This article talks about Star Trek’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.
Star Trek is a set where I’ve been seeing the most “this is my line for Universes Beyond” set push back from. I usually don’t take that into account for vibes ratings, and my method of going by feel for the effect (bread-and-butter removal usually ranks low, flashy effects usually rank high) but feel free to season to taste accordingly, since it can be… weird seeing George Takei and the dearly departed Patrick Stewart on M:TG cards.
For this article, I’m working again with Kai, who’s been doing some great cube articles on his Substack.
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White:
Usman:
Power: 3.5
Vibes: 3
Avatar’s Suki had been maligned in evaluations, when being compared to Adeline, as snap-judgement analyses focused on Suki’s token generating ability being less consistent than Adeline’s, discounting Suki’s ability to anthem the board.
I haven’t seen a lot of hype for Picard for similar reasons, due to assumptions that it’s worse at generating tokens than Adeline, while also discounting his anthem mode – this time with a full +1/+1 instead of Suki’s +1/+0.
Ignoring his Spacecraft flavor text, I also like that this triggers on casting other creatures; so it’s at least still making virtual 2/2s when he’s on board and putting this on board to boost your team is always a nice turning-the-corner move on a board with a few creatures.
It’s just that it’s competing with a lot of other powerful white 3s. Ultimately, another strong second-stringer and arguably the best 3-drop in white in the set.
Kai:
If you’re looking to add Deanna Troi, you should definitely give a look at the Captain as well. I think this card reads worse than it should play and does everything you want in an aggressive card. Mono white tends to want to go wide with tokens and this universal buff, in addition to ways to generate larger tokens by itself is enough to get it a nod. As I say at least once in all of these review articles, white three drops are pretty contested with good includes appearing in almost every set. I do think this will get a nod from me.
Usman:
Power: 3.5
Vibes: 4
The set’s wonky draw-ish effect that looks at the top number of cards in a deck and lets you get something, with the failback of getting a land (a Plains) if you don’t see anything, but it has pseudo-flashback. These effects at sorcery don’t tend to do much, as the exceptions that do – Malevolent Rumble and Thundertrap Trainer – leave behind cardboard, and this doesn’t.
Usually, these kinds of cards are disappointments, but the main thing that gives me pause on not just dismissing it is having pseudo-flashback, letting you double/triple dip on getting value on your ETB creatures, and usually these kinds of “look at your top X” cards are one-shot effects, and this being a pseudo-Think Twice is a nice wrinkle.
Kai:
Seeing a can-trippy effect in white like this is pretty cool. The card selection plus whiff insurance feels good for the rate and the flashback cost is also decent and can be decent when you’re hellbent as you can give yourself two cards to hand for three mana. This is probably the card that I’m looking the most at in white.
Usman:
Power: 3.5
Vibes: 3
I mostly consider this as a 5-drop since it’s not that great at 3 mana as flier that lacks the big battle cry impact that Sanguine Evangelist has, and doesn’t have the absurd board impact that Securitron Squadron has at 5 mana; Squadron doesn’t tend to get cast without squad very often and I see that happening here too.
But a virtual +2/+0 to your board when attacking is pretty good, since, assuming they both survive, they also buff each other. My main concern is how bad this can be when behind, but a small army of Wind Drakes on defense isn’t awful.
Kai:
This card, to me, is a pretty decent white game ender. A squad card with both Flying and Battle Cry is really interesting and I think any amount of mana over five into it should be a pretty quick clock. I don’t think this card is for me but I could see it as a game ender in Academy decks that can produce a ton of mana quickly.
Usman:
Power: 3
Vibes: 2.5
This is one of the better Anafenza riffs, since she doesn’t care about the other creature’s sizing like Shelinda and doesn’t care if the creature is a token – any creature that enters gets a counter.
In testing, her inability to buff other existing creatures had been an annoyance when she was just sitting around as a 2/2 and the argument about her being a bad topdeck is relevant. That said, she tended to usually get a counter or two onto other creatures (even without token generators) and if she was able to buff more than one creature a turn (via token generators or just having multiple creatures), she worked well, but those instances weren’t common in decks that didn’t have a lot of token generators.
Because of this, outside of decks with token generators, she didn’t keep pace with Luminarch Aspirant for throwing counters onto things, but she played well enough to where she usually provided her mana’s worth. I tend to talk about the non-S-tier white 2-drops in these reviews since it can be easy to fall into the trap of “This isn’t Ajani, it’s trash” but there’s usually room in cubes for 2nd string cards like this.
