Sword of the Hours is ok, but Clay Golem is hard to ignore. A colorless 4/4 for 4 with a big to huge upside if you have 6 mana? Dice roll or not, this will most likely make it into my cube. It's a slam dunk for any midrange deck and while it's not a reanimator target I think it's way better than Meteor Golem (which is a rather poor reanimator target anyway from my pov).
Hmmm...Ebony Fly is a powerful card on average, but I really dislike dice roll as a mechanic. Will have to think about it.
Underdark Rift is also powerful on average (5-6 cards below the top for a card that only works in the late game anyway is as close to removed as possible), but it's harder to find a spot for colorless lands and thus I'll pass on this one.
I will admit that it is still fascinating to have reached the point where black and white are more or less sated for 2-power 1-drops. Even if the other colours could certainly still use some more (or similar aggro 1-drops, especially in blue).
Yes, the quality we got in white is insane (Elite Vanguard is the last white vanilla 2/1 in my cube, only a matter of time until he's gone as well), black also has plenty of very playable cards in that spot. I don't need the typcial aggro one drops in blue or green (though green has a few really powerful ones as well), but red is sooo lacking. I have no idea why they do that.
Are burn spells so powerful in retail limited that an efficient aggro one drop at c/u would push this strategy too much? I rarely play retail limited, so I have no idea. Jackal Pup is still one of the best red aggro one drops after almost 25 years, that's weird when you compare it to something like Usher of the Fallen.
After thinking about it I will most likely replace Dynacharge with You See a Pair of Goblins. The single mana mode of Dynacharge hardly ever gets used and the big downside it has is that it's useless if you don't have a decent amount of creatures on the board. Yay, at least one card added!
At this point I would get behind a movement to just house rule every peasant cube to have murder for 1B. These restrictions are getting so specific, arbitrary, and tacked on.
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House rules like that aren't something I would want to play with, but that's the reason why I will most likely stick with Cast Down and Go for the Throat. Conditions like no artifacts (since they're not living creatures and have their own kind of removal) or no legends (since they're meant to be powerful, unique entities that may resist a simple kill spell) seems far less arbitrary than a bunch of random creature types. Why can't I hit a measly Rakdos Cackler or a random creature like Seraph of Dawn with Power Word Kill? Makes no sense.
EDIT: From all I could find it doesn't even make sense in a D&D context as the original spell only kills creatures with 100 or fewer hit points without any creature type restrictions.
I am actually curious: Why do I seem like the only person in the market for Dungeon Crawler? Does everyone else have enough aggressive black 1-drops already, or is it about the reference to the dungeon mechanic (similar to Wasp of the Bitter End back in the day)?
And for that matter, the more I think about it, the more I think that Hobgoblin Captain is better than a lot of the existing red 3 power 2-drops. Not a staple by any means but another one where I just a little surprised that no one else is paying it any attention.
I don't even run Tormented Hero and I don't feel like players have a problem with finding a critical amount of one drops for aggro. Wtwlf123 for example only runs 8 black aggro one drops in his 540 cube and he's certainly not known for running too few of these, so I can't think of a reason why I'd put the 8th best 2 power one drop into my 405 cube.
Hobgoblin Captain isn't terrible, but the only 3/2 I still run in red is Gore-House Chainwalker. And that one is only in there for its +1/+1 counter synergies, if you don't have any you won't put him into a deck unless you're desperate for two drops. A vanilla 3/1 is so weak and can so easily be blocked to death that I don't think the late game upside makes up for the really bad performance it has when it wants to attack on turn 3 or 4 or generally if you have not enough power to attack with first strike.
Very weak set. The only card I will most likely add is Power Word Kill, which is probably about 3% better than Cast Down or Go for the Throat. There are some other cards that are theoretically playable, but nothing that interests me enough to add it. After Modern Horizons 2 that's ok, even though the old AD&D player in me would have loved to add a few cards from the Forgotten Realms.
Bag of Holding sure looks interesting, but I have a hard time imagining how I can spend 3 mana for a loot effect and then 2 mana each time I want it again. This seems really slow and clunky even for a control deck. If the loot ability activation would cost 1 less I would play it, but the way it is I don't think I will try it.
This type of effect is naturally better the earlier it comes down. Liliana's Devotee only has a (overall lower) C color cost, it has a better, more resilient body and the tokens it creates stay 2/2 even after it is gone. Deathpriest of Myrkul isn't terrible and in mono black decks with a lot of tribal synergies it may be better, but Devotee is overall the better cube card from my pov.
