Full spoilers for Dominaria United are out and it's time to talk about cards from the set I'm considering for my Possibility Cube!
In this post I'll be writing about all the cards from Dominaria United 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. As always be sure to check back here later for some DMU pauper cube inclusions. Let's get into it!
Guardian of New Benalia
The Good: Adanto Vanguard and Seasoned Hallowblade are the best aggro 2-drops in white. Why? Because they push damage through and this card does just that. While discarding a card is certainly a cost, Hallowblade has shown me the mere threat of activation is generally enough to dissuade your opponent from blocking. Interestingly enough where the aforementioned cards push their damage through, this one pushes other creature's through. The scry 2 when this Enlists is nothing to balk at either.
The Bad: If this card is not often pushing through damage from a creature that couldn't otherwise attack, then the missing 3rd power is going to be sorely missed from it as an aggro 2-drop. For this reason I'm unsure about people's claims that this is Hallowblade's replacement. I play a lot of white aggro and even my 1-drops are like to attack freely for some time with the efficient removal usually ran in the decks.
The Verdict: This is a good card and for sure needs some testing to see just how good it is. At any rate I will not be cutting Seasoned Hallowblade for this and will instead run them side by side. While it's been performing well I may be cutting Sungold Sentinel for this or perhaps finally say goodbye to Charming Prince.
Serra Paragon
The Good: The value to be had out of this one 4-drop is certainly high. Rebuying a threat every turn is a good way to win the game and recurring lands is always powerful with cards like Strip Mine and Urza's Saga, even if you can only recur them once.
The Bad: Unless you can rebuy something the turn you play it (which generally won't be the case in white aggro where you want to slam your 4-drop on curve), it doesn't pass the Vindicate test and doesn't output enough damage to make that risk worth it. Hero of Bladehold is maybe the only threat I have left that doesn't doing anything the turn it comes down and I keep it around because if it does survive a turn rotation, your opponent is just flat out dead when it attacks.
The Verdict: I personally think the cube community is overrating this one and maybe a little too caught up in its ceiling rather than its floor. If your cube favors more grindy midrange matchups, this card is sure to do work but I'm going to pass on it for my cube.
Temporary Lockdown
The Good: The rate on this card is truly a little nutty. If you hit 1 creature and 1 mana rock then that's more than enough value out of a 3-mana spell. There are more and more tokens in Magic with every set release and this will wipe any of those out too.
The Bad: I honestly don't know what decks will want this, most all decks will play 2-drop mana rock and now there's a real big downside to your boardwipe. My experience with Doomskar against aggro is that just because you can boardwipe on turn 3 doesn't mean you want to, while it can bail you out of the most explosive starts from an aggro deck, Wrath of God will more often be better. Of course it is also an enchantment that can be removed, the "Temporary" in its name gets kind of scary when there are many things under it.
The Verdict: I'm passing on this one. The efficiency is certainly there but I feel like you'll have trouble breaking symmetry like one does with other boardwipes and that can be a huge bother.
Aether Channeler
The Good: Now that's a roleplayer if I've ever seen one. Awhile ago we were printed Callous Bloodmage as the "new Phyrexian Rager" and it didn't quite pique my interest because 90% of the time you were drawing a card over either of its other abilities. This card in comparison has a very relevant bounce ability that can target any nonland permanent and is in one of the blink colors to boot.
The Bad: Man-o'-War is one of my favorite cards and it's just been murdered outside of rarity restricted cubes.
The Verdict: This is exactly the kind of modal spell I like. Man-o'-War and Phyrexian Rager, while not extremely powerful, are 2 already good roleplayers and combining them into 1 creature with both options is some powerful utility. I will be finding a cut for this.
Rona's Vortex
The Good: Bloodchief's Thirst is a true and tested premiere removal spell in my cube and has shown that a 4-mana unconditional removal spell gets really good when paired with a 1-mana conditional removal mode. Now this changes the conditional removal to unconditional pseudo-removal but that isn't exactly a straight downgrade. It's also an Instant as opposed to Thirst being a Sorcery.
The Bad: Unsummon, while it has its peaks, is generally not at the power level of traditional cubes. This is most assuredly only a Dimir card and boy does it have some competition in those slots.
