A new set and a new spoiler season. Based on people's reactions to [AFR], several of the mechanics of this set are going to be unpopular.
A few interesting ones to start:
Noble's Purse: Small upgrade over Sphere of the Suns. Given WOTC's recent emphasis on treasure generation, it would not surprise me if we see more treasure pay-offs in the future (similar to Stimulus Package).
Common Gates: Thriving Lands with the gate type-line. Do these beat out Vivid Lands?
Personally, I like Livaan, Cultist of Tiamat quite a bit since having Prowess triggers rather than spellslinger triggers always increases the number of potential triggers considerably. It pumping other creatures also allows more evasive threats to benefit from the bonuses.
Erinis, Gloom Stalker also has decent stats for its cost and a potentially rather powerful if a little niche effect.
Alora, Merry Thief can easily be good so I would at least consider her. Also pseudo-support for ETB matters and ninjas/saboteurs.
But yeah, I am not a fan of Initiative and (other) dungeon delving mechanics.
Edit: Oh, and Wilson, Refined Grizzly is a pretty decent case of keyword soup to benefit from boosts to stats.
I think I really like Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward for the blink archtype. It can reset planeswalkers or used Sphere of the Suns-like cards, which is pretty nice. I imagine you also wouldn't feel too bad about putting 2/2's such as Civic Waywinder or a Phyrexian Rager variant under it.
The background text is a bit unfortunate, but we have been cubing with Halana, Kessig Ranger for a while now, and it may be a little bothersome but it is not a dealbreaker for me.
I also just realized that you can side-grade any useless food or treasure tokens and the like with Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward since the card specifies 'non-land' rather than 'non-token'. Combo-ish with Tireless Provisioner?
Something that I have been asking myself since the Thriving Gate lands were leaked: Are these better than Terramorphic Expanse? Terramorphic gets your choice of a single color and has landfall/delirium/graveyard synergies, but the Thriving Gates gets your choice of a single color PLUS the second color they are fixed too.
I asked a friend this and he said "it feels wrong" to cut Expanse, but I think it would be okay to do so, barring heavy synergies from Expanse.
I finally cut Phyrexian Rager for that reason the other day. For years it held its spot on raw power (as opposed to synergy with any given archetype), but with cards like Cloudkin Seer and Inspiring Overseer, it just doesn't cut it anymore. Swapped it out for Morbid Opportunist and have been really happy with the change.
Noble's Purse is a nice Sphere of the Suns variant, but until there are more artifact/treasure payoffs in my cube, I'll continue to run Sphere since it'll cut down on the number of "let me go grab the token" gameplay pauses.
Also, I really want to like some of these "Choose a Background" cards. Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant is another payoff for UW blink, and it has cross-applications in GW counters and Wx aggro. Wilson, Refined Grizzly is probably the best "Bear" ever printed that is an actual Bear. I've made an exception to functionless trinket text like this before for Halana, Kessig Ranger, but "Partner" seems easier to ignore than "Choose a Background" or things like the Bolas planeswalker text on Wasp of the Bitter End. Though, if these cards prove themselves in other people's cubes, I may change my mind.
Something that I have been asking myself since the Thriving Gate lands were leaked: Are these better than Terramorphic Expanse? Terramorphic gets your choice of a single color and has landfall/delirium/graveyard synergies, but the Thriving Gates gets your choice of a single color PLUS the second color they are fixed too.
I asked a friend this and he said "it feels wrong" to cut Expanse, but I think it would be okay to do so, barring heavy synergies from Expanse.
That depends. Terramorphic and Evolving Wilds help every 2+ color deck. Each Thriving-style land helps at least 40% of decks. But Thriving Bluff, while useful in Boros, Izzet, Rakdos, and Gruul, is worse than a basic in Azorius, Simic, Orzhov, Selesnya, Golgari, and Dimir, given it enters tapped and only produces one of your colors. I like the Thriving lands; they are much better than Gates, and they are even better than tri-lands in terms of fitting a guild deck (of course, if you splash a third color or go for 4-5 color goodstuff, that changes the valuation). But I really don't ever see myself cutting Terramorphic or Evolving. They aren't flashy, but they work in every deck.
Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant is another payoff for UW blink, and it has cross-applications in GW counters and Wx aggro.
Lulu also caught my eye. It's not great in a vacuum, but the cross-synergy with blink, +1/+1 counters, and flying-matters makes it worthy of consideration. Potentially giving pseudo-vigilance also helps you be more aggressive without over-extending. It's interesting. Not a slam dunk, but a consideration.
