Choo-Choo! All aboard the hype train! Zendikar Rising was one of the most anticipated sets of the year and with the number of viable new cube cards, it has delivered in full.
Being the plane known for its lands, a lot of the hype was focused on what the new rare dual land cycle would be. Unfortunately there was no big news there, but little did we know we were in for totally different type of land that turns out to be amazing for cube!
Modal Lands:
These new lands are extremely difficult to evaluate before testing and it has divided the cube community into skeptics and believers reminiscent of the pre-errata companion mechanic when Ikoria was first spoiled. I fall somewhere in the middle and will go over the cards I am interested in and why.
Bolt Lands:
The mythic cycle of these modal dual faced cards feature the ability to be cast as an often game winning spell in the late game, or played as a basic land of their colour; tapped or untapped for the price of 3 life.
The major point of contention for these lands is that neither side of these cards would be cubeable on their own and it can be hard to find a cut when you feel like the options these cards provide are less powerful than the cards you are removing from your list.
The true power of these cards is subtle in that the major contribution they will have is allowing decks to run a higher spell to land ratio because they should be played in land slot and not in your main 23. By doing this they allow for higher chances of having an opening hand that has an optimal balance of lands vs spells and is a keep. Reducing the amount of non games due to mana-starved opening hands is the biggest attraction of these cards for many cubers.
Pictured above, Agadeem's Awakening looks like it will be great! Having a variable cost allows it to be more flexible than some of its counterparts and allows the spell side to be played in more situations. if you have already hit your saturation of lands and are looking for some gas this card can deliver in a big way. Black always uses it's life as a resource and taking a bolt to turn a 2-land mulligan into a 3-land keep when this is in your opening hand will be worth it every time. No more debating whether you should keep and hope to draw a land off the top!
Turntimber Symbiosis solves the same opening hand issues and with green having plenty of life gain effects, taking 3 damage to have it come in untapped is no issue.
More importantly, green can hit 7 mana pretty reliably and the +1/+1 counters insurance means you will still get some good value even if you wiff on finding your main targets. Hitting your Emrakul is the dream, but a 4/4 dork is still a relevant body when this card is taking the slot of a basic land and not one of the 23 in your 40 card deck.
Shatterskull Smashing has the same upsides as Agadeem's Awakening where its variable cost it can be cast in more situations.
"But who wants a 5 mana Arc Trail that can't hit face!?"
Any red deck. Remember this is taking up a land slot essentially giving you a 24th, 25th, or even 26th playable depending on how many lands you are going down. This helps give aggro decks some flood insurance, and it will be welcome in any other deck running red.
This might secretly be red's best utility land.
The other MDFC Lands:
While these don't have the option to come in untapped, their flexibility again needs to be tested to really understand how good adding an additional spell in a land slot will be. I'm really interested to see how the following play out for people.
While some people argue that Hagra Mauling is an overcosted murder with with a bizarre cost reduction effect that will almost always be flavour text in the context of cube, the ability to turn opening hands that would otherwise be a mulligan into a keep can't be understated. Affectionately known as "Murder Land" by my main playgroup, I think it will still be a solid inclusion for the cube even if it is a bit overcosted for the effect..
Bala Ged Recovery is the newest Regrowth variant and while Regrowth has been a staple for a lot of cubes including my own, one thing it struggles with is being a dead card in the early game.
Having the modal land option fixes this issue, and while you'll have to pay that extra 1 mana tax to play your other spell the same turn, this should still be strong and will certainly make the mainboard a lot more than regrowth.
We can all probably agree that seeing cards sit in the sideboard draft after draft is one of the biggest things curators try to avoid.
Glasspool Mimic is going into my blue flex spot currently held by Grand Architect for some testing. I am not sure how this will play considering it is substantially more narrow than other cube clone effects in that it can only target your own creatures.
It helps mitigate its own shortcomings by having the option of entering as a land when you have no good targets, but I am not sure that it will prove consistent enough. It might just be a tapped basic in 90% of decks especially since blue is the lightest on creatures. I think it warrants a test but my expectations are lower than the other modal cards.
Kazandu Mammoth looks like it might be the strongest of non mythic modal cards.
In a hand with a turn 1 elf this is going to have your opponent scrambling for removal or find themselves spending the early game chumping a 5/5 who can threaten a 7/7 off of a fetch.
In a hand where you don't have a turn one elf, playing this as a tapped basic T1 is fine, or depending on the rest of your hand, you can hold it and just play it as a fatty on turn 3. That's the beauty of these cards.
Flexibility is key, and I think this is an easy swap for anyone who is playing Lovestruck Beast from Eldraine.
The Rest:
While the modal cards are definitely the main point of discussion with this release there are a ton of other cards that will be worthy of inclusion for cubes of all power levels.
White:
Luminarch Aspirant in for Glory-Bound Initiate.
This card looks awesome! A 2 mana 3/3 as a floor is pretty nice. Being able to spread power onto evasive or resilient threats even better.