Kai:
This card is decent for the cost but I don’t see it replacing any of the white two drops currently in powered cubes. This card feels good to play on turn two with a grip of creatures but struggles if you can’t chain creatures on turn three. I like the fact that it works with tokens and think it can be an interesting substitute for Luminarch Aspirant in those styles of decks.
I don’t think it’s a crazy addition but I think the only way this sneaks into higher powered cubes is if it’s running a sufficient amount of cheap token generators..
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 5
So far, this played decently, since it almost always left behind a 1/1 when it died, although not blocking is annoying since it made it worse when behind (can’t rely on it dying and having the tribble back on defense as a blocker.) Being a self-contained threat was usually decent, since it had some way to provide resilience ala Hallowed Spiritkeeper, but with worse tokens. Worse than Jean-Luc, and that may make it a rough sell amongst white’s strong 3-drops.
Kai:
This card is decent in lower powered cubes but I’m not blown away by how slow it looks. To me, this card looks like a less flexible Luminarch Aspirant with an insurance policy. I would be more interested in this card if the Tribbles could block since it could give you aggro and chump blockers in one but even then, I think that it still may be too slow.
Blue:
Usman:
Power: 2.5-3.5
Vibes: 4
This looks like more of a Lier than a Snapcaster which isn’t awful but limits how useful it is, since he also needs other creatures to beam up. Like with Lier, the payoff is in being able to get 2+ cards from the graveyard, which I hadn’t seen in testing, but wouldn’t be surprised to see as an aspirational goal, with enough cheap things to flash back and especially if this ends up being a backdoor way to repeatedly get back creatures with beneficial ETB triggers.
Kai:
I think this card looks pretty solid. The combination of main phase restriction and another creature on board for Beam Me Up is rough but having every card in your graveyard get beam me up is enough of a pro that I think it’s worth a glance for 3 mana.
I’m excited since I think this gives Storm another cool card but am really going to need to draft it a bit more in different Storm/Storm-adjacent archetypes before I determine how long it stays.
Usman:
Power: 3.5
Vibes: 4
Yet another Looter-style card, whose effect is locked into your main phase, so it can’t be used EOT. The threat that it represented tended to make it die quickly without value, since the decks that wanted to do the non-basic soup pile found that the “5 different lands” wasn’t too hard to achieve and sometimes she was online when played on turn 5 when she could then become a defensive Bob.
“Dying to removal” is not necessarily a death sentence on a 2-mana card, though, and cards like Malcolm can suffer a similar fate, and I’ve generally been impressed with those styles of cards, even in decks that don’t care about the graveyard.
While this never got to be a 7/9, usually being a looter-turned-draw engine was enough to be solid.
Kai:
The draw is nice and the four toughness is hard to ignore on a two drop. I think this card will play best in control and reanimator decks. This is the type of role filler card I like.
Wesley Crusher, Starfleet Cadet
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 3
I’ve seen some comparisons between this and Venser, Shaper Savant, and while that’s a card that hardly sees high-power cube play these days, but I’ve been seeing this more as a card that enters, double loots and then does something else, essentially being like a 2.0 version of Cloistered Telepath. He’s at his best when the other mode is something that can be actively used, like bouncing a token or countering a non-creature token.
He’s tested decently well in that role so far; but hardly a staple and I’ve liked it less than Sphinx of False Conclusions.
Kai:
I haven’t had Venser in my cube for a few years now (god I hope it hasn’t been that long) but this just seems like a version that is good enough to at least catch my eye in 2026. Counter plus draw two/discard two is probably always going to be the mode being used but I really like the flexibility of all four options. I’m not a huge fan of the Star Trek IP but if I was to take a guess at a card that sticks in my cube due to the power level, this would probably be one of them.
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 2
I haven’t heard any hype for this little role-filler, but it’s a lot of value for the cost – somewhat like an Elvish Visionary, trading a draw for a loot + better body and flash. This will never be the all-star of a deck, but trading in combat with a 2/2 is a nice upside to a loot. I’m likely biased from loving flash cards so much, but this seems like a solid add to decks, especially those looking to dump something into the grave at EOT, to then reanimate after.
