Overall Ikoria Opinion:
Agreed that Mutate isn't great for cube. It adds a lot of complexity for little gain unless you go deep on it. Additionally, I don't like cards that are tribal or anti-tribal because I don't want to give players the false impression I support tribal stuff (unless the card is self-enabling like Cloudgoat Ranger). So honestly the non-human clause on mutate bothers me.
Cycling wasn't as great as I was hoping it to be either. There were a lot of cards with cycling that were close but just not quite there.
Easy Includes: Bastion of Remembrance - Always a good effect and this version is very hard to remove Bushmeat Poacher - Might be the best "sacrifice a creature to draw a card" black creature yet, and sacrifice is an archetype I support. It's replacing Spark Reaper for me due to the cheaper activation cost. The extra lifegain is a nice bonus. Will at least test and see Grimdancer - Only slightly worse than Vampire Nighthawk, but much more interesting. Forbidden Friendship - Minor Dragon Fodder upgrade. Weaponize the Monsters - 2 damage is pretty good so I think this can exist alongside Goblin Bombardment Excavation mole - Good body and supports the GB graveyard theme. Jubilant Skybonder - Good support for UW fliers. Greater Sandwurm REPRINT - New better art and the new flavor text divider. I try to keep all my cards up to date on card templates.
Maybe: Light of Hope - All 3 modes of the charm are decent, but this would always be a filler card in someones deck. Splendor Mare - IMO the best of the "cycle to give ability counter" creatures. Creature-mode is better than average and the cycle mode is what I expect an aura with "Flash, Enchanted creature gets lifelink. Draw card on cast" would cost. The fact that both modes are on 1 card is great. I'll probably find room for this guy. Swallow Whole Boon of the Wish-giver Keep Safe Neutralize Reconnaissance Mission Wingspan Mentor - Decent UW Fliers support, but the body is so bad and I dislike the non-human clause. Void Beckoner - Nice cycle ability, but deathtouch is useless on the creature mode. In fact this card is pretty bad as a hardcast. Clash of Titans Fire Prophecy Flame Spill - I would have preferred a bigger, more costlier version of this spell actually. With only 4 damage total, only a 1 or 2 damage is going to the face which kind of boring. Lava Serpent - Decent early and late game. Can't decide if i like this or Sanctuary Smasher better Sanctuary Smasher - Decent early and late game. I wish either mode little more efficient, like if the cycling ability cost 1 less. Thwart the Enemy - Best one-sided fog? Titanoth Rex - The fattest of fatties, but would only be for reanimator as even a ramp deck would have a hard time casting this. Even for reanimator, they'd prefer Pelakka Wurm or Plated Crusher, so this card might not be good enough Wilt - Potentially better than Return to Nature Back for More - Cool reanimator card, but it might cost 1 mana too much. Skull Prophet Sprite Dragon - Needs 2 spells to be good, and I'd be happy with the card after 3+ spells. Izzet is pretty tight though
It's not exactly an exciting card but I'll probably replace Return to Nature with Wilt. Grimdancer will probably make into my cube due to providing a nice extra skill-testing choice. Sure, sometimes the choice will be obvious, but I think there will be a fair number of games where it will provide some interesting tradeoffs. It helps that it's a has a very high floor no matter what. Neutralize seems strong, but it seems similar in effect to Supreme Will. You counter if they play a threat, or draw if they don't. Not sure which I like better.
I will try to make Clash of Titans work because it sounds fun.
Unfortunately all the Food and Knight tribal cards don't fit well in Peasant cube
Include: Syr Alin, the Lion's Claw - Just what white wants to do in my cube Foulmire Knight - Nice compensation in case you draw your 1-drop late Syr Konrad, the Grim - Possibly the card of the set. It supports most strategies black wants to do Order of Midnight - The other possible the card of the set. Adventure side is pure gravy on top of the creature Syr Carah, the Bold - Cool effect and card advantage in red Thrill of possibility - Replaces Tormenting Voice Heraldic Banner - Not sure if quite efficient enough, but I'll at least try it.
