Outlaw Medic: This is a great roadblock for aggro match match ups with lifelink. Lifelink also scales well with equipments. Also this can be traded for a card with sacrifice effects.
Vengeful Townsfolk: 3/3 that grows. Pretty good for 3 mana. Sure it's not as good as Inspiring Overseer, but it grows, so it's going to be a threat that needs dealt with at some point.
Harrier Stix: Basically this is just a card to set up ninjitsu. Being a mana sink helps differentiate itself from other small evasion bodies as it will be important late game. Not terribly excited about this, but I'll keep an eye on it for if we get more ninjas.
Phantom Performance: Really excited about this. Quench is an effect you want early, but it falls you quickly, especially if your opponent plays around it. However this can turn into a flash 2/2 flier if your opponent has open mana; but even better, you can 2 for 1 with this! Each mode isn't worth it, but as a complete package, the flexibility really puts this over the edge.
Razzle-Dazzler: Cheap threat that grow with evasion. This is a shoe-in for spell matters decks. I mean, it's not Tolerian Terror number 3, but its a good early threat that lets you gain tempo. It goes without saying that you run this with all of the Consider/Preordain/Mental Note effects.
Corrupted Conviction: Village Rites 3, or whatever. Kind of whatever, but there are enough of these effects to create a sweet archetype.
Desperate Bloodseeker: Lifelink makes any reasonable cheap creature a threat for aggressive and tempo decks. They just have to answer it, or else the life gain is going to make racing hard. 2/2 is aight, mill 2 is aight. All round, a fine package.
Vault Plunderer: Phyrexian Rager upgrade, and about time too. Maybe a sidegrade, depending on the cube. 3/1 is a marginal upgrade over 2/2. Obviously it gains the weakness of Lava Dart and Desert, but 3/1 trades better in combat and races better. A cool thing about this is you can target your opponent for that 1 life which could make all the difference.
Highway Robbery: I am looking forward to this for madness. It will be a good turn 2 play to plot this into a turn 3 madness creature on curve. One of the biggest faults of madness decks is having cards that allow you to discard for no mana, while not being a dead card outside of madness payoffs. Also, you can sacrifice a land, which will be important when you are flooded. This is my favourite card with plot of the set.
Hardbristle Bandit: This is fine for ramping, but mana elves are generally better when you just want ramp. Seems kind of sweet for removal heavy builds, and there is a lot of good removal in Black and Red. I'm sure there will be some cube configuration where this shines.
Patient Naturalist: I'm trying to keep track of all the green mill creatures with upside. I'm not quite sure what I'm looking for, but I feel once we get more creature-based mill, guys like this will be good.
Voracious Varmint: Naturalize on legs is worth noting. Wizards keep printing stuff like this, but if artifacts and enchantments ever become problematic card types, cards like this are what you want to have on hand.
Conduit Pylons: Crystal Grotto, but you surveil. In general, surveilling is stronger that scry because of flashback and cards like Tolerian Terror. The much dreaded mill archetype hasn't been viable in eons, so the mill isn't much of a downside. The only other outcomes are if your game grinds to a halt and ends in decking (then please, fix your cube), or the visible information gives your opponent a tactical advantage.
Brackish Blunder - Cubeable - It is to be seen how good Map tokens are. In general, I don't think this bounce spell is particularly good, because you only get the upside if the target is tapped. Admitted this card is instant speed, but it isn't that suited for tempo decks. Ephara's Dispersal is much better than this card.
Cogwork Wrestler - Borderline - It's a cheap artifact creature that is ill-suited to tempo. That being said, it mostly is a trick for killing 3/1s. In artifact matters strategies it is important to reach a critical mass of cheap artifacts. But outside of that this is underpowered.
Didact Echo - Borderline - 5 mana is a deathknell for this card. The cantrip is nice, but even the flying is not guaranteed. Descend 4 is also a lot of work for blue. Sure there are a ton of surveil spells in blue, but the main way of filling the graveyard is from instants and sorcies which is the main reason Tolarian Terror is so good. Anyway, this card isn't bad, but has a lot working against it.
Frilled Cave-Wurm - Borderline - At best a 4/5 for 4 in blue. Blue has enough good 4 mana cards to not need to consider this. And again descend is kind of awkward — unless you build specifically for this.
Inverted Iceberg - Cubeable - Another cheap artifact. This one becomes a decent late game threat, but it is unlikely what it'll warrant an inclusion outside of dedicated cubes.
Marauding Brinefang - Borderline - Ward 3 is nice, but hexproof is much better. Likewise cycling U is better than islandcycling 2. Striped Riverwinder is likely to forever to take the spot in the cube that this card would likely occupy. It's nice that we are getting more landcycling, but after the Lord of the Rings set, it is unlikely that many of these cards will find a space.
Oaken Siren - Borderline - Decent mana generating creature for artifact decks. Flying and vigilance are good keywords to have; this card reminds me of Hovermyr. Overall eh, but it will find a home in artifact cubes.
Orazca Puzzle-Door - Borderline - Another cheap artifact. I'm not going to pretend that this will be played in anything that isn't a dedicated artifact cube.
Out of Air - Cubeable - Sure it's restrictive for being 2 blue, but having your Essence Scatter double as Cancel late game is pretty neat. Sure it is worse than Counterspell and Mana Leak, but those are some of the best common counter magic printed ever and most decks running Counterspell are looking for redundancy in counter spells as there are often more than one spell you want to stop.
Pirate Hat - Borderline - Pirate synergies ahoy. Mostly you won't get the discount, so it's probably a bit over-costed. It is important that you get the loot on attack, rather than on combat damage. Still, it seems awkward to get going, but it's nice to see blue equipment.
Relic's Roar - Bad - This gives your cheap artifacts something to do. Mostly these temporary power-toughness granting spells haven't been quite good enough, or a little bit too awkward to set up. Why mess around with something like this when you can play black and straight up Murder the opposing creature in question?
River Herald Scout - Cubeable - This is good. A colour-shifted Seekers' Squire is going to be fine. It might not be the right fit for your cube, but it is certainly good enough.
Sage of Days - Cubeable - Seems like a fine creature for stacking the top of the library. Mostly it's going to be worse than Sea Gate Oracle because this card doesn't put the card into your hand. 3/2 body is more relevant than a 1/3.
Song of Stupefaction - Borderline - Seems fine with descend, but likely isn't going to make that much of a splash considering that blue wants to play so many instants and sorceries.
Unlucky Drop - Bad - Most sets have something like this, and in most cases it isn't going to be fast enough for cube. Not just that, but giving your opponent the choice, always makes these worse.
Waterwind Scout - Cubeable - This is fine, but I got really sad when I realised the 1 mana 1/1 flier than makes a map is uncommon and instead we get this. A 2/2 flier that generates a token for 3 mana is pretty standard for blue now. It depends on how good a map is compared to a 1/1. I'm guessing slightly better, but Eldrazi Skyspawner is likely to continue to hog this slot. I think Waterwind Scout is worth testing because I think explore is better than I'm giving it credit and I get to chose which creature explores too.
Waylaying Pirates - Borderline - Seems fine, but too inconsistent to be worthwhile. Again in an artifact cube...
Summary: A decent amount of cubeable cards, but nothing especially good. Explore is likely pretty decent. A lot of random artifact nonsense, but outside of the craft card, nothing that really draws you into playing artifacts.
Acrobatic Leap - Borderline - Escape from Orthanc functional reprint. It's fine as a combat trick, but it is underwhelming, especially compared to the protection tricks such as shelter. The main strike against this card isn't that it won't be useful, it's that the opportunity cost of running something that will impact the board more readily is too high.
Adaptive Gemguard - Borderline - This is one of those cards which gets better the longer that games drag out for. A lot of cubes value tempo, and this guy doesn't really do tempo. In saying that, this is a good way to make junk artifacts useful. Also you can use this card to tick itself up the turn it comes into play. I have been tempted by artifact themes, but the artifacts tended not to play that well as splashes outside the artifact decks.
Attentive Sunscribe - Borderline - Kind of a standard Grizzly Bears with slight upside. Being a artifact means it can synergise with all the artifact stuff that exists. The scry tick on attacking gives it value over time, but it still is worse than the standard 2 mana White cards that go into none artifact synergistic decks.
Cosmium Blast - Borderline - A functional reprint of something. Pretty standard white spell. It's fine offensively and defensively, but it requires your opponent to play into it. Also your attacking creature doesn't deal any damage if you kill a single blocking creature, unless that creature attacking has trample. Fine, but isn't going to find a home in high powered cubes.
Deconstruction Hammer- Borderline - It's a white Leonin Scimitar with upside. Kind of competing with Kor Halberd for that equipment slot. Still it's cool to see more coloured equipment.
Envoy of Okinec Ahau - Cubeable - This is the first 3/3 for 3 white creature with upside if you exclude Ballynock Cohort. The ability on this card seems kind of expensive, but as a free extra gives this card some late game and you a potential mana sink. The main important thing about this is 3/3 for 3. While that isn't a good as it use to be, it still is a fine stat line.
Family Reunion - Bad - Flexibility is nice, but both modes are kind of weak and situational. Neither mode really compliments the other.
Glorifier of Suffering - Borderline - Sacrifice outlet in White. Could be interesting to see more of these kinds of cards. Still going down in tempo by sacrificing something to buff part of your board seems kind of eh. It depends what there is that wants to die. In this set there are the craft cards and descend cards with encourage you to kill your own stuff, but I'm not sure cubes will be including a lot of those kinds of cards.
Ironpaw Aspirant - Borderline - Kind of fodder with a +1/+1 counter attached. Not really worth commenting on other than cards like this have typically been green.
Miner's Guidewing - Borderline - This is fodder, if I've ever seen one. The main problem with this is you don't get to explore if you don't have any other creatures in play. I think this is harder to evaluate that most of the cards we've seen so far because there isn't that much to compare it to for 1 mana. Could be good, or could be kind of nothing.
Oltec Archaeologists - Borderline - I like this design. 5 mana is a lot to pay for a creature, but either getting back an artifact or scrying 3 means there is never a bad mode on this. 4/4 is a fine body, and is mostly bigger than we see on white commons.
