Endless Detour
3.5 This card has a lot of different modes, and I like that. You can use it to bounce an opposing spell or permanent back to the library. Keep in mind that when its worded like this, the controller of the permanent is who makes the decision, but either way – when you are putting a card back on top or bottom of a library, you’re actually trading 1-for-1, unlike when you put something back in your opponent’s hand. Those are the modes you probably choose the most, but you can also do some things to benefit yourself, of course. The most obvious is putting a card back on top of your library that you really want to get back. That isn’t great in terms of value, because you use up a card for only card selection, but the fact that it is an available option is upside on a card that’s already pretty good. You can also rebuy ETB abilities and the like, but again – putting the thing on top of your library is a pretty big cost. Mostly, you’ll use this as removal or a counterspell.
Syndicate Infiltrator
3.5 This looks pretty good. The base of a 4-mana 3/3 Flyer is perfectly fine, and loading your graveyard enough for this to get the boost is pretty doable by the mid to late game.
A Little Chat
3.0 The base level of this card would probably be a 1.5 or 2.0. It doesn’t do much, but it gives you some okay card selection. However, I think the Casualty upside here is pretty big, because once this turn into a 4 mana card that draws you two of the top four cards of your library, we’re talking about something pretty powerful! And you can sacrifice almost any creature to get that copy. You won’t always be able to do that of course, but the sort of acceptable baseline and the big upside makes this a card that I don’t think you’ll cut from most Blue decks.
Scuttling Butler
1.0 // 3.0 This is definitely a build around, because a 3-mana 4/1 just isn’t worth it in your typical deck. It is probably a D at best. However, the upside here is actually kind of nuts, as giving a 4/1 double strike is pretty amazing. Your deck needs to be able to give this double strike a significant chunk of the time, and the good news is that looks like it can happen in many decks in this format, though it is perhaps the easiest in Green-White or Cabaretti more broadly, because of Citizen tokens which are both colors
Crooked Custodian
2.0 This has above rate stats, but coming into play tapped kind of cancels that out – it isn’t like its stats are CRAZY good anyway. Still, seems like a nice two drop for an aggro deck, and its one of the more efficient ways to get 3 power in play for the spells that have higher Casualty costs.
Make Disappear
1.5 Without Casualty, this kind of counter spell isn't great, since your opponent is likely to have the spare mana the longer the game goes on. With casualty…I still don't think it is great, but obviously it will allow you to counter more spells more often.
Most Wanted
1.5 Flash Auras can be nice, since they are sort of like combat tricks that leave some permanent value behind, but only giving +1 to toughness does mean this won’t save your creature as often as you’d probably like. Getting two Treasure when the creature dies does soften the blow if you get 2-for-1’d, but probably not by enough for me to excited about this.
Hold for Ransom
3.0 This is a Pacifism that your opponent can pay 7 mana to get rid of. We’ve seen removal auras in the past that let your opponent pay mana to get rid of the Aura, and most of them haven’t been great. I think this one has enough going on, though, that it looks better than previous cards like that we’ve seen. For one thing, 7 mana is a ton – so much that your opponent may just never get there. For another, your opponent also lets you draw a card off of it, and they can only pay for it at Sorcery speed. Your opponent may finally get rid of it, but they will spend their whole turn doing it most of the time, and then it replaces itself! Now, like all Aura removal, this is at a bit of a disadvantage in this format because of the presence of the Casualty mechanic and other sacrifice stuff more broadly.
Kill Shot
2.0 Is decent removal, but it is situational enough that it is nowhere near premium. An aggressive deck isn’t super interested in a card like this, because you really want cards that let you kill blockers, and your opponent can also play around a card like this pretty effectively.
Deal Gone Bad
2.5 This isn’t the most efficient removal spell, but at least its an Instant, and it comes with some extra value with the mill effect. The way this format is looking, you probably want to mill yourself more often than your opponent since you can get a lot of value going in that direction. This isn’t premium removal, but it seems like a solid Common.
Jackhammer
1.5 We’ve seen a purely colorless version of this before, and I wasn’t particular impressed with that, so one that requires Red mana to cast isn’t exactly something I’m looking to play. Sticking this on a token is the most appealing thing, as a 3/1 token can’t be ignored, but the two mana to equip this is a pretty steep rate on a card that doesn’t do anything else.
Inspiring Overseer
4.0 This is a pretty incredible Common. It gives you a passable flying body while replacing itself and even gaining you a life! We saw a Blue version of this once without the life gain and it was really good – and we’ve seen a non-flying version of this card in the recent past that was also quite good. That trend will continue here. This is probably just White’s best Common.
Prizefight
2.0 Cards that just fight and don’t offer a stats boost of any kind tend to be pretty medium. Buffing the creature makes it so that a wider variety of creatures can do something useful with them, and you just don’t get that here at all. It does combo interestingly with shield tokens, since it can enable you to fight with a shielded creature without losing it, and that does kind of expand the range of creatures that can fight with this and survive.
Sky Crier
1.5 Flying and Lifelink make this a nice place to put counters, but apart from that, this card just isn’t all that efficient. And the draw effect also isn’t great since its symmetrical – and in some ways it is worse than symmetrical since you’re the one paying mana for the card and your opponent doesn’t pay anything! If you time it right, you can take advantage of the card before they do, but I still don’t like the idea of doing that. If this set didn’t have a decent +1/+1 counter theme, this would probably be a 1.0, but I think it will be a little bit better than that.
Pack 1 Pick 2: Celestial Regulator
Riveteers Decoy
3.0 A two mana 3/1 with decent upside is basically always playable, and this comes with two! First, it has to be blocked, which means it can create problems for your opponent in combat. Second, it has Blitz, which means it can come out of nowhere and force your opponent to block it instead of something they want to block more, and sometimes it will feel a bit like a removal spell.
Pugnacious Pugilist
3.0 Either way you play this, it looks like it is going to be pretty decent. If you Blitz it, you get a permanent Devil token in addition to sending a 4/4 at your opponents face, and then you of course get to draw a card when the Pugilist goes away. Just casting it is nice too sometimes, even if a 5-mana 4/4 feels pretty clunky these days. You still have a sizable creature who spits out tokens.
Vampire Scrivener
2.0 This obviously has the potential to get absolutely massive, but it has some pretty awful starting stats that will allow your opponent to pay 1 to 2 mana to kill your five drop, and that’s always pretty rough. What’s more is, losing life on your turn won’t be super easy – so you’re mostly going to be leaning on the life gain angle, which will happen, but it also isn’t a massive theme in this format.
Deal Gone Bad
2.5 This isn’t the most efficient removal spell, but at least its an Instant, and it comes with some extra value with the mill effect. The way this format is looking, you probably want to mill yourself more often than your opponent since you can get a lot of value going in that direction. This isn’t premium removal, but it seems like a solid Common.
Exhibition Magician
3.0 This is a good Common. A three mana 2/1 that makes a 1/1 – in a color that has lots of pay offs for going wide – is a pretty nice card – probably a C+. So, also having the Treasure option is nice upside – sometimes you’ll want it to help you ramp, and sometimes you’ll be in a deck that cares about Treasure than it does going wide, especially if you’re in Red/Green.
Celebrity Fencer
3.0 This has the potential to get really massive, but I don’t love that it starts out as a 3/2. You’re going to get really blown out sometimes when you play this and your opponent destroys it for one or two mana. But in a lot of White decks in this format, especially the Cabaretti, like putting a ton of creature tokens into play, and that will allow the Fencer to do some serious work.
Raffine's Guidance
1.5 Auras that can come back from the graveyard always tend to be kind of decent, since your opponent has a hard time ever truly getting rid of them. However, this one offers a pretty small boost. Still, with Connive being a thing, discarding this to get a +1/+1 counter and then having the opportunity to slap it on a creature late seem okay.
Celestial Regulator
3.0 I always love Frost Lynx type creatures because of the amazing tempo they generate by freezing something down while you add to the board. Now, freezing something down takes a little bit of setup with the Regulator, but if yo’ure in Blue White you’ll have access to lots of +1/+1 and Shield counters, so I think this will do its thing a big chunk of the time – and on top of that it has efficient flying stats.
Crooked Custodian
2.0 This has above rate stats, but coming into play tapped kind of cancels that out – it isn’t like its stats are CRAZY good anyway. Still, seems like a nice two drop for an aggro deck, and its one of the more efficient ways to get 3 power in play for the spells that have higher Casualty costs.
Run Out of Town
3.0 This is decent Blue removal – and it is removal, because bouncing a card to the deck makes it a 1-for-1, even if your opponent can just draw the thing again. It is definitely a bit costly, but its flexibility makes it a pretty nice card.
Caldaia Strongarm
2.5 This looks like a solid Common. Cast the normal way, it gives you a 5-mana ⅘ – which isn’t great, but that’s the fail case of the card. It can do a lot more than that! You can of course put the counters on another creature, and that can add some significant additional damage to the board immediately. And if adding as much damage to the board as quickly as possible is your thing, you can Blitz this, which lets you ad ⅘ worth of stats to the board for only 4 mana, and then you get to draw a card to replace it! You’ll often be able to get close to a card of value out of it when you do Blitz it, so that’s not a bad deal, especially because it makes sure to leave something on the board even once it sacrifices itself.
Masked Bandits
2.5 A six-mana 5/5 is actually kind of reasonable, and this one comes with the upside of helping you fix your mana early.
Chrome Cat
1.5 This is a 3-mana 3/2 with some tiny upside. Its probably something that won’t normally make the cut, but it isn’t a disaster to run either.
Pack 1 Pick 3: Inspiring Overseer
Swooping Protector
3.0 The stats aren’t great but like with all these shield counter creatures – they are costed this way for a reason! The shield counters are really good and provide some pretty amazing protection. It’s nice you can Flash this in to block an X/2 to kill it in exchange for just the shield counter, and it can just threaten some damage in the air too.
Suspicious Bookcase
1.5 This is a reprint, and a pretty uninteresting one! It wasn’t particularly good last time we saw it, but it wasn’t a disaster either. It has okayish defensive stats and can send things in unblocked late. You’ll play it in some more controlling decks.
Illuminator Virtuoso
3.0 A two mana 1/1 with Double Strike is already pretty decent, so adding Connive to the mix is pretty sweet. Now, actually trigger the Connive on this card isn’t the easiest thing in the world, since your typical deck doesn’t really run that many ways to target its own stuff, but this is obviously a pretty nice payoff for playing some tricks.
Speakeasy Server
2.5 A passable Flyer with an ETB that gains you life always tends to perform reasonably well in Limited. It can really help you stabilize. The downside here is that you need a board in place to gain any life – it doesn’t even gain you 1 life on its own, which is a little sad. Still, in White you’ll be able to go wide, and gaining 3+ with this should be pretty decent.
Run Out of Town
3.0 This is decent Blue removal – and it is removal, because bouncing a card to the deck makes it a 1-for-1, even if your opponent can just draw the thing again. It is definitely a bit costly, but its flexibility makes it a pretty nice card.
Daring Escape
1.5 +1/+0 and First Strike makes for a decent trick for one mana. The power boost isn’t ultra impressive, but First Strike obviously makes combat go much more favorably for your creature. I still think Antagonize is probably the trick you’re after if you’re playing Red aggro, but this can fill the role.
Celebrity Fencer
3.0 This has the potential to get really massive, but I don’t love that it starts out as a 3/2. You’re going to get really blown out sometimes when you play this and your opponent destroys it for one or two mana. But in a lot of White decks in this format, especially the Cabaretti, like putting a ton of creature tokens into play, and that will allow the Fencer to do some serious work.
Inspiring Overseer
4.0 This is a pretty incredible Common. It gives you a passable flying body while replacing itself and even gaining you a life! We saw a Blue version of this once without the life gain and it was really good – and we’ve seen a non-flying version of this card in the recent past that was also quite good. That trend will continue here. This is probably just White’s best Common.
Psionic Snoop
1.5 This isn’t especially good. It is either a 3-mana ¼ that you discard a nonland card to, or a 3-mana 0/3 that lets you throw a land away for - hopefully - a real card. Neither of those things are bad, but it is far from impressive. If you can flash it in to kill an X/1 it will feel a lot better, and that will happen sometimes, but there will be enough times where it is just a glorified blocker that I’m not super interested in this.
Rakish Revelers
2.5 A 5-mana 5/3 that makes a 1/1 is something I would already sign up for, so the fact that it can fix your mana earlier in the game is some upside on a card that’s already quite playable.
