Eventide Additions to the Cube

Today's post comes in the form of a poll. For each enemy color pair, rate the top five cards. What are the criteria you should use to evaluate these cards, you ask? Let's go with a mix of Constructed power level and Limited playability. A composite of both formats, if you will. This exercise is of course for determining the new class of additions to the Cube, a Limited format with power levels closer to Constructed. A gander at the current list of multicolor cards reveals that only about three cards from each enemy color pair will probably make the cut (some pairs will have more, others less), but listing the top five will help to delineate which cards are best over all. Post your picks in the comments. I'll do so too, in case you want to preserve your own opinions prior to seeing anyone else's.

Gwyllion (W/B)
Batwing Brume
Beckon Apparition
Bloodied Ghost
Cauldron Haze
Deathbringer Liege
Divinity of Pride
Edge of the Divinity
Evershrike
Gwyllion Hedge-Mage
Harvest Gwyllion
Nightsky Mimic
Nip Gwyllion
Pyrrhic Revival
Restless Apparition
Stillmoon Cavalier
Unmake
Voracious Hatchling
Duergar (W/R)
Balefire Liege
Battlegate Mimic
Belligerent Hatchling
Double Cleave
Duergar Assailant
Duergar Hedge-Mage
Duergar Mine-Captain
Figure of Destiny
Fire at Will
Hearthfire Hobgoblin
Hobgoblin Dragoon
Moonhold
Nobilis of War
Rise of the Hobgoblins
Scourge of the Nobilis
Spitemare
Waves of Aggression

Noggle (U/R)
Call the Skybreaker
Clout of the Dominus
Crackleburr
Crag Puca
Dominus of Fealty
Inside Out
Mindwrack Liege
Mirror Sheen
Noggle Bandit
Noggle Bridgebreaker
Noggle Hedge-Mage
Noggle Ransacker
Nucklavee
Riverfall Mimic
Shrewd Hatchling
Stream Hopper
Unnerving Assault

Selkie, and/or Kelpie (U/G)
Cold-Eyed Selkie
Fable of Wolf and Owl
Favor of the Overbeing
Gilder Bairn
Grazing Kelpie
Groundling Pouncer
Invert the Skies
Murkfiend Liege
Overbeing of Myth
Selkie Hedge-Mage
Shorecrasher Mimic
Slippery Bogle
Snakeform
Spitting Image
Sturdy Hatchling
Trapjaw Kelpie
Wistful Selkie

Um, Hag? No... Trow! Trow! (B/G)
Canker Abomination
Cankerous Thirst
Creakwood Liege
Deity of Scars
Desecrator Hag
Doomgape
Drain the Well
Gift of the Deity
Hag Hedge-Mage
Noxious Hatchling
Odious Trow
Quillspike
Rendclaw Trow
Sapling of Colfenor
Stalker Hag
Woodlurker Mimic
Worm Harvest

Mono Colored Monoliths
There will also be a few mono colored cards that break into the Cube from Eventide. I expect this list to be brief, given the overall power level of the Cube. Here are the mono-colored Eventide cards I think might have at least a shot.

White
Archon of Justice
Ballynock Trapper
Cenn's Enlistment
Endless Horizons
Hallowed Burial

Blue
Cache Raiders
Glen Elendra Archmage
Wake Thrasher
Black
Ashling, the Extinguisher
Raven's Crime
Soul Snuffers
Soul Reap
Umbra Stalker

Red
Flame Jab
Puncture Blast
Heartlash Cinder
Outrage Shaman
Stigma Lasher

Green
Aerie Ouphes
Bloom Tender
Primalcrux
Talara's Battalion

Some of these are dubious, but I wanted to cast a wide enough net that I wouldn't be accused of missing great cards. I still probably have. The only cards that seem guaranteed are Archon of Justice, Puncture Blast, and maybe the Wake Thrasher or Glen Elendra Archmage. Eventide seems really juiced in terms of White mono-colored cards, and I expect to see more of them make the cut. I think Ashling, the Extinguisher also looks like an absolute blowout, even if she only connects once, but I've never played with her, so I'm not making any predictions.

In non-Magic news, what I had chalked up to a bad joke over at Penny Arcade is apparently either deadly serious or a long, Family Guy-esque drawn out punchline that ceases to be funny long before it ends (I'll guess the latter). Witness "Bogey Golf, Part Two of Thirty." (Totally NSFW.) So I can only assume that they've finally gone insane, since the punchline is not only boring but also not at all about golf. Wait, that last thing is a positive.

(CW)TS out.

Okay, dog fucking is a little bit funny.

How to Top 8 without much effort

So I'm a luck sack (not a big surprise). For the second time in the last two plus years, I manage to top 8 at a release event at GU. I'd like to think is was pure luck, but having not gone to the Prerelease nor spending much time looking @ the set (I didn't even look at the preview cards until after the prerelese).

My success goes back to something Brian Bomberger once said to me, several years ago, at my first release event at GU. "Sealed deck is all about removal and evasion. Play as much or both as you can muster, and you should do just fine." Since then I've taken that advice to heart and have generally been able to build better then average decks with only average sealed pools.

Like the rest of life, being successful at sealed deck is about playing to the strengths that you have and learning from your mistakes (It also doesn't hurt to get a pool that lends itself to one stand out build). For the record, I did go 4-0-2 in the Swiss, but got hammered by Swiz in the finals by never seeing a two drop in either game (also note that in triple Eventide draft, Red-Blue on the play is amazing as it's mimic is unblockable and red has one mana removal for other mimics).

Well, until next time, may the mana gods not hate you.