Clearly that's meant to be read [Business Daily]
General [Almost Daily] Every Set in Magic, Cube Edition
- Thread starter MilesOfficial
- Start date
It's what I did for my last "daily" thing! I try not to be on my computer too much on the weekends
Day: 004
Set: Zendikar Rising (ZNR)
Release Date: September 25, 2020
Cards: 280
Leads: Mark Rosewater (Design), Erik Lauer & Andrew Brown (Development Co-Leads)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
I'm very grateful the Scryfall random card gave me a ZNR card because it's the first set where I filled out Lucky Paper's set survey, so not only can I see all the cards I tried from the set, but I can see which ones I added later and how I evaluated the cards at the time.
When Zendikar Rising came out, even though I wasn't a fan of the plane, I was enamored. I had no qualms with DFCs, and the MDFCs of this "arc" of Magic were a delight to a more unnecessary complexity-friendly and more naive me. The power level of ZNR, like the sets immediately surrounding it, were a meaningful step up in power-level from pre-Pandemic expansions in a noticeable way. Yes, Eldraine started the trend, but it was really with Zendikar Rising that I could feel it, not just in marquee cards but across the entire expansion.
Case in point: I started off with 35 cards. I'm now only running six of them, because the power-level explosion did not stop here and, at the end of the day, I preferred the design principles and aesthetics of later sets. But I did really enjoy the ZNR limited. It was the first one on the plane I had liked, excluding Rise of the Eldrazi, which I had only played once before this time and still is quite the novel expansion.
From strictly a Cube playability perspective, if your group is entirely enfranchised players, the MDFCs are incredible. Like kicker (also heavily featured in this set), they allow for each card to have nearly double the utility, and the cycle of lands that can enter untapped for the cost of some life really adds some fun decision-making into sequencing. Some of the best kicker spells come from this set, like the no-nonsense Roil Eruption and the occasional thief Thieving Skydiver. Nullpriest of Oblivion is close to the ideal kicker card, as far as I'm concerned, playing the role of an aggressive beater on two that gives you no cause to be embarrassed, and then an excellent upside if you draw her late.
But I have cooled on the set overall pretty significantly. I've cut nearly 30 cards originally printed here, including a large cut recently when I traded out the Pathway cycle for the Verges. My once favorite card from the set, Valakut Awakening, did not excite my playgroup in the same way it excites me (I may get it back in yet). And the cycle of mythic MDFCs, most notably Agadeem's Awakening, were less exciting than I had hoped -- though I still think the entire cycle is eminently Cubeable and will remain in the on-deck binder for years to come. My players didn't like fiddling with DFCs, and I didn't like the annoyance they brought as players forgot what was on the other side of them, causing misplays and feelbad moments more regularly than I would've hoped.
Another contender for "my favorite design when the set came out" is Kargan Intimidator. Finally, 10/10 design Boldwyr Intimidator was reshaped in a format that made him friendly to my Cube's design goals! I thought the Intimidator would be a staple in my Cube, but it speaks to just how powerful and/or compelling the subsequent red 2-drops of the last five years have been that he got kicked out of the "on-deck binder" years ago.
My favorite design is likely going to be the most common one here: Luminarch Aspirant
I don't really need to say much here. That's good, clean fun. Simple, straightforward design with a million applications. Heroic, counters, and just good aggro/midrange are all supported by this queen. She "pays" for herself almost immediately, and while she does draw removal, she usually can leave enough behind that your opponent is still sitting uneasy. She's kind of "easy mode" Magic, but in the best way possible. This is what peak Magic design looks like to me, and I can't imagine the Aspirant ever leaving my list.
Favorite design is probably this equipment. For faster environments, equip costs can be tough to justify in the face of efficient removal as it can mean wasting your whole turn. Here you get one on the house and a very powerful effect too! Should they answer your creature you still have the option of equiping, but for a hefty price.
Shoutout to Emeria's Call as a control win condition that doesn't take up a slot. That and being useful to cheat out and more.
