Primal Huntbeast+Spectral Flight
imho is enough synergy to win the game. no need to go all in.
Well with only a single Huntbeast and a single Spectral Flight in 360 cards it's pretty unlikely, that anyone will ever get them in a deck, and then that person still needs to draw booth in a reasonable amount of time.
The question is how the ratio of hexproof to auras has to be. A drafter, who wants to go this route should access to booth type of cards consistently in order for the deck to do, what it's supposed to do. I don't like the idea of putting auras on non-protected creatures. I've ran Phantom Nomad amd Phantom Tiger as some interesting alternatives, because at least against green and red, being immune to damage is even better than hexproof.
i think you want the drafter to decide what they play. so if someone put an aura on a non-hexproof its his choice and both flights, as well as greens +3+3 ones are good enough for that.
i think you want the drafter to decide what they play. so if someone put an aura on a non-hexproof its his choice and both flights, as well as greens +3+3 ones are good enough for that.
I can also put in bad cards, just in case someone wants to play them. Putting an aura on an unprotected creature in the context of most pauper cubes is a really bad idea in most cases. This is not the original Theros. I sure could have some auras without valueable targets, but they will simply end up not being drafted. Even though my cube is quite beginner friendly I usually draft with very experienced players (Gp grinders, some pt competitors) so no one there would draft these cards.
I don't think so, except if you have an enchantment theme in your cube. Otherwise the restriction of discarding an enchantment is so much harder than lands in limited. You usually have enough expandable lands.
My friends 3 person drafted my cube for a couple of multiplayer games. I managed a convincing win with G/W low to the ground curve. I forgoed 1's and 3's and mostly focused on laying out some of the stronger 2 drops to quickly establish a strong board presence, getting a 4 drop online as soon as either opponent started gumming up the board. On my off turns, I would want to get equipping or get tricking with my Shelter. I splashed black for a couple of gain 1 life lands, a Font of Return and Terror, as well as to enable a third colour for Opaline Bracers. I never wanted to run out of cards so I was doing cheeky things like running 16 lands because my curve never demanded me to reach big mana in order for the deck to function, and forgoing all mana elves as they are often dead cards in 3 player. Hobble was the mvp of the night, dealing with the serious Black threats and cantrapping so I never ran out of steam. Blastoderm was on guard duty until Mortuary Mire brought it back for one more go. All of my two drops were either able to become a threat or were able generate some sort of value. The only dead card I had was Kor Sanctifiers and that was held in hand incase something came along that had to be answered. I initially regretted keeping Sporecap Spider instead of running Wild Leotau, but the spider really held it's own and was an excellent target for equipment. Since the Sporecap was one of my only creatures at three, I was always able to get it down in a mana efficient manner.
One opponent was running G/B threats. Trestle Troll was his main blocker. The rest of his deck was huge creatures and strong disruption. The deck eventually ran out of steam when the U/B player exhausted the G/B's resources and G/B hadn't found a way to recur anything. I suspect black was spread a bit thin with all three players running it. (I nabbed several double pips early in the draft.) The U/B deck was solid, however it's early game left something to be desired and had to spend all it's mana keeping things clear.
On Auras: If the archetypes pretty strong when you assemble the cards, otherwise you end up with something halfbaked. The lifelink aura/Armadillo Cloak are but far the best ones to put on hexproofers. They also are fine plays anyways because if they go on anything with remotely decent stats and your opponent in tapped out you can get a huge life swing that has to be answered in the next few turns. It can really turn a race on it's head. The main problem here is not being able to finish the job after gaining a bunch of life. Hopeful Eidolon is a good piece of redundancy as a weaker third copy of Mark of the Vampire.
Flying Hexproofers: Spectral Flight was always a well positioned blue beatdown card. Sort of a Blue Madcap Skills. Most of the good hexproofers are in green, so you'll need to be running G/U to pull this off. In this colour combination I like to Man-o'-War 4ever so I don't mind trading card advantage for tempo. That being said, one of the main features I like about the G/U archetype is not putting all your eggs into one basket. You sort of want to diversify your portfolio so you're not losing on any particular axis. A lot depends on the quality of your card advantage and the how you curve out. Also another variable is how the hexproofers perform without seeing any of their high synergy pieces. They are all pretty understated; sometimes they're a meatshield at best against decks without heaps on evasion. Also a hexproofer dies to Counterspell just like everything else. I've shifted White away from being a third removal colour to being well costed bodies and tricks to make those body's work. White decks tend to be combat focused, since from being a support colour that you picked up for Pacifism. Green hardly cares whether the opponent's creature has haxproof or not. Red and Black decks struggle a bit more although they can invalidate that plan by consistently winning while you durdle your thumbs trying to assemble Exodia.