I think I really like Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward for the blink archtype. It can reset planeswalkers or used Sphere of the Suns-like cards, which is pretty nice. I imagine you also wouldn't feel too bad about putting 2/2's such as Civic Waywinder or a Phyrexian Rager variant under it.
The background text is a bit unfortunate, but we have been cubing with Halana, Kessig Ranger for a while now, and it may be a little bothersome but it is not a dealbreaker for me.
Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward also goes infinite with Necromancy. Unlike Worldgorger Dragon, the loop can self terminate - so no need to have a second creature in the graveyard or a way to kill Adrian or the enchantment. You can also go infinite with 2x o-ring effects (or 2x clone effects) which avoids the need to get Adrian into the graveyard (although obviously requires an additional card). Riftwing Cloudskate, Peregrine Drake, Dinrova Horror, andGray Merchant of Asphodel do gross things in the loop as well. Cool card.
The newly spoiled Bonecaller Cleric (name pending) also seems solid. Sorcery speed is a bummer, though, and its body may prove too weak. Maybe it is also a bit overcosted?
I also think I will run Mahadi, Emporium Master. I have a Rakdos slot which is a bit in flux, and this fellow seems good for more midrange Rakdos decks. If you can drop this turn 3, it is not unheard of for the turn 3 combat to result in a trade, which gives 2 treasures, which enables a 6-drop turn 4 (if you hit the landdrops). Other than that, it provides some fixing for the non-green Rakdos decks, most notably Mardu.
I like Bonecaller Cleric, too. If it was something like a 1/1, it would definitely be overcosted. But a 2/1 for 2, while no longer all that great, is still a body that can do things while you wait for the right moment. It is particularly nice since it pulls double duty as reanimator can struggle with needing so many specific parts. This is early board presence / a chumber in addition to a reanimation spell (even if the other roles are not essential to reanimator). I suppose that upgrading it to whatever is in the GY later in a midrange deck or such is also not a bad deal. I would play a 'Monstrous: Becomes target creature in your GY' card with those mana costs, probably.
Can someone explain how this works for my idiot brain?
1) Get Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward into a graveyard.
2) Cast Animate Dead and return Abdel to the battlefield.
3) Use Abdel's ETB to exile Animate Dead and make 1 soldier token.
4) Because Animate Dead leaves the battlefield, you must sacrifice Abdel.
5) Abdel goes into the graveyard (leaves the battlefield), which causes Animate Dead to return to the battlefield.
6) Animate Dead can then return Abdel to battlefield and the loop can be repeated an infinite number of times.
Abdel can also exile other permanents each cycle to generate more tokens and/or abuse ETB effects. You can also do this combo with your opponent's Abdel since Animate Dead can target your opponent's graveyard.
Edit:
Some new interesting cards:
Gut, True Soul Zealot: I like this card. Fits in with RB aristocrats and lets you upgrade creatures and artifacts into 4/1's. Good with treasure tokens.
Great Axe: Combat trick attached to a reasonable equipment. Probably not for my cube, but equipment heavy cubes may be interested.
Kagha, Shadow Archdruid
2BG
Legendary Creature - Elf Druid
Whenever Kagha, Shadow Archdruid attacks, it gains death touch until end of turn. Mill two cards.
Once during each of your turns, you can play a land or cast a permanent spell from cards that have gone to your graveyard from your library this turn.
1/4
Gut, True Soul Zealot: I like this card. Fits in with RB aristocrats and lets you upgrade creatures and artifacts into 4/1's. Good with treasure tokens.
The 2/2 body isn't great for 2R, and it won't do much on an empty board, but in decks set up to use it (RB aristocrats and RW go wide), upgrading a smaller body (like a dragon fodder goblin) into a 4/1 skeleton with menace is pretty good. 4 power means your opponents can't just ignore the skeleton, and menace means it'll likely take two blockers to trade. That's a lot of death triggers if you have a blood artist effect, and even if you don't it'll make it harder for your opponent to block the next attack. Cool card.
This set is really going to test my dislike of "Choose a Background" style text.