I wasn't much of a fan of Zendikar Rising as a whole aside from MDFCs for my EDH decks. I remember testing out maybe a dozen cards when this set was fully spoiled but it seems the only ones that have stuck around are the following:
I'd say that the main reason that these have lasted so long is due to simplicity. I like cards that are simple to parse through with familiar mechanics or those with clean and simple designs. Luminarch Aspirant is definitely my favorite of these cards due to how clean it reads and how powerful that effect is. Before we had had many of these kinds of creatures trigger on end step or even worse on the following upkeep. By moving it to the beginning of combat we now had an additional on-the-play advantage for aggressive decks where you could chip in for an extra 2-3 damage right from the get go. Relevant creature typing for something like a Champion of the Parish or Thalia's Lieutenant and you were cooking by giving your opponent some tough decisions to make with their spot removal. Figuring out whether you wanted to spread the love or just go very tall on a single threat have made for many interesting boardstates and allowed aggressive W/x decks a whole other angle to attack from in my cube.
The other three cards share two of my favorite mechanics in Landfall and Kicker which are super simple to understand to any player that might be unfamiliar with these individual cards. In a double-fetch environment you get plenty of opportunities to trigger the Retreat and get some recursive action via Skyclave Shade where it can come back as a sizeable 5/3 threat in the late game. Both cards also feed into minor +1/+1 counter synergies and I'm just a fan of neat and tidy cards like these that can lead to more depth with sequencing and decisions over the course of a game.
I'd say that the main reason that these have lasted so long is due to simplicity. I like cards that are simple to parse through with familiar mechanics or those with clean and simple designs. Luminarch Aspirant is definitely my favorite of these cards due to how clean it reads and how powerful that effect is. Before we had had many of these kinds of creatures trigger on end step or even worse on the following upkeep. By moving it to the beginning of combat we now had an additional on-the-play advantage for aggressive decks where you could chip in for an extra 2-3 damage right from the get go. Relevant creature typing for something like a Champion of the Parish or Thalia's Lieutenant and you were cooking by giving your opponent some tough decisions to make with their spot removal. Figuring out whether you wanted to spread the love or just go very tall on a single threat have made for many interesting boardstates and allowed aggressive W/x decks a whole other angle to attack from in my cube.
The other three cards share two of my favorite mechanics in Landfall and Kicker which are super simple to understand to any player that might be unfamiliar with these individual cards. In a double-fetch environment you get plenty of opportunities to trigger the Retreat and get some recursive action via Skyclave Shade where it can come back as a sizeable 5/3 threat in the late game. Both cards also feed into minor +1/+1 counter synergies and I'm just a fan of neat and tidy cards like these that can lead to more depth with sequencing and decisions over the course of a game.
After cutting the MDFC lands, I am left with 5 cards from ZNR: some landfall cards, a kicker spell, a token maker and ... a first of its kind.
If I recall it correctly, this was the first black enchantment removal, that was actually good. And it was long oberdue imo, that a third color could answer that permanent type (after resolving that is), just as with artifacts. And I would argue that to this day, Feed the Swarm is still the number one card to do this. I am still waiting for 1-2 decent ones to add to my cube.
If I recall it correctly, this was the first black enchantment removal, that was actually good. And it was long oberdue imo, that a third color could answer that permanent type (after resolving that is), just as with artifacts. And I would argue that to this day, Feed the Swarm is still the number one card to do this. I am still waiting for 1-2 decent ones to add to my cube.
You prefer it to Withering Torment?After cutting the MDFC lands, I am left with 5 cards from ZNR: some landfall cards, a kicker spell, a token maker and ... a first of its kind.
If I recall it correctly, this was the first black enchantment removal, that was actually good. And it was long oberdue imo, that a third color could answer that permanent type (after resolving that is), just as with artifacts. And I would argue that to this day, Feed the Swarm is still the number one card to do this. I am still waiting for 1-2 decent ones to add to my cube.
I haven't run either in my cube due to enchantments not really being that big a factor, but I did run Feed the Swarm in EDH for a few years just out of necessity to deal with haymaker enchantments in mono-black or Rakdos decks I'd build. Once Torment got printed I just swapped over to that and haven't looked back. The instant speed and loss of life being set at 2 made it well worth the additional mana to cast and I've definitely cast it more than I ever did Swarm since its release last year. Swarm kind of felt bad targeting anything 4+ CMC whereas Torment just feels like an on-rate removal spell for the most part.
Fixed to what I deem more appropriate
If you want me to change it back let me know 
Tough to say. Most enchantments in my cube cost less than four mana. I'd say I like them both roughly equally.
