I want to find another word to replace Staple next time I do a review.
I should bump Brazen Wolves up to staple. I didn't think about how 3 toughness is so much better than 2 when comparing Wolves to Spur Grappler. Wolves out classes Grappler and I missed that.
I was super tired when finishing this. I had to hand in some assignments before I got into writing the bulk of this. I'll clean this up and retag.
Thanks for the feedback. This was mostly targetted at the people who don't have all the cards for pauper cube and are mostly relying on the newest sets.
Staple: Once in, this card is unlikely to come out of the cube because of its power level. Typically only cut as design decision. Examples are: Vildin-Pack Outcast, Terror, Evolving Wilds.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Especially in a small cube, there tend to be more cubeable cards than slots. Examples: Borrowed Grace, Fogwalker, Borderland Ranger.
Underpowered: These cards are all far below standard pauper cube power levels. Only include if you are lacking cards or as a tactical design decision. Examples: Boon of Emrakul, Unnatural Aggression, Olivia's Dragoon.
Borrowed GraceCubeable Better than Fortify. This is a great addition for token archetypes. Choking RestraintsCubeble Worse than both Pacifism and Arrest. In terms of power, this will make it's way into most white decks. It's just a design decision whether you include "worse" removal like this. Dawn GryffUnderpowered There are much better and more interesting 3 drops than this. Desperate SentryNiche It requires a lot of work to make this good. Much more than your average cube is willing to put in. Faithbearer PaladinCubeable Lifelink makes this strong. This is going to ruin an aggro players day if they don't have hard removal on hand. Time will tell if it is just good or if it is great. Fiend BinderNiche A respectable attacker. He works well with other similar tempo effects. However it doesn't take many 2 powered blockers to ruin his day, which isn't great for a 4-drop. Guardian of PilgrimsUnderpowered Not up to current 2-drop standards. This is fine if you consistently have a 1-drop. But that seems unlikely. Ironclad SlayerCubeable A much better Auramancer. A 3/2 on 3 is fine if you are trying to curve out, and the upside is pretty huge. This could be ran even without heavy aura support. Ironwright's CleansingTerrible No thank you. Lunarch MantleNiche If you have a way to abuse the sacrifice on this, it gets pretty gross. Outside of that I can see this making it's way into aggro decks, or aura/hexproof decks. This definitely isn't a card for every cube, but it seems good it the ones which can support it. Sigardian PriestNiche She isn't great, but it is a 2-drop tapper. The non-human clause gives her flavour points. Spectral ReservesUnderpowered 2 power with flying for 4 mana is bad. The upsides do not make up for this. Steadfast CatharNiche Decent at attacking, but pretty horrible at blocking. I expect this to be worse than it looks. Thraben Standard BearerUnderpowered You are going to need a lot of madness to consider playing this.
Contingency PlanTerrible This is only acceptable with a crazy amount of delirium. ConvoluteNiche This is on the weak end of counter magic. The single blue mana in the cost saves it from being horrible. DisplaceCubeable It's Ghostly Flicker 2.0. This effect is strong, but require good support to make it work. Drag UnderUnderpowered Sorcery speed... No thanks. Enlightened ManiacNiche Great with flicker effects, however it struggles to be playable without support. Exultant CultistNiche How good this card is depends entirely on how well it can block 1-2-drops in your cube. Ingenious SkaabStaple The best midrange, non-evasion 3-drop in blue. This a must-run if you are leaning away from evasion cards defining blue. FogwalkerCubeable A great anti-aggro card. It can also safely poke your opponent down. However it on the weak end of strong blue 2-drops. Laboratory BruteUnderpowered Gets better with a lot of blue graveyard support, but by itself quite lackluster. Spontaneous MutationNiche Fine in durdle control, where you can always expect to have a decent hand size. However would never be played out of that. Take InventoryTerrible/Niche Have you even considered yourself an anarchist? Do you like starting flame wars it cube threads? If yes this card might be for you, but you need to run a lot of them to make it work. If you are a "normal" person who only likes singles, then this is terrible. Tattered HaunterStaple Functional reprint of Welkin Tern number 3. At least 1 is considered a staple in cubes which support aggro blue. It's about as good as aggro 2 drops get. Outside of that archetype it's still a good card. Turn AsideNiche A good Aggro/Tempo card, but pretty bad outside of protect the Kiln Fiend decks. Wretched GryffCubeable Has a lot of synergy with all the etb creatures in blue, plus provides a threatening flying body. While it is vulnerable to removal, it demands removing and a Lightning Bolt isn't going to cut it.
