Delver being better than something hardly means that that something is bad. It's definitely in the top 5 creatures in legacy, and though it's not nearly so good in our format, it's performed pretty well so far. I do agree that the flip cards so far have been pretty bad. I even think that the one everyone here's raving about (Loyal Cathar) isn't particularly special. I mean, it's good, I'll test it, but I don't even know if it'll stay. I certainly like it less that Leonin Skyhunter (and personally think it's silly not to...), but it might be better than Order of Leitbur, but has none of the blowout potential that makes that card. It's just not that much better than that hybrid bear with persist.
On the other cards:
Gather the Townsfolk: I really like this card. It's fine in aggro, as Raise the Alarm kind of shows (I don't really like that card) and just having the potential to randomly win the game as 5 tokens can pretty easily do is something special. Cubable
Loyal Cathar: Probably cubable
Faithless Looting: I like this a lot and think that it's actually playable in any red deck. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'd pretty easily play this in a red aggro deck to smooth out draws and dig for burn to end the game, just like I'll play ponder in UR and be pretty damn happy about it. I think it's pretty good in aggro, and gets better as the deck it's in gets slower (more or less). I'm still playing Icefall or whatever it's called, so that gets cut.
Nearheath Stalker: This is pretty damn bad, sorry Lanxal
Hunger of the Wolfpack: I like this card because it reminds me of Brimstone Volley - a creature's gonna die sooner or later, but not often before your second mainphase in your turn. I think this is more a split card, though, between a pretty good aura and battlegrowth, because I can't really see you being able to play it morbid as a combat trick. I'm still unsure, to be honest.
Scorned Villager: I'm Werebears biggest fan in this thread, I'm pretty sure, but even I'm torn on this guy. A 2/2 vigilance lategame is really pretty small, much more so than a 4/4. Sure, this gal's gonna flip much sooner on average, but I think that apart from in some very specific decks, it'll flip later than when the GG is most useful (especially as this is only +1 mana from the other side). Plus, when you use a lot of mana in the cube, you almost always play more than one spell, so it's gonna flip back. I'm unsure, but I think something like Boreal Druid is just better.
For those doubting Faithless Looting, I've been extremely happy with it in my "rare" cube and see it being a very solid card in commons, card selection is no joke, especially in a color like red with so much cheap burn/answers to cards like Keldon Vandals, etc. and adding flashback definitely pushes it over the top.
Loyal Cathar is also likely very good, better than Safehold Elite (harder to cast, but much better upside as a 1/1 < 2/1 that can't block,) especially since its vigilance lets it attack + trade with the many 2/2s in the format and, in theory at least, it provides so much value. White's 2-mana guys tend to get pretty loose after the higher-end cards like Soltari Trooper and definitely think it's better than the lower-end 2-drops like Youthful Knight/Order of the Golden Cricket/etc.
Re. Loyal Cathar: What? Comparing Loyal Cathar to Safehold Elite is a horrible comparison. Just a 1/1 is super irrelevant as we have all learned, as it is only good for chumping. Whereas getting a 2/1 when it dies is awesome sauce. 2/1 is just the sweet spot for a creature, as it will either bring the beats or trade. Not just that Loyal Cathar is almost always a two-for-one, and last time I checked, almost all of the best cards in pauper are all two for ones. Almost everyone of them, excluding (get it, Exclude) some of the outlying crazy powerful cards. Capsize, Lightning Bolt, much? Card advantage is awesome in a pauper cube, which is a world of one-for-one effects. Not just that, but white is really lacking in two-for-one effects, and I mean seriously lacking in common. It should be an easy auto-include, when you apply this logic to it. Nothing less than staple.
I think in order for Scorned Villager to be good, she needs to be played with more higher end cards, or else when she ends up flipping, she does nothing relevant. Although, most of the time she will either act as a slightly worse Rampant Growth or as a grossly undercosted Overgrowth, which means that it is not bad even if it doesn't flip. If it flips only after a couple of turns that is still pretty awesome as long as you still have something to ramp into and at worst, it will act as a slightly worse Werebear, although admittedly a way worse top deck. Flipping back form Wolf mode is hardly relevant as you should have some other overwhelmingly big threat in play that your opponent has to deal with. The fact that it has vigilance is a nice added bonus.
