We’re coming up on the end of the year, gamers, and we all know what that means! It’s Vintage Cube season on Magic Online (MTGO), baby! Originally introduced as the Holiday Cube, this year marks ten years of playing with power to distract us from the cold weather of the season. Vintage Cube has become a more and more regular offering over the years, but it’s still always special to have it available in late December.
I’ve written a ton about the MTGO Vintage Cube at this point, and while the card list has gone through a lot of changes, the fundamentals have largely remained the same. You’ll want to try to do something broken while preventing your opponent from doing the same, and mana advantages tend to convert to game wins. Games often hinge around powerful artifacts, ways to destroy them, and ways to remove your opponent from the game.
We’ve been spoiled lately to have Carmen Handy be in charge of the updates to the MTGO Cubes, and I’m sad to report that this Vintage Cube update will be the last update to this Cube handled by her. You should check out her article on this update and the lessons she learned in the role of updating digital Cubes. There’s a link to the change log and current list as well, which I have ported to Cube Cobra for easier readability.
This update includes some changes that I love, some cards that were a long time coming making their way into the Cube, and leaves some cards that I was expecting off of the list. Cube is ultimately more of an art than a science, so I wouldn’t expect anything different. Let’s take a look at the update by color and talk about how this impacts the Cube!
White
Out:
In:
I agree with cutting three of the four white cards on the outs here and love two of the cards coming in. I’ll grant that one of the other cards on the way in is a choice that makes sense, though not one that I find fun!
Extraction Specialist, Gideon Blackblade, and Swift Reconfiguration are all replacement-level or below in a Cube as powerful as Vintage Cube. Swift Reconfiguration offers the dream of making infinite mana with Devoted Druid, but for as much time as I’ve spent thinking about this combo, I’ve never seen anybody meaningfully pull it off. Nothing of value is lost by cutting any of these cards.
Steel Seraph is approximately replacement-level, too, but having evasion and some upside when you cast it for six are both notable. I like trying that card pretty well. Loran of the Third Path is just an awesome new addition for white decks as an answer to the many broken artifacts and enchantments in the Cube, and activating Loran to draw cards will come up in games that you win more often than you might think.
I really hate Temporary Lockdown, but, you know, in a good way. What I mean is that it doesn’t go into the kind of decks that I like and will absolutely hose me on occasion. There’s so much incentive to play fast mana instead of cards like Temporary Lockdown, but it’s good to offer a tool like this to push back against some of the more powerful starts that the Cube offers. I don’t know that I’ll ever cast Temporary Lockdown, and I don’t expect to see it super-often, but I know that it will cause me to lose some number of games as long as it’s in the Cube.
The Destroy Evil swap over Disenchant is one that I more actively disagree with. Answers to artifacts are very maindeckable in Vintage Cube, and the modality to hit big creatures or enchantments still leaves you with a middling maindeck card or more often a sideboard option. On Turn 2 it’s often very relevant to have an answer to a Signet or a Mox, and having an efficient answer to things that you don’t often see early in the game is much more replaceable. I’d reverse this decision ten times out of ten.
I was kind of wondering if we’d see White Plume Adventurer and some other initiative cards with this update, but given reactions to these cards, I’m not terribly surprised to not be seeing them. On balance, I’d say this update makes white slightly more powerful, with Loran loops off Karakas being a powerful new way to push back against the many powerful artifacts in the Cube.
Blue
Out:
In:
Blue will ever remain the most powerful color in Vintage Cube, and I’d argue that these changes even offer it a little bump in the more powerful direction. Personally, I’m going to miss targeting my opponent with Portent, but Consider clearly has some advantages in both being an instant and in drawing the card right away. I’ll still find reason to complain, though.
