I play quite a buit of multiplayer with my pauper cube (see link in signature).
The method we play is something that one of the local guys have helped cook up. We call it "Stack" but since it's similar to an existing variant of Magic called the same thing I guess this is just a variant of the variant ("Welcome to the rabbit hole, Neo.").
I take a chunk of randomized cube and use it as a shared library. The graveyard is also shared. Once turn order is set we draw starting hands in that order - no mulligans (there should really be no reason to need this as you'll see). Then the game is played as normal with a few caveats:
(1) If you would draw a card you may instead choose a basic land of your choice outside the game (i.e. the lands I supply with the cube) and put it into your hand. This is a replacement effect and applied individually to each card that would be drawn (i.e. Deep Analysis can get you two cards, a card and a land, or two lands.
(2) If a flashback card would be put into the graveyard only the player with priority may activate the flashback abilty (normal rules for playing apply).
(3) When a player leaves the games (i.e. loses or has to roll out), all permanants, suspended cards, phased out cards, and tokens that player controls leave the game as well. Cards in the graveyard are uneffected.
(4) If an effect would search the library:
(a) ...for a basic land, instead choose the appropriate lands from outside the game.
(b) ...for a nonbasic card, search the current library, shuffle, then choose a new chunk of randomized cards to serve at the library.
Normal multiplayer rules apply so, for example, if I were to put Exhume into the cube, the active player would first choose a creature, followed by the other players in turn order (i.e. the path priority is passed normally).
Playign this way has been interesting and very challenging - because draws are truly random and removal comes at a premium. Pingers, morph critters, and other spell-like effects become much better, and card drawing is king (Hint: Don't play Deep Analysis unless you cna immediately play the flashback cost!). Lifegain is good, shadow is amazing, and recursive graveyard effects just rock (I've played many a game when somebody dropped Grim Harvest and I immediately went to work ensuring that it disappeared when nobody could pay for it's recover cost - it's saved many games.).
Give it a try, especially if you run minimal lands/artifact mana.
I'm pretty convinced that Plated Geopede is awesome, and will be a welcome addition to that spot in the curve. Fetchlands with him is just a nice bonus to hope for. Just playing a mountain and attacking for three first strike damage is awesome. Occasionally I can see him being mediocre, but I can also see times where he will deal far more damage than any other card in red's 2cc slot, as the first strike is really nice in stopping people from attempting to trade early with him and works really well with Red's assortment of burn.
Even without fetchlands he still looks okay. The main issue I keep seeing with any landfall dude is that they are awful top decks later in the game. I'm not convinced the risk of this happening is acceptable over the reward of a potential 3/3 that can't block effectively.
This. Mouth of Ronom is a great land in a Snow Cube... especially a Pauper Snow Cube.
I think he means that it, along with Stalking Yeti are uncommons and are therefore ineligible for a Pauper cube.
The only card that drew me towards the idea of using Snow in my pauper cube is Skred. While having a likely "Destroy target creature." for just R is nice, these effects are a dime a dozen in black. I'd rather have burn that can hit the dome than use Snow lands just for one card. I haven't missed it yet (and Fissure gets the job done anyway).
it is modal but man-o-war's beauty was that it was a 2/2 creature which is huge comparing to 0/3. and it costs 1UU
This. When I play Man-o'-War I gain tempo then, at the very least, trade with an X/2 - blink effects aside. I don't see this guy being anything other than an expensive, awkward Boomerang for Limited.
Blue could use some flying strength. While this guy (a 2/5 flying for 4U) won't win any "ZOMG! It's above teh power curvez!" awards, it is pretty stiff resistance to virtually everything in my cube with evasion to boot. If this were a 3/4 there would be no question... but at 2/5 it might not be enough to make it.
Hope you like waiting. That is WAY too good to see print.
I think that was his point: the blue one-drop would have to be so absurb that you'd have to ask "Why am I not running this?"
I think the new merfolk dude can be useful in EDH or multiplayer where search effects, fetch lands, and other library shuffling effects happen fairly regularly. Is he reliable? No. Can he get fairly large in a hurry? Maybe. Certainly not the best for a cube.
you auto-card'd.. that takes longer... either way we both have the same thought... "It's going in.. make it fit!"
