Now that the set has been out and drafted for about a month, I like to check in on how people have drafted this format and some of the interesting Peasant cards from the native draft format:
Chaplain of Alms / Chapel Shieldgeist- A lot of the disturb cards have been overperforming in MID drafts, but I wanted to call out this one as a one drop with a powerful flip side. I hear giving Ward 1 to everything is pretty annoying plus you gets a 2-power flying first striker. Organ Hoarder and Eccentric Farmer- Organ Hoarder is considered by far the best common, but I kind of like Farmer more because it fills a needed role in Green. I play Excavation Mole now and this may be better? Not entirely sure. Ecstatic Awakener- A slightly underwhelming card on its face that turns tokens into a big 4/4 along with extra card draw. A nice card to curve into lots of black 2-drops like Lazotep Reaver or Orzhov Enforcer. Lunar Frenzy- Not a lot of great stuff in red, but this has been a pretty good combat track with a good floor (R for target creature getting first strike and trample) and game-winning upside. I like combat tricks, so this might be a try.
Has anyone else been inspired to try new Midnight Hunt card after drafting the format?
Well, I did not get in as early as I wanted, but I still have a Too Early Top 20 for Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. I was about to be pretty down on this set, but a late-second addition certainly helped with that. This set was super hard to judge, especially beyond the obvious top picks. A lot of that is due to these interesting mechanics and how they may transition into our world of Peasant Cube. I run a 512 card Cube, maximized for power and with 6 spells per guild. My lists tend towards interesting cards, which this set has in spades. Here is the list:
20) Loyal Gryff- Very medium card as either an attacking 3-drop or a trick with upside. I doubt a lot of Cubes want to do the very durdly thing this card does best, but it also does regular things okay.
19) Vengeful Strangler / Strangling Grasp- I like what this can do for aggressive black decks, since the transformed aura is a decent but slow removal spell. Black aggro is on the downswing for many of us, but I guess this is kind of a sacrifice deck card too.
18) Fading Hope- I actually like this more than the similar Play with Fire because I think Unsummon is closer to Peasant Cube level than Shock. Very similarly, this card offers upside when used in its less optimal mode and might be the top Unsummon variant we have, along with Vapor Snag.
17) Falcon Abomination- I think a decayed Zombie is worse than a 1/1 token on the whole, which would make this worse than the solid Aven Eternal. That said, if decayed Zombies are better than I think, this should probably be in my Cube as well.
16) Candletrap- Probably a decent enough piece of cheap removal for controlling decks. The Coven ability provides some more upside for creature decks, but the conditions are so very specific as to not be much real upside. Three creatures of varying sizes is difficult to have, along with then having the extra mana to activate. Again, if Coven is better than I think, this is a worthy option.
15) Obsessive Astronomer- This day/night mechanic got added onto non-transforming cards that generally have decent bodies on their own. This two-card rummage is interesting as an effect, especially if it happens in multiples. If you are missing plays to transform into Night, you can discard those hand clogging cards for some better options which then help you double spell and turn back into Day. Nice idea, but how likely is it in practice?
Interesting Options-
14) Dryad's Revival- A lot of people here stated the obvious- there are so many Regrowth options now that it is very hard to break in. Regarding Revival, my biggest strike against this is how much less powerful this looks next to Timeless Witness.
13) Dreadhound- While more powerful than Syr Konrad, the Grim, 6 mana is a lot more than 5 mana and even 5 mana is sometimes more than I want to pay for this effect. But, being the Big Dog has its upsides, especially if it fits into a self-mill black section for reanimator.
12) Consider- I do not think Peasant has a huge need for more one-mana blue cantrips given how relatively flat our power level is and how many fewer spell-slinger options we have access to. That said, this is probably the 4th or 5th best one, so is definitely worth your time to, ahem, Consider.
11) Cathartic Pyre- A really interesting way to mitigate flood in red aggro or discard for upside in blue/red or black/red decks. For me, I would rather deal with mana flood in red aggro with a card like Roil Eruption that also hits players. As for the discard upside, I would rather have that effect in either blue or black.
10) Rite of Oblivion- This is certainly an excellent way to turn a wide-board of tokens into real board impact, and also enables your Blood Artist effects. Although this can hit twice, this could be worse than just another standard Banishing Light type card.
9) Borrowed Time- Another standard Banishing Light type card. Most interesting for me is deciding whether I want this effect three times at 3-mana or three times with upside at 4-mana.
