I have gotten so used to high-mana threats having either really powerful ETBs or crazy stats that I missed Shepherd of the Clouds, Marauding Sphinx, and Spinewoods Paladin as being really close to cards I used to Cube. All of them seem plenty reasonable, although I do want to advocate for Obstinate Baloth as a 4-mana version of that effect.
Thoughts on Other Cards that missed my list: Nurturing Pixie and Rambling Possum - Both are strong cards for the value/blink kind of decks I try to avoid.
Harrier Strix - Mostly, I just think the activated ability is way worse than Spectral Sailor, even if the other abilities may be better.
Hollow Marauder - I ended up saying it was not enough better than Writhing Necromass to make it in. It felt very fragile in comparison.
Trash the Town - Flexible and decent value throughout, but too conditional for me. You need an attacking creature that can connect to earn value which is good, but not amazing for the mana cost.
Cactusfolk Sureshot - Another pretty good card, but this one feels weird to me in Gruul. Partially because a few big red creatures already have haste and partially because it feels like a small downgrade to Surrak, the Hunt Caller.
Howdy Pardners! Time again for another Standard legal set for Peasant Cube and this set is a real change for the better compared to Murders at Karlov Manor. The mechanics in the set are pretty interesting and although I think Plot is not generally worth taking a turn off, it still has some interesting cards with the mechanic.
My cube has 512 cards, maximized for power with 6 spells and 3 lands per guild. I will add an extra preface that there are cards here that do not match my style of Cube, but are definitely respectable adds.
Here is My Too Early Top 20 for the Outlaws of Thunder Junction.
20) Frontier Seeker - A more aggressive, but less reliable source of early card advantage.
19) Explosive Derailment - Probably an overpriced Abrade, but also has expensive 2-for-1 potential.
18) Make Your Own Luck - Urban Evolution with the real upside of a free spell over a free land.
17) Ruthless Lawbringer - Nicely statted for the effect and a decent way to trade up resources. Hard to determine the value compared to spell based options.
16) Servant of the Stinger - Trades up on defense and can really trade up on offense. Both are conditional, the offense much more so.
15) Metamorphic Blast - More conditional value, but this gets up to a 3-for-1. Nice that the different play options have a potential value at 2 mana.
14) Aloe Alchemist - A strong aggressive green creature with a little upside as a late-game topdeck.
13) Rise of the Varmints - A good rate for the effect, but I worry this is a de facto Golgari card and mostly a worse version of Spider Spawning.
The Dirty Dozen:
Saddle Up
12) Reckless Lackey - An interesting red one-drop has a little value throughout the game. Haste attacks early, first strike helps in combat and eventually cycles itself for a card and treasure.
11) Abraded Bluffs cycle - Going to try out ETBT lands in some guilds that offer immediate value instead of incremental value late game. Starting with the Mardu color pairs.
10) Spinewoods Armadillo - Helps to fix, decent ramp/reanimator target. Good all-rounder that may not have a killer use case.
9) Cunning Coyote - I think the real trick here is that Coyote is a pretty wily turn 4 or 5 play with another creature, disregarding the kooky upside that Plot gives you. Also just attacks with haste on turn 2 and maybe pumps a one-drop.
Silver Staples
8) Phantom Interference - A really cool Miscalculation variant that trades 2 mana cycling for a 3U 2/2 flier. Also does both at 5 mana.
7) Holy Cow - A lot of small upsides here make this Cow a well done comparison to the rare value of Inspiring Overseer.
6) Lavaspur Boots - A Bonesplitter that trades a point of power for a point of Ward and haste. Could contribute more damage in some games.
5) Shoot the Sheriff - Another upgrade to effects like Cast Down. Incremental improvement, but still an excellent card.
Gold Rush
4) Honest Rutstein - A really good value Golgari creature that fits a good spot on the curve, especially next to Baloth Null.
3) Slickshot Lockpicker - Not being able to flashback counterspells is rough, but a pretty easy way to get extra value off cheap spells and Plots to get value off expensive spells.
2) Forsaken Miner - Not blocking is a real downside but will still get into some shenanigans for the sacrifice decks and black aggro.
1) Requisition Raid - I already love Basri’s Solidarity as a cheap anthem effect, so playing an extra version with upside is going to be great.
