Hey, name's Oladni and I have had a Pauper cube for 7 years now. Started with Lanxal's and evolved into my current 420 card cube.
I have lurked these forums for all those years and justed wanted to say that I appreciate everybody's insight on the cards, old and new! Wanna thank Cobble, Hydra and Humphrey especially for their Ikoria set reviews, really helps me crystallize my own thoughts.
Welcome!!
I havent done a full review, but might do, since some actually like to read such. Anywhere to find a plain textlist of all commons, ill not cp them manually though lol
Welcome!!
I havent done a full review, but might do, since some actually like to read such. Anywhere to find a plain textlist of all commons, ill not cp them manually though lol
take the checklist from scryfall or gatherer and paste the appropriate column from any speadsheet app..10 seconds maybe?
Welcome!!
I havent done a full review, but might do, since some actually like to read such. Anywhere to find a plain textlist of all commons, ill not cp them manually though lol
take the checklist from scryfall or gatherer and paste the appropriate column from any speadsheet app..10 seconds maybe?
An interesting hypothetical, if Brushwagg's ability was G2 would it be good enough?
G2 would be too strong for +3/+3 especially since the ability is repeatable unlike Darkthicket Wolf (which is the best example of this kind ability in pauper).
Almighty Brushwagg is really costed to take advantage of mutate and late game mana, not so much for cubing.
I REALLY like Fire prophecy. Non-player burn basically cannot make Staple unless it is ridiculous. See Flame Slash. And that is not even ubiquitous. I am glad there is better card filter options in Red. But it is not going to be as big a threat as say Magma Jet.
@Deck Thinning (E. Wilds)
It is advantage, but it takes so long to prove it that it is more of an overhyped math claim than a result.
@Mutate:
I am still trying Tom wrap my head around a proper evaluation. I think once prerelease... oh, wait... once we hear more reports trickle in, we will all be reevaluating what these do. I found spots for all 5 as they are somewhere between Ninja and Sorcery Buffs.
*Reprints are reprints. Seldom does one gain or lose value unless something major happens
If you want to be bold and use the Bad/Borderline/Cubeable system, it helps us revisit our own views and discuss. I too give high praise for Borderline cards, but still need to admit they are not necessary adds.
Re Evolving Wilds: A one-in-thirty odds comes up more often than you'd think. It's actually more likely than that because you get multiple draws from a thinned deck. The main trade-off is would you rather a land which enters untapped.
I only think we'll see the black and blue mutate cards played here. But I could be wrong. They all have potential. The red and green ones in particular could be significantly better than they look at first impression.
Hey, name's Oladni and I have had a Pauper cube for 7 years now. Started with Lanxal's and evolved into my current 420 card cube.
I have lurked these forums for all those years and justed wanted to say that I appreciate everybody's insight on the cards, old and new! Wanna thank Cobble, Hydra and Humphrey especially for their Ikoria set reviews, really helps me crystallize my own thoughts.
Welcome. I'll try to read through your cube list. Please keep posting.
@Reinventing:
I do not deny the math. In fact I happily run multiple common fetches. But in standard limited, Looking at the ability to turn a 40 card deck into essentially a slow 39 is not the only thing that is needed to make it better. Yes, if supplemented with draw, and other search it can matter more. But a single fetch does not carry over a back braking advantage. It is almost like a nice addition because it is a 5c land, but as mentioned it is a tapped one.
The math is their. Just not as high of a priority as "first pickz"; imo
@Reinventing:
I do not deny the math. In fact I happily run multiple common fetches. But in standard limited, Looking at the ability to turn a 40 card deck into essentially a slow 39 is not the only thing that is needed to make it better. Yes, if supplemented with draw, and other search it can matter more. But a single fetch does not carry over a back braking advantage. It is almost like a nice addition because it is a 5c land, but as mentioned it is a tapped one.
The math is their. Just not as high of a priority as "first pickz"; imo
I consider it first pickable, not because it makes my deck significantly better, it doesn't. I consider it early pickable because I always want it main deck regardless of what I'm playing. Which opens up flexibility and adaptive behaviour based on what I get passed.
