Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Sunlance: A very cheap removal for just cc1 that handles a lot. The white version of Flame Slash and the only effective removal for this low cost.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Ajani's Presence: An interesting combat trick that has the option to trade 2 for 1 or even 3 for, if more mana is spent. The problem is just that indestructible is mainly worse than protection from a color.
Ephemerate - Mono Momentary Blink, or close enough. While not as opportune as flashback, rebound gets a second use for no extra mana. Any deck with 3+ EtB creatures starts to see this gain value. If Blink Archtype is in your cube, this will be an auto-include.
Hyena Umbra: +1/+1 is not huge, but First Strike is very strong. Totem Armor does nothing against Pacifism-like effects, but for the normal case, it can be very useful.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Alley Evasion: This card can shine in a flicker deck but doesn't enough in either mode to be valuable in other decks.
Anoint: Endless damage prevention seems nice, but when your opponent knows about it he/she can play around it. Cc4 is also a very high cost to keep casting it every turn. A removal spell like Doom Blade can also turn it into card disadvantage for you.
Cartouche of Solidarity: It doesn't produce card disadvantage if it resolves, but the effect isn't that strong.
Defiant Strike: For replacing itself this card is not bad, but it's not a good combat trick since it misses First Strike or an additional toughness.
Enshrouding Mist: +1/+1 and damage protection helps in a lot of cases, but it's still outclassed and the untap part can usually be ignored since there aren't a lot of cubeable commons with renown.
Ethereal Armor: With enough other auras or protected creatures, it could be interesting because First Strike does a lot, but normally it will trade 1 for 2.
Moment of Triumph: It's an alright pump spell with life gain attached, which is a nice combination.
Niveous Wisps: It could give you some time in a tempo deck without making card disadvantage, but it's unexciting.
Oppressive Rays: An interesting removal for really fast decks, but with a huge drawback for the later game during slower games.
Outflank: Only costing 1 mana is definitely nice, but the effect is still pretty outclassed.
Pollen Remedy: A very flexible and cheap answer to burn and some situations in combat, but to enable its full potential you have to sacrifice a land.
Recruit the Worthy - Obviously it raises in desirability if a Swarm style deck that just needs to always have bodies arriving. But it is not Sprout Swarm, this cannot self-perpetuate. 3w for a flash 1/1 is fine if you have nothing better to do; but then you have other problems. As for control, a slow stream of blockers is not moving the game forward and these tokens without pump are outclassed very fast.
Righteous Blow/Slash of Talons: A kind of Shock that would be interesting, but the restriction is hard, especially since the X/2 creatures you really need to handle with it won't attack or block later in the game.
Sentinel's Eyes: A cheap and cost effective aura in a color, that has otherwise little use for the Graveyard.
Smite: It's a very interesting hard removal for cc1, but the restriction is high.
Stand Firm: This combat trick is nice with Scry 2, but it's missing the First Strike.
Swift Justice: A good combat trick for just cc1. First Strike makes this playable and the life gain is great for aggressive decks to get an advantage in a possible damage race. The problem is that white has spot removal and doesn't depend on pumps spells as much as green.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Alms: You need a lot of cards in your graveyard to make it worth it.
Guildscorn Ward: Even with a bigger amount of multicolor cards than normal, this card would still be bad.
Guilty Conscience: This kills a lot of creatures, but the creature is still allowed to deal damage one last time, which gives it the ability to trade with one of your creatures or deal more damage to you.
Hallow: This can only prevent damage from mostly red spells, which makes it very bad.
Samite Blessing: This effect remains, but you don't want to use a creature for it normally.
Searing Light: There are way better removal spells available.
Seize the Initiative: There is no big difference between +1/+0 First Strike and +1/+1 First Strike. As long as there is nothing else, it's not interesting.
Solid Footing: This would actually be kind if interesting if it didn't require vigilance for the effect.
Strip Bare: The restrictions for this card are too high.
Shelter: This card can be very flexible, trading for removal or a creature or giving evasion without creating card disadvantage.
Temporal Isolation: Instant speed Pacifism is even better. There can be some weird sitations, where you have a shadow creature and you are giving your opponent an accidental blocker, but those are corner cases.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Celestial Flare: A solution for everything from Guardian of the Guildpact to Blastoderm. It's one of the best Verdict-like effects ever. Even if WW is annoying, overall it's just cc2 and you will rarely play this card on turn 2.
Cho-Manno's Blessing: Permanent protection that often trades for a removal or creature just when it comes into play is insane. The only problems are the WW cost at times and that your opponent can trade for it later with their second color.
Feat of Resistance: Removal protection with built-in pump. Definitely a fine card for offering a lot of flexibility.
Swift Response: A defensive removal, that doesn't help much if you are the aggressor, but still 2 mana isntant speed an unconditional regarding size.
Tandem Tactics: This card is able to kill two creatures at once and gives you some life.
Test of Faith: This card can be a Divine Transformation with flash for 1W. In addition, it helps to save the creature in many situations. On the other hand, it only helps while blocking or against burn.
Trapped in the Tower: Not being able to hit fliers is definitely a drawback, but shutting down abilities as an additional effect makes up for it.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Angelic Gift: This doesn't create card disadvantage and gives evasion but nothing more.
Angelic Renewal: This card can keep important creatures alive really well. It would be insane with Auramancer, but that card is too bad apart from the combination and the most people prefer another creature instead of saving one they already have.
Brilliant Halo: The pump is really small, but the recursion makes this card interesting.
Carom: Redirecting damage can be great, but often a single damage isn't enough to make this card worth it.
Dazzling Reflection: This card creates a big advantage, but is very situational.
Disenchant/Revoke Existence/Seal of Cleansing: Flexibility of destroying either an artifact or enchantment for just cc2 is ok, but these cards need a target and sometimes they just don't find one.
Ephemeral Shields: With convoke, this card can easily cast for 0-1 mana, which adds a surprise factor.
Expose Evil: The card replaces itself, but just tapping the creatures isn't very strong.
Flicker of Fate: It's kind of neat, that it can hit opposing creatures as well as enchantments. Since it can flicker enchantments you can do some neat things in combination with Journey to Nowhere and Oblivion Ring.
Graceful Reprieve: It gives additional value out of a creature, if you support the flicker archetype, but not very good in other decks.
Guided Strike: Perhaps the best white combat trick, apart from Shelter, because it can make card advantage for just cc2. The problems are just that +1/+0 and First Strike isn't much and white isn't forced to play combat tricks because it has a bunch of spot removal.
Judge Unworthy: Only dealing damage to an attacking or blocking creature would be unexciting, but this card can make card quality through scry. The only problem is that you never know for sure how much damage it will be. It's risky, but still not bad.
Otherworldly Journey: Protecting a creature from removal or retriggering etb-effects for cc2 wouldn't be interesting, but the +1/+1 Counter gives this Cloudshift an additional advantage that can be important.
Spare from Evil: This card can't protect your creatures from removal but is able to trade for creatures and make your creatures unblockable in the late game.
Stirring Address - Compare to Borrowed Grace, and this helps more as a single pump that can anthem, as opposed to being used mostly for anthem.
Take Vengeance – Restrictive removal. 2 CMC isn’t bad, but better choices are available.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Abzan Advantage: If you have a lot of enchantments in your cube this could be a considerable card, since destroying one of them and pumping a creature in addition for only cc2 is Ok, but for most cubes, this card is way too narrow.
Center Soul: There is a lot of white protection spells with different upsides, but Rebound is not enough to make this good enough, especially since it's cc2.
Curtain of Light: Just preventing damage for one turn isn't interesting.
Defang/Muzzle: These cards are way better than Guard Duty or something similar because a creature with defender can still kill one of your creatures, but turning a creature into a wall that can still prevent a lot of damage is mainly still not good enough.
Disempower: Putting a card on the top of the opponent's library isn't card disadvantage because it steals a draw, but if you really want to get rid of something like Vulshok Morningstar, it's worse than simply destroying it.
Dragon Scales: There aren't enough cc6 creatures to make this card interesting.
Eland Umbra: This can make one of your creatures very huge, but without pushing the power just a little bit it's no threat.
Lead Astray: Just tapping creatures for one round is very bad.
Lunarch Mantle: Only good for a Sacrifice-matters theming.
Forced Worship: Preventing a creature just from attacking is no solution for it.
Forfend: A different version of Holy Day, that isn't much better.
Gossamer Chains: A bad kind of defender, that requires a constant payment of WW.
Last Breath: One of the worst removal spells, white got.
Lightning Blow: Just First Strike will rarely be enough to kill a creature.
Lumithread Field: It would be only interesting if you play a lot of Morph cards.
Lyev Decree: Card disadvantage just for a small tempo advantage. Not really worth it.
Mine Excavation: Artifacts and Enchantments mainly remain on the field.
Opal Gargoyle: A 2/2 Flying for cc2 is nice, but later your opponent is not forced to play creatures anymore and this card is maybe dead or even, when it resolves, not exciting enough.
Orim's Cure: For cc0 it's surprising but too situative.
Parapet: +0/+1 isn't that impactful, even if it remains.
Puncturing Light: The restrictions for this removal make it bad.
Weight of Conscience: There isn't such a big difference between disabled and exile, that this card would be worth it.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Oblivion Ring: An insane removal, that handles nearly anything.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Afterlife: Only online common! A white instant speed hard removal. The downside is there, but it's still interesting.
Arrest: If you struggle with answers for activated abilities, this is a great option. Most of the time it will be an overcosted Pacifism though.
Cage of Hands: Usually the activated ability isn't worth the initial extra mana over Pacifism, but it's still a solid removal.
Embolden: A very flexible combat trick with card advantage potential. It at it's best against red though.
Hobble: Normally it's not good just to prevent a creature from attacking and not from blocking, but this card does it without any disadvantage apart from binding 3 mana.
Kor Chant: A combat trick that trades often enough 2 for1.
Prismatic Strands: This card doesn't just protect your creatures from nearly anything once, but twice and without any mana the second time.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Answered Prayers - 3cc is a sweet spot. Turning into a Sorcery-proof 3/3 Flyer, awesome. Gaining incremental life always, cool. But a 3/3 that cannot block means this is an aggro-favored card. But it only is a sometimes attacker, and does not really affect the board unless you have a more swarm-heavy design. Still a card that will usually find a home. WW slows the enthusiasm
Angelic Purge: A nice hard removal, but sacrificing a permanent can really set you back.
Acrobatic Maneuver: This is a nice addition to a flicker-theme, that can save a creature and replaces itself, but 3 mana is a lot.
Choking Restraints/Dreadful Apathy: For very big cubes, that feel like the 2 mana Pacifism aren't enough, this could be considerable. This also has a kind of neat side effect, where you can flicker it in response to the activated ability.
Empyrial Armor: An aura that can make card disadvantage easily, but it often creates a huge threat that has to be handled fast, because otherwise, it wins the game in its own.
Excommunicate: Putting a creature on the top of its owner's library can be an even better solution for creatures that are not worth a hard removal, for slowing your opponent down without making card disadvantage.
Exile(Only online common!)/Just Fate(Only online common!)/Kill Shot/Rebuke: Playable, but only good when your are the defending player.
Fanatical Devotion: This card is mainly not good unless you have tokens or creatures with death-triggered-abilities and something that is worth protecting.
Repel the Darkness: A great card for aggressive decks can be happy about 1 attack with fewer or no blockers.
Rootborn Defenses/Safe Passage: High variance combat tricks. They work best on the defense and can be a huge blowout, but can also be useless in several board states.
Sandblast: Since there are very few creatures at common rarity with more than 5 toughness, this is nearly a hard removal spell with the upside of being able to aim for blocking creatures as well. It's at least at the same power level as Kill Shot, but far from being great.
Sheer Drop: It only destroys tapped creatures, but the possibility to awaken a land can turn the tables.
Shoulder to Shoulder: It's a buff for two creatures and without card disadvantage, but sorcery speed is kind of annoying.
Squire's Devotion: A fine aura, but it's usually still not worth the risk of card disadvantage on non-hexproof creatures.
Survival Cache: It's a unique take on a white Divination, but it can sometimes be somewhat situational and high variance. At its ceiling, it's a fine card, but it can easily become just a Healing Hands or even a Sacred nectar which aren't typically great. Against aggro it's Sacred Nectar and against control it's Divination with a life boost. It can be pretty unreliable against midrange at times.
Survive the Night: This is almost always a 2 for 1, but only +1 power is very situational.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Avenging Arrow: You want to kill a creature before it kills one of your creatures or deals damage to you.
Bar the Door/Piety: Only pumping your creatures' toughness is too situational.
Bold Defense: This card would be the best mass-pump with instant speed, +2/+2, and First Strike but cc7 for the effect is way too much.
Cease-Fire: A very weak effect that's definitely not worth the 3 mana.
Cessation: Only preventing the creature from attacking is not good enough and getting the spell back after the creature maybe blocked and killed one of your creatures isn't a big advantage.
Cooperation: There aren't enough playable creatures with banding in pauper.
Floating Shield: Just being protected from one color isn't good enough very often and being able to sacrifice this enchantment isn't a big enough advantage.
Fortified Area: With enough walls, this card could be awesome because of the banding rules for blocking, but there aren't enough good walls in pauper and most of them would depend on this card to be good.
Guardian Zendikon: A 2/6 Wall for just cc3 would be great, but you don't want to waste a land for it because either it can either only block or be tapped for mana and the fact that it has haste, similar to other Zendikons, doesn't bring much if it's not allowed to attack.
Guardian's Magemark: There aren't enough good auras that could make this card playable.
Healing Hands/Reviving Dose/Ritual of Rejuvenation: Lifegain without card disadvantage could be interesting, but spells that cost more than 2 mana without affecting the board in any way are not good.
Holy Light: A white mass removal would be great, but in most cases -1/-1 doesn't do enough.
Remember the Fallen: This card would be really good in an artifact-based cube.
Restrain: The chance that this card kills a creature is really low.
Ritual of Steel: Giving a creature just some toughness isn't a big enough threat.
Shackles: This card would only be interesting if it could tap the enchanted creature on its own.
Spontaneous Flight: Having a leasting effect on your combat trick is interesting, but as a combat trick this one isn't that good. Combat tricks usually get exponentially worse with every additional mana they cost and 3 is already far too much.
Steeling Stance: If Forecast would have fewer restrictions, this card would be more interesting.
Topple: A very non-flexible removal, that can even kill your own creature.
Withstand: Just preventing some damage won't do much most of the time.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Blinding Beam: A great finisher for white, that is able to remove blockers for 2 turns.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Breath of Life/False Defeat/Resurrection: Some people like these cards because they are the only cards for a reanimation archetype in pauper, beside Exhume, but there aren't many reanimate-worthy creatures in pauper.
Divine Verdict/Neck Snap: These cards are more flexible than Smite or Rebuke, but cc4 is mainly too much for a removal spell that still needs mana open.
Hopeful Eidolon: Pump and Lifelink is a strong combination, but +1/+1 is very weak and the 1/1 body you get is nearly useless.
Inspired Charge: Perhaps the best mass-pump in pauper, but at cc4 it's really expensive and just +2/+1 instead of +2/+2 can be problematic. As well it could still be, that there are simply not enough creatures, to make this card worth it.
Inspiring Roar: This can be huge, but it is really situational and often a win-more card.
Pious Interdiction: Lifegain attached to removal can be nice but this somewhat overcosted.
Spirit Flare: This card could possibly make card advantage, but it needs untapped creatures.
Suppression Bonds: A very flexible removal that can answer a lot of things, but gaining 4 life for the same effect with Faith's Fetters can make a huge difference. Also, since pauper doesn't have planeswalkers, the biggest problems in pauper are mainly creatures so Arrest pretty much does the same for 1 mana less.
Excoriate: The problem with the restriction of this removal is that white is often is a very aggressive color, so you often don't want to get rid of creatures that are attacking you, but rather possible blockers, which this can't deal with.
Misfortune's Gain/Path of Peace: Destroying a creature without any compromise is good, but cc4 is much and you don't want to give the opponent a life advantage for it.
Patrician's Scorn: Only being able to handle enchantments is really bad for cc4.
Ray of Distortion: Paying cc4 just to remove an artifact or enchantment is a high cost. The Flashback possibility doesn't make it better than Disenchant.
Resounding Silence: The cycling cost, which is too hard to get, makes this card bad.
Rhystic Circle: This card doesn't slow your opponent much more than it slows yourself.
Rush of Battle: Sorcery speed makes this card way worse than Inspired Charge and there aren't that many playable warriors at common rarity.
Seeker: The chance for card disadvantage is not worth the risk.
Silverflame Ritual: There are way better effects to mass pump your team.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Nothing here.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Settle Beyond Reality - Almost always useful. And the ability to 2-for-1 make this solid. Sorcery drops the trick factor. But this is in the top Blink-style cards.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Banishment Decree: Putting a creature just on the top of its owner's library is not directly bad, but it's no lasting solution.
Enduring Victory: Cc5 is way too much for such a restricted removal. Bolster 1 doesn't change that much.
Meditation Puzzle: 8 life at instant speed is a lot, but it's still only life gain and this way card disadvantage. It's rarely going to be more than a Fog.
Resupply: 6 mana for 6 life is simply awful. This card would need to cost about half of the mana only not to be terrible.
Secure the Scene: There aren't a lot of super threatening non-creature permanents that would justify this removal being totally overcosted, sorcery speed and giving your oppoonent something in exchange.
Soaring Hope: Gaining 3 life for cc5 and flying on one creature is no big advantage and definitely not wort cc5. Putting a card on the top of your own library is card disadvantage.
Trostani's Judgment: Simply killing a creature without any compromises isn't bad, but cc6 is simply too much for it and there isn't a lot to populate in most pauper cubes.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Nothing here.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Cloudfin Raptor: This guy looks weak, but it nearly always triggers at least twice and often enough it is a 2/3 Flying for cc1 that can still evolve. The only problem is that it's terrible when you draw it from the top with an empty hand.
Faerie Seer - 1cc Flying and a pseudo-Cantrip (Scry 2 ~ Draw 1). It's okay as it is, but it only really shines as an enabler for self bounce effects like Nijutsu.
Wingcrafter: Giving any other creature flying with the only drawback is to have a Flying Men, makes this card really solid.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally most cubes won't include this unless there are specific reasons.
Delver of Secrets: This guy dominates in constructed pauper, but in limited it's way more difficult to guarantee that it really flips because there are a lot fewer instants, sorceries and ways to manipulate the top of your library in the average limited deck.
Drifter il-Dal/Spindrift Drake: A 2/1 evasive beater on turn 1 can do a lot for a race since it's hard to stop them. Most people are just afraid of the constant U you have to pay.
Phantasmal Bear: If you want to go for a highly tempo/aggro focused blue strategy this is actually pretty decent. If your opponent spends a spell to deal with it you are fine with it. The big risk is, if your opponent has activated abilites, like Gideon's Lawkeeper or Fireslinger.
Sage of Epityr: In combination with bounce and shuffle effects, this can be decent.
Sidisi's Faithful: A 0/4 body with an upside seems fine in blue, but the upside to turn your worst creature (mainly itself) into a sorcery speed Unsummon is not a big enough upside to make this better than borderline.
Thriving Turtle: A 1/4 for 1 sounds good, but it has to attack in order to be that size.
Wind Zendikon: A 2/2 Flying for cc1 that can also be played with haste by tapping 2 lands is nice, but you have to take in account that it binds one mana every time it attacks.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Aegis Turtle: A total of 5 stat points for U is definitely huge, but with 0 in power your opponent can still attack freely into it, while e.g. a 1/4 would make so your opponent couldn't attack with X/1s. Also without reach it's not really a good blocker at any stage in the game.
Artificer's Assistant – For artifact based cubes, it can help set up your draws. But it’s still just a 1/1 flier.
Caller of Gales: Giving your creatures flexible flying can be nice, but the price is high and the 1/1 body is pretty dead on the board, especially when it always has to be tapped.
Eidolon of Philosophy: The body is horrible and the ability is too expensive, especially because if there is a threat, that you would actually be able to pay for it, your opponent can simply remove it, but between turn 1-6 it's useless.
Faerie Miscreant: Even if you would play multiple copies of it, it would still not be too exciting.
Proven Combatant/Shore Keeper: The idea of having an early-drop creature that's relevant late-game is nice, but the initial bodies are terrible and the abilities are overcosted.
Reef Shaman/Tidal Warrior: Either turning your opponent's lands into something else or fixing your mana could be nice but not on such weak bodies.
Salvage Drone: A 1/1 without even flying is terrible. At least it lets you loot when it dies.
Shrieking Drake: Bouncing your own creatures is sometimes an advantage, but sometimes it's not and for that case, you'd rather want a more useful body than just 1/1 flyer.
Trickster Mage: Tapping or untapping isn't a big enough advantage to be worth discarding cards.
Vedalken Certarch: In an artifact-based cube, this card would be great.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Errant Ephemeron: There aren't many good finishers for blue. This is one is definitely one of the best.
Looter il-Kor/Merfolk Looter/Thought Courier: Cc2 guys that can grant card quality like nothing else. In limited especially, this is really important, because a lot more lands can come from the top and your deck isn't as well curved as constructed.
Waterfront Bouncer: The 1/1 body doesn't bring much, but you don't want this card in the early stages of the game. You want it when your hand is nearly empty and you only draw lands from the top. This guy turns every useless land into an Unsummon.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Dreamscape Artist: This can turn any card in your hand into Harrow. This is especially interesting for extremely mana intense decks.
Halimar Wavewatch: A 0/6 wall is big and in a control deck you will be really happy to have it in the early game. In the later stages of the game, it can become a huge threat. The only problems are that it's not able to trade with any creature until it's level 5 and it's really annoying when you've just invested all the mana into it and it then eats a hard removal.
Ninja of the Deep Hours: There are a lot of evasive creatures or some with etb-effects that can easily enable or want to get bounced by this guy. If a creature gets through, it's a 2/2 for cc2, that deals 2 damage and draws a card the turn it comes into play. Afterward, it prevents the opponents from attacking you with everything because your opponent wouldn't want to get hit with this creature.
Omenspeaker: A very defensive body with Scry 2, which makes it a solid topdeck later.
Sigiled Starfish: A different version of Omenspeaker. Instead of 1 power, it can give a lasting advantage through scrying, just not immediately the turn it enters the battlefield.
Silver Myr: Ramp is in the color, that really needs it is quite solid.
Augury Owl/Sage Owl/Spire Owl: Card quality attached to a body is nice, but 1/1 flying bodies are simply not good.
Briarberry Cohort/Gossamer Phantasm: 2 power flying beaters that are only interesting if you really want every nearly playable flying creature.
Cephalid Scout/Soldevi Sage: A card draw engine for the late game is nice, but you don't want such a bad body that's really useless at every stage of the game before you use the ability.
Corridor Monitor: 1/4s for cmc2 are decent blockers, but they need a little extra and the untap ability isn't really that.
Elusive Spellfist: For a cube that supports the spells-matter archetype, this is definitely a great card. Though, assuming that the average cube doesn't, this creature isn't better than borderline.
Fogwalker: It is an odd mashing of abilities. It doesn't tap down its target, so it is a "catch-up" card and attacking for only 1 isn't great.
Giant Tortoise: A 1/4 for cc2 seems huge, but with only 1 power it's not able to trade much.
Gust-Skimmer: 2/1 flyers for cc2 are nice, but paying U every time you want to attack with it is a lot.
Keen Glidemaster: Most creatures with this effect usually need to be tapped, while this one can theoretically put any number of creatures into the air, but 3 mana is a lot and there are more efficient alternatives to do so.
Palace Familiar/Surveilling Sprite: Dying without making card disadvantage can be nice, but a 1/1 flying body for cc2 is mainly not exciting enough to make them worth it.
Riptide Turtle: Depending on how high you value flash and if you are willing to play pure defenders without any way to pressure the opponent this might be considerable.
Shipwreck Looter: A half-way decent body with possible card selection through looting is a fine card.
Soratami Cloudskater: There are some synergies with this card, but it got a high price so you are mainly only able to use its ability in the later stages of the game. The possibility to attack with a 1/1 flying body doesn't bring it on the same level as the Courier/Looters that can start making card quality in turn 3.
Stormscape Familiar: Making about 50% of decks cheaper is nice, but a 1/1 flying body is not that exciting.
Tah-Crop Skirmisher: An okay costed aggressive creature that can even come back. Unfortunately, in general, blue doesn't want aggressive creatures without evasion.
Thrummingbird: This card is unplayable outside of decks that get value from proliferating, but in the right deck it's a bomb.
Wall of Kelp: Only online common! A defender, that can prevent a lot of damage. The biggest disadvantage is the constant UU.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Alchemist's Apprentice: The possibility to sacrifice it and turn it into a card would be interesting if a 1/1 body would have any more use than just one chump block.
Arctic Merfolk/Dream Stalker: Being able to bounce your own creatures can be good, but it always slows you down, so you usually want a more exciting body.
Augur of Bolas: Only special decks need this card and for all other, it is just not good enough.
Blighted Agent: In theory, this card could be a 10 turn clock on its own, but if it becomes handled when there are just up to 9 poison counters, it was useless.
Blinding Drone: There are not enough colorless mana sources in most pauper cubes.
Champion's Drake: There aren't enough levelers to make this card playable.
Cloud of Faeries: No matter if for 0 mana or not, you don't want 1/1 flying creatures.
Cloudskate/Drake Familiar: 2/2 or 2/1 flying guys for cc2 are nice, but not worth such high restrictions.
Deepwater Hypnotist: The chance that this creature will have the chance to attack without dying senselessly is really low and the effect is simply not strong enough even if you would be able to untap this creature.
Glimmerbell: While this can block 2/X fliers and chip in for some damage with it's pseudo vigilance, it's not really something you want. Unless you can really make use of the untap ability, it's more of a cosmetic feature.
Hisoka's Guard: Giving shroud at any time seems nice, but the guard itself won't live long.
Jeering Homunculus: This creature has no power and goad is not a good ability in a duel.
Jeskai Sage: 2 positive abilities on a creature for cc2 seem nice, but a 1/1 body is pretty useless on its own and is of no big help on either offense or defense.
Passwall Adept – Interesting effect, but it costs a lot and really only shines with another good creature. Phantasmal Mount: The risk is too high and the ability not good enough.
Fathom Seer: Gush on a stick is fine, but not super impressive, since bouncing 2 islands can be a big drawback.
Frost Lynx/Watertrap Weaver: A solid tempo creature, even though tapping a creature down until after your next turn is usually worse than bouncing.
Hinterland Drake: The downside is rarely relevant and the body is very well costed.
Ingenious Skaab: Swiss-army body in a color that does not get these. Prowess actually feeds the 'Flowstone' ability, and the starting stats are just fine.
Neurok Invisimancer: Unblockable is the best evasion of all and with 2 power and an etb-effect, this card can be really interesting.
Oko's Accomplices: A flying vanilla, but still solid cost/stat ratio.
Pestermite: A 2 power flying beater for cc3 with flash and a super good and flexible ability.
Sea Gate Oracle: Card advantage and card quality combined with a body are great. The only problem is that a 1/3 isn't worth much.
Shaper Parasite: A blue spot removal attached to a body is great, but 6 mana is a lot.
Spiketail Drakeling: A 2/2 flying creature that can beat down and slow down your opponent a lot. Except for the flash creatures, it's the only creature that can be played on turn 3 in a deck that wants to have mana open for counters.
Stitched Drake: A 3/4 Flying for cc3 is awesome and the restriction is minimal.
Stormbound Geist: A 2/2 flying creature for cc3 doesn't seem very impressive on first look, but the fact that it's nearly impossible to handle it without just making it a 3/3 is great.
Tandem Lookout: The creature of your choice gets additional value, possibly multiple times, giving you card advantage.
Trained Condor: 2 power and evasion for cc3 is already solid, but this guy has Wingcrafter included and that makes it great.
Wormfang Drake: The other 3/4 flying for cc3 that needs creatures. The ability can be an advantage if something like Sea Gate Oracle is exiled, but sometimes there is just nothing you want to exile with it.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Ancient Crab: It blocks almost everything without dying, but it's still not very exciting over all.
Archaeomender: There usually aren't enough artifacts to make this worth it, apart from the fact, that the ones who are there don't go the graveyard on their own.
Cloud Elemental/Scrapskin Drake: A 2/3 flying for cc3 is often better than a 3/1 flying, but if the more defensive body isn't able to block anything, it's worse.
Cloud Spirit/Rishadan Airship/Skywinder Drake: 3 power and evasion for cc3 is great and the disadvantage that it can't block that well isn't that important because they are very aggressive anyway. The biggest disadvantage is that they are killed very easy and that blue is not always a very aggressive color.
Coral Barrier: A solid blocker that wouldn't be overpowered without defender, an unnecessary drawback.
Coral Trickster: The effect is nice and the body would be ok for cc2, but with the cc3 of morph, this card is a little bit overcosted and can't be counted for cc2.
Dewdrop Spy: Flash is nice, but a 2/2 body isn't that exciting and the other ability is really useless.
Dimir Informant – Not a bad roadblock for the early game. Can feed Graveyard-matters, or just smooth draws and block Drift of Phantasms: A very big wall, that can flexible search for some things.
Glacial Wall: BIG WALL. Easy on the mana, and it can take a beating. It is overcosted by 1cc.
Headless Skaab: 3/6 for cc3 is great, but it's too hard for blue decks to play it on turn 3 and in the late game it's still good but not too impressive and the 1 turn where it can't block can be a problem.
Jhessian Thief: The body isn't the best, but the threat alone that prowess presents can be nice evasion at times and it is a fine threat in tempo or spells-matter decks.
Mistral Singer: The body is not decent enough on it's own, so that prowess isn't mandatory. It's still not the best mechanic though, especially not in blue, where you rarely want to cast your noncreature spells before or mid combat.
Naiad of Hidden Coves: This reads way better than it actually is. Mana instants are UU or so cheap that a cost reduction doesn't really help you at all and getting a lousy 2/3 Vanilla apart from that doesn't make this good.
Sailor of Means: An okay roadblock in the early game that can help double spell later or accelerate to an expensive spell.
Scroll Thief/Ophidian: A 1/3 can easily be blocked by everything with just X/2 and therefore won't get through often. These are the worse version of Stealer of Secrets.
Write into Being: This may look complex, but is actually a just 2/2 for cc3 that can scry away up to 2 cards and has a solid chance of hiding a creature.
Zephyr Scribe: There are many looters in blue with different upsides, but depending on the fact, that you mainly activate looters during your opponents turn, the upside of this ones is not overly exciting.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Illusionary Servant: A 3/4 flying for cc3 seems nice, but this card dies to too many things.
Kathari Screecher: A 2/2 Flying for cc3 is too unexciting without any very good ability.
Library Larcenist: This can theoretically always go in for a suicide attack to replace itself, compared to Stealer of Secrets, but with only 1 power nearly every attack is a suicide attack.
Merfolk Seer: The 2/2 body isn't exciting enough and keeping 2 mana available for it is not worth it.
Mistblade Shinobi: The ability is nice, but the 1/1 body won't do anything apart from the first bounce.
Mnemonic Sliver: Only online common! This card is only considerable if you are heavily supporting the sliver tribal.
Monastery Flock: Morph is not that good on this creature, because it can't trade with a creature after it's flipped and the 0/5 flying defender body is outclassed.
Mystic Skyfish: The restriction is way too high to constantly trigger, unless you have an active Looter in the battlefield, but it's simply not worth it, considering all the times, where this will simply be a 3/1.
Neurok Replica: A solid blocker that can be turned into bounce at any time. It would be better with a more interesting body.
Parapet Watchers: This card could be a huge wall, but it's not worth keeping up the mana for it.
Phase Dolphin: The ability to get something through seems nice, but the Dolphin itself can't attack well. It can simply get blocked by 2 2/2s. The defensive body doesn't really want to attack, because in that case you can't use to to block. There are better alternatives, like Aerial Guide, which can constantly attack itself.
Sarcomite Myr: The flexibility to sacrifice it when it's not needed anymore is nice, but the constant 2 to give it flying is too much.
Scholar of Stars – In an artifact based cube, this is a solid blue body that draws you a card. Else it’s over costed. Scribe of the Mindful: The card has a weak body, is slow and almost card disadvantage.
Siren Lookout: Only one outcome is decent and the inability to chose the ideal mode can be annoying. Soaring Show-Off – Giving your opponent a card is not worth it Spellkeeper Weird – Having to pay more many is not worth it. Survivor of the Unseen: The ability is nice, but the card is not worth the cumulative upkeep.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Illusionary Forces: A great finisher for blue. 4/4 Flying is just huge and the cumulative upkeep is rarely a big problem, especially if you can bounce it.
Shimmering Glasskite: Another one of the few good blue finishers. The body is hard to handle and it's nearly indestructible against removal.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Archaeomancer: The etb-effect is really strong, but a 1/2 body isn't very useful for anything else than chump blocking and UU on turn 4 can be problematic. A really problematic card.
Aven Fleetwing: Even if Hexproof is better than the effect of the Glasskite, a 2/2 body can still easily be blocked to death by a Stormfront Pegasus or something similar.
Cloaked Siren: Different than Nephalia Seakite/Sentinels of Glen Elendra, this creature can't be used to kill 2/2s during combat, but is way better to be played end of turn and offer a winning option with 3 power in the air. In addition, it can trade for X/3s during combat.
Crookclaw Transmuter: Flash can be really important for blue, so it can keep mana for counters. A 3/1 flying body is good, but the etb-effects is very situative and it dies to everything that wants to kill it.
Elgaud Shieldmate: Hexproof is really really strong and this creature can give it to any other creature. The only problem is that a 2/3 Hexproof on the ground isn't exciting and this way it's mainly a walking aura.
Ghost Ship: A really solid flying body with possible Regeneration.
Makeshift Mauler: Even a 4/4 for cc4 is seldom, but a 4/5 is even better. The only disadvantages are the anti-synergy with Stitched Drake and that it doesn't have flying like most of the other beaters blue got.
Phantom Monster: A 3/3 flying for cc4 is extremely solid and surprisingly unique.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Amphin Pathmage: A strong ability that could possibly end games, but the body is bad and the ability is quite expensive.
Aven Initiate: 3 power in the air is a good finisher and this can come back later in the game when you're flooding.
Breaching Hippocamp: A blue combat trick in creature form. A 3/2 body is good to trade, but it's really fragile.
Breezekeeper/Windrider Eel: A 4/4 Flying body for cc4 is great, but phasing or only on landfall is a big disadvantage.
Drownyard Explorers: The body is unexciting, but at least it doesn't produce card disadvantage.
Fencer Clique/Wayward Soul: A 3/2 Flying body for cc4 is ok, especially with a positive ability, but the ability to save it is still card disadvantage.
Headwater Sentries: With its high toughness and decent power, it can act as a solid roadblock for stopping attackers.
Impaler Shrike: Drawing 3 cards for cc4 would be great and dealing 3 damage before is even better, but a 3/1 is really easy to handle, even with flying, so this card will mainly not come through and waste 4 mana.
Incubator Drone: Either a 3/4 in two bodies for 4 or a 2/3 for 3. Not bad, but not very exciting either.
Keymaster Rogue/Storm Sculptor: A 3/2 unblockable for cc4 is good. This card just depends on how many creatures want to be bounced.
Labyrinth Minotaur: A big wall without defender, that has a great ability for blocking. The only disadvantages are that a 1/4 isn't very impressive and cc4 is often too late in the game for it.
Lotus Path Djinn: A 2/3 flying for cc4 with an upside is ok, but prowess is outclassed by too many better keywords and mechanics for this card to be more than borderline.
Marchesa's Emissary: Hexproof is nice but blue is not the most aggressive color to trigger dethrone.
Moonblade Shinobi - The ability is cool. Repeating it takes some doing, but if you can get the extra value it will prove troublesome. Works better with auras or equipment to push it through. The ability cost, and the body size do not yield enough initially to make it an auto-include. Works great for recurring EtB bodies though
Naga Oracle: Usually a worse Omenspeaker but with a bigger body and it works with graveyard synergies.
Ojutai Interceptor: This is not a very exciting morph, but it curves itself out nicely and a 4/2 flying is a pretty big threat.
Phantasmal Forces: Only online common! A 4/1 Flying with a nearly redundant restriction. This card is a 5 turn clock on its own if it's not handled, but the problem is that 1 toughness is handled very easily.
Saltwater Stalwart – Great effect, but typically needs some help to consistently hit an opponent. The extra toughness, and the damage not needing combat means its survival is a bit better than Stealer of Secrets
Separatist Voidmage: Even though it's strictly worse than Man-o'-War it's still a fine card, for affecting the board on both sides.
Shell Skulkin: A really interesting ability but 3/2 bodies are fragile.
Stinging Barrier: A wall with a nice ability. The only problem is that a 0/4 without reach can't block that much.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Ascending Aven: This card is very weak for its cost and the reduced morph costs change nothing about it.
Aspiring Aeronaut: Getting two bodies with abilities in one card can be a good thing, but this one is either overcosted or underpowered.
Aven Augur: The restriction for the ability is too high.
Aven Fisher/Kingfisher/Runewing: A 2/2 flying isn't very strong and the ability is only an advantage when it dies. Mainly it's better to play a stronger creature directly without an advantage of dying.
Blockade Runner: A 2/2 unblockable isn't really exciting for cc4.
Cephalid Sage: Vanilla fodder without Threshold. With, it has a boosted 'Looter' ability. It will complement an already present archetype, but it does not encourage it on its own and often the ability triggers too late in the game to really matter.
Chorus of the Tides: Heroic is an extremely weak ability and the 3/2 flying body on its own is outclassed by too many creatures with better abilities.
Clinging Anemones: This wall could become huge, but it comes way too late.
Cobalt Golem: A 2/3 body for cc4 is not worth the investment of 1U just to give flying to it.
Crystacean: Flash can be strong, especially combined with a more defensive body, which can eat a creature for "free" and stay around after that, but with only 1 power this will rarely find a spot to "ambush" your opponent.
Gravity Negator: There are not enough colorless mana sources in most pauper cubes.
Gurmag Drowner: Turning your worst creature into a Forbidden Alchemy seems like a cool thing, but a 2/4 for cc4 is not really exciting and so it will mainly be better simply to play Forbidden Alchemy instead of a situational bad creature.
Homarid Explorer – A Hill Giant that helps fill the graveyard (or theoretical mill) based themes, but still not great.
Laboratory Brute: Self-mill Hill Giant. In blue that is actually a fine body.
Mercurial Kite: The ability seems nice, but a 2/2 body will likely have to die to deal combat damage to anything.
Merrow Levitator: There are better ways to give your creatures flying.
Mistford River Turtle: The stats are bad and you don't really want to attack with your blocker.
Monastery Loremaster: You never want to hardcast this creature, so it's pretty much a 4/3 Archaeomancer for a total of 9 mana. This is definitely too expensive, split over multiple turns or not.
Gryff Vanguard: A 3/2 flying can beat down, but is easily handled. This creature makes card disadvantage of it for the opponent.
Mnemonic Wall: A solid wall and a nice etb-effect. The only problem is that it comes very late.
Ojutai's Summons: 4 flying power and toughness for cc5 is good for pauper. Sadly, both bodies don't come at the same time. On the other hand, this is a sorcery that can be reused with any of the Archaeomancer-like cards.
Peregrine Drake: Even with the less than equal stats compared to other 3/X fliers for 5cc, the fact that this is "free" makes it unique. The only real cost is the card and the time it takes to get to 5 mana.
Roaming Ghostlight: 3 power in the air plus a bounce effect is a decent deal for cmc 5.
Shimmerscale Drake: A nice finisher with the ability to cycle it away if you can't cast it.
Watcher in the Mist – 3/4 flier that Surveils 2 when EtB, which is also interesting letting you get rid of unwanted cards to the yard.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Boreal Elemental – A 3/4 flier that’s harder to kill, but nothing else, no EtB effects
Chasm Drake: The body isn't really exciting, but the ability makes it at least borderline.
Covert Operative/Drelnoch: 3 Power and evasion (pseudo evasion) is Ok, but not really good for cc5.
Dreamtail Heron: A 3/4 flier for 5 is decent, but you will never mutate it, if you cast it for 5. Upgrading a 1/1 into a 3/4 flier for 4 and drawing a card seems great, but blue doesn't actually have too many non-human 1/1s lying around and so this is mostly a way smaller upgrade. Most blue hexproof creatures are already big, so making them 3/4 would be a downgrade. Even though mutate can't fizzle and you will still get a 3/4 for 4 if your opponent kills the target in response you won't get to draw a card. The real worst case for this card though is, that you often won't have a great target for it, so your opponent will let it resolve, let you draw a card and then kill 2 creatures with 1 removal, which isn't a great trade.
Gearsmith Guardian: A 5/5 for 5 is okay, but it has a small requirement and can be disenchanted.
Giant Crab: Shroud is great on a body, but a 3/3 isn't that big and it has no evasion.
Glacial Stalker: A very big body that can kill a lot of creatures surprisingly, but it's also very expensive, no matter how you play it.
Jwar Isle Avenger: With Surge, this card is awesome, but without it, it's overcosted.
Killer Whale (Only online common!): U each turn can be annoying, but a 3/5 flying bodies is solid.
Leyline Phantom: A possible finisher that just needs a lot of mana.
Mystic of the Hidden Way: A 3/2 unblockable is a fine body to finish the opponent, and Morph is never a drawback, but also not really strong on this creature.
Pondering Mage - Lots of stiff competition at 5cc in Blue, and most of its competitors have flying. But being able to ponder, and draw a card is powerful. It can also be blinked for great value.
Prescient Chimera: A 3/4 flying body for cc5 is extremely solid and the ability can be absolutely great. Outclassed by the EtB Scry/Surveil though
Ringwarden Owl: Prowess is not a very good ability because it wants you to play your noncreature spells before combat. The upside that prowess can be used as pseudo-evasion is only relevant when the body is good enough without the pump, which this isn't.
Scrivener/ Salvager of Secrets: Only a part of the interesting noncreature spells you want to revive are Instants. Salvager is more open, but harder mana.
Soul of the Rapids: The body is small, but it's a great carrier of equipment and aura if you support it. It can be nice if you support the hexproof archetype.
Sphinx's Disciple: The effect is really nice, but the body is too weak and really easy to get rid of. This card is simply overcosted/underpowered.
Witness of Tomorrows: 3/4 fliers for 5 are decent and having an additional mana sink attached to it is nice, but there are better alternatives and keep in mind, that this can be disenchanted.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Oracle of Dust: There aren't enough exiling cards in pauper to feed the processors and the body isn't very big for the mana cost.
Prosperous Pirates: The body isn't great for 5 mana and by the time you can cast it you won't usually need much more mana if any.
Rotcrown Ghoul: This card could maybe be interesting for cubes with a mill theme.
Sandbar Crocodile: The body is huge but phasing is a big disadvantage.
Screaming Seahawk: The ability is useless, as long as you don't play playsets.
Sky Ruin Drake: A huge defensive body that can block a lot but it comes very late and doesn't have much impact.
Soliton: A 3/4 Vigilance for cc5 is simply not enough.
Steelgaze Griffin: For this creature to be good you would need to trigger it every turn. That is just too unreliable and there are a lot of 3/4s with actual upsides which have more power on average.
Thassa's Devourer: Constellation would only be interesting for an enchantment-heavy cube.
Tidewater Minion: A flexible and big defender that simply comes too late.
Triton Waverider: Your cube basically needs to be mono enchantments for this to be good.
Voidwielder: The body isn't good enough, even with such a nice ability.
Whirlwind Adept: Hexproof is a strong ability, but prowess isn't and a 4/2 body can be blocked to death so that hexproof is not such a big advantage.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Nothing here.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Benthic Giant: This guy is a great target for auras and even on its own it's a big threat.
River Serpent: This doesn't look that good, but Cycling for 1 is such a low opportunity cost and once you have met the conditions a 5/5 for 6 isn't actually that bad.
Shoreline Ranger: A 3/4 flying is good at every stage of the game. It's overcosted, but the flexibility to turn it into a land makes it good.
Spined Megalodon: Another in the line of big blue hexproof finishers. This one definitely has decent stats and the little icing on top with the Scry ability, while an additional mana over the 4/5s for 6 can be back breaking.
Windcaller Aven: Cycling for 1 is very strong and having an additional effect attached to that is nice to have.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Æthersnipe: Flexibility is nice, but without instant speed you will rarely want to Evoke this.
Bastion Inventor: The smaller brother of Benthic Giant. It becomes better though, once you have at least 1 artifact.
Canal Courier: Being the monarch is nice, but the body is overcosted and the second ability is useless in a duel.
Gearseeker Serpent: This can be a finisher for a control deck and be unblockable. It's great in an artifact-heavy cube, but it's overcosted without artifacts and the ability is expensive.
Maze Glider: A 3/5 flying body is huge, but this card is overcosted by 1.
Moonlit Scavengers: This is only interesting if you have a deep artifact/enchantment theme.
Riverwheel Aerialists: It has a solid-enough and evasive body to be a fine finisher option.
Spire Golem: You can count on having about 2 islands when you have 4 lands in a normal 2 colored deck. A 2/4 flying for about cc4 isn't bad, but unexciting.
Wingfold Pteron: Flexibility is nice, but you usually put a creature into your deck for a specific purpose and if you want this to be your hexproof creature, there are similar, but slightly better options and if you simply want a big flier, there are way better alternatives.
Wretched Gryff: In any deck what can splash U, this transforms useless bodies into flying finishers. And it replaces itself upon casting!
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Brine Giant: Your cube basically needs to be mono enchantments for this to be good.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Flood: This card doesn't just buy a lot of time by preventing creatures from attacking, it also prevents creatures from blocking the following turn and do so as often as you like.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Force Spike: The only effective counter for cc1 that can bring a curve to control decks.
Gitaxian Probe: Mainly an empty slot in your library, to thin out your library without card disadvantage and for 0 if needed. The problem is that it makes mulligan decision harder.
Ponder/Preordain: A solid amount of card quality for just cc1 without card disadvantage.
Witching Well: In your opening hand this can improve your next draws and once you need it you have an Inspiration.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Aerial Formation: A mediocre combat trick that is mainly meant to be a finisher in the late game.
Aether Spellbomb: This is an Unsummon when needed that you can also turn in for a card instead. Flexible but not exciting.
Aqueous Form: Unblockable is a great evasion and Scry 1 is Ok, but as long as the creature isn't protected, there still is a high chance to trade bad.
Arcane Flight – Giving something flying and +1/+1 is good for 1CMC, but at the cost of a card and leaves you open to 2 for 1s
Curfew: It can protect your creatures from removal, retrigger etb-effects and bounce a creature from the opponent as well. The only problem is that it's still a little bit situational and a tempo disadvantage for you. If you don't trade a removal with it, it's card disadvantage.
Diminish: An acceptable blue combat trick. It just depends if blue really wants combat tricks.
Dive Down/Intervene/Turn Aside/Mizzium Skin: Most cards in limited are creatures or removal. Being able to counter up to 50% of the spells in a deck for just cc1 can be really nice.
Maximize Altitude – Getting the bonus and evasion are not always worth it, but Jump-Start gives the oppurtunity for repeated use. Cheap, effective, repeatable.
Piracy Charm: Blue spot removal spells are great, but just -1 toughness isn't much. Flexibility would solve that problem, but the discard will mainly hit a land.
Rookie Mistake: A one mana trick with the potential for a 2 for 1 trade is very rare and even though blue doesn't really need combat tricks and this one is very situative, in the best case scenario, this can be game winning.
Rush of Ice: There are many cards with this effect, but not for 1 mana and not with the ability to attach a creature to it.
Sigil of Sleep: On an evasive beater that isn't handled quickly, this is insane, but when it's handled it's card disadvantage.
Slip Through Space: Getting a free attack as a cantrip is nice but situational.
Silent Departure: Even with Sorcery speed, this card can be a tempo advantage for its normal cost and with flashback, it can be relevant later as well.
Unstable Mutation: Making a small creature a big threat can be nice, especially for such less mana, but when the creature gets handled it is card disadvantage.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Abjure: You don't want to make card disadvantage on purpose.
Aboshan's Desire: If Threshold would be easier to reach, this card would be great.
Shimmering Wings: Permanent evasion that could prevent card disadvantage. Interesting but not good enough.
So Tiny: Threshold is hard to archive yourself and even worse when you have to hope for your opponent to get there.
Spell Pierce: The flexibility is not bad, but it's to easy to play around this card.
Sleep of the Dead: Card disadvantage. There are spots in the very late stages of the game, where this can have a significant impact, but that's a corner case.
Veil of Birds: A 1/1 flyer wouldn't even be good without the restriction.
Void Snare: Sorcery speed is a huge drawback for bounce spells.
Whispers of the Muse: Only online common! No matter if you can cycle it or not, a card that is only good when you have nothing else to do with your mana is simply too situative.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Counterspell: It handles everything for cc2. UU could be a problem but it's worth the risk.
Daze: The only counter for cc0, so you can even play it when you are tapped out and your opponent feels safe.
Mana Leak: 3 mana is enough to pay more. With 1U this card got enough flexibility.
Miscalculation: 2 mana isn't much, but cycling gives this card enough flexibility to make it one of the best counters blue has in pauper cubes.
Narcolepsy: The only really good blue spot-removal for cc2.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Cartouche of Knowledge: The fact that it replaces itself and gives the creature evasion is worth the risk of card disadvantage.
Confound: Protecting a creature from removal and making card advantage from it can be really nice.
Deprive: In the early game, this can be really punishing for you, but later in the game the downside becomes mostly irelevant and this becomes a very flexible and cheap hard Counter.
Impulse: The only card quality spell for cc2 that can keep up with the cc1 spells because it searches even deeper.
Memory Lapse: A counter without restrictions that only has the problem that the top deck is more important in limited than in constructed. It does matter if there is a creature on the top or a land. As well, it's not a lasting solution if you try to handle a bomb with it.
Singing Bell Strike: A very solid spot removal spell that gets rid of creatures for a very long time and is a big tempo disadvantage for the opponent.
Withdraw: Bouncing either 2 of your opponent's creatures or just one while also saving one of your creatures from removal or retrigger etc-effects with instant speed is a lot of flexibility. UU can be a little bit problematic though and the fact that it's card disadvantage nearly no matter what you do, makes it just cubeable.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Alexi's Cloak: Protecting a creature from removal and giving it permanent shroud afterward can be really nice.
Anticipate: The strictly worse version of Impulse, but still not bad.
Arcane Denial: A hard counter that makes card disadvantage because it trades 2 for 3.
Boomerang: This bounce is at it's strongest when it's played on turn 2 to bounce a land.
Callous Dismissal: A bounce spell with a small body attached to it. It might seem good on first thought, but sorcery speed is a bummer and a 1/1 is only half a card.
Hampering Snare: A very situational, but not necessarly weak effect. Cycling 2 is too much of an opportunity cost to make this good though.
Hands of Binding: A kind of Sigil of Sleep that will have at least done something if it's handled immediately. It also enables itself.
Hidden Strings: This card can have a lot of synergies, but without the right synergies it's mainly worse than Hands of Binding.
Inaction Injunction/Enervate: Interesting cards for tempo decks, but there is a lot of competition in this mana slot.
Kasmina's Transmutation – A different type of removal, but leaving behind a 1/1 isn’t ideal compared to straight removal.
Keep Safe: A worse version of Confound. Though it can theoretically protect noncreature permanents, those are rarely targeted and the option of Confound to counter your opponents aura or combat tricks, will come in useful way more often.
Lofty Denial: Blue has a lot of good creatures with flying, so enabling this isn't that far off and an upgraded Mana Leak is definitely strong. The question is if you have a creature heavy deck, do you really want that many counterspells, because if you are proactive it can be very hard to keep mana open for the right times.
Lost in Thought: In the earlier stages of the game this card can be really nice, but later it takes too long to actually stop the creature.
Negate: The restriction isn't that high, but creatures are often the bigger problem in cube.
Perilous Research: Drawing 2 cards with instant speed can be good, especially when you sacrifice a creature that would be removed otherwise or just an extra land.
Prohibit: The most important spells don't have just cc2 or cc1 like in constructed. For cubes, the restriction is too high mainly.
Rune Snag/Quench: In the early stages of the game this Counter can be nice, but later it becomes really bad.
Runner's Bane: Blue spot removal spells are unique, but this one is disabled very easily.
Send to Sleep: Even though the effect for cc2 would be cubeable, Spell Mastery is a relevant drawback.
Siren's Ruse: Slightly overcosted for the effect, as the upside will rarely come up, but blue has it's fair share of etb effects and this can still blank a removal spell.
