Hi everyone, welcome to another peasant card review, its been a little while! I was less impressed and less engaged with the last couple of sets, so I didn't review them unfortunately, but of course returned for this rebranded core set package, one of my favourite types of sets, and usually a great deliverer of cube worthy cards! I have loved drafting the set, yet due to the high volume of reprints, I struggled more than usual to find strong contenders after a handful of great ones, and decided to dig into the jumpstart part of this set too, as it contained many great cards. Without further rambling, I'll get into it!

1

Most immediately shocking from this set is the brutal and ruthless and frankly unacceptable downshifting of shivan dragon to uncommon. Not even downshifted with the grace of a master's set printing! This card was once held in similar regard to black lotus, and now its fallen all this way down to being a mere peasant. It would be tragic, if it wasn't yet another piece of beautiful history that can now be added guilt free to any cube that wants it. The question remains, however: is it even good enough for peasant cubes anymore?

2

My favourite card from drafting the set, I, as is often the case, underestimated this card and wrote it off as inconsistent at first. However, the morbid trigger is very easy to activate, especially in an aggressive race situation, or even if you just run removal. And if the drawback is so small, it makes the body on this three headed boi truly terrifying.

3

We love to see callbacks, especially to cards as delightful as the perfect design of murmuring mystic. While greatness can only be emulated, the mischievous little brother of the ravnican classic does a pretty good job standing out in its own regard. It packs quite a punch and is pretty great, even when compared to staples in the same niche such as faerie vandal or the newer emrakul's messenger.

4

This card isn't the most flashy, but it is exciting. In the aristocratic decks that stand to gain the most from sacrificing a creature, the grub provides even more sac fodder for later on, which is arguably more relevant than the slightly stronger body of doomed dissenter. It should be able to wriggle it's way into a few cubes, I'm sure.

5

Wow! This card is awesome, and very strong for its rarity. I have always longed for a goblin rabblemaster effect, a theme across many of my past reviews. This is surely the closest we could possibly get, without them straight up downshifting one of the rare variants. It may not be an effect for everyone, but the fact the general doesn't even to attack himself to get the trigger is pretty pushed.

6

While there is an abundance of high value white two drops, this one doubles up as a four drop, with a body that is great both in aggressive or more defensive boardstates. It provides a pretty great effect and is definitely slick enough to fly in many cubes, especially with more aristocratic themes perhaps.

7

Perhaps I am slightly overvaluing this card. At 3 mana, it is more awkward as a sac engine than a classic like reassembling skeleton. However, it provides more aggression and in the long run is cheaper. The main reason I highlighted this card is that it's simply an interesting and quite unique effect, especially at this rarity.

8

While this effect already exists, its notable to point out another version of zulaport cutthroat. While personally I don't love using effectively the same card twice, there are cubes large enough, or cubers with different goals who likely appreciate the new redundancy of this card.

9

Oh man, I love this kind of effect, and am definitely biased, but I mean, come on! unleash fury with upside is, well, probably still not good enough. But maybe? Flashback is a beautifully designed mechanic, though I fear that the cost of the flashback is a little high for this card to make it across the finish line it most cubes.

10

Another functional reprint that is especially relevant for pauper cubes, stab is just as good, unsurprisingly, as its sibling, disfigure, and once again provides a great option of redundancy for cubes that are particularly fond of the effect.

Honourable Mentions

This set has delivered on plenty of really great and fun red cards! Ivora requires a bit of mana investment, and perhaps is too finnicky, which is why I put her lower on the list. However, blood tokens have great synergy potential, and in general the card threatens a lot of power and value for merely a two drop. A cool one.

Raid is a great mechanic, and is easy enough to trigger that the artist is likely to be painting for days. Despite this, I think the pay off is somewhat lacklustre and slow, which is especially damaging as rakdos is often positioned as a faster colour less focused on long term value engines. Either way, a cool new gold option for rakdos, which has, in my opinion, one of the narrowest catalogues of signpost gold options.

This fat demon reminds me a lot of goremand, another core set staple from years gone by. On the whole, I personally still prefer the impact of goremand, but I think the arbiter does have some benefits and wins in comparison. What's more, as I've echoed a few times throughout the article, this set is great at introducing redundancy and cards that can fill similar niches, giving more options and depth of pools to the peasant environment.

What a cute concept for a card! It's almost shocking that a card like this didn't come out sooner. Other than that, the collector is a slightly slow but pretty great value engine. It surely is very playable and a great pay-off/ signpost card in cubes with life gain themes.

This guy is pretty neat. I don't have much to say, other than that this kind of pump mana sink is usually far more powerful than it appears initially, especially in slower cubes. And the marshall has a good body to boot.

In the legacy of deal 5 damage effects (rebel salvo, witchstalker frenzy, fight with fire), this one squares up kind of poorly in my opinion. However, the option to hose artifacts might be more relevant in some scenarios and cubes, especially due to the high prevalence of powerful equipment in cubes, such as bonesplitter or loxodon warhammer.

This is a great and very abusable effect, but perhaps is in the wrong colour for the most use to be made of reusing the etb, and doesn't quite pack enough of a punch on its own in my opinion to justify inclusions.

You could just run spirited companion, or perhaps wall of omens. A lot of competition, but like with other mentions, the hunter provides another card in the same niche, if its an effect you are a big fan of.

What a cute card! It comes with a good and aggressive slanted body, but provides a great value that builds up and could easily allow you to win the race in a race situation.

As we reach the end of the list, I feel the power has dropped off generally, likely due to the virtue of the set being a core set. However, felidar saviour is a card that has more synergy and power than a card of its calibre initially appears to carry. It works with counters, provides a great stabiliser, and has a very friendly casting cost of just one white. Not a card to be written off.

And that concludes my review for foundations! I hope you enjoyed and found it useful. I hope we continue to receive sets like this, they are a personal favourite of mine, even as a long enfranshised player. Let me know what you thought in the comments!

Check out my peasant cube: https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/1aydn