Hey y'all. I had a Pauper cube back around the time Avacyn Restored came out, but I never really updated it after that, and over the last few years it got torn apart for spare parts. I'm in the process of rebuilding it, and I would like some assistance from the tribal knowledge base as far as which cards to include or not include. Multicolor sections are going to be either 5 or 6 cards per guild, I have not decided which just yet.
Please give reasoning if you feel I should or should not include a particular card.
Below are the cards I am considering for Azorius. I am making Azorius a tempo/bounce/skies archetype.
Coastline Chimera - It flies, has a huge butt, and can block multiple creatures to gum up the board state. There aren't a ton of creatures that can get by it. That said, it's a rather unexciting card and I worry that it won't be drafted very highly.
Deputy of Acquittals - This feels like what Azorius wants to be doing. Bounce your things to protect them and leave behind a body. It's a great tempo move.
Dramatic Rescue - This one isn't very exciting, but the dollop of life gain makes me want to consider it. However, I think Deputy of Acquittals would make the cut before this would.
Ethercaste Knight - 1/3 for two mana is pretty good, and it makes a good blocker, while pumping up a single flier later. I don't think this reads very exciting, though, nor do I think it's that great.
Feeling of Dread - Flashback is great card economy. This is potentially four creatures' worth of tapping.
Momentary Blink - Depending on the cards included in the individual colors, this can be super amazing. I anticipate things like AEther Adept, Auramancer, etc. getting pretty awesome. It does require a commitment to a particular strategy to be optimal, and is rather corner case otherwise.
Offering to Asha - This is not a straight-up hard counter, but the life gain for the cost is nice, and an extra four mana is usually going to kill that spell.
Overrule - Alternatively, this card can be a hard counter, and gains you potentially more life as a mana dump late game. It's worse than Offering to Asha until you hit 7+ mana, though.
Plumes of Peace - The repeated tapping can be super useful if you are on the offensive, but because it will untap on its controller's next turn, defensive applications are limited. Pacifism is very good, though.
Silver Drake - A very efficiently costed flier, this can also return value creatures to your hand.
Steel of the Godhead - The two abilities are useful separately. They're backbreaking together, but the amount of single target removal as well as the lack of multicolored creatures, means I'm not sure this is good enough to include.
Orzhov is going to be a life drain controlling build, with strong removal. I am on the fence about Extort and whether or not a card that is otherwise one color should be considered multicolor. On the one hand, Syndic of Tithes works perfectly fine in a white deck, but it becomes better in an Orzhov deck. If I count them as multicolor, it reduces the amount of Extort available in the cube significantly. If I don't, it gives Orzhov decks an extra boost.
Blind Hunter - The life drain is significant, representing a total of 8 life points from one card, for four mana.
Pillory of the Sleepless - This is great for creatures that you don't want to be reanimated or what have you, and the life loss is going to add up. However, it's not as good as Unmake.
Boros is kind of hard to nail down. The seemingly obvious area to take it into is a token/weenie strategy, backed up by burn and Pacifism effects. Unfortunately, there aren't a whole lot of multicolor cards that support that strategy.
Orim's Thunder - A two for one is nice, but this has very little to do with anything. How often will it be a dead card? There will be artifacts and enchantments in the cube, but with the high amount of spot removal for creatures and the relative paucity of artifacts, is this even really necessary?
Rally the Righteous - I like that this can be used offensively or defensively. Radiance is terrible and makes for feel bads, though, and it's certainly inferior to War Flare.
Squee's Embrace - A great Aura...that doesn't have anything to do with a swarm strategy.
Thundersong Trumpeter - Also has very little to do with a token based aggro deck, although it can be nice to get around blockers.
Viashino Firstblade - Comes down and deals four hasty damage. After that, though, it's just a meh body.
War Flare - An all-star that does amazing things, being defensive, offensive, etc.
Wojek Halberdiers - A well-costed creature even without any abilities, the Battalion makes it stupid good.
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Since Boros is going wide, Selesnya is going tall. It will be about ramping up to a large creature or two that are difficult to deal with. Green and white both have ways to protect creatures from removal, including Totem Armor, protection, hexproof, etc. I mostly need help with which cards to cut, since they're all amazing.
Qasali Pridemage Never a dead card, as it's a body with Exalted or removal.
Rhox Bodyguard - Not super exiting for its cost, but Exalted tends to be stupid good, especially the more you can stack it.
