You know, I've never felt much kinship with the "I would play Magic even if it was just numbers and text on the card, and the wizards and dragons don't mean much to me" group, but something about this graphic you've posted is activating my neurons. Like, this cube looks really fun.
General [Almost Daily] Every Set in Magic, Cube Edition
- Thread starter MilesOfficial
- Start date
rate my new cube
So I am a math teacher and I actually play that game (SET!) with my students occasionally.
I’m not keen.
rate my new cube
There are only 81 cards so players would have to build 15 card decks after drafting 2 packs of 5 (81st card left out for variance).
It’s another UB set from the “Abstract Symbology (TM)” franchise, rather than proper magic story.
Blue is overpowered.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Not gonna lie, this is honestly my favorite Set of all time!
I love Set but nobody ever wants to play it with me.
If you haven't tried SET and you like non-Magic card games, you're missing out, it's genuinely fun - I was introduced to it by my 5th grade math teacher and I've been a huge fan ever since - and really simple so you can even play it with kids and non-gamers.
As you should! It's a great game!So I am a math teacher and I actually play that game (SET!) with my students occasionally.
Not actually surprised to see so much love for it here, but still glad.
Clearly you need to figure out a way to play it on here.
I used to play it online during high school with friends, but I feel like it's not the same. Or at least, I remember having difficulty differentiating the colors on a screen.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Same. At least not those friends who played it with me
Day: 024
Set: Betrayers of Kamigawa (BOK)
Release Date: February 4, 2005
Cards: 165
Design & Development: Mike Elliott (lead), Randy Buehler, Henry Stern, Devin Low, Randy Buehler, Paul Sottosanti, Matt Place
Art Direction: Jeremy Cranford
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
I feel like we can all take turns to keep the thread alive if there hasn't been a post over like 4 days. So here I am making my first post in this thread. I didn't know if I was supposed to pick one entirely at random, so I just picked a set that I thought looked cool.
Betrayers was a set that people weren't expecting much from since Champions of Kamigawa really had to lower the power level since Mirrodin was so broken, but speaking of broken this set also had one:
Jitte still holds up reletively well today which goes to show it was decently powerful at the time. I like that people in constructed ran Jitte's just as colourless Shatters to deal with opponents Jitte's thanks to the old legend rule. Jitte is still banned in modern, although people think that the power level has increased so much that if unbanned won't really do too much to the format (like Splinter Twin).
While Jitte was the most powerful card, what I think people remember Betrayers for the most is obviously thanks to the expansion symbol (and just how cool and fun the mechanic was/is):
Ninjas aren't just cool, they were pretty decent. Ninja of Deep Hours and Okiba-Gang Shinobi still sees play in pauper to this day and Ink-Eyes has a recent special guest appearance in Bloomburrow to show that people still care for it. I still have it included in my Type 4 Stack as being able to bring back a creature from a graveyard without using your spell for the turn is pretty fun tech.
Some cards that appeal to me:
Kami I have played a lot in pauper in random Tortex builds with white and even played a bit of Martyr Proc in modern. You would be surprised how many deck can't deal with a Kami + Abiding Grace loop in the format.
Tallowisp was part of one of my favourite kitchen table deck of all time. Just having a cool toolbox with things like Cage of Hands and Armadillo Cloak along with annoying cards like the aforementioned Kami lead to some real interesting game states.
This card was very cool at the time in cubes as an undercosted beater. The downside was pretty irrelevant if you could built the environment to have little to no Legendaries.
There are some more cards I see that evoke some discussion but want to throw it back to everyone else and see what you have to say about Betrayers of Kamigawa. Did you know that there is another card from this set banned in Modern? Wild.
