Judging Rubric Get It Away From Me — A card which should never be considered by anyone sane. Bad — It's not really worth cubing with at all. Cuttable — It's workable, but it's not cubeable. It's on the cuttable side of borderline. Borderline - It's got potential, and requires more testing. Your call. Cubeable — You can add this and probably get the wide concensus. It's solid. Not broken, but solid. Cube It — Stapled to the god damn cube. Run it. Run it like the wind.
WHITE
Boros Mastiff
A fine, cheap bear for DGM Limited, but sadly not doing it here. Cuttable.
Haazda Snare Squad
A tapper would simply be better than this, sadly. Bad.
Lyev Decree
White has several effects like this, including Repel the Darkness, which is more expensive, certainly, but draws you a card and has that surprise factor as an instant. Plus, as this is the kind of effect you want in the midgame, the extra mana doesn't hurt as much. Cuttable.
Maze Sentinel
Comparable to Noble Templar, which is certainly excellent, but the Templar's plainscycling is simply too good. This card is not that great. Cuttable.
Riot Control
Combination Healing Salve slash Safe Passage (almost). Neither has ever been that good, and this isn't good either. Get It Away From Me.
Steeple Roc
An expensive flier that simply dies to pingers and Lava Dart (the everpresent concern, yar). There are cheaper and better fliers at 4CMC. Bad.
Sunspire Gatekeepers
None of the Gatekeepers are good enough, given the lack of Gates in Pauper Cube. Bad.
Wake the Reflections
Fun, simple, elegant card, but waaay too narrow for Pauper Cube. We ain't running around with Centaur's Heralds. Get It Away From Me.
Overall: Nothing at all. Shame.
BLUE
Hidden Strings
An interesting card. It's cheap, and extremely versatile. However, I'm not actually sure about whether it's cubeable or not. The problem is that tapping down creatures is worthless when Cipher triggers, because they will have blocked - or not blocked - already by then. So Hidden Strings becomes a source of pseudo-vigilance or a mana producer. Which... isn't bad. It's very comparable to Quirion Ranger, which I simply love. Hrm. I came into writing this review ready to reject it, but now I just don't know. How unhelpful. Personally I'll probably be testing it. Borderline.
Maze Glider Spire Monitor and a plethora of 4 or 5 drops are better than this thing, in my opinion. Cuttable.
Mindstatic Counterspell laughs at this card. You can do better for four mana. Get It Away From Me.
Mumuring Phantasm
A cheap defender that would provide passable support for the blue control decks. Frankly Halimar Wavewatch already does this job and better. Bad.
Runner's Bane
Cheap removal is nice, although it may be an issue that this suffers the same problems as Arachnus Web, being extremely ineffectual against Giant Growth effects and equipment (they don't share the same text, but the Bane will fall off the instant the enchanted creature growths beyond 3 power). Given that I've despised playing with the Web, I don't have high hopes for this card. Borderline.
Uncovered Clues
Don't be fooled, this whiffs more than it hits, making it in general a bad Divination. Bad.
Wind Drake
Functional reprint, and not a great one for Pauper Cube given how tight blue 3drops are. Bad.
Overall: Another whiff. Oh well.
BLACK
Bane Alley Blackguard
Defensive stats that don't really work out for me. Get It Away From Me.
Crypt Incursion
That is potentially a ton of life, but pure lifegain spells are just so bad. Yes I am just outright ignoring the exile effect. Bad.
Fatal Fumes
Great in Limited, horrendous in Pauper Cube. Get It Away From Me.
Hired Torturer
Great topdown design from a designer's perspective. A bunch of bad abilities from a cubist's perspective, especially with that four mana activation cost. Get It Away From Me.
Maze Abomination
A big butt that is effectively a vanilla. I prefer Abominations of the Twisted kind. Bad.
Rakdos Drake
Unleash is always interesting, especially on a flier. Unfortunately, a 2/3 flier isn't even that great for Pauper cube, so I doubt it'll work out. Cuttable.
Sinister Possession
Jesus it's like they put everything I hated into one card and then printed it. No. NO. GET IT AWAY FROM ME.
Clear a Path
HahahahahahahahaNO. Get It Away From Me.
