I personally don't consider Arcane Denial cubeable at all. This card is only good in formats/decks, where card advantage doesn't matter like commander or some combo decks. In limited this card can very easily kill you. It doesn't generate more tempo than any other cmc 2 counterspell and in a real tempo deck I don't think counterspells are really good at all, except for like Daze and Force Spike.
Memory Lapse is baiscally paupers time walkRemand". I mean it's Time Walk in a way except for the whole taking a turn thing.
Memory Lapse is usually worse than a hard counter, since it only delays a threat you have to deal with on your next turn. On the other hand it's better than Remand most of the time, because if you counter a cheap threat with Remand you opponent will simply cast it again the very same turn, while it doesn't really matter what you counter with Memory Lapse. It's very similar to Chittering Rats in that regard.
The biggest question from my side is XU Counters vs. Essence Scatters. Any more opinions on that?
I'm also interested if I'm the only one who thinks, that Disdainful Stroke has a lot of potential.
Exclude is almost the best counterspell at common. The only reason why I pick Mana Leak over it, is that strong 2 cmc counterspells are at a premium, and I can always find card advantage somewhere else. Drawing a card on a 3 mana counterspell is bonkers. If you're looking for turn 2 plays, some of the cheap black removal on turn 2 followed by holding mana on turn 3 for Exclude is a hard to beat play. The single blue mana means you can splash blue for Exclude so you don't even have to be committed to the counterspell life style. Exclude is bonkers and there is no way my mind is changing on this. When you reach Turn 5 and your opponent still hasn't managed to stick a creature, you know it's going to be a fun match.
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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."
I dont like situational counter, so i dont run any remove soul. prefer X-counters for sure.
another reason why i cut exclude. its great in the flickercombo though.
Disdainful Stroke falls also into the too situative corner, so no ty. it all depends on the speed of you cube though.
you feel silly if you have them while your opponent resolves savannah lions into Raise the Alarm or llanowar elves -> Elephant Guide
When you reach Turn 5 and your opponent still hasn't managed to stick a blocker, you know it's going to be a fun match.
I personally don't consider Arcane Denial cubeable at all. This card is only good in formats/decks, where card advantage doesn't matter like commander or some combo decks. In limited this card can very easily kill you. It doesn't generate more tempo than any other cmc 2 counterspell and in a real tempo deck I don't think counterspells are really good at all, except for like Daze and Force Spike.
Memory Lapse is baiscally paupers time walkRemand". I mean it's Time Walk in a way except for the whole taking a turn thing.
Memory Lapse is usually worse than a hard counter, since it only delays a threat you have to deal with on your next turn. On the other hand it's better than Remand most of the time, because if you counter a cheap threat with Remand you opponent will simply cast it again the very same turn, while it doesn't really matter what you counter with Memory Lapse. It's very similar to Chittering Rats in that regard.
The biggest question from my side is XU Counters vs. Essence Scatters. Any more opinions on that?
I'm also interested if I'm the only one who thinks, that Disdainful Stroke has a lot of potential.
The reason why I rate Arcane Denial so highly is because it's a great fit in tempo decks that want your opponent to never empty their hand. I wouldn't run it in anything even remotely grindy. It's the sort of card where if you are considering Vapor Snag (if that card is in your cube), then this is an auto-include in your deck. Another advantage of Arcane Denial is you actually get passed it, unlike Condescend. I would run Arcane Denial in U/g Man-o'-War tempo and W/B very efficient creatures. These decks want their 2 and 3 drops to go the distance and tend to emphasise mana efficiency, temporary solutions and cheap card-draw over card advantage and permanent solutions. Memory Lapse is another good counterspell for this kind of archetype. These decks definitely want Mana Leak and Force SpikeMana Tithe.
Essence Scatter is sort of a blue Doom Blade, the catch being is you have to have open mana at the right time, whereas with Doom Blade, you can do that whenever. However you do stop etb's from triggering. And you can Essence Scatter a turn 2/3 play while keeping tempo, as long as your opponent doesn't decide that this is the perfect time to resolve their piece of equipment. Sometimes during mid-game your opponents will be looking to resolve a game-breaking sorcery or get an equipment down to start shuffling around on creatures.
Syncopate can counter on curve at 2 mana, which is the main strength of this kind of card. And later turns your opponents can walk into the x is 1. However the more savvy your opponents are the worse this gets. It's an alright counterspell mid-game if you hold up enough mana, although you start losing out on mana effiency whereas with Essence Scatter you lose very little in mana efficiency mid-game (unless your holding for multiple turns, in which case hopefully you're doing something else. Late game if your opponent has been hitting land drops then Syncopate can kind of be a dead card at countering 2 cmc threats (when shields are down, a Topan Freeblade can carry a game).
I've avoided putting in many of the x cost counters (with the exception of Condescend), so I might not have a full grasp on how to evaluate them.