Set: Betrayers of Kamigawa (BOK)
Release Date: February 4, 2005
Cards: 165
Design & Development: Mike Elliott (lead), Randy Buehler, Henry Stern, Devin Low, Randy Buehler, Paul Sottosanti, Matt Place
Art Direction: Jeremy Cranford
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
I feel like we can all take turns to keep the thread alive if there hasn't been a post over like 4 days. So here I am making my first post in this thread. I didn't know if I was supposed to pick one entirely at random, so I just picked a set that I thought looked cool.
Betrayers was a set that people weren't expecting much from since Champions of Kamigawa really had to lower the power level since Mirrodin was so broken, but speaking of broken this set also had one:
Jitte still holds up reletively well today which goes to show it was decently powerful at the time. I like that people in constructed ran Jitte's just as colourless Shatters to deal with opponents Jitte's thanks to the old legend rule. Jitte is still banned in modern, although people think that the power level has increased so much that if unbanned won't really do too much to the format (like Splinter Twin).
While Jitte was the most powerful card, what I think people remember Betrayers for the most is obviously thanks to the expansion symbol (and just how cool and fun the mechanic was/is):
Ninjas aren't just cool, they were pretty decent. Ninja of Deep Hours and Okiba-Gang Shinobi still sees play in pauper to this day and Ink-Eyes has a recent special guest appearance in Bloomburrow to show that people still care for it. I still have it included in my Type 4 Stack as being able to bring back a creature from a graveyard without using your spell for the turn is pretty fun tech.
Some cards that appeal to me:
Kami I have played a lot in pauper in random Tortex builds with white and even played a bit of Martyr Proc in modern. You would be surprised how many deck can't deal with a Kami + Abiding Grace loop in the format.
Tallowisp was part of one of my favourite kitchen table deck of all time. Just having a cool toolbox with things like Cage of Hands and Armadillo Cloak along with annoying cards like the aforementioned Kami lead to some real interesting game states.
This card was very cool at the time in cubes as an undercosted beater. The downside was pretty irrelevant if you could built the environment to have little to no Legendaries.
There are some more cards I see that evoke some discussion but want to throw it back to everyone else and see what you have to say about Betrayers of Kamigawa. Did you know that there is another card from this set banned in Modern? Wild.
Can't believe you forgot Blazing Shoal!
Hell, speaking of the shoals, do you remember Ghost Dad? Shining Shoal and Sickening Shoal fueled by Tallowisp for Pillory of the Sleepless off Ghost Council of Orzhova and Thief of Hope. The only way that deck could have been better is if Faith's Fetters had Enchant Creature - if the word "Aura" had existed back then, it would have!
Still chasing that high two decades later.
As someone who was 16 in 2006, I cannot help but be nostalgic for the time when I had the most free time to care about tournament Magic: the Gathering... but that really was an incredible standard format. The manafixing from the shocklands (and the painlands in 10th), gold cards being a higher power level (Watchwolf! Loxodon Hierarch!) but individual cards still being weak enough that you could just build around a Wildfire or a Ghost Council of Orzhova or whatever.
The Urzatron was legal and we didn't even think about banning it! Even though people were going turn 3 Izzet Signet -> Keiga, the Tide Star... you just played your Kird Ape and you got in there! They were literally playing Tidings and Blaze, what are they gonna do with that Pyroclasm to your 2/3 for R?
(In fairness, I think if Magic Online had been more widespread, let alone Arena, the sheer volume of play might have identified whatever was going on that was actually broken at the time)
The top 8 of that PT Honolulu in 2006 was 6 different decks and 8 people whose names I recognize even now twenty years later.
Two Hall of Famers (Ruel brothers), one Snapcaster Mage a year before he won the Invitational, and one Osyp "banned from ever doing WotC commentary again" Lebedowicz. (there's also another excellent story about him playing against David Williams...) Plus four other people who are real names (Herberholz was on Price is Right, Craig Jones used to write for the WotC website, I'm picking ridiculous reasons on purpose here)
It's not even really 6 decks, I'm counting "Hand in Hand" as the same as "BW aggro" but the two lists differ by like 20 cards, so maybe say 6.5 decks. One combo (Heartbeat), one quasi-combo (Owling Mine), one control (Tron), five aggro. Healthy meta!