Boon of EmrakulUnderpowered Primarily a removal spell. The average quality of removal would be low to justify running this. Borrowed MalevolenceNiche The dream is a 2 for 1, however the reality is it will mostly be used as a ping on a 1 toughness creature. Flexibility makes this card deceptively good. Cemetery RecruitmentNiche This is the definition of a niche card. In the right context (ie with a lot of zombies) this is a power house, outside of that it's not so great. Certain DeathTerrible 6 mana is awful for anything that doesn't at least 2 for 1, or provide a massive momentum change. Gavony UnhallowedCubeable Against good aggro decks, this is bad. In any other match up, this is going to be a huge pain to deal with. 4 toughness is enough to ensure it doesn't randomly die and only takes a couple of counters before it's presence dominates the game. It gets much better with sac outlets and tokens. Graf RatsTerrible/Niche Functionally it is a vanilla 2/1 for 2. If you are willing to include weird draft gimmicks becomes realitiely strong. To make that work you are going to need multiple copies of this and Midnight Scavengers or, draft one get.. If you happen to get both in draft there is enough graveyard recursion that getting Chittering Host assembled becomes likely enough to justify running. When flipped it becomes quite a menace. You are likely to win in 1 swing with any kind of board presence. Midnight SavangersNiche/Cubeable A fine card on it's own, although weak on the Gravedigger spectrum. See above for Chittering Host. Olivia's DragoonUnderpowered A good card with any kind of madness and discard synergy. It's not good without any synergy. Skirsdag SupplicantTerrible This is understatted, with a bad ability. As a discard outlet, this wouldn't be one to go for. Strange AugmentationTerrible This suffers from aura-syndrome. Delirium is too slow for this to be impactful. Succumb to TemptationNiche 3 mana for Sign in Blood is too much. Instant-speed helps a lot, but in black holding mana up isn't strong enough to justify the extra cost. Thraben FoulbloodsCubeable A 3/2 for 3 is fine as a body on curve. Being able to upgrade that to a 4/3 menace is huge and makes this ok early and good late. Wailing GhoulNiche 1/3's are good at slowing down aggro. Having an etb which moves you game plan (of filling the graveyard) is really good for the decks which would want this. It fills a purpose and does it well. Obviously if you are not supporting a graveyard subtheme it becomes terrible. Weirded VampireUnderpowered Terrible as a vanilla and only a Centaur Courser with an enabler.
Summary Gavony Unhallowed is a good pick up if you have a critical mass of enablers. Thraben Foulbloods is another strong cards, but again requires you to be running graveyard synergy to be worth a slot. Only a couple of archetype specific cards this time, although they both add well to those archetypes. Murder is also in this set, although as an uncommon, but it is cubeable and worth noting.
Red
Alchemist's GreetingNiche This is a great card with adequate support. Massively overcosted without support. Bold ImpalerTerrible Mana sinks like this tend to be bad in pauper. There is a big emphasis on curving out, which this doesn't help with. The default body needs to be decent, which this isn't. Borrowed HostilityUnderpowered Both modes don't do much on their own and combined they are overcosted. The flexibility doesn't make up for this. The first strike part could be better than I'm giving it credit for. Brazen WolvesStaple 4/3 for 3 attacking is what aggro decks want in a 3 drop. The fact that this sucks defense is negligible for the archetypes which would run it. Distemper of the BloodTerrible Sorcery-speed on a combat trip is one of the worst things ever. This is strong is you can reliably discard at instant-speed, which seems unlikely even in a madness deck. Falkenrath ReaverTerrible Power creep joke Galvanic BombardmentUnderpowered A creature only Shock is fine if it has an upside. Fortunately Bombardment does, however the catch is you have to run multiples. If you bite the bullet and do, this becomes a very strong card. At 3 copies it is rivaling good burn in terms of efficacy. Anymore copies in a deck and they become some of the best burn printed. Except for the fact Bombardment can't go face which holds it back from being Lightning Bolt good. Make MischiefUnderpowered Do have a infestation of 1 toughness creatures? No? Then this card isn't that good. Sorcery-speed is the nail in the coffin. Otherworldly BurstCubeable This is mana efficient with the potential for a 2 for 1 (not likely though). While being weaker than premium burn, it manages not to compete for card slots by acting primarily as a creature. It's also worth noting that you can use this on your opponent's creatures. Prophetic RavingsUnderpowered An aura with a immediate effect undoes most inherit weaknesses. However this effect isn't really worth investing 2 cards in getting. In saying that if you can get this on something that easily untaps... Stensia BanquetTerrible Vampires... Most cubes will have difficulties getting this to do 1 damage. Stensia InnkeeperNiche It is hard to evaluate this kind of effect. If Stone Rain and Hill Giant had a love child it would look like this. Innkeeper seems like a good fit into an pressure or rampy deck where you are able to punish your opponent behind on curve. Thermo-AlchemistCubeable A great fit into a spells archetype alongside Kiln Fiend. As a bonus Alchemist is good at soaking up damage. Vildin-Pack OutcastStaple The strongest 5-drop red has seen so far. While no Nessian Asp it will be a power house in all midrange red decks. It should be ran unless you don't believe in 5-drops in red...
Summary Otherworldly Burst and Thermo-Alchemist are both cubeable cards in their own right. They might not be guaranteed slots, but they are worth consideration. Vildin-Pack Outcast and Brazen Wolves are the stand outs. Outcast in particular will be the best (not aggro) 5 drop in red.
