Eel Umbra has been a really good utility card in my cube. The times when it works, it's an absolute beating.
From that list I'd cut Clique and Wayward Soul. Even if you save them from removal, you aren't actually gaining a card. From an aggressive/finisher standpoint, you can get 3 power fliers for 3 mana, so paying 4 for them seems kind of off.
dignitary doesn't really fit in with what white is doing in pauper cubes (it's hard to have a good late game with only commons). I would guess it's somewhere around the power level of Teroh's Faithful.
Blood Ogre is nice. I find 3 drops to be less crowded than 4 drops (as you can have a lot more of them). I'll probably replace skirk commando or inner-flame acolyte.
Guardian's Pledge is pretty solid. It kind of sucks that it's white only, but between it, fortify, and army of allah you can get a redundant enough overrun effect to make an archetype.
Web is great against utility creatures, such at tappers (which green has a tough time with). Also, it can lock down an evasive creature, giving green time to win with superior green creatures.
The Giant Growth comparison for frost breath is pretty weak imo. Growth is a much weaker card than Blinding Beam, and is much more narrow. Personally I think Frost Breath will have offensive applications for breaking stalemates, but I think it's a good enough defensive spell to warrant an inclusion. Because, honestly, beam was always a better defensive card than an offensive card. That's why it's better than Sleep ever was.
I find Glasskite to be at it's best in removal heavy decks that are kind of light on creatures. In such a case, Fleetwing's 2 toughness won't really matter.
Frost Breath obviously isn't a superb blue card, and comparing it to something like Undo is kind of unfair. Still, I think it's a solid defensive card. I like to have diverse spell effects in my cube (if I just put the best ones, my black would be half removal), and Frost Breath is probably better than Choking Tethers, which I run and which has done good things for me in the past.
Blinding Beam is obviously better just because it is white, and has more impact offensively. That said, I've cast plenty of defensive Blinding Beams. A large reason I'm excited about it is because I enjoy beam so much, and I understand if other people think it's not quite up to snuff.
As for Bangchuckers vs Archaeologist, obviously the Archaeologist is better, as it's cheaper, untaps, and kills a wider variety of stuff. Still, the point was that just because a card can do nothing, it can still be good if the upside is large enough. Pinging for 2 is pretty sweet, and the power level of core set limited tends to be a bit lower, so expect to see some dynamite in the near future.
Frost Breath is a cube now for me. It's enough of a Blinding Beam, and beam is an awesome card. It's better than sleep, as it is an instant.
Aven Fleetwing is more on the level of Shimmering Glasskite. It has one less power than the return to library guys, but it doesn't set you back a card and it doesn't require mana. I expect it to be spectacular.
Pride Guardian imo isn't good enough. It doesn't really mesh with the white color identity. Also, there isn't much top end to be worth stalling to get to, especially not in white.
Goblin Bangchuckers is uncommon. For actually limited play, I think it's good. It's reminiscent of Goblin Archaeologist, which was a top pick in mirrodin limited.
Goblin Fireslinger is a card I kind of like. Sticking it on turn 1 and curving out is kind of insane. They will have to spend a removal spell of some sort on it at some point.
Arachus Web is obviously awesome. Most creatures don't have 4
power anyways!
Armored Warhorse is a "new" vanilla benchmark, but white two drops are already pretty amazing.
Peregrine Griffin is pretty lulzy. I don't think the first strike is very relevant, making it a more expensive Makindi Griffin, which people don't run.
Stave Off is actually nice and cheap. It's no shelter, but white could use a few more spell effects. It may have a shot in some lists. I'll stick to Dawn Charm though.
Saw someone play Rock Slide in LSV's latest draft video. The card seems solid, and is pretty mana efficient. I'm going to try it out in my next cube update.
Power Sink is definitely better than Syncopate. There isn't that much that really cares about being in the graveyard. Personally, I'd rather have Broken Ambitions just for the small amount of card filtering.
Logic Knot however I have been using, and it's pretty solid. There isn't much else that uses the same resource as delve, so very often it's just free. Early game you gotta get some stuff there, but even on turn 3 you can probably get there with the Spell Snip effect. The reason it is good is that you can play a threat and leave 2 mana up, and still be able to counter whatever they have. It's one of the lower tier counters, but it's definitely one to try out if you want another counter.
