Intro

A new month and a half has passed, so it’s that time again, the new Magic set is out and about in the wild! Edge of eternities brings with it a few new mechanics, first of which is void, which is mostly just an easier to trigger morbid that alters effects. Warp is also here and is an odd riff in the foretell/evoke/other odd mechanics realm. If these find a home in the cube remains to be seen!

White

Usman:  One of the better-performing cards like EoE limited, its warp is pretty middling since it just makes a 1/1 for 2, but it’s something to do if you have nothing else to do.  I’m not feeling this one very much but it might just get there as a Moose and Squirrel (Ambassador Oak) even though this having 2 toughness is rough in this format.

JaySherman: I would bring back Oltec Cloud Guard before cubing this. Having the 2 mana option is nice, but it’s hard to imagine the option of an expensive 1/1 being worth more than evasion on a solid beater, and we really don’t have enough uses for the main body while warped, contrary to EoE limited.

Neveron: It’s a decent hole-filler to help you curve out; since the 1/1 for 1W mode doesn’t really cost a card, it lets you effectively turn a Doom Blade into a Ravenous Chupacabra. That said, though, I think we probably prefer our four-drops to make 2/2s on entering?

Omniczech: I am disinterested in almost any version of this effect that isn’t getting me past the vanilla test on all fronts.

Solset: This is an easy pass for me regardless of EoE success.  Both modes are underwhelming.  Yes, it is flood protection at 6 mana of action over two turns, but I don’t think the normal usages justify space in a tight cube.

Phizzled: I really wanted to like warp, because I initially expected it to be more like adventure than it is.  A sorcery speed 1/1 that draws a very expensive 3/2 is disappointing.  If you’re in bad enough shape that you need the 1/1 as a road block until you can get to the full priced Knight, chances are you’re not going to survive long after casting the Knight, either.  Pass.

Usman: Coral Sword was a fine card and this is essentially that at common with a higher equip cost.  My gut thought is that it doesn’t do much but it does at least mean that you win combat, with the size of creatures in this format.

Neveron: A Hundred-Talon Strike where the power sticks around isn’t nothing, but I don’t think you ever want to re-equip this to anything. Three mana for +1/+0 is abysmal.

Solset: This is my exact sort of card, and even I don’t love it.  LIkely, that makes it an easy pass for everyone.   I have a handful of red cards in the category I can talk to you about though.

Phizzled: If we were already playing one of the instants that gave first strike and the trinket boost, I’d be more interested in seeing if this was an upgrade. As is, and as my colleagues have noted, the equip cost is likely never being paid.

Usman:  Easily the best in class for this type of effect, since they usually deal 2 or the total number of creatures (or caring about party?) but not both.  In our format, this should usually kill something for 1 mana which is a great deal, even when compared to premiere white and black removal.  Being gated to only caring about attacking or blocking creatures is annoying but it probably gets there anyway on pure rate.

JaySherman: Given how efficient this is, I can see it replacing a more expensive option like Planar Disruption (which is basically a duplicate). Letting the opponent block before removal is not the best play pattern for aggressive decks, sure, but at the same time it works best in creature-heavy decks. I like to diversify effects whenever possible.

Neveron: I’m a fan of avoiding functional duplicates when possible, and we’ve run Swift Response before. This seems good. Most of the targets you’d worry about in this cube are generally going to be in combat anyhow, I think.

Phizzled: I hate that some of the text is additive distraction, but a Shock honestly isn’t something to sniff at.  Scaling up, especially when you have incidental tokens is extremely reasonable.  The efficiency very likely outweighs the chance that an opponent will choose to not put a creature you’re worried about in harm’s way via combat.

Solset: I do like my white removal to be able to hit something on main phase one to force through more damage.  However, in midrange mirrors and in control, this should make most decks.  I’d probably vote pass, but I’m not mad if this makes it in.

Blue

Usman:  I think this is the common that does the most for us in this set:  the rate is fine by drawing a card for 2 and acting like a sorcery-speed Think Twice, but triggering on leaving the battlefield is nice for blink/other ways to sacrifice it, although using its innate ability isn’t awful.  The rate’s good enough to get there, I think.

