Underrated Cube Cards | #105

In this episode of Powerful Nothing, Dan and James take a look at some underrated and underplayed cube cards, and discuss why they think you should give them a go in your own cubes!!

Card Gallery: https://moxfield.com/decks/GmcAqL-gnECmkw_zqnfmNg

Timecodes:
1:41 - Stridehangar Automaton
16:20 - Triumph of Saint Katherine
26:27 - Party Thrasher
35:06 - Pandemonium
45:02 - Gilded Drake
52:32 - Jinxed Idol

Video Version: TBC

Cube Skeleton Episode: https://youtu.be/92aS4ZU_nd8

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

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0:02

Hello everyone. Welcome back to Powerful Nothing and Magic The Gathering Cube podcast. I'm your host, Dan, and as always, I'm joined by James. James. How are you doing, my boy? Yeah, I'm doing great. I'm doing great. How are you? Yeah, I'm all good. Thank you. We have another banger topic for everyone today. We're gonna be looking at some underrated cube cards. These are cards that we personally quite like that we think don't get enough love. Before we get into that main topic. As always, a little reminder there will be links to a card gonna be down in the show notes below if you want to see the pretty cards, as well as a link to a YouTube version. If you want to see the pretty cards move around the screen as well as time codes, and then links to our own personal cubes while you're down there, please consider giving the podcast a five star review. Thumbs up greatly helps us out. Remember with that preamble out of the way, let's move on to our topic today. So, James, we're going to be talking about some underrated cube cards of like, we've got what we brought a three each to chat on. Yeah. That's some spice in here. Kind of like what made you pick the cards you pick before we kind of get into it? Yeah, I think these are some cool ones. And that bag cards, which I found in my cube. So in other people's cubes, if just added something a little bit different, to them environment I really like performed above my expectations of them. I think above what the community in general thinks of them. And it definitely worth trying. And a few different cubes. I think they're they tend to be some pretty broad ones which which go and go in a lot of different places I think. Yeah, we are, we have a nice little range of cards today. We've got some cards that kind of like I think could go in a wide variety of cubes, but as maybe people just don't know about them or haven't played with them, we've got some cards that I kind of old and weird. I mean, I, we kind of got some cards that are somewhere in between. So yeah, I think we got a good selection today. James, you're up first. Talk to me about your first underrated cube card. Yeah. So the first one I've gone for is straight hanger automaton. This is three generic mana for a one for artifact creature constructs says fop says you control get plus one plus one. And if one or more artifact tokens would be created under your control, those tokens plus an additional one one color swap two artifact creature token with flying created instead. This is, I think, quite an interesting little card because. So I'm first reading, you think, oh, it's, to feed mana artifacts and makes us. It makes factors. When you make artifact tokens, it's probably just for the artifact deck, right? For your classic mechanics workshop slaying academy, whatever power level cube you might be at Artifact deck, I think it's actually a bit a lot broader than that. Because it specifically cares about artifact tokens. They put artifact tokens on so many cards. Now, if you think about the thing, things like blood, things like food, things like treasure, clues that it feels like every of the at this point, we just have one of these is a theme. And that means sort of without really committing to building around this card in your cube, you'll have enough cards in there that you can probably make it work, and that makes it in the draft a really fun level build around. I think it's kind of cool when you have built around cards where you can build around it in different ways, in the same cube, right? It's not like every deck running strong is having a automaton. It's going to look the same. You might be triggering it with, yeah, you might have it in an artifact deck with like, crown high seed shock and third party iconoclasts. And this style checkmate. But you also might have it in, like, a deck that makes loads of food or treasure, but you have, like, a red black deck with a bunch of treasure, for example. This can be amazing that, we've seen food as a theme work in a bunch of cubes. This is amazing. In the food deck, you just get a two to flow with all of your food. That's been really, really powerful. So I, I yeah, I like it when you get built around where, they actually have a broad range of decks where you can make them work, you know, but it's not free. Right? You do have to you do have to change your pick order a lot when you have this card to try and make it work. But if you do that, there's a really strong payoff there. Like if you can be triggering this is it's not out of the question to be triggering this a couple of times each turn after you play it. And at that point it's kind of busted, like I do two flyovers. And so I will and even if you have a move fest, you still do. You still keep for one one fly, it's still going to get in for damage. Yeah. I think this is cool in terms of where it goes. I think high, mid or even maybe high power level cubes. I think this can work. I think if you're supporting something like academy manufacturer in your cube, this is kind of a slam dunk. But really it, it has a lot of different hands that can work in. Yeah, yeah, I'll read it. Academy amount of action because it's a lot of people will know probably from commander. But if you just play cube might not come across it. It's three generic for A13 artifact creature assembly worker. If you were to creative clue food or treasure token instead of create one of each. So that just spits out so many tokens with the tang of a tournament. I'm like, yeah, I like both. I actually quite like both of them together just to make as many artifacts as possible. Star deck I think that's really strong. I'm kind of like just on the card though, James. I have like how many tokens do you think you need to make? Like how many theaters do you think you need to make to be really happy with this? Because like, The body is kind of a one for I mean, OTB is kind of fine, but like it is a it is a bit of a build around. Like, what's the flaw in terms of tokens made before you're happy with it? Because like, to be fair, three mana for A14 and a two to flier. That's not terrible. Like but but but is it one. Is it two? Is it three. How many do you want to make? I think at two we're very happy. Like that's full power them MVA that's, that's, that's very strong. That's a very big clock for just three mana. I don't think, you know, sometimes I just gonna kill this right away, but I think, two tokens were really happy. But part of what we're here for is the fact that some games we get to make, like, eight, and it's insane. That wins us for game by itself. And that sort of. And that's why it justifies the build around. Right. Because at one token, yeah, it's a fine card. But it's not worth putting the effort in of building around it. Right, to make to make one token. So we want to be getting those multiple tokens where the games we untap with this, we want to justify it spot. We need it go pretty hard. No I agree with that. And then you mentioned kind of cubes. It could go into like like power level wise I think you smashed it. But kind of like in terms of, like decks or archetypes, kind of like like, do you think this can go in a cube that's kind of like, incidentally, making artifact tokens