Rumour season has started to pick up and we need somewhere to discuss the impact of Alara Reborn cards as they are spoiled, as was done for Conflux.
Every time a new card is spoiled we can add it to this list.
Alara Reborn is unique among sets in that every card is multicoloured, meaning no monocoloured, lands or one-drops. Given the introduction of coloured artifacts in Shards of Alara, it would be rash to rule out multi artifacts, though. Many players already feel that the multicoloured slots, particularly for the stronger colour combinations (G/R, B/R etc), are quite congested, so the power level of the ARB cards will have to be high to have an impact onCube.
So far we have:
Spellbreaker Behemoth 1RGG (R)
Creature - Beast
Spellbreaker Behemoth can't be countered.
Creature spells you control with power 5 or greater can't be countered.
5/5
This Rumbling Slum-a-like seems like a shoe-in for Cube as a beating against MUC and also strong against U/W control. Slightly less so against U/B due to the high concentration of kill spells. However a 4 mana 5/5 is always relevant and the casting cost may not prove that awkward given that we're running green here. Forcing out a Thornling or Arashi the turn after this makes this a very tempting choice IMO.
Chances for Cube: Very high
Dragon Broodmother 2RRRG (M)
Creature - Dragon
Flying
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, put a 1/1 Red and Green Dragon token with flying and Devour 2 into play.
4/4
On first sight, this is a powerhouse, but the casting cost of this guy seems a massive downfall. However, if a dual or tri-colour deck implementing Red can reliably reach 3RRR for a Rorix, Akroma morph or Predator Dragon, then having G available from the remaining 3 may not be such a problem. Again, being in G, the colour of godlike mana-fixing, may be a boon, but the G/R combination has a lot of good cards, so it is unlikely that there will be a space for this. However, any player with a pulse will be sorely tempted to try this at some point. Looks like a decent reanimator target.
Chances in Cube: Low to middling
Knight of New Alara 2GW (R)
Creature - Human Knight
Each other multicoloured creature you control gets +1/+1 for each of its colours.
2/2
Nice design, but this guy could only really shine in a deck crammed with multi critters. As a four mana 2/2 who isn't quite a Glorious Anthem for you monocoloured tokens, he is underwhelming, and Wilt-Leaf Liege is simply better most of the time. Although hitting the board the same turn you swing with Rafiq is tempting.
Broodmother seems pretty insane from a power standpoint. The rather difficult mana cost is the only thing keeping it in check honestly. Any easier mana cost would be quite above the traditional power curve though. The Behemoth excites me as well, since 5/5's for 4 with relevant abilities always interests me.
Behemoth wont replace Rulmbling slum because we mainly play my cube 2vs2 (so slum is 7 points a turn) but it will be in my cube for sure. For me, best 5/5 for 4 ever.
So far none of these cards are goig in my cube. Alara Reborn probably will have a hard time offering cards to cubes due to the fact that most 2 color combinations are fairly tight on good cards. Maybe this will help U/G, B/G and U/W out though. But I don't expect to see much added to colors like G/W and R/G where the cards are already awesome.
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That's the remarkable thing about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse
Calvin and Hobbes Cube Tutor
i wish arb would give us better choices for enemy colors in gold. obviously, that's not gonna happen, but it sure would be nice. there are so many good choices for allied colors, but i feel like the enemy colors are lacking. especially popular combinations like b/g or u/r. well... b/g seems pretty nuts as is, but u/r kinda sucks in the gold department.
There's nothing to suggest that ARB 'obviously' won't have any enemy colour stuff. Actually, with the pictures of angels with black halos and Bant knights riding lizards and the likes, it is nearly certain that enemy colour will feature. I agree that some need beefing up a bit! U/W is worse off than the enemy duos though, IMO.
Pringlesman is right that G/R and G/W are hard to break into, but I think the Spellbreaker guy can make it.
EDIT: As I type, some new cards were just added to spoiler. Including a sweet G/U creature
I'll start adding the new cards as spoiled:
Twinclaw of Marisi :2mana::symrw::symg:
Creature - Cat Warrior
Double Strike
2/4
The first card ever to been seen with this type. Wizards makes our lives harder by giving us a card that doesn't fit into any part of the traditional Cube layout. Where do these go? Naya trio? G/W? R/G?
