For a while, I didn't include Undo in my cube because I thought that there would be a lack of targets for it. Then, I had a revelation and figured out that it's blue's Ashes to Ashes... in a way. Obviously it doesn't exile the creatures, but it's still a very good tempo play and I've yet to lack 2 targets for Ashes to Ashes, so Undo should be similar. Think Twice will go out for it.
[edit - much thanks to merl for the recommendation of Undo! ]
Drafted last night and I'm really happy with how it's been working out. Darkemblem smashed my face with a RB aggro deck and there was a pretty good mix of aggro, control and midrangey type of stuff amongst the 5 total drafters. Henchfiend of Ukor ended up being really good (and I may try to get the 2RR 3/3 hasters into here as well.)
Undertaker made its first appearance and it was really good. I was running a BU-splash W deck and there were plenty of cards to trade for creatures, acting like a Tortured Existence (on an admittedly fragile body.) Trade something insignificant for a Blind Hunter to stabilize? Sure!
I ended up switching out Sedraxis Alchemist for Soul Manipulation. It's hard for UB decks to get an opening where it can go t2 blue permanent and t3 alchemist, and by the time that there's a blue permanent on board, typically UB has better plays.
Just out of curiosity, Usman, how do you and your crew balance the use of two cubes? I've got my rare cube and my peasant cube and I love to draft them both, but we don't always have a ton of time for drafting. Usually if I can get one draft from both in, I do, but even then I feel kinda shortchanged when it's time to leave. I want more, dammit!
Usually I just ask whichever people would like to draft, yesterday I said "Wanna draft commons? I wanna get some more drafts in with this one" and it was pretty much agreed upon (I typically just bring both cubes out of habit, since it seems the times when I've wanted to cube in the past, I've not had one on me.) Myself, I don't really have a preference and... I don't think I've seen others have as much of one, if anything due to the novelty of "Oh hey, Usman's got a common cube now, let's see how it is." May end up going one way or another in time, though.
Although I don't know if there's really a balance, per se, in the amounts that either has been drafted. I typically just get a (3 round) draft in, although I'd like to be able to do a rare one and then a commons (or whatever order.)
Recently the most people we've had is four, so we have time for a couple of drafts. I was just curious because now that I've got two cubes, I feel like I don't get enough play out of either one to see how new additions are performing.
Recently the most people we've had is four, so we have time for a couple of drafts. I was just curious because now that I've got two cubes, I feel like I don't get enough play out of either one to see how new additions are performing.
Usually when I draft it tends to hover around 4-6ish, although I'd like to be able to get more drafters and more consistently at that (tried to get a draft going last night and it didn't work. Cube >>>>>>> m11 limited.)
I'm working nights last week and this week, so I won't be able to draft until Saturday night. And even then, right now, it's only two of us. So we'll see how that goes. I'd much rather actually draft than Winston or Sealed.
Possibly crazy, but there's definitely method to the madness. When I found that cutting signets/bouncelands was unnecessary, even in common cubes, it resulted in me thinking of fixing differently. The idea behind cutting them was to make green more of the manafixing color or to at least not take away from a strength of green's.
My idea is not to make it so that inferior green fixing spells are able to compete because of the removal of those spells, but to just remove the inferior fixing, making it so that my barometer was that if a fixer was worse than a bounceland/signet, it gets cut, which happened with Rampant Growth. Signets essentially are rampant growths that ETB untapped (unless cast on turn 2) that perform better, to a point.
Rampant Growth lets a caster in, say, a GW-splash U deck find either its Island or Plains (or forest if the caster really needs it) so Signets aren't always better, but for the most part, I think they are. The other fixing in cards like Harrow, Krosan Tusker, Kodama's Reach, Cultivate, Fertile Ground and Sakura-Tribe Elder are all better than Growth and thus, it got cut. Rogue Elephant should be a good addition to the green aggro decks that won't care much about the tempo loss because the opponent's dead.
The other changes aren't too controversial. Stinger gets cut for a burn spell that'll do more damage, Mindstab is on a pretty probationary basis as I don't know if it'll just make the opponent discard a land, but suspending it early puts the opponent under the ultimatum of either storing cards in hand to get under the stab or getting rid of cards ASAP. I'll see how it ends up. Fodder, I think, is pretty inefficient a sorcery, but I could see undoing this change as well.
