(This article was originally published on MTGSalvation here)

Welcome to a SPECIAL EDITION of my HOT TAKES articles for CUBE! In honor of wtwlf123 retiring his Top 20 Set (P)review series, I wanted to pay a tribute by writing this article in his style. The iconic series has been admired by many people since the release of Avacyn Restored (2012), and he's been consistent for 50 straight Standard legal sets up to Outlaws of Thunder Junction. His dedication to the community clocks in at 40,000 MTGSalvation posts, which to this day I still don't know how that's physically possible. His infectious love for cube helped spread the bug everybody reading this has today. There would be no HOT TAKES series if it weren't for Wtwlf123's Top 20 Set (P)review series.

DISCLAIMER

These takes are just my opinion and I am generally viewing the cards on how I think they would perform in singleton cubes that are in the style of the MTGO Vintage / Legacy cube lists.

Without further ado, here's the countdown!

#20 - Valgavoth's Onslaught

A scalable green spell that fuels the graveyard.

What I Like: This scales pretty well throughout the game! Let's get the math out of the way first:

= 3 power (one 3/3) / +2 cards in the graveyard.

= 8 power (two 4/4s) / +3 cards in the graveyard.

= 15 power (three 5/5s) / +4 cards in the graveyard.

= 24 power (four 6/6s) / +5 cards in the graveyard.

The scalability reminds me a lot of Securitron Squadron, which is a card I really like. The baseline might not be great, but the power scaling increases as you pump more mana into it since the gains aren't linear and are beyond 1 mana = +1 power. This card is very respectable at , and anything beyond that is way beyond the normal rate that you'd get. Fueling the graveyard and potential facedown shenanigans is also a nice bonus.

What I Don't Like: Securitron Squadron's floor works very well because of how dangerous of a follow up its token pump effect can be. While this can fuel the graveyard, this doesn't have quite the rattlesnake effect that Securitron Squadron naturally has. The floor of a 3/3 for is pretty abysmal, and not being a creature is always a bummer in green.

Verdict: This card is pretty serviceable, especially if you're supporting both delirium and a +1/+1 counters theme. The competition is pretty steep though for scalable green spells. This isn't displacing Pest Infestation / Green Sun's Zenith anytime soon, and Goldvein Hydra has versatility and haste on its side.

#19 - Walk-In Closet // Forgotten Cellar

A green Crucible of Worlds attached to (a very expensive) Yawgmoth's Will.

Everything you need to know about room cards:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/duskmourn-house-of-horror-release-notes

What I Like: I've always wanted a green Crucible of Worlds in enchantment form. While I had a feeling it would eventually happen, I didn't think it'd come attached to (a rather expensive) Yawgmoth's Will, let alone a new card subtype. Being an enchantment makes this sturdier than Crucible of Worlds / Ramunap Excavator, making this more consistent for your Fastbond / Strip Mine combos.

What I dislike: Crucible of Worlds type cards are already pretty narrow. This not being a creature like Ramunap Excavator or colorless like Crucible of Worlds makes this even more narrow. Crucible of Worlds being an artifact is a nice bonus since there are a lot of artifact critical mass matters cards like Tolarian Academy / Urza's Saga / Urza, Lord High Artificer / Karn, Scion of Urza / Kappa Cannoneer / etc. The Yawgmoth's Will room is going to be more of a very expensive Regrowth a vast majority of the time. Most storm decks really aren't in the business of casting a spell for .

Verdict: The keyword when I said “I've always wanted a green Crucible of Worlds in enchantment form” is [i]wanted[/i]. That was on my wishlist for nearly 10 years, but times have changed a lot since then. Since my cube is forever cursed with the abominations that are monarch / initiative, not being a creature like Ramunap Excavator is a liability. Being an enchantment really isn't buying you anything but durability, and arguably isn't worth trading being colorless and contributing to artifact critical mass synergies like Crucible of Worlds does. While they're not true Crucible of Worlds effects, things like Wrenn and Six / Six / Wrenn and Realmbreaker do a lot of what Crucible of Worlds type cards want to do, plus much more.

