Welcome to my 25th HOT TAKES article on CubeCobra! Can Foundations be the triumphant return of core sets? How many years will this be legal in Standard? Will this be Magic's last hurrah before Universes Beyond destroys the game with SpongeBob SquarePants teaming up with My Little Pony? 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 singleton cubes that are in the style of the MTGO Vintage / Legacy cube lists.
WHITE Sun-Blessed Healer
A new Intrepid Adversary variant. Blade of the Sixth Pride with lifelink and extra text is always a good place to start. This is pretty cool in Lurrus of the Dream-Den shells, and being able to recur nonland permanents instead of just creatures is really nice. If we're splitting hairs, I generally prefer Intrepid Adversary though. Intrepid Adversary's “multikicker” ability doesn't have to be paid for until Intrepid Adversary enters the battlefield, making this much better against counterspells, and its ability can still be used through blink / recursion. Intrepid Adversary also gets +1/+1 for each time you've “kicked” it, and will generally have more of an immediate board impact offensively than paying Sun-Blessed Healer's kicker. There's a lot of competition in general for 2-cmc white creatures that scale throughout the game in general that I like much more than both Intrepid Adversary / Sun-Blessed Healer like Jacked Rabbit / Securitron Squadron / Lion Sash / Virtue of Loyalty / etc.
Eidolon of Astral WindsThis seems pretty strong if you're explicitly supporting a lot of enchantment matters stuff, and isn't completely awful by itself as a pseudo one-shot Elspeth, Knight-Errant jump boost. Without an enchantment theme you're probably much better off with Maul of the Skyclaves / Celestial Armor. Speaking of which…
Celestial ArmorA new take on Maul of the Skyclaves. This having flash and giving hexproof and indestructible until end of turn allows this to be used as a combat trick / counterspell to removal. That's much more valuable than Maul of the Skyclaves giving +2 toughness and first strike. Having a cleaner equip cost of 
instead of 
is a decent bonus as well. If you're already playing Maul of the Skyclaves, this is a solid supplement / upgrade to it, and is a serious consideration even if you're not currently playing Maul. Personally my 3-cmc white equipment of choice is Pre-War Formalwear, but this is a good alternative for those not hip to Universes Beyond.
A potentially interesting build around card for Lurrus of the Dream-Den companion shells where you can't play Serra Paragon. That being said, I'd probably rather just play some token generator like Jacked Rabbit / Spectral Procession / Secure the Wastes / etc, especially since those are useful in more shells beyond low to the ground aggro decks / Lurrus companion shells.
BLUE Mischievous MysticEmrakul's Messenger x Clarion Spirit. Making a 1/1 flyer is generally better than making a 0/1 Eldrazi Spawn that can be sacrificed for 
. Actually being blue is an upgrade from Emrakul's Messenger being colorless since this can be pitched to Chrome Mox / Force of Will / Force of Negation. This is a nice upgrade / supplement if you're already playing Emrakul's Messenger, but probably not enough of an upgrade to include it if you're currently not playing it.
A new variant of Champion of Wits / Steamcore Scholar. Careful Study is always a powerful effect to have. While this doesn't gain card advantage by itself until later, having a pseudo Mulldrifter that actually puts a body on the board while also filtering your hand and fueling the graveyard is nice to have. The best case scenario for this card is probably in reanimator where your opponent has to decide between using their Swords to Plowshares to either deal with Kiora before it can make an 8/8 or save it for your reanimation target like Archon of Cruelty.
While there's a lot to like about this card, I think it's quite slow at everything it does. Cheap discard outlets are a dime a dozen these days, and 3 mana is expensive for a discard outlet in 2024. Best case scenario for a solo Kiora on curve is that you swing on turn 4 to make an 8/8, which can't even attack until turn 5. Not to mention that the 8/8 has no evasion, and this is all assuming you had threshold by turn 4! While threshold makes Kiora a late game threat, it's still going to take 2 more turns for the 8/8 to do anything, and no evasion means that it can be chump blocked by anything.