Oltec Cloud Guard - Borderline - 3/2 flier for 4 is below rate. Getting the Gnome gives this some more utility, but it is a little bit on the weak side. Seems fine in swarm strategies, but is still weak to Fiery Cannonade.
Oteclan Landmark - Cubeable - Sort of the White Witching Well. This card very obviously wants to be played with a ton of artifacts. The transformed side is decent and the cost of crafting is pretty cheap.
Petrify - Staple - Basically Planar Disruption number two. Of course this can't hit Planeswalker, but there are none of those a common so it doesn't matter! I consider this worse than Temporal Isolation and Journey to Nowhere, but it's still a staple effect.
Quicksand Whirlpool - Borderline - It is premium removal, but too expensive for powered Pauper Cubes.
Soaring Sandwing - Borderline - Seems fine, but probably isn't as good as Eagles of the North because the cycling cost.
Tinker's Tote - Cubeable - Three artifacts for 3 mana! I just want to let that sink in. Seems very good with cards that care about the number of artifacts you control. Also this has a pretty good etb, so if you can retrigger that, it's value.
Summary: There are a lot of borderline cards and almost no bad cards. Petrify is really good, but is basically a functional reprint. Plenty of alright artifact cards which play well with other artifacts, however these aren't really that good without a solid artifact theme in your cube.
Archon's Glory - Cubeable - Unbargained this is a vanilla combat trick. Nothing special. Bargained this gets pretty good as both lifelink and flying are valuable keywords. Now since this is the first bargain card it's time to talk about the mechanic. First thing to note is tokens and artifacts already exist in Pauper Cube are viable archetypes, so you don't have to jump through ridiculous hoops for bargain cards to function. Definite plus. A major strike against this mechanic is you can't sacrifice non-token creatures, so that means no snacking on Nested Shambler. Overall, the mechanic is playable, but the cards still need to be evaluated on a case by case basis. Archon's Glory is one of the better pump tricks in white, but this may be out competed by Shelter, Kor Chant and Test of Faith.
Armory Mice - Borderline - 3/1 with upside continues to be decent, but white twos are pretty stacked.
Besotted Knight - Borderline - The first of the Adventure cards. Adventure is a pretty versatile mechanic, offering modal flexiablity and a potential two for one. Both modes on this a pretty weak. But this might be okay in an aura stacking strategy. Overall, it's hard to get excited for Hill Giant.
Break the Spell - Terrible - Enchantment specific removal is not good, unless you build the enchantment cube (good luck).
Charmed Clothier - Borderline - If it could target itself... It's a little bit expensive and slightly lacking impact. Just compare this to Basilica Shepherd. Three toughness is a major strike against. Royal role is kind of a +1/+1 counter, and ward 1 is nice to have, but isn't going to stop a lot.
Cooped Up - Staple - Another strictly better Pacifism. Doesn't stop activated abilities, but being able to exile the creature means that this won't just be sitting around until your opponent draws an answer or sacrifices their creature late game.
Frostbridge Guard - Borderline - 2/2, is a fine base rate. The tap ability is expensive, but is still going to be impactful late game. This card is not quite pushed enough for Pauper Cube, but we've come a long way from the terrible creatures of the past.
Hopeful Vigil - Cubaeable - This synergises well with bargain, pieces enchantment synergy and Kor Skyfisher. The base rate of 2/2 vigilance token and scry 2 later is also fine, but this probably isn't good enough unless you are actively synergising with it.
Kellan's Lightblades - Borderline - Eh, its okay removal, but you don't get a huge amount extra by bargaining.
Moment of Valour - Borderline - Modal, but a lot threats in Cube are cheap efficient threats rather that big guys. 3 mana is also a lot. The flexibility of this keeps it out of bad tier.
Plunge into Winger - Bad - It's a white Opt. Tapping is cute, but Shelter make this look pretty bad by comparison.
Protective Parents - Bad - White can utilise Young Hero role. As a 3/2 is pretty weak, plus this has to die. Why are the parents always disposable characters?
Rimefur Raindeer - Bad - Without synergies this is bad. With synergies this can be pretty efficient at keeping things tapped. Maybe in the future this will be fine after the 10th enchantment set.
Savior of the Sleeping - Bad - I'm just going to pretend there isn't enough enchantment support for cards like these without properly looking. This could be much better with several good enchantment sets.
Slumbering Knight - Bad - Pretty good possible upside on this guy, but only time will tell if this card gets the support.
Stockpiling Celebrant - Cubeable - The obvious comparison is Kor Skyfisher. Now, this doesn't have flying nor can it reset lands, but returning is non-compulsory and you scry 2. The scry is a pretty big deal because of its synergy with Experimental Synthesizer among other things. Also this is generally good at resetting etbs. But you can still curve out on turn 2, something you can't do with many cards with similar effects.
Tuinvale Guide - Borderline - Worse than Seraph of Dawn. Also not consistent. 3/3 flying lifelink is a good rate, but this might be only true in dreams.
Unassuming Sage - Borderline - Yeah, as either a 2 cost or 4 cost it's below rate. Being modal helps, but like, eh.
Closing thoughts: Some alright cards. One Pacifism upgrade. A handful of somewhat lacking modal cards. And a bunch of enchantment matters cards which might be sleepers until we get the 10th pushed enchantment set.
The Prismatic Piper - Terrible - This guy again. Clearly not designed at all with Pauper Cube in mind unless you are truly mad and make a Pauper Commander Cube a thing. (I dare you, do it!)
Ulamog's Crusher - Cubeable - Another iconic Pauper card. It definitely ends games with the annihilator, but this can be a bit of a newbie trap where people see the stat line and the sweet keyword and ignore the fact that eight mana is a lot.
Artifact:
Bonder's Ornament - Bad - This is a strong Tron card if we ignore the fact that the Tron lands are terrible in a vanilla singleton draft. Yes, this does enable late game draw, but it is pretty outclassed as a 3 mana rock.
Brass Knuckles - Downshift Cubeable - You need to be running a lot of equipment, but this is a good payoff for that strategy. Four mana is pretty pricey, but the equip cost is cheap (assuming you already had equipped creatures). More coloured equipment keeps on being printed, so this will likely have more friends to play with as time goes on.
Campfire - Downshift Bad - Two life per turn, you can gain quite a lot in the long term with this artifact with a small mana investment and that can be hard to deal with. The commander text is just flavour text (unless you are playing the highly unorthodox Commander Pauper Cube!?!)
Commander's Sphere - Bad - All these 3 cost mana rocks are kind of the same as they are too slow to be impactful in a draft format with Signets. Look this one can be exchanged for a card.
Darksteel Ingot - Bad - Look this one is indestructible, maybe try animating it?
Explorer's Scope - Bad - If you live the dream this is good, but when it does nothing, it does nothing. Still it's a neat design.
Firemind Vessel - Downshift Borderline - This is a pretty rampy mana rock. I think this could have a spot enabling Capsize decks. The main thing is you can ramp and colour fix, but to what?
Foundry Inspector - Cubeable - This goes into the draft strategy where you pick up every artifact. Is that a good plan? It depends on the cube. Nevertheless, this is a good enabler of that strategy.
Haunted Cloak - Cubeable - That's a lot of keywords of a common equipment. Is it good though? Not sure, but it seems pretty sweet with Brass Knuckles.
Heart-Piercer Bow - Borderline - This is fine if you need to kill a bunch of one toughness creatures.
Myr Sire - Bad - There are cards in other colours that generate bodies better than this.
Pilgrim's Eye - Bad - I use to like this card, but now it seems pretty powercrept.
Prismatic Lens - Cubeable - Finally a good rock, still worse that Signets, etc. The colour filtering is cute, but typically isn't relevant. Not to say you never use this card to filter.
Prophetic Prism - Borderline - This is basically only used to filter and be fodderised by whatever artifact sacrifice your packing. Again, it would be pretty good if Tron lands break the singleton rule.
Staunch Throneguard - Borderline - The worst of the monarch cards of the set. Still monarch is such a strong machanic that it makes even this potentially worth running.
Unstable Obelisk - Bad - Weaking than the other rocks so far in terms of colour fixing. Being able to blow something up late game with this seems kind of nice if at baseline it was better.
Vial of Dragonfire - Terrible - 2 damage only to creatures isn't really worth it for the amount of mana you put in. It might be better if you have the artificer dude tutoring this, but that seems unlikely. Also this would have been better in the format it was originally designed for with a ton of morph creatures running around.
Vulshok Battlegear - Downshift Staple - So you thought Vulshok Morningstar was strong. This is basically an ungraded version of that. It may even be too expensive to get going, but this will turn any creature into a huge threat and will be a powerhouse finisher. The cost to get this going it just too much for it to impact all aggro and tempo games, but this is going to decide quite a few midrange games.
Abundant Harvest - Cubeable - It is either a land when you need it, or a non-land the rest of the time. It's alright deck thinning. It depends on how critical early mana is for your deck.
Broken Wings - Bad - Well this card is fine when there are enough targets to make a 3 mana green removal spell worth using on, but in general it is too niche and too expensive.
Crash of Rhino Beetles - Downshift Cubeable - This is another case of overkill. 5 mana 5/5 trample is... er... fine. Then if you somehow get to 10 lands it turns into a game winning monster. Frankly, there are more mana efficient threats that you could be playing when you can first cast this. Not that many games are decided by a 5/5 trampler for 5 mana. And the +10/+10 part of this card is sufficiently gated as to be irrelevant for most games. Just play Avenging Hunter instead.
Crawling Infestation - Downshift Borderline - Eventually you are going to get enough value out of this if the game goes long enough, but mostly this will be too slow.
Deadly Recluse - Bad - I get that this was included to be a multiplayer rattlesnake, but this is pretty bad by Pauper standards.
Elvish Mystic - Staple - All 1 cost mana elves are staples. They are some of the best mana acceleration in common.
Entourage of Trest - Cubeable - Monarch is still good. 5 mana is basically 4 mana for green, but green isn't the best colour at holding monarch compared to black and red.
