I like Spinewoods Paladin. It's an easier to cast Arborback Stomper, but gaining only 3 lifes, not 5. That could be an important difference to survive against aggro when you try to stabilize casting it. The plot ability I think it's additive distraction, but who knows, maybe on turn 3 or 4 you don't have the fifth land or the mana dork you need to play it and plot could do the job there for your next turn.
I think the problem for me lies in the fact that a lot of the artifact synergy cards feel either too slow or only work in a dedicated artifact deck.
Why? If you run good cards for any deck, you don't have to be afraid if those cards are only good for the artifact deck. Well, maybe some removal spells or payoffs cards are better in that deck, but cards like Experimental Synthesizer, Twinshot Sniper, Spyglass Siren, Goldhound, Whirler Rogue or Deduce are always good.
And as you said in your first post, many of them crosspollinate with Rakdos, or even Boros Modular or maybe Izzet Delirium as a subarchetype, or Azorius Balance (artifacts & enchantments) with Ensoul Artifact, Case of the Filched Falcon and Static Net. It all depends on what kind of direction you want for your cube: a more sinergistic cube, a thematic artifact cube, or just a goodstuff box with just some "parasitic" gold signposts.
I have a box where I save secondary archetypes just in case I look for inspiration when I design new cubes. It's becoming like a giant Jump-Start box
Izzet Sacrifice Artifacts is the last one I'm building.
Detective Satchel is also an important card for the archetype. It's an engine with Harried Dronesmith that leaves more and more thopters at the end of each of your turns.
Diamond Pick-Axe will give you Treasures just by attacking, not needing to deal combat damage and if you play with Ensoul Artifact and Zoetic Glyph, you have a powerful sinergy there.
Slickshot Lockpicker, awesone card. 3 mana to play it and then cast another spell from the grave could be hard, but the addition of plot to cast it for free in a later turn makes the card really good. Also good stats.
Form a Posse. Is this our first spell that creates X creatures? This is not Forth Eorlingas but I like it, even though Heroic Reinforcements still has a really strong position in Peasant, IMO.
Red Herring: Strictly better Valley Dasher that gives you a card if is outclassed. Also, being an artifact creature fuels Delirium if you sacrifice. UR Delirium is a turning a very playable archetype I wish to play in a future cube I would design.
Repulsive Mutation, looks decent as a card that mixes several archetypes. Tempo/flash, +1/+1 counters, even ramp if you want to spend your mana pumping a mana dork. I think the counter mode should be easy to make it work, but you need to be careful playing this, as there is a chance to be blown out if your opponent kills your creature in response. At least, if you have one or two creatures on board the card is a GU Quench or Mana Leak, you don't need to pay X to do something with it. I could test it even knowing is not perfect, but the card fits with what I play in my simic section.
Escape Tunnel is an easy swap unless you don't want to add more complexity to old-but-well-know staples like Evolving Wilds. Making a 1/1 Carrion Feeder unblockable to sacrifice all your stuff and closing the game with it sounds fun if your opponent doesn't kill it.
Branch of Vitu-Ghazi is another utility land with upside when you don't need more lands. A manland with ward 2 is not crazy but decent. Also dodges removal turning face up but with some bouncelands support you can play it again face down. Not a great play but it's there.
I don't know. There is nothing (but Escape Tunnel) that looks really exciting for the moment, just a bunch of cards with some interesting designs. None of them look to be the mythic uncommon from every set, but there are many cards to see yet.
The feelings I have is that Murders at Karlov's Manor is a very parasitic set speaking about mechanics, as it was All Will Be One with Toxic, Corrupt, Oil counters... Disguise, Cloak, Collect Evidence, Suspect, Cases... Maybe Collect Evidence or Investigate will bring something good, but I don't know.
I'm curious to see what people did this year with their cubes and compared them with mine. I'm conscious reading other threads that some cards in my cube could be go, so let's see what could a I swap.
If I picked an early Guardian of the Guildpact be sure I tried to draft one or two colorless equipments for him to kill faster. Bonesplitter or Loxodon Warhammer and go for the kill. It's not about the card being fast or slow for me, it's more about the card being almost unkillable in a game.
Aggro decks in my Cube are really fast and powerful, and have won several drafts where we play. It's true that some players in my playgroup always love to build the monored or boros decks. That why in many of my last updates I try to reinforce the other decks with more tools for them, for example with more creatires with 3 toughness to early stop the red player. But also removing some redundancy cards, like burn spells, for example, and swapping them with more cheaper but not so damaging cards (Lightning Strike OUT, Play With Fire IN), or introducing Echoing Truth to deal with several tokens with the same name.
About Capsize, as I said, maybe I'm influenced by my experience with the card in Pauper (several years ago playing Dimir control Teachings). Capsize by itself is very slow, as it is Sprout Swarm, but when you play it with Young Pyromancer, Murmuring Mystic, Third Path Iconoclast and/or Saheeli, Sublime Artificer, it seems you have a solid plan there. I run a tokens archetype in the Cube, too, and the card is hard there.
I was reading a post wrote in Reddit one-two days ago about this same topic.
And it's been interesting to read more comments and opinions about Sprout and Capsize. I will think about what to do with them. I love some sinergies they create in my Cube.
It looks you have a good cube, with some outdated cards, like Blastoderm and Calciderm. But it's the same situation I could have with Sprout and Capsize. Each one of us thinks they are still good cards and need more opinions to see the reality of those cards. I would add at least 10 more dual lands in your cube.
Guardian of the Guildpact was in many drafts an easy P1p1 if you opened him. I removed him from my Cube just because requires the Cube to be built around that card in some aspects. Any multicolor creature can block it, ok. But not all of them can kill it as it has 3 toughness. That card forced me to add multicolor removal in almost any if my gold sections, filling a precious slot in my guilds. I love the card but it was a parasitic card in some aspects. I still run Sphinx of the Guildpact, but at least you can block it and is a good target to reanimate or to win in control decks.
Sprout Swarm to me is still a staple for Peasant, but it's obviously not so powerful today. It's a slow card but I still like it.
The same with Capsize. Love the card, I played with it in Constructed Pauper many times but it's slow, and even more, it's frustrating to play against it. Probably it will be removed from my cube, too, sooner or later, as I did with Mother of Runes for the same reason.
Jade Mage or Azure Mage are also slow cards, but they are good mana sinks, and Jade is an engine to build an army in ramp or token decks. Azure may be in some outclassed with Spectral Sailor (evasion and flash), but I still like them for control/tempo decks.
The red and white old shrines, I think they are still good payoffs. I play with Oketra's Monument instead of the White shrine but the red one gives you some inevitability to finish your matches, even when you don't have to be in those colors to win, just play them and wait. Not the most fun way to win, but a legit one.
The card is aawesome for a stompy deck, but remember that if your opponent kills Itzquinth, Firstborn of Gishath in response to the shock trigger, the ability doesn't do any damage.
I like Marauding Brinefang. Not sure if it's better than Striped Riverwinder. I mean, it's a fair version of Riverwinder. I prefer Ward 3 over Hexproof to have a fair gameplay, but the cycling ability to draw a card looks better for control decks than just search forn an Island. Riverwinder is a cantrip you may use to look for an answer and the new one is just a pseudo ramp ability. I would love to play both, and I would nerf Riverwinder to Ward 3 if I could but I think I should choose only one.
Nurturing Bristleback is yet another decent high-end cycler. They've been hitting that note hard lately.
I'm running Howling Giant and I have doubts if this is better or not. Just one token on etb but bigger, and no reach but cycling instead. I suppose I will appreciate reach in green and more tokens, the same I did with Beetleback Chief and Chimney Rabble. But the new card is useful in early searching for a foredt and goes to the graveyard to be reanimated. Tough decisions...
I like it, too. The frog has a bigger upside in mid-late game than many other mana dorks you could draw. Reach is something green appreciates, and the deathtouch ability is a threat to stop anything from attacking.
Market Gnome is a card I also like for UW control decks. Good blocker, replaces itself when it dies and gives you 1 life. It's not a defender, so you may equip it, or put +1/+1 counters on it. And also and artifact if that’s important for somebody. 1-mana creatures begin to be stacked with many 2/1 with upside so I also appreciate other options for that slot, not only for aggro decks. Probably not an exciting creature, but who knows.
I would write a little bit more if I dominated more English language (I'm from Spain). That's why I stopped writing set reviews articles, because in the end it took me too much time and I like to explain things, sinergies... I would love to write some in-deep archetypes builds articles, but I'm lazy thinking about translating each paragraph.
My Cube is just the result of reading tons of articles and reviews, listening podcasts and see what people does, how they build their Cubes, what they like to try with each new set, what my friends think about this card or another one, and also The Average Peasant cube you do. I look at it several times to see if something is played or not, what could I change here or there, do I play with something I think it's a great card but people not? It's an aweosme tool to see the peasant "metagame".
Yes, that's another solid option I saw during the spoiler season too. Obviously, there's exile removal, but the card seems good.
I didn't know Trikelion was uncommon in an elder set.
Why? If you run good cards for any deck, you don't have to be afraid if those cards are only good for the artifact deck. Well, maybe some removal spells or payoffs cards are better in that deck, but cards like Experimental Synthesizer, Twinshot Sniper, Spyglass Siren, Goldhound, Whirler Rogue or Deduce are always good.
And as you said in your first post, many of them crosspollinate with Rakdos, or even Boros Modular or maybe Izzet Delirium as a subarchetype, or Azorius Balance (artifacts & enchantments) with Ensoul Artifact, Case of the Filched Falcon and Static Net. It all depends on what kind of direction you want for your cube: a more sinergistic cube, a thematic artifact cube, or just a goodstuff box with just some "parasitic" gold signposts.
But also Scurry Oak / Herd Baloth and Ivy Lane Denizen.
Not a combo doing this, but Curse of Predation with Scurry Oak or specially Herd Baloth attacking each turn will be powerful, too.
Izzet Sacrifice Artifacts is the last one I'm building.
Detective Satchel is also an important card for the archetype. It's an engine with Harried Dronesmith that leaves more and more thopters at the end of each of your turns.
Gingerbrute
Mind Stone
Diamond Pick-Axe will give you Treasures just by attacking, not needing to deal combat damage and if you play with Ensoul Artifact and Zoetic Glyph, you have a powerful sinergy there.
Voltage Surge
Demand Answers
Shrapnel Blast
Kuldotha Rebirth
Third Path Iconoclast will give you more artifacts to sacrifice
Combat Courier
Experimental Synthesizer
Lavaspur Boots, this could be a good alternative to Lightning Greaves / Swiftfoot Boots if you don't like Shroud/Hexproof.
Form a Posse. Is this our first spell that creates X creatures? This is not Forth Eorlingas
Repulsive Mutation, looks decent as a card that mixes several archetypes. Tempo/flash, +1/+1 counters, even ramp if you want to spend your mana pumping a mana dork. I think the counter mode should be easy to make it work, but you need to be careful playing this, as there is a chance to be blown out if your opponent kills your creature in response. At least, if you have one or two creatures on board the card is a GU Quench or Mana Leak, you don't need to pay X to do something with it. I could test it even knowing is not perfect, but the card fits with what I play in my simic section.
Aftermath Analyst looks fun if you have a lands archetype and goes well with graveyard themes. Also an elf for Imperious Perfect.
Escape Tunnel is an easy swap unless you don't want to add more complexity to old-but-well-know staples like Evolving Wilds. Making a 1/1 Carrion Feeder unblockable to sacrifice all your stuff and closing the game with it sounds fun if your opponent doesn't kill it.
Branch of Vitu-Ghazi is another utility land with upside when you don't need more lands. A manland with ward 2 is not crazy but decent. Also dodges removal turning face up but with some bouncelands support you can play it again face down. Not a great play but it's there.
Gearbane Orangutan seems good in an artifacts archetype, but I won’t play it over
Plundering Barbarian if I don't have the support for it.
Galvanize looks an obvious add for a draw two archetype.
Pick your Poison is efficient and good, but I'm happy with Stormkeld Vanguard.
I don't know. There is nothing (but Escape Tunnel) that looks really exciting for the moment, just a bunch of cards with some interesting designs. None of them look to be the mythic uncommon from every set, but there are many cards to see yet.
The feelings I have is that Murders at Karlov's Manor is a very parasitic set speaking about mechanics, as it was All Will Be One with Toxic, Corrupt, Oil counters... Disguise, Cloak, Collect Evidence, Suspect, Cases... Maybe Collect Evidence or Investigate will bring something good, but I don't know.
I'm curious to see what people did this year with their cubes and compared them with mine. I'm conscious reading other threads that some cards in my cube could be go, so let's see what could a I swap.
Aggro decks in my Cube are really fast and powerful, and have won several drafts where we play. It's true that some players in my playgroup always love to build the monored or boros decks. That why in many of my last updates I try to reinforce the other decks with more tools for them, for example with more creatires with 3 toughness to early stop the red player. But also removing some redundancy cards, like burn spells, for example, and swapping them with more cheaper but not so damaging cards (Lightning Strike OUT, Play With Fire IN), or introducing Echoing Truth to deal with several tokens with the same name.
About Capsize, as I said, maybe I'm influenced by my experience with the card in Pauper (several years ago playing Dimir control Teachings). Capsize by itself is very slow, as it is Sprout Swarm, but when you play it with Young Pyromancer, Murmuring Mystic, Third Path Iconoclast and/or Saheeli, Sublime Artificer, it seems you have a solid plan there. I run a tokens archetype in the Cube, too, and the card is hard there.
I was reading a post wrote in Reddit one-two days ago about this same topic.
https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgcube/comments/18ltol3/peasant_cube_yaynay_to_stier_cards/
And it's been interesting to read more comments and opinions about Sprout and Capsize. I will think about what to do with them. I love some sinergies they create in my Cube.
It looks you have a good cube, with some outdated cards, like Blastoderm and Calciderm. But it's the same situation I could have with Sprout and Capsize. Each one of us thinks they are still good cards and need more opinions to see the reality of those cards. I would add at least 10 more dual lands in your cube.
Sprout Swarm to me is still a staple for Peasant, but it's obviously not so powerful today. It's a slow card but I still like it.
The same with Capsize. Love the card, I played with it in Constructed Pauper many times but it's slow, and even more, it's frustrating to play against it. Probably it will be removed from my cube, too, sooner or later, as I did with Mother of Runes for the same reason.
Jade Mage or Azure Mage are also slow cards, but they are good mana sinks, and Jade is an engine to build an army in ramp or token decks. Azure may be in some outclassed with Spectral Sailor (evasion and flash), but I still like them for control/tempo decks.
The red and white old shrines, I think they are still good payoffs. I play with Oketra's Monument instead of the White shrine but the red one gives you some inevitability to finish your matches, even when you don't have to be in those colors to win, just play them and wait. Not the most fun way to win, but a legit one.
I like Marauding Brinefang. Not sure if it's better than Striped Riverwinder. I mean, it's a fair version of Riverwinder. I prefer Ward 3 over Hexproof to have a fair gameplay, but the cycling ability to draw a card looks better for control decks than just search forn an Island. Riverwinder is a cantrip you may use to look for an answer and the new one is just a pseudo ramp ability. I would love to play both, and I would nerf Riverwinder to Ward 3 if I could
I'm running Howling Giant and I have doubts if this is better or not. Just one token on etb but bigger, and no reach but cycling instead. I suppose I will appreciate reach in green and more tokens, the same I did with Beetleback Chief and Chimney Rabble. But the new card is useful in early searching for a foredt and goes to the graveyard to be reanimated. Tough decisions...
Market Gnome is a card I also like for UW control decks. Good blocker, replaces itself when it dies and gives you 1 life. It's not a defender, so you may equip it, or put +1/+1 counters on it. And also and artifact if that’s important for somebody. 1-mana creatures begin to be stacked with many 2/1 with upside so I also appreciate other options for that slot, not only for aggro decks. Probably not an exciting creature, but who knows.
My Cube is just the result of reading tons of articles and reviews, listening podcasts and see what people does, how they build their Cubes, what they like to try with each new set, what my friends think about this card or another one, and also The Average Peasant cube you do. I look at it several times to see if something is played or not, what could I change here or there, do I play with something I think it's a great card but people not? It's an aweosme tool to see the peasant "metagame".
Congrats for your effort, too.