If it costed 2BB it could be worth testing. As is, I think it's not worth it, especially for cubes that prioritize black aggro over control. Bloodhunter Bat and Blind Hunter are good because their evasion works really well with the life drain in aggressive decks. This card really only blocks, defensive life drain isn't that exciting, and both Perilous Shadow and Pith Driller are better blockers.
It may have a place in an aggro deck as a nice fireball finish, or wven in the blink/undying evil decks. The main problem is that the ability is what you are paying for, and the body left behind makes you scratch your head on anything that is not devotion 4.
If your cube supports (well) the BB cards frequently, than this can find a home. My cube has more of an emphasis on the xB than that, so I think I am out in the cold.
I don't really like Omenspeaker. Augury Owl is not good as everyone knows, but in my opinion it's not really very close to good and taking away flying for 2 toughness only helps so much. It could well end up being an inclusion but it's certainly not amazing.
I think Read the Bones is an auto include. I wouldn't take out sign in blood or deaths duet for it, because I'm still running syphon life. I haven't gotten a great deal of testing in on it, but it can be counter productive in an extort style deck, though can help. I just think it is too situational and won't pan out because it doesn't affect the board at all.
Omenspeaker is a decent card. No merfolk looter or thought courier. I don't think it makes the cut. I don't really like too many things that have huge buts or shut off aggro too much. I do have sea gate oracle and I don't think this replaces it by a long shot.
Gray Merchant would depend on the cube and will take testing. My black has aggro but it is more of aggro support, but most of the removal in my cube is in black and white so it is also a very good control color as well. We will have to see if this will pan out but it is unlikely.
The asp looks great and I will probably include it as well. I've started to go deeper on the ramping recently and it may be basking rootwalla's and wild mongrel's days to leave the cube, as the madness theme has declined heavily over time. I would have to do a small overhaul to put that deck back in its place again. I will actually try to go force a couple wild mongrel decks on cube tutor, and perhaps with my rl cube soon if I see those cards pop up, to see if there is enough support for the archetype still.
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Beyond that I am pretty unimpressed so far with the commons. I like Akroan Crusader but I think it's just not easy enough to enable to be worthwhile, though I will admit to thinking about some buyback cards (Seething Anger) as potential enablers.
I like Akroan Crusader but I think it's just not easy enough to enable to be worthwhile, though I will admit to thinking about some buyback cards (Seething Anger) as potential enablers.
I think that Wingsteed Rider is a better reason to try out Heroic than Akroan Crusader. Getting it to a 3/3 flier makes it pretty good and getting it to a 4/4 flier makes it game ending. Even if you get 2 1/1's out of Akroan Crusader you really haven't gained much in the way of board position considering you're Crusader has probably just sat there since it will at best trade with something in combat after being pumped. White also seems like a better color since it fits into the Aura theme people have been trying to push.
4/5 blocks epheremons like a champ. The extra toughness over vigilant spider means it dodges even more removal. Monstrous is something that could happen in pauper since the format is slow enough.
I actually prefer the reach over trample, because there are other cards like fangreen 4/4 that tramples for 3GG, though it is only a 4/4 but still, I'd rather have a 4/5 reach over a vanilla 5/5. I love the 3/3 reach I have in there now. May have to take that one out for it, or maybe something in another slot. I recently cut the 5/5 for 6 that gives you 5 life when artifacts die, though at that time I had a huge artifact theme in the cube. Though it was cute more than anything else and diluted the rest of the colors from making strong mono color decks possible.
Anyways I think I will fit the asp in somewhere. Hopefully there is another big green common in the theros block.
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Observant Alseid - Not going to make it. A 2/2 vigilance for 3 isn't what aggro white decks are interested in playing, and 4W is just too much mana for this effect in W/x midrange decks.
Nimbus Naiad - Not going to make it. Blue's 3 drop slot is super tight already and this is no Griffin Guide.
Spearpoint Oread - Not going to make it. Red aggro has so many better 3 drops, and 6 is way too much mana for the Bestow cost.
Leafcrown Dryad - Definitely at least testable, edging on probably going to make it. A reach bear is acceptable, reach is a good ability, and the bestow cost isn't super overcosted. It seems like a fine midrange green card that helps any aura theme.