Slimebind – the flash makes this effect very flexible. But it’s not premium removal by any means.
Starlit Mantle: If you heavily want to support an aura theme, this can theoretically be used to save a creature once and also provide a small buff.
Startling Development: Cycling for 1 is the lowest possible opportunity cost apart from 0. The effect, though rarely useful definitely does have it's applications and though you will rarely want to target an opponents creature, it's nice to have the option.
Strategic Planning: The worse version of Impulse unless you have a lot of graveyard synergies, but still Ok.
Telekinesis: Only online common! An interesting combat trick, that can also get rid of a creature for quite a time.
Telling Time: The decisions you can make are too restrictive to compete with all the other good filter spells in blue.
Think Twice: Even with instant speed and flashback, cc5 overall is too much for just 2 cards.
Teferi's Time Twist – A serviceable blink effect, with a bonus. But to really make it worth it, it need to be used in response to a removal. It also blinks ANY permanent.
Tightening Coils: -6 power is a lot, but you probably still leave your opponent a good blocker.
Zephyr Charge: Mass-evasion can be great, but you will often prefer a creature that has flying on its own.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Contingency Plan/Taigam's Scheming: These cards would only be interesting for a cube that can get enough advantage out of self-mill. Otherwise, they're not worth the card disadvantage.
Dragon Wings: There aren't enough playable creatures with cc6.
Dramatic Reversal: This effect is rather unusual in blue and has the potential to waste your opponent, but it's very situational. Also, blue has better combat tricks.
Fatigue: A 1 for 1 trade that is only situational good.
Force Away/Whirlpool Whelm/Voyage's End: Bouncing only creatures for cc2 is not very impressive and possible card quality doesn't make any of these cards good enough.
Run Away Together: It always sounds nice to use selfbounce to retrigger etb effects or save a creature from removal while doing something else, but self bounce also means that you have to cast the creature again, which costs you a lot of tempo.
Scour All Possibilities – Deep Analysis and Think Twice exist. Sorcery speed and a drastic cost on the flashback nullify the advantage of double use.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Compulsive Research: Drawing just 2 cards for cc3 would be too bad, but with card quality added on it becomes one of the best card draw spells blue has.
Exclude: Trading a creature and making card advantage of it makes this one of the best counters blue got.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Containment Membrane: For just 1 mana, this effect is very good. It is almost impossible to not be able to surge it.
Repulse: One of the few bounce spells that are instant speed, doesn't create card disadvantage and still a cheap enough cost that it consistently generates a decent amount of tempo advantage.
Slow Motion: Sometimes this card is Rain of Salt for cc3 and nearly wins the game on its own, but you have to take into account that this card can be a terrible topdeck in the very late stages of the game when the opponent is already up to 7 or 8 lands. Awesome for more aggressive orientated decks, but mainly not for hardcore control decks.
Undo: Sorcery speed is a problem for control decks, but tempo decks will want this card.
Winged Words – Divination is acceptable, but with all the blue fliers in cubes, this will often be a 2 mana draw 2.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Calculated Dismissal: Countering a spell for cc3 and scry 2 would be good, but Spell Mastery is a relevant drawback and this counter doesn't work for sure in the late game.
Crippling Chill: Tapping a creature for 2 turns without card disadvantage can be nice, but cc3 is a lot.
Countervailing Winds: Won't always counter things early, but its flexibility in cycling can be nice.
Dissolve: A 3-mana counter with possible card selection in the form of scry is an okay card.
Dream Cache: Even if you get no real card advantage, you can make a lot of quality with this card, especially since it has an influence on your hand.
Frost Breath: This card is nearly the same power level as Undo, even with instant speed, because just tapping doesn't have the advantage of binding more mana for the opponent. Also, bounce gives you the possibility to counter spells again.
Ghastly Discovery: Drawing 4 cards and discarding 2 for cc3 would be insane, but you need 2 blue creatures for Conspire, which is hard to guarantee.
Of One Mind: Divination is not a good card, but the conditions to cast this for only U isn't actually that hard to archive, considering that about half of the creatures will be humans by default, if don't put any thought into creature types.
Ojutai's Breath: This card has some ups and downs compared to Frost Breath, but in the end, they are about equally good.
Oona's Grace: Turning lands into card draw seems great, but blue already got enough possibilities, for less mana, to use the lands they don't need.
Pieces of the Puzzle: This card can create card advantage, but the restrictions are very high.
Rhystic Study: In the early game this card can slow your opponent a lot, but later it's totally useless.
Rousing Read: A really solid aura, that grants flying a P/T boost and replaces itself with even an additional filter effect added on top. The aura problem remains, that when the creature gets killed in response you won't get any trigger, but if you run enough hexproof creatures go for it.
Rushing River: Lands are not much worth in the late game, which is where this can be a solid spell.
Secrets of the Golden City: An upgraded version of divination, for the cost of an extra U in the cost, that gives you an extra card in the late game. Still not very exciting though.
Sweep Away: If it would put the creature on top of the library every time, it would be cubeable.
Traveler's Cloak: Making a creature permanently unblockable and drawing a card is ok, but most decks don't want this card.
Whisk Away: A hybrid between Time Ebb and Divine Verdict. As a trade-off for the drawback, it has instant speed and it's actually better than a hard removal against mediocre creatures but worse against bombs you want to get rid off.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Ichthyomorphosis: This is a way for blue to deal with activated abilities, but 3 mana is simply too much for a card that also leaves a blocker behind.
Illusory Wrappings/Reduce in Stature: Even if this is one of the few ways for blue to deal with creatures that are already in play, it's not a good one. Leaving the creature as a blocker and with all abilities is rarely the same as killing a creature or tapping it permanently.
Steady Progress: There isn't much to proliferate in most cubes.
Thirst for Meaning: There usually aren't enough enchantments and even if there are you don't really want to discard them most of the time.
Tidal Wave: Creates a temporary creature that can only block ground creatures. It is a mostly reliable overpriced kill spell, but it is conditional on your opponent not having tricks.
Unwind – A “free” noncreature counter, but still requires you to hold up 3 mana, which can be a lot especially if they don’t do anything
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Ray of Command: Gaining control of a creature for one round normally isn't this good, but with instant speed, it's great because it's able to trade for 2 of your opponent's creatures by pitting them against each other.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Blink of an Eye/Into the Roil: You usually want to have card draw attached to bounce spells and even though cmc 4 is much, there is also an emergency mode of paying 2 instead.
Deep Analysis: +3 card advantage in just 1 card is great.
Foresee/Tamiyo's Epiphany: Drawing just 2 cards for cc4 with sorcery speed may not seem that nice, but scry 4 is a lot.
Gust of Wind: Having a creature with flying in blue is usually not hard to archive, but the fact, that this card has a condition at all, which can be failed to met at times, and isn't an instant is a real bummer.
Tricks of the Trade: The creature doesn't become a big enough threat to be worth the risk.
Vivisection: This card is not worth sacrificing a creature for it.
Way of the Thief: You can't guarantee a gate to enable this card.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Capsize: Even though it's quite mana intense, this card is a soft lock just on its own and can be a late-game wincon that is really hard to handle.
Treasure Cruise: Delve can be a strong upside and drawing 3 cards is a lot.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Nothing here.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Brilliant Plan(Only online common!)/Mysteries of the Deep: Getting +2 cards seems great, but cc5 is a lot, especially when it's sorcery bound.
Enhanced Awareness: This is one of the few instant card draw spells at common rarity that can dig 3 cards deep. Even if it generates only +2 cards, there will often be something on the top of your library or in your hand you can easily give up.
Floodwaters: Six mana is a way too much, but it can win you the game and cycling prevents it from being a dead card.
Frostveil Ambush: The spells effect is overcosted by 2 compared to Frost Breath, but since this is a very situational effect Cycling for 1 is a real game changer. Cycling will be the default mode, but at times, the effect can acutally be really useful.
Gush: Drawing 2 cards for 0 mana seems, great, but you have to guarantee 2 Islands for it. Otherwise, it would be just 2 cards for cc5.
Nimbus Naiad: The blue common pendant of Griffin Guide for cmc 5, but with the option to play it on turn 3 as a wind drake.
Rush of Knowledge: This card can draw a lot of cards, but sorcery speed and the high mana cost requirement makes it problematic. It also can't be played on an empty board.
Traumatic Visions: Landcycling adds some flexibility, but cc5 for a Counter is still a lot if needed.
Unexplained Vision: Drawing 3 cards for cmc 5 is ok, but sorcery speed is a huge problem and you need UUU to get the additional upside.
Will of the Naga: This card will find it hard to become better than Frost Breath, because it's restricted to a Minimum of UU and costs, at its best, only 1 less, even if your graveyard if full of cards.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Chronostutter: cc6 is way too much for Griptide. The effect is not even really better.
Read the Tides: If this were instant speed it could be interesting as booth modes can be useful in very different situations, but you can't simply tap 6 mana at sorcery speed for a card with such little impact.
I'm not saying it should be moved or anything, just a small note on Piracy Charm. The discard option is better than a dead option considering cards like Evincar's Justice, Sprout Swarm, and Capsize run this format.
I've actually considered Rune Snag before, because Miscalculation is fine even if you can't cycle it. Yep, it's strictly worse than Mana Leak, but that's one of the best blue cards in the cube so who cares? It's probably borderline IMO.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Carnophage/Vampire Lacerator: 2/2 beaters for cc1 are amazing in an aggressive deck and the drawbacks are acceptable.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Carrion Feeder: This creature turns every other killed creature into a +1/+1 counter and can become a nice threat on its own. It's just bad in the late game and can't use its body for blocking.
Disowned Ancestor: A solid early game blocker that can become a big threat later.
Fume Spitter: A one-drop that curves you out. A -1/-1 counter is good most time of the game.
Plagued Rusalka: Even though it needs mana to be used, the ability to sac other creatures as well, when they are about to be removed anyways or are simply unnecessary for example, makes this at least as equally good as Fume Spitter.
Vault Skirge: A 1/1 Flying with Lifelink isn't good on its own, but with equipment or auras it can easily become really good.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Augmenting Automaton: This creature can be relevant later in the game, but it can also be useless much too often.
Blight Keeper: A Flying Men with a nice late-game mana-sink that gives additional reach to help finish off the opponent while padding your life total. Fine card but not the most exciting.
Deathgreeter: The ability isn't bad, but a 1/1 body is too bad on its own.
Pulse Tracker: A one-drop that can deal 2 damage seems interesting, but the 1/1 body will simply be killed by everything that blocks it.
Shadow Alley Denizen: Similar to Intimidator Initiate in that the 1/1 body is terrible on its own, but instead of preventing specific creatures from blocking, it grants evasion to one of your creatures. It's also restricted to only creatures instead of any shared-color spell.
Skittering Heartstopper: The mana requirement to grant deathtouch isn't great, but the extra toughness over Typhoid Rats can be relevant and often the threat of activation alone is enough.
Stronghold Confessor The two modes makes it interesting. But still not a powerful card.
Tormented Soul: A great card for equipment or auras, but on its own 1 damage every turn isn't much.
Thornbow Archer: The body is okay for the cost, but the ability is conditional and probably does nothing.
Thoughtpicker Witch/Viscera Seer: Turning killed creatures into card quality or bad quality for the opponent seems nice, but the 1/1 body is kind of meh.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Acolyte of Xathrid/Smolder Initiate: Shooting over the opponent's defense is a nice possibility, but overall these cards are bad and bind way too much mana.
Asphodel Wanderer: A defensive body for cc1 would be nice, but the regenerate is simply overcosted.
Blood Celebrant: This card would even be bad if you wouldn't have to pay life for the bad ability.
Blood Pet: Spending mana early to save it until you need it seems ok, but the 1/1 body won't do anything and if you sacrifice it, it's card disadvantage.
Liliana's Steward: Trading a card for a single card of an opponents choice doesn't bring you ahead in any way. If you could at least activate it at any time it would be interesting, but it is what it is.
Mortician Beetle: There are not enough sacrifice effects in most pauper cubes.
Sanitarium Skeleton: The ability to come back from Graveyard is strong, but it's overcosted by 1 mana.
Serrated Scorpion: A 1/2 body simply isn't good enough and the death trigger doesn't justify it.
Sewer Rats: A One-drop with some relevance in the late game seems nice, but paying the same amount of life as this creature deals damage isn't really good.
Shamble Back: It's a 2/2 Zombie that gains 2 life for just 1 mana, but Sorcery speed is bad and Graveyard hate isn't that relevant in most cubes. Also, you'll never be able to cast this on curve.
Sludge Crawler: A 1/1 for 1 mana is terrible, but the ability to pump makes this creature okay.
Stone-Throwing Devils: First Strike can be nice, but only with more than just 1 power.
vampire neonate - an interesting option for support. It’s really good in the grindy matchups, but it lacks the one power or toughness to be an instant include
Whisper Squad: Cards like these don't work in singleton cubes.
Zulaport Enforcer: Overall level up is ok in cubes, but the level up cost is too expensive and the creature only becomes really relevant after investing 12 additional mana into it.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Dauthi Horror: 1B, 2 power, good evasion. Simply good.
Undertaker: Turning dead cards into creatures is great.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Basilica Screecher: Extort is a nice ability, especially from turn 2 on, but the 1/2 flying body isn't very useful.
Boot Nipper: Useful flexiblity, where neither version is overcosted is great.
Corpse Hauler: A solid bear that can return important creatures if needed.
Dauthi Slayer: 1 toughness is often important, even for shadow beaters, but BB on turn 2 makes this creature just cubeable.
Fledgling Djinn: A 2/2 flying for cc2 is great, but the drawback can easily be annoying. On the other hand, this card will often be handled fast enough that it's not such a big problem.
Gluttonous Slug - Early curve, evasive, and can potentially hit 3+ power. This is dangerous in arguably all but the slower decks.
Hand of Silumgar: A very consistent 2-drop that is very good on defense, but is also able to attack with pseudo-evasion.
Lampad of Death's Vigil: A cheap acitvation cost allows you to easily recycle all creatures, that would otherwise die to removal and threaten your opponents life total without attacking, while restorting your own life.
Lazotep Reaver - two bodies for 2 mana is decent for sacrifice cubes. But neither is very exciting
Leaden Myr: Fixing and ramp. This is a pretty unique effect for black and a great card for clunky black decks or black control decks.
Mesmeric Fiend: A walking Distress. This card is at it's best with sacrifice effects, which can let you exile the card forever.
Nezumi Cutthroat: Fear is not as good as shadow, but for 1B this card is still great.
Nightscape Familiar: A solid blocker, that makes about 50% of the 2-color decks it's played in cheaper.
Plague Wight a 2/1 that can’t be blocked by X/1s. But only works on attacking.
Putrid Goblin: Different than Butcher Ghoul, this starts out as a 2/2, so it doesn't need to die first, to have decent stats.
Shambling Ghoul: The body is worth the drawback most of the time.
Sickle Ripper: Dead Weight on a Stick. This card is good on offense as well as on defense. The 1 toughness is it's only problem.
Sinuous Vermin: It's a bear with a very good upside. A 5/5 Menace is a big threat.
Skittering Skirge: A 3/2 Flying for cc2 is really nice and even with the restriction, it's worth BB.
Thrill-Kill Assassin: The flexibility to either be a 2/3 deathtouch attacker in the early game or a deathtouch 1/2 blocker if needed makes this card great.
Augur of Skulls: Mind Rot for cc2 seems nice, especially with the flexibility to block well later in the game, but your opponent has one turn to prepare for it by simply deciding not to play the land he might have just drawn for example. It can still be card advantage, but not very often.
Blind Creeper: A 3/3 for cc2 seems great, but your opponent can choose when to shrink it. Changing combat math for yourself is bad.
Bloodthrone Vampire: Sometimes this card is a great blocker that has pseudo evasion as well, but 1 damage isn't much.
Caligo Skin-Witch – You are either playing it for the early body, or the later discard. The flexibility is fine, just not always obvious
Corrupted Zendikon: A 3/3 for cc2 seems nice, but you have to take into account that it wants lands as long as it lives and it also just dies to bounce. The advantage is that you can play it for cc3 which means it can attack right away.
Cuombajj Witches: A black Fireslinger, with a drawback along with a 1/3 body. Another problem is the BB in the cost.
Dire Fleet Hoarder: The black pendant of Viridian Emissary. The body isn't the greatest, but it can be a fine roadblock that when it dies gives a free Lotus Petal, which can be nice at times to help you accelerate into your higher-drop creatures.
Dregscape Zombie: A 2/1 beater on turn 2 that can come back when it becomes handled to attack one more time isn't too bad.
Dune Beetle: This can be a good blocker for control decks, but it doesn't do much in other decks.
Durable Coilbug: The recursion ability can make this a very pesky annoyance, but it's very expensive to buy this back multiple times and the 2/2 body doesn't have that much impact.
Malevolent Noble: An instant speed sacrifice outlet, that gets pumped permanently is kind of nice, but 2 is too much of an activation cost.
Mardu Skullhunter: A fine 2-drop that is able to generate card advantage, but it's very hard to trigger Raid on turn 2 and entering the battlefield tapped can be a huge drawback in the later stages of a game.
Masked Blackguard: This is not Ambush Viper, but is still able to trade decently out of nowhere while keeping you mana open during the opponents turn.
Miasmic Mummy: The body is fine and the discard is only situational relevant.
Null Champion: On level 4 this card would be nuts, but a 4/2 is too fragile.
Order of the Ebon Hand: 2/1 First Strike guys are great and being able to pump it is nice, but there is a little too many Bs in the cost to make this card good in the typical 2 color decks.
Pit Keeper: The effect attached to a body is great, but the restriction is high.
Rathi Trapper: A black Benalish Trapper that's worse because black already has a huge amount of hard removal spells.
Ruthless Cullblade: Either an acceptable 2/1 for cc2 in the early game or a 4/2 that could be relevant. It's just missing evasion and maybe an extra toughness to be good.
Sultai Emissary: A 1/1 that turns into a 2/2 with upside, when it dies is fine. It can chump block or be sacrificed for free once and at it's best it can trade with any other X/1 card.
Surrakar Marauder: A 2/1 Intimidate for 1B on landfall. During the early game it's fine, but later this creature can become quite useless.
Thriving Rats: A 2/3 for 2 without a real downside is unusual for black, but it has to attack first and is a defensive creature.
Wretched Anurid: A 3/3 for cc2 is great and has to be handled fast, but only very very aggressive decks can play this creature because the drawback is huge and Pacifism-like cards kill you.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Abyssal Gatekeeper: There are some synergies with this card, but none of them are playable.
Agent of Shauku/Plague Witch: Turning lands into something more useful can be nice, but just +2/+0 or -1/-1 is not useful enough.
Wall of Corpses: Black has enough removal spells to not need this one.
Wicked Akuba: A 2/2 without evasion won't come through easily and even just BB to begin with can be hard to get early.
Wight of Precinct Six: It's a terrible turn-2 play and later in the game when you'd rather cast it, the cheapness typically won't matter much. It can be a nice payoff if you support a mill-theme.
Wretched Camel: Even if there was enough support, it would be bad and without it's terrible.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Chittering Rats: A 2/2 for 1BB seems bad, but the ability attached to a body is nuts.
Crypt Rats: One of the only mass-removal spells in pauper. Even if most decks are at least 2 colors, this card rocks.
Dauthi Marauder: 1 toughness may be a lot, but shadow is nearly unblockable and a 3 power clock is great.
Liliana's Specter: A nice ability attached to a body that even has flying.
Blade Juggler – a 3/2 draw a card for five is just barely acceptable. But get it for the spectacle cost of 3CMC and it’s a fine card.
Blind Zealot: A removal spell for 1BB seems like a lot, but this is more flexible, as it can also be an evasive beater.
Cabal Torturer: An interesting mix of Prodigal Pyromancer and Ghost Warden. It wants mana, but that's nearly redundant. It can kill every X/1 and help change combat math to help bring through or prevent damage. The threshold is a nice bonus for the late game.
Cursed Minotaur: An aggressive creature with a good body and evasion.
Dauthi Mercenary: Only online common! 2 unblockable power with firebreathing for cc3 is pk.
Dead Reveler: A 3/4 for cc3 is nice if it can block or not. It's really hard to get rid of it.
Deepwood Ghoul: A very interesting ability. 2 life is a fair price in order to kill your opponents X/2 with this, but with only 1 toughness this has to be regenerated every time it fights something and 2 life can add up.
Headless Specter - Pauper Hypnotic Specter. The ability is limited to being an aggressive candidate. But B/x aggro just got even more toys recently. Support for that, means this is an auto-include. Otherwise it is just a harder to cast Wind Drake
Ravenous Skirge: The black pendant of Skywinder Drake, with the difference that it's black and black not having so many good alternatives in the same slot.
Skittering Horror: A 4/3 for cc3 is really fat and the restriction is acceptable.
Bloodrage Vampire: A 4/2 for cc3 isn't bad, but bloodthirst is a restriction and it's not this exciting.
Bloodrite Invoker/Smokespew Invoker: Aggressive bodies with an interesting ability for control decks. They're a little bit too undecided to be cubeable.
Cadaver Imp: Disentomb attached to a body is great, but 1/1 flying is a little bit unexciting.
Caged Zombie: If a lot of creatures die each turn, e.g. because you are sacrificing 2 unblockable damage each turn can add up real quick. If you can't guarantee to trigger this constantly it's not that impressive.
Carrion Crow: Wind Drakes have never been really good and drawbacks don't make them better.
Cinderbones: Wither can be really annoying for the opponent. If you're looking for black blockers, this is maybe a candidate.
Dauthi Jackal: 2 power and a evasion on their own, wouldn't be enough for cc3, but this creature includes Vanquish.
Deadbridge Shaman: A 3/1 for 3 isn't very good and the opponent sees the discard coming so he/she can prepare himself/herself.
Deadeye Tormentor: If you support aggro in black this could be an acceptable 3-drop. It a more-splashable but otherwise worse Lilianana's Specter which can still be fine.
Defiant Salvager: It's a nice sacrifice outlet, but there aren't enough creatures at common that want to be sacrificed.
Deathbloom Thallid – Not horrible stats for 3CMC and it does provide another chumper 1/1 on death
Eyeblight Assassin: A 2/2 for 3 with an ability that doesn't matter really often.
Giant Scorpion: Deathtouch on a body with some toughness can be nice, but this creature has 1 toughness too less to be good.
Hired Blade – With flash, it can become a sort of removal. But it trades with most creatures, and 3CMC is still outclassed with other removal
Lawless Broker: A 3/2 for 3 that pumps another creature, when it dies is annoying for your opponent. It is way worse without another creature of course.
Lost Legion: A fine blocker, that can help you to improve your next draws.
Marauding Boneslasher: An okay body for the cost, but without enough support, it isn't very impressive.
Markov Patrician: 3 power and lifelink for cc3 seems nice, but the 1 toughness makes it really fragile.
Mindstab Thrull: If this guy gets through it's insane, but it's hard to get a 2/2 through.
Moriok Replica: A 2/2 body for cc3 that can be turned into card advantage if it's not needed anymore seems nice, but a 2/2 for cc3 isn't really exciting at any stage of the game. This will often just be a 5 mana Night's Whisper.
Nocturnal Feeder: Comapred to Bloodhunter Bat requiring to die instead of only entering the battlefield is a serious drawback. On the other hand 1 mana less definitely makes a difference.
Prakhata Pillar-Bug: A 2/3 that can generate life is nice, but not overly exciting.
Putrid Cyclops: A 3/3 for cc3 is very solid and scry attached to bodies is great, but this card is really risky.
Rakdos Drake: A black Cloud Elemental is very unique, but it's a big problem for defensive flying bodies not being able to block.
Reckless Imp: A Wind Drake that can't block is only half a Wind Drake, but this at least the upside of being able to Dash for less mana.
Savage Gorger – It has the potential to get really big, with it supporting the initial hit with flying. But it still takes a lot of set up to be great
Searchlight Geist: This card can either be an attacking Wind Drake or a blocking Thornweald Archer if you want to trade with an attacking creature. The problem is just that it's really fragile with just 1 toughness.
Sewer Shambler: Overall this guy brings 4 power and 3 toughness to the battlefield. The problem is just that's it's kind of unexciting as a 2/1 as long as the opponent has no swamps.
Slate Street Ruffian: A kind of pseudo evasion, but your opponent chooses when he will end it.
Skirsdag Supplicant: The activation cost is acceptable when you are ahead but in a stalemate. The body at least is on par for keeping the stalemate as you lower life totals.
Soulcage Fiend: A 3/2 for cc3 isn't good. It's better than a 3/1, but still not really good. The ability is only an advantage when you are leading in the damage race. Only super hardcore aggressive decks want this guy. If you want to support that, this is your man.
Spark Reaper/Soulreaper of Mogis: the first repeatable card draw sac engine at Pauper, which is significant. But the cost to cast and activate the ability are just a bit too high for really competitive play, but it could be close
Stinkweed Imp: Deathouch and flying make this card a solid recurable blocker, but dredge 5 can mill you pretty fast in a 40 card deck.
Zombie Cutthroat: A 3/4 for cc3 is quite interesting, especially since it works as a combat trick when flipped for cc0, but 5 life is a lot. It can be flexible and be played for cc5 without being directly bad, but the combat trick isn't given then.
Zombie Scavengers: 3 power and regenerate is nice, but on turn 3 you can't guarantee a creature in your graveyard and it has some anti-synergies with graveyard recursion.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Farbog Revenant: The body is overcosted and the abilities aren't exciting.
Fleshgrafter: This card wouldn't even be really interesting for an artifact-based cube.
Foul Familiar: A 3/1 that is hard to kill for good, but the problem is that it's still really fragile. Also, not being able to block can sometimes be really problematic.
Foul Spirit: A 3/2 flying for cc3 isn't bad, but not really worth a land.
Gutless Ghoul: Turning each removed creature into 2 life isn't directly bad, but it's not worth a 2/2 body and keeping up 1 mana.
Hired Torturer: It can be interesting to shoot the damage, but the ability is hardly overcosted and the body is really bad.
Hooded Assassin: On first sight, this card may seem quite strong for having 2 options to choose from with one containing the word "destroy", but realistically, both options are quite bad. A 2/3 for cc3 is nearly worthless and the removal option is terribly restricted. In addition to that, the "body" you get, from the second option is only a 1/2, that is also a nearly completely useless body.
Infectious Host: The 1/1 body isn't useful for anything besides chump blocking.
Kozilek's Shrieker: There aren't enough colorless mana sources in most pauper cubes.
Nezumi Ronin: Bushido doesn't make this creature less fragile.
Nightsquad Commando: You aren't always guaranteed to attack on your second turn and even though this is solid if triggered, there are situations where it's just a 2/3 vanilla.
Nim Replica: The 3/1 body is very fragile and the ability is weak and overcosted.
Nirkana Assassin: A 2/3 Deathtouch for 3 would be good, but the restrictions are too high on this card.
Organ Grinder: The ability is great later, but the body is very fragile.
Servant of Nefarox: Exalted isn't good in limited and the 3/1 is too fragile.
Servant of Tymaret: Even though inspired and regeneration is a nice combination, regeneration for 2B is simply too much and the inspired effect is extremely weak.
Sibsig Icebreakers: Double-sided discard-effects are rarely good and a 2/3 body for cc3 definitely doesn't make it worth it.
Sickle Dancer – With a warrior theme, this is passible, else it’s under classed.
Voracious Null: The sorcery speed restriction of the ability makes it unplayable, but with a sacrifice theme this could be a consideration.
Wall of Shadows: This wall can block a lot, but overall it's still not really good because it's very fragile against removal.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Falkenrath Noble: This creature can drain for a lot of life with removal backup and can also swing in for some damage.
Moan of the Unhallowed – 4/4 stats, even on 2 bodies, for 4cmc is good; and with flashback for late game.
Okiba-Gang Shinobi: Mind Rot attached to a 3/2 body for just 1 mana more and Ninjutsu, which is sometimes even an advantage.
Thorn of the Black Rose: The monarch mechanic can be extremely broken and one sided and this defense body for only 4 mana is the best of the monarch cycle.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Bloodhunter Bat: A 2/2 Flying, that changes booth players life for 4 points as an etb-effect is fully ok.
Bushmeat Poacher: This creature can turn all of your opponents removal into not only card draw, but also lifegain in combination with a decent defensive body. If demands to be handeled before you untap with it in many spots. If this wouldn't need to be tapped and thus be unaffected by summoning sickness it might be a staple, but as it is 4 mana can be a bit much for a removal magnet.
Driver of the Dead: This card can be an interesting 2 for 1 trade, even though it's quite fragile with just 2 toughness.
Faceless Butcher: Even if the creature isn't gone forever, 3 toughness can still be problematic to handle and this guy needs to be handled very fast. Pacifism effects don't really work on him.
Gravedigger: cc4 seems a lot for just a 2/2 body, but Disentomb attached to a body with at least 2 power is great.
Lurching Rotbeast: Cycling for just B is strong, but you will rarely want to actually cast this.
Mortis Dogs: A 4/2 will trade easily, but when it deals 4 damage directly to a player, in addition to combat damage, it still did a good job.
Perilous Shadow: A 2-colored Shade. That is what limited wants. In addition to that, it's a great blocker that is hard to get rid of, even without pumping it, and a huge finisher later.
Pith Driller: 2/4 bodies are great blockers that are hard to handle and permanent -1/-1 or +1/+1 counters can change a game basically.
Soulstinger: This can often be a 2 for 1 or a 4 mana 4/5 if you have a creature you don't need anymore.
Vulturous Aven: A 2/3 flying for cc4 would already be decent in black, but this creature also brings the option to cycle your worst creature on board for a Sign in Blood and if you want to.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Azra Smokeshaper - Unlike other ninjas, this is a once and done ability. Great combat ability, but this has a few hoops to make it a 2-for-1, and even then it is just a 3/3 afterwards.
Crypt Lurker: If you actively want to discard or sacrifice creatures, this can definitely be an enabler for you and the 3/4 body isn't the worst.
Crypt Ripper/Darkling Stalker: Monocolored bound Shades are normally bad in limited because every deck mainly has at least 2 colors, but these have relevant advantages against all the other shades.
Demon's Jester: Hellbent can be hard to get, but this is a possible 4/3 flying that isn't totally useless before is interesting, but not good enough mainly.
Dimir House Guard: Evasion and protection on one creature seems nice, especially with the possibility to transmute it, but the body is overcosted and when you transmute it you actually pay a total of 7 mana for the cc4 spell you decide to grab.
Dire Fleet Interloper: The 2 possible outcomes are okay, but not exciting and the inability to choose the best mode for the creature can be annoying.
Disciple of Tevesh Szat: cc4 is a lot for a tap ability that is good as early in the game it that it comes. The body is really fragile though and the power is a little bit redundant when it has an ability where it needs to be tapped for. The flexibility to turn it into a hard removal is still interesting.
Drudge Reavers: Flash and regenerate makes this both a combat trick and a nice blocker, but 5 mana in one turn to trade for an X/2 creature 1 for 0 is quite much.
Dusk Charger: Getting bigger in the late game is nice, but the initial body isn't very exciting and black doesn't go very wide or use permanent based removal very often to help with Ascending.
Fathom Fleet Cutthroat/Final-Sting Faerie: The ability can be interesting in the second main phase, but it's still quite situational and often paired with card disadvantage unless you have a pinger.
Gavony Unhallowed: Having a solid starting body is good for creatures that need other effects to grow.
Rank Officer - Good for aggro decks what need a late game outlet/finisher for their smaller bodies. The EtB is deceptive. But getting 5 power on the board for 3b is decent. Shame this things rear is so fragile it cannot block successfully.
Shadow Rider: Being able to trade with 4/4 creatures seems nice, but when it's not blocked it only brings 3 damage through. Not bad, but not exciting.
Slum Reaper – Effect is good and can get around hexproof. But only if they have no other creatures, and that can require set up. Plus you still need to lose a body. Even after this will trade most any 2 drop
Smoldering Butcher: Wither can be really strong, but a 4/2 body is very fragile against removal or 2/X creatures that block it.
Syndicate Enforcer: Extort is a nice ability, but a 3/2 body is very fragile and not what you normally want for cc4.
Undercity Scavenger a reasonable card for sacrifice based cubes, but it’s still 2-for-1ing yourself.
Venomous Hierophant: This should only be a consideration if you desperately want self mill cards.
Viscera Dragger: It often can be seen as cc4 put a 3/3 creature token with haste into play, sacrifice it at the end of turn, draw a card. A kind of weak Giantbaiting without card disadvantage.
Wicked Guardian: This is cubeable if you have a critical amount of 3 toughness creatures for cmc 2 or 3, which is usually not the case, so it's rated as borderline.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Alesha's Vanguard: A Canyon Minotaur doesn't become a good creature just for being able to turn it into a surprise Bump in the Night for 2B when your opponent doesn't have a blocker or is tapped out.
Bala Ged Scorpion: The restriction is very high and the body is quite bad.
Balustrade Spy: This card would only be good, for a cube with a mill topic.
Cutthroat il-Dal: Hellbent is a high restriction and a 4/1 is very fragile.
Cyclopean Giant: The ability is too bad to be worth such a fragile body.
Deathgaze Cockatrice: This card is simply overcosted. Deathtouch is an ability that prefers bodies with a lot of toughness and this card can't trade better than 1 for 1 and that's not good for cc4.
Dirty Wererat: This creature is too bad without threshold.
Disciple of Phenax: The body is way too weak for this card to be interesting.
Gravebane Zombie/Undying Beast: Additional card disadvantage every time these creatures die is terrible, especially because the body isn't even really good.
Hagra Crocodile: A 5/3 for cc4 would be nice, but it's not worth such a high restriction.
Lurking Deadeye: This would be so much better if it were simply able to give deathtouch to a creature, so it could be played before blocks and actually take part in combat, but as it is, you need to make a bad block, which only damages the opponents creature and than play this post combat to get the value out of it's ability. Effects like these are simply awkward and usually not good and flash doesn't really help as it is.
Mind Raker: The processor ability is almost irrelevant in pauper cube and 3/3 for 4 isn't very good.
Mindwrack Harpy: You either want to mill or deal damage. Cards that combine booth are usually bad.
Moonglove Winnower/Vampire Champion: A deathtoucher with some toughness is nice, but there aren't many creatures that won't trade 1 for 1 with this guy, when he blocks it, apart from the 2/2 bodies that would already die whether it had deathtouch or not.
Ogre Jailbreaker: A big defender. The problem is just that the chance to guarantee a gate is too small.
Phyrexian Debaser: A 2/2 flying creature, that can be turned into Disfigure is interesting, but it needs to be untapped for it and cc4 is a lot for that.
Phyrexian Monitor: Regenerate doesn't make up for such a terrible body.
Undead Servant: This card is just overcosted in Singleton Cube.
Wake of Vultures: A 3/1 flying for cc4, that's hard to kill is interesting, but there are only a few creatures you want to sacrifice for keeping it alive.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel: Even if devotion is a high restriction for limited, this guy has a solid defensive body and is able to drain for a lot.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Dross Golem: You can count on about 2 swamps when you have 4 lands in play in a 2 color deck. Getting a 3/2 Fear for cc3 is definitely interesting, especially because it would also be ok for cc4 and great for cc2 and less.
Ninja of the New Moon - While it is a vanilla Lava Axe ninja, it is a Lava Axe Ninja with only a single black in the Ninjitsu. Whether a curve-topper, or another step in a midrange stompy plan, this will hit hard once, reuse a smaller body, and then likely kill a blocker next turn. Ignoring a 6/3 is not a winning strategy. And the "haste" option really gives this a nice punch above what we'd expect for 3B mid-combat.
Predatory Nightstalker: Only online common! This creature combines removal and a body, which can trade and later be brought back.
Rotfeaster Maggot: Overall this is not a really exciting creature, but it can block a lot of stuff or prevent it from attacking. Also, life gain can be very important for control decks, especially black control, because it often has a lot of life loss.
Silumgar Scavenger - Likely going to be the largest black flying body to exist. Eating an outclassed body to get haste and soar over is much less expected in non-Red decks. This fits in non-Sacrifice decks too as it rewards alpha strike attacks by giving a threat that must be dealt with. Only the fastest, or most creature-lite, black decks do not want this.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Ambitious Aetherborn: A 5/4 for 5 that is able to split its power is usable, but it doesn't have any evasion.
Blood Glutton: Scrounger of Souls sadly outclasses this. The 4th point of toughness can make a huge difference considering that most burn spells stop at 3 and you also don't want your 5 drop to trade down in curve.
Cavern Whisperer: The best case for this would definitely be to play it on a 1/1 or 2/2 which is no longer of use on turn 4 and get a "hasty" 4/4 menace, which discards, but the reality is often, that you don't have non-human 1/1 or 2/2 lying around, that you don't need anymore and a single discard, which your opponent can chose will often only hit some excess land and than give your opponent the opportunity to kill 2 creatures with 1 removal.
Epicure of Blood – If your cube supports enough lifegain, this can be powerful. Else it’s just a 4/4 for 5CMC
Geyserfield Stalker: A 5/4 with evasion is nice, but if you don't hit this on curve it's pretty bad.
Hyalopterous Lemure: Only online common! A black 3/3 flying creature is ok, but not too exciting.
Kalastria Nightwatch: A 4/5 flyer for 5 is nice, but you need ways to trigger it.
Krumar Bond-Kin: A slightly overcosted body with the upside of being surprise flipped for 5 damage to the face, but it's a risk and an expensive one as well.
Pewter Golem: 4 power and regeneration for cc5 is solid, but to protect it the turn it comes into play, you need 7 total mana available.
Prowling Pangolin: Giving the opponent the choice is normally bad, but this is a superior stat-to-cost body in the main color of removal spells. However, 5cc is a rough spot for Black decks. At best, it is a Curve-toper for Aggro. At worst it kills 2 worthless bodies, aka Barter in Blood.
Rotting Legion: The biggest body black can afford in this section. It's pretty huge and a threat, but the disadvantage of not being able to block the same turn you cast it can hurt sometimes.
Rage-Scarred Berserker: A decent body, that basically grants you one free swing with whatever creature.
Scrounger of Souls: This can be a nice stabilizer for a control deck, but it lacks 1 point of power or toughness to be really good.
Shadowcloak Vampire: A 4/3 flying body is solid, but still in Bolt-range. This card would either need 4 toughness or permanent flying without life loss to be good.
Skinthinner: Hard removal attached to a body for cc5 would be good but this card bounds a total of 8 mana and only gives you a 2/1 body.
Skirge Familiar: Only online common! The 3/2 flying body is only somewhat acceptable and the ability isn't that good either.
Stromkirk Patrol: A 4/3 isn't much for cc5, but this is quite solid. After 1 attack it becomes Fire Elemental which is ok, but not too exciting. Afterward, it becomes more interesting with only 2 attacks without being blocked.
Wei Elite Companions: Only online common! A 3/3 unblockable for cc5 is ok, but not exciting.
Weed-Pruner Poplar: Killing X/1 creatures and decreasing bigger bodies is ok, especially when the body doesn't become tapped for it, but just a 3/3 for cc5 isn't that good.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Poisonbelly Ogre: The body is very unexciting and the ability is no real advantage for you.
Rabid Bloodsucker: 5 mana for such a bad body with an ability that's bad when your behind is just that - bad.
Rotting Mastodon: 8 toughness is way more than a creature needs in pauper in with only 2 power and no abilities.
Silumgar Butcher: A creature that casts Last Gasp when it enters the battlefield seems nice, but you need to sacrifice one of your own creatures in order to enable the Last Gasp and considering this additional cost, the 3/3 for cc5 is simply not enough.
Slaughterhouse Bouncer: Hellbent is too difficult of a restriction. Otherwise, it would be at least borderline.
Soul Scourge: A 3/2 flying and Lava Spike seems nice, but 2 toughness makes it very fragile and if it dies the ability will have done nothing.
Street Wraith: This card is only really good in constructed decks that need empty slots in their library.
Warchanter of Mogis: This card would need to have intimidate itself to become interesting.
Zombie Assassin: flexibility is nice, but 3/2 bodies are bad and a 1 for 1 trade for cc5 is just way too much.
Zombie Boa: The ability seems nice at first glance, but sorcery speed makes this just a very bad version of Wei Elite Companions.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Gurmag Angler: A 5/5 body is huge in pauper and with at least 2 cards in your graveyard when you cast this card, it has already great stats.
First-Sphere Gargantua - This is the true Pauper Phyrexian Gargantua. Having built-in value via Unearth means this fits decks that may have a self-discard theme, or just needing an extra push on a given post-death turn.
Twisted Abomination: One of the best creature finishers pauper has to offer.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Sultai Scavenger: A 3/3 flying is a great body to end games with. With at least 2 cards in your graveyard when you cast this card, it already has great stats.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Blight-Breath Catoblepas: Black has more devotion that most other colors and the fact that this is a creature, that can trade and later be recurred is nice, but 6 mana is definitely a lot and 3/2 aren't the best stats.
Blitz Leech: Flash in combination with an etb effect, that can mess with combat, by either killing an X/2 or shrink a bigger creature enough, that it dies in combat has potential, but 6 mana is a lot and the 5/2 body can only trade and rarely survive the block.
Dukhara Scavenger: A big creature that can bring a relevant creature back, but there are better alternatives at 6 mana.
Grixis Slavedriver: The value is high with this creature, but so is the mana cost.
Marshmist Titan: On average, you will have at least about 2 devotion on turn 5. This fact makes this card mainly a better Rotting Legion with the risk of not having any devotion, but the chance to play this guy really cheap. Solid, but not exciting.
Reaper of Night: Even though booth parts are overcosted by 1 the combination is still nice.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Bog Serpent: This card isn't even good as a sideboard card.
Caustic Hound/Deathcurse Ogre: Only very aggressive decks could be interested in the ability and decks like that aren't interested in creatures with cc6.
Corpulent Corpse: Flexibility is nice, but this card is either terribly overcosted or has way too many suspend counters.
Toxic Nim: Infect doesn't work in limited, but this card could still be used as a huge and dangerous wall with the only disadvantage that it comes way too late.
Terrus Wurm: Scavenge is nice, but cc7 need to be ramped. This card would only be interesting for green.
Yeah, pulse tracker is pretty okay, I actually like it more than Carrion Feeder - which grows much too slowly to pack any punch in my opinion. Plus, there aren't really many cards that interact well with feeder.
Pulse Tracker is surprisingly viable. It consistently beats for 2 which is a gold standard for a 1 drop, but the problem is it doesn't trade with creatures at all. It's certainly borderline.
I don't like the Tracker, but I agree, that it's at least on the level of the other cards I ranked at borderline.
Carrion Feeder is suprisingly good, because it doesn't need to interact. It can simply turn every creature, that becomes the target of Lightning Bolt, Pacifism or any other removal into +1/+1 counters. Aswell the ability changes combat math. Viscera Seer is similar, with the disadvantage, that the body never becomes useful.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Deftblade Elite: This is a very flexible one-drop. It's not just a kind of white Scorching Spear, it's also absolutely insane with equipment and auras and one of the best blockers for the late game.
Elite Vanguard/Savannah Lions: There isn't a more efficient 1-drop creature in any other color. it's simply vanilla, but a penalty/condition-free one.
Gideon's Lawkeeper/Goldmeadow Harrier/Law-Rune Enforcer: Activated abilities that require tapping are better the less casting cost the creature has, because of summoning sickness. These guys are simply great soft removal that handles a huge amount of things with a very high flexibility and for a very little amount of mana.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Akrasan Squire: This creature can attack as a 2/2 one-drop and possibly push other creatures later with Exalted, though it's own body is nearly useless in that case.
Benevolent Bodyguard: Some people call this the pauper Mother of Runes. On first sight, it may seem very bad since it has a nearly useless body that can just trade for another card, but the advantage of this creature is that many people don't want to "waste" a removal spell on it and in that way be very interesting during any part of the game.
Caravan Escort: The level up cost is very low and this creature becomes acceptable at the first level and is simply huge at level 5.
Doomed Traveler: Suntail Hawk is bad, but having an additional body that can chump, be equipped and get pseudo evasion is interesting.
Healer's Hawk: Turn 1 Evasion and Lifelink on a small body is fine. Gets increasingly better with auras and equipment, especially when the opponent needs to spend removal to kill your 1 drop.
Icatian Javelineers: The white pendant of Mogg Fanatic with the big difference that it's still alive after activating its ability.
Infantry Veteran: Similar to, but different from, Akrasan Squire by the fact that this guy can't buff himself to attack as a 2/2 on its own, but can still split up its power with much more flexibility and change combat math permanently. The problem is just that the body on its own isn't very relevant.
Steppe Lynx: When played on turn 1 this creature will very often be a kind of Kird Ape, but it's a very bad topdeck in the late game.
Thraben Inspector: For one mana you get a 1/2 that will replace itself.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Benalish Missionary: The ability is very interesting for a defensive strategy, especially double blocks.
Charm Peddler: This guy can change combat math and prevent burn spells, but for a high price and with a terrible body.
Faerie Guidemother: If you are in desperate need of 1 drops this is okay, since it can give you some reach, when you draw it later.
Hunted Witness: A step down from Doomed Traveler. Lifelink on a 1/1 is more or less irrelevant unless you're also in black.
Lagonna-Band Trailblazer: An medium interesting early blocker, that would only be worth considering with big support for Heroic.
Loyal Pegasus: This card is far better than the comparable Jackal Familiar, but not being able to attack before turn 3 hurts a lot for a one-drop.
Loyal Sentry: Can be a nice defensive creature with pseudo-deathtouch for more controlling white decks. Does combo nicely with flicker effects.
Origin Spellbomb: Getting a 1/1 Token and a card for cc2 is ok but not very exciting, especially because of the additional mana.
Pride Guardian/Wall of Hope: These defenders can deter your opponent from attacking even though they have no power, but with only 3 toughness, they can't block much without dying.
Sacred Cat: It's mainly a worse Doomed Traveler except for lifelink and that it works with self-mill.
Anointed Chorister: A 1/1 Lifelink on it's own doesn't do very much and having to constantly pump 5 mana into it, in order for it to have any relevant board impact is simply too much.
Snubhorn Sentry: The body takes way too long to be relevant.
Staunch Shieldmate: A total of 4 stat points for 1 mana is a lot, but this creature has barely any offensive capabilities and it's often better to simply pay an additional mana and get an additional effect if you are looking for cheap defesnive creatures.
Stern Constable: The ability to tap creatures isn't worth the card disadvantage.
Tragic Poet: The ability is interesting, but enchantments are rarely going to the graveyard.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Kor Skyfisher: This creature is not only just a super solid 2/3 flier for just cc2, it can also be played for cc1 when missing land drops or to reenable etb-effects.
Porcelain Legionnaire: A "colorless" 3/1 First Strike for cc2 is absolutely insane. It's maybe the best 2 drop an aggressive deck can have and a super solid blocker for control decks as well.
Seeker of the Way: A great card for aggressive/tempo decks. Just from the threat that prowess presents, this creature can be pseudo unblockable sometimes and with just one trigger, it becomes a 3/3 lifelinker.
Soltari Trooper: A basically unblockable 2 power beater for 1W is pretty good.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Ainok Bond-Kin: A solid 2-drop with the option to become relevant in the later stages of the game, that also has some random synergies with other cards with +1/+1 counters. Sadly it's not very good in aggressive decks and this way often worse than Knight of Cliffhaven.
Daring Skyjek: A 3/1 Vanilla for 2 mana is good and with an upside, cards like these become insane.
Daybreak Charger: 3/1 for 2 is a decent stat ratio for an aggressive creature and having a useful effect stapled to it makes this very decent. Keep in mind though, that you will not always have a onedrop to start the curve so on turn 2 the etb often goes to waste.
Fencing Ace: On its own its strong enough and with some kind of pump it gets crazy. Only slightly worse then youthful knight.
Gust Walker: A bear with a relevant upside. The problem is that without ways to untap it, it can only be used every second turn.
Knight of Cliffhaven: It's perhaps the best common level up creature. It curves itself out, is a solid bear at the beginning, a really solid beater afterward and a huge threat later.
Lone Missionary: 2 power for cc2 and 4 life. This guy can buy a lot of time for control decks and wins races for aggressive decks. Very solid.
Oketra's Avenger: A 3/1 with a nice upside is solid for two mana.
Raise the Alarm: Normally 2 1/1s for cc2 are worse than any 2/2 for 2 with upside, as long as you don't support swarm, but these have instant speed and can surprise kill attacking X/1 or X/2 creatures.
Phantom Nomad: With toughness boosting auras/equipments this becomes immune to damage, which is really strong. In a vacuum it's just fine.
Syndic of Tithes: A solid bear that is great for control decks, as well as giving reach to aggressive decks.
Topan Freeblade: Early in the game it's at it's best and later it's still fine.
Veteran Armorer: 1 additional toughness for each of your creatures can change a lot.
Wandering Champion: Better than many other non-Vanilla 3/1s. It isn't a Guild card as it can just be a 3/1, but CAN threaten card filtering in the right pairing.
Youthful Knight: 2 power and First Strike for just cc2. This creature is not just a solid attacker, it's also a great blocker that scares a lot of creatures.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Ajani's Sunstriker: 2/2 lifelink bodies for cc2 are alright and can make for a nice roadblock against aggressive decks.
Azorius Arrester: A nice topdeck for a 2-drop, but it's bad on turn 2.
Beacon Hawk: The 1/1 flying body isn't very interesting, but the flexible pseudo evasion makes it interesting.
Benevolent Unicorn: The ability can be very strong, but the body is terrible.
Cavalry Drillmaster: A 2/1 that you almost always don’t want to cast on turn 2 to get the full effect.
Cleric of the Forward Order: Unless you play multiple copies of this, it's not too exciting. Lifegain attached to a solid body can be nice, but 2 life is a nearly irrelevant amount.
Drannith Healer: Cycling for 1 is good, but you will rarely want to cast it, because triggering it multiple times in a singleton cube is unlikely, unless you are very dedicated.
Expendable Troops: An interesting ability, that is still relevant later.
Field Surgeon: This little guy can turn combat math into a mess for your opponent. On the other hand, it's not that good if your plan is to turn all your creatures sideways every turn and the body is simply bad.
Fledgling Griffin: Only getting the evasion on landfall is a high restriction, but this creature is still solid.
Flutterfox: If you have a deep artifact theme or a lot of auras this can be ok.
Fortified Rampart: High toughness, but it doesn't kill anything on its own.
Gather the Townsfolk: Splitting 2 power and toughness among 2 creatures has some upsides, but also downsides that are bigger as long as you don't support swarm as an archetype.
Glint Hawk Idol/Order of the Golden Cricket: The required investment every turn for these flying bears makes them a little bit unexciting, but 2/2 fliers for cc2 are very solid.
Gold Myr: A white ramp creature. Pretty unique at common rarity and definitely a good card for clunky white decks or control-heavy white decks.
Herald of Dromoka: There are some good warriors at common rarity, but not really enough to make this worth it, especially because Vigilance is not a super relevant ability.
Hero of the Pride: If you play a lot of combat tricks or enchantments, the mass pump can be neat.
Loyal Cathar: Getting a 2 power creature twice for cc2 seems like a dream on first sight, but the transformed card is often a "dead" card, not because it's a zombie, but rather because a 2/1 can't attack very often and without being able to block as well, it will do nothing in most cases. It would still be a staple with this disadvantage, but WW is really problematic on turn 2.
Maned Serval: If you are looking for a decent defensive 2 drop without defender, this isn't that bad.
Martyr of Dusk: The body isn't great but the 1/1 lifelinker that comes along with it after it dies can be a nice bonus.
Moorland Drifter: A bear that can be a beater in the later game.
Moorland Inquisitor: Even if the possibility of First Strike is often enough, but 3 mana is a lot if you should need the ability.
Ninth Bridge Patrol: A strictly better Unruly Mob. You might want to include this if you're running a flicker theme.
Order of Leitbur: The threat alone of possible First Strike will often be enough, so you won't always need to actually spend the mana, but even if this creature can be pumped, WW can be a problematic mana cost for a 2drop.
Safehold Sentry: A bear that can attack as a 2/4 or block as a 2/4 after attacking wouldn't be this interesting because of the high price for it, but the synergies with some stuff like Viridian Longbow are given.
Serra Disciple: Better in Artifact cube. But efficient costed for equipment cube.
Soul Summons: A 2/2 body with the upside of possibly hiding a creature, but the chance is not very high.
Split-Tail Miko: This creature can change combat math a lot, but there are better alternatives for it.
Standard Bearer: This creature will steal every aura or combat trick, but it can die to almost any removal spell, even if it's just Lava Dart or Lose Hope, and the body is terrible.
