honestly? i think all of the garbage elementals from C onwards are cubable. the cascade one is basically a bloodbraid elf that can block when it drops, is monocolour, and higher cmc is all good when it comes to cascade. honestly D seems stupidly powerful. C is very volatile but if you get 2 tokens out of it you get beetleback chief with battle cry and one extra power, which is totally worth one mana (and it's not cc either). i'm not sure how often the art menace on E is relevant but it reminds me a lot of bloodfray giant which is a strong card. F is pretty big and the battalion trigger is dope on a last strike creature.
i never really considered un-cards for cube before, but this set makes me want to just do it anyway.
Speaking of multiple versions being good, I really think versions A, B, D, and E for Knight of the Kitchen Sink are playable, depending on the power level you are looking for. I love rising power levels, but I can already anticipate the dumb rules debates about "protection from black borders" (what if I use a sleeve as a token?) and I will not add it.
The even/odd collector numbers are fine from a power level, as they should each get protection from half the cube (I have a few cards without collector numbers), but it feels like a weird thing to play around and track, especially if you are playing against it.
But, the version with protection from two-word names is actually pretty good AND pretty easy to understand. A much higher percentage of cards have two names than I expected (my official count was for mono-white only and there was over 40 for a 69 card section). I am not sure what a cut would be, but I will likely cube version E of the Knight.
Definitely playing the Cascade version of Garbage Elemental, looks super sweet. It's also really weird to have the first mono-color cascade card... I guess it's funny to care about THAT among all Un-stuff, but, yeah.
"Art menace" and "loose lips" and collector's numbers are too much hassle to track for me. I could do either the OG (black-border) Knight of the Kitchen Sink, or maybe the two-word one. Hell, even the Watermarks one is pretty decent.
Wanted to solicit release weekend impressions for anyone who happened to have drafted Unstable this weekend, as well as offer some of my own.
GO TO JAIL- I played against this card a bunch this weekend, and it is as variable as expected. I am still a fan, but I think it is important to proper calibrate expectations for the card. At the absolute very least, it prevents a creature from either blocking or attacking for a turn cycle and every missed die roll increases that by a turn. I will say having a creature with an ETB ability GET OUT OF JAIL feels pretty rough for the jailer, so take that into consideration.
Blurry Beeble- A lot of the mileage for this card depends on the glasses-wearing percentage of your playgroup, but against someone without glasses, this is a one-mana Looter il-Kor. I actually played two of them against a draft pod where every other person wore glasses (I do not) and it was serviceable attacking early, but mainly good because I had synergies with artifacts and watermarks.
More or Less- Only saw it used for +1/+0 or -0/-1 tricks this weekend, but that is an excellent fail-safe for this card.
Ground Pounder- A card that was both random and unpredictable, but the upside is really big. First off, the card is really bad against instant speed removal because you need to spend so much mana to activate it. Second off, it is really rough to block, because you need to get (on average) 6/6 worth of creatures in front of it to kill it in combat when it activates and I cannot imagine doing that reliably before turn 6 or so. Third off, chump blocking it when it can be activated is super scary, because +5/+5 and trample is just devastating. Much, much better card than I expected.
Squirrel Dealer- Everyone who I heard asked this weekend about liking squirrels responded in the affirmative. In those situations, two 1/1s for G is pretty solid. No idea how much people will like squirrels the 4th time it is cast in CUbe, but the best-case scenario is a little nuts. (Get it?)
Inhumaniac- It is random, but also very predictable, as you always know how big it will be when attacking or blocking. Frank Karsten did the work attached below describing the probability of its size over X upkeeps. My direct experience with it was that it got into combat whenever it was reasonably sized and sat back the other times. And it was pretty big, pretty early in some games.
I got to do an 8-man this weekend, and did seed in the 5 Unstable cards I am cubing. Of those, I do not believe GO TO JAIL was played, and I did not see any of the results from cascade Garbage Elemental or More or Less, which were in decks. I played with Proper Laboratory Attire, and it's just another Trusty Machete, which is on the lower tier of Peasant cubeable equipment.
One of the players directly next to me had Super-Duper Death Ray and he was raving about it/his opponent was frustrated by it. I am not sure if they were just excited about having a 2R instant deal 4, but I think it cleared some important creatures and dealt damage most of the time, with killing a turn 2 Young Pyromancer and dealing 3 damage being the peak application.
Both Cascade and Battle Cry Garbage Elementals need more testing since I didn't see them in aggressive shells, but they both seemed good.
I think reminder text came up once for Old Guard. Played decently and was solid curve filler.
Super-Duper Death Ray does what it says on the card. I don't think it killing x/4s came up at all, but it killed stuff and dealt face damage. Name is certainly fun to say.
