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.
Thank you Al_Z_Heimer for your response.
What are your guys and girls experience with the following cards. I am updating my cube and am not sure about some cuts/additions. Since the list of cards is rather long, just a grading from A-F would be fine. Thank you
Disfigure and Last Gasp are significantly better than Dead Weight and Mire's Grasp. The enchantment shrink is nowhere near as good as being instant speed here. There is little synergy for the enchantments and the permanent effect is nullified by the pace of most games. I would consider running both Dead Weight and Disfigure if you can find space because black tends to be quite thin on 1 mana answers. Whereas at 2 mana you begin to compete with Doom Blade and its ilk. Mana efficiency wins games.
On the topic of black removal, how to people rate Victim of Night and Rend Flesh? Victim of Night is 2 mana and gets most things that aren't Zombies, though costs 2 black so isn't easily splashable. And Rend Flesh gets most things. There tend to be less Spirits than Elves in cubes, so I prefer Rend Flesh over Eyeblight's Ending as my 3 mana black psuedo-destroy target creature spell of choice. Plus Rend Flesh is such a flavour win; one of the best designed cards of Kamigawa.
i guess you haven looked at my t2 for quite a while. the archetypes there are crossbreeds, so your not railroading. gy, discard, madness for example work together quite well.
Id say the main reason T1 is less interesting to draft, is because you know all the cards already. (for a seasoned drafter)
This is a lot of reading, but from glancing at the white section seems quite interesting. There are lots of varying strength and they seem to fluctuate with the game state. I haven't seem this list before, so I'll need to check it out in more depth later.
Overall the power to cost ratio falls off steeply at 5 in Green commons compared to higher rarity. Often my main metric for gaging commons is would I feel bad playing this if higher rarities are available and the answer overwhelmingly for this seems to be no.
As far as 5 drops go, most of them are outclassed by Green 4-drops which is a much better price point and you get Blastoderm! I find Stampeding Elk Herd never fails to give itself and everything else trample. Counting up your power and subtracting by your opponents toughness is the kind of maths Green wants to be doing.
I ran Sentinel Spider for a while. It was ok, until I realised that I could be saving mana and spending the extra mana on something like a Groundswell. The main thing that keep impressing me about Sentinel Spider is how it was always able to a relevant blocker while contributing on beatdown. Whereas Nessian Asp could only contribute to attacking or Blocking. I think I slightly prefer the extra power and trample of Tajuru Pathwarden over reach. While reach is an in demand ability for Green, additional power and trample contribute that much more to winning games that I'm in favour of Tajuru Pathwarden over Sentinel Spider for the limited card slot. Vigilance is a strong keyword for big green creatures.
Kavu Climber's not costed as a big creature, it's costed as a cantrap and needs to be treated as such. Then again we now have Silverback Shaman, Entourage of Trest and Excavating Anurid as bigger bodies with card draw attached. Kavu Climber definitely the no fuss version, but at the end of the day you're paying 2 additional mana for a Nessian Courser that draws a card, which is not that worth it. Being an etb give Kavu Climber some resistance to Man-o'-War.
Rubbleback Rhino can be really difficult for opponents to deal with and even without relevant auras and equipment. Rubbleback Rhino put on guard duty can totally brick out a game against non-fliers and non-shadowers. The limited amount of removal can be used to chomp evasion creatures, while all ground creatures must be this tall to fight. It is extremely rare to actually play against pumps spells as Rubbleback Rhino although I include a few in non-Green colours as a token gesture to deck builders.
I haven't had a chance to try out Silverback Shaman. It's very well costed as a cantrap. Still, it will feel bad to have Pacifism cast on.
On that note, Wickerbough Elder is the best honourary 5-drop. Destroying artifacts and enchantments can be devastating when it's attached to a decent body.
My fear with Entourage of Trest is you can get out-tempoed. I am very hesitant about any card which can potentially give my opponent free resources. Of course when you hold tempo Entourage of Trest is great. I'm still worried about how this card deals with the Flood matchup.
Excavating Anurid. I'm pretty happy trading lands for draw. The only time I don't want to be doing that is when I'm curving out into Maul Splicer. Also treshhold is another excuse to be running the Green Black selfmill cards.
