Cube Overview - Lorwyn Eclipsed & Lorwyn Eclipsed Commander

As this round of perpetual previews has ended, as I’ve done for the most of the past 15 years, I’ve written an article about how the set impacts cube.

As usual, this cube review focuses more on ‘high power’ cubes than thematic ones, using a more high-powered, generalist perspective for cube card evaluation, allowing designers to adjust as needed for their specific environments.

Although I physically test cards with reps in my own cube, I don’t just use that as a basis of evaluation; as someone who works on the Magic Online Vintage Cube list, is familiar with cubes across the power level spectrum and with the availability of the Powered Cube on Magic Arena, I know how important it is to keep various environments in mind via my ratings scale¹.

Tl;dr

Here’s what I like most from the set:

Moonshadow
Kinscaer Sentry
Formidable Speaker
Figure of Fable
Sear
Ajani, Outland Chaperone
Glen Elendra Guardian
Bristlebane Battler
Rhys the Evermore
Bitterbloom Bearer
Vibrance
Brigid, Clachan’s Heart
Iron-Shield Elf

By Color / everything:

• White

  • Kinscaer Sentry - 4.75. Discussion here.

  • Ajani, Outland Chaperone - 4.25. Discussion here.

  • Rhys the Evermore - 4. Discussion here.

  • Wanderbrine Trapper - 3. Discussion here.

  • Kinbinding and Slumbering Walker - 2.5. Discussion here.

  • Morningtide’s Light - 2. Discussion here.

  • Personify - 1.5. Discussion here.

• Blue

  • Glen Elendra Guardian - 4. Discussion here.

  • Loch Mare - 3.5. Discussion here.

  • Flitterwing Nuisance - 1.5-3.5. Discussion here.

  • Glamer Gifter - 1.5-2.5. Discussion here.

  • Glamermite - 2. Discussion here.

• Black

  • Moonshadow - 4.5-5. Discussion here.

  • Bitterbloom Bearer - 4. Discussion here.

  • Iron-Shield Elf - 3-4. Discussion here.

  • Twilight Diviner - 2-3.5. Discussion here.

  • Dawnhand Dissident - 2.5-3.5. Discussion here.

  • Requiting Hex - 2. Discussion here.

• Red

  • Sear - 4.5. Discussion here.

  • Boulder Dash - 2.5-3.5. Discussion here.

  • Hexing Squelcher - 2.5. Discussion here.

  • Scuzzback Scrounger - 2. Discussion here.

• Green

  • Formidable Speaker - 5. Discussion here.

  • Bristlebane Battler - 4. Discussion here.

  • Mutable Explorer - 2. Discussion here.

  • Springleaf Parade - 1.5. Discussion here.

• Multicolor

  • Eirdu //Ashling // Oko // Sygg // Brigid: Discussion here.

    • Eirdu - 3

    • Ashling - 3

    • Oko - 1.5

    • Sygg - 3.5

    • Brigid - 4

  • Bre of Clan Stoutarm - 2.5. Discussion here.

• Hybrid

  • Figure of Fable - 4.5. Discussion here.

  • Catharsis // Deceit // Emptiness // Vibrance // Wistfulness. Discussion here.

    • Catharsis - 2.5

    • Deceit - 2.5

    • Emptiness - 2.5

    • Vibrance - 4

    • Wistfulness - 2.5

  • Tam, Mindful First-Year - 3. Discussion here.

  • Lluwen, Imperfect Naturalist - 3.5. Discussion here.

  • Eclipsed Kithkin - 2.5. Discussion here.

  • Kirol, Attentive First-Year - 2-3. Discussion here.

  • The Reaper, King no More - 3. Discussion here.

  • Abigale, Eloquent First-Year - 2. Discussion here.

• Colorless/etc.

  • Abundant Countryside - 2.5. Discussion here.

Major Mechanics/Big Picture Items:

Before I talk in-depth about the cards individually, I’ll give a high-level overview of the Lorwyn Eclipsed mechanics and some other big-picture items.