JaySherman: I agree with the above, with the addition that it is just half at sorcery speed. So comparing it with something like Quick Study for example, just one more mana total, you still get the chance of holding up mana for counterspells, it opens up some synergies by being a permanent and you get a turn of reprieve from an attacker. I think it is a great “draw 2”.

Neveron: Unfortunately we don’t really have the artifact flicker that would really let this go off, but even just bouncing this is more than enough to make it worth the price of entry. I don’t know how often you want to activate its ability, but even then it’s one of the better four-mana-draw-two cards out there.

Omniczech: I like the fact this has the magic wording of “Leaves the battlefield” and how that’ll interact with a variety of effects in the cube. It’s not gonna be an absolute slam dunk by any means, but it does fill that little “fun” role that so many folks are concerned with.

Solset: I think Omni nailed it.  In a typical deck I think this might be slightly worse than our existing vanilla options, but the ability to do “neat” things is much higher here.   I imagine it will be the first to get outclassed when the next pushed option comes, but I am glad to give it a shot until then.

Phizzled: No reason to rock the boat on this one: drawing cards is good, and getting to keep an attacker away while drawing a card is also good.  I wouldn’t mind looping this somehow, but the Cube likely doesn’t need to be warped to facilitate that.

Usman:  This effectively turns a creature into a wall, and it’s similar to other things like Unable to Scream and friends.  I don’t think this is better than that, but there aren’t a lot of creatures in our format that have good “static” abilities.  I’m generally fine with these types of effects.

JaySherman: It’s nothing to write home about but it’s probably better than Bubble Snare in most cases… For the same mana it gives the creature an extra block instead of an extra attack. It lacks the more expensive option but we also run Weakstone's Subjugation which is more versatile.

Neveron: This is extremely funny with Gideon's Lawkeeper et. al., of course, and probably as close as you can getting to actual hard removal in blue. Tapping the creature or pinging it is surprisingly easy to do without spending a second card.

Omniczech: I like that this one has 2 ways in which it can wind up “shattering” the creature. I’m not sure if the fact this doesn’t handle the real big things is enough of a downside to keep it out by a long shot or what, but this is an interesting option for sure.

Solset: Cryoshatter seems a sidegrade to a number of our existing options. I think these days I am favoring versions that turn off abilities as well, but as Usman says it is not as many as you might think.  I think I am fine either way with this compared to Bubble Snare, but if I was the tie breaker, I vote pass.

Phizzled: It’s likely possible to construct Blue-Red decks that can reliably ping or Blue-White decks that can immediately tap something after playing this, but I worry just the tiniest bit that I’m over-estimating how easy it will be to destroy the creature this enchants before an opponent gains any value.

Usman:  It does a lot; has flash, it’s cheap and it effectively cycles away.  I’m unsure if it doesn’t do enough, since that can be a problem with these kinds of cards, since a 1/1 isn’t a great clock.  But I do like it by virtue of being a cheap creature that can cycle itself away and isn’t bad if played for 3 mana to tie up a blocker and draw a card.

JaySherman: I don’t like this in our cube as is, but it could be a great enabler if we add a couple more ninjutsu cards and/or more tools for tempo oriented blue decks.

Neveron: It’s Spectral Sailor at home, and probably decent enough. If we ever want to rework into Blue/Black Ninjas or something then it’s one of the better Flying Men.

Omniczech: It’s a lot of text on a Flying Men at common these days, but I’m not super sure that adding the cycling option here is enough for me. I do like that this functionally gets to flip for an actually good card turns 3+ if need be.

Solset: In our cube, this is a pass.  It just doesn’t enable much, nor does it do enough on its own.  If we had more saboteur (see Bident of Thassa) or ninja type effects this could fill a role.  In our current setup, it is homeless.

Phizzled: I like all of the parts individually, but, yeah, when your best case scenario is “this is already on the battlefield when it’s getting outclassed” I’m not truly thrilled.  It’s a glue card in want of an archetype or two that needs glue, instead of enablers.

JaySherman: I love this card. Not long ago (just last year, how the power creep creeps) we were playing Watcher in the Mist. Comparing it with cards we currently run, there is Young Blue Dragon // Sand Augury which gives you an actual card but a worse body. I think blue needs the body more than the cards, in general. And surveilling 4 in total should be close enough.

