MTG Salvation

It's seriously uncubable. Why would you ever take a situational based, overpriced creature like that in your blue section when we have cards like Benthic Giant?

Seriously losing hope fast for this set quite honestly.

I'm not even mad, just baffled at how that card ended up so awful

Yeah, the octopus is really bad (although it's certainly flavorful). I'm not really surprised, most of the commons that get spoiled during the actual spoiler season aren't typically that great. Once the full set is out, we should have a few more interesting cards to talk about.

Font of Fortunes seems okay but not great; it simply seems outclassed by other draw spells. Font of Return is also okay, but there are multiple other gravedigger effects I would add before this. Font of Fertility is both unexciting and outclassed. The white and red fonts are just bad. Overall, it's a fine idea for a cycle, but none of the effects are fantastic and none of the effects are effects that pauper cubes really want or need more of.

Also, Golden Hind is a functional reprint of Leaf Gilder. I don't think anybody really considers that card right now, and I don't think that will change anytime soon.

Font of Return is the only one I think might be worthwhile, particularly if you are playing a "Dredge" theme. Font of Fortunes isn't much better than Think Twice.

I'll be running font of return, it's almost as good as death denied and that card is pretty nuts.

Plus (not that this means anything to anyone but me) it's also super cute with auramancer/griffin dreamfinder. WB enchantments is almost a thing with those guys returning dead weight and seal of doom. Almost.

I really like the Font cycle, just like I liked the Spellbomb cycles from Mirrodin blocks and the Capsules in Shards of Alara. They really help hold a format together around an artifact/enchantment theme. I do wish there was some better support for returning enchantments from the graveyard. Auramancer is quite good, but the quality drops off quickly after that. In looking at Gatherer for the words "return" and "enchantment" on cards, there are some interesting results (in the sense of, "Oh, isn't that a cute card idea.") For reference:
Griffin Dreamfinder
Mine Excavation
Rofello's Gift
Tragic Poet

Also showing up in that search is this gem: Remove Enchantments. Ah early Magic, you're so crazy.

I wouldn't even say Font is better than Think Twice. TT can trips immediately, and gives you room to decide when you want to process your card advantage. Font is on the field, and can be subject to removal easily. I don't like it.

I'm supporting Dredge at the moment and I couldn't see making room for Font of Return quite honestly. There are PLENTY of ways so far (and much more effective) to get creatures back from the GY at the moment for me.

The only Common spoiled today seems to be Renowned Weaver, which is SOMEWHAT compete-able with Centaur's Herald, which isn't even a card on our radar it seems. At least it's a functional reprint and interesting, but doesn't seem cubable to me.

Yeah, I'm not terribly excited about Renowned Weaver either, seems like it's mainly in the set as a Constellation-enabler. Meanwhile, I really wish Wizards still considered Oblivion Ring common - see Banishing Light ...

It has to do with how WotC views removal in limited formats now. They really scaled them back to either uncommon or pushed them to 5-6 mana, but typically 4+ mana and sorcery. I feel so bad for you Pauper guys. :\

Amen. The only thing anyone has to feel bad about is that our Spoiler season sucks. Otherwise, our meta is great.

So, the full set was spoiled in the card image gallery. Of the new spoilers, I'm most interested in these:

Oreskos Swiftclaw - Functional reprint of Blade of the Sixth Pride. Always decent.

Supply-Line Cranes - 5 mana for either a 3/5 flying or a 2/4 flying while putting a +1/+1 counter on another creature is really solid. Maybe not quite worth it at 360 cards, but I'm pretty sure I'm including this at 450 cards.

Rise of Eagles - Getting two 2/2 fliers and scry 1 is huge card advantage. 6 mana is a lot, though. This is definitely not Talrand's Invocation, but it's definitely interesting.

Flurry of Horns - Similar comments as with Rise of Eagles. Especially for cubes that want red token generators, this seems worth testing as a potential finisher.

Sigiled Skink - This card is really solid for R/x aggro decks, because scry is just that good. Also, I love the art.

Other cards that seem a bit more borderline, but may be worth considering:

Pharika's Chosen - Typhoid Rats is now Typhoid Snakes. Decent card. Not sure if we really want or need a second one, though.

Gluttonous Cyclops - I don't think this is quite good enough to make the cut, but it's a really big red finisher.

Humbler of Mortals - A 5/5 for 6 isn't great in green, but it has an okay constellation ability, especially for cubes with an enchantment subtheme.

Oh yeah, I forgot about Oppressive Rays. It seems like a significantly better Paralyze, which was okay but not spectacular when I tried it out a while back. W/R and W/B aggro decks especially seem like they would really like this card. I'm definitely going to test it out.

