WOE Quick Hits

Set Mechanics

Bargain: This mechanic plays like kicker which requires a sacrifice. At the time you cast a spell with Bargain, an additional benefit is conveyed when you sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token.

Role tokens: Casting certain spells or creatures entering the battlefield or dying may create a role token, one of several creature auras. Each, conveniently, supports paying the Bargain costs.

Celebration: When two or more non-land permanents enter the battlefield under your control during a turn, permanents with this ability gain an extra boon.  The ability only appears on White, Red, or White-Red cards.

Food: A returning mechanic that has appeared in several sets now, food tokens are artifacts which can be sacrificed to gain life. Food, like Role tokens, play well with both Bargain and Celebration

White

Phizzled: It’s better than Pacifism and worse than Journey to Nowhere.  That’s pretty good, honestly, but the spending of a combined 5 mana, 2 at sorcery speed, to exile a creature stacks up poorly against spending 3 or 4 mana to detain or exile any permanent at that same sorcery speed.

Neveron: This would be an instant replacement for Pacifism if it weren’t for us getting Planar Disruption in ONE and Realmbreaker's Grasp in MOM. As-is I’m not sure how it matches up, and we don’t currently have any methods to abuse the timing of the activated ability. (A Flicker of Fate could let you spend five mana to exile something and move the aura, for instance.)

Omni: I will miss Pacifism, but man am I glad to enter the new era. This wave of strictly better pacifisms is nice to see because at this point I’m not holding my breath for a Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile at common.

Usman:  I had touched on this in an earlier quick hits where I figured that Arrest variants hopefully become a thing of the past rather than something that are part of the format.  I think this may be better than Minimus Containment.

Solset: I think I still prefer the 3 mana options that answer other card types, but this is a strong contention for our 2 drop inclusions. For most creatures, this will answer them for 2, but for something with a nasty ability, the extra mana will be worth it.  Plus, it pairs nicely with Custodi Squire for that sweet enchantment recursion game. 

Phizzled: I think there is a reasonable argument to be made that a 2 mana instant that deals 3 damage to any creature in combat is more versatile than a 1 mana sorcery that deals the same damage to a non-white creature.  The bargain cost could allow you to trade a token that was going to die anyway for a premium Green fatty, but I assume this is going to be Gideon's Reproach with upside once every 5th game or so.  I think that’s enough for me to be excited by it, but, as ever, fiddly removal can be difficult.  I’ll be surprised if we make this change, but not necessarily disappointed.

Neveron: I can’t say that I’m excited for this one, and judging by the polls I’m not alone in that. White’s typically going to be sacrificing a 1/1 token for this… but I feel like there’s good odds that in that situation you could combine the combat damage of the token with Gideon’s Reproach for five damage total. There’s not a lot in the cube that needs 6+, and they’re all so expensive that the mana cost of removal arguably no longer matters.

Usman:  Overall, I’m just not feeling this, although this does at least kill a lot of things in the format.

Solset: Count me out. There are a lot of sidegrades to this, and I don’t think this one rises above its peers to make room. This doesn’t do enough to help an aggressive white deck. 

Phizzled: I hesitate to bring this up, because Fire//Ice is a fine izzet card but an unexciting mono-white one, but sometimes aggro decks like pushing damage through and drawing a card.  The various one mana protection spells are likely better at pushing damage through, so you’d really need to value the card draw to make this worth a slot.  I can’t picture the Pauper Cube variant that needs this, yet.

Neveron: During spoiler season I argued that this being “up to one target creature” means that this is also, essentially, an expensive white Opt. Not the worst, I guess, but probably not terribly effective.

Omni: I can’t wait to see the version of this idea that is actually one I want to play. I like the idea the numbers just don’t line up for me.

Usman: I’ve always loved Niveous Wisps even though it has some weird trinket text about turning a creature white; these recent effects at 2 mana make me think we’ll never see this effect at 1-mana again.  Even without Scry, I think Wisps >>>> Plunge.

Solset: Our blue is fine postponing combat and crafting its draws.  Our white doesn’t rarely feels the same.  If this was 1 mana it would be usable as an early offensive option, but this is just too much mana for a color that tries to hold up the aggro banner. 

Phizzled: The Young Hero role token and the assumption that you’ll eventually grow a pretty big threat are the driver here.  This is less flexible than a similar and more flexible reanimation spell, so you’d have to really value the threat of the slowly growing creature becoming a finisher.  Until I play at the prerelease, I can’t tell how strong the Role tokens are going to feel, but I quite like this one, and Return Triumphant, for the same reasons.

