Draft Trainer

Core Set 2020 Limited Quiz

Answered: 0/20
Accuracy: 0
Forest
Average Picked At: 15.00
Total Times Picked: 5
Average Last Seen At: 12.69
Total Times Seen 33
Moat Piranhas
Average Picked At: 8.57
Total Times Picked: 14
Average Last Seen At: 9.32
Total Times Seen 81
Pro Rating: 1.5
Pro Comment: We have seen cards like this before – creatures who are very efficient but have defender, and they are always pretty alright. If you’re a defensive deck, I think you can play a couple of these and feel fine about it, and Blue can be pretty defensive. It can block really well early, and isn’t that hard to at least use to trade with something even late. However, if you’re an aggro deck, then this is terrible.
Ripscale Predator
Average Picked At: 10.50
Total Times Picked: 8
Average Last Seen At: 10.07
Total Times Seen 96
Pro Rating: 1.5
Pro Comment: A reasonable finisher if you’re in the market for one, but there’s plenty you’d rather have!
Swamp
Average Picked At: 14.50
Total Times Picked: 2
Average Last Seen At: 12.28
Total Times Seen 42
Glint-Horn Buccaneer
Average Picked At: 15.00
Total Times Picked: 0
Average Last Seen At: 1.00
Total Times Seen 1
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: This has decent stats and an activated ability that can help you increase your card quality early, when the Buccaneer can attack a little more safely. In the late game the Buccaneer’s effect becomes more like reach, because you can attack with like 6 mana up and threaten to do three to your opponent, which is pretty nice.
Blossoming Sands
Average Picked At: 12.00
Total Times Picked: 2
Average Last Seen At: 7.89
Total Times Seen 29
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: If you need fixing, this is a decent place to get it. There are also a few cards in the set that care about lifegain, which might mean they are a little more useful than usual in some decks, but mostly they just make your mana better. Even if you’re just 2 colors, taking these over filler is sometimes a good call, since they really make your mana so much better.
Apostle of Purifying Light
Average Picked At: 6.50
Total Times Picked: 4
Average Last Seen At: 6.62
Total Times Seen 19
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: This is a solid card that obviously gets way better against Black decks and graveyard strategies, but you can really maindeck this because of the solid stats. Chances are pretty good that your opponent will be playing Black as one of their colors, and it will always feel good when that’s the case.
Gruesome Scourger
Average Picked At: 6.33
Total Times Picked: 3
Average Last Seen At: 5.75
Total Times Seen 22
Pro Rating: 1.0
Pro Comment: This has bad stats for the cost and its ETB ability just never seems to get it done. Black decks aren’t good enough at going wide.
Thought Distortion
Average Picked At: 12.00
Total Times Picked: 1
Average Last Seen At: 7.65
Total Times Seen 36
Pro Rating: 0.0
Pro Comment: 6 mana is a ton, and if you’re spending that much you want to be actually accomplishing something. By that late in the game there is no guarantee your opponent will even have a hand, and only exiling noncreature nonland cards from their graveyard is not worth 6 mana. This is unplayable.
Temple of Epiphany
Average Picked At: 15.00
Total Times Picked: 0
Average Last Seen At: 4.14
Total Times Seen 7
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: Like most rare land cycles, these are great sources of fixing, and adding scry to them is pretty nice. If you are in both colors of one of these, you should consider taking one of them if you see it mid pack or later, as it does improve your mana base significantly. If you’re trying to splash something, I think they can move up even more.
Gift of Paradise
Average Picked At: 5.00
Total Times Picked: 1
Average Last Seen At: 5.46
Total Times Seen 53
Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: This kind of ramp/fixing Aura doesn’t often feel great, since you use a bunch of mana and don’t add to the board, which is normally pretty crucial in Limited. However, gaining 3 life here is a real bonus, as you basically pay a certain amount of life by casting this instead of playing a creature. It also lets you fix for double-colored things, which isn’t bad upside.
Leyline of Sanctity
Average Picked At: 11.00
Total Times Picked: 1
Average Last Seen At: 4.86
Total Times Seen 9
Pro Rating: 0.0
Pro Comment: A card like this is good in constructed because there are plenty of decks that are loaded up with spells that target the opponent, like burn decks – but in Limited it is hard for anyone to ever have enough spells or effects that target the player for this to be worth siding in. I think you want to see around 4 cards your opponent targets you with – and they have to be things that can only target you, because if they can still use it effectively on your creatures than it doesn’t matter. Basically, that will never happen.
Moldervine Reclamation
Average Picked At: 7.00
Total Times Picked: 1
Average Last Seen At: 3.67
Total Times Seen 15
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: This is an interesting card. On the one hand, I think it looks like a really great engine, allowing you to make any trade profitable, and allowing you to even chump block effectively. On the other hand, it is also a 5 mana enchantment that does nothing on its own, and sometimes playing something like this instead of immediately impacting the board is just going to make you lose. If you play this, you’ll experience both of those scenarios.
