Hello and welcome back to the Magic Super Cube!

If you are new, this is the blog in which we take a look at Magic sets that have been released for the Standard format or would have been in the Standard format had it existed at the time and then pick cards from those sets to make the titular Cube.

Today we are going to be finishing Mirrodin block by taking a look at Fifth Dawn, which while still having some incredibly powerful cards in the set, it wasn’t as hard to pick cards from as compared to the rest of the block.

Even with it being a smaller set at 165 cards, there are still a good number of powerful cards to pick from, especially from the artifacts as was the case with the other two sets. That is where a majority of the tough decisions were made, whereas the five colors of the set were actually fairly easy to pick from, with only one of the colors being a bit challenging.

Let’s get started!

White

Like I said, the five colors were pretty easy, and with the artifacts taking up half of the available slots for the set, each color only having three picks wasn’t too hard.

For the noncreature spell for white there was a good number of options to pick from, but there was one that would definitely help shape up the Equipment archetype for the Cube because it is a cheap one mana tutor that can get just the Equipment you are looking for.

The creature spells also help facilitate an Equipment strategy, but from two different angles. One is a way to automatically attach Equipment you control to a creature you control while the other plays into becoming a powerful typal lord when it is equipped, which helps broaden and provide a win con for that sort of typal deck.

My picks for white are Auriok Windwalker, Raksha Golden Cub, and Steelshaper’s Gift.

Blue

If there was one of the five colors that I had to pick to be the easiest to pick cards from, blue was probably the one I had an almost record time picking cards from.

This mostly came from there being a good chunk of iconic blue cards in the set, with the creature spell being a creature that is part of a mega-mega cycle in which there are variants of what it does, just slightly tweaked because this card can be a powerful artifact tutor in the right deck.

The noncreature spells were only slightly harder, because while one was very easy to pick because of it being a cantrip that can help you sculpt your next couple of draws, the other noncreature spell was a toss up between a card from a cycle and a fun card because of how expensive it is to cast. In the end I chose the card from the cycle, because while it would have been neat to have the other one, the card from the cycle is also an expensive to cast card with a massive benefit.

My picks for blue are Beacon of Tomorrows, Serum Visions, and Trinket Mage.

Black

Black was pretty much in the middle in terms of picks, and that mostly stemmed from one crucial decision.

The noncreature spells were not too difficult, one is a solid removal spell that has a downside that can be negligible or severe depending on the creature you use it on, and the other is a way to potentially build a reanimator deck in a unique way, provided you have a good number of removal spells or are playing against an opponent who has a lot of creatures.

The difficult part came in the side of creatures, and that is because there is an iconic creature that made it’s debut in this set, but is significantly worse because it is a one of rather than having more than one copy of it in the Cube. In the end I decided to still add it to the Cube because I think that there can be some potentially interesting ways to make use of it being a one of in the Cube, though that could be me coping.

My picks for black are Devour in Shadow, Endless Whispers, and Relentless Rats.

Red

Red was a little tougher to pick cards from, but still not the hardest of the five colors.

This mostly came from the creature spell, because while there were plenty of decent creatures, there wasn’t too much that popped out at me for being interesting. I decided that the creature that was the most interesting was a creature that has some massive stats for its mana value, which means that there is a pretty severe downside, which we can make use of in some of the more off the wall decks.

The noncreature spells were much easier in comparison. One is a massive boon for Equipment decks, whether they are using it for Equipment they have or want to take an Equipment that an opponent owns for their own use and the other noncreature spell being a massive ritual that can potentially win you the game if played at the right time.

My picks for red are Cosmic Larva, Magnetic Theft, and Mana Geyser.

Green

Green, like the other Mirrodin block sets, was the most difficult of the five colors to pick from.

This was prevalent in both the creature and noncreature spells, though I will say the noncreature spell was probably the easiest of the two spell types to pick because when in doubt pick a card from a major cycle, and the one in green is actually pretty strong in a mono green deck.

The creature spells were where I had the most trouble, and that was because there were several avenues to take in terms of interesting creatures to pick from as well as having creatures that could serve a solid function for the Cube. As the Cube has grown, one thing I have noticed is that fixing was one of the harder things to manage because not every set will have an easy source of fixing, which is why one of the creatures I’ve chosen helps fixing while the other creature is an interesting creature that is a hard counter to a very niche strategy while also being fairly aggressive in a unique way.

My picks for green are Beacon of Creation, Joiner Adept, and Tornado Elemental.

Artifacts

Since there were no lands in the set, the rest of the picks became artifact picks and let me tell you, even having as much space as I did, I still had trouble narrowing things down.

There were a couple of artifacts that I was not able to get in, even after some debating with myself on what should be in the Cube. This was not very easy to pick, and while I would normally go into a very light description of which artifacts I have chosen for the set, that would make for a long and obscene looking paragraph or two, that I would much rather tell you all the artifacts instead.

My picks for the artifacts are Clock of Omens, Conjurer’s Bauble, Crucible of Worlds, Door to Nothingness, Engineered Explosives, Fist of Suns, Grinding Station, Helm of Kaldra, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Lantern of Insight, Mycosynth Golem, Staff of Domination, Summoning Station, Vedalken Orrery, and Wayfarer’s Bauble.

In Conclusion

While it was tough to pick cards from this set, like I mentioned earlier it wasn’t as difficult when compared to the other members of Mirrodin block.

When we come back to the Magic Super Cube, we will be entering a brand new block by taking a look at Kamigawa block, with the first set being Champions of Kamigawa. While at first glance it doesn’t look like it will be difficult, having taken a peek at the set, it is looking to be a more daunting task that I realize.

As usual, here is the Moxfield link to keep up with all the cards in the Cube and here is the second part of it Moxfield II!

See you next time!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual

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