Why blue aggro isnt supported?
It do sounds strange, but there are intresting cards like Sunken City that could have a chance at least, don't they?
There just isn't a need to support a color doing something if it is just worse at it than every other color and it's got plenty of other things it is good at. Both Skywatcher and the Zendikon will often be the worst cards in your deck because of how the color functions as a whole; in blue, you have better flying creatures and in any other colors you have more aggressive creatures that don't require such an investment.
And no, Sunken City does not get played. It's cost between casting and upkeep is too steep and its effect too narrow for a color that is not typically the aggressor. Remember, you're going to be in a 2+ color deck most times, so having to keep UU tapped every turn could hurt a lot in terms of what tricks you can have available and your ability to curve out; let's not forget that it also pumps opposing blue creatures.
Edit: Lanxal, you don't even have Shimmering Glasskite in your cube, which should make it in way before Skywatcher. Glasskite is a card that both aggro and control decks like; it's a sizeable beater that not only takes at least two removal spells to kill, but has a 3rd toughness so it already dodges a decent chunk of it anyway. This is all without considering that you might have a counterspell of your own to totally hose the opponent flinging removal so that they can swing with their bears.
There might be another cut, in your opinion, but Glasskite needs to be in there. Just play with it.
I like Sunken City as much as anyone else, but I see no space for it in the cube. In green or black, I'd say go for it. In red or white, it would be one of the best pump spells in the cube. Sure, it's a ton worse than many other cards, but we can't run any of them, as none of them are common. And really, the upkeep cost is not very high for an aggro deck.
However, if it's ever going to work in blue, you need a sizable amount of good one drops, and on top of that efficient token producers and aggro bodies at 2 and 3 CMC. Really, that's not going to happen.
Actually, the card I like here the most is Hapless Researcher. It's pretty much an Elvish Visionary where you're trading discarding a card for being one mana cheaper. I don't know if that kind of body is at all worth it in blue, but it seems pretty nice.
Cutting Skywatcher for Glasskite does seem like a smart swap, I'll do that.
Actually, the card I like here the most is Hapless Researcher. It's pretty much an Elvish Visionary where you're trading discarding a card for being one mana cheaper. I don't know if that kind of body is at all worth it in blue, but it seems pretty nice.
I'd play a blue Elvish Visionary before I played Researcher, but I wouldn't bother playing either. It's not a control card or a tempo card and it's certainly not a threat.
Currently, the weakest card I believe I'm running in Fathom Seer, and then perhaps Halimar Wavewatch. The cards I have my eyes on are Welkin Tern, which I may swap Wavewatch out. Out a control beater, in with a nice flyer.
I just moved Ninja to my 2 cmc section, so you might have to update that and Fathom Seer is definitely not a 2 cc card. How often are you playing the card as a 2 mana 1/3? If it's more often than it gets morphed it should probably get cut even more than I already think that.
Merfolk Looter-This card is very good. Not terribly exciting, but improving your hand every turn is a very powerful thing to have over an opponent in the long run.
Waterfront Bouncer- The stone cold nuts. It's plenty good at face value of pitching cards to return your opponent's creatures and try to tempo them out, but it does so much more. It's can be even better on your own creatures (Kor Sanctifiers, Mulldrifter, Skinthinner, Ghitu Slinger, Mold Shambler), just as a general tool to save your guys from removal, and let's not forget if you have any reanimation or reload cards like Reaping the Graves to pair with it.
Looter il-Kor--The best looter, imo. It's obviously weaker against Pacifism type cards and if you'd rather have your looter back to block and loot, but really it's better. Being able to filter your draw and help tick away at your opponent's life total is silly good.
Errant Ephemeron--For the low cost of 1U you can have one of the biggest creatures in the cube and it has evasion. It's cheap enough that you can get it out fairly early like most suspend creatures, but big enough you don't mind drawing it late.
Halimar Wavewatch--People running this shouldn't scoff at Angelic Wall, imo. I realize that this can eventually attack, but that's after a whopping 12 mana. I'm not saying that there aren't games that I could have used a mana sink like this; I'm saying that it's not usually the case. However, the fact that this can block Blastoderm and other midrange green fat is something to consider.
Ninja of the Deep Hours--Silly good. Barring some removal spell from your opponent, this will always net a card when it is Ninja'd in. The 2 power is also a very relevant fact why this is good and something like Scroll Thief isn't. If you only connect once with this, that's probably already more than the Scroll Thief, but say you connect 3 times with either card: 6 damage and 3 cards is a lot better than 3 and 3 cards, no?
Stonybrook Angler--I'm running it, but it's none too exciting most games. Giving a big guy vigilance is often times better than tapping down a creature of your opponents, barring equipments or much evasion. I've see a couple cubers pair it up with Pingers too and that was pretty cool.
Silver Myr-Not necessary, but it's certainly not the worst thing you could run. I don't like that non U decks could run this, but that's just me.
Infiltrator Il-Kor--U is not an aggressive color, so this card is in a strange place. Most U creatures do something other than attacking or in addition to attacking and that's for good reason. The philosophy of the color doesn't really support a fragile attacker that can't even block when on the back foot.
Dreamscape Artist--I don't think this effect is worth the slot in the cube. I get that the tempo aspect can be pretty much irrelevant since you can sacrifice one of the lands used to pay for the mana cost of the activated ability. That's not really the concern; it's the fact that the color has effects it needs more than pitching its hand. The only time you should feel very comfortable pitching cards from your hand is when you aren't under very much pressure. Against aggressive decks, you want your cards to keep the opponent's forces at bay or to out tempo them and kill them on the back swing; against control decks you want your cards to try to win the war of attrition. That's my initial thought anyhow.