I think it's basically under borderline. There are just so many better options, because the Monstrosity cost is exorbidant. The main point of Asp is versatility, both as a mid-sized fattie and a huge endgame threat, but it's so inefficient at doing either of those things compared to cards like Sentinel Spider and Walker of the Grove that it really doesn't appeal to me.
EDIT: It has been confirmed that if you cast Bestow on a creature and the opponent kills the target at instant speed, Bestow will not fizzle in the traditional sense, instead you'll just get an overcosted creature. Win for BestowBear!
Yeah, this is a really important point which, I think, is going to require us constantly reminding ourselves because it's so easy to forget. Bestow is actually really different to the Auras and even Equipments that we've had in the past, because of that implicit creature on death, and I think that's going to make our jobs evaluating these cards really difficult, solely because of inexperience. For instance, when I think of the fact that all of the nymphs give you a 2/2 when it dies as an Aura, plus the protection from instant speed removal, I pretty much can't discount any of them at a glance. I wrote off the black nymph in this thread's OP, and that was a mistake.
I probably rank the cards Blue > Black = Green > Red > White right now. I don't know where the cubeable cut-off mark occurs at all, and will need to test them to be sure. I wouldn't at all be surprised if all of them turn out to be borderline to cubeable - I mean, Knightly Valor was quite strong in RTR Limited, just missing out on Pauper Cube, and the White nymph is basically that but with the option of being cast as a 2/2 for 3 in a pinch.
Just a few comments on them:
Blue > Black because cheaper.
Black = Green because black is a much more powerful mid-game effect, but green is cheaper. It could easily go either way, I'm not sure yet.
Yeah, this is a really important point which, I think, is going to require us constantly reminding ourselves because it's so easy to forget. Bestow is actually really different to the Auras and even Equipments that we've had in the past, because of that implicit creature on death, and I think that's going to make our jobs evaluating these cards really difficult, solely because of inexperience
Short of actually testing the cards, I think the two most important factors for evaluating Bestow cards are the bestow mana cost (relative to the card's impact) and whether the non-bestowed card would be remotely playable on its own. The "no fizzle" aspect isn't nearly as important because it seems highly dependent on how high-impact / efficient the bestow card is in the first place.
If the bestow cost is more than ~4 CMC, I'm inclined to be pretty skeptical about it unless it provides a game-ending / bomb-like effect. It takes a lot to be worth 5+ mana, and Bestow has some big issues here - all of our Pacifism and Narcolepsy effects are fantastic against Bestow, and in many cases it seems like your opponent can just play around (not kill, swing past, chump block, or just plain ignore) the enchanted creature and then you've sunk a ton of mana into an aura that wasn't worth that much mana. With bestow, unless it wins you the game, you want your creature to force a beneficial trade in combat or eventually eat removal so you can get the full value from it, but unless your bestow card provides enough of an incentive to kill the creature instead of playing around it or can be played relatively early in the game, that's not going to happen.
For what it's worth, I'd rank the nymphs as Green > Blue > Black > White > Red right now. Any G/x color combination in my cube has a midrange archetype that would happily play both modes of Leafcrown Dryad. I'm not sure there are many archetypes that automatically want and would play any or both modes of the other four cards at the moment.
Perhaps the biggest issue with the blue nymph (Nimbus Naiad) is that while granting pump + evasion is good, the majority of blue decks don't really need to do that, and hence don't really want either mode. Control decks have other priorities, and good U/x tempo decks already have both evasive creatures and indirect evasion through bounce / removal. It's similar to why Trained Condor isn't that fantastic - it's great when you can give your Imperiosaur flying, but a lot of the time it's just a 2 power flier for 3. The natural home for the blue Nymph is in something like a U/G midrange deck, but I'm not sure if that alone justifies its inclusion, especially when it probably means cutting something that's good in a wider range of decks for a 5 CMC Spectral Flight that could later turn into or be played as a Wind Drake.
I might have to test most or maybe even all of the Bestow Nymph cycle. (I'm a sucker for cycles.) Since I decided to push landfall in my cube I've been looking for mana sinks to give players something to do with all that land they're playing. The Nymphs, kind of like the Invokers from Legions/ROE, are lackluster yet serviceable bodies early in the game but look like very nice draws once you've got mana to spare. They're not as sick as Griffin Guide but they still look like they're good enough to play a role in the right pauper cube environments.
