General Cards that make you say "Yo!!" (i.e., cards that make you want to play a certain deck)

[MurphysHuman]

Hi all,

I'm in the midst of designing a cube which will be mostly custom cards. This project started because I have an aesthetic preference for cards without too much text at a medium-high power level, and Wizards seems more into printing wildly strong cards with tons of text these days. I'm really comfortable designing techy little pieces (white cantrips! 3/1s for 2 mana!), but I have a hard time pushing the power level for cards that will draw someone into a deck.

What are your favorite cards to open in pack 1 in your cube? Custom or otherwise.

For reference, here are some of mine:

 

[Brad]

Cruel Ultimatum and Eldrazi titans are some in my playgroup.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

 

[Heymaker]

 

[gaytransmulldrifter]

 

[Erik Twice]

 

[Nemo]

This is a good idea for a thread - it provides some good food for thought.

 

[MurphysHuman]

Thanks, everyone, for excellent suggestions! In looking at your posts, I think there are two broad types of cards that make me say "Yo!!":

1. Cards for which I think, "This is really powerful! I know I can make this work - now I need to figure out the manner in which I will do so":


2. Cards for which I think, "This is really powerful! How the heck will I ever make this work?":


I'm way more comfortable designing cards in category #1, although already your suggestions have spurred me on in that category. What I need is more #2s - give me your greedy, shoot-the-moon, single-card archetype favorites.

 

[shamizy]

 

[Nanonox]

Some of my favourites from category 2:

 

[jms]

2. Cards for which I think, "This is really powerful! How the heck will I ever make this work?":

I'm mostly allergic to this second type, but the following can draw me in.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

A few cool ones:

 

[Chris Taylor]

Wait, for real?

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Wait, for real?

This may be a result of the card's newness, but I think it's really neat! I really like Temur spells decks, and Otter is a very interesting pull in that direction.

I forgot to list him, but I also like:

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Wait, for real?

I just cut the Otter because it looked underwhelming, so I’m very curious if anybody seconds Train’s love for this card.

This may be a result of the card's newness, but I think it's really neat! I really like Temur spells decks, and Otter is a very interesting pull in that direction.

I forgot to list him, but I also like:

Also, second Questing Druid. But about this Temur spells deck, tell me more about it! I’m in the market for a fun secondary Temur theme besides ramp!

 

[Chris Taylor]

I ran it as a mostly playable blue 1 drop but I cut it because it's a false signal for green prowess in my cube (Prowess is suggested in Grixis)
The evasion is surprisingly relevant, though usually needs help from actual pump effects, which makes it a mite worse then I'm actually explaining.

 

[N0oh]

It's OK in a vaccum, but I think the spell matter blue one drop is already better filled by Delver, pteramander and the MH3 bestow anyway.

 

[MilesOfficial]

In my Cube, these are the cards that I say "oh, we're doing it today" if I open them:

 

[EzPzJapanezy]

I could never get it working in a singleplayer cube, but it could be a dead game piece and I would P1P1 it every time. Something about it sings to my soul.

 

[inscho]