Corrupt is situative, Tendrils of Corruption is not. Removal or creatures with lifegain are interesting, while you can always have bad luck with the Tendrils, that you stuck at about 2 swamps. If you want to support mono C decks, even if they aren't very common, booth cards are good, while the Tendrils can still be played in 2c.
I made great experiences with Lava Burst and Disintegrate in addition to Kaervek's Torch and of course Fireball/Rolling Thunder. The X Spells are not just super flexible removal, they also give red the missing reach the agressive decks often need.
I think I have to cut the Crusher. Everyone is talking about a great ramp target. I agree with that point, but my cube simply has no ramp included anymore and I don't want to support it. My cube is too big and there is the chance, that you pick every good ramp card, but none of the playable finishers.
The 3c control decks, sometimes have use for it, but sometimes, they would prefer something, that has influence to the game, before you got 8 lands. Aswell the control decks often win the lategame anyway, because that means, that the agressive deck was too slow. With 8 lands you sould have already won.
I don't really think about including ramp again, because the small list of playable finishers doesn't convince me. Everything under cc6 doesn't need ramp and this way, the interesting ramp targets should be:
Staple: Ulamog's Crusher Havenwood Wurm
Those are about 3 playable ramp targets in my opinion. There can be different opinions, but for my part I prefer the aura topic, that fits better into the midrange strategie green mainly follows.
The problem about the 7 mana 7 power removal is just, that the 1/1 doesn't count. The Splicer itself is a dead card as long trample on 3/3 bodies isn't a way too big problem for the opponent. I never tested the Splicer, but I played Coursers' Accord quite often and it never convinced me this much and it's the better version of splicer apart from the fact, that it's GW bound. In fact you need just 2 removal or bounce spells to get rid of them or at least a 3/3 first strike or a 3/4 body, to make them useless.
The Warrior is good in so far, that Vigilance on such a huge and late body is very important. Sentinel Spider proves that. If you have a ramp deck, you have to think, you don't have this much life left, when you lay your cc7 fatties.
Btw. I forgot Citanul Woodreaders and Mold Shambler as playable/borderline fatties. None of them is really exciting, but they have to be named.
My ramp targets are usually all the 5cc dudes. Hallowhedge Beast, Sentiel Spider and friends. They are all face rollers, that you in-effect 'combo out at around t3. That's generally what I aim for when I'm ramping. Then I have a couple of 'over-the-top' spells which are Citanul Woodreaders, Havenwood Wurm, Ulamog's Crusher, Krosan Tusker and some x-burn spells are what I top the curve off with. Honestly you don't need many or all of these cards in the ramp deck. They generally have already blown their removal spells of the 5cc and 4cc fatties when you get to the curve toppers.
What I'm saying is you don't need many more expensive spells. I would like to see a couple more effective curve toppers, but I'm not going to force in any sub-par ones as they likely won't be good enough anyway. Often they aren't even that much stronger than the 5cc cards.
The problem with that is, that I actually like the Strike more than the Justice, because I made the experience, that a 2 for 1 trade for cc2 is game changing often enough, in the early stages of the game.
To the Justice: I agree with Lanxal, that you want Lifegain, but you can't spend a card for it, what makes this card really interesting, but I think I still prefer simple card advantage with a risk against lifegain with a risk. If it resolves, getting a card from the top for killing a creature, without even spending a lot of mana for it, is just great. (Look at Hobble/Exclude).
Maybe I'll try the Repel over the Justice, while the Wisps still seems interesting to me. Cantrips for cc1 can be really nice, combined with a useful effect.
Weird situation, but I like how Swift Justice costs one mana which puts it over the edge. If I want a combat trick I eventiably want it to cost one mana as it requires little to not effort keeping up mana for and it is increadibly easy to play around their removal spel in response. Plus the "free" lifegain is SO important. Guided Strike is so much more telegraphed, you don't want to be obvious as a trick when your the best at combating untargetable cards (eg hexproof and shroud). The free card is good but the reduced cost is more valuable for the type of card it is.
Back to the question: If you play Online Commons, is Phantom Monster a must-play?
Not a must-play (staple), but I would be hard pressed not to run that in Blues 4cc section. Being a French vanilla 3/3 flyer is just so awesome. Those stats let it win all trades in the air as almost every single flyer between 1 and 4 mana is smaller than it. It's not the strongest 4 cost flyer for control, no built in protection, but it's really good in tempo/midrange decks.
-Festerhide Boar: There are a lot of great creatures in the green cc4 slot and I thought a while about them. The Boar actually seems like the only one of them, that could be cut. Not that a 5/5 Trample for cc4 isn't insane, but Morbid is a hard restriction, especially for green and I definitly want to play Krosan Vorine again with my aura topic, because a 5/4 Provoke Regenerate, is often a won game, and with Shielding Plax or Neurok Stealthsuit the game is definitly over.
The other green cc4 creature I would like to play is Elephant Ambush, because a 3/3 Flash for cc4, that could theoretically be flashbacked is great, but I don't see any weaker card in that slot and with my aura theme, instead of ramp, the Vorine is more important at first.
Big fan of the Boar. A 5/5 trampler is insane for 4 mana. It's still great for 5 mana. Even if there is a bit of set up, as it's not reliable, the pay off is more than worth it. If your not getting the morbid trigger by t6 where it begins in loss value then you generally have won the game, or shouldn't have kept the hand. Even if you morbid trigger way off curve it's still an impactful card, that demands some way of being dealt with, or it's going to crush that person.
-Confound: Back to the cheap 2 for 1 trades. The most non-creatures in the cube target something. Beeing able to Counter everything, that can target is totally Ok and making card advantage out of it, for just cc2, seems great. I'm not sure if it shouldn't have a space in my 400 cube.
If you want to add your pauper cube to the list - you'll need link to PM me a link or post it in here FAO of jonboyjon.
I try and do this ASAP over the next week or so - but I am in the final stages of my degree right now!
My cube list hasn't been posted up. I haven't got around to it. Plus it's currently under it's normal size as I had a sleeve shortage when I was upgrading to double sleeves.
I got unsure about Ulamog's Crusher. My cube has been drafted a lot of times right now and I can't remember that he was even played once. Is it underrated or just too unflexible. With cutting ramp from green I think the chances, to see him in play got decreased aswell. What are your experiences with it. Is it really playable?
Not every draft Ulamog's Crusher gets used. That's just the nature of the card. It's just a stupid finisher in any deck that wants to drag the game on for ages or ramp. It can be answered by most non-damage removal spells, but the kind of deck has ground out the game to the point that the other deck has ran out of resources to deal with threats, and then wants to close the game.
