Thanks or your input _i0, I can agree with most of those.
Deathgreeter I can see dropping, as while not strictly better, Blood Artist or similar effects impact your opponents life total.
Disowned Ancestor - I feel like this guy has a spot as it can keep blocking anything with power 3 or less for an initial 1 mana investment, but has more flexibility than just being a wall against aggro decks. At the 1 mana spot I feel he is worth at least a mention.
Merrow BoneGnawer / Cremate - The Gnawer got a point for including this effect while attached to a body (even though not a very good one) meaning it was little investment for the effect and could attack or block compared to similar spell effects. But I can see Cremate being better due to the cantrip; you don't really have to invest anything. I'm leaning towards giving it a 1 (it isn't a function most people are likely to include but it's there if you want it) and drop Merrow BoneGnawer to unplayable.
Yoxed Ox is probably a 0.5 or so, right? Or an outright 0? I don't think the super slow/expensive outlast on Ancestor is worth anything more than an extra half point, so maybe 1 total.
"On a body", as you note, only helps when it's a good body. Withered Wretch has the same effect but on a 2/2 for 2, which makes it much better. He's also probably better than Cremate, but the Instant is at least a card to be aware of if you want a little graveyard interaction.
edit: also just noticed that the Gnawer doesn't even let you choose the card. So they go to reanimate a Pelakka Wurm... you activate Gnawer, they just choose to exile a mana dork or something Though it does, of course, work if someone's trying to Animate Dead out of YOUR graveyard.
Just for that bonegnawer is like a negative 1.
I see the outlast guy as a 1.5 or so. I remember a time when I was happy enough to have a kraken hatchling (before aggro got so good), so I can see some underdeveloped cube using a better one.
Hadn't noticed that distinction on the bonegnawer, definitely unplayable.
There are very few creatures with toughness of 4 for 1 mana; at peasant, there are 6 (2 have defender). That doesn't make it awesome by any means, but if you want to throw control decks a bone with a 1 mana staller, I think this is an ok baseline. You wouldn't pay for a 1/5 for 3 mana or 2/6 for 5 mana (without other upside) but that is just extra flexibility on the baseline on the occasions when you've got nothing better to do and can take a turn off blocking.
Yoked Ox would be unplayable because of the existence of Lagonna-Band Trailblazer. I'd rate that worse than Disowned Ancestor as I think it is less flexible. It relies on other spells that you would actually want to target it with. Anyway, I'm not arguing that they aren't all on the low end; I think they fit in at least the fringe category. Very few people are likely to play them, but have a unique enough combination of cost, stats and abilities that they might fit in somewhere.
I'll change Bonegnawer to unplayable (if I haven't already) and Disowned Ancestor to 1.5.
I think Dark Ritual at 2.5 is good. It's narrow, but brutal in the right deck.
Darkblast is a solid 3 for me. The times it was relevant to skip a draw step to mow down a token or something wasn't as frequent as I'd hope...using your upkeep to to nail a 2/2 is BB: At the beginning of your upkeep skip your draw step, target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn...which is kind of bad.
