MKM for Cube – Adjustments/Follow-Up

Originally posted on The Third Power Podcast blog.

Originally, I posted this on my blog.
This is partially a test to see how things work, in Substack vs Wordpress (I assume much better, and the UI is more friendly) and partially a preview of how things will look if I do reviews here.

When I started doing cube content, including articles reviewing sets, a lot of cube content was focused on the short-term, following how evaluations had been traditionally been done in Constructed/Limited.

Non-cube content providers who do initial takes for sets usually end up course-correcting in follow-up content that notes how the metagame changed, typically integrating it into live content and noting adjustments when talking about the meta in content (“Turns out, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is really good” when talking about black strategies in Standard, etc) – and this hole never really got patched in cube content.

With these for Lucky Paper, I’ve been looking to find a balance of how much I want them to be an overview of whether they’ll last long-term in my own cube and what my general thoughts are. With the upcoming MH3 review, I think I’ve got a decent grasp on where I want that balance to be, but it’s a living process.

Since there hasn’t been a lot of time that passed with OTJ, I’ve not had a lot of reps with the set with cube and I’d mostly be just outsourcing to my Arena gaming, I’m going to start on MKM for my initial follow-up, and catch up to OTJ after. I’ve highlighted the cards that I’ve adjusted downwards in red and upwards in green.

WHITE

Assemble the Players: 8.5 -> 4

Non-creatures have always been weird in evaluation since they’ve generally been stressed, slot-wise, since white aggro decks don’t have a ton of wiggle room for things that aren’t warm bodies and land. Usually, they’re filled out by things like disruption or super-busted things, and this was one where it tested quite well and usually was well worth the mana’s investment, but it was one of those things that was pretty expendable and something that I cut not too long after. MH3 didn’t help either.

BLUE

Cryptic Coat: 7.5 -> 8.5

A slight adjustment, but I’ve liked it more than I would have as a tempo card that also plays incredibly well in the late game. I’d conservatively rated it because I wasn’t sure how much it’d be played in generic blue decks, but it definitely saw more play than I expected in those decks.

Intrude on the Mind: 5 -> 3

Another card that played decently well in testing, and definitely did the job of Mulldrifter a lot better than the eponymous card itself, but even with the opponent in the driver’s seat of where the good card lies, it still didn’t do quite enough to compete in the long-term with other things in blue. It at least has flash though and had I not kicked out Bribery some time ago, this change probably would have happened.

Deduce: 2 -> 3.5

Forensic Gadgeteer: 1.5 -> 3.5

Conspiracy Unraveler: 1 -> 3

Steamcore Scholar: 1 -> 3

A lot of these are general role-fillers that I could have placed higher in my ratings, although Gadgeteer’s rating ceiling is the highest of these, especially with a ton of artifacts. It isn’t like Kappa Cannoneer where the ceiling is really busted, but it’s overall a nice way to cantrip off of other artifacts. Deduce is another card where I thought that my cube didn’t need yet another 2-mana cantrip – and I still don’t think I do – but could have been bumped up since it works really well in the instants/flash typal decks that I love so much.

BLACK

Massacre Girl, Known Killer: 7 -> 4

Somewhat similar to Assemble the Players, where it fell by the wayside despite doing well in testing, since she generally drew at least a card and usually did enough to warrant the 2BB cost, since her body was also pretty good. Still, I could have rated her lower because she’s not anything like a best-in-show of her cost/type.

RED

Headliner Scarlett: 6 -> 9.5

Prior to Pyrogoyf, I’d say she’s the best 4-drop in red. Now it’s close, but enough time passed for me to find that she usually emulated a Lava Axe enough for the Falter ability on her ETB to make up for the upside on others like Rampaging Raptor, etc. Potentially still best-in-show for aggro curve-toppers though.

Frantic Scapegoat: 6 -> 4

Ultimately replaceable, 4 is a better place for this than 6, since just about a ham sandwich is where this ranks – not necessarily *bad* but something that aggro decks would just take mid-pick if they needed an early body but something that would probably get supplanted in later sets.

GREEN

Pick Your Poison: 4 -> 8

Aftermath Analyst: 4 -> 7

PYP is a card where I struggled on rating it and one of the cards that made me think on how I wanted to “rate” cards in my reviews, since it’s not something that my cube is necessarily in need of, but it’s a card that – in formats like the MTGO Vintage Cube – get a lot better because its efficiency (vs effectiveness) is much more important when artifacts hit the battlefield starting on turn 1. I’m still weary on its place in most cubes and think that I adjusted my rating accordingly in my review, but could have just stated that it was an 8 upfront with a caveat that I’d probably not need it.

Analyst did seem to play a lot better from being self-contained and not needing help, although fetches certainly did.

Undergrowth Recon: 7 -> 4

I think this really needs another set of lands that put themselves in the graveyard to see the limelight, since it can be hard to build around this if it’s not seeded in packs or seen in P2/P3. I still have some hope, though, for it in the long term, since the MH3 Horizon land is *very* good.

MISC

Carnage Interpreter: 9 -> 10

I don’t give out 10s lightly and this being hybrid definitely helps (since it’s a benefit, not a drawback) – initially, I marked this as a very good card but went just shy of calling it a staple. Yeah, this is definitely a staple, since it does so much for the mana and doesn’t really require interactions with artifacts to be good.

Drag the Canal: 6.5 -> 3

Tomik, Wielder of Law: 6 -> 3

Sophia, Dogged Detective: 4 -> 2

Multicolor cards that generally just don’t do enough. I noted earlier in the article that I subconsciously shifted some things downward because of evaluating things in the context of my own cube, but I think I did the opposite with these as they’re not really that great. Sophia especially, just doesn’t seem like a great payoff for going Bant or 2-colors splashing for it. Lesson learned.

Unruly Krasis: 2 -> 6

I was concerned that this wouldn’t be enough of a draw since I find Simic plays super well, but my rating didn’t take into account decks that would splash for it and/or play more to the board. Another heuristic that I’m going to take into account into the future.

Surveil Lands: 1.5 -> 8

And lastly, these lands. I rated them low because of thinking that, in my cube, I didn’t need yet another ETB tapped cycle of lands. And, in fairness, I still doubt that I do now. I thought that talking in depth about the micro-benefits of these (fetchable by fetchlands/landcyclers, sculpting your future draws) would be contradictory to my low rating, so I didn’t do that, but I figured that they were at least better than a lot of ETB cycles, like most of the creature-lands that’ve been hanging around in cubes.

People who’ve been playing them in the MTGO Vintage Cubes said that they like having them as things to pick up as a way to make fetches better and were usually good in decks; while I initially thought “fetches don’t need help”, it’s still a nice little benefit for incidental things like making splashes easier, or even just having something to do with your ETB land instead of getting a shockland.

Angles like these will likely play more of a part in future articles – a lot of early cube articles tended to focus more on the designer POV instead of the player POV and I think that still subconsciously has stuck around, even though a lot more players have gotten into cube.