With my most recent update of removing the hexproof archetype I had a lot of free space to fill. The 4 drop slot in green is pretty good and stacked, but I was wondering about 5 drops. How would you rank green 5 drops (creatures).
Acidic Slime, Arborback Stomper, and Conclave Naturalists are the ones in my cube. There's a trend there in terms of all of them being ETB value creatures, rather than stat sticks - that's kind of where I prefer my 4 cmc+ creatures to be; even if it's removed before I untap with it then I've at least traded.
edit: sorry for misunderstanding, I did assume peasant and not pauper in regards to cube type.
I think he's looking for Pauper - i.e. common - green 5-drops, not Peasant.
In regard to the topic, I love both Entourage of Trest and Excavating Anurid Both provide a nice combination of beef and card advantage. I guess it really depends what your green deck is looking for though.
Entourage of Trest - Getting the monarch is pretty crucial for a latelategame of green since the color lacks carddraw badly.
Excavating Anurid - since my curve pretty much ends at 5, the sac isnt a loss and carddraw is so sweet
Nessian Asp - block blues 4/4 flyer and lives, also becomes a monster if you flood.
Stampeding Elk Herd -give those fatties trample while also being reliable fat on its own
some of the other are either too small (for cmc5 i definitely want 5 power) or lack trample.
the gorilla is okayish, but a lot of removal doesnt kill. get the anurid. Tajuru Pathwarden defnitely is the best sentinel spider, so those are outclassed.
Entourage of Trest - Getting the monarch is pretty crucial for a latelategame of green since the color lacks carddraw badly.
Excavating Anurid - since my curve pretty much ends at 5, the sac isnt a loss and carddraw is so sweet
Nessian Asp - block blues 4/4 flyer and lives, also becomes a monster if you flood.
Stampeding Elk Herd -give those fatties trample while also being reliable fat on its own
some of the other are either too small (for cmc5 i definitely want 5 power) or lack trample.
the gorilla is okayish, but a lot of removal doesnt kill. get the anurid. Tajuru Pathwarden defnitely is the best sentinel spider, so those are outclassed.
Hmmm interesting. I thought I was the only one who had a sweet spot for Stampeding Elk Herd. I think it's kind of underrated. Formidable is quite a weird mechanic. A turn 2 Glade Watcher needs 5 additional power before it can be turned on and then it might not be such an impressive attacker, while the Elk only needs 3 additional power on the board which should basically always be given, once you can play your 5 drop and so it should ususally be a 5/5 for 5 with "Creatures you control have trample."
I also really like Entourage of Trest. Monarch is a very strong ability and this is one of the very few ways you can generate card advantage in green. Also the ability is quite useful.
I'm not so sure about Nessian Asp actually. It sure is solid as 4/5 reach, but once you have 7 mana to make it huge it's simply a huge vanilla without trample (unless you have Rancor or the Elk), which means your opponent will simply kill it if it bothers him and in that case you have traded 12 mana for 2-3. Arguing that it at least becomes a must-answer-threat is not quite valid, because on the one hand 5 drops usually always require an answer anyway and this is pauper, the format with the highest discrepancy in power level between removal and creatures of all formats. Also making your 5 drop a target for removal is never advantageous, because every answer will cost a lot less.
Excavating Anurid Both provide a nice combination of beef and card advantage.
Well it doesn't provide card advantage though. Only card selection. I totally think it's a fine card. but I'm not the biggest fan. In the context of a mono green deck you might not need lands at some point, but in combination with cards from different colors you might not want to sac a land on turn 5, like blue and black in general and in red with XR spells.
Hmmm interesting. I thought I was the only one who had a sweet spot for Stampeding Elk Herd. I think it's kind of underrated. Formidable is quite a weird mechanic. A turn 2 Glade Watcher needs 5 additional power before it can be turned on and then it might not be such an impressive attacker, while the Elk only needs 3 additional power on the board which should basically always be given, once you can play your 5 drop and so it should ususally be a 5/5 for 5 with "Creatures you control have trample."
I like the Elk Herd too but in our experience it will be your main attacker. Which means that it is somewhat of a drawback of having to have 3 more power on board for it to have trample.
I also really like Entourage of Trest. Monarch is a very strong ability and this is one of the very few ways you can generate card advantage in green. Also the ability is quite useful.
