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Traditional Draft AFR 12 July 2021

12 July 09:31 - Yuke 3 Wins - 0 Losses
Maindeck
Creature (16)
1 Devoted Paladin image
1 Veteran Dungeoneer image
1 Barrowin of Clan Undurr image
1 Triumphant Adventurer image
1 Skullport Merchant image
1 Ranger's Hawk image
2 Planar Ally image
1 Vampire Spawn image
1 Cloister Gargoyle image
1 Drizzt Do'Urden image
1 Sepulcher Ghoul image
1 Manticore image
1 Steadfast Paladin image
1 Shambling Ghast image
1 Forsworn Paladin image
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (8)
1 Delver's Torch image
1 Power Word Kill image
1 Minimus Containment image
1 Eyes of the Beholder image
1 Fates' Reversal image
1 +2 Mace image
1 Grim Bounty image
1 Paladin Class image
Land (17)
7 Plains image
8 Swamp image
2 Forest image
Sideboard
1 Werewolf Pack Leader image
2 Herald of Hadar image
1 Blink Dog image
1 Manticore image
1 Hill Giant Herdgorger image
1 Flumph image
1 Owlbear image
1 Djinni Windseer image
1 Sylvan Shepherd image
1 Spare Dagger image
1 Silver Raven image
1 Price of Loyalty image
1 Ray of Frost image
1 You're Ambushed on the Road image
1 Paladin's Shield image
1 Mordenkainen's Polymorph image
1 Unexpected Windfall image

Pack 1 Pick 1: Triumphant Adventurer
Triumphant Adventurer image 3.5 This guy is definitely small, but the combination of death touch + First Strike when it attacks is going to be pretty great, especially because he ventures for you every single time it attacks, and that will get you through a dungeon in a hurry. Even if your opponent does take it down in combat, they will have to give up at least one thing, and sometimes your opponent will be able to double block and kill it, but you’re still getting a good deal. Backing it up with combat tricks will be nasty too, because obviously First Strike + Death Touch + 2 or more power means you can take down both blockers and keep the Adventurer alive. He does die to pretty much everything, but his ability to venture repeatedly is too good to pass up
Grim Wanderer image 2.0 This is a strange card to evaluate. Obviously on the vanilla test it is incredible, but the requirement of a creature needing to die is harder to set up than you might think. It does have Flash, which means that you can more easily find a situation where you can cast it, but keep in mind the kind of Flash it has will almost never allow you to use it to ambush your opponent, because a creature probably won’t die until combat. Still, it isn’t hard to imagine a situation where you and your opponent trade two drops and you play this at the end of their turn, and if you can do that, it will be quite imposing. A 5/3 even in the late game isn’t too bad, and you may be able to double spell because it is so cheap. The big downside is you literally can’t cast it at all if something hasnt’ died. It would be much better even if it cost like 6 or 7 or something as a base cost, and then got reduce dwhen something died, but sometimes this will just be stuck in your hand, or to get it going you have to block in an ugly way or something like that, and that really tempers my expectations here.
Cloister Gargoyle image 3.0 A 3-mana 0/4 that ventures into the dungeon is probably already a decent card for the format, but this looks to be one of the bigger payoffs for completing dungeons at lower rarities, as it becoming a ¾ Flyer is a pretty big deal -- that kind of size almost always matters on an evasive creature, and it is going to give you value when it ETBs no matter what.
Demogorgon's Clutches image 1.5 They continue to print Mind Rots that are at least somewhat reasonable in Limited, and that’s a good trend I think. The problem with the discard part of this card is how much its usefulness decreases in the late game, like it is usually a god awful top deck to draw your Mind Rot late. And, early, it is often better to just add to the board. So there’s sort of a sweet spot of a few turns where you kind of hope you get the card where it will feel at its best. That’s why straight up Mind Rot is usually like a 1.0. However, by adding some additional effects to the card – especially the part where your opponent loses 2 life --- it makes it so this Mind Rot actually does something even late. It still isn’t good late, mind you, but it is better than most of its predecessors.
Plundering Barbarian image 2.5 This seems like a solid card. This format has enough artifacts that this will have something to target often enough with “Smash the Chest,” and it feel great when you do that. When you don’t, it provides some reasonable fixing for you with “Pry it Open.”