Kai:
It’s a good role filler and it does it’s job but it doesn’t excite me like I want it to. If you need some creature filler in your cube, this will definitely do the job but don’t expect anything life changing.
Usman:
Power: 2
Vibes: 3
A worse monocolor Ant-Man that can’t make a bunch of ants, but it’s an artifact. Like Ant-Man, Data is great in decks with a lot of cantrips and draw engines (duh) with ways to protect him, but taking 3 draws to really get to where you’re happy with the rate on him was an issue, and this being topdecked felt awful when behind since he couldn’t trade with a 1/1.
Kai:
Not terrible if you can protect it but also without inherent evasion, don’t think it provides enough of a threat. I like that it grows on your draw step regardless but it’s another instance of where it always feels a step behind.
Black:
Usman:
Power: 4.5
Vibes: 2
I’ve really liked this since trying it out since it got officially previewed a few months ago. While this lacks the evasion of Deep-Cavern Bat, the opponent not getting the card back if this is removed ala Vendilion Clique has been great and it’s been excellent if the card that got nabbed was one of crucial importance to the opponent, since the opponent gets their card back if the bat died. A lifelinking 2/2 for 2 isn’t amazing, but since the opponent doesn’t get the card back, it also was pretty decent to trade away or to throw into combat with impunity, which helped its playability in all avenues of black decks.
Kai:
As Usman said, we’d been talking about this card since it was originally previewed and were pretty much in agreement that this card would be pretty strong. 2/2 body with lifelink for two is already solid and being able to force discard is definitely good enough to see play. I think the option to force discard and give a random card is fair, especially on such an efficient body. Seems like an incredible card.
Usman:
Power: 2.5-3.5
Vibes: 4.5
I’ve been looking at Khan as more of a sacrifice payoff that throws away fodder like tokens and artifacts instead of as a way to take advantage of his exile/shrugging off cards like Swords to Plowshares, since being able to find fodder to sacrifice to a 4-drop wasn’t too difficult, and being a 5/3 wasn’t awful either to be a very real threat in the midgame, even if it dies to bolts.
But, that said, he becomes nigh-unkillable with cards that exile things from the graveyard (The Ooze, Relic of Progenitus, the various Scavenging Ooze riffs) and unlike Misthollow Giffin, it’s fine when played without ways to get him exiled, and there being a higher concentration of those in green can make it a micro-archetype in GB.
Kai:
This card screams Food Chain Combo which isn’t really seen at all in cube. However, the effect on its own is pretty ok and it does have a few of the combos Usman mentioned with exile effects. I’m probably not going to add it to my cube since the effect on four mana is nice but if you have a niche synergistic cube, it could definitely play.
Usman:
Power: 2
Vibes: 4
Somewhat like Superior Spider-Man, but can’t buff up small creatures (and although this doesn’t downgrade big reanimation targets, for the most part, it’s an overall downgrade) – there’s some halo effect that Superior Spider-Man has due to how well it works with Deceit and Uldaros Theorix, and
But, since this is a mono-color card, this is more in competition with mono-color reanimation ala Necromancy than Superior Spider-Man and I can’t shake how inefficient it is, as a 4-mana way to cheat something into play, when its mono-color counterparts are much better, even with the failsafe of this being a 4/3 when there’s nothing in the graveyard.
Kai:
I think Superior Spider-Man effects are some of the weaker ones in a reanimation suite and I have avoided them in my cubes. I like the fact that it’s mono-black but I still don’t think it’s strong enough to compete with the much more efficient effects.
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 2
This plays somewhat like Trumpeting Carnosaur and Harvester of Misery, which have a buyout clause of discarding them for value, but lacks immediate value (but, for the most part, does if it lives until EOT.)
While it can be back-breaking if reanimated early, ala Sire of Insanity; a reanimation target that’s not taken off in cube, this brings to mind the questions I usually ask with reanimation/cheat targets:
– Is this good to cheat into play early? Yes, since it can shred the opponent’s hand.
– Is this good to cheat into play later/hard cast later? Dependent on game state, but usually not that impactful, since hands can be small. This can effectively hand-lock the opponent, though, if they’re reliant on reactive cards or hands that want to build a critical mass of cards (combo, etc.)
– Does it have resilience if it gets removed? Dependent on the speed of removal, but not really, since it can die to a sorcery-speed removal and, even if it’s a virtual 3-for-1, that may not even be enough to swing the game.