There are players who are just against having Monarch in Cube in general is my biggest concern
I'm not so sure about Nessian Asp actually. It sure is solid as 4/5 reach, but once you have 7 mana to make it huge it's simply a huge vanilla without trample (unless you have Rancor or the Elk), which means your opponent will simply kill it if it bothers him and in that case you have traded 12 mana for 2-3. Arguing that it at least becomes a must-answer-threat is not quite valid, because on the one hand 5 drops usually always require an answer anyway and this is pauper, the format with the highest discrepancy in power level between removal and creatures of all formats. Also making your 5 drop a target for removal is never advantageous, because every answer will cost a lot less.
Also not sure Monstrous jives with Excavating Anurid very much.
Excavating Anurid Both provide a nice combination of beef and card advantage.
Well it doesn't provide card advantage though. Only card selection. I totally think it's a fine card. but I'm not the biggest fan. In the context of a mono green deck you might not need lands at some point, but in combination with cards from different colors you might not want to sac a land on turn 5, like blue and black in general and in red with XR spells.
If you played it off an elf you are looking at going down to three lands potentially. Its not as though the Anurid is guaranteed to win you the game.
Also, threshold is far from guaranteed either..
You both make some good points, but Excavating Anurid has always been great for me in Pauper. I often prefer it over Entourage of Trest because Monarch can be a liability against some decks.
As I mentioned, the context of what else is in your deck, and at what point in the game it is, matters. Obviously, you don't power this out via a mana elf on turn 4, sac your fourth land (especially if it's the last one you have, and go down to just three when you have other 5-drops to play, and when you likely don't have Threshold yet. Anurid isn't really a MGA kind of card; I guess it could be your curve topper, where trading in the fifth land that you weren't going to use anymore is real card advantage, but even then it seems unlikely that you're taking advantage of the bonus +1/+1 and Vigilance that Threshold provides - at least immediately. That said, it wasn't that long ago that people were playing Kavu Climber and such, and Anurid is likely better than those even without the bonuses.
Where Excavating Anurid really shines imo is in a midrange - or even control - deck. There it serves as sort of curve topper that comes in, draws you a real card in exchange for a superfluous land, can swing in for 5 damage to end the game quickly, all while playing defense at the same time because of Vigilance. Cards like Satyr Wayfinder, Winding Way, removal, and instants and sorceries in general - anything that goes to the yard really - go well with it. Note also that it is very spashable.
Obviously, you don't power this out via a mana elf on turn 4, sac your fourth land (especially if it's the last one you have, and go down to just three when you have other 5-drops to play
Well and if you don't have any other 5 drop in hand? What if you are tied on mana, but still need your 4/4 in play. Sure it's a may ability, but a 4/4 "Vanilla" feels just as bad. The Anurid is obviously a great topdeck later in the game, but in your opening hand it can be really weird to the point where you don't want to play it at all and rather play your 4 drop with 5 lands and be mana ineffiecient.
You both make some good points, but Excavating Anurid has always been great for me in Pauper. I often prefer it over Entourage of Trest because Monarch can be a liability against some decks.
As I mentioned, the context of what else is in your deck, and at what point in the game it is, matters. Obviously, you don't power this out via a mana elf on turn 4, sac your fourth land (especially if it's the last one you have, and go down to just three when you have other 5-drops to play, and when you likely don't have Threshold yet. Anurid isn't really a MGA kind of card; I guess it could be your curve topper, where trading in the fifth land that you weren't going to use anymore is real card advantage, but even then it seems unlikely that you're taking advantage of the bonus +1/+1 and Vigilance that Threshold provides - at least immediately. That said, it wasn't that long ago that people were playing Kavu Climber and such, and Anurid is likely better than those even without the bonuses.
Where Excavating Anurid really shines imo is in a midrange - or even control - deck. There it serves as sort of curve topper that comes in, draws you a real card in exchange for a superfluous land, can swing in for 5 damage to end the game quickly, all while playing defense at the same time because of Vigilance. Cards like Satyr Wayfinder, Winding Way, removal, and instants and sorceries in general - anything that goes to the yard really - go well with it. Note also that it is very spashable.
To each his own though.
I was only talking about Anurid in the context already mentioned which was as a 5cc beat down creature. It is definitely a nice finisher in a midrange deck.
I like the Elk Herd too but in our experience it will be your main attacker. Which means that it is somewhat of a drawback of having to have 3 more power on board for it to have trample.
