Modern Horizons set preview for Peasant Cube

Set preview time! Let's get into Modern Horizons!

I run a loose grading scale, based on my personal interest in the card:

Slam it - The holy-crap-I-am-so-happy-they-printed-this card.
Cube - This card will go into my cube and I expect to be happy with it.
Needs testing - The card looks like it could be powerful, but may or may not work out.
Playable - Interchangeable with similar cards, depending on the flavor of the moment might see play.
So close - I want to play this, but it's probably better if I don't.
? - No idea what to think of this card.
Pass - Not interested. Every card not listed here automatically gets this grade.

If the card is not on this list, you can assume I'm not interested, is a reprint (or forgot to list it). Some reprints will get listed if it's the first time it gets a modern border. 

Link to Modern Horizons card image gallery on Dailymtg.com

Building your format

Seven years ago I built my first peasant cube. I had just sold most of my expensive rares I never played with and thought it might be fun. Peasant cubes used to look similar to each other, a collection of all the best commons and uncommon Magic has to offer. No restrictions or other building guidelines. Peasant was the restriction. For me, the challenge was to prove you could still build a powerful cube without rares.

If you go on the mtgsalvation peasant cube forum now, you'll find a lot more variation. Cube owners pay more attention to the overall format of the cube. Modern frame peasant, cubes focused on archetypes, peasant+ cubes that add rares to fill holes (*cough* mana fixing *cough), cubes that cut the top end on the power level scale to get a more even power balance.

A good example is Leelue's Peasant Cube. Apart from adding rare lands, his cube does not have cards that are strictly better than others. This makes sure no single draft pick is solved. Control Magic will always be the pick over similar cards. But what if you take it out of the equation, would you pick Domestication, Binding Grasp or Mind Control?

Like how Wizards of the Coast has been focusing its draft formats more on identity and replayability, so have cube owners. It makes sense if you think about it. The draft formats that seem to come up most when players get asked about favorite draft formats are original Ravnica block, triple Innistrad and Rise of the Eldrazi. All formats with a strong identity, strong buildarounds, and highly replayable because of the plethora of different styles of decks you could draft.

But like with most 'top X best'-lists, personal preference is key. And this is where opinions start to differ wildly. Some people loved Kamigawa block, while others absolutely hated it. Lorwyn was annoyingly complicated, but it was also a delightful puzzle that cared about all kinds of different overlapping metrics. Heck, I enjoyed triple Zendikar and its fast aggro decks, but I know that's exactly the reason many people were fed up after a couple of drafts.

Identifying what you (or your playgroup) want out of a format is something I'd recommend to everyone building a cube. It can be anything like building around a powerful enabler, opening up bombs, midrange creature combat, piecing together interlocking combo pieces, flat power level, blazing aggro battles or durdling in all-gold battlecruiser Magic, etc.

There are so many cool Magic cards out there that it doesn't make sense for every peasant cube to look the same. If your favorite archetype is not viable in 'regular' cube formats, maybe you need to make up your own format where said archetype shines.

One becomes three

Last november I posted that I was in the process of building one large cube instead of a single medium sized archetype-based cube. We assembled a pile of 1200 of the best peasant legal cards to make sure that everything we found good, fun, cool, nostalgic, <insert value> got into the cube. We wanted a lot of variance, the ability to play a lot of different cards, and low maintenance.

What we didn't anticipate happening was that the low maintenance also made that we were less connected to the cube. Updates were not super exciting, and because of the large size the cube didn't really require tuning (nor do changes have a lot of impact). Less cube in mind equals less cubing.
The higher variance was meant to enable higher replayability. While that's true, a larger cube also makes specific archetypes almost impossible to draft or even include in your cube. There's a reason my original peasant cube became as heavily archetype focused as it did, and I should have paid more attention to that.

But, there was also a reason we decided to make one big cube last year. My old cube tried to do so many things at the same time while also including the classic power cards, that it actually started losing depth. We included so many different archetypes that the total number of different decks may have been quite high, the amount of flexibility while drafting was low. You basically picked a build-around card early and from there on there were basically only 1 or 2 logical options each pack. The decks might look cool if everyone keeps to their lane, but drafting either became solved or a frantic scramble to make something out of a train-wreck when you got cut off.

