Swift Response - Strictly better than Take Vengeance. Has to compete against Pacifism and Sheer Drop. This is the best version of this kind of effect and is probably good enough to run.
Sanguine Indulgence - Has potential, although I don't think many decks currently could reliably get the discount.
Bone Pit Brute - About the strength I'd expect from red's 6cmc club. I think this is better than Chartooth Cougar and Lava Serpent which are two currently playable 6 drops. And is similarly kitted to Bogardan Rager, though I much prefer menace and a bigger body over flash.
Chandra's Magmutt - Seems better every time I think about it. Ticking out 1 damage when the board gets clogged will get there in the end, and often red is looking for a way to tick someone's life total into lethal range.
Goblin Wizardry - I initially dismissed this as chaff, then I realised that it makes every non-creature spell worth at least 2 additional points damage. I already run heaps of cheap blue spells so getting multiple prowess triggers won't be that difficult. I'm looking forward to bopping people with a couple of Goblin Wizards. Maybe I'll start looking for room for Empty the Warrens and Gush...
Mistral Singer - I don't mind playing Niblis of Dusk and this is more or less strictly better. Extra toughness saves it from Deserts and so forth. Playable though not that exciting.
Crypt Lurker - I don't have that much that I want to pitch or to sac for this.
Destructive Tampering - Seems alright, although this does not do a lot when you are behind, which puts it in the class of win more cards. I prefer Ruthless Invasion and Nightbird's Clutches. The former because it can be played off-colour (namely green and white where it is most wanted) and the latter because it is cheap and repeatable.
Trufflesnout is at least a 3/3 for 3 which is fine for lack of a better 3 drop. Having the option to gain 4 life instead of the counter might actually be good enough to try out because 4 life is really important against burn, and that's where I often found green lacking. I don't mind a 3/3 for 3 in most midrange matchups because hopefully (playing green) my 4 and 5 drops will significantly outclass my opponent.
I want to try playing Village Rites. It's aggressively costed (a mana). It's another piece of the sacrifice puzzle. I wonder if we have reached critical mass for the archetype yet to be a little bit more that just a gimmick. And the very least Village Rites is a decent response to a removal spell and allows you to make use of a pacified creature body.
Basri's Acolyte - Seemed good. Lifelink matters quite a bit in a few match ups and with the "support 2" makes body dense decks race well. Chandra's Magmut - Alright. 2/2's for 2 in red isn't as good as it used to be. The tap ability means it is never useless, so may be worth thinking about. Cultivate - Reprint Faith's Fetters - Reprint. This has always preformed well. Llanowar Visionary - Strictly better than Shaman of Spring and is comparable to Borderland Ranger although is significantly better in my opinion. Mystic Skyfish - Weaker than available 3 drops and suffers from a lack of consistency. Pridemalkin - Not really looking for the trample and the body is too small. +1/+1 counter synergies are a bit thin currently. Rewind - Reprint Spined Megalodon - It's a big control finisher. Hexproof means it is well worth considering. Spirit of Malevolence - Forgettable. Spirit typing isn't relevant either. I don't think soulshift is making a comeback anytime soon. Storm Caller - The body is meh, and the damage is ehh. This is not anywhere near Blightning in terms of efficiency, but it would be playable for lack of a better 3 drop. Teferi's Prodigy - The loot costs mana so not a fan. Village Rites - Looks like a strictly better Altar's Reap. Not entirely sure if it is common yet. Woodland Patrol - 4/2 trample for 3 is ok. Though I prefer Steeple Creeper for the occasional flying.
in theory you could include a ton of infect and pump already, but wouldnt make for good gameplay
I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions. Rot Wolf is already decent, it just is lacking any kind of support, which means it is mostly stuck in defence-mode. I would want to see what is downshifted first. We haven't revisited Infect since the Scars of Mirrodin block, so I want the see how the mechanic is reintroduced and whether Wizards have figured out ways around Infect's extremely parasitic nature.
Grafted Exoskeleton would be nice. Phyrexian Juggernaut is another possible downshift. Overwhelmingly, looking through the visual spoiler for Infect cards, most of the common Infect creatures have trash P/T stats which make them too susceptible to dying in combat. The average common was a lot worse in Scars of Mirrodin than what we get today (excluding the odd Porcelain Legionnaire). Either that or the Infect creature was off colour which mean that you had a difficult time building up a critical mass. The main colours that we would realistically care about would be Green and Black. Green because that's the colour with lots of cheap pump and Black because that's where most of the mechanic was printed.
One block worth of mechanic is probably not enough gist for the mills. Though Triumph of the Hordes would be amazing.
Raid Bombardment seems too weak in a format of singletons. It may be playable in some niche contexts, but I think Raid Bombardment would go last pick more often than not.
