Spoiler season is officially over and you know what that means. It's time to go over all the cards I'm considering for my Possibility Cube! I'd also like to take the time to thank everyone who read my 2022 For My Cube post at the start of this new year! It's always great to go back and see what stuck around.
In this post I'll be writing about all the cards from Phyrexia: All Will Be One that people are talking about or should be talking about for an unpowered unrestricted cube environment in the context of my personal cube, the Possibility Cube. Let's go!
The Eternal Wanderer
The Good: Well these abilities certainly are powerful and, in addition to starting at 5 loyalty, all provide some pretty good self-defense. Having access to a flicker effect every turn in the form of a +1 has a pretty high ceiling. While the floor would usually depend solely on your board, the fact that this can target your opponent's stuff and make them go without until the end of their turn raises the floor significantly, you can essentially delete an attacker/blocker or maybe even a signet for as long as you want to keep +1ing. Creating a 2/2 with double strike every turn is also a pretty good way to win the game. Paying 6 mana and using the -4 right away is where this card looks the worst but the fact that it's an option at all is nice and it's not like we really needed a big flashy win-the-game ult for this planeswalker to get you to a victory.
The Bad: 6 mana is a lot of mana. I recently cut Elspeth, Sun's Champion from my cube, even though it's pretty powerful and can win you games, at 6-mana it just wasn't seeing a lot of play anymore. Now is this better than Elspeth? It honestly might be but I'm unsure. The +1 could feel like a nothing ability and when you're truly behind I don't think the 0 or the -4 are really going to stabilize you like Elspeth could (although with this card's static ability, a 0 into a -4 is a pretty realistic plan for stabilizing).
The Verdict: In the end, I think 6-mana Elspeth serves the same role as this card and it's not clear to me that this is significantly better. I like the card and I might test it if I see an easy cut, but I'll probably hold off unless I see it put in work in other environments.
Ossification
The Good: If you frequent this blog I'm sure you've heard me preach the need for cheap planeswalker removal on multiple occasions. Planeswalkers have become a large part of my cube's environment and cheap and efficient ways of getting rid of them will always be at least considered.
The Bad: While having a basic isn't the hardest thing in the world, it is going to feel pretty bad when you need to play this in a 2+ colored deck and you get punished for responsibly drafting fixing. Also, while the need is still there (I'd like to not need to run Fateful Absence one day), planeswalker removal has gotten better and I'm unsure if a sorcery speed version that can get disenchanted is what I want. Journey to Nowhere has been out of my cube for some time now and, while hitting planeswalkers is big, this shares all its same problems.
The Verdict: I'm actually going to pass on this one, I like the option but I think I currently have better tools than this.
Planar Disruption
The Good: So after reading Ossification, I did not think I'd be considering a Pacifism variant over it but here I am. Getting rid of attacking, blocking, and activated abilities is pretty dang close to removal. The fact that this can hit artifacts too makes it pretty dang close to some unconditional removal akin to O-ring as well. I mentioned Journey to Nowhere not being good enough earlier, a big part of that is if I'm going to play sorcery speed removal that is open to a disenchant effect, I kind of want to have more options than creature to hit with it. This isn't any nonland permanent but it's close.
The Bad: So this does hit the marks of sorcery speed and can be undone via a disenchant. It also doesn't stop passive effects but it's debatable and probably environment dependent on whether that's better or worse than retriggering ETBs if this was an exile effect.
The Verdict: I don't think I'm going to go for this, but I might and if you were considering Ossification I'd go with this first. I'd like to say the fact that it's not tied to a basic and has the option of hitting artifacts will probably make this better on average.
Skrelv, Defector Mite
The Good: The obvious comparison is Mother of Runes and Giver of Runes and those cards have such powerful play patterns that this certainly needs some consideration. Hexproof from a color is a powerful effect to keep up for no mana cost and the option to make something potentially unblockable can be really annoying for the opponent.
The Bad: So this is missing some very important parts of the Mother/Giver play patterns, mainly the ability to negate combat damage. Giving something protection to make them unblockable really only comes up when it's to win the game, what really does it is attacking into what would be even trades but your opponent won't block because the threat of activation means they'd be chumping instead. Having potentially a stone wall of a blocker due to threat of activation messes up your opponent's plans quite a bit as well.
The Verdict: I really don't think this makes it, the 2 life would be nothing if it was literally protection but it just doesn't seem worth it for this worse version. Negating combat damage is too large a part of what makes Mother/Giver good in my opinion.
