This article talks about Reality Fracture’s impact on cube, using a generalist high-powered non-thematic perspective for evaluation; as someone who works on the Magic Online Vintage Cube and the “Official Pauper Cube”, has a legacy-lite list (that needs to be updated online) amongst other cubes and having written and podcasted about cube for 16 years, I’m familiar with cubes across the power level spectrum, as keeping various environments in mind is always forefront in mind. At the bottom of the article, you’ll find my ratings scale. I’ve also talked about the big-picture items about Empower Jace below.
For this article, I’m working again with Kai, who’s been doing some great cube articles on his Substack.
This set has been described as a “top 3 standard set” by AspiringSpike, and even without talking about side/downgrades like Prophesied End and Multiply by Zero, so this is a long read.
If you’re interested in getting these cube reviews as soon as I post them and dig my articles about cube design, cube theory, etc, mash on that subscribe button, or whatever the kids say these days.
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White:
Usman:
Power: 2-3
Vibes: 5
I know it’s cliche to compare this to Displacer Kitten, but I can’t help but make that comparison when looking at this as a middling creature on its own that requires other creatures to work with other creatures with ETB triggers, since it can’t pull off shenanigans with cards like Coveted Jewel. I’m power level banding this since it works well with initiative creatures but as a vulnerable combo piece that can’t protect itself well and someone who’s running a few monarch cards, it’s not played very well since it requires a lot of stars to align.
Kai:
I’m on the opposite side of Usman on this card and I think it could be partially based off of cube construction. I think this card is a house when combined with monarch and initiative type effects and if your cube supports this, I think this card is definitely worth a look. I did a quick filter of creatures with ETB effects in my cube and got a lot of hits that I would be excited to blink, specifically in white and red (Ajani, Pyrogoyf, White Plume Adventurer, etc.). It could be a little optimistic to think that any of these stick on the field long enough for the double ETB to occur but I think this card definitely looks powerful, just maybe not as unfair as Displacer Kitten.
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 3
White aggro 2s are a dime a dozen for aggro decks these days, and my initial impression is that it’s solid but not in the high tier; essentially, around where Spectacular Spider-Man/Night Nurse lies. I’ve heard some comparisons to this compared to cards like Glimmer Lens as a creature that draws cards, and while this does have to attack to get additional value, not requiring creatures to attack lets this work well with token generators. I’m seeing the floor on this being where, if you attack with this and get a 2-loyalty Jace, you’re likely fine with the deal, and getting 3+ lets this get absurd and the Glimmer Lens comparison really shines through.
It wasn’t uncommon for this, when it was able to attack, to have play patterns where it’d Empower Jace for 2, surveil, then surveil on your turn to cash the Jace in and then draw a card after attacking, since you usually got another creature.
What stops me from rating it higher is that the body isn’t amazing as a vanilla 3/2, and it can just run into a 2/2 and trade, as saboteurs generally play worse than they look.
Kai:
As this is the first Empower Jace card we’re reviewing, it’s probably the best time for me to say how low I am on this mechanic for powered cube environments. However, I will try to stay focused on this card for reviewing purposes. A 3/2 body is good enough for a white two drop to at least get a look at from me but the ability reads really poorly. If you play this early (turn 1-3), the ability most likely reads as, “When this creature attacks, surveil 1” with an occasional rebound effect. At best, if you go creature→creature→creature turns one through three, it may read as “When this creature attacks, draw a card.” I don’t think either mode is good enough to see play in a powered cube environment in 2026 and without evasion, this card is a dead draw in the latter half of games.
Usman:
Power: 2
Vibes: 4.5
This theoretically spans various archetypes, but I’m unsure where the Mendoza Line is for this. Is it dependent on the number of token-generators in a deck? Planeswalkers? Planeswalkers that make tokens (which are usually one and the same in white?)
It giving a pump to your tokens is a big help, but I’ve seen my fair share of situational anthems, like Honor of the Pure, not do that well these days. Even with all of the extra text (primarily the Cosmium Blast ability) is enough to make this work. Probably not.
Kai:
I have pretty good white token support in my cube and I’m just not fully certain that this card has legs. The passive buff with vigilance isn’t irrelevant for two mana and the Eiganjo like effect stapled to it can also be nice to clear the way for these go wide decks. The planeswalker text seems mostly irrelevant except I guess with Elspeths? I don’t think this is a bad card by any means but I think the card is so caught up and spread out between three different lanes that I don’t think any of them actually want this card.
Usman:
Power: 2
Vibes: 4
At first, I looked at this as a worse Mikaeus, but the more I’ve thought about it, since it has pseudo-haste by being able to mass-pump the team, I’m thinking of it more as an offensive version of Mikey, as a 3-mana card that pumps your team twice (like a worse Ouroboroid.) It’s been another decent card, as it’s had some flexibility as a late-game mana sink and has been testing decently, but one that I wouldn’t be surprised leave in a few sets.
That said, I don’t know how much white decks need this and if this has the same fate as a lot of white cards that have come and gone in my cube – fine while they’re there, but hardly necessary.
Kai:
I haven’t run Mikaeus in years and this card isn’t convincing me to add that effect back. Being a 1/0 is something you don’t see often and the fact that it just kills itself when it runs out of counters is disincentivizing. It really should read as if it’s a 3-drop at least because casting it for anything less than that is self-sabotage.
Usman:
Power: 1.5
Vibes: 4
I haven’t liked this much as it’s extremely feast and famine – and it was usually famine – since it doesn’t do much without explicit lifegain strategies (which are usually bad) or being able to consistently attack. I wanted to like this as a way to push advantage while attacking, like a Caustic Bronco that gained you life, but it being so bad when behind was awful and a very real strike against it.