Also not sure Monstrous jives with Excavating Anurid very much.
I count Nessian Asp closer to the Spiders than the Pathwarden actually..
On average youll have a manaelf and a random 2 drop or a 3- or a 4-drop, thats already 3 additional power. I cant remember a game where the Elk didnt have trample. The bigger drawback is that you want to attack with it and they multiblock it, so your other fat loses trample.
If you run the Anurid in a deck that wants flooding, youre doing it wrong
Trample Vigilance is way more useful than Reach Vigilance, Green doesnt really want to be in the defensive game. Also 5 power. And if you want to I a think the Asp is the best 5 drop of them all and its not too hard to grant trample
Overall the power to cost ratio falls off steeply at 5 in Green commons compared to higher rarity. Often my main metric for gaging commons is would I feel bad playing this if higher rarities are available and the answer overwhelmingly for this seems to be no.
As far as 5 drops go, most of them are outclassed by Green 4-drops which is a much better price point and you get Blastoderm! I find Stampeding Elk Herd never fails to give itself and everything else trample. Counting up your power and subtracting by your opponents toughness is the kind of maths Green wants to be doing.
I ran Sentinel Spider for a while. It was ok, until I realised that I could be saving mana and spending the extra mana on something like a Groundswell. The main thing that keep impressing me about Sentinel Spider is how it was always able to a relevant blocker while contributing on beatdown. Whereas Nessian Asp could only contribute to attacking or Blocking. I think I slightly prefer the extra power and trample of Tajuru Pathwarden over reach. While reach is an in demand ability for Green, additional power and trample contribute that much more to winning games that I'm in favour of Tajuru Pathwarden over Sentinel Spider for the limited card slot. Vigilance is a strong keyword for big green creatures.
Kavu Climber's not costed as a big creature, it's costed as a cantrap and needs to be treated as such. Then again we now have Silverback Shaman, Entourage of Trest and Excavating Anurid as bigger bodies with card draw attached. Kavu Climber definitely the no fuss version, but at the end of the day you're paying 2 additional mana for a Nessian Courser that draws a card, which is not that worth it. Being an etb give Kavu Climber some resistance to Man-o'-War.
Rubbleback Rhino can be really difficult for opponents to deal with and even without relevant auras and equipment. Rubbleback Rhino put on guard duty can totally brick out a game against non-fliers and non-shadowers. The limited amount of removal can be used to chomp evasion creatures, while all ground creatures must be this tall to fight. It is extremely rare to actually play against pumps spells as Rubbleback Rhino although I include a few in non-Green colours as a token gesture to deck builders.
I haven't had a chance to try out Silverback Shaman. It's very well costed as a cantrap. Still, it will feel bad to have Pacifism cast on.
On that note, Wickerbough Elder is the best honourary 5-drop. Destroying artifacts and enchantments can be devastating when it's attached to a decent body.
My fear with Entourage of Trest is you can get out-tempoed. I am very hesitant about any card which can potentially give my opponent free resources. Of course when you hold tempo Entourage of Trest is great. I'm still worried about how this card deals with the Flood matchup.
Excavating Anurid. I'm pretty happy trading lands for draw. The only time I don't want to be doing that is when I'm curving out into Maul Splicer. Also treshhold is another excuse to be running the Green Black selfmill cards.
yeah greens 4s are plenty, thats why i have 11 four drops and only 4 5 drops in my cube.see above. but those pay for their additional mana i feel. Another argument why you dont want 5 dops below 5 power though. you already get it on cmc4
But its not like the other colors are very hot on cmc5 either.
Im not too keen on Rubbleback Rhino, I dont think the additional toughness is worth one mana, respectively a cmc5 slot
was always meh in my testings, unless you run a value oriented cube. But even then a 3/3 for 5 could almost as well be just a 2/2 Paying 5 just to draw a card is horrible in green. unlike black who has easier time to establish board control due to abundance of removal.
that said, cmc5 creatures seem to establish the theme of card advantage.
I would argue that Green is better than Black at establishing a board presence as you have the best creatures in terms of Power/Toughness and keywords at every point of the mana-curve than any other colour (excluding White). Often you are ahead on mana as well and you just need to not run out of steam before the game's conclusion. Dauthi Horror is cute and all but it is not going to win races against Green's Groundswell and co. You can seriously hone Green to close games to the point where cantrapping a 3/3 for 5 mana sounds like a good idea.
