Usman + TrainmasterGT Aetherdrift Cube Overview
We’re racing into Aetherdrift to talk about cube!
The cards are sorted by color and how much we like the cards, on a scale of general “power” and fun on a scale of a red light (1, low), yellow light (3, mid) or green light (5, high) to show interest in the cards from those respective ratings.
Since fun is highly subjective, the rating for that is as well.
Before we go into the cards themselves, some big-picture items from the set that’ll impact cubes.
Lots of things are incidentally artifacts. In my article about Heirloom Blade, I talked about how Critical mass for artifact decks rely on raw numbers and payoffs:
“These kinds of critical-mass decks are tricky in Cube, since those decks require:
Lots of cards of a matching type in the cube, so that drafters are able to have enough matching types in the deck.
Payoffs that you reward you for catching ‘em all.
Other linear strategies that rely on a “gotta catch ‘em all” type of gameplan (enchantress, Affinity for Artifacts) work similarly and essentially boil down to the same thing: raw numbers and payoffs.”
In a lot of cubes, for artifact-centered decks, the issue was never an issue with payoffs (unlike Enchantress) but the raw number count being too low to hit critical mass for decks to reliably draft the archetype. I’ve always personally enjoyed having artifact strategies in my cubes with cards like Nettlecyst, Legion Extruder and Galvanic Blast taking advantage of high artifact counts, Galvanic Blast especially since the floor is still acceptable without metalcraft.
It’s a cliche to talk about game objects, but cards like Voldaren Epicure and Piggy Bank did a lot to tie the room together to support those archetypes, as they weren’t parasitic to artifact decks (unlike the payoffs) but made it so that decks could more reliably hit 10+ artifact/artifact makers in the deck to reliably hit the artifact payoffs. With things like Grim Bauble, they help to make that strategy more reliable as something to design around.
Vehicles/Mounts: Vehicles are more aura than truly a creature (and Mounts are like a weird mix of aura and creature, almost like bestow,) and one thing that I’ve not seen discussed is looking at Vehicles in terms of how they boost a creature. Jim Davis had some videos talking about Aetherdrift, talking about how crew 1 was a pretty trivial cost, 2 was a cost but not too awful and 3+ is when it starts to be a real cost, but not a lot has been said about the value of how much vehicles boost things. They’ve historically been pretty good against mass removal and tokens are generally good at crewing these for maximum advantage of the crew power bonus rate and so far, that’s been the case with these too.
Cycling: It’s been around for ages and we’ve not been gated to only cycling 2, but there’s a few cards with cycling 1 and 3, which do represent pretty different play patterns - where cycling 1 has a floor where it can resemble a Reach Through Mists, which is a pretty respectable floor, but of course, we’ve seen a myriad of 1-mana cyclers which didn’t do much in a lot of cubes (but the power level of a cube can make that floor more playable.) Cycling 3 can take up a good chunk of a turn’s mana, unless done late. Duskmourn brought some more delirium cards to the party, and some artifacts with cycling also quietly help enable hitting delirium (Valor’s Flagship and to a much lesser extent, Detention Chariot) to push those cards as well.
Start Your Engines!: We’re mainly looking at these “Start Your Engines!” cards in a vacuum, although they do work well together. It’s something that could be something to design to, especially if including multiples, but they’re mostly just standalone cards ala energy cards in cube.
Edit: One thing that can sneakily help enable Start Your Engines cards are things like Gingerbrute and Tin Street Dodger (essentially hasters with evasion.) The former is a piece of tech from aquaone’s cube, a cube that has a lot of initiative, and Gingerbrute is very good at yanking initiative back.
THE AETHERSPARK
TrainmasterGT: Why yes, I would like a Planeswalker I can grab with Stoneforge Mystic! The Aetherspark is a weird card, but I think it’s fascinating. The fact that it can equip for free and can gain a boatload of loyalty every turn from the creature it’s attached to connecting seems very appealing. Perhaps this is just a case of me getting excited by the shiny, new, unique thing, but I still think it’s cool.
“Power” Rating: (2) Red/Yellow
Fun Factor: (5) Green: It’s a Planeswalker Equipment, what is not to love?
Usman: My initial thought was that this was firstly an equipment that had an ability to be used, and secondarily as a planeswalker. I’ve previously talked about how a lot of premium equipment like the Sword cycle used to be high picks, but aren’t now because decks play to the ground more. This doesn’t have to connect like a sword, but it gets a lot worse when the wearer dies, I found, in a WU tempo deck with Stoneforge Mystic. Like a lot of pure stat equipment, it was great when ahead and had times when it was just awful when behind, since its initial boost (+1/+1) wasn’t very big for 4 mana.
It was very Feast and Famine-y, since sometimes it’d just rot in hand since it was too slow and other times it’d be drawing 2 cards (when the coast was clear to attack without its bearer dying, and the creature was a 3/3-4/4) multiple times. It never got cashed in for its ult but that shouldn’t surprise anyone and it never died to an Abrade but it being an artifact is a real liability, like with Perilous Snare. It may just be a “big dumb green beater colorless card” instead of a “true colorless card” which does help it stick around in my cube, but I’m pretty mid on it.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: If anything, because it’s a planeswalker equipment.
WHITE
Spectacular Pileup
Usman: Cycling cards have historically fallen into a few categories: situational cards and under-rate cards. Arguably, this is either. Generally, the best ones have a good mode that works with what decks want to do: Shark Typhoon, Censor, Miscalculation, Unearth and the LoTR landcyclers all do something that a cube deck generally wants to do.
Cycling on modal cards is big and the only other wraths with Cycling are Akroma’s Vengeance and Sweltering Suns, although neither of these really see cube play. The former because it’s way overcosted and the latter… might be because there aren’t a lot of “small wraths” in a lot of cubes, at least in red. The anti-indestructible text is nice, but it’s mostly just a wrath with cycling for 5.
I’ve frequently talked about how with these kinds of modal cards, they have to have something that a cube deck wants on some level. A 5-mana wrath may be stretching the definition, since it doesn’t have any upside ala Sunfall etc. Sunfall’s been a solid cube card and this doesn’t exile things/make a post-wrath threat, so I don’t expect this to be as good as that but I think it’ll hang around cubes for some time.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (1) Red: meat and potatoes wrath.
TrainmasterGT: Most five mana wraths usually aren’t great options for powerful Cubes, especially in a post-Sunfall era. However, the added cycling to Spectacular Pileup makes it a much more appealing option, since players won’t get stuck with a wrath they don’t need or can’t cast. Modality can’t always make up for shortcomings in utility, but I think this card is decent enough to be a contender for many lists.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: I’m a sucker for cards with cycling and this is the first cyclable true wrath in a long time.
