We also got some walkers (but Chandra, Chill of Compliance remains the coolest) and this neat little Prowess aggro guy:
General [FRA] Reality Fracture
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Oh no I hate the art on all versions of Stingcaster Mage
(((
Liliana the Repentant is interesting, with lots of comps but nothing that does it all together like this. If it triggered off itself, I'd be much more willing to try it out. Mire Triton is a great glue card for Cubes over a huge range of power levels, but it does benefit from having deathtouch and gaining life on ETB. Undead Butler mills on ETB and for 3 cards, but you don't have as much upside in future turns to really self-mill like crazy and getting a creature back to hand on death is much less exciting than reanimating a creature or planeswalker.
The reanimation is really expensive, and the planeswalker part of it is rarely going to be useful. I struggle to imagine this feeling good in Cubes alongside an Emperor of Bones, for example. In terms of creatures that can be played early and turn into reanimation spells after the fact, the 2/2 body and the self-mill make it more appealing than Valgavoth's Faithful, a totally fine Cube card. I think this Liliana is pretty similar in quality to Dawnhand Dissident, which has its own share of advantages and disadvantages but has made it into some higher-powered Cubes. Also, looking for comps let me find out that Rat in the Hat existed, which I'm very excited to learn of.
But overall, as much as I like the aggressive self-mill here (I'm a fan of Tinybones Joins Up, if you recall), I think I'd put in Osteomancer Adept or Sidisi, Regent of the Mire, or even bring back Nullpriest of Oblivion before I played this Liliana. But I am happy she exists.
Now this is a Liliana I will happily play. Liliana the Faultless is an ideal card for my Cube in particular. She's part Soul Sister, part Mom.
I run Soul Warden, but I've been really wishy-washy about properly supporting a lifegain mini-theme. Giving Liliana a discard outlet that helps protect your other creatures is a great addition to a Soul Sister, and it doesn't feel as backbreaking as the original Mother of Runes. I don't think this is quite there for higher-impact, but for something like mine where I'm desperate for more white discard outlets, 1mv legends, and incidental life gain, this is a pretty ideal card. As someone who thinks of Mom as a power-outlier that's against my general design philosophy but I love too much nostalgically to get rid of, I'm honestly happy having such a strong ability on a 1-drop creature restricted by both mana cost and discard.
But speaking of my lifegain mini-theme, I pulled back from it recently to see how I felt without it, but this set is giving me so many tools that I'm very likely to go back. The cards I'm running for it include:
(Yes I know that Ocelot Pride should hardly count)
Some lifegain payoffs I've recently taken out and would like to run again include:
And some cards I've been interested in if I go any further in this direction include:
It's not the best direction my Cube could go, but it's one my playgroup resonates with.
I am also liking this buddy here:
Loving the idea of just spending one mana each turn to mill three cards. In a graveyard-centric cube it can do wonders. I still do not love the cards with prepare, I think that between Omens and Adventures and these it adds a bit too much fatigue. But I am much curious about the rest of the expansion, it started with many interesting options.
I also liked the white Liliana a lot. Again, between her, and the white Bob, and the white Ajani, there is hope for some more lifegain support even at lower rarities in this expansion, which may be wonderful.
I haven't built a Cube in a while, mainly because I was away from home and a bit angry at Wizards for all the non-sense UB sets, but I am going back at theorycrafting...
Loving the idea of just spending one mana each turn to mill three cards. In a graveyard-centric cube it can do wonders. I still do not love the cards with prepare, I think that between Omens and Adventures and these it adds a bit too much fatigue. But I am much curious about the rest of the expansion, it started with many interesting options.
I also liked the white Liliana a lot. Again, between her, and the white Bob, and the white Ajani, there is hope for some more lifegain support even at lower rarities in this expansion, which may be wonderful.
I haven't built a Cube in a while, mainly because I was away from home and a bit angry at Wizards for all the non-sense UB sets, but I am going back at theorycrafting...
I was going to clean up my desktop and realized I forgot to talk about this card: Ajani Resolute.
I think any 2mv planeswalker is inherently worthy of discussion. This one is asking you to spend three turns to make an Ajani's Pridemate token for the same price, so on its face, it's easy to dismiss. But with any other life gain shenanigans going on, this is both an enabler and payoff.
This is only the 4th 2mv planeswalker after these three:
Yes, Tibalt's not very good. If you get rid of the "at random" part of his ability, as I did with a sharpie when he was first printed, he's pretty good, and a card I'd still like to have in Cube if possible, but he became a joke for a reason.