There are a few cards I am still thinking about, so I was hoping for some feedback.
Emergent Haunting - This feels like a decent way to spend your turn 2 if you have some instant speed interaction on turn 3. Has a built-in mana sink too. Feels way too slow as a topdeck.
Lively Dirge - Has the interesting mode of playing 4B to get any 4-drop out of your deck onto the battlefield. Maybe sometimes you will find good value otherwise too.
Reckless Lackey - Not sure how long the creature will be relevant. First strike could be the key to staying relevant. It is nice to cash out for a card plus treasure, but I think that is a pretty neutral exchange.
Abraded Bluffs - Are there any color combinations that want a damaging ETBT land with no long-term value? I was starting with Boros and maybe all the Mardu pairs.
If Holy Cow is worse than Inspiring Overseer, it is not worse enough to not also Cube. They stuck a lot of little upsides on here to compensate for the downgrade from draw 1 to scry 1.
Honest Rutstein is a fantastic little value creature with a cool cost reduction ability.
Lavaspur Boots looks like a pretty good piece of equipment for its cheap cost and cheap equip cost. Interesting comparison to Bonesplitter.
My secondary Cube is a Pioneer Peasant Cube where artifacts are the Izzet focus. The cube is designed to be a bit lower powered and focused on certain synergies, so hopefully it applies.
Check out the list in my signature, but the quick version is blue having lots of cool ways to animate artifacts, red has lots of sacrifice artifact payoffs and both colors have equipment with bodies attached and spell-like effects via Channel.
My cube basics are the snow-covered lands from Coldsnap. I purchased a lot with 20 of each basic for ~$12 off eBay almost 15 years ago when I first put my Cube together. Very few of them are foil, but I have kept trading for ANY foil snow-covered lands when I can with the goal to ultimately swap out once I have at least 33 of each basic in Snow-Covered foil status.
Another round of Universes Beyond Commander decks brings another set of new-to-Magic uncommons for Peasant Cube. There are plenty of “rad” cards in Fallout Commander. The most intriguing new mechanic are Rad counters, which represent inevitable life loss to the player receiving them with a small upside of milling into the graveyard. For my 512 card cube, maximized for power with 6 spells/3 lands per guild, here are my top 10 Fallout cards for Peasant cube.
10) Crimson Caravaneer- A really strong card with the right build-around support. Most of that support is outside of red, making this harder to justify adding as a pseudo-guild spell.
9) Bloatfly Swarm- A big, evasive creature that is extra vulnerable to removal. Really strong if an opponent cannot interact with it, but offers little value if they can.
8) Butch DeLoria, Tunnel Snake- A great black aggro card that scales decently into the late game. Mass menace is super hard to deal with, but black aggro is on the downswing in many cubes.
S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Seven
7) Young Deathclaws- Fits in excellent to graveyard-based Golgari sections. Takes a little extra work and set-up to be greater than average.
6) Silver Shroud Costume- Looks like an excellent way to save a creature and/or push damage through for any deck. May be too expensive for more aggressive decks.
5) Nightkin Ambusher- An excellent finisher for Dimir decks. Comes with built-in protection and 4 inevitable damage to the opponent. Reasonably gets 2 unblockable attacks before the rad counters go away.
4) Gary Clone- A Squad that provides exponential power at higher costs, but also fits the curve decently at 2 mana.
3) Craig Boone, Novac Guard- Well-statted creature with a powerful attack trigger in the exact right colors to trigger it. That trigger also does a great job in turning “non-profitable” attacks “profitable.”
2) Paladin Danse, Steel Maverick- A well-statted mono-colored creature that offers a little benefit on its way out.
1) Vexing Radgull- A very strong offensive cheap blue flier that will deal 3 damage the first time it hits a player and 2 damage plus upside afterwards. Cannot trade with X/2s on defense but does not trade with 1/X fliers either.
War. War never changes. But our cubes will thanks to Fallout Commander!
Similar to Commander decks for Warhammer 40K and Doctor Who, new uncommons are being printed for Peasant Cube.
Here are a few I have an eye on so far:
Gary Clone- Making a bunch of 1/3s for two mana each is a little underwhelming, but the stacking attack buffs at 4 mana and beyond seem pretty strong.