We needed a solution, so I went back to the drawing board. I started with something that was basically a smaller version of what my cube looked like before expanding to 1200. Powerful cards mixed with a number of supported archetypes. I made sure the archetypes were not too specific or required too many specific cards. Already, we were having a lot more fun again because we were able to consistently draft our favorite cards and actually draft decks again instead of midrange soup.
After a couple of drafts, though, another issue started to become apparent. The power cards showed up more often as well. In the case of archetype specific cards, this was fine (and actually what we wanted). The problem was that there were a lot more powerful removal and bombs relative to the archetype cards. This in turn made some archetypes worse because they weren't really able to combat the amount of 2-for-1's or hard-to-answer threats.

At this point, I wasn't sure where to go with the new cube. I could cut down on power and removal, but this would mean not playing with some super iconic cards (which was the reason I started a cube in the first place). Cutting down on archetypes was also not what I wanted. So, how do you balance different kinds of archetypes and powerful cards? Well, maybe you can't in one cube.

One cube. Does it have to be one cube? What if we made more than a single cube (variation), but kept them small (well supported archetypes)? What if I made sure there would be no overlap between cubes (high number of different cards) and have each cube have their own identity (balance in power level)?

We decided on building three cubes of 400 cards:
- A cube with only old frame cards
- A modern frame cube, archetype focused
- A cube with tribal synergies and less powerful archetypes, and a lower power level to support it

If you want to check out the lists, they're in the menu bar (Old School Peasant Cube, Archetype Peasant Cube and Tribal Peasant Cube). I'll talk more in-depth about them in the future.

Cheers!

Winds of Change

We're in the process of making huge changes to the set-up of the cube. There are currently three versions of my cube on CubeTutor. Since we're not entirely sure which of the styles we like best, I've listed them separately.

Version 1 - Squirrely's Archetype Peasant Cube

The latest iteration of my Archetype Peasant Cube. Guidelines can be found here and a rough list of archetypes that are supported, as well as example decks, can be found in this article.

Then, something happened. The shift came about when we felt the Archetype Peasant Cube (see below) was getting too narrow and diluted. To use a popular phrase, it felt like it was 'on rails' a bit. Drafting felt the same each time, we were somewhat burned out on the archetypes, and we kept trying to go deeper and deeper into archetypes to make them feel fresh again. 

The cube had gotten to a point where it had too many cards that were only playable in a certain deck and bad in another. The decks were so focused and linear that games usually ended in one deck 'getting there' and making swift work of the opposition that lacked a couple of pieces. We had gone too deep.

We needed a reset. So, I took apart my whole cube, and we started building afresh. Not with archetypes in mind, but power level. Instead of trying to find weird interactions and fringe cards, we went back to the roots of our peasant cube. 

The Average MTG Salvation Peasant Cube was a huge guideline (shoutout to users Phitt77 for starting the project and calibretto for making this year's version). Even with the amount of experience we have with peasant cube, we felt slightly disconnected from what's 'good' outside of our Archetype Peasant Cube environment.

Version 2 - Squirrely's Power Peasant Cube

A couple of drafts in, it became apparent that we had fallen into the traps that a lot of new peasant cubes fall into: we had too much removal. It was to be expected, as a lot of the better peasant legal cards are great removal. 

Apart from the removal, we had a blast drafting it. The drafting was way harder than with the old cube and deck building was even more difficult. With every card being so good, it was basically impossible to make cuts. The games felt harder as well, with a lot of interaction and both players continuously looking for little edges. 

We did some comparing between cubes on CubeTutor (which is a great function to quickly see what the differences between cubes are). We compared the Archetype Peasant Cube vs the Power Peasant Cube, and the Power Peasant Cube vs the Average MTG Salvation Peasant Cube. While we were happy with our new cube, we were sad not being able to include a lot of the cards we cut or were in other cubes. 

Then Ultimate Masters spoilers dropped, and gave us even more cards we wanted to cube with even though we knew they wouldn't crack a strictly 'Power' cube. What should we do? Should we keep the Power Peasant Cube or go back to archetypes? Is building 2 cubes a good solution, but that sounded like a lot of work and bookkeeping. 

We started discussing the possibility of just making a very big cube. This would give us the room to run both the power cards and more narrow cards. The narrower archetypes, like Enchantress or +1/+1, would probably not work. On the other hand, it would help with having too much removal in general. 

