Okika-Gang Shinobi's impactful in games where you get the set-up. Though there are plenty of games where it's ok at best. The body isn't particularly impressive and when you are behind on tempo it may as well be a dead card.
Hymn to Tourach late game is an undercosted Mind Rot, which can be alright at checking if your opponent has a empty hand. But really, the turn 2 Hymn is so ridiculous it doesn't matter that much. Sometimes you sink the lands and that's game before your opponent even has a chance. 2 random discard is very disruptive. Hymn to Tourach is clearly stronger, there it isn't much of a contest.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
At a glance Unburden as an advantage from being the cheapest (same cost as Mind Rot) and has cycling so it can transform from being a dead card, which I guess can matter when curves are lower. Cycling is pretty decent, though 2 mana still slows down gameplay considerably when you are being stormed by weenie or burn. Double black is restrictive.
Reaper of Night is technically a 3 for 1 when you finally get the creature body. The body is decent at closing out games and obviously has an advantage over other cards when big mana is being reached. The flying clause is relevant. Overall, I'm still not that happy Mind Rotting for 4 mana even with the upsides. Sustain has gotten significantly better, but still aggro decks can put you on the ropes well before cards like this become relevant. Fine against durdly midrange. Although if I'm being honest, most midrange decks are pretty quick at closing out games, they just are also geared these days to deal with annoying, very quick decks, generally by one-upping at each point of the curve.
Lifegain is a strong mechanic; and is worth paying an extra 1 mana on top of Mind Rot for. Aspect of Lamprey isn't a shoe-in for most decks though. It requires a decent midrange shell that is looking for a bit of disruption. I don't like playing Aspect of Lamprey alongside Man-o'-War. Although Aspect of Lamprey plays nicely with Agony Warp, Benthic Giant, Skittering Horror and a lot of things that green typically does. Since lifegain is a scalable effect then it follows that creatures with higher power will synergise better. If the format is saturated with premium removal and Gideon's Lawkeepers then auras tend to be worse overall.
Ninjitsu is so strong; there are any number of cards which synergise with being returned to hand. Okiba-Gang Shinobi has to be dealt with, unless your opponent hand dumped their hand. The window to effectively deal with ninjas is narrow. Okiba-Gang Shinobi has been mvp of many games for me. Admitted weenie strategies tend to be weaker in my cube, so maybe you won't find Okiba-Gang Shinobi to be the powerhouse it's been for me. Ninjitsu does require a bit of deckbuilding to get working because you need to get that unblocked clause.
I think it's worth talking about Blightning too. It's good. 3 damage is very powerful.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
I didn't sideboard against the Dimir deck. Sideboarding is tricky in sealed. And the point of the exercise for me at least was to get some playtesting done, and have a few prebuilt decks for friends to try out.
Diabolic Edict has been decent for me even when I don't see the untargetables. It's much worse when a lot of weenies are in the mix such as in your cube.
Aspect of Lamprey has been performing. Mind Rot is ok. Situational discard 2 is devastating at times and other times it's a dead card. The lifegain component is clutch more often than not. And it makes Benthic Giant very scary. The main downside to the aura is in response remove target creature. Which depending on what's being ran happens more often than not. Still nowhere near Okiba-Gang Shinobi.
I am supporting more midrange strategies than any other general archetype.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
This pool reminds me of the earliest iterations of my cube which had way too many spells and not enough creatures. Either this cube has the same problem or it was super unlucky, given that blue was the color with the most creatures (relatively), with green at 50/50, white below 50%, and both R and B below 50% with virtually no universally good creatures and only disjointed build-arounds. I tend to play Sealed with 75 or even 60 cards nowadays and the pools don't look so shallow, so idk what happened there...
Red and Black are the most powerful colors all around, but given their miserable creature base I think RB is not optimal. I can see two decks here that could somewhat work. Option 1 would be something Jund, being mainly G and one of each R or B, splashing the third, with lots of fixing and removal. That would be similar to Humphrey's above, though looking at his mana situation I'm not a huge fan. So I'll go for the second deck I can see, which is just RG beatdown-and-hope-I-draw-enough-creatures-and-punish-opponents-for-durdling-around.dec.
Too few creatures obviously, and red Denizen is awful, but it at least feeds Sparksmith and sacs to Artillerize. Croc is also bad, but playing less than 15 creatures in RG Aggro with Flunkies sounds even worse.
There were also a few cards from newer sets that I have zero experience with since I discontinued my cube with Ravnica 3.0 due to the powercreep in the 2019 sets which would dilute my cube as I love it, so take that with a grain.
I play tested Humphrey's build against a U/B build from another sealed pool and the Jund deck keep running out of steam and had no outs to Calcite Snapper and Benthic Giant.
I build U/R Delver aggro out of the same pool and it seems to be performing really well.
I have a few more unlooked at sealed pools for friends when I'm next able to see them for play testing purposes. I really want to get a feel of where my cube is roughly at before I try to acquire the past few years worth of commons to update it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
@Reinventing:
I do not deny the math. In fact I happily run multiple common fetches. But in standard limited, Looking at the ability to turn a 40 card deck into essentially a slow 39 is not the only thing that is needed to make it better. Yes, if supplemented with draw, and other search it can matter more. But a single fetch does not carry over a back braking advantage. It is almost like a nice addition because it is a 5c land, but as mentioned it is a tapped one.
The math is their. Just not as high of a priority as "first pickz"; imo
I consider it first pickable, not because it makes my deck significantly better, it doesn't. I consider it early pickable because I always want it main deck regardless of what I'm playing. Which opens up flexibility and adaptive behaviour based on what I get passed.
My main gripe with my drafting style is I tend to lean too strongly into what I pick early, rather than drafting adaptively. And the play-style of picking such a flexible land early (as soon as first pick in some cases) means I can adapt swiftly to signals without sacrificing card quality. When card quality drops off more steeply (such as drafting Ikoria) then I lean away from committing to cards like Evolving Wilds, because with early picks I want to be picking up card quality. As you said E. Wilds, it doesn't thin out a deck enough to justify taking it at the cost of power.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
Blazing Volley - Comparible to Electrickery. I prefer the 1 mana sorcery to 2 mana instant. The best case is this Arc Lightnings your opponent for cheap. However that is somewhat optimistic, Arc Lightning's strength came from the flexibility of damaging players, 1-for-1ing or 2-for-1ing depending on the board, but always being useful. Whereas Blazing Volley the strength is almost all tied into the cost, and actual impact will fluctuate a lot depending on the game. Simply put most cubes won't want Blazing Volley, unless there is an emphasis on 1 toughness creatures and going wide.
Blisterspit Gremlin - Pretty much entirely insignificant. Notable for being the cheapest uptaps whenever you cast a noncreature spell card.
Cathartic Reunion - Alright card filter. Quite weak to countermagic because the discard is an upfront cost. Obviously synergises with with discard-matters effects and flashback. Overall this is the kind of card that doesn't get ran the pure aggro, but can find a place in midrange decks which look to play 5 or so lands then no more.