Green
Backwoods SurvivalistsCubeable Ok as a vanilla, decent with delirium. The pay-off isn't that high to warrant working for delirium. Seems fine a long side other graveyard matters cards. BloodbrairNiche This is either lackluster or a powerhouse. It's worth having a look at who many sac outlets their are in your cube and how many 1-off sac effects there are. Also it works off any any card types not just creatures, so Evolving Wilds counts too. I'm leaning towards this being good as it as there are a lot of pre-existing synergies in most cubes. Crossroads ConsecratorTerribleInfantry Veteran you are not. The activation cost kills this. Grapple with the PastCubeable Finally a cubeable green Regrowth. The fact it fill the graveyard pushes this over the edge. It of the Horrid SwarmCubeable This is pretty sad in it's native colour, green, outside of sacing the occasional Civic Wayfinder. Although It is really good in token strategies and with etb creatures in other colours (*cough* blue). Prey UponNiche Despite not being the best removal spell, this proves that green is willing to play just about any semi-decent cheap removal. Primal DruidUnderpowered This is sad next to Viridian Emissary and Wall of Roots. It is only fine against aggro and even then isn't great. Springsage RitualTerrible 4 mana is far too much for a Naturalize. The life gain does not compromise for this. Ulvenwald CaptiveNiche 2 cost mana dorks are fine, but require an upside to be worth it. This one's upside is being able to turn into a great body late game. Waxing MoonTerrible Yet another card which requires a creature type rarely (if ever) supported in pauper cubes. In short it is a functionally dead card 95% of the time. Wolfkin BondUnderpowered 5 mana is a lot for such an underwhelming effect. Woodcutter's GritUnderpowered This is on the weak end of combat tricks and will not stop a Doom Blade in response (as much as you think it should). In the end 3 mana is a lot to hold up and the pay-off isn't there. Woodland PatrolUnderpowered This is pretty mediocre as far as 3-drops are concerned. 2 toughness means it trades down with 1 and 2 drops. Vigilance doesn't compensate for this.
Cathar's ShieldUnderpowered I still haven't found out how to make toughness buffing equipment good and the equip cost is too high to be useful. Cultist's StaffCubeable A solid stat stick. This isn't going to find a home in aggro decks. It is fine in midrange decks where a extra 3 mana here and there. Field CreeperTerrible Gotta give it to him for having a cool pumpkin as a head. TerrarionTerrible Colour fixing is better than people give it credit for. As well as that it has a bunch of random synergies. Despite all this, Terrarion does functionally nothing in your average deck.
Summary Cultist's Staff, while not pretty, is a fine card for anyone missing some equipment.
Overall a great set for cubeables. However most cards are relatively narrow into which archetypes they fit. Not every cube will want the cards listed below, but they are all worthy of consideration in some way or another. Ingenious Skaab, Brazen Wolves and Vildin-Pack Outcast are both stand-out cards in their respective card-slots. Despite this none of them push the envelop for power in pauper cube.
The question isn't whether you think Shock as strong as other burn spells, because it clearly isn't. However if the average power of burn spells was brought down in a cube would you draft Shock, I would. Shock won't be kept in the final version, but it happened to be there when I copy-pasted.
It's better to give cards labels for their general playablity. I want people to evaluate how strong these cards are for their cube. Numerical ratings imply evaluating in a vacuum. I feel it gets too easy to get caught up in finding the strongest versions of each card, rather than trying to create the "funnest" environment to showcase the best commons.
I'm making a set review for Eldritch Moon. I hope to have it live before the Pre-Release this weekend. As I was writing reviews for the new cards I realised that the judging rubric didn't represent the spectrum of power-levels properly. Bad will be replaced by with Underpowered. Borderline will be replaced with Niche. Staple has been made a little less demanding. The cards used are old examples and will be updated to reflect the current rubric standard, as well as be fitting to the set. Also it would be a good idea to include some corner cases in the examples of where the boundaries of the categories are.
Judging Rubric
Bomb: This card probably always will be one of the core cards in the cube and will be consistently first-picked. Examples are: Porcelain Legionnaire, Vulshok Morningstar.
Staple: Once in, this card is very unlikely to ever come out of the cube because of its power level, and in any case should be cubed with in all current pauper cubes. Examples are: Eldrazi Skyspawner, Searing Spear, Evolving Wilds.
Cubable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Especially in a small cube, there tend to be more cubable or higher cards than slots so not all deserve inclusion. Examples: Mark of the Vampire, Kozilek's Channeler.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this. Examples: Shock, Anticipate, Call the Scions.
Bomb: This card probably always will be one of the core cards in the cube and will be consistently first-picked. Examples are: Porcelain Legionnaire, Vulshok Morningstar.
Staple: Once in, this card is unlikely to come out of the cube because of its power level. Typically only cut as design decision. Examples are: Eldrazi Skyspawner, Searing Spear, Evolving Wilds.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Especially in a small cube, there tend to be more cubeable cards than slots. Examples: Mark of the Vampire, Kozilek's Channeler.