Fierce Empath - Borderline - Tutoring for a big creature isn't that good in pauper, still I wouldn't count this as a weak card, just not one for this format.
Ilysian Caryatid - Borderline - It can be a bit awkward finding something to do with the extra mana once you get a 4 power creature down. Colour fixing is nice, and in a depowered environment this can be quite decent.
Kodama's Reach - Cubeable - Both this and Cultivate are good ramp, colour fixing and card advantage. It might be too slow for some people, but this is never a bad card.
Kozilek's Predator - Cubeable - I completely forgot about this creature. 4 mana 3/3 is fine, but getting 2 eldrazi spawn is quite nice. That does require you to have something to do with them, but I'm sure you as a cube designer can figure something out.
Krosan Tusker - Cubeable - You get a sort-of green instant speed Divination or you can hold for a late game big creature. A classic modal card.
Pollenbright Druid - Borderline - This is a fine support card for a +1/+1 counter deck. But it doesn't do much without a lot of synergies.
Ram Through - Borderline - If more creatures had trample, this would be better. In general you don't want your removal spells to be too dependent on the board state, and that is the main problem that most of green's removal has. Either that, or the removal has to be very mana effient.
Rot Shambler - Downshift Bad - Sure it can grow, but you most likely want to be doing proactive things with your mana in green.
Skyshroud Claim - Borderline - These lands don't come into play tapped, unless you fetch for duel typed lands. This is a pretty good ramp spell that lets you not just take a turn off to ramp, but instead ramp and do something else. The only problem is ramp into what?
Skysnare Spider - Borderline - Reach and vigilance is a potent keyword combination. At 6 mana it feels like this should at least have trample too, but still I wouldn't fault anyone for trying this downshift out, it's definitely a decent creature, but it's difficult to advocate for 6 mana creatures without being modal, having protection, having an immediate effect or in built card advantage.
Snakeskin Veil - Borderline - This is almost good enough, but even holding 1 mana can be awkward for a purely reactive spell.
Tuskguard Captain - Borderline - Outlast creatures are just a little bit awkward to get going and seem like they will have more of a home in a slower paced cube. Giving the team trample is nice too, but +1/+1 counter themed decks are a little awkward to get going without really warping to cube into supporting them. However if you do go to the effort to making a +1/+1 counter theme, then this guy is well worth including.
Abrade - Cubeable - This card is fine, but often Searing Spear is just better, being able to target players over artifact removal.
Blood Aspirant - Downshift Borderline - Sure this synergises with sacrifice, but it's not that much of a payoff, compared to the cheaper Mortician Beetle. I mean if you built your cube around sacrifice, Blood Aspirant would probably be fine.
Champion of the Flame - Borderline - There probably isn't enough equipment/auras to make this guy worth it, as by itself it's not much of a threat.
Crimson Fleet Commodore - Staple - Monarch continues to be strong on 4 mana creatures. The stat line on this guy is good and red can hold monarch quite well.
Cyclops Electromancer - Downshift cubeable - This is a pretty awkward Flametongue Kavu being 5 mana and relying on a stocked graveyard. Still removal on a stick seems to be good most of the time, I can see decks playing this, but they probably won't be stoked about it.
Dwarven Hammer - Downshift Borderline - This hammer is a fine hammer. Though it is woefully lacking any toughness buffing. Also 5 mana is a lot to pay for a 5/1. The fact that the hammer gives trample is certainly a redeeming quality and will help break late game stalls.
Faithless Looting - Staple - This is about as staple as a non-burn red spell gets. While some hyper-aggro focused cubes will not use this, most red decks will find a way of using the looting. Great madness enabler.
Fists of Flame - Bad - Ok, maybe it is just borderline, but most cubes have a surplus of burn spells that can be ran over this.
Gargadon - Staple - Gargadon is great. Sure it gives your opponent plenty of time to prepare, but unless they have a instant speed kill spell at the ready, this smashes like a truck. This is somehow better than Errant Ephemeron, and Ephemeron is already considered quite good. Gargadon is what all suspend cards want to be like.
Guttersnipe - Staple - This card is bonkers. 3 mana is cheap enough that it will come down early enough to impact the game and then it turns any instant or sorcery into having a free Shock attached. This will end games, and probably eat a lot of removal. It could even be first pickable as it is a solid build around me card. This is probably one of the best downshifts of the set.
Impulsive Pilferer - Bad - Encore in 1v1 is weak as that mechanic is all about scaling with the number of players. There are better one mana options, and if you don't get the treasure early, the value of this card goes down significantly.
Living Lightning - Borderline - Obviously getting the spell back as a dies trigger is much worse than as an etb. Still this is decent card advantage, but is outclassed by other 4 mana plays.
Makeshift Munitions - Borderline - This is a decent sacrifice outlet as you can use both artifact and creatures to fuel it. Probably not for all cubes, but it will be fine in some.
Rapacious Dragon - Borderline - This guy wants to be good and 2 treasures is a fine etb, but 5 mana is a bit too steep to get this guy down in time for the treasure to matter much. The stat line 3/3 flier for 5 is not good when you can be doing other things. So this card is a combination of being too slow and too low impact.
Rapacious One - Borderline - 6 mana with no cycling or alternative cost is pretty bad. Also not having any immediate effect the turn you play it too, nor any protection. But when it deals combat damage this goes pretty crazy. I think this is a classic case of being overkill when it works and kind of janky the rest of the time. Also outside of chump blocking and casting Fireball, realistically what are you going to be doing with all the eldrazi spawn?
Spikeshot Goblin - Borderline - Awkward to get going, but this seems pretty sweet when buffed. I think that this card is unrealistic as at its baseline, it's underwhelming.
Spitebellows - Downshift Cubeable - This goes in the pantheon of good evoke cards behind Mulldrifter. 6 damage kills most things, even stuff traditionally out of range of burn. Then it is pretty fierce as a creature, although one costing 6 mana with 1 toughness. Cards like Ephemerate and Undying Evil make evoke cards worth considering.
Sulfurous Blast - Downshift Staple - This is almost certainly great. The symmetrical damage to players is interesting, but mostly it is going to be the premier 3 damage red sweep in Pauper. Having the option to do 2 damage is interesting as there will be some cases where you want to leave some three toughness creatures alive.
Temur Battle Rage - Cubeable - This card continues to be an alright finisher. Again, you could just play burn in its place. But still, double strike and trample is a potent combination.
Cadaver Imp - Borderline - This stopped being good a while ago, but it is a pesky card in a card advantage engine machine.
Carrier Thrall - Borderline - Provides 2 bodies for 2 mana and one is an eldrazi spawn. Alright with sacrifice synergies.
Carrion Grub - Downshift cubeable - You can set up some spicy plays with this, but that requires having a bunch of other big creatures in your deck. It does fuel the graveyard which is nice. Four mana means that this is getting pretty late to the party.
Dread Drone - Bad - Again with sacrifice themes, it could be ok. But overall, the body is lacking toughness and the tokens are lacking power, and 5 mana is a lot for pauper cube.
Dread Return - Downshift Cubeable - A welcome downshift. Reanimate effects are ok in pauper, but there generally isn't a ton of great targets. Still flashback is welcome.
Drown in Sorrow - Downshift Cubeable - While we already have Arms of Hadar, a three mana symmetrical -2/-2 is welcome. Scry one is also a nice bonus. Being able to stop early swarm is a nice tool for slower decks to have in their tool belt.
Feed the Swarm - Cubeable - Sometimes you don't mind the life lose for a cheap, versatile removal.
Lotleth Giant - Downshift Cubeable - Seven mana is a lot, fortunately this comes with good burn attached. While I don't think many cubes will want this guy, I think it is a snug fit for ones that do as an Exhume target, especially with the Dread Return reprint.
Mire Triton - Downshift Staple - This is pretty much all I want on a black 2 mana creature. Deathtouch means it always trades and mill-2-gain-2 will help in most matchups either by fueling the graveyard and/or helping mitigate early damage. This is just a solid include into pretty much any black deck.
Nadier's Nightblade - Downshift Bad - The body is pretty irrelevant. Mirkwood Bats are just going to be better in most circumstances.
Read the Bones - Cubeable - This isn't as good as I thought it would be, mostly because black already had good card advantage and Night's Whisper outclasses this in terms of efficiency over card selection. But this is still a fine draw spell.
Serrated Scorpion - Cubeable - Don't underestimate this little guy. Still, if life isn't a deciding factor or you don't have a way to sacrifice this for advantage, Serrated Scorpion can be a little underwhelming.
Supernatural Stamina - Borderline - This is good with evoke as well as sacrifice with enters and leaves triggers. All and all, not a bad card, but it takes a bit to make to make this card worth while.
Thorn of the Black Rose - Staple - Black can really take advantage on monarch. Deathtouch is never useless. This is one of the consistently better monarch cards.
Tragic Slip - Cubeable - A perfectly adequate one mana kill spell. While the -13/-13 mode is not entirely reliable, this will kill often enough that is doesn't matter too much, although sometimes that will have to be after combat.
Twisted Abomination - Cubeable - A classic game ender, and one of the few viable regenerators. There are more ways too kill it these days with -X/-X effects and sometimes this will be too slow, but still, a classic Magic card.
Witch's Cauldron - Bad - Convert fodder into cards! Still 2 mana to sacrifice is too slow in most cases.
Deep Analysis - Cubeable - This card has slowly been power crept from being the all-star it once was. It still has one of the best flashbacks in the game, although whether you can afford the 3 life is a lot more matchup dependent.
Deranged Assistant - Borderline - Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on this guy, but maybe that's just because signets are available as a cheap ramp option for non-green decks. The mill is cute too.
Exclude - Staple - I might be overrating this card, but card advantage on counter magic is a strong combination. Three is a lot to hold open, so this can lead to awkward situations where you hold mana and they play a non-creature. Still 3 mana for a Remove Soul that draws a card is nothing to sneeze at.
Fall from Favor - Cubeable - Removal that makes you the monarch is kind of nutty for 3 mana. That being said, building around this in cube is more difficult than constructed. Still this will be a powerhouse for quite a while, I foresee.
