Hello and welcome to the Magic Super Cube!

This is the blog in which I take a look at sets that were released for Magic’s Standard format or sets that would have been Standard legal had the format existed and pick cards from each one of those sets to make the biggest Cube I can.

We take a quick aside from Invasion block by taking a look at Seventh Edition, which continues the difficulties of early Core sets in which there are a lot of cards that I have already picked and it becomes a little more difficult to track which cards I have already picked.\

This is especially the case because there are 350 cards in the set, and there are plenty of cards that I have already picked. Fortunately in one aspect this isn’t too bad because the lands in this set were lands that I have already picked and there aren’t any multicolor cards, meaning that each of the five colors and artifacts get more picks.

Let’s get started!

White

Even with the expanded number of picks, there was some difficulties with which cards to pick from, and white was in the middle of the pack for that.

The creature spells were pretty easy, since two of them are very similar in what they do in that they act as removal for specific colors of creatures and the other creature can be used as a way to remove larger creatures.

The noncreature spells were a little tougher, but I decided to pick a card that can protect you from having a lot of creatures attacking you and the other card rewarding you for having a lot of cards in hand, which is difficult in mono white so it adds a neat little puzzle to it.

My picks for white are Blessed Reversal, Gerrard’s Wisdom, Intrepid Hero, Northern Paladin, and Southern Paladin.

Blue

Of the five colors, I would say that blue was the easiest of them to pick from, which as I usually say for difficult to pick from sets, isn’t saying too much.

The noncreature spells include a spell that has had a pseudo successor in a recent (as of writing this) set, a specific type of counter spell that can work well in the mid to late game if played correctly, and a surprisingly cheap wheel effect that I would have chosen earlier had it not been in a set packed with other strong cards.

The creature spells were a little more interesting because there were some odd picks, which I enjoy adding to the Cube. There is a creature that is big but can deal 1 damage to any target as an activated ability and a way to take a look at an opponent’s hand when it enters.

My picks for blue are Boomerang, Deflection, Mawcor, Telepathic Spies, and Tolarian Winds.

Black

Black was probably the second hardest to pick cards from, only beaten out by another color later on.

The creature spells were a bit tricky because as much as I wanted to echo white in picking two creatures that did effectively the same thing, I decided that having a creature that can make a mana via sacrificing itself and a creature that acts as a sacrifice outlet would work better to help define the archetype in the Cube.

The noncreature spells also provided some interesting options to choose from, with me ultimately picking a card that can act as a very specific color hate piece, an iconic discard spell that works for me choosing it now to help get it in early, and a unique symmetrical discard outlet.

My picks for black are Bereavement, Blood Pet, Duress, Fallen Angel, and Oppression.

Red

Red being the second easiest color was not what I was not initially expecting, but there were some pretty quick picks for me.

This came in the form of the noncreature spells, where one spell working with dealing damage to creatures when they enter, another being a combination partial board clear and burn spell, and a way to make use of excess lands in your hand.

The creatures were a little trickier, but I picked two creatures that can work pretty well in a particular typal strategy, with one being a decently costed creature with haste and another creature being a cheap creature of this creature type but with a bit of a downside that may take a while to become effective in this particular type of deck, but can also pivot into working for other decks of this type.

My picks for red are Aether Flash, Earthquake, Goblin Chariot, Okk, and Seismic Assault.

Green

Green was the toughest color to pick from out of the five colors, but only by a slim margin.

This mostly came on the creature front, since a lot of the creatures that were available to pick from were not ideal since I picked a lot of the better creatures in other sets. I ended up with two creatures that can sneak some damage through in a fairly unique way.

The noncreature spells were also pretty tough to pick from, with one exception and that was because it would have been an easy pick in any other set, that card was in a set filled with other strong picks. The same goes for another pick since it is an effective ramp spell even though it is symmetrical, and a way to gain a bit of card advantage that actually works really well in a draft format if not a lot of utility lands are chosen.

My picks for green are Blanchwood Armor, Lone Wolf, Pride of Lion, Rowen, and Vernal Bloom.

Artifacts

With there being no viable land picks, I was given more freedom in picking more artifacts, and this was pretty difficult, more so than cards in the other five colors.

This was, again, because I had chosen a lot of the artifacts in previous sets, meaning that I had some more narrow options, but not all of them were as bad as I would have thought.

There is a creature that gains a benefit from there being a lot of creatures in play, a draw and discard outlet, a big creature that has a downside that can definitely be worked with along with a decently strong form of evasion, a way to deal a little bit of extra damage to any target, and a control piece that I debated on putting in the Cube and have decided that it would work decently in a Cube of this size.

My picks for artifacts are Beast of Burden, Jalum Tome, Phyrexian Colossus, Rod of Ruin, and Static Orb.

In Conclusion

This was a hard set to pick cards from, as is the case with a lot of the early Core sets, especially since these were the sets where they were a bit more aggressive with reprints. I am going to miss them when they go away for a bit since they are also my way of adding some extra stability to the Cube.

When we come back to the Cube, we are going to be finishing off Invasion block by taking a look at Apocalypse, which is a smaller set that should have some interesting picks, especially since its going to be exploring enemy color pair design space.

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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