I'm not actively supporting Hexproof+Auras because I found the archetype to be parasitic, sort of in the same way that Infect was in a triple Scars of Mirrodin draft. Parasitic archetypes tend to make the support colours weaker by virtue of taking up card slots for effects which are not that playable outside of their specific archetypes. Some of the pieces stand alone, and certainly more do than something like metalcraft or infect.
On Theros: Some interesting stuff is here. There's a few decent cards to begin rounding out some archetypes which have been a long time coming. I particularly like the look of the White 2/2 for 2 that gives your creatures +1/+0 when you target it with a spell.
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There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
nice post cobble, maybe you can convinve Al, that Spectral Flight is a better beatdown card than welkin terns lol. those are just petcards of him he always strays back to. Im kinda surprised he not back on Vampire Interloper as well.
that said, Al, you blue looks like it just rolls over to any early aggression. the first defensive card is cmc3
Well the cmc 2 fliers simply make for a nice creature curve in blue. It also feels cool to get value out of Warden of Evos Isle and Winged Words. Maybe we will one day get Favorable Winds, even though I highly doubt it.
winged words is fine but also triggers from flight or faerie seer. warden comes later then welking, so no upside. if you want to abuse that, run more cc4+ flyer i guess.
I don't know about that. 2/1 flier is nice on curve, and there is little chance of been blown out by removal. The blocking clause can translate to a dead card in a race with a much faster deck. The main upside of Spectral Flight is it can turn that Man-o'-War that's just sitting there into a source of damage. Then it doesn't matter whether you get 2-for-1ed because one of the cards was essentially a dead card already. And you can get damage in before your opponent is able to do anything about it, so you have generated some value. I prefer the flyier when pairing with White and Red.
Sure if you're opponent is playing red, but it was never a strong card to play anyway against red. I'd be more afraid of Lava Dart. A magical thing exists in magic called sideboards. There are plenty of cards that are bad against red and plenty of cards that are great against red. All the 1 damage Fireslingers don't push that well for damage making them pretty susceptible to a standard curve of 2 drop, 3 drop, 4 drop. The repeatability of them means that we won't be seeing any more at common, so that's all there is. Dauthi Horror also dies to them and you don't see people saying that it's a weak card. Sure it's in black and you can streamline your aggro deck a lot there. The same could be said for blue if people supported aggro there. Eldrazi Skyspawner is a great 3 drop for the deck. 3 points of power and 2 of it is on the a flier and the rest is an Eldrazi Spawn is a great deal. Or Stitched Drake.
Headless Skaab takes a little bit to stand upright, but is massive. You really, really need 2 drops to make this deck work and preferably on colour so you don't end up making the mana base shaky. Merfolk Looter is pretty decent with the blue zombies. And Vapor Snag works wonders, sure it's pretty all in but you can recuperate your losses with Treasure Cruise. Ghoulcaller's Chant is an under appreciated card. Getting back 1 creature for 1 mana is an alright deal, but often in deck building you could just cut it for a decent creature and save 1 mana in the process. But getting a 2-for-1 with zombies is bonkers for 1 mana. And there is not exactly what you'd call a shortage of zombies. Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Gurmag Angler and Twisted Abomination are all ridiculous cards to recur. Sultai Emissary and Deranged Assistant gel the deck together. None of these cards are weak on their own either. Silver Myr and Leaden Myr are fine cards, but fall a little under the bar for most Pauper cubes; the artifact synergies are either parasitic or the artifacts themselves don't do enough. (Hopes for more good artifacts.) The self mill really sets the Assistant apart because there is so much to do with the cards in graveyard even if that's just to fuel delve.
Welkin Tern is fine in slower more controlly decks as well. As it sets a clock while you do blue things with blue mana. You can play it on later turns such as turn 4 when you might want to hold Mana Leak. Lowering the overall CMC lets you play more cards per turn and typically 2 2-drops is greater than 1 4-drop in overall stats. As well the card draw in blue is plentiful and abundant.