Steadfast Cathar: It is a 2/3 on offense and at 1W it's aggressively costed. It is meant to fight and live for faster decks.
Stone Haven Medic: Just 1 life for 1 mana and tap a guy is not enough to be playable. At least it has a big butt.
Sunscape Familiar: Making about 50% of the decks it's played in cheaper can be really nice, but a 0/3 defender is not really a good body.
Suture Priest: This creature can deal some damage and gain some life, but the body is terrible and it's a terrible topdeck for the late game.
Wall of Glare: Being able to block a 4/X or 2x 2/X creatures can prevent a lot of damage, especially because this creature can prevent any kind of final charge.
War Screecher: Interesting for white weenie and go wide white decks. But costs a lot for the effect.
Whitemane Lion: Saving a creature from removal, while getting a surprising bear for it, is definitely interesting. This creature can also work as a combat trick to kill an attacking X/2 creature or it can retrigger etb-effects, but it can't be played on an empty board and if it's on the board once, it's way less interesting.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Lightwalker: Even if you would be able to consistently put +1/+1 counters on creatures without making card disadvantage, this would not be the best creature.
Lost Leonin: Infect doesn't work in most pauper cubes.
Silverflame Squire: A 2/1 for 2 is pretty bad. If you want to get the full value out of this card you can't play it before turn 4 where 2/X creatures can start to become useless and then you are forced to use the combat trick on turn 3, which can also fizzle and leave you with nothing but having spend mana on an overcosted combat trick.
Starlight Invoker: The body is bad and the ability is extremely expensive.
Stonewise Fortifier: An unexciting and terribly overcosted ability on an unexciting body.
Sungrace Pegasus: Lifelink and Flying seem nice for just cc2, but with only 1 power, it's not really worth it if you don't have a really big amount of spells to pump it.
Throne Warden: Without Monarch cards in the cube, this is just a bear.
Trained Pronghorn: It's hard to kill this creature, but the price to protect it is high.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Ballynock Cohort: A super solid First Striker for cc3 that will be a 3/3 most of the time. Be careful though, because if your opponent kills your only other white permanent mid combat, you might get into a weird spot.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Ardenvale Tactician: A 2/3 flying for cmc 3 is decent and having a useful ability attached to it doesn't really hurt.
Attended Knight: Splitting the power can be useful. 1/1 Tokens are typically not very useful, but sometimes really good.
Aven Riftwatcher: This card is way weaker in pauper limited than in constructed, but it's still flexible. You get either 4 life and up to 3 blocks or 4 life, 1 block and up to 2 attacks, with a very solid body. It can be good for control decks to buy some time or for aggressive decks in a race, but the card disadvantage can be problematic later.
Basilica Guards: Extort is very strong and a 1/4 body is an acceptable blocker.
Kabuto Moth: This creature can give pseudo evasion through changing combat math and also block as a 2/4 flyer. The problem is just that the body isn't great and the ability is often not used.
Kitsune Blademaster: As a potential 3/3 First Strike it's hard to block this creature, so it's often an evasive 2 power beater that could also block as a 3/3 First Strike.
Kor Hookmaster: A solid aggressive creature, that can prevent blocking for 2 turns.
Martyr's Soul: Swarm, and Aggro really like this body. It also works with mana rocks. Not likely to be a Turn 3 5/4, but poses a threat at that size before the late game.
Master of Diversion: This card is great to support highly aggressive strategies. Your opponent simply can't just keep 1 blocker back and attack with the rest.
Sandsteppe Outcast: The slightly better brother of Attended Knight. Instead of a solid 2/2 First Strike body and a barely useful 1/1 Vanilla, you get an acceptable 2/1 body and a 1/1 flying clock.
Skyhunter Skirmisher: This is a very impactful 2 power flier for cc3. With any kind of pump, it easily reaches absurd dimensions. Only the WW in its cost prevents it from being a staple.
Soltari Visionary: This creature is not just a 2 power beater with a great evasion for cc3, it also handles every enchantment your opponent plays that doesn't remove it.
Troubled Healer: This card basically wins on it's own against red decks, since you can trade lands for all their removal. Outside of red matchups it can mess with combat math, but is far less effective.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Desperate Sentry: It is self-replacing like Doomed Traveler, but it leaves a formidable body behind. The downside is Delerium is so hard to trigger on curve, so it is mostly a blocker looking to chump.
Devout Witness: Turning every land into Disenchant can be really interesting, but mainly you don't need to remove more than 1 enchantment or artifact.
Diving Griffin/Eagle of the Watch: Vigilance on a flying creature can be interesting to prevent counter attacks, but on the other hand as a 2/2 or 2/1, that will die to nearly everything else, that is able to fly, it's definitely less exciting.
Dragon Bell Monk: Prowess is a nice thing to scare creatures with the same P/T from blocking or attacking into it, but if the body of the creature with prowess is underpowered, which a 2/2 for cc3 is, it's often better simply to play a bigger body without prowess for the same cost.
Glint-Sleeve Artisan: The flexibility of this creature is good even if you almost always want the counter. Though, it's still only a vanilla creature after that.
Hallowed Healer: This guy is bad with his first ability but really interesting with Threshold.
Ironclad Slayer: Stats are acceptable. The ability is useful but limited. It is just an odd package that will likely not find many targets.
Kemba's Skyguard: Gaining 2 life just for playing a Wind Drake is interesting, but not much and the risk of WW in turn 3 is given.
Kor Sky Climber: This card can come in for a lot of damage, but you have to pay 2 mana each turn for it you may not have.
Lagonna-Band Elder: 3/2 bodies for cc3 are pretty weak, because of the huge amount of 2/1 and 2/2 bodies, that want to trade them. Without a really high enchantment count, this card is too weak.
Makeshift Battalion: A 3/2 that can get bigger is interesting, but takes some effort to get it going. Great flavor though.
Misthoof Kirin: This card is decent if you hardcast it and also has the upside to be played as a morph and to be bigger later in the game.
Niblis of the Mist: A 2 power flying beater for cc3, that can prevent 1 creature from blocking. Ok, but not exciting.
Nightguard Patrol: First Strike and Vigilance is a nice combination of abilities, but with just 2 power, this creature will find it hard to attack after turn 4, what makes this more a bad blocker.
Nyxborn Courser: 2/4 are solid stats for 3, but WW and the fact, that it can be disenchanted makes it worse.
Omen of the Sun: A more expensive Raise the Alarm, that gains 2 life and can be sacrificed for Scry 2 or flickered. Okay, but not exciting.
Pegasus Courser: 1/3 of Trusted Pegasus. It will survive longer to keep jumping others, but doesn't hit as hard.
Perimeter Sergeant: Humans is the biggest tribe and especially in white highly represented. Even though 3/2s aren't great depending on your human count, this can actually be interesting.
Reliquary Monk: This could make card advantage, but if you need the ability, it can be very problematic that the creature has to die first for it.
Rising Populace: Not specially bad... but needs the right archetype for use it.
Royal Trooper: A 4/4 body is huge for blocking, but for attacking this creature isn't very useful.
Sandcrafter Mage: A 3/3 for cc3 would be decent, but bolster can be a downside as well as an upside. Especially in White, there are some 1/1 Tokens that don't really want to be bolstered.
Sergeant-at-Arms: 4/5 worth of stats, on 3 bodies can be good. But the cost (3 mana kicker) is expensive. And on its own it’s only a 2/3.
Soldier Replica: The ability is very solid, but the body is unexciting.
Stalwart Aven: A solid defensive flying body, that is a solid answer to all the 2/1 fliers in pauper. On the other hand, it can be really annoying to take a turn off blocking to make the body more relevant.
Kitsune Bonesetter: The damage prevention is big, but the restriction is too high.
Knight of the Pilgrim's Road: 3/2 bodies with cc3 are pretty bad because they trade with all the 2/2s and 2/1s your opponent has left from the early game or that already did their job when entering the battlefield.
Kor Scythemaster: A 3/1 with first strike for 3 would be cubeable, but it's just a vanilla while blocking.
Wild Aesthir: This card needs a permanent investment of WW to be acceptable.
Wingbeat Warrior: The effect and body are too weak to be worth 6 total mana.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Coalition Honor Guard: This card wins a lot of games on its own. This card can't only just blank every damage based removal that deals less than 4 damage, it can also steal almost every combat trick and aura, pumping or Pacifism-like, your opponent plays.
Guardian of the Guildpact: Even if this guy has 1 power too less for powered and unpowered cubes, it has still protection from about 90% of cards in the average cube. This card is not just the perfect blocker, it can also beat down, being nearly unblockable, and goes crazy with equipment.
Rhox Veteran: Combing Swarm needs with Aggro needs. Usually its tap ability is good on 3cc, but the body on 4cc is not enough. Here, the group pump combined with nullifying a blocker means damage in increasingly sinking in. And as a 2/4, it will take 2 bodies to kill in combat (1 will be tapped).
Battle Screech: Only online common! 4 1/1 flying creatures for cc4 is insane. You only need one additional untapped white creature to immediately flashback it.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Basri's Acolyte: This creature brings a total of 4 power and 5 toughness on the board for 4 mana + lifelink on itself, but it sadly can't target itself, so unless you already have 2 creatures on the board you won't get the full value.
Cenn's Enlistment: Being able to turn every useless land in the late game into Gather the Townsfolk is very interesting, especially when there is no easy way to stop retrace in the average cube.
Heavy Ballista: This guy can't only just kill every attacking or blocking X/2 creature, but it can also change combat math a lot.
Kor Sanctifiers: Disenchant attached to a solid body is great. It's card advantage, card quality, and board impact all in one card.
Mistmoon Griffin: Only online common! A bit similar to Abzan Skycaptain, but instead of 2 +1/+1 Counters, you get a more or less get to reanimate a random creature from your graveyard.
Palace Sentinels: The monarch mechanic can be super busted in the right deck and getting it on a 4 mana body is great.
Tah-Crop Elite: A reusable anthem effect is decent and worth playing.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Abzan Skycaptain: Bolster is a fine limited ability and a flier for cc4 that actually contains 4 power and 4 toughness is a fine card.
Alabaster Kirin/Armored Griffin(Only online common!): Flying and Vigilance is a good combination of abilities on a 2/3 body.
Aven Liberator: This can curve itself out and has a solid flying body and nice ability. The only problem is that it's overcosted at 7 total mana overall.
Bladed Sentinel: Vigilance can be very important on big defensive bodies.
Call the Cavalry/Gallant Cavalry: 4 power and toughness split on 2 bodies isn't amazing, but solid and interesting for swarm strategies.
Captain's Call: 3 Creatures in one cc4 card. Interesting, but without swarm support 1/1 bodies are only of small interest.
Courier Griffin: 2 life isn't much, but 2/3 flyer for 4 isn't totally bad.
Daru Lancer: A solid morph creature that can curve itself out. The main problem is just that it's either overcosted or underpowered for such a high mana investment.
Daru Stinger: The fact, that this card was made a human later, makes it really interesting. Humans are the biggest tribal in magic and there are some of them in every color. It was turned back to soldier only, which makes no sense. Unless you want to treat it as a Human as a house rule, it's pretty bad again.
Earth-Origin Yak: Another Amperian Tactician, but different stats.
Elgaud Inquisitor: If this card dies in combat while trading for another creature it did its job with leaving the battlefield with an advantage for you. The problem is just that a 2/2 body for cc4 isn't such a big threat and a single 1/1 flying token isn't too exciting.
Mystic Zealot: With Threshold this card is huge, but without it's only of small interest and Threshold is a high restriction.
Ondu Greathorn: This creature just can't compete with other four drops.
Paladin of the Bloodstained: The combination of bodies and stats aren't great but they're not terrible either.
Parhelion Patrol: Similar to Abzan Skycaptain except with 1 more toughness, vigilance, and a worse ability. Instead of giving 2 +1/+1 counters on your lowest toughness creature, puts 1 on an attacker with 1 or less power. Probably balances out.
Sacred Knight: A creature with solid power and evasion against 2 of 5 colors.
Salt Road Patrol: A very defensive body with the option to grow during the late game. The problem is that it can't block when you pump it.
Sparring Mummy: The ETB-effect of this creature can be very good, but the cost is a little bit too high.
Spirit en-Kor: It's very hard to kill this creature with just damage, but a 2/2 flying body isn't too exciting for cc4.
Steadfast Sentinel: Two creatures in one can be nice but neither body is great for the cost.
Star-Crowned Stag: There are better cheaper tappers for the same effect. See Territorial Hammerskull or Master of Diversion
Stonehorn Dignitary: Even if the body is very bad, this guy can buy some time for you if you should really need it.
Student of Ojutai: With enough noncreature spells, this card could be huge in white control decks, but mainly there aren't enough to make this mediocre body worth it.
Thraben Sentry: The restriction is very high, but if this creature flips it's simply huge.
Thriving Ibex: A 3/5 for 4 is okay, even if it needs to attack first to be that big, but it isn't very strong.
Vulpikeet: In theory you can turn a 1/1 token into a 3/4 flying on turn 3, but only non humans, which is definitely a restriction in white and the plain 2/3 flying for 4 isn't too impressive.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Aven Trooper: An extremely weak creature with a very bad ability.
Ballynock Trapper/Shade of Trokair: Being bound to a single color is often very problematic in limited because most decks are at least 2 colors.
Bartered Cow: Hill Giants are not too exciting in the first place and having this ability as a die-trigger doesn't help.
Battlewise Aven: Threshold is a high restriction and even if you would achieve it, a 3/3 Flying First Strike is not exciting enough to be worth it.
Carrier Pigeons: Creatures with an included cantrip can be very nice, but this one is quite overcosted.
Champion of Arashin: 3 power and lifelink is nice for cc4, but with just 2 toughness, this will trade for any 2/1 or 2/2, that already did its job during the early game or when entering the battlefield.
Dawnfluke: The ability is weak and the body is terrible.
Daysquad Marshal: You either want big creatures are lots of small creatures. Having 1 medium sized and 1 small creature is not really something any deck is really looking for.
Defender en-Vec: There are way better alternatives to prevent damage if needed.
Dive Bomber: The body is weak and the ability is only of small interest.
Midvast Protector: Without flash, the ability is only of small interest.
Moorish Cavalry: On small bodies, Trample is only of small interest.
Mothrider Samurai/Sustainer of the Realm: Being good flying blockers doesn't change much about the fact that 2 damage with flying is simply not enough for cc4.
Shu General: Unblockable and Vigilance seems nice, but a 2/2 can't block very much without dying.
Spectral Reserves: It is a steep price, but this is the Pauper design for 2x Spirit tokens. It's probably 1 too slow. Not overcosted, just a White Rise of Eagles
Sunmane Pegasus: You really don't want to constantly invest mana to make this good.
Trenching Steed: Even with the activated ability, this creature is only of small interest.
Trusty Retriever: Unless you focus on that theme artifacts and enchantments doen't go to the graveyard that often and a 3/4 for 4 is ok, but not exciting.
Zarichi Tiger: A weak body with a solid ability. Ok, but not too exciting.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Custodi Squire: A 3/3 flying body for cc5, that returns a permanent of your choice to your hand.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Dawnstrike Paladin: Vigilance and Lifelink are perhaps the best abilities a finisher can have apart from Hexproof, but no matter if you call it overcosted or underpowered, this card is simply too weak. It would need to cost cc1 less or have at least 1 power more.
Daybreak Chimera: This is already Phantom Monster with only 1 Devotion, which is totally playable. From then on it only becomes better.
Rambunctious Mutt: Basically the big brother of Kor Sanctifiers without the optional mode to play it for 1 less, but still a very decent disenchant on a stick.
Supply-Line Cranes: This card comes as close to a Serra Angel as pauper got so far. A 3/5 flying would have already been unique enough, but the upside to split the power makes this card even more interesting.
Totem-Guide Hartebeest: A 2/5 can block a lot and that combined with the ability to search for removal or any utility aura makes this rock solid.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Antler Skulkin: A really solid ability, but the 3/3 body isn't very exciting.
Aven Tactician: Bolster has its ups and downs against a targeted +1/+1 counter and mainly the downsides overwhelm. The missing point in toughness is another point, that makes this nearly strictly worse than the comparable Supply-Line Cranes.
Bastion Mastodon: The body is big and vigilance is a relevant keyword. 1 mana is not much to pay every turn after turn 5, but white has better 5-drops.
Castle Raptors: A 3/3 flying for cc5 isn't really good, but with the 2 additional toughness, this one is at least able to block most creatures in a cube.
Conclave Phalanx: This can be good in a slow token-heavy deck, but that's very specific.
Griffin Dreamfinder: The big brother of Auramancer that has the same problem that enchantments are typically not going end up in the graveyard. You would need a huge amount of enchantments and Disenchant-like spells to make this card interesting.
Knight of Old Benalia: Ampryn Tactician but with a 'Mail Order' option. If you like Swarm, this is better. But there are a host of bodies like this with their own quirks. Either you like EtB anthem bodies, or you don't; this is just a difference in timing.
Patagia Tiger: 3/4 flying for 5 is decent and the etb effect will often hit, because of the high density of humans in white and magic in general.
Plover Knights: Another 3/3 flying for cc5, that at least has First Strike, to be able to hold off other flying creatures.
Shu Elite Companions: Only online common! Horsemanship is great evasion, the only problem is that cc5 is a lot for just 3 power. Also, while it's typically better evasion than flying, it won't be able to block the more common flying creatures that that may come from the opponent.
Skyspear Cavalry: Double Strike and Flying are a strong combination if you pump this, but this creature has no protection against removal and so it's very risky to put auras onto it. Skyhunter Skirmisher exists and in case of double strike the 1 addtional power for 2 additional mana isn't worth it, if it only becomes good, once you pump it anyway.
Skystreamer: 3 power flier with a decent lifegain EtB effect.
Supply Caravan: The payoff of this is fine, but the restriction can be high.
Valorous Steed: 5 power and 5 toughness for 5 is rock solid, but usually you either want to go big or go wide. This creature is right between that and thus doesn't really have any type of deck, that really wants it.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Lonesome Unicorn: Having 2 cards in one is nice, but 8 mana is definitely too much, when booth bodies are underwhelming. For half the amount of mana you can get 2 2/2s with Vigilance.
Lowland Tracker: Provoke is a really nice ability, but a 2/2 First Strike body for cc5 isn't exciting enough on its own. This creature depends on auras or enchantments to be really good.
Loxodon Mystic: Either you want a big body to attack or you want to use the ability.
Nav Squad Commandos: A 4/6 Vigilance seems nice, but on its own, this card is simply too bad and battalion is a huge restriction.
Spectral Gateguards: On its own, this card is really bad and Vigilance is only a situative advantage.
Staunch Defenders: Only online common! Life attached to a useful effect or body can be good, but a 3/4 for cc5 is simply way too bad to make this a good card.
Sunrise Seeker: Neither outcome is that great or exciting and the inability to choose between the two can be annoying.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Nothing here.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Imposing Vantasaur: Cycling for 1 is very strong. Only 0 mana is a lower opportunity cost and in addition to that a 3/6 Vigilance isn't the worst body, if you happen to topdeck this in the late game.
Noble Templar: cc6 is a lot, but with Plainscycling, this creature has the needed flexibility.
Razor Golem: This card is mainly played for about 4 mana and a 3/4 Vigilance is simply extremely solid at any time of the game.
Triplicate Spirits: 3 1/1 fliers are nice and with Convoke, this can be cast quite early.
Winged Shepherd: Cycling for 1 is a very low opportunity cost and in the late game, when you topdeck it and have nothing better to with your mana a 3/3 Flying, Cigilance isn't the worst.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Benalish Lancer: A 4/4 First Strike is a huge threat and if it should be really needed, this card can still be played as a Bear to trade with X/2 creatures.
Ivory Giant: This card is very bad for suspend because your opponent sees the effect coming and for cc7 this card is simply overcosted.
Maze Sentinel: Vigilance is very important for big creatures, but this card is overcosted.
Yoked Plowbeast: Flexibility through cycling can be very interesting, but cc7 is a huge amount of mana and a 5/5 Vanilla is not too exciting.
War Behemoth: Morph to reduce the mana cost can be fine and a 3/6 is definitely surprising, but after that, it's just a 3/6 blocker, that would need Vigilance to attack.
Watchful Giant: 4/7 worth of stats, for 6CMC is decent, but there are better options.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Aven Battle Priest: Lifegain attached to creatures can be a good thing, but a 3/3 flier for cc6 is very bad and 3 life is not even much.
Bulwark Giant: 5 life is not enough to make this mediocre giant worth it.
Conclave Equenaut: Convoke is a very weak ability in most limited decks because tokens are rarely played.
Jedit's Dragoons: 4 life is a lot, but the body is really bad for cc6.
Lairwatch Giant: A huge blocker, but with just 3 toughness it's really fragile against removal, as well as bad at attacking.
Loxodon Mender: This card would only be interesting for artifact-based cubes.
Loxodon Restorer: 3/4 with an EtB life gain, but for 6 mana it’s too much.
Silverstorm Samurai: Being played as a combat trick, that can kill up to 3/4 attacking bodies without dying and trade with any X/4, it's interesting, but cc6 is a huge amount of mana and afterward this card is only of small interest.
Voice of the Provinces: This card is simply overcosted. The 3/3 flying body isn't worth more than cc4 and the 1/1 token is only of small interest.
Woeleecher: Most cubes don't have the right synergies to play a card like this.
Yeah it's sometimes hard to make the decisions. I was a little bit afraid of it, especially because there is a big amount of borderline creatures.
I agree, that Extort is nice, I saw it on Syndic of Tithes and even Basilica Guards did very well, but I don't like the 1 power for another reason, than just, that it's not able to trade. It's simply no threat. With 1 damage every turn you would need 20 turns to kill the opponent. Even after 6 attacks not much happend. I see the Screecher on the board mainly as an enchantment, similar to the guards, while the guards are able to prevent a lot of damage and give you time, to make Extort more effective, while the Screecher won't do much than maybe attack from time to time for 1 or hope to eat a removal, because the opponent don't like extort.
The problem is also, that some of the other 2 drops at the borderline are still good. I tested Sickle Ripper and it has been a big threat and the Augur of Skulls, Child of Night and Fallen Askari are also quite interesting.
Red would be happy to have just some of the nice 2 drops black got.
For my part I don't like the Anurid and I will look for someone, who will paint the border of Wei Ambush Force black for me, so I can play it, without having just one whiteboarded card in the cube.
I'd suggest playing with the bat, it's very nutty in draft. I know people who won't pick any other common in gatecrash over it, and to a point I see their logic. Yeah, it's a bit annoying that it's so bad at trading, but with a creature with extort the only thing you ever want to trade it for is a removal spell, unless you're far behind. The reason bat is nice compared to Scyndic and the like is that having another one damage per turn as well as the extort is very relevant and itself can be a very quick clock.
I'm not entirely sure how this translates to cube, but I do know that it's better than all the cards you mentioned in the previous post.
Very good Black 2cmc list! That one was a lot of work I'm sure.
I still think Basilica Screecher will move up a tier eventually I know you don't like the 1-power because it can't trade, but extort is just so good at giving you options with your mana. More options is always strong.
I don't know how much you guys are playing Gatecrash limited, but I think this is a correct assessment. Extort is a lot better than it looks initially. It is especially strong with multiple extort creatures on the board. There are at least a 2-3 cubeable b/w extort creatures and each one of them makes the others better. It's decent in aggro races and flat out crazy with 2-3 extorters on the board in a control deck.
The above poster makes a solid argument against it's weakness. It's not going to trade for anything, but that's not it's job. It's job is to extort on every spell and carry equipment/enchantments. If you cast 1 spell a turn and attack, it's a 3 point life swing each turn.
Carrying equipments and auras, because otherwise it's bad, is simply no argument, that counts. In that case Kor Duelist and Serra Zealot wouldn't be this bad.
The problem with the logic of dealing 3 points per round is simply, that a 1/2 won't come through often. There is a huge amount of flying creatures in the cube, with at least 2/1 or 2/2, that will trade or at least won't let it pass. Stuff like Crocanura (I'm maybe the only one who plays it, but it's a good example) can completly stop it without evolving once and kills it after just 1 evolve. I don't expect it will attack this often and I don't see it more like an enchantment with extort, that can be sacrificed to prevent the damage of target creature one turn.
I like Syndic of Tithes, it really convinced me, but 2 power on the ground is simply way better than 1 power, no matter, if in the air or not.
If some people will tell me if did it job in cubes and not just the set draft enviroment, I could maybe think about moving it to cubeable, but actually I simply don't see it on the same level as any of the cubeable creatures in the section, especially not, because the other borderline creatures arn't directly bad either.
When Child of Night is not handled, it beats for 4 points with every attack and Sickle Ripper is a creature, that has pseudo evasion early and later it already made Sentinel Spider a harmless 2/2 or killed River Boa.
I'm actually way mor interested in Cabal Torturer. I'm testing it with high expectations. Thinking about it, made me wonder if it's not exaclty what black needs. Black got a bunch of great hard removal spells, that simply doesn't want to be used on stuff like Blade of the Sixth Pride or Stormfront Pegasus. These are exactly the creatures the Torturer kills very effectively, while also changing combat math and going crazy with threshold.
Edit: Actually I skip the multicolor cards and make a list of all of them, that you don't find thorugh the magiccards.info filter.
I also skip the Unhinged Unglued cards. To complete the evaluate "everything" project, someone could make a evaluation of all of them. I'm too unsure about them, and the most people don't play them.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Unearth: The tempo advantage of getting a creature with cc3 back to the battlefield for just 1 mana is insane. As well, this card has cycling for the rare situation that you really have no use for it.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Dead Weight: It may look like a kind of Shock, but it remains and is this way even able to handle bigger creatures. When a 3/3 suddenly becomes 1/1 or a 4/4 is decreased to 2/2, they are way less dangerous.
Defile - 1cc Removal that gets better the longer the game goes on. Unless you play heavy nonbasics, this will be better than Disfigure.
Disfigure: The black Shock that is simply good because black doesn't have many alternatives that are similar. It can also be used as a combat trick by shrinking bigger creatures to help kill them.
Regicide: This is a one mana kill spell that kills 70% of the creatures in the cube.
Tortured Existence: Trading creatures that are mainly good in the early game for important creatures for the late game is quite interesting in the late game. It's no Undertaker, but it's still ok.
Tragic Slip: Morbid is not such a hard restriction for black, especially not with instant speed. Killing any creature, no matter how strong it is, for just one mana can be very nice.
Vendetta: This card can cost a lot of life, but killing a creature for sure for just 1 mana is still nice.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Boon of Erebos: A really strong combat trick, that can be used to protect a creature against removal as well. The problem is just that spot removal spells mainly are way better than combat tricks.
Cry of Contrition: Combined with a removal spell this card can be Mind Rot for cc1. Interesting, but sometimes too situative.
Dark Ritual: Card disadvantage for a small tempo advantage that can mainly only be used for black cards. Only useful for super aggressive decks.
Divest – Upgrade to Ostracize. This is a premptive attack on your opponent to deny creatures, equipment, and mana rocks.
Duress: Most cubes are about 50% creatures and 50% other cards. You will mainly hit something and this card is especially interesting because black has no other opportunities to remove something, that's not a creature.
Executioner's Capsule: A hard removal is never bad, but there are some better alternatives for less mana with the same restriction and some for the same mana, but with fewer restrictions.
Innocent Blood: Situative, but not bad. Played without any creature on your side it's a 1cc Cruel Edict.
Kaya's Ghostform is a very cheap way to protect your creatures. It even prevents exile, which is unique in Pauper. But it’s very reactive, and suffers the 2-for-1 potential against you while it’s on the stack
Lose Hope: An interesting card. -1/-1 isn't a lot, but Scry 2 is very strong.
Midnight Charm/Funeral Charm: Flexibility is nice and all of these possibilities are acceptable, but none are really exciting.
Molting Snakeskin: A fine aura to pump and protect a creature at the same time.
Omen of the Dead: A strictly better Raise Dead, that is instant speed, provides devotion and can be sacrificed for additional value.
Ostracize: There are a lot of better ways to handle creatures for black, especially ones where your opponent has to bind his mana before you remove the creature.
Paralyze: This card can get rid of a creature for quite a long time and later it will often bind the whole mana of the opponent to bring the creature back, but it's simply no lasting solution.
Raven's Crime: Giving a purpose to lands in the late game is nice, but for that case, you don't need such a cheap spell with an acceptable, but not exciting effect.
Sicken: Remaining -1/-1 can be nice and cycling gives some flexibility to this card, but it doesn't make it really exciting.
Skulduggery: A cheap combat trick that can remove 1 toughness creatures, along with the possibility of becoming a 2 for 1 if things line up.
Undying Evil: Trading for a removal spell, making the creature bigger and retriggering any etb effects all with the same card for only B is pretty solid.
Unnatural Endurance: This card can remove a creature most of the time while saving one of your own, but there are better removal spells.
Village Rites: Only costing a single mana makes this a lot more viable to keep open in case your opponent has a removal for your creatures compared to it's 2 mana alternatives.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Alchemist's Gift: Neither mode is good and has a decent chance to trade 1/1, apart from the fact, that black really doesn't need combat tricks.
Feast of Flesh: Cards like this don't work in most cubes.
Foul-Tongue Shriek: Even if you are able to generate a big enough amount of creatures, this card still only goes to the face, which makes it very situative.
Fruit of Tizerus: This might read like a possible finisher, but there are a lot better ways to win the game and black has better uses for the graveyard.
Fungal Infection – With so many X/1s, it is possible to make this a kill spell, or combat trick that leaves you with a 1/1. But hard to set up.
Ghastly Demise: By the time there are enough cards in your graveyard, you won't need such a cheap and restrictive removal anymore.
Vampire's Bite: With First Strike, this card would be way more interesting.
Vile Rebirth: Getting a surprising 2/2 for cc1 with instant speed can be an interesting combat trick, but most creatures are at least a 2/1 in size and this way this card would only trade 1 for 1 as a combat trick. That makes it more of a bad removal or an unexciting restrictive beater.
Virulent Swipe: Surprise deathtouch can be a nice combat trick, but it will usually still be a 2 for 1 trade against you unless the creature happens to have a high enough toughness to already survive. Double-blocks and more are where this can shine. This can also make for a nice two for one kill combo with pingers.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Chainer's Edict: Only online common!Cruel Edict isn't that good on it's own, but Flashback makes this a solid 2 for 1 removal.
Doom Blade/Terror: The 2 instant speed hard spot removal spells for just cc2, with the restriction that counts least, because when you have black in your deck the chance is reduced that your opponents drafted black as well.
Hymn to Tourach: Some people, who never played this card, may wonder why there is such a big difference between discarding 2 picked cards and 2 cards at random, but everyone who has played this card even once knows how insane this card is. It wins so many games.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Grasp of Darkness: -4 toughness kills most creatures in cubes. BB is a little bit problematic but definitely worth such a good removal spell.
Font of Return: A solid recursion spell. The high mana cost of 6 can be split up well.
Grim Harvest: This card is great, but mainly worse than the very similar Disturbed Burial because it's very easy to get rid of it.
Last Gasp/Nameless Inversion: The black versions of Searing Spear. They are often worse because they can't be used for burn, but the ability to either kill a creature with 3 toughness for 1B at instant speed or shrink a bigger creature is still great.
Moment of Craving: A solid removal spell that's best against aggro but otherwise still fine and flexible. Mostly a strictly better Sorin's Thirst
Night's Whisper: Despite its comparison to Sign in Blood, the easier mana cost makes this an auto-include in most cubes.
Sign in Blood: BB is a little bit problematic, but Divination for cc2 is still great and 2 Life is no big drawback.
Soul Reap: On first look, it seems like a Doom Blade with Sorcery speed and a theoretical Lava Spike included. Sorcery speed is a big disadvantage though and nongreen is worse than nonblack because the chance that the opponent plays green is not necessarily decreased if you're playing black yourself.
Victim of Night: BB might seem problematic, but the restriction is nearly redundant and this way it's a kind of Murder for cc2.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Bladebrand: A 2 mana combat trick that replaces itself. There are definitely some shenenigans you can do with this.
Contaminated Bond: This card can deal a lot of damage. It's no kind of removal, but often enough it prevents a creature from doing anything.
Corpse Churn: The ability to return any creature in the graveyard makes this valuable for graveyard themes in cubes.
Cruel Edict/Diabolic Edict: Sometimes untargeted sacrifice can handle more things than spot removal, but the problem is just that there are often too many alternatives for the opponent. You will usually not hit get you are aiming for.
Dark Favor/Sinister Strength: These auras turn the enchanted creature into a threat that would be worth the risk of trading bad to a removal spell. The problem is just that with only 1 additional toughness, they don't do much to prevent it from trading down to any creature blocking it.
Die Young: Without the right support, this is a strictly worse Disfigure.
Distress/Lost Hours: Discarding any card you want for cc2 would be interesting, but not exciting.
Exhume: In most cases, this card is no advantage for you. It only works if you build your deck around it with a lot of fat creatures that you are able to discard easily as well.
Forever Young: A somewhat interesting design as you have the option put 0 on top and simply cycle it or improve your next X draw spells by a lot.
Grotesque Mutation: This is a really nice combat trick, but black has better options.
Infernal Harvest: If you support mono-colored decks, this card is a bomb, but in a 2-color deck you mainly won't return more than 3 or 4 maximum swamps to your hand. This would make this card a kind of Arc Lightning, but with a huge tempo disadvantage.
Infernal Scarring: To get additional value out of this card it needs to die. Also, Pacifism-effects aren't a corner case in most cubes.
Mire's Grasp: This is not a bad removal, but there are more efficient cards for 2 mana that deal with creatures.
Murderous Compulsion: It can kill almost everything, but the restriction is pretty high.
Rush of Vitality: Another version of Butcher's Glee that trades one mana and regeneration for indestructible and two less power.
Sinkhole: This card is nuts in fast constructed decks, but in limited lands are worth way less and you always have to keep in mind how good a card is if you draw it as topdeck because a game can always take longer than you expect.
Skeletal Grimace: An aura that protects the creature it's enchanting is nice, but just +1/+1 isn't too exciting.
Subtle Strike: The ability to do both options is nice, but there are better removal spells in pauper.
Unexpected Fangs: Granting a permanent pump and lifelink with instant speed is kind of nice. In the best case this can be used as a combat trick and kill a creature when it's played and leave a decent threat behind, that has to be dealt with. With only +1/+1 the best case isn't that likely and like all "auras" removal is a problem against it.
Vicious Offering: -5/-5 is huge, but you rarely want to sacrifice a creature as an additional cost and there are also plenty of 2 mana spells that just straight up kill any creature.
Wrench Mind: Discarding 2 cards for cc2 is nice, but BB makes this card problematic.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Addle: Only online common! It's about a 50/50 chance to hit the right colors if you had no information about the opponent's hand so far.
Ancestral Vengeance: Permanently pumping and killing a creature for cc2 seems nice on first sight, but the pump is small and only being able to X/1 creatures is heavily restricted, especially for BB.
Disturbing Plot: Reviving 2 creatures from the graveyard for cc2 can be nice, but Conspire is often a too difficult restriction because decks are mainly 2 colors.
Dragon Shadow: There aren't enough playable creatures with cc6 to make this card playable.
Scourgemark: 1 additional power without card disadvantage is not good enough to be worth the risk of making card disadvantage due to a removal spell in response.
Seizures: It's too easy to play around the effect.
Shriek of Dread: A mediocre evasion for cc2 and just for one turn is simply bad.
Trespasser's Curse: This card is good when played at the beginning of the game against creature heavy decks. In all other situations, it is terrible.
Tyrant's Choice: 4 damage to a player for cc2 is a lot, but still card disadvantage.
Warren Weirding: This card would only be really interesting in a tribal-based cube.
Wicked Reward: You don't want to sacrifice creatures if the effect you gain for it isn't just great.
Without Weakness: The flexibility of cycling is nice, but it's kind of expensive for a protection spell and doesn't help a creature trade up in combat.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Ashes to Ashes: 5 Life may seem like a lot, but killing 2 creatures for just cc3 and nearly no further restriction is really bomby. The only problem is that it's very dangerous against red decks with burn and when you are at really low life already.
Read the Bones: Only drawing 2 cards for 3 mana is not enough, but Scrying 2 beforehand makes this card really good.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Cartouche of Ambition: On cards like Crypt Rats, this gets ridiculous. On other creatures, it is at least a removal for an opponent's creature and a buff for your own creature.
Crippling Fatigue: 5 mana and 3 life is a lot to kill two X/2 creatures, but the option to be a 2 for 1 trade makes this card good.
Death's Duet: This card may seem similar to Divination, but Reviving creatures from the graveyard is different from getting cards from the top because it guarantees quality.
Eyeblight's Ending/Rend Flesh: Hard removal spells for 2B are good and these are two of the only ones with no significant restriction.
Memory Leak: Cycling for 1 is the lowest possible opportunity cost apart from costing 0 and the effect can be very good in many situations, even though it costs 1 too much.
Ob Nixilis's Cruelty - A straight up instant speed answer for most creatures in cubes, that also exiles, solving recursion. And it can hit all colors.
Stab Wound: On first look, this card may seem like an overcosted version of Dead Weight, but it's not made for killing X/2 creatures with it. It's made to decrease 2/X or something similar to 0/X and then ignore them, so they can do nothing except for blocking and the Wound will constantly deal a relevant amount of damage, that can mainly not be ignored. Meanwhile, it can also be used to kill annoying X/2 creatures.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Bog Down/Unburden: The effect isn't bad, but a little bit situative. These 2 cards got some flexibility, but not enough to be cubeable.
Butcher's Glee: Black combat tricks may mainly be outclassed by black spot removal, but this one can actually generate a huge amount of life in exchange for the traded creature.
Casting of Bones: Combined with a spot removal this card is Compulsive Research, which would be great, but it depends on a spot removal and as an aura, it's a little bit fragile.
Cower in Fear: This card can be backbreaking or completely useless. Most of the time it's the second.
Cruel Finality: Scry is nice, but there is way better removal available in black.
Dark Dabbling: This card trades 1-for-1 or can save all your creatures and replaces itself, but most of the time it's too situational.
Dirge of Dread: Either using this card as a finisher or cycling it, with an attached effect is Ok, but mainly not exciting enough.
Douse in Gloom/Last Kiss: Simply a weaker Lightning Helix would still be great, but these cards need to cost either cc1 less or deal 1 damage more, to be good.
Ichor Slick: A lot of flexibility in a single card, but for most people, it's simply too overcosted in most cases.
Last Rites: This card can be great when you play against a control deck with a full hand, even in the late game, and you are able to trade some lands each against cards of your choice, but when you got enough lands your opponent usually has an empty hand.
Pharika's Libation: A unique effect for black. If you want to grant black access to enchantment removal this is definitely considerable.
Renegade's Getaway: This can be a nice blowout for your opponent, but it is very situational.
Shade's Form: Either enchanting your creature to pump and protect it, or stealing a creature from your opponent when combined with a spot removal can be nice, but it remains situative.
Splendid Agony: It can be a 2-for-1, but there are better removals available for that cost.
Succumb to Temptation: Worse than its sorcery counterparts as Black does not need pricier Divination-effects just for Instant speed's sake
Suffocating Fumes: Only giving -1/-1 often doesn't kill much on it's own, but the fact, that this is an instant and applies to the whole opposing team can definitely lead to some situations, where this is devastating. The rest of the time Cycling will do the trick.
Syphon Life: Retrace spells do very well in limited, because of the higher land count, but the effect of this card is pretty weak.
Unholy Indenture – Having the creature return to the battlefield (stronger), UNDER YOUR CONTROL, is powerful. But it’s an aura with can cause 2-for-1s, and doesn’t work well against the white/blue on board removal
Wail of the Nim: Both effects are sometimes ok, but mainly you don't want this card.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Afflict: Drawing cards in addition to a removal is great, but -1/-1 is simply too less for cc3.
Fevered Strength: The effect isn't bad combined with card draw, but it's overcosted.
Foreboding Fruit: Divination is OK, but losing to 2 for no reason makes no sense and you would need to pay BBB to effectively gain 1 life with a Kicker cost of 2.
Fortuitous Find: There aren't many artifacts in the graveyard normally and there are cheaper alternatives to recur a creature.
Untamed Hunger: This card isn't worth the risk of card disadvantage.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Pestilence: One of the few mass-removal spells in pauper. It's very flexible and has a lot of synergies.
Snuff Out: A really good removal. The possibility to play it for 0 is absolutely great and even cc4 isn't too overcosted. 4 life can be a lot, but if you really need it it's worth it.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Ill-Gotten Inheritance – Seemingly bad, this is a misunderstood threat. The 2 point life swing (-1 them, +1 you) will keep the game going longer in a stall. But the instant-speed finishing blow build in, even for 6cmc, cannot be understated. It is a combo Curse of the Pierced Heart and Seal of Lava Axe. Splashable as well!
Mark of the Vampire: +2/+2 is a huge threat and even if the creature isn't protected in any way, it will leave the battlefield with a huge difference if it even attacked once.
Tendrils of Corruption: A great late-game card that can be very lackluster in the early game, as long as you don't have a mono B deck.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Bitter Revelation: 4 mana at sorcery speed for drawing 2 cards is a lot, but this card contains card quality and there are ways in black to get an advantage of milling cards.
Dark Bargain - Ok, but we have better stuff. like Night's Whisper. It is an instant and digs 3 deep, keeping 2.
Fill with Fright: Scry attached to a card that makes card advantage of any kind for the opponent is nice, but simply discarding 2 cards is too situative.
Flay: Hymn to Tourach would still be nuts for cc4, but not with such a hard restriction.
Gruesome Discovery: This card would be interesting, but morbid is a high restriction even for black.
Midnight Recovery: Often this card is Death's Duet for cc4, but Cipher overall isn't a good ability since it's mainly just an aura with an etb-effect.
Nightsnare: It's nice to discard either one specific card or discard two, but 4 mana is a lot for the effect.
Sanguine Indulgence: Triggering the reduced effects for this can be hard, if you can enable it 1 mana for a Death's Duet is a great deal as it will often allow you to play one of the returned creatures out right away.
Strands of Undeath: Protecting a creature permanently while making the opponent discard 2 cards isn't bad, but just discarding 2 cards is too situative.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Aphetto Dredging: This card would be great without the tribal restriction.
Aspect of Lamprey: You either want a Mind Rot effect or an aura that pumps a creature. This is a unique combination, but rarely any deck wants this.
Morsel Theft: This card would even be Ok for cc4 if you would be allowed to draw the card, but it's actually only worth it if you can enable the prowl effect.
Contract Killing: An overcosted sorcery speed removal spell. The treasures aren't that good by this late in the game and don't make up for the fact that you can't cast this until turn 5.
Cruel Revival: If you have enough Zombies, this card could be considered, but it's still overcosted.
Festive Funeral: This wouldn't even be good with a ton of selfmill.
Final Death: 5 mana is simply too much and the exile clause matters too rarely.
Final Reward/Flesh to Dust: These are unconditional hard removal spells, but overcosted and outclassed by way too many better versions.
Finishing Blow: There are no common planeswalkers and 5 mana is way too much just to deal with creatures.
Gloomlance: This card isn't even a really good sideboard card.
Lab Rats: On first look, this may look like a black Sprout Swarm, but instant speed, Convoke and the fact that it's green makes such a huge difference.
Liturgy of Blood: This removal is so terribly overcosted that it's not directly bad, but simply not cubeable at all. Even if it's non-restricted and gives some mana back it's also sorcery speed and BBB isn't very useful in most situations.
Nyxborn Eidolon: cc5 for Unholy Strength is simply far too much and a 2/1 is not really a good price for 4 additional mana.
Reach of Shadows: A hard removal for cc5, that is even restricted, is simply terrible.
Rise Again: This would be a decent reanimate effect if it weren't for the fact, that there simply aren't many great big creatures worth reanimating and most of them don't cost much more than 5 or 6, so instead of finding a way to get them into the graveyard and maybe saving 1 mana you can simply cast them right away.
Shadow Slice: Cipher is a high restriction and this effect is to situative for the risk.
Covenant of Blood: Convoke or not, cc7 is way too much for this effect.
Dark Withering: This card is only good if you are able to discard it.
Death Rattle: This removal is only ok, in the very late stage of the game.
Essence Feed: 3 Eldrazi Spawns aren't worth so much mana.
Mindstab: This card is mainly only good on Turn 1. Apart from that, it will come too late.
Tasigur's Cruelty: Discard spells like this are highly situative and have to be timed correctly. An additional restriction in the form of Delve makes this card quite bad.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Death Denied: This card doesn't need much mana to win most late games for you.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Nothing here.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Death Wind: A very flexible removal, but black has a lot of spells to destroy a creature, no matter how big it is.
Endless Scream: Giving a lot of power to a creature can be interesting, but it doesn't protect the creature from dying to any creature, that blocks it.
Howl from Beyond: This card could be a bad finisher or a bad combat trick. No matter what, it's bad.
Rats' Feast: Graveyard hate is not needed in pauper cubes.
I really can't get behind dark ritual and funeral charm being bad. Rituals are card disadvantage, yes, but it doesn't mean they're bad. Is Black Lotus bad? It's simple card disadvantage, too.
Funeral charm is just so flexible, and -1/-1 will actually kill a large number of creatures in cube.
It is certainly cubable, for those aggro black decks!
Also upgarde Dark Ritual up to cubable! It's really good. In some decks it's terrible, but in others it's a crazy good card. It's the sort of card you want in black aggro and midrange, for those unbeatable starts.
No longer staff here.
White creatures
White noncreature spells
UUUUU
Blue creatures
Blue noncreature spells
BBBBB
Black creatures
Black noncreature spells
RRRRR
Red creatures
Red noncreature spells
GGGGG
Green creatures
Green noncreature spells
CCCCC
Colorless spells
Lands
WUBRG
Multicolored spells
Rainbow
Special thanks go to NoobinCube, Night_Hydra, Back_Alley_G and MrEng1neer for helping with the recent evaluations.
Another special thank goes to Izor for this Graphic.
There is also an archetype overview of the Swarm and Sacrifice archetype. (outdated)
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Sunlance: A very cheap removal for just cc1 that handles a lot. The white version of Flame Slash and the only effective removal for this low cost.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Ajani's Presence: An interesting combat trick that has the option to trade 2 for 1 or even 3 for, if more mana is spent. The problem is just that indestructible is mainly worse than protection from a color.
Apostle's Blessing/Emerge Unscathed/Gods Willing/Stave Off: They can trade 1/1 with removal spells and possibly creatures as well. They each have their ups and downs.
Ephemerate - Mono Momentary Blink, or close enough. While not as opportune as flashback, rebound gets a second use for no extra mana. Any deck with 3+ EtB creatures starts to see this gain value. If Blink Archtype is in your cube, this will be an auto-include.
Hyena Umbra: +1/+1 is not huge, but First Strike is very strong. Totem Armor does nothing against Pacifism-like effects, but for the normal case, it can be very useful.
Mana Tithe: Force Spike is good and this card is the same.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Alley Evasion: This card can shine in a flicker deck but doesn't enough in either mode to be valuable in other decks.
Anoint: Endless damage prevention seems nice, but when your opponent knows about it he/she can play around it. Cc4 is also a very high cost to keep casting it every turn. A removal spell like Doom Blade can also turn it into card disadvantage for you.
Karametra's Blessing: Interesting for a very aura heavy cube.
Cartouche of Solidarity: It doesn't produce card disadvantage if it resolves, but the effect isn't that strong.
Defiant Strike: For replacing itself this card is not bad, but it's not a good combat trick since it misses First Strike or an additional toughness.
Enshrouding Mist: +1/+1 and damage protection helps in a lot of cases, but it's still outclassed and the untap part can usually be ignored since there aren't a lot of cubeable commons with renown.
Ethereal Armor: With enough other auras or protected creatures, it could be interesting because First Strike does a lot, but normally it will trade 1 for 2.
Moment of Triumph: It's an alright pump spell with life gain attached, which is a nice combination.
Niveous Wisps: It could give you some time in a tempo deck without making card disadvantage, but it's unexciting.
Oppressive Rays: An interesting removal for really fast decks, but with a huge drawback for the later game during slower games.
Outflank: Only costing 1 mana is definitely nice, but the effect is still pretty outclassed.
Pollen Remedy: A very flexible and cheap answer to burn and some situations in combat, but to enable its full potential you have to sacrifice a land.
Recruit the Worthy - Obviously it raises in desirability if a Swarm style deck that just needs to always have bodies arriving. But it is not Sprout Swarm, this cannot self-perpetuate. 3w for a flash 1/1 is fine if you have nothing better to do; but then you have other problems. As for control, a slow stream of blockers is not moving the game forward and these tokens without pump are outclassed very fast.
Righteous Blow/Slash of Talons: A kind of Shock that would be interesting, but the restriction is hard, especially since the X/2 creatures you really need to handle with it won't attack or block later in the game.
Sentinel's Eyes: A cheap and cost effective aura in a color, that has otherwise little use for the Graveyard.
Smite: It's a very interesting hard removal for cc1, but the restriction is high.
Stand Firm: This combat trick is nice with Scry 2, but it's missing the First Strike.
Swift Justice: A good combat trick for just cc1. First Strike makes this playable and the life gain is great for aggressive decks to get an advantage in a possible damage race. The problem is that white has spot removal and doesn't depend on pumps spells as much as green.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Alms: You need a lot of cards in your graveyard to make it worth it.
Armor of Faith/Glaring Aegis/Holy Armor/Holy Strength/Iron Will/Kithkin Armor/Lifelink/Mortal Obstinacy/Vigilance: These auras will make card disadvantage way too easy, without ever being a real threat.
Artifact Ward: This card isn't even good in an artifact-based cube, because it still trades 2/1 for every removal.
Awe Strike: Life is not worth a card.
Bandage/Heal: The effect won't do anything most times.
Benediction of Moons/Chaplain's Blessing/Ephara's Radiance/Festival of Trokin/Peach Garden Oath/Reaping the Rewards/Scent of Jasmine/Sunbeam Spellbomb/Sunspring Expedition: Life only is not worth a card.
Blessed Breath: The strictly worse version of Stave Off.
Brainwash/Guard Duty: Not being able to attack is no solution.
Built to Last/Ritual of Restoration: These would only be interesting for an artifact-based cube.
Burden of Guilt: You don't want to keep spending mana for an unflexible removal spell.
Burst of Energy/Veteran's Reflexes: The surprise through untapping is often not enough to kill a creature.
Capashen Standard: It will mainly trade 2 for 1 because you don't always have cc2 left. As well, +1/+1 is unexciting without first strike.
Change of Heart: It costs cc4 everytime you want to prevent just 1 creature from attacking.
Cloudshift: It can trade for removal spells and retrigger etb-effects, but that's mainly unexciting.
Coordinated Barrage/Unified Strike: There aren't many tribes in the most cubes and this would mainly don't deal more than just 1 or 2 damage.
Cowed by Wisdom: Your hand normally becomes more empty with the time and later it does nothing.
Death Ward: It can trade for some things, but it's really situational.
Demystify/Erase/Quiet Purity: The restriction is too high. There are a lot of better cards that can handle enchantments.
Detainment Spell: The activated abilities of a creature are not usually the biggest issue.
Dispeller's Capsule: Without having a big advantage against Disenchant in most cubes, it costs too much.
Divine Light: The Sorcery speed makes this card really bad.
Djeru's Resolve: This card is way too situational.
Equinox: Land destruction is very bad in cubes and making yourself save against it is even worse.
Ethereal Haze/Holy Day: Fog-like effects are too situational.
Excise: There are a lot of better removal spells.
False Peace/Festival/Moment of Silence/Off Balance: These cards are even worse than Fog because your opponent's creatures don't even end up being tapped.
Fragmentize: It's a sideboard card and not even the best one.
Fylgja: It's not that bad because it can change combat math, but it needs too much mana to keep it "alive".
Gaze of Justice: It would be a great card because it's able to trade 2 for 1, but it's already hard to have 3 creatures alive, let alone 3 white ones.
Gelid Shackles: It's ok, but you don't want to keep spending mana on it.
Gift of Granite: With just +0/+2 it's not able to trade 1 for 2 in most situations. The surprising effect is redundant in that case.
Glyph of Life: There are not many good walls in pauper and this card would even be bad with a large number of walls.
Gideon's Sacrifice – Two for one-ing yourself is never a good idea.
Guardian Angel/Indestructible Aura/Mending Hands/Orim's Touch/Pay No Heed/Shielded Passage/Shieldmate's Blessing/Warning: Simple damage prevention won't do anything most times.