Dreamscape Artist is an extremely good card and when I look at commons cubes, it's easily the card that I feel should be included by far.
Its 1/1 body for 1U is awful (but then again, Spellshapers have never had very good bodies - see Jaya, Undertaker and Waterfront Bouncer) but its ability to turn any card in your hand into a Harrow is really good in blue decks, since it ramps and accelerates, both abilities that are highly valued in blue decks.
It being able to be used at instant speed can let its caster "harrow" on t3 and get 2 lands to counter a spell on the opponent's turn. Its ability to do it over and over lets you deck-thin like a fiend, which is also really good in control decks since they tend to run higher land counts and if the deck is running splashes, Dreamscape Artist helps with those too.
It's easily better than cards like Owl, Tern, Angler and Silver Myr. No contest.
Ninja of the Deep Hours : Decent body, card advantage, potential to blow out for ninjitsu 2. Very good.
Merfolk Looter/Thought Courier: These guys provide advantage that shouldn't really be contested, demanding removal or probably eventually winning you the game. For serious.
Looter Il-kor: Like the other looters, but hitting for one per turn, silly good. Maybe the best blue two drop? Not sure.
Waterfront Bouncer: Worth it times a million. More like a fragile artifact than a creature, but repeatable bounce is really really good.
Errant Ephemeron: The lower side of amazing, but still very good because its competition is almost invisible. Winning games in blue is pretty hard, and that's what this guy does.
Welkin Tern: Hear me out, it's really a super aggro creature in blue. But if you don't want that, like me, then you wont run it, pretty simple.
Tier 1.5
Cloud of Faeries: I still think that the body is relevant for 0 in aggro and that the cycling makes it playable in slower decks (eg U/x tempo, which sees a ton of play here)
Tier Two:
Halimar Wavewatch: It's hard for me to evaluate it, because I never play that kind of control deck. It's not too hefty to become a pretty large dude, and is relevant at 0/6, so it's definitely playable.
Dreamscape Artist: Played it, didn't love it, didn't hate it. Might try it again sometimes, but all I ever really did with it was discard lands to give them flash :/ I suppose it can win early if it doesn't eat removal early.
Other:
Stonybrook Angler is, IMO, worse than the white trappers, and I run none of those. Not coming in here.
Augury Owl: It's not good enough, it doesn't do enough relevant things for control or have an efficient enough body for everything else. It's cool, though.
I think that everything else is really not worth it at all.
See, I just don't value turning whatever card in my hand into a Harrow very highly, because how many Harrows are you really going to need at the cost of your hand? If you're pitching lands, that's fine, but a Harrow with summoning sickness is definitely not the most exciting thing, imo.
I won't argue to defend Angler; it's not very good, but occasionally it does good things.
I will, however, defend Augury Owl. I mean, it's easy to cast, fixes your draws, and it's a flier. I don't see how people can be hating on this card so much. It's not Waterfront Bouncer or Ninja good or anything, but it's solid and it's practically never a waste of mana because it does something when it etb. Rubin8or, Cloud of Faeries over Owl? Like, really? The only reason a 1/1 is ever worth it is when it affects the board or has some other effect. The Scry 3 is at least as good as cycling on the faerie, plus you have a body on the board; it's not either/or with the Owl. I'm not saying CoF isn't worth the mana, because it's clearly worth at least 0 mana, but rather it's not worth the card in your deck.
In my experience playing blue, you never want Augury Owl. There are plenty of other cards that blue has that dig through the library like a champ. And as you say, 1/1s are not worth it most of the time. Augury Owl will almost always never make the deck, and just cycle like mad through the draft until someone takes it out of pity. I don't run Augury Owl for the same reason I decided not to run Sage of Epityr; it's just not worth it. And personally, if I was forced to choose between the two, I would pick the Sage first; fixing draws T1 is infinitely better than doing it T2, you're utilising a more empty part of your gameplan by playing the 1drop (do you ever want to play Augury Owl T2?), and it shows you a little deeper. Yes, there are times when the scry is just a whole lot better than sifting, but that one advantage does not outweigh its disadvantages.
Duuuude. That's hilarious. Now Sage is better than Owl too? Yes, you want Owl. It fixes your draws and blocks. Scrying is soooo much better than rearranging the top cards of your library. For one more mana you get a flier and scrying which is better most of the time. Seriously, most. There are going to plenty of times when you want two on top with one on bottom or none on top at all when you are digging for an out. There are plenty of times you are fine drawing the owl and it's not just on turn 2 like it is with many other two drops. Pretending like you'd never play Owl on turn 2 is silly and I think you know that. Digging is good; talking in hyperbole in a card evaluation thread is not.
We don't play Sage because it's clearly terrible. That's hilarious.
Fine, fine, I drop the Sage of Epityr comparison. But it's still not worth it. I'll admit, Augury Owl is better than I first gave it credit for, but I just don't think it can make it when blue's creatures are just so tight, and blue already has a bucketload of library-sifting and card draw (I count 21 in mine, which is close to a third). In another world - such as M11 Limited - it's pretty good to filter the draws, but in Cube there are better options out there and a lot of them.
Although looking at the stats, you run 11 by what I can see, which is closer to a fifth, so maybe it's again an issue of differing cubes. And on that notes, why are you running Augury Owl over something of the better library diggers such as Preordain or Serum Visions? Preordain being the more relevant comparison. In exchange for an irrelevant body and 1 more on the scry, you get to actually draw that answer you're digging for.