Massive Raid has big damage potential. Though it suffers from competing with Pauper's direct damage spells, which there are lot of decent ones already. If I had a token theme I would probably try out Massive Raid.
Scorched Rusalka. Costs mana to do it's thing. The existing damage to mana options available to red are quite decent as it is. And 1/1 bodies for 1 tend to be pretty bad.
If we get lots of downshifted cards for infect it could be viable. Green pump spells are very strong with infect and we have most of the best one's available.
I've been playing a bit of sealed with my cube. It's a decent way of experimenting with colour combinations as it becomes very apparent when I've been filling a section with niche junk. There seems to always be one sealed pool that has a draft quality deck, so it is a quick way of testing builds in a limited environment without going to the hassle of organising draft. (Much easier handing someone a strong prebuilt and saying play this.)
I've been trying to make red aggro stronger, in particular I also want to make mono red more viable, and I was revising my one-drop section. We all know red's struggling to find good ways to attack for 2 on turn two, and to have a critical mass I think it's necessary to go as far as to play either Mogg Conscripts / Goblin Cohort or Bloodlust Inciter / Goblin Motivator.
advantages Conscripts/Cohort:
- better overall attacks if the freshly cast creature is worse than 2/2 vanilla
- not reliant on the freshly cast creature resolving
- 2/2 blocker instead of a 1/1
- better if the freshly cast creature already has Haste
advantages Inciter/Motivator:
- better overall attacks if the freshly cast creature is better than 2/2 vanilla
- works with tokens created by non-creature spells
- can still attack as a 1/1 if no creature was cast that turn
So which are better overall? Personally I think the latter two's advantages outweigh the former's, but I'm not sure because most of the time they're extremely similar in how they play out...
Mogg Conscripts and Goblin Cohort are better in a purely numbers game. Though since red's noncreature section in the main reason to play the colour in cube, I don't include these guys.
I haven't had much chances to play Bloodlust Inciter and Goblin Motivator. They seem ok in the gotta-go-fast department. Though they are a bit weak against single target removal being only 1/1's when you ignore the ability.
Mostly I just like to pack additional Rhystic Lightnings and Staggershocks in the place of these kind of cards. Embereth Paladin has been alright at closing games. Premium removal can run a little thin some drafts, but the opportunity cost of switching to a second colour in pauper draft can be quite low if you are reading the signals right. Red can be extra tough sometimes because some people just can't let an Incinerate wheel. (I'm somewhat guilt of picking red cards without a serious intention of playing them.)
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
Okika-Gang Shinobi's impactful in games where you get the set-up. Though there are plenty of games where it's ok at best. The body isn't particularly impressive and when you are behind on tempo it may as well be a dead card.
Hymn to Tourach late game is an undercosted Mind Rot, which can be alright at checking if your opponent has a empty hand. But really, the turn 2 Hymn is so ridiculous it doesn't matter that much. Sometimes you sink the lands and that's game before your opponent even has a chance. 2 random discard is very disruptive. Hymn to Tourach is clearly stronger, there it isn't much of a contest.
At a glance Unburden as an advantage from being the cheapest (same cost as Mind Rot) and has cycling so it can transform from being a dead card, which I guess can matter when curves are lower. Cycling is pretty decent, though 2 mana still slows down gameplay considerably when you are being stormed by weenie or burn. Double black is restrictive.
Reaper of Night is technically a 3 for 1 when you finally get the creature body. The body is decent at closing out games and obviously has an advantage over other cards when big mana is being reached. The flying clause is relevant. Overall, I'm still not that happy Mind Rotting for 4 mana even with the upsides. Sustain has gotten significantly better, but still aggro decks can put you on the ropes well before cards like this become relevant. Fine against durdly midrange. Although if I'm being honest, most midrange decks are pretty quick at closing out games, they just are also geared these days to deal with annoying, very quick decks, generally by one-upping at each point of the curve.
Lifegain is a strong mechanic; and is worth paying an extra 1 mana on top of Mind Rot for. Aspect of Lamprey isn't a shoe-in for most decks though. It requires a decent midrange shell that is looking for a bit of disruption. I don't like playing Aspect of Lamprey alongside Man-o'-War. Although Aspect of Lamprey plays nicely with Agony Warp, Benthic Giant, Skittering Horror and a lot of things that green typically does. Since lifegain is a scalable effect then it follows that creatures with higher power will synergise better. If the format is saturated with premium removal and Gideon's Lawkeepers then auras tend to be worse overall.