Guildscorn Ward: Even with a bigger amount of multicolor cards than normal, this card would still be bad.
Guilty Conscience: This kills a lot of creatures, but the creature is still allowed to deal damage one last time, which gives it the ability to trade with one of your creatures or deal more damage to you.
Hallow: This can only prevent damage from mostly red spells, which makes it very bad.
Healing Salve/Hope Charm/Ivory Charm/Piety Charm: Flexibility is nice, but when all effects are bad in most cases, it's useless.
Hundred-Talon Strike: There aren't many arcane spells in pauper, which makes this card uninteresting.
Implement of Improvement: Lifegain alone isn't good, even if the card replaces itself.
Kirtar's Desire: Threshold is too big a restriction.
Light of Hope: Flexiblity is nice, but the 1st mode is trash, the 2nd is too situative and the 3rd is too weak.
Lithomancer's Focus/Strength of Arms/Vampire's Zeal: Combat trick that lack a relevant upside for most cubes.
Mask of Law and Grace/Shield of Duty and Reason: These are great sideboard cards, but only that.
Mortal's Ardor: This card is outclassed by Swift Justice.
Opal Caryatid: On turn 1 it could be interesting, but apart from that it's mainly useless.
Reinforcements: Putting cards just on the top of your library isn't a big advantage.
Remove Enchantments: This card is way too situational
Sacred Rites/Shields of Velis Vel: An only-toughness isn't good enough in most cases.
Samite Blessing: This effect remains, but you don't want to use a creature for it normally.
Searing Light: There are way better removal spells available.
Seize the Initiative: There is no big difference between +1/+0 First Strike and +1/+1 First Strike. As long as there is nothing else, it's not interesting.
Solid Footing: This would actually be kind if interesting if it didn't require vigilance for the effect.
Strip Bare: The restrictions for this card are too high.
Valor Made Real: A mainly useless card.
Wake the Reflections: There isn't enough to populate in most pauper cubes.
Wojek Siren: In the average cube most decks are multicolored, so this card won't typically do much.
Bonds of Faith/Pacifism: Rock solid removal. The Bonds can have a downside, if you accidently put it on an opposing human, but it's still excellent.
Journey to Nowhere: Exiling a creature for just 2 mana is amazing.
Shelter: This card can be very flexible, trading for removal or a creature or giving evasion without creating card disadvantage.
Temporal Isolation: Instant speed Pacifism is even better. There can be some weird sitations, where you have a shadow creature and you are giving your opponent an accidental blocker, but those are corner cases.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Celestial Flare: A solution for everything from Guardian of the Guildpact to Blastoderm. It's one of the best Verdict-like effects ever. Even if WW is annoying, overall it's just cc2 and you will rarely play this card on turn 2.
Compulsory Rest: Strictly worse Pacifism, but it is still a solid removal.
Cho-Manno's Blessing: Permanent protection that often trades for a removal or creature just when it comes into play is insane. The only problems are the WW cost at times and that your opponent can trade for it later with their second color.
Feat of Resistance: Removal protection with built-in pump. Definitely a fine card for offering a lot of flexibility.
Swift Response: A defensive removal, that doesn't help much if you are the aggressor, but still 2 mana isntant speed an unconditional regarding size.
Tandem Tactics: This card is able to kill two creatures at once and gives you some life.
Test of Faith: This card can be a Divine Transformation with flash for 1W. In addition, it helps to save the creature in many situations. On the other hand, it only helps while blocking or against burn.
Trapped in the Tower: Not being able to hit fliers is definitely a drawback, but shutting down abilities as an additional effect makes up for it.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Act of Heroism: An alright situational combat trick.
Angelic Gift: This doesn't create card disadvantage and gives evasion but nothing more.
Angelic Renewal: This card can keep important creatures alive really well. It would be insane with Auramancer, but that card is too bad apart from the combination and the most people prefer another creature instead of saving one they already have.
Brilliant Halo: The pump is really small, but the recursion makes this card interesting.
Carom: Redirecting damage can be great, but often a single damage isn't enough to make this card worth it.
Dazzling Reflection: This card creates a big advantage, but is very situational.
Disenchant/Revoke Existence/Seal of Cleansing: Flexibility of destroying either an artifact or enchantment for just cc2 is ok, but these cards need a target and sometimes they just don't find one.
Ephemeral Shields: With convoke, this card can easily cast for 0-1 mana, which adds a surprise factor.
Expose Evil: The card replaces itself, but just tapping the creatures isn't very strong.
Flicker of Fate: It's kind of neat, that it can hit opposing creatures as well as enchantments. Since it can flicker enchantments you can do some neat things in combination with Journey to Nowhere and Oblivion Ring.
Graceful Reprieve: It gives additional value out of a creature, if you support the flicker archetype, but not very good in other decks.
Gideon's Reproach: This kills many creatures, but not all.
Guided Strike: Perhaps the best white combat trick, apart from Shelter, because it can make card advantage for just cc2. The problems are just that +1/+0 and First Strike isn't much and white isn't forced to play combat tricks because it has a bunch of spot removal.
Impeccable Timing: A strictly worse Gideon's Reproach.
Judge Unworthy: Only dealing damage to an attacking or blocking creature would be unexciting, but this card can make card quality through scry. The only problem is that you never know for sure how much damage it will be. It's risky, but still not bad.
Otherworldly Journey: Protecting a creature from removal or retriggering etb-effects for cc2 wouldn't be interesting, but the +1/+1 Counter gives this Cloudshift an additional advantage that can be important.
Spare from Evil: This card can't protect your creatures from removal but is able to trade for creatures and make your creatures unblockable in the late game.
Stirring Address - Compare to Borrowed Grace, and this helps more as a single pump that can anthem, as opposed to being used mostly for anthem.
Take Vengeance – Restrictive removal. 2 CMC isn’t bad, but better choices are available.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Abzan Advantage: If you have a lot of enchantments in your cube this could be a considerable card, since destroying one of them and pumping a creature in addition for only cc2 is Ok, but for most cubes, this card is way too narrow.
Aerial Maneuver/Alarum/Artful Maneuver/Battlewise Valor/Mighty Leap/Moment of Heroism/Plow Through Reito/Show of Valor/Skillful Lunge/Zealous Strike: Combat tricks in white should either be cc1 or make card advantage if they resolve. None of these do so and none of the upsides are worth it.
Ajani's Mantra/Font of Vigor/Life Burst/Rest for the Weary/Reverse Polarity/Sacred Nectar/Soothing Balm/Soul's Grace/Sun's Bounty/Whitesun's Passage: Only life is not worth a card.
Alabaster Potion/Cleansing Ray/Dawn Charm: Flexibility is nice, but if all versions are bad, it's not interesting.
Allay/Aura Blast: Being able to destroy enchantments effectively doesn't solve the problem that there aren't always enchantments in the game.
Angelsong/Djeru's Renunciation/Fend Off/Gilded Light/Wipe Clean: Cycling can make situative cards a lot better, but some effects are just too situative, that you still nearly never want them.
Blessed Wine: A terrible overcosted card.
Break of Day/Glorious Charge/In Oketra's Name/Kjeldoran War Cry/Rally/Surge of Thoughtweft: Just +1/+1 for all of your creatures isn't much. As well, you mainly won't have many creatures in limited.
Conviction/Sun Clasp: These auras might not create card disadvantage, but +1/+3 is not a big enough threat to make them worth it.
Cagemail: You don't want to give your opponent a big blocker or prevent one of your creatures from attacking.
Call to Glory/Rhystic Shield/Shield Wall: Making some surprising blockers isn't good enough and won't help you most times.
Call to Serve/Chosen by Heliod/Divine Favor/Grasp of the Hieromancer/Hero's Resolve/Heroic Defiance/Inviolability/Lashknife/Nimbus Wings/Prismatic Ward: These auras will make card disadvantage way too easy without ever being a big threat.
Center Soul: There is a lot of white protection spells with different upsides, but Rebound is not enough to make this good enough, especially since it's cc2.
Circle of Protection: Black/Circle of Protection: Blue/Circle of Protection: Green/Circle of Protection: Red/Circle of Protection: White/Rune of Protection: Black/Rune of Protection: Blue/Rune of Protection: Green/Rune of Protection: Red/Rune of Protection: White: These cards can be sideboard cards, but 1/5 colors is not enough to make them even worth that.
Circle of Protection: Shadow: There aren't many shadow cards in pauper. Hating the few, that exists is horribly bad.
Crown of Awe/Inquisitor's Snare: Only sideboard cards.
Cursebreak/Divine Offering/Echoing Calm/Leave No Trace/Stasis Cocoon/Urgent Exorcism: Only targeting enchantments or artifacts is too narrow.
Curtain of Light: Just preventing damage for one turn isn't interesting.
Defang/Muzzle: These cards are way better than Guard Duty or something similar because a creature with defender can still kill one of your creatures, but turning a creature into a wall that can still prevent a lot of damage is mainly still not good enough.
Disempower: Putting a card on the top of the opponent's library isn't card disadvantage because it steals a draw, but if you really want to get rid of something like Vulshok Morningstar, it's worse than simply destroying it.
Dragon Scales: There aren't enough cc6 creatures to make this card interesting.
Eland Umbra: This can make one of your creatures very huge, but without pushing the power just a little bit it's no threat.
Lead Astray: Just tapping creatures for one round is very bad.
Lunarch Mantle: Only good for a Sacrifice-matters theming.
Forced Worship: Preventing a creature just from attacking is no solution for it.
Forfend: A different version of Holy Day, that isn't much better.
Gossamer Chains: A bad kind of defender, that requires a constant payment of WW.
Hold at Bay/Redeem/Remedy/Soul Parry/Swift Maneuver: Only being able to prevent damage is not enough.
Humble: White has many better options for removal that either don't require combat or for you to have a creature for it to work.
Indomitable Will/Mageta's Boon/Triclopean Sight: Remaining combat tricks. +1/+2 or +1/+1 Vigilance can do something, but often it's not enough.
Last Breath: One of the worst removal spells, white got.
Lightning Blow: Just First Strike will rarely be enough to kill a creature.
Lumithread Field: It would be only interesting if you play a lot of Morph cards.
Lyev Decree: Card disadvantage just for a small tempo advantage. Not really worth it.
Mine Excavation: Artifacts and Enchantments mainly remain on the field.
Opal Gargoyle: A 2/2 Flying for cc2 is nice, but later your opponent is not forced to play creatures anymore and this card is maybe dead or even, when it resolves, not exciting enough.
Orim's Cure: For cc0 it's surprising but too situative.
Parapet: +0/+1 isn't that impactful, even if it remains.
Puncturing Light: The restrictions for this removal make it bad.
Pressure Point: The strictly worse version of Niveous Wisps.
Razor Barrier: being able to protect other permanents as well, doesn't make it worth cc1 against Stave Off.
Reprisal: This card is great if it has a target, but if you are killed by a big amount of 2/2 and 3/4 fliers it becomes useless.
Righteous Aura: This card remains, but the price is too high for the weak effect.
Shining Armor: There simply aren't enough Knights.
Steadfastness: Being sorcery speed, this is the worst mass-pump spell pauper has.
Summary Judgment – Too many restrictions. If you need tapped removal, use Take Vengeance
Ward of Lights: The way worse version of Cho-Manno's Blessing.
Weight of Conscience: There isn't such a big difference between disabled and exile, that this card would be worth it.
Oblivion Ring: An insane removal, that handles nearly anything.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Afterlife: Only online common! A white instant speed hard removal. The downside is there, but it's still interesting.
Arrest: If you struggle with answers for activated abilities, this is a great option. Most of the time it will be an overcosted Pacifism though.
Cage of Hands: Usually the activated ability isn't worth the initial extra mana over Pacifism, but it's still a solid removal.
Embolden: A very flexible combat trick with card advantage potential. It at it's best against red though.
Hobble: Normally it's not good just to prevent a creature from attacking and not from blocking, but this card does it without any disadvantage apart from binding 3 mana.
Kor Chant: A combat trick that trades often enough 2 for1.
Prismatic Strands: This card doesn't just protect your creatures from nearly anything once, but twice and without any mana the second time.
Recumbent Bliss: Pacifism and Ajani's Mantra in one card. Life may not worth a card, but linked to useful cards, it's a great feature. Another example is Pristine Talisman.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Answered Prayers - 3cc is a sweet spot. Turning into a Sorcery-proof 3/3 Flyer, awesome. Gaining incremental life always, cool. But a 3/3 that cannot block means this is an aggro-favored card. But it only is a sometimes attacker, and does not really affect the board unless you have a more swarm-heavy design. Still a card that will usually find a home. WW slows the enthusiasm
Angelic Purge: A nice hard removal, but sacrificing a permanent can really set you back.
Acrobatic Maneuver: This is a nice addition to a flicker-theme, that can save a creature and replaces itself, but 3 mana is a lot.
Borrowed Grace: It is either a Fortify, or an instant speed Righteous Charge for 3WW. Great for swarm strategies.
Bound in Silence/Caught in the Brights/Luminous Bonds/Revoke Privileges: FOr very big cubes, that feel like the 2 mana Pacifisms are not enough.
Choking Restraints/Dreadful Apathy: For very big cubes, that feel like the 2 mana Pacifism aren't enough, this could be considerable. This also has a kind of neat side effect, where you can flicker it in response to the activated ability.
Empyrial Armor: An aura that can make card disadvantage easily, but it often creates a huge threat that has to be handled fast, because otherwise, it wins the game in its own.
Excommunicate: Putting a creature on the top of its owner's library can be an even better solution for creatures that are not worth a hard removal, for slowing your opponent down without making card disadvantage.
Exile(Only online common!)/Just Fate(Only online common!)/Kill Shot/Rebuke: Playable, but only good when your are the defending player.
Fanatical Devotion: This card is mainly not good unless you have tokens or creatures with death-triggered-abilities and something that is worth protecting.
Forsake the Worldly: A very good sideboard card, but nothing more.
Fortify/Guardians' Pledge/Kytheon's Tactics/Righteous Charge: Masspumps are playable as stall-breakers in a creature heavy deck, but their pull potential only shows if you support the swarm archetype.
Pentarch Ward: A good enchantment that can turn one of your creatures into a game-winner and make card advantage as well if it resolves.
Pitfall Trap: Solid hard removal with a reasonable cost, which can get cheaper.
Radiant's Judgment: A flexible hard removal.
Repel the Darkness: A great card for aggressive decks can be happy about 1 attack with fewer or no blockers.
Rootborn Defenses/Safe Passage: High variance combat tricks. They work best on the defense and can be a huge blowout, but can also be useless in several board states.
Sandblast: Since there are very few creatures at common rarity with more than 5 toughness, this is nearly a hard removal spell with the upside of being able to aim for blocking creatures as well. It's at least at the same power level as Kill Shot, but far from being great.
Sheer Drop: It only destroys tapped creatures, but the possibility to awaken a land can turn the tables.
Shoulder to Shoulder: It's a buff for two creatures and without card disadvantage, but sorcery speed is kind of annoying.
Squire's Devotion: A fine aura, but it's usually still not worth the risk of card disadvantage on non-hexproof creatures.
Survival Cache: It's a unique take on a white Divination, but it can sometimes be somewhat situational and high variance. At its ceiling, it's a fine card, but it can easily become just a Healing Hands or even a Sacred nectar which aren't typically great. Against aggro it's Sacred Nectar and against control it's Divination with a life boost. It can be pretty unreliable against midrange at times.
Survive the Night: This is almost always a 2 for 1, but only +1 power is very situational.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Armament of Nyx: Defang for cc3 in most cubes.
Armed Response: There aren't enough playable equipment in pauper to make this card playable.
Army of Allah: A way worse version of Fortify.
Angelic Blessing/Riding Red Hare: With sorcery speed, these cards can't even be used as combat tricks.
Asha's Favor: This card will make card disadvantage very fast, without ever been a big threat.
Astral Steel: You typically won't up to more than 1 Storm Count for it.
Aura Fracture/Frantic Purification/Ray of Dissolution: Only being able to handle enchantments is too narrow.
Avenging Arrow: You want to kill a creature before it kills one of your creatures or deals damage to you.
Bar the Door/Piety: Only pumping your creatures' toughness is too situational.
Bold Defense: This card would be the best mass-pump with instant speed, +2/+2, and First Strike but cc7 for the effect is way too much.
Cease-Fire: A very weak effect that's definitely not worth the 3 mana.
Cessation: Only preventing the creature from attacking is not good enough and getting the spell back after the creature maybe blocked and killed one of your creatures isn't a big advantage.
Cooperation: There aren't enough playable creatures with banding in pauper.
Dazzling Beauty: cc3 for such a weak effect is terrible.
Decommission/Solemn Offering/Terashi's Grasp: Lifegain attached to situational effects doesn't make them very less situational.
Dragon's Presence – 5 damage makes it interesting, but Gideon's Reproach does basically the same thing for one less mana.
Dust to Dust: Finding a single artifact to remove is hard enough, but 2 at once is nearly impossible in most cubes.
Ethereal Guidance: Sorcery speed makes this card terrible.
Fate Forgotten/Ironwright's Cleansing: Strictly worse versions of Forsake the Worldy.
Floating Shield: Just being protected from one color isn't good enough very often and being able to sacrifice this enchantment isn't a big enough advantage.
Fortified Area: With enough walls, this card could be awesome because of the banding rules for blocking, but there aren't enough good walls in pauper and most of them would depend on this card to be good.
Fortifying Provisions: There is not much less of an effect a card can have.
Fulgent Distraction: Just tapping 2 creatures for one round, without any further advantage, is not good enough.
Ghostly Possession/Heart of Light/Sandskin: Turning a creature into a Fog Bank is bad.
Guardian Zendikon: A 2/6 Wall for just cc3 would be great, but you don't want to waste a land for it because either it can either only block or be tapped for mana and the fact that it has haste, similar to other Zendikons, doesn't bring much if it's not allowed to attack.
Guardian's Magemark: There aren't enough good auras that could make this card playable.
Healing Hands/Reviving Dose/Ritual of Rejuvenation: Lifegain without card disadvantage could be interesting, but spells that cost more than 2 mana without affecting the board in any way are not good.
Holy Light: A white mass removal would be great, but in most cases -1/-1 doesn't do enough.
Lapse of Certainty: Memory Lapse isn't the best counter for cc2, but for cc3 it's just bad.
Leap of Faith/Martyrdom: Very bad combat tricks, because just preventing damage on a creature won't bring much in the most cases.
Legion's Judgment/Pillar of Light: Removal that's outclassed by way too many cards.
Marble Chalice/Renewed Faith/Riot Control: Lifegain by itself is definitely not worth a card or too much mana.
Marshaling Cry: This card is very flexible, but just +1/+1 for every creature isn't good enough.
Metal Fatigue: Only being able to tap some creatures for one round is bad, but this card is really terribly bad.
Morale/Virtuous Charge/Warrior's Charge/Warrior's Honor: The worse versions of Glorious Charge, which is already bad.
Narrow Escape: This card is too situational.
Noble Steeds: Flexibility to give any creature first strike to a creature seems nice, but the price is high.
Nyxborn Shieldmate: Holy Strength for 2W doesn't become more interesting if you get Sanctuary Cat in exchange for it being terribly overcosted.
Opal Champion: A 3/3 First Strike for cc3 would be great, but the creature restriction is high.
Prismatic Circle: This card could buy you some time, but only a little bit.
Protective Sphere: The high restriction for this card makes it bad.
Remember the Fallen: This card would be really good in an artifact-based cube.
Restrain: The chance that this card kills a creature is really low.
Ritual of Steel: Giving a creature just some toughness isn't a big enough threat.
Shackles: This card would only be interesting if it could tap the enchanted creature on its own.
Spontaneous Flight: Having a leasting effect on your combat trick is interesting, but as a combat trick this one isn't that good. Combat tricks usually get exponentially worse with every additional mana they cost and 3 is already far too much.
Steeling Stance: If Forecast would have fewer restrictions, this card would be more interesting.
Topple: A very non-flexible removal, that can even kill your own creature.
Withstand: Just preventing some damage won't do much most of the time.
Faith's Fetters: The best white removal, beneath Oblivion Ring. For just cc1 more this grants 4 life.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Blinding Beam: A great finisher for white, that is able to remove blockers for 2 turns.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Breath of Life/False Defeat/Resurrection: Some people like these cards because they are the only cards for a reanimation archetype in pauper, beside Exhume, but there aren't many reanimate-worthy creatures in pauper.
Divine Verdict/Neck Snap: These cards are more flexible than Smite or Rebuke, but cc4 is mainly too much for a removal spell that still needs mana open.
Hopeful Eidolon: Pump and Lifelink is a strong combination, but +1/+1 is very weak and the 1/1 body you get is nearly useless.
Inspired Charge: Perhaps the best mass-pump in pauper, but at cc4 it's really expensive and just +2/+1 instead of +2/+2 can be problematic. As well it could still be, that there are simply not enough creatures, to make this card worth it.
Inspiring Roar: This can be huge, but it is really situational and often a win-more card.
Isolation Zone: This is outclassed by many other cards like Oblivion Ring.
Pious Interdiction: Lifegain attached to removal can be nice but this somewhat overcosted.
Spirit Flare: This card could possibly make card advantage, but it needs untapped creatures.
Suppression Bonds: A very flexible removal that can answer a lot of things, but gaining 4 life for the same effect with Faith's Fetters can make a huge difference. Also, since pauper doesn't have planeswalkers, the biggest problems in pauper are mainly creatures so Arrest pretty much does the same for 1 mana less.
True Love's Kiss: A Disenchant, that replaces itself. Can be a decent Sideboard card.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Abuna's Chant/Recuperate: Flexibility is nice, but if none of the effects are good, the card itself doesn't become better.
Angel's Mercy/Congregate/Divine Congregation/War Report: Lifegain by itself is not worth a card.
Blade Banish: There are a bunch of effects, which do something similar, but better.
Candlelight Vigil/Conclave's Blessing/Marked by Honor/Siegecraft: The effects are not big enough threats to make these auras worth the risk of card disadvantage.
Defensive Maneuvers/Solidarity: The worse versions of Bar the Door, which is already bad.
Excoriate: The problem with the restriction of this removal is that white is often is a very aggressive color, so you often don't want to get rid of creatures that are attacking you, but rather possible blockers, which this can't deal with.
Frantic Salvage/Sphere of Purity: These cards wouldn't even be really good in an artifact-based cube.
Harmless Assault: An overcosted Safe Passage.
Misfortune's Gain/Path of Peace: Destroying a creature without any compromise is good, but cc4 is much and you don't want to give the opponent a life advantage for it.
Patrician's Scorn: Only being able to handle enchantments is really bad for cc4.
Ramosian Rally: The better version of Glorious Charge is still bad.
Ray of Distortion: Paying cc4 just to remove an artifact or enchantment is a high cost. The Flashback possibility doesn't make it better than Disenchant.
Resounding Silence: The cycling cost, which is too hard to get, makes this card bad.
Rhystic Circle: This card doesn't slow your opponent much more than it slows yourself.
Rush of Battle: Sorcery speed makes this card way worse than Inspired Charge and there aren't that many playable warriors at common rarity.
Seeker: The chance for card disadvantage is not worth the risk.
Silverflame Ritual: There are way better effects to mass pump your team.
Smite the Monstrous: The worse version of Reprisal, which is already bad.
Terashi's Cry: Sorcery speed makes this card terrible.
Triumphant Surge: Too expensive and too restrictive.
Nothing here.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Settle Beyond Reality - Almost always useful. And the ability to 2-for-1 make this solid. Sorcery drops the trick factor. But this is in the top Blink-style cards.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Coordinated Charge: Cycling on situative effects like this "Overrun" effect is good and can be worth the additional mana over something like Inspired Charge
Gleam of Resistance: Landcycling is a nice flexibility, but the hardcast effect is way better on defense and requires a lot of creatures, to be good.
Knightly Valor/Observant Alseid: +2/+2 is a big threat and vigilance guarantees, that you are not counter attacked, but cc5 is a lot.
Mammoth Umbra – Large stats, high cost. But Umbra ability and Vigilance threaten a board, especially on Hexproof.
Sanctified Charge: The big brother of Inspired Charge. It's only really good if you heavily support a swarm archetype.
Second Thoughts: A nearly sure 2/1 trade, but cc5 is a lot.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Angelic Edict/Iona's Judgment: Exiling a creature without any compromise is ok, but cc5 is too much.
Banishment Decree: Putting a creature just on the top of its owner's library is not directly bad, but it's no lasting solution.
Enduring Victory: Cc5 is way too much for such a restricted removal. Bolster 1 doesn't change that much.
Meditation Puzzle: 8 life at instant speed is a lot, but it's still only life gain and this way card disadvantage. It's rarely going to be more than a Fog.
Resupply: 6 mana for 6 life is simply awful. This card would need to cost about half of the mana only not to be terrible.
Secure the Scene: There aren't a lot of super threatening non-creature permanents that would justify this removal being totally overcosted, sorcery speed and giving your oppoonent something in exchange.
Soaring Hope: Gaining 3 life for cc5 and flying on one creature is no big advantage and definitely not wort cc5. Putting a card on the top of your own library is card disadvantage.
Trostani's Judgment: Simply killing a creature without any compromises isn't bad, but cc6 is simply too much for it and there isn't a lot to populate in most pauper cubes.
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
Nothing here.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Cloudfin Raptor: This guy looks weak, but it nearly always triggers at least twice and often enough it is a 2/3 Flying for cc1 that can still evolve. The only problem is that it's terrible when you draw it from the top with an empty hand.
Faerie Seer - 1cc Flying and a pseudo-Cantrip (Scry 2 ~ Draw 1). It's okay as it is, but it only really shines as an enabler for self bounce effects like Nijutsu.
Wingcrafter: Giving any other creature flying with the only drawback is to have a Flying Men, makes this card really solid.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally most cubes won't include this unless there are specific reasons.
Delver of Secrets: This guy dominates in constructed pauper, but in limited it's way more difficult to guarantee that it really flips because there are a lot fewer instants, sorceries and ways to manipulate the top of your library in the average limited deck.
Drifter il-Dal/Spindrift Drake: A 2/1 evasive beater on turn 1 can do a lot for a race since it's hard to stop them. Most people are just afraid of the constant U you have to pay.
Merfolk Secretkeeper: Only good if you run the mill archetype.
Phantasmal Bear: If you want to go for a highly tempo/aggro focused blue strategy this is actually pretty decent. If your opponent spends a spell to deal with it you are fine with it. The big risk is, if your opponent has activated abilites, like Gideon's Lawkeeper or Fireslinger.
Sage of Epityr: In combination with bounce and shuffle effects, this can be decent.
Sidisi's Faithful: A 0/4 body with an upside seems fine in blue, but the upside to turn your worst creature (mainly itself) into a sorcery speed Unsummon is not a big enough upside to make this better than borderline.
Slither Blade: A strictly better Triton Shorestalker that still has the same problems.
Thriving Turtle: A 1/4 for 1 sounds good, but it has to attack in order to be that size.
Wind Zendikon: A 2/2 Flying for cc1 that can also be played with haste by tapping 2 lands is nice, but you have to take in account that it binds one mana every time it attacks.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Aegis Turtle: A total of 5 stat points for U is definitely huge, but with 0 in power your opponent can still attack freely into it, while e.g. a 1/4 would make so your opponent couldn't attack with X/1s. Also without reach it's not really a good blocker at any stage in the game.
Artificer's Assistant – For artifact based cubes, it can help set up your draws. But it’s still just a 1/1 flier.
Aven Envoy: If Ornithopter is bad, this guy is definitely terrible.
Balduvian Shaman: This guy is way too situative.
Caller of Gales: Giving your creatures flexible flying can be nice, but the price is high and the 1/1 body is pretty dead on the board, especially when it always has to be tapped.
Cathartic Adept/Merrow Witsniper/Screeching Sliver: These creatures aren't even good in a cube that contains a mill theme.
Cloud Pirates/Cloud Sprite/Flying Men/Zephyr Sprite: A 1/1 Flying without any further advantage is just bad.
Dreamcatcher: With enough spirits and arcane spells, this card would be just bad, but actually it's terrible.
Drowner Initiate/Jace's Phantasm: These would only be interesting for a cube with a mill-theme.
Eidolon of Philosophy: The body is horrible and the ability is too expensive, especially because if there is a threat, that you would actually be able to pay for it, your opponent can simply remove it, but between turn 1-6 it's useless.
Faerie Miscreant: Even if you would play multiple copies of it, it would still not be too exciting.
Fledgling Osprey/Manta Riders/Mothdust Changeling/Thought Nibbler: These cards have no advantage against Flying Men, which is already bad.
Fugitive Wizard/Grayscaled Gharial/Imagecrafter/Merfolk of the Pearl Trident/Merfolk Spy/Rootwater Mystic/Teardrop Kami/Tidal Visionary/Triton Shorethief/Wandering Ones/Water Wurm: 1/1 or 1/2 bodies without any useful ability are simply terrible.
Gearsmith Prodigy – For artifact based cubes, it’s a 2/2 for 1CMC. Else it’s unexciting.
Grixis Illusionist/Tideshaper Mystic: Fixing lands without even making mana advantage is really bad.
Hapless Researcher/Sandbar Merfolk: The flexibility to turn them into card draw would be nice if a 1/1 guy wasn't so useless.
Kraken Hatchling: A huge wall for cc1 with the small advantage against Steel Wall of not having defender.
Martyr of Frost: This card is no real advantage against other counters because you still need to keep 2 mana open.
Mist-Cloaked Herald/Triton Shorestalker: A 1/1 unblockable would only be interesting with a really big amount of equipment or auras to put on it.
Proven Combatant/Shore Keeper: The idea of having an early-drop creature that's relevant late-game is nice, but the initial bodies are terrible and the abilities are overcosted.
Reef Shaman/Tidal Warrior: Either turning your opponent's lands into something else or fixing your mana could be nice but not on such weak bodies.
Salvage Drone: A 1/1 without even flying is terrible. At least it lets you loot when it dies.
Shrieking Drake: Bouncing your own creatures is sometimes an advantage, but sometimes it's not and for that case, you'd rather want a more useful body than just 1/1 flyer.
Skywatcher Adept: Levelers aren't bad in limited, but this guy's level up is too mana intensive and a 4/2 Flying still dies to Stormfront Pegasus or Firebolt.
Trickster Mage: Tapping or untapping isn't a big enough advantage to be worth discarding cards.
Vedalken Certarch: In an artifact-based cube, this card would be great.
Errant Ephemeron: There aren't many good finishers for blue. This is one is definitely one of the best.
Looter il-Kor/Merfolk Looter/Thought Courier: Cc2 guys that can grant card quality like nothing else. In limited especially, this is really important, because a lot more lands can come from the top and your deck isn't as well curved as constructed.
Waterfront Bouncer: The 1/1 body doesn't bring much, but you don't want this card in the early stages of the game. You want it when your hand is nearly empty and you only draw lands from the top. This guy turns every useless land into an Unsummon.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Dreamscape Artist: This can turn any card in your hand into Harrow. This is especially interesting for extremely mana intense decks.
Halimar Wavewatch: A 0/6 wall is big and in a control deck you will be really happy to have it in the early game. In the later stages of the game, it can become a huge threat. The only problems are that it's not able to trade with any creature until it's level 5 and it's really annoying when you've just invested all the mana into it and it then eats a hard removal.
Kitesail Corsair/Tattered Haunter/Vaporkin/Welkin Tern: 2 power evasive guys for cc2 are very strong.
Ninja of the Deep Hours: There are a lot of evasive creatures or some with etb-effects that can easily enable or want to get bounced by this guy. If a creature gets through, it's a 2/2 for cc2, that deals 2 damage and draws a card the turn it comes into play. Afterward, it prevents the opponents from attacking you with everything because your opponent wouldn't want to get hit with this creature.
Omenspeaker: A very defensive body with Scry 2, which makes it a solid topdeck later.
Sigiled Starfish: A different version of Omenspeaker. Instead of 1 power, it can give a lasting advantage through scrying, just not immediately the turn it enters the battlefield.
Silver Myr: Ramp is in the color, that really needs it is quite solid.
Spined Thopter: The blue/colorless version of Stormfront Pegasus.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Aether Swooper: 2 power and 3 toughness are okay for 2 mana, but the fact that only 1 power is flying makes it a lot worse.
Aether Theorist: A version of Sigiled Starfish that only works for three turns but has 1 more power.
Augury Owl/Sage Owl/Spire Owl: Card quality attached to a body is nice, but 1/1 flying bodies are simply not good.
Briarberry Cohort/Gossamer Phantasm: 2 power flying beaters that are only interesting if you really want every nearly playable flying creature.
Cephalid Scout/Soldevi Sage: A card draw engine for the late game is nice, but you don't want such a bad body that's really useless at every stage of the game before you use the ability.
Corridor Monitor: 1/4s for cmc2 are decent blockers, but they need a little extra and the untap ability isn't really that.
Elusive Spellfist: For a cube that supports the spells-matter archetype, this is definitely a great card. Though, assuming that the average cube doesn't, this creature isn't better than borderline.
Fogwalker: It is an odd mashing of abilities. It doesn't tap down its target, so it is a "catch-up" card and attacking for only 1 isn't great.
Giant Tortoise: A 1/4 for cc2 seems huge, but with only 1 power it's not able to trade much.
Gust-Skimmer: 2/1 flyers for cc2 are nice, but paying U every time you want to attack with it is a lot.
Illusionary Informant: It's a Seacoast Drake with an upside during the draft.
Keen Glidemaster: Most creatures with this effect usually need to be tapped, while this one can theoretically put any number of creatures into the air, but 3 mana is a lot and there are more efficient alternatives to do so.
Palace Familiar/Surveilling Sprite: Dying without making card disadvantage can be nice, but a 1/1 flying body for cc2 is mainly not exciting enough to make them worth it.
Riptide Turtle: Depending on how high you value flash and if you are willing to play pure defenders without any way to pressure the opponent this might be considerable.
Sage's Row Savant – a 2 drop that smooths out your draws. Useful to trade up.
Seeker of Insight: A bigger body than Merfolk Looter is not worth the restriction of the loot effect.
Shipwreck Looter: A half-way decent body with possible card selection through looting is a fine card.
Soratami Cloudskater: There are some synergies with this card, but it got a high price so you are mainly only able to use its ability in the later stages of the game. The possibility to attack with a 1/1 flying body doesn't bring it on the same level as the Courier/Looters that can start making card quality in turn 3.
Spellweaver Eternal: A better Umara Entangler
Stormscape Familiar: Making about 50% of decks cheaper is nice, but a 1/1 flying body is not that exciting.
Tah-Crop Skirmisher: An okay costed aggressive creature that can even come back. Unfortunately, in general, blue doesn't want aggressive creatures without evasion.
Thrummingbird: This card is unplayable outside of decks that get value from proliferating, but in the right deck it's a bomb.
Wall of Kelp: Only online common! A defender, that can prevent a lot of damage. The biggest disadvantage is the constant UU.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Alchemist's Apprentice: The possibility to sacrifice it and turn it into a card would be interesting if a 1/1 body would have any more use than just one chump block.
Amoeboid Changeling/Bay Falcon/Cephalid Snitch/Darting Merfolk/Giant Albatross/Ingenious Thief/Mistfolk/Oboro Breezecaller/Port Inspector/Screeching Silcaw/Storm Crow/Talas Explorer/Talas Scout/Zephyr Falcon: A useless body with a useless ability.
Aquamoeba/Cunning Survivor: These cards would only be good with enough Madness/discard support.
Arctic Merfolk/Dream Stalker: Being able to bounce your own creatures can be good, but it always slows you down, so you usually want a more exciting body.
Augur of Bolas: Only special decks need this card and for all other, it is just not good enough.
Balduvian Conjurer/Rimewind Taskmage: These would only be interesting in a cube with snow lands.
Blighted Agent: In theory, this card could be a 10 turn clock on its own, but if it becomes handled when there are just up to 9 poison counters, it was useless.
Blinding Drone: There are not enough colorless mana sources in most pauper cubes.
Champion's Drake: There aren't enough levelers to make this card playable.
Cloud of Faeries: No matter if for 0 mana or not, you don't want 1/1 flying creatures.
Cloudskate/Drake Familiar: 2/2 or 2/1 flying guys for cc2 are nice, but not worth such high restrictions.
Coast Watcher/River Merfolk/Sea Sprite: Even as sideboard cards, these aren't good.
Coral Eel/Coral Merfolk/Curio Vendor/Jhessian Lookout/Lumengrid Warden/Maritime Guard/Merfolk Observer/Screeching Skaab/Seagraf Skaab/Straw Soldiers/Sultai Skullkeeper/Sworn Guardian/Talas Merchant/Vodalian Soldiers/Wetland Sambar/Wu Infantry: A 2/1 or 1/3 body without any real advantage is just terrible.
Coralhelm Guide: A 2/1 for 2 is not very good and an overcosted ability doesn't change that.
Crosstown Courier/Doorkeeper/Merfolk Mesmerist/Shriekgeist: These cards could be interesting for a cube with a mill theme.
Dandân/Deeptread Merrow/Hammerhead Shark/Merfolk Raiders: If you play blue, the chance that your opponents do the same is reduced.
Deepwater Hypnotist: The chance that this creature will have the chance to attack without dying senselessly is really low and the effect is simply not strong enough even if you would be able to untap this creature.
Deranged Assistant/Sea Scryer: A Boreal Druid for cc2 is just bad.
Dream Thrush: Fixing your lands or turning your opponent's lands could be interesting, but it's not worth such a bad body.
Escape Artist/Metathran Soldier/Seacoast Drake/Thalakos Seer/Thalakos Sentry/Wu Light Cavalry/Wu Scout: Evasive bodies are good, but 1 damage per attack is not enough.
Etherium Sculptor/Neurok Familiar/Sage of Lat-Nam/Vedalken Engineer: These would only be interesting for an artifact-based cube.
Facet Reader: If you have to constantly pay 1 to loot it really adds up fast and isn't worth it. There are simply way better alternatives.
Faerie Duelist – Interesting effect that can cause a 2-for-1, but it’s hard to set that up and otherwise it’s just a 1/2 flier.
Floating-Dream Zubera/Oculus: Dying without making any card disadvantage seems nice, but the bodies won't do much more than just chump block once.
Floodbringer: Tapping lands is rarely good, especially not for such a high price.
Furtive Homunculus: This creature dies against a lot of 1/x in pauper.
Glimmerbell: While this can block 2/X fliers and chip in for some damage with it's pseudo vigilance, it's not really something you want. Unless you can really make use of the untap ability, it's more of a cosmetic feature.
Halimar Excavator/Information Dealer/Ink Dissolver/Krovikan Mist/Mistform Sliver/Riptide Biologist/Shaper Apprentice/Silvergill Douser/Spellstutter Sprite/Stonybrook Banneret/Vedalken Aethermage/Winged Sliver: There arn't enough creatures of any type to make any of those cards playable.
Hisoka's Guard: Giving shroud at any time seems nice, but the guard itself won't live long.
Jeering Homunculus: This creature has no power and goad is not a good ability in a duel.
Jeskai Sage: 2 positive abilities on a creature for cc2 seem nice, but a 1/1 body is pretty useless on its own and is of no big help on either offense or defense.
Merfolk Traders/Owl Familiar/Vodalian Merchant: The ability is ok, but the body attached to it is just too weak.
Metropolis Sprite: A beater where you always have to invest U to make it ok is not worth it.
Minamo Scrollkeeper: This card would even be bad without defender.
Mist Intruder: Ingest is not a viable archetype in pauper and a 1/2 flyer for 2 isn't very good.
Murmuring Phantasm: A really bad wall.
Passwall Adept – Interesting effect, but it costs a lot and really only shines with another good creature.
Phantasmal Mount: The risk is too high and the ability not good enough.
Phantom Whelp/Wormfang Newt: The synergies for these cards are very rare.
Plated Seastrider: There are creatures with the same stats, which don't require UU.
Relic Runner – can get in some damage in artifact cubes, else don’t bother.
Research Assistant: It's an ok early blocker, but the looting ability is so terribly overcosted that it's not worth it.
Ringskipper: With its weak body it wouldn't be able to do much more than just chump block a few times.
School of Piranha: The body is big, but the constant costs are not worth it.
Sneaky Homunculus/Hazy Homunculus: The worse versions of Metathran Soldier
Spiketail Hatchling: The ability isn't bad, but the body won't do much.
Stitcher's Apprentice: Turning every other creature you have into 2/2s is mainly not what you want.
Stonybrook Angler: The ability isn't bad, but it's overcosted.
Tempest Owl: Flexibility is nice, but not if it's this overcosted.
Towering-Wave Mystic: You either want to mill or deal damage. Cards that combine booth are usually bad.
Umara Entangler: A 2/1 for 2 isn't good and Prowess is only pseudo-evasion.
Vedalken Mesmerist: If the effect would hold until your next turn, this would be interesting.
Voidmage Apprentice: If there would be enough self-bounce possibilities, this card could be interesting, but it would still be overcosted.
Whirlpool Rider: The ability is very situative and the body is terrible.
Wishful Merfolk: This creature is bad at blocking as well as attacking.
Man-o'-War: A great tempo advantage with a 2/2 body for just cc3 is insane.
Calcite Snapper: A great wall for control decks, that is very hard to handle and can attack for a lot of damage as well.
Cloudkin Seer – An evasive 2 power flier is already worth playing. But one that draws you a card is rare treat.
Thalakos Scout: A nearly indestructible 2 power shadow creature that can trade useless cards in hand for removal.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Aerial Guide: A strictly better Trained Condor
Aether Adept: UU on turn 3 can be difficult, but this card is still not that much worse than Man-o'-War.
Eldrazi Skyspawner/Aven Eternal: A blue better version of Sandsteppe Outcast.
Fathom Seer: Gush on a stick is fine, but not super impressive, since bouncing 2 islands can be a big drawback.
Frost Lynx/Watertrap Weaver: A solid tempo creature, even though tapping a creature down until after your next turn is usually worse than bouncing.
Hinterland Drake: The downside is rarely relevant and the body is very well costed.
Ingenious Skaab: Swiss-army body in a color that does not get these. Prowess actually feeds the 'Flowstone' ability, and the starting stats are just fine.
Neurok Invisimancer: Unblockable is the best evasion of all and with 2 power and an etb-effect, this card can be really interesting.
Oko's Accomplices: A flying vanilla, but still solid cost/stat ratio.
Pestermite: A 2 power flying beater for cc3 with flash and a super good and flexible ability.
Sea Gate Oracle: Card advantage and card quality combined with a body are great. The only problem is that a 1/3 isn't worth much.
Shaper Parasite: A blue spot removal attached to a body is great, but 6 mana is a lot.
Spiketail Drakeling: A 2/2 flying creature that can beat down and slow down your opponent a lot. Except for the flash creatures, it's the only creature that can be played on turn 3 in a deck that wants to have mana open for counters.
Stitched Drake: A 3/4 Flying for cc3 is awesome and the restriction is minimal.
Stitched Mangler: Most of the time, this card is slightly better than Frost Lynx.
Stormbound Geist: A 2/2 flying creature for cc3 doesn't seem very impressive on first look, but the fact that it's nearly impossible to handle it without just making it a 3/3 is great.
Tandem Lookout: The creature of your choice gets additional value, possibly multiple times, giving you card advantage.
Trained Condor: 2 power and evasion for cc3 is already solid, but this guy has Wingcrafter included and that makes it great.
Wormfang Drake: The other 3/4 flying for cc3 that needs creatures. The ability can be an advantage if something like Sea Gate Oracle is exiled, but sometimes there is just nothing you want to exile with it.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Ancient Crab: It blocks almost everything without dying, but it's still not very exciting over all.
Archaeomender: There usually aren't enough artifacts to make this worth it, apart from the fact, that the ones who are there don't go the graveyard on their own.
Cloud Elemental/Scrapskin Drake: A 2/3 flying for cc3 is often better than a 3/1 flying, but if the more defensive body isn't able to block anything, it's worse.
Cloud Spirit/Rishadan Airship/Skywinder Drake: 3 power and evasion for cc3 is great and the disadvantage that it can't block that well isn't that important because they are very aggressive anyway. The biggest disadvantage is that they are killed very easy and that blue is not always a very aggressive color.
Coral Barrier: A solid blocker that wouldn't be overpowered without defender, an unnecessary drawback.
Coral Trickster: The effect is nice and the body would be ok for cc2, but with the cc3 of morph, this card is a little bit overcosted and can't be counted for cc2.
Dewdrop Spy: Flash is nice, but a 2/2 body isn't that exciting and the other ability is really useless.
Dimir Informant – Not a bad roadblock for the early game. Can feed Graveyard-matters, or just smooth draws and block
Drift of Phantasms: A very big wall, that can flexible search for some things.
Glacial Wall: BIG WALL. Easy on the mana, and it can take a beating. It is overcosted by 1cc.
Headless Skaab: 3/6 for cc3 is great, but it's too hard for blue decks to play it on turn 3 and in the late game it's still good but not too impressive and the 1 turn where it can't block can be a problem.
Jeskai Windscout/Niblis of Dusk: Prowess is not a very strong ability and a Wind Drake with only 1 toughness on its own is not very strong.
Jhessian Thief: The body isn't the best, but the threat alone that prowess presents can be nice evasion at times and it is a fine threat in tempo or spells-matter decks.
Mistral Singer: The body is not decent enough on it's own, so that prowess isn't mandatory. It's still not the best mechanic though, especially not in blue, where you rarely want to cast your noncreature spells before or mid combat.
Naiad of Hidden Coves: This reads way better than it actually is. Mana instants are UU or so cheap that a cost reduction doesn't really help you at all and getting a lousy 2/3 Vanilla apart from that doesn't make this good.
Phantom Ninja/Phantom Warrior – Fine, but needs help to be a real threat
Prodigal Sorcerer/Rootwater Hunter/Thornwind Faeries/Zuran Spellcaster: 3 mana is too much for the stats/ability.
Queen of Ice: It's nice that you can curve the effects into one another, but Frost Lynx/Stitched Mangler outclass this.
Sailor of Means: An okay roadblock in the early game that can help double spell later or accelerate to an expensive spell.
Scroll Thief/Ophidian: A 1/3 can easily be blocked by everything with just X/2 and therefore won't get through often. These are the worse version of Stealer of Secrets.
Skittering Crustacean: The body is mediocre and the ability expensive, but after activation, this is a much bigger Benthic Giant.
Skywing Aven: The worse version of Thalakos Scout.
Soratami Rainshaper: The ability of this creature in addition to its acceptable body is good, but it needs a lot of mana ready.
Stealer of Secrets/Nine-Tail White Fox: A 2/2 body that can make multiple card advantage. It's not Ninja of the Deep Hours, but still a great card.
Thieving Otter: A slightly better Stealer of Secrets as it can also work with non-combat damage.
Tome Raider: A flying Elvish Visionary. Not too bad, but not too exciting either.
Trespassing Souleater: A 2/2 with a really solid evasion, but always investing mana in it can be problematic.
Vexing Gull: If you are highly into flash, this isn't too bad, but not too exciting either.
War-Wing Siren: This card would only be interesting with a big amount of support for heroic.
Warden of Evos Isle: Wind Drake that makes other fliers cheaper. If you support UW Fliers this can be Cubeable.
Wizard Replica: The worse version of Spiketail Drakeling.
Write into Being: This may look complex, but is actually a just 2/2 for cc3 that can scry away up to 2 cards and has a solid chance of hiding a creature.
Zephyr Scribe: There are many looters in blue with different upsides, but depending on the fact, that you mainly activate looters during your opponents turn, the upside of this ones is not overly exciting.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Aeronaut Tinkerer/Neurok Prodigy/Neurok Spy/Trinket Mage: These cards would maybe be interesting for an artifact-based cube.
Apprentice Wizard: A kind of Fyndhorn Elder isn't good.
Armored Skaab/Bouncing Beebles/Coastal Drake/Devouring Deep/Enclave Elite/Horseshoe Crab/Kami of Twisted Reflection/Knight of the Mists/Manta Ray/Merfolk Thaumaturgist/Mirran Spy/Mistform Dreamer/Mistform Wall/Moonbow Illusionist/Paperfin Rascal/Prismwake Merrow/Raven Guild Initiate/Reef Pirates/Rishadan Cutpurse/River Darter/Rootwater Commando/Saprazzan Raider/Selhoff Occultist/Shadow Sliver/Shoreline Raider/Steam Frigate/Streambed Aquitects/Telepathic Spies/Terraformer/Umara Raptor/Venerated Teacher/Wandering Eye/Wizard Mentor/Wu Warship: The abilities of these cards are just way too situative.
Aviation Pioneer – A blue token maker, but there are better options of Eldrazi Skyspawner and Aven Eternal.
Azimaet Drake/Callous Deceiver/Drake Hatchling/Ribbon Snake: A 2/3 flying for cc3 is not worth any disadvantage.
Balloon Peddler: Flying is not worth discarding cards.
Benthic Infiltrator/Cephalid Pathmage: Unblockable is nice, but not with just 1 power.
Blind Phantasm/Homarid/Horned Turtle/Jwari Scuttler/River Kaijin/Whiptongue Frog/Scornful Egotist: A terrible body.
Brackwater Elemental/Fog Elemental: Very aggressive cards, where blue isn't interested in mainly.
Cephalid Looter/Frontline Sage/Reckless Scholar: The worse versions of the cc2 Looters.
Crafty Pathmage: The synergies with ninjitsu or Stealer of Secrets-like creatures is great, but apart from that this card is mainly useless.
Cultivator Drone: There are not enough colorless cards in pauper cube.
Disruptive Pitmage/Disruptive Student: Neither the ability nor the body is worth the high cost.
Dream Fighter: A really bad kind of walking removal.
Dream Thief: This card could be great, but it's simply too hard to guarantee the second blue spell.
Echo Tracer: An overcosted version of Man-o'-War.
Elite Instructor: The effect is way too weak to be worth a lousy 2/2 for 3.
Exultant Cultist: Grey Ogre sacrifice fodder
Frost Raptor: Even for a cube with snow-covered lands, this card isn't that interesting.
Galvanic Alchemist: The 1/4 body is bad and the ability is very situative.
Hekma Sentinels: This card wasn't even exceptionally good in its own draft environment and lacks support in most pauper cubes.
Hydromorph Guardian: The body won't do much.
Illusionary Servant: A 3/4 flying for cc3 seems nice, but this card dies to too many things.
Kathari Screecher: A 2/2 Flying for cc3 is too unexciting without any very good ability.
Library Larcenist: This can theoretically always go in for a suicide attack to replace itself, compared to Stealer of Secrets, but with only 1 power nearly every attack is a suicide attack.
Merchant of Secrets: A 1/1 body is useless.
Merfolk Seer: The 2/2 body isn't exciting enough and keeping 2 mana available for it is not worth it.
Mistblade Shinobi: The ability is nice, but the 1/1 body won't do anything apart from the first bounce.
Mnemonic Sliver: Only online common! This card is only considerable if you are heavily supporting the sliver tribal.
Monastery Flock: Morph is not that good on this creature, because it can't trade with a creature after it's flipped and the 0/5 flying defender body is outclassed.
Mystic Skyfish: The restriction is way too high to constantly trigger, unless you have an active Looter in the battlefield, but it's simply not worth it, considering all the times, where this will simply be a 3/1.
Neurok Replica: A solid blocker that can be turned into bounce at any time. It would be better with a more interesting body.
Parapet Watchers: This card could be a huge wall, but it's not worth keeping up the mana for it.
Phase Dolphin: The ability to get something through seems nice, but the Dolphin itself can't attack well. It can simply get blocked by 2 2/2s. The defensive body doesn't really want to attack, because in that case you can't use to to block. There are better alternatives, like Aerial Guide, which can constantly attack itself.
Sage's Row Denizen/Seer of the Last Tomorrow: These cards would only be interesting for a cube with a mill theme.
Sarcomite Myr: The flexibility to sacrifice it when it's not needed anymore is nice, but the constant 2 to give it flying is too much.
Scholar of Stars – In an artifact based cube, this is a solid blue body that draws you a card. Else it’s over costed.
Scribe of the Mindful: The card has a weak body, is slow and almost card disadvantage.
Siren Lookout: Only one outcome is decent and the inability to chose the ideal mode can be annoying.
Soaring Show-Off – Giving your opponent a card is not worth it
Spellkeeper Weird – Having to pay more many is not worth it.
Survivor of the Unseen: The ability is nice, but the card is not worth the cumulative upkeep.
Teferi's Drake/Tolarian Drake: Phasing is too big of a disadvantage.
Teferi's Protege: A 2/3 body doesn't do too much and 2 mana is definitely too much for the loot effect.
