well, we exhausted all nineteen Magic: the Gathering expansions, so we have to wait until a new set comes outI loved this thread when it was alive
General [Almost Daily] Every Set in Magic, Cube Edition
- Thread starter MilesOfficial
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Day: 020
Set: Planeshift (PLS)
Release Date: February 5 2001
Cards: 146
Leads: Mark Rosewater (Design), William Jockusch (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
this set has a bunch of great one-off designs and also some of the most hilariously miserable white cards of all time
i love stupid-ass small sets like this that are utterly devoted to their ill-advised themes to a fault
kavu is the obvious winner here
so i will also give a shoutout to these boys:
sunscape in particular i think is underplayed in cubes. it's a medallion that also stuffs aggro for you! very sweet and gets people to play old border bant of all things. i also really like the flavor text absolutely straining to make the story of the card make sense.
thunderscape familiar also holds the distinction of being an old border red 2-drop that isn't miserably unplayable. wow!
anyway what is your favorite card from planeshift and you aren't allowed to say quirion dryad or terminate
Set: Planeshift (PLS)
Release Date: February 5 2001
Cards: 146
Leads: Mark Rosewater (Design), William Jockusch (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
this set has a bunch of great one-off designs and also some of the most hilariously miserable white cards of all time
i love stupid-ass small sets like this that are utterly devoted to their ill-advised themes to a fault
kavu is the obvious winner here
so i will also give a shoutout to these boys:
sunscape in particular i think is underplayed in cubes. it's a medallion that also stuffs aggro for you! very sweet and gets people to play old border bant of all things. i also really like the flavor text absolutely straining to make the story of the card make sense.
thunderscape familiar also holds the distinction of being an old border red 2-drop that isn't miserably unplayable. wow!
anyway what is your favorite card from planeshift and you aren't allowed to say quirion dryad or terminate
I like the tutors from this set
Rates are solid and it’s tough to jam them into any old deck like DT. You need a reason to want these and if you do, they are pretty great.
Shout out to Rushing River that I enjoy because it’s often a tough call when to use the kicker or not. Can you press your advantage before sacrificing that lands kicks you in the butt?
Rates are solid and it’s tough to jam them into any old deck like DT. You need a reason to want these and if you do, they are pretty great.
Shout out to Rushing River that I enjoy because it’s often a tough call when to use the kicker or not. Can you press your advantage before sacrificing that lands kicks you in the butt?
Planeshift was hot garbage, but I have a soft spot for Invasion block's horrible and fantastic designs. I love the familiar cycle mentioned before, as well as the battlemages. Thornscape battlemage is just a bad Flametongue Kavu, but I love the weird kicker proto modular effect that gives a bit of flexibility, but mostly I'm just a sucker for Andrew Goldhawk's Frazetta inspired art.
I'm pretty fond of Sunken Hope as well, great for creature light strategies, but very dependant on how heavily you run ETB creatures in your cube.
Great fun when coupled with Meddling Mage, which was also vomited onto this earth in Planeshift.
Right now, though, the only card I'm running is Rushing River, because I love the dilemma, it fills the yard, etc. etc.
I'm pretty fond of Sunken Hope as well, great for creature light strategies, but very dependant on how heavily you run ETB creatures in your cube.
Great fun when coupled with Meddling Mage, which was also vomited onto this earth in Planeshift.
Right now, though, the only card I'm running is Rushing River, because I love the dilemma, it fills the yard, etc. etc.
I love Planeshift. IPA block in general, that I was too young to see live but luckily managed to do a couple flashback drafts on MODO.
One card I really like and always try to stuff in cubes is:
So many play patterns! Save a creature of mine + tempo on a creature of the opponent? Don't mind if I do! Double Unsummon? Also useful sometimes! Mass retreat of my two most valuable pieces as a response to a wrath? Perfect! Not to mention how great it is with Eternal Witness or Archaeomancer
I also like the art of this card a lot. Aesthetics is a very important factor
Then there are the classics: Quirion Dryad, the familiars, the battlemages, Terminate, FTK...