Deviant Glee - ??? Description – Good enough for aggro? Anchor - Supports –
Disfigure - 3 Description – Fair removal for the cost. Gets the job done. Anchor - Supports -
Duh – 1 (maybe worth more?) Description – This will be very swingy between different cube environments. It could hit lots if you try and make your cube new player friendly, or next to nothing if you pimp out with textless cards. Cheap and instant, so if you have enough creatures that fit the criteria it might make a reasonable alternative to blacks commonly used removal in the 2 cc spot. Anchor - Supports -
Duress - 2 Description – 137 targets in the average 360 Peasant on Cubetutor. Less targets than Despise which is a similar effect. Still, might have a place to get rid of buyback spells and the like that might be floating around in your cube. Anchor - Supports -
Endless Scream - ??? Description – Has some pretty nice upside if you pair it with some form of evasion or the board is clear. But it is plagued with the problem of being on the receiving end of a 2-for-1, even if the opponent just trades with your creature. Anchor - Supports -
Funeral Charm - 2 Description - Two reasonable modes; instant speed discard can be nice, and the second option can help push through some damage, with the flexibility to kill utility x/1's or to finish a creature off after combat. The final mode won't matter most of the time, but random evasion as a bonus is nice. Anchor - Supports -
Genju of the Fens – 0.5
Description - Too mana intensive to matter most of the time. If you are attacking, you've already spent 3 mana, leaving little mana left to push the attack (or cast anything else). The recursive nature does give it some marginal synergy with sacrifice decks. Anchor - Supports -
Ghoulcaller’s Chant - 1 Description - Return a single creature to your hand from your grave is not terribly exciting as a base. Gets better if you support dredge or otherwise chuck cards into your yard. 2 creatures? Now we are talking. It seems to force tribal, but there are a number of zombies which see play in cubes without forcing tribal themes; a number of those support black aggro which is likely to see some of its creatures die early. Anchor - Supports – Black aggro
Howl From Beyond - ??? Description – Playable as a finisher? Anchor - Supports -
Innocent Blood - ??? Description - I know it's playable, I just have little experience with it. Anchor - Supports -
Inquisition of Kozilek - 3 Description - As a reference, the 360 card peasant cube has (at the time of review) 245 nonland cards that have a CMC of 3 or less, 68% of the cube. So that's better odds than the majority of these types of discard. Of course, your cube may vary, and deck building curves might not align exactly to the cube curve, but they are pretty good odds. Anchor - Supports -
Unplayables Disembowel – Flexibility is nice but ends of costing too much compared to other black removal. Disentomb – Better alternatives Dread of Night – Too narrow. Dredge – Bad card draw. Ebony Charm – None of the modes are that exciting. Can be a way of including graveyard clearing without dedicating a full slot, but decks won’t want the other two effects either. Encroach – You are going to whiff the vast majority of the time. Evil Presence – Way too narrow. Eye Gouge – Doesn’t do enough. Fade From Memory – Cremate is better for this effect. Fatal Blow – Not worth waiting for the right moment, just get a better kill spell. Fatal Mutation – Not relevant except in morph cubes, and even then you just force it to remain a 2/2. Feast of Flesh – Doesn’t work in Cube. Ghastly Demise – Too conditional. Ghoulflesh – Doesn’t do enough Glyph of Doom – Just bad. Gravebind – Way too narrow Gruesome Deformity - The best case is that you spend 1 mana and a card, and get one of your bigger attackers through. But the threat of your opponent playing the right colour and or being 2-for-1'd by removal is too great a risk. Hell Swarm – Doesn’t do enough. Horrifying Revelation - Because the opponent has choice of discard, other discard options at this mana cost are preferred. The graveyard dumping doesn't add anything worthwhile. Human Frailty – Too narrow. Illness In The Ranks - Too narrow. If you are going to support tokens, you probably don't want to neuter it with this card being in your pool.
I'd rate Ghastly Demise as a 2. I've had success with it in Pauper constructed and I'm sure it's decent for the sam reasons in Cube (good mana value, kills anything in longer games).
I could see Duh ranging from 1-2.5 depending on the cube.
I bump both of the selectable discard spells up by 1. It's like having your 1 drop eat a removal spell: value
Especially when that spell is something like curse of predation or control magic or a shrine or arc lightning or...
Glee probably 0.5, maybe a full 1 for Molting Snakeskin if you want to support a black aggro enchantment. Tho again, neither is really recommended in the "default" cube environment.
Duress is better than Ostracize because black can efficiently kill basically any creature you'd pluck from the hand. I'd do 2 Ostracize, 3 Duress, but anything close is fine.
Endless Scream seems awful.
Funeral Charm probably isn't a 2. Again, killing a creature is already easy in black, and you have better discard options. This is a 1ish, Piracy Charm perhaps closer to 1.5-2 since it does things blue normally can't do.
Howl might be a 0.5 if Scream is a straight 0, it can at least pretend to be a Fireball to the face.