After a day or so of back and forth, we decided to try it out: 

Version 3 - Squirrely's Mega Peasant Cube

This is how my cube sits in the box at the moment. It's at about 900 cards right now, but we're planning to grow it up towards 1200 in the near future.

I have no idea if and how long this version will last, but I'm very optimistic. So far, the variety is something that really pulls me, not a lot of drafts (or decks) will look the same. I also like how it invites drafters to find small interactions and synergies on the fly while always having a functional deck.

One thing's certain, changing things up is exciting.

Guilds of Ravnica set preview for Peasant Cube

Set preview time! Let's get into Guilds of Ravnica

I run a loose grading scale, based on my personal interest in the card:

Slam it - The holy-crap-I-am-so-happy-they-printed-this card.
Cube - This card will go into my cube and I expect to be happy with it.
Needs testing - The card looks like it could be powerful, but may or may not work out.
Playable - Interchangeable with similar cards, depending on the flavor of the moment might see play.
So close - I want to play this, but it's probably better if I don't.
? - No idea what to think of this card.
Pass - Every card not listed here.

If the card is not on this list, you can assume I'm not interested (or forgot to list it)

White

Conclave Tribunal
Verdict: Cube
This is a slightly more than we normally pay for this effect, but it makes up for it by having a higher ceiling in certain decks. Convoke makes this more interesting to run, giving you a kind of loose build-around card that rewards token and/or swarm decks. I don't think I've seen a lot of cubes that don't support those decks in white.

Demotion
Verdict: Playable
If you need a cheap removal spell, but you don't need more fuel for control decks. Sometimes you just need to throw aggro a bone. Shutting off activated abilities can be powerful.

Gird for Battle
Verdict: Cube
I think this is a pretty sweet little card. Two +1/+1 counters for a single mana is basically a mini-anthem that you can weave in between casting creatures. I might be biased because of my love for +1/+1 counters, but I think this will prove to be a very potent role-player.

Haazda Marshal
Verdict: So close
Man, I really want to like this card. It makes a lifelink token every turn, right? Attacking with this and 2 others is harder to trigger than I want something like this to be. I'd rather just play a card that makes a couple of tokens for immediate effect.

Inspiring Unicorn
Verdict: Playable
If you need another of this effect, it's playable.

Sunhome Stalwart
Verdict: Cube
Very efficient 2-drop. First strike is good without help, but gets even better when the creature gets pumped. And if this guy gets pumped, he'll make the rest of your team better as well. Also synergizes with +1/+1 counters. Very excited for this.

Blue

Chemister's Insight
Verdict: So close
Anything that can be cast from your graveyard has potential. This is a little slow, but the instant speed part makes it a lot better. That said, paying 8 mana and 2 cards (this and the discarded one) to draw 4.. I don't know.

Murmuring Mystic
Verdict: Needs testing
The Spells Matter archetype is a favorite in a lot of groups, and in mine. This might be a little more expensive than most finishers in the archetype, as you generally want to either cast one before you start slinging spells or cast spells in the turn you cast it to generate some immediate value. However, 1/1 fliers have the potential to close out a game really fast when it gets going. Plus, this being a 1/5 makes it a pretty decent defensive card to run out on turn 4 against aggressive decks. I think this might become a mainstay in my cube, but I want to see it in play before I get really excited.

Nightveil Sprite
Verdict: Playable
I'm not sure what to make of this. I've played Sigiled Starfish before, and it's been fine. This has a better body that carries equipment/auras better, and fits better in tempo decks. It also enables the graveyard a bit. On top of that, I have a thing for Spellstutter Sprite so the Faerie type always makes me sit up.

Sinister Sabotage
Verdict: Playable
Even though 3 mana counterspells are on the slow side, I've found the card selection tacked onto Dissolve good enough to make the card playable. This is slightly better.

Unexplained Disappearance
Verdict: So close
The scry 1 version of this wasn't good enough, so this will likely not be. The fact that surveil puts cards in the yard has me interested though, but I guess there are better cards for that.

Black

Dead Weight
Verdict: Playable (reprint)
This was already playable, especially if your cube has Enchantment Matters stuff like mine.