One card I really like and always try to stuff in cubes is:
So many play patterns! Save a creature of mine + tempo on a creature of the opponent? Don't mind if I do! Double Unsummon? Also useful sometimes! Mass retreat of my two most valuable pieces as a response to a wrath? Perfect! Not to mention how great it is with Eternal Witness or Archaeomancer
I also like the art of this card a lot. Aesthetics is a very important factor
Then there are the classics: Quirion Dryad, the familiars, the battlemages, Terminate, FTK...
Besides the ones already named:
It is hard to choose a favorite, but maybe:
The ipa block was great. The games have a good pace (slow for these days), no power outliers which run away immediately and so on. The only thing is that the fixing was too few in regular draft. It would benefit from joker tap duals in a block cube draft.
Or in my case, I made 6 60 card dragon decks which could be made more or less from a draft from a block cube.
It is hard to choose a favorite, but maybe:
The ipa block was great. The games have a good pace (slow for these days), no power outliers which run away immediately and so on. The only thing is that the fixing was too few in regular draft. It would benefit from joker tap duals in a block cube draft.
Or in my case, I made 6 60 card dragon decks which could be made more or less from a draft from a block cube.
Like, a battlebox? I am curious, if you have the decklists
Planeshift is weird. It is an old set that looks really cool, but between it being very low power, it being a gold set and FTK being too strong for my cube, it happens that I don't run any PLS cards in my cube(s). Well, you could argue, that I technically do run one:
I mostly run sunlance because I love the planar chaos color shifted frames and it was the best option for white. Normally I don't want my one mana removal spells to deal with creature with toughness >2, but that one gets a pass for irrational reasons.
However, my favorite design of Planeshift has to be this one:
I remember having a casual Ninja deck like 15 years ago where this was pretty sweet. The Harpy bounces your Ninjas, is evasive and can, if needed, even bounce itself. It is really not that powerful but does all the things for ninjutsu.
Some honorable mentions that haven't been mentioned so far:
Confound is a cool counterspell to promote tempo without pushing control.
Gaea's Might is a super well and elegantly designed domain payoff.
Star Compass is a cool mana rock that helps you explicitly not supporting 5-color but let's you cast your and cards on time.
I mostly run sunlance because I love the planar chaos color shifted frames and it was the best option for white. Normally I don't want my one mana removal spells to deal with creature with toughness >2, but that one gets a pass for irrational reasons.
However, my favorite design of Planeshift has to be this one:
I remember having a casual Ninja deck like 15 years ago where this was pretty sweet. The Harpy bounces your Ninjas, is evasive and can, if needed, even bounce itself. It is really not that powerful but does all the things for ninjutsu.
Some honorable mentions that haven't been mentioned so far:
Confound is a cool counterspell to promote tempo without pushing control.
Gaea's Might is a super well and elegantly designed domain payoff.
Star Compass is a cool mana rock that helps you explicitly not supporting 5-color but let's you cast your
and cards on time.I will try to make a list. What website would you prefer?Like, a battlebox? I am curious, if you have the decklists
Great, thanks! I have no strong preference for decklist website, there is none that has totally convinced me yet
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
* cough * Spiritmonger *cough *
* cough * Flametongue Kavu * cough *
* cough * Magma Burst * cough *
landofMordor
Administrator
Planeshift is not really a set I'd looked at in detail before.
I love it when players are incentivized to aspirationally splash. Not a reckless 5-color soup; not a full 8-9 split of basics; more like two Treasure-makers and a half-on-color bounceland or fetchable. These Battlemages really do it for me. Take Thunderscape, for example -- probably most often cast for, but the Kicker is super high-leverage so it's worth having access to, but enchantments are also relatively niche so it's not worth too much risk, and therefore you might add 1-2 sources but not commit to a full 3-color deck. Which makes those exploratory early fixing picks take on new relevance, and maybe now it's worth weighting your Domain cards more highly, too, etc etc etc. And that's on top of Kicker's innately fun spend-more-get-more dynamic!
