Only "unplayable" I'd give a pity 0.5 to would be Gorilla Shaman, for the rare case that it ever gets to eat a 1-drop and a 2-drop artifact in the same game.
I put it that high because there aren't 5 better 2 power one drops in red, unlike tormented hero's 4-5 alternatives in black. The lack of competition makes him much more necessary. I don't see a way in which this isn't in your cube, even though the card itself isn't insanely strong. Looking at the metric, I suppose it has to be a 3.5(undefined) or a 3.
I have a soft sport for Gorilla Shaman but couldn't throw him in. I've given him the 0.5, with some pretty strong caveats about when you would consider including him. Moved the wolverine and Godo's Irregulars to unplayable. and minor adjustments to some other scores.
Have I given Martyr a decent enough description? Should it be elaborated?
It's only been played by other people, and in those matches it seemed a touch stronger. You do need an unlimited flow of cheap guys, but it's fairly good as a turn 2 play after a 1. Might be better as I cut more removal.
Monastery Swiftspear – 3 Description – Vies for best red 1-drop that doesn’t have base 2 power and solid all round. Stats with haste is reasonable for one mana, with the option of boosting. Playable in almost any deck, but shines in red aggro (with burn support), Gruul aggro (with combat trick support) or spells matters (for obvious reasons). Anchors – Supports – Spells Matters
Orcish Lumberjack - 1 Description – It's a card with a history, but a bit harder to make work in peasant cube. You don't have sufficient redundancy to rely on it to 'combo out' a big fatty on turn 3. General ramp just seems a lot more reliable. Anchors – Supports –
Reckless Waif - 2.5 Description – Attacking with this for 3 damage on turn 2 is a beautiful thing. It's an inconsistent beauty though. So it has very strong upside, but you never know when it will transform. In the aggro decks that most want it, turns 3+ might be best served with 2 low cost spells, undermining this card. Anchors – Aggro Supports –
Satyr Hoplite - 1 Description – You only want to consider this if you had self-bouncing auras for some ‘combo’, or have a removal-lite cube with lots of auras. Anchors – Supports –
Scorched Rusalka - 1 Description – Lets you ping if your creatures are about to die anyway. Won't be a common occurrence, but additional bonus of countering cards like Lighting Helix by removing their target. The ability to use it repeat times in a turn is what elevates it to a potential finisher if the board state is right. If your opponents life total is less than or equal to the number of creatures you control, you win (mana permitting). Anchors – Supports –
Skittering Lizard - 0.5 Description - It isn't particularly efficient at any point of the curve, but it does have versatility going for it. Anchors - Supports -
Stonewright – 3.5 Description – Solid 1-drop that can help push damage through. Does extra work with evasive and first strike creatures. It can help aggro guys trade up, or finishers quickly smash through. Already good, but essential if you support a double-strikers / pump archetype. Anchors – Supports –Voltron / Double-strikers
Swiftspear 2.5, waif 2. Both swingy but the werewolf's upside is much higher, to go with her worse downsides. At least I can build for swiftspear.
Stonewright 3.5 since it's probably red's best 1 drop.
War torch goblin should just be a shock, 0.
Hoplite 1.
Made some adjustments, and adjusted some text on a couple. Mildly surprised at lower scores on Monastery Swiftspear. Dropped from 3.5 to 3, I think it fits that criteria.
Hoplite a 1; it can be good, but needs a lot of environmental support to happen.