Start Your Engines
8) Gavony Dawnguard- White has a LOT of mana value 3 or less creatures, although this has fewer hits than Militia Bugler. But, compared to Bugler, we have (I think) a better body and the upside of hitting more than once even with the downside of never hitting at all.
7) Deathbonnet Sprout / Deathbonnet Hulk- Green is starting to get more relevant self-mill than ever before and more upside for doing so. While the enabling and upside are relatively small here, I think this fits in great to the right Green section.
6) Heirloom Mirror / Inherited Fiend- A pretty good way to enable a lot of the things black sections want to do. I wish it had an earlier board presence, but drawing extra cards and filling the graveyard can definitely help to do so even before the Fiend makes an appearance.
5) Ghoulish Procession- Although I think decayed Zombies are worse than 1/1s, there are a lot of things you can do with a steady stream of bodies. The obvious upside is with sacrifice effects and death triggers, but I am sure some aggro decks want attacking 2 power creatures all the time too.
4) Morbid Opportunist- I keep coming back to the fact that this is a good deal with one card drawn, great with two cards drawn, and even better from there. Do I wish this had a better body or was repeatable like some rare versions of this effect? Sure, but those do not diminish the potential raw power here.
The Top Three
3) Cathar Commando- Both a 3-mana Disenchant with a really good 2-mana fallback and a good 2-drop that can trade up later in the game. Just a perfect card that we were all clamoring for in White.
2) Outland Liberator / Frenzied Trapbreaker- Another decent 2-drop with the upside to trade up along with the extra bonus upside of the Nightbound side. Hitting a relevant artifact or enchantment without giving up a resource is going to be amazing when you do it.
1) Infernal Grasp- While I think this is less powerful than some other 2-mana black kill spells, it is certainly still VERY powerful and extremely reliable. A strong #1 card from this set.
Re: Heirloom Mirror- I understand the idea of this being time and resource intensive since the main payoff, Inherited Fiend, will not attack until turn 6. I am also skeptical of this card as a great reanimation enabler. I like enablers with a little board impact, like a Mire Triton or a Heir of Falkenrath. That said, Mirror does a bunch of little stuff, so it is worth consideration as a broader "good card."
Re: Ghoulish Procession and Hobbling Zombie- I think these decayed Zombie tokens are generally worse than a 1/1, so I am skeptical of their value. Ghoulish Procession does have that upside as an engine, which interests me. Compared to Hobbling Zombie, I think there are better, similar cards like an Orzhov Enforcer.
Re: Gavony Dawnguard- Only mentioned once in this thread, but another card with some engine potential. Keeping a 3/3 ward 1 around for multiple turns seems unlikely, but this is probably good enough activated just once in high-creature white decks.
Re: Fleshtaker- The real downside of this card to me is the one-mana activation. That always kills these cards more than anything else, since the threat of activation is severely diminished.
Re: Loyal Gryff- A cute trick that is also just a flash flying 2/2 that might get some value is eating small attackers.
Re: Brief Repreive- Another Banishing Light, but I think I would rather have the 3rd three-mana version before the 3rd four-mana version, which is Cast Out for me.
Re: Flame Channeler- I really like the flipside, that's for sure. How many ways will the average red deck have to transform this creature? My first thought is in the 6 or 7 range, which is pretty conditional. Also, a 2/2 for two mana is now pretty cruddy for red. Might still cut one of the conditional 3/2s for it.
Candletrap is an interesting piece of cheap white removal. If you are trying to defend, you stop a creature right away and probably do not care about leaving a blocker behind. If you are trying to attack, you leave a blocker behind that you might be able to eventually exile.
@VariSami- I will certainly agree that the trio of Power Word Kill, Cast Down, and Go for the Throat feel arbitrary, I disagree about them necessarily failing against high-priority targets. In my cube (512 cards, 6 guild spells and 2 guild lands), I have a mean creature mana value of 2.99. Specifically, twenty-two 5-drops, eight 6-drops, eleven 7-drops, and two 9-drops.
For those three conditional kill spells, here is the breakdown of misses per mana value.
Power Word Kill- one 1-drop, one 2-drop, three 3-drops, one 4-drop, one 7-drop. Mean mana value: 3.29.
Cast Down- one 2-drop, five 3-drops, three 4-drops, five 5-drops. Mean mana value: 3.5.
Go for the Throat- three 1-drops, eight 2-drops, one 3-drop, two 4-drops, one 6-drop, two 7-drops. Mean mana value: 2.94.
Other than Cast Down, which definitely has some big misses with those five 5-drops, I think the other two do not skew that high on their misses.