Maze Rusher
The only Maze elemental in the cycle that I'm considering. 6 power of hasty damage is very persuasive. Maybe testworthy, but it's just expensive enough that I doubt it'll pan out. Borderline, heavily leaning on the side of cuttable.
Riot Piker
It might get in for 2 or 4 damage, but it'll certainly be eaten by a 3/3 eventually. Not very good. Bad.
Rubblebelt Maaka
Neither a Hill Giant nor a Brute Force is bad, and the versatility of having both at your disposable is tempting. I don't really think that makes it, though. Cuttable.
Weapon Surge
A nice, cheap combat trick that has the capabilities of being a mass pump if necessary. I can imagine blowout situations. This is probably not better than burn though, but for one looking to cut a bit of burn from their cube, this could be passable. Borderline.
Overall: At least we all know that monocolor is not what we're looking at for Dragon's Maze inclusions.
GREEN
Battering Krasis
I've fallen in love with Evolve during Gatecrash, so I'll probably be testing this. A 4/3 trampler for 3 is strong, but probably won't happen often enough. Borderline.
Kraul Warrior
A bear with a random ability that doesn't matter much. Meh. There are better things out there. Bad.
Maze Behemoth
Given that green is the best big creature color, this no should be even clearer. Bad.
Thrashing Mossdog
A passable Giant Spider, and even comparable to Elephant Ambush. Flash vs. reach is an interesting question, but I think the Ambush wins out, but only by a bit. And since that's passable for cube already, this is borderline at the worst. Borderline.
Overall: And that's that with multicolor. Onto the real meat of this article!
Beetleform Mage
A possible 4/4 flier for 3 mana is nothing to laugh at, but that 2 mana cost every turn forces me to pause. It's not as good as Assault Zeppelid, methinks. Cuttable.
Deputy of Acquittals
An Ashcoat Bear that can sometimes Whitemane Lion as a strict upside (as opposed to the Lion's mandatory ability, which is often a downside). Not good enough for UW given how tight it is, but nice nonetheless. Cuttable.
Drown in Filth
Self-mill doesn't have any extensive applications here, so this is just a terrible Last Gasp. Get It Away From Me.
Morgue Burst
It does a lot for one card, sure, but it's also hella expensive. I can't see it ever working out. Bad.
Nivix Cyclops
A 4/4 (and potential 7/4) for 3 is nothing to scoff at, and a 1/4 stops a lot in its tracks. Not terrible, but multicolor is very tight, especially with the inclusion of the superior Frostburn Weird. Cuttable.
Pilfered Plans Consult the Necrosages is just better. We don't cube with Divination in a second about 15 times larger, so we're certainly not going to cube with it in UB. Get It Away From Me.
Tithe Drinker
Comparing it to Kingpin's Pet, I have to think that the Pet is slightly better. The Drinker might just die in combat too often, with 1 toughness and no evasion, compared to the Pet. I won't know until I test it next to the Pet. It's still a very good card, the best in this set (Extort is just that good), but I don't think I'll end up having room for it. Cubeable.
Viashino Firstblade
About as good as Inner-Flame Acolyte, which is a cubeable red 3drop. I don't really like it compared to the other options - for instance, I think Skyknight Legionnaire is better - but it's still quite an aggressive choice. Cuttable.
Zhur-Taa Druid
This will be great in Limited, but GR is too stacked for it. Cuttable.
Overall: As I knew would happen coming into this review, the multicolor was the best section in the set, but because multicolor in Pauper is so damn tight, very little gets by.
COLORLESS
Azorius Cluestone & co.
3 mana is far too expensive, and there's no room for 10 more bad mana rocks. The draw doesn't redeem it. Cuttable.
Azorius Guildgate & co. (mark II.)
Besides that these are reprints, and so should be on this set review for the sake of consistency, I just wanted to comment on how god damn pretty the new expanded arts are. Yes.
Overall:
Now that's that, onwards... to Theros! (fine, M14 first.)
I like tithe drinker better than kingpin's pet, I think, as it's entirely plausible to get all of their creatures off the board for at least a turn to attach with the drinker and make the life swing even larger. Plus coming down a turn earlier is huge on a creature with extort.