Overall I think this is a sidegrade at best to Crucible of Worlds / Ramunap Excavator. I'm personally not in the market for it since I've always said that I want more cards that go along with these types of cards, not more Crucible of Worlds effects. That being said, swapping this in for Crucible of Worlds / Ramunap Excavator probably won't make any noticeable differences since these are more once in a blue moon type cards and aren't trying to be the reliable workhorse that sees play in every draft it's in.

#18 - Curator Beastie

A new green Grave Titan variant!

What I Like: 10 power for 6 mana with an attack trigger that adds 4 more power to the board is essentially Grave Titan, and that's still a solid performer as a high end creature / super fattie worth cheating out. This being green means it can be found with Natural Order / Green Sun's Zenith. Having a guaranteed attack trigger generally makes this more preferable than Tovolar's Huntmaster. Reach, fueling the graveyard with manifest dread, and pumping other colorless creatures with two +1/+1 counters are all nice bonuses to have.

What I Don't Like: Being better than Tovolar's Huntmaster doesn't hold a lot of bragging rights since Old One Eye / Gruff Triplets already run circles around it. Old One Eye gives everything trample, puts more power on the board, and has self recursion. Gruff Triplets goes more wide right off the bat, has trample, and is one of the best creatures to abuse with Flash. Killing Curator Beastie in response to its ETB trigger can result in only getting a 2/2 instead of a 4/4, which makes it less consistent than Grave Titan.

Verdict: A pseudo Grave Titan is still good, but it's settling for bronze at best behind Old One Eye / Gruff Triplets. That being said, not everybody loves 40K / Universes Beyond, so this can be a solid substitute for Old One Eye or replacement / supplement for cubes already running Tovolar's Huntmaster.

#17 - Balustrade Wurm

Green Charging Monstrosaur with a good amount of upside.

What I Like: Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes has shown that a self-recurring large creature with trample and haste tends to just win the game. Most delirium cards have very low floors, but this is very on rate even without it. Being uncounterable makes this difficult for blue to deal with, and the combination of haste + trample is great at picking off planeswalkers and contesting monarch / initiative.

What I Don't Like: While this is probably one of the better delirium payoff cards, this isn't bringing much else to the table other than being a beater. Titania, Protector of Argoth is a great build around, Deep Forest Hermit has a strong ETB trigger to abuse, and Nissa, Who Shakes the World does a lot of what Balustrade Wurm wants to do, and much more.

Verdict: I like this if you're really looking for a silver bullet against control and / or pushing delirium / threshold type payoffs in green. This does have a lot of competition in both its slot and function in general. As I previously mentioned, Nissa, Who Shakes the World does a lot of what this wants to do in terms of being a beater with haste that's annoying to deal with in the long term. Not to mention other beaters with haste like Questing Beast / Ulvenwald Oddity / Goldvein Hydra are cheaper / more flexible.

#16 - Star Athlete

A modal beater / punisher card.

What I Like: Punisher cards have a bad rap since old cards such as Browbeat had 100% of their effect tied to the punisher card. This doesn't have that baggage though since you always at least get a 3/2 with menace with the option to blitz. The punisher trigger itself is actually very powerful since it forces your opponent to either edict their best nonland permanent or take 5 damage to keep it. The blitz mode is actually pretty enticing since it's a 3 powered creature with menace + haste + draw a card when it dies + deal 5 damage or have your opponent sacrifice their best nonland permanent. What makes this particularly special in red is that it gives you a way to deal with (or at least punish) your opponent for playing enchantments. Red otherwise really has no way to interact with enchantments outside of things like Chaos Warp.

What I Don't Like: Red 3s and 4s are some of the most contested slots in cube. This costing 1RR isn't too appealing when there are plenty of arguably better cards that cost . While the blitz mode is strong, a lot of 4-cmc creatures can close out games by themselves very quickly where this can't.