Basri, Tomorrow’s Champion
TrainmasterGT: Magic Moses is back, and this time, he’s a Savannah Lion! I have been a really big fan of 2/1s for a single pip that have synergistic abilities that help you do things other than attack. I think Basri being able to make cats and cycle when drawn late adds some legs to the card. I don’t love that you have to exert him in order to make the token and that he has a high cycling cost that comes with a narrow bonus tacked on. The reality is unless you just happen to be doing some cute Cat Tribal things in your Cube, that text is literally worthless 99% of the time (sorry Chrono). I think I would be higher on this than I am if the cycling cost was lower and he didn’t have the extra cat text or if the indestructibility applied to all of your creatures (even in exchange for a more expensive cycling cost).
“Power” Rating: Yellow.
Fun Factor: Yellow: I would make this Green if it didn’t exert or if it cost less to cycle.
Usman: My first impression was from it being played in a white aggressive deck and it was pretty much a vanilla 2/1 for 1. I’m guessing it having to Exert was done in development since just being able to pump out cats EOT was probably too strong, but I never really saw it get to where the board would get stalled out and Basri would start pumping cats out. I’m getting the feeling that the 2W cycling ability is mostly just to cycle when it’s a dead draw, and not so much for the cat thing, but that’s something that’s probably going to have some actual text, as TrainmasterGT put it in the Foundations article. It’s a nice failsafe mode but it’s a lot of mana, and the impression that I’m getting is that it’s spreading itself out too thin but being really mediocre at everything that it does. I’ve played worse, but I honestly don’t expect it to stick around for very long.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow: fun with tokens and life gain.
Voyager Glidecar
Usman: The Scry 1 really helped with making this feel less like a bad topdeck or when at board parity, since it did something other than pump a 1/1’s stat lines. The deck that I had it in (a UW tempo deck) was one that could have used the middle ability - as I’ve put in Warden of the Inner Sky as a recent addition (but one that I’d not seen yet) but it never did. Funnily, its 3 toughness is probably my favorite part about it, since having 3 toughness requires a couple of bodies to take down.
In an aggro deck with a bunch of 2/Xs for 1, it doesn’t give a power boost, but it’s nice with smaller tokens/utility creatures. My initial read on this card was that its middle ability was gated to sorcery speed, ala Warden of the Inner Sky, but not having that restriction is very nice when the board is stalled and you want to keep your ground crew untapped while accruing counters on it. Admittedly, most of my experience with Warden has been in Constructed formats, but I think this has some good potential, since you can just tap your things at EOT.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green: a way to point drafters for tokens as well.
TrainmasterGT: Beep beep! Did we need a vehicular version of Warden of the Inner Sky? Probably not, but it’s cool that it exists. Voyager Glidecar exists in a nice place compared to other aggressive cards where it can tangle with some larger creatures without getting stonewalled. The biggest thing I struggle with is seeing where it fits in: there are already so many good one-mana White threats that I think the bar for what makes sense for many Cubes is going up all the time. I think Voyager Glidecar probably needs a home where it’s being an artifact matters or where there are enough small creatures hitting the board to give it flying and counters every turn.
“Power” Rating: (2) Red/Yellow.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow/Green: I am just not very impressed by this card, but I do like Warden of the Inner Sky.
Perilous Snare
TrainmasterGT: Perilous Snare is one of the few Start Your Engines! cards which I like. The Banishing Light floor is playable by itself, but once you’re at max speed and you can start dumping counters onto one of your creatures this card becomes quite a bit better. It seems a little slow for aggressive decks, which is unfortunate since those strategies could likely leverage this better. The biggest downside for this card compared to other Banishing Light and Oblivion Ring variants is that it’s an artifact, meaning that it is susceptible to a broad swath of removal spells that cant hit its peers.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow/Green: upside on an Oblivion Ring is a cool place to be.
Usman: I wasn’t that big on this being an Oblivion Ring, since those are pretty slow these days, but hadn’t considered the additional liability of it also being an artifact, which is really bad for these kinds of thing since one of the better things about Oblivion Ring and friends is that enchantments tend to be on the safer side in cube, permanent-wise. The Start Your Engine text is a bonus, but the pump being sorcery speed takes a lot out of the combat potential with it.
“Power” Rating: (1) Red.
Fun Factor: (1) Red: another meat-and-potatoes removal effect but one that gets incidentally hit by artifact hate.
Nesting Bot
Usman: Nesting bot more like nesting bad am i rite ROFLEOTLFOLERLFLLSDLFLO
TrainmasterGT: Is this card doing anything that Doomed Traveler and friends are not? Something like Indebted Spirit just eats this card’s lunch. I think there’s something to be said about playing Nesting Bot with Gleeful Demolition and/or Kuldotha Rebirth, but that’s more of a constructed combo than something that would show up in the vast majority of Cubes.
“Power” Rating: (1) Red.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow. A mediocre Doomed Traveler variant still has the same cool synergies!
Usman: It’s mostly for redundancy with Indebted Spirit and cubes that care about artifacts (for crit mass/metalcraft, etc. Essentially the same cubes that would play Court Homunculus and Toolcraft Exemplar, which I’ve done before), since the Max Speed thing isn’t going to matter a lot in the late game. It does at least help it punch through 2/2s but it does look like it’s a ways out for a lot of cubes.
“Power” Rating: (1) Red.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow. Potential fun with artifacts/tokens.
Wizened Mentor
TrainmasterGT: Wizened Mentor may look similar to Harsh Mentor on first blush, but there’s a key difference: this card triggers only once per turn. I don’t know why the designers have felt the need to put the “once per turn” rider on so many recent cards, but I think it really hurts the playability of this one.
“Power” Rating: (1) Red.
Fun Factor: (1) Red. I am offended by this card.
Usman: I honestly wasn’t super on board with it before seeing the rider, since it’s kinda middling and seems like a Charismatic Conqueror at home, which someone pointed out on Reddit and being gated to once a turn is just… weird. It makes a lot more sense with things you can proactively do (to prevent going infinite) than hoser effects. The problem is that it doesn’t really do enough, and at least something like the Conqueror has a fine-ish base rate on the body for what it’s doing.
“Power” Rating: (1) Red.
Fun Factor: (1) Red.
Skyseer’s Chariot
Usman: You don’t tend to see vanilla Pithing Needle much these days in cubes, with some playing Phyrexian Revoker as a way to hose things. The power boost of +1 from a 2-mana permanent is low, like with Voyager Glidecar, but flying helps and the effect sticking around even if uncrewed is nice in the face of mass removal. I’m slightly concerned about its lack of efficiency - it’s no Smuggler’s Copter (few things are) but it's still something that boosts power and gives evasion and may just get there if it supplements a game plan of slowing the opponent down. I want this to be good, but it only being a “soft hose” makes me weary.
“Power” Rating: (2)Red-Yellow.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow.