I can't get behind all those choices except for Mesmeric Fiend > Mindstab, which I don't really care about.
I'm somewhat indifferent about the Stinger cut. I think that Stinger is good, and Barbed Lightning is bad, but I do not know these statements fully, so I can't say much.
I don't like the Moth > Witness change. Witness might be good, but I don't think cutting Kabuto Moth is the right call. As I've said before, it's repeatable combat trix.
You've got a pretty set mindset on Rampant Growth cut, so I won't argue against it. You obviously have a plan.
Thinking about it, Chandra's Outrage should replace stinger, not Barbed Lightning and I'll do that change. Stinger was only in because of unearth as the Vulshok Sorcerer and Fireslinger are miles better. I'd rather use a burn spell that outright kills a creature than one that could... possibly.
The problem with Moth is that while it's a trick, it's visible from a mile away... but if anything, it messes up combat math involving 2+ creatures (on your side.) I'll probably undo that too.
RE: Rampant Growth, if it's not the right move, then say so I just think that green's mana accel/fixing is better than Rampant Growth and the "cut signets/bouncelands" solution isn't the way to approach green's role with manafixing, rather, use the best fixers in green.
I'm not a fan of Rampant Growth. It's just in my cube because it's a buffer for my green's ramp-ness. I won't hesitate to cut it for the next good ramp. I'm actually more concerned with adding Rogue Elephant.
On the whole the changes seem fine, except for cutting the Moth... I have never played with it but it seems really good, actually; I'm sure it makes combat math a nightmare for your opponent. Also, not convinced by Rogue Elephant. I agree with cutting Rampant Growth, but is it worth the risk?
Also, Mindstab is insane. If you suspend it turn 1 or 2, it is incredibly awkward for opponent, as you said. Chandra's Outrage is definitely decent as well, well worth adding.
I think Rogue Elephant should be worth the risk. It's a card that's only going to be at home in green aggro decks, but it should be more than fine there in decks whose curves end at something like 4-5 mana or something like that. There are few cards that punish starts that end in "Hungry Spriggan, Elephant, go" or "Boa, Elephant, go" - cards like Ashes to Ashes and Undo can, but it's similar to doing something like Tinkering into a giant robot, which can backfire by having it die, but the odds are that you'll be much better off since your opponent is going to die soon.
I probably should have Arcane Denial in here, but I'm not sure what to take out. Hard counters are hard to come by and the denial essentially cantripping your opponent shouldn't be too bad in a deck that only cares about countering the key spells (counter your Sprout Swarm? Sure, have a card after, good luck on it being better than swarm!)
I randomly had the thought of a deck having a start of a turn 2 Dreamscape Artist into a turn 3 activation, dumping a huge creature like Ulamog's Crusher and then having it Exhumed. If I can get that to happen, I'll be very happy, whether I'm the victim or caster.
And that would be the greastest interaction of all time.
Also, why do you have Condescend as a 2C card? I know that that's its best function, but I don't think it's one of those cards that you'd rarely do otherwise that you'd put it so. Like, you'd never realistically play Gathan Raiders for 5, so it's fine in 3C. But Condescend is often played for a bit more, when countering that spell is a lot more important.
I think that (tethers for denial) is the right call as well. it's a falter effect, but much like red doesn't really need one due to the ability to cook blockers, blue isn't really in need of one due to being able to fly over them or bounce, usually.
Usually, I see condescend cast for 2 which is why I have it at that mana. Sometimes more, but usually for 1u. Though it probably makes more sense for it to just be x with repeal.
In other news, a store here is considering doing a cube night and my commons cube may be used for it. And not just a porting of the list, but the actual thing, awful wei ambush force proxies and all. that'd be pretty awesome if that ended up happening! Ill post more info when I find out.
Did a draft with this with a 4-man and a friend said a few things, one of which I agree and one I disagreed with.
