Secrets of Strixhaven | Cube Set Review | Part One - #89

In the latest episode of Powerful Nothing, school is back is session with Part One of our Cube Set Review, Secrets of Strixhaven. In this episode we cover all the goodness from White, Blue and Black and Red.

Timecodes:
4:03 - White
21:28 - Blue
39:07 - Black
1:02:26 - Red

Card Gallery: https://moxfield.com/decks/60g5tFTnM0GZAkjlLou4gQ

Video Version: https://youtu.be/f4dPZ_DcL6k

My Cube: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/sweet
The Treat Yourself Cube: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/treatyourself
James Cube: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/ba642a54-a6c7-4587-b97e-1d95429c59b5
MTGO Vintage Cube: https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/modovintage

Social Links: https://linktr.ee/toosweetmtg

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Creative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US

Transcript

0:03

Hello everyone. Welcome back to Powerful Nothing and Magic The Gathering Q podcast. I'm your host, Dan, and as always, I'm joined by James James. We're back. District seven. Are you excited for this week's episode? Oh, we are so back. Six havens. Great love that first time around. This set looks like a banger actually. Say can't come by to jump in. Actually got prerelease on Friday. It's going to be very cool. So let's play with some new cards and talk about them. For Q pair. Yeah, this set does look a lot of fun. Like the draft and sealed environment also looks awesome. Obviously we have the cool, awesome new cards and then we've got the mystical archives as well. Like, showing up in boxes again. So this should be a good one. And yeah, this will be part one of our cube set review. Today we are going to be going over white, blue, black and red. Next week we'll be going over red, multicolored and colors. So do make sure you subscribe to the podcast. Give us a five star review so you notified when the episode comes out. While you're doing that, while you're down there in the notes, there will also be time codes if you want to jump around to specific colors, and there will also be a card gallery where we'll show every card we talk about. If you're listening to the episode, there will also be a link to the, to a video version if you want to see the whole thing move around and some nice pretty pictures, all that good stuff in terms of our set review, there's one last thing we need to touch on, and that's how we're going to be reviewing the cards, because when we do these set reviews, we're comparing every card in this set to every card this ever been printed before it, because that is the pool of cards that we use to make cubes in terms of those, cuz it's probably worth us breaking down how we're going to be talking about cards and importantly, the types of cubes out there. When we talk about cubes, it's normally in terms of things like power level restrictions and size, the power level. We're basically trying to decide the pool of cards that the rest of the cube it's picked from. So an entry level cube we often describe as low powered or budget. There's a lot of cool cards that you might run, but generally they're looking for fun games rather than doing broken things really quickly. Think of these as somewhere, but from a power level point of view, between a regular set draft and a master set that is the pool of cards that will generally go in these types of cubes. You then have your mid powered cubes. The games are getting a little faster. There's better fixing. You start seeing more staples. You see cards like lightning bolt counterspell, maybe like improved lands like fetch lands. And previously these might have been known as standard modern or legacy cubes. You then have the real high powered cubes that generally environments that are optimized to run the best cards possible. The games are powerful and the decks need to be more focused, and you have to be doing a thing in these cubes in terms of speed. If you go land, go for three turns, you've probably lost that game. But the best example of high powered cubes is the Go Vintage Cube or the arena powered cube. When it comes to restrictions, the most common that you generally find are proper, which is a cube using only commons, and peasant, which is a cube using only uncommon in terms of size. The general idea that we work with is that the smaller the cube is, the higher average card quality is like for example, in a 360 cube where with eight players you are drafting every card, whereas with larger cubes like 540 or 720, there is room for less optimal cards, and you're often looking for duplicate of effects. So if we say a card could see play in a 720 cube, it probably means there's a card that does the same thing more efficiently. And we might want to run this as an extra version of that card. Also worth touching on. Finally, that me and James have a bunch of cubes that we might mention during this episode. James has a powered cube which is running all the broken cards that you want, and he has a dual command, a cube similar sort of power level, but it does have more command, a focus to it. I have an unpowered vintage cube which is running a lot of the broken cards, but not the most broken, so mine doesn't have any power in it, for example. And they also have the treat yourself cube, which is a slower, more deadly cube. They're still doing powerful things, but not doing them until turns like 4 to 6. So if we mention cards to go in our cubes, those are the ones that we're talking about, right? But with that, James, take it away with our first card of the day. The first white card is daydream. Yes, sure. So daydream is a single white mana for sorcery. So exile for a creature you control and return that card to the battlefield on its own as control, with a plus one plus one counter on it. And it has flashback, which a mechanic in this set for two and a white. So you can cast it for two and a white out of your graveyard and an exile. It this is like kind of a tough sell for me. The spot instance is also used for just like your creatures. Already a bit tough to justify putting them in your deck fight, because even if you're doing the the flick a thing, you know, you have creatures that can do that. And these aren't creatures. They aren't removal spells. They don't attack vamp lock. They they need some sets up. Right. But y you can sometimes make them work is you have a little bit more flexibility than just proactively casting them in your main face on your creature. Right? For instance, speed ones you can hold up, save your creature from the movable get out of compassion. Some stuff like that. This being sorcery that I think very rarely hurt sex, it means you're just kind of locked into that vibe. It's my main phase. I'm just going to tap my mana, put this on the snap. Hope nothing bad happens to my creature. And even if that all works, you're not. It doesn't feel like getting paid off that much. Plus, on top of that, like, it doesn't work with stuff like vocal, which is a very nice little, combination for the instant speed flicker stuff. I think this one for me, kind of a tough sell like flashback is nice for counters and not nothing that I think sorcery speed is a bit too big of a hit for me. Yeah, I would agree with all that in specifically in like, like generic cubes that are just kind of running like, like I run a fair rate in my normal cube because it does some cool stuff with the pitch element, with the pitch elementals on top of, yeah, protecting your spells from like, Doom Blades and that kind of stuff. But I do think, though, if you are specifically running a flicker deck, then I think this this will see. Play like flicker is a very popular archetype in a bunch of like mid and lower powered level cubes because it just it's it's fun and it's something that kind of like quite obvious that like a zora's is quite good at and it is a single white matter. And like I specifically if you are like, oh well, this is really FML, right? Is clearly like the top tier of the list in terms of good ones here. But like after that there is a bit of a drop off like this cloud shift, but you only get it once. Like for me specifically, if you are really pushing like like like if in your cube zombie is doing flicker, then I think daydream is a perfectly fine card to get in. Yeah, that's fair, I guess once we're past ephemera and ghostly flicker, I'm probably looking at soft creatures that flicker stuff both often more than just instances, sorceries, because then, you know, they do have a bit more of a backup plan, right? No, I would agree. It's just it's just I think it's worth because I think this is also a uncommon and is just one minor, though I do like my curve being quite low. That is fair. All right. But let's keep the ball rolling. The next card is emeritus of truce. This is one white white for three three creature cat cleric. It has when this creature enters tug it player creates A11 white and black inkling creature token with flying. Then if an opponent controls more creatures than you, this creature becomes prepared. This is the first time seeing prepared. What could this mean? So while it's prepared, you may cast a copy of its spell. Doing it, doing so unprepared as it. But what's the spell? The spell is sword to plowshares. It's literally swords to plowshares. When amount of truth is prepared, you can cast sword to plowshares for a single white. It's an instant exalt target creature. Its controller gains life equal to its power. So there is a whole cycle of these emeritus in this set. I think we are probably reviewing all of them and a bunch of other cards with this prepared mechanic that lets them cast a spell as well. I'm going to be honest, but having swords to plowshares on a creature in theory is really quite strong. I'm going to go to James in a minute. Who's going to tell me what? Probably why I'm wrong, but I personally I'm not a massive fan of this card. Like in an ideal world, we play this for three mana. Our opponent has three more creatures than us. We get this, we get the flier, and we get the removal spell. When you're behind. This does do a fantastic job of stabilizing us. Like in those environments. It could almost be a three for one, because we kind of trade off one card for three of their things. If blocks go wild, all that kind of stuff. But if we're at parity or ahead, if you want to cast this spell for three mana, if you want cast a spell, it's three mana for A33 with a flying token. Like we don't get the opportunity to prepare it afterwards. It's only when enters. My gut is that just like the majority of white decks, white is a creature heavy color. I could just see this coming down a bunch of times where we just don't get the. So the ability to cast swords to plowshares, and at that point, what would I rather have this where like, sometimes I might get of plowshares or a card like solitude or a card like sky clay, evaporation or something like that. That's something