If you ever turn 2 flip Scorned Villager, you should just win that game. As 5 mana on turn 3 (not even including if you had 1 cost mana dorks) should just be enough to win by curving out there. It's not even bad if it never flips. I think Scorned Villager is seriously underrated, and requires testing.
I totally agree with Soul Crusher. The comparison to Safehold Elite is crazy. Loyal Cathar looks far better; a 2/1 > 1/1 by miles. The only thing that's making me hesitant is the WW cost, and that's not the biggest deal in the world.
Sure, a 2/1 is better than a 1/1. That's not the problem with Loyal Cathar. Loyal Cathar has a MUCH worse cost than Safehold Elite. Like, it's gonna be more common to not be able to hit the cost turn 2 than to be able to. The vigilance is pretty irrelevant.
I'm not saying it's bad, nor that it doesn't deserve a spot in the cube, or even that Safehold Elite is better (it's not). Just that this card is not close to awesome. Cubable, yeah, probably. But it's not getting compared to the good two drops, just the borderline ones, and it is certainly worse than Leonin Skyhunter. No way is it a staple. It's only a two for one if they don't have something with three toughness, which is not very hard to do. Two for ones are not uniquely awesome, at all. Join the Ranks is a 2 for 1, and is terrible. That said, I think everyone will test it, and I'm not gonna stop anyone from playing it and thinking that it's awesome.
@ Scorned Villlager: Devoted Druid is so much more reliable and is better in my opinion. It's not terrible if it doesn't flip (but is considerably worse than all cmc 1 mana elves, I don't think anyone runs the full grip of those). Plus, I think 5oul Crusher is completely overrating how far 5 mana goes in the cube. The biggest problem with the cube is that the high cost cards are so much worse than the low cost cards, compared to at other rarites. Your 5 mana beatstick might win the game, it might die to terror. It's a testable card, but I really don't think it'll be good.
@ Gather the Townsfolk: I might be wrong with my evaluation, because I based it on the very untrue fact that Raise the Alarm is cubable. It's fine, it goes head to head with the best borderline 2 drops, but it's hardly good. I still think that Gather has potential, being a more-or-less bear when hardcast and being able to be held, or topdecked, for a lot of additional value (as long as you're not facing unanswerable evasive beaters or burn, but what can you do?)
Aside: I think that this 1/1s are terrible thing has gone a bit too far. It's a nice mental shortcut to think that a 1/1 is minimal value (Memnite would suck in cube), but with all the 1 toughness creatures in the cube, they're hardly nothing nor just limited to a chumpblock. A 2/1 can't block is not miles better than a 1/1. It's considerably better, of course, but it's less than twice as good, for sure.
Actually on second thoughts, I am seriously over-rating Scorned Villager, especially when you compare it to Devoted Druid. Your right Rubin, I was over-rating mana acceleration, and also the late game drops which are all underpowered and die to easily and are ultimately not worth it. I guess Werebear wasn't a very good comparison either because Scorned Villager is pretty horrible in the late game whereas Werebear is pretty good. A 4/4 is always relevant, and is a great addition to a mana dork, which are notoriously bad in the late game.
I'm still going to swear by Loyal Cathar until the day I die, though. It's mana cost means it can't just be slapped in any deck playing white, but it hugely rewards heavy white builds where it excels in. I like a couple of these kind of cards because they reward drafting decisions similarly to multicoloured cards, by giving those people good cards that will actually be passed to them. They also help with signaling. Whilst you don't want too many cards like these, currently in pauper, there aren't that many WW that people are playing. Not just that, but Loyal Cathar is going to be house in white based aggressive decks, which are in need of more love.
Getting 2 1/1 tokens of Gather the Townsfolk isn't really card advantage despite having the potential to be. 1/1s don't often trade one-for-one. It's an okay effect, and is boarderline, but I'm not sold. The fact that it is a good top deck when you are losing does help it a lot. Especially since it is not a win-more card. But even then, it feels a bit 'meh' to me. It does work nicely with equipment, as do all token producers, which is a nice added bonus.