Thalakos Mistfolk: If you want to save this card, you have to take card disadvantage for it.
Updraft Elemental: A very defensive flying body that's not very exciting with only 1 power.
Vedalken Blademaster: A 2/3 with an upside for 3 is okay, but prowess is outclassed by other keywords.
Vigean Graftmage: Even in a deck that supports +1/+1 counters, this is a very unimpressive card.
Vodalian Mage: The worse version of Disruptive Student.
Watchful Automaton: The ability is overcosted and the body unexciting.
Watercourser: A flexible but overcosted body.
Wavecrash Triton: The body and ability would be ok, but Heroic is very restrictive.
Weatherseed Faeries: This card would only be interesting as a sideboard card.
Wind Drake: This is outclassed by way too many strictly better versions of it.
Wu Longbowman: The worse version of Prodigal Sorcerer.
Illusionary Forces: A great finisher for blue. 4/4 Flying is just huge and the cumulative upkeep is rarely a big problem, especially if you can bounce it.
Mist Raven: The flying version of Aether Adept.
Shimmering Glasskite: Another one of the few good blue finishers. The body is hard to handle and it's nearly indestructible against removal.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Archaeomancer: The etb-effect is really strong, but a 1/2 body isn't very useful for anything else than chump blocking and UU on turn 4 can be problematic. A really problematic card.
Aven Fleetwing: Even if Hexproof is better than the effect of the Glasskite, a 2/2 body can still easily be blocked to death by a Stormfront Pegasus or something similar.
Aven Reedstalker/Nephalia Seakite/Sentinels of Glen Elendra: One of the types of flash fliers in this mana slot. 2 isn't such a big threat as 3 power, but the 3 toughness prevents it from being handled too easily.
Cloaked Siren: Different than Nephalia Seakite/Sentinels of Glen Elendra, this creature can't be used to kill 2/2s during combat, but is way better to be played end of turn and offer a winning option with 3 power in the air. In addition, it can trade for X/3s during combat.
Crookclaw Transmuter: Flash can be really important for blue, so it can keep mana for counters. A 3/1 flying body is good, but the etb-effects is very situative and it dies to everything that wants to kill it.
Elgaud Shieldmate: Hexproof is really really strong and this creature can give it to any other creature. The only problem is that a 2/3 Hexproof on the ground isn't exciting and this way it's mainly a walking aura.
Ghost Ship: A really solid flying body with possible Regeneration.
Makeshift Mauler: Even a 4/4 for cc4 is seldom, but a 4/5 is even better. The only disadvantages are the anti-synergy with Stitched Drake and that it doesn't have flying like most of the other beaters blue got.
Phantom Monster: A 3/3 flying for cc4 is extremely solid and surprisingly unique.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Amphin Pathmage: A strong ability that could possibly end games, but the body is bad and the ability is quite expensive.
Aven Initiate: 3 power in the air is a good finisher and this can come back later in the game when you're flooding.
Azure Drake: It's a solid flying body, but it's worse than Ghost Ship.
Breaching Hippocamp: A blue combat trick in creature form. A 3/2 body is good to trade, but it's really fragile.
Breezekeeper/Windrider Eel: A 4/4 Flying body for cc4 is great, but phasing or only on landfall is a big disadvantage.
Drownyard Explorers: The body is unexciting, but at least it doesn't produce card disadvantage.
Fencer Clique/Wayward Soul: A 3/2 Flying body for cc4 is ok, especially with a positive ability, but the ability to save it is still card disadvantage.
Headwater Sentries: With its high toughness and decent power, it can act as a solid roadblock for stopping attackers.
Impaler Shrike: Drawing 3 cards for cc4 would be great and dealing 3 damage before is even better, but a 3/1 is really easy to handle, even with flying, so this card will mainly not come through and waste 4 mana.
Incubator Drone: Either a 3/4 in two bodies for 4 or a 2/3 for 3. Not bad, but not very exciting either.
Keymaster Rogue/Storm Sculptor: A 3/2 unblockable for cc4 is good. This card just depends on how many creatures want to be bounced.
Labyrinth Minotaur: A big wall without defender, that has a great ability for blocking. The only disadvantages are that a 1/4 isn't very impressive and cc4 is often too late in the game for it.
Lotus Path Djinn: A 2/3 flying for cc4 with an upside is ok, but prowess is outclassed by too many better keywords and mechanics for this card to be more than borderline.
Marchesa's Emissary: Hexproof is nice but blue is not the most aggressive color to trigger dethrone.
Moonblade Shinobi - The ability is cool. Repeating it takes some doing, but if you can get the extra value it will prove troublesome. Works better with auras or equipment to push it through. The ability cost, and the body size do not yield enough initially to make it an auto-include. Works great for recurring EtB bodies though
Naga Oracle: Usually a worse Omenspeaker but with a bigger body and it works with graveyard synergies.
Ojutai Interceptor: This is not a very exciting morph, but it curves itself out nicely and a 4/2 flying is a pretty big threat.
Phantasmal Forces: Only online common! A 4/1 Flying with a nearly redundant restriction. This card is a 5 turn clock on its own if it's not handled, but the problem is that 1 toughness is handled very easily.
Saltwater Stalwart – Great effect, but typically needs some help to consistently hit an opponent. The extra toughness, and the damage not needing combat means its survival is a bit better than Stealer of Secrets
Separatist Voidmage: Even though it's strictly worse than Man-o'-War it's still a fine card, for affecting the board on both sides.
Shell Skulkin: A really interesting ability but 3/2 bodies are fragile.
Stinging Barrier: A wall with a nice ability. The only problem is that a 0/4 without reach can't block that much.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Advanced Hoverguard: Simply the worse version of Aven Fleetwing.
Amphin Cutthroat/Fortress Crab/Giant Octopus: A terrible body for the cost.
Aquamorph Entity/Primal Plasma: Flexibility is nice, but none of its possibilities is really interesting.
Ascending Aven: This card is very weak for its cost and the reduced morph costs change nothing about it.
Aspiring Aeronaut: Getting two bodies with abilities in one card can be a good thing, but this one is either overcosted or underpowered.
Aven Augur: The restriction for the ability is too high.
Aven Fisher/Kingfisher/Runewing: A 2/2 flying isn't very strong and the ability is only an advantage when it dies. Mainly it's better to play a stronger creature directly without an advantage of dying.
Aven Fogbringer/Benthic Explorers/Dreamwinder/Enigma Eidolon/Gulf Squid/Keeneye Aven/Kinscaer Harpoonist/Kukemssa Serpent/Mistform Seaswift/Oraxid/Pendrell Drake/Tolarian Sentinel/Vodalian Serpent/Wilderness Hypnotist: The abilities of these cards are way to situative.
Blockade Runner: A 2/2 unblockable isn't really exciting for cc4.
Cephalid Sage: Vanilla fodder without Threshold. With, it has a boosted 'Looter' ability. It will complement an already present archetype, but it does not encourage it on its own and often the ability triggers too late in the game to really matter.
Chorus of the Tides: Heroic is an extremely weak ability and the 3/2 flying body on its own is outclassed by too many creatures with better abilities.
Clinging Anemones: This wall could become huge, but it comes way too late.
Cloud Manta/Moon Heron/Snapping Drake/Talas Air Ship: The worse versions of Fencer Clique/Wayward Soul.
Cobalt Golem: A 2/3 body for cc4 is not worth the investment of 1U just to give flying to it.
Crystacean: Flash can be strong, especially combined with a more defensive body, which can eat a creature for "free" and stay around after that, but with only 1 power this will rarely find a spot to "ambush" your opponent.
Deadeye Rig-Hauler/Murk Strider: The additional power over Man'o'war isn't worth the additional mana and big restrictions these cards have.
Descendant of Soramaro: The ability isn't very good this late and the body isn't interesting.
Dream Prowler: Unblockable is nice, but 1 power is nothing.
Dukhara Peafowl: A 2/4 flyer is nice, but it's overcosted and you have to pay one mana to get it into the air.
Enlightened Maniac: It is a fair price for 3/4 split over 2 bodies. The token being the bigger body makes things dicey-er.
Faerie Mechanist/Lumengrid Drake/Weldfast Wingsmith: These creatures would only be good for an artifact-based cube.
Gravity Negator: There are not enough colorless mana sources in most pauper cubes.
Gurmag Drowner: Turning your worst creature into a Forbidden Alchemy seems like a cool thing, but a 2/4 for cc4 is not really exciting and so it will mainly be better simply to play Forbidden Alchemy instead of a situational bad creature.
Homarid Explorer – A Hill Giant that helps fill the graveyard (or theoretical mill) based themes, but still not great.
Laboratory Brute: Self-mill Hill Giant. In blue that is actually a fine body.
Latchkey Faerie/Mesmeric Sliver: There are no playable tribes for cubes.
Mercurial Kite: The ability seems nice, but a 2/2 body will likely have to die to deal combat damage to anything.
Merrow Levitator: There are better ways to give your creatures flying.
Mistford River Turtle: The stats are bad and you don't really want to attack with your blocker.
Monastery Loremaster: You never want to hardcast this creature, so it's pretty much a 4/3 Archaeomancer for a total of 9 mana. This is definitely too expensive, split over multiple turns or not.
Nimble Innovator: It's a blue, bigger Elvish Visionary, but it's overcosted by one mana.
Nivix Barrier: Even though creatures with 2 relevant abilities are often good, in exchange for at least one ability the body of this is very bad.
[card]Nyxborn Seaguard/card]: 2/5s for 4 aren't horrible, but they need some additional upside.
Opal Lake Gatekeepers: Cards like this don't work in most cubes.
Outrider of Jhess: Exalted is not worth such a bad body.
Phantom Beast: The worse version of Makeshift Mauler.
Sage Aven: The etb-effect is nice, but a 1/3 flying body isn't interesting.
Saprazzan Outrigger: This card makes card disadvantage way too often.
Screeching Drake: The ability isn't bad, but it's not worth such a weak body for the cost.
Serum Raker: It's the same disadvantage for both players.
Shipwreck Moray: 0 power and only able to pump it four times in the entire game isn't good.
Skitter Eel – A Hill Giant that can get bigger at instant speed. But 7 mana for a 5/5 is a lot, even in blue.
Silent Observer: It blocks everything, but just 1 power isn't good.
Soratami Mirror-Guard: An okay body with an ability that's just a little bit too weak.
Spire Winder: The initial body isn't exciting and it can take a while to turn on Ascend.
Stormwatch Eagle: With a more exciting body, the saving ability would be interesting.
Thunder Drake – Takes too much to outclass even other 4cmc bodies
Tome Anima: Unblockable is strong, but the restriction is way too hard to trigger constantly.
Unblinking Bleb: There aren't enough playable morph creatures.
Vantress Paladin: There already are 3/3 fliers for cmc 4 without a downside.
Vedalken Entrancer: Very interesting for a cube with a mill theme.
Veiling Oddity: The ability of this card isn't bad, but it comes very late and is hard to control.
Wall of Vapor: Not a bad wall, but without reach and easily handled by any removal.
Wu Elite Cavalry: Even if Horsemanship is a great evasion, 2 power isn't enough.
Mulldrifter: A 2/2 flying body along with drawing 2 cards is just insane. This is one of the best cards in pauper.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Aven Surveyor: Even if this card is a little bit outclassed by Mist Raven, it's still a solid card with the upside of a, rarely better second option.
Chillbringer – 3/3 flying Frost Lynx effect is a powerful tempo play. Can hold back two attackers for a bit, or provide an opening to attack.
Cloudreader Sphinx – 3/4 flier that also Scrys 2 when EtB, which is almost a card at this stage of the game.
Faerie Invaders/Spire Monitor/Stormrider Spirit/Wind Strider: Flash combined with an acceptable body can be important for control decks.
Gryff Vanguard: A 3/2 flying can beat down, but is easily handled. This creature makes card disadvantage of it for the opponent.
Mnemonic Wall: A solid wall and a nice etb-effect. The only problem is that it comes very late.
Ojutai's Summons: 4 flying power and toughness for cc5 is good for pauper. Sadly, both bodies don't come at the same time. On the other hand, this is a sorcery that can be reused with any of the Archaeomancer-like cards.
Peregrine Drake: Even with the less than equal stats compared to other 3/X fliers for 5cc, the fact that this is "free" makes it unique. The only real cost is the card and the time it takes to get to 5 mana.
Roaming Ghostlight: 3 power in the air plus a bounce effect is a decent deal for cmc 5.
Shimmerscale Drake: A nice finisher with the ability to cycle it away if you can't cast it.
Watcher in the Mist – 3/4 flier that Surveils 2 when EtB, which is also interesting letting you get rid of unwanted cards to the yard.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Boreal Elemental – A 3/4 flier that’s harder to kill, but nothing else, no EtB effects
Chasm Drake: The body isn't really exciting, but the ability makes it at least borderline.
Covert Operative/Drelnoch: 3 Power and evasion (pseudo evasion) is Ok, but not really good for cc5.
Dreamtail Heron: A 3/4 flier for 5 is decent, but you will never mutate it, if you cast it for 5. Upgrading a 1/1 into a 3/4 flier for 4 and drawing a card seems great, but blue doesn't actually have too many non-human 1/1s lying around and so this is mostly a way smaller upgrade. Most blue hexproof creatures are already big, so making them 3/4 would be a downgrade. Even though mutate can't fizzle and you will still get a 3/4 for 4 if your opponent kills the target in response you won't get to draw a card. The real worst case for this card though is, that you often won't have a great target for it, so your opponent will let it resolve, let you draw a card and then kill 2 creatures with 1 removal, which isn't a great trade.
Gearsmith Guardian: A 5/5 for 5 is okay, but it has a small requirement and can be disenchanted.
Giant Crab: Shroud is great on a body, but a 3/3 isn't that big and it has no evasion.
Glacial Stalker: A very big body that can kill a lot of creatures surprisingly, but it's also very expensive, no matter how you play it.
Jwar Isle Avenger: With Surge, this card is awesome, but without it, it's overcosted.
Killer Whale (Only online common!): U each turn can be annoying, but a 3/5 flying bodies is solid.
Leyline Phantom: A possible finisher that just needs a lot of mana.
Messenger Drake/Sky-Eel School: The third toughness can be important, but mainly they are just the worse versions of Gryff Vanguard.
Mystic of the Hidden Way: A 3/2 unblockable is a fine body to finish the opponent, and Morph is never a drawback, but also not really strong on this creature.
Pondering Mage - Lots of stiff competition at 5cc in Blue, and most of its competitors have flying. But being able to ponder, and draw a card is powerful. It can also be blinked for great value.
Prescient Chimera: A 3/4 flying body for cc5 is extremely solid and the ability can be absolutely great. Outclassed by the EtB Scry/Surveil though
Ringwarden Owl: Prowess is not a very good ability because it wants you to play your noncreature spells before combat. The upside that prowess can be used as pseudo-evasion is only relevant when the body is good enough without the pump, which this isn't.
Scrivener/ Salvager of Secrets: Only a part of the interesting noncreature spells you want to revive are Instants. Salvager is more open, but harder mana.
Soul of the Rapids: The body is small, but it's a great carrier of equipment and aura if you support it. It can be nice if you support the hexproof archetype.
Sphinx's Disciple: The effect is really nice, but the body is too weak and really easy to get rid of. This card is simply overcosted/underpowered.
Witness of Tomorrows: 3/4 fliers for 5 are decent and having an additional mana sink attached to it is nice, but there are better alternatives and keep in mind, that this can be disenchanted.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Ancient Carp/Armored Cancrix: A terrible body for the cost.
Aven Windreader/Frostwind Invoker/Shinen of Flight's Wings/Teller of Tales/Vigilant Drake: The abilities of this cards are rarely useful.
Bubbling Beebles/Cephalid Aristocrat/Floodtide Serpent/Helium Squirter/Inkfathom Divers/Red Cliffs Armada/Sea Snidd/Serpent of the Endless Sea/Shyft/Wanderguard Sentry/Whimwader: The abilities of this creatures are way too situative.
Coastal Hornclaw/Merrow Wavebreakers: A 3/3 flying for cc5 isn't great to begin with, but with a restriction it's terrible.
Crystal Seer: The ability is nice but way too expensive.
Dark Maze: A 4/5 without defender wouldn't even be very interesting.
Dispersal Technician/Spire Serpent: These cards would only be good in an artifact-based cube.
Faerie Squadron: A 3/3 Flying for cc5. It's simply outclassed by too many better alternatives.
Glintwing Invoker: The ability of this card is just terribly overcosted.
Hightide Hermit: A 4/4 defender for five isn't very good, even if it can attack twice.
Homarid Warrior: The worse version of Giant Crab.
Hunting Drake: This card would only be interesting for sideboards.
Illusionary Wall: This wall is huge but comes too late.
Infiltrator il-Kor/Viscerid Deepwalker: These cards aren't interesting for either their suspend or normal costs.
Lamplighter of Selhoff/Quillmane Baku/Synchronous Sliver: These would only be interesting if there were enough tribal support.
Messenger Jays: This creature is just terribly overcosted in a duel.
Nimbus of the Isles: It's even worse than Faerie Squadron.
Oracle of Dust: There aren't enough exiling cards in pauper to feed the processors and the body isn't very big for the mana cost.
Prosperous Pirates: The body isn't great for 5 mana and by the time you can cast it you won't usually need much more mana if any.
Rotcrown Ghoul: This card could maybe be interesting for cubes with a mill theme.
Sandbar Crocodile: The body is huge but phasing is a big disadvantage.
Screaming Seahawk: The ability is useless, as long as you don't play playsets.
Sky Ruin Drake: A huge defensive body that can block a lot but it comes very late and doesn't have much impact.
Soliton: A 3/4 Vigilance for cc5 is simply not enough.
Steelgaze Griffin: For this creature to be good you would need to trigger it every turn. That is just too unreliable and there are a lot of 3/4s with actual upsides which have more power on average.
Surrakar Banisher: The restriction for the bounce is too high.
Thassa's Devourer: Constellation would only be interesting for an enchantment-heavy cube.
Tidewater Minion: A flexible and big defender that simply comes too late.
Triton Waverider: Your cube basically needs to be mono enchantments for this to be good.
Voidwielder: The body isn't good enough, even with such a nice ability.
Whirlwind Adept: Hexproof is a strong ability, but prowess isn't and a 4/2 body can be blocked to death so that hexproof is not such a big advantage.
Nothing here.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Benthic Giant: This guy is a great target for auras and even on its own it's a big threat.
River Serpent: This doesn't look that good, but Cycling for 1 is such a low opportunity cost and once you have met the conditions a 5/5 for 6 isn't actually that bad.
Shoreline Ranger: A 3/4 flying is good at every stage of the game. It's overcosted, but the flexibility to turn it into a land makes it good.
Spined Megalodon: Another in the line of big blue hexproof finishers. This one definitely has decent stats and the little icing on top with the Scry ability, while an additional mana over the 4/5s for 6 can be back breaking.
Striped Riverwinder: The bigger and more flexible version of Benthic Giant
Windcaller Aven: Cycling for 1 is very strong and having an additional effect attached to that is nice to have.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Æthersnipe: Flexibility is nice, but without instant speed you will rarely want to Evoke this.
Bastion Inventor: The smaller brother of Benthic Giant. It becomes better though, once you have at least 1 artifact.
Canal Courier: Being the monarch is nice, but the body is overcosted and the second ability is useless in a duel.
Gearseeker Serpent: This can be a finisher for a control deck and be unblockable. It's great in an artifact-heavy cube, but it's overcosted without artifacts and the ability is expensive.
Maze Glider: A 3/5 flying body is huge, but this card is overcosted by 1.
Moonlit Scavengers: This is only interesting if you have a deep artifact/enchantment theme.
Rise of Eagles: Ok, but really bad compared to Talrand's Invocation.
Riverwheel Aerialists: It has a solid-enough and evasive body to be a fine finisher option.
Spire Golem: You can count on having about 2 islands when you have 4 lands in a normal 2 colored deck. A 2/4 flying for about cc4 isn't bad, but unexciting.
Wave-Wing Elemental: A 3/4 flyer for 6 is bad, but 5/6 sounds better.
Wingfold Pteron: Flexibility is nice, but you usually put a creature into your deck for a specific purpose and if you want this to be your hexproof creature, there are similar, but slightly better options and if you simply want a big flier, there are way better alternatives.
Wretched Gryff: In any deck what can splash U, this transforms useless bodies into flying finishers. And it replaces itself upon casting!
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Brine Giant: Your cube basically needs to be mono enchantments for this to be good.
Chained Throatseeker: Infect doesn't work in pauper cubes.
Deep-Sea Terror/Silburlind Snapper: A 6/6 Vanilla with cc6 is good but it isn't worth such high restrictions.
Dirgur Nemesis: This card would need to lose defender to be considerable.
Floodchaser/Giant Shark/Godhunter Octopus/Harbor Serpent/Ronom Serpent/Sea Monster/Sea Serpent/Shoal Serpent/Slipstream Eel/Slipstream Serpent/Steelclad Serpent: The restrictions for these creatures are too high.
Havengul Skaab: The ability is too situative.
Isperia's Skywatch: This card is overcosted.
Somber Hoverguard/Quicksilver Behemoth/Scrapdiver Serpent: These creatures would only be interesting for artifact-based cubes.
Vedalken Dismisser: The ability is nice but it comes late and the body is nearly useless.
Zephyr Spirit: A very bad and overcosted wall.
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
Flood: This card doesn't just buy a lot of time by preventing creatures from attacking, it also prevents creatures from blocking the following turn and do so as often as you like.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Force Spike: The only effective counter for cc1 that can bring a curve to control decks.
Gitaxian Probe: Mainly an empty slot in your library, to thin out your library without card disadvantage and for 0 if needed. The problem is that it makes mulligan decision harder.
Ponder/Preordain: A solid amount of card quality for just cc1 without card disadvantage.
Witching Well: In your opening hand this can improve your next draws and once you need it you have an Inspiration.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Aerial Formation: A mediocre combat trick that is mainly meant to be a finisher in the late game.
Aether Spellbomb: This is an Unsummon when needed that you can also turn in for a card instead. Flexible but not exciting.
Aqueous Form: Unblockable is a great evasion and Scry 1 is Ok, but as long as the creature isn't protected, there still is a high chance to trade bad.
Arcane Flight – Giving something flying and +1/+1 is good for 1CMC, but at the cost of a card and leaves you open to 2 for 1s
Brainstorm/Portent/Sleight of Hand/Serum Visions/Opt: The worse alternatives of Ponder/Preordain.
Clutch of Currents: An Unsummon in one mode, but a quite useful spell with the other.
Curfew: It can protect your creatures from removal, retrigger etb-effects and bounce a creature from the opponent as well. The only problem is that it's still a little bit situational and a tempo disadvantage for you. If you don't trade a removal with it, it's card disadvantage.
Diminish: An acceptable blue combat trick. It just depends if blue really wants combat tricks.
Dive Down/Intervene/Turn Aside/Mizzium Skin: Most cards in limited are creatures or removal. Being able to counter up to 50% of the spells in a deck for just cc1 can be really nice.
Maximize Altitude – Getting the bonus and evasion are not always worth it, but Jump-Start gives the oppurtunity for repeated use. Cheap, effective, repeatable.
Piracy Charm: Blue spot removal spells are great, but just -1 toughness isn't much. Flexibility would solve that problem, but the discard will mainly hit a land.
Rookie Mistake: A one mana trick with the potential for a 2 for 1 trade is very rare and even though blue doesn't really need combat tricks and this one is very situative, in the best case scenario, this can be game winning.
Rush of Ice: There are many cards with this effect, but not for 1 mana and not with the ability to attach a creature to it.
Sigil of Sleep: On an evasive beater that isn't handled quickly, this is insane, but when it's handled it's card disadvantage.
Slip Through Space: Getting a free attack as a cantrip is nice but situational.
Seal of Removal/Unsummon/Vapor Snag/Word of Undoing: Bouncing a creature for just U is nice, but it's card disadvantage.
Sensory Deprivation: This card is often going to be Defang for U.
Silent Departure: Even with Sorcery speed, this card can be a tempo advantage for its normal cost and with flashback, it can be relevant later as well.
Spontaneous Mutation: A Flash Sensory Deprivation that is contingent on your graveyard size, but U to handle a 5/5 in the later game is efficient. Plus, it also works with Mystical Teachings.
Unstable Mutation: Making a small creature a big threat can be nice, especially for such less mana, but when the creature gets handled it is card disadvantage.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Abjure: You don't want to make card disadvantage on purpose.
Aboshan's Desire: If Threshold would be easier to reach, this card would be great.
Air Bladder/Infiltrate/Flight/Jump/Ray of Erasure/Reach Through Mists/Vault Skyward: There are better alternatives for these cards.
Annul/Aquitect's Will/Aura Finesse/Clockspinning/Constricting Tendrils/Cut the Earthly Bond/Disarm/Dizzy Spell/Downsize/Drafna's Restoration/Dream's Grip/Enchantment Alteration/Energy Tap/Envelop/Fleeting Distraction/Glyph of Delusion/High Tide/Hydrosurge/Lost in a Labyrinth/Mental Note/Mystic Remora/Obsessive Search/Outwit/Psychic Purge/Rescue/Riptide/Sapphire Charm/Sea Legs/Sea's Claim/Sisay's Ingenuity/Stream of Unconsciousness/Thermal Flux/Tidal Flats/Trickery Charm/Twiddle/Writ of Passage: The effects are too situative.
Apathy/Awesome Presence: Giving your opponent the choice isn't good.
Artful Dodge/Defy Gravity/Distortion Strike: Even 2 "free attacks" aren't a big advantage, as long as the target is not Ninja of the Deep Hours or something similar.
Chain to Memory: A mediocre trick, that doesn't replace itself.
Banishing Knack/Retraction Helix: You don't want to tap a creature, just to get a little bit better Unsummon.
Betrayal: This card can maybe prevent the opponent's creature from attacking, but even then, it can still block.
Blue Elemental Blast/Flash Flood/Hydroblast: Only interesting as a sideboard cards.
Broken Dam: The sorcery speed makes this card even worse.
Careful Study: Overall you get -1.
Cerulean Wisps: Not as good as Niveous Wisps.
Clairvoyance/Peek/Sorcerous Sight: The worse versions of Gitaxian Probe.
Cloak of Feathers/Leap/Shadow Rift: Evasion for a single round isn't exciting, not even without card disadvantage.
Cloak of Invisibility/Defensive Stance/Essence Flare: Neither good for your or an opponent's creature.
Coral Net: Not even a good sideboard card.
Disrupt: It's too easy to play around this card and it's not as flexible as Force Spike.
Dream Twist/Evanescent Intellect/Thought Scour/Tome Scour/Vision Charm: These cards would only be good in a cube with a mill theme.
Flight Spellbomb: Granting evasion for a single turn isn't really exciting, not even without card disadvantage.
Gigadrowse: This card would be interesting if it didn't require only blue mana.
Index/Spy Network: These cards are even worse than Careful Study.
Mana Chains/Vanishing: Really bad removal spells.
Mantle of Tides: It sounds nice in theory, but onboard tricks aren't that effective and the normal equip cost is too high.
Mind Games: The effect isn't bad, but it's too expensive.
Reconstruction/Steel Sabotage: These cards could be interesting for artifact-based cubes.
Robe of Mirrors: This card would be great if it was Hexproof and not Shroud.
Select for Inspection: It's an Unsummon with Scry 1 attached to it, which would make it better, but the target restriction is too high.
Shared Discovery: The restriction is too high.
Shimmering Wings: Permanent evasion that could prevent card disadvantage. Interesting but not good enough.
So Tiny: Threshold is hard to archive yourself and even worse when you have to hope for your opponent to get there.
Spell Pierce: The flexibility is not bad, but it's to easy to play around this card.
Sleep of the Dead: Card disadvantage. There are spots in the very late stages of the game, where this can have a significant impact, but that's a corner case.
Stern Dismissal: Unsummon can at least target your own creatures.
Take into Custody: This card is situational and card disadvantage.
Veil of Birds: A 1/1 flyer wouldn't even be good without the restriction.
Void Snare: Sorcery speed is a huge drawback for bounce spells.
Whispers of the Muse: Only online common! No matter if you can cycle it or not, a card that is only good when you have nothing else to do with your mana is simply too situative.
Counterspell: It handles everything for cc2. UU could be a problem but it's worth the risk.
Daze: The only counter for cc0, so you can even play it when you are tapped out and your opponent feels safe.
Mana Leak: 3 mana is enough to pay more. With 1U this card got enough flexibility.
Miscalculation: 2 mana isn't much, but cycling gives this card enough flexibility to make it one of the best counters blue has in pauper cubes.
Narcolepsy: The only really good blue spot-removal for cc2.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Cartouche of Knowledge: The fact that it replaces itself and gives the creature evasion is worth the risk of card disadvantage.
Confound: Protecting a creature from removal and making card advantage from it can be really nice.
Deprive: In the early game, this can be really punishing for you, but later in the game the downside becomes mostly irelevant and this becomes a very flexible and cheap hard Counter.
Essence Scatter/False Summoning/Preemptive Strike/Remove Soul: They're restrictive, but creatures are the main problem you have to deal with.
Impulse: The only card quality spell for cc2 that can keep up with the cc1 spells because it searches even deeper.
Memory Lapse: A counter without restrictions that only has the problem that the top deck is more important in limited than in constructed. It does matter if there is a creature on the top or a land. As well, it's not a lasting solution if you try to handle a bomb with it.
Omen of the Sea: A better Anticipate.
Singing Bell Strike: A very solid spot removal spell that gets rid of creatures for a very long time and is a big tempo disadvantage for the opponent.
Withdraw: Bouncing either 2 of your opponent's creatures or just one while also saving one of your creatures from removal or retrigger etc-effects with instant speed is a lot of flexibility. UU can be a little bit problematic though and the fact that it's card disadvantage nearly no matter what you do, makes it just cubeable.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Alexi's Cloak: Protecting a creature from removal and giving it permanent shroud afterward can be really nice.
Anticipate: The strictly worse version of Impulse, but still not bad.
Arcane Denial: A hard counter that makes card disadvantage because it trades 2 for 3.
Boomerang: This bounce is at it's strongest when it's played on turn 2 to bounce a land.
Callous Dismissal: A bounce spell with a small body attached to it. It might seem good on first thought, but sorcery speed is a bummer and a 1/1 is only half a card.
Hampering Snare: A very situational, but not necessarly weak effect. Cycling 2 is too much of an opportunity cost to make this good though.
Hands of Binding: A kind of Sigil of Sleep that will have at least done something if it's handled immediately. It also enables itself.
Hidden Strings: This card can have a lot of synergies, but without the right synergies it's mainly worse than Hands of Binding.
Ice Over/Unquenchable Thirst: The effect of Containment Membrane but for extra mana. Their upsides aren't relevant often enough in most pauper cubes.
Inaction Injunction/Enervate: Interesting cards for tempo decks, but there is a lot of competition in this mana slot.
Kasmina's Transmutation – A different type of removal, but leaving behind a 1/1 isn’t ideal compared to straight removal.
Keep Safe: A worse version of Confound. Though it can theoretically protect noncreature permanents, those are rarely targeted and the option of Confound to counter your opponents aura or combat tricks, will come in useful way more often.
Launch/Phantom Wings/Ghostly Wings/Stratus Walk: Giving flying to creatures, with small upsides, isn't too bad.
Lofty Denial: Blue has a lot of good creatures with flying, so enabling this isn't that far off and an upgraded Mana Leak is definitely strong. The question is if you have a creature heavy deck, do you really want that many counterspells, because if you are proactive it can be very hard to keep mana open for the right times.
Lost in Thought: In the earlier stages of the game this card can be really nice, but later it takes too long to actually stop the creature.
Negate: The restriction isn't that high, but creatures are often the bigger problem in cube.
Nullify/Psychic Barrier: The advantages aren't worth the restrictive UU cost when compared to Remove Soul.
One with the Wind/Spectral Flight: This aura turns a creature into a big threat, but with the risk to make card disadvantage.
Perilous Research: Drawing 2 cards with instant speed can be good, especially when you sacrifice a creature that would be removed otherwise or just an extra land.
Prohibit: The most important spells don't have just cc2 or cc1 like in constructed. For cubes, the restriction is too high mainly.
Rune Snag/Quench: In the early stages of the game this Counter can be nice, but later it becomes really bad.
Runner's Bane: Blue spot removal spells are unique, but this one is disabled very easily.
Send to Sleep: Even though the effect for cc2 would be cubeable, Spell Mastery is a relevant drawback.
Siren's Ruse: Slightly overcosted for the effect, as the upside will rarely come up, but blue has it's fair share of etb effects and this can still blank a removal spell.
Slimebind – the flash makes this effect very flexible. But it’s not premium removal by any means.
Starlit Mantle: If you heavily want to support an aura theme, this can theoretically be used to save a creature once and also provide a small buff.
Startling Development: Cycling for 1 is the lowest possible opportunity cost apart from 0. The effect, though rarely useful definitely does have it's applications and though you will rarely want to target an opponents creature, it's nice to have the option.
Strategic Planning: The worse version of Impulse unless you have a lot of graveyard synergies, but still Ok.
Telekinesis: Only online common! An interesting combat trick, that can also get rid of a creature for quite a time.
Telling Time: The decisions you can make are too restrictive to compete with all the other good filter spells in blue.
Think Twice: Even with instant speed and flashback, cc5 overall is too much for just 2 cards.
Teferi's Time Twist – A serviceable blink effect, with a bonus. But to really make it worth it, it need to be used in response to a removal. It also blinks ANY permanent.
Tightening Coils: -6 power is a lot, but you probably still leave your opponent a good blocker.
Zephyr Charge: Mass-evasion can be great, but you will often prefer a creature that has flying on its own.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Accumulated Knowledge/Aether Burst/Frantic Inventory/Take Inventory: These cards don't work in cubes as long as you don't play playsets.
Backslide: There aren't many playable morph cards.
Barrin's Unmaking: A bounce for cc2 is not worth any restriction.
Buoyancy: Flash makes no sense on this card.
Call to Heel: This card is terrible as long as you don't bounce your own creature with it.
Chronic Flooding: This card wouldn't even be good in a cube with a mill theme.
Cloak of Mists/Hermetic Study/Invisibility/Psionic Gift/Viscerid Armor: The effect isn't a big enough threat to be worth the risk.
Compelling Argument/Dampen Thought/Jace's Erasure/Mind Sculpt/Winds of Rebuke: These cards would only be good for cubes with a mill theme.
Consuming Vortex/Disperse/Downpour/Echoing Truth/Hoodwink/Hubris/Snap/Snapback/Tidal Bore/Tidal Surge: Just bouncing/tapping for cc2 is not only card disadvantage but also often not even a real tempo advantage.
Contempt: The creature is still able to block.
Contingency Plan/Taigam's Scheming: These cards would only be interesting for a cube that can get enough advantage out of self-mill. Otherwise, they're not worth the card disadvantage.
Convincing Mirage/Deep Water/Fishliver Oil/Foresight/Hisoka's Defiance/Inertia Bubble/Mistform Mask/Phantasmal Terrain/Quickchange/Shimmering Mirage/Spreading Seas/Trapfinder's Trick: The effects are way too situational.
Courier's Capsule/Font of Fortunes: Drawing 2 cards for 4 mana is simply not good enough.
Creature Bond/Power Leak/Power Taint/Psychic Venom: Just dealing damage to a player is still card disadvantage.
Crown of Ascension: There isn't any tribe that is big enough to make this card worth it.
Crypsis: Even if blue would have a need for combat tricks, this one is simply not good enough.
Cunning/Wings of Velis Vel: For just 1 attack, these cards are not good enough.
Diplomatic Immunity: Shroud on an aura is ok, but it's nearly useless for the aura itself.
Disdainful Stroke/Rites of Refusal/Scent of Brine/Spell Rupture/Spell Syphon: Very weak counters.
Dispersal Shield: The restriction is too high.
Dragon Wings: There aren't enough playable creatures with cc6.
Dramatic Reversal: This effect is rather unusual in blue and has the potential to waste your opponent, but it's very situational. Also, blue has better combat tricks.
Early Frost/Misstep/Tolarian Winds/Turn the Tide: The effects are very situational.
Eel Umbra: Totem armor can be nice, but +1/+1 isn't very much.
Eye of Nowhere: The worse version of Boomerang.
Extinguish/Flash Counter/Illuminated Wings/Mage's Guile/Mystic Veil/Peel from Reality/Pin to the Earth/Psychic Puppetry/Reality Ripple/Snow Devil/Soar/Stymied Hopes/Updraft/Veil of Secrecy: There are better alternatives for these cards.
Fate Foretold: The restriction is too high just to get Divination for cc2.
Fatigue: A 1 for 1 trade that is only situational good.
Force Away/Whirlpool Whelm/Voyage's End: Bouncing only creatures for cc2 is not very impressive and possible card quality doesn't make any of these cards good enough.
Ghostform/Wind Sail: These cards are only situational good.
Glassblower's Puzzleknot: 5 mana to dig possibly 4 cards deep is okay, but nothing more and you don't have any use for energy in most cubes.
Glint: Protecting creatures against removal can be really good, but this one is outclassed by a lot of better versions such as Dive Down.
Grip of Amnesia: Exiling the whole graveyard is no disadvantage for the opponent.
Ice Cage/Icy Prison/Immobilizing Ink/Pendrell Flux/Sleeping Potion/Spectral Prison/Teferi's Curse/Volrath's Curse/Zephyr Net: Really bad spot removal spells.
Ideas Unbound: This card isn't good enough for most decks.
Ior Ruin Expedition: This card would be nice in the early game, but later it's terrible.
Jace's Scrutiny: -4/-0 doesn't get rid of anything.
Jaded Response: This card would only be good for a sideboard.
Just the Wind: Without Madness, this is just an overcosted Unsummon.
Lat-Nam's Legacy/Omen/See Beyond/Worldly Counsel: The effects aren't worth more than cc1.
Muddle the Mixture: There isn't much for cc2, you would like to search for.
Nagging Thoughts: This is way worse than Impulse or Anticipate.
Peer Through Depths: There isn't much you want to search for.
Press for Answers: This stops a creature without card disadvantage, but Sorcery speed really makes this bad.
Refocus: The strictly worse version of Cerulean Wisps.
Revolutionary Rebuff: There are way better counterspells at common rarity.
Run Away Together: It always sounds nice to use selfbounce to retrigger etb effects or save a creature from removal while doing something else, but self bounce also means that you have to cast the creature again, which costs you a lot of tempo.
Scour All Possibilities – Deep Analysis and Think Twice exist. Sorcery speed and a drastic cost on the flashback nullify the advantage of double use.
Skygames: The effect is not worth tapping a land.
Sunken City: The upkeep cost is too high.
Train of Thought: Flexibility is nice, but this card is always overcosted and the sorcery speed is even a bigger disadvantage.
Treasure Hunt: The effect depends on luck.
Vessel of Paramnesia: There is not enough mill support for this card and self-mill has better cards.
Vision Skeins/Words of Wisdom: These cards provide no card advantage.
Compulsive Research: Drawing just 2 cards for cc3 would be too bad, but with card quality added on it becomes one of the best card draw spells blue has.
Exclude: Trading a creature and making card advantage of it makes this one of the best counters blue got.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Charmed Sleep/Claustrophobia/Waterknot: A blue hard removal for cc3, that does its job.
Containment Membrane: For just 1 mana, this effect is very good. It is almost impossible to not be able to surge it.
Repulse: One of the few bounce spells that are instant speed, doesn't create card disadvantage and still a cheap enough cost that it consistently generates a decent amount of tempo advantage.
Slow Motion: Sometimes this card is Rain of Salt for cc3 and nearly wins the game on its own, but you have to take into account that this card can be a terrible topdeck in the very late stages of the game when the opponent is already up to 7 or 8 lands. Awesome for more aggressive orientated decks, but mainly not for hardcore control decks.
Undo: Sorcery speed is a problem for control decks, but tempo decks will want this card.
Winged Words – Divination is acceptable, but with all the blue fliers in cubes, this will often be a 2 mana draw 2.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Calculated Dismissal: Countering a spell for cc3 and scry 2 would be good, but Spell Mastery is a relevant drawback and this counter doesn't work for sure in the late game.
Crippling Chill: Tapping a creature for 2 turns without card disadvantage can be nice, but cc3 is a lot.
Countervailing Winds: Won't always counter things early, but its flexibility in cycling can be nice.
Crashing Tide/Drag Under/Forced Retreat/Symbol of Unsummoning/Time Ebb: Bounce spells without card disadvantage, that are just missing the instant speed.
Didn't Say Please: Unless you want to actively mill the opponent putting cards into their graveyard is a downside more often than not.
Displace/Ghostly Flicker: Combo enablers in combination with Archaeomanceresque cards, but apart from that underwhelming.
Dissolve: A 3-mana counter with possible card selection in the form of scry is an okay card.
Dream Cache: Even if you get no real card advantage, you can make a lot of quality with this card, especially since it has an influence on your hand.
Frost Breath: This card is nearly the same power level as Undo, even with instant speed, because just tapping doesn't have the advantage of binding more mana for the opponent. Also, bounce gives you the possibility to counter spells again.
Ghastly Discovery: Drawing 4 cards and discarding 2 for cc3 would be insane, but you need 2 blue creatures for Conspire, which is hard to guarantee.
Of One Mind: Divination is not a good card, but the conditions to cast this for only U isn't actually that hard to archive, considering that about half of the creatures will be humans by default, if don't put any thought into creature types.
Ojutai's Breath: This card has some ups and downs compared to Frost Breath, but in the end, they are about equally good.
Oona's Grace: Turning lands into card draw seems great, but blue already got enough possibilities, for less mana, to use the lands they don't need.
Pieces of the Puzzle: This card can create card advantage, but the restrictions are very high.
Rhystic Study: In the early game this card can slow your opponent a lot, but later it's totally useless.
Rousing Read: A really solid aura, that grants flying a P/T boost and replaces itself with even an additional filter effect added on top. The aura problem remains, that when the creature gets killed in response you won't get any trigger, but if you run enough hexproof creatures go for it.
Rushing River: Lands are not much worth in the late game, which is where this can be a solid spell.
Secrets of the Golden City: An upgraded version of divination, for the cost of an extra U in the cost, that gives you an extra card in the late game. Still not very exciting though.
Sweep Away: If it would put the creature on top of the library every time, it would be cubeable.
Traveler's Cloak: Making a creature permanently unblockable and drawing a card is ok, but most decks don't want this card.
Whisk Away: A hybrid between Time Ebb and Divine Verdict. As a trade-off for the drawback, it has instant speed and it's actually better than a hard removal against mediocre creatures but worse against bombs you want to get rid off.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Abstruse Interference: This spell is way worse than Force Spike.
Æther Tradewinds/Anti-Magic Aura/Bewilder/Cancel/Catalog/Convolute/Depths of Desire/Faerie Trickery/Frightful Delusion/Hysterical Blindness/Infuse/Ixidor's Will/Jolt/Murmurs from Beyond/Ophidian Eye/Oppressive Will/Regress/Rescind/Resounding Wave/Rethink/Runeboggle/Sift Through Sands/Spell Shrivel/Spell Snip/Theft of Dreams/Thoughtbind/Toils of Night and Day/Twitch/Venser's Diffusion/Vex/Wistful Thinking: There are better alternatives for these cards.
Arnjlot's Ascent/Snowfall: The card is not worth it, with cumulative upkeep.
Artificer's Epiphany/Metallic Rebuke/Stoic Rebuttal: These cards would be interesting in an artifact-heavy cube.
Aura Flux: There aren't enough enchantments you need to handle.
Chant of the Skifsang/Encrust/Erratic Mutation/Freed from the Real/Frozen Solid/Gaseous Form/Glimmerdust Nap/Liquify/Paralyzing Grasp/Reality Acid/Sinking Feeling/Thirst: Bad spot removal spells.
Circular Logic: Only online common! Without enough discard outlets, this card is simply too bad.
Consign to Dream/Escape Routes: This card would only be interesting as a sideboard card.
Counsel of the Soratami/Divination: Just +1 card in your hand isn't worth cc3 with sorcery speed.
Curse of the Bloody Tome: This card would maybe be interesting for cubes with a mill theme.
Déjà Vu/Sage's Knowledge: The restriction is too high.
Deny Existence: There are large amounts of cc3 counters and nearly all of them are better than this.
Deny the Divine: A cmc 3 counter needs to be at least not restricted to specific card types or have a more significant upside, rather than exile.
Erosion/Field of Reality/Lifted by Clouds/Veiled Serpent: Simply terrible cards.
Errant Minion/Soul Barrier: Simply damage is not good.
Fade Away: It may look like a mass-removal but it's not, because it's way to easy to play around it.
False Demise: Stealing your opponent's creatures is great, but if you still have to handle it beforehand, it's bad.
Flux/Rhystic Deluge: These cards are no real advantage for you.
Frantic Search: Getting card quality for 0 mana seems nice, but it's still card disadvantage.
Keep Watch: The effect is too situative.
Ichthyomorphosis: This is a way for blue to deal with activated abilities, but 3 mana is simply too much for a card that also leaves a blocker behind.
Illusory Wrappings/Reduce in Stature: Even if this is one of the few ways for blue to deal with creatures that are already in play, it's not a good one. Leaving the creature as a blocker and with all abilities is rarely the same as killing a creature or tapping it permanently.
Implement of Examination: A Divination for 4 mana isn't good.
Infiltrator's Magemark/Leaden Fists: These auras are not a big enough threat to be worth the risk of card disadvantage.
Machinate/Magnetic Flux/Override: These cards aren't even interesting for artifact-based cubes.
Mental Discipline: The effect isn't bad, but Looters do the job way better.
No Escape – Worse than Exclude
Rakshasa's Disdain: One of many outclassed Counterspells. Even for a graveyard-themed cube, it's a Cancel at best.
Steady Progress: There isn't much to proliferate in most cubes.
Thirst for Meaning: There usually aren't enough enchantments and even if there are you don't really want to discard them most of the time.
Tidal Wave: Creates a temporary creature that can only block ground creatures. It is a mostly reliable overpriced kill spell, but it is conditional on your opponent not having tricks.
Tragic Lesson: A Divination that trades speed for tempo is not worth it.
Uncovered Clues: A luck depending draw spell, that will usually be worse than Divination.
Unwind – A “free” noncreature counter, but still requires you to hold up 3 mana, which can be a lot especially if they don’t do anything
Ray of Command: Gaining control of a creature for one round normally isn't this good, but with instant speed, it's great because it's able to trade for 2 of your opponent's creatures by pitting them against each other.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Blink of an Eye/Into the Roil: You usually want to have card draw attached to bounce spells and even though cmc 4 is much, there is also an emergency mode of paying 2 instead.
Deep Analysis: +3 card advantage in just 1 card is great.
Foresee/Tamiyo's Epiphany: Drawing just 2 cards for cc4 with sorcery speed may not seem that nice, but scry 4 is a lot.
Hieroglyphic Illumination: Instant speed and the flexibility of this card make it viable.
Rain of Revelation - Invalidates Sift, and Enhanced Awareness. Opens up trickiness and deep digging for any deck splashing blue.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Amass the Components/Sift: Drawing 3 cards for cc4, would be great, but this one is just 1 card advantage for cc4 with sorcery speed.
Bone to Ash: The worse version of Exclude.
Castaway's Despair/Sleep Paralysis: 4 cmc is too much for a plain simple removal.
Choking Tethers: The Cycling flexibility is interesting.
Comparative Analysis: Divination with Instant speed at best.
Flight of Fancy: Giving evasion to a creature while making card advantage is Ok, but not exciting.
Griptide/Repel/Run Aground: Time Ebb with instant speed seems nice, but cc4 is a lot.
Gust of Wind: Having a creature with flying in blue is usually not hard to archive, but the fact, that this card has a condition at all, which can be failed to met at times, and isn't an instant is a real bummer.
Leave in the Dust: A strictly worse Into the Roil, but still playable.
Malfunction: A Sleep Paralysis that also hits artifacts.
Mystic Restraints/Capture Sphere: A blue spot removal with flash seems nice, but cc4 can be a lot.
Protective Bubble: With Hexproof instead of Shroud this card would maybe be a staple.
Rewind: Countering a spell for cc4 is a lot, but the after casting this one you can counter another spell.
Taigam's Strike: A very good card for the spells-matter archetype, but without supporting that archetype it's way less interesting.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Airborne Aid: Simply the worse version of Distant Melody.
Bonds of Quicksilver/Dehydration/Merseine: Bad spot removal spells.
Brilliant Spectrum: This card is not even really good with four colors, but with only two - like in most drafts - it's just not good.
Churning Eddy/Dematerialize/Failed Inspection/Scatter Arc/Statute of Denial: There are way better versions of these cards.
Countermand/Dreadwaters: These cards would only be interesting for a cube with a mill theme.
Decision Paralysis: Strictly worse Frost Breath.
Disorient/Lethargy Trap/Tortoise Formation: Really bad and overcosted cards.
FoilFuel for the Cause/Geist Snatch/Hindering Touch/Lay Bare/Minamo's Meddling/Mindstatic/Put Away: The even worse versions of Cancel.
Grasp of Phantoms: Sorcery speed and the cost are way too big of a drawback.
Inspiration/Weave Fate: These cards would be great for 1 mana less.
Last Thoughts: Mainly the worse version of Ophidian Eye.
Memory Drain: 4 mana is too much for a counter that doesn't have a more significant upside.
Mystic Meditation: The creature is rarely the card you want to discard. This card is simply outclassed by Sift.
Pirate's Prize: The treasure token doesn't make up for the fact that it's still an overcosted Divination
Roilmage's Trick: It isn't card disadvantage, but Converge is hard to get with more than two colors in cube.
Sudden Storm: Scry 1 doesn't really make this card worth one mana more than Frost Breath.
Surging Aether: This card doesn't work in most cubes.
Temporal Eddy: The worse version of Griptide.
Touch of Brilliance: The worse version of Divination.
Touch of Invisibility: The way worse version of Shadow Rift.
Tricks of the Trade: The creature doesn't become a big enough threat to be worth the risk.
Vivisection: This card is not worth sacrificing a creature for it.
Way of the Thief: You can't guarantee a gate to enable this card.
Capsize: Even though it's quite mana intense, this card is a soft lock just on its own and can be a late-game wincon that is really hard to handle.
Treasure Cruise: Delve can be a strong upside and drawing 3 cards is a lot.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Nothing here.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Brilliant Plan(Only online common!)/Mysteries of the Deep: Getting +2 cards seems great, but cc5 is a lot, especially when it's sorcery bound.
Enhanced Awareness: This is one of the few instant card draw spells at common rarity that can dig 3 cards deep. Even if it generates only +2 cards, there will often be something on the top of your library or in your hand you can easily give up.
Floodwaters: Six mana is a way too much, but it can win you the game and cycling prevents it from being a dead card.
Frostveil Ambush: The spells effect is overcosted by 2 compared to Frost Breath, but since this is a very situational effect Cycling for 1 is a real game changer. Cycling will be the default mode, but at times, the effect can acutally be really useful.
Gush: Drawing 2 cards for 0 mana seems, great, but you have to guarantee 2 Islands for it. Otherwise, it would be just 2 cards for cc5.
Nimbus Naiad: The blue common pendant of Griffin Guide for cmc 5, but with the option to play it on turn 3 as a wind drake.
Petals of Insight: This card is solid, but only slightly better than Brilliant Plan.
Rush of Knowledge: This card can draw a lot of cards, but sorcery speed and the high mana cost requirement makes it problematic. It also can't be played on an empty board.
Traumatic Visions: Landcycling adds some flexibility, but cc5 for a Counter is still a lot if needed.
Unexplained Vision: Drawing 3 cards for cmc 5 is ok, but sorcery speed is a huge problem and you need UUU to get the additional upside.
Will of the Naga: This card will find it hard to become better than Frost Breath, because it's restricted to a Minimum of UU and costs, at its best, only 1 less, even if your graveyard if full of cards.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Chronostutter: cc6 is way too much for Griptide. The effect is not even really better.
Coma Veil/Numbing Dose/Stasis Cell: Overcosted and bad spot removal spells.
Eternity Snare: The effect isn't good and not making card disadvantage doesn't make it worth cc6.
Gone Missing: This card is overcosted.
Into Thin Air: This card wouldn't even be good in an artifact-based cube.
Lost in the Mist: Both effects are nice, but cc5 for a counter is way too much.
Nyxborn Triton: This card is mainly worse than Nimbus Naiad.
Quicksilver Geyser/Whiplash Trap: Even if Undo with instant speed would be great, it's not worth cc5.