Skittering Skirge is the cream of the crop of Black in my opinion. There are gems buried in Magic's past for Black.
Black will wrath the board or just doomblade everything. Then slam an angler or juggler
Not in my experience of the Black vs Green match up. Black will attempt to cast it's limited pull of removal to deal with Green's creatures while attempting to stabilise. Typically a Green deck knows it will be playing against removal heavy match ups considering the rather obvious power discrepancy between removal and literally everything else at common. The typical counter is running a lot of extremely efficient creatures thus playing a style of attrition when you aim to keep casting bodies with as little mana as you can manage (or fast mana in many cases.)
A lot of the time as Black, you'll either have your aggro set of creatures or your control set. It's rare to see Dauthi Slayers alongside Sultai Emissarys at least from my experience. Crypt Rats and Pestilence are very powerful in their own right however they require a lot of Black mana to function and take a turn to set up. Green creatures are typically well endowed with toughness. The board wipes also cost a lot of life which is essentially what the Green Deck is min-maxed to reduce. Black can definitely go the distance and win the long game, only if they can make it that far. Being behind in tempo significantly reduces the effect of removal because there will always be one extra body to deal with.
If you can survive the initial onslaught then as Black you should be able to comfortably close out a game as Green doesn't have the same reach as Red has. Surviving is another matter. Green can cheaply partner with another colour to bolster its deficiencies (especiallywithWhite) where as Black cannot. Typically the game pivots in Black's favour when you get to Corrupt mana.
On the topic of essentially mono-colour decks: The main upside of drafting mono-colour is you can cut off other drafters at the table from heavily being in that colour, especially in pack three the pay off can be huge. Your mana base and mana curve are cleared up considerably. Also there isn't the typical decline in card quality that you get when drafting mono from Magic sets. Two or even three colour decks typically have higher overall card quality than their mono-coloured counterparts (ignoring some mono-Black aberrations) and you get more of the colour pie to work with. However there are some things that mono-colours do well such as mono-Red burn, that when you get the pieces everything else that doesn't contribute to the game plan of reducing your opponent's life total as fast as possible seems irrelevant.
In saying that some colour combinations are exceptionally strong. G/W being a pet favourite of mine. W/B extort really showcases how bonkers that mechanic is in a limited environment. B/R can close games very quickly while having the sustain to deal with prolonged matches. Esper Control splashing for a forth colour (generally Red, but sometimes Green for Sprout Swarm) seemed to perform well. Sometimes I really believe and go Naya. The mana base is sketchy as three colours with common lands is dodgy at best even with Green as the primary colour.
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There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
hm it really depends on the table, but ive seen mostly black deck who just slammed every removal they got. This deck just trades 1:1 with everything in green and any form of card draw wins them the game, especially when attached to a body. Obv even Kavu Climber is useful in that matchup, you still have to pay 5 for that.
I also dont find it very hard to splash another minor color in "mono" black. Just get a signet and a bounceland and youre fine running the Orzhov drain cards or some X-spells from red.
Well green is definitely the worst color, IMO. It is the same is it has been in the last sets WOTC releases, a support color. The strength of green aren't the creatures, but the fast mana. Fast mana is what makes it one of the stronger colors in powered cubes acutally, because the higher the power level and the more ridiculous stuff you can do with it, the more valueable an early mana advantage becomes (It's the same with Cantrips/Card selection).
There is an argument to do the same thing I did with red. Even though there are some decent options for cmc 5 creatures (e.g. Vildin-Pack Outcast) I simply decided to run none of them and focus on the slots where red excels. The only non-replaceable green 5 drop is Sprout Swarm. I could instead run more ramp/fixing, like Rampant Growth, Farseek, Cultivate and Kodama's Reach, even though I'm not the biggest fan of the latter, because especially if you cut top end, the value of securing your 4-6 land drop decreases.
ure right, the usefulness of ramp falls off really quick in pauper because we lack the ridicolous stuff of vintagecubes, thats why I consider Farseek et al quite bad for us.
Also you basically discard cards for the early turn advantage, so youre out of gas even faster.
I dont neccessarily agree green ended as support color though, its just wotc has no idea where it want to go with green.
ramp into fat, or hexproof shenanigans, I prefered their attempt to make greens removal deathtouch 2-drops, but now everything is fight.
