Welcome to my 9th HOT TAKES article on CubeCobra! Champions of Kamigawa was the set where I really started taking Magic more seriously, so this return is extra nostalgic for me. Will this Neon Dynasty live up to the legend of its predecessor? 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 Hotshot Mechanic

Savannah Lions x Star Fox (insert barrel roll / wavedashing joke here). Being able to crew Esika's Chariot by itself is cool, but I think this is generally worse than most Savannah Lions variants unless you're really pushing artifact aggro or something. I don’t find its ability too useful anyways since crew 3 is usually a death knell for vehicles unless they create their own tokens like Esika's Chariot or something.

Lion Sash

I don't think anybody had white Scavenging Ooze as an Artifact Creature - Equipment Cat on their Kamigawa bingo card, but here we are. I think not gaining life and starting off as a 1/1 is a pretty fair trade for the ability to grow by exiling any permanent and doubling as an equipment. The ability to hedge against a sweeper by equipping it to a creature and then getting bigger after taking out the trash post sweep is huge against control.

I'd argue that white has less of a need for a Scavenging Ooze type effect since green lacks white's removal suite, but it's still a welcomed effect on a strong card. Being able to Stoneforge Mystic for a cheap creature that also doubles as graveyard hate is also a nice tool to add to white's utility belt, as well as the ability to activate the exile ability while being equipped to another creature.

Spirited Companion

A white Elvish Visionary that's also an enchantment creature dog for… reasons. Being in white is nice for cheap blink effects, especially if you're curving into Flickerwisp / Soulherder or something. Great for pauper, but I think this is generally worse than Wall of Omens / Charming Prince unless you're really going hard on an enchantment theme. I like how Wall of Omens at least excels in one thing (defense), and Charming Prince has better stats, more options, and also serves as both a blink enabler AND payoff.

Banishing Slash

Leonin Relic-Warder x Death Stroke. While this is a strong Disenchant variant since it can also snipe creatures, I'm not the biggest fan of the cost, sorcery speed, and only being able to hit tapped creatures. I don't think making a 2/2 will be consistent enough, and white isn't hurting on removal options. Skyclave Apparition essentially does everything this wants to do, and more, so this is a safe pass in my book.

Cloudsteel Kirin

Build your own Platinum Angel! A 3/2 for is a fairly decent rate for an aggressive 3-drop, and the ability to give a creature flying + you can't lose the game can be relevant in the long-run. Being able to Stoneforge Mystic for Platinum Angel seems cool, but the Platinum Angel effect probably won't be too relevant in most scenarios since you can always just blow up either the equipped creature or Cloudsteel Kirin itself. Being an equipment creature with a second toughness might give Elite Spellbinder a decent run for its money.

Touch the Spirit Realm

Pseudo Oblivion Ring with a blink effect as a channel ability is one of the more flexible blink effects out there. Not being able to hit planeswalkers or enchantments with its Oblivion Ring mode is a huge bummer, but this is the kind of flexibility that I think blink could really use. Missing planeswalkers / enchantments might be too big of a miss for Vintage cubes with Oko, Thief of Crowns / Grist, the Hunger Tide / Oath of Druids running around, but I think this is a huge boon for peasant cubes / cubes that heavily support a blink package.

The Wandering Emperor

A planeswalker that can be used as a combat trick, that's new.

• The combination of flash and its static ability gives this a lot of flexibility that no other planeswalker has. Not only can it serve as a combat trick / removal spell on your opponent's turn, but being able to play around counterspells vs control or being the control deck wanting to keep their mana open. Also, its static ability works well with blink effects like Flickerwisp / Yorion, Sky Nomad, allowing you to activate The Wandering Emperor twice in a single turn.

• The +1 ability is probably its weakest ability, but it goes well with her 2/2 samurais with vigilance. Not great, I'm always game for a backup Luminarch Aspirant.

• The -1 ability to make a 2/2 is a bit below rate compared to other 4-cmc walkers like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar / Garruk Relentless / Garruk Wildspeaker, but having vigilance is huge since this card wants to play both offense and defense. Being able to upgrade them to 3/3s with first strike for a turn (on top of vigilance) can make it difficult to race these samurai on the ground.

• Her -2 ability is a strict upgrade of Gideon Jura's -2 ability, so no complaints here. Control really appreciates the lifegain and this can be a backbreaker in the aggro mirror.

While The Wandering Emperor lacks the raw offensive power of Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, I think she stacks up well against the tier 2 white 4-cmc planeswalker options in my book like Serra the Benevolent / Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis / honorary planeswalker Court of Grace. Although she's useful in any white shell, I think she'll shine best in control because I think it's the archetype that benefits the most from a planeswalker with flash. I've been looking for more toys for control anyways, so this should fit the bill.

Ao, the Dawn Sky

Power crept Serra Angel. I think this is one of the better Baneslayer Angels since it plays offense and defense well at the same time while potentially being able to give you value when this dies. Its first mode that lets you look at the top seven cards of your library and put a total of nonland permanents with total mana value 4 or less is very powerful, especially since white has a lot of busted 4-cmc cards to choose from like Elspeth, Knight-Errant / Gideon, Ally of Zendikar / Palace Jailer / Parallax Wave / etc. Putting two +1/+1 counters on all your creatures / vehicles ain't too shabby either if you're playing this in a go-wide deck.

