There's clearly an aristocrats theme in the set, and it's an archetype that is liked by many, and loved by me. I thought it may be nice to lay the support out.
Tier 1 support:
She's hurt by the nontoken clause, but tokens get a lot from the +1/+0 anyway.
Blue is not an aristocrats color, but Mesmerizing Benthid is decent token support. Vindictive Vampire is almost trying to be good. If it had an additional point of toughness, or any keyword, it would be good enough. Teysa is cool if you are going REALLY deep. These are mostly cards that haven't gotten any attention, and may deserve some from the B-listers in the world.
I know nobody is choosing to play the card for this interaction specifically, but I think it's worth including Gutterbones into this discussion partly because these recursive 1-drops help facilitate the deck as well. He works quite while with Goblin Bombardment, since sacrificing him this way actually enables his ability to be activated. If you're in the late game and have the mana, you can just do that 2-3 times a turn for that last bit of reach. Not that it's foolproof, but, I like this interaction.
I certainly think Artistocrats has come a long way in cubability. There's like this subset of cards that kind of supported the theme, but never met the threshold for like a true confluence that could form a deck. I think we're actually just on the cusp of it, and I'm really curious to see if more people try it out, because I think it makes for fun gameplay and it would be interesting to see if anyone puts a cool spin on it. I think the main thing holding people back from trying it is that you need a package of cards to make it work, and it means swapping out more than a handful of card choices, so it's just not intuitive.
I’m very interested in supporting an aristocrats theme in my cube and I think im going to test it out. It feels like a natural extension of the great token support we’ve received over the past few years as well as the plethora of recursive creatures in black. I also already run Goblin Bombardment to great success so I’m hoping 5-10 more swaps will bring the theme to life.
We recently added aristocrats support to our cube and it's been great, it can compete easily with other cube archetypes. What's great is that so many cards that are good anyway in cube are natural fits in an aristocrats deck. Gutterbones will do some work, and potentially Judith could be great in aristocrats - the only thing that gives me pause is the 'non-token' clause. I think Biogenic Ooze is too mana intensive and too green to be good in aristocrats. I don't think any of the other cards you listed are strong enough for cube though, aristocrats package or not (although I guess it depends on the power level of your cube).
I'm a bit bummed that there was no cubeable RNA card with afterlife, that would've been sweet.
I would love for there to be a RB aristocrats cube deck! I think we are getting there with the recursive 1-drops, but I don't think the sacrifice outlets are there for it to really hum.
Tier 1 support:
She's hurt by the nontoken clause, but tokens get a lot from the +1/+0 anyway.
Tier 2 support:
Biogenic Ooze just happens to be good in a jund aristocrats shell. Seraph of the Scales is likewise useful goodstuff.
Tier 3 support:
Blue is not an aristocrats color, but Mesmerizing Benthid is decent token support. Vindictive Vampire is almost trying to be good. If it had an additional point of toughness, or any keyword, it would be good enough. Teysa is cool if you are going REALLY deep. These are mostly cards that haven't gotten any attention, and may deserve some from the B-listers in the world.
Tier 4 (not really worth considering):
Knight of Sorrows
Syndicate Messenger
Watchful Giant
Bloodmist Infiltrator
Debtors' Transport
Orzhov Racketeers
Undercity Scavenger
Smelt-Ward Ignus
Edit: Added Gutterbones to tier 2. It's a tier 1 card, but tier 2 in aristocratic terms. Thanks to Blue_Oneironaut for pointing out the omission.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
I know nobody is choosing to play the card for this interaction specifically, but I think it's worth including Gutterbones into this discussion partly because these recursive 1-drops help facilitate the deck as well. He works quite while with Goblin Bombardment, since sacrificing him this way actually enables his ability to be activated. If you're in the late game and have the mana, you can just do that 2-3 times a turn for that last bit of reach. Not that it's foolproof, but, I like this interaction.
I certainly think Artistocrats has come a long way in cubability. There's like this subset of cards that kind of supported the theme, but never met the threshold for like a true confluence that could form a deck. I think we're actually just on the cusp of it, and I'm really curious to see if more people try it out, because I think it makes for fun gameplay and it would be interesting to see if anyone puts a cool spin on it. I think the main thing holding people back from trying it is that you need a package of cards to make it work, and it means swapping out more than a handful of card choices, so it's just not intuitive.
Curious what you think about all that.
I'm a bit bummed that there was no cubeable RNA card with afterlife, that would've been sweet.
Right now, I have Carrion Feeder, Flesh Carver, and Goblin Bombardment as the best sac outlets. I would love to see a playable Cabal Therapy or other discard card. I think disruptive creatures are fun additions to power cube.
Also would love to see some WB stax cards but doubtful wizards will print those.