that guarantees me the removal spell. I'm not saying this is a bad card, and like it is a mythic in a standard set that cast us all to plowshares, like like like in certain decks, this will feel very pushed, like in decks where you're winning with like planes, walkers, or like your win condition is a celestial colonnade. Those will be really solid. But like, my gut is that like like like in commander. I think all of these are busted. But in one on one game of cube, I'm. I'm not as high on this as I think other people are. Yeah. That's fat. I don't think it's like faction of thing I think. Yeah, certainly. No, I never thought level of a solitude about a thing. But I do think the upside is really quite high. Yeah. But that's not where you outland where your opponent's running you over. This card is kind of absurd, right? You're gonna spend four mana total exile. The best thing. Leave yourself with a three feet under one one to block all on one card is is kind of that, in a scenario where you're at parity, maybe you have to give them the flier and then you sort of good thing that's, that's still really powerful. You, you've cut out very well from that exchange. And I guess I don't think that free mana for a free fee and A115 is that bad. Like, you know, we've seen a card like sanguine evangelists do a ton of work by, like sanguine evangelists. I stand up in a free, free. But it's, you know, some variation on the token. It's really nice to I know I still I still refuse to believe that that that's like one of the best cards in magic. But the data has shown it's one of the best cards in magic. Yeah, statistically, guys, out of a lot of places. Yeah, I know, I yeah, I guess I think the downside isn't that bad when it doesn't work. And the upside is really good fun. It's, Yeah. No, not that side card. I'm sure is one people will try in a bunch of super powerful cubes. I don't know if it will stick around, but I think like slightly more sort of mid power can be nice. Yeah. Certainly pushes you towards maybe, you know, like a blue light deck a bit more. It's not it's best in like the all in white weenie for sure. But yeah something with some planeswalker is looking to control the board, but I think it's quite good for the major. Knock on it. For me, it's just for mana costs. Just two white pips to cast. Man, if you want to cast swords straight away, you're looking at triple white, which is pretty tough. Yeah, I bet a lot higher on it if it was to add a white cast, but I think because, like, worth a try regardless. Yeah. 100. Yeah yeah I do I, I think just some notes on this card type. Like we will see more of them as we go through. Worth saying that. Yeah. What you said about, you needing triple white to do everything I think is very important because, if they remove this creature, you don't like, even even if it's prepared, if they remove the creature, you don't then get to cast a sort of plowshares later. Like there's also this also applies. It is linked to the card being on the battlefield. So if your opponent has a removal spell, they've just found a target. And then you don't get the value of the removal spell. Like, like like there is a terrible situation where like you play this card, you give them the one one and then they doom blade. It like that isn't like that's quite bad. But like there will be a conversation in terms of like, what is the prepared cost on all of these cards? And also it's worth mentioning as well, a bunch of them will trigger, like when they enter in some way. So they do get better with flicker as well, because you can if you can flick at this like like this and daydream seems quite solid because you can flicker it, then you because the prepared ability triggers on it entering. If you flicker it, you can look at it again basically, and that they don't all work that way. But the ones I'm higher on do. Yeah for sure. I think that is actually a great point of there are a lot of these prepared features for just enter for pad. Right. So you don't get the opportunity to kill it before they can use the attach spell. This, even though it can become prepared by fire away. If there is a trigger on the stack, give them or you've won one. And then when that trigger resolves, that can comes pad. So they do get an opportunity to kill it and deny you versus plowshares, which is which is a very real knock against the card for sure. Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely one that I think deserves and does have to test and people will test it. My my gut is this will be one of the rotate into mic go vintage cube come out soon afterwards side of cards. But if you're from my end, I think if you're doing for like a, it gets a little better. But James, our next card, we're probably gonna be talking about it for too long just because it's very, very good. Which is a weird thing to say, but talk to us about erode. Yeah, for sure. A vote is a single white mana for an instant says destroy target creature planeswalker. It's control, and they search their library for a basic land card, put it on for battlefield taps, and then shuffle. So for those of you who've been playing magic as long as I have, or as long as most people have mostly path to exile instead of instead of exiling a creature, it destroys. But you have the upside. If you can hit planeswalker this cut this card we're going to see in cubes for a long time. It's fairly powerful. I think Path to Exile is simultaneously very good and slightly overrated. Yeah. I think people view it a bit too much like Swords to Plowshares and Pac is great late. It is not good early. You you can't really swords unlike request cups offensive game without giving your opponent a huge advantage. My path to exile on first couple of sands game without giving you a huge advantage. Same obviously applies with this. It it is a cheap removal spell, but it actually doesn't stop you getting run over that. Well, what it is phenomenal for is those really efficient multi spell terms in the mid to late game. Like you know you go ten for your very fair fall chop and cast your own free drop. That's a huge swing. But whether this is better or worse than tough, it's going to very much depend on the cube. Obviously, if you have more creatures that care about being in the graveyard, defend path is likely to be better. But if you have a bunch of plains walkers in the cube, then this will probably be better. But you can absolutely run both. They're both really good. Yeah, my my honest opinion is like every cube there's running, just like efficient cards. This is just becomes a slam dunk. Like we now run, like we now run swords. We run path and we run erode as well. Like it's, cube staple. Run it. And your cubes. Yeah. For sure. You see, a lot of keeps running stuff like, get lost. One that gives and the maps like that seems like it's waiting to be cut for this cards now, you know, I mean. Oh, James, how's this so good? I was just so good. Y'all all so long without ask. What would you rather have, Alex or this? Or are you cutting? Like, are you cutting an instant speedrun for this or are you cutting out? That is a sorcery. I don't know if this is a hot take. I think Alex is better than Path to Exile. Like intuitive specifically, those games are so much about the early turns. They're so quick and you just can't be passing people's stuff on turn one like a fake Aster Bhagavan, do you want and all the birds of Paradise on turn one? Do you want to have an hour? Stop half to exile? Let us know in the comments what you think is better. Dear listener oust or oh, path to exile. I will die on this myself. Okay? Okay, good. I love that for you. I love that for you. All right, let's keep it going. We have a lot of cool guys to get through today. Our last white card though is Informed Ink right. It is one and a white 322 creature human wizard with vigilance and repartee. Repartee. It it is our first time seeing this ability, but it says whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets a creature creator. One one white and black inkling creature token with flying. So repartee is think of it kind of like a weird heroic, like you don't have to target specifically the creature with heroic, but it doesn't trigger off with auras. Similar but different. Yeah, it does trigger off toxin. Your opponent stuff as well? Yes. Which is nice. Yeah, yeah yeah it does trigger off of removal, which is nice. It doesn't work with Counter Magic because it's not a creature, but it does work with like yeah, you're doing blades your erodes and the like does what that would, which is quite nice. In terms of this card, I think it's, I think it's okay, like in regular cubes, like, cause, like monetary mentor, and the, like a kind of being kept. The power creeps out of a lot of cubes, but this one is cheaper, and it does make fliers, which is quite nice. My gut is, is that it won't make enough tokens to get in over other good white two drops. But specifically in the cubes that are doing the like feather, the redeemed Zeta I cast spells that buff up a creature, maybe also draws a card like like a lot of, like you are leaning into the effects that target your own creatures. Like. Like not just this, incidentally, making you creatures when you interact with your opponent. Stuff like when you're actively trying to play, buff effects, play cantrip that target your own creatures. This does get quite a lot nice, and I like it a bit more like, that is an archetype that does see your fair, but like does see some play in lower power and more budget cubes it over. It overlaps really nicely with spells like, which is nice. But I think you just read like I my guys, it's a fine card, but to get the most out of it, you want to indicate where there's like a lot of pump spells in your red and white sections. It's it's kind of where I'm saying it's like really shining. Yeah. I think it could definitely work that I kind of feel like it has another home, though. And, in the more like mid power level cube where they're kind of just like has a bunch of good cards. I think a strategy that can be pretty effective is just like, three colors has like a giant pile of, for me, little spells. And I'm just going to attrition you out and in that deck. I think this is pretty strong. Is it like a magic card then do you think? Yeah, I think I think it's sort of five, like just attrition. Imma do nonsense. And, it's in that deck. This is better than, like, a young pyromancer, I think, because, on this show, for instance, it's also space in that deck could get a target. And this makes fires. How does this work with Fire Covenant? Does it work really well? I think you still only get one like this whenever you cast an instance, I saw a right. Oh. It's okay. So. So it's it's not per target. Yeah. It's per person. Okay. Okay. Reasonable. But yeah. Yeah. Still. Yeah. If you're one for wanting removal then then. Yeah okay. But way less good in a blue deck because, it doesn't shave off like cantrip, so it doesn't check off campus. This is mentioned. Right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah I yeah, I was thinking it more in the Jesko spectrum, but I guess the more spectrum bit more keen on the death side of things. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I could see in from incorrect going in. Something like that. Let's go. All right. But moving on to blue James. Talk to us about the merits of ideation. Yes. The pronunciation I was going to go for. All right. This one seems a little spicy. James. This one's a cool one. Yeah. So merits of ideation is three blue. Blue. So five mana total for A55 creature human wizard with flying. And Ward two says this creature enters Footpad. So no trigger. It just comes in. It's prepared by a way. Also says Mavis creature attacks. You may exile eight cards from your graveyard. If you do, this creature becomes prepared, says Manda. You can't sort of prepare twice. Once it's prepared, you have to cast the attached spell and, that will untap have it. But then after that point you could refire it and then cast a spell again. So what is fast spell, you say? Well, it's it's it's a single blue manor. It seems quite powerful. It's called Ancestral Vehicle. And, it seems good. Yeah. It's quite pushed actually. Yeah. It's a single blue mana. It says target player draws three cards. Jesus. That's did have some some application. Yeah. So, as applications as a proxy. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, this is cool. Honestly, like, any time they get to an ancestral vehicle, like in 2026, I think it's like pretty dope. Yeah. Yeah, this is way. Yeah, yeah. And this card's pretty good, I think. So it's five mana task, but you really, really, really want to wait till you get to six, right? Because then you can cast this and says it's already prepared and you can just cast for ancestral right away. You obviously there are times where you'll have to just play it and not have a blue up cast for ancestral, but you're going to feel pretty bad if you just cast this. Don't have Manawatu, Michaela. They will kill this. Yes. Like, yes, it has Ward two. But by the time you're casting five jobs as the chance they will pay the water. Trust me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, as a six drop. This seems kind of great. Like six mana, five five player draw, three cards. Is is a it's a pretty great place to be. And then plus if you have a A with this and you know you're probably not a million miles off a cast in the graveyard, seems pretty powerful. Yeah. I mean, yeah, if you have a 12, a second of three cards. Yeah, it's pretty much over, to be honest. It's not, yeah. Six off scale. I've it's really put something like concentrated sphinx to shame, doesn't it? Which admittedly hasn't been good for a while, but I think this is cool. Having said that, here's a blue six mana creature that isn't like winning the game on the spot. So that probably rules out for, like, super powerful cubes. I do. I kind of like the idea of hoofing into this, I think could be quite cool. It was do you have it enters and you have all your mana on tap, right? So you can cast your ancestral right away. You've been cast because you dwarf your ancestral viceroy. Plus your I probably just dumps a bunch of cards in your graveyard. So if you do get to attack queue API cards, swag style and you can keep going. So that could be kind of sweet. But yeah, mostly this is, a very big value drop. Yeah, I do agree with that. My gut is that by the time you like, if you're casting this, you're going to be close to having eight cards in your graveyard. And also, if you're not, you've just drawn three cards. So, yeah, I think these cards I got to be pushed like like, I think this will set these fetishes in play. Like like I know that kind of to do the whole thing is it's six mana, but I'm just looking at kind of what powerful cubes are running in their five and six drop slots like it's like Quantum riddle, when she tong or knowing, like, I think we try this like, I know there's a five mana, like I only six, man, it is. Both the governments, assuming they really keep right now is Kappa kind of near. Like there must be room for like, I'd be perfectly fine cutting one sheet, and slotting this in instead. Like, I think this one seems incredibly close and people will want to play with it. Like like what I, what I like about a large portion of these emeritus is, is that they are I think some of them are good enough for high power level cubes, but the ones that aren't good enough for the high level cubes, they let they kind of give that hint of power to a lower power level cube in a format that is okay. Like the fact that that this is six manner to do this means that like a lower power level cube, this power level is fine there, but it's a thing of like, I get to cast and I get to cast Ancestral Recall in my modern cube, for example. Or I get to run this in my unpowered vintage cube, that kind of stuff like that is cool, and I think that's one of the biggest. Like, that's one of reasons why this card is pre-ordering for a lot of money. Because a bunch of players want the ability to like, ooh, I think I can play ancestral Recall. Worth mentioning as well with all of these. This is one that really does get better with flicker. Like if you can flick of this, draw another three cards without having to worry about the cards in your graveyard. Really quite strong. Yeah, the flick is good for one that I rarely pops off, and admittedly this is a bit of setup, but if you ever have this in the display circuit and in play. Yeah, like you cast for ancestral, this place of cases triggers this thick as best you keep unsettling as many times as you have to do minus pay and cards in your life. I suppose that there is an obscene amount of cards that do really well with with displays in this set, like there is a red card that goes infinite with it that we're not talking about. I'll put up on screen now there's a card called Blazing Fire saying it in this that we're not going to do it in the set review, but and just prepared. And for three mana you can cast seething on so that with that, with that, with the kid in his infinite red manner. That's kind of hot. But does this Get In has got a lot better from this set because of all these? Cool. Because if I was have all these cool, prepared creatures. So I guess by your copies now, kids, is what I'm saying to you do not offer financial advice. No, we actively do not. I, I just spent £20 on, used Lord of the rings Warhammer. I should not be trusted. Sounds like a great choice. It was cheap because it was badly painted. But anyway, let's keep it going. James. But yeah, yeah, yeah, I think we're both high on amount of ideation. Very cool card. Let's keep it going, though. Next up, we have exhibition tide caller. This is a single blue for an O2 creature. Gin wizard with opus, another new mechanic. This one says whenever you it an in-store sorcery spell. Target player mails three cards. If five or more money was spent to cast that spell, that player mails ten cards instead. So the opus part is causing and it's no sorcery. You get an effect. If you spend five or more man on it, you get a bonus effect. So I do like this card. I like surf metal. There are decks that want to use your graveyard as a resource. Like, like a spell base deck. Like a card like physics mastery is a really fun card. Like, if you spend eight mana to cosmetic mastery overloaded, you get to cast all your instant and sorcery from your graveyard. And that seems quite good with this as a way of using the self mail. Go with me. Go with me on this, James. Like I, I do wonder how we can use this almost as like a second copy of Brain Freeze if we're doing the underworld breach lines, I diamond stuff like it's nowhere near as neat, but there are. There's a ton of ways of casting stuff out of our graveyard, and, And I think that might be something there. Yeah, it goes pretty hard with Underworld Breach, because if you just have this and and a breach and any sort of mana neutral snap spells. So maybe a ritual might be a manimal. Foes. You can just cast this, cast your virtual can email you for free so you can escape your virtual can. You can keep going. Mille mille mille mail. You'll probably still want to have a storm card in your deck, but you don't have to find it because you will eventually miller over. And then you do have cast so many rituals for that will be lethal. You could try and do it where you sort of mail yourself a bit and then try and mail them, but it's a bit trickier, right? Because you're not actually going up cards in the graveyard each time. So it's I guess you're going up manor if it's a ritual, and then you can try and get into more cards somehow. But I think really the set up you want is you have a beach, you have fish, you have some rituals. And then somewhere in your deck there is a stone card, whether that be a tent, also a playing freeze or whatever. And then that that should be a pretty straightforward win. But as always, with this sort of creature, you never. Same thing applies to the walls of this world and whatnot. It's just a question of do you want to put a one man arrow to end your spell base combo deck and rely on it, leaving even for half a turn, you know? No, I agree. Yeah, that does seem it does seem a little tricky. And there's also just has a card that I will miss play tremendously written all over it. Yeah. The only thing I did want to mention, because this is the first time seeing opus. James rule rules question for you. It does specifically say the, if five or more manner was spent to cast that spell, we get the bonus effect. How does that work with a card like Dream Halls or like a card that does alternate casting costs? Like, I'm assuming it doesn't work like, like alternate like if we cast a spell for free, we're not spending any manner on it. Or is it the manner in the top right hand corner? Like, how does that work? Yeah, you can't really cheap this cheap this. It is mana spent to cast it. So if you pitch cast a force of will. It doesn't take a year like this. If you cast anything with dream halls, it doesn't fake have this. If you delve and cast a treasure cruise, unless you paid five actual mana, it doesn't check that opus. But I think with this card specifically, it doesn't matter that much. We're probably fine. We're probably fine. Just. Yeah, with this one. I don't think it's a it's as important, but there will be some further on. But yeah, I, I do want to touch on that just because the first time we're seeing opus as a mechanic, we have another card now, James, talk to us about Flow State. I know some people are quite high on this little uncommon. Yeah. This one's. This one's a bit of a banger. I think, so flow state is one of blue for sorcery. Says, look at the top three. Cast your library, put one of them into your hand and rest on the bottom. That's your library in any order. However, if there is an instant card and a sorcery card in your graveyard instead put two of