Read the Tides: If this were instant speed it could be interesting as booth modes can be useful in very different situations, but you can't simply tap 6 mana at sorcery speed for a card with such little impact.
Ribbons of the Reikai: There are simply not enough playable spirits.
Temporal Fissure/Totally Lost: There are a lot of better alternatives for these cards.
Tezzeret's Ambition: This spell is just overcosted, even in an artifact-heavy cube.
Thassa's Bounty: This card would only be interesting for a cube with a mill theme.
Thoughtcast: This card is only good in an artifact-based cube.
Condescend: An solid counter that has Scry 2 as a huge advantage.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Broken Ambitions/Power Sink/Syncopate: Solid counters that are just missing a great further advantage.
Repeal: One of the few bounce spells that don't make card disadvantage.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Nothing here.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Aether Tide: A sure 2 for 0 or even a worse trade.
Spell Blast/Logic Knot: Really bad counters.
Venarian Gold: A really bad spot removal.
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
Btw. I changed the examples for the different categories.
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Carnophage/Vampire Lacerator: 2/2 beaters for cc1 are amazing in an aggressive deck and the drawbacks are acceptable.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Carrion Feeder: This creature turns every other killed creature into a +1/+1 counter and can become a nice threat on its own. It's just bad in the late game and can't use its body for blocking.
Disowned Ancestor: A solid early game blocker that can become a big threat later.
Fume Spitter: A one-drop that curves you out. A -1/-1 counter is good most time of the game.
Pharika's Chosen/Typhoid Rats/Hired Poisoner: Deathtouch is a great ability. It's pseudo evasion and turns these creatures into solid blockers.
Plagued Rusalka: Even though it needs mana to be used, the ability to sac other creatures as well, when they are about to be removed anyways or are simply unnecessary for example, makes this at least as equally good as Fume Spitter.
Ruthless Ripper – Pharika's Chosen/Typhoid Rats with an upside of being a 2/2 when needed.
Vault Skirge: A 1/1 Flying with Lifelink isn't good on its own, but with equipment or auras it can easily become really good.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Augmenting Automaton: This creature can be relevant later in the game, but it can also be useless much too often.
Blight Keeper: A Flying Men with a nice late-game mana-sink that gives additional reach to help finish off the opponent while padding your life total. Fine card but not the most exciting.
Deathgreeter: The ability isn't bad, but a 1/1 body is too bad on its own.
Festering Goblin/Festering Newt/Grim Physician/Shambling Goblin: They are able to kill an X/2 in combat, but no real threat on their own.
Festering Mummy: A strictly better Festering Goblin, but with the same problem.
Fourth Bridge Prowler: The ability is nice, but you don't want to play this on turn 1.
Grasping Scoundrel: A conditional 2/1 that's fine for super-aggressive decks but otherwise not great.
Kjeldoran Dead: A 3/1 regenerate is great, but there isn't much you want to sacrifice for it.
Night Market Lookout: With a lot of vehicles this creature is very good, but on its own, it's just a slightly better Pulse Tracker.
Pulse Tracker: A one-drop that can deal 2 damage seems interesting, but the 1/1 body will simply be killed by everything that blocks it.
Shadow Alley Denizen: Similar to Intimidator Initiate in that the 1/1 body is terrible on its own, but instead of preventing specific creatures from blocking, it grants evasion to one of your creatures. It's also restricted to only creatures instead of any shared-color spell.
Skittering Heartstopper: The mana requirement to grant deathtouch isn't great, but the extra toughness over Typhoid Rats can be relevant and often the threat of activation alone is enough.
Stronghold Confessor The two modes makes it interesting. But still not a powerful card.
Tormented Soul: A great card for equipment or auras, but on its own 1 damage every turn isn't much.
Thornbow Archer: The body is okay for the cost, but the ability is conditional and probably does nothing.
Thoughtpicker Witch/Viscera Seer: Turning killed creatures into card quality or bad quality for the opponent seems nice, but the 1/1 body is kind of meh.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Accursed Centaur: The worse version of Kjeldoran Dead.
Acolyte of Xathrid/Smolder Initiate: Shooting over the opponent's defense is a nice possibility, but overall these cards are bad and bind way too much mana.
Asphodel Wanderer: A defensive body for cc1 would be nice, but the regenerate is simply overcosted.
Bile Urchin/Death Cultist/Maggot Carrier: 1 life is nothing and the body is useless.
Blood Celebrant: This card would even be bad if you wouldn't have to pay life for the bad ability.
Blood Pet: Spending mana early to save it until you need it seems ok, but the 1/1 body won't do anything and if you sacrifice it, it's card disadvantage.
Bog Rats/Nightshade Stinger/Plague Beetle/Prickly Boggart/Rampart Crawler/Zodiac Rat: The way worse versions of Tormented Soul.
Cabal Trainee/Ridged Kusite: Changing combat math seems nice, but the 1/1 body isn't good on its own and the abilities aren't even really good.
Carrion Beetles/Martyr of Bones/Merrow Bonegnawer/Rag Dealer/Zombie Cannibal: The abilities are very bad and the bodies are useless.
Carrion Rats: It's way too easy, to disable this creature.
Disciple of the Vault: This card wouldn't even be good in an artifact-based cube.
Drainpipe Vermin/Insidious Bookworms: Turning a dying creature into a discard seems nice, but the 1/1 body is useless on its own.
Duty-Bound Dead: A possible 1/3 in turn 2 seems Ok, but overall exalted isn't really good and the regenerate ability costs too much mana.
Eye Collector: A 1/1 Flying isn't good enough and the additional ability doesn't do anything.
Facevaulter/Mindlash Sliver: There are no Goblins/Slivers to sacrifice.
Gnat Miser: The ability is bad and the body is useless.
Guul Draz Vampire/Putrid Imp: These creatures would only be ok in the later stages of the game and earlier they're useless.
Hunted Ghoul/Muck Rats: Simply terrible bodies.
Initiates of the Ebon Hand: The ability isn't really good and the body is useless.
Liliana's Steward: Trading a card for a single card of an opponents choice doesn't bring you ahead in any way. If you could at least activate it at any time it would be interesting, but it is what it is.
Mortician Beetle: There are not enough sacrifice effects in most pauper cubes.
Phyrexian Battleflies/Pit Imp/Vampire Bats: Always investing BB just to make it a 2/1 flying requires too much mana.
Quag Vampires/Urborg Skeleton: Flexibility seems nice, but none of the possibilities are good.
Rimebound Dead: This creature is an ok blocker.
Sanitarium Skeleton: The ability to come back from Graveyard is strong, but it's overcosted by 1 mana.
Serrated Scorpion: A 1/2 body simply isn't good enough and the death trigger doesn't justify it.
Sewer Rats: A One-drop with some relevance in the late game seems nice, but paying the same amount of life as this creature deals damage isn't really good.
Shadowborn Apostle: This card doesn't work in most cubes.
Shamble Back: It's a 2/2 Zombie that gains 2 life for just 1 mana, but Sorcery speed is bad and Graveyard hate isn't that relevant in most cubes. Also, you'll never be able to cast this on curve.
Sludge Crawler: A 1/1 for 1 mana is terrible, but the ability to pump makes this creature okay.
Stone-Throwing Devils: First Strike can be nice, but only with more than just 1 power.
vampire neonate - an interesting option for support. It’s really good in the grindy matchups, but it lacks the one power or toughness to be an instant include
Vector Asp: Infect doesn't work in pauper cubes.
Whisper Squad: Cards like these don't work in singleton cubes.
Zulaport Enforcer: Overall level up is ok in cubes, but the level up cost is too expensive and the creature only becomes really relevant after investing 12 additional mana into it.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Dauthi Horror: 1B, 2 power, good evasion. Simply good.
Undertaker: Turning dead cards into creatures is great.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Basilica Screecher: Extort is a nice ability, especially from turn 2 on, but the 1/2 flying body isn't very useful.
Boot Nipper: Useful flexiblity, where neither version is overcosted is great.
Child of Night/Smitten Swordmaster: Lifelink on a 2 drop with 2 power is nice, but 1 makes it kind of fragile.
Corpse Hauler: A solid bear that can return important creatures if needed.
Dauthi Slayer: 1 toughness is often important, even for shadow beaters, but BB on turn 2 makes this creature just cubeable.
Fledgling Djinn: A 2/2 flying for cc2 is great, but the drawback can easily be annoying. On the other hand, this card will often be handled fast enough that it's not such a big problem.
Gluttonous Slug - Early curve, evasive, and can potentially hit 3+ power. This is dangerous in arguably all but the slower decks.
Hand of Silumgar: A very consistent 2-drop that is very good on defense, but is also able to attack with pseudo-evasion.
Lampad of Death's Vigil: A cheap acitvation cost allows you to easily recycle all creatures, that would otherwise die to removal and threaten your opponents life total without attacking, while restorting your own life.
Lazotep Reaver - two bodies for 2 mana is decent for sacrifice cubes. But neither is very exciting
Leaden Myr: Fixing and ramp. This is a pretty unique effect for black and a great card for clunky black decks or black control decks.
Mesmeric Fiend: A walking Distress. This card is at it's best with sacrifice effects, which can let you exile the card forever.
Nezumi Cutthroat: Fear is not as good as shadow, but for 1B this card is still great.
Nightscape Familiar: A solid blocker, that makes about 50% of the 2-color decks it's played in cheaper.
Plague Wight a 2/1 that can’t be blocked by X/1s. But only works on attacking.
Putrid Goblin: Different than Butcher Ghoul, this starts out as a 2/2, so it doesn't need to die first, to have decent stats.
Shambling Ghoul: The body is worth the drawback most of the time.
Sickle Ripper: Dead Weight on a Stick. This card is good on offense as well as on defense. The 1 toughness is it's only problem.
Sinuous Vermin: It's a bear with a very good upside. A 5/5 Menace is a big threat.
Skittering Skirge: A 3/2 Flying for cc2 is really nice and even with the restriction, it's worth BB.
Thrill-Kill Assassin: The flexibility to either be a 2/3 deathtouch attacker in the early game or a deathtouch 1/2 blocker if needed makes this card great.
Vampire Interloper: The 3rd 2/1 evasion for 1B.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally most cubes won't include this unless there are specific reasons.
Aether Poisoner: It is just a 1/1 with deathtouch like Pharika's Chosen for one mana more, but it can bring a friend.
Augur of Skulls: Mind Rot for cc2 seems nice, especially with the flexibility to block well later in the game, but your opponent has one turn to prepare for it by simply deciding not to play the land he might have just drawn for example. It can still be card advantage, but not very often.
Blind Creeper: A 3/3 for cc2 seems great, but your opponent can choose when to shrink it. Changing combat math for yourself is bad.
Bloodthrone Vampire: Sometimes this card is a great blocker that has pseudo evasion as well, but 1 damage isn't much.
Butcher Ghoul/Doomed Dissenter: These are mainly just the worse versions of Sultai Emissary in nearly every way.
Caligo Skin-Witch – You are either playing it for the early body, or the later discard. The flexibility is fine, just not always obvious
Corrupted Zendikon: A 3/3 for cc2 seems nice, but you have to take into account that it wants lands as long as it lives and it also just dies to bounce. The advantage is that you can play it for cc3 which means it can attack right away.
Cuombajj Witches: A black Fireslinger, with a drawback along with a 1/3 body. Another problem is the BB in the cost.
Dire Fleet Hoarder: The black pendant of Viridian Emissary. The body isn't the greatest, but it can be a fine roadblock that when it dies gives a free Lotus Petal, which can be nice at times to help you accelerate into your higher-drop creatures.
Dregscape Zombie: A 2/1 beater on turn 2 that can come back when it becomes handled to attack one more time isn't too bad.
Dune Beetle: This can be a good blocker for control decks, but it doesn't do much in other decks.
Durable Coilbug: The recursion ability can make this a very pesky annoyance, but it's very expensive to buy this back multiple times and the 2/2 body doesn't have that much impact.
Dusk Legion Zealot: The black Elvish Visionary. The body isn't great, but it replaces itself at least.
Fallen Askari: A Benalish Cavalry that can't block isn't that good.
Fang Skulkin: Wither can be really strong, but a 2/1 body is fragile.
Fetid Imp: This creature would be interesting if you didn't have to pay for deathtouch, but as is it's not really good.
Fog of Gnats: A Flying 1/1 with Regenerate for just B isn't bad, but BB can be a problem.
Foul Imp: A 2/2 flying with 2 life lost as a drawback for 1B would be great, but BB makes this one problematic.
Ghoulcaller's Accomplice: It is only a bear, but it can replace itself from the graveyard.
Gnawing Zombie: This creature can drain your opponent a lot, but there aren't enough sac-targets in pauper.
Highborn Ghoul: Evasive 2 power 2-drops are normally staple, but BB is very problematic on turn 2.
Lurking Nightstalker: The worse version of Wei Ambush Force.
Malevolent Noble: An instant speed sacrifice outlet, that gets pumped permanently is kind of nice, but 2 is too much of an activation cost.
Mardu Skullhunter: A fine 2-drop that is able to generate card advantage, but it's very hard to trigger Raid on turn 2 and entering the battlefield tapped can be a huge drawback in the later stages of a game.
Masked Blackguard: This is not Ambush Viper, but is still able to trade decently out of nowhere while keeping you mana open during the opponents turn.
Miasmic Mummy: The body is fine and the discard is only situational relevant.
Null Champion: On level 4 this card would be nuts, but a 4/2 is too fragile.
Order of the Ebon Hand: 2/1 First Strike guys are great and being able to pump it is nice, but there is a little too many Bs in the cost to make this card good in the typical 2 color decks.
Pit Keeper: The effect attached to a body is great, but the restriction is high.
Rathi Trapper: A black Benalish Trapper that's worse because black already has a huge amount of hard removal spells.
Ruthless Cullblade: Either an acceptable 2/1 for cc2 in the early game or a 4/2 that could be relevant. It's just missing evasion and maybe an extra toughness to be good.
Skulking Ghost: A black Gossamer Phantasm. Not directly bad, but not exciting.
Sultai Emissary: A 1/1 that turns into a 2/2 with upside, when it dies is fine. It can chump block or be sacrificed for free once and at it's best it can trade with any other X/1 card.
Surrakar Marauder: A 2/1 Intimidate for 1B on landfall. During the early game it's fine, but later this creature can become quite useless.
Thriving Rats: A 2/3 for 2 without a real downside is unusual for black, but it has to attack first and is a defensive creature.
Wei Ambush Force: A Blade of the Sixth Pride-like card is nice, but later it can be a big drawback that it can't really block.
Wretched Anurid: A 3/3 for cc2 is great and has to be handled fast, but only very very aggressive decks can play this creature because the drawback is huge and Pacifism-like cards kill you.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Abyssal Gatekeeper: There are some synergies with this card, but none of them are playable.
Agent of Shauku/Plague Witch: Turning lands into something more useful can be nice, but just +2/+0 or -1/-1 is not useful enough.
Ashen-Skin Zubera: This card works only in constructed.
Bane Alley Blackguard/Cyclopean Mummy/Dakmor Scorpion/Gutter Skulk/Krovikan Scoundrel/Queen's Bay Soldier/Skeletal Snake/Walking Corpse/Wei Infantry: These bodies are simply terrible without any further advantage.
Barrow Ghoul: The body is great, but the restriction is too high.
Basal Thrull: Saving mana for later seems interesting, but a 1/2 body is terrible and it's definitely not worth BB.
Black Cat: Random discards are great, but the 1/1 body can't do much more than chump blocking.
Blightspeaker/Bojuka Brigand/Cateran Persuader/Clot Sliver/Crypt Sliver/Frenzy Sliver/Frogtosser Banneret/Goblin Turncoat/Kalastria Healer/Nath's Buffoon/Raving Oni-Slave/Scarred Vinebreeder/Shepherd of Rot/Swarm of Rats: These would only be interesting with enough tribal support.
Blister Beetle: Neither the ability nor the body is good.
Bloodcrazed Hoplite: This card would only be interesting with a lot of heroic support.
Blood Seeker: This card is much better against constructed decks.
Bog Imp/Dakmor Bat/Misshapen Fiend/Squirming Mass/Wei Scout: Worse Flying Men are simply terrible.
Bog Initiate/Grudge Keeper/Priest of Yawgmoth/Rats of Rath/Returned Reveler/Soldevi Adnate: The bodies are terrible and the abilities are useless.
Cabal Inquisitor: The ability wouldn't be bad in the very late stage of the game, but threshold is a too high restriction.
Craven Knight/Exiled Boggart/Felhide Brawler/Filthy Cur/Fleshmad Steed/Spineless Thug/Whipstitched Zombie/Young Wei Recruits: A 2/2 for cc2 is not worth any disadvantage.
Cruel Deceiver: The ability is way too situational and overcosted.
Crypt Creeper/Ruin Rat/Skullsnatcher: There isn't much in graveyards to hate.
Culling Drone/Dinosaur Hunter/Khenra Eternal/Kolaghan Skirmisher: Unexciting 2/2 vanillas with only very small or fringe upsides aren't very good.
Daggerdrome Imp: The worse version of Vault Skirge.
Deathknell Kami: This guy can get bigger, but only for one turn. That's not worth it.
Deathspore Thallid: On its own, this card is just way too slow for what it does.
Desperate Castaways/Dhund Operative/Glaze Fiend/Salvage Slasher: These cards would only be good in an artifact-based cube.
Disciple of Malice: Not even a good sideboard card.
Discordant Piper: There is a ton of better alternatives.
Dross Hopper: Giving flying to a creature is not worth sacrificing other creatures.
Drudge Skeletons/Kuro's Taken/Manor Skeleton/Restless Dead/Skeletal Changeling/Unworthy Dead/Walking Dead: These are acceptable blockers, but nothing else.
Duskhunter Bat: Bloodthirst is too high of a restriction for such an unexciting body, especially on turn 2.
Erg Raiders: A 2/3 isn't big enough to be worth any disadvantages.
Festercreep: This card would be more interesting if there were more possibilities to give +1/+1 counters to it.
Flensermite/Plague Stinger/Swamp Mosquito: There aren't enough playable infect creatures to make the few of them worth it.
Frightcrawler: Threshold is too high of a restriction for this card.
Giant Slug: With more than just 1 power, this creature could be interesting.
Graf Rats: Unless paired with its counterpart, Midnight Scavengers, it is terrible.
Grim Roustabout: A 2/2 regenerate that can't block isn't exciting enough to be played.
Grimclaw Bats: Having to pay the same amount of life that this creature deals is not worth it.
Hasran Ogress: This creature binds too much mana to be worth it.
Olivia's Dragoon: It's a Madness-enabler, which black has very few of, but the ability is not worth a non-Madness card.
Phyrexian Denouncer: The way worse version of Fume Spitter.
Plague Fiend: The way worse version of Typhoid Rats.
Qarsi Sadist: A single copy of Syphon Life is rarely worth sacrificing a creature.
Rabid Rats: The opposite of Infantry Veteran is simply not good enough for cc2.
Rancid Rats: Skulk is often redundant with deathtouch.
Ravenous Rats: The ability will often just hit a land and the body is terrible.
Rotting Rats: It's no real advantage for yourself.
Sangrophage: A 3/3 for BB that deals 2 to you for every 3 damage it deals is not good.
Sky Scourer: There aren't enough colorless spells in most pauper cubes.
Slaughter Drone: There aren't enough colorless mana sources in most pauper cubes to make this more than a bear.
Spirit of Malevolence: The death trigger doesn't make up for the bad body.
Spiteful Bully: One of the worst drawbacks.
Tattered Mummy: 1 power is too less for this cost, for this to be a good creature.
Temple Thief: Your cube basically needs to be mono enchantments for this to be good.
Thrull Surgeon: A very bad Distress.
Wailing Ghoul: Self-milling Bane Alley Blackguard. Zombie too.
Wall of Corpses: Black has enough removal spells to not need this one.
Wicked Akuba: A 2/2 without evasion won't come through easily and even just BB to begin with can be hard to get early.
Wight of Precinct Six: It's a terrible turn-2 play and later in the game when you'd rather cast it, the cheapness typically won't matter much. It can be a nice payoff if you support a mill-theme.
Wretched Camel: Even if there was enough support, it would be bad and without it's terrible.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Chittering Rats: A 2/2 for 1BB seems bad, but the ability attached to a body is nuts.
Crypt Rats: One of the only mass-removal spells in pauper. Even if most decks are at least 2 colors, this card rocks.
Dauthi Marauder: 1 toughness may be a lot, but shadow is nearly unblockable and a 3 power clock is great.
Liliana's Specter: A nice ability attached to a body that even has flying.
Phyrexian Rager: A 2/2 for cc3 that makes card advantage.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Audacious Thief – Not far off from Phyrexian Rager, but if you can attack with it more than once it becomes very good.
Blade Juggler – a 3/2 draw a card for five is just barely acceptable. But get it for the spectacle cost of 3CMC and it’s a fine card.
Blind Zealot: A removal spell for 1BB seems like a lot, but this is more flexible, as it can also be an evasive beater.
Cabal Torturer: An interesting mix of Prodigal Pyromancer and Ghost Warden. It wants mana, but that's nearly redundant. It can kill every X/1 and help change combat math to help bring through or prevent damage. The threshold is a nice bonus for the late game.
Cursed Minotaur: An aggressive creature with a good body and evasion.
Dauthi Mercenary: Only online common! 2 unblockable power with firebreathing for cc3 is pk.
Dead Reveler: A 3/4 for cc3 is nice if it can block or not. It's really hard to get rid of it.
Deepwood Ghoul: A very interesting ability. 2 life is a fair price in order to kill your opponents X/2 with this, but with only 1 toughness this has to be regenerated every time it fights something and 2 life can add up.
Headless Specter - Pauper Hypnotic Specter. The ability is limited to being an aggressive candidate. But B/x aggro just got even more toys recently. Support for that, means this is an auto-include. Otherwise it is just a harder to cast Wind Drake
Ravenous Skirge: The black pendant of Skywinder Drake, with the difference that it's black and black not having so many good alternatives in the same slot.
Skittering Horror: A 4/3 for cc3 is really fat and the restriction is acceptable.
Skymarch Bloodletter: A Wind Drake with upside is fine for black.
Underworld Charger: A hyper aggressive card, but with decent stats in booth modes and very annoying to deal with.
Vampire Envoy: It can block a lot, but only has one power. Its effect makes it still worth it to attack.
Wasteland Scorpion: The flexibility of this card makes it really valuable.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Alley Strangler: Menace is a nice keyword, but 2 power isn't good enough.
Blood Bairn/Nantuko Husk/Phyrexian Ghoul/Vampire Aristocrat: Being able to pump +2/+2 isn't directly bad, but there isn't always a creature you want to sacrifice for it.
Bloodflow Connoisseur/Phyrexian Broodlings: Turning removed creatures into +1/+1 counters can be nice, but being able to block isn't really worth 2 mana more than Carrion Feeder.
Bloodrage Vampire: A 4/2 for cc3 isn't bad, but bloodthirst is a restriction and it's not this exciting.
Bloodrite Invoker/Smokespew Invoker: Aggressive bodies with an interesting ability for control decks. They're a little bit too undecided to be cubeable.
Cadaver Imp: Disentomb attached to a body is great, but 1/1 flying is a little bit unexciting.
Caged Zombie: If a lot of creatures die each turn, e.g. because you are sacrificing 2 unblockable damage each turn can add up real quick. If you can't guarantee to trigger this constantly it's not that impressive.
Carrion Crow: Wind Drakes have never been really good and drawbacks don't make them better.
Cinderbones: Wither can be really annoying for the opponent. If you're looking for black blockers, this is maybe a candidate.
Chilling Shade/Gangrenous Zombies: Two reasons to think about snow lands, especially the second one, that's nothing else than a walking Infest.
Crow of Dark Tidings/Gorging Vulture - This card is great for self-mill decks, but not much else.
Dauthi Jackal: 2 power and a evasion on their own, wouldn't be enough for cc3, but this creature includes Vanquish.
Deadbridge Shaman: A 3/1 for 3 isn't very good and the opponent sees the discard coming so he/she can prepare himself/herself.
Deadeye Tormentor: If you support aggro in black this could be an acceptable 3-drop. It a more-splashable but otherwise worse Lilianana's Specter which can still be fine.
Defiant Salvager: It's a nice sacrifice outlet, but there aren't enough creatures at common that want to be sacrificed.
Deathbloom Thallid – Not horrible stats for 3CMC and it does provide another chumper 1/1 on death
Eyeblight Assassin: A 2/2 for 3 with an ability that doesn't matter really often.
Giant Scorpion: Deathtouch on a body with some toughness can be nice, but this creature has 1 toughness too less to be good.
Hired Blade – With flash, it can become a sort of removal. But it trades with most creatures, and 3CMC is still outclassed with other removal
Lawless Broker: A 3/2 for 3 that pumps another creature, when it dies is annoying for your opponent. It is way worse without another creature of course.
Lost Legion: A fine blocker, that can help you to improve your next draws.
Marauding Boneslasher: An okay body for the cost, but without enough support, it isn't very impressive.
Markov Patrician: 3 power and lifelink for cc3 seems nice, but the 1 toughness makes it really fragile.
Mindstab Thrull: If this guy gets through it's insane, but it's hard to get a 2/2 through.
Moriok Replica: A 2/2 body for cc3 that can be turned into card advantage if it's not needed anymore seems nice, but a 2/2 for cc3 isn't really exciting at any stage of the game. This will often just be a 5 mana Night's Whisper.
Nocturnal Feeder: Comapred to Bloodhunter Bat requiring to die instead of only entering the battlefield is a serious drawback. On the other hand 1 mana less definitely makes a difference.
Prakhata Pillar-Bug: A 2/3 that can generate life is nice, but not overly exciting.
Putrid Cyclops: A 3/3 for cc3 is very solid and scry attached to bodies is great, but this card is really risky.
Rakdos Drake: A black Cloud Elemental is very unique, but it's a big problem for defensive flying bodies not being able to block.
Reckless Imp: A Wind Drake that can't block is only half a Wind Drake, but this at least the upside of being able to Dash for less mana.
Savage Gorger – It has the potential to get really big, with it supporting the initial hit with flying. But it still takes a lot of set up to be great
Searchlight Geist: This card can either be an attacking Wind Drake or a blocking Thornweald Archer if you want to trade with an attacking creature. The problem is just that it's really fragile with just 1 toughness.
Sewer Shambler: Overall this guy brings 4 power and 3 toughness to the battlefield. The problem is just that's it's kind of unexciting as a 2/1 as long as the opponent has no swamps.
Slate Street Ruffian: A kind of pseudo evasion, but your opponent chooses when he will end it.
Skirsdag Supplicant: The activation cost is acceptable when you are ahead but in a stalemate. The body at least is on par for keeping the stalemate as you lower life totals.
Soulcage Fiend: A 3/2 for cc3 isn't good. It's better than a 3/1, but still not really good. The ability is only an advantage when you are leading in the damage race. Only super hardcore aggressive decks want this guy. If you want to support that, this is your man.
Spark Reaper/Soulreaper of Mogis: the first repeatable card draw sac engine at Pauper, which is significant. But the cost to cast and activate the ability are just a bit too high for really competitive play, but it could be close
Stinkweed Imp: Deathouch and flying make this card a solid recurable blocker, but dredge 5 can mill you pretty fast in a 40 card deck.
Thraben Foulbloods: This is acceptable pre-Delirium stats and once enabled, it is Shatterskull Recruit.
Vampire Hounds: If it wasn't restricted to discarding creatures, this could be a staple.
Wakedancer: Without enough sac outlets, this card is mainly not worth it. Morbid can be really hard to trigger.
Wei Strike Force: A unblockable 2/1 for cc3 is ok.
Zombie Cutthroat: A 3/4 for cc3 is quite interesting, especially since it works as a combat trick when flipped for cc0, but 5 life is a lot. It can be flexible and be played for cc5 without being directly bad, but the combat trick isn't given then.
Zombie Scavengers: 3 power and regenerate is nice, but on turn 3 you can't guarantee a creature in your graveyard and it has some anti-synergies with graveyard recursion.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Alley Grifters: The worse version of Slate Street Ruffian.
Armor Thrull: A blocker that can turn its death into permanent push seems interesting, but mainly a bigger blocker is the better choice.
Barony Vampire/Felhide Minotaur/Headless Horseman/Lim-Dûl's Cohort/Moriok Reaver/Python/Scathe Zombies/Undead Minotaur/Vampire Noble/Warpath Ghoul/Witch's Familiar: 2/2, 2/3 or 3/2 guys for cc3, without any further advantage are simply terrible.
Basal Sliver/Black Poplar Shaman/Bog Glider/Boggart Loggers/Cateran Brute/Chosen of Markov/Embalmed Brawler/Falkenrath Torturer/Fathom Fleet Boarder/Ghostly Changeling/Ghoulraiser/Kami of the Waning Moon/Mindless Null/Pestilence Rats/Phyrexian Driver/Rathi Intimidator/Thief of Hope/Thieving Sprite/Villainous Ogre/Voracious Vampire: These cards would only be good with enough tribal support.
Belbe's Percher/Blood-Toll Harpy/Devouring Swarm/Dread Warlock/Dross Prowler/Dusk Imp/Faerie Macabre/Feral Shadow/Gloomhunter/Kelinore Bat/Moaning Spirit/Razortooth Rats/Severed Legion: cc3 is simply too much for an evasive beater with just 2 power and no really good ability.
Blighted Bat: A 2/1 flyer with haste for 4 mana is way too expensive.
Blistergrub/Restless Bones: Swampwalk is not good evasion.
Blood Vassal/Morgue Toad/Overeager Apprentice: Ramping through card disadvantage is simply not good.
Bog Raiders/Bog Smugglers/Legions of Lim-Dûl/Lost Soul/Raiding Nightstalker/Zodiac Snake: The worse versions of Blistergrub.
Bog Witch: Turning every card into Dark Ritual doesn't change the fact that Dark Ritual is bad in limited.
Breathstealer/Fledgling Imp/Spined Basher: Being able to turn a bad body into another bad body is no real advantage.
Cadaverous Knight: This guy is solid, but cc3 for a 2/2 flanking guy isn't good and the regenerate ability costs too much to keep the mana open.
Cemetery Gate/Corpse Blockade/Ghosts of the Damned/Moaning Wall: Terrible walls.
Contagious Nim/Pit Scorpion: Infect doesn't work in pauper cubes.
Deadly Grub: The 3/1 body is way too fragile and even if it survives, the token isn't very less fragile.
Death Charmer: The ability is not worth such a bad body.
Death's-Head Buzzard: Just -1/-1 isn't good enough.
Deathmask Nezumi: This card could race on its own, but the restriction is too high.
Deepcavern Imp: A 2/2 flying haste for cc3 isn't bad, but not really worth another card.
Dominator Drone: Without the right support, this is just a vanilla creature.
Dutiful Attendant: A nearly useless 1/2 body that needs to die just to become a Raise Dead.
Farbog Revenant: The body is overcosted and the abilities aren't exciting.
Fleshgrafter: This card wouldn't even be really interesting for an artifact-based cube.
Foul Familiar: A 3/1 that is hard to kill for good, but the problem is that it's still really fragile. Also, not being able to block can sometimes be really problematic.
Foul Spirit: A 3/2 flying for cc3 isn't bad, but not really worth a land.
Foundry Screecher/Nim Lasher/Phyrexian Gremlins: These cards could be of small interest for an artifact-based cube.
Frozen Shade/Looming Shade: Shades that are mono-color bound aren't generally good in limited.
Garrulous Sycophant: The body is not very big for the cost and it doesn't make you the monarch. If you are, the ability is not very good.
Gloom Pangolin: The stats are ok, but as a vanilla there is simply not a reason, why you would want this.
Gravegouger: There isn't much to hate in graveyards.
Grim Guardian: Constellation would only make sense in an enchantment-heavy cube.
Grisly Survivor: There isn't enough support in most cubes to pump it often enough to make it worthwhile.
Grollub/Servant of Volrath: Some of the worst cards ever.
Gutless Ghoul: Turning each removed creature into 2 life isn't directly bad, but it's not worth a 2/2 body and keeping up 1 mana.
Hired Torturer: It can be interesting to shoot the damage, but the ability is hardly overcosted and the body is really bad.
Hooded Assassin: On first sight, this card may seem quite strong for having 2 options to choose from with one containing the word "destroy", but realistically, both options are quite bad. A 2/3 for cc3 is nearly worthless and the removal option is terribly restricted. In addition to that, the "body" you get, from the second option is only a 1/2, that is also a nearly completely useless body.
Infectious Host: The 1/1 body isn't useful for anything besides chump blocking.
Kozilek's Shrieker: There aren't enough colorless mana sources in most pauper cubes.
Lim-Dûl's High Guard: This guy is quite solid, but not really exciting.
Moonglove Changeling: A 2/2 deathtouch can be ok, but it's far away from being interesting.
Necrite: Blind Zealot without evasion.
Nezumi Ronin: Bushido doesn't make this creature less fragile.
Nightsquad Commando: You aren't always guaranteed to attack on your second turn and even though this is solid if triggered, there are situations where it's just a 2/3 vanilla.
Nim Replica: The 3/1 body is very fragile and the ability is weak and overcosted.
Nirkana Assassin: A 2/3 Deathtouch for 3 would be good, but the restrictions are too high on this card.
Organ Grinder: The ability is great later, but the body is very fragile.
Orzhov Euthanist: The restriction is simply too high.
Morgue Thrull/Sadistic Augermage: Self-mill is terrible in limited.
Necromancer's Assistant: This card would only be of small interest for a graveyard themed cube.
Plague Rats/Urborg Panther: These cards don't work in most pauper cubes.
Scavenging Harpy: A 2/1 flying for 3 needs a more sginificant upside.
Sengir Bats: There is just nearly nothing that dies to a 1/2 in combat.
Serpent Warrior/Takenuma Bleeder: A 3/3 for cc3 is solid, but it's not worth a big drawback.
Servant of Nefarox: Exalted isn't good in limited and the 3/1 is too fragile.
Servant of Tymaret: Even though inspired and regeneration is a nice combination, regeneration for 2B is simply too much and the inspired effect is extremely weak.
Sibsig Icebreakers: Double-sided discard-effects are rarely good and a 2/3 body for cc3 definitely doesn't make it worth it.
Sickle Dancer – With a warrior theme, this is passible, else it’s under classed.
Skulking Fugitive/Skulking Knight/Tar Pit Warrior: The bodies aren't good enough, to be worth the risk.
Spiderwig Boggart: Granting evasion to another creature is sometimes nice, but the 2/2 body on its own is too bad.
Spinal Centipede – Many times it’ll just be a 3/2 vanilla
Tempting Witch: There aren't enough good cards, which make food.
Treacherous Werewolf: Threshold is a big restriction and it's not even this good with it.
Trespasser il-Vec: The way worse version of Dauthi Marauder.
Urborg Mindsucker: Random discard is great, but the 2/2 isn't good and it's very expensive.
Urborg Syphon-Mage: This card would only be interesting for multiplayer games.
Vesper Ghoul: A walking City of Brass, that has a totally useless body.
Voracious Null: The sorcery speed restriction of the ability makes it unplayable, but with a sacrifice theme this could be a consideration.
Wall of Shadows: This wall can block a lot, but overall it's still not really good because it's very fragile against removal.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Falkenrath Noble: This creature can drain for a lot of life with removal backup and can also swing in for some damage.
Moan of the Unhallowed – 4/4 stats, even on 2 bodies, for 4cmc is good; and with flashback for late game.
Okiba-Gang Shinobi: Mind Rot attached to a 3/2 body for just 1 mana more and Ninjutsu, which is sometimes even an advantage.
Thorn of the Black Rose: The monarch mechanic can be extremely broken and one sided and this defense body for only 4 mana is the best of the monarch cycle.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Bloodhunter Bat: A 2/2 Flying, that changes booth players life for 4 points as an etb-effect is fully ok.
Bushmeat Poacher: This creature can turn all of your opponents removal into not only card draw, but also lifegain in combination with a decent defensive body. If demands to be handeled before you untap with it in many spots. If this wouldn't need to be tapped and thus be unaffected by summoning sickness it might be a staple, but as it is 4 mana can be a bit much for a removal magnet.
Driver of the Dead: This card can be an interesting 2 for 1 trade, even though it's quite fragile with just 2 toughness.
Faceless Butcher: Even if the creature isn't gone forever, 3 toughness can still be problematic to handle and this guy needs to be handled very fast. Pacifism effects don't really work on him.
Gravedigger: cc4 seems a lot for just a 2/2 body, but Disentomb attached to a body with at least 2 power is great.
Herald of the Dreadhorde – An interesting take on Driver of the Dead not requiring a creature in the yard
Lurching Rotbeast: Cycling for just B is strong, but you will rarely want to actually cast this.
Mortis Dogs: A 4/2 will trade easily, but when it deals 4 damage directly to a player, in addition to combat damage, it still did a good job.
Perilous Shadow: A 2-colored Shade. That is what limited wants. In addition to that, it's a great blocker that is hard to get rid of, even without pumping it, and a huge finisher later.
Pith Driller: 2/4 bodies are great blockers that are hard to handle and permanent -1/-1 or +1/+1 counters can change a game basically.
Soulstinger: This can often be a 2 for 1 or a 4 mana 4/5 if you have a creature you don't need anymore.
Vulturous Aven: A 2/3 flying for cc4 would already be decent in black, but this creature also brings the option to cycle your worst creature on board for a Sign in Blood and if you want to.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Accursed Spirit: A black Bladetusk Boar. It's ok but outclassed by a lot of alternatives.
Azra Smokeshaper - Unlike other ninjas, this is a once and done ability. Great combat ability, but this has a few hoops to make it a 2-for-1, and even then it is just a 3/3 afterwards.
Crypt Lurker: If you actively want to discard or sacrifice creatures, this can definitely be an enabler for you and the 3/4 body isn't the worst.
Crypt Ripper/Darkling Stalker: Monocolored bound Shades are normally bad in limited because every deck mainly has at least 2 colors, but these have relevant advantages against all the other shades.
Demon's Jester: Hellbent can be hard to get, but this is a possible 4/3 flying that isn't totally useless before is interesting, but not good enough mainly.
Dimir House Guard: Evasion and protection on one creature seems nice, especially with the possibility to transmute it, but the body is overcosted and when you transmute it you actually pay a total of 7 mana for the cc4 spell you decide to grab.
Dire Fleet Interloper: The 2 possible outcomes are okay, but not exciting and the inability to choose the best mode for the creature can be annoying.
Disciple of Tevesh Szat: cc4 is a lot for a tap ability that is good as early in the game it that it comes. The body is really fragile though and the power is a little bit redundant when it has an ability where it needs to be tapped for. The flexibility to turn it into a hard removal is still interesting.
Drudge Reavers: Flash and regenerate makes this both a combat trick and a nice blocker, but 5 mana in one turn to trade for an X/2 creature 1 for 0 is quite much.
Dusk Charger: Getting bigger in the late game is nice, but the initial body isn't very exciting and black doesn't go very wide or use permanent based removal very often to help with Ascending.
Fathom Fleet Cutthroat/Final-Sting Faerie: The ability can be interesting in the second main phase, but it's still quite situational and often paired with card disadvantage unless you have a pinger.
Gavony Unhallowed: Having a solid starting body is good for creatures that need other effects to grow.
Heartstabber Mosquito: Both modes aren't overly exciting, but not too bad either.
Locthwain Paladin: If you heavily support monocolored decks this can be a decent threat.
Mana Skimmer: In the earlier stages of the game this card could be able to slow your opponent.
Maulfist Squad: A 4 power creature with evasion for 4 is okay and the ability to split is great, but it dies to two 1/X.
Norritt: The body is really fragile, but the ability to force creatures to attack can be really strong.
Prakhata Club Security: A 3/4 vanilla that is reasonably costed, but nothing more.
Rank Officer - Good for aggro decks what need a late game outlet/finisher for their smaller bodies. The EtB is deceptive. But getting 5 power on the board for 3b is decent. Shame this things rear is so fragile it cannot block successfully.
Shadow Rider: Being able to trade with 4/4 creatures seems nice, but when it's not blocked it only brings 3 damage through. Not bad, but not exciting.
Slum Reaper – Effect is good and can get around hexproof. But only if they have no other creatures, and that can require set up. Plus you still need to lose a body. Even after this will trade most any 2 drop
Smoldering Butcher: Wither can be really strong, but a 4/2 body is very fragile against removal or 2/X creatures that block it.
Syndicate Enforcer: Extort is a nice ability, but a 3/2 body is very fragile and not what you normally want for cc4.
Undercity Scavenger a reasonable card for sacrifice based cubes, but it’s still 2-for-1ing yourself.
Venomous Hierophant: This should only be a consideration if you desperately want self mill cards.
Viscera Dragger: It often can be seen as cc4 put a 3/3 creature token with haste into play, sacrifice it at the end of turn, draw a card. A kind of weak Giantbaiting without card disadvantage.
Wicked Guardian: This is cubeable if you have a critical amount of 3 toughness creatures for cmc 2 or 3, which is usually not the case, so it's rated as borderline.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Alesha's Vanguard: A Canyon Minotaur doesn't become a good creature just for being able to turn it into a surprise Bump in the Night for 2B when your opponent doesn't have a blocker or is tapped out.
Bala Ged Scorpion: The restriction is very high and the body is quite bad.
Balustrade Spy: This card would only be good, for a cube with a mill topic.
Blackcleave Goblin: Infect doesn't work in pauper cubes.
Brain Gorgers/Grave Scrabbler/Weirded Vampire: These cards would only be interesting when you are able to discard them.
Brain Weevil: An overcosted Mind Rot, with a useless body.
Cabal Surgeon: This card could be interesting, but only really late in the game.
Cackling Fiend: This card could only be interesting for multiplayer games.
Cackling Imp: Being able to shoot the opponent's life is sometimes nice, but it's not worth such an overcosted body.
Carrion Screecher/Vampire Revenant: Bad and overcosted flying creatures with better alternatives available.
Cat Burglar/Wall of Distortion: A permanent discard seems nice, but these cards simply bind too much mana and come too late.
Cursed Ronin/Dirtwater Wraith/Drifting Shade/Dungeon Shade/Fetid Horror/Hoar Shade/Liliana's Shade/Whispering Shade/Zof Shade: Mono-color bound shades mainly don't work in cubes.
Cutthroat il-Dal: Hellbent is a high restriction and a 4/1 is very fragile.
Cyclopean Giant: The ability is too bad to be worth such a fragile body.
Deathgaze Cockatrice: This card is simply overcosted. Deathtouch is an ability that prefers bodies with a lot of toughness and this card can't trade better than 1 for 1 and that's not good for cc4.
Dirty Wererat: This creature is too bad without threshold.
Disciple of Phenax: The body is way too weak for this card to be interesting.
Disease Carriers/Hornet Harasser/Undead Executioner: Removal attached to a body is nice, but a 2/2 is too unexciting for cc4 and it would be better to just play a bigger body.
Dreamspoiler Witches: The ability is really situative.
Drift of the Dead: With snow lands, this wall can be quite huge.
Dross Crocodile/Rotting Fensnake/Skeletal Crocodile: A 5/1 body is too fragile.
Dross Ripper: This creature needs way too much mana, to become interesting.
Earsplitting Rats/Screeching Buzzard: These creatures are no real advantage for yourself.
Entropic Eidolon: There are way too few multicolor spells to make this card playable.
Fen Stalker/Marsh Lurker: A 3/2 fear for cc4 is acceptable, but not with any restriction.
Forsaken Drifters/Giant Cockroach/Murk Dwellers/Nether Horror/Nyxborn Marauder/Rotted Hulk/Wandering Tombshell: A vanilla with below averagere stats for cc4 is too bad without any further advantage.
Gibbering Kami/Infernal Caretaker/Kami of Empty Graves/Nimana Sell-Sword/Quill-Slinger Boggart/Squeaking Pie Grubfellows/Stromkirk Mentor/Vengeful Dead/Vile Deacon/Zulaport Chainmage: These cards would only be interesting with enough availible tribal support.
Gravebane Zombie/Undying Beast: Additional card disadvantage every time these creatures die is terrible, especially because the body isn't even really good.
Hagra Crocodile: A 5/3 for cc4 would be nice, but it's not worth such a high restriction.
Haunted Cadaver: A 2/2 will simply not get through.
Highway Robber: The way worse version of Bloodhunter Bat.
Infectious Horror: A 2/2 without evasion doesn't want to attack very often.
Jagwasp Swarm: An overcosted flying creature.
Lesser Werewolf: An interesting but not exciting blocker.
Lurking Deadeye: This would be so much better if it were simply able to give deathtouch to a creature, so it could be played before blocks and actually take part in combat, but as it is, you need to make a bad block, which only damages the opponents creature and than play this post combat to get the value out of it's ability. Effects like these are simply awkward and usually not good and flash doesn't really help as it is.
Mind Raker: The processor ability is almost irrelevant in pauper cube and 3/3 for 4 isn't very good.
Mindwrack Harpy: You either want to mill or deal damage. Cards that combine booth are usually bad.
Moonglove Winnower/Vampire Champion: A deathtoucher with some toughness is nice, but there aren't many creatures that won't trade 1 for 1 with this guy, when he blocks it, apart from the 2/2 bodies that would already die whether it had deathtouch or not.
Moor Fiend/Zombie Musher: Swampwalk is a terrible evasion.
Moriok Scavenger/Nim Shrieker: These cards would only be interesting for artifact-based cubes.
Night Market Aeronaut: Even if you trigger revolt, the creature is just okay.
Ogre Jailbreaker: A big defender. The problem is just that the chance to guarantee a gate is too small.
Phyrexian Debaser: A 2/2 flying creature, that can be turned into Disfigure is interesting, but it needs to be untapped for it and cc4 is a lot for that.
Phyrexian Monitor: Regenerate doesn't make up for such a terrible body.
Phyrexian Slayer: Not even a really good sideboard card.
Pitiless Vizier: This creature wasn't even good in its own environment with proper support.
Prowling Nightstalker: cc4 is way too much for a 2/2 with evasion.
Returned Centaur: This card would only be interesting for a cube with a mill topic.
Rottenheart Ghoul: The body is overcosted and the opponent is able to prepare for the discard.
Scavenging Scarab: This creature wouldn't even be good for 1 mana less.
Sidisi's Pet: This card is ok, for blocking, but overcosted and Morph doesn't make it much better.
Sightless Ghoul: Undying can be really strong, but the restriction of not being able to block makes this card way worse.
Silent Skimmer: A 2/4 flyer for 4 isn't good, but with pump, this creature is a very good attacker. Blocking, however, isn't its skill.
Slinking Skirge: Flexibility is nice, but you simply never want a 2/1 flying for cc4.
Stallion of Ashmouth: The body and the ability are both overcosted.
Ubul Sar Gatekeepers: The ability doesn't work in most pauper cubes.
Undead Servant: This card is just overcosted in Singleton Cube.
Wake of Vultures: A 3/1 flying for cc4, that's hard to kill is interesting, but there are only a few creatures you want to sacrifice for keeping it alive.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel: Even if devotion is a high restriction for limited, this guy has a solid defensive body and is able to drain for a lot.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Dross Golem: You can count on about 2 swamps when you have 4 lands in play in a 2 color deck. Getting a 3/2 Fear for cc3 is definitely interesting, especially because it would also be ok for cc4 and great for cc2 and less.
Ninja of the New Moon - While it is a vanilla Lava Axe ninja, it is a Lava Axe Ninja with only a single black in the Ninjitsu. Whether a curve-topper, or another step in a midrange stompy plan, this will hit hard once, reuse a smaller body, and then likely kill a blocker next turn. Ignoring a 6/3 is not a winning strategy. And the "haste" option really gives this a nice punch above what we'd expect for 3B mid-combat.
Predatory Nightstalker: Only online common! This creature combines removal and a body, which can trade and later be brought back.
Rotfeaster Maggot: Overall this is not a really exciting creature, but it can block a lot of stuff or prevent it from attacking. Also, life gain can be very important for control decks, especially black control, because it often has a lot of life loss.
Silumgar Scavenger - Likely going to be the largest black flying body to exist. Eating an outclassed body to get haste and soar over is much less expected in non-Red decks. This fits in non-Sacrifice decks too as it rewards alpha strike attacks by giving a threat that must be dealt with. Only the fastest, or most creature-lite, black decks do not want this.
Warren Pilferers: The big brother of Gravedigger. A relevant 3/3 body with Disentomb attached to it for cc5 is very decent.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Ambitious Aetherborn: A 5/4 for 5 that is able to split its power is usable, but it doesn't have any evasion.
Blood Glutton: Scrounger of Souls sadly outclasses this. The 4th point of toughness can make a huge difference considering that most burn spells stop at 3 and you also don't want your 5 drop to trade down in curve.
Cavern Whisperer: The best case for this would definitely be to play it on a 1/1 or 2/2 which is no longer of use on turn 4 and get a "hasty" 4/4 menace, which discards, but the reality is often, that you don't have non-human 1/1 or 2/2 lying around, that you don't need anymore and a single discard, which your opponent can chose will often only hit some excess land and than give your opponent the opportunity to kill 2 creatures with 1 removal.
Epicure of Blood – If your cube supports enough lifegain, this can be powerful. Else it’s just a 4/4 for 5CMC
Geyserfield Stalker: A 5/4 with evasion is nice, but if you don't hit this on curve it's pretty bad.
Hyalopterous Lemure: Only online common! A black 3/3 flying creature is ok, but not too exciting.
Kalastria Nightwatch: A 4/5 flyer for 5 is nice, but you need ways to trigger it.
Krumar Bond-Kin: A slightly overcosted body with the upside of being surprise flipped for 5 damage to the face, but it's a risk and an expensive one as well.
Midnight Scavengers: Worse Warren Pilferers. Does combo with Graf Rats well.
Pewter Golem: 4 power and regeneration for cc5 is solid, but to protect it the turn it comes into play, you need 7 total mana available.
Prowling Pangolin: Giving the opponent the choice is normally bad, but this is a superior stat-to-cost body in the main color of removal spells. However, 5cc is a rough spot for Black decks. At best, it is a Curve-toper for Aggro. At worst it kills 2 worthless bodies, aka Barter in Blood.
Rotting Legion: The biggest body black can afford in this section. It's pretty huge and a threat, but the disadvantage of not being able to block the same turn you cast it can hurt sometimes.
Rage-Scarred Berserker: A decent body, that basically grants you one free swing with whatever creature.
Scrounger of Souls: This can be a nice stabilizer for a control deck, but it lacks 1 point of power or toughness to be really good.
Shadowcloak Vampire: A 4/3 flying body is solid, but still in Bolt-range. This card would either need 4 toughness or permanent flying without life loss to be good.
Skinthinner: Hard removal attached to a body for cc5 would be good but this card bounds a total of 8 mana and only gives you a 2/1 body.
Skirge Familiar: Only online common! The 3/2 flying body is only somewhat acceptable and the ability isn't that good either.
Stromkirk Patrol: A 4/3 isn't much for cc5, but this is quite solid. After 1 attack it becomes Fire Elemental which is ok, but not too exciting. Afterward, it becomes more interesting with only 2 attacks without being blocked.
Wei Elite Companions: Only online common! A 3/3 unblockable for cc5 is ok, but not exciting.
Weed-Pruner Poplar: Killing X/1 creatures and decreasing bigger bodies is ok, especially when the body doesn't become tapped for it, but just a 3/3 for cc5 isn't that good.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Anointed Deacon/Barrow Witches/Fallen Cleric/Scuttling Death/Skullmane Baku/Spitting Sliver: These cards would be interesting with enough tribal support if that be possible.
Bleak Coven Vampires: This card would be nuts in an artifact-based cube.
Bog Tatters/Dreg Reaver/Hollow Dogs/Skeletal Kathari/Sootfeather Flock/Zombie Goliath: These cards wouldn't even be good for 1 mana less.
Canal Monitor/Mass of Ghouls/Renegade Demon: These creatures are way too fragile.
Catacomb Slug/Polluted Dead/Sewerdreg/Sibsig Host/Shinen of Fear's Chill/Viscid Lemures: Overcosted bodies without any useful abilites, if any ability at all.
Chimney Imp: The effect on death is nice, but the body is so terribly useless and the whole card is terribly overcosted.
Cinderhaze Wretch: Permanent discard isn't bad, but this card comes too late and you can only untap it once before it dies.
Dreadbringer Lampads: Constellation would only make sense in an enchantment-heavy cube.
Dementia Bat: It's better to play Mind Rot than make this detour.