because like, I look at my, my main keeping like it's it does make more than you think. But like I have other cubes which are actively trying to make artifact tokens, things like food and kind of like, do you think it's it can go in just like an averagely like like, I mean, like a cube is running good cards or is it one where it needs it needs the support of like a dedicated like food or blood deck or something like that to really kind of like, hammer it home? I think so when. So if we look at it from like a, when you want to put it in your deck point of view and then extrapolate up to the cube level, right. To put it in your deck, you even need a bunch of like one off ways to trigger that, or only a couple of repeatable ways. Right? Because if you can get those repeatable ways in there, you're creating the possibility to go really hard. And a lot of cubes will have those repeatable ways and kind of by default, so for example, I think like third party, I last. So claim like we have so many of that effects now, right? But if you're just burning those in your cube, then this has a really nice home. That also fits a foundry. Possibly the best of these. It's really absurd. We're for that. Very fair. So anything making sculptures? Yeah. I was gonna say sorry. Master. Doctor says welcome to anything that actually makes doctors gets better with this because they naturally are, like, lorded up by this, right? Automaton, which is nice. I mean, it's nice for that pumps of Fox as you make for factory Fighter, but it's actually even better than that because you can also sack the foxes for this make to that trove better. So if you have this and that professor you tap head sack for Fox, you make a fall fall. But the fall fall comes with a fox, which you can just sack again. So at that point. So that's very fetch was essentially just tap make a fall fall for no cost. Do this. Yeah. Yeah that's tight. Okay. So those cards kind of like justify inclusion. But then if you want to like expand it outside of that artifact attack, then you need to bunch of cards. Yeah. Like you have a food theme of blood or treasure any of those things. But it is worth just going through your, you know, cube list and looking at, how many cards do that already? Incidentally, you know, you look at, for example, in high file level, you need something like cameo, inquisitive student attack, investigate this Wisconsin sign with that or like Magda by these, cards we include because that's right. Hang an automaton. That's just good cards that are they're not cubes anyway, but they go so hard with Scott and it's, it can be very, very powerful. Now, that's a lot of fun. Another card that I so I have so I, I don't, I don't on my main place of playing with it is in my treat yourself cube. Which of which has it has a bunch of like so so it has a food deck which is quite nice like that works really well with right hand or whatever. Don't do that. Just makes you a bunch of fliers when you're incidentally making food. Because this is colorless, it can go in that deck even though it's three colors. The other plate, in that cube as well. I do just have just like a deck that just trying to spit out as many artifact tokens as possible when this is really good there, with the academy manufacturer because, like, one pay off, I found that works really well with this. And and this is one I took from, a cube clash. Cube, actually, I actually is having time save as a payoff for this type of effect. The time saver is a blue and a black. We're not about this says sacrifice five artifacts. Take an extra turn off to this one. If you have way of repeatedly making artifact tokens. So I kind of a automaton can just become an infinite like term combo, which is really quite funny. I'm quite a big fan of like like, like that is definitely more of a in that environment where you're like in that environment where the cube is going slow when you have time to build an engine. I think you're right. Time. I don't, I don't, don't it's really funny. There. Yeah. I just turning it into a way I have like a weird extra turn wink on I think is really cool. Like, Have you seen that deck come together? James? I thought it was quite fun. Yeah. Timestamps is really cool, and you can make it work. It's. It's not an easy thing to make work. You do have to, you do have to commit. Quite a lot has to come together because it five is just such a big dumb. The tokens to space actually have free card. But, it's really cool. What? It works. Yeah, I think there's some interesting stuff to be done in the, in the academy manufacturing just in like, create loads of tokens and kind of fit on that space. Another card I quite like fair is, Jehovah Friend of the forest. That's for two and a green for two. Three legendary creature with some types, tokens. You control have tap add a green. So it's just a it's it's kind of like a, type effect, but just for your, your tokens. And it can work with creature tokens, but it can also work with these, with these artifact tokens. And it's honestly, in a lot of ways better with the non creature tokens, because creature tokens are summoning sick artifact. Oh, you all know your clues. Your future treasures are not, and it can very fuel that engine. It's nice for example, if you're creating a bunch of clues because clues of intent inherently mana intensive. But you can start tapping some of your clues. Fuck other clues, even if you have nothing else to do. If your mana, which is great for what I will if it also chooses a background that I've never. I've yet to see that that's not why we're playing. Isn't there a growl card that does something similar? I think they ran in power game for a while. Yes there is. I can't remember his name, but it does exist. It's also on screen now. It's a there nice. And then I was like, why do you think straight hanging out automaton is has been underplayed so far? Yes, I think probably a decent chunk of why it's been hasn't made it. For instance of cubes is I have not seen a lot of people with cubes just don't know that this card exists or what it does. It was first printed in Ether Trip commander. I imagine that many people just haven't read the card, and even if they have read it, they probably never played with Vex. I think a lot of people, certainly for me, the way new cards, a lot of ways new cards make it into our cubes is we play them that previously signed unlimited texts, and then we're like, oh, this card seems really powerful. Maybe I can make it work in cube when it comes out in some command. And follow up to that don't buys. You kind of don't have that experience, right? And I guess it's not, it's not a card, sort of tells you, on the face of it, where to put it, in the same way as, you know, some of the more like, obviously pigeonholes cards, which I think is a very positive thing for the cards, but it also means it's maybe not like an obvious call out for people when they're like, if if the card cares about, like, treasure and have it be might be like, oh, I have a treasured F in my food, I can buy my cube. I could put it in was, this is, it's a little bit more broad Chicago in a few different places. Maybe it's not like as obvious and includes for people, but I think it is worth a try. It off keeps. Yeah, yeah, I really like this card. I've been generally impressed by it. And it's just it's this one that kind of is going to get better as more things, incidentally, make tokens like, yeah, as you as you mentioned at the start of the like reviewing the card, I kind of like there's a mechanic like every other set that does it, but like they keep bringing back these mechanics that do it as well on like it's just a, it's just a lever they found to just kind of give a card an extra bit of juice. It's just like rather than like making it a manolis make it, make a token in some way. And