My hot take (as of now) is that I do not think the Ring is a strong enough upside to be excited about. The 1st ability is pretty inconsequential. The 1st and 2nd abilities are decent but, even still, worth about the same as a 1-mana aura. Adding the 3rd and 4th abilities is good, but nothing crazy. And this all goes away whenever the creature dies and you have to be re-Tempted by the Ring.
I doubt there is going to be a critical mass of Ring tempting to make this all worth it if the base card is not good. At least the Monarch and Initiative are fully functional off one card each.
Samwise the Stouthearted has a really interesting ETB effect. You can do worse than a 1W flash 2/1 that conditionally gets you a card back, but I will note that conditionality extends to being tempted by the Ring. Gollum, Patient Plotter has a decent-sized body for playing defense, has the death trigger and recursion. It is a lot of hoops to jump through just to get the Ring tempting, so you have to want the 3/1 itself.
I really thought Coppercoat Vanguard would be the huge standout from this set for its Human synergy, but I honestly was surprised at how relatively few Humans we Cube. The 376-card average 2022 Peasant Cube has 16 Humans in white and roughly half as many in each other color.
It feels very unlikely that this bonus impacts more than 1-2 creatures at a time, which just is not good enough to make a splash.
Compleated Huntmaster- The list of your black sac outlets was useful. I think I may have narrowed the black sac outlets in my cube to equal the number of good red sac outlets, but it makes sense to expand my selection.
Copper-Host Crusher- I do think Copper-Host fits reanimator decks better than Plated Crusher, but I am keeping Plated Crusher for ramp/reanimator. I ended up cutting Scaled Behemoth from my cube.
Elspeth's Smite- It is not that Smite is BAD one-mana removal, probably 4th or 5th overall. I think it has become harder to go that deep on one-mana removal given how good the two-mana removal is. We got 3 good options in the last two sets, leading to no one even mentioning Realmbreaker's Grasp as a potential addition!
Meeting of Minds- Right now, there is no 3-mana instant speed Divination. There is one better variant (Thirst for Discovery) which is extremely popular. I do feel there is room to be a little worse than Thirst and find a space in Cube.
Skyclave Aerialist/Skyclave Invader- My question is where do people rank this amongst 1U 2/1 fliers? I would be surprised at people calling it #1, but anywhere from #2-4 seems reasonable. I am inclined to say 4th, which is what keeps me from being more excited to play it.
I enjoyed Leelue's Super Deep Dive into everything mentioned in this thread to date, so I wanted to continue discussion on some cards.
Botanical Brawler- The biggest upside here is that this gets an extra +1/+1 counter from EACH permanent that gets a +1/+1 counter in a turn. I do agree the average case scenario is a little meh, but if you have any cards that give multiple creatures +1/+1 counters (Relief Captain, Ridgescape Tusker), the explosion is crazy.
Compleated Huntmaster- Being restricted by needing to tap is very rough, but being a sac outlet and good reward does more than Seer of Stolen Sight. I also just cannot get myself excited for Skullport Merchant. I know it comes with built-in sac fodder, but later paying 1B for a card instead of 3 for a 3/3 feels a lot worse.
Copper-Host Crusher- Strangely, this having only two green symbols is appealing to me. I know it costs 8 mana, but since my reanimator decks have become more Dimir-based, casting a 8-mana 2-pip spell might be easier than casting a 7-mana 3-pip spell, like Plated Crusher. Also, Scaled Behemoth gets chumped enough for me to replace it.
Elspeth's Smite- The timing restriction on these spells is so rough to make me almost never consider them. You cannot play them EOT to clear something just cast, so you need to keep mana up. Casting on an attacker means they could have tricks. Casting on a blocker means they got to block.
Mirran Banesplitter- 3 to equip is so much more than 1 to equip, and you'll need to pay 3 to equip a lot since there is no toughness-boost. Mostly gets to me since it really hurts the possibility of having the boost on different creatures to attack and block.
Skyclave Aerialist/Skyclave Invader- The upside here feels so mis-matched from what I want for a cheap blue flier. Paying 4 mana and 2 life to not directly impact damage output feels rough. Makes me think about something like Stormchaser Drake, except more consistent.