Lotleth Giant
Verdict: Needs testing
Let me start by saying that I expect this not to be good enough. Having said that, I really want to try it out. There's a certain Golgari deck that has been very good in my cube that's basically all self mill, creatures and ways to get stuff back. The deck generally wins through attrition and incremental value, but can be slow to actually finish games. The Giant can be a fun way to burn people out, maybe even be the focus of a new version of the deck that aims to turbo-mill oneself and reanimate this guy twice with a pile of creatures in the yard.

Pilfering Imp
Verdict: Needs testing
This looks like it could be pretty good. It's selected discard if you need it, and a decent weenie if you don't. Even if your opponent removes it before you can activate it, your opponent is down a good card (removal). Also, it's adorable.

PlaguecrafterVerdict: Cube
A straight up better Fleshbag Marauder, except maybe if you care about Zombies or Warriors. This guy is good. The only thing holding him down is that the forced sacrifice sometimes just nabs a 1/1 token.

Price of Fame
Verdict: ?
How much mana is surveil 2 worth? I remember reading somewhere that scry 2 is worth about a card, and surveil is slightly better. Considering that, I think I'd be willing to pay 4 mana to kill a creature and draw a card at instant speed. The legendary clause might come up nowadays, too. I can imagine this seeing play and do well. On the other hand, maybe 4 mana is just way too much in an eternal cube.

Undercity Necrolisk
Verdict: Needs testing
This looks pretty powerful, actually. In cubes with a +1/+1 counter sub theme in black(/green, aka Winding Constrictor), this looks like a shoe-in. It's a little more expensive than I'd want, and you can only sacrifice creatures at sorcery speed. However, this can get big fast and is hard to block. This might be a fine finisher in creature decks.

Red

Book Devourer
Verdict: ?
I just want to reanimate whatever the heck this is.

Electrostatic Field
Verdict: Cube
When I texted my friend 'how much of this effect is too many?', he replied 'never too many'. While I don't necessarily agree to that degree, I like this one a lot. Four toughness is just enough to be a good blocker against most early drops, which is exactly what the controllish versions of these spell decks want.

Goblin Banneret
Verdict: Playable
One-drops that are relevant in the later stages of the game are always interesting. This one can dish out a lot of damage when left unchecked, or at least trade up. The additional Mentor ability is just a bonus, but a very welcome one that should play well in my cube. It's still a tier/tier-and-a-half below the top red 1-drops, but it is very playable.

Goblin Cratermaker
Verdict: Slam it!
Holy crap is this good. Efficient stats, TWO relevant abilities (both Ember Hauler and Torch Fiend have seen play). You can't target players with the first ability, but you do get to destroy random Eldrazi. It even has relevant creatures types for those that are into that (*points to self*). I have to work really hard to imagine a peasant cube that doesn't want this.

Smelt-Ward Minotaur
Verdict: So close
This is one the other side of the Spells Matter spectrum from Electrostatic Field. The thing that does the Minotaur in is that you need both spells and creatures to take full advantage of it. It still might be decent in 'normal' aggressive decks to push guys through, but I think this generally falls short.

Green

Arboretum Elemental
Verdict: So close
Initially I was higher on this card, but it's just a little too expensive to be really good. Even with three creatures out it still costs 6 mana, event though I guess if you can play creatures the first 4 turns and cast this on turn 5 you're pretty happy. I'd rather just play Overrun if I have that many creatures though.

District Guide
Verdict: Playable
This effect is very playable and has always been. If you don't mind down-grading the duals you run to Guildgates, this is obviously better than the other versions.

Kraul Harpooner
Verdict: Slam it!
Another windmill slam include. A 3/2 reach for 2 mana without drawback is - I think - unprecedented in green as far as raw stats go. And that's without mentioning it being a potential removal spell that gets better in certain archetypes. Pure gravy. I also need to bring up the fact that Warrior is a relevant creature type for me to really hammer it home.

Sprouting Renewal
Verdict: Playable
Not amazing, but the flexibility might give it a home somewhere.

Multicolor

Beacon Bolt
Verdict: Playable
On the one hand, re-usable removal is great. On the other hand, this is a sorcery and requires set-up. I think it's playable, but Izzet is such a stacked guild that this won't see a lot of play.

