General [Almost Daily] Every Set in Magic, Cube Edition

[MilesOfficial]

Day: 018
Set: Legions (LGN)
Release Date: February 3, 2003
Cards: 145
Leads: Mike Elliot (Design), William Jockusch (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link

Ahh, Legions. The all-creatures set. I guess Akroma, Angel of Wrath is cool, but I much prefer the (amazingly only four years newer) Akroma, Angel of Fury.

Morph is cool. There's some neat designs here and there. This is something of a local low-point of Magic design as far as I'm concerned, coming on the heels of the incredible Odyssey block and a shadow of the lead expansion in the Onslaught block. Slivers are fine, but from a design perspective, doing it to both sides of the field is stupid.

It's hard to find a design I really like in this set, to be honest. The Muses feel more well-suited for multiplayer than many Commander-specific designs now.

That said, I did run Graveborn Muse for a while when I had a better density of zombies. That's probably my favorite card from the set.

 

[ravnic]

Legions was a fine set, although probably the worst from it's block. I'm mostly into the morphs, and I only run two (also two total cards here). That being said, I love both of them. It was really hard for me to decide which one was my favorite, so I went with the more unique one:



Everyone running a little morph package at lower power levels should run this card imo. It is not only a flexible board wipe that isn't embarassing to hard cast as a 4/3 when you're really winning, it is also about it's presence in the format. People are cautious of it when every morph could be a board wipe. Often in game two or three, when my opponent saw that I have it, I like to play another morph first, so that they would use their removal on it. I also like that you have the tension of either flipping it for -2/-2 and keeping the 4/3 body or getting a bigger sweep but also loosing that creature.

That being said, Bane of the Living is clunky and I would say it's just like a C or C- in my environment. Occasionally great but also sometime too slow to really matter. I think my runner up, the number two from Legions, is a much stronger card, so I want to mention it too:



This is probably my favorite Naturalize on a body. It doesn't have the raw efficiency of Reclamation Sage, but it's very cool to cast it face down, pass and have the effect available at instant speed. Nantuko Vigilante is a stone cold staple and I would only ever cut it, if I would decide to remove morph from my cube - highly unlikely.

 

[Seeker]

Split a box of Legions with my best friend when we were 12, there's a reason it was the best-selling set of all time literally until Zendikar.

Also, never going to put anything from it in my cube, because the power level is not there on morph in 2025. Gempalm Incinerator is like, the only thing anyone's doing from it to this day. And I like that card, I just don't want Goblins in my cube. Big thumbs down from modern me, huuuuge two thumbs up from the 12-year-old Phage, the Untouchable lover

 

[Onderzeeboot]

This set definitely is way too synergistic for its own good. The power level already isn’t there, especially compared to modern sets, but this fact is only exacerbated by how much of the set’s “power” level is hidden in synergies. Gempalm Incinerator is a fine card if you run a goblin deck, but supporting it in cube means you have to dedicate so many slots to the Goblin deck. And there are many of these kind of design here. Unfortunately, the non-synergistic pieces aren’t any more powerful, so you end up with a very lacking set.

That said, provoke is a great mechanic, and my favorite design with the mechics is Deftblade Elite! The way it can tie up a blocker, attack without impunity, and *gasp* wear pants extremely well are all things I enjoy. Unfortunately the 1/1 base stats really hurt it’s playability.

 

[gaytransmulldrifter]

Probably the coolest old border cycling big dude besides maybe Eternal Dragon. I like that the card doesn't just pay you off by letting you reamimate your own stuff so it has a lot of game-to-game variance on how much the trigger matters, while still being solid as just a big dumb cycling idiot if your opponent doesn't have any creatures in the yard. One of my fav old border reanimator cards. Get in.

 

[ravnic]

... because the power level is not there on morph in 2025.

No offense, but statements like this kinda trigger me

Cube is literally the only format (except premodern, I guess) where it doesn't make sense to say something like this. Nobody forces us to put cards into our cubes that might obsolete old morph guys. Or any card. Cube is mostly time agnostic. You could build a cube where Nantuko Vigilante sucked fifteen years ago and you can build one where it is first pickable today!

 

[henkdetenk]

Legions is such a weird set, in what is probably my favourite block of all time. It's like Torment's weird little brother who only wants to talk about goblins. Like, my old highschool ODY era simic madness/threshold deck is what even got me back into cubing. It's like Legions just decided it didn't want anything to do with graveyards and it wanted to play with weird tribes and morph instead. That said, there are a couple cards from the set that I absolutely adore, but I run very few of them currently.