Innocent Blood depends on how much depth black has other than being a Carnophage deck. Obviously casting it when you control a creature is sub-par (outside of Act of Treason stuff). Seems like a 1.5ish.
What do we call Doom Blade/GFFT? 4? IOK is nearly as good but definitely a worse late-game draw, probably a 3.5.
Glad to generate some discussion. I can see upping the score on the discards. _i0, good point on the value of Ostracise in a creature kill colour (unless you are choosing to not play them for cube design reasons, but that is not the 'average' cube).
Card neutral, yes. But noncreature spells have a much higher likelihood of being of the more powerful cards in hand. Also the information is worth something, even on a whiff.
Anyway, mana negative? Are you talking about the 1 mana you spent on duress (which your opponent didn't spend on their own card)? Considering that you are using duress when you have 1 mana floating around, this is nearly moot.
Furthermore: If you take removal, you're saving yourself from your opponent coming ahead on tempo later. Also, it is black's most direct way of dealing with enchantments.
If we look at our power rankings from last year, a striking majority of every color's top 10 list are comprised of noncreature spells. Except green (which is only 4 out of 10). So the reward available for your risk is quite high.
Still need to go back and make a couple of adjustments. There are some short term posting restrictions due to some spamming (see bugs thread if you care) which made editing this post a chore and I assume the same will happen to old posts that I copied from Word.
Also wanted to verify Ghoulcaller's Chant was the correct value at a score of 1. I've put Raise Dead as unplayable in this list on the basis that Ghoulcaller's Chant is strictly better, but maybe I'm underselling how valid Raise Dead is on it's own.
Molting Snakeskin - 0.5 Description - Black aggro likes cards that can hit for 2 power for 1 mana, and this is a pseudo-version of doing that with haste. It carries the big downside of opening you up for a 2 for 1, which knocks it down in the effective stakes. Pumping an early dude to be a big hitter with regen can help punch through some mid-game defences, even though the regen cost is expensive. Anchor - Supports - Aggro
Paralyze - 2 Description - Good as a tempo spell that can remove early creatures from affecting the board, and even when the opponent has the mana it is still expensive to keep a creature active in the game. It might not turn off the most powerful creatures your opponents have and it's value goes down the longer the game, but it never does nothing. Anchor - Supports - Aggro
Phyrexian Reclamation - 2.5 Description - Solid as a potential recursion engine to grind out card advantage over time. Can add more value in sac decks to get benefits from the recursion, extort decks to offset the life loss while replaying cards and getting to extort again, and graveyard fillers so you have more targets. You just have to be careful of the lifeloss. Anchor - Graveyard Creature Recursion Supports - Extort, Sacrifice, Self-Mill
Quest for the Gravelord - 3.5 Description - This is a black card. Black likes to kill creatures. It shouldn't take too long to trigger this guy. Great in the early game, but not a great top deck when you are down to the wire. Size compares favourably to nearly everything in cube outside of greens ramp targets. Anchor - Supports -
Raven's Crime - 3 Description - Solid re-usable discard. Can be a first turn play if you've got nothing else, and after you hit your required mana base, all lands you draw can turn into a discard spell. Best in a control deck to prevent your opponent from holding onto anything, but could still be in an aggro deck pushing a really low curve to strip slower decks of their cards once they hit the desired mana base. Also serves in reanimator decks because you can target yourself for a single mana. Anchor - Supports -Reanimator
Reanimate - 3.5 Description - It's cost of a single mana makes this particularly powerful. It's harder in peasant to dump something really frightening in the yard, so paying a ton of life for a fatty might backfire if your opponent has relevant removal. But it also plays just fine in aggro and midrange decks to keep the pressure up. It also has the upside of being able to target your opponents graveyard. Anchor - Reanimator Supports - Aggro