Cloud Piercer - If your red section has decent mutate targets then ok, if not (and this is probably the case) not worth your time. The surprise damage off a Goblin token (or a Mogg War Marshal) seems to be where this be best suited. Red doesn't have the best abilities to combine with the stats. The card filter is ok as well, but it doesn't quite compensate for the exposed vulnerability of card disadvantage. Reach is a funny nod towards recognising red's lack of flying non dragons. 5 power out of nowhere still smacks hard. And it only takes 4 Lava Axes to win a game...
Drannith Stinger - Red is suited slightly better towards a 2 mana 2/2 cycling 1 than white is. Plays well into gotta go fast strategies, where the endgame is looking for a burn spell.
Ferocious Tigorilla - I played Vestige of Emrakul for a while and then is in most ways better. The choice between menace and trample means you get the right tool for the job most times. Although I imagine the menace counter will be chosen most times.
Fire Prophecy - Seems pretty staple. Can't target players, which means that it is slightly worse than Searing Spear in burn builds. In games where burn is mostly directed at creatures such as in midrange, Fire Prophecy is much stronger than Searing Spear. Card filter on removal is powerful.
Frenzied Raptor - A boring vanilla creature with aggressive stats. This can make a find placeholder at 3 until you get some Blood Orges and Splatter Thugs.
Go for Blood - Competes with Searing Spear. In general, fight is worse than direct damage. Cycle 1 is potent, but considering the opportunity cost of running running Searing Spear (which is almost never a dead card), then Go for Blood seems pretty bad.
Heightened Reflexes - This is a red combat trick I can see myself playing. The main downside is this will often be underwhelming, and will often live in the sideboard. Not really the kind of card I want against control. Brute Strength is probably better.
Lava Serpent - I really like this. While this seems suited as a midrange card, the body is a respectable threat late game and cycling means you can pitch it in the games where it is not relevant. Haste is really strong on the body.
Prickly Marmoset - If there was enough strong cycling this would be great.
Rumbling Rockside - At four mana I have the implicit expectation that a card should be able to deal with everything. This gets most creatures, but still not enough to justify in my mind.
Shredded Sails - Could be Searing Spear. It will hit a target more often than Smash to Smithereens. And has cycling as a kicker (not the mechanic). The main considering factor is how common are worthy artifacts and by extension fliers. Artifacts aren't that common, though it is a good feeling blowing up a Vulshok Morningstar after your opponent has sunk mana into it, the occurrences of such games is unlikely to be common enough to warrant including Shredded Sails into a main deck. Now that coloured artifacts are present outside of Alara, there might be hope for Shredded Sails in the future.
Spelleater Wolverine - Yes. I like casting cheap instants and sorceries. Getting a 3 mana 3/2 double striker even behind curve is great news.
Excavation Mole - Similar to Hyrax Tower Scout. The self-mill can fuel some decks better than others. Untapping a creature allows some midrange decks to race aggro ones.
Fertilid - Expensive to get going, and we don't have that many spare +1/+1 counters available.
Greater Sandwurm - Decent big endgame monster. The problem is most games are decided before 7 mana. And at 7 this competes with Maul Splicer. The multiple bodies help remove the vulnerability to single target removal. Cycling is costly.
Honey Mammoth - 4 life is enough to keep midrange decks functioning into late. Still the weakness to single target is likely going to make this weak against more control oriented build. And losing to control feels about as bad as losing to aggro. So ultimately not worth it. It would be nice to see this with trample.
Migratory Greathorn - Plays well with Young Wolf. Depends largely on the availability to mutate targets. Green is a colour which if built right can contain enough enticing targets. Plays nicely with Silhana Ledgewalker as well. The ramp and body are aggressively costed.
Survivors' Bond - Best case is a cheap 2 for 1. Likely outcome is you don't have the right combination to make this work. Pairs well with white, which is by far the human colour. Green does not have many humans at all.
Thwart the Enemy - One sided prevention makes for nice race conditions. Still with so much single target removal going around this might not do what you want it often enough to warrant a slot.
Disfigure and Last Gasp are significantly better than Dead Weight and Mire's Grasp. The enchantment shrink is nowhere near as good as being instant speed here. There is little synergy for the enchantments and the permanent effect is nullified by the pace of most games. I would consider running both Dead Weight and Disfigure if you can find space because black tends to be quite thin on 1 mana answers. Whereas at 2 mana you begin to compete with Doom Blade and its ilk. Mana efficiency wins games.
On the topic of black removal, how to people rate Victim of Night and Rend Flesh? Victim of Night is 2 mana and gets most things that aren't Zombies, though costs 2 black so isn't easily splashable. And Rend Flesh gets most things. There tend to be less Spirits than Elves in cubes, so I prefer Rend Flesh over Eyeblight's Ending as my 3 mana black psuedo-destroy target creature spell of choice. Plus Rend Flesh is such a flavour win; one of the best designed cards of Kamigawa.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
Blade Banish - An exile version of Triumpant Surge which doesn't gain life. I don't think the exile is that relevant here outside of black's recursion suite. 4 mana is a lot for conditional removal, especially when white has access to redundant Pacifisms. Reprisal is the cheapest 4 power or greater effects removals we have. Radiant Judgement is the 3 mana cycling version. Bring to Trial is the 3 mana sorcery variant of Blade Banish.
Coordinated Charge - Not worth considering over Borrowed Grace. Cycling is a bit expensive on this card, considering that decks that want to use group pump effects generally have a low curve.
Daysquad Marshal - Provides 4/4 worth of stats divided among 2 creatures for 4 mana. Worth considering in going wide strategies.
Divine Arrow - Alright removal for slower white decks. The stipulation of only being able to use this spell in combat makes it not so good for aggressive strategies.
Drannith Healer - Makes Glory Seeker look embarrassing. The cycling is very cheap which makes this card worth considering past turn 2. The life gain text is essentially irrelevant. The main downside of cycling this card is the expected outcome from the top of your library is often a land, which tends to be better when you are mana screwed, than the case where you have been drawing out smoothly and would rather a random card than a 2/2. Between Syndic of Tithes and Topan Freeblader, the existing quality of white 2 drops tends to be quite good anyway.
Helica Glider - Neither option is terribly enticing.
Imposing Vantasaur - I've ran Noble Templar for a while with decent results, and this is very similar. I think cycling 1 is a stronger effect than plainscycling 2. Again it comes down to price, so Imposing Vantasaur for Noble Templar might be an easy cut.
Light of Hope - Cheap enchantment removal is my first thought. While options are nice, the most realistic option is the +1/+1 counter at instant speed. 4 life can be relevant as well. This is the first charm that hasn't been labeled as such. It could be a niche trick or just be underwhelming.
Maned Serval - A 2 mana Yotian Soldier. Given the amount of cheap evasion creatures people tend to run, this could not make much of an impact of boards.