Dread Drone: Bringing two Eldrazi spawns that can either ramp or chump twice isn't bad, but the 4/1 is just way too fragile.
Duskwalker: The worse version of Wei Elite Companions.
Enemy of the Guildpact: There are simply not enough multicolor spells in most cubes.
Gorgon Recluse: Even a solid body for its normal costs, but not solid enough for cc5. This card is way better for its madness cost.
Horror of the Broken Lands: There is not enough cycling support in pauper.
Hound of the Farbogs: With Delirium this card is great, but without it's overcosted.
Kozilek's Translator: 1 life for 1 mana per turn isn't worth it and the body is overcosted.
Nightwing Shade: Shades mainly don't work in limited.
Pestilent Souleater/Scourge Servant: Infect doesn't work in pauper cubes.
Phyrexian Bloodstock/Phyrexian Reaper: These cards would only be interesting for sideboards.
Poisonbelly Ogre: The body is very unexciting and the ability is no real advantage for you.
Rabid Bloodsucker: 5 mana for such a bad body with an ability that's bad when your behind is just that - bad.
Rotting Mastodon: 8 toughness is way more than a creature needs in pauper in with only 2 power and no abilities.
Silumgar Butcher: A creature that casts Last Gasp when it enters the battlefield seems nice, but you need to sacrifice one of your own creatures in order to enable the Last Gasp and considering this additional cost, the 3/3 for cc5 is simply not enough.
Slaughterhouse Bouncer: Hellbent is too difficult of a restriction. Otherwise, it would be at least borderline.
Soul Scourge: A 3/2 flying and Lava Spike seems nice, but 2 toughness makes it very fragile and if it dies the ability will have done nothing.
Street Wraith: This card is only really good in constructed decks that need empty slots in their library.
Twins of Maurer Estate: This card is overcosted if not cast for Madness.
Warchanter of Mogis: This card would need to have intimidate itself to become interesting.
Zombie Assassin: flexibility is nice, but 3/2 bodies are bad and a 1 for 1 trade for cc5 is just way too much.
Zombie Boa: The ability seems nice at first glance, but sorcery speed makes this just a very bad version of Wei Elite Companions.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Gurmag Angler: A 5/5 body is huge in pauper and with at least 2 cards in your graveyard when you cast this card, it has already great stats.
First-Sphere Gargantua - This is the true Pauper Phyrexian Gargantua. Having built-in value via Unearth means this fits decks that may have a self-discard theme, or just needing an extra push on a given post-death turn.
Twisted Abomination: One of the best creature finishers pauper has to offer.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Sultai Scavenger: A 3/3 flying is a great body to end games with. With at least 2 cards in your graveyard when you cast this card, it already has great stats.
Tithebearer Giant – Phyrexian Rager’s big brother. Great effect, but costs a lot
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Blight-Breath Catoblepas: Black has more devotion that most other colors and the fact that this is a creature, that can trade and later be recurred is nice, but 6 mana is definitely a lot and 3/2 aren't the best stats.
Blitz Leech: Flash in combination with an etb effect, that can mess with combat, by either killing an X/2 or shrink a bigger creature enough, that it dies in combat has potential, but 6 mana is a lot and the 5/2 body can only trade and rarely survive the block.
Dukhara Scavenger: A big creature that can bring a relevant creature back, but there are better alternatives at 6 mana.
Grixis Slavedriver: The value is high with this creature, but so is the mana cost.
Marshmist Titan: On average, you will have at least about 2 devotion on turn 5. This fact makes this card mainly a better Rotting Legion with the risk of not having any devotion, but the chance to play this guy really cheap. Solid, but not exciting.
Reaper of Night: Even though booth parts are overcosted by 1 the combination is still nice.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Ashenmoor Cohort/Anurid Murkdiver: These cards would even be bad for 1 mana less.
Bog Hoodlums/Dripping Dead: Some of the worst creatures that have ever been printed.
Bog Serpent: This card isn't even good as a sideboard card.
Caustic Hound/Deathcurse Ogre: Only very aggressive decks could be interested in the ability and decks like that aren't interested in creatures with cc6.
Corpulent Corpse: Flexibility is nice, but this card is either terribly overcosted or has way too many suspend counters.
Crawling Filth/Gempalm Polluter: There are no playable tribals in pauper cubes.
Fen Hauler: There aren't enough artifacts in most cubes to make this valuable.
Gloom Sower: For 7 mana a creature should do more than simply giving your opponent a good removal target.
Marsh Hulk: No matter if you pay 6 mana for a 4/6 Vanilla or 10 mana for a 5/7, this card is overcosted and not good.
Maze Abomination: A very big body that can trade with nearly everything it fights with, but It would be better with a bigger body and no deathtouch.
Minotaur Abomination/Queen's Agent: These cards are simply overcosted by cc1.
Mournwhelk: If the evoke and casting costs would be decreased by 1, this card could be a staple.
Shambling Attendants: This card is overcosted, even with delve.
Toxic Nim: Infect doesn't work in limited, but this card could still be used as a huge and dangerous wall with the only disadvantage that it comes way too late.
Terrus Wurm: Scavenge is nice, but cc7 need to be ramped. This card would only be interesting for green.
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Carrion Feeder is suprisingly good, because it doesn't need to interact. It can simply turn every creature, that becomes the target of Lightning Bolt, Pacifism or any other removal into +1/+1 counters. Aswell the ability changes combat math.
Viscera Seer is similar, with the disadvantage, that the body never becomes useful.
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Deftblade Elite: This is a very flexible one-drop. It's not just a kind of white Scorching Spear, it's also absolutely insane with equipment and auras and one of the best blockers for the late game.
Elite Vanguard/Savannah Lions: There isn't a more efficient 1-drop creature in any other color. it's simply vanilla, but a penalty/condition-free one.
Gideon's Lawkeeper/Goldmeadow Harrier/Law-Rune Enforcer: Activated abilities that require tapping are better the less casting cost the creature has, because of summoning sickness. These guys are simply great soft removal that handles a huge amount of things with a very high flexibility and for a very little amount of mana.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Akrasan Squire: This creature can attack as a 2/2 one-drop and possibly push other creatures later with Exalted, though it's own body is nearly useless in that case.
Benevolent Bodyguard: Some people call this the pauper Mother of Runes. On first sight, it may seem very bad since it has a nearly useless body that can just trade for another card, but the advantage of this creature is that many people don't want to "waste" a removal spell on it and in that way be very interesting during any part of the game.
Caravan Escort: The level up cost is very low and this creature becomes acceptable at the first level and is simply huge at level 5.
Doomed Traveler: Suntail Hawk is bad, but having an additional body that can chump, be equipped and get pseudo evasion is interesting.
Healer's Hawk: Turn 1 Evasion and Lifelink on a small body is fine. Gets increasingly better with auras and equipment, especially when the opponent needs to spend removal to kill your 1 drop.
Icatian Javelineers: The white pendant of Mogg Fanatic with the big difference that it's still alive after activating its ability.
Infantry Veteran: Similar to, but different from, Akrasan Squire by the fact that this guy can't buff himself to attack as a 2/2 on its own, but can still split up its power with much more flexibility and change combat math permanently. The problem is just that the body on its own isn't very relevant.
Steppe Lynx: When played on turn 1 this creature will very often be a kind of Kird Ape, but it's a very bad topdeck in the late game.
Thraben Inspector: For one mana you get a 1/2 that will replace itself.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Benalish Missionary: The ability is very interesting for a defensive strategy, especially double blocks.
Charm Peddler: This guy can change combat math and prevent burn spells, but for a high price and with a terrible body.
Faerie Guidemother: If you are in desperate need of 1 drops this is okay, since it can give you some reach, when you draw it later.
Fan Bearer: It's a strictly better Dromoka Dunecaster, but still not Gideon's Lawkeeper.
Hunted Witness: A step down from Doomed Traveler. Lifelink on a 1/1 is more or less irrelevant unless you're also in black.
Lagonna-Band Trailblazer: An medium interesting early blocker, that would only be worth considering with big support for Heroic.
Loyal Pegasus: This card is far better than the comparable Jackal Familiar, but not being able to attack before turn 3 hurts a lot for a one-drop.
Loyal Sentry: Can be a nice defensive creature with pseudo-deathtouch for more controlling white decks. Does combo nicely with flicker effects.
Origin Spellbomb: Getting a 1/1 Token and a card for cc2 is ok but not very exciting, especially because of the additional mana.
Pride Guardian/Wall of Hope: These defenders can deter your opponent from attacking even though they have no power, but with only 3 toughness, they can't block much without dying.
Sacred Cat: It's mainly a worse Doomed Traveler except for lifelink and that it works with self-mill.
Soltari Foot Soldier: A white Tormented Soul. Interesting with equipment, but bad without.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Akroan Jailer/Dromoka Dunecaster: There are many better tappers in white.
Anointed Chorister: A 1/1 Lifelink on it's own doesn't do very much and having to constantly pump 5 mana into it, in order for it to have any relevant board impact is simply too much.
Apothecary Initiate/Cathedral Sanctifier/Children of Korlis/Confessor/Dedicated Martyr/Goldenglow Moth/Honorable Scout/Icatian Moneychanger/Leonin Elder/Martyr of Sands/Royal Herbalist/Soul Warden/Soul's Attendant/Soulmender/Cliffside Lookout: Life by itself is not worth such bad bodies.
Ardent Recruit/Auriok Glaivemaster/Auriok Transfixer/Court Homunculus/Glint Hawk/Kitesail Apprentice/Salvage Scout: These cards would only be interesting for an artifact-based cube.
Aven Skirmisher/Funeral Pyre/Kitesail Scout/Lantern Kami/Suntail Hawk: Flying Men are simply bad on their own.
Beloved Princess: Being able to be blocked by 2/Xs isn't really much of an evasion.
Benalish Hero/Devoted Hero/Devout Monk/Eager Cadet/Gustcloak Runner/Icatian Infantry/Kjeldoran Warrior/Mtenda Herder/Sanctuary Cat/Serra Zealot/Spiritual Visit/Trained Caracal/Tundra Wolves/Valiant Guard/Volunteer Militia/Warclamp Mastiff: The Eager Cadet club.
Camel: Perhaps the most useless protection ever.
Caregiver/Charmed Stray/Netter en-Dal/Samite Censer-Bearer/Tireless Tribe: The price is way too high for such bad abilities.
Clergy of the Holy Nimbus/Glittering Lynx: It's way too easy to disable these creatures.
Death Speakers/Devout Harpist: These cards would only be interesting for sideboards.
Devoted Retainer/Goldmeadow Dodger: Worse Soltari Foot Soldiers.
Dragon's Eye Sentry: With switched Power and Toughness this would be a really good blocker, but as is it's simply bad.
Encampment Keeper: The idea of an early-drop creature with a relevant late game ability is nice, but the body is terrible and 8 mana is a lot.
Foothill Guide/Kitsune Diviner/Midnight Duelist/Trade Caravan: The abilities are way too restrictive.
Frontline Strategist/Kinjalli's Caller/Plated Sliver/Ramosian Sergeant/Sidewinder Sliver/War Falcon: These creatures would only be interesting with enough tribal support.
Garrison Cat: There is a bunch of similar, but better alternatives for this.
God-Pharaoh's Faithful: Okay for a defensive wall but won't often gain enough life to be worthwhile.
Haazda Exonerator/Miracle Worker: Worse Devout Harpists.
Honor Guard: Most limited decks are at least 2 colors.
Icatian Scout: The ability is interesting, but not too exciting and the body is terrible.
Kami of False Hope: Without the right synergies, a walking Fog isn't much better than the instant-speed version.
Kjeldoran Javelineer: On first sight, this creature may seem interesting, but it needs a lot of mana to become a threat and it doesn't last for long.
Lionheart Maverick: The ability is way too expensive to be relevant.
Mosquito Guard: A 1/1 First Strike body is as bad as Reinforce 1 for cc2 and the flexibility doesn't make it better.
Nomads en-Kor: It's hard to kill this creature, but a 1/1 is simply a terrible body and not really protection-worthy.
Pious Wayfarer: Your cube basically needs to be mono enchantments for this to be good.
Resistance Fighter/Shield Mate: Mainly worse Benevolent Bodyguards.
Selfless Cathar: Glorious Charge is better because it's a surprise trick.
Snubhorn Sentry: The body takes way too long to be relevant.
Staunch Shieldmate: A total of 4 stat points for 1 mana is a lot, but this creature has barely any offensive capabilities and it's often better to simply pay an additional mana and get an additional effect if you are looking for cheap defesnive creatures.
Stern Constable: The ability to tap creatures isn't worth the card disadvantage.
Tasseled Dromedary/Yoked Ox: A blocker with solid toughness and without defender, but Pride Guardian is more interesting for this job.
Thraben Standard Bearer: Interesting card because it makes Soldiers, but compared to Icatian Crier it is not enough.
Tragic Poet: The ability is interesting, but enchantments are rarely going to the graveyard.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Kor Skyfisher: This creature is not only just a super solid 2/3 flier for just cc2, it can also be played for cc1 when missing land drops or to reenable etb-effects.
Mistral Charger/Stormfront Pegasus: 2 power fliers for 1W are just great for any aggressive strategie.
Porcelain Legionnaire: A "colorless" 3/1 First Strike for cc2 is absolutely insane. It's maybe the best 2 drop an aggressive deck can have and a super solid blocker for control decks as well.
Seeker of the Way: A great card for aggressive/tempo decks. Just from the threat that prowess presents, this creature can be pseudo unblockable sometimes and with just one trigger, it becomes a 3/3 lifelinker.
Soltari Trooper: A basically unblockable 2 power beater for 1W is pretty good.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Ainok Bond-Kin: A solid 2-drop with the option to become relevant in the later stages of the game, that also has some random synergies with other cards with +1/+1 counters. Sadly it's not very good in aggressive decks and this way often worse than Knight of Cliffhaven.
Benalish Cavalry: A 2-drop with a solid pseudo-evasion.
Bishop's Soldier/Mesa Unicorn: These guys are really good in a race situation.
Daring Skyjek: A 3/1 Vanilla for 2 mana is good and with an upside, cards like these become insane.
Daybreak Charger: 3/1 for 2 is a decent stat ratio for an aggressive creature and having a useful effect stapled to it makes this very decent. Keep in mind though, that you will not always have a onedrop to start the curve so on turn 2 the etb often goes to waste.
Fencing Ace: On its own its strong enough and with some kind of pump it gets crazy. Only slightly worse then youthful knight.
Gust Walker: A bear with a relevant upside. The problem is that without ways to untap it, it can only be used every second turn.
Knight of Cliffhaven: It's perhaps the best common level up creature. It curves itself out, is a solid bear at the beginning, a really solid beater afterward and a huge threat later.
Kor Line-Slinger/Squall Drifter: The overcosted versions of Gideon's Lawkeeper, but still playable.
Lone Missionary: 2 power for cc2 and 4 life. This guy can buy a lot of time for control decks and wins races for aggressive decks. Very solid.
Oketra's Avenger: A 3/1 with a nice upside is solid for two mana.
Raise the Alarm: Normally 2 1/1s for cc2 are worse than any 2/2 for 2 with upside, as long as you don't support swarm, but these have instant speed and can surprise kill attacking X/1 or X/2 creatures.
Phantom Nomad: With toughness boosting auras/equipments this becomes immune to damage, which is really strong. In a vacuum it's just fine.
Syndic of Tithes: A solid bear that is great for control decks, as well as giving reach to aggressive decks.
Topan Freeblade: Early in the game it's at it's best and later it's still fine.
Veteran Armorer: 1 additional toughness for each of your creatures can change a lot.
Wandering Champion: Better than many other non-Vanilla 3/1s. It isn't a Guild card as it can just be a 3/1, but CAN threaten card filtering in the right pairing.
Wings of the Guard: A 2/2 flyer is useful and the drawback is bearable.
Youthful Knight: 2 power and First Strike for just cc2. This creature is not just a solid attacker, it's also a great blocker that scares a lot of creatures.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Ajani's Sunstriker: 2/2 lifelink bodies for cc2 are alright and can make for a nice roadblock against aggressive decks.
Angelic Wall/Wall of Resistance: Solid walls, that can prevent a big amount of damage.
Arashin Cleric/Temple Acolyte: Lifegain attached to a body is normally good, but 1/3 bodies are rarely needed, especially not in white.
Avacynian Priest/Sigardian Priest/Benalish Trapper/Blinding Mage/Master Decoy: The worse versions of Squall Drifter.
Azorius Arrester: A nice topdeck for a 2-drop, but it's bad on turn 2.
Beacon Hawk: The 1/1 flying body isn't very interesting, but the flexible pseudo evasion makes it interesting.
Benevolent Unicorn: The ability can be very strong, but the body is terrible.
Cavalry Drillmaster: A 2/1 that you almost always don’t want to cast on turn 2 to get the full effect.
Cleric of the Forward Order: Unless you play multiple copies of this, it's not too exciting. Lifegain attached to a solid body can be nice, but 2 life is a nearly irrelevant amount.
Cliff Threader/Crimson Acolyte/Disciple of Grace/Disciple of Law/Duskrider Falcon/Freewind Falcon/Kithkin Zealot/Marsh Threader/Obsidian Acolyte/Repentant Blacksmith: These cards would only be interesting for sideboards.
Drannith Healer: Cycling for 1 is good, but you will rarely want to cast it, because triggering it multiple times in a singleton cube is unlikely, unless you are very dedicated.
Expendable Troops: An interesting ability, that is still relevant later.
Felidar Cub/Kami of Ancient Law/Keening Apparition/Ronom Unicorn: Solid bears, that can get rid of enchantments as well.
Field Surgeon: This little guy can turn combat math into a mess for your opponent. On the other hand, it's not that good if your plan is to turn all your creatures sideways every turn and the body is simply bad.
Fledgling Griffin: Only getting the evasion on landfall is a high restriction, but this creature is still solid.
Flutterfox: If you have a deep artifact theme or a lot of auras this can be ok.
Fortified Rampart: High toughness, but it doesn't kill anything on its own.
Gather the Townsfolk: Splitting 2 power and toughness among 2 creatures has some upsides, but also downsides that are bigger as long as you don't support swarm as an archetype.
Glint Hawk Idol/Order of the Golden Cricket: The required investment every turn for these flying bears makes them a little bit unexciting, but 2/2 fliers for cc2 are very solid.
Gold Myr: A white ramp creature. Pretty unique at common rarity and definitely a good card for clunky white decks or control-heavy white decks.
Herald of Dromoka: There are some good warriors at common rarity, but not really enough to make this worth it, especially because Vigilance is not a super relevant ability.
Hero of the Pride: If you play a lot of combat tricks or enchantments, the mass pump can be neat.
Ikiral Outrider: The level up cost is very high.
Jeskai Student: Prowess isn't a very strong ability, especially not in white, and a 1/3 body for 1W isn't very impressive.
Kithkin Shielddare: This guy can change combat math for blocking a lot.
Leonin Skyhunter/Silverbeak Griffin: WW on a 2 drop can be problematic, but 2/2 fliers are pretty good.
Leonin Snarecaster: The worse version of Azorius Arrester.
Loyal Cathar: Getting a 2 power creature twice for cc2 seems like a dream on first sight, but the transformed card is often a "dead" card, not because it's a zombie, but rather because a 2/1 can't attack very often and without being able to block as well, it will do nothing in most cases. It would still be a staple with this disadvantage, but WW is really problematic on turn 2.
Maned Serval: If you are looking for a decent defensive 2 drop without defender, this isn't that bad.
Martyr of Dusk: The body isn't great but the 1/1 lifelinker that comes along with it after it dies can be a nice bonus.
Moorland Drifter: A bear that can be a beater in the later game.
Moorland Inquisitor: Even if the possibility of First Strike is often enough, but 3 mana is a lot if you should need the ability.
Ninth Bridge Patrol: A strictly better Unruly Mob. You might want to include this if you're running a flicker theme.
Order of Leitbur: The threat alone of possible First Strike will often be enough, so you won't always need to actually spend the mana, but even if this creature can be pumped, WW can be a problematic mana cost for a 2drop.
Pouncing Lynx/Sunlit Hoplite: Actually a better designed version of Youthful Knight, even though strictly worse.
Safehold Sentry: A bear that can attack as a 2/4 or block as a 2/4 after attacking wouldn't be this interesting because of the high price for it, but the synergies with some stuff like Viridian Longbow are given.
Serra Disciple: Better in Artifact cube. But efficient costed for equipment cube.
Soltari Emissary: Only online common! The shadow version of Order of the Golden Cricket.
Soul Summons: A 2/2 body with the upside of possibly hiding a creature, but the chance is not very high.
Split-Tail Miko: This creature can change combat math a lot, but there are better alternatives for it.
Standard Bearer: This creature will steal every aura or combat trick, but it can die to almost any removal spell, even if it's just Lava Dart or Lose Hope, and the body is terrible.
Steadfast Cathar: It is a 2/3 on offense and at 1W it's aggressively costed. It is meant to fight and live for faster decks.
Stone Haven Medic: Just 1 life for 1 mana and tap a guy is not enough to be playable. At least it has a big butt.
Sunscape Familiar: Making about 50% of the decks it's played in cheaper can be really nice, but a 0/3 defender is not really a good body.
Suture Priest: This creature can deal some damage and gain some life, but the body is terrible and it's a terrible topdeck for the late game.
Wall of Glare: Being able to block a 4/X or 2x 2/X creatures can prevent a lot of damage, especially because this creature can prevent any kind of final charge.
War Screecher: Interesting for white weenie and go wide white decks. But costs a lot for the effect.
Whitemane Lion: Saving a creature from removal, while getting a surprising bear for it, is definitely interesting. This creature can also work as a combat trick to kill an attacking X/2 creature or it can retrigger etb-effects, but it can't be played on an empty board and if it's on the board once, it's way less interesting.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Adherent of Hope: There are no common planeswalkers.
Advance Scout: The ability is nice, but the body is terrible on its own.
Aegis Automaton: The ability is overcosted and the body is useless.
Akroan Skyguard: The body on its own is really useless and there are far from enough good spells that really want to target this card.
Alaborn Grenadier/Alpine Watchdog/Huatli's Snubhorn/Steadfast Guard/Sun Sentinel/Thraben Valiant/Veteran Cavalier: Vigilance is mainly only interesting for bigger creatures.
Alaborn Musketeer: Reach can be useful, but it's better to play flying creatures instead.
Amrou Kithkin/Arctic Foxes/Augur il-Vec/Fleet-Footed Monk: Worse Soltari Foot Soldiers.
Amrou Scout/Ballyrush Banneret/Battlefield Medic/Binding Mummy/Cavalry Pegasus/Cenn's Heir/Daru Spiritualist/Defiant Falcon/Griffin Rider/Icatian Lieutenant/Judge of Currents/Kithkin Greatheart/Mummy Paramount/Ondu Cleric/Ondu War Cleric/Ramosian Lieutenant/Silent-Chant Zubera/Sinew Sliver/Sentinel Sliver/Stalwart Shield-Bearers/Talon Sliver/Veteran Armorsmith: These cards would only be interesting with enough tribal support.
Angelic Curator/Auriok Sunchaser/Kor Outfitter/Leonin Den-Guard/Leonin Squire/Pteron Ghost/Sunspear Shikari: These cards would only be interesting for artifact-based cubes.
Angelic Page/Ghost Warden/Kjeldoran Guard: Worse Infantry Veterans.
Anointer Priest: This card is only viable in token strategies and even then it is only mediocre.
Araba Mothrider/Armored Pegasus/Aven Squire/Concordia Pegasus/Courier Hawk/Makindi Aeronaut/Mesa Falcon/Mesa Pegasus/Osai Vultures/Skyblade of the Legion/Skyshroud Falcon/Territorial Roc: These bodies don't become better just for having flying.
Armored Warhorse: A 2/3 without any further abilities is simply bad and definitely not worth the risk of not having WW turn 2.
Audacious Infiltrator/Blade of the Sixth Pride/Devilthorn Fox/Dromoka Warrior/Impostor of the Sixth Pride/Kor Castigator/Knight of New Benalia/Leonin of the Lost Pride/Oreskos Swiftclaw/Prowling Caracal/Raptor Companion/Savai Sabertooth: 3 power for 2 mana is a fair deal. These guys can race on curve and are still relevant blockers in the later stages of the game but with only 1 toughness they can be fragile.
Aven Farseer: The ability is way too situative.
Aviary Mechanic: With a flicker theme this may be an inclusion, but in a vacuum, it's just a bear.
Aysen Bureaucrats/Errant Doomsayers: Really bad tappers.
Boros Mastiff: Battalion is a way too high restriction for such a bad card.
Capashen Knight: This creature needs 2 mana every turn to be at least be a Youthful Knight.
Capashen Unicorn: A walking Disenchant would be nice but the problem is just that the body is very bad.
Checkpoint Officer: There is a bunch of alternatives, that do the same, but strictly better.
Clergy en-Vec/Crossbow Infantry/Femeref Healer/Samite Healer/Shu Farmer: The abilities of these creatures are simply too weak and outclassed by better alternatives.
Cogworker's Puzzleknot: A worse version of Vessel of Ephemera.
Countless Gears Renegade: It's almost impossible to play this on turn 2 with Revolt triggered and even later in the game it is not quite impressive.
Eddytrail Hawk: Giving another creature flying can kill your opponents, but it's not that strong on its own.
Enlightened Ascetic/Monk Realist: The 1/1 body is terrible and the ability is highly restrictive. There are many better answers for enchantments.
Errand of Duty/Pikemen: Benalish Hero doesn't become less terrible for cc2.
Fresh Volunteers/Glory Seeker/Hipparion/Knight Errant/Shield Bearer/Silkenfist Fighter/Silvercoat Lion/Squire/Traveling Philosopher/Wall of Caltrops: Without any further advantage, these creatures are just terrible.
Kinsbaile Skirmisher/Guardian of Pilgrims: The pump is weak and the 2/2 body uninteresting.
Kitsune Loreweaver/Kjeldoran Outrider: These creatures could become solid blockers, but only for a high price.
Lightwalker: Even if you would be able to consistently put +1/+1 counters on creatures without making card disadvantage, this would not be the best creature.
Lost Leonin: Infect doesn't work in most pauper cubes.
Mystic Familiar/Mystic Visionary: Threshold is a way too high a restriction.
Oreskos Sun Guide: This card is outclassed by Lone Missionary and Bishop's Soldier.
Patrol Hound: Even if the threat of possible First Strike is often enough, the price is simply too high if you should really need it.
Revered Dead: A solid blocker, but nothing else.
Setessan Battle Priest: A very defensive body. The ability would be interesting if Heroic wasn't such a weak keyword.
Shinewend/Silverchase Fox: The worse versions of Ronom Unicorn.
Silverflame Squire: A 2/1 for 2 is pretty bad. If you want to get the full value out of this card you can't play it before turn 4 where 2/X creatures can start to become useless and then you are forced to use the combat trick on turn 3, which can also fizzle and leave you with nothing but having spend mana on an overcosted combat trick.
Soul Shepherd: Mainly just a way worse Lone Missionary.
Squadron Hawk/Welkin Hawk: Cards like these don't work in the typical cube.
Starlight Invoker: The body is bad and the ability is extremely expensive.
Stonewise Fortifier: An unexciting and terribly overcosted ability on an unexciting body.
Sungrace Pegasus: Lifelink and Flying seem nice for just cc2, but with only 1 power, it's not really worth it if you don't have a really big amount of spells to pump it.
Throne Warden: Without Monarch cards in the cube, this is just a bear.
Trained Pronghorn: It's hard to kill this creature, but the price to protect it is high.
Transcendent Envoy: Storm Crow is bad and the upside doesn't help.
Unruly Mob: This card needs at least 2 other creatures to die to become interesting.
Vessel of Ephemera: This is overcosted by at least 1 mana.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Ballynock Cohort: A super solid First Striker for cc3 that will be a 3/3 most of the time. Be careful though, because if your opponent kills your only other white permanent mid combat, you might get into a weird spot.
Territorial Hammerskull: A better Master of Diversion
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Ardenvale Tactician: A 2/3 flying for cmc 3 is decent and having a useful ability attached to it doesn't really hurt.
Attended Knight: Splitting the power can be useful. 1/1 Tokens are typically not very useful, but sometimes really good.
Aven Riftwatcher: This card is way weaker in pauper limited than in constructed, but it's still flexible. You get either 4 life and up to 3 blocks or 4 life, 1 block and up to 2 attacks, with a very solid body. It can be good for control decks to buy some time or for aggressive decks in a race, but the card disadvantage can be problematic later.
Basilica Guards: Extort is very strong and a 1/4 body is an acceptable blocker.
Burrenton Bombardier: The Wind Drake opportunity isn't very exciting, but Reinforce gives it the ability to also be a white Feral Invocation and that's definitely interesting.
Chapel Geist/Exultant Skymarcher/Sunspire Griffin: Even if WW can be problematic on turn 3, 2/3 flying bodies are extremely solid and worth the risk.
Dawnglare Invoker: A 2 power flying beater for cc3 is always Ok and this one is game winning if you should have 8 mana for its ability.
Farrel's Zealot: If this creature should come through the opponent's evasion, it will kill a creature nearly for sure.
Geist of the Moors: 3 power combined with evasion makes for a solid card in an aggressive color.
Heavenly Qilin/Trusted Pegasus: 2 power fliers that can jump another creature for 3CMC is a fine addition to most cubes.
Heliod's Pilgrim: The small brother of Totem-Guide Hartebeest. It's worse, but there are still enough powerful auras in pauper to search for.
Icatian Crier: Being able to turn lands into Raise the Alarm is a great late game opportunity.
Kabuto Moth: This creature can give pseudo evasion through changing combat math and also block as a 2/4 flyer. The problem is just that the body isn't great and the ability is often not used.
Kitsune Blademaster: As a potential 3/3 First Strike it's hard to block this creature, so it's often an evasive 2 power beater that could also block as a 3/3 First Strike.
Kor Hookmaster: A solid aggressive creature, that can prevent blocking for 2 turns.
Martyr's Soul: Swarm, and Aggro really like this body. It also works with mana rocks. Not likely to be a Turn 3 5/4, but poses a threat at that size before the late game.
Master of Diversion: This card is great to support highly aggressive strategies. Your opponent simply can't just keep 1 blocker back and attack with the rest.
Sandsteppe Outcast: The slightly better brother of Attended Knight. Instead of a solid 2/2 First Strike body and a barely useful 1/1 Vanilla, you get an acceptable 2/1 body and a 1/1 flying clock.
Shu Cavalry: A white Phantom Warrior. Solid, but not too exciting.
Skyhunter Skirmisher: This is a very impactful 2 power flier for cc3. With any kind of pump, it easily reaches absurd dimensions. Only the WW in its cost prevents it from being a staple.
Soltari Visionary: This creature is not just a 2 power beater with a great evasion for cc3, it also handles every enchantment your opponent plays that doesn't remove it.
Troubled Healer: This card basically wins on it's own against red decks, since you can trade lands for all their removal. Outside of red matchups it can mess with combat math, but is far less effective.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Amrou Seekers/Knight of Valor/Soltari Lancer/Zhalfirin Knight: Evasive 2 power beaters for cc3, with a worse evasion than Shu Cavalry.
Apex Hawks: A Wind Drake with a big flexibility later in the game. None of the options are super exciting, but none of them are really bad.
Auramancer/Monk Idealist: Enchantments are rarely going to the graveyard, but for cubes with a lot of enchantment hate this card is considerable.
Benalish Knight: A possible combat trick, but with just 2 power, there isn't much it is able to trade.
Benalish Lancer: Flexibility is nice, but the first opportunity is terrible and the second is overcosted by 1.
Cathar's Companion: This creature is okay, but the restriction is too high.
Cloudchaser Kestrel/Wispmare: The restriction is very high, but if they can find a target they are good.
Court Street Denizen: Most limited decks are at least 2 colors, which makes this card very restrictive. It won't tap down creatures often.
Dauntless Aven: A 2/1 with pseudo-vigilance for one of your creatures if it attacks is alright but not the greatest.
Dauntless Cathar: This creature often trades down, but the ability to replace itself after death is great.
Defender of Law/Farbog Explorer/Lawbringer/Lightbringer/Nightwind Glider/Pilgrim of Justice/Pilgrim of Virtue/Thermal Glider/Wall of Light: These cards would only be interesting for sideboards.
Desperate Sentry: It is self-replacing like Doomed Traveler, but it leaves a formidable body behind. The downside is Delerium is so hard to trigger on curve, so it is mostly a blocker looking to chump.
Devout Witness: Turning every land into Disenchant can be really interesting, but mainly you don't need to remove more than 1 enchantment or artifact.
Diving Griffin/Eagle of the Watch: Vigilance on a flying creature can be interesting to prevent counter attacks, but on the other hand as a 2/2 or 2/1, that will die to nearly everything else, that is able to fly, it's definitely less exciting.
Dragon Bell Monk: Prowess is a nice thing to scare creatures with the same P/T from blocking or attacking into it, but if the body of the creature with prowess is underpowered, which a 2/2 for cc3 is, it's often better simply to play a bigger body without prowess for the same cost.
Glint-Sleeve Artisan: The flexibility of this creature is good even if you almost always want the counter. Though, it's still only a vanilla creature after that.
Hallowed Healer: This guy is bad with his first ability but really interesting with Threshold.
Ironclad Slayer: Stats are acceptable. The ability is useful but limited. It is just an odd package that will likely not find many targets.
Kemba's Skyguard: Gaining 2 life just for playing a Wind Drake is interesting, but not much and the risk of WW in turn 3 is given.
Kor Sky Climber: This card can come in for a lot of damage, but you have to pay 2 mana each turn for it you may not have.
Lagonna-Band Elder: 3/2 bodies for cc3 are pretty weak, because of the huge amount of 2/1 and 2/2 bodies, that want to trade them. Without a really high enchantment count, this card is too weak.
Makeshift Battalion: A 3/2 that can get bigger is interesting, but takes some effort to get it going. Great flavor though.
Mardu Hordechief: This card is mainly going to be the strictly worse version of Attended Knight.
Misthoof Kirin: This card is decent if you hardcast it and also has the upside to be played as a morph and to be bigger later in the game.
Niblis of the Mist: A 2 power flying beater for cc3, that can prevent 1 creature from blocking. Ok, but not exciting.
Nightguard Patrol: First Strike and Vigilance is a nice combination of abilities, but with just 2 power, this creature will find it hard to attack after turn 4, what makes this more a bad blocker.
Nyxborn Courser: 2/4 are solid stats for 3, but WW and the fact, that it can be disenchanted makes it worse.
Omen of the Sun: A more expensive Raise the Alarm, that gains 2 life and can be sacrificed for Scry 2 or flickered. Okay, but not exciting.
Pegasus Charger/Voiceless Spirit: Even with easier cc, these cards are mainly the worse versions of Chapel Geist.
Pegasus Courser: 1/3 of Trusted Pegasus. It will survive longer to keep jumping others, but doesn't hit as hard.
Perimeter Sergeant: Humans is the biggest tribe and especially in white highly represented. Even though 3/2s aren't great depending on your human count, this can actually be interesting.
Reliquary Monk: This could make card advantage, but if you need the ability, it can be very problematic that the creature has to die first for it.
Rising Populace: Not specially bad... but needs the right archetype for use it.
Royal Trooper: A 4/4 body is huge for blocking, but for attacking this creature isn't very useful.
Sanctum Custodian: A worse Hallowed Healer.
Sandcrafter Mage: A 3/3 for cc3 would be decent, but bolster can be a downside as well as an upside. Especially in White, there are some 1/1 Tokens that don't really want to be bolstered.
Sergeant-at-Arms: 4/5 worth of stats, on 3 bodies can be good. But the cost (3 mana kicker) is expensive. And on its own it’s only a 2/3.
Soldier Replica: The ability is very solid, but the body is unexciting.
Stalwart Aven: A solid defensive flying body, that is a solid answer to all the 2/1 fliers in pauper. On the other hand, it can be really annoying to take a turn off blocking to make the body more relevant.
Tenth District Veteran: works with tap abilities and Exert bodies.
Tethmos High Priest: Although with some jumps you can make the card work, I don’t think the archetype is dense enough right now to go off.
Those Who Serve: A 2/4 vanilla for 3 is okay, but not what you want in a power-oriented cube.
Trusty Packbeast: Great for artifact based cubes. Else it’s just a 2/3 with a rare upside.
Unwavering Initiate: A 3/2 vigilance for 3 is okay and it can come back, but the embalm cost is expensive.
Village Bell-Ringer: A walking combat trick. The problem is just that the 1/4 body isn't very exciting.
Warded Battlements: Orcish Oriflamme stapled to an 0/3. Not bad, but you would rather have a body, that can attack on it's own.
Wingsteed Rider: If you have a lot of stuff that's able to target this guy it's very solid, but otherwise it's just a Wind Drake for 1WW.
Zealot il-Vec: A white Prodigal Pyromancer.
Zealous Inquisitor: It's very hard to kill this creature. It's either an evasive 2 power beater or a very interesting blocker.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Abbey Matron: A possible 1/6 blocker for cc3. Huge but not too exciting.
Affa Protector/Standing Troops: 1 power is simply too less for a good vigilance blocker.
Alabaster Wall/Benevolent Ancestor/D'Avenant Archer/D'Avenant Healer/Daru Healer/Kithkin Healer/Militant Monk/Noble Vestige/Saltfield Recluse: The abilities are simply too weak and outclassed, by too many better alternatives.
Alaborn Trooper/Bastion Enforcer/Border Guard/Femeref Scouts/Keepers of the Faith/Knight of the Keep/Loxodon Wayfarer/Pearled Unicorn/Regal Unicorn/Shu Foot Soldiers: These cards are simply terrible without any further advantage.
Argivian Blacksmith/Skyhunter Cub: These would only be interesting for an artifact-based cube.
Armor Sliver (Only online common!)/Avian Changeling/Elder Cathar/Hive Stirrings/Kithkin Zephyrnaut/Lancer Sliver/Makindi Patrol/Makindi Shieldmate/Poultice Sliver/Veteran Swordsmith/Waxmane Baku/Whipgrass Entangler: These would only be interesting with enough tribal support.
Auriok Replica: The ability is very situative and not really interesting.
Ballot Broker/Brago's Representative: There aren't enough voting cards in pauper to make these cards valuable.
Benalish Infantry/Enchanted Being/Kitsune Riftwalker/Kjeldoran Skyknight: The abilities of these cards are way too restricted.
Benalish Veteran/Graceful Cat: They attack as a Nessian Courser, but they block as 2/2s and die to Firebolt/Disfigure.
Blinding Souleater: An overcosted tapper.
Capashen Templar: An overcosted Kjeldoran Outrider.
Celestial Enforcer: 2 mana is too much for the effect and having a restriction doesn't make it better.
Charging Paladin: A 2/5 for cc3 is huge, but only that big when attacking and with just 2 power it will easily be blocked.
Combat Medic: Even if the prevention doesn't require tapping, it requires a huge amount of mana.
Custodi Peacekeeper: There are way better unconditional tappers in pauper.
Daru Sanctifier: Only being able to get rid of enchantments is too restrictive, especially attached to a bad body.
Dawn Gryff/Ghirapur Osprey/Shadow Glider/Wild Griffin: The white pendants of Wind Drake with many better alternatives.
Disposal Mummy: The body is underwhelming and the ability is rarely relevant in the average cube.
Elite Javelineer: As a 2/2 this creature won't survive many blocks, so the ability won't be worth it.
Elite Skirmisher: Heroic is a really bad ability and even if you would support this keyword, the effect of this card is simply far too bad.
Femeref Knight: Vigilance becomes more interesting on bigger creatures.
Freewind Equenaut/Gate Hound: These cards would even only be of small interest with a big amount of auras.
Garrison Griffin: There are tons of similar cards, which do exactly the same without the tribal restriction.
Griffin Sentinel/Skyhunter Prowler: The worse versions of Diving Griffin.
Guardians of Akrasa: Exalted isn't worth such a bad body.
Gustcloak Harrier/Moonlight Geist: The abilities of these cards are very situational.
Gustrider Exuberant: A bad body with a bad ability. There aren't enough playable 5 power creatures in pauper.
Haazda Snare Squad: The restriction to attack, makes the ability way worse.
Harvestguard Alseids: Constellation would only make sense with a very big amount of enchantments.
Helica Glider: Flexibility is nice, but neither mode is really good.
Helionaut: Fixing mana can be nice, but the body is very bad.
Herald of the Fair: Only being able to pump one creature for one turn makes this not very good.
Jamuraan Lion: The body is very fragile and the ability is weak.
Keen-Eyed Archers: This card is even worse than Wild Griffin.
Kitsune Bonesetter: The damage prevention is big, but the restriction is too high.
Knight of the Pilgrim's Road: 3/2 bodies with cc3 are pretty bad because they trade with all the 2/2s and 2/1s your opponent has left from the early game or that already did their job when entering the battlefield.
Kor Scythemaster: A 3/1 with first strike for 3 would be cubeable, but it's just a vanilla while blocking.
Legion Conquistador/Pious Kitsune/Surging Sentinels: Cards like these don't work in most cubes.
Master's Call: An overcosted Raise the Alarm.
Midnight Guard: This card is simply bad without the right synergies.
Militant Inquisitor: You would need a very equipment heavy deck to make this valuable.
Mine Bearer: There is a huge amount of better alternatives for white, to get rid of a creature.
Moonwing Moth: A growing toughness is only a small advantage.
Palace Guard: A worse Wall of Glare.
Priests of Norn: Infect doesn't work in most cubes.
Queen's Commission: Even with lifelink, two 1/1 tokens aren't worth 3 mana.
Revered Elder: This creature is hard to kill, but such a weak body is not really protection worthy.
Rhet-Crop Spearmaster: The base creature is too bad for the exert effect to be viable.
Rousing of Souls: You could get 2 tokens, but it's not very likely.
Seller of Songbirds: Splitting the power can be interesting, but a 1/1 flying is only of small interest and a 1/2 on the ground is terrible.
Silent Attendant: Life only is not worth a card.
Shieldmage Advocate: The ability is strong, but the price is way too high.
Shinen of Stars' Light: Either a very bad creature or a very bad combat trick.
Shu Defender/Town Sentry: Way worse versions of Royal Trooper.
Shu Grain Caravan/Venerable Monk: Kemba's Skyguards without flying.
Snare Tactician: This is strong with enough cycle effects, but you would need a lot of cyclers to make this viable.
Solitary Camel: There aren't enough deserts for the typical pauper cube to make this good.
Soul Charmer: This creature won't survive more than 1 fight, so the ability is only of small interest.
Springjack Knight: This creature won't survive more than one attack, with Double Strike or without.
Stonybrook Schoolmaster: Other than attacking, there aren't many ways to be able to tap this and this won't even survive a single attack.
Task Force: The body is terrible, so the protection against damage based removal is nearly worthless.
Vigilant Sentry: Threshold is a too high a restriction.
Wild Aesthir: This card needs a permanent investment of WW to be acceptable.
Wingbeat Warrior: The effect and body are too weak to be worth 6 total mana.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Coalition Honor Guard: This card wins a lot of games on its own. This card can't only just blank every damage based removal that deals less than 4 damage, it can also steal almost every combat trick and aura, pumping or Pacifism-like, your opponent plays.
Guardian of the Guildpact: Even if this guy has 1 power too less for powered and unpowered cubes, it has still protection from about 90% of cards in the average cube. This card is not just the perfect blocker, it can also beat down, being nearly unblockable, and goes crazy with equipment.
Rhox Veteran: Combing Swarm needs with Aggro needs. Usually its tap ability is good on 3cc, but the body on 4cc is not enough. Here, the group pump combined with nullifying a blocker means damage in increasingly sinking in. And as a 2/4, it will take 2 bodies to kill in combat (1 will be tapped).
Seraph of Dawn: The pauper pendant of Baneslayer Angel.
Battle Screech: Only online common! 4 1/1 flying creatures for cc4 is insane. You only need one additional untapped white creature to immediately flashback it.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Basri's Acolyte: This creature brings a total of 4 power and 5 toughness on the board for 4 mana + lifelink on itself, but it sadly can't target itself, so unless you already have 2 creatures on the board you won't get the full value.
Cenn's Enlistment: Being able to turn every useless land in the late game into Gather the Townsfolk is very interesting, especially when there is no easy way to stop retrace in the average cube.
Heavy Ballista: This guy can't only just kill every attacking or blocking X/2 creature, but it can also change combat math a lot.
Kor Sanctifiers: Disenchant attached to a solid body is great. It's card advantage, card quality, and board impact all in one card.
Mistmoon Griffin: Only online common! A bit similar to Abzan Skycaptain, but instead of 2 +1/+1 Counters, you get a more or less get to reanimate a random creature from your graveyard.
Palace Sentinels: The monarch mechanic can be super busted in the right deck and getting it on a 4 mana body is great.
Tah-Crop Elite: A reusable anthem effect is decent and worth playing.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Abzan Skycaptain: Bolster is a fine limited ability and a flier for cc4 that actually contains 4 power and 4 toughness is a fine card.
Alabaster Kirin/Armored Griffin(Only online common!): Flying and Vigilance is a good combination of abilities on a 2/3 body.
Ampryn Tactician/Civic Stalwart/Inspiring Captain: These are ok in a creature-heavy weenie deck, though they only really shine if you support the swarm archetype.
Ardenvale Paladin: If you highly support mono colored strategies, this is not that bad.
Aven Cloudchaser/Cloudchaser Eagle: The overcosted versions of Cloudchaser Kestrel, but still considerable.
Aven Liberator: This can curve itself out and has a solid flying body and nice ability. The only problem is that it's overcosted at 7 total mana overall.
Bladed Sentinel: Vigilance can be very important on big defensive bodies.
Call the Cavalry/Gallant Cavalry: 4 power and toughness split on 2 bodies isn't amazing, but solid and interesting for swarm strategies.
Captain's Call: 3 Creatures in one cc4 card. Interesting, but without swarm support 1/1 bodies are only of small interest.
Charging Griffin: Slightly better than Assault Griffin, but it's way too easy to kill compared to Phantom Monster and it's worse than Armored Griffin.
Courier Griffin: 2 life isn't much, but 2/3 flyer for 4 isn't totally bad.
Daru Lancer: A solid morph creature that can curve itself out. The main problem is just that it's either overcosted or underpowered for such a high mana investment.
Daru Stinger:
The fact, that this card was made a human later, makes it really interesting. Humans are the biggest tribal in magic and there are some of them in every color.It was turned back to soldier only, which makes no sense. Unless you want to treat it as a Human as a house rule, it's pretty bad again.Earth-Origin Yak: Another Amperian Tactician, but different stats.
Elgaud Inquisitor: If this card dies in combat while trading for another creature it did its job with leaving the battlefield with an advantage for you. The problem is just that a 2/2 body for cc4 isn't such a big threat and a single 1/1 flying token isn't too exciting.
Fiend Binder: Master of Diversion that gets +1/+0 for +1. Run this only for redundancy sake.
Flickering Spirit: As long as you keep 4 mana, this flying beater is very hard to get rid of, but 4 mana is a lot and a 2/2 flying isn't too exciting.
Griffin Protector: As long as you can put out a creature each turn this creature has a huge body, but if you stop, it's only of small interest.
Hillcomber Giant: This card would only be interesting for sideboards.
Kinsbaile Balloonist: The body in combination with the ability is interesting, but the whole card is overcosted by 1.
Kor Cartographer: A solid white ramp creature. It's very unique, but not really needed.
Ledev Guardian: Potentially has a spot as another pseudo-Acridian /Colossodon Yearling.
Lotus-Eye Mystics: Interesting in a heavy enchantment matters theme, but it’s an overpriced effect.
Makindi Griffin: It's a solid flying body, but it's completely outclassed by Seraph of Dawn.
Mystic Zealot: With Threshold this card is huge, but without it's only of small interest and Threshold is a high restriction.
Ondu Greathorn: This creature just can't compete with other four drops.
Paladin of the Bloodstained: The combination of bodies and stats aren't great but they're not terrible either.
Parhelion Patrol: Similar to Abzan Skycaptain except with 1 more toughness, vigilance, and a worse ability. Instead of giving 2 +1/+1 counters on your lowest toughness creature, puts 1 on an attacker with 1 or less power. Probably balances out.
Sacred Knight: A creature with solid power and evasion against 2 of 5 colors.
Salt Road Patrol: A very defensive body with the option to grow during the late game. The problem is that it can't block when you pump it.
Sparring Mummy: The ETB-effect of this creature can be very good, but the cost is a little bit too high.
Spirit en-Kor: It's very hard to kill this creature with just damage, but a 2/2 flying body isn't too exciting for cc4.
Steadfast Sentinel: Two creatures in one can be nice but neither body is great for the cost.
Star-Crowned Stag: There are better cheaper tappers for the same effect. See Territorial Hammerskull or Master of Diversion
Stonehorn Dignitary: Even if the body is very bad, this guy can buy some time for you if you should really need it.
Student of Ojutai: With enough noncreature spells, this card could be huge in white control decks, but mainly there aren't enough to make this mediocre body worth it.
Syndicate Messenger: 2/3 flier that brings a spirit friend on death.
Thraben Sentry: The restriction is very high, but if this creature flips it's simply huge.
Thriving Ibex: A 3/5 for 4 is okay, even if it needs to attack first to be that big, but it isn't very strong.
Vulpikeet: In theory you can turn a 1/1 token into a 3/4 flying on turn 3, but only non humans, which is definitely a restriction in white and the plain 2/3 flying for 4 isn't too impressive.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Abbey Griffin/Ardent Soldier: The worse versions of Armored Griffin.
Absolver Thrull/Daru Sanctifier: Only being able to destroy enchantments is too restrictive.
Aether Inspector: Vigilance is a nice ability, but the body is a little too weak for the cost.
Akroan Mastiff/Ephara's Warden: Terribly overcosted tappers.
Apothecary Geist/Changeling Sentinel/Join the Ranks/Moonlit Strider/Pallid Mycoderm/Pterodon Knight/Sanguine Glorifier/Spawnbinder Mage/Watcher Sliver: These cards would only be interesting with enough tribal support.
Armory Guard/Aurora Eidolon/Daru Cavalier/Kitsune Healer/Saltskitter/Sunspire Gatekeepers/Takeno's Cavalry/Tine Shrike: Cards like these don't work in typical pauper cubes.
Assault Griffin: A 3/2 body is really fragile, with flying or without.
Aurora Griffin: A terribly overcosted Wind Drake with a useless ability.
Aven Redeemer/Loxodon Anchorite: The ability doesn't require a solid body and would be better on a body for less mana.
Aven Trooper: An extremely weak creature with a very bad ability.
Ballynock Trapper/Shade of Trokair: Being bound to a single color is often very problematic in limited because most decks are at least 2 colors.
Bartered Cow: Hill Giants are not too exciting in the first place and having this ability as a die-trigger doesn't help.
Battlewise Aven: Threshold is a high restriction and even if you would achieve it, a 3/3 Flying First Strike is not exciting enough to be worth it.
Carrier Pigeons: Creatures with an included cantrip can be very nice, but this one is quite overcosted.
Champion of Arashin: 3 power and lifelink is nice for cc4, but with just 2 toughness, this will trade for any 2/1 or 2/2, that already did its job during the early game or when entering the battlefield.
Cloud Crusader/Ekundu Griffin/Razorfoot Griffin/Skyhunter Patrol/Spotted Griffin: Mainly just the worse versions of Makindi Griffin.
Dawnfluke: The ability is weak and the body is terrible.
Daysquad Marshal: You either want big creatures are lots of small creatures. Having 1 medium sized and 1 small creature is not really something any deck is really looking for.
Defender en-Vec: There are way better alternatives to prevent damage if needed.
Dive Bomber: The body is weak and the ability is only of small interest.
Dutiful Servants/Foot Soldiers/Great Hart/Loxodon Convert/Pillarfield Ox/Prison Barricade/Shu Elite Infantry/Trokin High Guard: Without any further advantage, these cards are simply terrible.
Eyes in the Skies: There isn't enough to populate in most pauper cubes to make this card worthy of inclusion.
Foriysian Interceptor: An overcosted Wall of Glare.
Gale Swooper: There are tons of better alternatives.
Ghalma's Warden/Sanctum Gargoyle: These cards would only be interesting for an artifact-based cube.
Glory Bearers: 3/4 for 4 is okayish, but the ability isn't enough to make it good.
Harsh Deceiver: As long as you have no influence on your topdeck, this card is simply terrible.
Inquisitor's Ox: With Delirium this card is good, but without it is mediocre.
