Giving away two mana seems a bit much and there's no case with possible upside like the red 4/3 minotaur that discards - giving away two mana is always bad.
I am not going to say that Wanted Scoundrels is a great card but this is kind of untrue: there is the case where it does not die, in which case you just have a 4/3 for 2. Now, obviously, it would be more more limited in terms of its potential to trade or attack when the blockers could kill it. I just want to highlight that the difference between an ETB trigger and a death trigger is kind of relevant, especially when they can easily lose their optimal timing for a tempo boost like this if they do not answer the Scoundrels in a turn or two. The problem with the comparison to Wretched Anurid is that that thing can legitimately lose you 5+ life since it also counts opponents' creatures. Even with an aggro deck, those are amounts that will start affecting your chances to win, whereas you can still easily recuperate from the opponent playing something above curve in Peasant since most big plays are creatures.
Giving away two mana seems a bit much and there's no case with possible upside like the red 4/3 minotaur that discards - giving away two mana is always bad.
I am not going to say that Wanted Scoundrels is a great card but this is kind of untrue: there is the case where it does not die, in which case you just have a 4/3 for 2. Now, obviously, it would be more more limited in terms of its potential to trade or attack when the blockers could kill it. I just want to highlight that the difference between an ETB trigger and a death trigger is kind of relevant, especially when they can easily lose their optimal timing for a tempo boost like this if they do not answer the Scoundrels in a turn or two. The problem with the comparison to Wretched Anurid is that that thing can legitimately lose you 5+ life since it also counts opponents' creatures. Even with an aggro deck, those are amounts that will start affecting your chances to win, whereas you can still easily recuperate from the opponent playing something above curve in Peasant since most big plays are creatures.
It's true that it's not a downside if it lives, but we're playing cube. Even our depowered removal is quite strong by "normal" limited standards. So in the end the two additional mana mean that your opponent can essentially play a 2 mana removal spell for absolutely free, there's not even a loss of tempo, while you had to spend your turn paying for a creature you don't have anymore. It's not an even exchange for the aggro deck, you're essentially passing once. Show me the aggro deck that can just give away a turn.
Weird, I know some people like Bloodrage Brawler but I thought we pretty universally decided not to play the Pale Rider. Is it just that black's aggro twos are so heavy on flying that nobody wanted to play it?
Anyways, I think Wanted Scoundrels is pretty bad. Discarding a card (probably a land) in an aggro deck is way less of a downside than giving your opponent two lotus petal. You don't actually concede tempo by discarding, the board remains the same - allowing your opponent to play a bigger threat that can shut down your aggression is a much bigger deal.
There are enough 3/2s for 2 that I don't really feel like the 4/3 statline is that big.
Kitesail Freebooter
Creature - Human Pirate
Flying
When Kitesail Freebooter enters the battlefield, target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose a noncreature, nonland card from it. Exile that card until Kitesail Freebooter leaves the battlefield.
1/2
New card looks decent. Less relevant card selection that Mesmeric Fiend/Brain Maggot, but body is way more useful. Interesting option.
OLD CARD DISCUSSION: Shapers of Nature looks very interesting as a tool in a UG Ramp deck, since the card has both 3G: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature and 5UG: Draw a card as modes. If you considered River Hoopoe (as I did), this card has a more relevant body and different ways to impact the late game. Worth a look in those circumstances.
Wanted Scoundrels has so few ways to actually kill it at under 4 mana. Counting just single cards that can trade with it either directly or as a blocker, I am at under 9% of the cards in my cube. Some of those even require setup (War-Name Aspirant, Cloistered Youth) or your own tempo loss (Heir of Falkenrath, Noose Constrictor). This is not a perfect measure, since it doesn't include cards that trade 1-for-1 as an attacker (Borderland Marauder) or cards that can work in tandem (two blockers, Brute Force plus blocker). In addition, you cannot get blown out by bounce spells or Pacifism effects with the Scoundrels.
I am definitely willing to take a chance with Wanted Scoundrels given how hard it is to interact with cheaply on defense and with being okay with my opponent trading 4 mana of resources for the creature.
They won't be trading four mana of resources, they're trading 2 mana. Thats what I mean by "youre giving all the tempo back".