them into your hand and the rest of the bottom in any order. This card is super powerful. So so for most similar effects we have of moment is expressive iteration, which, seems very extensive. Play in the snow on one of the base. Is it gold cards even in the most powerful cubes? And that is quite a bit worse than this one. It is on. Right. Because getting two in hand is way better than one in hand. And one you have to cast less than, plus, it's only one color. Like, sure, it's not going to be on on turn two, but that's fine. This you're generally not casting your cards for spells and tend to fast often. And in the right deck by, you know, turn 3 or 4, it probably will be on, and you just need to make sure, you know, you have some good, cheap pinch of action spells that can stack up your graveyard. And I think this is going to be very, very powerful. Like, it's not going to be one for every deck, but, in the deck for one first they'll be one of your best cards. Yeah, I agree like that. There's room in every cubes for, like, a two mana blue card that draws us more cards. The ones that we're kind of running already. Cards like chart, of course, which I think is differently. Good. Like the fact they can go in, like a reanimated deck or discard back, I quite like, but, the other one that sees a lot of players start the Tardis, this one isn't a Universes Beyond card, which will be a real thing for a lot of players. This is uncommon as well, my guys, that this will get tested in quite a lot of cubes. I of does like chart, of course, and start the Tardis a little more. So the Tardis is available to draw a card. You may plains walk. Ignore that part. But it has jump start as well, so you can kind of do it again. I know, like it's in the is it spells deck. I think this is specifically better generically. I think the other ones might have a bit more play, but there's probably a world where in a 540 we can run three of these, like like that. They seem pretty good to me. Yeah. Yeah, I'd imagine flow state. It's similar to like a road in that it's just going to be a very solid card. And also, I've famously said that stock Up was a bad magic card. So I will take James's lead on blue card trips. I think yeah, I think this is more stock up and solve as hard nice this make take good to hear go. Yeah I will probably swap it out then. But we have a for our last blue card of the day we have Sky coach conductor. It is two and a blue for A23 creature bird pilot with flesh flying vigilance. And this creature end is prepared. It has the spell all aboard, which is a single blue for an instant to exile target non pilot creature you control. Then return that creature to the battlefield under its owner's control. So I don't think this is one for the highest power level cubes. Like for me, this is effectively because it has flash and the ability is. And the spell is as an instant effect. To me, this is an instant speed flicker. Reflect on a creature in most cubes. That would be a nice effect. And most the most, that's going to play out like the protection line that we kind of talked about earlier. I think it'll play a bit kind of similar to like a Glen Alondra, that kind of thing. And as always, resetting orbs can be quite nice. And cube supporting flicker. I think this might be the last time we talked directly about flicker. This will be quite nice because it is just another one of these effects. That's that's also what a creature like when James was talking about, daydream at the start. But you do need some of these effects on creatures, because you do have to attack and block at some point in the game. This is a three minute, 2 or 3 with vigilance. That's quite a nice static body. Also in cubes with flicker, there will be other cards that can flicker this and reset it like it's not infinite, but like this with a card like the Dark Guardian, or like any creature that kind of achieves and flicker. Something like you are limited by Blue Manor, but there's going to be some stuff you can do with that, like impact, tremors, a lot of Blue Manor into it, deal and damage. Like there's things you can do with this basically. Like like, yeah, for me, this gets in if you have flicker and blink in a cube. Outside of that, I think just there's that. There is a lot of good blue three drops. And I think that might keep it out of the high spellbook power level cubes, but solid magic card. Yeah. What do you think, James? Yeah, I quite like this guy. If you if you're trying to push the flicker thing. Yeah, I when we talked about the daydream for the first card we reviewed, this is, like, more what I want from that effects because when it doesn't line up for you to, do your flicker thing for actively, this is still veiled magic. Catching, flashing. And you can maybe ambush an attacker. It can. Then it can take it can block. It has stacks. Right. Plus, the thing's an instant. It basically how this reads is it's it's almost like a gym. Flag bearers. It's like a flag bearer. My first love flag for James. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the first spell has to go at first, right? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah I can't I can't find Kayla to figure out a hex. You can just click that and text that, Yeah, I think, I think this is pretty good for a flicker. And then. Yeah, you obviously have that upside of, like, play this like a your, I don't know, ravenous chupacabra or whatever it might be. Yeah. A bunch of value that way. That's great. But you're not sort of priced into doing it on. So, so six speed on your turn. You have a bunch of flexibility in how you want to do that, which is really nice. Having said that, if you're not super leaning into the flicker thing, there are better free drops in and blue. Something like for, Glen Lander Guardian, I think it was for them for like someone. Yeah. Like just a bit higher impact from this. And, outside of a fairly dedicated flicker deck. Right. So much in the same space. Was that the last set? The last set, if you don't count the tassel. Right. Okay. Go go go go. What a. Yeah. Cool. All right, let's move on to black. James, we have another new mechanic actually. Talk to us about decorum, desertion. Oh, we should talk to us about decorum. Dissertation. Yeah. Lots of people do dessert for dissertation. So maybe. Yeah, maybe a Freudian slip that I was a media student. My boy. All coursework. Phenomenal work. Yeah. The current dissertation is free. Black, black for a sorcery lesson. You have lessons in this version of strict save and just not learn. Says target player draws two cards and loses two life. So I want to feel five mana sign and blood, which is is a bit spicy, but it has a new keyword called paradigm. Paradigm says then exile the spell. After you first resolve a spell with this name, you may cast a copy of it from exile without playing as mana costs at the beginning of each of your eight main phases. So for people who've played with epic, this is kind of like epic, but without the downside. Yeah, they fixed epic. Yeah, yeah. You just get a copy of this every ten for the rest of the game. As long as you want to. It's very interesting mechanic. It's, This will win you the game, given long enough. It's very powerful, but it's five mana. You're not affecting the board with your five mana. You're dealing yourself damage with your five mana. So you really need to be very confident that the vast of your deck is fairly well set up to stabilize the game, and has a ton of cheap interaction and ways keep you alive. But once that first copy is resolved, they can't really stop this value chain. You know, normally when you have repeatable cards on, you know, planeswalker, an artifact or, or something, and they can then move that and this upset, there's not really any disruption for this. Even even permission does basically doesn't work on for first copies. All right. Because sure, they could counter that for long term, but it will come back. So there's something to be said for that. It's nice if you have a little bit of life gain as well, just because the two damage be very well, then you be so many times you can you can take that like that. Also worth noting this in the right spot. If your opponent is show off on life, all cards can be a win condition and a longer game. Yeah. You can at some point just be like, cool. Well, my opponent has like six cards left in that library. I'm going to target them twice. I am King Fate. I can kill me or my opponent is at six and so if I can draw a bunch of cards, but I'm well set up to defend myself and I think they can kill me quickly enough. Yeah, I think this is cool. It's probably not for the most powerful, cuz just it's too slow and too bad when you're behind. But I think it's like an interesting one to try in slightly slower cubes. It is a lot of inevitability. Yeah, it is a lot harder. I, I think you're right. Right. In terms of like for higher Paralympic Games, it's just too expensive. Like in the in the more higher part of the game is just like, well I'll be casting this on turn five and then when is the game ending, if that makes sense. Then like this needs to go in a cube where we can't is on turn five and we're still drawing cards like three turns later on average I think is way of winning. I did have some notes about doomsday, but I don't think it's good there. Because it still has the issue of yes, I can cast this and then cast my doomsday, but then I still have to untap, and that's, for me, the biggest issue with those kind of piles. As you were talking, I did have one thought. How does this work with hull breach James. Oh, breach. It. If an opponent would draw a card except for the, the first one, they draw on each of their tread, draw steps into. Instead you create a treasure token. Does this become they lose two life and you get two treasure. Yeah. Every time. Yeah. You cut a hole. That's kind of. That's nice. I quite like that. Yeah. Like, that's kind of a weird control package. That could be quite fun. And I guess if you are doing anything where you are cheating on spells, like, I mean, like, specifically dream halls, like the other paradigm, I'm going to talk about. I think it's quite good in dream halls. This one is okay. Like it's not as good as a wheel as a wheel effect, but it does still draw you cards. Potentially. Then, yeah, it it's a cool one. And also with, with this, it is a lesson. They haven't put any learned cards in this set, like learn we saw in original tricks. Even learn is when you cast a spell with learn, you can reveal a card, a lesson from your sideboard and put it into your hand. I'm assuming at some point we're going to see learn again. When we do, these cards get better. Yeah, I think we will do a, episode at some point on the whole learn lesson package. I think it is actually kind of interesting for cube, even as it is at the moment. So, yeah, these these additional lessons will be quite interesting that not 100% and this is the first of three cards we're going to talk about in black