Ledger Shredder is much more powerful in the average Vintage Cube game than The Reality Chip, simply for being a card that doesn’t require any specific framework to do its thing. You won’t need to be looking for creatures to equip in your blue deck; rather, you’ll just be able to pump your Bird and loot through cards as both players play Magic. Ledger Shredder is a nice boon for most blue decks with some specific nods to decks like Reanimator that benefit from the discard outlet. I’d be sad to first-pick Ledger Shredder, but happy to pick it up around fifth.
I love the call on upgrading Sea Gate Stormcaller to Arcane Proxy. In casual conversation, you hear the card compared more often to Snapcaster Mage, which is not-close a more powerful card than the new prototype, but Arcane Proxy actually has a lot of advantages over Sea Gate Stormcaller.
It’s often awkward to wait to double your spell with the Stormcaller, and worse yet to topdeck it after you’ve cast your powerful spell. Arcane Proxy lets you cast your spell when you want to and get it back later if you still want it. Casting Arcane Proxy on seven is also just much more realistic than kicking Sea gate Stormcaller with a good spell to copy leftover in hand in a game that would be difficult with any other spell. I love this swap, though I’ll add that Arcane Proxy falls in a very similar spot to Ledger Shredder in my pick order.
Black
Out:
In:
All the cards leaving the black column of the Cube are quite forgettable, with Gonti, Lord of Luxury being the standout that could sometimes swing games in powerful and unpredictable ways. Evolved Sleeper and Gix, Yawgmoth Predator are much more consistent tools, assuming that you can assemble a reasonable aggressive black deck. Admittedly, this is quite difficult when you account for the dearth of other aggressive black options, so I’m not exactly bullish on these cards in this environment.
I’ve found player perception of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse to overstate the card quite a bit, but I do have to admit that the card is seeing some play in Vintage Constructed and is a very funny card to combine with Wheel of Fortune. It’s also reasonable to include some cards that are at their best when the opponent is drawing extra cards in a Cube that features some truly broken card-drawing effects. I won’t be valuing Sheoldred highly, but I’m also not looking forward to drawing Ancestral Recall when my opponent controls one.
Pioneer players will be able to tell you that Graveyard Trespasser is much better than it looks. Not every deck is going to want a Nessian Courser with upside, but the graveyard hate and ward ability can both be major headaches. Braids, Arisen Nightmare, on the other hand, failed to impress me even in Dominaria United Limited. It is the newest entry in my list of cards that I will play in my Vintage Cube decks “under no circumstances.”
This update changes very little for black, and it remains true that Reanimator is the good black deck, Storm is the fun black deck, and anything else should be approached with caution.
Red
Out:
In:
There’s not a lot going on in the red section here, with replacement-level Voltaic Visionary being swapped out for Krark, the Thumbless, who is more cool than good. Admittedly, the card is quite cool, and I do happily play the card in my aggressive red decks, though I intend to wheel it every time in draft.
Firebolt is just a solid role-player that will be missed for red aggressive and controlling decks alike, and I’m a bit wary of playing with Rolling Earthquake. The decks that benefit most from hitting players are trying to line up attacks with creatures, and the decks that just want to clear creatures really don’t want to take damage to do so with a spell that can be so inefficient. This isn’t a Toxic Deluge situation; you have to pay a lot of mana to clear large threats.
I think these swaps offer some cool points to red but on balance hurt the color slightly. I was reasonably happy with red in the last run and I imagine that level of satisfaction will hold here. I’ve been considerably less successful with aggressive red decks than aggressive white decks in Vintage Cube for some time, and this won’t be the update that reverses that.
Green
Out:
In:
Dryad of the Ilysian Grove was in contention for cards in the Cube that promised the most while delivering the least, and I’m happy to see it go. Exploration was a little more exciting, but it largely requires the sort of effort that Fastbond does while also showing up in plenty of games where it just kind of does nothing. I can’t say that I’ll miss these cards.
The Kodama’s Reach over Cultivate swap is more amusing than relevant, but the possibility to see a spliced Through the Breach every 10,000 games or so is worth it.
