General CBS

Velrun

Velrun

Can someone from a rules perspective explain to me what exactly are all the steps in cycling a


?

- I pay 3 mana and put the cycling ability on the stack.
- My opponent gets to respond or even Stifle.
- I pay additional mana and put the Soldier ability on the stack.
- My opponent gets to respond or even Stifle.
- I create the tokens.
- My opponent gets to respond or even Stifle.
- I draw a card.

Is something wrong in this chain? Do I have to pay all the mana at the same time?

Thank you
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Velrun said:
Can someone from a rules perspective explain to me what exactly are all the steps in cycling a


?
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Scryfall lays out the rules quite nicely (at the bottom):

“When you cycle this card, first the cycling ability goes on the stack, then the triggered ability goes on the stack on top of it. The triggered ability will resolve before you draw a card from the cycling ability.”

“The cycling ability and the triggered ability are separate. If the triggered ability doesn't resolve (because, for example, it has been countered, or all of its targets have become illegal), the cycling ability will still resolve, and you'll draw a card.”

So the order is:
- You cycle Decree of Justice.
- The triggered ability (to create Soldier tokens) triggers.
- Your opponent can use Stifle to counter either the cycling ability or the triggered (Soldier tokens) ability.
- The triggered (Soldier tokens) ability resolves. While resolving it asks you to pay X and then X Soldier tokens will be created.
- Your opponent can use Stifle to counter the cycling ability.
- The cycling ability resolves and you draw a card.

Nobody receives priority while the triggered ability is resolving, so you have to counter it before you know how much your opponent is going to spend. There is no point at which you know the value of X and you can still counter the effect.
 
Seeker

Seeker

LadyMapi said:
It's reasonably likely that the cards are real (at the end of the day, WotC prints what they will), but I'm just getting "really well done custom card" vibes from them.
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so with everything announced for 2026 today, we have all the sets (but Ninja Turtles) confirmed and these Lorwyn Eclipsed spoilers:

en_aa1f57b61a_1.webp

en_177c5ca333_1.webp
->
en_8ddb505053_1.webp


Ashling makes me think Sygg is real (though I don't expect a ten card cycle, I expect something like the 8 creature types of Lorwyn or something)

Also I love the hybrid-evoke and if-X-was-spent design on Emptiness. What a design!
 
LadyMapi

LadyMapi

Hmm, that does make them more likely, but I'm still reluctant to believe them.

Emptiness is a really cool design, though, and makes me hopeful that we're going to see more Evoke.
 
MilesOfficial

MilesOfficial

To be clear, the leaks were 100% right, even about Star Trek. I'm stoked about that but it feels like a monkey paw thing with the office and the furby secret lairs also announced.......
sygg 1.pngsygg2.png
Base version looks good. I like it a lot. Still......way too much text.


mutable.png
Love the reminder text.
 
ravnic

ravnic

Oh boy, I wouldn't mind if we got a bunch of cards creating mutavault tokens.

The incarnations look super cool, but no reminder text on even the regular english version kills them for cube imo.
 
Seeker

Seeker

This isn't strictly a relevant cube update, but an image of the Standard Pirates precon box on wotc's website has Spell Snare listed as a card in it.

Welcome back, old friend! Now's my time to advocate for trying it in cube if you haven't yet. Maybe you don't have enough 2s. Maybe you do.

Me, my cube is currently 113 2-drops out of 363 spells... which is pretty close to the ratio I had when I put Stern Scolding in. Maybe I should get it in there, I love that card.

(Scolding is now at 150/203 so it's not as close as you'd think.)
 
Seeker

Seeker

While I'm talking about blue stuff and stuff nobody's doing and conditional stuff: What would it take for you (as an individual, the poster reading this) to put Stifle in your cube deck? Only 10 fetches in the cube.

My thinking is that I'm not putting it in my deck unless I want to draw it for my own stuff and not just as a discount Stone Rain. So some kind of combos via:

Counter a triggered ability:


1 mana flicker-adjacent:


Discounts with sacrifice triggers:

(plus Goryo's Vengeance/Shallow Grave which exile to not work with specifically the black enablers, sigh)

Are there other things that are good to Stifle? Or particularly good to flicker or something to expand the space more?
 
IanGitax

IanGitax

Seeker said:
While I'm talking about blue stuff and stuff nobody's doing and conditional stuff: What would it take for you (as an individual, the poster reading this) to put Stifle in your cube deck? Only 10 fetches in the cube.