Riveteers Overlook
2.5 This is some more very nice fixing for the format, which isn’t a huge surprise since three colors is what this format is all about. This is basically a more narrow Evolving Wilds, but one that also gains you a life – and it doesn’t have to tap either, though that isn’t coming up much in Limited. You definitely will play these in a lot of your decks, as they’ll be nice for mana. They don’t have the late game upside of the dual land cycle, so I think I would rank them a little lower.
Paragon of Modernity
2.0 This looks solid. It starts out as an inefficient creature, but most decks will be three colors in this format, so putting counters on this as a mana sink in the mid to late game seems like a legitimate strategy. If your deck doesn’t have good enough fixing to consistently get three colors this is much worse, but I think most decks will be able to do it, so it isn’t a build around or anything.
Pack 1 Pick 4: Exotic Pets
Obscura Charm
3.5 This is another very nice charm. You’ll most frequently choose the removal option, but if you happen to have the mana up for this at the right time the fact it can be a counterspell is pretty nice too, especially because you can leave the mana up and choose any of these three effects, so you won’t ever get burned if your opponent plays around it. The reanimation effect is fairly restrictive, but this set has enough multicolored cards that it will work reasonably often.
Rob the Archives
3.5 In the early game, this is often going to be a dead card, but in the late game being able to copy this with a bunch of mana untapped is just going to happen sometimes. And when this feels like a two mana card that draws you 3 or 4 cards, it is going to be incredible. Having more than one copy of this seems a bit dangerous because of how bad it is early, but its power in the late game is pretty serious, so the first copy should be valued pretty highly.
Exotic Pets
3.5 This looks pretty good to me. Even without the effect that gives the Pets counters, this would be like a 2.5 – two unblockable 1/1s for three mana – on an instant – is perfectly fine. Then, you add the counter upside and this looks like it could be pretty amazing. Getting a +1/+1 counter and a shield counter seems very doable.
Boon of Safety
2.0 A shield counter will allow your creature to survive a whole lot of stuff, whether its a removal spell or damage in combat. In combat, your creature will still get to damage the thing that it is blocking or being blocked by, and if its big enough it can just kill it. It feels like there are enough situations where you can generate some sweet tempo with this that I can definitely see running a copy of it in aggressive White decks.
Racers' Ring
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Skybridge Towers
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Snooping Newsie
3.0 This seems solid. Early it is a decent creature that loads your graveyard, and in the later game it becomes a 3/3 lifelinker, something that has an impact on most boards. I do think it will be a little challenging to get it going, but the set seems to have enough ways to load the graveyard that it will be doable.
High-Rise Sawjack
2.0 We’ve seen this card in Spider-form before, and it was fine. 4 power is enough to take down most flyers and it is a nice thing to trade for those types of creatures.
Hold for Ransom
3.0 This is a Pacifism that your opponent can pay 7 mana to get rid of. We’ve seen removal auras in the past that let your opponent pay mana to get rid of the Aura, and most of them haven’t been great. I think this one has enough going on, though, that it looks better than previous cards like that we’ve seen. For one thing, 7 mana is a ton – so much that your opponent may just never get there. For another, your opponent also lets you draw a card off of it, and they can only pay for it at Sorcery speed. Your opponent may finally get rid of it, but they will spend their whole turn doing it most of the time, and then it replaces itself! Now, like all Aura removal, this is at a bit of a disadvantage in this format because of the presence of the Casualty mechanic and other sacrifice stuff more broadly.
Wrecking Crew
2.5 This has decent French Vanilla stats. Not much more to say about it.
Run Out of Town
3.0 This is decent Blue removal – and it is removal, because bouncing a card to the deck makes it a 1-for-1, even if your opponent can just draw the thing again. It is definitely a bit costly, but its flexibility makes it a pretty nice card.
Pack 1 Pick 5: Celestial Regulator
Majestic Metamorphosis
2.0 As we learned in Kamigawa Neon Dynasty, slapping “draw a card” on this type of spell is a big upgrade. Just temporary altering your creature’s stats is a bit too narrow of a use to be something you want to use a card on all the time, but this makes up for that with the cantrip. The times where you use this as a trick that wrecks your opponent is pretty sweet. It probably won’t be quite as good as Suit Up was, since Ninjutsu made for an interesting environment in terms of how opponents would block, but this definitely seems solid.
Riveteers Initiate
2.5 Like most of this cycle, this is solid. It has okay base stats, and it can gain a useful keyword! Deathtouch does mean it can trade with anything, and that’s nice.
Gathering Throng
0.0 // 3.0 Collect ‘em all cards are always pretty fun in Limited. A 3-mana 3/1 is bad, but as long as you have two of these, this is very playable, since a 3-mana 3/1 that draws another one is a pretty good deal. It makes sure you will continue to have stuff to play, and getting these also guarantees you can go wide and keep triggering Alliance. They are also Citizens! So yeah, Basically, if you have only one copy of this, its pretty much unplayable – if you have two, it’s a 2.5, and it probably maxes out around a 3.0.
Rakish Revelers
2.5 A 5-mana 5/3 that makes a 1/1 is something I would already sign up for, so the fact that it can fix your mana earlier in the game is some upside on a card that’s already quite playable.
Join the Maestros
2.5 This seems like a solid Common. Without Casualty it is pretty ugly, but if you have some decent fodder to sacrifice, getting two 4/3 bodies is pretty good for the cost.
Sky Crier
1.5 Flying and Lifelink make this a nice place to put counters, but apart from that, this card just isn’t all that efficient. And the draw effect also isn’t great since its symmetrical – and in some ways it is worse than symmetrical since you’re the one paying mana for the card and your opponent doesn’t pay anything! If you time it right, you can take advantage of the card before they do, but I still don’t like the idea of doing that. If this set didn’t have a decent +1/+1 counter theme, this would probably be a 1.0, but I think it will be a little bit better than that.
Sticky Fingers
3.0 If you get this on a creature early, it is going to allow you to really run away with the game. Your creature won’t be easily blocked and you’ll generate treasure that allows you to pull further ahead. It does have diminishing returns as the game goes on, but this is capable of effectively ending games very early.
Celestial Regulator
3.0 I always love Frost Lynx type creatures because of the amazing tempo they generate by freezing something down while you add to the board. Now, freezing something down takes a little bit of setup with the Regulator, but if yo’ure in Blue White you’ll have access to lots of +1/+1 and Shield counters, so I think this will do its thing a big chunk of the time – and on top of that it has efficient flying stats.
Glamorous Outlaw
2.5 Like the rest of this cycle, exiling this gives you some fixing that isn’t great, but because you can also just cast it the normal way and get passable value – or you can play it from exile in the later game.
Exhibition Magician
3.0 This is a good Common. A three mana 2/1 that makes a 1/1 – in a color that has lots of pay offs for going wide – is a pretty nice card – probably a C+. So, also having the Treasure option is nice upside – sometimes you’ll want it to help you ramp, and sometimes you’ll be in a deck that cares about Treasure than it does going wide, especially if you’re in Red/Green.
Pack 1 Pick 6: Botanical Plaza
Slip Out the Back
1.0 This doesn’t seem great to me. Sure, it can save your creature and it gets a permanent buff, but good effects like this can actually allow you to take down the creature that you’re blocking. That’s part of what made Tamiyo’s Safekeeping so good – it had an effect that was good against removal, but it could also make your creature win combat when it would have been a trade. And…you can’t do that with Phasing. Basically, this can only save your creature and buff it – and that’s not really worth a card. It is just too narrow.
Paragon of Modernity
2.0 This looks solid. It starts out as an inefficient creature, but most decks will be three colors in this format, so putting counters on this as a mana sink in the mid to late game seems like a legitimate strategy. If your deck doesn’t have good enough fixing to consistently get three colors this is much worse, but I think most decks will be able to do it, so it isn’t a build around or anything.
Rhox Pummeler
2.5 The shield counter is pretty nice on a creature with high power and trample, as it really can put your opponent in a bind when it comes to blocking it. For some of these shield creatures, you can just throw one of your tokens in front of it to get the shield to go away – and you can still do that here, but you’re probably taking 5 in the process! This seems like a decent top curve.
Cutthroat Contender
1.5 A vanilla one mana 2/1 already isn’t a great card in Limited, since it really tends to get outclassed in a hurry – and this is basically a one mana 2/1 that is conditional. A 2/1 is only marginally better than a 1/1 in most games. It doesn’t really seem worth it to me, even in an aggro deck. I guess the idea is that you can buff it so that your one drop can be sacrificed to a Casualty 2 spell, but that doesn’t make it that much better.
Goldhound
3.0 This looks pretty nice. A one mana 1/1 with Menace and First Strike is kind of a pain to interact with early, and it’s a great place to put counters and stuff. Then, once it becomes irrelevant, it can also just ramp and fix for you. This provides a lot for only one Red mana.
Botanical Plaza
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Light 'Em Up
3.0 Two mana to do 2 at Sorcery speed is usually a solid card, so having the Casualty upside of doubling the spell is pretty sweet. That means you can take down X/4s with it sometimes, or even better – kill two creatures!
Sewer Crocodile
1.5 // 2.5 If you can get the ability on this down to a single Blue, it represent a pretty reasonable win condition, since you can crack in with your unblockable Crocodile and still have plenty of mana left over to add to the board too. That’s usually the problem with this big inefficient creatures who ask for a lot of mana to become unblockable – you can’t really do more than use the ability, but with the Crocodile, sometimes you’ll be able to get it going pretty cheaply. In a Blue deck that isn’t good at loading the graveyard you probably don’t end up playing this – so this probably deserves a build around.
Wrecking Crew
2.5 This has decent French Vanilla stats. Not much more to say about it.
Pack 1 Pick 7: Make Disappear
Snooping Newsie
3.0 This seems solid. Early it is a decent creature that loads your graveyard, and in the later game it becomes a 3/3 lifelinker, something that has an impact on most boards. I do think it will be a little challenging to get it going, but the set seems to have enough ways to load the graveyard that it will be doable.
Witty Roastmaster
2.5 This has passable stats and a solid if unexciting ability. It can definitely chip in for a decent chunk of damage over the course of the game, especially if you’re making tokens!
Make Disappear
1.5 Without Casualty, this kind of counter spell isn't great, since your opponent is likely to have the spare mana the longer the game goes on. With casualty…I still don't think it is great, but obviously it will allow you to counter more spells more often.
Brokers Initiate
1.5 A one mana 0/4 isn’t really what you want to be doing in Limited most of the time. Sure, it can block some things, but that’s just not enough these days. It has a minimal impact on the board – up until you can pump mana into it to make it a 5/5 – but it is a lot of mana. It isn’t unplayable or anything, but I don’t see it making the cut even in every deck that can pay for the ability.
Buy Your Silence
2.5 This can deal with any nonland permanent, but its also a pretty clunky sorcery that gives your opponent back a treasure. It definitely falls short of being Premium removal, but I do think the first copy is going to be something you want in most White decks, since it is sort of a catch-all removal spell. Running more than one probably isn’t great, though.
Most Wanted
1.5 Flash Auras can be nice, since they are sort of like combat tricks that leave some permanent value behind, but only giving +1 to toughness does mean this won’t save your creature as often as you’d probably like. Getting two Treasure when the creature dies does soften the blow if you get 2-for-1’d, but probably not by enough for me to excited about this.
Sticky Fingers
3.0 If you get this on a creature early, it is going to allow you to really run away with the game. Your creature won’t be easily blocked and you’ll generate treasure that allows you to pull further ahead. It does have diminishing returns as the game goes on, but this is capable of effectively ending games very early.
Join the Maestros
2.5 This seems like a solid Common. Without Casualty it is pretty ugly, but if you have some decent fodder to sacrifice, getting two 4/3 bodies is pretty good for the cost.
Pack 1 Pick 8: Witness Protection
Psionic Snoop
1.5 This isn’t especially good. It is either a 3-mana ¼ that you discard a nonland card to, or a 3-mana 0/3 that lets you throw a land away for - hopefully - a real card. Neither of those things are bad, but it is far from impressive. If you can flash it in to kill an X/1 it will feel a lot better, and that will happen sometimes, but there will be enough times where it is just a glorified blocker that I’m not super interested in this.
Waterfront District
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Raffine's Guidance
1.5 Auras that can come back from the graveyard always tend to be kind of decent, since your opponent has a hard time ever truly getting rid of them. However, this one offers a pretty small boost. Still, with Connive being a thing, discarding this to get a +1/+1 counter and then having the opportunity to slap it on a creature late seem okay.
