Wilds of Eldraine has tons of cards that could make it into your cube. Here are some of the most interesting cards that you should consider—as well as a few to avoid.
WHITE
Virtue of Loyalty
In Throne of Eldraine, the best Adventures usually had cheaper Adventure cost than the non-Adventure mode, which makes it easier to play both halves of the card when curving out.
Many of the best adventure cards fit this mold: Bonecrusher Giant, Brazen Borrower, Lovestruck Beast, Rimrock Giant, and Murderous Rider.
This lets those cards act as ETB creatures, like letting Bonecrusher Giant be a great Flametongue Kavu (amongst other things).
A common thread was that the best Adventure cards were those which have a good “base mode” that fill a role that a cube deck wants—at a rate that’s acceptable for cube decks. Unfortunately, the Adventures in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate were toned down dramatically, to the point where a lot of “base modes” weren’t very good.
Like Flashback before it, these cards also effectively “draw” a card when casting the Adventure. Ardenvale Fealty creates a creature toke and “draws” a weird anthem (Virtue of Loyalty), but both sides do work well together as a built-in endgame, as a way to go over the top.
This may be my flashback bias talking, but I’m a fan.
Stroke of Midnight
These kinds of cards always disappoint—the main issue with Beast Within was that a 3/3 isn’t something that can always be ignored, and sometimes, even a 3/3 was still a sizable enough clock to kill you.
Stroke of Midnight allows you to turn something problematic into a body that can be ignored—a 1/1 is far less impactful than a 3/3. You do lose the ability to target your own permanents but that was rarely used cornercase.
Since this leaves a blocker behind, its drawback is relevant for aggressive decks, but I’m cautiously optimistic.
Regal Bunnicorn
A big pile of stats that doesn’t need a lot of help to be bigger than a 3/3, but lacks evasion or protection, although the latter’s understandable with this only costing two mana.
I’m pretty sure that this is on average, between a 3/3 and a 4/4, which isn’t a bad place to be for two mana, especially if your cube has a lot of ways to create bonuses for this bunny (like token generation).
Cheeky House-Mouse
Not a bad Savannah Lions as this can push in damage when big midrange blockers are in the way. Because of how it helps its worst matchup, I’m a fan of this.
Werefox Bodyguard
I mainly have this on the radar since it has flash (<3) and works well *with* wraths since it can cash itself in for a nominal benefit when you follow it up with a wrath later on. It’s certainly the best Fiend Hunter variety outside of Skyclave Apparition!
BLUE
Extraordinary Journey
Thought about this via rythmik’s tweet here—still unsure, but this could be useful as a way to act as a somewhat deferred wrath/way to rebuy your own creatures.
BLACK
Virtue of Persistence
Sorcery speed knocks this down a few pegs for archetypes like Dimir, but the upsides—a built-in end-game goal via Debtors’ Knell and a bit of life gain—make me optimistic that this will punch in the same weight class, if not slightly below, the old two-mana instant removal guard.
Beseech the Mirror
Dark Petition in a shell that can be played in decks that aren’t just combo and Bargain plays best in decks with a lot of fodder. We aren’t seeing many cubes with the likes of Reassembling Skeleton and Pox anymore (because, honestly, they just weren’t very good) but there’s still plenty of cannon fodder in black via token generators and artifacts that aren’t doing anything better.
My gut is that this will be harder to make a Bargain than I think, but tutoring + playing a card for 4 mana looks to be worth it, considering how good mana cheat can be.
Lord Skitter, Sewer King
This is Rabblemaster…ish, although the tokens not having haste generally makes them less Rabblemaster tokens and more Ophiomancer tokens—and usually those aren’t as good as they look. That said, incidental graveyard hate never hurts.
Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator
When cards like Lolth, Spider Queen make this look bad…yeeeeeeesh.
Rankle’s Prank
My concern with this is that slow Black decks generally don’t care about the non-Barter in Blood modes on Rankle’s Prank.
Tangled Colony
Black aggro filler is filler.
RED
Hearth Elemental
I like this more than Invasion of Mercadia since you can cast it while hellbent and draw two, giving it some nice playability in decks that dump their hand quickly.
Once cast (or if you just need it), this can be cast as a generally under-curve creature—having only two instants/sorceries/adventures in the graveyard makes this fine on-rate, and it just gets better from there, acting like a Bedlam Reveler.
Charming Scoundrel
A 2/2 haste for two, and thankfully Wicked Role’s ping-on-death works towards Red’s burn game plan, but it still feels underwhelming by 2023 creature standards. Its other modes do help, though, for when a 2/2 for two is outclassed.
Embereth Veteran
You’ll know if you need another 2/1 for one. Young Hero is the worst Role class, and cashing it in doesn’t really help for board stalls, but it’s at least a deterrent for killing it; I still don’t think this is great, though.
Virtue of Courage
I’m less high on this than the White/Black Virtues because of its enchantment mode being pretty middling and its Adventure mode being okay (for the most part, it’s Bonecrusher Giant’s Stomp) since the enchantment works best with other burn that you’ve likely already cast. I can see this working out because, if anything, it helps to cascade burn into burn, but being limited to that turn makes that harder to pull off.
GREEN
Virtue of Strength
Previously, I discussed how Lorien Revealed was good solely on the landcycling rate of one, and its “kicker” was fine enough for it to be good. Indeed, it was. As Sandwurmfood pointed out, this follows in a similar vein since we haven’t had a Raise Dead/Land for G either.
