New sets bring a cavalcade of new cards, and with that, an opportunity to inject this fusillade of fun into existing decks and projects. Just like most Magic players out there, whenever a new set is released, I start trying to add them to my Cubes, my decks, and more!

So what cards are making the cut in which decks and more? Let’s check them out below.

We’ll start with my Commander Cube, and then move into decks before finishing with a quick stop at Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy.

Remember that these are all real-life projects, so I have to own the cards in question I’m swapping. I may want to put Gideon of the Trials into 15 decks, but that’s not happening.

Commander Cube

Commander Cube is a lot of fun! I keep track of my Cube online at CubeTutor as well as on an excel spreadsheet and in a red deck box next to my PC here. It’s been my major passion project recently. Check it out!

Let’s start with cards that I know I am going to swap out, starting with a legendary creature.

Samut, Voice of Dissent — Because of the White activation in Samut’s text, we technically have a fun Naya leader here, and even better, I have a Naya leader I’ve been looking to pull for years. Johan. Samut is stronger, flash-ier, and just so sexy.

Now I had thought initially about adding in a bunch of exert creatures in to make Johan actually do something in the Cube and just support it take way. After I saw Glorybringer and Combat Celebrant and more. And that would have been a fun Johan path, and add in exert stuff in other places as well to add that to my Cube’s Naya identity. In would have gone Champion of Rhonas, Devoted Crop-Mate, Trueheart Twins, Glory-Bound Initiate and maybe a few others. But that would require changing out a lot of creatures in my Cube to embrace a brand new archetype.

Or I can just add in Samut. Give my guys haste, which you can easily build around, and then move on. Naya hasting changes the value of stuff already in my Cube like Avenging Druid, Ohran Viper, Avenger of Zendikar, Stigma Lasher, Stromkirk Occultist, Serra Ascendant, Karmic Guide and so much more. And you get a strong beater with Samut who swings for 6 already and can be played in a Voltron manner instead, like a nicer version of Uril, the Miststalker, going with either Boros equipment makers or Selesnya aura users. So Samut works well already, with no change, muss, or fuss.

Come on in and take a seat!

Bontu the Glorified — Bontu plays well into some nice space in my Black fun times. Grave Pact? Dictate of Erebos? Morbid Curiosity? Vampiric Rites? Yahenni, Undying Partisan? Zulaport Cutthroat? Blood Artist? You get the idea. Plus we have Commanders in Jund, Orzhov, and Golgari who have built-in sacrifice engines and Golgari also has Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest to pump up with Bontu activations. So Bontu is a total fit. Reiver Demon has been increasingly not pulling its weight. So I am pulling it for Bontu.

Forsake the Worldly — I run Fate Forgotten as an exiling instant removal card to deal with a lot of crap, and Forsake is better with the cycling. This is an obvious swap.

Glorybringer — It’s a 5-drop with flying, haste, and fun times. It can kill stuff, it can make a nice board presence felt, and it’s worthy of having its name called all day long. I’ve enjoyed Wrecking Ogre in my deck, especially for that “Whoa” moment you get when you bloodrush it and give your Commander enough power and double strike to kill someone with Commander damage out of nowhere. Suppose you have a 4/4 Commander, and you’ve hit twice already and they’ve taken 8 Commander Damage, well, the +3/+3 and double strike is about to deal 14 more, so they are about to die. And on some Commanders in Red, like Zurgo Helmsmasher, Iroas, God of Victory, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, or Maelstrom Wanderer you can deal 20 damage in one hit from all of them and Gisela deals 32 damage. Boom! But in other shells or at other times, the Wrecking Ogre is outclassed. So I am pulling it for Glorybringer.

Kefnet the Mindful — In the worst case, Kefnet is a 3 mana indestructible Treasure Trove with an easier activation. At best he’s a 5/5 flying indestructible beater who plays strongly in control. I’m definitely finding a spot for him. I’m looking at Azure Mage, a solid card who has a similar profile, and costs one fewer mana, but otherwise, I think Kefnet is the clear winner there.

Vizier of Many Faces — Better than Clever Impersonator? I think so. In Cube, the ability to copy a Planeswalker or artifact or enchantment is nice, but rarely used as much as creatures. Plus, the good targets are often diffused, we only have one Karn Liberated in the Cube, it might not even get flipped, and if so, there’s just one copy in the roughly 400 cards you and your three foes are playing with. So given that most decks may only run 1 or 3 ‘walkers, the Impersonator’s ability to copy them is lessened. Ditto high quality artifacts (there’s just one Sol Ring, one Lightning Greaves, one Sword of Fire and Ice, etc) and enchantments. So the Vizier is about to head on in!