Kai:
I don’t really know what’s going on with white two drops that surveil one in this set but here’s another one. If you support life gain at all in white (I don’t), it seems to be a pretty solid card. It plays like a win-more card with Guide of Souls and Ocelot Pride so could maybe sneak a slot with those two. I think if it was an unconditional surveil on the end step with the card going to the hand IF you gained life, the card would be much more playable but as it is, I think it’s still pretty weak.
Blue:
Usman:
Power: 4.25
Vibes: 2.5
This has been performing well above expectations, unlike a lot of previous mid-sized flash threats. The common play for this is that it’s either played in combat to trade with an attacker and keep a 4/2 token version or just play it EOT and start clocking the opponent. Usually, these flash threats have had low toughness, so they usually trade down, but getting a copy token has made it play so much better than previous iterations.
Looting on attack has made this work incredibly well when looking to turn the corner, since it also just closes games out quickly and overall, I’ve found this to work pretty well in blue control decks since it works so naturally in their gameplan. This’ll surprise people.
Kai:
I’m a huge fan of flash-fliers and this is the best one I think we’ve seen in a while. Four power and replacing itself is awesome allowing it to trade without much of a consequence. The attack trigger to loot is also good, especially if the non-token copy can stick around for a while. This presents a fast clock and is what I would call a very pesky card. The clock that this card represents is the most underrated part of it.
Usman:
Power: 4.25
Vibes: 4
This also has continually impressed me during testing; it’s been highly underrated as a way to heavily discount spells, even if her body is awful, as there haven’t been many other riffs which do this for all non-creatures, since previous iterations were restricted to instants and sorceries. She’s played well in decks with a lot of 1X non-creature costs, since that’s where the juice is with this Thalia, and making 1-mana artifacts free has already come up, but it’s been a great generalist blue card.
Theoretically, her being a cheap creature can be a problem for those decks since, at least in game 1, the opponent’s looking for targets for their removal, and this may just be an easy target, but that wasn’t as much a problem as I would have thought, since this helped to defend it with 1U soft countermagic ala Mana Leak and Remand.
Kai:
Geist of Saint Thalia absolutely rips as a blue two-drop. I’ve still been running Baral as a storm enabler and this does everything that he does but better. Reducing all noncreature spells instead of only instants and sorceries is sneakily so much better than the latter, specifically in artifact decks.
It will never feel good to burn removal or counter magic on these mini enablers so I think it should stick around except into maybe a heavy burn matchup. Two toughness also means that it doesn’t die to Bowmasters which is also surprisingly relevant. I have this in contention for best card of the set.
Usman:
Power: 4
Vibes: 5
There’s an obvious point of comparison between this and Jace, The Mind Sculptor, so far, from testing we’ve found this to be a better overall card than its old counterpart. For the most part, it’s been a token bot that draws cards, which is practically unheard of for a 4-mana planeswalker to draw cards while upticking and still doing something. If the 1/1s are vanilla creatures, since they’re usually just cannon fodder to stall the board while drawing, the illusions not having other keywords hasn’t been much of an issue. Not being able to play this and immediately draw has been slightly annoying, but not enough to make this play poorly. Essentially, a modern-day Elspeth-Knight Errant, and also in blue? Truly a fractured reality.
Usually the minus ability, like Teferi, Hero of Dominaria’s, is something nice to have in pocket but generally something that you don’t want to do unless you have to, and being able to tuck artifacts, as well as his ultimate, aren’t flavor text either.
There’s a question of whether to have this Jace or JTMS, but I honestly just think that’s an arbitrary barrier to put on a cube, as if a cube wouldn’t be able to have both. Eventually there’ll be a day when Jace, TMS isn’t cutting the mustard anymore. Most cubes aren’t there yet.
Kai:
My initial reaction to this card was similar to Minsc and Boo when that first came out, where it looks really good for EDH but I’m unsure of how it will play in a cube environment. Passive card draw and blocker creation is basically exactly what you want out of a boringly good planeswalker. The “-2” is good enough for extra defense if needed but similarly to Jace, The Mind Sculptor, the ultimate is more of a flashy game interaction than an actual win-more ability. Regardless, I think this is good enough to see play but I’m not convinced cubes will need two 4-mana Jace cards. I will probably just stick with JTMS until proven otherwise but would not look at you funny if you had this included.
Usman:
Power: 2-4
Vibes: 3
It’s at least better than Deceiver Exarch and Pestermite, since it’s so much better if you’re not comboing off, and it at least has flash unlike ones like Corridor Monitor.
You know if you’re in or out of the market on this one, since it’s still middling outside of the Kiki plan as a 3/2 loot effect for 3 mana.
Kai:
Another set, another obligatory splinter twin/kiki-combo card. As the resident Kiki-combo guy, this is my favorite I’ve seen in a while. The draw/discard is an interesting floor that they added to the card and I will be adding this in immediately for Pestermite. If you play the combo, you should add this card.
Usman:
Power: 3.75
Vibes: 4.5
So far, I’ve also liked this Chandra, as she’s been playing as a 3-mana mana rock that also just draws cards and does a decent job of defending herself in board states where she’s only being threatened by a solitary creature.
Like with other mana rocks that generate a mana on your turn, she’s been best in decks that can proactively use the blue mana generated via cheap cantrips and/or other ways to use the mana, but it was nice when she was able to draw cards. Sometimes, she locked the sole opposing creature for a couple of turns while representing a card draw engine/mana rock, which is a relatively unprecedented thing for a 3-mana planeswalker, and in a good amount of decks, it wasn’t hard for her to just draw a card every other turn.