Fair enough on Loyal Cathar. It's probably the most important to keep track of post-Dark Ascension testing.
On that matter, I'm considering adding it for Order of Leitbur, which, for as long as I can remember, as been really quite bad. So often it was just a worse Youthful Knight; I never had the mana to use its abilities (I had other things to play), and so often it was just stuck in my hand because I knew that would happen in advance (like if I had a shortage of Plains). I certainly won't feel bad for cutting it, but I'll like to know other people's thoughts.
Come on Wizards. Give us more common spoilers, so I can go on about how good they are, when they actually are not, then after testing a couple will actually be really good, then I say, "I told you so" to everyone and feel smart.
Okay, I also take back that Loyal Cathar will be a staple, well at least in the long term... But as of right now, it is so much better than a lot of white's creatures in cubes right now. It might get kick out in the future when better creatures with similar effects get printed. But as of right now, it should go in a lot of you guy's cubes. Come on, Order of the Golden Cricket can't really be better than Loyal Cathar. There should be no reason for not putting it in as of right now.
Oh yeah, by the way vigilance makes Loyal Cathar soooooooooo much better. It means that he is not just going to be a 2/2 pseudo-unbockable dude untill your opponent has something with toughness 3 or greater. Instead it forces your opponent to make unfavourable trades when it attacks because if they don't block then they can't attack in without Loyal Cathar just blocking and trading with it. Either that or it will create a Lone Missionary-esque effect.
Don't expect most of the commons to get spoiled until the entire spoiler is released here in 9 days. Look on the bright side...that's not too far away
Edit: I guess it's time to retire the fallen empires pro-guys. Fallen Empires was the last set I played with back in high school so it will be hard to say goodbye. At least I still have Hymn to Tourach in all its brokenness. I don't have any planned inclusions yet but I'm sure we'll see some worthwhile undying guys in the new set. The "undying" ability will be really strong in the Commons Cube.
Don't expect most of the commons to get spoiled until the entire spoiler is released here in 9 days. Look on the bright side...that's not too far away
Edit: I guess it's time to retire the fallen empires pro-guys. Fallen Empires was the last set I played with back in high school so it will be hard to say goodbye. At least I still have Hymn to Tourach in all its brokenness. I don't have any planned inclusions yet but I'm sure we'll see some worthwhile undying guys in the new set. The "undying" ability will be really strong in the Commons Cube.
I never get excited about keywords. If wizards want to make a good card, they will make it, regardless of whether it has a keyword on it or not.
I hope they print a 3 cost 3/1 common with undying. (or at the very least a 2/2) That would be cool sauce, either that or a 1/1 for 1 common with undying just for the 'lol's. I like french vanillas and vanilla commons. They make my day. A nice 3cc 2/1 undying creature will a solid evasion ability would be funny, and awesome, despite being the less cool because it is a double scoop vanilla.
I bet there is likely to only be about 1-2 awesome common undying cards in Dark Ascension. It's a small set, so don't expect too much, and undying is a super powerful keyword to strap onto a card, not to mention it's card advantage, so Wizards is likely to tone it down a lot in common. Or they could spoil us rotten.
Yeah, but actually expierience has shown that a lot of 'Oh my Gawd, I'll definitely put this card into my whatever'-cards are hyped too much and turn out to be much mess exciting So it's often the other way round.
But as of the Vigilance on Cathar I can't agree at all with you. It's just largely irrelevant on a 2/2, really. How does it make it practically unblockable? If they don't want their creature to run into the untapped Cathar after it attacked last turn, they'd just rather block it right away and trade. Vigilance is an ability that's basically good on creatures with higher toughness than power and/or creatures with certain additional abilities or evasion. I mean, sometimes it will be useful, but in general it doesn't really make it better.
