Core Set 2020 Cube Review

Posted on July 5, 2019

These evaluations are based on actual Cube experience from several Cube drafts from actual Cube drafts in my Cube and SirFunchalot's unpowered Cube, not just outsourced to other formats. This article was written before the online prereleases and streamer events, but that hasn't stopped me and my friends from jamming Cube matches with these new cards and this article is based on those findings, not just theorizing.

While my Cube has power, experiences should be generalized to yours, provided it does not have unique design restrictions (i.e. pauper or peasant).

Core Set 2020 doesn't offer as much for Cube as the past few sets, but still has some nice goodies for Cubes, as there's a good amount of cards that aren't obviously good and thus have flown under the radar, something that it seems I say in a lot of my Cube reviews lately.

As I have done in recent reviews, I will reference decks that have used Core Set 2020 cards and won/had the best record in Cube drafts. Of course, going 3-0 with a card in a deck isn't ironclad proof of that card being good, but it does help illustrate how the card performs in winning Cube decks.

Cards are sorted in order of approximate interest by color - the ones that piqued my interest for Cube discussed first in approximate order, so don't get too hung up about thinking that one card is strictly better not close, or whatever the kids say these days. If a card isn't discussed here, it's likely that it's not that great for Cubes with rares in them.

White

Ancestral Blade: It may seem weird having a weird riff on Living Weapon as my favorite White card in the set, and it isn't because of my love of Living Weapon or the set being weak.

Ancestral Blade acts like a persist 2/2 a la Putrid Goblin or Safehold Elite but leaves a Short Sword instead of a soldier token. I've found that it's a lot better than it looks as an aggressive tool, as I've seen very little talk about this for Cube. Much like how the swords fall into two categories of static and dynamic triggers, living weapons generally fall into two categories:

Small bodies for the cost (Flayer Husk, Necropouncer) with decent equip costs.

Decent bodies but terribly expensive equip costs, so the game has to go long for them to equip something else (Strandwalker.) Batterskull, if anything, falls into the latter category.

Ancestral Blade is a bit of both. Obviously a 2/2 for 2 isn't great by 2019 creature standards and it can't just stonewall people like Batterskull. I've found, because it's equip cost is so cheap, it fits aggressive decks' game plans by contributing damage in the long run. Getting a Short Sword instead of a 1/1 isn't as good as post wrath recovery but in most other scenarios, it's been great for occupying the space of aggro threat and pants.

This 3-0 deck with it utilized it as described.

Example Deck #1 | Cube | Usman Jamil

Sorceries (1)
1 Armageddon

Enchantments (1)
1 On Thin Ice

White 2-drops aren't exactly stacked (although you should be playing the criminally underplayed Knight of the Holy Nimbus) but this punches well with all but the best of them.

Ajani, Strength of the Pride mainly just spams out 2/2s that get bigger with his plus, and if you think this requires a "lifegain theme", pretend that Ajani spams out something with an obscure creature type like Eye or Nautilus and that Ajani boosts those*. As a planeswalker that creates tokens at the cost of loyalty, it played somewhat similarly to Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor, but could at least buff its own tokens.

Ajani never ultimated, but this is the case with all of the walkers I tested. It isn't out of the question to ultimate a planeswalker, but don't let planeswalker ultimates color your impressions of them very much.

Obviously this is worse than most of the 4-mana planeswalkers like Ajani Goldmane, Ajani Adversary of Tyrants, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant so if you're capping planeswalkers, this likely is right out of contention for your Cube, but I've been decently impressed by it as a value walker, a la Kasmina.

Hanged Executioner evokes Midnight Haunting as a card that makes a couple of flying 1/1s, but, ironically, it's quite vulnerable to spot removal since so much of the Executioner's value is lost when it dies. The ability is tied to the creature and for something as mana-inefficient as this, that's a real killer to its usefulness. I was mostly down on it but Sirfunchalot and TheSteveMan found it worked well for them as it's a creature that curves into its ability and, although the opponent could, it's a small timing window to kill it and it's fine if the opponent has to spend a piece of removal on a 1/1 spirit token, as well as acting as removal in its own right. It's true that White 3-drops have gotten better in the past year with cards like Benalish Marshal, Gideon Blackblade, and Ranger-Captain of Eos, and costing only helps it not pale in comparison to its brethren, punching well in its weight class. Don't fear this reaper.