Balduvian Rage - 0.5 Description – It can be used as a finisher, a way to trade up, or just push some extra damage through and draw into something else. All of those are still very conditional though. Anchors – Supports –
Barrage of Expendables – 1 Description – It's a poor imitation of Goblin Bombardment, but is still playable if you want redundancy of that effect. You just can't win out of nowhere with this. Anchors – Supports –
Brute Force - 2 Description – Playable combat trick. It’s not flashy, but in aggro trades can help trade up or win otherwise bad combats, or help key creatures survive for a single mana. Anchors – Supports –
Burst Lightning - 3.5 Description – Most of the time this will just be a Shock, which is fine, with upside in the late game. 5 mana looks like a lot, but outside of and green and Eldrazi there aren't going to be many creatures that can survive a kicked Burst Lightning. Anchors – Supports –
Chain Lightning - 4 Description – As a sorcery, it isn't going to be better than Lightning Bolt a lot of the time, but can be another analogue, as 3 damage for 1 mana is always going to be good. Fringe use of being able to target your Spitemare, and then copy to deal another 3 to the opponents face if you just need to get 6 damage through. Anchors – Supports –
Collateral Damage – 1.5 Description – Generally, burn is universally good; Collateral Damage is a more aggro-oriented piece of burn. Control decks are often not going to have creatures they are willing to throw away, whereas aggro decks are more likely to have 1-2 drops that have outgrown their usefulness, or are about to die in combat. You may want to include to give aggro burn that other decks are less likely to want. Anchors – Supports – Aggro
Coordinated Assault – 1.5 Description – The combo of surprise power boost and first strike is going to win you some combats that might have been going the other way. Being able to do it with two creatures is gravy. It requires the right board state, but it won't be too often that this won't be able to do something. Anchors – Supports –
Crack the Earth – 0.5 Description – It's a tough sell, because you end up down two cards to their one. You might include it if you want to push low curve red aggro really hard, but it is also easily trumped by a few token generating spells. Anchors – Supports –
Crimson Wisps - 1 Description - In an aggro deck, it can help push through a few damage a turn earlier than expected, or once a control deck has taken control of the game, can drop their finisher and start swinging. There will be times you wish you had drawn something else, but as long as there is a creature on the board you can cycle it for 1 mana. Anchors - Supports -
Crowd's Favor - 1 Description - Being potentially free makes this worth a mention. Dropping a red creature, attacking with something else and then taking advantage of the convoke to win combat is nice. Similarly blocking with a red creature, and then tapping it to pump itself and give itself first strike is a great tempo play. Anchors - Supports -
Crown of Flames – 0.5 Description - Dragon Mantle is the better aura for this type of effect (or Stonewright for a creature version). This gets a mention as a cheap card that can keep recasting itself if your cube includes other cards that trigger off noncreature or aura spells being played, heroic etc. Anchors – Supports -
I don't see how Hoplite can be a 1 if Goblin Lackey (or Chirurgeon) is a 0. Both require a ton of support that's never seen in normal cubes, and a vanilla 1/1 with that Heroic ability isn't even good among Heroic cards.
Assault Strobe is solid (1) if you push Kiln Fiend/Nivix Cyclops/Wee Dragonauts
Blinding Flare (0.5) pairs well with heroic if you insist on that being noteworthy
Crimson Wisps (0.5) is a neat-ish tool for red midrange/control, lets you turn your finisher into an actual win a turn earlier
Crowd's Favor (1) is also solid, at about a 1. Free combat tricks are by far the best.
It's "feasible" in those cubes that want to play combat tricks and auras and so forth, so i agree with the 1.
Balduvan rage I guess .5 but I really just want to be honest and call it 0.
Coordinated assault 1, but would be slightly higher if I didn't think weapon surge was about a 2.
Conflagrate 0
Blaze 0 because it has *4* strictly better options and you have zero reason to play 5 of this effect. I also don't think normal X spells are good to begin with most days.
Crimson wisps 1, this card sort of reads "2-3 damage to the opponent on average, draw a card" and if I'm in aggro I'd probably consider that.
Barrage of expendables 1
Burst lightning 3.5
Chain lightning 4 (when am I not playing this in my deck if it's in the cube?)
Collateral damage .5
Crowd's favor is probably a 1
Assault strobe stay at 0. Not worth only comboing with like one or two cards in your deck for hopeful damage. Event though it's great with bloodfray giant.
The goblins need other goblins; Hoplite can wear any auras or be the target of combat spells to get the benefit. It does need the right environment where those things exist, and probably alongside lower power removal, but the goblins need very explicit support to the point that you would have 20 cards that only make sense for the goblin tribal deck.
I suppose Blaze is one of those cards where it does have strictly better options, but I think is still decent on its own. I'll drop it to 1.5, because I suppose it does need the right (slower) environment to be particularly effective.
On Collateral Damage, is the written assessment reasonable, given you've both given it 0.5?
I'll change most of the others also, and upgrade the mentioned unplayables. I'm not sold on Assault Strobe, sorcery kills it for me. I understand the synergy pointed out, but that synergy exists for instant speed pump effects, or a variety of spells that would kill or temporarily remove a blocker that would trump Assault Strobe. For the same effect, I'd rather pay 1 extra for Temur Battle Rage or Double Cleave and have this at instant speed.
I have finally taken the time to look through this. Well done everyone! This will be a cool project to follow, and a good resource to have if it ever finishes.
About Blaze. It feels wrong to rate it a 0. It is definitely a card that can play a role. But it is far down on the rung of XR spells, and this should probably also be clear from the rating, and also in the accompanying comments. So where are we going to put the more playable RX spells? Blaze should probably be 0.5-1.0 below that, shouldn't it?