Skrelv's Hive
The Good: Another card that's seems similar to a known powerful cube card, this one being akin to Bitterblossom. Making a 1/1 every turn is an effect we might expect to see on a planeswalker, getting it on a 2 mana enchantment is certainly powerful. Not only does this provide a body every turn for some aristocrat shenanigans, these 1/1s are artifacts and give all the synergies that that inherently provides as well.
The Bad: The best thing about a 1/1 token is that it can block. Unfortunately the offense of this card has also been nerfed from Bitterblossom as these tokens don't have evasion either.
The Verdict: If you have a cube that is strongly synergy-based, I'd say this is probably for you. I, however, am going to pass. I think in my environment this is just going to be too narrow of a card, no one's going to run this card for value without the ability to use the tokens as blockers.
Jace, the Perfected Mind
The Good: So I've seen some talk around this card and I think the idea is that this is a 3-mana planeswalker that has a -2 that can draw you 3 cards if you meet a potentially easy condition. Before it can draw you all the cards, you can buy time with the +1 or even get a sneaky victory with a burst of mill.
The Bad: I don't actually think the condition for the -2 is going to be met in most games of magic. I think the idea that it may be trivial comes from Shelldock Isle, where decks almost always get down to 20 cards pretty quickly, but the thing is most of those cards don't end up in the graveyard.
The Verdict: I'm not into this one, pass for me.
Mercurial Spelldancer
The Good: A 2/1 unblockable for 2-mana is a pretty good baseline and this card can really start generating you powerful card advantage if its engine gets going.
The Bad: I worry about consistency with this one, and Dauthi Voidwalker has shown that 2-mana x-power unblockable isn't so good that it'll see play off rate alone. So you play this on turn 2, you're looking to get your value off this card a whole 3 turns later if you have a noncreature spell every turn and that's not exactly trivial. Maybe you can double spell on turn 4 and get value 2 turns after you play it, but again it's not trivial to do that and each turn gives your opponent more time to just remove this. Also, while you can copy any instant/sorcery with this ability and that ceiling is very high, the game isn't always going to allow you to sequence your spells in a way where you have much agency into what's going to be copyable when you can finally see value.
The Verdict: Pass from me. I'd rather play a card like Looter il-Kor, while it's not straight card advantage, it gets you value the turn after you play it and it also slots into reanimator decks.
Sheoldred's Edict
The Good: So there was only one black card that caught my eye this set but boy is it sweet. Angrath's Rampage was the last surviving edict effect in my cube before it was eventually cut for being a sorcery and a multicolored card, Sheoldred's Edict fixes both of those shortcomings. We all know why edicts suck, but generally opponents are only going to have 1 planeswalker and if they have multiple you're probably happy with any of them biting the dust for 2 mana. Furthermore this allows you a little more flexibility with what exactly you're letting your opponent choose when you want to use it as creature removal.
The Bad: Diabolic Edict just isn't good enough and even with the split of token and nontoken, I don't think it makes it. If you don't actually need it to fill the role of planeswalker removal, I have to wonder just how often you're wishing this edict was some other better removal. While planeswalkers are becoming quite a large part of gameplay, the need to remove a creature still comes up quite a bit more often than the need to remove a planeswalker.
The Verdict: It's a cool option and I think I'll try it. However, with the planeswalker option pushing it into playable territory for me I'm afraid it's going to be seen as a purely sideboard card and I try to avoid those in my cube.
Barbed Batterfist
The Good: As a rule of thumb, I try to consider any semi-cheap equipment that gives power for an equip cost of 1. A 2-mana 3/1 that "creates" one of these equipments is pretty sick for an aggro deck. 3-power for 2 mana is where you want to be and adding a power anywhere on the board for 1 mana is just a really nice effect to push through damage.
The Bad: Not being able to equip this to 1-toughness creatures really sucks.
The Verdict: Jeez I really wish that -1 wasn't there because I'd totally be slamming this right into my cube. As it is though, I think I just like all my current red 2-drops better.
Dragonwing Glider
The Good: Listen, red deck wins would play the french vanilla 5-mana 4/4 Flying Haste as their top end and it would be good enough to finish a lot of games. I know you may look at the equip cost and think it's just way too expensive, but at the point in the game you're casting it that often just doesn't matter. You're red deck wins, you have no more cards in your hand, you're just looking to get that last bit of damage in to win the game, and you have 5-mana because you cast this card last turn and your opponent removed the creature. Plenty of cubes run Goldspan Dragon and I can think of plenty of scenarios where this wins where Goldspan doesn't.
The Bad: Red 5-drops are totally stacked and there's just not enough room for every good one. I mentioned Goldspan earlier but I don't even run it in the face of powerhouses like Fury or Thundermaw.
The Verdict: I'm not looking to run more than 5 red 5-drops and I'm not cutting any of them for this. I like the card though.
