General [EOE/EOC] Testing/Includes FROM SPACE

[Brad]

Who else up edging their eternities?

This is a testing/includes thread. Post pictures using /ci or a text list using /c with what cards you plan to include and what cards you plan to test.​

The cards in question

Spoiler: Eldrazi cube may be interested in

 

[Schafkurai]

So, first up, this set has me more excited than any other set in a long time! Could be that it has to do with artifacts, landfall and graveyard (to a lesser extent) all being present here, that are also core tenets of my cube but I also really enjoy the science fiction world building they did. One of my recent favorites before EOE was Duskmourn, although the stories were fantastically shattered by part of the art direction, the survivors in particular.

Here are the cards I'm interested in for my graveyard/artifact synergy cube roughly in order of likelihood and excitement for inclusion.

Entering faster than the speed of light with their hyperdrive and not likely to escape the black hole that is Sothera (my cube):



I like all of these a lot, but Oracle of Muldaya 2.0 is the one that has me most excited. There was already ample discussion in the other thread and the only thing bad I can say about it is, that it might be too good for my cube (which might not keep me from including it).

Biotech Specialist looks like an interesting signpost for gruul artifacts/trinkets. That alone is a good reason for me to try it out but I also think the card is just powerful in a deck with enough artifacts. I will have to pay attention for ways to sacrifice artifacts in those colors, as it is not a death trigger.

Umbral Collar Zealot is just a very good rate (I do like 3/2 in cube way more than in limited) and has all the buzz words for my cube on it. Perfect, I tell you! And it will bolster aristocrats in black decks nicely.

Rust Harvester looks like a really cool sidegrade to Grim Lavamancer which is a good card in my cube. It can attack early, interacts nicely with artifacts and the graveyard, grows and hits any target. Two mana for the activation is not nothing, but the effect looks very strong to me.

Still faster than the speed of light with their Warp Drive and will probably end up in the black hole as well:



Cryogen Relic - looks like a nice little glue piece. It remains to be seen if it's strong enough but it has neat interactions. Currently I have The Everflowing Well in my cube and am not convinced this is better.
Kavaron Harrier - Just a very solid beater with some nice synergies. A bit similar to Greasewrench Goblin in that way.
Remnant Elemental - The longer I look at it, the more I convince myself to run it. Red unfortunately does not have premier landfall two drops like white (Glyph Elemental, Fearless Fledgeling) and green (Bristly Bill, Spine Sower, Springheart Nantuko, etc. etc.) and this being a 0/4 on defence does not help, but attacking as a 4/4 or more is not bad. The fail case of attacking as an 0/4 or 2/4 is bad though... At least I'll give it a try.
Weapons Manufacturing - It's a cool build around, that will benefit from me including more artifacts into the colored sections (white and red in particular) If you don't get there during the draft, you can't play it though. I'll try it out and am cautiously optimistic.



Edge Rover - Looks like redundancy for Tough Cookie and might find play in landfall and artifact decks. It's also just generically decent as a 2/2 with reach.
Meltstrider's Resolve - I'm always on the lookout for viable green removal and this seems decent. It provides a little buff and is an Enchantment for Delirium/Permanent purposes in the graveyard.
Genemorph Imago - This is in a similar vein as the red landfall creature in that I was low initially but am coming around. Simic is neither a tempo, nor an aggro deck but I think the upside of turning creatures into 6/6s later on might be interesting to slower decks and simic can definitely ramp. Usually you'll target itself with the ability since it has flying. I'm curious!

Chances are dwindling to reach Sothera with their fusion afterburners at multiple g-forces:

