MTG Salvation

They did spoil Elephant tokens, which is a good sign for people calling for Call of the Herd, though they also have the other critters for Bestial Menace.

I also have a foil copy of Mystic Enforcer in an online shopping cart now. Seems like 5% chance it's reprinted, 10% it's downgraded if reprinted, 20% I play it if reprinted and downgraded, but holy crap that art is sweet.

I actually did not know Mystic Enforcer existed. Although I would never personally play it because Selesnya is stacked and I do not run cards with protection from specific colors, it seems like a card that should enter the Peasant card pool. Being a rare just does not suit the card.

What a blowout, didn't even get the Serum Visions reprint that everybody wanted. (or Damnation, but that's a different grumble for a different forum lol)

Yup, nothing particularly interesting. But many of the rares would have been fine as uncommons so I can already imagine the amount of whining about lack of value on the actual spoiler thread.

I will try Skarrgan Firebird as it seems like a decent red finisher. Wasn't expecting much but had hoped for at least 1 good and 1 playable card. Guess we only got 1 playable.

MM15 does look like a very fun draft format though.

Pretty happy from a pauper perspective, it does seem like they were a bit conservative with moving rares to uncommon and I'm more than a little annoyed about the lack of Serum Visions but I'll enjoy the drafts regardless

Also (unrelated) the amazing troll of Splinter Twin and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker but neither Pestermite nor Deceiver Exarch amuses me greatly

Definitely cubing firebird. Not the Phoenix I was hoping for but its an interesting finisher for red which we haven't had. Phoenix might be fun as 5c support

I'm a lot more interested in the 5-color thingy than the 6-drop Phoenix. Sigh.

Guess Root-Kin is a 4/4 for 4 with upside...

Not a lot for us this time. I guess Firebird and maybe Root-Kin could be worth taking a look at.

Is there any decent red ways to get Skarrgan bird into the graveyard early? Aside from Faithless Looting?

Has the power of our cubes gotten so high that a 6/6 flyer for 6 isn't playable? I am pretty excited to add the Skarrgan Firebird. Plus Firebird sounds sick.

as for the rest:

Worldheart Phoenix - Its a cool card but would only fill a the domain/5 color deck if you push that sort of thing in your cube. If not, this card is unplayable. I would rather run Dragonsoul Knight over this card.

Incandescent Soulstoke - Unplayable in a normal peasant cube without the tribal support.

Cytoplast Root-Kin - I had to read this card around 5 times until I realized it was not worth adding. I thought its ability allowed you to move counters from him to other creatures and vice versa. I then thought it could steal counters from your opponents creatures. After I realized this card wasn't Daghatar the Adamant I moved on.

Novijen Sagescard - Unplayable in a "normal" peasant cube. Could be cool in a cube with specific +1/+1 counter/proliferate support but for 6 mana to only ensure you can draw 2 cards by investing an additional 2 mana after the initial 6 mana investment this card just doesn't do enough.

Why would you want it in your graveyard? It returns itself to your hand.

lol, definitely thought it was 3-mana, reanimate a (somewhat likely) 6/6 after you bash with a Gore-House Chainwalker or something.

An actual 6/6 flyer for 6 would be sweet. Hell, even good old Mahamoti Djinn would kick some serious ass. But a 3/3 with Bloodthirst 3 is much different and quite a lot worse.

A 6/6 flier for 6 would be playable. Being conditional on my slower deck dealing combat damage makes it only just over the level of "barely testable"
I doubt it has a future, making this two straight sets of disappointment.

At least I got blood-chin rager last time

Not "combat" damage, for whatever that's worth. Presumably any slow red deck that wants could also would want a Cunning Sparkmage or something.

The only card I am vaguely interested in is Cytoplast Root-Kin. We will see.

I will say Cytoplast Root-Kin is yet another card that makes it worth supporting +1/+1 counters in green, if you want to push that as a theme. It's been hard to find green cards that reward you for having +1/+1 counters, but this does that well, along with moving counters along if you have other benefits to grant.