They went a little too heavy on the Sawtooth Loon style self-bounce, I think. There's 13(ish) of these designs. But a little dash of it can be super cool, and it's balanced in this card file by gold cards that are standalone cool and open-ended.
I love it when players are incentivized to aspirationally splash. Not a reckless 5-color soup; not a full 8-9 split of basics; more like two Treasure-makers and a half-on-color bounceland or fetchable. These Battlemages really do it for me. Take Thunderscape, for example -- probably most often cast for
, but the Kicker is super high-leverage so it's worth having access to, but enchantments are also relatively niche so it's not worth too much risk, and therefore you might add 1-2 sources but not commit to a full 3-color deck. Which makes those exploratory early fixing picks take on new relevance, and maybe now it's worth weighting your Domain cards more highly, too, etc etc etc. And that's on top of Kicker's innately fun spend-more-get-more dynamic! They went a little too heavy on the Sawtooth Loon style self-bounce, I think. There's 13(ish) of these designs. But a little dash of it can be super cool, and it's balanced in this card file by gold cards that are standalone cool and open-ended.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Invasion was my first block. Now I want to make an Invasion remastered cube, with a dash of actual good fixing from outside of the block But I already own two cubes!
By the way, this was a stellar pick in Invasion block draft, precisely because of those splashes!
You could also remove access to a color from your opponent if you were sneaky
But I already own two cubes! By the way, this was a stellar pick in Invasion block draft, precisely because of those splashes!
You could also remove access to a color from your opponent if you were sneaky
Yes strong cards. Thing is that the monger can be chumped for life. The kavu is strong, but a liability when the opponent has no creatures (which happens sometimes). Other times it's a 2 for one, which the ipa block is famous for. The burst is a 3 for 2.
Edit: I am speaking from a draft/cube perspective. Constructed is a whole different beast and then spiritmonger/kavu were really strong.
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In my (insane) opinion, part of the reason for this is that it's really two mechanics, not one.
Cause most of them are Cavern Harpy. You're playing them to cheaply rebuy your FTK or whatever, and you get a body as a reward.
Evidence for this being a thing they wanted to do on purpose is present in both "another card that does it" and "a thing to do it with":
and respectively(Seriously, it says LEAVES play kill a thing? It was clearly designed for this! What an awful play pattern!)
And then some of them are "hey it's an undercosted beater":
The latter doesn't look it, but there are literally four creatures with more than four power in Planeshift - Draco and Stratadon are two and the last one is Sparkcaster, another of these self-bouncers - so by 2001 standards, sure, whatever.
For the second group, it seems like it's intended to be a drawback (those three above plus Doomsday Specter) to give you a better body rather than an enabler for some shenanigans.
...and then Razing Snidd and Marsh Crocodile? Who the hell knows, they're kinda both, neither card seems even remotely fun to play against, typical 2001.
No offense, but statements like this kinda trigger me
I was thinking about you when I read that
I agree but I thought you would be better at explaining it than me.
Pretty much. Also, kicker was introduced in Invasion, so it also helped as a way to "reset" creatures you didn't kick but who were already on the battlefield by returning them to your hand and allowing you play them with their kicker, or replay as them in the case of the battlemages.In my (insane) opinion, part of the reason for this is that it's really two mechanics, not one.
Cause most of them are Cavern Harpy. You're playing them to cheaply rebuy your FTK or whatever, and you get a body as a reward.
Evidence for this being a thing they wanted to do on purpose is present in both "another card that does it" and "a thing to do it with":
(Seriously, it says LEAVES play kill a thing? It was clearly designed for this! What an awful play pattern!)
And then some of them are "hey it's an undercosted beater":
The latter doesn't look it, but there are literally four creatures with more than four power in Planeshift - Draco and Stratadon are two and the last one is Sparkcaster, another of these self-bouncers - so by 2001 standards, sure, whatever.
For the second group, it seems like it's intended to be a drawback (those three above plus Doomsday Specter) to give you a better body rather than an enabler for some shenanigans.
...and then Razing Snidd and Marsh Crocodile? Who the hell knows, they're kinda both, neither card seems even remotely fun to play against, typical 2001.