Typal and Changeling:

We didn’t get any major type-based payoffs, as there are no Heirloom Blades here, so this set mainly adds cards that support existing ones. In cubes that aren’t trying to bend archetypes around type synergy, these cards usually amount to “this plus a creature or two,” as with Selfless Safewright. Other changeling- or type-focused cards that pair well with Chomping Changeling include Magda, Brazen Outlaw, Pyrogoyf, Flame of Anor and Kaito, Bane of Nightmares. It’s not a lot but it’s something you can always tweak for your cube. Just know that like in the original Lorwyn block, many of the changelings aren’t that great, power-level wise.

Blight and Vivid:

Blight, Vivid, typal payoffs, and convoke all reward wider boards. These mechanics scale with having more creatures in play, so they naturally favor token strategies and aggressive decks.

The whole “all you need is another creature” tends to be overlooked as a cost, as someone who remembers the hype for Scarscale Ritual, a card that underperformed because the assumption that there’d always be a creature to scar wasn’t always accurate, but wider boards and tokens do help make these cards work.

Hybrid:

Parker recently wrote about the Risks of Hybrid.

All hybrids aren’t truly “hybrid” in the same way: Firespout is essentially a red spell with green kicker and cards like Plumeveil are generally more of a U/W card than something to play in a W/B midrange deck.

Personally, I don’t think perfect balance across color pairs is super necessary and I have hybrids set separately from multicolor, but if you group them in the same area, adjust your power ratings accordingly, since power ratings ultimately come down to cards competing against others.

White:

Kinscaer Sentry

Power 4.75, Vibes 4

In my 2025 Cube Sets overview article, I talked about Ainok Strike Leader in the context of Ellie, Brick Master:

“Speaking of Ellie, I wanted to briefly talk about her 2-mana card; it reminded me of Searslicer Goblin, a card that I wasn’t too hyped for in Foundations and this is similar where it’s great if the coast is clear, but having 1/1s, even if they get to attack for free, don’t tend to do much. I felt the same for Ainok Strike Leader as cards that suffer in an era of better-developed boards than in years’ past.”

Kinscaer Sentry having first strike doesn’t help against X/3s that could kill it in combat, but even then, if you’re able to cheat something large into play then, usually that isn’t a big deal since white doesn’t tend to get access to that much burst damage and having lifelink isn’t flavor text either.

Not having guaranteed value like a 1/1 attacker does mean a worse floor, but its much higher ceiling makes me think it’ll be a great cube 2-drop, even with the embarrassment of riches in available white 2-drops.

I’m only not rating it as a 5 since white 2s are just so stacked, but this is one of the better cube cards of the set.

Ajani, Outland Chaperone

Power 4.25, Vibes 5

Outside of Grist, the Hunger Tide, we don’t tend to see 3-mana planeswalkers (with a + or 0 loyalty ability) that make 1/1s that can attack, but there are some analogues:

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, which makes 0/1 plants.
Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast, which makes 1/1 defenders.
Chandra, Acolyte of Flame, which just makes temporary 1/1s with haste.
Saheeli, Sublime Artificer, which requires other spells to make tokens.

Other 3-mana cards that generate tokens include SOLDIER Military Program and Wedding Announcement, which spit out 1/1 tokens.

Ajani’s minus makes this look like it leans more midrange than aggressive, but I’m thinking that’s more just an additional mode on it for slower decks, since most of the juice is with spamming out 1/1s. Killing a tapped creature and spamming 1/1s does echo Liliana of the Veil as TrainmasterGT noted on an upcoming Cube Engineers episode and while this Ajani’s ultimate likely won’t happen, that shouldn’t matter.

The ultimate question is if it’s competitive with other 3-drops in cube, since they’re really stacked.

Personally, I think so, since it works pretty well in aggressive and midrange decks even if it lacks immediate impact that something like an Adeline would have. I’m unsure if it’s too “do nothing” for control decks, but I could see it getting there too.

Rhys the Evermore

Power 4, Vibes 4.5

Although white two‑drops are incredibly stacked, I like this card as a way to turn creature trades into slight 2‑for‑1s and as a tool to save a creature from removal, even if it can’t do much to save X/1s. Not being able to remove counters at instant speed is a minor annoyance, but I mostly view that limitation as something to do when you have nothing better to do. It doesn’t work with Dark Depths, but it does interact with cards like Baloth Prime, Kitchen Finks and others; there aren’t many such targets, but it’s a nice bonus when it happens. The floor of a 2/2 with flash isn’t great, but it’s still fine by current creature standards.