Your count is including stuff like Train of Thought, See Beyond, Treasure Hunt and other cards I wouldn't consider running. Train is better than the others and possibly better than I give it credit for, but the point stands that I think you are running tons of inefficient cards and yet you criticize Augury Owl even though it provides some sort of board presence while doing it's thing.
That said, I probably will add Preordain, but not Serum Visions. Serum Visions needed the reverse order to be good. Augury Owl replaces the card you draw from Visions for a 1/1 flier and then Scrys another card.
Basically, when you harp on stats and are running cards I don't think are good enough, the stats sound a bit warped.
And in all actuality, maybe Augury Owl is good enough. Cuttable, but good enough. It's in my Testing Zone, so we'll see. It's very much the point that when you get into an argument, the mentality is to stay on that side. Maybe in a few months time, we'll come back to it and I'll be on your side, as unlikely as that is. Insane it is not, but on the cubeworthy side of borderline it may be.
Anyway, are we ready to move on? Everyone else has pretty much summed up my feeling for the cards.
Pestermite a great card in aggro and a fair card in control. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's an aggro-only card, but it does help the blue aggro archetype a lot.
Neurok Invisimanceris, on the other hand, a full-sweeping aggro-only creature. And it's so worth it.
Calcite Snapper is ridiculously good in both aggro and control. Seriously, run it.
Spiketail Drakeling is a 2-power evasive beater for 3, which is already not bad. The counter strapped on is gravy. Cubeable, but it's not crazy to considering cutting it.
Scroll Thief is just a better [cardOphidian[/card]. I was skeptical at first, but this is an A-grade card even if it only goes off once.
Prodigal Sorcerer is the classic pinger. And, as it turns out, currently the only one anyone plays. Amen to that. I don't think blue needs that many pingers (it's not red, which can couple it with burn), but it does lend blue some more identity. It punches a bunch of annoying utility creatures, like looters, in the throat, so that's always a plus for blue.
Shaper Parasite is removal on a stick, albeit a somewhat expensive one. It can double as a combat trick, so that's not bad. An interesting tool for both aggro and control and I can get behind.
Wizard Replica is a funny card. I just to harp about it to the heavens, but now I'm not so sure. The Mana Leak strapped to it is not bad, but the thing is, this is a very defensive card and I'm not sure control needs it. the Drakeling is cubeworthy because it's inherently swayed to aggro, and that's where the speedbump is best used. The Replica isn't bad by any means, but unnecessary.
Fathom Seer is... borderline. Originally, I posted a positive review of it. However, after from retrospection, I realise that it's not as good as I want it to be. It's not that the card is bad - it's really quite good - but it's just too slow. T6 is the earliest you can crack it without stunting your mana development - and when you do, it's quite an excellent card - and that's not good enough. On the chopping block.
Echo Tracer really wants to be Man-o'-War, and to some extent it's quite good, but with Aether Adept shoring up the battlements it's become unnecessary.
Trinket Mage is great in the right cube and terrible in the wrong cubes. That's all there is to say about it.
Thalakos Mistfolk is interesting, and evasion + protection from removal is undoubtedly good. But it requires testing, so I think that's exactly what I'll do.
Teferi's Drake doesn't seem worth it. It's undoubtedly an aggro control (I'd play Tolarian Drake over it if I wanted a control creature), and really, it's outclassed by a lot of the other 2-power flyers because of it's phasing.
Rishadan Airship is an aggro-only creature that also seems to be Lanxal-only. It's fragile, but Blade of the Sixth Pride is fragile and everyone plays it. It helps blue aggro tremendously and it's snugly in place in my cube.
And some cards no one runs:
Thalakos Scout is either better or worse than Mistfolk. But which is it? I have no idea.
Weatherseed Faeries is funny. People play Thermal Glider but not this critter? Fine, fine, I guess that color is the obvious deterent. But, I like blue aggro, so I'm definitely going to add this.
I don't agree that a 1 mana 1/1 flying is not good enough to cost a card (compared to some cards in the cube that cost mana, it's better. But maybe the Owl is better, (probably actually) still I'll keep running neither.
Sea Gate Oracle is indeed a monster. Has a decent defensive body so great in control, but strangely I've found him rather lacking sometimes in aggro or even tempo decks. Not that he's bad there, but hasn't quite lived up to my high expectations.
Pestermite I don't ever play it in control, but here it's a funny balance between control, midrange and aggro. There's normally one fast aggro deck out of eight, and one real control deck, the rest being either tempo or even sometimes blue based midrange. And of course whatever happens in the other colours.
Neurok Invisimancer Not entirely aggro only. But entirely not-control only, still good in any deck that might, in the right circumstances be able to pull a race.
Calcite Snapper is amazing. Without the convertable ability, it would still be good. With it it's bonkers.
Aether Adept is a Man-o'-War but a bit worse. Not a lot worse, and still amazing, so run it.
Spiketail Drakeling is goodish, but not amazing. Thing is, I'm not going to cut anything here for it, this section is mega tight. In white, I'd be more than happy.
Scroll Thief I'm actually still not sure. It's a good card, of course, but is not the kind of card that you just chuck into any deck (like Man-o-war), as you really want some way to make sure it hits. Has been very good whenever I've played it, but other people here haven't had as much luck. Still warrants inclusion though, easily.