I like Kiora more than Champion of Wits since Kiora is stronger in pretty much every scenario sans eternalize / vs Karakas. In a cube that supports monarch / initiative though I think Steamcore Scholar is preferable since it has flying + vigilance and has a slightly better ETB trigger. I like Kiora if you're explicitly supporting threshold matters. Kiora has a decent floor as a general goodstuff blue card, but I think it's a tier 2 option 3-cmc blue creature at best.
Kaito, Cunning InfiltratorA generally worse Kaito Shizuki. Being mono colored is nice, but all 3 of its non-ultimate abilities are overall a downgrade to the original. Being able to phase out Kaito Shizuki was key to its survivability, especially since it'd often go down to 1 loyalty right off the bat.
RefuteThis is a nice supplement / upgrade to Sinister Sabotage if you're already playing that or some other Cancel variant.
Sphinx of Forgotten LoreBigger Dreadhorde Arcanist. A 3/3 with flash and flying and extra text for 
is always worth looking at. This offers you a lot of flexibility in terms of leaving your options open and using this as a combat trick. This has the benefit over Dreadhorde Arcanist of being able to give flashback to ANY instant or sorcery in your graveyard, not just one with mana value less than or equal to its power. Unlike Dreadhorde Arcanist, you actually have to pay the full mana cost for what you're recurring.
As far as blue 4-cmc creatures goes, I'd argue that only Urza, Lord High Artificer / Phyrexian Metamorph (if you want to count that) are slam dunks. That being said, this card still has a good amount of competition. I like Subtlety more than this since it has an alternate casting cost and has a more immediate impact with its ETB trigger. You can also argue that Shark Typhoon plays in a similar space and I think I like that more too. I do think this gives things like Venser, Shaper Savant / Glen Elendra Archmage a run for their money if you're currently playing those. Being able to eat something in combat and then flashback a removal spell is really big game for tempo / control decks. Recurring Ancestral Recall / Time Walk is also very appealing in powered cubes. I'll probably give this a test since I'm always looking to give control new toys to play with.
BLACK Abyssal HarvesterA new reanimation spell that's less than 4 mana is quite rare to see these days, especially in a Standard legal set. A reanimation spell that can recur any creature from any graveyard is even more rare. Being able to activate this at instant speed means you can reanimate the OG Eldrazi Titans like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. While this has a lot of flexibility, it does come at the caveat of this creature having to survive a turn cycle and the stipulation that the creature you target has to be put in the graveyard that turn. The latter isn't too bad since this works very well with discard / removal / Entomb effects, especially since you don't have to pay any mana to activate its ability. Exiling other nightmare tokens you control means you can only keep one creature at a time. It's important to note that this only exiles nightmare TOKENS, so other nightmare creatures like Lurrus of the Dream-Den / Fear of Missing Out are not affected by this (unless you made tokens of them).
The timing issue of the creature having to be put in the graveyard that turn in combination with this being a vanilla 3/2 for 
when it has nothing to do makes this a very low floor / high ceiling card. While I'm a sucker for a reanimation spell that can target any graveyard, I feel like this is closer to Feldon of the Third Path than it is Emperor of Bones. Hell, this is probably less consistent than actual Zombify / Makeshift Mannequin. The ceiling is high enough to consider it if you really want more ways to reanimate Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and friends, but this is generally the worst way to do it after Corpse Dance / Goryo's Vengeance. Reanimator tends to be one of the best strategies in a lot of MTGO Vintage Cube style lists right now, so I don't think it needs any help on that front from this sans very large lists.