But I feel like 0 should be reserved for cards that should never be in a cube because they will never be picked or played, and Blaze is not in that category. Didn't you decide earlier on that strictly worse cards can get >0 grades?
---
Also, to just throw in a late comment on the blue 1-drops: Multicolour cubes are a thing, it could be worth mentioning that Grixis Illusionist, Reef Shaman and Tideshaper Mystic are among the only ways blue can get mana fixing. Not sure if they deserve anything more than 0 anyways though, but it is at least a somewhat redeeming and unique quality. Also Domain.
I can see giving those blue fixers a 1 on that basis. I intend to go through and update the second post next week, and update those at the same time. It might be cute to skew a cube to make blue the base colour for 5 colour decks.
I did drop my initial score on Blaze already, and adjusted the text a bit. Let me know if the description should be further adjusted.
Burn city this entry, so I expect some of these will be up for contention.
Death Spark - 1 Description – It may take some diligence, but casting it in response to one of your creatures about to die isn't too difficult to keep pinging away. Can help fuel a spells matters deck. Anchors – Supports – Spells Matter
Disintegrate - 1.5 Description – Direct damage X spells that hit both creatures and players are good value. Mid-game it can remove almost any creature from the board, and provides reach that can help a stalled deck win out of nowhere. It shuts down regeneration creatures and potential graveyard shenanigans. It’s effectiveness will scale depending on the speed of your cube, and is not likely to be effective in fast cubes. Fireball is likely to be better in most situations, unless there are significant regenerating creatures or graveyard shenanigans in the cube. Anchors – Supports –
Dragon Mantle 0.5 Description – If you want this effect, at least it nets you a card if it resolves. Stonewright is probably going to be better in majority of situations. Anchors – Supports –
Dynacharge - 2 Description – The more likely mode for this spell is to boost an aggro team swinging for the final kill. Great anthem for token decks, or aggro decks full of cheap threats. Occasionally there will be board states where it won't matter, but there is also the single mana mode if you need to take out a larger threat during combat. While you'd rather use it in an aggro fashion, it can still help you boost your defending team if needed. No toughness means it doesn't help your team stay alive, but increases your chances of removing other threats. Anchors – Supports –
Electrickery – 1.5 Description – Overload is going to be the primary mode for this spell. Certain decks are particularly vulnerable; black and white aggro often have a number of x/1's, and token based decks are likely to suffer. Against other decks or higher toughness, it still provides extra damage mid or post combat to turn things around. It won't suit all situations and you might side it out against particular decks, but against most it isn't usually difficult to obtain a 1 for 1, with opportunities for upside. Anchors – Supports –
Faithless Looting – 3
Description – Solid red looting card. It provides card disadvantage on the first casting, but will usually make up for it with card quality. Can help enable some graveyard strategies, and being able to cast a second time is gravy. Spells Matters decks also like this card triggering on each casting, as well as increasing likelihood of finding. Low curve aggro decks are also happy to throw away extra lands to keep the gas going. Anchors – Supports – Reanimator, graveyard matters, Spells Matters, Aggro
Fireball – 2 Description – It hits both creatures and players, and can divide its damage between creatures and players if required, and it is scalable direct damage. This card offers great options to either help clear the board so you can swing in, or just going straight for the opponents face. Its effectiveness will scale depending on the speed of your cube, but in slower cubes most decks will be willing to splash this. Anchors – Supports –
Firebolt – 4 Description – Fair burn spell. You might consider this over Burst Lightning, depending on whether and how much you want to balance sorcery and instant speed burn. This also plays well into graveyard themes if you can dump it there to flash it back. Anchors – Supports –
Flame Jab - 2.5 Description – 1 damage does not appear significant, but repeatable burn is very powerful. Once you've hit your required land drops, this can help maintain control of creatures on the board, and with cards in hand your opponent will need to play around it. Anchors – Supports –
Flame Slash - 4 Description – Sorcery speed , but maximum damage for a single mana. It won’t deal with hasty creatures immediately, but the ability to take out a lot of larger threats before they get to attack while still having mana to develop your board is excellent. Anchors – Supports –
Unplayables Crush – Too narrow. Desperate Gamble – Not worth the card disadvantage. Detonate – paying X is too much. Dizzying Gaze - Too narrow. Dust Corona - Most decks are going to have creatures on the ground, so it's easy to get blocked and get 2 for 1'd. Dwarven Catapult - Too conditional on what your opponent controls. Dwarven Song - Does not do anything. Earthbind – Bad. Electrostatic Bolt - The artifact clause isn't going to matter majority of the time. Engulfing Flames - The extra damage on Firebolt is worth the sorcery speed. Enrage - Balduvian Rage strictly better if you want this effect. Epiphany Storm - Just get the right creature to start with that has this effect. Eternal Warrior – Bad. False Orders - A weird way of giving one of your creatures unblockability and forcing a block they may not have wanted, but too conditional and reliant on your opponent making choices you think they are going to make. Feint – Bad. Fever Charm – Doesn’t do enough. Firebreathing – Crown of Flames and Dragon Mantle are strictly better if you want this effect. Also, consider Stonewright. Flamespeaker’s Will - Doesn't do enough. Flaming Gambit - Being able to double cast an X spell is nice, and there will be times when your opponent has a clear board, but not consistently enough to warrant playing this. When they have multiple creatures on the board, value decreases dramatically. Flowstone Blade – Bad as removal, and bad as a creature enhancer.