Hoo boy, time for a Too Early Top 20 for March of the Machines. It is not everyday you see a completely new card type in Magic, especially one that we get plenty of access to in Peasant. All in all, this set has some really unique effects to discuss and while the list is technically 20-long, I have a few bonuses to discuss. As always, my cube is powered with 6 spells and 3 lands per guild. Onto the March!
20) Ichor Drinker- Neither body is impressive, but making the extra 2/2 out of the graveyard has some potential for sacrifice/graveyard decks.
19) Atraxa's Fall- A reasonable number of targets when adding fliers (and battles) to the mix. Still prefer the creature-based options since they can do something without an immediate target.
18) Seal from Existence- Oblivion Ring plus Ward 3 is a great combination of effects, but these slots are getting tighter and tighter with another Pacifism-plus printed in this set (Realmbreaker's Grasp).
17) Wary Thespian- Interesting side-grade to Merfolk Branchwalker, that trades possible card advantage for guaranteed 3 power and Surveil 1 upon death.
Convoke printed on blue, black, and red spells puts an interesting spin on classic effects.
15c) Referee Squad- Could have a home in creature focused tempo blue decks
15b) Collective Nightmare- Provides some bonus value for any tokens in a black-based sacrifice deck.
15a) Meeting of Minds- Meeting of Minds looks like a good value cast for 2U and then also plays well with Izzet token generators.
A couple of interesting +1/+1 counter payoffs and an enable.
14c) Invasion of Moag- Invasion of Moag brings that +1/+1 counter support immediately and Bloomwielder Dryads continues upon the Siege being defeated.
14b) Kami of Whispered Hopes- Passable with minimal +1/+1 counter support around it.
14a) Botanical Brawler- Helps +1/+1 counter decks go tall as opposed to going wide like Conclave Mentor.
I am willing to try some Battles in Cube, since I think there are some good rewards provided for defeating Sieges. The exact circumstances for when I want to Battle are probably game dependent, but I have four I want to call out here.
13d) Invasion of Zendikar//Awakened Skyclave- I feel like Sieges are a bad compliment to green ramp, since they tend to build up their board in big bursts. This interests me since it does ramp itself and has the fewest defense counters.
13c) Invasion of Amonkhet//Lazotep Convert- Fits my Dimir section really well, although graveyard decks sometimes lack the early board presence.
13b) Invasion of Belenon//Belenon War Anthem- The anthem effect is very strong for certain white decks and difficult to remove. Getting a 2/2 token upfront helps defeat the Siege and benefits from the anthem.
13a) Invasion of Regatha- Gives back 4 of the 5 damage you need to spend on defeating the Siege and also pings a creature for 1 damage. Could sometimes be a 4/4 mega Prowess Disciples of the Inferno for 2R.
Extra Cool Cards That Might Fit
12) Furnace Gremlin- This scales interestingly as the game progresses, since the pump could matter twice. Also provides two (eventual) bodies for sac decks.
11) Phyrexian Censor- Not a build-around for us, but an interesting way to slow the game down for controlling decks.
10) Zephyr Winder- This feels like less upside than something like Skyship Plunderer, but I am probably wrong on this. That, combined with the new plethora of 2/1 fliers for 1U, has me comparably lower on Winder.
9) Compleated Huntmaster- Much slower version of Gut, True Soul Zealot in black. Gut is crazy good, so maybe this is fine.
8) Streetwise Negotiator- Essentially 3/3 of stats for 1G. For every time the 1/ 3 body is a drawback, you have a time you Backup on a Beckoning Will-ò-Wisp.
March Gladness
7) Invasion of Mercadia- My top battle because it converts early-game resources into a long-game threat of Kyren Flamewright.
6) Stormclaw Rager- An excellent option for the sacrifice deck, but there is a lot of competition for this slot.
5) Xerex Strobe-Knight- Cool token-maker for the spells deck that also has a decently high floor.
4) Sunder the Gateway- A white Foundation Breaker. Unfortunately, it does not have blink synergies. Fortunately, I already de-emphasize those. Also, a 2/2 token for 1W is a decent backup plan in some games.
3) Copper-Host Crusher- A giant ramp/reanimation target which is extremely hard to interact with.
2) Khenra Spellspear//Gitaxian Spellstalker- A nice creature on the front that is an absolute menace on the back. Great for pressing the advantage with cheap spells.