I don't like Grim Wanderer. Morbid (the mechanic) never worked out that well (or does anyone still runs Predator's Howl?) and Bone Picker is still a very reasonable and useful card when hardcast. Wouldn't run it without the hardcast mode.
Grim Wanderer will often just be a dead card in your hand. Plus I like a 3/2 flying deathtouch for B a lot more than a vanilla 5/3 for 1B. Flash allows you to play this when one of your blockers died or a creature gets killed by a sorcery speed spell, but then you need to hold up mana for something that may or may not happen, which is not an option if you have anything else at all to do with your mana and especially not if you play anything that is even remotely aggressive.
Don't think it's better than Undying Evil. It makes the creature enter the battlefield tapped, which is a pretty big downside if they remove one of your blockers. I believe this will come up at least as often as trying to cast it on a creature that already has a +1/+1 counter on it. Especially since it's a black card.
Unfortunately there are no truly great Dimir cards for reanimator. Psychatog is a decent one as it's a discard outlet and works well in combination with other loot effects that fill the yard. I also run Tomebound Lich. But there are no cards in Dimir that scream 'I'm a no-brainer for a reanimator deck', which is a bit of a shame.
I assume it depends on how much support you want for the +1/+1 counters archetype. In my cube it is already one of the strongest archetypes as the typical WG deck has a mix of counters and tokens that is very hard to deal with in peasant due to lack of mass removal, especially for toughness 3+ creatures. And most of the cards are good enough on their own, it's not like Relief Captain played with three other creatures in play requires a payoff card to be good.
Renata, Called to the Hunt and Scurry Oak work in pretty much any creature deck, so they're not very parasitic and you can play them just fine in a deck with no specific +1/+1 counters support. Ivy Lane Denizen already requires a high percentage of green creatures to be good, Herd Baloth is even more parasitic by absolutely requiring at least 3-4 cards that can put counters on him. I'm not interested in another, worse version of Renata and I most likely won't add Herd Baloth for the reason mentioned either, even though it's tempting as it's certainly super strong with the right support.
I already run Evolution Sage as a parasitic counters payoff card and I think it's much easier to trigger than Herd Baloth since all you need are creatures with counters on them and it doesn't even matter whether you have them before or after you play the Sage. And just like the Baloth the effect can take over the game with the right setup.
At rare you get this and we measly peasant cubers still can't even have a vanilla 2/1 for R without downside. Ridiculous. Only thing good about it is that I don't have to pay $50+ for a single, recently printed card...
There are very few things that can block a 2/1 flyer on turn 3 efficiently. Sure, occassionally your opponent will have a spirit token from Lingering Souls or Midnight Haunting if he's on the play, but other than that? A 2/1 flyer for two is a very playable card, not long ago most people had cards like Welkin Tern or Vampire Interloper in their cubes.
Barbed Spike is a Stormfront Pegasus (which is still a playable cube card on its own, even if it's certainly not top tier) that leaves a really bad equipment behind. Lightning Spear is a bad equipment that can also work as a really bad burn spell.
I don't think Lightning Spear is unplayable, but ultimately it's seems like a card that is 'meh' at best no matter when you play it while Barbed Spike is a good card for any aggressive white deck.
As expected this is a great set for peasant cubes.
Additions:
Flametongue Yearling - I dislike CC cards and avoid them wherever I can, but this is probably too good to pass and it will most likely replace Fire Imp, like in many other cubes as it seems.
Abundant Harvest - Good card filtering spell in the color that needs it most. Better than Adventurous Impulse imo and that's still in my cube so this card will replace it.
Barbed Spike - Finally an upgrade for Stormfront Pegasus and an easy swap. Additional support for the equipment deck as well.
Lose Focus - A very good counterspell, will most likely replace Complicate, which is expensive to cast and often random.
Scurry Oak - A powerful three drop if played on curve and it has synergies with token and +1/+1 counter deck, both of which I support in WG.
Dragon's Rage Channeler - Great one drop for a spells matter deck. Will provide card filtering early and a reasonable attacker/finisher later. Only downside is that you have not much control over when it will become a flyer that attacks each turn, which may result in suicide every once in a while.
Archfiend of Sorrows - I had Havoc Demon in my cube for some time and it wasn't terrible, but ultimately it was too narrow. Archfiend of Sorrows will work in reanimator decks, BG graveyard decks and generally in midrange and control decks.