But Jace and Wrenn are both excellent. Jace is only on the outside of my Cube because "becomes plotted" doesn't have reminder text, and that was my tie breaker in a very competitive blue section. From a practical standpoint, the card is much of what I had wanted from Tibalt, and though annoying, his downside isn't so severe. Wrenn needs no defense or explanation.
But my experience has been that the kind of recurring advantage provided by these 2mv engines is absurd, and since this one makes you work for it, it's much more rewarding and much less risky to the gameplay experience. The only issue is ensuring my Cube has the density of lifegain to truly justify the sub-theme, a hard thing to do in white these days. It basically does require all three of the white cards spoiled today to be in together, which then feels a little...boring? Prescriptive? Don't get me wrong, I do hope to play both Liliana the Faultless and Enlightened Confidant, but I feel like I'm basically working backwards to support a single set's linear deck in my own Cube if I add in Ajani. Well, we'll have to see, but I'll definitely try playing with this one.
I think any 2mv planeswalker is inherently worthy of discussion. This one is asking you to spend three turns to make an Ajani's Pridemate token for the same price, so on its face, it's easy to dismiss. But with any other life gain shenanigans going on, this is both an enabler and payoff.
This is only the 4th 2mv planeswalker after these three:
Yes, Tibalt's not very good. If you get rid of the "at random" part of his ability, as I did with a sharpie when he was first printed, he's pretty good, and a card I'd still like to have in Cube if possible, but he became a joke for a reason.
But Jace and Wrenn are both excellent. Jace is only on the outside of my Cube because "becomes plotted" doesn't have reminder text, and that was my tie breaker in a very competitive blue section. From a practical standpoint, the card is much of what I had wanted from Tibalt, and though annoying, his downside isn't so severe. Wrenn needs no defense or explanation.
But my experience has been that the kind of recurring advantage provided by these 2mv engines is absurd, and since this one makes you work for it, it's much more rewarding and much less risky to the gameplay experience. The only issue is ensuring my Cube has the density of lifegain to truly justify the sub-theme, a hard thing to do in white these days. It basically does require all three of the white cards spoiled today to be in together, which then feels a little...boring? Prescriptive? Don't get me wrong, I do hope to play both Liliana the Faultless and Enlightened Confidant, but I feel like I'm basically working backwards to support a single set's linear deck in my own Cube if I add in Ajani. Well, we'll have to see, but I'll definitely try playing with this one.
I like how her mechanics still play well with reanimation even if she isn't the one reanimating anymore. Definitely going to try her out. I know White 2 drops have gotten nutty over the last few years but I still really like Charming Prince as a general card and definitely feel like his impact would go up if leaning deeper into a lifegain theme.
I like the new Ajani, it doesn’t seem too overpowered but it looks fun. With a couple Soul Sister effects (and they continue printing ones that are very interesting, like Guide of Souls, Haliya and this new white Liliana) it can produce a new Pridemate token every turn, even!
But I agree that there is a risk for the white section to become too FRA-centered if we already start with this guy, Lily, and the white Bob and it is only day 1 of the spoiler season.
A lot of hype for this spoiler season though! They gave us colourshifted Bob and Snap, who knows, maybe we will get also some colourshifted Tarmogoyf? Or Young Pyromancer? Or Stoneforge?!
Liliana the Faultless looks like a great cube card. Warden of Souls is too narrow on its own, but stapling the effect to removal protection and making it into a discard outlet is truly appealing.
Now, I think the activation cost, not just in cards, but in mana, puts a damper on it. But I like the design quite a bit.
Ajani the Resolute does seem like a good, easy to understand life gain payoff but you do need support because it starts very far from away from making the token.
Both seem a bit "underpowered" in cube because they are designed with the expectations life gain decks will have a lot of life gain in them.
Enlightened Confidant seems ok, even with the delay to draw but it's not a human and that's big for me.
I don't like the prepared cards, even if they do provide a spell every turn. It feels it should just be an activated ability.
I do like Craterclaw Colossus but I think the RRR cost and, to a smaller degree, the artifact requirement will combine to make the card unplayable. Pyrewood Gearhulk, while flawed in other ways, ended up failing for similar reasons.
Now, I think the activation cost, not just in cards, but in mana, puts a damper on it. But I like the design quite a bit.
Ajani the Resolute does seem like a good, easy to understand life gain payoff but you do need support because it starts very far from away from making the token.
Both seem a bit "underpowered" in cube because they are designed with the expectations life gain decks will have a lot of life gain in them.
Enlightened Confidant seems ok, even with the delay to draw but it's not a human and that's big for me.
