I think there are people who play Merfolk Looter, but no Thought Courier. If you don't want functional reprints, that's fine but otherwise it is just a huge mistake. The 3 looters are like Dark Confidant in Modern/Legacy. You immediately kill them turn two or you lose the game due to the immense card selection/VCA they generate.
The same's true for mana elves and X burn spells in my opinion, except to a greater degree because mana elves and fireballs are better than looters, in my opinion. I've come to the conclusion that people think running a whole bunch of the same effect is boring and clearly it's not about power level. If anyone legitimitely thinks that Boreal Druid or Disintegrate aren't 360 power level, I'd love to know.
Troubled Healer is a card I've been running in order to try it out after so many people here considered it very good. It keeps disappointing me, tbh. It has almost never been played main deck, even though it was mostly in a W player's pool. It is a fine lategame card, when you have excessive lands and your opponent is trying to throw XR damage spells at you, but the card is just utterly terrible on curve and the turns after. I honestly think that Icatian Crier does way more for you if you want a white 3 drop that is bad on curve, but awesome late game.
I don't think you're playing this card correctly. It's by far at its best in creature based matchups where it can bust up board stalls and make all of their blocks terrible. If you're not playing this guy onto a board with at least 3 more of your creatures, you're probably not doing it properly. Same goes for sacrificing lands to prevent damage to you. It's not really a late game card, but you're obviously right that it's not strong on curve. It's more a midgame card that you play when you're ahead to stay ahead, get a bunch of damage in and win the next turn ideally.
Syphon Flesh isn't really as appealing as I initially thought. Retrace spells only seem good if they actually affect the game in a way that it will be relevant throughout the rest of the match. Syphon only provides one-shot effects, while Cenn's Enlistment or even Oona's grace generate 'something', that will give you an advantage in all turns after, namely board position and CA, respectively.
Yeah, it's not a strong card and I don't really know why people thought it would be to be honest.
I think that both Funeral Charm (you're playing a modern cube right? It's legal because it was timeshifted in timespiral) and it's colourshift funeral charm are playable and pretty much every other charm doesn't do enough.
I like Piker. If he comes down early he does some work as most creatures can't block him. He is really hard to block because a Lava Dart allows him to take out an X/3. First Strike is incredibly powerful on offense because not only your pump spells but even your smallest burn spells turn into solid removal spells. It currently is one of the first out of my red 2-drops because I'm playing the 3 token producers (Mogg War Marshall, Krenko's Command, and Dragon Fodder) because I'm trying to get a swarm/mass pump theme in Red with an affinity for the sac theme in Black and minor sac theme in Red.
This also sums up all the reasons he's good.
My M14 experience (a little late but eh whatever)
-Celestial Flare as borderline as I thought. Worse than every 2-mana enchantment removal, not better than O-Ring or Fetters, and I'm not even playing Recumbent Bliss, Arrest or Cage of Hands at the moment. White has enough removal, it doesn't want this one. Only play it if you really want a check to Hexproof/Shroud/Guardian of the Guildpact
-Master of Diversions is a house in the right deck and the right deck should come together a lot easier in cube than m14 Limited. I played UW Beats btw which leads me to...
-Trained Condor being way better than I expected. Not sure it will find its way in the stacked Blue 3-drop section but maybe. I play Scroll Thief, Stealer of Secrets, and Ninja of Deep Hours so he has more synergy in my cube than most.
-Hunt the Weak looked good. 4 mana is a lot but the +1/+1 mattered a lot as well and it's decent removal in green. I dunno. I play Sporeback Troll right now soo yeah (I so wish more of those type of Grafters were common. It's literally him and Helium Squirter that are decent at common)
-Charging Griffin was pretty powerful. May even be good enough for Cube because of the slot it fills. There aren't any good aggressive curve toppers right now in White. The 4-drop creature slot is very lacking (Guardian of the Guildpact being the only good one as far I as can tell). While strictly worse than Phantom Monster, it's in White.
-Sporemound, eh. Unimpressed. Should've been a 4/4.
-Mesenger Drake did some work, as all 3/3 Flyers will do. I kind of like him and may cut whichever current Flash 3/3 Flyer I'm playing to test it out.
You certainly have room for the condor - the two cards you listed after it are certainly weaker, though the synergy is obviously nice.
