The Hobbit Cube Review: Individual Cards for Cube

Ryan Overturf concludes his first impressions Cube review of The Hobbit, going over individual appealing cards for Cube! 

Transcript

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What's up, gamers? Welcome back to 180MTG. My name is Ryan Overturf, and today is part two with the conclusion of my Cube review for the Hobbit. So today looking at a bunch of individual cards on their individual merit for Cube. Last week I talked about the new mechanics and themes. Talked about, of course, stuff like recruit stuff appearing for the first time in the Hobbit, but I did also talk about all the noteworthy adventure cards as I saw it last week. So going deep into the mechanics featured in the set, it's gonna be stuff last week. This week, more individual cards, as per my usual breakdown. So I'm gonna go in Woberg order. Uh reminder that I'm gonna be talking about stuff like Steambox cards and those previews for the Battle of Five Armies released that you can get in collector boosters for the Hobbit. But anyway, in Wuburg Order, let's talk about some noteworthy individual cards from the Hobbit 4 cube, starting in white, starting with Bilbo's Gambit. One and a white for an instant has gift a treasure, so you may promise an opponent a gift. I love that that's in the reminder text. You can promise a gift as you cast this spell. If you do, they create a treasure token before its other effects, it's an artifact with you know what a treasure token is. And then you return target spell to its owner's hand. If the gift was promise, players can't cast spells this turn. So the only reason I'm talking about Bilbo's Gambit is because this is a card that's gotten a bit of attention during preview season. A lot of comparisons made to reprieve. That's the remand, the white remand. You uh wanted a white return a spell to its owner's hand, and you draw a card. That is a tempo positive card that is also card neutral. Your opponent keeps the card, but it's in their hand, so you gain some mana advantage that way, and you draw a card so you're not down anything. Bilbo's Gambit, you are down a card. This is in the unsubstantiate category. Unsubstantiate was another card that got a lot of buzz during preview season back in Eldrich Moon, I think that's where Unsubstantiate's from. And that card has fallen pretty flat because that card draw on repeat, that's really what makes the card. That's always what made remand playable. Yes, the tempo positive aspect, if you bounce a big spell, certainly a game ender, maybe you can break up a combo turn with Bilbo's Gambit, but going down a card to do that in most games, in normal games, that's pretty bad. And in high-powered environments where there are those big combo decks, card economy remains important. And this card is just not that strong against those decks, even though there are going to be windows where it is exactly what you want. There are way more games where this is just not worth a card. So Bilbo's Gambit, I'm very cold on for any cubes at lower power levels, just because even there, like it just doesn't make sense. There's not games where you're really gonna want this at higher power levels because you would rather have a more powerful card. And then there's also a little bit of a discussion to be had about claws about players can't cast spells this turn. So you could might think, oh, it's like a silence effect, but it's not a silence effect in the proactive sense, because it's not just your opponent that can't cast spells, you also can't cast spells. So you can't use this to set up your own combo. So I didn't want to talk about Bilbo's Gambit specifically because I see it as a very low value cube card, and one I expect to find a successful home in very few environments. So I'm very cold on Bilbo's Gambit. Next up is a card that I actually really, really like. This is Rhodes Go Ever, Ever On. It's a saga for one and a white, it has four chapters. Chapter one, search your library for up to two basic planes cards, exile them, then shuffle, you gain two life. Chapters two and three are both put a card exile with this saga into its owner's hand. So functionally, over the course of the next two turns after you're playing, roads go ever ever on, you are drawing a first and then a second basic planes, and then of course that makes it easier to make your land drops, but also it's extra cards in your hand, that that can matter as well. And then chapter four, whenever you attack this turn, target creature you control gets plus one plus one till under turn for each plane you control. If you're in a mono white space, that chapter four certainly a more aggressively slanted deck, you can take advantage of that, but then also a two-mana effect to go find a couple land drops. That's not necessarily the kind of card you're going to put in a strictly aggressive deck. I see Rhodes Go Ever Ever On as kind of this modest, mid-rangey card for a white deck just to get those two land drops. This is a two-mana divination of sorts. It does draw exactly two planes, but you gain two life and you get to make your land drop over the course of the next couple turns without having to worry about that. And I think that that is a pretty solid effect in any kind of environment where you're just trying to play a lot of turns of magic. Making your land drop every turn is great. If you have any kind of looting, any kind of effect that can deal with these extra lands, that's going to be meaningful that you have extra cards. You know, this is card advantage, even though you were only finding basic planes. And chapter 4, I just don't really see this being that significant on the card, but it's there, it's upside. You do get a couple turns to set chapter 4 up, maybe you cast a lingering souls in the interim that could apply some pressure to your opponent's life total, and also make them think twice about casting a planeswalker. I mostly see Rhodes Go Ever Ever On as a modest value card that really speaks to old magic to me, but I think it can hang in a lot of modern cubes. I think especially if you have any kind of enchantment theme. Maybe you're playing in a space where saga's historic cards matter as there's synergies to explore here, and rolling up a couple land drops, that's pretty meaningful in any game that's going to last six or more turns. So Rhodes Go Ever Ever On does stand out as one of the cards from the Hobbit that I am most personally interested in cuping with. I do like this design a lot. Which brings us to the Eagles Are Coming! Exclamation point. One and a white for an instant with kicker of two white white. Choose target creature you own. If this spell was kicked, instead, choose any number of target creatures you own. Return each chosen creature to your hand. At the beginning of the next upkeep, create a four-four white bird, soldier creature token with flying for each creature returned to your hand this way. So you get that delay there. This is kind of a rescue effect. You return a creature you own to your hand, you get a 4-4, but not immediately. So you can't just uh play the Eagles are coming as a surprise blocker. That's not how it works. It does insulate you from sweeper effects, it's pretty meaningful there. You do end up with a possibility to upgrade a lot of creatures. Certainly, if you kick this, if you're making smaller tokens, you can turn an army of little creatures into 4-4 