Some thoughts on these blink support cards. As a whole, I do not support "blink" as an archetype. What that means in practice is that I do not go very deep on cards which themselves blink other permanents or generic value cards that do not also support other archetypes. Good examples of cards I avoid in my cube are Otherworldly Journey, Ghostly Flicker, Temur Sabertooth, and Cloudblazer. All are good cards, but I would rather dedicate slots to emphasise power for other strategies. I do make exceptions for cards with a high enough overall power level, but it does not take that much work to make Ephemerate, Mulldrifter, or Eternal Witness good.
Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant- I do like that this card pushes an aggressive strategy as both a 3-power flier and by providing rewards strictly to tapped creatures. I think this will do its best work in the deck that can constantly make all-out attacks that force through some good damage/trades, with the blink synergies being mildly present.
Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward- I really do like the Animate Dead+ infinite combos available, which probably do not need much more support than making fifty 1/1 Solider tokens. That said, I am pretty underwhelmed by the regular use case scenarios. Downgrading two 2/2s into 1/1 tokens with the potential upside of getting them back later when Abdel dies is okay, but I would rather play something like Alharu, Solemn Ritualist that instead makes any other creatures better on its own while also not requiring so much setup with other ETB creatures.
Oji, the Exquisite Blade might just hit the sweet spot of being a value creature on its own and a decently powerful engine for blink effects. Adding (at worst) gain 2 life and scry 2 to every second spell you play each turn looks good and the potential upsides are only greater. Plus, scry 2 helps filter draws so the likelihood of casting two spells a turn will increase.
That depends. Terramorphic and Evolving Wilds help every 2+ color deck. Each Thriving-style land helps at least 40% of decks. But Thriving Bluff, while useful in Boros, Izzet, Rakdos, and Gruul, is worse than a basic in Azorius, Simic, Orzhov, Selesnya, Golgari, and Dimir, given it enters tapped and only produces one of your colors. I like the Thriving lands; they are much better than Gates, and they are even better than tri-lands in terms of fitting a guild deck (of course, if you splash a third color or go for 4-5 color goodstuff, that changes the valuation). But I really don't ever see myself cutting Terramorphic or Evolving. They aren't flashy, but they work in every deck.
What I mean to say is that from a strictly fixing perspective, Terramorphic Expanse and Thriving Bluff do the same thing in a Simic deck. They each provide a single color of mana that enters the battlefield tapped. The differences are that Expanse thins your deck, provides a shuffle, puts a land in the graveyard and causes an extra Landfall trigger. All are solid benefits, but not always relevant. Whereas Thriving Bluff has more upside in those ~40% of decks also running red. The simple analysis for me is that Expanse/Wilds are slightly better ~60% of the time and Thriving lands are better the other ~40%. For me, that is enough upside to cut Expanse/Wilds if it comes down to it.
Other thoughts: Bonecaller Cleric- I have been on the hunt recently for "the 8th best" reanimation spell in black, as I run 7 now and believe the reanimation support keeps getting better and better for Peasant. Is this that card? Maybe. I do like that it has the ability to return something as early as turn 4, even if you have to spend two separate turns not otherwise getting the reanimation target into your yard. A 2/1 for 1B and a reanimation for 4BB are both pretty bad, but at least they do something in other situations besides turbo Reanimator.
The recently spoiled, but previously leaked Gut, True Soul Zealot looks really good to me. Turning any lowly creature (or even an artifact token!) into a beefy 4/1 menace attacker is real good game. There are very few 1- and 2-drop creatures which I would not happily make into a 4/1 menace immediately and the fact that Gut itself does not have to attack means you can have a 4/1 attacking as soon as turn 3. When you also throw in benefits for sacrificing creatures and creating small tokens to be upgraded, I think you have a Cube staple.
Pretty sure after this set I will have to strongly consider cutting Cast Down.
@rancoredmalone
Your assessment of the blink creatures is where I am as well. Abdel is the hardest to evaluate - it is great as a combo piece, but feels really clunky otherwise.
@Mat
I will probably test out Kagha, Shadow Archdruid. The casting restrictions seem like they may be frustrating at times, but it enables itself and provides a nice passive bonus to Golgari mill.
What I mean to say is that from a strictly fixing perspective, Terramorphic Expanse and Thriving Bluff do the same thing in a Simic deck. T
Never mind that Ash Barrens is almost strictly better than terramorphic expanse), the fringe benefits from terramorphic really don't add up to the fact that the thriving lands get to be on color duals for 40% of decks (4x that of regular 2 color lands).
Their *failure* case is still fixing as well as terramorphic expanse does, making these more useful than even the tri lands thanks to their universality. I think they are the first land cycle we should be including.