Day: 005
Set: Onslaught (ONS)
Release Date: October 7, 2002
Cards: 350
Leads: Mike Elliott (Design), Randy Buehler (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
Onslaught was the end Magic's early era. It was the extreme of the late-90s/early-00s conception of what "cool" was (these sets give hardcore Conan the Barbarian vibes) and it was the last block with the "retro border". Onslaught's design feels somewhat modern in retrospect, with mechanical throughlines that make it easy to distinguish the cards that originated in this block.
This is the introduction of Morph and the first "creature types matter" set. Beloved mechanic cycling returns with a vengeance. Fetch lands debuted and, in a way, are the beginning of the end of color identity mattering for much beyond Commander rules.
The only cards I have from Onslaught in my Cube are the original cycle of fetches, which makes considering the dual focuses of morph and creature types. Morph has great gameplay but is hard to manage in many styles of Cube, and it's lost a lot of relevance due to the power creep of creatures at large. It's just harder to scale it in 2025, hence the variations we saw in MKM last year.
Onslaught was an excellent set -- the last set I'd broadly consider a "well-designed" set for a few years there. There are honestly too many great cards to pick. I love these "early" attempts at modal cards. Cycling allows for so much flexibility in how cards work, and it all comes together in Astral Slide, an early version of the style of build-arounds we now graciously get pretty much every set. Astral Slide basically forces you to reevaluate every card you've seen so far in the set, and lets you feel like your mind's gone to the astral plane.
Without a doubt, the most important cards for a huge % of Cubes, and very much my Cube, are the fetch lands. But in the end, like Mr. Garfield PHD, I think my favorite design is Goblin Sharpshooter.
Such a fun and evocative card that opens up so many different kinds of play, that tells you "please combo with me" but also is pretty good just as a value engine. It's great support for aristocrats. The funny thing is, I've hardly run it -- I just love the design.
With all the token support I've got, it's worthy of a reevaluation these days. I don't remember why I took it out, but looking at the history of my 3MV red creatures, I'm not surprised why I did. Still, it pairs extremely well with all-star Goblin Bombardment. I had no idea it's become expensive again, though!
What are your favorite designs from Odyssey from a Cube POV?
Set: Onslaught (ONS)
Release Date: October 7, 2002
Cards: 350
Leads: Mike Elliott (Design), Randy Buehler (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
Onslaught was the end Magic's early era. It was the extreme of the late-90s/early-00s conception of what "cool" was (these sets give hardcore Conan the Barbarian vibes) and it was the last block with the "retro border". Onslaught's design feels somewhat modern in retrospect, with mechanical throughlines that make it easy to distinguish the cards that originated in this block.
This is the introduction of Morph and the first "creature types matter" set. Beloved mechanic cycling returns with a vengeance. Fetch lands debuted and, in a way, are the beginning of the end of color identity mattering for much beyond Commander rules.
The only cards I have from Onslaught in my Cube are the original cycle of fetches, which makes considering the dual focuses of morph and creature types. Morph has great gameplay but is hard to manage in many styles of Cube, and it's lost a lot of relevance due to the power creep of creatures at large. It's just harder to scale it in 2025, hence the variations we saw in MKM last year.
Onslaught was an excellent set -- the last set I'd broadly consider a "well-designed" set for a few years there. There are honestly too many great cards to pick. I love these "early" attempts at modal cards. Cycling allows for so much flexibility in how cards work, and it all comes together in Astral Slide, an early version of the style of build-arounds we now graciously get pretty much every set. Astral Slide basically forces you to reevaluate every card you've seen so far in the set, and lets you feel like your mind's gone to the astral plane.
Without a doubt, the most important cards for a huge % of Cubes, and very much my Cube, are the fetch lands. But in the end, like Mr. Garfield PHD, I think my favorite design is Goblin Sharpshooter.
Such a fun and evocative card that opens up so many different kinds of play, that tells you "please combo with me" but also is pretty good just as a value engine. It's great support for aristocrats. The funny thing is, I've hardly run it -- I just love the design.
With all the token support I've got, it's worthy of a reevaluation these days. I don't remember why I took it out, but looking at the history of my 3MV red creatures, I'm not surprised why I did. Still, it pairs extremely well with all-star Goblin Bombardment. I had no idea it's become expensive again, though!
What are your favorite designs from Odyssey from a Cube POV?
Love what these bring to the table in terms of both synergy and gameplay. You take a tempo hit in favor of late game draw smoothing. I guess the desigb existed in Urza block, but the single mana to cycle is huge.
I remember getting in my first drafts with Onslaught and having no clue what to do.