One was that he thought that I had too many tap effects and I disagreed with this. I think I'm actually on the lower-end of the tap effects scale since I'm not using effects like the 1W 1/2 tappers (Blinding Mage, Master Decoy) due to their inefficiency when taking regular limited's context out of the mix (ie they may be great in the context of regular draft but this isn't slow enough/war of attrition enough to make cards like those as good.) The rest, Goldmeadow Harrier, Kor Hookmaster, Repel the Darkness and Burrenton Trapper are very efficient. The only one I can say, out of those, is the weakest, is Repel and that's more of a Falter effect.
The one that I agreed with is that there may not be enough ramp targets for green. The only ones that I can think of that I'm not using are Havenwood Wurm and the convokers Siege Wurm and Kavu Primearch. I'm not really huge on the former, but the latter seem good. 7 mana for a 5/5 trampler on its own isn't awful and being able to convoke it out should be useful and Primearch at the worst, could be a Hill Giant that gets cast on t3 because of Convoke.
Still not sure, but I think the idea's sound to give green some more ramp targets. The question is, do they outclass anything that's here already? (and although I find it very annoying when people defend pet cards, I don't want to cut Rogue Elephant for now to see how it works out.)
Regarding the store using my commons cube for their cube night... it looks like that's going to happen. I don't know if it's going to be used (vs my regular cube or anything like that) but I'm going to leave it at the store in case I'm not there. The reason that I bring this up is because I'd like to add 10 cards to allow for 10 drafters; there's 410 cards in now, but the 10-card addition will allow for 10 people with 3 packs of 14.
After some thought, I've decided to add 2 cards in WUBRG. Artifacts and lands, unlike regular cubes, aren't very tight and adding 5 to each section would just be awful.
Arcane Denial is probably going to be one of the blue additions and some of the aforementioned green fatties may be the green additions, but do you have suggestions for the rest?
For example, is Rukh Egg good enough? It's a Moat-ish effect similar to Academy Rector, but it's ultimately deigned to being an 0/3 defender (whereas the Rector can at least attack for 1 on an empty board.) Similarly, a 4/4 flier is impressive, but I don't think it's the worst thing to see on the other side of the table. There's hardly any mass-removal so either the opponent will have to attack into it or you'll have to 2-for-1 to get a flier, so I ultimately don't know if it makes the cut.
-Expanded the final list to 450 cards.
-Scars additions.
-Made sections bigger, for the most part. Now, there's 64 in WUBRG which gives a LOT of breathing room (as well as 55 colorless and 75 multicolor.)
This made it so that I could jettison some bad cards that were in solely to fill out cycles like Piranha Marsh which is always nice and removed cards that weren't really doing anything like Rakdos Signet in favor of better cards for the combination like Goblin Deathraiders. This also got me to adding "color" cards to their sections. I already did this with Horned Helm (and I don't think Healer's Headdress is good enough to make the cut in white) but now I've made some more additional such changes with the "color" lands in blue and red as well as Silver Myr in blue.
-I also made a few more overall color changes, such as more ramp targets to green and more aggro beaters in white. With the expanded size, I'm trying out some cards that I have high hopes for, like Uktabi Drake which hopefully will perform like Rocket Pact Slug (or whatever it's called.)
I'd also like to put the cycling lands into their color sections (but I'll have to observe exactly what colors use them more, I assume blue's going to use them, but what about the others?) but it'd require some more good artifacts. There are some artifacts like Yotian Soldier, Skyreach Manta and some others, but I don't think that there are enough to complete a 5 or 10 card block of artifacts to move the ONS cycling lands to their colors as well as possibly the Urza's Saga ones.
Once I get more actual artifacts in here, I may consider some of the metalcraft cards, but for right now, I don't think that I have enough to make triggering metalcraft too viable (which is a shame since I think something like Bleak Coven Vampires could be really good if metalcraft can be reliably triggered.)
IMO, there's no way to do metalcraft well in cube, because even if it's on, the sacrifices hardly seem worth the reward, and it's a particularly boring strategy.
IMO, there's no way to do metalcraft well in cube, because even if it's on, the sacrifices hardly seem worth the reward, and it's a particularly boring strategy.
Very true. I've got the same ratio of Artifacts to Cube to Usman, and I already know that it's no feasible unless about 20% of the cube is Artifacts. Maybe a little be less and just 15%, but not at the woosy 10 right now.