I’m also curious whether it can be used proactively to generate two ETB triggers when you have a sacrifice outlet like Goblin Bombardment. That’s probably another corner case, but it’s the sort of interaction that could swing a game when the pieces line up.

Wanderbrine Trapper

Power 3, Vibes 2

My first impression was that this was another vanilla 2/1 for white with a late‑game rider, like Kytheon, Descendant of Storms and Usher of the Fallen, as something to do when you have spare mana or a hedge against overextending into mass removal.

On reflection, its role feels a bit different: it’s a hedge against bigger decks with large creatures when your attacks stall. I’ve played a lot of Goldmeadow Harriers and Law-Rune Enforcers in cube in cube; they’re useful, but their slow clocks rarely threatened the opponent. Since a 2/1 represents a real early clock that can also pivot into a blocker‑clearing role later, I’m optimistic that this can have a very real ability to transition into the late game. The ability to threaten an end‑of‑turn tap and then tap again on your turn forces opponents into awkward choices about what to leave back. I’d prefer it didn’t require tapping a creature, as removing that restriction would make it easier to keep large creatures in check, but even as written it’s effective for turning the corner when needed.

All that said, I see this as replacement‑tier, similar to Lightstall Inquisitor, though I’m optimistic it might be a touch better.

Kinbinding and Slumbering Walker

Power 2.5, Vibes 4

I mention both because they could easily be “busted in retail draft, unplayable everywhere else” cards like Soul Immolation and Goliath Daydreamer.

I’m slightly optimistic about Kinbinding. Its floor is solid since, on your turn, it acts like a virtual anthem and can generate tokens, and if even one other creature enters the battlefield (something that isn’t uncommon in white cube decks) it can function more like an Overrun. Overruns rarely break cube games these days (Craterhoof Behemoth excepted but even then, it doesn’t *break* things.) If you stretch the comparison, it’s a bit like combining both non‑minus modes of Elspeth, Storm Slayer, though obviously much worse than Elspeth herself.

Likewise, I wouldn’t be surprised if Slumbering Walker underperformed, even though it’s essentially a 2026 Reveillark. There’s some potential, especially in decks with lots of low‑power creatures, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was mediocre, especially when compared to cards like Timeless Dragon that aren’t even best-in-class.

Morningtide’s Light

Power 2, Vibes 5

The main uses that I see for this are as a Falter effect to swing for lethal or as a way to protect your own threats proactively when wrathing, or as a way to get in some damage without fear of retribution (although your planeswalkers can still be attacked.)

This card was another early preview that always rode the pine, which isn’t a surefire sign that a card doesn’t do anything, but usually when I looked at a deck with it in the sideboard, it was a right call.

Personify

Power 1.5, Vibes 5

I’ve seen some hype for this, but I don’t really get it. It’s basically a 1/1 that blinks another creature, so it isn’t dead when you have nothing else, but its mana rate and lack of flexibility feel weak compared with other blink cards like Touch the Spirit Realm or Airbender Ascension.

Blue:

Glen Elendra Guardian

Power 4, Vibes 3.5

This is more creature‑focused than Glen Elendra Archmage or Venser, Shaper Savant, both being former cube all‑stars whose value came primarily from controlling the stack with their bodies playing a secondary role. Glen Elendra Guardian succeeded as a decently statted flash threat that could act like an Arcane Denial on non‑creature spells, rather than feeling like a powerful counterspell attached to a clunky body.

I’ve never been a fan of Arcane Denial in cubes outside of rarity‑restricted formats, since it mostly mattered in matchups where card advantage was less important and you didn’t mind letting the opponent cantrip, since it countered one of the major spells that mattered. This card, however, at least eats 2/2s like Aang and becomes a faster clock after it counters something (even your own card, if you really want to,) so the opponent drawing a card is less punishing. There are several strong tempo payoffs for blue in this set, and this one functions well both inside and outside those archetypes.

Loch Mare

Power 3.5, Vibes 4

I was initially skeptical, but I’ve come around. Of all things, it most reminds me of level‑up creatures and Figure of Fable as it starts small and grows, but gains useful bonuses as it “levels up”, either by drawing cards or by locking down threats. It likely performs best in tempo or flash decks that cast it cheaply, then keep mana available for interaction or invest extra mana to make it larger.