Usually targeted discard is super frustrating to play against, but it is somewhat needed. Not every card can be interacted with the cards that you have. But they are still quite strong. Onslaught created my absolute favorite card for this effect:
(9th ed has the best flavor text bar none)
It can target any card, and it is up to the opponent to choose which of their three out of five to seven cards they want to lose. The effect is usually stronger going second since opponent will drop a land turn one. And in the endgame, you usually get to pick from their whole hand. Just super fun to play with and against, probably in my top ten cards.
(9th ed has the best flavor text bar none)
It can target any card, and it is up to the opponent to choose which of their three out of five to seven cards they want to lose. The effect is usually stronger going second since opponent will drop a land turn one. And in the endgame, you usually get to pick from their whole hand. Just super fun to play with and against, probably in my top ten cards.
Picking cards that both my current self and my 2005-self* liked:
That said, the latter is basically unplayable with how many cards have received creature type updates these days, and the former's the exact kind of grindy card advantage engine I try to not put in a cube, especially as an enchantment that's hard to kill...
...but I like 'em, okay?
*2005 but not now: Grinning Demon
now but not 2005: Blatant Thievery is a hoot in type 4 which I did not know about back then
edit: lord, they both got reprinted with hideous new art, huh? give me ci tag set parameter
That said, the latter is basically unplayable with how many cards have received creature type updates these days, and the former's the exact kind of grindy card advantage engine I try to not put in a cube, especially as an enchantment that's hard to kill...
...but I like 'em, okay?
*2005 but not now: Grinning Demon
now but not 2005: Blatant Thievery is a hoot in type 4 which I did not know about back then
edit: lord, they both got reprinted with hideous new art, huh? give me ci tag set parameter
I drafted more Onslaught than any other magic set. One card that was one of my favorites at the time was:
For a good decade, I had a supremely janky commander deck with Gigapede as the primary win-condition. I’d Intuition/entomb for wonder and filth…death by deadly insect
Other favorites from the set:
For a good decade, I had a supremely janky commander deck with Gigapede as the primary win-condition. I’d Intuition/entomb for wonder and filth…death by deadly insect
Other favorites from the set:
I'm gonna second (third?) Blackmail. Maybe my favorite card of all time. Having that card cast against me was one of the things that made me want to start building old border cube. The multiple layers of bluffing and decision making on both sides of the table is just unmatched. And for just a single black mana. Card is a whole game unto itself I fucking love it. As an enjoyer of mini game style cards I think it's the best one.
Damn, thread convinced me to add Blackmail to my cube.
It will then be the 11th onslaught card in my CCC, which indicates how much I likes the set (despite not being huge on tribal themes). Onslaught did not only bring two of my favorite mechanics with morph and cycling, it also created some stellar designs that get iterated on almost every set like Threaten, Explosive Vegetation or Nantuko Husk. Among those is also Smother, one of my favorite removal spells of all time that will never ever leave my cube.
However, my vote also has to go to these lands:
Having lands that cycle for just one mana is so huge. I run them in all my decks except the absolutely most aggressive ones, but they aren't just generic value pieces; they count for stuff like Hollow One, fill your graveyard for threshold style abilities or things like Ore-Scale Guardian and of course can generate card advantage with effects like Life from the Loam.
They are simply perfect and I'm more likely to break singleton for them than to ever cut them from my cube.
It will then be the 11th onslaught card in my CCC, which indicates how much I likes the set (despite not being huge on tribal themes). Onslaught did not only bring two of my favorite mechanics with morph and cycling, it also created some stellar designs that get iterated on almost every set like Threaten, Explosive Vegetation or Nantuko Husk. Among those is also Smother, one of my favorite removal spells of all time that will never ever leave my cube.
However, my vote also has to go to these lands:
Having lands that cycle for just one mana is so huge. I run them in all my decks except the absolutely most aggressive ones, but they aren't just generic value pieces; they count for stuff like Hollow One, fill your graveyard for threshold style abilities or things like Ore-Scale Guardian and of course can generate card advantage with effects like Life from the Loam.
They are simply perfect and I'm more likely to break singleton for them than to ever cut them from my cube.
Day: 006
Set: Foundations (FDN)
Release Date: November 15, 2024
Cards: 292*
Leads: Bryan Hawley (Design), Mark Rosewater (Vision)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
Note: this is just about the new cards in Foundations -- Foundations Jumpstart is going to be treated as a separate set.
