I'll start off by saying that not many cubes have room for tri-colored cards. I don't plan to run any in my cube, but I'm hoping to get some good mono-color and guild options.
Maestros Theater - A Panorama variant. I assume it'll be a full cycle. Not terrible, but I believe we have better fixing already.
Skybridge Towers - A cycle of lands. Not the greatest, but if you're running generic ETB tapped guild lands, these might be a decent improvement.
Cards that caught my eye so far: An Offer You Can't Refuse: Don't think this has a place in my cube, but it's an interesting effect in peasant nonetheless. Rumor Gatherer: If you support a token strategy in white (which many peasant cubes seem to do) this seems pretty good. Mage's Attendant: Interesting card and probably good enough for my cube, but pretty bland so it is hard to find a cut to test this.
I have a little interest in some of the other Casualty cards too. I would actually say the best ones are instants where the sacrifice can be used on something already dying to squeeze out that value. Otherwise, even some of the sorceries offer a lot of value for the mana cost and are an interesting way to sneak it some upside for Threaten effects.
Grisly Salvage and Light 'Em Up- Both of these have limited utility without casuality, but are extremely powerful for low mana. Light 'Em Up sort of turns any creature into a Goblin Cratermaker, but really wishes it was an instant.
A Little Chat- I would say this is a better effect than Deadly Dispute, with the upside of being able to cast without a sacrifice and the downside of being in a worse color for sacrifice fodder.
Rumor Gatherer is a powerful card draw engine for white go wide/token decks and is more interesting than the nth anthem effect. 1 toughness and the WW cost hurt a bit, but I'm pretty sure I will add this to my cube.
Mage's Attendant looks...ok? Would obviously be far better if the wizard token didn't cost 1 to activate.
An Offer you can't refuse is a really bad card from my pov, at least for cube. The cheap mana cost means you can cast it (relatively) early, but giving your opponent two Lotus Petals early on is pure madness. Maybe this is good enough for a fast constructed format sideboard, but this will not come close to my cube.
The Skybridge Towers land cycle is better than nothing, but the upside is so overcosted that it hardly matters. Only interesting for people who play life gain lands or similar trash.
I like A Little Chat as it's a nice combat/removal trick with a decent plan b option so you didn't hold up your mana for nothing.
The other casuality cards are pretty bad from my pov. Light'em Up is a terrible spell on its own and you need to sac a 2 power creature to copy it at sorcery speed. This will almost never be a great deal and most of the time not even be a good deal. Grisly Sigil also has way too many coniditions to be good on average.
Yeah, Mage's Attendant is interesting. Three mana for a 3/2 and a 1/1 is decent by itself. In a blink/flicker archetype, you can keep creating Wizard tokens. And that's before we get to the token's ability. "Noncreature" means it's no Force Spike, and it lacks the Ferocious mode to be as good as Stubborn Denial, but any time you have this token and one mana open, your opponent has to plan on spending extra mana to resolve their spell.
I'm hopeful that we'll get some good Casualty cards - I like the mechanic but haven't seen a card that really impresses me yet.
So far, I think A Little Chat and Rumor Gatherer are the only maybes I have. Chat is kind of similar to Village Rites, and that one has become a favourite amongst my drafters very quickly. Granted, it is in a worst colour of finding a suitable sacrificial lamb, but I still think it has merit. It having a floor of getting a singular copy is ok.
I think the WW cost on Rumor Gatherer may be a bit too rough, but it reminds me most of Abzan Beastmaster, but for go wide decks instead of go tall. I suspect it will experience similar survival rates, which might make it good enough. I also play a couple of cards that synergise very well with it, such as Maja, Bretagard Protector and Oketra's Monument, and not to speak of cards that enter with a friend.
I think Mage's Attendant is interesting, but it is fairly slow. Needing 1 mana to activate the token probably kills it for me, but it is interesting to see a novel take on Attended Knight-esque cards.
A Little Chat: As everyone has pointed out, this is a solid card that allows you to cast without a creature, unlike Altar's Reap and friends. Sacrifice is not something I support in blue, so it feels a little awkward to include.
Rumor Gatherer: The effect is great and fits my cube's go wide theme. The 2/1 body is extremely fragile.
Mage's Attendant: Sort of Sandsteppe Outcast where you get slightly worse versions of both modes. The activation cost of the token makes the tax symmetrical (arguably worse for you unless you know your opponents hand), but it is a pretty unique effect.
Metropolis Angel: Interesting payoff for counters and a support card for U/W fliers. 1 toughness for the mana cost is a limitation.