1) Halo Forager- Peasant has no crazy ways to abuse this effect, but there is plenty of value to gain from copying cheap spells
Also like Stormclaw Rager despite the sorcery speed. Based on my quick checking, this is the first one-mana, repeatable sacrifice outlet that draws a card. That alone is worth considering before the +1/+1 counters get involved. I may cut Garna, Bloodfist of Keld with its more restrictive cost and less reliable card draw.
First, I would categorize these Phyrexian transform cards as mono-colored. That fits my current classification of Phyrexian mana spells as colorless.
Second, the "transform at sorcery speed" is not ideal, but a majority of instant speed removal is going to hit these creatures whenever they transform and on whichever side. That includes your white, blue, and black removal spells (minus Cut Down). Instant-speed burn still matters, but that is nearly exclusive to red.
Thirdly, I want to double check and ask "Are we sure we want to spend our 2nd and 3rd turns on transforming Kherna Spellspear into Gitaxian Spellstalker?" There are other play patterns, but this one is clearly built into the card. Regardless of removal, those are a lot of resources to spend on ~4-mana worth of creature.
With slower weekend spoilers, I wanted to discuss a couple of as-of yet unmentioned cards.
But first, I am pretty into Xerex Strobe-Knight. I like how it encourages the spells deck in an interesting way by caring about *any* spells. If you have to play another permanent spell that pays off for your non-creature spells, you can potentially get that 2/2 Knight token. Another strong payoff for having free spells in your Cube.
We also got a couple interesting Convoke spells with Referee Squad and the tentatively-named Shivan Treeblazer.
There are so many similar effects at three mana that I doubt Referee Squad will find a spot, but having Convoke might fit well in creature-based blue decks.
I am not typically a fan of big red fliers, but Shivan Trailblazer could be coming down turn 4 thanks to red having some good token making options and an emphasis on cheap creatures.
Because Planeswalkers are a threat that (often) needs to be removed while battles do nothing if you choose not to interact with them. That's a huge difference. If your opponent wins the game with their planeswalker you are under pressure to remove it, but the battle flipside is just a bonus that may or may not help you.
To me battles feel very casual. The front side of a battle is naturally weaker than a real card with the same effect. And the flipside is hardly ever worth it unless it has a high amount of life. But if you need to deal 5+ damage to get the reward, wouldn't it be much more efficient to cast a better spell and deal 5+ damage to your opponent?
My point is that depriving an opponent of a resource and gaining yourself a resource are functionally similar effects on the battlefield. All of the battle backsides are reasonably good cards and saying they "may or may not help you" seems a bit much.
I do understand you mean this in the context of whether or not you should just cast a spell with a stronger initial effect and attack the opponent for the damage, but I am optimistic on one of these being good.
I think the most important things are going to be how reasonable the frontside is for the mana cost and also how well the backside helps your gameplan. Something like Invasion of Mercadia interests me because Kyren Flamewright transforms an early aggro gameplan into a go-wide plan where you cast Heroic Reinforcements every turn.
My biggest complaint so far is that Sieges as a Battle type favor creature decks and also direct damage. If your deck impacts the board primarily with removal spells or expensive 2-for-1s, it seems really unlikely you have a want for these cards. If my deck is based on controlling the board before winning the game, what is the point?
That said, blue has evasive creatures and green gets cheaper fatties, so maybe they will benefit too.
Battles are weird to me because I have the same gut reaction: "Why would I take 4 damage off to defeat this Siege when I could just do 4 damage to the opponent?" But this is how Planeswalkers work, right? We happily send 4 damage at a Garruk Wildspeaker to deny our opponent a resource to build their board. Why would we not do the same to defeat a Invasion of Zendikar and cast an Awakened Skyclave?
My next thought is that I like Battles where the ETB helps me defeat the Siege. A lot more excited about effects that bounce/tap down a creature or give my flying creatures/pump my creatures. That said, they might not be a clear metric for understanding them until we see how they play.
Reprieve is such a 360 windmill dunk of a card for Peasant cubes. Unlike other white counterspells (like Mana Tithe) this is directly comparable to a blue spell that is very highly cubed.
For a sneak preview, it is kind of fun to speculate on what it means to be "Tempted by the Ring." I am presuming the effect has some benefit based on the cards currently showcased. Especially given that Gollum, Patient Plotter seems to have a clear "1BB: Get Tempted by the Ring" mode. I had a friend suggest something like a dungeon where maybe the 5th step is a big drawback, but the first four are small rewards. VariSami's idea makes the most sense to me, since it creates uniformity amongst cards in the set.
