While a few of the unplayable a seem judged too harshly but are weak enough for me to not particularly care (Doomfall and Razaketh's Rite, mostly), as someone who runs Oasis Ritualist, I question its placement. Sure, there are ways to gain two mana off creatures but those do not fix and the auras that do are not creatures which is relevant since Oasis Ritualist also has a nice, defensive body. I would argue that this is very relevant since you do want roadblocks as a ramp deck which means that Oasis Ritualist pulls double duty quite admirably.
Question away! A lot of my evaluations are theory cubing, especially for newer sets which haven't made their way into my cube. This is a community project, so call me out, ask me to justify my classification, or give me more info for the description or whatever.
Upon reflection, I remember Ondu Giant getting a bit of discussion. Ondu Giant ended up with a 2 classification, and I'd guess Oasis Ritualist is probably a smidge better. So this should probably be a 2 as well. I think I undervalued the body for the Giant, and did the same here.
Can you make an argument for Razaketh's Rite? I'm not seeing a good case for it. I guess you cycle it if you don't have enough mana to go find something and really need to dig for an immediate answer or something, but Demonic Tutor cycles into whatever you need for just one extra mana (at sorcery speed, but still).
My description could probably be expanded, but the reason I don't like Doomfall is because it doesn't do either thing very well. For the first option, having it be the opponents choice means the windows to get something good out of the deal is small; they are always going to exile their worst creature, and costing 1 mana more than Diabolic Edict means they have more chance of having multiple choices, and you would be better off with many other black removal spells. The second mode is a 1 for 1 but you are invested 3 mana to their 0, and you might even whiff. You can make an argument that having 2 options is upside; if they have a 1/1 token, strip their hand instead which Diabolic Edict can't do; if they have no cards in hand, at least you can take out their worst creature instead which dedicated hand stripping cards can't do. But I don't think that is enough to save it from feeling so inefficient, no matter which mode you cast it in, given the other options at peasant.
I'm not interested in doomfall. Edicts have way too hard a time working on 2 at instant speed, and you never want to spend 3 to thoughtseize.
I like ritualist quite a bit. It's very scary and isn't easy to remove.
I think sinuous striker is a 1. A lot of cards in your hand are worse than a 4/4 or a 5/3, which is what you're upgrading into
That's a reasonable perspective. Is it worth playing the upfront creature though? It looks a little embarrassing next to Ingenious Skaab... do you take that upfront quality hit for the late game upside or graveyard synergies?
I did have a drafter who insisted Wasp of the Bitter End would have been better as Vampire Interloper because "no one blocks with a 2/1 flier anyway." And then he blocked with Wasp and we all laughed mightily.
ingenious skaab isn't exactly always on, bacchus. you do have threat of activation (can we just abbreviate this as ToA now?) but always being able to draw a bad late game card over a dead draw is a real advantage I don't know how to measure.
I was responsible for a fair bit of the discussion around Ondu Giant, as I run it and like it quite a bit. I also asked a This or that between it and Oasis Ritualist, and while views differed somewhat, I actually think the majority "voted" for the Giant. Same grade is probably fine, but the Giant has the advantage of the body being disposable. When you want ramp on a defensive body, it's nice to actually be able to use the body in combat.
I don't think Cunning Survivor is good enough. Not pumping toughness hurts it, as the ToA at worst threatens turning a chump into a trade, and you don't really have a "blow out mode". The very similar Grisly Survivor got a zero, but I guess it's easier to trigger in blue..
I can't imagine Banewhip Punisher not being good enough. Whether it is better than tooth collector, I'm not sure, but tooth collector has been very solid for me. Depends on the density of X/1's in your cube I suppose, as if you balways "hit", you'd rather have +1 power than the second ability.
I don't think anyone is advocating cubing Razaketh's Rite over Demonic Tutor, but I also don't think a single better card obsoletes Rite that easily. There aren't that many tutors, and running a second one can be wanted in certain cubes, especially if you run a lot of build arounds. (Aside: Perhaps it's better to run a couple of extra tutors rather than Barrage of Expandables and other options for "redundancy"?). Although, I do seem to remember the Limited Resources guys putting it in their "cards that under-performed" category.
