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

[ravnic]

Day: 025
Set: Throne of Eldraine (ELD)
Release Date: October 4, 2019
Cards: 269
Design & Development: Mark Rosewater (lead), Peter Lee, Andrew Brown, Dan Burdick, Ethan Fleischer, Mark Gottlieb, Mickey Cushing, Pete Ingram, Sam Stoddard, Kelly Digges, Cynthia Sheppard
Art Direction: Cynthia Sheppard
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: Link

Wow, I clicked on random card on scryfall and ended up with Taste of Death, so here we go with a real banger of a set. It broke many formats, but nothing can break cube of course. How ever, anyone interested in the history of Eldraine, Cardmarket just uploaded this sweet video on it:

Personally, I loved eldrain. It introduced adventures, beautiful showcase frames, had a great retail limited format and even had some mono color support for my CCC. Today, I am cubing 16 cards from ELD, ten of which have an adventure. Adventures are really cool, they give you some extra value to your creature without spamming too many etbs. They add flexibility like kicker does and they also work with prowess-style themes.



Even somewhat dorky adventure cards like Rimrock Knight become appealing once you realised how free they really are. They really helped me to establish prowess as an archetype, since they always are a noncreature spell and a threat in one card.

Form my Casul Champions Cube, the mono color support in Eldraine also helped a lot.



I will die on the hill that supporting monocolor adds to a format more than it takes from it. Ayara turned out to be the perfect sign post card for my idea of mono black. And Clockwork Servant is perfect in what it does, because you can play it in mono blue and mono red alike.

Throne of Eldrain also gave us my candidate for the most beautiful magic card ever:

Spoiler: ooooh aaaaah

That being said, my vote for the best design would go to this little stinker (actually probably smells pretty nice):



It is not easy to design a colorless 1-drop that can be played in aggressive decks but still feels fine for just a generic mana compared to colored choices. And Gingerbrute does that so well, that you see it in cubes of very different power levels. Its flavorful (hehe) evasion mechanic works and I've won at least one game because I could sac my Gingerbrute for three life when I needed to.

 

[Seeker]

got 3 slots locked in for all my cubes forever, now I can pick the other 357+

At the moment I'm also running Rankle, Master of Pranks (not to be confused with Rankle, Master of Pranksters), Embercleave, Gilded Goose, The Great Henge, and Questing Beast. Plus Fabled Passage which I always forget came from Eldraine! Each of which do pretty distinct things that no other card does at the moment, so I doubt I'll cut them anytime soon. (Except the Passage. If I ever break singleton that'll just be another Prismatic Vista, I think. I like untapped lands and paying the life benefits aggro over control.)

That's deliberately omitting Oko and Mystical Dispute, too. The former for obvious reasons and the latter because it doesn't really fit a balanced-color-card-count cube most of the time IMO.

 

[ravnic]

I know, it's spoiler season, but ... no love (or hate) for original eldraine?

 

[Nanonox]

While the set has many bangers, my favourite is Emry. She obviously tells you to play artifacts, but differently than what Blue usually does (go wide or cheat).

She scales to how busted you want her to be on two fronts: mana value and recursion wise giving you a lot of options as a curator.

She is a combo engine alongside a 0 drop and Jeskai Ascendancy or a grindy control piece with Goblin Engineer.

One of my favourite cube cards and a hit among many from Eldraine.

 

[Kirblinx]

I never really know how to write things for these, as I suppose it is mainly for cube cards that you wish to share, but my poor cube has been languishing in the corner for far too long that I wouldn't even know what cards I have in there currently and if anything is from ELD. So I'm going to just talk about things that spark memories in me and that would mostly be either from Constructed, Limited and Pauper (yes, I know this is just constructed again but it's all I do these days) so I guess I might just split things up that way.

Constructed:

I have no idea what developer over at R&D thought these two together would be a good idea. In the same set! Just leads to a slow grindy death that you have to go wide through. I thought that this was too disgusting to play in standard at the time (and it did eventually get banned) but in Pioneer, RB Sac with Mayhem Devil was such a fun deck to play. I managed to qualify for an RC playing Mardu Sac in mid 2023, going 4-4 in the main event with the same deck. But the next RC I switched to just Rakdos and managed to get my best ever result (12th!), you can read my run here.

Limited:

The thing I remember most about ELD draft format is that it was one of the first on arena. Arena has always had 2 different ways to draft, with bots and with people. People usually like the draft with the bots as you can do a draft nice and quickly. The problem is that sometimes WotC doesn't fix their pick order very well and in this instance there was a clear best choice to make. Always draft the U mill deck. The bots would never pick any of the 3 that I have shown above very highly so you could always end up with like 3-5 Secretkeepers in a great control shell. This lead to a very skewed metagame of mill v anti-mill which I thought was pretty funny and a quirk that can only happen online.

Some other cards that I have fond memories of. Tracker and Redcap made me realise that 1-drops in sealed/limited can be good. Both are real clocks if you manage to get a couple of them. Keeper of Fables just felt like a rare at the time, that stat line and it draws you cards!?! This card is just nuts. Now we have things like Enduring Curiosity, but I know who the better cat is (as sad as it is).

