The competition for red 2s gets fiercer every year, but this still looks like a contender. A hasty on-curve 2-drop that at least Scrys and sometimes provides card advantage? I'll be giving this a shot.
I've never played a peasant cube but I would bet it'd be a house there.
Absolutely, red 5s have been such a weak slot in Peasant cubes that a lot of people have been running nothing at all over the choices available. I'm looking forward to trying this out in mine.
I'm running Stromkirk Noble as a 7th aggro red 1-drop, but I'd really like to get something that actually starts with 2+ power to replace it. This doesn't kick Noble out of my rare cube, but I do like it better than some of the mediocre red 1s like Goblin Glory Chaser and Reckless Waif that are in my Peasant cube and probably see play in some bigger cubes, so I think this will be a decent placeholder for some.
In retail limited, Dawnfeather Eagle played quite a bit better than it looks at first glance. Vigilance for the team makes an alpha strike with your temporarily pumped up team a lot less risky in aggro mirrors, and a flying 3/3 can close games quite a bit better than one on the ground. I do think the flying body and vigilance are often worth that extra mana, so I'd give Eagle the same grade you gave Inspiring Captain.
The only mill card I run is Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, because it gets the job done on its own. I wouldn't expect Hedron Crab to be able to do that, and mill is generally too parasitic a strategy to be worth supporting in cube.
The only blue 1-drop creature I currently run is Enclave Cryptologist, but I've really been impressed by Cloudfin Raptor in my Peasant cube, and if I ever decide to make my blue section in my unpowered more aggressive, it's one of the first cards I'll add.
I don't think sorcery speed alone is that serious of a drawback on a 2CMC spot removal spell, after all Journey Into Nowhere's been perfectly cubable forever, and Declaration in Stone has been decent in rare cubes. The double black is a bit tougher to swallow, but I'm really thinking about trying it over the somewhat unreliable Ultimate Price.
As hasty 5-drops go, I'd sooner run Eron the Relentless, Warchief Giant, or Glarewielder. By turn 5, Riot Devils get brick walled too easily and I can't really think of any particular synergies to make this any better than Goblin Rally, aside from the very fringe Minotaur tribal. I'd say 1 at best, but you'd have to be really trying to go deep on Fires and tokens to have any reason to cube Flurry of Horns.
I can think of a few ways you could get more Rebecca Guay art into your cube. You could run Rebecca Guay artwork for the following cards you're already running:
I ran Blasting Station for a while as a second Goblin Bombardment to support Reveillark/Karmic Guide combo as well as Muzzio's Preparations/Persist creature combo. When I pulled all of my Conspiracy cards, it seemed logical to also pull Blasting Station as one of the 15 cards that had to go (from the extra pack for Lore Seeker). Goblin Bombardment sees some play in token/aggro decks as well as combo decks, but Blasting Station is a turn slower, and can't always be used for multiple activations in the same turn, so you really need multiple combos requiring a sac outlet to make BS worthwhile.
Do you support infinite combos in your cube, that ARE NOT Kiki/Twin-Combos?
Deem Worthy - ???
Description - Do we... deem it worthy? Kill almost anything on hard cast, and cyclying at 4 mana is likely to be a 2 for 1? For those who played it, how did it perform in native limited?
It's been perfectly playable in AKH/HOU limited, but as in most recent sets, the removal available is so inefficient compared to what we have access to in Peasant cubes that this really isn't that meaningful for the purposes of this thread. Creatures that are strong in retail limited typically have some chance of being good enough for us, mostly because power creep has been giving us more and better creatures, but as R&D seems to be deliberately limiting the quality of removal available below rare, in retail limited we're usually stuck playing removal that you'd never want anywhere near your cube.
Deem Worthy's hardcast mode is quite a bit worse than Fissure, and its cycling mode isn't really better than Zap or Solar Blast. I think we can deem it unworthy, let's give it a 0.
I don't think I can get behind Eron the Relentless though. I don't think a 5cmc 5/2 haste is that good (because almost anything can kill it in combat), and I expect the statement that you will often get through the turn you cast it even if you don't have regeneration mana up is optimistic. 3 mana of the same colour to regenerate is also pretty rough. In most 2+ colour decks (I don't think I've ever played a mono-colour deck out of my cube), it probably negates your ability to play your other red spells while you keep the mana up.
Perhaps I'm underestimating the burden of the triple red in the regen cost and overestimating the likelihood of sneaking in 5 damage the turn it's cast, but I'd really be curious to hear from anyone who's tried Eron. I'll admit that I haven't, but the competition for red 5s is poor enough that I've seriously considered trying Eron.
For people psychotic enough to support land destruction as an archetype, I could see Ogre Arsonist and Ravaging Horde being pretty good. Getting to add a 3/3 to the board while blowing up a land after having destroyed a land or 2 before seems like a pretty strong play. You'd need to be going deep enough to also be running Avalanche Riders, Molten Rain, Goblin Settler, and Stone Rain, but once you've added all of those I think these start to look good. They're certainly not for every cube, but I think Ogre Arsonist at the very least deserves a 1 for cubes supporting Ponza.