One card doesn't obsolete a card, necessarily. Unless the effect is something you barely want one of. I could imagine wanting more than one tutor, and rite would be... in the realm of possibility for that I suppose. But I don't even run demonic tutor for power level concerns anyway (don't ask) and I'm not really interested in rite despite my lower power level.
I added Rite when it was new, it's been fine. 85% of the time it's cycled when you can, but then it gets to be one of your best possible draws on T6 or T7 in a lot of games. Probably just worth a 1, though.
ingenious skaab isn't exactly always on, bacchus. you do have threat of activation (can we just abbreviate this as ToA now?) but always being able to draw a bad late game card over a dead draw is a real advantage I don't know how to measure.
You don't always get prowess, but you do always get a 3rd point of toughness, and that alone makes the front side is still strictly worse than ingenious skaab (plus you can bluff the prowess even if you don't have a spell). Does the eternalize make up that difference? I don't know. Let's give it a 1.
I was responsible for a fair bit of the discussion around Ondu Giant, as I run it and like it quite a bit. I also asked a This or that between it and Oasis Ritualist, and while views differed somewhat, I actually think the majority "voted" for the Giant. Same grade is probably fine, but the Giant has the advantage of the body being disposable. When you want ramp on a defensive body, it's nice to actually be able to use the body in combat.
I don't think Cunning Survivor is good enough. Not pumping toughness hurts it, as the ToA at worst threatens turning a chump into a trade, and you don't really have a "blow out mode". The very similar Grisly Survivor got a zero, but I guess it's easier to trigger in blue..
I can't imagine Banewhip Punisher not being good enough. Whether it is better than tooth collector, I'm not sure, but tooth collector has been very solid for me. Depends on the density of X/1's in your cube I suppose, as if you balways "hit", you'd rather have +1 power than the second ability.
I don't think anyone is advocating cubing Razaketh's Rite over Demonic Tutor, but I also don't think a single better card obsoletes Rite that easily. There aren't that many tutors, and running a second one can be wanted in certain cubes, especially if you run a lot of build arounds. (Aside: Perhaps it's better to run a couple of extra tutors rather than Barrage of Expandables and other options for "redundancy"?). Although, I do seem to remember the Limited Resources guys putting it in their "cards that under-performed" category.
I considered Cunning Survivor slightly more because you can make it unblockable, but it can be 0.
Banewhip Punisher I guess can be a 1 for now. It's not so much whether the card itself is good enough, but is it outclassed by enough other options that there isn't a reason to cube it over them. It can often act as a kill spell which Tooth Collector and friends can't so it seems reasonable to at least consider it.
I added Rite when it was new, it's been fine. 85% of the time it's cycled when you can, but then it gets to be one of your best possible draws on T6 or T7 in a lot of games. Probably just worth a 1, though.
If it's cycled 85% of the time, is that good though? It's only a single mana, but if 85% of the time you are just replacing it with another card, wouldn't just playing another playable card instead save you that mana? If something is being cycled that often (without some other benefit like Krosan Tusker), it indicates to me that the hard cast mode isn't worth it. It still doesn't excite me, mainly because in that 15% I'm guessing it doesn't affect the board (or rather, the card you find) the turn you cast it. I might be more interested if it was a card that had a powerful impacturn you cast it and was worth the opportunity cost of paying to cycle it in most games.
In any case, I'll give it a 1 and try and give a reasonable description. I've saved enough other marginal cards where people don't agree with me
On Jovian's comment about redundancy, when you draft a tutor for your deck it can give you that redundancy in that deck. But sometimes you might want redundancy in your cube so that cards for a specific archetype might wheel to the right player, and if you are cubing a bunch of playable tutors they might get drafted all over the place, rather than being the second Goblin Bombardment that you should be cubing instead.
My point was that tutors can give redundancy in decks but also act as redundancy in your cube.