Anyhow, this card is quite strong, better than a vanilla 4/4 for 4, has one relevant creature type, and carries equipment like a pro. It could possibly earn itself a slot, but depends on where it will fit in. I like the design of this though and look forward to the others of its class.
I think Aven Mimic (1WU) has a place, really. With Honden of Infinite Rage or Goblin Sharpshooter it is busted. It can turn your Saprolings into 3/1 flyers or neuter your opponents' fatties.
Tar Shards (3BR) is awesome, I love double cast. Scroll Rack ftw!
Sage of the Anima (3UG) has two good creature types, a fat body, and an insane ability that will explode heads with Sylvan Library. Should make the cut.
If Sage of the Anima has "may" for the draw trigger, I'd definitely put it in. For now, I'm on the fence, while UG decks are typically fish-style with a good amount of creatures, losing the ability to draw counterspells would be not so good.
Reminds me, in a way, of Hostility, a card I would have loved a lot more if it had "may" for its trigger.
Tar Shards looks interesting also because if it is an instant, you can cast Tar Shards and hit a creature and play it like a flash creature. Obviously, it's not as consistent because you very well may just hit a Signet, but going "before blockers, Tar Shards your flier and 'flash in' Ashling, the Extinguisher/Phyrexian Scuta/Juzam Djinn/Hypnotic Specter/Flametongue Kavu and hit something else, block" looks to be really good too.
Aven Mimic - Don't know, it's on the edge. But if it aren't good enough for primary cube it fits fine into my tribal cube.
Tar Shards - interesting but at 5 mana i don't know if it will be good enough. It can so easy screw you over if you don't build your deck around "double cast".
Marici Twinclaw - I'm a fan of double strike. These cards will go into my 3-color slots.
Sage of the Anima - This cards can be abused so easy, so going in for sure. This + Sylvan Library...
You could just linked us card
like this: http://mtgsalvation.com/alara-reborn-spoiler.html#3164
and I like that flyer. 3 flying power for 3 mana. I think that usually has a drawback ? With this guy, you can keep targetting himself if there's no other suitable target.
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Retired DCI Level 2 Judge
"Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you."
Tar Shards I like a lot. It is always 4 damage + an extra card, and in a b/r aggro deck that card tops your curve to allow you to dig deeper for more burn. Actually, no burn spell costs 5 or more anyway, so it does a good job of digging them (assuming they aren't X-spells and you've not been screwed).
Sage of the Anima makes the cut, but I really hope ARB will give U/G better options. A card that costs so much should have some way to protect itself, do something when it comes into play or haste.
EDIT: Aven Mimic will make the cut in my cube as well, though it's also not optimal.
I'm actually thinking of proxying up Tar Shards and putting it in my cube now . As far as the other cards are concerned, there's Twinclaw of Marisi, other than that I don't see too many that I want to use, hopefully the rest of this set brings some needed upgrades to the current gold section.
I tried Tar Shards (Bituminous Blast) in some random games on MWS with random cube decks and it was quite good. Although, a decent amount of time, it got something not so hot like a Mogg Fanatic or a random Signet. Still, I think it's not bad. R for the 4 damage to a creature (compared to Skred,) 2 to draw and 2 to play something at flash, if you think of it that way.
Spellbound Dragon
:3mana::symu::symr: (3UR) Creature - Dragon
Flying
Whenever Spellbound Dragon attacks, draw a card, then discard a card. Spellbound Dragon gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the converted mana cost of the discarded card.
3/5
Not bad! Looting is nice, but 5 mana for a looting creature may be expensive when compared to outright card drawing creatures like Lu Xun and Ophidians. Still, I think that it could be good.
The UBBR equipment would be definitely in if it weren't for Nicol Bolas.
I tried Tar Shards (Bituminous Blast) in some random games on MWS with random cube decks and it was quite good. Although, a decent amount of time, it got something not so hot like a Mogg Fanatic or a random Signet. Still, I think it's not bad. R for the 4 damage to a creature (compared to Skred,) 2 to draw and 2 to play something at flash, if you think of it that way.
Spellbound Dragon
:3mana::symu::symr: (3UR) Creature - Dragon
Flying
Whenever Spellbound Dragon attacks, draw a card, then discard a card. Spellbound Dragon gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the converted mana cost of the discarded card.