Usman:  I do think that this isn’t bad on the overall package and that Warping is pretty much the juice with this, since it can just surveil for 2+2, which huge to sculpt future draws.  Our top-end isn’t the most amazing but I like how this fits control game plans.

Neveron: I think the important thing for us is that blue is in flicker colors, which means that this could easily be two cards and 2-3 mana for a flying 3/5 that surveils 2+2. It even gets discounted by Warden of Evos Isle in both modes.

Omniczech: I don’t like this one personally but I understand where folks are coming from. We’ve had the “card filtering and a defensive body” before and it was fine, I’m just not over the moon here still.

Solset:I know I sound spoiled, but if this was an adventure, I would be a lot happier.  That being said, this will play well enough in our blue with its focus on late game control.  Easy to warp this late game just to fix your draws while keeping mana up, then cast it two turns later when it is really late game.

Phizzled: I feel like I’m nitpicking here by not loving this when it really does two things I quite like (and when I have fond memories of losing my Exodus prerelease with two Killer Whales having an identical body), I really worry that removal is going to destroy the warped creatures before they get to attack. Realistically, I know that when that happens you’re still getting a card’s worth of effect and taking removal out of your opponent’s hand, but i hate how vulnerable warp seems.  I feel warping just for surveil is properly costed, which means this isn’t ruthlessly efficient, and thus isn’t an easy “yes” for me.

JaySherman: As the preeminent (?) Aethersnipe appreciator, I have to say I like this one very much in that role, although I’m not sure if enough for a swap. Stunning is strictly different than bouncing with the amount of ETBs we have these days (granted, it doesn’t kill tokens) and 5/5 is better than 4/4 (duh) but what I like the most about it is the single blue pip in the cheaper cost, which it really matters when you’re trying to pair it with some flicker shenanigans. Doesn’t work with the black ones though.

Usman:  Similarly, I think the Warp helps get this across the finish line but unsure if that’s enough to get there for something without evasion and the warp mode costing 3.  It’s not bad though.

Neveron: My immediate reaction upon seeing this was that Final Fantasy’s Ice Flan might get replaced before it even got in. And, yeah, much like with Aethersnipe you can flicker this for profit.

Solset: I think this is a slam dunk for us. I hate wasting Aethersnipe for evoke, and I keep thinking we need a bit less bounce.  The possibility for some slight counter shenanigans too makes it extra interesting. Count me in!

Phizzled: You can repeat my warp comments above, except stunning a threat feels like something that impacts the game in a way that keeps me alive. I’m not thrilled by the cost, but I will admit to having a soft spot for Queen of Ice // Rage of Winter in the past, and this certainly hits harder if it survives.  Hesitant “yes.”

Omniczech: The fact that this is stunning is not something to be overlooked. As much as I love the weird little guy that is Aethersnipe, this feels like mostly just a better card.

Black

Usman:  I like the other Last Gasp effects more than this but I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing this in addition to them.  Although I’m unsure if this is even better than vanilla Last Gasp.

JaySherman: I agree with the above, I’m not very interested in a more situational Last Gasp.

Neveron: It hits a surprising number of creatures, including some that don’t get hit by a -3/-3. I’m not sure if the targets it misses are more important than the extra ones it hits, but it’s something at least. Unfortunately it can’t be combined with other cards to kill a large creature as easily, but I’m quite fascinated by this strange little card.

Solset: While there are few clutch cards this removes like Murmuring Mystic, I think there are enough cases where this is much worse that I say skip.  I hate this card when staring down a 6/6 monster, but other last gasps or terror seem fine there.

Phizzled: This is cute, honestly, as a tweak on a thing we have access to. The two questions I always ask when that happens are: 1) does it really do anything we aren’t already able to do? and 2) are there cards in the Cube that already answer this that couldn’t stop the aforementioned Last Gasp?  We only have two spells that give indestructible right now, but losing the toughness reduction creates some very real math concerns.  This is clearly worse against the Gruul Monsters deck, and to me, that means it is clearly worse.

Omniczech: I think we should keep this one on the brain as we move forward given it is so unique, but as of now it’s not front of mind.

