I hadn't considered the Jumpstart cards til I saw the Lucky Paper surveys. A few interesting options here.

Winter Eladrin > Gilded Scuttler
Eladrin plays better with the cube's ninjas, but I like the idea of an unblockable stunner more. Yes, it's a 1/3 which is against the cube's ethos, but it has a more significant chance of getting into the red zone than a vanilla 2/2.

Brave the Wilds > Go Forth
While it is possible to sac something for Brave, it's not that common. Go Forth plays into the new combat trick meta and also rewards splashing around. Admittedly, those are two themes that don't often coincide in the same deck.

Coiling Stalker > Slimy Piper
I like piper a lot as a go-wide pay-off. Indestructible only on attacks with a pretty strict condition is a reasonable deployment of that keyword. Coiling stalker was riding the sideboard too often, even if it is a card that I like on paper. Frankly that's how it played out in actual limited as well, if I remember correctly.

Not exactly feasting here in the 1000 year core set. Many cards are reprints and of the few that aren't, most either are heavy on toughness or support a lifegain theme I find distasteful. Shoutouts to runners-up Armasaur Guide and Goblin Surprise.

Verdant Outrider > Ambush Wolf
I just cut Ambush Viper, but I haven't been loving these green 3s that aren't 3/3s that draw you a card. I have a soft spot for Outrider though and may rotate it back in soon.

Frenzied Goblin > Clockwork Percussionist
Enough decks go wide enough that Frenzied Goblin really just doesn't get there these days. Percussionist way overperformed in limited, but we aren't supporting Delirium in the same way, so we'll see how well it plays out.

Underworld Rage-Hound > Ragged Playmate
I wanted to like Rage-Hound, especially as I added more tricks to the cube, but too often it was trading badly. I could see swapping in Red Herring at some point for a little of that flavor. In the meantime, Playmate does a better version of the unblockable thing Frenzied Goblin and Verdant Outrider both strive for.

I really like graveyard mechanics. I could see a version of this cube that really leans into delirium by way of MH2 and NEO. Perhaps an interesting side project in and of itself. Manifest Dread is making a big showing here and I'm excited to see how it plays with the flicker and ninja themes.

Shoutouts to Appendage Amalgam, Clockwork Percussionist and Most Valuable Slayer as runners-up.

Banishing Light > Trapped in the Screen
I currently have no cards other than this that can directly target enchantments so the ward is a bit moot. I considered OTJ's Mystical Tether instead, but figured that hitting exactly Rancor was worth the additive distraction.

Bola Slinger > Unsettling Twin
Slinger wasn't making it into decks (despite I think on the whole being a decent deal). I'll use the opportunity to try out this nice flickerable card.

Sultai Emissary > Innocuous Rat
More or less a strict upgrade. Especially with a few manifest dread cards around.

Reckless Lackey > Turn Inside Out
Turn Inside Out is kinda a Rimrock Knight and I've been impressed with cards like this in standard lately and it helps support Tenth District Legionnaire. I'm down to give it a whirl, but I suspect I'll be putting an honest to goodness creature back in this spot soon.

Ambush Viper > Flesh Burrower
Deathtouch plus caring about attacks has been a winning combo on Guildsworn Prowler. Creatures in this cube are likely to trade anyway, but I like this helping green decks with a slightly lower curve.

Not much to report here. Most of the cards either require an unsupported type or feel like sidegrades on existing effects. Plus we just had a big shakeup with MH3.

Banishing Light closes out the undesirable exploit from flickering Oblivion Ring. It's a fun trick, but pretty punishing to new players, so worth removing, I think.

Many changes here, expanding the Overton window of strategies in the cube. We added more top end while still respecting the P > T goal of the cube. We're also leaning further into gold cards being power outliers in their color pairs. Finally, each color is getting a combat trick to give players a limited range of cards to think about each combat step.

Generally, I think the cube was a little flooded on 2 drops. Cathar Commando, despite just being re-added, is the White 2 I'm least excited about, so it gets cut in favor of Aerial Boost, a suggestion from the Pauper Cube discord that seems spicy and starts to develop a convoke theme.

Beluna's Gatekeeper gives blue an injection of raw stats. I like [[Shipwreck Dowser] but the UR spells deck ended up just playing red top end threats, which is a sign something had to give.