Niche: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include these. This also includes situationally strong cards. Often these Examples: Shock, Anticipate, Call the Scions.
Underpowered: These cards are all far below standard pauper cube power levels. Only include if you are lacking cards or as a tactical design decision. Examples: Demon's Grasp, Unnatural Aggression.
Type: Pauper Size: 400 Silver Bordered: None allowed. Multiples: Allowed, none used. Custom Cards: None allowed. Additional Restrictions: Physical common printings only. No edge cases allowed. No proxies. Cube Philosophy: This is designed to show case the best commons through out magics history. No cards are banned for being too good, this has potential to change. Subsections of cards and archetypes will be culled down if found oppressive. For example, cheap removal and burn archetypes.
I like Manic Vandal and Keldon Vandals a lot more than the bear versions. They're some of the easiest ways to build up card advantage. You get to blow something up and keep attacking! It's very rare for me to ever feel like they're stranded in hand with no targets. I agree Torch Fiends are at the bottom of the two-drops though.
I had another question for red, though. Do y'all think Martyr of Ashes has value as one of the rare (pun intended) sweepers at common? Are there any others you would put ahead of it? Aside from all the dividable burn spells, I mean
I like Manic Vandal it is fairly rare for him to not have a target even if there isn't one on turn 1. However it is not a card for aggro decks, where Torch Fiend is much better. I cut Keldon Vandals because Manic Vandal was already filling his role of creature body + artifact removal. I am trying out Defiant Ogre as a big smashy 6-drop in red, but so far haven't tested him.
Martyr of Ashes is good. It fills a niche for a big early sweep controlling Red decks. But red isn't exactly lacking board clear with it's dividable damage. If Red for you is all aggro, then it's definitely cutable. In saying that there isn't any good replacements for Martyr of Ashes as it's simply the best there is for it's effect.
I agree with most of these! Here's what I found surprising:
Ghostly Sentinel: In an environment where Lightning Bolt is the removal of choice, there is a world of cubeability between three and four toughness. This is no Serra Angel.
Anticipate: There is no way that this is on the same level as Brilliant Spectrum. Spectrum is one of the worst kinds of multicolor spell possible - the kind that gets beaten out by the monocolored version. There's Sift and Catalog if you want this kind of effect. Anticipate is cheap card filtering, something every deck would kill for.
Clutch of Currents: This should be cubeable at the very least. It's right in between Aven Surveyor and Aethersnipe in functionality.
Spell Shrivel: I actually missed this one and hadn't considered that it was a pauper Dissipate. Good to have, and could be a key card for exile-matters eventually.
Tightening Coils: This looks really bad. I'd rather have removal that actually removes the target instead of giving it defender.
Dominator Drone: Bad, not cubeable. We can't evaluate cards on the basis that they might get enablers maybe someday in the future. Judging it right now, it's a Warpath Ghoul most of the time.
Swarm Surge: Black has gotten this effect before, a practically identical copy minus the colorless rider (Desperate Charge). But if colorless-matters becomes a thing, this card will be part of it.
Kozilek's Sentinel: Bad. Requires you to play a spell before its damage output is equal to a regular bear. You'll almost never get to chain multiple colorless spells in one turn, and the payoff is too low. I like where this design is going though.
Ondu Champion: Borderline. Trample is an unusual effect for red, but there are a ton of better bodies at this cost.
Sure Strike: I'd like an explanation, because it looks like we're going off the rails here.
Touch of the Void: Bad. Worse than Ghostfire, which doesn't see any play. EDIT: Exile is barely relevant. If exile-matters becomes a thing, it won't be with this, but with cheaper burn like Magma Spray, Pillar of Flame or even Yamabushi's Flame.
Blisterpod: Someone's been playing Hearthstone
Eyeless Watcher: My sleeper card for the set. It's limited by all the pingers floating around in pauper though.
Swell of Growth: Really bad. The effects will never line up the way you want.
Ruin Processor: Really close to a cubeable fatty. If exile-matters becomes a thing, he should definitely be revisited. In the meantime, this shouldn't be more than borderline.
I agree with the majority of the evaluation! I feel like you could have been harsher on the corner cases though
Tightening Coils I like to badden up the removal. In terms of power level it's weaker than all of blues cubable hard removal, but it's not bad itself. Plus I like how it strengthens a couple of archetypes (Flyers and Control) but isn't that great in tempo aggro.
Ghostly Sentinel - I run less of the 3 damage cards than most. In terms of power it's definitely on the weaker end, but I'm looking for more 5+ costed cards in White and this fits. I was also just paralleling the mechanical aspect of Sentinel to Serra Angel, but not the power.
Eyeless Watcher - I am going to upgrade this to cubable. It is better than Captain's Call which is ran in token heavy cubes. It's only limited by how much you push tokens in Green and enablers.
Sure Strike - I don't like Burn being the best archetype if pushed. It warps the environment too much. This is in my baddening Burn rampage.