Tramway Station
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Witness Protection
1.5 I have a hard time ever getting behind this type of removal. The big problem is that you aren’t entirely dealing with the creature you put it on! It can still attack and block, and +1/+1 and shield counters are a problem too, as is the Casualty mechanic and other sacrifice effects. You’ll play this if you’re desperate for removal, but that’s about it.
Glamorous Outlaw
2.5 Like the rest of this cycle, exiling this gives you some fixing that isn’t great, but because you can also just cast it the normal way and get passable value – or you can play it from exile in the later game.
Daring Escape
1.5 +1/+0 and First Strike makes for a decent trick for one mana. The power boost isn’t ultra impressive, but First Strike obviously makes combat go much more favorably for your creature. I still think Antagonize is probably the trick you’re after if you’re playing Red aggro, but this can fill the role.
Pack 1 Pick 9: Sky Crier
Scuttling Butler
1.0 // 3.0 This is definitely a build around, because a 3-mana 4/1 just isn’t worth it in your typical deck. It is probably a D at best. However, the upside here is actually kind of nuts, as giving a 4/1 double strike is pretty amazing. Your deck needs to be able to give this double strike a significant chunk of the time, and the good news is that looks like it can happen in many decks in this format, though it is perhaps the easiest in Green-White or Cabaretti more broadly, because of Citizen tokens which are both colors
Most Wanted
1.5 Flash Auras can be nice, since they are sort of like combat tricks that leave some permanent value behind, but only giving +1 to toughness does mean this won’t save your creature as often as you’d probably like. Getting two Treasure when the creature dies does soften the blow if you get 2-for-1’d, but probably not by enough for me to excited about this.
Hold for Ransom
3.0 This is a Pacifism that your opponent can pay 7 mana to get rid of. We’ve seen removal auras in the past that let your opponent pay mana to get rid of the Aura, and most of them haven’t been great. I think this one has enough going on, though, that it looks better than previous cards like that we’ve seen. For one thing, 7 mana is a ton – so much that your opponent may just never get there. For another, your opponent also lets you draw a card off of it, and they can only pay for it at Sorcery speed. Your opponent may finally get rid of it, but they will spend their whole turn doing it most of the time, and then it replaces itself! Now, like all Aura removal, this is at a bit of a disadvantage in this format because of the presence of the Casualty mechanic and other sacrifice stuff more broadly.
Deal Gone Bad
2.5 This isn’t the most efficient removal spell, but at least its an Instant, and it comes with some extra value with the mill effect. The way this format is looking, you probably want to mill yourself more often than your opponent since you can get a lot of value going in that direction. This isn’t premium removal, but it seems like a solid Common.
Jackhammer
1.5 We’ve seen a purely colorless version of this before, and I wasn’t particular impressed with that, so one that requires Red mana to cast isn’t exactly something I’m looking to play. Sticking this on a token is the most appealing thing, as a 3/1 token can’t be ignored, but the two mana to equip this is a pretty steep rate on a card that doesn’t do anything else.
Sky Crier
1.5 Flying and Lifelink make this a nice place to put counters, but apart from that, this card just isn’t all that efficient. And the draw effect also isn’t great since its symmetrical – and in some ways it is worse than symmetrical since you’re the one paying mana for the card and your opponent doesn’t pay anything! If you time it right, you can take advantage of the card before they do, but I still don’t like the idea of doing that. If this set didn’t have a decent +1/+1 counter theme, this would probably be a 1.0, but I think it will be a little bit better than that.
Pack 1 Pick 10: Raffine's Guidance
Vampire Scrivener
2.0 This obviously has the potential to get absolutely massive, but it has some pretty awful starting stats that will allow your opponent to pay 1 to 2 mana to kill your five drop, and that’s always pretty rough. What’s more is, losing life on your turn won’t be super easy – so you’re mostly going to be leaning on the life gain angle, which will happen, but it also isn’t a massive theme in this format.
Raffine's Guidance
1.5 Auras that can come back from the graveyard always tend to be kind of decent, since your opponent has a hard time ever truly getting rid of them. However, this one offers a pretty small boost. Still, with Connive being a thing, discarding this to get a +1/+1 counter and then having the opportunity to slap it on a creature late seem okay.
Crooked Custodian
2.0 This has above rate stats, but coming into play tapped kind of cancels that out – it isn’t like its stats are CRAZY good anyway. Still, seems like a nice two drop for an aggro deck, and its one of the more efficient ways to get 3 power in play for the spells that have higher Casualty costs.
Run Out of Town
3.0 This is decent Blue removal – and it is removal, because bouncing a card to the deck makes it a 1-for-1, even if your opponent can just draw the thing again. It is definitely a bit costly, but its flexibility makes it a pretty nice card.
Masked Bandits
2.5 A six-mana 5/5 is actually kind of reasonable, and this one comes with the upside of helping you fix your mana early.
Pack 1 Pick 11: Run Out of Town
Suspicious Bookcase
1.5 This is a reprint, and a pretty uninteresting one! It wasn’t particularly good last time we saw it, but it wasn’t a disaster either. It has okayish defensive stats and can send things in unblocked late. You’ll play it in some more controlling decks.
Run Out of Town
3.0 This is decent Blue removal – and it is removal, because bouncing a card to the deck makes it a 1-for-1, even if your opponent can just draw the thing again. It is definitely a bit costly, but its flexibility makes it a pretty nice card.
Daring Escape
1.5 +1/+0 and First Strike makes for a decent trick for one mana. The power boost isn’t ultra impressive, but First Strike obviously makes combat go much more favorably for your creature. I still think Antagonize is probably the trick you’re after if you’re playing Red aggro, but this can fill the role.
Psionic Snoop
1.5 This isn’t especially good. It is either a 3-mana ¼ that you discard a nonland card to, or a 3-mana 0/3 that lets you throw a land away for - hopefully - a real card. Neither of those things are bad, but it is far from impressive. If you can flash it in to kill an X/1 it will feel a lot better, and that will happen sometimes, but there will be enough times where it is just a glorified blocker that I’m not super interested in this.
Pack 1 Pick 12: Run Out of Town
Rob the Archives
3.5 In the early game, this is often going to be a dead card, but in the late game being able to copy this with a bunch of mana untapped is just going to happen sometimes. And when this feels like a two mana card that draws you 3 or 4 cards, it is going to be incredible. Having more than one copy of this seems a bit dangerous because of how bad it is early, but its power in the late game is pretty serious, so the first copy should be valued pretty highly.
Wrecking Crew
2.5 This has decent French Vanilla stats. Not much more to say about it.
Run Out of Town
3.0 This is decent Blue removal – and it is removal, because bouncing a card to the deck makes it a 1-for-1, even if your opponent can just draw the thing again. It is definitely a bit costly, but its flexibility makes it a pretty nice card.
Pack 1 Pick 13: Exhibition Magician
Riveteers Initiate
2.5 Like most of this cycle, this is solid. It has okay base stats, and it can gain a useful keyword! Deathtouch does mean it can trade with anything, and that’s nice.
Exhibition Magician
3.0 This is a good Common. A three mana 2/1 that makes a 1/1 – in a color that has lots of pay offs for going wide – is a pretty nice card – probably a C+. So, also having the Treasure option is nice upside – sometimes you’ll want it to help you ramp, and sometimes you’ll be in a deck that cares about Treasure than it does going wide, especially if you’re in Red/Green.
Pack 1 Pick 14: Cutthroat Contender
Cutthroat Contender
1.5 A vanilla one mana 2/1 already isn’t a great card in Limited, since it really tends to get outclassed in a hurry – and this is basically a one mana 2/1 that is conditional. A 2/1 is only marginally better than a 1/1 in most games. It doesn’t really seem worth it to me, even in an aggro deck. I guess the idea is that you can buff it so that your one drop can be sacrificed to a Casualty 2 spell, but that doesn’t make it that much better.
Pack 2 Pick 1: Echo Inspector
Jaxis, the Troublemaker
4.5 This looks really good to me. Even without Blitz, coming with the ability to make a Blitzish version of one of your creatures in play is pretty darn good, because it means you can send in a hasty copy of your best creature that will also draw you a card when it dies, and that means you get back the card you discarded. And its going to die, because it has the same clause that Blitz creatures do. She herself also has Blitz, which sometimes will allow her to come down and finish off an opponent out of nowhere, or make a copy of something right away, but I actually think just straight-up casting her is the way to get the most value out of her. She’s a bit fragile, but it seems like she will be able to take over games.
An Offer You Can't Refuse
0.0 I think I WILL be refusing this offer. This mostly seems like it was printed for constructed. Most Limited decks don’t have enough non-creature spells for this sort of thing to be good, and giving them treasure seems like way too much downside on an already narrow counterspell, even if it is efficient. It is probably a sideboard card at best.
A Little Chat
3.0 The base level of this card would probably be a 1.5 or 2.0. It doesn’t do much, but it gives you some okay card selection. However, I think the Casualty upside here is pretty big, because once this turn into a 4 mana card that draws you two of the top four cards of your library, we’re talking about something pretty powerful! And you can sacrifice almost any creature to get that copy. You won’t always be able to do that of course, but the sort of acceptable baseline and the big upside makes this a card that I don’t think you’ll cut from most Blue decks.
Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer
3.5 This is a neat design. The main idea here is that you get to trigger Alliance twice when you cast Rocco, but being able to search up some stuff is pretty sweet. I mean, if you pay 4 and get a 3/1 and a 1/1, you’re doing pretty well, and things pretty much scale from there. Paying almost anything for X is going to feel good, though make sure you have something to search up. You won’t always at one, for example. The rest of the mana values are probably going to be easier to make work.
Echo Inspector
3.0 This looks like a quality common. A 4-mana ⅔ Flyer that looted on ETB would be pretty alright to begin with, but Connive is looting with some pretty legit upside. You either get a 4-mana ¾ and discard a nonland, or its a ⅔ that gives you that loot. Either outcome is nice.
Glittermonger
2.0 This is a decent source of fixing and mana, especially if you’re in a deck that has some Treasure payoffs – but its base stats aren’t especially good.
Obscura Initiate
2.5 This is a Wind Drake with some solid upside – life link is no joke on an evasive creature, and can really alter races!
Sticky Fingers
3.0 If you get this on a creature early, it is going to allow you to really run away with the game. Your creature won’t be easily blocked and you’ll generate treasure that allows you to pull further ahead. It does have diminishing returns as the game goes on, but this is capable of effectively ending games very early.
Hold for Ransom
3.0 This is a Pacifism that your opponent can pay 7 mana to get rid of. We’ve seen removal auras in the past that let your opponent pay mana to get rid of the Aura, and most of them haven’t been great. I think this one has enough going on, though, that it looks better than previous cards like that we’ve seen. For one thing, 7 mana is a ton – so much that your opponent may just never get there. For another, your opponent also lets you draw a card off of it, and they can only pay for it at Sorcery speed. Your opponent may finally get rid of it, but they will spend their whole turn doing it most of the time, and then it replaces itself! Now, like all Aura removal, this is at a bit of a disadvantage in this format because of the presence of the Casualty mechanic and other sacrifice stuff more broadly.
Skybridge Towers
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Make Disappear
1.5 Without Casualty, this kind of counter spell isn't great, since your opponent is likely to have the spare mana the longer the game goes on. With casualty…I still don't think it is great, but obviously it will allow you to counter more spells more often.
Demon's Due
2.5 This is a pretty solid draw spell. You see up to 4 cards, giving you a good chance to draw something you want, and paying 2 life for it is perfectly reasonable. It isn’t really the kind of thing you want to go after early, or that you want to run more than one of – after all, it has no impact on the board -- but it seems like the first copy is going to make the cut in your Black decks most of the time.
Extract the Truth
1.5 The first mode will often be able to hit something, even in the middle part of the game, and having some enchantment hate in your main deck is nice. Now, there will be times where neither mode does anything, and that’s rough – but most of the time you’ll do something with it, even if it isn’t anything big.
Racers' Ring
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Pack 2 Pick 2: Sleep with the Fishes
Ognis, the Dragon's Lash
3.0 At worst, this is a 4-mana 3/3 with Haste that makes a Treasure when it attacks, but there is also plenty of other Haste in the format thanks to the Blitz mechanic, and this is a pretty nice payoff for Blitzing, as it helps make sure you get even more value left after your creature gets sacrificed.