I think Disdainful Stroke has potential in the right deck. I just think that it will end up as draft chaff (instead of a more universally useful card), and I don't like how it can't counter almost any White card. In particular I am the resident White player of my cube and anyone maindecking it again me just lost one very valuable card from their 40 card lineup.
Edit: I just realised that my Devices are logged into different account... Oh well, I'll just roll with it.
The reason why I rate Arcane Denial so highly is because it's a great fit in tempo decks that want your opponent to never empty their hand.
Playing a tempo deck, that aims to kill the opponent before they can play their hand to the full extend, doesn't mean that you have to actually fuel their hand with additional gas. No matter how much bounce you play it's also not for you to decide if this plan works. Against a super low curve aggro deck this plan will certainly not work.
I think Disdainful Stroke has potential in the right deck. I just think that it will end up as draft chaff (instead of a more universally useful card), and I don't like how it can't counter almost any White card.
arcane denial is pretty bad tbf. its nice that it gives you a draw and is a hardcounter for 1u, but its still too much advantage for the opponent. no matter how full their grip is.
monowhite btw is my most favorite and probably strongest deck in my cube.
I know what to do with blue, I simply have some flex slots and since blue is curretnly the only color, that has no special archetype (Swarm in WRG and Sacrifice in B) I was wondering if blue needs to have it's own thing, since it's barely compatible with any of the other archetypes.
I'm actually not a huge fan of flash, since you often want to use flash during combat and counter after combat. A good creature for a counter strategy is e.g. Peregrine Drake, which you can simply slam at any time, once you reach 5 and unless it gets countered itself, you will always have mana up to do whatever.
I've actually readded Impulse. You don't need to have specifically flash, but simply instant speed cards, that allow you to do something else with your mana, if you don't counter.
no need to flash during combat, thats not how draw-go works, which is an archetype. flash just allows you to develop a board while still have counters up. Impulse seems outclassed by Omen of the Sea
I think Drake is worse than the 3/3 flash flyer and those are already pretty borderline. on turn 5+ a 2/3 is just too small even when it virtually costs 0. also the drake is too unique and you want more than just one creature. Drakw also can just be bolted whilte untap is on the stack.
I think Drake is worse than the 3/3 flash flyer and those are already pretty borderline. on turn 5+ a 2/3 is just too small even when it virtually costs 0. also the drake is too unique and you want more than just one creature. Drakw also can just be bolted whilte untap is on the stack.
I think a 2/3 flier is relevant at any point in the game, or else Mulldrifter wouldn't be as busted as it is. I understand that the mechanic was insanely broken and way too easily abuseable. but it's still kind of sad that there aren't more cards like the drake.
Your opponent can also eot bolt your flash creature, before you untap. The drake at least didn't take up any mana in that case.
sure they can bolt it, thats why i dont run the cmc5 duds anywhere, but Cloaked Siren is just straight better than the drake.
and Pestermite is an all-star anyway. Spellstutter Sprite would give your blue at least something against early aggression.
that said. flickercombo works very good as wincon in draw-go. so if you have the drake anyway add Ghostly Flicker, especially if your cube is still somewhat powerlevel driven.
I know most here are not fans of The Pauper Cube Blog. I keep an eye for any leftfielf ideas. They just did their TBH Q&A and I noticed something I forgot about...
BIASES
We all have them. But for Pauper as a community, it is an interesting take as to what we do and do not allow. They are adamantly against 5C "Silliness", yet FOR B/R Sac with some seriously ho-hum cards. Good to see they at least are seeing Scour the Possibilities are crap now. Only took 4 months.
Anyways, what is the major issue against 5C provided you do not have 10 Signets atop 10 land fetch spells? Running 2-5 mana fixers/ramp that get any color is not going to warp a cube too far, is it?
Also, TBH is about par for the course really. Without a Gold update, or nonbasics that alter anything, this is the usual 2-8 card trial update; imo. Anyone feel different?
This made me wonder, now that we have discussed counters, how would all of you rank blue noncreature Card advantage draw (2+) and manipulation? I count them together in this case, because many of our card advantage draw spells also provide manipulation (e.g. Scry).
I know most here are not fans of The Pauper Cube Blog. I keep an eye for any leftfielf ideas. They just did their TBH Q&A and I noticed something I forgot about...
BIASES
We all have them. But for Pauper as a community, it is an interesting take as to what we do and do not allow. They are adamantly against 5C "Silliness", yet FOR B/R Sac with some seriously ho-hum cards. Good to see they at least are seeing Scour the Possibilities are crap now. Only took 4 months.
Anyways, what is the major issue against 5C provided you do not have 10 Signets atop 10 land fetch spells? Running 2-5 mana fixers/ramp that get any color is not going to warp a cube too far, is it?