Exotic Pets: Probably not good enough, but if you have enough +1/+1 counters in your cube, the potential for two unblockable 2/2s at instant speed for three mana is not a bad rate.
Arcfire Discharger
{1}
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature has "{1}: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature blocking."
Equip {1}
This is crazy with any creature with deathtouch.
Just want to point out that the translations I saw restricted damage only to creatures blocking the equipped creature, not all blocking creatures. Seems a bit narrow.
Yes, but is it better than Twinblade Geist? The ability to loot and potentially put a +1/+1 counter on a double-striker is great, but I'm not super well set up to support a Heroic archetype in my cube. I do have an aura/enchantment subtheme in white though, and besides, Twinblade Invocation (the flip-side of Twinblade Geist), can be good on it's own).
Yes, but is it better than Twinblade Geist? The ability to loot and potentially put a +1/+1 counter on a double-striker is great, but I'm not super well set up to support a Heroic archetype in my cube. I do have an aura/enchantment subtheme in white though, and besides, Twinblade Invocation (the flip-side of Twinblade Geist), can be good on it's own).
I prefer Twinblade Geist as well - Heroic is not really supported in my cube. However, I know some others in the forum do not like double-sided cards and Illuminator Virtuoso may have more upside than Kor Blademaster.
Illuminator Virtuoso: I like this a lot more than Twinblade Geist. I feel as if the backside on Geist was rarely relevant, and if you're not planning to target your 1/1 double striker with spells then I'm not sure why he's in your deck in the first place.
Witness Protection: This is surprisingly powerful for just one mana, with the obvious downside that the creature can still chump. I think that's still a pretty solid trade-off.
Psychic Pickpocket Probably a no, this is often a 4/3 with bounce and a loot for 5 mana, which is closer to playable than it might look on first pass. Works well with flicker.
Trouble on the Roof: The kicked mode is potentially some good value, but this card feels like it's pulling me in too many different directions. What deck wants divination, frost breath, and has random dorks to sac?
Mage's Attendant: Cool card, a bit awkward that the 3 drop slot in white is already so packed. Even so I will still probably run this -- It has a solid statline, provides 2 bodies, does things with flicker, and has some random annoyance value on the sac ability. That's enough for me.
Exotic Pets: Probably not good enough, but if you have enough +1/+1 counters in your cube, the potential for two unblockable 2/2s at instant speed for three mana is not a bad rate.
I don't think it works that way. I believe you'd only get to put a +1/+1 on a single one of the fish.
Illuminator Virtuoso: I like this a lot more than Twinblade Geist. I feel as if the backside on Geist was rarely relevant, and if you're not planning to target your 1/1 double striker with spells then I'm not sure why he's in your deck in the first place.
The thing with heroic in cube is that a lot of boost is either in the form of equipments, or blanket upgrades such as Goblin Oriflamme or Thraben Watcher. Yes, sometimes you'll be able to cast a Gryff's Boon and win big, but I feel the upside of Twinblade Geist is in its ability to make another creature into a threat when it has been outclassed.
Exotic Pets: Probably not good enough, but if you have enough +1/+1 counters in your cube, the potential for two unblockable 2/2s at instant speed for three mana is not a bad rate.
I don't think it works that way. I believe you'd only get to put a +1/+1 on a single one of the fish.
Sorry - you are correct. I missed the "either" in the text. Will fix.
Witness Protection: I like this more than Bind the Monster and Bubble Snare in a control shell but prefer Bind the Monster in a more tempo oriented deck. Depends on what you want your blue section to do I guess.
Re: Raffine's Informant and Connive in general- I, too, have been comparing Connive with Explore when thinking about the strength of the mechanic. I like Connive more because Explore was not reliable. In a vacumm, I would have preferred a different card with either half of the ability instead of the in-between of Merfolk Branchwalker.
Informant is always going to be a 3/2 if you want a 3/2. Will that always be worth it? Time will tell.
Echo Inspector looks good if discarding a non-land gives you upside, but a 2/3 flier that loots or a 3/4 flier with downside at 3U do not hit for me.
Hypnotic Grifter is interesting to me since I love weird 1-drops. This is a minorly powerful engine for cheap that become large enough to impact the board. At least you can get some extra board presence if you spend early turns conniving.
Witty Jokester (name might not be 100% right) seems pretty good. Impact tremors on a 3/2 creature for 3 fits R/X tokens.
Destruction Demon is an interesting reanimation/blink target. 7 mana is a bit rough and I like Archfiend of Sorrows a bit better because of the evasion.