The Verdict: I'd like to play with this in cube and see how well it does as I myself may be underselling it. I don't think I'll be testing it in my cube however. I don't think it's so powerful that I need to play it and it is in truth a fairly boring card for a multicolor slot.
Cult Conscript
The Good: This is exactly what aggro decks want more of, 2/1s for 1 that aren't quite just 2/1s. This one also goes the route of "ETBs tapped" over "cannot block" which I much prefer, being able to block with a 2-power recurrable threat is great.
The Bad: Nothing really bad here other than people may mistake this for an aristocrats card rather than just a black aggro card. Similarly to when Ebondeath, Dracolich was spoiled, people underestimate how unreliable the "if a creature died" clause is and it's because in a game of magic, creatures tend to die all the time. The thing is though, it's not really just "if a creature died" but it's "if a creature died and this is the turn you want to spend mana on this" which is actually quite narrower than you'd think. The truth of it is if you want Cult Conscript's ability to be reliable enough to use it as sacrifice fodder, you need to be able to kill your own creatures and you probably want to be killing sacrifice fodder when you do it... so why do you even need Cult Conscript?
The Verdict: Another win for black aggro, this should be a no brainer if you support that archetype. I do not support black aggro and as I've said this doesn't really do it for me in aristocrats so I'll be passing on it for my cube.
Cut Down
The Good: 1-mana instant speed removal that hits somewhere around 67-70% of the creatures in my cube. That's very good.
The Bad: The creatures it misses are generally the ones that really need to die. While I'm coming back around on it, for this same reason I was favoring the better doomblades over Fatal Push for awhile.
The Verdict: I mean looking at the numbers I can't not test this one. Whether it's better or worse than Fatal Push, or better or worse than Doomblade for that matter, it's going to heavily depend on your environment.
Evolved Sleeper
The Good: Black aggro gets its Figure of Destiny. Attacking for 2 turn 2 is going to be as good as it is in red and white aggro and while I think 3 mana to make it a 4/4 is better than 2 mana to make it a 3/3, it's not a straight downgrade and the deathtouch does a lot to push through damage. The 3 mana to continue to pump it and draw a card is also not unreasonable and a nice option to have.
The Bad: I honestly don't have much bad to say about this one, it's the first Figure of Destiny variant I've liked and black aggro continues to need better support.
The Verdict: Another boring "play the new black aggro card if you're supporting it" verdict but this is quite a fun one. Honestly if I hear good things about this card I may even test it in my cube as some good creature filler.
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
The Good: The stats are good for the price and a free 4pt life swing in your favor every turn rotation is not a bad deal. Sheoldred and a wheel effect make a fairly game-winning combo as well. While pushed out of my cube, Wildfire decks love the 5th point of toughness.
The Bad: While it passes the Vindicate test, dealing 2 damage is barely passing for a 4-mana investment. Midrange grinds are far from the most common in my cube and Sheoldred doesn't really shine anywhere else.
The Verdict: I'll be passing on this one. If your cube is all about the midrange battles however, then maybe this card could be a fun one.
Stronghold Arena
The Good: I am a huge fan of Dark Confidant and in the right deck this could be that except harder to remove. While not required by any means, the kicker is quite valuable. 3 extra life to work with and spend is a bargain for 1 mana if you have it available.
The Bad: This card does nothing without a board, even for a 2-mana investment that's not generally where you want to be. How good this is entirely depends on not only having creatures, but on having creatures that can get through damage.
The Verdict: I'm honestly not sure about this one, if I can find a cut for it I think I'll test it. I'll definitely be keeping my eye on the results of others that test it and this effect is always fun.
Electrostatic Infantry
The Good: Sprite Dragon is not a bad card in cube and while this doesn't have haste it does have evasion albeit through trample rather than flying. While this is markedly worse than Young Pyromancer against single-target removal, a permanent +1/+1 to your board's total p/t for each instant/sorcery you cast is a proven good rate.
The Bad: As I've said any single-target removal resets any value you've gotten from this card's triggers. I don't think this really has any slot in mono-red either because you generally want to be playing your creatures early-game and using your burn later. Would've liked this more if it triggered on any noncreature spell.