What's awkward with a lot of these new dragons with death triggers is that there's a lot of ways to deal with them without killing them via exile / bounce / stealing them / etc. This being out of range from most burn cards means that white will probably exile it, blue will bounce / steal it, while black is left dealing with the death trigger unless it snipes it with Baleful Mastery or something. I think this is a good replacement for any Baneslayer Angel variant, but this has a lot of competition with Timeless Dragon which is much more flexible and also can provide value after it has died with its eternalize ability.

March of Otherworldly Light

Kind of sort of Prismatic Ending at instant speed. Still blows up a Mox / token for 0, which is nice. Not being constrained by your colors and being an instant is a big upside to Prismatic Ending, as well as being able to pitch a white card to take out a bigger threat if you're desperate. I've been liking Prismatic Ending / Portable Hole, and this being an instant and not makes it compare really well to something like Unexpectedly Absent. However, not being able to hit walkers hurts though, and you'll always be either at mana or card disadvantage when casting this. Having to spend 2W just to take out a 2-cmc threat doesn't feel too good unless it's later in the game. Still, the instant speed is really appealing (alongside with all the other instant speed stuff we've been getting in this set), which can be tempting to try all at once if you really want to experiment with a new removal suite for control or something.

Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire

Divine Arrow x Kabira Takedown. This cycle of legendary lands that tap for colored mana, enters the battlefield UNTAPPED, and can be used as a spell via its channel ability essentially makes this a Zendikar MDFC with a much cleaner template. This definitely slots into every white deck, it's just a matter of making a slot for it in your cubes. I really like this for control decks especially. One thing to note is that this is a good way to get around a lot of protection like Mother of Runes / Hexdrinker's protection from instants / protection from white in general / etc. It can't get around Giver of Runes though since that gives protection from colorless.

As far as other white utility lands goes, this is probably #4 for me after Karakas / Emeria's Call / Cave of the Frost Dragon. I value Emeria's Call being a finisher more than this being a removal spell that's only useful during combat, and Karakas / Cave of the Frost Dragon gives you bonus effects on top of being a land at the same time.

BLUE Thousand-Faced Shadow

Flying Men doing the Naruto run. I'm assuming this is probably one of the better Flying Men variants if you're heavily supporting blue tempo / ninjas, otherwise this is very passable.

Moon-Circuit Hacker

Pretty much the same as above but replace Flying Men with Ninja of the Deep Hours. I'm assuming this is going to be a really good card for pauper.

The Reality Chip

We're so close to blue Wall of Omens / Wall of Blossoms, I can feel it. Being able to look at the top card of your library is better than nothing, and equipping this to a creature turns this into a Future Sight which is always cool. This isn't great on its own, but this can serve as a roleplayer to support Fastbond combos since this can act as an extra Courser of Kruphix / Oracle of Mul Daya / Augur of Autumn type card to go off.

The Modern Age

Merfolk Looter in enchantment form. This being an enchantment looting immediately makes it a more reliable discard outlet than your traditional Merfolk Looter variant, and it transforms into a 2/3 creature that's serviceable on offense or defense. While this is more reliable for a strict reanimator deck, it lacks the long term card filtering that something like Suspicious Stowaway / Looter il-Kor can provide. This is a good card if you support Polymorph since it helps dig for pieces while generating a creature without its front-half actually being a creature. Even if you don't support Polymorph, this is still a good discard outlet for larger cubes looking for more options.

Mnemonic Sphere

Behold the Multiverse x Spare Supplies. This is generally worse than Spare Supplies other than being able to crack this for its full value in a single turn later in the game. Being able to channel it for half of its intrinsic value at a quarter of the cost is a nice option to have, especially if you're trying to fuel the graveyard for critical mass / delirium. Pretty passable unless you're really into recurring Spare Supplies with Goblin Welder / Goblin Engineer / etc or something.

Disruption Protocol

Cancel that can potentially be played for if you have an untapped artifact lying around. Seeing how most early game artifacts are mana rocks anyways, this is going to be a Cancel most of the time in the early game outside of cubes with extremely heavy artifact themes. I'd rather this be Counterspell early than late, so this is a pass for me.

Discover the Impossible

Yet another Supreme Will variant. This is probably one of the more interesting ones since it lets you cast a cheap instant for free kind of in a cascade type of way. 2-cmc instants comprise about less than 10% of my cube, and roughly half of those are just blue cantrips or counters. Unless you're heavily supporting spells matters / double spelling a turn, I think Supreme Will is generally better since it always has the Mana Leak mode.

Mindlink Mech

Decent beatdown vehicle for blue tempo. I think this is strong if you support a lot of Flying Men type cards and really want to add some muscle to those decks.

Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh

Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas 2.0.

• I think that Tezzeret's static ability is deceptively powerful. It lets you ramp harder with Grim Monolith / Basalt Monolith, and gives you free / discount activations on things like Sensei's Divining Top / Retrofitter Foundry / Walking Ballista / Hangarback Walker / equip activations / etc. This is especially good with Retrofitter Foundry since it creates a free 1/1 that can be turned into a 4/4 with Tezzeret's -2 ability.