Withdraw often got cut because people didn't want to think that hard I think. I like the card, but I'll cut it to try Shore Up for the combat trick meta.

Stormkeld Prowler was my petcard in WOE, but just isn't that good, especially in this format with so few high drops. Phantom Interference is a fun modal card that mostly will be a counterspell, but sometimes might just win the game as a 2/2 flyer.

Dread Return didn't really get a chance to be tested, but Death Denied is a nice way for a controlling black deck to pull way ahead in the late game. It also rewards all the incidental mill sprinkled throughout the cube.

Shambling Ghast is catching a stray here, but black actually has a reasonable quantity of 2 drops. It may return soon. Supernatural Stamina is the version of this effect that does the most as a combat trick and always does solid work in every format it has been printed into.

Molten Gatekeeper breaks the cardinal P>T rule, but Witty Roastmaster is enough less exciting I don't want to try it out here. Grabby Giant is a card that I enjoyed playing in WOE, that supports a whole bunch of archetypes, and just generally diversifies the curve a little.

Orcish Hellraiser is Red's most cuttable 2 drop. I added it to bump power in Red's twos, but it hasn't really done the job. Rimrock Knight feels a bit like hedging when it comes to adding a combat trick for Red, but the color already has a lot of this flavor through lightning bolt variants and Gnawing Crescendo.

The biggest shakeups are in this color. Owlbear gets swapped for graveyard Owlbear with extra steps in the form of Evolution Witness. Added bonus for synergy with Travel Preparations.

Primal Huntbeast's reign of terror finally comes to an end, likely also tacitly nerfing Rancor and Armadillo Cloak. Those cards will still be fine. In its place comes Kavu Primarch, the biggest creature so far but requiring some kind of plan to get onto the field, either via convoke or ramp.

Green already has Snakeskin Veil but we may add Giant Growth at some point.

G made a persuasive argument for Sneaky Snacker as a genuinely fun card that rewards you for actually messing around with all the durdly card draw in blue. It plays really nicely in ninjas, with looters, and just generally in the color pairs. I won't miss Soul Manipulation, even if it is a deceptively powerful card.

Silkbind Faerie isn't cool enough to be worth breaking the P > T rule. Whenever I look at it I shake my head, perhaps unfairly. We're reverting to Tolarian Geyser for now, but likely this will rotate in a few sets now that Play boosters have guaranteed two color commons.

Zhur-Taa Swine brings the beef back to RG and also supports the combat trick meta. It might actually be too pushed / bloodrush might be too unintuitive, but I think it plants more of a flag than Burning-Tree Emissary.

Finally Keldon Strike Team, a very cool card that rarely gets cast, comes out in favor of Tenth District Legionnaire, a very cool card that plays well with all the tricks. Maybe too much of a break from theme in terms of outscaling the rest of the cube, but it's worth trying.

With a little more MH3 experience under my belt and with a couple playtest drafts in, I figure it was time to really consider all the cards I had flagged with a "?". As a general note, Green feels like its dominant at the moment, mostly on the back of access to more beef. We'll be tuning that back and giving the other colors a shot in the arm in that regard.

Mandibular Kite gives a sacrificable body and a lategame plan for white aggro decks to turn the corner with. Doomed Traveler is easy to underrate, so it may be back in the future.

Kor Skyfisher proved more fiddly than I had initially hoped and the 2/3 statline is aesthetically galling, so I've reverted that change to an old favorite that hates on Green auras - Cathar Commando.

Oltec Cloud Guard served its role, but Combat Professor felt more interesting and gives White some top end toughness to work with.

I was wrong about Expel the Unworthy. It just is too expensive an answer for this format. Trying out Dog Umbra as another interesting white removal spell, though I'd still like something cleaner like a flash Planar Disruption...

No changes, though Winter Eladrin is on notice. Blue has a bad case of all the cards kind of doing the same thing that will likely get its own update at some point.

Wretched Anurid gives similar stats to Crooked Custodian but might actually make maindeck for more aggressive black decks.

Basilica Screecher returns. Tithing Blade feels redundant to Accursed Marauder which satisfies more cube goals... This could trigger a cascade of tinkering with flicker spells, but I actually like Scrollshift in other decks now...

Turns out that Exhumeing into your opponent's etb bouncer just happened all the time. Alas. Dread Return certainly reads powerful but it may be too expensive.

