Happy Wednesday, gamers! I hope everyone enjoyed their week of Magic 30 Cube on Magic Online (MTGO). I had some friends visiting for the week of MagicCon Minneapolis and did more paper Cubing than I’ve done in years. Fortunately for all of us, Vintage Cube is back on MTGO starting today for three weeks so we can keep scratching that Cube itch!
As usual, the Cube is returning with some updates, but with a new curator at the helm! Ryan Spain took a big swing with this update, changing 80 cards! You can find his writeup on the changes here, in which he offers insights on every individual swap. This is a lot of work on his part and more transparency than I would expect. That alone makes me optimistic about the future of digital Cubes. I’ve ported the updated list over to Cube Cobra for your consideration. Let’s take a look at the changes by color to see how this will impact the environment.
White
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I’m liking a lot of what I’m seeing in the changes to white. A lot of white permanents that cost three or more mana are firmly replacement level, up to and including the old stinker Sun Titan. The only cut that I have some sympathy for is Land Tax, but the card goes so late in draft and is played incorrectly often enough when it shows up that I won’t miss it too much.
A number of the cards making their way into the Cube are also replacement level, but I do like that Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle at least promises that it might do something cool some day. Two nuts and bolts adds that I really like are Tithe Taker and March of Otherworldly Light. Both punch above their weight class and both are cards that I’ll be looking for in the middle of the pack for my white decks in this Cube.
The most significant addition is White Plume Adventurer, which is sure to be one of the most back-breaking early plays in fair matchups while also having enough punch to close against unfair decks in some spots. If you haven’t been watching Legacy or Pauper then you might not realize how powerful taking the initiative is, but it shouldn’t take more than one draft playing with or against the card to understand that White Plume Adventurer is one of the most powerful white cards in the Cube.
Stuff like Enlightened Tutor is mostly fine and can shine when you’re looking for more consistency with broken stuff like Sneak Attack but won’t massively impact the environment. Arena Rector also occupies space that won’t meaningfully matter all that much. I am a huge fan of Kenrith, Returned King over Baneslayer Angel though. Decks that want to play five mana white cards aren’t all that invested in attacking and blocking, and the value that Kenrith provides aught to please the Niv-Mizzet lobby.
Blue
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The blue changes in this update are a little more hit or miss for me. I agree with most of the cuts with two exceptions. Academy Ruins is a card that I always like to have around to scoop up late for my Broken Blue decks and Show and Tell is sort of a community darling that I expect a significant percentage of the player base to miss even though casting the card often converts to game losses. To a less extent I like Ledger Shredder, though it is more firmly replacement level for Vintage Cube.
Rona, Herald of Invasion is a super solid roleplayer, Dream Halls is a favorite of mine for Cubes at the highest power levels, and Displacer Kitten opens up some messed up play patterns as well as full on combos. For a taste of what Displacer Kitten can do, combining it with a permanent that can bounce a permanent and any mana-positive rock can generate infinite storm and infinite mana. For example, controlling the Kitten and casting a Mox Ruby while controlling Venser, Shaper Savant will allow you to continuously blink the Venser to pickup up and recast the Mox as many times as you desire.
The Displacer Kitten stuff does rely on you have some otherwise powerful cards, which is the same issue that Paradoxical Outcome runs into. It’s a card that I’ve considered for my Powered Grixis Twobert but it really only works in conjunction with cards that should be winning the game for you anyway. I’d value it very low in draft if I intended to pick it up at all. Similarly, I see Chain of Vapor as a significant downgrade over Repeal, with Repeal being generally maindeckable and Chain of Vapor mostly only playing when your opponent is cheating stuff into play. It’s not just that Unsummon is weak against stuff like aggro decks, it’s that unless your opponent is something resembling Reanimator there’s a pretty real chance that they’ll bounce the Chain back at one of your permanents with an expendable land causing you to have a really bad time.
I’d also really liked to have seen Faerie Mastermind show up in this update. I’ve been really happy Cubing with the card in high-power environments as it punishes drawing extra cards in a way that is far more palatable than Hullbreaker, which I’m glad to see is not making a return. Ultimately, this update doesn’t move the needle on blue’s position of being by far the most powerful color in the Cube.
Black
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I like The Meathook Massacre. I like Blood Artist. I like Phyrexian Tower. I also think Takenuma was in the running for worst cards in the Cube/ to ever be in the Cube so I’m glad to see it go, though everything else going on here is sidegrades and downgrades. Thoughtpicker Witch specifically is coming in at a relative power level for the Cube similar to Takenuma while being much less playable for not having the property of being a land that you can freeroll. It and Cabal Therapist are two cards that I hope to more or less never play in this Cube.
There is a bit of an issue where black is pulled in some weird directions once a ton of space is allocated to Storm and Reanimator. There’s not enough stuff or it’s not interesting enough to just put all of the black cards in those baskets, and we end up with a handful of nice control cards and rather shallow support for a Sacrifice archetype. The last few rounds of curation has showcased shifts in the cards selected to support Sacrifice but what’s really missing is a sufficient volume of support, and I would argue some of the best in class cards like Yawgmoth, Thran Physician. It’s not immediately obviously a card for Sacrifice decks, but I would also say that cutting Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor isn’t helping these decks either.
That’s a structural issue and one that I’m not calling anybody out for. Curating digital Cubes involves serving a lot of different masters after all. This is all just to say that the black decks that I like for winning games are base-Dimir Control decks and Reanimator and the black decks that I like gambling with are Storm decks and everything else is rather questionable.