I was playing a friend's cube and I kept Primal Growthing tokens on turn 3. It seemed really strong, especially because I got the 2 lands into play untapped. It reminded me of Rushing River for the kind of value it generated.
more like tl;dr. If I dedicate my whole cube, I can push Terns into borderline category.
yeah if you run terns, because you need them dead in the grave, fine.
lol
Al isnt running any of the zombies though.
if you run them in a controllish deck, you will just lose the race, cuz they cant block.
Dauthi Slayer isnt just better because he is black, but because shadow is a way more reliable "cant be blocked" than flying. it demands a specific answer.
I think over the past 8 years or so, I tried and cut them as often as Al reintroduced them to his cube. Theyre just horrible.
Again. Desert turns them all into bad category. I can only imagine its underrated by Als playgroup. not seeing more pinger at cmc<3 isnt even an argument.
I didnt like them in my T2 either.
Also autolosing to red isnt the best option. Your green evaluation was on point. how to win the swiss and beat burn. Now you just fold to red?
Als logic is, he wants every color to be "jackofalltrades" ignoring the colorwheel. Yet, he is not running greens "removal" because its too bad compared to he other colors. Flawed logic to me shoving aggro into blue at the same time.
Sideboarding in cubedrafts is widely accepted as nothing to aim for.
more like tl;dr. If I dedicate my whole cube, I can push Terns into borderline category.
yeah if you run terns, because you need them dead in the grave, fine.
lol
Al isnt running any of the zombies though.
if you run them in a controllish deck, you will just lose the race, cuz they cant block.
I think over the past 8 years or so, I tried and cut them as often as Al reintroduced them to his cube. Theyre just horrible.
Again. Desert turns them all into bad category. I can only imagine its underrated by Als playgroup.
Also autolosing to red isnt the best option. Your green evaluation was on point. how to win the swiss and beat burn. Now you just fold to red?
Sideboarding in cubedrafts is widely accepted as nothing to aim for.
I strongly believe in the sideboard. It feels more like a strategy game than roulette.
There's no need to bad mouth design decisions.
@Al_Z_Heimer
I just had a look at your cube list. I don't remember seeing Burn Trail before. 6 damage seems gross. You're red spells are so stacked. Maybe you could try Artillerize as well for another big overkill spell. Interesting that you're not running Faithless Looting for the filter. I guess it doesn't contribute to the burn as much as possible as quickly as possible plan. I like the card filter when I durdle. The red one drops are also extremely light. Maybe Foundry Street Denizen and Intimidator Initiate? Giantbaiting is another convoke card, although it might not make it through the sea of tokens you've got going. The 8 damage in nice in theory. It can come of nowhere so it's more of a trick (than a combat trick). I'm not sure if you play with sideboards. Giantbaiting would be in and out depending on what I thought the likelihood of it connecting would be in a given game.
A pet card which turned out to be a monster is Basilica Guards. It started going first pick it was that good. As a blocker it soaks damage in the relevant aggro matchups. You can negate its weakness to big creatures by being in removal colours and Gods Willing colour(s) to deal with your opponent's answers. The extort is crazy with lots of 2 for 1 cards and cheap spells. It's a big part of what makes the tithe archetype work.
Sentinel's Eyes seems good. Kind of a White Rancor — sort of. Obviously it represents less damage, but we haven't had enough vigilance cards in white outside of the odd Razor Golem. The 2 cards for escape is affordable, but means you don't want to run Eyes with much of the delve and Raise Dead effects.
Ehh on running Thirst for Meaning. I don't think most people will have enough enchantments for the discard. All the draw 3 and discard 1 of a card types have been strong. I'm looking forward to holding three mana in constructed... Compulsive Research, although sorcery, is the strongest for Pauper Cube as every deck has lots of lands and they are the type of cards you want to discard; lands are Dead Weights in your hand in multiples.
I don't think Rain of Revelation is very good. I prefer Hieroglyphic Illumination if I'm instant speed drawing netting a card for 4 mana. Cycling for 1 blue mana is very strong. You can trade in your card much sooner for one off the top, or in a game where you're not going to find the spare 4 mana you might be able to spare 1 Force Spike of mana somewhere. Hieroglyphic Illumination was one of the more expensive common foils I've picked up recently. I'm not sure if it's because the art in foil is amazing or because it's a strong cycling card. I could be underestimating the power of clearing a dead card from my hand with Rain of Revelation, but I think I would try to avoid dead cards in hand in the first place and Rain might just be one of those cards.