Spoiler: The other cards are but a memory on the horizon

Seam Rip - Not sure I need another Portable Hole, especially as that one synergizes in artifact decks, but the art here is sweet!
Sunstar Expansionist - Is probably worse than the other two white landfall creatures mentioned above. Catch-up ramp is always situational and not that exciting.
Desculpting Blast - Another unique token.. might revisit, if I really want a bounce spell.
Fallers Faithful - Generically strong card with lots of use cases! The only "downside" is that good players will find many more applications with it than others and less experienced players may make bad plays, that lead to feel bads.
Scrounge for Eternity - I'll revisit this card after drafting a bunch, to see if it's good enough or just reads well.
Memorial Vault - Might be a cool value engine for control decks! Even random artifact tokens convert into an extra card. The hurdle is 4 mana and not being useful the turn you play it.
Seedship Impact - There are a lot of strong 0-2MV artifacts/enchantments that need to be dealt with (Retrofitter Fountry, Currency Converter, Urza's Saga + tokens, etc.) and a lander token in exchange sounds nice. I might run it.
Exploration Broodship - Not a weak card! A mix of Exploration and Conduit of Worlds. What bothers me is, that you can't drop lands immediately and that it would likely be the only spacecraft.
Syr Vonda, Sunstar Exemplar - Is a very strong card, I wish he interacted with artifacts too but that might be too much.
Secluded Starforge - I'll keep this in mind for utility lands.

Following in the footsteps of the Voyager 1 at 0G, these ones are unlikely to reach my cube, but they're neat and given time, they might still get there:

Spoiler: töf töf töf

Most likely to still make it is the Labship, I guess. Moonlit Meditation is also an interesting card, as it reads like EDH bait but might be better than I think. ANY tokens can enter as a copy of something, reminds me a bit of Springheart Nantuko and there are for sure interesting cards to copy! It triggers only once each turn, otherwise it would go infinite with any creature that brings a token when it enters. Multiple Marionette Apprentices? Sign me up!
Susurian Voidborn is interesting but a lot worse thane the Apprentice, and a 2/2 for three is a bit lackluster. Pinnacle Emissary is strong, but too similar to Third-Path Iconoclast, I'll let others try it first!

Time to explore these uncharted territories!

 

[Mown]

Some of these probably. Not a big fan of the direction a lot of the warp cards have, would much prefer it they were just another batch of evokes instead of discounted one-turn build-arounds.

 

[inscho]

Certain:
Umbral Collar Zealot: I’ve been asking for a Viscera Seer with surveil for years, and while I’d prefer it be on a 1 mv body, the aggressive body is still welcome.

Icetill Explorer: Oracle of Mul Daya had been outclassed for a while but its absence has been felt. Explorer is going to be coo coo bananas in my graveyard-centric format

Near Certain:
Lightstall Inquisitor: I’m a huge fan of soft taxing effects in white. This has a reasonable base body, and it’s always nice to have another 1 mv critter worth blinking. The opponent selecting the card may curb its impact, but I’m definitely testing

Uncertain but Interested:
Rust Harvester: At first glance I was super excited about this card, but I’m skeptical of it cracking my cube’s 384. 2 mana is a lot more than Grim Lavamancer’s 1 red. Even in an artifact heavy environment, having an artifact or two that you want to exile is no small hoop to jump through. Having menace definitely gives it some early game play, and being an artifact is improtant. The prospect of scaling damage is intriguing. EDIT: I may be underestimating how strong this is with equipment

Kavaron Harrier: Another good card that just might not make the cut at my cube size.

Scout for Survivors: I love the idea of a mini Living Death for white. I wish it was for any number of creatures up to 3 total mana so you could get extra silly with walking ballista and the like.

Interested but Doubtful:
Tezzeret Cruel Captain: I liked this a lot more on first spoil, but I don’t think it nudges out Karn, Scion of Urza’s general utility and construct token generation

Tannuk, Memorial Ensign: this is close to being an include. I really just wish iridescent vinelasher was red

 

[Seeker]

Right now, nothing. Soon... I have no idea. I might, or might not, end up with 10 cards from this set in my cube. I have zero idea how to evaluate almost everything. But nothing jumps out at me.

 

[Nanonox]

Didn't think this set would be for me and to be fair, not a huge fan of space for Magic. However, the card designs really play well with my cube and others at different power levels I'm sure.

Spoiler: Mechanics

Station isn’t for me. Card templating looks bad and I just don’t see any individual card designs that offset that.

Lander tokens I could be convinced to add. It’s pretty simple to parse and the effect is nice as ramp and fixing. Depends on individual card designs.

Even though I will be including cards with Warp, Void isn’t something I’ll be messing with. It doesn’t work with lands and the text is clunky. Revolt was perfect, clean and simple, don’t want to mix both mechanics.

