Welcome to my 6th HOT TAKES article on CubeCobra! Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is the first standard legal crossover in Magic history. The previous set, Modern Horizons 2, is one of the most influential sets of all time. Can Adventures in the Forgotten Realms follow up such a strong act? Let's find out!

DISCLAIMER

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

WHITE Monk of the Open Hand

Decent one-drop if you support second spell matters. One trigger puts it on par with an Isamaru, Hound of Konda, and if you just have all the spells this'll be a 3/3 by turn 3. Can't say I'm a fan of this since the whole second spell schtick doesn't exactly get me out of bed wanting to play Magic, but I'd imagine this might be an appealing option for people running things like Clarion Spirit.

Portable Hole

White's take on Abrupt Decay. This is a pretty efficient removal spell in the early game, able to take out most aggro creatures, mana dorks, mana rocks, and key dangerous threats like Skullclamp / Bitterblossom / Umezawa's Jitte etc. This card's stock also goes up in powered cubes to knock your opponent off of fast mana starts.

Portable Hole being an artifact instead of an enchantment like Oblivion Ring makes it a lot easier to break since there's much more removal for artifacts than enchantments. This also has very stiff competition with Prismatic Ending, which is generally more versatile and permanently exiles its targets. Like Prismatic Ending, Portable Hole's effectiveness is very dependent on the curve of your cube. How good Abrupt Decay is in your cube is also a good gauge on how Portable Hole will perform.

Loyal Warhound

Knight of the White Orchid gone doggo. A Blade of the Sixth Pride with vigilance for is a good place to start, although vigilance isn't exactly too useful on a 1 toughness creature. Loyal Warhound's ability to search for a plains is strictly worse than Knight of the White Orchid's since it can only search for a basic Plains and it ETBs tapped. While Knight of the White Orchid has the better trigger and generally more useful body, Loyal Warhound's clean is more important to me personally.

Like Knight of the White Orchid, this is a pretty solid card. I don't currently play Knight of the White Orchid and probably won't play Loyal Warhound since there's a lot of competition in the 2-cmc aggro slot, but it's still a respectable option. If you're already playing Knight of the White Orchid, this is a good replacement / supplement to it.

Oswald Fiddlebender

Birthing Pod for artifacts, except it's on a creature so it's more like Prime Speaker Vannifar. Costing only is really nice, and the activation is still fairly cheap at only . While I love Birthing Pod as a card, I was never the biggest fan of it in limited. Oswald Fiddlebender suffers the same issues in a singleton limited format, and only working with artifacts makes it even more narrow. Cashing in a Coldsteel Heart for something like Sword of Fire and Ice or Crucible of Worlds is cool, but there aren't too many value artifacts that have strong ETB triggers that you can then sacrifice again into the next value card, etc.

While the meat and potatoes of the Birthing Pod chain lies in the 3-5 cmc creatures, the meat and potatoes of the artifact chain is in 0-3 (0 assuming you're powered), and it's really mostly just mana rocks and equipment so you're not really getting anything in immediate value. In the average Vintage style cube, the chain becomes EXTREMELY THIN when you get to 4-cmc and above. Unless you have a very heavy artifact themed cube, I don't think the chain is there for this unless you really don't mind just cashing in mana rocks / equipment for a more expensive mana rock / equipment.

Dawnbringer Cleric

The ultimate tech against aggro, reanimator, and Oath of Druids. Everybody always talks about how useful artifact removal is, but in reality it's much more important to be able to kill something like Sylvan Library / Bitterblossom, not a useless Dimir Signet. A 1/3 body also means it bullies most things on the ground and completely shuts down Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer.

Dawnbringer Cleric's perfect stats in combination with its god tier triggered abilities to choose from makes it a slam dunk god tier cube card. As a common, it will certainly be banned in any rarity restricted cube / any cube just trying to have fun. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned its ability to exile ANY card from ANY graveyard! I can go on about how useful its CLERIC creature typing is, but it's already painfully obvious and I respect your intelligence as a Magic player to just know these things already.

I can tell you right now that this ain't coming close to my cube because it's too strong and I need to protect my playgroup's feelings. For those of you who will cube anything under the sun and are willing to play this, I highly recommend breaking singleton on every Volcanic Hammer variant just to keep this card in check. I'd say to go to your local game store and buy out every copy that you can, but it'll already be too late by the time you're reading this.

Dancing Sword

White Trusty Machete that has a little bit of Heirloom Blade sprinkled into it. I always wished that Trusty Machete traded its casting cost with its equip cost, and that's pretty much what Dancing Sword is. Equip 1 or less is huge, which makes cards like Bonesplitter / Grafted Wargear / Heirloom Blade see cube play where cards with more expensive equip costs often won't. Turning Dancing Sword into a 2/1 with ward 1 whenever its equipped creature dies is useful when you have no other creatures, otherwise you're probably better off just leaving it as an equipment.

As an equipment for , this competes directly with Barbed Spike. While Dancing Sword is a strictly better equipment, Barbed Spike creating a 1/1 flyer and snapping onto it for free is huge. Barbed Spike creating a creature upfront rather than waiting for an equipped creature to die is generally better IMO since it's less reliant on your boardstate and has a better floor. The equipment half of Halvar, God of Battle also does a lot of what Dancing Sword wants to do in terms of being an equipment / replacing the equipped creature when it dies, but it also has a creature mode to rely on.

Guardian of Faith

A defensive spell that can save your creatures in combat or against removal. Being able to phase out any number of other creatures means this is great against sweepers in particular. The floor of a 3/2 with flash and vigilance ain't bad, but Glorious Protector has shown me that these defensive type abilities are really lacking compared to just blinking things for value.

Nadaar, Selfless Paladin

So before we talk about Nadaar, let's talk about dungeons:

Key things to know about dungeons:

• Whenever you venture into a dungeon, you can enter the first room of any dungeon of your choosing, or advance to the next room.

• You can only be in one dungeon at a time.

• You can only move where the arrows are pointing and you cannot traverse backwards.

• Completing a dungeon means you've reached the last room of at least one dungeon.

• If you venture while you're in the last room of a dungeon you just completed, you can choose any dungeon entrance to start at, including any dungeon you've already completed.

Dungeons remind me of energy where there's a good amount of cards that are very parasitic and require other energy cards to even function properly, but there are also a few cards that utilize the mechanic in a self-contained way. Nadaar is one of those self-contained dungeon cards since it ventures on both ETB and attack. With a clean mana cost, accompanied by square 3/3 stats, vigilance, and ETB / attack triggers, this is essentially a mini titan for 3 mana. Nadaar's anthem effect is pretty flavor text if you're not explicitly supporting dungeons.

Lost Mine of Phandelver will probably be the default dungeon in most scenarios since scry 1 is generally more useful than gaining 1 life or each player losing 1 life. This dungeon also generally has the most useful abilities and generally has the second room options in creating a 1/1 goblin or creating a treasure.

Tomb of Annihilation is the go to room if you're looking to really pressure your opponent's life total and be more disruptive. Honestly I think Dungeon of the Mad Mage is pretty bad since its abilities don't really start getting good until you hit the 4th room. The only time I would consider Dungeon of the Mad Mage over the other two dungeons is if I really need to gain 1 life to get out of burn range or something. Otherwise Lost Mine of Phandelver just has the better first 4 rooms.