That’s just how sets were designed back then; a ton of variations on the same design. Mirrodin has four different black creatures that get +1/+0 for each artifact you control. Vertical cycles (similar cards at each rarity) were a lot more common. The planeshift self-bounce creatures have the distinction of being both; with a full cycle at both common and uncommon and several rares.
Day: 021
Set: Rise of the Eldrazi (ROE)
Release Date: April 23, 2010
Cards: 248
Leads: Brian Tinsman (Design), Matt Place (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
What a sick fucking set (not biased bc it came out when I was like 14, no sir). I thought that maybe since this set is so devoted to its weird themes, there wouldn't actually be a ton of good cube cards in the file, but look at all these classics!
The set even has Chris Taylor!
And level up cards if there's something wrong with you!
But I'm gonna give my nod to this guy:
What more could you possibly want from a green 2 drop? Ramps, makes 2 bodies for shenanigans, strong rate but eminently fair. Nest Invader is that bitch.
I could honestly list cards from this set forever, you just keep scrolling and finding more cool stuff!
Set: Rise of the Eldrazi (ROE)
Release Date: April 23, 2010
Cards: 248
Leads: Brian Tinsman (Design), Matt Place (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
What a sick fucking set (not biased bc it came out when I was like 14, no sir). I thought that maybe since this set is so devoted to its weird themes, there wouldn't actually be a ton of good cube cards in the file, but look at all these classics!
The set even has Chris Taylor!
And level up cards if there's something wrong with you!
But I'm gonna give my nod to this guy:
What more could you possibly want from a green 2 drop? Ramps, makes 2 bodies for shenanigans, strong rate but eminently fair. Nest Invader is that bitch.
I could honestly list cards from this set forever, you just keep scrolling and finding more cool stuff!
God, this set was just an absolute unit. So many fun things to choose from. Designwise, it doesn't get much better, really. There's just so much stuff.
Totem auras:
Self saccing spawns are just beautiful design, along with everything in green like awakening zone or the aforementioned nest invader:
I had a whole host of commons from the set that lived in my pauper cube for years:
These two are my favorites, though. I should think about adding them back in. No guts no glory:
Totem auras:
Self saccing spawns are just beautiful design, along with everything in green like awakening zone or the aforementioned nest invader:
I had a whole host of commons from the set that lived in my pauper cube for years:
These two are my favorites, though. I should think about adding them back in. No guts no glory:
I remember that!!
I totally forgot but I remember that now. Back then I was not sure how much I wanted to engage with the internet except in Diablo II but I followed this process religiously! Fun that you participated <3
Rise of the Eldrazi is one of my favorite set ever because of the way it was revealed.
First Wizards went into a lot of trouble teaching us the religion and the history of Zendikar. Mind you that this took a long time for them back then because three sets took a years to get released.
Then they demolished all that with “What if everything you knew was a lie?” article to really mess with people. It was great! They really planned this well in advance.
And the way Kozilek rose from that Eye of Ugin was insane! We wouldn’t even get this like this today where the technology allows for it so easily.
It is the first and only time I have ever felt sorry for the fictive people of a Magic plane. They really got the bad end of the stick here. Their entire reality a lie. That was amazing writing if you ask me. And we (the real world fans and consumers) were treated like we were of Zendikar origins. Damn Wizards! <3
First Wizards went into a lot of trouble teaching us the religion and the history of Zendikar. Mind you that this took a long time for them back then because three sets took a years to get released.
Then they demolished all that with “What if everything you knew was a lie?” article to really mess with people. It was great! They really planned this well in advance.
And the way Kozilek rose from that Eye of Ugin was insane! We wouldn’t even get this like this today where the technology allows for it so easily.
