Hey folks, I'm here to do my first ever set review. I saw others doing it and thought it seemed fun, while also making you think about the cards coming out in terms of your own cube.
A few things to take into account is that I'm basing this off of a 400 count unpowered cube that does NOT include Planeswalkers intentionally. Furthermore, there tend to be more combos in my cube (such as Thopter+Sword) and less cards that are incredibly powerful on their own (such as Titans and Hero of Bladehold). With that in mind, let's begin.
This guy is pretty good, and a virtual 10/10 with trample and a beneficial blink ability for 6 is nice. However, bounce really hurts him as it turns him into a 5/5 Trampler for 6, and he still fails to wrath effects. More so, he's 2 very specific colours at WWGG, and that pigeon holes him a bit too much in my eyes. This likely won't make the cut.
This guy seems really strong in the decks he wants to be in, he's a 2/2 for 4, which is kind of lame, but he shuts down two creatures when he comes into play, which makes him amazingly abuseable with something like Erratic Portal or Crystal Shard if not Restoration Angel.
He's great for aggro where he can bypass blockers, and he's good for control where he can keep attackers back. I feel like this guy can be a lot of fun. This has a chance of making the cut.
So a 2/2 with Haster, First Striker, and another somewhat relevant ability for 2 is good. However, that Lavaspike ability is very hit or miss, and the RR limits the card. I'll definitely cube it, but I don't think it will be the all-star some think.
Cool card, limited by colour restriction. The uncounterable aspect is useful, but not as often as one would hope. Though seeing as UW isn't that strong, this easily makes the cut
I like this guy, he's a 2/2 for 3 that has a relevant tribe and a potentially bonkers ability. He can be splashed easily and goes into various aggro and control builds to provide more value over the course of the game. He does require other cards to function, so he might not be good enough in the long run. However, he'll make the initial cut for testing.
Two mana instant that can Faithless Loot, counter strong spells, and shock a creature? That sounds pretty good, and there are a lot of relevant x/2's, just look at Dark Confidant, Goblin Welder, and Fauna Shaman. The cost is a bit restrictive and can hamper the early counter you want for that Jitte or Survival, but it's still fine. This makes the cut.
It's an O-Ring with an upside against tokens, but a down side if you're cloning or being cloned, and has a more difficult casting cost. This is an easy include.
This guy is nuts, he's an amazing aggro creature for 3 mana. People still play Boggart Ramgang at times and Hellspark Elemental is good too. Now this guy has all of that and an extra ability that allows him to turn your 2/1 Dark Confidant into a 5/4 horrifying beater, which gives aggro the needed late game that it could otherwise stumble during with its bulk of 1 drops.
The Zombie creature type also benefits Gravecrawler and Sarcomancy, both cards that go well in that GB aggro deck. This guy is a hard include, simply because of how good GB is.
He's a beast that's above the curve and can go into either a Midrange deck, an aggro deck as a curve topper, or even a control deck. His Scavange also makes something massive at a reasonable cost and that's beneficial in all of those strategies, even though it's weakest in aggro due to six mana being up there, but if you hit it he can be great. An easy include.
So he's a 1/2 for either a green or black, he can hate on so many strategies (reanimator, value flashback, Crucible/Loam), while providing you some reach if you're black, sustain if you're green, and ramp if you're the deck featuring lots of Fetches and the Strip/Waste effects. I'm stoked about this guy, and I might over value him but he's going right in.
It's a 2 drop that doesn't look too impressive, but it's a one card curve out that can also be an enabler and is hard to kill once active. In short, it has exponential growth in that it can come down and just run away with a game as each token is a copy of the original card and all of them grow quickly. After an activation or two, the best way to deal with it is a Wrath effect. Easy include.
Not only does it Smother but it kills all of those super relevant targets like Jitte, Survival, Sulfuric Vortex, Bitter Blossom, and O-ring, which we now have two of! The uncounterable aspect will be super relevant as it can hit so many cards that so many decks care about. This easily replaces Putrefy.