Nadaar, Selfless Paladin compares most to Thalia, Heretic Cathar. Thalia is a lot more disruptive in delaying your opponent's non-basics, blockers, and Sneak Attack / Kiki-Twin combos, but Nadaar has the better floor and generates more value. Assuming you don't hate the logistics of dungeons, I think this is worth testing with / over Thalia in high powered environments. If you are going to explicitly support dungeons as a theme, Nadaar is by far the best enabler.

Priest of Ancient Lore

White Phyrexian Rager. Gaining 1 life in exchange of not losing 1 life and a second toughness is a decent trade, especially if you start blinking this. I've always said that Phyrexian Rager (and now Callous Bloodmage / Llanowar Visionary) are pretty filler tier cards, so any interest in this is tied to your interest to Phyrexian Rager / Callous Bloodmage / Llanowar Visionary.

Icingdeath, Frost Tyrant

This is a decent flying stat monster for that leaves behind a Bonesplitter that taps things down. 4 power in the air is always nice, but Gisela, the Broken Blade has taught me that 4-cmc stat monsters really need a 4th toughness so they can survive a single Lightning Bolt effect.

Leaving behind an equipment upon death is nice, but the creature half of this card is pretty underwhelming. Basri's Lieutenant pretty much does the same thing as Icingdeath, Frost Tyrant, but is much more resilient, has an arguably better death trigger, and it can randomly give your other creatures a death trigger. I also think this is generally worse than Halvar, God of Battle, which is modal, survives Lightning Bolt, and gives you a really strong equipment / aura payoff to boot.

Teleportation Circle

Color shifted Thassa, Deep-Dwelling. While Thassa is strictly better in almost every way since it can't be hit by Force of Negation / Duress / Spell Pierce, can blink something you steal for it to come back to you permanently, can turn into a creature, and can tap things down, Teleportation can blink artifacts and is generally in a better suited color for blinking shenanigans. That being said, most of Thassa's value comes from the blink trigger itself, so Teleportation Circle is starting off in a good place.

Teleportation Circle's ability to blink artifacts is a pretty marginal bonus, but hey it's better than not being able to do so. The most common scenario will be untapping your mana rocks. The most high impact thing you can probably do is blink an uncrewed Esika's Chariot. Resetting a non-creature Phyrexian Metamorph is also an option that Thassa otherwise can't do. Blinking Flickerwisp is always fun since that allows you to blink anything else, although whatever you blink won't come back until the end of your opponent's turn.

If you explicitly support a blink theme and already run Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, then this should definitely be on your radar. If you're not already running Thassa, being a color shifted into a more appropriate color might not be enough for high powered cubes where the competition is very steep at the 4-cmc white slot where this has a lot of planeswalkers to compete with that already generate value every turn.

Cave of the Frost Dragon

Mono colored fast manlands! We haven't had a cycle of mono colored manlands since the original ones in Urza's Legacy. I really like this new cycle as it takes the concept of the original manlands, makes them as beefy as the multicolored manlands from the first two Zendikar blocks, and gives them the potential to ETB untapped early game that is reminiscent of the fast land cycle.

Cave of the Frost Dragon is essentially a mono white Celestial Colonnade, and is worse all around except for the fact that it can ETB untapped in the early game and that you don't need two colors to activate this. That being said, Celestial Colonnade is one of the best manlands out there, so a knockoff version of it has the potential to be a solid card in its own right, which I believe this is. Cave of the Frost Dragon only loses out on not tapping for blue, having 3 power instead of 4, and lacking vigilance. While those are all downgrades, entering the battlefield untapped in the early game is a pretty huge bonus, and a lot of the essence of what makes Celestial Colonnade good can still be found in Cave of the Frost Dragon.

Assuming we're counting MDFCs, this is my 3rd favorite white utility land after Karakas and Emeria's Call. I think this is a lot better than other options like Castle Ardenvale and Kor Haven, especially since this works well with Moat.

BLUE Dragon Turtle

Cool creature type combination, weird card. A 3/5 with flash is a decent place to start, and this acts as a pseudo-removal spell with its Frost Breath like effect. I really wish that its trigger was optional or if it just didn't tap itself, because it'd make for a good combat trick that way. This is way too fair for high powered environments. This also doesn't work well with blink effects anyways since you really want to trigger this type of effect on your opponent's turn and most blink effects happen at sorcery speed. While flash and a big body is nice, you're probably just better off with a Man-o'-War variant in most scenarios.

Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar

Mono blue Edric, Spymaster of Trest, except you only draw a single card no matter how many creatures you hit your opponent with like Thopter Spy Network. Drawing cards is always good, even if it's only one card. At first I thought that Grazilaxx might have a niche as a pseudo-blink effect, but that can be really risky. Let's say your opponent has a 3/3 and you swing in with Palace Jailer because either you can bounce your Palace Jailer back when it blocks or you get in for 2 damage. Before your opponent blocks, they can remove your Grazilaxx and just block the Palace Jailer. While this is too fair for me as a blue card in high powered environments, Grazillax seems very strong in more fair environments if you support ninjas / flyers.

You Find the Villains' Lair

Counterspell x Careful Study. This is a modal Cancel variant that's very reminiscent of things like Neutralize / Supreme Will / Thassa's Intervention. This being a hard Cancel makes this strictly better than Thassa's Intervention's counterspell mode. Supreme Will isn't completely outclassed since it has a more splashable mana cost.

The key differentiator between all these spells IMO are their card selection modes. While Careful Study is the worst of them in terms of card advantage since you're actually down a card, it provides the most archetype support. Although most decks wouldn't run Careful Study by itself, any deck can make good use of a Careful Study mode just for card filtering even without graveyard shenanigans.

Due to its archetype applications, I do like You Find the Villain's Lair more than Neutralize / Thassa's Intervention as a modal Cancel variant since it does provide archetype support while still being generally useful. I'd rather have a mode that I love in a specific deck / scenario rather than something I feel average about like cycling. If you're not already playing something like Neutralize / Thassa's Intervention / Supreme Will, this probably won't interest you unless you're really fiending for more discard outlets. If you are running any of those, this is a good option as a potential replacement / supplement.

Tasha's Hideous Laughter

I'm no mill expert, but I think it's fairly safe to assume that this is one of the stronger mill cards out there for those that support it. This can especially be devastating to aggro with its lower curves. Exiling instead of straight milling is also a nice bonus. Probably a shoe-in if you support mill, passable otherwise.

Phantom Steed

Horse illusion, that's (probably) a new one. This has a blink / Mimic Vat feel to it. Being able to create an attacking copy of Vendilion Clique / Blade Splicer is a good value play when this attacks. Lack of evasion and 3 toughness makes this fragile in combat, but there's still a lot of potential value to be had with just one attack trigger since you created a copy of the exiled creature and the exiled creature will come back into play, hopefully with an ETB trigger.

This can act as a pseudo Restoration Angel by protecting your cards from removal, although it's more of a Glorious Protector since the exiled creature doesn't come back until Phantom Steed leaves the battlefield. This isn't something I'd consider in a typical Vintage cube since blue is just so stacked, but this has potential as a blink support card alongside Thassa, Deep-Dwelling.