Pauper:
Throne currently has 2 cards on the Pauper Ban list:

Mystic Sanctuary seems so innocuous, it doesn't produce any card advantage and is just like a spell version of Mortuary Mire but slightly more restrictive (needing 2 islands) but little did we know this was probably the most broken in ELD (maybe behind Oko). The reason it was banned in Pauper is that it could lead to a Deprive-lock. Where you can just counterspell, return the land then play it again put the deprive back on top and draw it with a cantrip. Combine this with Tragic Lesson as a way to have a card advantage engine if you didn't need to counter that turn and you have a real depressing gameplay loop that was not fun to be in.
All That Glitters got downshifted in Commander Masters and combined with fellow ELD card Gingerbrute led to many games ending on turn 4. UW glitters was a well-oiled machine that beat you down with Ninjas off of Ornithopters and Inspectors while holding up counter magic when presenting a lethal All That Glitters. Then a Boros version appeared that was less "All-in" but still having that accidental 'I Win' button in glitters was very hard to beat.


Just a smattering of other cards that have been relevant in pauper at some time or another. Drawbridge is a call card taht gave elves and walls a way to get haste without needing to splash red. Gingerbrute has already been spoken about but it managed to get 4th place at a 1100 player tournament last weekend (Paupergeddon Lucca) so it is still showing its chops. Golden Egg was a option for Glint Hawk/Kor Skyfisher decks for so long until the last couple of years where we have so many better versions of this card (and now Lembas is pretty much just a strictly better version). All the lands (except Dwarven Mine) still see play to this day. Usually just as 1-of's but because the LotR land cyclers are all so strong (like Generous Ent and Eagles of the North). You haven't lived until you have returned Gingerbread Cabin with Quirion Ranger for the 4th time in a match.

 

[Mondschwein]

So, I'm replying to all those sets just because I have time to kill loooorl

001 Coldsnap
The set came out when I started a break from mtg, I was just a filthy casual (which is what I still call myself today) and I didn't know about the cards for years (started to play mtg again about 4 years later). Up to this day, I'm not impressed by this set, but when I re-entered mtg I build some cool new decks, one of the first was martyr proc, another was classic MUC with rune snag, and I also thought about adding snow lands to that deck. I was always intrigued by sheltering ancient and started to brew a casual zoo deck around it.



002 Dragon's Maze
Oh boy, return to ravnica was a blast. Just after return to mirrodin, which was the time I first started with magic, and my favorite set of all time in innistrad (which I didn't know at that time), we returned to ravnica, and OG ravnica was a complete banger for me. The timing of the return was sick, and I have fond memories of these times of spoiler season and magic in general. But Dragons Maze sucked very bad, I have a few cards that resemble my feelings of that time, with Izzet and Simic being my absolute favourite guilds, also aetherling became the finisher of the aforementioned mono blue control deck for a time.



003 Kaladesh
I dislike vehicles, I dislike energy, but none of them so much that I completely hate this set (Aetherdrift is MUCH worse). It's a very interesting take on artifact matters, I really like thopters and servos and how you can use them. Fabricate is cool, mechanical angels are badass, so Angel of Invention is a card I really really like somehow. Marionette Master also is a cool design. Torrential Gearhulk is a card I played a lot on mtga in UG flash, one of my favourite decktypes of all time.



004 Zendikar Rising
I like the flavour of the party mechanic and I hope they will take it up again in the future. The return of kicker is something I always appreciate. While I love DFCs as they were introduced in Og innistrad, I hate MDFCs with a passion. At that time, I had a casual Temur kicker deck and played ub rogues.



005 Onslaught
I talked about Innistrad being my favourite set of all time. When I re-entered mtg about 15 years ago, I started to know about onslaught block and the tribal decks that emerged from it. I was stunned by how cool all the zombies, goblins and elves were. I build a mono black zombie deck and my brother a mono red goblins deck. We still have them (I also still have my martyr proc and my muc) and I just love both of them. In this set there are also great cyclers that do something else, and inv/ody/ons/7th have great basic lands!
Some more takes:
Fetch lands are bad design
The pit champions are damn cool
Cool first designs like true believer
Tempting wurm wtf
Shout outs to patriarchs bidding, astral slide, biorhythm, future sight and exalted angel

Cards I like the most, some cool cyclers, favourite tribal cards (I just LOVE shepherd and pyromancer), riptidelab which is my favourite tribal land, and one of my favourite removal spells of all time



006 Foundations
Oh boy I still didn't draft that set since I had little time the last few years and re-entered with Final Fantasy (which is one of my favourite sets to draft of all time already). A lot of Foundations cards look pretty cool for limited play, it has a lot of clean designs and reminds me of the last few core sets which were some of the best of all time. What I also find is that most of the artwork looks ai-generated which I dislike. I also hate random anime artworks amk (but they're only in Foundations Jumpstart, I think? Separate set I know, just wanted to state that)
I'm still looking forward to draft this set, and I think there are a lot of great cards for lower powered cubes or pauper/peasant cubes, like really A LOT. Because I didn't play with it yet I won't mention any cards, but like I said, the list is potentially very big, I'd say even bigger than most sets, and I also like a lot of the rare and mythic designs which I usually don't.

