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 cards are among the top cards at providing an important effect and/or supporting a popular archetype. 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.
Siren Stormtamer - 2 Description - It's among the better 'Flying Men'. The ability is hard to judge, as you won't always know when your opponent has been holding something back due to threat of activation, but being able to protect your game winning threats from removal later in the game is good. Anchors - Supports -
Storm Fleet Aerialist - 2 Description - A 2/3 flyer for 2 mana is great. You might not always have a 1-drop attacker, but even if you have to wait until turn 3 to cast it, that is still just above the curve for a 3-drop. Decent if you have the requisite support for blue aggro. Anchors - Supports -
Sailor of Means - 1 Description - It's a roadblock that can accelerate you to 5 next turn while fixing. Some of blues defensive 2-drops are going to stem damage earlier, but sometimes a 5-drop coming down earlier is going to stabilise you. If you care about supporting artifacts, you'd give it higher consideration as a card that creates artifacts but can be played in other decks. Anchors - Supports -
Deadeye Quartermaster - 1 Description - It's value will depend on the relative power of equipment and vehicles compared to the rest of the cards in your cube. You need to run enough that you can draft them together often enough. That said, 4 mana for a 2/2, even when you get to 'draw' a card, isn't pressuring the board. If you aren't under pressure though, this is a creature to equip / crew the vehicle. Anchors - Supports - Artifact Matters
Storm Sculptor - 1 Description - You can get 3 mana unblockable without the drawback. The only reason to cube it is to get cute with re-using ETB effects, which might meet some specific cube design goals. Anchors - Supports -
Tempest Caller - 1 Description - Considered on its own it is fine, but bears comparison to Sleep and Turnabout. Sleep is the most aggressive (particularly if you have at least a few creatures), shutting down opposing boards 2 turns in a row. Turnabout has a few other tricks due to being so modal. The biggest draw for Tempest Caller is being a creature. You get a creature that can block, though Sleep might also be better in some of these situations. It's not particularly efficient, but it can be flickered / bounced. You would probably consider it as an extra Sleep effect rather than an alternative (I can't imagine needing much board presence to win a game if you curve Tempest Caller into Sleep). Anchors - Supports -
Dive Down - 1 Description - It will depend on the make up of spells in your particular cube, but it can act as a 1 mana counterspell for burn / removal against creatures, and might be more of a sideboard card against removal heavy decks. The toughness boost is likely to be less relevant, perhaps turning a trade into a win, but it is still card parity at that point. Anchors - Supports -
Chart a Course - 2 Description - 2 cards for 2 mana is a good deal, and even if you aren't attacking the filtering is still reasonable. It's also fine as a 2 mana enabler for graveyard / reanimation strategies. Aggro decks are happy to play it as an efficient way to get gas in the middle of the game. Anchors - Supports -
One With the Wind - 1 Description - It's efficient enough and can represent a reasonable clock if unanswered, but the standard aura drawbacks apply. Best in environments with a bias towards sorcery speed removal, or looking to give blue some pants support. Anchors - Supports - Pants
Headwater Sentries - It's the cheapest creature with these stats… but if you want a 4 mana defensive creature, there are plenty of other more interesting options.
I don't see any world where Tempest caller gets the nod over Sleep. Keeping everything tapped through an attack step is often much better on defense than blocking, and keeping everything tapped for two of your turns means sleep is better on offense.
I don't see any world where Tempest caller gets the nod over Sleep. Keeping everything tapped through an attack step is often much better on defense than blocking, and keeping everything tapped for two of your turns means sleep is better on offense.
On the other side, being a creature is good for blink and recursion shenanigans, there probably aren't a million worlds where it's better but if you're playing with Flickerwhisp or Crystal Shard it can be better. If sleep is a 2 then Tempest is prob a 1 at worst.
1 seems right to me. Tempest Caller is not an outlandish choice, even if it would be unusual. We gave Blustersquall a 2, which is a better comparison anyway. I prefer Blustersquall because of its flexibility, but Caller is a reasonable replacement.
2 for Sailor of Means? Blue ramp tacked onto a decent road bloack is nice in a couple of decks and four toughness is not that easy to get through.
I cannot say what the score for Sailor of Memes should be but having watched videos of its performance in its native environment, I am fairly impressed and added it recently. A few roadblocks for more controlling decks in each colour are welcome and those same control decks most certainly appreciate being able to drop a finisher a turn early (or having extra mana available to react). Plus, blink/self-bounce decks tend to be colour-hungry, and the Sailor provides some fixing which can be accrued if you happen to have a way to recycle it.
