Battlebond and C18 Cube Review

Posted on September 21, 2018

With Guilds of Ravnica around the corner and Summer wrapping up (at least in the Northern hemisphere) this article will recap the summer's supplementary products - Commander 2018 and Battlebond - for Cube.

Commander 2018

All of the Lieutenant and "Commander Storm" cycles are too weak for Cube, unless you're using Commander errata or some form of house rules, but their base modes are all too weak for regular Cube play.

White

Boreas Charger represents a welcome change as it triggers on leaving the battlefield rather than dying. This helps to get around cards like Oblivion Ring, Boomerang, and Swords to Plowshares styles of effects. 3-drops in White and Red have gotten significantly better in recent years, but Boreas Charger still suffers from being unable to truly use the trigger on demand since it's reliant on having fewer lands. While ramping is useful, it isn't really that great as an incentive to have the card in a deck, even if it can potentially put multiple Plains in hand.

Heavenly Blademaster is, at worst, a 6/6 flier for but has some additional synergies with being equipped. While equipment generally tend to be a component of good White decks, generally these kinds of creatures that rely on equipment tend to have a very hard time in Cube, Stoneforge Mystic aside. As cliché as it is to say, having no immediate impact and failing the "Vindicate test" is also bad for her as well. Equipping her is absurd and putting a sword on her and letting her connect is lights out against a lot of decks, but it requires a bit too much to go right to be worth it.

Magus of the Balance may be one of the worst recent Magus cards due to how expensive he is to activate and telegraphing the ability from a mile away. Arguably, a really poor version of Balance, one of the premiere White cards in Cube, can still make for a fine card, but it still requires an untap and five mana while playing a body with generally mediocre stats - something that's become more pronounced as creatures get better with time. Grizzly Bears may have been an acceptable fail-case 5-7 years ago, but now it's poor for Cube.

Blue

Aminatou's Augury is another "big mana" card that, like Summon the Pack, provides a big potential payoff for resolving a high CMC card.

Eight mana is a rough sell for a card in Cube that doesn't have Delve and can't be cheated into play like a big giant Eldrazi. Additionally, like Summon the Pack, it isn't guaranteed to win the game, but likely will at least impact the board. The question is by how much:

This deck featuring the new Saheeli (we'll get to her later) 3-0'd a recent Cube draft and is a good example of a generic tap-out control deck:

Example Deck #1| Cube | Usman Jamil

Even though there's some non-synergy with Aminatou's Augury and the X-spells, this is a good example of a generic deck playing Aminatou's Augury would look.

And honestly, it's not that great with the best potential of Sun Titan, Gideon Jura, Vedalken Shackles, Ponder, and Ancestral Recall and a land, but its average case hitting much lower. This card's best role is in something like a big mana ramp deck that can utilize the ability to cast Eldrazi to take advantage of cast triggers, but aside from some possible build around potential, this just doesn't seem worth it in most Cube decks.

Ever-Watching Threshold is a bad riff on cards like Phyrexian Arena.It's a continual draw engine the opponent can control and it's in a color with much better card draw spells like Thirst for Knowledge, Compulsive Research, and Jace Beleren at the same CMC. It requires too much work to make this really stand up to the others.

Primordial Mist is better than it looks as a riff on cards like Whisperwood Elemental.

That being said, it's five mana and takes a while to do make an impact. Five mana personal Howling Mines generally have a rough time in Cube unless they can do other things well in *addition* to being a personal Howling mine. Despite this spitting out 2/2s that manifest as card draw, this is no exception to that rule.

Vedalken Humiliator suffers from being a Blue 4-drop in Cube and one that:

has no immediate impact when resolved (at sorcery speed)

has to attack to do anything, with the opponent having something to humiliate

and also has to have metalcraft while being a non-artifact creature that doesn't contribute on his own, can be super rough

This results in a card just isn't worth it for many Cubes, even in Cubes that run more artifacts than the average Cube. It puts pressure on cards in the section since something's gotta give to make room, and the payoff for going in that direction isn't really that great. This one is not recommended for Cube.

Black

Bloodtracker is a mediocre creature that triggers on leaving the battlefield, but the payoff just isn't there since it can't really do anything unless it dies. It can become pretty huge but it's at such a steep cost that it's not worth it, especially considering it doesn't pay off until it leaves play.