I personally don't see the payoff for a +1/+1 counter theme being enough for it to be actually worth drafting the cards together.
At the prerelease last night, I managed to 3-0 with what looked like a super mediocre pool. Mainly on the back of Master of Diversion, who was super strong for me the whole time, and seems possibly even better in this format. It's great with tempo cards (in my deck Frost Breath and Time Ebb) as it means you have to deal with one fewer creature and it also gets through for 2 per turn.
I like Porcelain Legionnaire in the first pack as it keeps you open and is really good in any deck. Screw any aggro deck, I'll play it in any deck period. It's an amazing pack, there are like 6 cards I'm really happy to first pick.
In the second pack, I like Twisted Abomination. Ghitu Slinger and Faceless butcher are close, maybe the slinger is the best pick.
Perfectly fair points. I also really like Elephant Ambush. It's also just a really unique card too. It's definitely not a cut I like the look of at all. Below is my current green section - I need to find room for Imperiosaur, Rumbling Baloth and Walker of the Grove. I'm interested in your thoughts?
What do you think of blink support? There is a big amount of creatures with etb-effects amd I wonder if I shouldn't include some blink and more selfbounce spells to enable blink decks in my drafts.
Cards in my cube, that would be very happy about these effects are:
White: 5 (6)
-Icatian Javelineers
-Lone Missionary
-Aven Riftwatcher
-Kor Hookmaster
-Totem-Guide Hartebeest
(-Burrenton Bombardier: Likes to be played and then bounced later.)
I hope I didn't forgot too many cards, that work great with that archetype, but overall I just wanted to ask: Do you think these are enough cards, to support this possible archetype more, than I actually do?
That's certainly interesting, I might well try this out when I remake the cube. I really like Cavern Harpy because the cube really lacks late game card advantage engines and it's a very solid one as well as just being a hard to deal with beatstick. Plus it's just an interesting card in general. Blink itself wasn't good enough last time I tried it, and that was still while damage stacked so it seems like it's probably not good now, but it could well be soon.
You don't need to go terribly deep into this archetype for the blink cards to be playable, but yeah if I was going to add a couple of blink cards I'd add a few blinkable creatures too - especially seeing as Sea Gate Oracle is such value already.
If you really want to go deep, I'd suggest maybe running all of the cards that can return Ghostly Flicker from the grave and the flicker. It's a pretty good combo as long as you have any other relevant etb ability, and both parts are playable without the other.
EDIT: Why aren't we all playing Durkwood Baloth? I'm pretty sure that the Hollowhenge Beast vs Winding Wurm discussion is kind of irrelevant as I think that both Imperiosaur and the baloth seem quite a bit better.
360 with 2x gates could be enough for the non-red gatekeepers, but they're not really interesting enough to warrant such a change IMO. I'd personally only break rules like that to include interesting cards and archetypes, not just play some gatekeepers.
I think that hauler is better than cadaver imp, for sure, because it's a creature that comes out on curve and the body is actually relevant - when the imps come down at about turns 5-6, their body is pretty unimpressive. It's not an amazing card, and black 2 drops are pretty great, but it's certainly cubable.
I'd probably cut Blind Creeper - though some people like that card a lot, and it's been ages since I've played with it... Though any of those cards are a fine cut, really. The replica is the best, but still unexciting.
I agree with The Cooler on both perilous research and the cloak. Cloak has already proven itself - it was an important card in standard, not just RAV limited. Even Vulshok Morningstar wasn't.
Perilous Research is very good when you have something irrelevant to sacrifice, but that's not very often. It was okay when you could do it with damage on the stack, but now it's pretty costly unless they've pacified one of your guys. It's really good when there's not much of a cost, but if you have to sacrifice something like a 2/2 or a land, it's pretty miserable.
Moldervine Cloak is really good, that's true. It's actually probably worst in GB because it's really not amazing in midrange value decks - the general idea of the card is to make your aggressive threats much more powerful, and if they deal with one with some removal, then get it back and try again. Pretty sure that card's going to be a staple. It's certainly the best of the cards spoiled for us.
I'm pretty unimpressed by imperiosaur to be honest. It seems like in normal games it will only come out at the same time as Hollowhenge Beast would, and bouncelands in particular make it pretty embarrassing.