Being unable to use the mana on your opponent’s turn was annoying, but that, as well as her emblem being clunky, didn’t really move the needle too much.
Kai:
Although this card is probably worse than the previously mentioned Jace, I am much more excited for this card. I love Chandra, Torch of Defiance (yes, even in 2026), in cube still and this reads exactly how I’d want a color shifted Chandra to look like. 3 Mana for similarly color shifted abilities that give you card advantage, mana, pseudo-removal, and an emblem (weakest part of the card) is just awesome. We’ve seen this be good on Torch of Defiance before and I think the mana reduction and color change will see it slotted into cubes right away.
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 3
Blue finally gets a tried-and-true Wall of Omens (with Flash!) after all these years, even if the activated ability is mostly flavor text outside of the mirror. Being able to represent being a cantrip and a defensive play is nice – although when played as a mid-combat blocker, it doesn’t let you draw that turn so you can’t get your peanut butter with your chocolate, but being virtually a cantrip on a wall is something we usually don’t see at instant speed anyway. It’s been one of those role-filler blue cards, like most blue cantrippy cards.
Kai:
As you should know by now, I’m not a big fan of the Empower Jace ability. However, this is probably one of the few exceptions. Like Usman pointed out, this basically reads as a blue Wall of Omens and giving control decks more time and a can trip on a two drop is exactly what these decks want. The last ability could be viable in Doomsday piles or more unfair decks that struggle getting through counterspells but I would be shocked if that ability is used in more than 10% of the games that it is played in.
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 4.5
For the most part, this emulated Quick Study with some card selection if the Jace stuck around, and although it takes a while to fully squeeze all of the juice from the Jace lemon, you get most of it from casting it on the opponent’s turn and drawing a card on both turn cycles. Not being able to draw 2 when digging for answers has been a slight drawback, but hasn’t come up too often, and I’ve liked it more than some of the clunkier ones like the recent Riddles in the Dark, but it overall felt fine when cast – around Brainsurge-level, and replaceable like Theorist’s Proxy.
Kai:
Oh boy, more empowering Jace. 3 mana for basically a draw and very rarely another activation on another Jace you control does not feel good. I think that a lot of the value of flash with bodies is the surprise factor and the combat tricks that they present. In my eyes, flash speed putting a planeswalker body onto the field is fairly irrelevant given that the card doesn’t affect the boardstate at all. If you can get it to stick around, it does present itself as a surveil 2, draw 2 over 3.5 turns (3 turns and the flash turn). I’m not sold.
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 4.5
I’ve been seeing this more as a Champion of Wits riff than a Seasoned Pyromancer, since this loses out on this being a draw 2, but lets you sculpt your draws for the payoff of a big card advantage play later in the game, ala Champion, and stunning something isn’t flavor text. Overall, this seasoned creature’s graveyard ability is better, since you can cash it in for 2 cards at instant speed, since Champion of Wits’ eternalize required you tapping 7 mana on your main phase, which meant it was usually if the game was going incredibly long and you were flooding out.
Kai:
I never thought that the discard two, draw two on Seasoned Pyromancer was that great until comparing it to this card. The tap-and-stun ability is better than Seasoned Pyromancers and really shapes this into a really good tempo play either on three or later in the game. The instant speed graveyard ability is also relevant later in the game.
Usman:
Power: 2
Vibes: 5
I’ve seen a lot of tempo-only cards in blue and they’ve usually been middling and don’t hang around. The rate is pretty unprecedented for blue to get the ability to turn something into a ⅘, but I’m unsure if it’s better than a Giant Growth most of the time.
Maybe I’d like it more in white, a color that is in the red zone more often than blue. I want to like this.
Kai:
This card reads as a better Fractalize, which I thought was an underplayed cube card from Secrets of Strixhaven. A one mana shrink spell is a fine combat trick but I think a lot of the value comes in it being a one mana growth spell as well. It provides a good amount of versatility to close out games but I’m not sure how often you’re going to want this in blue. I’d keep my eye on this but I don’t have high expectations for it.
Black:
Usman:
Power: 4
Vibes: 3
The life loss on this is really annoying, as is being sorcery speed, but this is the cheapest unconditional “kill a creature or planeswalker” we’ve seen in monocolor (and only really with Dreadbore in multicolor.) This has mostly just played as a cheap removal spell, but the alternate mode does let it act as a pseudo-Night’s Whisper/Dreadbore split card – or even just as giving your kill spell pseudo-cycling. It’s almost always been a mono-color Dreadbore which has usually been good enough.
Much like its ancient progenitor Expunge, it’s a card where its cycling mode may not matter much in some matchups, but is great for matchups where it lacks targets, making me cautiously optimistic.
Kai:
Contrary to Lich’s Relic, Vraska’s Final Mercy is the type of versatility I like to see on spells like this. They both provide sorcery speed creature/planeswalker removal but I think I lean more towards this one, even with the life loss. I think the second option to make a Jace to, in theory, draw two cards is better than a mediocre equipment. However, like Lich’s Relic, I’m still not sold on this, mostly because of the double black pips on this spell.
Usman:
Power: 3.75
Vibes: 4.5
While this is clunky as a 2B sorcery Hero’s Downfall, it’s so cheap to equip that it isn’t hard to turn this into actual stats ala Bent Blade. I’m somewhat cautious because sorcery can make this awful when comparing this to cards like Virtue of Persistence and Grim Bauble; disappointments because of their “kickers” costing so much mana.
