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Quote from PyreDream »
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

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.

Quote from fluttershy69 »
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.

Welcome to this Pauper Cube Review of all of Battle for Zendikar.

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, Rolling Thunder, 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: Kor Sanctifiers, 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: Eldrazi Skyspawner, 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.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it. Examples: Demon's Grasp, Smelt, Unnatural Aggression.
Terrible: Contemplating is a crime. Examples: Kitesail Scout, Canyon Minotaur, Dispel

Additional Tags

Reprint
Functional Reprint: A new printing of a previous common with nearly identical text and function.
Uncommon Reprint: A subset of reprints where the previously common card is reprinted at uncommon, these cards under most metrics are still pauper cube legal.
Promoted: Was a higher rarity (uncommon) but has been promoted to common.

White

Angelic Gift Cubable This card is whiter, better version of Stratus Walk, which was already playable. The big plus is that Gift is white where there are less creatures with natural evasion and aura synergies.
Cliffside Lookout Bad The activated ability cost too much for it to be much use outside of the late game. In the meantime a 1/1 is too small to do anything impactful.
Courier Griffin Bad This cost 1 mana too much to be compete with Kemba's Skyguard or any 4 drop for that matter.
Felidar Cub Cubable Functional Reprint Another card in a long line of Kami of Ancient Law reprints. It's still good despite extreme overcrowding in white's 2-drops.
Fortified Ramparts Borderline If a white only Wall of Tanglecord is what your cube wants then this is your card, otherwise no.
Ghostly Sentinel Cubable The pauper-man's Serra Angel. Sentinel isn't a great card, but it works fine bulking out white's 5-drop's slot.
Gideon's Reproach Cubable This is exactly the kind of card you look for when trying to weaken white's removal. I am personally trying to shift away from Pacifism only effects.
Inspired Charge Cubable Reprint If you are supporting tokens, then is card is good.
Kitesail Scout Terrible Just no...
Kor Castigator Cubable Basically a functional reprint. Which 3/1's you chose is up to you.
Lithomancer's Focus Bad Cute combat trick. White has much stronger ones but it is worth thinking about.
Makindi Patrol Bad Vigilance isn't worth it, unless you push allies.
Ondu Greathorn Borderline The +2/+2 landfall creatures are a lot worse this time around.
Shadow Glider Bad
Sheer Drop Borderline How good is Awaken on this card? Probably not good enough. I could seen it ran if you really cut back on the quality of removal
Smite the Monstrous Bad Reprint
Stone Haven Medic Bad
Tandem Tactics Cubable This is a pretty neat combat trick. There is potential for a big blow out and the life gain is really nice. This is not a card for everyone's cube.

Summary Angelic Gift is the big pick up of white. After that Ghostly Sentinel, Gideon's Reproach, Kor Castigator and Tandem Tactics are worth looking out for. If you don't already have one or prefer the art, Inspired Charge and Felidar Cub are both pick ups.

Blue

Anticipate Borderline Reprint Not a card for power only cubes.
Benthic Infiltrator Borderline Because it can't block fliers, it is a lot worse than Updraft Elemental. There if you include multiple copies of cards then it could be good enough for a processor/ingest theme, but otherwise no.
Brilliant Spectrum Borderline You need 4 colours for this to be better than Foresee. Only usable in cubes with a strong rainbow theme.
Cloud Manta Bad I say "bad", but really this is playable. It's just there are so many 4 drops that are better than this, making it look bad by comparison.
Clutch Currents Borderline This is baby Aethersnipe. It could be much worse as a 4/4 is much bigger than a 3/3 and it lacks synergy with flicker effects.
Coralhelm Guide Borderline Yet another card I never knew I wanted. It is an ok 2-drop and doubles as late game mana sink. How ever it might be too late game to be worth it.
Dispel Terrible Reprint
Eldrazi Skyspawner Cubable This card is so close to being staple. It could turn out to be amazing if that potential 1 mana lying about game changing. This is the card to put in and try out of the set.
Incubator Drone Borderline Oh boy does this look sad next to Eldrazi Skyspawner. Again it could be better than it looks, but bets are on "not".
Mist Invader Bad Better than Storm Crow OMG broken. But for reals this is bad.
Murk Strider Borderline This card being good depends on how easy is it to get the process trigger off on turn 4. That is likely way too hard.
Oracle of Dust Borderline If anything was going to make ingest playable, it would be this guy. It workable in combination with graveyard exile, but I honestly don't know how to get the exiled cards flowing.
Roilmage's Trick Borderline This is the first cantrapping Hydrolash we've had at common. The jury is out on this one.
Rush of Ice Borderline Sorcery speed kills this, the awakened mode could be decent.
Salvage Drone Bad It's a numbers game and you are missing a few.
Spell Shrivel Borderline I like this card a lot. It is basically Dissipate. I like variety in my counter magic in cube. How valuable is the exile? I don't know yet.
Tightening Coils Cubable Cool art. The fact that it removes flying makes this good. I means by extension it removes blockers for a lot of blue's key creatures. This it likely good enough to help support the W/U fliers archetype, or just be a good control card.
Wave-Wing Elemental Borderline If we get reliable landfall, this is amazing. If not this is pretty bad.