A great set. I don't think it's ideal that the roulette landed on such a recent set, but it's bound to happen, especially when so many sets are so recent.
I adored Foundations, and have talked about it at length already on these forums. Like with Zendikar Rising, we luckily have the great analysis from our very own Parker at Lucky Paper about what cards people were most interested in testing out, and even though I've only run my Cube twice since the set came out in paper, I have done hundreds of mock drafts since then and way too much theorycrafting. I'm currently at 9 cards from the set in my Cube, which isn't bad considering how few of the cards were new.
Now this is pod racing. Foundations has a whole pile of clean and evocative designs that will stand the test of time. Not all of them make sense for every Cube, but goodness, you can't look at these cards as a Magic player and not feel something, not get at least a little excited.
Sphinx of Forgotten Lore is currently rocking out in my on-deck binder. It was printed just a few years too late to be a totalizing Cube darling, something that could have held the entire community in a chokehold. Just imagine 2018, where it would be THE crux of any argument for or against the Vindicate test, particularly as a card that offers close to mana parity with the Orzhov rare. I think it's probably a bit too slow for what I'm trying to do these days and would've been a killer target for a Ward 2 bonus in development, but that also makes the card 10x less elegant and I can't complain that I can't have my cake and eat it too, as much as I love this effect and want it in my main list.
I'm currently running Sawhorn Nemesis over Twinflame Tyrant, but I think the dichotomy of these two cards, printed just months apart, illustrates beautifully why Foundations is so great. I'd rather pay one less mana for a smaller dude who can't fly with this effect, as it lets it more easily slot into aggressive decks rather than giving an explosive surprise for midrange, but I won't pretend for a moment that I would rather have the aesthetics, both in the art box and in the text box, of the Tyrant instead.
I'm really mad at myself for not giving Raise the Past more of a chance, but my playgroup was loud and clear that they didn't find this card compelling in the slightest. I've been waiting so long for this card!! I guess Dewdrop Cure is the same thing but better most of the time, though.
But my favorite card? I can't pick one. I love both of these ladies too much:
They both tell you "here's how you play with me" and give you a little nudge in that direction, but it feels less handholdy and more of a first push on the swing set. The modern style of "enabler AND payoff" is annoying, yes, but this is the right balance of that, done in a way that allows your Cube to have much more synergistic feeling gameplay without having to hope beyond hope that the right exact enablers make it around the table to you or that you have to rip that one piece from your deck to make it function.
They're build-around cards that play just fine in a dozen other strategies. They're powerful, but don't demand the game revolves around them for several turns. Being able to sit back with Alesha is maybe not ideal from a "promoting healthy and fair gameplay" POV, but at least she needs to attack to scale her ability in most situations. I love these two, and I love Foundations.
I really wish these were the arts they had in their normal frames, but at least the color of their art clearly communicates their color identity.
Set: Foundations (FDN)
Release Date: November 15, 2024
Cards: 292*
Leads: Bryan Hawley (Design), Mark Rosewater (Vision)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
Note: this is just about the new cards in Foundations -- Foundations Jumpstart is going to be treated as a separate set.
A great set. I don't think it's ideal that the roulette landed on such a recent set, but it's bound to happen, especially when so many sets are so recent.
I adored Foundations, and have talked about it at length already on these forums. Like with Zendikar Rising, we luckily have the great analysis from our very own Parker at Lucky Paper about what cards people were most interested in testing out, and even though I've only run my Cube twice since the set came out in paper, I have done hundreds of mock drafts since then and way too much theorycrafting. I'm currently at 9 cards from the set in my Cube, which isn't bad considering how few of the cards were new.
Now this is pod racing. Foundations has a whole pile of clean and evocative designs that will stand the test of time. Not all of them make sense for every Cube, but goodness, you can't look at these cards as a Magic player and not feel something, not get at least a little excited.
Sphinx of Forgotten Lore is currently rocking out in my on-deck binder. It was printed just a few years too late to be a totalizing Cube darling, something that could have held the entire community in a chokehold. Just imagine 2018, where it would be THE crux of any argument for or against the Vindicate test, particularly as a card that offers close to mana parity with the Orzhov rare. I think it's probably a bit too slow for what I'm trying to do these days and would've been a killer target for a Ward 2 bonus in development, but that also makes the card 10x less elegant and I can't complain that I can't have my cake and eat it too, as much as I love this effect and want it in my main list.