Demilich

A very mono blue spells matters payoff. Its cost reduction ability is weird and it just really makes it easier to cast when chaining multiple spells, but doesn't really make it easier to cast in general unless you have Gitaxian Probe or something. Attacking with it essentially gives you a Snapcaster Mage trigger. Demilich's recursion ability is a good option to have in the late game, where it'll be easier to stomach the mana cost, although it'll be difficult to have enough instants / sorceries to recur it more than once.

Overall I'm not a fan of Demilich for a few reasons:

• That mana cost is a huge eyesore and its cost reduction ability doesn't help that much.

• It relies on attacking to flashback spells. Lack of evasion and susceptibility to Lightning Bolt can make it difficult to milk this ability until you've outgrinded your opponent and have established board control.

• The recursion ability is decent, but it's also fighting for graveyard fodder alongside its attack trigger.

While I think Demilich looks cool on paper, I also think it's a big trap. Its abilities don't work well alongside its casting cost and non-evasive 4/3 body. Lack of recursion aside, Ethereal Forager does a lot of what it wants to do, but is easier to cast and has evasion to boot. God-Eternal Kefnet also outclasses Demilich pretty hard since it's easier to cast, has a bigger body, has flying, and is also recursive. I would avoid this card like the plague.

Iymrith, Desert Doom

Mono blue Dragonlord Ojutai. While its abilities are generally worse than Dragonlord Ojutai, being mono blue and having a key 5th toughness ain't nothing. There's a lot of 4/4s in the air, so being able to beat those while surviving things like Wildfire is always valuable. In a proactive deck with Iymrith as a curvetopper, its ability can consistently draw you 2 to 3 cards assuming you're not holding onto any reactive spells or get flooded with lands.

While Dragonlord Ojutai was never a bad card, it was never great either since it's essentially just a Baneslayer Angel. It's definitely one of the better ones, IMO, but it's still a Baneslayer Angel regardless. Iymrith, Desert Doom doesn't really solve any of the issues that Dragonlord Ojutai had. If anything, nerfing hexproof to ward 4 just exacerbates the issue by making it more vulnerable to removal. Overall I think Cavalier of Gales is better since it has the same stats and has both a useful ETB and death trigger. The extra in its mana cost hurts, but I think the triggers are well worth it.

Mordenkainen

That is one good looking dog illusion on this otherwise seemingly innocuous planeswalker.

• Mordenkainen's +2 ability to draw 2 cards and then put a card from your hand to the bottom of your library is pretty strong. This upticking immediately to 7 means this will be difficult to take out quickly in combat and will often require a direct answer like Hero's Downfall.

• Mordenkainen's -2 ability creates a creature with power and toughness equal to TWICE the number of cards in your hand. For those of you who don't know your Saviors of Kamigawa cards besides Pithing Needle, this 6-cmc planeswalker creates a non-legendary creature dog illusion token of a card that normally costs : Masumaro, First to Live. Saviors of Kamigawa jokes aside, these tokens are actually legitimate threats and scale very fast. Having two cards in hand makes this a 4/4, three cards it's a 6/6, etc. In combination with Mordenkainen's +2 ability and your natural draw step, this gains 4 power and toughness every turn, and two of these dogs can snowball through your opponent pretty fast.

• Like most planeswalker ultimates, you've already won the game well before you got there. Exchanging your hand and library is a cool way to flex on your opponent, as is having one giant good boy.

I think this is a respectable tier 2 threat as far as 6-cmc blue spells goes. While Mordenkainen isn't as cool and flashy as Will Kenrith as a planeswalker, I'd argue that Mordenkainen is stronger overall, especially since it can act as a finisher on its own where Will Kenrith cannot. This doesn't unseat Upheaval / Consecrated Sphinx / Torrential Gearhulk for me at the 6-cmc blue slot, but I think this can perform well in any environment where those cards also exist.

Hall of Storm Giants

Unlike most of the other manlands in this set, Hall of Storm Giants really doesn't have any pre-existing manland that it can really compare to. Lumbering Falls is the closest thing since ward 3 is just a knockoff hexproof, but its unprecedented activation cost of and being much bigger than any manland that came before it as a 7/7 makes it pretty hard to compare to. The most expensive manland activation has always been Celestial Colonnade at . With that being said, you essentially need 7 mana to really use this, although blue is heavily incentivized to ramp / drag the game out anyways. A 7/7 with no evasion means this is easily walled by tokens. Ward 3 loses a lot of its luster in the late game, especially since you can only really hit this with instants (unless your opponent activates to block), and instant speed removal is already usually the cheapest form of removal.

One of the issues this card has is that blue has a glut of viability utility / MDFC lands to choose from. Literally.

Utility

• Tolarian Academy
• Faerie Conclave
• Mystic Sanctuary
• Shelldock Isle
• Castle Vantress
• Academy Ruins

MDFCs

• Sea Gate Restoration
• Glasspool Mimic
• Jwari Disruption

Beside green and blue, the other colors really don't have any good manlands to choose from, and I don't see anybody running this over Faerie Conclave. This compares a lot to Sea Gate Restoration since they both have effects that essentially cost 7 mana, although Hall of Storm Giants at least contributes to that cost as a land where Sea Gate Restoration does not. I'm on the fence with this manland since the activation is just so expensive, but 7 mana isn't unachievable by any stretch and this is a really big threat that you can fetch up with Primeval Titan. I'll probably test it just for the Primeval Titan interaction, but I really wouldn't fault anybody for playing everything else in the cycle except this one.

BLACK Dungeon Crawler

Extra zombie / Gravecrawler support is always nice. Difficult to recur by itself, but a Savannah Lions with a relevant creature type is always a decent option to have. You'd think that this would recur straight to the battlefield after jumping through all the hoops of completing a dungeon, but oh well. This is a good option for larger cubes or cubes that push zombie tribal, otherwise this generally falls short to other black aggro options for .

Forsworn Paladin

Some weird combination of Knight of the Ebon Legion and... Gilded Goose?. The menace and pump ability tells me this wants to be an aggro card, but it can also create a treasure token in case I want to ramp or give it deathtouch with its activated ability. Menace and deathtouch do work well together as any scenario that involves blocking the menace / deathtouch combo without first strike will at least result in a 2 for 1. That being said, this isn't too aggressive on its own and I think Knight of the Ebon Legion and most other 2 powered creatures for are generally better suited for aggro decks.

Wight

I had to re-read this a few times to make sure this had no drawback other than ETBing tapped. A 3/2 with a strong ability and relevant creature typing is pretty unheard of at , and the drawback is extremely minimal for the aggressive decks that would want this. This compares most to Skyclave Shade. Wight's relevant creature type, second toughness, and not needing to pay any mana to make zombies is nice, but Skyclave Shade is the better recursive threat and just much stronger later in the game with its kicker. Personally I like Skyclave Shade more unless you have a lot more zombies matters cards than Gravecrawler, but this is still a very respectable black aggro 2-drop.

Grim Wanderer

A 5/3 for is pretty tempting. Creatures die all the time, especially if you're playing an aggro deck, so its casting condition shouldn't be hard to achieve at all. Flash is cool and helps with the casting condition, but Megatroid_Jones on MTGSalvation has pointed out that Bone Picker has never been great, and Bone Picker is a lot better than this IMO since it has evasion, has deathtouch to trade with anything in combat, and is easier to cast.