Unplayable Killing Glare - After paying a few mana you will wish you just had a better kill spell. Lab Rats - Too slow to have an impact on the game compared to other token generators and you never want to play it as a 1/1 for B. Leshrac's Rite - Too narrow. Lose Hope - Lacks power. Lurking Jackals - A 3/2 on the cheap looks great, but the fact that it is useless until your opponent has lost half their life makes it unplayable in the decks that want it. Marsh Gas - If you want this effect, you probably just want Darkness. Midnight Charm - All of the modes are marginal. Mind Peel - Too expensive to re-use Mire Blight - Prefer something that actually kills the creature. Mire's Toll - Will be worse than Blackmail nearly all of the time. Misery Charm - Effects are too narrow. Misinformation - This is not worth the card disadvantage in the vast majority of situations. Nighthaze - Doesn't do enough. Organ Harvest - Could be a powerful mana booster but too narrow an effect for a cube to take full advantage of (Maybe has some value if you play team games). Peppersmoke - Unless you have enough Faeries, Lose Hope is better. Planar Void - Too narrow an effect to care about if it isn't attached to a body. Postmorten Lunge - If we are going to be bringing something back and paying this much, we want it to stick around, not disappear at the end of the turn. Predator's Gambit - Too prone to 2 for 1. Psychic Spear - Far too narrow. Rain of Filth - Not any decks that would want to take advantage of this. Raise Dead - Ghoulcaller's Chant strictly better. Rat's Feast - Tormod's Crypt is the card you want. Restless Dreams - You end up down a card, which is a bummer. You can swap out poor creatures in your hand for better ones in your graveyard, but that seems like a lot of setup. If you are playing good cards, the ones in your hand shouldn't be that much worse than the ones in your yard anyway. Return to Battle - Ghoulcaller's Chant strictly better.
Paralyze is probably tinged with my personal preference; it isn't strictly better or worse than any of the cards you've mentioned, but I like that it can target anything (sans shroud/hexproof) without restriction (colour, creature size, sufficient cards in yard) and have an immediate effect. I don't recall seeing a creature be untapped with it, but that is probably by virtue of it being played in aggro decks that don't give the opponent a lot of time, it would be worse in a control deck. But I take your point that black has plenty of options. I suppose as a minor note, black is the colour that can benefit the most from creatures dying (Blood Artist etc) so pushing those decks can be a factor in card choice.
It's likely I've underestimated Reanimate; I only just got myself a copy and hasn't seen play yet. I think my understatement is on the basis of some recent discussion here that it is risky as fatty reanimator, and underselling it for its 'general' use.
Without looking, I'd assume there are cards that are almost strictly better at doing the things you would want Restless Dreams to for reanimator. Though to be fair, I suspect most of them are in blue as opposed to black.
The last handful of times I played quest for the gravelord it more or less was extremely strong. 3 things dying is a simple combat trade and a removal spell which is really easy to accomplish. Also, it disincentivizes people from blocking when you start swinging your formerly irrelevant guys.
I've had so much success with it I want to call he card a 3.5
Someone who has recently played ravens crime will have to give it a rating because I haven't played the card in forever.
I've been using it for a decent amount of time now. A 5/5 with suspend 2-3 for B is really good. I don't think I've ever had to wait a durkwood baloth amount of time.
it could very well be 3.5 in power. I don't consider the baloth particularly playable and quest has no hardcast mode, but it can potentially pop the turn it comes into play. I'm surprised it took me this long to come around to it. I really enjoy it's interaction with pestilence and sweepers in general as well as in a sacrifice deck. It even makes an interesting inclusion for an aggro deck.
I'll just comment on the cards I don't agree with the ratings on, or add points to things I feel you overlooked:
Lose Hope isn't even a Shock compared to Darkblast's Lightning Bolt. 0.
Nighthaze a 0
Phyrexian Reclamation as a 2.5. It's a strong engine but the life really adds up in protracted games (which this card is designed for).
Raven's Crime is also an enabler for reanimator as a tool to get your fatties into the yard.
Made some adjustments or put some scores on stuff.
moved to unplayable - Lost Hope, Mire's Toll, Predator's Gambit, Nighthaze
Reanimate - Up to 3.5 unless someone else wants to support moffinz in pushing it up to 4.