I'm currently running Sawhorn Nemesis over Twinflame Tyrant, but I think the dichotomy of these two cards, printed just months apart, illustrates beautifully why Foundations is so great. I'd rather pay one less mana for a smaller dude who can't fly with this effect, as it lets it more easily slot into aggressive decks rather than giving an explosive surprise for midrange, but I won't pretend for a moment that I would rather have the aesthetics, both in the art box and in the text box, of the Tyrant instead.
I'm really mad at myself for not giving Raise the Past more of a chance, but my playgroup was loud and clear that they didn't find this card compelling in the slightest. I've been waiting so long for this card!! I guess Dewdrop Cure is the same thing but better most of the time, though.
But my favorite card? I can't pick one. I love both of these ladies too much:
They both tell you "here's how you play with me" and give you a little nudge in that direction, but it feels less handholdy and more of a first push on the swing set. The modern style of "enabler AND payoff" is annoying, yes, but this is the right balance of that, done in a way that allows your Cube to have much more synergistic feeling gameplay without having to hope beyond hope that the right exact enablers make it around the table to you or that you have to rip that one piece from your deck to make it function.
They're build-around cards that play just fine in a dozen other strategies. They're powerful, but don't demand the game revolves around them for several turns. Being able to sit back with Alesha is maybe not ideal from a "promoting healthy and fair gameplay" POV, but at least she needs to attack to scale her ability in most situations. I love these two, and I love Foundations.
I really wish these were the arts they had in their normal frames, but at least the color of their art clearly communicates their color identity.
Foundations was pretty awesome. If you don't count Goblin Surprise, I am currently only running four cards from that set, but considering that it was 50% reprints and that there are several that could make it into my list in the future, that's a good rate.
Cat Collector and Vampire Gourmand are well designed payoffs for their themes and I am very happy with both, but my vote has to go to the perfect card, that came by, just while I was searching for it:
Kykar here does everything I wanted my one azorius card to do, it is nice in an aggro-control deck, supports the blink theme and even bridges the proactive (red-)white prowess package with the more control-oriented blue based instant/sorcery matters cards.
It doesn't hurt that Kykar also came in a super gorgeous full art version.
Cat Collector and Vampire Gourmand are well designed payoffs for their themes and I am very happy with both, but my vote has to go to the perfect
card, that came by, just while I was searching for it:Kykar here does everything I wanted my one azorius card to do, it is nice in an aggro-control deck, supports the blink theme and even bridges the proactive (red-)white prowess package with the more control-oriented blue based instant/sorcery matters cards.
It doesn't hurt that Kykar also came in a super gorgeous full art version.
I'm always on the lookout for more interesting discard options, will definitely be giving Blackmail a try for my next cube draft. More interactivity just leads to more engaging games in the long run and giving Black decks more options for their a core identity of disruption is just better in the long run.
Nothing too interesting to contribute with Onslaught; after looking through my cube the only cards originally from that block are the fetchlands and we've already covered those thoroughly over the last decade here on the forums. Just a fundamental building block for my cube environment that wouldn't really exist without them (thanks Khans of Tarkir for hooking it up for a poor college boy in 2014!).
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Foundations was a fantastic release in recent years, it's exactly the kind of set we needed. I've grown less enthused over time with individual set offerings as they've drifted further away from what made me interested in the game in the first place, but Foundations felt like a (brief) return to form. I really enjoyed playing the prerelease as a kind of Core Set+ experience and the thing I loved most was the simplicity of the designs and the limited environment. What drew me back into Magic over a decade ago was a game that had a simple system on its surface but the depth of gameplay could be expanded many times over with interactions and synergistic designs. When you could assemble wacky combinations and sequences to create a sum that was greater than the individual parts. I'd say that's a big problem I have with many current designs where there's too much of an all-in-one aspect to it where it takes away the player's ability to explore by just providing all the tools and answers in the same package.
I want the puzzle box. I want to be able to "solve" a boardstate and manage the resources towards winning the game. I don't want to just drop haymaker after haymaker or cards that just provide me board presence AND card advantage AND can always be easily deployed on any boardstate. That's what makes Limited so interesting where the decisions of when to fire off certain spells or block in specific ways makes sense. Am I okay taking 4 damage here or do I need to chump block so I can hit my 6th land drop and play my stabilizer? You need those kind of gameplay patterns to keep things interesting and Foundations did exactly that.