Card tags are invaluable to ensuring that we know what cards are being talked out - it really doesn't take that much longer. Also, I post slow because I usually either think about it and rewrite some things or I have a lot to say.
And while there is a lot to be said about just grabbing it and pounding it in there I find it's much more important to take a look and elegantly slip it in where it works best. I would have a 500+ card cube if I just kept beating things into it.
While it costs Rib Cage Spider but has Canopy's stats, it's the Wing Snare stapled onto it that seems pretty awesome. There are quite a few evasive flyers, some of which are problematic to try and block. This guy can shore up both a flying defense early (it laughs are Stormfront Pegasus) and late (it cackles when it comes in nuking Errant Ephemeron). This will probably replace another expensive fatty.
EDIT: I must have been making this post while you posted knuckles29. This is certainly a nice little boost - it's be better if it was a split card (Seriously, why can't green have a common "Destroy target creature with flying." spell? The whole destroy "noncreature permanant" is supremely awesome but flying kill is the cat's meow in most limited.).
Expedition Map 1
Artifact 2, :symtap:, Sacrifice ~: Search your library for a land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
While it might be tempting to replace either Wayfarer's Bauble or Armillary Sphere, this Map is really a unqiue effect. Bauble ramps and Sphere fixes while deck thinning - the Map grabs a specific land you need. Both Desert and Arena have performed extremely well and I'm almost tempted to simply up my artifact count by one to tack on the Map. I think the Map is at worst a 3 1/2 Sphere which seems okay for colorless; at best it fetches the weenie decks nightmare (Desert) or a great source of repeatable removal for green ramp decks (Arena).
Expedition Map 1
Artifact Common 2, :symtap:, Sacrifice Expedition Map: Search your library for a land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
That application is extremely helpful. I use my spreadsheet in conjunction with it to ensure that the mana costs are set appropriate by card (i.e. Fireball set to like 5R or 7R instead of 0 as the defaults to).
The only reason I talk about full cycles here is that these cycles are manafixing cycles. While green certainly has access to mana fixing via it's ramp spells, ramping is a green theme and something that isn't shared with other colors - the manafixing portion is incidental. I want to avoid restricting mana tools (i.e. landcycling cycles) that are hard to come by in other colors. Additionally, because this is a pauper cube there aren't dual lands other than the RAV bounce lands. Having strong manafixing available to every color seems to make sense. However, I have seen the landcycle use maybe 25% of the times the card is played because, often enough it seems, the creature/spell is drawn late in the game and is instead played as that creature/spell, not mana fixing.
Otherwise I don't look at cycles as much as mirror pairs - if one half of the mirror is efficient then, often, the other half is as well.
Flame Jet -> Burst Lightning
Empty the Warrens -> Expedition (this is arguable, I like the Seal of Ball Lightning better, but feel free to argue)
There are also enough redundancies in Red you can cut a weaker variant of Lightning Bolt
While I agree Mold SHambler should go in, I think Ambush is the wrong call. Just because they are similar in the 4cc 3/3 doesn't mean they have the same role. A flash 3/3 which (with all the Landfall stuff) has a late game option. I know it isn't "aggro" enough for r/g but in either 5c or g/w getting to late game and overloading the board is a real probability w/ this card
I also think Order-> Skyfisher is a positive move since ww early is hard
Ambush is one of the better green cards in common cube. A flash 3/3 is just so useful and he eats attackers all the time. Flashback is just icing on the cake.
Mold Shambler is a neat card to add, but I guarantee you have much worse cards to take out.
Hmmm. I can see why I should hold onto Elephant Ambush and I'm not sure where else to turn. Giant Warthog and Wirewood Guardian are the two big expensive creatures I run. Warthog is a powerful finisher since it either cuts through any speed bumps or takes out a large chunk of blockers and proves problematic for opponents. The Guardian is part of a mana cycle and it, perhaps, the weakest cycle I have in the cube. I think that the basic landcycling cycle from Conflux and the landcycling cycle from Scourge should come out. If so, I can easily make a ton of "additions" from Zendikar without losing some of the awesomeness I have already. That said, Gleam of Resistance has seriously screwed up some attack phases - I would miss this most.