• Its +1 ability to loot as a mini Thirst for Knowledge is generically useful and much better than Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas's ability to Impulse for artifacts. It also works well with Goblin Welder / Emry, Lurker of the Loch / Daretti, Scrap Savant if you support those types of shenanigans.

• The -2 ability to turn any artifact into a 4/4 is worse than Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas's -1 ability that makes 5/5s for half the loyalty. The 4/4s not surviving Wildfire is also disappointing, but being mono blue and ETBing with an extra loyalty is worth the trade, IMO.

• Tezzeret's ultimate will seal up a game if you have a few artifacts lying around, and the emblem in conjunction with Basalt Monolith and Tezzeret's static ability allows you to draw your entire deck. While Tezzeret can ramp to its ultimate pretty fast, it's pretty poor at defending itself to get up to the ultimate since it relies on having an artifact and using up two loyalty counters to defend itself.

I think this is a good alternative to Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas since they both essentially do the same thing: draw cards and turn artifacts into creatures. This only being mono blue, higher loyalty, and a much better / less narrow +1 ability puts this above Agent of Bolas for me. Being an extra discard outlet for reanimator is also nice. Personally I don't think this is any better than Karn, Scion of Urza, which is just as strong in the artifact deck on top of being colorless, being able to generate its own artifacts, and being playable outside of a dedicated artifact deck. Right now I don't think I have a need for this since I'm not currently running Agent of Bolas, but this is still a pretty solid support card for artifacts matters.

Anchor to Reality

Tinker for vehicles and equipment. Currently the best things you can get with this are Parhelion II / Skysovereign, Consul Flagship / Esika's Chariot. Not a card that I think will crack too many cubes today, but this is something to keep on our radar over the years as we get more cubeable giant vehicles / equipment, especially for The Brothers War later this year.

Invoke the Winds

Untapping a creature you steal with Control Magic is everything that I've always wanted out of these effects, but quadruple pip is a bit too much. It's a shame too because I've always wanted more Control Magic effects that can't be hit with Disenchant effects in the style of Kefnet's Last Word.

Kairi, the Swirling Sky

A dragon alternative to Frost Titan. This probably has the strongest death trigger modes, especially with its ability to mill 6 cards and then return up to two instant / sorceries to your hand. It's a good way to dig / recur Time Walk and Ancestral Recall, recur two counterspells to lock your opponent out of the game, or find your sweeper to stabilize. That being said, blue has a lot of options at the 6-cmc slot, and I don't think this unseats Consecrated Sphinx / Torrential Gearhulk for most people. I'm not even convinced this better than Frost Titan in most scenarios, so I think this will be a safe pass for most.

Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant

This is a pretty polarizing top-end card. If you cheat this out early enough, it can lock up a game pretty fast against non-aggro opponents since it protects itself while you double up on your artifacts / cantrips. Unlike other cheaty face targets, this doesn't scale later in the game as well since its a 5/5 with no evasion and no way to control the board. Not only does this have to be cheated out fast to be effective, but it doesn't play very well with a lot of cheaty face enablers since its lack of evasion makes it poor with Sneak Attack / Through the Breach, and the symmetry of Show and Tell / Eureka can help your opponent overcome Jin-Gitaxias trying to lock them out of the game.

Otawara, Soaring City

A bounce land that isn't in the style of the Ravnica Karoos. This reminds me most of Venser, Shaper Savant in terms of cost and function. While Venser's ability is twice as powerful since it can interact with the stack, this is a free land that can sometimes be channeled at a discount. This reminds me a lot of Hagra Mauling, which I really liked. This trades the power of Murder for being more flexibile with its targets and entering the battlefield untapped. Blue has a lot of utility lands / MDFC options depending on what you want to support. Right now I'm currently running Tolarian Academy / Faerie Conclave, and I like this as my third option since I like this in control decks much more than things like Shelldock Isle /Hall of Storm Giants / Mystic Sanctuary / Sea Gate Restoration since this ETBs untapped and its ability has a direct impact on the board.

BLACK Okiba, Reckoner Raid

One of the more interesting sagas since this looks like a half-decent aggressive black one-drop. This essentially gets one free Savannah Lions lifelink hit in by turn 2 since I don't think anybody is really going to waste their Disenchant effect on this that early. The creature half not being able to attack by turn 4 is a bummer though, although giving Smuggler's Copter menace is pretty relevant when your opponent has flyers. Right now I don't think I'd play this over any of the current black one drops since a lot of them are recursive / help Gravecrawler recur, but this has decent applications for life gain matters. I can see this being relevant if we get cheaper vehicles since this can at least crew a vehicle the turn it becomes a creature.

Blade of the Oni

Build your own demon + beat down your opponent while you wait. I did some research and found out that an unconditional 3/1 with menace for 2 mana is unprecedented. I'm really surprised this has no drawback where it can't block or it makes me lose life every turn. The 1 toughness isn't so bad since this has menace, and having 3 power means it can force a lot of unfavorable double blocks. Being able to equip this to a creature and turn it into a 5/5 with menace is very achievable for and really gives black a meaty finisher that it's sometimes lacking in.