Exuberant Fuseling
The Good: A 2/1 with trample would be a good red 1-drop, if this can consistently be that or more then this is surely worth running. This is a 1-drop that can potentially threaten a good amount of damage and force removal from your opponent. If you run an aristocrats theme, this can potentially convert your sacrificing into a burst damage in the same way that Mayhem Devil does.
The Bad: As far as running it as an aggressive red 1-drop, I don't actually think it'll be a 2/1 very consistently at all.
The Verdict: I've found it's quite a thin line between playable and unplayable as a 1-drop for the red deck and that line is usually the line between 2-power when it attacks and 1. Unfortunately I think this will usually have 1 and thus I'll be passing on it.
Cankerbloom
The Good: While I've always preferred Reclamation Sage over these Qasali Pridemage-esque cards, with 3 power I think Cankerbloom is probably the better pick for any sort of green beatdown strategy.
The Bad: Gruul has been one of the worst color combinations in traditional cubes for awhile now and it's generally because the green beatdown strategy just isn't all that effective, you'll just have better luck shifting down into fast aggro or shifting up into big ramp. There have been a lot of above rate beatdown creatures printed in the last couple years and some people are shifting that way again, but I haven't yet and I don't know if I will any time soon.
The Verdict: I'll be honest, my green section needs the most work out of all others in my cube so I might just throw this in as a card that's simply good enough. There are a lot of green cards I've been wanting to cut and this is a solid roleplayer that surely will find a home. I also should mention that I've been finding big ramp to be less and less effective as the years go by, a shift back to green stompy could be a realistic turn of events.
Conduit of Worlds
The Good: Well we all know the fun that can be had with Crucible of Worlds and we already run a version limited to green decks in Ramunap Excavator. Sure this costs 1 more mana, but it's a powerful effect and the extra activated ability you get on this card will likely be relevant.
The Bad: Now this isn't an effect that just goes into any green deck, so the question is do we need a higher density of this effect for the decks that do want it? If the answer is no, this is most definitely worse than Crucible/Ramunap (not to mention Wrenn and Six) and will not make the cut.
The Verdict: I'm not in a rush to get this in my cube to test it, but like I said my green section has been feeling weak so if/when I end up with one of these it's most likely going into the cube.
Nissa, Ascended Animist
The Good: Green is seeing a suite of 5-mana walkers that are beginning to challenge white's suite of 4-mana ones. As a 5-drop this card hits the battlefield and immediately makes a 4/4 on its +1, that's just insane rate and each +1 afterwards has the potential to make an even larger creature. Green often ends up with some leftover mana so I expect to see this cast as a 6-drop and 7-drop fairly often as well, those modes giving you a 6/6 or an 8/8 respectively. The -1 is unexciting but the price isn't too high and the option is nice. The fact that this can be a 7-mana Overrun when you need it to just end the game is icing on the cake.
The Bad: I can't complain, this is a slam dunk.
The Verdict: I am jamming this into my cube, I'm not entirely sure where it ranks among green's 5-mana walkers, but it's a banger for sure. Just to clear up some common questions I've seen about this card, the creature token's power and toughness do not change with Nissa's loyalty, it stays as whatever the loyalty was as the ability resolves. Also, if you remove Nissa with anything other than damage while the +1 is on the stack, the token will come into play as an X/X where X was Nissa's last known loyalty, not as a 0/0. If you remove Nissa via damage, her last known loyalty would be 0 and the token would come in as a 0/0.
Thrun, Breaker of Silence
The Good: So the OG 4-mana Thrun is simply GG in certain matchups and at 6-mana Carnage Tyrant still reigns supreme. This 5-mana Thrun is just a great middle ground, you get more than enough out of the extra mana you spend of OG Thrun and you don't lose out on that much for not needing spend the additional mana you'd need for Carnage Tyrant. A 5/5 with trample is going to kill your opponent pretty fast and it is just so hard to deal with this thing. You can't counter it, you can't point removal at it, and it will never die in combat. It really is just boardwipe or bust and not every deck is going to have this out.
The Bad: Sure I would have preferred it had hexproof so it couldn't get hit by Assassin's Trophy, but honestly green removal is few and far between, there's not much to criticize here.
The Verdict: This is most definitely going in, I'd say on average it's going to be better than OG Thrun and that card's not leaving my cube any time soon.
Tyrranax Rex
The Good: This is one of those where reading the card pretty much explains its virtues. Even the Toxic 4 is relevant as your opponent can't throw bodies in the way to reduce the clock you've put them on.