3/5
Not bad! Looting is nice, but 5 mana for a looting creature may be expensive when compared to outright card drawing creatures like Lu Xun and Ophidians. Still, I think that it could be good.
The UBBR equipment would be definitely in if it weren't for Nicol Bolas.
The dragon is pretty bad for cube imo. As far as looting goes he costs a ton. You also discard lots of land when looting. That doesn't combo with his ability.
Nemesis of Reason might be playable if you have a large u/b section. Milling 10 for attacking seems pretty good, and its going to be hard to kill this mofo with its 7 body.
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
That's the remarkable thing about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse
Calvin and Hobbes Cube Tutor
You forgot Oona mills. Additionally, Laquatas, while not goot outside of milling, is the second best repeatable mill effect. We also have memory erosion in for good measure. Not sure if it is actually as good as we think.
Sphinx of the Steel Wind :5mana::symw::symu::symb:
Artifact Creature - Sphinx
Flying, First Strike, Vigilance, Lifelink, Protection from Red and from Green
6/6
I know, yet another expensive 3 color card, but this one looks to possibly be up to the power level of cube despite it being 8cc. Since its still unable to be killed by Terror and similar effects, it has a pseudo pro-black, and is pro-Stomphowler and friends as well which is nice. She's kinda Akromaish, though Haste would be nice. Might be too clunky, but I'm willing to give it a shot.
Rumour season has started to pick up and we need somewhere to discuss the impact of Alara Reborn cards as they are spoiled, as was done for Conflux.
Every time a new card is spoiled we can add it to this list.
Alara Reborn is unique among sets in that every card is multicoloured, meaning no monocoloured, lands or one-drops. Given the introduction of coloured artifacts in Shards of Alara, it would be rash to rule out multi artifacts, though. Many players already feel that the multicoloured slots, particularly for the stronger colour combinations (G/R, B/R etc), are quite congested, so the power level of the ARB cards will have to be high to have an impact onCube.
So far we have:
Spellbreaker Behemoth 1RGG (R)
Creature - Beast
Spellbreaker Behemoth can't be countered.
Creature spells you control with power 5 or greater can't be countered.
5/5
This Rumbling Slum-a-like seems like a shoe-in for Cube as a beating against MUC and also strong against U/W control. Slightly less so against U/B due to the high concentration of kill spells. However a 4 mana 5/5 is always relevant and the casting cost may not prove that awkward given that we're running green here. Forcing out a Thornling or Arashi the turn after this makes this a very tempting choice IMO.
Chances for Cube: Very high
Dragon Broodmother 2RRRG (M)
Creature - Dragon
Flying
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, put a 1/1 Red and Green Dragon token with flying and Devour 2 into play.
4/4
On first sight, this is a powerhouse, but the casting cost of this guy seems a massive downfall. However, if a dual or tri-colour deck implementing Red can reliably reach 3RRR for a Rorix, Akroma morph or Predator Dragon, then having G available from the remaining 3 may not be such a problem. Again, being in G, the colour of godlike mana-fixing, may be a boon, but the G/R combination has a lot of good cards, so it is unlikely that there will be a space for this. However, any player with a pulse will be sorely tempted to try this at some point. Looks like a decent reanimator target.
Chances in Cube: Low to middling
Knight of New Alara 2GW (R)
Creature - Human Knight
Each other multicoloured creature you control gets +1/+1 for each of its colours.
2/2
Nice design, but this guy could only really shine in a deck crammed with multi critters. As a four mana 2/2 who isn't quite a Glorious Anthem for you monocoloured tokens, he is underwhelming, and Wilt-Leaf Liege is simply better most of the time. Although hitting the board the same turn you swing with Rafiq is tempting.
Chances in Cube: None
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
(list not current)
My Cube Google Docs Spreadsheet: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AibgWfz0ukmOdDNhOHlucjcxUi1wVy00NDhLbDUtUlE&hl=en_US#gid=8
(list is always current)
O and I love spellbreaker.
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
calibretto
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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Pringlesman is right that G/R and G/W are hard to break into, but I think the Spellbreaker guy can make it.