There's really nothing to not like about this card: it's a strong creature on its own that's fetchable with Stoneforge Mystic, equips to a creature to help dodge sweepers, contributes to artifact synergies, delirium, etc. I think this is in the same league as things like Porcelain Legionnaire / Scrapheap Scrounger as far as beaters go, this card is really good.

Mukotai Soulripper

This might be a decent vehicle for aristocrats since it provides good stats, evasion, and a sacrifice outlet all in one. Growing over time makes this very difficult to block without getting 2 for 1'd. I like this for more fair cubes that want more sacrifice outlets / muscle for their aristocrats decks, but as a generic black aggro card I think this falls a bit short, especially when compared to Blade of the Oni.

Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion

Mini Fallen Shinobi. While Fallen Shinobi can cause huge blowouts, only being able to exile one card a turn and having to pay life to cast the card makes its triggered ability much worse, especially on curve since there's a high chance that the card on top will just be a land. Something like menace would've gone a long way, but this is a pass for me as is.

Gravelighter

A new Fleshbag Marauder option. This having flying is a nice way to differentiate itself, but not having a choice whether or not you get the Innocent Blood or draw trigger makes this awkward since your opponent can really mess with you while this is on the stack. Unless you're looking for a third Fleshbag Marauder, I think this is generally worse than Fleshbag Marauder since being a zombie is relevant, and Plaguecrafter since that can hit planeswalkers or force your opponent to discard a card.

Soul Transfer

Sorcery speed Hero's Downfall with extra words is a good place to start. This would have some serious legs to stand on if you only needed to control an artifact OR and enchantment, but requiring both to get the bonus isn't worth playing this over other Hero's Downfall variants outside large cubes, IMO.

Junji, the Midnight Sky

This is a decent black value creature that can find a home in midrange / control shells, as long as being a top end creature for aristocrats or something. Flying and menace makes this very difficult to block, and its death triggers are pretty powerful. I've always found Mind Rot type spells like Gerrard's Verdict to be more powerful later in the game when your opponent generally has less fodder to pitch. The ability to recur a non-Dragon creature can also be powerful and gives it some legs as a back up plan for Reanimator / Sneak Attack decks.

The black 5-cmc slot has always been the least competitive slot in cube. Outside of supporting alternate win conditions like Thassa's Oracle / Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, I do like Junji more than Doom Whisperer. I think this competes most with Liliana, Death's Majesty for me, and I don't think this is any better in most scenarios as a threat / support to other value engines like Recurring Nightmare. This is still a decent 5-drop, but I feel like it won't cut it in most high powered environments.

March of Wretched Sorrow

A cheaper Drain Life that can't hit players and also isn't bound to black mana. Unlike March of Otherworldly Light, you're not always down on mana when casting this. This reminds me a lot of Baleful Mastery as an instant speed Hero's Downfall effect with a variable casting cost. While this is better at bolting the bird, Baleful Mastery being much better at taking down a high loyalty planeswalker at a better rate. Bloodchief's Thirst also does a lot of what this wants to do, putting this lower on the Hero's Downfall totem pole for me. Being able to target players really would've pushed this card into playable territory for me as it would be a really good burn spell at that point with its ability to exile black cards to power this up.

Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

A cleaner, new spin on Agadeem's Awakening. Raise Dead is never great on its own, but when attached to something modal like this or Kolaghan's Command, it can be great. Milling yourself for 3 to fuel the graveyard and the ability to target a planeswalker is really strong also. Personally I like this a lot more than Agadeem's Awakening, which was too narrow / feast and famine for my liking. This entering the battlefield untapped for free while being able to go into a lot more decks makes this much more flexible. Definitely a top 3 black utility land in my book alongside Volrath's Stronghold / Hive of the Eye Tyrant.

RED Rabbit Battery

Raging Goblin + Boots of Speed = Raging Rabbit? Bomat Courier is already a respectable card by itself, and this can be better in certain scenarios where you need to push through extra damage. Being able to Stoneforge Mystic for Raging Goblin is an option to have if you just need to push in one more damage or pick off a planeswalker. Giving something like Hanweir Garrison / Gideon, Ally of Zendikar haste can be big game in aggro decks. This is definitely a playable aggro card, although I think this is closer to things like Falkenrath Pit Fighter / Firedrinker Satyr than it is Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer / Goblin Guide / Zurgo Bellstriker / Monastery Swiftspear.

Reinforced Ronin

Tell me you have dash and cycling without telling me you have dash and cycling. This is one of the more difficult red one drops to evaluate. On one hand, having to always re-cast your 1 drop is pretty awful most of the time. On the other hand, you can cash this in when your 1 drops are no longer effective, which also happens a good amount of the time. This probably isn't worth it in the long run, especially since there might be 3 better cards for in this set alone.

Kumano Faces Kakkazan

I think this is decent. It can technically do 5 damage by turn 3 if you have something with haste on turn 2 (1 direct damage / 1 damage with the counter / 1 damage with the counter + 2 damage with Kumano). I do play a good amount of 1-2 drops in red with haste like Goblin Guide / Monastery Swiftspear / Earthshaker Khenra / Robber of the Rich / Bloodthirsty Adversary. Might have consistency issues if this is played off curve though and will be slower than other 1 drops in that department. Personally I don't think this even cracks my top 4 of red 1-drop beaters of. I'm not even convinced that this is the best red one drop in this set.

