Welcome to this Pauper Cube Review of all of Magic 2013.
I will talk about the new cards, but I will also mention the reprints too, just so people are still thinking about some of the older cards. Also there is always the possibility of overlooking cards, or for the newer cubers, just not already having the cubables. All reprints will have the word 'Reprint' beside them. In addition I will talk about the cards that have in the past been printed as a common, but are getting reprinted as uncommons.
Judging Rubric
•Bomb: This card probably always will be one of the core cards in the cube and will be consistently first-picked. Examples are: Oblivion Ring, Rancor.
•Staple: Once in, this card is very unlikely to ever come out of the cube because of its power level, and in any case should be cubed with in all current pauper cubes. Examples are: Pacifism, Searing Spear, Evolving Wilds.
•Cubable: This card is good, but not so good that it demands inclusion. Especially in a small cube, there tend to be more cubable or higher cards than slots so not all deserve inclusion. Examples: Attended Knight, Mark of the Vampire, Primal Huntbeast.
•Borderline: This card comes close, but generally, most cubes won't include this. Examples: Captain's Call, Tricks of the Trade, Rummaging Goblin.
•Bad: Don't cube this. It might look fine, but it's not worth it. Examples: Show of Valor, Smelt, Serpent's Gift.
•Terrible: Contemplating is a crime. Examples: Hydrosurge, Canyon Minotaur, Mind Sculpt
White
Ajani’s SunstrikerBorderline Although I do like lifelink at common, the double white cost is too prohibitive. Angel's MercyReprint & Terrible Just no... Attended KnightCubable This guy compares really well with the other 2/2, conditionally 3/3 firststrikers in white right now. Attended Knight isn't neither better nor worse than Kitsune Blademaster, because he garrenties 3 points of power to the table, but isn't as good in combat. It's your call to whether you run Attended Knight or not. Aven SquireReprint & Borderline He doesn't reliably hit for 2 in the air, as you are going to want to do each turn in white. Battleflight EagleFunctional Reprint & Borderline Is a decent trick with a body attached, but still not good enough. Captain's CallBorderline Raw token generation in pauper isn't that powerful since there aren't many ways of abusing it at all. (Unless it's recurrable.) Divine FavorReprint & Bad Lifegain trigger does not justify the aura badness. Divine VerdictReprint & Bad Bad removal in Pauper is bad. EraseReprint & Bad This is far too narrow to be good. Glorious ChargeReprint & Bad 'Creatures you control' bonuses on spells need to give at least 2 power to be considerable. Griffin ProtectorBorderline It doesn't reliably have 3 power, which is a baseline for 4cc flyers. Guardian LionsBad Most defensive cards in pauper aren't worth it. Guardians of AkrasaReprint & Bad Ditto, as this card falls under the same criteria as the card above it. Oblivion RingReprint & Bomb This is one of white's top 3 cards. PacifismReprint & Staple Rock solid removal. I don't think I'll ever see this card leave. Pillarfield OxReprint & Bad Super unimpressive stats. Safe PassageReprint & Borderline White has better cards with abilities similar to this. Show of ValorBad Not really a combat trick suited for pauper. Silvercoat LionReprint & Bad Vanilla bears are always big no-noes. War FalconBad This card is both too narrow and too conditional to be good in most cubes. Narrow and condition is not what people want, plus this isn't really good at being defensive. It could work one day in a cube built for it, but I doubt it. Warclamp MastiffFunctional Reprint & Bad A 1/1 firststriker is extremely underwhelming.
Summary of White: Pretty luck-luster overall. It got only Attended Knight for new cards.
Blue
ArchaeomancerBorderline Recurring Instants and Sorceries is really good, but the creature body isn't worth it. Even if this guy costs 1 less that the closest fuctionally similar card, Mnemonic Wall. DivinationReprint & Borderline Just the standard bench mark of card drawing. Every draw spell must be better than this in some way. DownpourBorderline Effectively makes the team unblockable or fogs. Since it's effects only last for 1 turn it's ultimately not worth it. EncrustBorderline Not really that good removal as it still give the card one last chance to do what ever you were trying to stop. And it can just turn a creature into purely a blocker. Not really what you want out of a removal spell. Essence ScatterReprint & Cubable This card is a good counter if you feel that you want creature counters in your blue section. Faerie InvadersFunctional Reprint & Cubable This is Spire Monitor number 2! It's a really good card, but I doubt that you'd want both. Harbor SerpentReprint & Bad Baddie Serpent is a baddie card. Not the fat that cube wants. HydrosurgeTerrible Not a good combat trick at all. IndexReprint & Terrible Card disadvantage. It remindes me of lifegain, terrible by itself (unless in grotesque numbers) but really good when combined with another ability, which this card does not have. Kraken HatchlingReprint & BadSteel Wall in Blue. Not good at all. Merfolk of the Pearl TridentReprint & Terrible This is horrifyingly bad. Mind SculptTerrible Milling is a big no in cube. A card has to be able to at least mill 25 by itself to be playable. NegateReprint & Borderline Genrally not quite good enough for cube as most blue decks want to be able to deal with creatures as they generally can trump spells already. RewindReprint & Cubable Rock solid in cubes where blue learns towards the control side of the spectrum. Scroll ThiefReprint & Cubable Good enough to make it into blues super stacked 3cc slot. Not for every cube, but still good. Tricks of the TradeBorderline This is good at what it does, but suffers from the aura syndrome. UnsummonReprint & Terrible Every bounce spell ever is better than this. Vedalken EntrancerReprint &Bad Mill = Bad WatercourserBorderline I talked about this card a lot when we were waiting on more spoilers. Its almost as good as a 3/3. But not quite. Blue's stacked 3 drop slot pushes it out of competition. Welkin TernReprint & Cubable This is really good if your cube leans towards aggro blue decks. Wind DrakeReprint & Bad Not good compared to everything else.