Verdict: Star Athlete is stuck in between a rock and a hard place between its competition. Its modality isn't even unique since Death-Greeter's Champion essentially does the same thing while having a cleaner base mana cost. That being said, I can see this being appealing as a way for red to interact / punish the use of enchantments, and is a good option for more fair environments where Broadside Bombardiers / Gut, True Soul Zealot are too powerful.

#15 - Wildfire Wickerfolk

A strong / cheap Gruul beater.

What I Like: According to my Scryfall search, the only other creature in Magic history with haste and 3 power (both unconditionally) for 2 mana with no drawback is Spike Jester. This is quite the upgrade from Spike Jester due to its extra toughness and gaining +1/+1 and trample later in the game with delirium. Being an artifact is really nice if you support artifact aggro. This is also a great delirium payoff while helping enable delirium with its two card types in the graveyard.

What I Don't Like: Gruul is pretty stacked these days, and this is definitely one of the less interesting options. Aggro is already pretty well supported without needing to carve out an extra multicolored slot for this.

Verdict: This is one of the stronger generic beaters for 2 mana, it's just a matter of being willing to slot this into your Gruul section. This does go up in value quite a bit if you explicitly support artifact aggro / delirium though.

#14 - Razorkin Needlehead

Underworld Dreams... on a stick!

What I Like: Not paying for Underworld Dreams is always fun. Like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, this punishes EVERY card your opponent draws, not just ones beyond the draw step like Hullbreacher / Orcish Bowmasters. Being a 2/2 with first strike on offense with Underworld Dreams attached to it makes this pretty good on offense and allows you to attack your opponent from more than one angle.

What I Don't Like: Costing is rough when there are plenty of great 2-cmc red creatures that only cost . Most viable draw 7 type cards are in blue, making this a difficult splash. While this can punish your opponent for being the monarch, its competition can generally contest monarch / initiative better with haste / evasion / going wide / etc.

Verdict: While this isn't the second coming of Orcish Bowmasters, this isn't a slouch by any means. That being said, it's harder for decks to just durdle and draw cards all game with Jace, the Mind Sculptor / Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. Razorkin Needlehead is probably more preferable than Eidolon of the Great Revel since it has first strike and its effect is completely one-sided. This is a solid card in its own right, but its competition with other aggressive red 2-cmc creatures is steep since they have cleaner mana costs while being able to challenge planeswalkers / monarch / initiative more effectively.

#13 - Deluge of Doom

A cheap sweeper in black!

What I Like: As creatures get more powerful / efficient, the effectiveness of sweepers has risen. Sweepers cheaper than 4 mana that aren't narrow are hard to come by, especially ones that scale with the game like this can.

What I Don't Like: It's very possible that this can end up as a 3 mana Desert Sandstorm / Pyroclasm on curve. Any form of graveyard hate can really put a damper on this card's effectiveness.

Verdict: I'm always looking for cheap sweepers to bolster control. At first glance, this seems at least testable / borderline since it's 3 mana and doesn't require any lifeloss like Toxic Deluge. I'd argue this is at best a top 3-4 sweeper in black after Toxic Deluge / Damnation, and is a good substitute for Nuclear Fallout for those that don't like Universes Beyond.

#12 - Silent Hallcreeper

A new Looter il-Kor variant!

What I Like: A 1/1 unblockable creature with a lot of extra text for is always a good place to start, especially when there's monarch / initiative to contend over. Being able to go up to 3 power after the first hit gives this True-Name Nemesis level of offense. Drawing a card over looting is a nice touch over other similar creatures. Copying another target creature you control can have a very high ceiling, especially if you're playing this in a reanimator deck with Archon of Cruelty or something.

What I Don't Like: Although understandable, being able to pick each mode only once is a bummer. You'll often be torn on picking +1/+1 counters first to maximize damage or drawing a card to guarantee card advantage. What I dislike most about this card is that copying another creature can often be a drawback since it loses being unblockable. Cards that can only copy your own creatures never turn out well. This one isn't so bad since it does many other things, but losing the evasion really hurts.

