While we’ve previously talked about the most-Cubed new cards of the year, 2023 was such a full year of new products that the list missed some of the more interesting cards, some of which barely saw any conversation around them!

As is often the case, some of the most novel cards for Cube of any variety are from the direct-to-eternal sets, something that’s particularly been true in an era where Commander is the most popular format in Magic’s line-up and receives affectionate design attention in kind. 

Today, we’ll go through some of 2023’s least-Cubed cards (sub-500 lists on Cube Cobra, as of January 1st) that I think are worth your while.

Legolas’s Quick Reflexes (263 Cubes)

Easily the highest-powered card on the list, Legolas’s Quick Reflexes is the ultimate green toolkit card. Green decks have a tendency to gum up the board, and there’s never been a better way in the color to get rid of the opposition at one mana — or even at two! 

There are two main modes here. First, Legolas’s Quick Reflexes is an incredibly mana efficient way to kill an opponent’s creature in a way that gives them little opportunity to react: your creature is going to get hexproof no matter what, and unless they can pump/bounce their own creature, it’s going to die. The second primary play pattern, representing probably 20% of uses, is to give your creature instant-speed hexproof, protecting it from an opposing kill spell.

Need to block a flyer? No, that’s probably not what we’re using this card for, but sure, you can do that too. 

While you avoid some of the blow-out potential of a fight or bite spell thanks to the guaranteed hexproof, the remaining downsides of this card are obvious. You still need three things: a creature that’s able to attack or tap itself this turn, a creature with greater power than the toughness of whatever you want dead, and an otherwise beneficial attack with said creature. It may be much “safer” than a bite/fight spell, but its parameters for when you can use it are quite narrow. That said, I would anticipate this card making it into a great many powerful Cubes over the years, and think its minimal play so far is mostly due to its near-exclusivity with a gift box set.

The Bottom-Line: Legolas’s Quick Reflexes is the most powerful “bite” / “fight” spell ever printed, giving green a chance to run cheap removal that doubles as protection.

Frost Fair Lure Fish (85 Cubes)

This is not the only Universes Beyond: Doctor Who card on the list, and that’s not too surprising. Cube is a format where you only need to include the cards that you enjoy, and as we examined in a previous article, Doctor Who only overlaps with approximately 10% of the Magic community. All the same, if one is willing to get past the horrid frame on Universes Beyond cards at large, this giant Izzet finisher feels more at home in the typical Cube list than its other alien friends from the BBC franchise, aesthetically at least. 

For seven mana, which will often be paid across two turns, you get nine power of hasty fish spread out over three bodies that are unable to be blocked by the most prevalent creature type in Magic, and two treasure tokens as a bonus! The amount of value packed in its ETB ability alone makes the fish worth paying attention to as a respectable Sneak Attack option, but the Foretell ability gives your average control or midrange deck a totally reasonable chance to play it the same turn as you would otherwise be able to cast a Goldspan Dragon, but promises even more damage. The two-color cost on the card also means its more likely to be a reward for drafters in Izzet or Grixis, and you won’t be competing with aggro decks to pick it up.

My only real complaints with the card are two-fold. First, it requires a bespoke token that only adds to the token-creep that plagues many of our token boxes. Second, there’s no printing with reminder text for Foretell, a mechanic that’s no longer in my Cube otherwise and is not familiar to the average player in my playgroup. This second point was nearly enough to hinder its inclusion in my own 720, so I wouldn’t blame folks for passing on it for that reason, but purely on power-level, I’d consider this one of the best cards Izzet has to offer in even the strongest of Cubes. 

The Bottom-Line: Frost Fair Lure Fish is a top-tier control finisher for Izzet that also plays well in reanimator, Sneak Attack/Show and Tell, and 3/4-color midrange piles. 

Themberchaud (111 Cubes)

2023 had just two Secret Lair drops featuring mechanically-unique cards. The first of which was a collaboration with the other major Wizards of the Coast brand’s big theatrical release, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and Themberchaudwas the “bonus” card not revealed when the set first went up for pre-order. It ended up becoming quite pricey on its own — more expensive on the secondary market than the entirety of the drop — so unless someone was interested in having a Chris Pine-led deck to begin with, this is simply a hard card to come by!

In recent years, I’ve found seeding a few one-card archetype enablers to add a compelling layer of replayability to my Cube nights. Themberchaud does this wonderfully, by telling drafters clearly to “draft this in a mostly red deck, preferably with more dragons”. It’s a simple but exciting ask, and the power level of the card rewards the build-around component aptly.

Big Red, an archetype that looks to ramp with into impressive spells while keeping the board clear with damage-based sweepers and/or targeted burn, has long been an interesting tier ~1.5 deck in even the most power-motivated Cubes, with Wildfire as a favorite build-around for curators such as wtwlf123. While Themberchaud may occasionally be a non-bo with many of the current favorites from that archetype, I think he can just as easily be a positive addition, or make waves in less-powerful versions of it.

