Check the Wizards visual spoiler, that's been entered in error.
As far as Perilous Research goes, it might be better to just have a Divination in a flooded situation so you can save those islands for Capsize or whatnot, even though instant is great. But what do you cut at 360? I don't like it so much without damage on the stack.
Updated my cube list after two years... woah, what a mission!! Thanks for all the great stuff on these boards, it's been really useful.
Basking Rootwalla could perhaps be compared to Darkthicket Wolf. He's not worth the mana if you're holding a two drop, but if you can drop him on turn one it's still keeping to your gameplan to attack on turn two for three, even if you miss your curve. I like him for patching up that hole in the early game but he's the weakest green one drop and I would take Pouncing Jaguar first.
On that note, I find Wild Dogs prone to backfiring with all the burn that runs around.
So, long time since I've posted here! I've kept tinkering with my cube in my spare time, but no time to do anything much with it or update my thread unfortunately. Did get through a draft today though, matchups were 2-0 against Naya Zoo and 2-1 against UBr Control.
Match 2 vs. Dimir Control splash Red.
Match two starts off terrifying. On the play, my opponent lands Hymn to Tourach before my second turn, then Chittering Rats on his third. Pouncing Jaguar trades with the Rats only to have them be brought back by Cadaver Imp, which blocks my Stormfront Pegasus all day and leaves me with a crippled hand when I meet Rats again. It took a while for him to finish me off but I had essentially lost here.
Game two he has lots of card draw and finds both Windrider Eel and Shimmering Glasskite. He hits landfall every turn but I somehow stabilise with Cenn's Enlistment and Faith's Fetters to buy time. He's forced into a bad trade to get rid of Glasskite, and I muscle through on a whisker. He was a mountain off his splashed Fireball for the win!
Overall very happy with my draft and it was pretty fun for everyone. Windrider Eel again was good for us. Pouncing Jaguar is still awesome and trades up. Mold Shambler may be pushing overpriced and is no bomb. Trusted Forcemage is good but requires tight play or it really opens you up to blow outs!
Havengul Fengraf
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool. 2 or 3, T, sacrifice Havengul Fengraf : Return a creature card at random from your graveyard to your hand.
This seems pretty good. There's not much of a benchmark to evaluate against, but this is the most complex land we've ever had at a common slot, so that's at least something! It's an instant speed late-game Gravedigger effect with the downside of the late-game being where you're more likely to get something you don't want since presumably your bin is fuller. Taps for mana in the meantime, no CIPT, and actually seems really good to me.
I'm going to have to disagree here and say that Tragic Slip should be top-class removal. Easily one of the top 5 removal spells in black for me is Vendetta, due to the 1 mana cost. As an instant speed spell that doesn't require you to hold any more than 1 mana up in anticipation for its trigger, Morbid should be fairly simple to activate. Cheap removal like this is perfect for playing it and then dropping a threat in one turn, which is exactly what you have to do to capitalise on the tempo swing.
Forge Devil is nothing spectacular, but it's probably better than Mogg Fanatic in some situations. Will probably make it in until I cut down.
Gather the Townsfolk may be playable, but I'm still on the fence here. The 5 life or less trigger is a bit ridiculous to me - by that point any creatures with evasion of any kind or even most burn will kill you on your opponent's next untap. Lots of 1/1s usually won't guarantee you much safety at five life unless you're against green with nonevasive beaters, and most green decks splash for red burn or blue fliers anyway. May be cubeable at the very lower end, but by no means a high pick.
Loyal Cathar seems excellent and a perfect aggressive card as it needs to be answered twice. I agree that it's worse than several other options, but this is still very solid and not something I would want to face with a control deck. Paired with something like Bonesplitter, it becomes a must-answer too. White based aggro really does want its curve centred on two as much as possible, and a surplus of these solid beaters only makes those decks better. I'd probably cut from the 3CMC range first. Things like Thermal/Nightwind Glider or Shu Cavalry are usually going to be worse.
Headless Skaab has a really nice toughness to shore up aggro, and this might be the perfect sort of thing to slow those aggro rushes. This is of course provided you can bin a creature by turn 3 or 4, but hopefully you can throw something like Pestermite in the way (or even better, use a spellshaper like Waterfront Bouncer).
Faithless Looting is a bit of a gimmie. Just perfect for a colour that dies to drawing too many of its lands.
Everything else is probably unplayable, although I do kind of like Executioner's Hood as a mediocre equipment, though I don't really know what you play this in. Hunger of the Howlpack might be better than Giant Growth too, but Growth has never been a top green spell and you lose a lot of combat tricks that turn it into removal with Hunger.
I think Flame Jab might be better than Geistflame in some instances. Geistflame is just a hornet sting until you hit four mana, and hits twice while Jab has the ability to be played more over the course of the game with a low curve. Having it sitting in your graveyard as reuseable at any time just seems really good, especially as it gives you more ways to burn through your excess lands.
Fireblast: This really isn't usually removal, but rather a way of starting your opponent at 16 life. Generally speaking it should be the last spell you play, saccing lands for the game. Keep in mind that T1.5 burn decks aren't the only ones which run this - Zoo has too, and with cards like Steppe Lynx, Kird Ape, Wild Nacatl, Wild Dogs/Pouncing Jaguar and etc regularly cubed, this kind of gameplan can be replicated in Pauper cube with some success. Aggro decks to require this to give them reach should the ground get clogged.
Aftershock: This is best in a G/R deck. It deals with larger creatures that burn can't hit and is much more reasonable with green ramp. Overpriced in most other decks though, bu there's not much to fill this niche.
Rift Bolt: I certainly don't play this the way I would in Burn. The idea with that deck is to drop this on turn one, but this functions as removal you can slot into your curve nicely with something like a two-drop + this on turn three. 3 damage for one mana to a creature still remains good, even if the slower speed can be annoying. If it's late-game, you can just hardcast. Like you say that's not why you cube it, but it does mean that if you're not getting value out of its lowered cost you'll not have to worry about the suspend kicking in slowly.
Elephant Ambush: You're right that it's slow, but against a control deck it's also golden. Flashback makes it very hard to counter profitably if you play against a blue-based or black-based deck which plans on grinding you down. I would usually side this out against an aggro race. It's not a top pick in green though, and since your cube is quite small I think it could reasonably be cut.
Daze: I'm not sure how this can be considered worse than Force Spike. Bouncing a land might be a tempo loss, but this shouldn't ever be more of a tempo hit than your opponent's creature resolving. Daze requires no mana to be held up and is thus extremely difficult to see coming, and provides an excellent answer to aggressive creatures dropped between turns 1 to 3, which is when it is used in Legacy too. I'm not sure that it's true to say every deck wants their curve to go up to 5+ lands or be out of the game - cards like Wild Mongrel provide excellent reasons to be curving out early with lowered curves in green (sometimes + white or red) aggro decks.
Viridian Longbow: I definitely see where you're coming from. Its expensive equip cost is frustrating, and there are usually better things to be playing, like dedicated removal or a proper body. I've sided it in before but would usually not maindeck it. This is probably a result of the lack of that many high quality artifacts in Pauper cubes. Seems cuttable to me at 360.
Thanks for going through these; I reckon it can definitely be too easy to get caught up with how good cards are supposed to be instead of actually are.
Haha awesome! Not sure how that course works, but it definitely sounds right up my alley. I'm doing HSFY at Otago unfortunately. =/ It was a toss up, but the couch burning sealed the deal really.
At any rate my family has a property up in Akl so I should end up there (as the muscle for chasing rent) at some point, so it'd be awesome to catch up and get a shot at drafting your cube then (although who knows when, but I'll give you a heads-up!) at a local shop or something.
Travel Prep - the card is better seen as a glorious anthem than a pump spell (in GW it's better than anthem. Not even kidding) as it allows your dudes to swing unhindered more than it deals damage directly or creates card advantage. Much better than sigil blessing, not close.
Nevertheless, travel prep is almost as amazing when they don't have an answer (and you have 2+ dudes)
Yeah, it's probably because I'm not used to seeing that many creatures on the board due to my oppressive and excruciating 4-creature Landstill-like decks. But seriously though, I'm probably being too rough on Prep since any match-up where you're having major trouble sticking creatures is not going to be all that great with Cloak either (and maybe even better with Preps as it forces you to answer more threats).
Eg. Dedicated Matyr looks like a potential option until you remember Matyr of Sands (though neither are actually good).
Sounds good. I actually think Martyr of Sands is pretty good, but I don't see decks which can go that heavy white being drafted often/ever. Would you guys say around 3-4 cards is where it gets playable (read: playable over anything else usually cubed in W)? I think it's somewhere around there.
@Izor:
Prohibit is decent, but I'm not sure what you'd cut from blue for this as there's already plenty of very solid counterspell options. When talking about soft counters, it doesn't beat out Leak, Condescend, Miscalculation, Daze... maybe Force Spike? I think you can argue that, deck-dependent.
Skulking Ghost is awful, but gets better if you run less tappers and pingers (although why would you not cube with these?). Keep in mind creatures like Spined Thopter and Fledgling Djinn exist though, so an evasive 2/1 isn't anything to bend over backwards for. This looks especially horrible when contrasted with Djinn.