I don't see any world where Tempest caller gets the nod over Sleep. Keeping everything tapped through an attack step is often much better on defense than blocking, and keeping everything tapped for two of your turns means sleep is better on offense.
On the other side, being a creature is good for blink and recursion shenanigans, there probably aren't a million worlds where it's better but if you're playing with Flickerwhisp or Crystal Shard it can be better. If sleep is a 2 then Tempest is prob a 1 at worst.
Flickerwisp is actively useless 99% of the time (you return the permanent in the next end step, which means your end step, which means your opponent immediately gets to untap everything).
Crystal Shard technically works, but how often do you want to sorcery-speed tap everything? Like, it's a SUPER narrow window where the first tap-all doesn't win you the game (if it does anything at all) and you get to set up another one.
It IS actively good with instant-speed blink I guess, but I'm down to just Cloudshift for that.
I cannot say what the score for Sailor of Memes should be but having watched videos of its performance in its native environment, I am fairly impressed and added it recently. A few roadblocks for more controlling decks in each colour are welcome and those same control decks most certainly appreciate being able to drop a finisher a turn early (or having extra mana available to react). Plus, blink/self-bounce decks tend to be colour-hungry, and the Sailor provides some fixing which can be accrued if you happen to have a way to recycle it.
A 1/4 for 2 is just an easy zero (Dune Beetle, the Devoid guy in red) so I don't particularly want to pay one more up front to get a mana refund later.
Or to put it another way, if I'm aggro I think my opponent having a Sailor in their deck slightly improves my chances of winning.. and if I'm control I'm REALLY glad that that's one of my opponent's 40 cards.
Fair point on the flickerwhisp, but with Crystal Shard, it's good when it helps wins you the game without needing to alpha strike right there. I don't think that window stays so narrow when you can do it each turn, as you can use it to force through damage when necessary instead of needing to set up the 1-turn shot. Like, that window is narrow because you have one shot to hit with it and then you have a vanilla creature, not because the effect is only good once.
There are other color combinations that allow for recursion too, like Temur Sabretooth or Phyrexian Reclamation, you can't really undersell being a creature when comparing similar effects.
Even if you do crystal shard the tempest caller, you're paying 9 mana to get the total effect of sleep. You have to put in 14 mana to pull ahead.
And this still allowed for counterattacks, unlike sleep
I cannot say what the score for Sailor of Memes should be but having watched videos of its performance in its native environment, I am fairly impressed and added it recently. A few roadblocks for more controlling decks in each colour are welcome and those same control decks most certainly appreciate being able to drop a finisher a turn early (or having extra mana available to react). Plus, blink/self-bounce decks tend to be colour-hungry, and the Sailor provides some fixing which can be accrued if you happen to have a way to recycle it.
A 1/4 for 2 is just an easy zero (Dune Beetle, the Devoid guy in red) so I don't particularly want to pay one more up front to get a mana refund later.
Or to put it another way, if I'm aggro I think my opponent having a Sailor in their deck slightly improves my chances of winning.. and if I'm control I'm REALLY glad that that's one of my opponent's 40 cards.
I see your point but there is certainly a misconception at play if the treasure is only considered a refund. Again, it is a form of ramp: a key play may be played a turn in advance. If the Sailor was merely a 1/4 for sorta 2 mana, he would be worthless. When he is a 1/4 which paves the way for a finisher to be dropped a turn early, he has definite value (even in the control mirror). Obviously, though, his function remains to also clog up the ground somewhat. A cheapish 1/4 against aggro still has quite a bit of value and the mere 1/4's are unplayable because they provide no other benefit, making them pure sideboard filler.
In other words, the Sailor is intended as a maindeckable control card vs. aggro and it gets the pass over similar alternatives because its effect has universal (match-up independent) value for the control deck.
Even if you do crystal shard the tempest caller, you're paying 9 mana to get the total effect of sleep. You have to put in 14 mana to pull ahead.