flyers, so it can be a game ender there. A lot of utility here is does play in the space where you do have to expose yourself to removal a little bit, though the uh the kicker effect will get around most spot removal effects, uh, presuming that you have multiple creatures that you want to return here. Something that stands out to me that I didn't actually notice until recording just now is the creature you own, not a creature you control. So this can be really effective against control magic effects, and not just in response. If your opponent just has been controlling one of your creatures, you can use the eagles or are coming to get it back. I think that this is not quite up to snuff for very high power environments, but at a 540-card cube, a legacy, or maybe even a vintage space, you could put this one in. I think that just the stats here, how much power and toughness you get here, this can just be a game-ending blowout. And so it's one that doesn't really speak to me in terms of the kind of cube games that I enjoy, but the texture of all the digital cubes at a larger size, this is one that does lead to some kind of unique gameplay experiences. I like that interaction against your opponent stealing your stuff. Opponent stealing your stuff is something we just see more and more effects that do that in modern magic, and the eagles are coming being interaction for that is significant. So, this is one that I think, just given the stats here, is more for high power environments, but given the general play pattern of targeting one thing and how that can expose you to removal, it doesn't necessarily fit in high power environments, but at larger cube sizes, I think that there is space where the eagles are coming, and it does something unique and pretty cool. And speaking of high-powered environments, moving on to blue, the standout vintage cube card from the set, Bilbo, Thief in the Knight. One in a blue for a 2-2, a legendary halfling rogue. Spells you cast from anywhere other than your hand cost one less to cast. And whenever Bilbo attacks, you may cast an artifact, instant, or sorcery spell from your graveyard. If an instant or sorcery spell cast this way would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead. Something kind of quirky about that ability is you flash back instead of sorcery, it's exile. That's the same as flashing back a spell from your graveyard, kind of any way that you can do that. But when you cast an artifact with Bilbo, it doesn't gain any kind of claws, finality counters, anything that would cause it to be exiled. So if you have like a Mishra's bobble, some kind of spell bomb, Bilbo can actually just recur those turn over turn just with access to one artifact that you can recast. So kind of a weird aspect of the design there, but more significant than that is just how favorably Bilbo compares to Dread Horde Arcanist, a card that is banned in legacy, that can't generally hang in cube. It shows up in the digital cubes now and again. That card having the restriction based off of the power that it has and only being able to hit instance and sorceries, Bilbo just gives you a wider range of things that you can do. Also gives you a discount on the cost if you're casting anything that costs more than one, which just has a baseline, the Dreadhorde Arcanist, you have to modify its power to even get access to something that costs more than one, but then Bilbo gives you the discount there. In Constructed, Bilbo is a huge upgrade over Arcanist, certainly for the uh non-rotating, the eternal formats, where force of will takes advantage of Bilbo being a blue card. But then in Cube, it is more the cost reduction and access to a wider range of spells, not caring about the mana value of those spells. There are a lot of things that can check Bilbo. A 2-2 is what dies to most removal spells. You can block Bilbo, take it off the table that way, but it is just an attack trigger, not a hit trigger for Bilbo to give you access to a card in your graveyard. Makes it really easy to loop removal spells. If your opponent's not interacting with it, you can recur some kind of card advantage, card selection. At the highest power levels, this is a rebuy on your time walk, your ancestral recall, all the while being really useful with cards like lightning bolt or swords to plowshares to clear a path or to uh shorten the game with the lightning bolt just burning your opponent out more easily. And generally being a cost reducer for spells you cast from anywhere other than your hand, that can open up some stuff. Underworld Breach, I think, is strong enough where it's not really worth pointing out an interaction with Bilbo and Underworld Breach. It does give some points to Yogmas Will, which does need a little bit more help than Underworld Breach, because you can only cast each spell once, so sometimes you're trying to set up Yogma's will. It involves casting multiple spells where that generic cost reduction could be useful in actually getting up to a lethal threshold for a storm spell or whatever big payoff you're going for. And there are other synergies with casting cards from other wor other places in your hand, be it bottling effects and exile cards or any number of other effects that can play out of the graveyard. Bilbo is just bonkers. I am really surprised that this card made its way out the door as printed. This seems like a card that's going to have a huge impact, at least in legacy and probably vintage constructed, where I would expect some action to be taken against the card in legacy, given the legality of Dreadhorde Arcanist in that format. This card just seems like a powerhouse there. And maybe it's the case that they are just testing the waters. There are some years removed between the days of Dread Horde Arcanists and now, some modern horizon sets in between then and now. So it is a different landscape for sure, but even still, Bilbo just seems like the kind of thing where it's a removal check, and if you fail, the game just isn't that interesting. Bilbo just clearly takes over, and being a blue card for that force of will kicker is very significant in that format. And cube, there is a broader range of things that can quickly answer Bilbo. If you're in an environment that has just a general low mana curve, there's going to be a lot of removal spells, a lot of blockers that can answer Bilbo, but the ceiling here I think is so powerful that it's disinteresting for any space other than a powered cube. Like I think that Ragaban is a really similar card here texturally, where it has a ceiling of running away with the game completely taking over, and a floor of getting blocked by Young Wolf trading with every removal spell. But because the ceiling is so miserable, like there's not really space for fun games in the middle. It's either broken or bad. And sure, an aggregate that comes out to balanced, but you don't play the balanced games. It's either broken or bad. And Bilbo seems to occupy very similar space. Bilbo Thief of the Knight, it really feels like a powered cube only card for me. I'm thinking about testing it out in the tempo tubert, but I do expect to be dissatisfied with that experience. Next up is Elrond Moonreader, 2 and a blue for a 3-3 legendary Elf Noble. Whenever you activate an ability of a creature, draw a card. This ability triggers only once each turn. 5 blue blue, exile up to 2 other target non-land permanents you control, return