Instead, I find this a better comparison to Chainsaw, another clunky removal spell but one whose other abilities are easier to unlock, and this is even cheaper than that and, if need be, this can just be a 3 mana play to play and equip if it’s needed to win the game. It’s played well so far and the relatively poor base rate of 3 mana for removal makes me less high on it than Chainsaw and Vraska’s Final Mercy, but still pretty good, especially if we get another Cloud/SFM-style tutor.
Kai:
Although I’m a little lower on this card than Usman, I still find this card a little intriguing. From my play and design experience, I have found myself removing a lot of equipment from my vintage cube. There will always be some exceptions to the rule, but I’m not sure this one has enough oomph to get it into consideration for me. I think adding the mediocre equipment to a three mana removal spell makes it considerable but I’m not gonna look too hard at it.
Usman:
Power: 3
Vibes: 4.5
Essentially, another Stitcher’s Supplier that can be an actual threat in the late game, although Supplier decks usually tend to be more value and synergistic than aggressive. Likely worse, since you can’t double dip on the mill, but a decent enabler for graveyard things.
Kai:
The mill on entry on this card is great as an enabler and also is a pretty good blink target as well. I think it will struggle to find a home as it seems pretty narrow and even if it can come down bigger in the late-game, I just don’t think it impacts the board enough.
Usman:
Power: 3
Vibes: 5
As you can see by the wall of text, I have a lot of thoughts on this, especially since it’s been dismissed outright by many.
Wishes have mainly been looked at as a way to get a silver bullet from your sideboard, but in a limited environment, you can’t really sculpt your sideboard in that same way.
Instead, I’ve been looking at this as “get something generically useful to the board state” and not as “get this specific card that you need.”
I’ve had a lot of experience playing Alchemy’s Assemble the Team in Alchemy (RIP) and it’s a good analog for this, since you only look at the top third of your deck, it wasn’t consistently finding exactly what you wanted, but usually did a good job of finding you *something* that you wanted for 2 mana.
The opponent binning one of the cards means you have to take some of that into account, and although it’s been a late preview and thus, haven’t had many reps with it, it’s usually played in the space of getting either:
- Get two generically useful cards and expect to get the less good one. “Give me one of these ham sandwiches.”
- Get two cards that play a similar role and expect to get the worse of them.
The first is pretty self-evident and easy to do since it’s not hard to have redundant cards that go into the sideboard, but it’s not too hard to do the latter when you have the deck, as I found when I was drafting a Naya deck splashing for it (for science.)
Similarly, I’ve been a fan of North Wind Avatar in cube, looking at it as a buildaround as I mentioned in the TMNT article, as a puzzle to build your deck in a way to optimally use the sideboard (available mana, cards that shore up weaknesses in your main deck.)
There’s an argument to “just put the good cards in your deck”, and to be clear, I’m not advocating putting Lightning Bolt in the sideboard of your base red deck, or Minsc and Boo in the sideboard of your Gruul deck, as that’s just bad deck design.
Generally, deckbuilding is an exercise of putting your best cards in your deck to form a winning game plan, but also crafting your B team to building a winning deck, and sometimes it means that a Burst Lightning just has to go in the sideboard – not because it’s a bad card, but because the *deck* is better served with it in the sideboard.
This card isn’t getting 2 stone unplayables from your sideboard, but getting two cards that didn’t make the maindeck for reasons other than the card being bad. This undefeated RG-splashing-B deck (drafted before this wish got shown was) had a ton of options to choose from, where it could just reveal a couple of hasty threats (Sawhorn Nemesis, Knuckles) or piles where you just want something useful to punch the opponent with.
It’s no Demonic Tutor, but for a card that’s in the top 5 of black cards in the Arena Powered cube amongst top drafters, that’s a bar that’s silly to compare it to. Like yeah, duh, it’s not DT. No kidding.
If you go to the /r/LRcast subreddit, you’ll see some threads asking for what cards to cut from their cube decks, like this:
And this:
Ignoring the mostly Best-of-One nature of the Arena cube and thinking of it as a Best-of-Three format (since bo1 gives it even more free value) – look at the sideboards of these decks, and you’ll see that the on-color cards aren’t bad cards, but cards where cutting them resulted in a better deck.
And these weren’t even sideboards *designed* for that card since they were previewed before the card got released, they just show how well it works with them. I’ve had similar experiences with other decks in my cube, where the sideboard has a lot of in-game flexibility, but it isn’t an axis that we’ve cared about for years, as players.
Another argument, which I think is fair, is that current M:TG may just be too slow for a 2-mana card that doesn’t impact the board, and merely finds something. That’s a fair criticism.
That said, I don’t think this card’s a staple, but I wanted to illustrate how the card is useful to get you to think outside of preconceived notions, since card evaluation so often tends to come from rigid snap-decisions and mental shortcutting especially for axes we’re unfamiliar with, and we can do better. It’s down here in the rankings for a reason – it’s solid, but hardly unplayable.
Kai:
I was very anti-wish and I think I might still be anti-wish but Usman has convinced me slightly otherwise. I don’t have enough experience cubing these so I’m going to pass on judgment and leave this one up to the professional.
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 4
When the opponent played this card in a UB control deck in testing, I felt like I had to kill it ASAP, since the threat itself was fine and it represented a decent clock for my aggressive deck. It can be annoying if using this to keep a planeswalker alive by taking it to 0, and then getting 2-for-1ed when the opponent bolts the lurker but that hasn’t come up yet (but is more of a knock to be careful when doing that.)