And this still allowed for counterattacks, unlike sleep
Total mana invested is sometimes a misleading pro or con. Yes, you're paying 14 mana, but you're not doing it all in one turn and also doing that without investing anything from hand, essentially getting free spells without needing extra cards. In a deck where potentially you will gas out since you are trying to win with an aggressive (or at least attacking) board position, it's valuable to have an engine that both encourages that and doesn't require me to draw supporting pieces once that synergy is set up. Sleep pretty much requires you to definitely be winning in that window, whereas recursion with this guy lets you fit it in when you can and then come back later if they are answering your threats. Also once you're recurring this guy, additional creatures they play the turn after you sleep are accounted for. Then when they counterattack, you have a 2/3 blocker which will mitigate some of that threat.
I'm not saying this is the be-all-end-all--like I'm saying this is a 2 at absolute best but realistically a 1, which is not a ringing endorsement--but to dismiss the recursion and the body seems wrong.
I mean I'm aware that Sailor of Means makes a token instead of giving the Quirion Sentinel ability, but it's still just bad.
If its main role is the defensive body, getting it at two mana (Dune Beetle, Wall of Tanglecord, Fog Bank, whatever) is WAY more important than the Treasure trigger. Waiting an extra turn and setting up a future 5-drop is just going to get you that much closer to dead when played against most of the decks (e.g. red/black/white aggro) where a 1/4 vanilla body actually has some use.
Started typing a response a few days back but then ran out of time, have to retype it, ergh.
Since my post, I kept thinking about Tempest Caller and comparing it to Sleep, and that it was going to be worse than Sleep a fair amount of the time. I do wonder whether Sleep might be oppressive or annoying to play against, but I don't think I've ever cubed it. It's not like blue doesn't need the aggro help, but I wonder how many games are won out of nowhere with a top deck Sleep. I think Tempest Caller can get a 1, perhaps mainly for redundancy, and the occasional bounce shenanigans.
I also think Sailor of Means is worth a 1. I agree that the 2-drops are better as pure defensive creatures, but I think the acceleration and fixing make it worth considering. Getting your 5-drop on turn 4 might be a better stabiliser than a replacement 2-drop.
---
Green stuff.
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 cards are among the top cards at providing an important effect and/or supporting a popular archetype. 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.
Drover of the Mighty - 2 Description - If you ignore the dinosaur stuff, it's a decent fixer / ramp dude. Llanowar Elves and friends are better at pure ramp, but fixing any colour is sometimes worth paying the extra for. Who knows, sometimes you might get it alongside a Charging Monstrosaur or something. Anchors - Supports - Ramp
Merfolk Branchwalker - 2 Description - Both modes are fine, but you might not always get what you want depending on what the overall deck is doing and the game state. That said, the 'worst' mode for the situation still isn't that much worse than the optimal. It's marginal. Anchors - Supports -
Atzocan Archer - 1 Description - Fine enough for green control decks. It doesn't hit for much, but the toughness means it can survive most things it would fight, and better the more X/1's in your cube. Anchors - Supports -
Ranging Raptors - 2 Description - Decent include for control / ramp, even if it trades with a 2-drop while accelerating you. You can change your cube to include some more incidental support in divisable burn and pingers, or go deeper with the likes of Pyrohemia and sweepers, but it isn't necessary Anchors - Supports -
Snapping Sailback - 2 Description - The ideal line of play is flashing it in to block something and end up with a 5/5. 5 mana is a lot to hold open, so your opponents might not play it into it though. Better if you have other ways to damage it, and you can go nuts with the likes of Pestilence and Pyrohemia. Anchors - Supports - +1/+1 counters, Pingers
Thundering Spineback - 1 Description - It's a lot of investment before it pays off, but if you can activate a couple of times you are looking good. Centaur Glade comes down earlier and has the upside of being able to activate twice once you hit 8 mana, which probably makes that the better card to fill the role. Anchors - Supports - Ramp
Verdant Rebirth - 1 Description - The timing window is a lot worse than green retrieval spells like Regrowth and Grapple With the Past. For that, it offers a 2 for 1, even if you have to recast the creature. Better in more combat oriented cubes, where you can more easily activate the 2 for 1. Best suited for grindy midrange decks intending to outvalue the opponent over time. There might be occasions where it is stuck in your hand with no creatures on the board, but it is going to be better than that frequently enough. Good with cards with ETB effects, particularly recursion with Eternal Witness (like that card needs more help). Anchors - Supports -
I don't like Sailback at 2 since it's sub-mediocre against so many decks, enough so that by default I don't really want it in my green ramp decks, but it's still... fine. I'd say 1, maybe 1.5 Barely better than, e.g. Bitterbow Sharpshoters which is a current 1, I guess.