Having just said all that, however... I still concur with Lanxal on the Nessian Asp being rather 'meh.' It's not like green is really hurting for ramp targets anyway, and I think the comparisons with Walker of the Grove and Sentinel Spider are apt. I'd rather have the Walker (for now, at least) because it has more synergy with other cards I play (e.g. bounce, graveyard recursion) and the 7/7 mode is resilient against more removal. And "Serra Spider" is just a house on its own. I just don't think I have room for Asp in my green section at 360. But seeing the Asp spoiled does give me hope that we'll see something like a monstrous blue Kraken printed at common. Blue needs higher quality ground-shaking fat than the likes of Harbor Serpent and Scrapdiver Serpent. (At least that's what would make my inner Timmy the happiest.)
Cards listed in ascending order of what I like the most as of 89/249 spoiled
YES PLEASE:
Read the Bones: This is pretty good, but I no longer have the easy option to cut Syphon Life anymore :/ I disagree that Death's Duet is the cut for it, it's still quality card draw.
Omenspeaker: I loved Augury Owl, but with the many bears(where it's better than Owl) and X/1s that's on the ground in my cube, it's our own pauper's Augur of Bolas.
Leafcrown Dryad: The ability might be subpar like what Al said, but it's not subpar in a color that lacks flyers. It is my favorite amongst the Bestow cycle(aggressively costed) and it's snap inclusion up to this point.
Maybes:
Nimbus Naiad: At worst, a Wind Drake, at best it can transform your looter / critter into a clock, it works of course best as a splash.
Observant Alseid: A pity it costs 5, tho Vigilance is a very strong ability on a big body, a 2/2 Vigilance has been justified as unplayable. I cut Loyal Cathar after getting convinced by Al.
Nessian Asp: It can be Monstrous 3, or even 2... in exchange for gaining trample bah... If and only if.
NO!:
Gods Willing: There are so many protection cards in white... that I had cut all but those who cantrips / flashback or is super blow out potential like Test of Faith, this card is MEH.
Two-Headed Cerberus: Trades with a 2/2... Needs support to be better than a bear. And support in a deck with double red is hard to come by on curve, unless your neighbours don't value equipments.
On Heroics: Simply far too little justification to run these... When some suggested Hidden Strings to complement Heroic... That's when you know its bad, playing 2 bad cards to justify one shaky synergy is just not my style.
I'm not convinced Nessian Asp is better than (or even that close to) Tangle Hulk. Regeneration is one of the strongest abilities we have, especially on finisher creatures, and being an artifact creature is sometimes relevant. I agree that it would be an upgrade on Hollowhenge Beast, though. I'll be cutting Aerie Ouphes for it in my own cube.
Asp is good, I don't run tangle hulk but may consider tossing it in the artifact section as I slimmed it down a month or two ago. I wouldn't consider it close to walker of the grove though. I have a big bant ramp blink style deck in my cube, along with maul splicer that is strong. And with adding angelic renewal soon, the evoke cost value goes through the roof. Angelic renewal has other great synergies like turn 2 renewal turn 3 evoke mulldrifter, get a 2/2 flier and draw 4 cards play. There are so many ETB's that angelic renewal will be in my cube soon.
The green nymph is great, I think it could see play but not an auto include. I don't have an aura theme in there but could easily adjust for that as the block continues to unfold and we get more cards. I think it is solid, I'm just not sure what I would take out for it, and I have plenty of other cards wanting to see the light of day in cube as well.
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The green nymph is great, I think it could see play but not an auto include. I don't have an aura theme in there but could easily adjust for that as the block continues to unfold and we get more cards. I think it is solid, I'm just not sure what I would take out for it, and I have plenty of other cards wanting to see the light of day in cube as well.
The best part about the new Bestow cards is that they're Griffin/Elephant Guide 2.0 with the ability to not fizzle completely. You don't need an aura theme to support them, it's additional benefit if you do. They're played for pure value; and right now, the green one is undercosted and has a relevant ability for green. It is arguably the best of the cycle as well.
None of the guides are legal in pauper, so I don't see why that's even relevant. Yeah, none of the common cards are as good as either the griffin or Elephant Guide, but both of those cards would be slam dunks in common cubes so that's just fine. Also the green one can be hardcast as a relatively reasonable 2/2 reach bear. Of course we wouldn't play that if it that was all it did, but having two strong options is very good.
