Hello and welcome to the Magic Super Cube!

For those not in the know, this is where I traverse through Magic set releases from sets that were Standard legal or would have been Standard legal had the format existed and choose cards from each one of those sets to compile what I believe to be the worlds largest Cube.

Today we start on a brand new block and this is one of the most well known blocks of all time and that is original Ravnica block and the first set of Ravnica: City of Guilds!

This was, bar none, the hardest set to pick cards for. Even Core sets with their massive number of reprints don’t approach how difficult it was to pick cards from this set. The size of the set is 306 cards, 286 not counting basic lands, and let me tell you if there was a set where I could break the established rules and add more cards, it’s this one.

There were so many cards that I wanted to choose, but couldn’t because of the rules I had established. As much as I wanted to break them, I won’t and suffer the consequences of my actions.

Let’s get started!

White

We start things actually pretty easily, as white was probably the second easy color to pick from all things considered.

The creature spell was the hardest part, though that was primarily because there weren’t too many creatures that I thought were interesting enough to include in the Cube. In the end I settled for a large creature that can provide some protection against aggressive decks.

The noncreature spells were much easier, which is going to be a running theme for this set as you will see. I chose a card that interacted with flicker effects in a unique way and a card that can shut down a lot of activated abilities for control decks.

My picks for white are Blazing Archon, Flickerform, and Suppression Field.

Blue

Blue was right in the middle in terms of how easy it was to pick colors for, which isn’t really saying all that much.

The creature spell, much like white, was the most difficult part in making this choice, though there were some more interesting picks this time around. I ended up picking a creature that has some utility on the battlefield, but has potentially more utility with it’s ability that you can use in hand.

The noncreature spells were easier, though I did have to go back and forth between a couple of choices before I settled on them I chose a card that can work really well in a particular play style involving enchantments and the other is a popular and fairly unique counter spell that has fewer reprintings than I thought.

My picks for blue are Copy Enchantment, Drift of Phantasms, and Remand.

Black

Things actually get better for black as it was the easiest of the five colors to pick cards from.

The noncreature spell was a bit tough because there were a good number of solid options to choose from. I chose a card that offers a solid discount on noncreature spells, but does happen to have a strong downside that needs some interesting deck building to get around.

The two creature spells were practically auto picks, purely because one of them is an iconic Invitational card that has a really strong effect and the other is a creature that is iconic in a very different way and provides a way to fill up your graveyard very efficiently.

My picks for black are Blood Funnel, Dark Confidant, and Stinkweed Imp.

Red

While not the hardest of the five colors to pick from, red was definitely not easy to pick cards from.

The creature spell was particularly difficult because a lot of the creatures for red are not that interesting, in my opinion. The red creature I did choose was pretty interesting, more so because it plays into an interesting way for red to be a control deck.

The noncreature spells were difficult in a different way in that there were a lot of potential options to choose from. The ones that I did choose was a pretty strong way to get a bunch of extra combats with a downside and a unique and well known board wipe for red that is more for fun than how good it actually is.

My picks for red are Breath of Fury, Stoneshaker Shaman, and Warp World.

Green

Green was by far the hardest of the five colors to pick cards from, and that was because there were a lot of green cards to choose from.

The creature spells in green are pretty interesting and can play in a variety of play styles and game plans. Luckily there were a couple of creatures that were already chosen, so the one I did end up choosing from the set is probably one of the more infamous creatures from the set.

The noncreature spells were even harder to pick from because there were so many good ones that I really struggled in picking the ones I would think work the best. In the end I chose a way to cheat out a creature in a unique way and one of the most effective ways to get value out of tokens and counters in the game.

My picks for green are Chord of Calling, Doubling Season, and Golgari Grave-Troll.

Multicolored

Now onto the one that I struggled with the most, and that was multicolored cards.

With how the lands and artifacts were looking to shake up, I had to make a tough decision. I knew that at least eight picks were going to the lands and artifacts, fifteen for the individual colors, meaning that I would have seven slots left for multicolor. However there was one artifact that I really wanted to choose, meaning that there would only be six slots left for multicolor.

Since this set focused on two four color Guilds, I would be splitting the multicolor options severely. In the end I thought that in order to be fair, I would choose two more artifacts to take some spots so each multicolor pair has one option.

A tough choice and one I think people may not agree with, but looking at the rest of the block it seems like it will be that way for the rest of the block.

In any case, the cards I chose from this set was a very efficient mill spell, a way to protect all of your things, a creature that’s stronger in an aristocrat strategy, and a very well known removal and life gain spell.

My picks for multicolor are Glimpse the Unthinkable, Privileged Position, Savra, Queen of the Golgari, and Lightning Helix.

Artifacts and Lands

I am grouping these two together because while they have a lot of picks between them, a lot of them function in a similar manner.

The lands will be the easiest to explain, and there were two cycles in this block to choose from. Both are iconic in different ways, so choosing between the two of them was tricky. However one of these cycles does get reprinted in Standard more than the other one, so my choice will be the ones that aren’t reprinted as often.

The artifacts fall in a similar boat because there is a cycle of artifacts for each Guild that are iconic color fixers that work very well in a Cube like this. The other artifact choices include an Equipment that funnels damage to one creature in particular and a unique mana rock that can potentially be used in creative means. The last artifact is a clever combo artifact that I wanted in the Cube and made all those shifts for.

My picks for lands are Dimir Aqueduct, Selesnya Sanctuary, Golgari Rot Farm, and Boros Garrison. My picks for artifacts are Dimir Signet, Selesnya Signet, Golgari Signet, Boros Signet, Cloudstone Curio, Pariah’s Shield, and Spectral Searchlight.

In Conclusion

This was a hard set to pick cards from, and as I mentioned earlier probably the hardest set I had to pick cards for.

When we return to the Magic Super Cube we are going to be taking a look at Guildpact, which while being a smaller set is probably not going to be much easier to pick cards from because they decided to include a cycle of creatures that have a rare creature type associated with them that will make multicolor picks even harder.

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