Just not enough trinkety stuff for Sunshot Milita. The card only really performs if you are making tokens every other turn maybe. Underworld Rage-Hound is more in line with the cube p/t aesthetic and gives red a reason to care about the graveyard.

I just found Eldrazi Repurposer distasteful. Too pushed relative to the benchmark of the rest of the cube and I hated having it AND Jewel Thief. Yavimaya Elder is basically a nerf, but it does some of green's other goals competently while diversifying the stat lines.

Winding Way's variance felt a little too bad to me. The high roll is really good of course, but the mid roll often felt kinda meh. Seed of Hope might help out Simic and still adds to the graveyard.

Ghitu Amplifier was proving to be just a little too expensive and UR has been lagging a bit in power level. Bloodwater Entity might be a decent solution, but if not we could look into a cyclops or something...

Some solid options here in MH3, but sadly this time around too many of the mechanics (devoid, energy, draw 3) are too narrow for me to really want to focus on here.

Cooped Up > Expel the Unworthy
Swapping the least of the enchantment removal for something a little harder.

Raven of Fell Omens > Accursed Marauder
Raven was really disappointed. I was tempted to revert back to the old Extort creature, but I figured I'd use the slot to try this fun Innocent Blood on a stick.

Tragic Slip > Wither and Bloom
Adding Marauder, I can afford to make Black's removal a little clunkier. This is still likely a best of type, but likely distant behind Cast Down and friends...

Plundering Pirate > Molten Gatekeeper
Pirate was always a placeholder. Turns out it was holding a place for something that supports go-wide / recurring sacrifice creatures. Maybe too redundant with Hissing Iguanar.

Blanchwood Prowler > Malevolent Rumble
I'll gladly trade any permanent card and more graveyard filling for a worse (though novel!) body.

Jungleborn Pioneer > Eldrazi Repurposer
I'm actually most conflicted about this change. Pioneer's token plays well with auras (specifically Rancor and Armadillo Cloak). I also don't like overloading green's 3 drops with 3/3s. We'll test it out and maybe it turns out to be too much.

Loyal Cathar > Trained Arynx
Arynx really impressed in OTJ limited and Cathar's double white cost is just a touch too difficult to cast for most decks in a cube like this.

Chomping Kavu > Spinewoods Paladin
Paladin may now be one of the best cards in the cube for sheer stats and that works for me. I like being able to play it on four with suspend and I like having greater P than T.

I'm really not in love with OTJ, but there are a couple cards here worth testing. You'll also see a couple cards that I've been trying out for the last month or so but hadn't gotten around to posting here...

Professor is more interesting, but keeps getting left on the cutting room floor. Cloud Guard massively overperformed in LCI, flickers well, and generally will close out the game while respecting our P > T guideline.

LCI really made me appreciate how much I wanted to explore a counter onto squire, at which point it mostly is a 2/3 that surveils 1... I'd rather have something with P > T, even if it lets enemies through. Thanks to TheMonkeyMechanic for the suggestion.

Very similar cards. I'd like to try out the cheaper one that rewards interacting with your opponent, though I worry that the "once per turn" clause will see this one leaving the cube sooner rather than later.

Continuing the P > T theme. Plus you could target an opponent for a cheeky kill.

I like Mine Collapse, but I really want to test out the new hotness and bump red's creature count. Red will just have to make do with a million other quality removal spells.

Skyknight really wasn't playing super well and I don't love mechanics that just expect you to remember they are in effect from turn to turn. Familiar is a nice tempo play in both colors and the 180 card format likes hybrid spells.

I'm not a huge fan of LCI, but having spent some more time with the format there are a few ideas that I really like. I found quite a few cards here that were potential includes, but just felt like they homogenized the cube or didn't beat out a similar card at the same MV (e.g. Oltec Cloud Guard or Waterwing Scout.

Thermo-Alchemist > Sunshot Militia
Sunshot Militia is easily my favorite card of the format. It gives creatures virtual haste (if you squint at it) and rewards getting ahead on board with inevitability. We have just enough trinkety artifacts and equipment to support it, I think.

I have doubts about cutting Thermo-Alchemist, but there are a limited number of slots available for X/3 pingers and I'd rather try out the new hotness for now.

Scrapwork Mutt > Volatile Wanderglyph
Sad to see Mutt go as well here, but rummaging multiple times and getting that extra point of toughness are a big game. I don't think the flexibility loss matters in the grand scheme of things.