Sleep with the Fishes
3.0 This is basically a 4-mana unblockable 1/1 that freezes down an opposing creature. That’s pretty sweet, since you’re adding a relevant body to the board while you cast a removal spell. Now, with the “Casualty” mechanic around, this type of card does get worse since your opponent is going to be perfectly happy sacrificing things sometimes. I think if this format didn’t have a big sacrifice theme, this would probably be premium – but in this format, it is sadly probably just a 3.0.
Ceremonial Groundbreaker
3.0 The GW color pair in this format is Citizen tribal, and this card pushes you pretty hard in that direction. +2/+1 and Trample are a decent boost, and enough of one to make many creatures into a threat, but paying 3 to equip this is not ideal. Equipping it to a citizen is a great deal though. Some of them are 1/1 tokens of course, but there are many of nontoken citizens in GW too that you’ll be able to equip this to very efficiently.
Brokers Veteran
2.5 This has medium stats, but giving a shield counter to one of your creatures is some nice upside to have on a two drop. The times when you don’t have a creature in play to put the counter on will be rough – and that can happen early, but this seems like a solid playable.
Warm Welcome
2.0 This type of effect is usually kind of rough since you spend some significant mana and don’t add to the board, but this type around it actually does, albeit with just a 1/1 Citizen. But that’s pretty important – not only does it add something to th eboard, but with both Citizen tribal and Alliance being a thing in the format, there is extra value placed on something like this. So, you end up getting the best creature in your top 5 and a 1/1. Don’t get me wrong, it still isn’t amazing or anything, but far more playable than this effect usually is at three mana.
Snooping Newsie
3.0 This seems solid. Early it is a decent creature that loads your graveyard, and in the later game it becomes a 3/3 lifelinker, something that has an impact on most boards. I do think it will be a little challenging to get it going, but the set seems to have enough ways to load the graveyard that it will be doable.
Maestros Theater
2.5 This is some more very nice fixing for the format, which isn’t a huge surprise since three colors is what this format is all about. This is basically a more narrow Evolving Wilds, but one that also gains you a life – and it doesn’t have to tap either, though that isn’t coming up much in Limited. You definitely will play these in a lot of your decks, as they’ll be nice for mana. They don’t have the late game upside of the dual land cycle, so I think I would rank them a little lower.
Expendable Lackey
2.5 True to his name, this Lackey is a pretty nice creature to sacrifice to a card with Casualty, since he can then make a Fish token from the graveyard – which you can also sacrifice. He also works well with Connive, because you still get value out of discarding him. They’ve been making a lot of one drops lately that overlap into multiple decks, and I think that’s what this is. This doesn’t exactly feel like the premium card you want to really abuse those two mechanics, but it does seem pretty decent there.
Gathering Throng
0.0 // 3.0 Collect ‘em all cards are always pretty fun in Limited. A 3-mana 3/1 is bad, but as long as you have two of these, this is very playable, since a 3-mana 3/1 that draws another one is a pretty good deal. It makes sure you will continue to have stuff to play, and getting these also guarantees you can go wide and keep triggering Alliance. They are also Citizens! So yeah, Basically, if you have only one copy of this, its pretty much unplayable – if you have two, it’s a 2.5, and it probably maxes out around a 3.0.
Ready to Rumble
2.5 No matter which mode you choose, you aren’t getting a great deal for the mana, but hey – 5 damage does kill most stuff! Just… paying 5 to kill something that costs a lot less is pretty rough. You probably play one copy of this in most Red decks though, as it gives you some removal that does the job and comes with some artifact-hate upside.
Celebrity Fencer
3.0 This has the potential to get really massive, but I don’t love that it starts out as a 3/2. You’re going to get really blown out sometimes when you play this and your opponent destroys it for one or two mana. But in a lot of White decks in this format, especially the Cabaretti, like putting a ton of creature tokens into play, and that will allow the Fencer to do some serious work.
Kill Shot
2.0 Is decent removal, but it is situational enough that it is nowhere near premium. An aggressive deck isn’t super interested in a card like this, because you really want cards that let you kill blockers, and your opponent can also play around a card like this pretty effectively.
Incriminate
2.0 Black often has cards that let the opponent make a decision about something, and they pretty much always underperform, since there are too many situations where your opponent can minimize the damage. However, I think this might make your opponent make a narrow enough decision that it will be decent. Sure, you’ll have situations where your opponent hasl ike a 1/1 and some bomb creature and it isn’t going to feel too good in those scenarios – and I’m certainly not saying this is premium removal ro anything – but I do think there will be enough board states where this kills something you want dead for two mana. Don’t go into it thinking it is Doom Blade, and I think you’ll feel okay about what you’re getting.
Pack 2 Pick 3: Scheming Fence
Scheming Fence
2.5 This has some pretty incredible upside – not only doing the Pithing Needle thing to a permanent but also stealing its activated abilities. Problem is, in Limited, there will be many instances where that part of the card is just irrelevant. There just isn’t always something around worth naming, and you don’t have enough knowledge of the opposing deck most of the time to name something relevant. Its still a two mana ⅔ with upside, and there will be times where it feels incredible – but other times it will just feel Vanilla.
Rumor Gatherer
3.0 A 3-mana 2/1 – and one that costs double white – is just really bad. Scrying any time a creature enters the battlefield is nice upside though, and if you can make enough tokens or double spell with creatures, it will end up netting you a card. I think this will net you a card often enough that I want to start the format valuing this card pretty highly, bad stats and all.
Luxurious Libation
2.0 This looks like a solid trick. The bonus it gives you will never be the most efficient, but the fact it scales is nice, and getting a token is some nice added value, especially if you have some Alliance going on. It is still a trick, and has all the risks they always have - situational, risky, and so forth - but I think the first copy of this seems decent.
Mayhem Patrol
2.5 This looks like a solid Common. On its own, it is basically a two mana 2/2 with Menace, but the fact it can lend that power boost to other creatures is pretty nice, and the Blitz upside is fine too. It won’t generally be too long before it can’t attack any more, so just Blitzing it when you draw it in that situation is nice.
Run Out of Town
3.0 This is decent Blue removal – and it is removal, because bouncing a card to the deck makes it a 1-for-1, even if your opponent can just draw the thing again. It is definitely a bit costly, but its flexibility makes it a pretty nice card.
Cutthroat Contender
1.5 A vanilla one mana 2/1 already isn’t a great card in Limited, since it really tends to get outclassed in a hurry – and this is basically a one mana 2/1 that is conditional. A 2/1 is only marginally better than a 1/1 in most games. It doesn’t really seem worth it to me, even in an aggro deck. I guess the idea is that you can buff it so that your one drop can be sacrificed to a Casualty 2 spell, but that doesn’t make it that much better.
Dig Up the Body
2.5 This is a pretty clunky version of this effect – three mana to get one thing back is not especially good, even with the mill thrown in. Basically, for this to feel like its worth it, you’ll need to be doubling the spell, and that’s easy enough since it only needs one power, but I still think this is the kind of card you’re really only going to want one of in Black decks. You really don’t want this showing up in your opening hand, you want it late.
Skybridge Towers
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Racers' Ring
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Civic Gardener
1.5 This type of effect is often not especially impactful. Sure, it sort of has Vigilance, and can lend it to other creatures, and help you have more mana in your second main phase, but all of those things are just not a big deal most of the time. And it isn’t like it can really attack and make use of that trigger for very long.
Glamorous Outlaw
2.5 Like the rest of this cycle, exiling this gives you some fixing that isn’t great, but because you can also just cast it the normal way and get passable value – or you can play it from exile in the later game.
Demon's Due
2.5 This is a pretty solid draw spell. You see up to 4 cards, giving you a good chance to draw something you want, and paying 2 life for it is perfectly reasonable. It isn’t really the kind of thing you want to go after early, or that you want to run more than one of – after all, it has no impact on the board -- but it seems like the first copy is going to make the cut in your Black decks most of the time.
Pack 2 Pick 4: Dapper Shieldmate
Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder
3.5 This looks pretty nice. What I like the most is that the turn you play it it will often already have some impact, as it will make one of your creatures into a much more formidable attacker. It can of course pump its own power too, so when it attacks its a 4/4, but you’re usually hoping for something spicier than that. It also pairs well with Blitz, as your opponent often won’t want to block a Blitzed creature, since you’ll be getting a card anyway when it dies and the creature isn’t sticking around for good, but Mr. Orfeo complicates that, since the creatures will be hitting harder.
Graveyard Shift
2.5 I am not normally super into 5 mana reanimation spells in Limited. It is just too hard to actually get a full five mana of value out of your graveyard on a consistent basis. However, this format looks like it might have what this kind of card needs. The Connive mechanic means you can discard things to reanimate pretty easily, so I think this might be one of those formats where this is a nice card.
Jackhammer
1.5 We’ve seen a purely colorless version of this before, and I wasn’t particular impressed with that, so one that requires Red mana to cast isn’t exactly something I’m looking to play. Sticking this on a token is the most appealing thing, as a 3/1 token can’t be ignored, but the two mana to equip this is a pretty steep rate on a card that doesn’t do anything else.
Join the Maestros
2.5 This seems like a solid Common. Without Casualty it is pretty ugly, but if you have some decent fodder to sacrifice, getting two 4/3 bodies is pretty good for the cost.
Case the Joint
1.5 4 mana to draw 2 at instant speed is kind of passable. This has additional minor upside in that it gives you a bit of information, but that doesn’t really do enough for this to be something that consistently makes the cut in your deck.
Light 'Em Up
3.0 Two mana to do 2 at Sorcery speed is usually a solid card, so having the Casualty upside of doubling the spell is pretty sweet. That means you can take down X/4s with it sometimes, or even better – kill two creatures!
Dapper Shieldmate
2.5 If you take the shield counter out of the equation here, this card would be a 1.0. A 4-mana 2/2 that’s only a 4/2 on your turn just isn’t good. However, the shield counter definitely matters here. Your opponent is going to have to give up something in most cases just to get rid of the counter. And sure, they could just chump it with a token or something, but they still have to put in some work, and they can’t just ignore this since it can hit for 4 damage at a time.
High-Rise Sawjack
2.0 We’ve seen this card in Spider-form before, and it was fine. 4 power is enough to take down most flyers and it is a nice thing to trade for those types of creatures.
Riveteers Initiate
2.5 Like most of this cycle, this is solid. It has okay base stats, and it can gain a useful keyword! Deathtouch does mean it can trade with anything, and that’s nice.
Girder Goons
2.5 Neither mode with this is great, but both are fine. A 5-mana 4/4 that leaves behind a 2/2 can definitely generate a 2-for-1, and if you Blitz this you not only get to draw a card when it dies, you also add to the board.
Attended Socialite
2.0 This looks like a fine, if unexciting, two drop for creature-heavy Green decks. It will often attack as a 3/2, which isn’t the biggest upgrade ever since most two drops can still trade with it.
Pack 2 Pick 5: Rooftop Nuisance
Angelic Observer
3.0 Most of the tokens in this format are Citizens, especially within White and more broadly within the Cabaretti colors, and there are also a decent number of non-token citizens around. Getting this to 5 mana seems eminently doable, and while that’s not great, it is certainly passable, and sometimes you’ll cast it for a lot less. 4 mana is probably going to be a pretty common occurrence.
Capenna Express
2.0 A 4-mana 6/6 vehicle with Crew 3 is generally not something you end up playing, but the upside of crewing this with Treasure is very real, as Green – and especially Red-Green, looks like it will be pretty good at generating treasure.
Cabaretti Courtyard
2.5 This is some more very nice fixing for the format, which isn’t a huge surprise since three colors is what this format is all about. This is basically a more narrow Evolving Wilds, but one that also gains you a life – and it doesn’t have to tap either, though that isn’t coming up much in Limited. You definitely will play these in a lot of your decks, as they’ll be nice for mana. They don’t have the late game upside of the dual land cycle, so I think I would rank them a little lower.
Goldhound
3.0 This looks pretty nice. A one mana 1/1 with Menace and First Strike is kind of a pain to interact with early, and it’s a great place to put counters and stuff. Then, once it becomes irrelevant, it can also just ramp and fix for you. This provides a lot for only one Red mana.
Deal Gone Bad
2.5 This isn’t the most efficient removal spell, but at least its an Instant, and it comes with some extra value with the mill effect. The way this format is looking, you probably want to mill yourself more often than your opponent since you can get a lot of value going in that direction. This isn’t premium removal, but it seems like a solid Common.
