Hello and welcome to the Magic Super Cube!

This is the blog in which I go throughout the history of sets released for Magic’s Standard format or would have been released for the format had it existed and choose cards from those sets in order to make what could potentially be the largest Cube in the world.

Today we are going to be looking at a brand new block with the namesake set for that block, Onslaught. Now Onslaught had introduced several new mechanics, added additional space for some older mechanics, and had a heavy typal theme to it, which made choosing cards for this set pretty difficult.

It also doesn’t help that this set has 350 cards, but while there was some difficulty, there were also some pretty easy includes to balance the whole thing out.

Let’s get started!

White

While there weren’t multicolored cards in the set, there were some solid artifacts and lands to choose from, which means that each color gets four picks for the set.

White was the second most difficult color to pick from, primarily from their noncreature spells. There were some interesting ones to pick from, though in this case I decided to lean more on some utility cards like one that was a cheap form of removal and the other being a way to potentially deal with aggro decks while also being able to gain benefit for being aggressive.

The creatures were a bit easier by comparison, but that was primarily because one was an almost auto include because of it being a white ramp piece while also having unforgettable art, and the other I chose because it was an interesting legendary creature that has an interesting defensive playstyle.

My picks for white are Demystify, Jareth, Leonine Titan, Righteous Cause, and Weathered Wayfarer.

Blue

Blue was easier to pick from than white, though it still had a couple of tough decision, so solidly in the middle.

Again this came from the noncreature spells, and while there were some pretty solid ones to pick from, in the end I decided that choosing a powerful theft spell and a spell that while it revealed information to your opponent, having the benefit of essentially another card in your hand would prove to be solid choices for the Cube.

The creatures again were much easier, with one creature being a creature that starts to help a particular creature type that started getting some more support in this set by helping them get more information and setting up draws, and another card that I would have chosen anyway for its utility for the previously mentioned new typal support, but because of current circumstances as they are acts more as a memento for an individual who had an influence on Magic that has unfortunately passed away.

My picks for blue are Blatant Thievery, Future Sight, Information Dealer, and Voidmage Prodigy.

Black

I would say of the five colors, black was the easiest to pick cards from, and that was mostly because I thought the effects would be much more interesting to play with overall in the Cube.

On the creature side of things I had some interesting options, especially when certain typal strategies are being focused on, but I chose a creature that has two typal benefits but works more as a cheap removal piece in certain scenarios and the other is a creature that actually benefits from playing another creature type that shows up in black quite often while also being support for a much more common typal strategy in black.

The noncreature spells were a bit more open ended in that one is very much an open typal support card that while symmetrical can be very beneficial for you if you had a heavier typal focus and the other is a representative of a cycle of cards that have an interesting effect, but I think works better only having one rather than the whole cycle for the Cube.

My picks for black are Chain of Smog, Festering Goblin, Patriarch’s Bidding, and Rotlung Reanimator.

Red

Red was probably the hardest of the five colors to pick from, and that is because there were a lot of options to pick from making the choices difficult.

The creatures were a bit easier to pick from, but narrowing down the many available options made things a lot tougher to pick from. In the end I chose two creatures that had massive benefits for the main red creature archetype, with one getting stronger when it attacks with a swarm of these creatures while the other can deal a ton of damage as those creatures enter the battlefield.

The noncreature spells where a bunch of the difficulty came from, and I had to make some tough decisions for it. In the end I decided that having two spells that could win the game in different ways, one that would take advantage of multiple combats and the other that would punish your opponents from playing a ton of creatures by stealing them.

My picks for red are Aggravated Assault, Goblin Piledriver, Goblin Sharpshooter, and Insurrection.

Green

If I had to pick a color that was the easiest, I would probably say that green would fulfill that space, though only just by virtue of the other being more difficult.

Green was actually pretty easy in terms of the noncreature spells, with one being a way to punish control decks that are light on creatures and benefit you if you are playing a ton of creatures, and the other being a card that massively benefits a particular card type in a familiar yet very effective way.

The creatures were a little bit tougher, but I decided to go for some creatures that had more utility to them with a creature that can allow you to get more damage in with your other creatures that was available in a previous set but won’t be available in the future, and a creature that had some utility when it is discarded while also being a solid creature if you manage to play it.

My picks for green are Biorhythm, Enchantress’s Presence, Krosan Tusker, and Taunting Elf.

Artifacts and Lands

While there were some interesting artifacts to choose from in this set, there were also some significant lands in the set.

To start with the artifacts, while there weren’t many in the set, there was still pretty interesting artifacts to pick from. There is one that benefits typal strategies by cheating them some into play if you already have a couple of them in play, another that makes a token of a creature type and color you choose, one that benefits from you having a lot of creatures, and while the last artifact doesn’t come much into play yet since I didn’t choose any cards with a particular ability introduced in this set, it will play a part in the next set.

On the lands case however, there was a series of lands introduced in this set that massively changed the landscape for the game for a variety of formats, and it would have been remiss of me to not pick these cards now since they only have one other viable reprint in the future. While there were some other interesting lands, having this cycle of lands took precedence, though I did manage to slip one additional land as a way to also help color fix.

My picks for artifacts are Cryptic Gateway, Dream Chisel, Riptide Replicator, and Slate of Ancestry and the land picks are Bloodstained Mire, Flooded Strand, Grand Coliseum, Polluted Delta, Windswept Heath, and Wooded Foothills.

In Conclusion

I suppose after having several sets that were easy to pick cards from I was due for a set that was difficult to choose cards for. It still was an interesting set of cards to pick from.

Speaking of interesting picks however, the next set of the block we will be talking about when we return is going to be Magic’s creature only set Legions, which will make picking certain cards much more interesting, especially since it is a smaller set of only 145 cards.

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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