Ulamog's Crusher closes a game like no other card in pauper. Most decks will be crippled with one hit. After 2 hits, is often functionally dead.
You are correct that in a lot of situations is unused or not necessary, but the pay off for the decks that do want it is huge. The fact is it is colourless which means that a large varity of diffent decks for different colours have access to it, and it's not going to be picked up my everyone and their mum like Twisted Abomination where players will take it because it's raw power in everything, even if it is not being used optimally in their deck.
Plus there it is one of the few good ramp targets we have, and it is great with a deck of counter spells (countering it's weakness of removal) and maybe 2 other win conditions.
I tried corrupt for the longest time, but it's just not good in any deck that's not mono black. When you're playing tendrils, getting 3 damage and 3 life is actually pretty good - whereas corrupt for 4 is pretty disappointing. Additionally, very few decks ever aimed it at the face - aggro decks couldn't afford to run it, and control decks can win in other ways than expensive burn spells.
It's easily better than consume spirit though, because of needing one less black mana to do the same thing.
Tried it before, if you often get mono black drafts (or near) Corrupt is good. If not it's bad. Simple.
Also; Prophetic Prism and Prismatic Lens... still playable at 360? Lens is somewhat better, but both seem to be a bit lackluster lately. Signets are mostly just better and these two tend to go 13th-15th pick way too often.
Pilgrim's Eye then Armillery Sphere then Wayfarer's Bauble, if by power. I'd want room for at least Pilgrim's and the Sphere. Also Bauble is t2 ramp, not CA generating curve smoothers, and functions similarly to Mana Rocks.
Prismatic Lens easily. Being a mana rock is awesome. Maybe Wayfarer's Bauble is better than it. You can hold up t2 counter magic with it while being able to ramp, only at the cost of your t1.
Run all the equipments!
Actually I feel Adventuring Gear is the best then Leonin Scimitar then Flayer Husk. I really like the potential build-around-me pay off on gear.
It helped me a lot to reorganize my cube. I moved the Signets and Guildlands (Gates + Bounce Lands) to the Multicolor section, as a category: 2-coloured fixing. The other Utility/Fixing lands where simply moved to colorless. I'm still unsure about some of the fixing stuff, espcially Wayfarer's Bauble, Armillary Sphere and Rupture Spire/Transguild Promenade.
I don't like Pilgrim's Eye, because the body is simply not good. (I was also unsure if Augury Owl is really cubeable in my evalutation and not just borderline). Prismatic Lens has always been nice and the 11th Signet for me, that works great for 3c decks aswell.
I also like Prophetic Prism, even if it's the worser version of Abundant Growth. I'm still a little bit unsure about it. Control decks will maybe prefer the Lens, because they want the extra mana and agressive decks like the card from the top much more, but it's the matter, if they really want to spend cc2 for it.
@Izor:
I don't like Thundering Tanadon in your colorless section. Paying 4 life has been too risky too be, especially, because it's not protected against hard removal spells. For cc5 and 2 life it's already not special anymore and for cc6 it was just bad.
I would cut the Panorama's/Borderposts for the Guildgates, aswell
Btw. I was thinking about some tempo cards for white, especially the often seen Repel the Darkness, but also Niveous Wisps. With my 400 cube I'm forced to play some borderline cards and so I want to compare them with the white combat tricks. Some opinions:
My problem with the combat tricks is, that white has spot removal, not like green, and don't need combat tricks at all. These 2 are the best combat tricks white got and they work well, but they always have the disadvantages combat tricks simply have.
I've already seen some people talking about Inaction Injunction vs. Hands of Binding and then, while evaluating I saw Enervate, that is the better version of the Injunction. This brought me back to Niveous Wisps, that is nearly the same in white, but for cc1.
Does white want agressive combat tricks or tempo cards?
Augury Owl is not cubable. Not in my eyes ever. There are so many good blue 2 drops (so many Looters!) and this is just a severely undersized creature with an meh bonus attached. The body just needs to be more beefy to actually be worth it.
Thundering Tanadon is green in my eyes too. Sure, I sometimes play that crazy R/W deck that just wants some random smash-face 4 drop without regards for it's own life total, but that isn't very often. In green you have the option of going all in on t4. But there are times where waiting 1 or 2 turns as you cast other spells in the meantime are better. To put it simply options are power, and having the option of waiting or rushing is VERY powerful.
Inaction Injunction is good because you can deal with the creature in your turn and then it still can't attack in their turn. In saying that, I feel it just isn't good enough compared to the other effects blue has, double bounce (Withdraw), Repulseing, and Frost Breath are all just far more powerful.
I like Swift Justice more than Niveous Wisps. The lifegain and being 1 cost make it just good enough. Tapping cantrap isn't quite worth it, but is kind of neat.
Repel the Darkness overGuided Strike. I feel Repel is mostly for pushing of lethal or for fogging and I find that most protection cards do that, but better. Still not bad. Strike is ok, but it actually gets shut down by removal in response (counters the card and the draw.)
It just feels better for some people to only cube with cards that have been printed as commons. More right. I don't really see why it needs a basis or strong reasoning. In the end it's an extremely arbitrary decision.
Personally I cube with online commons too. If you asked me why, I'd probably just say that I don't care enough about the distinction to restrict myself from playing Death Spark and Aeolipile.
Pretty good summary. I personally feel that I need to keep it to all printed commons, more so I can brag about how these where all printed at commons. I don't include Magic Online sets in that, not that I'm against other people doing it, but it's against my personal aesthetic preferences.
I like to run cards as either in their common printing (foil) or as a promo version. I can't get enough of those promos.
I might include a 7/7 vanilla at cmc 6, but only if it's not multicolour. A 4/3 first strike is far from as good as such a creature, and UB is so stacked that I can't see this guy coming near any pauper cubes.
I don't see a problem with anyone's classifications of what's common and what's not. If you want to broaden your horizons to mtgo only uncommons, go ahead. However, I think that there are a number of cards printed at that rarity that would not see print as commons and for that reason have never been paper commons - eg legendary creatures. The number one rule I find for cubes is "just do what you want".
Solid logic, all I have to say is I don't want to defeat the purpose of my cube being common only. Not just in my eyes but in others.
