If you're trying to push green aggro, you need to add more one-drops, not cut them.
Faerie Guidemother doesn't help aristocrat decks as much as Doomed Traveler, but I can see the Traveler's initial body being very underwhelming if you have to jockey for board position without sac to help you.
Merchant of the Vale is another in a line of recent cards (see Spark Reaper, Vivien's Grizzly) with interesting mana sink abilities that fall just short, imo. I still think blue's loot ability should be shifted to red, as blue's current card drawing and filtering abilities are still miles ahead of every other color. It makes no sense for me to have a strictly worse ability in another color.
For Witching Well, here's a shortlist of cards I don't run at 540 because I either cut them or thought them a bit under par:
The effect is twice as good as Hissing Miasma, if you look at it as a general life swing - same way Lightning Helix represents a six-point life swing, not three. Add the fact that it costs one more mana than Miasma, though, and I would only put the card as 1.5x better. Whether you consider that sort of card playable or not seems to depend. Would it help protect you or win a race better than the average four-drop creature?
Okay, so apparently no blue card is good enough for my pauper cube. They all seem to be meh. Except maybe Queen of Ice and Witching Well.
So no blue card is good enough, except for the two blue cards that might be good enough?
In all seriousness, I agree they probably dont make it in your 360. Witching Well is the next best "cantrip" after Hieroglyphic Illumination, but it's slow - probably don't need a U + 3U draw spell at that size.
Queen of Ice seems worse than Stitched Mangler and friends. I certainly wouldn't cube it ahead of Frost Lynx. Getting the effect as an ETB is better than paying extra for the adventure unless you want to push spells-matter, and even then... the Queen's static ability seems overly defensive.
I'm not really sure because I have a good amount of experience with all of these creatures but not necessarily in a Pauper Cube environment. I was thinking you had a lot of 5 drops considering you also had a goodly number of higher cost creatures as well. But you have a large Cube at 540 and I can see the logic as pseudo-payoffs.
I'll be cutting Walker this update. I was all googly-eyed when it was downshifted, but the base body is too vanilla, it's genuinely clunky to play, and the evoke isn't anything special. "Leaves play" triggers are a good design space for fatties at common, but eight mana is just far too much. As for the others, Greater Sandwurm is a concession to early game thanks to the cycling (is Rampaging Hippo better? I just realized I have no green six drops, so this might be a half-decent swap). Maul Splicer is still the best play you can make for seven mana at pauper. And Wrecking Beast presents a surprise, a ton of damage and a dangerously fast clock.
Personally, we tend to avoid redundancy in things like this so Sentinel Spider kind of got pushed out when Bitterbow showed up (we do occasionally still put the Spider in though..we like that it's a "green Serra Angel" :))
The Entourage is different enough that it is hard to compare it to the other 5-drops. Also, we tend to count Wickerbough Elder as close to being a 5-drop (but he does need a target which isn't always available).
Entourage is different enough, sure, but putting Wickerbough Elder with the five-drops isn't fair to other five-drops since I'm pretty sure it would be the number one creature there
Nessian Asp can get big, but it still plays out fairly vanilla to me. I like the look of Silverback Shaman and Excavating Anurid, even if they hit less hard than Lifecraft Cavalry or Rhox Maulers. I have difficulty figuring out whether to try Shaman or Anurid. The things I like about them:
Shaman has trample up-front.
Anurid draws a card up-front.
Since I already have dudes playing the role of big trampler right now, I'm leaning towards Anurid for diversity. It helps you get to threshold faster, it technically has two modes since the sacrifice is a may, and vigilance on a fatty is a strong ability. Technically I already have dudes in the role of vigilant fatty too, though, so it's a bit of a wash for me. Do you have any follow-up info on these two?
Oh, there are also the hexproof creatures which are included if there is a hexproof theme and excluded otherwise.
I guess you're referring to Rubbleback Rhino and Wardscale Crocodile. They're not bad, but they tend to be under curve when played, so you really need to pair them with a stat boost to get the most out of them. I don't think they're a bad choice, I just personally prefer to cube more standalone beaters.