On Peregrine Drake. I prefer Spire Golem as my never tap out blue flier. Actually, all the Golems from Darksteel are great. The cost reduction is stronger than untapping some lands in Blue inPauper Cube because there is never a shields down moment. 4 toughness on a flier is really something else. When I was trying out some drossier cards Azure Drake performed well and Spire Golem is a much better version than the Drake, assuming you play Islands. I thought a 2/4 would be much worse than Phantom Monster, however not dying to most Red removal is a big deal. The slower clock isn't too noticeable in a Blue shell. What I find impacts the deck most is losing one of my few creatures to other deck's filler cards. Even if am crushing in card advantage I still don't want to durdle against Red.
With the Drake itself, 2/3 flier is very unimpressive and you have to wait for turn 5 before the card is even playable. That's more or less 4 turns of a card sitting in the hand doing nothing. In a colour that cares deeply about colour advantage, I'm not sure if I want to include functionally dead cards into my deck because then I am losing on on virtual card advantage (the only CA that truely matters) for the first chunk of a game. At 5 I want to be playing my Cavalier of Gales. My non-Mulldrifter Blue 5 drop of choice is Clutch of Currents, mostly because I like beating people with Man-o'-Wars.
Edit: if I have ways of shipping Peregrine Drake out of my hand early, I'd be a bit more charitable towards it. Not sure if anyone plays See Beyond. Merfolk Looter is a clear choice, but some games you don't have time to stick the Looter and begin looting, you need to do stuff now. If I'm happy to throw away a card to a Specter, that's not a good sign of overall card strength.
Picking the best card in 4 and putting it into you hand is stronger than Omen of the Sea. I like Omen on it's own merits, but Impulse is clearly stronger. Sure no one is talking about Shimmer of Possibility, but it goes to show how much better being instant speed is in Blue. We're a bit short on strong Blue 2 mana instant cantraps. There's a gulf between Anticipate which is not regarded well even in Standard and Impulse which I regard strong. Omen of the Sea is the Serum Visions in this situation. Ok, cashing in for the scry 2 is decent, but I would take up front dig any day.
The limited card pool and the wildly varying strengths of cards is what stops niche themes from being explored on these threads. I was supporting Izzet Spells for a while, as well as G/W/x auras. Instants/flash are getting a healthy infusion with New Theros. Tribal themes tend to only have a few sets to work with, and most of those linear themes are balanced around cards at higher rarities, meaning we only get the dregs or something that had a very niche function. This is in contrast to more modular themes which don't require more of the same kind of card to be good (or even playable in some cases). Most Extort cards are playable, because they are aggressively costed and most decks can cast spells with leftover mana to spare. Also you have to find a group to play with and generally people are only just convinced to give Pauper a shot because you say 'these are the most busted commons in existence'. Also people's eyes light up when they realise how much better Blastoderm is compared to every other common. (Not quite, but it's going to be a few games before they lose to Vulshok Morningstar and Porcelain Legionnaire.)
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Opt b Opt's been strong for me.
Empty the Warrens c Scales well, but requires a lot to get going.
Frantic Search b Worse than Opt, but synergises well with a bunch of cards.
Gush c Would be much stronger if the singleton rule is broken.
Snap c Vapor Snag isn't that well positioned right now.
Pyroceratops c Scales ok, but then again has the whole dies to removal problem, and is too slow against aggro.
Spellgorger Weird b 3 mana positions this alright.
Stitched Drake a Requires a little set up. Very good value to mana.
Stormbound Geist c Mostly is a 2/2 for 3. Is much better in a flying meta.
Ahn-Crop Invader c Weaker than Splatter Thug and Blood Ogre. Hits hard with tokens.
Grim Initiate b Ok 1-drop if you're in the market.
Fencing Ace b Scales well.
Callous Dismissal d Not Man-o'-War enough.
Witching Well d Needs synergies to break the tempo.
Manamorphose b A 'free' cantrap is decent even without fixing.
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On the topic of black removal, how to people rate Victim of Night and Rend Flesh? Victim of Night is 2 mana and gets most things that aren't Zombies, though costs 2 black so isn't easily splashable. And Rend Flesh gets most things. There tend to be less Spirits than Elves in cubes, so I prefer Rend Flesh over Eyeblight's Ending as my 3 mana black psuedo-destroy target creature spell of choice. Plus Rend Flesh is such a flavour win; one of the best designed cards of Kamigawa.