Honestly I am a much bigger fan of Deft Duelist than either of Silver Drake and Azorius First-Wing. They have well costed flying bodies which is readily available to both white and blue outside of multicoloured, but the Duetist gives you opponent the Calcite Snapper conundrum. How do they deal with it? It stops all 2 toughness non-evaision creatures from attacking outside of pump and protection, which too be fair need more ways of being good.
Also I like Glass Spinner more that Aven Fleetwing for blue 4cc, despite being a big aven advocate. The extra toughness as Lanxal said is so vital for control to actually be able to gum down the board until they have control when they can safely attack. Aven's better if you support more tempo and HEXPROOF!!! Those are situations where hard being hard to deal with is better than an extra toughness, not to mention the synergies. In saying that it would just feel wrong not to run either as they are both some of the better 4 drops.
I would run Phantom Monster if I wasn't so strict on not running online only commons. I feel that there should be clear lines on those subjective matters, and I draw the line there.
I see Shelter worse, than all the cc2 spot removal spells, but I agree, that it still should be even in the smallest cubes. I edited it.
Edit: White cc3 noncreature Spells:
5 – Bomb. This card is, and probably always will be, one of the core cards in the cube and is consistently first-picked. Examples are: Serrated Arrows, Porcelain Legionnaire, Lightning Bolt, Vulshok Morningstar.
Oblivion Ring: An insane removal, that handles nearly everything.
4 – Staple: This card is very unlikely to ever come out of the cube because of its power level, and in any case should be cubed with in all current pauper cubes. Examples are: Kor Sanctifiers, Terror, Merfolk Looter
Arrest: A great removal for cc3, because activated abilites are often a problem and not just the body.
Blinding Beam: A great finisher for white, that is able to remove blockers for 2 turns.
Prismatic Strands: This card doesn't protect your creatures from nearly everthing just once, but twice and the second time without any mana.
3 – Cubable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Especially in a small cube, there tend to be more cubable or higher cards than slots so not all deserve inclusion. Examples: Stinging Barrier, Werebear, Akrasan Squire.
Cage of Hands/Recumbent Bliss: Really good hard removal spells for cc3, but not as good as the O-Ring or Arrest.
Embolden: A combat trick, that is not just able to make card advantage the first time, it also dominates the game from the graveyard.
Hobble: Normally it's not good, just to prevent a creature from attacking and not from blocking, but this card does it without any disadvantage apart from binding 3 mana.
Kor Chant: A combat trick that trades often enough 2/1.
Repel the Darkness: A great card for tempo decks and even agressive decks can be happy about 1 attack with less or without any blocker.
2 – Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this. Examples: Vine Trellis, Shock, Spidersilk Armour, Lost in the Mist.
Empyrial Armor: An aura, that can make card disadvantage easily, but it often creates a huge threat, that has to be handled fast, because otherwise it wins the game in it's own.
Fortify/Guardians' Pledge/Righteous Charge: 3 masspumps, that got all a disadvantage against the other two. The main problem with them is, that you mainly don't have a big amount of creatures, but a few with bigger quality.
Pentarch Ward: A good enchantment, that can turn one of your creatures into a game winner and make card advantage aswell, if it resolves.
Astral Steel: You mainly won't get more than 1 Storm Counter for it.
Avenging Arrow: You want to kill a creature before it killed one of your creatures or before it deals damage to you.
Bar the Door/Piety: Pumping your creatures just in the defense is too situational.
Bold Defense: This card would be the best masspump with instant speed, +2/+2 and First Strike, but cc7 for that is way too much.
Boros Fury-Shield: This card isn't even good, if you spent red mana for it.
Cessation: Just preventing the creature from dealing damage is not good enough and getting the spell back, after it maybe blocked and killed one of your creatures isn't such a big advantage.
Dazzling Beauty: cc3 for such a weak effect is way too much.
Excommunicate: Putting a creature on the top of it's owner libary isn't this bad, but it's no lasting solution for a very problematic creature.
Fanatical Devotion: Mainly you won't have a lot of creatures and you don't want to sacrifice them, if you have some.
Floating Shield: Just beeing protected from one color isn't enough very often and beeing able to sacrifice this enchantment isn't a big enough advantage.
Fortified Area: With enough walls, this card could be awesome, because of the banding rules for blocking, but there arn't enough good walls in pauper and the most of them would depend on this card to be good.
Fulgent Distraction: Just tapping 2 creatures for one round, without any further advantage is just not good enough.
Guardian Zendikon: A 2/6 Wall for just cc3 would be great, but you don't want to waste a land for it, because either it blocks, or it's tapped for mana and that it would have haste, like the other Zendikons doesn't bring much, if it's not allowed to attack.
Guardian's Magemark: There arn't enough good auras, that this card could be playable.
Holy Light: A white massremoval would be great, but in the most cases just -1/-1 isn't enough.
Remember the Fallen: In an artifact-based cube, this card would be really good.
Restrain: The chance, that this card kills a creature is really low.
Ritual of Steel: Giving a creature just some toughness isn't a big enough threat.
Shackles: This card would only be interesting, if it would be able to tap the enchanted creature on it's own.
Solemn Offering/Terashi's Grasp: This cards could be better than Disenchant, but if Sorcery speed and some life is really wort cc1 more, has to be decided from the people who like cards, that can only handle artifacts or enchantments.
Steeling Stance: If Forecast would have less restrictions, this card would be more interesting.
Topple: A very non-flexible removal, that can even kill your own creature.
Withstand: Just preventing some damage won't do much the most times.
0 – Terrible: Contemplating is a crime. The Eager Cadet Club, in this case. Examples: Eager Cadet, Chimney Imp
Armed Response: There arn't enough playable equipments in pauper, to make this card playable.
Asha's Favor: This card will make card disadvantage very fast, without ever been a big threat.
5 – Bomb. This card is, and probably always will be, one of the core cards in the cube and is consistently first-picked. Examples are: Serrated Arrows, Porcelain Legionnaire, Lightning Bolt, Vulshok Morningstar.
Cenn's Enlistment: You will often get only lands from your topdeck in the late game and they become worthless. This card wins a lot of games, with this wortless cards.
4 – Staple: This card is very unlikely to ever come out of the cube because of its power level, and in any case should be cubed with in all current pauper cubes. Examples are: Kor Sanctifiers, Terror, Merfolk Looter3 – Cubable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Especially in a small cube, there tend to be more cubable or higher cards than slots so not all deserve inclusion. Examples: Stinging Barrier, Werebear, Akrasan Squire.
Nothing here.
3 – Cubable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Especially in a small cube, there tend to be more cubable or higher cards than slots so not all deserve inclusion. Examples: Stinging Barrier, Werebear, Akrasan Squire.