Paralyze - Remain at 2.5 unless someone wants to support moffinz bring it down.
Quest for Gravelord - Gave it 3.5
Phyrexian Reclamation - Down to 2.5
Noticed I didn't address moffinz mention of Executioner's Capsule. My search didn't include the artifacts, so they should be included from now on. Probably a 1, on the basis that it is only in specific decks or environments (artifact cube with Auriok Salvagers or Trinket Mage is the only thing I can think of that would make me want to play this over instant black kill spells)
It's bad compared to like 10 removal spells. It only has trinket mage for upside. The ratings should show that. At least paralyze offers something. Even though I feel inclined to call that a two for the same reason
I can take Squirrely's point, if you removed all other black removal from your cube and replaced them with Executioner's Capsules, you would still be putting them in decks. But other black removal does it better. Like someone else pointed out, if Paralyze was blue it would be much better because blue has less ways to deal with creatures.
Deathgreeter I can see dropping, as while not strictly better, Blood Artist or similar effects impact your opponents life total.
Disowned Ancestor - I feel like this guy has a spot as it can keep blocking anything with power 3 or less for an initial 1 mana investment, but has more flexibility than just being a wall against aggro decks. At the 1 mana spot I feel he is worth at least a mention.
Merrow BoneGnawer / Cremate - The Gnawer got a point for including this effect while attached to a body (even though not a very good one) meaning it was little investment for the effect and could attack or block compared to similar spell effects. But I can see Cremate being better due to the cantrip; you don't really have to invest anything. I'm leaning towards giving it a 1 (it isn't a function most people are likely to include but it's there if you want it) and drop Merrow BoneGnawer to unplayable.
Culling the Weak can be dropped given discussions about Dark Ritual.
Happy for Aphotic Wisps and Boon of Erebos to get a 1.
"On a body", as you note, only helps when it's a good body. Withered Wretch has the same effect but on a 2/2 for 2, which makes it much better. He's also probably better than Cremate, but the Instant is at least a card to be aware of if you want a little graveyard interaction.
edit: also just noticed that the Gnawer doesn't even let you choose the card. So they go to reanimate a Pelakka Wurm... you activate Gnawer, they just choose to exile a mana dork or something Though it does, of course, work if someone's trying to Animate Dead out of YOUR graveyard.
I see the outlast guy as a 1.5 or so. I remember a time when I was happy enough to have a kraken hatchling (before aggro got so good), so I can see some underdeveloped cube using a better one.
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
There are very few creatures with toughness of 4 for 1 mana; at peasant, there are 6 (2 have defender). That doesn't make it awesome by any means, but if you want to throw control decks a bone with a 1 mana staller, I think this is an ok baseline. You wouldn't pay for a 1/5 for 3 mana or 2/6 for 5 mana (without other upside) but that is just extra flexibility on the baseline on the occasions when you've got nothing better to do and can take a turn off blocking.
Yoked Ox would be unplayable because of the existence of Lagonna-Band Trailblazer. I'd rate that worse than Disowned Ancestor as I think it is less flexible. It relies on other spells that you would actually want to target it with. Anyway, I'm not arguing that they aren't all on the low end; I think they fit in at least the fringe category. Very few people are likely to play them, but have a unique enough combination of cost, stats and abilities that they might fit in somewhere.
I'll change Bonegnawer to unplayable (if I haven't already) and Disowned Ancestor to 1.5.
Darkblast is a solid 3 for me. The times it was relevant to skip a draw step to mow down a token or something wasn't as frequent as I'd hope...using your upkeep to to nail a 2/2 is BB: At the beginning of your upkeep skip your draw step, target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn...which is kind of bad.
Bonegnawer is definitely unplayable.
I think I agree with Ancestor at 1.5.
Deviant Glee - ???
Description – Good enough for aggro?
Anchor -
Supports –
Disfigure - 3
Description – Fair removal for the cost. Gets the job done.