Verdant Rebirth is generally just a worse Recover, which is a zero. Yes this is cheaper, but the narrow timing window is a much bigger drawback than shaving off 1cmc so I'd just give it a zero.
Tishana's Wayfinder is like Open Fire to Branchwalker's Incinerate. It's probably just a 0. At 3cmc you need to be able to plan around what you're getting stats-wise (or whether or not it's gonna find a land) and obviously you can't actually control that with the explore mechanic.
I am still not sure which mode of Merfolk Branchwalker is better- the Terrain Elemental or the 2/1 draw a land off the top. Those two cards probably go in different decks and it is also worth asking if the deck that wants the 2/1 draw a card is happy with the 3/2 version. I would hesitant to rank it above Terrain Elemental, which got a 2.
Verdant Rebirth is generally just a worse Recover, which is a zero. Yes this is cheaper, but the narrow timing window is a much bigger drawback than shaving off 1cmc so I'd just give it a zero.
"Until end of turn" isn't all that narrow a window. Verdant Rebirth also does things Recover can't do, such as sort-of-protecting against removal. It's decent in sac decks with token producers and etb effects in general. Sac decks can even trigger the effect on their own if they want to.
The worst case is you target one of your opponent's creatures and effectively cycle the card for two. I don't think that's a zero.
Such as with Drover of the Mighty, occasionally I'm distracted by what it looks like what the card should be doing (being a tribal Dinosaur card). But yes, this actually is fine on its own. I will just put in the description that it might be a design consideration in case there are no or few synergies (which is the same as Gemhide / Manaweft Sliver anyway).
I understand the Recover argument. To counterpoint your argument guitarspider, Recover does also sort of protect against removal; they cast removal, you cast Recover, you get the creature back. At sorcery speed, but still. Not really sure what you mean by 'it's decent in sac decks with token producers'. I understand you get the sacrificed creature back, but I'm not sure what that has to do with tokens. Supernatural Stamina is another black card for comparison. It doesn't net you a card, but has better board impact. I'm not convinced Verdant Rebirth is unplayable, but maybe there are better green cards I'm forgetting that fill the same role.
I understand the Recover argument. To counterpoint your argument guitarspider, Recover does also sort of protect against removal; they cast removal, you cast Recover, you get the creature back. At sorcery speed, but still. Not really sure what you mean by 'it's decent in sac decks with token producers'. I understand you get the sacrificed creature back, but I'm not sure what that has to do with tokens. Supernatural Stamina is another black card for comparison. It doesn't net you a card, but has better board impact. I'm not convinced Verdant Rebirth is unplayable, but maybe there are better green cards I'm forgetting that fill the same role.
There are better green cards, certainly, but I don't think it's a zero, which is all I'm arguing against. In a world with good green spells, sure. In the world we currently live in it's clunky but not terrible. There are enough decks around that can trigger the effect on their own.
As for tokens: play your etb token producer, get tokens, sac producer for benefit, replay it, get more tokens to sac. Same thing with Recover, but for one mana less, which actually makes it viable imho.
Branchwalker to 2, Tishana's Wayfinder to 0, Drover of Mighty to 2, Verdant Rebirth to 1 with a description re-write (adding comparison to the 1 for 1's).
Maybe the rest of those Commander cards are also missing... Here is a go at it.
Frenzied Fugue - 3
Description - Some of the other 4 mana versions provide more benefits upfront, but if you can get 2 uses out of this you are going to be very happy. You get the instant swing from an extra attacker and one less blocker, and if they don't kill their own creature on defense you just get to repeat it every turn, setting you up to race effectively. You aren't really giving up much compared to the 3 mana versions, as you aren't curving into this effect on turn 3 that often. Anchors - Supports -
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 cards are among the top cards at providing an important effect and/or supporting a popular archetype. 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.