like, especially after my tokens are just the most common. Like this card is just going to continue to get better and better, I think, as time goes on and yeah, hopefully it sees play in more cubes because it is it is a lot of fun. Yeah. No, it's cool, it's cool. The, create set specific artifact token is is a recurring theme and I don't think it's going anywhere. We got lambdas quite recently, as I've not seen tons of lambdas and cubes that I'm I'm sure that that. Oh, yeah. I quite like this, actually. Yeah. Sorry, I just forgot another card. This goes really hard with. And this is the first time I sold something. I don't really kill someone. The other card security on Squadron. I think that's kind of got played, like, more and more in, like, in, like, high powered cubes. There's one in a white for a two to vigilance. Whenever a creature token enters about and enters, would under control put a counter on it. But it has scored for three, so it's making an artifact token with it. These two combined kill players so quickly. Like that's really like a yeah, I think it's a good one. I think it's played in the Vintage Cube now. Yeah, because yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. But like this combined with the like like it's kind of like a it's a similar sort of effect. Basically it's like make some tokens go up because I like it. Yeah. Because like when you look at the squadron you kind of go the creature token part. That's a bit niche, maybe that's a bit narrow. And you might think the same thing with try hang automaton like the artifact token, it has to be. But like they just work. They work nicely and like, yeah, I've been very impressed by like by both of them individually, but both of them together kill people. Yes. No, no, that's a very powerful combination for sure. Really? Like this a automaton, if you haven't tried it in your cube and you think there's a place for it, I think give it a go. All right. My, my first card. James. It's from the Warhammer set. It's it's not selfish. No. It's not. Scoff at Lord, it's triumph of Saint Catherine. I think this card is awesome. I'll read it out. It's four and a white for a five. Five creature human warrior with lifelink and I. Haven't you read this out loud before Presidium Octavia? Let's go with that. Which is when Titus and Catherine dies. Exile eight and the top six cards of your library in a facedown pile. If you do shuffle that pile and put it back on the top of your library. But importantly, it has miracles for one and a white witch, which, as a reminder, as you may, cast this card for its miracle cost when you draw it, it it's the first card you draw. First card you drew this turn. So I really like this card. I think this is actually a super strong card that's very, very flexible. James, I, I know this has been in my queue for quite a while. How have you just like before, we kind of get into why I quite like. And I'm like, what's your initial thoughts on transits of Catherine? It reads quite powerful to me. I think you need the right set of cards. Right. In general, my approach with miracles has been I don't want it to actually be a miracle. You know, when I find that, but I really like the idea of, like, top setting this up for brainstorming and setting this up. I feel like five, five lifelink is just huge. It's, it's going to win any race if I don't answer it. And if I do answer it, it's gonna go back on top. Am I going to have the problem again then? And some number of turns? Yeah. I like big Lifelink because I like the idea of especially if you can set it up at instant speed, you know, that seems really, really good. You attack me, I activate sensei's divining top and put A55 lifelink into play. That seems. That seems kind of cracked. No idea. Yeah, it's definitely better when you can set it up. But what? What I've actually found from playing this clock is playing this card, because I think it's been in my cube since, like, this card was printed four years ago, which is kind of wild. I think it's been in my keeper that amount of time, and it's been in and out my cube a lot over that time. But like I found that this card, it threads that balance of like, this is actually fine in an aggro deck, but it's also really nice in a control deck that wants to stabilize. And that's a very powerful. But you don't normally get cards that are able to do both so efficiently because okay, let's talk about the aggro version. Like if you draw this in your opening hand okay. It's not great. It's five manner. That's not what we're about in an aggro deck, but you'll play it eventually. And then it does become this inevitable threat that yes, if they answer it, you're going to probably get it back. But where it really shines, obviously in the aggro version is the is the miracle cost. And like, yes, it is obviously better if we can set it up, but if it's not in your opening hand and you don't, and if you don't draw it on turn one, this effectively is a two magnify fight in your deck. And when you're aggressive, you're going to have the mana to play this at any point and play something else as well. I'm not saying it's the best that, but it is like, but I have seen it do a lot of work, like it can be quite scary when the aggro deck goes like one drop, two drop. Oh, try and have Saint Catherine another one drop. That is quite terrifying. Like like like like like like your opponents are going to struggle to kind of deal with your board one for one removal. But then when you're putting down A55, it's like out of the range of burn, like, like this is not as good as like, like the classic like four and five, like drop win conditions for an aggro deck, like, like parallax wave or like some of the Guardians and stuff. But it will do the job. It will come down and kill your opponents. And but then the fact that in the control decks, this is the perfect thing to draw against the aggro deck as well, because it is a big beefy creature that could be two manner and the lifelink will stabilize you. It's like it comes down, it protects you, it protects your life. Title it, but you up and then if your opponent is able to answer it, say you. They have a white black deck and they have that removal. Or like worst case scenario, they have 2.2 bits of burn at it to get it out the way, because the lifelink is really going to change the clock. Like it, it can come back in 1 to 7 turns. And if you have cards, say you're that control deck that's like white blue you're just going to be digging for. If you brainstorm, you just dig for it, set it up so that you can miracle it in and do other things as well. Like, I've just been very impressed by this card. Like, it plays a lot better, I think, than it might read. Yeah, no, I can definitely see that. I guess my caution about it and an accurate deck, because I really don't want to be paying five mana for this fight like colossal is not really a card. We're allowed to find cube decks and, I'm with aggro decks. Specifically, I'm cautious about card including cards that I don't want to see in my opening hand. And the reason for that is if I'm playing in aggro deck, I want to be ending the game quickly. If I'm trying to end the game quickly, then my opening hand is actually a larger proportion of the cards I'm going to see throughout the game, right? Like if I'm trying to play and like play a five 5 or 610 game, then my opening seven is actually the majority of the cards I'm going to see if I'm not trying extra cards, I'm just drawing and I want a ten. And I kind of want to just be drawing on a sand with. That's right. Because if I draw it as my second card for a ten, then I'm like, again, I'm in a bad spot. I do really like the idea of an inner control deck where I can, and especially one where I can manipulate the top of my library. Right. And I think you, you want to be thinking about this card