Usman's Cube Articles

Cube Overview – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & TMNT Commander

(Originally posted on my Substack on 2/27/26.)

As this round of previews has ended, I’ve written an article about how the TMNT 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.

Although I physically test cards with reps in my own cube, that isn’t the sole basis of basis of evaluation; as someone who works on the Magic Online Vintage Cube list and is familiar with cubes across the power level spectrum, keeping various environments in mind via my ratings scale is always forefront in my mind1.

But before talking about the individual cards, I’ll go over some big-picture things from the set:

Ninjas/Sneak

Unsurprisingly, cards with sneak work best when enabled via creatures that are either evasive, cheap or have some benefit from being bounced (usually creatures via ETB triggers.) The needle can be moved with cheap evasive creatures like Signal Pest, which is more of an evasive anthem than a damage source, but can still get bounced to sneak something into play.

I’ve used my tried-and-true method of seeding cards into drafts, which usually doesn’t mean a lot on a macro scale but having a high density of Sneak cards meant that it skewed the format to be more aggressive; sometimes you’ll see this in limited formats with mechanics where an unblocked creature represents a lot more than just its represented damage, in cases like:

  • When an unblocked creature could mean that a spell gets Dark Ritualed out via spectacle,
  • You get poisoned to death via proliferate like in Scars of Mirrodin limited after getting poisoned or
  • Taking a lot more than 2 damage via a ninja punching you in the face.

Overall, the creature cards with Sneak played as expected like previous ninjas, where some played worse than they looked if they could get stonewalled easily, but most at least had passives/some form of evasion/hit like a truck and felt more in line with 2026-level creatures than expected. The adage that saboteurs without evasion play worse than they look still rings true, and them being able to be countered didn’t come up, although that may be something to look out for, the TMNT sneak ninjas have overall been solid cards. I wasn’t impressed with a lot of non-creature ones, since bouncing a creature usually wasn’t worth the tempo loss of a discounted spell, but I’ll note the ones that I liked in the article.

Things that care about artifacts!

I’ve found over the years that cards that create artifacts or happen to make artifacts helpful to make artifact decks/artifact parasitic cards tick, since cards like Thraben Inspector and Securitron Squadron are solid cards even in cube decks that don’t care about artifacts. Edge of Eternities had a lot of cards that happened to be artifacts, and the TMNT set has some more, having cards that incidentally check the artifact box help to help make like Nettlecyst to hit the critical mass to be worth playing in a deck, while also having some artifact-caring payoffs as there are several cards that really push the payoff angle in this set. The various flavors of unsavory pizza are helpful by being effects stapled onto artifacts for the critical mass for the artifact decks, but not many of them interested me much aside from the Char (Spicy Oatmeal Pizza) which still just seemed meh.

Lots of legends!

As usual in these Universes Beyond sets, we have a lot of legendary creatures, which works with cards like Mox Amber, Yoshimaru, Flowering of the White Tree and Anduril. It’s getting easier to make it a sub-archetype in cube, so expect that to continue this year.

There aren’t a lot of staples in the set, but a lot of role-fillers which should work well, power-level wise, in a cube.

Tl;dr what I like most:

Skip to other sections:

White:

Agent Bishop, Man in Black:

Power: 4 Vibes: 3.5

I’d seen hype for this as a 3-drop for white decks, and it’s been performing well as something’s lived up to that hype. Essentially, this is what you’d get if Ouroboroid and Luminarch Aspirant had a baby, and plays really well if it’s preceded by a 2-drop as I found this to be its best case, but it’s nice that this can attack as a ¾ if it puts counters on itself for its first few triggers. I never saw it combine with Valiant cards like Heartfire Hero and Emberheart Challenger that care about being targeted, but it was a great mid-cost card that helped small creatures scale up, even if it was just boosting itself and a friend, as that usually that was more than enough, like in this undefeated Abzan deck is a good example of a deck that wants Agent Bishop:

White 3s already have a bevy of all-stars and I’ve found it to be competitive with those.