Mind Rot
Average Picked At: 12.50
Total Times Picked: 2
Average Last Seen At: 9.58
Total Times Seen 94
Pro Rating: 1.0
Pro Comment: Mind Rot is never particularly good. It does give you a 2-for-1 in ideal situations, but it is really only good in the mid-game. Early on, paying 3 for this and not adding to the board isn’t ideal, and late, your opponent likely doesn’t have cards. So in the mid-game is the sweet spot, but that’s a bit too narrow for me.
Dragon Mage
Average Picked At: 13.00
Total Times Picked: 2
Average Last Seen At: 9.33
Total Times Seen 35
Pro Rating: 1.0
Pro Comment: A 7 mana 5/5 flyer is not exactly impressive, though getting to wheel of fortune every time you hit your opponent is kind of funny. This type of effect is symmetrical, so you and your opponent will both be reloading their hands. Funnily enough, if he hits the opponent enough, you and your opponent might end up being decked! But yeah, that stuff is all wacky and fun and all, but it isn’t going to happen very often. I think you’ll only play this in a control deck desperate for a win condition.
Voracious Hydra
Average Picked At: 1.00
Total Times Picked: 1
Average Last Seen At: 1.33
Total Times Seen 3
Pro Rating: 4.5
Pro Comment: You either get a very efficient creature with Trample – lets say X = 3, that means you get a 5 mana 6/6 with Trample if you choose the “Counters” part, or you get a creature that can function as a fight spell, something that can frequently secure a 2-for-1 for you. Again, lets say X = 3, and that means you get a 3/3 who comes down and eats a 2/2. In a pinch, it can also kill a 3/3, but in most scenarios you want the Hydra to survive. Those two scenarios I just described aren’t even Magical Christmas Land Scenarios, like when you pump absurd amounts of mana into it. Even at X =2, you’re getting a 4 mana 4/4 with Trample or a 4 mana 2/2 who fight something – the latter option there isn’t great, but the fact that you can do that if you have to is nice. It scales as the game goes on, has evasion, and can function as a removal spell – sounds pretty great to me!
Ajani, Strength of the Pride
Average Picked At: 15.00
Total Times Picked: 0
Average Last Seen At: 1.00
Total Times Seen 1
Pro Rating: 4.5
Pro Comment: At first glance his +1 is the kind of +1 that you aren’t excited about, but once you see that his -2 makes an Ajani’s pridemate token, things start looking up. Any planeswalker who can come down and put a body in play to protect it tends to be pretty good, and Ajani can do that. What’s more is, he can actually make two of them if he just stays in play for 2 turns, and guess what – two ajani’s pridemates for 4 mana is not a bad deal. Then obviously his +1 can grow the Pridemates. His ultimate is kind of silly, and seems unlikely to come up in Limited, but if you can pull it off it is the kind that can win you the game.
Agent of Treachery
Average Picked At: 1.33
Total Times Picked: 3
Average Last Seen At: 1.33
Total Times Seen 3
Pro Rating: 5.0
Pro Comment: This might cost 7 mana, but there’s a reason it does – stealing an opponent’s permanent is one of the most powerful things you can do in the entire game. It is essentially always going to give you a 3-for-1, because it is effectively a removal spell – since it takes away your opponent’s permanent – and then gives it to you. Then, you also have a 2/3 body too! We see effects like this cost 6 or 7 usually, and many of them are less permanent because they involve an Aura. Those cards are already pretty great, but Agent of Treachery makes sure you keep the creature most of the time – do note that they can still bounce the creature back to their hand. On top of all of that, Blue and White have ways to flicker or blink creatures, letting you use this ETB more than once, at which point your opponent is basically just done. The part about drawing cards if you have 3 or more of your opponent’s permanents is basically win-more, because once you have 3 of their permanents they are effectively dead. But yeah, this is a massive bomb.
Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
Average Picked At: 1.50
Total Times Picked: 2
Average Last Seen At: 1.20
Total Times Seen 5
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: I’m not all that impressed with Rare Chandra, at least not compared to the other 2. She only costs 3 and has 4 loyalty, so that’s nice. But her two 0 abilities aren’t amazing. Note that with the first one, she can raise her own loyalty, but yeah – that’s all it does 99.9% of the time in this format and that’s not so good. Making two 1/1s with Haste might be a nice way to do some additional damage, but I’m not in love with that ability either, though it will probably be a bit better in RG decks, which are going to be Elemental tribal. The best thing you’ll be able to do with her is her -2 ability. If your deck has enough cheap instants and sorceries, and can consistently get value out of that, you’re going to be pretty happy. If she comes down and lets you flashback two spells in your graveyard, you’re probably getting there. Still, she asks for a lot of set up for her best ability to work, and her other two aren’t so impressive.
Duress
Average Picked At: 14.00
Total Times Picked: 5
Average Last Seen At: 9.76
Total Times Seen 87
Pro Rating: 0.5
Pro Comment: As usual, this is sideboard only material. Not enough things it can hit in the typical deck for it to be in your main deck.
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