Good point on them being picked in other decks though, but I thought perhaps you could get away with playing fewer and less egregious second/third options if your tutor-density is higher. Especially if the tutors are less than stellar. For example, if you have two or three niche build around themes, they aren't likely to be all drafted in a single session. So a card like Rite will have a high probability of floating to the goblin bombardment deck. So a single rite can, perhaps in some cubes, take the place of 2-3 bad cards. Of course, those "bad cards" will have an even higher probability of drifting to the correct deck, so it is all a balancing act.
Made updates to the previous post in line with the above comments.
The rest of the Hour of Devastation cards, with a few questionables.
4 - Staple - Cards with enough base power that your cube is less powerful from their omission. They are cards that are likely to never rotate out of your cube unless you ban them for being too good. 3 - Strong - These are solid cards that get the job done. Their exclusion is probably an indicator that you are actively not supporting a popular deck / archetype / effect. 2 - Playable - These are good cards, but they are either interchangeable (e.g. lots of removal, aggressive red 2-drops) or are build-around cards that need a little support to be good (Favorable Winds). 1 - Niche - These cards aren't usually considered great, but might be included to support some obscure archetypes, specific interactions, or if going deep on a particular type of deck / archetype / effect. No reason to cube - There isn't a reason to cube these over options. You might find some perfectly 'playable' cards here, but there is little reason to put them into your cube in the first place unless you are intentionally depowering an effect.
Overcome - 1 Description - Gets a mention as an alternative to Overrun if you find that card too good or swingy for your environment. That said, this ultimately does the same thing (wins games out of nowhere), it just works in less situations (and maybe sometimes you can cast this when you need a 3rd green source for Overrun). Anchors - Supports -
Burning-Fist Minotaur - 3 Description - Solid baseline, and threat of activation makes it hard for your opponent to block or attack into if you've got open mana. It's also a discard outlet for graveyard based themes, and the activated ability can make it a 2 drop that has relevance in the late game by being able to discard lands or other dead cards. Anchors - Supports -
Khenra Scrapper - 2 Description - It can hit as hard as Brazen Wolves, albeit every second turn. However the menace can help it hit early, and then smash for 4 when the time calls for it. Doesn't do anything a lot of other red aggro 3-drops can't, but still ok in this slot. Anchors - Supports -
Abrade - 3 Description - Solid addition to a cubes removal suite, giving it flexibility to deal with problematic artifacts without sacrificing a deck slot specifically for that; 3 damage for 2 mana at instant speed is a good deal, even if it doesn't hit players. Anchors - Supports -
Oketra's Avenger - 2 Description - 3/1's for 2 need some upside, and this is about on par with the alternatives. The exert can help you force some damage through or force unfavorable blocks, but loses some value as soon as a 4 toughness creature hits the battlefield. Gets a little better if you give it some pants to wear. The threat of activation on Adanto Vanguard and being able to activate it on defense gives that a bit of an edge, but this isn't far behind and does block better if you can't afford the life loss. Anchors - Supports -
Steward of Solidarity - 1 Description - It's a 2 mana token creator that requires no further mana investment which makes it appealing. Only creating one every other turn can be a little slow, particularly if not cast on curve, but over a longer game it can add up. Anchors - Supports - Tokens
Sunscourge Champion - 2 Description - A 2/3 gain 2 life for 3 isn't exactly good, but trading the worst card in your hand into a 4/4 gain 4 life for 4 mana is ok. It's not super exciting, but it's functional. Anchors - Supports - Gaveyard Matters
River Hoopoe - 2 Description - The base creature isn't amazing, but could block some cheap aggro creatures in the early game. The investment required to activate makes it more likely to see play in Simic ramp decks, but the life gain can be pretty relevant in a stalled game or where your opponent is pressuring you with an evasive creature. Anchors - Supports - Ramp
Obelisk Spider - 2 Description - If you are looking for a defensive Golgari creature, this is a decent option and acts better than a 2/4 in that role. The -1/-1 counter stacks with combat damage, so it can take out x/2's, and there are situations where the -1/-1 counters really disincentivize your opponent attacking. E.g. Two 3/3's which would normally just attack into a 2/4. Bad at attacking, but you would cube it if your Golgari decks spend time setting up graveyard interactions or are otherwise grindy. Anchors - Supports -
Sunset Pyramid - 1 Description - If you want some colorless card draw for control decks there aren't many viable options, but this is one of the better ones. Only requiring 2 mana to activate means you may be able to play out cards you draw, or allow control decks to hold up counter mana while playing this out. Once depleted you still get some card selection if you've got mana lying around. Anchors - Supports -
Ifnir Deadlands - 1 Description - It is fine enough on it's own, which is good given that none of the other Deserts are worth cubing (except actual Desert). This isn't fast, but trading it in later to kill or shrink a creature is ok. There isn't anything that really compels you to cube it though. Anchors - Supports -
Shefet Dunes - 1 Description - It's a land when you need it to be, and a pump spell later. Sorcery speed and your opponent seeing it coming are downsides, but not giving up a spell slot is reasonable upside. Anchors - Supports -
Life Goes On - 8 life for 1 mana sounds ok, but it still costs a card.