Verdict: This is a solid card in its own right, but its competition as a 2-cmc blue creature is extremely high. This takes 3 hits to outdamage Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel (assuming you go for the counters first), and at that point this loses its evasion anyways. Being an enchantment creature is good for delirium / card type matters support, but this doesn't loot like the rest of its competition. Looting is a huge roleplayer in a lot of strategies while this isn't really much a roleplayer at all for anything. Can't say I like this over any of my current 2-cmc blue creatures, but it is knocking at the door.

#11 - Overlord of the Mistmoors

A white modal Grave Titan!

What I Like: Like Curator Beastie, anything that resembles Grave Titan's ability to put 10 power on the board and add 4 more power after every attack is worth looking at. Overlord of the Mistmoors distinguishes itself from other Grave Titan variants by making 2/1 flyers instead of 2/2s with no evasion AND being modal. This arguably has the best impending mode compared to the other overlords and gives you more value upfront than your typical 4-cmc white planeswalker. White is also the color of blink shenanigans, making the impending mode pair very well with Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd / Flickerwisp / Yorion, Sky Nomad.

What I Dislike: Unlike Grave Titan and its other variants, this costs 7 mana instead of 6. That's not the biggest deal in the world since these types of cards are cheated into play a good amount of the time anyways, but Grave Titan being very castable in reanimator / cheaty shells is a big sell for 6-cmc super fatties. White is also the worst color for reanimator / cheaty face shells, making this even more difficult to hardcast even if you do get to 7 mana.

Verdict: One could make an argument that this is white's best super fattie (which isn't a high bar to clear). Unlike Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, this is modal and at least does something with Flash in a pinch. I really wish there were more ways to blink enchantments, especially ones of Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd's calibur. This card is a bit awkward since it's not the best at either midrange or cheaty face decks, but seems serviceable enough to make the cut in a decent amount of decks.

#10 - Verge Lands

A new cycle of dual lands!

What I Like: Wasteland aside, these are essentially strictly better basic lands since they ETB untapped. Getting them to tap for a second color really isn't a high bar to clear, especially since checklands (Dragonskull Summit and friends) already exist and are decent lands in their own right.

What I Don't Like: Other cycles like fast / pain lands can give you either color on turn 1 where the verge lands cannot. These can also be awkward sometimes in heavy multicolored decks where you have a light splash for black / red and end up with Blazemire Verge. I also don't like how these don't offer any strategic value beyond mana fixing. There's nothing more mundane than color fixing lands, so I personally prefer them to have some sort of strategic impact beyond just fixing mana. For example:

• Triomes are the best domain enablers.

• Surveil duals provides card filtering, fuels the graveyard, and makes Worldgorger Dragon more consistent.

• Horizon Canopy and friends are great at smoothening gameplay since you can cash them in for cheap. They're also some of the better lands to recur with Crucible of Worlds / Wrenn and Six / Ramunap Excavator / etc. If only they'd complete this cycle…

• Landscapes are great for landfall, and offer all the great side effects that normal fetchalnds give you, especially for Titania, Protector of Argoth / Deathrite Shaman / Fatal Push / Crucible of Worlds type cards / etc.

Verdict: Land cycles beyond the holy trinity of fetch / dual / shock are very interchangeable. You'll never go wrong including these lands, but you can say the same thing for like 10 different land cycles really. These are probably closest to fastlands, but I'd give fastlands the edge since they're strictly better until you hit your 4th land drop. While these are great lands, I personally prefer my land cycles to offer me more strategic value beyond just raw mana fixing.

Here's my personal land tier list for the 10-ish cycles that I would consider for my cube. Plenty of room for argument between high and high-mid. Cycles within each tier are not ordered in any particular way.