I think this is very playable if you have the right threshold of +1/+1 counter support, but that threshold is likely higher than most of us support.

But what quality green creatures just casually pick up counters?

Phantom Centaur

Experiment One

and...?

Many play:

• Crocanura
  
• Curse of Predation
  
• Gravetiller Wurm
  
• Howlgeist
  
• Nessian Asp
  
• Nemesis of Mortals
  
• Strangleroot Geist

And you could try:

• Ainok Survivalist
  
• Elven Rite
  
• Hunting Triad
  
• Incremental Growth
  
• Stand Together
  
• Karstoderm
  
• Spike Feeder
  
• Spike Breeder

If you include white cards:

• Travel Preparations
  
• Enduring Scalelord
  
• Juniper Order Ranger
  
• Ainok Bond-Kin
  
• Abzan Falconer
  
• Cenn's Tactician
  
• Dromoka Captain
  
• Echoes of the Kin Tree
  
• Elite Scaleguard
  
• Feat of Resistance
  
• Kazandu Blademaster
  
• Misthoof Kirin
  
• Sandcrafter Mage
  
• Supply-Line Cranes
  
• Test of Faith
  
• Swell of Courage

Probably not very good, but if you wanted to make it an archetype in G/W I think you can. The problem is you only have like four cards which actually benefit from the counters.

Talk about disappointing.
I guess I can pick up some cheap foils at least...

Cytoplast Root-kin and incandescent soul have my eye and consideration. I'll be sketching out packages for each.

I'm also tickled by wubrg as a monocolor archetype outside green.

Quote from ArBoR4817 »

Many play:

• Crocanura
  
• Curse of Predation
  
• Gravetiller Wurm
  
• Howlgeist
  
• Nessian Asp
  
• Nemesis of Mortals
  
• Strangleroot Geist

And you could try:

• Ainok Survivalist
  
• Elven Rite
  
• Hunting Triad
  
• Incremental Growth
  
• Stand Together
  
• Karstoderm
  
• Spike Feeder
  
• Spike Breeder

If you include white cards:

• Travel Preparations
  
• Enduring Scalelord
  
• Juniper Order Ranger
  
• Ainok Bond-Kin
  
• Abzan Falconer
  
• Cenn's Tactician
  
• Dromoka Captain
  
• Echoes of the Kin Tree
  
• Elite Scaleguard
  
• Feat of Resistance
  
• Kazandu Blademaster
  
• Misthoof Kirin
  
• Sandcrafter Mage
  
• Supply-Line Cranes
  
• Test of Faith
  
• Swell of Courage

Probably not very good, but if you wanted to make it an archetype in G/W I think you can. The problem is you only have like four cards which actually benefit from the counters.

I think the main benefit with Root-Kin is probably just pumping two of your guys by an additional +1/+1. Although specifically pretty good with Curse of Predation. Also, in terms of mono-green cards, I'd add the following:

• Blessings of Nature
  
• Bramblewood Paragon
  
• Crowned Ceratok
  
• Tuskguard Captain
  
• Trophy Hunter
  
• Young Wolf

Other green cards that reference +1/+1 counters:

• Abzan Charm
  
• Armament Corps
  
• Dreg Mangler
  
• Elusive Krasis
  
• Fanatic of Xenagos
  
• Fleetfeather Cockatrice
  
• Lorescale Coatl
  
• Nimbus Swimmer
  
• Plaxcaster Frogling
  
• Shambleshark

And then consider how many other random good creatures pick up +1/+1 counters as part of a keyword ability: Bloodthirst and Unleash and Undying. Like, it's weird how many good red cube creatures have counters now. I actually think I will try Root-Kin out, if not mostly because I still have a signed foil one.

Cytoplast Root-Kin seems great with undying creatures. And even if you don't have any synergy, grafting off +1/+1 counters onto evasive creatures is neat, and a 4/4 passes the vanilla test.