Experimental Synthesizer

Kind of red Witching Well / Ichor Wellspring. Being able to YOLO draw when this enters OR leaves the battlefield can be strong later in the game and useful as Goblin Welder fodder / recurring it with Lurrus of the Dream-Den or something. I think this has a lot of potential in heavy artifact cubes where this can wear a lot of hats as a glue card, but by itself I don't see this being worth it in most Vintage style cubes. YOLO draws are much worse than cantrips / looting and probably scrying most of the time. This is also pretty slow and isn't the most appealing roleplayer other than being filler for artifact decks.

Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei

A different take on Dragonkin Berserker. Can't say I'm a big fan of this one since so many red aggressive have haste. While the late game scaling is nice, this is below Earthshaker Khenra / Robber of the Rich / Bloodthirsty Adversary in my book since they already come with haste and also have abilities that scale well later in the game.

Lizard Blades

Fencing Ace x Fireshrieker. This is probably one of the better double strikers / enablers that we've seen, and I like how it's not super topheavy like Embercleave is. Equipping this to a flyer like Phoenix of Ash or pumping this (or equipped creature) with Elspeth, Knight-Errant / Luminarch Aspirant / Umezawa's Jitte / Sword of X and Y can be deadly.

Wizards is super conservative when it comes to double strike. Having tested a lot of the double strike cards, the two best ones have probably been Adorned Pouncer / Embercleave. This is stuck between a rock and a hard place because white is in a better color for double strike since it has more pump effects, and Embercleave is more bombastic. My gut tells me that this card is decent, but probably isn't as good on average compared to the glut of great 2-cmc aggro creatures that currently exist. Might be worth a test if you have a spare slot, but my expectations for this are average at best.

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker

A red 3-drop that does a little bit of everything and transforms into a nerfed Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker that lacks haste and requires to activate. This creating two 2/2s makes it feel like a less aggressive History of Benalia. This also wears a lot of hats since it creates artifact fodder, ramps, is a discard outlet, and can do some stupid things with the Kiki-Jiki back half with things like Fury / Inferno Titan. While this can't go infinite with the traditional Kiki-Twin pieces, you can still “go off” and win given you have enough mana.

What makes this card interesting to me is that your opponent has to decide between killing the creature token or the saga itself since it's pretty difficult to kill both in one swoop sans something like Pernicious Deed. While this has some value and versatility, it's too slow and doesn't do any one thing particularly well. I don't see this being useful in any particular archetype beyond being card #23 because your draft went wrong or something. Seasoned Pyromancer is the better discard outlet and overall better value card, Phoenix of Ash is a much stronger aggressive card that's also resilient to removal, and Hanweir Garrison / Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin heavily reward you more for turning them sideways over time.

Seismic Wave

This is a pretty strong alternative to Arc Lightning / Flames of the Firebrand since this is an instant and can sweep harder. I think that will be better most of the time than not being able to hit a player / planeswalker for 3 damage and being weird against artifact creatures. Strong replacement / supplement to Arc Lightning / Flames of the Firebrand, and just a general good spell if you're looking to boost red's ability to control the board.

Twinshot Sniper

A weird mix of Bonecrusher Giant / Flametongue Kavu / Mardu Heart-Piercer that's also an artifact. I like this as a more flexible Flametongue Kavu since it can be used as an uncounterable Shock for . Its ETB trigger being able to deal damage to any target is also a huge upgrade to Flametongue Kavu since now it can hit players or planeswalkers, alongside just being able to be played on an empty board where Flametongue Kavu would be forced to target itself.

This also has a lot of hidden synergies that really pushes the flexibility of this card.

• It's artifact fodder for Tinker as well as being both fodder and a recursion target that easily bins itself like Shriekmaw for Goblin Welder / Daretti, Scrap Savant / Emry, Lurker of the Loch.

• Contributes to artifact critical mass cards like Urza, Lord High Artificer, which it can both tap for mana and makes the token bigger.

• Helps enable delirium since it's both an artifact and a creature that can bin itself easily, especially since it's in the same color as Dragon's Rage Channeler / Unholy Heat.

• Unlike Bonecrusher Giant and Flametongue Kavu, this can be found with Imperial Recruiter in Kiki-Twin shells, alongside being a decent value target for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.

While this is no Bonecrusher Giant, this might be the final nail in the coffin for my fellow Flametongue Kavu holdouts, which has really only been holding onto its job for me since it can snipe / trade with Questing Beast and Hexdrinker before it reaches level 8. I’d also argue this gives Flametongue Yearling a good run for its money since it doesn't have the in its cost and can hit any target. I really like the modality of this being a red Shriekmaw alongside the many synergies this has.

Atsushi, the Blazing Sky

A solid stat monster with a pretty powerful death trigger. Trample is a nice differentiator between this and other 4/4 flyers for . I'd say this is about even with Thunderbreak Regent. I do like Atsushi's triggers more, but Thunderbreak Regent's condition is more consistent against things like exile / Control Magic effects. Trample is nice, but I don't think this is pushed enough for me to consider it considering I'm already pretty low on Thunderbreak Regent.

