General Big bodies

[Nanonox]

Checking cube lists, some cards caught my eye and I wonder if we can't do something with by combining them. Laying down some synergies, hoping some of you have other suggestions to bolster the list. The idea is to have fun with some oversized creatures for their mana costs.

Ignoring counters



What if we could negate the counters on some of these threats?



Most of the enablers are quite good on their own so you probably want the payoffs to dictate the power level, which ranges from strong to mediocre.

Adjacent to the creature counters



This is a well known "combo" alongside Thespian Stage, but it also works with Mirage Mirror and Mutated Cultist. If you can Earthbend it, Rhys, the Evermore also says hello.

Ignoring ETBs



This idea has been talked about on Lucky Paper Radio in Andy's Take Five cube. You negate some horrible ETBs and keep your giant beater around.



The titans are clearly power outliers, but the rest are more dicey, but definitely fun. There is a bit of overlap here with the previous section, since Scroll of Fate or Illusionary Mask can make it so Moonshadow enters without any counters.

Big bodies​

Then you have the actual payoffs for having large creatures in



There are a lot of good RG Ferocious cards and beefy creatures, so that's a natural fit. The Berserker archetype also fits neatly in this space and is also a Gruul classic. You have good sacrifice options too that seem fun.

And some random big bodies that could have new uses



So that's all I got, curious to hear what you folks have in mind. My favorite card here is Illusionary Mask, as I used to play that and Phyrexian Dreadnaught in Vintage back in the day. Surprised to see how well it curves out with Titans, Moonshadow and the other counter creatures.

 

[EzPzJapanezy]

Mask is pretty cool, I don't think I have ever actually read what it does until now.

I know some people run Strict Proctor to support Dreadnought, I think I recall seeing people try this strategy after Strixhaven 1. Proctor works for Lands with 'negative' ETBs so people combo it with Lotus Field. If people are running them then it has cool interactions with bouncelands too.

Pandemonium is super cool with these sort of creatures.

Prime Speaker Zegana is as well.

I love Disciple of Bolas, curving a Rotting Regisaur into it is peak Black Magic.

 

[Dom Harvey]

Fight Rigging is a sweet payoff here (sorry if mentioned already, most images in the OP aren't loading for me for some reason?)

 

[Erik Twice]

My cube, like many, has very small creatures because you play them for the effect rather than their stats. However, that makes bigger creatures more fun.

My favourites are cheap, simple creatures that can grow very tall.



These are all cards that can come down early and get most of their value from swinging without being overbearing. I prefer this type of cheap cards because they promote good tempo, sequencing and trickery while their low cost makes them more playable. I'm of the opinion that "keyword: big" is inherently weak and loses to value, so they are best in beatdown.
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Ignoring ETBs is appealing and very strong. There are a couple problems with them, though:

1) They affect you, reducing your number of playables, like Thalia does.
2) Your opponent may also benefit from denying ETBs
3) It makes many cards effectively blank, which is less fun.
4) There are not a lot of targets

I do think cards like Dress Down, that are widely playable on their own, do add an interesting dynamic.

As far as cheat goes, I like Illusionary Mask the most as long as everyone knows what it does. It's a unique card, like Agatha's Soul Cauldron.


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From your list, I like the following:



Brawler is just a good design, the size is perfect for the "drawback". It's a bit low-power, though.
Sunset Saboteur I like as an individual card, but it has no synergy whatsoever. You just slam it.
Rotting Regisaur is another great design. However, while their bodies are much weaker, I might prefer:

or even

Dreamtide Whale is almost there, it just doesn't have a home. Its size is irrelevant since it gets blocked and its butt often isn't big enough.
Lupine Prototype isn't in my cube only for one reason: It says "no cards" instead of "1 or 0 cards". The latter is so much more widely playable and actually lets you play rather than just turn sideways and hope for the best.
Traxos is another great design and generally playable. At our power level, it sees more use as a combo untapper than an actual creature, though. I wonder if it would need to cost 3 to be at our cube power level.

Disciple of Bolas is a great design and it has the perfect types, it's just too weak for me to consider it. I wish it were like this:


Flash
When this creatures enters, you may sacrifice a creature.

Cheaper, able to sacrifice in response to removal, non-mandatory and can sacrifice itself to draw 2 cards. It wouldn't even make it a powerful card, just more playable at my power level.

 

[Nanonox]

At our power level, it sees more use as a combo untapper than an actual creature, though. I wonder if it would need to cost 3 to be at our cube power level.

I wasn't necessarily thinking about power level just yet tbh, more of a web of synergies that can utilize these various oversized creatures.

If I were to include a higher power level archetype it would resolve around these enablers (maybe Scroll of Fate and Fight Rigging)



And these payoffs


(Shoutout to Brad for the Nulldrifter tech)