I don't like the prepared cards, even if they do provide a spell every turn. It feels it should just be an activated ability.
I do like Craterclaw Colossus but I think the RRR cost and, to a smaller degree, the artifact requirement will combine to make the card unplayable. Pyrewood Gearhulk, while flawed in other ways, ended up failing for similar reasons.
I like boB, he doesn't seem crazy even at lower power levels. If I were to happen upon a copy (maybe of the fractured mirror art) I would give it a shot in the CCC as an occasional.
Btw, lookin forward to these actual Magic sets of 2027. Nauctis seems dope, as does Zhalfir. And Kamigawa vs. Ikoria at least has the potential to be more cool than cringe.
Btw, lookin forward to these actual Magic sets of 2027. Nauctis seems dope, as does Zhalfir. And Kamigawa vs. Ikoria at least has the potential to be more cool than cringe.
A bunch of people keep insisting this card is terrible and I just think they're wrong. It's so easy to stack a billion counters on this thing that it seems like it could be quite potent to me.I was going to clean up my desktop and realized I forgot to talk about this card: Ajani Resolute.
I think any 2mv planeswalker is inherently worthy of discussion. This one is asking you to spend three turns to make an Ajani's Pridemate token for the same price, so on its face, it's easy to dismiss. But with any other life gain shenanigans going on, this is both an enabler and payoff.
I don't think it's really a "Cube Card" in the traditional sense because it does require a bunch of 1MV soul sisters to really do it's thing, but I would not at all be surprised if this card ends up seeing play somewhere in Constructed.
The hybrid prepared creatures look really good honestly. They make it so triggering Flurry is very easy considering the sorcery costs a single mana.
The Goblin is a good source of repeatable Crime, Spectacle and Prowess triggers. Rakdos also has plenty of cards that pop off if the opponent lost life like Gev, Scaled Scorch, Gutterbones and Hired Claw.
The Octopus has a solid body and built in recursion for turbo mill strategies. It let's you build the fabled Baron deck where you slowly customize your deck by recycling relevant threats or answers.
I'm curious about the life gain deck, but doubt I will have the room for a full blown package, though I do already run my favorite life gain payoffs in Bolas's Citadel and Aetherflux Reservoir. Liliana the Faultless will likely make it in because of how few discard outlets there are in White. I've found having just a few alongside some cards that care about the GY to make a big difference in enabling GY/discard decks to venture into White.
I'm intrigued by Liliana, the Repentant, not so much because of her 6 mana activated ability (which is totally fine), but because of the self-mill. Don't typically see Black rewarding you for creature ETBs and this effect isn't capped at once per turn meaning you can get silly with it. I dream of stuff like sacrifice your board, then Living Death, milling your library and Dread Returning a Thassa's Oracle. Ultimately, I think Miles is right that she doesn't quite get there, but still neat.
Stingcaster Mage comes at a weird time because we just got Flashback. I'm not sure I want both in addition to Underworld Breach, that seems like a lot! Having the effect on a creature is stronger, but I do like how clean Flashback is.
The Goblin is a good source of repeatable Crime, Spectacle and Prowess triggers. Rakdos also has plenty of cards that pop off if the opponent lost life like Gev, Scaled Scorch, Gutterbones and Hired Claw.
The Octopus has a solid body and built in recursion for turbo mill strategies. It let's you build the fabled Baron deck where you slowly customize your deck by recycling relevant threats or answers.
I'm curious about the life gain deck, but doubt I will have the room for a full blown package, though I do already run my favorite life gain payoffs in Bolas's Citadel and Aetherflux Reservoir. Liliana the Faultless will likely make it in because of how few discard outlets there are in White. I've found having just a few alongside some cards that care about the GY to make a big difference in enabling GY/discard decks to venture into White.
I'm intrigued by Liliana, the Repentant, not so much because of her 6 mana activated ability (which is totally fine), but because of the self-mill. Don't typically see Black rewarding you for creature ETBs and this effect isn't capped at once per turn meaning you can get silly with it. I dream of stuff like sacrifice your board, then Living Death, milling your library and Dread Returning a Thassa's Oracle. Ultimately, I think Miles is right that she doesn't quite get there, but still neat.
Stingcaster Mage comes at a weird time because we just got Flashback. I'm not sure I want both in addition to Underworld Breach, that seems like a lot! Having the effect on a creature is stronger, but I do like how clean Flashback is.
Oh man, give me a White Young Pyromancer please!
I think the setting feeling fake is actually the point! This isn’t a natural alternate timeline, it’s one Jace specifically cooked up to “fix” some of the problems