A new Figure of Destiny variant. Starting off as a 2/1 instead of a 1/1 is a big upgrade from things like Figure of Destiny / Student of Warfare. This also doesn't require as much mana up front or total all together to get to its ultimate form, which makes this a decent topdeck in the mid / late game where most Savannah Lions variants will not be as useful. While it can be slow to reap the benefit of its combat damage trigger, this is perfectly fine as a 2/1 for 
in the early game. More cheap legendary creatures are always good for Mox Amber support, especially in red which has the highest density of playable 1-2 cmc legendary creatures. As a straight up red Savannah Lions variant, this is arguably the second best one after Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. With all the powerful 1-cmc creatures every color has been getting lately, a lot of cubes are able to retire things like Figure of Destiny / Student of Warfare (I personally cut Student of Warfare years ago), especially in favor of other similar level up adjacent cards like Kellan, Planar Trailblazer / Hired Claw.
An interesting discard enabler / payoff. This has a decent floor of creating a blood token when it enters / attacks while having a pretty high ceiling with a variety of discard outlets. It's important to note that this doesn't say “if you discard one or more cards”, so you always get +1/+1 counters equal to the number of total cards you discard. Pair this with something like Dack Fayden and this can become quite the threat, gaining up to three +1/+1 counters a turn.
While the closest comparison to this is probably Inti, Seneschal of the Sun since they're both discard outlets with trample that can get bigger, I do think they are quite a bit different. I see Inti as an aggro card first, synergy card second, and Ivora being the opposite. I also think Inti is better at playing both roles pretty well where Ivora won't be too hot in most dedicated aggro shells. Charming Scoundrel also does a lot of what Ivora wants to do while being more versatile and having a more immediate impact with haste and not having to pay mana to rummage. Ivora is probably the most interesting build around / synergy card in the set, especially if you support madness / Goblin Welder. I'm personally not in the market for it right now since I think Inti, Seneschal of the Sun / Charming Scoundrel are much better for my wants and needs, but I can see this doing a lot of work in the right environments.
Searslicer GoblinKind of sort of Bitterblossom on a stick. The ceiling of a 2/1 that makes a 1/1 at the end of your turn ain't bad, but the floor of a Goblin Piker is pretty miserable. While I do like a good token maker, I think this is a far worse 2-cmc creature than Goblin Rabblemaster and its many cousins are 3-cmc creatures. This relying very heavily on a 1-cmc creature to live and attack on curve can make this a huge liability, especially since a lot of cubes have been cutting down on their Savannah Lions count in favor of more aggressive 2-3 cmc creatures. I think this is a lot worse than any 2 powered creature with haste like Emberheart Challenger / Reckless Pyrosurfer / Robber of the Rich / Bloodthirsty Adversary / Earthshaker Khenra since those have strictly better floors while probably having better ceilings as well.
General Kreat, the BoltbringerImpact Tremors on a stick if you're into that and / or have a high density of goblins. This is also a good substitute / supplement for Purphoros, God of the Forge since it's cheaper and can actually do something on its own. I'm currently only playing 6 goblin cards right now, and the only one that is less than 3 mana is Ignoble Hierarch, so yeah…
Gornog, the Red ReaperA new warrior payoff if you're into Najeela, the Blade-Blossom. Not bad on its own either, but great red 3-cmc creatures are a dime a dozen these days. Currently my cube has 13 warriors, which is probably much less than prior years due to the influx of broken monkeys / cats / lhurgoyfs.
GREEN Scythecat CubBristly Bill, Spine Sower 2.0! I'm a big fan of any Luminarch Aspirant variant for 2 mana. Bristly Bill, Spine Sower exceeded my expectations when I first tested it, and then Nadu, Winged Wisdom came along and made Bristly Bill a very powerful combo card. This has a stronger floor than Bristly Bill since it has trample, but it doesn't have Bristly Bill's late game ceiling. My one nitpick with Scythecat Cub is that doubling the +1/+1 counters isn't optional. A lot of times with Luminarch Aspirant / Bristly Bill, Spine Sower, you want to spread your counters to reduce your risk of losing all your counters by putting them all on one creature. If you have two landfall triggers on the same turn, you can't use the second trigger to put a +1/+1 counter on a different creature unless it already has a +1/+1 counter on it. This will often force you to put all your +1/+1 counters on a single creature, increasing your risk profile by putting all your eggs into a single basket.