TrainmasterGT: I have seen people comparing this card to Smuggler’s Copter, and I just don’t see it outside of the fact that this is a 3/3 flying vehicle for two mana. It can’t go in any deck, it has a steeper crew cost, and it has a significantly less relevant ability. It’s not a bad card, but I don’t think it inspires much excitement.
“Power” Rating: (1) Red.
Fun Factor: (1) Red.
Bulwark Ox, Gloryheath Lynx
Usman: I’m grouping these together because they’re a pretty similar role: filler-tier 2-drops that can do things when saddled. A 2/3 lifelink isn’t the most absurd rate these days, but it still eats 2/2s and can accrue value ala Hunting Cheetah by getting lands. The ox ended up playing fine but a long ways from Luminarch Aspirant, and its sacrifice ability only saving creatures with tokens was a slight annoyance.
“Power” Rating: (2) Red-Yellow.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green for synergies with lifegain/counters, respectively.
TrainmasterGT: I like both of these cards a lot. However, they both fall in the “mid power trap” where there are a ton of options that can fill a similar role as these cards. I will never get mad about more choices for lower and mid-power environments.
“Power” Rating: (2) Red-Yellow.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: these both look like great fun in the right environment.
BLUE
Rhet-Tomb Mystic
Usman: I feel like this is a card that I would convince myself to like since it lets you throw things into the bin and it’s a 2/1 flier for 2 in blue, but out of the blue 2/1 fliers for 2 in the set, I slightly like Diversion Unit more, even with the restrictions on its Mana Leak ability (and I honestly don’t think I’m going to play either.) I’d seen some comparisons to this being a looter type effect and that does have some merit, but this at least isn’t limited to once a turn. Still, I don’t see a lot of blue decks throwing multiple things into the graveyard in a turn but… it could happen.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green. Potential fun with graveyard synergy.
TrainmasterGT: 15 year old me would have had a heart attack if he saw this card. I was (and still am!) a big fan of the cycling/dicard archetype in lower power Cubes, where decks would win with cards like Drake Haven and Archfiend of Ifnir. Rhet-Tomb Mystic enables all of the relevant cycling synergies on a decent body. Plus, it’s a Zombie, a creature type which often matters in the type of environment where “cycling matters” works as an archetype. As-is, I don’t think this card is something you can expect to plug into a Cube
“Power” Rating: (2) Red-Yellow.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: giving things cycling is great fun!
Waxen Shapethief
Usman: It’s another Stunt Double riff, trading the ability to copy any creature with only copying your own, being able to copy artifacts and being able to be cycled. Overall, I’d say it’s an upgrade, especially since cycling helps with the times when a clone wouldn’t do anything and there’s some fun potential with being able to set up stuff at the end of turn. Power level wise, I’m slightly pessimistic since I’d generally rather have something more high impact.
“Power” Rating: (2) Red-Yellow.
Fun Factor: (5) Green. Clones are fun and more so with flash for tricksiness. Fun graveyard stuff too.
TrainmasterGT: I honestly hadn’t given this card much of a second thought, since I tend to prefer cheaper clone effects when I Cube them. However, I think the combination of flash and cycling makes this closer to some weird version of Heiroglyphic Illumination than other clone variants.
“Power” Rating: (2) Red-Yellow.
Fun Factor: I’m not very high on Clones, but a cantrip Clone is pretty cool!
Stock Up
Usman: It’s a sorcery, but it’s a meat and potatoes draw spell - a sorcery one, unfortunately, which takes a lot of the appeal away for me. It’s worse than Brainsurge, and I don’t know how many cubes are in the market for this, but the card selection is nice since it digs so deep.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow
Fun Factor: (1-2) Red. Meat-and-potatoes draw effect. Could be Red-Yellow because it digs so deep.
TrainmasterGT: Divination has fallen, long live the “basically Divination but with an upside!” In all seriousness, I like that this card can do a mini Dig Through Time//Memory Deluge impression on Divination’s spot on the curve. I think this card is going to be perfectly serviceable in many Cubes.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (1) Red. Card selection on my Divination? Yes please!
BLACK
Locust Spray
TrainmasterGT: I’m going to be honest; I think any opinions I have on this card will be colored by the fact that this was a preview card given to our podcast, The Pack One Slick Ones, by Wizards of the Coast. Luckily, I think a removal spell that cycles for a single black mana is always going to be a fine card in a creature-oriented Cube. Cantrips are generally great and this is a cantrip that can kill a huge swath of powerful utility creatures, like Dark Confidant, Young Pyromancer, and the various Birds of Paradise variants. It can even kill Mother of Runes in a pinch, so long as it’s already used its protection ability for the turn!
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green: combat tricks with cycling are awesome.
Usman: In a way, this is a worse Disfigure; I’ve almost never seen Disfigure as a combat trick, since it usually just killed a small utility creature. That may be part of the puzzle with this:
How often is it useful as a combat trick when it can’t just kill a utility 1/1, as combat tricks are getting to where they’re good enough to tussle in more high-powered cubes?
Does it being in a cube make it so that it has to be respected as a combat trick?
How often is it the right call to just throw it away? (the last one likely is more matchup dependent.)
I really just like how well it plays in a lot of decks and its actual spell mode is pretty respectable, cube-wise. I’m likely biased due to previewing it but I do like that the actual spell mode is pretty real unlike a lot of the 1-mana cyclers like Boon of the Wish-Giver, which I almost never saw hardcast. In a way, they represent opposite ends of the spectrum for utility: while both are situationally useful on game state, one’s better when flooding out in the late game, the other early in the game.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow: the fun of having a combat trick in the meta.
The Last Ride
TrainmasterGT: I don’t know if I necessarily want to have to crew my Death’s Shadow, but I think being able to draw cards while making my creature bigger in the process is a pretty good tradeoff. While I don’t think this moves the needle of playability for “Suicide Zoo” or Grixis Shadow decks being a thing in most Cubes, I think it is a cool enough option to be worth considering for someone who already plays those decks and/or was considering doing a Shadow plan and just never has.
“Power” Rating: (2) Red-Yellow.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: Death’s Shadow is a fun buildaround and this card is both an enabler and a payoff for that deck.
Usman: I… honestly have no idea how to rate this thing. The high mana cost of drawing a card makes me think of Arguel’s Blood Fast, which ain’t a great sign but it’s at least a way to try to get your life lower. AspiringSpike talked about how it can be played on turn 1 unlike other shadow effects, which is a nice upside.
I’m thinking this’ll likely end up being a redundant piece for singleton cubes that want to make Death’s Shadow decks a strategy, but I'm still weary on the strategy for cube. But this is the most “safe” of the Shadow-style cards to play.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: the payoff of playing the Death’s Shadow deck and having another creature to supplement the namesake.