This is nice with Liliana of the Veil for when you don’t want to plus her and other planeswalkers when you want to have it race to their ultimates by using this card’s +2 instead of the walker’s native +1 (Tezzeret, Cruel Captain, Chandra, Torch of Defiance) and the uncommon WAR walkers (Narset, Parter of Veils, Saheeli, Sublime Artificer.)
There’s some concern that the Jace token can be middling if the creature dies – if this gets shocked in response to his ETB trigger, it’s essentially just a surveil 1 instead of an engine. But I’m thinking that’s still fine.
Not great, but fine and that’s what’s holding me back from liking this more.
Kai:
As an Empower Jace hater, I don’t care about the first line of text except for the fact that it makes a permanent that can use the last ability. The second ability of this card is amazingly annoying with every planeswalker with a relevant plus or a static ability. It makes attacks to try to remove planeswalkers a lot harder and the plus-two ability it gives to planeswalkers means that some get closer to ult faster. I think this is going to make any decks running as low as two to three planeswalkers, consider splashing black for this card if it arrives somewhere around pack 3. An awesome niche card, I’m excited to add this.
Red:
Usman:
Power: 4.75
Vibes: 4.5
I’ve been really impressed with this as it’s been in a couple trophy decks before the set’s preview season even started and already racked up another. While it loses out on being able to represent being a way to re-use countermagic and other things at instant speed, the usual mode for this was to re-cast a burn or removal spell on along with a 2/2 haster to push advantage, which counterintuitively put a lot of pressure on the opponent when Stingcaster was combined with burn/removal.
My initial thought was that this would be a filler 2-drop but it’s played so much better than that that I’m expecting to see it stick around for a while. While it loses out on the ability to work with countermagic, due to its offensive strength, I’ve been looking at this as a strictly different riff of Snapcaster.
Kai:
At first glance, this reads like a worse Snapcaster Mage since it loses Flash to gain Haste. Losing the instant speed shenanigans like rebuying counter magic or instant speed removal seems bad but in my experience, is never one of the primary reasons to play it. Like Spellseeker, I find that Snapcaster Mage usually wants to be played in unfair Time Walk/Ancestral Recall decks which this card still allows. Being red also opens it up to the ability to rebuy on color burn spells and the haste gives it a lot of early game pressure as well. I think it probably shakes out as a worse Snapcaster Mage overall but a Snapcaster Mage that slots well into Mono-Red and Boros Aggro strategies is going to feel better than I think a lot of people are giving it credit for.
Usman:
Power: 4
Vibes: 3.5
It having an unprecedented rate of giving other things haste (Lightning Greaves and Mass Hysteria are the closest analogues) while being a fine creature has had this play decently well. While lots of 3s have haste in red, its potential in helping *other* colors’ 3+ mana drops makes me think it has some juice in R/X decks.
Kai:
This version of Samut is definitely not a bad card and a 2/2 with Haste is a pretty decent base rate. Giving the rest of your board haste is definitely a great effect and can allow red aggro decks to get that extra step on you and the sneak factor that can very subtly end games. My red two drops in my vintage cube feel pretty underwhelming right now so definitely eyeing this one.
Usman:
Power: 4
Vibes: 4
I was surprised at how much better this played than it looked. While the Blaze frontside was never mana efficient, I found it to work well by representing a lot of damage in creature-based matchups. In an undefeated RG-splashing black deck, it was great to close the game out and act as an on-board persistent damage source in matchups where your creatures are slightly bigger than the opponent’s and/or if they’re relying on small tokens ala the various Elspeths, Retrofitter Foundry and friends. It’s also nice with self-bounce cards like Kirin and Pixie, if that’s a feature in a cube meta. It does have a weakness of not having a great baserate if you don’t have a board, but it’s impressed us so much in testing that I’m still high on this.
Kai:
Another baseline give all creatures you control [insert vanilla keyword here]. Like several other cards in the set, I think this card is unbelievably mid at first glance but the versatility of the card is going to always give it consideration from me. One mana trample giver in RG or RGB decks probably isn’t good enough on its own but adding in an optional damage mode (like Traumatic Critique which sees lots of powered cube play) has proven to be good enough in the past. I think it’s probably alright given the fact that it’s mono-red but I don’t love the fact that it’s best feature is that it’s a sorcery speed X-costed burn spell.
Usman:
Power: 3.5
Vibes: 3
I’ve seen some comparisons between this and Voldaren Epicure and that’s not a bad place, since this loses out on the game object and free ding for being potentially a very real threat, as Epicure sometimes just doesn’t do much after being cast.
I’m unsure where it falls in the tier between Monastery Swiftspear/Soul-Scar Mage worlds, and the impressions that I’ve had is that it’s on par with those, since this comes with its own card, and it’s not a bad one.
Kai:
No way of reprepraring it and the prepared spell being at sorcery speed turn me off from this card. Making Improvised Act an instant would lead to harder blocks and interesting prowess math. I think it’s good enough if you’re thin at red ones but it’s probably more fine than good.
Usman:
Power: 3
Vibes: 1
Previous Volcanic Hammers like Roil Eruption and Incendiary Flow never did much, but it’s interesting just how useful surveiling 1 can add to a card’s value. I’ve tried it out and it’s been pretty good, usually clearing something out of the way and helping to turn the corner with its surveil 1.
What has separated this from something like Sinister Sabotage is that the base rate of hitting something for 3 has still been mostly fine, where Cancelling hasn’t.
That said, it’s filler. Pretty decent filler that plays better than it looks, but not going to be an all-star for decks.