Inspired Charge: Maybe the best masspump in pauper, but with cc4, it's really expensive and just +2/+1 instead of +2/+2 can be problematic. Aswell it could still be, that there are simply not enough creatures, to make this card worth it.
2 – Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this. Examples: Vine Trellis, Shock, Spidersilk Armour, Lost in the Mist.
Breath of Life/False Defeat: Some people like this cards, because they are the only cards for an reanimation archetype in pauper, beneath Exhume, but there arn't many revive-worthy creatures in pauper.
Divine Verdict/Neck Snap: These cards are more flexible than Smite or Rebuke, but cc4 is mainly too much, for a removal, that still needs mana open.
Misfortune's Gain/Path of Peace: Destroying a creature without any compromise is good, but cc4 is much and you don't want to give the opponent a life advantage for it.
Spirit Flare: This card could possibly make card advantage, but it needs untapped creatures.
1 – Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it. Examples: Thraben Purebloods, Riot Devils, Shoal Serpent, Cancel.
Abuna's Chant/Recuperate: Flexibility is nice, but of none of the effects is good, the card itself don't become better.
Conclave's Blessing: Giving one of your creatures just a huge amount of toughness isn't worth the risk of getting card disadvantage.
Eyes in the Skies: There isn't much to populate in pauper and just 2 1/1 fliers for cc4 is bad, even with instant speed.
Ramosian Rally: The better version of [CARD]Glorious Charge/CARD] is still bad.
Ray of Distortion: Paying cc4 just to remove an artifact or enchantment is very much. The Flashback possibility doesn't make it better than Disenchant.
Resounding Silence: The cycling costs are too hard to get, what makes this card bad.
Rhystic Circle: This card doesn't slow your opponent much more, than it slows yourself.
Seeker: The chance to get card disadvantage is not worth the risk.
Strength of Unity: Even in a 3-colored deck, this card would still be the worse version of Oakenform. It's not really worth the risk.
0 – Terrible: Contemplating is a crime. The Eager Cadet Club, in this case. Examples: Eager Cadet, Chimney Imp
Terashi's Cry: Sorcery speed makes this card terrible.
White cc5 noncreature Spells:
5 – Bomb. This card is, and probably always will be, one of the core cards in the cube and is consistently first-picked. Examples are: Serrated Arrows, Porcelain Legionnaire, Lightning Bolt, Vulshok Morningstar.
Nothing here.
4 – Staple: This card is very unlikely to ever come out of the cube because of its power level, and in any case should be cubed with in all current pauper cubes. Examples are: Kor Sanctifiers, Terror, Merfolk Looter3 – Cubable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Especially in a small cube, there tend to be more cubable or higher cards than slots so not all deserve inclusion. Examples: Stinging Barrier, Werebear, Akrasan Squire.
Nothing here.
3 – Cubable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Especially in a small cube, there tend to be more cubable or higher cards than slots so not all deserve inclusion. Examples: Stinging Barrier, Werebear, Akrasan Squire.
Knightly Valor: +2/+2 is a big threat and vigilance guarantees, that you are not counter attacked, but cc5 is much and just a 2/2 vigilance, to make sure, that this card won't trade bad is not what you want, especially not, when you are already able to play cc5 spells.
2 – Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this. Examples: Vine Trellis, Shock, Spidersilk Armour, Lost in the Mist.
1 – Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it. Examples: Thraben Purebloods, Riot Devils, Shoal Serpent, Cancel.
Banishment Decree: Putting a creature just on the top of it's owner's libary is not bad, but no lasting solution.
Gleam of Resistance: This card is totally overcosted and landcycling is mainly worse than normal cycling in limited.
0 – Terrible: Contemplating is a crime. The Eager Cadet Club, in this case. Examples: Eager Cadet, Chimney Imp
Soaring Hope: Gaining 3 life for cc5 and flying on one creature is no big advantage and definitly not wort cc5. Putting a card on the top of your own libary is card disadvantage.
White cc6 noncreature Spells:
5 – Bomb. This card is, and probably always will be, one of the core cards in the cube and is consistently first-picked. Examples are: Serrated Arrows, Porcelain Legionnaire, Lightning Bolt, Vulshok Morningstar.
Nothing here.
4 – Staple: This card is very unlikely to ever come out of the cube because of its power level, and in any case should be cubed with in all current pauper cubes. Examples are: Kor Sanctifiers, Terror, Merfolk Looter3 – Cubable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Especially in a small cube, there tend to be more cubable or higher cards than slots so not all deserve inclusion. Examples: Stinging Barrier, Werebear, Akrasan Squire.
Nothing here.
3 – Cubable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Especially in a small cube, there tend to be more cubable or higher cards than slots so not all deserve inclusion. Examples: Stinging Barrier, Werebear, Akrasan Squire.
Nothing here.
2 – Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this. Examples: Vine Trellis, Shock, Spidersilk Armour, Lost in the Mist.
Nothing here.
1 – Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it. Examples: Thraben Purebloods, Riot Devils, Shoal Serpent, Cancel.
Trostani's Judgment: Simply killing a creature without any compromises isn't bad, but cc6 is simply too much for it and there isn't anything much to populate.
0 – Terrible: Contemplating is a crime. The Eager Cadet Club, in this case. Examples: Eager Cadet, Chimney Imp.
Nothing here.
Damn, those are some spot on evaluations. I agree on practically everything, maybe except for a couple of niche archetype picks between borderline and bad, which ultimately is inconsequential for the purpose of the lists.
I just want to point out a reason why both mass pump and pure token generation tends to be bad is because there aren't enough ways to generate an army of 1/1's and then make them relevant. Come back to me on this one when we get a couple more psudo-Glorious Anthems, or similar effects. Travel Preparations was a good start. KEEP THEM COMING WIZARDS!
I don't understand why anyone would cut Sunlance. It's a really good piece of removal especially for one mana. It's something I would always want to have in. It's important to have a verity of different removal spells and this is white's non-enchantment 1 costed one.
Comparing this to red removal is a bad idea as there are some effects that if place outside their primary colour can be made a lot worse and still be considered amazing. Burn is one of those things.
Ichor Slick I actually am having a big think about Ichor Slick now... It's first side is kind of meh, using it as a normal removal spell. I'm sure I would complain about using it to kill a creature in a pinch. Then there is a added flexibility if you don't need the card at all the you can cycle it, which for a removal spell won't be used a lot, but it's good that it's there. Finally it turns instant speed and costs 6 mana and draws you a card! This is really good, at 6 mana it is over priced but considering the fact that it can be used for 3 mana in addition, that doesn't seem bad. Plus, card-vantage!