Red
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Red is another color where I’m a fan of some of the changes and a detractor of others. Abbot of Keral Keep, Bloodthirsty Adversary, and Laelia are all darlings of mine. I also adore Koth, though I realize I may be the only one still going to bat for him in 2023. I’m personally less invested in Dragon’s Rage Channeler in this Cube specifically, but I expect that cut to ruffle some feathers among other players.
I’m also big on cutting Goldspan Dragon and Ignite Memories, but at the same time I’ll be missing Thundermaw Hellkite and will continue to miss Empty the Warrens. The sacrifice stuff and rotation in two drops is all mostly fine with the exception of rightfully downshifted to common Dark-Dweller Oracle. Rampaging Ferocidon is actually kind of a nice one, and Firebolt is a certified heater.
The return of Fiery Confluence and Orcish Lumberjack are the two biggest cards to take note of with this update. In a Cube full or artifacts Fiery Confluence represents significant blowout potential as well as a ton of damage. The mana burst that Orcish Lumberjack offers is one of very few reasons to go out of your way to draft Stomping Ground.
Losing Laelia is actually a pretty big deal for red, though on balance these changes likely leave the color at about the same relative power level. Nothing in this change long is as impactful as the recent addition of Fury, which has been the card that has put my red decks over for some trophies in the last run of Vintage Cube.
Green
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The cuts from green include some cards that I play pretty regularly, with Nissa, Vastwood Seer being the one that I’m happiest to register, though everything on the way out here is essentially replacement level. There is some gunk on the way in like Pattern of Rebirth, but a lot of what’s coming in is, at least, cool. I am confident that some players are really jazzed to see Tooth and Nail returning. I also think that Deep Forest Hermit is among the most powerful green role-players for Gaea’s Cradle decks that has been conspicuously absent from the Cube. To that end I also see Circle of Dreams Druid as a more significant role-player for Gaea’s Cradle decks than stuff like Springbloom Druid, but the Druid will make more decks in theory off of its easier castability alone.
It reads strange to me to add Satyr Wayfinder in the same update that cuts Kroxa, but I suppose it is more of an Uro card anyway. It’s also a decent card for finding the aforementioned Gaea’s Cradle. The creature tutor stuff is not terribly exciting, but it does add some consistency to decks trying to Channel out Emrakuls and similar broken stuff. I like their presence well enough and all of the more traditional ramp support has remained intact. I’d say that green convincingly comes out slightly ahead with these swaps.
Gold
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The changes to the gold column of the Cube are the ones that I find myself most personally satisfied with. A lot of cards with low rates of play are making their way out in favor of cards that promise to show up at least a little more often. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver was also just one of the more miserable cards in the Cube, and while I can’t say that swapping it for Fallen Shinobi is a full-on quality of life improvement you do at least have to work a little harder for the Ninja.
Atraxa is great. Third Path Iconoclast is great. Valki, or rather Tibalt, is great. Soulherder incentivizes the right things. Dreadbore is maindeckable everywhere it’s castable. The only additions that I’m really cold on are Deathrite Shaman for being generally weak in Cubes of this size and Mayhem Devil for both the obnoxious symmetry in the card’s design and the shallow support for Sacrifice in the Cube at large.
The cut that I’m a little sad about is Thousand-Year Storm, which is a bigger deal considering that Empty the Warrens is also not being reintroduced to the Cube. Storm has consistency issues in drafting that Thousand-Year Storm offered a nice sort of glue to make more ambitious attempts at the archetype actual win sometimes. I understand the motivation behind Saheeli, Sublime Artificer and how it offers redundancy with Third Path Iconoclast and technically plays in the same spots you’d want Thousand-Year Storm, but that is a swap that I would prefer to see reversed both in terms of power level and net fun.
Colorless
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I played Kuldoth Forgemaster more than most, Retrofitter Foundry was actually one of the most powerful non-power artifacts in the Cube, and Tangle Wire is a classic that I will miss. I think that the swaps in the colorless column do very little to change the texture of the Cube, so I’m a little bummed about these cuts.
Aetherflux Reservoir is a really ambitious Storm card, but I suppose it’s fun in that way. It’s a way to close games with those Displacer Kitten combos I suppose. Zuran Orb is kind of a neater in that it enables some Fastbond combos with cards that let you play lands from your graveyard and I actually do rather like reintroducing it to the Cube.
I can’t say that I’ll miss Sword of Body and Mind, Smokestack, or Unlicensed Hearse, but I also can’t say that I’ll play Helm of Awakening, Kaldra Compleat, or Candelabra of Tawnos. Solemn Simulacrum is sweet though, and Sorcerous Spyglass is actually pretty solid for the artifacts matter decks.
Lands
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Lavaclaw Reaches is a really weak land, though I’m sad to see Creeping Tar Pit go. Untapped lands are just nice to have even if painlands specifically are a little weak. Field of the Dead was also quite weak in Vintage Cube, so I like the City of Traitors swap well enough. That said, it’s another weird one in conjunction with another change – City of Traitors is for casting Show and Tell! I’m sure it will play very well in decks like Mono-White Aggro and some other sorts of combo though.
Ryan Spain’s writeup on this new era of digital Cube curation went up relatively late in the day, some hours after the changelog, and as such, I wrote most of this article before being able to read his thoughts. One thing I would like to add is that regarding swapping out creature lands he cited some reservations about the number of taplands in the Cube, which is totally valid. I would argue that triomes are a worse fit for the MTGO Vintage Cube than creature lands given that cycling for three is really inefficient and that playing a bunch of colors is often worse than keeping things to one or two colors in this environment, but I know that plenty of players hold the opposite position.
I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting such a long changelog from Spain’s first update to the Vintage Cube, and this amount of attention definitely suggests a passion for the project, which is a promising thing to see. I’m excited to get Cubing with the new list and to see how Spain grows into the role of digital Cube curator.