Flitterwing Nuisance

Power 1.5-3.5, Vibes 3

Triggering on each creature connecting, like Enduring Curiosity effects, pays off when you have multiple attackers to “level up” this creature. Paired with cards like this and the U/W Sygg, there are solid payoffs for blue tempo decks built around small attackers. If blue tempo isn’t a thing in your cube, though, this is largely ignorable.

Glamer Gifter

Power 1.5-2.5, Vibes 4

This plays in a similar space to Flitterwing Nuisance as a payoff for blue tempo. It’s nice that the combat trick is attached to an actual creature rather than being a standalone trick like Wings of Velis Vel, and it can even downgrade larger blockers in a pinch. I’m low on its floor, though, since generic blue control decks won’t care much about it.

Glamermite

Power 2, Vibes 1

A second Pestermite for designers still on Pestermite/Twin: it has that extra toughness but can’t tap other permanents like lands. The issue with this is that the archetype’s real bottleneck is the cloners like Kiki‑Jiki and friends, not the untappers.

At three mana it’s one of the cheaper pieces, and the extra toughness means it survives one‑damage pings from cards like Orcish Bowmasters and Lava Dart ain’t nothing.

Black:

Moonshadow

Power 4.5-5, Vibes 4

This functions like Stalactite Stalker but with a much higher average use case. It has several knobs tuned for increased power: it doesn’t need to wait until end of turn to grow and can get bigger multiple times in a turn. That comes at the cost of a mostly unused removal option and a marginally useful creature type (Goblin), but the tradeoff feels worthwhile.

My issue with cards like Death’s Shadow was that you couldn’t safely play them on an empty board; this card doesn’t have that problem. One one end, it can act like a Rockslide Elemental‑style threat that sticks around and gets value as other things die but triggering off of other permanents going to the graveyard gives it a much higher average case, since it also pairs well with discard and instant‑speed tricks (think LoTR landcyclers and similar effects), and with the usual synergies like self‑sacrificing lands and bauble‑style cards as upside. Depending on the cube, it may outclass Nethergoyf as a pure stat monster in aggressive builds and wouldn’t be surprised if this was the usual case.

Although menace might look minor on paper, it matters: it prevents easy chump blocks and plays nicely with UB ninja strategies if your cube supports them. There are also useful synergies with Dress Down and Rhys the Evermore’s activated ability; they aren’t required for the card to be good, but they’re nice bonuses when they come up. I’m likely underrating its floor, as I see this being a staple in cubes for a while.

Bitterbloom Bearer

Power 3.75, Vibes 4

This was another early preview I liked. It’s been a while since Bitterblossom dominated games (and this doesn’t either,) but this card functions more like a black Raise the Alarm that generally produced a couple of 1/1s. The double‑black requirement is annoying, but it rarely causes problems; it still plays cleanly as a turn‑3 drop. Flash helps, too, by mitigating the slow first turn that made Bitterblossom awkward.

Being a creature usually wasn’t generally a big liability, as, while it dies to removal, it often creates another 1/1 flier before that happens, which is usually enough to justify the cost. Sometimes it acts like a virtual Forcefield; other times it simply trades with a 1/1 for two mana.

Iron-Shield Elf

Power 3-4, Vibes 4

Being a color‑shifted Seasoned Hallowblade helps because black doesn’t suffer the same glut of two‑drops that white does. Black also plays better to the graveyard with cards like Moonshadow, madness/mayhem, reanimation cards and cards like Bloodsoaked Champion that like being in the graveyard. In white, Hallowblade’s discard felt like a real cost but it’s sometimes an upside in black for Iron-Shield Elf. It won’t always be beneficial, but it should happen often enough to make this worth considering as a 2026‑era Oona’s Prowler.

Twilight Diviner

Power 2-3.5, Vibes 3

This looks like a win‑more, three‑mana card for traditional reanimation strategies, but I’m more excited about its synergy with self‑recursive small black threats like Scrapheap Scrounger. Those decks can actually use a decent‑sized 3/3 for 3 that surveils 2, since it aligns with their game plan.