My opinion of it as cubable, but needs testing. It's super-flexible with CA strapped on. Is it better than the pure effective removal spells that exist, idk, but it seems promising.
Fault Ridersis better than Hanweir Lancer. I understand that Lancer is strong when it's online, but you have to get it to that stage. With the Riders you can go all Darkthicket Wolf on them and have the treat of being able to activate the ability without actually doing it, effectively making the Riders unblockable with creatures toughness 4 or less. Also when it's drawing near to the end game of the aggro deck you can afford to 'freely' throw away lands to deal extra damage. Resource management is what often makes these 'Spike' cards good.
At the most Lancers will just make itself and a body hard to block, and that's with a little (admittedly easy) set up. Good, but not as good as Riders.
Goblin Legionnaire is a crazy good card. It's a (arguably) slightly better Multicoloured Ember Hauler. Spicy meatballs Hauler is insane. I would kill for that in Pauper, and here we have it! The flexibly on that card... Being able to bash for 2 repeatedly until you have the need to remove a nasty creature from your opponents is sooooooooo powerful, I mean really powerful. Clearly the best R/W card, no contest.
Wojek Halberdiers is a good card just by raw stats. 3/2 for 2 is great and then there is a small bonus on top, what a score, however is that really better than Skyknight Legionnaire? That's debatable.
For starters the comparison of Skyknight Legionnaire to Stormfront Pegasus is way off. In my eyes Pegasus is the gold standard of 2 drops. It's just what every 2 drops aspires to be. Not necessarily the strongest, but always good and relevant on almost any turn. the fatal flaw in comparing them is the mana cost.
Pegasus is mono coloured and Skyknight is multicoloured, already this has chained Skynight down with restrictions. Next is that with Pegasus you only need one specific coloured mana, which means that is a deck that plays white as a primary then you almost always will have the correct mana to cast it on t2. Skynight it's a little bit more tricky, where you need you have 2 mana of different coloures by turn 3. Harder but not too hard, in comparison to Leonin Skyhunter (double 1 colour on t2!) and Gaea's Skyfolk (2 different colours on t2!). Those events are a lot less statically likely and restrictive in order to cast reliably. Then there is the whole problem of even having the 3rd land altogether. It's nice to imagine curving out on land drops, but missing the 3 is a lot more common than people take for granted.
The lack of finishes is what makes a lot of control decks suffer, but not the ability to control the board state which leads to not a lot of variance in the archetype, and making all the finishers highly sought after picks.
Aggro on the other hand in pauper is quite healthy, although it tends to be mostly red/x decks. Although I have recntly been noticing more White/X decks as the 2 drops are getting really good.
Edit: Maybe I'm going to increase the size of my cube to 390, because actually we play with 13 card boosters and this way up to 10 players could play the cube.
Like I said everywhere, Darkthicket Wolf is good because of it's 2 power. Whenever it attacks people have to respect the pump and it gets in for 2. If Frilled Oculus does the same trick it only gets in for 1, which is not good. Being multicoloured means that it needs to be a card that I would play it over pretty much everything in mono, which this fails to do. Really not good at all for cube.
My only ramp cards are:
-the 3 cc1 Elves + Sprawl to do exaclty what you said, bringing 3 and 4 drops as early as possible.
-Yavimaya Elder, which really makes cardadvantage and not just +1 like Cultivate (Divination does the same advatange for the same mana, but also as a great topdeck), either + 2. Its good in Turn 2 and amazing in the lategame, when you just sacrifice it with it's second ability, which thins out your libary hardly.
-Krosan Tusker, because it's just super flexible. I think it's on the same level as Cultivate/K R. You have to to weigh carddraw with a second land, but In my opinion in limited the card from the top is better. Added to this effect it still got the flexibility to be played as a nice fattie.
-Edge of Autumn, it's, in my opinion, way better in limited, then Saruka-Tribe Elder, because instead of a mostly useless 1/1 body, you get the flexibility to ramp, when you need it, or to transform a land into carddraw, when you are flat.
This way I play only ramp cards with a high flexibility, to support any kind of deck.
Dawntreader Elk/Viridian Emissary/Wall of Roots are too much ramp in my opinion. I don't like defender in limited and there are so much good 2drops in green, that can be played instead. I got the chance to test Nightshade Peddler and it did a great job. Instead of just preventing some damage like a wall, it can give a great pseudo evasion and it's just amazing with the mana elves. It can enable a 2/2 trade and give you an awesome cardquality.
Borderland Ranger/Civic Wayfinder didnt' made it into my cube aswell, because I play Centaur Courser/Nessian Courser, which do an awesome job. Overall there aren't much 3/3 creatures in the cube and especially not in turn 3. They are great with the mana elfs in turn 2 and are the perfect beater to curve your opponent out and race them.
Edge of Autumn, I like less than Sakura-Tribe Elder, sure the cycling ability is nice, but I really like the flexibility of the creature body. It can also be a little pseudo-lifegain with a block then sac. That said I do feel it's on the weaker end of ramp. I would cut Sakura over Wall of Roots
I tried out Viridian Emissary and when you want the land you never get it. Dawntreader Elk is way better. In fact, I'm a big Elk fan. It's really not a ramp card at all. It just a solid 2 drop which has the power to get you an extra land when you need it. Either when you are mana screwed or need another coloured mana. Flexibity is really powerful. Although I can understand why you would cut this, but it's worth testing out.
You have decent points with Cultivate and Kodama's Reach. Running both can be a bit of overkill, if people aren't regularly drafting around them and Krosan Tusker is just better, in most respects.
Yavimaya Elder is just a staple, he should be ran above all the other land granting cards. He generates so much card advantage. I just forgot to mention him last time.
Wall of Roots is for more of my late game green decks. Either more controlly or for midrange that is going over a normal midrange deck. My favourite deck for this is the Rock. I really like this for the power it provides for those archetypes, because most of the time they don't want that aggressive 2 drops.
I find in Green if I want to ramp I'll just use a mana elf. They are amazing for getting my 3-4 drops out a turn faster to trump all the creature threats. But I generally find that 'just' ramp spells are too weak, because there is nothing powerful enough to ramp into. Here is a run down of what I like my ramp to do.
I love all the one mana ramp cards, the mana elves and Utopian Sprawl They are the bread and butter of green. Getting 3 and 4 drops a turn earlier is key. Plus the elves can hold equipment. Play at least 4-5 of these.