Summary Eldrazi Skyspawner is the big pick up of blue. After that there is just Tightening Coils.

Black

Altar's Reap Borderline This is my favourite art of the set. As a card it's fine in a sacrifice theme
Bone Splinters Bad This is niche. If you are looking for bad removal and a sacrifice theme, then this is fine. If not then it's pretty horrible.
Complete Disregard Borderline Colourless overprice removal, like most bad removal this is a niche card.
Culling Drone Bad 2/2 for 2 is a pretty standard package. If you wanted to push processors then this, like most ingest cards, would be playable.
Demon's Grasp Bad 5 mana. Sorcery.

Dominator Drone Cubable If there is a critical threshold for colourless creatures is met, this becomes very good.
Dutiful Return Bad Reprint
Geyserfield Stalker Borderline I am going to confess, I still have no idea how good menace is.
Grave Birthing Bad? This is weird. Am I missing something?
Kalastria Healer Terrible This ally is really bad by itself. With friends (ie. BFZ limited) it can shine, but not here.
Kalastria Nightwatch Borderline Friends like this. Seriously if you can reliably gain life precombat, this is nuts. However that isn't likely. Even then it's base states are pretty juicy.
Mind Raker Borderline Another amazing possessor that we can't support.
Mire's Malice Borderline This Awaken card is almost there. But not quite.
Nirkana Assassin Bad How many combat tricks gain life? Not enough.
Silent Skimmer Bad Creepy art.
Sludge Crawler Borderline Ignoring the ingest it can play the role of shade, converting excess mana into stats.
Swarm Surge Borderline New effect for black. Are there enough tokens and colourless creatures?
Voracious Null Borderline This is good in a snackrifice archetype. It is going to get huge.

Summary Dominator Drone is the only cubable card, and it's not one for every cube.

Red

Belligerent Whiptail Borderline Where's my instant speed land search.
Boiling Earth Bad I highly double that the awaken on that card is worth it.
Goblin War Paint Bad Sick art.
Kozilek's Sentinel Borderline This card is really well costed for it's effect. If you have enough colourless cards in your cube it could become a little terror.
Lavastep Raider Bad Maybe I just expect too much from 1 drops?
Makindi Sliderunner Cubable This is a pretty reliable 3/2 Trample attacker for 2. The inconsistency removes it from being great, especially because most aggro decks run really low land counts.
Nettle Drone Borderline It's a colourless Cinder Pyromancer that can actually attack. What is the threshold of colourless spells to make this card good?
Ondu Champion Cubable Good stats, good etb. This card works fine as a stand alone Ally.
Outnumber Borderline This is everything you want from a bad piece of burn. It works well with tokens and is super cheap. If you are running good burn in red then this card is not for you.
Reckless Cohort Bad This really sets the standard for red 2-drops, mostly bad and all in.
Rolling Thunder Bomb Uncommon Reprint This is the best red card in Pauper cube depending on who you ask. It is one of the only cards that can single-handedly sweep someones board. It fits anywhere into your curve, never wasting mana and can be used as a powerful X-cost finisher.
Shatterskull Recruit Cubable Big dude smash. It's also an Ally for some reason.
Stonefury Bad This costs 5 mana...
Sure Stike Cubable It this worse than Lightning Strike? Yes. Am I going to run it? Yes.
Touch of the Void Bad Exile isn't worth as much in Pauper. Sorcery speed kills this.
Valakut Invoker Bad 8 mana in red? If you are pushing uber ramp, it could find a place.
Valakut Predator Borderline 4/4 version is strong, but it would rare that you would want to attack with the 2/2 version.
Vestige of Emrakul Cubable 4 toughness allows it to ram into pretty much anything and come out alive. This could be a little on the weak side.
Volcanic Upheaval Terrible Only good at combating Awaken, and there might only be 1 or 2 of those going in.

