The Pauper Cube Committee recently had our inagural stream, and everything went great! Well, almost everything. The VOD appears to have been lost in the depths of Twitch somehow, so this post will serve as a recap of the stream for those who couldn’t make it out
The Golgari Problem
I asked the Discord which archetypes they felt needed help, and one resounding answer came forth: Golgari. One of the main causes people pointed to was the fact the gold cards for the color pair struggle from not signposting the archetypes possible and also in some cases being lower power level. While there isn’t a clear path forward, people seem to feel that Aristocrats is the most interesting thing about the color pair and we plan to push that as the clearest archetype for Golgari moving forward. Rhizome Lurcher and Undercity Uprising are being looked at closely moving forward.
Won’t Forged Golem
Will-Forged Golem isn’t super inspiring as a card. That might not be a problem. While some cubes use the artifact space as a place to have powerful effects that only exist in that form, The Pauper Cube has used these as a way to smooth out drafts. This means even if a draft goes a little off the rails, players should be able to put together enough playable cards to have a reasonable deck. While golem isn’t great, it’s fine glue to bond a deck together. That said if room needs to be made in the colorless section it’ll definitely be on the short list for consideration
Baloth Gorger
Ramp payoffs have never been great at common. Even with some in the Discord feeling that Baloth Gorger is boring, it currently is one of the better options to ensure there’s a reasonable density of payoffs for ramp decks. Sometimes boring is good too, no one is super excited (well almost no one) to pick a Savannah Lions
for their deck, but sometimes it’s still correct.
A Grizzly Sight
Vivien's Grizzly should be good. It’s card advantage in green, a payoff for ramp decks and a not-unreasonably costed body! These can all be true and the card still not be great. This has lagged in performance and suffers from the Augur of Bolas
issue of frequently reading “3G: look at the bottom card of your library”. We will be looking for ways to replace this with something better ASAP.
Suggested Additions
Syndic of Tithes was once in the cube and might be coming back soon. User DoubleFried suggested it and it looks like a reasonable inclusion. While far from splashy, its a reasonably priced body and helps either stabilize vs aggro or turn your other spells into an incremental clock.
Scorched Rusalka was suggested by user BCorney is a great role player in any red based aggro deck. Being able to chip in the last few points of damage through blockers is great, without the feel bad surprise of something like a Fireblast
. This is definitely getting in even if finding room in red is gonna be tough.
Skyscanner was on a list that Committee member Phizzled shared of cards he was interested in adding to the cube. As discussed earlier, the colorless section often holds together decks that just need a bit more. Skyscanner helps keep the cards flowing while providing a colorless option for flying. Slam dunk for this type of role.
Famed cubist and friend of the committee Usman chimed in to suggest a return of the mana elves. These were cut in the Eldritch moon update in favor of higher CMC dorks citing them as bad late-game draws. Chat brought up that if we’re going to push BG as the aristocrats color pair, elves serve great as both a way to double spell quicker and as fodder for the aristocrats pay offs. These will likely be returning on a probationary basis.
Fast and Furious
Someone asked about vehicles. As it stands, the only other vehicle not in the cube we feel is worth including is Sky Skiff. It helps provide aggro decks with a way to get extra value from their 1/x creatures in the mid to late game in the form of an evasive threat. It might require a bit of maneuvering to find room for, but we’re interested in fitting this into the cube at some point.
While obviously this isn’t the same as being able to see a VOD of the stream, hopefully this is a reasonable form of apology content. Hopefully when Eldraine comes around we’ll have better luck with Twitch cooperating.