Exotic Pets: Probably not good enough, but if you have enough +1/+1 counters in your cube, the potential for two unblockable 2/2s at instant speed for three mana is not a bad rate.
I don't think it works that way. I believe you'd only get to put a +1/+1 on a single one of the fish.
Illuminator Virtuoso: I like this a lot more than Twinblade Geist. I feel as if the backside on Geist was rarely relevant, and if you're not planning to target your 1/1 double striker with spells then I'm not sure why he's in your deck in the first place.
Witness Protection: This is surprisingly powerful for just one mana, with the obvious downside that the creature can still chump. I think that's still a pretty solid trade-off.
Psychic Pickpocket Probably a no, this is often a 4/3 with bounce and a loot for 5 mana, which is closer to playable than it might look on first pass. Works well with flicker.
Trouble on the Roof: The kicked mode is potentially some good value, but this card feels like it's pulling me in too many different directions. What deck wants divination, frost breath, and has random dorks to sac?
Mage's Attendant: Cool card, a bit awkward that the 3 drop slot in white is already so packed. Even so I will still probably run this -- It has a solid statline, provides 2 bodies, does things with flicker, and has some random annoyance value on the sac ability. That's enough for me.
IMO Boros equipment isn't quite "there", especially if you run unrestricted removal. People love to hype up cards like Loxodon Warhammer but trading 6 mana and a creature for my opponents doom blade isn't something I'm excited to do.
That said, the archetype is closer than it's ever been. If you're willing to run cards that are garbage if-not-equipped, bloodshot trainee is a classic.
Also aura/equipment benefit a lot from having a coalition honor gaurd spellskite-ing removal away from the voltron.
Cards in my cube that I was surprised didn't make it into the aggregate cube:
Coalition Honor Guard - If you're looking for straight-up power level, this is it. Privileged Position attached to a 2/4 is nothing to sneeze at. I find this works best in combo-oriented decks (like ones running Soulherder) as a way to protect their pieces.
Blinding Beam - I'd encourage you to cast this a few times and see how it feels. If you play powered removal this card goes down, but if your cube emphasizes the board state, this straight up wins you the board for 2 turns.
Nevermaker - Decent stats any way you cast it, and enables soft-locks if you support flicker.
Can't speak highly enough about these.
With my cube at 360, there's not much chaff. When every deck is going to have 30+ playables anyway, these land-spells make for more interesting picks, as they are inherently less powerful than the average spell but will increase the spell-density of your deck. I also like mechanics that alleviate screw.
This seems pretty solid and might finally push Regrowth out of my cube. Regrowth might be more efficient but the deck that wants it the most is usually self-milling making the flashback on this new card very good.
I think it's worse than all of these, unfortunately.
Morbid Opportunist is potentially pretty strong and creates some nice incentives, but I would be willing to believe it washes out in testing.
I _want_ Spellrune Painter to be good, but it probably just isn't. I think what really killed it for me is that the backhalf encourages you to play multiple spells, which forces you back to the front half. Yuck.
Is Dreadhound potentially good enough? It's Syr Konrad, the Grim redundancy with a more resilient body. I feel like I can never attack with Konrad. Wouldn't be the case here.
Definitely looks amazing. I would tend to agree with your assessment here.
Agreed on Outland Liberator. Thrashing Brontodon was always a solid rate but it felt really bad to invest 4 mana into Naturalize when that's what you needed. Double green also wasn't insignificant. This guy has comparable stats for the cost and it's only upside from there.
Bereaved Survivor looks cool but I think it's a cut under playable. There's a real contention between wanting to play aggressive and wanting your things to die, especially if you're playing white. When they bolt your 2 drop in response to this you're going to feel pretty dumb for casting a 3 mana 2/1.
Rite of Oblivion looks good enough to me. We don't get a lot of repeatable removal in peasant, especially where both halves are respectably costed. Hitting nonland permanents is sweet, though I do wish it was an instant.
One challenge I've been facing is that I want my GB and UB archetypes feel distinct, but they both lean relatively heavily (and almost exclusively) to graveyard themes. So how do you differentiate U and G's pairing with black when they both fill the same "mill stuff to power your black cards" role?
Peasant is full of cheap evasive dorks (a la pteramander) that you want to slap a curious obsession on, and very few infiltrators that lack evasion (a la mindstab thrull). Krydle sits very awkwardly in a deck that's already full of evasive creatures. His infiltrator trigger is not enough to make himself a serious threat and his evasion trigger is wasted on already evasive creatures. Even if you want to give your ophidians unblockable, he pales in comparison to tetsuko umezawa, fugitive.
4B
Creature - Elf Spider
Reach
Whenever Drider deals combat damage to a player, create a 2/1 Spider creature token with menace and reach.