More or Less was impressive. Killed all the Cloudgoat tokens, pumped for lethal, and made 2/1 fliers with Migratory Route, which prompted a concession. My only concern is that it got stuck in hands a bit when there weren't any good x/1s to kill.
For contraptions I cut down to Crafty Octopus, Steady-Handed Mook, and Wrench-Rigger. I'm not exactly sure what their power level is, but I think those 3 are somewhat close to reasonably priced. I'll probably cut down my contraption deck a bit to raise the power level, but Wrench-Rigger might be a problem with the crazy aggro starts.
Basically impossible to find online. At least, it was for me 'til I resorted to having Guitarspider order it and a few other UN cards from a Spanish seller
They also have two other Garbage editions, which are similarly obscure and difficult to acquire, but not the ones that are really C/U worthy.
i never really considered un-cards for cube before, but this set makes me want to just do it anyway.
The even/odd collector numbers are fine from a power level, as they should each get protection from half the cube (I have a few cards without collector numbers), but it feels like a weird thing to play around and track, especially if you are playing against it.
But, the version with protection from two-word names is actually pretty good AND pretty easy to understand. A much higher percentage of cards have two names than I expected (my official count was for mono-white only and there was over 40 for a 69 card section). I am not sure what a cut would be, but I will likely cube version E of the Knight.
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
"Art menace" and "loose lips" and collector's numbers are too much hassle to track for me. I could do either the OG (black-border) Knight of the Kitchen Sink, or maybe the two-word one. Hell, even the Watermarks one is pretty decent.
GO TO JAIL- I played against this card a bunch this weekend, and it is as variable as expected. I am still a fan, but I think it is important to proper calibrate expectations for the card. At the absolute very least, it prevents a creature from either blocking or attacking for a turn cycle and every missed die roll increases that by a turn. I will say having a creature with an ETB ability GET OUT OF JAIL feels pretty rough for the jailer, so take that into consideration.
Blurry Beeble- A lot of the mileage for this card depends on the glasses-wearing percentage of your playgroup, but against someone without glasses, this is a one-mana Looter il-Kor. I actually played two of them against a draft pod where every other person wore glasses (I do not) and it was serviceable attacking early, but mainly good because I had synergies with artifacts and watermarks.
More or Less- Only saw it used for +1/+0 or -0/-1 tricks this weekend, but that is an excellent fail-safe for this card.
Ground Pounder- A card that was both random and unpredictable, but the upside is really big. First off, the card is really bad against instant speed removal because you need to spend so much mana to activate it. Second off, it is really rough to block, because you need to get (on average) 6/6 worth of creatures in front of it to kill it in combat when it activates and I cannot imagine doing that reliably before turn 6 or so. Third off, chump blocking it when it can be activated is super scary, because +5/+5 and trample is just devastating. Much, much better card than I expected.
Squirrel Dealer- Everyone who I heard asked this weekend about liking squirrels responded in the affirmative. In those situations, two 1/1s for G is pretty solid. No idea how much people will like squirrels the 4th time it is cast in CUbe, but the best-case scenario is a little nuts. (Get it?)
Inhumaniac- It is random, but also very predictable, as you always know how big it will be when attacking or blocking. Frank Karsten did the work attached below describing the probability of its size over X upkeeps. My direct experience with it was that it got into combat whenever it was reasonably sized and sat back the other times. And it was pretty big, pretty early in some games.
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
One of the players directly next to me had Super-Duper Death Ray and he was raving about it/his opponent was frustrated by it. I am not sure if they were just excited about having a 2R instant deal 4, but I think it cleared some important creatures and dealt damage most of the time, with killing a turn 2 Young Pyromancer and dealing 3 damage being the peak application.
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
I think reminder text came up once for Old Guard. Played decently and was solid curve filler.
Super-Duper Death Ray does what it says on the card. I don't think it killing x/4s came up at all, but it killed stuff and dealt face damage. Name is certainly fun to say.
More or Less was impressive. Killed all the Cloudgoat tokens, pumped for lethal, and made 2/1 fliers with Migratory Route, which prompted a concession. My only concern is that it got stuck in hands a bit when there weren't any good x/1s to kill.
For contraptions I cut down to Crafty Octopus, Steady-Handed Mook, and Wrench-Rigger. I'm not exactly sure what their power level is, but I think those 3 are somewhat close to reasonably priced. I'll probably cut down my contraption deck a bit to raise the power level, but Wrench-Rigger might be a problem with the crazy aggro starts.
Basically impossible to find online. At least, it was for me 'til I resorted to having Guitarspider order it and a few other UN cards from a Spanish seller
They also have two other Garbage editions, which are similarly obscure and difficult to acquire, but not the ones that are really C/U worthy.
--
How good would Bursting Beebles be WITHOUT "blurry"? Like, Stealer of Secrets in babby size... kinda interesting.