Power Word Kill

In terms of having the fewest number of whiffs in my cube, this is the best Terror variant and edges out both Go for the Throat and Heartless Act. Only 9 misses came up when applying my creature filter (10 if you include Mutavault), while Go for the Throat and Heartless Act have about 20-ish misses each (I say -ish because there are definitely things that get around the CubeCobra filter that I set).

That being said, many of the creatures that Power Word Kill can't kill are the creatures you want to kill most like Griselbrand / Dragonlord Atarka / Archangel Avacyn / Hellrider / etc. If you're willing to trade not being able to kill big mythical creatures in exchange for having more targets than any other Terror variant, this is an easy upgrade / supplement to whatever Terror variants you're currently running.

Check for Traps

A different take on Agonizing Remorse. Being able to have your opponent lose 1 life instead of you losing 1 life is a nice little bonus. On average it will be a better bonus than exiling a card from your opponent's graveyard, but when that graveyard hate matters, it's worth way more than 1 life. If you're already playing Agonizing Remorse, this is more of a sidegrade if anything. If you're not already playing Agonizing Remorse, I don't think this will spark your interest, but can be a potential supplement / replacement to Agonizing Remorse if you are currently running it.

Acererak the Archlich

I'm only mentioning this card in case anybody reading this runs Aluren. This is a one card kill by looping through Lost Mine of Phandelver and killing people with the Dark Pool room.

Hellish Rebuke

Settle the Wreckage, except the creatures also have to actually hit you. The opponent losing 2 life per creature they sacrifice is a nice touch, but oftentimes this will be neutral at best since the creature had to hit you first anyways.. While this has the potential to kill your opponent, there's a good chance your opponent might just kill you before they have to sacrifice their creatures. I was never a fan of Condemn type removal spells that are only live when the creature is attacking. I don't currently play Settle the Wreckage, but I always thought it was decent for a Condemn type card since it's often a one-sided sweeper. I think Settle the Wreckage is a way better card than Hellish Rebuke though since it doesn't require getting hit by your opponent's creatures.

Gelatinous Cube

Black's take on Hostage Taker that can only hit creatures and permanently kills them instead of stealing them. The one thing Gelatinous Cube has going for it is that it has a bigger body than any other Ravenous Chupacabra effect, only being rivaled by Flametongue Kavu if you want to count that.

While this card is OOZING with flavor, I can't say I'm a fan of Gelatinous Cube. Hostage Taker's effect is much more powerful and it doesn't have an extra cost attached to completely remove the creature from your opponent's side. I play Ravenous Chupacabra for its clean Murder effect attached to a body, and trading a better body for a slower effect isn't worth it. Gelatinous Cube being able to hold down indestructible creatures like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger / Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre / Blightsteel Colossus is a cool corner case going for it, but not worth it on its own. This also plays much worse with blink / recursion effects.

Black has so many options for this role. Ravenous Chupacabra and Shriekmaw are the gold standards, and I don't like this more than Nekrataal / Skinrender. Unless your goal is to support ooze tribal payoffs like Biogenic Ooze or something, this is pretty passable to me.

Ebondeath, Dracolich

A recurrable flying threat that's almost everything that I always wanted Bone Dragon to be. Having flash is nice to play around counterspells, and having 5 power means it can take down anything in the air that isn't a super fattie like Griselbrand / Dragonlord Atarka / Sphinx of the Steel Wind / etc.

The real kicker is being able to cast Ebondeath from the graveyard. Honestly I first read Ebondeath's cast from graveyard condition to be “you can cast it from your graveyard as long Ebondeath itself didn't actually die this turn”, and was like “wow, that's really bonkers,” and believed that was the case for an entire week. Sadly, something has to die, just not Ebondeath. That being said, this still is a recurrable flying threat, and things die all the time whether its you killing things, through combat, or your opponent killing things. Ebondeath will make your opponent think twice about killing something of yours or having something of theirs trade in combat since they risk having to deal with Ebondeath from the graveyard.

This plays well in creature heavy decks where things are bound to die, especially with discard outlets like Liliana of the Veil, Rankle, Master of Pranks / Survival of the Fittest etc. This is especially good with Liliana of the Veil and Rankle, Master of Pranks since they're both discard outlets and have removal modes to satisfy Ebondeath's recursion condition. Being a zombie is always a nice bonus too for Gravecrawler.

I was pretty high on Ebondeath until I realized how its recursive ability actually worked. That being said, I don't think we've really had a good recurrable Baneslayer Angel at this cost, and with flash to boot, so this is largely uncharted territory. Definitely worth a test at least, and I've always wanted a dracolich in my cube anyways.

Death Tyrant

A recursive, evasive win condition. A 4/6 with menace makes this very difficult to deal with in combat, and will often end in your favor. Death Tyrant's triggered ability to make 2/2 zombie tokens whenever an attacking creature you control or a blocking creature an opponent controls dies is a very powerful combat ability. If your opponent has blocks Death Tyrant with two 3/2s, you just 5 for 1'd your opponent since they're down two creatures and you're up three zombies, not to mention that you can still recur Death Tyrant. It's important to note that Death Tyrant's triggered ability also affects creature tokens, so your zombies can replace themselves if they die while attacking.

Death Tyrant's recursive ability is quite expensive at , but at least it can be activated at instant speed. This is one of the better Baneslayer Angel type creatures at 5 mana, IMO since it's recursive and makes combat very messy for your opponent. This doesn't unseat Shriekmaw / Custodi Lich as my preferred black 5-cmc creatures of choice. I like this more than Doom Whisperer as a standalone creature due to its recursive ability, although I can understand people preferring Doom Whisperer if they're using it as a graveyard enabler.

Lolth, Spider Queen

Hoo boy, another 5-cmc black planeswalker.

• Lolth's static ability would be good if it wasn't her only way to gain loyalty or if she had a more cost effective way to make spiders.

• Lolth's 0 ability is pretty standard on a 5-cmc walker. It always comes with life loss due to that's how black draws cards, so I'm not expecting it to be like Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. This ability being a +1 would be nice since that's how Ob Nixilis Reignited works, which also has a higher starting loyalty of 5 instead of 4.

• Lolth's -3 ability making two 2/1 spiders with menace and reach means it has a decent floor and makes a decent impact on the board before it gets hit by a Vindicate or something. Since it ticks down to 1 loyalty immediately, it's not too hard to pick off Lolth the turn after she hits the battlefield. The spiders having menace and reach are nice. It's pretty hard to block 2 creatures that each have menace, and having reach means they can at least block anything coming at Lolth's way.

• Lolth's ultimate makes it so that if when your opponent is dealt combat damage, they're at least being dealt 8 damage total. Meaning that if you hit your opponent with one or two of her spiders, you're dealing 8 damage no matter what. This actually really works well with her spiders since again it's difficult to block both of them. The one gotcha is that it's very difficult to generate her spiders with menace and hit her ultimate since both demand a good amount of loyalty counters. If you do try to go with her ultimate, you're probably going to have to rely on other creatures to make use of that emblem.

