MTG Salvation

Yep, I think you summarized the weakest cards pretty well.

Brute Force is my main contender right now, mostly because I also run Rubblebelt Makka, which is just generally better.

I generally agree on your assessments and have kept a couple of those cards in largely out of demand from people I play with, but I am curious if you would suggest a substitute for Vithian Stinger from amongst the pingers that I am not running?

Not to derail the BNG discussions, but I picked up a beta Disintegrate recently and am thinking about what to cut for it from my red section, curious about others' thoughts:

Creatures: (39)

Spells: (28)

Flood is absolutely nuts.

RE: Corpse Hauler, not particularly excited about it.

Quote from Windux

I'm thinking on supporting combo in my cube. Is there a cubelist already, who supports combo?
Empty the Warrens, Grapeshot, Temporal Fissure (combined with rituals, cost reducer etc).

I just want to know if this works out good or is a corner case to draft

I support combo in my cube. Go ahead and take a peek.

I've got Empty the Warrens, Grapeshot, and Temporal Fissure supported by a number of cards (I think Nightscape Familiar and Goblin Electromancer might be the two linchpins to making that combo work).

I also run Midnight Guard & Presence of Gond because it's simple, fantastic, and both cards are okay on their own (though way way weaker).

I've played with Bladetusk Boar plenty, it can be great or totally blah, just depends on whether or not the intimidate actually matters. But it's a fine card.

Coal Stoaker seems a little too situational, though it's a cool effect.

Not sold on War-Spike Changeling.

Keldon Berserker seems interesting enough to warrant some testing. Would be curious to see how it performs for you.

That was my initial read of Maaka, but I was surprised with how useful it proved to be (at least for me). Warranted enough consideration for my (450 card) cube that I will at least test it for a while.

For the record these are my red 4-drops
Gorehorn Minotaurs
Rubblebelt Maaka
Rukh Egg
Slash Panther
(Crusher Zendikon)
(Stingscourger)

Rukh Egg for the "coolness" factor, or if you want to support red as a control build, otherwise I might say Rubblebelt Maaka, I was really pleased with its flexbility and cost in DGM limited (might have helped that I pulled 2 in my sealed pool so I saw it frequently).

I like Burrenton Bombardier, like, a lot. It's never been a card that has disappointed me. Flexibility is sometimes a hard value to gauge, but this is definitely one I think is well worth cubing.

We typically do 3x15 or 4x11, just depending on people's preferences. Have toyed with going 3x13/14 or 4x10 too, but haven't tried it out.

Orcish Lumberjack will be going in for me. Have always loved the card, not sure why I overlooked it before.

I'd rather have Lignify or Arachnus Web rather than Roots. 4cmc and the flying clause seem like pretty big impediments to me.

I don't think the tempo trade-off is probably worth it. With Rolling Thunder/Arc Lightning/Pyrotechnics the opportunities for card advantage are clear. Infernal Harvest has the same opportunity but is not only dependent on the lands you're running, but also is dependent on tempo not being an issue. Trading 3-4+ turns worth of land drops is a pretty steep price to take out 1-2 creatures and black already has such great removal (mass and spot).

I'll second Goblin Electromancer, I originally included it to help try and make storm a slightly more viable archetype in my cube (you still have to really want to make it work to draft it), but I've been pleasantly surprised at how it's performed in other roles.

Quote from jonboyjon

How do you mean aesthetic? As in the look of the cards? Do you only run the actual common printing of the card then? i.e Urza's Legacy Rancor over M13?

Yep, I do that. And I try to run the first black-bordered printed version of the cards (still have a couple more Betas to pick up).

Aesthetics applies to card selection as well as just appearance, and for me online only commons just aren't my cup of tea for my cube, along with portal cards, double-faced cards, and a a couple other things. I don't think it's the right choice for everyone but it's just how I've built my cube.

Quote from Volcanon

On that note: Ramierez De Pietro. He's a 4/3 first strike for 6. But huge first strikers are pretty amazing in pauper. And he was a common in ME3.

Not worth cubing, but as a sidenote I run a full set of the uncommon Legends legendary creatures as Commanders for EDH building out of the cube, which can be a lot of fun, and Ramirez might be one of the best (admittedly the bar is set pretty low).

I don't run online-only commons, it's just an aesthetic decision though. I don't think Phantom Monster is terribly overpowered or anything.