It also really put into perspective how unnecessarily complex so many cards have become in recent years where reading through isn't enough to understand exactly how they worked. No such issues with these offerings from Foundations with familiar offerings or effects that were reminiscent of classic designs:
Of these cards my favorite inclusion has to be Searslicer Goblin. I've loved the Raid mechanic ever since it was first introduced in KTK and it's just such a neat way of leveling up your players' understanding of sequencing. Making combat matter is very important for any good draft environment and being able to deploy Searslicer in the 2nd main to build up that board presence is so fun. I love that the tokens can self-propagate where you can just suicide charge your way into a big blocker because you'll just be replacing the body post-combat anyway. Really extends the reach of cards like Vraan, Executioner Thane and other Blood Artist effects. Opening up token synergies with cards like Staff of the Storyteller and Toby, Beastie Befriender is a huge plus as well.
I liked this card so much that I removed Young Pyromancer from my voucher system and replaced it with this one because it slots into so many more R/x decks while providing similar token support. I see this card being a stone cold staple in my cube for a long time.
Foundations release and listening to older episodes of Lucky Paper Radio have really made me go back and re-evaluate my cube (slowly) on a card-by-card basis over the last few months trying to recapture the core gameplay I was looking for a decade ago. While I do enjoy new designs and will gladly play more powerful cards in my EDH decks, there's a different goal as the curator of a cube environment and it's something I'm really focusing on now. I want to figure out where to best use my "complexity points" in cube design and sets like this really help to limit the unnecessary overhead you get with so many cards being printed every other month.
Nothing too interesting to contribute with Onslaught; after looking through my cube the only cards originally from that block are the fetchlands and we've already covered those thoroughly over the last decade here on the forums. Just a fundamental building block for my cube environment that wouldn't really exist without them (thanks Khans of Tarkir for hooking it up for a poor college boy in 2014!).
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Foundations was a fantastic release in recent years, it's exactly the kind of set we needed. I've grown less enthused over time with individual set offerings as they've drifted further away from what made me interested in the game in the first place, but Foundations felt like a (brief) return to form. I really enjoyed playing the prerelease as a kind of Core Set+ experience and the thing I loved most was the simplicity of the designs and the limited environment. What drew me back into Magic over a decade ago was a game that had a simple system on its surface but the depth of gameplay could be expanded many times over with interactions and synergistic designs. When you could assemble wacky combinations and sequences to create a sum that was greater than the individual parts. I'd say that's a big problem I have with many current designs where there's too much of an all-in-one aspect to it where it takes away the player's ability to explore by just providing all the tools and answers in the same package.
I want the puzzle box. I want to be able to "solve" a boardstate and manage the resources towards winning the game. I don't want to just drop haymaker after haymaker or cards that just provide me board presence AND card advantage AND can always be easily deployed on any boardstate. That's what makes Limited so interesting where the decisions of when to fire off certain spells or block in specific ways makes sense. Am I okay taking 4 damage here or do I need to chump block so I can hit my 6th land drop and play my stabilizer? You need those kind of gameplay patterns to keep things interesting and Foundations did exactly that.
It also really put into perspective how unnecessarily complex so many cards have become in recent years where reading through isn't enough to understand exactly how they worked. No such issues with these offerings from Foundations with familiar offerings or effects that were reminiscent of classic designs:
Of these cards my favorite inclusion has to be Searslicer Goblin. I've loved the Raid mechanic ever since it was first introduced in KTK and it's just such a neat way of leveling up your players' understanding of sequencing. Making combat matter is very important for any good draft environment and being able to deploy Searslicer in the 2nd main to build up that board presence is so fun. I love that the tokens can self-propagate where you can just suicide charge your way into a big blocker because you'll just be replacing the body post-combat anyway. Really extends the reach of cards like Vraan, Executioner Thane and other Blood Artist effects. Opening up token synergies with cards like Staff of the Storyteller and Toby, Beastie Befriender is a huge plus as well.
I liked this card so much that I removed Young Pyromancer from my voucher system and replaced it with this one because it slots into so many more R/x decks while providing similar token support. I see this card being a stone cold staple in my cube for a long time.