The Verdict: If you're supporting a full on spells matter archetype then I would definitely give this a shot and expect it to be good. My spells matter deck is more of a supported theme and I think I'll be passing on this particular piece for it.
Jaya, Fiery Negotiator
The Good: A 1/1 with prowess is a very good creature to be on a +1. If you're sitting on this planeswalker for multiple turns ticking her up you're probably on your way to a victory.
The Bad: I'm not a big fan of the minus abilities. The -1 is alright but I feel like the +1 is almost always going to be more correct. The -2 requiring a substantial board presence to kill anything moderately big is also a disappointment. Compared to Chandra, Torch of Defiance whose card advantage ability is on a +1 and whose down tick can always deal 4 damage to a troublesome creature, Jaya leaves a lot to be desired.
The Verdict: While versatile, I think Jaya's a step below my current red 4-drops and I'm not looking to increase the count on that particular slot.
Phoenix Chick
The Good: While I'm not high on Raging Goblins, this is one of the best ones yet printed and could certainly be playable. This little phoenix will work very well with Bonesplitter, Eater of Virtue and other ways to buff your creatures. The recursion honestly won't be super relevant with its particular condition but it's nice to have regardless.
The Bad: The unfortunate part about Raging Goblins is that 1 power is so enormously less than 2 that they are almost never as good as Jackal Pup in my experience. Admittedly I don't think that's the case with this card, but there are quite a few red 1-drops that are better than Jackal Pup at this point.
The Verdict: This may be hesitant test for me, I currently am sitting happy on 10 red 1-drop creatures but I think this could potentially be better for the red deck than Blazing Rootwalla or maybe Soul-Scar Mage. I've been wanting to test Rabbit Battery too, overall I'm happy with the amount of options for playable 1-drops we have for RDW nowadays.
Radha's Firebrand
The Good: I have always preferred the 3-power 2-drops that push damage through that white gets over the 2-power 2-drops with haste that red gets. In fact I cut the last of them in Robber of the Rich and Earthshaker Khenra from my cube some time ago as I found they hit only once more often than twice or thrice. Radha's Firebrand has that oh so nice 3rd power and can potentially render a blocker null every turn, I imagine this will hit twice more often than Robber of the Rich hits thrice. I'll be happy to get more options like this one in the future. Also, even at 6-mana the activated ability, while not going to matter most games, I think will matter a bit more than people give it credit for.
The Bad: I honestly don't have much bad to say about this card. Perhaps it ends up being less damage on average than a 2/2 with haste, we'll have to see.
The Verdict: I'm definitely testing this one, I've been wanting more out of my red 2-drops and I hope this is it.
Shivan Devastator
The Good: A 5-mana 4/4 with flying and haste is often good enough for the top end of a red aggro deck and this at the very least can be that. Where this creature lacks the Exert and Ramp of Glorybringer and Goldspan Dragon respectively, it makes up for it in scalability where any extra lands you draw will make this card larger during a topdeck struggle. That is, however, only looking at this as a topend finisher and it is so much more. If Stonecoil Serpent has taught me anything it is how powerful it is to curve into an on-rate creature in an aggro deck. Curving out is the most powerful thing you can be doing as the red aggro deck and while you'll likely play other more powerful cards on curve when you can, you will eventually hit turn N with no N-drop to play and that's exactly where Shivan Devastator slots in.
The Bad: I don't have anything bad to say about this card. I've seen some people say this is inefficient and below rate but I entirely disagree besides maybe the X=1 mode. Flying and Haste are entirely worth the weight of that 1 mana that doesn't count towards X.
The Verdict: Slam dunk of the set in my humble opinion, I got to get my hands on this card!
Squee, Dubious Monarch
The Good: Now that's a Rabblemaster, and it even out damages the OG Rabblemaster the turn it's cast while matching it the turn after. I've found the red deck wants few things more than 3 hasty power on turn 3 so you can imagine this Squee is right up my alley. The recursion is some extra nicety that will matter here and there if not as often as Phoenix of Ash with its evasion.
The Bad: I admit its statline worries me as just a 2/2, I don't run Legion Warboss anymore specifically because I found he could just never really attack. Like the OG Rabblemaster though, I'm willing to bet Squee pumps out enough damage that I can be happy just hoping to cast removal on the would be blocker on turn 4.