You have a ton of fight cards -- including 1 Rabid Bites (Aggressive Instinct being the same card). Also, a huge number of 5+ drops. Those are the two things I'm not necessarily convinced of in that volume.
Sure, let's take a look there. I prefer the super-fight cards like Rabid Bite over the Prey Upon variants, so I could cut Epic Confrontation. Has fight gone down in value in the last few years? Prey Upon certainly hasn't aged well.
Five drops: Since we talked four drops recently, I guess this is a natural next step. I added a few extras in this category to give green ramp some punch, but I'm ok cutting the worst couple.
Here's how I rank them. The ones I still run, at least.
1. Entourage of Trest - unique card advantage in green.
2. Bitterbow Sharpshooters - solve a major weakness of green decks while providing an excellent offense/defense combination.
3. Sentinel Spider - same as above, but adds redundancy.
4. Tajuru Pathwarden - similar to above, but solves the problem of chump blockers and tokens.
5. Lifecraft Cavalry - conditional huge trampler.
6. Rhox Maulers - another one. I'm still not sure who to give the edge to between Maulers/Cavalry.
7. Nessian Asp - not nearly as good as Bitterbow/Sentinel Spider, I think. I wonder if anyone would still advocate strongly for including this today.
8. Rampaging Rendhorn - flexible and unique, but somewhat under the curve.
Is this accurate? And what's the better card between Lifecraft Cavalry and Rhox Maulers?
I'm going through another massive update for Throne of Eldraine, but I'm stuck. I need three cuts from my green section. Do you guys have a particular opinion about what's weakest or the worst fit for green here?
Oh, yeah Blastoderm, Imperiosaur and Emperor Crocodile are good, but Peema Outrider is right there with them. The 5 power guys are all efficient, but they can get stonewalled pretty hard by tokens. Outrider and Witchstalker both help solve that problem. More generally, it's always good to diversify so that your deck isn't always open to the same weakness.
At 540, I can happily get rid of my worst four drop in Wild Leotau, which has grown to become literally the worst of both worlds (gets stonewalled, but also has lower toughness than newer four drops) on top of its original drawback. If this stream of beaters continues, I'll have to think about cutting Festerhide Boar and/or Primal Huntbeast next.
I agree with Slipper and Tactician, but I really don't think Fierce Witchstalker is a negligible preference choice. It's arguably better than Peema Outrider, and that guy is an all-star. You trade a Servo for a Food token, but you get to keep the full 4/4 stats. At the very least, it represents a direct upgrade to Baloth Gorger, which is barely better if you support super-ramp AND +1/+1 counters. Trample is just better. And getting to chow down on some food to recoup life is a big deal.
Do let us know how Giant's Skewer goes. It's a bit overpriced and the opponent has way too much control in how you benefit, but I'm hoping for more interesting equipment designs like this one.
Queen of Ice is a decent Stitched Mangler variant. You have adventure mode and the creature's ice ability, giving you choices in how to play it out.
Witching Well is deceptively strong. Will be good at smoothing out curves and provides some incidental artifact synergy.
Smitten Swordmaster - technically an upgrade but Knights aren't a thing in pauper. I only run about eight, and that's at 540 size with some questionable ones like Parhelion Patrol or Gryff Vanguard. The adventure is maybe gonna poke in for 1 life every once in a blue moon. I think I prefer the simplicity of Child of Night.
Crystal Slipper is nice. Cheap equip, a power boost and haste. This should see inclusion. Flavorwise though, it's only one step away from Sirlin's clown shoes dilemma.
Fierce Witchstalker is great. Another card in competition for the four-drop slot after Baloth Gorger, this one looks like it has a slight edge since it comes with trample and (delayed) lifegain. Almost an Obstinate Baloth at common! Peripheral synergies with blink and artifact-matters. This should be in pauper lists.