A 2/2 for 1 in two of the most aggressive colours, with a very marginal drawback that can be bypassed? Yes please! This card is awesome, what could possibly beat it out?
Of course the only thing that can beat out a 2/2 for 1 in two aggressive colours is a 2/1 in two other aggressive colours with a very relevant ability. Oh boy is this card good and the first card I'd include from this set.
Great review! It's interesting to see you list a few cards in your top 15 that I didn't see in wtwlf's top 20. One question I have: how did you come to your rankings? Are you just going by feel? Or is this the result of playtesting?
Also: including some pictures would be a nice touch if it's not too much hassle. I had to go back to the spoiler to remind myself what Azorius Justiciar did.
Well, I went through the spoiler and made a list of all the cards I was interested in, and then I cut down that list until I reached 15 cards... Once I reached 15 I wrote them down in an order of best to worst, and then thought about the list. A few cards got moved around before things were finalized and I'm sure I'm over valuing some cards like the Justiciar for example.
The biggest issue with play testing for me is that I generally do an over all cube update once the full set is spoiled, so the environment which existed prior to the update may no longer apply to the cards after the update. As such I try to make a more general rating in terms of the cards, rather than a cube-meta-centric one, even if I'm not always successful.
I avoided other review posts until I finished mine, so that I wouldn't be influenced, but as soon as I did finish I read Wtfwlf's top 20 and such to see how he viewed things.
Oh, good idea. I thought the card tags would be working by now, but as they're not I'll get pictures up when I get the chance.
My qualm is that I know this review is specific to your cube, which is different from most cubes here. Yet, your feedback on the cards is limited to a cursory overview of the card and its general role. Wouldn't it be more interesting if you pontificated a bit on why this card fits into YOUR cube in the way that it does? E.g. why you would rate Ash Zealot so low and Deathrite Shaman so high -- I suspect that it has a lot to do with the configuration of your cube.
My qualm is that I know this review is specific to your cube, which is different from most cubes here. Yet, your feedback on the cards is limited to a cursory overview of the card and its general role. Wouldn't it be more interesting if you pontificated a bit on why this card fits into YOUR cube in the way that it does? E.g. why you would rate Ash Zealot so low and Deathrite Shaman so high -- I suspect that it has a lot to do with the configuration of your cube.
I'll take all the set reviews I can get but this point is well taken. As we get a few new great cube playables from each set(and sometimes a lot more) cube construction is going ot have a lot to do with choices from a new set.
For example a card like Deadbridge Goliath(In an unpowered 360 cube):
Pro: He has been on most lists because he is oversized for cost with value. I may put him in because I value ramp in green.
Con:I may not put him in because I have a lot of ramp in green and getting 5+ for things like silverheart and thragtusk which don't need any more mana for their extra value might be better.
Pro: He seems great with cards like Fauna Shaman and Wild Mongrel as well as Lol Troll when I get one.
Con: Double green may be tough as I only support 25 multi-colored lands in my 360 cube, and decks not main green wont have as many of the ramp cards.
Pro: I like reanimator decks and this card would be fine in any deck that likes recycling.
Final Verdict: Going in for now as I am sure I have some 4CMC cards that are strickly worse, but I am not sure he will survive a full cube review after RtR has setttled in.
You certainly don't have to do this much for each card I was just thinking about it as an example.
You also seem to like detain, and I feel it is undervalued in the forum right now. I will be interested if anyone can get a detain card to stick.
My qualm is that I know this review is specific to your cube, which is different from most cubes here. Yet, your feedback on the cards is limited to a cursory overview of the card and its general role. Wouldn't it be more interesting if you pontificated a bit on why this card fits into YOUR cube in the way that it does? E.g. why you would rate Ash Zealot so low and Deathrite Shaman so high -- I suspect that it has a lot to do with the configuration of your cube.