If a card as bad as grixis illusionist is a 1, Dragon mantle is a 1. Illusionist and friends should really be .5s at best because they are bad. Would rather play chromatic star and draw a card
Death spark 1
Disintegrate 1.5
Dynacharge 1.5 (trumpet blast isn't a good card, even a flexible one)
Faithless looting a 3
Fireball 2
Firebolt 4
Flame jab 2? 2.5?
Flame slash is usually a 1 mana sorcery speed murder... and I am probably playing it in basically every deck I have it in... but it just feels wrong at 4 to me. 3.5
Death spark can also be annoying in that you have to preserve the order of the graveyard.
I feel that 0.5 is probably fair for the blue fixing wizards.
One could argue that Electrostatic Bolt deserves 0.5 just because 2 damage for 1 mana is never "unplayable", but one could just as easily argue that I should just stay quiet.
For insight on why I don't like blaze not getting a zero, look at electrostatic bolt. It's just a disfigure in red 98 percent of the time, with rare up and downsides. But being worse than a ton of cards at the same cost, even lowly shock, makes it a zero. Even though I'd play it in my pool a decent amount of the time. I feel as though there is no situation where your cube needs 5 XR spells, and that would more or less make blaze the X equivalent to electrostatic bolt.
I think that is a reasonable articulation Leelue. Made me stand back and think about what we are trying to achieve here. This is about general power level of cards primarily for the cube, not in individual deck building. So yes, you might play Electrostatic Bolt... if the cube designer didn't include a dozen better burn cards for you to draft.
Probably something I'm not doing as good a job as I could is explaining when you might choose a card over other similar options, or specifically which environments they get better/worse in. Perhaps once we finish each mana cost, I might call for a review to find any inconsistencies with scoring, explanations etc.
I'll make most of the adjustments mentioned, including Blaze to unplayable, and the blue guys to 0.5
I'm not sure about moving Flame Slash down. If it meets the criteria (you would nearly always play it in decks of that colour) then I think a 4 is the right score. Same justification for moving Firebolt up to 4, presumably. I think there are a number of burn spells (at a variety of mana costs) that will be on par with each other; great in a lot of situations, poor in a few, with some differences in when those situations are. e.g. There will be times you will have a Firebolt and wish it was Flame Slash, and vice versa.
Jovian, when do you not preserve the order of the graveyard? Doesn't seem like a hassle to me. Put new stuff on top. Pick up the pile, flick through it, put it back down. I'll update Firebreathing. I should probably stop putting 'bad' as an explanation for some of these cards, even when it is obvious.
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
--
Fireslinger 2
Patrol 1
Irregulars 0
Initiate 1.5
Familiar 1
Pup 3
Wolverine 0
Ape 3.5
Martyr 1
Fanatic 1.5
--
Only "unplayable" I'd give a pity 0.5 to would be Gorilla Shaman, for the rare case that it ever gets to eat a 1-drop and a 2-drop artifact in the same game.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
I have a soft sport for Gorilla Shaman but couldn't throw him in. I've given him the 0.5, with some pretty strong caveats about when you would consider including him. Moved the wolverine and Godo's Irregulars to unplayable. and minor adjustments to some other scores.
Have I given Martyr a decent enough description? Should it be elaborated?
ashes description is better than I'd have done
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
How well would you say? In relation to something like Elite Vanguard.