Oh and I wouldn't expect them to print a common with Undying whose stats after Undying are as efficient as the stats of pauper cube staples. So you won't see an Undying guy for three mana that turns into a 3/3 vanilla and you'll especially not see a 3/2 Flyer for three, a 4/2 for three or a 2/2 for one (I mean, Come On...) either. We're going to see stats like Nearheath Stalker's on Undying commons, maybe a bit better which would make them cubeable.
They are going to print a 2/1 haste undying at 2cc, so what I suggested wasn't too unreasonable, although are likely to keep the power level of the undying in common for obvious reasons. Although you really shouldn't judge them solely on what P/T stats they will have after dying. Most of the time a 1cc 2/2 vanilla is better than a 1cc 1/1 undying dude in cube.'
What I was saying was that I think that they will print at least 1 cubeable undying dude at common, and those were some random suggestions for cards based on the power level of Strangleroot Giest as sort of a guideline and then scaling it waaaay back.
Vigilance and Firststike are possibly 2 of the most underrated evergreen keywords. The fact that he has vigilance makes his so much more awesome in racing situations.
I think the Loyal Cathar talk has dragged on for waaaay too long, but we haven't had any other decent cards to talk about. This spoiler season has been pretty hard on us so far. But I'll be wait. They probably have a couple of staples coming up. And I mean actual staples, not just ones I say are when they aren't, but really rock solid cards.
The only things that seem of note is Tragic Slip and Headless Skaab.
Tragic Slip - Morbid is debilitating on this. It's first effect does kill enough creatures, as Geistflame has shown, to not be utterly terrible, but the morbid needs to trigger enough for it to really matter in the mid and lategame. Testworthy, but I don't have high hopes.
Headless Skaab - Wow. Another excellently-costed creature for blue. I definitely will try this card out, and have high hopes, even with the ETBT drawback.
Edit: Oh, and I totally missed Forge Devil. What do people think? I don't really like it, but it is a cheap ping on a body. I don't know, red one drops are bad enough that I could see it being tested.
Hey, at least you got your -13/-13 (until end of turn) at common in this set. I think lategame, it would play out like you chump blocking a big dude and then killing that guy or something else. I'm not sure if it's good enough to cube with, since removal is pretty competitive even at the lower rarities compared to stuff like aggro dudes.
Edit: Oh, and I totally missed Forge Devil. What do people think? I don't really like it, but it is a cheap ping on a body. I don't know, red one drops are bad enough that I could see it being tested.
The problem with Forge Devil is that it sucks if you play it on curve. Even worse it is unplayable as it must kill itself unless your own opponent started with a 1 drop.:mad:
The one major upside to Tragic Slip is that it's so cheap. It can be used with other removal in the same turn, it can kill early 1-toughness dudes, you can hold mana for it all the time in wait for that one inevitable combat step that triggers morbid without hurting yourself tempo-wise. But ultimately, the fact that it's an absolutely horrendous lategame losing-situation topdeck (Although to be fair, so is Disfigure) and all the other removal in cube is so much better doesn't seem good for it.
The problem with Forge Devil is that it sucks if you play it on curve. Even worse it is unplayable as it must kill itself unless your own opponent started with a 1 drop.:mad:
Indeed, I noticed that. Thinking about it last night, I actually like this card. At worst, it's a ping - maybe killing something in the early game. Often, it's a ping and a chump block, negating the 1 damage to face and even gaining you a life. And at best? It holds back a sea of 1-toughness dudes. There are about two ways to remove this dude without leadin gto card disadvantage - swinging into it and pingers. In both cases, the Devil will have directed the damage for a turn from your face or, in the case of pingers, your other creatures.
I could see myself testing it. I don't know; there may not be any room. But I'm interested in this card. Perhaps for Goblin Firestarter?
I'm open to Tragic Slip being good, but is it good enough compared to all the other options available and already being cubed with? It's a very tempting card, sure - very, very cheap, can kill 1-toughness guys unconditionally, and can become 1 mana, destroy target creature, which is nuts. Thinking about it, I guess I can cut Last Gasp for it, since they both fail hard in the "lategame topdeck-a-removal-for-their-fattie" test, and Tragic Slip has a chance of being far better than Gasp in the early-midgame.