Patagia Tiger - Hits hard and the flying body is decent. The main drawback is not having enough humans in non-white colours. Although black has picked up a few more in recent years.
Snare Tactician - Simply not enough cycling to be worth considering.
Solid Footing - Cheap and instant speed, which makes it worth thinking about. We tend to not favour high toughness creature, so there probably won't be enough natural synergies in the average cube to make this great.
Spontaneous Flight - 3 mana is a lot for +2/+2, but you get a flying counter out of it. Not really worth the effort.
Vulpikeet - Could be decent, depending on what junk is lying around on board. Most white creatures are too big to be worth considering and not big enough to be worth considering again. However Vulpikeet synergising very nicely with Slippery Bogle strategies. So if your cube has lots of cheap hexproof, this is probably worth your time to run.
Capture Sphere - Four mana is a lot for instant speed removal, even in blue.
Convolute - This is decent purely because you can run counter magic off a blue splash. 3 mana is still a lot when Mana Leak is available. Not really worth considering in a heavy blue build, because then you have access to the double blue costed Counterspells.
Crystacean - Again what was said for Aegis Turtle. Again 4 mana is a lot and this creature isn't going to do much well other than block.
Frost Lynx - In my opinion, weaker than Man-'o-War. Still a fine card, only blue 3's are pretty stacked.
Frostveil Ambush - The cycling makes this worth considering. Instant speed frosty tapping 2 creatures can swing games. Probably worth trying out. Also cycling 1, so strong.
Glimmerbell - A combo piece for an interaction we don't have. Outside of that, this can be ok at blocking cheap fliers if you cube has an excess of 2/1 fliers, which it probably doesn't.
Gust of Wind - Errr, ok. This is no Repulse because of the speed restriction of sorcery. Also the cost reduction is conditional and creatures can be difficult to keep alive in a game of Pauper.
Keep Safe - Strictly better than Confound. But not significantly better, a least given the creature centric nature of most cubes.
Of One Mind - 1 mana draw 2 seems like the dream. However this requires at least 2 creatures down on your side of the battlefield and most of the humans are in white, not blue. In saying that, this is probably up to the power level of most cubes, but can act as a red herring in most deck building processes.
Phase Dolphin - I didn't realise that dolphins were classed as whales. I guess concessions had to be made. The piggybacked evasion is decent, but there isn't much way of suiting up this dolphin outside the odd Vulshok Morningstar or Bonesplitter.
Startling Development - This is a startlingly good blue combat trick. 'Polymorphing' creatures has been one of blues things for quite some time, but this is the first decent cheap buff. The cycling 1 really helps sell this card to be. It seems strong and I'm expecting to get a lot of play out of Startling Development.
Wingfold Pteron - 6 mana is a lot. But both the options are worth taking in the right context. Benthic Giant sees play and is is comparable.
Blitz Leech - Flash, -2/-2 and the body make for quite a succinct package for 6 mana. Black is a colour geared towards actually making it to 6 mana to take advantage of cards like this. Cuttable, but could be fun to include to add variation to builds, if people are able to use all the parts on this card.
Blood Curdle - Expensive removal with upside. The strength of this depends on the eligibility of viable targets for the menace counter. I suspect most creatures will be too small to really make the menace counter sing, and in that case it is just overcosted removal.
Bushmeat Poacher - Alright sacrifice outlet. Maybe when cubes see a higher density of high toughness creatures is this going to be useful.
Cavern Whisperer - Well stated, keyworded and makes people discard. I'm sold.
Corpse Churn - Tends to be slightly too expensive for graveyard centric decks to take advantage of.
Dark Bargain - Overcosted for the available synergies.
Dead Weight - Fairly solid reprint. Most cubes look for some cheap black removal and this is one of those pieces.
Durable Coilbug - Alright on curve although 2/2s tend to be outclassed quite easily. The recursion is expensive.
Gloom Pangolin - Another high toughness creature that we are not going to be able to take advantage of.
Lurking Deadeye - Removal on a flashy creature body. Depends of the cube to how reliably this will effectively get it's removal off. I suspect not often enough. Seems pretty decent with firststrike.
Memory Leak - Again with the cheap cycling. This could be another counterpart to Duress, or it could be overcosted. It's hard to say. I think most strong decks curve too aggressively for this to be of much use.
Serrated Scorpion - A cheap annoying body. A lot of aggro decks are missing 1 drops, and this could fit that role. Not much use to decks that don't have a low to the ground curve. Also is susceptible to losing out on card advantage.
Unlikely Aid - Combat tricks ok. Black tends to have a bit of competition in its spells between Doom Blade and whatever else people put into black that cards like Unlikely Aid tend to not make the cut.
Whisper Squad - Only worth considering running in multiples, and most cubes are singleton.
White to Black done. Other colours may come later.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
My concern with Healer's Hawk isn't whether it gains life, rather whether it trades, which 1/1's rarely do. So it leads to card-disadvantage, which is often a condition for losing against non-aggro decks. Still I don't want to undervalue lifegain, just there are some decks out there that don't care whether you have 40 life or 1 life as long as they can gain control of the board.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
Healer's Hawk on it's own, just like Vault Skirge aren't that impressive, but if you have a lot of ways to pump it (equipments, auras, combat tricks) it's really good. I personally currently don't run either, because since I cut the aura theme I simply don't have enough ways to pump it, and my white cmc 1 is also pretty full, but it's definitely in consideration for the future.
Your artifact section is very light. I typically run a lot of the subpar equipment to juggle around. I think my logic behind running additional artifacts is that they will find a home in some deck, but typically the artifact has to provide a well costed effect not easily available to most colours. Copper Carapace and Leonin Bola is typically where I draw the line for equipment. True-Faith Censer is a weird Human centric one as well, but it can feel bad skewing deck building for relatively marginal gains. Clay Statue is colourless regenerate which is better than it sounds. And Wall of Tanglecord. It wall. If you have green it wall fliers as well. 2 mana for 0/6 is about a cheap as decent walls get.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
Seeker of the Way is bonkers. It also is only downshifted in supplementary sets, so I haven't moved it in yet. It will definitely be included when I get around to it. It is possibly even better than Topan Freeblade and I rate that 2 drop pretty well. Lifegain* and prowess on a Glory Seeker even ignoring the prowess is decent. Vice-versa with prowess without lifegain*. Seeker of the Way is a strictly better white Mage-Ring Bully, although that's not quite true because red has access to more abundant, cheap and powerful noncreature spells at common.
Not so hot on Healer's Hawk, which is weird because I rate Vault Skirge which is arguably worse that Healer's Hawk. I think I just have a prejudice for 1/1's of 1 even when they are loaded with keywords. I think I prefer Vault Skirge because I can play it with Carnophage and Vampire Lacerator. I think black's card advantage incentivises me to play slightly more 1's in that colour than I would otherwise because I can recuperate my losses when the game begins to go late. Whereas in white I'm typically looking to flood out at 2 and 3 with some land cutting tricks. I could give Healer's Hawk a go, but that would mean altering my play-style a bit, and like any self-respecting Magic player, I will refuse to alter my my play-style even when it is arguably worse than the alternative until I've been beaten repeatedly.