Rosethorn Halberd is functionally a one-mana Giant Strength with timing restrictions. The games where you'll be able to equip it twice are going to be few and far between, unless you have a dragon cube. I'm always interested in playable equipment, but I think this one misses the cut by a hair (equip cost 4 would have made it in for me).
Wildwood Tracker is another deceptively strong card. Note that it attacks or blocks as a 2/2, you just need to have another creature. And you don't need to commit with the other creature like previously undercosted designs in this vein (Jackal Familiar, Ember Beast, Loyal Pegasus).
Prophet of the Peak is a nice push towards value for pauper fatties. It's almost good enough.
I like Weapon Rack as an inverse of Serrated Arrows. Also a neat push for +1/+1 counters in pauper if we want it. Just wish it was instant speed.
The common nonbasics (Idyllic Grange, Witch's Cottage, Mystic Sanctuary, Dwarven Mine) all seem great aside from green. Note that they represent a slight boost to Farseek since you can now get a spell effect with your land tutor. I goofed, the untapped clause is relevant because Farseek puts them into play tapped -_-
Basic research skills. I looked up most of the cubetutor lists from the active posters on this subforum and virtually none of them run Niblis, while a couple run Topplegeist. Bit iffy to search now as cubetutor seems to be acting up, but I recommend checking in on your fellow cubers' lists once in a while to see what the trends are.
This might only be germane to me, but I also cross-referenced several cubes of my size (540 range) that were updated in the last few months. Again, not a lot of Niblis. So my logic is based on observation of a few trends at work.
Oppressive Rays is good early-game removal in pauper. I know some paupers have success with Slow Motion and Rays has a similar play pattern. The issue is that there is so much unconditional removal available, especially at peasant with O-Ring effects, that it falls way down in the playable tiers. I think it could find success in very low-economy cubes (where every mana counts) instead of dragon cubes, where games play out in slower battlecruiser style. As you said, it's interesting because it provides aggro-only removal (maybe to balance out control-only removal like Condemn?)
Sky Tether is super stinky. Don't play it unless you're intentionally trying to avoid quality removal like Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile. A generic tapper like Goldmeadow Harrier seems better as a catch-all card, unless you're really all in on the flying theme - and I just don't think that's necessary.
Niblis of the Urn is a second-but-worse Topplegeist, which seems to do ok around here. I'm not a fan of Flying Men with marginal upside (and Niblis is worse than that), but stuff like Spectral Sailor is going some ways to give me hope for future designs.
The only rare downshifts are the strictly-worse painlands from Tempest (Skyshroud Forest and friends). And they're probably not worth mentioning for multiple reasons (different design period/paradigm, online-only, really bad lol).
Generally speaking, a rare to uncommon downshift of a manafixing land in physical copy would be unprecedented. I bring up the Temples because they are the odd ones out in every iteration of modern guild fixing they've done so far. However, as VariSami pointed out, rainbow fixing is a possibility (Tendo Ice Bridge would be my second pick for a downshift since Aether Hub is a thing). So printing under another name is a possible solution? The Zendikar refuges got similarly downshifted into the Tarkir gainlands.
As an aside, printing the second half of the snow taplands could make for a legitimate peasant cycle. Snow mana represents a marginal benefit now, thanks to the influx of snow cards from Modern Horizons.
Thanks for all the input. The idea of adding 4 copies of a specific land is appealing. However, this does not entirely solve the problem of the etb untapped at turn one. I guess we hope that WotC will reprint painlands at UC.
Wizards is more likely to print Temples at uncommon before painlands. Reminder that duals coming into play untapped, even as a conditional, is considered a rare-level ability. It's such a huge benefit, that it's actually worth two marginal benefits on a land. To see what I mean, consider the rarity of modern duals (printed in the last five years):
M10 Checklands like Dragonskull Summit - seems simple enough to print at uncommon, but coming into play untapped is a rare ability.
Battle for Zendikar manlands like Lumbering Falls - getting a creature with your manafixer is another rare-level ability. Note that manlands are possible at uncommon without manafixing (Frostwalk Bastion).
Battle for Zendikar tangolands like Cinder Glade - two benefits. On top of a chance to come into play untapped, they also have land types.
Shadows over Innistrad taplands like Port Town - chance to come into play untapped. Rare.
Kaladesh fastlands like Inspiring Vantage - chance to come into play untapped. Rare.
Amonkhet bicycle lands like Scattered Groves - another highlight like the tangolands. Although they don't enter untapped, they enjoy the double benefit of land types + cycling.
Battlebond taplands like Morphic Pool - again, coming into play untapped is the only ability needed to make this rare.
Temple of Silence and friends are the biggest outlier to this philosophy. They enter tapped and only have one marginal benefit instead of two. I fully expect them to be downshifted within the next five years. Possibly even in the Return to Theros set, but more likely in a supplemental Masters set, which are known for up/downshifts, or precons like Commander or Planeswalker decks - maybe even in a drip feed of 1-3 Temples per year through those channels. The uncommon Shadows over Innistrad taplands like Stone Quarry were downshifted in planeswalker decks over a period of years, allowing for precedent.
Theros is old enough to potentially fall outside this design theory (note the increase in new dual lands in the last five years compared to the previous five years - in the same time-span, only Worldwake manlands/enemy fetches and Scars fastlands appear) so it may be possible to update their rarity according to new design paradigms.
Also note that this is all circumstantial evidence based on a hunch from many years of playing and observing land cycles, specifically from the perspective of pauper cube where downshifts are important
The biggest criteria I use for including CC creatures these days is whether I'm still fine playing them on turn 3. Typically, that means they provide enough value or utility to stay useful at most points in the game. And to answer your point, I don't think they're often aggro creatures.
In this case, Strangleroot Geist's haste helps make up for getting cast a turn later, and the two bodies, Skullclampable nature, and +1/+1 counter are all potentially relevant in evaluating whether you're ok dropping it a turn later.
Others I've thought about at some point: Nether Shadow - would be an interesting choice if you don't care about graveyard-order-matters cards. Skullclampable, binnable and sac-able, but not a very good beater. More of a Squee, Goblin Nabob card. Knight of the Kitchen Sink - cool if you run silver borders. Phalanx Leader - the CC is fine since he's generally the last guy you want to play, but you really want Theros-like levels of support for him to matter. Goblin Wardriver - similar to above since you're usually ok running him out turn 3 or later to pump the rest of the team, but is generally worse than Consul's Lieutenant. Kalonian Tusker - meh. Like I said, you want more than stats, you want some kind of utility so that your play isn't obsolete past turn 3. Leonin Relic-Warder - again fine, since it functions like a removal spell, you don't need to drop it on curve. Undead Augur - again, good as the last guy you drop in the decks that want him. Vampire Hexmage - has more value as a planeswalker removal spell in peasant now, so less need to drop it on curve. Warrior en-Kor - used to be cool as the guy who could redirect all the damage towards your pro-color guys like White Knight or Paladin en-Vec, but protection from color is on its way out of cubes.
If you're trying to push green aggro, you need to add more one-drops, not cut them.
Faerie Guidemother doesn't help aristocrat decks as much as Doomed Traveler, but I can see the Traveler's initial body being very underwhelming if you have to jockey for board position without sac to help you.
Merchant of the Vale is another in a line of recent cards (see Spark Reaper, Vivien's Grizzly) with interesting mana sink abilities that fall just short, imo. I still think blue's loot ability should be shifted to red, as blue's current card drawing and filtering abilities are still miles ahead of every other color. It makes no sense for me to have a strictly worse ability in another color.
For Witching Well, here's a shortlist of cards I don't run at 540 because I either cut them or thought them a bit under par:
Also, why is Raptor Companion a pet card? Is this a joke inclusion? Did it help you win a draft GP or something?
So no blue card is good enough, except for the two blue cards that might be good enough?
In all seriousness, I agree they probably dont make it in your 360. Witching Well is the next best "cantrip" after Hieroglyphic Illumination, but it's slow - probably don't need a U + 3U draw spell at that size.
Queen of Ice seems worse than Stitched Mangler and friends. I certainly wouldn't cube it ahead of Frost Lynx. Getting the effect as an ETB is better than paying extra for the adventure unless you want to push spells-matter, and even then... the Queen's static ability seems overly defensive.
Other big drops I run:
Greater Sandwurm
Maul Splicer
Wrecking Beast
Walker of the Grove
I'll be cutting Walker this update. I was all googly-eyed when it was downshifted, but the base body is too vanilla, it's genuinely clunky to play, and the evoke isn't anything special. "Leaves play" triggers are a good design space for fatties at common, but eight mana is just far too much. As for the others, Greater Sandwurm is a concession to early game thanks to the cycling (is Rampaging Hippo better? I just realized I have no green six drops, so this might be a half-decent swap). Maul Splicer is still the best play you can make for seven mana at pauper. And Wrecking Beast presents a surprise, a ton of damage and a dangerously fast clock.
Oh yeah, it's such a bomb.
Entourage is different enough, sure, but putting Wickerbough Elder with the five-drops isn't fair to other five-drops since I'm pretty sure it would be the number one creature there
Nessian Asp can get big, but it still plays out fairly vanilla to me. I like the look of Silverback Shaman and Excavating Anurid, even if they hit less hard than Lifecraft Cavalry or Rhox Maulers. I have difficulty figuring out whether to try Shaman or Anurid. The things I like about them:
Shaman has trample up-front.
Anurid draws a card up-front.
Since I already have dudes playing the role of big trampler right now, I'm leaning towards Anurid for diversity. It helps you get to threshold faster, it technically has two modes since the sacrifice is a may, and vigilance on a fatty is a strong ability. Technically I already have dudes in the role of vigilant fatty too, though, so it's a bit of a wash for me. Do you have any follow-up info on these two?
I guess you're referring to Rubbleback Rhino and Wardscale Crocodile. They're not bad, but they tend to be under curve when played, so you really need to pair them with a stat boost to get the most out of them. I don't think they're a bad choice, I just personally prefer to cube more standalone beaters.
Sure, let's take a look there. I prefer the super-fight cards like Rabid Bite over the Prey Upon variants, so I could cut Epic Confrontation. Has fight gone down in value in the last few years? Prey Upon certainly hasn't aged well.
Five drops: Since we talked four drops recently, I guess this is a natural next step. I added a few extras in this category to give green ramp some punch, but I'm ok cutting the worst couple.
Here's how I rank them. The ones I still run, at least.
1. Entourage of Trest - unique card advantage in green.
2. Bitterbow Sharpshooters - solve a major weakness of green decks while providing an excellent offense/defense combination.
3. Sentinel Spider - same as above, but adds redundancy.
4. Tajuru Pathwarden - similar to above, but solves the problem of chump blockers and tokens.
5. Lifecraft Cavalry - conditional huge trampler.
6. Rhox Maulers - another one. I'm still not sure who to give the edge to between Maulers/Cavalry.
7. Nessian Asp - not nearly as good as Bitterbow/Sentinel Spider, I think. I wonder if anyone would still advocate strongly for including this today.
8. Rampaging Rendhorn - flexible and unique, but somewhat under the curve.
Is this accurate? And what's the better card between Lifecraft Cavalry and Rhox Maulers?
At 540, I can happily get rid of my worst four drop in Wild Leotau, which has grown to become literally the worst of both worlds (gets stonewalled, but also has lower toughness than newer four drops) on top of its original drawback. If this stream of beaters continues, I'll have to think about cutting Festerhide Boar and/or Primal Huntbeast next.
Do let us know how Giant's Skewer goes. It's a bit overpriced and the opponent has way too much control in how you benefit, but I'm hoping for more interesting equipment designs like this one.
Silverflame Squire has potential as a combat trick and a body in one. Comparable to Briarhorn.
Queen of Ice is a decent Stitched Mangler variant. You have adventure mode and the creature's ice ability, giving you choices in how to play it out.
Witching Well is deceptively strong. Will be good at smoothing out curves and provides some incidental artifact synergy.
Smitten Swordmaster - technically an upgrade but Knights aren't a thing in pauper. I only run about eight, and that's at 540 size with some questionable ones like Parhelion Patrol or Gryff Vanguard. The adventure is maybe gonna poke in for 1 life every once in a blue moon. I think I prefer the simplicity of Child of Night.
Crystal Slipper is nice. Cheap equip, a power boost and haste. This should see inclusion. Flavorwise though, it's only one step away from Sirlin's clown shoes dilemma.
Thrill of Possibility - instant speed improves this a lot over Tormenting Voice. Gives red some play that isn't burn.
Fierce Witchstalker is great. Another card in competition for the four-drop slot after Baloth Gorger, this one looks like it has a slight edge since it comes with trample and (delayed) lifegain. Almost an Obstinate Baloth at common! Peripheral synergies with blink and artifact-matters. This should be in pauper lists.
Rosethorn Halberd is functionally a one-mana Giant Strength with timing restrictions. The games where you'll be able to equip it twice are going to be few and far between, unless you have a dragon cube. I'm always interested in playable equipment, but I think this one misses the cut by a hair (equip cost 4 would have made it in for me).
Wildwood Tracker is another deceptively strong card. Note that it attacks or blocks as a 2/2, you just need to have another creature. And you don't need to commit with the other creature like previously undercosted designs in this vein (Jackal Familiar, Ember Beast, Loyal Pegasus).
I wonder how Crashing Drawbridge will fare, particularly with the crowd that likes Bloodlust Inciter.
Gingerbrute is a colorless Raging Goblin with upside, and that's an acceptable card for pauper.
Prophet of the Peak is a nice push towards value for pauper fatties. It's almost good enough.
I like Weapon Rack as an inverse of Serrated Arrows. Also a neat push for +1/+1 counters in pauper if we want it. Just wish it was instant speed.
The common nonbasics (Idyllic Grange, Witch's Cottage, Mystic Sanctuary, Dwarven Mine) all seem great aside from green.
Note that they represent a slight boost to Farseek since you can now get a spell effect with your land tutor.I goofed, the untapped clause is relevant because Farseek puts them into play tapped -_-My top five, in no particular order:
1. Ardenvale Tactician
2. Fierce Witchstalker
3. Crystal Slipper
4. Gingerbrute
5. Witching Well
Honorable mention to Silverflame Squire, Queen of Ice and the nonbasic lands.
Basic research skills. I looked up most of the cubetutor lists from the active posters on this subforum and virtually none of them run Niblis, while a couple run Topplegeist. Bit iffy to search now as cubetutor seems to be acting up, but I recommend checking in on your fellow cubers' lists once in a while to see what the trends are.
This might only be germane to me, but I also cross-referenced several cubes of my size (540 range) that were updated in the last few months. Again, not a lot of Niblis. So my logic is based on observation of a few trends at work.
Sky Tether is super stinky. Don't play it unless you're intentionally trying to avoid quality removal like Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile. A generic tapper like Goldmeadow Harrier seems better as a catch-all card, unless you're really all in on the flying theme - and I just don't think that's necessary.
Niblis of the Urn is a second-but-worse Topplegeist, which seems to do ok around here. I'm not a fan of Flying Men with marginal upside (and Niblis is worse than that), but stuff like Spectral Sailor is going some ways to give me hope for future designs.
Not even. Blue has Curse of Chains, Winter's Rest, Narcolepsy and two different versions of Claustrophobia. On top of better shrink cards like Frogify or Kasmina's Transmutation. This is a limited combat trick in both senses of the word.
Generally speaking, a rare to uncommon downshift of a manafixing land in physical copy would be unprecedented. I bring up the Temples because they are the odd ones out in every iteration of modern guild fixing they've done so far. However, as VariSami pointed out, rainbow fixing is a possibility (Tendo Ice Bridge would be my second pick for a downshift since Aether Hub is a thing). So printing under another name is a possible solution? The Zendikar refuges got similarly downshifted into the Tarkir gainlands.
As an aside, printing the second half of the snow taplands could make for a legitimate peasant cycle. Snow mana represents a marginal benefit now, thanks to the influx of snow cards from Modern Horizons.
Wizards is more likely to print Temples at uncommon before painlands. Reminder that duals coming into play untapped, even as a conditional, is considered a rare-level ability. It's such a huge benefit, that it's actually worth two marginal benefits on a land. To see what I mean, consider the rarity of modern duals (printed in the last five years):
M10 Checklands like Dragonskull Summit - seems simple enough to print at uncommon, but coming into play untapped is a rare ability.
Battle for Zendikar manlands like Lumbering Falls - getting a creature with your manafixer is another rare-level ability. Note that manlands are possible at uncommon without manafixing (Frostwalk Bastion).
Battle for Zendikar tangolands like Cinder Glade - two benefits. On top of a chance to come into play untapped, they also have land types.
Shadows over Innistrad taplands like Port Town - chance to come into play untapped. Rare.
Kaladesh fastlands like Inspiring Vantage - chance to come into play untapped. Rare.
Amonkhet bicycle lands like Scattered Groves - another highlight like the tangolands. Although they don't enter untapped, they enjoy the double benefit of land types + cycling.
Battlebond taplands like Morphic Pool - again, coming into play untapped is the only ability needed to make this rare.
Temple of Silence and friends are the biggest outlier to this philosophy. They enter tapped and only have one marginal benefit instead of two. I fully expect them to be downshifted within the next five years. Possibly even in the Return to Theros set, but more likely in a supplemental Masters set, which are known for up/downshifts, or precons like Commander or Planeswalker decks - maybe even in a drip feed of 1-3 Temples per year through those channels. The uncommon Shadows over Innistrad taplands like Stone Quarry were downshifted in planeswalker decks over a period of years, allowing for precedent.
Theros is old enough to potentially fall outside this design theory (note the increase in new dual lands in the last five years compared to the previous five years - in the same time-span, only Worldwake manlands/enemy fetches and Scars fastlands appear) so it may be possible to update their rarity according to new design paradigms.
Also note that this is all circumstantial evidence based on a hunch from many years of playing and observing land cycles, specifically from the perspective of pauper cube where downshifts are important
In this case, Strangleroot Geist's haste helps make up for getting cast a turn later, and the two bodies, Skullclampable nature, and +1/+1 counter are all potentially relevant in evaluating whether you're ok dropping it a turn later.
I currently have Consul's Lieutenant, Knight of Meadowgrain, Merfolk Trickster, Gifted Aetherborn, Barkhide Troll and Strangleroot Geist as my 6 CC drops. Of those, the only one I consider an aggro drop is Consul's Lieutenant, as the others are all fine in midrange. Merfolk Trickster plays more like a combat trick or removal, where the CC cost is less important.
Others I've thought about at some point:
Nether Shadow - would be an interesting choice if you don't care about graveyard-order-matters cards. Skullclampable, binnable and sac-able, but not a very good beater. More of a Squee, Goblin Nabob card.
Knight of the Kitchen Sink - cool if you run silver borders.
Phalanx Leader - the CC is fine since he's generally the last guy you want to play, but you really want Theros-like levels of support for him to matter.
Goblin Wardriver - similar to above since you're usually ok running him out turn 3 or later to pump the rest of the team, but is generally worse than Consul's Lieutenant.
Kalonian Tusker - meh. Like I said, you want more than stats, you want some kind of utility so that your play isn't obsolete past turn 3.
Leonin Relic-Warder - again fine, since it functions like a removal spell, you don't need to drop it on curve.
Undead Augur - again, good as the last guy you drop in the decks that want him.
Vampire Hexmage - has more value as a planeswalker removal spell in peasant now, so less need to drop it on curve.
Warrior en-Kor - used to be cool as the guy who could redirect all the damage towards your pro-color guys like White Knight or Paladin en-Vec, but protection from color is on its way out of cubes.