My main gripe with my drafting style is I tend to lean too strongly into what I pick early, rather than drafting adaptively. And the play-style of picking such a flexible land early (as soon as first pick in some cases) means I can adapt swiftly to signals without sacrificing card quality. When card quality drops off more steeply (such as drafting Ikoria) then I lean away from committing to cards like Evolving Wilds, because with early picks I want to be picking up card quality. As you said E. Wilds, it doesn't thin out a deck enough to justify taking it at the cost of power.
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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."
This pool reminds me of the earliest iterations of my cube which had way too many spells and not enough creatures. Either this cube has the same problem or it was super unlucky, given that blue was the color with the most creatures (relatively), with green at 50/50, white below 50%, and both R and B below 50% with virtually no universally good creatures and only disjointed build-arounds. I tend to play Sealed with 75 or even 60 cards nowadays and the pools don't look so shallow, so idk what happened there...
Red and Black are the most powerful colors all around, but given their miserable creature base I think RB is not optimal. I can see two decks here that could somewhat work. Option 1 would be something Jund, being mainly G and one of each R or B, splashing the third, with lots of fixing and removal. That would be similar to Humphrey's above, though looking at his mana situation I'm not a huge fan. So I'll go for the second deck I can see, which is just RG beatdown-and-hope-I-draw-enough-creatures-and-punish-opponents-for-durdling-around.dec.
Too few creatures obviously, and red Denizen is awful, but it at least feeds Sparksmith and sacs to Artillerize. Croc is also bad, but playing less than 15 creatures in RG Aggro with Flunkies sounds even worse.
There were also a few cards from newer sets that I have zero experience with since I discontinued my cube with Ravnica 3.0 due to the powercreep in the 2019 sets which would dilute my cube as I love it, so take that with a grain.
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"Someday, someone will best me. But it won't be today, and it won't be you."
This pool reminds me of the earliest iterations of my cube which had way too many spells and not enough creatures. Either this cube has the same problem or it was super unlucky, given that blue was the color with the most creatures (relatively), with green at 50/50, white below 50%, and both R and B below 50% with virtually no universally good creatures and only disjointed build-arounds. I tend to play Sealed with 75 or even 60 cards nowadays and the pools don't look so shallow, so idk what happened there...
Red and Black are the most powerful colors all around, but given their miserable creature base I think RB is not optimal. I can see two decks here that could somewhat work. Option 1 would be something Jund, being mainly G and one of each R or B, splashing the third, with lots of fixing and removal. That would be similar to Humphrey's above, though looking at his mana situation I'm not a huge fan. So I'll go for the second deck I can see, which is just RG beatdown-and-hope-I-draw-enough-creatures-and-punish-opponents-for-durdling-around.dec.
Too few creatures obviously, and red Denizen is awful, but it at least feeds Sparksmith and sacs to Artillerize. Croc is also bad, but playing less than 15 creatures in RG Aggro with Flunkies sounds even worse.
There were also a few cards from newer sets that I have zero experience with since I discontinued my cube with Ravnica 3.0 due to the powercreep in the 2019 sets which would dilute my cube as I love it, so take that with a grain.
There were definitely some good commons in 2019 but you make it sound almost like a paradigm shift, which I'm not sure about
MaRo said himself there was a paradigm shift in how powerful they want to make new sets, that was right before Ravnica 3.0 iirc. In any case, this was much more a decision I personally took because a) I don't get to play my cube very often any more and Magic in general and it's hard to justify investing into so many foils every 2 months, and b) as a long-time eternal constructed player I truly hate their new philosophy and the damage they've done to some of my favorite formats with those power-crept sets.
I have a strong bond and emotional connection with my cube and some of the oldest cards in it. I have zero emotional connection to any of the clearly powerful commons in Modern Horizons, a set I have never played, which has zero significance in the Magic lore and which was probably the worst designed set in recent history, so I'm definitely not replacing any of my favorites with those cards. I'd rather call it quits and still be able to play my older favorites while still being able to call it the 'best commons available' within the time frame I'm allowing.