Kai:
I have this card as pretty close to Suplex in regard to playability. Three mana for three damage at any target, despite being sorcery speed isn’t terrible, especially when you can get a free surveil out of it as well. I think the free surveil will prove to be especially nice in BR reanimator shells and mono red aggro where you’re going to want to dodge dead draws off the top as much as possible. I’m planning on pulling Suplex for this to give it a shot in testing but wouldn’t be surprised if the other mode of Suplex means that it doesn’t stay in for too long.
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 4
Mostly a mana rock that can eventually cycle itself, ala Mind Stone when looking at this as a standalone. Not being able to cash this in immediately has been annoying, and while being able to make a red instead of a colorless mana, I’ve been disappointed by this in testing.
Kai:
God, I wish they didn’t print Empower Jace on every card in this set but this one feels ok I guess? It can get you to four mana in red faster and can possibly rebuy a mana like with Wall of Roots. I don’t think either is particularly good but again versatility could get it a look.
Master of Barbs and Tomik, Izzet Sparkmage
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 4
These ended up playing worse than I had expected, especially Master of Barbs, since that card specifically cares about burn to the face. When I looked at my own cube cube, I found that there wasn’t as much burn as I thought, but when looking at trophy decks from other cubes, they didn’t have a lot of face damage either and it may just be harder to hit that critical mass for the minimal amount of face damage for a deck to want to play either, especially Master of Barbs (which, out of the two, played the worst, even if it had a decent-ish body.)
Tomik may be the better one here, since it doesn’t require a lot of face burn and works fine with removal that kills creatures, etc like Sear, but overall my opinion these cratered during testing.
Kai:
Both of these cards feel really trappy and I’m probably not going to give these a second look. Master of Barbs needs a good quantity of face burn to even consider seeing play as a 2/1 for two with menace is just not good enough in 2026. The fact that the damage also has to go face reduces the versatility of otherwise versatile cards.
Tomik is a little more interesting since it buffs the burn damage directly. The first big incentive I thought of was if you have Tomik out and a Sear or Flame Slash in hand, you can now kill a Sheoldred. I think that is probably still too many hoops to jump through for a card like this.
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 5
My first impression was seeing this in a deck without other planeswalkers active, and it was, for the most part, a 2/2 token bot that spammed its AOE. It’s likely too expensive for many cubes at 6 mana since it can be middling when behind, but it does start to get absurd when you combine this with another planeswalker. Hopefully, this set is a sign of better planeswalkers, since the rate of good planeswalkers has slowed in the past few years; if so, this could theoretically work as a build-around.
I just don’t think we’re there yet.
Kai:
If you are building a set cube, a planeswalker cube, or include a lot of Empower Jace cards, you would be remiss to not include this card in here. For six mana, the ability to just churn out 2/2’s as a passive is awesome in planeswalker heavy decks. All three of his abilities are also activatable from turn one and they are all pretty relevant, even though none are really game ending in themselves. I think the cost is probably too high to see play in powered environments but if you have enough support, I could see being able to justify including this.
Usman:
Power: 1-2.5
Vibes: 2
It’s a R 2/1 and, like a lot of other ones like Kavaron Harrier, Kellan and others, it’s mostly just flood insurance, since the bang you get for your buck isn’t that great for having to tap it, and sacrifice cardboard (ala Slagdrill Scrapper, but with better stats.). It’s at least another legendary 1-drop to go with Mox Amber and friends but outside of that, I’ve been really underwhelmed by this.
Kai:
I’m really not blown away by this card off the bat. It’s definitely fine early and late but I don’t think there’s really ever a point in the game that it’s any better than just fine. I think you can do better with your red one drops.
Green:
Usman:
Power: 3.5-4.25
Vibes: 4.25
Its power is mostly dependent on the density of self-sacrificing lands (ie fetchlands) in a cube, since this card gets significantly better with access to a Wooded Foothills/Twisted Landscape/Lazotep Quarry type of land that can turn this into a strong value machine. I found that it came down early enough to usually get in, and thanks to having deathtouch, it was able to connect much more often than Deeproot Wayfinder and usually was able to get in damage surprisingly late in the game.
Without a self-binning land to re-use, it was pretty mediocre, though, hence the range.
Kai:
As a previous Canadian Highlander lands pilot, this card calls to me. If you have Strip Mine and/or Wasteland, and are primarily green, I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t want to run this card. It incentivizes you to attack your opponents and makes blocks advantageous to you with the deathtouch. As someone who has enjoyed Strip locking people for several years, I love everything this card has to offer. Also to note, with Mole Man, this is now another Ramunap Excavator replacement we’ve gotten just in this calendar year.
Usman:
Power: 3.5-4.5
Vibes: 5
Somewhat a Formidable Speaker, and nice that it lets you dump your reanimation target and to get your Animate Dead/Necromancy/Recurring Nightmare for cubes that run it. We don’t see many enchantment tutors tacked onto creatures, with Moon-Blessed Cleric being one of the few examples of that.
Outside of the A+B reanimation applications, discarding a card to get a real card, even if it doesn’t straight-up win the game, like Springheart Nantuko, Fable, The Flux or a DSK Overlord is great. I recently had a deck where this had Springheart Nantuko and Sheltered by Ghosts as its only targets and it was still great. Another underrated gem.
Kai:
I was not sold on this card until I remembered how many relevant enchantments there are in my cube. Discarding a reanimate target and fetching Animate Dead or Necromancy seems like a pretty straight forward, albeit a little telegraphed, one-two play. I think it will definitely pull traditionally UB or RB reanimator towards more of a UBG or BRG shell just to support this.
Along with this, it also fetches important red combo pieces like Underworld Breach (and also Splinter Twin yay!). As a whole, I don’t think the card really pulls in any direction but it gives great support to a lot of the most popular cube archetypes.