Beamsplitter Mage
Verdict: ?
This might have some fun build around potential in some cubes. I wish it was in Boros or Gruul as those colors both need the card advantage this gives and run more cards that work with it.

Boros Challenger
Verdict: Playable
I will probably end up playing this as one of the interchangeable Boros 2-drops that are slightly overstatted (3/2 or 2/3) and/or have a decent ability. This one plays well with +1/+1 counters, which makes me favor it slightly over other options for the moment.

Conclave Cavalier/Crackling Drake/Golgari Findbroker/Nightveil Predator/Truefire Captain
Verdict: Playable
Oh man, these are spicy. Great stats, great abilities. On powerlevel alone, every single one could see play. They're just very very hard to cast. Green decks might have an easier time than non-green decks, which makes me think those will see more play in cubes.

Glowspore ShamanVerdict: Playable
If it was only for my cube, I'd given this a higher grade. Satyr Wayfinder is better and easier to cast, but the aggressive stats on the Shaman are just so enticing. This is exactly what my Golgari sections wants to do. Other cubes might not want it as much, but for me the combination of archetype enabler + efficient beater is  enough to be excited about this.


Justice Strike
Verdict: Playable
Good card, just a little bland for my tastes. White has enough removal that most Boros decks will not need to run this, just like Rakdos doesn't need Terminate even though it's very good. I still prefer Lightning Helix over this for being able to burn people out and being insane in racing situations.

League Guildmage
Verdict: Needs testing
Both abilities are expensive, but potent. Especially the doubling ability is interesting. You'd need to build your deck around this, playing a lot of 1 and 2 mana spells, but that seems doable. This might just prove to be a very fun and powerful build around card.

Sumala Woodshaper
Verdict: So close
If only this was a mana cheaper. The effect is good, and something my cube would want, but 4 mana is a lot if the body is basically negligible. Being a creature does make it easier to reuse, but I don't know if that saves it.

Swathcutter Giant
Verdict: Playable
This looks like it could be a very serviceable Boros finisher. It should stabilize a lot of the board when it comes down, and makes short work of any token army if there's no anthem on the board. In a guild as shallow as Boros, I would not mind playing this.

Thought Erasure
Verdict: Playable
Where Boros is on the shallower end, I always seem to have a harder time cutting cards from Dimir. I think this is a good card, but for a guild card it's just shy of powerful enough but still quite playable.

Worldsoul Colossus
Verdict: Needs testing
As a crossover card between tokens, ramp and +1/+1 counters, this looks like a very good fit for my Selesnya section. I don't like that it doesn't have evasion, but the flexibility makes me want to try it out. In practice, it might also turn out to be just another dumb beater that's not good enough to make it into any deck.

Fresh-Faced Recruit/Piston-Fist Cyclops
Verdict: Playable
If you need another Boros or Izzet hybrid for your hybrid section, you could do worse.

Discovery // Dispersal/Integrity // Intervention/Invert // Invent/Status // Statue
Verdict: Needs testing
I'm having a hard time evaluating these. Flexible cards usually walk a very thin line of being *just* good enough that you're happy to run them in multiple different decks or being underpowered enough that you'd rather run a different card altogether. These hybrid/gold split cards have the additional quirk that they're hard to classify. Should you consider them hybrid? Full guild?
Dimir: Discovery looks good on its own, making Dispersal additional bonus. I think I'd classify this as hybrid.
Boros: I like both ends enough, but don't think I would run Integrity in a Gruul deck for example. I'd classify this as Boros.
Izzet: Here, the hybrid part is not something I would consider without the full gold part. This is in part because I have no idea how good this effect is. It's a single mana, so I'm sure it will come in very handy. The gold part though, might be very good. Getting 2 big spells at instant speed is a good way to close out a game for control decks. Straight Izzet card.
Golgari: Both are playable, but bland. This card will always be good in any deck with both G and B mana. Weirdly, the flexibility pushes is out of the guild section because Golgari is stacked and doesn't need more removal. I'm also not sure if this is better than Putrefy.
Selesnya: Not mentioned above, I don't think this is very good.

Rampaging Monument
Verdict: ?
The times where a four mana 3/3 was the gold standard have passed. Four drops also have the problem of generally being over-saturated in any cube. You can only run so many in your deck, and generally should have no problem picking enough up for your deck. However, this has +1/+1 counters to make it a colorless addition to those decks. But the real thing that has me interested is the build around potential. I like cards that care about unique things you don't see a lot. That's the reason I run a couple of creature-type matters cards, and have so many build around cards in my cube in general. This is the first somewhat playable card that cares about 'gold' cards. I think I will try this baby out, and see if I can add a little more hybrid cards in the process to help with the amount of multicolor without actually upping the amount of gold cards.

Conclusion

There we have it. The newest Ravnica set has quite a couple of interesting cards, something that was to expected. At the very least we get 2 staple-level cards in Goblin Cratermaker and Kraul Harpooner  which is always great. I'm very excited to start testing the cards from this set.

Top cards

Best archetype card - Murmuring Mystic

Surprise of the set - League Guildmage

'Best art' - Goblin Locksmith

3 - Subhome Stalwart
2 - Kraul Harpooner
1 - Goblin Cratermaker

Masters 25 downgrades review

Another Masters set, another exciting time of rarity downgrades. With Iconic Master being... less iconic than expected, Masters 25 did not disappoint.

Ancient Craving
Verdict: Pass
Ambition's Cost was already available to us. Not a bad card at all, but also not the first black card draw spell I'd add. The different versions that cost 2 or 3 mana and draw only 2 cards are slightly more efficient, even though the raw drawing power is less.

Balduvian Horde
Verdict: Pass
Pillaging Horde was downgraded in an online set, so technically available to peasant if you consider those (which I, and many peasant cubers with me, do). While the Alliances rare has a special place in my memories, a 5/5 vanilla for 4 with a largely uncontrollable drawback just doesn't really cut it anymore.

Ire Shaman
Verdict: Cube
The first 'real' downgrade of the bunch and it's a great one. A 2/1 menace for 1R is already not the worst floor of a card, and I wouldn't feel bad to play it turn 2 if I didn't have another 2-drop. Drawn later, it's card advantage in red (and becomes bigger). This makes it relevant in all stages of the game, a very very welcome quality for an aggressive card. The fact that it has a +1/+1 counter is icing.
I do want to mention that morphs, like 'free' spells, give a slight advantage to players familiar with your cube. If you don't mind morphs, this is an auto-include.

Iwamori of the Open Fist
Verdict: Cube
Contrary to Balduvian Horde, this 5/5 for 4 is worth it. Not only can't it be chump blocked, its drawback is almost nonexistent in peasant cube. My cube currently has 2 legendary creatures, and I can think of a small handful handful of playable ones on top of that. But even if your opponent does have a legend in hand, it's sure not to be a devastating game-ending bomb like Emrakul or Griselbrand.
Iwamori is probably at or around the powerlevel of Blastoderm, which most people consider a staple. You can target it, but laughs at chump blockers and doesn't fade away. The problem is that you can run only so many 4-drops. While I think it's near the top in power level, it's not very versatile. This means that it will probably see less play than it should.

Jalira, Master Polymorphist
Verdict: Maybe, format dependent
This is a very cool card and an effect we don't get much of. Jalira is a fun build-around that gives reanimate-style decks a different way to cheat out fatties. She asks for a different way to build a deck, which I consider a quality. However, it's quite a risk to build your deck around a card as fragile and slow as Jalira if it takes such a specific way to build your deck to reach the potential of a card. Talking about potential, the uniqueness of the card also makes it hard to gauge exactly how powerful it can be. I think it's solid, but slow. Interesting to add if you're looking for a unique engine-type card, but too clunky for most peasant cubes.

Kongming, "Sleeping Dragon"
Verdict: Cube
I was expecting a white anthem at uncommon in this set, but I was hoping for actual Glorious Anthem. This is still a good card and I'm happy we got it. Having said that, a static anthem on a creature can lead to reverse blowouts if it gets removed at the wrong time. Compare it to Pianna, Nomad Captain (an online downshift), who has a triggered anthem. The effect might be more situational, but removing Pianna mid-combat does not remove the pump. On the other hand, not having to attack with Kongming lets you attack more freely with armies of tokens to push damage through unfavorable defenses. Good card, just be careful with it.