I think Tragic Slip is going to be quite good. It is conditional removal but creatures die so much in the Commons Cube that I think it will usually kill almost every creature (sorry Guardian of the Guildpact).
I'm going to have to disagree here and say that Tragic Slip should be top-class removal. Easily one of the top 5 removal spells in black for me is Vendetta, due to the 1 mana cost. As an instant speed spell that doesn't require you to hold any more than 1 mana up in anticipation for its trigger, Morbid should be fairly simple to activate. Cheap removal like this is perfect for playing it and then dropping a threat in one turn, which is exactly what you have to do to capitalise on the tempo swing.
Forge Devil is nothing spectacular, but it's probably better than Mogg Fanatic in some situations. Will probably make it in until I cut down.
Gather the Townsfolk may be playable, but I'm still on the fence here. The 5 life or less trigger is a bit ridiculous to me - by that point any creatures with evasion of any kind or even most burn will kill you on your opponent's next untap. Lots of 1/1s usually won't guarantee you much safety at five life unless you're against green with nonevasive beaters, and most green decks splash for red burn or blue fliers anyway. May be cubeable at the very lower end, but by no means a high pick.
Loyal Cathar seems excellent and a perfect aggressive card as it needs to be answered twice. I agree that it's worse than several other options, but this is still very solid and not something I would want to face with a control deck. Paired with something like Bonesplitter, it becomes a must-answer too. White based aggro really does want its curve centred on two as much as possible, and a surplus of these solid beaters only makes those decks better. I'd probably cut from the 3CMC range first. Things like Thermal/Nightwind Glider or Shu Cavalry are usually going to be worse.
Headless Skaab has a really nice toughness to shore up aggro, and this might be the perfect sort of thing to slow those aggro rushes. This is of course provided you can bin a creature by turn 3 or 4, but hopefully you can throw something like Pestermite in the way (or even better, use a spellshaper like Waterfront Bouncer).
Faithless Looting is a bit of a gimmie. Just perfect for a colour that dies to drawing too many of its lands.
Everything else is probably unplayable, although I do kind of like Executioner's Hood as a mediocre equipment, though I don't really know what you play this in. Hunger of the Howlpack might be better than Giant Growth too, but Growth has never been a top green spell and you lose a lot of combat tricks that turn it into removal with Hunger.
Havengul Fengraf
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool. 2 or 3, T, sacrifice Havengul Fengraf : Return a creature card at random from your graveyard to your hand.
This seems pretty good. There's not much of a benchmark to evaluate against, but this is the most complex land we've ever had at a common slot, so that's at least something! It's an instant speed late-game Gravedigger effect with the downside of the late-game being where you're more likely to get something you don't want since presumably your bin is fuller. Taps for mana in the meantime, no CIPT, and actually seems really good to me.
I'm gonna jump on the not a fan band wagon. TS seems like good removal in a Peasant - Power cube, but not at Pauper. At the higher rarities, there are more interesting and profitable sac effects that fit directly into deck archetypes (greater good, momentous fall) come immediately to mind). Were I to use this, I'd want a lot of control over when and how the morbid effect is triggered. There just aren't a ton of ways I can see you controlling this at common. I'd rather have funeral charm or a regular ol' kill spell in hand than this 95% of the time.
On the other cards:
Gather the Townsfolk: I really like this card. It's fine in aggro, as Raise the Alarm kind of shows (I don't really like that card) and just having the potential to randomly win the game as 5 tokens can pretty easily do is something special. Cubable
Loyal Cathar: Probably cubable
Faithless Looting: I like this a lot and think that it's actually playable in any red deck. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'd pretty easily play this in a red aggro deck to smooth out draws and dig for burn to end the game, just like I'll play ponder in UR and be pretty damn happy about it. I think it's pretty good in aggro, and gets better as the deck it's in gets slower (more or less). I'm still playing Icefall or whatever it's called, so that gets cut.
Nearheath Stalker: This is pretty damn bad, sorry Lanxal
Hunger of the Wolfpack: I like this card because it reminds me of Brimstone Volley - a creature's gonna die sooner or later, but not often before your second mainphase in your turn. I think this is more a split card, though, between a pretty good aura and battlegrowth, because I can't really see you being able to play it morbid as a combat trick. I'm still unsure, to be honest.