Filigree Attendant - Downshift Cubeable - This requires artifacts in a very non-subtle way. In saying that, this will be a sure-fire in an artifact deck. The main problem this card will see is that it is quite bad without enough artifacts.
Frantic Search - Cubeable - Nowhere near as in pauper limited as it is in a powered/legacy cube. Still this sets up madness and the graveyard as well as digging in a pinch. "Free" spells tend to be quite decent regardless.
Ghostly Flicker - Cubeable - One of the staples in the flicker archetype. Still outside that it is ok. 3 mana is a bit, so it will not be a perfect fit into all cubes.
Goliath Sphinx - Downshift Cubeable - Certainly one of the more spicy downshifts. The body is game winning, but getting to seven mana is a tall order when all it takes is one removal spell to fell the mighty. Also Striped Riverwinder is this card's competition. Still... I foresee this getting plenty of play in cubes where it isn't necessarily the strictly best option, but instead is the most fun option.
Looter il-Kor - Staple - Very nearly the best thing since sliced bread. I don't think this will lose it's staple status anytime soon.
Murmuring Mystic - Staple Downshift - This is a great downshift. It gives spell based decks a solid long-game strategy. While this is not for every cube, it certainly is for some cubes and playing instants and sorceries isn't exactly niche. 5 toughness keeps this out of burn range and the triggered ability isn't stopped by Pacifism type effects. This isn't quite what spell-burn decks want, but we can get to that in a minute.
Renowned Weaponsmith - Downshift Borderline - This assumes we need mana for artifacts. But definitely worth putting on the watch list.
Resculpt - Borderline - Better as commander removal, because most threats in pauper are relatively cheap and efficient creatures. Still resculpting a food seems fine, so maybe when the artifact token density goes up enough this will have a resurgence.
Reverse Engineer - Downshift Borderline - Speaking of artifact token synergies, this card. Card draw isn't exactly scarce at common. Plus you need plenty of artifacts to make this card work. But the potential is there. Downshifts like this are welcome.
Shipwreck Dowser - Downshift Staple - This is a significant upgrade on Archaeomancer. Sure it's 5 mana versus 4, but 3/3 prowess is a good body. This will certainly see play and this a good top end for spell decks, or even just grindy decks.
Vizier of Tumbling Sands - Downshift Bad - There isn't much advantage to untapping your opponents stuff unlike in commander, so this card loses quite a bit of flexibility. Cycling is nice, but I don't really see decks using this over other cards.
Windcaller Aven - Cubeable - The cycling on this card is quite good. For one blue mana you get a new card and uncounterably give something flying. Then late game you can play this as a decent flier. Also you don't need a target to get the card. All and all, this is fine and is often undervalued when people don't look at the cycling.
Windrider Wizard - Downshift Cubeable - Another good spell card. This is similar to Academy Wall, but is more of a tempo card. Card filtering can really take over a game as all the cards in your hand will be useful ones.
Witching Well - Borderline - It's a fine cheap artifact with an etb. If you are looking for more artifacts, this will do, but without synergies, this is lacking.
Ainok Bond-Kin - Borderline - It's fine. Obviously excels with +1/+1 counter synergies, but white has some pretty good 2 mana value creatures already.
All That Glitters - Downshift Cubeable - This is one of the better pure stat buffing enchantments. Requires a bit of work to set up and still is vaulerable to a 2-for-1. But this is about on the threshold for auras with no card advantage built it.
Ancestral Blade - Cubeable - This is ok as a way of boosting the number of artifacts/equipment in the cube, but is nothing special. People will play it if they need a 2 cost.
Battle Screech - Staple - First physical common printing! This card is basically Triplicate Spirits on performance enhancers, aka excellent.
Custodi Squire - Staple - Another all-star. Has been power crept. This is a great Gravedigger as the 3/3 flying body is almost always what you need.
Generous Gift - Downshift Cubeable - Versatile removal, but generally it won't quite be worth giving them a 3/3 for. You can use it as land destruction (for both yourself and the opponent) which puts in into the cubeable category. Note the interaction with indestructible lands.
Knighted Myr - Borderline - With plenty of ways of giving this +1/+1 counters this becomes quite formidable. Also it synergises with artifact themes. This is a jack of many trades and a master of none type of card.
Ministrant of Obligation - Downshift Cubeable - 3 mana for three bodies is a good deal. This needs to be played with sacrifice, but excels at that.
Myrsmith - Downshift Cubeable - This is a strong two cost for artifact decks. All and all a solid role player. The 2/1 for 2 stat line continues to be fine, although it is super squishy. Also this card can ignore most enchantment based removal excluding Journey to Nowhere type effects. Think of this ability as an extort category type of effect.
Palace Sentinels - Cubable - Pretty much all of the 4 mana monarch cards are good, because continuous card draw will always be strong.
Shelter - Cubeable - It protects. It draws a card. This continues to be one on White's best tricks.
Spectral Grasp - Downshift Cubeable - Basically it's Pacifism. There have been some strict upgrades on Pacifism in recent times, but as copy number 4 or whatever, it will do.
Sunblade Angel - Downshift Cubeable - It's a lot of keywords. I think that 6 mana is a lot to ask for in white, so it likely will not make the cut in most decks, especially because it has no immediate effect on the board and no cycling. Also this has to compete with Imperial Oath. Lifelink in conjuction with other abilities means this will be relevant if it sticks.
Sunspear Shikari - Borderline - This card has gotten better as more equipments are viable. But this requires a critical density of equipment.
Supply Runners - Borderline - Strong etb, but still requires 5 mana and a full board. Frankly, I didn't know this card existed until now.
Swift Response - Cubeable - Very reactive removal. Still 2 mana white Assassinate will see some play in control to diversify from enchantment based removal.
Thraben Inspector - Cubeable - The one cost with card advantage and artifact synergy. It will fit into cubes fine.
Unbounded Potential - Cubeable - More counter cards. Entwine makes this potent late game, but early you still need to deploy the bodies before it does it's thing. I think that this will be just the right fit for the right cube.
Wanderer's Strike - Bad - 5 mana is too much for hard removal. In a cube that heavily uses counters, this will be fine, but in general there are better removal options and not many decks can spare 5 mana.
I only just realised that you exile cards facedown with foretell.
Skull Raid seems alright. Fairly underpowered, but removing the downside of Mind Rot is pretty appealing. I wish this was 3 mana, but that would be too much to ask.
Priest of the Haunted Edge - Another good snow matters card. I actually like this one a lot because it's a zombie which means it works with Ghoulraiser and Ghoulcaller's Chant. The 0/4 body is nice because it survives Incinerate and can block most non-evasion creatures (though not at the same time).
Do people still run the Ravnica Karoo lands (Azorius Chancery etc)? I think the turn 2 play is important for a lot of decks so I've been tending to cut them. Their effect is still really strong, but I feel having all 10 in cube is a bit over kill.
Skywhaler's Shot - Seems fine from the sideboard. The main downside is in most cases you'd rather have Pacifism instead.
Azure Fleet Admiral - Monarch is a bit risky, but is fine when you build around the downside. Unblockable is nice for regaining monarch. This is the kind of card which works well in Blue/Black and tempo. Probably worth trying out.
Kitesail Skirmisher - One toughness makes it squishy. Encore means this card requires further consideration. I would certainly run this if I had little to cards which deal damage in increments of one. That being said, Kitesail Skirmisher is fine as the top end of a tempo deck.
Skaab Goliath - Slow, weak to single target non-red removal. Spined Megalodon has hexproof, this doesn't. Trample is nice on a big body.
Elvish Doomsayer - Black Cat is better. Of course this says each opponent, but we only care about 1v1.
Exquisite Huntmaster - A passable 4 mana creature which leaves behind a body. Encore is what pulls together this card.
Champion of the Flame - Similar effect to Goblin Gaveleer. There are few decent auras now, but I'd say that this kind of card has a way to go before there is the critical mass of effects to make this good. That being said Champion of the Flame and Bone Splitter hits hard. Cubable (but highly cube dependent).
Filigree Familiar - This card is just enough of a nudge in the direction of value to be worth considering. I think if it had 3 toughness it would be great. As it is it isn't really doing enough to warrant an inclusion into any particular archetype. Maybe it's good enough to sit in a sideboard and come out in the relevant match ups.
Foundry Inspector - It would be good the the artifact deck if that was a thing.
Howling Golem - I don't know about this. Repeatable card draw is nice, but giving your opponents cards is really not worth it in the long run.
Staunch Throneguard - 5 mana is costly for becoming the monarch. Might be a bit too tall of an order since all the colours have viable monarch options available.
I think the encore creatures are better than they appear.
Iron League Steed seems borderline. There are plenty of cases were it is ok, but very few where it good fit over generic good cards. Fabricate means it can easily bump artifact counts to an active threshold for example Galvanic Blast and Cranial Plating. However most cubes don't support artifacts.
Outlaw Medic: This is a great roadblock for aggro match match ups with lifelink. Lifelink also scales well with equipments. Also this can be traded for a card with sacrifice effects.
Vengeful Townsfolk: 3/3 that grows. Pretty good for 3 mana. Sure it's not as good as Inspiring Overseer, but it grows, so it's going to be a threat that needs dealt with at some point.
Harrier Stix: Basically this is just a card to set up ninjitsu. Being a mana sink helps differentiate itself from other small evasion bodies as it will be important late game. Not terribly excited about this, but I'll keep an eye on it for if we get more ninjas.
Phantom Performance: Really excited about this. Quench is an effect you want early, but it falls you quickly, especially if your opponent plays around it. However this can turn into a flash 2/2 flier if your opponent has open mana; but even better, you can 2 for 1 with this! Each mode isn't worth it, but as a complete package, the flexibility really puts this over the edge.
Razzle-Dazzler: Cheap threat that grow with evasion. This is a shoe-in for spell matters decks. I mean, it's not Tolerian Terror number 3, but its a good early threat that lets you gain tempo. It goes without saying that you run this with all of the Consider/Preordain/Mental Note effects.