Usman: I’m honestly unsure what deck wants this.  Maybe to Warp in and force in damage and to force in additional damage?  It just seems like a midrange card that doesn’t have a home in midrange decks.

JaySherman: I don’t see the appeal really, the warp effect at sorcery speed is really underwhelming, and you’re even paying double. As a top end creature for black we have better options.

Neveron: This is strictly for aggressive decks where it lets you swing in without worrying, and maybe also aristocrats where in addition to the obvious it lets you get double value from your graveflicker cards. The sorcery speed hurts it, but if you have a sac outlet I could see some nasty turn-three Beckoner+Feign Death plays that leave you with a 4/4 Carrion Feeder, 5/6 Beckoner, and 2/2 Grizzly Bears (or whatever).

Solset: I am coming around on this one, especially as we have more black aggro.  On the warp side, you are putting them in a tough position. Yes the creature is doing more damage, but they can’t trade with it.  So they take a bigger hit to the face, or sacrifice something.  After all of that, you “drew” a reasonable 4/5 for 5 with an okay ETB.  I don’t expect to win this one, but I think it would play well for us.

Phizzled: The esteemed Neveron managed to highlight my concerns, turn them on their head, and move me into the hesitant “yes” category in one sentence.  No notes.  Hesitant “yes.”  I don’t know where to mentally slot it into the Cube curve, but that’s okay for today.

 

Red

Neveron: It might not compare very favourably to Experimental Synthesizer, but I’m always glad to see more alternatives for the red two-mana discard-one-draw-two slot. If we ever end up moving W/R or U/R towards making Artifacts Matter, this card is worth remembering.

Omniczech: I do think the best part of this is the fact it’ll encourage us to talk about Experimental Synthesizer when the time comes in October. Apart from that I’m not super huge on this one.

Solset: I like this over the duplicate Reckless Impulse / Wrenn’s Resolve. This draws you the two, plus a grey ogre,  while turning on sacrifice shenanigans. I am hopeful here.

Phizzled: Going solely based on “vibes” as the youth sometimes do, this feels fine.  I like being able to park a blocker for a later turn.  I don’t love how this plays poorly with the psuedo-prowess cards currently in the Cube that only care about instants and sorceries, but the feels like someone reaching for a reason to complain about a perfectly reasonable card.

Usman: There’ve been a lot of these kinds of effects over the years like Highway Robbery and Bitter Reunion and like the latter, it leaves something behind.  This might be better than those, since it does act like Experimental Synthesizer activated mode.  I don’t think our cube has a lot of ways to take advantage of this being an artifact, but maybe its virtual “kicker” of 3 mana, make a robot gets there.  Unsure, though.

Usman:  There’s a mile gap between 2 and 3 damage, and since individual Lava Spikes don’t tend to be very good without critical mass, Lava Spike decks (without breaking singleton,) don’t manifest in cube that often, since a Boltwave isn’t good without a LOT of help since the deck mainly just wants to deal 20 with bolts ASAP ala the Philosophy of Fire.

Because of that, usually these types of bolts tend to manifest in red aggro – an archetype that’s in a similar vein and a deck that tends to share similar pieces (Monastery Swiftspear, Lightning Bolt) but isn’t not the same.

I was around when Tragic Slip was hyped to hell and didn’t perform to my lukewarm expectations, so there’s some precedent on this not working out in cube, but a sorcery speed Shock looked to be a fine enough floor and I think it should perform similarly – not always having to hit Void 100% but enough to make it worth it.

JaySherman: We already run a couple of “conditional 3 damage for 1 mana at sorcery speed”, of which the condition decreases the cost instead of increasing damage output. I think having the 1 mana value already set makes this just better than the rest.

Neveron: This working with any nonland permanent on any side of the board helps it a lot, I think: the condition covers treasure tokens, prior removal spells, trades in combat, your Fanatical Firebrand sacrificing itself, and so on.

Phizzled: I don’t love that this is sorcery speed, and I don’t like that Void implies you’re hanging onto it until after combat if you’re trying to maximize damage.. I suppose if I squint it does the same things as Skewer the Critics, which is a card I historically have liked.