Brought Back: Living the two fetchland dream as a wee explosive vegetation is the best scenario for this, but it's Level 1 analysis for its Cube applications. As a late preview, I've gotten less reps in with it than I'd like, but I've at least given it some.

In aggro, it's best used with permanents that destroy themselves, like Gideon, AoZ or to encourage chump attacks/get around removal?

In the boros aggro deck at the top of the article, it had about 10 hits:

Four fetch lands, Armageddon, Ajani, Strength of the Pride, Gideon, AoZ, Goblin Cratermaker, Dauntless Bodyguard (kinda), Bomat Courier (also kinda)

The last two are a stretch, but it's more cards than I'd think in a deck that isn't trying to abuse it.

But this also begs the question, would a deck like that be willing to use a non creature slot in it? Would it be worth cutting a business spell like Sword of War and Peace for it, and would it be worth the Cube slot, since it's mostly an aggressive card? My impression, at least so far, is that it isn't but it's one where I'm not 100% sure as I'd not gotten as many reps with it as I'd like.

Cavalier of Dawn is the latest in this set's attempt to make a cycle of fixed Titans. Unfortunately, I found that this just doesn't have enough impact to justify playing this 5-drop with a super-awkward Mana cost. When trying it out, it was nice that it could at least outclass the 3/3 that it generates since it has vigilance, but just didn't compare favorably to other things, more so since a cost requires being very strong to be worth the cost payoff and while the Cavaliers may be competitive with threats in Standard, most aren't for Cube.

Apostle of Purifying Light mirrors cards like White Knight and Silver Knight, creatures with decent stats that were needed about a decade ago for Cubes to hit critical mass of aggressive creatures to make aggro decks work. Nowadays, we have much better options, even with the Apostle's overcoated grave hate.

Sephara, Sky's Blade is mediocre to reanimate since it isn't very resilient and gets owned hard by spot removal by having no immediate impact, and has an alternate cost that is prohibitively hard to achieve in Cube.

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Blue

Mu Yanling, Sky Danceris comparable to Liliana, the Last Hope thanks to the debuffing ability (though it doesn't kill small things) working with mass removal in other colors by encouraging overextending. She also has somewhat of an Air Elemental with Suspend 1 and I've found that on its own is usually worth the Mana cost as a midsized threat. People have been mulling if it's better or worse than Jace Beleren, and while these cards are completely different in function, they're both good cards for Blue decks and while I think she's slightly overrated, she's still good for Cube.

Cloudkin Seer elicits many comparisons: a Fblthp that flies and has +1/+0 for an additional mana, a Phyrexian Rager that trades -0/-1 for flying and no lifeloss and maybe even Mulldrifter, which generally elicits a sigh of relief if the opponent is tapping out on main phase for it.

But it's pretty great, even if it isn't the Blue shifted Wall of Blossoms that would arguably fit better in most Blue strategies.

My friend Zolthux noted how creatures like this and Fblthp allow decks to draw cards while developing.

I've been pleasantly surprised at it as a tempo play or even a roadblock that can peck at Planeswalkers, something that was underestimated by those who seemed Kitesail Freebooter as a worse Mesmeric Fiend. Hardly a staple for Blue decks but a nice pickup for them.

Cavalier of Gales is the best Cavalier and thankfully in a color that can hit without too much trouble due to the color loving it's Mana rocks and due to having a large body, it's still fine to run out later in the game.