Hill Giant Herdgorger image 2.5 This seems like a fine finisher for Green decks. You’re probably going to hope you have a rare or Uncommon in that slot, but this card is similar enough to Ravenous Lindwurm and Honey Mammoth to make me feel like it has a nice shot. I have a feeling it might not be quite as good as those cards, because this format looks like it is probably going to be faster than Kaldheim, but it looks pretty solid to me
Bull's Strength image 1.5 Like most versions of this that we’ve seen, it is pretty reasonable. The boost it gives will allow you to win combat, and trample will even allow you to do some damage out of nowhere. The untap clause also gives a creature pseudo vigilance, or allows you to ambush an opposing creature, though like with most tricks, you generally prefer to use it offensively -- but the additional flexibility doesn’t hurt. It is still a trick though and comes with all those inherent risks I always talk about -- its situational, and if things go wrong you get blown out really hard.
Boots of Speed image 2.0 The boost this offers for the casting cost and the equip cost is pretty reasonable, as paying one more to give something new Haste and +1/+0 will feel pretty good sometimes, especially in a set where there’s an Equipment archetype.
Hoard Robber image 1.0 It is nice that this can make treasure, but a 1/3 just isn’t going to be getting in very often without some significant help. I don’t think you play this most of the time.
Dragon's Fire image 4.0 Two mana for 3 damage is always premium removal, and this has some pretty relevant dragon upside that can make it an even better removal spell
Planar Ally image 3.5 We have seen a lot of 5-mana 3/3 Flyers of late that have some ability, and they’ve all been pretty nice cards for Limited, and I think that’s what we have here. Venturing with every attack is great, as the Ally, left unchecked, will be able to get you through dungeons all on its own. This format does have more large flyers than usual as a result of the heavy Dragon theme, so this may find itself unable to attack effectively more than it would in most formats, but I think this is still a pretty good Common.
Ranger's Hawk image 2.0 One mana 1/1 flyers are almost never that great in Limited unless they have something else worthwhile going on. The good news for this Hawk, is that it does! In the early game it can attack a bit in the air, but it will quickly be forced to stop attacking. Luckily, it has a late game mana sink that seems pretty good -- venturing into dungeons every turn will definitely allow you to grind out some wins late. Now, the cost of doing it isn’t small -- having to have another untapped creature isn’t a guarantee, but if you are at parity or ahead of your opponent, it won’t be that hard to make it happen. I think this is a solid playable.
You See a Guard Approach image 1.0 Individually, these effects are not worth an entire card. They’re just too situational. Sure, it feels good to give your creature hexproof in response to removal, but there will be lots of times where that effect doesn’t matter. The tap effect is even more underwhelming, and while it can allow you to stop something from attacking you, or maybe help you attack more effectively, it will also be useless a decent chunk of the time. Each of those, cards, individually -- would be almost unplayable. If you put them together, you obviously have a better card that you’ll actually be able to use sometimes, but I still don’t think it is very good.
Bar the Gate image 3.0 This seems like a pretty good counterspell. They always come with big downsides, like how situational they are, and three mana for one is normally not a card you really want to play, but when some additional value is added on to countermagic, it becomes increasingly worth it, and that’s what we have here. Sure, it doesn’t counter everything -- but creatures are the most common thing your opponent will do, so it will often have targets. Venturing into the Dungeon isn’t quite “draw a card” most of the time, but it gets close enough that I’m actually pretty interested in the first copy of this for most Blue decks.
Pack 1 Pick 2: Werewolf Pack Leader
Werewolf Pack Leader image 4.0 This is a very good card. If you can play it on turn two, it gives you some nice size in the early game, but it maintains very real relevance into the late game thanks to its ability to draw you card AND to turn into a full-on wereowlf. When it does that, it also gives you 5 of the 6 power necessary to trigger Pack Tactics, which is a great added bonus. Even just drawing with this once and forcing a trade seems good, and sometimes it will run away with the game
You Happen On a Glade image 3.0 I like this. It gives Green decks some really good fixing -- and that’s the option that will feel worthwhile the most often. However, one eventually reaches a stage in a game where top decking a fixing spell like this isn’t what you want to be doing, and by that stage of the game you probably have something in your graveyard yo’ud love to get back. I don’t really see myself cutting the first copy of this in most Green decks, especially if I’m splashing or 3 colors
Kalain, Reclusive Painter image 4.0 A two mana ½ that makes a treasure is already a pretty good deal, but this adds all kinds of upside that will be amazing in the BR deck. Even all on its own, it is pretty likely that the treasure you made will help you play a creature and put a +1/+1 counter on it your next turn, and that’s some serious value. If you manage to really get treasure going with Kalain, she will undoubtedly take over games. She is certainly fragile, but the fail case is that you still get to keep a single treasure, and that helps make that a little less of a problem. This is a really strong signpost Uncommon
Critical Hit image 1.0 Two mana for double strike alone isn’t the most impressive trick. The creature you use it on generally already has to be fairly impressive for it to be worthwhile, and it won’t even always allow you to win combat if your creature isn’t big enough. It is easy to imagine using this on your 6/6 Trampler, and that will happen sometimes, but you have to think of all the situations where the effect is negligible, which will be the majority of the time. The whole “natural 20” thing is cute, but won’t happen often enough for that to factor into the grade much.