Krosan Colossus
Verdict: Archetype dependent
A 9/9 is obviously huge, but so are both its mana cost and its morph cost. However, if you can circumvent either, this will be the largest thing on the board. It's still not the best reanimate target because it has neither evasion nor self-protection. This means it's basically a blink archetype card. Casting this face down and following it up with a Cloudshift or Flickerwisp is a lot of fun. So if you go deep on blink and want a less value-oriented approach, definitely include this.

Loyal Sentry
Verdict: Playable
Slightly better than the various green and black 1/1 deathtouch creatures, because it's better against abilities like trample and first strike. I don't think that white really needs more (different) defensive options as it already has removal available in various power levels and speeds, and a couple of decent blockers. But, this is not a terrible option if you want your removal to be more situational.
Don't forget that if you have a lot of instant speed blink (or even bounce), you can blink this with the trigger on the stack to keep it around.

Promise of Bunrei
Verdict: Cube
I played a lot of standard in the CHK-RAV standard, and remember Ghost Husk being a great deck. The deck was a black/white aggro deck that used Promise of Bunrei to take advantage of Nantuko Husk, Plagued Rusalka and Ghost Council of the Orzhova (and vice versa).
Every creature deck can use this as removal deterrent or dissentive to attack into your board. Once you put it into a deck that can both trigger it at will AND use the tokens.. the card is absolutely nuts. I don't think this card will ever leave my cube.
Note that the tokens are not white and do not fly though.

Shadowmage Infiltrator
Verdict: Cube
Speaking about cards that will likely be instant staples: welcome Jon Finkel. Barring maybe Baleful Strix (which might still be better), I don't think there are Dimir cards that come close to the power level of Shadowmage Infiltrator. It's the closest thing we have to a peasant legal Phyrexian Arena and a huge boon for each and every Dimir deck. Tempo, control, reanimate, it doesn't matter. Play this, feel good.

Undead Gladiator
Verdict: Maybe, format dependent
A card that has appeared often on downgrade wish lists, the peasant cube community wanted this for years. A mono black discard-outlet for reanimate, a cool value engine for grindy black control decks, and another card to get out of the graveyard for self-mill decks. Though, in the past years we received a couple of decent black discard-outlets in Call the Bloodline and Heir of Falkenrath, self-mill has a plethora of options and peasant has gotten more efficient cards for their control decks. I still think Undead Gladiator has a place as an archetype cross-over in cubes that are a little more archetype based, like mine. For other cubes though, I don't know. A couple of years ago, I would've told everyone to slam this into their cubes, but I think most cubes will find this too slow.
It's fun that we've been asking for this downgrade, and when it finally happens it might be too late.

Will-o'-the-Wisp
Verdict: Playable
I had to double check if this really hadn't been printed at uncommon before, but this is the first time. Will-o'-the-Wisp is a classic, which might be the biggest reason for people to include this. I mean, it's not a bad card. It stops almost everything (barring trample and unblockable/shadow) for a single black mana each turn. While this is good, the cost of B each turn is not negligible. Basically, if you're looking for a black wall, this is an option. I don't expect this to go into tons of decks though.

Zada, Hedron Grinder
Verdict: Archetype dependent
Another cool build-around to finish with. If you set it up well, this is the kind of card that creates stories. The floor on the card, however is very low. I'm still undecided if I want to add it myself. On the one hand I like having cards like these, and I don't mind to just throw it into the cube and have it only work occasionally. On the other hand I'm slightly doubtful it will do enough even if everything comes together. If it's any good, it will be in cubes that support some sort of Berserk/pump archetype in Gruul. So maybe I should just try it.
Zada is more flashy than good, but I can see it going into some cubes.

Top 3 and conclusion

3. Ire Shaman

2. Promise of Bunrei

1. Shadowmage Infiltrator

Masters 25 can be considered a hit in my opinion. Some overall good cards, cool nostalgic cards, and fun build-arounds. I'm looking to add between 6 and 8 cards from the set, which I'm very happy with. 

Treasure Hunting: Onslaught Block

Once in a while, I like to go over a subset of cards to see if there's anything fun/cool/good I (we as a peasant cube community) might have overlooked or forgotten about. Sometimes this yields nothing, sometimes I find a handful hidden gems.

In my post about the amount of cards per set, Onslaught block was far and away the smallest contributor to my cube with a sad 3. Since then, I made a couple of changes that salvaged the number slightly, but it's still not super high.