Solset: Bad lightning bolts are still good cards, and we continue to run a number of them.  In my experience, Rift Bolt is the worst of the lot these days, and I think Plasma Bolt is going to be better than it the majority of the time.

Omniczech: I think this one’s just fine. If you need 2 damage you don’t need to try, if you need 3 it’s so easy for this to be active incidentally. I’m a big fan.

JaySherman: On the discord thread people were unfavorably contrasting this with Prowcatcher Specialist, and Solset mentioned it being awful for aggro since it doesn’t keep up pressure by building a board state. I agree with both. It’s ok but we have better options.

Usman:   I’ve previously disliked the 4-mana haste creatures and I’m similarly meh on this one, but I do like how this… can be like a weird Bolt-ish effect, but it’s just inefficient there too.  But it’s at least not spending a whole card and can represent 6 damage worth of burst damage, which is something I thought of Nova Hellkite for in cubes with rares in them, as a way for a card to represent a lot of raw damage output.  But the issue is that warping this on turn 2 is just… so bad for an aggro deck from it not getting cardboard permanently on board.  It’s similar to why Lava Spike just isn’t great in our format, since aggressive decks play to the board, rather than trying to squeeze raw damage via critical mass.

Neveron: I was high on this during spoiler season, but it seems to have underperformed in EOE limited. I’m still hopeful that the Ball Lightning-esque two-mana mode could work out in pauper cube, but it’s not looking great for this cat.

Solset: Read Jay’s comments above.

Phizzled: Jay’s nailed the analysis.

Neveron: It’s our first unconditional red mana dork since The Dark’s Sisters of the Flame! I’m not entirely sure if we want it in the cube, but it’s a fun option if we ever want to go down the Orcish Lumberjack route in Gruul. That it’s also a mana sink is an added bonus.

Solset: I don’t think we have the right type of red for this card, but it is an exciting development to see strictly better colored Myr outside of green. Now do one in blue for us!

Phizzled: I honestly like both what this little robot offers as a blunt to opposing aggro and as a mana sink when you have a trample stalemate.  I think it’s kind of in the wrong color to feel like a slam dunk in limited, unfortunately. My guess is two more iterations down the link on the red mana dork will be the right fit for us.

Usman:  I’m mostly mid on this since it’s a red card that’s not that great for aggressive decks.  In theory, it has a mana sink mode for the late game when flooding out but it costs a billion mana and that isn’t what aggro wants to do anyway.

Green

Usman:  RIP that its original printing doesn’t exist.  🙁

JaySherman: I wasn’t really interested even without the errata…

Neveron: The card as printed was, essentially, Green Murder: both targets could be the opponent’s creatures, or even the same creature. Unfortunately for us, a statement from Wizards of the Coast corrected the rules text to read “target creature you control” and thus it’s just a mildly different Clear Shot. Clear Shot is still a decent card, but you’ll notice that it’s not in the cube at the moment.

Solset: Without the functional errata, I think we could be discussing this card as it is rare that a fight spell doesn’t need you to have a creature.  Without that edge case, we don’t want to spend 3 on this.

Phizzled: A fine, but unspectacular bite spell, as fixed.  Band Together and others likely did the same amount of creature killing, if we were looking to gang up on an opposing creature.  If WotC un-errata’s it, slot it in.

JaySherman: I like it more than Tuskguard Captain, I think it would be a fine swap. It gives you much more stats up front, and more importantly it allows you to spread the counters away from your enabler, which they are pressed to kill anyway.

Usman:  Honestly, as a 4/3 with trample, that’s fine enough on its own but has enough flexibility to pique my interest as a way to represent more damage.

Neveron: Green is one of those colors that can actually make good use of Warp: a two-mana 3/2 can fight/bite quite well. That aside, giving a creature a +1/+1 counter and temporary trample is close enough to Unnatural Predation to make me think it’s somewhat worth the cost.

Solset: Besides the perennial problem of the 4 mana spot being bloated, this is a good card for us. The multi turn six mana Basri's Acolyte mode is somewhat fine as a late game mana sink in green too. Finally, Evolution Witness gets a friend.