Ninjitsu is so strong; there are any number of cards which synergise with being returned to hand. Okiba-Gang Shinobi has to be dealt with, unless your opponent hand dumped their hand. The window to effectively deal with ninjas is narrow. Okiba-Gang Shinobi has been mvp of many games for me. Admitted weenie strategies tend to be weaker in my cube, so maybe you won't find Okiba-Gang Shinobi to be the powerhouse it's been for me. Ninjitsu does require a bit of deckbuilding to get working because you need to get that unblocked clause.
I think it's worth talking about Blightning too. It's good. 3 damage is very powerful.
I didn't sideboard against the Dimir deck. Sideboarding is tricky in sealed. And the point of the exercise for me at least was to get some playtesting done, and have a few prebuilt decks for friends to try out.
Diabolic Edict has been decent for me even when I don't see the untargetables. It's much worse when a lot of weenies are in the mix such as in your cube.
Aspect of Lamprey has been performing. Mind Rot is ok. Situational discard 2 is devastating at times and other times it's a dead card. The lifegain component is clutch more often than not. And it makes Benthic Giant very scary. The main downside to the aura is in response remove target creature. Which depending on what's being ran happens more often than not. Still nowhere near Okiba-Gang Shinobi.
I am supporting more midrange strategies than any other general archetype.
This pool reminds me of the earliest iterations of my cube which had way too many spells and not enough creatures. Either this cube has the same problem or it was super unlucky, given that blue was the color with the most creatures (relatively), with green at 50/50, white below 50%, and both R and B below 50% with virtually no universally good creatures and only disjointed build-arounds. I tend to play Sealed with 75 or even 60 cards nowadays and the pools don't look so shallow, so idk what happened there...
Red and Black are the most powerful colors all around, but given their miserable creature base I think RB is not optimal. I can see two decks here that could somewhat work. Option 1 would be something Jund, being mainly G and one of each R or B, splashing the third, with lots of fixing and removal. That would be similar to Humphrey's above, though looking at his mana situation I'm not a huge fan. So I'll go for the second deck I can see, which is just RG beatdown-and-hope-I-draw-enough-creatures-and-punish-opponents-for-durdling-around.dec.
Too few creatures obviously, and red Denizen is awful, but it at least feeds Sparksmith and sacs to Artillerize. Croc is also bad, but playing less than 15 creatures in RG Aggro with Flunkies sounds even worse.
There were also a few cards from newer sets that I have zero experience with since I discontinued my cube with Ravnica 3.0 due to the powercreep in the 2019 sets which would dilute my cube as I love it, so take that with a grain.
I play tested Humphrey's build against a U/B build from another sealed pool and the Jund deck keep running out of steam and had no outs to Calcite Snapper and Benthic Giant.
I build U/R Delver aggro out of the same pool and it seems to be performing really well.
I have a few more unlooked at sealed pools for friends when I'm next able to see them for play testing purposes. I really want to get a feel of where my cube is roughly at before I try to acquire the past few years worth of commons to update it.
@Reinventing:
I do not deny the math. In fact I happily run multiple common fetches. But in standard limited, Looking at the ability to turn a 40 card deck into essentially a slow 39 is not the only thing that is needed to make it better. Yes, if supplemented with draw, and other search it can matter more. But a single fetch does not carry over a back braking advantage. It is almost like a nice addition because it is a 5c land, but as mentioned it is a tapped one.
The math is their. Just not as high of a priority as "first pickz"; imo
I consider it first pickable, not because it makes my deck significantly better, it doesn't. I consider it early pickable because I always want it main deck regardless of what I'm playing. Which opens up flexibility and adaptive behaviour based on what I get passed.
My main gripe with my drafting style is I tend to lean too strongly into what I pick early, rather than drafting adaptively. And the play-style of picking such a flexible land early (as soon as first pick in some cases) means I can adapt swiftly to signals without sacrificing card quality. When card quality drops off more steeply (such as drafting Ikoria) then I lean away from committing to cards like Evolving Wilds, because with early picks I want to be picking up card quality. As you said E. Wilds, it doesn't thin out a deck enough to justify taking it at the cost of power.
Blazing Volley - Comparible to Electrickery. I prefer the 1 mana sorcery to 2 mana instant. The best case is this Arc Lightnings your opponent for cheap. However that is somewhat optimistic, Arc Lightning's strength came from the flexibility of damaging players, 1-for-1ing or 2-for-1ing depending on the board, but always being useful. Whereas Blazing Volley the strength is almost all tied into the cost, and actual impact will fluctuate a lot depending on the game. Simply put most cubes won't want Blazing Volley, unless there is an emphasis on 1 toughness creatures and going wide.
Blisterspit Gremlin - Pretty much entirely insignificant. Notable for being the cheapest uptaps whenever you cast a noncreature spell card.
Cathartic Reunion - Alright card filter. Quite weak to countermagic because the discard is an upfront cost. Obviously synergises with with discard-matters effects and flashback. Overall this is the kind of card that doesn't get ran the pure aggro, but can find a place in midrange decks which look to play 5 or so lands then no more.