Hey, thanks for the feedback and I'll definitely keep that in mind in the future. I was trying to be more neutral for my first attempt at a set review, but if people are interested in hearing views that are more specific to my interests I'd definitely be happy to provide what you're asking for.
As for Ash Zealot versus Deathrite Shaman it's a bit of general ideology and cube specific ideology. To address the cube specific aspect, I like having a good amount of graveyard hate as I'm a bigger fan of stalled games rather than something like Reanimator going nuts and winning quickly, although, I still don't want to restrict Reanimator as an archetype too much. Furthermore, Shaman is a split colour card that can go in decks of both colours really as he has relevant abilities in all of his colours.
More importantly my cube is stealthily multicolour heavy and encourages people to be greedy with splashes. What I mean by this is that while I have a guild section, I count cards like Kird Ape and Lingering Souls as mono coloured, as they can be played in a single colour deck (some more than others) but reward you for having fixing of a different colour that may consist of 1-2 lands of that colour. Being such, a card that has a more flexible cost and ability scheme, along with potential fixing is more interesting to me than a heavy colour committed card that is more limited in application, even if flash back cards are more plentiful in my cube.
You certainly don't have to do this much for each card I was just thinking about it as an example.
I'm actually really happy doing more than less, I'm just not sure how much people want to hear me ramble about my views, especially when my cube is a bit of an oddity.
Would you guys prefer more of an article write up, that goes into depth with cards valued against one another and imbedded images throughout the text, rather than a "Top X" style as seems to be popular around here? Sort of like articles on the Mothership?
You also seem to like detain, and I feel it is undervalued in the forum right now. I will be interested if anyone can get a detain card to stick.
I both love it and hate it. It's a very strong mechanic that has the most potential as it can really change a board state, and thankfully it's worded in such a manner that it's not restricted to any specific permanent type in terms of target. My biggest issue is that it's in a combination that's supposed to be more about control, but it itself is a very strong tempo mechanic... Which we see when looking at something like the 3/1 flying guy who detains a permanent when he comes into play. If you like the UW tempo deck, it's an amazing mechanic, as it can just nullify blockers, along with relevant abilities, while being on ok sized creatures. It's fine in control too, especially the Justiciar as he isn't as aggressive, but negating two blockers and attackers is pretty good when you can abuse it with blinks/bounce or simply stopping those two and gaining a 2/2 for your effort. Stopping a Fauna Shaman, Goblin Welder, or whatever else can easily be game changing, even if it's for one turn.
I think wtwlf can afford to be concise in his reviews because most people on this forum run a cube at least somewhat similar to his and his views are rarely going to be very idiosyncratic. If you like writing about the cube (great!) and run a more idiosyncratic cube (great!) I think you should definitely throw in a heavy dose of your own perspective. If I just want a quick run-by of the MTGS general consensus, I can read wtwlf's or any of the other 20 set reviews that will be sure to crop up soon. I clicked this link specifically because I knew that your philosophy deviates significantly from the norm here.
There is something to be said for have a thread all about your cube and linking back to it as your do reviews, but I doubt that anyone but wtwlf will generate enough discussion to keep it rolling long term.
The more practical option and one I enjoy is to highligh speciifc interaction in your cube that cause you to select a card. It goes well in archetype x that we use a lot, or color such is such is being pushed to this cmc range, or simply it is better that this card I have now but fills a similar role.
And please write as much as you can stand. This forum is what got me back into magic and caused me to build my own cube. It is currently unpowered and skews to newer stuff as I am mostly filling it as I play in drafts and things and get a few trades. So I am always looking for out of the box ideas to ioncorporate stuff I might be getting in the next couple of weeks over having to trade and arm and leg for vintage stuff.
Justiciar never quite made it in, though I'm always considering him...