I like Apostle's Blessing more than Benevolent Bodyguard because it plays quite a bit differently than other Blessed Breath variants, and perhaps could be classified as colorless as a result. A lot of non-white decks arguably want the protection more than many white decks - if I'm drafting a ramp deck, this is a fairly high-priority support card that I can probably wheel, even if it's the only white card I draft. It's also a card that most non-white decks want to side in against removal-heavy decks without splashing. Strategically, in comparison to the Bodyguard, there's also an upside to not having the "seal effect" in that it can be used as a removal spell after blocks. I'm not sure whether that's objectively better than the "seal effect," but it's something that can become relevant, as is the artifact protection / protection from artifacts clause.
I'd rank the rest of them Benevolent Bodyguard > Gods Willing > Stave Off > Blessed Breath. Benevolent Bodyguard is good for the reasons you said, and is better than Gods Willing because Scry 1 is fine, but not as exciting or impactful as the seal effect. Gods Willing is better than Stave Off because you're always happy with Scry 1, while the option of playing Stave Off on your opponents' creatures is so narrow it can usually be ignored. This also means that Gods Willing probably won't be cubeable simply because it's the 4th best protection effect (including Shelter, which is easily the best of them all even though it costs one more).
Apostle's Blessing is strong because of its colorless potential. I run it. I've run Benevolent Bodyguard on and off, but I think it's definitely worth consideration. I am probably going to be pulling out Order of Leitbur shortly which will be replaced with either the Bodyguard or Carom.
I mean it will trade for a removal spell for sure and could possibly make a lot of problems, because everyone tries to play around it, or to remove the bodyguard first. I mean it's a "Counter backup", without keeping additional mana ready.
I default to Wizards' jargon, On-Board Tricks
As for Stave Off on an opposing Creature, it depends on the validity of making spells and Auras non-functional when an opponent wants to buff.
If Bestow picks up in your cube, it may be very valid.
Is Lash Out that bad? I value instant speed if its 2 mana burn, because u can let opponent make bad blocks with the amount of First Strikers n high p/low t critters in red. Not to mention Lash Out has pseudo scry, which is valuable in red. Topdeck manipulation tacked on if u don't win the clash is pretty nifty. The same reason why Magma Jet is good… yeah I know its an uncommon I know, I should b more careful when cross-referencing just like the comparison of guides in previous post :/
I don't know, I'm finally black bordering my cube so I've been happy recently to replace fire ambush with lash out n probably volcanic hammer with spear 2.0.
Edit: @ 360, it takes like 20 minutes for me to decide which burn to cut every time wizards decides to get creative and make functional reprints.
However...
It may have a place in an aggro deck as a nice fireball finish, or wven in the blink/undying evil decks. The main problem is that the ability is what you are paying for, and the body left behind makes you scratch your head on anything that is not devotion 4.
If your cube supports (well) the BB cards frequently, than this can find a home. My cube has more of an emphasis on the xB than that, so I think I am out in the cold.
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Omenspeaker is a decent card. No merfolk looter or thought courier. I don't think it makes the cut. I don't really like too many things that have huge buts or shut off aggro too much. I do have sea gate oracle and I don't think this replaces it by a long shot.
Gray Merchant would depend on the cube and will take testing. My black has aggro but it is more of aggro support, but most of the removal in my cube is in black and white so it is also a very good control color as well. We will have to see if this will pan out but it is unlikely.
The asp looks great and I will probably include it as well. I've started to go deeper on the ramping recently and it may be basking rootwalla's and wild mongrel's days to leave the cube, as the madness theme has declined heavily over time. I would have to do a small overhaul to put that deck back in its place again. I will actually try to go force a couple wild mongrel decks on cube tutor, and perhaps with my rl cube soon if I see those cards pop up, to see if there is enough support for the archetype still.
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Beyond that I am pretty unimpressed so far with the commons. I like Akroan Crusader but I think it's just not easy enough to enable to be worthwhile, though I will admit to thinking about some buyback cards (Seething Anger) as potential enablers.
Nessian Asp I'm eh about, I like Sentinel Spider better and they seem to compete for the same spot.
Omenspeaker will be great in limited, but isn't cube-worthy.
Seems solid, arguably between cubable and staple
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I think that Wingsteed Rider is a better reason to try out Heroic than Akroan Crusader. Getting it to a 3/3 flier makes it pretty good and getting it to a 4/4 flier makes it game ending. Even if you get 2 1/1's out of Akroan Crusader you really haven't gained much in the way of board position considering you're Crusader has probably just sat there since it will at best trade with something in combat after being pumped. White also seems like a better color since it fits into the Aura theme people have been trying to push.