Something I realized I missed on Armored Scrapgorger is that you need a target in the graveyard in order to trigger the tap ability for an oil counter. Playing in ONE booster draft, the ability was not super reliable to trigger on turn 3, although you can work towards the ability by making trades and casting instant/sorceries yourself. Definitely makes me less fond of the card, although the overall package has some significant power to it.
Pretty parasitic set, but there are a few interesting cards:
Testing
Seal Away > Planar Disruption: Removal diversity, does not retrigger etb, and has the ability to hit artifacts.
I thought about this too and I think it is reasonably balanced by the returning creature not being able to attack this turn. Obviously, I would rather take 2 damage than have Mulldrifter draw two cards, but eating an extra attack of, say, Vampire Nighthawk is worse than it needing that extra turn.
Once the commons/uncommons from this set were leaked, I was disappointed to discover that this set was built around the question "What does it feel like to be Phyrexian?" instead of "What would be cool for Peasant cubes?" Between toxic, corrupted and a heavy artifact focus, there is a lot of nonsense to wade through. There are still 20 cards I found interesting enough to discuss here for a "Too Early Top 20 from Phyrexia: All Will Be One." I have a 512 card cube, maximized for power, with
6 spells per guild and 3 lands per guild.
20) Glistener Seer- Getting this effect going on turn 1 seems a lot better than turn 2, even if you lose a point of power from Æther Theorist.
19) Sheoldred's Edict- The specificity is nice, especially when your cube does have some spells that make big tokens. Hard to get too excited when black can already destroy almost anything for 1B.
18) Bladed Ambassador- It is nice to get this unconditional indestructibility without paying a long-term resource like cards or life. Unfortunately, this one-time use also costs one mana.
17) Tyvar's Stand- Versatility on this effect is good, but costs too much to make an impact in most situations.
16) Trawler Drake- Probably a good fit for a tempo-based blue section, but too much of my blue spellslinging leans towards filling the graveyard directly.
15) Serum-Core Chimera- A more controlling creature for Izzet spellslinging. Takes a while to provide an impact beyond a ho-hum flier.
14) Cephalopod Sentry- A lot of y'all have artifact themed cubes (including my Pioneer Peasant Cube) which mightbget this up to 4 power.
13) Ravenous Necrotitan- An interesting way to utilize sac fodder for black, outside of traditional tools.
12) Experimental Augury and 11) Drown in Ichor- If your cube utilizes a lot of counters in either blue or black, these are pretty strong base effects that also give extra counters.
10) Bladehold War-Whip- Synergizes really well with other equipment both as a body and with the cost reduction. Decent enough body even if you are not all-in with equipment.
Compleatly New(ish) Effects
9) Tainted Observer- Repeatable proliferate is always pretty intriguing and you get a decent enough body to combine that with.
8) Hexgold Halberd- The base creature alone is decent, but I think this effect is going to do some real work later on, especially with red's high-power creatures.
7) Atraxa's Skitterfang- A cool effect that pushes through damage or plays defense well, depending on the situation.
Incompleat Versions of Cards We DO Play
6) Myr Convert- Obviously, losing two life to get mana is bad compared to Ornithopter of Paradise, but this body is WAY better. Like, a full mana better. I would not guarantee this is good, but it is nice to have a mana rock that is also a real creature.
5) Evolving Adaptive- A lot of us play Experiment One currently, but losing both the +1/+1 counter synergies and the regeneration is a tough pill to swallow.
4) Planar Disruption and 3) Ossification- I would rather have Ossification in the Peasant world of heavy blink and sacrifice synergies. But, I do appreciate Planar Disruption as a more versatile tool against powerful artifacts. Not sure we need another Journey to Nowhere, but here it is.
2) Armored Scrapgorger- Might be the best of this recent crop of green 2-drop mana producers. You can even attack to get the 3rd oil counter! I also appreciate A_WasherDryer's comments that black should have answers to this to ensure it does not ruin all their plans.
ALL WILL BE Cubing This ONE
1) Cankerbloom- The only reason I have seen to not play this Cankerbloom is because it is TOO good. Super versatile effects which are relevant in multiple situations and the 3/2 body for 1G is also nice.