Also, TBH is about par for the course really. Without a Gold update, or nonbasics that alter anything, this is the usual 2-8 card trial update; imo. Anyone feel different?
this "paupercube" worshippers are horrible at card evaluations and after being on the discord for some time, i must come to the conclusion Styborski himself is not the brightest guy around either.
5C is pretty much non-existant on pauperlevel, because no matter how much fixing you run, it wont be good, because we just dont have good (early) fixing. Also during draft a lot tend to stay monocolored, because of the densitiy of "bombs" in one each color. Finally, I dont see any benefits to go 3c+
I see their biggest problem is they need to be relevant. This means adding 10+/- cards every set. Constantly including, and removing, archetypes for each other.Literally change for the sake of change. Contravery arising because they MUST keep swingy rotation of cards. I get it, appreciate it, but also am amazed that people simply want to be involved for the sake of being involved. That Scour the Possibilities discussion is basically a snapshot ofm"their" cube
**I personally like 3C as an old Ravnica drafter, it feels like comfort food.
On Peregrine Drake. I prefer Spire Golem as my never tap out blue flier. Actually, all the Golems from Darksteel are great. The cost reduction is stronger than untapping some lands in Blue inPauper Cube because there is never a shields down moment. 4 toughness on a flier is really something else. When I was trying out some drossier cards Azure Drake performed well and Spire Golem is a much better version than the Drake, assuming you play Islands. I thought a 2/4 would be much worse than Phantom Monster, however not dying to most Red removal is a big deal. The slower clock isn't too noticeable in a Blue shell. What I find impacts the deck most is losing one of my few creatures to other deck's filler cards. Even if am crushing in card advantage I still don't want to durdle against Red.
With the Drake itself, 2/3 flier is very unimpressive and you have to wait for turn 5 before the card is even playable. That's more or less 4 turns of a card sitting in the hand doing nothing. In a colour that cares deeply about colour advantage, I'm not sure if I want to include functionally dead cards into my deck because then I am losing on on virtual card advantage (the only CA that truely matters) for the first chunk of a game. At 5 I want to be playing my Cavalier of Gales. My non-Mulldrifter Blue 5 drop of choice is Clutch of Currents, mostly because I like beating people with Man-o'-Wars.
Edit: if I have ways of shipping Peregrine Drake out of my hand early, I'd be a bit more charitable towards it. Not sure if anyone plays See Beyond. Merfolk Looter is a clear choice, but some games you don't have time to stick the Looter and begin looting, you need to do stuff now. If I'm happy to throw away a card to a Specter, that's not a good sign of overall card strength.
Picking the best card in 4 and putting it into you hand is stronger than Omen of the Sea. I like Omen on it's own merits, but Impulse is clearly stronger. Sure no one is talking about Shimmer of Possibility, but it goes to show how much better being instant speed is in Blue. We're a bit short on strong Blue 2 mana instant cantraps. There's a gulf between Anticipate which is not regarded well even in Standard and Impulse which I regard strong. Omen of the Sea is the Serum Visions in this situation. Ok, cashing in for the scry 2 is decent, but I would take up front dig any day.
I see their biggest problem is they need to be relevant. This means adding 10+/- cards every set. Constantly including, and removing, archetypes for each other.Literally change for the sake of change. Contravery arising because they MUST keep swingy rotation of cards. I get it, appreciate it, but also am amazed that people simply want to be involved for the sake of being involved. That Scour the Possibilities discussion is basically a snapshot ofm"their" cube
**I personally like 3C as an old Ravnica drafter, it feels like comfort food.
my impression is, the archetypes change to whatever <snip> discord wants.
Also during draft a lot tend to stay monocolored, because of the densitiy of "bombs" in one each color.
Mono color rarely happens in my cube. Not that you wouldn't be able get enough playables in one color (we recently stopped after 2 packs and simply made our decks from 2x 15 boosters, just because everyone felt like they had a decent deck already), but very often there is at least a single card in a different color, that is worth the splash and while you are playing a 2nd color anyway you can also play some additional cards from that color. There are also the multicolor cards which are hard to pass, since most of them are stronger than the average monocolor card.
3c is usually unnecessary, but I personally like building grindy 3c goodstuff decks, especially grixis and my personal pet archetype mardu control.
I don't really offer much in the way of monocolor support since it happens so rarely and black is the only color, which has some decent payoff for it anyway (Gray Merchant of Asphodel/Tendrils of Corruption). There isn't much incentive to stay monocolored apart from that. How about the rest, how frequently do you see monocolored decks?
Picking the best card in 4 and putting it into you hand is stronger than Omen of the Sea. I like Omen on it's own merits, but Impulse is clearly stronger. Sure no one is talking about Shimmer of Possibility, but it goes to show how much better being instant speed is in Blue. We're a bit short on strong Blue 2 mana instant cantraps. There's a gulf between Anticipate which is not regarded well even in Standard and Impulse which I regard strong. Omen of the Sea is the Serum Visions in this situation. Ok, cashing in for the scry 2 is decent, but I would take up front dig any day.