For me, every red 4-cmc flying stat monster has to overcome Rekindling Phoenix, which has the more consistent death trigger, IMO, while also contributing very well to aristocrat strategies. You could make an argument that Atsushi's triggers contribute to artifact decks, but Rekindling Phoenix fits much better in aristocrats shells than Atsushi does in most artifact shells. Rekindling Phoenix is currently on the outside looking into my cube, so Atsushi isn't going to be cracking my list any time soon.

Thundering Raiju

A new competitor to Hellrider. The original english translation for this was messed up and left out the “other than Thundering Raiju” line, which really hurt its comparison to Hellrider since we originally thought that this can deal more damage than Hellrider by itself right out of the gate. I also totally thought this had flying because it kind of looks like a dragon. That being said, this does outpace Hellrider by itself after the first turn, although this falls behind a lot when curving out and alpha striking. Red doesn't have a lot of cards that give +1/+1 counters, and that's mainly in green and white's territory anyways, so it's hard for this to even be a +1/+1 counters matters payoff card. Not a bad card, but this is probably near or at the bottom of a stacked totem pole that consists of Hellrider / Koth of the Hammer / Hazoret the Fervent / Hero of Oxid Ridge.

Invoke Calamity

This might have storm applications since this is essentially free with Seething Song. Might be too narrow in that application anyways since is rough without Seething Song.

Explosive Singularity

Stoke the Flames' final, perfect form. Well, not really, I just wanted to make some Dragon Ball references. I guess we'll just have to settle for Fiery Confluence over this for now.

March of Reckless Joy

Instant speed red card advantage. This is the most interesting march to me from a cube perspective because pitching a card can potentially result in you being +1 card advantage. On one hand, unconditional draw 2 cards at instant speed is usually reserved at 4 mana with Inspiration variants. On the other hand, this really isn't card draw. Still, the ability to scale and pitch cards to dig deeper can turn this into a pseudo Dig Through Time or something. This generally isn't great early game, but this can return decent value at and above. The potential to whiff at can hurt a lot, as is only being able to break even at or something. This might be a sleeper card since this has a lot of potential and can fit in a lot of decks. I might give it a test, but am a bit bearish on it due to the inconsistency of YOLO draws.

Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance

The red legendary channel land. Not the greatest rate for instant speed uncounterable Dragon Fodder with haste. Probably my least favorite of this cycle, but free opportunity cost is free opportunity cost. As far as other red utility lands goes, this is probably #3 for me after Shatterskull Smashing / Den of the Bugbear. Luckily red has a lot of low mana value legendary creatures like Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer / Zurgo Bellstriker / Kari Zev, Skyship Raider / Laelia, the Blade Reforged to reduce the mana cost in mono red aggro. This is also very useful if you support the Polymorph / Transmogrify package.

I like this a lot more than other red MDFCs and other fringe red utility lands like Barbarian Ring / Ramunap Ruins / Castle Embereth / Spikefield Hazard since I'd be more willing to play this in any red deck where something like Castle Embereth is only really good in aggro, not to mention it's just the better mana producer. Being able to pick up a sword, provide fodder for Skulllclamp, or just chump block gives this a lot of play useful play patterns in a lot of different archetypes.

GREEN Shigeki, Jukai Visionary

Kind of sort of Sakura-Tribe Elder x Wildest Dreams (queue Taylor Swift song). Its ability to do a Rampant Growth / Mulch hybrid is kind of cool since it bounces itself so that you can use its channel ability. Not being able to recur planeswalkers with its Wildest Dreams ability is a huge bummer since green has so many good targets. Neat card, but all its abilities are too slow for me to be interested in this.

Roaring Earth

This is cool for cubes that support both landfall and +1/+1 counters matters. I like the design of this card since it's useful early game as an enchantment and is a mana sink later in the game when you just need a big threat. Probably a pass for most vintage style cubes, but I see this as a strong uncommon for peasant / cubes doing more fair things and supporting +1/+1 counters and landfall.

Kura, the Boundless Sky

Probably the worst of the dragon cycle (again) because of WOTC's agenda to not let green have good flyers not named Birds of Paradise. Flying and deathtouch is actually a good combination, but I'd rather this be more offensive with beefier stats and trample or something. This actually has decent insurance with it leaving behind an X/X creature where X is the number of lands you control. Being able to search your library for three lands is also strong in cubes that play a lot of land based combos like Dark Depths / Field of the Dead. I wouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole in a vintage cube, but this might have a niche as a value card / role player for land based combos.

Invoke the Ancients

Creating two 4/5s and being able to mix and match a combination of a vigilance / reach / trample counter is putting a lot of relevant stats on the board. I've always liked how Vivien, Monsters' Advocate allows me to adapt to the board with her choice of ability counters, so I'm glad they're doing that with more cards. That being said, this being a sorcery and the in its mana cost don't exactly help this card's case to me. Deep Forest Hermit / Deranged Hermit offer more power and synergies with green's heavy emphasis on creatures matters at a more attractive mana cost. A big reason why I'm not the biggest fan of Wild Growth effects over your typical Llanowar Elves is because I can't use them for Survival of the Fittest / Natural Order / Green Sun's Zenith / Skullclamp and Grist, the Hunger Tide fodder / etc, and this falls in the same territory as that. For me the only case I'd play this over other existing creature options is if you run a 4-power ferocious matters theme or something, otherwise I think this has way too much competition.