Brainstorm is worse than drawing two, but I found that a Brainstorm and having an 5/5 flying body makes it a good turn five play with a significant board presence when was cast. An issue I always had with Mulldrifter, moreso in recent years, is that Mulldrifter always was a mediocre use of five Mana on a Blue player's main phase due to its anemic body, as seeing an opponent tap out for it on turn five usually elicited a sigh of relief, not a worried reaction. Unlike the other Cavaliers, this one compared well to its counterparts and even its death trigger was typically effective to implementing big Blue's game plan. All in all, solid.

Drawn from Dreams pays for the sins of the father, but moreso because people thinking it's bad because it can't just be cast for a la Dig Through Time. So it's not a broken card that can be cast at instant speed for or . Is it still good? As I found, yes.

Although instant speed lets Dig through Time act as a way to dig to answers to what your opponent just played, I've found it's still good for being a draw spell to act as a mini tutor, making it usually worth tapping four Mana on main phase.

In the RNA review, I talked about Precognitive Perception and how Cubes aren't really in need of more big Blue things - especially at sorcery speed. This is another but is one of the better ones available, but it may still be hard to include amongst Blue's great Planeswalkers and value cards.

Spectral Sailor: If you've been looking for another 1-mana Blue creature to go along with Faerie Seer, here's another one.

The adage of "1 drops being bad in Limited" strikes again, but it applies at least moreso here because while a 1-drop is worth a card in White aggro as it contributes to the White aggro gameplan, it doesn't align with the game plan of many Blue decks. We've seen this type of effect with Azure Mage and Prophet of Distortion, the latter being awkward due to requiring colorless Mana in addition to having an anemic body.

I found this sailor didn't address the major problem that those two cards did: that four Mana to draw a card is still a significant amount of Mana, even if using dormant mana. This meant that it was mainly just wanted in Blue decks that could actively use a flash Flying Men, like tempo decks, or as something to side in against aggro to trade with an Elite Vanguard variant. While it's not bad at all, it's just narrow.

Flood of Tears is yet another big Mana effect that isn't as good as it's competition. I found it isn't super hard to get four permanents out with Mana rocks but the dream of cheating an eldrazi or whatever didn't happen a lot.

Tale's End: Stifles must be stapled to something decks want at base rate to be Cubeable (Nimble Obstructionist, Disallow), and they always play worse than they look. In theory, hitting legendaries helps cover some of the holes that a Stifle doesn't. In reality, it didn't do enough. Just play Power Sink instead (it's actually a good counterspell that, like Knight of the Holy Nimbus is some sweet Sirfunchalot tech.)

Agent of Treachery can't be disenchanted or stopped when the creature gets removed but at the end of the day, it's still seven mana which is too high for a Confiscate.

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Black

Scheming Symmetry is mainly another Imperial Seal but one that's limited to combo decks and other decks that seek to win that turn by combining this with a cantrip to mitigate the drawback of giving a card to the opponent, since you're banking on the opponent not living - or that their card isn't going to be as important as yours. It's inclusion mainly depends on the role and support for combo in your Cube, as it's nearly useless outside of that but combo decks having access to yet another Imperial Seal is big game as those decks thrive most on consistency.

Knight of the Ebon Legion's ability lets it have a threat of activation ability to make blocking awkward in the later stages of the game when there's nothing better to do, somewhat similar to Resplendent Angel with a static ability that is fed by its activated one. I found these abilities to be incredibly relevant; its 4 life loss trigger never mattered for yourself, since it only triggered on your end step, but very much so for your opponent, as I found it wasn't hard to make it larger by just attacking and making the opponent lose 4+ life loss and its pump ability typically made it hard to block, similar to Kytheon, Hero of Akros's activated ability.

I wish it was a 2/1 but being a 1/2 was oddly useful since turning into a 2/3 let it tower over 2/2s. Overall, I found it to be a great tool for Black aggro decks, especially those with buffs and/or direct damage. This deck didn't have a lot of buffs but it worked well there:

Example Deck #2 | Cube | Usman Jamil

While it isn't your standard fare 2/1 for one, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it fit Black aggro decks and found it to be a solid performer for Black aggro decks.

