Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: This is a very nice two drop that gives you a couple of nice options. You would always play a two mana 2/1 with death touch, and you would frequently play a two mana 2/1 with lifelink. The power of having a choice between those two things is very real. If yo’ure behind, you probably go with death touch, but if you are the beatdown, you probably go with lifelink. This is a nice cheap creature to mutate on to as well, and those keyword counters will be nice on your mutated creature.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: It is nice that you get to make the choice here -- because you can choose whatever is best for you. Most of the time that will let you come out ahead, but board states where the impact is negligible won’t be that uncommon, and it isn’t like you will always have even permanents and your opponent will have odd ones -- in those cases it will be amazing! But it has a pretty random nature to it overall, in the sense that you can’t really determine what CMC creature son the board will have. Still, I think in the end, the fact that you get to make the choice means you will come out ahead most of the time.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: Granting keywords to creatures who don’t have them -- especially big creatures -- is going to feel good, and this whole cycle also has the ability to pump up creatures with that keyword, including the one the counter was put on. That means these have an immediate impact on the board in most cases, and they also have late game value in their mana sink ability.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: A 9-mana 11/11 trampler just wouldn’t be playable in most formats – but in this one, it is significantly better than just “playable”! That’s partly because it has Cycling, which means when you can’t cast it – which will most of the time – you can just cycle it away. This format also has a very real BG reanimator deck, and you don’t need me to tell you that getting this back for 5 or 6 mana is absolutely silly.

Pro Rating: 5.0
Pro Comment: A 4-mana ⅗ double strike as a fail case is really good -- even if it DOES ask for three colors of mana, which is by no means easy to pull off in most formats. However, like all the apexes, he has an easier-to-cast Mutate thanks to Hybrid mana, and his Mutate trigger lets you do 4 to something and gain 4 life, which certainly offsets the risk of mutating. Plus, putting this on top of a Mutation, and holding on to the Double Strike while it gains additional abilities is pretty tempting.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: Drawing extra cards is super powerful, and this thing will get silly in a hurry. Sure, you won’t always want to play it right away since you have other stuff going on in your hand, but once it makes sense to cast this, you will, and you will take over the game -- no question about it. Drawing extra cards, playing extra lands, it all goes well together, because it makes it more likely you can cast the extra cards you are drawing in the first place!

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: So, a 4-mana 2/4 with this ability would probably already be good. The ability only asks for a single mana and it draws you a card every turn, more or less -- whether it is putting a land on the table or actually drawing you that card. That’s just the kind of creature who can take a game over with the hand advantage it gives you. Then, of course, you can also Mutate with it, and it has a very low Mutate cost. Most of the time the 2/4 body won’t be all that desirable, but in the early game putting this on top for Mutate will probably be attractive. Later on, just putting this under a big boy will be more ideal. But I think that a significant chunk of the time, you’re just wanting to go ahead and hardcast this thing. 4-mana for a 2/4 with this ability will frequently be better than paying 2 mana to give some other creature the ability and no additional bonuses. Obviously there are Mutate payoffs, which would make that more attractive. But yeah, even withou all the Mutate stuff, Parcelbeast is a good card, and I think the added flexibility makes it even better than that. I think this is a great uncommon, one that you shouldn’t hesitate to snatch up in many first pick scenarios.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: If you cast this normally, it has reasonable stats, and being able to Cycle it away and give something Flying is a great option too.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: Three mana for a 4/5 with Menace is crazy good, and while giving your opponent a deathtouch counter isn’t awesome, there are lots of situations where that just doesn’t matter! Like if you play this one turn 3 and your opponent has nothing. Or, you play this on turn three, and then kill whatever you put the counter on next turn. Even when those optimal situations don’t emerge, the fact this is so big means that your opponent will frequently have to double-block anyway. And hey, even if you just end up trading 1-for-1 with this thing, that’s not too bad of a deal.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: These kinds of creatures are not normally something I am very impressed with – that is, creatures who kill something that has been dealt damage. This is because often-times making sure you damage something is difficult, and sometimes even when you do you have to give up a card to do it, so the window where this does something is not as high as you would like. However, this one has Flash, and that means that you will be able to find situations where it does its things more often than not. And even if you aren’t managing to kill something with the ability, sometimes flashing in a 4/2 to kill their X/4 is just fine too.