Fyndhorn Elves is a bold cut. It’s an inoffensive little creature who gets on base, though I am inclined to agree that it’s an amount of redundancy that isn’t really exciting or interesting with regard to what the card does. I will say that when I draft green Gaea’s Cradle decks, I tend to get all the one-mana creatures that I want rather than seeing them split across the table, so reducing the total volume makes sense to me in that regard.
I’m a huge fan of meld creatures, and I like the idea of offering the dream of melding Titania. It probably won’t come up very often, and Titania is more of a sideboard card against specifically mono-red than anything, but it’s a neat option. In that respect, I’m at least more convinced of Titania as a Vintage Cube card than Bushwhack, which isn’t enough better than Lay of the Land to realistically make any of my decks.
The most powerful card changing in green is the Fyndhorn Elves on the way out, so this is a slight downgrade for green, but not one that I expect to meaningfully impact how to approach drafting the color.
Gold
Out:
In:
Gold is seeing quite a lot of cards change, and I agree that almost all the cards on the outs are replacement-level. I’m sad to see Tamiyo, Compleated Sage cut with how interesting the card is and how much it has exceeded my expectations. Pair this with Koma, Cosmos Serpent being among the least exciting gold cards making their way in, and I’m a little miffed, especially with Carmen being such a fan of both Tamiyo and Phyrexians!
Meria, Scholar of Antiquity is the only other card on the way in that I don’t realistically see myself playing. Drafting green and red is already a pretty big ask, and only doing anything with nontoken artifacts is a pretty big bummer. I’m sure that Meria will do some awesome things in the occasional draft, so it’s a cool card to try at least.
You’re going to see a lot more of Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes though. Do Minsc & Boo put Gruul on the map? Well, not really. I’d say they’re more of a Temur card, but they will show up and dominate any game where your opponent doesn’t have an answer or a plan to win very quickly.
I’ll admit that I was expecting to see Third Path Iconoclast in the spread. Triggering off any noncreature spell screams Vintage Cube, and while I don’t necessarily see it as that powerful of a gold option, it’s at least clearly better than Goblin Electromancer! I don’t know if people have fallen in love with Third Path Iconoclast yet, but all the love that Young Pyromancer gets leads me to believe that this is inevitable.
Everything else on the way in is maindeckable if largely replacement-level. I will say that I like Fiend Artisan a lot more than most, and am very happy to see the card returning to offer more redundancy to Craterhoof Behemoth decks, in addition to being a great pairing with Recurring Nightmare.
Artifacts and Colorless
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In:
It’s kind of funny to see Mishra’s Bauble added to the Cube as one of very few delirium cards is cut, but there are delve spells and fetchlands and other cute things to do with a Bauble still present. Not a high pick, but a neat card. The Timeless Lotus swap over Gilded Lotus will be really nice for anybody looking to cast giant spells from hand, and Cityscape Leveler’s cast trigger will make it a pretty awesome option for ramp decks.
These swaps don’t impact the Cube overall in very significant ways, but I like the direction that they take things. Specifically, I almost never saw Emrakul cast from hand, and it’s one of the less exciting creatures to cheat onto the battlefield, given that it’s just a pretty big body and doesn’t have any additional game altering/winning text. Cityscape Leveler promises to show up more relevantly more often.
Lands
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In:
Volrath’s Stronghold was pretty whatever – some combination of not powerful and not fun with the redundancy in play patterns it offered when it was good. You can’t meld a Titania without an Argoth, so something had to give. This swap won’t change much, but I will say that Argoth is a solid value land for green decks against controlling ones, and those decks will take every small edge that they can get.
While I’m sad to know that Carmen will no longer be handling these updates, I’m grateful for the time that we got to draft this and other environments under her curation. I’m looking forward to escaping the drudgery of winter days and Cubing Magic’s best-known Cube. I hope you find some time to enjoy it, too.