Fatal Grudge as an Innocent Blood that draws a card and sometimes instead hits enchantments, artifacts, or planeswalkers is kind of neat.
Illuminator Virtuoso is another playable Fencing Ace. The problem is that there are only very few cards that would trigger his ability and it's mostly an equipment matters card and equipment doesn't trigger the ability. Twinblade Geist is the most reliable card of this type, but I don't play flip cards. Kor Blademaster's ability can not be reliably triggered either, but overall I feel it's slightly easier to trigger and can have more upside - giving an Ahn-Crop Crasher double strike is not that bad after all. I think I will stick with Kor Blademaster for now.
Raffine's Informant seems interesting, but a little weak to me. The days where a vanilla 3/2 for 2 was good are over and this will only be a valuable card to play if you are low on lands and really want to discard a nonland card, which is a rare for a deck that plays an aggressive two drop like that.
Fatal Grudge is a bad version of Diabolic Edict for the most part, I don't understand the appeal. It's only slightly better if you have a crappy creature/permanent you really want to sacrifice in exchange for a new card, but for a guild card that's hardly enough reason to run it. Yes, you could theoretically remove enchantments of artifacts with it, but that is so unlikely to be worth it that I doubt it will ever matter. From my point of view this will be worse than Edict more often than it will be better and Edict is a mono color card that I don't run.
Witty Insulter (ha! another possible name for it from mythicspoilers) looks like a nice payoff for go wide decks, which is something I support in red and mostly Boros. Will think about it.
Witty Insulter (ha! another possible name for it from mythicspoilers) looks like a nice payoff for go wide decks, which is something I support in red and mostly Boros. Will think about it.
Also, Caldaia Strongarm, which got spoiled today, is kind of interesting if you support +1/+1 counters matters in GW and/or Fires in RG. At 4G, it compares really poorly to something like Ridgescale Tusker and other green fatties. But, being able to Blitz this out with haste for 4 mana, buff up a 2-3 drop, and then draw a card seems like it could be good enough. Curious what everyone else here thinks.
Jewel Thief : A 3/3 trample/vigilance creature for 3 that also makes a treasure seems pretty solid. Does not really fit any of my cube themes, but seems really pushed. Surprised this is not a 4 mana creature.
Patch Up: This seems good in W/X weenie. Not as good as Call of the Death-Dweller, but multiple creature reanimation is an effect we do not often see out of black.
Mayhem Patrol: Another good value card. 2/2 menace for 2 is good statline and the blitz will often be two to the opponent and a new card.
Also, Caldaia Strongarm, which got spoiled today, is kind of interesting if you support +1/+1 counters matters in GW and/or Fires in RG. At 4G, it compares really poorly to something like Ridgescale Tusker and other green fatties. But, being able to Blitz this out with haste for 4 mana, buff up a 2-3 drop, and then draw a card seems like it could be good enough. Curious what everyone else here thinks.
I like the flexibility and I think there will be situations where the Blitz will be a blowout. However, the high mana cost means there will be a lot of times where the blitz will be easily blocked and spending 5 on a vanilla 2/3 that pumps one creature or a single 4/5 is pretty underwhelming.
I like Night clubber because I have far too many tokens in my cube and I want playable answers. It also doesn't have the random white hate like Plague Mare.
Jewel Thief seems really good I wish it was in red though.
I'll start off by saying that not many cubes have room for tri-colored cards. I don't plan to run any in my cube, but I'm hoping to get some good mono-color and guild options.
Maestros Theater - A Panorama variant. I assume it'll be a full cycle. Not terrible, but I believe we have better fixing already.
Skybridge Towers - A cycle of lands. Not the greatest, but if you're running generic ETB tapped guild lands, these might be a decent improvement.
Rumor Gatherer - Decent ability on a weak body.
Make Disappear is Quench with a sac to copy clause.
An Offer You Can't Refuse - One mana counterspells (or Negates) are good, but giving 2 treasure to your opponent? Oof.
So nothing spectacular so far, but they've been hitting the three color pretty heavy, and I'm sure we'll get more later.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
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EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
An Offer You Can't Refuse: Don't think this has a place in my cube, but it's an interesting effect in peasant nonetheless.
Rumor Gatherer: If you support a token strategy in white (which many peasant cubes seem to do) this seems pretty good.
Mage's Attendant: Interesting card and probably good enough for my cube, but pretty bland so it is hard to find a cut to test this.