Saruka-Tribe Elder, is as close to Rampart Growth as I'll ever let near my cube. Just plan ramping is often dead in the mid to late game in pauper so it is really valuable having the option of a creature to hold equipment or even just to chump is great as anything is a lot better than a potential dead card.
Dawntreader Elk in my eyes plays out a lot more similarly to Borderland Ranger than Sakura-Tribe Elder, often being a 2/2 body to sometimes colour fix rather than a ramp spell. Which is plenty good enough. In reality you tend not use the Elf for ramp nearly as much as you think it would. Still it's a super great utility creature, which plays better than it looks on paper.
Wall of Roots is a card that I am a big fan of. Being a 0/5 is conditionally powerful and sometimes useless, being a 2 mana ramp spell is conditionally powerful and sometimes useless. Add them together and you've got a really flexible powerhouse. I really like this Wall.
Cultivate and Kodama's Reach. These cards are inherently powerful, but require the most building around out of all the ramp spells I play. They enable the infamous 5 or 4 colour control deck to exist and provide nice card advantage, however these can easily be dead cards where you don't need the land. You have to be running a deck which can effectively use all it's mana each turn or be running a bijillion different colours to be used most effectively. It's still worth saying that these cards are really, really strong so should be in most lists, but are just more narrow that normal.
Out of all the Green ramp, that's all I run unless if I missed some random card in my mental check. The others I feel are either too weak, too narrow, or there are already too many redundant effects. This is an important component to understand greens role of ramp in pauper to make it good. It's very important to make good decks to out-curve others, but not too much that you are just losing to CA.
There are also land fetching cards in Green such as Borderland Ranger and Krosan Tusker. By trimming you land count slightly and playing those they are a great way for adding consistency and gaining card advantage in Green, to which I say run more.
No, if the other colours are done well I tend to find that either red or green tends to have the slight edge over the other colours. It most likely is because people don't know the archetypes too well, so tend not to draft accordingly. It's pretty easy to make b/x good stuff when people don't know the more tuned archetypes for the other colours. They draft awesome removal and good card advantage, but there is a possibility they might not be drafting tempo, which is not really blacks thing, outside of Dark Ritual.
I stick with the normal 15. I will go with the 4 packs of 11 when there are less people but in general we're fine with this; it allows the largest number of cards to be played with. =D
I also run 15 for the same reasons. I like to maximise the number of options also the extra 4 cards will often make the difference for getting all the critical cards of a deck of a particular play to click together. It could make the difference between that third* Man-o'-War effect or that second Cultivate when you need it.
I would also argue that it requires more skill picking cards in packs with more cards because there are more options in picks.
However, there are legitimate reasons for wanting to draft with smaller packs which are also valid, so if you want to, it's just up to personal preference.
It's worth stating 15 is an arbitrary number, that we use due to the conventional booster size.
I was thinking about things that blue does / cube design space a bit recently and had a question for folks here. I love the Phantasmal Terrain and Aquitect's Will effects in blue and wonder if they could ever be playable in the cube. I recognize that, by itself, the effect is not powerful, but what if it was stapled onto a body? If Gatecrash included the following card, would it be worth running in a pauper cube? If the answer to the last question is better than a resounding "No", do you need a lot of creatures with islandwalk or islandhome (the latter probably won't ever be printed as an ability ever again, but including it for the sake of discussion) for this type of card to be worth it or is the disruption of opponent's mana / smoothing of your own good enough?
Terrafomrer Adept1UU
Creature - Human Wizard (C)
When Terraformer Adept enters the battlefield, put a terraform counter on target land and choose a basic land type. That land is the chosen land type for as long as it has a terraform counter on it.
2/2
Lanxal - I realize this is verging heavily on Custom Card Creation - so let me know if I should post this there instead.
I doubt that it would be good enough. There aren't enough cards that care about basic land types in pauper cubes. Also we have Spreading Seas which does a similar effect but instead with a cantrap for the value part of it, and it's only good at colour screwing people when they get to greedy with mana bases and costs which isn't a thing in pauper.
If it was a 2/1 for 2 I consider it beacuse of the turn 2 colour fixing and potential colour screwing of my opponent.
Cards, that depend on other cards, like Islandwalk on island-making cards are mainly bad. If you play blue, it decreases the chance, that your opponents play blue as well, so you need to transform their lands into islands. Also, if your opponents know, that you depend on this cards, they can simply hatepick them and disable the whole plan.
To the theme of depending cards, the last times we never used 15 cards to draft, because different to normal limited, too many cards are playable and less skill is used to create decks. Actually we play with 13 card boosters. This way we never use the whole cube (we mainly play with 4-6 people anyway), so depending cards doesn't even have a great chance that the needed cards are in the pool of drafted cards.
Is everyone else playing with 15 card boosters, because a 360 card cube is oriented this way, or are you also playing with less cards?
Actually in current drafts there are in effect 14 card booster pack with addition of a basic lands, so actually in the current day when we run 15 cards in draft, we are actually running extra. It's more a cubing tradition rather than a fixed, so actually running 13 to 14 card packs is actually perfectly reasonable, when you consider that. In addition I agree with your reasons.
By the way, I run 11 card boosters for a 4 person draft.
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My ramp targets are usually all the 5cc dudes. Hallowhedge Beast, Sentiel Spider and friends. They are all face rollers, that you in-effect 'combo out at around t3. That's generally what I aim for when I'm ramping. Then I have a couple of 'over-the-top' spells which are Citanul Woodreaders, Havenwood Wurm, Ulamog's Crusher, Krosan Tusker and some x-burn spells are what I top the curve off with. Honestly you don't need many or all of these cards in the ramp deck. They generally have already blown their removal spells of the 5cc and 4cc fatties when you get to the curve toppers.
What I'm saying is you don't need many more expensive spells. I would like to see a couple more effective curve toppers, but I'm not going to force in any sub-par ones as they likely won't be good enough anyway. Often they aren't even that much stronger than the 5cc cards.
Not a must-play (staple), but I would be hard pressed not to run that in Blues 4cc section. Being a French vanilla 3/3 flyer is just so awesome. Those stats let it win all trades in the air as almost every single flyer between 1 and 4 mana is smaller than it. It's not the strongest 4 cost flyer for control, no built in protection, but it's really good in tempo/midrange decks.