Fates' Reversal image 2.5 So, usually Black has a common that lets you return two creatures, and it is usually a serviceable enough card that you basically always want the first copy of. They are situational, since they don’t do anything until late, but they can really help you grind out a win. This doesn’t do that exactly but I could see it offering similar value sometimes as a creature + Venture won’t feel too shabby.
Circle of the Moon Druid image 2.5 A card that is always a 3-mana 4/2 is like a 2.0 and a card that is always a 3-mana 2/4 is a 1.0. This gives you the best of both of those, as you’d rather have the 4/2 as the attacker and the 2/4 as the blocker most of the time.
Planar Ally image 3.5 We have seen a lot of 5-mana 3/3 Flyers of late that have some ability, and they’ve all been pretty nice cards for Limited, and I think that’s what we have here. Venturing with every attack is great, as the Ally, left unchecked, will be able to get you through dungeons all on its own. This format does have more large flyers than usual as a result of the heavy Dragon theme, so this may find itself unable to attack effectively more than it would in most formats, but I think this is still a pretty good Common.
Deadly Dispute image 2.0 The prevalence of treasure, especially in Black-Red, will make this better than it looks. This kind of effect often plays a lot like Tormenting Voice, which is to say – its pretty replaceable, but I think this will be better than usual thanks to the fact it is good with treasure and it produces treasure. It of course still comes with the upside of being able to sacrifice a creature in response to removal, at which point you really aren’t going down a card either.
Minimus Containment image 4.0 This is a pretty neat take on White’s usually Enchantment-based removal spell. So, the idea is that you use this on an opposing permanent that is a problem, but the downside is you give your opponent a treasure. The good news about that is that by the late game, the downside will become increasingly negligible, and even in the mid-game, this will often just be worth doing. Not sure I would really recommend using this on a really early creature, though. It will probably be a net-gain for you overall, but the mana you give your opponent early can really come back to bite you. This is still premium removal though, especially since it deals with all nonlands. In a pinch, you can also put it on your own permanent if you really need a specific color of mana or something, but that’s almost never going to be the right thing to do.
Shocking Grasp image 1.5 The effect here isn’t very exciting. This Blue “combat tricks” really need your board to already have something big enough to deal with an attacking creature, or to blow up a block, and that really makes them pretty unimpressive. Obviously, adding a cantrip to the card does it make it better, because it means that at worse, you’re going to be able to Cycle this, but it still isn’t something that will make the cut in your deck all that often.
Arborea Pegasus image 3.0 This is a pretty good Common. The ETB trigger will almost always enable an attack you didn’t have before, and that means that the Pegasus will have an immediate impact on the board, in addition to being a 4-mana 2/3 Flyer itself.
Farideh's Fireball image 5.0 I think this sneaks into the lower range of premium removal. 5 mana to do 5 to something at Instant speed is perhaps not the most efficient thing ever, but it does kill most stuff, and the fac that your opponent also always takes 2 is enough to nudge this into that premium range. Sure, it will do 2 to you sometimes too, but that’s okay. This is the kind of card that will plummet in its score if the format turns out to be fast though, so keep that in mind.
Find the Path image 2.5 I think you’re getting pretty solid value here, between getting some ramp and venturing into a dungeon. Venture won’t always feel like drawing a card, but later on in the dungeons it will give you that kind of value, and even the early rooms in the dungeons seem decent enough.
Pack 1 Pick 3: Skullport Merchant
Skullport Merchant image 3.0 So, this is a Black Sailor of Means with upside, and that’s a really good place to start. Tacking on fixing and ramp to a creature like this just ends up feeling really great. Sometimes you won’t really want the treasure, so its great that he can cash them in for cards, as well as creatures!