I wasn’t expecting to like Warp, but I think it has the potential to be a staple mechanic in my cube. It’s comparable to Evoke which is an all timer IMO. It’s great that it counts as casting the creature letting you rack up your trigger

I like getting a cheap one turn version of the effect and then either casting it later as designed or doing something more fun like blinking, sacrificing to Pod or returning to hand.

High potential



More pieces for the mana denial White tempo decks which I absolutely love. The fail case scenario where opponent has a tapped land is mitigated by the fact that this is a 2/1 vigilance for one. Super annoying to blink, but not overbearing either.



Fantastic card! The worst case scenario on turn 2 is acceptable and it just gets better as the game develops. There are so many Blue draw spells I want to play that it is tough making a choice (Dig Through Time, Stock Up, Gifts Ungiven, ...)



Easiest include ever. Good rate, artifact + creature sacrifice and card selection/ fill the GY.



This one drop intersects with a ton of themes and I am excited to try it in the cube. You can grow it's power naturally over time for slow and steady damage or you can slap an equipment or counters on it for a big hit. Goes off with my favorite trio of Agatha's Soul Cauldron, Jeskai Ascendancy and Paradox Engine.



This does a lot of good things my cube cares about. More land recursion is a big game and I am excited about the mill aspect too. I only wished that more Lands stuff was available outside of Green or Green/X to spread the love.

Warp token package



I think these three have what it takes to make an impact in my cube.

Token doubling can be very powerful and you can craft turns where Sunborn really pops off either with onboard token makers (Springheart Nantuko) or one shot effects (Seasoned Pyromancer). It’s not restricted to any token type either so go nuts.

Haliya and Weftstalker curve nicely. For example, turn 2 Haliya into Thraben Inspector/Hard Evidence/Voldaren Epicure to draw a card is really strong! Working with both creatures and artifacts really opens up the type of decks that could want this.

Weftstalker looks like a cool piece for cards like Living Death, Green lands cards or even Lonis, Cryptozoologist and Samwise Gamgee.

Quantum Riddler gets an honorable mention as a nice finisher, but the lack of Warp reminder text disqualifies it.

Dishonourable mention to Starfield Vocalist who has a cool Warp ability but art that would make me hate my own cube.

Maybes



Shamim posted this one and it’s really tempting to bring back the human duo of Champion of the Parish and Thalia’s Lieutenant. Even outside the human theme, this is a sweet payoff for the counters deck. Basri’s Lieutenant, while similar, was too slow and clunky for me. So I have hopes for the Trooper.



This thing seems like quite a cheat target in my cube. There are a ton of incidental artifacts lying around and this can alpha strike out of nowhere thanks to haste + buff.



Rate and types are good, just tough to find the space for a generic beater.

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@inscho

?

This utility land plays really well in Stax. You have both Braids and Smokestack + other land sacrificers (Greater Gargadon, Sylvan Safekeeper, Zuran Orb, Wildfire, ...)

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Shout out to Surge Conductor and Solar Array for my lower powered cube where I can't wait to cast Everflowing Chalice, Astral Cornucopia and Pentad Prism for a million.

 

[MilesOfficial]

Not too hot on this set overall, but my Cube is 720 cards so there's usually more than a few things I end up trying out, especially when we get so many incidental artifacts.

Rust Harvester is my favorite card of the set. Lots of fun to be had there, and gets out of hand after just one activation! It's not as generically good as Grim Lavamancer but I like what it does for my Cube much more.

I don't love Haliya, Guided by Light being the sole Warp representation here, but it does match some themes I'm interested in playing around with like life gain (which matches with the broadly underpowered but interesting new inclusions like Aerith Gainsborough, Aerith, Last Ancient, as well as things like Sorin of House Markov. I also like how she gains life off of artifacts, which is great with the focus I've put on the trinket deck.

Speaking of that, Biotech Specialist is super good in my Cube in particular. Maybe even too good! But GR has been hard to find build-around style gold cards that really help guide drafters, so I'm giving it a shot. I like the lander tokens too.

Dauntless Scrapbot hasn't gotten any attention, and it's certainly a little low-powered, but it's two artifacts in a card that exiles your opponent's graveyard and trades well.