Sure, but with which two mana spells? I looked at the last 10 CUbe decks I drafted and each one has, on average, just over 3 ways to kill Wanted Scoundrels for less than 4 mana as either a non-creature spell or as a blocker. And not even all of those are 1-for-1 removal spells. Sometimes that includes blocking with an Accorder Paladin or spending three life with Fire Covenant and those are not always reliable either.
There are clearly really bad situations with Wanted Scoundrels, but it's just a high-risk, high-reward card that I will absolutely try out in my CUbe.
EDIT: And I am also generally fine with the idea of Scoundrels trading with a 4-mana creature or spell, since that should mean you got two turns to do something relevant with it before they traded.
I really don't like the Scoundrels. You have zero control over when the drawback happens, and I know I usually feel kinda bad when giving my opponent a land with Path to Exile. 2 Lotus Petal is arguably worse, but so is a 4/3 for 2 when compared to a 1 mana exile removal spell. I really do not want my opponent to have their Pelakka Wurm 2 turns earlier, or even an Arborback Stomper.
I'm with Leelue on Wanted Scoundrels. The Bloodrage Brawler comparison makes sense on the surface (4/3's for 2 with drawbacks), but in that case you are giving up a resource now (discard a card) in the hopes that you can apply enough board pressure before that becomes an issue. Sometimes the Brawler will trade with a 3-drop, but on balance if you are playing the Brawler your opponent is under pressure on the board, and maybe you get in a hit or 2 before they trade with it. The decks that play Brawler are hoping to empty their hand and get the opponent down to zero before the opponent can play out all their cards.
Yes, they have to kill Wanted Scoundrels, but that 2 extra mana they get can really help them gain back tempo (accelerate a more expensive stabilising play, play 2 cards in a turn), and tempo seems like the kind of thing you want to keep if you are playing 4/3's for 2.
Well, whatever anyone thinks about Wanted Scoundrels... I am pretty sure that we can all agree that Wily Goblin is just an insult on every level, right? Obviously, you could argue that the Scoundrels are worse at a meta-level because the card can act as a trap but seriously, is this the power level we should be expecting from our red creatures now? (Yes, yes - if it was a 2/1 for 1R, it would border on broken. However, a 2/1 for RR should be the least we can ask for.)
I actually think 2/1 for 1R that made a treasure wouldn't be broken at uncommon. It's only slighlty better than viridian emissary except in aggro where it is much better.
But viridian emissary is a card that just passes the threshold into "reasonable".
Oh, right - Nest Invader *is* a thing. That reminder just made Wily Goblin seem that much worse. Gah the card is awful.
Yup, Storm Fleet Aerialist seems very playable. Funnily enough, it is made better by the fact that we also get Siren Stormcaller since that way you have more blue attackers to enable Raid on turn 2 instead if having to entirely rely on other colours for 1-drops.
Also, on the topic of Storm Fleet Arsonist: Really? Allowing the opponent to rid themselves of the worst card they have on the board at the point where you are playing a 5-drop in a deck that reliably enables Raid is abysmal. The fact that triggering the ability is actually conditional on your existing board presence just makes it so much worse. I know the sets need toe depowered occasionally, but some of the cards we have been seeing from Ixalan are just such terrible designs. Even if many of the cards in the last few sets would not have made it to CUbe for power level reasons or because they were too conditional, at least those sets had surprisingly few real stinkers outside the obvious limited chaff at common.
Storm Fleet Aerialist seems good but not great. I really value blue creatures that work in low creature count decks, and Raid is obviously a bit awkward there. Still definitely gonna give it a shot, though.
I see it as a card that supports the skies decks, rather than the tempo decks. I expect it to be found in u/w or u/b more often than in u/r. And, as VariSami mentioned, it goes great with the new Siren Stormtamer, since that is another aggressive blue creature and helps trigger raid.
I don't think triggering raid is a huge problem for Storm Fleet Aerialist if your curve starts at 1. 6 1s puts you at around a 73% to trigger raid on turn 2; adding Phantasmal Bear and the Siren makes you only need 3 off colour 1s, which is perfectly doable, and playing on 3 is fine as well if need be. The problem I have is that the 2 points of toughness and being able to block are relatively unimportant for a deck that starts on 1, and, if you don't start on 1, it's basically just a situational Welkin Tern that can't be played consistently.
If you are evaluating Storm Fleet in conjunction with Welkin Tern, it obviously fails the consistency test.