Shield of the Oversoul - Indestructible is awesome, and will let the creature continue to be built up into a wrecking ball. Flying is awesome evasion, naturally.
Sigil of the Nayan Gods - While I don't expect the Selesnya deck to have crap tons of creatures out, even a three or four boost is huge, and the cycling means this will never be a dead card.
Sigiled Behemoth - A large creature with Exalted, which means it can swing on its own for 6 damage.
I am kind of amazed at [...] the fact that somebody on this thread called Mind's Eye, Mirari's Wake, Decree of Pain, Desertion, AND Scroll Rack, all before they were officially spoiled. I will edit this post VERY shortly with the username of this user who deserves at least all of the cookies. Probably more cookies than that.
In a pauper cube, I'd prioritize cards that will increase complexity in the game as much as possible, especially when a lot of post-NWO cards are included. IMHO pauper's biggest setback is samey games of simple Magic that don't entice veteran players for very long.
To that end, let's evaluate these cards:
Coastline Chimera does not synergize with your plans for Azorius very well. It's expensive and doesn't attack well, which means it doesn't orient well with tempo at all. Not to mention utilizing its ability requires slowing yourself down a lot, which is inherently non-tempo. Finally, I'd contend mono-color cards with off-color activated abilities aren't great to slot as multicolor cards, because a lot can just get inserted into other decks, which means they don't act as good methods to push people into those color combos (which is generally the purpose of a multicolor card).
Deputy of Acquittals, on the other hand, is awesome, tempo-y, and leads to more interesting gameplay decisions. I'd put this one in.
Dramatic Rescue seems okay, but underwhelming compared to Boomerang. Two points of lifegain seems unlikely to matter most of the time, and not being able to bounce non-creatures cuts its utility a lot. But if you need more bounce slots, I guess it's alright?
Ethercaste Knight seems awesome. 1/3 for 2 isn't great, but he'll frequently attack as a 2/4 which is pretty solid, and tossing an extra point of damage to fliers seems excellent. Exalted is not a complex mechanic, but it adds a lot of interest into combat decisions, which makes it a pretty solid contender. I'd also recommend looking into some of the white, blue, and maybe green exalted dudes for extra spice.
Feeling of Dread seems boring. Generic tapping (rather than freezing) seems underwhelming, even if you get to tap 4 things. Especially if you're in a color combo where you'll have fliers or vigilance creatures, this seems less important. Also, has same problem as Coastline Chimera on the "not really a multicolor slot".
Momentary Blink is awesome, and I'd recommend it, but I'd probably call it a white slot. Either that, or put in a cycle of ally (or all 2-color) cards where you get a bonus for having both colors.
Offering to Asha and Overrule are effectively the same card. I'd say if you're looking for a tempo strategy, Offering to Asha is better. Overrule is better if you go for a slower, control-oriented strategy. Both seem like solid cards, but I would probably only include one.
Plumes of Peace is awesome for the reasons you described, and is actually kind of a bomb. Definitely feels like a solid multicolor inclusion card.
Silver Drake: Yay, more gating!
Steel of the Godhead is a bomb, but hybrid is similar to mono-color with off-color activation. If you put in hybrid here, I'd recommend having a cycle for your other color combos as well for balance.
@Altik_0: I use a modified form of the "guild system". I would consider Coastline Chimera, Feeling of Dread, and Steel of the Godhead to be multicolor cards, as they are all significantly worse in a deck that does not run both. I'm actually OK with people taking, say, Feeling of Dread without blue in their deck, but I think with the quality of the rest of the cube, they would be hard-pressed to actually play it.
I am kind of amazed at [...] the fact that somebody on this thread called Mind's Eye, Mirari's Wake, Decree of Pain, Desertion, AND Scroll Rack, all before they were officially spoiled. I will edit this post VERY shortly with the username of this user who deserves at least all of the cookies. Probably more cookies than that.
In addition, I have the following hybrids that for organization purposes can be thought of as 1 white card and 1 blue card since they're quite playable in either color: Curse of Chains Silkbind Faerie
(Sounds like you don't want to consider these as guild cards which I agree with for the above reason)
From your list I would look to include the 3 I mentioned in addition to Silver Drake and probably Deputy of Acquittals (though I'm not thrilled with this card). After that the quality drops off considerably and if you really want another guy I'd look at Azorius First-Wing as an efficient flier that is immune to most of white's removal.