The blue flier aggro package was simply my first idea for what to do with the free slots from all the auras and hexproof dudes I cut. Just because Desert exists as one of 360 cards in my cube I'm not gonna abandon all X/1s. Sure aggro decks suck against all of the red spells that can hit multiple targets, which is why I like playing Rx control decks so much.
Alternatively I'm also considering to maybe try out the Ghostly Flicker combo once more. If I'm not not statisfied with either of those options I will most likely simply add some goodstuff, especially counterspells. I'm always surprised how few actual good counterspells pauper has since there haven't been any good ones for sooooo long, but people want to play counter heavy control and you need enough instant speed for counters to actually be good.
@Cobble: Burn Trail sure is sick with enough Tokens to consistently enable Conspire. Not just because it can deal 6 to the face (unlike Magma Burst), but because it can deal 3 damage to 2 different targets and you can decide depending on the situation.
I would definitely run Reckless Abandon over Artillerize. 3 mana difference is huge.
I don't think I have enough ways to get value out of the grave for Faithless Looting. It sure is a fine card filter spell, even without payoff, but the real power lies in getting value from what you discard.
I'm not really sure what I would want to cut for any of the onedrops. Giantbaiting is a pet card of mine, that has been in my cube for the most time, even before I added swarm as an archetype, because you don't need 2 creatures of the same color, but simply 2 creatures if you are in GR. Maybe it comes back in one day.
I've dedicated some slots towards white control, and Basilica Guards has been one of them before. For now I don't really have anything to cut for it.
I think Rain of Revelation is an excellent card. You rarely want to cycle Hieroglyphic Illumination and the Rain is simply more value. It outclassed Foresee, which has been a mainstay for many cubes over years.
If we were talking about constructed Pauper I would definitely agree that 1 toughness is a dealbreaker. Multiple Deserts can get ridiculous. But for singleton Cube I tend to lean toward Al's opinion that red's power is enhanced but without totally invalidating 1x/1s.
one of in 360 sounds much more random than it actually plays out. it means at least one opponent is guaranteed to have it. if that happens in the early turns you just autolose with a deck full of terns. same is true against the red opponent running multiple arc lightning effects. Obv its neat if you alwyays happen to be that red dude lol.
Als strongest argument against Spectral Flight is its 2:1 probability. although it turns a 1/2 onedrop into a 3/4 flying turn2 and shuts off a lot of removal spells. heck, slam it on a red 3/2 and you have a 4turn clock.
IN my opinion the Dies to "x" removal spells is pretty week. in response to putting spectral flight on a creature it can be removed by "x" removal spells, 2 for 1. not that spectral is a bad card but comparing it to a creature is wrong, they both serve different rolls. are 3/1's bad? they area fast clock for aggro right? what about white 2/1 fliers? UW skies is a great deck and the blue 2/1's fit right in. spectral flight is not an aggro card, definitely more of a midrange card to win the stalled board state.
if you play it into open mana youre doing it wrong. as cobble said its pretty much blues Madcap Skillswhich is run by most and doesnt even boost toughness.
flight works as good for early beats as for midgame stalls, thats why its a great card (and better than terns)
i dont like whites 2/1flys either, but at least they can block. 3/1s are just bad unless they come with a useful ability. pretty much only Daring Skyjek
I've decided not to run the Welkin Terns and for now also decided against Flicker combo and instead went with simply more goodstuff and more counterspells, because I felt like I had too few. While doing this I wondered, how do you rank the counterspells?
How do you rank the following:
-XU Counters (Power Sink/Syncopate/Broken Ambitions): The additional effects can mostly be ignored, IMO. They can counter everything on curve for 1U, but can be become quite mana intense later and outright bad if you are mana screwed or play against green with a lot of acceleration.
-Confound: A pet card of mine. It's mostly a weaker Shelter, but still pretty solid.
-Deprive: Unconditional cmc 2 Counter with tempo drawback. Bad early, doesn't matter later.
-Disdainful Stroke: I've only recently realised that this card might be really good as it hits pretty much all of the high impact cards, you actually want to counter. When it hits it's a guaranteed tempo gain.
-Dissolve: The best [card]Cancel/card].
-Creature Counter (Essence Scatter/False Summoning/Remove Soul): Narrow, but still creature removal for cmc 2.
-Force Spike: Good early, often useless later.
-Logic Knot: Bad early, good late.