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Description – Vies for best red 1-drop that doesn’t have base 2 power and solid all round. Stats with haste is reasonable for one mana, with the option of boosting. Playable in almost any deck, but shines in red aggro (with burn support), Gruul aggro (with combat trick support) or spells matters (for obvious reasons).
Anchors –
Supports – Spells Matters
Orcish Lumberjack - 1
Description – It's a card with a history, but a bit harder to make work in peasant cube. You don't have sufficient redundancy to rely on it to 'combo out' a big fatty on turn 3. General ramp just seems a lot more reliable.
Anchors –
Supports –
Reckless Waif - 2.5
Description – Attacking with this for 3 damage on turn 2 is a beautiful thing. It's an inconsistent beauty though. So it has very strong upside, but you never know when it will transform. In the aggro decks that most want it, turns 3+ might be best served with 2 low cost spells, undermining this card.
Anchors – Aggro
Supports –
Satyr Hoplite - 1
Description – You only want to consider this if you had self-bouncing auras for some ‘combo’, or have a removal-lite cube with lots of auras.
Anchors –
Supports –
Scorched Rusalka - 1
Description – Lets you ping if your creatures are about to die anyway. Won't be a common occurrence, but additional bonus of countering cards like Lighting Helix by removing their target. The ability to use it repeat times in a turn is what elevates it to a potential finisher if the board state is right. If your opponents life total is less than or equal to the number of creatures you control, you win (mana permitting).
Anchors –
Supports –
Skittering Lizard - 0.5
Description - It isn't particularly efficient at any point of the curve, but it does have versatility going for it.
Anchors -
Supports -
Stonewright – 3.5
Description – Solid 1-drop that can help push damage through. Does extra work with evasive and first strike creatures. It can help aggro guys trade up, or finishers quickly smash through. Already good, but essential if you support a double-strikers / pump archetype.
Anchors –
Supports –Voltron / Double-strikers
Mogg Raider – Only in heavy tribal.
Mon’s Goblin Raiders – Bad.
Mon’s Goblin Waiters – Bad.
Mountain Bandit – Monastery Swiftspear laughs at you.
Mountain Goat / Zodiac Goat - Bad.
Mudbutton Clanger – Only in heavy tribal.
Nyxborn Rollicker – Both modes are bad.
Orcish Captain – Not going to be worth it.
Orcish Conscripts – Goblin Cohort strictly better.
Orcish Spy - Doesn’t do anything.
Priest of Iroas – You may as well just play a better version in white.
Primordial Ooze – Major mana investment when you should just be playing other creatures.
Raging Goblin – Monastery Swiftspear strictly better.
Raka Disciple - Doesn't do enough.
Rift Elemental – Too narrow.
Roc Hatchling - It's like a bad suspend card with no hard cast mode. With no reliable way to get the counters off quickly, this is unplayable.
Sacred Puma – Too narrow.
Skirk Prospector – Only in heavy tribal.
Skitter of Lizards - Even with haste, it isn't efficient at any mana cost.
Soldier of Fortune - Generally the effect does nothing, outside of some very specific combos.
Somberwalde Vigilante – Essentially a vanilla 1/1 that your opponent can choose to block when it suits them.
Spark Elemental - It's a Lava Spike the opponent can block.
Spark Mage - As a 1/1, anything can trade with it. There are very few board situations where the ability will actually matter.
Striking Sliver – Only in heavy tribal.
Thunderscape Apprentice – Not good enough.
Torpid Moloch - Terribad.
Toxic Iguanar - If you are in Gruul, just include one of greens actual deathtouch cards instead.
Warbreak Trumpeter - After you've already paid 3 to put it into play, it costs 7 to put 3 tokens into play… Too slow.
War-Torch Goblin - Almost any burn is better in majority of situations.
Lumberjack 1
Waif 2
Hoplite 0 (same as a "tribal only" card)
Rusalka 0.5 (activation cost + only players = yuck)
Spark Elemental 0 (Lava Spike they can block? noooope)
Stonewright 3
War-Torch 0.5
Only other card I'd bump to 0.5 is Skitter of Lizards since hasty 1/1 for 1, 2/2 for 3, 3/3 for 5 is versatile enough for a half point.
Reckless Waif - 3 - swingy but with extreme upside.
Hoplite - 0-3 with archetype support.
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
Stonewright 3.5 since it's probably red's best 1 drop.
War torch goblin should just be a shock, 0.
Hoplite 1.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Hoplite a 1; it can be good, but needs a lot of environmental support to happen.
Description – It can be used as a finisher, a way to trade up, or just push some extra damage through and draw into something else. All of those are still very conditional though.