Gift of Strength - It's pretty rare you wouldn't want to cube Predator's Strike or something more aggressive instead.
Firebrand Archer - Clearly a reward card for spells matters, but there is a lot of better support. If it hit creatures you’d consider it, but not just players.
Fervent Paincaster - There are many other better options for direct damage to creatures.
Magmaroth - It is really only worth it if you are attacking with at least a 4/4 every turn, and you are going to run out of noncreature spells pretty quickly even in a spells matters deck.
Manticore Eternal - It doesn't look horrible, with at least decent stats and guaranteed to get some damage through. But forced attacking means you might run it into unfavourable double blocks, and your opponent might be willing to pay the 3 life to take it out.
Crash Through - It 'cycles' for a single mana, but that is only worth it if you expect to get value out of the actual effect, and this doesn't do enough to warrant a cube slot.
Open Fire - Even if you are depowering your removal, consider Volt Charge for some incidental synergy.
Puncturing Blow - You could make an argument for it being a deal 5 for 4 and there aren't many spells in that range, but Aftershock is more versatile despite its drawback and there is nothing that compels you to play this.
God-Pharaoh's Faithful - Nyx-Fleece Ram is worth the extra mana, and Perimeter Captain probably gains you just as much life (whether by blocking or your opponent just keeping stuff at home).
Mummy Paramount - There isn't quite enough support for zombies in white to consider this.
Vizier of the True - On its own, there are better options, and there aren't likely to be enough other exert creatures in your cube to warrant making a swap.
Unconventional Tactics - It can't be disenchanted, but I can't imagine ever wanting to include this in any deck (and therefore cube) over Griffin Guide.
Resolute Survivors - You won't have enough other exert creatures to consider this over other Boros options.
Unraveling Mummy - There just aren't enough playable white zombies to warrant cubing it (yet).
I would lean towards giving Khenra Scrapper a 2, but that would mainly be based on HOU limited. 4 power menace just does combat really well, even if it does less damage on an open board.
It is likely comparable to Think Twice. Both have their pluses and minuses relative to each other, and I actually think Think Twice could be worth considering if it was not so very bland. However, it also does not quite get there power-wise.
I would be up for considering Firebrand Archer to move from No Reason to Cube to Niche. You are right that there are some other better options for the Spells Matter deck (Guttersnipe, Kiln Fiend, Thermo-Alchemist, Weaver of Lightning, and Young Pyromancer), but I am going to try out Firebrand Archer given how good it was in its native limited. Also remember it can trigger off more than instant or sorceries, granting it a little extra utility.
I do think the 6th best mono-red card for Spells Matter exactly fits the niche category defined as a "1."
Did arrest get a grade? Desert's hold is strictly better.