I don't love how complicated Lightstall Inquisitor is on first read, but the effect is good and the vigilance will prove pretty annoying, hopefully in a good way. The typing may prove interesting in the future as well, both being an angel and a wizard -- not that I anticipate it'll be played with Flame of Anor all that often.

I'm trying out Tannuk, Steadfast Second over Sneak Attack. Feels really bad to get rid of Sneak Attack, but that kind of card is philosophically not the direction my Cube's been going this last year, and the limitations on Tannuk, as well as his easier means of being removed, are both positives in my book. Plus, Tannuk can also hit opponents himself and gives haste to everything, which is no small ability. I think he'll be much more appreciated than my drafters and make it into 5x more mainboards than Sneak Attack has been.

I like Edge Rover quite a lot, but I don't really think it beats out any of my sixteen current one-drops in green, and that number's already higher than I'd prefer it to be. Maybe Cenote Scout, but I feel like I'd rather replace that with another card that also does some level of self-mill like the delightful Patchwork Beastie.

Aesthetically, I'm not a huge fan of this set. I'd rather a wild variety of mismatched Final Fantasy art to space in Magic, and I say that as not-particularly-a-FF-guy. Pretty sad that half of the sets this year (this, the awful Aetherdrift, and Spiderman) are just wholly uninteresting to me from a "flavor I'd like to include in my Cube" POV. It's not half as bad visually as Aetherdrift, and the quality of the art is incredible, it's just not what I think of when I think of Magic. I see complaints from people like Saffron Olive about "modern-looking guys holding sandwiches" and that don't bother me, but a lot of this set's cards do, so I understand I'm probably in the minority here, but I see cards like Sunstar Chaplain or Rayblade Trooper and just feel like this isn't for me. Not a big issue (and I visually love a lot of the robots like Rust Harvester, but I wanted to get it out there.

 

[LadyMapi]

I see cards like Sunstar Chaplain or Rayblade Trooper and just feel like this isn't for me.

To be fair, a lot of the spacesuit/armor designs that aren't Knight Luminary look pretty ugly at card-art scale. I think they'd be fine as larger pieces, but they're just too busy with greebles and garbage.

 

[MilesOfficial]

As I've said many times on these forums, my favorite way to "test" out the Cube is to do a bunch of sample drafts on CubeCobra, particularly now that the bots are upgraded (I no longer wheel Ocelot Pride and Chaos Defiler) and it seems more attuned to my Cube's play style and power level.

My most recent draft deck feels pretty validating about my feelings about this set! Tannuk, Steadfast Second (who has great art in the form of the card without reminder text......which is so frustrating as the only Warp card I'm seriously testing) is absolutely killer here, even if you never warp anything out, but absurd with any of the big dinos at the top end. This is a deck that would have had interest in Sneak Attack, but Tannuk was a high pick I felt great about.

Biotech Specialist and Dauntless Scrapbot are both great for 5-color nonsense like this. I like these lander tokens, and they feel like they're priced appropriately. I was a little skeptical of my own eagerness towards the Scrapbot before, but this isn't the first sample draft I've liked it in.



It's also nice to see some Final Fantasy cards in interesting places. I think the retail limited is my favorite of the decade. I'm really sad about EOE mostly because it means no more sealed RCQs with the set! This is the perfect Yuna's Decision deck, and Thunder Magic is nothing novel but works as a good version of a scalable burn spell. Vaultborn Tyrant is certainly too good for my Cube, but I emotionally like the card too much to be willing to cut him at the moment, especially since I'm pretty uninterested in most of the green 7MV+ cards that folks usually run closer to my power level.

On another note, I hadn't mentioned it before, but I do really like Tezzeret, Cruel Captain. But I fear it alludes to a deck that's not that well supported in my Cube. Yes, you can do the broken artifact deck with Tolarian Academy -- it's probably the best deck in my Cube besides reanimator -- but it's severely limited / quite a bit more fair compared to the Vintage Cube version of the archetype. There's only 22 cards out of 720 that fit the requirement for his -1 activation, and half of them don't really have much interest in being in the same deck as him (notably, the equipment).