Prodigal Sorcerer is a funny card. I only run this because out of the three pingers you could include, there's this guy, his clone and the faeries with flying for 1uu. This guy (and obviously his functional reprint) are very good as they can be splashed, and are acutally quite a lot better the less blue you're running, as that'll mean combat and burn are in higher concentrations.
Shaper Parasite is funnily efficient. The 2/3 body is really surprisingly big and relevant, and I've hardcasted it more than once without embarrassment. Playing it for 3 and then morphing it for 2U the next turn isn't much mana really for the advantage it gives, and you normally don't care that the morph's a lightning rod.
Wizard Replica I never got this at all. It's not an efficient body (it's interesting in red and green where fliers are uncommon, but their creatures are way too efficient for it to be a good choice there) and the ability is not often something you'll really want to sacrifice it for. And they see it coming. And you have to keep mana up. Not bad, but not cubable compared to these other cards.
Fathom Seer Wow, I never expected to see this card see such negative reactions. It's been a good creature here, comes with card advantage and two okay bodies. The only time I've seen it underperform is in control, which is clearly not its home.
Echo Tracer is too much mana for a man-o-war. And that's it really.
Trinket Mage used to be good here but the targets have slowly come out. So yeah, it's getting cut here, though it's a really good card with enough support.
Thalakos Mistfolk the body is sub-par, and drawing it again and again doesn't seem that worth it in most decks. To the top of the library is not nearly as good as returning to your hand (though I have, on more than one occasion, added Wayward Soul as a milling wincon in control builds :P. It worked, too)
Teferi's Drake is actually really inefficient. Takes too long to hit a player, and even when it does is losing the race to every other flier ever.
Rishadan Airship I played it for a while. Was good enough for a big cube, but not good enough for 360, simple as that. Too much aggro support in the three drop slot is very misleading too, especially to newer players. You can't run an aggro deck with only three drops.
Thalakos Scout is better than Mistfolk by quite a long way, IMO. The only real downside to him is that if they try to kill it twice in one turn, it costs you two cards. That's not usually that relevant though, as you don't need to keep mana up for him and it's not always a bad thing to let it die. Am totally going to test this.
Weatherseed Faeries Yeah, the colour is so much less aggro than white (meaning pingers aren't even a large threat) and so much tighter. Not bad, not amazing, I won't run it.
Other Stuff: Dream Fighter: Seems really interesting. A Fog Bank that can attack (though only for 1) at common seems okay for 2U? I think I'll test it sometime.
Dream Thief : Probably not good enough, but interesting.
I like to give blue some aggro support. That is, in conjunction with other colors, it pulls it's weight with counters and evasive flyers. Though perhaps I go a bit overboard; I think I'm going to have to cut Spiketail Drakeling when I go down by five for this section.
Fathom Seer is good, granted, but it's just slow. I love it's ability for card advantage, but it's just... not effective, I guess, until later it the game.
6 Sea Gate Oracle - Soooo good. Only thing not awesome about him is 1 power, but that's hardly worth complaining about. Definite staple.
6 Pestermite - Similar; it's on the cusp of playability in my powered cube but I think that it's amazing in commons. The body's pretty solid in the format as well as 2 power with flying's really nice. Tap your bounceland? Sure!
6 Neurok Invisimancer - Odd color for the effect but really good. Nice clock and insane in UG. I hear unblockable Spike Colony is good!
6 Calcite Snapper - Nuts. Stonewall!
6 Aether Adept - Commons cubes tend to have more creatures than non-commons ones. Adept is really good in non-commons cubes and is definitely better in commons.
5 Spiketail Drakeling - I like it on principle, making the opponent hesitant on casting spells while having a decent body. It's definitely better than Wizard Replica.
5 Scroll Thief - Solid. Lack of evasion can be annoying but clearing paths isn't too hard in something like UW or UR.
5 Prodigal Sorcerer - Not a fan, slow as molasses and it's the worst color that a pinger could be (not that he'd be really good in another color - see Prodigal Pyromancer) - blue's creatures are generally evasive and have little use of its virtual "give target creature you control +1/+0) and doesn't have burn to combine with (unless you're in UR.)
5 Man-o'-War - Awesome. Why is this 5 and Adept 6, though?
4 Shaper Parasite - Very good as well. Its -2/+2 is actually somewhat relevant as is its Blind Phantasm mode. Its primary ability kills most things in the format. Good stuff.
2 Wizard Replica - Not very good when you consider it next to Spiketail Drakeling and/or other 3 drops.
2 Fathom Seer - Trying it for now, not terribly impressed. Card draw + body, in theory, is nice but it's just slow.
2 Echo Tracer - Not really a fan, way too slow for its cost. Really pales to the Man-o-War/Adept team.
1 Trinket Mage - Not enough 1 drop artifacts to be worthwhile. Will it have enough support once Scars block is done? ...I doubt it.
1 Thalakos Mistfolk - Not bad. It coming back to your hand is annoying for blue, though, but it's not bad.
1 Teferi's Drake - Sloooooow.
1 Rishadan Airship - Not bad, but not too great when compared to things like Ravenous Skirge.
1 Rishadan Airship - Not bad, but not too great when compared to things like Ravenous Skirge.
I don't really understand this statement. Are you saying that, because Skirge isn't good, neither is this? Or are you saying that Skirge is better than the Airship? Because I can't see, outside of the sheer color it's in, how it's better.
I don't really understand this statement. Are you saying that, because Skirge isn't good, neither is this? Or are you saying that Skirge is better than the Airship? Because I can't see, outside of the sheer color it's in, how it's better.
Skirge is quite good and better (as Skirge can block, even as just a 1/1 flier.)