Corrupted Conviction: Village Rites 3, or whatever. Kind of whatever, but there are enough of these effects to create a sweet archetype.
Desperate Bloodseeker: Lifelink makes any reasonable cheap creature a threat for aggressive and tempo decks. They just have to answer it, or else the life gain is going to make racing hard. 2/2 is aight, mill 2 is aight. All round, a fine package.
Vault Plunderer: Phyrexian Rager upgrade, and about time too. Maybe a sidegrade, depending on the cube. 3/1 is a marginal upgrade over 2/2. Obviously it gains the weakness of Lava Dart and Desert, but 3/1 trades better in combat and races better. A cool thing about this is you can target your opponent for that 1 life which could make all the difference.
Highway Robbery: I am looking forward to this for madness. It will be a good turn 2 play to plot this into a turn 3 madness creature on curve. One of the biggest faults of madness decks is having cards that allow you to discard for no mana, while not being a dead card outside of madness payoffs. Also, you can sacrifice a land, which will be important when you are flooded. This is my favourite card with plot of the set.
Hardbristle Bandit: This is fine for ramping, but mana elves are generally better when you just want ramp. Seems kind of sweet for removal heavy builds, and there is a lot of good removal in Black and Red. I'm sure there will be some cube configuration where this shines.
Patient Naturalist: I'm trying to keep track of all the green mill creatures with upside. I'm not quite sure what I'm looking for, but I feel once we get more creature-based mill, guys like this will be good.
Voracious Varmint: Naturalize on legs is worth noting. Wizards keep printing stuff like this, but if artifacts and enchantments ever become problematic card types, cards like this are what you want to have on hand.
Conduit Pylons: Crystal Grotto, but you surveil. In general, surveilling is stronger that scry because of flashback and cards like Tolerian Terror. The much dreaded mill archetype hasn't been viable in eons, so the mill isn't much of a downside. The only other outcomes are if your game grinds to a halt and ends in decking (then please, fix your cube), or the visible information gives your opponent a tactical advantage.
All of the Desert dual lands are viable
Brackish Blunder - Cubeable - It is to be seen how good Map tokens are. In general, I don't think this bounce spell is particularly good, because you only get the upside if the target is tapped. Admitted this card is instant speed, but it isn't that suited for tempo decks. Ephara's Dispersal is much better than this card.
Cogwork Wrestler - Borderline - It's a cheap artifact creature that is ill-suited to tempo. That being said, it mostly is a trick for killing 3/1s. In artifact matters strategies it is important to reach a critical mass of cheap artifacts. But outside of that this is underpowered.
Didact Echo - Borderline - 5 mana is a deathknell for this card. The cantrip is nice, but even the flying is not guaranteed. Descend 4 is also a lot of work for blue. Sure there are a ton of surveil spells in blue, but the main way of filling the graveyard is from instants and sorcies which is the main reason Tolarian Terror is so good. Anyway, this card isn't bad, but has a lot working against it.
Frilled Cave-Wurm - Borderline - At best a 4/5 for 4 in blue. Blue has enough good 4 mana cards to not need to consider this. And again descend is kind of awkward — unless you build specifically for this.
Inverted Iceberg - Cubeable - Another cheap artifact. This one becomes a decent late game threat, but it is unlikely what it'll warrant an inclusion outside of dedicated cubes.
Marauding Brinefang - Borderline - Ward 3 is nice, but hexproof is much better. Likewise cycling U is better than islandcycling 2. Striped Riverwinder is likely to forever to take the spot in the cube that this card would likely occupy. It's nice that we are getting more landcycling, but after the Lord of the Rings set, it is unlikely that many of these cards will find a space.
Oaken Siren - Borderline - Decent mana generating creature for artifact decks. Flying and vigilance are good keywords to have; this card reminds me of Hovermyr. Overall eh, but it will find a home in artifact cubes.
Orazca Puzzle-Door - Borderline - Another cheap artifact. I'm not going to pretend that this will be played in anything that isn't a dedicated artifact cube.
Out of Air - Cubeable - Sure it's restrictive for being 2 blue, but having your Essence Scatter double as Cancel late game is pretty neat. Sure it is worse than Counterspell and Mana Leak, but those are some of the best common counter magic printed ever and most decks running Counterspell are looking for redundancy in counter spells as there are often more than one spell you want to stop.
Pirate Hat - Borderline - Pirate synergies ahoy. Mostly you won't get the discount, so it's probably a bit over-costed. It is important that you get the loot on attack, rather than on combat damage. Still, it seems awkward to get going, but it's nice to see blue equipment.
Relic's Roar - Bad - This gives your cheap artifacts something to do. Mostly these temporary power-toughness granting spells haven't been quite good enough, or a little bit too awkward to set up. Why mess around with something like this when you can play black and straight up Murder the opposing creature in question?
River Herald Scout - Cubeable - This is good. A colour-shifted Seekers' Squire is going to be fine. It might not be the right fit for your cube, but it is certainly good enough.
Sage of Days - Cubeable - Seems like a fine creature for stacking the top of the library. Mostly it's going to be worse than Sea Gate Oracle because this card doesn't put the card into your hand. 3/2 body is more relevant than a 1/3.
Shipwreck Sentry - Bad - Yeah, kind of bad.
Song of Stupefaction - Borderline - Seems fine with descend, but likely isn't going to make that much of a splash considering that blue wants to play so many instants and sorceries.
Unlucky Drop - Bad - Most sets have something like this, and in most cases it isn't going to be fast enough for cube. Not just that, but giving your opponent the choice, always makes these worse.
Waterwind Scout - Cubeable - This is fine, but I got really sad when I realised the 1 mana 1/1 flier than makes a map is uncommon and instead we get this. A 2/2 flier that generates a token for 3 mana is pretty standard for blue now. It depends on how good a map is compared to a 1/1. I'm guessing slightly better, but Eldrazi Skyspawner is likely to continue to hog this slot. I think Waterwind Scout is worth testing because I think explore is better than I'm giving it credit and I get to chose which creature explores too.
Waylaying Pirates - Borderline - Seems fine, but too inconsistent to be worthwhile. Again in an artifact cube...
Summary: A decent amount of cubeable cards, but nothing especially good. Explore is likely pretty decent. A lot of random artifact nonsense, but outside of the craft card, nothing that really draws you into playing artifacts.
Adaptive Gemguard - Borderline - This is one of those cards which gets better the longer that games drag out for. A lot of cubes value tempo, and this guy doesn't really do tempo. In saying that, this is a good way to make junk artifacts useful. Also you can use this card to tick itself up the turn it comes into play. I have been tempted by artifact themes, but the artifacts tended not to play that well as splashes outside the artifact decks.
Attentive Sunscribe - Borderline - Kind of a standard Grizzly Bears with slight upside. Being a artifact means it can synergise with all the artifact stuff that exists. The scry tick on attacking gives it value over time, but it still is worse than the standard 2 mana White cards that go into none artifact synergistic decks.
Cosmium Blast - Borderline - A functional reprint of something. Pretty standard white spell. It's fine offensively and defensively, but it requires your opponent to play into it. Also your attacking creature doesn't deal any damage if you kill a single blocking creature, unless that creature attacking has trample. Fine, but isn't going to find a home in high powered cubes.
Deconstruction Hammer- Borderline - It's a white Leonin Scimitar with upside. Kind of competing with Kor Halberd for that equipment slot. Still it's cool to see more coloured equipment.
Envoy of Okinec Ahau - Cubeable - This is the first 3/3 for 3 white creature with upside if you exclude Ballynock Cohort. The ability on this card seems kind of expensive, but as a free extra gives this card some late game and you a potential mana sink. The main important thing about this is 3/3 for 3. While that isn't a good as it use to be, it still is a fine stat line.
Family Reunion - Bad - Flexibility is nice, but both modes are kind of weak and situational. Neither mode really compliments the other.
Glorifier of Suffering - Borderline - Sacrifice outlet in White. Could be interesting to see more of these kinds of cards. Still going down in tempo by sacrificing something to buff part of your board seems kind of eh. It depends what there is that wants to die. In this set there are the craft cards and descend cards with encourage you to kill your own stuff, but I'm not sure cubes will be including a lot of those kinds of cards.
Ironpaw Aspirant - Borderline - Kind of fodder with a +1/+1 counter attached. Not really worth commenting on other than cards like this have typically been green.
Miner's Guidewing - Borderline - This is fodder, if I've ever seen one. The main problem with this is you don't get to explore if you don't have any other creatures in play. I think this is harder to evaluate that most of the cards we've seen so far because there isn't that much to compare it to for 1 mana. Could be good, or could be kind of nothing.
Oltec Archaeologists - Borderline - I like this design. 5 mana is a lot to pay for a creature, but either getting back an artifact or scrying 3 means there is never a bad mode on this. 4/4 is a fine body, and is mostly bigger than we see on white commons.
Oltec Cloud Guard - Borderline - 3/2 flier for 4 is below rate. Getting the Gnome gives this some more utility, but it is a little bit on the weak side. Seems fine in swarm strategies, but is still weak to Fiery Cannonade.
Oteclan Landmark - Cubeable - Sort of the White Witching Well. This card very obviously wants to be played with a ton of artifacts. The transformed side is decent and the cost of crafting is pretty cheap.
Petrify - Staple - Basically Planar Disruption number two. Of course this can't hit Planeswalker, but there are none of those a common so it doesn't matter! I consider this worse than Temporal Isolation and Journey to Nowhere, but it's still a staple effect.
Quicksand Whirlpool - Borderline - It is premium removal, but too expensive for powered Pauper Cubes.
Soaring Sandwing - Borderline - Seems fine, but probably isn't as good as Eagles of the North because the cycling cost.
Thousand Moons Crackshot - Borderline - It's pretty expensive to tap down creatures with this.
Thousand Moons Infantry - Bad - This is a unique common, but pretty weak.
Tinker's Tote - Cubeable - Three artifacts for 3 mana! I just want to let that sink in. Seems very good with cards that care about the number of artifacts you control. Also this has a pretty good etb, so if you can retrigger that, it's value.