Unbounded Potential - Will most likely replace Shoulder to Shoulder as it should be quite a bit more powerful in a counters deck and both aren't really playable outside of that deck.
Not sure yet/honorable mentions:
Bone Shards - I'm looking for a removal spell that doesn't work in control and this may be it. Will think about it.
Herd Baloth - Tempting as it can become insanely powerful with the right setup.
Legion Vanguard - I like sacrifice engines and this doesn't seem too bad. On the other hand the ability has a cost and isn't that high impact. Will think about it.
Blazing Rootwalla - A decent red one drop, but in most cases you can't afford to spend mana to pump it on your second turn in an aggro deck and later on a 3/1 isn't that great either. Madness will hardly be useful unless you're lucky and can cast Faithless Looting.
Vile Entomber - Probably a bit too narrow. For a reanimator deck the effect comes too late and in a graveyard deck you get a 2/2 deathtouch and a card at best, half a card or no card at worst. In any deck that doesn't run at least two good flashback cards he's unplayable.
Goblin Traprunner - I think this is quite powerful and possibly better than Beetleback Chief, but I hate coin flip as a mechanic. You attack with it and don't know what will come out of it, so often you're either screwed or it may even win you the game. Magic is random enough as is, so I don't need this.
Tireless Provisioner - I'm unsure about this card. Food tokens are next to worthless and if you run out of lands after turn three you wished you'd have Civic Wayfinder in your deck instead. On the other hand if you have a lot of lands it can be powerful. I guess I'll stick with the more reliable and boríng card for now.
Foundation Breaker - Cards like that are sideboard cards mostly in my cube, so I don't want to run too many of them. This isn't bad, but I like my other options more.
Timeless Witness - This is a bit too expensive for my taste. Getting back a card is strong, Eternalize is strong, but I doubt it will be super useful at that cost since cube isn't so slow that you can easily afford to play a 4 cmc Eternal Witness. Will still order a copy.
Thraben Watcher - Good flyer, but white is the token color and even the skies deck runs a lot of token cards. If it would include tokens it would probably be too good and an absolute no-brainer, but for now I'll stick with my other anthem effects.
1W
Artifact - Equipment
When Barbed Point enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 colorless Thopter creature token with flying and attach this to it.
Equipped creature has +1/+0.
Equip 2
Finally we get a white 2/1 flyer two drop with upside. It's a very small upside as the equipment can't possibly be any worse than this, but it's better than nothing and you get equipment (and possibly artifact if you run that) deck synergies.
Crocanura is a pretty good card in my cube and Scurry Oak doesn't look worse. Crocanura is more useful on its own as a 1/3 reach can do something for you already while a 1/2 is almost useless. On the other hand the oak can be abused with +1/+1 counter cards such as Ridgescale Tusker or Evolution Sage and the ceiling is higher. Will test it.
Am I missing something? The deck that shows up for me has 33 non-land cards and it's a two color aggro deck full of CC cards and one drops from two different colors that would require a mana base like a contructed Legacy deck.
It's certainly possible to make a real deck out of this pile, but then you'd either have to go black with only Thunderous Orator and a few other white cards with low color commitment. Or (which would probably be the better option) you could go down the white token route, in which case you'd have to ditch the black CC cards and one drops.
And Danitha Capashen, Paragon really doesn't have a place in either build due to lack of pump and equipment/auras.
In any case, this doesn't look insane to me. To me it just proves that Thunderous Orator is a Stormfront Pegasus (which is by now certainly a lower end card, it's about time we get a 2/1 flyer with upside) that trades reliability for a potential upside if it gets played in a perfect deck for it.
If you don't mind the variance certainly a playable card, but not more than that.
Underdark Rift is also powerful on average (5-6 cards below the top for a card that only works in the late game anyway is as close to removed as possible), but it's harder to find a spot for colorless lands and thus I'll pass on this one.
Yes, the quality we got in white is insane (Elite Vanguard is the last white vanilla 2/1 in my cube, only a matter of time until he's gone as well), black also has plenty of very playable cards in that spot. I don't need the typcial aggro one drops in blue or green (though green has a few really powerful ones as well), but red is sooo lacking. I have no idea why they do that.
Are burn spells so powerful in retail limited that an efficient aggro one drop at c/u would push this strategy too much? I rarely play retail limited, so I have no idea. Jackal Pup is still one of the best red aggro one drops after almost 25 years, that's weird when you compare it to something like Usher of the Fallen.