I'll acquire and maybe test someday: Hypnotic Sprite - UU is awkward, and holding up mana for a counter when you could play the creature might also be awkward. Still counter a spell and get a 2 power flyer is good from a single card Queen of Ice - Interesting ability Epic Downfall - If I want to depower removal Embereth Shieldbreaker - If I feel artifacts are an issue Merchant of the Vale - A good ability, but not quite efficient enough Beanstalk Giant - Creature is too expensive, but I wish Green had more stuff like this Flaxen Intruder - Creature side is likely too fragile Kenrith's Transformation - Nice effect, but I'll probably keep all of my green creature removal as fight/one-sided fight cards Once and Future - Seems fairly efficient. It's behind with regrowth and pulse of murasa though Syr Faren, the Hengehammer - Good card but I don't support Green aggro much.
Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card in that player's hand or graveyard, and exile it. For as long as that card remains exiled, you may cast it, and you may spend mana as though it were any type to cast it.
Not sure how good it is. I suppose the graveyard-clause gives you somewhat of a safety-net so you can find a spot to fire it off where it won't be entirely wasted.
Probably good in the same games/metas/cubes/situations where Mind Rot is good?
If I didn't have to use a guild slot on it I would like it. As is I don't think it's good enough thought.
It will be interesting to see how often Audacious Thief draws more cards than Phyrexian Rager. I'm not super high on it but we'll see how it does in M20 limited.
A pretty bad set for my cube. I dont like super parasitic mechanics like snow stuff, so all of that is out. I also don't support tribal which makes the slivers and changelings useless for me. I dont feel like there is any card that is a definite include, but I'll probably test a few.
Dreadmalkin > Disowned Ancestor - Dreadmalkin isn't the highest power level but I feel like the sacrifice deck still needs more help. Instant speed sac, 2 counters, and menace makes it a good threat in that deck.
Return to Nature > Naturalize - Not exciting but an upgrade to a card I like to have around. Return to Nature is close to being never dead with the addition of the third option of hitting the graveyard.
Maybes, some of which I still need to find a cut:
Rally of Wings - Nice card for UW Flyers, which traditionally has had much better support from blue than white. This would help rebalance that.
Bond of Insight - I like it but Blue already has a ton of strong cards that essentially draw you more cards.
Spark Harvest - Strict upgrade to Bone Splinters. Good in the sac deck, but it's never dead even outside of it. I'm at the point that I prefer interesting removal over the strongest removal anyway, so this has a chance. And if I add planewalkers, I'd prefer to have some non-Banishing Light removal that hits them.
Spark Reaper > Thallid Soothsayer - The Reaper is 1 mana less and has the minor life gain upside, but his sac is 1 mana more than the Mushroom Man's. I've been looking for a good "sac creature -> draw a card" ability but honestly it might be that neither is good enough.
Nobody runs Gaea’s Skyfolk, and additional... proliferate to a 3/3 for 3GB doesn’t seem like something I would want either.
Unless I have a large handful of creatures already on the field *with* counters, this card seems like a dud.
It pushes an archetype I support, is an fairly interesting card, and has a decent powerlevel. That seems like a good card to me. Gaea's Skyfolk is mostly weaker, less interesting, and provides less support.
Windstorm Drake is disappointing but Spirit of the Spires seems a bit more interesting to me. The buff is worse but the body is more on curve, and white has less Flying matters cards so the bar is lower.
Agreed that Mutate isn't great for cube. It adds a lot of complexity for little gain unless you go deep on it. Additionally, I don't like cards that are tribal or anti-tribal because I don't want to give players the false impression I support tribal stuff (unless the card is self-enabling like Cloudgoat Ranger). So honestly the non-human clause on mutate bothers me.
Cycling wasn't as great as I was hoping it to be either. There were a lot of cards with cycling that were close but just not quite there.
Easy Includes:
Bastion of Remembrance - Always a good effect and this version is very hard to remove
Bushmeat Poacher - Might be the best "sacrifice a creature to draw a card" black creature yet, and sacrifice is an archetype I support. It's replacing Spark Reaper for me due to the cheaper activation cost. The extra lifegain is a nice bonus. Will at least test and see
Grimdancer - Only slightly worse than Vampire Nighthawk, but much more interesting.
Forbidden Friendship - Minor Dragon Fodder upgrade.
Weaponize the Monsters - 2 damage is pretty good so I think this can exist alongside Goblin Bombardment
Excavation mole - Good body and supports the GB graveyard theme.