For Impulse, I'm under the impression it was just printed incorrectly (the wording on the card makes no sense, why put the cards on the bottom if you're shuffling?). It's been errata'd for a very long time. As for the card itself, I'm of the opinion that it is rather lackluster. It was a great constructed card back in the day because in most formats, card quality varies heavily amongst a single deck (you need to find a combo piece, for instance). In Commons Cube, the card quality is rather stable, which makes these types of draw spells somewhat lackluster. Impulse is worse than Preordain in that you have to bottom 3. If you see four sweet cards, you just shot yourself in the foot.
As for the 2012 cards, Lawkeeper is obviously great, though there's such a huge glut of tappers that he's merely a small upgrade.
The bear is kind of weird in that there usually aren't many targeting effects that aren't premium removal. However, his size kind of makes that pointless. He gets invalidated rapidly in combat, and only has a reason to exist if you can be super-aggressive. In blue, that doesn't seem to be likely, and any blue aggressive deck is probably trying to do it with fliers, while clogging up the ground.
The bat actually kind of tempts me. Bloodthirst is a pretty easy mechanic to trigger, but on turn 2, not so much. If there's one color that can do it, it's black though. Turn 2 Lacerator/Carnophage into turn 2 bat is solid. There's a lot of good black 2 drops, but I think he's close in power level to Fledgling Djinn.
The most anticipated card for me from 2012 is going to be the Giant Growth replacement. It seems very likely that it will be a Vines of Vastwood type card, given that hexproof is a brand new keyworded mechanic.
The threaders are pretty mediocre. There are a ton of sweet white 2 drops, and they aren't good enough often enough. They aren't unusable though, as 2 power unblockable for 2 is pretty sweet when it works. Hillcomber Giant is a little better as it's a hill giant. Most white decks won't want this, or will want a flier instead.
Whitemane Lion is fun, and I ran it for a while, but again, white two drops are pretty sweet. If you really want to use blink type cards, he's one of the best.
Amrou Seekers isn't much better than a 2 power flier. There are a lot of white 2 power fliers for 3 with an upside, so use them instead.
Zealot Il-Vec is a white pinger, but white doesn't really want pingers. Most white decks won't want this.
Spirit En-Kor looks solid, it may be better than the Cloud Crusaders. Aven Liberator meanwhile is a little too expensive, but the protection can get them pretty good.
Well, broken fall is best late game, when it invalidates removal (well, you can use two at once) and the mana doesn't matter. It's kind of like an equipment, it sucks if you can't get enough creatures, and it doesn't get good until later on in the game.
Broken Fall isn't bad. It's instant speed regeneration, your opponent just knows about it. If you're smart about using it, you're either gaining a card or gaining a lot of life from each activation.
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From that list I'd cut Clique and Wayward Soul. Even if you save them from removal, you aren't actually gaining a card. From an aggressive/finisher standpoint, you can get 3 power fliers for 3 mana, so paying 4 for them seems kind of off.
Blood Ogre is nice. I find 3 drops to be less crowded than 4 drops (as you can have a lot more of them). I'll probably replace skirk commando or inner-flame acolyte.
The Giant Growth comparison for frost breath is pretty weak imo. Growth is a much weaker card than Blinding Beam, and is much more narrow. Personally I think Frost Breath will have offensive applications for breaking stalemates, but I think it's a good enough defensive spell to warrant an inclusion. Because, honestly, beam was always a better defensive card than an offensive card. That's why it's better than Sleep ever was.
Frost Breath obviously isn't a superb blue card, and comparing it to something like Undo is kind of unfair. Still, I think it's a solid defensive card. I like to have diverse spell effects in my cube (if I just put the best ones, my black would be half removal), and Frost Breath is probably better than Choking Tethers, which I run and which has done good things for me in the past.
Blinding Beam is obviously better just because it is white, and has more impact offensively. That said, I've cast plenty of defensive Blinding Beams. A large reason I'm excited about it is because I enjoy beam so much, and I understand if other people think it's not quite up to snuff.
As for Bangchuckers vs Archaeologist, obviously the Archaeologist is better, as it's cheaper, untaps, and kills a wider variety of stuff. Still, the point was that just because a card can do nothing, it can still be good if the upside is large enough. Pinging for 2 is pretty sweet, and the power level of core set limited tends to be a bit lower, so expect to see some dynamite in the near future.
Aven Fleetwing is more on the level of Shimmering Glasskite. It has one less power than the return to library guys, but it doesn't set you back a card and it doesn't require mana. I expect it to be spectacular.