I'm not sure about the Omen vs. Impulse, but the Omen seems to be at least a solid upgrade over Anticipate, which is totally playable, it's just outclassed by Impulse
In paper i had player run 60 card monocolor decks lol and online a lot feel like staying in one color as well it seems.
cards like Pestilence already ask for deep B commitment and i even added more since then.
Preordain - The best 1 mana cantrap in this format. Treasure Cruise - You do need things to go to your graveyard and has anti-synergy with Gurmag Angler, but the 3 card windfall is massive. Deep Analysis - Would be the ranked higher if burn/aggro decks weren't so strong. Rush of Knowledge - If you play this right, you can win from the card advantage generated by this card. Be wary of Terminate in response. Impulse - Best 2 mana card selection spell available. Serum Visions - The power is dispersed into the next turn, rather than as upfront dig. Still if you play this early this downside is almost entirely negated. Ponder - Significantly worse than Preordain because of the lack of shuffle when you see good card-land-land. Stronger at dig which puts Ponder above its peers. Brainstorm - The value of Brainstorm card spikes if you have drafted Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse and Ash Barrens. Shuffling away two cards is powerful. Seeing 3 cards is useful when you need to find an answer in response to a big threat, but I don't like the feeling of drawing cards I've already seen. Compulsive Research - Best 3 mana draw. Gitaxian Probe - Depending on the match up, strong or marginal. When the 2 life doesn't matter then seeing your opponents hand is a powerful move. When the life matters, you'll probability find an opportunity for cast this for 1 blue, and then you'll know how doomed you are. Depending on the types of spells you are holding depends on the value of the information. Opt - Helps slightly increase your card filtering so you can more reliably find what you are looking for when you need it. Being instant speed helps this card a lot. Portent - Drawing next upkeep would be a deal breaker, except for one important detail: you can look at the top three cards of an opponent's library. Hieroglyphic Illumination - Cycling for 1 blue makes this card quite decent. You can trade it in much sooner for a card than any of the 2 mana or more cards. I highly recommend cycling this card when possible because that's where the power is. Drawing two cards for 4 mana is way behind curve. The blue deck that runs Hieroglyphic Illumination wants to see as much of its library as soon as possible. Rain of Revelation - A strong 4 mana instant. Foresee - This is a huge play for 4 mana because you can see up to six cards. You need to tap out for it, so I'd probably want to play this in a removal heavy shell, so either Black, Red or White. I don't think a Blue heavy build has much use for a card like this. See Beyond - I really prefer cheap cards in blue decks and being able to put away an Ulamog's Crusher or a land when you don't need those cards means See Beyond generates virtual card advantage. Scour All Possibilities The flashback is ok. The regular cast is ok. I don't think I'll often have a spare 5 mana floating around, unless I'm ahead and holding countermagic mana. Omen of the Sea - Alright dig. This card feels very cuttable, but if I need a bit of glue to keep my deck together I'd run it. Winged Words - 2 mana draw two cards feels a little too good to be true. Midgame you should be able to get the discount. I think this won't be cast on turn 2. Anticipate - Instant speed chose one in three for 2 mana is so-so. Solidly middle of the pack, but I wouldn't be that inclined to play it. Shimmer of Possibility - The dig means I want to play this only if a couple of my cards are significantly stronger than the rest. Digging for Guardian of the Guildpact seems alright. Gush - Returning 2 Islands for 2 cards is too steep, because I wouldn't want to do that for any reason in the first several turns. This card is pretty broken not in a singleton common draft. The synergies to make use of Gush are few and far between. Think Twice - Cuttable even in self mill decks. Witching Well - No upfront card draw. 4 mana to draw two is bad unless there is an alternative. This is the kind of card that's worth watching because when there are enough decent cheap artifacts, the artifact matters cards really shine. Radical Idea - Drawing one for 2 mana isn't a deal I'm inclined to make. Discarding a card for an extra draw doesn't make up for the lack of mana efficiency. Divination - This is what mediocre card draw looks like. If you are looking for card advantage it almost always is worth looking elsewhere.
Bonus drawspell: Pieces of the Puzzle. Can get up to 2 relevant spells as well as fuel the graveyard. Very strong in the right deck, however you need to reach a critical mass of instants and sorceries in order for this card to function properly.
@Cobble:
Thank you for taking the time to write such a long response. Something I want to discuss though: Winged Words: Very rarely you want to cast card draw on turn 2. The only spot where you would want to do this if you kept a 2 land hand and are about to miss your 3rd land drop. Card draw is usually the last thing you want to cast from your hand, when you no longer have anything else to play, so the drawback of not casting it turn 2 seems really negligible. I didn't realise it, when the set was first released, but 16 out of my 27 blue creatures fly anyway, so this is pretty consistent.