Cloud Piercer - If your red section has decent mutate targets then ok, if not (and this is probably the case) not worth your time. The surprise damage off a Goblin token (or a Mogg War Marshal) seems to be where this be best suited. Red doesn't have the best abilities to combine with the stats. The card filter is ok as well, but it doesn't quite compensate for the exposed vulnerability of card disadvantage. Reach is a funny nod towards recognising red's lack of flying non dragons. 5 power out of nowhere still smacks hard. And it only takes 4 Lava Axes to win a game...
Drannith Stinger - Red is suited slightly better towards a 2 mana 2/2 cycling 1 than white is. Plays well into gotta go fast strategies, where the endgame is looking for a burn spell.
Ferocious Tigorilla - I played Vestige of Emrakul for a while and then is in most ways better. The choice between menace and trample means you get the right tool for the job most times. Although I imagine the menace counter will be chosen most times.
Fire Prophecy - Seems pretty staple. Can't target players, which means that it is slightly worse than Searing Spear in burn builds. In games where burn is mostly directed at creatures such as in midrange, Fire Prophecy is much stronger than Searing Spear. Card filter on removal is powerful.
Frenzied Raptor - A boring vanilla creature with aggressive stats. This can make a find placeholder at 3 until you get some Blood Orges and Splatter Thugs.
Go for Blood - Competes with Searing Spear. In general, fight is worse than direct damage. Cycle 1 is potent, but considering the opportunity cost of running running Searing Spear (which is almost never a dead card), then Go for Blood seems pretty bad.
Heightened Reflexes - This is a red combat trick I can see myself playing. The main downside is this will often be underwhelming, and will often live in the sideboard. Not really the kind of card I want against control. Brute Strength is probably better.
Lava Serpent - I really like this. While this seems suited as a midrange card, the body is a respectable threat late game and cycling means you can pitch it in the games where it is not relevant. Haste is really strong on the body.
Prickly Marmoset - If there was enough strong cycling this would be great.
Rumbling Rockside - At four mana I have the implicit expectation that a card should be able to deal with everything. This gets most creatures, but still not enough to justify in my mind.
Shredded Sails - Could be Searing Spear. It will hit a target more often than Smash to Smithereens. And has cycling as a kicker (not the mechanic). The main considering factor is how common are worthy artifacts and by extension fliers. Artifacts aren't that common, though it is a good feeling blowing up a Vulshok Morningstar after your opponent has sunk mana into it, the occurrences of such games is unlikely to be common enough to warrant including Shredded Sails into a main deck. Now that coloured artifacts are present outside of Alara, there might be hope for Shredded Sails in the future.
Spelleater Wolverine - Yes. I like casting cheap instants and sorceries. Getting a 3 mana 3/2 double striker even behind curve is great news.
Excavation Mole - Similar to Hyrax Tower Scout. The self-mill can fuel some decks better than others. Untapping a creature allows some midrange decks to race aggro ones.
Fertilid - Expensive to get going, and we don't have that many spare +1/+1 counters available.
Greater Sandwurm - Decent big endgame monster. The problem is most games are decided before 7 mana. And at 7 this competes with Maul Splicer. The multiple bodies help remove the vulnerability to single target removal. Cycling is costly.
Honey Mammoth - 4 life is enough to keep midrange decks functioning into late. Still the weakness to single target is likely going to make this weak against more control oriented build. And losing to control feels about as bad as losing to aggro. So ultimately not worth it. It would be nice to see this with trample.
Migratory Greathorn - Plays well with Young Wolf. Depends largely on the availability to mutate targets. Green is a colour which if built right can contain enough enticing targets. Plays nicely with Silhana Ledgewalker as well. The ramp and body are aggressively costed.
Survivors' Bond - Best case is a cheap 2 for 1. Likely outcome is you don't have the right combination to make this work. Pairs well with white, which is by far the human colour. Green does not have many humans at all.
Thwart the Enemy - One sided prevention makes for nice race conditions. Still with so much single target removal going around this might not do what you want it often enough to warrant a slot.
Sanguine Indulgence - Has potential, although I don't think many decks currently could reliably get the discount.
Bone Pit Brute - About the strength I'd expect from red's 6cmc club. I think this is better than Chartooth Cougar and Lava Serpent which are two currently playable 6 drops. And is similarly kitted to Bogardan Rager, though I much prefer menace and a bigger body over flash.
Chandra's Magmutt - Seems better every time I think about it. Ticking out 1 damage when the board gets clogged will get there in the end, and often red is looking for a way to tick someone's life total into lethal range.