Rooftop Nuisance
2.5 We usually see this effect as an Instant, and being a Sorcery instead is definitely a downgrade. If it is an instant, you get to stop two rounds of attacks and blocks when you cast it. As a Sorcery, you only stop one attack – though you still make your opponent unable to block with that creature for two turns, which is usually the best part about this card anyway. So, adding a very cheap Casualty option to the card is pretty appealing – locking down two creatures and drawing two cards for only three mana is pretty great, even if you lose a token. This is going to end up closing out a lot of games in this format.
Halo Scarab
1.5 This has okay stats, and gives you some value out of the graveyard. That will be nice whether you mill it, discard it, or just have it die from being in play. Two mana to make a treasure is obviously not a great rate, but it does give you the potential to have fixing in just about any deck. I think this is going to be pretty easy to cut as decks will usually have good enough fixing without it, but it isn’t a disaster to play it either.
Paragon of Modernity
2.0 This looks solid. It starts out as an inefficient creature, but most decks will be three colors in this format, so putting counters on this as a mana sink in the mid to late game seems like a legitimate strategy. If your deck doesn’t have good enough fixing to consistently get three colors this is much worse, but I think most decks will be able to do it, so it isn’t a build around or anything.
Buy Your Silence
2.5 This can deal with any nonland permanent, but its also a pretty clunky sorcery that gives your opponent back a treasure. It definitely falls short of being Premium removal, but I do think the first copy is going to be something you want in most White decks, since it is sort of a catch-all removal spell. Running more than one probably isn’t great, though.
Jackhammer
1.5 We’ve seen a purely colorless version of this before, and I wasn’t particular impressed with that, so one that requires Red mana to cast isn’t exactly something I’m looking to play. Sticking this on a token is the most appealing thing, as a 3/1 token can’t be ignored, but the two mana to equip this is a pretty steep rate on a card that doesn’t do anything else.
Pack 2 Pick 6: Angelic Observer
Glittering Stockpile
2.0 This goes well in the RG treasure deck. It helps you ramp your mana, and slowly builds up stash counters which you can eventually cash in for a ton of mana – and can even fix for you. It is still a 3 mana Artifact that has no immediate impact on the board, though, and that’s the kind of card that can be a real liability in most formats. That downside does seem worth it, but only if you have outlets for all the mana this can give you. Most three mana mana rocks that tap for a single mana just aren’t especially good in Limited, but I think the extra upside here at least makes it playable.
Angelic Observer
3.0 Most of the tokens in this format are Citizens, especially within White and more broadly within the Cabaretti colors, and there are also a decent number of non-token citizens around. Getting this to 5 mana seems eminently doable, and while that’s not great, it is certainly passable, and sometimes you’ll cast it for a lot less. 4 mana is probably going to be a pretty common occurrence.
Sewer Crocodile
1.5 // 2.5 If you can get the ability on this down to a single Blue, it represent a pretty reasonable win condition, since you can crack in with your unblockable Crocodile and still have plenty of mana left over to add to the board too. That’s usually the problem with this big inefficient creatures who ask for a lot of mana to become unblockable – you can’t really do more than use the ability, but with the Crocodile, sometimes you’ll be able to get it going pretty cheaply. In a Blue deck that isn’t good at loading the graveyard you probably don’t end up playing this – so this probably deserves a build around.
Goldhound
3.0 This looks pretty nice. A one mana 1/1 with Menace and First Strike is kind of a pain to interact with early, and it’s a great place to put counters and stuff. Then, once it becomes irrelevant, it can also just ramp and fix for you. This provides a lot for only one Red mana.
Security Bypass
1.0 Unblockable when attacking alone + the ability to Connive every time you hit the opponent is kind of decent for the cost, but I don’t feel like its worth the inherent risk of playing an Aura. Connive isn’t quite worth a card after you do it once, though, and that means if your opponent can deal with whatever you put this on before you do it a second time, you’re ending up way behind. So, in the end, this feels like an Aura that won’t quite do enough to be worth the risk. Even if you’re discarding things for value, I’m skeptical.
Glittermonger
2.0 This is a decent source of fixing and mana, especially if you’re in a deck that has some Treasure payoffs – but its base stats aren’t especially good.
Celebrity Fencer
3.0 This has the potential to get really massive, but I don’t love that it starts out as a 3/2. You’re going to get really blown out sometimes when you play this and your opponent destroys it for one or two mana. But in a lot of White decks in this format, especially the Cabaretti, like putting a ton of creature tokens into play, and that will allow the Fencer to do some serious work.
Majestic Metamorphosis
2.0 As we learned in Kamigawa Neon Dynasty, slapping “draw a card” on this type of spell is a big upgrade. Just temporary altering your creature’s stats is a bit too narrow of a use to be something you want to use a card on all the time, but this makes up for that with the cantrip. The times where you use this as a trick that wrecks your opponent is pretty sweet. It probably won’t be quite as good as Suit Up was, since Ninjutsu made for an interesting environment in terms of how opponents would block, but this definitely seems solid.
Witness Protection
1.5 I have a hard time ever getting behind this type of removal. The big problem is that you aren’t entirely dealing with the creature you put it on! It can still attack and block, and +1/+1 and shield counters are a problem too, as is the Casualty mechanic and other sacrifice effects. You’ll play this if you’re desperate for removal, but that’s about it.
Pack 2 Pick 7: Sky Crier
Slip Out the Back
1.0 This doesn’t seem great to me. Sure, it can save your creature and it gets a permanent buff, but good effects like this can actually allow you to take down the creature that you’re blocking. That’s part of what made Tamiyo’s Safekeeping so good – it had an effect that was good against removal, but it could also make your creature win combat when it would have been a trade. And…you can’t do that with Phasing. Basically, this can only save your creature and buff it – and that’s not really worth a card. It is just too narrow.
Cabaretti Courtyard
2.5 This is some more very nice fixing for the format, which isn’t a huge surprise since three colors is what this format is all about. This is basically a more narrow Evolving Wilds, but one that also gains you a life – and it doesn’t have to tap either, though that isn’t coming up much in Limited. You definitely will play these in a lot of your decks, as they’ll be nice for mana. They don’t have the late game upside of the dual land cycle, so I think I would rank them a little lower.
Jackhammer
1.5 We’ve seen a purely colorless version of this before, and I wasn’t particular impressed with that, so one that requires Red mana to cast isn’t exactly something I’m looking to play. Sticking this on a token is the most appealing thing, as a 3/1 token can’t be ignored, but the two mana to equip this is a pretty steep rate on a card that doesn’t do anything else.
Demon's Due
2.5 This is a pretty solid draw spell. You see up to 4 cards, giving you a good chance to draw something you want, and paying 2 life for it is perfectly reasonable. It isn’t really the kind of thing you want to go after early, or that you want to run more than one of – after all, it has no impact on the board -- but it seems like the first copy is going to make the cut in your Black decks most of the time.
Skybridge Towers
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Light 'Em Up
3.0 Two mana to do 2 at Sorcery speed is usually a solid card, so having the Casualty upside of doubling the spell is pretty sweet. That means you can take down X/4s with it sometimes, or even better – kill two creatures!
Antagonize
2.0 That’s a pretty nice boost for the cost – enough of one that it will make most creatures survive combat and take down whatever is blocking it. +4 is enough that this can let you sneak in lethal sometimes too. I think you’ll feel pretty good about the first one of these in most of your aggressive Red decks. It is still a trick of course, and comes with the inherent downsides they always have: they are situational and risky. But as far as tricks go, this is pretty good quality.
Sky Crier
1.5 Flying and Lifelink make this a nice place to put counters, but apart from that, this card just isn’t all that efficient. And the draw effect also isn’t great since its symmetrical – and in some ways it is worse than symmetrical since you’re the one paying mana for the card and your opponent doesn’t pay anything! If you time it right, you can take advantage of the card before they do, but I still don’t like the idea of doing that. If this set didn’t have a decent +1/+1 counter theme, this would probably be a 1.0, but I think it will be a little bit better than that.
Pack 2 Pick 8: Hold for Ransom
Obscura Ascendancy
0.0 This doesn’t look very good for Limited. You have to get this into play, and then start casting spells with the exact right mana value to get it going – in other words, you have to cast a one mana spell, then a two mana one, and so on to actually get the tokens. Now, if you just get two tokens out of it that’s probably alright, but I think even doing that is going to be a bit challenging in a non-constructed deck. This is a neat design, but it doesn’t feel like one that is intended to be playable in Limited.
Case the Joint
1.5 4 mana to draw 2 at instant speed is kind of passable. This has additional minor upside in that it gives you a bit of information, but that doesn’t really do enough for this to be something that consistently makes the cut in your deck.
Rhox Pummeler
2.5 The shield counter is pretty nice on a creature with high power and trample, as it really can put your opponent in a bind when it comes to blocking it. For some of these shield creatures, you can just throw one of your tokens in front of it to get the shield to go away – and you can still do that here, but you’re probably taking 5 in the process! This seems like a decent top curve.
Cutthroat Contender
1.5 A vanilla one mana 2/1 already isn’t a great card in Limited, since it really tends to get outclassed in a hurry – and this is basically a one mana 2/1 that is conditional. A 2/1 is only marginally better than a 1/1 in most games. It doesn’t really seem worth it to me, even in an aggro deck. I guess the idea is that you can buff it so that your one drop can be sacrificed to a Casualty 2 spell, but that doesn’t make it that much better.
Hold for Ransom
3.0 This is a Pacifism that your opponent can pay 7 mana to get rid of. We’ve seen removal auras in the past that let your opponent pay mana to get rid of the Aura, and most of them haven’t been great. I think this one has enough going on, though, that it looks better than previous cards like that we’ve seen. For one thing, 7 mana is a ton – so much that your opponent may just never get there. For another, your opponent also lets you draw a card off of it, and they can only pay for it at Sorcery speed. Your opponent may finally get rid of it, but they will spend their whole turn doing it most of the time, and then it replaces itself! Now, like all Aura removal, this is at a bit of a disadvantage in this format because of the presence of the Casualty mechanic and other sacrifice stuff more broadly.
Witty Roastmaster
2.5 This has passable stats and a solid if unexciting ability. It can definitely chip in for a decent chunk of damage over the course of the game, especially if you’re making tokens!
Racers' Ring
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Pack 2 Pick 9: Skybridge Towers
An Offer You Can't Refuse
0.0 I think I WILL be refusing this offer. This mostly seems like it was printed for constructed. Most Limited decks don’t have enough non-creature spells for this sort of thing to be good, and giving them treasure seems like way too much downside on an already narrow counterspell, even if it is efficient. It is probably a sideboard card at best.
Sticky Fingers
3.0 If you get this on a creature early, it is going to allow you to really run away with the game. Your creature won’t be easily blocked and you’ll generate treasure that allows you to pull further ahead. It does have diminishing returns as the game goes on, but this is capable of effectively ending games very early.
Skybridge Towers
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Make Disappear
1.5 Without Casualty, this kind of counter spell isn't great, since your opponent is likely to have the spare mana the longer the game goes on. With casualty…I still don't think it is great, but obviously it will allow you to counter more spells more often.
Demon's Due
2.5 This is a pretty solid draw spell. You see up to 4 cards, giving you a good chance to draw something you want, and paying 2 life for it is perfectly reasonable. It isn’t really the kind of thing you want to go after early, or that you want to run more than one of – after all, it has no impact on the board -- but it seems like the first copy is going to make the cut in your Black decks most of the time.
Racers' Ring
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Pack 2 Pick 10: Celebrity Fencer
Warm Welcome
2.0 This type of effect is usually kind of rough since you spend some significant mana and don’t add to the board, but this type around it actually does, albeit with just a 1/1 Citizen. But that’s pretty important – not only does it add something to th eboard, but with both Citizen tribal and Alliance being a thing in the format, there is extra value placed on something like this. So, you end up getting the best creature in your top 5 and a 1/1. Don’t get me wrong, it still isn’t amazing or anything, but far more playable than this effect usually is at three mana.
Maestros Theater
2.5 This is some more very nice fixing for the format, which isn’t a huge surprise since three colors is what this format is all about. This is basically a more narrow Evolving Wilds, but one that also gains you a life – and it doesn’t have to tap either, though that isn’t coming up much in Limited. You definitely will play these in a lot of your decks, as they’ll be nice for mana. They don’t have the late game upside of the dual land cycle, so I think I would rank them a little lower.
Ready to Rumble
2.5 No matter which mode you choose, you aren’t getting a great deal for the mana, but hey – 5 damage does kill most stuff! Just… paying 5 to kill something that costs a lot less is pretty rough. You probably play one copy of this in most Red decks though, as it gives you some removal that does the job and comes with some artifact-hate upside.