I wish Affectionate Indrik would have made the cut into pauper, because that would acutally be on par powerlevelwise with the other colors finally.
Do you emphasise 1/2/3 CMC ramp?
What is the point of Green Midrange? (Is it better as G/x or X/g)
Can Red handle X/5s?
I am probably the biggest fan of Hessian Asp here. It does much of what I want, and I prefer Sentinel Spider (3GG) over its 4G counterpart. If your red cannot easily handle X/5s, then those are best. Vigilance is AWESOME on bodies where they get pushed from Borderline to Cubeable with it. IMO, Reach is better than Trample in the cube as a vacuum. It stops the advantages of Blue and White better than Trample. And if you are worried about 5 drops, you are already challenging aggro with fatties opposed to rushing them with bigger bodies via ramp.
I like Treat. I also run 2 other Monarchs (W/B) because it is so unique for the cube. So my answers support more generalized decks with unique stories
Sidenote:
Humph's build is prob the best home for Anurid vs other 5cmc as opposed to the generic amalgamation model we have otherwise. Anutid fits the hyper aggressive design better than the average cube
Well cmc 1 ramp is obviously by far the best, but cmc 2 ramp is also fine as it allows you to get to 4 a turn earlier, which is pretty much paupers sweet spot where we have the best creatures among most colors. Also the fixing aspect is quite relevant. GXX should be attractive, IMO.
green is pretty much the only color with cmc1 ramp, so cmc2 is where you are usually. Although Im "hyperagressive" I added the signets at some point to basically get access to cmc5 cards during normal plays. Theyre just awesome.
cmc3 ramp is unplayable
Green midrange Id say takes the most advantage of the manaelves, because they produce G
Red has gotten a few tools to kill x/5s, your decision how much you run. Checking my cube I run none :D, so maybe thats why I rate the Asp so high. Might need to find a spot for Magmatic Sinkhole
Do you emphasise 1/2/3 CMC ramp?
What is the point of Green Midrange? (Is it better as G/x or X/g)
Can Red handle X/5s?
I am probably the biggest fan of Hessian Asp here. It does much of what I want, and I prefer Sentinel Spider (3GG) over its 4G counterpart. If your red cannot easily handle X/5s, then those are best. Vigilance is AWESOME on bodies where they get pushed from Borderline to Cubeable with it. IMO, Reach is better than Trample in the cube as a vacuum. It stops the advantages of Blue and White better than Trample. And if you are worried about 5 drops, you are already challenging aggro with fatties opposed to rushing them with bigger bodies via ramp.
I like Treat. I also run 2 other Monarchs (W/B) because it is so unique for the cube. So my answers support more generalized decks with unique stories
Sidenote:
Humph's build is prob the best home for Anurid vs other 5cmc as opposed to the generic amalgamation model we have otherwise. Anutid fits the hyper aggressive design better than the average cube
The way I think of Nessian Asp is its a 5 drop which doubles as a mana sink at seven. Duel purpose cards tend be a bit better than they initially appear, because as a deck builder it's possible to take advantage of both modes and thus increase the overall power of your cards as well as save on card slots for effects. 4/5 with reach is also just nice numbers. Not too good in any particular instance, but still considerable enough to pose a challenge.
How good Sentinel Spider is seems to be directed correspondent to how good tempo fliers are. Outside of Cloudfin Raptor and Insectile Aberration there isn't much in the way of decent tempo fliers that really stand out.
Not sure what you mean by generalised decks with unique stories? I assume you mean not archetype specific in the narrow sense of the word. Monarch is undoubtably a strong mechanic. Anything that allows you to draw an extra card every turn for little to no cost is going to be. I'm just systematically avoiding playing cards like that until I have a more solid grasp on how the average magic card fares without free card draw in the mix.
Also Hessian Asp amused me no end.
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There's no word in the goblin language for "strategy." Then again, there's no word in the goblin language for "word."
I think the relevant contenders are: Nessian Asp; Silverback Shaman; Bitterbow Sharpshooters/Sentinel Spider; Entourage of Trest; Excavating Anurid; Kavu Climber; Lifecraft Cavalry; Okina Nightwatch; Rampaging Rendhorn; Rhox Maulers; Rubbleback Rhino; Stampeding Elk Herd and Tajuru Pathwarden
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edit: sorry for misunderstanding, I did assume peasant and not pauper in regards to cube type.