Quag Feast
Usman: This is likely one of the standouts from the set as a virtual Fell meets Hero’s Downfall type of effect - I never really liked Fell since it’s slow due to it being sorcery speed. Even with Fell’s effectiveness, I’m finding myself liking sorcery speed cards a lot less these days (even Virtue of Persistence) when there are similarly statted instant/flash options out there. Usually hitting planeswalkers has been enough to move the needle for removal spells to justify a 3-mana cost and milling isn’t flavor text either for strategies that care about that kind of thing.
“Power” Rating: Yellow-Green.
Fun Factor: Red-Yellow. Meat-and-potatoes removal but it mills, which is kinda fun.
TrainmasterGT: Quag Feast is infinitely better than it looks at first blush. The vast majority of cards in your average Cube are likely to cost less than three (or maybe four) mana, with one and two mana plays representing a significant portion of the card pool. As a result, Quag Feast is almost always killing anything on the battlefield by the time you get to cast it. Like Usman said, it might as well be Fell but with the ability to kill Planeswalkers and Vehicles and a free “mill two cards” tacked on.
“Power” Rating: (4) Yellow-Green.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow: synergistic removal is more fun for players than generic removal.
Intimidation Tactics
Usman: I’ve always liked these kinds of “look at your opponent’s hand, take something that matches a condition” type of cards, and I’d had Dreams of Steel and Oil in my cube before, and the base mode didn’t whiff that often I’m not really going deep on reanimation in my cube so the lack of ability to exile something in the yard is probably less of a factor and I’m personally leaning towards Tactics since it can be tossed if need be. With its cycling ability costing a billion mana, it lets you at least do something with a dead discard card, which is an annoyance with these kinds of cards.
The cycling cost is a lot, but given how useful it is in the early game/loses value in the late game, I don't mind the high cost since we don't see these kinds of effects having cycling. Because of that, I'm optimistic.
“Power” Rating: (4) Yellow-Green.
Fun Factor: (1) Red. Meat-and-potatoes discard.
TrainmasterGT: Hand hate effects are some of the trickiest cards to balance in a Cube, since the three most powerful versions (Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Koziek, and Duress) are just so much more powerful than their counterparts. Intimidation Tactics might be able to add a fourth member to this pantheon of awesome discard effects. While it doesn’t have the most inspiring group of potential targets, the fact that it can cycle in a pinch is awesome.
“Power” Rating: (4) Yellow-Green.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow: having the option to cycle or cast the spell is really nice.
Grim Bauble, Momentum Breaker
Usman: The always brilliant LAA11/What If Brews has a recent substack talking about the top cards in Aetherdrift, and mention Grim Bauble and Momentum Breaker as standouts from the set. I’m putting them in the same area as something that does something at a decent rate and leaves something behind, and Momentum Breaker has some text that makes it useful against opponents that don’t have creatures and is a kinda-Food permanent for free.
I’m not as high on these as LAA11 is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if these two end up being solid cube performers, especially in formats where these can be picked back up for value and/or have ways to actively use the permanent in play.
“Power” Rating: (4) Yellow-Green.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green: If there’s ways to make reusing the permanent a thing, ala Nurturing Pixie in Standard.
TrainmasterGT: These two cards feel pretty context-dependent to me. I think they make sense in Cubes where the card types are going to matter, either for Delirium shenanigans or as part of an Artifacts or Enchantments matter theme. I like Grim Bauble a lot more than Momentum Breaker since it’s cheaper and doesn’t use the speed mechanic. However, I like the fact that Momentum Breaker uses speed in a way that is relevant even if you can’t get to max speed.
“Power” Rating: (4) Yellow-Green.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow: see my previous comments about synergistic removal.
Gas Guzzler
Usman: I’ve played a lot of 2/1s for B with benefits that are mostly mid but this requires a lot of turns to get active. It’s at least a small creature that can, in theory, help to turn its MAX SPEED active, and the ability’s pretty good for times when this gets stonewalled (in a similar vein with Basri.) I still have doubts though, since it’ll be vanilla for so long.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow: People dig the sacrifice thing.
TrainmasterGT: I think Gas Guzzler is pretty close to Tormented Hero 90% or more of the time. That’s not necessarily an issue: Tormented Hero has a pretty good floor all things considered. It’s just that you’re probably not going to get to max speed often enough to have the interesting part of the Guzzler actually work. It’s almost like Falkenrath Pit Fighter in that regard: it has a good late game ability, but it very rarely has the actual chance to be relevant.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow: but only because it’s so dang hard to enable!
The Speed Demon
Usman: This is one of the better START YOUR ENGINES cards since it doesn’t need to hit max speed, which has been the issue I’ve been seeing with a lot of cards with the mechanic. Getting to untap with this on 2 speed should be able to win the game, since this also means you’ve likely attacked with a 5/5 flampler, but like a lot of 5-mana creatures like this that don’t leave anything behind, it’s pretty bad against instant speed spot removal.
Triggering at EOT does help to limit the feelbads to be limited to instant-speed removal but I can totally see how that would be a bar for entry for some cubes. I’m going to give it a whirl, at least, but am doubtful how long it can keep up the pace.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: if only because I’m going to laugh so hard when someone dies from it going too fast. Big GAME OVER YEAH energy!
TrainmasterGT: Big Demons are some of the coolest cards in the game, so it’s not a surprise that The Speed Demon is the coolest card that causes you to Start Your Engines! From a design standpoint, this card is excellent. The Speed Demon encourages you to end the game quickly using the cards he draws before killing you with loss of life. As a 5/5 flying trampler for 5, the Speed Demon can definitely help you kill your opponent before killing you. While I don’t think this card is going to make it into that many Cubes due to starting engines, I think it will be a cool card for the people who end up using it!
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green: demons are cool!
RED
Greasewrench Goblin
Usman: Takes on this that I’ve seen have mostly been saying this is fine, but once people play it more, it’ll climb up in their ranks. It unironically played better than Kellan, Planar Trailblazer in a 3-0 RG stompy deck that tried it out. Since Greasewrench didn’t have to bypass the mostly underwhelming middle ability on Kellan. Spending 2R played well enough by being able to do a lot - discard things, represent a lot of burst damage, cycle cards later on, etc. Mono-red aggro is certainly less of a thing these days in cubes (as the “fun police” to beat up on durdle decks) but I still have red aggro as a force in my cube and although it’s no Ragavan, it’s been performing well enough to earn its keep for a while, especially given how many of them over the years have had text like Falkenrath Pit Fighter and Falkenrath Gorger.
“Power” Rating: (5) Green: it's close between it being borderline green light or solid, but it's good enough to hang in the not-Ragavan tier of 1-drops.
Fun Factor: (2) Red-Yellow. A meat-and-potatoes beater, but the self-discard and combat trick is a fun wrinkle.