Entreat the Dead suffers even more from the inherent variance with Miracle cards as it's harder to truly manipulate the top of the deck in Cube. We've all seen Bonfire of the Damned, Terminus, and Entreat the Angels are miracled at an awkward time but they're still fine unless x=0. An Angel for or wrathing away a single creature for is still fine. Entreat the Dead suffers as it requires something to be in the graveyard for these odd miracle castings to occur. Topdecking it for doesn't do anything if nothing is in your graveyard. While it can be arguably better when cast for retail price than Terminus, Entreat, or Bonfire, it's still too costly to be worth using in many Cubes.

Night Incarnate was previewed with much fanfare as "the black 5 drop we've been waiting for" in Cube and I had to do a double take because this doesn't fit that criteria at all.

It triggers when it leaves play, it's much more of a mini-wrath a la Yahenni's Expertise and Languish, and a ¾ deathtouch isn't an incredibly efficient body. It's much more reasonable to cast this for its evoke cost like Mulldrifter, Reveillark, and Shriekmaw.

It's also notable because it isn't a may trigger. Playing it as a creature can stifle your own board development, especially if your Black non-aggro deck has Mulldrifters (creatures that have value outside of the creature itself) that can't survive the -3/-3 effect. When I tried it out, unsurprisingly, I found it to be lackluster.

All in all, the Esper colors didn't get a whole lot out of Commander 2018.

Red

Emissary of Grudges is one of the best variants on creatures like Rorix Bladewing, a previous Cube staple, but Cube aggro decks have become more refined by actively supporting aggressive strategies and the printing of better creatures. Its ability to protect itself is pretty useful and has some other niche upsides, like being able to redirect a Mind Twist or a Thoughtseize, but it's more obvious than a morph in a Blue deck (it's always Willbender.) Feedback from players noted that opponents typically didn't target it with removal, but this doesn't tell the entire story since doing so may have just been tempo-useless, but the overall ability was useful.

The issue that I had was that non-aggro decks weren't usually interested in this, since all it did was attack. Granted, it's really good at it and while it survives Wildfire/Burning of Xinye because of its five toughness, I didn't usually see that mattering too much. Overall performance was quite good, but like with the next card, it's not so much of it being a "good card" (because it clearly is) but rather if a Cube has room for it based on wanting another 6-drop in addition to Inferno Titan and, if classifying it as such, Chandra, Flamecaller.

Nesting Dragon is a weird 5-drop that doesn't really have much of an immediate impact, but it's great if it survives to make a land drop by providing a ton of value through Dragon Eggs. Red 5-drops are really good, though, and most tend to lean more toward aggressive decks, like Thundermaw Hellkite. However, unlike those offensively minded cards, I found that Nesting Dragon brickwalls offenses really well as it stops 2 attacks and sometimes it ends up causing a trade or two, or a weird stalemate because attacking into an egg gives you enough power to be able to kill the opponent with the dragon and a firebreathing hatchling. Decks that utilize sacrifice engines can use the eggs pretty well to guarantee having a flying firebreathing Isamaru as well.

Like Demanding Dragon, it's a card that likely can't find room in a lot of Cubes due to how good other red 5-drops are but is hardly a "bad" card and a solid pickup for a deck if you see it in another Cube. Just note that you may have some problems fitting it into yours, since it doesn't have an immediate board impact.

Saheeli's Directive is yet another weird Genesis Wave style of card, but suffers in that most Cube decks, even artifact-heavy decks, don't tend to have many hits, generally with the artifact-heavy decks having around 8-14 hits. Improvise helps, but I've found that since many of the best artifacts are mana rocks and the only other ones that see play are either artifact creatures or passive artifacts like equipment, Saheeli's Directive generally only decreases in cost by 1 or 2. Non-aggro Red cards generally need to be very good at their role to have good Cube shelf life and, unfortunately, this one isn't.

Treasure Nabber and Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor - Hey weren't Red 3-drops supposed to be bad?? For a while, Red aggro 3-drops were weak and when they did manifest on a Cube power level, they were mainly utility style creatures like Manic Vandal, Imperial Recruiter, and Fire Imp - great creatures in their own right but ones that didn't exactly gel with the aggro plan of being efficient damage sources. These creatures aren't bad, but it wasn't until Goblin Rabblemaster that we had creatures that would fit that bill for aggro decks.

Now that we have Goblin Rabblemaster, Chandra's Phoenix, Najeela, the Blade-Blossom, Hanweir Garrison, and Guilds of Ravnica's Legion Warboss, aggro 3-drops are no longer a glaring weak spot for those decks.

