Since when exactly is a two-colored 4/4 vanilla a fine baseline if a single-colored one isn't even playable?
Do you also treat Baloth Gorger as just a 4/4 vanilla? Kavu Primarch as just a 3/3 vanilla? It's a variable output card with the weakest acceptable option being on par with previously cubed cards.
A 4/4 vanilla would be a bad but acceptable 23rd card. A 4/4 vanilla with the potential to become 5/5 or 6/6 (again, without further investment other than just playing the game) seems worth maindecking a lot higher, don't you think? Shouldn't we be looking at the likelihood of having enough creatures in your graveyard instead of arguing semantics?
I do agree that you want both Grisly Salvage and Rhizome Lurcher, leaving smaller cubes in the lurch heh. Thankfully, I run a 540 so I shouldn't have issues fitting both in if wanted
yeah its a little bit apple and oranges. most of the time the lurcher wont be a 4/4 on turn 4. Its a 2/2 that already needs some work to even become a vanilla 4/4 and creatures bigger than 4/4 need trample anyway to become exciting (unless theyre undercosted). Thats why Baloth Gorger is only a T2 card and Kavu Primarch is usually quite bad.
Also the lurcher has the same problem as scavenger, it doesnt grow while playing the game. you have sandback it until the lategame where its still only a vanilla fattie and the lower manacost barely matters.
The card is interesting for graveyard centric cubes (which can be build), but its general powerlevel is low.
That said, Eternal Troops could be interesting for my T2 as another discard outlet for my madness creatures.
well it probably will replace Vampire Hounds when i shift some cards arround to make room for more guild slots. But you shouldnt underestimate the mindgames this dude adds. Getting trample is pretty threatening when you have a bunch of cards in your hand and the BG graveyard/value deck runs of bunch of Gravedigger variants and madness stuff.
uh, i just noticed it activates only once per turn, bummer.
I love Notion Rain, but I do have an unhealthy attraction to card draw + selection. This would have been amazing as a monocolored card, but as it is, Read the Bones but harder to cast is a rough label to see.
The question on Notion Rain is, what does Blue add to the card? Surveil is as black as its blue and drawing cards for life is black as well. Its not even an instant. They could have easily made this a Golgari card to fuel both the Gy synergies as raw card advantage and selfmill is pretty green anyway. In fact Surveil could have easily been a golgari keyword with a different nametag, that would have opened green for a few interesting cards in eternal/constructed.
Those are all very much bottom-of-the-barrel options, except the Intrusive Packbeast which is a nice curve-topper for aggressive decks. It may eventually break into pauper cubes if it proves its worth. Markov Warlord seems okay in peasant cubes, so a weaker but cheaper version at common could do some work.
The Hawk only works in the Borosdeck with some density of Mentor, otherwise its pretty underwhelming as you would expect from a 1/1. GoR is also kinda light on flyers and ping effects, so that pushes it even more.
I dont see myself adding it anytime, especially since we already got a good bunch of lifelink options in the cc2 slot. If it was a soldier tribal Id consider it, but as is, meh.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Healer's Hawk. True, it happens to work well in GRN limited, but pauper has a ton more options to get the ball rolling. Between equipment, auras and potentially +1/+1 counters, there's some potential to upsize it. I like it more than a 1/1 unblockable like Soltari Foot Soldier (which doesn't block very well), or War Falcon which occasionally has potential to be a do-nothing (and can virtually be 2-for-1ed by removal on your other critters).
Mentor in general does seem stronger than expected, although I'm still irritated by Wojek Bodyguard's drawback (I would have loved it as a 1RR Courser without the no-block clause). The best mentor card at common is Parhelion Patrol. I think it might actually be worth including, particularly if you run more tokens. It plays well on offense and defense too. Flying and vigilance is almost as good as flying and lifelink.
That being said, even without tokens, it's worth checking to see how many 1/x creatures would benefit from a +1/+1 counter. It's more than expected for me. Also consider random incidental synergy that might develop from things like Phantom Tiger or Ainok Bond-Kin (or again, just suiting up with auras/equipment as a build-your-own Serra Angel).
A true unblockable is ten times better than the hawk, especially if you want to pump it anyway. And War Falcon can at least always block and potentially trade, but its very unlikely you wont have another soldier or knight around.
Yeah, lifelink is cute, but 95% of the time it will play exactly as Suntail Hawk because we are lacking lifegain payoffs like Ajani's Pridemate
Wojek Bodyguard is the only common mentor card thats somewhat interesting for us and definitely not a T1 card. Its somewhere between cubable- and borderline+
Parhelion Patrol is outright bad. A 2/3 for 4 is outclassed by everything and the low power wont trigger mentor anyway or the buffed 1/x will just run into some blocker. If mentor wouldnt need the 2nd creature to attack as well, it would be a totally different beast. Im not even picking it very high in GoR drafts..
What do you think about Barging Sargeant as a curve topper for aggro?
I've seen that Devious Cover Up ends up being good as a finisher for control, not because of the posibility of mill, but because it really improves card quality in the late game. I know that cubes, being singleton, won't be able to Devious Cover Up into Devious Cover Up, but we do have many Mnemonic Wall -type effects. Don't you think it could be reasonable?
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My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
the seargant plays quite well in gor boros, but im not sure its good enough for cubes. A lot of its value comes from buffing another mentor card and get some haste 4dmg in. i think borderline. CC5 is quite a lot in our aggrodecks and we have access to kinda similiar Minotaur Skullcleaver
Cover Up is just a overcosted counterspell and i dont even like it in the draft. too clunky.