those cards to the battlefield under their owner's control at the beginning of the next end step. So very expensive blink mode there, self-contained ability to draw extra cards using the 7 mana ability with the static ability, but more than that, Elrond lets you draw extra cards every turn for any activated ability of a creature, most notably, most loudly, the interaction with mana creatures, this being an elf, gonna be right at home next to Lana or Elves, drawing extra cards every turn, just for making mana, which is busted. Elrond exists at a power level that's for a cube space that doesn't really speak to me or my sensibilities, where this is a really powerful value engine turn over turn. It does rely on your deck caring about activating abilities, but you know, Lana or Elves, Birds of Paradise, these are cards that just cube really easily. There are some of the bigger draws to green. It's gonna play really well with Mother of Runes, a lot of just high-powered stuff, and this is not noteworthy. Elrond does not break the mold for a vintage cube, but it is a card that would make decks and be powerful if you had it in the environment, but it's going to be more for like a 540-card vintage cube. So I do see Elrond as the kind of card that can make it into the digital powered cubes and be significant there, but is not one of the strongest things going on. It does play with many of the things that you're going to want to put into a Nadu deck, for example. Having mana creatures is very significant for that, those decks. Mother Runes plays really well there. So it's kind of like a green-blue card, plays excellent with those uh mana dork creatures. And then if you're really going into the Nadu and have a lot of infrastructure for it, which you're going to see as you get into like a 540 cube size, getting into cards like Nomaz and Core, which is a Nadu combo and constructed, that's a little bit more fiddly in cube, but a larger cube opens up space for that. This is a card that's just kind of like replacement level for very high-powered cubes, I think does too much in low-powered environments, or you're kind of getting into that texture of Bilbo and Regaban, where if you just don't have activated abilities on creatures, then the card does not do much. And at that point, the question is why are you playing with it anyway? So Elrond is kind of like replacement level for larger cubes. Elrond Moon Reader does not speak to me, but if you have something like a 540-card legacy cube, it's very clear why Elrond might speak to your cube environment. Yeah, that brings us to a card that is way more my speed. Masters Counselors, one and a blue for a 1-3 human advisor with vigilance. This creature gets 2 plus 0 for each graveyard with 7 or more cards in it, and whenever you draw your second card each turn, target player mills 3 cards. Threshold is just the mechanic that I love. This card would be right at home at some of the historic Canadian Threshold decks, even all the way back at Legacy. I mean Legacy in 2003 to be clear, very much the pre-Tarmagoyf era. But you know, back in the day when people were playing cards like Narcamiba, Wild Mongrel, Master's Counselor's really plays with those. So this is a card that just kind of fits everything I'm doing in Spooky Cube. You draw some extra cards, you get to do the milling. Milling is something that I don't really have in that cube for other players. There's a lot of self-mill, but milling yourself, there's gonna be flashback spells, stuff that pays you off for that. And I am interested in exploring kind of a light touch for milling your opponent, which is something that's going to be ill-advised to do if you can't close the game, but you will end up in a small number of games where your opponent has aggressively milled themselves, can't quite close, and maybe you could sneak in, milling them a couple times and actually end the game that way, just being careful not to push over their threshold before you can actually close. But mostly a two-mana creature that pretty easily becomes a 3-3. A threshold is pretty easy to get in a graveyard-centric environment. Both players will often have seven or more cards in their graveyards, you'll have a two-mana five-three, and for that environment, human does matter as a creature type. So this just fits perfectly somewhere into the world of Spooky Cube, into one of those modules. And it's just a cool card that plays a lot of stuff that I find really fun. So if you're also a fan of Odyssey Block, if you like having threshold in your cube, if you like creatures that are maybe a little bit overrated, but still at least interesting texturally in the text box, Masters Counselors being this, you know, really solid beatdown creature is going to be a 3-3 or a 5-3 with vigilance pretty often. That's a lot for 2 mana, but it only attacks and blocks, and that mill ability is kind of selectively valuable. It's going to play differently from game to game. So I think that the texture of Master's Counselors really speaks to me as a cool cube card. Next up is Plunder the Troll Shaws, one and a blue for an instant. Draw a card. If the spell was cast from your graveyard, draw two cards instead, and flashback for three and a blue. This is the card that on an individual card basis, if you're just casting it for value, I think has finally killed Think Twice, which is tragic. I love Think Twice. I actually have Think Twice and Dreams of Laguna, a card that less transparently compares favorably to Think Twice. Dreams of Laguna flashes back for four, has the same starting cost. These all cost one and a blue to draw a card. With Dreams, you surveil one, but you pay an extra mana. So on the flashback, it's not just stronger than Think Twice. Plunder of the Troll Shaws, yeah, you pay an extra mana, but you draw two cards. You know, two cards is twice as many cards as one card. It's just inarguably stronger, like four mana versus three mana, whatever. This one is if you were just trying to play a little bit in the space, Plunder of the Troll Shaws is probably the card you should play from that range of options. I am kind of thinking through this because I do have Think Twice and Dreams of Laguna both in multiple cubes, where a lot of the idea is that they are two spells, getting flashback to get some kind of spells matter trigger there. My popper tubert is more individually card power level motivated. That's a spot where I would probably go for Plunder of the Troll Shaws, but in a more synergy-driven environment, this is just blatantly more powerful, and so I kind of hate this card because I love Think Twice and I do just want to play with Think Twice. So for where I tend to cube, which will often be more modest spaces where I'm thinking about synergy more than card economy, I'm gonna keep playing with Think Twice probably over Plunder of the Troll Shaws. And it is like really weird too because Plunder the Troll Shaws is still just like not that powerful. It's stronger than Think Twice, but Think Twice isn't close to many high power environments. Like it just is not a card you would consider for them. So I have a love-hate relationship with Plunder of the Troll Shaws. I kinda am leaning right now, keeping the Think Twice and the Dreams of Laguna into the cubes I have them in, and if I'm trying to remove both of those, then I'll look at Plunder of the Troll Shaws more as an individual card than a