I can't imagine wanting a deal 5. You could just play aftershockOh yeah, I guess I just saw the Desert requirement and threw it out, but yes it is strictly better than Arrest, which I'm sure will have got a grade. I'll just combine them given purple's comment and call out that for aesthetics you should probably only cube it over Arrest if you have actual Deserts.
I'll go with 2 for Sunscourge champion. It sounds high to me personally, but I might just be underestimating how Eternalize plays generally given that I have no personal experience with the mechanic.
I would lean towards giving Khenra Scrapper a 2, but that would mainly be based on HOU limited. 4 power menace just does combat really well, even if it does less damage on an open board.
It is likely comparable to Think Twice. Both have their pluses and minuses relative to each other, and I actually think Think Twice could be worth considering if it was not so very bland. However, it also does not quite get there power-wise.
I'm not feeling the Pyramid... maybe if it cantripped when it entered or something...
Is sunset pyramid a 2 now?
This might be personal bias in wanting a playable artifact that draws cards. I remember hearing it was good in the draft format via Limited Resources, but maybe it doesn't translate as well. I'm fine to drop it to 1, as I guess if you DO want artifact draw, this is probably one of the better options.
I would be up for considering Firebrand Archer to move from No Reason to Cube to Niche. You are right that there are some other better options for the Spells Matter deck (Guttersnipe, Kiln Fiend, Thermo-Alchemist, Weaver of Lightning, and Young Pyromancer), but I am going to try out Firebrand Archer given how good it was in its native limited. Also remember it can trigger off more than instant or sorceries, granting it a little extra utility.
I do think the 6th best mono-red card for Spells Matter exactly fits the niche category defined as a "1."
I don't have a problem raising Firebrand Archer to 1.
Regarding our discussion on card of the day recently, I suspect that the grades for the cycling deserts should probably be more than 0. I just feel that these are more powerful than we give them credit for.
For comparison, we gave the Barren Moor cycle a 1, and the Drifting Meadow cycle a 'no reason to cube' on the basis that you would always want the 1 mana versions. I like obscure or unique archetypes / synergies more than most I think, but 'Desert Matters' doesn't seem important enough to play the otherwise strictly worse Hour of Devastation cycling lands.
Upon reflection, I remember Ondu Giant getting a bit of discussion. Ondu Giant ended up with a 2 classification, and I'd guess Oasis Ritualist is probably a smidge better. So this should probably be a 2 as well. I think I undervalued the body for the Giant, and did the same here.
Can you make an argument for Razaketh's Rite? I'm not seeing a good case for it. I guess you cycle it if you don't have enough mana to go find something and really need to dig for an immediate answer or something, but Demonic Tutor cycles into whatever you need for just one extra mana (at sorcery speed, but still).
My description could probably be expanded, but the reason I don't like Doomfall is because it doesn't do either thing very well. For the first option, having it be the opponents choice means the windows to get something good out of the deal is small; they are always going to exile their worst creature, and costing 1 mana more than Diabolic Edict means they have more chance of having multiple choices, and you would be better off with many other black removal spells. The second mode is a 1 for 1 but you are invested 3 mana to their 0, and you might even whiff. You can make an argument that having 2 options is upside; if they have a 1/1 token, strip their hand instead which Diabolic Edict can't do; if they have no cards in hand, at least you can take out their worst creature instead which dedicated hand stripping cards can't do. But I don't think that is enough to save it from feeling so inefficient, no matter which mode you cast it in, given the other options at peasant.
I like ritualist quite a bit. It's very scary and isn't easy to remove.
I think sinuous striker is a 1. A lot of cards in your hand are worse than a 4/4 or a 5/3, which is what you're upgrading into
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
Yeah, sounds reasonable. I wonder how many of us haven't cubed it simply due to the weirdness of the extra line, despite its objective power.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
ingenious skaab isn't exactly always on, bacchus. you do have threat of activation (can we just abbreviate this as ToA now?) but always being able to draw a bad late game card over a dead draw is a real advantage I don't know how to measure.