that I think are all not so in commander. Let's talk about the second one. Next. Let's talk about emeritus of whoa. This is three in a black for A54 creature vampire warlock. It enters prepared at the beginning of your end step. If two more creatures died this turn, this creature becomes prepared. The spell that it casts is a sorcery. And it's quite a good one. It's one on a black and it's demonic tutor. Search a library before a card. Put that card into your hand, then shuffle. James. When I first made my cube, I was running skin render for mana like two, 2 or 3 3% minus one minus one counters. What is this? Jesus. It's base. It's a four mana five four with no downside. I. I think most of the time this will play out more like a six drop. Because again, what I like we've said before, we don't want this getting removed. We are very sad if we just played this creature and it eats a not doom blade variant. So we would want to get the value straight away. And then similar to the blue one, like, I think it's quite easy to see a world where we're going to be demonic tutoring multiple times with this card. Like if we just attack and they block and we trade off with a different creature, that's two or more creatures dying by your own step, and you get demonic tutor again. Like, that's really, really good. And similarly to the blue one, the the blue emeritus. I like the fact that I don't run Demonic Tutor in my. Oh, I don't think I wonder what triggered it in my unpowered vintage cube I would run this. This is a nice power level. It gives you the hint of the powerful card without being the efficient, powerful card. Again, also miserable in commander, but, Yeah. James, what do you think? I think this guy's pretty good. Yeah, this is pretty powerful. I understand why it's so big. Yeah, I've read this card. Assuming it was like a free fee, you know, and being perfectly happy with that. And then more power than manner. It's not a green card. Exactly. Exactly. It's a demon with no downside. The downside is it doesn't have flying. There you go. It's a demon. Let's have a great, though. Yeah. No, this is really perfect. It's interesting because I think so. I think the ancestral card you'll, like, almost always cast it and cast a spell right away. I think this because it's 4 to 6, is like, you will sometimes just have analysis for forge, but try and be like, that's very, very big. I don't have my six man of all top right now. I'm just gonna play this. If I on top of it, it's going to be very powerful. I guess if your opponent's a gruel deck and you like what they can do, like, like, double burn, spell it or something like that, you're a bit happier in those kind of environments, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. They like, you know, if I had a bunch of good stuff to do that turn, I might do that stuff and try and wait to play this on six. But if I didn't have great pay. So yeah, you can absolutely just fold this out. Right. It's pretty powerful, I think whichever way you do it. It's also quite nice for it doesn't have to be in play when the creatures die. So if you are at six, right, you can get your socks, you make your attacks, your opponent blocks in a normal way and trades and post combat. You say this, you have your six mana. You die right away. You go to and stab and it will become for Paddick and Vice way. Jesus. Yeah, that's really good. Yeah, because obviously if this is in play, your opponent is going to try quite hard, not have two creatures die on your turn. But if you play at post combat, they don't know it's coming. So that's quite nice. Plus, honestly, once you get the first ECF, you can probably get something that sets up being able to do again quite nicely. I could also certainly see spots where your first TT gets like an animated or something to get this back, assuming they kill it because yeah, if they don't kill it, you're going to be in great shape anyway. Yeah, this is really powerful. I think it's one people will be trying in a lot of cubes. Whether it ends up making the cut and like super, super high power level cube, I suspect it probably will. But, you know, the competition is really tough. Like, is it's probably not better than, like shield read, for example. But maybe there's room for 1 or 2 more expensive blackouts. Yeah, this is definitely one I think people are going to be trying. And yeah, as I mentioned, I think it is one they'll try in the powerful games. But if it if it falls out of favor there, it will probably still be in mind. Like I'm just looking at this in virtue of truth in my queue being like, I need to I need to make those updates we talked about a few weeks ago. Yeah, that checks out all right. But James, take it away with the third of our black cards, the third of our black cards that I'm going to see in every game of commander. I play for the next number of years. Talk to us about grave researcher. Yeah. Believe that. Grave researcher is Turner black for a free freak feature troll. Warlock says at the beginning of your upkeep, surveil one. Then if there are three or more creature cards in your graveyard, this creature becomes footpads and the associated spell being cast on it. It's prepared is reanimates, save as a single black sorcery that target creature card from a graveyard on the battlefield. In Deal Control, you lose life equal to that card's manor value. So this obviously one where we can't prepare it right away, then it doesn't become prepared until your next upkeep. Even if, even if you have a really stocked graveyard. So we're always burning this out and they have an opportunity to kill it. That's fine. That's a free drop. They're allowed to kill your free traps. And if it sticks around, this is pretty powerful. Firstly, surveil one on your upkeep is just really nice. Anyone who was resolved to search for scams in there, that's, That's a lovely feeling. And then it's not that tough in a creature heavy black that can maybe your yourself a bit on top of as you will get to your free creatures before too long. Listen, this isn't one you're getting despite saying the word free animate on the card. This is not a card for the animator because it's not a reliable enough free animation facts for it to be sort of justify you putting giant amount of uncomfortable creatures in your tag. What this is though, is a really nice value card for a black tech fair, has a lot of creatures, is going to be milling itself a lot. You don't need to be reanimating a corpse. You can reanimate free drops and be very happy with your life. Plus, it's, there will be spots fight. Because this is this is repeatable, that you die, you get your first reanimate. If you then have still have free creatures for next, then you can just reanimate again. So it may well be that your first reanimate actually wants to go on a creature in their graveyard, because then you're still leaving your free creatures in your graveyard. So you prepare this again next turn, and it can just end up being a very nice little engine that way. Yeah. All in all, it's a free amount of free, free Vive. I kind of have to kill pretty quickly, in a lot of games. And that's just a good card. Yeah, I would agree with that. I, I do want to touch on though, like you mentioned, this not being, card for Re-Animator, but I do possibly like the potential of where this could take Re-Animator is not the most powerful cubes because like, in my unpowered vintage cube, for example, the way I've powered down Re-Animator is I have kept the good reanimation spells, but powered down the the targets. So I don't have Gristle brand. I have, like, Trouble of Cards of Doom and like Grave Titan and such. Like, that's as beefy as we get. There is a world where we could swap that around where you where it's it's basically it's a different lever to control the power level of Re-Animator. I'd be tempted with this in my treat yourself cube, which is slower. Where basically, like. Like I don't have gristle brand in my Treat Yourself cube. I have things like Vein Ripper Cousteau and like Avatar of Woe. And the reason I haven't done that is because, like, quick, reanimating a gristle brand isn't it's too efficient, basically. But what I like about great researcher is it kind of it gives you the feeling of it being efficient by letting you cast reanimate. But you're doing it on turn four and there is a world where basically basically what I'm saying is maybe there is a it's a different lever where instead of keeping the high powered reanimation spells and lowering the targets, we slow down the reanimation spells and power up the targets. That could be a a quite fun way of doing it. It basically is is what I'm trying to say. Yeah, I guess the thing I struggle with, with the idea of like trying to cheat in something like trying with this, is that as well as having your few very big creatures, you also just need to adapt to be very creature dense, right? You need like 15 creatures or something because you're trying to surveillance creatures on male over creatures need to get three creatures in the graveyard, not just for, the one giant thing. And that seems like kind of tricky. And they just seem like too difficult things to overlap to me. And in certain spots, I guess maybe if you're learning something like dread Return when you strike. You have reasons to have a chief creatures in your back and have expensive creatures in your deck. That's that's maybe an interesting angle. You could go down and then you're more leading into like recurring nightmare stuff like, like be kind of cool. Yeah. Certainly gives you some options. Anyway. Yeah, I think it's a cool one. I, as someone who plays a lot of graveyard shenanigans decks for me, having three creatures for me, the personal challenge of having three creatures in my grave, it on turn four is not a challenge, but I do. Yeah, I that is me going all in on a bunch of strategies which I know isn't traditionally how how Re-Animator got you put one big thing in the graveyard. Not a bunch of little things I do. Yeah, yeah, it's just it's no good in that, like, sort of combo control. The ultimate attack, I guess, is, is the fights I'm making. But yeah, that's certainly different builds where you make it, where I think it's my next list. I, we want our next card. Maceo vein. Maceo veins. New Dean. This is two and a black for a two on legendary creature. Bird skeleton warlock with flying. And when enters create A11 black and green pest insect creature token with. Whenever this token attacks, you gain one life. It also has infusion, which is another new mechanic. I think. At the beginning of your in step, if you gained life, this turn would turn up to one target creature card with mana value x or less from your grave up to the battlefield, where X is the amount of life you've gained. This term. I think this is a cool card. I for it, but the base level of three mana for three flying over two bodies is okay. That won't get it into the most powerful cubes, but it will. Like, that's a fine level for the