TOP

• Fetch
• Dual
• Shock

HIGH

• Horizon Canopy (incomplete)
• Triomes
• Surveil duals
• Landscapes

HIGH-MID

• Pain
• Fast
• Pathway
• Verge

#9 - Toby, Beastie Befriender

A legendary Blade Splicer that makes a 4/4!

What I Like: 5 power spread across 2 bodies for 3 mana is a lot. Being able to blink / recur this to add 4 more power to the board is even better, especially with things like Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd or Ocelot Pride with City's Blessing. This is a very strong payoff for blink / token themes while being pretty strong by itself. Also goes well with / against Karakas.

What I Don't Like: The 4/4 token having the drawback of not being able to attack or block alone can be quite the hindrance. The beauty of Blade Splicer is that the opponent is forced to choose between the bigger 3/3 or the 1/1 that can potentially be blinked to make another 3/3. With enough interaction, your opponent can mitigate your 2 for 1. Can't say I'm a big fan of the aesthetics of this card, but I try not to include that in the scope of my analyses seeing how absolutely derailed every other Reddit / Riptide Lab thread can get on such subjects.

Verdict: I'd imagine this card would perform pretty similarly to Blade Splicer. Is +1/+1 on the token worth the drawback and making a bunch of tokens fly worth the drawback? I'd wager probably not most of the time since the drawback really hurts when it matters more than the lack of stats would. That being said, the drawback is probably much better than Lovestruck Beast's. While Lovestruck Beast can block alone, this is just a much better card overall since it can be abused with blink / recursion shenanigans. This seems like solid card all-around like Blade Splicer / Sandstorm Salvager, especially if you're really pushing blink / tokens / legendary matters.

#8 - Insidious Fungus

Kind of sort of Haywire Mite x Thraben Inspector?

What I Like: This is pretty flexible for a 1-cmc creature. Being more versatile Haywire Mite with its ability to destroy artifact / enchantment creatures while having an Explore mode is a good place to start. The ability to be more proactive than Reclamation Sage is also nice, as is the ability to blow up a mox / Sol Ring or something on turn 2.

What I Don't Like: Its activated ability is more expensive to activate than both Haywire Mite and Cankerbloom, which can especially be important in powered cubes that support Time Vault combo. Not being an ETB trigger means you can't blink this for value with Reclamation Sage, although that's not always a value play anyways.

Verdict: Having “draw a card” in the rules text automatically makes this better than Pest Infestation, right? Jokes aside, I do like this card quite a bit and think it's a good replacement / supplement to Reclamation Sage / Haywire Mite. I like how you can play this early and split up the costs compared to Reclamation Sage. Being able to blow up artifact / enchantment creatures, have an Explore mode, and being fetchable with Green Sun's Zenith / fodder for Natural Order makes this more attractive to me than Haywire Mite. I do like Cankerbloom more than this though since it has a much better stat / cost ratio while having a cheaper activation cost.

#7 - Come Back Wrong

A pseudo black Fractured Identity?

What I Like: Creatures have pretty wild ETB triggers these days, like Grief / Pyrogoyf / Palace Jailer / White Plume Adventurer / Atraxa, Grand Unifier / Archon of Cruelty / etc. Trading blows with these value creatures with 1 to 1 removal spells is a losing proposition. Fractured Identity is a great way to turn things around, but that's 5 mana. Come Back Wrong does a lot of what Fractured Identity wants to do for only . There are also plenty of threats with haste these days that make for a good target with this. You can also use this on your own stuff to re-buy a creature's ETB triggers in a pinch.

What I Don't Like: The floor of this is a sorcery speed Murder, which isn't great since it's slow and can only target creatures. There's also a lot of dangerous cheap threats that this isn't great against.

Verdict: This one is going to require a lot of testing to see what the average case scenario looks like. Murder isn't the worst floor in the world considering that this is one of the strongest answers to a lot of the best creatures in the game. That being said, this probably won't be worth it in more fair environments that exclude monarch / initiative / Atraxa / etc. This is the card I'm most curious to see how it plays out in testing.