Quote from Runner5678

Also there's buzz about Sigiled Skink. I mostly unimpressed... You don't get the benefits from his measly scry until three turns after you cast him and he's only a 2/1 so all the split burn kills him, he's quickly outclassed on board, has to attack to get the benefit, and every other creature blocks him profitably, not to mention pingers. For 2/1's for 2 in Red, I think Riot Piker is underrated.

The red 2CMC section past the obvious inclusions is basically all about 2/1's with advantages stapled on, so being a 2/1 isn't that unique of a disadvantage with the skink. Although maybe it is a big issue for 360 card cubes. I disagree about the scry 1 being underwhelming; red aggro decks have absolutely terrible topdecks, so even a small scry effect on top of a par for the course creature for red aggro decks is solid. And even if it dies in combat, you still get to scry. Right now, I'm thinking of testing it in place of either Emberwilde Augur or Kruin Striker.

And I agree on Riot Piker being underrated. I've played it since DGM, and it's done a lot of work.

Quote from Runner5678

Oh right, right. I keep forgetting you have a 450. Emberwilde Augur and Kruin Striker are pretty far outside my radar at 360. He's definitely worth playing over them.

hmmm I've never had a problem with Kruin Striker. It's done pretty solid work here. A lot of people on these forums have been complaining about playing Goblin Piker s with mostly inconsequential upsides for a while now Goblin Skycutter Emberwilde Augur Torch Fiend etc. I think Sigiled Skink is the best of that bunch for people still playing those cards.

Ugh. Sorry guys, but I really don't like anything out of this set. Even at 450 after scanning the complete spoiler list everything seems outclassed and just really uninteresting to me. It may just be personal opinion, but this set in general just feels really lazy and poorly designed.

The only thing I can think of being somewhat useful is Flurry of Horns right now, considering it gives you two creatures for 1 in Red, which seems to be always down on card advantage. It also fits the curve really nicely.

Supply-Line Cranes seems okay, but I'll wait for people to test it first before I give it a shot.

I currently play Castle Raptors and the Cranes are basically a strict upgrade there, even without the added versatility. I'm definitely in. The 2/1 will probably get tested over Kruin Outlaw. Not sure about anything else. I might be more interested in Flurry of Horns if I wasn't so happy with Tenement Crasher as the top end for red.

In my Tier1 Cube the changes will be:

-Daru Lancer +Supply-Line Cranes (not quite sure, though)

-Kor Chant + Oppressive Rays

-Geth's Verdict + Pharika's Chosen (hexproof counter)

I want to find room for Oreskos Swiftclaw as well


Tier2 Cube im not sure yet. Since I run a graveyard and enchantment theme there, Kruphix's Insight is set. Font of Fortunes will replace Courier's Capsule
Cloaked Siren Sigiled Starfish Triton Shorestalker Sigiled Skink Gluttonous Cyclops are also interesting

Looking to inclue:
Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
Oppressive Rays
Supply-Line Cranes
Cloaked Siren
Sigiled Starfish
Flurry of Horns
Sigiled Skink


I think the only outlier in my list is the Lagonna-Band Trailblazer, which I think could be solid.

Right now, I have changes planned to include:

• Oppressive Rays
  
• Oreskos Swiftclaw
  
• Supply-Line Cranes
  
• Sigiled Starfish or Cloaked Siren
  
• Pharika's Chosen
  
• Sigiled Skink
  

Cloaked Siren is an interesting topic - how does it compare to Nephalia Seakite and Sentinels of Glen Elendra? I'm initially inclined to think that 2/3 is slightly better than 3/2 here since the defensive difference between 2 and 3 toughness is usually larger than the offensive difference between 3 and 2 power.

Overall, despite this set appearing pretty lackluster throughout most of spoiler season, we ended up with some okay cards. It's especially nice to see new white cards, since some of the more recent sets haven't had much for white.

Hmmm a number of people running Pharika's Chosen. Is Typhoid Rats really worth running 2 of?

If I can switch a spell for a creature, Im fine.
Deathtouch is useful in my cube against the hexproof guys and synergize very good with Bladed Pinions or Viridian Longbow

No particular card is strictly cubeable to me. The closest cards to cubeable are Supply-Line Cranes (improvement on Castle Raptors), Flurry of Horns (2/3 haste creatures are nothing to scoff at, even if 2 small creatures is generally less impactful than 1 giant creature in the lategame) or Cloaked Siren (I can't tell if I like it better or worse than Crookclaw Transmuter. But 1 extra toughness is probably worth the narrow applications of the Transmuter's ability.)

There are some other noteworthy cards (Font of Return, Sigiled Skink) but they are below those three. I may have missed some cards (???).

Rise of Eagles is way too expensive.

So all in all, maybe one swap (Transmuter for Siren) and that's about it.