Kalain, Reclusive Painter image 4.0 A two mana ½ that makes a treasure is already a pretty good deal, but this adds all kinds of upside that will be amazing in the BR deck. Even all on its own, it is pretty likely that the treasure you made will help you play a creature and put a +1/+1 counter on it your next turn, and that’s some serious value. If you manage to really get treasure going with Kalain, she will undoubtedly take over games. She is certainly fragile, but the fail case is that you still get to keep a single treasure, and that helps make that a little less of a problem. This is a really strong signpost Uncommon
You Hear Something on Watch image 3.0 This seems like a pretty nice Common. Sure, the removal effect only works on attackers, so if you’re the beat down it won’t feel great -- but the good news is if you are the beat down, you’re probably interested in the other mode, since it pays you off pretty well for going wide. The removal is too situational to be premium, but it will kill lots of attackers, and having the board pump effect as an option is pretty nice.
Brazen Dwarf image 1.0 This doesn’t look very good. A two mana ⅓ isn’t a good stat-line these days, and the fact it might damage your opponent a little bit doesn’t really make up for that for me. It just won’t do enough to feel worth the mana or the card in most decks.
Compelled Duel image 1.0 I’m never a huge fan of this type of card. It isn’t easy to get 2-for-1’d when you cast it, and it is fairly situational. However, this is cheaper than most versions of this we’ve seen. +3/+3 is going to be enough to make just about any creature into a problem, though keep in mind that your opponent only needs to use one blocker here – it isn’t that all creatures have to block – just one does. So you need to end up in situations where the 3 damage either wins you the game or you take down an important creature, but a lot of the time their important creature will be attacking you.
Herald of Hadar image 1.5 This is a bit clunky as a 5-mana 4/4, but the activated ability, as expensive as it is -- is a pretty nice late game mana sink. The ability, no matter what you roll, provides some serious reach. It is probably still too slow to make the cut on a super regular basis, though.
Ranger's Longbow image 1.5 This gives a reasonable boost and key word for the cost, though it isn’t anything special.
Delver's Torch image 2.0 The cost of playing this and Equipping it is pretty high for only a +1/+1 stat boost. Venturing every time the creature attacks is where the real value is, but as high as I am on Venture, I’m not a huge fan of this card. It doesn’t do a whole lot to help one of your creatures attack that couldn’t already attack before, and I think that’s the big thing you want Equipment to do for you, and +1/+1 isn’t going to do it that often, which won’t feel great for such a high Equip cost. If you already have Evasive creatures or a big creature it could be nice because you can get the Venture going, but yeah, I think this is clunky and overwhelming overall
Evolving Wilds image 3.0 This is always some really great fixing, as it makes it very easy to splash a secondary color while only running a single basic of that color, and that always feels great for your mana base. They also make any mana base significantly better, even if you are just straight up two colors. You should value these over most “solid” cards
Goblin Javelineer image 1.5 This probably won’t be great in Limited. A one mana 1/1 with Haste might feel reasonable on turn one, but it is pretty terrible thereafter, and adding the ability to ping things that block it doesn’t really make up for that, though it does help some, since it means that it can at least trade with X/2s, and X/1s effectively can’t block it. If you can find a way to give this death touch, that will unlock its full potential, but overall, I think you cut this more often than you’ll play it.
Priest of Ancient Lore image 3.5 This is a pretty great Common. People are always complaining white doesn’t have enough card draw, so getting an ETB ability like this will make them happy. In Limited, this will be a 2-for-1 a lot of the time, and the fact it gains that 1 life is no small thing either, since GW is all about gaining life.
Secret Door image 1.5 In the early game, this can block reasonably well, and in the late game it has an ability that is a reasonable mana sink, and one that can actually give you a ton of value. Only Venturing at Sorcery speed is rough of course, because you have to telegraph to your opponent you won’t be interacting with them, but if you’re flooding out, this ability is going to look pretty good. You probably still don’t play this a ton though.
Pack 1 Pick 4: Power Word Kill
Power Word Kill image 4.0 This will be able to kill most stuff really efficiently, and will basically feel like doom blade – but mostly better. Doom Blade can’t hit a whole color of creatures, Power Word Kill can’t hit a few creature types. At Common and Uncommon, this set has 1 Angel, 0 demons, 0 devils, and 7 Dragons. And none of those Dragons are Common! There are a few more of these things at Rare and Mythic, but you get the picture – this kills almost everything incredibly efficiently. I’m sure there will be frustrating times where you can’t kill your opponent’s bomb, , but most of the time it will do the job very efficiently. This is premium removal, and one of the best non-rares in the format.