Usman:
Power: 4.25
Vibes: 5
Unlike his veiled counterpart, I’ve really liked this as a midrange green value card. It’s essentially an Owlbear that leaves behind a planeswalker on 2 mana, that also just has an “Oops, I win” Overrun button given a board state, which is extra nice since Overruns can suffer from being dead draws. Both modes have come up in testing (play it, make a 4/4 or just Overrun to win) and I’ve very been impressed with how well it works in midrange.
Kai:
I’ve had Lorwyn’s Garruk living in limbo in my vintage cube for years now. It never feels good enough but the effect of untapping lands and putting cheap bodies into play for four mana always felt alright. This card does everything that card does but better but it does have the significant downside of also costing one more mana. Despite this, I do think that it adds enough with the passive and slight buffs to each of the three abilities to probably permanently take the spot.
Usman:
Power: 3.5
Vibes: 3
While this can die in response to the trigger, I’ve found that this usually punches well, by being either a 6/6 haster or an hard-to-kill 5/5. Usually it was a 6/6 with haste, which was more than good enough, and it’s a nice sideways artifact payoff, even if that never happened in testing.
Kai:
Big fan of this card in the sense that it is really flexible and can just build itself up consistently in green with +1/+1 counters or protection. I don’t think it does enough in the five mana slot for me to spend a lot of time considering but think this could be an absolute windmill slam of a pick in powerful cube environments, just not the highest powered ones.
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 3.5
This is a bargain-bin version of Carnivorous Cultivator, which can get your lands back and can do it multiple times in a turn. Being a 3/2 for 1G is also not the worst place to be for something that wants something to do (punch, although it does trade down) while waiting for lands to get into the graveyard.
Having to pay extra mana to put the lands in your hand is a very real cost, though, and makes it play worse – as a value creature – worse than the old Crucible-on-a-stick guard.
Kai:
Lands in hand are always worse than lands to the battlefield but I do like the fact that this card comes down on turn two with a decent body. Probably not good enough in the majority of cubes, even with the upside of blanking opponents’ land destruction.
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 4
Even as a 3-mana version of a former cube staple, I haven’t been impressed with it in testing, since it doesn’t address the issues with Solemn Simulacrum in 2026 – it’s slow and doesn’t impact the board that much, and a 2/2 on defense is more of a roadblock than a trade. I’m hoping that this is better than it’s played.
Kai:
I feel (rightfully so) so much deja vu for some of these cards. When I saw this, I immediately thought of Yavimaya Elder for the cost and effect, which to be fair did see vintage cube play a few years ago. Since then, it has been powercrept pretty hard out but it’s nice to see a slightly upgraded version in the new set. I will be throwing this nostalgic card around wherever I can see fit, just probably not in my powered cube.
Usman:
Power: 2
Vibes: 2
Somewhat Joraga Treespeaker where it’s a mana dork that can “level up” to make more mana. I’ve found these kinds of creatures that can’t cast things in hand to play better than they look, since they work with activated abilities and this works with other things like adventures and casting things from the graveyard. It wasn’t hard for this to make a mana rock; like with blue Chandra, it was best in decks that could proactively use the R/G mana immediately, so that making a Heartwood token wasn’t a time walk. I’ve been thinking of it more as a 3-mana mana generator than a true mana elf, although that has come up a few times in testing.
Kai:
Again, we find ourselves in the cards that are sniffing at being highly considered for powered cubes but just have a few red flags that I don’t like. The delayed mana dork is kind of cool for one mana but at that point, I feel like I would rather have even a Boreal Druid instead of this. Similarly to Hungering Puppetbeast, I think this is a cool card to add to lowered powered cubes but don’t think it’s got enough to get in over existing mana dorks.
Multicolor:
The ally-color mythic sphinxes:
Usman:
Power: 4 for Aerid and Uldaros, 3 for the rest.
Vibes: 4.5
Aerid is virtually a 3-mana flyer 5/4 which is an absurd rate, and while we never saw Aerid’s activated ability used in testing, usually getting a big undercosted beefstick was enough, especially when it traded in combat and gave you another mana rock for your trouble.
Uldaros usually was gg when it resolved since there was usually at least a few juicy targets to cast from the graveyard, as part of UB-based control’s game plan, and this usually batted well above its weight class, since it usually cast between 2-5 mana without much help, which is an absurd rate.
That’s the crux of why those two have been standouts in their class in testing – they’re worth so much more mana than they cost in a normal game. The others were mostly just fair, though.
Kai:
As Usman mentioned, I think Aerid and Uldaros are the two cube standouts from the bunch that I will be looking to try. Aerid provides Gruul what it has been lacking, a giant flyer beatstick in the air for cheap (with the ability to pump itself mind you) and Uldaros’s ETB is just game ending with a decently full graveyard.
I do think that Denzilore in Azorius Control shells could definitely see play as well since instant speed makes it a nice threat and it plays with all the blue scry’s and surveil lands incredibly well. I’m not blown away by the other two but Sphinxes are cool and I would love to be pleasantly surprised.
Usman:
Power: 3 for all but 2.5 on Konstrari Charm
Vibes: 4
Theorix Charm is essentially Izzet Charm with some knobs turned, as it’s now a combat trick and this cycles instead of looting twice. Stingerquill has a decent mode A (Lightning Strike) with some other decent utility, and Fatehold’s Unsubstantiate mode is fine for the more controlling builds. Vigorbloom might be the best in metas with a lot of board-heavy game states, since it protects and battles other creatures so well. Even Konstrari Charm was fine as a strong pump effect, and in a color pair that wants the color pair more (than with Silverquill Charm), with Trample to boot!