Leonardo, Leader in Blue:

Power: 3.5 Vibes: 2.5

While not on the level of Guide of Souls or Ocelot Pride, I’ve been liking this so far. Most white 1-drops tend to be pretty replaceable with being a vanilla 2/1 with some text for late-game use ala Usher of the Fallen’s boast/Descendant of Storms’ attack ability, and being able to give this first strike was similar to Kytheon’s activated ability by threat-of-activation.

So far, I’ve been impressed with it so far, even when it got run out as a 2/1 for W (which was most of the time) as sneaking it in tends to win combat by representing a ton of burst damage, which you don’t tend to see in white decks outside of Boros, and sneaking this out at least makes this deal 4 damage, which was nice to swing for alpha.

Leonardo’s Technique, The Last Ronin’s Technique:

Power: 2.5 (Leo’s), 2.5-3.5 (Last Ronin’s) Vibes: 3

In Aspiringspike’s video talking about the TMNT set for modern, he talks about how Leonardo’s Technique is better than Collected Company because it doesn’t tax deck construction like Coco does.

I’m not entirely sure if it gets there in cube, though. The Last Ronin’s Technique looks like it’s one of the better non-creature Sneak cards and I wouldn’t be surprised for this to be one of the sneakily good cards, since it provides a tangible pile of creatures that are attacking when snuck out and 3 power for 2 is still a good rate, all things considered, and being able to cast it at instant speed isn’t terrible either.

Splinter & Leo, Father & Son:

Power: 3 Vibes: 3.5

There are a lot of good white 3-drops and the impression that I had was that it’s replaceable but solid, as something that’s mostly just been a 2/2 that puts counters on everything else, ala United Front. Oddly, this felt better than United Front when playing it for putting counters on things, which may be because it’s easier to cast. Usually it’s been sandbagged for when it can put counters on things instead of being cast as a 2W 2/2 + 2/2 as a small army-in-a-can, which isn’t the worst floor, either. It’s felt very good in the go-wide decks where Agent Black has been good, but I don’t expect this to last through the gauntlet of 2026 sets. Still, it’s been nice while it’s been here.

Leonardo, Silver Samurai:

Power: 3 Vibes: 2.5

As one of the early previews, I’ve been able to give this a whirl for a few drafts and it’s been pretty good as a source of burst damage that kinda meets Lurrus, although it’s obviously much more restrictive. Being able to recur things with low power or toughness helps a lot for finding things to recur, and there’s some nice ones to grind like Thraben/Novice Inspector, Thundertrap Trainer, Snapcaster Mage, Eternal Witness and friends. White aggro decks aren’t in need of yet another 4-drop and I’m curious at how often it makes the grade in midrange decks, since the aforementioned creatures aren’t just aggressive beaters, but it’s been pretty solid as a source of 6 damage, at worst.

Triceraton Commander and Lita, Little Orphan Amphibian:

Power: 1.5 Vibes: 2

2025 brought a ton of great 2-drops for cubes and Triceraton’s floor of being a 2-power flier for 2 is not too special by recent creature standards, but it at least scales to the later stages of the game in a more direct manner. In practice, in testing, it was always in the sideboard of white creature decks, and it always felt like that was the correct decision, since the other white 2-drops were just better and it overall didn’t seem great when compared to other things in the deck. I wanted this to be a good scalable threat but it just wasn’t. Similarly, I’m whelmed by Lita as a 2-drop that needs help to be more than a mediocre body, but she’s got potential to punch above her weight class if there’s a token generator online.

Blue:

Does Machines and Krang, Master Mind:

Power: 2-4.5 (Krang), 2 (Does Machines) Vibes: 2

Both of these are obvious artifact cards that reward playing through things on the cheap, as Krang refills your hand and Does Machines works well with cheap artifacts that bin themselves like Chromatic Star and Urza’s Bauble. Does Machines’ second chapter is pretty decent if you have baubles to bring back, since it can emulate drawing 4 + discard 2 for 4. I just don’t know if that juice is worth the squeeze when cubes have options like Stock Up, Consult and Brainsurge, although that way of thinking about things led to many dismissing Stock Up (myself included.)