So uhh, I don't actually know how decent Healer's Hawk is because I've never really played it. Although I am a fan of Vault Skirge.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
I carried Aven Riftwatcher for a looong time, but now I feel my white has enough lifegain ressources elsewhere, so it got the axe.
I think more accurately white got more 1-drops and therefore is in less need of lifegainy Aven Riftwatcher. I still have a few years of white ones to gather before I exclude Riftwatcher. Aven Riftwatcher still gud when it isn't competing with Elite Vanguard.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
Time to have a read through the Planar Chaos spoiler.
Aquamorph Entity: Too expensive in every regard. Being either a 1/5 or 5/1 is decent as it has a strong defensive mode or a strong offensive mode. However at 4 mana you'd generally want something a bit more well rounded, maybe Illusionary Forces? Morphing is alright, but there isn't too much in the way of decent morph bluffs in most pauper cubes outside of Guthan Raiders. Or maybe Abzan Guide, but that is very mana intensive (and people typically avoid running it for the sake of sanity) and isn't going to disguise as a blue creature very well.
Aven Riftwatcher: One of white's strongest anti-aggro cards. It lifegain can be really annoying to deal with especially when you need to remain of the offensive as an opposing aggro deck. Aven Riftwatcher can scale a bit poorly against more control oriented builds as it will eventually remove itself, meaning the control player can save a piece of removal. It white you typically what to be holding tempo anyway so by the time Aven Riftwatcher vanishes and you don't have a strong board presence you have basically lost anyway. Still anti-aggro creatures are always in high demand for me personally, and this is very good at that role.
Battering Silver: 6 mana Silver is pretty much a hard pass. The trample is ok at going over the top with a board of Muscle Silvers and that's about it.
Blightspeaker - The fabled Rebel tutor. Might be worth it with Bound in Silence and what ever other decent 3CMC or less Rebels you can find. The search is repeatable, so in the right deck Blightspeaker must be dealt with or else it will spiral out of control in terms of card advantage. Pretty useless without other Rebels.
Bog Serpent - 5/5 for 6 isn't that good anymore, even ignoring this creatures downsides.
Brain Gorgers - The effect is worth it for the madness cost. While it is a part of Planar Chaos's give the opponent a choice in black subtheme, this is a decent one if you can get the discount. Why? Because discard is usually priced as if it was a downside, so Brain Gorgers goes into bargain-bin territory.
Brute Force - Second best red pump-spell after Reckless Charge. Best red combat trick. Giant Growth is boarderline in green, but typically gets out competed by Groundswell and Invigorate. This is similar in strength to Incinerate (although I'd say Incinerate is a bit better) but importantly Brute Force adds a bit of diversity in terms of effects available which helps counter strategies which aim to counter red burn.
Citanul Woodreaders: This is no Mulldrifter. However it is a very decent green 6 drop. Early game it can be used to meatshield against ground assaults. Draw 2 also breaks parity late. 1/4 body is relevant in most cases, even if it just to gum up the board.
Dash Hopes: You really need the Swamps to aline into to get the between a rock and a hard place decision that you crave. 5 life is a lot. Countering spells in black is unique. Ultimately, your opponent should be able to pick an option which is unfavourable for you in most cases as often the life option will be negligible if your opponent is leading in life. Otherwise the spell might not actually be worth 5 life. I don't want to create the impression that Dash Hope is a weak card. It just presents very little control to you in terms of how your opponent plays. Carnophage players will likely be able to get the most value out of Dash Hopes.
Dawn Charm: A strong charm. Not every cube is looking for a charm in white, but this does things. It Holy Days importantly without fully having to commit a card slot to that effect. Regenerate is also another strong mode for the protect the Queen strategies. Unfortunately we haven't really got any Queens to protect outside the odd Aura buffed Pegasus.
Dead // Gone: Strong cheap removal. It deals creatures in a modal manner.
Deadly Grub: A 6/1 shroud creature is the dream. Dreams are free. Reality is much crueler. Deadly Grub is not the kind of card you want against aggro, tempo, or midrange, which pretty much puts it out of consideration.
Dreamscape Artist: There was a time where this got played in quite a few cubes. Dreamscape Artist never got any worse, just decks that play well against durdle got better. Blue Harrow on a Spellshaper is strong.
Erratic Mutation: This card hurts my head somewhat. It's alright with plenty of top-deck manipulation, and terrible otherwise.
Essence Warden: A green Soul Warden. Is an elf as well. Very much a cube builders toolkit type creature.
Evolution Charm: The main mode of this is Raise Dead. It does a few things, but nothing stellar. Most green decks these days are looking for efficiency. This is an efficient use of card slots because you save space for effects (getting a land can be clutch as well as evasion). But is inefficient in terms of mana as Raise Dead is priced at 1 black mana and even then is outclassed by Ghoulcaller's Chant and Omen of the Dead.
Fa'adiyah Seer: Again, this synergised strongly with top-deck manipulation and is subpar otherwise.
Firefright Mage: I vastly prefer Intimidator Initiate for a similarly costed effect. 2 mana and discard is too expensive for the spellshaping. I guess it was price poorly because there are some niche goblin strategies which put 1/1 for 1 Goblins to work. Not so at common.
Fury Charm: On one hand this is a strictly better Shatter, on the other hand its third mode is essentially useless except at deploying Errant Ephemeron. I guess it comes down to the second mode which is err... ehhh. While there are artifacts in cube which need to be shattered, the opportunity cost of holding narrow removal tends to be outweighed of packing another more universally useful Searing Spear which will come in hand most matchups, including the ones when you respond to an equip by burning the target creature.
Ok, I'll get around to finishing the review later, but I'll post this for now for CONTENT.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Okika-Gang Shinobi's impactful in games where you get the set-up. Though there are plenty of games where it's ok at best. The body isn't particularly impressive and when you are behind on tempo it may as well be a dead card.
Hymn to Tourach late game is an undercosted Mind Rot, which can be alright at checking if your opponent has a empty hand. But really, the turn 2 Hymn is so ridiculous it doesn't matter that much. Sometimes you sink the lands and that's game before your opponent even has a chance. 2 random discard is very disruptive. Hymn to Tourach is clearly stronger, there it isn't much of a contest.
At a glance Unburden as an advantage from being the cheapest (same cost as Mind Rot) and has cycling so it can transform from being a dead card, which I guess can matter when curves are lower. Cycling is pretty decent, though 2 mana still slows down gameplay considerably when you are being stormed by weenie or burn. Double black is restrictive.