Cenn's Enlistment can't be considered a traditional creature due to the fact that it's essentially uncounterable. There's enough good blue control cards to cube that facilitate decks which completely roll to this card with good backup (and less so to counterable, but not killable, Sprout Swarm). Icatian Crier doesn't fill this role as above.
Dash Hopes is pretty bad, but I'm still not sold that Blazing Salvo is rubbish. Provided you can aim it at a decent creature, you should get a Lava Axe for one mana, which seems a steal for just R. Say it's aimed at something like a Stormfront Pegasus or other generic evasive beater of which there are many. Usually the right call is to take the damage and keep your board presence. It's instant speed too, so I guess there's that.
Wei Ambush Force is pretty good, but has the usual problems with pingers (not that this is any less common than most of the other black 2 drops). I do prefer Child of Night, because if you get an opening through removal to swing in once or twice, the lifelink can become seriously problematic in a tempo race.
The problem I have with Rancid Earth is that it's in a colour with lots of creatures that will fall to a 1-damage ping, and the Threshold is non-optional. This given that the kinds of decks you want it in are probably tempo-based and contain some of the relevant vulnerable two-drops. At any rate, Choking Sands is still fine (though I'd rather have removal like Hideous End at this part of my curve).
There actually aren't that many excellent artifacts in Pauper Cube, but Drooling Ogre is still kinda bad. The thing is that if you drop it early when it'll be decent, they have all game to find an artifact and send it back your way. Spined Thopter and Porcelain Legionnaire's ability to be played in literally anything also makes me cautious. Red aggro is kinda trashy. =/ I'm having a bit of trouble with red to be honest, as the majority of the playable cards don't lend themselves to a reliable strategy as a main colour. It's fine as support for burn, but splashing either white or black usually offers up plenty of similarly good removal with good creatures to go along with it. Unless we try something weird like Mogg Conscripts, Jackal Pup, Mogg Flunkies... (though I doubt that would work out at all well).
For GY hate, try things like Faerie Trickery or Syncopate. Dedicated cards are going to wheel every time, even those which replace themselves like Relic.
Granger is not fantastic because, as Lanxal says, the ramp it provides is usually too late to be relevant. Additionally I would rather have removal (i.e. Shock) than a Rampant Growth in most games, but Shock is not cubed with as it has been marginally improved upon far more times than Rampant Growth has. I don't even use Growth, myself.
While we're on obscure cards:
Peer Through Depths seems like a better Impulse for control (which is the deck you want Impulse in anyway), and a > 1 in 10 shot (assuming 51 cards in library by turn two) of hitting your Capsize or Sprout Swarm seems good. Even digging for your counter to back up a key play or stall you for time is alright. Does notably miss Flood, and key finishing creatures.
Flame Jab looks good, and I just really love Retrace. Who's tested it? I think some aggro G or B decks would be pretty cold to this.
Sandstorm: Green doesn't get effects like this often/ever, and for a single G it might just be good tech against Cenn's or the 2/1 evasive creatures it can't stop. I know I for one would never see this coming. If there's a colour that's going to get into the red zone and capitalize on this, it's green.
Runes of Protection: Most notably Rune of Protection: Red, and maybe White or Green. They deal with evasion like Shadow and are much better than the COPs as they can be maindecked and cycled away. This might be considered a bit too 'unfun,' but I mainly play Legacy so I really have no idea. =/ They completely shut whole decks down though. The lack of consistency seems fine if you board it out game 2 and cycle game 1 if you have to.
G'day guys Sorry about falling off the planet. I've been prepping to head into pre-med at uni next year, but still have my cube and hope to update it properly soon (before DA, argh). Plan on cutting right down. People in general just want packs to be even stronger, and the problem I always have is the amount of red burn exceeds the amount of red people are actually able to play - I mean, things like Fireblast or Searing Blaze shouldn't be last picked, but when one person already has Capsize, one has Pestilence and the other has Sprout Swarm (or equivalent commitment) =/. The thing to keep in mind is that below 400 you are definitely going to lock certain decks out of being buildable, so the tension between things like Dauthi Slayer and Crypt Rats means certain colours need to either pull one way or be bad at two things. In theory.
As far as Qasali Pridemage and Armadillo Cloak: I did test Preps and found it really good as you have, but Cloak wins you the game if not answered and Pridemage is usually a Disenchant bear and a situational pump spell. Travel Preps relies on a good board already to gain an advantage, but Pridemage answers bomb enchantments or ench-based removal, and gives you board presence alone (while swinging as a 3/3). It's not so bad thanks to the Flashback, but Preps a little bit 'win-more.'
Is Travel Preparations better than Sigil Blessing? I think they're fairly different cards. The idea with Blessing is to blow your opponent out after blockers are declared, but Travel Preparations offers no such surprises. By turn five onwards you're looking at boards which might allow you to cast + flashback into a strong position, and that's probably a little earlier than Blessing which has the potential to be more impactful (and 2-for-1), but requires a more specific board to work.
Love the idea of reviewing all the cards Rubin - maybe you could do a series of 'Vintage' set reviews and release them set by set?
Thanks for that, was sure it was instant. o_O Regardless I still think it's very cubeable, as we're still lacking instant speed removal in green to compete with (unless you count Provoke, Lace with Moonglove, or Hornet Sting...)
Having unbalanced multicolour quantities will have a bigger effect as the size of your cube decreases, but as this section makes up a small amount of the cards in a cube, this shouldn't have a massive impact. The best thing I can suggest is to try to figure out what strategies frequently appear and do well as legitimate archetypes, and figure out how those are helped/hindered by the changes. Although having equal numbers of cards in each section is a useful (and organised) way of balancing the cube, but due to fluctuations in the actual use of different cards this does not always provide total balance. You may be able to do this in a way that's beneficial t oyour cube, but that also depends on how important the 'equal number of cards' thing is for you.
Abbey Griffins: Very obviously doesn’t stack up with other options. Vigilance with two toughness is mostly worthless, since it won’t be able to block much. Avacynian Priest: Humans make up ~20% of Pauper cubes, so even though Blinding Mage variants are annoyingly colour intensive, this still isn’t good at all. Bonds of Faith: It’s versatile, but I would much rather have a Pacifism than a bad pump enchantment. Pacifisms are already removal spells that are relatively easy to answer, so reducing the targets makes this a bit too narrow for my tastes. I’d say not cubeable, but might be testable for some. Chapel Geist: Actually pretty decent as a flying beater. The worst part about this is the WW in the casting cost, and white mana bases are already strained. Pass for now, but might be worth a second look. Doomed Traveler: Reminds me of Tukatongue Thallid. This is better, but I still don’t think it’s cubeable. Maybe if we had more good equipment or more useful things to do with flying 1/1s. At any rate you would still need it to die first, and before then it does nothing. Elder Cathar: Solid enough, especially as white has a lot of Humans, but not a big enough effect or cube. Ghostly Possesion: Easily destroyed, and actually gives them a useful blocker and is otherwise just atrocious removal. Moment of Heroism: A nifty little combat trick that just really doesn’t do enough. Why play this over a creature? Rebuke: Not bad removal, but at three mana it’s certainly not better than Smite, and that doesn’t usually get cubed. Not good enough. Selfless Cathar: I’m not sure what to do with this. It’s either a sorcery speed +1/+1 one time effect, a chump blocker with the potential for a very telegraphed (and thus very unlikely) blowout, or something worse. Not cubeable. Silverchase Fox: Significantly worse than Ronom Unicorn and Kami of Ancient Law. Not cubeable. Smite the Monstrous: Really not enough large creatures, but even without the restriction it would be questionable at four mana. Spare from Evil: White’s beatstick creatures are for the most-part already evasive. There are a large number of relevant creatures this doesn’t affect. I guess it’s testable, but I’m not a fan. Thraben Purebloods: Simple vanilla filler. Nope. Thraben Sentry//Thraben Militia: Simply far too small before transforming, and as a four mana creature, who knows how many turns you’ll be waiting (anything more than two is just terrible), especially if your creatures are evasive. Unruly Mob: Slow, and a useless card played on any turn other than two. Urgent Exorcism: I would play Revoke Existence before this. Spirit isn’t a relevant creature type in Pauper cube. Village Bell-Ringer: A really nifty trick in the same way Stonehorn Dignitary is nifty, but not cubeable. Three mana is too much to hold up and is very obvious. Voiceless Spirit: Dies to pingers and otherwise underwhelms. First strike on a flying creature is redundant for the majority of the time.