Anchor -
Supports -
Duh – 1 (maybe worth more?)
Description – This will be very swingy between different cube environments. It could hit lots if you try and make your cube new player friendly, or next to nothing if you pimp out with textless cards. Cheap and instant, so if you have enough creatures that fit the criteria it might make a reasonable alternative to blacks commonly used removal in the 2 cc spot.
Anchor -
Supports -
Duress - 2
Description – 137 targets in the average 360 Peasant on Cubetutor. Less targets than Despise which is a similar effect. Still, might have a place to get rid of buyback spells and the like that might be floating around in your cube.
Anchor -
Supports -
Endless Scream - ???
Description – Has some pretty nice upside if you pair it with some form of evasion or the board is clear. But it is plagued with the problem of being on the receiving end of a 2-for-1, even if the opponent just trades with your creature.
Anchor -
Supports -
Funeral Charm - 2
Description - Two reasonable modes; instant speed discard can be nice, and the second option can help push through some damage, with the flexibility to kill utility x/1's or to finish a creature off after combat. The final mode won't matter most of the time, but random evasion as a bonus is nice.
Anchor -
Supports -
Genju of the Fens – 0.5
Description - Too mana intensive to matter most of the time. If you are attacking, you've already spent 3 mana, leaving little mana left to push the attack (or cast anything else). The recursive nature does give it some marginal synergy with sacrifice decks.
Anchor -
Supports -
Ghoulcaller’s Chant - 1
Description - Return a single creature to your hand from your grave is not terribly exciting as a base. Gets better if you support dredge or otherwise chuck cards into your yard. 2 creatures? Now we are talking. It seems to force tribal, but there are a number of zombies which see play in cubes without forcing tribal themes; a number of those support black aggro which is likely to see some of its creatures die early.
Anchor -
Supports – Black aggro
Howl From Beyond - ???
Description – Playable as a finisher?
Anchor -
Supports -
Innocent Blood - ???
Description - I know it's playable, I just have little experience with it.
Anchor -
Supports -
Inquisition of Kozilek - 3
Description - As a reference, the 360 card peasant cube has (at the time of review) 245 nonland cards that have a CMC of 3 or less, 68% of the cube. So that's better odds than the majority of these types of discard. Of course, your cube may vary, and deck building curves might not align exactly to the cube curve, but they are pretty good odds.
Anchor -
Supports -
Disembowel – Flexibility is nice but ends of costing too much compared to other black removal.
Disentomb – Better alternatives
Dread of Night – Too narrow.
Dredge – Bad card draw.
Ebony Charm – None of the modes are that exciting. Can be a way of including graveyard clearing without dedicating a full slot, but decks won’t want the other two effects either.
Encroach – You are going to whiff the vast majority of the time.
Evil Presence – Way too narrow.
Eye Gouge – Doesn’t do enough.
Fade From Memory – Cremate is better for this effect.
Fatal Blow – Not worth waiting for the right moment, just get a better kill spell.
Fatal Mutation – Not relevant except in morph cubes, and even then you just force it to remain a 2/2.
Feast of Flesh – Doesn’t work in Cube.
Ghastly Demise – Too conditional.
Ghoulflesh – Doesn’t do enough
Glyph of Doom – Just bad.
Gravebind – Way too narrow
Gruesome Deformity - The best case is that you spend 1 mana and a card, and get one of your bigger attackers through. But the threat of your opponent playing the right colour and or being 2-for-1'd by removal is too great a risk.
Hell Swarm – Doesn’t do enough.
Horrifying Revelation - Because the opponent has choice of discard, other discard options at this mana cost are preferred. The graveyard dumping doesn't add anything worthwhile.
Human Frailty – Too narrow.
Illness In The Ranks - Too narrow. If you are going to support tokens, you probably don't want to neuter it with this card being in your pool.
I could see Duh ranging from 1-2.5 depending on the cube.
Duress at 2.5.
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
Especially when that spell is something like curse of predation or control magic or a shrine or arc lightning or...
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.