Legate Lanius, Caesar’s Ace- An interesting 4-mana value creature for Rakdos. I doubt I will want this with so many similarly powerful value creatures in mono-black and mono-red. Growing off opponent creature sacrifices could also be an interesting hoser effect.
Craig Boone, Novac Guard- Nice keywords on a 3-mana Boros creature, although neither one helps you win a combat. Triggering this ability twice seems very difficult for an opponent to overcome and you can trigger this on the turn you cast Craig.
1RW - Legendary Creature- Human Solider - 3/3 - Reach. Lifelink. Whenever you attack with two or more creatures, put two quest counters on ~. When you do, ~ deals damage equal to the number of quest counters on it to up to one target creature unless that creature’s controller has ~ deal that much damage to them.
Silver Shroud Costume- A colorless option that saves a creature and upgrades to unblockable. A little more mana than I want for a reactive spell, but there is game-winning upside. Feels like a colorless Tyvar’s Stand.
In my 512-card Cube, I run 6 spells and 3 lands per guild, putting me at 17.6% (90/512).
There are another 33 fixing lands that are not guild specific, which gives me 63 fixing lands out of 512 cards, for a 12.3% number. I like this number a lot since this is roughly what powered Vintage cubes run. (Fixing lands in the three most popular CubeCobra Vintage Cubes are about 12.7%.)
I like a lot of fixing because it helps make draft decks more consistent without sacrificing on playables, since all the spells should be roughly playable.
It’s also nice for 1v1 drafting, because it makes it just a little easier to have a coherent deck at the end.
I have yet to read anyone else excited about either Reckless Detective or Frantic Scapegoat, which were two of my top 5 cards from the set. Am I crazy here?
Reckless Detective- The most similar two-mana red creature I can find is Volatile Wanderglyph, which only attacks as a 2/2 and has the likely drawback of being an artifact. I suppose when I make that comparison, I may have been a bit overzealous. But, I like the 2/3 as an attacker and the minor upside to draw a card from other artifacts.
Frantic Scapegoat- My comparisons on this one brought me to Phoenix Chick and Frenzied Goblin. Probably a little worse evasion ability than Chick, but can grant that evasion elsewhere. The haste and the mana-free nature of the extra evasion makes me like this more than Frenzied Goblin.
My planned cuts right now are for just my top 4 cards, but I am searching for an underperforming red creature to make space for Reckless Detective.
Back to back Standard sets as we investigate the Murders at Karlov Manor. This is also our first set with the advent of Play Boosters and a noted design change for commons/uncommons. I do believe the number of highly modal/flexible commons in this set is a sign of the times ahead. We also got a few bonus Peasant cards in the supplemental Clue/do set, which will be included below. Beyond the very specific mechanical theming of the set, I also felt a lot of the best cards are very similar to existing Cube cards, making it hard to be too excited.
As always, I cube 512 cards, maximized for power with 6 spells and 3 lands per guild. Here is my Too Early Top 20 for Murders at Karlov Manor.
20) Nightdrinker Moroii- Nightdrinker can attack as a 4/2 flier on turn 4 for five total mana or get cast for four mana and three life to attack turn 5.
19) Tribune of Rot- A hybrid 3/3 that makes at least one 1/1 per attack ~60% of the time in a 15 creature deck. A decent engine, but needs a specific home.
18) Ecstatic Electromancer- Izzet hybrid that matches up okay with other three-mana 2-power Prowess creatures in those colors. The extra color and the rummaging may get it over the hump.
17) Ordruun Mentor- A good attacking Boros hybrid, but a lot of those already exist in both colors.
16) Push // Pull - A card that may be over-priced on both sides, but fits really well into the black-based graveyard decks.
15) Demand Answers- Considering the trend of spells making incidental permanents, the usefulness is bound to increase over time.
14) Repulsive Mutation- I am not worried about getting blown out by renewal since the opponent has already cast a different spell, but things have to line up correctly to get big value.
13) Sudden Setback- Versions of this spell have been useful in draft and the versatility to hit spells too means it will always have something to do. Is that worth paying for twice a Remand?