-Memory Lapse: It feels more like a bounce spell than a Counter, but it technically is one. It's not really a permanent out, but instead buys you time to find one.
-Negate: Interesting in combination with the creature Counters.
-Prohibit: By far not as good as it is in constructed, but still not unplayable. It can't be better than going even or even in the negative tempo-wise.
I've decided not to run the Welkin Terns and for now also decided against Flicker combo and instead went with simply more goodstuff and more counterspells, because I felt like I had too few. While doing this I wondered, how do you rank the counterspells?
How do you rank the following:
-XU Counters (Power Sink/Syncopate/Broken Ambitions): The additional effects can mostly be ignored, IMO. They can counter everything on curve for 1U, but can be become quite mana intense later and outright bad if you are mana screwed or play against green with a lot of acceleration.
-Confound: A pet card of mine. It's mostly a weaker Shelter, but still pretty solid.
-Deprive: Unconditional cmc 2 Counter with tempo drawback. Bad early, doesn't matter later.
-Disdainful Stroke: I've only recently realised that this card might be really good as it hits pretty much all of the high impact cards, you actually want to counter. When it hits it's a guaranteed tempo gain.
-Dissolve: The best [card]Cancel/card].
-Creature Counter (Essence Scatter/False Summoning/Remove Soul): Narrow, but still creature removal for cmc 2.
-Force Spike: Good early, often useless later.
-Logic Knot: Bad early, good late.
-Memory Lapse: It feels more like a bounce spell than a Counter, but it technically is one. It's not really a permanent out, but instead buys you time to find one.
-Negate: Interesting in combination with the creature Counters.
-Prohibit: By far not as good as it is in constructed, but still not unplayable. It can't be better than going even or even in the negative tempo-wise.
Tier 7 Logic Knot (Without synergies) Confound (I ran this for a while but, it was a dead card more often than not. Although I was often more concerned with interacting with my opponent's stuff than my own.)
I don't think REB and BEB are Cube cards personally
Hence the honourable mention. They are strong pieces of countermagic.
I forgot Dispel and Spell Pierce. They are strong, but a bit too narrow for a limited environment. Maybe Spell Pierce is in the league of Faerie Trickery and Syncopate, and dispel's at the bottom with Confound and Logic Knot (without synergies), where it could be strong, but mostly will sit in your hand while your opponent plays creatures.
I really like Faerie Trickery because it feels like the extra 1 mana I'm paying over something the 2 mana alternatives is for a no questions asked, no nonsense kind of deal. If I counter a card with this, I don't to see it come back and haunt me. The Faerie clause has never been relevant (neither the tribal type).
I did cut Exclude from my cube month ago. Although its a nice 2:1 the cmc of 3 was often too slow. I prefer the X-counters, especially PowerSink.
They can counter T2 and are not useless in the lategame.
Force Spike is just mvp and better than manatithe.
Memory Lapse is baiscally paupers time walk
that said, if you really want to make blue counter control a thing, you need to add a bunch of flash creatures to have a real draw go archetype going.
The question is how the ratio of hexproof to auras has to be. A drafter, who wants to go this route should access to booth type of cards consistently in order for the deck to do, what it's supposed to do. I don't like the idea of putting auras on non-protected creatures. I've ran Phantom Nomad amd Phantom Tiger as some interesting alternatives, because at least against green and red, being immune to damage is even better than hexproof.
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
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powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
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Did anyone else notice Thirst for Meaning is an Instant? Does that mean it replaces Compulsive Research or Rain of Revelation?
Loose Change Pauper Cube-cast
Pauper Cube Article #1
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Level 2 Judge
One opponent was running G/B threats. Trestle Troll was his main blocker. The rest of his deck was huge creatures and strong disruption. The deck eventually ran out of steam when the U/B player exhausted the G/B's resources and G/B hadn't found a way to recur anything. I suspect black was spread a bit thin with all three players running it. (I nabbed several double pips early in the draft.) The U/B deck was solid, however it's early game left something to be desired and had to spend all it's mana keeping things clear.
On Auras: If the archetypes pretty strong when you assemble the cards, otherwise you end up with something halfbaked. The lifelink aura/Armadillo Cloak are but far the best ones to put on hexproofers. They also are fine plays anyways because if they go on anything with remotely decent stats and your opponent in tapped out you can get a huge life swing that has to be answered in the next few turns. It can really turn a race on it's head. The main problem here is not being able to finish the job after gaining a bunch of life. Hopeful Eidolon is a good piece of redundancy as a weaker third copy of Mark of the Vampire.