Pet provides more consistent damage by itself. That in itself could easily match the lifegain of the Drinker. It may be plausible for situations to arise where Drinker is used along with removal to get some good swings in, but I have my reservations on how consistently that might occur.
I'm also not so sure about the turn thing, but testing will make things clearer.
Being able to gain 2 life when trading in combat is fairly sweet, though.
I don't mind the Drinker being better than the Pet. I'll test it to be sure which one to keep. I just don't see it right now though. It's all very up in the air.
I agree on pretty much on all accounts. Mostly everything is a just miss. Because it's so bad I'm trying to get excited for card that I usually wouldn't be like Hidden Strings. Meh. RtR block has been great to us so can't complain too much.
I kinda want you to look at Rakdos Drake one more time. For an aggressive strat that is mostly splashing black for the removal, I think it actually may have a place. I think it's borderline but yeah I won't be playing it.
Eh. For aggressive evasive creatures, I prefer 3-power guys like Dauthi Marauder or Ravenous Skirge. At 2 power, the Drake isn't that great in aggressive decks.
It definitely looks like Pauper Cubes really got the short end of the stick this time. It was a small set, but still...
I like the review. I agree that Tithe Drinker is probably the best common of the set. There were alot more interesting uncommons in Dragon's Maze, but that doesn't really matter here. Hopefully Modern Masters will bring a new age into restricted cubing (fingers crossed for Birds xD)
A nice review indeed. I think that Maze glider along with others do warrant looking at in some respect. I think weapon surge is a solid addition to my own list, as is tithe drinker. I added weapon surge to my own cube because of how it is built, where it doesn't have that many burn spells. I try to have my cube focus more on the combat step at the moment.
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The gatekeepers are all awesome if they actually work. But even if you double up on gates you'd probably have to run off-color ones just to get the effect to reliable fire, sadly.
The 2/2 viashino guy is very good.
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DRAGON'S MAZE SET REVIEW
Aaaaand let's finish up our return to Ravnica with Dragon's Maze!
Follow this review with the MTGS spoilers.
Judging Rubric
Get It Away From Me — A card which should never be considered by anyone sane.
Bad — It's not really worth cubing with at all.
Cuttable — It's workable, but it's not cubeable. It's on the cuttable side of borderline.
Borderline - It's got potential, and requires more testing. Your call.
Cubeable — You can add this and probably get the wide concensus. It's solid. Not broken, but solid.
Cube It — Stapled to the god damn cube. Run it. Run it like the wind.
WHITE
Boros Mastiff
A fine, cheap bear for DGM Limited, but sadly not doing it here. Cuttable.
Haazda Snare Squad
A tapper would simply be better than this, sadly. Bad.
Lyev Decree
White has several effects like this, including Repel the Darkness, which is more expensive, certainly, but draws you a card and has that surprise factor as an instant. Plus, as this is the kind of effect you want in the midgame, the extra mana doesn't hurt as much. Cuttable.
Maze Sentinel
Comparable to Noble Templar, which is certainly excellent, but the Templar's plainscycling is simply too good. This card is not that great. Cuttable.
Riot Control
Combination Healing Salve slash Safe Passage (almost). Neither has ever been that good, and this isn't good either. Get It Away From Me.
Steeple Roc
An expensive flier that simply dies to pingers and Lava Dart (the everpresent concern, yar). There are cheaper and better fliers at 4CMC. Bad.
Sunspire Gatekeepers
None of the Gatekeepers are good enough, given the lack of Gates in Pauper Cube. Bad.
Wake the Reflections
Fun, simple, elegant card, but waaay too narrow for Pauper Cube. We ain't running around with Centaur's Heralds. Get It Away From Me.
Overall: Nothing at all. Shame.
BLUE
Hidden Strings
An interesting card. It's cheap, and extremely versatile. However, I'm not actually sure about whether it's cubeable or not. The problem is that tapping down creatures is worthless when Cipher triggers, because they will have blocked - or not blocked - already by then. So Hidden Strings becomes a source of pseudo-vigilance or a mana producer. Which... isn't bad. It's very comparable to Quirion Ranger, which I simply love. Hrm. I came into writing this review ready to reject it, but now I just don't know. How unhelpful. Personally I'll probably be testing it. Borderline.