The Ruel brothers played each other in the quarters, in one of the most unwinnable matchups I've ever seen on camera. Owling Mine was designed to beat up on Tron by making your opponent draw a jillion cards with Howling Mine and defending your own Ebony Owl Netsuke - yes, this was an entire Standard deck that t8'd a Pro Tour - and had maybe a 5% matchup against Zoo (they couldn't even not draw lands because you couldn't kill them without giving them more free card draw!) to the point where Antoine literally boarded in an Ancestral Recall and cast it on camera before he conceded to his brother. Absolutely wild... and somehow it was only the second funniest thing that happened on camera that day. Heh.
The Urzatron was legal and we didn't even think about banning it! Even though people were going turn 3 Izzet Signet -> Keiga, the Tide Star... you just played your Kird Ape and you got in there! They were literally playing Tidings and Blaze, what are they gonna do with that Pyroclasm to your 2/3 for R?
(In fairness, I think if Magic Online had been more widespread, let alone Arena, the sheer volume of play might have identified whatever was going on that was actually broken at the time)
The top 8 of that PT Honolulu in 2006 was 6 different decks and 8 people whose names I recognize even now twenty years later.
Two Hall of Famers (Ruel brothers), one Snapcaster Mage a year before he won the Invitational, and one Osyp "banned from ever doing WotC commentary again" Lebedowicz. (there's also another excellent story about him playing against David Williams...) Plus four other people who are real names (Herberholz was on Price is Right, Craig Jones used to write for the WotC website, I'm picking ridiculous reasons on purpose here)
It's not even really 6 decks, I'm counting "Hand in Hand" as the same as "BW aggro" but the two lists differ by like 20 cards, so maybe say 6.5 decks. One combo (Heartbeat), one quasi-combo (Owling Mine), one control (Tron), five aggro. Healthy meta!
The Ruel brothers played each other in the quarters, in one of the most unwinnable matchups I've ever seen on camera. Owling Mine was designed to beat up on Tron by making your opponent draw a jillion cards with Howling Mine and defending your own Ebony Owl Netsuke - yes, this was an entire Standard deck that t8'd a Pro Tour - and had maybe a 5% matchup against Zoo (they couldn't even not draw lands because you couldn't kill them without giving them more free card draw!) to the point where Antoine literally boarded in an Ancestral Recall and cast it on camera before he conceded to his brother. Absolutely wild... and somehow it was only the second funniest thing that happened on camera that day. Heh.
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...however, none of that had anything to do with Betrayers of Kamigawa so let's talk about some cards from that, but in the spirit of 2006 I'm gonna shitpost. I hope everyone enjoys at least one of these bad takes/bad jokes/occasional glowing praise for a card I love!
/ /
can you believe they printed this at common
can you believe they printed this at all
even now that "lifelink" exists, this card still converts two mana into two life as many times as you want whenever it gets into combat. they just had no respect for aggressive creatures apparently.
it's been two decades and I still remember dying to this cycle of free splicers (except Roar of Jukai. okay maybe not Veil of Secrecy either. but wow, Horobi's Whisper which also had the funniest fail state of them because 2/5 of this cycle cares if you control the appropriate type of basic but the other 3/5 don't)
they printed this, it went on to counter about 99,999 Jitte equip activations from its own controller. they reprinted it in Modern Masters in 2013 and it did the same thing with Bonesplitter. they'd never word it this way these days but the entire dang Glasskite vertical cycle does it that way!
if you are far enough ahead on board, you are legally obligated to use a second Shinobi to bounce the unblocked first Shinobi, then put the first one back in and announce SHINOBI'S BACK
"A card nicknamed 'Plan B' entered development at four mana and made brief stops at six, seven, and eight mana before going to ten due to the efforts of a couple determined playtesters."
it was still good enough to be a Block Contructed deck, albeit a far cuter version of the actually good one. they hadn't invented the Worldpurge technology of emptying mana pools yet
you can't deck yourself. the rest is obvious, but that part's fun!
