By: Dom Harvey

This is a clear staple for even the tightest power-max Cubes. While it requires a hefty mana investment to remove something ‘permanently’, the tempo boost makes this more than good enough most of the time. Typically the most flexible removal spells are sorcery speed; of the few exceptions, Beast Within carries a significant drawback and the most restrictive Abrupt Decay is a multi-format all star. Unexpectedly Absent will be a solid role player in Legacy and a valuable tool in Cube.

The choice of whether to include this card says a lot about the philosophy behind your Cube. Judging solely by power level, Nemesis is incredible. Does it lead to fun games, though? If you can stock the Cube with enough answers, or if racing against it proves to be competitive, maybe. Being under the gun against an untouchable 3/1 and forced to find a way to deal 20 in time can be exciting; when equipment and the like enters the picture, it isn’t.

This one is hard to evaluate. If played on curve it compounds any advantage you have, acting as an ersatz Bitterblossom. More often, your 2-drop will get killed or face an unprofitable trade and you’ll wish you had some guy – any guy – instead.

This is an excellent defensive card for any midrange black deck; either the opponent kills it on sight and still loses a guy to the Snake, or it lives and presents them with that same conundrum every turn. Note that it triggers on each upkeep; if you have a way to cash in a token for an instant-speed effect, it gets out of hand quickly.

Notable synergies include Attrition, Contamination, Mortarpod, Goblin Bombardment, Rusalkas

We’ve been waiting for this for a long time. A splashable, 3-mana mass removal spell that scales as you want?! The life loss can be an issue, and it’s much worse in the occasional ‘Damnation your one creature away’ line, but those are downsides I’m happy to live with. It greatly increases the value of creatures that live through it but which would die to a normal sweeper: T2 Tarmogoyf T3 Deluge will be a common play in Legacy, to the distress of Mothers of Runes everywhere.

Sulfuric Vortex is one of the scariest cards in Cube, and so a turbo-charged version of it sounds good on paper. The appeal of Vortex is that it’s perfectly costed for its effect; it fits neatly into the ideal start of the decks that want it, applying continuous and unstoppable pressure. Those decks have a much harder time mustering 5 mana, and when they do it’s for an immediate game ender like Thundermaw Hellkite or Zealous Conscripts, which fit in a much wider range of decks. Witch Hunt is a narrow tool that’s not really wanted by its target market; still, I think this is more than just a watered down Havoc Festival.

Restore is a home run: great art and flavour married to a cheap and exploitable effect. It doesn’t slot easily into your normal singleton Cube, however. If you have maybe 15 cards that it can return with any regularity (fetches, Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds, Wasteland/Strip Mine, Horizon Canopy), it’s going to rot in your hand or, more likely, your sideboard. For this to not be worse than Life from the Loam, it has to be a better Rampant Growth when it matters (that can randomly deliver a one-two punch with Strip Mine or bring back a manland for a second bout); when you double up on fetchlands, this starts to look realistic.

By: Dom Harvey

Now that we’ve had time to digest the set, the consensus seems to be that Theros was a very disappointing set for Cube. To a degree this was inevitable – our second trip to Ravnica spoiled us as much as the first, so Theros was bound to be weak by comparison – but the more fundamental problem is that the set’s mechanics are inherently poorly suited to a Limited format that isn’t designed with them in mind. Heroic requires a density of targeted non-removal instants/sorceries that’s wildly unrealistic and gives you very little in return – how much needs to go right for Fabled Hero to be better than Silverblade Paladin or Mirran Crusader? On the other side, Monstrosity stands on its own but amounts to flavour text in a fast format with plentiful cheap removal where the other threats have much better base stats. Devotion awkwardly straddles this line: its effectiveness scales with the support you give it, but you can’t justify doing so if you’re trying to power-max. However, devotion does enable interesting mini-archetypes in Cubes looking for cards to build around, and today’s card is a great example:

Master of Waves is a fascinating design, pushing not only devotion but tribal and token subthemes; it’s rare that we see crossover between these, let alone all of them brought together so neatly in one card. Some of the most fun ways to exploit it will involve touching on more than one of these; for now, the more obvious applications:

Fans of the little fish that could have received some sweet gifts recently. If the card plays a role in Constructed, this is probably it. Outside of tribal or other exotic Cubes this won’t come up, though Coralhelm Commander is a fine man by himself.

An obvious worry about devotion (and ‘Swamps matter’ and the like) is that it promotes committing to a plan early and never deviating: drafting becomes an algorithm to sort by mana symbols. Hybrid improves a Cube’s overall colour balance as part of a gold section and lets you take a risk on devotion without wasting a pick if it falls through. These three are the best of bunch, turning Master into 10 power for 4 mana as well as being fine cards in their own right.

Master’s biggest weakness is that it’s swept away by a thin breeze but leaves you without mana to save it. Kira, Drakeling, and Clique are preemptive safeguards that make finding and resolving an answer more necessary and yet more difficult.

Master cares about Tribal in more ways than one! Conveniently, cards that care about Wizards tend to be very colour-intensive; Patron Wizard seems almost custom-built to team with Master. If your deck is set up to enable Master you want to see it every game, so Wizardcycling is at its most valuable here.

Let’s not forget Elementals either (well, not yet)! The P/T bonus on one creature may be marginal, but blinking or copying a Master isn’t. Speaking of which:

While they don’t contribute to the initial devotion count, Clones chaining Masters will bury the opponent very quickly. They also provide valuable insurance, with each Master keeping the other’s spawn alive after it’s gone.

Those  icons have never looked better. EOT Liege into 15 power? T3 Grand Architect, T4 Master -> Sundering Titan (or something ‘harmless’ like Sigil of Distinction for 10)? Seems reasonable.

No wider theme here, just solid proactive plays that halt the opponent’s start and give Master what he wants.

Leading off a T3 Jace, Master lends a good board presence for defending him or applying pressure. If Master isn’t answered immediately, Jace cements your lock on the game while the opponent struggles to stay alive.

Surprise! Adding 10 power to the board at your convenience is brutal when they don’t see it coming; and the beauty of Teferi is that they can’t do anything about it even if they do.

Barrin and Master were born to be together: Barrin boosts the devotion count on-curve, with Master giving him fuel to hose down the opponent’s board. If the game goes long, you can cash in a token to return Master and start the whole show again.

I don’t think this counts as saving the best for last, which says a lot about this card’s potential. Opposition into Master locks down four permanents a turn by itself, even before you account for any earlier plays. It’s nice that this is virtually immune to sorcery-speed removal as well.

Beyond this you have the usual interactions with Goblin Bombardment, Crystal Shard, Overrun effects, and so on. Competition among blue 4-drops, let alone blue cards in general, is very fierce, but if you’re willing to devote the effort to make it work the rewards are massive.

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