Celebrity Fencer
3.0 This has the potential to get really massive, but I don’t love that it starts out as a 3/2. You’re going to get really blown out sometimes when you play this and your opponent destroys it for one or two mana. But in a lot of White decks in this format, especially the Cabaretti, like putting a ton of creature tokens into play, and that will allow the Fencer to do some serious work.
Kill Shot
2.0 Is decent removal, but it is situational enough that it is nowhere near premium. An aggressive deck isn’t super interested in a card like this, because you really want cards that let you kill blockers, and your opponent can also play around a card like this pretty effectively.
Pack 2 Pick 11: Racers' Ring
Run Out of Town
3.0 This is decent Blue removal – and it is removal, because bouncing a card to the deck makes it a 1-for-1, even if your opponent can just draw the thing again. It is definitely a bit costly, but its flexibility makes it a pretty nice card.
Cutthroat Contender
1.5 A vanilla one mana 2/1 already isn’t a great card in Limited, since it really tends to get outclassed in a hurry – and this is basically a one mana 2/1 that is conditional. A 2/1 is only marginally better than a 1/1 in most games. It doesn’t really seem worth it to me, even in an aggro deck. I guess the idea is that you can buff it so that your one drop can be sacrificed to a Casualty 2 spell, but that doesn’t make it that much better.
Racers' Ring
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Demon's Due
2.5 This is a pretty solid draw spell. You see up to 4 cards, giving you a good chance to draw something you want, and paying 2 life for it is perfectly reasonable. It isn’t really the kind of thing you want to go after early, or that you want to run more than one of – after all, it has no impact on the board -- but it seems like the first copy is going to make the cut in your Black decks most of the time.
Pack 2 Pick 12: Case the Joint
Jackhammer
1.5 We’ve seen a purely colorless version of this before, and I wasn’t particular impressed with that, so one that requires Red mana to cast isn’t exactly something I’m looking to play. Sticking this on a token is the most appealing thing, as a 3/1 token can’t be ignored, but the two mana to equip this is a pretty steep rate on a card that doesn’t do anything else.
Join the Maestros
2.5 This seems like a solid Common. Without Casualty it is pretty ugly, but if you have some decent fodder to sacrifice, getting two 4/3 bodies is pretty good for the cost.
Case the Joint
1.5 4 mana to draw 2 at instant speed is kind of passable. This has additional minor upside in that it gives you a bit of information, but that doesn’t really do enough for this to be something that consistently makes the cut in your deck.
Pack 2 Pick 13: Capenna Express
Capenna Express
2.0 A 4-mana 6/6 vehicle with Crew 3 is generally not something you end up playing, but the upside of crewing this with Treasure is very real, as Green – and especially Red-Green, looks like it will be pretty good at generating treasure.
Jackhammer
1.5 We’ve seen a purely colorless version of this before, and I wasn’t particular impressed with that, so one that requires Red mana to cast isn’t exactly something I’m looking to play. Sticking this on a token is the most appealing thing, as a 3/1 token can’t be ignored, but the two mana to equip this is a pretty steep rate on a card that doesn’t do anything else.
Pack 2 Pick 14: Security Bypass
Security Bypass
1.0 Unblockable when attacking alone + the ability to Connive every time you hit the opponent is kind of decent for the cost, but I don’t feel like its worth the inherent risk of playing an Aura. Connive isn’t quite worth a card after you do it once, though, and that means if your opponent can deal with whatever you put this on before you do it a second time, you’re ending up way behind. So, in the end, this feels like an Aura that won’t quite do enough to be worth the risk. Even if you’re discarding things for value, I’m skeptical.
Pack 3 Pick 1: Toluz, Clever Conductor
Toluz, Clever Conductor
3.5 This is a neat design. Like all of these hybrid cards, you can play it in a whole bunch of different decks! Then, this is a creature that will often be a 3/1 or a 4/2 that nets you a card when it dies, and that is high enough power that your opponent can’t just ignore it completely. And sure, if its a 3/1 that means you’re getting a land back when it does die, but a card’s a card! The one kind of awkard thing is that lots of Obscura decks will have stuff they want in the graveyard, and this won’t let you do that. It could be a pretty sweet thing to sacrifice for Casualty in some situations too.
Ceremonial Groundbreaker
3.0 The GW color pair in this format is Citizen tribal, and this card pushes you pretty hard in that direction. +2/+1 and Trample are a decent boost, and enough of one to make many creatures into a threat, but paying 3 to equip this is not ideal. Equipping it to a citizen is a great deal though. Some of them are 1/1 tokens of course, but there are many of nontoken citizens in GW too that you’ll be able to equip this to very efficiently.
Pugnacious Pugilist
3.0 Either way you play this, it looks like it is going to be pretty decent. If you Blitz it, you get a permanent Devil token in addition to sending a 4/4 at your opponents face, and then you of course get to draw a card when the Pugilist goes away. Just casting it is nice too sometimes, even if a 5-mana 4/4 feels pretty clunky these days. You still have a sizable creature who spits out tokens.
Rogues' Gallery
2.5 I think most Black decks in the format will have enough creatures of different colors to be interested in the first copy of this. Getting two things back with it is solid, and if you can get 3+ it will be downright insane! The format has plenty of graveyard action to enable it to. I think I like valuing the first copy of this at a 2.5, though you don’t really want more than that first copy.
Sewer Crocodile
1.5 // 2.5 If you can get the ability on this down to a single Blue, it represent a pretty reasonable win condition, since you can crack in with your unblockable Crocodile and still have plenty of mana left over to add to the board too. That’s usually the problem with this big inefficient creatures who ask for a lot of mana to become unblockable – you can’t really do more than use the ability, but with the Crocodile, sometimes you’ll be able to get it going pretty cheaply. In a Blue deck that isn’t good at loading the graveyard you probably don’t end up playing this – so this probably deserves a build around.
Ready to Rumble
2.5 No matter which mode you choose, you aren’t getting a great deal for the mana, but hey – 5 damage does kill most stuff! Just… paying 5 to kill something that costs a lot less is pretty rough. You probably play one copy of this in most Red decks though, as it gives you some removal that does the job and comes with some artifact-hate upside.
Halo Scarab
1.5 This has okay stats, and gives you some value out of the graveyard. That will be nice whether you mill it, discard it, or just have it die from being in play. Two mana to make a treasure is obviously not a great rate, but it does give you the potential to have fixing in just about any deck. I think this is going to be pretty easy to cut as decks will usually have good enough fixing without it, but it isn’t a disaster to play it either.
Civil Servant
3.0 This has above rate stats, and it looks like there are enough Citizens in this set to make those stats even more impressive for a fairly low cost. This isn’t really the Citizen payoff you’re hoping for, but it does seem like a pretty nice Common for that deck.
Demon's Due
2.5 This is a pretty solid draw spell. You see up to 4 cards, giving you a good chance to draw something you want, and paying 2 life for it is perfectly reasonable. It isn’t really the kind of thing you want to go after early, or that you want to run more than one of – after all, it has no impact on the board -- but it seems like the first copy is going to make the cut in your Black decks most of the time.
Big Score
2.5 This is an easier-to-cast Unexpected Windfall. While that card has been great in constructed, it wasn’t that great in Limited. It isn’t a bad card to have around though, as it helps you find some fresh cards while also providing you with some ramping and fixing, and the extra treasure it gives you might even enable you to cast something! But it doesn’t really do anything to immediately impact the game, and that makes it a card that you can cut sometimes.
Ominous Parcel
1.5 This can help you fix your mana, or it can be a removal spell. Its pretty bad at both of those things when you look at the total mana you spend for each, but the fact it can do both definitely makes it a decent enough playable.
Riveteers Overlook
2.5 This is some more very nice fixing for the format, which isn’t a huge surprise since three colors is what this format is all about. This is basically a more narrow Evolving Wilds, but one that also gains you a life – and it doesn’t have to tap either, though that isn’t coming up much in Limited. You definitely will play these in a lot of your decks, as they’ll be nice for mana. They don’t have the late game upside of the dual land cycle, so I think I would rank them a little lower.
Jewel Thief
3.5 This is an excellent Common. A 3-mana 3/3 with Vigilance and Trample is probably close to a C+, and adding treasure to the mix is a pretty big deal – not only does it ramp and fix for you – there is also treasure synergy throughout the set.
Cabaretti Courtyard
2.5 This is some more very nice fixing for the format, which isn’t a huge surprise since three colors is what this format is all about. This is basically a more narrow Evolving Wilds, but one that also gains you a life – and it doesn’t have to tap either, though that isn’t coming up much in Limited. You definitely will play these in a lot of your decks, as they’ll be nice for mana. They don’t have the late game upside of the dual land cycle, so I think I would rank them a little lower.
Pack 3 Pick 2: Quick-Draw Dagger
Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder
3.5 This looks pretty nice. What I like the most is that the turn you play it it will often already have some impact, as it will make one of your creatures into a much more formidable attacker. It can of course pump its own power too, so when it attacks its a 4/4, but you’re usually hoping for something spicier than that. It also pairs well with Blitz, as your opponent often won’t want to block a Blitzed creature, since you’ll be getting a card anyway when it dies and the creature isn’t sticking around for good, but Mr. Orfeo complicates that, since the creatures will be hitting harder.
Luxurious Libation
2.0 This looks like a solid trick. The bonus it gives you will never be the most efficient, but the fact it scales is nice, and getting a token is some nice added value, especially if you have some Alliance going on. It is still a trick, and has all the risks they always have - situational, risky, and so forth - but I think the first copy of this seems decent.
Unlucky Witness
2.5 This is pretty close to having a "draw a card" trigger when it dies, though in the very early game you won't always be able to take advantage. It feels like the main purpose for this card is to be sacrificed to Casualty effects, and that's going to be nice.
Fake Your Own Death
1.5 I guess we get a trick like this every set now! And, most versions of it tend to be pretty decent, and I think this one certainly is. +2/+0 is a boost that can allow your creature to win a whole lot of combats, and while it stands a good chance of dying too, Fake Your Own Death makes it not really matter, since the creature comes back! This gets especially spicy with ETB abilities, and there are also some potential Casualty and sacrifice shenanigans that this can enable.
Strangle
4.0 This is a strictly worse Lightning Bolt – since it is a Sorcery and can’t hit players – but it is still incredible value for only a single Red mana, and its certainly premium removal. You’ll trade up with this a ton.
Obscura Initiate
2.5 This is a Wind Drake with some solid upside – life link is no joke on an evasive creature, and can really alter races!
Quick-Draw Dagger
2.0 This is kind of like a combat trick that offers +1/+1 and First Strike for three mana which is…pretty bad for the cost on the face of it, but it is a boost that is pretty good at helping your creature win combat, and the fact it leaves behind an Equipment that can move around pretty cheaply and offer +1/+1 to stuff is pretty nice.
Cabaretti Courtyard
2.5 This is some more very nice fixing for the format, which isn’t a huge surprise since three colors is what this format is all about. This is basically a more narrow Evolving Wilds, but one that also gains you a life – and it doesn’t have to tap either, though that isn’t coming up much in Limited. You definitely will play these in a lot of your decks, as they’ll be nice for mana. They don’t have the late game upside of the dual land cycle, so I think I would rank them a little lower.
Paragon of Modernity
2.0 This looks solid. It starts out as an inefficient creature, but most decks will be three colors in this format, so putting counters on this as a mana sink in the mid to late game seems like a legitimate strategy. If your deck doesn’t have good enough fixing to consistently get three colors this is much worse, but I think most decks will be able to do it, so it isn’t a build around or anything.
Midnight Assassin
2.5 As a deathtoucher, this can trade with anything – and Flying makes it so it can trade for even more than most death touchers! And, in the meantime, it can attack away in the air for a bit of damage.
Social Climber
2.0 This has passable stats and a decent Alliance trigger. Gaining a bit of life here and there can add up sometimes, and that’s especially true with the tokens you’ll be making in Cabaretti!
Racers' Ring
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Speakeasy Server
2.5 A passable Flyer with an ETB that gains you life always tends to perform reasonably well in Limited. It can really help you stabilize. The downside here is that you need a board in place to gain any life – it doesn’t even gain you 1 life on its own, which is a little sad. Still, in White you’ll be able to go wide, and gaining 3+ with this should be pretty decent.
Pack 3 Pick 3: Rumor Gatherer
Rumor Gatherer
3.0 A 3-mana 2/1 – and one that costs double white – is just really bad. Scrying any time a creature enters the battlefield is nice upside though, and if you can make enough tokens or double spell with creatures, it will end up netting you a card. I think this will net you a card often enough that I want to start the format valuing this card pretty highly, bad stats and all.
Freelance Muscle
3.0 This will often get a boost when it attacks or blocks, but it has some pretty bad base-stats and it doesn’t have any evasion or anything else. It will get huge sometimes, but there will certainly be times where you play this and it just doesn’t get enough of a boost to be relevant.
Tavern Swindler
1.5 This is a reprint, and not an especially good one. Last time we saw it there was a significant life gain theme, but that’s not really the case here, so gaining life with this isn’t that great. There are a few cards in the format that check for life loss and life gain, and this could do some work in such a deck, but a lot of the time this is just a Bear.
Tramway Station
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Antagonize
2.0 That’s a pretty nice boost for the cost – enough of one that it will make most creatures survive combat and take down whatever is blocking it. +4 is enough that this can let you sneak in lethal sometimes too. I think you’ll feel pretty good about the first one of these in most of your aggressive Red decks. It is still a trick of course, and comes with the inherent downsides they always have: they are situational and risky. But as far as tricks go, this is pretty good quality.
Chrome Cat
1.5 This is a 3-mana 3/2 with some tiny upside. Its probably something that won’t normally make the cut, but it isn’t a disaster to run either.
Revelation of Power
1.5 The boost isn’t amazing, but the counter upside will definitely come up. It can let you win combat and gain life as well as help you get in for a bunch in the air. You’ll play this in aggressive decks with lots of counters.
Capenna Express
2.0 A 4-mana 6/6 vehicle with Crew 3 is generally not something you end up playing, but the upside of crewing this with Treasure is very real, as Green – and especially Red-Green, looks like it will be pretty good at generating treasure.
Ready to Rumble
2.5 No matter which mode you choose, you aren’t getting a great deal for the mana, but hey – 5 damage does kill most stuff! Just… paying 5 to kill something that costs a lot less is pretty rough. You probably play one copy of this in most Red decks though, as it gives you some removal that does the job and comes with some artifact-hate upside.
Disdainful Stroke
1.0 // 2.5 This is mostly a sideboard card to bring in against an opponent with many expensive spells. Most of the time, it just doesn’t have enough targets. If this format turns out to lean pretty hard on spells with a mana value of 4 or greater that could change.
Incriminate
2.0 Black often has cards that let the opponent make a decision about something, and they pretty much always underperform, since there are too many situations where your opponent can minimize the damage. However, I think this might make your opponent make a narrow enough decision that it will be decent. Sure, you’ll have situations where your opponent hasl ike a 1/1 and some bomb creature and it isn’t going to feel too good in those scenarios – and I’m certainly not saying this is premium removal ro anything – but I do think there will be enough board states where this kills something you want dead for two mana. Don’t go into it thinking it is Doom Blade, and I think you’ll feel okay about what you’re getting.
Kill Shot
2.0 Is decent removal, but it is situational enough that it is nowhere near premium. An aggressive deck isn’t super interested in a card like this, because you really want cards that let you kill blockers, and your opponent can also play around a card like this pretty effectively.
Pack 3 Pick 4: Raffine's Informant
Obscura Charm
3.5 This is another very nice charm. You’ll most frequently choose the removal option, but if you happen to have the mana up for this at the right time the fact it can be a counterspell is pretty nice too, especially because you can leave the mana up and choose any of these three effects, so you won’t ever get burned if your opponent plays around it. The reanimation effect is fairly restrictive, but this set has enough multicolored cards that it will work reasonably often.
Slip Out the Back
1.0 This doesn’t seem great to me. Sure, it can save your creature and it gets a permanent buff, but good effects like this can actually allow you to take down the creature that you’re blocking. That’s part of what made Tamiyo’s Safekeeping so good – it had an effect that was good against removal, but it could also make your creature win combat when it would have been a trade. And…you can’t do that with Phasing. Basically, this can only save your creature and buff it – and that’s not really worth a card. It is just too narrow.
Sizzling Soloist
2.5 The bad stats here are going to bite you sometimes, since it can die to really cheap removal despite costing 4 mana, but hey – at least you’re trading 1-for-1, and the Alliance effect this has is a pretty big deal. Stopping a creature from blocking tends to drastically alter a turn, although your opponent will know this is coming, so it isn’t quite as impressive as versions of it that come out of nowhere. But still, your opponent has to alter their game plan once you play something like this, because they just may be unable to block! If you get alliance twice with it, not only are two things not blocking, but you can also force an attack – which will mean that thing won’t be blocking on the next turn either!
Warm Welcome
2.0 This type of effect is usually kind of rough since you spend some significant mana and don’t add to the board, but this type around it actually does, albeit with just a 1/1 Citizen. But that’s pretty important – not only does it add something to th eboard, but with both Citizen tribal and Alliance being a thing in the format, there is extra value placed on something like this. So, you end up getting the best creature in your top 5 and a 1/1. Don’t get me wrong, it still isn’t amazing or anything, but far more playable than this effect usually is at three mana.
Civil Servant
3.0 This has above rate stats, and it looks like there are enough Citizens in this set to make those stats even more impressive for a fairly low cost. This isn’t really the Citizen payoff you’re hoping for, but it does seem like a pretty nice Common for that deck.
Maestros Theater
2.5 This is some more very nice fixing for the format, which isn’t a huge surprise since three colors is what this format is all about. This is basically a more narrow Evolving Wilds, but one that also gains you a life – and it doesn’t have to tap either, though that isn’t coming up much in Limited. You definitely will play these in a lot of your decks, as they’ll be nice for mana. They don’t have the late game upside of the dual land cycle, so I think I would rank them a little lower.
Midnight Assassin
2.5 As a deathtoucher, this can trade with anything – and Flying makes it so it can trade for even more than most death touchers! And, in the meantime, it can attack away in the air for a bit of damage.
Civic Gardener
1.5 This type of effect is often not especially impactful. Sure, it sort of has Vigilance, and can lend it to other creatures, and help you have more mana in your second main phase, but all of those things are just not a big deal most of the time. And it isn’t like it can really attack and make use of that trigger for very long.
Daring Escape
1.5 +1/+0 and First Strike makes for a decent trick for one mana. The power boost isn’t ultra impressive, but First Strike obviously makes combat go much more favorably for your creature. I still think Antagonize is probably the trick you’re after if you’re playing Red aggro, but this can fill the role.
Raffine's Informant
3.0 This is a nice White common. It is either a two mana 2/1 that lets you throw a land away for a fresh card, or a two mana 3/2 that makes you discard a real card, but the card you discard will often be able to give you some sort of value! Both options are pretty appealing.
Disdainful Stroke
1.0 // 2.5 This is mostly a sideboard card to bring in against an opponent with many expensive spells. Most of the time, it just doesn’t have enough targets. If this format turns out to lean pretty hard on spells with a mana value of 4 or greater that could change.
Pack 3 Pick 5: Make Disappear
Patch Up
1.5 If your deck has a significant number of creatures that cost 3 mana or less, this seems alright. Especially if you can get multiple bodies back, since that will let you trigger your cards with Alliance. It is a bit of a dud in the early game a lot of the time, and sometimes you just won’t be able to get it going – and it doesn’t feel like it is even close to a card you always play in White or anything.
Plasma Jockey
3.0 This reminds me a lot of Goblin Heelcutter or Clamor Shaman, both of which were great cards in aggressive decks in their respective formats. It probably isn’t quite as good as either of them, but it will have a similar impact. You will Blitz this on a turn where it really makes an immediate impact, but its nice you can also just cast it normally if you’re more interested in adding permanently to the board – like if you’re not the beat down when you play it.
Backstreet Bruiser
2.0 A two mana 3/3 makes for a pretty good blocker, and it is certainly doable to take defender off of this thing, especially in Blue-White.
Kill Shot
2.0 Is decent removal, but it is situational enough that it is nowhere near premium. An aggressive deck isn’t super interested in a card like this, because you really want cards that let you kill blockers, and your opponent can also play around a card like this pretty effectively.
Revel Ruiner
2.0 This seems solid. A 4-mana 4/2 with Menace is a decent enough card, and this can be that if you want it to be most of the time. The alternative of this helping you throw away an unwanted land for a fresh card, and giving you a 3/1 menace seems solid too.
Make Disappear
1.5 Without Casualty, this kind of counter spell isn't great, since your opponent is likely to have the spare mana the longer the game goes on. With casualty…I still don't think it is great, but obviously it will allow you to counter more spells more often.
High-Rise Sawjack
2.0 We’ve seen this card in Spider-form before, and it was fine. 4 power is enough to take down most flyers and it is a nice thing to trade for those types of creatures.
Chrome Cat
1.5 This is a 3-mana 3/2 with some tiny upside. Its probably something that won’t normally make the cut, but it isn’t a disaster to run either.
Ready to Rumble
2.5 No matter which mode you choose, you aren’t getting a great deal for the mana, but hey – 5 damage does kill most stuff! Just… paying 5 to kill something that costs a lot less is pretty rough. You probably play one copy of this in most Red decks though, as it gives you some removal that does the job and comes with some artifact-hate upside.
Tramway Station
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Pack 3 Pick 6: Celebrity Fencer
Ceremonial Groundbreaker
3.0 The GW color pair in this format is Citizen tribal, and this card pushes you pretty hard in that direction. +2/+1 and Trample are a decent boost, and enough of one to make many creatures into a threat, but paying 3 to equip this is not ideal. Equipping it to a citizen is a great deal though. Some of them are 1/1 tokens of course, but there are many of nontoken citizens in GW too that you’ll be able to equip this to very efficiently.
Cement Shoes
1.5 They are trying pretty hard to make Enormous Energy Blade-like cards good. And…that’s pretty tough to do! Obviously, the casting cost and the equip cost are really reasonable for a +3/+3 boost, and at least you can take advantage of it immediately by attacking with the creature you put it on, but the fact that creature gets locked down is rough. Now, its cheap enough you could move it around so it goes on to a creature that you don’t care about being locked down – like maybe one shut down by an Aura – but that end sup being a lot of mana! You can also attack with something you know will result in a trade, so you don’t have to worry about moving it. Basically, this isn’t a bad mana sink to have around in the right situations – and it will definitely make just about any creature into a much better attacker – but the fact that you can’t take advantage of the Equipment on defense is definitely a bummer, as is the downside. I think this is definitely better than Enormous Energy Blade was, but it still isn’t great.
Celebrity Fencer
3.0 This has the potential to get really massive, but I don’t love that it starts out as a 3/2. You’re going to get really blown out sometimes when you play this and your opponent destroys it for one or two mana. But in a lot of White decks in this format, especially the Cabaretti, like putting a ton of creature tokens into play, and that will allow the Fencer to do some serious work.
Demon's Due
2.5 This is a pretty solid draw spell. You see up to 4 cards, giving you a good chance to draw something you want, and paying 2 life for it is perfectly reasonable. It isn’t really the kind of thing you want to go after early, or that you want to run more than one of – after all, it has no impact on the board -- but it seems like the first copy is going to make the cut in your Black decks most of the time.
Midnight Assassin
2.5 As a deathtoucher, this can trade with anything – and Flying makes it so it can trade for even more than most death touchers! And, in the meantime, it can attack away in the air for a bit of damage.
Run Out of Town
3.0 This is decent Blue removal – and it is removal, because bouncing a card to the deck makes it a 1-for-1, even if your opponent can just draw the thing again. It is definitely a bit costly, but its flexibility makes it a pretty nice card.
Witness Protection
1.5 I have a hard time ever getting behind this type of removal. The big problem is that you aren’t entirely dealing with the creature you put it on! It can still attack and block, and +1/+1 and shield counters are a problem too, as is the Casualty mechanic and other sacrifice effects. You’ll play this if you’re desperate for removal, but that’s about it.
Sewer Crocodile
1.5 // 2.5 If you can get the ability on this down to a single Blue, it represent a pretty reasonable win condition, since you can crack in with your unblockable Crocodile and still have plenty of mana left over to add to the board too. That’s usually the problem with this big inefficient creatures who ask for a lot of mana to become unblockable – you can’t really do more than use the ability, but with the Crocodile, sometimes you’ll be able to get it going pretty cheaply. In a Blue deck that isn’t good at loading the graveyard you probably don’t end up playing this – so this probably deserves a build around.
