Aarakocra Sneak - Easy Staple. This is probably the best of the initiative cards because it is 4 mana and has evasion. 1/4 fliers are good when you have a powerful ability to back it up; 4 toughness keeps this out of bolt range, flying is good for gaining initiative and holding initiative. I just had a look at the initiative rules and it is nowhere near as broken as monarch because you need to hold it throughout you opponents turn to get to get to your upkeep rather than just getting the bonus end of turn. On further reading: you delve the dungeon when you gain initiative and during your upkeep. I had to clarify it to myself because the initiative keyword is opaque. In terms of the Undercity: the two +1/+1 counter, 5 life loss and draw a card route seems like the go to. The other side of the dungeon is fine if your not going to use the buff and the life loss isn't a big deciding factor — it depends if you are going to use the skeleton. The middle chamber goading a creature is going to be more useful than people realise because you can force a bad attack. Plus if you go that route you get to decide which side to venture to. The final chamber will be strong in most decks. Chances are any creature you hit in the top 10 cards is going to be good with +1/+1 counters and hexproof until your next turn. There is a lot to say about initiative and the main point is it's a strong mechanic especially on a 4 mana creature.
Blur - Bad. Three mana is so much for flicker. Cantripping is fine, but still you'd rather Ephemerate in this place.
Contact Other Plane - Bad. Instant speed draw is ok, but in order to make this card decent that relies on a dice roll. Failing the dice roll makes this an overcosted Hieroglyphic Illumination.
Draconic Lore - Bad. We have Treasure Cruise if you want to draw 3. Dragon is not a common creature type at common.
Dragonborn Looter - Borderline. Looting is strong. Two toughness is pretty nice, keeping this out of Fireslinger range. But you are better off with the 3 common looters (Looter il-Kor, Merfolk Looter and Thought Courier) as they don't have a mana cost associated with their looting.
Dream Fracture - Borderline. Counter magic with card draw is a dangerous combo. But three mana is a lot to pay for counter magic. Arcane Denial costs less, though gives your opponent and extra card; and still isn't good enough for pauper cube these days. It's nice to see this downshift, but I don't think it's going to make many lists.
Goggles of Night - Borderline. An Ophidian equipment at common has been a long time coming and this one essentially Opts each time it connects. It seems like it should be good, but it costs blue mana (I mean fair enough) and 2 to equip means juggling it around is mana intensive. Still this is a fine card and I'm sure it will see play in the right decks.
Gray Harbor Merfolk - Terrible. This card has the word commander on it which is an instant red flag.
Kenku Artificer - Borderline, maybe cubeable? This might actually be playable because of bridges, Ichor Wellspring and treasure. It gives flying too, so in the right deck in the right cube it's going to be pretty sweet for 3 mana.
Lapis Orb of Dragonkind - Terrible. Another red flag is seeing the word dragon in the rules text on a common. Dragons just don't really exist at common. Hypothetically if you could consistently scry this would be quite decent.
Nimbleclaw Adept - Borderline. Understandably wizards have to be extremely cautious with any card that could potentially repeatedly untap permanents. Once per turn is understandable, but also limiting it to sorcery speed shows a lot of caution on their behalf. Mana acceleration in blue is also potentially very dangerous. I'm taking the view that this card has the potential to be very good, but the average usecase this is going to be too clunky.
Oceanus Dragon - Borderline Cubeable. 6 mana to getting expensive, but the etb upfront makes up a lot for the obvious critique: it dies to Doom Blade. 3/5 flier is pretty decent, but 4 power would have been chef's kiss. Goading a creature gives the dragon an easy snack. On second examination goading a creature doubles as removal if your opponent hasn't got an appropriate answer ready which bumps this up a pay grade.
Psychic Impetus - Bad. It's an aura. Goading your own creature is just kind of bad, even if you probably want to attack every turn already. Scry 2 can get out of hand if this card is not answered.
Run Away Together - Bad. Sure you can leverage this card to be ok, but wouldn't you rather Curfew nine times out of ten.
Sea Hag - Cubeable. This is just a good card. Aquatic Ingress is strong enough on it's own and Sea Hag has a strong etb, good enough to justify random flicker. Combined this could even be staple. Also adventure is much better when the creature doesn't cost something ridiculous. A 3/5 body is going to contribute to the battlefield.
Stunning Strike - Staple. Blue is pretty stacked this set. Blue is lacking hard removal at a reasonable cost. The fact you can use this as a combat trick is frosting of a already pretty decent cake. Sure 2 mana would be the dream, but I'll settle for 3 mana to have good removal in blue. Also being pauper you can just ignore the legendary text.
Sword Coast Serpent - Borderline/cubeable? This is almost great. Capsizing Wave is a pretty standard 2 mana Unsummon. The creature body closes games, no question about that. The only real downside is that it costs 7, which means it is unlikely to impact the aggro match ups. Maybe this is cubeable.
Tymora's Invoker - Bad. Well this card isn't inherently terrible, it is a mana sink that eventually wins you the game (by card advantage). But 8 mana is too much and the vanilla creature body is not particularly relevant to most board states.
Young Blue Dragon - Borderline. This has all the components of a perfectly borderline adventure card. Neither side is really worth it, but you'll play it in a pinch.
Astral Confrontation - Bad. Hard removal is almost never terrible, but in 1v1 you can only reduce the cost by 1 for 4 mana which is still overcosted.
Bane's Invoker - Bad. I'm trying to be a harsher critic of cards since in recent years there has be a lot of power creep in the average power of commons, so this would have definitely been a borderline card in the old rubric. 2/2 for 2 is fine, but isn't enough to make cards playable these days. 8 mana is simply too much for an effect that doesn't win you the game. Not to say that the ability is bad, but it is very expensive. This is going to be a similar story with all the invokers.
Blessed Hippogriff - Borderline Cubeable. Both halves of this card are fine, but neither excel. If either side was 1 mana less then this would be pretty good, but as it stands the flier comes down a little late and 2 mana is a lot to hold for a trick. Umm turns out I didn't read the card. 1 mana indestructible is fine as an adventure. Then the flier side is good offensively. 4 mana is okay costed considering that essentially an extra card strapped onto this.
Dawnbringer Cleric - Borderline. 2 mana etb destroy enchantment with upside. This is good sideboard tech, or would be better in a environment with more enchantments. The other modes give this flexibility which is what a lot of enchantment hate cards are lacking. The 1/3 body is big enough to impact the board, but mostly will be blocking.
Flaming Fist - Terrible. The first truly awful card from the set. I don't know what to say about this other than there are no commanders in a non-commander format.
Flaming Fist Officer - Cubeable. The potential for growth on this card is impressive. This goes well with flicker and tokens. Three mana come down early and the ability compliments what white is typically trying to do. Your opponent has to respect the threat that this presents.
Goliath Paladin - Staple. Yeah... All of this initiative cards are bonkers. They are comparable to monarch cards, but the effect stacks with monarch! While to do think the pure card draw is stronger of the two, the cards that grant initiative are not weak either, but they are typically priced at 5 mana which means they do very little to impact burn match ups. The downside of these cards is always your opponent can play to the board as well and take the initiative. But they give a lot of late game staying power to a deck with relatively little cost. This card specifically is bulky are won't die to anything that isn't hard removal. Vigilance is fine at hold monarch and initiative, but doesn't do a lot to stop evasion creatures. 5 mana also puts it on the expensive end. Not too many people run Staunch Throneguard which is a comparable card.
Greatsword of Tyr - Cubeable. This equipment to cheap to cast and even cheaper to equip. Tapping creatures when attacking is good at holing the beatdown, plus counters are a bonus, not to mention that they stick around when to shuffle around the equipment. This does more or less what white wants from an equipment.
Guardian Naga - Borderline. The adventure part is fine, more sideboard tech, but crucially it deals with bridges. The creature part has undoubtably a strong ability, but costs 7, which is pretty much a death kneel for all cards much weaker than Ulamog's Crusher. I guess this has vigilance too.
Guiding Bolt - Weak. 3 mana removal with scry 2 seems like it should be very good, but it's simply too narrow.
Icewind Stalwart - Weak. Hill Giant is ummm pretty bad. Flicker attached potentially can be good, but this requires a lot of support to be consistently fine and probably isn't worth it in the long run.
Martial Impetus - Bad. This is probably the most viable on of the goaded enchantments for pauper cube because it is fine on your own creature. Still enchantments are typically bad and this is no exception. It's worth mentioning at this point that goading creatures forces them to attack it possible regardless of the number of players, so it does mechanically do something in 1v1.
Pegasus Guardian - Borderline. 6 mana is a lot, but the tokens do have flying. The adventure is fine and the creature side plays into a flicker deck. But flicker decks never really needed much more late game because of all the card advantage they can accrue, they need more early game. Still this is probably the best six mana white creature we've seen to date. (Imperial Oath isn't technically a creature so I'm excluding it.)
Recruitment Drive - Borderline. This is too luck based. Either 50% of the time it's good and 45% it's bad. Of course there is 5% of the time where it is bonkers. It might be fine in terms of pure power level, but it seems too rage inducing.
Roving Harper - Cubeable. It cantrips. This seems to be a standard mechanic on white creatures these days. Creatures that replace themselves tend to be decent if they are appropriately costed. This is pretty solidly middle of the pack as far as these creatures go. Just remember that Llanowar Visionary and Inspiring Overseer are both 3 mana, but better.
Scouting Hawk - Bad. The land catch up mechanic is much weaker in lvl than multiplay because of the lack of consistency. If this was consistent it would be fine, but otherwise its a three mana 1/1 flier.
Steadfast Unicorn - Bad. The activated ability is in okay when you are going wide, unfortunately a 1/2 for 1 is just too small to impact the board in any significant way even with this ability. Many some swarm strategies have a use for this, but I'm just not seeing it.
Tabaxi Toucaneers - Bad. Myriad doesn't do anything in 1v1, and all your left with is a overcosted flier.
Your Temple Is Under Attack - Overcosted to save your team and puts your opponent in too much of an advantage by striking a deal because it essentially 2-for-1s yourself.
You're Confronted by Robbers - Cubeable. Captain's Call at instant speed or taps down your opponents board (probably). This seems very good. Maybe getting close to staple. We'll have to see...
Corrupt Court Official - Borderline. We've seen a few variations of this card and this doesn't really have much differentiating it from the pack. The main downside of this compared to Elderfang Disciple is Court Offical cannot be mutated onto. Of course there is also Virus Beetle which differentiates itself by being an artifact. The main problem with these creatures is that there isn't enough to do with the bodies in cube. 1/1s just don't make the biggest impact on board.
Crooked Custodian - Borderline. I wouldn't fault anyone for playing this, but compared to black's other 2 mana creatures this isn't going to get there. Compared to say Gluttonous Slug, this seems a the body isn't anything to write home about and it can't block the turn it comes down whereas the Slug is going to grow uncontrollably. A 3/2 body on a 2 mana creature isn't that impressive now.
Cutthroat Contender - Borderline. A vanilla 2/1 would be cubeable. Paying life to get the second point of life just isn't worth the stats. Sure it's a fine card when you are ahead, but in a race it is going to slow you down a lot paying life and also without the life cost this is just a vanilla 1/1.
Deal Gone Bad - Bad. 4 mana is simply too much for -3/-3. The mill flavourtext doesn't make up for the overcosted nature of this spell.
Demon's Due - Borderline. This sneaks into borderline because its instant. Even so 4 mana and 2 life is a lot to pay for scry 2 and draw 2. Read the Bones is good because 3 mana means it can come out as soon as turn 3, or you actually have left over mana to cast what you drew.
Dig Up the Body - Borderline. Causality seems deceptively good because you are getting essentially double the effect of whatever is written on the card. I think if there where better dedicated mill decks in Pauper cube this would be pretty good. I like this card's synergy with Gurmag Angler. Still you have to go out of your way to create fodder to use for the cost of Dig Up the Body.