Reaper of Night is technically a 3 for 1 when you finally get the creature body. The body is decent at closing out games and obviously has an advantage over other cards when big mana is being reached. The flying clause is relevant. Overall, I'm still not that happy Mind Rotting for 4 mana even with the upsides. Sustain has gotten significantly better, but still aggro decks can put you on the ropes well before cards like this become relevant. Fine against durdly midrange. Although if I'm being honest, most midrange decks are pretty quick at closing out games, they just are also geared these days to deal with annoying, very quick decks, generally by one-upping at each point of the curve.
Lifegain is a strong mechanic; and is worth paying an extra 1 mana on top of Mind Rot for. Aspect of Lamprey isn't a shoe-in for most decks though. It requires a decent midrange shell that is looking for a bit of disruption. I don't like playing Aspect of Lamprey alongside Man-o'-War. Although Aspect of Lamprey plays nicely with Agony Warp, Benthic Giant, Skittering Horror and a lot of things that green typically does. Since lifegain is a scalable effect then it follows that creatures with higher power will synergise better. If the format is saturated with premium removal and Gideon's Lawkeepers then auras tend to be worse overall.
Ninjitsu is so strong; there are any number of cards which synergise with being returned to hand. Okiba-Gang Shinobi has to be dealt with, unless your opponent hand dumped their hand. The window to effectively deal with ninjas is narrow. Okiba-Gang Shinobi has been mvp of many games for me. Admitted weenie strategies tend to be weaker in my cube, so maybe you won't find Okiba-Gang Shinobi to be the powerhouse it's been for me. Ninjitsu does require a bit of deckbuilding to get working because you need to get that unblocked clause.
I think it's worth talking about Blightning too. It's good. 3 damage is very powerful.
Diabolic Edict has been decent for me even when I don't see the untargetables. It's much worse when a lot of weenies are in the mix such as in your cube.
Aspect of Lamprey has been performing. Mind Rot is ok. Situational discard 2 is devastating at times and other times it's a dead card. The lifegain component is clutch more often than not. And it makes Benthic Giant very scary. The main downside to the aura is in response remove target creature. Which depending on what's being ran happens more often than not. Still nowhere near Okiba-Gang Shinobi.
I am supporting more midrange strategies than any other general archetype.
I play tested Humphrey's build against a U/B build from another sealed pool and the Jund deck keep running out of steam and had no outs to Calcite Snapper and Benthic Giant.
I build U/R Delver aggro out of the same pool and it seems to be performing really well.
1 Lonely Sandbar
7 Island
7 Mountain
Creature
1 Blood Ogre
1 Borderland Marauder
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Eldrazi Skyspawner
1 Flummoxed Cyclops
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Prescient Chimera
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Serum Raker
1 Skitter Eel
1 Sparksmith
1 Spined Thopter
1 Umara Entangler
1 Wretched Gryff
1 Artillerize
1 Condescend
1 Counterspell
1 Incinerate
1 Opt
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Ray of Command
1 Staggershock
Sorcery
1 Arc Lightning
1 Disintegrate
1 Pyrotechnics
White
1 Arrester's Zeal
1 Attended Knight
1 Lone Missionary
1 Mardu Hordechief
1 Embolden
1 Spare from Evil
1 Tandem Tactics
1 Faith's Fetters
Blue
1 Eldrazi Skyspawner
1 Prescient Chimera
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Condescend
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Umara Entangler
1 Vapor Snag
1 Serum Raker
1 Opt
1 Skitter Eel
1 Spined Thopter
1 Ray of Command
1 Counterspell
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Rushing River
1 Moonlit Scavengers
Black
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Rend Flesh
1 Butcher's Glee
1 Soul Reap
1 Disowned Ancestor
1 Last Gasp
1 Malevolent Noble
1 Dark Ritual
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 Rage-Scarred Berserker
1 Omen of the Dead
1 Tragic Slip
1 Dead Reveler
1 Typhoid Rats
1 Doom Blade
1 Grotesque Mutation
1 Evincar's Justice
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Ghoulcaller's Chant
1 Sparksmith
1 Lava Dart
1 Nahiri's Stoneblades
1 Mogg Flunkies
1 Crystal Slipper
1 Blood Ogre
1 Incinerate
1 Flummoxed Cyclops
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Disintegrate
1 Borderland Marauder
1 Artillerize
1 Pyrotechnics
1 Arc Lightning
1 Dynacharge
1 Foundry Street Denizen
1 Staggershock
Green
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Mire Boa
1 Loathsome Chimera
1 Snake Umbra
1 Fertile Ground
1 Jungle Lion
1 Blastoderm
1 Crocanura
1 Thornweald Archer
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Rancor
1 Ambush Viper
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Travel Preparations
1 Grapple with the Past
1 Savage Silhouette
1 Basking Rootwalla
1 Utopia Vow
1 Tangle Golem
1 Blossoming Sands
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Yotian Soldier
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Wretched Gryff
1 Mind Stone
1 Wings of Hubris
1 Veinfire Borderpost
1 Terminate
1 Tumble Magnet
I consider it first pickable, not because it makes my deck significantly better, it doesn't. I consider it early pickable because I always want it main deck regardless of what I'm playing. Which opens up flexibility and adaptive behaviour based on what I get passed.
My main gripe with my drafting style is I tend to lean too strongly into what I pick early, rather than drafting adaptively. And the play-style of picking such a flexible land early (as soon as first pick in some cases) means I can adapt swiftly to signals without sacrificing card quality. When card quality drops off more steeply (such as drafting Ikoria) then I lean away from committing to cards like Evolving Wilds, because with early picks I want to be picking up card quality. As you said E. Wilds, it doesn't thin out a deck enough to justify taking it at the cost of power.
Blazing Volley - Comparible to Electrickery. I prefer the 1 mana sorcery to 2 mana instant. The best case is this Arc Lightnings your opponent for cheap. However that is somewhat optimistic, Arc Lightning's strength came from the flexibility of damaging players, 1-for-1ing or 2-for-1ing depending on the board, but always being useful. Whereas Blazing Volley the strength is almost all tied into the cost, and actual impact will fluctuate a lot depending on the game. Simply put most cubes won't want Blazing Volley, unless there is an emphasis on 1 toughness creatures and going wide.
Blisterspit Gremlin - Pretty much entirely insignificant. Notable for being the cheapest uptaps whenever you cast a noncreature spell card.
Cathartic Reunion - Alright card filter. Quite weak to countermagic because the discard is an upfront cost. Obviously synergises with with discard-matters effects and flashback. Overall this is the kind of card that doesn't get ran the pure aggro, but can find a place in midrange decks which look to play 5 or so lands then no more.
Cloud Piercer - If your red section has decent mutate targets then ok, if not (and this is probably the case) not worth your time. The surprise damage off a Goblin token (or a Mogg War Marshal) seems to be where this be best suited. Red doesn't have the best abilities to combine with the stats. The card filter is ok as well, but it doesn't quite compensate for the exposed vulnerability of card disadvantage. Reach is a funny nod towards recognising red's lack of flying non dragons. 5 power out of nowhere still smacks hard. And it only takes 4 Lava Axes to win a game...
