Quote from n00b1n8R »
I'm really curious about what you're trying to illustrate by comparing Dash Hopes with Carnage Tyrant. Care to elaborate?
I only follow this 'discussion' by reading quoted comments from you know who, but I think I can answer it for you.
Magic players hate the game and that's why Wizards replaced shroud with hexproof. And that's why Magic players, who hate the game, love cards like Carnage Tyrant because it has hexproof and can't be countered and thus is uninteractive and unfun. And that's why playing a card like Dash Hopes is like sprinkling holy water on a vampire to most Magic players because it's so damn interactive!!1 And, you know, Magic players HATE interactivity! Because they hate the game! Because they replaced shroud with hexproof! And everything Magic players hate is good for the game and that's why you should fill your cube with arcane cards and One with Nothing just because it's something Magic players hate.
I mean, that's bascially everything this guy has been saying over and over and over since he started posting in the peasant section of this forum (and I assume he posted the same nonsense elsewhere before). And that's all you'll ever hear from him.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.