Extract the Truth - Cubeable. This is the first good piece of dedicated enchantment hate in black outside of Feed the Swarm. This might not be played in everyone's main deck, but it definitely paves the way for more good enchantments to get printed as 4 colours now have answers available. Still there isn't too much outside of Flood, Pestilence and Armadillo Cloak on a hexproofer that specifically need this to deal with it. And basically all of whites removal. Doubling up as hand hate is pretty nifty too, so this shouldn't be a dead card.
Fake Your Own Death - Cubeable. So-so trick, but you get a treasure, so it's probably fine. Still maybe you play Undying Malice over this? It is an open question how useful the treasure is going to be.
Girder Goons - Cubeable. This card blitzed in in fine. Cast normally is fine. Having the flexibility to do either is better. It seems like it will find a home in a top end of a deck. The rouge token means that you get a lasting something out out blitzing and don't forget the card draw.
Incriminate - Borderline. It is worse that Diabolic Edict because you can't pop off a single creature, it has to have a friend. This gets better when there are more tokens and cheap bodies gumming up the board. I could definitely see a future where the meta shifts and this is cubeable.
Join the Maestros - Borderline. 5 mana is a lot and you have to sacrifice something with at least 2 power. Maybe this is a bit better than it looks — casualty is a bit difficult to evaluate at a glance. If there is good fodder for this then 2 big bodies is probably good enough for 5 mana. I just am not sure that there will be too many disposable 2 power or greater creatures.
Maestros Initiate - Borderline. The activated ability is a lot on this card. And the body isn't that good either. 1 toughness is a big red flag. Maybe there are control decks that just want the body for chumping purposes. Late game the mana sink will win you the game eventually so it's probably not that bad. (Oh wait I just read the card. It's bad.)
Midnight Assassin - Borderline. Flying and deathtouch means it will trade for basically anything, but that's about all it will do.
Murder - Cubeable. This is the very definition of cubeable. It does exactly what is says on the tin. The 2 mana spells edge it out in most cubes, still no one will fault you for paying Murder.
Revel Ruiner - Cubeable. Connive is pretty good, and this is one of the good connive creatures. It basically is a 4/2 menace for 4 mana which loots you a card. Sure sometimes it is a 3/1, but that's because you got rid of a useless land.
Summary: Extract the Truth is a good direction black is taking, but I feel will mostly be relegated to sideboards. Fake Your Own Death could be worse than I think, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt for the treasure. Girder Goons seems like a fine top end. Murder is good and Revel Ruiner is also pretty strong. Other than that, there are a bunch of ok borderline cards that I wouldn't fault anyone for trying out.
Backstreet Bruiser - Borderline. Getting 2 or more counters down in Pauper isn't going to be all that realistic, because although there are most counter matter cards being printed, the majority of Pauper cube staples don't care about counters. As a road block this is only going to stop some stuff as fliers can still get in and a lot got ground creatures have a decent amount of power. Plus this is in Strangle range. I feel like there is a market for defenders in blue, but this isn't it.
Brokers Veteran - Cubeable. It's a 2/1 in blue with a decent upside for 2. The biggest limiting factor for this will be having another creature in play to use the counter. As early game it's basically Faerie Seer and Cloudfin Raptor as blue's cheap creatures. But a shield counter's utility will begin to shine in the mid game. I think Brokers Veteran is niche but dismissing it as borderline seems like a mistake.
Case the Joint - Bad. Hieroglyphic Illumination is good because you can easily trade it in for a card. And even then it's not that good. Looking at the top of each player's library is cute, but ultimately has does very little to actually impact the game state.
Disdainful Stroke - Borderline. A hard counter for 4 mana value spells is fine, you'd play it if the meta ever started to revolve around expensive spells. But in this timeline isn't not really anything.
Echo Inspector - Cubeable. Connive is good. Looting and getting a +1/+1 counter are fine mechanics on their own. This has the potential to be a 4 mana 3/4 flier that loots on etb, and that is a realistic proposition. It passes the Azure Drake test with flying colours and the Phantom Monster test. I have been impressed with the connive creatures and I am probably going to test all the good ones out.
Expendable Lackey - Bad to Borderline. I was going to say this is a bad card, but then I remembered that it can be milled away and still do something. The base body is bad and it is no Doomed Traveler because you have to pay mana to get the token. There are plenty of more impactful 1 mana creatures. I guess this plays nicely with Casualty 1.
Majestic Metamorphosis - Borderline. 3 mana is too much for a so-so trick. For 2 mana then this would be worth considering, but until then... It does make the creature into an artifact for what it's worth.
Make Disappear - Cubeable. For what it's worth Quench is a fine card and this is Quench with strictly upside. I am going to put this into my cube, but I don't know if other people are. The dampener is on this card a little bit because of Lose Focus being even better than this. Still, I like this more than Syncopate in the 2 mana counter slot.
Obscura Initiate - Borderline. It's not bad in my mind because of the potential lifelink, but it's certainly not good.
Psionic Snoop - Bad. Maybe connive is better on this creature than it looks and maybe flash gives it some subtle edge that I'm not seeing, but this is certainly the worst of the connive cards. It feels like this was going to be 2 mana, but for limited reasons it got bumped up to 3 mana.
Rooftop Nuisance - Cubeable. 3 mana double frosty tap, draw 2 for for the low cost of Casualty 1. This card looks like it plays better than it reads. I think this is likely to be played along side white for the Doomed Travelers of this world. Or maybe green, pitching a Lone Wolf.
Run Out of Town - Borderline. Again, I can't call this bad, but it is overcosted. This is worse than it could be also because the owner of the targeted permanent gets to chose whether this goes top or bottom.
Security Bypass - Borderline. This basically turns your creature into a growing Looter il-Kor, but without the downside of shadow. This seems good on the hexproofers, but otherwise it has the classic aura downside for getting 2-for-1ed. It is similar to Spectral Flight and Aqueous Form — if it can stick it seems very good, but ultimately will draw the ire of too much removal.
Sewer Crocodile - Borderline. I am reserving bad for actually bad cards today, but this is not good. 6 mana is just too much to pay for something that doesn't Dinrova Horror. In saying that 6 toughness is a healthy amount and being able to attack unblockably for four mana will end games, but paying 4 mana to do so might be a bit steep.
Witness Protection - Cubeable. 1 mana is cheap, and actual creature removal is rare for blue. Turning a problematic creature into a Legitimate Businessperson is great palliative solution. It deals with the symptom: a problematic creature; but doesn't deal with the cause: there is still a creature body there.
Summary: There is a decent amount of good blue cards this set, but no staples. Brokers Veteran is niche but fine. Echo Inspector and Rooftop Nuisance are probably the sleeper cards in blue. Make Disappear and Witness Protection are probably good enough for most people's cubes, but don't stand out as exceptional.
Backup Agent - Weak to Borderline. While it is not strictly true that this is a weak card, it lacks behind other white 2 mana value creatures. Having Ephemerate utility pushes it up slightly more, the reality is most of the time the counter isn't going to matter.
Boon of Safety - Borderline. Mostly you'd just want God's Willing or Apostle's Blessing. The good thing about shield counters is you can jam them on an earlier turn and still receive the benefit. Let's wait and see how shield counters play before giving a final verdict.
Brokers Initiate - Borderline. This is probably going to be the most interesting one of this cycle because 0/4s for one are really good at blocking non-evasion threats while staying out of Strangle range. The downside of being a 0/4 is negated when you can turn it into a 5/5 threat late game. This card is probably decent, but a little bit too narrow for most cubes.
Buy Your Silence - Weak. Well, it is technically playable; 5 mana is just too much. Especially compared to Oblivion Ring, which these days is on the weaker end of white answers as most of the time you'd prefer a 2 mana answer that deals with creatures only.
Celebrity Fencer - Borderline to Cubeable. Token spam is a meta strategy. This comes down on turn 4 and is a bit small to begin with, but between Battle Screech and Triplicate Spirits this has the potential to be a legitimate threat. Still this has no rules text other than alliance and is still vulnerable to removal (which is the most cliché piece of pauper criticism).
Dapper Shieldmate - Weak to Borderline. The shield counter doesn't balance out the fact that this is a weak card. It only gets +2/+0 during your turn. I'm giving the shield counter the benefit of the doubt, but I don't foresee many people running this.
Gathering Throng - Bad* with the caveat that this is ran in singleton. A vanilla 3/1 for 3 is pretty bad when there are 3/1 for 2 with upside. It goes without saying that this gets pretty good when there are tutorable targets.
Hold for Ransom - Cubeable. Pacifism with a minor downside is still strong card. In control strategies the opponent with more realistically reach 7 mana making this worse, but even then they only get a card out of it, not their creature back. In aggro strategies, this may as well not have any downside. This is just better than Trapped in the Tower which I personally run. So yeah, I think this is a good card. Also you can enchant one of your own creatures to (badly) cycle a card.
Inspiring Overseer - Staple. This along side that green creature we'll get to are probably the two cards of the set everyone is going to be playing from this set. Cloudkin Seer is already a good card. The colourshift to white is a big deal because white has historically been lacking in card draw, and having a decent evasion treat that cantrips goes a long way to patching up one of white's greatest weaknesses: running out of cards. And one extra life to boot never hurt any one.
Kill Shot - Borderline. You'd play it if better answers didn't exist.
Raffine's Guidance - Cubeable. About on par with Sentinel's Eyes because you don't have to worry about running out of resources, but Eye's provides vigilance and costs less mana to bring back. Any cheap white aura that negates auras' typical downside is probably going to be good enough. While I don't see this running away with games — it isn't that much better than Leonin Scimitar — it is going to find a home in white aggro somewhere.
Raffine's Informant - Cubeable. Quite a bit better than Fissure Wizard. I'm not sure how strong looting is in white, but I suspect it's pretty decent. The upside of this card is quite good, you get a 3/2 for 2 and loot a bad card from your hand, but even in the case where you don't do that, you still get a 2/1 and a looted land. I suspect this is going to find a home is quite a few cubes.
Revelation of Power - Borderline. The upside on this is very good, lifelink and flying allow for both strong offensive and defensive plays — a big life point swing can be no joke in a lot of games. Still that's looking at this card optimistically. Realistically, their aren't going to be many creatures with counters running about, so in those cases it is just going to be a bad combat trick. The ceiling for this card is decent, but the floor is low. And most cases it's not going to be reliable either. Now if this was one mana, we'd been talking...
Sky Crier - Bad. Healer's Hawk is good because it is so cheap. 2 mana is probably too expensive. The activated ability is cute, but giving your opponent draw is just not worth it.
Speakeasy Server - Cubeable. 3 power fliers for 5 have been on the narrow end of cubeable. Most cubes out compete them, but there are some cubes where it is the right fit. We've seen this lifegain ability of a few creatures before, although in most cases they have countered themselves, but none of them have had flying except Shepherd of Heroes. Shepherd of Heroes is close in effect. Party is such an annoying mechanic to draft around in pauper cube, but the guaranteed 2 life and 4 toughness make the Shepherd better on an empty board. Speakeasy Server is more for token spammed boards where it can be gaining in the upwards of 4 life, putting you out of burn range and providing a decent flier to actually close out games.
You've certainly made me think about the Torment. That may come in. The Raid I already brought in. I like the Oath, but I just dont know what id cut for it. Edit: maybe Triplicate Spirits?
I don't think Imperial Oath is as good as Triplicate Spirits. Their effects don't really compete with each other because of convoke. Triplicate Spirits was an all star in M15 limited. Imperial Oath seems more like a Signets payoff. Oath probably requires more defensive enablers. It's so rare that we see a scry 3 tacked onto an already decent card so it can be easy to overlook.