Welkin Tern is ALWAYS a 2/1 flier for 2 on turn 2.
Storm Fleet is a 2/3 flier for 2 on turn 2 about what? 7-10% of time? Roughly? Maybe worse?
However, on turn 3, the percentage, I assume, goes way up. Would we still feel good about playing this guy on turn 3 or 4? Even on turn 3 and 4 it's great value mana-wise... Attacking with a creature turn 4, playing this guy with Remand up? Potential.
It also has slight utility as a defensive card for a value/control deck. Maybe even side it in your control deck against the W/x spirit token deck.
It's not as consistent as Vaporkin and ... kin, but it's certainly a more interesting card with a higher upside in the right deck. I think it at least deserves a test to see exactly how often it pans out.
I like both Storm Fleet Aerialist and Kitesail Freebooter in an evasive UB deck. I have a lot of 1 drops in white, black amd red, which work nicely with blue to trigger raid even if blue is lacking. They both carry equipment well with thier greater toughness.
Hmm I didn't intially think about Siren Stormtamer, hmm will now have to consider.
Deadeye Quartermaster search library for target loxodon warhammer... I want to play it but 2/2 is too weak. It needed an extra point of power or toughness or a keyword.
Well, stormblood berserker was a very strong card for a long time.
While a 2/3 flyer isn't as good as a 3/3 menace, it's not bad on turn 4 if you have something to play alongside it and it's still not bad on turn 3 without backup. Stormblood berserker's statline was threatening well into turns 4 or maybe 5, so I would imagine this is reasonable.
Well I am a rather strict modern peseant cube so no peregrine drake for me. I like +1/+1 counters in all colours.
I am taking a look at my options for cutting durdle for phatasmal bear for more blue aggro.
I am not going to say that Wanted Scoundrels is a great card but this is kind of untrue: there is the case where it does not die, in which case you just have a 4/3 for 2. Now, obviously, it would be more more limited in terms of its potential to trade or attack when the blockers could kill it. I just want to highlight that the difference between an ETB trigger and a death trigger is kind of relevant, especially when they can easily lose their optimal timing for a tempo boost like this if they do not answer the Scoundrels in a turn or two. The problem with the comparison to Wretched Anurid is that that thing can legitimately lose you 5+ life since it also counts opponents' creatures. Even with an aggro deck, those are amounts that will start affecting your chances to win, whereas you can still easily recuperate from the opponent playing something above curve in Peasant since most big plays are creatures.
It's true that it's not a downside if it lives, but we're playing cube. Even our depowered removal is quite strong by "normal" limited standards. So in the end the two additional mana mean that your opponent can essentially play a 2 mana removal spell for absolutely free, there's not even a loss of tempo, while you had to spend your turn paying for a creature you don't have anymore. It's not an even exchange for the aggro deck, you're essentially passing once. Show me the aggro deck that can just give away a turn.
Anyways, I think Wanted Scoundrels is pretty bad. Discarding a card (probably a land) in an aggro deck is way less of a downside than giving your opponent two lotus petal. You don't actually concede tempo by discarding, the board remains the same - allowing your opponent to play a bigger threat that can shut down your aggression is a much bigger deal.
There are enough 3/2s for 2 that I don't really feel like the 4/3 statline is that big.
Draft my Peasant Cube.
Kitesail Freebooter
Creature - Human Pirate
Flying
When Kitesail Freebooter enters the battlefield, target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose a noncreature, nonland card from it. Exile that card until Kitesail Freebooter leaves the battlefield.
1/2
New card looks decent. Less relevant card selection that Mesmeric Fiend/Brain Maggot, but body is way more useful. Interesting option.
OLD CARD DISCUSSION:
Shapers of Nature looks very interesting as a tool in a UG Ramp deck, since the card has both 3G: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature and 5UG: Draw a card as modes. If you considered River Hoopoe (as I did), this card has a more relevant body and different ways to impact the late game. Worth a look in those circumstances.
Wanted Scoundrels has so few ways to actually kill it at under 4 mana. Counting just single cards that can trade with it either directly or as a blocker, I am at under 9% of the cards in my cube. Some of those even require setup (War-Name Aspirant, Cloistered Youth) or your own tempo loss (Heir of Falkenrath, Noose Constrictor). This is not a perfect measure, since it doesn't include cards that trade 1-for-1 as an attacker (Borderland Marauder) or cards that can work in tandem (two blockers, Brute Force plus blocker). In addition, you cannot get blown out by bounce spells or Pacifism effects with the Scoundrels.
