Carnophage is my jam! I've been playing with this card for so many years. I started playing Magic with Stronghold, so this was one of the first cards I fell in love with. Black aggressive decks have been my favorite strategies since those days and it's no different in cube.
Carnophage holds a lot of nostalgia value for me too. I got my start a little before Tempest came out, and suicide black aggro was a dirt cheap deck I could build that could actually win me some games. Dark Ritual into Carnophage, Carnophage, Sarcomancy on turn one crushed a lot of games for me. In a vacuum, Carnophage doesn't look like it's aged well at first glance since we're getting so many two power 1-drops in black with actual upsides like Dread Wanderer and even Gnarled Scarhide. However, since we keep getting zombie tribal cards that function well on their own like Gravecrawler, Relentless Dead, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, and Liliana, Death's Majesty, just having the word "Zombie" in the type goes a surprisingly long way towards keeping it cube-worthy.
I've loved zombie apocalypse movies since I was a teenager, something about the bleakness of society crumbling at the rotting hands of our own dead has always fascinated me. No one ever's done it better than George Romero's first two zombie movies that defined the genre as a vehicle for social commentary wrapped in a drive-in gore fest. If you've never seen Night of the Living Dead, do yourself a favor and check it out. It's even public domain.
Sundering Titan isn't the kind of fattie that draws me into ramp, reanimator, or Tinker, but it's one I'm always happy to get once I'm already in that strategy. The mana disruption it provides coming and going is so backbreaking anywhere near the beginning the game that I'm willing to overlook the times it gets chump blocked or destroying basic lands just doesn't matter.
The Inventions frame doesn't seem to be popular around here, but I'm a fan, so I was really happy to trade for a copy and add it to my cube. Plus, the art is so much more menacing, and the flavor text is sweet.
If the Cyberdyne Systems model 101 doesn't count as a robot, then I'm going to have to go with Lt. Commander Data from Next Gen.
Thanks for grabbing the reins, Mr. Brightside, and your choice of musical cue and bonus question are fantastic! I had a card all ready to go, but now I'll give it about 12 hours.
Chainer's Edict is still in my cube for the moment, but it's on the chopping block. The sorcery speed and the very expensive flashback cost make this clunky, and only really good enough in control decks, which isn't where I want my removal spells to be. Still, there are enough targets that are resistant to targeted removal that I'm not quite ready to cut it yet.
Chainer's Edict is also a bit unusual in that it's one of the the non-rare cards that I run in my rare cube, but not my peasant cube, because the lack of must-kill untargetables make this not really worth it.
My favorite cube card named after a legend is probably Volrath's Stronghold. When we return to Dominaria, I hope we actually get a playable card depicting Volrath.
For some reason, I thought we discussed this card before, no?
I don't think so, but I've fallen behind on indexing the cards discussed in the past 2 months, so it's hard to be sure.
Yavimaya Elder is a recent cut for me as well, as I've been happy to take advantage of the more aggressive options now available for this slot like Tireless Tracker and Rishkar, Peema Renegade that still have plenty to offer to ramp decks in terms of card advantage and mana acceleration. Yavimaya Elder is good value, but he's slower than I want my cube's green decks to be.
In case you haven't guessed, the art on the modern-frame reprint of Yavimaya Elder was what inspired this bonus question. I've always thought it's hideous, but I felt obligated to run it over the original because the modern reprints have the word "Human" in the type line which mattered for (if nothing else) Stromkirk Noble. Now that I've cut Elder, the honor of least favorite cube art goes to Ral Zarek. The pose and facial expression look absolutely wooden, something I've found particularly annoying because they've been able to depict him with a lot more personality in Dragon's Maze promotional materials, but in the actual card they've got him looking like a mannequin.
Bitterblade Warrior - ??? Description - Is this good enough for green aggro in a peasant environment? Would you just want Terrain Elemental instead almost every time?
The deathtouch on this gets a lot worse because it can only be used offensively, and every other turn no less. Heir of the Wilds, Thornweald Archer, and Terrain Elemental are all cards I'd add before this. 1 at best.
Hooded Brawler - ??? Description - Is this good enough for green aggro in a peasant environment?
A 3 drop that can attack for 5 is hard to call unplayable, even if it can only do so every other turn. It's gotta be at least a 1, but I'd have to test it before I could give it a higher grade.
