Meren has been so over the top in my cube that I had to cut her. Really fun to play with, but when you play against her you really get that sinking feeling in your stomach that things are slowly (or quickly) spiraling out of your control. The worst thing is that she basically has the
flagbearer ability, because if you destroy something else she'll just get it back. Even worse, she's in the colors that are best at recursion. If you destroy her, there'll be an Eternal Witness or a Necromancy to pop her back into play, and continue where she left off, because the experience counters stay on you! There aren't many cards that make me feel as hopeless as Meren, and the only real solution to her are exile effects. Anyway, you clearly run a higher power level cube than me, so maybe that was just my environment
Also, you forgot artifacts!
Apparently I have a thing for uncommons
Extricator just tickles all my fancies. I love delirium as an effect, and the ability to sac anything is great. It also works very well with revolt (more on that in a bit), and when you hit delirium it transforms into a powerful board presence. Really, what more can you ask for from a white uncommon 3-drop?
Rise is probably my favorite build-around. Just bounce / counter / burn / destroy everything your opponent does, while digging for the 12 zombies. Aw yeah
Collective Brutality is a lovely card that does everything black wants to do. Stymie a quick start from the aggro opponent? Check. Kill a utility creature that's about to get annoying? Check. Remove that Counterspell your opponent is holding to thwart your future plans? Check. Dump a fatty in the graveyard so you can
Necromancy it next turn? Check!
Frenzied Fugue has been a bit of a recent revelation for me. I only added it this month, but the card is fantastic! Usually
Threaten effects are used to get a blocker out of the way and smash in for some extra damage, but then your opponent gets his annoying blocker back, and you're back to square one. Not only does Fugue solve this problem, it also targets permanents, which makes it especially fantastic. Your opponent plays a planeswalker? No sweat, steal it! Your opponent plays an annoying artifact? No sweat, steal it! Et cetera, et cetera. Card is awesome!
Greenbelt Rampager is the little elephant that could. It just hits so many checkmarks in my cube. It triggers evolve like a boss (there's two
Experiment One in my cube), it generates energy for cards that care about that (quite a lot in my cube), it triggers revolt, and oh yeah, it's also a giant 3/4 beater on turn 2 if you need it to be that.
Stockpile is one of those cards that can silently take over a game. I am thinking hard about breaking singleton on this one. I had two in a retail draft a while ago, and when I actually got both in play things got out of hand fast. It's also a very good roleplayer in the cube, triggering revolt (obviously), adding artifact creatures to the board for the Servo lords in my cube, just smoothing out draws with the scry ability, and of course playing nice with
Braids, Cabal Minion and the next card.
Good old Smokestack. When will WotC
finally put you in a (nonfoil) modern frame so I can add 60 of you to my cube? I love this effect (Braids is in the top 3 black cards for me), and Smokestack gives it to all colors and can totally reset a game if you need it to. Or you find ways to break the symmetry with cards like the aforementioned Hidden Stockpile,
recursive creatures,
token generators, a low curve (so you can afford to sac lands), et cetera. If I see one pack one I'll snap it up and draft around it. If I see one pack two I'm heavily tempted to do so. If I see one pack three and I'm not already in a strategy that can use Smokestack, I rage quit (ok, not really, but I'll be really sad).