Big fan of the Boar. A 5/5 trampler is insane for 4 mana. It's still great for 5 mana. Even if there is a bit of set up, as it's not reliable, the pay off is more than worth it. If your not getting the morbid trigger by t6 where it begins in loss value then you generally have won the game, or shouldn't have kept the hand. Even if you morbid trigger way off curve it's still an impactful card, that demands some way of being dealt with, or it's going to crush that person.
Way too restrictive to be good.
My cube list hasn't been posted up. I haven't got around to it. Plus it's currently under it's normal size as I had a sleeve shortage when I was upgrading to double sleeves.
Not every draft Ulamog's Crusher gets used. That's just the nature of the card. It's just a stupid finisher in any deck that wants to drag the game on for ages or ramp. It can be answered by most non-damage removal spells, but the kind of deck has ground out the game to the point that the other deck has ran out of resources to deal with threats, and then wants to close the game.
Ulamog's Crusher closes a game like no other card in pauper. Most decks will be crippled with one hit. After 2 hits, is often functionally dead.
You are correct that in a lot of situations is unused or not necessary, but the pay off for the decks that do want it is huge. The fact is it is colourless which means that a large varity of diffent decks for different colours have access to it, and it's not going to be picked up my everyone and their mum like Twisted Abomination where players will take it because it's raw power in everything, even if it is not being used optimally in their deck.
Plus there it is one of the few good ramp targets we have, and it is great with a deck of counter spells (countering it's weakness of removal) and maybe 2 other win conditions.
TL;DR YOU SHOULD BE PLAYING THIS CARD!
Tried it before, if you often get mono black drafts (or near) Corrupt is good. If not it's bad. Simple.
Pilgrim's Eye then Armillery Sphere then Wayfarer's Bauble, if by power. I'd want room for at least Pilgrim's and the Sphere. Also Bauble is t2 ramp, not CA generating curve smoothers, and functions similarly to Mana Rocks.
Prismatic Lens easily. Being a mana rock is awesome. Maybe Wayfarer's Bauble is better than it. You can hold up t2 counter magic with it while being able to ramp, only at the cost of your t1.
Run all the equipments!
Actually I feel Adventuring Gear is the best then Leonin Scimitar then Flayer Husk. I really like the potential build-around-me pay off on gear.
Augury Owl is not cubable. Not in my eyes ever. There are so many good blue 2 drops (so many Looters!) and this is just a severely undersized creature with an meh bonus attached. The body just needs to be more beefy to actually be worth it.
Thundering Tanadon is green in my eyes too. Sure, I sometimes play that crazy R/W deck that just wants some random smash-face 4 drop without regards for it's own life total, but that isn't very often. In green you have the option of going all in on t4. But there are times where waiting 1 or 2 turns as you cast other spells in the meantime are better. To put it simply options are power, and having the option of waiting or rushing is VERY powerful.
Inaction Injunction is good because you can deal with the creature in your turn and then it still can't attack in their turn. In saying that, I feel it just isn't good enough compared to the other effects blue has, double bounce (Withdraw), Repulseing, and Frost Breath are all just far more powerful.
I like Swift Justice more than Niveous Wisps. The lifegain and being 1 cost make it just good enough. Tapping cantrap isn't quite worth it, but is kind of neat.
Repel the Darkness overGuided Strike. I feel Repel is mostly for pushing of lethal or for fogging and I find that most protection cards do that, but better. Still not bad. Strike is ok, but it actually gets shut down by removal in response (counters the card and the draw.)
Pretty good summary. I personally feel that I need to keep it to all printed commons, more so I can brag about how these where all printed at commons. I don't include Magic Online sets in that, not that I'm against other people doing it, but it's against my personal aesthetic preferences.
I like to run cards as either in their common printing (foil) or as a promo version. I can't get enough of those promos.
Solid logic, all I have to say is I don't want to defeat the purpose of my cube being common only. Not just in my eyes but in others.
Also I like Glass Spinner more that Aven Fleetwing for blue 4cc, despite being a big aven advocate. The extra toughness as Lanxal said is so vital for control to actually be able to gum down the board until they have control when they can safely attack. Aven's better if you support more tempo and HEXPROOF!!! Those are situations where hard being hard to deal with is better than an extra toughness, not to mention the synergies. In saying that it would just feel wrong not to run either as they are both some of the better 4 drops.
I would run Phantom Monster if I wasn't so strict on not running online only commons. I feel that there should be clear lines on those subjective matters, and I draw the line there.
Damn, those are some spot on evaluations. I agree on practically everything, maybe except for a couple of niche archetype picks between borderline and bad, which ultimately is inconsequential for the purpose of the lists.
I just want to point out a reason why both mass pump and pure token generation tends to be bad is because there aren't enough ways to generate an army of 1/1's and then make them relevant. Come back to me on this one when we get a couple more psudo-Glorious Anthems, or similar effects. Travel Preparations was a good start. KEEP THEM COMING WIZARDS!
Comparing this to red removal is a bad idea as there are some effects that if place outside their primary colour can be made a lot worse and still be considered amazing. Burn is one of those things.
Ichor Slick I actually am having a big think about Ichor Slick now... It's first side is kind of meh, using it as a normal removal spell. I'm sure I would complain about using it to kill a creature in a pinch. Then there is a added flexibility if you don't need the card at all the you can cycle it, which for a removal spell won't be used a lot, but it's good that it's there. Finally it turns instant speed and costs 6 mana and draws you a card! This is really good, at 6 mana it is over priced but considering the fact that it can be used for 3 mana in addition, that doesn't seem bad. Plus, card-vantage!
My opinion of it as cubable, but needs testing. It's super-flexible with CA strapped on. Is it better than the pure effective removal spells that exist, idk, but it seems promising.
At the most Lancers will just make itself and a body hard to block, and that's with a little (admittedly easy) set up. Good, but not as good as Riders.
Goblin Legionnaire is a crazy good card. It's a (arguably) slightly better Multicoloured Ember Hauler. Spicy meatballs Hauler is insane. I would kill for that in Pauper, and here we have it! The flexibly on that card... Being able to bash for 2 repeatedly until you have the need to remove a nasty creature from your opponents is sooooooooo powerful, I mean really powerful. Clearly the best R/W card, no contest.
Wojek Halberdiers is a good card just by raw stats. 3/2 for 2 is great and then there is a small bonus on top, what a score, however is that really better than Skyknight Legionnaire? That's debatable.
For starters the comparison of Skyknight Legionnaire to Stormfront Pegasus is way off. In my eyes Pegasus is the gold standard of 2 drops. It's just what every 2 drops aspires to be. Not necessarily the strongest, but always good and relevant on almost any turn. the fatal flaw in comparing them is the mana cost.