Maze Glider
Spire Monitor and a plethora of 4 or 5 drops are better than this thing, in my opinion. Cuttable.
Mindstatic
Counterspell laughs at this card. You can do better for four mana. Get It Away From Me.
Mumuring Phantasm
A cheap defender that would provide passable support for the blue control decks. Frankly Halimar Wavewatch already does this job and better. Bad.
Opal Lake Gatekeepers
Blue 4drops are so tight. No. Get It Away From Me.
Runner's Bane
Cheap removal is nice, although it may be an issue that this suffers the same problems as Arachnus Web, being extremely ineffectual against Giant Growth effects and equipment (they don't share the same text, but the Bane will fall off the instant the enchanted creature growths beyond 3 power). Given that I've despised playing with the Web, I don't have high hopes for this card. Borderline.
Uncovered Clues
Don't be fooled, this whiffs more than it hits, making it in general a bad Divination. Bad.
Wind Drake
Functional reprint, and not a great one for Pauper Cube given how tight blue 3drops are. Bad.
Overall: Another whiff. Oh well.
BLACK
Bane Alley Blackguard
Defensive stats that don't really work out for me. Get It Away From Me.
Crypt Incursion
That is potentially a ton of life, but pure lifegain spells are just so bad. Yes I am just outright ignoring the exile effect. Bad.
Fatal Fumes
Great in Limited, horrendous in Pauper Cube. Get It Away From Me.
Hired Torturer
Great topdown design from a designer's perspective. A bunch of bad abilities from a cubist's perspective, especially with that four mana activation cost. Get It Away From Me.
Maze Abomination
A big butt that is effectively a vanilla. I prefer Abominations of the Twisted kind. Bad.
Rakdos Drake
Unleash is always interesting, especially on a flier. Unfortunately, a 2/3 flier isn't even that great for Pauper cube, so I doubt it'll work out. Cuttable.
Sinister Possession
Jesus it's like they put everything I hated into one card and then printed it. No. NO. GET IT AWAY FROM ME.
Ubul Sar Gatekeepers
If only Gates were more plentiful. Get It Away From Me.
Overall: This was even worse than the previous sections.
RED
Awe for the Guilds
A fine Falter variant, but not better than the ones we already have. Ruthless Invasion is just better. Bad.
Clear a Path
HahahahahahahahaNO. Get It Away From Me.
Maze Rusher
The only Maze elemental in the cycle that I'm considering. 6 power of hasty damage is very persuasive. Maybe testworthy, but it's just expensive enough that I doubt it'll pan out. Borderline, heavily leaning on the side of cuttable.
Punish the Enemy
That's a lot of damage, but a Lava Spike strapped to a Searing Spear is not worth five mana. Cuttable.
Riot Piker
It might get in for 2 or 4 damage, but it'll certainly be eaten by a 3/3 eventually. Not very good. Bad.
Rubblebelt Maaka
Neither a Hill Giant nor a Brute Force is bad, and the versatility of having both at your disposable is tempting. I don't really think that makes it, though. Cuttable.
Smelt-Ward Gatekeeper
A wanted a common Zealous Conscripts, damn it! Oh well. Bad.
Weapon Surge
A nice, cheap combat trick that has the capabilities of being a mass pump if necessary. I can imagine blowout situations. This is probably not better than burn though, but for one looking to cut a bit of burn from their cube, this could be passable. Borderline.
Overall: At least we all know that monocolor is not what we're looking at for Dragon's Maze inclusions.
GREEN
Battering Krasis
I've fallen in love with Evolve during Gatecrash, so I'll probably be testing this. A 4/3 trampler for 3 is strong, but probably won't happen often enough. Borderline.
Kraul Warrior
A bear with a random ability that doesn't matter much. Meh. There are better things out there. Bad.
Maze Behemoth
Given that green is the best big creature color, this no should be even clearer. Bad.
Mending Touch
So they've stepped up from Regenerate. Still bad. Wasn't good when it was Withstand Death, ain't good now. Bad.
Mutant's Prey
+1/+1 counters simply aren't prevalent enough to warrant this, despite how aggressive its cost is. Cuttable.
Phytoburst
As a sorcery, this isn't even as good as Titanic Growth. Bad.