The Verdict: It's been a good set for red, I'll find a cut to test this card and I'll be happy to do it.
Quirion Beastcaller
The Good: A bear that will only get bigger and then distribute out its counters to other creatures when it dies, seems like a perfect stompy 2-drop.
The Bad: Green stompy is less popular and powerful than green ramp in cubes of all power levels, I don't see this card changing that.
The Verdict: Fun card and good for certain environments, I myself will be passing on it.
Tail Swipe
The Good: Primal Might is the only fight spell I run and it's performed fairly well for me. This is largely due to its ability to be cast for 1 mana. Tail Swipe is all in all a better 1-mana spell than Primal Might, it is both an instant and provides +1/+1 to your creature. This is certainly the best fight spell they've printed on rate.
The Bad: I don't think I'm in the market for a second 1-mana green fight spell and I'm not convinced this is better than Primal Might. While yes it's a better 1-mana spell, Primal Might is flexible and will be able to kill larger creatures while pushing even more damage through.
The Verdict: I'd not scoff at seeing this in a list but I'm going to stick with Primal Might as my fight spell of choice.
Tear Asunder
The Good: While far off of my cube's power level at this point, Utter End is not an embarrassing cube card. Giving Utter End a playable 2-mana mode may just make it good enough and sometimes a Naturalize is just what you need.
The Bad: Honestly there's not exactly anything bad about this card, both modes are completely playable. It is yet another boring Golgari removal card in the vein of Abrupt Decay, Assassin's Trophy, and Maelstrom Pulse and it can be sad to fill your gold section with just those.
The Verdict: I'll keep this one on the shortlist of cards to put in if I find I have an excess of cuts. I bet it will perform fine in any cube it goes into.
Ertai Resurrected
The Good: I've seen this fancied as a Venser with 1 more power. It is also arguably better to draw your opponent a random card from their deck than put the spell or creature back into their hand.
The Bad: I personally think the comparison to Venser is a mistake, Venser is a tempo play where as Ertai's role is more akin to a simple Ravenous Chupacabra, a card that doesn't draw the opponent one. Venser is more for messing with the foundation the opponent is trying to build rather than straight removing a threat, I have other cards for that and those are the cards I'm playing over Ertai.
The Verdict: I'm not a huge fan, pass from me.
King Darien XLVIII
The Good: An anthem on a 2/3 that can sac itself for some semi boardwipe protection is quite enticing. Selesnya isn't the most popular color pairing in my cube currently and I could see this card pulling a green drafter into it. My problem with Torens was that it committed too much to the board, but this puts power onto the battlefield while also protecting it somewhat.
The Bad: It's really too bad it only protects tokens. I'd have been way more into this if it protected all creatures, although who knows maybe that would've been too much.
The Verdict: While tokens are becoming more and more abundant, I don't think King Darien quite makes it unless you have a specific tokens archetype/theme. An unfortunate pass for me, I really want to find some better Selesnya cards.
Soul of Windgrace
The Good: We talked earlier with Serra Paragon about how land recursion is powerful, putting it on a titan-esque trigger definitely has my attention. A 4-mana 5/4 that immediately recurs a land is not a bad starting point and while the activated abilities aren't the most efficient, drawing a card with extra mana is always a nice option to have and the threat to activate the 3rd ability is powerful enough to dissuade opponents for trying their removal on it.
The Bad: 3-color cards need to be pretty good for people to commit to them and I'm not sure this card would ever be picked unless the drafter happens to already be committed to Jund.
The Verdict: I've been thinking about cutting Omnath from my cube as, while powerful, it doesn't come together very often. Soul of Windgrace could be a fun card to test in its place so perhaps I'll do that. I would not be surprised if it doesn't last long in my list however.
That's what I got for Dominaria United! It seems like we've been slowing down on the crazy powerful cube cards these last couple standard sets, but there are always still a couple slam dunks and overall there are still a ton of fun new tools for lower power settings as well. Let me know if you think I missed any gems or if you just have something to say! Don't miss my next post when I go through DMU considerations for my Pauper Twobert. As always, happy cubing!
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