Rigging Runner - 1 Description - A 2/2 first striker for a single mana is great, but not actually being able to cast it on turn 1 is a major downer. You could maybe curve out with a 2 drop on turn 2, attack on turn 3 and drop this alongside another 2-drop… but it isn't going to happen consistently. Anchors - Supports -
Nest Robber - 1 Description - It's aggro filler. Speedway Fanatic is strictly better as long as you have at least one Vehicle in your cube. You might cube it if you are trying to promote a red/X (probably green) 'Fires' deck full of hasty dudes / effects. Anchors - Supports -
Raptor Hatchling - 1 Description - It's an option for control decks to put up some roadblocks. You don't get your token for non-damage removal (as compared to similar Brindle Shoat), but if your 2-drop draws a removal spell you probably aren’t too upset. Work well with auras, equipment or pump spells to enable damaging it without killing it; you probably shouldn't go out of your way to enable it, but will make for good stories when it happens. Not being able to sacrifice it for effect is a downer. Anchors - Supports -
Bonded Horncrest - 1 Description - It's fine enough for aggro decks looking to curve into it. The downside sucks when it is active though. The upside of overpowering most opposing creatures once it hits the board can be worth it in the right deck. Anchors - Supports -
Charging Monstrosaur - 3 Description - A good set of abilities and stats. If your aggro decks curve out into this, your opponent is probably hurting pretty bad. One of the better red 5-drops. Anchors - Supports -
Makeshift Munitions - 1 Barrage of Expendables to 0. Description - It can be a redundant version of Goblin Bombardment if you want one. Obviously the activation cost makes it worse in most cases, but if you have an artifact theme (or just enough artifacts in your cube) that is a point of difference. Anchors - Supports - Artifact Matters, Sacrifice
Fiery Cannonade - 2 Description - It's mostly an instant speed Pyroclasm, though there are a few highly playable Pirates. The instant speed allows for swinging a board state on your opponents end step, and occasionally mid-combat. It can just be a control tool, but if you want sweeper control to be a thing then it should be in your cube. Anchors - Supports -
Trove of Temptation - 1 Description - It isn't particularly good, but does create a steady stream of artifacts if that is something you care about, and probably the only reason to consider cubing it. You can sometimes generate some value out of the forced attack if you have the right blockers, but probably not something you should strive for. Anchors - Supports - Artifact Matters
Thrash of Raptors - The 'on' version is good for 4 mana, but it just isn't going to happen in cube unless you force a Dinosaur theme.
Storm Fleet Arsonist - It's underwhelming. By the time you cast it, they can probably sacrifice a land or some other low value permanent.
Storm Fleet Pyromancer - Flametongue Kavu might be considered too good by some, but this isn't very good. The raid plays into aggro, and aggro doesn't want a 5-drop that can't clear blockers before attacks.
Sun-Crowned Hunters - I like that with 4 activations of Pyrohemia you can deal 16 damage to your opponent with this on the board… but it doesn't quite get there. You want your 6-drop to be doing more.
Does Makeshift Munitions drop Barrage of Expendables to zero? Not strictly better, but enough better to pay one more mana up front to be less colour intensive and able to toss the odd equipment/clue/treasure?
I'm comfortable with dropping Deadeye Tormenter and Raider's Wake to 0.
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 cards are among the top cards at providing an important effect and/or supporting a popular archetype.
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.
Siren Stormtamer - 2
Description - It's among the better 'Flying Men'. The ability is hard to judge, as you won't always know when your opponent has been holding something back due to threat of activation, but being able to protect your game winning threats from removal later in the game is good.
Anchors -
Supports -
Storm Fleet Aerialist - 2
Description - A 2/3 flyer for 2 mana is great. You might not always have a 1-drop attacker, but even if you have to wait until turn 3 to cast it, that is still just above the curve for a 3-drop. Decent if you have the requisite support for blue aggro.
Anchors -
Supports -
Sailor of Means - 1
Description - It's a roadblock that can accelerate you to 5 next turn while fixing. Some of blues defensive 2-drops are going to stem damage earlier, but sometimes a 5-drop coming down earlier is going to stabilise you. If you care about supporting artifacts, you'd give it higher consideration as a card that creates artifacts but can be played in other decks.
Anchors -
Supports -
Deadeye Quartermaster - 1
Description - It's value will depend on the relative power of equipment and vehicles compared to the rest of the cards in your cube. You need to run enough that you can draft them together often enough. That said, 4 mana for a 2/2, even when you get to 'draw' a card, isn't pressuring the board. If you aren't under pressure though, this is a creature to equip / crew the vehicle.
Anchors -
Supports - Artifact Matters
Storm Sculptor - 1
Description - You can get 3 mana unblockable without the drawback. The only reason to cube it is to get cute with re-using ETB effects, which might meet some specific cube design goals.