Guttersnipe, well, I'm not sure to be honest. I can tell you he's here to stay, and really he does a lot of awesome stuff at times, while being a complete durdle other times. The one thing for sure is that players love picking him up and he's both a build around me card and a card that fits into a lot of decks... Really, I think his power still isn't fully understood as I've seen him in a lot of awkward control builds, but when he ends up in aggro decks, he can just blow people away by making Lightning Bolts into Lava Axes that can be split into removal and reach.
I'd say out of all the cards from RtR, Guttersnipe has been the one that has created the most interesting stuff, even if he's not the best card.
Justiciar never quite made it in, though I'm always considering him...
Guttersnipe, well, I'm not sure to be honest. I can tell you he's here to stay, and really he does a lot of awesome stuff at times, while being a complete durdle other times. The one thing for sure is that players love picking him up and he's both a build around me card and a card that fits into a lot of decks... Really, I think his power still isn't fully understood as I've seen him in a lot of awkward control builds, but when he ends up in aggro decks, he can just blow people away by making Lightning Bolts into Lava Axes that can be split into removal and reach.
I'd say out of all the cards from RtR, Guttersnipe has been the one that has created the most interesting stuff, even if he's not the best card.
Guttersnipe is basically a better Kiln Fiend, right?
Guttersnipe is basically a better Kiln Fiend, right?
Kind of, but not really. Guttersnipe is a different card in that it can just go in decks that Kiln Fiend can't, and it's a far more stable card where as Kiln Fiend is very hit or miss... It's kind of like comparing Balance to Restore Balance, similar idea but very different in terms of viability.
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A few things to take into account is that I'm basing this off of a 400 count unpowered cube that does NOT include Planeswalkers intentionally. Furthermore, there tend to be more combos in my cube (such as Thopter+Sword) and less cards that are incredibly powerful on their own (such as Titans and Hero of Bladehold). With that in mind, let's begin.
Armada Wurm
This guy is pretty good, and a virtual 10/10 with trample and a beneficial blink ability for 6 is nice. However, bounce really hurts him as it turns him into a 5/5 Trampler for 6, and he still fails to wrath effects. More so, he's 2 very specific colours at WWGG, and that pigeon holes him a bit too much in my eyes. This likely won't make the cut.
Azorius Justiciar
This guy seems really strong in the decks he wants to be in, he's a 2/2 for 4, which is kind of lame, but he shuts down two creatures when he comes into play, which makes him amazingly abuseable with something like Erratic Portal or Crystal Shard if not Restoration Angel.
He's great for aggro where he can bypass blockers, and he's good for control where he can keep attackers back. I feel like this guy can be a lot of fun. This has a chance of making the cut.
Ash Zealot
So a 2/2 with Haster, First Striker, and another somewhat relevant ability for 2 is good. However, that Lavaspike ability is very hit or miss, and the RR limits the card. I'll definitely cube it, but I don't think it will be the all-star some think.
Supreme Verdict
Cool card, limited by colour restriction. The uncounterable aspect is useful, but not as often as one would hope. Though seeing as UW isn't that strong, this easily makes the cut
Guttersnipe
I like this guy, he's a 2/2 for 3 that has a relevant tribe and a potentially bonkers ability. He can be splashed easily and goes into various aggro and control builds to provide more value over the course of the game. He does require other cards to function, so he might not be good enough in the long run. However, he'll make the initial cut for testing.
Izzet Charm
Two mana instant that can Faithless Loot, counter strong spells, and shock a creature? That sounds pretty good, and there are a lot of relevant x/2's, just look at Dark Confidant, Goblin Welder, and Fauna Shaman. The cost is a bit restrictive and can hamper the early counter you want for that Jitte or Survival, but it's still fine. This makes the cut.
Detention Sphere
It's an O-Ring with an upside against tokens, but a down side if you're cloning or being cloned, and has a more difficult casting cost. This is an easy include.