Kjeldoran Elite Guard: This card would be interesting if there wouldn't be such a high risk of card disadvantage,
Kjeldoran Escort/Knights of Thorn/Noble Elephant/Teremko Griffin/War Elephant: There aren't enough playable creatures with banding to make any of them playable.
Knight of Sursi: This guy either takes too long with Suspend or is overcosted. Not very exciting.
Looming Altisaur/Wall of Faith: Bad walls that come too late.
Midvast Protector: Without flash, the ability is only of small interest.
Moorish Cavalry: On small bodies, Trample is only of small interest.
Mothrider Samurai/Sustainer of the Realm: Being good flying blockers doesn't change much about the fact that 2 damage with flying is simply not enough for cc4.
Mounted Archers: This card is simply way too weak.
Oaken Brawler: Clash is a high restriction and this card is definitely not worth the risk of losing it.
Pious Warrior: "Lifelink" doesn't change much about the fact, that a 2/3 is simply way too weak for cc4.
Propeller Pioneer: The flexibility is nice, but the card is overcosted.
Samite Alchemist: The protection is big, but the price is high.
Shu General: Unblockable and Vigilance seems nice, but a 2/2 can't block very much without dying.
Spectral Reserves: It is a steep price, but this is the Pauper design for 2x Spirit tokens. It's probably 1 too slow. Not overcosted, just a White Rise of Eagles
Sunmane Pegasus: You really don't want to constantly invest mana to make this good.
Teroh's Faithful/Tormented Angel: Great defensive creatures, but 1 power is simply too less for a 4 drop.
Trenching Steed: Even with the activated ability, this creature is only of small interest.
Trusty Retriever: Unless you focus on that theme artifacts and enchantments doen't go to the graveyard that often and a 3/4 for 4 is ok, but not exciting.
Zarichi Tiger: A weak body with a solid ability. Ok, but not too exciting.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Custodi Squire: A 3/3 flying body for cc5, that returns a permanent of your choice to your hand.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Angel of Mercy/Aven of Enduring Hope: The body is okay and life can be nice to help stabilize.
Angel of the Dawn/Dawnfeather Eagle: Just one mana more for a Inspiring Captain with a flying body that grants also Vigilance to your other creatures is good.
Dawnstrike Paladin: Vigilance and Lifelink are perhaps the best abilities a finisher can have apart from Hexproof, but no matter if you call it overcosted or underpowered, this card is simply too weak. It would need to cost cc1 less or have at least 1 power more.
Daybreak Chimera: This is already Phantom Monster with only 1 Devotion, which is totally playable. From then on it only becomes better.
Rambunctious Mutt: Basically the big brother of Kor Sanctifiers without the optional mode to play it for 1 less, but still a very decent disenchant on a stick.
Supply-Line Cranes: This card comes as close to a Serra Angel as pauper got so far. A 3/5 flying would have already been unique enough, but the upside to split the power makes this card even more interesting.
Totem-Guide Hartebeest: A 2/5 can block a lot and that combined with the ability to search for removal or any utility aura makes this rock solid.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Antler Skulkin: A really solid ability, but the 3/3 body isn't very exciting.
Aven Tactician: Bolster has its ups and downs against a targeted +1/+1 counter and mainly the downsides overwhelm. The missing point in toughness is another point, that makes this nearly strictly worse than the comparable Supply-Line Cranes.
Bastion Mastodon: The body is big and vigilance is a relevant keyword. 1 mana is not much to pay every turn after turn 5, but white has better 5-drops.
Castle Raptors: A 3/3 flying for cc5 isn't really good, but with the 2 additional toughness, this one is at least able to block most creatures in a cube.
Conclave Phalanx: This can be good in a slow token-heavy deck, but that's very specific.
Enforcer Griffin/Prized Griffin: 3/4 flier for 5 isn’t bad stats, but there are better options than the vanilla.
Expedition Raptor: Support is a nice mechanic, but the inability to put the counters on itself is bad.
Faithbearer Paladin: Dawnstrike Paladin that trades Vigilance for +1/+0. Costs a bunch, but rather unique as a package. Still worse than Seraph of Dawn
Ghostly Sentinel: A solid body with evasion and vigilance.
Griffin Dreamfinder: The big brother of Auramancer that has the same problem that enchantments are typically not going end up in the graveyard. You would need a huge amount of enchantments and Disenchant-like spells to make this card interesting.
Knight of Old Benalia: Ampryn Tactician but with a 'Mail Order' option. If you like Swarm, this is better. But there are a host of bodies like this with their own quirks. Either you like EtB anthem bodies, or you don't; this is just a difference in timing.
Patagia Tiger: 3/4 flying for 5 is decent and the etb effect will often hit, because of the high density of humans in white and magic in general.
Plover Knights: Another 3/3 flying for cc5, that at least has First Strike, to be able to hold off other flying creatures.
Shining Aerosaur/Skyswirl Harrier: A solid flyer, but nothing more.
Shu Elite Companions: Only online common! Horsemanship is great evasion, the only problem is that cc5 is a lot for just 3 power. Also, while it's typically better evasion than flying, it won't be able to block the more common flying creatures that that may come from the opponent.
Skyspear Cavalry: Double Strike and Flying are a strong combination if you pump this, but this creature has no protection against removal and so it's very risky to put auras onto it. Skyhunter Skirmisher exists and in case of double strike the 1 addtional power for 2 additional mana isn't worth it, if it only becomes good, once you pump it anyway.
Skystreamer: 3 power flier with a decent lifegain EtB effect.
Supply Caravan: The payoff of this is fine, but the restriction can be high.
Valorous Steed: 5 power and 5 toughness for 5 is rock solid, but usually you either want to go big or go wide. This creature is right between that and thus doesn't really have any type of deck, that really wants it.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Ardent Militia/Border Patrol/Guardian Lions: Vigilance doesn't change much when the body is totally overcosted.
Aven Flock: 2 power in the air for cc5 is too bad.
Barrenton Medic: An aggressive ability on an expensive and defensive body is pretty useless.
Battle Hurda/Titanium Golem: Plover Knights without flying.
Battleflight Eagle: Giving pump and evasion to another creature isn't bad, but the 2/2 flying body is simply too bad.
Boreal Griffin/Lucent Liminid/Peregrine Griffin/Silverclaw Griffin/Skyrider Trainee/Steeple Roc: The worse versions of Plover Knights.
Burrenton Shield-Bearers: Giving additional toughness to other creatures can be nice, but the 3/3 body on its own is simply too unexciting.
Captivating Unicorn: You would need to be heavily enchantment focuses, and even then it's outclassed.
Caravan Hurda/Dromad Purebred: A huge wall, that only grants 1 life per block.
Daunting Defender/Hundred-Talon Kami/Kami of Tattered Shoji/Kami of the Painted Road/Lymph Sliver/Sun-Crested Pterodon: There aren't enough playable creatures of any tribe.
Emissary of the Sleepless: This creature is overcosted, even with the morbid trigger.
Ghost Tactician: The worse version of Loxodon Partisan.
Great-Horn Krushok/Siege Mastodon/Silent Artisan/Thraben Purebloods: Bad and overcosted bodies.
Heavy Infantry: An aggressive ability on a very bad defensive and expensive body is just terrible.
Icatian Phalanx/Kjeldoran Skycaptain: Banding is really bad in most cases.
Kithkin Spellduster: The body is terrible for the cost and only enchantments is a too high restriction.
Kitsune Dawnblade: The body is terrible and the ability isn't even good.
Lieutenants of the Guard: This card is just not worth the mana in a duel.
Lonesome Unicorn: Having 2 cards in one is nice, but 8 mana is definitely too much, when booth bodies are underwhelming. For half the amount of mana you can get 2 2/2s with Vigilance.
Lowland Tracker: Provoke is a really nice ability, but a 2/2 First Strike body for cc5 isn't exciting enough on its own. This creature depends on auras or enchantments to be really good.
Loxodon Mystic: Either you want a big body to attack or you want to use the ability.
Nav Squad Commandos: A 4/6 Vigilance seems nice, but on its own, this card is simply too bad and battalion is a huge restriction.
Righteous Avengers: Not even a good sideboard card.
Rumbling Sentry: A bad stat/cost ratio with an irrelevant upside.
Sage-Eye Harrier: A very defensive, overcosted body, that doesn't become better through morph.
Sandstorm Charger: Hardcasting this card is extremely unattractive and paying 8 mana for a 4/5 Vanilla is not very good, split up or not.
Sensor Splicer: A 1/1 and a 3/3 for cc5 isn't exciting and Vigilance doesn't change much about that.
Shriek Raptor: Infect doesn't work in pauper cubes.
Shu Soldier-Farmers/Tireless Missionaries: Lifegain on a big body is sometimes nice, but it's not worth such bad bodies.
Spectral Gateguards: On its own, this card is really bad and Vigilance is only a situative advantage.
Staunch Defenders: Only online common! Life attached to a useful effect or body can be good, but a 3/4 for cc5 is simply way too bad to make this a good card.
Sunrise Seeker: Neither outcome is that great or exciting and the inability to choose between the two can be annoying.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Nothing here.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Imposing Vantasaur: Cycling for 1 is very strong. Only 0 mana is a lower opportunity cost and in addition to that a 3/6 Vigilance isn't the worst body, if you happen to topdeck this in the late game.
Noble Templar: cc6 is a lot, but with Plainscycling, this creature has the needed flexibility.
Razor Golem: This card is mainly played for about 4 mana and a 3/4 Vigilance is simply extremely solid at any time of the game.
Triplicate Spirits: 3 1/1 fliers are nice and with Convoke, this can be cast quite early.
Winged Shepherd: Cycling for 1 is a very low opportunity cost and in the late game, when you topdeck it and have nothing better to with your mana a 3/3 Flying, Cigilance isn't the worst.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Benalish Lancer: A 4/4 First Strike is a huge threat and if it should be really needed, this card can still be played as a Bear to trade with X/2 creatures.
Ivory Giant: This card is very bad for suspend because your opponent sees the effect coming and for cc7 this card is simply overcosted.
Maze Sentinel: Vigilance is very important for big creatures, but this card is overcosted.
Yoked Plowbeast: Flexibility through cycling can be very interesting, but cc7 is a huge amount of mana and a 5/5 Vanilla is not too exciting.
War Behemoth: Morph to reduce the mana cost can be fine and a 3/6 is definitely surprising, but after that, it's just a 3/6 blocker, that would need Vigilance to attack.
Watchful Giant: 4/7 worth of stats, for 6CMC is decent, but there are better options.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Aven Battle Priest: Lifegain attached to creatures can be a good thing, but a 3/3 flier for cc6 is very bad and 3 life is not even much.
Bulwark Giant: 5 life is not enough to make this mediocre giant worth it.
Conclave Equenaut: Convoke is a very weak ability in most limited decks because tokens are rarely played.
Gempalm Avenger/Grassland Crusader: These cards would only be interesting with enough tribal support.
Jedit's Dragoons: 4 life is a lot, but the body is really bad for cc6.
Lairwatch Giant: A huge blocker, but with just 3 toughness it's really fragile against removal, as well as bad at attacking.
Loxodon Mender: This card would only be interesting for artifact-based cubes.
Loxodon Restorer: 3/4 with an EtB life gain, but for 6 mana it’s too much.
Silverstorm Samurai: Being played as a combat trick, that can kill up to 3/4 attacking bodies without dying and trade with any X/4, it's interesting, but cc6 is a huge amount of mana and afterward this card is only of small interest.
Voice of the Provinces: This card is simply overcosted. The 3/3 flying body isn't worth more than cc4 and the 1/1 token is only of small interest.
Woeleecher: Most cubes don't have the right synergies to play a card like this.
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I agree, that Extort is nice, I saw it on Syndic of Tithes and even Basilica Guards did very well, but I don't like the 1 power for another reason, than just, that it's not able to trade. It's simply no threat. With 1 damage every turn you would need 20 turns to kill the opponent. Even after 6 attacks not much happend. I see the Screecher on the board mainly as an enchantment, similar to the guards, while the guards are able to prevent a lot of damage and give you time, to make Extort more effective, while the Screecher won't do much than maybe attack from time to time for 1 or hope to eat a removal, because the opponent don't like extort.
The problem is also, that some of the other 2 drops at the borderline are still good. I tested Sickle Ripper and it has been a big threat and the Augur of Skulls, Child of Night and Fallen Askari are also quite interesting.
Red would be happy to have just some of the nice 2 drops black got.
For my part I don't like the Anurid and I will look for someone, who will paint the border of Wei Ambush Force black for me, so I can play it, without having just one whiteboarded card in the cube.
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I'm not entirely sure how this translates to cube, but I do know that it's better than all the cards you mentioned in the previous post.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
I don't know how much you guys are playing Gatecrash limited, but I think this is a correct assessment. Extort is a lot better than it looks initially. It is especially strong with multiple extort creatures on the board. There are at least a 2-3 cubeable b/w extort creatures and each one of them makes the others better. It's decent in aggro races and flat out crazy with 2-3 extorters on the board in a control deck.
The above poster makes a solid argument against it's weakness. It's not going to trade for anything, but that's not it's job. It's job is to extort on every spell and carry equipment/enchantments. If you cast 1 spell a turn and attack, it's a 3 point life swing each turn.
R Norin the Wary: I've Got a Bad Feeling About This
UG Thrasios & Kydele: Knowledge is Power
RG Borborygmos Enraged: The Breaking of the World
BG The Gitrog Monster: All Glory to the Hypnotoad
WUR Zedruu the Greathearted: Endless Possibilities, One Outcome
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain: What's Dead May Never Die
Turn your junk into something great with PucaTrade!
The problem with the logic of dealing 3 points per round is simply, that a 1/2 won't come through often. There is a huge amount of flying creatures in the cube, with at least 2/1 or 2/2, that will trade or at least won't let it pass. Stuff like Crocanura (I'm maybe the only one who plays it, but it's a good example) can completly stop it without evolving once and kills it after just 1 evolve. I don't expect it will attack this often and I don't see it more like an enchantment with extort, that can be sacrificed to prevent the damage of target creature one turn.
I like Syndic of Tithes, it really convinced me, but 2 power on the ground is simply way better than 1 power, no matter, if in the air or not.
If some people will tell me if did it job in cubes and not just the set draft enviroment, I could maybe think about moving it to cubeable, but actually I simply don't see it on the same level as any of the cubeable creatures in the section, especially not, because the other borderline creatures arn't directly bad either.
When Child of Night is not handled, it beats for 4 points with every attack and Sickle Ripper is a creature, that has pseudo evasion early and later it already made Sentinel Spider a harmless 2/2 or killed River Boa.
I'm actually way mor interested in Cabal Torturer. I'm testing it with high expectations. Thinking about it, made me wonder if it's not exaclty what black needs. Black got a bunch of great hard removal spells, that simply doesn't want to be used on stuff like Blade of the Sixth Pride or Stormfront Pegasus. These are exactly the creatures the Torturer kills very effectively, while also changing combat math and going crazy with threshold.
Edit: Actually I skip the multicolor cards and make a list of all of them, that you don't find thorugh the magiccards.info filter.
I also skip the Unhinged Unglued cards. To complete the evaluate "everything" project, someone could make a evaluation of all of them. I'm too unsure about them, and the most people don't play them.
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My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Unearth: The tempo advantage of getting a creature with cc3 back to the battlefield for just 1 mana is insane. As well, this card has cycling for the rare situation that you really have no use for it.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Dead Weight: It may look like a kind of Shock, but it remains and is this way even able to handle bigger creatures. When a 3/3 suddenly becomes 1/1 or a 4/4 is decreased to 2/2, they are way less dangerous.
Defile - 1cc Removal that gets better the longer the game goes on. Unless you play heavy nonbasics, this will be better than Disfigure.
Disfigure: The black Shock that is simply good because black doesn't have many alternatives that are similar. It can also be used as a combat trick by shrinking bigger creatures to help kill them.
Regicide: This is a one mana kill spell that kills 70% of the creatures in the cube.
Tortured Existence: Trading creatures that are mainly good in the early game for important creatures for the late game is quite interesting in the late game. It's no Undertaker, but it's still ok.
Tragic Slip: Morbid is not such a hard restriction for black, especially not with instant speed. Killing any creature, no matter how strong it is, for just one mana can be very nice.
Vendetta: This card can cost a lot of life, but killing a creature for sure for just 1 mana is still nice.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Boon of Erebos: A really strong combat trick, that can be used to protect a creature against removal as well. The problem is just that spot removal spells mainly are way better than combat tricks.
Cry of Contrition: Combined with a removal spell this card can be Mind Rot for cc1. Interesting, but sometimes too situative.
Dark Ritual: Card disadvantage for a small tempo advantage that can mainly only be used for black cards. Only useful for super aggressive decks.
Divest – Upgrade to Ostracize. This is a premptive attack on your opponent to deny creatures, equipment, and mana rocks.
Duress: Most cubes are about 50% creatures and 50% other cards. You will mainly hit something and this card is especially interesting because black has no other opportunities to remove something, that's not a creature.
Executioner's Capsule: A hard removal is never bad, but there are some better alternatives for less mana with the same restriction and some for the same mana, but with fewer restrictions.
Innocent Blood: Situative, but not bad. Played without any creature on your side it's a 1cc Cruel Edict.
Kaya's Ghostform is a very cheap way to protect your creatures. It even prevents exile, which is unique in Pauper. But it’s very reactive, and suffers the 2-for-1 potential against you while it’s on the stack
Lose Hope: An interesting card. -1/-1 isn't a lot, but Scry 2 is very strong.
Midnight Charm/Funeral Charm: Flexibility is nice and all of these possibilities are acceptable, but none are really exciting.
Molting Snakeskin: A fine aura to pump and protect a creature at the same time.
Omen of the Dead: A strictly better Raise Dead, that is instant speed, provides devotion and can be sacrificed for additional value.
Ostracize: There are a lot of better ways to handle creatures for black, especially ones where your opponent has to bind his mana before you remove the creature.
Paralyze: This card can get rid of a creature for quite a long time and later it will often bind the whole mana of the opponent to bring the creature back, but it's simply no lasting solution.
Raven's Crime: Giving a purpose to lands in the late game is nice, but for that case, you don't need such a cheap spell with an acceptable, but not exciting effect.
Sicken: Remaining -1/-1 can be nice and cycling gives some flexibility to this card, but it doesn't make it really exciting.
Skulduggery: A cheap combat trick that can remove 1 toughness creatures, along with the possibility of becoming a 2 for 1 if things line up.
Supernatural Stamina: This is a slightly better Undying Evil.
Undying Evil: Trading for a removal spell, making the creature bigger and retriggering any etb effects all with the same card for only B is pretty solid.
Unnatural Endurance: This card can remove a creature most of the time while saving one of your own, but there are better removal spells.
Village Rites: Only costing a single mana makes this a lot more viable to keep open in case your opponent has a removal for your creatures compared to it's 2 mana alternatives.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Alchemist's Gift: Neither mode is good and has a decent chance to trade 1/1, apart from the fact, that black really doesn't need combat tricks.
Aphotic Wisps: A worse black Shadow Rift is simply not good.
Boggart Birth Rite/Eye Gouge/Glyph of Doom/Misery Charm/Peppersmoke/Psychic Spear: There are no playable tribals in pauper cubes.
Bone Splinters/Mutual Destruction/Spark Harvest: A 2 for 1 trade isn't needed. There are a lot of better alternatives.
Borrowed Malevolence: Overcosted combat trick that doesn't do enough.
Bubbling Muck/Culling the Weak/Organ Harvest/Songs of the Damned: Simple card disadvantage that wouldn't even be good in mono-black decks.
Call to the Netherworld/Disentomb/Ghoulcaller's Chant/March of the Drowned/Raise Dead/Return to Battle: These cards can give you some quality, but mainly it's simply more effective to play creatures instead of reviving your old ones.
Chorus of Woe/Scare Tactics: Swarm-based cards don't really work in most cubes.
Coat with Venom: Black has so much good removal, that combat tricks are not needed, especially not a bad one like this.
Coffin Purge/Cremate/Nihil Spellbomb/Scarab Feast/Shadowfeed: Graveyard hate isn't relevant in most pauper cubes.
Crippling Blight/Cursed Flesh/Ghoulflesh/Stabbing Pain/Viper's Kiss/Weakness/Wring Flesh: Just -1 toughness isn't good enough, without a really good additional advantage or flexibility.
Cruel Feeding: +1/+0 is simply not really good, not even on multiple creatures.
Darkness/Hell Swarm/Marsh Gas: Fog-like or similar cards are simply too bad.
Death's Approach: This removal is too situative.
Death Watch: Pure damage is simply card disadvantage.
Demonic Appetite: The drawback is too high.
Ebony Charm: Flexibility is nice, but every possibility of this card isn't really great most of the time.
Evil Presence: Card disadvantage just for turning one of the opponent's lands into a swamp.
Fatal Blow/Mire Blight: The restrictions for these removal spells are too high.
Feast of Flesh: Cards like this don't work in most cubes.
Foul-Tongue Shriek: Even if you are able to generate a big enough amount of creatures, this card still only goes to the face, which makes it very situative.
Fruit of Tizerus: This might read like a possible finisher, but there are a lot better ways to win the game and black has better uses for the graveyard.
Fungal Infection – With so many X/1s, it is possible to make this a kill spell, or combat trick that leaves you with a 1/1. But hard to set up.
Ghastly Demise: By the time there are enough cards in your graveyard, you won't need such a cheap and restrictive removal anymore.
Gravebind: This card is just way to situative.
Gruesome Deformity/Predator's Gambit/Sadistic Glee/Unholy Strength/Vampiric Link: These auras are not really worth the risk of getting card disadvantage.
Horrifying Revelation: This card would only be interesting for a cube with a mill topic.
Lash of Thorns: Only getting a singe point of toughness will rarely help you not trade 2 for 1.
Mire's Toll: Most decks in limited are at least 2 colored.
Mogis's Favor: The effect is too restrictive and black has better uses for the graveyard.
Necrogen Spellbomb: Single-card discard will often only hit a land. Even with flexibility, it's still a very weak effect.
Nighthaze: Swampwalk is a terrible evasion.
Restless Dreams: When you have enough useless cards you could discard for it, the spell doesn't need to be this cheap and this expensive for trading.
Sinister Possession: Only 2 damage is a too small a threat and it's no way to get rid of a creature.
Soulshriek: This card will never do much.
Soul Stair Expedition: Death's Duet for cc1 is nice if played early enough. Later, it's simply too hard to get triple landfall anymore.
Strange Augmentation: Delirium is required for any mileage and even then it is a stat-only boost.
Tainted Strike/Virulent Wound: Infect doesn't work in pauper cubes.
Taste of Blood: One of the worst cards ever.
Tendrils of Despair: A 2 for 2 trade. Not terrible but not exciting.
Thrull Retainer: +1/+1 isn't a big enough threat, even if the creature is a little bit protected.
Torture: This removal is way too slow.
Touch of Moonglove: This card is a 2-for-1 most of the time.
Vampire's Bite: With First Strike, this card would be way more interesting.
Vile Rebirth: Getting a surprising 2/2 for cc1 with instant speed can be an interesting combat trick, but most creatures are at least a 2/1 in size and this way this card would only trade 1 for 1 as a combat trick. That makes it more of a bad removal or an unexciting restrictive beater.
Virulent Swipe: Surprise deathtouch can be a nice combat trick, but it will usually still be a 2 for 1 trade against you unless the creature happens to have a high enough toughness to already survive. Double-blocks and more are where this can shine. This can also make for a nice two for one kill combo with pingers.
Wretched Banquet: One of the worst removal spells black got.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Chainer's Edict: Only online common! Cruel Edict isn't that good on it's own, but Flashback makes this a solid 2 for 1 removal.
Doom Blade/Terror: The 2 instant speed hard spot removal spells for just cc2, with the restriction that counts least, because when you have black in your deck the chance is reduced that your opponents drafted black as well.
Hymn to Tourach: Some people, who never played this card, may wonder why there is such a big difference between discarding 2 picked cards and 2 cards at random, but everyone who has played this card even once knows how insane this card is. It wins so many games.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Grasp of Darkness: -4 toughness kills most creatures in cubes. BB is a little bit problematic but definitely worth such a good removal spell.
Font of Return: A solid recursion spell. The high mana cost of 6 can be split up well.
Grim Harvest: This card is great, but mainly worse than the very similar Disturbed Burial because it's very easy to get rid of it.
Last Gasp/Nameless Inversion: The black versions of Searing Spear. They are often worse because they can't be used for burn, but the ability to either kill a creature with 3 toughness for 1B at instant speed or shrink a bigger creature is still great.
Moment of Craving: A solid removal spell that's best against aggro but otherwise still fine and flexible. Mostly a strictly better Sorin's Thirst
Night's Whisper: Despite its comparison to Sign in Blood, the easier mana cost makes this an auto-include in most cubes.
Sign in Blood: BB is a little bit problematic, but Divination for cc2 is still great and 2 Life is no big drawback.
Soul Reap: On first look, it seems like a Doom Blade with Sorcery speed and a theoretical Lava Spike included. Sorcery speed is a big disadvantage though and nongreen is worse than nonblack because the chance that the opponent plays green is not necessarily decreased if you're playing black yourself.
Victim of Night: BB might seem problematic, but the restriction is nearly redundant and this way it's a kind of Murder for cc2.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Bladebrand: A 2 mana combat trick that replaces itself. There are definitely some shenenigans you can do with this.
Chime of Night/Lingering Death/Yoke of the Damned/Death Stroke: Destroying a creature for cc2 is never bad, but these cards simply got way better alternatives.
Contaminated Bond: This card can deal a lot of damage. It's no kind of removal, but often enough it prevents a creature from doing anything.
Corpse Churn: The ability to return any creature in the graveyard makes this valuable for graveyard themes in cubes.
Cruel Edict/Diabolic Edict: Sometimes untargeted sacrifice can handle more things than spot removal, but the problem is just that there are often too many alternatives for the opponent. You will usually not hit get you are aiming for.
Dark Favor/Sinister Strength: These auras turn the enchanted creature into a threat that would be worth the risk of trading bad to a removal spell. The problem is just that with only 1 additional toughness, they don't do much to prevent it from trading down to any creature blocking it.
Die Young: Without the right support, this is a strictly worse Disfigure.
Distress/Lost Hours: Discarding any card you want for cc2 would be interesting, but not exciting.
Exhume: In most cases, this card is no advantage for you. It only works if you build your deck around it with a lot of fat creatures that you are able to discard easily as well.
Forever Young: A somewhat interesting design as you have the option put 0 on top and simply cycle it or improve your next X draw spells by a lot.
Grotesque Mutation: This is a really nice combat trick, but black has better options.
Infernal Harvest: If you support mono-colored decks, this card is a bomb, but in a 2-color deck you mainly won't return more than 3 or 4 maximum swamps to your hand. This would make this card a kind of Arc Lightning, but with a huge tempo disadvantage.
Infernal Scarring: To get additional value out of this card it needs to die. Also, Pacifism-effects aren't a corner case in most cubes.
Mire's Grasp: This is not a bad removal, but there are more efficient cards for 2 mana that deal with creatures.
Murderous Compulsion: It can kill almost everything, but the restriction is pretty high.
Pharika's Cure/Sorin's Thirst/Vicious Hunger: These Shocks hit for 4 points, but they are quite problematic for BB and most creatures you need to handle have more than just 2 toughness.
Rush of Vitality: Another version of Butcher's Glee that trades one mana and regeneration for indestructible and two less power.
Sinkhole: This card is nuts in fast constructed decks, but in limited lands are worth way less and you always have to keep in mind how good a card is if you draw it as topdeck because a game can always take longer than you expect.
Skeletal Grimace: An aura that protects the creature it's enchanting is nice, but just +1/+1 isn't too exciting.
Subtle Strike: The ability to do both options is nice, but there are better removal spells in pauper.
Unexpected Fangs: Granting a permanent pump and lifelink with instant speed is kind of nice. In the best case this can be used as a combat trick and kill a creature when it's played and leave a decent threat behind, that has to be dealt with. With only +1/+1 the best case isn't that likely and like all "auras" removal is a problem against it.
Vessel of Malignity: This card is very situational.
Vicious Offering: -5/-5 is huge, but you rarely want to sacrifice a creature as an additional cost and there are also plenty of 2 mana spells that just straight up kill any creature.
Wrench Mind: Discarding 2 cards for cc2 is nice, but BB makes this card problematic.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Addle: Only online common! It's about a 50/50 chance to hit the right colors if you had no information about the opponent's hand so far.
Ancestral Vengeance: Permanently pumping and killing a creature for cc2 seems nice on first sight, but the pump is small and only being able to X/1 creatures is heavily restricted, especially for BB.
Altar's Reap/Costly Plunder/Skulltap: These cards need synergies most cubes don't offer.
Banewasp Affliction/Binding Agony/Claim of Erebos/Ragged Veins/Spiteful Shadows: Simple damage to a player once is not worth a card.
Cabal Ritual: Card disadvantage for such a small tempo advantage is not worth a card.
Cannibalize/Coils of the Medusa/Grave Servitude/Parallax Dementia/Spinal Graft: If it's not sure whether a spell should be used on your creatures or an opponent's creature, it's mainly not good.
Cast into Darkness/Clinging Darkness/Despondency/Feebleness/Greel's Caress/Mourning/Torment: You want to decrease the toughness and not the power.
Cemetery Recruitment/Crown of Suspicion/Pack's Disdain: These cards would only be interesting with enough tribal support.
Cloak of Confusion: This aura would mainly be interesting on a well-protected creature with evasion.
Contaminated Ground: This card may work in Gatecrash limited, but in cubes, you got way more fixing and don't depend as much on lands.
Cradle to Grave/Dash Hopes: You don't want counterspells in black, because you got better and way more flexible spot removal.
Dark Privilege: The worse version of Skeletal Grimace.
Debilitating Injury/Enfeeblement: The strictly worse versions of Dead Weight.
Defeat/Reave Soul: Way too restrictive removal.
Devour Flesh/Geth's Verdict/Imperial Edict: The worse versions of Diabolic Edict.
Disturbing Plot: Reviving 2 creatures from the graveyard for cc2 can be nice, but Conspire is often a too difficult restriction because decks are mainly 2 colors.
Dragon Shadow: There aren't enough playable creatures with cc6 to make this card playable.
Dry Spell/Nausea/Shrivel: There aren't many things you can kill with these cards.
Dying Wail: The effect is not worth the restriction.
Echoing Decay: -2 toughness for cc2 without any further advantage isn't exciting.
Eternal Thirst/Midnight Covenant/Oblivion Crown/Twisted Experiment: These auras aren't worth the risk of card disadvantage.
Fear: There are a lot of better alternatives for this card.
Feast of Dreams: This card would only be interesting in an enchantment-heavy cube.
Gaze of Pain: This card would be way better with instant speed.
Giant's Skewer: Terribly overcosted.
Grave Peril: It's way too easy to play around this card.
Grim Discovery: This card works very well with the self-sacrificing lands or discard, but those are corner cases.
Hunger of the Nim/Resourceful Return/Warp Artifact: These cards would only be interesting for an artifact-based cube.
Hypnotic Cloud: Flexibility is nice, but without Kicker, it's very bad and when able to be kicked, it comes too late.
Implement of Malice: This is half of Mind Rot that replaces itself, but that still isn't good.
Insubordination: The effect isn't that bad, but definitely not worth BB.
Macabre Waltz: The effect is not worth the drawback.
Metalspinner's Puzzleknot: 5 mana for Sign in Blood is way too much.
Mind Burst/Surging Dementia: These cards simply don't work in most cubes.
Mind Knives/Specter's Wail: Random discard is good but worse than discarding a card of your choice.
Mind Swords/Shred Memory: Graveyard hate is not needed in most cubes.
Morgue Theft: Flashback makes this card interesting, but it's very expensive,
Painful Memories: The worse version of Lost Hours.
Phyresis: Infect doesn't work in most cubes.
Psychic Miasma: The effect is simply worst than discarding a card of your choice.
Pulling Teeth: Clash is a too high restriction.
Rite of Consumption: This card can work as a finisher, but it's too situative.
Rouse: A terribly useless card.
Scent of Nightshade: This card only works in a mono-black deck.
Scourgemark: 1 additional power without card disadvantage is not good enough to be worth the risk of making card disadvantage due to a removal spell in response.
Seizures: It's too easy to play around the effect.
Shriek of Dread: A mediocre evasion for cc2 and just for one turn is simply bad.
Soulless Revival: There aren't enough playable arcane spells.
Spirit Shackle: The creature can still block without any disadvantage.
Steal Strength: This card may seem like an acceptable combat trick, but black doesn't want combat tricks at all.
Talara's Bane: An acceptable Sideboard card, but not very exciting.
Toxic Stench: Threshold is a big restriction and this card is not worth it.
Transmutation: The effect is very situative.
Trespasser's Curse: This card is good when played at the beginning of the game against creature heavy decks. In all other situations, it is terrible.
Tyrant's Choice: 4 damage to a player for cc2 is a lot, but still card disadvantage.
Warren Weirding: This card would only be really interesting in a tribal-based cube.
Wicked Reward: You don't want to sacrifice creatures if the effect you gain for it isn't just great.
Without Weakness: The flexibility of cycling is nice, but it's kind of expensive for a protection spell and doesn't help a creature trade up in combat.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Ashes to Ashes: 5 Life may seem like a lot, but killing 2 creatures for just cc3 and nearly no further restriction is really bomby. The only problem is that it's very dangerous against red decks with burn and when you are at really low life already.
Read the Bones: Only drawing 2 cards for 3 mana is not enough, but Scrying 2 beforehand makes this card really good.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Cartouche of Ambition: On cards like Crypt Rats, this gets ridiculous. On other creatures, it is at least a removal for an opponent's creature and a buff for your own creature.
Crippling Fatigue: 5 mana and 3 life is a lot to kill two X/2 creatures, but the option to be a 2 for 1 trade makes this card good.
Death's Duet: This card may seem similar to Divination, but Reviving creatures from the graveyard is different from getting cards from the top because it guarantees quality.
Eyeblight's Ending/Rend Flesh: Hard removal spells for 2B are good and these are two of the only ones with no significant restriction.
Memory Leak: Cycling for 1 is the lowest possible opportunity cost apart from costing 0 and the effect can be very good in many situations, even though it costs 1 too much.
Ob Nixilis's Cruelty - A straight up instant speed answer for most creatures in cubes, that also exiles, solving recursion. And it can hit all colors.
Stab Wound: On first look, this card may seem like an overcosted version of Dead Weight, but it's not made for killing X/2 creatures with it. It's made to decrease 2/X or something similar to 0/X and then ignore them, so they can do nothing except for blocking and the Wound will constantly deal a relevant amount of damage, that can mainly not be ignored. Meanwhile, it can also be used to kill annoying X/2 creatures.
Wander in Death: Strictly better Death's Duet.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Bog Down/Unburden: The effect isn't bad, but a little bit situative. These 2 cards got some flexibility, but not enough to be cubeable.
Butcher's Glee: Black combat tricks may mainly be outclassed by black spot removal, but this one can actually generate a huge amount of life in exchange for the traded creature.
Casting of Bones: Combined with a spot removal this card is Compulsive Research, which would be great, but it depends on a spot removal and as an aura, it's a little bit fragile.
Cower in Fear: This card can be backbreaking or completely useless. Most of the time it's the second.
Cruel Finality: Scry is nice, but there is way better removal available in black.
Dark Banishing/Expunge/Ghostly Visit/Hand of Death/Hideous End/Horobi's Whisper/Murder/Oubliette/Seal of Doom: A hard removal for cc3 is never bad, but there are simply too many better alternatives for these cards.
Dark Dabbling: This card trades 1-for-1 or can save all your creatures and replaces itself, but most of the time it's too situational.
Dirge of Dread: Either using this card as a finisher or cycling it, with an attached effect is Ok, but mainly not exciting enough.
Douse in Gloom/Last Kiss: Simply a weaker Lightning Helix would still be great, but these cards need to cost either cc1 less or deal 1 damage more, to be good.
Ichor Slick: A lot of flexibility in a single card, but for most people, it's simply too overcosted in most cases.
Last Rites: This card can be great when you play against a control deck with a full hand, even in the late game, and you are able to trade some lands each against cards of your choice, but when you got enough lands your opponent usually has an empty hand.
Morbid Plunder/Recover: Mainly the worse versions of Death's Duet.
Pharika's Libation: A unique effect for black. If you want to grant black access to enchantment removal this is definitely considerable.
Renegade's Getaway: This can be a nice blowout for your opponent, but it is very situational.
Shade's Form: Either enchanting your creature to pump and protect it, or stealing a creature from your opponent when combined with a spot removal can be nice, but it remains situative.
Splendid Agony: It can be a 2-for-1, but there are better removals available for that cost.
Succumb to Temptation: Worse than its sorcery counterparts as Black does not need pricier Divination-effects just for Instant speed's sake
Suffocating Fumes: Only giving -1/-1 often doesn't kill much on it's own, but the fact, that this is an instant and applies to the whole opposing team can definitely lead to some situations, where this is devastating. The rest of the time Cycling will do the trick.
Syphon Life: Retrace spells do very well in limited, because of the higher land count, but the effect of this card is pretty weak.
Unholy Indenture – Having the creature return to the battlefield (stronger), UNDER YOUR CONTROL, is powerful. But it’s an aura with can cause 2-for-1s, and doesn’t work well against the white/blue on board removal
Wail of the Nim: Both effects are sometimes ok, but mainly you don't want this card.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Afflict: Drawing cards in addition to a removal is great, but -1/-1 is simply too less for cc3.
Alms of the Vein/Gruesome Fate/Haunting Misery/Inquisition/Onyx Goblet/Soul Bleed/Vampiric Touch: Simply damage that only goes to players is bad in most situations.
Artifact Possession/Stench of Decay: These cards wouldn't even be good in an artifact-based cube.
Aspect of Gorgon: The chance of card disadvantage is simply too high.
Asphyxiate/Assassinate/Lethal Sting: These cards are simply outclassed by too many better and less restrictive versions.
Blessing of Leeches/Soul Channeling: Protecting a creature permanently with regeneration seems nice, but cc3 is simply too much for that.
Bone Harvest/Dead Reckoning/Footbottom Feast/Gravepurge: Mainly you don't want to put anything on the top of your library.
Boon of Emrakul: Aura version of Nameless Inversion. If Auras matter, this may make the cut.
Breach: Just 2 damage combined with evasion isn't exciting.
Choking Sands/Icequake/Rancid Earth: Lands are worth way less in limited than in constructed which makes land destruction quite bad.
Coercion/Dark Inquiry/Memory Theft/Night Terrors/Perish the Thought/Psychotic Episode: These cards are simply overcosted for their medium effect.
Complete Disregard/Vanquish the Weak: These cards are outclassed by many other removal spells.
Corpse Lunge: There are too many better alternatives for a black damage based removal.
Crypt Incursion: Graveyard hate is not needed in limited.
Deception/Mind Rot/Rakshasa's Secret/Waking Nightmare: Simply the worse versions of Bog Down.
Delirium Skeins: This card would only be good if your own hand is empty within a few turns.
Demonic Torment: Turning a creature into a defender is no good solution for it most times.
Desperate Charge: Sorcery speed makes this card really bad.
Essence Harvest: The effect is very situative.
Festergloom: A mediocre board sweep.
Fevered Strength: The effect isn't bad combined with card draw, but it's overcosted.
Foreboding Fruit: Divination is OK, but losing to 2 for no reason makes no sense and you would need to pay BBB to effectively gain 1 life with a Kicker cost of 2.
Fortuitous Find: There aren't many artifacts in the graveyard normally and there are cheaper alternatives to recur a creature.
Foul-Tongue Invocation: This card would only be interesting with enough tribal support.
Funeral March: A terribly worse version of Cruel Edict.
Funeral Rites: Divination is an okay baseline, but paying 2 life in addition doesn't make this better and the upside of self mill is barely relevant.
Grave Birthing: This card replaces itself and brings a 1/1 body, but the grave hate is irrelevant.
Grisly Transformation: This card would need to cost 1 mana less, to become interesting.
Grim Affliction: There isn't much to proliferate in most pauper cubes.
Hideous Visage: The worse version of Dirge of Dread.
Howling Fury: The pushed creature will simply be traded by everything.
Induce Despair/Quag Sickness/Tar Snare/Tomb Hex: In most situations -X/-X is worse than simply destroying a creature.
Krovikan Fetish/Necromancer's Magemark/Scavenged Weaponry: These auras don't make card disadvantage in most cases, but just +1/+1 is simply too unexciting.
Last Caress/Tainted Well/Touch of Death: Terrible effects, that don't become better if you can draw a card for them.
Live Fast/Painful Lesson: With no "real" advantages in the average cube, these are bad and outclassed by the cheaper two-mana options.
Maggot Therapy/Phyrexian Boon: If you are not sure if a card should be used on your own creatures or your opponent's creatures it's mainly bad.
Melancholy: Black doesn't need tap removals like this, because they got a lot of hard removal spells, with fewer problems.
Merciless Resolve: There is no reason to pay 1 mana more to Altar's Reap just to be able to sacrifice a land.
Mind Extraction: You neither want to sacrifice any creature for a discard spell nor is there anything playable with more than 2 or 3 colors.
Mind Ravel/Unhinge: A single card will often be just a land and in this case, this card was mainly just a tempo disadvantage.
Necrobite: Black doesn't need combat tricks.
Nyx Infusion: A terribly outclassed removal spell.
Reaping the Graves: It's hard to get storm counts, as long as you don't build your deck around it.
Relic Putrescence: Infect doesn't work in pauper cubes.
Rend Spirit: There are simply not enough playable spirits.
Resounding Scream: The worse version of Coercion.
Sick and Tired: Just -1/-1 won't kill many creatures.
Sleeper's Guile: An aura that maybe makes no card disadvantage, but Fear is simply too unexciting.
Soul Kiss: Turning a creature into Putrid Leech seems nice on first look, but it's simply not worth the risk of card disadvantage.
Swarm Surge: A black Trumpet Blast, but black isn't a swarm color.
Swat: Flexibility is nice, but this card is simply too bad in most cases.
Syphon Soul: This card only works in multiplayer games.
Toll of the Invasion: A 1/1 is usually not what this kind of effect needs. It either needs to cost 1 less or have a different sort of upside.
Unhallowed Pact: Mainly the worse version of Shade's Form.
Untamed Hunger: This card isn't worth the risk of card disadvantage.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Pestilence: One of the few mass-removal spells in pauper. It's very flexible and has a lot of synergies.
Snuff Out: A really good removal. The possibility to play it for 0 is absolutely great and even cc4 isn't too overcosted. 4 life can be a lot, but if you really need it it's worth it.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Evincar's Justice: This card is as close to Pyroclasm/Infest as pauper got right now.
Ill-Gotten Inheritance – Seemingly bad, this is a misunderstood threat. The 2 point life swing (-1 them, +1 you) will keep the game going longer in a stall. But the instant-speed finishing blow build in, even for 6cmc, cannot be understated. It is a combo Curse of the Pierced Heart and Seal of Lava Axe. Splashable as well!
Mark of the Vampire: +2/+2 is a huge threat and even if the creature isn't protected in any way, it will leave the battlefield with a huge difference if it even attacked once.
Tendrils of Corruption: A great late-game card that can be very lackluster in the early game, as long as you don't have a mono B deck.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Bitter Revelation: 4 mana at sorcery speed for drawing 2 cards is a lot, but this card contains card quality and there are ways in black to get an advantage of milling cards.
Chill to the Bone/Feast or Famine/Grisly Spectacle: Destroying a creature for cc4 isn't directly bad, but it's still overcosted, without any "real" advantage.
Dark Bargain - Ok, but we have better stuff. like Night's Whisper. It is an instant and digs 3 deep, keeping 2.
Fill with Fright: Scry attached to a card that makes card advantage of any kind for the opponent is nice, but simply discarding 2 cards is too situative.
Flay: Hymn to Tourach would still be nuts for cc4, but not with such a hard restriction.
Gruesome Discovery: This card would be interesting, but morbid is a high restriction even for black.
Midnight Recovery: Often this card is Death's Duet for cc4, but Cipher overall isn't a good ability since it's mainly just an aura with an etb-effect.
Mire's Malice: It's an overcosted Mind Rot, but the Awaken-Mode makes it playable.
Nightsnare: It's nice to discard either one specific card or discard two, but 4 mana is a lot for the effect.
Sanguine Indulgence: Triggering the reduced effects for this can be hard, if you can enable it 1 mana for a Death's Duet is a great deal as it will often allow you to play one of the returned creatures out right away.
Strands of Undeath: Protecting a creature permanently while making the opponent discard 2 cards isn't bad, but just discarding 2 cards is too situative.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Aphetto Dredging: This card would be great without the tribal restriction.
Aspect of Lamprey: You either want a Mind Rot effect or an aura that pumps a creature. This is a unique combination, but rarely any deck wants this.
Bake into a Pie: There is a ton of cheaper removal spells.
Befoul/Daring Demolition/Impale/Oblivion Strike/Parasitic Implant: Without any significant advantages in the average cube, these sorcery-speed hard removal spells are terrible and outclassed by several better options.
Blood Curdle: I would rather pay 2 less, rather than give one creature Menace.
Blood Tithe/Syphon Mind/Unnerve: These cards are only good for multiplayer.
Brink of Disaster: The permanents you mainly want to get rid of are creatures.
Burden of Greed: This card wouldn't even be good in an artifact-based cube.
Curse of Oblivion: Graveyard hate is simply not needed in pauper cubes.
Death Bomb/Launch Party: You don't want to sacrifice creatures, just have an overcosted hard removal.
Despoil: Land destruction becomes worse as later it's played. cc4 is simply way too much.
Devouring Greed/Profane Prayers: There are no playable tribals in pauper cubes.
Dutiful Return/March of the Returned: These cards are outclassed by a lot of recursion spells and especially by Wander in Death.
Fatal Fumes/Flatten/Kagemaro's Clutch/Patriarch's Desire/Torment of Venom/Weight of the Underworld: -X/-X removal spells are outclassed by hard removal with cc4.
Feast of the Unicorn: +4 power is huge, but this creature will still trade with any other creature blocking it.
Instill Infection: This card is simply overcosted.
Irradiate: This card would only be interesting for an artifact-based cube.
Mental Agony/Witness The End: 2 life isn't worth adding 1 mana to a very situative effect.
Morsel Theft: This card would even be Ok for cc4 if you would be allowed to draw the card, but it's actually only worth it if you can enable the prowl effect.
Necromantic Thirst: Simply the worse version of Midnight Recovery.
Psychotic Haze: This card would only be a little bit interesting if you would be able to discard it.
Sink into Takenuma: This card would only work in mono B decks.
Splitting Headache: Flexibility is nice, but both versions are overcosted and not really exciting.
Stronghold Discipline: Simple damage to the opponent's life once is just terrible.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Nothing here.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Disturbed Burial: This card wins most late games. Permanently gaining the creature of your choice back is nuts.
Urborg Uprising: Getting +2 cards is nice, but cc5 is a lot.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Baleful Eidolon: This card contains deathtouch twice and enables a 2 for 2 trade this way, but it's hardly overcosted.
Dead Ringers: Destroying 2 creatures for cc5 would be great, but the color restriction can be hard.
Essence Drain: Dealing 3 damage to either a player or creature and 3 life is nice, but this card is overcosted by 1, to be good.
Sever Soul: Gaining life in addition to destroy a creature can be nice, but cc5 is a lot for that.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Brainspoil: Flexibility is nice, but Transmute is way better in constructed decks.
Call for Blood/Demon's Grasp/Lash of the Whip/Throttle/Waste Away: Expensive removal spells that are outclassed by too many better versions.
Clutch of Undeath/Death of a Thousand Stings/Traitor's Clutch: Terribly overcosted cards.
Contract Killing: An overcosted sorcery speed removal spell. The treasures aren't that good by this late in the game and don't make up for the fact that you can't cast this until turn 5.
Cruel Revival: If you have enough Zombies, this card could be considered, but it's still overcosted.
Death's Caress/Unholy Hunger/Weed Strangle: The worse versions of Sever Soul.
Desecrated Earth/Destroy the Evidence/Maw of the Mire/Spreading Rot: Land destruction becomes worse as later it comes and cc5 is way too much for that.
Festive Funeral: This wouldn't even be good with a ton of selfmill.
Final Death: 5 mana is simply too much and the exile clause matters too rarely.
Final Reward/Flesh to Dust: These are unconditional hard removal spells, but overcosted and outclassed by way too many better versions.
Finishing Blow: There are no common planeswalkers and 5 mana is way too much just to deal with creatures.
Gloomlance: This card isn't even a really good sideboard card.
Lab Rats: On first look, this may look like a black Sprout Swarm, but instant speed, Convoke and the fact that it's green makes such a huge difference.
Liturgy of Blood: This removal is so terribly overcosted that it's not directly bad, but simply not cubeable at all. Even if it's non-restricted and gives some mana back it's also sorcery speed and BBB isn't very useful in most situations.
Nyxborn Eidolon: cc5 for Unholy Strength is simply far too much and a 2/1 is not really a good price for 4 additional mana.
Reach of Shadows: A hard removal for cc5, that is even restricted, is simply terrible.
Rise Again: This would be a decent reanimate effect if it weren't for the fact, that there simply aren't many great big creatures worth reanimating and most of them don't cost much more than 5 or 6, so instead of finding a way to get them into the graveyard and maybe saving 1 mana you can simply cast them right away.
Shadow Slice: Cipher is a high restriction and this effect is to situative for the risk.
Soul Shred: The worse version of Essence Drain.
Spread the Sickness: There isn't much to proliferate in the most pauper cubes.
Tidy Conclusion: This could only be interesting for an artifact-based cube.
Unmake the Graves: Death's Duet with instant speed and Convoke could be nice, but cc5 is definitely too much for the effect.
Vicious Betrayal: One of the worst cards for limited ever.
Violet Pall: A 1/1 Flying isn't really worth so much mana.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Nothing here.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Nothing here.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Corrupt/Spinning Darkness: These cards are only good in heavy B decks.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Absorb Vis: The effect is overcosted and Landcycling isn't enough flexibility to make it worth considering.
Brush with Death: The effect isn't good enough to bind 7 mana for it and for cc3 this card is even worse.
Cavern Lampad: Compared to Nimbus Naiad, this card is simply overcosted by 1 in each mode.
Certain Death/Grave Exchange/Morbid Hunger/Pull Under/Rite of the Serpent/Sip of Hemlock: These cards are terribly overcosted.
Covenant of Blood: Convoke or not, cc7 is way too much for this effect.
Dark Withering: This card is only good if you are able to discard it.
Death Rattle: This removal is only ok, in the very late stage of the game.
Essence Feed: 3 Eldrazi Spawns aren't worth so much mana.
Mindstab: This card is mainly only good on Turn 1. Apart from that, it will come too late.
Tasigur's Cruelty: Discard spells like this are highly situative and have to be timed correctly. An additional restriction in the form of Delve makes this card quite bad.
Staple: This card will usually be in every cube unless there are very specific reasons not to run it.
Death Denied: This card doesn't need much mana to win most late games for you.
Cubeable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Several of these will make the cut, but they are interchangeable.
Nothing here.
Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this, unless there are specific reasons.
Death Wind: A very flexible removal, but black has a lot of spells to destroy a creature, no matter how big it is.
Shattered Crypt: The way worse version of Death Denied.
Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it.
Consume Spirit/Drain Life: These cards mainly only work in mono B decks.
Disembowel: Often enough the worse version of Death Wind.
Endless Scream: Giving a lot of power to a creature can be interesting, but it doesn't protect the creature from dying to any creature, that blocks it.
Howl from Beyond: This card could be a bad finisher or a bad combat trick. No matter what, it's bad.
Rats' Feast: Graveyard hate is not needed in pauper cubes.
Soul Strings: In most cases, this card is just the worse version of Death's Duet.
Stir the Grave: In most cases, it's better to play another creature instead of reviving a creature by paying more than it's casting cost.
Word of Binding: A possible finisher for black that is mainly bad because of the Sorcery speed.
Pauper Cube & Artifact Pauper Cube & Multiplayer Cube
Interested in building your own Pauper Cube? Take a look at some of the lists and the following project: The "Evaluate Everything" Project (updated to M21/JMP)
Funeral charm is just so flexible, and -1/-1 will actually kill a large number of creatures in cube.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Hear, hear! Undying Evil is good!
It is certainly cubable, for those aggro black decks!
Also upgarde Dark Ritual up to cubable! It's really good. In some decks it's terrible, but in others it's a crazy good card. It's the sort of card you want in black aggro and midrange, for those unbeatable starts.