MTG Salvation

Quote from metalevolence

Everyone runs it, but mogg fanatic is awful.

I don't think its even close to fair to say that Mogg Fanatic is an awful card. If you don't like it, I guess that's up to you but this card still sees play in Powered Cubes.

The idea of Mogg Fanatic is that when played on turn 1 he gets in for damage because your opponent can't profitably block without losing their own creature. I think this is especially true of pauper cube because very few colors have access to 2 drops with 2 toughness let alone 1 drops that can do anything against Mogg Fanatic. For example, Al's inclusion of typhoid rats which you would never want to waste blocking a Mogg Fanatic if you played it on turn 1. Your same black section only has 3 two drops that can profitably block Mogg Fanatic. When you play him on turn 1 he beats in the first two turns netting you 2 damage. When your opponent finally plays a dude on turn 3 that can profitably block it, you get to swing in with your whole team. If he blocks the fanatic with his biggest creature, it means all of your bigger creatures get to get in for damage and you get to sac your Mogg Fanatic to either kill one of their lower drop creatures or deal 1 damage to the face. If you went to the face, Mogg Fanatic got you 3 damage and a free attack with your larger creature. If you killed a creature, your Mogg Fanatic got in 2 damage to your opponent, got a free attack for your biggest creature and killed a low drop/utility creature all for the low cost of R.

Obviously this scenario is much different when he doesn't get played on turn 1 but that can be said of most 1 drop creatures in pauper cube. If anything, it's better than most 1 drops in pauper cube when drawn late because you are guaranteed the 1 damage.

I do play Pith Driller and I like that card so much that I've still got Cultbrand Cinder sitting on the wait list for my hybrid set lol. However, it's one of those cards that really suffers from a personal categorizing. It kind of depends on how you think the card is best cast. I have it in my colorless section because I honestly play it in almost every deck regardless of color. If you're going to put it in your black section, it's like saying that the best way to use the card is by playing it as a black cost which also means that its best mode is not using phyrexian mana and making it a 5 drop. Not to drum up the whole clarifying colors in the cube conversation again >< lol. I guess I could always just throw him in my black 4 drops because there really aren't any other options and then freeing up a colorless slot but it kind of seems like a disservice to black unless I would do the same with the other phyrexian cards which don't suffer the same problem as black.

Wow, that's still pretty low. So 6 commons from each color and essentially only 5 after you take away the unplayable gatekeeper set. A pretty sad set for pauper cube. Here's hoping for a decent UR common and maybe UW or GB.