In regard to the topic, I love both Entourage of Trest and Excavating Anurid Both provide a nice combination of beef and card advantage. I guess it really depends what your green deck is looking for though.
Entourage of Trest - Getting the monarch is pretty crucial for a latelategame of green since the color lacks carddraw badly.
Excavating Anurid - since my curve pretty much ends at 5, the sac isnt a loss and carddraw is so sweet
Nessian Asp - block blues 4/4 flyer and lives, also becomes a monster if you flood.
Stampeding Elk Herd -give those fatties trample while also being reliable fat on its own
some of the other are either too small (for cmc5 i definitely want 5 power) or lack trample.
the gorilla is okayish, but a lot of removal doesnt kill. get the anurid.
Tajuru Pathwarden defnitely is the best sentinel spider, so those are outclassed.
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
Do you not run the Nightwatch anymore?
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
I also really like Entourage of Trest. Monarch is a very strong ability and this is one of the very few ways you can generate card advantage in green. Also the ability is quite useful.
I'm not so sure about Nessian Asp actually. It sure is solid as 4/5 reach, but once you have 7 mana to make it huge it's simply a huge vanilla without trample (unless you have Rancor or the Elk), which means your opponent will simply kill it if it bothers him and in that case you have traded 12 mana for 2-3. Arguing that it at least becomes a must-answer-threat is not quite valid, because on the one hand 5 drops usually always require an answer anyway and this is pauper, the format with the highest discrepancy in power level between removal and creatures of all formats. Also making your 5 drop a target for removal is never advantageous, because every answer will cost a lot less.
Well it doesn't provide card advantage though. Only card selection. I totally think it's a fine card. but I'm not the biggest fan. In the context of a mono green deck you might not need lands at some point, but in combination with cards from different colors you might not want to sac a land on turn 5, like blue and black in general and in red with XR spells.
Doesn't have reach, which can be quite a game changer. It's definitely not strictly better.
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I like the Elk Herd too but in our experience it will be your main attacker. Which means that it is somewhat of a drawback of having to have 3 more power on board for it to have trample.
There are players who are just against having Monarch in Cube in general is my biggest concern
Also not sure Monstrous jives with Excavating Anurid very much.
If you played it off an elf you are looking at going down to three lands potentially. Its not as though the Anurid is guaranteed to win you the game.
Also, threshold is far from guaranteed either..
I count Nessian Asp closer to the Spiders than the Pathwarden actually..
You both make some good points, but Excavating Anurid has always been great for me in Pauper. I often prefer it over Entourage of Trest because Monarch can be a liability against some decks.
As I mentioned, the context of what else is in your deck, and at what point in the game it is, matters. Obviously, you don't power this out via a mana elf on turn 4, sac your fourth land (especially if it's the last one you have, and go down to just three when you have other 5-drops to play, and when you likely don't have Threshold yet. Anurid isn't really a MGA kind of card; I guess it could be your curve topper, where trading in the fifth land that you weren't going to use anymore is real card advantage, but even then it seems unlikely that you're taking advantage of the bonus +1/+1 and Vigilance that Threshold provides - at least immediately. That said, it wasn't that long ago that people were playing Kavu Climber and such, and Anurid is likely better than those even without the bonuses.
Where Excavating Anurid really shines imo is in a midrange - or even control - deck. There it serves as sort of curve topper that comes in, draws you a real card in exchange for a superfluous land, can swing in for 5 damage to end the game quickly, all while playing defense at the same time because of Vigilance. Cards like Satyr Wayfinder, Winding Way, removal, and instants and sorceries in general - anything that goes to the yard really - go well with it. Note also that it is very spashable.
To each his own though.
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I was only talking about Anurid in the context already mentioned which was as a 5cc beat down creature. It is definitely a nice finisher in a midrange deck.
On average youll have a manaelf and a random 2 drop or a 3- or a 4-drop, thats already 3 additional power. I cant remember a game where the Elk didnt have trample. The bigger drawback is that you want to attack with it and they multiblock it, so your other fat loses trample.
If you run the Anurid in a deck that wants flooding, youre doing it wrong
Trample Vigilance is way more useful than Reach Vigilance, Green doesnt really want to be in the defensive game. Also 5 power. And if you want to I a think the Asp is the best 5 drop of them all and its not too hard to grant trample
powpercube Johnny https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/37t
As far as 5 drops go, most of them are outclassed by Green 4-drops which is a much better price point and you get Blastoderm! I find Stampeding Elk Herd never fails to give itself and everything else trample. Counting up your power and subtracting by your opponents toughness is the kind of maths Green wants to be doing.
