I agree with Humphrey, seems like a pretty classic example of a win-more card. If you're going off with tokens (unless it's a completely stalled board state), you're probably winning anyway. And if your token deck's having trouble getting going, this is a completely dead card. Also not a huge fan of how it can be completely blown out in / post combat if your other creatures on the board start dying.
Scion is really not that much of a win-more card. Of course, it's a card that is by definition better when you're winning, but that doesn't mean it's not a good card. Overrun is a win-more card and we'd cube that in a heartbeat if it was a common.
I think it's certainly good enough, but we'll see I guess. The comparison point is a 3/3 and I think it's going to be significantly better than that on average.
Another card for the hypothetical Green tokens support, Presence of Gond. I run it for the Midnight Guard combo (woop pauper Splinter Twin), but it seems like it has some reasonable cross synergy here.
Your call entirely, I still like Presence of Gond, even just making a 1/1 every turn isn't the worst. I also like the Oops I Win deck, Midnight Guard isn't exactly winning prizes for resilience and pauper has plenty of good removal. I must admit I'm a sucker for combo anyway in all formats so I'm totally biased
Honestly I'm not that fussed about Gut Shot, I don't like that its a colourless surprise ping and if you ever actually pay R for it then you get awful value.
Cathodion, Sphere of the Suns, and Sickleslicer stick out immediately as inclusions, and probably Plagued Rusalka as well. Conclave Phalanx also got downgraded. We might have enough for GW tokens to be a real archetype now, with that and Scion along with the producers we already had, there might be enough payoff now. The card's considerable on its own, though probably worse than Staunch Defenders if it's not in the tokens deck. Being cheaper is likely not better than extra power and guaranteed 4 life.
Plagued Rusalka - This is a good sac effect for people who want those. Alloy Myr / Sphere of the Suns - Not sure we need more fixing, but these are good options. Skyhunter Skirmisher - This is a really nice downgrade. Worst case scenario it's okay but unexciting, but the potential upside on this card is huge. It can do a *ton* of damage out of nowhere with any sort of pump spell / aura / equipment.
I'm not sure if I'd play a 1R 1/1 Double Strike (Viashino Slaughtermaster). I guess the upside is high enough that he's better than a Goblin Piker. Might finally be time for Goblin Patrol to leave. One drops are important, but one drops that can't curve into two drops are... not. I guess it's hard for me to distance myself from Slaughtermaster being a Jund card, but it's not unreasonable for RG or RB beatdowns to be splashing a card or two of the other color, and this is another incentive for that. I would cut Teetering Peaks for this, but it's actually another card that makes Peaks good.
I see at least four, maybe five cards to potentially include. I'm very happy with the extra manafixing. That's something I think my pauper cube struggles a bit with
Removal is interesting in this set, but I think the signs that Wizards is putting up are not what you think. Bolt and O-Ring have been considered uncommon for a while now. Stuff I would expect to see upgraded according to criteria of ubiquity in cube (Burst Lightning, Nameless Inversion, Sunlance, Narcolepsy, Repeal) stayed the same. The main offenders were Agony Warp, Pillory of the Sleepless, and Wrecking Ball. The one thing they have in common is that they are all multicolor. I think it's likely that Wizards is just being careful to design Limited environments with problems of rarity in mind, i.e. plentiful multicolor removal at common would skew the environment heavily towards three or four color decks. Unless I missed some cards on the list, that's only two or three removal spells (how many people even run Wrecking Ball?) which is quite a bit less than the five or six advertised
Removal isn't inherently bad. It just depends on what kind of limited environment you want. For instance, one reason Wizards has been cutting cheap removal at common in most limited formats is so they can make slower limited environments with more mechanic-driven synergies (Theros block is a great example of this - if there were common doom blades, etc. floating around, heroic and most of the auras just wouldn't have worked). But just because Maro / Wizards / etc. have that design goal for their limited formats doesn't mean that's the only way to design a good limited format. Access to quality removal can often help make decks much more streamlined and efficient (for pretty much all basic archetypes) and help to correct for luck in drafts by making bombs less bomby. That last part is pretty important for me; one of my least favorite aspects about some of Wizards' limited formats is that even if you draft well, you'll just lose some games because your opponent opened a bomb rare or two in their packs and there simply aren't answers.
One other disadvantage of cutting removal is that it removes some strategy from drafting. If there isn't much removal in your cube, you pretty much always pick the removal when you see them (assuming it's in your colors, etc.). On the other hand, if you know that you'll probably be able to a decent amount of removal throughout the draft, removal spells aren't snap picks and you have to weigh how good the removal spell(s) in your pack are against taking creatures / other spells that might actually help you win the game.
Also, I really haven't seen Removal.dec be a great strategy in a while, as creatures overall have been getting better.
The Cathodion looks very powerful, and I think it's an autoinclude, but I suspect it will be played far less often than we expect. You require a certain type of synergies to make use of the mana it provides, and without it, I think most decks would choose other picks over it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Holiday Armadillo... Cloak
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
All this Cathodion talk, plus the Colorless inclusions in MM, made me think... do you think it's possible, now, to include an 'artifacts synergies' archetype on a non-artifact cube? I mean, a deck that focuses on artifacts and adds the best spells it can find from the 5 colours to fill the slots. Of course you should add more creatures to the Artifact section, including artifact with affinity for artifacts.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Holiday Armadillo... Cloak
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
to support a working artifact theme, you need to add around 40 playables for that archetype (at 360). Thats a lot of slots you need to cut first to add semi-good artifacts.