Anchors -
Supports -
Tempest Caller - 1
Description - Considered on its own it is fine, but bears comparison to Sleep and Turnabout. Sleep is the most aggressive (particularly if you have at least a few creatures), shutting down opposing boards 2 turns in a row. Turnabout has a few other tricks due to being so modal. The biggest draw for Tempest Caller is being a creature. You get a creature that can block, though Sleep might also be better in some of these situations. It's not particularly efficient, but it can be flickered / bounced. You would probably consider it as an extra Sleep effect rather than an alternative (I can't imagine needing much board presence to win a game if you curve Tempest Caller into Sleep).
Anchors -
Supports -
Dive Down - 1
Description - It will depend on the make up of spells in your particular cube, but it can act as a 1 mana counterspell for burn / removal against creatures, and might be more of a sideboard card against removal heavy decks. The toughness boost is likely to be less relevant, perhaps turning a trade into a win, but it is still card parity at that point.
Anchors -
Supports -
Chart a Course - 2
Description - 2 cards for 2 mana is a good deal, and even if you aren't attacking the filtering is still reasonable. It's also fine as a 2 mana enabler for graveyard / reanimation strategies. Aggro decks are happy to play it as an efficient way to get gas in the middle of the game.
Anchors -
Supports -
One With the Wind - 1
Description - It's efficient enough and can represent a reasonable clock if unanswered, but the standard aura drawbacks apply. Best in environments with a bias towards sorcery speed removal, or looking to give blue some pants support.
Anchors -
Supports - Pants
Watertrap Weaver - Add to Frost Lynx entry.
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
On the other side, being a creature is good for blink and recursion shenanigans, there probably aren't a million worlds where it's better but if you're playing with Flickerwhisp or Crystal Shard it can be better. If sleep is a 2 then Tempest is prob a 1 at worst.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
2 for Sailor of Means? Blue ramp tacked onto a decent road bloack is nice in a couple of decks and four toughness is not that easy to get through.
Flickerwisp is actively useless 99% of the time (you return the permanent in the next end step, which means your end step, which means your opponent immediately gets to untap everything).
Crystal Shard technically works, but how often do you want to sorcery-speed tap everything? Like, it's a SUPER narrow window where the first tap-all doesn't win you the game (if it does anything at all) and you get to set up another one.
It IS actively good with instant-speed blink I guess, but I'm down to just Cloudshift for that.
A 1/4 for 2 is just an easy zero (Dune Beetle, the Devoid guy in red) so I don't particularly want to pay one more up front to get a mana refund later.
Or to put it another way, if I'm aggro I think my opponent having a Sailor in their deck slightly improves my chances of winning.. and if I'm control I'm REALLY glad that that's one of my opponent's 40 cards.
There are other color combinations that allow for recursion too, like Temur Sabretooth or Phyrexian Reclamation, you can't really undersell being a creature when comparing similar effects.
Also, follow us on twitter! @TurnOneMagic
And this still allowed for counterattacks, unlike sleep
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 see your point but there is certainly a misconception at play if the treasure is only considered a refund. Again, it is a form of ramp: a key play may be played a turn in advance. If the Sailor was merely a 1/4 for sorta 2 mana, he would be worthless. When he is a 1/4 which paves the way for a finisher to be dropped a turn early, he has definite value (even in the control mirror). Obviously, though, his function remains to also clog up the ground somewhat. A cheapish 1/4 against aggro still has quite a bit of value and the mere 1/4's are unplayable because they provide no other benefit, making them pure sideboard filler.
In other words, the Sailor is intended as a maindeckable control card vs. aggro and it gets the pass over similar alternatives because its effect has universal (match-up independent) value for the control deck.
Edit: Also, colour-fixing.
Total mana invested is sometimes a misleading pro or con. Yes, you're paying 14 mana, but you're not doing it all in one turn and also doing that without investing anything from hand, essentially getting free spells without needing extra cards. In a deck where potentially you will gas out since you are trying to win with an aggressive (or at least attacking) board position, it's valuable to have an engine that both encourages that and doesn't require me to draw supporting pieces once that synergy is set up. Sleep pretty much requires you to definitely be winning in that window, whereas recursion with this guy lets you fit it in when you can and then come back later if they are answering your threats. Also once you're recurring this guy, additional creatures they play the turn after you sleep are accounted for. Then when they counterattack, you have a 2/3 blocker which will mitigate some of that threat.