Brilliant Spectrum - In the best case scenario it is actually quite a bit better than the cards you mentioned as you get to bin useless cards from your hand. But even then it isn't that much better than Foresee. I feel Borderline is acceptable. If I was to push a strong multicoloured theme in G/U then would be considered, which is what Borderline means to me.
Anticipate It is just worse than Impulse and Telling Time or even Ponder. It's playable, sure, but there are such good card selection in Blue.
I was being quite generous with corner cases. I treated most of them in best case scenarios so they don't fall through the cracks of niche themes. This is how a lot of token and aura effects where missed in the past. Yes, I could have been harsher.
I forgot that Basking Rootwalla was a card, and your right, the Rootwalla is definitely better and nobody plays that card in cube.
Also, is Ruin Processor good enough without its ability? As much as I want some more ramp targets, I'm not sure a vanilla 7/8 for 8 is good enough.
It is playable without the life gain, but not great. I'm not really sure how it's going to be set up. That can be a challenge for the drafters. After that I can evaluate if it needs any support or if it needs to go.
- I think Skyline Cascade >> Halimar Depths. Depths doesn't affect the board in any way, and without shuffle effects, you can't really get much advantage from playing it.
I was pretty worn out by the time I got to Skyline Cascade. I don't feel a direct comparison between it and Halimar Depths was fair because it's hard to say that one card is better than another when they seem to be at about similar power levels and one is completely untested. However I think you are underselling Depths. The card selection even without shuffle is quite strong. It's often played in slower, more controlling decks which don't have to be using all their mana each turn, and those kind of decks value card selection highly.
- Swell of Growth isn't going to do a whole lot in cube, as its two effects aren't very synergistic without landfall. You want to play pump after you've played your creatures, but after turn 3 or 4, you can't really guarantee that you will have an extra land to play off of it, making it a terrible combat trick late game, and wildly inconsistent early game.
I agree with you here. It is not cubable. I think I was evaluating it with the delusion that you would be able to cast it turn 2 for full value. The realistic outcome is that it is a bad pump, which sometimes ramps you.
- I think a lot of people are underrating Sludge Crawler. First of all, just ignore the fact that it has ingest, as it doesn't add or detract from the cards value. Its a 1 mana 1/1 that curves itself out and threatens to trade up. You don't have to put any mana into it to make it good; you just have to be able to threaten a trade, which will likely result in you getting in for a point of damage each turn. Late game you can put your extra mana into it to make it a sizeable threat. I think this card is far from bad, and dismissing it solely because it has ingest doesn't do it justice.
Sludge Crawler isn't bad, to that you are correct. However this is borderline at best. If I want a 1 drop in black to trade upwards I'd play Typhoid Rats. It's just too much mana to pay for when you are trying to play out your curve. I want to be wrong on this one, because I really like the card.
Thanks for doing a set review though. Asides from the things above, I don't see much else that I disagree with.
No problems I had a spare day and was thinking too much about the new set.
I should bump Brazen Wolves up to staple. I didn't think about how 3 toughness is so much better than 2 when comparing Wolves to Spur Grappler. Wolves out classes Grappler and I missed that.
I was super tired when finishing this. I had to hand in some assignments before I got into writing the bulk of this. I'll clean this up and retag.
Thanks for the feedback. This was mostly targetted at the people who don't have all the cards for pauper cube and are mostly relying on the newest sets.
Eldritch Moon Pauper Cube Review
This one took way longer than I expected.
White
Borrowed Grace Cubeable Better than Fortify. This is a great addition for token archetypes.
Choking Restraints Cubeble Worse than both Pacifism and Arrest. In terms of power, this will make it's way into most white decks. It's just a design decision whether you include "worse" removal like this.
Dawn Gryff Underpowered There are much better and more interesting 3 drops than this.
Desperate Sentry Niche It requires a lot of work to make this good. Much more than your average cube is willing to put in.
Faithbearer Paladin Cubeable Lifelink makes this strong. This is going to ruin an aggro players day if they don't have hard removal on hand. Time will tell if it is just good or if it is great.
Fiend Binder Niche A respectable attacker. He works well with other similar tempo effects. However it doesn't take many 2 powered blockers to ruin his day, which isn't great for a 4-drop.
Guardian of Pilgrims Underpowered Not up to current 2-drop standards. This is fine if you consistently have a 1-drop. But that seems unlikely.
Ironclad Slayer Cubeable A much better Auramancer. A 3/2 on 3 is fine if you are trying to curve out, and the upside is pretty huge. This could be ran even without heavy aura support.
Ironwright's Cleansing Terrible No thank you.
Lunarch Mantle Niche If you have a way to abuse the sacrifice on this, it gets pretty gross. Outside of that I can see this making it's way into aggro decks, or aura/hexproof decks. This definitely isn't a card for every cube, but it seems good it the ones which can support it.
Sigardian Priest Niche She isn't great, but it is a 2-drop tapper. The non-human clause gives her flavour points.
Spectral Reserves Underpowered 2 power with flying for 4 mana is bad. The upsides do not make up for this.