With all that said, I totally agree that having a 100% reliable kill spell is a feel good. I personally do not think it is automatically the #1 two-mana black kill spell.
Comparatively, I am a bit down on Infernal Grasp and have it firmly behind Power Word Kill, Cast Down, and Go For The Throat, the three least conditional of the 2-mana kill spells. Each of those currently misses between 3% and 6% of my Cube's creatures and I think each is overall better as removal that works 94% to 97% of the time than 100% removal with a guaranteed 100% drawback.
I think there are plenty of matchups where the two life loss will matter and especially dulls the play pattern of control decks that want to kill an early 1-mana or 2-mana creature from the opponent.
That said, I feel pretty confident in Grasp over Heartless Act and Ultimate Price, which have miss rates closer to 12% to 15%. Also, I do not dislike the idea of a card being better for aggro decks compared to control.
Chaplain of Alms / Chapel Shieldgeist- A lot of the disturb cards have been overperforming in MID drafts, but I wanted to call out this one as a one drop with a powerful flip side. I hear giving Ward 1 to everything is pretty annoying plus you gets a 2-power flying first striker.
Organ Hoarder and Eccentric Farmer- Organ Hoarder is considered by far the best common, but I kind of like Farmer more because it fills a needed role in Green. I play Excavation Mole now and this may be better? Not entirely sure.
Ecstatic Awakener- A slightly underwhelming card on its face that turns tokens into a big 4/4 along with extra card draw. A nice card to curve into lots of black 2-drops like Lazotep Reaver or Orzhov Enforcer.
Lunar Frenzy- Not a lot of great stuff in red, but this has been a pretty good combat track with a good floor (R for target creature getting first strike and trample) and game-winning upside. I like combat tricks, so this might be a try.
Has anyone else been inspired to try new Midnight Hunt card after drafting the format?
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
20) Loyal Gryff- Very medium card as either an attacking 3-drop or a trick with upside. I doubt a lot of Cubes want to do the very durdly thing this card does best, but it also does regular things okay.
19) Vengeful Strangler / Strangling Grasp- I like what this can do for aggressive black decks, since the transformed aura is a decent but slow removal spell. Black aggro is on the downswing for many of us, but I guess this is kind of a sacrifice deck card too.
18) Fading Hope- I actually like this more than the similar Play with Fire because I think Unsummon is closer to Peasant Cube level than Shock. Very similarly, this card offers upside when used in its less optimal mode and might be the top Unsummon variant we have, along with Vapor Snag.
17) Falcon Abomination- I think a decayed Zombie is worse than a 1/1 token on the whole, which would make this worse than the solid Aven Eternal. That said, if decayed Zombies are better than I think, this should probably be in my Cube as well.
16) Candletrap- Probably a decent enough piece of cheap removal for controlling decks. The Coven ability provides some more upside for creature decks, but the conditions are so very specific as to not be much real upside. Three creatures of varying sizes is difficult to have, along with then having the extra mana to activate. Again, if Coven is better than I think, this is a worthy option.
15) Obsessive Astronomer- This day/night mechanic got added onto non-transforming cards that generally have decent bodies on their own. This two-card rummage is interesting as an effect, especially if it happens in multiples. If you are missing plays to transform into Night, you can discard those hand clogging cards for some better options which then help you double spell and turn back into Day. Nice idea, but how likely is it in practice?
Interesting Options-
14) Dryad's Revival- A lot of people here stated the obvious- there are so many Regrowth options now that it is very hard to break in. Regarding Revival, my biggest strike against this is how much less powerful this looks next to Timeless Witness.
13) Dreadhound- While more powerful than Syr Konrad, the Grim, 6 mana is a lot more than 5 mana and even 5 mana is sometimes more than I want to pay for this effect. But, being the Big Dog has its upsides, especially if it fits into a self-mill black section for reanimator.
12) Consider- I do not think Peasant has a huge need for more one-mana blue cantrips given how relatively flat our power level is and how many fewer spell-slinger options we have access to. That said, this is probably the 4th or 5th best one, so is definitely worth your time to, ahem, Consider.
11) Cathartic Pyre- A really interesting way to mitigate flood in red aggro or discard for upside in blue/red or black/red decks. For me, I would rather deal with mana flood in red aggro with a card like Roil Eruption that also hits players. As for the discard upside, I would rather have that effect in either blue or black.
10) Rite of Oblivion- This is certainly an excellent way to turn a wide-board of tokens into real board impact, and also enables your Blood Artist effects. Although this can hit twice, this could be worse than just another standard Banishing Light type card.