Provoke is like some kind of weird proto-fight, and I really like the effect. Goblin Grappler is great for distracting a big blocker late game or for taking down utility creatures (or just creatures that happen to have 1 toughness, of which there are tonnes in my cube). Krosan Vorine, with its ability to pick which one creature is going to block it, makes for very powerful recurring removal in green - especially if you can buff its stats. Of course the powerlevel of my cube is heinously low, so 3 power will take down a good 75% of creatures in my games.

I'm considering slotting in more provoke in Gruul. Will need to experiment.



This little guy I also still run, because screw you, that's why. I like my nostalgia. Go away.

 

[Seeker]

Cube is mostly time agnostic. You could build a cube where Nantuko Vigilante sucked fifteen years ago and you can build one where it is first pickable today!

Those are both true (though the latter was harder in 2010 than it is in 2025 obviously) - but specifically Morph has a way higher supply problem.

You can find an Abzan Devotee for every power level (and then some!)
But even if you let Disguise's ward coexist with regular Morph/Megamorph, your Nantuko Vigilante options are Ainok Survivalist, Vengeful Creeper, and also I guess Daru Sanctifier. Way fewer power settings there. Constrains your entire cube list.

I had a whole rant about how most Legions-era cards can't peacefully coexist with most modern rare/mythics - look at Tersa Lightshatter and try to tell me the nearest Legions counterpart, I think it's Graveborn Muse, they just don't make creatures and card advantage the same way these days - but we both already know this! It's not really a thing you can solve without custom cards, because the "ambient" power level has gone up in a "rising tide lifts all boats" way, but morph gets the worst of it, and Legions had to lean into things that worked in an all-creature set to make combat interesting, so morph and creature-types-matter and onboard tricks in a way that doesn't mesh well with 2025 design.

I think what you want is very 2005 and very less 2025 in a way that is going to mean you ignore the vast majority of new cards. Not a value judgment! Just... not what I want to be doing. Because every individual cool new card sparks joy and gives older cards new angles of play... they just also obsolete some. And hell, I picked three two-drops from the most recent set there. Tied my hands by a lot and still came out with three things that I like and zero of them feel [to me] like they have any business even being in the same ballpark as poor old Nantuko Vigilante.

 

[Chris Taylor]

You can find an Abzan Devotee for every power level (and then some!)
But even if you let Disguise's ward coexist with regular Morph/Megamorph, your Nantuko Vigilante options are Ainok Survivalist, Vengeful Creeper, and also I guess Daru Sanctifier. Way fewer power settings there. Constrains your entire cube list.

I almost have a concept I want you to try but also custom morphs does sound like it would send first time drafters into a conniption

 

[Seeker]

Oh, turns out I deleted the sentence about how customs is the only way out of it... but rest assured, I was miles ahead of you

(not even first time drafters, I'd absolutely lose to custom morphs multiple times and be like "OH WELL", I'm a clown)

 

[LadyMapi]

Clearly you need to make morphs into ramp spells, Yedora style.

 

[Seeker]

I read that as Yidaro style and was I excited for some new modal card I hadn't seen before

 

[MilesOfficial]

Day: 019
Set: Fifth Dawn (5DN)
Release Date: June 4, 2004
Cards: 145
Leads: Mark Rosewater (Design), Brian Schneider (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link

It's an interesting set. I think it's stuck in the era of valuing design novelty over gameplay, but there are some truly exceptional designs here all the same.

I currently run three cards from the set:



All three of them are all-timers and unlikely to leave any time soon. I want to give my flowers in this set to Grafted Wargear, because it's one of the most novel and underrated equipment ever printed, but I'm going to go with . Whenever I think I should cut it, I'm proven wrong. It's just such a perfect design that does so much and fits in at so many power bands. It's a glue card and raw power at once. Clean. Beautiful art. An immortal Magic card.

Cranial Plating is really neat. I'm putting it back in my Cube soon, and am not really sure how it ever left. I'm annoyed with the black activated ability here from an organization standpoint, but that's the most minor point.

I miss Vedalken Shackles. Love this design. Even with the depowered direction I've been going with my Cube, it's really hard to make work when blue is such a competitive color to be in.

Shoutout to Blasting Station.

(also, doing this has made me realize I don't run Serum Visions, which is something I will be changing ASAP).