Drannith Stinger - Red is suited slightly better towards a 2 mana 2/2 cycling 1 than white is. Plays well into gotta go fast strategies, where the endgame is looking for a burn spell.
Ferocious Tigorilla - I played Vestige of Emrakul for a while and then is in most ways better. The choice between menace and trample means you get the right tool for the job most times. Although I imagine the menace counter will be chosen most times.
Fire Prophecy - Seems pretty staple. Can't target players, which means that it is slightly worse than Searing Spear in burn builds. In games where burn is mostly directed at creatures such as in midrange, Fire Prophecy is much stronger than Searing Spear. Card filter on removal is powerful.
Forbidden Friendship - A stronger Dragon Fodder.
Frenzied Raptor - A boring vanilla creature with aggressive stats. This can make a find placeholder at 3 until you get some Blood Orges and Splatter Thugs.
Go for Blood - Competes with Searing Spear. In general, fight is worse than direct damage. Cycle 1 is potent, but considering the opportunity cost of running running Searing Spear (which is almost never a dead card), then Go for Blood seems pretty bad.
Heightened Reflexes - This is a red combat trick I can see myself playing. The main downside is this will often be underwhelming, and will often live in the sideboard. Not really the kind of card I want against control. Brute Strength is probably better.
Lava Serpent - I really like this. While this seems suited as a midrange card, the body is a respectable threat late game and cycling means you can pitch it in the games where it is not relevant. Haste is really strong on the body.
Prickly Marmoset - If there was enough strong cycling this would be great.
Pyroceratops - Not really a fan of Pyre Hound.
Raking Claws - Great with Immolating Souleater. Typically there isn't great double striking targets, and again this comes under the category of I would rather have Searing Spear.
Rumbling Rockside - At four mana I have the implicit expectation that a card should be able to deal with everything. This gets most creatures, but still not enough to justify in my mind.
Shredded Sails - Could be Searing Spear. It will hit a target more often than Smash to Smithereens. And has cycling as a kicker (not the mechanic). The main considering factor is how common are worthy artifacts and by extension fliers. Artifacts aren't that common, though it is a good feeling blowing up a Vulshok Morningstar after your opponent has sunk mana into it, the occurrences of such games is unlikely to be common enough to warrant including Shredded Sails into a main deck. Now that coloured artifacts are present outside of Alara, there might be hope for Shredded Sails in the future.
Spelleater Wolverine - Yes. I like casting cheap instants and sorceries. Getting a 3 mana 3/2 double striker even behind curve is great news.
Tentative Companion - Simply put, no where near enough cheap menace.
Adventurous Impulse - The green Anticipate that you'll never play.
Almighty Brushwagg - An overcosted Basking Rootwalla. If the ability costed less it is likely to have been too good.
Bristling Boar - Falls behind curve of what green can cast at 4 mana.
Essence Symbiote - No way we'll have enough mutate for this.
Excavation Mole - Similar to Hyrax Tower Scout. The self-mill can fuel some decks better than others. Untapping a creature allows some midrange decks to race aggro ones.
Fertilid - Expensive to get going, and we don't have that many spare +1/+1 counters available.
Flycatcher Giraffid - Awkwardly worse than Bitterbow Sharpshooters.
Fully Grown - I prefer Predator's Strike. 3 mana is a lot for a combat trick.
Greater Sandwurm - Decent big endgame monster. The problem is most games are decided before 7 mana. And at 7 this competes with Maul Splicer. The multiple bodies help remove the vulnerability to single target removal. Cycling is costly.
Honey Mammoth - 4 life is enough to keep midrange decks functioning into late. Still the weakness to single target is likely going to make this weak against more control oriented build. And losing to control feels about as bad as losing to aggro. So ultimately not worth it. It would be nice to see this with trample.
Humble Naturalist - Ilysian Caryatid is much stronger than this. 3 toughness is ignorable to most self-respecting decks these days.
Migratory Greathorn - Plays well with Young Wolf. Depends largely on the availability to mutate targets. Green is a colour which if built right can contain enough enticing targets. Plays nicely with Silhana Ledgewalker as well. The ramp and body are aggressively costed.
Mosscoat Goriak - Defence-mode creature that we don't need.
Plummet - Bog-standard reprint.
Ram Through - Rabid Bite upgrade. Instant speed as well!
Sudden Spinnerets - Vines of the Recluse upgrade. +3 toughness means even more survivability. And a reach counter as well! Pretty stoked with this.
Survivors' Bond - Best case is a cheap 2 for 1. Likely outcome is you don't have the right combination to make this work. Pairs well with white, which is by far the human colour. Green does not have many humans at all.
Thwart the Enemy - One sided prevention makes for nice race conditions. Still with so much single target removal going around this might not do what you want it often enough to warrant a slot.
Wilt - Strictly better Naturalize. Same as what was said for Shredded Sails.
Adaptive Shimmerer - Not at all what we are looking for in colourless.
Farfinder - Worse than Pilgrim's Eye.
Mysterious Egg - Again not what is needed.
Sleeper Dart - Expensive for little upside.
Springjaw Trap - Overcosted removal.
Bloodfell Caves - Standard B/R duel.
Blossoming Sands - Standard G/W duel.
Dismal Backwater - Standard U/B duel.
Evolving Wilds - First pickable land, due to flexibility and deck thinning.
Jungle Hollow - Standard B/G duel.
Rugged Highlands - Standard R/G duel.
Scoured Barrens - Standard W/B duel.
Swiftwater Cliffs - St****rd U/R duel.
Thornwood Falls - Standard G/U duel.
Tranquil Cove - Standard W/U duel.
Wind-Scarred Crag - Standard R/W duel.
On the topic of black removal, how to people rate Victim of Night and Rend Flesh? Victim of Night is 2 mana and gets most things that aren't Zombies, though costs 2 black so isn't easily splashable. And Rend Flesh gets most things. There tend to be less Spirits than Elves in cubes, so I prefer Rend Flesh over Eyeblight's Ending as my 3 mana black psuedo-destroy target creature spell of choice. Plus Rend Flesh is such a flavour win; one of the best designed cards of Kamigawa.
Blade Banish - An exile version of Triumpant Surge which doesn't gain life. I don't think the exile is that relevant here outside of black's recursion suite. 4 mana is a lot for conditional removal, especially when white has access to redundant Pacifisms. Reprisal is the cheapest 4 power or greater effects removals we have. Radiant Judgement is the 3 mana cycling version. Bring to Trial is the 3 mana sorcery variant of Blade Banish.
Checkpoint Officer - Overcosted Gideon's Lawmage in just about every way.
Coordinated Charge - Not worth considering over Borrowed Grace. Cycling is a bit expensive on this card, considering that decks that want to use group pump effects generally have a low curve.