#6 - Overlord of the Boilerbilges

A modal Inferno Titan variant!?

What I Like: A 6-cmc creature with a similar attack / ETB trigger as Inferno Titan with similar modality to Trumpeting Carnosaur is a very good place to start. This has a smaller body than Inferno Titan and lacks firebreathing, but being modal and dealing more overall damage with its trigger really helps make up for that. Lightning Blast is far from a cubeable card, but it's a very serviceable mode on an otherwise fairly expensive creature that's also pretty good as a reanimator / cheaty face target.

What I Don't Like: While being modal is really nice, Inferno Titan is generally the better reanimator / cheaty face target. Inferno Titan's ETB / attack trigger being dividable is huge at clearing chump blockers and generating as much card advantage as possible. Inferno Titan just has higher overall damage output due to its bigger body and firebreathing ability. Being an enchantment also makes this vulnerable to things like Pest Infestation / Boseiju, Who Endures / Loran of the Third Path / etc.

Verdict: To me this is competing with Trumpeting Carnosaur as red's third best fattie after Inferno Titan / Etali, Primal Conqueror, it just depends on what you value. On one hand, Trumpeting Carnosaur's “channel” ability being cheaper than Overlord of the Boilerbilges's impending mode is really appealing, especially since Trumpeting Carnosaur bins itself for reanimator and doesn't die to enchantment removal. On the other hand, Overlord of the Boilerbilges's alternate cost does more damage and can hit players. Overlord of the Boilerbilges is also a scarier creature to hardcast / cheat into play due to it having an attack trigger and more consistent ETB trigger. Either way, you can't go wrong with either of them, it's just a matter of finding space.

#5 - Screaming Nemesis

Boros Reckoner 2.0!

What I Like: Those who have been cubing for a long time will probably remember playing with Boros Reckoner. The general consensus was that Boros Reckoner's damage reflection ability was extremely powerful and very annoying to kill / block. The card itself was clunky due to its mana cost. Giving it haste and a clean mana cost of turns Boros Reckoner into a scary modern day threat that can compete well with similar creatures. Preventing your opponent from gaining life for the rest of the game can be really backbreaking when it matters, especially when trying to stabilize against an aggro deck.

I can't stress enough how the damage reflection makes this annoying to deal with throughout the game.

• Killing this with burn means you're either burning yourself too or getting 2 for 1'd.

• Small creatures blocking this will usually result in a 2 for 1 or dealing 1-2 damage to your opponent / planeswalker.

• If your opponent has two 2/2s, your opponent is put in a really bad situation. Chump blocking probably results in losing both your 2/2s for nothing, and double blocking is either a 1 for 2 or a 1 for 1 + 4 damage to your opponent's face.

• Large creatures particularly don't want to block it either because they'll either trade down mana wise or get burned to the face very hard.

What I Don't Like: This doesn't have the snowball / blowout potential that similar creatures have. Compared to other Goblin Rabblemaster / Laelia, the Blade Reforged variants, this is one of the weaker solo threats and can't produce value without your opponent interacting with it. Oftentimes your opponent's best option is to not deal with it and just let this hit you for 3 damage every turn. That's far from ideal considering how damage inflation has really eroded the value of life points and you don't want to give your opponent free hits when monarch / initiative is involved.

Verdict: I've been testing this one for a while since it was spoiled early and it's been performing quite well. While the 3-cmc red creature slot is one of the most contested slots for cube, this can hang with a lot of its competition. I wouldn't put this over Broadside Bombardiers / Laelia, the Blade Reforged / Gut, True Soul Zealot, but I find it as good if not better than the other Goblin Rabblemaster adjacent creatures. It's also one of the more unique ones too since damage reflection is an extremely rare ability. I'm very happy this now exists so that a new generation of cube players can find out how much of a pain it is to deal with the second coming of Boros Reckoner.

#4 - Urinse Monstrosity

A very strong beatstick.