Neither of these really fit into the "aggro Red" game plan, though. Varchild is another card in the realm of saboteurs that lack evasion and therefore look a lot better than they actually are. Although she has a unique ability that provides value when she leaves play, her needing to do so to have value makes her weak for aggressive decks - and her lack of immediate impact makes her weird for non-aggro Red decks too. The opponent having ways to potentially use her survivors (sacrifice engine fodder) is awkward but she has enough strikes against her to be weak in scenarios aside from those corner cases.

Treasure Nabber is another mediocre 3-drop for Red. There's the argument that this card is good in Cubes with power and mana rocks, but this doesn't really address reality. The deck referenced that had the new Saheeli had a grand total of 2 cards that would be impacted by this: 2 Signets. The issue with narrow hate cards is having the hoser in play and the opponent having cards that care about it, and when you think about it, the odds of having this in play on turn three or four when the opponent has a signet out aren't very high. Even in decks with more targets, we're talking five targets at most, usually.

As it doesn't permanently steal the mana rock and requires opp to use them and requiring the Red deck to use the mana, a lot of things need to line up correctly. In addition, while Red aggro decks can have some mana sinks with equipment, cards like Hazoret the Fervent, and others, those generally Red aggro decks aren't really looking for ramp when they reach three mana and a non-aggro Red deck likely isn't in the market for something with no immediate impact and questionable long-term play.

Its best role is as a measure in Cube metas where "signet decks" are by far the best decks, but if that's the case, that's a meta problem that should be addressed by addressing the meta itself rather than putting bandaids like this and Pyroblast in your Cube.

Reality Scramble is a very odd Polymorph style card that I found no Cube Red decks were really interested in, since it was a clunky and unreliable method of changing permanents. Retrace, in theory, helps with making the 1-for-1 trades easier, but no decks were interested.

Green

Crash of Rhino Beetles is too mediocre at and doesn't perform at a good base rate for its size. Hitting approximately a billion lands to make it huge isn't a great payoff either. Green 5-drops aren't desperate enough for something like this.

Turntimber Sower is like a poor Titania, Protector of Argoth that I gave a good amount of reps only to find it was really unimpressive. Only triggering once from symmetrical mass land kill was awkward and the payoff of getting lands back wasn't really worth jumping through hoops . In its time, it never got a land back since it required so many resources and even at the end of the day, regrowing a Strip Mine, Wasteland, or Fetch for sacrificing 3 plants, even if they were free plants, is still pretty bad.

There's the argument that a 3/3 for is fine and works decently on base rate for midrange Green decks, but having no immediate impact again makes that questionable. Even with a "land theme," the payoffs just aren't there.

Multicolored and Artifacts

Tricolors:

Aminatou, the Fateshifter, Lord Windgrace, Estrid, the Masked all just didn't do enough for the cost - Lord Windgrace wasn't even included in generic "5 color good stuff" decks and requiring TRIcolor and "lands matter" is a really thin slice of the Venn Diagram of intersection. It's just not there. I personally don't explicitly support a land theme in my Cube but no decks wanted it at all and, for a tri-color card, that's not a good sign.

Two color:

Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle - Green has suffered from a lack of good 4-drops in Cube, which is a shame because it has some amazing one- and two-mana ramp, but it is hard to make these pay off since Green 4-drops lacked (arguably still do lack) for a while. This means those decks have to lean heavily on artifacts or other colors.

Because it enters the battlefield tapped when it resolves, it suffers from the same problems other ETB land ramp spells like Explosive Vegetation have where it requires tapping out for a big threat and hoping that it pays off in the next turn or so. This can be awkward in a control mirror or in any situation where tapping out could punish you. Because of this, it acts more like a Worn Powerstone than a Thran Dynamo/Gilded Lotus which both allow you chain together a big spell and something to protect yourself.

Like Thing in the Ice, it's a card that works pretty well in "base mode" for decks while being absolutely huge if the payoff mode resolves. I've found since it triggers on five spells being cast, it isn't hard to turn into a 12/12 and start bashing in with your mana rock.

There's the argument that it should have trample or some other form of evasion, but that seems more like a general feeling a big giant monster should have trample rather than actual performance. I've found Arixmethes it's a giant Abyss with its 12/12 body and demands your opponent keep throwing blockers in front of it so they don't lose. Sure, the opponent can stymie the offense but it still feels unrealistic saying that this card is bad because it just doesn't kill the opponent in two swings.

This Sultai deck had it as a solid performer which found Arixmethes to be not too difficult to flip.