Combine this with any cubes that have a +1/+1 counters archetype and you have a very strong engine.
Glory-Bound Initiate has been good since its inclusion, but this gives it's caster a few more choices allowing for more interesting game play and hopefully more lines that can lead to a win.
Skyclave Apparition in for Hanged Executioner.
This is another card that I am pretty lukewarm on so it is going into a my white flex spot where hanged executioner has fallen a bit flat.
I love that it isn't restricted to creatures and exiles them permanently which has always been the biggest weakness of Fiend Hunter variants. You can target token producers like Whirler Rogue and P&K Nalaar without any worries of a second ETB trigger. The restriction of 4cmc or less is almost irrelevant because 4cmc covers most cube playables, and if this hit larger targets, the 5/5+ tokens would still probably be a problem.
Blue:
Thieving Skydiver for Cloudkin Seer
I've seen a lot of talk that outside of powered cubes this card is not viable, but I couldn't disagree more. This card looks amazing to me, even in my unpowered environment that doesn't run much equipment.
A Welkin Tern is an acceptable floor and the option to steal Chrome and Diamond Moxes, Retrofitter Foundry, Hangarback Walker, or Skullclamp for 3 mana seems amazing! 4 mana and you are grabbing talismans, and smuggler's copter.
This is a slam dunk for my list and I have very high expectations that this will be in my cube for the foreseeable future.
Black:
Over the last few years, Vampire Nighthawk has become a hot topic for the cube community with many insisting it is still great and others saying it is no longer worth a spot.
However, it doesn't matter now that we've got Nighthawk Scavenger because this card is going to put Vampire Nighthawk to bed for good.
It does everything the former cube staple did except bigger and better. Especially in the late game where black life totals are often waning due to Bitterblossom, Dark Confidant, and Toxic Deluge type costs.
Skyclave Shade in for Cast Down.
Skyclave Shade gives cubes another nice recursive 3-power threat similar to Scrapheap Scrounger.
While I think scrounger is still better, the option to cast this for its kicker cost and come in as a 5/3 every turn you draw land in the late game is going to be a beating for decks without exile effects.
While Cast Down is amazing removal, with the addition of Heartless Act, I feel I can maintain a sufficient amount of removal at 360 without it.
Nullpriest of Oblivion in for Liliana, Heretical Healer.
This is a extremely difficult cut as Liliana has actually put up very good results in my cube despite feeling pretty medium by the majority of my playgroup.
With the release of a set that has 3 rare/mythic 2-drop creatures in black we now have a super tight 2-cmc section. Nullpriest does a good job of shoring up the lifeloss issues black can sometimes have, has evasion, and thanks to the kicker cost has great late game potential as well.
Very excited to test this card even if it is the worst of the new includes into my black section.
Red:
Kargan Intimidator in for Stormblood Berserker.
I'll start by saying I think Stormblood Berserker is fine. Many people find it inconsistent, but I have never really had any issues getting the counters online.
Kargan Intimidator I think will fill the role in much the same way, but like the include of Luminarch Aspirant for Glory-Bound Initiate in my White section, I think this card just provides more options and more lines its controller can take to victory.
I do think a lot of people will misplay this card by sinking too much mana into the abilities when they should be adding more threats to the board, but the options are nice especially in the late game as a 4 power trampler that removes a blocker.
Green:
Oran-Rief Ooze for Rishkar, Peema Renegade.
This is a wonky test that I wouldn't be trying if I didn't have a +1/+1 counters archetype in my cube. So unless that is something you also have, this card is probably a safe pass for your list.
Rishkar has been decent since his inclusion in the cube, but I find that I never use him for the ramp ability and his value has predominantly been found in adding more power to the board. The problem with Rishkar is that the counter often goes on himself and another smaller creature which doesn't allow its caster to attack very favourably into blockers.
Oran-Rief Ooze does this well on its own attacking as a 4/4 that keeps growing with the additional benefit of helping other creatures with counters already on them. In a cube that has a counters archetype this card can get out of hand with things like Curse of Predation and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar that already spread counters across the board. My hopes aren't particularly high for this card staying in the cube, but I hope that it can contribute more than Rishkar has so far.
Lands:
My finals test for this set is going to be the newest colourless manland Crawling Barrens.
Kind of like crossing Mutavault and Raging Ravine, I think this card will be able to hold its own despite being more expensive to activate compared to its colourless counterparts. It has some nice card design in that you can choose not to animate it while adding counters allowing it to dodge removal in the early game until it is a more resilient threat.
Again, having a counters theme in my cube I think this will be better for my list than many others, but should still be worth taking a look at, especially in larger cubes.
That's all for now! Zendikar is restless, and so am I! I can't wait to jam these cards and see how they play. Was I too conservative in which modal lands I am choosing run, or will a lot of them end up being a bust? It doesn't matter because either way this is the most excited I have been to cube since Modern Horizons was released!
Happy cubing!