What cards are close?

Never // Return — I run Hero's Demise right now and could pull it for Never // Return. But the Never is a sorcery and the Return is weak. I’d downgrade Demise if any one of three things were true on this card:

1. The Never half was 4 mana and an instant
2. The Return half was a much better sorcery
3. The chance for playing them both on the same turn gave you a huge advantage.

If Return was something like, “For each creature that died this turn, draw a card” or something, then it’d be weak individually, but a blowout together. But they are both sorceries, and the Return Is pretty sucky for Commander. No thanks.

Heart-Piercer Manticore — It works well in the Jund, Gruul, and Rakdos self-sacrifice theme if you want to. You don’t have to sacrifice anything run it if you don’t, but it’s a nice option. Plus the embalm here is nice for another go.

Insult // Injury — I love this card for the Insult half, shutting down potential Fogs and similar effects while also doubling your damage which can work in Boros aggro, Izzet burn, Zurgo Helmsmasher Smash, and more. And the Injury is an adequate follow up. If you have six mana you can play both and deal 8 eight damage from Injury and get two triggers from cards like Young Pyromancer and Guttersnipe. But finding an actual card to cut for it is hard, after I recently renovated my Red.

Lay Claim — Which is better, Take Possession or Lay Claim? The ability to cycle Lay Claim early so you can do other stuff is very nice. But if you are playing the card, Take Possession is the clear winner. You cannot be countered or responded to, so you can steal an untapped Nevinyrral's Disk or something that would otherwise have been used. So how often is the split second of Take Possession really matter? And how often would the cycling of Lay Claim matter? For now, I’m sticking with Take, but I think a good argument could be made for Lay Claim instead.

Other cards on my short list include . . . 

Ideas:

• Oketra the True
• Regal Caracal
• Pull from Tomorrow
• Liliana, Death's Majesty
• Champion of Rhonas
• Harvest Season
• Rhonas the Indomitable
• Vizier of the Menagerie
• Warfire Javelineer
• Khenra Charioteer
• Nissa, Steward of Elements
• Oracle's Vault
• Maybe Painted Bluffs

Official Swaps:

• In Bontu the Glorified; Out Reiver Demon
• In Forsake the Worldly; Out Fate Forgotten
• In Glorybringer; Out Wrecking Ogre
• In Kefnet the Mindful; Out Azure Mage
• In Samut, Voice of Dissent; Out Johan
• In Vizier of Many Faces; Out Clever Impersonator

All right, that was fun Cube! Now what’s next? How about we start looking at my Commander decks?

Surrak’s Beasts and Where to Find Them

This deck is built around big beef and Beasts, using Naya, Temur and other big-creature themed frolicking to smash away.

Rhonas the Indomitable — Rhonas brings the Surrak deck a guaranteed quick beater, can pump creatures, and Surrak is big enough to allow Rhonas to swing away.

Manglehorn — Given that this deck is a Beast deck, I’ve added in Beast utility creatures like Trygon Predator and Indrik Stomphowler. Is there a place for Manglehorn as well?

Trial of Strength — You got to love that it brings a 4/2 Beast on the party, right?

What about Combat Celebrant or Heart-Piercer Manticore?

Commander Nether Shadow

This Mono-Black Commander deck is built around self-recursive creatures and engines.

Bontu the Glorified — I’m changing my leader to Bontu, who fits the deck a lot more than Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath. No question. I have creatures in here that you want to sacrifice like Nether Shadow, Reassembling Skeleton, and Ashen Ghoul. We also rock a bunch of sacrifice engines too, like Krovikan Horror and Carnage Altar.

When I debuted my deck, I ran it around Sheoldred, Whispering One, and while The Abyss on a stick for my foes was nice, plus the free reanimation for me, Sheoldred was too expensive, too easy to handle, and not that useful later, so I swapped to Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath later, I’m sure you can see why. Ob can drain life slowly, and thus keep me alive while folks may hit my defense, can make a 5/5 flyer, and an ultimate-d Ob Nixilis in this deck is basically game over. But a cheap indestructible God Commander who is as sacrifice engine and can swing when I lose a creature is pretty swell. Now I suspect Bontu will be in forever, this deck could not be better suited for Bontu if I tried. And the value of Ob was that he’d arrive reliably, so he’s heading out.

