Hello and welcome to Magic Super Cube!

If you didn’t know, this is the blog where I take look at Magic sets that were released in Standard or would have been Standard legal had the format existed and pick cards from those sets to make an enormous Cube from each of those picks.

We will be finishing up Masques block by looking at Prophecy, which is not highly regarded as far as Magic sets go. In fact Mark Rosewater has gone on record saying that it is one of the worst designed sets, in some cases the second worst set designed after Homelands.

Looking at the cards from the set, I can see why from a design perspective when considering the block as a whole. There isn’t too much synergy from the previous sets of the block, only having scant representation, and there was a lot of interesting designs going on, but not as much synergy with concerns of designing blocks.

Some cards are very interesting, and there is one very well known card that came from this set, but for the most part there are a lot of lower powered picks, again as a result from the hard pivot to reduce power levels from Urza block. In fact, the artifact and lands are so few and underwhelming, we are going to have five picks for each of the five colors, which will be very interesting in terms of which cards to pick.

Let’s get started!

White

Starting with white, I would say that every color was pretty much the same level on difficulty in terms of making picks, but there are two constants from each of the five colors that made things a bit easier.

The creature spells are where this constant appears, with two creatures of two particular cycles making an appearance for each color, with the white representatives being a reusable board wipe, an intensely useful blocker and the additional creature being a way to get more utility out of your creatures by untapping them.

The noncreature spells were a bit tougher, but in the end I decided on a spell that can potentially be a win condition for a life gain deck and a way to turn a creature into a very strong blocker, and can actually be useful in a particular strategy when those cards make their appearance in the Cube much later down the line.

My picks for white are Avatar of Hope, Celestial Convergence, Entangler, Mageta the Lion, and Reveille Squad.

Blue

If I did have to pick the color that was the easiest, then I would have to say that blue was probably the easiest.

This was that there were three immediate picks made, with the two creature picks being a way to bounce a bunch of creatures and a payoff for playing a discard strategy, which does incentivize adding an additional color to get a big creature for a cheaper cost in blue.

The noncreature spells were also pretty easy, with one of the most well known, played, and contentious blue cards in Commander making its debut here, a potentially free counter spell, and a spell that can be a strong control piece in the right decks, and one that can punish an opponent for tapping a lot of lands.

My picks for blue are Alexi, Zephyr Mage, Avatar of Will, Foil, Mana Vapors, and Rhystic Study.

Black

Black wasn’t too difficult to choose cards from, and had some of the more interesting cards from the set, in my opinion.

The creature spells that I picked follow the same pattern as the previous colors, with one being a creature that can be cast for real cheap pretty easily in black as well as a card that can help facilitate that strategy as well as help a previously mentioned card get into play easier.

The noncreature spells are where the interesting choices come from, since one is a card with a symmetrical effect that can get cards into the graveyard and make tokens at the same time, a way to deal with a bunch of little creatures at once potentially for free, and a risky tutor.

My picks for black are Avatar of Woe, Greel, Mind Raker, Infernal Genesis, Outbreak, Rhystic Tutor.

Red

Red was probably the hardest to pick cards from, but that isn’t saying too much since as I said earlier it was around the same amount of difficulty for making picks for each color.

The creature picks for red includes a creature that can come into play easier if an opponent plays a ton of lands and also happens to reward you for having a ton of access to red mana and a creature that can discard cards from your hand in order to deal damage.

The noncreature spells were where things got a bit tougher, but the picks that I ended up with include a card that can punish an opponent for not casting spells (and I accidentally received from a wrong card order that eventually found its way to the rightful purchaser), a potentially free burn spell, and a reanimation spell in red that does have a bit of a random factor included in it.

My picks for red are Avatar of Fury, Citadel of Pain, Flameshot, Latulla, Keldon Overseer, and Search for Survivors.

Green

Green was about average in terms of picking cards, and like the other colors had some similarities that made it a bit easier.

The creature spells could serve as a decent way to get a powerful creature into play for much cheaper if you are a bit behind, a way to turn a player’s lands into creatures either to your benefit to swing out and win or to board wipe an opponent, and a way to turn your lands into tokens or giving those tokens a bonus.

The noncreature spells include a symmetrical way to get a bunch of creature tokens in play that can also be a way to remove those tokens in case of emergency and a way to get a bunch of +1/+1 counters on creatures you control.

My picks for green are Avatar of Might, Dual Nature, Jolrael, Empress of Beasts, Squirrel Wrangler, and Thrive.

Artifacts and Lands

There were not a lot to pick from for the artifacts and lands of this set, which has not necessarily been the case for a while.

The lands were easy, and that is because there were only two lands available in the set. One is a land that can add one mana of any color unless your opponent prevents you from doing so and the other land adds colorless, but can potentially make it so that you can remove some access to mana from an opponent if you time it correctly.

There were some slim pickings from the artifacts, and was actually the hardest to pick from group of cards from this set. I decided to pick an artifact that can become a creature at a potentially massive downside, an artifact creature that can become massive but sacrifices itself if it attacks, and a way to draw cards if you happen to tap out.

My picks for lands are Rhystic Cave and Wintermoon Mesa, and my picks for artifacts are Chimeric Idol, Keldon Battlewagon, and Well of Discovery.

In Conclusion

This was a pretty tough set to pick cards from, and while there were some things to make it easy and some interesting cards overall, there were also some tough picks especially towards the end.

When we come back to the Magic Super Cube, we will be starting a new block with the set Invasion, and this is where things will also be tough for me because this is where Magic blocks started being designed with some more cohesion rather than just related mechanics, and my picks are going to be tougher especially since it is also a big set.

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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