I have nothing to shitpost about this card, I love it and I might be putting it in my cube sometime soon. Also, it's never been reprinted with the original art, which makes me sad because I love original arts in general and also this one in particular.
one-card archetype and I love it. they also printed Kami of False Hope in this set just to make sure you didn't have to think too hard about how to make your opponent miserable
I just think he's neat
this idiot wins the "I wouldn't play it even if it wasn't symmetric" award
there was a semi-real deck in draft with this, Battle-Mad Ronin, Unearthly Blizzard, basically lapping all the stupid garbage nobody wanted and beating them to death before they got off the ground. unlike Waxmane Baku it did not get windmill slammed so you'd get 'em all and bash with 'em
windmill slam this and put it in your deck to to kill Split-Tail Miko (Torrent of Stone was the actually good red removal spell of the set)
I love that this steals things but does not give them haste, because that just means you get an incredibly good rate for the mana (two thefts, minimum, stapled to a 1RR 5/2 once you jump through the hoop, so they're probably just gonna die)
obviously an unbeatable bomb, but hilariously it often forced your opponent to make the correct play, and like yeah sure you won anyway but against bad players you really wanna let them just sit back and do nothing until they die
never did manage to have a deck where this was playable even back when damage stacked. my buddy has an EDH deck with this as a general. I like this effect but it needs to be on like a Crookclaw Transmuter and not a Squire for one mana more.
+
one time I assembled this at FNM. first opponent I made it happen against gave me the blankest stare I've ever seen when I told him he had died. I even had to manaburn! also Overblaze is stone unplayable and Hidetsugu, on his own, is pretty good
Mike Flores tried to take credit for playing this one in Block Constructed. If you were there you remember and if you weren't, don't worry about it, you see, Isao, Enlightened Bushi dies to one Jitte counter...
I don't know who makes Snake kindred work in 2025 but I really want to draft your cube because I have fond memories of this (and Summon the School, and Sprout Swarm, because I am a total jerk)
okay, so "Equip" is "attach to target creature you control, at sorcery speed". Shuriken gives the ability to the creature. so the "Shuriken Trick" is
Aether Hub is Super Nintendo Ice Bridge.
/ / can you believe they printed this at common
can you believe they printed this at all
even now that "lifelink" exists, this card still converts two mana into two life as many times as you want whenever it gets into combat. they just had no respect for aggressive creatures apparently.
it's been two decades and I still remember dying to this cycle of free splicers (except Roar of Jukai. okay maybe not Veil of Secrecy either. but wow, Horobi's Whisper which also had the funniest fail state of them because 2/5 of this cycle cares if you control the appropriate type of basic but the other 3/5 don't)
they printed this, it went on to counter about 99,999 Jitte equip activations from its own controller. they reprinted it in Modern Masters in 2013 and it did the same thing with Bonesplitter. they'd never word it this way these days but the entire dang Glasskite vertical cycle does it that way!
if you are far enough ahead on board, you are legally obligated to use a second Shinobi to bounce the unblocked first Shinobi, then put the first one back in and announce SHINOBI'S BACK
"A card nicknamed 'Plan B' entered development at four mana and made brief stops at six, seven, and eight mana before going to ten due to the efforts of a couple determined playtesters."
it was still good enough to be a Block Contructed deck, albeit a far cuter version of the actually good one. they hadn't invented the Worldpurge technology of emptying mana pools yet
you can't deck yourself. the rest is obvious, but that part's fun!