Rotting Regisaur is mainly for aggressive decks as a giant threat with a drawback, but having no evasion. In Black aggro, I found the drawback to be half drawback, half boon by being able to dump recursive threats in the graveyard. A worry that I had with this was that it'd just get stonewalled, forcing you to essentially Masticore-lock yourself, but I found this only really happened against White and Green with token generators and/or cannon fodder. Even then, it wasn't terribly often - and still, that's what your sideboard is for. Tom Ross tweeted this card has gotten reactions that it's either insane or unplayable; but, of course, the truth is always in the middle. Black 3-drops aren't that great anyway; so give this a try.

Blood for Bones plays similarly to Victimize and Recurring Nightmare as more of a value reanimation spell than something to put into play cheaply, but I found it to be clunky.

Vilis, Broker of Blood plays somewhat like Kuro, Pitlord with his ability, but isn't that great to cheat into play since his ability requires Mana and for the cost, his overall value is weak. Cute with Reanimate and Life // Death but you can do better. This isn't awful because it's at least a big thing to reanimate, which those decks want, but there're better options available.

Yarok's Fenlurker is a Ravenous Rats riff but I found the cost wasn't worth its marginal upsides. Although Knight of the Ebon Legion's pump ability pushes him into Cubeable territory due to synergy, it wasn't enough on this to make it make waves in Cube.

Dread Presence plays more as a 5-drop than a 4-drop, like many other landfall creatures, much like how Rampaging Baloths costed in actuality. Also, Dread Presence only triggers on swamps.

If Master of the Wild Hunt is mediocre because it just runs into bolts, this was moreso. Overall, I found it mediocre since it was vulnerable and weak.

Cavalier of Night is a very odd Shriekmaw, and having lifelink was one of the better statics. However, decks generally didn't want to bother playing it, since it wasn't worth the cost. The death trigger has synergy with the sacrifice mode but it wasn't enough to be worth it.

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Red

Chandra, Awakened Inferno is currently underrated, possibly because of comparisons to Chandra, Flamecaller. I've found her to be extremely good control card at dealing with board states with creatures or Planeswalkers, which I've found encompasses most boards. Her -X kills almost all big threats on her own, as she trades with Titans and her -3 wipes small boards easily, while letting her keep a decent amount of loyalty.

Because of this, she's been great in slower Red decks as a premier crowd control tool that can go upstairs if the board is stalled (which Chandra, Flamecaller couldn't do), and found that sometimes it's right to just go all-in and shove on the mono emblems game plan since she gains loyalty while doing so. The emblem mode has been compared to Chandra, Flamecaller's as both planeswalkers plus to deal damage to an opponent.

It seems like Awakened Inferno has been underrated because of implicit assumptions that she emblems once and assuming that the game ends, instead of taking into account just how quickly her emblems and their damage snowballs.

As overstated as the "subgame" aspect of planeswalkers in Cube is, this is one where I've found it actually applies, since the opponent usually had to deal with her or end the game quickly.

Red has lacked for good 6-drops aside from Inferno Titan and arguably Emissary of Grudges (whose self-protection is inconsistent in the decks that want to play it) and both Chandra, Awakened Inferno and Chandra, Flamecaller play wonderfully in slower Red decks. Although Red shouldn't have a high amount of 6-drops, it's resulted in an exacerbation in the color of an overreliance in like-for-like changes, resulting in dismissals of this Chandra for Cube due to fear of disturbing their Cube's proverbial Feng Shui. I haven't found playing both to have significant impacts on my Cube, at least so far. Chandra, Flamecaller shouldn't result in a slightly worse six-mana Chandra not making it into your Cube; if the balance of your Cube is wrecked by adding another six-mana planeswalker, your meta may not be as balanced as you may think.

If War of the Spark didn't prompt you to critically evaluate how to look at the role of Planeswalkers in your Cube, perhaps the Chandra trio may.

Chandra, Acolyte of Flame is also great, as I've found her elemental ability lets her gain loyalty if the elementals can't get through, or use her elemental ability to get a few chip shots in. While the tokens' ephemeral nature may make it look like she is only good in tokens decks, I found that wasn't the case at all, as it let her still get damage in.