The last point really makes me down on this as an aspirational goal, when compared to things like Vaultborn Tyrant and Atraxa, which lack the buy-out clauses to dump it into the graveyard. This could be more of a second-order reanimation card that’s more of a removal spell, though.
Kai:
Weird card that seems pretty close to a Harvester of Misery at discard value. I think it’s worse since the effect isn’t on ETB and Harvester is actually castable at 5 mana while the 7 for Armus feels like a lot more. The fact that the backbreaking effect of Armus is also an end step trigger makes this weaker and less resilient. I know the “dies to removal” argument is kind of a cop out but it takes a lot of hoops to jump through to get this in play for cheap that I think it actually works here.
Usman:
Power: 2
Vibes: 2
A self-recursive card that doesn’t require hoops to jump through, and somewhat like a weaker Alchemy’s Runeblade Raiser (can’t block, have to pay mana to get it back) but it’s filler enough to be on the radar for decks that want this, like ninjas, since it should be able to get in more often since trading this with an actual creature feels terrible.
Kai:
Great on mono-black aggro or Bx aggro since it rebuys itself an extra time. Classic 2/1 for one attacks well and needs to die twice means it can and will trade up for a single black. The can’t block is a normal drawback on these recursive cards so I feel like it’s pretty fair. I’m not blown away but the value is definitely there.
Red:
Usman:
Power: 4
Vibes: 4
Another early preview that I’ve been able to get in some reps with, and I’ve liked so far, even if he’s not in the S-tier of broken red 3s. He almost always had a “good mode” to use, even if it was just making a 1/1 token or pumping the team to push a couple of more damage through. His ability to draw a card on an empty hand also gives you a creature, and usually wasn’t hard to make it so that, once you were hellbent and had a board, it wasn’t hard to let his AOE go active. He played pretty well in aggressive decks and not having to attack to pump the team was a nice upside, too.
Kai:
I kinda hate how much I like this card because I think the art is terrible. It’s a great top of curve finisher in Red Deck Wins style of decks but it’s also good in any aggro deck since it does so much. This deck reminds me of Hazoret, except the payoff of dumping your hand is a card, a 1/1, and a pump effect. That seems like insane value in an archetype that already wants to dump their hand. Sweet card.
Usman:
Power: 4
Vibes: 5
The more I test this card, the more I see how well he plays. Firstly, unlike with a lot of these cards, the value doesn’t go away if he dies. He somewhat like a Spellshaper, but it isn’t restricted to once a turn. Great in decks that don’t have many “misses”, as this was played in a mostly-red deck that had it work well when it got a Lightning Strike, but less so when it was an Embercleave or a late game Duress. Generally, this played best when he was revealing something that could be used proactively and had value throughout the game, even getting something reactive like a counterspell or a removal wasn’t bad even when the opponent knew about it – reveal a Sear? Now the opponent has to take it into effect when playing more threats.
Since it turns any potential draw into something live; generally, like with Yuna’s Whistle (another underrated card due to fear of its whiff rate), it doesn’t tend to whiff too often.
Shuffling the deck makes setting him up harder, but usually that can be mitigated in deckbuilding by reducing the number of pure whiffs, which wasn’t hard. It was annoying when he was revealing a 1-mana 2-power creature in the late game, but even that wasn’t *awful* since it represented something that could be live, instead of a land. Like with the Embercleave example, it was annoying when he exiled a legendary card, since it made it harder to effectively use the exiled card, but that was still fine. He also lets you multi-cast the exiled card on the same turn, provided there’s enough cards in hand, which was nice, and is one of the best things you can do with a Time Warp variant.
A setback against this is that, unlike most curve-toppers in red, it doesn’t do anything when it comes into play that impacts the board immediately, but usually just means he was more at home in more midrangey red decks.
Kai:
I think this card seems really cool as an effect that we haven’t seen a lot like it, especially in recent history. You’re never going to be able to have the consistency that you want out of the card, due to the randomness with the shuffle, but the upside of being able to cast it repeatedly based on the number of cards in your hand is good enough. When you whiff, this card is going to feel bad and when you hit this card is going to feel awesome. I personally love having some degree of randomness and feel like it’s pretty on par for the color.
Also to be known is there will also be meme decks that you can build around with Q such as Q, 37-38 Mountains, and a payoff or two. I don’t think it would work very well but could be a prayer deck if your deck falls apart. I wouldn’t mind trying to draft this deck at some point so I’ll look to add it.