My thinking is that I'm not putting it in my deck unless I want to draw it for my own stuff and not just as a discount Stone Rain.
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I’m a big stifle fan. If there’s enough density of mulldrifters where the trigger comprises most of the value, it’s perfectly playable as a piece of cheap disruption. I play a lot of Canadian Highlander, which has basically the same card pool as a vintage cube, and even when my opponent has no fetches Stifle usually gets as much value as a Spell Pierce or Unsummon would.
 
Seeker

Seeker

Nanonox said:


Honestly forgot about Stifle but it’s good disruption that can double as a synergy piece.
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oh my god I didn't even think about the Warp trigger on Quantum Riddler and I'm the world's number one Up the Beanstalk enjoyer

That means I also forgot Blitz and Dash:


Which in turn makes me realize I forgot copies, and while I don't have Splinter Twin going on I do have Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. Molten Duplication getting slightly more tempting. Nothing else really stands out though.
 
Erik Twice

Erik Twice

I would love a non-land Stifle. I love the card, it's a great, simple design that has a ton of gameplay value...but the fact that it acts as a 1-mana Strip Mine with fetchlands just ruins it for me.

Were it not for that, I would cube it. Note that it wrecks Storm, though.
 
Seeker

Seeker

Erik Twice said:
I would love a non-land Stifle. I love the card, it's a great, simple design that has a ton of gameplay value...but the fact that it acts as a 1-mana Strip Mine with fetchlands just ruins it for me.

Were it not for that, I would cube it. Note that it wrecks Storm, though.
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Well aware, I don't have Storm in and I'm very confident in that decision (far too parasitic, you end up warping the entire environment around it and I don't really enjoy the rituals and ramp it wants) - but yeah, the Stone Rain is hilarious upside for me, not downside. If that isn't the case you probably don't want to be Stifling.
 
LadyMapi

LadyMapi



These are all quite a bit slower than Stifle (which makes them a bit harder to abuse), but Defabricate and Repudiate both have some pretty nice upsides and Trickbind just stops everything from a particular permanent for a turn if that's at all relevant.
 
MilesOfficial

MilesOfficial

I've been a big fan of these:



And have been rotating them all in and out of my Cube. Right now I'm on Louisoix's Sacrifice, since hitting all non-creature spells is really important (I've got 92 artifacts and enchantments out of 720 cards that aren't creatures). But 142 of my 355 --a whole 40%!! -- of my creatures are indeed legendary, so I guess I should pay attention to that too. Tale's End is just stylish, don't you think?

I like how Spider-Sense also lets you bounce back dudes to your hand at instant speed, even if you don't get to control the timing. Lots of shenanigans possible with the card. I just hate...you know, the art. The aesthetic.

But with all of these cards, countering activated and triggered abilities is much stronger than it's ever been. It's absolutely close to countering a spell in many circumstances with how powerful so many of these abilities are, and how one-off many are as well. I forgot Defabricate existed but now I'm pretty sure I have to get that in the list, too.

Used to love Squelch. Not sure why I don't run it anymore, to be completely honest.

Now that I think about it, Tale's End seems better than Remove Soul, as much as I liked having another Legends card in my list. I think I need to do a full audit on my counterspell suite because of this conversation.

EDIT: you know, if I hit enough Stifle effects, maybe I could finally try out Phyrexian Dreadnought for real? That'd be fun.
 
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Erik Twice

Erik Twice

For me the problem is not the speed. 1 mana is the perfect cost for Stifle. I just don't want it to blow up lands for a mere 1 mana.
 
Zoss

Zoss



Is the rate good? No, not at all, but it's so flexible it gets a pass, and it tends to enable cool moments of control decks going "oh wait, I can do THAT with this??"
 
Seeker

Seeker

MilesOfficial said:
But 142 of my 355 --a whole 40%!! -- of my creatures are indeed legendary, so I guess I should pay attention to that too. Tale's End is just stylish, don't you think?
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Yeah, my list was based off your list originally, and having the Yoshimarus of the world was enough to convince me to try out Tale's End - came up a bit short, but I think if I'm also going to actively want a Stifle, then that's definitely not the case anymore.

Surprised you even gave Louisoix's Sacrifice a shot, how has it played? 3 is just so much more than 2 for a Negate so I wasn't even interested at first glance.

edit: oh my god I missed the MagicFest promo Yoshimaru that is Torgal from FF16 as a pup that's amazing
 
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