Witching Well: I think this card is better, the more I think about it, than people (including me) have realised, when it was realeased. It's basically Inspiration/Hieroglyphic Illumination with Scry 2, for no additional cost if you play it on turn 1. The fact that the draw effect is instant speed makes this really solid. I'm not so high on Foresee nowadays, because it can be really hard to take a turn off to resolve this.
@Al-
Start the MCD thread, we are all usually starved for things to disagree about ;-p
Another question to ask is: In 360, how many draw/filter spells is the threshold for a Blue section?
I run prob 5 hard CA draw spells, and prob another 4 or so Filter to roj d out my support for basic archetypes.
Another question to ask is: In 360, how many draw/filter spells is the threshold for a Blue section?
I run prob 5 hard CA draw spells, and prob another 4 or so Filter to roj d out my support for basic archetypes.
I have to say that I don't really bother that much with balancing different card types. Since my cube is after all still a powered cube I usually simply add my cards by powerlevel from top down. Exceptions are of course mana curve among creatures, color balancing, archetypes and some card types, like e.g. that I try to add some weaker counterspells, because I feel like I have too little counterspells over all and that the existing ones become stronger by having more. If I feel like a card draw spell/cantrip is above average I will try to squeeze it in and if not, I don't have a set amount I want to have.
@Cobble:
Thank you for taking the time to write such a long response. Something I want to discuss though: Winged Words: Very rarely you want to cast card draw on turn 2. The only spot where you would want to do this if you kept a 2 land hand and are about to miss your 3rd land drop. Card draw is usually the last thing you want to cast from your hand, when you no longer have anything else to play, so the drawback of not casting it turn 2 seems really negligible. I didn't realise it, when the set was first released, but 16 out of my 27 blue creatures fly anyway, so this is pretty consistent.
Witching Well: I think this card is better, the more I think about it, than people (including me) have realised, when it was realeased. It's basically Inspiration/Hieroglyphic Illumination with Scry 2, for no additional cost if you play it on turn 1. The fact that the draw effect is instant speed makes this really solid. I'm not so high on Foresee nowadays, because it can be really hard to take a turn off to resolve this.
A agree on not typically wanting to cast card draw to turn 2 because I would rather establish a board presence in a format devoid of mass creature removal. However failing to have another decent play on turn 2, playing a draw spell sounds quite lucrative. It would be an awesome follow up to an early Delver of Secrets flip. The only other Blue 1 drop flier worth noting is Cloudfin Raptor, but that really wants 2 and 3 drops so it can get those early evolve triggers to put you ahead on board.
On Witching Well. It puts me down a card early and scry 2 isn't quite adequate compensation for that.
Foresee is still decent because it always gets you the cards you need to close out a game. I'd only run Foresee in a deck with strong early board presence.
I think I need to test out these draw 2 effects some more, but they all seem quite cuttable if I manage to get a Mulldrifter, Treasure Cruise and a few 1 mana Ponders. I don't think that there is much room in a Pauper Cube for many additional draw spells. I'm fine including more 1 mana cantraps, because we have access to some of the best in all of Magic and those cards don't compete with card slots for your more splashy, obviously powerful effects. However I don't think many deck lists have much room for anything that cost more than 3 mana.
Razor Golem is by far and away my favourite affinity for lands card. It's one of the best bodies in White and it rounds off the curve with a deck full of Plains. Mono White's always a challenge to get ahead with and not fall behind. The more gates and gain 1 life lands you run the less lucrative a creature such as Razor Golem becomes. Especially because other drafters will be more inclined to pick up all you decent White cards. The new devotion to White common, Daybreak Chimera is pretty sick too.
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I personally don't consider Arcane Denial cubeable at all. This card is only good in formats/decks, where card advantage doesn't matter like commander or some combo decks. In limited this card can very easily kill you. It doesn't generate more tempo than any other cmc 2 counterspell and in a real tempo deck I don't think counterspells are really good at all, except for like Daze and Force Spike.
Memory Lapse is baiscally paupers
time walkRemand". I mean it's Time Walk in a way except for the whole taking a turn thing.Memory Lapse is usually worse than a hard counter, since it only delays a threat you have to deal with on your next turn. On the other hand it's better than Remand most of the time, because if you counter a cheap threat with Remand you opponent will simply cast it again the very same turn, while it doesn't really matter what you counter with Memory Lapse. It's very similar to Chittering Rats in that regard.
The biggest question from my side is XU Counters vs. Essence Scatters. Any more opinions on that?
I'm also interested if I'm the only one who thinks, that Disdainful Stroke has a lot of potential.
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)
another reason why i cut exclude. its great in the flickercombo though.