Skywinder Drake is a card I'll add in. I love my Cloud Spirits, and they get better in multiples.
Pride Guardian imo isn't good enough. It doesn't really mesh with the white color identity. Also, there isn't much top end to be worth stalling to get to, especially not in white.
Goblin Bangchuckers is uncommon. For actually limited play, I think it's good. It's reminiscent of Goblin Archaeologist, which was a top pick in mirrodin limited.
Goblin Fireslinger is a card I kind of like. Sticking it on turn 1 and curving out is kind of insane. They will have to spend a removal spell of some sort on it at some point.
Arachus Web is obviously awesome. Most creatures don't have 4
power anyways!
Vampire Outcasts is uncommon unfortunately (otherwise it would be sweet).
I am excited about Gorehorn Minotaur, but that's it so far =[
Titanic Growth is pretty mediocre. It's probably worse than Giant Growth was.
Savage Silhouette functional reprint. Perhaps someone wants it, but I've already cut sihouette myself.
Sorin's Thirst is a solid card, but there's so many good black 2 mana removal spells that won't make the cut.
Devouring Swarm looks usable, if unexciting (certainly no Liliana's Specter)
Armored Warhorse is a "new" vanilla benchmark, but white two drops are already pretty amazing.
Peregrine Griffin is pretty lulzy. I don't think the first strike is very relevant, making it a more expensive Makindi Griffin, which people don't run.
Stave Off is actually nice and cheap. It's no shelter, but white could use a few more spell effects. It may have a shot in some lists. I'll stick to Dawn Charm though.
Logic Knot however I have been using, and it's pretty solid. There isn't much else that uses the same resource as delve, so very often it's just free. Early game you gotta get some stuff there, but even on turn 3 you can probably get there with the Spell Snip effect. The reason it is good is that you can play a threat and leave 2 mana up, and still be able to counter whatever they have. It's one of the lower tier counters, but it's definitely one to try out if you want another counter.
For Impulse, I'm under the impression it was just printed incorrectly (the wording on the card makes no sense, why put the cards on the bottom if you're shuffling?). It's been errata'd for a very long time. As for the card itself, I'm of the opinion that it is rather lackluster. It was a great constructed card back in the day because in most formats, card quality varies heavily amongst a single deck (you need to find a combo piece, for instance). In Commons Cube, the card quality is rather stable, which makes these types of draw spells somewhat lackluster. Impulse is worse than Preordain in that you have to bottom 3. If you see four sweet cards, you just shot yourself in the foot.
As for the 2012 cards, Lawkeeper is obviously great, though there's such a huge glut of tappers that he's merely a small upgrade.
The bear is kind of weird in that there usually aren't many targeting effects that aren't premium removal. However, his size kind of makes that pointless. He gets invalidated rapidly in combat, and only has a reason to exist if you can be super-aggressive. In blue, that doesn't seem to be likely, and any blue aggressive deck is probably trying to do it with fliers, while clogging up the ground.
The soul has a terrible clock. I don't think you'd run Prickly Boggart or Nightshade Stinger in your cube. He isn't much better. (try Pulse Tracker instead)
The bat actually kind of tempts me. Bloodthirst is a pretty easy mechanic to trigger, but on turn 2, not so much. If there's one color that can do it, it's black though. Turn 2 Lacerator/Carnophage into turn 2 bat is solid. There's a lot of good black 2 drops, but I think he's close in power level to Fledgling Djinn.
The most anticipated card for me from 2012 is going to be the Giant Growth replacement. It seems very likely that it will be a Vines of Vastwood type card, given that hexproof is a brand new keyworded mechanic.
Whitemane Lion is fun, and I ran it for a while, but again, white two drops are pretty sweet. If you really want to use blink type cards, he's one of the best.
Amrou Seekers isn't much better than a 2 power flier. There are a lot of white 2 power fliers for 3 with an upside, so use them instead.
Zealot Il-Vec is a white pinger, but white doesn't really want pingers. Most white decks won't want this.
Benalish Knight is pretty solid. Feel free to run it.
Spirit En-Kor looks solid, it may be better than the Cloud Crusaders. Aven Liberator meanwhile is a little too expensive, but the protection can get them pretty good.
Topple isn't as good as the numerous Pacifisms that don't make the cut. Same deal with Iona's Judgement.
Inspired Charge looks good because Fortify was so good, but making it one mana more hurts a lot. Use Army of Allah over it if you aren't already.