The only thing terramorpic really does better than everyone else is getting a landfall trigger. That affects, what, two or three cards in a cube? and only on one turn, assuming you didn't need to play it on turn 1 anyway?
I would say that the biggest benefit of Terramorphic et co over thriving lands relate to the GY, specifically, for things like Delirium. I do wonder if a second set of Thriving lands would be better than Vivid lands, though...
People on the Pauper side seem pretty excited for Initiative right now. Given how backbreaking Monarch can be, I am starting to see the benefit. However, I still really, really hate venturing as a mechanic and thus, will almost certainly not include those cards. But what are others' takes here on the power level and whether the mechanic is worth supporting, given the hassle?
I am kinda willing to play anything in my Cube, so the venture into a dungeon stuff feels fine to me. I will certainly sleeve up two Undercity dungeons with my tokens and go from there.
Regarding the power level of Initiative compared to the Monarch, there are two things that jump out to me.
One- The Initiative triggers on upkeep instead of end step, so getting the 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) triggers will impact your turns at the start. Both the second tier triggers of two +1/+1 counters and scry 2 will happen in the upkeep and should have big impacts on that turn. Consider Passageway Seer, a card not yet discussed here. If you hold the Initiative until your next turn, that thing attacks as a 5/5 lifelink as early as turn 5, which is a big game. And then it becomes a 6/6 at end of turn.
Two- Although the rooms vary in power themselves and most are worse than drawing a card, there is a decidedly aggro path through the dungeon. Secret Path (search for a basic) into Forge (two +1/+1 counters) into Trap! (target player loses 5 life) is such a huge game for aggro that might even be stronger than drawing a card three times. The good news is that nothing has been shown yet that takes the Initiative at less than 4 mana and nothing spoiled does a great job preventing your opponent from taking the Initiative for themselves. Although there is a leaked 5 drop I really like…
I would say that the biggest benefit of Terramorphic et co over thriving lands relate to the GY
I suppose that would be different from cube to cube, but I think I'm only running two delirium cards. I think I'm down to two threshold cards (shower of coals and grizzly fate) and I'm not even running any delve cards either after I scrapped the explicit support for the graveyard-matters deck.
A few interesting ones to start:
Noble's Purse: Small upgrade over Sphere of the Suns. Given WOTC's recent emphasis on treasure generation, it would not surprise me if we see more treasure pay-offs in the future (similar to Stimulus Package).
Common Gates: Thriving Lands with the gate type-line. Do these beat out Vivid Lands?
Roving Harper: Inspiring Overseer is better, but Phyrexian Rager keeps looking worse.
Oji, the Exquisite Blade, Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward, and Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant: Interesting cards for the blink archetype. Probably too niche compared to what we already have and the "Choose a Background" text is unfortunate. Lulu is interesting in aggro decks as it discourages blocking.
Irenicus's Vile Duplication: A clone that only targets your stuff, but does give flying and gets around the legendary supertype.
Livaan, Cultist of Tiamat: A psuedo-Festival Crasher that can pump other creatures and triggers on enchantments and artifacts.
My 2-Player Signed Legacy Cube
My Lord of the Rings Cube
Erinis, Gloom Stalker also has decent stats for its cost and a potentially rather powerful if a little niche effect.
Alora, Merry Thief can easily be good so I would at least consider her. Also pseudo-support for ETB matters and ninjas/saboteurs.
But yeah, I am not a fan of Initiative and (other) dungeon delving mechanics.
Edit: Oh, and Wilson, Refined Grizzly is a pretty decent case of keyword soup to benefit from boosts to stats.
The background text is a bit unfortunate, but we have been cubing with Halana, Kessig Ranger for a while now, and it may be a little bothersome but it is not a dealbreaker for me.
Other than that, I like Noble's Purse. We have been playing with Forsaken Statue but it has been horrendously slow. better Sphere of the Suns is a very welcome addition.
WiJ
Peasant 540 Cube
I asked a friend this and he said "it feels wrong" to cut Expanse, but I think it would be okay to do so, barring heavy synergies from Expanse.
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 finally cut Phyrexian Rager for that reason the other day. For years it held its spot on raw power (as opposed to synergy with any given archetype), but with cards like Cloudkin Seer and Inspiring Overseer, it just doesn't cut it anymore. Swapped it out for Morbid Opportunist and have been really happy with the change.