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"Someday, someone will best me. But it won't be today, and it won't be you."
Modern Horizons, a set I have never played [...] and which was probably the worst designed set in recent history
I don't want to troll or anything, but the first part seems to contradict with the judgement in the 2nd part. I've played some Modern Horizons and it wasn't badly designed. It wasn't as interesting as Ultimate Masters, but definitely better than Master 25 and Ironic Masters.
It's totally your decision to set any time frame you want for your cube and when foiling I can definitely see not wanting to update constantly. I can also understand, that you are happy with the cube as it is and see no reason to make major changes, which include the risk of making anything worse, but I think if you just want the powerlevel to be on a lower average the new sets won't really hurt, unless you decide to cut all the older powerful cards as well.
War of the Sparks was definitely a turning point, but it's not the peak of power level in sets. The Spike back than from Lorwyn to it's peak in the first Zendikar got way more out of hand and it wasn't after Innistrad that they became more or less consistent on a lower power level, until War of the Spark of course.
I didn't have the impression that Modern Horizons was actually that powerful. Masters Sets traditionally brought some decent cards (Vintage Masters had Battle Screech). I actually have to look at my list, to see which cards I actually included from the set, because none of them were outstandingly powerful enough for me to remember it from the top of my head. I guess the best cards were Rhox Veteran, First-Sphere Gargantua and Trumpeting Herd, which were all decent staples, but if the "Evaluate Everything Project" still had a "Bomb" section, none of these cards would be close to reaching that. There still are a lot older cards, which are much more powerful than the new ones.
I think the big difference with the pumped up powerlevel from War of the Sparks on was that I went from 0-1 new inclusions each set to like 1-3, but again nothing outstanding, that comes close to the most powerful old cards in my cube. The only one that I actually remember of the top of my head, that felt really pushed was probably Cloudkin Seer.
MaRo said himself there was a paradigm shift in how powerful they want to make new sets
Rosewater actually said that the power level had been declining previously and that raising it was about restoring things to a more historical baseline/norm and that the current power level is nowhere near its absolute peak. Not sure I agree or disagree with any of those things but misrepresenting what was said doesn't help your argument at all and IMO (even if it is only a tangential point for you)
PS Modern Horizons does occupy an (admittedly curious/niche) place in Magic lore IMO. It is basically Time Spiral (block?) 2.0. Personally I wouldn't want something like that as a Standard set but it is still a nice little bit of nostalgia from ~15 years ago to see pretty much every mechanic under the sun crammed into one set -- especially since some/many have been very dormant (ninjitsu, snow, etc)
Also, as Al pointed out, nothing from the new sets is likely to supplant the truly nutty cards from yesteryear -- which I am fond of too but, too be honest, a few of them are *way* out there on the power scale.
Modern Horizons, a set I have never played [...] and which was probably the worst designed set in recent history
I don't want to troll or anything, but the first part seems to contradict with the judgement in the 2nd part. I've played some Modern Horizons and it wasn't badly designed. It wasn't as interesting as Ultimate Masters, but definitely better than Master 25 and Ironic Masters.
It's totally your decision to set any time frame you want for your cube and when foiling I can definitely see not wanting to update constantly. I can also understand, that you are happy with the cube as it is and see no reason to make major changes, which include the risk of making anything worse, but I think if you just want the powerlevel to be on a lower average the new sets won't really hurt, unless you decide to cut all the older powerful cards as well.
War of the Sparks was definitely a turning point, but it's not the peak of power level in sets. The Spike back than from Lorwyn to it's peak in the first Zendikar got way more out of hand and it wasn't after Innistrad that they became more or less consistent on a lower power level, until War of the Spark of course.