Dreg Mangler
This guy is nuts, he's an amazing aggro creature for 3 mana. People still play Boggart Ramgang at times and Hellspark Elemental is good too. Now this guy has all of that and an extra ability that allows him to turn your 2/1 Dark Confidant into a 5/4 horrifying beater, which gives aggro the needed late game that it could otherwise stumble during with its bulk of 1 drops.
The Zombie creature type also benefits Gravecrawler and Sarcomancy, both cards that go well in that GB aggro deck. This guy is a hard include, simply because of how good GB is.
Lotleth Troll
Enabler? Check. Aggressive? Check! Survivability? Double Check. He's the new Putrid Leech, an easy swap.
Deadbridge Goliath
He's a beast that's above the curve and can go into either a Midrange deck, an aggro deck as a curve topper, or even a control deck. His Scavange also makes something massive at a reasonable cost and that's beneficial in all of those strategies, even though it's weakest in aggro due to six mana being up there, but if you hit it he can be great. An easy include.
Deathrite Shaman
So he's a 1/2 for either a green or black, he can hate on so many strategies (reanimator, value flashback, Crucible/Loam), while providing you some reach if you're black, sustain if you're green, and ramp if you're the deck featuring lots of Fetches and the Strip/Waste effects. I'm stoked about this guy, and I might over value him but he's going right in.
Pack Rat
It's a 2 drop that doesn't look too impressive, but it's a one card curve out that can also be an enabler and is hard to kill once active. In short, it has exponential growth in that it can come down and just run away with a game as each token is a copy of the original card and all of them grow quickly. After an activation or two, the best way to deal with it is a Wrath effect. Easy include.
Abrupt Decay
Not only does it Smother but it kills all of those super relevant targets like Jitte, Survival, Sulfuric Vortex, Bitter Blossom, and O-ring, which we now have two of! The uncounterable aspect will be super relevant as it can hit so many cards that so many decks care about. This easily replaces Putrefy.
Rakdos Cackler
A 2/2 for 1 in two of the most aggressive colours, with a very marginal drawback that can be bypassed? Yes please! This card is awesome, what could possibly beat it out?
Dryad Militant
Of course the only thing that can beat out a 2/2 for 1 in two aggressive colours is a 2/1 in two other aggressive colours with a very relevant ability. Oh boy is this card good and the first card I'd include from this set.
So what did you guys think?
Also: including some pictures would be a nice touch if it's not too much hassle. I had to go back to the spoiler to remind myself what Azorius Justiciar did.
My Cube on Cube Tutor
The biggest issue with play testing for me is that I generally do an over all cube update once the full set is spoiled, so the environment which existed prior to the update may no longer apply to the cards after the update. As such I try to make a more general rating in terms of the cards, rather than a cube-meta-centric one, even if I'm not always successful.
I avoided other review posts until I finished mine, so that I wouldn't be influenced, but as soon as I did finish I read Wtfwlf's top 20 and such to see how he viewed things.
Oh, good idea. I thought the card tags would be working by now, but as they're not I'll get pictures up when I get the chance.
I'll take all the set reviews I can get but this point is well taken. As we get a few new great cube playables from each set(and sometimes a lot more) cube construction is going ot have a lot to do with choices from a new set.
For example a card like Deadbridge Goliath(In an unpowered 360 cube):
Pro: He has been on most lists because he is oversized for cost with value. I may put him in because I value ramp in green.
Con:I may not put him in because I have a lot of ramp in green and getting 5+ for things like silverheart and thragtusk which don't need any more mana for their extra value might be better.
Pro: He seems great with cards like Fauna Shaman and Wild Mongrel as well as Lol Troll when I get one.
Con: Double green may be tough as I only support 25 multi-colored lands in my 360 cube, and decks not main green wont have as many of the ramp cards.
Pro: I like reanimator decks and this card would be fine in any deck that likes recycling.
Final Verdict: Going in for now as I am sure I have some 4CMC cards that are strickly worse, but I am not sure he will survive a full cube review after RtR has setttled in.
You certainly don't have to do this much for each card I was just thinking about it as an example.