I ran Sentinel Spider for a while. It was ok, until I realised that I could be saving mana and spending the extra mana on something like a Groundswell. The main thing that keep impressing me about Sentinel Spider is how it was always able to a relevant blocker while contributing on beatdown. Whereas Nessian Asp could only contribute to attacking or Blocking. I think I slightly prefer the extra power and trample of Tajuru Pathwarden over reach. While reach is an in demand ability for Green, additional power and trample contribute that much more to winning games that I'm in favour of Tajuru Pathwarden over Sentinel Spider for the limited card slot. Vigilance is a strong keyword for big green creatures.
Kavu Climber's not costed as a big creature, it's costed as a cantrap and needs to be treated as such. Then again we now have Silverback Shaman, Entourage of Trest and Excavating Anurid as bigger bodies with card draw attached. Kavu Climber definitely the no fuss version, but at the end of the day you're paying 2 additional mana for a Nessian Courser that draws a card, which is not that worth it. Being an etb give Kavu Climber some resistance to Man-o'-War.
Rubbleback Rhino can be really difficult for opponents to deal with and even without relevant auras and equipment. Rubbleback Rhino put on guard duty can totally brick out a game against non-fliers and non-shadowers. The limited amount of removal can be used to chomp evasion creatures, while all ground creatures must be this tall to fight. It is extremely rare to actually play against pumps spells as Rubbleback Rhino although I include a few in non-Green colours as a token gesture to deck builders.
I haven't had a chance to try out Silverback Shaman. It's very well costed as a cantrap. Still, it will feel bad to have Pacifism cast on.
On that note, Wickerbough Elder is the best honourary 5-drop. Destroying artifacts and enchantments can be devastating when it's attached to a decent body.
My fear with Entourage of Trest is you can get out-tempoed. I am very hesitant about any card which can potentially give my opponent free resources. Of course when you hold tempo Entourage of Trest is great. I'm still worried about how this card deals with the Flood matchup.
Excavating Anurid. I'm pretty happy trading lands for draw. The only time I don't want to be doing that is when I'm curving out into Maul Splicer. Also treshhold is another excuse to be running the Green Black selfmill cards.
But its not like the other colors are very hot on cmc5 either.
Im not too keen on Rubbleback Rhino, I dont think the additional toughness is worth one mana, respectively a cmc5 slot
was always meh in my testings, unless you run a value oriented cube. But even then a 3/3 for 5 could almost as well be just a 2/2 Paying 5 just to draw a card is horrible in green. unlike black who has easier time to establish board control due to abundance of removal.
that said, cmc5 creatures seem to establish the theme of card advantage.
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Skittering Skirge is the cream of the crop of Black in my opinion. There are gems buried in Magic's past for Black.
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Not in my experience of the Black vs Green match up. Black will attempt to cast it's limited pull of removal to deal with Green's creatures while attempting to stabilise. Typically a Green deck knows it will be playing against removal heavy match ups considering the rather obvious power discrepancy between removal and literally everything else at common. The typical counter is running a lot of extremely efficient creatures thus playing a style of attrition when you aim to keep casting bodies with as little mana as you can manage (or fast mana in many cases.)
A lot of the time as Black, you'll either have your aggro set of creatures or your control set. It's rare to see Dauthi Slayers alongside Sultai Emissarys at least from my experience. Crypt Rats and Pestilence are very powerful in their own right however they require a lot of Black mana to function and take a turn to set up. Green creatures are typically well endowed with toughness. The board wipes also cost a lot of life which is essentially what the Green Deck is min-maxed to reduce. Black can definitely go the distance and win the long game, only if they can make it that far. Being behind in tempo significantly reduces the effect of removal because there will always be one extra body to deal with.
If you can survive the initial onslaught then as Black you should be able to comfortably close out a game as Green doesn't have the same reach as Red has. Surviving is another matter. Green can cheaply partner with another colour to bolster its deficiencies (especially with White) where as Black cannot. Typically the game pivots in Black's favour when you get to Corrupt mana.
