Hello and welcome back! This week, I am breaking down the Top 5 Most Underrated Humans in Cube. Today I will highlight one card from each Color that appears in less than 1% of Cubes on www.CubeCobra.com.

White

Starting off our list, with a Cube count of only .64%, we have Spellbook Vendor. While this card never saw Constructed play, it serves several important roles that make it ideal for Cube. Spellbook Vendor has a stat block that would make Grizzly Bears blush, while also providing the ability to place Sorcerer Role Tokens on your creatures. These auras provide +1/+1 and the ability to Scry 1 when the enchanted creature attacks. At its worst, Spellbook Vendor should be treated as a two-mana 3/3 with vigilance with the ability to Scry 1. In general, it will serve as a pseudo lord for your creatures that also synergizes with an enchantress theme. However, that is not what makes the "Spellbook Vendor" exciting.

"Spellbook Vendor" fits into a sweet spot, where it is good but not problematic. In turn, this means your opponents are unlikely to waste a removal spell on it. In your usual game you can expect this card to stick around longer than it rightfully should and provide you with an average of 3 to 5 Scry effects, which is huge for a color with very few ways to manipulate your draws.

Blue

Please indulge me for a moment as I talk about a pet card that my playgroup has nicknamed "The Butcher." Zuran Spellcaster is my favorite pinger in Magic: The Gathering. I am aware that better pingers exist. Prodigal Pyromancer is in a more appropriate color, and Cunning Sparkmage does the same effect with haste. However, that is exactly the reason why I prefer Zuran Spellcaster. Every Elf player can recall the first time they overcommitted to a board only to have a Red Player kill all of their creatures. That's not something you need to worry about against a Blue Player, right?

Simply put, "Zuran Spellcaster" is good because it is unexpected. Players will overcommit against you and it will slowly ping down creatures and life totals while you hold up Counter magic and draw spells. Lastly, I understand the Prodigal Sorcerer is the original Blue Pinger, but you can't beat the flavor text on Zuran Spellcaster.

Black

I am hopeful that this article can push Ruthless Technomancer from a .9% Cube count to the 1% it deserves. For $3 you can include a card in your Cube that supports a Sacrifice theme, a Reanimator theme, and even an Artifact them. Obviously Ruthless Technomancer is a value engine that wants to loop and recur medium sized creatures. Instead of diving too much into the obvious play patterns of this card, let me highlight how it almost ended a friendship.

When combined with Cube Allstar Myr Battlesphere, Ruthless Technomancer allows you to do some pretty heinous things. Step one, attack with Myr Battlesphere and tap your myr tokens to buff its power. Step two, play Ruthless Technomancer" and sacrifice your Myr Battlesphere that currently has 8 power. Step 3, reanimate your "Myr Battlesphere" that now only has 4 power. Step 4 through 7 will usually involve some level of crying and table flipping, but you get the idea.

Red

Honestly, the fact that Erkenbrand, Lord of Westfold only has a .5% Cube count is astounding. You can't ask for much more from a Red 4 drop worth only $.02. Erkenbrand, Lord of Westfold is what I call a boomerang card. In a draft, he is not so strong that you feel obligated to take it early, but you can generally expect to pick him up on the wheel and you are normally happy to include him in your deck. It is a solid roleplayer that even at its worst will provide a buff to your creatures when it enters the battlefield.

That being said, it takes very little to push this card over the top in your Cube. Many of the best token producers like Adeline, Resplendent Cathar already produce humans and synergize with Erken Brand, Lord of Westfold. Swap out your Dragon Fodder for Rally at the Hornberg or including the backbreaking Horn of Gondor and you can easily transform Erkenbrand, Lord of Westfold into a certified game ending bomb.

Green

The last but not least we have Biophagus a card that I am confident has been overlooked by the Cube community simply because people don't know it exists. "Biophagus" was printed directly into the Warhammer 40k commander set, but it doesn't take much imagination to understand why it should be included in every Cube that can get one. "Biophagus" is a more resilient "Birds of Paradise" that provides +1/+1 counters to your creatures. If your Cube supports a +1/+1 counter theme , "Biophagus" is a must include. If you are like me and prefer more interesting cards over less interactable ones, give "Sylvan Caryatid" the boot and pick up a copy of this card today.

As always, thanks for reading, and let me know what I missed over on social media. What underrated Human deserves a spotlight?