Foundations release and listening to older episodes of Lucky Paper Radio have really made me go back and re-evaluate my cube (slowly) on a card-by-card basis over the last few months trying to recapture the core gameplay I was looking for a decade ago. While I do enjoy new designs and will gladly play more powerful cards in my EDH decks, there's a different goal as the curator of a cube environment and it's something I'm really focusing on now. I want to figure out where to best use my "complexity points" in cube design and sets like this really help to limit the unnecessary overhead you get with so many cards being printed every other month.
Day: 007
Set: Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Release Date: October 4, 1999
Cards: 350
Leads: Mike Elliot (Design), Henry Stern (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
Ah, Masques. The "we're sorry" follow-up to Urza's Block / Combo Winter. Intentionally powered down and filled with bad mechanics that lead to repetitive play patterns, there's still a lot to love in Masques. If only the cards were a little better!
I only run one card from Masques at the moment:
I love Snuff Out. This mechanic is pretty fun in general. Paying life for cards instead of mana is sexy, and on reactive cards like this, it feels powerful but not backbreaking. It's maybe my favorite removal in black these days.
We also got a cycle of free cards in the form of Misdirection and Unmask, which are a bit more in line with the Alliances cycle famous for Force of Will. Card advantage is again, a pretty reasonable cost to save on mana.
Squee, Goblin Nabob, Waterfront Bouncer, and Bribery were longtime staples of my list. They don't really suit my design goals anymore, but I still enjoy their designs immensely. But my favorite card in the set?
Gush. Gush is always in and out of my Cube. I don't think it's quite there in my Legacy-light style of Cube, though it's fallen out of favor with vintage lists too. But I still think it's fine. I love having the out to be able to cast this and have the mana to play the cards immediately if played main phase, or to replay one of the lands quickly if done at your opponent's end step. There are only so many cards that have an entire book written about how to play them, and few else would deserve the honor.
I want to put Gush back in my Cube. Card is so sweet, so skill-testing, and so novel. What a fantastic piece of cardboard.
(also shoutout to Tower of the Magistrate for knocking dozens of swords of x and y off unsuspecting new players in the first 10 years of my Cube, to Rishadan Pawnshop for making my brain spin in a dozen directions, Mercadian Bazaar for having some of the best art on a red nonbasic land, and Dawnstrider for making the most miserable games of Magic my Cube has ever produced. man, I love Masques)
edit: actually, should I put Mercadia's Downfall back in? My cube is like, 1/7th nonbasics. It used to be really good, I think it could be again.
Set: Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Release Date: October 4, 1999
Cards: 350
Leads: Mike Elliot (Design), Henry Stern (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
Ah, Masques. The "we're sorry" follow-up to Urza's Block / Combo Winter. Intentionally powered down and filled with bad mechanics that lead to repetitive play patterns, there's still a lot to love in Masques. If only the cards were a little better!
I only run one card from Masques at the moment:
I love Snuff Out. This mechanic is pretty fun in general. Paying life for cards instead of mana is sexy, and on reactive cards like this, it feels powerful but not backbreaking. It's maybe my favorite removal in black these days.
We also got a cycle of free cards in the form of Misdirection and Unmask, which are a bit more in line with the Alliances cycle famous for Force of Will. Card advantage is again, a pretty reasonable cost to save on mana.
Squee, Goblin Nabob, Waterfront Bouncer, and Bribery were longtime staples of my list. They don't really suit my design goals anymore, but I still enjoy their designs immensely. But my favorite card in the set?
Gush. Gush is always in and out of my Cube. I don't think it's quite there in my Legacy-light style of Cube, though it's fallen out of favor with vintage lists too. But I still think it's fine. I love having the out to be able to cast this and have the mana to play the cards immediately if played main phase, or to replay one of the lands quickly if done at your opponent's end step. There are only so many cards that have an entire book written about how to play them, and few else would deserve the honor.
I want to put Gush back in my Cube. Card is so sweet, so skill-testing, and so novel. What a fantastic piece of cardboard.
(also shoutout to Tower of the Magistrate for knocking dozens of swords of x and y off unsuspecting new players in the first 10 years of my Cube, to Rishadan Pawnshop for making my brain spin in a dozen directions, Mercadian Bazaar for having some of the best art on a red nonbasic land, and Dawnstrider for making the most miserable games of Magic my Cube has ever produced. man, I love Masques)
edit: actually, should I put Mercadia's Downfall back in? My cube is like, 1/7th nonbasics. It used to be really good, I think it could be again.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Make no mistake, Masques isn't weak, its just that all the cards that are powerful are about stopping your opponent from doing anything