Hello and welcome to Magic Super Cube!

This is the blog where I go through the history of Magic sets that were Standard legal or would have been Standard legal had the format existed and choose cards to make a huge Cube from each one of those picks.

We start a brand new block by taking a look at Invasion, which Mark Rosewater has stated that this is the next major shift in design, which is when blocks were made with more cohesion in terms of sharing mechanics and themes, rather than slapping a few new mechanics and call it a day.

This was probably the hardest set for me to pick cards for, and while Prophecy was difficult because there were some lackluster cards among a few gems, I had issues with plenty of solid cards and not a lot of space due to my rules for picking cards from each set.

This set also has a bunch of multicolor cards after a massive drought of them, which also made picks for each of the five colors to move back to three per color, and there was a ton of tough choices that had to be made.

White

White was solidly in the middle of which cards to pick, and it still proved to be pretty tough.

The noncreature spell was pretty tough to pick because while not all of them were overtly amazing, there were a ton of solid choices to pick from. I decided on picking a card that has a bit of downside attached to it, but also acts as a mass reanimation spell if played correctly.

The creature spells were also pretty tough, again not because there were too many that were spectacular, but there were still plenty of solid picks. I decided on a Legendary creature that bring back a creature from your graveyard each turn, and a creature that gains benefits in a multicolor strategy.

My picks for white are Death or Glory, Reya Dawnbringer, and Wayfaring Giant.

Blue

Blue was probably the easiest to pick cards from, with only one sticking point.

The creature spell that I chose was probably the hardest choice I made for blue. I ended up picking a cheap creature that gains a benefit the more mana that you happen to spend to cast for it.

The noncreature spells were far easier to pick and were practically automatically picked. One is an iconic spell that allows you to put cards into your hand and into your graveyard and the other is a card that has a mechanic that will be named in the future, but is a solid way to help get information and draw a card.

My picks for blue are Fact or Fiction, Faerie Squadron, and Opt.

Black

Black was probably the toughest of the five colors to pick from, and that was pretty close with another color.

There were plenty of creature spells that I wanted to include in the Cube, and I had a pretty hard time picking something that I think would work. In the end I decided to pick a creature that helps add some multicolor splash to the Cube.

The noncreature spells were also very hard to pick from because there were a lot of cards that I juggled between before making my choices. I decided on a way to bring a creature back into your hand while also being able to draw a card and a way to hose typal decks in a pretty unique way.

My picks for black are Nightscape Apprentice, Recover, and Tsabo’s Decree.

Red

Red was the second easiest of the five colors to pick from, and that is just on the heels of blue.

Where red had the most struggle was with the creature spells. Again there were a lot of solid choices, and in the end I chose a creature that can act as ramp for red and a creature that can be lethal for a turn or could potentially stay around and be a threat for at least one more turn.

The noncreature spell was actually the easiest pick, and this is mostly because I think that the way it works is funny and one of the major points of this Cube is to add cards that I think would be fun for the Cube.

My picks for red are Firebrand Ranger, Mages’ Contest, and Skizzik.

Green

Green was the second hardest of the five colors to pick from, though it was pretty close with black in that regard.

The noncreature spell was one of the toughest parts because this set is where we also start getting to see more and more reprints of older cards outside of Core sets, so I had to make sure that I didn’t end up picking a card I already picked. I ended up picking a card that could bring back two cards from your graveyard to your hand at a decent rate.

The creature spells were also pretty tough, but not as bad as the noncreature spell. I decided to pick a creature that is very good in a typal strategy and a payoff for a deck that wants to play big mana that can also add an additional typal strategy in the future.

My picks for green are Elvish Champion, Restock, and Verdeloth the Ancient.

Artifacts and Lands

Before I get to the multicolor spells, I wanted to cover the artifacts and lands.

The artifacts were a bit tough because I wanted to add more multicolor options to my picks, so I decided on trimming down the artifacts severely to only two artifacts. One is a sacrifice outlet with a major benefit and the other helps make multicolor decks be a bit more efficient with their mana.

The lands were a bit of a toss up because there were two cycles of lands to choose from, and in the end I decided on the cycle that could be useful for opening up the Cube to a couple more multicolor strategies, at a bit of a risk.

My picks for artifacts are Phyrexian Altar and Urza’s Filter and my picks for lands are Ancient Spring, Sulfur Vent, Geothermal Crevice, Tinder Farm, and Irrigation Ditch.

Multicolor

And now onto the hardest cards to pick from among all from this set, the multicolor cards.

Since there had been no multicolor cards in quite a while, I wanted a couple of additional picks for this set in particular. Since the multicolor was primarily in the allied colors, I decided to pick one from each allied color pair and a couple of extras that I would want in the Cube.

There is a card that can be a selective way to prevent damage from coming your way, a bounce spell that is also a discard spell, a creature that can help a discard game plan, a card that can be damage or an extra body, a card that can be a buff or removal spell, a creature that is one of my favorite Commanders, a three color creature that can be a potentially strong discard outlet, and a win condition that can be a fun thing to attempt in the Cube.

My picks for multicolor are Teferi’s Moat, Recoil, Blazing Specter, Assault//Battery, Wax//Wane, Captain Sisay, Crosis, the Purger, and Coalition Victory.

In Conclusion

This was probably the toughest set to pick cards from, one because of how massive the set was and how solid a lot of the cards were. This is where it seems like Magic was starting to have a cohesive through line in design.

When we return to the Magic Super Cube, we will be continuing our dive through Invasion block by taking a look at Planeshift, which is a smaller set and should hopefully be a bit easier, but I am being cautious in that regard.

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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