Nothing so much to talk about now, as the commons have been pretty mediocre.
Maybe if there are enough Monarch-giving spells, Throne Warden could be good? 3/3 for 2 is still not that great in Pauper.
Deputized Protester is a 3/2 Menace while attacking for 3 mana. Again, kind of underwhelming.
I guess they're whipping out the Draft stuff first to get people excited. I'm pretty pumped about Assemble the Rank and Vile and the rest of the cycle. I think they're pretty good so far!
I hope they print a cheap Monarch card that isn't a creature! It seems like a good ability to tack onto something like Scry 2 for 1U. What do you think of the Monarch ability?
It seems fine to me, honestly. All of the cards which they have shown to make you the monarch have been pretty high CMC so far (four is the lowest), and while the effect is essentially pauper Bob, if any creature hits you the opponent gets to steal the crown from you.'
So it comes down too slow for fighting aggro, and can be stolen relatively easily. The one big use as I see it is in control decks as a silver bullet against Mystical Teachings, but in the Age of the Bird this isn't needed anyway.
I stand by the above, and I think the best place for it is in aggro decks (if the cards get cheaper). Excepting turbo dog, control decks are not going to be swinging often enough for this to be an advantage to them.
A 1/1 with Monarch for mono-black aggro would be amazing though.
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Skittering Crustacean seems like a potent card. A 2/3 for 3 isn't great, but it can kill aggro creatures (like most of mono black aggros, affinity, etc) and becomes a hexproof finisher in the end game. The MU players will need to decide that one, but it seems exciting.
Sinous Vermin also seems decent, as it is cheap enough to be played early and then jumps up in size. The problem is that Angler does it better...
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Sinuous Vermin does seem like the most promising card so far, which is unfortunate because it's basically unplayable. Although another 5/5 creature is always welcome in Pauper, you do have to sink 7 mana into it. But it's also an early drop and has evasion, which the zombie fish does not do.
Sinuous Vermin does seem like the most promising card so far, which is unfortunate because it's basically unplayable. Although another 5/5 creature is always welcome in Pauper, you do have to sink 7 mana into it. But it's also an early drop and has evasion, which the zombie fish does not do.
Yeah, unless we get a 2-3 drop Monarch inducing card this set is a bust. Seems like Wizards has gotten increasingly cautious, the entire clue token line is essentially useless as well.
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Zero downshifts and only 6 reprints to go. It seems like they specifically avoided downshifting cards for Pauper in this set with it being unavailable online and there being no simultaneous set to get the cards into MTGO, as was the case for Conspiracy 1 in Vintage Masters. They've said some of these cards will eventually get to MTGO, but with no word yet on which cards and how that will happen, there would be an interval of complaints where new paper commons couldn't be played in (MTGO) Pauper. They'd likely want to 'shake up the metagame' with downshifts of interesting/powerful cards, so those complaints would likely be justified. In addition to less flak, it would be pointless (from a MTGO-focused Pauper perspective) to downshift cards in this set when they can simply downshift them whenever/wherever those cards would otherwise be added to MTGO.
The optimist in me notices that only 3 cards were downshifted in Conspiracy 1, with 2 of them subsequently added to MTGO as commons. Perhaps someone at Wizards is interested in minimizing the paper/online Pauper divide and flagged those cards to be reprinted, and also made the case for further downshifts to be left out of paper-only sets. That'd give some hope for paper Pauper being supported eventually, but I think it's more likely that the divide isn't a concern and a simgple case of no downshifts being needed to meet the set's design goals. Designers probably consider reprints exclusively at their previous rarities unless there's an agenda for downshifting cards.
I have been thinking about this for Mono Black Aggro, seeing as how it replaces itself on the turn it comes in and can net you several cards if it comes down early.
The problem is that it has to compete with the card advantage engines already in place. In paper only pauper it has to compete with Hymn to Tourach, a card which costs half as much and trashes the hand of whoever you are playing.
In the online version it competes with Okiba-Gang Shinobi for the slot of "late game card advantage/creature." This requires a bit of a breakdown.
Both of them come down turn 2 if combined with dark ritual. Okiba immediately replaces itself and the dark ritual by making the opponent discard two, is uncounterable, and deals 3 damage. Black Rose replaces just itself, deals no damage but leaves a death touch creature.
Turn 3, assuming they both eat removal, okiba gains you nothing more and Black Rose draws you another card to tie with Okiba. Turn 3 assuming they don't eat removal Okiba deals 3 damage and is ahead by two, or kills a chump blocker and is ahead by 1.
Turn 4, assuming they ate removal before turn 3. Okiba is still dead, Black Rose is ahead by 1.
Turn 4, assuming they eat removal before turn 4. Tie.
Turn 4, assuming they never eat removal but Okiba died attacking turn 3 and Black Rose blocked turn 3.5, Black Rose ahead by 1.
Turn 4, assuming they never eat removal and Okiba was not blocked: Okiba is ahead by 3.
So Okiba is capable of giving greater advantage at optimal conditions, but how often does an opponent have more then 6 cards to discard? I would say they tie on that account. But then comes the issue that Okiba can't be used against you, while Monarch can. I believe that Black Rose is probably a little worse then Okiba, and Okiba is not a widely used card to begin with.