Pro Rating: 5.0
Pro Comment: Making this a Companion is doable, though not something that will always work out. When you can do it, effectively having Gyruda in your opening hand every game for an additional cost of three mana is pretty insane. But, Gyruda is a crazy bomb even if you just put him in your deck, since he’s a 6-mana 6/6 that basically always gives you another nice creature.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: Wow, this is real good, even on its own. A 4-mana ⅗ with Vigilance would probably be nice, and then this counts itself with its ability, so it can tap stuff down on its own. Being able to attack with this AND use that ability is seriously nice. Plus your other Vigilance creatures get that upgrade too, and it synergizes with them as well as it does the Felidar.

Pro Rating: 5.0
Pro Comment: A 4-mana ⅗ double strike as a fail case is really good -- even if it DOES ask for three colors of mana, which is by no means easy to pull off in most formats. However, like all the apexes, he has an easier-to-cast Mutate thanks to Hybrid mana, and his Mutate trigger lets you do 4 to something and gain 4 life, which certainly offsets the risk of mutating. Plus, putting this on top of a Mutation, and holding on to the Double Strike while it gains additional abilities is pretty tempting.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: So, an 8-mana 8/8 Deathtouch would not normally be something I want to play -- that’s because it is just so hard to get to 8 mana! But by adding cycling to this, it becomes much more intriguing. Cycling really lets you get away with playing stupid expensive cards, since if you can’t cast them, you can always turn them in for a card. It is especially nice that this Beckoner also has a trigger with Cycling -- giving something Deathtouch at Instant speed and drawing card is pretty nice. Even if your creature still dies in combat, you end up netting a card out of this, so that fact is offset, especially if you are trading a little guy who could previously only chump block for something scary on the opponent’s side of the table. This also gets an upgrade because BG decks can reanimate him pretty easily.

Pro Rating: 4.5
Pro Comment: This guy doesn’t stay dead, and I always like that, especially in Limited where that type of resilience is crazy. And sure, you have to have something for it to Mutate with, but that isnt’ a big ask. Usually, it will lead to a heavily upgraded creature -- normally you’ll be putting Brokkos on top to get the 6/6 trample, and then you will of course have any abilities of the cards underneath it, which is pretty sweet. The whole graveyard thing means that you will always be able to drasticaly upgrade a creature, even from your graveyard. All the Apex creatures have hybrid mana in their cost too, which means it is easier to paly this than it might seem at first glance, as you don’t even necessarily have to splash anything, since two-color decks can pay for the Mutate cost.

Pro Rating: 5.0
Pro Comment: A 4-mana ¾ flyer is already a great rate for Limited. Then, this has a super powerful ability. Making all of your non-flying creatures come back from the graveyard with flying is insane. The Broodmoth will frequently destabilize the board. I mean, think about it -- you play your Moth, and suddenly you can attack with a bunch of creatures you may not have wanted to attack with before. This puts your opponent in a nasty situation, where they have to decide whether to just take damage, or block them and let them come back as Flyers. In many ways, this means the Broodmoth has an immediate impact on the board, since it will in most cases at least make combat hard for your opponent, even if they untap and kill the moth right away.

Pro Rating: 1.5
Pro Comment: When tricks cost one mana, I start to get interested, as the pain of getting 2-for-1’s is no longer accompanied with a big tempo hit, and it is just easier to have the spare mana around. Still, this boost isn’t amazing -- +1/+0 and First Strike will win a fair number of combats, but it isn’t really a boost that makes it happen enough.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: This type of tempo creature is always great for Blue. You get to add a 2/2 to your board while significantly impacting the board state. Tapping something down could mean that you suddenly have really good attacks. It could also mean that you buy yourself some time against an aggro deck.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: Lots of times in the early game, you won’t be able to do anything with that Mutate ability, and in those cases just played it as a 3-mana 3/3 is probably wise, since it means if you Mutate on to it in the later game, you’ll still get that trigger. And yeah, in the later game, when you can get something out of Mutating it, it will feel pretty good to do, becuase it also makes sure you don’t get 2-for-1’d. This is another one with Hybrid mana too, so you can conceivably play it in a wide variety of color combinations.