Usman:
Power: 4
Vibes: 3
There’s been some talking points about how this is a bad Magda, since the mana from this doesn’t stick around ala Treasures into future turns, but found that this having menace really did help make this a consistent way to provide damage and burst to 4 mana. So far, I’ve liked this more than Magda since this was able to consistently deal 2 damage *while* ramping you, which wasn’t often the case with Magda, who died to a stiff wind and only really lived up to her potential of being something that could ramp and attack for 2 if the coast was clear.
Kai:
Usman talked in his review about how this feels like a Magda and I have to agree for the most part. I think the most important aspect of Qo’noS is the two toughness of it. Dying to Orcish Bowmasters or being blocked by 1/1s is Magda’s biggest downfall as it makes getting that treasure hard. The treasure is almost always better since it helps with artifact synergies, ramping, and niche techs like Broadside Bombardiers. Qo’noS has less of that problem but you get a mana that turn and not a treasure.
To be honest, I think both are pretty close in what they do but I’ll lean Magda because I think the fragility and the additional tech is better for my cube.
Usman:
Power: 3
Vibes: 3
The impression that I had with this was that it’s pretty good as a 2/1 haster in red. Her value is ultimately tied to her dying, and usually these kinds of cards tend to play worse than they look because it can be easy to ignore an inefficient threat, a tale I’ve often seen from black creatures with death triggers. Being a 2/1 haster helped her positively contribute to an attacking clock, and thus be able to incentivize trading (and she can block too, which ain’t nothing) but her sometimes being a middling threat, even if she was able to virtually 3-for-1 when she died and got “unearthed” was a noted issue when she could be ignored.
Kai:
This card reminds me a lot of Scrapwork Mutt, which in itself is a pretty solid filler card. However, I find that it reads like a worse variation since I weigh the optional rummage higher than the impulse draw. The fact that it also has to die to get the effect also makes it a strictly worse variation since that’s another hoop to jump through to get the effect. Lastly, the effect out of the graveyard is one more expensive than Scrapwork Mutt which feels worse. I think the one angle that Tasha has over the mutt is the fact that it has haste the first time you cast it which makes it a stronger aggro piece. I think this is going to succeed as being turned sideways as much as possible and hoping you hit on the impulse draw.
Usman:
Power: 3
Vibes: 4
Usman:
There hasn’t been a good Threaten effect lately, aside from Alchemy’s Traumatic Prank, and I mostly look at Wrath of Khan as a situational removal for small-mid creatures and a Threaten for larger ones, with some small extra value on chapter 2 and some flavor text on chapter 3.
I get the feeling that this’ll be mostly fine, and one where I’m unsure if it’s better than a bog-standard removal spell in most games.
Kai:
I’ve been reading this card as Fable of the Mirror-Breaker’s evil step-cousin. While Fable pushes your board further ahead by building your board and then copying creatures at the end, Wrath of Khan is set on destroying your opponent’s board.
I don’t think the Threaten effect will be very useful since I think 4 damage should kill most of the important threats that you’d be going against on curve. I think the rest of the chapters give you enough value for this to be a pretty solid addition in powered cubes.
Usman:
Power: 1.5
Vibes: 2
While I’ve liked No Admittance decently well compared to Lightning Strike, I’ve liked this less because – like Channeled Dragonfire – its “flashback” costs so much. It’s likely because No Admittance requires no real setup to get extra value, since you can just immediately cash in the Jace token, but the 6-mana cost to flash this back was just awful.
Kai:
If you need to play this, I’m sorry. Six mana, to rebuy an ETB and 3 damage feels atrocious. The main form of the card is a Lightning Strike: a famously not-included card in many cubes. I’d pass on this pretty hard and not think twice
Green:
Usman:
Power: 5
Vibes: 4
If this isn’t the best card in the set, it’s easily in the top 3. Instead of seeing this as yet another Eternal Witness variant, I tend to look at this as more of a card that gets lands from the graveyard (but also can just get other permanents, which already has occurred in testing) since there’s some mis-evaluation that can occur when looking at this as being worse than EWit since this can’t get back broken instants and sorceries, as that discounts this having much better creature stats.