Goblin Wizardry - I initially dismissed this as chaff, then I realised that it makes every non-creature spell worth at least 2 additional points damage. I already run heaps of cheap blue spells so getting multiple prowess triggers won't be that difficult. I'm looking forward to bopping people with a couple of Goblin Wizards. Maybe I'll start looking for room for Empty the Warrens and Gush...
Crypt Lurker - I don't have that much that I want to pitch or to sac for this.
Destructive Tampering - Seems alright, although this does not do a lot when you are behind, which puts it in the class of win more cards. I prefer Ruthless Invasion and Nightbird's Clutches. The former because it can be played off-colour (namely green and white where it is most wanted) and the latter because it is cheap and repeatable.
Roaming Ghostlight - Somewhere between Mist Raven and Aethersnipe. 5 mana is a bit slow and it is weaker than Mist Raven, but it will play quite nicely alongside the other Man-o'-Wars. I think Roaming Ghostlight is cuttable.
Daybreak Charger - This and Llanowar Visionary are the two auto-includes of the set. The etb makes this sting.
I agree that Llanowar Visionary is an auto-include.
I want to try playing Village Rites. It's aggressively costed (a mana). It's another piece of the sacrifice puzzle. I wonder if we have reached critical mass for the archetype yet to be a little bit more that just a gimmick. And the very least Village Rites is a decent response to a removal spell and allows you to make use of a pacified creature body.
Chandra's Magmut - Alright. 2/2's for 2 in red isn't as good as it used to be. The tap ability means it is never useless, so may be worth thinking about.
Cultivate - Reprint
Faith's Fetters - Reprint. This has always preformed well.
Llanowar Visionary - Strictly better than Shaman of Spring and is comparable to Borderland Ranger although is significantly better in my opinion.
Mystic Skyfish - Weaker than available 3 drops and suffers from a lack of consistency.
Pridemalkin - Not really looking for the trample and the body is too small. +1/+1 counter synergies are a bit thin currently.
Rewind - Reprint
Spined Megalodon - It's a big control finisher. Hexproof means it is well worth considering.
Spirit of Malevolence - Forgettable. Spirit typing isn't relevant either. I don't think soulshift is making a comeback anytime soon.
Storm Caller - The body is meh, and the damage is ehh. This is not anywhere near Blightning in terms of efficiency, but it would be playable for lack of a better 3 drop.
Teferi's Prodigy - The loot costs mana so not a fan.
Village Rites - Looks like a strictly better Altar's Reap. Not entirely sure if it is common yet.
Woodland Patrol - 4/2 trample for 3 is ok. Though I prefer Steeple Creeper for the occasional flying.
I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions. Rot Wolf is already decent, it just is lacking any kind of support, which means it is mostly stuck in defence-mode. I would want to see what is downshifted first. We haven't revisited Infect since the Scars of Mirrodin block, so I want the see how the mechanic is reintroduced and whether Wizards have figured out ways around Infect's extremely parasitic nature.
Grafted Exoskeleton would be nice. Phyrexian Juggernaut is another possible downshift. Overwhelmingly, looking through the visual spoiler for Infect cards, most of the common Infect creatures have trash P/T stats which make them too susceptible to dying in combat. The average common was a lot worse in Scars of Mirrodin than what we get today (excluding the odd Porcelain Legionnaire). Either that or the Infect creature was off colour which mean that you had a difficult time building up a critical mass. The main colours that we would realistically care about would be Green and Black. Green because that's the colour with lots of cheap pump and Black because that's where most of the mechanic was printed.
One block worth of mechanic is probably not enough gist for the mills. Though Triumph of the Hordes would be amazing.
Massive Raid has big damage potential. Though it suffers from competing with Pauper's direct damage spells, which there are lot of decent ones already. If I had a token theme I would probably try out Massive Raid.
Scorched Rusalka. Costs mana to do it's thing. The existing damage to mana options available to red are quite decent as it is. And 1/1 bodies for 1 tend to be pretty bad.
If we get lots of downshifted cards for infect it could be viable. Green pump spells are very strong with infect and we have most of the best one's available.
I've been playing a bit of sealed with my cube. It's a decent way of experimenting with colour combinations as it becomes very apparent when I've been filling a section with niche junk. There seems to always be one sealed pool that has a draft quality deck, so it is a quick way of testing builds in a limited environment without going to the hassle of organising draft. (Much easier handing someone a strong prebuilt and saying play this.)
Mogg Conscripts and Goblin Cohort are better in a purely numbers game. Though since red's noncreature section in the main reason to play the colour in cube, I don't include these guys.
I haven't had much chances to play Bloodlust Inciter and Goblin Motivator. They seem ok in the gotta-go-fast department. Though they are a bit weak against single target removal being only 1/1's when you ignore the ability.
