Sets [FDN] Foundations (a new Core Set)

[Erik Twice]

Why do you need to specify it's his last words?

They keep reusing that joke over and over again:

"I am not in danger ARRGH"
- [Name], [profession], last words.

or

"I underestimate you"
- [Name] "the ironic", last words.

If you look up "last words" on Scryfall, you get 49 cards. Not all of them follow those two templates, but most do. And, like you note, it's not even the overuse but how they spell everything out. In most cases, you would get the same effect if you simply gave the quote without the name, profession or last words.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Doomed Traveler seems better in black than it ever was in white, and it was good in white.

Haha I love the flavor text of this card. I don't think a single insect token constitutes a "swarm" my dude

 

[Chris Taylor]

My friends, read these two flavor texts

View attachment 10048View attachment 10049

It’s beautiful

Do people keep cycling the shark typhoon you put in your cube, like some kind of good player? Well do I have the fix for you!

edit my god this image is enormous "thank" you wotc? is there a [timg] tag on this here forum here?

You can drag images to resize, or use this button once you click on the image to set exact pixel sizes:

 

[Velrun]

Where is that resize button?

 

[Seeker]

Do people keep cycling the shark typhoon you put in your cube, like some kind of good player? Well do I have the fix for you!

show yourself you coward I would rather die than cycle Shark Typhoon (I think I have the highest lifetime cast rate of anyone I know, and yes it's because I'm clown shoes amateur hour but it's so fun.)

anyway I came to post this:

 

[Chris Taylor]

Where is that resize button?

View attachment 10052

Okay that is extremely finicky on mobile but I did get it to appear by tapping on the image

 

[Velrun]

Agreed. What's wrong with putting some lore on the cards? I'm under the impression that adults are a big part of the demographic, so it doesn't seem necessary to market the flavor to a Nickelodeon audience.

Is it something like this you wanted?

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Now that the full set is out, this seems like a sweet set. Happy to see more morbid and raid cards

 

[StrionicAdventurer]

This set is really going to allow me to shave some complexity points off of my Welder cube, which is always welcome. Not sure if we'll have a testing thread for Foundations, but my early standouts are: Spinner of Souls, Dragon Trainer, and Abyssal Harvester

 

[Velrun]

This set is really going to allow me to shave some complexity points off of my Welder cube, which is always welcome. Not sure if we'll have a testing thread for Foundations, but my early standouts are: Spinner of Souls, Dragon Trainer, and Abyssal Harvester

That’s always nice!
Especially because it will make any beginner experience easier but also because it frees up some of this complexity retail if you ever want to scale it up again in the future!

 

[TrainmasterGT]

This thing being 1 counter per power is something a lot of people missed. Maybe you did too and it's better than you think.
At 2/2 you'd just get a drake every turn with basically no questions asked.
I'm not hugely in due to the bespoke token, but I imagine it plays really well and I could change my mind.

Also the borderless version in question:

I didn't actually miss the one damage to one counter thing, I just think the 1/3 vigilance statline makes this card a little scary as a control tool for dumping on aggressive decks. Unlike Kitsa, Otterball Elite, which has multiple tap abilities that you're going to want to be proactively activating, this card simply attacks and blocks (and later makes Drakes). Either way, I agree that if it had the 2/2 stat line it would be too easy to make drakes. The card would probably need to use 4 incubation counters instead of 3 to make a token to keep things more balanced.

Still a cool design though!

 

[StrionicAdventurer]

In Praise of a Couple Individual Cards Which I Personally Might Cube With At Some Point

Foundations features two cards that are clear iterations of popular cube cards that came out earlier this year, and I like them:

&

At first glance, these cards look like slightly powered-down versions of Kitsa, Otterball Elite and Bristly Bill, Spine Sower. They play similar roles and have similar inputs and outputs (although a 2/2 Drake is obviously not the same as a copied spell). My favorite thing about them is the fact they're both non-legendary. It's a pretty insignificant detail for most cubists, I'm sure, but I always prefer a non-legendary option when I can get it. The explosion of commander has riddled every set with dozens of meaningless legends who ought to just be regular creatures, and the naming conventions for legendary creatures are becoming - as the kids say - pretty cringe. I'm talking epithets like "the Swelling Scourge," or "the Chaos Bloom," which are nearly word salad. I would basically never consider Kitsa or Bristly William for a cube project, but these new cards could make the cut (if I ever build a rarity-unrestricted cube that rewards spellslinging, landfall, or +1/+1 counters).