I mean seriously, if you told someone to build a deck around Bontu, I think my Commander Shadow deck is likely what they would lean into! It works.

Bontu's Monument — What about this? Well, I do have a lot of Black creatures, but the deck puts them directly into play from the graveyard, not recursion from my hand. And most have no colorless components to drop, such as Nether Shadow or Bloodsoaked Champion or Bloodghast. Now getting the cool trigger is fun! Everybody else loses a life while I gain one. Not bad, but in a 40 life environment, there are more synergetic cards.

Embalmer's Tools — I do have a lot of costs to return things, and getting to play and replay Reassembling Skeleton for one mana instead of two while also spending mana for sacrifice engines would be nice. But most of my self-recursive creatures are either free or cost Black mana only.

Dread Wanderer — We actually have another self-recursive creature in Amonkhet, so that will take notice. The trigger of one or fewer cards is rough. I don’t want to drop that low, because my deck can play poorly when it has fewer options from more cards. And when you are spending mana on cool effects, you often hold onto your cards. Therefore, not now.

Alphabet Deck

This is my Boros colored Angel themed deck where every non-basic land in the deck begins with “A”, the first letter of my name.

Angel of Sanctions — It’s another 5-drop Angel that has a control feel to it. Is there a space for it? Maybe, but the 3/4 size is a little on the smaller side of life. Although embalm clearly makes up for it, right? I’m pulling out Angel of Deliverance, in order to drop my mana cost, and go from a less-reliable source of removal to a more reliable one with the Sanctions Angel.

Fumiko’s Fun Times

This is an odd deck and it’s hard to tell you what it does in one sentence like the others. It’s Mono-Red, Fumiko makes folks attack, and then tries to be the path of most-resistance to force them to hit each other, while punishing them for attacking with first strike defenders (via stuff like Bloodmark Mentor), Leonin Bladetrap, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, Al-Abara's Carpet, and Caltrops. That’s right, Caltrops and the Carpet. Most of stuff in here is heavy on theme, or just some good stuff to round it out.

Glorybringer — Glorybringer is a clear winner because it arrives, smashes for four, maybe shoots something dead too, and then sticks around. It really works. Now I run Instigator Gang in my deck, and at first, people wonder why, but it can win quickly when attacking down open lanes with the team. Especially if it’s been flipped to Wildblood Pack. 5/5, trample, and all attacking creatures, including itself, get +3/+0. You can see how good that is for 4 mana. But it’s hard to force, and definitely projects itself. Glorybringer comes out of nowhere, and I like that better for Fumiko.

Insult // Injury — I like this in theory, or the idea of doubling damage compared to Caltrops, Snow Fortress, and Staff of Nin, but Insult is a sorcery. Reprint it as an instant? For 4 mana? I’m in. But not as is.

Diaochan’s Glory

I have a Mono-Red built around Diaochan that plays either temporary creatures people won’t want to kill, creatures that can’t be killed at all, creatures that can come back in case someone kills them, and tricks like Lightning Greaves on Diaochan that prevent her from being targeted from her own ability. It’s pretty grind-y. So it’s a deck of Phoenixes, indestructible forces, and junk that already did something, like Fanatic of Mogis, on arrival, or junk like Humble Defector.

Hazoret the Fervent — Would I like to add another indestructible to the mix, even though it’s discard and only-attack-with-a-virtually-empty-hand doesn’t work with Diaochan? I like the indestructible, but just having Haz out there doing nothing and in the wrong build makes no sense.

Velas’ Night Children

Vela has a bunch of small beaters that are small in size, swing and have hit triggers. The deck emphasizes creatures with shadow, ninjutsu, and spells with cipher.

Throne of the God-Pharaoh — So this can kill the table much more quickly. Don’t sleep on the fact that it hits all opponents for your tapped stuff. I’ve found myself mana flooded, so I’m just tossing it in for a basic land.

Edric’s Speedy Ending

Much like Vela above, my Edric deck has a one of early drops like Scryb Sprites and Hypnotic Siren that hit fast, with the intention of drawing so many cards with Edric that my tempo and counters will keep me alive until I win.