Depending on how many fetchlands you have in a deck, you may not be adventuring this out on Turn 1, but that’s okay, given the flexibility of this for the long game. While Nature’s Spiral effects never really did much in cube, this is the cheapest we’ve seen it and I’m excited to cube it, even if the 5GG mode is mostly useless.
Stormkeld Vanguard
Naturalizes have historically been tagged as “cube cards due to the high power of artifacts in cubes, but I’m less high on this because of how clunky it is being both a sorcery speed Naturalize and the creature being 6 mana.
Up the Beanstalk
The value on this is dependent on how much value your average cube decks can get from this (I usually say 6+ hits for a card like this)—cards like evoke elementals can help make this a potential build-around.
Feral Encounter
Having to play the creature the same turn you case Feral Encounter adversely impacts its ability to be played early (can’t use it early, have to have enough mana to play it as well as the creature that turn) making it questionable inclusion in your cube.
“MULTICOLOR” ADVENTURES
The best three “multicolor” adventure creatures all have one running theme going: lots of cards.
Decadent Dragon
Decadent Dragon’s 2B mode emulates Bonecrusher Giant’s Stomp, by being a card that can be played right on curve before deploying the creature – I’ve always enjoyed cards that let you choose from an opponent’s deck to cover potential weaknesses that your deck may have (snagging a timely Shatter effect if you forgot to pick one up) and not having to play the cards that turn is a big help.
Mosswood Dreadknight
Mosswood Dreadknight grinds forever!
Questing Druid
Questing Druid’s adventure effectively draws three for 1R, even though one of them is Quirion Dryad—a relatively under-statted creature by 2023 standards, but still fine.
Elusive Otter
The juice on this is a cheap prowess card that gets around chump blocks, but it’s nice to have a buff that isn’t dead on an empty board as well, even if it’s below rate.
Frolicking Familiar
R for one damage is okay, and its place in your cube mostly depends on how useful that effect is since it can range from being worth an actual card if killing an X/1 vs being something to finish something off (being worth a partial card.)
Heartflame Duelist
A somewhat-Bonecrusher that misses out on the curve-out game plan. Arguably, Carbonize is worse than Glacial Ray and the Heartflame Duelist side is worse, too. Still, it’s a Flametongue Kavu that burns for three!
Scalding Viper
Much more of an Eidolon of the Great Revel at home than a Brazen Borrower, this mostly plays in the Izzet tempo decks and/or as a fine beater in Red aggro; because of the latter, I like this.
Twining Twins
A pretty weak Adventure-side but the body’s surprisingly good; reactive spells are better as they get cheaper, and the difference between one and two mana for a blink is enormous. That said, the body may be worth it.
Cruel Somnophage
Without the Blue side, this needs about three creatures in graveyards to be on-rate (and counting casting the Blue side, arguably closer to five.) Depending on creature density, that may not be too hard.
Callous Sell-Sword
Having a fling that’s good against counterspells is nice, but being bad against spot removal makes it overall worse. It’s hard to curve out with, but it’s nice that this Fling is at least not totally dead when your board is clear.
Devouring Sugarmaw
It has been a while since a creature that requires constant sacrifice has been good; this brings some fodder for itself, but I’m unsure that it’s enough—although two swings with an evasive 6/6 just get there.
Kellan, the Fae-Blooded
More a Godo, Bandit Warlord than a Stoneforge Mystic, but it’s a decent creature if you have to run it out/don’t need more pants. Relatively mid-tier.
MULTICOLOR
Talion, the Kindly Lord
I’m optimistic since 1-3 are great hits; you can name something like 2 and have it act as a must-kill threat. Having it eat a bolt and draw you a card for a sorcery-speed four-mana card may not be worth it, in your meta, though.
Ash, Party Crasher and Ruby, Daring Tracker
Both of these look unassuming but I think they have some potential as they’re a couple of 2-mana beaters that can punch *well* above their weight class if things go right. Still, I think their anemic bodies may not be enough.
Likeness Looter
I like this less than Rona, Herald of Invasion, which doesn’t have to be played in Dimir. Still, I’m digging these looters with late-game upside, and having effectively a Lazav, the Multifarious ability with evasion is nice.
The Goose Mother
We have Hydroid Krasis at home—not drawing cards until you start attacking is a big downside for something that you’re tapping out for.
ARTIFACTS
Syr Ginger, Meal Ender
Even without hating Planeswalkers, this is fine filler that can get big if your cube sports things like spheres/stars or other artifact beaters.
The Irencrag
Anyone who’s played a Prismatic Lens can say that having an ETB untapped mana rock for two mana, even if colorless, is fine since oftentimes you just need to get to four mana.
I’m slightly optimistic about the “transform” trigger since it can be useful late game, when a Vulshok Battlegear/Godsend is more useful than an unneeded mana rock when you don’t need extra mana and when that’s the case, the equipment’s inefficiency isn’t going to matter that much since The Irencrag’s usefulness has waned.
LANDS
“Restless” lands
Lands that enter the battlefield tapped are generally worse than their non-tapped varieties, but these are priced better to move than the old Battle for Zendikar ones like Lumbering Falls, with the only loser being Restless Fortress to Shambling Vent and for the most part, they’re pretty cheap to activate to get in chip damage.
In the next article, I’ll discuss this and The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Commander hits for cube!
If there are card(s) here that you were hoping were here but aren’t, hit me up for discussion via the links in my Linktree.