Granted, cards that can be awful in one color can be great in others (Strafe is garbage in red, but Sunlance is good in white) but blue's fliers tend to be better - Illusionary Forces, Sentinels of Glen Elendra, Windrider Eel, Azure Drake and Ghost Ship @4 mana and the other evasive 3 mana fliers (Drakeling, Invisimancer, Pestermite) are better than the Airship.
I'm cool with you guys wishing not to discuss the Phantom Monster, but please don't bring up the old 'that's not a common' argument. The people who run it choose to include Masters Edition, and it's their choice to do so.
Anyway, this is the CMC I need to add a lot of cards to. Excuse me as I do so.
There just isn't a need to support a color doing something if it is just worse at it than every other color and it's got plenty of other things it is good at. Both Skywatcher and the Zendikon will often be the worst cards in your deck because of how the color functions as a whole; in blue, you have better flying creatures and in any other colors you have more aggressive creatures that don't require such an investment.
And no, Sunken City does not get played. It's cost between casting and upkeep is too steep and its effect too narrow for a color that is not typically the aggressor. Remember, you're going to be in a 2+ color deck most times, so having to keep UU tapped every turn could hurt a lot in terms of what tricks you can have available and your ability to curve out; let's not forget that it also pumps opposing blue creatures.
Edit: Lanxal, you don't even have Shimmering Glasskite in your cube, which should make it in way before Skywatcher. Glasskite is a card that both aggro and control decks like; it's a sizeable beater that not only takes at least two removal spells to kill, but has a 3rd toughness so it already dodges a decent chunk of it anyway. This is all without considering that you might have a counterspell of your own to totally hose the opponent flinging removal so that they can swing with their bears.
There might be another cut, in your opinion, but Glasskite needs to be in there. Just play with it.
Pauper Cube
I cube, I play EDH, and I can't afford Legacy. The other formats can suck it.
However, if it's ever going to work in blue, you need a sizable amount of good one drops, and on top of that efficient token producers and aggro bodies at 2 and 3 CMC. Really, that's not going to happen.
Actually, the card I like here the most is Hapless Researcher. It's pretty much an Elvish Visionary where you're trading discarding a card for being one mana cheaper. I don't know if that kind of body is at all worth it in blue, but it seems pretty nice.
Cutting Skywatcher for Glasskite does seem like a smart swap, I'll do that.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
I'd play a blue Elvish Visionary before I played Researcher, but I wouldn't bother playing either. It's not a control card or a tempo card and it's certainly not a threat.
Pauper Cube
I cube, I play EDH, and I can't afford Legacy. The other formats can suck it.
6 Merfolk Looter
5 Waterfront Bouncer
5 Looter il-Kor
5 Errant Ephemeron
4 Halimar Wavewatch
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
2 Augury Owl
1 Welkin Tern
1 Thought Courier
1 Stonybrook Angler
1 Silver Myr
1 Infiltrator Il-Kor
1 Dreamscape Artist
Currently, the weakest card I believe I'm running in Fathom Seer, and then perhaps Halimar Wavewatch. The cards I have my eyes on are Welkin Tern, which I may swap Wavewatch out. Out a control beater, in with a nice flyer.
I'll post my detailed thoughts later.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Merfolk Looter-This card is very good. Not terribly exciting, but improving your hand every turn is a very powerful thing to have over an opponent in the long run.
Waterfront Bouncer- The stone cold nuts. It's plenty good at face value of pitching cards to return your opponent's creatures and try to tempo them out, but it does so much more. It's can be even better on your own creatures (Kor Sanctifiers, Mulldrifter, Skinthinner, Ghitu Slinger, Mold Shambler), just as a general tool to save your guys from removal, and let's not forget if you have any reanimation or reload cards like Reaping the Graves to pair with it.
Looter il-Kor--The best looter, imo. It's obviously weaker against Pacifism type cards and if you'd rather have your looter back to block and loot, but really it's better. Being able to filter your draw and help tick away at your opponent's life total is silly good.
Errant Ephemeron--For the low cost of 1U you can have one of the biggest creatures in the cube and it has evasion. It's cheap enough that you can get it out fairly early like most suspend creatures, but big enough you don't mind drawing it late.
Halimar Wavewatch--People running this shouldn't scoff at Angelic Wall, imo. I realize that this can eventually attack, but that's after a whopping 12 mana. I'm not saying that there aren't games that I could have used a mana sink like this; I'm saying that it's not usually the case. However, the fact that this can block Blastoderm and other midrange green fat is something to consider.
Ninja of the Deep Hours--Silly good. Barring some removal spell from your opponent, this will always net a card when it is Ninja'd in. The 2 power is also a very relevant fact why this is good and something like Scroll Thief isn't. If you only connect once with this, that's probably already more than the Scroll Thief, but say you connect 3 times with either card: 6 damage and 3 cards is a lot better than 3 and 3 cards, no?
Fathom Seer--Is not a 2 cc card.
Augury Owl-- This is really good. For half the cost of Foresee, a cube staple, you get 75% of the Scry and a relevant body in place of draw.
Welkin Tern--This is fine if you feel you need it. I don't currently run it and aggressive decks are definitely more common than slow ones.
Thought Courier--See Merfolk Looter.
Stonybrook Angler--I'm running it, but it's none too exciting most games. Giving a big guy vigilance is often times better than tapping down a creature of your opponents, barring equipments or much evasion. I've see a couple cubers pair it up with Pingers too and that was pretty cool.