I have nothing to shitpost about this card, I love it and I might be putting it in my cube sometime soon. Also, it's never been reprinted with the original art, which makes me sad because I love original arts in general and also this one in particular.
one-card archetype and I love it. they also printed Kami of False Hope in this set just to make sure you didn't have to think too hard about how to make your opponent miserable
I just think he's neat
this idiot wins the "I wouldn't play it even if it wasn't symmetric" award
there was a semi-real deck in draft with this, Battle-Mad Ronin, Unearthly Blizzard, basically lapping all the stupid garbage nobody wanted and beating them to death before they got off the ground. unlike Waxmane Baku it did not get windmill slammed so you'd get 'em all and bash with 'em
windmill slam this and put it in your deck to to kill Split-Tail Miko (Torrent of Stone was the actually good red removal spell of the set)
I love that this steals things but does not give them haste, because that just means you get an incredibly good rate for the mana (two thefts, minimum, stapled to a 1RR 5/2 once you jump through the hoop, so they're probably just gonna die)
obviously an unbeatable bomb, but hilariously it often forced your opponent to make the correct play, and like yeah sure you won anyway but against bad players you really wanna let them just sit back and do nothing until they die
never did manage to have a deck where this was playable even back when damage stacked. my buddy has an EDH deck with this as a general. I like this effect but it needs to be on like a Crookclaw Transmuter and not a Squire for one mana more.
+ one time I assembled this at FNM. first opponent I made it happen against gave me the blankest stare I've ever seen when I told him he had died. I even had to manaburn! also Overblaze is stone unplayable and Hidetsugu, on his own, is pretty good
Mike Flores tried to take credit for playing this one in Block Constructed. If you were there you remember and if you weren't, don't worry about it, you see, Isao, Enlightened Bushi dies to one Jitte counter...
I don't know who makes Snake kindred work in 2025 but I really want to draft your cube because I have fond memories of this (and Summon the School, and Sprout Swarm, because I am a total jerk)
okay, so "Equip" is "attach to target creature you control, at sorcery speed". Shuriken gives the ability to the creature. so the "Shuriken Trick" is
but wait! you say. equip says "target creature you control"! why isn't it countered upon resolution?! I think it's because you controlled the Shuriken when you activated the ability?https://web.archive.org/web/20130620091555/http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mg166 said:
Aether Hub is Super Nintendo Ice Bridge.
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I love Kamigawa, but I arrive late and most of the cool cards have already been cited.
I remember this being very good in Modern against Tarmogoyf. Maybe it could shine in some modern Cubes with low average mana value of creatures?
Contrary to its white-coloured brother, this one only thinks about attacking. It is better than it looks in lower powered environments, trading Mountains for "real" creatures is always good
I always wanted to do something with this card but I have no idea of what. It is very cool though
I love this kind of cards. Uproot, Temporal Spring, Fallow Earth, Plow Under, Primal Command...
I remember this being very good in Modern against Tarmogoyf. Maybe it could shine in some modern Cubes with low average mana value of creatures?
Contrary to its white-coloured brother, this one only thinks about attacking. It is better than it looks in lower powered environments, trading Mountains for "real" creatures is always good
I always wanted to do something with this card but I have no idea of what. It is very cool though
I love this kind of cards. Uproot, Temporal Spring, Fallow Earth, Plow Under, Primal Command...
Man, I love(d) Kamigawa. The whole original block has stunning art, a unique feel to it and a surprising amount of neat cards, despite being known for a low power level. And BOK might just be my favorite set. That is partly because of Ninjas (more on that later), but also because one of the very first decks I actually build myself from scrap, had a lot of BOK cards in it:
It was very bad. But 11yo ravnic thought he had build a real gem of a deck. I remember having with me on a field trip with my swim club where I battled my best friend with that pile. It was an awesome weekend in some youth hostel and I somehow have those sweet memories connected to some magic cards, especially Ogre Recluse, who I thought was my decks MVP.
However, that was 20 years ago. Today I play cube. And I have four cards from betrayers still in my CCC – and all of them are Ninjas.