4/3
This doesn't impact the board when arrives (something important for a 5 cmc creature), so I don't see it so good, but the effect is decent.
I like this UB infiltrators archetype (and want to make it work) but this isn't the way to make it work. I'm not generally concerned with making whacking-my-opponent-for-4 any better than it would already be.
I don't think it works that way. I believe you'd only get to put a +1/+1 on a single one of the fish.
Witness Protection: This is surprisingly powerful for just one mana, with the obvious downside that the creature can still chump. I think that's still a pretty solid trade-off.
Psychic Pickpocket Probably a no, this is often a 4/3 with bounce and a loot for 5 mana, which is closer to playable than it might look on first pass. Works well with flicker.
Trouble on the Roof: The kicked mode is potentially some good value, but this card feels like it's pulling me in too many different directions. What deck wants divination, frost breath, and has random dorks to sac?
Mage's Attendant: Cool card, a bit awkward that the 3 drop slot in white is already so packed. Even so I will still probably run this -- It has a solid statline, provides 2 bodies, does things with flicker, and has some random annoyance value on the sac ability. That's enough for me.
That said, the archetype is closer than it's ever been. If you're willing to run cards that are garbage if-not-equipped, bloodshot trainee is a classic.
Also aura/equipment benefit a lot from having a coalition honor gaurd spellskite-ing removal away from the voltron.
Coalition Honor Guard - If you're looking for straight-up power level, this is it. Privileged Position attached to a 2/4 is nothing to sneeze at. I find this works best in combo-oriented decks (like ones running Soulherder) as a way to protect their pieces.
Blinding Beam - I'd encourage you to cast this a few times and see how it feels. If you play powered removal this card goes down, but if your cube emphasizes the board state, this straight up wins you the board for 2 turns.
Nevermaker - Decent stats any way you cast it, and enables soft-locks if you support flicker.
Pondering Mage - Pretty comparable to mulldrifter.
Hobgoblin Captain - Maybe people are slow on updating their lists? Not sure why War-Name Aspirant made it but this didn't.
Havoc Jester - Most people run some sort of sac archetype, right? I feel like this fits the bill, though if 5 CMC is a deal breaker I can buy that.
Captured By Legacs - Don't sleep on this one. Pacifism that hits hard is a real beating.
Spell lands:
Makindi Stampede
Jwari Disruption
Pelakka Predation
Spikefield Hazard
Can't speak highly enough about these.
With my cube at 360, there's not much chaff. When every deck is going to have 30+ playables anyway, these land-spells make for more interesting picks, as they are inherently less powerful than the average spell but will increase the spell-density of your deck. I also like mechanics that alleviate screw.
The problem with Dryad Revival, for me, isn't that it's not a decent card, more that it has _so much_ competition.
Bala Ged Revival
Eternal Witness
Timeless Witness
Regrowth
I think it's worse than all of these, unfortunately.
Morbid Opportunist is potentially pretty strong and creates some nice incentives, but I would be willing to believe it washes out in testing.
I _want_ Spellrune Painter to be good, but it probably just isn't. I think what really killed it for me is that the backhalf encourages you to play multiple spells, which forces you back to the front half. Yuck.
Is Dreadhound potentially good enough? It's Syr Konrad, the Grim redundancy with a more resilient body. I feel like I can never attack with Konrad. Wouldn't be the case here.
Agreed on Outland Liberator. Thrashing Brontodon was always a solid rate but it felt really bad to invest 4 mana into Naturalize when that's what you needed. Double green also wasn't insignificant. This guy has comparable stats for the cost and it's only upside from there.
Bereaved Survivor looks cool but I think it's a cut under playable. There's a real contention between wanting to play aggressive and wanting your things to die, especially if you're playing white. When they bolt your 2 drop in response to this you're going to feel pretty dumb for casting a 3 mana 2/1.
Rite of Oblivion looks good enough to me. We don't get a lot of repeatable removal in peasant, especially where both halves are respectably costed. Hitting nonland permanents is sweet, though I do wish it was an instant.
Ha ha.
And on that note, we've fully descended into the die-rolling bulk of the spoilers. Not holding high hopes for the rest of this set.
Peasant is full of cheap evasive dorks (a la pteramander) that you want to slap a curious obsession on, and very few infiltrators that lack evasion (a la mindstab thrull). Krydle sits very awkwardly in a deck that's already full of evasive creatures. His infiltrator trigger is not enough to make himself a serious threat and his evasion trigger is wasted on already evasive creatures. Even if you want to give your ophidians unblockable, he pales in comparison to tetsuko umezawa, fugitive.
I like this UB infiltrators archetype (and want to make it work) but this isn't the way to make it work. I'm not generally concerned with making whacking-my-opponent-for-4 any better than it would already be.
Ah. The overgrowth comparison threw me off. I would not recommend playing this card.