I’ve rated Krang’s ceiling as extremely high as it’s one of the best pure payoffs for playing a lot of cheap artifacts since it’s a huge threat and potentially draws a ton of cards; essentially the best parts of the old affinity guard (Thoughtcast, Myr Enforcer) combined.

April O’ Neil, Hacktivist:

Power: 3 Vibes: 4.5

For a 4-drop that doesn’t give guaranteed value since it can just die before the end step, it’s had some decent first impressions so far, where it usually drew a couple of cards a turn without much effort on the turn of being cast, and then usually more cards after. She felt, in a way, like a planeswalker as something that could sustain value over a game, although more vulnerable. I’m just unsure if cubes need another big mana sorcery-speed play, but then again, I thought the same about Stock Up (this is no Stock Up, though.)

Donatello, Gadget Master:

Power: 2.5 Vibes: 2

This is one of the ninjas that I liked from the set, as it’s easy to sneak into play with 1-drop and its copy trigger can be useful, even in the early game with cheap artifacts and baubles out there to copy with this. We had an undefeated deck which had this copy a Spellskite amongst other things. While it can copy cheap mana rocks in cubes that have them, I’m unsure if something like this would copy one and then never do anything again. Having 3 power has been nice, though.

Mondo Gecko:

Power: 2.5 Vibes: 2

I mostly looked at this like an odd Psychic Frog that can protect itself, but can’t sneak by things and usually that’s a huge strike against saboteur creatures. This may just be more of a 4-mana play, like how Aetherling was more of a 7-mana play, which gives me some pause. If this ever draws 2+ in a turn cards, then it’s likely worth that main phase mana investment. I just doubt that it is.

Black:

Super Shredder:

Power: 4.5 Vibes: 4

This occupies a space similar to cards like Moonshadow, and although there’ve been a good amount of games where it didn’t do much, usually in decks that are able to synergize well with it (decks with lots of self-sacrificing lands, ways to kill things), it tends to grow to a 3/3 menace without much effort. So far, I’ve been liking how these manifest as a deck, as sacrifice has usually been more of a miniboss in cubes rather than a final boss, but the payoffs in recent sets have really been helping its power level match cube final bosses more lately.

Foot Chopper:

Power: 3.5 Vibes: 2.5

I’m guilty of loving these kinds of equipment that come with a body more than I should, so I always temper my expectations, but I’ve liked this so far, even though it looks mediocre. I’ve looked at this as a 2-mana delayed cantrip/chump blocker, but what’s impressed me most is that its equip cost is pretty cheap, which was useful in the late game to throw things in the air and at the opponent to churn though cards, somewhat like a Deadly Dispute, and when this made a 2+ power creature able to be cashed in for cards, usually that was gg.

Death in the Family:

Power: 3 Vibes: 1

Lacking Anoint with Affliction’s poison flavor text, it’s a clean removal card that did a lot of heavy lifting via exiling things in Standard and Pioneer, even when the Standard format had Long Goodbye. These kinds of cards are never staples and are never a deck’s all-stars, but generally they play well in cube decks as a way to keep small creatures and creature lands in check. This may be more of a sideboard card based on a cube meta, but I’m thinking its exile clause will play better than it looks, similar to Suplex.

Rat King, Verminister:

Power: 3.5 Vibes: 4

So far, I’ve not seen this live up to the potential as Super Shredder and Moonshadow, but I’m mostly just thinking of it as a bargain bin version of those cards for redundancy for decks that want to sacrifice things. Getting something back from the graveyard is likely just icing on the cake, if that happens, and may just be relevant in cubes that run multiples as an aspirational goal, but overall, I see this more as a supporting cast card, not an all-star member.

Game Over:

Power: 3 Vibes:4

While seeded, this didn’t have any reps although I’m thinking this will likely be too little too late for whenever you get to lower life totals. Decks like Boros are usually able to deal a lot of burst damage out of nowhere, but I did find The Endstone to be a solid card because it was surprisingly hard for decks to deal 10+ damage in a single turn. The promise of a 3-mana wrath followed by holding up a counterspell on turn 5 is nice.