12) Case of the Gateway Express- A lot of things have to line up here as well, but there is a welcome spot in the token deck for removal/anthem.
Deck Dopplegangers
11) Scene of the Crime- Probable slight upgrade over Cryptic Caves, with cheaper card draw and the ability to generate colored mana. ETB tapped is rough.
10) The Dining Room cycle- A decisively tier 2 or 3 fixing option for guild sections.
9) Aftermath Analyst- Trades off the ability to immediately generate value for a larger body and a hopeful ramp ability.
8) Gearbane Orangutan- Continuing the fine tradition of Apes that hate artifacts. Reach is a decent upside for this creature.
7) Pick Your Poison- My favorite of the non-creature versions of this effect but there are a lot of creature versions, although those creatures miss fliers.
6) Leering Onlooker- Black has plenty of two-drops that make another body after they die for free, but most of those are worse initial bodies and worse post-death bodies. Also get some graveyard value here.
Unusual Suspects
5) Reckless Detective- A pretty interesting red two-drop that attacks for 2 damage while rummaging.
4) Frantic Scapegoat- Compares to Phoenix Chick pretty well as a 1/1 haste menace that can suspect another creature later for extra upside.
3) Scuttling Sentinel- A very strong option in a shallow guild that represents 4 power for three-mana along with the upside of saving another creature.
Repeat Offenders-
2) Novice Inspector- A welcome 2nd copy of an all-time Peasant Cube stable.
1) Escape Tunnel- Another Peasant Cube stable and good fixing is harder to find than good white one-drops.
Since we are a few days away from the kickoff of Murders at Karlov Manor spoiler season (kickoff on Jan 16), starting a thread for the cards previewed thus far.
Novice Inspector- A second Thraben Inspector, just as Inspector becomes even more powerful thanks to all the cards that care about extra game pieces.
Deduce- Interesting draw 2 effect split into pieces.
Demand Answers- A benefit to having these extra token artifacts sitting around.
Gleaming Geardrake- Another reasonably strong creature split into pieces.
UR. Artifact Creature- Drake. Flying. When ~ ETB, investigate. Whenever you sacrifice an artifact, put a +1/+1 counter on ~. 1/1
Dining Room- Part of the Magic Clue supplemental set to MKM. Probably a tier 2 fixing option for guilds.
Re: The Blink Archetype
1) I do try to maximize for power, so some of these cards are just good enough. Ephemerate has SO much potential power for one mana. Zephyr Sentinel and Flickerwisp are good, cheap fliers with upside. I think the only questionable blink cards I run are Blizzard Strix and Oji the Exquisite Blade. Even then, I run 9 "blink" spells in a 512-card Cube, compared to 11 in the 366-card Average cube.
2) Blink isn’t really an archetype, per se. The +1/+1 counters deck, the spells deck, the sacrifice deck, and the graveyard deck all scale up based on how many/much you do with it. The SOLE card that cares about blinking is SOULherder. Everything else just does it thing independant of that.
3) Peasant Cube is at the point now where the creatures provide enough value on their own. I agree with BrownDog that the best thing to do is provide power to other decks inside of emphasizing value already provided by 3+ mana creatures.
I built my secondary cube a few years ago (Pioneer Peasant) and focused way more on themes within the wedges and enemy color pairs without trying to maximize power.
Most of my cubing is built around my local LGS running charity events for Extra Life and we had some newer players who had never even drafted before show up last time. It was definitely the right time for the lesser powered cube to show up.
I love my powered-up Peasant, but having the backup is fun for a change of pace.
I was a little skittish on Samwise because there is so little Samwise does besides return creatures. Without fetches or similar (I would honestly cube a full 10-set of the New Capenna basic fetch lands at this point), you have to rely on combat to get real value out of Samwise.
In my high-to-low search of the 2023 Cube data, I found 25 cards played in at least half (46+) of the sample cubes and not in my 512-card Peasant cube. I figured I would ask about some of these cards and offer my feedback on others.
Resolute Reinforcements- I decided to add this as part of my post-2023 average Cube swaps. I am skeptical since White has few anthem effects, but Mardu colors are deep on tokens and making two 1/1 bodies is also interesting from a control perspective. Lórien Revealed- Also giving this a shot, though I am deeply skeptical. I do not think there is a critical mass of good lands to search up OR effects that care about spells in graveyards that make it worth playing a combo overpriced spell/ETBT land. Might at well test it for myself.
Red 1-Drops- I cut Dragon’s Rage Channeler a while ago for feeling pretty narrow as an archetype card and difficult to enable with delirium. Reinforced Ronin seems like such a high tax to pay every turn for an attacking 2/2 that literally never blocks.
Value Creatures- One of the biggest changes I made to my Cube was deciding to expand the fixing. Alongside this, I really cut down the number of generic “value cards” to fight the threat of 4 and 5-color piles that was now looming. Circuit Mender, Wall of Omens, and Into the Roil are great examples of this. I would much rather make those decks fight aggro with Resolute Reinforcements or Callous Dismissal than with generic draw a card value. And these replacements also have value for the aggro decks.
The Blink Archetype- I soured on blink effects for the same reason, it just exists for value without a real purpose. And a lot of the best blink targets are just already good. Eternal Witness does not need a Ghostly Flicker loop to be awesome. Thraben Inspector is great without Kor Skyfisher picking it up.
Oketra’s Monument- How good is this without the Kor Skyfisher combo? I noticed they were played in almost the same numbers of cubes. It feels like a slightly better Shrine of Loyal Legions, which has become too slow for most cubes. Hypnotic Sprite- I just do not get this one. The two parts feel mismatched. Is it a bad counter that has upside? Is it a bad creature that has upside? I *kinda* understand wanting another counter with some upside, but this is more played than Stern Scolding, Lose Focus, and Mirrorshell Crab.
Thoughts on Other Cards that missed my list:
Nurturing Pixie and Rambling Possum - Both are strong cards for the value/blink kind of decks I try to avoid.
Harrier Strix - Mostly, I just think the activated ability is way worse than Spectral Sailor, even if the other abilities may be better.
Hollow Marauder - I ended up saying it was not enough better than Writhing Necromass to make it in. It felt very fragile in comparison.
Trash the Town - Flexible and decent value throughout, but too conditional for me. You need an attacking creature that can connect to earn value which is good, but not amazing for the mana cost.
Cactusfolk Sureshot - Another pretty good card, but this one feels weird to me in Gruul. Partially because a few big red creatures already have haste and partially because it feels like a small downgrade to Surrak, the Hunt Caller.
My cube has 512 cards, maximized for power with 6 spells and 3 lands per guild. I will add an extra preface that there are cards here that do not match my style of Cube, but are definitely respectable adds.
Here is My Too Early Top 20 for the Outlaws of Thunder Junction.
20) Frontier Seeker - A more aggressive, but less reliable source of early card advantage.
19) Explosive Derailment - Probably an overpriced Abrade, but also has expensive 2-for-1 potential.
18) Make Your Own Luck - Urban Evolution with the real upside of a free spell over a free land.
17) Ruthless Lawbringer - Nicely statted for the effect and a decent way to trade up resources. Hard to determine the value compared to spell based options.
16) Servant of the Stinger - Trades up on defense and can really trade up on offense. Both are conditional, the offense much more so.
15) Metamorphic Blast - More conditional value, but this gets up to a 3-for-1. Nice that the different play options have a potential value at 2 mana.
14) Aloe Alchemist - A strong aggressive green creature with a little upside as a late-game topdeck.
13) Rise of the Varmints - A good rate for the effect, but I worry this is a de facto Golgari card and mostly a worse version of Spider Spawning.
The Dirty Dozen:
Saddle Up
12) Reckless Lackey - An interesting red one-drop has a little value throughout the game. Haste attacks early, first strike helps in combat and eventually cycles itself for a card and treasure.
11) Abraded Bluffs cycle - Going to try out ETBT lands in some guilds that offer immediate value instead of incremental value late game. Starting with the Mardu color pairs.
10) Spinewoods Armadillo - Helps to fix, decent ramp/reanimator target. Good all-rounder that may not have a killer use case.
9) Cunning Coyote - I think the real trick here is that Coyote is a pretty wily turn 4 or 5 play with another creature, disregarding the kooky upside that Plot gives you. Also just attacks with haste on turn 2 and maybe pumps a one-drop.
Silver Staples
8) Phantom Interference - A really cool Miscalculation variant that trades 2 mana cycling for a 3U 2/2 flier. Also does both at 5 mana.
7) Holy Cow - A lot of small upsides here make this Cow a well done comparison to the rare value of Inspiring Overseer.
6) Lavaspur Boots - A Bonesplitter that trades a point of power for a point of Ward and haste. Could contribute more damage in some games.
5) Shoot the Sheriff - Another upgrade to effects like Cast Down. Incremental improvement, but still an excellent card.
Gold Rush
4) Honest Rutstein - A really good value Golgari creature that fits a good spot on the curve, especially next to Baloth Null.
3) Slickshot Lockpicker - Not being able to flashback counterspells is rough, but a pretty easy way to get extra value off cheap spells and Plots to get value off expensive spells.
2) Forsaken Miner - Not blocking is a real downside but will still get into some shenanigans for the sacrifice decks and black aggro.
1) Requisition Raid - I already love Basri’s Solidarity as a cheap anthem effect, so playing an extra version with upside is going to be great.
Emergent Haunting - This feels like a decent way to spend your turn 2 if you have some instant speed interaction on turn 3. Has a built-in mana sink too. Feels way too slow as a topdeck.
Lively Dirge - Has the interesting mode of playing 4B to get any 4-drop out of your deck onto the battlefield. Maybe sometimes you will find good value otherwise too.
Reckless Lackey - Not sure how long the creature will be relevant. First strike could be the key to staying relevant. It is nice to cash out for a card plus treasure, but I think that is a pretty neutral exchange.
Dance of the Tumbleweeds - Has the thing where it is a cheaper version of Beanstalk Giant with a much worse ramp ability.
Form a Posse - Feels worse than every single mode of Imodane’s Recruiter, which has been an excellent card.
Abraded Bluffs - Are there any color combinations that want a damaging ETBT land with no long-term value? I was starting with Boros and maybe all the Mardu pairs.
Honest Rutstein is a fantastic little value creature with a cool cost reduction ability.
Lavaspur Boots looks like a pretty good piece of equipment for its cheap cost and cheap equip cost. Interesting comparison to Bonesplitter.
Check out the list in my signature, but the quick version is blue having lots of cool ways to animate artifacts, red has lots of sacrifice artifact payoffs and both colors have equipment with bodies attached and spell-like effects via Channel.
10) Crimson Caravaneer- A really strong card with the right build-around support. Most of that support is outside of red, making this harder to justify adding as a pseudo-guild spell.
9) Bloatfly Swarm- A big, evasive creature that is extra vulnerable to removal. Really strong if an opponent cannot interact with it, but offers little value if they can.
8) Butch DeLoria, Tunnel Snake- A great black aggro card that scales decently into the late game. Mass menace is super hard to deal with, but black aggro is on the downswing in many cubes.
7) Young Deathclaws- Fits in excellent to graveyard-based Golgari sections. Takes a little extra work and set-up to be greater than average.
6) Silver Shroud Costume- Looks like an excellent way to save a creature and/or push damage through for any deck. May be too expensive for more aggressive decks.
5) Nightkin Ambusher- An excellent finisher for Dimir decks. Comes with built-in protection and 4 inevitable damage to the opponent. Reasonably gets 2 unblockable attacks before the rad counters go away.
4) Gary Clone- A Squad that provides exponential power at higher costs, but also fits the curve decently at 2 mana.
3) Craig Boone, Novac Guard- Well-statted creature with a powerful attack trigger in the exact right colors to trigger it. That trigger also does a great job in turning “non-profitable” attacks “profitable.”
2) Paladin Danse, Steel Maverick- A well-statted mono-colored creature that offers a little benefit on its way out.
1) Vexing Radgull- A very strong offensive cheap blue flier that will deal 3 damage the first time it hits a player and 2 damage plus upside afterwards. Cannot trade with X/2s on defense but does not trade with 1/X fliers either.
Similar to Commander decks for Warhammer 40K and Doctor Who, new uncommons are being printed for Peasant Cube.
Here are a few I have an eye on so far:
Gary Clone- Making a bunch of 1/3s for two mana each is a little underwhelming, but the stacking attack buffs at 4 mana and beyond seem pretty strong.
Legate Lanius, Caesar’s Ace- An interesting 4-mana value creature for Rakdos. I doubt I will want this with so many similarly powerful value creatures in mono-black and mono-red. Growing off opponent creature sacrifices could also be an interesting hoser effect.
Craig Boone, Novac Guard- Nice keywords on a 3-mana Boros creature, although neither one helps you win a combat. Triggering this ability twice seems very difficult for an opponent to overcome and you can trigger this on the turn you cast Craig.
Silver Shroud Costume- A colorless option that saves a creature and upgrades to unblockable. A little more mana than I want for a reactive spell, but there is game-winning upside. Feels like a colorless Tyvar’s Stand.
There are another 33 fixing lands that are not guild specific, which gives me 63 fixing lands out of 512 cards, for a 12.3% number. I like this number a lot since this is roughly what powered Vintage cubes run. (Fixing lands in the three most popular CubeCobra Vintage Cubes are about 12.7%.)
I like a lot of fixing because it helps make draft decks more consistent without sacrificing on playables, since all the spells should be roughly playable.
It’s also nice for 1v1 drafting, because it makes it just a little easier to have a coherent deck at the end.
Reckless Detective- The most similar two-mana red creature I can find is Volatile Wanderglyph, which only attacks as a 2/2 and has the likely drawback of being an artifact. I suppose when I make that comparison, I may have been a bit overzealous. But, I like the 2/3 as an attacker and the minor upside to draw a card from other artifacts.
Frantic Scapegoat- My comparisons on this one brought me to Phoenix Chick and Frenzied Goblin. Probably a little worse evasion ability than Chick, but can grant that evasion elsewhere. The haste and the mana-free nature of the extra evasion makes me like this more than Frenzied Goblin.
My planned cuts right now are for just my top 4 cards, but I am searching for an underperforming red creature to make space for Reckless Detective.
As always, I cube 512 cards, maximized for power with 6 spells and 3 lands per guild. Here is my Too Early Top 20 for Murders at Karlov Manor.
20) Nightdrinker Moroii- Nightdrinker can attack as a 4/2 flier on turn 4 for five total mana or get cast for four mana and three life to attack turn 5.
19) Tribune of Rot- A hybrid 3/3 that makes at least one 1/1 per attack ~60% of the time in a 15 creature deck. A decent engine, but needs a specific home.
18) Ecstatic Electromancer- Izzet hybrid that matches up okay with other three-mana 2-power Prowess creatures in those colors. The extra color and the rummaging may get it over the hump.
17) Ordruun Mentor- A good attacking Boros hybrid, but a lot of those already exist in both colors.
16) Push // Pull - A card that may be over-priced on both sides, but fits really well into the black-based graveyard decks.
15) Demand Answers- Considering the trend of spells making incidental permanents, the usefulness is bound to increase over time.
14) Repulsive Mutation- I am not worried about getting blown out by renewal since the opponent has already cast a different spell, but things have to line up correctly to get big value.
13) Sudden Setback- Versions of this spell have been useful in draft and the versatility to hit spells too means it will always have something to do. Is that worth paying for twice a Remand?
12) Case of the Gateway Express- A lot of things have to line up here as well, but there is a welcome spot in the token deck for removal/anthem.
Deck Dopplegangers
11) Scene of the Crime- Probable slight upgrade over Cryptic Caves, with cheaper card draw and the ability to generate colored mana. ETB tapped is rough.
10) The Dining Room cycle- A decisively tier 2 or 3 fixing option for guild sections.
9) Aftermath Analyst- Trades off the ability to immediately generate value for a larger body and a hopeful ramp ability.
8) Gearbane Orangutan- Continuing the fine tradition of Apes that hate artifacts. Reach is a decent upside for this creature.
7) Pick Your Poison- My favorite of the non-creature versions of this effect but there are a lot of creature versions, although those creatures miss fliers.
6) Leering Onlooker- Black has plenty of two-drops that make another body after they die for free, but most of those are worse initial bodies and worse post-death bodies. Also get some graveyard value here.
