In this review, I'll discuss the Battle for Zendikar hits for Cube! (If it isn't here, I don't think it's worth the space.)

Mana-Flexible Cards

Although people joke that many mechanics are kicker, cards with awaken are closest to evoke cards.

The evoke cards that have had the highest Cube adoption rates (Mulldrifter, Shriekmaw) do something that Cube decks want to do at an effective rate rather than an efficient one. Since they can scale up, even if their individual modes may look poor when directly compared to existing cards (Everflowing Chalice to Mind Stone/Thran Dynamo, Nissa, Vastwood Seer to Civic Wayfinder,) they're great in Cube.

Ruinous Path is the standout awaken card, as it's not an efficient removal spell, but an effective one for Cube threats (like Hero's Downfall.) I've found that while it loses instant speed, the flexibility of being able to turn into a 4/4 has been worth it as a great way for aggro decks, if they are mana-flooded, and for slower black decks to gain value—they more plan for that stage of the game. Even if the investment is a lot, as it's a very good upside for the cost.

Scatter to the Winds's awaken hasn't happened as much since holding up can be hard, but it's been a nice upside in the circumstances when it does; due to space constraints, I probably won't end up including it in my list (but that doesn't make it bad).

While Quarantine Field doesn't have awaken, it compares to cards like Faith's Fetters. It loses out on some bonuses, including costing to start it up, an inability to hit creature lands, and not gaining 4 life, but I've found that these small upsides aren't enough to make up for how efficiently Quarantine Field scales. As with the awaken, the base mode effectively does something that white decks want to do, but the flexibility of scaling up is not only efficient (2-mana Banishing Lights), but effective. White 4s are historically stacked, and this is yet another, but it's worth finding room for.

Lands

Lumbering Falls is the better of the two, I found, as even though its relatively small body and lack of evasion is annoying, as it doesn't really do anything in ground stalls, its hexproof has been stellar to avoid a natural weakness of creature lands: spot removal. It's also great in control mirrors as a 0-cost threat that protects itself that also outmuscles value 2/2s. Three-colored decks with mass removal can clear the board, but I've found it great as a card in Simic decks. Shambling Vent is a relatively small creature, but lifelink helps to deal with black's life-taxing, and in slower W/B decks (Esper), it goes along with the game plan of going long, just as in W/B aggro.

The Battle duals comprise another cycle of lands that trend to slower side, and as such, they aren't terribly difficult to get to come into play untapped for slower decks and color pairs, and they're among the better dual cycles for those decks. However, faster decks find the drawback to be real since it takes until turn three for these to come into play untapped. That said, they're still good but may have trouble making it into a Cube.

Landfall

In Cube, red 4s generally play the role either as aggro curve-toppers (Hellrider, Hero of Oxid Ridge) or utility (Avalanche Riders, Pia and Kiran Nalaar), and Akoum Firebird is more the latter. I tested Akoum Firebird pretty heavily and found that, while it's a great recursive threat that attacks well and can grind past removal through its landfall trigger—which I found wasn't really that expensive when it was used—I probably don't have room in my own Cube due to red having so many great 4s and a lot on the outside looking in.

These are better than they look. Generally, landfall creatures in Cube tend to attack with one trigger per attack phase and attack a few times in the early stages of the game, when their damage output matters most. Makindi Sliderunner suffers from being printed in an age when there are a lot of creatures that attack for 3, and as they aren't as important as 1-mana creatures in aggro decks, they don't require as many to hit the critical mass to support aggressive decks effectively, so cards like this, even if they safely attack for 3, will probably ride the pine. The green ones generally align with general green attacking creatures in your Cube, so rate accordingly.

Converge

Radiant Flames and Painful Truths offer some flexibility, as these are cards on which you may not necessarily want to go full-on, but, generally, decks that want to have it need to have at least the access to be cast for 3—otherwise, they just don't do enough.

Woodland Wanderer, however, doesn't necessarily force going for all four colors to be good. Green midrange and ramp tends to have "free" mana-fixing from cards like Signets and Sylvan Caryatid, and because of this, I've found that it's not too hard to make it at a 5/5 vigilant trampler in two-colored decks and a 6/6 in decks that put some effort into it or splash for other things.

Other Stuff

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger has had some rumblings about it being “too good” for Cube, and I've found that isn't the case. Generally, the “feel bad” of mill tends to be exaggerated, as losing to it feels noninteractive—typically, just exiling two things and attacking for 10 twice did the job anyway. Because of this, it's a great ramp card to support big-mana ramp and decks that cheat big creatures into play, like reanimator.