Please give reasoning if you feel I should or should not include a particular card.
Coastline Chimera - It flies, has a huge butt, and can block multiple creatures to gum up the board state. There aren't a ton of creatures that can get by it. That said, it's a rather unexciting card and I worry that it won't be drafted very highly.
Deputy of Acquittals - This feels like what Azorius wants to be doing. Bounce your things to protect them and leave behind a body. It's a great tempo move.
Dramatic Rescue - This one isn't very exciting, but the dollop of life gain makes me want to consider it. However, I think Deputy of Acquittals would make the cut before this would.
Ethercaste Knight - 1/3 for two mana is pretty good, and it makes a good blocker, while pumping up a single flier later. I don't think this reads very exciting, though, nor do I think it's that great.
Feeling of Dread - Flashback is great card economy. This is potentially four creatures' worth of tapping.
Momentary Blink - Depending on the cards included in the individual colors, this can be super amazing. I anticipate things like AEther Adept, Auramancer, etc. getting pretty awesome. It does require a commitment to a particular strategy to be optimal, and is rather corner case otherwise.
Offering to Asha - This is not a straight-up hard counter, but the life gain for the cost is nice, and an extra four mana is usually going to kill that spell.
Overrule - Alternatively, this card can be a hard counter, and gains you potentially more life as a mana dump late game. It's worse than Offering to Asha until you hit 7+ mana, though.
Plumes of Peace - The repeated tapping can be super useful if you are on the offensive, but because it will untap on its controller's next turn, defensive applications are limited. Pacifism is very good, though.
Silver Drake - A very efficiently costed flier, this can also return value creatures to your hand.
Steel of the Godhead - The two abilities are useful separately. They're backbreaking together, but the amount of single target removal as well as the lack of multicolored creatures, means I'm not sure this is good enough to include.
Orzhov is going to be a life drain controlling build, with strong removal. I am on the fence about Extort and whether or not a card that is otherwise one color should be considered multicolor. On the one hand, Syndic of Tithes works perfectly fine in a white deck, but it becomes better in an Orzhov deck. If I count them as multicolor, it reduces the amount of Extort available in the cube significantly. If I don't, it gives Orzhov decks an extra boost.
Blind Hunter - The life drain is significant, representing a total of 8 life points from one card, for four mana.
Kingpin's Pet - A flyer with Extort. Enough said.
Pillory of the Sleepless - This is great for creatures that you don't want to be reanimated or what have you, and the life loss is going to add up. However, it's not as good as Unmake.
Scholar of Athreos - Serves as a mana dump and win condition.
Soul Link - This is a powerful card, but it's sort of weird and doesn't lend itself to specific applications. How often would it be a dead card?
Tithe Drinker - Possibly the worst Extort card, it's a very fragile body, but the extra trigger will be significant.
Unmake - Super awesome removal. It's difficult to cast, but it gets the job DONE.
Basilica Guards, Basilica Screecher, Syndic of Tithes
, and Syndicate Enforcer - Not technically multicolored cards. They're all excellent (although some more than others...), and would be great to include.
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Boros is kind of hard to nail down. The seemingly obvious area to take it into is a token/weenie strategy, backed up by burn and Pacifism effects. Unfortunately, there aren't a whole lot of multicolor cards that support that strategy.
Orim's Thunder - A two for one is nice, but this has very little to do with anything. How often will it be a dead card? There will be artifacts and enchantments in the cube, but with the high amount of spot removal for creatures and the relative paucity of artifacts, is this even really necessary?
Rally the Righteous - I like that this can be used offensively or defensively. Radiance is terrible and makes for feel bads, though, and it's certainly inferior to War Flare.
Squee's Embrace - A great Aura...that doesn't have anything to do with a swarm strategy.
Thundersong Trumpeter - Also has very little to do with a token based aggro deck, although it can be nice to get around blockers.
Viashino Firstblade - Comes down and deals four hasty damage. After that, though, it's just a meh body.
War Flare - An all-star that does amazing things, being defensive, offensive, etc.
Wojek Halberdiers - A well-costed creature even without any abilities, the Battalion makes it stupid good.
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Since Boros is going wide, Selesnya is going tall. It will be about ramping up to a large creature or two that are difficult to deal with. Green and white both have ways to protect creatures from removal, including Totem Armor, protection, hexproof, etc. I mostly need help with which cards to cut, since they're all amazing.
Armadillo Cloak - Is amazing.