Madame Null, Power Broker:

Power: 2.5 Vibes: 2.5

I wanted to like this as she helps to get 4-power creatures for 1 mana via a Bloodsoaked Champion or a bog standard 2-power 1-drop, letting her turn creatures into essential Porcelain Legionnaires, but found that it usually either died without doing much, its life loss being a real drawback or just not mattering all that much by being a ⅓ with deathtouch for 3. The potential is high enough to where I wouldn’t be surprised if this exceeded those initial impressions, since her buffing things doesn’t require additional mana, and can lead to some quick game endings if put onto something with haste, though.

Shark Shredder, Killer Clone:

Power: 2.5 Vibes: 2

Ink-Eyes used to be a decent curve topper in aggressive decks, and a decently statted first striker helps this to not just trade with a couple of 2/2s. I’m unsure if that’s enough these days, like if I’d rather just have an Elegy Acolyte, even after some positive reps with it where being able to be snuck out was useful.

Swift Demise:

Power: 2.5 Vibes: 2.5

For a while, I played Malicious Affliction as a card that promised to be a better Doom Blade for decks that could reliably get morbid and didn’t mind paying BB for the effect. It never lived up to that promise, and I’m concerned that Swift Demise will do the same. During testing, it was mostly just a kill spell for 3 (an inefficient option, but something) but I’m curious to see if this is a card with variable power level as something that works better in decks with lots of small attackers/small burn.

Red:

Casey Jones, Vigilante:

Power: 2-4.5 Vibes: 3

Of all of the cards that I tried out, this was the one that disappointed me the most, due to how narrow the timing window was to cast the drawn cards.

These kinds of “until end of this/next turn” draws have diminishing returns, as Jim Davis pointed out when talking about Burning Curiosity, and that was really felt when trying this out, since you already have to pay 3 mana to get in the door, which usually made this a late game card or something to roll the dice with, since being a 4/3 for 3 is solid but not great by current 3-drop rates currently.

I’ve been viewing it as more of a high-potential synergy piece for decks that care about discarding that works with cards like Marauding Mako or in decks that have a lot of instant-speed burn to use in response to his discard trigger, instead of as a generalist 3-drop for red aggressive decks.

As a “fair” creature, it was really disappointing but the potential is still high if seen as a high-utility synergy piece.

Raphael, the Nightwatcher:

Power: 4 Vibes: 3.5

I’m still a fan of Embercleave in cube and this performed similarly-ish to that when it was played, where it just made combat math a bloodbath as a surprise Blade Historian. It’s arguable that other 3s don’t require setup but the payoff is *really* high on this if snuck out. I’ve overall liked this as a way to represent a ton of burst damage, similar to the 1-mana white Leonardo.

Improvised Arsenaland Ravenous Robots:

Power: 2-3.5 Vibes: 2

Cranial Plating never really took off in cubes like Nettlecyst has, and I figured that the ability to clone itself would help, as the double black ability usually didn’t come up that often and being able to clone itself theoretically helps it to reach its acceptable floor (getting 3+ artifacts in play.) I haven’t had a ton of reps with it so far, but my overall impression of it was that it was fine, since the ability to clone itself can have some combat math implications.

Ravenous Robots’ first showing has similarly been fine, since it was mostly just a worse Young Pyromancer with an ability to give other tokens haste, which hasn’t come up yet but it likely will. The question I always ask myself with these kinds of cards is what the minimum number of cheap cards I’d want to play something like Young Pyromancer or Ravenous Robots; I’d currently say that the minimum is around 6 and is harder to get going than the pyromancer, which makes it a pretty mediocre generalist red card. I’m curious to see if it’s worth it as an artifact payoff, but there’s enough artifact payoffs in TMNT and potentially Star Trek to make that an avenue to pursue.

Cool But Rude:

Power: 2 Vibes: 2

We’ve seen a lot of “Discard matters” types of cards, and the juice could be worth the squeeze here, although the second chapter’s mode not being restricted to once a turn can make for some absurd kills out of nowhere with a free discard outlet. It emulating a Sulfuric Vortex isn’t as useful these days, but being a free damage source, even if it’s on an attacker triggering the Class by itself, could be great.