Noble's Purse is a nice Sphere of the Suns variant, but until there are more artifact/treasure payoffs in my cube, I'll continue to run Sphere since it'll cut down on the number of "let me go grab the token" gameplay pauses.
Also, I really want to like some of these "Choose a Background" cards. Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant is another payoff for UW blink, and it has cross-applications in GW counters and Wx aggro. Wilson, Refined Grizzly is probably the best "Bear" ever printed that is an actual Bear. I've made an exception to functionless trinket text like this before for Halana, Kessig Ranger, but "Partner" seems easier to ignore than "Choose a Background" or things like the Bolas planeswalker text on Wasp of the Bitter End. Though, if these cards prove themselves in other people's cubes, I may change my mind.
Lulu also caught my eye. It's not great in a vacuum, but the cross-synergy with blink, +1/+1 counters, and flying-matters makes it worthy of consideration. Potentially giving pseudo-vigilance also helps you be more aggressive without over-extending. It's interesting. Not a slam dunk, but a consideration.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
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Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward goes infinite with Animate Dead and Dance of the Dead, too. You create infinite tokens. Add Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat or Goblin Bombardment to win in that same turn. Seems a good combo with cards many cubes run because all of them are decent by themselves.
I will give Abdel a slot in my Cube, for sure.
My Omniscience Draft Cube[/b]
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I also think I will run Mahadi, Emporium Master. I have a Rakdos slot which is a bit in flux, and this fellow seems good for more midrange Rakdos decks. If you can drop this turn 3, it is not unheard of for the turn 3 combat to result in a trade, which gives 2 treasures, which enables a 6-drop turn 4 (if you hit the landdrops). Other than that, it provides some fixing for the non-green Rakdos decks, most notably Mardu.
WiJ
Peasant 540 Cube
Can someone explain how this works for my idiot brain?
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
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1) Get Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward into a graveyard.
2) Cast Animate Dead and return Abdel to the battlefield.
3) Use Abdel's ETB to exile Animate Dead and make 1 soldier token.
4) Because Animate Dead leaves the battlefield, you must sacrifice Abdel.
5) Abdel goes into the graveyard (leaves the battlefield), which causes Animate Dead to return to the battlefield.
6) Animate Dead can then return Abdel to battlefield and the loop can be repeated an infinite number of times.
Abdel can also exile other permanents each cycle to generate more tokens and/or abuse ETB effects. You can also do this combo with your opponent's Abdel since Animate Dead can target your opponent's graveyard.
Edit:
Some new interesting cards:
Gut, True Soul Zealot: I like this card. Fits in with RB aristocrats and lets you upgrade creatures and artifacts into 4/1's. Good with treasure tokens.
Great Axe: Combat trick attached to a reasonable equipment. Probably not for my cube, but equipment heavy cubes may be interested.
My 2-Player Signed Legacy Cube
My Lord of the Rings Cube
Great card for golgari graveyard.
My Omniscience Draft Cube[/b]
My Commander Cube
My Pai Gow Cube
My Two-Headed Giant Cube
The 2/2 body isn't great for 2R, and it won't do much on an empty board, but in decks set up to use it (RB aristocrats and RW go wide), upgrading a smaller body (like a dragon fodder goblin) into a 4/1 skeleton with menace is pretty good. 4 power means your opponents can't just ignore the skeleton, and menace means it'll likely take two blockers to trade. That's a lot of death triggers if you have a blood artist effect, and even if you don't it'll make it harder for your opponent to block the next attack. Cool card.
This set is really going to test my dislike of "Choose a Background" style text.
My Omniscience Draft Cube[/b]
My Commander Cube
My Pai Gow Cube
My Two-Headed Giant Cube
Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant- I do like that this card pushes an aggressive strategy as both a 3-power flier and by providing rewards strictly to tapped creatures. I think this will do its best work in the deck that can constantly make all-out attacks that force through some good damage/trades, with the blink synergies being mildly present.
Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward- I really do like the Animate Dead+ infinite combos available, which probably do not need much more support than making fifty 1/1 Solider tokens. That said, I am pretty underwhelmed by the regular use case scenarios. Downgrading two 2/2s into 1/1 tokens with the potential upside of getting them back later when Abdel dies is okay, but I would rather play something like Alharu, Solemn Ritualist that instead makes any other creatures better on its own while also not requiring so much setup with other ETB creatures.