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This is a lot of reading, but from glancing at the white section seems quite interesting. There are lots of varying strength and they seem to fluctuate with the game state. I haven't seem this list before, so I'll need to check it out in more depth later.
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As far as 5 drops go, most of them are outclassed by Green 4-drops which is a much better price point and you get Blastoderm! I find Stampeding Elk Herd never fails to give itself and everything else trample. Counting up your power and subtracting by your opponents toughness is the kind of maths Green wants to be doing.
I ran Sentinel Spider for a while. It was ok, until I realised that I could be saving mana and spending the extra mana on something like a Groundswell. The main thing that keep impressing me about Sentinel Spider is how it was always able to a relevant blocker while contributing on beatdown. Whereas Nessian Asp could only contribute to attacking or Blocking. I think I slightly prefer the extra power and trample of Tajuru Pathwarden over reach. While reach is an in demand ability for Green, additional power and trample contribute that much more to winning games that I'm in favour of Tajuru Pathwarden over Sentinel Spider for the limited card slot. Vigilance is a strong keyword for big green creatures.
Kavu Climber's not costed as a big creature, it's costed as a cantrap and needs to be treated as such. Then again we now have Silverback Shaman, Entourage of Trest and Excavating Anurid as bigger bodies with card draw attached. Kavu Climber definitely the no fuss version, but at the end of the day you're paying 2 additional mana for a Nessian Courser that draws a card, which is not that worth it. Being an etb give Kavu Climber some resistance to Man-o'-War.
Rubbleback Rhino can be really difficult for opponents to deal with and even without relevant auras and equipment. Rubbleback Rhino put on guard duty can totally brick out a game against non-fliers and non-shadowers. The limited amount of removal can be used to chomp evasion creatures, while all ground creatures must be this tall to fight. It is extremely rare to actually play against pumps spells as Rubbleback Rhino although I include a few in non-Green colours as a token gesture to deck builders.
I haven't had a chance to try out Silverback Shaman. It's very well costed as a cantrap. Still, it will feel bad to have Pacifism cast on.
On that note, Wickerbough Elder is the best honourary 5-drop. Destroying artifacts and enchantments can be devastating when it's attached to a decent body.
My fear with Entourage of Trest is you can get out-tempoed. I am very hesitant about any card which can potentially give my opponent free resources. Of course when you hold tempo Entourage of Trest is great. I'm still worried about how this card deals with the Flood matchup.
Excavating Anurid. I'm pretty happy trading lands for draw. The only time I don't want to be doing that is when I'm curving out into Maul Splicer. Also treshhold is another excuse to be running the Green Black selfmill cards.
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With the Drake itself, 2/3 flier is very unimpressive and you have to wait for turn 5 before the card is even playable. That's more or less 4 turns of a card sitting in the hand doing nothing. In a colour that cares deeply about colour advantage, I'm not sure if I want to include functionally dead cards into my deck because then I am losing on on virtual card advantage (the only CA that truely matters) for the first chunk of a game. At 5 I want to be playing my Cavalier of Gales. My non-Mulldrifter Blue 5 drop of choice is Clutch of Currents, mostly because I like beating people with Man-o'-Wars.
Edit: if I have ways of shipping Peregrine Drake out of my hand early, I'd be a bit more charitable towards it. Not sure if anyone plays See Beyond. Merfolk Looter is a clear choice, but some games you don't have time to stick the Looter and begin looting, you need to do stuff now. If I'm happy to throw away a card to a Specter, that's not a good sign of overall card strength.
Cloud of Faeries is a funny untaps lands card. Cycling is nice, but the strength is deploying the team early. I'm not sure if a 1/1 flier has any impact. This creature requires testing. Send it to the splicers for innovation.
Picking the best card in 4 and putting it into you hand is stronger than Omen of the Sea. I like Omen on it's own merits, but Impulse is clearly stronger. Sure no one is talking about Shimmer of Possibility, but it goes to show how much better being instant speed is in Blue. We're a bit short on strong Blue 2 mana instant cantraps. There's a gulf between Anticipate which is not regarded well even in Standard and Impulse which I regard strong. Omen of the Sea is the Serum Visions in this situation. Ok, cashing in for the scry 2 is decent, but I would take up front dig any day.
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