Saruli Gatekeepers
Giant Spider is good but uncubeable. This is several layers worse Get It Away From Me.
Thrashing Mossdog
A passable Giant Spider, and even comparable to Elephant Ambush. Flash vs. reach is an interesting question, but I think the Ambush wins out, but only by a bit. And since that's passable for cube already, this is borderline at the worst. Borderline.
Overall: And that's that with multicolor. Onto the real meat of this article!
MULTICOLOR
Armored Wolf-Rider
GW is waaaaay too tight for this. Bad.
Beetleform Mage
A possible 4/4 flier for 3 mana is nothing to laugh at, but that 2 mana cost every turn forces me to pause. It's not as good as Assault Zeppelid, methinks. Cuttable.
Deputy of Acquittals
An Ashcoat Bear that can sometimes Whitemane Lion as a strict upside (as opposed to the Lion's mandatory ability, which is often a downside). Not good enough for UW given how tight it is, but nice nonetheless. Cuttable.
Drown in Filth
Self-mill doesn't have any extensive applications here, so this is just a terrible Last Gasp. Get It Away From Me.
Morgue Burst
It does a lot for one card, sure, but it's also hella expensive. I can't see it ever working out. Bad.
Nivix Cyclops
A 4/4 (and potential 7/4) for 3 is nothing to scoff at, and a 1/4 stops a lot in its tracks. Not terrible, but multicolor is very tight, especially with the inclusion of the superior Frostburn Weird. Cuttable.
Pilfered Plans
Consult the Necrosages is just better. We don't cube with Divination in a second about 15 times larger, so we're certainly not going to cube with it in UB. Get It Away From Me.
Tithe Drinker
Comparing it to Kingpin's Pet, I have to think that the Pet is slightly better. The Drinker might just die in combat too often, with 1 toughness and no evasion, compared to the Pet. I won't know until I test it next to the Pet. It's still a very good card, the best in this set (Extort is just that good), but I don't think I'll end up having room for it. Cubeable.
Viashino Firstblade
About as good as Inner-Flame Acolyte, which is a cubeable red 3drop. I don't really like it compared to the other options - for instance, I think Skyknight Legionnaire is better - but it's still quite an aggressive choice. Cuttable.
Zhur-Taa Druid
This will be great in Limited, but GR is too stacked for it. Cuttable.
Overall: As I knew would happen coming into this review, the multicolor was the best section in the set, but because multicolor in Pauper is so damn tight, very little gets by.
COLORLESS
Azorius Cluestone & co.
3 mana is far too expensive, and there's no room for 10 more bad mana rocks. The draw doesn't redeem it. Cuttable.
Azorius Guildgate & co. (mark II.)
Besides that these are reprints, and so should be on this set review for the sake of consistency, I just wanted to comment on how god damn pretty the new expanded arts are. Yes.
Overall:
Now that's that, onwards... to Theros! (fine, M14 first.)
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Draft it on Cubetutor!
I'm also not so sure about the turn thing, but testing will make things clearer.
Being able to gain 2 life when trading in combat is fairly sweet, though.
I don't mind the Drinker being better than the Pet. I'll test it to be sure which one to keep. I just don't see it right now though. It's all very up in the air.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Such a shame they didn't give us any fuse cards at common; that would have been interesting. More hybrids would have been nice too. Oh well.
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Eh. For aggressive evasive creatures, I prefer 3-power guys like Dauthi Marauder or Ravenous Skirge. At 2 power, the Drake isn't that great in aggressive decks.
If only it were a 2/1 to start with. D=
Indeed. Multicolor sets will usually be like that. D=
Fixed.
Thanks!
I don't think we've ever gotten splitcards at common, so it's just another stop on the road to Pauper sadness. D=
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
also RTR had a 6/4 haster if I remember correctly
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Huh.
That's....
Huh.
(Time to test.)
Indeed, brother.
You must mean Tenement Crasher, which was just a 5/4.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
and when you have amnesia
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
I like the review. I agree that Tithe Drinker is probably the best common of the set. There were alot more interesting uncommons in Dragon's Maze, but that doesn't really matter here. Hopefully Modern Masters will bring a new age into restricted cubing (fingers crossed for Birds xD)
Draft it on Cubetutor!
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The 2/2 viashino guy is very good.