Steadfast Cathar Niche Decent at attacking, but pretty horrible at blocking. I expect this to be worse than it looks.
Thraben Standard Bearer Underpowered You are going to need a lot of madness to consider playing this.
Summary
Borrowed Grace, Choking Restraints, Faithbearer Paladin and Ironclad Slayer are all good cards and would fit into most cubes. Overall an amazing haul for white this set.
Blue
Convolute Niche This is on the weak end of counter magic. The single blue mana in the cost saves it from being horrible.
Displace Cubeable It's Ghostly Flicker 2.0. This effect is strong, but require good support to make it work.
Drag Under Underpowered Sorcery speed... No thanks.
Enlightened Maniac Niche Great with flicker effects, however it struggles to be playable without support.
Exultant Cultist Niche How good this card is depends entirely on how well it can block 1-2-drops in your cube.
Ingenious Skaab Staple The best midrange, non-evasion 3-drop in blue. This a must-run if you are leaning away from evasion cards defining blue.
Fogwalker Cubeable A great anti-aggro card. It can also safely poke your opponent down. However it on the weak end of strong blue 2-drops.
Laboratory Brute Underpowered Gets better with a lot of blue graveyard support, but by itself quite lackluster.
Spontaneous Mutation Niche Fine in durdle control, where you can always expect to have a decent hand size. However would never be played out of that.
Take Inventory Terrible/Niche Have you even considered yourself an anarchist? Do you like starting flame wars it cube threads? If yes this card might be for you, but you need to run a lot of them to make it work. If you are a "normal" person who only likes singles, then this is terrible.
Tattered Haunter Staple Functional reprint of Welkin Tern number 3. At least 1 is considered a staple in cubes which support aggro blue. It's about as good as aggro 2 drops get. Outside of that archetype it's still a good card.
Turn Aside Niche A good Aggro/Tempo card, but pretty bad outside of protect the Kiln Fiend decks.
Wretched Gryff Cubeable Has a lot of synergy with all the etb creatures in blue, plus provides a threatening flying body. While it is vulnerable to removal, it demands removing and a Lightning Bolt isn't going to cut it.
Summary
Ingenious Skaab and Tattered Haunter are both must haves. Displace, Fogwalker and Wretched Gryff are all worth checking out. Another amazing pull of cubeble or better commons this set.
Black
Borrowed Malevolence Niche The dream is a 2 for 1, however the reality is it will mostly be used as a ping on a 1 toughness creature. Flexibility makes this card deceptively good.
Cemetery Recruitment Niche This is the definition of a niche card. In the right context (ie with a lot of zombies) this is a power house, outside of that it's not so great.
Certain Death Terrible 6 mana is awful for anything that doesn't at least 2 for 1, or provide a massive momentum change.
Gavony Unhallowed Cubeable Against good aggro decks, this is bad. In any other match up, this is going to be a huge pain to deal with. 4 toughness is enough to ensure it doesn't randomly die and only takes a couple of counters before it's presence dominates the game. It gets much better with sac outlets and tokens.
Graf Rats Terrible/Niche Functionally it is a vanilla 2/1 for 2. If you are willing to include weird draft gimmicks becomes realitiely strong. To make that work you are going to need multiple copies of this and Midnight Scavengers or, draft one get.. If you happen to get both in draft there is enough graveyard recursion that getting Chittering Host assembled becomes likely enough to justify running. When flipped it becomes quite a menace. You are likely to win in 1 swing with any kind of board presence.
Midnight Savangers Niche/Cubeable A fine card on it's own, although weak on the Gravedigger spectrum. See above for Chittering Host.
Olivia's Dragoon Underpowered A good card with any kind of madness and discard synergy. It's not good without any synergy.
Skirsdag Supplicant Terrible This is understatted, with a bad ability. As a discard outlet, this wouldn't be one to go for.
Strange Augmentation Terrible This suffers from aura-syndrome. Delirium is too slow for this to be impactful.
Succumb to Temptation Niche 3 mana for Sign in Blood is too much. Instant-speed helps a lot, but in black holding mana up isn't strong enough to justify the extra cost.
Thraben Foulbloods Cubeable A 3/2 for 3 is fine as a body on curve. Being able to upgrade that to a 4/3 menace is huge and makes this ok early and good late.
Wailing Ghoul Niche 1/3's are good at slowing down aggro. Having an etb which moves you game plan (of filling the graveyard) is really good for the decks which would want this. It fills a purpose and does it well. Obviously if you are not supporting a graveyard subtheme it becomes terrible.
Weirded Vampire Underpowered Terrible as a vanilla and only a Centaur Courser with an enabler.
Summary
Gavony Unhallowed is a good pick up if you have a critical mass of enablers. Thraben Foulbloods is another strong cards, but again requires you to be running graveyard synergy to be worth a slot. Only a couple of archetype specific cards this time, although they both add well to those archetypes. Murder is also in this set, although as an uncommon, but it is cubeable and worth noting.
Red
Bold Impaler Terrible Mana sinks like this tend to be bad in pauper. There is a big emphasis on curving out, which this doesn't help with. The default body needs to be decent, which this isn't.