I have played a lot of NEO limited since it has been released and I just wanted to point to some cards, that have performed way better than I initially thought:
1) Clawing Torment: When I first saw this, I pretty much thought it would be garbage, but in very aggressive deck this deck has been a real power house. It's kind of similar to Stab Wound, which is still a pretty decent card today, even though I did cut it from my cube a long while a ago. A huge difference though is the "can't block"-clause, which for an aggressive deck, can be all you need to deal with a creature. Sure there are a lot of ways to get rid of creatures for a very low mana investment, but if you are looking to be ahead in the damage race the "free" Curse of the Pierced Heart can be way more beneficial to that plan than actually killing the creature. In addition to that you can of course also just kill your opponents X/1 early drop for as little as 1 mana. Compared to Dead Weight or Disfigure it's relevant at any stage of the game as it can even help you to enable an attack through a big blocker.
2) Okiba Reckoner Raid: Actually good 1 mana creatures at common rarity are still kind of rare. At first I thought that having "Suspend 2" on a small creature would be too much of a downsight and in the case of Era of Enlightenment and The Modern Age it kind of is, but mostly because there are simply better things you can do for 2 mana, while turn 1 remains a spot where barely anything happens in pauper cube. This safely drains 2 life and the 2/2 Menace guy can be really annoying. The "Vehicle"-clause it obviously just flavour text, but it also is in NEO limited for the most part and doesnt affect this cards rating. If you are looking for good aggressive black 1 mana creatures, I think, that this ia a really decent candidate.
Clawing Torment does seem good when your the beatdown. Disabling a blocker and having a Stab Wound-esque effect in addition does sound lucrative when you put it like that. Obviously, when you're on defence it is a dead card so I see it more of a sideboard option.
I've been watching some constructed pauper videos and I've seen Okiba Reckoner Raid at work. Drain 2 for 1 mana that yields a 2 power evasion creature is pretty good. Sure it's a little slow, but you shouldn't underestimate how relevant menace is. I am going to run this as well as Moon-Circuit Hacker from this set.
I wrote most of a set review of Neon Dynasty before the set released, but then I got busy. I'm wondering if I should just release the review without modifying it? I only got part way to the artifact section and didn't get to sagas, not that there was much to say about them. TL;DR sagas are too slow except for Okiba Reckoner Raid, and the Modern Age is fine in control mirrors, but most games want a blocker asap.
For green creatures with mana value for I run: Bannerhide Krushok - 4/4 trample with upside. The main reason I run this over the others is it doubles at a main deckable combat trick which makes turns more interesting. The wolf that makes food is tempting too. Scavenge gives the green deck something to do with it's mana lategame. Blastoderm - What can I say, it's a staple. Occasionally, you play against tokens and it's bad, but almost all of the time it's going to be the best 4 mana play you can do in green. Imperiosaur - A 4 mana 5/5 with downside. When this works it is good. I can see some justification for not running this with mana elves and non-basics galore, but this card has always been good for me. Jade Guardian and Primal Huntbeast - The hexproofers. I know Al_Z_Heimer doesn't run these because of unfun play patterns. I personally like these cards and this is where most of the flex slots go to. The play pattern is quite simple, land one of these then modify it with auras, counters and equipment. Bonus points if that is Armadillo Cloak. What I like about these cards is they encourage proactive plays, deathtouch, combat tricks and enchantment removal. At the same time I glad Wizards switched to ward because the format really doesn't need many of these before they become a problem. Prenumbra Spider - So I'm a spider, so what? is what this card basically says. It's another staple and nearly always amazing. Basically, the Giant Spider we need. Sarulf's Packmate - One of the weaker mana value 4 creatures, but still decent. A cantrap 3/3 is fine in most match ups and the foretell is nice utility, but this card doesn't do much more than fill out a curve when nothing better is available. Wickerbough Elder - One of the best pieces of artifact and enchantment hate. This is main deckable, but not terribly exciting. It can be a bit of a dead card in some match ups as it is a Hill Giant in those games. Still this card can be exactly the right answer in other games, so if you play with sideboards I highly rate this. Trumpeting Herd - This is the other best 4 mana play in green. I mean, it's 6 total power and toughness respectively for 4 mana with very little downside, that should simply be enough convincing. Mwonvuli Acid-Moss - While not a 4 mana creature, this is a viable 4 mana green play. I still like this card. It probably doesn't fit into most 360 card cubes. But for me it's Stone Rain and ramp in one. It's good of the back of mana elves and is one of the few land destruction effects which doesn't feel plain mean, probably because your actually advancing your board state rather than just blowing up lands. Hooting Mandril - Not technically a 4 mana play, but functionally is. This doesn't really synergise with mana elves at all, but still is decent as a curve topper for some decks especially ones that fill their graveyard that don't already have a delve card in them. Hooting Mandril is fine and it wouldn't be the first 4 mana card I'd cut, but can often feel a bit lacking.
Honourable mention: Festerhide Boar - This was the most recent cut. If it works it's great as a 5/5 trample 4 mana creature. But I found it to be too conditional as either it's on the chonk chart or it's a small fart, with relatively little control on your behalf to which.
Arcbound Slasher - Seems good in a deck full or artifact creatures, otherwise not really. 5 mana is a bit prohibitive, but being able to recoup your losses when this dies more than makes up for it. The riot fits this card well mechanically but not thematically. Boarderline, (cubeable with a good amount of artifact creatures).
Arcbound Tracker - Less exciting of a modular creature than Arcbound Slasher. This plays into the sets mechanics well intersecting between storm and artifact creatures. As a pauper card it is well below curve with no synergy, and is only ok with lots of artifacts. The storm is hard to pull off in pauper singleton, and I doubt this is on of the the pay-offs you'd play in that case anyway. Sort of similar to Spellgorger Weird, but I like the weird more since it is more consistent. Menace means this is a problem creature if it ever gets big. Borderline (mostly because of synergies).
Battle Plan - Expensive for what it does. Sort of acts as a overpriced equipment that you don't have to pay for once it gets going, the real downside is it is power only and only activates during your turn. 4 mana is a lot. Bad to borderline. (It's not that bad but it isn't good either.)
Faithless Salvaging - I feel like this card was costed at 1 mana, but ended up being way too good, and now is basically mediocre except as a madness enabler. Bad, (cubeable with madness, because then it is an enabler and a card filter).
Galvanic Relay - Very good storm payoff. Problem is storm is lacking sufficient singleton support, and storm doesn't have cross synergies with other strategies. Bad all the way to staple, really depends on whether you enforce the singleton rule or not to support storm.
Gargadon - Sort of a red Errant Ephemeron. Flying is a bit better than the extra power/toughness and trample, but in saying that, this looks good. Very good in fact. It's going to hit hard, or at the very least demand and answer (preferably at instant speed). Not bad for 2 mana and 4 turns. Cubeable, (potential to be upgraded to staple, but let's not be too hasty).
Gouged Zealot - There have been a string of 4 mana value 4/3's in red recently and this is the best of the lot. Reach is a nice keyword to have, though it does nothing on offence. Much better than Flummoxed Cyclops since Gouged Zealot actually knows how to block. I guess its time to talk about delirium. It's a whatever mechanic for pauper cube. There simply isn't much in the way of card hitting the graveyard that aren't creatures, instants or sorceries. The upside of this card's delirium isn't insignificant either, just a cheeky 1 damage to each creature defending player controls isn't nothing to sneeze at. But realistically this card alone isn't worth warping deck-building for. Borderline, (would be cubable if delirium was more reliable).
Lightning Spear - Basically an over-costed Lightning Strike/Searing Spear with a bad equipment attached. (hey, it gives trample.) Bad to Borderline. (Really need a more fine grained rating system.)
Mine Collapse - If 5 damage was a premium for removal this would see more play. Good at killing Imperiosaurs, but there isn't much that a Flame Slash can't already kill, so it doesn't really justify the four mana price tag (or 1 mountain). Plus is can't deal damage to players which is kind of red's whole thing. Cubeable (more of a red control card).
Mount Velus Manticore - This is one of the most Modern Horizons 2-esque cards. Not keyword jamming this time, instead finds as much overlap is archetypes as possible. Borderline (it's only an ok madness enabler.)
Revolutionist - Hey, it's Anarchist! I mean red Archaeomancer. Without madness this is a little bit on the expensive side for that ability. Another version of this helps for setting up Ephemerate loops. With madness this is well costed and can be used to recoup losses from earlier discards by accruing card advantage. Borderline, (Cubeable with madness).
Skophos Reaver This card is good even without madness. Basically a Brazen Wolves reprint, but with upside. Staple (it's strictly better than a card already found in most red sections).
Viashino Lashclaw - I get it, it enables madness (and I guess delirium). Bad to borderline (can't bring myself to call a 2/2 for 2 with upside bad), (cubeable with madness).
Overall: Madness cards are fine and there are more madness enablers. Skophos Reaver is very good. Gargadon is pretty decent. There are lots mechanic mashups and in-jokes in this section.
Arcbound Mouser - Cute but doesn't do much. Being an artifact creature means there is potential synergy, but frankly the sum of the artifact deck's parts are not enough by themselves compared to existing non-artifact options. And the whole of the artifact deck is not cohesive. You end up with a few alright metalcraft cards, a few affinity for artifact cards and a whole lot of junk to make those cards playable to begin with. I will shout out to Cranial Plating for being awesome, but that isn't enough to cut it right now. We'll need to wait until the artifact components can stand on their own. On the topic of Arcbound Mouser specifically, modular is nice way to retaining power on board while providing a one drop to kick-start your deck into action. But without other artifact support this is going to be a nothing card. Borderline.
Arcbound Prototype - Similar speal to Arcbound Mouser. It could be a good follow up to Court Homunculus. Still this relies heavily on having other artifact creatures in order to be more than a vanilla 2/2 for 2. In the artifact deck this is going to be a solid role player ensuring you have a relevant artifact body turn 2. Borderline.
Blacksmith's Skill - Fine combat trick for the artifact deck. Ok at blanking removal, but Emphemerate does that better. Borderline.
Break Ties - It can be many things, which gives it utility. However most of the modes aren't enough to justify 3 mana. The reinforce for 1 white mana is cheeky though, and frankly makes this a lot better than it looks. Still most cubes aren't going to have enough artifacts, enchantments or graveyard matters cards for this to do much in the average match, and when it does 3 mana is a lot to pay. Borderline.
Disciple of the Sun - Lifelink has consistently proven to be a good ability in pauper cube, where most decks are racing. Custodi Squire is a powerhouse and this is similar, though the Recover is substantial downgraded. 3/3 is the minimal acceptable stats on such a creature. Cubeable.
Fairgrounds Patrol - Vanilla 2/1 is not cutting it. Getting a Thopter for 2 mana is also pretty weak. Compare that to Doomed Traveler and the comparison is a bit more obvious. Weak.
Guardian Kirin - Good for with Triplicate Spirits. Still takes a while to grow and can easily be shut down with removal. Borderline.
Knighted Myr - All-round pretty janky. Adapt is kind of expensive. Temporary double strike hits well for a turn, but there aren't many good +1/+1 counter granting effects in pauper cube. Borderline.
Landscaper Colos - The tuck isn't relevant in most contexts. The body is big, but not that big and will easily die to most common pieces of removal. Basic landcycling isn't in demand since we've have heaps of common lands printed in recent years. Weak.
Late for Diner - What is there to reanimate? Food token gets imaginary flavour points. Borderline.
Lens Flare - I guess if the artifact deck did exist this would be good in it. Borderline.
Marble Gargoyle - White strictly better Wind Drake. Pumping toughness means it can survive combat I guess. But it's another lacklustre artifact creature. Weak.
Piercing Rays - Ok, but not instant speed. The foretell allows for some decent aggressive play, despite being quite expensive. Borderline.
Soul of Migration - I have to remind myself that in some people's cubes flicker decks are strong. Cubeable.