I didn't have the impression that Modern Horizons was actually that powerful. Masters Sets traditionally brought some decent cards (Vintage Masters had Battle Screech). I actually have to look at my list, to see which cards I actually included from the set, because none of them were outstandingly powerful enough for me to remember it from the top of my head. I guess the best cards were Rhox Veteran, First-Sphere Gargantua and Trumpeting Herd, which were all decent staples, but if the "Evaluate Everything Project" still had a "Bomb" section, none of these cards would be close to reaching that. There still are a lot older cards, which are much more powerful than the new ones.
I think the big difference with the pumped up powerlevel from War of the Sparks on was that I went from 0-1 new inclusions each set to like 1-3, but again nothing outstanding, that comes close to the most powerful old cards in my cube. The only one that I actually remember of the top of my head, that felt really pushed was probably Cloudkin Seer.
The best commons from MH1 were insanely pushed -- Arcum's Astrolabe, Ephemerate, maybe Savage Swipe or Winding Way -- but they were pushed for constructed Pauper and are nowhere near as good in Cube.
Modern Horizons, a set I have never played [...] and which was probably the worst designed set in recent history
I don't want to troll or anything, but the first part seems to contradict with the judgement in the 2nd part. I've played some Modern Horizons and it wasn't badly designed. It wasn't as interesting as Ultimate Masters, but definitely better than Master 25 and Ironic Masters.
I didn't play MH as a Limited format. I did play with MH cards in other formats such as Legacy and Modern. You need to be a long time eternal player to understand what the 2019 paradigm shift has meant to that part of the Magic playing community, and frankly there are no two opinions about that among those affected either. I have nothing against the commons in the newest sets other than that they are from a set I overall dislike and that they have the potential to push old favorites out of the cube. That is purely subjective, nothing I was trying to sell as the thing to do for everybody.
I really wasn't mentioning this to convince or to make a point here. With their latest design philosophy WotC has stopped catering to me as a player and I've made the decision to stop catering to WotC in any way or form. That coupled with the fact that it isn't worth it any more for me to update my cube is all there is to it.
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"Someday, someone will best me. But it won't be today, and it won't be you."
for pauper cubes, not so much. I more or less added the same average amount of cards as always to my cube and it didnt feel like a crazy spike.
checking:
RNA 5 cards
WAR 4
MH1 12 !
M20 2
ELD 4
ok mh1 appearently was a thing, but so were most masters sets. since i dont have a conclusive overview whats left I can just assume more or less recent additions left, since the old school stuff is still around.
unless we see Serra Angel at common or more Sweeper like Evincars, I dont see a relevant push.
Modern Horizons, a set I have never played [...] and which was probably the worst designed set in recent history
I don't want to troll or anything, but the first part seems to contradict with the judgement in the 2nd part. I've played some Modern Horizons and it wasn't badly designed. It wasn't as interesting as Ultimate Masters, but definitely better than Master 25 and Ironic Masters.
I didn't play MH as a Limited format. I did play with MH cards in other formats such as Legacy and Modern. You need to be a long time eternal player to understand what the 2019 paradigm shift has meant to that part of the Magic playing community, and frankly there are no two opinions about that among those affected either. I have nothing against the commons in the newest sets other than that they are from a set I overall dislike and that they have the potential to push old favorites out of the cube. That is purely subjective, nothing I was trying to sell as the thing to do for everybody.
I really wasn't mentioning this to convince or to make a point here. With their latest design philosophy WotC has stopped catering to me as a player and I've made the decision to stop catering to WotC in any way or form. That coupled with the fact that it isn't worth it any more for me to update my cube is all there is to it.
Ah, I should say that I agree with you that there was a larger paradigm shift in 2019 across the spectrum of formats (including constructed pauper to some extent). Its just that I think that Pauper Cube was largely spared (and maybe Rare Cube as well..there I think Companion is just a bit more disjointing than anything from 2019 although I could be wrong)
for pauper cubes, not so much. I more or less added the same average amount of cards as always to my cube and it didnt feel like a crazy spike.
checking:
RNA 5 cards
WAR 4
MH1 12 !