Nadu, Winged Wisdom is probably the best new build around card we've seen in a long time, so I'm always on the lookout for new ways to support the combo. I've decided to go all in on the combo, having added Shuko / Lightning Greaves / Sylvan Safekeeper to my cube recently. This is a slam dunk if you support Nadu combo, not to mention just being great on its own as a landfall payoff / +1/+1 counter enabler and payoff.
Loot, Exuberant ExplorerA new variant of Dryad of the Ilysian Grove. This has a cool pseudo See the Unwritten activated ability which is a nice payoff to the Exploration effect this has. That being said, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove has shown me that 3 mana is very slow for an Exploration effect without pairing it with Crucible of Worlds / Courser of Kruphix. Dryad of the Ilysian Grove having a second power and being a domain enabler gives it a much better floor than Loot too. Personally at 3 mana I want more effects that let me play lands from the top of my library rather than more Exploration effects. Loot's activated ability is cool, but it's slow and IMO not enough to make it an inclusion if you're not already playing Dryad of the Ilysian Grove.
OTHER Anthem of ChampionsA good option if you're into Glorious Anthems, passable if not.
Alesha, Who Laughs at FateAlesha, Who Smiles at Death gets a glow up! Getting a +1/+1 counter on every attack and not having to pay mana for to recur anything is a huge upgrade over the original. This can't recur creatures based on their power like OG Alesha can. That was huge for things like Palace Jailer / Angel of Invention / Pia and Kiran Nalaar / etc, but it's worth the trade for better efficiency. And the new Alesha's ability generally works better with today's modern threats, which tend to run lean anyways. This triggering on your end step as long as you attacked (not just with Alesha) makes it very easy for this to trigger and preserve Alesha.
Design wise, I have no complaints about this card since it's simple and powerful without being too overpowered. That being said, my only qualm about this is how stacked red 3-cmc creatures have become, which makes it difficult for 
multicolored creatures to breakthrough. The silver lining for this Alesha is that black is still particularly weak in the 3-cmc creature slot. I think this is closest to Laelia, the Blade Reforged since they both get bigger and generate value when you attack. While they do different things, Laelia has haste and can snowball by itself without having to rely on anything being in the graveyard. Regardless, Alesha is pretty strong despite its competition, it's just a matter of making room for it while not overcrowding that particular part of the curve in red.
Simic's take on Valgavoth, Terror Eater that can be found with Natural Order. A common complaint about Valgavoth was that it's not great with Sneak Attack / Shallow Grave variants since it lacks an ETB / combat damage trigger. This has no such issue since it creates FOUR 3/3s when it hits your opponent, which isn't hard at all considering it has 8 power + trample + ward 4. I'm just going to copy and paste what I wrote about Valgavoth, Terror Eater's ward ability here since the same applies to Koma, World-Eater. Let's count the common ways that you can remove this for 3 or less mana without triggering ward:
Unless I'm missing something obvious, I count only 5 efficient spells that can remove this without triggering its ward ability, and they only come in white and black. And out of the 5, only Council's Judgment is a guarantee since Balance / Sheoldred's Edict / Liliana of the Veil aren't guaranteed to hit, and Toxic Deluge costs 12 life. There are more answers once you get above 4 mana like Wrath of God variants / Archon of Cruelty / Portal to Phyrexia / etc, but those either aren't efficient or require hoops to jump through.
end copy and paste
While I don't think Koma isn't on the level of Atraxa, Grand Unifier / Archon of Cruelty, it's still a very strong cheaty face payoff that works well with pretty much every enabler sans Flash / Persist. Koma has a very strong combination of power / resilience / versatility, and it's pretty castable in a 
Oath of Druids / Natural Order shells. While its ward ability can wane later in the game, it's still a big tempo road block for your opponent that they have to answer immediately. Simic has an embarrassment of riches these days, but I think this is fair game against any Simic card not named Oko, Thief of Crowns / Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath / Nadu, Winged Wisdom, especially if you're in the market for a new Natural Order / cheaty face target.