Armoured Skaab: A pretty easy “nope” on this one. Simply bad. Claustrophobia: I’m a little worried about the double blue cost, but it’s not bad as removal for blue. Probably cubeable, but not a staple. Curse of the Bloody Tome: Not at all cubeable, unless you have some crazy crazy cube where mill is a consistent wincon. You crazy cuber you. Delver of Secrets//Insectile Aberration: Totally brilliant in a control deck. Allows you to drop a threat while keeping counter mana up. I think people will try to force this into aggro decks and be disappointed – you need to run this in if not a full-on control deck then at least one with strong control elements to it for this to work. Sits in exactly the same slot as Thakalos Scout as a card that won’t usually close the game for you, but beats until you’re able to land your finisher and means you have to worry about keeping that alive for less time. Deranged Assisstant: Doesn’t provide anything blue needs. Not cubeable. Dream Twist: Mill again. Nope. Fortress Crab: If you have a section in your cube where you include cards to be drafted as drink coasters, this is perfect. Frightful Delusion: Soft counters for three are bad. In Wondrous Easterland this is amazing, but at most other times you’ll be wishing you hadn’t drawn this turn five, or a similar scenario. Hysterical Blindness: A well-known, awful, effect. Sneak Razor Boomerang into your draft deck instead and risk a DQ by the Head Cubist. It’ll probably win you more games. Maybe. Lost in the Mist: Pretty cool combination of effects. Gives a really nice tempo swing, but for five mana this is just far too expensive. Makeshift Mauler: I’m not sure an invasive creature fits the bill as a blue finisher. He’s big, though. Definitely cubeable, but blue is tight and there may not be room. Moon Heron: We’ve seen it before, and we don’t need it. Selhoff Occultist: A ‘vanilla’ 2/3 doesn’t even come close. Sensory Deprivation: So –X/-0 is a blue Innistrad theme? Weird. Not good, of course. Silent Departure: Probably the best common Unsummon variant yet, but being a sorcery makes this a lot worse. Five is a lot too, and the value of the tempo gain you get at that point in the game is questionable. Spectral Flight: An enchantment that pumps and isn’t Rancor, in the tightest colour. We’re done here. Stitched Drake: A perfectly decent control finisher. This will lend itself more to the slightly more aggressive ones (i.e. more than 9 creatures) for obvious reasons, but that doesn’t make it any less great. Stitcher’s Apprentice: Turns your removal’d creatures into bears. Alone he’s a bit weak though, and he’ll probably be the target of removal first. Also very easy to ping away. Not good enough, even if Oglor is the man. Think Twice: Hey! New art!
Altar’s Reap: I’m actually rather intrigued by this. The important thing to note with this one is that it’s an instant, so you can sacrifice creatures in response to removal. Two mana’s not too hard to keep up if you have a beater online, either. The value of this just depends on how much you expect your creatures to be killed, as there’s no card advantage involved. There’s no real point on using this on your own turn, or anything like that, as anything other than a desperation play. I’d say it’s worth testing, but might not be quite good enough. Brain Weevil: Really not good, even in a heavy discard deck. Corpse Lunge: I keep calling this one Corpse Lunch by accident. Omnomnom. Three mana removal is already clogged with good cards in black. No. Curse of Oblivion: Graveyard decks are (mostly) not a valid deck type in cube, so not one that needs to be hosed. It’s true you can make a ‘Gravedigger’ deck, but this is far too narrow. Dead Weight: Sorcery speed Disfigure that can be used on creatures you can’t quite kill to screw with combat math or some such shenanigans. Seems really good, as Disfigure has always been solid. Cubeable. Ghoulcaller’s Chant: Raise Dead has been covered before, and Zombies are pretty uncommon overall. Ghoulraiser: Same as above; this is mostly a bad bear. Gruesome Deformity: Just not close to good. Auras with small effects open you up to two-for-ones and are just a waste of a card. Manor Skeleton: There are better regenerator walls. Haste is mostly pointless. Nope. Markov Patrician: One toughness is a big problem for a three drop. Child of Night is a disposable cheap attacker that gives a sweet life swing, but this needs to do significantly more for three, and it doesn’t. Night Terrors: Bad discard, and not worth it. Rotting Fensnake: When this isn’t dying to pingers, unable to attack, or being killed by an unkicked Burst Lightning, it’ll just be on the table looking ugly. Because it’s bad. Skeletal Grimace: Easily responded to, and otherwise underwhelming. Wicked cool art doesn’t always translate, unfortunately. Stromkirk Patrol: It’s big, but probably not that good. No evasion makes connecting annoying, and for five a 4/3 is just not okay. There should be more than enough ways to prevent this ever connecting more than once by turn five. Typhoid Rats: Actually a fairly cool blocker. One drops are good. Unfortunately it’s totally defensive and black really doesn’t need more ways to stop creatures at sorcery speed with all sorts of conditions. Not cubeable. Vampire Interloper: Stormfront Pegasus! Well, Welkin Tern. Call it what you like, I call it Winning. Cube this. Victim of Night: Doesn’t hit a few targets, but not enough to make this not worth running. I would put this at roughly the same as Rend Flesh, deck dependant, as it’s harder to cast colour wise and hits slightly less, but costs 1 less mana. Very cubeable. Walking Corpse: Keep walking, bud. Door’s that way.
Ashmouth Hound: Better flanking is very cool. I think this is better than Goblin Shortcutter, but I’m still undecided about whether I want it in (as I’m cutting the Shortcutter). I’d call this one cubeable. Very aggressive, and that’s absolutely what red needs right now. Bloodcrazed Neonate: Another aggressive two drop. I find myself wanting to cube both of these, because the curve really needs it. The attacking every turn drawback isn’t negligible with just one toughness, but this is still quite good. I prefer Hound though. Brimstone Volley: High quality burn is something you want around. It’s even splashable! Cubeable. Crossway Vampire: A really useful effect on a good body. And I’m resisting the obvious joke. Testable. Curse of the Pierced Heart: Slow. Really, really slow. Goblin Fireslinger if you must have this effect. Topdecking this turn 5+ is just a hilariously bad draw. Feral Ridgewolf: The three slot’s quite clogged up already, and this doesn’t stand out any more than any other available option. Nope. Furor of the Bitten: A bad pump spell, or bad removal? You decide! Or better yet, don’t run this, and don’t decide. Geistflame: Comprehensively outclassed by Lava Dart. Not cubeable. Harvest Pyre: Would be worth a second look if it could hit players as well, but you need to drop three cards to just get this close to Incinerate levels… and it really isn’t worth the effort. Infernal Plunge: Not at all designed for cube, and not really workable here in any form. Kessig Wolf: Again, the three drops are tight, and this is really unremarkable. Night Revelers: This part of the curve is sewn up, and occasional-haste doesn’t beat out other options. Don’t run it. Nightbird’s Clutches: Better with Flashback, but the effect is very narrow and not something to spend a card on. I’ll pass. Pitchburn Devils: A good creature, but it doesn’t do what I want my five drops to do, which is win the game. I’d rather play a cheap burn spell and not have to worry about my 3/3 being useless because of blockers. Most likely it’ll be hard to get it to die when you need it to, and hard to get it to connect when you need that. Overall not as good as it first looks. Riot Devils: Very vanilla, very no. Tormented Pariah//Rampaging Werewolf: My take on Transform Wolves is that not only will it sometimes be tricky to get them to activate, but with the very possible chance that they flip back they often become quite useless. This possibility and effort means they need to be at least a little relevant in both states, and not just a dead card that gets you nowhere. A 3/2 is at least something you can work with (although I don’t get why a wimpy human is a 3/2…?), but the transformed state is the obvious cake here. I’m not convinced it’s cubeworthy, but testable. Traitorous Blood: A really cool card. I’d say this one is definitely testworthy. It’s probably worse than Act of Treason thanks to the cost though – trample’s not that relevant really. Vampiric Fury: Tribal Cubes only. And really, that just isn’t that possible within Pauper, anyway. Village Ironsmith//Ironfang: Not a fan of this one. As before, this needs to be relevant in the original state, and it’s just not. The first strike is meaningless, and by the time you get it to flip and stick that way you’ve probably lost the aggressive edge of having the 3/1 first striker, keeping in mind this is the same turn cards like Stormfront Pegasus and Porcelain Legionnaire go online. I don’t think it’s testworthy.
Ambush Viper: A sweet mix of abilities that should make this one cubeable for most. Run it! Caravan Vigil: Too many better options. If you don’t have the land you need and you have to resort to using this in the first couple of turns, you should have mulliganed! Darkthicket Wolf: A mana suck that’s not good enough most of the time. Festerhide Boar:I didn’t like this at first, but I think you should be able to get this to go off as a huge threat to be dealt with. Large creatures are scary in Pauper, and this is no exception. It’s not a game ender on the scale of the Wurms or Kavu Primarch though. Testable, but there’s not definitely going to be room. Gnaw to the Bone: Flashback makes this great still terrible. No. Grave Bramble: is this a Plants vs. Zombies reference? At any rate, not cubeable. Cool though. Grizzled Outcasts//Krallenhorde Wantons: Possibly better than Tangle Hulk. The card is a big beatstick that turns into a bigger beatstick, but either way you’re swinging with a large guy that will win you the game if he keeps connecting. I wouldn’t be too upset if this just stayed as a 4/4 for most of the time if it meant it put pressure on my opponent in the lategame to manage it. Probably fairly cubeable; testworthy. Kindercatch: This is good for mono green, but that deck just doesn’t exist and the commitment to green in that cost is obscene. Not cubeable. Moonmist: Doesn’t apply to us. Orchard Spirit: Actually an interesting creature, but flying creatures do exist and it probably won’t work. That said, evasion (other than trample) is so rare in green that this may be worth coming back to. For now I won’t test it, though. Prey Upon: Just really good removal. It’s conditional, but all green removal always is and these conditions at least fit the usual gameplan. Big creatures shouldn’t be too much of a problem provided you do this on your opponent’s turn after damage has worn off from the attackers. For one mana, you can’t go wrong. Compared to the other similar sorcery speed removal options in Green (Lignify and Utopia Vow), this definitely sits in a good position. Cubeable. Ranger’s Guile: A just okay response to removal that still isn’t worth cubing with. Fair enough card though. Somberwald Spider: If you have a flying problem with green, then this might be okay. For five mana it’s a bit too defensive, though. Testable on the side of not cubeable. Spidery Grasp: It’s okay, but I wouldn’t cube it. Three is a lot to hold up, and the card it costs won’t always guarantee removal. Villagers of Estwald//Howlpack of Estwald: Possibly very cubeable. When compared to Centaur Courser, which is solid, this has a lot of upsides. This is the right point in the game for players to start not having a spell to play each turn, too. Going out on a limb and saying cubeable, but it will need testing to back this up. Woodland Sleuth: A slightly bigger Gravedigger that also has all these ugly conditions slapped on. A bit too tricky to get it to do exactly what you want. Not really cubeable.