Silver Myr-Not necessary, but it's certainly not the worst thing you could run. I don't like that non U decks could run this, but that's just me.
Infiltrator Il-Kor--U is not an aggressive color, so this card is in a strange place. Most U creatures do something other than attacking or in addition to attacking and that's for good reason. The philosophy of the color doesn't really support a fragile attacker that can't even block when on the back foot.
Dreamscape Artist--I don't think this effect is worth the slot in the cube. I get that the tempo aspect can be pretty much irrelevant since you can sacrifice one of the lands used to pay for the mana cost of the activated ability. That's not really the concern; it's the fact that the color has effects it needs more than pitching its hand. The only time you should feel very comfortable pitching cards from your hand is when you aren't under very much pressure. Against aggressive decks, you want your cards to keep the opponent's forces at bay or to out tempo them and kill them on the back swing; against control decks you want your cards to try to win the war of attrition. That's my initial thought anyhow.
Pauper Cube
I cube, I play EDH, and I can't afford Legacy. The other formats can suck it.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Its 1/1 body for 1U is awful (but then again, Spellshapers have never had very good bodies - see Jaya, Undertaker and Waterfront Bouncer) but its ability to turn any card in your hand into a Harrow is really good in blue decks, since it ramps and accelerates, both abilities that are highly valued in blue decks.
It being able to be used at instant speed can let its caster "harrow" on t3 and get 2 lands to counter a spell on the opponent's turn. Its ability to do it over and over lets you deck-thin like a fiend, which is also really good in control decks since they tend to run higher land counts and if the deck is running splashes, Dreamscape Artist helps with those too.
It's easily better than cards like Owl, Tern, Angler and Silver Myr. No contest.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
I'll post my thoughts later.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Ninja of the Deep Hours : Decent body, card advantage, potential to blow out for ninjitsu 2. Very good.
Merfolk Looter/Thought Courier: These guys provide advantage that shouldn't really be contested, demanding removal or probably eventually winning you the game. For serious.
Looter Il-kor: Like the other looters, but hitting for one per turn, silly good. Maybe the best blue two drop? Not sure.
Waterfront Bouncer: Worth it times a million. More like a fragile artifact than a creature, but repeatable bounce is really really good.
Errant Ephemeron: The lower side of amazing, but still very good because its competition is almost invisible. Winning games in blue is pretty hard, and that's what this guy does.
Welkin Tern: Hear me out, it's really a super aggro creature in blue. But if you don't want that, like me, then you wont run it, pretty simple.
Tier 1.5
Cloud of Faeries: I still think that the body is relevant for 0 in aggro and that the cycling makes it playable in slower decks (eg U/x tempo, which sees a ton of play here)
Tier Two:
Halimar Wavewatch: It's hard for me to evaluate it, because I never play that kind of control deck. It's not too hefty to become a pretty large dude, and is relevant at 0/6, so it's definitely playable.
Dreamscape Artist: Played it, didn't love it, didn't hate it. Might try it again sometimes, but all I ever really did with it was discard lands to give them flash :/ I suppose it can win early if it doesn't eat removal early.
Other:
Stonybrook Angler is, IMO, worse than the white trappers, and I run none of those. Not coming in here.
Augury Owl: It's not good enough, it doesn't do enough relevant things for control or have an efficient enough body for everything else. It's cool, though.
I think that everything else is really not worth it at all.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
I won't argue to defend Angler; it's not very good, but occasionally it does good things.
I will, however, defend Augury Owl. I mean, it's easy to cast, fixes your draws, and it's a flier. I don't see how people can be hating on this card so much. It's not Waterfront Bouncer or Ninja good or anything, but it's solid and it's practically never a waste of mana because it does something when it etb. Rubin8or, Cloud of Faeries over Owl? Like, really? The only reason a 1/1 is ever worth it is when it affects the board or has some other effect. The Scry 3 is at least as good as cycling on the faerie, plus you have a body on the board; it's not either/or with the Owl. I'm not saying CoF isn't worth the mana, because it's clearly worth at least 0 mana, but rather it's not worth the card in your deck.
Pauper Cube
I cube, I play EDH, and I can't afford Legacy. The other formats can suck it.
And we don't even play Sage.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
We don't play Sage because it's clearly terrible. That's hilarious.
Pauper Cube
I cube, I play EDH, and I can't afford Legacy. The other formats can suck it.
Although looking at the stats, you run 11 by what I can see, which is closer to a fifth, so maybe it's again an issue of differing cubes. And on that notes, why are you running Augury Owl over something of the better library diggers such as Preordain or Serum Visions? Preordain being the more relevant comparison. In exchange for an irrelevant body and 1 more on the scry, you get to actually draw that answer you're digging for.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
That said, I probably will add Preordain, but not Serum Visions. Serum Visions needed the reverse order to be good. Augury Owl replaces the card you draw from Visions for a 1/1 flier and then Scrys another card.
Basically, when you harp on stats and are running cards I don't think are good enough, the stats sound a bit warped.
Agree to disagree it looks like.
Pauper Cube
I cube, I play EDH, and I can't afford Legacy. The other formats can suck it.
And in all actuality, maybe Augury Owl is good enough. Cuttable, but good enough. It's in my Testing Zone, so we'll see. It's very much the point that when you get into an argument, the mentality is to stay on that side. Maybe in a few months time, we'll come back to it and I'll be on your side, as unlikely as that is. Insane it is not, but on the cubeworthy side of borderline it may be.
Anyway, are we ready to move on? Everyone else has pretty much summed up my feeling for the cards.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Pauper Cube
I cube, I play EDH, and I can't afford Legacy. The other formats can suck it.