a little bit in your control deck when you're deciding what control to play as well like, because some of them allow you to set this up and some don't like, for example, even thinking about like just your cantrip chips, like a cantrip like consider, for example, doesn't actually let you set this up, right? Because you, if you cast your consider on your turn and you see this. Well, I've already drawn the card for a turn, and if I leave it on top, I'm going to draw into it and it's going to be my second card. And it's not going to work. So you might want to be thinking about how you sequence your spells, right? Like if I consider on that sense that it does work. Sometimes it's like sleight of hand, for example. Just straight up doesn't work for this card. Fix it doesn't for you. The card, it puts the card into your hand, but some you do want something like, preordained, for example. Phenomenal. Because if you see it on top in, they've already drawn a card for a turn, you leave it on top, but they have a card above it between two and stop your next and you get your two mana. Five, five lifelink great stuff. So I think, yeah, it does have a bit of a build around element that I have. Just making sure you have, the lights, the right sort of card selection to actually set this up. Yeah, yeah. No, I definitely yeah, yeah, I do think it is stronger in the. Yeah. So, so I guess in terms of when I'm talking about it in terms of like aggro and control in my kind of head, it's like in the control deck, it's probably like the top, like ten cards potentially you would think of running. Whereas in the aggro deck it's like closer to like the 28th card. But I still think it's fine that it will still get in your deck if it if you're if you say you're in, say in a draft, your first couple of picks are like path to exile, maybe like a, like a white fetch landing. You're kind of not really sure if you're going to going down the aggro version yet or the control version yet. I try to have some caffeine comes around and it's kind of like you, you know, you're in white, you're you're fighting to take it because it will find a place into your deck. But yes, it will be better in the control version, but I still think it gets in, in the aggravation. I think as well as like for me, like something that that will come up a number of times in kind of the, in the cards I talk about today anyway, is like this has quite good like I think this kind of threads the line with miracle of like this has quite good story equity. It's not like some of the other miracle cards. It just kind of like though the game ends when you happen to draw it off the top. This is kind of like your opponent can still answer it. It's not for me that this is like one of the fairest, coolest versions of miracle we've seen. And like when this is played out, I think it's been fun and interesting and it's good story equity compared to some of the other like, like things like terminus or like Intrigue the angels or like Temple Match, but they can feel pretty bad if you miracle them. This is strong, but it doesn't feel like I've just cheated my opponent out. The game of that kind of makes sense when I play this. Yeah, that's true, that's true, and that's reflected, I think, in the ways we're trying to set it up. Like I'm generally not looking to sort of imperial seal in my deck to try and try and set this up. I it's more of a fair amount of cool payoff. Yeah, yeah I agree. Okay. So I've enjoyed how this card has played. I think it's been been pretty good in my, unpowered vintage cube. And I would probably, if I was doing anything with top of the deck matters as well. I think it's definitely a card you should consider as well. In terms of why I think this is underplayed, I think this would have seen this would have seen play in the Mega Vintage Cube if the Warhammer cards had been printed on that go when it came out. I think that's a big reason why people aren't really aware of this card as much, because like the Warhammer cards haven't been reprinted, there's like a treasure trove of awesomeness in there and kind of like I've kind of rattled my saber about a bunch of them. And and this is another one I think is a very strong card. It is like, unlike some of the Warhammer cards, this one's still pretty cheap. This one is only around $4. At time of recording. Anyway, and if you're looking for something a bit more interesting. And what if you're looking for something that isn't just your generic oh, here's my two drop with three power and I hate bear effect, or here's my five drop that flies with a bit of value. I think this is an interesting choice. And like, I again like all the cards today. I recommend you at least consider testing it in your cube. Dear listener. Yeah for sure. I think it's cool. One all right, James, moving on to your second choice. What have we got today? Yeah. So next one I've gone for is party Thrasher. This is one a red for a one for lizard. Wizard love fat. Oh, that's sweet to touch. Okay. Yeah. It says a non creature spells. You cast from exile have convoke, which is a weird line of text on its own. How are we casting spells from exile? Wow. The second ability is at the beginning of your pre combat main phase. You may discard a card if you do exile. The top two cards of your life, then choose one of them. You may play that card this turn. So I think this is, this is a cool little value generating two drop, so I quite like it when that has some creatures that aren't just being aggressive and. This, I think, does exactly what you want for that in a lot of cubes. It does a lot to get the event card advantages stuff going. It's, let's see. It's a great discard out lots of, the discard matter stack, and lets you actually play a longer game with that deck, which I think is quite cool. On its own, it's offering very solid card selection. Right. It's, it's not quite the same thing as, like, Pluto and Blue, but it's, it it's doing a lot of the same things for your deck. It helps you land up, so helps you find, find action later. And it's in a lot of ways it's more powerful selection than just a straight up looter, right. Because a looter is discard one for one. This is discard one. Two. All the best of the top two. On top of that, it's also giving you the potential to cheat on mana with spells. If and even if you don't have a white board, right. This can tap tap, basically tap mana to cast those spells, which is great. But if you have a decent pot, you can actually do some, some quite explosive stuff with this. And then it's not like you're just getting that that potential with the cards. You dwarf this, right? So much of red cards for this point involves exiling cards from your deck and giving you the ability to cast them, and that's just how vegetables cards at this point, basically, it feels like it's like that's just what they've done for the last like 2 or 3 years. Like, like we we've, we've we've kind of completely come away from like the full, like rummage effect, like we're not discarding to draw. We're discarding and discarding and exiling. Now that's kind of just the culmination. And it's it's been pretty good. Basically. It's been good. Exactly. Yeah. I lost those cards that work. Right. And, this giving you the potential to cheat on mana. Finding on creatures you draw that way is is really powerful. And Shaw asks you to be, like, maybe slightly less creature dance, but I wouldn't view it as a build around in this sense. It's not like you have to have, you know, five creatures in your dives. Maximize this card because you can still cast creatures off at you. Yeah, just for maximizing that, that mana cheating potential. You, I agree. Is it like a card that kind of goes with something like a young pyromancer effect? Like a card? Like, is your creature's token makers? Is that spicy or how are you