Graveyard Matters card. This is just a strong draw spell, but it's not one of the strongest draw spells, so it starts to exist in a weird space for me. I probably will end up putting it in at least one cube, it probably goes on the popper tubert, but then the other environments where I am using Think Twice to trigger some kind of spells, matter of fact, multiple times, I'm going to keep to the classics and keep playing with Think Twice because I just like Think Twice more. Next up is Riddles in the Dark. This is another card that I'm talking about largely because it is a big conversation piece. This card's getting a lot of attention, and it's one that I am lower on than many others, so I do want to talk about it. Riddles in the Dark is two and a blue for an instant. Look at the top four cards of your library and separate them into a face down pile and a face up pile. An opponent chooses one of the piles, put that pile into your hand and the other into your graveyard. Now, I've been around Magic for a long time. Factor fiction is still busted. I think it's a card that still, on average, is stronger even in the 540 card vintage cubes than the other cards they've replaced it with in the digital versions. Like every time I see paradoxical outcome in those cubes, I think I would rather just be playing with Factor Fiction. That card still is just really strong. And the strength of Factor Fiction largely lies in the fact that you choose the pile that goes into your hand. Riddles in the Dark has a fun mini game. Choosing the face down pile. And the face up pile setting that up, you get to engage with your opponent in a way that's a little bit different than what happens in a lot of games of magic. It is fun to play that kind of mini-game, but your opponent choosing the cards that go into your hand means that you're just never going to get a pile that is just sneakily powerful. Yeah, the face-down pile, you could like put two good cards there and put whatever face up, whether it's two good cards or two bad cards, try to pick trick your opponent. If it's two bad cards, you're just gonna put the two bad cards into your hand, right? And if you just have four good cards, how is this different from any other draw spell? The thing that has always made factor fiction stand out in the separating pile space is that if there's only one strong card, one card you really want in your top five cards, you get to put it into your hand because you choose the cards that go into your hand. All these other cards where your opponent chooses a card that go to your hand, it means you are just never really getting the best possible. Or if you are, the best possible is just not that exciting, or all the options are good. That's really the only way Rills in the Dark will give you exactly what you want. I think it's a fun card for that mini-game engagement, but on power level, very forgettable in the draw spell space, not anything that I intend to cube with in any of my cubes. And that brings us to Thrandwill's Decree for Blue Blue for an instant. Counter target spell. If a permanent spell is countered this way, exile it instead of putting it to its owner's graveyard. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost for as long as it remains exiled. So a little bit of a rarity downshift to the card spell jack, which is three blue blue for the same kind of counter, but you steal any spell and you have the ability to cast it later. And Tranduel's recree, it's only going to hit permanence, but I think notably here, this has downshifted. This is an uncommon, so this card can show up in peasant cubes, right? And being able to counter and steal any kind of permanent spell, it's a pretty big swing. It does cost six, you're paying a lot, but being able to just steal your opponent's big haymaker, if you can steal something that costs a comparable amount of mana, swings the game in a big way. Being able to do this in a reactive way, leaving up other draw spells, interaction, other counter spells, that does make the play patterns of this pretty unpleasant. Thranduels decree or spelljack, these are not the most fun cards to play against. I think that this is the kind of thing that exists most harmoniously in a commander space where you have multiple opponents and there's some social politics to keep track of, and there's more of a cost associated with stealing your opponent's things. I get colder and colder all the time on stealing your opponent's cards in cube. It's something that I have a very low appetite for because of how miserable it can be to lose your best thing and have your opponent beat you with it. But this is something that does kind of break the mold in terms of what you could previously do in a rarity restricted cube environment. So I did want to make note of Thranduos Decree for players that have more of an appetite for a spelljack kind of thing, specifically with it being something new to try out in those rarity restricted environments. And that brings us into black, starting with Gollum Riddle Master. Gollum Riddle Master is a 3U1 legendary halfling horror for one and a black. As Gollum enters, you choose odd or even. Whenever an opponent casts a spell with mana value of the chosen quality, choose one that hasn't been chosen. You can put a plus one plus one counter on Gollum. You can have each opponent lose two life and you gain two life, or you can draw a card. The most common thing you're gonna do with Gollum is cast it ideally on turn two, and then if you're on the play, probably just name even. If you're on the draw, name odd, just lining up with the most mana your opponent can spend on their following turn. If they're going into their turn two, odds are they're gonna cast a two-drop, or maybe you just name odd in case they have a one-mana removal spell that they can cast. There's a little bit to think about there, but if you're on the draw, name odd so that when they cast their three-drop, you at least get to draw a card, or choose one of those other modes if that's what you're into. But I think most commonly you're gonna set up Golem to try to draw at least one card. A two-mana creature that draws one card, not the most exciting thing in the current world of Cube, but it does threaten to draw multiple cards. If your opponent does just want to curve out in the face of Golem, like the reason on the draw you play Golem and name odd is because your opponent probably wants to play some kind of three-mana threat, not necessarily an answer. And so they have to think about what they're going to do. Do they want to answer the Gollum or play their three-mana threat? That's a real decision point. And if they use the answer on Golem, if they just like have some two-mana kill spell, you don't draw your card, you did at least kind of mess with their tempo. At least that's going to be the texture for a lot of games. You can push them off of potentially engaging in their ideal turn three. So Golem, I think that the value in just naming the on-curve mana value based on the texture of the cube of the game, you know, there's stuff you have to pay attention to with Gollum. But I think that there is some value in that. Two mana three-one, it's a fine body. And eventually, if Golem is on the table, it should draw a card at least. So this card I think is maybe a little bit more powerful than it reads. I don't think it's that difficult to name the correct odd or even value to just kind