Scorned Villager: I'm Werebears biggest fan in this thread, I'm pretty sure, but even I'm torn on this guy. A 2/2 vigilance lategame is really pretty small, much more so than a 4/4. Sure, this gal's gonna flip much sooner on average, but I think that apart from in some very specific decks, it'll flip later than when the GG is most useful (especially as this is only +1 mana from the other side). Plus, when you use a lot of mana in the cube, you almost always play more than one spell, so it's gonna flip back. I'm unsure, but I think something like Boreal Druid is just better.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Loyal Cathar is also likely very good, better than Safehold Elite (harder to cast, but much better upside as a 1/1 < 2/1 that can't block,) especially since its vigilance lets it attack + trade with the many 2/2s in the format and, in theory at least, it provides so much value. White's 2-mana guys tend to get pretty loose after the higher-end cards like Soltari Trooper and definitely think it's better than the lower-end 2-drops like Youthful Knight/Order of the Golden Cricket/etc.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
My 540 card Powered Cube last updated March 2022
I think in order for Scorned Villager to be good, she needs to be played with more higher end cards, or else when she ends up flipping, she does nothing relevant. Although, most of the time she will either act as a slightly worse Rampant Growth or as a grossly undercosted Overgrowth, which means that it is not bad even if it doesn't flip. If it flips only after a couple of turns that is still pretty awesome as long as you still have something to ramp into and at worst, it will act as a slightly worse Werebear, although admittedly a way worse top deck. Flipping back form Wolf mode is hardly relevant as you should have some other overwhelmingly big threat in play that your opponent has to deal with. The fact that it has vigilance is a nice added bonus.
If you ever turn 2 flip Scorned Villager, you should just win that game. As 5 mana on turn 3 (not even including if you had 1 cost mana dorks) should just be enough to win by curving out there. It's not even bad if it never flips. I think Scorned Villager is seriously underrated, and requires testing.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
I'm not saying it's bad, nor that it doesn't deserve a spot in the cube, or even that Safehold Elite is better (it's not). Just that this card is not close to awesome. Cubable, yeah, probably. But it's not getting compared to the good two drops, just the borderline ones, and it is certainly worse than Leonin Skyhunter. No way is it a staple. It's only a two for one if they don't have something with three toughness, which is not very hard to do. Two for ones are not uniquely awesome, at all. Join the Ranks is a 2 for 1, and is terrible. That said, I think everyone will test it, and I'm not gonna stop anyone from playing it and thinking that it's awesome.
@ Scorned Villlager: Devoted Druid is so much more reliable and is better in my opinion. It's not terrible if it doesn't flip (but is considerably worse than all cmc 1 mana elves, I don't think anyone runs the full grip of those). Plus, I think 5oul Crusher is completely overrating how far 5 mana goes in the cube. The biggest problem with the cube is that the high cost cards are so much worse than the low cost cards, compared to at other rarites. Your 5 mana beatstick might win the game, it might die to terror. It's a testable card, but I really don't think it'll be good.
@ Gather the Townsfolk: I might be wrong with my evaluation, because I based it on the very untrue fact that Raise the Alarm is cubable. It's fine, it goes head to head with the best borderline 2 drops, but it's hardly good. I still think that Gather has potential, being a more-or-less bear when hardcast and being able to be held, or topdecked, for a lot of additional value (as long as you're not facing unanswerable evasive beaters or burn, but what can you do?)
Aside: I think that this 1/1s are terrible thing has gone a bit too far. It's a nice mental shortcut to think that a 1/1 is minimal value (Memnite would suck in cube), but with all the 1 toughness creatures in the cube, they're hardly nothing nor just limited to a chumpblock. A 2/1 can't block is not miles better than a 1/1. It's considerably better, of course, but it's less than twice as good, for sure.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
I'm still going to swear by Loyal Cathar until the day I die, though. It's mana cost means it can't just be slapped in any deck playing white, but it hugely rewards heavy white builds where it excels in. I like a couple of these kind of cards because they reward drafting decisions similarly to multicoloured cards, by giving those people good cards that will actually be passed to them. They also help with signaling. Whilst you don't want too many cards like these, currently in pauper, there aren't that many WW that people are playing. Not just that, but Loyal Cathar is going to be house in white based aggressive decks, which are in need of more love.