I am definitely willing to take a chance with Wanted Scoundrels given how hard it is to interact with cheaply on defense and with being okay with my opponent trading 4 mana of resources for the creature.
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
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
Sure, but with which two mana spells? I looked at the last 10 CUbe decks I drafted and each one has, on average, just over 3 ways to kill Wanted Scoundrels for less than 4 mana as either a non-creature spell or as a blocker. And not even all of those are 1-for-1 removal spells. Sometimes that includes blocking with an Accorder Paladin or spending three life with Fire Covenant and those are not always reliable either.
There are clearly really bad situations with Wanted Scoundrels, but it's just a high-risk, high-reward card that I will absolutely try out in my CUbe.
EDIT: And I am also generally fine with the idea of Scoundrels trading with a 4-mana creature or spell, since that should mean you got two turns to do something relevant with it before they traded.
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
WiJ
Peasant 540 Cube
Yes, they have to kill Wanted Scoundrels, but that 2 extra mana they get can really help them gain back tempo (accelerate a more expensive stabilising play, play 2 cards in a turn), and tempo seems like the kind of thing you want to keep if you are playing 4/3's for 2.
My Peasant Cube thread !!! (380 cards)
Draft my Peasant Cube on Cube Cobra !!!
Awful body
HIGHLIGHTED AS A GEOCACHE PREVIEW CARD
AT UNCOMMON
But viridian emissary is a card that just passes the threshold into "reasonable".
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
The card I described would be directly comparable to nest invader, I should have seen that.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
Yup, Storm Fleet Aerialist seems very playable. Funnily enough, it is made better by the fact that we also get Siren Stormcaller since that way you have more blue attackers to enable Raid on turn 2 instead if having to entirely rely on other colours for 1-drops.
Also, on the topic of Storm Fleet Arsonist: Really? Allowing the opponent to rid themselves of the worst card they have on the board at the point where you are playing a 5-drop in a deck that reliably enables Raid is abysmal. The fact that triggering the ability is actually conditional on your existing board presence just makes it so much worse. I know the sets need toe depowered occasionally, but some of the cards we have been seeing from Ixalan are just such terrible designs. Even if many of the cards in the last few sets would not have made it to CUbe for power level reasons or because they were too conditional, at least those sets had surprisingly few real stinkers outside the obvious limited chaff at common.
WiJ
Peasant 540 Cube
Also, what is the opinion on Raging Swordtooth?
WiJ
Peasant 540 Cube
Welkin Tern is ALWAYS a 2/1 flier for 2 on turn 2.
Storm Fleet is a 2/3 flier for 2 on turn 2 about what? 7-10% of time? Roughly? Maybe worse?
However, on turn 3, the percentage, I assume, goes way up. Would we still feel good about playing this guy on turn 3 or 4? Even on turn 3 and 4 it's great value mana-wise... Attacking with a creature turn 4, playing this guy with Remand up? Potential.
It also has slight utility as a defensive card for a value/control deck. Maybe even side it in your control deck against the W/x spirit token deck.
It's not as consistent as Vaporkin and ... kin, but it's certainly a more interesting card with a higher upside in the right deck. I think it at least deserves a test to see exactly how often it pans out.
My Peasant Cube thread !!! (380 cards)
Draft my Peasant Cube on Cube Cobra !!!
Hmm I didn't intially think about Siren Stormtamer, hmm will now have to consider.
Deadeye Quartermaster search library for target loxodon warhammer... I want to play it but 2/2 is too weak. It needed an extra point of power or toughness or a keyword.
Last week I asked. Plaxcaster frogling or bounding krasis.. today I ask Shapers of Nature or Bounding Krasis.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
While a 2/3 flyer isn't as good as a 3/3 menace, it's not bad on turn 4 if you have something to play alongside it and it's still not bad on turn 3 without backup. Stormblood berserker's statline was threatening well into turns 4 or maybe 5, so I would imagine this is reasonable.
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 am taking a look at my options for cutting durdle for phatasmal bear for more blue aggro.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own