4/5 blocks epheremons like a champ. The extra toughness over vigilant spider means it dodges even more removal. Monstrous is something that could happen in pauper since the format is slow enough.
Anyways I think I will fit the asp in somewhere. Hopefully there is another big green common in the theros block.
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Observant Alseid - Not going to make it. A 2/2 vigilance for 3 isn't what aggro white decks are interested in playing, and 4W is just too much mana for this effect in W/x midrange decks.
Nimbus Naiad - Not going to make it. Blue's 3 drop slot is super tight already and this is no Griffin Guide.
Spearpoint Oread - Not going to make it. Red aggro has so many better 3 drops, and 6 is way too much mana for the Bestow cost.
Leafcrown Dryad - Definitely at least testable, edging on probably going to make it. A reach bear is acceptable, reach is a good ability, and the bestow cost isn't super overcosted. It seems like a fine midrange green card that helps any aura theme.
I think it's basically under borderline. There are just so many better options, because the Monstrosity cost is exorbidant. The main point of Asp is versatility, both as a mid-sized fattie and a huge endgame threat, but it's so inefficient at doing either of those things compared to cards like Sentinel Spider and Walker of the Grove that it really doesn't appeal to me.
Yeah, this is a really important point which, I think, is going to require us constantly reminding ourselves because it's so easy to forget. Bestow is actually really different to the Auras and even Equipments that we've had in the past, because of that implicit creature on death, and I think that's going to make our jobs evaluating these cards really difficult, solely because of inexperience. For instance, when I think of the fact that all of the nymphs give you a 2/2 when it dies as an Aura, plus the protection from instant speed removal, I pretty much can't discount any of them at a glance. I wrote off the black nymph in this thread's OP, and that was a mistake.
I probably rank the cards Blue > Black = Green > Red > White right now. I don't know where the cubeable cut-off mark occurs at all, and will need to test them to be sure. I wouldn't at all be surprised if all of them turn out to be borderline to cubeable - I mean, Knightly Valor was quite strong in RTR Limited, just missing out on Pauper Cube, and the White nymph is basically that but with the option of being cast as a 2/2 for 3 in a pinch.
Just a few comments on them:
Blue > Black because cheaper.
Black = Green because black is a much more powerful mid-game effect, but green is cheaper. It could easily go either way, I'm not sure yet.
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Short of actually testing the cards, I think the two most important factors for evaluating Bestow cards are the bestow mana cost (relative to the card's impact) and whether the non-bestowed card would be remotely playable on its own. The "no fizzle" aspect isn't nearly as important because it seems highly dependent on how high-impact / efficient the bestow card is in the first place.
If the bestow cost is more than ~4 CMC, I'm inclined to be pretty skeptical about it unless it provides a game-ending / bomb-like effect. It takes a lot to be worth 5+ mana, and Bestow has some big issues here - all of our Pacifism and Narcolepsy effects are fantastic against Bestow, and in many cases it seems like your opponent can just play around (not kill, swing past, chump block, or just plain ignore) the enchanted creature and then you've sunk a ton of mana into an aura that wasn't worth that much mana. With bestow, unless it wins you the game, you want your creature to force a beneficial trade in combat or eventually eat removal so you can get the full value from it, but unless your bestow card provides enough of an incentive to kill the creature instead of playing around it or can be played relatively early in the game, that's not going to happen.
For what it's worth, I'd rank the nymphs as Green > Blue > Black > White > Red right now. Any G/x color combination in my cube has a midrange archetype that would happily play both modes of Leafcrown Dryad. I'm not sure there are many archetypes that automatically want and would play any or both modes of the other four cards at the moment.
Perhaps the biggest issue with the blue nymph (Nimbus Naiad) is that while granting pump + evasion is good, the majority of blue decks don't really need to do that, and hence don't really want either mode. Control decks have other priorities, and good U/x tempo decks already have both evasive creatures and indirect evasion through bounce / removal. It's similar to why Trained Condor isn't that fantastic - it's great when you can give your Imperiosaur flying, but a lot of the time it's just a 2 power flier for 3. The natural home for the blue Nymph is in something like a U/G midrange deck, but I'm not sure if that alone justifies its inclusion, especially when it probably means cutting something that's good in a wider range of decks for a 5 CMC Spectral Flight that could later turn into or be played as a Wind Drake.