TrainmasterGT: Greasewrench Goblin showcases exactly why I love the Exhaust mechanic so much: the card has a good floor, but “draws” you an additional spell later in the game. The fact that this card plugs into both counters and discard synergy is nothing to sneeze at, either, although these are far from the only reason this card is relevant. As I have mentioned when discussing the other one-mana threats from Aetherdrift, we’re getting to the point now where there are enough good early game options for aggressive decks that designers can be more selective in choosing their one-drops. Gone are the days when we have to play literal Savannah Lions and Jackal Pup just to round out our aggressive decks: we have lots of good options and can pick the things that speak to us. Greasewrench has so many things going for it that I think this card will be one of the most popular card for a wide range of Cubes in this set, and may end up being one of the more popular red one drops in general.
“Power” Rating: (5) Green: this is one of the better Red one drops, and it ties in with a bunch of different things Cubes may be supporting.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: Synergistic options that are still generically good are hard to come by, but they tend to be fun when they appear!
Marauding Mako
TrainmasterGT: Marauding Mako answers the question “what if Flameblade Adept cared less about going all-in on one turn.” Turns out: you get an awesome synergistic one drop! While I think this card has chops in constructed (especially the Hollow One decks which have seen a resurgence with the unbanning of faithless looting), I think Cube designers may want to be slightly selective about where they deploy this card in their lists. Marauding Mako really wants a density of discard effects to help ensure it’s never a 1/1. Commonly played cards like Faithless Looting (preferably nonsingleton!), Voldaren Epicure, and even Fable of the Mirror Breaker can help to buff up the Shark, but you still need enough of these effects to ensure it isn’t a 1/1 most of the time. The Mako being able to cycle for 2 helps it to never be a truly dead card, but that doesn’t change the fact that it needs some density of discard in order to function as intended.
Regardless of restrictions, this is one of my favorite cards in the set, and I want to build a Cube where it is powerful even if I can’t swing it in my main Cube. The rate is good, the art is great, and the synergies are fun.
“Power” Rating: (4) Yellow-Green: this card goes nuts if supported.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: this card screams “build around me.”
Usman: This and Ivora give some great payoffs for going deeper on cycling and discard, ala cycling and it’s nice that it’s an early beater that can cycle itself away in the late game. Like Ivora, this is something that will some work to make work, but we’ve been seeing this become easier to naturally support in cubes with the cards that TrainmasterGT referenced. My only gripe is that it’s pretty mediocre without a lot of self-discard (which is the issue with this card and others like Cryptcaller Chariot.) Each card like this and each card with cycling/self-discard gets us one step closer to critical mass, so the potential’s certainly there.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow but including multiples definitely pushes this harder and could see this becoming much higher in the ranks in a few years.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green: another piece with Ivora to make self-discard a deck.
Draconautics Engineer
Usman: I know that everything’s kicker is the joke with exhaust cards, but it’s one of those riffs that has a lot going for it, power-level wise, since it lets you take advantage of being able to deploy something cheaply and then kick it later. Essentially, it’s Monstrosity with a new coat of paint on it.
I threw Draconautics Engineer in to try out and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was - like with Greasewrench Goblin, being able to activate exhaust at instant speed was great. The engineer’s base rate is pretty bad as a 2/2 for 2, but it was able to threaten burst damage with making a dragon with haste for 5 mana, making one at EOT for 4 mana, or to give other things haste. It’s, so far, been much better than expected, but that may be because my expectations weren’t that high to begin with.
“Power” Rating: (2) Yellow-Red.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow: Making dragons and/or bursting a lot of damage is pretty fun.
TrainmasterGT: Aetherdrift is a Timmy’s delight: even many of the cheap cards can make big awesome creatures! Giving a relevant threat Haste in the early game while popping out a Draconic Dinosaur token in the late game makes this card an excellent inclusion is a reasonably wide range of decks. Really the only place where this card is lacking is it’s floor. Being a 2/2 for 2 with no combat upside is not very inspiring in most environments these days. I think that’s probably fine though, I don’t think a card like this was ever making it into most high tier power-motivated lists anyway.
“Power” Rating: (2) Yellow-Red.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green: I think Exhaust is going to play really well.
Gastal Thrillroller
Usman: This is very good at burst damage, doesn’t die like a lot of Ball Lightning style effects but just becomes a less efficient attacker after it does its thing, effectively like Fleetwheel Cruiser, both in terms of immediate effect and power boost (+2 on Thrillroller, +3 on Fleetwheel) and can at least come back from the grave for a decent mana rate. It’s a nice way to have a burn-style effect in a cube without playing Lava Spikes. Is it better than a generic Rabblemaster style creature though? My gut says yes, but not by a lot.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (2) Yellow-Red: It’s a way to enable discard but I imagine its home will be mostly in beatdown decks.
TrainmasterGT: I am not a particularly big fan of this card and mostly would want to play it to bridge the gap between Artifacts Matter and a Discard/Graveyard theme. I think Usman is definitely correct in saying this card is better than some of the Goblin Rabblemaster variants (specifically the ones that need to attack), but I just don’t think it makes it into a lot of power-focused environments. I think synergy is key to this card’s success!
“Power” Rating: (2) Yellow-Red.
Fun Factor: (2) Yellow-Red: I don’t think this card will be all that fun unless there are lots of things it works well with in a given Cube.
Territorial Aetherkite
Usman: I don’t know if a lot of cubes need a 6-mana hasty dragon thing, since the upside is pretty small for a 6-mana finisher, and potentially it’s too little, too late, and while isn’t a crashing and burning on stage, I’d personally rather just have an Inferno Titan/Overload of the Boilerbilges.
“Power” Rating: (1) Red.
Fun Factor: (1) Red: meat-and-potatoes hasty beater. I don't think the small wrath helps make it more fun.
TrainmasterGT: I think this card is a solid fine/10. In environments doing energy shenanigans the Aetherkite could be cool, but I feel there are more impressive options for other contexts. I think Dracosaur Auxiliary is genuinely cooler than this in most environments, even though it’s power level is lower.
“Power” Rating: (1) Red.
Fun Factor: (1) Red: I think most other cards are cooler than this.
Chandra, Spark Hunter
Usman: This honestly felt like this was a Daretti design that got changed into a Chandra, since this just seems a lot more like a Daretti design - lots of Chandras deal with burning things and this only really does if it gets to embleming and, to her credit, she does emblem very quickly. This just doesn’t seem like it does enough, although it’s got some potential with it being able to spam out 3-damage hasty things for free, although they usually won’t snowball/are capped by the crew that you have.
It’s another case of where I don’t know what deck wants this outside of decks that want a way to dump something in the grave and/or ways to take advantage of ways to generate artifacts.
“Power” Rating: (1) Red.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green: for cubes that like having a way to repeatedly generate artifacts and potentially emblem this quickly via proliferate, etc.