Daysquad Marshal - Provides 4/4 worth of stats divided among 2 creatures for 4 mana. Worth considering in going wide strategies.
Divine Arrow - Alright removal for slower white decks. The stipulation of only being able to use this spell in combat makes it not so good for aggressive strategies.
Drannith Healer - Makes Glory Seeker look embarrassing. The cycling is very cheap which makes this card worth considering past turn 2. The life gain text is essentially irrelevant. The main downside of cycling this card is the expected outcome from the top of your library is often a land, which tends to be better when you are mana screwed, than the case where you have been drawing out smoothly and would rather a random card than a 2/2. Between Syndic of Tithes and Topan Freeblader, the existing quality of white 2 drops tends to be quite good anyway.
Garrison Cat - Consider Doomed Traveler, Hunted Witness then this.
Helica Glider - Neither option is terribly enticing.
Imposing Vantasaur - I've ran Noble Templar for a while with decent results, and this is very similar. I think cycling 1 is a stronger effect than plainscycling 2. Again it comes down to price, so Imposing Vantasaur for Noble Templar might be an easy cut.
Light of Hope - Cheap enchantment removal is my first thought. While options are nice, the most realistic option is the +1/+1 counter at instant speed. 4 life can be relevant as well. This is the first charm that hasn't been labeled as such. It could be a niche trick or just be underwhelming.
Maned Serval - A 2 mana Yotian Soldier. Given the amount of cheap evasion creatures people tend to run, this could not make much of an impact of boards.
Pacifism - A staple reprint.
Patagia Tiger - Hits hard and the flying body is decent. The main drawback is not having enough humans in non-white colours. Although black has picked up a few more in recent years.
Perimeter Sergeant - Pretty much what was said for Patagia Tiger.
Savai Sabertooth - Another 3/1 for 2 cat.
Snare Tactician - Simply not enough cycling to be worth considering.
Solid Footing - Cheap and instant speed, which makes it worth thinking about. We tend to not favour high toughness creature, so there probably won't be enough natural synergies in the average cube to make this great.
Spontaneous Flight - 3 mana is a lot for +2/+2, but you get a flying counter out of it. Not really worth the effort.
Vulpikeet - Could be decent, depending on what junk is lying around on board. Most white creatures are too big to be worth considering and not big enough to be worth considering again. However Vulpikeet synergising very nicely with Slippery Bogle strategies. So if your cube has lots of cheap hexproof, this is probably worth your time to run.
Aegis Turtle - Too much evasion to effectively turtle unless that turtle is Calcite Snapper.
Anticipate - Hasn't stopped being mediocre.
Capture Sphere - Four mana is a lot for instant speed removal, even in blue.
Convolute - This is decent purely because you can run counter magic off a blue splash. 3 mana is still a lot when Mana Leak is available. Not really worth considering in a heavy blue build, because then you have access to the double blue costed Counterspells.
Crystacean - Again what was said for Aegis Turtle. Again 4 mana is a lot and this creature isn't going to do much well other than block.
Dreamtail Heron - Wretched Gryff is great. This is functionally other Wretched Gryff, given the card interactions will work differently.
Essence Scatter - Decent reprint with cool art and flavourtext.
Facet Reader - A very bad Merfolk Looter.
Frost Lynx - In my opinion, weaker than Man-'o-War. Still a fine card, only blue 3's are pretty stacked.
Frostveil Ambush - The cycling makes this worth considering. Instant speed frosty tapping 2 creatures can swing games. Probably worth trying out. Also cycling 1, so strong.
Glimmerbell - A combo piece for an interaction we don't have. Outside of that, this can be ok at blocking cheap fliers if you cube has an excess of 2/1 fliers, which it probably doesn't.
Gust of Wind - Errr, ok. This is no Repulse because of the speed restriction of sorcery. Also the cost reduction is conditional and creatures can be difficult to keep alive in a game of Pauper.
Keep Safe - Strictly better than Confound. But not significantly better, a least given the creature centric nature of most cubes.
Of One Mind - 1 mana draw 2 seems like the dream. However this requires at least 2 creatures down on your side of the battlefield and most of the humans are in white, not blue. In saying that, this is probably up to the power level of most cubes, but can act as a red herring in most deck building processes.
Phase Dolphin - I didn't realise that dolphins were classed as whales. I guess concessions had to be made. The piggybacked evasion is decent, but there isn't much way of suiting up this dolphin outside the odd Vulshok Morningstar or Bonesplitter.
Startling Development - This is a startlingly good blue combat trick. 'Polymorphing' creatures has been one of blues things for quite some time, but this is the first decent cheap buff. The cycling 1 really helps sell this card to be. It seems strong and I'm expecting to get a lot of play out of Startling Development.
Thieving Otter - Functional reprint of Stealer of Secrets. Has proven to be too susceptible to dying to be of much use.
Wingfold Pteron - 6 mana is a lot. But both the options are worth taking in the right context. Benthic Giant sees play and is is comparable.
Blitz Leech - Flash, -2/-2 and the body make for quite a succinct package for 6 mana. Black is a colour geared towards actually making it to 6 mana to take advantage of cards like this. Cuttable, but could be fun to include to add variation to builds, if people are able to use all the parts on this card.
Blood Curdle - Expensive removal with upside. The strength of this depends on the eligibility of viable targets for the menace counter. I suspect most creatures will be too small to really make the menace counter sing, and in that case it is just overcosted removal.
Boot Nipper - Straight off the heels of Smitten Swordmaster and Child of Night. But with flexibility to switch with deathtouch. And realistically how many times was Curry Favor going to be useful.
Bushmeat Poacher - Alright sacrifice outlet. Maybe when cubes see a higher density of high toughness creatures is this going to be useful.
Cavern Whisperer - Well stated, keyworded and makes people discard. I'm sold.
Corpse Churn - Tends to be slightly too expensive for graveyard centric decks to take advantage of.
Dark Bargain - Overcosted for the available synergies.
Dead Weight - Fairly solid reprint. Most cubes look for some cheap black removal and this is one of those pieces.
Durable Coilbug - Alright on curve although 2/2s tend to be outclassed quite easily. The recursion is expensive.
Gloom Pangolin - Another high toughness creature that we are not going to be able to take advantage of.
Lurking Deadeye - Removal on a flashy creature body. Depends of the cube to how reliably this will effectively get it's removal off. I suspect not often enough. Seems pretty decent with firststrike.
Memory Leak - Again with the cheap cycling. This could be another counterpart to Duress, or it could be overcosted. It's hard to say. I think most strong decks curve too aggressively for this to be of much use.
Mutual Destruction - Not enough creatures with flash. Still a strictly better Bone Splinters.
Nightsquad Commando - A black version of Mardu Hordechief. Less to do with the tokens in black than white for the meantime.
Serrated Scorpion - A cheap annoying body. A lot of aggro decks are missing 1 drops, and this could fit that role. Not much use to decks that don't have a low to the ground curve. Also is susceptible to losing out on card advantage.