feeling? That can certainly go pretty hard. Yeah, if you have that whiteboard to, to help you discard that discount further spells that can be very good. And there's that's one of the things I like that because this sort of a lot of different ways you can like to maximize it. You can also look to maximize that that discards out that part. Right. Like a card. This combines really well with in a variety of ways. This is Inti Santa a of the sun. His farts. The discard off this will trigger venti. And then the cards you act, the cards you exile with the NT. You can then discount with this card's maneuverability to those two cards meshed together really, really nicely. I think this. Bay lives in a lot of different homes. I think this card can also just be great. And like, your just guy control that. It's just providing you selection. It's a really solid blocker. One of two really nice stats. I really like that part of it actually. I like the fact that because like, not all red decks want to be aggressive. And I like the fact that this is a card that has four toughness that we can that that we can play and read like that. So many decks actively want that. It's just finding room for it. And cube has been quite tricky recently. So yeah, I really like that part of this card. Exactly. Yeah. I think it's like I'd imagine massively. So it's a one for oh set. Would that be. Oh modern horizons four. Look at. Yeah I think around. Nice. Yeah yeah I yeah I do like this card. I think it's been yeah. And similar to what similar to straight hanger automaton. It is one that will continue to get better as they continue to print more. Cause they care about that. I'm calling cosmetic because I'm like, I'm just going through my read section in like my main card. And just like that specific line in the text, like the discard a card. And then what they works with is it's just what Red is doing. Like it's so many cubes, like, like, yes, I know every cube will have a blazing root wallet, but mine does like that, like Dragon Rage Channeler. It's synergize with that because it would help with delirium. It helps with, like, the marauding Meiko style of cards because we're discarding stuff to put counters on it. It works with. Like as you mentioned, it works with Avira. It works with Hobgoblin, mantled marauder, it we can discard our Angie's Ravager or detective minion or detective. It's like. It's like half my red section. Synergize nicely with this card. But then the fact that it also can go in this, like like like the fact that this also has probably play in like a, in like a slower spells, like a deck that like I found has struggled and accused because it's not a, it's not the fastest deck. And like this being a one for I think is actually phenomenal because it will keep you alive against the other. I guess it lets you like you can play this, you can play the what's the like? Is it awakened horror or what's the like? Oh no, this is like thing in the eyes. They kind of do a similar role around, like, they kind of like a value thing that kind of like, can hold down the board a little bit. I really quite like it. I think it's a very cool card. And then it's kind of like, what? Like this is a modern Horizon's three card. So, you know, it's going to be good in cube. That's what we've learned. But like what type of cube and what power level of cube do you think this card would shine in? So I think if you, at high power level cube, I would probably only include face if you were really pushing the discard matter thing. Yeah. But if you're more of a power level cube, I think this is going to be great and just the most read decks and is probably pretty nice include. But if it'll be at the spot where it does a lot of cool, synergistic things, and if you're energizing with it, it's like one of the better cards in your deck. But it will be playable and pretty much after that deck. And that's quite a nice place to be. And then James, I guess, like it's an awesome card, but it's made it to it's made it to our underrated cube cards list. I guess the question is, why do you think it's underplayed or underrated? Yes, I think a big part of this was it came out in Modern Horizons three. Yes. And there were so many busted cards in Modern Horizons. Three did we did we talk about it? We did, we did so many. Man, I blocked it out. It was never doing that blank check around us. But I think because there were so many cards that were like, yo, are still some of the best cards in like Powered Cube and that set the cards that were more in the interesting ball player space, kind of just got pushed under the table, and no one has ever looked back at them. No, I agree, yeah. Yeah, there was I think we did I think we did a phenomenal job in covering all the, the older like the higher powered cards but like yeah, some like some of the more interesting synergy ones. We had to kind of leave at home. But yeah, I think it's an awesome card. And yeah, I'm glad we got to give it a bit of time in the sun today. All right, let's move on to my second card. We're going back in time a bit for mine. I want to talk today about pandemonium. I'm going to get the errata up just to make sure that we, this card is from Exodus. Love that. Pandemonium is three and a read for an enchantment that says whenever a creature enters that creature's control and may have it deal damage equal to its power to any target of their choice. So I really like this card. So personally, I run this in my old board at cube, and that's where it has seen a decent amount of play because it is sort of a weird combo card. There's some very fun stuff that you can do this that we'll kind of get into, but like, I think this could see play in like any kind of like mid or budget powered cube like like that. There's a reprint from a few years ago that's like, that's like $2 or like $0.50 actually, if you want like a list version, this is a very interesting card with very interesting effects like go, go, go with me on this journey. James. To me this is like the Red Dream Halls. It's this kind of like weird build around. So importantly, it is symmetrical. It's whenever we play something or our opponent play something as well. And basically it turns every creature into like a flamed on kazoo that can go to face or can go to Plains Walker's like, if you like. It's very much a build around. And yes, it is the slam dunk do nothing enchantment does nothing by itself. But if you can follow it up with some cool spells, I think it's very, very strong. Like like like I've got some cool examples of going to go over, but like James, I'm like initially kind of like, have you played with this card? Have you seen it do its thing at all? I have actually the main face. I have seen this card pop up is in Pre-modern. Yes. Yeah. Wow. There's some nonsense stack where you replenish, but when con, there's this plus, plant. Is it sapling burst. That was going to be the one I was going to talk. Oh, one of the ones I was going to talk about at sapling last session. I was looking at it now and trying to work out how it actually. Okay, so I think it's Opal that you have if you have this opalescent center with a bunch of enchantments and they have French armaments, I'll knock them. Then they die. Yeah. So the pandemonium and their presence become creatures as they all ended with replenish. Because replenish is like a return. All enchantments from graveyard to play style of effect. And then they're all creatures. Because my plants. And so you just ping them out in one go. That's really funny. And that's one of the cool thing about this card, is how we're killing our opponents. There's a bunch of different ways, so take it. That one's really funny. Like, sapling. Best I mentioned is the interaction I have in my old water cube. It's four in a green. And again, I'm going to read the Arata version. It's fauna