Underworld Dreams x Howling Mine... on a stick! The Howling Mine triggering only on your turn for every player is huge since you get the first shot at your cards. Your opponent can't also profit off this if they kill this immediately on their turn. While this isn't the best draw punisher / draw 7 payoff, it does trigger on every draw like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, not just draws beyond their first / natural one for the turn like every other Hullbreacher variant. Personally I'm mostly interested in the fact that this is a turn 1 play off Mishra's Workshop, which I'm always on the lookout for. This combined with its Underworld Dreams / Howling Mine combo and fairly aggressive body / ability potentially makes this a decent roleplayer that can wear multiple hats.
Leyline AxeCute, but extremely slow if you don't have it in your opening hand. And even if you do, equip 3 is still quite cumbersome.
Sire of Seven DeathsA 7/7 for 7 that has a creature type with 7 letters (eldrazi) and has 7 keywords that make up a haiku (first strike, vigilance / menace, trample, reach, lifelink / ward - pay 7 life). The combination of menace and trample makes this extremely difficult to block. Add 7 power + first strike and it's near unbeatable in combat. This is very difficult to race since it plays defense as well as it plays offense with vigilance / reach / lifelink. Ward - Pay 7 life makes this painful to deal with using targeted removal.
The closest comparison to this card is Sphinx of the Steel Wind since they're both large, evasive creatures with vigilance + lifelink. While Sphinx of the Steel Wind is probably one of the lower priority cheaty face targets that is commonly played, it does have a nice niche in being very good at fighting against some of the most powerful offensive threats in the game, like Forth Eorlingas! / Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes / contesting monarch and initiative while preserving your life total to win the race. Sire of Seven Deaths can also play that role while being a little more versatile since its colorless and its ward 7 ability is matchup agnostic. Sphinx of the Steel Wind's protection from green and red is mostly relevant against artifact removal, which Sire of Seven Deaths doesn't have to worry about. That being said, protection from green and red is relevant against multicolored spells like Assassin's Trophy / Oko, Thief of Crowns / Molten Collapse / Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast / Alpha Deathclaw / etc.
Overall I think Sire of Seven Deaths is serviceable, but like Sphinx of the Steel Wind, it's on the lower end of the totem pole of cheaty face payoffs. The ward ability being matchup agnostic is nice, but it's very ignorable when cheated early. This is very opposite of Valgavoth, Terror Eater / Koma, World-Eater where their ward abilities are great early game where your opponent literally can't deal with it, where Sire of Seven Deaths is better in the late game and merely just slaps your opponent on the wrist for dealing with it in the early game. Sire of Seven Deaths also isn't terribly unique since not only just because of Sphinx of the Steel Wind, but Wurmcoil Engine / Phyrexian Fleshgorger are also fairly similar while working both with Channel and Tinker.
Soulstone SanctuaryMark my words, we'll have a cubeable Stalking Stones variant in the next 10 years!
HOT TAKES TIER LIST TIME!Criteria is based on the following:
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Amount of cubes I think a card will see play, particularly in powered / high powered settings.
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How long I predict they will last in cubes.
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How cards compare to their competition in terms of function and cmc.
The cards within the tiers are unordered:
TOPFrom the beginning I said I would consider Foundations a success for my cube if it's at least better than Bloomburrow. I think this set is pretty solid given the circumstances of it being a core set with roughly 50% reprints and no straight to Legacy / Vintage / Commander cards. Overall I felt this set was quite the breath of fresh air, going back to Magic's roots with elegant designs that aren't tainted by commander / Universes Beyond.
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