Summary: There are a lot of borderline cards and almost no bad cards. Petrify is really good, but is basically a functional reprint. Plenty of alright artifact cards which play well with other artifacts, however these aren't really that good without a solid artifact theme in your cube.
Archon's Glory - Cubeable - Unbargained this is a vanilla combat trick. Nothing special. Bargained this gets pretty good as both lifelink and flying are valuable keywords. Now since this is the first bargain card it's time to talk about the mechanic. First thing to note is tokens and artifacts already exist in Pauper Cube are viable archetypes, so you don't have to jump through ridiculous hoops for bargain cards to function. Definite plus. A major strike against this mechanic is you can't sacrifice non-token creatures, so that means no snacking on Nested Shambler. Overall, the mechanic is playable, but the cards still need to be evaluated on a case by case basis. Archon's Glory is one of the better pump tricks in white, but this may be out competed by Shelter, Kor Chant and Test of Faith.
Armory Mice - Borderline - 3/1 with upside continues to be decent, but white twos are pretty stacked.
Besotted Knight - Borderline - The first of the Adventure cards. Adventure is a pretty versatile mechanic, offering modal flexiablity and a potential two for one. Both modes on this a pretty weak. But this might be okay in an aura stacking strategy. Overall, it's hard to get excited for Hill Giant.
Break the Spell - Terrible - Enchantment specific removal is not good, unless you build the enchantment cube (good luck).
Charmed Clothier - Borderline - If it could target itself... It's a little bit expensive and slightly lacking impact. Just compare this to Basilica Shepherd. Three toughness is a major strike against. Royal role is kind of a +1/+1 counter, and ward 1 is nice to have, but isn't going to stop a lot.
Cooped Up - Staple - Another strictly better Pacifism. Doesn't stop activated abilities, but being able to exile the creature means that this won't just be sitting around until your opponent draws an answer or sacrifices their creature late game.
Frostbridge Guard - Borderline - 2/2, is a fine base rate. The tap ability is expensive, but is still going to be impactful late game. This card is not quite pushed enough for Pauper Cube, but we've come a long way from the terrible creatures of the past.
Hopeful Vigil - Cubaeable - This synergises well with bargain, pieces enchantment synergy and Kor Skyfisher. The base rate of 2/2 vigilance token and scry 2 later is also fine, but this probably isn't good enough unless you are actively synergising with it.
Kellan's Lightblades - Borderline - Eh, its okay removal, but you don't get a huge amount extra by bargaining.
Moment of Valour - Borderline - Modal, but a lot threats in Cube are cheap efficient threats rather that big guys. 3 mana is also a lot. The flexibility of this keeps it out of bad tier.
Plunge into Winger - Bad - It's a white Opt. Tapping is cute, but Shelter make this look pretty bad by comparison.
Protective Parents - Bad - White can utilise Young Hero role. As a 3/2 is pretty weak, plus this has to die. Why are the parents always disposable characters?
Return Triumphant - Borderline - Just run Recommission.
Rimefur Raindeer - Bad - Without synergies this is bad. With synergies this can be pretty efficient at keeping things tapped. Maybe in the future this will be fine after the 10th enchantment set.
Savior of the Sleeping - Bad - I'm just going to pretend there isn't enough enchantment support for cards like these without properly looking. This could be much better with several good enchantment sets.
Slumbering Knight - Bad - Pretty good possible upside on this guy, but only time will tell if this card gets the support.
Stockpiling Celebrant - Cubeable - The obvious comparison is Kor Skyfisher. Now, this doesn't have flying nor can it reset lands, but returning is non-compulsory and you scry 2. The scry is a pretty big deal because of its synergy with Experimental Synthesizer among other things. Also this is generally good at resetting etbs. But you can still curve out on turn 2, something you can't do with many cards with similar effects.
Tuinvale Guide - Borderline - Worse than Seraph of Dawn. Also not consistent. 3/3 flying lifelink is a good rate, but this might be only true in dreams.
Unassuming Sage - Borderline - Yeah, as either a 2 cost or 4 cost it's below rate. Being modal helps, but like, eh.
Closing thoughts: Some alright cards. One Pacifism upgrade. A handful of somewhat lacking modal cards. And a bunch of enchantment matters cards which might be sleepers until we get the 10th pushed enchantment set.
The Prismatic Piper - Terrible - This guy again. Clearly not designed at all with Pauper Cube in mind unless you are truly mad and make a Pauper Commander Cube a thing. (I dare you, do it!)
Ulamog's Crusher - Cubeable - Another iconic Pauper card. It definitely ends games with the annihilator, but this can be a bit of a newbie trap where people see the stat line and the sweet keyword and ignore the fact that eight mana is a lot.
Artifact:
Bonder's Ornament - Bad - This is a strong Tron card if we ignore the fact that the Tron lands are terrible in a vanilla singleton draft. Yes, this does enable late game draw, but it is pretty outclassed as a 3 mana rock.
Brass Knuckles - Downshift Cubeable - You need to be running a lot of equipment, but this is a good payoff for that strategy. Four mana is pretty pricey, but the equip cost is cheap (assuming you already had equipped creatures). More coloured equipment keeps on being printed, so this will likely have more friends to play with as time goes on.
Campfire - Downshift Bad - Two life per turn, you can gain quite a lot in the long term with this artifact with a small mana investment and that can be hard to deal with. The commander text is just flavour text (unless you are playing the highly unorthodox Commander Pauper Cube!?!)
Commander's Sphere - Bad - All these 3 cost mana rocks are kind of the same as they are too slow to be impactful in a draft format with Signets. Look this one can be exchanged for a card.
Darksteel Ingot - Bad - Look this one is indestructible, maybe try animating it?
Explorer's Scope - Bad - If you live the dream this is good, but when it does nothing, it does nothing. Still it's a neat design.
Firemind Vessel - Downshift Borderline - This is a pretty rampy mana rock. I think this could have a spot enabling Capsize decks. The main thing is you can ramp and colour fix, but to what?
Foundry Inspector - Cubeable - This goes into the draft strategy where you pick up every artifact. Is that a good plan? It depends on the cube. Nevertheless, this is a good enabler of that strategy.
Haunted Cloak - Cubeable - That's a lot of keywords of a common equipment. Is it good though? Not sure, but it seems pretty sweet with Brass Knuckles.
Heart-Piercer Bow - Borderline - This is fine if you need to kill a bunch of one toughness creatures.
Letter of Acceptance - Bad - Strictly worse Command Sphere.
Myr Sire - Bad - There are cards in other colours that generate bodies better than this.
Pilgrim's Eye - Bad - I use to like this card, but now it seems pretty powercrept.
Prismatic Lens - Cubeable - Finally a good rock, still worse that Signets, etc. The colour filtering is cute, but typically isn't relevant. Not to say you never use this card to filter.
Prophetic Prism - Borderline - This is basically only used to filter and be fodderised by whatever artifact sacrifice your packing. Again, it would be pretty good if Tron lands break the singleton rule.
Staunch Throneguard - Borderline - The worst of the monarch cards of the set. Still monarch is such a strong machanic that it makes even this potentially worth running.
Unstable Obelisk - Bad - Weaking than the other rocks so far in terms of colour fixing. Being able to blow something up late game with this seems kind of nice if at baseline it was better.
Vial of Dragonfire - Terrible - 2 damage only to creatures isn't really worth it for the amount of mana you put in. It might be better if you have the artificer dude tutoring this, but that seems unlikely. Also this would have been better in the format it was originally designed for with a ton of morph creatures running around.
Vulshok Battlegear - Downshift Staple - So you thought Vulshok Morningstar was strong. This is basically an ungraded version of that. It may even be too expensive to get going, but this will turn any creature into a huge threat and will be a powerhouse finisher. The cost to get this going it just too much for it to impact all aggro and tempo games, but this is going to decide quite a few midrange games.
Abundant Harvest - Cubeable - It is either a land when you need it, or a non-land the rest of the time. It's alright deck thinning. It depends on how critical early mana is for your deck.
Broken Wings - Bad - Well this card is fine when there are enough targets to make a 3 mana green removal spell worth using on, but in general it is too niche and too expensive.
Courage in Crisis - Bad - There are better proliferate cards.
Crash of Rhino Beetles - Downshift Cubeable - This is another case of overkill. 5 mana 5/5 trample is... er... fine. Then if you somehow get to 10 lands it turns into a game winning monster. Frankly, there are more mana efficient threats that you could be playing when you can first cast this. Not that many games are decided by a 5/5 trampler for 5 mana. And the +10/+10 part of this card is sufficiently gated as to be irrelevant for most games. Just play Avenging Hunter instead.
Crawling Infestation - Downshift Borderline - Eventually you are going to get enough value out of this if the game goes long enough, but mostly this will be too slow.
Deadly Recluse - Bad - I get that this was included to be a multiplayer rattlesnake, but this is pretty bad by Pauper standards.
Elvish Mystic - Staple - All 1 cost mana elves are staples. They are some of the best mana acceleration in common.
Entourage of Trest - Cubeable - Monarch is still good. 5 mana is basically 4 mana for green, but green isn't the best colour at holding monarch compared to black and red.
Fierce Empath - Borderline - Tutoring for a big creature isn't that good in pauper, still I wouldn't count this as a weak card, just not one for this format.
Ilysian Caryatid - Borderline - It can be a bit awkward finding something to do with the extra mana once you get a 4 power creature down. Colour fixing is nice, and in a depowered environment this can be quite decent.
Kodama's Reach - Cubeable - Both this and Cultivate are good ramp, colour fixing and card advantage. It might be too slow for some people, but this is never a bad card.
Kozilek's Predator - Cubeable - I completely forgot about this creature. 4 mana 3/3 is fine, but getting 2 eldrazi spawn is quite nice. That does require you to have something to do with them, but I'm sure you as a cube designer can figure something out.
Krosan Tusker - Cubeable - You get a sort-of green instant speed Divination or you can hold for a late game big creature. A classic modal card.
Pollenbright Druid - Borderline - This is a fine support card for a +1/+1 counter deck. But it doesn't do much without a lot of synergies.