Cartouche of Strength - 1??? Description - I don't have a lot of experience with punch / fight effects. Is this one good enough for peasant cube? I'm guessing no. Or maybe only as an alternate if you want to support Trials?
As a 3 mana fight card, this is really far down the list in terms of punch/fight cards. Nature's Way, Prey Upon, Epic Confrontation, Pit Fight, Clear Shot, Ambuscade, and Savage Punch are all cards I'd run before Cartouche of Strength. The only reason to run it over any of the above is to support a Cartouche/Trial theme, which I really don't think is worth it. I like it at 0.
Synchronized Strike - 2? 1? Description - Seems like a decent enough trick. How often would you want to play it over Symbiosis?
The untap clause and the fact that you can cast this with only a single target are real upsides to Synchronized Strike over Symbiosis, an effect that's already quite powerful. That doesn't quite make up for the fact that it's worth a full mana more, but it's close. I'd give this a 1.
Chandra, Pyromaster doesn't add enough to immediate board presence to work as an aggro curve-topper, and doesn't protect its controller or herself well enough to do enough in control shells. Even before this iteration of Chandra was outclassed by Chandra, Torch of Defiance and her parents, it didn't really have much of a role compared to other 4 CMC options in red. In slower, midrange builds the card advantage from her 0 ability and the Falter effect plus pings from her +1 ability will help close up games, but that's just not enough reason to justify a slot for this card. The best reason I can think of to recommend this card is that it only costs around $2, so if the more popular planeswalker choices are out of your price range you could do a lot worse than jamming this and Sarkhan, the Dragon Speaker.
Speaking of budget walkers, my pick for most underrated planeswalker is Jace, Architect of Thought. The + ability protects against go-wide aggro decks like it's nobody's business, it provides great card draw/selection, and has a really fun game-ending ultimate. Sure, it's no JtMS, but for less than $3 you can't ask for much better.
As 3 mana for 3 damage red sweepers go, the biggest selling point of Anger of the Gods is the exile clause, because of the growing number of creatures that Persist or have other nasty death triggers, but even then I still prefer Incendiary Flow for being splashable and able to go to the face. Ultimately, the 2 different Earthquakes just do so much more by scaling to the late game and their ability to kill walkers and opponents.
The only fixed damage red sweepers I run are also the Wildfires and Fiery Confluence (although I'd never really thought of it as that until I saw the discussion in this thread).
Spell Queller's a really good card that suffers from too much competition in its own guild and at the exact same CMC. I think Reflector Mage is ultimately the better card as it's more proactive, and because you know that whatever you've bounced will be gone for more than a full turn cycle no matter what the opponent does. However, I ran Spell Queller over Reflector Mage for quite a while, because with Aether Adept and Man-o'-War in my blue section, Reflector Mage seemed a bit redundant. Spell Queller was a cool tempo card that would often get real 2-for-1s as a discount rate Mystic Snake when it countered the right spell at the right time, and often got flashed in to eat a small attacker.
After glowing reports about Reflector Mage here, as well as the Standard ban, I decided it was time to cut Spell Queller to try Reflector Mage, and Reflector Mage has impressed me enough that I don't see going back. Still, if you want to try something other than just another bounce-on-a-stick critter or O-ring clone, Spell Queller's solid.
My favorite Spirit card has to be Geist of St. Traft. Dude hits like a truck.
I can't say I've tried this card, but it looks like there's a problem with your hot linked photo of Divergent Transformations. Here's a photo that will show up:
Carnophage holds a lot of nostalgia value for me too. I got my start a little before Tempest came out, and suicide black aggro was a dirt cheap deck I could build that could actually win me some games. Dark Ritual into Carnophage, Carnophage, Sarcomancy on turn one crushed a lot of games for me. In a vacuum, Carnophage doesn't look like it's aged well at first glance since we're getting so many two power 1-drops in black with actual upsides like Dread Wanderer and even Gnarled Scarhide. However, since we keep getting zombie tribal cards that function well on their own like Gravecrawler, Relentless Dead, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, and Liliana, Death's Majesty, just having the word "Zombie" in the type goes a surprisingly long way towards keeping it cube-worthy.
I've loved zombie apocalypse movies since I was a teenager, something about the bleakness of society crumbling at the rotting hands of our own dead has always fascinated me. No one ever's done it better than George Romero's first two zombie movies that defined the genre as a vehicle for social commentary wrapped in a drive-in gore fest. If you've never seen Night of the Living Dead, do yourself a favor and check it out. It's even public domain.