Blazing Torch: This is a very useful removal spell on the cheap which leans towards being better in the aggro decks for a change. It was good in Zendikar, and the rarity drop makes this worth it. Cube this. Cobbled Wings: Compare Neurok Stealthsuit. The effect’s not really enough, but it’s close. Not bad, but not quite cubeable. Ghoulcaller’s Bell: Not in cube it ain’t. One-Eyed Scarecrow: Strange, and narrow, and a defender. Ugh. Traveller’s Amulet: Wanderer’s Twig is okay, but you certainly wouldn’t need two. Not cubeable. Wooden Stake: Wanderer’s Twig is okay, but you certainly wouldn’t need two. Not cubeable.
Bump in the Night: A flashback black Lava Spike isn’t good enough. You won’t win with burn and no board presence! Avacyn’s Pilgrim: Really not good enough for this colour combination. Maybe they should give it exalted… and make it tap for green and blue… Travel Preparations: Same as above; GW is chocka. Forbidden Alchemy: This card is excellent. Impulse is fantastic because it lets you dig three deep for your answer to the board state during your opponent’s turn, and this lets you do it twice, with one more card. Instant speed means that the increased mana cost isn’t too much of a problem, because you can always do it EOT while holding your counter mana up. I like Recoil and Probe better, but in my opinion this is significantly better than Dimir Infiltraitor, Soul Manipulation, or Agony Warp. Very cubeable, provided you support control. Feeling of Dread: Reminds me of Moment’s Peace, but not quite as good. I would rather have Silkbind Faerie, Curse of Chains or Azorius First Wing, though.
Conclusion
Tons and tons of good stuff. Nothing that's really broken good or super powerful except perhaps Brimstone Volley, but overall a good bump to the quality of cards (but especially in red, finally). How good the Werewolves are is anyone's guess at this stage though, but given your opponent gets to interact with them to try to force flips, they're probably slightly worse than however bad/good you think they are.
Since whether or not something is a Human or Vampire will probably be relevant in evaluating some of these cards, I've gone through my cube and listed them out. It's a fairly typical optimised cube (with a slightly stronger focus on control), so there should be a fair bit of crossover in these results, but your mileage may vary. It's 450 cards.
What do you mean, Stitched Interloper? You saw nothing.. *shifty eyes* I'm still a fan of Blazing Torch, though. And actually, I reckon the Apprentice will be pretty good.
So, commons from INN spoiled so far: Abbey Griffin: No ^^
Curse of the Bloody Tome: Nope. Stitched Drake: Seems great and well worth testing; very likely good enough. I'm not sure how often your own creatures are going to die in a deck that supports UU casting costs though. Stitcher's Apprentice: I really like this as a great stall card and response to removal. Just in general a sweet creature engine that will probably be the first target of removal. Given he's two mana, that's a good thing.
Bloodcrazed Neonate: Red needs some help at the 2 CMC part of its curve, so even though I'm not sold that this will connect the first time, it still seems like a very cubeworthy card. Village Ironsmith: Unreliable like all the werewolf cards, but I still like his potential. Definitely a test card since nobody really knows how these transform cards are going to fare yet. Fits curve well like above.
Moonmist: Not for us. Spidery Grasp: There's better options that don't cost 2 CMC, and although this isn't atrocious, it's far from cubeable. Travel Preparations: I don't think this is better than current G/W choices, especially because of Sorcery speed.
Wooden Stake: Not for us. Blazing Torch: This reprint at common should be good enough to make it in. More colourless removal!
@Ruin8or:
@CrusherX
I've mostly played with newer players (i.e., people I taught how to play the game so we could draft), so blocking happened more often. You and I know it's not the best way to play, but that and other new player mentalities emerged a lot with my friends. That sort of play made inclusions like Lumithread Field and cuts like Crypt Rats, Blastoderm, Shadow creatures, etc. make a strange sort of sense. It's not the most effective draft or play style, so that's why cards most people auto-include were thought to be too overpowered. I do want to move back toward more powerful cards in my cube, so I will probably make some large-scale changes soon. I'll make a post here when I do make changes to get some more input.
Ah, right. Cube's a social format, so if your group isn't enjoying it, there's no point! So that makes complete sense. Look forward to seeing the updates! Might be worth making a Cube List thread if it'll be something you do again.
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Talk about "tomorrow never comes!" *rolleyes* I ended up having to leave before I got back to this. Just some more general stuff on a few cards being tested while I have a moment:
Spirit en-Kor was irrelevant when I played against it. The two power wasn't enough for the late game, and by then the defensive capabilities were not that useful. Turned into a bad wall. Not an awful card, but can be pretty bad sometimes.
Burrenton Bombardier continues to be frustratingly good. On paper it *shouldn't* be good at all! But the cost is flexible and it once again proves (like Thakalos Scout does) the power of a repeated 2 damage source. Killed me one game againast B/W Tappers because the wall of tap creatures and killspells meant I never got a single creature with flying to stick. Not adding this to my main list yet though... Yet to see this Reinforced, so it's winning purely off the back of the fact it's a 2/2 flyer. Weird.
Rathi Trapper is very decent. The main problem with this list was that Crypt Rats forced the death of all the tappers, and there were no larger creatures in the deck to fall back on. In my first game I held Curse of Chains for almost the whole game, waiting for a good target, before being forced to use it on a tapper so I could attack. Black mana is already restrictive and the cost is annoying, though. Perhaps not quite in, but not as bad as you might think.
Cloudchaser Kestrel: With all the enchantment removal, this does lots of cool things. And I like cool things. B) In the same way that Kami of Ancient Law/Ronom Unicorn are good, a flying creature that will hopefully do something similar to Bombardier is great. The second ability is mostly meaningless, and WW is annoying, but still very very solid.
Impaler Shrike was completely nuts. I'd consider this a fairly high card for blue, actually. The card draw is more reliable than you'd think, and damage with it is just rocking.
Search for Tomorrow: Both games my mate played it, he dropped it turn 1, where it was great. But at all other times, it's pretty average. Probably not needed with all the good ramp.
Giantbaiting: Unplayed. But that's probably a good sign to stick to the RG I already run instead (Kird Ape, Branching Bolt, Orcish Lumberjack). At any rate, it's not better than Horned Kavu.
Benalish Cavalry was pretty bad. Even with flanking, it doesn't stop Sprout (or etc) tokens chumping it indefinitely.
Hand of Emrakul needs evasion badly and Annihilator 1 is mostly useless when it comes out. Happy to be finally sure that this is not cubeable. Was funny to lose two Sprout tokens to it a turn though... and then make three more on my turn.
Any other cards, ask me.
General observations:
Blue is arguably the best colour in the cube. Matched with powerful cards from other colours, it becomes pretty unstoppable, even when split over several decks.
Committing to colours proved to skew the game quite noticeably. Crypt Rats forced BW into heavy black early, and a second (!) pick Capsize for the other UG player meant he knew he was heavy blue too, despite going most of pack 1 with no blue. The green cards went around a lot later in the packs, and both Green and White appear to be colours people underestimate, leaving them underdrafted and allowing for some good picks to slip through.
With Sprout Swarm forcing me into UG and BW + the other UG player already very committed, the third pack left Volcanic Hammer, Chain Lightning, Incinerate, and Rolling Thunder to go around and around... (!!) which just shouldn't happen. Either the burn's not exciting or people are underestimating red big time at the moment. However, despite the density of good reach and removal, red's creatures are a little lackluster.
Because of this, I'm considering adding Pyroblast to tip the scales against blue a little. Given how much it gets gets played, it's surprisingly versatile too. Another popular way to deal with blue decks that I recently found out about - matches. Surprisingly effective! Aim away from face.
Check the Wizards visual spoiler, that's been entered in error.
As far as Perilous Research goes, it might be better to just have a Divination in a flooded situation so you can save those islands for Capsize or whatnot, even though instant is great. But what do you cut at 360? I don't like it so much without damage on the stack.
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Basking Rootwalla could perhaps be compared to Darkthicket Wolf. He's not worth the mana if you're holding a two drop, but if you can drop him on turn one it's still keeping to your gameplan to attack on turn two for three, even if you miss your curve. I like him for patching up that hole in the early game but he's the weakest green one drop and I would take Pouncing Jaguar first.