Not that it matters too much, but I like Barging Sergeant more than Gerrard's Irregulars, and that card was considered a good curve-topper until I want to say maybe 2010 or so. Flurry of Horns really knocks that card for a loop, eh.
More interestingly, I think Cinder Hellion might be an underrated five-drop. It took Viashino Pyromancer to show me the value of ETB damage on an untapped body, and the Hellion is big enough to take advantage of the pseudo-vigilance. Combine that with trample, and I think it might be the next best thing at five mana after Flurry - about the same as the two werewolves (Gatstaf Arsonists and Vildin-Pack Outcast)
Do you also treat Baloth Gorger as just a 4/4 vanilla? Kavu Primarch as just a 3/3 vanilla? It's a variable output card with the weakest acceptable option being on par with previously cubed cards.
A 4/4 vanilla would be a bad but acceptable 23rd card. A 4/4 vanilla with the potential to become 5/5 or 6/6 (again, without further investment other than just playing the game) seems worth maindecking a lot higher, don't you think? Shouldn't we be looking at the likelihood of having enough creatures in your graveyard instead of arguing semantics?
I do agree that you want both Grisly Salvage and Rhizome Lurcher, leaving smaller cubes in the lurch heh. Thankfully, I run a 540 so I shouldn't have issues fitting both in if wanted
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
Also the lurcher has the same problem as scavenger, it doesnt grow while playing the game. you have sandback it until the lategame where its still only a vanilla fattie and the lower manacost barely matters.
The card is interesting for graveyard centric cubes (which can be build), but its general powerlevel is low.
That said, Eternal Troops could be interesting for my T2 as another discard outlet for my madness creatures.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
well it probably will replace Vampire Hounds when i shift some cards arround to make room for more guild slots. But you shouldnt underestimate the mindgames this dude adds. Getting trample is pretty threatening when you have a bunch of cards in your hand and the BG graveyard/value deck runs of bunch of Gravedigger variants and madness stuff.uh, i just noticed it activates only once per turn, bummer.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
this. as if giving it trample would make it broken otherwise.
now the full spoiler is up it boils down to
Passwall Adept sure include it my T2
Vedalken Mesmerist an interesting 2 drop, might make it into T2 as well
Watcher in the Mist will probably just replace the sphinx T2
Gravitic Punch remotely interesting for ramp
Ornery Goblin Ashmouth Goblin
Wojek Bodyguard testable
Hypothesizzle i decided it will replace Izzet Chronarch in my T1 for now
Notion Rain will make it into T2 once we get enough guildcards to fill them all
Sumala Woodshaper try to fit it into T2
Whisper Agent T2
Gateway Plaza maybe T2
some cards for my T2, but nothing really exciting. Given the expectations especially for the gold cards, the set turned out pretty disappointing.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
worst part, we already know the next set will be on the same level, meh
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/5d749a228d85b07c66d28337
Mono Black EDH cube is also linked on my profile in cubecobra
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
Having my CC1 section already filled with
I dont see myself adding it anytime, especially since we already got a good bunch of lifelink options in the cc2 slot. If it was a soldier tribal Id consider it, but as is, meh.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Mentor in general does seem stronger than expected, although I'm still irritated by Wojek Bodyguard's drawback (I would have loved it as a 1RR Courser without the no-block clause). The best mentor card at common is Parhelion Patrol. I think it might actually be worth including, particularly if you run more tokens. It plays well on offense and defense too. Flying and vigilance is almost as good as flying and lifelink.
That being said, even without tokens, it's worth checking to see how many 1/x creatures would benefit from a +1/+1 counter. It's more than expected for me. Also consider random incidental synergy that might develop from things like Phantom Tiger or Ainok Bond-Kin (or again, just suiting up with auras/equipment as a build-your-own Serra Angel).
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
Yeah, lifelink is cute, but 95% of the time it will play exactly as Suntail Hawk because we are lacking lifegain payoffs like Ajani's Pridemate
Wojek Bodyguard is the only common mentor card thats somewhat interesting for us and definitely not a T1 card. Its somewhere between cubable- and borderline+
Parhelion Patrol is outright bad. A 2/3 for 4 is outclassed by everything and the low power wont trigger mentor anyway or the buffed 1/x will just run into some blocker. If mentor wouldnt need the 2nd creature to attack as well, it would be a totally different beast. Im not even picking it very high in GoR drafts..
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
I've seen that Devious Cover Up ends up being good as a finisher for control, not because of the posibility of mill, but because it really improves card quality in the late game. I know that cubes, being singleton, won't be able to Devious Cover Up into Devious Cover Up, but we do have many Mnemonic Wall -type effects. Don't you think it could be reasonable?
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters
Cover Up is just a overcosted counterspell and i dont even like it in the draft. too clunky.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
More interestingly, I think Cinder Hellion might be an underrated five-drop. It took Viashino Pyromancer to show me the value of ETB damage on an untapped body, and the Hellion is big enough to take advantage of the pseudo-vigilance. Combine that with trample, and I think it might be the next best thing at five mana after Flurry - about the same as the two werewolves (Gatstaf Arsonists and Vildin-Pack Outcast)
My Cube (DeckStats)
My Pauper Cube: 540 (CubeTutor link!)
Level 1 Judge
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Sure, Claustrophobia costs 3, but the spehere has flash so is better in draw-go control decks.
My 490 Pauper Cube
Modern frame only- Common on paper only - no functional copies, no strictly-betters - no subtype-matters