Unbounded Potential - One potential source of counters. Kind of weak, but this can make for some big plays in combat. Borderline.
Summary: Lots of borderline cards, especially the arcbound cards. Most of these are weak by themselves, but have to be given additional consideration for their potential synergies.
Blue
Aeromoeba - Can hit hard. Discard enabler. Overall good and providing synergy, but by itself it is just a over costed flier. Borderline.
Burdened Aerialist - Makes treasure, can have temporary flying. It's competing against quite a lot of good 3 mana value creatures being in blue. I feel that the treasure is worth more that it looks. Cubeable.
Etherium Spinner - Most decks don't have that many expensive cards so this is going to under perform a lot of the time. However it has potential to make a lot of flyiers in a slower environment. Borderline.
Floodhound - One drop mana sink. Kinda like it. Its going to eventually win a long game, just most games don't go long. Borderline.
Foul Watcher - A significantly strictly better Storm Crow. Surveil 1 is good to get things going. But overall it's going to just be a Storm Crow, Delirium is just a lot of hoops to jump through for only a little upgrade. Borderline.
Hard Evidence - Basically a blue Thraben Inspector. But I prefer 1/2s to 0/3s because you can team them up with other creatures for double blocks. Borderline.
Lose Focus - Strictly better Quench. Quench is playable, but still worse than most 2 mana counterspells. Cubeable.
Mental Journey - 6 mana is a lot to pay for 3 cards. Same rhetoric for Landscaper Colos in regards to basic landcycling. Weak.
Parcel Myr - It wants to be a role player. Borderline.
Phantasmal Dreadmaw - It's big, and dies to Incinerate, but I won't hold that against this. Even comes compete with trample. Staple.
Recalibrate - Discard payout. Similar to Repulse, but a lot more conditional. Borderline.
Shattered Ego - Seems fine for control. Tucking can essential time walk when you've stalled the board. Control definitely needs more early plays to gum up the board while it waits for Dinrova Horror or something. Cubeable.
So Shiny - So conditional, but that scry is so juicy. Borderline.
Steelfin Whale - Another affinity for artifacts pay-off. Borderline.
Summary: A bunch more borderline cards, holding in the tradition of Modern Horizons being a borderline set. We got one really good card out of this section (Phantasmal Dreadmaw).
Bone Shards - Good madness enabler. Overcosted otherwise. Good removal is in no shortage. Borderline, (staple with madness).
Cabal Initiate - A fine discard outlet. Threshold upgrades this late game. Is an early game madness enabler which is quite valuable. Borderline, (staple with madness).
Discerning Taste - Not many creatures big enough to turn this into a Murasa's Pulse. Three mana is a bit to pay for card selection. Borderline.
Gilt-Blade Prowler - Pretty bad unless you have discard synergies. With synergies it breaks turns into a card advantage engine, or at least allows you to break even. Borderline, (cubeable with good discard synergies).
Hell Mongrel - Both a discard outlet and a madness card! It's pretty good for getting the ball rolling. And it is also a huge threat by itself. Cubeable, (staple with madness.
Kitchen Imp - Pretty weak sauce without the discount. Flying means it will help finish a players off. Still it's on the small end for a madness creature. Borderline, (cubeable with madness).
Loathsome Curator - Most cubes have pretty slim top-ends so there typically isn't much room for cards like this. Still if you have the fodder this will do well. Menace makes this decent on offence as it can't be simply chump blocked. Being black means its immune to Doom Blade and Terror, though it still dies to Cast Down and can be rendered obsolete by Pacifism. Cubeable
Nested Shambler - Has potential to be bulky and explode into a storm of squirrels. But by itself, it isn't much to write home about. Borderline.
Sinister Starfish - Basically a sinister version of Sigiled Starfish. Surveil is probably stronger than scry. Sigiled Starfish is playable so I'd expect this to be as well. Black tends to have more aggro decks than blue so it might not be such a clean fit. Cubeable.
Tizerus Charger - The escape cost quite a bit. I expect most games not to last long enough for this to accrue that much value. The base rate isn't that good. Borderline.
Tourach's Canticle - Strips a hand of good cards. 4 mana is expensive, but this always removes the best card plus another random card (maybe there was two cards you really didn't want to see). A ode to Hymn to Tourach. Cubeable.
Tragic Fall - Strictly better than Last Gasp, which was already sort playable as a 23rd card for most black decks. In some ways hellbent is easier to enable than morbid, with the obvious other comparison being Tragic Slip. Cubeable.
Vermin Gorger - A mediocre sacrifice enabler. 2/2 for 2 is a standard random creature body. Borderline.
World-Weary - I guess you can enable delirium by cycling this. Weak.
Summary: The madness cards and discard enablers are intriguing.
I've been impressed by Garenbrig Paladin. "Can't be blocked by creatures power 2 or less" basically reads unblockable in most match ups. Adamant is easily playable off an Elvish Mystic. I put it in because it was strong in Eldraine limited and it still is good here. Sure, Garenbri Paladin can get answered like most threats, but the point is it has to get answered because it is going to race really well.
Combat Professor - Looks like a white Phantom Monster. Combat Professor is slightly worse at blocking, but better at attacking because you can choose where to apply the buff. I'm not sure if it's really what most people's white sections want, but still seems fine. You get the buff the turn you play it as well.
Eager First-Year - A playable 2 mana value play for the Boros decks, but is outclassed by most good 2 mana value creatures.
Bury in Books - 3 mana is on the expensive side, though 2 mana would be busted. Bricking a draw is fine which means that this can be compared to Temporal Spring. Though being mono-coloured and an instant help set it apart. I think that Bury in Books requires testing because it seems pretty decent in the right deck.
Frost Trickster is good. The only auto-include other than the lands in the set.
Resculpt. There are simply not enough treasure or clue tokens about to Resculpt. Turning a 1/1 into a surprise 4/4 looks like the best use case. Resculpt in response to creature removal is an ok use case. Shrinking opponents threats doesn't seem that likely to be worth it since most creatures aren't that much more threatening than a vanilla 4/4 and you could just play some hard removal in Resulpt's place.
Arrogant Poet - It attacks well. The life loss is steep, but notably optional. 2/1 means this has a weakness to Desert, unlike Fledgling Djinn. Arrogant Poet is certainly cubeable but doesn't stand out in any particular way.
Essence Infusion - Sort of a cheap Mark of the Vampire. Essence Infusion suffers from the same weaknesses as most auras but doesn't have the advantage of Mark of the Vampire of being extremely problematic when it sticks. Still, I could see Essence Infusion being playable in aggro match ups due to the life gain.
Lash of Malice - Comparable to Disfigure, the key difference being you can't shrink a creature in combat and expect your creature to survive as well, and you can pump an attacker in a pinch. Whether you prefer Lash of Malice to Dead Weight and Fungal Infection is up to personal preference. Lash of Malice is easily cubeable, though it is behind the premium Defile in terms of efficiency.
Leech Fanatic - Boot Nipper is just better. Though lifelink attackers are useful in races. The body is nothing special, but shores up the Dersert weakness. Boarderline cubable.
Mage Hunters' Onslaught - Could actually see this being the sleeper of the set. I prefer this to Bake into a Pie and Befoul as far as four mana options go. Then again maybe ye olde Eyeblight's Ending or Expunge is better in terms of efficiency. The life lost is only really relevant went you are the beatdown. Boarderline cubable.
Promising Duskmage - There aren't enough +1/+1 counter matters cards to synergise with this. And a vanilla 2/3 is very underwhelming.
Springmane Cervin - Better than Trufflesnout in most cases, though it might just be lacking 1 toughness from seeing play. (Most creature are to be fair.)
Elemental Masterpiece - Sort of a non-green Maul Splicer. Though since it's not green you probably can't afford it most games. Still signets exist so I wouldn't completely count this card out.
Lorehold Pledgemage - Playable, though not on the weaker end of 3 mana value creatures.
Make Your Mark - Sort of playable as a hybrid card. There is a functional reprint in red.
Moldering Karok Yeah, lifelink is a good mechanic in cube because aggro decks can't ignore it. So this card is playable.
Prismari Pledgemage - I prefer Skyclave Squid in it's place since red doesn't use the blocker and it's much easier to get the squid to attack.
Quandrix Pledgemage - Ok as a blue Spellgorger Weird. The double hydrid mana is actually a bit rough to cast because green has so few instants and sorceries.
Relic Sloth - Good combination of keywords and stats, unfortunately it is in Boros.
Silverquill Pledgemage - One toughness is rough. Flying and lifelink are both good key words though.
Spectacle Mage - Strong abilities, unfortunately most 5 mana value or greater instants and sorceries are bad.
Stonebound Mentor 3/3 for 3. Unfortunately the rules text is rarely relevant, which is doubly bad for being a gold card.
Teach by Example - Interesting, but ultimately not going to do much.
Maybe when we get some good ward creatures (mostly because ward is less restrictive than hexproof) will Orcish Lumberjack be good. Ramp targets just aren't that good at common since everything can be answered for little mana and setting yourself back a land will cost more in the long run. Orcish Lumberjack has never been good for me when I've tried it out.
As Al said good cheap countermagic isn't getting printed much of late. The most recent decent countermagic printed was Quench which is worse than both Miscalculate and Mana Leak. So a lot of what made blue historically good isn't getting printed for Standard-legal sets and creatures have gotten much better so the colour pie has shifted to compensate. Black can directly deal with planeswalkers these days rather than it's shtick being just creature destruction. Not that planeswalkers mean much to Pauper.
Icehide Troll - Seems pretty good if you play with snow-covered lands. Icehide Troll seems to be fine on curve not really want you want to see against aggro, but really shines in the late game as a mana sink. Often with green you can generate mana quickly, but you quickly reach the point where you have more mana than you know what to do with so any decent mana sinks are welcome. Grim Draugr is similar in terms of being a mana sink. Still seems kind of awkward to turn your lands into the snow-covered versions for a few marginal cards. Arcum's Astrolabe seems fine. Frostwalla is basically a worse version of Icehide Troll. Iceberg Cancrix seems ok as well. Chilling Shade I guess. Chillerpillar is fine in midrange, but maybe a bit slow. Winter's Rest is actually good. And that's about it for cards that care about snow lands. And Skred. Oh and that one zombie from Ice Age Gangrenous Zombies. Basically going snow is still marginal except for Winter's Rest; and Icehide Troll is one of the the better of the lot.
Bound in Gold - Better than Arrest. Not as good as Oblivion Ring because it's easier to drop an aura with Shelter, Ephemerate or something than it is to destroy an enchantment (since enchantment destruction is typically too narrow for most decks).
Gods' Hall Guardian - Divvying up to cost of a 6 mana 3/6 vigilance is as good as plainscycling of Noble Templar or cycling 1 of Imposing Vantasaur. All the effects allow you to mitigate the holding a dead card in hand, while still allowing you to play a decent doorstop. I've played a bit of Noble Templar in particular and I'm convinced it's still a fine card, it just doesn't go in the same deck as Elite Vanguard.
Behold the Multiverse - Lets you hold mana while getting card draw. Sometimes I need to remind myself that Dimir control is a thing.
Littjara Kinseekers - If you can get the pay-off then a 4 mana 3/5 scry 1 is really good. Works well with token producers. Probably going to be played alongside soldiers which is the most ubiquitous creature type in white.
Grim Draugr - Good with snow mana if that is made available.
Tormentor's Helm - Red Leonin Scimitar with upside. It seems almost good, very nearly almost. Leonin Scimitar was fine but often would be the 24th card in a deck.
Guardian Gladewalker - Worth keeping in mind as a generic tribal enabler. I'm not sure what Guardian Gladewalker enables however.
Masked Vandal - Another 1/3 for 2, this time in green and with interesting abilities. I think it will shine when it is leveraged, but mostly will be lackluster.
I'm enjoying the spoiler much more than Zendikar Rising because I found party a dud. Where as this is more generic good stuff with a slight mechanical twist.
Aarakocra Sneak - Easy Staple. This is probably the best of the initiative cards because it is 4 mana and has evasion. 1/4 fliers are good when you have a powerful ability to back it up; 4 toughness keeps this out of bolt range, flying is good for gaining initiative and holding initiative.
I just had a look at the initiative rules and it is nowhere near as broken as monarch because you need to hold it throughout you opponents turn to get to get to your upkeep rather than just getting the bonus end of turn.On further reading: you delve the dungeon when you gain initiative and during your upkeep. I had to clarify it to myself because the initiative keyword is opaque. In terms of the Undercity: the two +1/+1 counter, 5 life loss and draw a card route seems like the go to. The other side of the dungeon is fine if your not going to use the buff and the life loss isn't a big deciding factor — it depends if you are going to use the skeleton. The middle chamber goading a creature is going to be more useful than people realise because you can force a bad attack. Plus if you go that route you get to decide which side to venture to. The final chamber will be strong in most decks. Chances are any creature you hit in the top 10 cards is going to be good with +1/+1 counters and hexproof until your next turn. There is a lot to say about initiative and the main point is it's a strong mechanic especially on a 4 mana creature.Blur - Bad. Three mana is so much for flicker. Cantripping is fine, but still you'd rather Ephemerate in this place.
Contact Other Plane - Bad. Instant speed draw is ok, but in order to make this card decent that relies on a dice roll. Failing the dice roll makes this an overcosted Hieroglyphic Illumination.
Draconic Lore - Bad. We have Treasure Cruise if you want to draw 3. Dragon is not a common creature type at common.
Dragonborn Looter - Borderline. Looting is strong. Two toughness is pretty nice, keeping this out of Fireslinger range. But you are better off with the 3 common looters (Looter il-Kor, Merfolk Looter and Thought Courier) as they don't have a mana cost associated with their looting.
Dream Fracture - Borderline. Counter magic with card draw is a dangerous combo. But three mana is a lot to pay for counter magic. Arcane Denial costs less, though gives your opponent and extra card; and still isn't good enough for pauper cube these days. It's nice to see this downshift, but I don't think it's going to make many lists.
Goggles of Night - Borderline. An Ophidian equipment at common has been a long time coming and this one essentially Opts each time it connects. It seems like it should be good, but it costs blue mana (I mean fair enough) and 2 to equip means juggling it around is mana intensive. Still this is a fine card and I'm sure it will see play in the right decks.
Gray Harbor Merfolk - Terrible. This card has the word commander on it which is an instant red flag.
Kenku Artificer - Borderline, maybe cubeable? This might actually be playable because of bridges, Ichor Wellspring and treasure. It gives flying too, so in the right deck in the right cube it's going to be pretty sweet for 3 mana.
Lapis Orb of Dragonkind - Terrible. Another red flag is seeing the word dragon in the rules text on a common. Dragons just don't really exist at common. Hypothetically if you could consistently scry this would be quite decent.
Nimbleclaw Adept - Borderline. Understandably wizards have to be extremely cautious with any card that could potentially repeatedly untap permanents. Once per turn is understandable, but also limiting it to sorcery speed shows a lot of caution on their behalf. Mana acceleration in blue is also potentially very dangerous. I'm taking the view that this card has the potential to be very good, but the average usecase this is going to be too clunky.
Oceanus Dragon -
BorderlineCubeable. 6 mana to getting expensive, but the etb upfront makes up a lot for the obvious critique: it dies to Doom Blade. 3/5 flier is pretty decent, but 4 power would have been chef's kiss. Goading a creature gives the dragon an easy snack. On second examination goading a creature doubles as removal if your opponent hasn't got an appropriate answer ready which bumps this up a pay grade.Pseudodragon Familiar - Bad. Three mana for flying is kind of bad when you could just play Heavenly Qilin.
Psychic Impetus - Bad. It's an aura. Goading your own creature is just kind of bad, even if you probably want to attack every turn already. Scry 2 can get out of hand if this card is not answered.
Run Away Together - Bad. Sure you can leverage this card to be ok, but wouldn't you rather Curfew nine times out of ten.
Sea Hag - Cubeable. This is just a good card. Aquatic Ingress is strong enough on it's own and Sea Hag has a strong etb, good enough to justify random flicker. Combined this could even be staple. Also adventure is much better when the creature doesn't cost something ridiculous. A 3/5 body is going to contribute to the battlefield.
Stunning Strike - Staple. Blue is pretty stacked this set. Blue is lacking hard removal at a reasonable cost. The fact you can use this as a combat trick is frosting of a already pretty decent cake. Sure 2 mana would be the dream, but I'll settle for 3 mana to have good removal in blue. Also being pauper you can just ignore the legendary text.
Sword Coast Serpent - Borderline/cubeable? This is almost great. Capsizing Wave is a pretty standard 2 mana Unsummon. The creature body closes games, no question about that. The only real downside is that it costs 7, which means it is unlikely to impact the aggro match ups. Maybe this is cubeable.
Tymora's Invoker - Bad. Well this card isn't inherently terrible, it is a mana sink that eventually wins you the game (by card advantage). But 8 mana is too much and the vanilla creature body is not particularly relevant to most board states.
Winter Eladrin - Staple. Strictly better Man-o'-War is an auto-include into any cube I'm building. Losing by Aether Adepts feels bad, man.
Young Blue Dragon - Borderline. This has all the components of a perfectly borderline adventure card. Neither side is really worth it, but you'll play it in a pinch.
Astral Confrontation - Bad. Hard removal is almost never terrible, but in 1v1 you can only reduce the cost by 1 for 4 mana which is still overcosted.
Bane's Invoker - Bad. I'm trying to be a harsher critic of cards since in recent years there has be a lot of power creep in the average power of commons, so this would have definitely been a borderline card in the old rubric. 2/2 for 2 is fine, but isn't enough to make cards playable these days. 8 mana is simply too much for an effect that doesn't win you the game. Not to say that the ability is bad, but it is very expensive. This is going to be a similar story with all the invokers.
Blessed Hippogriff -
BorderlineCubeable.Both halves of this card are fine, but neither excel. If either side was 1 mana less then this would be pretty good, but as it stands the flier comes down a little late and 2 mana is a lot to hold for a trick.Umm turns out I didn't read the card. 1 mana indestructible is fine as an adventure. Then the flier side is good offensively. 4 mana is okay costed considering that essentially an extra card strapped onto this.Dawnbringer Cleric - Borderline. 2 mana etb destroy enchantment with upside. This is good sideboard tech, or would be better in a environment with more enchantments. The other modes give this flexibility which is what a lot of enchantment hate cards are lacking. The 1/3 body is big enough to impact the board, but mostly will be blocking.
Flaming Fist - Terrible. The first truly awful card from the set. I don't know what to say about this other than there are no commanders in a non-commander format.
Flaming Fist Officer - Cubeable. The potential for growth on this card is impressive. This goes well with flicker and tokens. Three mana come down early and the ability compliments what white is typically trying to do. Your opponent has to respect the threat that this presents.
Goliath Paladin - Staple. Yeah... All of this initiative cards are bonkers. They are comparable to monarch cards, but the effect stacks with monarch! While to do think the pure card draw is stronger of the two, the cards that grant initiative are not weak either, but they are typically priced at 5 mana which means they do very little to impact burn match ups. The downside of these cards is always your opponent can play to the board as well and take the initiative. But they give a lot of late game staying power to a deck with relatively little cost. This card specifically is bulky are won't die to anything that isn't hard removal. Vigilance is fine at hold monarch and initiative, but doesn't do a lot to stop evasion creatures. 5 mana also puts it on the expensive end. Not too many people run Staunch Throneguard which is a comparable card.
Greatsword of Tyr - Cubeable. This equipment to cheap to cast and even cheaper to equip. Tapping creatures when attacking is good at holing the beatdown, plus counters are a bonus, not to mention that they stick around when to shuffle around the equipment. This does more or less what white wants from an equipment.
Guardian Naga - Borderline. The adventure part is fine, more sideboard tech, but crucially it deals with bridges. The creature part has undoubtably a strong ability, but costs 7, which is pretty much a death kneel for all cards much weaker than Ulamog's Crusher. I guess this has vigilance too.
Guiding Bolt - Weak. 3 mana removal with scry 2 seems like it should be very good, but it's simply too narrow.
Icewind Stalwart - Weak. Hill Giant is ummm pretty bad. Flicker attached potentially can be good, but this requires a lot of support to be consistently fine and probably isn't worth it in the long run.
Martial Impetus - Bad. This is probably the most viable on of the goaded enchantments for pauper cube because it is fine on your own creature. Still enchantments are typically bad and this is no exception. It's worth mentioning at this point that goading creatures forces them to attack it possible regardless of the number of players, so it does mechanically do something in 1v1.
Minimus Containment Borderline. Just run Oblivion Ring over this.
Pegasus Guardian - Borderline. 6 mana is a lot, but the tokens do have flying. The adventure is fine and the creature side plays into a flicker deck. But flicker decks never really needed much more late game because of all the card advantage they can accrue, they need more early game. Still this is probably the best six mana white creature we've seen to date. (Imperial Oath isn't technically a creature so I'm excluding it.)
Recruitment Drive - Borderline. This is too luck based. Either 50% of the time it's good and 45% it's bad. Of course there is 5% of the time where it is bonkers. It might be fine in terms of pure power level, but it seems too rage inducing.
Roving Harper - Cubeable. It cantrips. This seems to be a standard mechanic on white creatures these days. Creatures that replace themselves tend to be decent if they are appropriately costed. This is pretty solidly middle of the pack as far as these creatures go. Just remember that Llanowar Visionary and Inspiring Overseer are both 3 mana, but better.
Scouting Hawk - Bad. The land catch up mechanic is much weaker in lvl than multiplay because of the lack of consistency. If this was consistent it would be fine, but otherwise its a three mana 1/1 flier.
Steadfast Unicorn - Bad. The activated ability is in okay when you are going wide, unfortunately a 1/2 for 1 is just too small to impact the board in any significant way even with this ability. Many some swarm strategies have a use for this, but I'm just not seeing it.
Tabaxi Toucaneers - Bad. Myriad doesn't do anything in 1v1, and all your left with is a overcosted flier.
Wyrm's Crossing Patrol - Terrible. This is just a vanilla 1/1 in 1v1.
Your Temple Is Under Attack - Overcosted to save your team and puts your opponent in too much of an advantage by striking a deal because it essentially 2-for-1s yourself.
You're Confronted by Robbers - Cubeable. Captain's Call at instant speed or taps down your opponents board (probably). This seems very good. Maybe getting close to staple. We'll have to see...
Corrupt Court Official - Borderline. We've seen a few variations of this card and this doesn't really have much differentiating it from the pack. The main downside of this compared to Elderfang Disciple is Court Offical cannot be mutated onto. Of course there is also Virus Beetle which differentiates itself by being an artifact. The main problem with these creatures is that there isn't enough to do with the bodies in cube. 1/1s just don't make the biggest impact on board.
Crooked Custodian - Borderline. I wouldn't fault anyone for playing this, but compared to black's other 2 mana creatures this isn't going to get there. Compared to say Gluttonous Slug, this seems a the body isn't anything to write home about and it can't block the turn it comes down whereas the Slug is going to grow uncontrollably. A 3/2 body on a 2 mana creature isn't that impressive now.
Cutthroat Contender - Borderline. A vanilla 2/1 would be cubeable. Paying life to get the second point of life just isn't worth the stats. Sure it's a fine card when you are ahead, but in a race it is going to slow you down a lot paying life and also without the life cost this is just a vanilla 1/1.
Deal Gone Bad - Bad. 4 mana is simply too much for -3/-3. The mill flavourtext doesn't make up for the overcosted nature of this spell.