They’re all good cards that likely improve the win rate of their respective on-color pair decks, but suffer from being strong cards when you’re in the color pair but not being pulls *to* the color pair.
Inclusion may ultimately depend on the role of multicolor and how many of that are in a cube, but they’re – at the end of the day – good cards.
Kai:
I love when Wizards gives us more of the charm cycle and I think this time is no exception. Although they are all pretty good, I think that Konstrari Charm is noticeably weaker than the other four, and Vigorbloom Charm isn’t terribly far behind.
That being said, Fatehold, Theorix, and Stingerquill Charms do basically three things that you want to be doing in their respective colors. I think these stand head and shoulders above the other two due to their flexible removal/countering abilities as well as just providing good value. I think it would be hard to argue against the inclusion of these three at least to test and at that point, why not go all out and add all of them.
Usman:
Power: 3
Vibes: 4
Thought-Knot Seer that doesn’t even have to give the opponent a card when it dies, but has 2 toughness, making it so much worse in combat although most hand hate doesn’t hit as hard as this 4/2. I’d not seen it hit threshold – although I’ve not talked about that much in this review – there’s some nice payoffs with threshold which run in similar circles as other graveyard payoffs like Delirium. It’s also nice how this can be cast early and then get enabled later, so you don’t have to hit Threshold when casting this.
Additional graveyard support could improve this card’s stock, but even then, is it better than a 4-drop like Superior Spider-Man?
Kai:
As an Eldrazi Tron player, reading this card immediately rang some bells in my brain as a Thought-Knot Seer enthusiast. It is color restrictive and it is pretty expensive, and it really needs to be at threshold to be worth it. That’s a lot of Ifs to happen for it to be good but I could see this being a decent control finisher I guess if you can get it out on curve. I think I’d rather just play a Fallen Shinobi.
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 4
This played pretty well as a value-oriented ⅔, whose landfall meant that he drew about 2 cards for every 3 lands, which wasn’t an awful rate as a pseudo-Visionary. There’s just better simic cards, even outside of the broken ones.
Kai:
It’s another empower Jace card with landfall. If you are going to support the mechanic, it is good enough and if you aren’t it’s not. Probably as simple as that.
Artifact/Colorless:
Usman:
Power: 3.5
Vibes: 4
What I’ve liked about this is that it isn’t just a dead draw when it’s in your hand, like many mega-ramp targets, which can just rot in your hand when you aren’t able to cast/cheat it into play. Usually, this has played as a 3-mana mana rock with flash, which has been great on its own, since it has represented burst mana while also giving the ability to cash in the mana rock for a ginormous threat.
It’s never been targeted, but its ETB trigger has been nice to represent defending it and turning the game around if it ever gets to attack, thanks to it having trample. Think of this more as 85% mana rock and 15% cheat target, instead of as a bad Emrakul.
Kai:
I love the Ancient Tomb ability this card gives and being able to add the ability at instant speed too is really fun as a little control-ramp piece in colors that don’t do it as well. Mind you, this also ignores the bomb of an Emrakul card this can drop on the table. I love how synergistic this card is with itself and it has really limited downside for quite a decent bit of upside. I could see this card working as a lower end reanimator target since the ward cost is harsh and a pretty castable card in bigger mana decks. I think there is also a world where this can combo with a big enough Tolarian Academy but I think that may be too corner case and “Magical Christmas Landy”, even for me.
Usman:
Power: 2
Vibes: 4
I’ve seen some hype for this as a big cheaty way to get Monarch as a Tinker target, but this just plays so badly when you’re behind and doesn’t play too well if the opponent’s able to get monarch back quickly. I usually want my cheat targets to have immediate impact, have resilience to removal and lasting impact if they survive. This only really gets there on the last one (and arguably the first, but it’s still 6 mana for a monarch.)
Kai:
I’m higher on this card as a tinker target since I do also run Coveted Jewel. I think giving up Monarch is less punishing than the Jewel and the 6/4 body also helps you block to keep it as well. I always like playing around with the tinker targets so will definitely give this one a shot.
Thanks for reading! You can find my socials and my cube lists on my Linktree, as well as other cube set review articles and design articles that I’ve written over the last 15 years, as well as on Kai’s Substack.
If you haven’t caught up from previous sets for cube, check out these articles from this year. There’s been a lot of sets!
- The Hobbit with Kai
Scales used for rating cards:
I use 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, 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:
- Fuel the Flames: Power: 3, Vibes: 1
- Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer: Power: 1, Vibes: 4
- Opera Love Song: Power: 4.5, Vibes: 3
- The Endstone: Power 3-4, Vibes 5
Big-picture items:
Empower Jace:
Although much of the discussion about these cards is about looking at these as traditional planeswalkers, them being unable to plus makes them fundamentally different (ie they can’t grind value over the course of a game), comparing to the War of the Spark uncommon planeswalkers, but lacking the passives that made Narset, Parter of Veils and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer have.
There’s a huge difference between Empower Jace 2 and 3, since the latter can be cashed in for a card, and I’m curious at how often it’s correct to not cash in the Empower 1-2 Jaces, so that you can just bank their surveils. We hadn’t seen it in testing, since it was almost always correct to just use the surveil/draw immediately. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it as an achievement unlock moment.
They’ve been like a lot of cards where a card still needs to operate on a good base rate to work for a cube meta, but they’re a nice little bonus to boost some cards into being more playable. My kingdom for more good proliferate cards, since they work so well with these.
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