Grand Ball Guest > Plundering Pirate
While we do frequently make two permanents in a turn thanks to the Raise the Alarms of the world, a lot of turns this was just a bear. The reward isn't quite worth the effort to build around it. I doubt Plundering Pirates is the final card in this slot, but it's a reasonable card and supports Sunshot Militia even if it compares badly to Jewel Thief.

This update primarily tweaks where the flickering in WU blick decks lives.

Momentary Blink wasn't making the cut. I considered Silver Drake for the slot, but figured I'd bias towards the slightly more aggressively statted card.

I don't love Skyfisher's 3 toughness, but I do like its interaction with all sorts of cards around the cube (most notably the new Tithing Blade). If this plays well, I'll likely cut Stockpiling Celebrant in favor of something outside of the blink theme.

Originally, this was intended to be an "LCI Update", but Tithing Blade was the only card I was interested in. Opening the door to double faced cards gives us a few nice includes to consider:

I consistently under-rate Hyena Umbra, but I still don't mind gradually weakening the auras deck. Scrollshift, on the other hand, helps enable shenanigans flickering Tithing Blade and just generally provides good value.

90% of the time Gather was playing like worse Raise the Alarm. While we lose some of the go-wide value here, we are neutral on sac-ability and positive on flicker / raise dead synergy.

Turns out this was mostly playing like a bad Frost Lynx. Better to replace it with one of the OG pauper threats.

With Spell Stutter out of the cube, I have less need of faeries. While there are a few expensive instants and sorceries to get value on, I don't feel like this card will really be missed.

I'm not sure Consider is the best card for this slot, but I like fueling the graveyard and supporting Delver.

I'm a little wary of replacing all my sac fodder with sac outlets, but Ecstatic Awakener really only asks that you sacrifice one creature, one time. Shambler is powerful, but it's better in an environment with more tricks or other ways to get max value out of it.

The real star of the show. I don't know if this is going to be totally amazing, but I think if you can get two sacs out of it, you're getting more than your cards worth of value. Sometimes, you might even finish off an opponent with that last trickle of damage over time.

I've played more WOE than most recent limited sets and there's a few ideas here that I'd like try on in the Practical Cube.

Right now, the "blink" theme in the cube is basically just Ephemerate and Momentary Blink. It plays well with the ninja's package obviously, but in some ways, the ninjas also need an injection of self-bounce. By comparison, the hexproof auras theme needs to be tuned back a bit.

Plus I just find shuffling a little tedious...

I'd call this the change mostly likely to be reverted after playtesting.

Consider these two changes a sort of triangular update. Cadaver Imp gets swapped for a more board impacting version that's a little less potent for Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Torment gets bounced, primarily for playing poorly with all the graveyard recursion in black.

Voracious Vermin technically strays from the cube's soft policy of avoiding incrementally growing +1/+1 counter creatures. It helps that this one stays in bolt range for a long time and produces a token that encourages getting in the red zone.

Marauders didn't play as well as I'd hoped. Guest has impressed in limited and actually helps support cards like Chimney Rabble or Gather the Townsfolk that seem to be frequently on the 23/24 card bubble.

Folks building green decks seemed to be going through a lot of mental gymastics into supporting this cantrip, and the card actually seems to decrease the diversity of green decks rather than provide a treat for a mostly permanents build.

Brave the Wilds helps green to play to its color pie role of providing fixing and sometimes provides an extremely relevant body (though Bargain is quite a bit harder in this environment without building towards achieving it).

Tortoise solves a problem that this cube doesn't really have. It's great on boards where there aren't a lot of creatures but the opponent is stacked with removal. We needed the opposite, so Verdant Outrider.

At first this was going to be another Styborkski Pauper Cube response update, but instead I ended up just making tweaks based on some recent playtests.

It turns out that only preventing activated abilities still feels bad often enough to notice. Better to pay a little more to deal with the threat permanently.

Cloud of Faeries felt kind of like... nothing? It was picked low and rarely actually cast. Slots are too precious here for me to play : Draw a card.

Even with a couple other faeries, it was too difficult to hit critical mass. Often you could match Mana Leak in a blue deck, but if you are working just to match it... This slot may eventually become Lose Focus though.

Another card that was rarely seeing play in blue's surfeit of flyers and cards that you can play turn 2. Better to play a limited power house with graveyard synergies.