of based off the texture of the game, get some return. And so any card that replaces itself in terms of card economy is going to be useful in Cube. This is something that you really just only want to put in an aggressive deck. Like you can put in a controlling deck, but as a 3-1, it's just going to trade with a lot of stuff. Yeah, you can put plus one plus one counters on it, but then it's not actually card value. The more you're doing that, the less it makes sense in a non-aggro deck, right? You mostly want to use Gollum to draw cards. It's not the strongest draw card thing, but it's very cheap. And depending on the texture of the game, you could end up drawing multiple cards with Gollum. So this is a card that I think is mostly in the generic value space. If your cube is about that, this is a card that can really play. It does kind of fit a lot of the texture of the original SP Tube. I do kind of have a mind to try it in that environment, and I think that it'll play fine. It'll be better in aggressive decks than controlling decks, but there's a lot of trading by way of blocking. That can be a significant aspect of the games there, and pressuring planeswalkers is a big thing. So I do expect it to be a reasonable card for that environment, and anything that is kind of that mid-ragey space, I think Gollum can play pretty well. My big reservation or issue with the card is that it's just not a synergy card at all. It's contingent on your opponent doing things, but it is just kind of a strong but not broken generic card, which is a lot of what's happening in the original SP2 Bert, so Gollum Riddle Master should be reasonable there. Next up is Head of the Hunt, a 4-3 wolf for 2 black black. Head of the hunt has Flash, and if a creature an opponent controls would die, exile it instead. When you do create a 2-2 green wolf creature token. So sort of a strictly different Khalidus trader of get. I think that these effects that cause creatures to be exiled, if they would die instead, they come in really strong to the point that I have a distaste for them in Graveyard Matters environments. I really don't like this kind of card in Spooky Cube because it's so punishing if you're trying to explore any kind of sacrifice or dies trigger synergies, and so this kind of disincentivizes you to engage with the cube's core tenants. If you're going to have those kind of synergies, you just have maybe an aristocrat, a sacrifice style deck, and a cube that's just a higher power level, where the graveyard is not everything that's going on, it's just a powerful thing that can happen. Head of the hunt is a really good way to push back on that, just a generically powerful card. Flashing it in as a 4-3 blocker, you can eat a 2-2, get a 2-2 for exiling your opponent's creatures when it dies, or you know, also just line up a bunch of different blocks, get into some combat. Either you're the aggressor or the blocker, flashing in head of the hunt will replace some of the creatures that died, give you some 2-2s. A nice value card. This card is more strong than anything, and like I said, it doesn't fit spooky cube. I don't really play in the generically powerful, not like powered cube space. So it does not really speak to me as a cube card. But, you know, if if you are in like the 540 card legacy cube space, I think that this card is strong enough where it can show up, definitely if enough of your games are about creatures to give you some stuff back when it flashes in, but ultimately it's kind of replacement level there. So Head of the Hunt is just one of those cards where I think it's really easy to conceive of it being useful and strong in a way that pushes back against synergy that I don't like. But if you're kind of more in the power space than the synergy space and you want to have answers for synergies, Head of the Hunt does really play there to push back against sacrifice decks. And that brings us to another card that's not for me, but might be for you that's inside information, X Black Black for a sorcery, exile the top X cards of target opponent's library. You may play those cards this turn. If you cast a spell this way, pay life equal to its mana value rather than pay its mana cost. So this is the kind of thing where you know I've talked a little bit already today about how I don't really like having my opponent steal my cards. It's something that I don't think is very fun, but I know a lot of people enjoy this kind of thing, having these stealing effects. This has been an archetype in some of the digital cubes, so there's certainly an audience for this. Maybe you're part of that audience. I have seen some people talking about this card as there is an issue of definitely playing random cards from your opponent's library where they might have synergies in your opponent's deck, your deck might be built about around a specific thing where you are not getting the what you want. This card would clearly be much more powerful if you could just use your own deck, you could set up kind of a combo finish. But specifically, paying life instead of mana is so powerful. And it is true that if your opponent's an aggressive deck, then your life total you're gonna have less life to pay. And then also if they just have kind of like more creatures, especially if you hit their smaller creatures, it's not gonna play against aggressive decks. But if you hit anything that costs three, four, five mana, or if you hit something just like massive and you have a decent amount of life to play, which is going to be more true the higher your opponent's mana curve is. I think that this card is more too strong to be fun than too weak to be useful. I think that if you have just a cube that is in kind of a strong power level, inside information is going to be an absolute blowout in at least some of the games, and you can board it out against those aggressive decks where it doesn't really matter. And you know, mostly it's gonna exist more in that space where like sometimes it's awful and sometimes it's broken, and that's why I don't like it. I think it's hard for me to conceive of this card just being like fine, and yeah, there's games where it's not gonna be great, and like maybe it plays and is like reasonable in some of those games, but it's just way easier for me to see those games where it's broken, which I do think will happen a lot. I think that paying life instead of mana is so powerful that if your opponent is just playing any kind of normal magic, if your environment's about any kind of normal magic, you're going to pretty often get good value from inside information, even only for an X of like three, four, or five mana. You can really swing a game in a big way, especially if there's life gaining in your environment. And while it's going to have bad matchups, I think that that is something that is not going to make me think, oh, I don't want this card because it's too weak. I still think that it's like the ceiling of this card that makes me disinterested in it. But if you like big, swingy, chaotic effects, inside information is exactly that. And any idea of this card being too weak, I'd put that out of your head. I think that if anything, this card is going to be too strong. So approach with caution, but if you want at least one fun story of some ridiculous stuff that happened when you cast it, inside information is a card that will give you some of those stories. Next up is the Master of