I tried the raiders, it wasn't particularly good. Black's two drops are actually ridiculously good - by far the best of any colour in cube. Basilica Screecher is better than it for sure and you're not playing that card. Everyone should play it, extort is so very good.
I might have time to answer some of metalevolence's questions later, because normal card evaluation isn't really as applicable to pauper cube as it might seem. However, I will say that while coalition honor guard is pretty sweet and not likely to ever leave my cube, it's not close to the second best white card. Faith's Fetters, Porcelain Legionnaire, Oblivion Ring are all much better.
The same's true for mana elves and X burn spells in my opinion, except to a greater degree because mana elves and fireballs are better than looters, in my opinion. I've come to the conclusion that people think running a whole bunch of the same effect is boring and clearly it's not about power level. If anyone legitimitely thinks that Boreal Druid or Disintegrate aren't 360 power level, I'd love to know.
I don't think you're playing this card correctly. It's by far at its best in creature based matchups where it can bust up board stalls and make all of their blocks terrible. If you're not playing this guy onto a board with at least 3 more of your creatures, you're probably not doing it properly. Same goes for sacrificing lands to prevent damage to you. It's not really a late game card, but you're obviously right that it's not strong on curve. It's more a midgame card that you play when you're ahead to stay ahead, get a bunch of damage in and win the next turn ideally.
Yeah, it's not a strong card and I don't really know why people thought it would be to be honest.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
In that case I'd either cut the Giant Tortoise or one of the 5 drops (not mulldrifter, obviously).
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Draft it on Cubetutor!
You certainly have room for the condor - the two cards you listed after it are certainly weaker, though the synergy is obviously nice.
I personally don't see the payoff for a +1/+1 counter theme being enough for it to be actually worth drafting the cards together.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Draft it on Cubetutor!
In the second pack, I like Twisted Abomination. Ghitu Slinger and Faceless butcher are close, maybe the slinger is the best pick.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Tangle Hulk, Dawntreader Elk and especially Rubbleback Rhino are really mediocre, and good cuts.
While there are a bunch of good ways to make tokens, there really is no way to use them well. There's no good anthem effect or anything.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
That's certainly interesting, I might well try this out when I remake the cube. I really like Cavern Harpy because the cube really lacks late game card advantage engines and it's a very solid one as well as just being a hard to deal with beatstick. Plus it's just an interesting card in general. Blink itself wasn't good enough last time I tried it, and that was still while damage stacked so it seems like it's probably not good now, but it could well be soon.
You don't need to go terribly deep into this archetype for the blink cards to be playable, but yeah if I was going to add a couple of blink cards I'd add a few blinkable creatures too - especially seeing as Sea Gate Oracle is such value already.
If you really want to go deep, I'd suggest maybe running all of the cards that can return Ghostly Flicker from the grave and the flicker. It's a pretty good combo as long as you have any other relevant etb ability, and both parts are playable without the other.
EDIT: Why aren't we all playing Durkwood Baloth? I'm pretty sure that the Hollowhenge Beast vs Winding Wurm discussion is kind of irrelevant as I think that both Imperiosaur and the baloth seem quite a bit better.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Draft it on Cubetutor!
I'd probably cut Blind Creeper - though some people like that card a lot, and it's been ages since I've played with it... Though any of those cards are a fine cut, really. The replica is the best, but still unexciting.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
I'm very tempted to put back a rebel subtheme. Bound in Silence makes it a lot more viable.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Perilous Research is very good when you have something irrelevant to sacrifice, but that's not very often. It was okay when you could do it with damage on the stack, but now it's pretty costly unless they've pacified one of your guys. It's really good when there's not much of a cost, but if you have to sacrifice something like a 2/2 or a land, it's pretty miserable.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
I'm pretty unimpressed by imperiosaur to be honest. It seems like in normal games it will only come out at the same time as Hollowhenge Beast would, and bouncelands in particular make it pretty embarrassing.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
I might have time to answer some of metalevolence's questions later, because normal card evaluation isn't really as applicable to pauper cube as it might seem. However, I will say that while coalition honor guard is pretty sweet and not likely to ever leave my cube, it's not close to the second best white card. Faith's Fetters, Porcelain Legionnaire, Oblivion Ring are all much better.
Draft it on Cubetutor!