Demon's Due - Borderline. This sneaks into borderline because its instant. Even so 4 mana and 2 life is a lot to pay for scry 2 and draw 2. Read the Bones is good because 3 mana means it can come out as soon as turn 3, or you actually have left over mana to cast what you drew.
Dig Up the Body - Borderline. Causality seems deceptively good because you are getting essentially double the effect of whatever is written on the card. I think if there where better dedicated mill decks in Pauper cube this would be pretty good. I like this card's synergy with Gurmag Angler. Still you have to go out of your way to create fodder to use for the cost of Dig Up the Body.
Extract the Truth - Cubeable. This is the first good piece of dedicated enchantment hate in black outside of Feed the Swarm. This might not be played in everyone's main deck, but it definitely paves the way for more good enchantments to get printed as 4 colours now have answers available. Still there isn't too much outside of Flood, Pestilence and Armadillo Cloak on a hexproofer that specifically need this to deal with it. And basically all of whites removal. Doubling up as hand hate is pretty nifty too, so this shouldn't be a dead card.
Fake Your Own Death - Cubeable. So-so trick, but you get a treasure, so it's probably fine. Still maybe you play Undying Malice over this? It is an open question how useful the treasure is going to be.
Girder Goons - Cubeable. This card blitzed in in fine. Cast normally is fine. Having the flexibility to do either is better. It seems like it will find a home in a top end of a deck. The rouge token means that you get a lasting something out out blitzing and don't forget the card draw.
Incriminate - Borderline. It is worse that Diabolic Edict because you can't pop off a single creature, it has to have a friend. This gets better when there are more tokens and cheap bodies gumming up the board. I could definitely see a future where the meta shifts and this is cubeable.
Join the Maestros - Borderline. 5 mana is a lot and you have to sacrifice something with at least 2 power. Maybe this is a bit better than it looks — casualty is a bit difficult to evaluate at a glance. If there is good fodder for this then 2 big bodies is probably good enough for 5 mana. I just am not sure that there will be too many disposable 2 power or greater creatures.
Maestros Initiate -
Borderline. The activated ability is a lot on this card. And the body isn't that good either. 1 toughness is a big red flag. Maybe there are control decks that just want the body for chumping purposes. Late game the mana sink will win you the game eventually so it's probably not that bad.(Oh wait I just read the card. It's bad.)Midnight Assassin - Borderline. Flying and deathtouch means it will trade for basically anything, but that's about all it will do.
Murder - Cubeable. This is the very definition of cubeable. It does exactly what is says on the tin. The 2 mana spells edge it out in most cubes, still no one will fault you for paying Murder.
Revel Ruiner - Cubeable. Connive is pretty good, and this is one of the good connive creatures. It basically is a 4/2 menace for 4 mana which loots you a card. Sure sometimes it is a 3/1, but that's because you got rid of a useless land.
Summary: Extract the Truth is a good direction black is taking, but I feel will mostly be relegated to sideboards. Fake Your Own Death could be worse than I think, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt for the treasure. Girder Goons seems like a fine top end. Murder is good and Revel Ruiner is also pretty strong. Other than that, there are a bunch of ok borderline cards that I wouldn't fault anyone for trying out.
Blue
Backstreet Bruiser - Borderline. Getting 2 or more counters down in Pauper isn't going to be all that realistic, because although there are most counter matter cards being printed, the majority of Pauper cube staples don't care about counters. As a road block this is only going to stop some stuff as fliers can still get in and a lot got ground creatures have a decent amount of power. Plus this is in Strangle range. I feel like there is a market for defenders in blue, but this isn't it.
Brokers Veteran - Cubeable. It's a 2/1 in blue with a decent upside for 2. The biggest limiting factor for this will be having another creature in play to use the counter. As early game it's basically Faerie Seer and Cloudfin Raptor as blue's cheap creatures. But a shield counter's utility will begin to shine in the mid game. I think Brokers Veteran is niche but dismissing it as borderline seems like a mistake.
Case the Joint - Bad. Hieroglyphic Illumination is good because you can easily trade it in for a card. And even then it's not that good. Looking at the top of each player's library is cute, but ultimately has does very little to actually impact the game state.
Disdainful Stroke - Borderline. A hard counter for 4 mana value spells is fine, you'd play it if the meta ever started to revolve around expensive spells. But in this timeline isn't not really anything.
Echo Inspector - Cubeable. Connive is good. Looting and getting a +1/+1 counter are fine mechanics on their own. This has the potential to be a 4 mana 3/4 flier that loots on etb, and that is a realistic proposition. It passes the Azure Drake test with flying colours and the Phantom Monster test. I have been impressed with the connive creatures and I am probably going to test all the good ones out.
Expendable Lackey - Bad to Borderline. I was going to say this is a bad card, but then I remembered that it can be milled away and still do something. The base body is bad and it is no Doomed Traveler because you have to pay mana to get the token. There are plenty of more impactful 1 mana creatures. I guess this plays nicely with Casualty 1.
Majestic Metamorphosis - Borderline. 3 mana is too much for a so-so trick. For 2 mana then this would be worth considering, but until then... It does make the creature into an artifact for what it's worth.
Make Disappear - Cubeable. For what it's worth Quench is a fine card and this is Quench with strictly upside. I am going to put this into my cube, but I don't know if other people are. The dampener is on this card a little bit because of Lose Focus being even better than this. Still, I like this more than Syncopate in the 2 mana counter slot.
Obscura Initiate - Borderline. It's not bad in my mind because of the potential lifelink, but it's certainly not good.
Psionic Snoop - Bad. Maybe connive is better on this creature than it looks and maybe flash gives it some subtle edge that I'm not seeing, but this is certainly the worst of the connive cards. It feels like this was going to be 2 mana, but for limited reasons it got bumped up to 3 mana.
Rooftop Nuisance - Cubeable. 3 mana double frosty tap, draw 2 for for the low cost of Casualty 1. This card looks like it plays better than it reads. I think this is likely to be played along side white for the Doomed Travelers of this world. Or maybe green, pitching a Lone Wolf.
Run Out of Town - Borderline. Again, I can't call this bad, but it is overcosted. This is worse than it could be also because the owner of the targeted permanent gets to chose whether this goes top or bottom.
Security Bypass - Borderline. This basically turns your creature into a growing Looter il-Kor, but without the downside of shadow. This seems good on the hexproofers, but otherwise it has the classic aura downside for getting 2-for-1ed. It is similar to Spectral Flight and Aqueous Form — if it can stick it seems very good, but ultimately will draw the ire of too much removal.
Sewer Crocodile - Borderline. I am reserving bad for actually bad cards today, but this is not good. 6 mana is just too much to pay for something that doesn't Dinrova Horror. In saying that 6 toughness is a healthy amount and being able to attack unblockably for four mana will end games, but paying 4 mana to do so might be a bit steep.
Witness Protection - Cubeable. 1 mana is cheap, and actual creature removal is rare for blue. Turning a problematic creature into a Legitimate Businessperson is great palliative solution. It deals with the symptom: a problematic creature; but doesn't deal with the cause: there is still a creature body there.
Summary: There is a decent amount of good blue cards this set, but no staples. Brokers Veteran is niche but fine. Echo Inspector and Rooftop Nuisance are probably the sleeper cards in blue. Make Disappear and Witness Protection are probably good enough for most people's cubes, but don't stand out as exceptional.
White
Backup Agent - Weak to Borderline. While it is not strictly true that this is a weak card, it lacks behind other white 2 mana value creatures. Having Ephemerate utility pushes it up slightly more, the reality is most of the time the counter isn't going to matter.
Boon of Safety - Borderline. Mostly you'd just want God's Willing or Apostle's Blessing. The good thing about shield counters is you can jam them on an earlier turn and still receive the benefit. Let's wait and see how shield counters play before giving a final verdict.
Brokers Initiate - Borderline. This is probably going to be the most interesting one of this cycle because 0/4s for one are really good at blocking non-evasion threats while staying out of Strangle range. The downside of being a 0/4 is negated when you can turn it into a 5/5 threat late game. This card is probably decent, but a little bit too narrow for most cubes.
Buy Your Silence - Weak. Well, it is technically playable; 5 mana is just too much. Especially compared to Oblivion Ring, which these days is on the weaker end of white answers as most of the time you'd prefer a 2 mana answer that deals with creatures only.
Celebrity Fencer - Borderline to Cubeable. Token spam is a meta strategy. This comes down on turn 4 and is a bit small to begin with, but between Battle Screech and Triplicate Spirits this has the potential to be a legitimate threat. Still this has no rules text other than alliance and is still vulnerable to removal (which is the most cliché piece of pauper criticism).
Dapper Shieldmate - Weak to Borderline. The shield counter doesn't balance out the fact that this is a weak card. It only gets +2/+0 during your turn. I'm giving the shield counter the benefit of the doubt, but I don't foresee many people running this.
Gathering Throng - Bad* with the caveat that this is ran in singleton. A vanilla 3/1 for 3 is pretty bad when there are 3/1 for 2 with upside. It goes without saying that this gets pretty good when there are tutorable targets.
Hold for Ransom - Cubeable. Pacifism with a minor downside is still strong card. In control strategies the opponent with more realistically reach 7 mana making this worse, but even then they only get a card out of it, not their creature back. In aggro strategies, this may as well not have any downside. This is just better than Trapped in the Tower which I personally run. So yeah, I think this is a good card. Also you can enchant one of your own creatures to (badly) cycle a card.
Inspiring Overseer - Staple. This along side that green creature we'll get to are probably the two cards of the set everyone is going to be playing from this set. Cloudkin Seer is already a good card. The colourshift to white is a big deal because white has historically been lacking in card draw, and having a decent evasion treat that cantrips goes a long way to patching up one of white's greatest weaknesses: running out of cards. And one extra life to boot never hurt any one.
Kill Shot - Borderline. You'd play it if better answers didn't exist.
Raffine's Guidance - Cubeable. About on par with Sentinel's Eyes because you don't have to worry about running out of resources, but Eye's provides vigilance and costs less mana to bring back. Any cheap white aura that negates auras' typical downside is probably going to be good enough. While I don't see this running away with games — it isn't that much better than Leonin Scimitar — it is going to find a home in white aggro somewhere.
Raffine's Informant - Cubeable. Quite a bit better than Fissure Wizard. I'm not sure how strong looting is in white, but I suspect it's pretty decent. The upside of this card is quite good, you get a 3/2 for 2 and loot a bad card from your hand, but even in the case where you don't do that, you still get a 2/1 and a looted land. I suspect this is going to find a home is quite a few cubes.
Revelation of Power - Borderline. The upside on this is very good, lifelink and flying allow for both strong offensive and defensive plays — a big life point swing can be no joke in a lot of games. Still that's looking at this card optimistically. Realistically, their aren't going to be many creatures with counters running about, so in those cases it is just going to be a bad combat trick. The ceiling for this card is decent, but the floor is low. And most cases it's not going to be reliable either. Now if this was one mana, we'd been talking...
Sky Crier - Bad. Healer's Hawk is good because it is so cheap. 2 mana is probably too expensive. The activated ability is cute, but giving your opponent draw is just not worth it.
Speakeasy Server - Cubeable. 3 power fliers for 5 have been on the narrow end of cubeable. Most cubes out compete them, but there are some cubes where it is the right fit. We've seen this lifegain ability of a few creatures before, although in most cases they have countered themselves, but none of them have had flying except Shepherd of Heroes. Shepherd of Heroes is close in effect. Party is such an annoying mechanic to draft around in pauper cube, but the guaranteed 2 life and 4 toughness make the Shepherd better on an empty board. Speakeasy Server is more for token spammed boards where it can be gaining in the upwards of 4 life, putting you out of burn range and providing a decent flier to actually close out games.