Unusual Suspects
5) Reckless Detective- A pretty interesting red two-drop that attacks for 2 damage while rummaging.
4) Frantic Scapegoat- Compares to Phoenix Chick pretty well as a 1/1 haste menace that can suspect another creature later for extra upside.
3) Scuttling Sentinel- A very strong option in a shallow guild that represents 4 power for three-mana along with the upside of saving another creature.
Repeat Offenders-
2) Novice Inspector- A welcome 2nd copy of an all-time Peasant Cube stable.
1) Escape Tunnel- Another Peasant Cube stable and good fixing is harder to find than good white one-drops.
Novice Inspector- A second Thraben Inspector, just as Inspector becomes even more powerful thanks to all the cards that care about extra game pieces.
Deduce- Interesting draw 2 effect split into pieces.
Demand Answers- A benefit to having these extra token artifacts sitting around.
Gleaming Geardrake- Another reasonably strong creature split into pieces.
Dining Room- Part of the Magic Clue supplemental set to MKM. Probably a tier 2 fixing option for guilds.
1) I do try to maximize for power, so some of these cards are just good enough. Ephemerate has SO much potential power for one mana. Zephyr Sentinel and Flickerwisp are good, cheap fliers with upside. I think the only questionable blink cards I run are Blizzard Strix and Oji the Exquisite Blade. Even then, I run 9 "blink" spells in a 512-card Cube, compared to 11 in the 366-card Average cube.
2) Blink isn’t really an archetype, per se. The +1/+1 counters deck, the spells deck, the sacrifice deck, and the graveyard deck all scale up based on how many/much you do with it. The SOLE card that cares about blinking is SOULherder. Everything else just does it thing independant of that.
3) Peasant Cube is at the point now where the creatures provide enough value on their own. I agree with BrownDog that the best thing to do is provide power to other decks inside of emphasizing value already provided by 3+ mana creatures.
Most of my cubing is built around my local LGS running charity events for Extra Life and we had some newer players who had never even drafted before show up last time. It was definitely the right time for the lesser powered cube to show up.
I love my powered-up Peasant, but having the backup is fun for a change of pace.
I was a little skittish on Samwise because there is so little Samwise does besides return creatures. Without fetches or similar (I would honestly cube a full 10-set of the New Capenna basic fetch lands at this point), you have to rely on combat to get real value out of Samwise.
Resolute Reinforcements- I decided to add this as part of my post-2023 average Cube swaps. I am skeptical since White has few anthem effects, but Mardu colors are deep on tokens and making two 1/1 bodies is also interesting from a control perspective.
Lórien Revealed- Also giving this a shot, though I am deeply skeptical. I do not think there is a critical mass of good lands to search up OR effects that care about spells in graveyards that make it worth playing a combo overpriced spell/ETBT land. Might at well test it for myself.
Red 1-Drops- I cut Dragon’s Rage Channeler a while ago for feeling pretty narrow as an archetype card and difficult to enable with delirium. Reinforced Ronin seems like such a high tax to pay every turn for an attacking 2/2 that literally never blocks.
Value Creatures- One of the biggest changes I made to my Cube was deciding to expand the fixing. Alongside this, I really cut down the number of generic “value cards” to fight the threat of 4 and 5-color piles that was now looming. Circuit Mender, Wall of Omens, and Into the Roil are great examples of this. I would much rather make those decks fight aggro with Resolute Reinforcements or Callous Dismissal than with generic draw a card value. And these replacements also have value for the aggro decks.
The Blink Archetype- I soured on blink effects for the same reason, it just exists for value without a real purpose. And a lot of the best blink targets are just already good. Eternal Witness does not need a Ghostly Flicker loop to be awesome. Thraben Inspector is great without Kor Skyfisher picking it up.
Oketra’s Monument- How good is this without the Kor Skyfisher combo? I noticed they were played in almost the same numbers of cubes. It feels like a slightly better Shrine of Loyal Legions, which has become too slow for most cubes.
Hypnotic Sprite- I just do not get this one. The two parts feel mismatched. Is it a bad counter that has upside? Is it a bad creature that has upside? I *kinda* understand wanting another counter with some upside, but this is more played than Stern Scolding, Lose Focus, and Mirrorshell Crab.