The big question is the critical mass of self‑recursion you need to justify playing it in the final 40. My rough read is you’d want around five self‑recursive pieces, which is a high bar for many cubes. That makes the card awkward to build around in lots of environments, but the upside is real when the pieces line up, so I’m noting it as a high‑potential card rather than a format staple.

Dawnhand Dissident

Power 2.5-3.5, Vibes 4

DanyTLaw’s mon-black deck from early access is a good model for how I want this card to function in cube as one that take advantage of recursive aggressors. Sacrifice payoffs have rarely been great on their own, but this card pairs nicely with effects that can soak up counters or with strategies that expect creatures to die anyway. Its surveil ability provides a solid floor as useful card selection even if the recursion angle doesn’t fully come together, while most of the upside comes from recurring creatures, somewhat like Osteomancer Adept.

There are clear synergies with cards like Moonshadow, Emperor of Bones and persist cards like Kitchen Finks. Although the card’s recursion isn’t explicitly limited to once per turn, I don’t expect it to recur creatures multiple times in a single turn.

Osteomancer Adept is hardly a cube staple, but being cheaper here helps. If this card can reliably recur even one creature in a deck built around self‑recursion, it’s probably playable.

Requiting Hex

Power 2, Vibes 2

I mainly look at this as a “something to put in your cube toolbox” as an option to tailor your cube removal if you need something more to kill small things, instead of as a bad Fatal Push. Having access to instant speed life gain isn’t useless to swing races, letting this act like a baby Lightning Helix if need be but this still is likely a season-to-taste card, not a main dish.

Red:

Sear

Power 4.5, Vibes 2

A solid, bread‑and‑butter removal spell that does everything I wanted Eliminate to do, with the added bonus of being able to dent high‑loyalty planeswalkers when necessary. Despite red burn having the advantage of closing out games, I’m not holding its lack of face damage against it, since I don’t do that for other forms of removal. Being an instant also makes this so much better than cards like Obliterating Bolt, especially if you just need to kill a 4-toughness card like Nadu ASAP.

Boulder Dash

Power 2.5-3.5, Vibes 2

42-year old game reference aside, I’m mostly noting this for redundancy for singleton gamers who just want another Arc Trail or an Arc Trail with updated Oracle text.

Hexing Squelcher

Power 2.5, Vibes 3

Generally, I’ve found that “can’t be countered” is mostly just extra text on a card even when it’s a card that applies to it other cards since it’s not quite flavor text but usually closer to something like a creature type, where it’s occasionally useful but generally not going to move the needle that much.

My issue with this is that being a 2/2 without other combat stats, it’s not a very threatening card; somewhat like a low-value 2/2 that triggers when it dies, usually these perform worse than expected because they don’t put a great clock on the opponent and the opponent can just ignore them.

One thing about it is is that it could be more of a protection card, like a Mother of Runes style effect for other marquee threats or something like Eidolon of the Great Revel or Mai as a way to be as a supplemental burn source from the opponent “just playing magic” when trying to play against an aggro game plan. It could be that, if this ends up dealing 4 damage to an opponent, it pays for itself, but likely doesn’t if it only deals 2 from dying to removal.

I haven’t had the chance to try this out, but I think this is overrated due to its middling stats and considering this to be filler-tier.

Scuzzback Scrounger

Power 2, Vibes 2

This somewhat emulates Magda, Brazen Outlaw as a way to create treasures for 2 mana. Being a 3/2 for 2 with no drawback at worst isn’t as great a statline as it was, but I am curious on this card’s potential to build up treasures over time if you have creatures that you don’t mind dying, which can be useful for things about artifact counts or getting something out ahead of schedule. I just don’t tend to see a lot of expendable bodies in decks like GR, although cards like Delighted Halfling can be blighted once, so I’m dubious on its ramp role.

Green:

Formidable Speaker

Power 5, Vibes 5

Jean‑Emmanuel Depraz said this card was designed with cube in mind and it’s been performing well there. It often functions as a one‑shot Survival‑style effect stapled onto a 2/4, which I found to be more than good enough on its own, especially since cube doesn’t have a lot of creature tutors and having an immediate board presence stapled onto a tutor was a both a solid turn 2 play or a play much later, since you don’t have to sandbag a creature like with Survival.