M20 2
ELD 4
ok mh1 appearently was a thing, but so were most masters sets. since i dont have a conclusive overview whats left I can just assume more or less recent additions left, since the old school stuff is still around.
unless we see Serra Angel at common or more Sweeper like Evincars, I dont see a relevant push.
Did you MH1 list include snow cards? At least Astrolabe and Winter's Rest would be 100% additions in that case.
no, id consider it on 1G
then it would be a better Frilled Sandwalla
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
I have lurked these forums for all those years and justed wanted to say that I appreciate everybody's insight on the cards, old and new! Wanna thank Cobble, Hydra and Humphrey especially for their Ikoria set reviews, really helps me crystallize my own thoughts.
I havent done a full review, but might do, since some actually like to read such. Anywhere to find a plain textlist of all commons, ill not cp them manually though lol
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
take the checklist from scryfall or gatherer and paste the appropriate column from any speadsheet app..10 seconds maybe?
Thanks.
Aand done
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
G2 would be too strong for +3/+3 especially since the ability is repeatable unlike Darkthicket Wolf (which is the best example of this kind ability in pauper).
Almighty Brushwagg is really costed to take advantage of mutate and late game mana, not so much for cubing.
Re Flame Slash: Flame Slash is top tier in my opinion. Below Lightning Bolt and Staggershock for obvious reasons, but above pretty much every other direct damage spell.
Re Evolving Wilds: A one-in-thirty odds comes up more often than you'd think. It's actually more likely than that because you get multiple draws from a thinned deck. The main trade-off is would you rather a land which enters untapped.
I only think we'll see the black and blue mutate cards played here. But I could be wrong. They all have potential. The red and green ones in particular could be significantly better than they look at first impression.
1G would be very broken.
Welcome. I'll try to read through your cube list. Please keep posting.
I do not deny the math. In fact I happily run multiple common fetches. But in standard limited, Looking at the ability to turn a 40 card deck into essentially a slow 39 is not the only thing that is needed to make it better. Yes, if supplemented with draw, and other search it can matter more. But a single fetch does not carry over a back braking advantage. It is almost like a nice addition because it is a 5c land, but as mentioned it is a tapped one.
The math is their. Just not as high of a priority as "first pickz"; imo
Loose Change Pauper Cube-cast
Pauper Cube Article #1
Pauper Cube Article #2
Personal Enjoyment Cube
I consider it first pickable, not because it makes my deck significantly better, it doesn't. I consider it early pickable because I always want it main deck regardless of what I'm playing. Which opens up flexibility and adaptive behaviour based on what I get passed.
My main gripe with my drafting style is I tend to lean too strongly into what I pick early, rather than drafting adaptively. And the play-style of picking such a flexible land early (as soon as first pick in some cases) means I can adapt swiftly to signals without sacrificing card quality. When card quality drops off more steeply (such as drafting Ikoria) then I lean away from committing to cards like Evolving Wilds, because with early picks I want to be picking up card quality. As you said E. Wilds, it doesn't thin out a deck enough to justify taking it at the cost of power.