9) Borrowed Time- Another standard Banishing Light type card. Most interesting for me is deciding whether I want this effect three times at 3-mana or three times with upside at 4-mana.
Start Your Engines
8) Gavony Dawnguard- White has a LOT of mana value 3 or less creatures, although this has fewer hits than Militia Bugler. But, compared to Bugler, we have (I think) a better body and the upside of hitting more than once even with the downside of never hitting at all.
7) Deathbonnet Sprout / Deathbonnet Hulk- Green is starting to get more relevant self-mill than ever before and more upside for doing so. While the enabling and upside are relatively small here, I think this fits in great to the right Green section.
6) Heirloom Mirror / Inherited Fiend- A pretty good way to enable a lot of the things black sections want to do. I wish it had an earlier board presence, but drawing extra cards and filling the graveyard can definitely help to do so even before the Fiend makes an appearance.
5) Ghoulish Procession- Although I think decayed Zombies are worse than 1/1s, there are a lot of things you can do with a steady stream of bodies. The obvious upside is with sacrifice effects and death triggers, but I am sure some aggro decks want attacking 2 power creatures all the time too.
4) Morbid Opportunist- I keep coming back to the fact that this is a good deal with one card drawn, great with two cards drawn, and even better from there. Do I wish this had a better body or was repeatable like some rare versions of this effect? Sure, but those do not diminish the potential raw power here.
The Top Three
3) Cathar Commando- Both a 3-mana Disenchant with a really good 2-mana fallback and a good 2-drop that can trade up later in the game. Just a perfect card that we were all clamoring for in White.
2) Outland Liberator / Frenzied Trapbreaker- Another decent 2-drop with the upside to trade up along with the extra bonus upside of the Nightbound side. Hitting a relevant artifact or enchantment without giving up a resource is going to be amazing when you do it.
1) Infernal Grasp- While I think this is less powerful than some other 2-mana black kill spells, it is certainly still VERY powerful and extremely reliable. A strong #1 card from this set.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
Re: Heirloom Mirror- I understand the idea of this being time and resource intensive since the main payoff, Inherited Fiend, will not attack until turn 6. I am also skeptical of this card as a great reanimation enabler. I like enablers with a little board impact, like a Mire Triton or a Heir of Falkenrath. That said, Mirror does a bunch of little stuff, so it is worth consideration as a broader "good card."
Re: Ghoulish Procession and Hobbling Zombie- I think these decayed Zombie tokens are generally worse than a 1/1, so I am skeptical of their value. Ghoulish Procession does have that upside as an engine, which interests me. Compared to Hobbling Zombie, I think there are better, similar cards like an Orzhov Enforcer.
Re: Gavony Dawnguard- Only mentioned once in this thread, but another card with some engine potential. Keeping a 3/3 ward 1 around for multiple turns seems unlikely, but this is probably good enough activated just once in high-creature white decks.
Re: Fleshtaker- The real downside of this card to me is the one-mana activation. That always kills these cards more than anything else, since the threat of activation is severely diminished.
Re: Loyal Gryff- A cute trick that is also just a flash flying 2/2 that might get some value is eating small attackers.
Re: Brief Repreive- Another Banishing Light, but I think I would rather have the 3rd three-mana version before the 3rd four-mana version, which is Cast Out for me.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
Candletrap is an interesting piece of cheap white removal. If you are trying to defend, you stop a creature right away and probably do not care about leaving a blocker behind. If you are trying to attack, you leave a blocker behind that you might be able to eventually exile.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
For those three conditional kill spells, here is the breakdown of misses per mana value.
Power Word Kill- one 1-drop, one 2-drop, three 3-drops, one 4-drop, one 7-drop. Mean mana value: 3.29.
Cast Down- one 2-drop, five 3-drops, three 4-drops, five 5-drops. Mean mana value: 3.5.
Go for the Throat- three 1-drops, eight 2-drops, one 3-drop, two 4-drops, one 6-drop, two 7-drops. Mean mana value: 2.94.
Other than Cast Down, which definitely has some big misses with those five 5-drops, I think the other two do not skew that high on their misses.
With all that said, I totally agree that having a 100% reliable kill spell is a feel good. I personally do not think it is automatically the #1 two-mana black kill spell.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
I think there are plenty of matchups where the two life loss will matter and especially dulls the play pattern of control decks that want to kill an early 1-mana or 2-mana creature from the opponent.
That said, I feel pretty confident in Grasp over Heartless Act and Ultimate Price, which have miss rates closer to 12% to 15%. Also, I do not dislike the idea of a card being better for aggro decks compared to control.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor