I think the best comparison is Borderland Ranger, but without the fixing aspect or a 2nd point of toughness and instead a little bit of a lategame use.
I really hope we get some strong Golgari or Simic multicolor cards, as I feel these guild lack the most. Moldering Karok is not bad, but I'm not completely convinced.
I really hope we get some strong Golgari or Simic multicolor cards, as I feel these guild lack the most. Moldering Karok is not bad, but I'm not completely convinced.
Agreed. The Karok will be good for limited, but even Assault Zeppelid doesn't see much play and I could argue that the evasion is better than lifelink.
I could argue that the evasion is better than lifelink.
Not necessarily. Lifelink gets better the bigger the creature is, since it doubles. My problem is, that it's quite a basic boring card, that could just as easily exist in monocolor. I personally really dislike putting boring cards into my multicolor section, unless they really outperform monocolor cards. If the Karok where a 4/4 lifelink it would definitely qualify, but as a 3/3 it's not that great.
three years ago id killed for such thing, now it doesnt fit either my greens at all. almost makes me reconsider reworkin green and adding young wolf once again.
but i wont. the creep is real though.
i decided to replace simic chamber with scryland, I see no reason to play the whole cycle and those colors profit the most from it due to their slightly higher curve and rampstuff.
Combat Professor - Looks like a white Phantom Monster. Combat Professor is slightly worse at blocking, but better at attacking because you can choose where to apply the buff. I'm not sure if it's really what most people's white sections want, but still seems fine. You get the buff the turn you play it as well.
Eager First-Year - A playable 2 mana value play for the Boros decks, but is outclassed by most good 2 mana value creatures.
Bury in Books - 3 mana is on the expensive side, though 2 mana would be busted. Bricking a draw is fine which means that this can be compared to Temporal Spring. Though being mono-coloured and an instant help set it apart. I think that Bury in Books requires testing because it seems pretty decent in the right deck.
Frost Trickster is good. The only auto-include other than the lands in the set.
Resculpt. There are simply not enough treasure or clue tokens about to Resculpt. Turning a 1/1 into a surprise 4/4 looks like the best use case. Resculpt in response to creature removal is an ok use case. Shrinking opponents threats doesn't seem that likely to be worth it since most creatures aren't that much more threatening than a vanilla 4/4 and you could just play some hard removal in Resulpt's place.
Arrogant Poet - It attacks well. The life loss is steep, but notably optional. 2/1 means this has a weakness to Desert, unlike Fledgling Djinn. Arrogant Poet is certainly cubeable but doesn't stand out in any particular way.
Essence Infusion - Sort of a cheap Mark of the Vampire. Essence Infusion suffers from the same weaknesses as most auras but doesn't have the advantage of Mark of the Vampire of being extremely problematic when it sticks. Still, I could see Essence Infusion being playable in aggro match ups due to the life gain.
Lash of Malice - Comparable to Disfigure, the key difference being you can't shrink a creature in combat and expect your creature to survive as well, and you can pump an attacker in a pinch. Whether you prefer Lash of Malice to Dead Weight and Fungal Infection is up to personal preference. Lash of Malice is easily cubeable, though it is behind the premium Defile in terms of efficiency.
Leech Fanatic - Boot Nipper is just better. Though lifelink attackers are useful in races. The body is nothing special, but shores up the Dersert weakness. Boarderline cubable.
Mage Hunters' Onslaught - Could actually see this being the sleeper of the set. I prefer this to Bake into a Pie and Befoul as far as four mana options go. Then again maybe ye olde Eyeblight's Ending or Expunge is better in terms of efficiency. The life lost is only really relevant went you are the beatdown. Boarderline cubable.
Promising Duskmage - There aren't enough +1/+1 counter matters cards to synergise with this. And a vanilla 2/3 is very underwhelming.
Springmane Cervin - Better than Trufflesnout in most cases, though it might just be lacking 1 toughness from seeing play. (Most creature are to be fair.)
Elemental Masterpiece - Sort of a non-green Maul Splicer. Though since it's not green you probably can't afford it most games. Still signets exist so I wouldn't completely count this card out.
Lorehold Pledgemage - Playable, though not on the weaker end of 3 mana value creatures.
Make Your Mark - Sort of playable as a hybrid card. There is a functional reprint in red.
Moldering Karok Yeah, lifelink is a good mechanic in cube because aggro decks can't ignore it. So this card is playable.
Prismari Pledgemage - I prefer Skyclave Squid in it's place since red doesn't use the blocker and it's much easier to get the squid to attack.
Quandrix Pledgemage - Ok as a blue Spellgorger Weird. The double hydrid mana is actually a bit rough to cast because green has so few instants and sorceries.
Relic Sloth - Good combination of keywords and stats, unfortunately it is in Boros.
Silverquill Pledgemage - One toughness is rough. Flying and lifelink are both good key words though.
Spectacle Mage - Strong abilities, unfortunately most 5 mana value or greater instants and sorceries are bad.
Stonebound Mentor 3/3 for 3. Unfortunately the rules text is rarely relevant, which is doubly bad for being a gold card.
Teach by Example - Interesting, but ultimately not going to do much.
I think that the Karoo Lands are still better than the Campus Cycle.
My changes are: (Out > In) Wingcrafter > Frost Trickster: Wingcrafter rarely get's drafted nowadays. Soulbond is also always risky against instant speed removal, when you rely on it too much. Groundswell > Bayou Groff: I do still have a Swarm theme in Green, so this should be fine there. Elves of Deep Shadow > Moldering Karok: The Elves where moved to mono G.
Overall not too much. I'm especailly disappointed by the multicolor cards in this set. Most of them are highly set specific or just outright bad. There were some UC ones, that would have been cool commons, e.g. Decisive Denial or Witherbloom Apprentice. WIll try to Karok for now, but only because BG has such bad option apart from Putrid Leech and Consume Strength. Grisly Salvage might replace the Karok if it doesn't perform.
im debating to replace golgari karoo with the scryland as well. you would still have offcolor lands to bounce if you want to and i think green can really profit from scrying as a mana sink.
there are certainly a bunch of other interesting cards in this set, that just dont fit my cube.
i dont remember the last time leech saw play if ever. its not where BG wants to be and researcher fits definitely better with the life management i have going on in black.
wouldnt make much of a difference for me. most of my lifegain is in black and green needs it the most. Orzhov is already a pretty strong guild with an identity. that reminds me to bring back Basilica Screecher though.
I've played a bit of Strixhaven now. There weren't many surprises, Frost Trickster is the best common in the set, Lash of Malice is a decent removal, but the one card really stood out to me as above average and I totally looked over it in the spoilers.
It's Quandrix Pledgemage. Basically just a Ug Spellgorger Weird, but I actually really like the Weird and about 95% of the noncreature spells to trigger it are instants and sorceries. I don't know how much the UU hurts, because this is not really a green card, but I could free up a spot in Simic to fit this in. I just really like these cards.
I mentioned before why I dislike stuff like Prowess or Kiln-Fiend-esque cards, since you always need to proactively play your noncreature stuff, either in your precombat mainphase or before damage. The problem is, that it's very risky to tap out before combat damage, since your opponent then knows that they can freely kill the creature. These cards are fine for a dedicated constructed deck, but don't really work well with a majority of noncreature spells in cube.
The Weird and the Pledgemage don't suffer from this problem, because they don't need to be pumped proactively. You can simply attack with them and your opponent can't really block. If your opponent doesn't block there is no need to pump, you can simply say go, wait what your opponent does and eot do what you planned to do. These guys will grow regardless.
To summarize:
"Eot Prowess": Meh, because it requires you to do a bad sequencing of spells.
"Permanent Prowess": Good, because it it doesn't mess up your sequencing and works anyway.
it really depends on the pace of the game whether or not those 2 are better than a real 2/2 unblockable.
3 mana 3/3 is more or less a soft baseline now, so you need the creature and 2 spells cast to push it above curve, which is kinda slow.
I can see the mage accelerate in the right deck, but Im not too hot on it. It would push me back into some kind of spells matter archetype, which i try to avoid due to slot restrictions. (I rather have a etb effect)
The point I'm trying to make is, that you don't need a dedicated "spells matter" deck. Pauper remains the format with the highest discrepancy in power level between creatures and noncreature spells. In my experience the average U deck contains more instant/sorceries than creatures and R non aggro decks also tend to mostly run the red burn over the dudes.
For the weird/Pledgemage you don't need all the cantrips in the world, because you don't need to be proactive with your casting. You simply have to play your deck the way you intended to do anyway and passively you are generating a very big threat of which your opponent rarely knows how big it can become at any given time. You can't really attack with your 2/2 into a freshly played weird and even 1 open mana. It's also very risky to try and Disfigure or Firebolt it.
Yeah, but if you are not running the cantrips and other mv1 spells, its easy to disfigure. Also since most toughness matters deal 3 dmg, its easy to get rid off. I also dont think that stats matter as much nowadays as they did couple years ago.
I only see a mv3 2/2 in them, as thats the floor for a horrible topdeck, especially if you plan to slowroll it.
very poor mans Eternal Dragon. If only it had flying as well.
anyway thats a card for the supergrind.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
I really hope we get some strong Golgari or Simic multicolor cards, as I feel these guild lack the most. Moldering Karok is not bad, but I'm not completely convinced.
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Agreed. The Karok will be good for limited, but even Assault Zeppelid doesn't see much play and I could argue that the evasion is better than lifelink.
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but my golgari section is set with
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
three years ago id killed for such thing, now it doesnt fit either my greens at all. almost makes me reconsider reworkin green and adding young wolf once again.
but i wont. the creep is real though.
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
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
so full spoiler is up.
my changes:
Simic Growth Chamber<Quandrix Campus
Ruthless Ripper<Lash of Malice
Pestermite<Frost Trickster
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Eager First-Year - A playable 2 mana value play for the Boros decks, but is outclassed by most good 2 mana value creatures.
Bury in Books - 3 mana is on the expensive side, though 2 mana would be busted. Bricking a draw is fine which means that this can be compared to Temporal Spring. Though being mono-coloured and an instant help set it apart. I think that Bury in Books requires testing because it seems pretty decent in the right deck.
Frost Trickster is good. The only auto-include other than the lands in the set.
Reject. Ehhh, playable. Sort of a mix of Mana Leak, Essence Scatter and Syncopate, but worse than them all.
Resculpt. There are simply not enough treasure or clue tokens about to Resculpt. Turning a 1/1 into a surprise 4/4 looks like the best use case. Resculpt in response to creature removal is an ok use case. Shrinking opponents threats doesn't seem that likely to be worth it since most creatures aren't that much more threatening than a vanilla 4/4 and you could just play some hard removal in Resulpt's place.
Waterfall Aerialist - This is the first ward creature. Still, it's worse than Illusionary Forces, Augury Raven and Shimmering Glasskite which is Waterfall Aerialist's competition for it's card slot. Heck, even Aven Fleetwing might be better.
Arrogant Poet - It attacks well. The life loss is steep, but notably optional. 2/1 means this has a weakness to Desert, unlike Fledgling Djinn. Arrogant Poet is certainly cubeable but doesn't stand out in any particular way.
Essence Infusion - Sort of a cheap Mark of the Vampire. Essence Infusion suffers from the same weaknesses as most auras but doesn't have the advantage of Mark of the Vampire of being extremely problematic when it sticks. Still, I could see Essence Infusion being playable in aggro match ups due to the life gain.
Lash of Malice - Comparable to Disfigure, the key difference being you can't shrink a creature in combat and expect your creature to survive as well, and you can pump an attacker in a pinch. Whether you prefer Lash of Malice to Dead Weight and Fungal Infection is up to personal preference. Lash of Malice is easily cubeable, though it is behind the premium Defile in terms of efficiency.
Leech Fanatic - Boot Nipper is just better. Though lifelink attackers are useful in races. The body is nothing special, but shores up the Dersert weakness. Boarderline cubable.
Mage Hunters' Onslaught - Could actually see this being the sleeper of the set. I prefer this to Bake into a Pie and Befoul as far as four mana options go. Then again maybe ye olde Eyeblight's Ending or Expunge is better in terms of efficiency. The life lost is only really relevant went you are the beatdown. Boarderline cubable.
Promising Duskmage - There aren't enough +1/+1 counter matters cards to synergise with this. And a vanilla 2/3 is very underwhelming.
Blood Age General - Again, there isn't support for this outside of Triplicate Spirits.
Fuming Effigy - Summit Prowler with upside. Flashback cards are played in red, but overall it's going to be a vanilla creature.
Grinning Ignus - This guy again. There isn't much to do with the mana in pauper. And vanilla creature body is very underwhelming.
Heated Debate - Fine, not that the counter clause is going to come up much. Demon Bolt is better.
Pigment Storm - Yeah, going to be worse than Searing Barrage nine times out of ten. And Searing Barrage isn't really played.
Pillardrop Warden - Notable for being a good reacher, though red mostly wants to attack.
Bayou Groff - You can Unearth this. That's about it.
Mage Duel - Could be fine alongside Ponder. I think is is playable.
Reckless Amplimancer - Can get buff. Still not going to out compete Green's existing 2 mana value creatures. Especially not Darkthicket Wolf.
Scurrid Colony - Eight lands is not realistic.
Springmane Cervin - Better than Trufflesnout in most cases, though it might just be lacking 1 toughness from seeing play. (Most creature are to be fair.)
Tangletrap - A better Plummet.
Blood Researcher - It's got potentual.
Elemental Masterpiece - Sort of a non-green Maul Splicer. Though since it's not green you probably can't afford it most games. Still signets exist so I wouldn't completely count this card out.
Infuse with Vitality - Fine but not outcompeting Putrid Leech and Consume Strength.
Lorehold Pledgemage - Playable, though not on the weaker end of 3 mana value creatures.
Make Your Mark - Sort of playable as a hybrid card. There is a functional reprint in red.
Moldering Karok Yeah, lifelink is a good mechanic in cube because aggro decks can't ignore it. So this card is playable.
Prismari Pledgemage - I prefer Skyclave Squid in it's place since red doesn't use the blocker and it's much easier to get the squid to attack.
Quandrix Pledgemage - Ok as a blue Spellgorger Weird. The double hydrid mana is actually a bit rough to cast because green has so few instants and sorceries.
Relic Sloth - Good combination of keywords and stats, unfortunately it is in Boros.
Silverquill Pledgemage - One toughness is rough. Flying and lifelink are both good key words though.
Spectacle Mage - Strong abilities, unfortunately most 5 mana value or greater instants and sorceries are bad.
Stonebound Mentor 3/3 for 3. Unfortunately the rules text is rarely relevant, which is doubly bad for being a gold card.
Teach by Example - Interesting, but ultimately not going to do much.
Thrilling Discovery - Boros Cathartic Reunion with upside. Seems cubeable.
Witherbloom Pledgemage - A 5/5 for 5 in black (or I guess green). Mostly isn't going to do enough, but still will be playable in a pinch.
Excavated Wall - Strictly better Steel Wall.
Lorehold Campus, Prismari Campus, Quandrix Campus, Silverquill Campus, and Witherbloom Campus - All of these are the best of their card slot and are staples. A mana fixing land that can scry as a mana sink is very good. Much better than the gain 1 life varieties. Also the lack of Ally symmetry doesn't bother me.
I'm not considering any of the learn cards and lessons since there are no good combinations other than the pest one.
My changes are: (Out > In)
Wingcrafter > Frost Trickster: Wingcrafter rarely get's drafted nowadays. Soulbond is also always risky against instant speed removal, when you rely on it too much.
Groundswell > Bayou Groff: I do still have a Swarm theme in Green, so this should be fine there.
Elves of Deep Shadow > Moldering Karok: The Elves where moved to mono G.
Overall not too much. I'm especailly disappointed by the multicolor cards in this set. Most of them are highly set specific or just outright bad. There were some UC ones, that would have been cool commons, e.g. Decisive Denial or Witherbloom Apprentice. WIll try to Karok for now, but only because BG has such bad option apart from Putrid Leech and Consume Strength. Grisly Salvage might replace the Karok if it doesn't perform.
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there are certainly a bunch of other interesting cards in this set, that just dont fit my cube.
Pillardrop Rescuer is really nice
resculpt and Bayou Groff as said
ill also keep in mind or even try Blood Researcher as a lifegain payoff. it plays well with Ill-Gotten Inheritance
honorable mentions
Relic Sloth
Needlethorn Drake
overall i like this set. pretty decent powerlevel and interesing mechanics for commons. definitely looking forward to the next sets now.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Golgari Rot Farm<Witherbloom Campus
i honestly assume 4 is way too much to scry, but once or twice per game should already worthwhile.
Putrid Leech<Blood Researcher
i dont remember the last time leech saw play if ever. its not where BG wants to be and researcher fits definitely better with the life management i have going on in black.
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
also if u really wanted u could splash G into BW
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
is already shaping up. only one im missing is
Epicure of Bloodand maybe Kalastria Nightwatch as payoffsT2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
It's Quandrix Pledgemage. Basically just a Ug Spellgorger Weird, but I actually really like the Weird and about 95% of the noncreature spells to trigger it are instants and sorceries. I don't know how much the UU hurts, because this is not really a green card, but I could free up a spot in Simic to fit this in. I just really like these cards.
I mentioned before why I dislike stuff like Prowess or Kiln-Fiend-esque cards, since you always need to proactively play your noncreature stuff, either in your precombat mainphase or before damage. The problem is, that it's very risky to tap out before combat damage, since your opponent then knows that they can freely kill the creature. These cards are fine for a dedicated constructed deck, but don't really work well with a majority of noncreature spells in cube.
The Weird and the Pledgemage don't suffer from this problem, because they don't need to be pumped proactively. You can simply attack with them and your opponent can't really block. If your opponent doesn't block there is no need to pump, you can simply say go, wait what your opponent does and eot do what you planned to do. These guys will grow regardless.
To summarize:
"Eot Prowess": Meh, because it requires you to do a bad sequencing of spells.
"Permanent Prowess": Good, because it it doesn't mess up your sequencing and works anyway.
Thoughts on the Pledgemage?
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
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3 mana 3/3 is more or less a soft baseline now, so you need the creature and 2 spells cast to push it above curve, which is kinda slow.
I can see the mage accelerate in the right deck, but Im not too hot on it. It would push me back into some kind of spells matter archetype, which i try to avoid due to slot restrictions. (I rather have a etb effect)
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
For the weird/Pledgemage you don't need all the cantrips in the world, because you don't need to be proactive with your casting. You simply have to play your deck the way you intended to do anyway and passively you are generating a very big threat of which your opponent rarely knows how big it can become at any given time. You can't really attack with your 2/2 into a freshly played weird and even 1 open mana. It's also very risky to try and Disfigure or Firebolt it.
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
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I only see a mv3 2/2 in them, as thats the floor for a horrible topdeck, especially if you plan to slowroll it.
T2 powpercube Value https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t