Duress is better than Ostracize because black can efficiently kill basically any creature you'd pluck from the hand. I'd do 2 Ostracize, 3 Duress, but anything close is fine.
Endless Scream seems awful.
Funeral Charm probably isn't a 2. Again, killing a creature is already easy in black, and you have better discard options. This is a 1ish, Piracy Charm perhaps closer to 1.5-2 since it does things blue normally can't do.
Howl might be a 0.5 if Scream is a straight 0, it can at least pretend to be a Fireball to the face.
Innocent Blood depends on how much depth black has other than being a Carnophage deck. Obviously casting it when you control a creature is sub-par (outside of Act of Treason stuff). Seems like a 1.5ish.
What do we call Doom Blade/GFFT? 4? IOK is nearly as good but definitely a worse late-game draw, probably a 3.5.
Based on comments, make these changes;
Deviant Glee, Endless Scream, Howl From Beyond unplayable.
Duress - 3
Inquisition of Kolizek - 3.5
Funeral Charm - 1
Ghastly Demise - 2
I feel like there is more to be said on Innocent Blood. I thought I had heard it talked about around these parts as a good card, but I could be wrong.
Is Ghoulcallers Chant on the money? Is a Raise Dead on it's own worth anything?
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
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
Anyway, mana negative? Are you talking about the 1 mana you spent on duress (which your opponent didn't spend on their own card)? Considering that you are using duress when you have 1 mana floating around, this is nearly moot.
Furthermore: If you take removal, you're saving yourself from your opponent coming ahead on tempo later. Also, it is black's most direct way of dealing with enchantments.
If we look at our power rankings from last year, a striking majority of every color's top 10 list are comprised of noncreature spells. Except green (which is only 4 out of 10). So the reward available for your risk is quite high.
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
Also wanted to verify Ghoulcaller's Chant was the correct value at a score of 1. I've put Raise Dead as unplayable in this list on the basis that Ghoulcaller's Chant is strictly better, but maybe I'm underselling how valid Raise Dead is on it's own.
Molting Snakeskin - 0.5
Description - Black aggro likes cards that can hit for 2 power for 1 mana, and this is a pseudo-version of doing that with haste. It carries the big downside of opening you up for a 2 for 1, which knocks it down in the effective stakes. Pumping an early dude to be a big hitter with regen can help punch through some mid-game defences, even though the regen cost is expensive.
Anchor -
Supports - Aggro
Paralyze - 2
Description - Good as a tempo spell that can remove early creatures from affecting the board, and even when the opponent has the mana it is still expensive to keep a creature active in the game. It might not turn off the most powerful creatures your opponents have and it's value goes down the longer the game, but it never does nothing.
Anchor -
Supports - Aggro
Phyrexian Reclamation - 2.5
Description - Solid as a potential recursion engine to grind out card advantage over time. Can add more value in sac decks to get benefits from the recursion, extort decks to offset the life loss while replaying cards and getting to extort again, and graveyard fillers so you have more targets. You just have to be careful of the lifeloss.
Anchor - Graveyard Creature Recursion
Supports - Extort, Sacrifice, Self-Mill
Quest for the Gravelord - 3.5
Description - This is a black card. Black likes to kill creatures. It shouldn't take too long to trigger this guy. Great in the early game, but not a great top deck when you are down to the wire. Size compares favourably to nearly everything in cube outside of greens ramp targets.
Anchor -
Supports -
Raven's Crime - 3
Description - Solid re-usable discard. Can be a first turn play if you've got nothing else, and after you hit your required mana base, all lands you draw can turn into a discard spell. Best in a control deck to prevent your opponent from holding onto anything, but could still be in an aggro deck pushing a really low curve to strip slower decks of their cards once they hit the desired mana base. Also serves in reanimator decks because you can target yourself for a single mana.
Anchor -
Supports -Reanimator
Reanimate - 3.5
Description - It's cost of a single mana makes this particularly powerful. It's harder in peasant to dump something really frightening in the yard, so paying a ton of life for a fatty might backfire if your opponent has relevant removal. But it also plays just fine in aggro and midrange decks to keep the pressure up. It also has the upside of being able to target your opponents graveyard.