Disdainful Stroke falls also into the too situative corner, so no ty. it all depends on the speed of you cube though.
you feel silly if you have them while your opponent resolves savannah lions into Raise the Alarm or llanowar elves -> Elephant Guide
When you reach Turn 5 and your opponent still hasn't managed to stick a blocker, you know it's going to be a
funmatch.powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
The reason why I rate Arcane Denial so highly is because it's a great fit in tempo decks that want your opponent to never empty their hand. I wouldn't run it in anything even remotely grindy. It's the sort of card where if you are considering Vapor Snag (if that card is in your cube), then this is an auto-include in your deck. Another advantage of Arcane Denial is you actually get passed it, unlike Condescend. I would run Arcane Denial in U/g Man-o'-War tempo and W/B very efficient creatures. These decks want their 2 and 3 drops to go the distance and tend to emphasise mana efficiency, temporary solutions and cheap card-draw over card advantage and permanent solutions. Memory Lapse is another good counterspell for this kind of archetype. These decks definitely want Mana Leak and
Force SpikeMana Tithe.Essence Scatter is sort of a blue Doom Blade, the catch being is you have to have open mana at the right time, whereas with Doom Blade, you can do that whenever. However you do stop etb's from triggering. And you can Essence Scatter a turn 2/3 play while keeping tempo, as long as your opponent doesn't decide that this is the perfect time to resolve their piece of equipment. Sometimes during mid-game your opponents will be looking to resolve a game-breaking sorcery or get an equipment down to start shuffling around on creatures.
Syncopate can counter on curve at 2 mana, which is the main strength of this kind of card. And later turns your opponents can walk into the x is 1. However the more savvy your opponents are the worse this gets. It's an alright counterspell mid-game if you hold up enough mana, although you start losing out on mana effiency whereas with Essence Scatter you lose very little in mana efficiency mid-game (unless your holding for multiple turns, in which case hopefully you're doing something else. Late game if your opponent has been hitting land drops then Syncopate can kind of be a dead card at countering 2 cmc threats (when shields are down, a Topan Freeblade can carry a game).
I've avoided putting in many of the x cost counters (with the exception of Condescend), so I might not have a full grasp on how to evaluate them.
I think Disdainful Stroke has potential in the right deck. I just think that it will end up as draft chaff (instead of a more universally useful card), and I don't like how it can't counter almost any White card. In particular I am the resident White player of my cube and anyone maindecking it again me just lost one very valuable card from their 40 card lineup.
Edit: I just realised that my Devices are logged into different account... Oh well, I'll just roll with it.
Except for like all the good high impact white cards, like Battle Screech, Coalition Honor Guard, Guardian of the Guildpact, Rhox Veteran, Seraph of Dawn, Custodi Squire and Faith's Fetters.
When I personally draft white I usually do so because I got an early Coalition Honor Guard or Guardian of the Guildpact.
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)
monowhite btw is my most favorite and probably strongest deck in my cube.
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
I'm actually not a huge fan of flash, since you often want to use flash during combat and counter after combat. A good creature for a counter strategy is e.g. Peregrine Drake, which you can simply slam at any time, once you reach 5 and unless it gets countered itself, you will always have mana up to do whatever.
I've actually readded Impulse. You don't need to have specifically flash, but simply instant speed cards, that allow you to do something else with your mana, if you don't counter.
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I think Drake is worse than the 3/3 flash flyer and those are already pretty borderline. on turn 5+ a 2/3 is just too small even when it virtually costs 0. also the drake is too unique and you want more than just one creature. Drakw also can just be bolted whilte untap is on the stack.
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
I think a 2/3 flier is relevant at any point in the game, or else Mulldrifter wouldn't be as busted as it is. I understand that the mechanic was insanely broken and way too easily abuseable. but it's still kind of sad that there aren't more cards like the drake.
Your opponent can also eot bolt your flash creature, before you untap. The drake at least didn't take up any mana in that case.
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and Pestermite is an all-star anyway. Spellstutter Sprite would give your blue at least something against early aggression.
that said. flickercombo works very good as wincon in draw-go. so if you have the drake anyway add Ghostly Flicker, especially if your cube is still somewhat powerlevel driven.
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
BIASES
We all have them. But for Pauper as a community, it is an interesting take as to what we do and do not allow. They are adamantly against 5C "Silliness", yet FOR B/R Sac with some seriously ho-hum cards. Good to see they at least are seeing Scour the Possibilities are crap now. Only took 4 months.
Anyways, what is the major issue against 5C provided you do not have 10 Signets atop 10 land fetch spells? Running 2-5 mana fixers/ramp that get any color is not going to warp a cube too far, is it?
Also, TBH is about par for the course really. Without a Gold update, or nonbasics that alter anything, this is the usual 2-8 card trial update; imo. Anyone feel different?