Conclusion: White got a lot of good cards this set. Hold for Ransom, Inspiring Overseer, Raffine's GuidanceRaffine's Informant, Speakeasy Server are all the cubeable cards, with Inspiring Overseer being the stand out.
I don't think Imperial Oath is as good as Triplicate Spirits. Their effects don't really compete with each other because of convoke. Triplicate Spirits was an all star in M15 limited. Imperial Oath seems more like a Signets payoff. Oath probably requires more defensive enablers. It's so rare that we see a scry 3 tacked onto an already decent card so it can be easy to overlook.
Clawing Torment does seem good when your the beatdown. Disabling a blocker and having a Stab Wound-esque effect in addition does sound lucrative when you put it like that. Obviously, when you're on defence it is a dead card so I see it more of a sideboard option.
I've been watching some constructed pauper videos and I've seen Okiba Reckoner Raid at work. Drain 2 for 1 mana that yields a 2 power evasion creature is pretty good. Sure it's a little slow, but you shouldn't underestimate how relevant menace is. I am going to run this as well as Moon-Circuit Hacker from this set.
I wrote most of a set review of Neon Dynasty before the set released, but then I got busy. I'm wondering if I should just release the review without modifying it? I only got part way to the artifact section and didn't get to sagas, not that there was much to say about them. TL;DR sagas are too slow except for Okiba Reckoner Raid, and the Modern Age is fine in control mirrors, but most games want a blocker asap.
Bannerhide Krushok - 4/4 trample with upside. The main reason I run this over the others is it doubles at a main deckable combat trick which makes turns more interesting. The wolf that makes food is tempting too. Scavenge gives the green deck something to do with it's mana lategame.
Blastoderm - What can I say, it's a staple. Occasionally, you play against tokens and it's bad, but almost all of the time it's going to be the best 4 mana play you can do in green.
Imperiosaur - A 4 mana 5/5 with downside. When this works it is good. I can see some justification for not running this with mana elves and non-basics galore, but this card has always been good for me.
Jade Guardian and Primal Huntbeast - The hexproofers. I know Al_Z_Heimer doesn't run these because of unfun play patterns. I personally like these cards and this is where most of the flex slots go to. The play pattern is quite simple, land one of these then modify it with auras, counters and equipment. Bonus points if that is Armadillo Cloak. What I like about these cards is they encourage proactive plays, deathtouch, combat tricks and enchantment removal. At the same time I glad Wizards switched to ward because the format really doesn't need many of these before they become a problem.
Prenumbra Spider - So I'm a spider, so what? is what this card basically says. It's another staple and nearly always amazing. Basically, the Giant Spider we need.
Sarulf's Packmate - One of the weaker mana value 4 creatures, but still decent. A cantrap 3/3 is fine in most match ups and the foretell is nice utility, but this card doesn't do much more than fill out a curve when nothing better is available.
Wickerbough Elder - One of the best pieces of artifact and enchantment hate. This is main deckable, but not terribly exciting. It can be a bit of a dead card in some match ups as it is a Hill Giant in those games. Still this card can be exactly the right answer in other games, so if you play with sideboards I highly rate this.
Trumpeting Herd - This is the other best 4 mana play in green. I mean, it's 6 total power and toughness respectively for 4 mana with very little downside, that should simply be enough convincing.
Mwonvuli Acid-Moss - While not a 4 mana creature, this is a viable 4 mana green play. I still like this card. It probably doesn't fit into most 360 card cubes. But for me it's Stone Rain and ramp in one. It's good of the back of mana elves and is one of the few land destruction effects which doesn't feel plain mean, probably because your actually advancing your board state rather than just blowing up lands.
Hooting Mandril - Not technically a 4 mana play, but functionally is. This doesn't really synergise with mana elves at all, but still is decent as a curve topper for some decks especially ones that fill their graveyard that don't already have a delve card in them. Hooting Mandril is fine and it wouldn't be the first 4 mana card I'd cut, but can often feel a bit lacking.
Honourable mention:
Festerhide Boar - This was the most recent cut. If it works it's great as a 5/5 trample 4 mana creature. But I found it to be too conditional as either it's on the chonk chart or it's a small fart, with relatively little control on your behalf to which.
Red
Arcbound Slasher - Seems good in a deck full or artifact creatures, otherwise not really. 5 mana is a bit prohibitive, but being able to recoup your losses when this dies more than makes up for it. The riot fits this card well mechanically but not thematically. Boarderline, (cubeable with a good amount of artifact creatures).
Arcbound Tracker - Less exciting of a modular creature than Arcbound Slasher. This plays into the sets mechanics well intersecting between storm and artifact creatures. As a pauper card it is well below curve with no synergy, and is only ok with lots of artifacts. The storm is hard to pull off in pauper singleton, and I doubt this is on of the the pay-offs you'd play in that case anyway. Sort of similar to Spellgorger Weird, but I like the weird more since it is more consistent. Menace means this is a problem creature if it ever gets big. Borderline (mostly because of synergies).
Battle Plan - Expensive for what it does. Sort of acts as a overpriced equipment that you don't have to pay for once it gets going, the real downside is it is power only and only activates during your turn. 4 mana is a lot. Bad to borderline. (It's not that bad but it isn't good either.)
Faithless Salvaging - I feel like this card was costed at 1 mana, but ended up being way too good, and now is basically mediocre except as a madness enabler. Bad, (cubeable with madness, because then it is an enabler and a card filter).
Galvanic Relay - Very good storm payoff. Problem is storm is lacking sufficient singleton support, and storm doesn't have cross synergies with other strategies. Bad all the way to staple, really depends on whether you enforce the singleton rule or not to support storm.
Gargadon - Sort of a red Errant Ephemeron. Flying is a bit better than the extra power/toughness and trample, but in saying that, this looks good. Very good in fact. It's going to hit hard, or at the very least demand and answer (preferably at instant speed). Not bad for 2 mana and 4 turns. Cubeable, (potential to be upgraded to staple, but let's not be too hasty).
Gouged Zealot - There have been a string of 4 mana value 4/3's in red recently and this is the best of the lot. Reach is a nice keyword to have, though it does nothing on offence. Much better than Flummoxed Cyclops since Gouged Zealot actually knows how to block. I guess its time to talk about delirium. It's a whatever mechanic for pauper cube. There simply isn't much in the way of card hitting the graveyard that aren't creatures, instants or sorceries. The upside of this card's delirium isn't insignificant either, just a cheeky 1 damage to each creature defending player controls isn't nothing to sneeze at. But realistically this card alone isn't worth warping deck-building for. Borderline, (would be cubable if delirium was more reliable).
Lightning Spear - Basically an over-costed Lightning Strike/Searing Spear with a bad equipment attached. (hey, it gives trample.) Bad to Borderline. (Really need a more fine grained rating system.)
Mine Collapse - If 5 damage was a premium for removal this would see more play. Good at killing Imperiosaurs, but there isn't much that a Flame Slash can't already kill, so it doesn't really justify the four mana price tag (or 1 mountain). Plus is can't deal damage to players which is kind of red's whole thing. Cubeable (more of a red control card).
Mount Velus Manticore - This is one of the most Modern Horizons 2-esque cards. Not keyword jamming this time, instead finds as much overlap is archetypes as possible. Borderline (it's only an ok madness enabler.)
Revolutionist - Hey, it's Anarchist! I mean red Archaeomancer. Without madness this is a little bit on the expensive side for that ability. Another version of this helps for setting up Ephemerate loops. With madness this is well costed and can be used to recoup losses from earlier discards by accruing card advantage. Borderline, (Cubeable with madness).
Skophos Reaver This card is good even without madness. Basically a Brazen Wolves reprint, but with upside. Staple (it's strictly better than a card already found in most red sections).
Tavern Scoundrel - What. A. Joker. Bad.
Unholy Heat - Sure, delirium. Cubeable (but nothing special).
Viashino Lashclaw - I get it, it enables madness (and I guess delirium). Bad to borderline (can't bring myself to call a 2/2 for 2 with upside bad), (cubeable with madness).
Overall: Madness cards are fine and there are more madness enablers. Skophos Reaver is very good. Gargadon is pretty decent. There are lots mechanic mashups and in-jokes in this section.
Arcbound Mouser - Cute but doesn't do much. Being an artifact creature means there is potential synergy, but frankly the sum of the artifact deck's parts are not enough by themselves compared to existing non-artifact options. And the whole of the artifact deck is not cohesive. You end up with a few alright metalcraft cards, a few affinity for artifact cards and a whole lot of junk to make those cards playable to begin with. I will shout out to Cranial Plating for being awesome, but that isn't enough to cut it right now. We'll need to wait until the artifact components can stand on their own. On the topic of Arcbound Mouser specifically, modular is nice way to retaining power on board while providing a one drop to kick-start your deck into action. But without other artifact support this is going to be a nothing card. Borderline.
Arcbound Prototype - Similar speal to Arcbound Mouser. It could be a good follow up to Court Homunculus. Still this relies heavily on having other artifact creatures in order to be more than a vanilla 2/2 for 2. In the artifact deck this is going to be a solid role player ensuring you have a relevant artifact body turn 2. Borderline.
Blacksmith's Skill - Fine combat trick for the artifact deck. Ok at blanking removal, but Emphemerate does that better. Borderline.
Break Ties - It can be many things, which gives it utility. However most of the modes aren't enough to justify 3 mana. The reinforce for 1 white mana is cheeky though, and frankly makes this a lot better than it looks. Still most cubes aren't going to have enough artifacts, enchantments or graveyard matters cards for this to do much in the average match, and when it does 3 mana is a lot to pay. Borderline.
Disciple of the Sun - Lifelink has consistently proven to be a good ability in pauper cube, where most decks are racing. Custodi Squire is a powerhouse and this is similar, though the Recover is substantial downgraded. 3/3 is the minimal acceptable stats on such a creature. Cubeable.
Fairgrounds Patrol - Vanilla 2/1 is not cutting it. Getting a Thopter for 2 mana is also pretty weak. Compare that to Doomed Traveler and the comparison is a bit more obvious. Weak.
Guardian Kirin - Good for with Triplicate Spirits. Still takes a while to grow and can easily be shut down with removal. Borderline.
Knighted Myr - All-round pretty janky. Adapt is kind of expensive. Temporary double strike hits well for a turn, but there aren't many good +1/+1 counter granting effects in pauper cube. Borderline.
Landscaper Colos - The tuck isn't relevant in most contexts. The body is big, but not that big and will easily die to most common pieces of removal. Basic landcycling isn't in demand since we've have heaps of common lands printed in recent years. Weak.
Late for Diner - What is there to reanimate? Food token gets imaginary flavour points. Borderline.
Lens Flare - I guess if the artifact deck did exist this would be good in it. Borderline.
Marble Gargoyle - White strictly better Wind Drake. Pumping toughness means it can survive combat I guess. But it's another lacklustre artifact creature. Weak.
Piercing Rays - Ok, but not instant speed. The foretell allows for some decent aggressive play, despite being quite expensive. Borderline.
Soul of Migration - I have to remind myself that in some people's cubes flicker decks are strong. Cubeable.
Unbounded Potential - One potential source of counters. Kind of weak, but this can make for some big plays in combat. Borderline.
Summary: Lots of borderline cards, especially the arcbound cards. Most of these are weak by themselves, but have to be given additional consideration for their potential synergies.
Blue
Aeromoeba - Can hit hard. Discard enabler. Overall good and providing synergy, but by itself it is just a over costed flier. Borderline.
Burdened Aerialist - Makes treasure, can have temporary flying. It's competing against quite a lot of good 3 mana value creatures being in blue. I feel that the treasure is worth more that it looks. Cubeable.
Etherium Spinner - Most decks don't have that many expensive cards so this is going to under perform a lot of the time. However it has potential to make a lot of flyiers in a slower environment. Borderline.
Floodhound - One drop mana sink. Kinda like it. Its going to eventually win a long game, just most games don't go long. Borderline.
Foul Watcher - A significantly strictly better Storm Crow. Surveil 1 is good to get things going. But overall it's going to just be a Storm Crow, Delirium is just a lot of hoops to jump through for only a little upgrade. Borderline.
Hard Evidence - Basically a blue Thraben Inspector. But I prefer 1/2s to 0/3s because you can team them up with other creatures for double blocks. Borderline.
Lose Focus - Strictly better Quench. Quench is playable, but still worse than most 2 mana counterspells. Cubeable.
Mental Journey - 6 mana is a lot to pay for 3 cards. Same rhetoric for Landscaper Colos in regards to basic landcycling. Weak.
Parcel Myr - It wants to be a role player. Borderline.
Phantasmal Dreadmaw - It's big, and dies to Incinerate, but I won't hold that against this. Even comes compete with trample. Staple.
Recalibrate - Discard payout. Similar to Repulse, but a lot more conditional. Borderline.
Shattered Ego - Seems fine for control. Tucking can essential time walk when you've stalled the board. Control definitely needs more early plays to gum up the board while it waits for Dinrova Horror or something. Cubeable.
So Shiny - So conditional, but that scry is so juicy. Borderline.
Steelfin Whale - Another affinity for artifacts pay-off. Borderline.
Step Through - Just play Undo instead. Or Rushing River. Weak.
Counterspell - Still good. Staple.
Summary: A bunch more borderline cards, holding in the tradition of Modern Horizons being a borderline set. We got one really good card out of this section (Phantasmal Dreadmaw).
Bone Shards - Good madness enabler. Overcosted otherwise. Good removal is in no shortage. Borderline, (staple with madness).
Cabal Initiate - A fine discard outlet. Threshold upgrades this late game. Is an early game madness enabler which is quite valuable. Borderline, (staple with madness).
Discerning Taste - Not many creatures big enough to turn this into a Murasa's Pulse. Three mana is a bit to pay for card selection. Borderline.
Echoing Return - Good if you break the singleton rule. Raise Dead otherwise. Weak.
Gilt-Blade Prowler - Pretty bad unless you have discard synergies. With synergies it breaks turns into a card advantage engine, or at least allows you to break even. Borderline, (cubeable with good discard synergies).
Hell Mongrel - Both a discard outlet and a madness card! It's pretty good for getting the ball rolling. And it is also a huge threat by itself. Cubeable, (staple with madness.
Kitchen Imp - Pretty weak sauce without the discount. Flying means it will help finish a players off. Still it's on the small end for a madness creature. Borderline, (cubeable with madness).
Loathsome Curator - Most cubes have pretty slim top-ends so there typically isn't much room for cards like this. Still if you have the fodder this will do well. Menace makes this decent on offence as it can't be simply chump blocked. Being black means its immune to Doom Blade and Terror, though it still dies to Cast Down and can be rendered obsolete by Pacifism. Cubeable
Nested Shambler - Has potential to be bulky and explode into a storm of squirrels. But by itself, it isn't much to write home about. Borderline.
Sinister Starfish - Basically a sinister version of Sigiled Starfish. Surveil is probably stronger than scry. Sigiled Starfish is playable so I'd expect this to be as well. Black tends to have more aggro decks than blue so it might not be such a clean fit. Cubeable.
Tizerus Charger - The escape cost quite a bit. I expect most games not to last long enough for this to accrue that much value. The base rate isn't that good. Borderline.
Tourach's Canticle - Strips a hand of good cards. 4 mana is expensive, but this always removes the best card plus another random card (maybe there was two cards you really didn't want to see). A ode to Hymn to Tourach. Cubeable.
Tragic Fall - Strictly better than Last Gasp, which was already sort playable as a 23rd card for most black decks. In some ways hellbent is easier to enable than morbid, with the obvious other comparison being Tragic Slip. Cubeable.
Vermin Gorger - A mediocre sacrifice enabler. 2/2 for 2 is a standard random creature body. Borderline.
World-Weary - I guess you can enable delirium by cycling this. Weak.
Summary: The madness cards and discard enablers are intriguing.
Eager First-Year - A playable 2 mana value play for the Boros decks, but is outclassed by most good 2 mana value creatures.
Bury in Books - 3 mana is on the expensive side, though 2 mana would be busted. Bricking a draw is fine which means that this can be compared to Temporal Spring. Though being mono-coloured and an instant help set it apart. I think that Bury in Books requires testing because it seems pretty decent in the right deck.
Frost Trickster is good. The only auto-include other than the lands in the set.
Reject. Ehhh, playable. Sort of a mix of Mana Leak, Essence Scatter and Syncopate, but worse than them all.
Resculpt. There are simply not enough treasure or clue tokens about to Resculpt. Turning a 1/1 into a surprise 4/4 looks like the best use case. Resculpt in response to creature removal is an ok use case. Shrinking opponents threats doesn't seem that likely to be worth it since most creatures aren't that much more threatening than a vanilla 4/4 and you could just play some hard removal in Resulpt's place.
Waterfall Aerialist - This is the first ward creature. Still, it's worse than Illusionary Forces, Augury Raven and Shimmering Glasskite which is Waterfall Aerialist's competition for it's card slot. Heck, even Aven Fleetwing might be better.
Arrogant Poet - It attacks well. The life loss is steep, but notably optional. 2/1 means this has a weakness to Desert, unlike Fledgling Djinn. Arrogant Poet is certainly cubeable but doesn't stand out in any particular way.
Essence Infusion - Sort of a cheap Mark of the Vampire. Essence Infusion suffers from the same weaknesses as most auras but doesn't have the advantage of Mark of the Vampire of being extremely problematic when it sticks. Still, I could see Essence Infusion being playable in aggro match ups due to the life gain.
Lash of Malice - Comparable to Disfigure, the key difference being you can't shrink a creature in combat and expect your creature to survive as well, and you can pump an attacker in a pinch. Whether you prefer Lash of Malice to Dead Weight and Fungal Infection is up to personal preference. Lash of Malice is easily cubeable, though it is behind the premium Defile in terms of efficiency.
Leech Fanatic - Boot Nipper is just better. Though lifelink attackers are useful in races. The body is nothing special, but shores up the Dersert weakness. Boarderline cubable.
Mage Hunters' Onslaught - Could actually see this being the sleeper of the set. I prefer this to Bake into a Pie and Befoul as far as four mana options go. Then again maybe ye olde Eyeblight's Ending or Expunge is better in terms of efficiency. The life lost is only really relevant went you are the beatdown. Boarderline cubable.
Promising Duskmage - There aren't enough +1/+1 counter matters cards to synergise with this. And a vanilla 2/3 is very underwhelming.
Blood Age General - Again, there isn't support for this outside of Triplicate Spirits.
Fuming Effigy - Summit Prowler with upside. Flashback cards are played in red, but overall it's going to be a vanilla creature.
Grinning Ignus - This guy again. There isn't much to do with the mana in pauper. And vanilla creature body is very underwhelming.
Heated Debate - Fine, not that the counter clause is going to come up much. Demon Bolt is better.
Pigment Storm - Yeah, going to be worse than Searing Barrage nine times out of ten. And Searing Barrage isn't really played.
Pillardrop Warden - Notable for being a good reacher, though red mostly wants to attack.
Bayou Groff - You can Unearth this. That's about it.
Mage Duel - Could be fine alongside Ponder. I think is is playable.
Reckless Amplimancer - Can get buff. Still not going to out compete Green's existing 2 mana value creatures. Especially not Darkthicket Wolf.
Scurrid Colony - Eight lands is not realistic.
Springmane Cervin - Better than Trufflesnout in most cases, though it might just be lacking 1 toughness from seeing play. (Most creature are to be fair.)
Tangletrap - A better Plummet.
Blood Researcher - It's got potentual.
Elemental Masterpiece - Sort of a non-green Maul Splicer. Though since it's not green you probably can't afford it most games. Still signets exist so I wouldn't completely count this card out.
Infuse with Vitality - Fine but not outcompeting Putrid Leech and Consume Strength.
Lorehold Pledgemage - Playable, though not on the weaker end of 3 mana value creatures.
Make Your Mark - Sort of playable as a hybrid card. There is a functional reprint in red.
Moldering Karok Yeah, lifelink is a good mechanic in cube because aggro decks can't ignore it. So this card is playable.
Prismari Pledgemage - I prefer Skyclave Squid in it's place since red doesn't use the blocker and it's much easier to get the squid to attack.
Quandrix Pledgemage - Ok as a blue Spellgorger Weird. The double hydrid mana is actually a bit rough to cast because green has so few instants and sorceries.
Relic Sloth - Good combination of keywords and stats, unfortunately it is in Boros.
Silverquill Pledgemage - One toughness is rough. Flying and lifelink are both good key words though.
Spectacle Mage - Strong abilities, unfortunately most 5 mana value or greater instants and sorceries are bad.
Stonebound Mentor 3/3 for 3. Unfortunately the rules text is rarely relevant, which is doubly bad for being a gold card.
Teach by Example - Interesting, but ultimately not going to do much.
Thrilling Discovery - Boros Cathartic Reunion with upside. Seems cubeable.
Witherbloom Pledgemage - A 5/5 for 5 in black (or I guess green). Mostly isn't going to do enough, but still will be playable in a pinch.
Excavated Wall - Strictly better Steel Wall.
Lorehold Campus, Prismari Campus, Quandrix Campus, Silverquill Campus, and Witherbloom Campus - All of these are the best of their card slot and are staples. A mana fixing land that can scry as a mana sink is very good. Much better than the gain 1 life varieties. Also the lack of Ally symmetry doesn't bother me.
I'm not considering any of the learn cards and lessons since there are no good combinations other than the pest one.
Gods' Hall Guardian - Divvying up to cost of a 6 mana 3/6 vigilance is as good as plainscycling of Noble Templar or cycling 1 of Imposing Vantasaur. All the effects allow you to mitigate the holding a dead card in hand, while still allowing you to play a decent doorstop. I've played a bit of Noble Templar in particular and I'm convinced it's still a fine card, it just doesn't go in the same deck as Elite Vanguard.
Augury Raven - Strictly better Phantom Monster seems fine. Still sits in Incinerate range, so maybe not so hot against rush.
Behold the Multiverse - Lets you hold mana while getting card draw. Sometimes I need to remind myself that Dimir control is a thing.
Littjara Kinseekers - If you can get the pay-off then a 4 mana 3/5 scry 1 is really good. Works well with token producers. Probably going to be played alongside soldiers which is the most ubiquitous creature type in white.
Grim Draugr - Good with snow mana if that is made available.
Koma's Faithful- Vizkopa Vampire with upside. Desert and Arc Lightning certainly makes 1 toughness creatures weak. Though you could find a way to leverage the mill.
Withercrown - Cheap removal for control decks.
Hagi Mob - Another strictly better than Fire Elemental.
Tormentor's Helm - Red Leonin Scimitar with upside. It seems almost good, very nearly almost. Leonin Scimitar was fine but often would be the 24th card in a deck.
Guardian Gladewalker - Worth keeping in mind as a generic tribal enabler. I'm not sure what Guardian Gladewalker enables however.
Masked Vandal - Another 1/3 for 2, this time in green and with interesting abilities. I think it will shine when it is leveraged, but mostly will be lackluster.
Sarulf's Packmate - Good piece of card advantage.
Snakeskin Veil - More in line with Vines of the Vastwood than Ranger's Guile.
And of course the cycle of lands and all good.
The cards I'm seriously considering so far are Bound in Gold, Augury Raven (foretell could be better than it looks) Grim Draugr for the snow, Withercrown, Tormenter's Helm because it's almost good enough and Sarulf's Packmate.
I'm enjoying the spoiler much more than Zendikar Rising because I found party a dud. Where as this is more generic good stuff with a slight mechanical twist.