On that note, I find Wild Dogs prone to backfiring with all the burn that runs around.
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Match 1 vs. Naya Zoo.
Zoo started crazy with Porcelain Legionnaire meeting Temporal Existance and Stormfront Pegasus meeting Pacifism, but I responded with Wickerbough Elder and Qasali Pridemage to get them back. I get momentum and he doesn't come back.
Game two I gain board control with a Trusted Forcemage and army of Cenn's Enlistment, but he finds Fireslinger to blow me out. I have Serrated Arrows ready to go and respond, but he still has Pyrotechnics and leaves me empty. My hand is still full and Kitsune Blademaster and Spined Thopter are too hard for him to slow.
2-0
Match 2 vs. Dimir Control splash Red.
Match two starts off terrifying. On the play, my opponent lands Hymn to Tourach before my second turn, then Chittering Rats on his third. Pouncing Jaguar trades with the Rats only to have them be brought back by Cadaver Imp, which blocks my Stormfront Pegasus all day and leaves me with a crippled hand when I meet Rats again. It took a while for him to finish me off but I had essentially lost here.
Game two he has lots of card draw and finds both Windrider Eel and Shimmering Glasskite. He hits landfall every turn but I somehow stabilise with Cenn's Enlistment and Faith's Fetters to buy time. He's forced into a bad trade to get rid of Glasskite, and I muscle through on a whisker. He was a mountain off his splashed Fireball for the win!
Game three he has a much slower hand. I resolve turn three Blastoderm off Llanowar Elves into Guardian of the Guildpact, and he can't stop it. Journey to Nowhere answers his Eel and it's soon game.
2-1
So, my list was:
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Pouncing Jaguar
1 Flayer Husk
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Porcelain Legionnaire
1 Spined Thopter
1 Wall of Roots
1 Stormfront Pegasus
1 Trusted Forcemage
1 Grazing Gladehart
1 Borderland Ranger
1 Kitsune Blademaster
1 Blastoderm
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Cenn's Enlistment
1 Noble Templar
1 Mold Shambler
Spells
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Faith's Fetters
1 Serrated Arrows
1 Selesnya Signet
Land
9 Forest
8 Plains
1 Penumbra Spider
1 Wild Leotau
1 Crushing Vines
1 Haunted Fengraf
Overall very happy with my draft and it was pretty fun for everyone. Windrider Eel again was good for us. Pouncing Jaguar is still awesome and trades up. Mold Shambler may be pushing overpriced and is no bomb. Trusted Forcemage is good but requires tight play or it really opens you up to blow outs!
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Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
2 or 3, T, sacrifice Havengul Fengraf : Return a creature card at random from your graveyard to your hand.
This seems pretty good. There's not much of a benchmark to evaluate against, but this is the most complex land we've ever had at a common slot, so that's at least something! It's an instant speed late-game Gravedigger effect with the downside of the late-game being where you're more likely to get something you don't want since presumably your bin is fuller. Taps for mana in the meantime, no CIPT, and actually seems really good to me.
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Forge Devil is nothing spectacular, but it's probably better than Mogg Fanatic in some situations. Will probably make it in until I cut down.
Gather the Townsfolk may be playable, but I'm still on the fence here. The 5 life or less trigger is a bit ridiculous to me - by that point any creatures with evasion of any kind or even most burn will kill you on your opponent's next untap. Lots of 1/1s usually won't guarantee you much safety at five life unless you're against green with nonevasive beaters, and most green decks splash for red burn or blue fliers anyway. May be cubeable at the very lower end, but by no means a high pick.
Loyal Cathar seems excellent and a perfect aggressive card as it needs to be answered twice. I agree that it's worse than several other options, but this is still very solid and not something I would want to face with a control deck. Paired with something like Bonesplitter, it becomes a must-answer too. White based aggro really does want its curve centred on two as much as possible, and a surplus of these solid beaters only makes those decks better. I'd probably cut from the 3CMC range first. Things like Thermal/Nightwind Glider or Shu Cavalry are usually going to be worse.
Headless Skaab has a really nice toughness to shore up aggro, and this might be the perfect sort of thing to slow those aggro rushes. This is of course provided you can bin a creature by turn 3 or 4, but hopefully you can throw something like Pestermite in the way (or even better, use a spellshaper like Waterfront Bouncer).
Faithless Looting is a bit of a gimmie. Just perfect for a colour that dies to drawing too many of its lands.
Everything else is probably unplayable, although I do kind of like Executioner's Hood as a mediocre equipment, though I don't really know what you play this in. Hunger of the Howlpack might be better than Giant Growth too, but Growth has never been a top green spell and you lose a lot of combat tricks that turn it into removal with Hunger.
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I think Flame Jab might be better than Geistflame in some instances. Geistflame is just a hornet sting until you hit four mana, and hits twice while Jab has the ability to be played more over the course of the game with a low curve. Having it sitting in your graveyard as reuseable at any time just seems really good, especially as it gives you more ways to burn through your excess lands.
Fireblast: This really isn't usually removal, but rather a way of starting your opponent at 16 life. Generally speaking it should be the last spell you play, saccing lands for the game. Keep in mind that T1.5 burn decks aren't the only ones which run this - Zoo has too, and with cards like Steppe Lynx, Kird Ape, Wild Nacatl, Wild Dogs/Pouncing Jaguar and etc regularly cubed, this kind of gameplan can be replicated in Pauper cube with some success. Aggro decks to require this to give them reach should the ground get clogged.
Aftershock: This is best in a G/R deck. It deals with larger creatures that burn can't hit and is much more reasonable with green ramp. Overpriced in most other decks though, bu there's not much to fill this niche.
Rift Bolt: I certainly don't play this the way I would in Burn. The idea with that deck is to drop this on turn one, but this functions as removal you can slot into your curve nicely with something like a two-drop + this on turn three. 3 damage for one mana to a creature still remains good, even if the slower speed can be annoying. If it's late-game, you can just hardcast. Like you say that's not why you cube it, but it does mean that if you're not getting value out of its lowered cost you'll not have to worry about the suspend kicking in slowly.
Elephant Ambush: You're right that it's slow, but against a control deck it's also golden. Flashback makes it very hard to counter profitably if you play against a blue-based or black-based deck which plans on grinding you down. I would usually side this out against an aggro race. It's not a top pick in green though, and since your cube is quite small I think it could reasonably be cut.
Daze: I'm not sure how this can be considered worse than Force Spike. Bouncing a land might be a tempo loss, but this shouldn't ever be more of a tempo hit than your opponent's creature resolving. Daze requires no mana to be held up and is thus extremely difficult to see coming, and provides an excellent answer to aggressive creatures dropped between turns 1 to 3, which is when it is used in Legacy too. I'm not sure that it's true to say every deck wants their curve to go up to 5+ lands or be out of the game - cards like Wild Mongrel provide excellent reasons to be curving out early with lowered curves in green (sometimes + white or red) aggro decks.
Viridian Longbow: I definitely see where you're coming from. Its expensive equip cost is frustrating, and there are usually better things to be playing, like dedicated removal or a proper body. I've sided it in before but would usually not maindeck it. This is probably a result of the lack of that many high quality artifacts in Pauper cubes. Seems cuttable to me at 360.
Thanks for going through these; I reckon it can definitely be too easy to get caught up with how good cards are supposed to be instead of actually are.
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Haha awesome! Not sure how that course works, but it definitely sounds right up my alley. I'm doing HSFY at Otago unfortunately. =/ It was a toss up, but the couch burning sealed the deal really.
At any rate my family has a property up in Akl so I should end up there (as the muscle for chasing rent) at some point, so it'd be awesome to catch up and get a shot at drafting your cube then (although who knows when, but I'll give you a heads-up!) at a local shop or something.
Cheers, I'll probably swap them.
Yeah, it's probably because I'm not used to seeing that many creatures on the board due to my oppressive and excruciating 4-creature Landstill-like decks. But seriously though, I'm probably being too rough on Prep since any match-up where you're having major trouble sticking creatures is not going to be all that great with Cloak either (and maybe even better with Preps as it forces you to answer more threats).
Sounds good. I actually think Martyr of Sands is pretty good, but I don't see decks which can go that heavy white being drafted often/ever. Would you guys say around 3-4 cards is where it gets playable (read: playable over anything else usually cubed in W)? I think it's somewhere around there.
@Izor:
Prohibit is decent, but I'm not sure what you'd cut from blue for this as there's already plenty of very solid counterspell options. When talking about soft counters, it doesn't beat out Leak, Condescend, Miscalculation, Daze... maybe Force Spike? I think you can argue that, deck-dependent.
Skulking Ghost is awful, but gets better if you run less tappers and pingers (although why would you not cube with these?). Keep in mind creatures like Spined Thopter and Fledgling Djinn exist though, so an evasive 2/1 isn't anything to bend over backwards for. This looks especially horrible when contrasted with Djinn.
Cenn's Enlistment can't be considered a traditional creature due to the fact that it's essentially uncounterable. There's enough good blue control cards to cube that facilitate decks which completely roll to this card with good backup (and less so to counterable, but not killable, Sprout Swarm). Icatian Crier doesn't fill this role as above.