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
White
1 Arrester's Zeal
1 Attended Knight
1 Lone Missionary
1 Mardu Hordechief
1 Embolden
1 Spare from Evil
1 Tandem Tactics
1 Faith's Fetters
Blue
1 Eldrazi Skyspawner
1 Prescient Chimera
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Condescend
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Umara Entangler
1 Vapor Snag
1 Serum Raker
1 Opt
1 Skitter Eel
1 Spined Thopter
1 Ray of Command
1 Counterspell
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Rushing River
1 Moonlit Scavengers
Black
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Rend Flesh
1 Butcher's Glee
1 Soul Reap
1 Disowned Ancestor
1 Last Gasp
1 Malevolent Noble
1 Dark Ritual
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 Rage-Scarred Berserker
1 Omen of the Dead
1 Tragic Slip
1 Dead Reveler
1 Typhoid Rats
1 Doom Blade
1 Grotesque Mutation
1 Evincar's Justice
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Ghoulcaller's Chant
1 Sparksmith
1 Lava Dart
1 Nahiri's Stoneblades
1 Mogg Flunkies
1 Crystal Slipper
1 Blood Ogre
1 Incinerate
1 Flummoxed Cyclops
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Disintegrate
1 Borderland Marauder
1 Artillerize
1 Pyrotechnics
1 Arc Lightning
1 Dynacharge
1 Foundry Street Denizen
1 Staggershock
Green
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Mire Boa
1 Loathsome Chimera
1 Snake Umbra
1 Fertile Ground
1 Jungle Lion
1 Blastoderm
1 Crocanura
1 Thornweald Archer
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Rancor
1 Ambush Viper
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Travel Preparations
1 Grapple with the Past
1 Savage Silhouette
1 Basking Rootwalla
1 Utopia Vow
1 Tangle Golem
1 Blossoming Sands
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Yotian Soldier
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Wretched Gryff
1 Mind Stone
1 Wings of Hubris
1 Veinfire Borderpost
1 Terminate
1 Tumble Magnet
1 Soul Reap
1 Last Gasp
1 Rage-Scarred Berserker
1 Doom Blade
1 Sparksmith
1 Mogg Flunkies
1 Blood Ogre
1 Incinerate
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Pyrotechnics
1 Arc Lightning
1 Staggershock
1 Mind Stone
1 Veinfire Borderpost
1 Terminate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Fertile Ground
1 Wretched Gryff
1 Crocanura
1 Elvish Mystic
6 Forest
4 Mountain
5 Swamp
1 Loathsome Chimera
1 Blastoderm
1 Omen of the Dead
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Red and Black are the most powerful colors all around, but given their miserable creature base I think RB is not optimal. I can see two decks here that could somewhat work. Option 1 would be something Jund, being mainly G and one of each R or B, splashing the third, with lots of fixing and removal. That would be similar to Humphrey's above, though looking at his mana situation I'm not a huge fan. So I'll go for the second deck I can see, which is just RG beatdown-and-hope-I-draw-enough-creatures-and-punish-opponents-for-durdling-around.dec.
1 Sparksmith
1 Lava Dart
1 Mogg Flunkies
1 Blood Ogre
1 Incinerate
1 Flummoxed Cyclops
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Disintegrate
1 Borderland Marauder
1 Artillerize
1 Arc Lightning
1 Foundry Street Denizen
1 Staggershock
8 Mountain
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Mire Boa
1 Loathsome Chimera
1 Jungle Lion
1 Blastoderm
1 Crocanura
1 Thornweald Archer
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Rancor
1 Ambush Viper
1 Basking Rootwalla
8 Forest
Too few creatures obviously, and red Denizen is awful, but it at least feeds Sparksmith and sacs to Artillerize. Croc is also bad, but playing less than 15 creatures in RG Aggro with Flunkies sounds even worse.
There were also a few cards from newer sets that I have zero experience with since I discontinued my cube with Ravnica 3.0 due to the powercreep in the 2019 sets which would dilute my cube as I love it, so take that with a grain.
- Last Word
There were definitely some good commons in 2019 but you make it sound almost like a paradigm shift, which I'm not sure about
I have a strong bond and emotional connection with my cube and some of the oldest cards in it. I have zero emotional connection to any of the clearly powerful commons in Modern Horizons, a set I have never played, which has zero significance in the Magic lore and which was probably the worst designed set in recent history, so I'm definitely not replacing any of my favorites with those cards. I'd rather call it quits and still be able to play my older favorites while still being able to call it the 'best commons available' within the time frame I'm allowing.
- Last Word
It's totally your decision to set any time frame you want for your cube and when foiling I can definitely see not wanting to update constantly. I can also understand, that you are happy with the cube as it is and see no reason to make major changes, which include the risk of making anything worse, but I think if you just want the powerlevel to be on a lower average the new sets won't really hurt, unless you decide to cut all the older powerful cards as well.