I'm going to switch from talking about every common as they are flooding in at a rapid pace with dozens more to follow. Instead, when you see new commons posted here they are commons that I'm looking hard at to determine where they might fit.
White:
Kor Skyfisher 1W
Creature - Kor Soldier
Flying
When Kor Skyfisher enters the battlefield, return a permanent you control to its owner's hand.
2/3
This guy is no joke. A 2/3 flying on T2 with a nominal drawback for a good aggro deck or a 2/3 flyer on T3 with virtually no drawback at all sounds awesome. Throw in the ability to abuse morph/ETB effects and you've got a real winner. While I like exalted (it makes a weeniw worht something late in the game) this might replace Aven Squire, Defiant Falcon, or Order of Leitbur.
Blue:
Into the Roil 1U
Instant
Kicker 1U
Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand. If ~ was kicked, draw a card.
Bounce or Cantrip Bounce - nice. While I love the mana denial tempo capability of Boomerang this is a little more attractive to anyone splashing blue. Alternatively, I set Repeal to cost, on average, 3U making Into the Roil a natural replacement, though squeezing an extra cantrip effect into blue would be nice.
Black:
Disfigure B
Instant
Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
Just awesome. It's not a "black Shock" - it's far better. Being able to block or attack into a bigger dude and trade only Disfigure, instead of Disfigure and your creature, is just awesome. I'm really exciting to find a place for this... but it's not clear where just yet. Executioner's Capsule seems like the best spot - especially in light of the additional black one-drop 2/2 that will be added too.
Red:
Burst Lightning R
Instant
Kicker 4
Burst Lightning deals 2 damage to target creature or player. If Burst Lightning was kicked, it deals 4 damage to that creature or player instead.
This is a tough cookie to crack. It's obviously better than Shock, something that I don't run[/card], but what is it better than that I do run? Flame Jet seems the weakest but I really like the 3 damage for 2 mana ratio. The question is "Is the flexibility worth the obvious disadvantage?" - Lightning Blast is more efficient than this kicked - and I don't run that either.
Zektar Shrine Expedition 1R
Enchantment
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may put a quest counter on ~.
Remove three quest counters from ~ and sacrifice it: Put a 7/1 red Elemental creature token with haste and trample onto the battlefield. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the end step.
This is interesting since it gives red a nice burst later in the game. While the hand is winding down and you need a punishing attacker to create an opening, this guy can pop in. Where does he go? I have no clue.
Green:
Mold Shambler 3G
Creature - Fungus Beast
Kicker 1G
When Mold Shambler enters the battlefield, if it was kicked, destroy target noncreature permanent.
3/3
I would really like to put Indrik Stomphowler into my cube. This guy, however, is a mini-Woodfall Primus! While 3/3 for four isn't too hot, getting extra destruction on a stick is just awesome. I think this will replace Elephant Ambush - if you really need a 3/3 for four this guy can do it, and the flashback on Ambush is relatively irrelevant.
That Mold Shambler guy might be playable. 3/3 for 4 is underwhelming, but mini Woodfall Primus for 6 is OK, and the versatility is nice. Another card that can kill PWs is welcome. Plus, the creature type is a good one.
Indeed: Fungus FTW!
This set is just loaded with pauperpeasant cube goodies. Stomphowler is uncommon, but mini-Primus is common? Sign me up.
The method we play is something that one of the local guys have helped cook up. We call it "Stack" but since it's similar to an existing variant of Magic called the same thing I guess this is just a variant of the variant ("Welcome to the rabbit hole, Neo.").
I take a chunk of randomized cube and use it as a shared library. The graveyard is also shared. Once turn order is set we draw starting hands in that order - no mulligans (there should really be no reason to need this as you'll see). Then the game is played as normal with a few caveats:
(1) If you would draw a card you may instead choose a basic land of your choice outside the game (i.e. the lands I supply with the cube) and put it into your hand. This is a replacement effect and applied individually to each card that would be drawn (i.e. Deep Analysis can get you two cards, a card and a land, or two lands.