Plundering Barbarian image 2.5 This seems like a solid card. This format has enough artifacts that this will have something to target often enough with “Smash the Chest,” and it feel great when you do that. When you don’t, it provides some reasonable fixing for you with “Pry it Open.”
Charmed Sleep image 3.5 I’m always hesitant to give Blue removal a “premium removal” grade, because it seems more often than not they don’t get there due to various disadvantages, but I think this gets there just barely. It did last time we saw it too. It doesn’t shut down static or activated abilities, but most creatures will become useless once this is on it.
Sylvan Shepherd image 2.5 This looks like it has a lot going on because of the d20 stuff, but it is basically just a 3-mana ⅔ with Vigilance that gains you 1-2 life when it attacks. That’s basically a textbook solid playable, especially in a format that does have some life gain payoffs
Dwarfhold Champion image 2.5 A two mana 3/1 tends to be a reasonable baseline for aggro decks, and this comes with some decent additional upside. Gaining toughness when you equip it will feel pretty nice, as obviously a 3/1 is pretty vulnerable
Find the Path image 2.5 I think you’re getting pretty solid value here, between getting some ramp and venturing into a dungeon. Venture won’t always feel like drawing a card, but later on in the dungeons it will give you that kind of value, and even the early rooms in the dungeons seem decent enough.
Valor Singer image 3.0 This type of effect tends to be a bit better than it looks. I mean, on his own he is effectively a 3-mana 3/3 in most cases, and you’ll often have other creatures on which you can use the ability that might have more of an impact. At the very least, this seems like a solid playable.
You Find the Villains' Lair image 2.0 Cancel is not usually a great card in Limited. Counterspells are a little too situational, and it is often just going ot be better to add to your board with three mana than count on your opponent playing something that you will counter. In a lot of ways, counter magic in Limited is just bad removal, because you have to have the mana up to use it at the exact right time, or it doesn’t do anything. Basically, a card like Cancel just ends up being a card you have left in your hand after you’ve played everything else, and it might do a thing, but it also might have cost you the game. This gets around that problem with another mode though. Sure, it doesn’t add to the board either, but it still gives you something to do with it that will be more immediate and more of a sure thing in situations where that’s a good idea. Normally, Cancel is like a 1.5, but I think this does enough to make the cut more often than that.
Deadly Dispute image 2.0 The prevalence of treasure, especially in Black-Red, will make this better than it looks. This kind of effect often plays a lot like Tormenting Voice, which is to say – its pretty replaceable, but I think this will be better than usual thanks to the fact it is good with treasure and it produces treasure. It of course still comes with the upside of being able to sacrifice a creature in response to removal, at which point you really aren’t going down a card either.
+2 Mace image 2.0 This gives an alright boost for the mana it costs to play and equip, but it isn’t crazy efficient or anything, and it will probably be cut a decent chunk of the time.
Clever Conjurer image 2.5 This ability only being Sorcery speed is a bummer, but it is still a pretty useful one to have on a 3-mana ⅔. Notably, it can untap lands for you, helping you ramp. And that’s probably the way you’ll use it the most. This seems like a solid playable.
Pack 1 Pick 5: Minimus Containment
Grim Wanderer image 2.0 This is a strange card to evaluate. Obviously on the vanilla test it is incredible, but the requirement of a creature needing to die is harder to set up than you might think. It does have Flash, which means that you can more easily find a situation where you can cast it, but keep in mind the kind of Flash it has will almost never allow you to use it to ambush your opponent, because a creature probably won’t die until combat. Still, it isn’t hard to imagine a situation where you and your opponent trade two drops and you play this at the end of their turn, and if you can do that, it will be quite imposing. A 5/3 even in the late game isn’t too bad, and you may be able to double spell because it is so cheap. The big downside is you literally can’t cast it at all if something hasnt’ died. It would be much better even if it cost like 6 or 7 or something as a base cost, and then got reduce dwhen something died, but sometimes this will just be stuck in your hand, or to get it going you have to block in an ugly way or something like that, and that really tempers my expectations here.
Djinni Windseer image 3.5 I was already pretty sold on a 4-mana 3/3 Flyer, so adding the d20 effect is just gravy. Even just Scrying 1 with this will feel like you’re getting nice value, and sometimes it will do more than that. The set also has some d20 payoffs, especially in UR, making it marginally better than that. It isn’t the most exciting card, but it is a pretty darn good Common.
Vampire Spawn image 2.5 This might not quite be Siege Rhino, but it seems pretty nice. A 3-mana 2/3 isn’t where you want to be normally, but the ETB trigger here is pretty real. It is a bit odd that Black doesn’t really care about life gain this time around, but that’s okay. The drain effect here is a total net gain of 4 life – in other words, it creates a gap of 4 life between you and your opponent, and that’s pretty nice in a race. This seems like a solid playable.
Eyes of the Beholder image 3.0 It is pretty difficult for a card to be premium removal when it costs 6 mana – unless of course it also draws you a card, like Rise of Extus in Strixhaven. Eye of the Beholder can definitely kill almost everything, but six mana is a whole lot! It is an Instant, which does means sometimes you’ll be able to manufacture some blowouts. I think you’ll always be reasonably happy with the first copy of this, but running more than that is pretty risky.
Hired Hexblade image 3.0 This seems like a solid card. Worst-case, you have a grizzly bear, and best case you have a two mana 2/2 that draws you a card -- which is just a great deal. There is enough treasure in this set that casting this with it isn’t a pipe dream, but you probably shouldn’t expect to be able to do it on turn two. Still, playing this later, once you have that treasure, will be nice since it will have relevance in the late game too when you do it.
Spiked Pit Trap image 1.5 Lots of sets lately seem to have an Artifact that is a removal spell, and it is nice that you can play them in any deck, but they tend to be pretty inefficient, and that’s kind of the case here. You pay 6 mana total for 5 damage, and you might also get a Treasure. It does have Flash, which makes it so you can sort of ambush kill things, but yeah, you probably don’t end up playing this unless you’re short on good removal
Inspiring Bard image 2.5 A creature with just the Bardic Inspiration ability is usually a solid playable, but it does come with the downside of not doing anything with a +2/+2 boost doesn’t matter -- like if you have to play defense, or don’t have another creature. Adding the “Song of Rest” option means that in those situations, you could an ability that is far more useful, and that’s pretty nice. It probably still isn’t more than a solid playable, though.
Minimus Containment image 4.0 This is a pretty neat take on White’s usually Enchantment-based removal spell. So, the idea is that you use this on an opposing permanent that is a problem, but the downside is you give your opponent a treasure. The good news about that is that by the late game, the downside will become increasingly negligible, and even in the mid-game, this will often just be worth doing. Not sure I would really recommend using this on a really early creature, though. It will probably be a net-gain for you overall, but the mana you give your opponent early can really come back to bite you. This is still premium removal though, especially since it deals with all nonlands. In a pinch, you can also put it on your own permanent if you really need a specific color of mana or something, but that’s almost never going to be the right thing to do.
Hobgoblin Captain image 2.5 This looks like it might be a nice two drop for aggressive decks in the format. A two mana 3/1 is already playable in many formats, and because he supplies half the power necessary to make pack tactics go off, it seems likely he will have first strike a lot. For now, I have it at 2.5, but if aggro is huge in this format, it will probably move up.
Feign Death image 1.5 Versions of this effect that are good tend to give the stats boost up front. That’s significantly better than this because it allows a smaller creature to win combat against something bigger, but this doesn’t do that. Sometimes you’ll just have to use it on a chump block, which won’t feel great. It is nice that it basically counters most removal, and it isn’t bad, just not like Supernatural Stamina or other cards we’ve seen that have been pretty solid. This just won’t do enough to make the cut super often.
Pack 1 Pick 6: Eyes of the Beholder
Warlock Class image 2.5 The Level 1 of this wouldn’t be worth it on its own, as using up a whole card for a fairly mediocre “morbid” effect that will only trigger every couple of turns or so just isn’t what you want to be doing. Now, it is nice that when you take it to level two, it draws you a card, and I do think that if we looked at this as 2B for an Enchantment with the Morbid ability + the card selection effect, you’d probably play that card. Then, in the late came it can level up and get a pretty powerful effect, but it is worth noting that that effect is really only going to do something if you’re already ahead in most cases. I think the whole package is probably a solid playable.