I almost made myself look stupid again. The auto card preview for Bladehold War-Whip shows a promo, and the promo doesn't have reminder text for For Mirrodin!. I thought it was like all the other new dopey flavor text that's worked its way into magic cards lately, and had no idea why anyone cared about this terrible equipment.
But that new card is decent. It will function admirably with the base body, be clunky in a game with a lot of action, occasionally actually reduce equip costs (but enough to be cute), and occasionally singlehandedly win a low resources/topdeck war.
Flavor text/ability words that lack any specific rules meaning should always be italicized; whereas keywords that carry rules meaning should be standard text.
I recently went all-in on sacrifice effects in rakdos, and almost immediately I regretted leaving any aura removal in. It will just be a half a card too often now. I'm probably going to do a mini update soon that removes all of them. I guess after the set drops?
I looked at Ossification vs Planar Disruption in terms of targets and "disruptors" compared to Journey to Nowhere. Ossifications hits 2 extra cards, but gets disrupted by 5 extra cards. Planar Disruption hits 39 extra targets and gets disrupted by 25 extra cards.
All of these targets and disruptors are not equal, especially for Planar Disruption. Those extra targeted non-creatures artifacts include a lot of mana rocks, but also relevant equipment and vehicles. Most of the bounce/sacrifice disruptors do not apply to non-creature artifacts.
I am firmly supporting Ossification here, but I am more interested in Planar Disruption than before, mostly for the very relevant artifacts it can shut down.
Atraxa’s Skitterfang is like a budget Steel Seraph, saving the distances, but the Seraph has been a card that has impressed many people in BRO.
I also thought about Atraxa's Skitterfang vs Circuit Mender. I think the average case scenario for Circuit Mender vs two uses of Skitterfang is pretty similar. That said, Atraxa's Skitterfang is SO much cooler and more interesting. I will probably try out Skitterfang after adding and shortly cutting Circuit Mender.
I doubt there is going to be a critical mass of Ring tempting to make this all worth it if the base card is not good. At least the Monarch and Initiative are fully functional off one card each.
Samwise the Stouthearted has a really interesting ETB effect. You can do worse than a 1W flash 2/1 that conditionally gets you a card back, but I will note that conditionality extends to being tempted by the Ring.
Gollum, Patient Plotter has a decent-sized body for playing defense, has the death trigger and recursion. It is a lot of hoops to jump through just to get the Ring tempting, so you have to want the 3/1 itself.
It feels very unlikely that this bonus impacts more than 1-2 creatures at a time, which just is not good enough to make a splash.
Compleated Huntmaster- The list of your black sac outlets was useful. I think I may have narrowed the black sac outlets in my cube to equal the number of good red sac outlets, but it makes sense to expand my selection.
Copper-Host Crusher- I do think Copper-Host fits reanimator decks better than Plated Crusher, but I am keeping Plated Crusher for ramp/reanimator. I ended up cutting Scaled Behemoth from my cube.
Elspeth's Smite- It is not that Smite is BAD one-mana removal, probably 4th or 5th overall. I think it has become harder to go that deep on one-mana removal given how good the two-mana removal is. We got 3 good options in the last two sets, leading to no one even mentioning Realmbreaker's Grasp as a potential addition!
Meeting of Minds- Right now, there is no 3-mana instant speed Divination. There is one better variant (Thirst for Discovery) which is extremely popular. I do feel there is room to be a little worse than Thirst and find a space in Cube.
Skyclave Aerialist/Skyclave Invader- My question is where do people rank this amongst 1U 2/1 fliers? I would be surprised at people calling it #1, but anywhere from #2-4 seems reasonable. I am inclined to say 4th, which is what keeps me from being more excited to play it.
Botanical Brawler- The biggest upside here is that this gets an extra +1/+1 counter from EACH permanent that gets a +1/+1 counter in a turn. I do agree the average case scenario is a little meh, but if you have any cards that give multiple creatures +1/+1 counters (Relief Captain, Ridgescape Tusker), the explosion is crazy.
Compleated Huntmaster- Being restricted by needing to tap is very rough, but being a sac outlet and good reward does more than Seer of Stolen Sight. I also just cannot get myself excited for Skullport Merchant. I know it comes with built-in sac fodder, but later paying 1B for a card instead of 3 for a 3/3 feels a lot worse.
Copper-Host Crusher- Strangely, this having only two green symbols is appealing to me. I know it costs 8 mana, but since my reanimator decks have become more Dimir-based, casting a 8-mana 2-pip spell might be easier than casting a 7-mana 3-pip spell, like Plated Crusher. Also, Scaled Behemoth gets chumped enough for me to replace it.
Elspeth's Smite- The timing restriction on these spells is so rough to make me almost never consider them. You cannot play them EOT to clear something just cast, so you need to keep mana up. Casting on an attacker means they could have tricks. Casting on a blocker means they got to block.
Mirran Banesplitter- 3 to equip is so much more than 1 to equip, and you'll need to pay 3 to equip a lot since there is no toughness-boost. Mostly gets to me since it really hurts the possibility of having the boost on different creatures to attack and block.
Meeting of Minds- For me, solidly in that tier of Behold the Multiverse, Scattered Thoughts,, and Chemister's Insight. 450+ card cubes probably want one depending on their preference.
Skyclave Aerialist/Skyclave Invader- The upside here feels so mis-matched from what I want for a cheap blue flier. Paying 4 mana and 2 life to not directly impact damage output feels rough. Makes me think about something like Stormchaser Drake, except more consistent.
20) Ichor Drinker- Neither body is impressive, but making the extra 2/2 out of the graveyard has some potential for sacrifice/graveyard decks.
19) Atraxa's Fall- A reasonable number of targets when adding fliers (and battles) to the mix. Still prefer the creature-based options since they can do something without an immediate target.
18) Seal from Existence- Oblivion Ring plus Ward 3 is a great combination of effects, but these slots are getting tighter and tighter with another Pacifism-plus printed in this set (Realmbreaker's Grasp).
17) Wary Thespian- Interesting side-grade to Merfolk Branchwalker, that trades possible card advantage for guaranteed 3 power and Surveil 1 upon death.
This set has lots of creatures that transform for extra mana, and I wanted to note a few interesting ones.
16c) AEtherblade Agent//Gitaxian Mindstinger- Shifts from purely defensive to potentially gaining card advantage on attacks.
16b) Blightreaper Thallid//Blightsower Thallid- Gets large and makes some extra bodies.
16a) Harried Artisan//Phyrexian Skyflayer- Artisan is okay enough on the front, but becomes a 3-power flier in red.
Convoke printed on blue, black, and red spells puts an interesting spin on classic effects.
15c) Referee Squad- Could have a home in creature focused tempo blue decks
15b) Collective Nightmare- Provides some bonus value for any tokens in a black-based sacrifice deck.
15a) Meeting of Minds- Meeting of Minds looks like a good value cast for 2U and then also plays well with Izzet token generators.
A couple of interesting +1/+1 counter payoffs and an enable.
14c) Invasion of Moag- Invasion of Moag brings that +1/+1 counter support immediately and Bloomwielder Dryads continues upon the Siege being defeated.
14b) Kami of Whispered Hopes- Passable with minimal +1/+1 counter support around it.
14a) Botanical Brawler- Helps +1/+1 counter decks go tall as opposed to going wide like Conclave Mentor.
I am willing to try some Battles in Cube, since I think there are some good rewards provided for defeating Sieges. The exact circumstances for when I want to Battle are probably game dependent, but I have four I want to call out here.
13d) Invasion of Zendikar//Awakened Skyclave- I feel like Sieges are a bad compliment to green ramp, since they tend to build up their board in big bursts. This interests me since it does ramp itself and has the fewest defense counters.
13c) Invasion of Amonkhet//Lazotep Convert- Fits my Dimir section really well, although graveyard decks sometimes lack the early board presence.
13b) Invasion of Belenon//Belenon War Anthem- The anthem effect is very strong for certain white decks and difficult to remove. Getting a 2/2 token upfront helps defeat the Siege and benefits from the anthem.
13a) Invasion of Regatha- Gives back 4 of the 5 damage you need to spend on defeating the Siege and also pings a creature for 1 damage. Could sometimes be a 4/4 mega Prowess Disciples of the Inferno for 2R.
Extra Cool Cards That Might Fit
12) Furnace Gremlin- This scales interestingly as the game progresses, since the pump could matter twice. Also provides two (eventual) bodies for sac decks.
11) Phyrexian Censor- Not a build-around for us, but an interesting way to slow the game down for controlling decks.