Mostly I just like to pack additional Rhystic Lightnings and Staggershocks in the place of these kind of cards. Embereth Paladin has been alright at closing games. Premium removal can run a little thin some drafts, but the opportunity cost of switching to a second colour in pauper draft can be quite low if you are reading the signals right. Red can be extra tough sometimes because some people just can't let an Incinerate wheel. (I'm somewhat guilt of picking red cards without a serious intention of playing them.)
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.
Okika-Gang Shinobi's impactful in games where you get the set-up. Though there are plenty of games where it's ok at best. The body isn't particularly impressive and when you are behind on tempo it may as well be a dead card.
Hymn to Tourach late game is an undercosted Mind Rot, which can be alright at checking if your opponent has a empty hand. But really, the turn 2 Hymn is so ridiculous it doesn't matter that much. Sometimes you sink the lands and that's game before your opponent even has a chance. 2 random discard is very disruptive. Hymn to Tourach is clearly stronger, there it isn't much of a contest.
At a glance Unburden as an advantage from being the cheapest (same cost as Mind Rot) and has cycling so it can transform from being a dead card, which I guess can matter when curves are lower. Cycling is pretty decent, though 2 mana still slows down gameplay considerably when you are being stormed by weenie or burn. Double black is restrictive.
Reaper of Night is technically a 3 for 1 when you finally get the creature body. The body is decent at closing out games and obviously has an advantage over other cards when big mana is being reached. The flying clause is relevant. Overall, I'm still not that happy Mind Rotting for 4 mana even with the upsides. Sustain has gotten significantly better, but still aggro decks can put you on the ropes well before cards like this become relevant. Fine against durdly midrange. Although if I'm being honest, most midrange decks are pretty quick at closing out games, they just are also geared these days to deal with annoying, very quick decks, generally by one-upping at each point of the curve.
Lifegain is a strong mechanic; and is worth paying an extra 1 mana on top of Mind Rot for. Aspect of Lamprey isn't a shoe-in for most decks though. It requires a decent midrange shell that is looking for a bit of disruption. I don't like playing Aspect of Lamprey alongside Man-o'-War. Although Aspect of Lamprey plays nicely with Agony Warp, Benthic Giant, Skittering Horror and a lot of things that green typically does. Since lifegain is a scalable effect then it follows that creatures with higher power will synergise better. If the format is saturated with premium removal and Gideon's Lawkeepers then auras tend to be worse overall.
Ninjitsu is so strong; there are any number of cards which synergise with being returned to hand. Okiba-Gang Shinobi has to be dealt with, unless your opponent hand dumped their hand. The window to effectively deal with ninjas is narrow. Okiba-Gang Shinobi has been mvp of many games for me. Admitted weenie strategies tend to be weaker in my cube, so maybe you won't find Okiba-Gang Shinobi to be the powerhouse it's been for me. Ninjitsu does require a bit of deckbuilding to get working because you need to get that unblocked clause.
I think it's worth talking about Blightning too. It's good. 3 damage is very powerful.
Diabolic Edict has been decent for me even when I don't see the untargetables. It's much worse when a lot of weenies are in the mix such as in your cube.
Aspect of Lamprey has been performing. Mind Rot is ok. Situational discard 2 is devastating at times and other times it's a dead card. The lifegain component is clutch more often than not. And it makes Benthic Giant very scary. The main downside to the aura is in response remove target creature. Which depending on what's being ran happens more often than not. Still nowhere near Okiba-Gang Shinobi.
I am supporting more midrange strategies than any other general archetype.
I play tested Humphrey's build against a U/B build from another sealed pool and the Jund deck keep running out of steam and had no outs to Calcite Snapper and Benthic Giant.
I build U/R Delver aggro out of the same pool and it seems to be performing really well.