Boseiju, Who Endures

A pseudo mono green Assassin's Trophy... on a land! I view this as green's Shatterskull Smashing, which I consider to be the most versatile red spell we've seen since Lightning Bolt. Maindeckable Naturalize is always something that I'm looking for, and this is a slam dunk due to its unrivaled versatility. Acting as a pseudo Ghost Quarter can be useful against strong utility lands like Library of Alexandria / Karakas / manlands. It's also important to note that like Assassin's Trophy, this can only target your opponents, so you can't do the Path to Exile trick to ramp yourself. It also allows your opponent to tutor for any land as long as it has a basic land type, so duals / shocks / triomes / Mystic Sanctuary are all on the menu.

My only complaint with this card is that it's not great against early game mana rocks, which is like the one big thing that other cheap options like Wilt / Foundation Breaker have over this. That being said, this is still much better than those two and will probably always be a top 3 Naturalize effect alongside Pest Infestation / Reclamation Sage. This is a slam dunk for any cube as this might just be the most versatile green card we've ever seen.

OTHER Oni-Cult Anvil

Hidden Stockpile for artifacts. Not having to pay mana for its activated cost is a nice upgrade from Hidden Stockpile, but its focus on artifacts makes this more narrow. Still, this is self-sustaining after the first artifact since it generates a 1/1 artifact creature that can keep the sacrifice train going. If your aristocrats decks play a lot of artifact creatures / sacrifice outlets, this might be worth considering. Probably an insane card if you support artifact aggro or in artifact cubes in general.

Gloomshrieker

Eternal Witness at home :( Menace and immunity to Shriekmaw / Snuff Out really isn't worth the nerf to only being able to return permanents / exiling this if it dies. Probably a good peasant card though.

Kaito Shizuki

This is an interesting planeswalker and probably one of the more unique Dimir cards out there.

• Kaito's ability to phase out the turn it enters the battlefield means it gets one free pass vs sorcery speed removal and combat damage, making it fairly easy to get at least two activations. Being able to untap and mount a defense before your opponent has a chance to interact with a planeswalker on their turn is unprecedented before this set and might be stronger than it looks at first glance.

• The +1 ability is a general upgrade to The Royal Scions strict looting ability since this can net you card advantage, and looting is generally more useful in than in .

• Creating a 1/1 unblockable blue ninja token for -2 isn't the greatest rate, but can be dangerous with equipment and a great ninjutsu enabler if you're running something like Fallen Shinobi.

• Kaito's emblem is a thing, but more of a win-more ability if your opponent was never able to kill it before it reaches 7 loyalty.

While Kaito lacks the raw power of other 3-cmc multicolored planeswalkers like Oko, Thief of Crowns / Grist, the Hunger Tide / Dack Fayden / etc, its high chance of activating it at least twice is very relevant, especially if you're able to protect it in the long run. I think this is closer to Jace Beleren than Oko, Thief of Crowns, but it can also serve as a decent roleplayer for reanimator / tempo. This might be worth testing out if you have a Dimir slot to spare since this can play a lot of roles reasonably well while being a decent value generator.

Hidetsugu Consumes All

Kind of sort of an immediate Pernicious Deed for 1 that eats graveyards and turns into a grow creature is definitely some sort of package. Its first ability can be back breaking against aggro / mana dorks / tokens, and this having trample with its grow ability means you can't just chump block this until you find an answer. While this does have powerful abilities, I'm concerned about the symmetry and exactly what deck wants this. I can play something like Plague Engineer in a creature based Survival of the Fittest deck since it's asymmetrical as well as being able to continue shutting down creatures as long as it's in play. I see this as a nombo in aggro / midrange, not useful in combo, and isn't exactly the best color combination for control. Neat card, but without a home I just see this as a sideboard card for a color combination that has plenty of sideboard options for what this wants to do.

Satoru Umezawa

This is the card you want if you want your Dimir section to go all in on ninjas, otherwise this is a safe pass despite its ability to ninjutsu in Blightsteel Colossus.

Tamiyo, Compleated Sage

The pessimistic MTG community: Noooooo, not Tamiyo!

Me, the optimist: We should count our blessings that they took Tamiyo over Oko, otherwise we'd all be phyrexian elks by now.

My least favorite planeswalker of the set. Compleated is a good way to balance phyrexian mana, I'm pretty sure this isn't the last time we're going to see that mechanic. Its +1 ability to hold down artifacts or creatures is a nice nod to the original Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and is a good way to defend itself, but not being able to lock down lands really hurts. I think its -X ability to “recur” things from your graveyard is a bit overcosted, especially since it doesn't have a +2 loyalty gain ability. Tamiyo's ultimate is pretty weak compared to other ultimates, especially since it's not an emblem and can get picked off by Reclamation Sage.

Can't say I'm a fan of Tamiyo since she's not exactly very powerful, nor does she provide any particular archetype support. I think she would've been fringe at best if she was printed pre-2019 before we started getting cracked out Simic cards

Colossal Skyturtle

Good reanimator target for peasant in the same vein as Waker of Waves. Having two channel abilities is neat, especially ones as broad as an expensive Regrowth / Unsummon.