Make Disappear
1.5 Without Casualty, this kind of counter spell isn't great, since your opponent is likely to have the spare mana the longer the game goes on. With casualty…I still don't think it is great, but obviously it will allow you to counter more spells more often.
Pack 3 Pick 7: Expendable Lackey
Refuse to Yield
1.5 +2 power for two mana doesn’t make for a great trick, even with a huge toughness boost. We usually get +2/+2 for a single mana, so paying twice that for the toughness boost isn’t the best thing ever. This is because it doesn’t help actually take down the opposing creature as much. Your creature has to have higher power on average to win the combat. Now, the upside is you can use Refuse to Yield to save a creature from damage-based removal, and I think as a whole that makes this a trick you’ll play sometimes, but it will get cut a decent chunk of the time too.
Sticky Fingers
3.0 If you get this on a creature early, it is going to allow you to really run away with the game. Your creature won’t be easily blocked and you’ll generate treasure that allows you to pull further ahead. It does have diminishing returns as the game goes on, but this is capable of effectively ending games very early.
Majestic Metamorphosis
2.0 As we learned in Kamigawa Neon Dynasty, slapping “draw a card” on this type of spell is a big upgrade. Just temporary altering your creature’s stats is a bit too narrow of a use to be something you want to use a card on all the time, but this makes up for that with the cantrip. The times where you use this as a trick that wrecks your opponent is pretty sweet. It probably won’t be quite as good as Suit Up was, since Ninjutsu made for an interesting environment in terms of how opponents would block, but this definitely seems solid.
Ominous Parcel
1.5 This can help you fix your mana, or it can be a removal spell. Its pretty bad at both of those things when you look at the total mana you spend for each, but the fact it can do both definitely makes it a decent enough playable.
Join the Maestros
2.5 This seems like a solid Common. Without Casualty it is pretty ugly, but if you have some decent fodder to sacrifice, getting two 4/3 bodies is pretty good for the cost.
Expendable Lackey
2.5 True to his name, this Lackey is a pretty nice creature to sacrifice to a card with Casualty, since he can then make a Fish token from the graveyard – which you can also sacrifice. He also works well with Connive, because you still get value out of discarding him. They’ve been making a lot of one drops lately that overlap into multiple decks, and I think that’s what this is. This doesn’t exactly feel like the premium card you want to really abuse those two mechanics, but it does seem pretty decent there.
Buy Your Silence
2.5 This can deal with any nonland permanent, but its also a pretty clunky sorcery that gives your opponent back a treasure. It definitely falls short of being Premium removal, but I do think the first copy is going to be something you want in most White decks, since it is sort of a catch-all removal spell. Running more than one probably isn’t great, though.
Dig Up the Body
2.5 This is a pretty clunky version of this effect – three mana to get one thing back is not especially good, even with the mill thrown in. Basically, for this to feel like its worth it, you’ll need to be doubling the spell, and that’s easy enough since it only needs one power, but I still think this is the kind of card you’re really only going to want one of in Black decks. You really don’t want this showing up in your opening hand, you want it late.
Pack 3 Pick 8: Hold for Ransom
Fatal Grudge
2.5 This is pretty neat, as it can potentially force an opponent to sacrifice any permanent type. Most frequently, it will be a symmetrical edict effect that you come out ahead of because you get to draw a card. The problem is, this format is loaded up with ways to make creature tokens and creatures who really want to be sacrificed or in the graveyard. And, I guess that’s a positive too, because you can sacrifice one of those things, but your opponent is equally likely to have them, minimizing the impact of this card. The flexibility to deal with other permanent types definitely matters, but I think that overall – this is just a solid playable in the context of this format.
Hold for Ransom
3.0 This is a Pacifism that your opponent can pay 7 mana to get rid of. We’ve seen removal auras in the past that let your opponent pay mana to get rid of the Aura, and most of them haven’t been great. I think this one has enough going on, though, that it looks better than previous cards like that we’ve seen. For one thing, 7 mana is a ton – so much that your opponent may just never get there. For another, your opponent also lets you draw a card off of it, and they can only pay for it at Sorcery speed. Your opponent may finally get rid of it, but they will spend their whole turn doing it most of the time, and then it replaces itself! Now, like all Aura removal, this is at a bit of a disadvantage in this format because of the presence of the Casualty mechanic and other sacrifice stuff more broadly.
Crooked Custodian
2.0 This has above rate stats, but coming into play tapped kind of cancels that out – it isn’t like its stats are CRAZY good anyway. Still, seems like a nice two drop for an aggro deck, and its one of the more efficient ways to get 3 power in play for the spells that have higher Casualty costs.
Exhibition Magician
3.0 This is a good Common. A three mana 2/1 that makes a 1/1 – in a color that has lots of pay offs for going wide – is a pretty nice card – probably a C+. So, also having the Treasure option is nice upside – sometimes you’ll want it to help you ramp, and sometimes you’ll be in a deck that cares about Treasure than it does going wide, especially if you’re in Red/Green.
Cutthroat Contender
1.5 A vanilla one mana 2/1 already isn’t a great card in Limited, since it really tends to get outclassed in a hurry – and this is basically a one mana 2/1 that is conditional. A 2/1 is only marginally better than a 1/1 in most games. It doesn’t really seem worth it to me, even in an aggro deck. I guess the idea is that you can buff it so that your one drop can be sacrificed to a Casualty 2 spell, but that doesn’t make it that much better.
Disdainful Stroke
1.0 // 2.5 This is mostly a sideboard card to bring in against an opponent with many expensive spells. Most of the time, it just doesn’t have enough targets. If this format turns out to lean pretty hard on spells with a mana value of 4 or greater that could change.
Big Score
2.5 This is an easier-to-cast Unexpected Windfall. While that card has been great in constructed, it wasn’t that great in Limited. It isn’t a bad card to have around though, as it helps you find some fresh cards while also providing you with some ramping and fixing, and the extra treasure it gives you might even enable you to cast something! But it doesn’t really do anything to immediately impact the game, and that makes it a card that you can cut sometimes.
Pack 3 Pick 9: Ceremonial Groundbreaker
Ceremonial Groundbreaker
3.0 The GW color pair in this format is Citizen tribal, and this card pushes you pretty hard in that direction. +2/+1 and Trample are a decent boost, and enough of one to make many creatures into a threat, but paying 3 to equip this is not ideal. Equipping it to a citizen is a great deal though. Some of them are 1/1 tokens of course, but there are many of nontoken citizens in GW too that you’ll be able to equip this to very efficiently.
Sewer Crocodile
1.5 // 2.5 If you can get the ability on this down to a single Blue, it represent a pretty reasonable win condition, since you can crack in with your unblockable Crocodile and still have plenty of mana left over to add to the board too. That’s usually the problem with this big inefficient creatures who ask for a lot of mana to become unblockable – you can’t really do more than use the ability, but with the Crocodile, sometimes you’ll be able to get it going pretty cheaply. In a Blue deck that isn’t good at loading the graveyard you probably don’t end up playing this – so this probably deserves a build around.
Ready to Rumble
2.5 No matter which mode you choose, you aren’t getting a great deal for the mana, but hey – 5 damage does kill most stuff! Just… paying 5 to kill something that costs a lot less is pretty rough. You probably play one copy of this in most Red decks though, as it gives you some removal that does the job and comes with some artifact-hate upside.
Halo Scarab
1.5 This has okay stats, and gives you some value out of the graveyard. That will be nice whether you mill it, discard it, or just have it die from being in play. Two mana to make a treasure is obviously not a great rate, but it does give you the potential to have fixing in just about any deck. I think this is going to be pretty easy to cut as decks will usually have good enough fixing without it, but it isn’t a disaster to play it either.
Demon's Due
2.5 This is a pretty solid draw spell. You see up to 4 cards, giving you a good chance to draw something you want, and paying 2 life for it is perfectly reasonable. It isn’t really the kind of thing you want to go after early, or that you want to run more than one of – after all, it has no impact on the board -- but it seems like the first copy is going to make the cut in your Black decks most of the time.
Big Score
2.5 This is an easier-to-cast Unexpected Windfall. While that card has been great in constructed, it wasn’t that great in Limited. It isn’t a bad card to have around though, as it helps you find some fresh cards while also providing you with some ramping and fixing, and the extra treasure it gives you might even enable you to cast something! But it doesn’t really do anything to immediately impact the game, and that makes it a card that you can cut sometimes.
Pack 3 Pick 10: Speakeasy Server
Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder
3.5 This looks pretty nice. What I like the most is that the turn you play it it will often already have some impact, as it will make one of your creatures into a much more formidable attacker. It can of course pump its own power too, so when it attacks its a 4/4, but you’re usually hoping for something spicier than that. It also pairs well with Blitz, as your opponent often won’t want to block a Blitzed creature, since you’ll be getting a card anyway when it dies and the creature isn’t sticking around for good, but Mr. Orfeo complicates that, since the creatures will be hitting harder.
Unlucky Witness
2.5 This is pretty close to having a "draw a card" trigger when it dies, though in the very early game you won't always be able to take advantage. It feels like the main purpose for this card is to be sacrificed to Casualty effects, and that's going to be nice.
Paragon of Modernity
2.0 This looks solid. It starts out as an inefficient creature, but most decks will be three colors in this format, so putting counters on this as a mana sink in the mid to late game seems like a legitimate strategy. If your deck doesn’t have good enough fixing to consistently get three colors this is much worse, but I think most decks will be able to do it, so it isn’t a build around or anything.
Racers' Ring
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Speakeasy Server
2.5 A passable Flyer with an ETB that gains you life always tends to perform reasonably well in Limited. It can really help you stabilize. The downside here is that you need a board in place to gain any life – it doesn’t even gain you 1 life on its own, which is a little sad. Still, in White you’ll be able to go wide, and gaining 3+ with this should be pretty decent.
Pack 3 Pick 11: Tramway Station
Tavern Swindler
1.5 This is a reprint, and not an especially good one. Last time we saw it there was a significant life gain theme, but that’s not really the case here, so gaining life with this isn’t that great. There are a few cards in the format that check for life loss and life gain, and this could do some work in such a deck, but a lot of the time this is just a Bear.
Tramway Station
2.5 These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Capenna Express
2.0 A 4-mana 6/6 vehicle with Crew 3 is generally not something you end up playing, but the upside of crewing this with Treasure is very real, as Green – and especially Red-Green, looks like it will be pretty good at generating treasure.
Ready to Rumble
2.5 No matter which mode you choose, you aren’t getting a great deal for the mana, but hey – 5 damage does kill most stuff! Just… paying 5 to kill something that costs a lot less is pretty rough. You probably play one copy of this in most Red decks though, as it gives you some removal that does the job and comes with some artifact-hate upside.
Pack 3 Pick 12: Slip Out the Back
Slip Out the Back
1.0 This doesn’t seem great to me. Sure, it can save your creature and it gets a permanent buff, but good effects like this can actually allow you to take down the creature that you’re blocking. That’s part of what made Tamiyo’s Safekeeping so good – it had an effect that was good against removal, but it could also make your creature win combat when it would have been a trade. And…you can’t do that with Phasing. Basically, this can only save your creature and buff it – and that’s not really worth a card. It is just too narrow.
Daring Escape
1.5 +1/+0 and First Strike makes for a decent trick for one mana. The power boost isn’t ultra impressive, but First Strike obviously makes combat go much more favorably for your creature. I still think Antagonize is probably the trick you’re after if you’re playing Red aggro, but this can fill the role.
Disdainful Stroke
1.0 // 2.5 This is mostly a sideboard card to bring in against an opponent with many expensive spells. Most of the time, it just doesn’t have enough targets. If this format turns out to lean pretty hard on spells with a mana value of 4 or greater that could change.
Pack 3 Pick 13: Revel Ruiner
Revel Ruiner
2.0 This seems solid. A 4-mana 4/2 with Menace is a decent enough card, and this can be that if you want it to be most of the time. The alternative of this helping you throw away an unwanted land for a fresh card, and giving you a 3/1 menace seems solid too.
Ready to Rumble
2.5 No matter which mode you choose, you aren’t getting a great deal for the mana, but hey – 5 damage does kill most stuff! Just… paying 5 to kill something that costs a lot less is pretty rough. You probably play one copy of this in most Red decks though, as it gives you some removal that does the job and comes with some artifact-hate upside.
Pack 3 Pick 14: Make Disappear
Make Disappear
1.5 Without Casualty, this kind of counter spell isn't great, since your opponent is likely to have the spare mana the longer the game goes on. With casualty…I still don't think it is great, but obviously it will allow you to counter more spells more often.