20% is absolutely massive, there aren't nearly that many good common artifacts. 15% at 360 cards (or less) would be doable and might work, especially in a few years when there has been a ton more great common artifacts printed (right WOTC?)
1. Cube needs at least 20% (probably more) to make Metalcraft even close to viable. For non-artifact cards with Metalcraft, maybe 30%.
2. That's not feasible.
Metalcraft, when I think about it, is like an album by a group that you REALLY want to like but the more you think about it, the less good that it is and ultimately, realizing that it doesn't make the cut.
I didn't really see why the guy complained about the tapping effects, especially since I'm not running the suboptimal ones (Blinding Mage, etc) but I figured the additional green beef should be good. I may end up replacing the forestcycler with something smaller, possibly Nissa's Chosen, since Elvish Warrior's a fine creature and Chosen's similar, although I'd argue that its ability is more a drawback than a benefit due to being unable to return it with cards like Gravedigger. Still, a 2/3 for GG is solid in the format.
There's also Gaea's Touch which may be good, but I don't honestly see many times when I'll use its ability to play another forest. However, it likely will happen if the player goes t1 mana elf into Gaea's Touch.
I may also run Neurok Stealthsuit in blue. Its instant speed ability seems really good in blue, especially since it's the color of keeping UU up for countering and whatnot and the color, in theory, also generally values shroud highly due to its use of high-cost finishers (Stealthsuit on an Ulamog's Crusher would be nuts!) If I do, I'm not really sure on what to cut for it if the suit comes in.
[edit - much thanks to merl for the recommendation of Undo! ]
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
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Undertaker made its first appearance and it was really good. I was running a BU-splash W deck and there were plenty of cards to trade for creatures, acting like a Tortured Existence (on an admittedly fragile body.) Trade something insignificant for a Blind Hunter to stabilize? Sure!
I ended up switching out Sedraxis Alchemist for Soul Manipulation. It's hard for UB decks to get an opening where it can go t2 blue permanent and t3 alchemist, and by the time that there's a blue permanent on board, typically UB has better plays.
I'll probably replace Kabuto Moth and something else for Aven Liberator and Wingbeat Warrior, both being decent fliers who are quite good when unmorphed.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
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Although I don't know if there's really a balance, per se, in the amounts that either has been drafted. I typically just get a (3 round) draft in, although I'd like to be able to do a rare one and then a commons (or whatever order.)
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
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Usually when I draft it tends to hover around 4-6ish, although I'd like to be able to get more drafters and more consistently at that (tried to get a draft going last night and it didn't work. Cube >>>>>>> m11 limited.)
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
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Wait, what? Cut Rampant Growth?
Possibly crazy, but there's definitely method to the madness. When I found that cutting signets/bouncelands was unnecessary, even in common cubes, it resulted in me thinking of fixing differently. The idea behind cutting them was to make green more of the manafixing color or to at least not take away from a strength of green's.
My idea is not to make it so that inferior green fixing spells are able to compete because of the removal of those spells, but to just remove the inferior fixing, making it so that my barometer was that if a fixer was worse than a bounceland/signet, it gets cut, which happened with Rampant Growth. Signets essentially are rampant growths that ETB untapped (unless cast on turn 2) that perform better, to a point.
Rampant Growth lets a caster in, say, a GW-splash U deck find either its Island or Plains (or forest if the caster really needs it) so Signets aren't always better, but for the most part, I think they are. The other fixing in cards like Harrow, Krosan Tusker, Kodama's Reach, Cultivate, Fertile Ground and Sakura-Tribe Elder are all better than Growth and thus, it got cut. Rogue Elephant should be a good addition to the green aggro decks that won't care much about the tempo loss because the opponent's dead.
The other changes aren't too controversial. Stinger gets cut for a burn spell that'll do more damage, Mindstab is on a pretty probationary basis as I don't know if it'll just make the opponent discard a land, but suspending it early puts the opponent under the ultimatum of either storing cards in hand to get under the stab or getting rid of cards ASAP. I'll see how it ends up. Fodder, I think, is pretty inefficient a sorcery, but I could see undoing this change as well.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
I'm somewhat indifferent about the Stinger cut. I think that Stinger is good, and Barbed Lightning is bad, but I do not know these statements fully, so I can't say much.