I'll make a cut here and start a new post.

 

[Mondschwein]

007 Mercadian Masques
Weak set. I don't like many designs of it. Pretty Deece made a good video about it on youtube. I dislike the majority of free spells, it depends on the format/which kind of game is played. Cards I like from MMQ:
Depletion lands for whacky plays
Forced March and Wave of Reckoning are cool sweepers
Magistrate's scepter, a piece of a colourless charge counter deck I made at the time I re-entered mtg. Once I was invited to a casual group of mtg players mainly playing commander decks (it was around 2013 I think) and we played a multiplayer game. I used that colorless deck with no power in it (the deck did cost less than 30 euros at that time, lux cannon being the priciest besides the scepter if I remember correctly), after a few turns I assembled enough pieces to generate enough charge counters and mana to go infinite with the scepter and killed the whole table. I was never invited again.

Shout outs to Groundskeeper, cool design.



008 Jumpstart 2022
I never played Jumpstart. I know it was a hit among casual players as well as skilled players alike, since it was something new bringing a fresh experience. The idea never appealed to me though. Similar to Foundations, I didn't play with a lot of the cards, but I'll name what strikes my interest.
Dutiful Replicator looks pretty good in an environment with lots of cool tokens.
Mild-Mannered Librarian is another cool card, nothing too special though.
Biblioplex Kraken is an interesting take on reusing etbs repeatedly, I dislike unblockable, though.



009 Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander

Wow, I hate OTJ and I dislike commander. Let's see what I can find here on Scryfall.
It's only rares. Finally, a version of a card with my first name (Felix). Actually interesting design.. for commander. Eris, Roar of the Storm looks cool. Elemental Eruption is a big stupid storm spell, I like. That's it, moving on.

010 Rivals of Ixalan
Treasures, Pirates, nice. I played a grixis pirate tribal for a short time, was weak but cool. Flood of Recollection is a 4of in my pauper arcane tide, I love it there. Back in standard at the time, Masterminds Acquisition was one of my favourite cards in grixis control.
Tendershoot Dryad and Twilight Prophet were part of a cool bg ascend deck.



011 Commander 2015

I like Great Oak Guardian. Magus of the Wheel is cool design. Mizzix's Mastery is a card I also like. That's it. Confluences are pushed, there are other similar cards I like way more for cube. Experience counters? Loooorl

012 Magic 2011

Woah, didn't know SO MANY quite popular cards debuted here. Giants, Cultivate, CapVamp, Preordain, Pyretic Ritual, Viscera Seer, Pridemate, Elixir of Immortality, Fauna Shaman, and even some more. Wow.

At that time, I liked Time Reversal because of its planetary art. That was rare and usually on blue cards, sometimes artifacts. Nowadays we have whole space sets with spacecrafts that can be your commander.. Ahem.

My favourites are preordain, standalone the best 1 mana cantrip of all time, played in my arcane tide.dec , Serra ascendant, part of my old martyr proc. dec which I don't play anymore, and Mystifying Maze, part of my colourless mana base in my charge counters matter.dec

 

[Mondschwein]

This does take longer than expected, and I'm only halfway through. Collecting posts, spamming and killing time all in one. Nice.

013 Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate

So. Many. Cards.
This set is quite flavourful, I really like it. What I dislike is Initiative, and backgrounds are whatever. The return of adventures is neat, modal spells are great, I like my d20s, treasures are always nice, gates are back (the thriving ones are cool fixing), there is overall some nice stuff. I even like the dragon flavour although that's usually not for me. The 5 mythic dragons are very cool, but the best card is obv the brewer Undercellar myconid.



014 Fallout

Nope

015 Mirrodin Besieged

Ah, return to mirrodin. New when I restarted, and og mirrodin was new when I actually started with mtg.
Generally, I hate mirrodin.
Sets with too many colourless artifacts are some of my least favourites. I do like artifact interaction, though.
Proliferate wants you to break it, this is true and even more so for infect. Hate both. I have a softspot for Neurok Commando as a shrouded ophidian, and I like myr as a strange artifact tribe. Psychosis Crawler is cool and I can't tell you why exactly. Titan Forge was part of my colourless charge counters deck back from then
Otherwise LOTS of broken stuff going on in this set.



016 Alara Reborn

An interesting plane, but a block game-wise I never was really interested in.
I like Putrid Leech as a beefy 2drop, I also like Bloodbraid Elf since it's in my casual rug cascade deck to draw three for free with ancestral vision or create a bunch of trampling rhinos.
Then there was a casual deck with 2colored 1drops and 3colored 2drops (hybrid mana) and Knight of New Alara to pump those creatures and go beating face.



Continuing later or tomorrow lerlz

 

[Seeker]

014 Fallout

Nope

no respect for the ol' Nuka-Cola Vending Machine