1 Lonely Sandbar
7 Island
7 Mountain
Creature
1 Blood Ogre
1 Borderland Marauder
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Eldrazi Skyspawner
1 Flummoxed Cyclops
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Prescient Chimera
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Serum Raker
1 Skitter Eel
1 Sparksmith
1 Spined Thopter
1 Umara Entangler
1 Wretched Gryff
1 Artillerize
1 Condescend
1 Counterspell
1 Incinerate
1 Opt
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Ray of Command
1 Staggershock
Sorcery
1 Arc Lightning
1 Disintegrate
1 Pyrotechnics
White
1 Arrester's Zeal
1 Attended Knight
1 Lone Missionary
1 Mardu Hordechief
1 Embolden
1 Spare from Evil
1 Tandem Tactics
1 Faith's Fetters
Blue
1 Eldrazi Skyspawner
1 Prescient Chimera
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Condescend
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Umara Entangler
1 Vapor Snag
1 Serum Raker
1 Opt
1 Skitter Eel
1 Spined Thopter
1 Ray of Command
1 Counterspell
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Rushing River
1 Moonlit Scavengers
Black
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Rend Flesh
1 Butcher's Glee
1 Soul Reap
1 Disowned Ancestor
1 Last Gasp
1 Malevolent Noble
1 Dark Ritual
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 Rage-Scarred Berserker
1 Omen of the Dead
1 Tragic Slip
1 Dead Reveler
1 Typhoid Rats
1 Doom Blade
1 Grotesque Mutation
1 Evincar's Justice
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Ghoulcaller's Chant
1 Sparksmith
1 Lava Dart
1 Nahiri's Stoneblades
1 Mogg Flunkies
1 Crystal Slipper
1 Blood Ogre
1 Incinerate
1 Flummoxed Cyclops
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Disintegrate
1 Borderland Marauder
1 Artillerize
1 Pyrotechnics
1 Arc Lightning
1 Dynacharge
1 Foundry Street Denizen
1 Staggershock
Green
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Mire Boa
1 Loathsome Chimera
1 Snake Umbra
1 Fertile Ground
1 Jungle Lion
1 Blastoderm
1 Crocanura
1 Thornweald Archer
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Rancor
1 Ambush Viper
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Travel Preparations
1 Grapple with the Past
1 Savage Silhouette
1 Basking Rootwalla
1 Utopia Vow
1 Tangle Golem
1 Blossoming Sands
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Yotian Soldier
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Wretched Gryff
1 Mind Stone
1 Wings of Hubris
1 Veinfire Borderpost
1 Terminate
1 Tumble Magnet
I consider it first pickable, not because it makes my deck significantly better, it doesn't. I consider it early pickable because I always want it main deck regardless of what I'm playing. Which opens up flexibility and adaptive behaviour based on what I get passed.
My main gripe with my drafting style is I tend to lean too strongly into what I pick early, rather than drafting adaptively. And the play-style of picking such a flexible land early (as soon as first pick in some cases) means I can adapt swiftly to signals without sacrificing card quality. When card quality drops off more steeply (such as drafting Ikoria) then I lean away from committing to cards like Evolving Wilds, because with early picks I want to be picking up card quality. As you said E. Wilds, it doesn't thin out a deck enough to justify taking it at the cost of power.
Blazing Volley - Comparible to Electrickery. I prefer the 1 mana sorcery to 2 mana instant. The best case is this Arc Lightnings your opponent for cheap. However that is somewhat optimistic, Arc Lightning's strength came from the flexibility of damaging players, 1-for-1ing or 2-for-1ing depending on the board, but always being useful. Whereas Blazing Volley the strength is almost all tied into the cost, and actual impact will fluctuate a lot depending on the game. Simply put most cubes won't want Blazing Volley, unless there is an emphasis on 1 toughness creatures and going wide.
Blisterspit Gremlin - Pretty much entirely insignificant. Notable for being the cheapest uptaps whenever you cast a noncreature spell card.
Cathartic Reunion - Alright card filter. Quite weak to countermagic because the discard is an upfront cost. Obviously synergises with with discard-matters effects and flashback. Overall this is the kind of card that doesn't get ran the pure aggro, but can find a place in midrange decks which look to play 5 or so lands then no more.
Cloud Piercer - If your red section has decent mutate targets then ok, if not (and this is probably the case) not worth your time. The surprise damage off a Goblin token (or a Mogg War Marshal) seems to be where this be best suited. Red doesn't have the best abilities to combine with the stats. The card filter is ok as well, but it doesn't quite compensate for the exposed vulnerability of card disadvantage. Reach is a funny nod towards recognising red's lack of flying non dragons. 5 power out of nowhere still smacks hard. And it only takes 4 Lava Axes to win a game...
Drannith Stinger - Red is suited slightly better towards a 2 mana 2/2 cycling 1 than white is. Plays well into gotta go fast strategies, where the endgame is looking for a burn spell.
Ferocious Tigorilla - I played Vestige of Emrakul for a while and then is in most ways better. The choice between menace and trample means you get the right tool for the job most times. Although I imagine the menace counter will be chosen most times.
Fire Prophecy - Seems pretty staple. Can't target players, which means that it is slightly worse than Searing Spear in burn builds. In games where burn is mostly directed at creatures such as in midrange, Fire Prophecy is much stronger than Searing Spear. Card filter on removal is powerful.
Forbidden Friendship - A stronger Dragon Fodder.
Frenzied Raptor - A boring vanilla creature with aggressive stats. This can make a find placeholder at 3 until you get some Blood Orges and Splatter Thugs.