Ram Through - Borderline - If more creatures had trample, this would be better. In general you don't want your removal spells to be too dependent on the board state, and that is the main problem that most of green's removal has. Either that, or the removal has to be very mana effient.
Rot Shambler - Downshift Bad - Sure it can grow, but you most likely want to be doing proactive things with your mana in green.
Skyshroud Claim - Borderline - These lands don't come into play tapped, unless you fetch for duel typed lands. This is a pretty good ramp spell that lets you not just take a turn off to ramp, but instead ramp and do something else. The only problem is ramp into what?
Skysnare Spider - Borderline - Reach and vigilance is a potent keyword combination. At 6 mana it feels like this should at least have trample too, but still I wouldn't fault anyone for trying this downshift out, it's definitely a decent creature, but it's difficult to advocate for 6 mana creatures without being modal, having protection, having an immediate effect or in built card advantage.
Snakeskin Veil - Borderline - This is almost good enough, but even holding 1 mana can be awkward for a purely reactive spell.
Tuskguard Captain - Borderline - Outlast creatures are just a little bit awkward to get going and seem like they will have more of a home in a slower paced cube. Giving the team trample is nice too, but +1/+1 counter themed decks are a little awkward to get going without really warping to cube into supporting them. However if you do go to the effort to making a +1/+1 counter theme, then this guy is well worth including.
Abrade - Cubeable - This card is fine, but often Searing Spear is just better, being able to target players over artifact removal.
Blood Aspirant - Downshift Borderline - Sure this synergises with sacrifice, but it's not that much of a payoff, compared to the cheaper Mortician Beetle. I mean if you built your cube around sacrifice, Blood Aspirant would probably be fine.
Champion of the Flame - Borderline - There probably isn't enough equipment/auras to make this guy worth it, as by itself it's not much of a threat.
Crimson Fleet Commodore - Staple - Monarch continues to be strong on 4 mana creatures. The stat line on this guy is good and red can hold monarch quite well.
Cyclops Electromancer - Downshift cubeable - This is a pretty awkward Flametongue Kavu being 5 mana and relying on a stocked graveyard. Still removal on a stick seems to be good most of the time, I can see decks playing this, but they probably won't be stoked about it.
Dragon Fodder - Bad - If you want a good 2 mana token effect play Rally at the Hornburg as those tokens have haste.
Dwarven Hammer - Downshift Borderline - This hammer is a fine hammer. Though it is woefully lacking any toughness buffing. Also 5 mana is a lot to pay for a 5/1. The fact that the hammer gives trample is certainly a redeeming quality and will help break late game stalls.
Faithless Looting - Staple - This is about as staple as a non-burn red spell gets. While some hyper-aggro focused cubes will not use this, most red decks will find a way of using the looting. Great madness enabler.
Fists of Flame - Bad - Ok, maybe it is just borderline, but most cubes have a surplus of burn spells that can be ran over this.
Gargadon - Staple - Gargadon is great. Sure it gives your opponent plenty of time to prepare, but unless they have a instant speed kill spell at the ready, this smashes like a truck. This is somehow better than Errant Ephemeron, and Ephemeron is already considered quite good. Gargadon is what all suspend cards want to be like.
Guttersnipe - Staple - This card is bonkers. 3 mana is cheap enough that it will come down early enough to impact the game and then it turns any instant or sorcery into having a free Shock attached. This will end games, and probably eat a lot of removal. It could even be first pickable as it is a solid build around me card. This is probably one of the best downshifts of the set.
Impulsive Pilferer - Bad - Encore in 1v1 is weak as that mechanic is all about scaling with the number of players. There are better one mana options, and if you don't get the treasure early, the value of this card goes down significantly.
Living Lightning - Borderline - Obviously getting the spell back as a dies trigger is much worse than as an etb. Still this is decent card advantage, but is outclassed by other 4 mana plays.
Makeshift Munitions - Borderline - This is a decent sacrifice outlet as you can use both artifact and creatures to fuel it. Probably not for all cubes, but it will be fine in some.
Rapacious Dragon - Borderline - This guy wants to be good and 2 treasures is a fine etb, but 5 mana is a bit too steep to get this guy down in time for the treasure to matter much. The stat line 3/3 flier for 5 is not good when you can be doing other things. So this card is a combination of being too slow and too low impact.
Rapacious One - Borderline - 6 mana with no cycling or alternative cost is pretty bad. Also not having any immediate effect the turn you play it too, nor any protection. But when it deals combat damage this goes pretty crazy. I think this is a classic case of being overkill when it works and kind of janky the rest of the time. Also outside of chump blocking and casting Fireball, realistically what are you going to be doing with all the eldrazi spawn?
Spikeshot Goblin - Borderline - Awkward to get going, but this seems pretty sweet when buffed. I think that this card is unrealistic as at its baseline, it's underwhelming.
Spitebellows - Downshift Cubeable - This goes in the pantheon of good evoke cards behind Mulldrifter. 6 damage kills most things, even stuff traditionally out of range of burn. Then it is pretty fierce as a creature, although one costing 6 mana with 1 toughness. Cards like Ephemerate and Undying Evil make evoke cards worth considering.
Sulfurous Blast - Downshift Staple - This is almost certainly great. The symmetrical damage to players is interesting, but mostly it is going to be the premier 3 damage red sweep in Pauper. Having the option to do 2 damage is interesting as there will be some cases where you want to leave some three toughness creatures alive.
Temur Battle Rage - Cubeable - This card continues to be an alright finisher. Again, you could just play burn in its place. But still, double strike and trample is a potent combination.
Cadaver Imp - Borderline - This stopped being good a while ago, but it is a pesky card in a card advantage engine machine.
Carrier Thrall - Borderline - Provides 2 bodies for 2 mana and one is an eldrazi spawn. Alright with sacrifice synergies.
Carrion Grub - Downshift cubeable - You can set up some spicy plays with this, but that requires having a bunch of other big creatures in your deck. It does fuel the graveyard which is nice. Four mana means that this is getting pretty late to the party.
Demon's Disciple - Downshift Cubeable - Fleshbag Marauder number 2 is welcome.
Dread Drone - Bad - Again with sacrifice themes, it could be ok. But overall, the body is lacking toughness and the tokens are lacking power, and 5 mana is a lot for pauper cube.
Dread Return - Downshift Cubeable - A welcome downshift. Reanimate effects are ok in pauper, but there generally isn't a ton of great targets. Still flashback is welcome.
Drown in Sorrow - Downshift Cubeable - While we already have Arms of Hadar, a three mana symmetrical -2/-2 is welcome. Scry one is also a nice bonus. Being able to stop early swarm is a nice tool for slower decks to have in their tool belt.
Feed the Swarm - Cubeable - Sometimes you don't mind the life lose for a cheap, versatile removal.
Legion Vanguard - Downshift Cubeable - While not Dark-Dweller Oracle, this is still a decent mana-gated sacrifice outlet.
Lotleth Giant - Downshift Cubeable - Seven mana is a lot, fortunately this comes with good burn attached. While I don't think many cubes will want this guy, I think it is a snug fit for ones that do as an Exhume target, especially with the Dread Return reprint.
Mire Triton - Downshift Staple - This is pretty much all I want on a black 2 mana creature. Deathtouch means it always trades and mill-2-gain-2 will help in most matchups either by fueling the graveyard and/or helping mitigate early damage. This is just a solid include into pretty much any black deck.
Nadier's Nightblade - Downshift Bad - The body is pretty irrelevant. Mirkwood Bats are just going to be better in most circumstances.
Phyrexian Gargantua - Downshift Cubeable - While I don't love this card, I have to respect any 4/4 with a Night's Whisper attached.
Read the Bones - Cubeable - This isn't as good as I thought it would be, mostly because black already had good card advantage and Night's Whisper outclasses this in terms of efficiency over card selection. But this is still a fine draw spell.
Serrated Scorpion - Cubeable - Don't underestimate this little guy. Still, if life isn't a deciding factor or you don't have a way to sacrifice this for advantage, Serrated Scorpion can be a little underwhelming.
Supernatural Stamina - Borderline - This is good with evoke as well as sacrifice with enters and leaves triggers. All and all, not a bad card, but it takes a bit to make to make this card worth while.
Thorn of the Black Rose - Staple - Black can really take advantage on monarch. Deathtouch is never useless. This is one of the consistently better monarch cards.
Tragic Slip - Cubeable - A perfectly adequate one mana kill spell. While the -13/-13 mode is not entirely reliable, this will kill often enough that is doesn't matter too much, although sometimes that will have to be after combat.
Twisted Abomination - Cubeable - A classic game ender, and one of the few viable regenerators. There are more ways too kill it these days with -X/-X effects and sometimes this will be too slow, but still, a classic Magic card.
Witch's Cauldron - Bad - Convert fodder into cards! Still 2 mana to sacrifice is too slow in most cases.
Counterspell - Staple - What more needs to be said about Counterspell? It's iconic.
Cryptic Serpent - Borderline downshift - Tolarian Terror this card is not.
Deep Analysis - Cubeable - This card has slowly been power crept from being the all-star it once was. It still has one of the best flashbacks in the game, although whether you can afford the 3 life is a lot more matchup dependent.
Deranged Assistant - Borderline - Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on this guy, but maybe that's just because signets are available as a cheap ramp option for non-green decks. The mill is cute too.
Exclude - Staple - I might be overrating this card, but card advantage on counter magic is a strong combination. Three is a lot to hold open, so this can lead to awkward situations where you hold mana and they play a non-creature. Still 3 mana for a Remove Soul that draws a card is nothing to sneeze at.
Fall from Favor - Cubeable - Removal that makes you the monarch is kind of nutty for 3 mana. That being said, building around this in cube is more difficult than constructed. Still this will be a powerhouse for quite a while, I foresee.
Filigree Attendant - Downshift Cubeable - This requires artifacts in a very non-subtle way. In saying that, this will be a sure-fire in an artifact deck. The main problem this card will see is that it is quite bad without enough artifacts.