Overall I think Lolth is lacking in comparison to other 5-cmc spells. Her static ability is useful in aristocrats where things are dying all the time, but honestly I don't even think she's that great there. In a high powered environment I'd rather have Liliana, Death's Majesty, which goes very well with Recurring Nightmare and acts as a backup reanimation spell for reanimator decks doing things with Griselbrand.

Sphere of Annihilation

This is a mono black Pernicious Deed / Nevinyrral's Disk type card. Not being able to control the timing of when to pop this thing is bad, and sweepers are generally best when you can make them asymmetrical in your favor. In order to make this asymmetrical, you HAVE to have higher cmc threats than your opponent, which can be pretty matchup dependent. Even then, you still have to wait a turn cycle to sweep, and there's more and more ways to blow up artifacts these days, so I don't think this really has any legs to stand on.

Hive of the Eye Tyrant

I talked a lot earlier about how Cave of the Frost Dragon isn't too far off from Celestial Colonnade. While Hive of the Eye Tyrant is reminiscent of Creeping Tar Pit in terms of both tap for , have 3 power, and evasion, this is a lot further from Creeping Tar Pit than Cave of the Frost Dragon is from Celestial Colonnade for two reasons:

• It's more expensive to activate where Cave of the Frost Dragon and Celestial Colonnade both require the same amount of mana upfront.

• Menace is far worse than being straight up unblockable.

That being said, I still think this is a strong card in its own right since it's really hard to go wrong with a fast manland that has a reasonable activation cost. Exiling a card from the defending player's graveyard is a pretty narrow effect for an attack trigger, but it's better than nothing and can matter a lot in the right matchups / scenarios.

Black has a mixed bag of utility lands / MDFCs to choose from like Volrath's Stronghold / Castle Locthwain / Agadeem's Awakening / Hagra Mauling. None of them are truly great, and I can see an argument for Hive of the Eye Tyrant being the best overall out of the bunch. Personally for me this is probably in the top 2 alongside Volrath's Stronghold.

RED Goblin Javelineer

This is essentially a Raging Goblin with a worse version of flanking. There are few actual Raging Goblins that I actually like such as Bomat Courier, but this falls short for me.

Boots of Speed

This is a decent red Bonesplitter that trades the second additional power for haste. Compared to Lightning Greaves, you get the same haste effect for the first 2 mana you're spending, except you can pay the cost for Boots of Speed in installments. Lightning Greaves is more efficient over time though, is colorless, and probably appeals to more decks overall, especially cheaty face / reanimator where things like Griselbrand really appreciate the haste and shroud. I think this is a pretty low impact aggro card, so this is filler material at best, IMO.

Dueling Rapier

Another red Bonesplitter. This having flash and snapping onto a creature for free when on ETB are very appealing upsides, but is balanced out by that atrocious equip cost. Small aggressive creatures die to pretty much everything, so I think that equip cost outweighs the other benefits. I like Boots of Speed much more than this.

Burning Hands

A more selective Unholy Heat for . Being able to snipe anything from a Llanowar Elves, to an Oko, Thief of Crowns, to a Primeval Titan is big game, not to mention all the small non-green creatures it still hits. If you're looking for more versatile red answers to Oko, Thief of Crowns, this is it. Personally I like the versatility of Purphoros's Intervention more since it can function as a mana sink / win condition / YOLO Channel payoff, but I wouldn't be surprised if some people run this since I've definitely seen people run similar things like Veil of Summer.

Flameskull

A strong recurring threat. Anything trades with it in the air, but 3 power hurts and having the choice to potentially recur it by the end of your next turn or casting whatever is on top of your library is a really nice option to have.

Unfortunately for Flameskull, it has a ton of competition at the 3-cmc red aggressive creature slot with all the Goblin Rabblemaster / Hanweir Garrison variants running around, not to mention the recent printing of Laelia, the Blade Reforged. As a recursive flying threat, Flameskull is generally outclassed by Phoenix of Ash. Lack of haste really hurts Flameskull, but is understandable since it'd probably be absurd with haste.

Magic Missile

I've always been a fan of Arc Lightning / Flames of the Firebrand, so mixing it up with Magic Missile makes me happy. In my experience, heavy multicolored decks tend to use Arc Lightning / Flames of the Firebrand more than heavy red decks, so this doesn't unseat those two for me since it being uncounterable is pretty matchup dependent and isn't generally worth the extra mana intensity. This is a good option for large cubes looking to supplement Arc Lightning / Flames of the FIrebrand or cubes with very heavy mana fixing where the extra really doesn't matter.

You Find Some Prisoners

Shatter x Anticipate, but on your opponent. This is pretty versatile for a red spell that has been turning some heads, including my own at first. Once I realized that this is generally a worse red Wilt since it can't hit enchantments. Anticipate your opponent's card is arguably better than cycling to draw your own card since you get a little more card selection, but you also have to keep in mind that you have a limited window to play the card you steal from your opponent where you don't have that limitation when drawing from your own library. MrConfusion on MTGSalvation also pointed out that Shredded Sails is a thing in red, and if you didn't remember that existed since it's not exactly the most memorable card around, I'd argue that this is probably just as forgettable if it weren't for the DnD flavor.

Zariel, Archduke of Avernus

Red finally gets a generic 4-cmc token generating planeswalker. Let's go over its abilities:

• Zariel's +1 ability is a Fires of Yavimaya effect that's reminiscent of Sarkhan Vol's +1 ability. Not boosting toughness is a small loss, but the meat and potatoes of the effect is still there, which can lead to very powerful plays. A lot of my favorite early cube memories involved following up my Sarkhan Vol with a Deranged Hermit for 14 haste damage.

• Zariel starting off at 4 loyalty and having a 0 ability that generates a 1/1 devil creature that deals 1 damage to any target means she's mainly going to be compared to Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, which is a good place to be considering how great of a card Gideon is. That being said, Zariel's token generating ability is generally weaker than Gideon's in a vacuum. Both of their tokens can trade with X/2 creatures, but Gideon's tokens don't trade with lone 1/1s. That being said, Zariel's tokens work much better with sacrifice outlets and are better against removal / sweepers in general with their death trigger.

• Zariel's ultimate seems a bit weak since it only allows you to attack with a single creature for a second time barring vigilance / other untap effects. Unless you got a Questing Beast (preferably carrying a Jitte / Sword) or something, you're probably better off just not using Zariel's ultimate in most scenarios.

Overall, I think Zariel is pretty average at best. Again, she compares most to Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, and she lacks that built-in offense that Gideon comes with that lets him carry a game by himself. Koth of the Hammer is better in straight ahead aggro decks, and Chandra, Torch of Defiance is much more versatile. That being said, she's probably the planeswalker that screams aristocrats the most and can be much more explosive than Gideon with her +1 ability. I think she's borderline at best for most high powered vintage style cubes, but I think she'll shine in more fair environments as the ideal aristocrats planeswalker.

Meteor Swarm

This is essentially a scaleable Dreadbore since 8 damage will pretty much take out most creatures / planeswalkers. This does a good Plague Wind impersonation, and is absolutely devastating in the late game. Its floor is essentially a Dreadbore for , which isn't great, but it scales very well quickly after that. This is essentially a pricier Mizzium Mortars. Its cheapest mode is twice as expensive / three times more mana intensive than Mizzium Mortars base mode, but it's also twice the damage and can hit planeswalkers to boot.

