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Why Doesn’t the New MTGO Legacy Cube Have More KTK Cards?

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I covered the update to the Magic Online Cube recently, but I only just recently went over the new list in depth. By my count*, there are only nine cards in the new cube list from Khans of Tarkir. As someone who has drafted cubes many times, I wouldn't have minded seeing more new cards to mess around with in the format.

*Disclaimer: Because the list is not sortable by set, this was done by literally counting the cards, and it's quite possible I missed a couple.

The cards added to the list are the following:

Cards from KTK Added to MTGO Cube

White

Blue

Black

Red

Multicolored

I don't disagree with any of the cards above. What I disagree with are the omissions. In my opinion, the MTGO Cube should place a special emphasis on trying out new cards. From WOTC's perspective, this is a way to maintain focus on the new set, even in a format like Cube. From a player's perspective, I want to play with the new cards and see how good they are in my favorite format. It seems like it should be a no-brainer, but nine cards out of 600 is only 1.5 percent.

What other cards from Khans of Tarkir should have been included? Let's check out a few possibilities.

White

heraldofanafenza

I like that Herald of Anafenza can be just another one-drop in an aggro deck (though not a great attacker until turn four), but can also be a win condition for a grindy control deck. This isn't overwhelmingly powerful, but I would have liked to test it out.

masterofpearls

It's often not very hard to figure out what morphs your opponent is playing in Cube, and I was looking forward to increasing the number of possibilities with KTK. Unfortunately, only Ashcloud Phoenix was added, which is a shame. This would have been a good one for white weenie decks, which seem like they got a lot more support in this iteration.

suspensionfield

This should have been included based on power level, but its omission is defensible given that the list includes Banishing Light, Oblivion Ring, and Journey to Nowhere.

wingmateroc

Wingmate Roc could go either way, since there's only room for so many five-drops, but it would have been a cool one to try out.

Blue

cleverimpersonator

If we're ever going to clone a planeswalker in Limited, it's going to happen in Cube. Why not give us the opportunity?

mistfireweaver

This could have really messed with the Voidmage Prodigy/Willbender dichotomy, but I guess R&D opted to just remove all three.

treasurecruise

It's a little shocking that this was omitted. Come on, Wizards. Drawing cards is a beautiful thing, so let me do more of it.

Black

deaddrop

The mana cost may just be too high even with delve, but this seems like it has potential in Cube and it would have been cool to try to make it work.

emptythepits

What a great build-around-me that was just completely ignored. Bummer. This is another card that will probably only be played to good effect in Limited in Cube, but you'll have to save that for your kitchen table.

marduskullhunter

Black aggro gets a ton of support in this list, with many different one-drops to boot. There's a good chance this is just too weak, but with so many black one-drops, Mardu Skullhunter may be better than it looks.

Red

There's a couple of close ones, particularly Jeering Instigator, but I'm basically okay with red. Note that four red cards were added to the MTGO list from KTK, where the other colors got between zero and two cards.

Green

Green is the color that got zero new cards from KTK. It's hard to justify that when we have these options:

heirofthewild

This is such a solid card. There's no reason to add Seeker of the Way and not add Heir of the Wilds. I might go so far as to say Heir is just better.

hoodedhyrda

Another morph that could have muddied up the unknown-information waters, and worth including on power level, too. This is a surprising and disappointing omission.

rattleclawmystic

I just thought this was a snap-include, but with so many turn-one mana dorks and Lotus Cobra as competition, maybe it's just not? It's on deck for inclusion in my own cube with its next update, that's for sure.

Multicolored

With so few slots for three-color spells, I'm not as aghast at the only multicolored KTK card being Sorin, Solemn Visitor. You just can't make room for three-color charms and Mantis Riders. Maybe Sagu Mauler is worthy of consideration, but it's probably not good enough.

Lands

No new lands here, but considering the Onslaught fetches were already included, that's not a huge surprise. The tri-lands might have been worth a try, but without a strong three-color theme, they may be too weak. There's not a good set of lands to cut, so unless WOTC had wanted to make room for ten more lands, they may just not have a place.

The new MTGO Cube looks great—a huge improvement over the last few iterations. Just a few more cards from Khans of Tarkir would have been nice, and the ones above seem like a good place to start. Any that both WOTC and I have omitted that you think are arguable includes? Sound off below.

One thought on “Why Doesn’t the New MTGO Legacy Cube Have More KTK Cards?

  1. I do agree that green deserved an inclusion. But I don;t agree that the newest set should be ‘over-represented.’ I don;t play cube to test out new cards, but to enjoy top hits from 20 years of magic.

    I like this version, although I think red aggro is still too strong (I am 6-0 with red, one of those was in a draft I started on blue-white but got cut off and only got into red late in pack 1 but even then I had no problem to assemble a winning deck. Red is so great because it can make combo’s out of 13th picks.. Example: I got a battlecry creature 13th pick and then a card that makes X creatures with haste for RX mana last pick in the next pack. Those won me two games. Red is full of cards that are quite weak on their own but work great together. the only games I lost were when people did unfair things like turn 3 sneak attack into an Eldrazi.

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