Neveron: People were excited about Recommission during BRO’s spoiler season, and this is pretty similar. And, dare I say it, maybe better?

Usman: This may be more sidegrade than upgrade on Recommission; although I think this may be slightly worse (needing attack steps to get bigger, and occasional use of getting back an artifact.)

Solset: I was pretty high on Recommission, but it never played as well as I thought in BRO limited.  Roles are a lot of rules overhead for a single card, so I am thinking it is not worth it on its own, especially since there will be times you will want the +1/+1 right away. 

Neveron: A 2/2 with vigilance for 1W and upside is nothing new, but the interaction this has with Kor Skyfisher is somewhat noteworthy. As I wrote for Cooped Up, we don’t currently have any ways to blink enchantments – but if we were to get some in the future, this card is on my niche card watchlist alongside Omen of the Sun.

Omni: I firmly believe this is a Shiny new toy that will turn out to be fine. This getting nabbed by any skyfisher effect is neat and a few 2/2s will make an actual difference in the game. Outside of that, I do think this is not that impressive in the realm of “things you can print on a bear in 2023”

Phizzled: I was less excited about this than is maybe necessary.  I think it’s perfectly find to regrow with Skyfisher, but so are most creatures with ETB effects.  I would be more interested, honestly, if White had more access to Regrowth, at least to get enchantments back from the graveyard.  But generally, I think the activated ability is too expensive to only grant us a scry 2.

Usman:  Our format isn’t one where we can get as much use out of the extra game pieces (although that may change in time) – its floor as a 2/2 vigilance for 2 is… fine, although glancing over the list, I don’t see anything that’s worse than a 2/2 vigilance, and the upside of scry just seems so clunky, that at least in our world, it isn’t worth the 2W cost to do.

Solset: I think this is worse than our other 2 drop options, unless we can put its uniqueness to some real use.  Enchantment in play, graveyard fodder, non creature, and sacrifice synergies are all potential avenues we could support in white archetypes.  Flicker sounds decent with Vigil until you realize how few of those hit enchantments.  Until we include some support that can make use of this, I just don’t think it is good enough. Give me Lotus-Eye Mystics for this and Cooped Up though….

Blue

Phizzled: The adventure is a little expensive, but both halves of this make burn or removal spells hit just a little bit harder.  Helping close the game out because you’ve top decked a late game ramp spell in Blue-Green is nothing to sneeze at, either.  I don’t see any obvious swaps for this, and the elemental lacks evasion, which both hurt its chances.  I would be remiss to ignore how much slower putting the spell on top of your library is than into your hand, of course.

Neveron: It’s definitely a strange card. If you can reliably just make this a two-mana 3/3 then that’s something blue will appreciate. While putting things on the library is incredibly worse than putting them in your hand, sufficiently powerful spells might make you fine with paying three extra mana at sorcery speed one turn in advance. Do we have those, though?

Omni: Adorable nature of this little cauldron wearer aside, I do think this is kinda a neat potential include for the spells matter deck, it can trigger other spells matter payloads, as well as being a decent (not good) one itself. I’m not totally sold but I could be convinced.

Usman: I think I’m just a sucker for these kinds of Maritime Guard types of creatures that can hold the fort, and then swing for a decent amount later.  Having some additional utility looks nice too.  Maybe it’s better than one of our 3-drops in blue? (since that slot is pretty glutted)

Solset:  This doesn’t go “off” since it only triggers once each turn, but it is pretty reliable in an izzet deck.  I think I’d rather see Jhessian Thief, but if we are looking only at 2 drops, Halimar Wavewatch has never been a fan favorite, and this fits a pretty similar role of early defense and late game mana sink. 

Phizzled: I’m not certain this is as exciting for cube as the internet is telling me it is in general, but we have some sorcery speed card draw that certain, reactive Blue-X decks might be willing to change for card draw they could hold until an opponent’s end step.  I think this deserves real consideration.

Neveron: I think people are mostly just excited about an instant-speed Divination, but it’s definitely a contender. Personally I’d take Meeting of Minds over it, since they’re equal with just one crab token on board.

Omni: I am almost tempted to say this should make the cut just to give some mana value variety in our draw 2 suite. Is this as good as classics like Deep Analysis? Probably not but it does come online a bit earlier than most of these, and can be a potential double spell option a bit sooner as well. I’m curious here.