Qasali Pridemage Never a dead card, as it's a body with Exalted or removal.
Rhox Bodyguard - Not super exiting for its cost, but Exalted tends to be stupid good, especially the more you can stack it.
Shield of the Oversoul - Indestructible is awesome, and will let the creature continue to be built up into a wrecking ball. Flying is awesome evasion, naturally.
Sigil of the Nayan Gods - While I don't expect the Selesnya deck to have crap tons of creatures out, even a three or four boost is huge, and the cycling means this will never be a dead card.
Sigiled Behemoth - A large creature with Exalted, which means it can swing on its own for 6 damage.
Commanders:
Basandra, Battle Seraph | Diaochan, Artful Beauty | Mayael the Anima | Nath of the Gilt Leaf | Oona, Queen of the Fae | Raksha Golden Cub | Rayne, Academy Chancellor | Roon of the Hidden Realm
To that end, let's evaluate these cards:
Coastline Chimera does not synergize with your plans for Azorius very well. It's expensive and doesn't attack well, which means it doesn't orient well with tempo at all. Not to mention utilizing its ability requires slowing yourself down a lot, which is inherently non-tempo. Finally, I'd contend mono-color cards with off-color activated abilities aren't great to slot as multicolor cards, because a lot can just get inserted into other decks, which means they don't act as good methods to push people into those color combos (which is generally the purpose of a multicolor card).
Deputy of Acquittals, on the other hand, is awesome, tempo-y, and leads to more interesting gameplay decisions. I'd put this one in.
Dramatic Rescue seems okay, but underwhelming compared to Boomerang. Two points of lifegain seems unlikely to matter most of the time, and not being able to bounce non-creatures cuts its utility a lot. But if you need more bounce slots, I guess it's alright?
Ethercaste Knight seems awesome. 1/3 for 2 isn't great, but he'll frequently attack as a 2/4 which is pretty solid, and tossing an extra point of damage to fliers seems excellent. Exalted is not a complex mechanic, but it adds a lot of interest into combat decisions, which makes it a pretty solid contender. I'd also recommend looking into some of the white, blue, and maybe green exalted dudes for extra spice.
Feeling of Dread seems boring. Generic tapping (rather than freezing) seems underwhelming, even if you get to tap 4 things. Especially if you're in a color combo where you'll have fliers or vigilance creatures, this seems less important. Also, has same problem as Coastline Chimera on the "not really a multicolor slot".
Momentary Blink is awesome, and I'd recommend it, but I'd probably call it a white slot. Either that, or put in a cycle of ally (or all 2-color) cards where you get a bonus for having both colors.
Offering to Asha and Overrule are effectively the same card. I'd say if you're looking for a tempo strategy, Offering to Asha is better. Overrule is better if you go for a slower, control-oriented strategy. Both seem like solid cards, but I would probably only include one.
Plumes of Peace is awesome for the reasons you described, and is actually kind of a bomb. Definitely feels like a solid multicolor inclusion card.
Silver Drake: Yay, more gating!
Steel of the Godhead is a bomb, but hybrid is similar to mono-color with off-color activation. If you put in hybrid here, I'd recommend having a cycle for your other color combos as well for balance.
Great comments, thank you for the feedback!
Commanders:
Basandra, Battle Seraph | Diaochan, Artful Beauty | Mayael the Anima | Nath of the Gilt Leaf | Oona, Queen of the Fae | Raksha Golden Cub | Rayne, Academy Chancellor | Roon of the Hidden Realm
Deft Duelist
Feeling of Dread
Momentary Blink
In addition, I have the following hybrids that for organization purposes can be thought of as 1 white card and 1 blue card since they're quite playable in either color:
Curse of Chains
Silkbind Faerie
(Sounds like you don't want to consider these as guild cards which I agree with for the above reason)
From your list I would look to include the 3 I mentioned in addition to Silver Drake and probably Deputy of Acquittals (though I'm not thrilled with this card). After that the quality drops off considerably and if you really want another guy I'd look at Azorius First-Wing as an efficient flier that is immune to most of white's removal.
Level 1 Judge
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
Deft Duelist
Ethercaste Knight (I wonder how you consider Rhox Bodyguard playable, but dont like the Knight oO
Curse of Chains
Silver Drake (fits both, Skies and Value archetype)
Skies archetype:
ETB-Value archetype: (Consider Thalakos Seer as a combo piece)
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t