Example Deck #2 | Cube| Usman Jamil

Instants (2)
1 Mana Leak
1 Psionic Blast

Artifacts (2)
1 Dimir Signet
1 Selesnya Signet

Unfortunately, this doesn't help to shore up weaknesses as it still plays the role of a "tap out" four-mana card. Overall it's relatively solid as a B-tier Simic card and while it isn't on the scale of Edric, Spymaster of Trest, don't sleep on the Slumbering Isle. Don't be surprised if this ends up being replaced by something from Ravnica Allegiance.

Saheeli, the Gifted - Izzet has historically been a color combination of interchangeable value burn spells. Thankfully, Dack Fayden came along and became easily the best Izzet card in Cubes with rares (not just power) and while some other cards came around - Dack's Duplicate, Izzet Charm, Ral Zarek, Saheeli Rai, and Keranos, God of Storms, none have been close to breaching the god tier that is Dack Fayden.

Saheeli, the Gifted isn't as good as Dack, but she's a great value planeswalker. She's somewhat similar to Elspeth, Knight-Errant, for being a token generator that can push forward momentum if need be, albeit not as obviously thanks to her ability to make a spell have affinity for artifacts.

Her middle ability has similar issues to Tezzeret, Artifice Master where velocity with being able to use artifacts to power 2nd ability may not be as reliable if on the backburner while using Servos to block. Like other single token generators, she can just tread water and as her ultimate is pretty mediocre.

Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow is pretty good as a Dimir card whose ninjutsu is yet another riff on a Dark Confidant creature. She has no evasion on a saboteur, and this always will be a huge dagger against these kinds of creatures, making them look better than they are (with some exceptions aside like Stromkirk Noble) but she makes up for it by providing a good payoff if you're able to clear a path for her, since she tends to snowball damage incredibly well if she can get in a couple of attacks. With Guilds of Ravnica not offering (at least as of now) hardly any slam dunks for Dimir, this is a pretty good addition to the 2nd tier Dimir cards.

Ancient Stone Idol - is a very solid reanimation and Tinker target, but I've found that its ability to be cost-reduced due to attacking creatures is almost never used - either via opponent's attacking creatures or via your own attacking creatures. The latter is a pretty loose strategy as decks with attacking hordes aren't usually ones that want 10-drops and this plan usually resulted in a dead card.

As cliché as it is to say, it's something to try out if your Cube is in the market for another cheat target, but not that great if done with the expectation of casting it since it's amazing when it's on the battlefield as it has death protection and 12/12s rumble through just about everything in Cube, but the hard part is getting it out.

Coveted Jewel - I haven't found this to be very impressive. It's abysmal if the opponent has board presence and tends to punish swinging board states much more than Monarch. Its closest analogue is Gilded Lotus and, like the big Lotus, the payoff is in being able to defend it with something that either costs three or four mana so that you're not punished for tapping out. Its other role is in decks that frankly don't care about the drawback - decks like storm that utilize the additional cards to draw into combo pieces or ways to survive. I found its overall performance to be weak, but you may have better luck if you have storm as a viable archetype in your Cube.

Endless Atlas is decent card draw engine. It's only really for mono or dual-colored decks and does require sequencing which may be suboptimal given the board state, like not playing a Celestial Colonnade on a turn when it entering the battlefield tapped is "free" due to unused mana in a deck. I found that it was pretty good as a cheaper variant on cards like Jayemdae Tome, just one that can't really be used until you've stabilized. Hardly a staple, but not bad.

Retrofitter Foundry looks innocuous but works very well as a mana sink. When I reviewed Walking Ballista, I talked about how artifact decks can tend to have a glut of mana hanging around with nothing to sink it in. While Retrofitter Foundry is worse in decks with literal infinite mana, I've found that Retrofitter Foundry has been working well in artifact decks where they happen to have just some mana lying around to make Servos. It's best in decks that can go for the long game and either utilize time or mana, as even making a 4/4 isn't too bad of a deal over a few turns if it doesn't require a lot of resources.

It's obviously absurd when upgrading a 1/1 flier generated by Whirler Rogue or Pia Nalaar into a 4/4, as it's an absurd rate. However, most of the time the Foundry just pops out Servos as either sacrifice fodder or small attackers and has been quite impressive.

Battlebond

The assist and "friend or foe" cycle, like with the commander storm cards, are all over-costed for what they do. The Partners are also all too weak aside from the exceptions listed.