green for, for enchantment Fading seven so enters with seven counters on it at the beginning of your upkeep from of a and from it. If you can't sacrifice it, it's fading. Not vanishing. It has the abilities. Remove a fade counter from this enchantment to create the green sapling, which token it has. This tokens power toughness are equal to the number of fade counters on sapling burst, and then when the shaman leaves about to destroy all tokens created with this enchantment, they can't be regenerated. So if we have pandemonium and sapling burst in play, we win the game because we remove one counter to make a six power creature. We make a five power creature, a four power creature, a three power creature, a two power creature. And that's 20 damage. And we just throw it face at our opponent. That's really fun. But like, that is a that is one for an old bordered cube and or a low power to you because you are playing a four man enchantment into a five manner enchantment. The five mana one at least does make creatures, so it's not do nothing. I will argue that at least. But like for all power cubes, I think that's a really a bit up for all the cubes. That is a really fun two combo that you just don't get the item sapling buster. That's also some fun things with like there's other ways of winning with it as well. Like an older dementia, you can melt your permanent. That's really fun. But like, if we kind of step away from old board and think about what pandemonium can do in like other cubes, that's that's going to run any cause I think it gets really funny because like, flash becomes, like put something massive into play, kill your opponent's best thing or go to face like, flashing in the world spine worm 15 them. That seems fun. You have evoke and pitch elementals. They seem good. You have warp like basically cheap ways of reducing like the cost of things coming into play is really good with a card like pandemonium. So like anything that lets you treat things as like so you also have like, big cards with built in cost of dungeon things like ancient Stone idol. That's the one that gets cheaper. I think it's a 1212. It gets cheaper to cast for every creature attacking you. So that can be like 4 or 5 mana. Again, you can 12. Your opponent love that. You also have things like goal to primal hunger that's cheaper if your power, is cheaper based on the power you control or doing this. This is a card. You can do stuff with cheap wages with high power. So things like friction dreadnought one mana again to 12. Your opponent. Like, when I see this card, I'm going face. But it does have the fun back and forth of you can just start flying to uncovering your opponent stuff that's also quite good. There's also stuff you can do with creatures that can buff up their power as they come into play, because it is a, triggered ability. So, this with friction devour is also a one card or a two card combo in our board of cubes. Fighting devours the very weird card that you can exalt, causing the two of your lively to buff up its power. When it's above seven, you suck it, but you can keep responding to that and stuff. And like effectively, if the cmk of your deck is more than your opponent's like total, you can throw this at your opponent. That's very fun. Or it also has interactions with like things like big creatures, like they're coming back with stun counters on them. So does something like bail off Prime. It's a big creature that's cheap, that comes in with stun counters again, where throwing damage around with pandemonium basically kind of what I'm saying is the shell, the dex, the shell on the deck. This works with this basically kind of like a you're playing bigger stuff than your opponent and like, this is almost like a damage doubler, but it's more interesting and more fun. The some other things I'm gonna talk about. But but before I do kind of. James, what do you think about those things I've mentioned? Like, do you think like, how does any of that stuff with pandemonium sound to you? Yeah, I really like this card. For a few reasons. Firstly, I think it's really cool having lesser known combos in your cube, because I think one of the most fun things to do in cube is when you're working out a combo you would never seen before, and trying to make that work. I remember seeing, enjoying when You Will and all the softer cubes, and I'd never read the card before, just trying to like, work out all the dumb things you could do with and showing when you're. I think that's a really fun experience fight. And it's not one you get in many other formats. Like most of the time when we play combo, it's like very oh yeah, we just like put these two cards in and then we win. But you don't actually have to like, work out for the context of how it all works. And, I think it's cool when you get a card like this and it's like, oh, I've never seen this card before. How can I maximize that? I think that's great. So it's good. Yeah. It's good. Nice. Just have that variety in the combo. And I think the combos are a nice power level for like a sort of mid to low power level cube wave. I think one thing I've noticed a lot of people do a vacuum design is when they go lower in power level, they assume that has to mean far and it doesn't. You can have you can have combo decks in those cubes. I just look at that different and that that's cost the backbone mana. But I think the combos this works with at a nice power level. And they have a lot of ways to interact, like they tend to be. You're not doing the whole combo in one turn, like you generally need to untap with one of these. That's ways you can interact with that. Also this halfling, first one, I think it's kind of fun that it feels 21. So if you can gain a little bit of life like, you know, yo yo sapling best combo probably hasn't got in from that standard. So you can get around it that way too and try and live through it. Yeah, I think that's a really cool one. I like it a lot. Yeah, I do like pandemonium and like, like, I think one of the reason. So like when I've played it in my cubes, I it again, it's, it's another one that kind of can lead to good stories and lead to really fun gameplay because yeah, it it's a combo card. Also fun card that can backfire if your opponent like like if your opponent has big creatures too. Like like kind of like the fair way of doing this is just kind of like you're just flames on carving each other's creatures. But as soon as you start going face, it's really quite it gets really quite silly. And like, I think that might be one of the reasons why I hadn't seen play as well. Because, like, it is an old card, it's symmetrical and like like a card like Wolf. War storm surge exists, which is the same effect, but it's not symmetrical. It's just your creatures. But it's six manner. What I would argue is kind of like the six month apart from a do nothing enchantment really does limit the amount of cubes it can go into. This being four mana means that if you play, if you put it in a deck, you're actually going to be able to play it and then do the fun things afterwards. With War Sam's Edge, it kind of comes out a bit too late. It's too slow. You have less time to do the fun thing. In fact, kind of make sense. This card again will lead to very cool games that people will remember. I think that's very important. Yeah, for sure. I think it's one of those cards, right, where a lot of the reason you put it in your deck is probably for a combo, but then once it is in your deck, you'll have some very interesting non combo applications of it. You know. Yeah, 100%. And who doesn't like just throwing around damage. It's a lot of fun. All right James, we have one more card for you and one more card for me. Let's take it away. Talk talk to me about your last card of the day. Yeah. For sure. The last one I've gone for is Gilda Drake. I