Usman: A hopeful sign for the future for the inevitable power creep on this effect at common, maybe this is better than Compulsive Research, since “draw 2”, but this one’s an instant?  That… just feels wrong, but I like how this works well with the good cheap instant interaction in our format, since I never really was a fan of tapping out early for Compulsive (depending on the matchup.) Could just be user error, though.

Solset: I am such a sucker for the bells and whistles on my blue draw.  Scry, discard a land, foretell, and flashback.are so spicy. However, I think an instant draw 2 is the veggie we all need.  I really don’t look forward to this cut, but I reluctantly think this is better than something.  

Phizzled: The Cube only has 5 faeries at present, four of which are Blue.  If you value the hypothetical (and unlikely) scaling over the flexibility of Miscalculation this has some upside worth discussing.  I think this is destined for constructed greatness and likely is a pass, here.

Neveron: This card reignited the strange little topic of one-card typal draft archetypes in the cube, and whether they could be a thing. Perhaps we could swap in Spellstutter Sprite in blue, Sparksmith in red, Priest of Titania in green… but it’s a big maybe, and would require some more thought. Check in on The Pauper Cube’s discord server and tell us your thoughts! My usual guideline is that you want the card to be grudgingly acceptable by itself and above-rate with just another member of its relevant type, and this… maybe hits that?

Omni: I’m sure as hell not liking this over miscalculation but I do love me a Quench more than most and we do have some faeries. Overall I’m off typal cards by and large and this one isn’t pulling me much more in favor of them.

Usman: Slightly better quench, and I don’t think people have liked Quench+ variants to the point to where a *very slightly* better version gets there, although maybe there’ll be enough fae in the future, if there’s an intention to make the Faerie deck a Standard thing?

Solset: Comparing Spell Stutter’s tribal signal to Sparksmith’s is comparing apples to oranges. Sparksmith impacts the game with no support, and breaks it open if you have some.  Goblins are an evergreen tribe.  Bad Fae mana leak is bad outside a cube pushing tribal mutations. 

Neveron: The community seems to love this card, and I can’t help but agree. It’s an expensive and fragile Goblin Electromancer, but the evasion is nice and defending it probably won’t be too hard when your 1U counterspells just cost U. Feeding into the Spell Stutter conversation, it’s also a Faerie – but I don’t think that’s going to be terribly relevant in our cube.

Omni: I do like the fact this has evasion and can help add to the clock a bit more meaningfully than its land based brethren. I think this one at least deserves some time in the cube to see how it plays out, if that one toughness is a killer issue, we can always ditch it later down the line.

Phizzled: I am disappointed by the body, in part because we have Warden of Evos Isle, but I should accept that that was originally an uncommon which was downshifted in a masters set.  This faerie isn’t so pushed that including it feels mandatory to me, but I Omni is right, we have the ability to test and get feedback. 

Usman: I like this as a Warden of Evos Isle effect that does more for blue decks, since they’ll usually be backing instants/sorceries that get a discount from this.  Looking at it from this lens make this look pretty good.

Solset: The amount of times my Electromancer is stuck at home because of a 3/3 is real.  My Izzet decks tend to love flyers that add a clock in the air while burning out blockers.  I think this is going to play even better than it looks. 

Neveron: While this creature got a lot of buzz in the community for being a modal Flying Men//Frost Trickster, I’m not entirely sure we want this? We generally want our “enters the battlefield” effects to be free, rather than requiring an extra two mana for every Ephemerate cast. If you’re running ninjas, though, this faerie might be a good pick. (And if you’re running enough faeries, of course…)

Omni: If this got to actually just be a frost trickster when “kicked” I would be on board. This forever being a 1/1 kinda makes me less interested in it and the modality almost feels like downside in the durdlier side of blue decks

Phizzled: I honestly like the modality, but man, this feels too little early in the game, and likely is too weak when you’re using the “stun” effect midgame.  I’m going to snag a set for pauper constructed, but I don’t think it fits the current Cube configuration.

Solset: Flying man is a bad card in cube, so I’m not looking for that modality.  Sure, there will be games where this option matters, like when you draw Ninja of the Deep Hours in your opening hand, but mostly it is a bad play.  On the other side, I am never happy to spend 3 for a 1/1 that costs extra to flicker. 