We hadn’t seen this heal something that was going to die, but I get the feeling that it’ll mostly be a proactive way to get back permanents and even at that role, him being a decent threat (as Eternal Witness was always understatted) makes up for being unable to get back Time Walk and friends.
Kai:
This is the type of green card that is worth getting excited about. Three mana flash 3/2 with permanent recursion or a Feign Death effect is almost always going to feel good. The floor being getting a land back or maybe trading on an opponent’s swing out feels fine with the upside on this card being as good as it is.
I think the bad Ewit effect is interesting but I think the more interesting part of this card is a “slow scam” with the evoke elementals. Having flash and being cheap enough means that for three mana and an evoked elemental, you can keep both bodies and two Elemental ETBs. I think this in itself is strong enough to be considered and in a format where hitting three mana fast can be pretty easy, I think it’s hard to ignore the potential upside of this card.
Usman:
Power: 3-4
Vibes: 4
4 mana to have 2 3/3s as a floor is generally fine. We’ve seen cards like Dion, The Swarmweaver and Huntmaster of the Fells act as threats that have some removal resilience from creating a token, but usually these have been more fine than good, Urza excepted, since even with their overall power across bodies, usually they didn’t play as well as they looked when the creatures got outsized.
There’s some aspirational upside with this – it upgrades other creature tokens and turns other non-creature tokens like Treasures, making something like a Fable of the Mirror-Breaker token into an absurd value engine (this also downgrades tokens like those from Wurmcoil Engine, though.)
Esika’s Chariot is an obvious analog, and one that doesn’t make this look great, but that evaluation discounts this card’s ability to be a build-around, since so many cards create incidental tokens.
I think this is also more fine-to-good than great, though, since its floor is mostly just fine.
Kai:
In a strong Gruul or Naya token deck, I think this card may be the best card in your deck. We consistently see the two bodies on one creature be incredibly good in limited and six power for four mana seems like it should be good enough at a base line. Adding in treasures, soldiers, or any other cheap tokens makes me pretty high on this card.
Usman:
Power: 3
Vibes: 2
2-mana elf that makes a green mana whose mana is restricted to use on your main phase does look questionable on its face, but its ability to burst mana in the later stages of the game piques my curiosity since she’ll eventually start to generate 2+ mana, which isn’t too difficult. Her creature sizing isn’t great, and usually these kinds of “not great on their base rate for aspirational upside later” cards tend to disappoint, but her being able to get late-game mana potential makes me think she has some use in green midrange decks that look to cast 5-drops in the late game.
Her pump ability isn’t great but it’s something for when she’d be a bad topdeck; it’s not great, but it’s something and it’s at least not counterable.
Kai:
This card is an optimist’s paradise. In reality, this looks bad. I like the channel effects being added more on creatures and it looks really interesting but a bad combat trick isn’t selling me on this.
Usman:
Power: 2.5
Vibes: 2
A 2/1 for 1 isn’t absurd these days, but thankfully this gives the token-generating ability to other creatures. My best hope for this is that it keeps pressure going in the early game, instead of just making useless threats.
Kai:
Another classic one mana 2/1 with an ability in this set. This one looks to be pretty solid to me as it acts as an insurance policy for greens biggest weakness (bolted birds). It won’t rebuy everything but giving you at least a 1/1 body on trigger looks to be good enough for me at one mana. Don’t think it’s incredibly exciting but looks to be interesting enough.
Captain Pike, Fullness of Time
Usman:
Power: 2
Vibes: 2
Is this even better than Augur of Autumn or Courser of Kruphix? The bet is whether this, on average, is bigger than a 2/3-4 (it usually will be, in the fullness of time) and whether it being smaller is enough of a liability to make up for the small upsides on Augur and Courser.
It probably isn’t, since one of the upsides of these is how well they stonewall early attackers.
Kai:
I agree with Usman on this that this looks like a pretty bad Courser of Kruphix effect. It feels fine I guess but I barely run either of these in my cubes anyway. Courser barely remains for the sole combo potential with Zuran Orb and Graveyard land effects. This does not do that so I’m out on this card.
Multicolor:
Usman:
Power: 4.5
Vibes: 4
This has been playing pretty well as a virtual 3-mana ¾ that surveils on attack, which brings to mind cards like Sentinel of the Nameless City, and usually tended to stick around as a 3/2 for 3 with menace, since the cost to turn him into an Icetill Explorer was high. But, even then, he played as more than solid as a midrange threat that could potentially re-buy your lands.