I've actually been liking Feign Death a lot, but there is limited capacity for this sort of thing. Exhume, on the other hand, is too spicy a meatball to ignore. I'm not sure if it's good exactly, but if you can put one of the few 5+ drops into play, it's going to take over the game in a hurry. Hopefully, it's interesting at the very least.

Borderland Marauders just felt too bad in comparison to other 3 power threats in the cube - Wary Thespian, Cathar Commando, etc. Keldon Marauders is a whole different ballgame. Hit 'em real hard a few times and then get 'em back with blacks good graveyard recursion.

I think Young Wolf is a good card; it just wasn't seeing play in my playgroup.

Really I want more Green 3s to reward playing T1 Llanowar Elves. Hexbane Tortoise gives some variety in terms of stat lines, wears auras well, but probably needs some kind of help on many board states.

Orzhova was the least played aura by a large margin, even if it swung the game on many board states.

Pet signposts what Orzhov is doing better and probably is just fine as a flying body. Not exciting and likely to be subbed soon (if more gold cards come down the pipe in a timely fashion.)

Big update for blue here. There were a couple options for white, but they ended up being just subpar to other cards in the cube. The lack of an enchantment subtheme really hurts many cards here, and I don't think the payoffs are worth major retooling with Theros and Neon Dynasty enchantment creatures / sagas...

Deceive the Messenger was mostly playing out as a gotchya combat trick (perhaps unsurprisingly), which feels against the spirit of the cube. Long term, this cut likely inches The Torment of Gollum closer to the chopping block.

Snaremaster Sprite is good clean ETB fun in a cube that supports flicker, ninjas, and graveflickering.

Just a few months ago I was considering some truly heinous cards in an attempt to get Spellstutter Sprite working. Now I have a glut of options, but I likely won't run it. In this cube, with the current number of faeries / changelings, this is often as good as Mana Leak if not better.

Nothing against Cryptomancer, I'm just more intrigued by Prowler at the moment. This cube is defined by a small pool of 5 mana cards, often with cost reduction baked in. Having a creature that cares about that seems neat. I also like that pumping it once still leaves it within the critical "dies to bolt" toughness range.

Props to PrestonL for the initial recommendation on Eyekite, but in practice, it mostly just felt like an expensive way to bounce ninjas to hand. Still lurking at the fringe of playable, and may someday return.

It is possible to have too many 2/1 flyers, but for now I'm down to give this one a spin. Blue's instants and sorceries frequently cost only 1 colored mana, so you'll likely have to go elsewhere for real value. It also doesn't help with enchantments of which there are a surprising number.

Spelleater was a bit of a pet card. It often hung around as a 3/2 and ate removal when it would gain doublestrike. Honestly, that's not a bad result, though part of red's strength is not having great loadbearing targets for single target removal.

Trainee does a passable Krenko's Command impression and also gets in the red zone. The adventure and the creature kind of feel at cross purposes though. How often are you really going to spend 5 mana on both and feel happy about it? Rarely, I think.

There are a few methods of modifying a creature in the cube, but those methods don't tend to overlap that much with the deck that wants Trumpet Blast. Gnawing Crescendo is a little trickier with a little less setup and I'm genuinely excited to try it out.

Not a WOE card, but Thespian impressed in MOM limited. Obsessive Skinner underperformed and signposted a delirium subtheme that isn't quite there yet. Perhaps someday I'll make some changes to better support it, but for now a simple aggressive beater with some selection that green is sorely lacking.

I don't follow Modern closely, but seeing Feign Death in Rakdos Scam during the top 8 made me realize how neat it would be hear as the dark compliment to Ephemerate.

Not sure exactly what to cut to test it out, so for now I'm benching Okiba-Gang Shinobi. The card is clearly a knock out punch when it connects, but there's a lot of boardstates where it looks pretty terrible and a lot decks where it doesn't quite fit. Plus, when in doubt, lower the curve!

Cubecobra has not yet added CMM cards at the time of writing, but that won't stop me from making a couple of tweaks. Many of the downshifts presented either 1) are 1/3s, 2) spit out a bunch of tokens, or 3) rely on artifact synergies. The first two really trend the game towards stalls and are against the guiding ethos of the cube. The last isn't really supported (though perhaps may be someday?).