6 Sea Gate Oracle
6 Pestermite
6 Neurok Invisimancer
6 Calcite Snapper
6 Aether Adept
5 Spiketail Drakeling
5 Scroll Thief
5 Prodigal Sorcerer
5 Man-o'-War
4 Shaper Parasite
2 Wizard Replica
2 Fathom Seer
2 Echo Tracer
1 Trinket Mage
1 Thalakos Mistfolk
1 Teferi's Drake
1 Rishadan Airship
Aaaand my thoughts:
Sea Gate Oracle is a library-sifting, cantripping monster. The card Augury Owl wants to be.
Pestermite a great card in aggro and a fair card in control. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's an aggro-only card, but it does help the blue aggro archetype a lot.
Neurok Invisimancer is, on the other hand, a full-sweeping aggro-only creature. And it's so worth it.
Calcite Snapper is ridiculously good in both aggro and control. Seriously, run it.
Aether Adept is a Man-o'-War wannabe, and that's good enough for cube.
Spiketail Drakeling is a 2-power evasive beater for 3, which is already not bad. The counter strapped on is gravy. Cubeable, but it's not crazy to considering cutting it.
Scroll Thief is just a better [cardOphidian[/card]. I was skeptical at first, but this is an A-grade card even if it only goes off once.
Prodigal Sorcerer is the classic pinger. And, as it turns out, currently the only one anyone plays. Amen to that. I don't think blue needs that many pingers (it's not red, which can couple it with burn), but it does lend blue some more identity. It punches a bunch of annoying utility creatures, like looters, in the throat, so that's always a plus for blue.
Man-o'-War is the Man-o'-War. Yeah.
Shaper Parasite is removal on a stick, albeit a somewhat expensive one. It can double as a combat trick, so that's not bad. An interesting tool for both aggro and control and I can get behind.
Wizard Replica is a funny card. I just to harp about it to the heavens, but now I'm not so sure. The Mana Leak strapped to it is not bad, but the thing is, this is a very defensive card and I'm not sure control needs it. the Drakeling is cubeworthy because it's inherently swayed to aggro, and that's where the speedbump is best used. The Replica isn't bad by any means, but unnecessary.
Fathom Seer is... borderline. Originally, I posted a positive review of it. However, after from retrospection, I realise that it's not as good as I want it to be. It's not that the card is bad - it's really quite good - but it's just too slow. T6 is the earliest you can crack it without stunting your mana development - and when you do, it's quite an excellent card - and that's not good enough. On the chopping block.
Echo Tracer really wants to be Man-o'-War, and to some extent it's quite good, but with Aether Adept shoring up the battlements it's become unnecessary.
Trinket Mage is great in the right cube and terrible in the wrong cubes. That's all there is to say about it.
Thalakos Mistfolk is interesting, and evasion + protection from removal is undoubtedly good. But it requires testing, so I think that's exactly what I'll do.
Teferi's Drake doesn't seem worth it. It's undoubtedly an aggro control (I'd play Tolarian Drake over it if I wanted a control creature), and really, it's outclassed by a lot of the other 2-power flyers because of it's phasing.
Rishadan Airship is an aggro-only creature that also seems to be Lanxal-only. It's fragile, but Blade of the Sixth Pride is fragile and everyone plays it. It helps blue aggro tremendously and it's snugly in place in my cube.
And some cards no one runs:
Thalakos Scout is either better or worse than Mistfolk. But which is it? I have no idea.
Weatherseed Faeries is funny. People play Thermal Glider but not this critter? Fine, fine, I guess that color is the obvious deterent. But, I like blue aggro, so I'm definitely going to add this.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Sea Gate Oracle is indeed a monster. Has a decent defensive body so great in control, but strangely I've found him rather lacking sometimes in aggro or even tempo decks. Not that he's bad there, but hasn't quite lived up to my high expectations.
Pestermite I don't ever play it in control, but here it's a funny balance between control, midrange and aggro. There's normally one fast aggro deck out of eight, and one real control deck, the rest being either tempo or even sometimes blue based midrange. And of course whatever happens in the other colours.
Neurok Invisimancer Not entirely aggro only. But entirely not-control only, still good in any deck that might, in the right circumstances be able to pull a race.
Calcite Snapper is amazing. Without the convertable ability, it would still be good. With it it's bonkers.
Aether Adept is a Man-o'-War but a bit worse. Not a lot worse, and still amazing, so run it.
Spiketail Drakeling is goodish, but not amazing. Thing is, I'm not going to cut anything here for it, this section is mega tight. In white, I'd be more than happy.
Scroll Thief I'm actually still not sure. It's a good card, of course, but is not the kind of card that you just chuck into any deck (like Man-o-war), as you really want some way to make sure it hits. Has been very good whenever I've played it, but other people here haven't had as much luck. Still warrants inclusion though, easily.
Prodigal Sorcerer is a funny card. I only run this because out of the three pingers you could include, there's this guy, his clone and the faeries with flying for 1uu. This guy (and obviously his functional reprint) are very good as they can be splashed, and are acutally quite a lot better the less blue you're running, as that'll mean combat and burn are in higher concentrations.
Man-o'-War is the best card in this section.
Shaper Parasite is funnily efficient. The 2/3 body is really surprisingly big and relevant, and I've hardcasted it more than once without embarrassment. Playing it for 3 and then morphing it for 2U the next turn isn't much mana really for the advantage it gives, and you normally don't care that the morph's a lightning rod.