Anchors –
Supports –
Barrage of Expendables – 1
Description – It's a poor imitation of Goblin Bombardment, but is still playable if you want redundancy of that effect. You just can't win out of nowhere with this.
Anchors –
Supports –
Brute Force - 2
Description – Playable combat trick. It’s not flashy, but in aggro trades can help trade up or win otherwise bad combats, or help key creatures survive for a single mana.
Anchors –
Supports –
Burst Lightning - 3.5
Description – Most of the time this will just be a Shock, which is fine, with upside in the late game. 5 mana looks like a lot, but outside of and green and Eldrazi there aren't going to be many creatures that can survive a kicked Burst Lightning.
Anchors –
Supports –
Chain Lightning - 4
Description – As a sorcery, it isn't going to be better than Lightning Bolt a lot of the time, but can be another analogue, as 3 damage for 1 mana is always going to be good. Fringe use of being able to target your Spitemare, and then copy to deal another 3 to the opponents face if you just need to get 6 damage through.
Anchors –
Supports –
Collateral Damage – 1.5
Description – Generally, burn is universally good; Collateral Damage is a more aggro-oriented piece of burn. Control decks are often not going to have creatures they are willing to throw away, whereas aggro decks are more likely to have 1-2 drops that have outgrown their usefulness, or are about to die in combat. You may want to include to give aggro burn that other decks are less likely to want.
Anchors –
Supports – Aggro
Coordinated Assault – 1.5
Description – The combo of surprise power boost and first strike is going to win you some combats that might have been going the other way. Being able to do it with two creatures is gravy. It requires the right board state, but it won't be too often that this won't be able to do something.
Anchors –
Supports –
Crack the Earth – 0.5
Description – It's a tough sell, because you end up down two cards to their one. You might include it if you want to push low curve red aggro really hard, but it is also easily trumped by a few token generating spells.
Anchors –
Supports –
Crimson Wisps - 1
Description - In an aggro deck, it can help push through a few damage a turn earlier than expected, or once a control deck has taken control of the game, can drop their finisher and start swinging. There will be times you wish you had drawn something else, but as long as there is a creature on the board you can cycle it for 1 mana.
Anchors -
Supports -
Crowd's Favor - 1
Description - Being potentially free makes this worth a mention. Dropping a red creature, attacking with something else and then taking advantage of the convoke to win combat is nice. Similarly blocking with a red creature, and then tapping it to pump itself and give itself first strike is a great tempo play.
Anchors -
Supports -
Crown of Flames – 0.5
Description - Dragon Mantle is the better aura for this type of effect (or Stonewright for a creature version). This gets a mention as a cheap card that can keep recasting itself if your cube includes other cards that trigger off noncreature or aura spells being played, heroic etc.
Anchors –
Supports -
About Face – It’s not useless, but too conditional to be reliable.
Active Volcano – Too narrow targets.
Artifact Blast – Too narrow targets.
Assault Strobe - As a sorcery, it is too easy to trump. Opponent can see it coming, and they can block accordingly.
Banners Raised - Doesn't do enough.
Hearth Charm limits this effect to attacking, but has other options.
Blaze - There are strictly better spells than Blaze (Lava Burst, Kaervek's Torch, Fireball, Disintegrate) and inclusion of Blaze will be a power-based decision.
Blazing Salvo - Bad because opponent gets to choose.
Blinding Flare - Just upgrade to Order // Chaos.
Bloodshed Fever - Doesn't do enough.
Brightstone Ritual - Only in a full-on tribal cube.
Brutal Suppression - Nope.
Builder’s Bane – Too narrow.
Bull Rush – Brute Force laughs at you.
Burning Cloak - Bad. Both things are at odds with the other.
Burning Inquiry - Random effect makes this too difficult to use effectively.
Burrowing – Bad.
Burst of Speed - Uses are too limited to warrant exploring them in cube.
Chaos Charm - Too narrow.
Clear a Path - Too narrow.
Conflagrate - Too hard to make this work.
Crackling Club - Doesn't do enough.
Balduvian Rage 0.5
Barrage of Expendables 1
Blaze 1.5
Burst Lightning 3.5
Chain Lightning 3.5
Collateral Damage 0.5
Conflagrate 0.5
Coordinated Assault 1
Crack the Earth 0
I actually semi-like a few of your unplayables.