Watcher in the Mist > Shipwreck Dowser
Likely actually a slight downgrade thanks to the texture of removal in this cube, I do think this card is more on theme for what blue is doing. It also fills the Archaeomancer roll without being an embarassment.

Repository Skaab > Augury Raven
Speaking of archaeomancers. Skaab turned out to be as lackluster as I had feared. Augury Raven really adds some beef to blue and helps cloak Sarulf's Packmate at least a little. May yet be substituted for something with lower toughness / more intrigue.

Hard Evidence > Deceive the Messenger
Hard Evidence is likely a better card, but blue needs instant speed prowess triggers something fierce. I don't know if I love a defensive trick like this that much, but I've been impressed by it in LTR limited and it has a surprising amount of gameplay baked in. This may also open the door for more Amass stacking soon.

Moan of the Unhallowed > The Torment of Gollum
Another change that's a bit of a power downgrade. The zombie tokens made here were mostly used to clog the board, though they do represent a lot of total stats for a single card. I want to try out Torment since it's been such a treat in LTR limited, but I suspect I'll drop it after a couple test runs.

Simian Sling > Dwarven Hammer
Simian Sling is the least played of the red 1s. It turns out that 2 is a lot more than 1 when it comes to attaching an equipment. Dwarven Hammer has an even hire equip cost but I see it filling a very different role as a late game stall breaker that attaches bolt to one attack per turn... Another card unlikely to stick, but maybe it'll impress.

Not a huge update here. Unfortunately, "the ring tempts you" doesn't feel like a theme I want to go way way out of my way to support. Most of the commons either support that theme or amass, which I'd consider, but none really filled a niche not already filled by another card that is blinkable. A few runners up include Treason of Isengard, Knights of Dol Amroth, Mirkwood Bats (much talked of), and Erebor Flamesmith.

Instead we went with the following:

Forbidden Friendship > Rally at the Hornburg
1 less unique token, 100%+ more haste. I don't love introducing tribal considerations into the cube, but it seems like a niche upside more than a proper build around.

Archaeomancer > Repository Skaab
Archaeomancer feels understatted for what it provides you and I've gutted most of the Peregrine Drake combo it used to enable. I initially considered subbing in Treason of Isengard but having recently been bitten by the difference between "on top of library" and "in hand" I decided to try this instead. I likely will sub it out again soon.

Spellstutter Sprite > Cloud of Faeries
It was pointed out to me that Spellstutter Sprite is not, in fact, Force Spike on a stick, but rather mostly can only target 1 mana spells in this environment. That being the case I've subbed it for another faerie that plays well with ninjas.

Some fruitful conversations on the Pauper Cube discord have led me to believe that Red should have more creatures with power greater than their mana value. I've long felt that red was over-reliant on it's prowess theme, so this might help break that up as well.

Fireslinger > Orcish Hellraiser
Fireslinger's lack of haste means that it mostly operates as a deterrent to playing 1 drops or a way to slowly and painfully remove 1/1 flyers. I'm not in love, so let's try something a bit more aggro.

Yavimaya Steelcrusher > Borderland Marauder
Marauder was also considered back in the PrestonL update. Steelcrusher feels like it rarely ends up using its Enlist ability, so it mostly just sits around as a 2/2.

Hordeling Outburst > Jackal Pup
I don't want to remove ALL of the red token production, but Outburst just wasn't seeing play. Pup is nothing to write home about, but it does trade up with an astonishing number of creatures and help support red getting in the red one.

A quick update based on May's playtesting before LotR content drops.

Flitting Guerrilla > Cadaver Imp
It turns out "on top of your library" is way worse than "in hand," even with some extra stats and some bonus mill to fuel delve cards.

Flame Jab > Mine Collapse
I'll miss our repeatable cheap pinger, but Mine Collapse gives red a bullet against the cube's largest threats - one bullet to spend on a single final turn, ideally.

Scatter the Seeds > Seed of Hope
Scatter wasn't seeing play even if it is, I think, a more powerful effect. It obviously was better when Sprout Swarm was a thing we were doing. Seed of Hope is the new hotness and helps G play with the prowess themes in other colors more.

Fireblade Artist > Body Dropper
Rather than simply being shut out by a 3/3, Body Dropper has some ability to dig back into the game and offer reach to RB. I'm hesitant about this kind of repeatably growable threat, but by the time it's gotten out of hand, you've payed a steep cost.