It is the first and only time I have ever felt sorry for the fictive people of a Magic plane. They really got the bad end of the stick here. Their entire reality a lie. That was amazing writing if you ask me. And we (the real world fans and consumers) were treated like we were of Zendikar origins. Damn Wizards! <3
As absolutely stupid as it is, I still absolutely adore
Discounting the infinite combos, it's still an amazingly fun card that can do fun shenanigans like
etc etc (and that's not even counting the "dies" triggers)
Sure, Kiki-Jiki was here first, but he's five mana and dies to shock
if only it wasn't twenty dollars... good thing I got two when it was only a buck
Can you tell that I'm a Timmy?
Discounting the infinite combos, it's still an amazingly fun card that can do fun shenanigans like
etc etc (and that's not even counting the "dies" triggers)
Sure, Kiki-Jiki was here first, but he's five mana and dies to shock
if only it wasn't twenty dollars... good thing I got two when it was only a buck
Can you tell that I'm a Timmy?
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Day: 022
Set: Born of the Gods (BNG)
Release Date: February 7th, 2014
Cards: 165
Leads: Ken Nagle (Design), Tom Lapille (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
The second set in the Theros block, Born of the Gods explored Xenagos's ascension to godhood and the aftermath of that event.
Although not the low-water mark for the "Heroic Age" of Magic (Return to Ravnica–Magic Origins), it is definitely one of the sets that drug down the average quality of the era. However, there were many cool cards in the set which have remained relevant for Cube designers the world over:
These three 3 mana cards are some of the coolest in the set in my opinion, providing midrange decks with fun options that add some beef to the board in interesting ways. Course of Kruphix specifically has served as the template for several other popular designs in the years since, although I don't think any have been quite as fun as the original.
This set featured the first Kiora Planeswalker card to Magic:
Although she is most popular for her War of the Spark variant, I think this is still an awesome Planeswalker design, especially with the cool ultimate!
A few cool role-players were also introduced in the set:
I am especially a fan of Satyr Wayfinder, a card which is great at filling the graveyard and finding lands.
In general, I think BNG is considered to be a bit of a flop. While it doesn't have a ton of redeeming qualities, I think the cool cards it does have are worth celebrating!
Set: Born of the Gods (BNG)
Release Date: February 7th, 2014
Cards: 165
Leads: Ken Nagle (Design), Tom Lapille (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
The second set in the Theros block, Born of the Gods explored Xenagos's ascension to godhood and the aftermath of that event.
Although not the low-water mark for the "Heroic Age" of Magic (Return to Ravnica–Magic Origins), it is definitely one of the sets that drug down the average quality of the era. However, there were many cool cards in the set which have remained relevant for Cube designers the world over:
These three 3 mana cards are some of the coolest in the set in my opinion, providing midrange decks with fun options that add some beef to the board in interesting ways. Course of Kruphix specifically has served as the template for several other popular designs in the years since, although I don't think any have been quite as fun as the original.
This set featured the first Kiora Planeswalker card to Magic:
Although she is most popular for her War of the Spark variant, I think this is still an awesome Planeswalker design, especially with the cool ultimate!
A few cool role-players were also introduced in the set:
I am especially a fan of Satyr Wayfinder, a card which is great at filling the graveyard and finding lands.
In general, I think BNG is considered to be a bit of a flop. While it doesn't have a ton of redeeming qualities, I think the cool cards it does have are worth celebrating!
I fucking love Satyr Wayfinder. It's not even in my cube. I just wanna talk about how much I love it. We just got Town Greeter and I was like "IT'S A SATYR WAYFINDER! I LOVE SATYR WAYFINDER!"
I thought I was gonna hate it. Then I played it in Constructed. Then I started playing it, and all its variants, in Limited forever. I love it.
sure yeah set's fine whatever Courser, Brimaz (I like Adeline better), blah blah, whatever. I guess Spirit of the Labyrinth deserves nonzero praise. Retraction Helix is fun for people with far more intricate cubes than myself (compliment)
I thought I was gonna hate it. Then I played it in Constructed. Then I started playing it, and all its variants, in Limited forever. I love it.
sure yeah set's fine whatever Courser, Brimaz (I like Adeline better), blah blah, whatever. I guess Spirit of the Labyrinth deserves nonzero praise. Retraction Helix is fun for people with far more intricate cubes than myself (compliment)