Neveron: This card is an interesting option if we ever decide to make Simic more of a ramping archetype, since it grows pretty quickly in that scenario – a 4/3 after one trigger is nothing to scoff at. Until then, though, I’m not sure if we have a cut for this.

Solset: Between our adventures, delve, suspend and evoke, Blue already has a fair number of ways to keep their curve officially high while still having early options.  If this trades with a removal or early attacker, that is fine most of the time for blue.  If it is ignored, it grows to a real threat with one or two activations all without any extra mana investment. I think this one is going to surprise a lot of people with how well it plays. 

Omni: This is unimpressive early game, but if it doesn’t get killed, you will likely find ways to grow it. I’m higher on this than initially thought.

Neveron: When we posted our Quick Hits for Lord of the Rings, readers were quick to point out the lack of white and blue cards. While we don’t think we really missed any notable white ones, Lórien Revealed has been making enough waves in other formats that it’s clear that we were probably wrong about that (effectively) split tapland/spell. That said, I’m not sure that Into the Fae Court is a Lórien Revealed.

Solset: An early version of my personal pauper cube played Brilliant Plan, and it saw plenty of play.   Maybe I am crazy here, but this has to be one of the best things to loop with your Mnemonic walls in blue, right?  If blue ever gets to dip into its ramp package with Simic, I think I might advocate for diversifying our draw from the various 4 mana side grades we have to one bigger 5 mana option. 

Omni: I was kinda shocked to see this Mulldrifter variant fare this poorly in the polling so far. I do like the fact that this would add another option on the curve for a big Unga Bunga Draw spell.

Black

Phizzled: This never hits harder than Tragic Fall but being hellbent is harder to trigger for some Black-X control variants than having a token to sacrifice.  I quite liked Vicious Offering during its time in the Cube.

Neveron: Honestly, I think I prefer the Offering over this. Black is in a strange spot with Bargain in that its sacrificial fodder tends to come with a non-token frontside that dies into tokens. Being able to sacrifice your artifacts and enchantments might be useful, although I’m not sure how many artifacts black is making.

Usman: I think I like this more than Tragic Fall, since it’s easier to kill big creatures before they enter combat.  Probably better than Mire’s Grasp?

Solset: The silly name is going to irk me, but I could see this being good enough.  It is not strictly better than any of our options, but in plenty of games I might prefer this to either Mire’s Grasp or Tragic Fall, and this plays with aristocrats slightly better.  

 

Phizzled: I’m somehow surprised how many different ways there are to print Undying Evil.  I will not be surprised to find that this one is very good.  The only mark against it is adding Roles to the Cube, if we were somehow disinterested in doing so.

Neveron: Just keep in mind that our cube is lacking in enchantment synergy but has a fair bit of +1/+1 counter stuff going on. This does play well with Undying creatures, though, which is something, and if you’ve got a way to sacrifice permanents then this’ll be two in one card.

Omni: you will have to drag me kicking and screaming into the world where we run roles. That said, being an undying effect this one is probably on the level when it comes to power.

Usman:  Slightly better Feign Death/Undying Malice is nice, and tripling up on the effect is nice.  Cardboard annoyance with role is a thing, though, for those who may not like that, but I’m ambivalent, especially once packs get cracked for drafting.

Solset: If we are keeping GW as counters, I don’t think this has a place. If that archetype is ever dropped or especially if we switch to GW enchantments, I think this is a minor upgrade. 

 

Phizzled: Treating the Bargain cost as a real thing that will really happen sometimes, this has more upside than Read the Bones. “Up To” is doing a lot of work here, and while it makes the card harder to parse, if you’re really digging for game winner or a game saver, this gets you a look at up to six cards, and at instant speed.

Neveron: We’ve also been keeping an eye on MOM’s Unseal the Necropolis, but this is a good option for that slot. Six cards deep is a lot in a 40-card format.

Omni: This is the card that made me actually consider “how often can we bargain stuff?” seriously. This digging up to 6 cards deep is a LOT of velocity. I’m in even if sometimes it’s just an instant speed Night's Whisper

Usman: Slightly concerned that Bargain not allowing to sacrifice non-tokens may be a real drawback in our format, but if getting bargain isn’t a problem, that we may have a real nice card draw card that makes me think of a blue card more than anything.  Definitely on the radar.

Solset: Our black is the hardest for me to mentally balance.  It acts as a bridge between our aggressive archetypes to more controlling ones.  I would need to see this in place of something else that is purely control like Read the Bones, not in addition to it.