I don’t anticipate seeing Themberchaud in the most aggressive of powered lists, but if your Cube has room for a build-around that will delight all, I can’t help but recommend it.

The Bottom-Line: Themberchaud is a single-card archetype enabler that incentives novel draft strategies and gives an extra direction for Wildfire-styled strategies to take. 

Chivalric Alliance (437 Cubes)

While it may have found its way into more lists than the rest of the cards discussed here, Chivalric Alliance is a gem of a card, serving as a gorgeous intersection between aggressive decks, graveyard matters, and creature tokens. While it can be reasonably compared to the colorless Horn of the Mark, the flexibility found in Chivalric Alliance is profound. Discard outlets and repeatable token generation are never a sorry thing to have on your side of the board, and only requiring a pair of creatures to get a card every turn, like its 2023 peer Glimmer Lens (another under-appreciated card for Cube!), makes for a capable engine.

The Bottom-Line: Chivalric Alliance is a fun card draw engine for white that feeds itself (and your graveyard!) across a wide range of power-levels. 

The Balrog of Moria (312 Cubes)

For me, one of the most exciting aspects of getting an expansion based on The Lord of the Rings was the prospect of including the Balrog in my Cube in some way. Besides being visually evocative and recognizable to everyone who engages with fantasy media these days, cycling your reanimator threat and getting two treasure tokens in addition to your card for the deal makes The Balrog a fun card to cheat into play, and at only 7 mana, it’s not impossible to hardcast either.

What sets apart The Balrog from other bombs that profitably dump themselves in the graveyard is a combination of its haste and its death trigger. By taking down an opposing creature with it (just like in the movies/books!!!!), The Balrog of Moria is going to have an impact on the board so long as it isn’t exiled immediately. 

More power-motivated lists can certainly find more impressive reanimator targets, but being able to nudge your Rakdos drafters into the archetype in medium powered lists 

The Bottom-Line: For mid-powered Cubes, The Balrog of Moria is a capable and thrilling reanimator target that helps signpost Rakdos as a graveyard color pair.

Sarah Jane Smith (228 Cubes)

Magic’s first detective creature (pending a few likely errata timed with the release of February’s Murders at Karlov Manor), Sarah Jane Smithis a wonderful legendaries-matter enabler and payoff that comes in a year where The Lord of the Rings: Tales from Middle-earth brought the game not only a significant volume of exciting new legendary creatures, but capable build-arounds for a historic-matters archetype as well.

Alongside other wins for the archetype this year like Sarah Jane’s Doctor Who companion of Astrid Peth, the delicious Tough Cookie, and UB colleague Samwise Gamgee, a WG-based artifact trinket deck is becoming more and more viable, powering up the likes of Urza’s Saga and turning Elvish Archivist into a powerhouse.

Not everyone is going to want to fill their boards with clue tokens, but for Cubes that are increasingly curving out with legendary creatures as the game of Magic gives ever more focus on commander, Sarah Jane Smith is an exciting option that I’d recommend for more than just 228 of us.

The “Doctor’s Companion” ability is unfortunate trinket text that will only serve to confuse players (particularly if you opt for the extended-art edition to avoid using the version with its art unceremoniously cropped), but as with the likes of Daretti, Scrap Savant, I think it’s worth the annoyance for such a capable two-drop.

The Bottom-Line: Sarah Jane Smith is a solid two-drop to support historic strategies and indicate to drafters that there’s a legendary sub-theme worth paying attention to. 

Broadside Bombardiers (373 Cubes)

The least controversial inclusion on the list, Broadside Bombardiers is likely only under-utilized due to its late printing in the year in a Commander product. Already considered a staple by some of the most prominent Cube curators, the Bombardiers are one of the few 3-drops in red printed in the last few years that compares favorably to the ever-increasing suite of Rabblemasters. Broadside Bombardiers can deal incredible amounts of damage, flinging creatures every turn with 2 bonus points of firepower on top, ensuring the board is clear for your attackers. The card has begun to see play in Legacy in Goblin and stompy decks because of its reach, and as its prominence in constructed continues to grow, so will its Cube count.

The Bottom-Line: Broadside Bombardiers are one of red’s most potent 3-drop creatures, and gives some variation to the slot from all the Rabblemaster variants.

Did you find any new cards you may want to try out for Cube? Let us know your favorite underrated Cube cards of the year too!

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Miles Atherton is the editor-in-chief of “Cardboard by the Numbers” and has been playing Magic since 2006. Since studying Agricultural Economics at UC Davis, he’s built a career as an award-winning marketing executive in the entertainment industry with a love of data journalism. He’s also written for Anime Buscience and Crunchyroll News, serving as Executive Editor of the latter from 2016 to 2021.