I'm not saying this is the be-all-end-all--like I'm saying this is a 2 at absolute best but realistically a 1, which is not a ringing endorsement--but to dismiss the recursion and the body seems wrong.
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If its main role is the defensive body, getting it at two mana (Dune Beetle, Wall of Tanglecord, Fog Bank, whatever) is WAY more important than the Treasure trigger. Waiting an extra turn and setting up a future 5-drop is just going to get you that much closer to dead when played against most of the decks (e.g. red/black/white aggro) where a 1/4 vanilla body actually has some use.
Since my post, I kept thinking about Tempest Caller and comparing it to Sleep, and that it was going to be worse than Sleep a fair amount of the time. I do wonder whether Sleep might be oppressive or annoying to play against, but I don't think I've ever cubed it. It's not like blue doesn't need the aggro help, but I wonder how many games are won out of nowhere with a top deck Sleep. I think Tempest Caller can get a 1, perhaps mainly for redundancy, and the occasional bounce shenanigans.
I also think Sailor of Means is worth a 1. I agree that the 2-drops are better as pure defensive creatures, but I think the acceleration and fixing make it worth considering. Getting your 5-drop on turn 4 might be a better stabiliser than a replacement 2-drop.
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Green stuff.
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 cards are among the top cards at providing an important effect and/or supporting a popular archetype.
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.
Drover of the Mighty - 2
Description - If you ignore the dinosaur stuff, it's a decent fixer / ramp dude. Llanowar Elves and friends are better at pure ramp, but fixing any colour is sometimes worth paying the extra for. Who knows, sometimes you might get it alongside a Charging Monstrosaur or something.
Anchors -
Supports - Ramp
Merfolk Branchwalker - 2
Description - Both modes are fine, but you might not always get what you want depending on what the overall deck is doing and the game state. That said, the 'worst' mode for the situation still isn't that much worse than the optimal. It's marginal.
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Atzocan Archer - 1
Description - Fine enough for green control decks. It doesn't hit for much, but the toughness means it can survive most things it would fight, and better the more X/1's in your cube.
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Ranging Raptors - 2
Description - Decent include for control / ramp, even if it trades with a 2-drop while accelerating you. You can change your cube to include some more incidental support in divisable burn and pingers, or go deeper with the likes of Pyrohemia and sweepers, but it isn't necessary
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Snapping Sailback - 2
Description - The ideal line of play is flashing it in to block something and end up with a 5/5. 5 mana is a lot to hold open, so your opponents might not play it into it though. Better if you have other ways to damage it, and you can go nuts with the likes of Pestilence and Pyrohemia.
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Supports - +1/+1 counters, Pingers
Thundering Spineback - 1
Description - It's a lot of investment before it pays off, but if you can activate a couple of times you are looking good. Centaur Glade comes down earlier and has the upside of being able to activate twice once you hit 8 mana, which probably makes that the better card to fill the role.
Anchors -
Supports - Ramp
Verdant Rebirth - 1
Description - The timing window is a lot worse than green retrieval spells like Regrowth and Grapple With the Past. For that, it offers a 2 for 1, even if you have to recast the creature. Better in more combat oriented cubes, where you can more easily activate the 2 for 1. Best suited for grindy midrange decks intending to outvalue the opponent over time. There might be occasions where it is stuck in your hand with no creatures on the board, but it is going to be better than that frequently enough. Good with cards with ETB effects, particularly recursion with Eternal Witness (like that card needs more help).
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I don't like Sailback at 2 since it's sub-mediocre against so many decks, enough so that by default I don't really want it in my green ramp decks, but it's still... fine. I'd say 1, maybe 1.5 Barely better than, e.g. Bitterbow Sharpshoters which is a current 1, I guess.
Verdant Rebirth is generally just a worse Recover, which is a zero. Yes this is cheaper, but the narrow timing window is a much bigger drawback than shaving off 1cmc so I'd just give it a zero.
Tishana's Wayfinder is like Open Fire to Branchwalker's Incinerate. It's probably just a 0. At 3cmc you need to be able to plan around what you're getting stats-wise (or whether or not it's gonna find a land) and obviously you can't actually control that with the explore mechanic.
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Isn't Gemhide Sliver a 1? Or a 2, even? So same score for Drover of the Mighty.