EDIT: As I type, some new cards were just added to spoiler. Including a sweet G/U creature
I'll start adding the new cards as spoiled:
Twinclaw of Marisi :2mana::symrw::symg:
Creature - Cat Warrior
Double Strike
2/4
The first card ever to been seen with this type. Wizards makes our lives harder by giving us a card that doesn't fit into any part of the traditional Cube layout. Where do these go? Naya trio? G/W? R/G?
Anyhow, this card is quite strong, better than a vanilla 4/4 for 4, has one relevant creature type, and carries equipment like a pro. It could possibly earn itself a slot, but depends on where it will fit in. I like the design of this though and look forward to the others of its class.
Chances in Cube: Too early to say
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
I think Aven Mimic (1WU) has a place, really. With Honden of Infinite Rage or Goblin Sharpshooter it is busted. It can turn your Saprolings into 3/1 flyers or neuter your opponents' fatties.
Tar Shards (3BR) is awesome, I love double cast. Scroll Rack ftw!
Sage of the Anima (3UG) has two good creature types, a fat body, and an insane ability that will explode heads with Sylvan Library. Should make the cut.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Reminds me, in a way, of Hostility, a card I would have loved a lot more if it had "may" for its trigger.
Tar Shards looks interesting also because if it is an instant, you can cast Tar Shards and hit a creature and play it like a flash creature. Obviously, it's not as consistent because you very well may just hit a Signet, but going "before blockers, Tar Shards your flier and 'flash in' Ashling, the Extinguisher/Phyrexian Scuta/Juzam Djinn/Hypnotic Specter/Flametongue Kavu and hit something else, block" looks to be really good too.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
Tar Shards - interesting but at 5 mana i don't know if it will be good enough. It can so easy screw you over if you don't build your deck around "double cast".
Marici Twinclaw - I'm a fan of double strike. These cards will go into my 3-color slots.
Sage of the Anima - This cards can be abused so easy, so going in for sure. This + Sylvan Library...
My Tribal cube
My 93/94 old school cube
My Artifact cube
My Hearthstone Quiz App for iOS
I can't see them.
My secondary "cube".
Really out of date cube thread with pictures.
like this: http://mtgsalvation.com/alara-reborn-spoiler.html#3164
and I like that flyer. 3 flying power for 3 mana. I think that usually has a drawback ? With this guy, you can keep targetting himself if there's no other suitable target.
"Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you."
My
540> 360 Powered CubeSage of the Anima makes the cut, but I really hope ARB will give U/G better options. A card that costs so much should have some way to protect itself, do something when it comes into play or haste.
EDIT: Aven Mimic will make the cut in my cube as well, though it's also not optimal.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
my multicolor stuff needs a major refresher
i am actually hoping for some good U/W and U/G stuff to come out..
Opm's Cube on MTGS
Wife's Etsy Store (Hair Accessories for Girls)
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Spellbound Dragon
:3mana::symu::symr: (3UR) Creature - Dragon
Flying
Whenever Spellbound Dragon attacks, draw a card, then discard a card. Spellbound Dragon gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the converted mana cost of the discarded card.
3/5
Not bad! Looting is nice, but 5 mana for a looting creature may be expensive when compared to outright card drawing creatures like Lu Xun and Ophidians. Still, I think that it could be good.
The UBBR equipment would be definitely in if it weren't for Nicol Bolas.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
The dragon is pretty bad for cube imo. As far as looting goes he costs a ton. You also discard lots of land when looting. That doesn't combo with his ability.
My secondary "cube".
Really out of date cube thread with pictures.
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022
Artifact Creature - Sphinx
Flying, First Strike, Vigilance, Lifelink, Protection from Red and from Green
6/6
I know, yet another expensive 3 color card, but this one looks to possibly be up to the power level of cube despite it being 8cc. Since its still unable to be killed by Terror and similar effects, it has a pseudo pro-black, and is pro-Stomphowler and friends as well which is nice. She's kinda Akromaish, though Haste would be nice. Might be too clunky, but I'm willing to give it a shot.
(list not current)
My Cube Google Docs Spreadsheet: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AibgWfz0ukmOdDNhOHlucjcxUi1wVy00NDhLbDUtUlE&hl=en_US#gid=8
(list is always current)
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022