Dash Hopes is pretty bad, but I'm still not sold that Blazing Salvo is rubbish. Provided you can aim it at a decent creature, you should get a Lava Axe for one mana, which seems a steal for just R. Say it's aimed at something like a Stormfront Pegasus or other generic evasive beater of which there are many. Usually the right call is to take the damage and keep your board presence. It's instant speed too, so I guess there's that.
Wei Ambush Force is pretty good, but has the usual problems with pingers (not that this is any less common than most of the other black 2 drops). I do prefer Child of Night, because if you get an opening through removal to swing in once or twice, the lifelink can become seriously problematic in a tempo race.
The problem I have with Rancid Earth is that it's in a colour with lots of creatures that will fall to a 1-damage ping, and the Threshold is non-optional. This given that the kinds of decks you want it in are probably tempo-based and contain some of the relevant vulnerable two-drops. At any rate, Choking Sands is still fine (though I'd rather have removal like Hideous End at this part of my curve).
There actually aren't that many excellent artifacts in Pauper Cube, but Drooling Ogre is still kinda bad. The thing is that if you drop it early when it'll be decent, they have all game to find an artifact and send it back your way. Spined Thopter and Porcelain Legionnaire's ability to be played in literally anything also makes me cautious. Red aggro is kinda trashy. =/ I'm having a bit of trouble with red to be honest, as the majority of the playable cards don't lend themselves to a reliable strategy as a main colour. It's fine as support for burn, but splashing either white or black usually offers up plenty of similarly good removal with good creatures to go along with it. Unless we try something weird like Mogg Conscripts, Jackal Pup, Mogg Flunkies... (though I doubt that would work out at all well).
For GY hate, try things like Faerie Trickery or Syncopate. Dedicated cards are going to wheel every time, even those which replace themselves like Relic.
Granger is not fantastic because, as Lanxal says, the ramp it provides is usually too late to be relevant. Additionally I would rather have removal (i.e. Shock) than a Rampant Growth in most games, but Shock is not cubed with as it has been marginally improved upon far more times than Rampant Growth has. I don't even use Growth, myself.
While we're on obscure cards:
Peer Through Depths seems like a better Impulse for control (which is the deck you want Impulse in anyway), and a > 1 in 10 shot (assuming 51 cards in library by turn two) of hitting your Capsize or Sprout Swarm seems good. Even digging for your counter to back up a key play or stall you for time is alright. Does notably miss Flood, and key finishing creatures.
Flame Jab looks good, and I just really love Retrace. Who's tested it? I think some aggro G or B decks would be pretty cold to this.
Sandstorm: Green doesn't get effects like this often/ever, and for a single G it might just be good tech against Cenn's or the 2/1 evasive creatures it can't stop. I know I for one would never see this coming. If there's a colour that's going to get into the red zone and capitalize on this, it's green.
Runes of Protection: Most notably Rune of Protection: Red, and maybe White or Green. They deal with evasion like Shadow and are much better than the COPs as they can be maindecked and cycled away. This might be considered a bit too 'unfun,' but I mainly play Legacy so I really have no idea. =/ They completely shut whole decks down though. The lack of consistency seems fine if you board it out game 2 and cycle game 1 if you have to.
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As far as Qasali Pridemage and Armadillo Cloak: I did test Preps and found it really good as you have, but Cloak wins you the game if not answered and Pridemage is usually a Disenchant bear and a situational pump spell. Travel Preps relies on a good board already to gain an advantage, but Pridemage answers bomb enchantments or ench-based removal, and gives you board presence alone (while swinging as a 3/3). It's not so bad thanks to the Flashback, but Preps a little bit 'win-more.'
Is Travel Preparations better than Sigil Blessing? I think they're fairly different cards. The idea with Blessing is to blow your opponent out after blockers are declared, but Travel Preparations offers no such surprises. By turn five onwards you're looking at boards which might allow you to cast + flashback into a strong position, and that's probably a little earlier than Blessing which has the potential to be more impactful (and 2-for-1), but requires a more specific board to work.
Love the idea of reviewing all the cards Rubin - maybe you could do a series of 'Vintage' set reviews and release them set by set?
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Having unbalanced multicolour quantities will have a bigger effect as the size of your cube decreases, but as this section makes up a small amount of the cards in a cube, this shouldn't have a massive impact. The best thing I can suggest is to try to figure out what strategies frequently appear and do well as legitimate archetypes, and figure out how those are helped/hindered by the changes. Although having equal numbers of cards in each section is a useful (and organised) way of balancing the cube, but due to fluctuations in the actual use of different cards this does not always provide total balance. You may be able to do this in a way that's beneficial t oyour cube, but that also depends on how important the 'equal number of cards' thing is for you.
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Edit: Done!
First Impressions - Innistrad
See cards here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/innistrad/cig]
WHITE
Abbey Griffins: Very obviously doesn’t stack up with other options. Vigilance with two toughness is mostly worthless, since it won’t be able to block much.
Avacynian Priest: Humans make up ~20% of Pauper cubes, so even though Blinding Mage variants are annoyingly colour intensive, this still isn’t good at all.
Bonds of Faith: It’s versatile, but I would much rather have a Pacifism than a bad pump enchantment. Pacifisms are already removal spells that are relatively easy to answer, so reducing the targets makes this a bit too narrow for my tastes. I’d say not cubeable, but might be testable for some.
Chapel Geist: Actually pretty decent as a flying beater. The worst part about this is the WW in the casting cost, and white mana bases are already strained. Pass for now, but might be worth a second look.
Doomed Traveler: Reminds me of Tukatongue Thallid. This is better, but I still don’t think it’s cubeable. Maybe if we had more good equipment or more useful things to do with flying 1/1s. At any rate you would still need it to die first, and before then it does nothing.
Elder Cathar: Solid enough, especially as white has a lot of Humans, but not a big enough effect or cube.
Ghostly Possesion: Easily destroyed, and actually gives them a useful blocker and is otherwise just atrocious removal.
Moment of Heroism: A nifty little combat trick that just really doesn’t do enough. Why play this over a creature?
Rebuke: Not bad removal, but at three mana it’s certainly not better than Smite, and that doesn’t usually get cubed. Not good enough.
Selfless Cathar: I’m not sure what to do with this. It’s either a sorcery speed +1/+1 one time effect, a chump blocker with the potential for a very telegraphed (and thus very unlikely) blowout, or something worse. Not cubeable.
Silverchase Fox: Significantly worse than Ronom Unicorn and Kami of Ancient Law. Not cubeable.
Smite the Monstrous: Really not enough large creatures, but even without the restriction it would be questionable at four mana.
Spare from Evil: White’s beatstick creatures are for the most-part already evasive. There are a large number of relevant creatures this doesn’t affect. I guess it’s testable, but I’m not a fan.
Thraben Purebloods: Simple vanilla filler. Nope.
Thraben Sentry//Thraben Militia: Simply far too small before transforming, and as a four mana creature, who knows how many turns you’ll be waiting (anything more than two is just terrible), especially if your creatures are evasive.
Unruly Mob: Slow, and a useless card played on any turn other than two.
Urgent Exorcism: I would play Revoke Existence before this. Spirit isn’t a relevant creature type in Pauper cube.
Village Bell-Ringer: A really nifty trick in the same way Stonehorn Dignitary is nifty, but not cubeable. Three mana is too much to hold up and is very obvious.
Voiceless Spirit: Dies to pingers and otherwise underwhelms. First strike on a flying creature is redundant for the majority of the time.
BLUE
Armoured Skaab: A pretty easy “nope” on this one. Simply bad.
Claustrophobia: I’m a little worried about the double blue cost, but it’s not bad as removal for blue. Probably cubeable, but not a staple.
Curse of the Bloody Tome: Not at all cubeable, unless you have some crazy crazy cube where mill is a consistent wincon. You crazy cuber you.
Delver of Secrets//Insectile Aberration: Totally brilliant in a control deck. Allows you to drop a threat while keeping counter mana up. I think people will try to force this into aggro decks and be disappointed – you need to run this in if not a full-on control deck then at least one with strong control elements to it for this to work. Sits in exactly the same slot as Thakalos Scout as a card that won’t usually close the game for you, but beats until you’re able to land your finisher and means you have to worry about keeping that alive for less time.
Deranged Assisstant: Doesn’t provide anything blue needs. Not cubeable.
Dream Twist: Mill again. Nope.
Fortress Crab: If you have a section in your cube where you include cards to be drafted as drink coasters, this is perfect.
Frightful Delusion: Soft counters for three are bad. In Wondrous Easterland this is amazing, but at most other times you’ll be wishing you hadn’t drawn this turn five, or a similar scenario.
Hysterical Blindness: A well-known, awful, effect. Sneak Razor Boomerang into your draft deck instead and risk a DQ by the Head Cubist. It’ll probably win you more games. Maybe.
Lost in the Mist: Pretty cool combination of effects. Gives a really nice tempo swing, but for five mana this is just far too expensive.
Makeshift Mauler: I’m not sure an invasive creature fits the bill as a blue finisher. He’s big, though. Definitely cubeable, but blue is tight and there may not be room.
Moon Heron: We’ve seen it before, and we don’t need it.