lower powered or more budget environments, similar to some of the other cards we've gone over. Where this gets better is if we are doing if we have ways of gaining life in our deck. And I don't just mean specifically like soul sisters and like, like that would be okay. But like, I think this is a decent card in something like aristocrats specifically where we have cards like blood artists that gain us like when creatures die. Like this could be a quite a nice little engine piece because like, like, go with me on this. Like, we play our doom traveler, we play our blood artist, we play this and it's like we have our engine. We sack our doom traveler. At the end of turn, we've gained a life on the blood artist. We bring the Doom Traveler back with cooking. Speaking my language. That's such great. But that seems like a cool engine. But like that, what I have just listed will exist in a bunch of cubes. This struggle to get in into a cube that has, like, a barrel glyphs in it, for example. But like in cubes that are doing more synergy. I think this is going to be a solid card, I swear to God, for those environments. Yeah, I go with that. And that's really like if it's engineer card also incidentally, gives it a bit of fodder along the way. That, that makes this quite appealing in that deck. Yeah. You know, it's like a black preening champion, you know, playing champions. Great. Yeah, I could see actually the things in play in like mid power level stuff. If you got aristocrats going, I actually think it's kind of more of an ask that card for a straight life game card, because the like the straight life up life game decks just doesn't necessarily going to fuel its graveyard well enough to, to have stuff to bring back was fantastic. That stack. You know, you can stack stuff, get it back that has an ATP or whatever. You okay accumulating some value quite nicely. Nice. Yeah. It does seem like a solid one. All right. We have one more black card. James, talk to us about scheming silver tongue. Yes. Scheming silver tongue is one of black for a one free creature. Vampire Warlock has flying and lifelink. So two mana, one free flying. Lifelink. Oh, bad. Stop! And I'm forgetting of your second main face. If you gained two or more, life is ten. This creature is prepared and the associated spell is signed in blood. That's black. Black. I'll get player twelves to prove cards and lose to life. Best use on your opponent when at two. That's can. That can certainly also draw you some cards. This I think is nice if you're really leaning into the life game thing specifically. Because yes, that means it's going to become prepared, but it's also a nice enabler for for life gains stuff. Right? At just two mana, one fee flying lifelink it's oh, my soul is going to get to attack for most of the early game. And give you that little bit of extra life gain and a lot of life game payoffs don't actually care that much about how much life you gained. If I care about how many individual instances of you gaining a life power, there can be of an enabler and a little bit of card advantage in those decks. Outside of a pretty dedicated life game, I'm not interested. I think there are just better options and like you, you need to find an extra point of life gain to, to prepare this. You could do that by buffing its power or by, like, hating life some other way. But even if you make that work for the payoff just isn't that good, right? You're getting a sign in blood. It's nice, but it's not. It's nothing to write home about. Yeah. For me, of of all the prepared cards we talked about, this is the hardest sell so far. Just because every other one we've talked about, it feels like they can just be prepared in the deck. Like in any deck, naturally, like the reanimate one, you just have to have some creature in the graveyard that will happen in a game of magic. The demonic 2 to 1, two creatures about to die in a game of magic that will happen. This specifically like they only has one point of power, so the lifelink it. It needs something else to gain life to work. If you have that in your cube, like, yeah, if it's if it's life game, I think this becomes an interesting and becomes a nice little reward and a payoff for those life game decks. But yeah, that for me, you have to actively be supporting that. It can't just be like, oh, I have a blood artist in my in my cube. People can make it work for me. My gut is you have to actually be trying to support rewarding people for gaining life in some way. For this to be good. Basically, it's my gut. Yeah, I agree with that. I do like the design though. I think it's much cooler when they design cards that don't solve their own puzzle, you know? And you asked for an I'll dance work. But yeah, I think with this one that the payoff just isn't could have done with a little more juice. You know. Yeah, yeah. I think it's also worth mentioning that I was saying about the life like it, it doesn't go up in my estimates. If we have ways of buffing its power, like if we can put a counter on it, then it will trigger itself, every time by like gaining two if we can, if we can put an equipment on it that the base of its power. I like it more. Just some things that I like. Even like vampire synergy if you have way if you have like like vampire lords buffing up its power. I like it more. Like it just needs something. You need something to work with. It basically is what I'm saying. And fashion this ten free vampire Nighthawk. Ooh, sad. Full attack with Nighthawk cast this immediately signed in blood. Marvelous. You don't say that. Yeah. It's over. I miss casting vampire Nighthawk, but that's. That's a conversation for a future episode. All right, let's move on to Red. We have our last images for the day, but don't worry, there'll be another one next week. Emeritus of conflict. It's one in a red for a two creature human wizard with first strike. And whenever you cast your third spell each turn, this creature becomes prepared. The spell it casts when it's prepared is a lightning bolt, a single red for an instant lightning bolt deals sweet damage to any target, so for me, I put this closer to the white one than the blue on the black one. Primarily because just that casting three spells is tricky. Like in the cube with a lot of cantrip, lots of cheat spells, lots of baubles. I think this will see play, and we'll probably be decent. Like, I don't think this gets into the Mega Vintage cube because I do think can again, just two drops in red is quite the competition. On two and especially three if if you want to do the bolt, the same turn is quite tricky. The power level is probably best in is something like mine. My unpowered vintage cube, a cube that's running all the good cantrip but isn't running the most powerful cards. That's probably where it sees you could see the most play. My gut is in the lower part of a cuz we're just not going to have the the density of cheap spells to activate this. And like, we have to activate this at least once to be anywhere near happy with it. Like once you get the ball rolling, it's a little easier. Like one thing you touched on with me the other day is that, yeah, like the if we if this is prepared, we can cast the lightning bolt. And then we only have to cast two more spells that turn to fit to be, prepared again. That's a nice little engine I like. I think this is going to be better in formats that aren't singleton, because if you can, if you have multiples, they will work quite nicely once you get the first one going. That's a quite, quite a nice little engine, like having 2 or 3 of these out. Once they're prepared, they will then trigger each other. That's quite solid in singleton like like I'm, I'm just looking at kind of similar cars. I kind of reward us for casting spells and like, like they printed core steel, cut it like in the last 12 months, like I, I for me that this one's a bit of a tougher sell compared to the other ones that we touched on. But, but but I'm open to being wrong there. What do you think of emeritus of conflict? James I think it's interesting. I kind of want to try it in some powerful cubes that I'm very open to. The idea of that might just be bad. Partly every time they print me spells for me, cause they ask you to cast multiple spells in a ten, that always better than I think they're going to be like, yeah, let's. Class is kind of broken. Phoebe's really strong. Even like sage of the skies is just really over fond of that scene. And that's for, for you. Mana two for flying. I think we got a copy of F. It's your second spell of ten. Listen, passing free spells is way harder than casting two spells. So this might be, you know, a step too far in that theme. But whenever build around this, they tell you to put a bunch of cheap cards in your deck. Yeah, that's what you should have been doing anyway. You know, chief, cards are always great. Yeah, it it, Yeah. The more I see. See it again against like Lloris. It it's it's, it's a good thing not a restraint. Right. Exactly, exactly. It's just enforcing discipline. Yeah. And you're quite right. But once it gets going, you know the first time you prepare it, then you don't have to snap off a bolt right away necessarily. You can maybe save it to your next and then it contributes towards that spell count and getting it prepared again. Multiples does sound sick. I can very I can imagine like you finish this and then you just get a little engine going that could be very sick. Yeah. Listen, it might well be two cute sets. Yeah, if you don't prepare it, it's a two mana, two two fast track, which is not brilliant. And it kind of. Yeah, maybe more like mid paddle Q but it needs to be a decently high power level, cuz you need to have that density of cheap spells, you know? Yeah. You really do. Yeah. Yeah. So it kind of wants to be in a cube with like bubbles and get action phobes and some pitch cards, but, I'd be interested to try it. Yeah, but it, it, I'm, it may well be bad if this is the one I have like the highest degree of uncertainty on. I think. No I'd agree that. Yeah like like the the the multi spelling cards, they are very dependent and they can be quite snowballing but like yeah yeah I'm open to giving this one a test. Anyway. All right James talk to me about flashback. It's finally a card. Yes a flashback is single. That mana, for instance. It does exactly what you'd expect it to do. It says target instant or sorcery card in No Graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. That flashback cost is equal to it's mana cost. This is pretty interesting. So paying one mana to get the best spell out of your yard is a pretty good deal in a spell heavy deck. It's just going to give you a lot of options in the mid to late game. Particularly nice in a power stack or any deck for cares about casting multiple spells in a very nice for for that dude we just talked about, actually, because it's essentially wrapping up, casting two spells in one line. So if you're triggering anything along the way, you're kind of doubling up that value is pretty good. It is in most blue red decks, probably just a worse version of snap caster mage like in general that that the two one is going to be worth more than the extra mana. But there's absolutely no reason you can't play both. This doesn't just go in blue red by any means. Like, I could imagine a sort of black red grimdark deck just playing this, because in the late game, you know, sometimes I want to cast a full C, sometimes I want to cast my own evil spell. Sometimes I want to cast my cards for spell. This just gives me options, right? Plus it's just a nice and combo decks, right? Like, you just get that little bit of, a little bit of redundancy. You know, all of a sudden it's less bad when they manage to falsies away your doomsday or whatever it is for your time to go off with, like, it's just gives you enough option to get that back. Yeah. I quite like this. I think it's, I think you'll see a lot of play. Yeah, it's it's just so cheap. Like, I don't think it's like an obvious staple because you do have to find room for it. But yeah, I quite like it. I like I think it gets better the more powerful the cube is. Like the base level in most cubes is like, oh, it gets back the removal spell, it gets back the card draw spell. If this is getting back your flash or your reanimate or your time walk, then that's definitely like up a notch, if that makes sense. Like that's definitely more powerful. My only complaint is that I wish this had flash back for two in a red. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, maybe that was it. I have that. Yeah. Yeah, that's the Modern Horizons version. But, but yeah, yeah, I, I'm quite high on this card. I'm probably going to like. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to be giving this test. I think it's gonna be quite fun. Just like just just giving like, like. Yeah. The the stuff of mage comparison I think is spot on. But yeah, just it opening up to other decks like a gruel deck or a. Yeah. You mentioned rectal stacking. Like, that's just nice. I'm, I'm here for that. All right. Let's keep going. We have we have a very expensive red card next with Improvization capstone it is five red red for a sorcery lesson. It says exile cards from your library until you exile cards with total mana value four or greater. You may cast any number of spells among them without paying their mana costs. And also it has paradigm. So again, that is the one where you get to cast a copy on your first main face for the rest of the game. So I think this is a cool card. I'm personally higher on this one than the black one. And I'm saying this out the bat, though, that we're not ramping to seven and casting this for me. I'm putting this in a deck that's looking to cheat big spells. So we've talked about dream halls today. We talked about mystics mastery of that kind of deck. But there is really a big drop off in terms of quality of expense, sieve instance and sources for that deck. Like after our ultimatums, after our extra turn spells, we're onto things like blood for the blood God and that kind of stuff like this isn't as good as like those or like wheel effects, but it is cool. Like the fact it's four or more like we can hit a bunch. We could hit four one drops and put them into play, or we could hit an eight drop, but we're still putting that into play or casting it. That's quite nice. This is definitely one of those dream horse like cars where we don't win the game immediately when we do it. But if you're doing dream pulls in your slower cube, but I'm doing it in my Treat Yourself cube. I think this is big and fun there. And I'm yeah, I'm kind of here for it. In those kind of environments, like, I don't think it's the most efficient spell. It's probably not going to get into like, super high powered number cubes, but like, if you have time to do a thing and then the game continues afterwards while you do more cool stuff. This is very much in that vein. Yeah. I think this is sweet. It's very high variance. Right. Yeah, sure. If in the scenario where, like, you cast this and you're under no pressure at it when you've game, but then there will be plenty of games where you are under pressure, you get to cast this, and you kind of need the first one to hit pretty well. And there will be times when it does a ton, and there'll be times where it does next to nothing, right? The good scenario is actually be the first value here is like a three, 2 or 3 mana spell, because then you can check everything and you go and say you content like, say a free mana spell, and then you flip again, you have five flop and now you're casting like eight minutes worth of spells. But you could also just like, hey, you know, here's my card for spell out, and now I die. Because I didn't affect the board with my seven mana. But, like, that's kind of fun as well, you know? And, the it will it if you get to survive a couple of seasons with this going off it, it will win you the game. Kind of the only thing I guess to say as well, though, is if you're playing it in that combo attack, just bear in mind you need enough of a gas in your deck when you cast this to actually end the game. Like, there are scenarios where, you know, you end up with too much at hand. Are you, some got cancer or whatever, and you could end up just stacking yourself with as if you just don't have a win comes. Right? Yeah, yeah. Yes. 100%. Yeah. I do see that. Add something. I'm, I guess anything just about actually, it's like what you were saying about hitting the three first, and the four like, this does get better with deck with top of deck manipulation. So. Cause, like, brainstorm, cause, like Jace, the main sculptor, thinking of it like, that's actually quite nice if you can manipulate the top of your library so you know what you're hitting. I mean, I have just said, basically, like in the world, I'm playing this, we already have a dream halls in play. So maybe that's not the. Don't worry about it. It's fine. It'll be fun and it'll be good. But. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Splashy card. Oh, you know, what is sacrifice? Actually meant? You have sensei's top in play when you can specify. So when you, I guess it's, No, I was thinking you could, like, cast it off and then activate it again, but it's all happening at once. It's not, but it's still kind of nice with top. But you can you can set it up a little bit and then put your stuff on top, and then you get the top back straight away. Yeah. Stuff like that is very. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Any kind of deck any, any kind of top of deck innovation is, is going to make this card better. And also as you mentioned with all of these, it is a it is a lesson. Put a Pin in this card. We'll come back to it later. What do you think about next card James James, what do you think about maelstrom? Artisan? I'm not that sold on it, but let's read it anyway. Yes. Amazon is one word read for a creature. Minotaur. Sorcerer has haste, its answers prepared and they attach spell. It can cast is rocket volley which is one of its sorcery. Destroy target non-basic land the thing is, the mana denial stuff is only very good early in most games. So you're not really waiting for five cast. This. You could cast it on sensory, but the problem is it's try has haste but of three to not survive surviving combat very often. So if you want to keep it around, test rocket volley next turn. You're probably not attacking with it. So you don't want to trade. And then if your opponent, you know, is going to have a big problem with the land destruction part of the cards and they can take a chance, they can just kill this fight. It's, it's two toughness. And yeah, you can't really be waiting for five minutes to catch you land destruction. It's obviously it's sort of reminiscent of a card like avalanche fighters, which I feel like people have more nostalgia. You have a year for advanced fighters. Oh, it is even in, like, pretty low power, what we'd call a fairly low power level cubes. Now, advanced fighters is a pretty bad card. I would say. I'm sure that a thing you should hate, but it kind of is. The only time it actually feels good is when you can flicker it. And this doesn't work with flickering chicken. I mean, it does in that, like, it does what you can do that can be you have to pay off with your two mana. Sapphire. Okay. Oh, I every time. Yeah. I'm not that high. No, no, I, I would agree I like the I added this to the list and because because basically lands are getting too good. And I like the idea of blowing up atriums. For me, pillage is too weak. Blood moon is too strong. I think that we are getting to a point where there can be something in the middle, like, yes, we obviously have strip, strip, mine and wasteland, but we don't really have it. Like land destruction used to be something that was part of Red's color identity. And I think this isn't the answer, if I'm honest. Like, I agree with everything you said in terms of just power level. Not going to get there. I'm like in the power level of cube where this is good. It doesn't lead to land destruction because you don't have the alone academy. The guys. Great. Well, you don't have necessarily the tri fetch Manor base, that kind of stuff. So but yeah, but but it is, it is a type of effect that I am after, I think, in my cube. But yeah, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. This one doesn't get there by itself. Yeah. For sure. I quite like the, Obsidian Shamal in that spot slot, but like Big Dragon, the like five managed dragon kills a non-basic on the way in. Gets very powerful. Oh, that's my cards. Kind of good. All right, let me up next with Molten Core. Maestro, this is one red for A22 creature goblin bard with menace and opus. Whenever you can is or sorcery spell. But I also encounter on this creature if I have on more mana was spent to cast a spell and the amount of red equal to that equal to this creature's power. So this is a cool little miracle glow creature. If you play it, early in the game, it will go pretty quickly. But just by you playing magic like your red deck, you're going to have, you're going to have cards. Or if you're in blue, you're going to have removal. If you're in black, you're going to have, ramp. If you're in green, like, this will just get bigger and become a pretty solid threat like the fact it has built in menace. I do quite like, if this becomes a four powered menace creature, you're going to be pretty happy with it. And I think that's going to happen pretty easily. The ability to make mana, I think is nice, I don't think is going to come up anywhere near as often as you, as it's like it's not white, it's not why it gets into a cube or gets into a lot of decks, but it is some additional it's a nice effect. And I'm like, I think I said this in this review recently where this card is not very, but we have seen that those type of effects are strong. And I remember the card, I talked about it in turtles, but there definitely