Phizzled: The body isn’t exceptional for 4 mana, but flash and flying aren’t, by themselves, embarrassing. The previously-damaged “assassin” ability isn’t my favorite, even in retail limited, but the ability isn’t materially worse than “exploit” as a kicker cost.  I would think this would be a slam dunk at 3 mana, but 4 mana feels a little too expensive.  I don’t think you need to consistently use the assassination ability, but hitting 25% of the time is probably enough to make that extra half-mana worth it. I think I’ve convinced myself I like this quite a bit.

Neveron: A strictly better Manticore (identical to its Alchemy rebalance, though!) is probably playable, but the assassin ability tends to be a bit fiddly and usually requires you to have thrown a 1/1 under a bus. Notably this is the biggest black flash+flyer at common, and three power in the air is a fast clock. (Also, for those keeping track at home, this is a Faerie.)

Usman: I’ve usually been eh on Orzhov Euthanist effects, since they generally kill something at common, and ones like this with 1 toughness can’t ambush a 1/1; usually there’s some sort of resource trading going on with these, and unfortunately, it’s almost always giving up a full card.  3 power on a flash flier’s real nice though, for the cost, and this is another card that feels like it’s closer to blue than black on rate.

Solset: Our black is well positioned to make use of this, throwing a doomed dissenter in front of threat, then flashing this in will be strong.  At four mana though, I feel like we might need this as a 3/2 to make the cut. There are a lot of chumping 1/1 flyers.

Phizzled: I’m not sold yet on the rats that can’t block, but decayed tokens played fairly well, honestly.  This has an undersized base body, but the growth ability isn’t mana-gated or limited to once per turn.  I honestly think in the right deck, this is stronger than Wakedancer or Deathbloom Thallid.  I don’t know if this compares favorably to Mold Folk because Mold Folk comes on line earlier, but the loss of lifelink maybe can be survived by the mana saved over the course of the game.

Neveron: It comes in with sacrifice fodder (a rat) and a sacrifice payoff (a big rat), but lacks a way to enable itself beyond “hope your opponent blocks the rat”. Fortunately we have other cards to pick up the slack in that regard, and having an actual incidental death payoff beyond Falkenrath Noble might be nice.

Omni: I am actually a decent fan of this. I like that it just has both halves of the equation, payoff and material just all in one. I’m down to give it a shot.

Usman:  Oftentimes, these kinds of “if one of your things dies, do something” Gavony Unhallowed usually have pretty poor creature rates, where you generally need to have at least something die to be happy with the initial investment.  Rats/Mites play fundamentally different than creatures that can block, since you can’t chump block with Rats, but I think the overall package is good enough here on rate – it’s similar-ish to cards like Attended Knight, and although opponents are likely going to just kill the Vermin over other creatures, I get the feeling that this is going to get decently large enough for the cost.

Solset: I think this card is bonkers good for our black.  Even in a typical black deck, this is going to easily grow to a real threat without much work if they leave it alone.  In a deck built to abuse multiple bodies, this is slam pick. 

Neveron: Yet another card begging for a way to blink enchantments, although personally I’m mostly just looking at it as a black Shock. Does it have a home in the cube? I don’t know, but my mind races for Black Burn.

Phizzled: I think this is too little, and too convoluted.  If we value the discard, Raven's Crime is the more powerful discard spell.  I think the card lacks the punch to displace anything currently in the Cube, especially where black burn decks (are there any?) likely rely on card draw spells like Sign in Blood. I don’t think this is going to get there.

Usman: I’m pretty hopeless on this having enough of an impact on its own to be worth it, since both effects are usually eh outside of critical mass and this works best as a game piece (Bargain) or with ways to reuse it, and we don’t really have much of either.

Solset: This will see play in a dedicated constructed deck, but our black cares too much about value and board presence. If we start supporting enchantments with recursion, I could see this being an okay include. 

Red

Phizzled: As a point of comparison, this costs the same four mana as Beetleback Chief, but trades producing three bodies for two bodies, and gives the bigger body evasion.  I think this is a clean upgrade, even before the easier investment in Red.

Neveron: I’m not sure which I prefer – this card’s Menace or Chimney Rabble’s Haste. Either one is a decent option for players looking to make an all-common copy of the cube, given that Beetleback Chief’s a MTGO-exclusive downshift.

Omni: I’m still in favor of rabble over this given the extra utility of the token actually being able to block. That said this isn’t a country mile worse by any stretch of the imagination.

Usman: I think this is probably worse than Chief/Rabble, but not by a large margin, due to how Rats play so differently than creatures that can block. 
Solset: Worse than Rabble, which didn’t break in. 

Phizzled: As team pump spells go, this isn’t embarrassing.  I think it’s better when you’re going to be blocking with a bunch of 1/1s against an alpha-strike, to create a legion of attacking rats yourself, but I might open some at the prerelease and find it only plays as a “win-more.”

Neveron: I think this gets in. It’s got a fun “suicide attack two turns in a row” feel to it, and the board protection is maybe more relevant than the single-target mode on Dynacharge. Especially now that we’ve got so many efficient boardwipes available.

Omni: I like the idea that this lets you reload a bit or have the cheeky partial block and have some stuff stick around, the fact that this doesn’t trigger for creature tokens in a deck that likely wants to have creature tokens is a bit dodgy but I think we can get over that.

Usman: For what it’s worth, I like this ***much*** more than Ambitious Assault, since it lets you chump attack with a bunch of things and, even if it’s not quite lethal, not having to give up (all of) your board presence is nice, especially if you have equipment/other ways to buff up the rats.

Solset: Even the go wide token deck is going to have a jackal pup that dies.  This is one of the best team pumps and is the perfect marriage of go wide and aristocrats. I can’t imagine not finding room for this. 

Phizzled: I’m not enamored of the adventure for its own sake, but it does give you the chance to ramp into the Giant a smidge early without digging into Green.  I think late game this can be better than Famished Foragers’ loot ability, but reach is always an odd ability in a color i think of as wanting to press the advantage.

Neveron: The adventure seems a bit like an ersatz Foretell, in a way, but it being an instant is very nice.

Usman: I do like that this enables draws of 1R: make a treasure, 2R, cast this, but that may just be a bad hand to keep, in all honesty.  The creature itself isn’t too bad, on rate, although these kinds of things look better than they play out, but hey, it’s a 4/3 reach.

Solset: This is so close to Foragers for me.  I find Foragers is at its best when it lets you dump multiple bodies before a team pump, but it also has the late game ability for plan B. Grabby Giant is better at the plan B, but worse at overwhelming the board.  Overall, I think I want to keep the pressure with Foragers, but I can’t fault anyone for liking the better cycling ability.   

Neveron: I’m very public about my love for all the Raging Goblins of the world, and this feeds into the red-black sacrifice archetype fairly nicely. I’m not sure that it replaces Grim Initiate, but it’s a very fun card.

Phizzled: I wasn’t going to write anything about this until someone else put it on the list.  The hypothetical aggro deck is more comfortable with the “can’t block” rider on the rat token, and Red has a few of its own aristocrats sacrifice outlets.  There is definitely opportunity to maximize this, but I think if you can only have one, between this and Grim Initiate, you keep the zombie.

Omni: I can’t get as excited about this one as the zombie, I like raging goblin more than most but something about this just feels like the numbers don’t add up to where I want them to.

Usman:  Back in 2019, as a free-to-play Arena player jamming mono red, I played with a lot of Grim Initiate; I don’t think this necessarily replaces ol’ Grimmy, maybe something higher up the curve.  The drawback of being unable to block is at its best in the red aggro archetype, though.

Solset: Both Voldaren Epicure and Insolent Neonate should look over their shoulders tonight. We don’t support any madness or discard shenanigans in our red, but we do support multiple bodies.  

Neveron: I’m not entirely sure that this card is worth it, but it does do a lot of things. It’s three bodies in one card like Beetleback Chief, it’s an instant-speed token generator (although they can’t block), it’s a piker with that aggressive variant of First Strike that Wizards of the Coast prefers these days…

Phizzled: I think if you’re playing this on turn two, you’re a little disappointed because you’ve missed out on value, but as a turn 4 or 5 topdeck, you feel pretty good in an aggressive build (well, aside from that your opponent is still alive and you need to keep casting threats).  I don’t think it’s thrilling, but the floor is fine.

Omni: I do think that this is one of the more easily misevaluated options in the set, in either direction. This feels just fine for a go wide deck, it feels decent for aristocrats, it’s got homes I’m just exactly middle of the road on this one.

Usman: You had me at 2/1 first strike!  (although this is probably more a midranger than an aggroer.)

Solset: This one seems a bit hard for me to evaluate.  I don’t love adventures that cost more than the creature, but this might help enough of our archetypes to try out. If it was just 5 mana, I think this is a pass, but curving from this EOT on turn 3 into a couple of bears on turn four (one being the Ratcatcher Trainee)  is a lot of board presence.  Less flexible than Ghirapur Gearcrafter’s token, but likely a bit stronger.  

Green

Neveron: It’s an Explore that always draws you a medium-sized ramp target. Actually, here’s a fun fact: the only other common five-drop with five power and Reach is Stiltstrider. I’d lobby for this replacing Nessian Asp if I weren’t already trying to sneak in Rust Goliath.
Phizzled: I agree that the Asp is probably showing its age and would be the cleanest like-for-like swap.  I think reach being less exciting on ramp creatures than evasion (read: trample) is a downside in my analysis, but that’s really it. I like this, so far, and I hope the prerelease bears that out.

Omni: I actually dig the model of “adventure that gets you closer to casting the creature, but the beanstalk giant this ain’t, also explore that can never draw you into that second land makes me wary.

Usman:  Cantripless Explore just feels so bad; I think this is just another big doofus that lines up poorly against the efficient (and getting more so in white) spot removal in the format.  

Solset: I’ve not played in many limited formats with Explore, but I do like the idea of “drawing” a beefy option over something random with your ramp cantrip.  This might not be good enough, but I’d like to see this direction for our green. 

Phizzled: The body is fragile but on rate for four mana. Upgrading one of your earlier creatures with +1/+1 and trample probably is better than it reads in the spoiler. My least favorite thing about the Adventure Creatures this set is that the mana costs seem to be pretty fair, rather than a touch pushed. The reasonableness of the cost probably keeps this out, unfortunately. 

Neveron: You can definitely lose a lot of value by not having any creature on board to put the role on, but the base body is… grudgingly playable, I’d say. It’s a threat worth answering, but the answers are also pretty common.

Usman: This may just be a 1G “trample and +1/+1” primarily and then an Order of the Taco, I mean, Order of the Sacred Bell once you have nothing else to do.  I’m a big fan of how well this plays out, since the Power/Toughnesses of the creatures in our format are pretty close together and a trick like this that sticks around is usually resultant in the opponent’s creature being dead (although it also is a huge blowout in the face of the aforementioned efficient removal.)  Still, I like this.

Solset: This trades some of our explosive power for a long term advantage as a pump spell.  This is a pretty decent 2 for 1 in a lot of cases even if we don’t have cute synergies that care about the role token.  I really am not a fan of the aura token rules overhead, so I hope I am wrong here. 

Neveron: During the spoiler season it’s been pointed out that this is, in some ways, a better Cartouche of Strength. It adds enough extra baggage with its unique token that I’m not sure it’s worth it, though. While being a sorcery is better for Archaeomancer et. al., being an aura is better for Heliod's Pilgrim.

Solset: Again if we had something that cares about enchantments in play, I’d be up for making room here, but Green just doesn’t care enough about sorcery’s or enchantments in play for this to matter.  Overall, in addition to more pilgrim options, I think the ability to replay Cartouche through Kor Skyfisher, Callous Dismissal, and all of blue’s various bounce variants will come into play more often than wanting to pick up Curse of the Werefox with Mnemonic wall.  We already have 5 instants or sorceries in Green for that when it is needed. 

Colorless

Neveron: It’s a food, it’s a clue, and it’s giving Lembas a run for its money. Personally I prefer the cheaper mana-to-cantrip ratio of the elven bread, but one mana is one mana.

Phizzled: Getting both the clue and food benefits for the same mana is helpful, as is the scry.  I really think this feels like a replacement for current Blue “egg” Witching Well, despite drawing fewer cards.  This isn’t a thrilling card, but it is a reasonable “glue” card for drafts that go off the rails in most archetypes.

Omni: I kinda like that this is just generally fine? It’s better than at least one of the colorless cards we’re running without me even having to check.

Usman: Filler card is filler.  Paying 1+2 for Preordain and some life doesn’t really do much for me, since it doesn’t do a lot for initial investment – although, in fairness, it’s only 1 mana.  I’m just not feeling this at all.

Solset: Almost every deck should run this over whatever else they think is their 23rd card.  Still, it is a marginal effect that won’t excite most drafters, so I expect it to get passed late and sit in sideboards.  You can lead a horse to water right. .