10) Zephyr Winder- This feels like less upside than something like Skyship Plunderer, but I am probably wrong on this. That, combined with the new plethora of 2/1 fliers for 1U, has me comparably lower on Winder.
9) Compleated Huntmaster- Much slower version of Gut, True Soul Zealot in black. Gut is crazy good, so maybe this is fine.
8) Streetwise Negotiator- Essentially 3/3 of stats for 1G. For every time the 1/ 3 body is a drawback, you have a time you Backup on a Beckoning Will-ò-Wisp.
March Gladness
7) Invasion of Mercadia- My top battle because it converts early-game resources into a long-game threat of Kyren Flamewright.
6) Stormclaw Rager- An excellent option for the sacrifice deck, but there is a lot of competition for this slot.
5) Xerex Strobe-Knight- Cool token-maker for the spells deck that also has a decently high floor.
4) Sunder the Gateway- A white Foundation Breaker. Unfortunately, it does not have blink synergies. Fortunately, I already de-emphasize those. Also, a 2/2 token for 1W is a decent backup plan in some games.
3) Copper-Host Crusher- A giant ramp/reanimation target which is extremely hard to interact with.
2) Khenra Spellspear//Gitaxian Spellstalker- A nice creature on the front that is an absolute menace on the back. Great for pressing the advantage with cheap spells.
1) Halo Forager- Peasant has no crazy ways to abuse this effect, but there is plenty of value to gain from copying cheap spells
Second, the "transform at sorcery speed" is not ideal, but a majority of instant speed removal is going to hit these creatures whenever they transform and on whichever side. That includes your white, blue, and black removal spells (minus Cut Down). Instant-speed burn still matters, but that is nearly exclusive to red.
Thirdly, I want to double check and ask "Are we sure we want to spend our 2nd and 3rd turns on transforming Kherna Spellspear into Gitaxian Spellstalker?" There are other play patterns, but this one is clearly built into the card. Regardless of removal, those are a lot of resources to spend on ~4-mana worth of creature.
But first, I am pretty into Xerex Strobe-Knight. I like how it encourages the spells deck in an interesting way by caring about *any* spells. If you have to play another permanent spell that pays off for your non-creature spells, you can potentially get that 2/2 Knight token. Another strong payoff for having free spells in your Cube.
We also got a couple interesting Convoke spells with Referee Squad and the tentatively-named Shivan Treeblazer.
There are so many similar effects at three mana that I doubt Referee Squad will find a spot, but having Convoke might fit well in creature-based blue decks.
I am not typically a fan of big red fliers, but Shivan Trailblazer could be coming down turn 4 thanks to red having some good token making options and an emphasis on cheap creatures.
My point is that depriving an opponent of a resource and gaining yourself a resource are functionally similar effects on the battlefield. All of the battle backsides are reasonably good cards and saying they "may or may not help you" seems a bit much.
I do understand you mean this in the context of whether or not you should just cast a spell with a stronger initial effect and attack the opponent for the damage, but I am optimistic on one of these being good.
I think the most important things are going to be how reasonable the frontside is for the mana cost and also how well the backside helps your gameplan. Something like Invasion of Mercadia interests me because Kyren Flamewright transforms an early aggro gameplan into a go-wide plan where you cast Heroic Reinforcements every turn.
My biggest complaint so far is that Sieges as a Battle type favor creature decks and also direct damage. If your deck impacts the board primarily with removal spells or expensive 2-for-1s, it seems really unlikely you have a want for these cards. If my deck is based on controlling the board before winning the game, what is the point?
That said, blue has evasive creatures and green gets cheaper fatties, so maybe they will benefit too.
EDIT: I also think Streetwise Negotiator is pretty sweet. If I did not play Un cards, I would replace Lineprancers with this.
My next thought is that I like Battles where the ETB helps me defeat the Siege. A lot more excited about effects that bounce/tap down a creature or give my flying creatures/pump my creatures. That said, they might not be a clear metric for understanding them until we see how they play.
For a sneak preview, it is kind of fun to speculate on what it means to be "Tempted by the Ring." I am presuming the effect has some benefit based on the cards currently showcased. Especially given that Gollum, Patient Plotter seems to have a clear "1BB: Get Tempted by the Ring" mode. I had a friend suggest something like a dungeon where maybe the 5th step is a big drawback, but the first four are small rewards. VariSami's idea makes the most sense to me, since it creates uniformity amongst cards in the set.