Phizzled: I still don’t love warp, for the reasons presented above, but, again, this is an ETB that has an impact on the board, and trample added to your 1 drop, along with the counter, can reasonably start the damage train rolling.  I’m generally in favor.

Usman:  It’s currently the best-performing green common and it’s a pile of value – it’s what I’d want from a midrange creature instead of something like Perigee Beckoner – a good rate for the cost, makes a thing that can be used (although I’m unsure how often that’s going to matter for our format) and is something that’s not bad to blink.

JaySherman: Solid creature, and it is doing work on EoE Limited (Lander tokens are great). But I’m not sure it is good enough considering our bigger card pool.

Neveron: The three-mana 3/3 slot is a somewhat competitive one. Is a Lander better than, say, Beast-Kin Ranger or Eldrazi Repurposer

Solset: I love the vanilla test here, but with green having so many better ways to ramp built into our cube, I am not convinced this is actually worth the slot.  I wouldn’t be upset with this addition, but I am not its champion either.

Phizzled: The more I see of Edge limited, the better landers feel. However, the lack of evasion feels unimpressive.  I hesitate to think I’d rather have Contagious Vorrac for its more diverse effects or one of the 2/2s that doesn’t require the token generating effect as a middleman (e.g. Borderland Ranger).

Omniczech: I recently had a discussion concerning landers, and I’m less of a fan of them even into the midgame in cube. That said, I think this is just on the side of playable.

 

Colorless

Neveron: This card probably isn’t for us, since we generally prefer to get the creature upfront. However, if you really want to go hard on ramp in your cube, know that this is performing quite well in Edge of Eternity limited and will let your Big Green deck not only kill almost any creature in Pauper (something it could already do with Scour from Existence et. al.) but also turn any unfortunately non-evasive beaters into the pilot of a 7/7 flyer whenever you get tired of those chump-blocking 1/1s. Which might then immediately die to Doom Blade, but such is life.

Solset: I think this is a pretty reasonable control finisher, and it reminds me a lot of Angel of Despair.  Big flyer that likely kills their best creature with an ETB. This is spicy to get going with Ghostly Flicker too.   By the time green ramp or control gets to 7 mana, the ground is likely a bit clogged with creatures that can turn this on in a couple of turns.  It might not be the best card in the set, but I think it is a “fun” one.

Phizzled: 10 damage is functionally “destroy target creature,” which is pretty fine.  I wish station didn’t feel like taking turns off to let your opponent kill your giant creature. I don’t think I’m a fan, because Meteor Golem already exists, if with the wrong rarity.

Usman: It’s one of those lategame payoffs that does something and then represents a threat, but having to pay 7 mana for a kill spell just feels so bad in our format when our removal is generally so much better.  Even green at least gets bites.  But for our format, this card just bites.  🙁

JaySherman: I’m coming around to this mainly on the “fun” aspect Solset mentioned, but also it does something that our other colorless top end does not, which is immediate board impact. Nothing worse than ramping out an Ulamog's Crusher hoping to block for it to get killed or bounced. The Kill-Ship guarantees reducing a bit of pressure. So I would add before the second Crusher-like card. In addition, it is one of the few competitively costed station thresholds on EoE limited. Bonus points for being our only Spacecraft in contention. PS: fully on board the “downshift Meteor Golem” train.

Lands

Usman:  I’m honestly unsure how many times this’ll be used alongside tokens or fallow creatures.  I don’t personally like this more than other lands we’re not playing, but it does have some potential as a fixing land.

JaySherman: Definitely the best so far in its class, but I’m not sure we want it. Maybe in place of another functional duplicate we run: it is much better than Hidden Grotto at enabling multicolor soups but worse at just splashing, so it evens out (?).

Neveron: We’ve generally got more than enough permanents lying around that this take on a Rupture Spire is good, I think?

Omniczech: I think this is still below the cutoff for me for these sorts of lands. That and the fact our fixing is generally already really solid, I’m not a fan of changes for their own sake.

Solset: Great option for mutations that go deeper on multicolor stuff.  Not for us.

Phizzled: With heavier emphasis on multi-colored spells, this would be an easy include.  I think this is looking to solve a problem generally not present in the current iteration of the main Cube, though.  Keep a copy for down the road, but don’t expect to include it in the near future.