This is a cool ramp payoff for Wildfire type shells,especially since this can kill most things that Wildfire can't. This is one of those cards that you'll often see last pick, often won't make your deck, but every once in a blue moon somebody casts it and it's the best play of the draft and everybody cheers on how awesome it is. This makes for a good “fun of, Magical Christmas land” card if you have space for it, otherwise you're not missing out on too much.

Inferno of the Star Mounts

We've surely come a long way from Shivan Dragon / Rorix Bladewing. Being uncounterable is huge when it matters, but Emissary of Grudges ability to protect itself once is generally better since there's more removal spells than there are counter spells.

Den of the Bugbear

This is essentially a mono red Raging Ravine that goes wide instead of tall that also ETBs untapped early game. The way it's worded also means the Raging Ravine trick of activating it twice will give you two attack triggers also. While this is a lot easier to kill in combat than Raging Ravine, ETBing untapped in the early game is always good, and going wide with a Hanweir Garrison like attack trigger opens up opportunity for Skullclamp shenanigans or something. Definitely the second best mono red utility land after Shatterskull Smashing in my book.

GREEN Werewolf Pack Leader

Mono green Watchwolf with some nice features. It's not too hard to draw a card after turn 3 with its attack trigger, and its ability to make itself a 5/3 with trample gives it a lot of reach in the late game and makes it a lot easier to draw a card with its attack trigger. This is a solid option if you support green aggro / zoo.

Ranger Class

Classes as a new enchantment subtype is pretty cool, I like how it's a blend of sagas and level up. Ranger Class seems to be the most promising of the character class cards since it has the best floor of a 2/2 wolf for . Its level 2 ability makes it a decent Luminarch Aspirant impersonator, and its level 3 ability gives you the Vizier of the Menagerie ability to play creatures from the top of your library.

This card reminds me a lot of Duskwatch Recruiter since they both have the floor of a 2/2 for and you can pump mana into it to potentially “draw” creature cards. Ranger Class has the benefit of being an enchantment that's harder to deal with, but not being a creature is also a downside in green which loves its creature synergies. Paying twice the amount of mana for a worse Luminarch Aspirant effect isn't too hot, but again it's an enchantment so it's harder to deal with.

Ranger Class's level 3 ability is worse than it looks. That kind of ability works fine on something like Vivien, Monsters' Advocate because it has synergy with her -2 ability and is generally just the icing to an already good card anyways. Vizier of the Menagerie has taught me that playing creatures off the top of your library is nowhere near as good as playing lands off the top of your library like Courser of Kruphix / Oracle of Mul Daya for two reasons:

• You generally have more lands than any other card type in your deck.

• Once you reach the midgame, the order in which you play your lands becomes almost non-consequential. It's almost always correct to play a land off the top of your library over a land still in your hand, but that is not the case at all with creatures since those actually tie up your mana.

I think Ranger Class has legs in more fair cubes that support green aggro and / or +1/+1 counters matters. In a typical high powered environment, I think this suffers the same fate as Duskwatch Recruiter as being mediocre at best.

You Find a Cursed Idol

A modal Naturalize is always worth looking at, and being able to create a treasure and venturing into a dungeon (which is probably going to be scry 1 over 95% of the time) is a pretty respectable mode. Green is always in the business of ramping and card filtering is always good to pair with it.

Being a sorcery hurts compared to Wilt, and Foundation Breaker has a lot more synergies and a creature mode to boot. While this ain't bad, I think Wilt just outclasses it since it's an instant and cycling is generally more useful than getting a treasure / venture into the dungeon. Unless you're going to support dungeons, this is pretty passable, but at least it's better than something like Masked Vandal.

Ellywick Tumblestrum

A dungeons matters planeswalker who has the happiest frog I've ever seen just sitting on her shoulder. Ellywick's +1 can technically be 1 of 19 different things since there's 21 dungeon rooms, but scry 1 and creating a treasure token have more than one room. I don't want to examine every single possible scenario, but it's worth looking at the possible scenarios that can happen in the first two rooms:

FIRST POSSIBLE ROOMS

• Cave Entrance: Scry 1.
• Trapped Entry: Each player loses 1 life.
• Yawning Portal: You gain 1 life.

SECOND POSSIBLE ROOMS

• Goblin Lair: Create a 1/1 red Goblin creature token.
• Mine Tunnels: Create a treasure token.
• Veils of Fear: Each player loses 2 life unless they discard a card.
• Oubliette: Discard a card, and sacrifice an artifact, a creature, and a land.
• Dungeon Level: Scry 1 (again).

I'm assuming Lost Mine of Phandelver will be the go-to dungeon in most scenarios, so Ellywick's first two activations are probably going to be scry 1 then either making a 1/1 Goblin token or a treasure token. A +1 to make a 1/1 goblin on a planeswalker with 4 starting loyalty would always be a good place to start, but sadly that really isn't the case here. +1 to scry 1 is a joke on a 4-cmc planeswalker, IMO. Nissa, Steward of Elements and Jace, Mirror Mage have scry 2 abilities at 3 mana, and at least Kasmina, Enigma Sage's scry 1 ability is a +2 ability. Most of the other abilities are barely worth a +1 activation quite honestly.

Ellywick's -2 ability is okay. Digging 6 cards is good, which is something I always lamented about Domri, Chaos Bringer. Only hitting creatures is a bummer at 4 mana, but gaining 3 life if the creature you reveal is legendary is a nice bonus. Ellywick's ultimate should just win you the game, but like with every other planeswalker, you're probably already winning at that point anyways if your opponent lets you sit unopposed with a walker for that long.

Like most dungeon cards, Ellywick is your girl if you're going in on a dungeon theme. By herself she's too weak for high powered vintage environments, and even in more fair cubes she's probably not strong enough without dungeon support.

Varis, Silverymoon Ranger

This is a potential value engine on a creature with pretty good stats. A 3/3 with reach and ward 1 is something, and being able to trigger venture once per turn whenever you cast a creature or planeswalker makes this one of the better venture enablers if you're looking to support dungeons. Unless you're really going in on dungeons, its last ability of creating a 2/2 whenever you complete a dungeon is pretty flavor text.

Even if you aren't explicitly supporting dungeons, this is very reminiscent of Nadaar, Selfless Paladin in the sense that it's a self-contained dungeon matters card that doesn't need to rely on other venture cards to work. What makes Nadaar appealing to me though is that it's much easier to venture every turn since it ventures both on ETB and attack.

Varis falls short for me because it doesn't venture on ETB and ward 1 generally is annoying at best vs your opponent unless it's stopping them from using an expensive Control Magic type effect or something. I would've gladly traded ward 1 for a 4th toughness. Unless you're really going in on dungeons, I think this is a lot worse overall than Endurance, which has flash, convoke, a useful ETB trigger, and a key 4th toughness for the same cost of .

Froghemoth

Scavenging Ooze x Charging Monstrosaur. This kind of has a Glorybringer feel to it, except instead of killing your opponent's creatures, it eats their graveyard and grows bigger. Exiling cards up to how much damage Froghemoth hits your opponent for is useful in a lot of ways such as taking out recursive threats and their delve / escape fodder. Growing bigger and gaining life is always good. While Froghemoth's growth potential is limited to how many creatures are in your opponent's graveyard, 1-2 creatures is enough to make it the biggest threat on the board.