Selhoff Occultist: A ‘vanilla’ 2/3 doesn’t even come close.
Sensory Deprivation: So –X/-0 is a blue Innistrad theme? Weird. Not good, of course.
Silent Departure: Probably the best common Unsummon variant yet, but being a sorcery makes this a lot worse. Five is a lot too, and the value of the tempo gain you get at that point in the game is questionable.
Spectral Flight: An enchantment that pumps and isn’t Rancor, in the tightest colour. We’re done here.
Stitched Drake: A perfectly decent control finisher. This will lend itself more to the slightly more aggressive ones (i.e. more than 9 creatures) for obvious reasons, but that doesn’t make it any less great.
Stitcher’s Apprentice: Turns your removal’d creatures into bears. Alone he’s a bit weak though, and he’ll probably be the target of removal first. Also very easy to ping away. Not good enough, even if Oglor is the man.
Think Twice: Hey! New art!
Testable: Makeshift Mauler
BLACK
Altar’s Reap: I’m actually rather intrigued by this. The important thing to note with this one is that it’s an instant, so you can sacrifice creatures in response to removal. Two mana’s not too hard to keep up if you have a beater online, either. The value of this just depends on how much you expect your creatures to be killed, as there’s no card advantage involved. There’s no real point on using this on your own turn, or anything like that, as anything other than a desperation play. I’d say it’s worth testing, but might not be quite good enough.
Brain Weevil: Really not good, even in a heavy discard deck.
Corpse Lunge: I keep calling this one Corpse Lunch by accident. Omnomnom. Three mana removal is already clogged with good cards in black. No.
Curse of Oblivion: Graveyard decks are (mostly) not a valid deck type in cube, so not one that needs to be hosed. It’s true you can make a ‘Gravedigger’ deck, but this is far too narrow.
Dead Weight: Sorcery speed Disfigure that can be used on creatures you can’t quite kill to screw with combat math or some such shenanigans. Seems really good, as Disfigure has always been solid. Cubeable.
Ghoulcaller’s Chant: Raise Dead has been covered before, and Zombies are pretty uncommon overall.
Ghoulraiser: Same as above; this is mostly a bad bear.
Gruesome Deformity: Just not close to good. Auras with small effects open you up to two-for-ones and are just a waste of a card.
Manor Skeleton: There are better regenerator walls. Haste is mostly pointless. Nope.
Markov Patrician: One toughness is a big problem for a three drop. Child of Night is a disposable cheap attacker that gives a sweet life swing, but this needs to do significantly more for three, and it doesn’t.
Night Terrors: Bad discard, and not worth it.
Rotting Fensnake: When this isn’t dying to pingers, unable to attack, or being killed by an unkicked Burst Lightning, it’ll just be on the table looking ugly. Because it’s bad.
Skeletal Grimace: Easily responded to, and otherwise underwhelming. Wicked cool art doesn’t always translate, unfortunately.
Stromkirk Patrol: It’s big, but probably not that good. No evasion makes connecting annoying, and for five a 4/3 is just not okay. There should be more than enough ways to prevent this ever connecting more than once by turn five.
Typhoid Rats: Actually a fairly cool blocker. One drops are good. Unfortunately it’s totally defensive and black really doesn’t need more ways to stop creatures at sorcery speed with all sorts of conditions. Not cubeable.
Vampire Interloper: Stormfront Pegasus! Well, Welkin Tern. Call it what you like, I call it Winning. Cube this.
Victim of Night: Doesn’t hit a few targets, but not enough to make this not worth running. I would put this at roughly the same as Rend Flesh, deck dependant, as it’s harder to cast colour wise and hits slightly less, but costs 1 less mana. Very cubeable.
Walking Corpse: Keep walking, bud. Door’s that way.
Testable: Altar's Reap
RED
Ashmouth Hound: Better flanking is very cool. I think this is better than Goblin Shortcutter, but I’m still undecided about whether I want it in (as I’m cutting the Shortcutter). I’d call this one cubeable. Very aggressive, and that’s absolutely what red needs right now.
Bloodcrazed Neonate: Another aggressive two drop. I find myself wanting to cube both of these, because the curve really needs it. The attacking every turn drawback isn’t negligible with just one toughness, but this is still quite good. I prefer Hound though.
Brimstone Volley: High quality burn is something you want around. It’s even splashable! Cubeable.
Crossway Vampire: A really useful effect on a good body. And I’m resisting the obvious joke. Testable.
Curse of the Pierced Heart: Slow. Really, really slow. Goblin Fireslinger if you must have this effect. Topdecking this turn 5+ is just a hilariously bad draw.
Feral Ridgewolf: The three slot’s quite clogged up already, and this doesn’t stand out any more than any other available option. Nope.
Furor of the Bitten: A bad pump spell, or bad removal? You decide! Or better yet, don’t run this, and don’t decide.
Geistflame: Comprehensively outclassed by Lava Dart. Not cubeable.
Harvest Pyre: Would be worth a second look if it could hit players as well, but you need to drop three cards to just get this close to Incinerate levels… and it really isn’t worth the effort.
Infernal Plunge: Not at all designed for cube, and not really workable here in any form.
Kessig Wolf: Again, the three drops are tight, and this is really unremarkable.
Night Revelers: This part of the curve is sewn up, and occasional-haste doesn’t beat out other options. Don’t run it.
Nightbird’s Clutches: Better with Flashback, but the effect is very narrow and not something to spend a card on. I’ll pass.
Pitchburn Devils: A good creature, but it doesn’t do what I want my five drops to do, which is win the game. I’d rather play a cheap burn spell and not have to worry about my 3/3 being useless because of blockers. Most likely it’ll be hard to get it to die when you need it to, and hard to get it to connect when you need that. Overall not as good as it first looks.
Riot Devils: Very vanilla, very no.
Tormented Pariah//Rampaging Werewolf: My take on Transform Wolves is that not only will it sometimes be tricky to get them to activate, but with the very possible chance that they flip back they often become quite useless. This possibility and effort means they need to be at least a little relevant in both states, and not just a dead card that gets you nowhere. A 3/2 is at least something you can work with (although I don’t get why a wimpy human is a 3/2…?), but the transformed state is the obvious cake here. I’m not convinced it’s cubeworthy, but testable.
Traitorous Blood: A really cool card. I’d say this one is definitely testworthy. It’s probably worse than Act of Treason thanks to the cost though – trample’s not that relevant really.
Vampiric Fury: Tribal Cubes only. And really, that just isn’t that possible within Pauper, anyway.
Village Ironsmith//Ironfang: Not a fan of this one. As before, this needs to be relevant in the original state, and it’s just not. The first strike is meaningless, and by the time you get it to flip and stick that way you’ve probably lost the aggressive edge of having the 3/1 first striker, keeping in mind this is the same turn cards like Stormfront Pegasus and Porcelain Legionnaire go online. I don’t think it’s testworthy.
Testable: Crossway Vampire, Traitorous Blood, Tormented Pariah//Rampaging Werewolf
GREEN
Ambush Viper: A sweet mix of abilities that should make this one cubeable for most. Run it!
Caravan Vigil: Too many better options. If you don’t have the land you need and you have to resort to using this in the first couple of turns, you should have mulliganed!
Darkthicket Wolf: A mana suck that’s not good enough most of the time.
Festerhide Boar:I didn’t like this at first, but I think you should be able to get this to go off as a huge threat to be dealt with. Large creatures are scary in Pauper, and this is no exception. It’s not a game ender on the scale of the Wurms or Kavu Primarch though. Testable, but there’s not definitely going to be room.
Gnaw to the Bone: Flashback makes this
greatstill terrible. No.Grave Bramble: is this a Plants vs. Zombies reference? At any rate, not cubeable. Cool though.
Grizzled Outcasts//Krallenhorde Wantons: Possibly better than Tangle Hulk. The card is a big beatstick that turns into a bigger beatstick, but either way you’re swinging with a large guy that will win you the game if he keeps connecting. I wouldn’t be too upset if this just stayed as a 4/4 for most of the time if it meant it put pressure on my opponent in the lategame to manage it. Probably fairly cubeable; testworthy.
Kindercatch: This is good for mono green, but that deck just doesn’t exist and the commitment to green in that cost is obscene. Not cubeable.
Moonmist: Doesn’t apply to us.
Orchard Spirit: Actually an interesting creature, but flying creatures do exist and it probably won’t work. That said, evasion (other than trample) is so rare in green that this may be worth coming back to. For now I won’t test it, though.
Prey Upon: Just really good removal. It’s conditional, but all green removal always is and these conditions at least fit the usual gameplan. Big creatures shouldn’t be too much of a problem provided you do this
on your opponent’s turnafter damage has worn off from the attackers. For one mana, you can’t go wrong. Compared to the other similar sorcery speed removal options in Green (Lignify and Utopia Vow), this definitely sits in a good position. Cubeable.Ranger’s Guile: A just okay response to removal that still isn’t worth cubing with. Fair enough card though.
Somberwald Spider: If you have a flying problem with green, then this might be okay. For five mana it’s a bit too defensive, though. Testable on the side of not cubeable.
Spidery Grasp: It’s okay, but I wouldn’t cube it. Three is a lot to hold up, and the card it costs won’t always guarantee removal.
