, I think that any conceivable difference between the two is difficult to see, and given that the Assault Griffin isn't currently cubeable anyway, I'm not interested in its newer family member. Cuttable.
Dawnstrike Paladin
5-drop is a lot and a lack of evasion really hampers its ability to be more than just a well. With only 2-power, swinging with it will often do nothing in the lategame except for gaining meagre amounts of life. Castle Raptors and Seraph of Dawn are examples of far superior cards. There isn't room for the Paladin compared to the options we have. Cuttable.
Hive Stirrings
Significantly worse than Raise the Alarm if you're not playing a Sliver theme. If you are playing a Sliver theme, it can be a really good card to support the archetype. Cuttable.
Master of Diversions
An interesting card, heavily geared towards the aggro deck. Certainly I think of it as better than tapper such as Blinding Mage, and even the recent Haazda Snare Squad, which has done good work in Dragon's Maze Limited. I think it's about on par with your average Chapel Geist or Avian Changeling, if not a bit better in the aggro deck, but there may simply be too much competition in the 3CMC slot for it to work. Borderline, on the side of cuttable.
Sentinel Sliver
A bear if you're not supporting the Slivers archetype, a meh supporting card if you are. I don't like it much. Cuttable.
Soulmender
1/1 is bad, pure lifegain is meh, mediocre lifegain is worse. Not really a good card. Get It Away From Me.
Overall: A few interesting cards, a great gem in Celestial Flare (how far it will go in cube remains to be scene), not too bad overall.
BLUE
Messenger Drake
An easy comparison (although certainly not the easiest) that can be made is with this and Spire Monitor. On one hand, both cards offer you the mechanisms required to gain card advantage, with the Monitor ambushing threats. Furthermore, the Monitor's flash can be very important to the control decks who hold up counters. However, the Drake is a far more consistent card, in that it will almost always get you a card if something happens to it.
Which brings us to the easiest comparison that can be made: Gryff Vanguard. Is the 1 less toughness worth getting the card upfront? Short answer? Yes. There is no longer answer. Nonetheless, while people should be thinking about playing the Vanguard before the Messenger Drake, I can certainly see cubists playing with both in order to offer control decks the finishers they need to really work. Borderline.
Seacoast Drake
I have an irrational hatred of Concordia Pegasus, and now, Seacoast Drake. 1-power makes the Drake far too low-impact to be cubeable. I'd rather just another another Merfolk Looter functional reprint over this. Get It Away From Me.
Trained Condor
A very interesting card, reminiscent of Wingcrafter but very different for two reasons. One, it's on attacks only, making Condor more aggro-centric than the Wingcrafter. Two, it's a 3 drop and it has 2-power, which means that it has a high chance of significantly impacting the board by dumping effectively 4-powers of evasion on T3 (coupled with a 2-drop). This makes the Condor a very significant option for the decks which want to support blue aggro, blue tempo, blue fliers, and in essence all the non-control decks that blue doesn't traditional do well and yet has potential to. Through it, it definitely has potential to make it in the cube, but it all depends on whether it meshes well with the blue decks your cube can already facilitate. Borderline.
Zephyr Charge
A mana-hungry card that isn't worth a card by itself. Play the Condor before you ever think about this. Get It Away From Me.
Overall: Dear baller there were a lot of reprints. Didn't leave us a lot to talk about. Nonetheless, the Condor is an interesting pickup in a sparse selection, so we didn't lose out completely.
BLACK
Accursed Spirit
This has the potential to do a lot of damage, but it's just inferior enough to the other options in black's 4drops. Cuttable.
Blood Bairn
This is strictly worse to Nantuko Husk (simply because of Pillory of the Sleepless). Technically, if I were being obtuse, I'd give this the lowest possible score because, even if you wanted this kind of effect, there are so many functional reprints of the Husk that you should never be looking to play this. But, about the card itself, it's a Gray Ogre with a mediocre body that is often dangerous to use effectively, and so rarely used at all. Certainly the option to do it is relevant from time to time, I maintain that Devouring Swarm is superior despite the double black because it gets more mileage in those situations (e.g. removal at times when a temporary +2/+2 pump does zilch). There are too many good options in black to make this worth it. Get It Away From Me.
Corpse Hauler
If this card's ability had cost a bit more and reanimated the creature rather than simply Disentomb, I would pause to think. But as it stands, It is a mediocre bear with an ineffectual ability that isn't really worth the mana and the loss of a guy. Cuttable.
Deathgaze Cockatrice
Deathtouch is a very powerful ability, but 4-mana is a bit much. I think it's absolutely a fine card, but not one I'm all that interested in playing. Borderline, on the side of cuttable.
Festering Newt
A strict upgrade to Festering Goblin (can't hit your own creatures for the awful 2-for-1), if you're looking for that kind of thing. But I don't think we are. Cuttable.
Liturgy of Blood
The times when this allows you to dump plays in one turn are far outweighed by the times when you get nothing out of the Dark Ritual. It's just far too expensive for what it does. Cuttable.
Minotaur Abomination
Big fat, but vanillas like this without any evasion is not what we're looking for. Cuttable.
Shadowborn Apostle
Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahah. Get It Away From Me.
Undead Minotaur
Again, vanillas like this with mediocre stats is not what we're looking for. Frankly, I prefer Nantuko Husk over this. Get It Away From Me.
Overall: More boring to white and blue. Mediocre creatures all around, and no real interesting new removal spell to consider. Also, how on earth did Blood Bairn, my writeoff card in this section, get the biggest passage? Strange.