I haven’t seen the untap mode used much, but it has some great things to untap in cube: The One Ring, Tolarian Academy, Gaea’s Cradle, and artifact engines like Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, amongst others. Beyond those, the ability to untap lands for mana fixing or to represent virtual vigilance by letting a big blocker attack and still represent the ability to remain for defense, has proven surprisingly useful in practice and this will likely stick around in cubes for a while.

Bristlebane Battler

Power 4, Vibes 3

I initially thought of this as a middling token payoff because it’s underwhelming on its own, but it doesn’t take long to become a 3/3+ with multiple keywords, which made it well above-rate for beatdown decks and acting like an easier‑to‑enable Patchwork Automaton. Ward 2 and trample keep it from being shut down by the usual suspects (spot removal and chump blockers), and while it doesn’t strictly need tokens to be good, it’s noticeably better when tokens can accelerate its growth. My main worry is it being a poor topdeck late, but that’s a common weakness for most two‑drops.

Mutable Explorer

Power 2, Vibes 3.5

As an early preview, this card was seeded into drafts and it never really made much of a splash, since the Mutavault body was usually too small to matter in the later stages of the game. In the early-to-mid game, usually it was preferred to have a non-colorless source of mana than something that could potentially be a source of damage later. I’ve honestly never been a fan of cards like Farhaven Elf and Wood Elves - in the early 2010s when it was a common talking point that “mana rocks like signets make green bad” I argued that the problem was playing weak creatures like those.

Usually, when looking over decks and sideboards, I’ll look to see if any new cards should have made the main deck, but Mutable Explorer being in the sideboard almost always felt correct, which tends to bode poorly for a card’s cube performance.

Being 2 changelings is nice for cubes that care about that kind of thing, but most cubes aren’t going to be impressed with this.

Springleaf Parade

Power 1.5, Vibes 5

If Mutable Explorer making 2 changelings is a potential upside, this promises much more of that upside. Essentially, this is an Awaken the Woods, where the creatures make rainbow mana instead of just green mana and can let existing tokens tap for mana right away.

I’m just not sure what a good rate for this is supposed to be. Is it 2? I’m not sure, and that’s what makes me super weary for this for cubes.

Multicolor:

Eirdu // Ashling // Oko // Sygg // Brigid

Eirdu: Power 3, Vibes 5
Ashling: Power 3, Vibes 5
Oko: Power 1.5, Vibes 5
Sygg: Power 3.5, Vibes 5
Brigid: Power 4, Vibes 5

Although these cards are all different in function, I’m listing these here as a whole, since they’re functionally 2 color cards that take a turn to do something else. In the case of Oko, the front side is a means to an end to get to the backside.

With others, like Eirdu, Ashling and Sygg, their front side is something fine enough; Eirdu has been fine as a Baneslayer riff and in testing, I saw the U/W Sygg work well in a 3-0 U/W tempo deck, leveraging the ability to work with 1-drops as a pseudo-Curiosity, but it was able to sneak in damage with the backside as well. Ashling was fine as a one-shot rummage tacked onto a ⅓ as well.

Brigid sits somewhere in the middle, where most of her value is on the back side, but is still fine as a couple of warm bodies, although if she dies to spot removal, you’re just left with a 1/1. If everyone survives, usually she’s able to tap for at least 3 mana, which usually results in having access to a lot of mana later.

Bre of Clan Stoutarm

Power 2.5, Vibes 4.5

A lifegain‑matters card that does not require other lifegain is always welcome, since those cards usually need support; this one mainly just needs a creature to throw. Assuming you have something to throw, it effectively draws a card each turn while providing card selection, which is a solid floor. Cubes that use balanced multicolor sections may have trouble including it, because it competes with many strong cards in R/W and taking a turn to be able to do its thing is a real cost.

Hybrid:

Figure of Fable

Power 4.5, Vibes 4

As another early preview, I have been testing this alongside the original Figure of Destiny, and the new Figure has been excellent. It really feels like they updated Figure of Destiny for 2026, with slightly larger and more useful creature upgrades; leveling to a 2/3 has been great for trading in the early game for its first mode.