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 don't think Cunning Survivor is good enough. Not pumping toughness hurts it, as the ToA at worst threatens turning a chump into a trade, and you don't really have a "blow out mode". The very similar Grisly Survivor got a zero, but I guess it's easier to trigger in blue..
I can't imagine Banewhip Punisher not being good enough. Whether it is better than tooth collector, I'm not sure, but tooth collector has been very solid for me. Depends on the density of X/1's in your cube I suppose, as if you balways "hit", you'd rather have +1 power than the second ability.
I don't think anyone is advocating cubing Razaketh's Rite over Demonic Tutor, but I also don't think a single better card obsoletes Rite that easily. There aren't that many tutors, and running a second one can be wanted in certain cubes, especially if you run a lot of build arounds. (Aside: Perhaps it's better to run a couple of extra tutors rather than Barrage of Expandables and other options for "redundancy"?). Although, I do seem to remember the Limited Resources guys putting it in their "cards that under-performed" category.
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
I considered Cunning Survivor slightly more because you can make it unblockable, but it can be 0.
Banewhip Punisher I guess can be a 1 for now. It's not so much whether the card itself is good enough, but is it outclassed by enough other options that there isn't a reason to cube it over them. It can often act as a kill spell which Tooth Collector and friends can't so it seems reasonable to at least consider it.
If it's cycled 85% of the time, is that good though? It's only a single mana, but if 85% of the time you are just replacing it with another card, wouldn't just playing another playable card instead save you that mana? If something is being cycled that often (without some other benefit like Krosan Tusker), it indicates to me that the hard cast mode isn't worth it. It still doesn't excite me, mainly because in that 15% I'm guessing it doesn't affect the board (or rather, the card you find) the turn you cast it. I might be more interested if it was a card that had a powerful impacturn you cast it and was worth the opportunity cost of paying to cycle it in most games.
In any case, I'll give it a 1 and try and give a reasonable description. I've saved enough other marginal cards where people don't agree with me
On Jovian's comment about redundancy, when you draft a tutor for your deck it can give you that redundancy in that deck. But sometimes you might want redundancy in your cube so that cards for a specific archetype might wheel to the right player, and if you are cubing a bunch of playable tutors they might get drafted all over the place, rather than being the second Goblin Bombardment that you should be cubing instead.
Good point on them being picked in other decks though, but I thought perhaps you could get away with playing fewer and less egregious second/third options if your tutor-density is higher. Especially if the tutors are less than stellar. For example, if you have two or three niche build around themes, they aren't likely to be all drafted in a single session. So a card like Rite will have a high probability of floating to the goblin bombardment deck. So a single rite can, perhaps in some cubes, take the place of 2-3 bad cards. Of course, those "bad cards" will have an even higher probability of drifting to the correct deck, so it is all a balancing act.
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
The rest of the Hour of Devastation cards, with a few questionables.
4 - Staple - Cards with enough base power that your cube is less powerful from their omission. They are cards that are likely to never rotate out of your cube unless you ban them for being too good.
3 - Strong - These are solid cards that get the job done. Their exclusion is probably an indicator that you are actively not supporting a popular deck / archetype / effect.
2 - Playable - These are good cards, but they are either interchangeable (e.g. lots of removal, aggressive red 2-drops) or are build-around cards that need a little support to be good (Favorable Winds).
1 - Niche - These cards aren't usually considered great, but might be included to support some obscure archetypes, specific interactions, or if going deep on a particular type of deck / archetype / effect.
No reason to cube - There isn't a reason to cube these over options. You might find some perfectly 'playable' cards here, but there is little reason to put them into your cube in the first place unless you are intentionally depowering an effect.
Overcome - 1
Description - Gets a mention as an alternative to Overrun if you find that card too good or swingy for your environment. That said, this ultimately does the same thing (wins games out of nowhere), it just works in less situations (and maybe sometimes you can cast this when you need a 3rd green source for Overrun).
Anchors -
Supports -
Burning-Fist Minotaur - 3
Description - Solid baseline, and threat of activation makes it hard for your opponent to block or attack into if you've got open mana. It's also a discard outlet for graveyard based themes, and the activated ability can make it a 2 drop that has relevance in the late game by being able to discard lands or other dead cards.