Eater of Virtue

Legendary Bonesplitter! We literally haven't seen +2/+0 for mana / equip since actual Bonesplitter, so this is quite the surprise to me because I gave up hope on that a long time ago. Exiling the equipped creature when it dies can be a bummer, especially in black aggro, but I think in most scenarios it's not going to be too relevant for the decks that want this. You can still technically recur Bloodsoaked Champion / Scrapheap Scrounger / Bloodghast (with a fetchland) after combat damage since this is a triggered ability and not a replacement effect, meaning the creatures still do hit the graveyard.

Flying and haste will probably be the two most common abilities that this can grant in an aggro deck, which is a big deal considering how cheap this equipment is alongside its power boost. Unlike other Odric type keyword soup cards, this also grants protection. Unfortunately I don't think this works with True-Name Nemesis since you never get to choose an opponent. This also doesn't work with creatures whose abilities are conditional / granted in other ways, so exiling Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer / Zurgo Bellstriker won't let this grant haste because gaining haste was conditional on being cast with their dash cost. Extra hits for Urza's Saga is always welcome, this is definitely a solid replacement / supplement if you're already running Bonesplitter / Shadowspear.

Circuit Mender

A strictly better (but less cuter) Filigree Familiar. Filigree Familiar did a decent Kitchen Finks impression vs aggro, and this having a 3rd toughness and drawing a card no matter how it left the battlefield makes this more solid on defense and better against blink / exile effects. Filigree Familiar to me was the definition of a filler card in legacy / vintage cubes, and Circuit Mender is pretty much going to be the same despite its noticeable upgrades. Still, this is probably a great option for peasant / more fair cubes as a strong roleplayer that supports artifacts / life gain / blink / recursion all in one robot insect sized package.

Containment Construct

Probably one of the better discard matters enablers? This seems like a great inclusion if you support cycling matters or are evil and cube something like Bottomless Pit. If you don't support those archetypes, I think this is a lot worse than Squee, Goblin Nabob / Master of Death, which you don't even need to cast to gain value from and are much more abusable with things like Survival of the Fittest.

Reckoner Bankbuster

Mazemind Tome in vehicle form. I've always liked Mazemind Tome, but a big part of it being useful was the fact that you can scry for free, and scry twice before your next draw step. This lacking a free option to scry and having crew 3 hurts since you're not getting a big power boost at all unless you're using the 1/1 token this can generate, but that's too slow. This really needed crew 2 to have a chance, but then it'd probably have to cost at least without risking this becoming the next Smuggler's Copter.

Uncharted Haven

Shimmerdrift Vale without the snow and ugly snow border, so I’m just going to copy and paste the rest of my Shimmerdrift Vale analysis from my Kaldehim article and remove any mentions of snow. This is a decent budget card, this is just worse than Terramorphic Expanse / Evolving Wilds for several reasons:

• Gets hit by Wasteland

• Doesn't trigger landfall twice

• Lack of shuffle effect

• Doesn't fill graveyard

• Can't be re-used with Crucible effects

• Doesn't build up certain basic land count for things like Vedalken Shackles / Daze / Fireblast

Still not a bad card since it's a decent mana fixer, I can see the appeal if for budget / peasant / pauper cubes.

Roadside Reliquary

This is almost the colorless Horizon Canopy variant that I've always wanted. We've been getting a lot of good artifacts lately, so it's not hard to just draw a card with that. Enchantments are much harder to comeby, but this goes well with Urza's Saga if you're trying to get the maximum value off of this. This might be interesting to test out if you have a spare slot in your land section, but I wouldn't consider this a high priority since it doesn't fix your mana and its ability is fairly slow and conditional.

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:

TOP

HIGH

HIGH-MID

LOW-MID

LOW

NICHE

BUDGET

BOTTOM

FINAL THOUGHTS

• This is probably one of my favorite sets from a design perspective, I feel like WOTC finally found a good middle ground for a Standard legal set between Guilds of Ravnica, a solid set right before the 2019 power creep really kicked in, and Throne of Eldraine. This set has a great balance between power and flexibility, especially with the planeswalkers.

• I really like how they utilized channel this time around and wonder how they messed it up so bad in Saviors of Kamigawa. It's pretty on par with cycling / MDFCs as a smoothing mechanic, hopefully we see more channel in the future.

JOIN OUR CUBE DISCORD GROUP!

Thanks for reading! Let me know if there's a card that I missed and I'll respond back with the hottest of takes! Also, feel free to join the Online Cube Drafts Discord Group to discuss all things Cube plus use Xmage to host tournaments to draft / play with our own cubes!

https://discord.gg/wRVzHQR

FOLLOW ME

Twitter: @stevedavidmusic
CubeCobra: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/5d757b268f152803feb030f8

SUPPORT CUBECOBRA ON PATREON!

If you love CubeCobra and enjoy reading my articles here and not on some janky Reddit post, please consider supporting CubeCobra on Patreon! Even if it's just $1 a month, that's more than enough to cover your digital footprint on this site. I'm a patron myself and was not asked or paid to do this message, nor do I get paid for writing these articles. I just think it's the right thing to do considering how much CubeCobra does for the cube community.

https://www.patreon.com/cubecobra