What surprised me was the change to colorless mana. Historically it was hard to level Figure of Destiny in decks like U/W, but Figure of Fable reaches higher levels much more reliably.. Reaching a 7/8 did not happen every game, of course, but it occurred far more frequently than Figure of Destiny becoming an 8/8.

Figure of Fable does lose the benefit of being a red permanent for cards like Ajani, Nacatl Pariah, but otherwise I think it is a solid 2026 analog.

Catharsis // Deceit // Emptiness // Vibrance // Wistfulness

Catharsis: Power 2.5, Vibes 5
Deceit: Power 2.5, Vibes 5
Emptiness: Power 2.5, Vibes 5
Vibrance: Power 4, Vibes 5
Wistfulness: Power 2.5, Vibes 5

Essentially, these evoke elementals have modes:

Evoke for XX.

Evoke for YY.

Cast them as a creature, including XX in the mana.

Cast them as a creature, including YY in the mana.

Cast them as a creature, including XX and YY in the mana.

As magic players, we generally want to extract maximum value from cards, which sometimes leads to evaluative misfires. Being in the corresponding 2-color pair means we have access to all 5 modes, which theoretically makes them best in decks of the corresponding 2-color pair.

But I’ve been thinking about these elementals more; for many Magic players, their context for evoke is through the MH2 pitch elementals like Solitude and Fury, where they could be evoked and “scammed” back into play cheaply via cards like Ephemerate and Not Dead After All, but most of my personal experience with evoke was playing cards like Shriekmaw and Mulldrifter fairly.

Of course, it’s 2026 now, but generally I think evaluation is overly focusing on the free/scam modes and the inability to utilize that, rather than them being modal spells that have virtual kicker to make a body.

In general, I’ve usually used a “base rate” to talk about when modal cards want something that a cube deck wants as an effect for a deck, but cards like Virtue of Persistence, Grim Bauble and Momentum Breaker’s poor performances got me to thinking that this modality doesn’t mean much if the cards aren’t efficient, and arguably, none of these modes on these elementals are efficient, with the RR Volcanic Hammer mode on Vibrance being the closest (and its green Sylvan Scrying mode is pretty good when finding marquee lands), letting Vibrance being a decently-sized FTK later on. They do lose out on non-cast shenanigans but I’ve been decently happy enough with Shriekmaw over the years to still like Vibrance.

For the others, I’m more weary as I’ve been able to see Deceit and Emptiness from seeding them into drafts and they were mostly fine; easily the lowest tier of the evoke elementals but cards that still were decent for some of their modes like the Unearth mode on Emptiness. Catharsis being a sorcery-speed Raise the Alarm isn’t great and mostly is just there to burst out a ton of damage, but I’m unsure if that’s what Boros decks want, and I’m unsure if the total package on the relatively inefficient modes on Wistfulness get there either.

Lluwen, Imperfect Naturalist

Power 3.5, Vibes 5

Playing as a wonky Satyr Wayfinder/Town Greeter for a similar mana value, this is one that isn’t even “strictly worse” than a wayfinder, since it cares about creatures as well and gives the wayfinder type to black, which are a dime a dozen in green. Although you don’t actually get either card in hand, milling 3 cards is useful for both green and black and sculpting a potential future draw isn’t bad either.

Getting to Worm Harvest as a retrace spellshaper is a nice late-game use for this, and pitching a land helps you get to where you have 4 lands in the graveyard, which is around when Worm Harvesting starts to feel good.

Tam, Mindful First-Year

Power 3, Vibes 4.5

This plays like an off-color Giver of Runes to tap to protect something. Unlike Giver, it can’t use the protection to sneak past blockers, but it does protect your other threats extremely well, something green rarely provides on creatures.

Pippin, Guard of the Citadel did not do much in cube either, but this card works well in decks with black, red, or white creatures, since they can be protected with the myriad spot removal in the Mardu colors and being in non-white colors is a strength to consider, although that only goes so far. It’s a nice upside for blue tempo decks that can hold up counter magic when an opponent tries to use two burn spells to kill a red creature, too.