TrainmasterGT: You’re so right about Chandra feeling like she was supposed to be a Daretti. As much as it makes sense personality-wise for the hot-headed and quick-thinking Chandra to be into a high stakes field such as racing, this particular card just doesn’t feel like what she normally does. As for Chandra’s abilities… I think this card is fine? Four mana splashable Planeswalkers are cool, but this one feels a little on the weaker side. I may be underrating the vehicle token and crewing things for free every turn. Either way, this outing of Chandra seems only ok.
“Power” Rating: (1) Red.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow: This card can do cool things sometimes! It’s just… maybe not as cool as other Planeswalkers.
Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer
TrainmasterGT: It’s always nice to get more versions of the Goblin Welder effect, but I wonder how useful this will be on a five-drop. This definitely feels more like a card for Cubes built around trying to get players to “live the dream” instead of “win the game” in the more degenerate environments that usually play Welder variants. As such, I feel that Daretti doesn’t necessarily mesh well with the efficient rate of some of the other cards working in this space.
“Power” Rating: (1) Red.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow: This feels like it’s trying to be Welder but BIGGER.
Usman: WELDER TO THE XTREME!!!1
That’s the issue I had with it as well, when I saw it, that it’s ultimately a 5-mana card on an effect that’s generally under that mana cost. It at least has “titan text” for its ability, but it’s still not what I’m interested in, for that rate, even if Daretti himself can be a decently mid-sized threat.
“Power” Rating: (1) Red.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green: Another fun way to enable getting big robots into play.
Fuel the Flames
Usman: It’s an instant-speed wrath that’s slightly under-rate, since most red wraths deal 3 to everything at sorcery speed, but cycling’s really nice. My gut says that it’s worse than something than Brotherhood’s End but potentially better than Sweltering Suns, due to Fuel’s instant speed.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (1) Red: Another meat-and-potatoes wrath ala the white cycling one.
TrainmasterGT: I was never a big fan of Sweltering Suns, but I think this being an instant and cycling for two mana is a game changer. I don’t think there’s much to say here: if you like Volcanic Fallout but can’t stand its lack of flexibility, this card is for you!
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow: Cycling. Cool. Moving on.
GREEN
Agonasaur Rex
TrainmasterGT: Is Agonasaur Rex the ultimate Timmy card? It’s an 8/8 trampler for five, but it also cycles 2G and puts two +1+1 counters on a creature while making the target indestructible for the turn. So this card is basically a hugely above-rate creature that also comes with an uncounterable cantripping protection/pump spell that still draws you a card even if its target is removed. I don’t expect this card to be the right fit for a ton of Cubes, but I think it’s awesome for the places that can play it.
“Power” Rating: (5) Green.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: RAWR! I will drown the world in 8/8s, and barring that, by making one of my creatures indestructible.
Usman: It really is a good example of a card that’s Timmy-flavored but has enough play to it and potential raw power to not just be a weak big-mana do nothing. It being a 5 mana 8/8 that doesn’t have any immediate effect/way to protect itself isn’t super absurd (Kalonian Hydra and Verdurous Gearhulk did that already, and those don’t see a lot of cube play now) but the ability to cash it in as a combat trick is nice, since that mode does so much for the mana: effectively a permanent Wildsize with some extra utility and I think that’s where the primary mode on this was. That said, the deck that had it was a green rampy deck and usually just cast this as a giant beefy thing, and that may just be the primary mode after all, since it’s so good at just killing people quickly.
“Power” Rating: (5) Green. Close enough to the borderline but it’s very good.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: An on-rate combat trick, a way to dump it into the graveyard and just being absolutely massive. Big fun!
Webstrike Elite
Usman: While this sounds like a web browser from the late 90s/early 2000s, this is a good example of modern-day power creature level, where it can be played as a decently-sized threat but can just be a Slice in Twain to deal with artifacts and enchantments. It gives this a nice spread for the middle game when a 3/3 reach may be useless. Using this to Naturalize something for X=3 mana is when the deal starts to look bad, but it’s still an option. I like it better than something like Scrapshooter, both of which are beefy creatures first and utility second, rather than something like Reclamation Sage or Foundation Breaker which are both primarily utility with the body being secondary. Potentially concerned that it's too much of a "jack of all trades, master of none" but the spread has me cautiously optimistic.
“Power” Rating: (4) Yellow-Green.
Fun Factor: (2) Yellow-Red: A meat-and-potatoes artifact/enchantment hate card, but it can be a beater!
TrainmasterGT: I really like Webstrike Elite. Watchwolf with a keyword is already a passable floor. What sets Webstrike apart is it’s cycling ability that comes with a scaling Naturalize effect. In Powered Cubes, Webstrike Elite eats Moxen for brunch!
“Power” Rating: (4) Yellow-Green.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green: I think you cycle this one a lot less often than by just playing it, but man is the modality here cool.
Thunderous Velocipede
Usman: I hadn’t seen a lot of attention for this, it’s kinda like the Enduring cycle and how those got underrated since the base rate mode is something that’s usually on cards that are bad. I had expected this to be pretty middling but the ramp deck had it play super well. Usually it came out on turn 2 via a mana elf and usually paid for the investment by far. My issue with anthem-style effects is that they don’t do anything without help and this doesn’t either, but impressions were that it being able to turn into a good-sized beater was enough extra utility since a 5/5 beats pretty hard and this also just goes really hard with token generators, we found (*extremely* well with things like Hangarback Walker.)
“Power” Rating: (4) Yellow-Green.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: Goes super hard with tokens and giant beaters, that’s big fun.
TrainmasterGT: The potential this card has to put power on the board cannot be understated, especially since it can be a pretty big attacker in its own right. I am somewhat reminded of Tribute to the World Tree by this card, since both of them put counters on creatures you play. Unlike tribute, the Velocipede buffs large creatures more and doesn’t draw cards. However, I think being able to attack is a big upside here, event though this needs to be crewed. While I am definitely not as high on this card as Usman, I think it definitely deserves more attention than it has received.
“Power” Rating: (4) Yellow-Green.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green: The high ceiling here is cool, but I’m worried it will get a little frustrating. Still, it should be fun most of the time.
District Mascot
Usman: I’m not sure what deck really wants this - it’s too small for green midrange. Maybe in aggro that wants to have something maindeckable to hate on artifacts? I really just like Haywire Mite and Webstrike Elite more.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (5) Green because it’s cute. :3
TrainmasterGT: I’m a sucker for cute dogs, but I can’t help but get distracted by how much harder it is to get a counter on this compared to Hopeful Initiate. I am not one who likes to make super clear card-to-card comparisons when things don’t function the same way, but when I see duos like Hopeful Initiate and District Mascot, I can’t help but draw comparisons. To me, I think this card is mainly at home in Cubes with a heavy emphasis on counters synergy, especially with a Hardened Scales deck or Proliferate as a subtheme.