Pegasus is mono coloured and Skyknight is multicoloured, already this has chained Skynight down with restrictions. Next is that with Pegasus you only need one specific coloured mana, which means that is a deck that plays white as a primary then you almost always will have the correct mana to cast it on t2. Skynight it's a little bit more tricky, where you need you have 2 mana of different coloures by turn 3. Harder but not too hard, in comparison to Leonin Skyhunter (double 1 colour on t2!) and Gaea's Skyfolk (2 different colours on t2!). Those events are a lot less statically likely and restrictive in order to cast reliably. Then there is the whole problem of even having the 3rd land altogether. It's nice to imagine curving out on land drops, but missing the 3 is a lot more common than people take for granted.
--
Enough ranting, Wojek Halberdiers is good but I haven't played it enough to know it's better than Skyknight Legionnaire.
Squee's Embrace worse than Hyena Umbra.
Orim's Thunder strong but only if you need the Disenchant + Value.
Fault Riders > Hanweir Lancer
Ruinous Minotaur, far better than Lanxal gives it credit for. 5 damage = 1/4 life total. Red has removal spells. Lots of damages.
Hunted Moa = New Zealand = Do it Wizards!
Goblin Legionnaire = Still Awesome
Martial Glory = Unreliable combat trick is unreliable
Too much rambling
Sleepy...
The lack of finishes is what makes a lot of control decks suffer, but not the ability to control the board state which leads to not a lot of variance in the archetype, and making all the finishers highly sought after picks.
Aggro on the other hand in pauper is quite healthy, although it tends to be mostly red/x decks. Although I have recntly been noticing more White/X decks as the 2 drops are getting really good.
Cut Silkbind Faerie over Silver Drake, Rakdos Shredfreak over Goblin Deathraiders, Centaur Healer over Sigil Blessing, and Temporal Spring over Gaea's Skyfolk. Keep Deft Duelist.
These are the changes that I would make.
Most likely Fire at Will. It's worse than a lot of red burn, but is far better than Double Cleave.
Edge of Autumn, I like less than Sakura-Tribe Elder, sure the cycling ability is nice, but I really like the flexibility of the creature body. It can also be a little pseudo-lifegain with a block then sac. That said I do feel it's on the weaker end of ramp. I would cut Sakura over Wall of Roots
I tried out Viridian Emissary and when you want the land you never get it. Dawntreader Elk is way better. In fact, I'm a big Elk fan. It's really not a ramp card at all. It just a solid 2 drop which has the power to get you an extra land when you need it. Either when you are mana screwed or need another coloured mana. Flexibity is really powerful. Although I can understand why you would cut this, but it's worth testing out.
You have decent points with Cultivate and Kodama's Reach. Running both can be a bit of overkill, if people aren't regularly drafting around them and Krosan Tusker is just better, in most respects.
Yavimaya Elder is just a staple, he should be ran above all the other land granting cards. He generates so much card advantage. I just forgot to mention him last time.
Wall of Roots is for more of my late game green decks. Either more controlly or for midrange that is going over a normal midrange deck. My favourite deck for this is the Rock. I really like this for the power it provides for those archetypes, because most of the time they don't want that aggressive 2 drops.
I love all the one mana ramp cards, the mana elves and Utopian Sprawl They are the bread and butter of green. Getting 3 and 4 drops a turn earlier is key. Plus the elves can hold equipment. Play at least 4-5 of these.
Saruka-Tribe Elder, is as close to Rampart Growth as I'll ever let near my cube. Just plan ramping is often dead in the mid to late game in pauper so it is really valuable having the option of a creature to hold equipment or even just to chump is great as anything is a lot better than a potential dead card.
Dawntreader Elk in my eyes plays out a lot more similarly to Borderland Ranger than Sakura-Tribe Elder, often being a 2/2 body to sometimes colour fix rather than a ramp spell. Which is plenty good enough. In reality you tend not use the Elf for ramp nearly as much as you think it would. Still it's a super great utility creature, which plays better than it looks on paper.
Wall of Roots is a card that I am a big fan of. Being a 0/5 is conditionally powerful and sometimes useless, being a 2 mana ramp spell is conditionally powerful and sometimes useless. Add them together and you've got a really flexible powerhouse. I really like this Wall.
Cultivate and Kodama's Reach. These cards are inherently powerful, but require the most building around out of all the ramp spells I play. They enable the infamous 5 or 4 colour control deck to exist and provide nice card advantage, however these can easily be dead cards where you don't need the land. You have to be running a deck which can effectively use all it's mana each turn or be running a bijillion different colours to be used most effectively. It's still worth saying that these cards are really, really strong so should be in most lists, but are just more narrow that normal.
Out of all the Green ramp, that's all I run unless if I missed some random card in my mental check. The others I feel are either too weak, too narrow, or there are already too many redundant effects. This is an important component to understand greens role of ramp in pauper to make it good. It's very important to make good decks to out-curve others, but not too much that you are just losing to CA.
There are also land fetching cards in Green such as Borderland Ranger and Krosan Tusker. By trimming you land count slightly and playing those they are a great way for adding consistency and gaining card advantage in Green, to which I say run more.
I also run 15 for the same reasons. I like to maximise the number of options also the extra 4 cards will often make the difference for getting all the critical cards of a deck of a particular play to click together. It could make the difference between that third* Man-o'-War effect or that second Cultivate when you need it.
I would also argue that it requires more skill picking cards in packs with more cards because there are more options in picks.
However, there are legitimate reasons for wanting to draft with smaller packs which are also valid, so if you want to, it's just up to personal preference.
It's worth stating 15 is an arbitrary number, that we use due to the conventional booster size.
I doubt that it would be good enough. There aren't enough cards that care about basic land types in pauper cubes. Also we have Spreading Seas which does a similar effect but instead with a cantrap for the value part of it, and it's only good at colour screwing people when they get to greedy with mana bases and costs which isn't a thing in pauper.
If it was a 2/1 for 2 I consider it beacuse of the turn 2 colour fixing and potential colour screwing of my opponent.
Actually in current drafts there are in effect 14 card booster pack with addition of a basic lands, so actually in the current day when we run 15 cards in draft, we are actually running extra. It's more a cubing tradition rather than a fixed, so actually running 13 to 14 card packs is actually perfectly reasonable, when you consider that. In addition I agree with your reasons.
By the way, I run 11 card boosters for a 4 person draft.