Mechanic summary
Modal double face cards (MDFC): At the time you play a modal double faced card, you can select either side and play it according to the appropriate timing rules. Once again, MDFCs are uncommon and higher, so we don’t have to worry about them.
Boast: Appearing only on creatures, Boast indicates an activated ability that can be activated only once each turn and only once the creature has attacked.
Snow:Snow mana returns, including snow basics and a cycle of tapped, snow dual lands. Some spells indicate that they are Snow sorceries and instants, and additional abilities or benefits occur when snow mana is paid. It’s kicker, but not.
Foretell: Spells with foretell may be exiled from hand during your turn for 2 mana (at any time, insofar as that matters). During a future turn, they may be cast for a reduced cost. Foretell incidentally protects cards from discard. Not being able to cast teh spell the same turn is a clear downside, and might telegraph the spell if you’re holding a combat trick or counterspell, but casting a foretell creature can just allow you to play a 4 CMC spell on your third turn.
White:
Phizzled: A 3/3 for four mana isn’t completely embarrassing, but the boast ability only pumps the dwarf, and by the time you can attack, it might not survive your opponent’s four drop blocker. Psuedo vigiliance is maybe worthwhile, but I think there are more excitingly fours available for reconsideration.
Omniczech: I’m not stoked on the base here, but see the appeal. While it’s mana hungry, ever growing abysses can put in work. I think ultimately this is a pass since one removal spell = a lot of mana investment doing nothing.
Phizzled: It’s hard to find a lot to say about a 1/2 creature for one mana, but between evasion and first stirke, the Raptor looks more resilient on paper than white has gotten in a while. I don’t think I am ready to sacrifice the one drop token generators, but this carries equipment and Rancor. I’m interested to hear whether the community feels this fills a need for White decks, or if this would be a change for the sake of making a change.
Omniczech: this is a hell of a thing to see as someone who still thinks that suntail hawk is where this style of creature lives. I do like the fact that this wears gear well and also manages to be a bit of a defensive pain in the right spot. Pretty decent.
Phizzled: Another in the long line of Arrest variants, Bound in Gold prevents using the permanent to crew vehicles or use activated abilities. This reads as a clean upgrade over Arrest, and, because it says “enchant permanent” this can stifle Pestilence and Serrated Arrows.
Omniczech: This is a much needed update to how generic and sad Arrest is these days as far as removal goes. I hope WotC gives us more things like this to outclass the outdated.
Omniczech: This isn’t a savannah lions, but it’s super close and has some interesting alternate play patterns. I want more folks to weigh in on this, but it seems like a super solid version of this mold of cards.
Phizzled: I will admit that I waffled a bunch on Codespell. As a 1/1 for 1 with only vigilance, it encourages some sacrificial attacks, as vigilance is a less exciting keyword on creatures without high toughness. I guess I assumed it wouldn’t be exciting while considering White’s interest in curving 1 into 2 into 3 drops for aggro decks. This offers a boon if you manage 1 into 1 and 1, but it’s been a while since I’ve pulled that off and won in cube.
Phizzled: A piece of three mana removal that happens to kill the base stats for most creatures in the cube, the foretell lets you put a down payment on your future removal. You’ll be able to foretell on your turn with 3 lands while killing the next creature to attack you, if nothing else worth casting. The restriction only killing tapped creatures is potentially less problematic when you’re already in white, the color with the most vigilant threats. I don’t think this is critical or fills a hole in white’s identity.
Omniczech: I feel some kinda way about this when 2 mana tapped creature removal, or even pacifism exists. I get the appeal but I feel like this is a miss when we’ve got no questions asked stuff like Journey to Nowhere
Phizzled: I don’t think this is something I need for the Cube, but I do note that it feels vaguely like Custodi Squire, and I think I’ll keep one on hand, despite the lack of evasion.
Omniczech: Hard pass, I think this is probably as good as this kinda effect gets for a minute on a common, but this does SO much less than squire I don’t think a comparison does much justice to squire.