My C/Ube on Cube Cobra
Grisly Salvage and Light 'Em Up- Both of these have limited utility without casuality, but are extremely powerful for low mana. Light 'Em Up sort of turns any creature into a Goblin Cratermaker, but really wishes it was an instant.
A Little Chat- I would say this is a better effect than Deadly Dispute, with the upside of being able to cast without a sacrifice and the downside of being in a worse color for sacrifice fodder.
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
Mage's Attendant looks...ok? Would obviously be far better if the wizard token didn't cost 1 to activate.
An Offer you can't refuse is a really bad card from my pov, at least for cube. The cheap mana cost means you can cast it (relatively) early, but giving your opponent two Lotus Petals early on is pure madness. Maybe this is good enough for a fast constructed format sideboard, but this will not come close to my cube.
The Skybridge Towers land cycle is better than nothing, but the upside is so overcosted that it hardly matters. Only interesting for people who play life gain lands or similar trash.
I like A Little Chat as it's a nice combat/removal trick with a decent plan b option so you didn't hold up your mana for nothing.
The other casuality cards are pretty bad from my pov. Light'em Up is a terrible spell on its own and you need to sac a 2 power creature to copy it at sorcery speed. This will almost never be a great deal and most of the time not even be a good deal. Grisly Sigil also has way too many coniditions to be good on average.
My Old School Battlebox
My Premodern Battlebox
I'm hopeful that we'll get some good Casualty cards - I like the mechanic but haven't seen a card that really impresses me yet.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
I am not sure if they are better than what I have in that slot mostly sidegrades, my 3 drops are keyword soup cards and a few blink cards.
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
I think the WW cost on Rumor Gatherer may be a bit too rough, but it reminds me most of Abzan Beastmaster, but for go wide decks instead of go tall. I suspect it will experience similar survival rates, which might make it good enough. I also play a couple of cards that synergise very well with it, such as Maja, Bretagard Protector and Oketra's Monument, and not to speak of cards that enter with a friend.
I think Mage's Attendant is interesting, but it is fairly slow. Needing 1 mana to activate the token probably kills it for me, but it is interesting to see a novel take on Attended Knight-esque cards.
WiJ
Peasant 540 Cube
{1}
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature has "{1}: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature blocking."
Equip {1}
This is crazy with any creature with deathtouch.
My Omniscience Draft Cube[/b]
My Commander Cube
My Pai Gow Cube
My Two-Headed Giant Cube
A Little Chat: As everyone has pointed out, this is a solid card that allows you to cast without a creature, unlike Altar's Reap and friends. Sacrifice is not something I support in blue, so it feels a little awkward to include.
Rumor Gatherer: The effect is great and fits my cube's go wide theme. The 2/1 body is extremely fragile.
Mage's Attendant: Sort of Sandsteppe Outcast where you get slightly worse versions of both modes. The activation cost of the token makes the tax symmetrical (arguably worse for you unless you know your opponents hand), but it is a pretty unique effect.
Metropolis Angel: Interesting payoff for counters and a support card for U/W fliers. 1 toughness for the mana cost is a limitation.
Exotic Pets: Probably not good enough,
but if you have enough +1/+1 counters in your cube, the potential for two unblockable 2/2s at instant speed for three mana is not a bad rate.Illuminator Virtuoso: A better Fencing Ace and card filtering in white.
Just want to point out that the translations I saw restricted damage only to creatures blocking the equipped creature, not all blocking creatures. Seems a bit narrow.
My 2-Player Signed Legacy Cube
My Lord of the Rings Cube
Yes, but is it better than Twinblade Geist? The ability to loot and potentially put a +1/+1 counter on a double-striker is great, but I'm not super well set up to support a Heroic archetype in my cube. I do have an aura/enchantment subtheme in white though, and besides, Twinblade Invocation (the flip-side of Twinblade Geist), can be good on it's own).
I prefer Twinblade Geist as well - Heroic is not really supported in my cube. However, I know some others in the forum do not like double-sided cards and Illuminator Virtuoso may have more upside than Kor Blademaster.
My 2-Player Signed Legacy Cube
My Lord of the Rings Cube
Witness Protection: This is surprisingly powerful for just one mana, with the obvious downside that the creature can still chump. I think that's still a pretty solid trade-off.
Psychic Pickpocket Probably a no, this is often a 4/3 with bounce and a loot for 5 mana, which is closer to playable than it might look on first pass. Works well with flicker.
Trouble on the Roof: The kicked mode is potentially some good value, but this card feels like it's pulling me in too many different directions. What deck wants divination, frost breath, and has random dorks to sac?