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
"Until end of turn" isn't all that narrow a window. Verdant Rebirth also does things Recover can't do, such as sort-of-protecting against removal. It's decent in sac decks with token producers and etb effects in general. Sac decks can even trigger the effect on their own if they want to.
The worst case is you target one of your opponent's creatures and effectively cycle the card for two. I don't think that's a zero.
I understand the Recover argument. To counterpoint your argument guitarspider, Recover does also sort of protect against removal; they cast removal, you cast Recover, you get the creature back. At sorcery speed, but still. Not really sure what you mean by 'it's decent in sac decks with token producers'. I understand you get the sacrificed creature back, but I'm not sure what that has to do with tokens. Supernatural Stamina is another black card for comparison. It doesn't net you a card, but has better board impact. I'm not convinced Verdant Rebirth is unplayable, but maybe there are better green cards I'm forgetting that fill the same role.
Still, I cant imagine playing this card. It's a really poor undying evil.
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 mean, you can cycle it, but... no. Awful by cube standards.
I'd take Recollect over this by a mile. Grapple with the Past. The fuse card that's the same thing as Recollect. Evolution Charm. Hell, even Nature's Spiral. Pulse of Murasa.
There are better green cards, certainly, but I don't think it's a zero, which is all I'm arguing against. In a world with good green spells, sure. In the world we currently live in it's clunky but not terrible. There are enough decks around that can trigger the effect on their own.
As for tokens: play your etb token producer, get tokens, sac producer for benefit, replay it, get more tokens to sac. Same thing with Recover, but for one mana less, which actually makes it viable imho.
Maybe the rest of those Commander cards are also missing... Here is a go at it.
Frenzied Fugue - 3
Description - Some of the other 4 mana versions provide more benefits upfront, but if you can get 2 uses out of this you are going to be very happy. You get the instant swing from an extra attacker and one less blocker, and if they don't kill their own creature on defense you just get to repeat it every turn, setting you up to race effectively. You aren't really giving up much compared to the 3 mana versions, as you aren't curving into this effect on turn 3 that often.
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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 cards are among the top cards at providing an important effect and/or supporting a popular archetype.
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.
Rigging Runner - 1
Description - A 2/2 first striker for a single mana is great, but not actually being able to cast it on turn 1 is a major downer. You could maybe curve out with a 2 drop on turn 2, attack on turn 3 and drop this alongside another 2-drop… but it isn't going to happen consistently.
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Nest Robber - 1
Description - It's aggro filler. Speedway Fanatic is strictly better as long as you have at least one Vehicle in your cube. You might cube it if you are trying to promote a red/X (probably green) 'Fires' deck full of hasty dudes / effects.
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Raptor Hatchling - 1
Description - It's an option for control decks to put up some roadblocks. You don't get your token for non-damage removal (as compared to similar Brindle Shoat), but if your 2-drop draws a removal spell you probably aren’t too upset. Work well with auras, equipment or pump spells to enable damaging it without killing it; you probably shouldn't go out of your way to enable it, but will make for good stories when it happens. Not being able to sacrifice it for effect is a downer.
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Bonded Horncrest - 1
Description - It's fine enough for aggro decks looking to curve into it. The downside sucks when it is active though. The upside of overpowering most opposing creatures once it hits the board can be worth it in the right deck.
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Charging Monstrosaur - 3
Description - A good set of abilities and stats. If your aggro decks curve out into this, your opponent is probably hurting pretty bad. One of the better red 5-drops.
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Makeshift Munitions - 1 Barrage of Expendables to 0.
Description - It can be a redundant version of Goblin Bombardment if you want one. Obviously the activation cost makes it worse in most cases, but if you have an artifact theme (or just enough artifacts in your cube) that is a point of difference.
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Supports - Artifact Matters, Sacrifice
Fiery Cannonade - 2
Description - It's mostly an instant speed Pyroclasm, though there are a few highly playable Pirates. The instant speed allows for swinging a board state on your opponents end step, and occasionally mid-combat. It can just be a control tool, but if you want sweeper control to be a thing then it should be in your cube.
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Trove of Temptation - 1
Description - It isn't particularly good, but does create a steady stream of artifacts if that is something you care about, and probably the only reason to consider cubing it. You can sometimes generate some value out of the forced attack if you have the right blockers, but probably not something you should strive for.
Anchors -
Supports - Artifact Matters
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)