Anchor - Reanimator
Supports - Aggro
Killing Glare - After paying a few mana you will wish you just had a better kill spell.
Lab Rats - Too slow to have an impact on the game compared to other token generators and you never want to play it as a 1/1 for B.
Leshrac's Rite - Too narrow.
Lose Hope - Lacks power.
Lurking Jackals - A 3/2 on the cheap looks great, but the fact that it is useless until your opponent has lost half their life makes it unplayable in the decks that want it.
Marsh Gas - If you want this effect, you probably just want Darkness.
Midnight Charm - All of the modes are marginal.
Mind Peel - Too expensive to re-use
Mire Blight - Prefer something that actually kills the creature.
Mire's Toll - Will be worse than Blackmail nearly all of the time.
Misery Charm - Effects are too narrow.
Misinformation - This is not worth the card disadvantage in the vast majority of situations.
Nighthaze - Doesn't do enough.
Organ Harvest - Could be a powerful mana booster but too narrow an effect for a cube to take full advantage of (Maybe has some value if you play team games).
Peppersmoke - Unless you have enough Faeries, Lose Hope is better.
Planar Void - Too narrow an effect to care about if it isn't attached to a body.
Postmorten Lunge - If we are going to be bringing something back and paying this much, we want it to stick around, not disappear at the end of the turn.
Predator's Gambit - Too prone to 2 for 1.
Psychic Spear - Far too narrow.
Rain of Filth - Not any decks that would want to take advantage of this.
Raise Dead - Ghoulcaller's Chant strictly better.
Rat's Feast - Tormod's Crypt is the card you want.
Restless Dreams - You end up down a card, which is a bummer. You can swap out poor creatures in your hand for better ones in your graveyard, but that seems like a lot of setup. If you are playing good cards, the ones in your hand shouldn't be that much worse than the ones in your yard anyway.
Return to Battle - Ghoulcaller's Chant strictly better.
It's likely I've underestimated Reanimate; I only just got myself a copy and hasn't seen play yet. I think my understatement is on the basis of some recent discussion here that it is risky as fatty reanimator, and underselling it for its 'general' use.
Without looking, I'd assume there are cards that are almost strictly better at doing the things you would want Restless Dreams to for reanimator. Though to be fair, I suspect most of them are in blue as opposed to black.
I've had so much success with it I want to call he card a 3.5
Someone who has recently played ravens crime will have to give it a rating because I haven't played the card in forever.
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
reanimate is a 3.5...targeting your opponent's graveyard is hugely relevant.
quest for the gravelord i speculate to be a 3...i haven't seen it in action yet.
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
Lose Hope isn't even a Shock compared to Darkblast's Lightning Bolt. 0.
Nighthaze a 0
Phyrexian Reclamation as a 2.5. It's a strong engine but the life really adds up in protracted games (which this card is designed for).
Raven's Crime is also an enabler for reanimator as a tool to get your fatties into the yard.
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
moved to unplayable - Lost Hope, Mire's Toll, Predator's Gambit, Nighthaze
Reanimate - Up to 3.5 unless someone else wants to support moffinz in pushing it up to 4.
Paralyze - Remain at 2.5 unless someone wants to support moffinz bring it down.
Quest for Gravelord - Gave it 3.5
Phyrexian Reclamation - Down to 2.5
Noticed I didn't address moffinz mention of Executioner's Capsule. My search didn't include the artifacts, so they should be included from now on. Probably a 1, on the basis that it is only in specific decks or environments (artifact cube with Auriok Salvagers or Trinket Mage is the only thing I can think of that would make me want to play this over instant black kill spells)
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 can take Squirrely's point, if you removed all other black removal from your cube and replaced them with Executioner's Capsules, you would still be putting them in decks. But other black removal does it better. Like someone else pointed out, if Paralyze was blue it would be much better because blue has less ways to deal with creatures.