This brings up the question: is it because of the fact that the major themes of the deck are nor good enough (cycling matters and tribal are somewhat parasitic, morph is very slow), or did I miss something potentially good?

Let's go treasure hunting!

Onslaught

Cards currently in my cube from Onslaught (3): Nantuko Husk, Slice and Dice, Centaur Glade.

Other cards I've seen in cubes: Cycling lands, Complicate, Festering Goblin, Krosan Tusker, Naturalize, Pacifism, Threaten, Whipcorder, Wretched Anurid, Symbiotic Wurm (downgraded in Vintage Masters).

Astral Slide and Lightning Rift - Yeah, these aren't hidden gems per se, they're just really good cards. I'd love to play them, but that would mean restructuring a big portion of my cube for only 2 cards. Who knows, I might try them out sometime in the future, but the cost of inclusion is just too high.

Overwhelming Instinct - Green occasionally gets these 3 mana cards that *might* be able to draw you a card each turn if you meet a certain condition. In a tokens deck, this one seems doable, but three creatures is not a small cost. It also just feels wrong Military Intelligence is both cheaper and needs less creatures, and is in a color that wants it less.

Renewed Faith - For some reason I've always like this card. It's a sweet little control deck smoother that can put the game out of reach for your opponent in the later turns. In most cases you just cycle it and gain some life. Pretty good filler, but also somewhat unexciting.

Sparksmith - I've played with Sparksmith before, and it can be a really scary card. Even on its own it can be an annoying little pinger, but it also opens the door to snag a couple incidental goblins while drafting to start gunning down X/2's and X/3's. If you're looking for such a thing, this one is fun.

Taunting Elf - I don't think I mentioned this in my Urza block hunt. One of my favorite decks ever was a monogreen enchantress deck with 4 Taunting Elf in it. It looked to pump the elf to kill off all the creatures your opponent played every turn. Coincidentally, my cube runs a lot of auras. 

Legions

Cards currently in my cube from Legions (0): 

Other cards I've seen in cubes: Havoc Demon (downgraded in Eternal Masters)

Deftblade Elite - On a 1/1 that can save itself, provoke gets a blocker out of the way. Not unlike a Frenzied Goblin. The fun starts when you pump the p/t to be bigger than your opponent's creatures. Provoke even untaps a target, so this would actually be able to pick off creatures that your opponent attacked with. I can actually see this working out well enough in W/R or W/G pants decks in my cube that already seek to pump creatures. In those decks, the Elite even has the ability to do both. Taking a blocker out of the way of the pumped double striker isn't half bad. Question is: is it better than an ordinary tapper? Probably not.

By the way, I might be cheating a bit here. I do remember playing Deftblade and seeing it in other cubes back when I started my cube. 

 

Scourge

Cards currently in my cube from Scourge (0): Carrion Feeder.

Other cards I've seen in cubes: Brain Freeze/Tendrils of Agony, Fierce Empath, Twisted Abomination, Chartooth Cougar, Noble Templar

Dragon Breath - Giving haste to reanimated targets (or just to fatties) is pretty great. I don't think this is the best card in the cube to enable BR reanimate, but I still wanted to mention it because it has been used traditionally in combo reanimate decks.

Long-Term Plans - Totally forgot this card existed! My cube has been seeing a steady increase in build around cards, making tutors better. Mystical Tutor found its way back, we enjoy Razaketh's Rite  and my Dimir section currently runs Lim-Dûl's Vault. I guess this might not be bad as a straight up, as long as you *cough* plan ahead. It's quite unique as far as blue tutors go, because it can find anything. Third from the top isn't even that bad if the card is powerful enough to make an impact.

Top pick

In the end, I don't think Onslaught (the set) is as bad as it looked purely from a number-of-cards-included standpoint. A number of cards have been in my cube and can come back depending on if I think the cube might need them. Legions is a lot worse though. You'd think that a creature-only set would have a couple of great staples for cube, but most ones are either very narrow or just overpriced. Scourge is only slightly better. I mean, there are cards in the set that people actually play. 

The card I'm most likely to find room for is (drumroll):

Yep, I think I might actually add both. I don't expect them to be rock stars, but I like what they could do for my cube enough that I'm excited to try them.