Throne of the God-Pharaoh – Again, much like Vela, this would speed up that game considerably. But it is needed? Do I have space?

Harvest Season – Oh my gosh. Getting like four lands out on the fourth turn after going 1-Drop, 2x 1-Drops, Edric and then swing with everything on turn four just compels me. That is a sick combo. But I am having trouble seeing where to slide it in.

Slither Blade — A 1-drop that can’t be blocked. I’m in. It’s heading in right now, for one of my forest walking 1-drops.

Equinaut

Bant, self-bounce deck built around both cast, leaving play and enters-the-battlefield triggers such as Azorius Aethermage, Equilibrium, and Aura Shards, using Whitemane Lion or Fleetfoot Panther style effects to bounce and replay stuff.

Vizier of the Menagerie — The major reason why this is on my short list is the ability to play any creature for any mana, even stuff in my hand. So I can cast Mystic Snake with or something. Plus, the ability to amp up the creature count in a deck that already has such a huge creature count is very enticing.

Borybogmos’s Wildfire Funtimes

I have a Gruul deck with a lot of set-lands mass land removal, like Wildfire, and then a bunch of ramp so I always have some lands out.

Harvest Season – Do I run enough creatures to add this to my land-fetching tools? I doubt it, but it’s on my long-term watch list in case things change.

Five Color Planeswalker

Much like the rest of the world, I have a Five Color Walker deck. But I don’t see any of the ‘walkers here making the cut, sorry. I do think I may swap in the cycle duels for stuff like Watery Grave, because they still have the land types, and I think the colorless cycling is better than potentially paying 2 life for the ETB effect. There may be a couple of expensive ‘walkers here that make the deck later, but I’m not sure what or how.

All right, let’s bid adieu to my Commander decks and . . . 

Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy Additions

This deck is big. Six White long boxes big, and growing. It’s a Highlander deck that runs all five colors. So what’s making the cut from Amonkhet? These are generally speaking all of the cards that I think are cut out for multiplayer in a given set. (Obviously, details may vary, an aggro deck may wind up playing some cards you wouldn’t normally expect, just as one example; or a combo deck running Crookshank Kobolds as another)

White:

• Angel of Sanctions
• Approach of the Second Sun
• Cast Out
• Forsake the Worldly
• Gideon of the Trials
• Oketra the True
• Oketra's Attendant
• Regal Caracal
• Seraph of the Suns
• Dusk // Dawn

Blue:

• Angler Drake
• As Foretold
• Curator of Mysteries
• Glyph Keeper
• Kefnet the Mindful
• Lay Claim
• Pull from Tomorrow
• Vizier of Many Faces
• Vizier of Tumbling Sands
• Commit // Memory

Black:

• Archfiend of Ifnir
• Liliana, Death's Majesty
• Wander in Death
• Wasteland Scorpion
• Never // Return

Red:

• Combat Celebrant
• Deem Worthy
• Glorybringer
• Heart-Piercer Manticore
• Limits of Solidarity
• Sweltering Suns

Green:

• Champion of Rhonas
• Channeler Initiate
• Dissenter's Deliverance
• Gift of Paradise
• Harvest Season
• Manglehorn
• Naga Vitalist
• Oashra Cultivator
• Prowling Serpopard
• Shefet Monitor
• Vizier of the Menagerie

Multicolored:

• Bounty of the Luxa
• Khenra Charioteer
• Nissa, Steward of Elements
• Samut, Voice of Dissent
• Cut // Ribbons
• Destined // Lead
• Heaven // Earth
• Prepare // Fight
• Rags // Riches
• Spring // Mind

Artifacts:

• Oracle's Vault
• Pyramid of the Pantheon

Lands:

• Canyon Slough
• Cascading Cataracts
• Fetid Pools
• Irrigated Farmland
• Painted Bluffs
• Scattered Groves
• Sheltered Thicket

The three Deserts are odd. Now I do play the actual Desert. Do I want Grasping Dunes? Definitely not with Sunscorched Desert, but Cradle of the Accursed may be worth the stretch.

My decision criteria for the aftermath split cards is which ones are useful card advantage, or fill useful slots in my deck. A card like Onward // Victory will do little and Failure // Comply even less.

And that’s it folks! Changes and additions to everything from Cubes to Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy, all for your appreciation!

*Editor's Note: The section about the infinite combo with Combat Celebrant and Ahn-Crop Champion has been removed due to inaccuracy.*