Frantic Search - Cubeable - Nowhere near as in pauper limited as it is in a powered/legacy cube. Still this sets up madness and the graveyard as well as digging in a pinch. "Free" spells tend to be quite decent regardless.
Ghostly Flicker - Cubeable - One of the staples in the flicker archetype. Still outside that it is ok. 3 mana is a bit, so it will not be a perfect fit into all cubes.
Goliath Sphinx - Downshift Cubeable - Certainly one of the more spicy downshifts. The body is game winning, but getting to seven mana is a tall order when all it takes is one removal spell to fell the mighty. Also Striped Riverwinder is this card's competition. Still... I foresee this getting plenty of play in cubes where it isn't necessarily the strictly best option, but instead is the most fun option.
Looter il-Kor - Staple - Very nearly the best thing since sliced bread. I don't think this will lose it's staple status anytime soon.
Murmuring Mystic - Staple Downshift - This is a great downshift. It gives spell based decks a solid long-game strategy. While this is not for every cube, it certainly is for some cubes and playing instants and sorceries isn't exactly niche. 5 toughness keeps this out of burn range and the triggered ability isn't stopped by Pacifism type effects. This isn't quite what spell-burn decks want, but we can get to that in a minute.
Renowned Weaponsmith - Downshift Borderline - This assumes we need mana for artifacts. But definitely worth putting on the watch list.
Resculpt - Borderline - Better as commander removal, because most threats in pauper are relatively cheap and efficient creatures. Still resculpting a food seems fine, so maybe when the artifact token density goes up enough this will have a resurgence.
Reverse Engineer - Downshift Borderline - Speaking of artifact token synergies, this card. Card draw isn't exactly scarce at common. Plus you need plenty of artifacts to make this card work. But the potential is there. Downshifts like this are welcome.
Shipwreck Dowser - Downshift Staple - This is a significant upgrade on Archaeomancer. Sure it's 5 mana versus 4, but 3/3 prowess is a good body. This will certainly see play and this a good top end for spell decks, or even just grindy decks.
Vizier of Tumbling Sands - Downshift Bad - There isn't much advantage to untapping your opponents stuff unlike in commander, so this card loses quite a bit of flexibility. Cycling is nice, but I don't really see decks using this over other cards.
Windcaller Aven - Cubeable - The cycling on this card is quite good. For one blue mana you get a new card and uncounterably give something flying. Then late game you can play this as a decent flier. Also you don't need a target to get the card. All and all, this is fine and is often undervalued when people don't look at the cycling.
Windrider Wizard - Downshift Cubeable - Another good spell card. This is similar to Academy Wall, but is more of a tempo card. Card filtering can really take over a game as all the cards in your hand will be useful ones.
Witching Well - Borderline - It's a fine cheap artifact with an etb. If you are looking for more artifacts, this will do, but without synergies, this is lacking.
Ainok Bond-Kin - Borderline - It's fine. Obviously excels with +1/+1 counter synergies, but white has some pretty good 2 mana value creatures already.
All That Glitters - Downshift Cubeable - This is one of the better pure stat buffing enchantments. Requires a bit of work to set up and still is vaulerable to a 2-for-1. But this is about on the threshold for auras with no card advantage built it.
Ancestral Blade - Cubeable - This is ok as a way of boosting the number of artifacts/equipment in the cube, but is nothing special. People will play it if they need a 2 cost.
Battle Screech - Staple - First physical common printing! This card is basically Triplicate Spirits on performance enhancers, aka excellent.
Custodi Squire - Staple - Another all-star. Has been power crept. This is a great Gravedigger as the 3/3 flying body is almost always what you need.
Gavony Silversmith - Borderline - Fine for bringing the counters as it can buff itself, but generally is outclassed by Relief Captain and Basri's Acolyte.
Generous Gift - Downshift Cubeable - Versatile removal, but generally it won't quite be worth giving them a 3/3 for. You can use it as land destruction (for both yourself and the opponent) which puts in into the cubeable category. Note the interaction with indestructible lands.
Knighted Myr - Borderline - With plenty of ways of giving this +1/+1 counters this becomes quite formidable. Also it synergises with artifact themes. This is a jack of many trades and a master of none type of card.
Ministrant of Obligation - Downshift Cubeable - 3 mana for three bodies is a good deal. This needs to be played with sacrifice, but excels at that.
Myrsmith - Downshift Cubeable - This is a strong two cost for artifact decks. All and all a solid role player. The 2/1 for 2 stat line continues to be fine, although it is super squishy. Also this card can ignore most enchantment based removal excluding Journey to Nowhere type effects. Think of this ability as an extort category type of effect.
Palace Sentinels - Cubable - Pretty much all of the 4 mana monarch cards are good, because continuous card draw will always be strong.
Shelter - Cubeable - It protects. It draws a card. This continues to be one on White's best tricks.
Spectral Grasp - Downshift Cubeable - Basically it's Pacifism. There have been some strict upgrades on Pacifism in recent times, but as copy number 4 or whatever, it will do.
Sunblade Angel - Downshift Cubeable - It's a lot of keywords. I think that 6 mana is a lot to ask for in white, so it likely will not make the cut in most decks, especially because it has no immediate effect on the board and no cycling. Also this has to compete with Imperial Oath. Lifelink in conjuction with other abilities means this will be relevant if it sticks.
Sunspear Shikari - Borderline - This card has gotten better as more equipments are viable. But this requires a critical density of equipment.
Supply Runners - Borderline - Strong etb, but still requires 5 mana and a full board. Frankly, I didn't know this card existed until now.
Swift Response - Cubeable - Very reactive removal. Still 2 mana white Assassinate will see some play in control to diversify from enchantment based removal.
Thraben Inspector - Cubeable - The one cost with card advantage and artifact synergy. It will fit into cubes fine.
Unbounded Potential - Cubeable - More counter cards. Entwine makes this potent late game, but early you still need to deploy the bodies before it does it's thing. I think that this will be just the right fit for the right cube.
Wanderer's Strike - Bad - 5 mana is too much for hard removal. In a cube that heavily uses counters, this will be fine, but in general there are better removal options and not many decks can spare 5 mana.
Skull Raid seems alright. Fairly underpowered, but removing the downside of Mind Rot is pretty appealing. I wish this was 3 mana, but that would be too much to ask.
Priest of the Haunted Edge - Another good snow matters card. I actually like this one a lot because it's a zombie which means it works with Ghoulraiser and Ghoulcaller's Chant. The 0/4 body is nice because it survives Incinerate and can block most non-evasion creatures (though not at the same time).
Anointer of Valor - Has to be dealt with and white six mana creatures are extremely lacking. Might be still too slow for the meta.
Benevolent Blessing - Cho-Manno's Blessing is good and this is better. I'm tentatively calling this the staple of the set.
Kinsbaile Courier - Encore make's this alright on offence. It's ehh. I prefer Geist of the Moors and Ballyknock Cohort as 3cmc white creatures.
Skywhaler's Shot - Seems fine from the sideboard. The main downside is in most cases you'd rather have Pacifism instead.
Azure Fleet Admiral - Monarch is a bit risky, but is fine when you build around the downside. Unblockable is nice for regaining monarch. This is the kind of card which works well in Blue/Black and tempo. Probably worth trying out.
Flood of Recollection - Double blue is too steep for most decks.
Fall from Favor - Fine in removal heavy builds.
Forceful Denial - Plays poorly with other counter magic. Nevertheless this card is countermagic with card advantage so is worth considering.
Galestrike - Repulse is just better.
Kitesail Skirmisher - One toughness makes it squishy. Encore means this card requires further consideration. I would certainly run this if I had little to cards which deal damage in increments of one. That being said, Kitesail Skirmisher is fine as the top end of a tempo deck.
Skaab Goliath - Slow, weak to single target non-red removal. Spined Megalodon has hexproof, this doesn't. Trample is nice on a big body.
Elvish Doomsayer - Black Cat is better. Of course this says each opponent, but we only care about 1v1.
Exquisite Huntmaster - A passable 4 mana creature which leaves behind a body. Encore is what pulls together this card.
Eyeblight Massacre - Elves isn't much of a theme. Evincar's Justice is better.
Fleshbag Marauder - Nice to see one of these Diabolic Edict on a creature get printed at common. Very much borderline playable. Maybe fine with Ghoulcaller's Chant?
Maalfeld Twins - Playable because Black decks can actually survive to 6 mana. Still this gets shut down by Pacifism.
Boarding Party - The best red 6cmc creature so far. I think this is solidly cubable.
Brazen Freebooter - There isn't enough to do with Treasure (spend it of Fireball?) to make more than slightly better than Hill Giant.
Champion of the Flame - Similar effect to Goblin Gaveleer. There are few decent auras now, but I'd say that this kind of card has a way to go before there is the critical mass of effects to make this good. That being said Champion of the Flame and Bone Splitter hits hard. Cubable (but highly cube dependent).
Crimson Fleet Commodore - The state line is good. Monarch is great in red. Maybe staple?
Fiery Cannonade - Slightly expensive Pyroclasm. Probably the best we're going to do for now. The pirate part is negligible. Cubable.
Annoyed Altisaur - Highly variable. Going to say cubeable in ramp decks.
Fin-Clade Fugitives - Cubeable. That's a good creature to encore. There is also self mill available in green.
Scrounging Bandar - Plays well in the hexproofers archetype and therefore is cubable.
Charcoal Diamond, Fire Diamond, Marble Diamond Moss Diamond and Sky Diamond - Worse than signets and Mind Stone. Better than a kick in the pants.
Filigree Familiar - This card is just enough of a nudge in the direction of value to be worth considering. I think if it had 3 toughness it would be great. As it is it isn't really doing enough to warrant an inclusion into any particular archetype. Maybe it's good enough to sit in a sideboard and come out in the relevant match ups.
Foundry Inspector - It would be good the the artifact deck if that was a thing.
Howling Golem - I don't know about this. Repeatable card draw is nice, but giving your opponents cards is really not worth it in the long run.
Staunch Throneguard - 5 mana is costly for becoming the monarch. Might be a bit too tall of an order since all the colours have viable monarch options available.
I think the encore creatures are better than they appear.