Having just said all that, however... I still concur with Lanxal on the Nessian Asp being rather 'meh.' It's not like green is really hurting for ramp targets anyway, and I think the comparisons with Walker of the Grove and Sentinel Spider are apt. I'd rather have the Walker (for now, at least) because it has more synergy with other cards I play (e.g. bounce, graveyard recursion) and the 7/7 mode is resilient against more removal. And "Serra Spider" is just a house on its own. I just don't think I have room for Asp in my green section at 360. But seeing the Asp spoiled does give me hope that we'll see something like a monstrous blue Kraken printed at common. Blue needs higher quality ground-shaking fat than the likes of Harbor Serpent and Scrapdiver Serpent. (At least that's what would make my inner Timmy the happiest.)
YES PLEASE:
Omenspeaker: I loved Augury Owl, but with the many bears(where it's better than Owl) and X/1s that's on the ground in my cube, it's our own pauper's Augur of Bolas.
Leafcrown Dryad: The ability might be subpar like what Al said, but it's not subpar in a color that lacks flyers. It is my favorite amongst the Bestow cycle(aggressively costed) and it's snap inclusion up to this point.
Maybes:
Observant Alseid: A pity it costs 5, tho Vigilance is a very strong ability on a big body, a 2/2 Vigilance has been justified as unplayable. I cut Loyal Cathar after getting convinced by Al.
Nessian Asp: It can be Monstrous 3, or even 2... in exchange for gaining trample bah... If and only if.
NO!:
Cavern Lampad/Spearpoint Oread: Overcosted, simply overcosted.
Two-Headed Cerberus: Trades with a 2/2... Needs support to be better than a bear. And support in a deck with double red is hard to come by on curve, unless your neighbours don't value equipments.
On Heroics: Simply far too little justification to run these... When some suggested Hidden Strings to complement Heroic... That's when you know its bad, playing 2 bad cards to justify one shaky synergy is just not my style.
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I'm not convinced Nessian Asp is better than (or even that close to) Tangle Hulk. Regeneration is one of the strongest abilities we have, especially on finisher creatures, and being an artifact creature is sometimes relevant. I agree that it would be an upgrade on Hollowhenge Beast, though. I'll be cutting Aerie Ouphes for it in my own cube.
The green nymph is great, I think it could see play but not an auto include. I don't have an aura theme in there but could easily adjust for that as the block continues to unfold and we get more cards. I think it is solid, I'm just not sure what I would take out for it, and I have plenty of other cards wanting to see the light of day in cube as well.
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The best part about the new Bestow cards is that they're Griffin/Elephant Guide 2.0 with the ability to not fizzle completely. You don't need an aura theme to support them, it's additional benefit if you do. They're played for pure value; and right now, the green one is undercosted and has a relevant ability for green. It is arguably the best of the cycle as well.
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I'd rank the rest of them Benevolent Bodyguard > Gods Willing > Stave Off > Blessed Breath. Benevolent Bodyguard is good for the reasons you said, and is better than Gods Willing because Scry 1 is fine, but not as exciting or impactful as the seal effect. Gods Willing is better than Stave Off because you're always happy with Scry 1, while the option of playing Stave Off on your opponents' creatures is so narrow it can usually be ignored. This also means that Gods Willing probably won't be cubeable simply because it's the 4th best protection effect (including Shelter, which is easily the best of them all even though it costs one more).
As for Theros, right now I know I'm adding in:
Nimbus Naiad in place of Aven Fleetwing
Read the Bones in place of Order of the Ebon Hand
Leafcrown Dryad in place of Deadly Recluse or Werebear
Nessian Asp in place of Tangle Hulk
Maybe's:
Observant Alseid
Wingsteed Rider
Cavern Lampad
Spearpoint Oread
I default to Wizards' jargon, On-Board Tricks
As for Stave Off on an opposing Creature, it depends on the validity of making spells and Auras non-functional when an opponent wants to buff.
If Bestow picks up in your cube, it may be very valid.
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I don't know, I'm finally black bordering my cube so I've been happy recently to replace fire ambush with lash out n probably volcanic hammer with spear 2.0.
Edit: @ 360, it takes like 20 minutes for me to decide which burn to cut every time wizards decides to get creative and make functional reprints.
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