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A short list of the top of my mind about the relevant contenders:
Brainstorm, Compulsive Research, Deep Analysis, Foresee/Tamiyo's Epiphany, Gush, Omen of the Sea, Impulse, Opt, Preordain, Portent, Ponder, Rain of Revelation, Radical Idea, Rush of Knowledge, Scour All Possibilities, Serum Visions, Think Twice, Treasure Cruise, Winged Words, Witching Well
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this "paupercube" worshippers are horrible at card evaluations and after being on the discord for some time, i must come to the conclusion Styborski himself is not the brightest guy around either.
5C is pretty much non-existant on pauperlevel, because no matter how much fixing you run, it wont be good, because we just dont have good (early) fixing. Also during draft a lot tend to stay monocolored, because of the densitiy of "bombs" in one each color. Finally, I dont see any benefits to go 3c+
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
**I personally like 3C as an old Ravnica drafter, it feels like comfort food.
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With the Drake itself, 2/3 flier is very unimpressive and you have to wait for turn 5 before the card is even playable. That's more or less 4 turns of a card sitting in the hand doing nothing. In a colour that cares deeply about colour advantage, I'm not sure if I want to include functionally dead cards into my deck because then I am losing on on virtual card advantage (the only CA that truely matters) for the first chunk of a game. At 5 I want to be playing my Cavalier of Gales. My non-Mulldrifter Blue 5 drop of choice is Clutch of Currents, mostly because I like beating people with Man-o'-Wars.
Edit: if I have ways of shipping Peregrine Drake out of my hand early, I'd be a bit more charitable towards it. Not sure if anyone plays See Beyond. Merfolk Looter is a clear choice, but some games you don't have time to stick the Looter and begin looting, you need to do stuff now. If I'm happy to throw away a card to a Specter, that's not a good sign of overall card strength.
Cloud of Faeries is a funny untaps lands card. Cycling is nice, but the strength is deploying the team early. I'm not sure if a 1/1 flier has any impact. This creature requires testing. Send it to the splicers for innovation.
Picking the best card in 4 and putting it into you hand is stronger than Omen of the Sea. I like Omen on it's own merits, but Impulse is clearly stronger. Sure no one is talking about Shimmer of Possibility, but it goes to show how much better being instant speed is in Blue. We're a bit short on strong Blue 2 mana instant cantraps. There's a gulf between Anticipate which is not regarded well even in Standard and Impulse which I regard strong. Omen of the Sea is the Serum Visions in this situation. Ok, cashing in for the scry 2 is decent, but I would take up front dig any day.
my impression is, the archetypes change to whatever <snip> discord wants.
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
3c is usually unnecessary, but I personally like building grindy 3c goodstuff decks, especially grixis and my personal pet archetype mardu control.
I don't really offer much in the way of monocolor support since it happens so rarely and black is the only color, which has some decent payoff for it anyway (Gray Merchant of Asphodel/Tendrils of Corruption). There isn't much incentive to stay monocolored apart from that. How about the rest, how frequently do you see monocolored decks?
In mono U sure you don't tap out for it on turn 4, but in a 2 color deck I find it very unlikely to play this for free before turn 5.
I'm not sure about the Omen vs. Impulse, but the Omen seems to be at least a solid upgrade over Anticipate, which is totally playable, it's just outclassed by Impulse
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cards like Pestilence already ask for deep B commitment and i even added more since then.
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Preordain - The best 1 mana cantrap in this format.
Treasure Cruise - You do need things to go to your graveyard and has anti-synergy with Gurmag Angler, but the 3 card windfall is massive.
Deep Analysis - Would be the ranked higher if burn/aggro decks weren't so strong.
Rush of Knowledge - If you play this right, you can win from the card advantage generated by this card. Be wary of Terminate in response.
Impulse - Best 2 mana card selection spell available.
Serum Visions - The power is dispersed into the next turn, rather than as upfront dig. Still if you play this early this downside is almost entirely negated.
Ponder - Significantly worse than Preordain because of the lack of shuffle when you see good card-land-land. Stronger at dig which puts Ponder above its peers.
Brainstorm - The value of Brainstorm card spikes if you have drafted Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse and Ash Barrens. Shuffling away two cards is powerful. Seeing 3 cards is useful when you need to find an answer in response to a big threat, but I don't like the feeling of drawing cards I've already seen.
Compulsive Research - Best 3 mana draw.
Gitaxian Probe - Depending on the match up, strong or marginal. When the 2 life doesn't matter then seeing your opponents hand is a powerful move. When the life matters, you'll probability find an opportunity for cast this for 1 blue, and then you'll know how doomed you are. Depending on the types of spells you are holding depends on the value of the information.
Opt - Helps slightly increase your card filtering so you can more reliably find what you are looking for when you need it. Being instant speed helps this card a lot.
Portent - Drawing next upkeep would be a deal breaker, except for one important detail: you can look at the top three cards of an opponent's library.
Hieroglyphic Illumination - Cycling for 1 blue makes this card quite decent. You can trade it in much sooner for a card than any of the 2 mana or more cards. I highly recommend cycling this card when possible because that's where the power is. Drawing two cards for 4 mana is way behind curve. The blue deck that runs Hieroglyphic Illumination wants to see as much of its library as soon as possible.