Kai:
I don’t ever see this card being played for two unless you’re really desperate for a blocker or have seen counter magic. Landing this as a 3/4 with surveil 2 for three is better and it still has another level for a higher ceiling if it sticks. I’m a big fan.
Usman:
Power: 1.5
Vibes: 2
While white’s 3-drops are stacked, black 3-drops aren’t as much and are the only reason I really have this on my radar, as a bargain-bin hand hate card. It’s another likely filler card since it lacks evasion and the body is so much worse than other hand-hate-on-a-stick cards.
Kai:
I’m not too sold on this. It’s a decent tempo card but the double pips turn me off. It’s probably just fine and I’m not looking at it at all.
Usman:
Power: 2
Vibes: 2
The value of this mainly depends on how often it hits, as getting a free 3-5-drop is great value on entering and attacking but less so for just getting a land; essentially, a Titan that always draws a card but where its value could vary from free value to just a land. Another likely fine tri-color card.
Kai:
This card reminds me a lot of Aang, at the Crossroads. I think it’s better in a lot of ways but I tend to be pretty picky when adding three color cards to cubes. I think this is probably worth a slot but think the floor is too low for me to look to add this on release.
Artifact/Colorless:
Planet Killer, Deep Space 9, The Holodeck
Usman:
Power: 3
Vibes: 5
I’m lumping these together as cards that are on the radar mostly from being Tinker targets. They’re all different in how they play, but they all suffer from similar weaknesses – their immediate impact is inconsistent and only Planet Killer has a way to protect itself by being indestructible; of these, I like Deep Space 9 the most since it has some removal resilience via its ETB trigger, but I’m concerned that it has some issues that The Endstone has, where this can just have you die from having no library, and from its trigger not necessarily giving you something great even if it does flip over a couple of mid-sized permanents.
They all somewhat remind me of the Ginger, Queen of Sweets, where it was great if it was able to do its thing but awful if it didn’t live up to aspirations.
Kai:
Yea, I was the guy who was kind of excited about the new Ginger card. I’ve tried to force it as a Tinker target several times and it’s just bad. I think most of these will be the same if not worse. They definitely don’t dethrone any of the current top tinker targets and I don’t think any of them play good enough as a standalone card.
If I had to choose one to add, it would probably be Deep Space 9 since being able to cheat more stuff into play on it’s ETB seems pretty strong and feels like solid value to tinker for. I’m actually pretty sold on this being good enough but am worried about it being too expensive to cast without Tinker and not being able to be cheated out with Sneak Attack.
Usman:
Power: 2
Vibes: 2
Another one I’d not seen a lot of hype for, and this piqued my interest mainly since it’s pretty easy to crew for a Spacecraft. (might be the only one whose station value < the spacecraft’s power, aside from some in this set: K’t’inga-Class Battle Cruiser, U.S.S. Prometheus, Prototype, U.S.S. Prometheus, Prototype and U.S.S. Enterprise-C, Time-Tossed) although this is the only one with haste.
Haste really helps too, as well as this having a very real passive via hexproof to reduce the blowouts of having this blown up after it gets crewed, but it is atrocious when behind, which I saw when testing. I’m cautiously optimistic, which usually means it’s a bad card.
Kai:
This feels alright if you can consistently crew it and terrible if you can’t. Flying, menace, and haste are three of the best keywords in Magic but turning it on, even though it’s one of the cheaper ones, is still an ask. The passive isn’t bad and provides decent value but for four mana, I’m not sold.
U.S.S. Enterprise-D, Galaxy-Class
Usman:
Power: 2
Vibes: 2
A Palantir of Orthanc (a card that LSV’s been down on lately) if you have crew to crew the Enterprise. Unlike Palantir, this doesn’t take a few turns to actually draw cards, and this can at least “draw” more than a card a turn, provided you have the crew for it. Like most Spacecraft, it takes a lot of warm bodies to make this a threat, but this is one where it may not even *need* be active to be useful, but likely misses the mark since requiring crew is a real cost and this can’t just be slammed on turn 3 without other creatures.
Kai:
Cool card but can definitely be a do nothing. I’m not sold on it being that difficult to have to build around but it’s not going to work everywhere. Three mana for this is probably appropriately costed but it doesn’t blow me away. Probably passing on this one.
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.
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
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