Assault Strobe is solid (1) if you push Kiln Fiend/Nivix Cyclops/Wee Dragonauts
Blinding Flare (0.5) pairs well with heroic if you insist on that being noteworthy
Crimson Wisps (0.5) is a neat-ish tool for red midrange/control, lets you turn your finisher into an actual win a turn earlier
Crowd's Favor (1) is also solid, at about a 1. Free combat tricks are by far the best.
Balduvan rage I guess .5 but I really just want to be honest and call it 0.
Coordinated assault 1, but would be slightly higher if I didn't think weapon surge was about a 2.
Conflagrate 0
Blaze 0 because it has *4* strictly better options and you have zero reason to play 5 of this effect. I also don't think normal X spells are good to begin with most days.
Crimson wisps 1, this card sort of reads "2-3 damage to the opponent on average, draw a card" and if I'm in aggro I'd probably consider that.
Barrage of expendables 1
Burst lightning 3.5
Chain lightning 4 (when am I not playing this in my deck if it's in the cube?)
Collateral damage .5
Crowd's favor is probably a 1
Assault strobe stay at 0. Not worth only comboing with like one or two cards in your deck for hopeful damage. Event though it's great with bloodfray giant.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
I suppose Blaze is one of those cards where it does have strictly better options, but I think is still decent on its own. I'll drop it to 1.5, because I suppose it does need the right (slower) environment to be particularly effective.
On Collateral Damage, is the written assessment reasonable, given you've both given it 0.5?
I'll change most of the others also, and upgrade the mentioned unplayables. I'm not sold on Assault Strobe, sorcery kills it for me. I understand the synergy pointed out, but that synergy exists for instant speed pump effects, or a variety of spells that would kill or temporarily remove a blocker that would trump Assault Strobe. For the same effect, I'd rather pay 1 extra for Temur Battle Rage or Double Cleave and have this at instant speed.
About Blaze. It feels wrong to rate it a 0. It is definitely a card that can play a role. But it is far down on the rung of XR spells, and this should probably also be clear from the rating, and also in the accompanying comments. So where are we going to put the more playable RX spells? Blaze should probably be 0.5-1.0 below that, shouldn't it?
But I feel like 0 should be reserved for cards that should never be in a cube because they will never be picked or played, and Blaze is not in that category. Didn't you decide earlier on that strictly worse cards can get >0 grades?
---
Also, to just throw in a late comment on the blue 1-drops: Multicolour cubes are a thing, it could be worth mentioning that Grixis Illusionist, Reef Shaman and Tideshaper Mystic are among the only ways blue can get mana fixing. Not sure if they deserve anything more than 0 anyways though, but it is at least a somewhat redeeming and unique quality. Also Domain.
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
I did drop my initial score on Blaze already, and adjusted the text a bit. Let me know if the description should be further adjusted.
Death Spark - 1
Description – It may take some diligence, but casting it in response to one of your creatures about to die isn't too difficult to keep pinging away. Can help fuel a spells matters deck.
Anchors –
Supports – Spells Matter
Disintegrate - 1.5
Description – Direct damage X spells that hit both creatures and players are good value. Mid-game it can remove almost any creature from the board, and provides reach that can help a stalled deck win out of nowhere. It shuts down regeneration creatures and potential graveyard shenanigans. It’s effectiveness will scale depending on the speed of your cube, and is not likely to be effective in fast cubes. Fireball is likely to be better in most situations, unless there are significant regenerating creatures or graveyard shenanigans in the cube.
Anchors –
Supports –
Dragon Mantle 0.5
Description – If you want this effect, at least it nets you a card if it resolves. Stonewright is probably going to be better in majority of situations.
Anchors –
Supports –
Dynacharge - 2
Description – The more likely mode for this spell is to boost an aggro team swinging for the final kill. Great anthem for token decks, or aggro decks full of cheap threats. Occasionally there will be board states where it won't matter, but there is also the single mana mode if you need to take out a larger threat during combat. While you'd rather use it in an aggro fashion, it can still help you boost your defending team if needed. No toughness means it doesn't help your team stay alive, but increases your chances of removing other threats.
Anchors –
Supports –
Electrickery – 1.5
Description – Overload is going to be the primary mode for this spell. Certain decks are particularly vulnerable; black and white aggro often have a number of x/1's, and token based decks are likely to suffer. Against other decks or higher toughness, it still provides extra damage mid or post combat to turn things around. It won't suit all situations and you might side it out against particular decks, but against most it isn't usually difficult to obtain a 1 for 1, with opportunities for upside.