Lake Town. One black black for a 3-2 legendary human advisor with death touch. Whenever a player loses life, that player mills that many cards. And when the master of Lake Town dies, you draw a card for each graveyard with seven or more cards in it. So this is another one of those cards that can mill both players and cares about whether both players have threshold. Milling both players is gonna be a little bit risky in graveyard-centric environments, but I think that's kind of a cool aspect of the card. I think if you don't care about graveyards, if you're not really driven based off of graveyard synergies in your cube, then a 3 mana 3-2 death touch is pretty forgettable even if it draws a card or two when it dies. There's going to be some give and take, it's gonna be a little bit risky to mill your opponent in a graveyard centric environment. I think it's kind of a cool aspect of the card, the fact that sometimes it's really good for you, sometimes it's good for your opponent. I'm gonna try this out in the spooky cube for sure, being human, of course, being a pretty big tiebreaker there, and then just having high access to sacrifice outlets, this card usually drawing two cards when it dies there, and being able to trade up on mana, being able to get into combat with anything, and by virtue of having death touch, being able to trade in combat. Even sometimes trading down is gonna be fine, because you're probably gonna draw two cards when the master of Lake Town dies in a heavily graveyard environment. Not to mention that just the mill from the card itself is going to put some cards into graveyards. This is kind of an enabler for threshold, and if you have a cube that already is going to push players towards generating threshold, that's usually where the master of Lake Town is going to play. Seems like a cool card, a little bit of a double-edged sword, but I think there's enough upside here to make the Master of Lake Town worth it for graveyard cubes. Moving into red, first up is Dwarven Mauler. Pretty straightforward card, one red mana, two-one, dwarf warrior. Equip abilities you activate that target this creature cost two less to cast. So another in the recent and already long line of red two-ones for one with no downside. This one, in fact, having some upside. If you have equipment matters as a theme, which will often be rooted in Boros, many retail limit environments do that these days. That's a big aspect of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings set. Also attached to dwarves, you have a meaningful creature type there. Warrior, also a well-supported creature type. Solid card, you'll know if you want this or not. It picks up a lot of equipment very cheap, which is very useful for a one-mana creature. So dwarven mauler, probably going to make it into a lot of cubes that care about equipment. And while we're talking about good rates, no downside, let's move on to Smog the Magnificent. Two red red for a 4-3 legendary dragon with flying and haste. Whenever Smog attacks, he deals damage equal to the number of treasures you control to any target, and the beginning of your upkeep, you create a treasure token. So mostly here you have a 4 mana, 4-3 flying haste. Hits hard and fast, it's priced to move. Smog the Magnificent, if you're just trying to have a generic red aggressive deck, it's going to be a solid curved topper there. Having flying sets it apart from a number of other options in that kind of space. This is a card that I would happily play over many of the red four drops that they serve up in the digital powered cubes. And the treasure payoff is something that I'm mostly ignoring in terms of assessing this card. You have some self-contained ability, the smog makes a treasure every turn. That's great, you'll get more mana, you get more damage off of that attack trigger with the smog with the self-contained treasure production. And if you make more treasures in your environment, great, you get more damage. But smog is so good at closing games just by virtue of being a four-mana four-three flying haster, that that is something that is mostly going to make smog too strong for more synergy-driven environments. And it is something that will be useful. It'll be something that maybe you design a little bit more support for if you're playing in a higher powered cube. You'll prioritize maybe more having like a Mogda, some stuff that makes some treasures early in a higher power environment, but that it's not at all necessary for Smog the Magnificent to just be solid for red aggressive decks to end games, and also you just don't need that much help. Smog is pretty good at closing on his own. So Smog the Magnificent stands out as just one of the more generically powerful four regular games of magic cards for cube from the Hobbit. And that brings us into green, starting with Bejeweled Worg, one and a green for a 3-2 wolf with trample. Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, choose one. You can put a plus one plus one counter on target wolf you control, or create a treasure token. So naturally, the bejeweled warg is going to grow itself, give some beatdowns, you can make a treasure token to ramp your mana. Solid beater, good for a green aggressive deck. I don't expect the ability to grow different wolves to be that significant. Mostly this is a creature that can snowball itself. Making treasure tokens is great in terms of developing your mana, though I do see Bejeweled Warg as the kind of card that's very good if your opponent's not doing anything, if they're bad at blocking, bad at interacting, it's going to snowball and close the game, or it's just not going to amount to very much if your opponent is good at answering or just blocking it. Bejeweled Warg doesn't really amount to much at all on defense. It's fine at attacking, it's like pretty good at attacking, but uh again, it's not that hard to answer a two-toughness creature. I'm still waiting for the one and a green, just 3-3 to be printed into magic, probably with upside at this point, but uh the two-toughness, more of a downside, more vulnerable to more things than it maybe appears at a glance. This card just kind of looks like it's a lot of value, but it's pretty contingent on your opponent not being up to much to really leverage a bejeweled warg. This is a card that texturally is similar to a lot of stuff that I've had in and out of the original recipe tubert, but because this card is so bad on defense, I am not really interested in it for that environment. And that kind of snowballing nature, even though it is kind of contingent on your opponent not really showing up, it'll be enough of the games where I think that this is just a fairly dissatisfying experience. This is more just generic power, but also just not that powerful. So bejeweled work, it makes sense to me if you want a cube with this card. Definitely if you want a green beatdown deck while also having the option to ramp here. Solid for a 540 like power-motivated cube, just not one that speaks to me. And then a really loudly power-motivated card that also is going to be in this kind of 540 card legacy vintage cube space is Beyorn the Fierce. 