I don't like the Moth > Witness change. Witness might be good, but I don't think cutting Kabuto Moth is the right call. As I've said before, it's repeatable combat trix.
You've got a pretty set mindset on Rampant Growth cut, so I won't argue against it. You obviously have a plan.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
The problem with Moth is that while it's a trick, it's visible from a mile away... but if anything, it messes up combat math involving 2+ creatures (on your side.) I'll probably undo that too.
RE: Rampant Growth, if it's not the right move, then say so I just think that green's mana accel/fixing is better than Rampant Growth and the "cut signets/bouncelands" solution isn't the way to approach green's role with manafixing, rather, use the best fixers in green.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Also, Mindstab is insane. If you suspend it turn 1 or 2, it is incredibly awkward for opponent, as you said. Chandra's Outrage is definitely decent as well, well worth adding.
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I think Rogue Elephant should be worth the risk. It's a card that's only going to be at home in green aggro decks, but it should be more than fine there in decks whose curves end at something like 4-5 mana or something like that. There are few cards that punish starts that end in "Hungry Spriggan, Elephant, go" or "Boa, Elephant, go" - cards like Ashes to Ashes and Undo can, but it's similar to doing something like Tinkering into a giant robot, which can backfire by having it die, but the odds are that you'll be much better off since your opponent is going to die soon.
I probably should have Arcane Denial in here, but I'm not sure what to take out. Hard counters are hard to come by and the denial essentially cantripping your opponent shouldn't be too bad in a deck that only cares about countering the key spells (counter your Sprout Swarm? Sure, have a card after, good luck on it being better than swarm!)
I randomly had the thought of a deck having a start of a turn 2 Dreamscape Artist into a turn 3 activation, dumping a huge creature like Ulamog's Crusher and then having it Exhumed. If I can get that to happen, I'll be very happy, whether I'm the victim or caster.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
And that would be the greastest interaction of all time.
Also, why do you have Condescend as a 2C card? I know that that's its best function, but I don't think it's one of those cards that you'd rarely do otherwise that you'd put it so. Like, you'd never realistically play Gathan Raiders for 5, so it's fine in 3C. But Condescend is often played for a bit more, when countering that spell is a lot more important.
But, that's just a passing thought.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Usually, I see condescend cast for 2 which is why I have it at that mana. Sometimes more, but usually for 1u. Though it probably makes more sense for it to just be x with repeal.
In other news, a store here is considering doing a cube night and my commons cube may be used for it. And not just a porting of the list, but the actual thing, awful wei ambush force proxies and all. that'd be pretty awesome if that ended up happening! Ill post more info when I find out.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
One was that he thought that I had too many tap effects and I disagreed with this. I think I'm actually on the lower-end of the tap effects scale since I'm not using effects like the 1W 1/2 tappers (Blinding Mage, Master Decoy) due to their inefficiency when taking regular limited's context out of the mix (ie they may be great in the context of regular draft but this isn't slow enough/war of attrition enough to make cards like those as good.) The rest, Goldmeadow Harrier, Kor Hookmaster, Repel the Darkness and Burrenton Trapper are very efficient. The only one I can say, out of those, is the weakest, is Repel and that's more of a Falter effect.
The one that I agreed with is that there may not be enough ramp targets for green. The only ones that I can think of that I'm not using are Havenwood Wurm and the convokers Siege Wurm and Kavu Primearch. I'm not really huge on the former, but the latter seem good. 7 mana for a 5/5 trampler on its own isn't awful and being able to convoke it out should be useful and Primearch at the worst, could be a Hill Giant that gets cast on t3 because of Convoke.
Still not sure, but I think the idea's sound to give green some more ramp targets. The question is, do they outclass anything that's here already? (and although I find it very annoying when people defend pet cards, I don't want to cut Rogue Elephant for now to see how it works out.)