Wingnut, Bat on the Belfry:

Power: 2 Vibes: 2

As a late preview, it’s another 2-drop for red decks with bat-tle cry.

I tried it out and it’s been ok, it feels like a card that should just naturally have haste, but it made me think of Reckless Pyrosurfer as a replacement-tier 2-drop that buffs the team.

Green:

Mutagen Man, Living Ooze:

Power: 4-4.25 Vibes: 3.5

I’ve been impressed with this as a big mana X spell that can throw around its counters on other things, acting like either a large standalone threat or a big-mana play to give other things a small boost.

It making a lot of rectangles hasn’t been too relevant, but it’s something that can make things that care about raw artifact counts very happy, and being able to incidentally make cracking clues and maps cheaper is a nice upside. This has mostly been played as an X spell that spreads its wealth across other creatures in play. It’s pretty gross with Nadu, obviously, but like with Agent Bishop, it’s also nice with Valiant cards like Heartfire Hero and Emberheart Challenger, although I’ve not seen it work synergistically with other things. It’s mostly just been like a big pile of stats that makes other piles of stats bigger.

Michelangelo, the Heart and Weirdness to 11:

Power: 3 (the Heart), 3-4 (Weirdness to 11) Vibes: 3

I’ve never been a fan of +1/+1 counters as an explicit theme, since it usually ends up being too little juice for too much squeeze and the payoffs outside of Ozolith, the Shattered Spire never amounted to much. Lately, we’ve seen a lot of powerful green cards like Scythecat Cub, Bristly Bill, Badgermole Cub and Ouroboroid just happen to incidentally put counters on things (while being solid on their own) like Nadu, which has been a powerful cube deck skeleton.

Somewhere between Ozolith and Nadu is Michaelangelo, Weirdness to 11, by virtue of being a virtual 3/3 for 3 as a floor. I haven’t seen it as a build-around but it’s been a nice mid-sized threat that incidentally worked with other things, although I’m unsure if that’s because of being seeded with other TMNT cards or due to inherently being synergistic.

Michelangelo, the Heart has been polarizing, as I expected to be a good follow-up to a 1-drop that theoretically grows while providing a food token, but I’ve found that it can be too little too late if you can’t reliably trigger its raid – Searslicer Goblin usually didn’t do enough and I’ve seen some similarities when Michaelangelo, the Heart was just sitting around as a 2/1.

Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker:

Power: 3.75 Vibes: 3.5

I mainly looked at this as primarily a pile of hexproof + trample stats, and secondarily an artifact/enchantment hate piece, similar to Scrapshooter. Having hexproof really helped it to be a sizable threat that usually threatened (and usually was) able to Naturalize something, even if it took a turn to do that, so it wasn’t a quick removal effect for artifacts/enchantments, but it usually eventually killed something and was a solid hard-to-kill threat like Thrun when it didn’t need to Naturalize. I’m hesitant to say it can’t compete with the stacked cast of green 4-drops in a lot of cubes, but it’s been performing decently.

Mikey & Mona, Mutant Sitters:

Power: 3 Vibes: 2.5

Whenever this was played, it was as a 3-mana 4/4 or a Gray Ogre that made something bigger. It’s another card that works well with things that care about being targeted or being made bigger, which is a nice direction to take green into, given its recent strong cast of creatures that do that.

Theoretically, this can act as a Gravedigger-style creature that can get a land, but it always was just a 4/4 for 3. Usually was good enough as a mid-sized beatstick.

Michaelangelo, Improviser:

Power: 2 Vibes: 4.5

This Michaelangelo was in the same deck with Donatello from earlier. I had high hopes on this being a cheat effect that can also be a creature (kind of like Superior Spider-Man) but it never lived up to that promise and got stonewalled or was too low impact if it wasn’t cheating something into play.

Multicolor:

North Wind Avatar:

Power: 4.5 Vibes: 5

I’ve lately been exploring the space of cards that get cards from outside of the game, with cards like some wishes and lesson/learn. While they haven’t made a huge impact, North Wind Avatar has been playing very well in the suite of Izzet cards – it doesn’t have the busted ceiling of Vivi, the raw card churn efficiency of Expressive Iteration and Flame of Anor, but I’ve been a big fan of how well its ETB trigger has played; being a 5/5 sorcery-speed flier for 5 isn’t that absurd, but being a virtual Mulldrifter that draws a very real card has been great, being a much better version of Gnarled Professor, as being able to get anything from the sideboard gives it so much utility.