One issue with Froghemoth is that ramping it out fast means it's probably not going to grow that much. Being a haste threat means it competes directly with Nissa, Who Shakes the World for a lot of what it wants to do, and nobody is going to defend Froghemoth in that fight. As a +1/+1 matters card, Biogenic Ooze / Verdurous Gearhulk / Kalonian Hydra / Voracious Hydra gives it a lot of competition. That being said, Froghemoth is still a decent card in its own right that can quickly take over a game if not dealt with immediately.

Old Gnawbone

Me: Mom, can we have Primeval Titan?

Mom: No, we already have Primeval Titan at home.

Primeval Titan at home:

Ochre Jelly

A scalable Mitotic Slime variant. Being scalable and having trample is a huge improvement over Mitotic Slime. One important thing people may have missed is that when Ochre Jelly dies, it creates a COPY of itself at the beginning of the next end step, not just a regular ooze token, meaning the token retains its recursion effect. So if an Ochre Jelly with four +1/+1 counters dies, it will create a token copy of itself with two +1/+1 counters on it, and then when the TOKEN dies, it will create another token with one +1/+1 counter on it.

While I think Ochre Jelly is generally stronger than Mitotic Slime, it does have some disadvantages. Like every other scaleable creature that relies on +1/+1 counters such as Hydroid Krasis / Stonecoil Serpent / Walking Ballista, it gets shot down hard by blink effects like Flickerwisp / Parallax Wave and aren't recurrable. Mitotic Slime's death trigger will generally be more potent than Ochre Jelly's.

If you're really going in on +1/+1 counters matters with things like The Ozolith and Hardened Scales, Ochre Jelly is probably one of the best cards to go with them. The Ozolith makes it so that you can transfer all the old counters onto the new token and that you'll never run out of tokens since you'll always get a new one during the next end step.

EXAMPLE SCENARIO

• You have a Carrion Feeder and an Ochre Jelly with four +1/+1 counters on it. You sacrifice the Ochre Jelly to Carrion Feeder, four counters are transferred to The Ozolith.

• At the end step, you make a token copy with two +1/+1 counters.

• At the beginning of your next combat step, you can transfer your four +1/+1 counters from The Ozolith onto your Ochre Jelly token for a total of 6 counters. Repeat the process with Carrion Feeder, six counters are transferred to The Ozolith.

• At the end step, you make a token copy with three +1/+1 counters.

• At the beginning of your combat step, you have a 9/9 ooze, etc.

Hardened Scales can also maintain a similar loop as The Ozolith in that scenario, although it's much weaker since all it's doing is making sure you at least end up with a 2/2.

By itself, Ochre Jelly misses the mark for me in high powered environments. However, I think this is one of the strongest roleplayers for a +1/+1 counters matters theme since it's one of the best targets to add counters to with trample and its recursion ability, not to mention it has great synergy with The Ozolith / Hardened Scales.

Lair of the Hydra

Lavaclaw Reaches shifted to the correct color, and not as fragile since this also boosts its own toughness. While this is a strictly better land, Treetop Village is a lot more efficient as a manland and has trample to boot. And of course, Primeval Titan really appreciates a scalable manland it can fetch as a late game mana sink.

While green doesn't have as many utility / MDFC land options as blue does, it still has a respectable bench that's deeper than the other colors. For me personally, this is probably the #4 green utility land / MDFC land after Gaea's Cradle / Treetop Village / Turntimber Symbiosis.

OTHER Minsc, Beloved Ranger

Reverse Blade Splicer in Naya? 4 power across 2 bodies is good value for 3 mana, and one of that power has haste to boot. Its pump ability makes this a threat at any point of the game, especially since Boo has trample. Unfortunately, being a reverse Blade Splicer means Minsc doesn't work well with blink / recursion effects, but the mana sink makes up for it. This is a pretty strong 3-drop, its only real fault is that it's a 3-colored card, but even then it's still pretty good as far as 3-colored cards go. I'd be all over this if this was a Boros / Selesnya / Gruul card, but at 3-color this is a pass for me.

Orcus, Prince of Undeath

A scalable, modal flying fattie. A 5/3 with flying and trample makes this a good offensive threat, although I really hate my Baneslayer Angels dying to Lightning Bolt effects. That being said, at 5 mana and above this can generate some value, making it part Baneslayer Angel, part Mulldrifter.

Orcus' first ability makes for a decent Massacre Wurm impression. You get the same sweeping potential for the same cost, although it'll cost you 2 life, it also affects your side of the board, and you don't get Massacre Wurm's death triggers. Massacre Wurm's effect not relying on being cast also made it decent for cheaty face strategies for creature based matchups, but Orcus' ability only works when you hard cast it. Orcus is at least more flexible since it's scalable and modal. Being able to get back a couple of one drops or a 2 drop creature later in the game isn't awful, and can help close out the game in an aggressive deck.

While Orcus is flexible, it really doesn't shine great in one particular way. IMO it leans more towards aggro / aggressive midrange due to its stats and ability to recur creatures late in the game, but its sweeper mode doesn't play well in those types of strategies at all. On the other hand, control appreciates its ability to be a threat and sweep at the same time, but any 6-cmc walker can really fit that role while not dying to a single Lightning Bolt. The versatility is nice, but I think Orcus is going to have trouble finding a home in most decks via 24th card syndrome.

Prosper, Tome-Bound

kind of sort of Gonti, Lord of Luxury x Phyrexian Arena.While it doesn't have the guaranteed value, card selection, or the freedom to hold onto the exiled card until you want to play it, this can generate a lot more value when left unchecked. Prosper has a hidden Lotus Cobra mode where playing you a card off exile will net you a treasure token, potentially ramping you to 6 mana the turn after you cast it.

While Prosper can generate a good amount of value over time, it's still possible to “draw' into blanks that you can't even draw to your hand for future use. Gonti, Lord of Luxury is generally better IMO for the reasons mentioned above, not to mention it's not multicolored. This does have cool synergy with Laelia, the Blade Reforged. Assuming they're going to push more support for playing cards from exile matters type cards, this works as both an enabler and a payoff. By itself it doesn't get there for me, but that doesn't mean it can't do work when it does show up in a game.

Hurl Through Hell

Rakdos's take on Hostage Taker. Being an instant and not giving your opponent a chance to get their creature back are two very significant upsides for Hurl Through Hell. The one big downside to Hurl Through Hell is the limited time window you have to cast the exiled card. This also feels like a very fair Fractured Identity since it ultimately exiles something that your opponent controls and (hopefully) puts it onto the battlefield under your control.

If you're a fan of Hostage Taker, this should pique your interest. I've been pushing a Grixis thieves theme, and unless I'm overlooking something, this is the only Control Magic type card that doesn't involve blue? For me this is a solid tier 2 Rakdos option. I'm currently running Rakdos Cackler / Kolaghan's Command / Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast / Dreadbore, and can see this a strong contender for the #5 Rakdos slot over things like Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger / Judith, the Scourge Diva / Angrath's Rampage / etc.