Oji, the Exquisite Blade might just hit the sweet spot of being a value creature on its own and a decently powerful engine for blink effects. Adding (at worst) gain 2 life and scry 2 to every second spell you play each turn looks good and the potential upsides are only greater. Plus, scry 2 helps filter draws so the likelihood of casting two spells a turn will increase.
What I mean to say is that from a strictly fixing perspective, Terramorphic Expanse and Thriving Bluff do the same thing in a Simic deck. They each provide a single color of mana that enters the battlefield tapped. The differences are that Expanse thins your deck, provides a shuffle, puts a land in the graveyard and causes an extra Landfall trigger. All are solid benefits, but not always relevant. Whereas Thriving Bluff has more upside in those ~40% of decks also running red. The simple analysis for me is that Expanse/Wilds are slightly better ~60% of the time and Thriving lands are better the other ~40%. For me, that is enough upside to cut Expanse/Wilds if it comes down to it.
Other thoughts:
Bonecaller Cleric- I have been on the hunt recently for "the 8th best" reanimation spell in black, as I run 7 now and believe the reanimation support keeps getting better and better for Peasant. Is this that card? Maybe. I do like that it has the ability to return something as early as turn 4, even if you have to spend two separate turns not otherwise getting the reanimation target into your yard. A 2/1 for 1B and a reanimation for 4BB are both pretty bad, but at least they do something in other situations besides turbo Reanimator.
The recently spoiled, but previously leaked Gut, True Soul Zealot looks really good to me. Turning any lowly creature (or even an artifact token!) into a beefy 4/1 menace attacker is real good game. There are very few 1- and 2-drop creatures which I would not happily make into a 4/1 menace immediately and the fact that Gut itself does not have to attack means you can have a 4/1 attacking as soon as turn 3. When you also throw in benefits for sacrificing creatures and creating small tokens to be upgraded, I think you have a Cube staple.
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
@rancoredmalone
Your assessment of the blink creatures is where I am as well. Abdel is the hardest to evaluate - it is great as a combo piece, but feels really clunky otherwise.
@Mat
I will probably test out Kagha, Shadow Archdruid. The casting restrictions seem like they may be frustrating at times, but it enables itself and provides a nice passive bonus to Golgari mill.
My 2-Player Signed Legacy Cube
My Lord of the Rings Cube
Never mind that Ash Barrens is almost strictly better than terramorphic expanse), the fringe benefits from terramorphic really don't add up to the fact that the thriving lands get to be on color duals for 40% of decks (4x that of regular 2 color lands).
Their *failure* case is still fixing as well as terramorphic expanse does, making these more useful than even the tri lands thanks to their universality. I think they are the first land cycle we should be including.
The only thing terramorpic really does better than everyone else is getting a landfall trigger. That affects, what, two or three cards in a cube? and only on one turn, assuming you didn't need to play it on turn 1 anyway?
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
People on the Pauper side seem pretty excited for Initiative right now. Given how backbreaking Monarch can be, I am starting to see the benefit. However, I still really, really hate venturing as a mechanic and thus, will almost certainly not include those cards. But what are others' takes here on the power level and whether the mechanic is worth supporting, given the hassle?
Regarding the power level of Initiative compared to the Monarch, there are two things that jump out to me.
One- The Initiative triggers on upkeep instead of end step, so getting the 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) triggers will impact your turns at the start. Both the second tier triggers of two +1/+1 counters and scry 2 will happen in the upkeep and should have big impacts on that turn. Consider Passageway Seer, a card not yet discussed here. If you hold the Initiative until your next turn, that thing attacks as a 5/5 lifelink as early as turn 5, which is a big game. And then it becomes a 6/6 at end of turn.
Two- Although the rooms vary in power themselves and most are worse than drawing a card, there is a decidedly aggro path through the dungeon. Secret Path (search for a basic) into Forge (two +1/+1 counters) into Trap! (target player loses 5 life) is such a huge game for aggro that might even be stronger than drawing a card three times. The good news is that nothing has been shown yet that takes the Initiative at less than 4 mana and nothing spoiled does a great job preventing your opponent from taking the Initiative for themselves. Although there is a leaked 5 drop I really like…
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 suppose that would be different from cube to cube, but I think I'm only running two delirium cards. I think I'm down to two threshold cards (shower of coals and grizzly fate) and I'm not even running any delve cards either after I scrapped the explicit support for the graveyard-matters deck.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article