Getting 2 1/1 tokens of Gather the Townsfolk isn't really card advantage despite having the potential to be. 1/1s don't often trade one-for-one. It's an okay effect, and is boarderline, but I'm not sold. The fact that it is a good top deck when you are losing does help it a lot. Especially since it is not a win-more card. But even then, it feels a bit 'meh' to me. It does work nicely with equipment, as do all token producers, which is a nice added bonus.
On that matter, I'm considering adding it for Order of Leitbur, which, for as long as I can remember, as been really quite bad. So often it was just a worse Youthful Knight; I never had the mana to use its abilities (I had other things to play), and so often it was just stuck in my hand because I knew that would happen in advance (like if I had a shortage of Plains). I certainly won't feel bad for cutting it, but I'll like to know other people's thoughts.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Come on Wizards. Give us more common spoilers, so I can go on about how good they are, when they actually are not, then after testing a couple will actually be really good, then I say, "I told you so" to everyone and feel smart.
Okay, I also take back that Loyal Cathar will be a staple, well at least in the long term... But as of right now, it is so much better than a lot of white's creatures in cubes right now. It might get kick out in the future when better creatures with similar effects get printed. But as of right now, it should go in a lot of you guy's cubes. Come on, Order of the Golden Cricket can't really be better than Loyal Cathar. There should be no reason for not putting it in as of right now.
Oh yeah, by the way vigilance makes Loyal Cathar soooooooooo much better. It means that he is not just going to be a 2/2 pseudo-unbockable dude untill your opponent has something with toughness 3 or greater. Instead it forces your opponent to make unfavourable trades when it attacks because if they don't block then they can't attack in without Loyal Cathar just blocking and trading with it. Either that or it will create a Lone Missionary-esque effect.
Edit: I guess it's time to retire the fallen empires pro-guys. Fallen Empires was the last set I played with back in high school so it will be hard to say goodbye. At least I still have Hymn to Tourach in all its brokenness. I don't have any planned inclusions yet but I'm sure we'll see some worthwhile undying guys in the new set. The "undying" ability will be really strong in the Commons Cube.
My 540 card Powered Cube last updated March 2022
But, but, but... Hymn to Tourach is first pickable. Not to mention it has Icatian Javelineers, and, and, and...
I never get excited about keywords. If wizards want to make a good card, they will make it, regardless of whether it has a keyword on it or not.
I hope they print a 3 cost 3/1 common with undying. (or at the very least a 2/2) That would be cool sauce, either that or a 1/1 for 1 common with undying just for the 'lol's. I like french vanillas and vanilla commons. They make my day. A nice 3cc 2/1 undying creature will a solid evasion ability would be funny, and awesome, despite being the less cool because it is a double scoop vanilla.
I bet there is likely to only be about 1-2 awesome common undying cards in Dark Ascension. It's a small set, so don't expect too much, and undying is a super powerful keyword to strap onto a card, not to mention it's card advantage, so Wizards is likely to tone it down a lot in common. Or they could spoil us rotten.
Edit: I swear I'm not excited about undying...
They are going to print a 2/1 haste undying at 2cc, so what I suggested wasn't too unreasonable, although are likely to keep the power level of the undying in common for obvious reasons. Although you really shouldn't judge them solely on what P/T stats they will have after dying. Most of the time a 1cc 2/2 vanilla is better than a 1cc 1/1 undying dude in cube.'
What I was saying was that I think that they will print at least 1 cubeable undying dude at common, and those were some random suggestions for cards based on the power level of Strangleroot Giest as sort of a guideline and then scaling it waaaay back.
Vigilance and Firststike are possibly 2 of the most underrated evergreen keywords. The fact that he has vigilance makes his so much more awesome in racing situations.