Its possible, but not very rewarding.
I'm definitely interested in these:
Thrummingbird
Skyhunter Skirmisher
Plagued Rusalka
Gut Shot
Viashino Slaughtermaster
Scion of the Wild
Cathodion
Sphere of the Suns
I'm not super sure that Scion will be worth it. Otherwise looks like a good list. I'll also keep Graftmage in back of my mind as more +1/+1 counter support.
I think it's certainly good enough, but we'll see I guess. The comparison point is a 3/3 and I think it's going to be significantly better than that on average.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
It would be nice to have Spawn of Ulamog in common.
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
On top of that I might look into:
Telling Time
Runed Servitor
Skyhunter Skirmisher
Sphere of the Suns
Thrummingbird (watching it rather than adding it in my case)
Regardless of the other stuff I think we got a reasonable artifact haul!
Level 1 Judge
Conclave Phalanx
Skyhunter Skirmisher
Telling Time
Thrummingbird
Vigean Graftmage
Ghostly Changeling
Plagued Rusalka
Thief of Hope
Dragonsoul Knight
Gut Shot
Inner-Flame Igniter
Viashino Slaughtermaster
Scion of the Wild
Alloy Myr
Cathodion
Runed Servitor
Rusted Relic
Sickleslicer
Sphere of the Suns
Level 1 Judge
Plagued Rusalka - This is a good sac effect for people who want those.
Alloy Myr / Sphere of the Suns - Not sure we need more fixing, but these are good options.
Skyhunter Skirmisher - This is a really nice downgrade. Worst case scenario it's okay but unexciting, but the potential upside on this card is huge. It can do a *ton* of damage out of nowhere with any sort of pump spell / aura / equipment.
Edit: Missed Viashino Slaughtermaster. Definitely cubeable.
Skyhunter Skirmisher and Viashino Slaughtermaster are the only cards I'm definitely including, but I'll be considering / testing Scion of the Wild and some combination of Alloy Myr and Sphere of the Suns. Overall, a fine set for us considering it's all reprints.
Also, the new Pillory of the Sleepless art is sweet.
Level 1 Judge
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Constructed (Casual) | Pinksleeves |
Constructed (Pauper) | Izzet Fiend | Mono Black | Burn |
Constructed (Standard) | Under Construction |
Constructed (Modern) | Fate Seal |
Constructed (Legacy) | Dream Halls |
Constructed (Vintage) | Not Yet |
Constructed (Commander) | Sliver Overlord | Uril, the Miststalker | Braids, Cabal Minion |
Limited | Alara Block | Time Spiral Block | Innistrad Block | Rise of the Eldrazi |
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
in Gut shot out Hornet Sting
T2:
added
Thrummingbird - +1+1 matters is becoming a theme
Helium Squirter - !
Inner-Flame Igniter - awesome for tokendecks
Dragonsoul Knight - pretty borderline, but ill test him
Sickleslicer - looks awesome
Viashino Slaughtermaster - not absolutely sold yet, but might do something
the other graft dudes i dont like too much
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Removal is interesting in this set, but I think the signs that Wizards is putting up are not what you think. Bolt and O-Ring have been considered uncommon for a while now. Stuff I would expect to see upgraded according to criteria of ubiquity in cube (Burst Lightning, Nameless Inversion, Sunlance, Narcolepsy, Repeal) stayed the same. The main offenders were Agony Warp, Pillory of the Sleepless, and Wrecking Ball. The one thing they have in common is that they are all multicolor. I think it's likely that Wizards is just being careful to design Limited environments with problems of rarity in mind, i.e. plentiful multicolor removal at common would skew the environment heavily towards three or four color decks. Unless I missed some cards on the list, that's only two or three removal spells (how many people even run Wrecking Ball?) which is quite a bit less than the five or six advertised
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
Removal isn't inherently bad. It just depends on what kind of limited environment you want. For instance, one reason Wizards has been cutting cheap removal at common in most limited formats is so they can make slower limited environments with more mechanic-driven synergies (Theros block is a great example of this - if there were common doom blades, etc. floating around, heroic and most of the auras just wouldn't have worked). But just because Maro / Wizards / etc. have that design goal for their limited formats doesn't mean that's the only way to design a good limited format. Access to quality removal can often help make decks much more streamlined and efficient (for pretty much all basic archetypes) and help to correct for luck in drafts by making bombs less bomby. That last part is pretty important for me; one of my least favorite aspects about some of Wizards' limited formats is that even if you draft well, you'll just lose some games because your opponent opened a bomb rare or two in their packs and there simply aren't answers.
One other disadvantage of cutting removal is that it removes some strategy from drafting. If there isn't much removal in your cube, you pretty much always pick the removal when you see them (assuming it's in your colors, etc.). On the other hand, if you know that you'll probably be able to a decent amount of removal throughout the draft, removal spells aren't snap picks and you have to weigh how good the removal spell(s) in your pack are against taking creatures / other spells that might actually help you win the game.
Also, I really haven't seen Removal.dec be a great strategy in a while, as creatures overall have been getting better.
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
Its possible, but not very rewarding.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Thrummingbird
Skyhunter Skirmisher
Plagued Rusalka
Gut Shot
Viashino Slaughtermaster
Scion of the Wild
Cathodion
Sphere of the Suns
I'm not super sure that Scion will be worth it. Otherwise looks like a good list. I'll also keep Graftmage in back of my mind as more +1/+1 counter support.
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters