LftL doesn't seem like it'd be fun for anyone except for the rare occasion where someone lands a nut draft and gets Wasteland, Rishadan Port, Tectonic Edge, manlands, etc. Even then, games against multiple Wastelands aren't fun, the only person having fun that draft is the person with the Loam deck that half of the time doesn't let you play the game and half of the time durdles and dies on the spot.
....oh yeah the creature in play is a card. It's still spending 2 cards on 1 opposing card even if the creature was useless on board. All the more reason to play Weapon Surge over it!
3/4 of my blue 1 drops and 7/9 of my blue 2 drops have evasion, but I'm still gonna test Tetsuko and probably keep her in just so I can have another signpost that tells drafters "I SUPPORT BLUE AGGRO"
Dynacharge pumps power and might help you trade up but was rarely more than a 1 for 1 back in the pauper days. It was pretty much exclusively an alpha strike card for tokens. Weapon Surge is a goddamn 2 for 1 machine. Not quite mandatory for red sections, but it's the closest thing to a staple a red combat trick has gotten.
This set is higher powered than previous standard sets, which apparently isn't saying much...
For more wild speculation though, if Forebear's Blade were uncommon, would it make the cut? It looks like a fairer Banhammer to me, but I might be underrating the free equip ability.
Kwende, Pride of Femeref seems like it'd be an uncommon too because goddamn if I opened this as a rare I'd ask for a refund. It's probably not even that serviceable as an average-case 2/2 double strike. I enjoy the design of cards that encourage building around evergreen mechanics, though, like Favorable Winds, so I might give this guy a test anyways. Just so I can hope to get the Archetype of Courage wombo combo.
Also, people are down with Cast Down, but Seal Away looks good too for people looking to diversify or depower their removal suites.
Every card above the 1-drop or 2-drop slot NEEDS either a relevant ETB or to be overstatted enough it trades up with creatures of the same cost. Danitha has neither. The keyword soup looks enticing but still just being a 2/2 body with no ETB means that, sure, in 10% of games she absolutely stonewalls aggro, but in the other 90% of her games she'll just sit on the board untapped because she can't profitably attack into any decently statted 3 drop.
The distinction between Uncommon and Rare being used to limit draft effects in core sets makes sense, but the fact that people considered all silver bordered cards fair game was always odd to me. It's very clear that the extra sets like the Commander sets were not intended for a draft environment. If people don't care about that and it makes a better draft environment, I wondered why even bother confining myself to something as arbitrary as the color of the set symbol? Just play the cards you like.
Bringing the discussion back around to peasant-strength rares...
Captured by the Consulate: After deciding I actually like the design of Siren Stormtamer, I wanted to add some more "lightning rod" style effects, and this one is an interesting removal piece that comes at a justified cost.
Harbinger of the Tides: Usually is cast for 4 mana to bounce one attacker and block another, but also can be played turn 2 against an aggro deck. A deceptively strong card that fits in tempo or control.
Oona's Prowler: The person summoning the Prowler usually uses the discard ability more than the opponent. While the Prowler is great in aggro decks, its role as a turn 2 discard outlet helped shore up one of the main problems graveyard-focused decks had.
Heart-Piercer Manticore: It's a balanced FTK that can also go to face!? Decent removal in midrange decks, very solid curve-topper in aggro decks.
Call of the Herd: Ah, yes, the card you first see at the top of the slippery slope that is Peasant+. In one of Peasant cubes weakest slots is a splashable beater that fits snugly into all 3 theaters of deck and also supports spells-matter and graveyard decks to boot!? Why would any Peasant cube not want this card aside from that pesky gold symbol...
Cultivator's Caravan: Felt like I had to end with a colorless. Fixing, ramp, and a creature buff all in one card! A versatile "oh *****" button you can slam during those drafts where things don't quite come together and you end up in that 4 color good stuff and when people ask you what kind of deck you're playing you lie and say "2 color midrange with a splash"
It's hard to tell in-game whether Siren Stormtamer is useful or not. Only ran it twice so far, but both times the person who slammed the Siren felt like it was just a Flying Man that threw in a few points of damage until another flyer came up, while the person across the table felt strangled as they needed multiple targeted spells to be able to cast removal. Definitely needs more testing in my cube.
The more I think about it Manaplasm isn't that much better than a vanilla 4/4 in a good 50% of my games, it's just fun and makes for good stories so my playgroup would be mad if I tried to replace it.
Flying tokens are really strong, no doubt. Most cubes that include the full crew of Lingering Souls, Battle Screech, Spectral Procession, and the like usually have W/x flyers as a dominant strat. The only sure-fire counter to token decks is board clears. I have 4 black and 5 red board clears and still sometimes feel like slower creatureless strategies need the help. The downside with adding board clears is that they stuff aggro decks, which traditionally need help in cube to begin with.
Morphs in cube are dumb. It's either the person playing your cube doesn't know what they could be and gets blown out, or the person knows all 10 of your morph cards and tries to play around all of them. I don't know what the critical mass for not-stupid gameplay with morphs is but it's much higher than 10 morphs for a 360 cube.
@Nonamealreadytaken, welcome to the forum! You'll find other people like me who choose to go Peasant+, though in my case I've taken it so far I sort of need that extra plus... Anyways, as someone who runs a peasant power level cube with rares, trust me when I say that you need more aggro support. Part of what keeps the higher powered rares in check is the ability for drafters who never get to first pick the bomby rares to just pick up Savannah Lions and run over the people with grindy synergy rares. Healthy aggro support keeps a cube in check and keeps a dominant midrange or control strategy from taking over every draft.
1. pump board for lethal
2. kill a blocker with something that would have died anyways
2 was less common than 1 so I'll give you that but I wouldn't call it an unusual circumstance to kill something with Dynacharge.
My aggro probably needs a bit of tuning down, though, especially after new staple Dauntless Bodyguard got spoiled.
Does anyone else feel like white and black are getting all the love this set?
For more wild speculation though, if Forebear's Blade were uncommon, would it make the cut? It looks like a fairer Banhammer to me, but I might be underrating the free equip ability.
Kwende, Pride of Femeref seems like it'd be an uncommon too because goddamn if I opened this as a rare I'd ask for a refund. It's probably not even that serviceable as an average-case 2/2 double strike. I enjoy the design of cards that encourage building around evergreen mechanics, though, like Favorable Winds, so I might give this guy a test anyways. Just so I can hope to get the Archetype of Courage wombo combo.
Also, people are down with Cast Down, but Seal Away looks good too for people looking to diversify or depower their removal suites.
Everyone who chose Tradewind Rider over Harbinger of the Tides is a goober.
Captured by the Consulate: After deciding I actually like the design of Siren Stormtamer, I wanted to add some more "lightning rod" style effects, and this one is an interesting removal piece that comes at a justified cost.
Harbinger of the Tides: Usually is cast for 4 mana to bounce one attacker and block another, but also can be played turn 2 against an aggro deck. A deceptively strong card that fits in tempo or control.
Oona's Prowler: The person summoning the Prowler usually uses the discard ability more than the opponent. While the Prowler is great in aggro decks, its role as a turn 2 discard outlet helped shore up one of the main problems graveyard-focused decks had.
Heart-Piercer Manticore: It's a balanced FTK that can also go to face!? Decent removal in midrange decks, very solid curve-topper in aggro decks.
Call of the Herd: Ah, yes, the card you first see at the top of the slippery slope that is Peasant+. In one of Peasant cubes weakest slots is a splashable beater that fits snugly into all 3 theaters of deck and also supports spells-matter and graveyard decks to boot!? Why would any Peasant cube not want this card aside from that pesky gold symbol...
Cultivator's Caravan: Felt like I had to end with a colorless. Fixing, ramp, and a creature buff all in one card! A versatile "oh *****" button you can slam during those drafts where things don't quite come together and you end up in that 4 color good stuff and when people ask you what kind of deck you're playing you lie and say "2 color midrange with a splash"
Flying tokens are really strong, no doubt. Most cubes that include the full crew of Lingering Souls, Battle Screech, Spectral Procession, and the like usually have W/x flyers as a dominant strat. The only sure-fire counter to token decks is board clears. I have 4 black and 5 red board clears and still sometimes feel like slower creatureless strategies need the help. The downside with adding board clears is that they stuff aggro decks, which traditionally need help in cube to begin with.
@Nonamealreadytaken, welcome to the forum! You'll find other people like me who choose to go Peasant+, though in my case I've taken it so far I sort of need that extra plus... Anyways, as someone who runs a peasant power level cube with rares, trust me when I say that you need more aggro support. Part of what keeps the higher powered rares in check is the ability for drafters who never get to first pick the bomby rares to just pick up Savannah Lions and run over the people with grindy synergy rares. Healthy aggro support keeps a cube in check and keeps a dominant midrange or control strategy from taking over every draft.