3 Green Green for a 6-6 legendary bear shapeshifter warrior with trample says other bears you control get plus two plus two. And at the beginning of combat on your turn, put a trample counter on up to one target creature you control, it becomes a bear in addition to its other types. Then if you control three or more bears, draw two cards. So five mana, six, six, trample, it's big, it hits hard. If you have another creature, the Bjorn turns it into a bear, gives it plus two, plus two. So it's kind of like having 2-2 haste stapled on here, you know, as a stat boost for another creature and giving that creature trample. If you ever get to the point where you're drawing extra cards, you probably just have so much power that the game is already over. This is one that I think if I put this in the original SP Tube, it either dies immediately or wins the game, is not really satisfying in the range of game outcomes that Biorn can have. More of a commander card than anything. If you just want a strong five drop for your cube, yeah, Bjorn's going to play. Really does not interest me in terms of the range of games that it can lead to. So it does not speak to any of my sensibilities. This card is just kind of all rate, very forward about just trying to do something strong and overwhelming. And so for that reason, I'm not interested in it, but it does speak to that 540 card power motivated space, which is pretty popular for cube. And now for a quick shout out to Little Bear. Little Bear is a bear for two and a green. It's a 3-2 with Flash. When this creature enters, untap another target creature you control. If that creature is a bear, put a plus one plus one counter on it. So this is a card that plays with Splinter Twin, plays with Kiki Giki, a green pester mite of sorts, uh, only untaps things. You can use this as a combat trick in a lower power environment. If you are playing like a popper cube that's less power motivated than the popper cubes that I really like, yeah, this this can actually be pretty significant in combat. It's gonna be more 1-1s running around through a 3-2 flash that can play there. A flash creature then changing the math on combat on the way back. Maybe you have some bears or changelings to put plus one plus one counters on. Mostly this is a card for people that can't quit Splinter Twin and for whatever reason are interested in more pieces. And now I want to talk about one from one of these scene boxes. This is Necklace of Gyrion, two and a green for a legendary artifact. Whenever you cast a green spell, and whenever a forest you control enters, put a plus one plus one counter on target creature you control, and it taps for green. Necklace of Gyrion plays a bit in the hardened scales space. Anywhere where you have plus one plus one counter synergies, you can definitely make use of this. Being the mana rock, like a three-mana mana rock is not that appealing for a lot of cubes, but anytime you have upside, they are worth considering. Certainly, if you are going up to higher mana values in your cube, you have a higher mana curve. Anywhere you have mana sinks, this card makes a lot of sense. Sitting next to Bristly Bill's spine sower, another way to put counters on, and then you have some extra mana to activate Bristly Bill's counter doubling ability. So just kind of Whatever plus one plus one counter synergy. Necklace of Gyrian is one to consider. It's really gonna be tough to fit into like a tube, but for 540 card cubes with any kind of counter synergies, it definitely plays there. Notably, it triggers off of forest entering, not just landfall, but you also get it off of green spells, so a pretty wide range of things will trigger it, and it's not just basic forest. Non-basic lands will trigger Necklace of Gyrian as well. So it's one that's going to be for pretty specific space, but it does something that is appealing for those counter synergies, which I know are pretty popular. And now for a card that is more notable for its mana generation, really the only thing that this card does, the notary hobbits, three green green for a 1-1 legendary halfling advisor. When the notary hobbits enter, if they're not a token, create two tokens that are copies of them, except the tokens aren't legendary, and tap, add colorless for each halfling you control. So you make three 1-1s, and they all just on their own, because they're all halflings, they'll all tap for 3 mana, just because the notary hobbits gives you three halflings. So if you untap with all of your notary hobbits, you just get nine additional mana, which is outrageous mana output. It's fragile, they're all 1-1s, a sweeper cleans them all up. It's more risk than a card like Gilded Loris often will be, but also it's more reward. 9 mana is outrageous. You can cast the notary hobbits, untap, and then just cast Emercole the Aeons Torn. Like the generation here is absurd. And I get that it's vulnerable, but if you want like some big dramatic mana payoff, this is maybe on the modest side for a powered cube, but at 540 cards, I'd consider trying it if you have stuff like Walking Ballista, Emericle, like just big things to cast. And then if you're in like a live the dream cube space, it seems very appropriate there where the fragile creature, yeah, you can answer it, but then you lead to some big dramatic things happening if you do on tap with all the notary hobbits. Setting aside giving them haste. Like if you do that and get the generation immediately, you can do some busted stuff here. This seems like the kind of card that is easily worth consideration for a 540-card power-motivated cube. Also leads to dramatic moments if you're into like a little bit more of a wacky space as well. I have not seen much conversation around the notary hobbits, but the mana generation here is just completely absurd. It seems like the kind of card that I would be happy to cube with if all I care about is doing powerful things. The thing that the notary hobbits does is powerful if it is fragile. Next up is Radigast of Rosgabel, 2 Green Green, 2-5, Legendary, Avatar, Wizard. The first creature spell you cast each turn costs two last to cast and can be cast as though it had flash. So at 4 mana, you're not getting any immediate value, which kind of is a big mark against green creatures these days. But as a 2-5, it blocks a lot of stuff and it will ask for more specific removal. Red removal is going to have a really tough time cutting through Radicast. And then once you untap with Radicast, if you have multiple creatures to cast, you're kind of generating 4 mana every turn. Or if you're only generating 2, you're casting like a 6 or a 7 drop, which is a pretty big deal. This is a card that I think is mostly going to play in a cube that has a lot of green creatures that draw extra cards. You do need to have more creatures to cast to actually make use of the mana generation here. But the body is reasonable, and this lets you play more of a flash game, a little bit trickier in combat, maybe playing a little bit more around sweepers or spot removal by playing your things with flash. But the cost reduction counting on your turn and your opponent's turn is a pretty big mana boost there with Radagast. It's a card that doesn't really speak to me for any of my cubes, and Radagast is a bit more specific than the cards that do just kind of stand out as reasonable options for the 540 card power-motivated cubes. But there is definitely going to be some amount of environments where Radagast does stand out and do powerful things. You'll know more about whether you want a cube with Radagast or not, but it seems like a card that does speak to at least some cube environments. I'm sure that there