You also seem to like detain, and I feel it is undervalued in the forum right now. I will be interested if anyone can get a detain card to stick.
Hey, thanks for the feedback and I'll definitely keep that in mind in the future. I was trying to be more neutral for my first attempt at a set review, but if people are interested in hearing views that are more specific to my interests I'd definitely be happy to provide what you're asking for.
As for Ash Zealot versus Deathrite Shaman it's a bit of general ideology and cube specific ideology. To address the cube specific aspect, I like having a good amount of graveyard hate as I'm a bigger fan of stalled games rather than something like Reanimator going nuts and winning quickly, although, I still don't want to restrict Reanimator as an archetype too much. Furthermore, Shaman is a split colour card that can go in decks of both colours really as he has relevant abilities in all of his colours.
More importantly my cube is stealthily multicolour heavy and encourages people to be greedy with splashes. What I mean by this is that while I have a guild section, I count cards like Kird Ape and Lingering Souls as mono coloured, as they can be played in a single colour deck (some more than others) but reward you for having fixing of a different colour that may consist of 1-2 lands of that colour. Being such, a card that has a more flexible cost and ability scheme, along with potential fixing is more interesting to me than a heavy colour committed card that is more limited in application, even if flash back cards are more plentiful in my cube.
I'm actually really happy doing more than less, I'm just not sure how much people want to hear me ramble about my views, especially when my cube is a bit of an oddity.
Would you guys prefer more of an article write up, that goes into depth with cards valued against one another and imbedded images throughout the text, rather than a "Top X" style as seems to be popular around here? Sort of like articles on the Mothership?
I both love it and hate it. It's a very strong mechanic that has the most potential as it can really change a board state, and thankfully it's worded in such a manner that it's not restricted to any specific permanent type in terms of target. My biggest issue is that it's in a combination that's supposed to be more about control, but it itself is a very strong tempo mechanic... Which we see when looking at something like the 3/1 flying guy who detains a permanent when he comes into play. If you like the UW tempo deck, it's an amazing mechanic, as it can just nullify blockers, along with relevant abilities, while being on ok sized creatures. It's fine in control too, especially the Justiciar as he isn't as aggressive, but negating two blockers and attackers is pretty good when you can abuse it with blinks/bounce or simply stopping those two and gaining a 2/2 for your effort. Stopping a Fauna Shaman, Goblin Welder, or whatever else can easily be game changing, even if it's for one turn.
The more practical option and one I enjoy is to highligh speciifc interaction in your cube that cause you to select a card. It goes well in archetype x that we use a lot, or color such is such is being pushed to this cmc range, or simply it is better that this card I have now but fills a similar role.
And please write as much as you can stand. This forum is what got me back into magic and caused me to build my own cube. It is currently unpowered and skews to newer stuff as I am mostly filling it as I play in drafts and things and get a few trades. So I am always looking for out of the box ideas to ioncorporate stuff I might be getting in the next couple of weeks over having to trade and arm and leg for vintage stuff.
Guttersnipe, well, I'm not sure to be honest. I can tell you he's here to stay, and really he does a lot of awesome stuff at times, while being a complete durdle other times. The one thing for sure is that players love picking him up and he's both a build around me card and a card that fits into a lot of decks... Really, I think his power still isn't fully understood as I've seen him in a lot of awkward control builds, but when he ends up in aggro decks, he can just blow people away by making Lightning Bolts into Lava Axes that can be split into removal and reach.
I'd say out of all the cards from RtR, Guttersnipe has been the one that has created the most interesting stuff, even if he's not the best card.
Guttersnipe is basically a better Kiln Fiend, right?
Kind of, but not really. Guttersnipe is a different card in that it can just go in decks that Kiln Fiend can't, and it's a far more stable card where as Kiln Fiend is very hit or miss... It's kind of like comparing Balance to Restore Balance, similar idea but very different in terms of viability.