Summary of Blue: Lots of good reprints, but nothing new. As Faerie Invaders is a functional reprint.
Black
Bloodhunter BatCubable This is a really solid 4 point life swing on a 2/2 flyer. Not everyone will have room for this, but it is still a solid playable. Bloodthrone VampireReprint & Borderline Useless unless it's getting pumped. One of the reasons why the 2/2 versions for 3 are often better. Crippling BlightBorderline Removal in black give such a high benchmark to cross. This doesn't cross it. Dark FavorReprint & Bad Aura syndrom makes this quite bad. DisentombReprint & Bad This is not good recursion at all. DuressReprint & Staple It deals with cards that no other black card can. Staple it into your cube if you haven't already. Duty-Bound DeadBad Not aggressive at all and no way at all a good enough 1 drop. Essence DrainReprint & Bad Out classed removal-wise by a lot! Giant ScorpionReprint & Borderline This is on the high end of the the borderline spectrum and he can completely deny combat as well as having a lot of nifty synergies. Still often doesn't make the cut. Liliana's ShadeCubable Not bad at all. The extra land at the 4 drop is often relevant in anything that isn't aggro. I don't expect this to go in many people's cubes, but is still playable in the correct cube, as setting up land drops is always quite a lot more powerful than it looks. Mark of the VampireCubable A decent P/T bonus with the capabilities to completely swing life totals. Clearly this is similar to Armadillo Cloak, although not as powerful due to the greater the cost and the loss of trample. Even then this could actually be a good Aura. Mind RotReprint & Borderline Anything just slightly better than this is cubable. Mind Rot sets the standard for all discard. MurderCubable This has so much elegance, and is the smoothest looking and feeling kill spell ever. I might just run it for that. Although at a more critical inspection, it is actually out classed by the removal in the 360 card lists which says something about removal in Black! Both Eyeblight's Ending and Rend Flesh are better than it even though they read waaay more awkwardly. It's bacause of the double black mana in Murder's cost. Ravenous RatsReprint & Borderline 1/1 is just too insignificant to be relevant. Servant of NefaroxBorderline Exalted really isn't too great in cube as you just want to swing with everything each turn in all the aggro decks and tends to be underwhelming in mid-range. Sign in BloodReprint & Cubable This is a solid effect in all heavily black decks. Tormented SoulReprint & Cubable Holds equipment like a champion and just chips down your opponents life total. Not for every cube again, as it depends on how many pieces of equipment and auras there is for him to hold. Vile RebirthCubable YES! This is the treasure of the set! This card is amazingly good even though it will never come down on turn 1 except in some deranged dream I might have. But I doesn't need to in order to be completely awesome. For one this is an instant, so it can make for a pretty awesome combat trick flashing in a 2/2 blocker. This guy can also play all sneaky and get in there with flash-haste for the later turns and also importantly plays a good roll of graveyard hating at instant speed in response to an opponents spell getting to nuke you opponent's best guy in the 'yard in response to some recursion they are playing. He also allows the aggro decks at turn 3+ to play a creature and still be able to cast any removal spell, not just that, but it can lead to virtual card advantage by playing less lands, and still be doing stuff. This card is awesome in my opinion and everyone try it! It reminds me a lot of Unearth. Walking CorpseReprint & Bad Gee, does this guy feel awful after I ranted on about another 2/2 zombie for less mana and at instant. Zombie GoliathReprint & Terrible Massive do nothing that is way out classed at 5 mana.
Summary of Black: Black is the best colour in terms of new cubable cards in M13. Bloodhunter Bat, Liliana's Shade and Murder are cards that are good in cubes that support the right archetypes, but not others. Mark of the Vampire in general looks quite strong and should see play in more cubes. Finally Vile Rebirth... That card looks so solid. I'll stress this again. It is not your regular 2/2 for 1, it is something completely different.
Red
Bladetusk BoarReprint & Cubable 3 evasion power at 4cc is a good deal for red. Canyon MinotaurReprint & TerribleHill Giant alert! Chandra's FuryBad Red is pretty much the only color with sweeps, well other than black, and the card is really bad compared to those sweeps. CraterizeTerrible This is just a terrible piece of land destruction. It can't even deal with with artifacts. Dragon HatchlingBorderline Baby dragons are awesome, but require waaay too much mana to be useful. Fire ElementalNow at Common & Cubable This dude got downgraded, or as we say as pauper cubers, upgraded. He is a rock solid guy for the 5cc drop. His only competion is Flowstone Crusher who he is straight up better than normally, but Fire Elemental can not hit as hard. It's hard to say what is better, but they both might be good enough to share the slot, as there is nothing else there. Or he could just replace Flameborn Hellion as that dude has the same sates, but costs 1 more with haste. Goblin ArsonistReprint & Borderline There is just not enough way to reliably kill him when you want to. Goblin Battle JesterBorderline Costs too much for his effect. Kindled FuryReprint & Bad There are better combat tricks in Red, and it is nowhere as good as a burn spell. Krenko's CommandFunctional Reprint & Borderline This is just another Dragon Fodder, which wasn't good enough to start off with. Not just that, but Mogg War Marshal does all that but better. Mogg FlunkiesReprint & Borderline This guy reads well, as a 3/3 for 2 is really quite solid, but he just is not reliable at all. He spends a lot of time just sitting around doing nothing. He doesn't often attack on turn 3 which is the most important turn for a 2 drop. Also, since there are so many good spells in pauper, a good deck will always be running less creatures than if removal was worse, not just that, but your opponent will run a lot of removal spells too, you aren't going to have enough creatures attacking each turn to be worth playing Mogg Flunkies. Reckless BruteBorderline Attacking each turn is too much of a draw back for him. It's easy for an opponent to just hang back a blocker for the second attack to just trade up with or eat Reckless Brute and still like. 1 toughness is a big liability. Rummaging GoblinBorderline I like the direction that this card is going in, but ultimately is not good enough yet. He needs to cost 2 and the he will be bananas. Still if you want card filtering in red, Reckless Looting is the way to go. Searing SpearStaple This card is going in. No questions asked. Most likely for Volcanic Hammer. SmeltBad Finally a card that is strictly better than Shatter. Still just pure artifact removal is bad in cube. There needs to be some flexibility. Torch FiendReprint & Staple Run this in every god-damn cube. This is one of the best pieces of artifact removal in red in pauper. Flexibility makes all the difference. Trumpet BlastReprint & Borderline White would love to have this card, but red's spell section is so much tighter than white's due to the abundance of high class removal, that there is no room for cards like these. Turn to SlagReprint & Borderline It is just too expensive for what it does to be playable. Volcanic StrengthReprint & Bad No Aura! I said stay... Wall of FireReprint & Bad Almost all purely defensive cards are bad. This is no exception Wild GuessBad Even worse that Dangerous Wager. Not what pauper cubes need.
Summary of Red: Not bad, we did acquire good finisher card, Fire Elemental which is now a common, and a staple, Searing Spear.
Green
Arbor ElfReprint & Cubable This is mana elf number 3 in terms of goodness. If your cube wants 3, then you run him. Bond BeetleBad Anything else to him would of made him playable, but he's not quite there. Which makes me sad. Bountiful HarvestReprint & Terrible Worst card of the set in terms of power. Centaur CourserReprint & Cubable This guy is such a solid body. I'm never unhappy with him. Deadly RecluseReprint & Bad There is a world of difference between a 1/2 and a 2/1. Elvish VisionaryReprint & Borderline Again, it is just that 1/1's tend to not be relevant enough. Not quite. FarseekReprint & Bad Rampant Growth is the baseline for all ramp. This is below that. FogReprint & TerribleFog doesn't effect the board at all. NaturalizeReprint & Cubable Every cube should run Naturalize-esque effects in green. They are essential. They might not be the original Naturalize but almost every deck will have enchantments and artifacts that you need to kill. It is essentual PlummetReprint & Bad Not enough decks have flyers for this card to be worth it. Prey UponReprint & Staple This is hands down the best removal spell in green. Run it. Primal HuntbeastCubable This guy seems like a nightmare for a lot of black and/or red decks to deal with. He is both a decent size and dodges almost all removal. It seems really solid, and if he ever gets enchanted or picks up some equipment he becomes a Blastoderm AKA you win the game. RancorReprint & Bomb This is one of the 3 best cards in Green by a long shot! This is going to be first picked out of a lot of packs. Ranger's PathBad This doesn't colour fix and comes down at a point when your actaully aiming to cast non-rampspell cards. Sentinel SpiderCubable This card looks like it's going to be a house. This stops pesky flyers for killing you, swings well and protects you at the same time. This is going to be a must kill when ever it hits the board. While it is not the biggest 5 drop in green, this changes the dynamic of the game a lot more than most. Serpent's GiftBad Not a good way of killing creatures. Spied BalothBorderline While this guy hits well, he's likely to trade down and he in general isn't as good as green's other 4 drops. Timberpack WolfBad He requires multiples of himself and therefore is bad. Titanic GrowthReprint & Bad There are better pump spells out there. Vastwood GorgerReprint & Bad This has no evasion back up it's fat (Ie Trample) Yeva's ForcemageBorderling It's an bad combat trick at sorcery-speed. (Hint-hint ;))
Summary of Green: Got some interesting cards, new cubable creatures (and no spells again) Primal Huntbeast and Sentinel Spider.