Suffocating Fumes - Overcosted. Better to just play Evincar's Justice.
Unexpected Fangs - The lifelink counter is tempting. Probably decent enough. At the very least this is comparable to Mark of the Vampire.
Unlikely Aid - Combat tricks ok. Black tends to have a bit of competition in its spells between Doom Blade and whatever else people put into black that cards like Unlikely Aid tend to not make the cut.
Whisper Squad - Only worth considering running in multiples, and most cubes are singleton.
White to Black done. Other colours may come later.
Not so hot on Healer's Hawk, which is weird because I rate Vault Skirge which is arguably worse that Healer's Hawk. I think I just have a prejudice for 1/1's of 1 even when they are loaded with keywords. I think I prefer Vault Skirge because I can play it with Carnophage and Vampire Lacerator. I think black's card advantage incentivises me to play slightly more 1's in that colour than I would otherwise because I can recuperate my losses when the game begins to go late. Whereas in white I'm typically looking to flood out at 2 and 3 with some land cutting tricks. I could give Healer's Hawk a go, but that would mean altering my play-style a bit, and like any self-respecting Magic player, I will refuse to alter my my play-style even when it is arguably worse than the alternative until I've been beaten repeatedly.
So uhh, I don't actually know how decent Healer's Hawk is because I've never really played it. Although I am a fan of Vault Skirge.
I think more accurately white got more 1-drops and therefore is in less need of lifegainy Aven Riftwatcher. I still have a few years of white ones to gather before I exclude Riftwatcher. Aven Riftwatcher still gud when it isn't competing with Elite Vanguard.
Aquamorph Entity: Too expensive in every regard. Being either a 1/5 or 5/1 is decent as it has a strong defensive mode or a strong offensive mode. However at 4 mana you'd generally want something a bit more well rounded, maybe Illusionary Forces? Morphing is alright, but there isn't too much in the way of decent morph bluffs in most pauper cubes outside of Guthan Raiders. Or maybe Abzan Guide, but that is very mana intensive (and people typically avoid running it for the sake of sanity) and isn't going to disguise as a blue creature very well.
Aven Riftwatcher: One of white's strongest anti-aggro cards. It lifegain can be really annoying to deal with especially when you need to remain of the offensive as an opposing aggro deck. Aven Riftwatcher can scale a bit poorly against more control oriented builds as it will eventually remove itself, meaning the control player can save a piece of removal. It white you typically what to be holding tempo anyway so by the time Aven Riftwatcher vanishes and you don't have a strong board presence you have basically lost anyway. Still anti-aggro creatures are always in high demand for me personally, and this is very good at that role.
Battering Silver: 6 mana Silver is pretty much a hard pass. The trample is ok at going over the top with a board of Muscle Silvers and that's about it.
Blightspeaker - The fabled Rebel tutor. Might be worth it with Bound in Silence and what ever other decent 3CMC or less Rebels you can find. The search is repeatable, so in the right deck Blightspeaker must be dealt with or else it will spiral out of control in terms of card advantage. Pretty useless without other Rebels.
Bog Serpent - 5/5 for 6 isn't that good anymore, even ignoring this creatures downsides.
Brain Gorgers - The effect is worth it for the madness cost. While it is a part of Planar Chaos's give the opponent a choice in black subtheme, this is a decent one if you can get the discount. Why? Because discard is usually priced as if it was a downside, so Brain Gorgers goes into bargain-bin territory.
Brute Force - Second best red pump-spell after Reckless Charge. Best red combat trick. Giant Growth is boarderline in green, but typically gets out competed by Groundswell and Invigorate. This is similar in strength to Incinerate (although I'd say Incinerate is a bit better) but importantly Brute Force adds a bit of diversity in terms of effects available which helps counter strategies which aim to counter red burn.
Citanul Woodreaders: This is no Mulldrifter. However it is a very decent green 6 drop. Early game it can be used to meatshield against ground assaults. Draw 2 also breaks parity late. 1/4 body is relevant in most cases, even if it just to gum up the board.
Cradle to Grave: Comparable to Doom Blade and Remove Soul. Except worse than either in just about every regard.
Dash Hopes: You really need the Swamps to aline into to get the between a rock and a hard place decision that you crave. 5 life is a lot. Countering spells in black is unique. Ultimately, your opponent should be able to pick an option which is unfavourable for you in most cases as often the life option will be negligible if your opponent is leading in life. Otherwise the spell might not actually be worth 5 life. I don't want to create the impression that Dash Hope is a weak card. It just presents very little control to you in terms of how your opponent plays. Carnophage players will likely be able to get the most value out of Dash Hopes.
Dawn Charm: A strong charm. Not every cube is looking for a charm in white, but this does things. It Holy Days importantly without fully having to commit a card slot to that effect. Regenerate is also another strong mode for the protect the Queen strategies. Unfortunately we haven't really got any Queens to protect outside the odd Aura buffed Pegasus.
Dead // Gone: Strong cheap removal. It deals creatures in a modal manner.
Deadly Grub: A 6/1 shroud creature is the dream. Dreams are free. Reality is much crueler. Deadly Grub is not the kind of card you want against aggro, tempo, or midrange, which pretty much puts it out of consideration.
Dreamscape Artist: There was a time where this got played in quite a few cubes. Dreamscape Artist never got any worse, just decks that play well against durdle got better. Blue Harrow on a Spellshaper is strong.
Dust Corona: Anti flying meta?
Erratic Mutation: This card hurts my head somewhat. It's alright with plenty of top-deck manipulation, and terrible otherwise.
Essence Warden: A green Soul Warden. Is an elf as well. Very much a cube builders toolkit type creature.
Evolution Charm: The main mode of this is Raise Dead. It does a few things, but nothing stellar. Most green decks these days are looking for efficiency. This is an efficient use of card slots because you save space for effects (getting a land can be clutch as well as evasion). But is inefficient in terms of mana as Raise Dead is priced at 1 black mana and even then is outclassed by Ghoulcaller's Chant and Omen of the Dead.
Fa'adiyah Seer: Again, this synergised strongly with top-deck manipulation and is subpar otherwise.
Firefright Mage: I vastly prefer Intimidator Initiate for a similarly costed effect. 2 mana and discard is too expensive for the spellshaping. I guess it was price poorly because there are some niche goblin strategies which put 1/1 for 1 Goblins to work. Not so at common.
Fury Charm: On one hand this is a strictly better Shatter, on the other hand its third mode is essentially useless except at deploying Errant Ephemeron. I guess it comes down to the second mode which is err... ehhh. While there are artifacts in cube which need to be shattered, the opportunity cost of holding narrow removal tends to be outweighed of packing another more universally useful Searing Spear which will come in hand most matchups, including the ones when you respond to an equip by burning the target creature.
Ok, I'll get around to finishing the review later, but I'll post this for now for CONTENT.