Anchors -
Supports -
Khenra Scrapper - 2
Description - It can hit as hard as Brazen Wolves, albeit every second turn. However the menace can help it hit early, and then smash for 4 when the time calls for it. Doesn't do anything a lot of other red aggro 3-drops can't, but still ok in this slot.
Anchors -
Supports -
Abrade - 3
Description - Solid addition to a cubes removal suite, giving it flexibility to deal with problematic artifacts without sacrificing a deck slot specifically for that; 3 damage for 2 mana at instant speed is a good deal, even if it doesn't hit players.
Anchors -
Supports -
Oketra's Avenger - 2
Description - 3/1's for 2 need some upside, and this is about on par with the alternatives. The exert can help you force some damage through or force unfavorable blocks, but loses some value as soon as a 4 toughness creature hits the battlefield. Gets a little better if you give it some pants to wear. The threat of activation on Adanto Vanguard and being able to activate it on defense gives that a bit of an edge, but this isn't far behind and does block better if you can't afford the life loss.
Anchors -
Supports -
Steward of Solidarity - 1
Description - It's a 2 mana token creator that requires no further mana investment which makes it appealing. Only creating one every other turn can be a little slow, particularly if not cast on curve, but over a longer game it can add up.
Anchors -
Supports - Tokens
Sunscourge Champion - 2
Description - A 2/3 gain 2 life for 3 isn't exactly good, but trading the worst card in your hand into a 4/4 gain 4 life for 4 mana is ok. It's not super exciting, but it's functional.
Anchors -
Supports - Gaveyard Matters
River Hoopoe - 2
Description - The base creature isn't amazing, but could block some cheap aggro creatures in the early game. The investment required to activate makes it more likely to see play in Simic ramp decks, but the life gain can be pretty relevant in a stalled game or where your opponent is pressuring you with an evasive creature.
Anchors -
Supports - Ramp
Bloodwater Entity - 2
Description -
Anchors - Spells Matter
Supports -
Obelisk Spider - 2
Description - If you are looking for a defensive Golgari creature, this is a decent option and acts better than a 2/4 in that role. The -1/-1 counter stacks with combat damage, so it can take out x/2's, and there are situations where the -1/-1 counters really disincentivize your opponent attacking. E.g. Two 3/3's which would normally just attack into a 2/4. Bad at attacking, but you would cube it if your Golgari decks spend time setting up graveyard interactions or are otherwise grindy.
Anchors -
Supports -
Sunset Pyramid - 1
Description - If you want some colorless card draw for control decks there aren't many viable options, but this is one of the better ones. Only requiring 2 mana to activate means you may be able to play out cards you draw, or allow control decks to hold up counter mana while playing this out. Once depleted you still get some card selection if you've got mana lying around.
Anchors -
Supports -
Ifnir Deadlands - 1
Description - It is fine enough on it's own, which is good given that none of the other Deserts are worth cubing (except actual Desert). This isn't fast, but trading it in later to kill or shrink a creature is ok. There isn't anything that really compels you to cube it though.
Anchors -
Supports -
Shefet Dunes - 1
Description - It's a land when you need it to be, and a pump spell later. Sorcery speed and your opponent seeing it coming are downsides, but not giving up a spell slot is reasonable upside.
Anchors -
Supports -
Did arrest get a grade? Desert's hold is strictly better.
I can't imagine wanting a deal 5. You could just play aftershock
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
Sunscourge Champion at 2 sounds about right.
Is sunset pyramid a 2 now?
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
I don't think I've seen it on any CT lists, which makes it pretty doubtful that it's a 2
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 do think the 6th best mono-red card for Spells Matter exactly fits the niche category defined as a "1."
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
so I'm gonna say something:
The cycling deserts are a 0 in my eyes: perfectly playable, but there's little reason to run them as they barely change the flow of a deck.
Warning: Not for the durdly-hearted!