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I think Alex Ullman's article on gatheringmagic.com about this topic, covers it pretty nicely.
The cards that make you monarch have potential as they give you and extra card at eot and if you can prevent damage, you could end up netting serious card advantage in the long game. Or maybe it could have some potential in a fog/mill deck?
The white flying gravedigger deluxe is probably the best common of the set, but Vermin is a close second
The elf that lets you discard to get a land is a nice aggressive card and has some potential with madness or various gy dependent decks. I like that one a little more than alex seems to, but that may be because I'm a pretty big fan of gy interaction and this card has a ton of potential for that.
The white flying gravedigger deluxe is probably the best common of the set
I think you mean Custodi Squire? It's from the first Conspiracy set back in 2014. I recall enjoying an actually decent card being printed at a relatively high mana cost, and also having hopes for Tyrant's Choice in a RDW-style deck.
Nothing so much to talk about now, as the commons have been pretty mediocre.
Maybe if there are enough Monarch-giving spells, Throne Warden could be good? 3/3 for 2 is still not that great in Pauper.
Deputized Protester is a 3/2 Menace while attacking for 3 mana. Again, kind of underwhelming.
I guess they're whipping out the Draft stuff first to get people excited. I'm pretty pumped about Assemble the Rank and Vile and the rest of the cycle. I think they're pretty good so far!
I hope they print a cheap Monarch card that isn't a creature! It seems like a good ability to tack onto something like Scry 2 for 1U. What do you think of the Monarch ability?
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
I stand by the above, and I think the best place for it is in aggro decks (if the cards get cheaper). Excepting turbo dog, control decks are not going to be swinging often enough for this to be an advantage to them.
A 1/1 with Monarch for mono-black aggro would be amazing though.
UB Wight Phantasm
RB Burn
UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Legacy:
R Burn
CG-Post
Sinous Vermin also seems decent, as it is cheap enough to be played early and then jumps up in size. The problem is that Angler does it better...
UB Wight Phantasm
RB Burn
UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Legacy:
R Burn
CG-Post
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Yeah, unless we get a 2-3 drop Monarch inducing card this set is a bust. Seems like Wizards has gotten increasingly cautious, the entire clue token line is essentially useless as well.
UB Wight Phantasm
RB Burn
UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Legacy:
R Burn
CG-Post
Still a handful of cards to go, but this set doesn't look too promising for Pauper!
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
The optimist in me notices that only 3 cards were downshifted in Conspiracy 1, with 2 of them subsequently added to MTGO as commons. Perhaps someone at Wizards is interested in minimizing the paper/online Pauper divide and flagged those cards to be reprinted, and also made the case for further downshifts to be left out of paper-only sets. That'd give some hope for paper Pauper being supported eventually, but I think it's more likely that the divide isn't a concern and a simgple case of no downshifts being needed to meet the set's design goals. Designers probably consider reprints exclusively at their previous rarities unless there's an agenda for downshifting cards.
I have been thinking about this for Mono Black Aggro, seeing as how it replaces itself on the turn it comes in and can net you several cards if it comes down early.
The problem is that it has to compete with the card advantage engines already in place. In paper only pauper it has to compete with Hymn to Tourach, a card which costs half as much and trashes the hand of whoever you are playing.
In the online version it competes with Okiba-Gang Shinobi for the slot of "late game card advantage/creature." This requires a bit of a breakdown.
Both of them come down turn 2 if combined with dark ritual. Okiba immediately replaces itself and the dark ritual by making the opponent discard two, is uncounterable, and deals 3 damage. Black Rose replaces just itself, deals no damage but leaves a death touch creature.
Turn 3, assuming they both eat removal, okiba gains you nothing more and Black Rose draws you another card to tie with Okiba. Turn 3 assuming they don't eat removal Okiba deals 3 damage and is ahead by two, or kills a chump blocker and is ahead by 1.
Turn 4, assuming they ate removal before turn 3. Okiba is still dead, Black Rose is ahead by 1.
Turn 4, assuming they eat removal before turn 4. Tie.
Turn 4, assuming they never eat removal but Okiba died attacking turn 3 and Black Rose blocked turn 3.5, Black Rose ahead by 1.
Turn 4, assuming they never eat removal and Okiba was not blocked: Okiba is ahead by 3.
So Okiba is capable of giving greater advantage at optimal conditions, but how often does an opponent have more then 6 cards to discard? I would say they tie on that account. But then comes the issue that Okiba can't be used against you, while Monarch can. I believe that Black Rose is probably a little worse then Okiba, and Okiba is not a widely used card to begin with.
UB Wight Phantasm
RB Burn
UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Legacy:
R Burn
CG-Post
The cards that make you monarch have potential as they give you and extra card at eot and if you can prevent damage, you could end up netting serious card advantage in the long game. Or maybe it could have some potential in a fog/mill deck?
The white flying gravedigger deluxe is probably the best common of the set, but Vermin is a close second
The elf that lets you discard to get a land is a nice aggressive card and has some potential with madness or various gy dependent decks. I like that one a little more than alex seems to, but that may be because I'm a pretty big fan of gy interaction and this card has a ton of potential for that.
Everything else is fairly mediocre.