House rules like that aren't something I would want to play with, but that's the reason why I will most likely stick with Cast Down and Go for the Throat. Conditions like no artifacts (since they're not living creatures and have their own kind of removal) or no legends (since they're meant to be powerful, unique entities that may resist a simple kill spell) seems far less arbitrary than a bunch of random creature types. Why can't I hit a measly Rakdos Cackler or a random creature like Seraph of Dawn with Power Word Kill? Makes no sense.
EDIT: From all I could find it doesn't even make sense in a D&D context as the original spell only kills creatures with 100 or fewer hit points without any creature type restrictions.
I guess it depends on how many of these you want. There are 7 black aggro one drops that I would rate higher, and that's only counting the 2 power one drops. Carnophage, Diregraf Ghoul, Gnarled Scarhide, Rakdos Cackler, Sarcomancy, Tormented Hero and Vampire Lacerator. Then I personally also run Carrion Feeder, which is hard to compare, but which works very well in aggro, especially with some sacrifice synergies. On top of that black has a few one mana spells that are playable in aggro as well, like discard spells (Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Harsh Scrutiny) or Quest for the Gravelord.
I don't even run Tormented Hero and I don't feel like players have a problem with finding a critical amount of one drops for aggro. Wtwlf123 for example only runs 8 black aggro one drops in his 540 cube and he's certainly not known for running too few of these, so I can't think of a reason why I'd put the 8th best 2 power one drop into my 405 cube.
Hobgoblin Captain isn't terrible, but the only 3/2 I still run in red is Gore-House Chainwalker. And that one is only in there for its +1/+1 counter synergies, if you don't have any you won't put him into a deck unless you're desperate for two drops. A vanilla 3/1 is so weak and can so easily be blocked to death that I don't think the late game upside makes up for the really bad performance it has when it wants to attack on turn 3 or 4 or generally if you have not enough power to attack with first strike.
This type of effect is naturally better the earlier it comes down. Liliana's Devotee only has a (overall lower) C color cost, it has a better, more resilient body and the tokens it creates stay 2/2 even after it is gone. Deathpriest of Myrkul isn't terrible and in mono black decks with a lot of tribal synergies it may be better, but Devotee is overall the better cube card from my pov.
Grim Wanderer will often just be a dead card in your hand. Plus I like a 3/2 flying deathtouch for B a lot more than a vanilla 5/3 for 1B. Flash allows you to play this when one of your blockers died or a creature gets killed by a sorcery speed spell, but then you need to hold up mana for something that may or may not happen, which is not an option if you have anything else at all to do with your mana and especially not if you play anything that is even remotely aggressive.
Don't think it's better than Undying Evil. It makes the creature enter the battlefield tapped, which is a pretty big downside if they remove one of your blockers. I believe this will come up at least as often as trying to cast it on a creature that already has a +1/+1 counter on it. Especially since it's a black card.
Good-Fortune Unicorn is a must-have. Personally I also run Pledge of Unity.
Unfortunately there are no truly great Dimir cards for reanimator. Psychatog is a decent one as it's a discard outlet and works well in combination with other loot effects that fill the yard. I also run Tomebound Lich. But there are no cards in Dimir that scream 'I'm a no-brainer for a reanimator deck', which is a bit of a shame.
Renata, Called to the Hunt and Scurry Oak work in pretty much any creature deck, so they're not very parasitic and you can play them just fine in a deck with no specific +1/+1 counters support. Ivy Lane Denizen already requires a high percentage of green creatures to be good, Herd Baloth is even more parasitic by absolutely requiring at least 3-4 cards that can put counters on him. I'm not interested in another, worse version of Renata and I most likely won't add Herd Baloth for the reason mentioned either, even though it's tempting as it's certainly super strong with the right support.
I already run Evolution Sage as a parasitic counters payoff card and I think it's much easier to trigger than Herd Baloth since all you need are creatures with counters on them and it doesn't even matter whether you have them before or after you play the Sage. And just like the Baloth the effect can take over the game with the right setup.
Barbed Spike is a Stormfront Pegasus (which is still a playable cube card on its own, even if it's certainly not top tier) that leaves a really bad equipment behind. Lightning Spear is a bad equipment that can also work as a really bad burn spell.
I don't think Lightning Spear is unplayable, but ultimately it's seems like a card that is 'meh' at best no matter when you play it while Barbed Spike is a good card for any aggressive white deck.
Additions:
Flametongue Yearling - I dislike CC cards and avoid them wherever I can, but this is probably too good to pass and it will most likely replace Fire Imp, like in many other cubes as it seems.