Carnophage
BONUS QUESTION
What's your favorite zombie movie (or TV show or comic book)?
The Inventions frame doesn't seem to be popular around here, but I'm a fan, so I was really happy to trade for a copy and add it to my cube. Plus, the art is so much more menacing, and the flavor text is sweet.
If the Cyberdyne Systems model 101 doesn't count as a robot, then I'm going to have to go with Lt. Commander Data from Next Gen.
BONUS QUESTION
What is your favorite robot from fiction?
Chainer's Edict is still in my cube for the moment, but it's on the chopping block. The sorcery speed and the very expensive flashback cost make this clunky, and only really good enough in control decks, which isn't where I want my removal spells to be. Still, there are enough targets that are resistant to targeted removal that I'm not quite ready to cut it yet.
Chainer's Edict is also a bit unusual in that it's one of the the non-rare cards that I run in my rare cube, but not my peasant cube, because the lack of must-kill untargetables make this not really worth it.
My favorite cube card named after a legend is probably Volrath's Stronghold. When we return to Dominaria, I hope we actually get a playable card depicting Volrath.
Nezumi Graverobber
BONUS QUESTION
What's the last creature card you cut from your black 2's?
I don't think so, but I've fallen behind on indexing the cards discussed in the past 2 months, so it's hard to be sure.
Yavimaya Elder is a recent cut for me as well, as I've been happy to take advantage of the more aggressive options now available for this slot like Tireless Tracker and Rishkar, Peema Renegade that still have plenty to offer to ramp decks in terms of card advantage and mana acceleration. Yavimaya Elder is good value, but he's slower than I want my cube's green decks to be.
In case you haven't guessed, the art on the modern-frame reprint of Yavimaya Elder was what inspired this bonus question. I've always thought it's hideous, but I felt obligated to run it over the original because the modern reprints have the word "Human" in the type line which mattered for (if nothing else) Stromkirk Noble. Now that I've cut Elder, the honor of least favorite cube art goes to Ral Zarek. The pose and facial expression look absolutely wooden, something I've found particularly annoying because they've been able to depict him with a lot more personality in Dragon's Maze promotional materials, but in the actual card they've got him looking like a mannequin.
The deathtouch on this gets a lot worse because it can only be used offensively, and every other turn no less. Heir of the Wilds, Thornweald Archer, and Terrain Elemental are all cards I'd add before this. 1 at best.
A 3 drop that can attack for 5 is hard to call unplayable, even if it can only do so every other turn. It's gotta be at least a 1, but I'd have to test it before I could give it a higher grade.
As a 3 mana fight card, this is really far down the list in terms of punch/fight cards. Nature's Way, Prey Upon, Epic Confrontation, Pit Fight, Clear Shot, Ambuscade, and Savage Punch are all cards I'd run before Cartouche of Strength. The only reason to run it over any of the above is to support a Cartouche/Trial theme, which I really don't think is worth it. I like it at 0.
The untap clause and the fact that you can cast this with only a single target are real upsides to Synchronized Strike over Symbiosis, an effect that's already quite powerful. That doesn't quite make up for the fact that it's worth a full mana more, but it's close. I'd give this a 1.
I agree with Leelue and i0's assessments of Exemplar of Strength, Stinging Shot, and Quarry Hauler.
Yavimaya Elder
BONUS QUESTION
What's your least favorite art currently in your cube?
Speaking of budget walkers, my pick for most underrated planeswalker is Jace, Architect of Thought. The + ability protects against go-wide aggro decks like it's nobody's business, it provides great card draw/selection, and has a really fun game-ending ultimate. Sure, it's no JtMS, but for less than $3 you can't ask for much better.
Chandra, Pyromaster
BONUS QUESTION
What do you think is the most underrated planeswalker card?
The only fixed damage red sweepers I run are also the Wildfires and Fiery Confluence (although I'd never really thought of it as that until I saw the discussion in this thread).
Anger of the Gods
BONUS QUESTION
What fixed-damage red sweepers do you run?
After glowing reports about Reflector Mage here, as well as the Standard ban, I decided it was time to cut Spell Queller to try Reflector Mage, and Reflector Mage has impressed me enough that I don't see going back. Still, if you want to try something other than just another bounce-on-a-stick critter or O-ring clone, Spell Queller's solid.
My favorite Spirit card has to be Geist of St. Traft. Dude hits like a truck.