Mage's Attendant: Cool card, a bit awkward that the 3 drop slot in white is already so packed. Even so I will still probably run this -- It has a solid statline, provides 2 bodies, does things with flicker, and has some random annoyance value on the sac ability. That's enough for me.
I don't think it works that way. I believe you'd only get to put a +1/+1 on a single one of the fish.
The thing with heroic in cube is that a lot of boost is either in the form of equipments, or blanket upgrades such as Goblin Oriflamme or Thraben Watcher. Yes, sometimes you'll be able to cast a Gryff's Boon and win big, but I feel the upside of Twinblade Geist is in its ability to make another creature into a threat when it has been outclassed.
WiJ
Peasant 540 Cube
Sorry - you are correct. I missed the "either" in the text. Will fix.
My 2-Player Signed Legacy Cube
My Lord of the Rings Cube
Raffine's Informant: Reminds me a bit of Merfolk Branchwalker but this is obviously weaker but in white. Not exciting but might be good enough?
My C/Ube on Cube Cobra
Informant is always going to be a 3/2 if you want a 3/2. Will that always be worth it? Time will tell.
Echo Inspector looks good if discarding a non-land gives you upside, but a 2/3 flier that loots or a 3/4 flier with downside at 3U do not hit for me.
Hypnotic Grifter is interesting to me since I love weird 1-drops. This is a minorly powerful engine for cheap that become large enough to impact the board. At least you can get some extra board presence if you spend early turns conniving.
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 like the connive cards in theory but they seem a little too weak atm, just need one pushed one.
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
Destruction Demon is an interesting reanimation/blink target. 7 mana is a bit rough and I like Archfiend of Sorrows a bit better because of the evasion.
Fatal Grudge as an Innocent Blood that draws a card and sometimes instead hits enchantments, artifacts, or planeswalkers is kind of neat.
My 2-Player Signed Legacy Cube
My Lord of the Rings Cube
Raffine's Informant seems interesting, but a little weak to me. The days where a vanilla 3/2 for 2 was good are over and this will only be a valuable card to play if you are low on lands and really want to discard a nonland card, which is a rare for a deck that plays an aggressive two drop like that.
Fatal Grudge is a bad version of Diabolic Edict for the most part, I don't understand the appeal. It's only slightly better if you have a crappy creature/permanent you really want to sacrifice in exchange for a new card, but for a guild card that's hardly enough reason to run it. Yes, you could theoretically remove enchantments of artifacts with it, but that is so unlikely to be worth it that I doubt it will ever matter. From my point of view this will be worse than Edict more often than it will be better and Edict is a mono color card that I don't run.
Witty Insulter (ha! another possible name for it from mythicspoilers) looks like a nice payoff for go wide decks, which is something I support in red and mostly Boros. Will think about it.
My Old School Battlebox
My Premodern Battlebox
I think (at least in my environment) Jokester/Prankster/Insulter might even be good in UR. Between Dragon Fodder, Hordeling Outburst, Talrand's Invocation, Whirler Rogue, Aven Eternal, Young Pyromancer, and Murmuring Mystic, there are actually quite a few ways to trigger it.
Also, Caldaia Strongarm, which got spoiled today, is kind of interesting if you support +1/+1 counters matters in GW and/or Fires in RG. At 4G, it compares really poorly to something like Ridgescale Tusker and other green fatties. But, being able to Blitz this out with haste for 4 mana, buff up a 2-3 drop, and then draw a card seems like it could be good enough. Curious what everyone else here thinks.
Patch Up: This seems good in W/X weenie. Not as good as Call of the Death-Dweller, but multiple creature reanimation is an effect we do not often see out of black.
Mayhem Patrol: Another good value card. 2/2 menace for 2 is good statline and the blitz will often be two to the opponent and a new card.
I like the flexibility and I think there will be situations where the Blitz will be a blowout. However, the high mana cost means there will be a lot of times where the blitz will be easily blocked and spending 5 on a vanilla 2/3 that pumps one creature or a single 4/5 is pretty underwhelming.
My 2-Player Signed Legacy Cube
My Lord of the Rings Cube
I like Night clubber because I have far too many tokens in my cube and I want playable answers. It also doesn't have the random white hate like Plague Mare.
Jewel Thief seems really good I wish it was in red though.
I really liked patch up when I saw it but the Call of the Death-Dweller is a relevant one, maybe I am underrating call hmm.
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
I don't think I would run Slip Out the Back, but the fact it can hit your opponent's creatures opens a few interesting play lines.
My 2-Player Signed Legacy Cube
My Lord of the Rings Cube