Abigale, Eloquent First-Year

Power 2, Vibes 5

This is one of the harder cards from the set to evaluate, and I have a lot of thoughts about it. My first question was whether it is worth spending a card to turn something like a Six into a 2/4 that loses its static abilities. What about a Quantum Riddler or a Sheoldred? They would lose their static effects, but they would still gain first strike, lifelink, and flying. Abigale’s body is not great either, since a 2‑mana 1/1 with a pile of keywords isn’t a strong threat by cube standards.

Without playtesting, my conclusion is that the card is primarily used for upgrading your own creatures that have ETB triggers or for turning otherwise unremarkable vanilla creatures into more threatening threats, and then using the ability to blank statics on opposing creatures as a secondary mode.

That said, I am not sure how valuable that utility actually is. My best impression is that it will rarely be worth the cardboard or the slot in the final 40 of a cube deck, but I’m going to at least try it in my own cube to get reps in.

Eclipsed Kithkin

Power 2.5, Vibes 2

Of the Eclipsed creatures, this is the only one that piqued my interest, since the 3 mana cost for the other Eclipsed creatures is just too much mana for this. As a 2/1 for 2 that gets a land - potentially a typed dual, it’s likely ok as a filler card for WG decks, since it’s a cantripping 2/1, even if the card that it gets isn’t great.

Frontier Seeker is similar but never really did much, although it dug deeper.

Using some quick napkin math, in a deck with 13 hits in the deck:

The hit rates in decks like UW that only had half of the lands as hits fared much worse, so I’d mostly just consider this as a card to only play in WG decks.

Kirol, Attentive First-Year

Power 2-3, Vibes 5

My initial read was that this required too much work, but on second glance I see it as a pseudo‑Panharmonicon for creatures with enter‑the‑battlefield triggers. You can tap Kirol and the fresh creature to get the trigger again, and doubling up on a Palace Jailer or Pyrogoyf trigger is a big upside. It is restricted to once per turn, but I don’t expect the dream scenario of doing it twice in a turn to happen often.

Being a 3/3 with no other abilities is not a great floor, and casting a creature for its ETB only to have Kirol get bolted while the other creature is on the stack is a real downside. That makes me wary of the card, especially since red and white already have many excellent three‑drops.

The Reaper, King no More

Power 3, Vibes 5

My first thought matched what many others had: the nut draws where you kill something like a Flickerwisp, Orcish Bowmasters, Vendilion Clique or another X/1 to get immediate value. The more I considered it, the more I saw this card pairing with direct damage to steal things by cutting a creature down and then finishing it off with another damage source.

What also caught my eye was using it in combat, either as a pseudo‑Falter to discourage blocking or after combat when creatures bounce off each other. For example, you could attack with several 2/1s into a Tamiyo and then cast The Reaper afterward.

Artifacts/Colorless:

Abundant Countryside

Power 2.5, Vibes 4

I’ve been cautiously curious on this as a rainbow land for creatures, since this is the first time we’ve seen that outside of Ancient Ziggurat, which doesn’t tap for non-creature abilities and spells and cards like Plaza of Heroes/Cavern of Souls which are tied to a creature type as cube decks get more creature-focused and this can help cast things like Bitterbloom Bearer on curve more easily.

I’m also curious to see how often this helps splashes happen, like in a B/W deck splashing red for a Headliner Scarlett, while still being a perfectly serviceable land to cast Tidehollow Scullers.

I won’t mince words - the creature-making rate is just terrible, but it isn’t completely blank either; since it can give you something to do when you’ve got nothing better to do. It’s likely more additive distraction text than anything, but it’ll be nice when the stars align for typal synergies, like making a 1/1 for Pyrogoyf.

Thanks for reading! You can find my socials and my cube lists on my Linktree, as well as other cube set review articles and design articles that I’ve written over the last 15 years.

Ratings method:

1. Since the Aetherdrift review, I’ve used a couple of scales to rate a card, via power and “vibes.” The former is pretty self-explanatory like normal set reviews, like from LSV’s set reviews:

Also, to give credit where it’s due, I’d been using a cue from Scuffle D. Lux’s set reviews by noting a power level band for some cards and an approximate rating for “vibes.”

Examples, using the vibes scale for the latter:

• Fuel the Flames: Power: 3, Vibes: 1

• Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer: Power: 1, Vibes: 4

• Opera Love Song: Power: 4.5, Vibes: 3

• The Endstone: Power 3-4, Vibes 5: