Okaies, here's my opinion of the DKA commons for Pauper Cubing.
White
First up is Break of Day. Borderline.
+1/+1 is underwhelming, but it is only for a lowly 2 mana. But when fateful hour is online this card is completely house, like almost all fateful hour cards. It requires testing like all fateful hour cards. And at the very least they are not win-more cards.
Gather the Townsfolk Playable
2 1/1 for 2cc plus it has the potential to be nuts, is good. It's not insane but it is solid.
Loyal Cathar Play it
I have sworn by Loyal Cathar, and I'm not going to go back on it now. Sure in the future there will be better cards than it in the 2cc white section in tighter cubes sections, but not as of right now. Sure the WW cost means that he's not played in every white deck, but he sure rewards drafting heavy white builds. Similarly to how multi-coloured cards function in drafting, and there aren’t that many WW played commons ATM And it will draft nicely. It’s definitely cubeable awesomeness.
Niblis of the Mist, Cubeable.
Sure it's no Pestermite, but play similarly. Compare it to Kor Hookmaster which is a rock hard card. It locks down a creature for one less turn, but has evasion to make up for it, and tempo advantage is really awesome. Sure Hookmaster is better, but still. And it's definitely better than Kemba's Skyguard which people still play.
Bone to Ash Definitely a staple.
This card is a more expensive Exclude, but Exclude is 1 of blue's top 3 commons in pauper cube. This card is soooooooooo good. Card draw and hard creature counter is a lethal combination. This might be the most exciting common in the set for me.
Headless Skaab Cubeable
This card is definitely very good, but blue's 3cc creature section is tight. In smaller cubes it is likely not to see play. It will often be pushed out due to competition.
Black Cat Playable
Random is a powerful word. A lot more powerful than people give it credit for. I can see myself testing it out in the place of some aggressive 2 drop just to see how it pans out.
Gruesome Discovery Cubeable
This card is very good at tearing apart someone's hand. Definitely one of the better Mind Rot-esque effects out there.
Highborn Ghoul Cubeable
He's similar to Loyal Cathar as his BB mana cost really hurts him. But in contrast, I am going to cube him for that reason because he rewards heavy black aggro builds. It's good to reward drafters for drafting particular strategies because then the draft is more skill intensive, instead of it just being a 'good-stuff' draft. It means that the decks that dedicate themselves to a particular strategy get rewarded with late pick awesomeness and it helps with signalling, which are all good things.
Tragic Slip Cubeable.
This can kill anything if you wait long enough, which shouldn't be long. And it can randomly kill off small fry which is epically good in the early game. It is good, but is not for every deck.
Undying Evil Staple
Yeah, Staple, and I'm calling it. This card might seem like Withstand Death which everyone originally had high hopes for, but ended up being quite lackluster. But this is COMLPETELY different. There are a couple of key points about this card which makes it insane, unlike Withstand Death.
1. It's black, not green. Green is the colour of combat tricks so the surprisingness and uniqueness is a lot lessened. Unlike black which has nothing like this.
2. The creature actually gets bigger after you saved it. This means that you are getting a pesudo-Battlegrowth with it, which is just value.
3. The creature actually dies. This one is the biggy, which makes this card go from very good to insane. What happens is that all dying triggers activate, such as Perilous Myr trigger, and more importantly it reactivates all ETB abilities of that card. Gravedigger, Liliana's Specter, Pith Driller all become insane sources of card advantage, and I haven't even left black!
This card is insane! At it can easily be a 2-for-1 possibly a 3-for-1. Play it!
Red
Erdwal Ripper Cubeable
Yeah, it's okay. At the very least it needs to be dealt with. I feel it's better than Spin Engine
Faithless Looting Staple for sures.
Card selection in red? Yes please.
Forge Devil Cubeable
I'm not fully sold on how good this card is especially turn 1 which is where you should be playing most of your 1 drops, but it is still a good effect. The fact is, if you are going first, you don't want to be playing this really hurts it, but it's still a decent play later on in the game so it's not unreasonable.
Hinterland Hermit Play it!
This card makes me happy, a pauper cubeable werewolf. A 2/1 for 2 is a respectable play by itself, and it can flip into 3/2 it cool sauce. All and all a respectable card, plus red's 2cc creature section needed some beefing up.
Edit: Torch Fiend Staple
It's a pretty sweet 2 drop for red as a 2/1 with a relevent effect in red is awesome. Plus artifact destuction is really valuable in cube as there are often just artifacts that just need blowing up, and this helps build red's colour identity. I origonally wasn't going to say staple, but then I realised that it would only be bad cube design to not run this. Sure it isn't nuts powerful like, say Sprout Swarm or Lightning Bolt, but it is a staple effect that cubes should just have. Not just that, but Torch Fiend is never just a dead card like Manic Vandal, which is it's obvious compition, and it's better than Hearth Kami. Most 360 card cubes should be running either 3-4 pieces of artifact destuction in red, and this is just one of them. It ain't flashy, but it's rock solid.
Green
Crushing Vines Borderline.
Hehehe, this can kill those pesky flyers and those pesky artifacts, that’s a pretty sweet effect for green to have. It should almost always have a target. If it said enchantment that would just push it over the edge into the 'awesome' category.
Dawntreader Elk Borderline.
Ultimately it ramps too late, but is a respectable card, none the less.
Hallowhenge Beast Cubeable.
This card is pretty sick, as it's just a straight up 5/5 for 5, and I really dig cubeable vanillas. It still is competing in Ronam Hulk and Winding Wurm territory. It's hard to say what is better, but I'm personally going to play the Hallowhenge Beast. Vanillas are so sexy.
Scorned Villager Don't play this.
There are just so many better things you can do for 2 mana, and Werebear is just waaaaaay better.
Ulvenwald Bear Cubeable, but requires testing.
This could either be super awesome or just a flop. 4 power for 3 mana is very good, espically when it is accompanied with 4 toughness. Not just that but you can put the 2 +1/+1 on any creature of you choosing. But if you don't get morbid, a Grey Ogre in green is super bad. But if nothing is dying, that is probably a good thing, and you’re winning anyway.
Young Wolf Cubeable
I called it! Yay for me! The only thing about this card is that it is in green where there are already a lot of really good 1 drops. If this was in red or black or something it would be so much better. Other than that, this is good, but might not be better than a 2/1 for 1. Probably in for that awkward Pouncing Jaguar who is always foiling my plans of curving out.
Haunted Fengraf Staple
All pauper cubes should have room for more crazy lands that do awesome things. And turning your land into one of your dead creatures is awesome sauce. If you cube doesn't have room for this, make room for it. Resize your land sections to accommodate it or whatever. You should just be cubing this. It is the nuts.
Disclaimer: I didn't review all the commons, only the commons that I thought where either at least borderline or I had something to say about. If I was to review all the commons, you'd be hearing a lot of comments where I'm jst pooing on good for nothing commons and it would be more boring for both you and I.
Nice review! I disagree (or do not totally agree, at least) with the following:
Bone to Ash Definitely a staple.
This card is a more expensive Exclude, but Exclude is 1 of blue's top 3 commons in pauper cube. This card is soooooooooo good. Card draw and hard creature counter is a lethal combination. This might be the most exciting common in the set for me.
Four mana counterspells are tough to swallow, especially four mana for countering a creature. Leaving four mana open is painful, and as the game begins to progress passed T5, the chance of a creature coming down are far lower (since that's when noncreature spells like removal and burn are thrown around more). Sure, Exclude is 1 mana cheaper and insane, so my argument is flawed in some respect, but I think that extra mana is far more debilitating than you might think.
Even so, I want you to be right. I would freaking love to have a good Exclude #2. So keep us updated.
Highborn Ghoul Cubeable
He's similar to Loyal Cathar as his BB mana cost really hurts him. But in contrast, I am going to cube him for that reason because he rewards heavy black aggro builds. It's good to reward drafters for drafting particular strategies because then the draft is more skill intensive, instead of it just being a 'good-stuff' draft. It means that the decks that dedicate themselves to a particular strategy get rewarded with late pick awesomeness and it helps with signalling, which are all good things.
I understand why you're cutting it, and I agree with it, as long as you're cutting a worse creature for it, haha.
Hallowhenge Beast Cubeable.
This card is pretty sick, as it's just a straight up 5/5 for 5, and I really dig cubeable vanillas. It still is competing in Ronam Hulk and Winding Wurm territory. It's hard to say what is better, but I'm personally going to play the Hallowhenge Beast. Vanillas are so sexy.
In general I'm thinking Sprout Swarm > Winding Wurm => Tangle Hulk > Grizzled Outcast > Hollowhenge Beast > Ronom Hulk.
Nice review. I think that you've pointed out a few cards that have potential that other people didn't really notice, but I sense a teeny bit of exaggerated hype in places
Haha, not on purpose. I just remember you really disliking the cards I liked high end at green in favour for ones that always had 4 toughness and evasion. Molder Beast was not actually better than that 5 mana 4/4 trample Rhino, so my opinions on cards in that slot aren't that great.
I enjoy these reviews a lot. Always great to see how other people view new cards. I just wish I could share the same enthusiasm as the OP over Bone to Ash. I don't know, I almost wish they would have given it the Man-o'-War to AEther Adept treatment and made its cost 1UU. Either that, or the cost should have been 3U if it had to remain at 4 mana. The card is probably still decent though and that art is killer, but I don't feel like making any room for it at 360 as it stands now.
After clearing some room in my Testing Zone (Guardian of the Vitu Ghazi = Lol.) and without anything on my minds specifically to test, I think I'll try out Bone to Ash.
On that matter, I need three more cards to try out. Any idea, people?
After clearing some room in my Testing Zone (Guardian of the Vitu Ghazi = Lol.) and without anything on my minds specifically to test, I think I'll try out Bone to Ash.
On that matter, I need three more cards to try out. Any idea, people?
I've been wondering about Searing Touch a lot lately. It seems pretty okay to me, actually.
On Bone to Ash, I really can't see the card being more powerful than a Remove Soul reprint, and we have like 6 of those or something, if we want them. But I'm open to it being good, I really want it to be!
Nice review. I think that you've pointed out a few cards that have potential that other people didn't really notice, but I sense a teeny bit of exaggerated hype in places
Well there may be a little bit of hype here and there, but ultimately it is so people will notice some of these cards, because often a lot of good cards will go underneath people's radars and they won't even try them out. I think no one else even mentioned Undying Evil. Sure I may have slightly exaggerated it, but still we don't know that for certain until it has been tested out, and from the looks of it so far, it is very good.
Regarding Bone to Ash, by no means is this a earily game counterspell where you can just hold mana up for it like Exclude, but it's more of a late game card drawing engine. This card will out attrition virtually anything. Here's an example of why this card is good. Imagine if there was card in common that said destroy target creature, draw a card. How much mana would you be willing to pay for that? 5? 6? The point is that this card will grind the hell out of virtually anything, under crushing card advantage. Maybe don't cut it over a solid counterspell, but it definitly could go in the place of some card drawing. maybe a Think Twice or something. Maybe Bone to Ash isn't a top tier blue card, but it sure as hell looks like a staple. Drawing a card is far better than it seems. By the way I think that Bone to Ash is better than a Remove Soul, but Remove Soul has a different purpose, and fills a different nich to Bone to Ash, so it's not likely that you would be cutting one for the other.
Regards Hallowhenge Beast. I just have an unhealthy obsesion with vanillas. Although it might be worse than the other 5 drops in a vacuum, that is hardly relevent when what it is competing against isn't even in the cube. Plus he is consistant as hell.
And you're all right and I'm wrong, Highborn Ghoul is just not as good as the other black 2 drops. Although it still might be a wise decision to cube it, because it could just make the drafting better and more smooth for the heavy black decks.
Searing Touch is definitely good enough for Pauper Cubes. If it was actually a Common, I'd play it
And I also want Bone to Ash to be good, I really do. But actually I agree with Rubin that the Remove Soul Reprints are actually better (and I think one can well compare them).
Nonetheless, let us know how it performs, maybe it's worth it after all.
Damn, old cards are annoying with their set symbols. I've screwed that up too many times to count :/
Village Survivors was common on the spoiler here for at least a while, dunno if it still is. The card art has it good though.
I think I'd play the card, just as a though exercise. It's fateful hour ability is very race-winning.
White
First up is Break of Day. Borderline.
+1/+1 is underwhelming, but it is only for a lowly 2 mana. But when fateful hour is online this card is completely house, like almost all fateful hour cards. It requires testing like all fateful hour cards. And at the very least they are not win-more cards.
Gather the Townsfolk Playable
2 1/1 for 2cc plus it has the potential to be nuts, is good. It's not insane but it is solid.
Loyal Cathar Play it
I have sworn by Loyal Cathar, and I'm not going to go back on it now. Sure in the future there will be better cards than it in the 2cc white section in tighter cubes sections, but not as of right now. Sure the WW cost means that he's not played in every white deck, but he sure rewards drafting heavy white builds. Similarly to how multi-coloured cards function in drafting, and there aren’t that many WW played commons ATM And it will draft nicely. It’s definitely cubeable awesomeness.
Niblis of the Mist, Cubeable.
Sure it's no Pestermite, but play similarly. Compare it to Kor Hookmaster which is a rock hard card. It locks down a creature for one less turn, but has evasion to make up for it, and tempo advantage is really awesome. Sure Hookmaster is better, but still. And it's definitely better than Kemba's Skyguard which people still play.
Sanctuary Cat Unplayable
Lol, Baddy.
Blue
Bone to Ash Definitely a staple.
This card is a more expensive Exclude, but Exclude is 1 of blue's top 3 commons in pauper cube. This card is soooooooooo good. Card draw and hard creature counter is a lethal combination. This might be the most exciting common in the set for me.
Headless Skaab Cubeable
This card is definitely very good, but blue's 3cc creature section is tight. In smaller cubes it is likely not to see play. It will often be pushed out due to competition.
Stormbound Geist Staple
Need I say anything else?
Black
Black Cat Playable
Random is a powerful word. A lot more powerful than people give it credit for. I can see myself testing it out in the place of some aggressive 2 drop just to see how it pans out.
Gruesome Discovery Cubeable
This card is very good at tearing apart someone's hand. Definitely one of the better Mind Rot-esque effects out there.
Highborn Ghoul Cubeable
He's similar to Loyal Cathar as his BB mana cost really hurts him. But in contrast, I am going to cube him for that reason because he rewards heavy black aggro builds. It's good to reward drafters for drafting particular strategies because then the draft is more skill intensive, instead of it just being a 'good-stuff' draft. It means that the decks that dedicate themselves to a particular strategy get rewarded with late pick awesomeness and it helps with signalling, which are all good things.
Tragic Slip Cubeable.
This can kill anything if you wait long enough, which shouldn't be long. And it can randomly kill off small fry which is epically good in the early game. It is good, but is not for every deck.
Undying Evil Staple
Yeah, Staple, and I'm calling it. This card might seem like Withstand Death which everyone originally had high hopes for, but ended up being quite lackluster. But this is COMLPETELY different. There are a couple of key points about this card which makes it insane, unlike Withstand Death.
1. It's black, not green. Green is the colour of combat tricks so the surprisingness and uniqueness is a lot lessened. Unlike black which has nothing like this.
2. The creature actually gets bigger after you saved it. This means that you are getting a pesudo-Battlegrowth with it, which is just value.
3. The creature actually dies. This one is the biggy, which makes this card go from very good to insane. What happens is that all dying triggers activate, such as Perilous Myr trigger, and more importantly it reactivates all ETB abilities of that card. Gravedigger, Liliana's Specter, Pith Driller all become insane sources of card advantage, and I haven't even left black!
This card is insane! At it can easily be a 2-for-1 possibly a 3-for-1. Play it!
Red
Erdwal Ripper Cubeable
Yeah, it's okay. At the very least it needs to be dealt with. I feel it's better than Spin Engine
Faithless Looting Staple for sures.
Card selection in red? Yes please.
Forge Devil Cubeable
I'm not fully sold on how good this card is especially turn 1 which is where you should be playing most of your 1 drops, but it is still a good effect. The fact is, if you are going first, you don't want to be playing this really hurts it, but it's still a decent play later on in the game so it's not unreasonable.
Hinterland Hermit Play it!
This card makes me happy, a pauper cubeable werewolf. A 2/1 for 2 is a respectable play by itself, and it can flip into 3/2 it cool sauce. All and all a respectable card, plus red's 2cc creature section needed some beefing up.
Edit: Torch Fiend Staple
It's a pretty sweet 2 drop for red as a 2/1 with a relevent effect in red is awesome. Plus artifact destuction is really valuable in cube as there are often just artifacts that just need blowing up, and this helps build red's colour identity. I origonally wasn't going to say staple, but then I realised that it would only be bad cube design to not run this. Sure it isn't nuts powerful like, say Sprout Swarm or Lightning Bolt, but it is a staple effect that cubes should just have. Not just that, but Torch Fiend is never just a dead card like Manic Vandal, which is it's obvious compition, and it's better than Hearth Kami. Most 360 card cubes should be running either 3-4 pieces of artifact destuction in red, and this is just one of them. It ain't flashy, but it's rock solid.
Green
Crushing Vines Borderline.
Hehehe, this can kill those pesky flyers and those pesky artifacts, that’s a pretty sweet effect for green to have. It should almost always have a target. If it said enchantment that would just push it over the edge into the 'awesome' category.
Dawntreader Elk Borderline.
Ultimately it ramps too late, but is a respectable card, none the less.
Hallowhenge Beast Cubeable.
This card is pretty sick, as it's just a straight up 5/5 for 5, and I really dig cubeable vanillas. It still is competing in Ronam Hulk and Winding Wurm territory. It's hard to say what is better, but I'm personally going to play the Hallowhenge Beast. Vanillas are so sexy.
Scorned Villager Don't play this.
There are just so many better things you can do for 2 mana, and Werebear is just waaaaaay better.
Ulvenwald Bear Cubeable, but requires testing.
This could either be super awesome or just a flop. 4 power for 3 mana is very good, espically when it is accompanied with 4 toughness. Not just that but you can put the 2 +1/+1 on any creature of you choosing. But if you don't get morbid, a Grey Ogre in green is super bad. But if nothing is dying, that is probably a good thing, and you’re winning anyway.
Young Wolf Cubeable
I called it! Yay for me! The only thing about this card is that it is in green where there are already a lot of really good 1 drops. If this was in red or black or something it would be so much better. Other than that, this is good, but might not be better than a 2/1 for 1. Probably in for that awkward Pouncing Jaguar who is always foiling my plans of curving out.
Multi-coloured
Fires of Undeath Borderline
This card is very good, but ultimately Strangling Soot is just way better.
Wild Hunger Borderline
Yet again is just pushed out because there are some truly insane R/G cards.
Colourless
Evolving Wilds STAPLE!!!
This Evolving Wilds is just strictly better than the previous art.
Haunted Fengraf Staple
All pauper cubes should have room for more crazy lands that do awesome things. And turning your land into one of your dead creatures is awesome sauce. If you cube doesn't have room for this, make room for it. Resize your land sections to accommodate it or whatever. You should just be cubing this. It is the nuts.
Disclaimer: I didn't review all the commons, only the commons that I thought where either at least borderline or I had something to say about. If I was to review all the commons, you'd be hearing a lot of comments where I'm jst pooing on good for nothing commons and it would be more boring for both you and I.
Four mana counterspells are tough to swallow, especially four mana for countering a creature. Leaving four mana open is painful, and as the game begins to progress passed T5, the chance of a creature coming down are far lower (since that's when noncreature spells like removal and burn are thrown around more). Sure, Exclude is 1 mana cheaper and insane, so my argument is flawed in some respect, but I think that extra mana is far more debilitating than you might think.
Even so, I want you to be right. I would freaking love to have a good Exclude #2. So keep us updated.
I understand why you're cutting it, and I agree with it, as long as you're cutting a worse creature for it, haha.
In general I'm thinking Sprout Swarm > Winding Wurm => Tangle Hulk > Grizzled Outcast > Hollowhenge Beast > Ronom Hulk.
So I don't really have room for it, but barely.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Word. I'm actually really surprised that our orders for this are exactly the same.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Haha, not on purpose. I just remember you really disliking the cards I liked high end at green in favour for ones that always had 4 toughness and evasion. Molder Beast was not actually better than that 5 mana 4/4 trample Rhino, so my opinions on cards in that slot aren't that great.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
On that matter, I need three more cards to try out. Any idea, people?
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
I've been wondering about Searing Touch a lot lately. It seems pretty okay to me, actually.
On Bone to Ash, I really can't see the card being more powerful than a Remove Soul reprint, and we have like 6 of those or something, if we want them. But I'm open to it being good, I really want it to be!
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Well there may be a little bit of hype here and there, but ultimately it is so people will notice some of these cards, because often a lot of good cards will go underneath people's radars and they won't even try them out. I think no one else even mentioned Undying Evil. Sure I may have slightly exaggerated it, but still we don't know that for certain until it has been tested out, and from the looks of it so far, it is very good.
Regarding Bone to Ash, by no means is this a earily game counterspell where you can just hold mana up for it like Exclude, but it's more of a late game card drawing engine. This card will out attrition virtually anything. Here's an example of why this card is good. Imagine if there was card in common that said destroy target creature, draw a card. How much mana would you be willing to pay for that? 5? 6? The point is that this card will grind the hell out of virtually anything, under crushing card advantage. Maybe don't cut it over a solid counterspell, but it definitly could go in the place of some card drawing. maybe a Think Twice or something. Maybe Bone to Ash isn't a top tier blue card, but it sure as hell looks like a staple. Drawing a card is far better than it seems. By the way I think that Bone to Ash is better than a Remove Soul, but Remove Soul has a different purpose, and fills a different nich to Bone to Ash, so it's not likely that you would be cutting one for the other.
Regards Hallowhenge Beast. I just have an unhealthy obsesion with vanillas. Although it might be worse than the other 5 drops in a vacuum, that is hardly relevent when what it is competing against isn't even in the cube. Plus he is consistant as hell.
And you're all right and I'm wrong, Highborn Ghoul is just not as good as the other black 2 drops. Although it still might be a wise decision to cube it, because it could just make the drafting better and more smooth for the heavy black decks.
Also I missed Tourch Fiend, who is cubeable.
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
Because one of them is common while the other one isn't.
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
Damn, old cards are annoying with their set symbols. I've screwed that up too many times to count :/
Village Survivors was common on the spoiler here for at least a while, dunno if it still is. The card art has it good though.
I think I'd play the card, just as a though exercise. It's fateful hour ability is very race-winning.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
Don't beat yourself up. It's common in the MTGS Dark Ascension Spoiler. Lord would I love to live in that world.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Thanks for that. Just remember, don't take my word for law, come up with your own opinion and read other peoples reviews.
Also, testing cards never hurt anyone, I think...