What I Like: This is quite strong on offense. Since it fuels the graveyard itself, it'll always at least be a 4/4 with trample. It's very easy for this to be a 6/6 or higher, making it scale very well into the late game. Having both indestructible and trample means this can't chump blocked OR traded with. Trample is especially key when contesting monarch / initiative. While this is just a boring beatstick, it's both a graveyard enabler / payoff, especially if you explicitly support delirium / card types in graveyard matters.

What I Don't Like: It's forced to attack, so you can never use this on defense beyond the turn you cast it. But that's far from a deal breaker since you probably always want to attack with this most of the time anyways. If you're blocking, you're losing!

Verdict: Green's 3-cmc creatures are usually slow, grindy, and value based. This is by far green's best offensive 3-cmc creature, nothing comes close unless you count Caldaia Guardian. To me this compares mostly to Tireless Tracker. I like this quite a bit more since it's much better on offense and you never have to invest anymore mana into it. Tireless Tracker can grind for more value and has a lot more synergies and combos, but this can just kill your opponent much faster and is a much better topdeck in the late game.

#3 - Fear of Missing Out

FOMO!

What I Like: This is quite the versatile red 2-cmc creature. A 2/3 that's a discard outlet, card filterer, delirium enabler / payoff, and combo piece for Kiki-Twin is a lot for . Being able to rummage and having its delirium ability makes this pretty useful at any point in the game where most 2-cmc creatures fall off a cliff in the late game.

What I Don't Like: This is a true jack of all trades, master of none creature. It's not great at aggro, there are better discard outlets for reanimator, and you can't reliably go off with Kiki-Twin combo on curve because you need delirium. Its ETB trigger to discard a card being mandatory unlike Charming Scoundrel / Inti, Seneschal of the Sun / Scrapwork Mutt can be a liability against Hullbreacher / Orcish Bowmasters / etc.

Verdict: Fear of Missing Out is definitely one of the more versatile red creatures. This gets a lot of bonus points if you support Kiki-Twin combo since a lot of the best enablers aren't red. I like this much more than Scrapwork Mutt, which I've never liked. While they're not 1 to 1, I prefer Inti, Seneschal of the Sun / Charming Scoundrel over this, especially if monarch / initiative are involved. Inti granting trample and Charming Scoundrel having haste to contest monarch / initiative are extremely key. Charming Scoundrel is also more versatile all around since it can generate treasures / role tokens. Charming Scoundrel is also very useful in Kiki-Twin shells since the treasure really helps in getting the for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. That being said, Fear of Missing Out is probably the best all arounder from Duskmourn.

#2 - Metamorphosis Fanatic

Karmic Guide x Triumph of Saint Katherine

What I Like: Like most other miracle cards, this has a lot of potential power at a very attractive cost. This being a 4/4 with lifelink makes it a decent creature on its own, and recurring another creature and giving that a lifelink counter (not a finality counter!) means this card has an extremely high ceiling. Unlike Triumph of Saint Katherine, this is in the same color as Vampiric Tutor / Imperial Seal. A deck is more likely to play Worldly Tutor than a deck since black has a lot more explosive combos to offer. This is also cute with Volrath's Stronghold, but a lot of MTGO Vintage Cube style lists don't play that anymore.

What I Don't Like: Also like most miracle cards, consistency can be an issue in what is traditionally a singleton format. The ceiling is obviously high, it's just a matter of how consistent this can be. There's a lot of moving components in terms of miracle, having something in your graveyard, and times you're hard casting it. One issue I have is that it's a 6-cmc creature that's not exactly great in non-reanimator cheaty face shells. There's also that weird tension where this is just a discounted Baneslayer Angel if you're in a situation where you cast this early via miracle or off a Grim Monolith or something.

Verdict: It's extremely difficult to judge miracle cards without extensive testing, so I'm rating this card mainly based on its potential. I see this more as a value midrange card like how people often play Reanimate / Animate Dead type of cards in value decks that aren't trying to reanimate the most explosive thing all the time. Triumph of Saint Katherine has been pretty decent for me, and I think this will be better since it has a much higher ceiling and shares a color with Vampiric Tutor / Imperial Seal / a bunch of discard outlets in case this gets stuck in your hand.