(2) If a flashback card would be put into the graveyard only the player with priority may activate the flashback abilty (normal rules for playing apply).
(3) When a player leaves the games (i.e. loses or has to roll out), all permanants, suspended cards, phased out cards, and tokens that player controls leave the game as well. Cards in the graveyard are uneffected.
(4) If an effect would search the library:
(a) ...for a basic land, instead choose the appropriate lands from outside the game.
(b) ...for a nonbasic card, search the current library, shuffle, then choose a new chunk of randomized cards to serve at the library.
Normal multiplayer rules apply so, for example, if I were to put Exhume into the cube, the active player would first choose a creature, followed by the other players in turn order (i.e. the path priority is passed normally).
Playign this way has been interesting and very challenging - because draws are truly random and removal comes at a premium. Pingers, morph critters, and other spell-like effects become much better, and card drawing is king (Hint: Don't play Deep Analysis unless you cna immediately play the flashback cost!). Lifegain is good, shadow is amazing, and recursive graveyard effects just rock (I've played many a game when somebody dropped Grim Harvest and I immediately went to work ensuring that it disappeared when nobody could pay for it's recover cost - it's saved many games.).
Give it a try, especially if you run minimal lands/artifact mana.
Even without fetchlands he still looks okay. The main issue I keep seeing with any landfall dude is that they are awful top decks later in the game. I'm not convinced the risk of this happening is acceptable over the reward of a potential 3/3 that can't block effectively.
I think he means that it, along with Stalking Yeti are uncommons and are therefore ineligible for a Pauper cube.
The only card that drew me towards the idea of using Snow in my pauper cube is Skred. While having a likely "Destroy target creature." for just R is nice, these effects are a dime a dozen in black. I'd rather have burn that can hit the dome than use Snow lands just for one card. I haven't missed it yet (and Fissure gets the job done anyway).
This. When I play Man-o'-War I gain tempo then, at the very least, trade with an X/2 - blink effects aside. I don't see this guy being anything other than an expensive, awkward Boomerang for Limited.
I think that was his point: the blue one-drop would have to be so absurb that you'd have to ask "Why am I not running this?"
I think the new merfolk dude can be useful in EDH or multiplayer where search effects, fetch lands, and other library shuffling effects happen fairly regularly. Is he reliable? No. Can he get fairly large in a hurry? Maybe. Certainly not the best for a cube.
Card tags are invaluable to ensuring that we know what cards are being talked out - it really doesn't take that much longer. Also, I post slow because I usually either think about it and rewrite some things or I have a lot to say.
And while there is a lot to be said about just grabbing it and pounding it in there I find it's much more important to take a look and elegantly slip it in where it works best. I would have a 500+ card cube if I just kept beating things into it.
Creature - Spider
Kicker 2G
Reach
When ~ enters the battlefield, if it was kicked, destroy target creature with flying.
It's a Canopy Spider! No, it's a Wing Snare! NO! It's [redacted explicative]!
While it costs Rib Cage Spider but has Canopy's stats, it's the Wing Snare stapled onto it that seems pretty awesome. There are quite a few evasive flyers, some of which are problematic to try and block. This guy can shore up both a flying defense early (it laughs are Stormfront Pegasus) and late (it cackles when it comes in nuking Errant Ephemeron). This will probably replace another expensive fatty.
EDIT: I must have been making this post while you posted knuckles29. This is certainly a nice little boost - it's be better if it was a split card (Seriously, why can't green have a common "Destroy target creature with flying." spell? The whole destroy "noncreature permanant" is supremely awesome but flying kill is the cat's meow in most limited.).
Artifact
2, :symtap:, Sacrifice ~: Search your library for a land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
While it might be tempting to replace either Wayfarer's Bauble or Armillary Sphere, this Map is really a unqiue effect. Bauble ramps and Sphere fixes while deck thinning - the Map grabs a specific land you need. Both Desert and Arena have performed extremely well and I'm almost tempted to simply up my artifact count by one to tack on the Map. I think the Map is at worst a 3 1/2 Sphere which seems okay for colorless; at best it fetches the weenie decks nightmare (Desert) or a great source of repeatable removal for green ramp decks (Arena).