War of the Sparks was definitely a turning point, but it's not the peak of power level in sets. The Spike back than from Lorwyn to it's peak in the first Zendikar got way more out of hand and it wasn't after Innistrad that they became more or less consistent on a lower power level, until War of the Spark of course.
I didn't have the impression that Modern Horizons was actually that powerful. Masters Sets traditionally brought some decent cards (Vintage Masters had Battle Screech). I actually have to look at my list, to see which cards I actually included from the set, because none of them were outstandingly powerful enough for me to remember it from the top of my head. I guess the best cards were Rhox Veteran, First-Sphere Gargantua and Trumpeting Herd, which were all decent staples, but if the "Evaluate Everything Project" still had a "Bomb" section, none of these cards would be close to reaching that. There still are a lot older cards, which are much more powerful than the new ones.
I think the big difference with the pumped up powerlevel from War of the Sparks on was that I went from 0-1 new inclusions each set to like 1-3, but again nothing outstanding, that comes close to the most powerful old cards in my cube. The only one that I actually remember of the top of my head, that felt really pushed was probably Cloudkin Seer.
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)
Rosewater actually said that the power level had been declining previously and that raising it was about restoring things to a more historical baseline/norm and that the current power level is nowhere near its absolute peak. Not sure I agree or disagree with any of those things but misrepresenting what was said doesn't help your argument at all and IMO (even if it is only a tangential point for you)
PS Modern Horizons does occupy an (admittedly curious/niche) place in Magic lore IMO. It is basically Time Spiral (block?) 2.0. Personally I wouldn't want something like that as a Standard set but it is still a nice little bit of nostalgia from ~15 years ago to see pretty much every mechanic under the sun crammed into one set -- especially since some/many have been very dormant (ninjitsu, snow, etc)
Also, as Al pointed out, nothing from the new sets is likely to supplant the truly nutty cards from yesteryear -- which I am fond of too but, too be honest, a few of them are *way* out there on the power scale.
The best commons from MH1 were insanely pushed -- Arcum's Astrolabe, Ephemerate, maybe Savage Swipe or Winding Way -- but they were pushed for constructed Pauper and are nowhere near as good in Cube.
I didn't play MH as a Limited format. I did play with MH cards in other formats such as Legacy and Modern. You need to be a long time eternal player to understand what the 2019 paradigm shift has meant to that part of the Magic playing community, and frankly there are no two opinions about that among those affected either. I have nothing against the commons in the newest sets other than that they are from a set I overall dislike and that they have the potential to push old favorites out of the cube. That is purely subjective, nothing I was trying to sell as the thing to do for everybody.
I really wasn't mentioning this to convince or to make a point here. With their latest design philosophy WotC has stopped catering to me as a player and I've made the decision to stop catering to WotC in any way or form. That coupled with the fact that it isn't worth it any more for me to update my cube is all there is to it.
- Last Word
for pauper cubes, not so much. I more or less added the same average amount of cards as always to my cube and it didnt feel like a crazy spike.
checking:
RNA 5 cards
WAR 4
MH1 12 !
M20 2
ELD 4
ok mh1 appearently was a thing, but so were most masters sets. since i dont have a conclusive overview whats left I can just assume more or less recent additions left, since the old school stuff is still around.
unless we see Serra Angel at common or more Sweeper like Evincars, I dont see a relevant push.
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Ah, I should say that I agree with you that there was a larger paradigm shift in 2019 across the spectrum of formats (including constructed pauper to some extent). Its just that I think that Pauper Cube was largely spared (and maybe Rare Cube as well..there I think Companion is just a bit more disjointing than anything from 2019 although I could be wrong)
Did you MH1 list include snow cards? At least Astrolabe and Winter's Rest would be 100% additions in that case.
is Winter's Rest substantially better than Narcolepsy ?
Arcum's Astrolabe is insane in eternal, but not much more relevant than Prophetic Prism for us, Id argue
nothing too crazy tbh
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t