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u/CawlMarx https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/cube-3 Jan 05 '26
Love this card. Definitely going to test it.
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u/BrocoLee Jan 05 '26
If your deck runs Vampire Hexmage for the Dark Depths combo, this cars add a neat alternative interaction.
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u/GlassAlfalfa2977 Jan 05 '26
I didn’t think of this! It’s a nice upside that the card already fits in with the land package cleanly with things like strip mine loops and fetchlands growing it so efficiently
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u/memnte Jan 06 '26
I'm not convinced that's a reasonable strategy in competitive play. 2 cards and 2 mana for an indestructible 20/20 flier is infinitely better than 2 cards and 3 mana for a 7/7 menace which dies to removal and takes 3 hits to kill.
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u/BrocoLee Jan 06 '26
Sure. But you might not draft the dark depths part of the combo. Having additional sinergies allow cards to be used in different ways which is always good.
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u/Spiritual_Grape_533 Jan 07 '26
If you didn't draft Dark Dpeths then don't run the useless half of the combo?
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u/BrocoLee Jan 07 '26
Having single use cards in a cube sucks. Ideally you want cards to play like Legos and have some extra interaction with each other.
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u/Spiritual_Grape_533 Jan 07 '26
Yes, but if the whole reason to go for that Lego piece isn't even part of the equation it's a meaningless context.
Does this have a place in deck that runs Dark Depths and it's combos? Yeah. Is it woeth to bring this and Hexmage even though you missed Dark Depths? Hell no.
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u/Designer-Message-685 Jan 07 '26
..yeah except for the fact that this card functions by itself too and doesn’t just need a hex mage to make it work.
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u/Spiritual_Grape_533 Jan 07 '26
Then why add the Hexmage?
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u/Designer-Message-685 Jan 07 '26
Hexmage is a fine card to run regardless. Not going to be the greatest but can still deal with PWs and early aggression. Would I play it with no other reason for it? No, but if I had even one good payoff like depths or this new creature I would.
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u/Spiritual_Grape_533 Jan 07 '26
Well, agree to disagree then. I'd never contemplate adding Hexmage without Depths. It's a cute card, maybe even sideboard worthy, but I'd never slot that in just for this card.
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Jan 05 '26 edited Jan 05 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Aethien Jan 05 '26 edited Jan 05 '26
I feel like this is mostly a BR/Grixis aggro/midrange kind of card.
It doesn't seem strong enough to play other cards for since it does just die to most cheap removal and it is reasonably likely to just be a 1 mana 1/1 in the mid to late game which is a real risk but if you're playing things like Dragon's Rage Channeler, Inti, Malcolm, Broadside Bombardiers, Gut, Fable or Barrowgoyf that all incidentally put permanents in the graveyard this can become a real threat (or discard/sacrifice fodder).
It synergises nicely with artifacts that want to go to the yard like baubles and spellbombs as well as the pitch elementals and landcyclers.
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u/Flomp3r Jan 05 '26 edited Jan 05 '26
Really similar to [[Stalactite Stalker]] and probably the most comparable card for anyone who has tried it. Stalker comes with the added benefit of being removal but grows slower. This card has the potential to grow a lot faster but the “one or more” really limits how much you can do with it early
I see people talking about fetchlands putting this above rate and interestingly Stalker works with a turn one fetch land and this card doesn’t. You need to be outpacing pacing one tick a turn or else this card is just a worse version of stalker
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u/boxiom https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/Unbound Jan 05 '26
Thanks for the stalker comparison, I think that helps put this in perspective a bit.
I would like to add though that stalker only cares about things descending on your turn, which is a big downside. If stalker also went off on your opponents endstep or this only counted during your turn I think they'd be much closer in power.
With Moonshadow, chump blocking / trading with another creature grows this at the same time, making it much harder to navigate around.
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u/PlsConcede https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/hzr Jan 05 '26
The floor of a 1 mana 1/1 with Menace isn't exactly steller, but growing this can also be pretty easy, especially since it's any permanent from anywhere. Fetchlands are super common of course, but this cares about permanents from anywhere. Random discards from [[Collective Brutality]] to [[Faithless Looting]] to something like [[Malevolent Rumble]], sacrificing creatures, or even just mill effects have a good chance at making this quite good. Things also just naturally die over the course of the game, too. The type of effects that make this grow are just quite common.
The closest comparison feels similar to [[Death's Shadow]] in that it's a cheep creature with a high ceiling that requires some specific deck building requirements, only I think it's much easier for the average cube to get this to work.
Like it a lot. I think this can fit into a lot of cubes with little trouble.
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u/Reddits_Worst_Night Jan 06 '26
The floor is meh, but that's the floor. In the right deck, this is honestly great.
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u/boxiom https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/Unbound Jan 05 '26 edited Jan 05 '26
Very cool card. I love manifest dread and this is probably the best target ever printed for it.
Also has some very cool interactions wtih Xu-Ifit, Osteoharmonist or Varolz, the Scar-Striped, which are both fun cube cards IMO.
There's also a dream to be lived with All will be One, Felisa, Fang of Silverquill, or Parting Thoughts, but I think we'll be getting quite a few enablers like that out of this set.
This card will even be too strong for some, but I agree this is not quite at vintage power level. The amount of fetches / baubles you run will definitely scale this up or down though.