Villagers of Estwald//Howlpack of Estwald: Possibly very cubeable. When compared to Centaur Courser, which is solid, this has a lot of upsides. This is the right point in the game for players to start not having a spell to play each turn, too. Going out on a limb and saying cubeable, but it will need testing to back this up.
Woodland Sleuth: A slightly bigger Gravedigger that also has all these ugly conditions slapped on. A bit too tricky to get it to do exactly what you want. Not really cubeable.
Testable: Festerhide Boar, Grizzled Outcasts//Krallenhorde Wantons
COLOURLESS
Blazing Torch: This is a very useful removal spell on the cheap which leans towards being better in the aggro decks for a change. It was good in Zendikar, and the rarity drop makes this worth it. Cube this.
Cobbled Wings: Compare Neurok Stealthsuit. The effect’s not really enough, but it’s close. Not bad, but not quite cubeable.
Ghoulcaller’s Bell: Not in cube it ain’t.
One-Eyed Scarecrow: Strange, and narrow, and a defender. Ugh.
Traveller’s Amulet: Wanderer’s Twig is okay, but you certainly wouldn’t need two. Not cubeable.
Wooden Stake: Wanderer’s Twig is okay, but you certainly wouldn’t need two. Not cubeable.
MULTICOLOUR
Bump in the Night: A flashback black Lava Spike isn’t good enough. You won’t win with burn and no board presence!
Avacyn’s Pilgrim: Really not good enough for this colour combination. Maybe they should give it exalted… and make it tap for green and blue…
Travel Preparations: Same as above; GW is chocka.
Forbidden Alchemy: This card is excellent. Impulse is fantastic because it lets you dig three deep for your answer to the board state during your opponent’s turn, and this lets you do it twice, with one more card. Instant speed means that the increased mana cost isn’t too much of a problem, because you can always do it EOT while holding your counter mana up. I like Recoil and Probe better, but in my opinion this is significantly better than Dimir Infiltraitor, Soul Manipulation, or Agony Warp. Very cubeable, provided you support control.
Feeling of Dread: Reminds me of Moment’s Peace, but not quite as good. I would rather have Silkbind Faerie, Curse of Chains or Azorius First Wing, though.
Testable: Feeling of Dread
Conclusion
Tons and tons of good stuff. Nothing that's really broken good or super powerful except perhaps Brimstone Volley, but overall a good bump to the quality of cards (but especially in red, finally). How good the Werewolves are is anyone's guess at this stage though, but given your opponent gets to interact with them to try to force flips, they're probably slightly worse than however bad/good you think they are.
And if you haven't already, go check out Lanxal's review here! http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=357614
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Humans
White
18/49 Creatures - 36.7%
Akrasan Squire
Infantry Veteran
Deftblade Elite
Gideon's Lawkeeper
Icatian Javelineers
Benevolent Bodyguard
Youthful Knight
Order of Leitbur
Blinding Mage
Master Decoy
Benalish Trapper
Shu Cavalry
Thermal Glider
Nightwind Rider
Hallowed Healer
Benalish Knight
Coalition Honour Guard
Noble Templar
Blue
Thought Courier
Dreamscape Artist
Ninja of the Deep Hours
Sea Gate Oracle
Æther Adept
Prodigal Sorcerer
Zuran Spellcaster
Neurok Invisimancer
Black
Undertaker
Blind Zealot
Red
Martyr of Ashes
Keldon Halberdier
Fireslinger
Keldon Marauders
Prodigal Pyromancer
Vithian Stinger
Vulshok Sorcerer
Ghitu Slinger
Gathan Raiders
Keldon Vandals
Anarchist
Green
Quirion Ranger
Yavimaya Elder
Borderland Ranger
Multicolour
4/20 Creatures - 20%
Izzet Chronarch
Skyknight Legionnaire
Shadow Guildmage
Stormscape Apprentice
Vampires
Vampire Lacerator
Child of Night
Zombies
Carnophage
Wretched Anurid
Twisted Abomination
Gravedigger
Skinthinner
Putrid Leech
Totals
Humans: 46/213 - 21.6%
Zombies: 6/213 - 2.8%
Vampires: 2/213 - 0.9%
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So, commons from INN spoiled so far:
Abbey Griffin: No ^^
Curse of the Bloody Tome: Nope.
Stitched Drake: Seems great and well worth testing; very likely good enough. I'm not sure how often your own creatures are going to die in a deck that supports UU casting costs though.
Stitcher's Apprentice: I really like this as a great stall card and response to removal. Just in general a sweet creature engine that will probably be the first target of removal. Given he's two mana, that's a good thing.
Vampire Interloper: Score, a usually-identical Stormfront Pegasus for black with a sweet casting cost. Bit of a boost to black aggro.
Bloodcrazed Neonate: Red needs some help at the 2 CMC part of its curve, so even though I'm not sold that this will connect the first time, it still seems like a very cubeworthy card.
Village Ironsmith: Unreliable like all the werewolf cards, but I still like his potential. Definitely a test card since nobody really knows how these transform cards are going to fare yet. Fits curve well like above.
Moonmist: Not for us.
Spidery Grasp: There's better options that don't cost 2 CMC, and although this isn't atrocious, it's far from cubeable.
Travel Preparations: I don't think this is better than current G/W choices, especially because of Sorcery speed.
Wooden Stake: Not for us.
Blazing Torch: This reprint at common should be good enough to make it in. More colourless removal!
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Ah, right. Cube's a social format, so if your group isn't enjoying it, there's no point! So that makes complete sense. Look forward to seeing the updates! Might be worth making a Cube List thread if it'll be something you do again.
Talk about "tomorrow never comes!" *rolleyes* I ended up having to leave before I got back to this. Just some more general stuff on a few cards being tested while I have a moment:
Spirit en-Kor was irrelevant when I played against it. The two power wasn't enough for the late game, and by then the defensive capabilities were not that useful. Turned into a bad wall. Not an awful card, but can be pretty bad sometimes.
Burrenton Bombardier continues to be frustratingly good. On paper it *shouldn't* be good at all! But the cost is flexible and it once again proves (like Thakalos Scout does) the power of a repeated 2 damage source. Killed me one game againast B/W Tappers because the wall of tap creatures and killspells meant I never got a single creature with flying to stick. Not adding this to my main list yet though... Yet to see this Reinforced, so it's winning purely off the back of the fact it's a 2/2 flyer. Weird.
Rathi Trapper is very decent. The main problem with this list was that Crypt Rats forced the death of all the tappers, and there were no larger creatures in the deck to fall back on. In my first game I held Curse of Chains for almost the whole game, waiting for a good target, before being forced to use it on a tapper so I could attack. Black mana is already restrictive and the cost is annoying, though. Perhaps not quite in, but not as bad as you might think.
Cloudchaser Kestrel: With all the enchantment removal, this does lots of cool things. And I like cool things. B) In the same way that Kami of Ancient Law/Ronom Unicorn are good, a flying creature that will hopefully do something similar to Bombardier is great. The second ability is mostly meaningless, and WW is annoying, but still very very solid.
Gaea's Skyfolk: Decent enough. I still prefer Temporal Spring, but it was nice to try this anyway.
Impaler Shrike was completely nuts. I'd consider this a fairly high card for blue, actually. The card draw is more reliable than you'd think, and damage with it is just rocking.
Search for Tomorrow: Both games my mate played it, he dropped it turn 1, where it was great. But at all other times, it's pretty average. Probably not needed with all the good ramp.
Giantbaiting: Unplayed. But that's probably a good sign to stick to the RG I already run instead (Kird Ape, Branching Bolt, Orcish Lumberjack). At any rate, it's not better than Horned Kavu.
Benalish Cavalry was pretty bad. Even with flanking, it doesn't stop Sprout (or etc) tokens chumping it indefinitely.
Double Cleave is, as expected, rubbish. ^^ Berserk this is not.
Hand of Emrakul needs evasion badly and Annihilator 1 is mostly useless when it comes out. Happy to be finally sure that this is not cubeable. Was funny to lose two Sprout tokens to it a turn though... and then make three more on my turn.
General observations:
Blue is arguably the best colour in the cube. Matched with powerful cards from other colours, it becomes pretty unstoppable, even when split over several decks.
Committing to colours proved to skew the game quite noticeably. Crypt Rats forced BW into heavy black early, and a second (!) pick Capsize for the other UG player meant he knew he was heavy blue too, despite going most of pack 1 with no blue. The green cards went around a lot later in the packs, and both Green and White appear to be colours people underestimate, leaving them underdrafted and allowing for some good picks to slip through.
With Sprout Swarm forcing me into UG and BW + the other UG player already very committed, the third pack left Volcanic Hammer, Chain Lightning, Incinerate, and Rolling Thunder to go around and around... (!!) which just shouldn't happen. Either the burn's not exciting or people are underestimating red big time at the moment. However, despite the density of good reach and removal, red's creatures are a little lackluster.
Because of this, I'm considering adding Pyroblast to tip the scales against blue a little. Given how much it gets gets played, it's surprisingly versatile too. Another popular way to deal with blue decks that I recently found out about - matches. Surprisingly effective! Aim away from face.
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