are people that are going to be excited to add Radigast of Roskabel into some kind of green flash value package in their cube. And moving into gold, starting with a card that is all stats all the time, this one from the Battle of Five Armies, upcoming release, only in collector boosters right now. It's Bard Air of Gyrion, two white blue for a 4-4 legendary human archer with Reach and Vigilance. Other creatures you control get plus one plus one. Whenever you attack, draw a card. So four mana, four-four, relevant keywords, vigilance and reach, so it's good at attacking and blocking. Glorious Anthem for your other creatures. Whenever you attack, draw a card. It's not just when Bard attacks. If you already have a creature in play, Bard's gonna make it stronger and give you a card for attacking with it. This card is not interesting to think about, it's just strong. So if your cube is about attacking and blocking and you want a strong card in blue and white, bard just checks those boxes. Seems pretty easy to slot into these 540 card power motivated cubes. Blue white tends to be more of a controlling color, so you might not include it for that reason. But if you just want a strong creature, then bard is that. This is not going anywhere near any of my cubes. I just don't find this design interesting because it's so much stats. But if you like piles of stats, bard is that. Pretty easy to see it in a pack and know exactly what to do with it. So if you like strong cards, bard Air of Gyrion is that. He's here for you. Next up is Tom Burt and William, henceforth known as Tubert William. Tubert William is a 5-5 for three black green, a legendary troll. For one, you can sacrifice another creature, and then draw cards equal to the sacrifice creature's power, then discard a card. And when Tubert William die, if they were a creature, return them to the battlefield, they're an artifact. So similar to that cycle of enchantments from Duskmorn, the enduring cycle, where when they died, they just came back with an enchantment. So you can answer the 5-5. As long as you don't exile it, Tubert William comes back and you still have that one mana sacrifice outlet. That's a pretty good draw outlet. You draw cards equal to power, and no matter what, you only discard one card. So you can fill up your graveyard with relevant things, like it is a discard outlet, but more, you'll be drawing like a good number of cards with Tubert William. This is a little bit expensive for what you would normally see in a sacrifice space, but then it's going to be green and black. Green gets a little bit less sacrifice stuff than like black, white, and red, but you do see some things in the space, and then green is a color that will naturally be more inclined to go higher onto the mana curve. And if you have some extra mana generation, you can take advantage of drawing the extra cards here. Tubert William, just a strong uh value-generating card, good stats. It's a card that's maybe underwhelming in terms of generic power level, and then in the specific environments, I don't really have space for Tubert William anywhere in the spooky cube. Golgari is really contested in terms of slots for things that are good with the graveyard. I even already cheat that a little bit by putting some stuff that does have green and black into the green or the black column because there's so much stuff that I want in Golgari. But I do think that Tubert William is strong, the things that the card does are pretty appealing, maybe not quite strong enough even for those 540 card legacy and vintage cubes, but it's a cool card, has some applications. I would be happy to see it in a cube pack. It does kind of involve being at like a powerful but not too powerful threshold, but I don't think it's fully out of the question for Tuber Williams to show up and be relevant even at the very high power levels. And that brings us into lands. The only land I want to talk about today fittingly is the Lonely Mountain. It's a mountain. Taps for red. This land is tapped unless you control an equipment, and for four in a red, you can tap the lonely mountain to create a 2-2 red dwarf creature token. This ability costs one less to activate for each equipment you control, activate only as a sorcery. One of the challenging things about making equipment matter in cube is that if you have a bunch of equipment, you need to have creatures to attach them to, and all of the living weapon variants that we've gotten, they make it easier. You can fill your cube out with creatures that uh are equipment themselves, so you can get a higher threshold of all the things that you need, but you do invariably on occasion find yourself with a bunch of equipments and no creatures to attach them to. The Lonely Mountain is just a solid uh utility land that's really going to play well in those spots. That is kind of the classic issue or vulnerability for an Equipment Matters deck, especially if you're playing an environment that does have creature sweepers where even your living weapon, the creature tokens that they make, can be easily removed. The Lonely Mountain will allow you to at least continue to play the game as that game goes along. Some kind of token regenerator is great. One that speaks specifically to the equipment archetype means it's going to find the right player more often. And this card is not nothing. Like this ability is fine just to have on a land, even in a deck that doesn't care about or doesn't care a lot about equipment. You are spending a lot of mana to make those dwarf tokens, especially if you don't have equipments to reduce the cost. But any value on a land can be useful if you're playing in a cube that plays many turns. If games are gonna go long, generating value on a land is just useful. There tends to only be so much space for utility lands in cubes, and it will be the case that if you're not playing in equipment matters, I would find it very surprising to see the lonely mountain in a cube, but if you are playing in that space, it makes a lot of sense. And especially if you are playing a desert cube environment, then a land that generates some utility, there's more space for that kind of thing there. If you're a color restricted environment, there's more space as well. So the Lonely Mountain, if you're doing equipment matters, especially if for whatever reason there's more room for utility lands in your cube, I think this one plays pretty well. But that's gonna be a wrap on my look at the Hobbit 4 Cube. The Hobbit is another small set that does have a pretty good sampling of cards that hit. I was pretty happy looking over the file, and while I will say there are a few really powerful cards that don't really speak to me that are kind of groanworthy for my sensibilities, there are a good number of things that do speak to even some very specific environments that I curate and some very charming designs in the spread as well. So I like the Hobbit. I hope you're finding things that you enjoy about this set as well. Appreciate you taking the time to listen for liking, commenting, sharing, subscribing. I'm on Patreon now. I very much appreciate everyone that has pledged to the Patreon. If you're interested in financially supporting the project here, head to patreon.com forward slash 180MTG. Greatly appreciate any contributions there. And of course, for listening, thanks again. And I'll be back next week talking more Cube. Later, gamers.