Borrowed Hostility Underpowered Both modes don't do much on their own and combined they are overcosted. The flexibility doesn't make up for this. The first strike part could be better than I'm giving it credit for.
Brazen Wolves Staple 4/3 for 3 attacking is what aggro decks want in a 3 drop. The fact that this sucks defense is negligible for the archetypes which would run it.
Distemper of the Blood Terrible Sorcery-speed on a combat trip is one of the worst things ever. This is strong is you can reliably discard at instant-speed, which seems unlikely even in a madness deck.
Falkenrath Reaver Terrible Power creep joke
Galvanic Bombardment Underpowered A creature only Shock is fine if it has an upside. Fortunately Bombardment does, however the catch is you have to run multiples. If you bite the bullet and do, this becomes a very strong card. At 3 copies it is rivaling good burn in terms of efficacy. Anymore copies in a deck and they become some of the best burn printed. Except for the fact Bombardment can't go face which holds it back from being Lightning Bolt good.
Make Mischief Underpowered Do have a infestation of 1 toughness creatures? No? Then this card isn't that good. Sorcery-speed is the nail in the coffin.
Otherworldly Burst Cubeable This is mana efficient with the potential for a 2 for 1 (not likely though). While being weaker than premium burn, it manages not to compete for card slots by acting primarily as a creature. It's also worth noting that you can use this on your opponent's creatures.
Prophetic Ravings Underpowered An aura with a immediate effect undoes most inherit weaknesses. However this effect isn't really worth investing 2 cards in getting. In saying that if you can get this on something that easily untaps...
Stensia Banquet Terrible Vampires... Most cubes will have difficulties getting this to do 1 damage.
Stensia Innkeeper Niche It is hard to evaluate this kind of effect. If Stone Rain and Hill Giant had a love child it would look like this. Innkeeper seems like a good fit into an pressure or rampy deck where you are able to punish your opponent behind on curve.
Thermo-Alchemist Cubeable A great fit into a spells archetype alongside Kiln Fiend. As a bonus Alchemist is good at soaking up damage.
Vildin-Pack Outcast Staple The strongest 5-drop red has seen so far. While no Nessian Asp it will be a power house in all midrange red decks. It should be ran unless you don't believe in 5-drops in red...
Summary
Otherworldly Burst and Thermo-Alchemist are both cubeable cards in their own right. They might not be guaranteed slots, but they are worth consideration. Vildin-Pack Outcast and Brazen Wolves are the stand outs. Outcast in particular will be the best (not aggro) 5 drop in red.
Green
Bloodbrair Niche This is either lackluster or a powerhouse. It's worth having a look at who many sac outlets their are in your cube and how many 1-off sac effects there are. Also it works off any any card types not just creatures, so Evolving Wilds counts too. I'm leaning towards this being good as it as there are a lot of pre-existing synergies in most cubes.
Crossroads Consecrator Terrible Infantry Veteran you are not. The activation cost kills this.
Grapple with the Past Cubeable Finally a cubeable green Regrowth. The fact it fill the graveyard pushes this over the edge.
It of the Horrid Swarm Cubeable This is pretty sad in it's native colour, green, outside of sacing the occasional Civic Wayfinder. Although It is really good in token strategies and with etb creatures in other colours (*cough* blue).
Prey Upon Niche Despite not being the best removal spell, this proves that green is willing to play just about any semi-decent cheap removal.
Primal Druid Underpowered This is sad next to Viridian Emissary and Wall of Roots. It is only fine against aggro and even then isn't great.
Springsage Ritual Terrible 4 mana is far too much for a Naturalize. The life gain does not compromise for this.
Ulvenwald Captive Niche 2 cost mana dorks are fine, but require an upside to be worth it. This one's upside is being able to turn into a great body late game.
Waxing Moon Terrible Yet another card which requires a creature type rarely (if ever) supported in pauper cubes. In short it is a functionally dead card 95% of the time.
Wolfkin Bond Underpowered 5 mana is a lot for such an underwhelming effect.
Woodcutter's Grit Underpowered This is on the weak end of combat tricks and will not stop a Doom Blade in response (as much as you think it should). In the end 3 mana is a lot to hold up and the pay-off isn't there.
Woodland Patrol Underpowered This is pretty mediocre as far as 3-drops are concerned. 2 toughness means it trades down with 1 and 2 drops. Vigilance doesn't compensate for this.
Summary
Backwoods Survivalists, Grapple with the Past and It of the Horrid Swarm are all good additions to cubes that support their respective achetypes. Bloodbrair deserves an honourable mention for being and great build around in the right cube.
Colourless and Land
Cathar's Shield Underpowered I still haven't found out how to make toughness buffing equipment good and the equip cost is too high to be useful.
Cultist's Staff Cubeable A solid stat stick. This isn't going to find a home in aggro decks. It is fine in midrange decks where a extra 3 mana here and there.
Field Creeper Terrible Gotta give it to him for having a cool pumpkin as a head.