I investigated Thraben Inspector extensively during SOI limited, and really liked it there, but I think it's just a bit too clunky and low impact for cube. It's close, though.
I've quit playing a couple times. Once right after Mercadian Masques as I started my senior year in high school.
I was really into retail limited during Rath and Urza's blocks, and the sudden switch to the very underpowered Mercadian Masques made me lose interest in Magic too. I stayed out of the game much longer, though, as I moved to Korea and had no idea anyone even played here for the longest time (I'm not sure if I'd've wanted to play then even if I'd known about the MTG scene here when I first came). I didn't get back into the game until Gatecrash.
The competition for red 2s gets fiercer every year, but this still looks like a contender. A hasty on-curve 2-drop that at least Scrys and sometimes provides card advantage? I'll be giving this a shot.
Absolutely, red 5s have been such a weak slot in Peasant cubes that a lot of people have been running nothing at all over the choices available. I'm looking forward to trying this out in mine.
I'd say there still is a shortage of them in red. So far we have:
plus Rakdos Cackler
I'm running Stromkirk Noble as a 7th aggro red 1-drop, but I'd really like to get something that actually starts with 2+ power to replace it. This doesn't kick Noble out of my rare cube, but I do like it better than some of the mediocre red 1s like Goblin Glory Chaser and Reckless Waif that are in my Peasant cube and probably see play in some bigger cubes, so I think this will be a decent placeholder for some.
The only blue 1-drop creature I currently run is Enclave Cryptologist, but I've really been impressed by Cloudfin Raptor in my Peasant cube, and if I ever decide to make my blue section in my unpowered more aggressive, it's one of the first cards I'll add.
Soul Reap's pretty close.
I don't think sorcery speed alone is that serious of a drawback on a 2CMC spot removal spell, after all Journey Into Nowhere's been perfectly cubable forever, and Declaration in Stone has been decent in rare cubes. The double black is a bit tougher to swallow, but I'm really thinking about trying it over the somewhat unreliable Ultimate Price.
As hasty 5-drops go, I'd sooner run Eron the Relentless, Warchief Giant, or Glarewielder. By turn 5, Riot Devils get brick walled too easily and I can't really think of any particular synergies to make this any better than Goblin Rally, aside from the very fringe Minotaur tribal. I'd say 1 at best, but you'd have to be really trying to go deep on Fires and tokens to have any reason to cube Flurry of Horns.
You could also try running any of these cards which might fit into your unique style of cube:
Greenseeker (graveyard enabler)
Pride of the Clouds
Scryb Ranger
Spellstutter Sprite
Wonder
Wood Elves
Yavimaya Dryad (my choice over Wood Elves if you're only running one of them)
I support Reveillark combo, and probably always will. In the earlier days of my cube, I also supported the Boros Reckoner/Boros Charm infinite life combo, with Azorius Charm, Whip of Erebos, and Loxodon Warhammer to give Reckoner lifelink. I never saw that combo go off, though.
It's been perfectly playable in AKH/HOU limited, but as in most recent sets, the removal available is so inefficient compared to what we have access to in Peasant cubes that this really isn't that meaningful for the purposes of this thread. Creatures that are strong in retail limited typically have some chance of being good enough for us, mostly because power creep has been giving us more and better creatures, but as R&D seems to be deliberately limiting the quality of removal available below rare, in retail limited we're usually stuck playing removal that you'd never want anywhere near your cube.
Deem Worthy's hardcast mode is quite a bit worse than Fissure, and its cycling mode isn't really better than Zap or Solar Blast. I think we can deem it unworthy, let's give it a 0.
Perhaps I'm underestimating the burden of the triple red in the regen cost and overestimating the likelihood of sneaking in 5 damage the turn it's cast, but I'd really be curious to hear from anyone who's tried Eron. I'll admit that I haven't, but the competition for red 5s is poor enough that I've seriously considered trying Eron.
For people psychotic enough to support land destruction as an archetype, I could see Ogre Arsonist and Ravaging Horde being pretty good. Getting to add a 3/3 to the board while blowing up a land after having destroyed a land or 2 before seems like a pretty strong play. You'd need to be going deep enough to also be running Avalanche Riders, Molten Rain, Goblin Settler, and Stone Rain, but once you've added all of those I think these start to look good. They're certainly not for every cube, but I think Ogre Arsonist at the very least deserves a 1 for cubes supporting Ponza.
I was really into retail limited during Rath and Urza's blocks, and the sudden switch to the very underpowered Mercadian Masques made me lose interest in Magic too. I stayed out of the game much longer, though, as I moved to Korea and had no idea anyone even played here for the longest time (I'm not sure if I'd've wanted to play then even if I'd known about the MTG scene here when I first came). I didn't get back into the game until Gatecrash.