I thought about this too and I think it is reasonably balanced by the returning creature not being able to attack this turn. Obviously, I would rather take 2 damage than have Mulldrifter draw two cards, but eating an extra attack of, say, Vampire Nighthawk is worse than it needing that extra turn.
6 spells per guild and 3 lands per guild.
20) Glistener Seer- Getting this effect going on turn 1 seems a lot better than turn 2, even if you lose a point of power from Æther Theorist.
19) Sheoldred's Edict- The specificity is nice, especially when your cube does have some spells that make big tokens. Hard to get too excited when black can already destroy almost anything for 1B.
18) Bladed Ambassador- It is nice to get this unconditional indestructibility without paying a long-term resource like cards or life. Unfortunately, this one-time use also costs one mana.
17) Tyvar's Stand- Versatility on this effect is good, but costs too much to make an impact in most situations.
16) Trawler Drake- Probably a good fit for a tempo-based blue section, but too much of my blue spellslinging leans towards filling the graveyard directly.
15) Serum-Core Chimera- A more controlling creature for Izzet spellslinging. Takes a while to provide an impact beyond a ho-hum flier.
14) Cephalopod Sentry- A lot of y'all have artifact themed cubes (including my Pioneer Peasant Cube) which mightbget this up to 4 power.
13) Ravenous Necrotitan- An interesting way to utilize sac fodder for black, outside of traditional tools.
12) Experimental Augury and 11) Drown in Ichor- If your cube utilizes a lot of counters in either blue or black, these are pretty strong base effects that also give extra counters.
10) Bladehold War-Whip- Synergizes really well with other equipment both as a body and with the cost reduction. Decent enough body even if you are not all-in with equipment.
Compleatly New(ish) Effects
9) Tainted Observer- Repeatable proliferate is always pretty intriguing and you get a decent enough body to combine that with.
8) Hexgold Halberd- The base creature alone is decent, but I think this effect is going to do some real work later on, especially with red's high-power creatures.
7) Atraxa's Skitterfang- A cool effect that pushes through damage or plays defense well, depending on the situation.
Incompleat Versions of Cards We DO Play
6) Myr Convert- Obviously, losing two life to get mana is bad compared to Ornithopter of Paradise, but this body is WAY better. Like, a full mana better. I would not guarantee this is good, but it is nice to have a mana rock that is also a real creature.
5) Evolving Adaptive- A lot of us play Experiment One currently, but losing both the +1/+1 counter synergies and the regeneration is a tough pill to swallow.
4) Planar Disruption and 3) Ossification- I would rather have Ossification in the Peasant world of heavy blink and sacrifice synergies. But, I do appreciate Planar Disruption as a more versatile tool against powerful artifacts. Not sure we need another Journey to Nowhere, but here it is.
2) Armored Scrapgorger- Might be the best of this recent crop of green 2-drop mana producers. You can even attack to get the 3rd oil counter! I also appreciate A_WasherDryer's comments that black should have answers to this to ensure it does not ruin all their plans.
ALL WILL BE Cubing This ONE
1) Cankerbloom- The only reason I have seen to not play this Cankerbloom is because it is TOO good. Super versatile effects which are relevant in multiple situations and the 3/2 body for 1G is also nice.
Flavor text/ability words that lack any specific rules meaning should always be italicized; whereas keywords that carry rules meaning should be standard text.
I looked at Ossification vs Planar Disruption in terms of targets and "disruptors" compared to Journey to Nowhere. Ossifications hits 2 extra cards, but gets disrupted by 5 extra cards. Planar Disruption hits 39 extra targets and gets disrupted by 25 extra cards.
All of these targets and disruptors are not equal, especially for Planar Disruption. Those extra targeted non-creatures artifacts include a lot of mana rocks, but also relevant equipment and vehicles. Most of the bounce/sacrifice disruptors do not apply to non-creature artifacts.
I am firmly supporting Ossification here, but I am more interested in Planar Disruption than before, mostly for the very relevant artifacts it can shut down.
I also thought about Atraxa's Skitterfang vs Circuit Mender. I think the average case scenario for Circuit Mender vs two uses of Skitterfang is pretty similar. That said, Atraxa's Skitterfang is SO much cooler and more interesting. I will probably try out Skitterfang after adding and shortly cutting Circuit Mender.