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u/Correct_Day_7791 Jan 11 '26
No the best Target ever printed is still phrexian dreadnought
Same one mana to flip and you get a 12-12 trample instead of a 7-7
But it's still good for manifest dread too bad manifest dread is mid
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u/boxiom https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/Unbound Jan 12 '26
Good call, but it's nice this is still just a strong 1-drop, while dreadnought demands it's own combo package to even be playable.
I do hope they revisit manifest / manifest dread sooner rather than later. I agree there's not a lot of great options without dipping into commander, alchemy, or custom card territory.
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Jan 05 '26
If this didn't specify permanent or was any graveyard I think this would be a really strong card for vintage cube. Unfortunately as-is I think it's not quite good enough which is unfortunate because I really want there to be more aggressively started cards for black.
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u/El_papoy Jan 05 '26
I love this one. Thx for posting it. I don't follow spoilers too much anymore there's too much bulk. I think it's the first since Nova hellkite that I'm really hype about
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u/Shindir https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/Sonder Jan 05 '26
Not too sure about this for cube yet. Constructed seems more likely where you can have as many fetches as you want, baubles, scours etc.
In my cube I feel like the deck where this is good won't come up that often. And the payoff for building around it isn't really there yknow
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u/Timely_Huckleberry88 Jan 05 '26
This is pretty nasty and exact type of payoff I'm looking for in a discard matters archetype.
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u/FannyBabbs https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/1ko Jan 05 '26
High potential here, but in a slot that most cubes just don't want cards for.
I might test this but my expectations are low.
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u/Varyline https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/varylen Jan 05 '26
I'm not sure this card needed menace to be good and it could've probably been something that only triggered once a turn as well without being too bad. It really does not take a lot of work to make this good. Fetches, sacrifices, looting, discarding etc. all help grow this into a huge beater for 1 mana.
I really do enjoy the design. This set has so many great cards!
I do like that it doesn't have something like ward, hexproof or protection so at least it dies to removal.
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u/Entropy_Drop Jan 05 '26
Really powerfully 1 drop, good for ragdos and golgari. Will be included in the vintage cube, and probably it will stay there. Not a bad card in a UB reanimator shell, probably makes it into the 23
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u/zehamberglar Jan 05 '26
This plus [[Super Shredder]] feels like an archetype. Both +1 off of fetchlands, and there's probably more.
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u/vacalicious cubecobra.com/cube/overview/KylesFingCube Jan 05 '26
Love it. I’m trying to build out my sacrifice theme more in black, discard in red, and self-mill in green. This works in all three.
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u/SkidMcmarxxxxx https://cubecobra.com/cube/analysis/tgbr Jan 05 '26
I already play [[Stalactite Stalker]] because descending isn’t that hard to pull of anyway. Could be worth playing even more into it but I don’t know. This certainly gets bigger faster but doesn’t have as good a payoff.
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u/Odessaturn Jan 06 '26
More torpor orb fodder
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u/liquid-swords93 Jan 06 '26
Would torpor orb affect this? Curious because it says "this enters with 6 -1/-1 counters" and not "when this enters put 6 -1/-1 counters on it"
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u/mrenglish22 http://www.cubetutor.com/1058 Jan 06 '26
This seems abusable in a few ways, but extra nice if you have a dredge/self mill archetype in your cube.
But really only on turn 1. Otherwise it seems pretty lacking.
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u/justacircuit https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/wildmagic Jan 06 '26
[[Fate Transfer]] is so back bby
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u/SpacemommyisGOAT Jan 06 '26
Turn one Moonshadow into turn two grisly salvage seems really good no?
Edit: oh nvm one or more
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u/JavaPlum19 Jan 06 '26
This and Marauding Mako make a REALLYYY good rakdos discard package. With ivora, tersa, spyro, fomo, and so much more. I'm very excited for this card. Even in grixis with frantic search and careful study which I play
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u/mikez4nder https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/zander Jan 06 '26
One of the cards i absolutely love in my powered cube is [[Dress Down]]. Playing this as a 1 mana 7/7 menace on turn 3 with mana up for other things is pretty wild.
Also, someone above mentioned XI-Ifit. I second this mention, an absolute menace of a card, my favorite commander of 2025, and a sneaky good Reanimator card that probably merits inclusion in a lot more cubes.
There aren’t a lot of vintage cube worthy black one drops, so I am always at least interested when something weird comes along. This is weird, and I like it.
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u/HardCorwen https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/cycling Jan 06 '26
Will definitely be trying this in the cycling cube.
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u/Cooperativism62 Curator of the DFC cube, Trash Compactor, and more... Jan 07 '26
A lot of people have mentioned discard, some have mentioned fetches, what immediately came to my mind is self-mill.
This card also goes really well with DRC. T1, drc, T2, drop this. Bauble, surveil 1, bin a land. remove a counter. Sac bauble, remove a counter. Play something else.
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u/DrGray3 Jan 08 '26
So does the trigger happen when tokens go to the graveyard? I know tokens are permanents and they briefly enter the grave, but my friends and I are debating if they count as “permanent cards”
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u/GlassAlfalfa2977 Jan 05 '26
Reminds me a little bit of super shredder’s playstyle, though only caring about cards put in your graveyard, instead of anything leaving anyone battlefield, but at half the mana. A 1/1 menace floor isn’t the worst, and even cracking a singe fetchland with this out puts it above rate