was a card recently that does a similar effect to Vivi. And if we're just getting some redundancy on that, then that is quite nice. Like, yes. With this one we have to cast a spell with mana value five or greater, which is probably going to be, I'm guessing a card draw spell, something like a like a big card draw spell in blue or something like that, make a bunch of red mana. Then we can cast the cards we've drawn. That is quite nice. I like that idea. But my gut is that kind of the make mana part is probably going to be flavor. A lot of it will come up, but it's not why you're putting it in a cube. I think like this is an aggressive creature that grows. That's why, I guess in a cube with the potential upside of its, second or third worst copy of Eevee. But what do you think, James? What do you think of Molten Core, maestro? Yeah, I think this this seems really pushed to me, actually. I'm not really at all fussed about the five CMC. Not that it isn't powerful, just. But I think the decks for one, this don't have expensive cards. But as a go for I've. This menace is so good on you okay with that? Because generally how those cards play out, right, is that they're kind of okay for the first turn. I'll see them in play. They're not amazing. But then a certain point they get huge and your opponent starts jump, locking them and trying to find a removal spell. And this they have to fight two creatures in the way, which is not really going to be sustainable for most decks. Yeah, I think the menace is huge. Also like two mana, two two minutes just isn't a terrible starting point. Like you play this on ten two, even if you just cast one splintered free, your two drop is a free three minutes. That's that's really good. Yeah. But I, I think this is very pushed as kind of, it's query in Dryad in 2026, I guess. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I completely agree with that. All right, James, what do you think about Nocturnal moon lore? Spinner I really like this guy personally, but yeah, I think it's cool. So nocturnal moon lore spinner is tuna red for a beefy creature. Jackal wizard says at the beginning of year upkeep, if a player has one or fewer cards in hand, this creature becomes prepared and casts Wheel of Fortune for an event. Each player discards their hand and draws seven cards. That's Jackal. We have that in a while. It's like Jack went to school, you know? And let's cast Wheel of Fortune. I like it even more. They finally make me like Jackal pop even more. They gave me a Wheel of Fortune. Yeah. This is cool. It's, It's slightly tough, right? In fact. What? That once it. I guess the answer is, is maybe just that aggro card secretly. Because this doesn't do. This isn't the place. Wheel of fortune in your normal stacks, right? Like. Yeah. Because you don't get it until you upkeep, they have an opportunity to kill this. This. That means you kind of don't want to put it in, you know, spell base stacks because your opponents will just have for movable spells that you haven't given them good targets for. Yeah. And we'll snap it off on this. Plus, you have to get empty handed or close to it. But I can kind of see it in your, you know, your of Tupelo curve, that beat down deck. This is like one of the last cards you play. Maybe that something, like, I don't think it's super powerful. But it is cool. And that's enough reason to try it. Maybe. Yeah. You're right, it doesn't go in classic wheel decks because it's not. It's just not reliable. It also doesn't go in a bunch of other decks that care about wheels. So like this. Some combo decks that want wheels. This isn't going to go there. It's not going to go in like madness, because part of the madness plan is to have cards in your hand when you discard them. And this you can't. You're going to have one card in hand in order to trigger this. Therefore, it's not really going to work like this. You can hope your opponent doesn't have cards in hand, but I don't like the relying on my opponent turning out better than me to make my card good. That doesn't seem great. So yeah, I think you're right. Like, for me, if I this is more a card for lower powered cubes and more budget environments. Hopefully this card is a little cheap. I'm hoping it will be because it's just going to be a cool mono read aggro card where the plan is, we're going to play some aggressive features and we're going to burn them out and three drop is this, four drop is going to be a hell rider. And our deck is full of lightning bolts that go to the dome, and we're going to play this, but play this with no cards left in our hand. We're going to draw seven cards and burn them out and win. And I think that's cool. But that's the power level that this is basically that is cool. And given where a bit low power level, so allowed to play some kind of bad cards and out of that beat down deck, it's kind of interesting with do you remember Vasa kin needle head dustman. That does sound familiar. The, like, vad vad I have to first try out for your opponent a cards. It deals. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So it's like already kind of a possible that beat down creature likes it triggers on as well as safe as well. And then I mean it's a little wombo combo at first, right where you get to, yeah. It's the seven them that's kind of tight. Yeah, I do, I do like that. Maybe this is one I'm going to look at in mine like yeah, yeah I'm still in the I know, I know, I know we did. We've on the episode on on my on Netflix I'm making to mind but I haven't actually bought the cards yet so there is time. So yeah, that could be quite tight. Let's move on to our last card of the day, Relic Retriever. This is one and a read for two. One creature spirit monkey with first strike. And at the beginning of each end step, if a card left your graveyard this turn, create a treasure token. So there's been a few cards in this set that care about cards leaving the graveyard. This is the one that interests me the most. I'm going to caveat everything I'm going to say by saying, I don't think this has a specific place in cube yet, but I think it's growing. Like ever since Insidious Roots got printed, there's been a bunch of cards that care about cards leaving the graveyard. They have generically been in sort by colors, but we are getting the odd bit here and there in other colors, like there's I think it's on Wings of Gold is a white card that does a similar thing. There's yeah. And there was Gow Feral Youth from the final Fantasy set, which also dealt damage. If a card left your graveyard, this turned that kind of stuff. So like, there was a growing number of these effects and like, I'm not saying, but like, like these effects are cool because like, they trigger from a bunch of stuff. Like they took it from like, maybe we're delving, maybe we're reanimating, maybe we're flashing, flashing back a spell like we've seen from this set. Think like more and more effects are, triggering things to leave graveyards. And there's more and more cards being printed that care about cards leaving graveyards. If this exists, this is going to be a lower powered, more synergistic style of effect. And like specifically with the relic retrieval here, making a treasure token every turn is a nice upside, but it's not like game ending or game breaking. It it does trigger offer like at every end step, including your opponents. So there might be some little engine piece you can get there like like that. I think there is a lantern or something like that that moves that card from your graveyard to your to the bottom of your library. Maybe that's kind of where we're going for this. I'm not entirely sure. Like basically I added this to the list because base level two mana two on first strike is going to be a fine base in lower power level cubes. But I do think that, like, we are getting to a point where there is going to be a deck or an archetype based around these cards and like, hey, there's a world where maybe it's the whole cube because we've definitely seen it in cell type, but maybe there's like the whole a whole environment about cards moving around zones and stuff like that. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I wanted to mention it because it is something we all say is a trend we are seeing. And I think at some point soon we could habitat for it. Moving cards between games ends to sound like a good basis for a cube. I would play that. Yeah. So this is very specifically what Law holder is doing in this set. What else is doing? It's actually what it was doing last time in six, seven as well. It's just last time the theme didn't really work because all the cards were bad. And this time some of the cards look quite good. So that's as I get I get for the female version. But yeah, like this. If that deck exists. Yeah, this this could be a good, a good foil player that, I like for. So I should have that deck. I, I struggle to imagine there being, like enough support in that at the moment, but yeah, maybe if we get a bunch more and in the coming stats, it could, it could be a thing. But yeah, I, I'd sort of if it's just. I'll wait. It's because that's what Law Hall does. It's fixed haven. And that's why we've got some in this set. And then we don't see much more for a while then. Then I think it would struggle. Because you do need it to be pretty consistent. Right. Like if you compare this to, say, cards like Magda, it's just like two mana to, make trash on attacks. That's a lot more reliable than this is. Yeah, I think I think there is something there, but yeah, it's something I want to bring attention to because it might be an episode we talk about in the future. Just if there are, if there is, like if it becomes a deck, we will talk about it. Because I do like this type of environment and I think we've all been a big fan of insidious roots in cube. So always worth talking about. Marvelous. I think that's going to end it for today. James. Pleasure, man. Thank you for that. A bunch of cool cards that we got over today. Yeah, it was a pleasure. I think this seems like a very cool, actually. Yeah. I'm really looking forward to prerelease. I'm is on Saturday. Because the ones in London sell out really quickly. But, yeah, should be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to open it. There's a lot of cards I actually want from the set, which has been I maybe I should have bought that Lord of the rings Warhammer. Who knows? I should have been saving my cash, but. Oh, good. But yeah, that's gonna do it for today. Do remember to like the podcast. Give us a give us a five star review. All that good stuff. Tell a friend, especially definitely helps out because next week we're going to be back with part two. Where are we going to be going? Over green, multicolored and colorless. And there are that. There's been some bangers in this episode, and there's a bunch more bangers for us to come back to next week. So until then, it's goodbye from me. That's goodbye from James, and we'll see you all soon. Goodbye.