Jubilant Skybonder - Good support for UW fliers.
Greater Sandwurm REPRINT - New better art and the new flavor text divider. I try to keep all my cards up to date on card templates.
Maybe:
Light of Hope - All 3 modes of the charm are decent, but this would always be a filler card in someones deck.
Splendor Mare - IMO the best of the "cycle to give ability counter" creatures. Creature-mode is better than average and the cycle mode is what I expect an aura with "Flash, Enchanted creature gets lifelink. Draw card on cast" would cost. The fact that both modes are on 1 card is great. I'll probably find room for this guy.
Swallow Whole
Boon of the Wish-giver
Keep Safe
Neutralize
Reconnaissance Mission
Wingspan Mentor - Decent UW Fliers support, but the body is so bad and I dislike the non-human clause.
Void Beckoner - Nice cycle ability, but deathtouch is useless on the creature mode. In fact this card is pretty bad as a hardcast.
Clash of Titans
Fire Prophecy
Flame Spill - I would have preferred a bigger, more costlier version of this spell actually. With only 4 damage total, only a 1 or 2 damage is going to the face which kind of boring.
Lava Serpent - Decent early and late game. Can't decide if i like this or Sanctuary Smasher better
Sanctuary Smasher - Decent early and late game. I wish either mode little more efficient, like if the cycling ability cost 1 less.
Thwart the Enemy - Best one-sided fog?
Titanoth Rex - The fattest of fatties, but would only be for reanimator as even a ramp deck would have a hard time casting this. Even for reanimator, they'd prefer Pelakka Wurm or Plated Crusher, so this card might not be good enough
Wilt - Potentially better than Return to Nature
Back for More - Cool reanimator card, but it might cost 1 mana too much.
Skull Prophet
Sprite Dragon - Needs 2 spells to be good, and I'd be happy with the card after 3+ spells. Izzet is pretty tight though
Grimdancer will probably make into my cube due to providing a nice extra skill-testing choice. Sure, sometimes the choice will be obvious, but I think there will be a fair number of games where it will provide some interesting tradeoffs. It helps that it's a has a very high floor no matter what.
Neutralize seems strong, but it seems similar in effect to Supreme Will. You counter if they play a threat, or draw if they don't. Not sure which I like better.
I will try to make Clash of Titans work because it sounds fun.
Seems pretty good to me. It will probably never be amazing, but the floor is quite high on the card, and it helps black's biggest theme.
Include:
Syr Alin, the Lion's Claw - Just what white wants to do in my cube
Foulmire Knight - Nice compensation in case you draw your 1-drop late
Syr Konrad, the Grim - Possibly the card of the set. It supports most strategies black wants to do
Order of Midnight - The other possible the card of the set. Adventure side is pure gravy on top of the creature
Syr Carah, the Bold - Cool effect and card advantage in red
Thrill of possibility - Replaces Tormenting Voice
Heraldic Banner - Not sure if quite efficient enough, but I'll at least try it.
I'll acquire and maybe test someday:
Hypnotic Sprite - UU is awkward, and holding up mana for a counter when you could play the creature might also be awkward. Still counter a spell and get a 2 power flyer is good from a single card
Queen of Ice - Interesting ability
Epic Downfall - If I want to depower removal
Embereth Shieldbreaker - If I feel artifacts are an issue
Merchant of the Vale - A good ability, but not quite efficient enough
Beanstalk Giant - Creature is too expensive, but I wish Green had more stuff like this
Flaxen Intruder - Creature side is likely too fragile
Kenrith's Transformation - Nice effect, but I'll probably keep all of my green creature removal as fight/one-sided fight cards
Once and Future - Seems fairly efficient. It's behind with regrowth and pulse of murasa though
Syr Faren, the Hengehammer - Good card but I don't support Green aggro much.
If I didn't have to use a guild slot on it I would like it. As is I don't think it's good enough thought.
Maybes, some of which I still need to find a cut:
It pushes an archetype I support, is an fairly interesting card, and has a decent powerlevel. That seems like a good card to me. Gaea's Skyfolk is mostly weaker, less interesting, and provides less support.
I think it looks pretty good. It will probably make my list.