In the War of the Spark review, I had talked about Dreadhorde Arcanist and how it isn't hard to craft a deck with a reasonable number of targets to flash back, and I found it was even easier with her. Getting even one extra bolt out of her was great in my and others' experience, and she acted like a Jace, Telepath Unbound in decks with cheap spells in the graveyard while also getting more value out of your cheap burn spells either by bolting two things, double bolting a Titan, or just going upstairs twice without requiring extra mana. That was usually worth the price of admission on its own. Impressions I've gotten from friends trying her out in their Cubes have mirrored mine.

Lastly, and least importantly, she helps Red planeswalkers go ultimate extremely quickly. In the Modern Horizons review, I talked about how Sword of Truth and Justice helps planeswalkers ultimate quicker and I found that with an active Chandra, Acolyte of Flame, a planeswalker like Chandra, Torch of Defiance goes ultimate very quickly (1 turn instead of 4 turns, by making Chandra, Torch of Defiance go from 4 to 5 to 6 in one turn, and then using Acolyte of Flame to get her to 7 loyalty and then ultimate). Most commonly Cubed Red walkers with ultimates like Domri, Chaos Bringer, Koth of the Hammer, Chandra, Fire Artisan, and Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast can do the same. However, she's not only good at that role as discussed earlier; limiting/not limiting planeswalkers doesn't substantially impact her performance in Cube, as I found the other two abilities are where the rub lies. If you think that this card is only good in a superfriends style deck, you're evaluating her incorrectly. Power-level wise, both of these should easily make a Cube, so do so.

Chandra, Novice Pyromancer has played similarly to a Chandra, Torch of Defiance knockoff but she's surprised me. Her plus is essentially blank and never actually made an elemental stronger, but it's been nice as something that acts like a mini Flametongue Kavu if there's something in play and to ramp if it lives to untap. Obviously, it's the worst of the three Core Set 2020 Chandras, but it's been performing better than I thought.

Glint-Horn Buccaneer being a 2/4 and haste lets it get in early and can loot multiple times if need be, if the game goes long or want to get rid of junk. It has some synergies with other cards but they're so few that it's bad to rely on them, but those synergies are hardly necessary as it mainly was to loot and deal 1, which is hardly efficient but not awful to kill an opponent at death's door. But unfortunately, his overall clock was slow and like Pia Nalaar, it's a decent card but a hard sell in a Cube with five rabblemaster variants, all of which are great Cube cards.

Chandra, Flame's Fury: Most planeswalker decks have been outside if Cubeable range with a few exceptions. This is one of the better ones, outclassed by the new Chandra at but she's still nice. Like many Chandras, all she does is deal damage and acts somewhat similarly to Sorin Markov, which is admittedly not the most flattering comparison but she at least can Chandra's Outrage without needing to plus, which I found was good to either kill a midsized creature or work with a bolt to kill a Titan. It may not make your list but don't count it out just because it's a walker deck planeswalker as she's easily the best in that class.

Repeated Reverberation is another riff on Bonus Round as a card that doubles rituals and other spells, bit doesn't do much otherwise outside of storm. I found that doubling planeswalker abilities helped it get more play since it wasn't as narrow but it still wasn't great in those decks. Play if you want another storm support card.

Scorch Spitter plays similarly to Karplusan Wolverine and Thornbow Archer as a virtual 2-power creature. Being unable to trade with two-toughness things makes it worse than other 2/1s for oen but it's still serviceable filler. Sirfunchalot had it in a 3-0 Boros aggro deck where it was just that, a pretty good filler aggro creature:

Example Deck #3 | Cube | Usman Jamil

Planeswalkers (1)
1 Tibalt, Rakish Instigator

Drakuseth, Maw of Flames has no immediate impact, making it questionable as anything except for a cheat target, but it does at least kill in two attacks and essentially Plague Winds the opponent once entering the red zone. Consider only if you want another cheat target.