The Bad: This is no Carnage Tyrant and no the haste does not make up for playing it a turn later, mostly because that just won't be the case in my estimation. The mana cost of 6 and 7 may have a difference of 1, but in general the turn difference in the turn you get to 6-mana and the turn you get to 7 is going to be greater than 1. Ward is also a lot worse than hexproof at the point in the game you're playing one of these cards, sure it's annoying but your opponent will be happy to just spend their turn paying the ward cost and removing this threat.
The Verdict: Not for me, at 7+ mana I think it also has to be a pretty dang good cheat target as well and I'm not sure this makes it in that regard.
Atraxa, Grand Unifier
The Good: This is easily the dark horse of the set. I almost skipped over Atraxa and who can blame me with that mana cost. However, this card is simply one of the best cheat bombs you can put into your cube. Let's quick talk about why it's good to cheat in. Similar to Griselbrand, this is a 7/7 flier with lifelink and if it sticks around at all you're going to win the game. Also similar to Griselbrand, when it comes into play you dig super deep into your deck drawing whatever you need to protect it, cheat something else in, or anything else that will likely sure up your victory. Now let's talk about what cheat archetypes Atraxa fits into. Literally all of them sans Tinker/Welder. Show and Tell, Natural Order, Sneak Attack, Reanimator, etc. The big one that most targets miss is Natural Order so I'm super excited to have this in my cube.
The Bad: I wish it was an artifact, but how could I possibly complain?
The Verdict: An unexpected slam dunk, get this card in here and prepare for it to stay for a very long time.
Kaya, Intangible Slayer
The Good: A planeswalker with hexproof, 8 loyalty the turn it comes down, and a +2 is very likely to stick around. A game where there's a 6-point life swing in your favor every turn is a game you're going to win. If there's no creatures threatening Kaya, drawing an additional 2 cards a turn is also a really good way to win a game of magic. The -3 can be stupid good too when it comes up.
The Bad: Wow that is a really bad mana cost. 7 mana and 4 color pips, I know some people saw that cost and didn't even bother reading the card.
The Verdict: I'm just not sure, my gut feeling is that this card is unplayable trash. But another part of me is rationalizing that this really might just be an auto-win in most scenarios when it hits the battlefield and by the time you want to cast it you're most definitely going to have the color pips. I really hope this one finds its way into the MTGO cube just so I can see it in action in mass. For now I'll probably pick one up and label it as an option to try out some time.
Sword of Forge and Frontier
The Good: Green is always a good color for protection to push through blockers and the triggers for this sword are pretty snowbally. I believe I said earlier that drawing 2 additional cards a turn is a good way to win, even if it's impulsive draw.
The Bad: The thing about these swords is that they're 5-drops. You really only want to play them when you have 5 mana so you can equip them and get value right away. That's still an option here but getting impulsive card draw is meaningless if you've just tapped out to play and equip the sword. If you waste your turn 5 doing nothing but getting a little bit more damage in and maybe ramping 1 land just to get hit with a Reclamation Sage, you're not doing so hot.
The Verdict: This isn't the best sword of x and y but it is one of the better ones. I personally am going to pass on it but I would not scoff at anyone that wants to include it. Also, where the heck are the cool wispy bits coming off the blade like we see on all the other swords??
Mirrex
The Good: Castle Ardenvale was a completely respectable cube card, if it was colorless it would be extremely good. The opportunity cost of running this is already low but the ability to fix you colors the turn it comes down makes it even lower.
The Bad: I really can't think of a more useless token than a 1/1 that can't block.
The Verdict: This is simply unplayable unless you have heavy artifact synergies in my opinion. Which is such a shame because if these tokens could block this card would be incredibly powerful (I can understand why they wouldn't want that in a standard set).
The Mycosynth Gardens
The Good: This is a pretty powerful effect for just how low an opportunity cost there is to put this in your deck. Even if all you have is a mana rock or two, it'll probably be correct to pick this up if you've already gotten enough playables.
The Bad: I'm not sure how often it's going to be relevant in games. Even if somethings powerful, unless it's clearly one of the most powerful cards in the cube, if it rarely even matters I'm just not going to waste a slot in my cube on it and that's often the case with cards where the power comes from a low opportunity cost. Something like Rishadan Port is powerful and comes up all the time for example.
The Verdict: I'm not going to test this so unless I see it putting in work in other cubes, I'm going to be passing this one up.
That's all I got for Phyrexia: All Will Be One! While this wasn't the greatest set for cube, it's still a good start to the year in my book and I must say it's about time green outshined the other colors in a set for cube. I haven't been getting many green playables from standard sets so I'm happy with this one even if I didn't find much elsewhere. As always, thanks for reading and let me know if you think I missed anything worth talking about. Happy cubing!
