Okay, I’ve waited long enough. Let’s get this cube update out and official-like.

The fact is, Eventide is not a very powerful set. While it does feature some powerful hybrid cards with which to fill out the Hybrid section of the cube, there’s not much beyond that. Let’s get started!

As for the mono-color additions, I’ll cover them all here:

White Drops: Radiant’s Judgment, Final Judgement, Serra Angel

White Adds: Archon of Justice, Hallowed Burial, Light from Within

The mono colored update certainly favored white. White got a whopping three cards, with almost pure upgrades in each case. Serra Angel stats but it removes a permanent when they kill it? Archon of Justice is certainly the choice in terms of power level. Final Judgement removed creatures from the game, but to get around the same goes-to-the-graveyard shenanigans, Hallowed Burial is a much more reasonable choice at just five mana. Lastly the narrow Radiant’s Judgment was replaced with Light from Within, allowing the White Weenie and W/G Aggro archetypes to take advantage of all of their intensive mana costs as well as the new Hybrid cards added to the cube.

Blue Drops: Rishadan Airship

Blue Adds: Wake Thrasher

This update is almost a pure upgrade. The Airship was meant to give Blue an evasive, aggro edge, but hasn’t proven itself worthy. Wake Thrasher, a monster that gets bigger each turn as you play bigger and more powerful spells, is a definite inclusion instead.

And that’s it for the mono color updates. The only other card I was thinking of including is Puncture Blast, as a Wither direct damage spell is certainly useful. But in the end, I’d rather have the burn spells in the cube’s current arsenal.

In the Multicolor sections, Debtors’ Knell was moved and replaced with Death Grasp, while Izzet Guildmage worked its way out (as it was Hybrid) and in came Invoke the Firemind. In Artifacts I also dropped Lurebound Scarecrow for the more utility based Fellwar Stone.

Let’s cover the Hybird update.

W/B Adds: Debtors’ Knell (moved), Deathbringer Liege, Divinity of Pride, Stillmoon Cavalier, Unmake

Gotta love the power that is added to both White Weenie (Cavalier, Unmake), Mono Black Control (Knell, Divinity of Pride, Unmake), and B/W Control and Aggro (Liege, Unmake of course). Stillmoon Cavalier has proven itself many times over in the tournament arena, and Unamke is one of the best removal spells period. One for one, thank you very much.

G/B Adds: Cankerous Thirst, Creakwood Liege, Deity of Scars, Rendclaw Troll, Sapling the Colfenor

Some very interesting hybrids here. Cankerous Thirst may seem a bit underpowered, but in the Rock cube archetype it can lead to quite the blowout, particularly against any weenie strategy. Deity is huge in its respective mono color builds (mono Green aggro, Mono Black control, etc). Rendclaw Troll may get some funny looks, but who wants to block it? It goes in a variety of decks, kills any fatty, and is perfect for equipment. Sapling is the wildcard here. I wasn’t really happy with any other G/B Hybrid option and chose Sapling to see if I could make her work.

R/U Adds: Crackleburr, Dominus of Fealty, Noggle Hedge-Mage, Nucklavee, Shrewd Hatchling

Ah yes, the Red and Blue. Counter and Burn (er, vice versa). I like these cards a lot. Crackleburr may be awful in constructed, but in Mono Red cube drafts he is a house. Dominus of Fealty is another all-star in Mono Red and Mono Blue builds, Noggle Hedge-Mage helps out the tempo-based blue and the burn-based red decks, Nucklavee gives you the lock with Cryptic Command, and Shrewd Hatchling looks like a kick ass four drop in Mono Red.

R/W Adds: Duergar Hedge-Mage, Figure of Destiny, Fire at Will, Rise of the Hobgoblins, Spitemare

Figure of Destiny was in here about four seconds after he was spoiled, I love the versatility of the Hedge-Mage, Fire at Will is a blowout against a weenie decks of any sort, Rise of the Hobgoblins is a nice White/Blue control card, and who blocks Spitemare? Nobody, that’s who.

U/G Adds: Cold-Eyed Selkie, Overbeing of Myth, Snakeform, Spitting Image, Wistful Selkie

Blue/Green isn’t terribly exciting a combination in the cube, but those who do generally get rewarded. Mystic Snake, alone, is some good. Cold-Eyed Selkie will be unblockable more often than not, while Overbeing of Myth seems pretty solid in Mono Blue Control (particularly in conjunction with Aeon Chronicler). Snakeform is a super trump to all of the best monsters, Spitting Image gives you copies of said monsters, and Wistful Selkie is a solid three drop in either mono mix of green or blue, or in the G/U counter stuff and play huge monsters archetype.

Overall not the most powerful cards that could be put in the cube, but certainly a huge number of archetypes got improvements and versatility thanks to the new hybrid additions. I certainly had fun with my cube thanks to Eventide and I hope you do the same.

Until next time, when Shards of Alara gets a nice long look. I think it’s time to open up the cube even more, as our multicolor options grow and grow. But we’ll discuss that next time.