Mask of Immolation doesn't have Mortarpod's toughness pump but at least being a 1/1 lets it peck at things, which was annoying about Mortarpod as it typically relegated it to defensive decks, since aggro decks didn't want a 0/1 at all, but they don't really want a 1/1 either.

Doesn't pump toughness but even when playing Mortarpod, it hardly mattered (which was surprising) so it was overall was better than Mortarpod but even something like Mogg War Marshal, as fine as it is, was better than this.

Chandra's Regulator was too inconsistent for dual and tri colored decks with Red in them. I found its looting was useful in slower builds of Mono-Red, and usually copying a Chandra ability was impacting enough to be worth a card. However, it just couldn't compete with the small numbers of cards in a Red section that weren't devoted to aggro support.

Unchained Berserker: When the likes of Gore-House Chainwalker and Borderland Marauder were Cube staples, this had a chance. This may have had potential but Cubes aren't in the market for cards like this anymore. Avoid this and play more 1-drops and cheap burn so your aggro clocks hit the ground running.

Cavalier of Flame isn't too bad, as it has a large body for its cost, its rummage ability is great, and its death trigger works well with it. I found it wasn't that hard to get at least 3 damage out of the death trigger. Even its ability to pump the team was nice, even to give itself haste as a 7-drop. So why is it down here? As cliche as it is to say, the hasty dragons like Thundermaw Hellkite, Glorybringer, Skarrgan Hellkite, and the not-hasty Sarkhan were all better and didn't have a cost either, leaving this without a home.

Flame Sweep suffers from being Mana inefficient and saving your own fliers isn't much of a sell when hardly anyone plays Fiery Cannonade. Just play Pyroclasm, Whipflare, Rough // Tumble and Sudden Demise instead.

Marauding Raptor doesn't really have a home in Cube aside from decks like elfless midrange. It isn't enough of a payoff for going into that archetype and eschewing the value 2/2s that slower Red decks play and is flat out unplayable in aggro. Avoid this awkward Heartless Summoning riff.

Leyline of Combustion suffers as it's purely reactive; while it helps protect your clock, it isn't worth the card.

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Green

Voracious Hydra: I've frequently talked about Flexibility on cards and how it's underrated because it's something that can't be quantified, mana-wise since there aren't analogues to show what the "Mana value" of flexibility is. It doesn't help that a lot of flexible cards just aren't good.

In my Ravnica Allegiance review, when I talked about Hydroid Krasis, I noted that it was a good card because it had a decent base rate that worked well with Cube decks, and could scale upward if drawn late with nothing better to do.

What's Voracious Hydra's base rate? It's around , for either a kinda Murderous Redcap or an Erhnam Djinn with trample that can scale bigger to become analogues of a riotless Ravager Wurm (six mana makes the hydra a, either a 4/5 that fights something or a 8/9.)

As my friend zolthux had noted from trying it out in his Cube: "Usually Green has to outsource its removal to a secondary color, and Voracious Hydra being able to pick off small problematic creatures (Brain Maggots,mana dorks, even weenies) means that the midrange decks can save their Doom Blades and Oblivion Rings for bigger threats."

Like with things like Walking Ballista/Hangarback Walker, sometimes you just draw this late game and have nothing better to do, giving options to "go big". While I found the ability to make a giant creature was used less often, it's massive size potential let it close games out quickly and even served as a nod to help players play it correctly, a la Nezumi Cutthroat being unable to block and Angel of Serenity exiling your own creatures from the grave as a way to tell players to play their giant beatstick angel on an empty board.

Historically, Green fight cards haven't been that great since they have been poor on rate or require another creature to do anything. Voracious Hydra gets around both of those and has worked like a charm for green midrange decks.

Nightpack Ambusher: In the Modern Horizons review, I talked in the last review about resilient midrange Green threats like Trumpeting Herd, Briarhorn, Wolfbriar Elemental, and Yeva, Nature's Herald, heralded by Zolthux, SirFunchalot and Buildingadeck.