Anchors –
Supports –
Faithless Looting – 3
Description – Solid red looting card. It provides card disadvantage on the first casting, but will usually make up for it with card quality. Can help enable some graveyard strategies, and being able to cast a second time is gravy. Spells Matters decks also like this card triggering on each casting, as well as increasing likelihood of finding. Low curve aggro decks are also happy to throw away extra lands to keep the gas going.
Anchors –
Supports – Reanimator, graveyard matters, Spells Matters, Aggro
Fireball – 2
Description – It hits both creatures and players, and can divide its damage between creatures and players if required, and it is scalable direct damage. This card offers great options to either help clear the board so you can swing in, or just going straight for the opponents face. Its effectiveness will scale depending on the speed of your cube, but in slower cubes most decks will be willing to splash this.
Anchors –
Supports –
Firebolt – 4
Description – Fair burn spell. You might consider this over Burst Lightning, depending on whether and how much you want to balance sorcery and instant speed burn. This also plays well into graveyard themes if you can dump it there to flash it back.
Anchors –
Supports –
Flame Jab - 2.5
Description – 1 damage does not appear significant, but repeatable burn is very powerful. Once you've hit your required land drops, this can help maintain control of creatures on the board, and with cards in hand your opponent will need to play around it.
Anchors –
Supports –
Flame Slash - 4
Description – Sorcery speed , but maximum damage for a single mana. It won’t deal with hasty creatures immediately, but the ability to take out a lot of larger threats before they get to attack while still having mana to develop your board is excellent.
Anchors –
Supports –
Crush – Too narrow.
Desperate Gamble – Not worth the card disadvantage.
Detonate – paying X is too much.
Dizzying Gaze - Too narrow.
Dust Corona - Most decks are going to have creatures on the ground, so it's easy to get blocked and get 2 for 1'd.
Dwarven Catapult - Too conditional on what your opponent controls.
Dwarven Song - Does not do anything.
Earthbind – Bad.
Electrostatic Bolt - The artifact clause isn't going to matter majority of the time.
Engulfing Flames - The extra damage on Firebolt is worth the sorcery speed.
Enrage - Balduvian Rage strictly better if you want this effect.
Epiphany Storm - Just get the right creature to start with that has this effect.
Eternal Warrior – Bad.
False Orders - A weird way of giving one of your creatures unblockability and forcing a block they may not have wanted, but too conditional and reliant on your opponent making choices you think they are going to make.
Feint – Bad.
Fever Charm – Doesn’t do enough.
Firebreathing – Crown of Flames and Dragon Mantle are strictly better if you want this effect. Also, consider Stonewright.
Flamespeaker’s Will - Doesn't do enough.
Flaming Gambit - Being able to double cast an X spell is nice, and there will be times when your opponent has a clear board, but not consistently enough to warrant playing this. When they have multiple creatures on the board, value decreases dramatically.
Flowstone Blade – Bad as removal, and bad as a creature enhancer.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Disintegrate 1.5
Dynacharge 1.5 (trumpet blast isn't a good card, even a flexible one)
Faithless looting a 3
Fireball 2
Firebolt 4
Flame jab 2? 2.5?
Flame slash is usually a 1 mana sorcery speed murder... and I am probably playing it in basically every deck I have it in... but it just feels wrong at 4 to me. 3.5
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
I feel that 0.5 is probably fair for the blue fixing wizards.
One could argue that Electrostatic Bolt deserves 0.5 just because 2 damage for 1 mana is never "unplayable", but one could just as easily argue that I should just stay quiet.
If you want information on your unplayables, then Firebreathing is strictly worse than both Crown of Flames and Dragon Mantle.
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Probably something I'm not doing as good a job as I could is explaining when you might choose a card over other similar options, or specifically which environments they get better/worse in. Perhaps once we finish each mana cost, I might call for a review to find any inconsistencies with scoring, explanations etc.
I'll make most of the adjustments mentioned, including Blaze to unplayable, and the blue guys to 0.5
I'm not sure about moving Flame Slash down. If it meets the criteria (you would nearly always play it in decks of that colour) then I think a 4 is the right score. Same justification for moving Firebolt up to 4, presumably. I think there are a number of burn spells (at a variety of mana costs) that will be on par with each other; great in a lot of situations, poor in a few, with some differences in when those situations are. e.g. There will be times you will have a Firebolt and wish it was Flame Slash, and vice versa.
Jovian, when do you not preserve the order of the graveyard? Doesn't seem like a hassle to me. Put new stuff on top. Pick up the pile, flick through it, put it back down. I'll update Firebreathing. I should probably stop putting 'bad' as an explanation for some of these cards, even when it is obvious.