Terrarion Terrible Colour fixing is better than people give it credit for. As well as that it has a bunch of random synergies. Despite all this, Terrarion does functionally nothing in your average deck.
Summary
Cultist's Staff, while not pretty, is a fine card for anyone missing some equipment.
Overall a great set for cubeables. However most cards are relatively narrow into which archetypes they fit. Not every cube will want the cards listed below, but they are all worthy of consideration in some way or another. Ingenious Skaab, Brazen Wolves and Vildin-Pack Outcast are both stand-out cards in their respective card-slots. Despite this none of them push the envelop for power in pauper cube.
Cards worth considering
Edit: Cleaned up a bunch of typos.
It's better to give cards labels for their general playablity. I want people to evaluate how strong these cards are for their cube. Numerical ratings imply evaluating in a vacuum. I feel it gets too easy to get caught up in finding the strongest versions of each card, rather than trying to create the "funnest" environment to showcase the best commons.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-lists/662849-400-pauper-a-cube-with-a-soul
Size: 400
Silver Bordered: None allowed.
Multiples: Allowed, none used.
Custom Cards: None allowed.
Additional Restrictions: Physical common printings only. No edge cases allowed. No proxies.
Cube Philosophy: This is designed to show case the best commons through out magics history. No cards are banned for being too good, this has potential to change. Subsections of cards and archetypes will be culled down if found oppressive. For example, cheap removal and burn archetypes.
List
http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/46520
Supported Archetypes
UB: Control/Tempo
BR: Aggro
RG: Ramp Good-Stuff
GW: Auras
WB: Extort
UR: Spell Aggro(aka Aggro-Control)
BG: Dredge
RW: Token Aggro
GU: Good-Stuff Tempo
Is Blisterpod really good, or amazing?
I like Manic Vandal it is fairly rare for him to not have a target even if there isn't one on turn 1. However it is not a card for aggro decks, where Torch Fiend is much better. I cut Keldon Vandals because Manic Vandal was already filling his role of creature body + artifact removal. I am trying out Defiant Ogre as a big smashy 6-drop in red, but so far haven't tested him.
Martyr of Ashes is good. It fills a niche for a big early sweep controlling Red decks. But red isn't exactly lacking board clear with it's dividable damage. If Red for you is all aggro, then it's definitely cutable. In saying that there isn't any good replacements for Martyr of Ashes as it's simply the best there is for it's effect.
Touch of the Void - Ouch sorcery! I missed that.
Tightening Coils I like to badden up the removal. In terms of power level it's weaker than all of blues cubable hard removal, but it's not bad itself. Plus I like how it strengthens a couple of archetypes (Flyers and Control) but isn't that great in tempo aggro.
Ghostly Sentinel - I run less of the 3 damage cards than most. In terms of power it's definitely on the weaker end, but I'm looking for more 5+ costed cards in White and this fits. I was also just paralleling the mechanical aspect of Sentinel to Serra Angel, but not the power.
Eyeless Watcher - I am going to upgrade this to cubable. It is better than Captain's Call which is ran in token heavy cubes. It's only limited by how much you push tokens in Green and enablers.
Sure Strike - I don't like Burn being the best archetype if pushed. It warps the environment too much. This is in my baddening Burn rampage.
Brilliant Spectrum - In the best case scenario it is actually quite a bit better than the cards you mentioned as you get to bin useless cards from your hand. But even then it isn't that much better than Foresee. I feel Borderline is acceptable. If I was to push a strong multicoloured theme in G/U then would be considered, which is what Borderline means to me.
Anticipate It is just worse than Impulse and Telling Time or even Ponder. It's playable, sure, but there are such good card selection in Blue.
I was being quite generous with corner cases. I treated most of them in best case scenarios so they don't fall through the cracks of niche themes. This is how a lot of token and aura effects where missed in the past. Yes, I could have been harsher.
It is playable without the life gain, but not great. I'm not really sure how it's going to be set up. That can be a challenge for the drafters. After that I can evaluate if it needs any support or if it needs to go.
I was pretty worn out by the time I got to Skyline Cascade. I don't feel a direct comparison between it and Halimar Depths was fair because it's hard to say that one card is better than another when they seem to be at about similar power levels and one is completely untested. However I think you are underselling Depths. The card selection even without shuffle is quite strong. It's often played in slower, more controlling decks which don't have to be using all their mana each turn, and those kind of decks value card selection highly.
I agree with you here. It is not cubable. I think I was evaluating it with the delusion that you would be able to cast it turn 2 for full value. The realistic outcome is that it is a bad pump, which sometimes ramps you.
Sludge Crawler isn't bad, to that you are correct. However this is borderline at best. If I want a 1 drop in black to trade upwards I'd play Typhoid Rats. It's just too much mana to pay for when you are trying to play out your curve. I want to be wrong on this one, because I really like the card.
No problems I had a spare day and was thinking too much about the new set.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/articles-podcasts-and-guides/634317-battle-for-zendikar-pauper-cube-review-5oul