I think the Loyal Cathar talk has dragged on for waaaay too long, but we haven't had any other decent cards to talk about. This spoiler season has been pretty hard on us so far. But I'll be wait. They probably have a couple of staples coming up. And I mean actual staples, not just ones I say are when they aren't, but really rock solid cards.
The only things that seem of note is Tragic Slip and Headless Skaab.
Tragic Slip - Morbid is debilitating on this. It's first effect does kill enough creatures, as Geistflame has shown, to not be utterly terrible, but the morbid needs to trigger enough for it to really matter in the mid and lategame. Testworthy, but I don't have high hopes.
Headless Skaab - Wow. Another excellently-costed creature for blue. I definitely will try this card out, and have high hopes, even with the ETBT drawback.
Edit: Oh, and I totally missed Forge Devil. What do people think? I don't really like it, but it is a cheap ping on a body. I don't know, red one drops are bad enough that I could see it being tested.
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Cubetutor link - 380 Peasant Cube
The problem with Forge Devil is that it sucks if you play it on curve. Even worse it is unplayable as it must kill itself unless your own opponent started with a 1 drop.:mad:
I feel compelled to repeat everything I hear
Indeed, I noticed that. Thinking about it last night, I actually like this card. At worst, it's a ping - maybe killing something in the early game. Often, it's a ping and a chump block, negating the 1 damage to face and even gaining you a life. And at best? It holds back a sea of 1-toughness dudes. There are about two ways to remove this dude without leadin gto card disadvantage - swinging into it and pingers. In both cases, the Devil will have directed the damage for a turn from your face or, in the case of pingers, your other creatures.
I could see myself testing it. I don't know; there may not be any room. But I'm interested in this card. Perhaps for Goblin Firestarter?
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Forge Devil is nothing spectacular, but it's probably better than Mogg Fanatic in some situations. Will probably make it in until I cut down.
Gather the Townsfolk may be playable, but I'm still on the fence here. The 5 life or less trigger is a bit ridiculous to me - by that point any creatures with evasion of any kind or even most burn will kill you on your opponent's next untap. Lots of 1/1s usually won't guarantee you much safety at five life unless you're against green with nonevasive beaters, and most green decks splash for red burn or blue fliers anyway. May be cubeable at the very lower end, but by no means a high pick.
Loyal Cathar seems excellent and a perfect aggressive card as it needs to be answered twice. I agree that it's worse than several other options, but this is still very solid and not something I would want to face with a control deck. Paired with something like Bonesplitter, it becomes a must-answer too. White based aggro really does want its curve centred on two as much as possible, and a surplus of these solid beaters only makes those decks better. I'd probably cut from the 3CMC range first. Things like Thermal/Nightwind Glider or Shu Cavalry are usually going to be worse.
Headless Skaab has a really nice toughness to shore up aggro, and this might be the perfect sort of thing to slow those aggro rushes. This is of course provided you can bin a creature by turn 3 or 4, but hopefully you can throw something like Pestermite in the way (or even better, use a spellshaper like Waterfront Bouncer).
Faithless Looting is a bit of a gimmie. Just perfect for a colour that dies to drawing too many of its lands.
Everything else is probably unplayable, although I do kind of like Executioner's Hood as a mediocre equipment, though I don't really know what you play this in. Hunger of the Howlpack might be better than Giant Growth too, but Growth has never been a top green spell and you lose a lot of combat tricks that turn it into removal with Hunger.
G Omnath, Locus of Mana G
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Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
2 or 3, T, sacrifice Havengul Fengraf : Return a creature card at random from your graveyard to your hand.
This seems pretty good. There's not much of a benchmark to evaluate against, but this is the most complex land we've ever had at a common slot, so that's at least something! It's an instant speed late-game Gravedigger effect with the downside of the late-game being where you're more likely to get something you don't want since presumably your bin is fuller. Taps for mana in the meantime, no CIPT, and actually seems really good to me.
G Omnath, Locus of Mana G
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Pauper {360} 2013 REVIVAL UPDATE
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"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."