Welcome one and all to the Spring 2025 Pauper Cube update. As temperatures are rising to a barely tolerable level for the majority of the committee, we’ve got a doozy of an update. We’ll address a few conceptual shifts and plans for the cube up top here.

Black is getting a share of the aggressive pie. As it stands our changes here are not as deep or sweeping as they could have been, but we want to make this change in chunks and as needed. The impetus here is that with 4 out of 5 colors supporting midrange or slower decks and only 2 supporting aggressive decks, the end result was always going to be that midrange becomes a dominant mode of gameplay. The hope is by offering up options in black, better representation of aggressive decks should show up.

You will notice that cards from Pioneer Masters have made it into the cube. We know some community members will disagree with this decision but after some debate we felt this was a decision that would lead to more gameplay options. If it turns out that the options these cards represent aren’t well liked after playing with them, we’re fully willing to reverse course on these.

The energy mini-package is coming in. Since this is a mechanic that Wizards seems intent on revisiting in products, we’re going to have a small package of these cards available. We are trying to make sure that the cards we include are all cards that we feel fine about including even if they were the only energy cards available, so while we’re not out and out supporting them, we hope that every one of these cards is reasonable on their own, but exciting if you managed to pick up a few of them.

White

Adds

Soltari Trooper is a solid nearly unblockable 2/2 for 2, and being added in consideration for the shadow cards coming in black and wanting at least one other color to interact in combat.

Trapped in the Screen is another O-ring iteration and one that’s pretty solid all in all, it was a pretty easy inclusion since it has some protection built in, which helps make it less of a tempo blowout against things that can remove it.

Inspiring Paladin is a card that, while it provides some solid support for the counters deck, is also just a fine card that attacks solidly as an on-rate attacking creature that’s hard to take down in combat in the early/mid stages of the game.

Sejiri Shelter // Sejiri Glacier is one of the controversial ones we’ve included here, but shelter/a land was just too good to pass up, as it serves as protection and can help to secure the last bits of damage against some boards.

Cuts

Bound in Gold and Angelic Intervention are getting pretty obvious 1-for-1 upgrade replacements here, so they were easy to decide on.  Attended Knight and Oltec Cloud Guard are amongst the lowest-in-class for their respective mana slots and the creatures replacing them look to be overall upgrades for white beatdown decks.

Blue

Adds

Brainstorm’s getting in off the back of the recent inclusion of the landscapes. Admittedly we could have and probably should have brought it in earlier on, but now is as good a time as any.

Jhessian Thief is coming in as a fun little Ophidian with some support for spell slinging that makes it a creature that can represent a mid-sized clock.

Vizier of Tumbling Sands is part of our ongoing attempts to shift Simic into a ramp deck. This has some cute side plays like being able to cycle this with a bounceland to pay for itself or similar. We’re hoping this one leads to some fun play patterns.

Silundi Vision // Silundi Isle is probably the most clearly good of the MDFCs we’ll be including here. The front side is actually fairly solid, and the utility is as stated, quite good.

Unable to Scream is coming in as a slight improvement for slower decks and their removal options since blue decks aren’t really in a position to take as good advantage over their pseudo Vendetta effect we’re trimming.

Cuts

Witching Well is a type of effect (4 mana draw 2 cards) that we have enough of that we felt comfortable letting this one go for now, since the initial buy-in efficiency rate is low.

Augury Raven is a reasonable card that just didn’t feel like it was pulling enough weight to excuse being quite boring and as a Phantom Monster isn’t the rate-breaking beast that it had been around Kaldheim’s release.

Callous Dismissal is a decent impression of Man-o’-War but at the end of the day the fact that it doesn’t play super nice with flicker effects on its own led to its cut.

Bind the Monster is getting replaced with another removal spell that looks to be a better fit to blue decks.

Sea Gate Oracle has been a bit out classed and having a density of value 1/3s at 3 didn’t feel like a textural decision we wanted to pursue.

Black

Adds

The first group we’re covering here is a collection of cards we intend primarily to support aggressive decks:

Carnophage, Grasping Scoundrel, Vampire Lacerator, Mardu Skullhunter and Dauthi Slayer are all being added as creature options that either are above rate or provide other upside to the deck. We know that slayer’s shadow is likely getting a side eye from some but trust me, if you lose to a 2/2 unblockable you’ve got more issues than it not being something you can interact with.

Vendetta is being added as a way to provide efficient removal that only a more aggressive deck is going to want, since that life hit can get pretty substantial.

Clawing Torment is similarly a card for black aggressive decks, as it both gets a blocker out of the way and acts as an unblockable 1/1 on top of that, excellent stuff.

The rest of the cards here while not terrible in the aggressive leaning decks were not conscious support:

Gift of Fangs is going in here as a funky removal spell that sometimes will let the controller push for some extra damage.

Aether Poisoner is a good defensive card that can chip in a little bit, as well as giving a bit more density to the energy effects.

Undead Butler isn’t Gravedigger, but it does a cheap impression of it and does a lot to tie the room together for Golgari decks with a bit more self-mill support on cards; we generally think this will be pretty solid.

Chitin Gravestalker is a model of card we’ve seen before in older options like Writhing Necromass, but this newest one sometimes being a touch cheaper and trading deathtouch for cycling if you need it feels like a good trade off, since deathtouch on a giant beatstick is usually redundant.

Grim Bauble might not be a combat trick, but early game removal that gets to do card filtering later on feels like a solid arrangement of value in our format.

Pelakka Predation // Pelakka Caverns is very much one of the weaker MDFCs but we do want to make room to try out the full cycle here, since it at least can Peek in the late game to see if the coast is clear instead of being another land.

Infestation Sage is a card that frankly is a bit shocking that it has never shown up before. We like the fact this plays both in the aristocrats deck as well as more aggressive ones by allowing you to chip in in the air with the flying token.

Doom Blade is back. While it still isn’t a 100% catch-all, the card is a good enough role player that we wanted to give it another period back in the list and see how it works out for us.

Cuts

Dead Weight, Defile, Lash of Malice and Tragic Fall are being removed with the changes we’re making to retool black’s removal suite here.

Diregraf Horde is a 5 drop that really only seemed to play nice in the aristocrats deck and we’ve got more than enough support for that deck.

Lazotep Reaver, Sultai Emissary, Dunland Crebain and Wakedancer also feed into the “under rate but you get a leftover body after” role that we don’t need quite the density we currently have.

Dusk Legion Zealot and Shambling Ghast are both just fine for what they are but didn’t pass muster.

Phyrexian Ghoul was the least appealing of the aristocrat payoffs that we had left in the cube due to the body being under-rate without sacrifice fodder on board

Rowan's Grim Search, while one we liked, was eventually one we needed to settle for given how large the update to the black section was.

Phyrexian Gargantua was given the axe pretty quickly, given it being a bit less appealing than either of its value counterparts.

Liliana's Specter is completely fine but end of the day we had to find one more cut and this one just felt the least appealing from the handful of options we were debating.

Red

Adds

Thriving Grubs is a nice clean design that ties into the larger soft support for energy, it’s just a 3/2 for 2 and sometimes you’ll get to get it to a 4/3.

Thriving Skyclaw was another one in this vein but also a very odd one that wasn’t on most folks’ radars, we’re testing it out in the same vein and know that you’re all hollering about how it dies to bolt, just bear with us to see how this one works out.

Rolling Thunder is coming in, in addition to Fireball. Given the cube being 90 cards bigger than an 8 person draft, having two red X spells as options ensure that almost always one or more will be in the draft.  We’re a fan of having options and we think that our format is in a state where Rolling Thunder won’t live up to its previously problematic reputation.

Clockwork Percussionist is just the right blend of extra text on a Raging Goblin to get in some early damage and potentially cash itself in for a card later in the game.  It has strong potential to hang around for a while to come.

Scholar of Combustion is one that while it reads as odd and maybe even a downgrade to Ardent Elementalist, it’s a more aggressive-leaning variant that, most of the time has the same text functionally in decks that have lower curves and are recurring cheap burn spells ala a build your own Flametongue Kavu at home.

Goblin Surprise is coming in as a weird spin here. You might be shocked to not see another Trumpet Blast effect coming out for this in this section. What we’ve done is remove War Flare in the Boros section to return that functionality to a mono red card.

Akoum Warrior // Akoum Teeth should come as no surprise as it’s an MDFC land; it’s amongst the least efficient of its type but it works well for the slower red decks as a big beater when a land isn’t needed.

Cuts

Borderland Marauder gets the axe here (pun intended) as we’re including a card that’s functionally just always a 3/2.

Chimney Rabble hasn’t been here long but we’ve been much less impressed by this than the go wide array of bodies from something like Beetleback Chief.  Oftentimes, this was cut from the aggressive decks and didn’t have enough impact for the slower red decks.  Somewhat counterintuitively, this was cut for being a jack-of-all trades but a master of none.

Reckless Lackey was one of the least appealing 1 drops in the color and we didn’t see much reason to keep it around.

Spellgorger Weird is in a weird space of not being tremendous and also having an almost duplicate but more flexible option in the Hybrid slot.

Ratcatcher Trainee // Pest Problem is another a jack-of-all-trades but one that didn’t excel at any of its roles.

Skophos Reaver was a middling mid-range beatstick that didn’t do much for being madnessed out.

Faithless Looting is a card that is historically very powerful in a variety of formats and may look like an unusual cut, but Faithless Looting is a classic example where a card can get worse outside of the contexts that make it a powerful card in the constructed formats. In our format, it really doesn’t get the extra synergy that we’d want it to aside from working well with bouncelands and a fair Faithless Looting is mostly a middling one.

Green

Adds

Sprout Swarm is back baby! We’re fully ready to pull this one out if it turns out to be a bit much for our environment, but we’re pretty sure we’ve come along far enough to not need to worry about uncaging the infamous bane of Time Spiral limited due to the strength of countermagic and board pressure.

Fertile Ground, while less mana efficient, contributes to the ramp package we’re trying to build out in Simic for density reasons; it fixes mana incredibly well and even more so if played on an untapped land.  Think of this not as an enchantress piece (since it isn’t one) and more of a solid mana rock.

Monstrous Emergence is a great bite spell as it’s missing the part most often needed, an actual creature on board. We’re all very happy to see this fit in.

Treetop Snarespinner is a new option that we think might be a kill on sight type card, but we want to give it a shot and see if its reputation in its own limited format is allayed a bit by the higher amount of removal we’re playing.

Hazard of the Dunes and Bramble Wurm are both coming in as top of the curve additions for ramp decks.

Audacity is a bad Rancor, but even a bad Rancor is still pretty solid by all regards by providing trample and a power boost for a cheap rate.  It’s certainly better than some of the other auras we’ve played in the past.

Khalni Ambush // Khalni Territory is another card that the front alone wouldn’t get it in spitting distance of the cube, but the fact it’s also just a land helps it come in clutch in the later stages of the game when you need it, so it gets a slot.

Bushwhack is the quintessential “neither mode is worth the cost” modal card but both are just close enough that the combination works great.

Cuts

Cartouche of Strength, Moldervine Cloak and Elephant Guide all are going out together as the committee felt none were tremendous and they all occupy a similar space.

Blastoderm, while a classic card by all counts, was one that we felt was least interesting in the green section.

Master's Rebuke is making way for better removal spells that green’s getting.

Penumbra Spider got a neat replacement in the form of Treetop Snarespinner and we didn’t feel that having two anti-flying creatures was necessary. Similarly Thornweald Archer is a card that’s mostly just slowing down the early game and we’re hoping to push more proactive game plans.

Bayou Groff is getting the axe as it’s easy enough to get 2 for 1’d on this, while the dream is still not that hard, the blowout is easy to achieve as well.

Gold

Adds

Conduit Goblin and Tenth District are coming in over the dated-feeling options of War Flare and Skyknight Legionnaire that are both showing their age quite a bit as their rates aren’t what they used to be.

Selesnya Charm is coming in over the beloved cube option Armadillo Cloak. We went back and forth on this, but with the increasing quality of removal over the years, auras seem like a worse and worse deal as time goes on, we’re swapping in a versatile piece of removal instead.

Finally, with the shift to ramp as part of Simic’s plan, we’re adding Snapping Voidcraw. Not only is it a pretty solid dork, the colorless pip is easier to pay for than ever before with the inclusion of the Landscapes.

Cuts

War Flare has been a long time coming and we were glad to figure out a way to not miss on the overall count of team pump effects, while not having to run the least appealing option.

Skyknight Legionnaire has been fine but boring and slowly but surely showing its age.

Armadillo Cloak is a fan favorite but it was at the end a decision between “do we want to cut a fan fave or one that supports the explicit 2 color pair identity for Selesnya?” and we came down on the former.

Wavesifter likewise felt like it fit the least with the rest of our Simic identity and is getting the axe here as well.

Colorless

Adds

Colorless is getting its own riff on the “big but just ok body that has land cycling for the early game, we’ve enjoyed these in other parts of the cube and our colorless options have never been a highlight of the cube list. Glimmerlight is one that while we’ve got a better option in white, even sans the auto-equip, we’re giving it a test drive.

Cuts

The cuts were cards that we simply felt the cube as aged out of. Sickleslicer was always a card that plays better than it might look at first glance, but it’s definitely showing the years that’ve passed since the downshift and Glimmerlight just does its job better. Pierce Strider is one that is still fine, but unexciting and not one that has a huge reason to stay around.

Lands

For this section, we wanted to keep things simple. Night Market might not be the flashiest addition to the cube, but we figured that diversifying rainbow land style effects would do us good, and cycling’s a great upside.