Wizard Replica I never got this at all. It's not an efficient body (it's interesting in red and green where fliers are uncommon, but their creatures are way too efficient for it to be a good choice there) and the ability is not often something you'll really want to sacrifice it for. And they see it coming. And you have to keep mana up. Not bad, but not cubable compared to these other cards.
Fathom Seer Wow, I never expected to see this card see such negative reactions. It's been a good creature here, comes with card advantage and two okay bodies. The only time I've seen it underperform is in control, which is clearly not its home.
Echo Tracer is too much mana for a man-o-war. And that's it really.
Trinket Mage used to be good here but the targets have slowly come out. So yeah, it's getting cut here, though it's a really good card with enough support.
Thalakos Mistfolk the body is sub-par, and drawing it again and again doesn't seem that worth it in most decks. To the top of the library is not nearly as good as returning to your hand (though I have, on more than one occasion, added Wayward Soul as a milling wincon in control builds :P. It worked, too)
Teferi's Drake is actually really inefficient. Takes too long to hit a player, and even when it does is losing the race to every other flier ever.
Rishadan Airship I played it for a while. Was good enough for a big cube, but not good enough for 360, simple as that. Too much aggro support in the three drop slot is very misleading too, especially to newer players. You can't run an aggro deck with only three drops.
Thalakos Scout is better than Mistfolk by quite a long way, IMO. The only real downside to him is that if they try to kill it twice in one turn, it costs you two cards. That's not usually that relevant though, as you don't need to keep mana up for him and it's not always a bad thing to let it die. Am totally going to test this.
Weatherseed Faeries Yeah, the colour is so much less aggro than white (meaning pingers aren't even a large threat) and so much tighter. Not bad, not amazing, I won't run it.
Other Stuff:
Dream Fighter: Seems really interesting. A Fog Bank that can attack (though only for 1) at common seems okay for 2U? I think I'll test it sometime.
Dream Thief : Probably not good enough, but interesting.
Kathari Screecher: Seems maybe better than Spiketail Drakeling, in my opinion. Not too good though, still.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Fathom Seer is good, granted, but it's just slow. I love it's ability for card advantage, but it's just... not effective, I guess, until later it the game.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
6 Pestermite - Similar; it's on the cusp of playability in my powered cube but I think that it's amazing in commons. The body's pretty solid in the format as well as 2 power with flying's really nice. Tap your bounceland? Sure!
6 Neurok Invisimancer - Odd color for the effect but really good. Nice clock and insane in UG. I hear unblockable Spike Colony is good!
6 Calcite Snapper - Nuts. Stonewall!
6 Aether Adept - Commons cubes tend to have more creatures than non-commons ones. Adept is really good in non-commons cubes and is definitely better in commons.
5 Spiketail Drakeling - I like it on principle, making the opponent hesitant on casting spells while having a decent body. It's definitely better than Wizard Replica.
5 Scroll Thief - Solid. Lack of evasion can be annoying but clearing paths isn't too hard in something like UW or UR.
5 Prodigal Sorcerer - Not a fan, slow as molasses and it's the worst color that a pinger could be (not that he'd be really good in another color - see Prodigal Pyromancer) - blue's creatures are generally evasive and have little use of its virtual "give target creature you control +1/+0) and doesn't have burn to combine with (unless you're in UR.)
5 Man-o'-War - Awesome. Why is this 5 and Adept 6, though?
4 Shaper Parasite - Very good as well. Its -2/+2 is actually somewhat relevant as is its Blind Phantasm mode. Its primary ability kills most things in the format. Good stuff.
2 Wizard Replica - Not very good when you consider it next to Spiketail Drakeling and/or other 3 drops.
2 Fathom Seer - Trying it for now, not terribly impressed. Card draw + body, in theory, is nice but it's just slow.
2 Echo Tracer - Not really a fan, way too slow for its cost. Really pales to the Man-o-War/Adept team.
1 Trinket Mage - Not enough 1 drop artifacts to be worthwhile. Will it have enough support once Scars block is done? ...I doubt it.
1 Thalakos Mistfolk - Not bad. It coming back to your hand is annoying for blue, though, but it's not bad.
1 Teferi's Drake - Sloooooow.
1 Rishadan Airship - Not bad, but not too great when compared to things like Ravenous Skirge.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
I don't really understand this statement. Are you saying that, because Skirge isn't good, neither is this? Or are you saying that Skirge is better than the Airship? Because I can't see, outside of the sheer color it's in, how it's better.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Skirge is quite good and better (as Skirge can block, even as just a 1/1 flier.)
Granted, cards that can be awful in one color can be great in others (Strafe is garbage in red, but Sunlance is good in white) but blue's fliers tend to be better - Illusionary Forces, Sentinels of Glen Elendra, Windrider Eel, Azure Drake and Ghost Ship @4 mana and the other evasive 3 mana fliers (Drakeling, Invisimancer, Pestermite) are better than the Airship.
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
4 Illusionary Forces
2 Windrider Eel
2 Shimmering Glasskite
1 Wayward Soul
1 Stinging Barrier
1 Sentinels of Glen Elendra
1 Ghost Ship
1 Fencer Clique
1 Crookclaw Transmuter
1 Azure Drake
And also:
2 Phantom Monster
I'm cool with you guys wishing not to discuss the Phantom Monster, but please don't bring up the old 'that's not a common' argument. The people who run it choose to include Masters Edition, and it's their choice to do so.
Anyway, this is the CMC I need to add a lot of cards to. Excuse me as I do so.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2