Flying Hexproofers: Spectral Flight was always a well positioned blue beatdown card. Sort of a Blue Madcap Skills. Most of the good hexproofers are in green, so you'll need to be running G/U to pull this off. In this colour combination I like to Man-o'-War 4ever so I don't mind trading card advantage for tempo. That being said, one of the main features I like about the G/U archetype is not putting all your eggs into one basket. You sort of want to diversify your portfolio so you're not losing on any particular axis. A lot depends on the quality of your card advantage and the how you curve out. Also another variable is how the hexproofers perform without seeing any of their high synergy pieces. They are all pretty understated; sometimes they're a meatshield at best against decks without heaps on evasion. Also a hexproofer dies to Counterspell just like everything else. I've shifted White away from being a third removal colour to being well costed bodies and tricks to make those body's work. White decks tend to be combat focused, since from being a support colour that you picked up for Pacifism. Green hardly cares whether the opponent's creature has haxproof or not. Red and Black decks struggle a bit more although they can invalidate that plan by consistently winning while you durdle your thumbs trying to assemble Exodia.
I'm not actively supporting Hexproof+Auras because I found the archetype to be parasitic, sort of in the same way that Infect was in a triple Scars of Mirrodin draft. Parasitic archetypes tend to make the support colours weaker by virtue of taking up card slots for effects which are not that playable outside of their specific archetypes. Some of the pieces stand alone, and certainly more do than something like metalcraft or infect.
On Theros: Some interesting stuff is here. There's a few decent cards to begin rounding out some archetypes which have been a long time coming. I particularly like the look of the White 2/2 for 2 that gives your creatures +1/+0 when you target it with a spell.
that said, Al, you blue looks like it just rolls over to any early aggression. the first defensive card is cmc3
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"little chance" Shadow GuildmageGranger GuildmageFireslingerSparksmith
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Headless Skaab takes a little bit to stand upright, but is massive. You really, really need 2 drops to make this deck work and preferably on colour so you don't end up making the mana base shaky. Merfolk Looter is pretty decent with the blue zombies. And Vapor Snag works wonders, sure it's pretty all in but you can recuperate your losses with Treasure Cruise. Ghoulcaller's Chant is an under appreciated card. Getting back 1 creature for 1 mana is an alright deal, but often in deck building you could just cut it for a decent creature and save 1 mana in the process. But getting a 2-for-1 with zombies is bonkers for 1 mana. And there is not exactly what you'd call a shortage of zombies. Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Gurmag Angler and Twisted Abomination are all ridiculous cards to recur. Sultai Emissary and Deranged Assistant gel the deck together. None of these cards are weak on their own either. Silver Myr and Leaden Myr are fine cards, but fall a little under the bar for most Pauper cubes; the artifact synergies are either parasitic or the artifacts themselves don't do enough. (Hopes for more good artifacts.) The self mill really sets the Assistant apart because there is so much to do with the cards in graveyard even if that's just to fuel delve.
Welkin Tern is fine in slower more controlly decks as well. As it sets a clock while you do blue things with blue mana. You can play it on later turns such as turn 4 when you might want to hold Mana Leak. Lowering the overall CMC lets you play more cards per turn and typically 2 2-drops is greater than 1 4-drop in overall stats. As well the card draw in blue is plentiful and abundant.
I was playing a friend's cube and I kept Primal Growthing tokens on turn 3. It seemed really strong, especially because I got the 2 lands into play untapped. It reminded me of Rushing River for the kind of value it generated.
tl;dr curving is strong.
yeah if you run terns, because you need them dead in the grave, fine.
lol
Al isnt running any of the zombies though.
if you run them in a controllish deck, you will just lose the race, cuz they cant block.
Dauthi Slayer isnt just better because he is black, but because shadow is a way more reliable "cant be blocked" than flying. it demands a specific answer.
I think over the past 8 years or so, I tried and cut them as often as Al reintroduced them to his cube. Theyre just horrible.
Again. Desert turns them all into bad category. I can only imagine its underrated by Als playgroup. not seeing more pinger at cmc<3 isnt even an argument.
I didnt like them in my T2 either.
Also autolosing to red isnt the best option. Your green evaluation was on point. how to win the swiss and beat burn. Now you just fold to red?