Its wolf-boosting buff helps other wolves a la Creakwood Liege pumping its own tokens, but don't go into this expecting it to be the centerpiece of a wild tribal deck, a la Master of the "dies to bolt" Hunt, as analysis has some additive distraction as this loses focus of what makes this useful - a good flash midrange threat. Even if including a more "stock" Green section, it's been great there as well.

The worst thing about the Innistrad "flip" werewolves was trying to skip your turn sometimes was awkward since the opponent could just respond with an instant, undoing your work and thankfully, Nightpack Ambusher gets around that. I found that it made wolves more often than I'd have thought and them being 3/3s made them a good option when you had something else to do with your mana, or other instant-speed cards like burn in or counterspells in . Of course, it doesn't force you to play bad Magic, so if playing a five-drop is the better call, that's the call. Green 4-drops are pretty mediocre outside of planeswalkers so it's good to have a good one there, with Core Set 2020 giving Cubes a host of good Green 4-drops.

Sirfunchalot found it to work well in this 3-0 Temur Midrange deck:

Example Deck #4 | Cube | Sirfunchalot

In this deck, it was typical to cast it during end of turn or in combat to ambush something in combat, and worked wonderfully with other flash cards. While not as good as Voracious Hydra, it's a very welcome addition to the anemic Green 4-drop slot in Cube.

Shifting Ceratops: Hey, it's another good Green 4-drop! This does a lot, is not just tool against Blue as it's somewhat like Thornling but more of a generic beater at the cost of resiliency. Relevance of modes was haste first, then trample, then reach. Saw a missed onboard kill by giving it haste and trample ftw. A pretty good Green 4-drop.

Vivien, Arkbow Ranger has been extremely underrated, likely because it looks weird compared to a lot of other Green walkers that spam out tokens when it's closer to an Ajani with the boost. Granting trample is huge, especially with swords to push sword triggers forward. In my Unstable Cube review, I talked about Spike and how, if playing by sanctioned rules, getting something outside the game = your sideboard.

Green's inherent manafixing strength helps with some "free fixing" like to play off-color Shriekmaw or even Titan that you picked up early in the draft. The issue I ran into with Karn, the Great Creator's wish mode was that you usually didn't have many artifacts, and if you were paying attention in the Modern Horizons review when I talked about Urza, High Lord Artificer, I'm running more artifacts than just about every Cube and even in that world, Karn's wish mode was mediocre.

So what hope does a Vivien have? It's true that she's pretty useless on a board without other creatures, but the same adage applies to other things like most equipment and vehicles, and it can be attacked, but I found it doesn't make it bad. It's also nice that Green has several "fight" cards for Cubes in this set. Don't be scared of its weird cost, it's a solid add.

Shared Summons has been solid in rampy versions of Green decks, since it uses up a mid-game play, so it's been generally best in decks that use that as an "off" turn rather than decks that use the 5-drop part of the curve as a big part of their game plan. Revealing targets does mean that the opponent does paint a target to aim removal at, but playing resilient threats that are good against removal helps to combat that and even in the worst case, assuming that it resolves, it's good for grinding out value against decks that are reliant on spot removal. It looks mediocre but it's better than you'd think.

Barkhide Troll plays like Krosan Tusker, who suffered from being in the wrong color. It has some protection and I found that it's temporary hexproof made it play somewhat similar to persist, but it's yet another Green card that isn't at home in Green ramp and midrange.

Woodland Champion is absurd with any token generator, especially ones that can consistently do so, turn after turn (aka Planeswalkers.) As a 2/2, its body does require buffing via a token soon after playing it, so it does beg the question of how many token generators are needed to make this playable in the final 40 of a Cube deck.

Elvish Reclaimer suffers from being unable to consistently become a 3/3 early, making it a weird version of Weathered Wayfarer as a land tutor. Requiring two mana is a big ask though, and it was hardly played because of this.

Wolfrider's Saddle is the worst of the living weapons as it shares characteristics with the mediocre originals by having a mediocre body and a high equip cost, making it a poor performer.

Leafkin Druid's quad creature Mana generation mode is nearly a pipe dream to hit in a consistent manner in Cube. Include if you want another two-mana elf that taps for Green.

Cavalier of Thorns is, like Golos, a bad Primeval Titan (which on its own is overrated in Cube) but with a worse Mana cost and a middling death trigger.

Leyline of Abundance is poor in Cube since it requires the stars aligning for getting this in hand and at least 1 mana elf and/or the time to be able to spend eight Mana to Gavony Township.

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Artifacts

Golos, Tireless Pilgrim: Speaking of Golos, this is a Solemn Simulacrum riff and while it's only one Mana more, it's a big chasm, especially since Solemn gets typically cast on turn three due to Mana acceleration. While it gets any land, it wasn't enough to be worth it, moreso since his ability was never used.

Manifold Key doesn't require rocket surgery to figure out if you want this upgrade in addition to Voltaic Key, so decide accordingly if you need two keys.

Bag of Holding is an odd Jalum Tome riff that can't be utilized for reanimator but is more just generic value. It combines with your own discard but found that it didn't happen often and that it could destroy itself a la Experimental Frenzy. I found that it wasn't too bad to do in the decks that played the bag to free the cards it exiles, as opposed to Experimental Frenzy which usually used up that turn to explode. Hardly a bad card, though.

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Multicolor

Kykar, Wind's Fury played similarly to Monastery Mentor but I found it wasn't worth the triple color slot. As a 4-drop, at the end of the day, it was a bit too vulnerable to spot removal for no value to do much in Cube.

The rest of the wedge cards are very mediocre. Tri color cards need to punch really hard to make them worthy, and these new ones aren't.

The two-color cards are weak too, Skyknight Vanguard aside as the cheapest Krenko/Hanweir Garrison type of card that has to attack to make tokens. It's the cheapest one and works really well by being evasive making sure that he can attack on his own and it's been great so far. Obviously multicolored cards are more harshly graded, but this is good even on that curve.

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Land

Lotus Field plays somewhat similar to a bounceland, a la Gruul Turf, where you play a land that enters the battlefield tapped and this requires other lands to do its thing. It more than makes up for it by making your mana silky smooth through the rest of the game. There were times when the player just wanted but not the third , but overall it was great for mana consistency.

As my friend zolthux says, make sure drafters include it as a "spell land" when deck-building, a la Maze of Ith, to avoid some user error when using it, as a hand with a basic Forest and this is a snap-mulligan. There's some non-interactions with the underrated land auras like Utopia Sprawl, Abundant Growth, and Fertile Ground but found this wasn't enough to make this bad for slower non-mono color decks.

Cryptic Caves is somewhat like Horizon Canopy that requires a lot of lands but in control, it wasn't a huge liability. The sacrifice ability helped with land flood, I found, but other utility lands just played better although it's certainly a fine card to have in the final 40 of a control deck.

Field of the Dead: Seven lands is hard enough to get in Cube. Seven with different names is a pipe dream and even the payoff is poor.

I hope that you've enjoyed this romp through Core Set 2020 for Cube. We'll be back for Commander 2019 in August, see you then!

Blog, featuring my Pauper, Peasant and powered Cube lists.

The Third Power, a nearly decade-long running podcast that Anthony Avitollo and I host.

Find me on Twitter Check out these discords for Cube discussion!

Special thanks to Zolthux, SirFunchalot and Buildingadeck for a lot of great input for this article!

*Pretend that I made a funny joke about changelings here.

TAGS articles, casual, limited, review, analysis, cube, decklist, cube review, usman jamil, core set 2020, 07052019, powered cube

Core Set 2020 Cube Review

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White

Example Deck #1 | Cube | Usman Jamil

Blue

Black

Example Deck #2 | Cube | Usman Jamil

Red

Example Deck #3 | Cube | Usman Jamil

Green

Example Deck #4 | Cube | Sirfunchalot

Artifacts

Multicolor

Land

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