RED
Academy Raider
Certainly this is the best red looter we've gotten since they started making them (eh, an argument can be made for Mad Prophet due to its larger size, but I digress), and given the trend since red looting became a thing, I'm quite excited for the future. However, this card itself is not quite good enough. There are many small ways that it could've become testworthy: haste, which might've made it too good but only barely; making it a 2/1 rather than a 1/1, which would've definitely made it too good; or making it cost RR, which I'm actually quite interested in as I believe it is the most complex one out of all the options to evaluate. Nonetheless, in the reality that we live in now, this card simply doesn't do enough, especially given the significant chances that it will brick against your opponents larger red or colorless creatures. Cuttable.
Blur Sliver
We have had our share of 2/2 haste for 3, and some superior cards to boot, including Ronin Houndmaster, Suq'Ata Lancer and Inner-Flame Acolyte (the best of the bunch, probably). Until we have crammed all of those cards in, there won't be any room for this. Cuttable.
Marauding Maulhorn
Big big stats for a relatively cheap price, compared to Tenement Crasher and Flameborn Hellion. The attacking clause is a significant drawback, but it's 3-toughness means that anything it trades with is a significant body, and the 5-power means that it cannot be ignored. It is quite a strong card, certainly a fascinating upgrade to Talruun Minotaur, and potentially even better than Crusher Zendikon, although I think in this case the attacking clause makes it a bit worse. Borderline.
Regathan Firecat
1-toughness is the bane of the Firecat's existence. This is the option of the Maulhorn: it will almost always trade down, making it only slightly better than a Wall of Torches. Get It Away From Me.
Seismic Stomp
Worse than Falter, and even Falter itself has been knocked out by superior variants in the time since such as Ruthless Invasion. Get It Away From Me.
Striking Sliver
A few things make 1/1s better. First strike is not one of them. Get It Away From Me.
Overall: A varied selection, with some interesting cards but mostly flop.
GREEN
Advocate of the Beast
This is an interesting card where you can pull out statistics legitimately to determine how strong it can be. However, for a fairly common creature type, Beasts don't end up in the cube that often. In my cube, for instance, I can count about... 8-10? And quite a few of them are outside of green, making it less likely that the Advocate will work with them. Without its ability, it's simply a mediocre 2/3 in a field of potential 3/3s. Of course, this may be different in your cube, and in a Tribal Pauper cube the Advocate does have a lot of potential, but just looking in mine, I don't really see it happening. Cuttable.
Elvish Mystic
For a lot of people, this will be the card they need to kick out the last Boreal Druid or Avacyn's Pilgrim out of their cube, or they will simply make room for it in addition to them. You should too. Manadorks are awesome. Staple.
Groundshaker Sliver
For 7 mana, its stats simply are not enough, even with trample. We are not in need for more topheavy threats, especially since we've gotten the Walker of the Grove from MMA. Cuttable.
Hunt the Weak
The effect is probably the best removal spell green has ever gotten (one can argue about it vs. Utopia Vow), but 4 mana is a hefty price for this. However, from experience, the sparse +1/+1 can make smaller creatures significantly stronger, which gives dual functionality to the card. I think it has promise, although whether that pans out remains to be seen. Borderline, on the side of cubeable.
Predatory Sliver
Playing a Slivers theme? Great! Not playing a slivers theme? Bear. Cuttable.
Rumbling Baloth
This is the first time we've ever gotten a simple 4/4 for 4, but we're also at a stage where we have many, many options in the green 4drops slot. Frankly I'm more interesting in Wildheart Invoker for its potential in the lategame and as an option for ramp decks. I don't think the Baloth excels in this competitive environment. Cuttable.
Sporemound
A very interesting 5-drop that has a lot of potential in the lategame. While a 3/3 is nothing interesting to look at, the capacity to generate many 1/1s is, and could make this card cubeable. Frankly, I have no idea - less about this card than probably anything else in M14. It remains to be scene. Borderline, in every sense of the word.
Wow, what a weirdly bad way to end a Set Review.
Overall: Green has a lot of interesting cards, both borderline and cubeable, and is definitely the most interesting thing to come out of M14.
Finally, I can say this with no obstacles... onwards, to Theros!
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
I'm rather impressed by Master of Diversions and think it will be making it in. Kor Hookmaster is actually probably worse as while it has an immediate effect, and a defensive effect unlike the master, it doesn't have nearly as much long-term impact. The hookmaster, while strong for sure, only really shines when played about turn 5-6, whereas this guy is amazing on turn 3.
I've found that Celestial Flare is actually really easy to get maximum value from. By just having dudes on the ground, their large evasive beater is going to be the only thing attacking most of the time, and given that it's a large evasive beater, it's probably what you want to kill anyway. It also busts up gang blocks easily. Given a little tricky footwork it's not too hard to tempt them to attack or block with just their biggest ground guy either and they're unlikely to play around the effect when it's on a single cube card.
I think the condor is better than you think it is. While it's true that blue creatures are normally evasive anyway, blue hardly has any creatures so in blue tempo decks the majority of dudes are non-blue and non-flying in general.
Maybe I'm wrong but I prefer the 4/4 to the invoker. It's a body that can bash through most things and block pretty much everything without evasion and that really can't be said about a 4/3.
Also avacyn's pilgrim is actually better than the mystic. The amount of double green is not as high as the amount of white cards in the cube also green decks are generally heavy green and as such don't have much trouble hitting the second green source
Draft it on Cubetutor!
When I saw that Lanxal removed Avacyn's Pilgrim from his cube in favor of Elvish Mystic, I thought the same thing. Lanxal, would you care to discuss this further?
Has Master of Diversion lived up to this high praise in testing?