Als logic is, he wants every color to be "jackofalltrades" ignoring the colorwheel. Yet, he is not running greens "removal" because its too bad compared to he other colors. Flawed logic to me shoving aggro into blue at the same time.
Sideboarding in cubedrafts is widely accepted as nothing to aim for.
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
I strongly believe in the sideboard. It feels more like a strategy game than roulette.
There's no need to bad mouth design decisions.
@Al_Z_Heimer
I just had a look at your cube list. I don't remember seeing Burn Trail before. 6 damage seems gross. You're red spells are so stacked. Maybe you could try Artillerize as well for another big overkill spell. Interesting that you're not running Faithless Looting for the filter. I guess it doesn't contribute to the burn as much as possible as quickly as possible plan. I like the card filter when I durdle. The red one drops are also extremely light. Maybe Foundry Street Denizen and Intimidator Initiate? Giantbaiting is another convoke card, although it might not make it through the sea of tokens you've got going. The 8 damage in nice in theory. It can come of nowhere so it's more of a trick (than a combat trick). I'm not sure if you play with sideboards. Giantbaiting would be in and out depending on what I thought the likelihood of it connecting would be in a given game.
A pet card which turned out to be a monster is Basilica Guards. It started going first pick it was that good. As a blocker it soaks damage in the relevant aggro matchups. You can negate its weakness to big creatures by being in removal colours and Gods Willing colour(s) to deal with your opponent's answers. The extort is crazy with lots of 2 for 1 cards and cheap spells. It's a big part of what makes the tithe archetype work.
Sentinel's Eyes seems good. Kind of a White Rancor — sort of. Obviously it represents less damage, but we haven't had enough vigilance cards in white outside of the odd Razor Golem. The 2 cards for escape is affordable, but means you don't want to run Eyes with much of the delve and Raise Dead effects.
Ehh on running Thirst for Meaning. I don't think most people will have enough enchantments for the discard. All the draw 3 and discard 1 of a card types have been strong. I'm looking forward to holding three mana in constructed... Compulsive Research, although sorcery, is the strongest for Pauper Cube as every deck has lots of lands and they are the type of cards you want to discard; lands are Dead Weights in your hand in multiples.
I don't think Rain of Revelation is very good. I prefer Hieroglyphic Illumination if I'm instant speed drawing netting a card for 4 mana. Cycling for 1 blue mana is very strong. You can trade in your card much sooner for one off the top, or in a game where you're not going to find the spare 4 mana you might be able to spare 1 Force Spike of mana somewhere. Hieroglyphic Illumination was one of the more expensive common foils I've picked up recently. I'm not sure if it's because the art in foil is amazing or because it's a strong cycling card. I could be underestimating the power of clearing a dead card from my hand with Rain of Revelation, but I think I would try to avoid dead cards in hand in the first place and Rain might just be one of those cards.
Alternatively I'm also considering to maybe try out the Ghostly Flicker combo once more. If I'm not not statisfied with either of those options I will most likely simply add some goodstuff, especially counterspells. I'm always surprised how few actual good counterspells pauper has since there haven't been any good ones for sooooo long, but people want to play counter heavy control and you need enough instant speed for counters to actually be good.
@Cobble:
Burn Trail sure is sick with enough Tokens to consistently enable Conspire. Not just because it can deal 6 to the face (unlike Magma Burst), but because it can deal 3 damage to 2 different targets and you can decide depending on the situation.
I would definitely run Reckless Abandon over Artillerize. 3 mana difference is huge.
I don't think I have enough ways to get value out of the grave for Faithless Looting. It sure is a fine card filter spell, even without payoff, but the real power lies in getting value from what you discard.
I'm not really sure what I would want to cut for any of the onedrops.
Giantbaiting is a pet card of mine, that has been in my cube for the most time, even before I added swarm as an archetype, because you don't need 2 creatures of the same color, but simply 2 creatures if you are in GR. Maybe it comes back in one day.
I've dedicated some slots towards white control, and Basilica Guards has been one of them before. For now I don't really have anything to cut for it.
I think Rain of Revelation is an excellent card. You rarely want to cycle Hieroglyphic Illumination and the Rain is simply more value. It outclassed Foresee, which has been a mainstay for many cubes over years.
