Just the tempo of playing it turn three, removing a blocker for that attack step and adding a few more points of power to your side, as well as dumping a two drop to the board, is well worth it. It will be able to chain over half your deck. KZE is the best threaten effect for the majority of red decks – aggro. While red had more expensive Threatens with a bonus, like Zealous Conscripts or Eldrazi Obligator, most red decks cannot really afford to pay 5 mana for something that doesn’t end the game now in high likelihood. When it is dead in hand it is hard not to wish it was some form of burn or threat. Threaten effects have never been big in cubes as they are situational cards by their nature. Kari Zev’s Expertise – playable, will see heavy play as it is the best in its category Smaller cubes will have to choose between it and Languish and I think in this case, the more interesting card is also the more powerful one. Even if Languish turns out to be superior, it is comfortably the 4 th best black mass removal and an easy inclusion at 720. This expertise will not have a useful trigger as often as the other cards on this cycle but it doesn’t need to, as it is close to cost effective on its own. It has great synergy with black reanimation spells like Necromancy that target each graveyard. Ever went turn 4, kill their board, discard their hand with Hymn to Tourach? Now you can do that. ![]() However, following up with a Liliana, Oblivion Ring on their equipment or just a 3 drop of your own is a huge swing. So what about that trigger? There is usually little point in casting a spot removal after YE. Languish kills more critters, but the jump from 3 toughness to 4 is not too significant. But between Expertise and Languish there is an open competition. Toxic Deluge and Damnation are better, as they less limited by what they can remove for the same cost or less. It is a significant upgrade over Infest cards as many three drops are now 2/3s, and some cards like Garruk Wildspeaker create multiple 3 toughness tokens. Never before did we have a -3/-3 mass removal for four mana. This is the only piece of the cycle which I am sure will see play in large cubes for a long time. Making a planeswalker is of the best uses of the trigger and mana rocks are not bad either so they are not useless for control decks, just weaker.Īs a minor side note, Ancestral Vision’s stock will go up if a few cards of this cycle will find a permanent home in cubes. Therefore they are better for midrange decks than control. You mostly want to do something proactive for the tempo to be worth it. The biggest group of cards that fit that description is counters, but so are removal cards with limited range such as Disenchant that likely will not have a target at every stage of the game. Furthermore, as the whole expertise cycle is sorcery, many instant cards will be ruled off for free casting purposes. The more expensive the card we chain the better, but we will not want to change the whole curve of the deck just to fit an expertise trigger. ![]() It has to be of a certain converted mana cost or lower. Not always will we have a fitting spell in hand. That added tempo has to be worth the increased cost of the base effect of the card. The immediate thing to note is that it will never create card advantage, only tempo. This mechanic is close to the Dark Ritual rider on Dark Petition. The most innovative new component in Aether Revolt that is worthy of consideration for cube. It is still a good set for the format however and offers at least one staple that will see play in even the smallest of cubes. Overall AER has less cubeable cards compared to its size than Kaladesh and they are less potent. As before I’ll be focusing more about large cubes. That might actually be for the better – more data has been gathered by now so evaluations can be more precise.
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