Average Picked At: 7.82 Total Times Picked: 17 Average Last Seen At: 6.36 Total Times Seen 170
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: You probably need to paying 5 or less actual mana for this to really feel like you’re getting there. Luckily, that’s quite doable! And getting this down even easier than that isn’t impossible either.
Average Picked At: 9.47 Total Times Picked: 45 Average Last Seen At: 7.22 Total Times Seen 292
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: This 6-mana 5/6 plays well with all the token stuff going on in Blue/white, as it can sometimes be unblockable. Islandcycling is a great thing to have, as it allows you to throw this away in the early game so that you hit your land drop, and if you play it late, it isn’t a bad threat to have.
Average Picked At: 2.20 Total Times Picked: 10 Average Last Seen At: 1.93 Total Times Seen 15
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: A two mana 2/1 with Flash and Flying is a great spot to start, and if you use the activated ability on your opponent’s turn, it basically reads “Draw two cards, your opponent draws one card” and that’s pretty strong. Should your opponent decide to draw extra cards by other means, you’ll also punish them for it.
Average Picked At: 4.54 Total Times Picked: 41 Average Last Seen At: 4.00 Total Times Seen 154
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: One mana to bounce an attacking creature and Surveil 2 is quite the deal, so the fact you can also target non attacking creatures for 3 mana is nice. Most of the time you don’t get an actual trade, but the card selection and tempo are nice, and the times where you do cast this in response to a trick or something will feel truly amazing.
Average Picked At: 2.80 Total Times Picked: 10 Average Last Seen At: 2.54 Total Times Seen 14
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: A three mana 3/3 with flying is still a very good rate, and sometimes this will even flicker something for value. You can even use this to get a blocker out of the way temporarily, so it will almost always do something.
Average Picked At: 11.63 Total Times Picked: 30 Average Last Seen At: 9.59 Total Times Seen 382
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: This is a functional reprint of You Are Already Dead, which we saw in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. That card was kind of underwhelming. When it worked, you got a pretty sweet 2-for-1. It can’t really be an amazing card though, because there aren’t enough situations where you can do damage to something without already having to give up a card. If you can do that, this gets a lot better.
Average Picked At: 4.29 Total Times Picked: 31 Average Last Seen At: 3.84 Total Times Seen 110
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: An Instant speed effect that has your creature damage an opponent’s creature is usually a very nice card and this simultaneously gets around two downsides this kind of card often has. First, because you get to use two of your creatures, you will be able to take down even very large creatures with two smaller ones. Second, because it uses two creatures, you can set it up so that you don’t get 2-for-1’d if your opponent can interact in response. Add in the fact that this can also damage battles and you have an amazing removal spell that is quite easily premium.
Average Picked At: 5.39 Total Times Picked: 18 Average Last Seen At: 4.30 Total Times Seen 103
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: On its own, you get a 5-mana 4/4 with Vigilance, and you can pay for it in installments. That’s not a bad deal, especially when this can also give some of your other creatures Vigilance. Vigilance seems pretty well positioned in the format too, because creatures with it can attack battles and defend them at the same time.
Average Picked At: 5.72 Total Times Picked: 39 Average Last Seen At: 4.99 Total Times Seen 201
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: We have seen this card before, only without the battle part, and it is always premium removal for Green because it can deal with things so efficiently. You always run the risk of getting 2-for-1’d when you cast it if you aren’t careful, but because this is an Instant, finding a spot where your opponent can’t respond is relatively easy.
Average Picked At: 1.00 Total Times Picked: 3 Average Last Seen At: 1.17 Total Times Seen 6
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: Transforming this in Limited isn’t going to be super easy, but that’s okay – a 5-mana 5/5 with Ward 2 that draws you extra cards is still really great, and on the off chance you do manage to flip it into a Saga, well – you’re just going to win the game on the spot. The extra cards Jin-Gitaxias helps you draw can help you get there, but generally in Limited if you’re holding on to that many cards, you’re going to fall way behind.
Average Picked At: 6.50 Total Times Picked: 26 Average Last Seen At: 6.19 Total Times Seen 250
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: Two mana for a counter and protection gives your creature the ability to both dodge removal spells and succeed in combat more often.
Average Picked At: 9.90 Total Times Picked: 29 Average Last Seen At: 7.78 Total Times Seen 288
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This is either a 4-mana 4/4 that can’t be blocked by small stuff, or a 4-mana 3/3 that gives something else a counter and makes it harder to block for a turn. I think both of those modes are going to feel like a pretty good investment.
Average Picked At: 10.62 Total Times Picked: 13 Average Last Seen At: 7.23 Total Times Seen 191
Pro Rating: 1.0 Pro Comment: This is a big hard-to-kill monster, but it also costs 8 mana which simply isn’t an amount of mana you get to very consistently in Limited.
Average Picked At: 9.12 Total Times Picked: 34 Average Last Seen At: 7.33 Total Times Seen 290
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: So at worst, this is a two mana 2/2, and sometimes you’ll have another Incubator around who is bigger, and you’ll choose to turn that one into a creature. That’s probably usually what this will do, because there aren’t a boatload of targets for this in the format. When you do get to kill an artifact or Enchantment with this it will feel like a pretty sweet 2-for-1, and I think the baseline is solid. Having Artifact and Enchantment hate in your main deck is nice too.
Average Picked At: 13.38 Total Times Picked: 29 Average Last Seen At: 10.72 Total Times Seen 388
Pro Rating: 1.0 Pro Comment: This is a reprint, and it wasn’t very good last time. This format does have a self-mill deck, and that means this can theoretically keep you from milling out in the extreme late game, but it isn’t particularly efficient and is far too situational.
Average Picked At: 1.00 Total Times Picked: 8 Average Last Seen At: 1.17 Total Times Seen 13
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: Without Backup, this card would still be good. It demands to be blocked or you get a ton of value, and because it has death touch those blocks are going to be hard to set up effectively. So, adding Backup is a huge deal, as it can give you both of those abilities on something that can attack right away. This gets especially good if you use it on an evasive creature. If you get only one creature back, you’re going to feel great – any more than that, and you’re just going to win.
Average Picked At: 8.32 Total Times Picked: 38 Average Last Seen At: 6.96 Total Times Seen 280
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: Going wide and Convoke are two of Red’s big themes in the set, so this seems to do exactly what you want to be doing in Red.
Average Picked At: 8.28 Total Times Picked: 18 Average Last Seen At: 5.99 Total Times Seen 176
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: These always enter tapped, but producing two different colors and gaining a life is always nice value. If you’re in their two colors or trying to splash something, you’re going to be happy playing these.
Average Picked At: 1.43 Total Times Picked: 7 Average Last Seen At: 1.67 Total Times Seen 9
Pro Rating: 4.5 Pro Comment: A six mana modal Wrath is pretty nice, especially because you’ll be able to choose an option that works the best for you. It can get awkward of course in a deck that is interested in curving out and winning quickly, but a card like this can reshape the game in a way few other cards can. Now, it is likely to be harder to transform this than some of the other Battles, because if you just nuked the board, it isn’t likely you can do 4 damage really easily. There might be the occasional situation where you can blow up your opponents only blockers and hold on to your legendary creature who can attack it right away, but I wouldn’t count on that lining up perfectly.
Average Picked At: 6.37 Total Times Picked: 19 Average Last Seen At: 5.54 Total Times Seen 122
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This will often be able to attack as a 4/4 with Vigilance which is pretty nice. Lots of cards make Knight tokens too, so it may get buffed more than once! It has a very reasonable floor too, so it is a quality card.