Edit: Apropos Counterspells: Has anyone considered Disdainful Stroke as a decent counterspell? Most of the super impactful cards in cube all cost 4+ (e.g. Coalition Honor Guard, Guardian of the Guildpact, Mulldrifter, Capsize, Treasure Cruise, Gurmag Angler, Twisted Abomination, Pestilence, Fireball, Rolling Thunder, Blastoderm and Sprout Swarm).
It sure is conditional, but so are all the other options for counterspells at common, like Essence Scatters or UX counters.
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
Als strongest argument against Spectral Flight is its 2:1 probability. although it turns a 1/2 onedrop into a 3/4 flying turn2 and shuts off a lot of removal spells. heck, slam it on a red 3/2 and you have a 4turn clock.
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/9o1
flight works as good for early beats as for midgame stalls, thats why its a great card (and better than terns)
i dont like whites 2/1flys either, but at least they can block. 3/1s are just bad unless they come with a useful ability. pretty much only Daring Skyjek
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Auto-includes power level-wise are:
Daze, Counterspell, Mana Leak, Miscalculation, Exclude and Condescend
How do you rank the following:
-XU Counters (Power Sink/Syncopate/Broken Ambitions): The additional effects can mostly be ignored, IMO. They can counter everything on curve for 1U, but can be become quite mana intense later and outright bad if you are mana screwed or play against green with a lot of acceleration.
-Confound: A pet card of mine. It's mostly a weaker Shelter, but still pretty solid.
-Deprive: Unconditional cmc 2 Counter with tempo drawback. Bad early, doesn't matter later.
-Disdainful Stroke: I've only recently realised that this card might be really good as it hits pretty much all of the high impact cards, you actually want to counter. When it hits it's a guaranteed tempo gain.
-Dissolve: The best [card]Cancel/card].
-Creature Counter (Essence Scatter/False Summoning/Remove Soul): Narrow, but still creature removal for cmc 2.
-Force Spike: Good early, often useless later.
-Logic Knot: Bad early, good late.
-Memory Lapse: It feels more like a bounce spell than a Counter, but it technically is one. It's not really a permanent out, but instead buys you time to find one.
-Negate: Interesting in combination with the creature Counters.
-Prohibit: By far not as good as it is in constructed, but still not unplayable. It can't be better than going even or even in the negative tempo-wise.
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
Tier 0
Mana Leak
Condescend
Exclude
Counterspell
Tier 0.5 (Honourable mentions)
Pyroblast
Red Elemental Blast
Hydroblast
Blue Elemental Blast
Tier 1
Daze
Miscalculation
Mana Tithe
Tier 2
Quench
Dissolve (I'm personally not running downshifted cards right now.)
Arcane Denial (More of a tempo card than a control card.)
Tier 3
Force Spike
Memory Lapse (similar to Arcane Denial)
Essence Scatter and functional reprints
Logic Knot (With Preordain, Thought Scour or something turn 1.)
Tier 4
Faerie Trickery (This is one of my pet cards.)
Broken Ambitions (The clash is a functional scry 1, but the downsides are your opponent gets to scry 1 or fuel graveyard.)
Syncopate
Power Sink
Tier 6
Prohibit (Never tried this one out.)
Deprive
Disdainful Stroke
Memory Drain
Cancel
Tier 7
Logic Knot (Without synergies)
Confound (I ran this for a while but, it was a dead card more often than not. Although I was often more concerned with interacting with my opponent's stuff than my own.)
Tier 8
Traumatic Visions
Negate (I'm learning to appreciate Negate, but most of the time I want a Remove Soul instead, or even Cancel.)
Bone to Ash
Hence the honourable mention. They are strong pieces of countermagic.
I forgot Dispel and Spell Pierce. They are strong, but a bit too narrow for a limited environment. Maybe Spell Pierce is in the league of Faerie Trickery and Syncopate, and dispel's at the bottom with Confound and Logic Knot (without synergies), where it could be strong, but mostly will sit in your hand while your opponent plays creatures.
I really like Faerie Trickery because it feels like the extra 1 mana I'm paying over something the 2 mana alternatives is for a no questions asked, no nonsense kind of deal. If I counter a card with this, I don't to see it come back and haunt me. The Faerie clause has never been relevant (neither the tribal type).
They can counter T2 and are not useless in the lategame.
Force Spike is just mvp and better than manatithe.
Memory Lapse is baiscally paupers time walk
that said, if you really want to make blue counter control a thing, you need to add a bunch of flash creatures to have a real draw go archetype going.
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t