Rain of Revelation - A strong 4 mana instant.
Foresee - This is a huge play for 4 mana because you can see up to six cards. You need to tap out for it, so I'd probably want to play this in a removal heavy shell, so either Black, Red or White. I don't think a Blue heavy build has much use for a card like this.
See Beyond - I really prefer cheap cards in blue decks and being able to put away an Ulamog's Crusher or a land when you don't need those cards means See Beyond generates virtual card advantage.
Scour All Possibilities The flashback is ok. The regular cast is ok. I don't think I'll often have a spare 5 mana floating around, unless I'm ahead and holding countermagic mana.
Omen of the Sea - Alright dig. This card feels very cuttable, but if I need a bit of glue to keep my deck together I'd run it.
Winged Words - 2 mana draw two cards feels a little too good to be true. Midgame you should be able to get the discount. I think this won't be cast on turn 2.
Anticipate - Instant speed chose one in three for 2 mana is so-so. Solidly middle of the pack, but I wouldn't be that inclined to play it.
Shimmer of Possibility - The dig means I want to play this only if a couple of my cards are significantly stronger than the rest. Digging for Guardian of the Guildpact seems alright.
Gush - Returning 2 Islands for 2 cards is too steep, because I wouldn't want to do that for any reason in the first several turns. This card is pretty broken not in a singleton common draft. The synergies to make use of Gush are few and far between.
Think Twice - Cuttable even in self mill decks.
Witching Well - No upfront card draw. 4 mana to draw two is bad unless there is an alternative. This is the kind of card that's worth watching because when there are enough decent cheap artifacts, the artifact matters cards really shine.
Radical Idea - Drawing one for 2 mana isn't a deal I'm inclined to make. Discarding a card for an extra draw doesn't make up for the lack of mana efficiency.
Divination - This is what mediocre card draw looks like. If you are looking for card advantage it almost always is worth looking elsewhere.
Bonus drawspell: Pieces of the Puzzle. Can get up to 2 relevant spells as well as fuel the graveyard. Very strong in the right deck, however you need to reach a critical mass of instants and sorceries in order for this card to function properly.
Thank you for taking the time to write such a long response. Something I want to discuss though:
Winged Words: Very rarely you want to cast card draw on turn 2. The only spot where you would want to do this if you kept a 2 land hand and are about to miss your 3rd land drop. Card draw is usually the last thing you want to cast from your hand, when you no longer have anything else to play, so the drawback of not casting it turn 2 seems really negligible. I didn't realise it, when the set was first released, but 16 out of my 27 blue creatures fly anyway, so this is pretty consistent.
Witching Well: I think this card is better, the more I think about it, than people (including me) have realised, when it was realeased. It's basically Inspiration/Hieroglyphic Illumination with Scry 2, for no additional cost if you play it on turn 1. The fact that the draw effect is instant speed makes this really solid. I'm not so high on Foresee nowadays, because it can be really hard to take a turn off to resolve this.
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powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Start the MCD thread, we are all usually starved for things to disagree about ;-p
Another question to ask is: In 360, how many draw/filter spells is the threshold for a Blue section?
I run prob 5 hard CA draw spells, and prob another 4 or so Filter to roj d out my support for basic archetypes.
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A agree on not typically wanting to cast card draw to turn 2 because I would rather establish a board presence in a format devoid of mass creature removal. However failing to have another decent play on turn 2, playing a draw spell sounds quite lucrative. It would be an awesome follow up to an early Delver of Secrets flip. The only other Blue 1 drop flier worth noting is Cloudfin Raptor, but that really wants 2 and 3 drops so it can get those early evolve triggers to put you ahead on board.
On Witching Well. It puts me down a card early and scry 2 isn't quite adequate compensation for that.
Foresee is still decent because it always gets you the cards you need to close out a game. I'd only run Foresee in a deck with strong early board presence.
I think I need to test out these draw 2 effects some more, but they all seem quite cuttable if I manage to get a Mulldrifter, Treasure Cruise and a few 1 mana Ponders. I don't think that there is much room in a Pauper Cube for many additional draw spells. I'm fine including more 1 mana cantraps, because we have access to some of the best in all of Magic and those cards don't compete with card slots for your more splashy, obviously powerful effects. However I don't think many deck lists have much room for anything that cost more than 3 mana.
Razor Golem is by far and away my favourite affinity for lands card. It's one of the best bodies in White and it rounds off the curve with a deck full of Plains. Mono White's always a challenge to get ahead with and not fall behind. The more gates and gain 1 life lands you run the less lucrative a creature such as Razor Golem becomes. Especially because other drafters will be more inclined to pick up all you decent White cards. The new devotion to White common, Daybreak Chimera is pretty sick too.