Abundant Harvest - Good card filtering spell in the color that needs it most. Better than Adventurous Impulse imo and that's still in my cube so this card will replace it.
Barbed Spike - Finally an upgrade for Stormfront Pegasus and an easy swap. Additional support for the equipment deck as well.
Lose Focus - A very good counterspell, will most likely replace Complicate, which is expensive to cast and often random.
Scurry Oak - A powerful three drop if played on curve and it has synergies with token and +1/+1 counter deck, both of which I support in WG.
Dragon's Rage Channeler - Great one drop for a spells matter deck. Will provide card filtering early and a reasonable attacker/finisher later. Only downside is that you have not much control over when it will become a flyer that attacks each turn, which may result in suicide every once in a while.
Archfiend of Sorrows - I had Havoc Demon in my cube for some time and it wasn't terrible, but ultimately it was too narrow. Archfiend of Sorrows will work in reanimator decks, BG graveyard decks and generally in midrange and control decks.
Unbounded Potential - Will most likely replace Shoulder to Shoulder as it should be quite a bit more powerful in a counters deck and both aren't really playable outside of that deck.
Not sure yet/honorable mentions:
Bone Shards - I'm looking for a removal spell that doesn't work in control and this may be it. Will think about it.
Herd Baloth - Tempting as it can become insanely powerful with the right setup.
Legion Vanguard - I like sacrifice engines and this doesn't seem too bad. On the other hand the ability has a cost and isn't that high impact. Will think about it.
Blazing Rootwalla - A decent red one drop, but in most cases you can't afford to spend mana to pump it on your second turn in an aggro deck and later on a 3/1 isn't that great either. Madness will hardly be useful unless you're lucky and can cast Faithless Looting.
Vile Entomber - Probably a bit too narrow. For a reanimator deck the effect comes too late and in a graveyard deck you get a 2/2 deathtouch and a card at best, half a card or no card at worst. In any deck that doesn't run at least two good flashback cards he's unplayable.
Goblin Traprunner - I think this is quite powerful and possibly better than Beetleback Chief, but I hate coin flip as a mechanic. You attack with it and don't know what will come out of it, so often you're either screwed or it may even win you the game. Magic is random enough as is, so I don't need this.
Tireless Provisioner - I'm unsure about this card. Food tokens are next to worthless and if you run out of lands after turn three you wished you'd have Civic Wayfinder in your deck instead. On the other hand if you have a lot of lands it can be powerful. I guess I'll stick with the more reliable and boríng card for now.
Rift Sower - Worse than Search for Tomorrow, but not a bad card. Not sure what to cut for it though.
Foundation Breaker - Cards like that are sideboard cards mostly in my cube, so I don't want to run too many of them. This isn't bad, but I like my other options more.
Timeless Witness - This is a bit too expensive for my taste. Getting back a card is strong, Eternalize is strong, but I doubt it will be super useful at that cost since cube isn't so slow that you can easily afford to play a 4 cmc Eternal Witness. Will still order a copy.
Thraben Watcher - Good flyer, but white is the token color and even the skies deck runs a lot of token cards. If it would include tokens it would probably be too good and an absolute no-brainer, but for now I'll stick with my other anthem effects.
Finally we get a white 2/1 flyer two drop with upside. It's a very small upside as the equipment can't possibly be any worse than this, but it's better than nothing and you get equipment (and possibly artifact if you run that) deck synergies.
Abundant Harvest was already spoiled and it's a good card that will replace Adventurous Impulse in my cube.
None of the other cards interest me so far, but these two are already pretty good.
Am I missing something? The deck that shows up for me has 33 non-land cards and it's a two color aggro deck full of CC cards and one drops from two different colors that would require a mana base like a contructed Legacy deck.
It's certainly possible to make a real deck out of this pile, but then you'd either have to go black with only Thunderous Orator and a few other white cards with low color commitment. Or (which would probably be the better option) you could go down the white token route, in which case you'd have to ditch the black CC cards and one drops.
And Danitha Capashen, Paragon really doesn't have a place in either build due to lack of pump and equipment/auras.
In any case, this doesn't look insane to me. To me it just proves that Thunderous Orator is a Stormfront Pegasus (which is by now certainly a lower end card, it's about time we get a 2/1 flyer with upside) that trades reliability for a potential upside if it gets played in a perfect deck for it.
If you don't mind the variance certainly a playable card, but not more than that.