On the topic of essentially mono-colour decks: The main upside of drafting mono-colour is you can cut off other drafters at the table from heavily being in that colour, especially in pack three the pay off can be huge. Your mana base and mana curve are cleared up considerably. Also there isn't the typical decline in card quality that you get when drafting mono from Magic sets. Two or even three colour decks typically have higher overall card quality than their mono-coloured counterparts (ignoring some mono-Black aberrations) and you get more of the colour pie to work with. However there are some things that mono-colours do well such as mono-Red burn, that when you get the pieces everything else that doesn't contribute to the game plan of reducing your opponent's life total as fast as possible seems irrelevant.
In saying that some colour combinations are exceptionally strong. G/W being a pet favourite of mine. W/B extort really showcases how bonkers that mechanic is in a limited environment. B/R can close games very quickly while having the sustain to deal with prolonged matches. Esper Control splashing for a forth colour (generally Red, but sometimes Green for Sprout Swarm) seemed to perform well. Sometimes I really believe and go Naya. The mana base is sketchy as three colours with common lands is dodgy at best even with Green as the primary colour.
I also dont find it very hard to splash another minor color in "mono" black. Just get a signet and a bounceland and youre fine running the Orzhov drain cards or some X-spells from red.
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There is an argument to do the same thing I did with red. Even though there are some decent options for cmc 5 creatures (e.g. Vildin-Pack Outcast) I simply decided to run none of them and focus on the slots where red excels. The only non-replaceable green 5 drop is Sprout Swarm. I could instead run more ramp/fixing, like Rampant Growth, Farseek, Cultivate and Kodama's Reach, even though I'm not the biggest fan of the latter, because especially if you cut top end, the value of securing your 4-6 land drop decreases.
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Also you basically discard cards for the early turn advantage, so youre out of gas even faster.
I dont neccessarily agree green ended as support color though, its just wotc has no idea where it want to go with green.
ramp into fat, or hexproof shenanigans, I prefered their attempt to make greens removal deathtouch 2-drops, but now everything is fight.
I wish Affectionate Indrik would have made the cut into pauper, because that would acutally be on par powerlevelwise with the other colors finally.
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Do you emphasise 1/2/3 CMC ramp?
What is the point of Green Midrange? (Is it better as G/x or X/g)
Can Red handle X/5s?
I am probably the biggest fan of Hessian Asp here. It does much of what I want, and I prefer Sentinel Spider (3GG) over its 4G counterpart. If your red cannot easily handle X/5s, then those are best. Vigilance is AWESOME on bodies where they get pushed from Borderline to Cubeable with it. IMO, Reach is better than Trample in the cube as a vacuum. It stops the advantages of Blue and White better than Trample. And if you are worried about 5 drops, you are already challenging aggro with fatties opposed to rushing them with bigger bodies via ramp.
I like Treat. I also run 2 other Monarchs (W/B) because it is so unique for the cube. So my answers support more generalized decks with unique stories
Sidenote:
Humph's build is prob the best home for Anurid vs other 5cmc as opposed to the generic amalgamation model we have otherwise. Anutid fits the hyper aggressive design better than the average cube
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cmc3 ramp is unplayable
Green midrange Id say takes the most advantage of the manaelves, because they produce G
Red has gotten a few tools to kill x/5s, your decision how much you run. Checking my cube I run none :D, so maybe thats why I rate the Asp so high. Might need to find a spot for Magmatic Sinkhole
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The way I think of Nessian Asp is its a 5 drop which doubles as a mana sink at seven. Duel purpose cards tend be a bit better than they initially appear, because as a deck builder it's possible to take advantage of both modes and thus increase the overall power of your cards as well as save on card slots for effects. 4/5 with reach is also just nice numbers. Not too good in any particular instance, but still considerable enough to pose a challenge.
How good Sentinel Spider is seems to be directed correspondent to how good tempo fliers are. Outside of Cloudfin Raptor and Insectile Aberration there isn't much in the way of decent tempo fliers that really stand out.
Not sure what you mean by generalised decks with unique stories? I assume you mean not archetype specific in the narrow sense of the word. Monarch is undoubtably a strong mechanic. Anything that allows you to draw an extra card every turn for little to no cost is going to be. I'm just systematically avoiding playing cards like that until I have a more solid grasp on how the average magic card fares without free card draw in the mix.
Also Hessian Asp amused me no end.
But if you wait to cmc5 to interact with Delver, youre doing it wrong.
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