love this one. This is one. The blue for a free three summon Drake, has flying. And when Gilda Drake comes into play, exchange control of Gilda Drake for target creature, one of your opponent's controls or sacrifice. Gilda Drake. This card, I think, is really cool, actually, I think this does some pretty interesting things for blue and higher power level cubes. I think, obviously blue is a very strong color and ice cubes, but one big weakness it does have is fit. It just doesn't get bamboozle. And the bounce spells it gets instead just some really good substitute. And as high power level cubes have become more and more focused and they have a soft lasts for 5 or 10 years fairly of magic. That has become the progressively bigger and bigger issue for, for blue decks. But not save a blue isn't salvation color. But but the fact that is probably the biggest weakness it has, and Gilda trait can really flip that dynamic because, on the base of it, right. You're you're giving your opponent a free, free flier, in exchange for mind controlling that best creature on the for two mana on the base of it. That's not a great deal, because A33, five is a very big threat. And, yeah, evasion means that they're probably still getting in for damage unless you've got something huge from them. That's, If they're already beaten down with several creatures, you might be in trouble. Right? But it it but it can be a powerful effect because the creatures are just so good now, right? The, the four and five mana creatures you get in these, high power level cubes are so impactful that, if you're getting a five sharp, you may well not care about giving them the fifth flier. But you can. If you build around this card in the right way, you can really abuse that and really break that dynamic where you don't have to be taking a five sharp. You can be taking a two draft and be happy about it because, yeah, how we do it. So the thing blue gets instead of removal in these cubes, right, is it gets bounced spells. And this card is kind of absurd with bounce spells because you play the trick, you switch it. With our best creatures, you have mind control, their best creature for two mana. And if you bounce for trick, you then still keep for best creature and you can do the same thing for their next creature. And that's very, very powerful. And these are not such powerful synergies. It's not asking you to put bad cards in your deck to enable this fight. We have a bunch of really powerful bounce making things like insights, fairy time traveler plays, and power, bits. These are just cards that are in our tax anyway because we want in our in our blue control tax regardless. And this just accelerates that so much. I am yeah, I'm a pretty big proponent of this in Power Cube. I've had it in my power tube for a while. I think it's really cool. It plays really well, like it's not one you're going to put in that blue deck, because if you don't have any of those bounce effects, it's fine, but it's not amazing. I would tend to sideboard it in those in those spots and just bring it in for, the matchups where they have big, expensive creatures that that is worth me gilded Tray King but if I have a few of those bounce effects, I think it's, it's very, very powerful. Yeah. No, I agree, I think kind of like. Like what? When this was originally printed, that was very much like the, the drawback was that this was probably the best creature in play, but two mana for A33 flier, you can't beat that in this block. And yeah, I like like it's it's one it's a card that most people will just know from being a, a expensive commander card that no one actually owns. But yeah, it is a yeah, it is an awesome card. I'm like, yeah, I really like like the interactions that you talked about, like the just being able to like slowly steal the whole board is really fun. Like, like like are there any repeatable ways like, like is there a way of just like this and another effect that just lets you just steal their whole board? Like like it's like teleportation circle. Is that a card? Kind of like that. Just like that. Us actually bounce a quick to every turn. Are they are there better versions of that? James, would you say, so there are obviously repeatable bounce effects you could employ. I would argue that in high power level cubes, those cards are too clunky and you kind of don't need to do it repeatedly, you know, because because you're getting such an outsized effect from the first. Like I would say, if you do this once or twice, you're you're far enough ahead that you will win the game with the creatures you've stolen. You know? So I would more just be looking for my. Yeah. Like my present bio is my top five is things like, cryptic command, like. Yeah, Mystic confluence. It's like if a spell bomb. If a spell bomb is a card, you come the Kevin void cubes, which is cool. So that's a way to do it repeatedly. I would not be thinking about this as, oh, I'm going to get this repeatable bounce effects into my cube in order to make Gilda Drake better. I would think of Gilda Drake as I want to combine this with the already good bounce effects that are already in my cube now. That's cool. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But there's yeah, there's a lot of good ones. Like we've got actually some good ones recently, things like Sync and Supers really, really great with this. And that's like a very free card to include in your deck. Similar with Oh, to. Wow, that's a very nice one. No that's one. No I said yeah, yeah. It kind of tracks I kind of like. It's the incidental bounce that's already in the queue. It just gets better with them I think. Yeah. Rather than having this in like a blink strategy, although it probably would be quite good in the blink deck but like but like in a high powered cube anyway, there's enough for it to already be run. And and the reality is this is going to be a card for higher power cubes just because unless you're proxying it the price, it would be quite prohibitory. I guess. And then if you're proxying it, you're probably proxying a bunch of high power stuff already. Yeah for sure, for sure. For the price is, I wouldn't, advocate I think this card costs like $250 or something while. Yeah, yeah, I've been an advocate for people going out and buying a gilded Drake if they don't own one to play that cubes necessarily. But, foxing exists, works. Well, the the one in my cube I drew James dice. Yeah, but yeah, yeah, yeah I do. We like this card I think. Yeah. It's it's one that I've seen. You do a lot of work with when you were playing a bunch of them, they give me two scoops of. That's a lot. Yeah. Very cool card. All right, I've got one more card to talk about today. It's another card that I have played a fair bit recently. It's just led to a lot of really cool games, and it's jinxed. Idle. This is two generic mana for an artifact that says at the beginning of your upkeep, jinxed idle deals two damage to you, and you can sacrifice creature to target opponent. Gain control of jinxed. Idle. Jinxed idle. So in terms of power level, let's just start by saying I don't think this is probably one of the highest power level cubes, but if you have like a mid powered cube or a budget cube where games can go a bit longer and then who has control of this becomes more important and you kind of a bit more of a game of it, then this is a really fun card. Like, importantly, this is a free sacrifice outlet. You don't have to pay mana for it. So like it does cross that threshold of like it's a sack outlet we can run in our cube. If only you can respond to that trigger as well. So you can sacrifice multiple things in a row. It does do the thing of like, when we did our episode on On Aristocrats recently, the important part was being able to sack all our board in one go at one time for free. This does cross that threshold. It