Drizzt Do'Urden

Probably the most popular DnD character of all time. As a 5-cmc creature that generates a token on ETB, Drizzt has the highest combat damage output at 10 damage. Deranged Hermit / Deep Forest Hermit are tied for second at 9 damage. However, damage output isn't everything as Drizzt' also goes the least wide out of all the token generators, making it generally the worst at defense. Although Drizz't not going as wide would usually mean he's more vulnerable to removal, the fact that he gains a counter if his cat token dies in combat means Drizz't can still dish out 8 damage by himself.

A big strike against Drizzt is that he creates a legendary token, so he doesn't pair that well with blink / recursion effects. Players are generally incentivized to kill Drizzt instead of the token, although Drizzt is much harder to take down in combat since he has double strike.

Drizzt is pretty strong, but there's a lot of competition in mono green, mono white, and Selesnya for creatures that generate tokens such as Deranged Hermit / Deep Forest Hermit / Biogenic Ooze / Angel of Invention / Trostani Discordant. Honestly Drizzt half white and not playing well with blink effects makes it generally worse than Trostani Discordant to me, plus Trostani Discordant is much better at stabilizing the board, provides an anthem, and punishes your opponent for stealing your creatures.

Ebony Fly

A new Guardian Idol variant. While Ebony Fly is just as good / bad as a mana rock as Guardian Idol, being able to fly makes this a potent finisher. On average this is doing 3 damage a turn, not to mention that it can give another one of your attacking creatures flying. It's important to note that you MAY have Ebony Fly turn into a creature after you roll your die, which can keep it safe from removal in case you roll unfavorably.

I think this is a lot better than Guardian Idol since it's a better closer, flies over Moat, and giving other creatures flying is a really nice bonus as well. Guardian Idol may be cheaper to activate, sure, but Ebony Fly's activation will have more impact on average. Anything that gives me Celestial Colonnade vibes is definitely worth taking a look at. ETBing tapped is a bummer, but far from a dealbreaker for a mana rock. I think this is one of the better tier 2 Mind Stone variants. Personally I prefer things like Mind Stone / Coldsteel Heart / Everflowing Chalice / Liquimetal Torque more than Ebony Fly, but after that I think it compares well to things like Guardian Idol / Fellwar Stone / Prismatic Lens / etc.

Eye of Vecna

Kind of Phyrexian Arena on an artifact. 2 life and 2 mana for a single card isn't exactly cheap and really adds up over time. You need to invest 6 mana into this just to be better than Spare Supplies. Spare Supplies is generally more flexible since it doesn't cost you life and you can draw the second card at any time instead of only during your upkeep.

Component Pouch

An uncommon variant of Component Pouch. This functions a lot like Worn Powerstone in the sense that you can't use it the turn you play it and that it taps for 2 mana. While Worn Powerstone doesn't have to re-charge itself, Component Pouch taps for two colors (important note: those colors HAVE to be different).

While you consistently have to keep re-charging Component Pouch the odds are slightly ever in your favor since you have a 55% chance of putting two component counters. As far as 3-cmc mana rocks that tap for more than one mana, I like Coalition Relic / Worn Powerstone more, but this is a lot easier to re-use than Basalt Monolith. Assuming you're playing Basalt Monolith, this is a good consideration as a supplement / replacement to it.

Hand of Vecna

A new take on Grafted Wargear. Not having to pay mana for the equip cost is nice, as is the alternate equip cost of . Only pumping the creature at the beginning of combat is weird and unfortunate, which means it's poor on defense and keeping your creature out of burn range. This is also just useless if you're hellbent, and very marginal if you only have 1 card in hand, which isn't uncommon for the aggressive decks that would want to utilize this.

As a 3-cmc equipment, I don't like this more than Grafted Wargear or Heirloom Blade, which are consistent in their power / toughness gain. I'm honestly not sure if this is any better than Sigil of Distinction, which also has a “free” equip cost and scales better in the late game.

Treasure Vault

A utility artifact land. While this can technically ramp you, it's not very efficient since you essentially need 5 mana to make 2 treasures. Not exactly a great rate for ramp, not to mention that treasures are transient sources of mana. Honestly I think the best use of this card is just to increase your artifact count for Tolarian Academy / Tinker fodder / boosting the power of the constructs made by Urza, Lord High Artificer / Karn, Scion of Urza / Urza's Saga / etc. Unless you're already running artifact lands for the sake of increasing your artifact ASFAN, I think this is pretty passable due to being too low impact.

Temple of the Dragon Queen

I probably wouldn't have brought this card up if armando.zuffi on MTGSalvation didn't mention that this is a small upgrade to Shimmerdrift Vale if you're running that for budget reasons and don't care about snow. And if you do support a good amount of dragons, this is a pretty reasonable mana fixer.

Underdark Rift

Unexpectedly Absent on a land. Being able to tuck an artifact, creature, or a planeswalker is a strong effect that is desirable for any deck, but the ability is quite expensive since this essentially costs . While the die rolling brings variance, the floor of tucking the target directly beneath the top card of your opponent's library isn't awful. Being able to activate this at instant speed would be cool, as would not having to exile it for potential recursion shenanigans. This feels a lot like Blast Zone to me, which is more versatile and potentially more devastating since it can sweep, but Underdark Rift is generally the better Primeval Titan hit. I think this is a decent filler card, but it's not a consideration for me unless I'm already playing Blast Zone.

HOT TAKES TIER LIST TIME!

Criteria is based on the following:

• Amount of cubes I think a card will see play, particularly in powered / high powered settings.

• How long I predict they will last in cubes.

• How cards compare to their competition in terms of function and cmc.

The cards within the tiers are unordered

RAGAVAN AIN'T GOT NOTHING ON ME TIER

TOP

HIGH

HIGH-MID

LOW-MID

LOW

NICHE

BUDGET

BOTTOM

FINAL THOUGHTS

• While Modern Horizons 2 is a tough act to follow, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is pretty on-par for your typical core set. This isn't the greatest set for high powered vintage cubes, but not everything has to be and I'm interested in all the theme cubes that this will inspire.

• AFR doesn't really have anything splashy, but it does offer a good amount of utility. Power Word Kill is arguably the best Terror variant we've ever seen, and Portable Hole is very flexible in cubes with lower curves.

• I was always hoping for a cycle of new manlands in Zendikar Rising, so I'm pretty jazzed about the manlands because they add so much strategic depth to the game and really help diversify your threat package. Cave of the Frost Dragon and Den of the Bugbear compare very well to two of the three best guild manlands, Celestial Colonnade / Raging Ravine, and Hive of the Eye Tyrant is still respectable for its activation cost. I can understand not being too into Hall of Storm Giants / Lair of the Hydra since they have expensive activation costs and blue and green already have Faerie Conclave / Treetop Village, but if anything at least try and fit in the white / red / black ones if you have the space.

• Can't bring up manlands without bringing up Primeval Titan, which is probably the card in my cube that gets the biggest boost from this set, IMO. Between these manlands and Urza's Saga from Modern Horizons 2, all we need is Modern Horizons 3 to complete the Horizon Canopy cycle so that Primeval Titan can reach its final form.

• I definitely don't blame anybody for not wanting to run dungeons and / or dice rolling cards. While dungeons are cool, you literally need to have 3 unique tokens for people to see and use. Never has there been a mechanic in Magic's history where you need more than one token / instruction card or whatever to grasp what something does. I don't think dice rolling is that bad and can be fun in small doses.

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