Being a nombo with non-cast ways to bring it in (reanimation/blink) is a loss but I haven’t found it to be a huge one.

Saying that “the cards in your side board are just worse cards, so why pay more mana for worse cards” is reductive analysis, in part because in cube deck building, sometimes your 24th and 25th cards aren’t just obviously worse than other cards in the deck (think of how often you’ve agonized for your last cuts in a deck.)

This undefeated Jeskai control deck had North Wind Avatar in it, with the relevant sideboard cards included.

Noting which were the best targets in the sideboard:

“Guardian Scalelord, Sicarian Infiltrator and April were on my usual list, but Skyclave Apparation and Chandra, Torch of Defiance were candidates if I had the colors for them.

If I had to choose my favorite and most useful, Scalelord is there for sure. Had a moment where I Scalelorded the Wurmcoil Engine and got back a treachery straight onto a creature that cared about being targeted”

Which gets to the heart of the matter – all of the cards mentioned aren’t bad cards, but are cards got shaved off by being sorcery-speed plays in a deck that mostly played at instant speed.

Think of it more as a build-around card, where you may want to look at taking mana fixing a little higher (or mana sources that incidentally make multicolor/rainbow mana), it’s been a great fun card to have in drafts in its time so far.

Dark Leo & Shredder:

Power: 3.5 Vibes: 3

This impressed me in testing, as a cheap ninja that has deathtouch on attack, which made it incredibly difficult to block and was great value when it connected, since it kinda emulates a Krenko’s Command, and both white and black have a lot of cheap and/or evasive creatures, this undefeated esper deck had it and it worked well there.

Predictably, even in this deck, the “if you control 5 ninjas” thing was flavor text.

For a color combination without busted standouts like in Simic, as Orzhov’s multicolor cards are primarily role-players like Lingering Souls, Vindicate and Tidehollow Sculler, I mostly thought of this as something more specialized to beatdown decks.

Turncoat Kunoichi:

Power: 3.5 Vibes: 3

This was also in the Esper deck, and I’ve liked this so far as something that wasn’t difficult to ninja out as a 4-drop to permanently exile something, but also wasn’t bad as having a floor that emulates classic removal-on-a-stick creatures like Fiend Hunter. I personally tended to like Dark Leo and Shredder more for it nudging the color pair in a more aggressive direction, but I like what both bring to the party.

Hybrid:

Bebop & Rocksteady:

Power: 3.5-4.25 Vibes: 4.5

They’re a big pile of stats which doesn’t lock your draws like Rotting Regisaur did, and it’s about as big without forcing you to discard if you don’t want to. I’m unsure how much of a green card it is, but it’s mostly just seen play in black decks as a beatstick, although being a pile of stats that can be ramped out on turn 2 with a mana dork ain’t nothing. It’s also nice with sacrifice, although I’ve not seen that come up, but it’s a nice upside.

If anything, there’s always Abigale to take away its drawback when it’s indeed a drawback.

Raph and Leo, Sibling Rivals

Power: 3.75 Vibes: 4.5

While most cards that let someone attack twice, there’s a few solid exceptions like Grim Reaper’s Sprint, FOMO and the fragile Combat Celebrant. Being a 2/4 means it likely won’t die in combat either, and being able to swing for 4 – if unimpeded – has been nice in aggressive red decks thus far, since it deals so much damage (especially if he’s able to attack with a friend) as I found in testing. White and red 3s are just so stacked that I’m curious how often this’ll will be a sideboard card, but I’ve liked it so far in aggressive decks, especially as I’ve found the Goblin Rabblemaster variants to be weak in an era where more decks play to the board sooner.

Tokka and Rahzar:

Power: 3 Vibes: 2

I didn’t find this card’s ability to hose cheating casting cards to matter that much, as my initial thought was to compare this to symmetrical damage pieces like Mai, Scornful Striker or the former staple Eidolon of the Great Revel as a way to deal raw damage, even if it’s a double-edged sword (Manabarbs’ flavor text approves.)

Its first deck had it in a red deck with several cards that made its symmetrical drawback happen more often than I’d have thought via cards like Embercleave, other ninjas like Raphael, the Nightwatcher, etc and other decks had it perform mostly as just a 3/2 menace for 2, which honestly wasn’t bad. Being a pile of aggressive stats is mostly enough for me to keep trying it out, since it’s a card that can be played in two aggressive colors, even if it has been a slight disappointment.

Mechanized Ninja Cavalry:

Power: 2.5 Vibes: 4

I mainly have been looking at this as a synergy piece that makes a couple of artifacts for 2 in 2 of the colors that want to do that. Raise the Alarm-ish, but it’s hybrid. It’s what it says on the tin.

Artifacts/Colorless:

Krang, Utrom Warlord:

Power: 2.5-4.25 Vibes: 4.5

Out of the artifacts of the set, this was the one that stuck out most as another big robot to cheat into play as a Blightsteel-type finisher, which thankfully has haste. I don’t see the Akroma’s Memorial-style boost mattering for other robots, since this doesn’t help Living Weapons (Kaldra Compleat, Nettlecyst) which tend to be played in the same decks that would want Krang, but being a 9/9 trample hasty threat may just be enough.

The Ooze:

Power: 3.5 Vibes: 3

What piqued my interest was that this makes a lot of artifacts rectangles pretty easily/as a way to buff creatures and secondarily as a graveyard hate piece. It’s nice that when the mutated creature dies, it essentially can throw counters on something else.

When recently talking about Abhorrent Oculus in cube, LSV noted where he talked about how cube decks want to have at least one way to utilize the graveyard in some way as a resource, like with delve, and cards like Abhorrent Oculus. Because of that, I’m thinking that The Ooze isn’t as much of a sideboard card as it may look, as I’ve liked it more than its closest analog, Unlicensed Hearse, which took a while in a game to be a threat.

Theoretically, having utility outside of pure graveyard hosing makes it more maindeckable, ala Scavenging Ooze, and it’s been performing pretty well in that role. I’m still curious to see how often this will do things like enable metalcraft and/or make things like Nettlecyst massive, but it’s been fine outside of that.

Skateboard:

Power: 3 Vibes: 3

I’ve overall liked this more than Lavaspur Boots as something for aggressive decks and as a tempo play, but I didn’t think it was head-and-shoulders above the old boots. Both perform similarly by giving things haste and triggering Nadu, and having both as options for Urza’s Saga is nice, although I’ve not seen those two work together so far.

Roadkill Rodney, Chrome Dome and Big Mother Mouser:

Power: 1.5-3 (Chrome Dome), 1.5 (the others) Vibes: 2

I’m putting these together as filler robots. Being able to cast Roadkill Rodney as a pair of 2/1 deathtouchers was fine as a defensive play, and I don’t recall seeing it connect once to get mutagen. Big Mother Mouser was similar as a decent-but-not great pile of stats, and was pretty bad if it had to stay behind on defense. Chrome Dome is an artifact creature lord which has the best ceiling, but even still just seems pretty good, not absurd.

Big Apple, 3 a .m.

Power: 2 Vibes: 2

I hadn’t thought about this until Cythare brought it up as an Evolving Wilds replacement; not to be mistaken for the subreddit with amazingly bad dad jokes, this is essentially an Evolving Wilds that trades landfall synergies with its ability to make rats. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this perform better than expected; the token ability is at least cheaper than Abundant Countryside, and it’s at least something to do when flooded out.

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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 that talk about a card’s impact in a limited format:

Also, to give credit where it’s due, I’ve been using something from Scuffle D. Lux’s set reviews by noting a power level band for some cards that have variable power level based on context in some cube formats where factors like speed and effectiveness of removal, format considerations and explicit support change how a card can perform.

The latter is an approximate rating for “vibes.” It’s harder to quantify, but it’s a rating to describe non-power related factors.

Examples, using the vibes scale for the latter:

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