Pro Rating: 5.0 Pro Comment: This is a bomb. It has great Flying stats, comes with the powerful Mentor mechanic, and even if your opponent does kill it right away, it still gives you a ton of value. So on most boards it is a darned if you do darned if you don’t situation for your opponent, and that always feels like a bomb.
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: This whole cycle is very strong, and Conclave Cavalier is no exception! I mean, when all is said and done you pay 4 mana for 8/8 worth of stats across three bodies! This can very realistically generate a 3-for-1. The one downside is the mana cost, but the mana in this format is good enough that it isn’t that hard ot manage.
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: A two mana 2/2 with First Strike is a 3.5 in most formats, and this one tacks on Mentor, which is awesome! Its good at Mentoring things and it is also a good thing to Mentor thanks to its keyword abilities. This is an excellent two drop.
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This is one of the best enablers for the Golgari deck, as it often stocks your graveyard to get undergrowth and other value stuff going.
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: Three mana counterspells are usually pretty mediocre in Limited, and this doing 2 damage to your opponent doesn’t do enough to make up for that.
Pro Rating: 0.0 // 2.5 Pro Comment: This might look like the usually mediocre vanilla creature that you’ll just never play…but it turns out that a 5-mana 4/5 is very reasonable in this format’s more controlling decks. It blocks a whole lot of stuff and even attacks surprisingly well.
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: One mana 1/1s that leave behind 1/1s tend to be pretty decent in Limited, and that’s certainly the case here, especially with White aggro decks being so real in the format.
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This can Flash in to ambush something – though that usually means you’re just getting a trade since it only has two toughness. But, that’s an okay deal, especially because you get Surveil 1. When you can Flash it in and kill an attacker and it survives, you feel pretty good!
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This is very risky to use early, as ramping your opponent probably isn’t worth killing their two drop! However, by the late game, the downside of the card becomes increasingly irrelevant, and overall this is a great removal spell.
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: This is a bear with some mediocre late-game upside, which means it is decent enough.
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This answers pretty much anything, and getting to Surveil on top of that is pretty sweet.
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: These are all fine. They can help you splash a color, they ramp you a bit, and you can cash them in for cards in the late game, which is good – because drawing mana rocks great is pretty bad.
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: These are good fixing.
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: This is a decent way to stabilize against aggro decks, as the life gain and the body do a pretty good job of helping you hold on. If you’re a slower White deck, the first of these is usually going to make your deck. While, if you’re more aggressive you’re not going to have any reason to play it.
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: 3 power on a flyer for 4 mana is a decent deal…but the one toughness is pretty rough, as it means your opponent can often trade up for this thing with cheap removal or 1/1 flying tokens.
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: This is a really nice one-drop, especially in Boros, since it is such a great creature to Mentor. Putting counters on this can quickly put the game out of reach for your opponent.
Pro Rating: 5.0 Pro Comment: A 5-mana 6/6 with Flying and Trample is an easy 4.0, so adding a repeatable Surveil effect that costs ZERO mana is certainly enough to make this card a bomb. Even if your opponent can kill it right away, it can stock your graveyard/make sure you’re drawing gas before it dies, and that’s pretty nice.
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: These are good fixing, but they get bonus points because there are several cards in the set that pay you off for playing Gates.
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: Because this can pump its power, it can end up Mentoring a whole lot of stuff. And sure, it only has one toughness, but like with a lot of the Mentors, you feel pretty good if the best your opponent can do is trade with the Mentor, because that means you get a +1/+1 counter worth of value – and if they can’t take down your Mentor, things really get out of hand in your favor.
Pro Rating: 1.0 Pro Comment: This isn’t that far from just being Goblin Piker, a card you really hope you don’t play in Limited.