 

[ravnic]

How do people like this card? I usually like sac outlets to be instant speed and free, but the payoff here is pretty nice, drawing a card and dealing at least two to the opponent. Also no mana investment.

 

[Mondschwein]

It looks quite strong to me. Free outlet that draws you a card and deals at least 2 - I already like vermin gorger and bogardan dragonheart but this one looks crazy good in comparison, unblockable is also better than flying.

 

[MilesOfficial]

How do people like this card? I usually like sac outlets to be instant speed and free, but the payoff here is pretty nice, drawing a card and dealing at least two to the opponent. Also no mana investment.

Great retail limited card. The restrictive timing of the sacrifice, in addition to not being able to use it after chumping an opponent's attacker or to blank their spell, make it a little less compelling for a higher powered Cube, but I'm definitely eying it for several Cube projects I'm working on outside of my main list.

 

[Nemo]

Great retail limited card. The restrictive timing of the sacrifice, in addition to not being able to use it after chumping an opponent's attacker or to blank their spell, make it a little less compelling for a higher powered Cube, but I'm definitely eying it for several Cube projects I'm working on outside of my main list.

I already put in an order for 30 or so cards from the main set, but you guys have me talked into this one too, now.

I'm pretty happy to add a nice batch of generally useful cube cards like Cephalid Inkmage and Dragon Trainer to the cube collection box. I'm not going to know what cards make it into my lists until I really sit down to make the next significant changes. There might be some big changes as a result of stuff from this set, like adding a life gain theme.

Some of the payoff cards are strong enough to create a legitimate pull into an archetype, like Cat Collector and Exemplar of Light.

There are a variety of cards that I wasn't specifically looking for, but I could see them being pretty nice. For example, Grapping Kraken is in that class of big blue sea monsters that I'd like to have represented in a cube for newer players, but I haven't ever identified the perfect one. This kraken might be what the doctor ordered for a control deck that wants a finisher with a big butt that influences the board state and synergizes a bit with the rest of the deck. If you're a control player, you want to be drawing cards and playing lands. In a cube that plays low powered "fair" magic, this is a card that should be able to turn the tables and win a close game.

I like Hungry Ghoul. Instant speed, sacrifices the army if needed, and it's probably relevant on the board as soon as you make it a 3/3 by eating a creature that was going to die anyway. And it's simple and flavor resonant, zombie type, no legendary or weird plane nonsense, and I need more 2 drop creatures than any other type of card. Cool!

 

[henkdetenk]

show yourself you coward I would rather die than cycle Shark Typhoon (I think I have the highest lifetime cast rate of anyone I know, and yes it's because I'm clown shoes amateur hour but it's so fun.)

anyway I came to post this:

I love how flavor and mechanics come together on this one. He's a squire that becomes a knight if he gets enough +1/+1 counters.

 

[shamizy]

Forgot to post this, just remembered when I went to de-sleeve my draft kit after prerelease. Had a solid R/G pool that I went 2-1 with that played really well. Likely would have gone 3-0, but I got absolutely stomped by this kid who opened a ridiculous pool full of bombs and removal aplenty (even his foil commons were playable removal!). I'm talking double Krenko, double Solemn, and just removal for days. Anyway, my deck was still pretty fun to play with:

RG Beats

In the past my go-to when evaluating a prerelease pool was checking out removal and bombs and while I still do that nowadays as a guide, I focus real heavily on where the quality uncommons are in my pool. Once I saw 3 of the whelps I knew for sure I was going red, and then I had enough beef in green to make that my second color. It mostly came down to sequencing and keeping up the pressure with a taller board as the game progressed.

The highlight of the night? Winning two games with Hidetsugu's Second Rite and having to navigate to get someone at exactly 10 life. What a fun mini game to figure out.

 

[Seeker]

The highlight of the night? Winning two games with Hidetsugu's Second Rite and having to navigate to get someone at exactly 10 life. What a fun mini game to figure out.

I was going to ask if anyone was at 10! Whelp seems like it's a very good friend for Rite, if you're careful.

 

[shamizy]

I was going to ask if anyone was at 10! Whelp seems like it's a very good friend for Rite, if you're careful.

I played against someone with Soul Sister effects happening so it was a real puzzle to figure out how to get them down to the correct life total. I even volunteered the hey, did you remember to gain a life when his life total became odd and I had two Whelps on board. Pretty much every time I drew it early enough my gameplan became how do I get this life total down to 10 for the killing blow.