does do that, which is important. But where this gets interesting is the effectively is adding a sub game to the game. Like it's kind of like the initiative or the monarchy, but without being broken. Like I've had some really fun games with this where it kind of becomes where you are fighting over who has the jinx, because that's how you're dying. Before I kind of go into some more kind of things. So we've got like, like, have you played this card games? And if so, what do you think about jinx idle yeah, I think this cards pretty cool. I think the only time I played with it was included in, a good friend of a podcast, Firefox, Peasant Cube, despite being an M11 Viper. But, you know, we'll worry about that later. I think, to be fair, the version he had was from Tempest, which doesn't put the rarity on the card. Okay. Fair enough. Like that. Tempest was like everything, but everything, but like a common. So not. Well, okay. Fair, reasonable. But now I think the cards very, very cool. I like the, it's that thing of early in the game. It feels like, perfectly valid. Well, I'll take my two a ten, and then you get down to the stage where both players are really, really down in life and this becomes really sweaty. And yeah, just trying to, like Top Deck feature to give them that stupid jigsaw title. Now I think the cycle card, it's, it does need to be at a fairly low power level cube because you kind of need for two or tend to be better than some of the threats, you know, like in a higher power level cube, the creatures are also powerful. But it doesn't matter if you're taking to a ten that much. But I think in like, a lower power level cube. This is really cool. I like for gameplay as a very good, like, sweaty aspect to it, which I think is great. Yeah, like some of the games I've played with this, I just like they can be they can be both fun and frustrating at the same time, where basically like like you're like, you're just trying. I've been in the ball situation where you're trying to work out like, what is what am I doing? Should I be blocking and trading? Should I be blocking and sacking before damage other but otherwise I'll die on my upkeep to the idol. That kind of stuff. Like it just adds an extra level to a game on top of just being a card that, like Dex, can run a lot. Like, like I do think for this to get into a cube, you do want you do need to care about the free sacrifice. It's not just a card you can just throw in two. Just like, oh, I have a creature heavy deck. Here is a win going for it. It's not that we're putting it in a cube because we are doing something with aristocrats. We are caring about the sacrifice outlook, but we want to run this over something generic, if that makes sense. Like like this is like a more interesting option that can be quite fun. Like, like, like Aristocats is the best. But like, if you have tokens, like if you're going way with creatures, that can also be an interesting way of winning with it. Like also if like life gain is in your cube, then that can be a nice way of kind of like if you can just stay above your opponent like like like like oddly like, blood artist. Fantastic with this card because you're just always going to end up slightly like, unless you have to sacrifice the blood artist because you want so low life, generally you're going to be staying above the like it's a, yeah, kind of like pandemonium. It's a, it's a symmetrical effect that you're just trying to break the symmetry on. And blood art is just fantastic. Double just keeping you above the life, running out of you. Yeah. So I think it's a really cool one. So it made it into our underplayed cube cards list. What, what? Why do you think this one doesn't show up the more cubes? My gut is because it's weird and old. Yeah, if I'm honest with you. Like, I it was originally. Yeah. As you mentioned, it was originally printed in Tempest in 97, and then it was last reprinted in To Magic to 2011. So it this is a card I kind of like, like I think, Josh was correct to put it in his peasant game because this is peasant power level. This was printed nowadays. It would be, it would be an uncommon in a command deck, maybe not as high. The limited environment where this is an uncommon seems kind of funny. That sounds great on any of these. That shoot this in multiples in a cube sounds kind of hard, but like, I think as well in terms of why I haven't seen as much as like it's because like aristocrats as well hasn't has gone to as we touched on in our episode on, it has kind of fallen out of favor in high powered level cubes. So there's there's less eyes on it. But like if you're doing aristocrats in like a mid powered cube, especially if you're in like 540 where you have room, let's be honest, you have room for this card in your 540 cube. Don't lie to me. It's it's two generic mana. It can go in like like especially if you're doing aristocrats in different colors. So like, I this has been, this was in my, in my main queue for quite a while when I was doing aristocrats in Mordo and also possessed combos in like, absinthe because that's four colors that want sacrifice outlets. This being a colorless option means that it's one that those cubes can play on card, so that's actually a good use case of this card. What I'm saying is, like, I think you'd like it being colorless will mean that any of those decks can run it on card, which is quite nice. And then on top of that, you get this cool subgame that just like not enough cards, I think give us in an interesting way nowadays. Yeah for sure. I kind of think if your cube is at a parallel level where people will actually put this card in your deck, then it's kind of just good to include because the gameplay is so fun. Yeah, I completely agree. The more of those kind of interesting cards, I think you can get into a cube, the better it will be for the more fun you'll have, like the, the more fun you'll have and the more stories you'll be able. Like this is like you'll remember the games with jinx title is what I'm saying. Like like because they just play so differently. Like it's magic, but it's it's a bit spicy, it's a bit different. And I think that's a lot of fun. Like, for what it's worth, I'm just looking. It will be in my mono red desert cube where I think it's perfect. So that seems like a lot of fun. I've got a cube idea for jinx sidle cube. Every every game starts and both players have a drink, settle and play. So. Ooh. So it's standing for damage. Ooh. Someone gets okay. That's hot. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I think we can do that. I think we can do that. That's not game. This will not go on very long. I think you can draft this to then like an hour and play three rounds. Yeah, I don't know. I think it's eight players. Best of one. And I'm gonna hit the whole thing with like 30 minutes. Be perfect. You do it in between rounds, add another cube event. Perfect. I love that. Cool. Right. That's I think where we're going to leave it for today. James. Pleasure. Those were some banger magic cards. And hopefully the listener you've got some ideas for for some spice to add to your cubes. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Oh, it's always good to chat about cube cards. Be like, yeah, these are my favorite episodes where we just get to get to have a chat about cards. We. Yeah, about cool magic cards because we are magic players. At the end of the day, that's kind of all we really like doing. Nice. All right, but James plays man. Yeah, yeah, that was a lot of fun. Thank you very much. Yeah. Oh his pleasure. All right. Just leads me to thank you all very much for listening. Do make sure you like, share, subscribe. All that good stuff you've been listening to. Powerful. Nothing. And until next week, it's goodbye for me. It's goodbye from James. And we'll see you all soon. Goodbye.