 

[Chris Taylor]

Shoutout to Pentad Prism for all the 5 drops I've cast on T3

 

[ravnic]

Fifth Dawn was a weird set, but a real banger for cubes (of different power levels). It gave us many elegant designs that in many cases scale nicely with an environment. Some examples would be Eternal Witness, Trinket Mage or Serum Visions (let's not forget, that 5DN introduced the scry mechanic to the game!).

In my CCC I currently run four cards from this set. Magma Jet and Condescend are some nice basic effects that come with a really nice scry 2 rider. Something that is especially rare on red cards, even today. However, Condescend is closer to a forever staple for me. It can be a two-mana counterspell but also stays relevant to the very late game. How many fair counterspells can do that?

When it comes to my favorite from Fifth Dawn, I can't decide between two cards. They are wildly different but both match my description of an elegant, sweet design, scaling to different environment.



Night's Whisper is just the perfect black card draw spell. It's cheap enough to be worth it almost everywhere, generates card advantage, yet still feels totally fair in lower powered environments like mine. I am super happy that we got a reprint of it showing ravnicans, so I can play it in my Ravnica cube too.

Crucible of Worlds is a perfect build around. It's simple, yet offers different possible ways to utilize it. I also love that it is colorless, so I can play it not only in green-based decks but also in my madness value decks or my selfmill control decks or my wildfire decks. It's also cool to have such a nice build around card that works with just one simple sentence in its textbox.

Both of these two cards from Fifth Dawn are essential pieces of the Casual Champions Cube and will be forever.

 

[Seeker]

5DN rocks. There's just so much in there that you can do all kinds of things with! Between Scry being an open-ended mechanic and being a third set from an artifact block, they just threw all kinds of weird stuff in there.

The original nongreen ramp crime duo, good on their own and by design a combo with each other:
+

You know me and power levels, I do think time's passed it by, but it's still one of my favorite burn spells:


And the little guy who I just think is neat:


Thought Courier was in my cube for a while, since it was a looter that was also Human instead of Merfolk! (although obviously it was the second one, after Looter il-Kor, so it was not long for this world and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy didn't even have to come along before the Courier got the boot)

Auriok Salvagers is one that I will actively speak up against, since it looks super open-ended but people don't use it for anything other than infinite mana with Lotus. So it's like Splinter Twin, rather than being like Kiki-Jiki.

 

[landofMordor]

Awesome roleplayers and an awesome debut of Scry. Justin Sweet's art on Magma Jet is everything I need.



Is this... better-designed Soulherder? I think it might be. I think I might just jam this in Atavus and nobody can stop me.



There's a whole cycle of Black threats that have "whenever any player does anything, punch yourself in the face". Wow, lol. That's a really intense flavor to triple down on. But when it comes to less intense versions in 5DN, like Night's Whisper, I think it kinda works. I also love how Mirrodin's Black cards have art that is awash in greens and oranges.



That said, Mirrodin's art direction is surprisingly horny! What's going on, y'all? Is everything OK? Why has your futuristic sci-fi plane not invented shirts? (Oh, wait, the Blue creatures do seem to have shirt technologies. How typical.)



Ignoring the filler-y weirdness of Sunburst, there are some banger artifacts in this set that can also be super healthy in a cube without too much effort.

 

[Seeker]

That said, Mirrodin's art direction is surprisingly horny! What's going on, y'all? Is everything OK? Why has your futuristic sci-fi plane not invented shirts? (Oh, wait, the Blue creatures do seem to have shirt technologies. How typical.)

"nipple chafing" was the only thing we said about this art in 2004 and seeing it again, turns out nothing has changed in the intervening decades

If you like Vedalken Mastermind, make sure you don't want to just go back to the REAL classics of Crystal Shard and Erratic Portal instead - they're less vulnerable but they also have feelbad for your opponent but they also don't require you to be blue (though I don't think I'd ever play Shard in a nonblue cube deck, Magic's come a long way on mana efficiency since Mirrodin)

 

[shamizy]

Fifth Dawn is well before my time, but there are a number of timeless options that I don't really see leaving my cube anytime soon:



Magma Jet is probably the only one that's ever in danger of being cut, but I just brought it back in one of my recent updates because I just missed having a burn spell that could also set up impact draws. It's always a bad feeling as an aggressive deck to run into that string of lands in the mid-game when you really just want some gas to close things out, so that Scry 2 is extra powerful when you can fire it off and continue to apply pressure. I'm completely fine with swapping out Lightning Strike #3 for something that's more exciting to play with for multiple decks. Also I just picked up this FNM promo variant which looks sick so I'm definitely keeping it around for a while.