Land(s?)
Evolving WildsReprint & Staple Run this in every pauper cube ever as it is the best and most versitle land at common ever! (Well, equal with Terramorphic Expanse.)
Summary of Lands: ... There is none.
Overall!
There were a lot of great reprints, but not to many new great cards. A lot of said new cards are a little bit nichey as they fit certain archetypes if they are supported for, but not others. Ultimately not a bad haul for a set half full of reprints.
Edit: Changing Vile Rebirth from staple to cubable to be more accurate for future reference. Edit: Changed Rubric to only M13 cards, added 'Reprint' tags to cards missing it, and changed up a couple of evaluations that I didn't feel were accurate.
Shatter was obsoleted by 4 cards already. smash to smithereens is the best.
Smash to Smithereens Ah... I forgot about that, but most of the 'better' cards are sorcery-speed. But it's really moot think about that. Although, I agree that Smash to Smithereens is the only pure artifact removal spell at least considerable for pauper.
I agree with most of your ratings, in that I think the whole set has close to nothing for Pauper Cubes besides a few cards.
Vile Rebirth is not a Staple in my opinion, not even close actually. But I agree that it's the 2nd best card in the set for us and most people are at least going to try it out.
I agree that Vile Rebirth isn't a staple, and I was waiting to see how long someone was to point it out. But when I find cards that I think are really awesome and want people to throw into their cube, I have a tendency to call cards those cards staples, even if they aren't
Plus, it's actually really hard to call out staples when they are spoilt aside from the obvious (Searing Spear), because cards often play differently that predicted. There are plenty of cards that are dismissed at first because their power isn't obvious, and then end up going into every god damn cube, Darkthicket Wolf being the first like that, which comes to mind. And then there are the cards that read we but don't play out as expected. Maybe we under-estimated the draw-back or they aren't optimal in the many archetypes.
Not just that, but staples often end up pushing out previous existing staples from 'staple-hood', as there are only 360 slots in a tight cube and many of them are constantly changing between that cube and others.
Also, there are so many factors to take into consideration with Vile Rebirth as a card actually in use it makes it really hard to determine exactly how good that card it. How soon on average am I able to cast this in each archetype match up? How relevant is a 2/2 flasher? Will holding the extra mana I'm saving up be relevant? How often will the fact that I can nuder my opponent's grave be relevent? It is a hella complex card for a common. I'm not actually sure where on the great to awful scale it will be on. Hopefully around good.
Nice review, 5oul Crusher. I was on the fence about Vile Rebirth, but your review has convinced me to try it out now.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that Duty-Bound Dead should at least be borderline. Sure, it usually isn't going to do much on offense by itself, but the Exalted means that it'll still be contributing in the red zone in decks with lots of evasive creatures. And, while still providing damage on offense, it can stay home as an all-star blocker. I may try it out in my cube and I'll report back on how effective it is. Plus, there isn't a lot of competition in the black 1 drop slot. (Although I suppose Vile Rebirth now adds additional competition!)
Countering Disturbed Burial were my first thoughts on it. All I really want in life is just random ways to hose graveyard recursion. It's not going to often be relevant ability of it, but still it makes me happy.
Yeah, I like to run the common versions of cards too, but it's good to point out the reprints of cards at uncommon for people just starting up their cube. It makes it easier for them to acquire the staples.
Oh yeah, I noticed a couple of reprints and functional reprints that I haven't pointed out. But none of them are cubable so I can't really be bothered editing it in right now.
Looking back I was to rash it calling Vile Rebirth a staple right off the bat, but admittedly it had been spoiled for less that a day when I wrote this. Plus seem to have an Undying Love for anything that costs just 1 black mana.
Still I'm not going to take back anything about that cards awesomeness, just it's stapleness. It's more of a nichey card.
Edit: Just changed Vile Rebirth to cubable so this list is more accurate for future reference.
Nice review, Crusher. Just thought I'd drop in to say that your assessment of Mark of the Vampire seems to be spot-on. It figured quite prominently in a B/U Tempo deck I played earlier today. Here's the full decklist and play summary.
Nice review, Crusher. Just thought I'd drop in to say that your assessment of Mark of the Vampire seems to be spot-on. It figured quite prominently in a B/U Tempo deck I played earlier today. Here's the full decklist and play summary.
Thanks for that and nice decklist.
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I will talk about the new cards, but I will also mention the reprints too, just so people are still thinking about some of the older cards. Also there is always the possibility of overlooking cards, or for the newer cubers, just not already having the cubables. All reprints will have the word 'Reprint' beside them. In addition I will talk about the cards that have in the past been printed as a common, but are getting reprinted as uncommons.
Judging Rubric
White
Ajani’s Sunstriker Borderline Although I do like lifelink at common, the double white cost is too prohibitive.
Angel's Mercy Reprint & Terrible Just no...
Attended Knight Cubable This guy compares really well with the other 2/2, conditionally 3/3 firststrikers in white right now. Attended Knight isn't neither better nor worse than Kitsune Blademaster, because he garrenties 3 points of power to the table, but isn't as good in combat. It's your call to whether you run Attended Knight or not.
Aven Squire Reprint & Borderline He doesn't reliably hit for 2 in the air, as you are going to want to do each turn in white.
Battleflight Eagle Functional Reprint & Borderline Is a decent trick with a body attached, but still not good enough.
Captain's Call Borderline Raw token generation in pauper isn't that powerful since there aren't many ways of abusing it at all. (Unless it's recurrable.)
Divine Favor Reprint & Bad Lifegain trigger does not justify the aura badness.
Divine Verdict Reprint & Bad Bad removal in Pauper is bad.
Erase Reprint & Bad This is far too narrow to be good.
Glorious Charge Reprint & Bad 'Creatures you control' bonuses on spells need to give at least 2 power to be considerable.
Griffin Protector Borderline It doesn't reliably have 3 power, which is a baseline for 4cc flyers.
Guardian Lions Bad Most defensive cards in pauper aren't worth it.
Guardians of Akrasa Reprint & Bad Ditto, as this card falls under the same criteria as the card above it.
Oblivion Ring Reprint & Bomb This is one of white's top 3 cards.
Pacifism Reprint & Staple Rock solid removal. I don't think I'll ever see this card leave.
Pillarfield Ox Reprint & Bad Super unimpressive stats.
Safe Passage Reprint & Borderline White has better cards with abilities similar to this.
Show of Valor Bad Not really a combat trick suited for pauper.
Silvercoat Lion Reprint & Bad Vanilla bears are always big no-noes.
War Falcon Bad This card is both too narrow and too conditional to be good in most cubes. Narrow and condition is not what people want, plus this isn't really good at being defensive. It could work one day in a cube built for it, but I doubt it.
Warclamp Mastiff Functional Reprint & Bad A 1/1 firststriker is extremely underwhelming.
Summary of White: Pretty luck-luster overall. It got only Attended Knight for new cards.
Blue
Archaeomancer Borderline Recurring Instants and Sorceries is really good, but the creature body isn't worth it. Even if this guy costs 1 less that the closest fuctionally similar card, Mnemonic Wall.
Divination Reprint & Borderline Just the standard bench mark of card drawing. Every draw spell must be better than this in some way.
Downpour Borderline Effectively makes the team unblockable or fogs. Since it's effects only last for 1 turn it's ultimately not worth it.
Encrust Borderline Not really that good removal as it still give the card one last chance to do what ever you were trying to stop. And it can just turn a creature into purely a blocker. Not really what you want out of a removal spell.
Essence Scatter Reprint & Cubable This card is a good counter if you feel that you want creature counters in your blue section.
Faerie Invaders Functional Reprint & Cubable This is Spire Monitor number 2! It's a really good card, but I doubt that you'd want both.
Harbor Serpent Reprint & Bad Baddie Serpent is a baddie card. Not the fat that cube wants.
Hydrosurge Terrible Not a good combat trick at all.
Index Reprint & Terrible Card disadvantage. It remindes me of lifegain, terrible by itself (unless in grotesque numbers) but really good when combined with another ability, which this card does not have.
Kraken Hatchling Reprint & Bad Steel Wall in Blue. Not good at all.
Merfolk of the Pearl Trident Reprint & Terrible This is horrifyingly bad.
Mind Sculpt Terrible Milling is a big no in cube. A card has to be able to at least mill 25 by itself to be playable.
Negate Reprint & Borderline Genrally not quite good enough for cube as most blue decks want to be able to deal with creatures as they generally can trump spells already.
Rewind Reprint & Cubable Rock solid in cubes where blue learns towards the control side of the spectrum.
Scroll Thief Reprint & Cubable Good enough to make it into blues super stacked 3cc slot. Not for every cube, but still good.
Tricks of the Trade Borderline This is good at what it does, but suffers from the aura syndrome.
Unsummon Reprint & Terrible Every bounce spell ever is better than this.
Vedalken Entrancer Reprint &Bad Mill = Bad
Watercourser Borderline I talked about this card a lot when we were waiting on more spoilers. Its almost as good as a 3/3. But not quite. Blue's stacked 3 drop slot pushes it out of competition.
Welkin Tern Reprint & Cubable This is really good if your cube leans towards aggro blue decks.
Wind Drake Reprint & Bad Not good compared to everything else.
Summary of Blue: Lots of good reprints, but nothing new. As Faerie Invaders is a functional reprint.
Black
Bloodhunter Bat Cubable This is a really solid 4 point life swing on a 2/2 flyer. Not everyone will have room for this, but it is still a solid playable.
Bloodthrone Vampire Reprint & Borderline Useless unless it's getting pumped. One of the reasons why the 2/2 versions for 3 are often better.
Crippling Blight Borderline Removal in black give such a high benchmark to cross. This doesn't cross it.
Dark Favor Reprint & Bad Aura syndrom makes this quite bad.
Disentomb Reprint & Bad This is not good recursion at all.
Duress Reprint & Staple It deals with cards that no other black card can. Staple it into your cube if you haven't already.
Duty-Bound Dead Bad Not aggressive at all and no way at all a good enough 1 drop.
Essence Drain Reprint & Bad Out classed removal-wise by a lot!
Giant Scorpion Reprint & Borderline This is on the high end of the the borderline spectrum and he can completely deny combat as well as having a lot of nifty synergies. Still often doesn't make the cut.
Liliana's Shade Cubable Not bad at all. The extra land at the 4 drop is often relevant in anything that isn't aggro. I don't expect this to go in many people's cubes, but is still playable in the correct cube, as setting up land drops is always quite a lot more powerful than it looks.
Mark of the Vampire Cubable A decent P/T bonus with the capabilities to completely swing life totals. Clearly this is similar to Armadillo Cloak, although not as powerful due to the greater the cost and the loss of trample. Even then this could actually be a good Aura.
Mind Rot Reprint & Borderline Anything just slightly better than this is cubable. Mind Rot sets the standard for all discard.
Murder Cubable This has so much elegance, and is the smoothest looking and feeling kill spell ever. I might just run it for that. Although at a more critical inspection, it is actually out classed by the removal in the 360 card lists which says something about removal in Black! Both Eyeblight's Ending and Rend Flesh are better than it even though they read waaay more awkwardly. It's bacause of the double black mana in Murder's cost.
Ravenous Rats Reprint & Borderline 1/1 is just too insignificant to be relevant.
Servant of Nefarox Borderline Exalted really isn't too great in cube as you just want to swing with everything each turn in all the aggro decks and tends to be underwhelming in mid-range.
Sign in Blood Reprint & Cubable This is a solid effect in all heavily black decks.
Tormented Soul Reprint & Cubable Holds equipment like a champion and just chips down your opponents life total. Not for every cube again, as it depends on how many pieces of equipment and auras there is for him to hold.
Vile Rebirth Cubable YES! This is the treasure of the set! This card is amazingly good even though it will never come down on turn 1 except in some deranged dream I might have. But I doesn't need to in order to be completely awesome. For one this is an instant, so it can make for a pretty awesome combat trick flashing in a 2/2 blocker. This guy can also play all sneaky and get in there with flash-haste for the later turns and also importantly plays a good roll of graveyard hating at instant speed in response to an opponents spell getting to nuke you opponent's best guy in the 'yard in response to some recursion they are playing. He also allows the aggro decks at turn 3+ to play a creature and still be able to cast any removal spell, not just that, but it can lead to virtual card advantage by playing less lands, and still be doing stuff. This card is awesome in my opinion and everyone try it! It reminds me a lot of Unearth.
Walking Corpse Reprint & Bad Gee, does this guy feel awful after I ranted on about another 2/2 zombie for less mana and at instant.
Zombie Goliath Reprint & Terrible Massive do nothing that is way out classed at 5 mana.
Summary of Black: Black is the best colour in terms of new cubable cards in M13. Bloodhunter Bat, Liliana's Shade and Murder are cards that are good in cubes that support the right archetypes, but not others. Mark of the Vampire in general looks quite strong and should see play in more cubes. Finally Vile Rebirth... That card looks so solid. I'll stress this again. It is not your regular 2/2 for 1, it is something completely different.
Red
Bladetusk Boar Reprint & Cubable 3 evasion power at 4cc is a good deal for red.
Canyon Minotaur Reprint & Terrible Hill Giant alert!
Chandra's Fury Bad Red is pretty much the only color with sweeps, well other than black, and the card is really bad compared to those sweeps.
Craterize Terrible This is just a terrible piece of land destruction. It can't even deal with with artifacts.
Dragon Hatchling Borderline Baby dragons are awesome, but require waaay too much mana to be useful.
Fire Elemental Now at Common & Cubable This dude got downgraded, or as we say as pauper cubers, upgraded. He is a rock solid guy for the 5cc drop. His only competion is Flowstone Crusher who he is straight up better than normally, but Fire Elemental can not hit as hard. It's hard to say what is better, but they both might be good enough to share the slot, as there is nothing else there. Or he could just replace Flameborn Hellion as that dude has the same sates, but costs 1 more with haste.
Goblin Arsonist Reprint & Borderline There is just not enough way to reliably kill him when you want to.
Goblin Battle Jester Borderline Costs too much for his effect.
Kindled Fury Reprint & Bad There are better combat tricks in Red, and it is nowhere as good as a burn spell.
Krenko's Command Functional Reprint & Borderline This is just another Dragon Fodder, which wasn't good enough to start off with. Not just that, but Mogg War Marshal does all that but better.
Mogg Flunkies Reprint & Borderline This guy reads well, as a 3/3 for 2 is really quite solid, but he just is not reliable at all. He spends a lot of time just sitting around doing nothing. He doesn't often attack on turn 3 which is the most important turn for a 2 drop. Also, since there are so many good spells in pauper, a good deck will always be running less creatures than if removal was worse, not just that, but your opponent will run a lot of removal spells too, you aren't going to have enough creatures attacking each turn to be worth playing Mogg Flunkies.
Reckless Brute Borderline Attacking each turn is too much of a draw back for him. It's easy for an opponent to just hang back a blocker for the second attack to just trade up with or eat Reckless Brute and still like. 1 toughness is a big liability.
Rummaging Goblin Borderline I like the direction that this card is going in, but ultimately is not good enough yet. He needs to cost 2 and the he will be bananas. Still if you want card filtering in red, Reckless Looting is the way to go.
Searing Spear Staple This card is going in. No questions asked. Most likely for Volcanic Hammer.
Smelt Bad Finally a card that is strictly better than Shatter. Still just pure artifact removal is bad in cube. There needs to be some flexibility.
Torch Fiend Reprint & Staple Run this in every god-damn cube. This is one of the best pieces of artifact removal in red in pauper. Flexibility makes all the difference.
Trumpet Blast Reprint & Borderline White would love to have this card, but red's spell section is so much tighter than white's due to the abundance of high class removal, that there is no room for cards like these.
Turn to Slag Reprint & Borderline It is just too expensive for what it does to be playable.
Volcanic Strength Reprint & Bad No Aura! I said stay...
Wall of Fire Reprint & Bad Almost all purely defensive cards are bad. This is no exception
Wild Guess Bad Even worse that Dangerous Wager. Not what pauper cubes need.
Summary of Red: Not bad, we did acquire good finisher card, Fire Elemental which is now a common, and a staple, Searing Spear.
Green
Arbor Elf Reprint & Cubable This is mana elf number 3 in terms of goodness. If your cube wants 3, then you run him.
Bond Beetle Bad Anything else to him would of made him playable, but he's not quite there. Which makes me sad.
Bountiful Harvest Reprint & Terrible Worst card of the set in terms of power.
Centaur Courser Reprint & Cubable This guy is such a solid body. I'm never unhappy with him.
Deadly Recluse Reprint & Bad There is a world of difference between a 1/2 and a 2/1.
Elvish Visionary Reprint & Borderline Again, it is just that 1/1's tend to not be relevant enough. Not quite.
Farseek Reprint & Bad Rampant Growth is the baseline for all ramp. This is below that.
Fog Reprint & Terrible Fog doesn't effect the board at all.
Naturalize Reprint & Cubable Every cube should run Naturalize-esque effects in green. They are essential. They might not be the original Naturalize but almost every deck will have enchantments and artifacts that you need to kill. It is essentual
Plummet Reprint & Bad Not enough decks have flyers for this card to be worth it.
Prey Upon Reprint & Staple This is hands down the best removal spell in green. Run it.
Primal Huntbeast Cubable This guy seems like a nightmare for a lot of black and/or red decks to deal with. He is both a decent size and dodges almost all removal. It seems really solid, and if he ever gets enchanted or picks up some equipment he becomes a Blastoderm AKA you win the game.
Rancor Reprint & Bomb This is one of the 3 best cards in Green by a long shot! This is going to be first picked out of a lot of packs.
Ranger's Path Bad This doesn't colour fix and comes down at a point when your actaully aiming to cast non-rampspell cards.
Sentinel Spider Cubable This card looks like it's going to be a house. This stops pesky flyers for killing you, swings well and protects you at the same time. This is going to be a must kill when ever it hits the board. While it is not the biggest 5 drop in green, this changes the dynamic of the game a lot more than most.
Serpent's Gift Bad Not a good way of killing creatures.
Spied Baloth Borderline While this guy hits well, he's likely to trade down and he in general isn't as good as green's other 4 drops.
Timberpack Wolf Bad He requires multiples of himself and therefore is bad.
Titanic Growth Reprint & Bad There are better pump spells out there.
Vastwood Gorger Reprint & Bad This has no evasion back up it's fat (Ie Trample)
Yeva's Forcemage Borderling It's an bad combat trick at sorcery-speed. (Hint-hint ;))
Summary of Green: Got some interesting cards, new cubable creatures (and no spells again) Primal Huntbeast and Sentinel Spider.
Land(s?)
Evolving Wilds Reprint & Staple Run this in every pauper cube ever as it is the best and most versitle land at common ever! (Well, equal with Terramorphic Expanse.)
Summary of Lands: ... There is none.
Overall!
There were a lot of great reprints, but not to many new great cards. A lot of said new cards are a little bit nichey as they fit certain archetypes if they are supported for, but not others. Ultimately not a bad haul for a set half full of reprints.
The new cubable card in my opinion are: Attended Knight, Faerie Invaders, Bloodhunter Bat, Liliana's Shade, Mark of the Vampire, Murder, Vile Rebrith, Fire Elemental, Primal Huntbeast and Sentinel Spider.
And there is just one staple: Searing Spear.
Edit: Changing Vile Rebirth from staple to cubable to be more accurate for future reference.
Edit: Changed Rubric to only M13 cards, added 'Reprint' tags to cards missing it, and changed up a couple of evaluations that I didn't feel were accurate.
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
Smash to Smithereens Ah... I forgot about that, but most of the 'better' cards are sorcery-speed. But it's really moot think about that. Although, I agree that Smash to Smithereens is the only pure artifact removal spell at least considerable for pauper.
I agree that Vile Rebirth isn't a staple, and I was waiting to see how long someone was to point it out. But when I find cards that I think are really awesome and want people to throw into their cube, I have a tendency to call cards those cards staples, even if they aren't
Plus, it's actually really hard to call out staples when they are spoilt aside from the obvious (Searing Spear), because cards often play differently that predicted. There are plenty of cards that are dismissed at first because their power isn't obvious, and then end up going into every god damn cube, Darkthicket Wolf being the first like that, which comes to mind. And then there are the cards that read we but don't play out as expected. Maybe we under-estimated the draw-back or they aren't optimal in the many archetypes.
Not just that, but staples often end up pushing out previous existing staples from 'staple-hood', as there are only 360 slots in a tight cube and many of them are constantly changing between that cube and others.
Also, there are so many factors to take into consideration with Vile Rebirth as a card actually in use it makes it really hard to determine exactly how good that card it. How soon on average am I able to cast this in each archetype match up? How relevant is a 2/2 flasher? Will holding the extra mana I'm saving up be relevant? How often will the fact that I can nuder my opponent's grave be relevent? It is a hella complex card for a common. I'm not actually sure where on the great to awful scale it will be on. Hopefully around good.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that Duty-Bound Dead should at least be borderline. Sure, it usually isn't going to do much on offense by itself, but the Exalted means that it'll still be contributing in the red zone in decks with lots of evasive creatures. And, while still providing damage on offense, it can stay home as an all-star blocker. I may try it out in my cube and I'll report back on how effective it is. Plus, there isn't a lot of competition in the black 1 drop slot. (Although I suppose Vile Rebirth now adds additional competition!)
Sig courtesy of Disappointing Signet Inc.
My Cubes:
Goblin Pile Shuffler's 360 Card Pauper Cube - updated 1/4/2014
Goblin Pile Shuffler's 270 Card One-Drop Cube - updated 1/4/2014
From the All Commons Cube Thread:
Nope. Encrust doesn't tap the creature, so it only works on untapped ones.
My biggest gripe with War Falcon is:
1. I don't like that you need it plus another card to ever get started, and
2. A removal spell hitting the Soldier is like a 2-for-1.
Correct. I see no problems, though.
@Vile Rebirth
By far the most exciting card in the set for me, agreed, even if it turns out to not be cubeable. I am going to enjoy testing it.
Also, counters Disturbed Burial. BWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Countering Disturbed Burial were my first thoughts on it. All I really want in life is just random ways to hose graveyard recursion. It's not going to often be relevant ability of it, but still it makes me happy.
Oh yeah, I noticed a couple of reprints and functional reprints that I haven't pointed out. But none of them are cubable so I can't really be bothered editing it in right now.
Still I'm not going to take back anything about that cards awesomeness, just it's stapleness. It's more of a nichey card.
Edit: Just changed Vile Rebirth to cubable so this list is more accurate for future reference.
Thanks for that and nice decklist.