When I read this I thought the word basic was in there. Wow. Colorless Sylvan Scrying seems great.
That application is extremely helpful. I use my spreadsheet in conjunction with it to ensure that the mana costs are set appropriate by card (i.e. Fireball set to like 5R or 7R instead of 0 as the defaults to).
Otherwise I don't look at cycles as much as mirror pairs - if one half of the mirror is efficient then, often, the other half is as well.
Hmmm. I can see why I should hold onto Elephant Ambush and I'm not sure where else to turn. Giant Warthog and Wirewood Guardian are the two big expensive creatures I run. Warthog is a powerful finisher since it either cuts through any speed bumps or takes out a large chunk of blockers and proves problematic for opponents. The Guardian is part of a mana cycle and it, perhaps, the weakest cycle I have in the cube. I think that the basic landcycling cycle from Conflux and the landcycling cycle from Scourge should come out. If so, I can easily make a ton of "additions" from Zendikar without losing some of the awesomeness I have already. That said, Gleam of Resistance has seriously screwed up some attack phases - I would miss this most.
White:
Kor Skyfisher 1W
Creature - Kor Soldier
Flying
When Kor Skyfisher enters the battlefield, return a permanent you control to its owner's hand.
2/3
This guy is no joke. A 2/3 flying on T2 with a nominal drawback for a good aggro deck or a 2/3 flyer on T3 with virtually no drawback at all sounds awesome. Throw in the ability to abuse morph/ETB effects and you've got a real winner. While I like exalted (it makes a weeniw worht something late in the game) this might replace Aven Squire, Defiant Falcon, or Order of Leitbur.
Blue:
Into the Roil 1U
Instant
Kicker 1U
Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand. If ~ was kicked, draw a card.
Bounce or Cantrip Bounce - nice. While I love the mana denial tempo capability of Boomerang this is a little more attractive to anyone splashing blue. Alternatively, I set Repeal to cost, on average, 3U making Into the Roil a natural replacement, though squeezing an extra cantrip effect into blue would be nice.
Black:
Disfigure B
Instant
Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
Just awesome. It's not a "black Shock" - it's far better. Being able to block or attack into a bigger dude and trade only Disfigure, instead of Disfigure and your creature, is just awesome. I'm really exciting to find a place for this... but it's not clear where just yet. Executioner's Capsule seems like the best spot - especially in light of the additional black one-drop 2/2 that will be added too.
Red:
Burst Lightning R
Instant
Kicker 4
Burst Lightning deals 2 damage to target creature or player. If Burst Lightning was kicked, it deals 4 damage to that creature or player instead.
This is a tough cookie to crack. It's obviously better than Shock, something that I don't run[/card], but what is it better than that I do run? Flame Jet seems the weakest but I really like the 3 damage for 2 mana ratio. The question is "Is the flexibility worth the obvious disadvantage?" - Lightning Blast is more efficient than this kicked - and I don't run that either.
Zektar Shrine Expedition 1R
Enchantment
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may put a quest counter on ~.
Remove three quest counters from ~ and sacrifice it: Put a 7/1 red Elemental creature token with haste and trample onto the battlefield. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the end step.
This is interesting since it gives red a nice burst later in the game. While the hand is winding down and you need a punishing attacker to create an opening, this guy can pop in. Where does he go? I have no clue.
Green:
Mold Shambler 3G
Creature - Fungus Beast
Kicker 1G
When Mold Shambler enters the battlefield, if it was kicked, destroy target noncreature permanent.
3/3
I would really like to put Indrik Stomphowler into my cube. This guy, however, is a mini-Woodfall Primus! While 3/3 for four isn't too hot, getting extra destruction on a stick is just awesome. I think this will replace Elephant Ambush - if you really need a 3/3 for four this guy can do it, and the flashback on Ambush is relatively irrelevant.
Zendikar is just full of greatness. ZEN == WIN
Indeed: Fungus FTW!
This set is just loaded with pauperpeasant cube goodies. Stomphowler is uncommon, but mini-Primus is common? Sign me up.