“Power” Rating: (2) Yellow-Red.
Fun Factor: (5) Green, because Doggo.
Molt Tender
Usman: This may just be, primarily, a way to mill yourself and secondarily as a mana elf. That may just be the puzzle with this thing, since these kinds of conditional mana elves generally don’t do enough - but when looking at is as a mill engine that can also just works with fetches and cheap turn 1 plays - it could work. Maybe.
“Power” Rating: (2) Yellow-Red.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green: If anything, as a way to mill on demand.
TrainmasterGT: Molt Tender is one of the coolest cards in the set in my opinion, since it’s pretty close to a “normal” mana dork like Birds of Paradise, but can also be used to enable a wide range of graveyard synergies. I’ve seen people calling Molt Tender a “Deathrite Shaman at home.” While I don’t think that comparison is quite accurate since Shaman can exile from any graveyard whereas tender can only hit that of its controller, I am under the impression that these cards are going to be closer than one might expect. Molt Tender is the type of card that has homes in a lot of Cubes if it ties into relevant themes.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow
Fun Factor: (5) Green
MISC
Marketback Walker
Usman: Not just a “Hangarback Walker at home” but likely the worst of the Hangarback/Ballista/Marketback trio - a green ramp deck played this and it usually got cast for X=2+, which is about what I expected since casting it for 1 isn’t great and it doesn’t do enough on that mode like arguably the old guard can at X=1. Like with the others, it isn’t great on pure mana rate, but first impression was good enough for it to hang around since drawing cards on death was usually a fine payoff and an effect lacking in colors like green and found that it can be a decent mana sink in green decks with mana lying around too, like with Ballista. This may be how I convince myself to play Trinket Mage in my cube again.
“Power” Rating: (4) Yellow-Green.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green: a sweet counter synergy and big mana payoff thing.
TrainmasterGT: Ok, weird take: I really wish this card was called “Walking Market.” The current naming implies it works the same way as Hangarback Walker (you can tap it and pay one mana to add a counter), when it really works like Walking Ballista (you pay four mana to add a counter). Is this a gameplay issue? No. Does it make my increasingly boomer heart sad? Absolutely.
The card is fine, though, I think there are some cool synergies it can work with. I want to put this in a Hardened Scales deck in a Cube where that’s a thing.
Skyserpent Seeker
Usman: It’s another value flier for 2 that has deathtouch, and has similar characteristics to Baleful Strix and Ice-Fang Coatl, essentially trading its draw for an Explosive Vegetation-style effect and a kinda combat trick. It’s likely worse than those others and worse than the broken Simic 3-drops, but it’s a solid card underneath those. I didn’t talk about it on my recent appearance on the Uber Cube podcast about Simic, but it’d have been a card that fits what Simic likes to do: get value, ramp and sometimes peck in for chip shots.
“Power” Rating: (4) Yellow-Green.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow: Does a lot of little things and quietly is absurd with a landfall card in play.
TrainmasterGT: I was really high on Skyserpent Seeker on first read, but I’m not actually sure it’s all that great. It’s going to be a 1/1 flying deathtouch that never gets to activate it’s ability much of the time. That rate isn’t necessarily where you want to be in a Simic deck much of the time. However, Simic has a bit of a power void beneath the 3-4 most powerful cards and the next power cluster, so I think Skyserpent Seeker may end up having a home in Cubes that aren’t necessarily pushing power but are still looking for reasonable threats.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (5) Green.
Brightglass Gearhulk
TrainmasterGT: So. We’ve got a new cycle of Gearhulks. What do you think about these?
Usman: There’s a Frank Karsten article about the number of sources to cast things on curve (updated in 2022 for 40-card decks.) So it ain’t easy to cast on curve but… how good is it off-curve? Honestly, it’s not bad, since it’s a tutor for small creatures (and artifacts) and the effect is generally worth 5-6 mana. I tried the gearhulk out and it didn’t see play - my cube has about 15% (the average-ish for a lot of cubes) of lands, but even if cast on turn 5, it’s a good rate. I see this getting creatures most of the time, but I’ll be happy to see it fetch Marketback Walker and friends. 4 power and first strike is also just so good at attacking in the mid-game vs green decks with 4/4s.
“Power” Rating: (2-5) Extremely dependent on available fixing: can range from Yellow-Red, from being too hard to cast, to Green.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: Big tutor and can make for some fun deck builds.
TrainmasterGT: Souping up a Ranger of Eos is a great idea, but justifying the upgrade by requiring four specific mana pips is pretty rough. That said, cards like this often reminded of the video “if it looks too hard to cast, it probably isn’t,” which talks about the history of decks playing cards with difficult mana costs. Essentially, while cards with mana cost restrictions can be more difficult than usual to cast than their peers, they don’t always ruin the playability of the card, so long as the mana can work. While the video approaches mana costs from a constructed standpoint, I think a lot of the same theory can apply to Cube, so long as the environment provides sufficient fixing for drafters. I think cards with more pips, like Brightglass Gearhulk, are a good way to help encourage designers who worry about fixing causing “soupy decks” to play their fixing. You really can’t expect to play a Brightglass Gearhulk (or other cards with similarly difficult costs) outside of a two or three-color deck, even in formats with good fixing. So by including these cards, designers can help to guide their drafters back into a number of colors they find more reasonable without needing to sacrifice fixing for everyone else.
Riptide Gearhulk
Usman: I like this slightly less than Brightglass gearhulk - it’s pretty much a Ravenous Chupacabra for non-lands, and its combat stats are pretty good. It might just be apples-to-apples comparison, but my comparative dislike is that I don’t like this as much as Teferi, Hero of Dominaria or Fractured Identity for 5-mana effects on pure power and ease-of-casting. It’s at least less miserable to play against. I’m not sure if cubes would want another of this effect, but it does supplement UW and Esper control.
“Power” Rating: (2-4) Dependent on available fixing: can range from Yellow-Red to Yellow-Green.
Fun Factor: (3) Yellow: Arguably red since it’s just a meat-and-potatoes removal thing, but double strike and prowess makes for interesting combats.
TrainmasterGT: This is my personal favorite member of the new gearhulk cycle– I think it’s cool to give control decks win conditions that care about getting in for damage. The fact Riptide Gearhulk has prowess, a powerful ETB effect, and is an artifact means it can also plug in to more midrange oriented U/W decks without feeling out of place. I really want to suit this thing up with an Ensoul Artifact and attack for 10 or more damage in a turn!
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (5) Green.
Pyrewood Gearhulk, Coalstoke Gearhulk, Oildeep Gearhulk
Usman: We’re lumping all of these together since although they’re wildly different in terms of play function, they play similarly in terms of my interest in cube: hard to cast, not super impressive on rate, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if I was wrong on the BU gearhulk, due to it effectively being a Thought-Knot Seer with lifelink, and that card was also very underrated at first. Still, meh.