#1 - Valgavoth, Terror Eater

A very difficult super fattie to deal with.

What I Like: This is quite the reanimator / cheaty face target. A 9/9 with flying and lifelink for is cool and all, but the real selling point is the ward cost of having to sacrifice three nonland permanents. Let's count the common ways that you can remove this for 3 or less mana without triggering ward:

• Balance
• Council's Judgment
• Sheoldred's Edict
• Liliana of the Veil
• Toxic Deluge

Unless I'm missing something obvious, I count only 5 efficient spells that can remove this without triggering its ward ability, and they only come in white and black. And out of the 5, only Council's Judgment is a guarantee since Balance / Sheoldred's Edict / Liliana of the Veil aren't guaranteed to hit, and Toxic Deluge costs 9 life. There are more answers once you get above 4 mana like Wrath of God variants / Archon of Cruelty / Portal to Phyrexia / etc, but those either aren't efficient or require hoops to jump through. If you get this out early, your opponent either needs one of these answers to either not die or undo all their early / midgame progress. Triggering the ward on this + potentially gaining 9-18 life buys you A LOT of time to combo off again with something else.

While the first 25-ish% of this card's rules text carries the bulk of its value, the other 75-ish% isn't just flavor text. Black being full of discard and removal spells, this can generate a lot of value when you untap with this, and that's not really difficult due to its ward ability. Not to mention that this also acts as a Leyline of the Void for your opponent, making it less likely for them to reanimate the Archon of Cruelty that can deal with this.

What I Don't Like: The lack of a value ETB / attack trigger means this doesn't work with Flash and isn't the most ideal target for one-shot effects like Sneak Attack / Shallow Grave and all their variants. That being said, those are still a potential 18 point life swing. Wtwlf123 also mentioned that you can also still use those effects at the end of your opponent's turn so that you can untap with Valgavoth and try to maximize its card stealing abilities. While this is a great card to recur from the graveyard, Animate Dead / Dance of the Dead / Necromancy can be removed without triggering the ward cost.

Verdict: This card has been quite polarizing in the cube community from being called trash to better than Griselbrand. I'm pretty bullish on it being one of the better overall super fatties. Archon of Cruelty has shown that consistency / having a better average case scenario is often more preferable than Griselbrand's crazy high ceiling. Valgavoth, Terror Eater feels very Archon of Cruelty / OG Ulamog and Kozilek to me since triggering its ward ability is effectively getting hit by their ETB / attack triggers respectively. While this isn't as versatile as Archon of Cruelty since that's also a premium hit with Sneak Attack / Shallow Grave type cards, this is still very strong with Oath of Druids and really mitigates the drawbacks of Show and Tell / Eureka.

Call me crazy, but if I had to pick between Griselbrand and Valgavoth, Terror Eater, I'd probably go with Valgavoth because I think it'll be a more consistent performer. Griselbrand has become quite the liability these days with Orcish Bowmasters / Hullbreacher type cards running around, not to mention how ubiquitous Karakas has become. My thesis basically comes down to this: you will probably win the game if you untap with either of them, but you're much more likely to untap with Valgavoth due to its ward ability. While Valgavoth isn't the best with Sneak Attack / Through the Breach / Shallow Grave / etc, you're probably playing those cards with other things that Valgavoth does go well with. I'd also argue that Griselbrand uses those cards as a crutch and is often a liability without them. Griselbrand is also much worse with Reanimate since it really hinders your ability to use its draw 7 ability. I'd be much more worried about that since Reanimate is a much more superior card than Sneak Attack / Shallow Grave and all their variants. While there's a good possibility that Valgavoth may fall short of my high expectations for it, I'm willing to bet it's at least MUCH BETTER than how most people are perceiving it.

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