Drana, Liberator of Malakir — Attacking 3s for black decks have gone from a weakness to much better through cards like Mardu Strike Leader, and I've found this to be a great new addition. It suffers from having no immediate impact, and as a saboteur, it can be harder than it looks. That said, I've found Drana to be a great leader for attacking black decks since it buffs attacking creatures (great with tokens but just fine without) so well and can snowball very quickly.

Greenwarden of Murasa's another 6-drop in green in a previously weak slot for green, which I've found to be a stellar addition to green decks, even if it lacks an evasive keyword. Greenwarden tends to work best with high-impact cards that go into the graveyard, as its death trigger tends to make it so that an opponent is incentivized to not kill it, but I've found that even if it never dies, a 5/4 Treeternal Witness for 6 is still great.

Expedition Envoy — I've talked on The Third Power about how many 1-drops a Cube should have—we've had so many lately. Until aggro decks are correctly cutting 1-drops, there are better aggressive cards to cut to make room for them.

Multicolored

Brutal Expulsion is another card in the family of “Izzet value” damage cards like Electrolyze and Prophetic Bolt, and Brutal Expulsion is along those cards in power level. It has some uniqueness through bouncing a spell, as it's a stellar tempo play, but this comes at the cost of being unable to go to the dome. Dack Fayden, Ral Zarek, and Dack's Duplicate have a lot of “Izzet value” burn on the outside going in, and those cards generally fill the role of being customizing Izzet based on what it needs (split damage versus going bigger), and this helps to further customize.

Sire of Stagnation and Fathom Feeder are both in family of “value creatures” in Dimir, along with Baleful Strix and Dragonlord Silumgar, and both follow the game plan of doing something for value. Fathom Feeder's nice in that it can grind out value in the late game through either acting as a mini-Moat and/or drawing cards, but I found that it was pretty inefficient at doing so, and I won't be able to find room for it or a worse Consecrated Sphinx.

Catacomb Sifter is in a relatively weaker guild for multicolored, and it’s Reaper of the Wilds’s obvious analogue, and that creature already doesn't tend to see much Cube play since 4s are stacked. While Catacomb Sifter gets -2/-2 and some abilities, I've found it to be a nice value card the game plan of which goes along with what Golgari decks want to do: generate value through scrying and multiple bodies and accelerating threats. Regardless of what it replaces, it'll probably be the weakest Golgari card, but I've found it to be a nice addition.

Planeswalkers

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar — I've talked about how white 4s are incredibly stacked, and this is another great card to make room for, rather than exclude. I've found that it's very good at just spamming out 2/2s, which is great on its own. Him going into Juzam Djinn mode—which happened more to close out a game than to have him act as a 5/5—and making a Glorious Anthem emblem didn't happen as much as spamming 2/2s, but they were nice upsides and supplement all theaters of white decks well, as I've seen him do well in both control and aggro white decks.

Both Kiora, Master of the Depths and Ob Nixilis Reignited fall into the category of good-but-not-amazing Planeswalkers, but they still help slower decks.

I've found that Ob Nixilis Reignited—like Kiora, the Crashing Wave—is great against singular creatures and absurd if the opponent has no creatures since it gains a ton of value and can threaten a nasty emblem. And because of this, it's been working well in a shallow slot in black's mana curve, as it's against board states with several creatures. I've found it's generally inadvisable to cast it and kill something, only to die on the back-swing, and it generally tends to be a mode to be done only if necessary.

Kiora, Master of the Depths is a nice second-tier Simic card in the Mystic Snake/Trygon Predator/Simic Sky Swallower range as a card that I've found works well in midrange and ramp decks—more so the latter since they can make use of the +1 ability very well by untapping mana creatures and typically drawing two on -2’ing. Since it is a second-tier Simic card, it isn't a staple, but it’s nice if you want to give Simic ramp a bone.

Blighted Lands

This cycle of lands emulates spells at every expensive rate, and cards like this generally have a rough time in Cube—like Dust Bowl and Gargoyle Castle, they are on the outside looking in.

There are two standouts. Blighted Fen emulates a good spell, Diabolic Edict, but does so at an expensive rate. Blighted Woodland emulates a spell, Explosive Vegetation, at a perfect rate and has the best hope in Cube. It's better than riffs like Myriad Landscape, which enter the battlefield tapped, but it's still a bit too costly.

Thanks for reading!

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