Summary Ondu Champion and Shatterskull Recruit are the 2 best cards here, they also happen to work pretty well together. Makindi Sliderunner and Vestige of Emrakul are both decent. If you are concerned about the power level of red burn, then Sure Stike is another card you. If you somehow don't own a Rolling Thunder or prefer this art over the Tempest version ignoring the horrible uncommon symbol, then definitely pick this card up

Green

Blisterpod Cubable Oh boy I have been waiting awhile for a good deathrattle 1-drop in green, and this is it. The additional potential mana really pushes it over the edge.
Broodhunter Wurm Bad Functional Reprint It's close to Borderline than bad, but this is green we are talking about and this falls short.
Call the Scions Borderline Srugs shoulders.
Earthen Arms Borderline Sorcery speed, so no tricks for you. This card does become quite good in the late game.
Eyeless Watcher Cubable If a token theme extends to green this is good. It is basically a better Captain's Call.
Giant Mantis Bad Functional Reprint Giant Spider is that you?
Lifespring Druid Bad Fuels converge, I guess?
Natural Connection Bad Cool interaction with landfall, but this is really, really badly outclassed by Cultivate.
Oran-Rief Invoker Borderline It's the 2/2 equivalent of Wildheart Invoker. I think that the 4/3 is better than the 2/2 in most scenarios.
Plummet Bad Reprint Do you have trouble with pesky fliers ruining your day? Try Plummet! It works and kills those pesky fliers dead.
Reclaiming Vines Cubable Promoted Functional Reprint Creeping Mold your time in the sun (or out of) has finally come! The versatility of this card it pretty insane. Is a non-creature permanent causing you trouble? Dead. Is your opponent struggling for land of colour? They will be now. Nothing to do? Killing random lands is fun. You can feel the fun slowly being sucked out of any game.
Seek the Wilds Borderline This is good dig. It's shame it doesn't go to the graveyard.
Snapping Gnarlid Cubable It's a pseudo 3/3 for 2. In a aggro green deck this is good, but in your standard green deck it just does the wrong combination of things.
Swell of Growth Borderline Saucy combat trick. It might be to hard to get off early to get maximum value and late-game it is likely to feel weak.
Tajuru Beastmaster Cubable Speaking of tokens. This guys is pretty good with those. The ETB is good in combination with the body.
Tajuru Stalwart Borderline A 3/4 for 3 is above curve. Unfortunately all other modes are below curve.
Territorial Baloth Borderline This big guy is going to get chump blocked or die to removal before he does anything and green 5 drops are on average, better than that.
Unnatural Aggression Bad 3 mana to far too much for a Pit Fight.

Summary Blisterpod is the number one take away in green. Reclaiming Vines, Snapping Gnarlid, Eyeless Watcher and Tajuru Beastmaster are all worth looking at.

Colourless

Eldrazi Devastator Cubable This card is a worse finisher than Ulamog's Crusher as Annihilator made it basically impossible to recover after taking a couple of hits. This is still threatening, just not so the same degree.
Hedron Blade Bad There is no where near enough colourless creatures in pauper cube to make this good, and most of the colourless creatures a small artifacts, making the deathtouch relatively pointless.
Kozilek's Channeler Cubable 4/4 for 5 is solid stat wise, and Channeler can pump out mana too.
Ruin Processor Cubable There only needs to be one card in exile for the life, and it's worth noting that 5 life is a lot. This is by far the easiest processor to get off. It also leave you with a massive creature that your opponent has to deal with.
Scour from Existence Bad Cute card, but way, way too expensive to be played.

Summary Kozilek's Channeler, Eldrazi Devastator, and Ruin Processor are all quite strong.

Land

Evolving Wilds Staple Reprint Still one of the best lands in pauper cube.
Fertile Thicket Cubable Strong effect. It's not that useful in aggro decks, but it's great at climbing the mana curve and fixing colours.
Looming Spires Cubable It's either this card or Teetering Peeks. It really depends how aggro you like your red. Spires is leaning towards the slower end.
Mortuary Mire Cubable Finally at long last, a cubable black utility land! The effect reads value late game.
Sandstone Bridge Cubable This whilst arguably not quite as good and Looming Spires, vigilance allows for the possibility to gain more value.
Skyline Cascade Cubable This will either be good for tempo strategies to tie up a creature for another turn or control to help stabilize. I suspect more of the later as it can't be used to get rid of blockers.

Summary All these lands are worth picking up. (surprisingly enough!). Pick them up in foil unless you already have a promo version Evolving Wilds.

Edit: Changes based on responses and summaries.

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