Omniczech: This certainly hits the Daybreak Chimera kinda role. It encourages white playing to the board, but in a slightly different way. If your one drop dies, this becomes a nice cheap early game threat and if you draw it late it’ll almost always be a 2 drop. I think this is a shoe-in
Phizzled: I think I honestly just didn’t read the alternate casting cost correctly. I expected something like Stitched Skaab’s exile clause, and this is closer to Bonepicker or Daybreak Chimera. I think you’re right, this is just a good, wholesome flying beater.
Phizzled: Wind Drake stats were worth considering when I first started following Stybs online, but aren’t quite up to snuff anymore. This Courser could speed out White’s aura based removal in a control shell, but I think it’s a less exciting aura support card than Heliod’s Pilgrim.
Omniczech: I think this card is super neat! The fact this reduces two similar but different types while still being a relevant creature is cool! I just don’t know if this cube is the right spot.
Blue
Phizzled: Phantom Monster was added to the Cube during one of the Modern Masters updates, and even in the current iteration of the Pauper Cube, isn’t the worst flying threat even now. I feel like this fills the same role as Errant Ephemeron without mandating a 4 turn wait, and incidentally still gets discounted by Warden of Evos Isle, my current Grixis Fliers favorite card. I couldn’t call this a slam dunk, but I feel like the Raven might have legs.
Omniczech: This is the exact kinda foretell card I like. If your opponent knows about it, fine, you’re still spending 2 mana for a 3 power flyer and the knowledge doesn’t make them have the answer any more than not knowing. I think this is a solid include.
Phizzled: Scrying two and drawing two isn’t broken card draw, but spreading the four mana out over two turns in an early control battle is going to appeal to me in other formats. This potentially sees more cards than Rain of Revelation, and, again, can dig you out of that unfortunate situation where you have your four drop cantrip in hand when you only have two or three lands. Why do we keep seeing potential blue upgrades? There is only so much room.
Omniczech: I’ve really enjoyed the rapid iteration from WotC on the “4 mana draw 2 with a set’s mechanic” and this one rules. Literally foretelling this turn 4 while I hold up interaction is all I wanna do when I see this card.
Phizzled: This has been, perhaps jokingly, called a Blue reverse Swords to Plowshares. As aura removal, it has the downside of allowing the creature to be reset with a bounce spell. Recent addition Bubble Snare, from Zendikar Rising, plays better as a late game top deck than this, but I can see arguments in favor of either.
Omniczech: This card rules. I think that this is the closest to seeing swords that we’ll get for a minute now, but I’m super excited to have this as an option. If someone wants to use a card to reset whatever I’ve cast Bind on, go ahead, I’ve already gotten a card’s worth of value if not more.
Phizzled: I don’t think blue needs more in-color mana ramp, but I have to note that FIRE design means we went from Vodalian Arcanist in Dominaria to this in just over two years.
Omniczech: The FIRE philosophy has already burnt us a few times, but I’m glad to again see iteration on an idea.
Phizzled: I don’t love that the activated ability requires 2 mana, but with enough mana, this can hit for 4 damage a turn after staving off X/1s and X/2s for a while in a control deck. Sometimes even control decks need to press the “I win” button and move on.
Omniczech: If I wanted frostburn weird, I’d play it. The lack of tribal synergy to make the changeling matter leaves me pretty disinterested.
Phizzled: An early standout from spoiler season, sorcery speed removal competes with some of Blue’s bounce effects, and the Foretell ability means this needn’t clog your hand in a control deck. Exiling permanently is potentially big game, and so is the “artifact” clause. Replacing Ulamog’s Crusher before it can attack with a 1/1 flier gives Blue a heck of a tool. My last few experiences playing Blue don’t tell me that blue removal is currently lacking for ways to get rid of opposing threats, but the community might tell me differently.
Omniczech: I like this card, but mostly cause it’s the first real common Pongify. I know color pie nerds are big mad about this card cause TECHNICALLY it’s the first time blue gets to remove artifacts permanently, but I for one don’t care, card seems good.
Black
Phizzled: I have a fond memory of playing Disturbed Burial in the past, and it’s a heck of an engine card, especially where Aristocrats is supported. I like the Recruiter as a potential engine card that can actually be interacted with outside of the stack. I don’t think it’s essential, though I’d like to see if anyone else had luck with it during the prerelease.
Omniczech: I didn’t see this discussed too much and I think it’s lukewarm, but I really hope that the idea of “giving a color pair a bonus for just having a low curve” is a great direction for Orzhov.
Phizzled: I will admit to seeing the Orzhov ability/mechanic as rewarding a spells-matter archetype that is hard to pull off in common. Reframing it as something that we should be happy with happening once a game, Pet’s 3/3 is fair, if unexciting, but adding evasion for, for example, using two removal spells before you attack sounds more pleasant. Does this Grow creature have what it takes to supplant one of the Aristocrats enabler?
Omniczech: I kinda love this as a Mind Rot Variant. The fact this can be a way to get that last card from the opponent’s hand and draw or just a black Divination is neat. I don’t think this makes the cube but I do think it’s the kinda thing I want to see revisited in future sets!
Phizzled: I really like that this is, potentially, not wasted as a late game draw when both players are in top deck mode. As a signpost of what WotC could do this is more important than what it immediately offers to the cube.
Red
Omniczech: I’m glad to see the move to more colored equipment. Short Sword hasn’t been great for a while, but providing a way to make a medium thing big and chip in damage is at least interesting. I want to see what folks think about this one.
Phizzled: I honestly don’t mind Short Sword or most other low equip cost equipments, because sometimes my aggro decks just run out of things to do with mana. This one giving Red-X decks some additional reach is fine with me. I like that this is more likely to table than Bonesplitter or Vulshok Morningstar, as well.
Omniczech: This card rules. I like the fact this is card advantage, I like that it’s generic to activate, is this pauper Bob? Of course not. But it’s less far from that than I thought at first pass.
Phizzled: There was some reasonable chatter the day this was spoiled, that it was comparable with Burning-Tree Vandal, but technically unbounded card draw is so different than rummaging that I’m not sure that’s the right comparison. As with Helm, I don’t mind that my aggro or midrange deck might find more use for some excess mana on turn 4 or later as I try to close out the game.
Green
Omniczech: I wish that there were more neat green foretell cards to make this not suffer from “always willbender” syndrome. It’s a lot of damage for 1 mana on the turn you cast it. I think the number are just off but it’s neat.
Phizzled: I have played worse Giant Growths at sorcery. I think the fact that it’s still an instant means it could be good enough. I still think Wild Size is better for the combined 3 mana, which tells me I want evasion, rather than just a buff. I’m inclined to pass on this for Cube, unless the community is really excited about it.
Phizzled: This compares favorably to Ranger’s Guile, by adding a permanent buff or resetting persist creatures like Safehold Elite. I’m not sure I need to say much more.
Omniczech: This Feels like the most reasonable version of this effect to date, worth considering but not a slam dunk by any means.
Phizzled: Fight spells are better when they are either instant speed or when they buff your creatures. This is halfway there, but 4 combined mana is a lot compared to our currency Fight and Bite suite. I expect to pass on this.
Omniczech: The fact this only costs one to actual cast off of foretell makes it feel ok, but I’m not sure if the average use case bears this out as being worth including
Lands
Etc.
Omniczech: OH BOY, if you’d told me a year ago we’d get typed duals at common I would have out and out laughed, and here we are. I think these are just a super neat include, despite the baggage of being snow lands.
Phizzled: I noted that it didn’t seem likely we would have a clean snow-mana payoff, and Ash Barrens can’t grab these or Guildgates. Aesthetically, I like that there are more options for the guildgates and that the gate names tell me more about what color of mana I’m getting (as an enfranchised player, at least). The art and the idea that these include basic land types is cool, though (Nature’s Lore says “hi”). I’m not actively worrying about reprints for cards about to come out, but guildgates are printed in almost every commander deck, and (probably) will stay cheap. I like these a lot, but they might be $2 in a couple years.