Hello and welcome to Magic Super Cube!

For those unaware, this is the blog where I take a look at the releases of Magic sets that were released in Standard or would have been released in Standard had the format existed and choose cards from the sets for a massive Cube.

We are going to be continuing our look through Masques block by looking at Nemesis, which while being a smaller set of 143 cards that still has plenty of interesting cards to choose from, which is an interesting trend I have noticed from smaller sets.

While larger sets tend to have a lot of cards, most of them tend to fill out small niche roles, with some big cards coming out of them to be sure, but smaller sets in this early period of Magic had some sleeper hits. One of the consequences of a smaller set, especially in the early days, is that there aren’t any multicolor cards and not too many artifacts or lands. For us at least, that does mean a lot more picks for each color.

Let’s get started!

White

We are continuing the trend of having four cards for each color, and thankfully there were some pretty easy choices for each color.

White especially was pretty easy, especially with the creatures because there was one creature that I for sure wanted to add for a mini typal subtheme that is partially relevant to this block and will have access to potentially more cards in the future, as well as a creature from that creature type to help support it.

The noncreature spells were a little trickier, but in the end I decided to go with a combat trick that can be pretty flexible, and a way to protect your things and can help keep your things protected, especially in a control type of strategy.

My picks for white are Defiant Falcon, Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero, Off Balance, and Spiritual Asylum.

Blue

As I said earlier, each color was pretty easy to pick cards from, and if I had to pick the easiest one overall, I would say that blue would fit into that category.

The noncreature spells were very easy with an iconic counter spell that can potentially be played for free and a way to help control people who manage to punish a player who happens to use a pretty greedy mana base or decides to play with multiple colors that can be easily punished.

The creature spells play pretty heavily in a particular typal strategy, mostly because there is an off-type tutor that can get any of that creature type into play, and a target for that tutor that can be a pretty devastating control piece if played correctly.

My picks for blue are Daze, Pale Moon, Rootwater Thief, and Seahunter.

Black

Of the five colors, I would say that black was probably the hardest to pick cards from.

This mostly came from the creature side of things, where after a bit of consideration I decided to pick a creature that provided a bit of a buff and a debuff at the same time and a creature that has a downside, but can potentially be used in a couple of niche strategies, so long as support for those strategies are seeded into the Cube.

The noncreature spells were a bit easier, with one being a potential board wipe that can be played for free, and a card that provides an anthem effect but also happens to have a downside, but since its in black that downside can be a benefit if played correctly.

My picks for black are Ascendant Evincar, Death Pit Offering, Massacre, and Spiteful Bully.

Red

Red was pretty easy overall, though still not as easy to pick cards as blue was.

This mostly fell into the noncreature side of things, of which I decided on a solid burn spell that can potentially help close out a game while also providing a bit of a risk, and a risky anthem type of effect that can make creatures stronger but also punish smaller creatures.

The creature spells on the other hand were much easier to choose, mostly because like blue I decided on choosing a particular typal tutor and a decent creature of that creature type that could function pretty decently, especially since it has a solid enters ability.

My picks for red are Flame Rift, Flowstone Surge, Moggcatcher, and Shrieking Mogg.

Green

Green was solidly in the middle when picking cards for, at least when compared to the other colors.

The creatures were easier, mostly because it followed in the pattern of red and blue where there was a solid creature that tutored for a particular creature type, but the primary difference when compared to red and blue is that the other creature I chose plays into a bit of an interesting strategy, especially when it comes concerned with cards your opponent plays that target it.

The noncreature spells were a bit tough, at least when it came to one of the noncreature spells. One is a very strong noncreature spell that still sees play today in Commander because of how strong it is as a ramp spell at its rate, and the other noncreature spell I decided on can play as a combat trick for you or a way to potentially target your opponents mana base in a clever way.

My picks for green are Animate Land, Mossdog, Skyshroud Claim, and Skyshroud Poacher.

Artifacts and Lands

Once again I am going to be combining lands and artifacts, again mostly because one is pretty short when compared to other sections and talking about them together is going to be pretty quick.

There are three lands in the set and they all add colorless mana, with one prevent combat damage, another deals damage to a creature, and the other can do a bit of ramping by cheating a land from your hand onto the battlefield.

The artifacts are a decent variety of abilities including cheating a particular creature type into play, a way to control some artifact strategies, something that can work with a particular ability in a pseudo-proliferate manner, a way to give a creature evasion or specific removal for a creature with a particular ability, two cards that can work well in a specific strategy, and a decently strong artifact that can work well in control strategies.

My picks for lands Kor Haven, Rath’s Edge, and Terrain Generator and my picks for artifacts are Belbe’s Portal, Kill Switch, Parallax Inhibitor, Predator, Flagship, Rackling, Tangle Wire, and Viseling.

In Conclusion

Nemesis was not too difficult to pick cards from, and it helped that there were some partial cycles to help fill in some gaps as well as some cards that are pretty well known that also happen to be pretty decent cards.

When we come back to the Cube, we will be finishing up Masques block by taking a look at Prophecy, which as a Magic set was not received very well because of a variety of reasons, one of which being its comparatively low power level because of Wizards of the Coast trying to course correct the power level of the game. I’m sure we can still find some fun cards for the Cube.

As usual, here is the Moxfield link to keep up with all the cards in the Cube!

See you next time!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual

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