Go for Blood - Competes with Searing Spear. In general, fight is worse than direct damage. Cycle 1 is potent, but considering the opportunity cost of running running Searing Spear (which is almost never a dead card), then Go for Blood seems pretty bad.
Heightened Reflexes - This is a red combat trick I can see myself playing. The main downside is this will often be underwhelming, and will often live in the sideboard. Not really the kind of card I want against control. Brute Strength is probably better.
Lava Serpent - I really like this. While this seems suited as a midrange card, the body is a respectable threat late game and cycling means you can pitch it in the games where it is not relevant. Haste is really strong on the body.
Prickly Marmoset - If there was enough strong cycling this would be great.
Pyroceratops - Not really a fan of Pyre Hound.
Raking Claws - Great with Immolating Souleater. Typically there isn't great double striking targets, and again this comes under the category of I would rather have Searing Spear.
Rumbling Rockside - At four mana I have the implicit expectation that a card should be able to deal with everything. This gets most creatures, but still not enough to justify in my mind.
Shredded Sails - Could be Searing Spear. It will hit a target more often than Smash to Smithereens. And has cycling as a kicker (not the mechanic). The main considering factor is how common are worthy artifacts and by extension fliers. Artifacts aren't that common, though it is a good feeling blowing up a Vulshok Morningstar after your opponent has sunk mana into it, the occurrences of such games is unlikely to be common enough to warrant including Shredded Sails into a main deck. Now that coloured artifacts are present outside of Alara, there might be hope for Shredded Sails in the future.
Spelleater Wolverine - Yes. I like casting cheap instants and sorceries. Getting a 3 mana 3/2 double striker even behind curve is great news.
Tentative Companion - Simply put, no where near enough cheap menace.
Adventurous Impulse - The green Anticipate that you'll never play.
Almighty Brushwagg - An overcosted Basking Rootwalla. If the ability costed less it is likely to have been too good.
Bristling Boar - Falls behind curve of what green can cast at 4 mana.
Essence Symbiote - No way we'll have enough mutate for this.
Excavation Mole - Similar to Hyrax Tower Scout. The self-mill can fuel some decks better than others. Untapping a creature allows some midrange decks to race aggro ones.
Fertilid - Expensive to get going, and we don't have that many spare +1/+1 counters available.
Flycatcher Giraffid - Awkwardly worse than Bitterbow Sharpshooters.
Fully Grown - I prefer Predator's Strike. 3 mana is a lot for a combat trick.
Greater Sandwurm - Decent big endgame monster. The problem is most games are decided before 7 mana. And at 7 this competes with Maul Splicer. The multiple bodies help remove the vulnerability to single target removal. Cycling is costly.
Honey Mammoth - 4 life is enough to keep midrange decks functioning into late. Still the weakness to single target is likely going to make this weak against more control oriented build. And losing to control feels about as bad as losing to aggro. So ultimately not worth it. It would be nice to see this with trample.
Humble Naturalist - Ilysian Caryatid is much stronger than this. 3 toughness is ignorable to most self-respecting decks these days.
Migratory Greathorn - Plays well with Young Wolf. Depends largely on the availability to mutate targets. Green is a colour which if built right can contain enough enticing targets. Plays nicely with Silhana Ledgewalker as well. The ramp and body are aggressively costed.
Mosscoat Goriak - Defence-mode creature that we don't need.
Plummet - Bog-standard reprint.
Ram Through - Rabid Bite upgrade. Instant speed as well!
Sudden Spinnerets - Vines of the Recluse upgrade. +3 toughness means even more survivability. And a reach counter as well! Pretty stoked with this.
Survivors' Bond - Best case is a cheap 2 for 1. Likely outcome is you don't have the right combination to make this work. Pairs well with white, which is by far the human colour. Green does not have many humans at all.
Thwart the Enemy - One sided prevention makes for nice race conditions. Still with so much single target removal going around this might not do what you want it often enough to warrant a slot.
Wilt - Strictly better Naturalize. Same as what was said for Shredded Sails.
Adaptive Shimmerer - Not at all what we are looking for in colourless.
Farfinder - Worse than Pilgrim's Eye.
Mysterious Egg - Again not what is needed.
Sleeper Dart - Expensive for little upside.
Springjaw Trap - Overcosted removal.
Bloodfell Caves - Standard B/R duel.
Blossoming Sands - Standard G/W duel.
Dismal Backwater - Standard U/B duel.
Evolving Wilds - First pickable land, due to flexibility and deck thinning.
Jungle Hollow - Standard B/G duel.
Rugged Highlands - Standard R/G duel.
Scoured Barrens - Standard W/B duel.
Swiftwater Cliffs - St****rd U/R duel.
Thornwood Falls - Standard G/U duel.
Tranquil Cove - Standard W/U duel.
Wind-Scarred Crag - Standard R/W duel.