“Power” Rating: (1) Red.
Fun Factor: (1) Red. Mostly just meat-and-potatoes effects, but maybe the Gruul one’s more fun as an Overrun-ish effect.
TrainmasterGT: I have thoughts on all three of these cards:
Pyrewood Gearhulk: This card feels like another member in a long line of Craterhoof Behemoth knock-offs. There are definitely homes for this card, but it’s never going to amount to more than being a generic finisher calling back to older cards people like more.
Coalstoke Gearhulk: I feel like they put every possible restriction on this card to make it not abusable, which makes cards like this a lot less fun.
Oildeep Gearhulk: How often do you see Thought-Knot Seer in Cubes? Not very often. Partially this is because it uses Colorless Mana, but also because most Cubes don’t play the Sol Lands like Ancient Tomb, Eldrazi Temple, and Eye of Ugin that make it work. Turns out, Thought-Knot Seer is a lot better when it costs two mana and not four. Oildeep Gearhulk does something similar to Thought–Knot, but essentially always costs four mana, and requires four specific pips at that! I don’t think lifelink and ward can necessarily make up the difference here. I would be happy to be wrong about this one, though!
“Power” Rating: (1) Red.
Fun Factor: (1) Red.
Redshift, Rocketeer Chief
Usman: Something gave me a good feeling when I saw it, since the rate is just so good. Oddly Omen Hawker never caught my eye, but it may be because this thing has an actually decent body. Like I mentioned before, I looked for cards with an activated ability and was surprised at the number of hits in red (and some in green) so I figured I’d give it a whirl. The RG stompy deck had a good amount of targets: Hexdrinker, Umezawa’s Jitte, Greasewrench Goblin, Draconautics Engineer, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Sentinel of the Nameless City and Retrofitter Foundry, which is a solid suite for it. Unsurprisingly, the exhaust ability never came up but it’s additive distraction anyway. It’s another case of a card being underrated because it looks weird, because I’m really redshift pilled on this one.
“Power” Rating: (4) Yellow-Green. Very tempted to say it's a green light card but it's close. The rate is just absurd.
Fun Factor: (4) Yellow-Green: I’m probably biased because from a designer POV, I like seeing how many cards can use the mana, but it’s more realistically a Yellow or Yellow-Red. Maybe it gets fun points from its exhaust.
TrainmasterGT: I haven’t taken the Redshift Pill like Usman has, but I can entirely understand why he would make that decision. Redshift ties in well with a myriad of popular cards and can help boost the amount of mana you’re spending on spells by paying for key abilities. I think if this card was either mono-green or mono-red it would probably be receiving a lot more attention than it has. Unfortunately, we still live in a world where most designers put a cap on the number of gold cards they play, which means more generic or niche gold cards like Redshift often get ignored. If anything, I see this as a call to experiment more than anything else!
“Power” Rating: (3)Yellow
Fun Factor: (5) Green
Ketramose, the New Dawn
Usman: I’ve seen some hype for this but I’m not really feeling it, since it’s mostly a card that wants to be played alongside a card like a Ghost Vacuum or Scavenging Ooze type of creature or a lot of blink. It could potentially get there as a A+B payoff for that kind of graveyard hate and/or cards that exile, since I don’t think it gets there in a usual BW deck in a lot of cubes.
“Power” Rating: Yellow but can get to be more green if devoting space to it, because the payoff is great if there’s critical mass. I’m doubtful that it’s there, though.
Fun Factor: Yellow-Green: A fun payoff for going deep on exile and blink, since it isn't capped at one draw a turn.
TrainmasterGT: I am also not feeling Ketramose, he looks more like a constructed build-around or a niche Commander than a card for draft. Having said that, I do want to go off with Ketramose and Ghost Vacuum or Lion Sash at some point. I just don’t think most Cubes are an ideal place to do that.
“Power” Rating: (2) Red-Yellow: I think this card is difficult to make work.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: Gods are fun.
Medicant Core, Guidelight
Usman: An artifact payoff that might just be the best “Start Your Engines!” card since the rate on it copying stuff is absurd. The body itself isn’t awful either, and it hits pretty hard once you get to Metalcraft. Inclusion is mostly dependent on how many artifacts are in a usual deck but the payoff is definitely there. I’m just not sure how often it’ll get to max speed.
“Power” Rating: (3-5) Can be yellow to a solid green, depending on the artifact deck’s strength.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: Artifact payoffs are usually high on this scale.
TrainmasterGT: The Guidelight Voyagers faction is far and away the coolest brand new thing to come out of Aetherdrift, and their leader does not disappoint! Medicant Core, Guidelight is quite exciting, as he’s pretty close to a Watchwolf with the potential to have even more power in the decks that want him. The only thing I don’t love is the fact that it takes so long to start doubling artifacts once you’ve started your engines(!). That particular issue probably doesn’t sink the card, since it is a two drop with the potential to have a ton of power. However, it is still disappointing. Either way, the card is very cool!
“Power” Rating: (5) Green (assuming an Artifact deck exists to support this).
Fun Factor: (5) Green.
Stridehangar Automaton
Usman: A few questions I always ask when I see these kinds of critical mass cards that rely on specific types are:
What is the minimum number of one-shot cards that hit the criteria (generate artifact tokens) I’d want to play this?
How many repeatable cards that fit the criteria would I want in a deck to want to play this?
Being gated to artifact tokens does hurt with this, but not as much as I’d think. Still, I never really saw Chatterfang do much in cubes, and even with a potentially better payoff (thopters > squirrels) this’ll be even harder to hit that critical mass, since it’s restricted to artifact tokens. YMMV, though, especially if a cube has multiple artifact token generators that can be used multiple times.
“Power” Rating: (2) Yellow-Red
Fun Factor: (5) Green: Another fun build-around type of payoff and copying things get high marks.
TrainmasterGT: The more I talk about this card the more I like it. Stridehangar Automaton may look like a callback to Academy Manufactor, but it actually triggers on any artifact token as opposed to just Food, Clues, and Treasures. As such, Stridehangar Automaton can tie in with many cool cards, like Voldaren Epicure, Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Whirler Rogue, and Angel of Invention, just to name a few. While I think one could overstate the number of things Stridehangar Automaton combines with to good effect, I think it’s just as easy to underestimate the potential interactions as well. I’ll call myself cautiously optimistic with this one.
“Power” Rating: (3) Yellow.
Fun Factor: (5) Green: I think this looks like an excellent build-around.
Usman: Thanks for reading! You can find more of my Cube thoughts and my recently updated cube list on my Linktree. If you would like to hear more from TrainmasterGT, you can read about his Cube on Riptdelab, or view the list on CubeCobra! You can also follow him on Bluesky!