Regarding the store using my commons cube for their cube night... it looks like that's going to happen. I don't know if it's going to be used (vs my regular cube or anything like that) but I'm going to leave it at the store in case I'm not there. The reason that I bring this up is because I'd like to add 10 cards to allow for 10 drafters; there's 410 cards in now, but the 10-card addition will allow for 10 people with 3 packs of 14.
After some thought, I've decided to add 2 cards in WUBRG. Artifacts and lands, unlike regular cubes, aren't very tight and adding 5 to each section would just be awful.
Arcane Denial is probably going to be one of the blue additions and some of the aforementioned green fatties may be the green additions, but do you have suggestions for the rest?
For example, is Rukh Egg good enough? It's a Moat-ish effect similar to Academy Rector, but it's ultimately deigned to being an 0/3 defender (whereas the Rector can at least attack for 1 on an empty board.) Similarly, a 4/4 flier is impressive, but I don't think it's the worst thing to see on the other side of the table. There's hardly any mass-removal so either the opponent will have to attack into it or you'll have to 2-for-1 to get a flier, so I ultimately don't know if it makes the cut.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
I did a few things:
-Expanded the final list to 450 cards.
-Scars additions.
-Made sections bigger, for the most part. Now, there's 64 in WUBRG which gives a LOT of breathing room (as well as 55 colorless and 75 multicolor.)
This made it so that I could jettison some bad cards that were in solely to fill out cycles like Piranha Marsh which is always nice and removed cards that weren't really doing anything like Rakdos Signet in favor of better cards for the combination like Goblin Deathraiders. This also got me to adding "color" cards to their sections. I already did this with Horned Helm (and I don't think Healer's Headdress is good enough to make the cut in white) but now I've made some more additional such changes with the "color" lands in blue and red as well as Silver Myr in blue.
-I also made a few more overall color changes, such as more ramp targets to green and more aggro beaters in white. With the expanded size, I'm trying out some cards that I have high hopes for, like Uktabi Drake which hopefully will perform like Rocket Pact Slug (or whatever it's called.)
I'd also like to put the cycling lands into their color sections (but I'll have to observe exactly what colors use them more, I assume blue's going to use them, but what about the others?) but it'd require some more good artifacts. There are some artifacts like Yotian Soldier, Skyreach Manta and some others, but I don't think that there are enough to complete a 5 or 10 card block of artifacts to move the ONS cycling lands to their colors as well as possibly the Urza's Saga ones.
Once I get more actual artifacts in here, I may consider some of the metalcraft cards, but for right now, I don't think that I have enough to make triggering metalcraft too viable (which is a shame since I think something like Bleak Coven Vampires could be really good if metalcraft can be reliably triggered.)
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
Nice changes overall. I may check these over and adopt some of them.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Very true. I've got the same ratio of Artifacts to Cube to Usman, and I already know that it's no feasible unless about 20% of the cube is Artifacts. Maybe a little be less and just 15%, but not at the woosy 10 right now.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Draft it on Cubetutor!
1. Cube needs at least 20% (probably more) to make Metalcraft even close to viable. For non-artifact cards with Metalcraft, maybe 30%.
2. That's not feasible.
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And 4 Tappers is nowhere near the problem it could be if you used all of them including the 3 off-color ones (Apprentices and Trapper)
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I didn't really see why the guy complained about the tapping effects, especially since I'm not running the suboptimal ones (Blinding Mage, etc) but I figured the additional green beef should be good. I may end up replacing the forestcycler with something smaller, possibly Nissa's Chosen, since Elvish Warrior's a fine creature and Chosen's similar, although I'd argue that its ability is more a drawback than a benefit due to being unable to return it with cards like Gravedigger. Still, a 2/3 for GG is solid in the format.
There's also Gaea's Touch which may be good, but I don't honestly see many times when I'll use its ability to play another forest. However, it likely will happen if the player goes t1 mana elf into Gaea's Touch.
I may also run Neurok Stealthsuit in blue. Its instant speed ability seems really good in blue, especially since it's the color of keeping UU up for countering and whatnot and the color, in theory, also generally values shroud highly due to its use of high-cost finishers (Stealthsuit on an Ulamog's Crusher would be nuts!) If I do, I'm not really sure on what to cut for it if the suit comes in.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)