They all feel quintessential to my cube to a degree, that it would not be the CCC anymore if I cut them. And from those four I'd vote for the Okiba-Gang Shinobi as my favorite design. It's not only one of the coolest ninjas, it is also my favorite Mind Rot effect in the game. Despite costing four to ninjutsu, it feels so f*cking brutal to get hit by it. Also, a 3/2 body is big enough that opponents can't keep their shields down unless they want to discard another two.
When we returned to Kamigawa, I was split. On one hand it was a very cool set and like the only chance to ever return to the world, but they used the modern age looks mostly for the parts I enjoyed the most of feudal Kamigawa. That was Ninjas, but that was also the Soratami. Betrayers only added two Moonfolk cards, but one of them has one of my top ten mtg artworls easily:
Boy, I wish that card was playable.
It was very bad. But 11yo ravnic thought he had build a real gem of a deck. I remember having with me on a field trip with my swim club where I battled my best friend with that pile. It was an awesome weekend in some youth hostel and I somehow have those sweet memories connected to some magic cards, especially Ogre Recluse, who I thought was my decks MVP.
However, that was 20 years ago. Today I play cube. And I have four cards from betrayers still in my CCC – and all of them are Ninjas.
They all feel quintessential to my cube to a degree, that it would not be the CCC anymore if I cut them. And from those four I'd vote for the Okiba-Gang Shinobi as my favorite design. It's not only one of the coolest ninjas, it is also my favorite Mind Rot effect in the game. Despite costing four to ninjutsu, it feels so f*cking brutal to get hit by it. Also, a 3/2 body is big enough that opponents can't keep their shields down unless they want to discard another two.
When we returned to Kamigawa, I was split. On one hand it was a very cool set and like the only chance to ever return to the world, but they used the modern age looks mostly for the parts I enjoyed the most of feudal Kamigawa. That was Ninjas, but that was also the Soratami. Betrayers only added two Moonfolk cards, but one of them has one of my top ten mtg artworls easily:
Boy, I wish that card was playable.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I used to love Kamigawa. I still do, but I used to too.
I played in a Kamigawa cube earlier this year (original block + NEO) and my deck had this combo in it, also all the original Zuberas
one-card archetype and I love it. they also printed Kami of False Hope in this set just to make sure you didn't have to think too hard about how to make your opponent miserable
I was so sad we didn't get a Zubera in NEO. Burning-Eye Zubera and Rushing-Tide Zubera needed more company in the odd-Zubera-out club!
e: the spiritual successor to the latter is Inga Rune-Eyes, I will not be taking questions at this time
e: the spiritual successor to the latter is Inga Rune-Eyes, I will not be taking questions at this time
The funny part is that it would have been really straight-forward to complete the cycle. They're just 3/3s for 4 who give you the appropriate shrine trigger three times if they get overkilled. That's, what, six life for
, three cards discarded for , and three 1/1s for ?Alternatively, the shrine creatures could've been Zuberas. Granted, I feel like Legendary Enchantment Creature - Zubera Shrine would've been a bit too long of a type line...
that set already gave us Legendary Artifact Creature - Equipment Jellyfish I feel like they really did not give a fuck about typeline lengthThe funny part is that it would have been really straight-forward to complete the cycle. They're just 3/3s for 4 who give you the appropriate shrine trigger three times if they get overkilled. That's, what, six life for
Alternatively, the shrine creatures could've been Zuberas. Granted, I feel like Legendary Enchantment Creature - Zubera Shrine would've been a bit too long of a type line...
someone asked maro on his tumblr "hey are you considering making the type line bigger cause you keep running into this" and he said "no"
but he did not rule out The Reality Chip font size becoming the norm
edit: it's even smaller than I remembered it being LOL
but he did not rule out The Reality Chip font size becoming the norm
edit: it's even smaller than I remembered it being LOL
take it up with Cynette, Jelly Drover for not being a proper Jellyfish enabler