Power of Persuasion image 3.0 Rolling 1-9 here isn’t going to feel very good, as you’re just not getting your 3 mana’s worth to bounce something at Sorcery speed, but the good news is that other rolls will give you about what you’d expect -- and that’s a pseudo Time Ebb effect for 10-19, and a temporary mind control for 20. The 10-19 effect actually lets you go 1 for 1 on cards, and obviously the mind control will feel like a 2-for-1. So, yeah the 1-9 might be a bit of a bummer, but hey, at least it interacts with the opposing board and gets something off of it, which will at least give you some tempo.
Eyes of the Beholder image 3.0 It is pretty difficult for a card to be premium removal when it costs 6 mana – unless of course it also draws you a card, like Rise of Extus in Strixhaven. Eye of the Beholder can definitely kill almost everything, but six mana is a whole lot! It is an Instant, which does means sometimes you’ll be able to manufacture some blowouts. I think you’ll always be reasonably happy with the first copy of this, but running more than that is pretty risky.
Brazen Dwarf image 1.0 This doesn’t look very good. A two mana ⅓ isn’t a good stat-line these days, and the fact it might damage your opponent a little bit doesn’t really make up for that for me. It just won’t do enough to feel worth the mana or the card in most decks.
Arcane Investigator image 2.0 A two mana 2/1 isn’t great these days, but this one does come with a pretty nice late game effect. No matter what you roll, being able to draw cards late is pretty nice. Still, for the bluk of the game, the Investigator is just not very good. It will be outclasses quickly in the early game, and in the mid-game it will be even more useless.
Rimeshield Frost Giant image 3.0 Ward 3 is pretty big, and for a creature this size, it may just feel like Hexproof some games, since your opponent will need a pretty hefty removal spell to deal with it in most cases, and it will be pretty hard for your opponent to ever take it down without paying at least what you paid for the Giant.
Mimic image 1.0 So, this doesn’t seem amazing to me, though the flavor is quite good. Like most treasures, it can only be used the one time to give you mana, so it isn’t even the best fixing ever. And yeah, it can turn into a creature sometimes, and that’s nice upside to have on your mana, but I’m just not sure this will feel like it is worth an entire card very often. You’ll play it if you really need fixing, or maybe you have some artifact synergies, but that’s probably about it
Paladin's Shield image 1.0 We have seen Equipment like this before, and I’ve never really been impressed by it. A boost to toughness alone is very rarely something you’re after in your Equipment, and while this does have Flash, so you can use it as sort of a combat trick, it will usually only ever save your creature, and not really help it win combat. Then, after you get to attach it for free that one time, the Equip cost is really high for what this is. RW decks do have an Equipment sub-theme, and that helps it out a little bit, but not enough for it to be something you play regularly.
Kick in the Door image 2.5 This card reminds me a lot of some of the cards we saw in Strixhaven, which seemed like they didn’t really do that much, but it turned out Learning for one or two mana was good, even if the other effect was negligible, and I think that’s kind of what we’re looking at here. Without Venture, this card would be pretty close to an F. One mana for a counter and Haste and not being able to be blocked by a few creatures just wouldn’t be worth a whole card, but I think with Venture attached you suddenly have a card that will feel sort of like Guiding Voice from Strixhaven. It will make a new creature able to attack right away, or make an old one able to attack thanks to the counter, while also netting you value from Venturing.
Pack 1 Pick 7: Ranger's Hawk
Hired Hexblade image 3.0 This seems like a solid card. Worst-case, you have a grizzly bear, and best case you have a two mana 2/2 that draws you a card -- which is just a great deal. There is enough treasure in this set that casting this with it isn’t a pipe dream, but you probably shouldn’t expect to be able to do it on turn two. Still, playing this later, once you have that treasure, will be nice since it will have relevance in the late game too when you do it.
Ranger's Hawk image 2.0 One mana 1/1 flyers are almost never that great in Limited unless they have something else worthwhile going on. The good news for this Hawk, is that it does! In the early game it can attack a bit in the air, but it will quickly be forced to stop attacking. Luckily, it has a late game mana sink that seems pretty good -- venturing into dungeons every turn will definitely allow you to grind out some wins late. Now, the cost of doing it isn’t small -- having to have another untapped creature isn’t a guarantee, but if you are at parity or ahead of your opponent, it won’t be that hard to make it happen. I think this is a solid playable.
Goblin Javelineer image 1.5 This probably won’t be great in Limited. A one mana 1/1 with Haste might feel reasonable on turn one, but it is pretty terrible thereafter, and adding the ability to ping things that block it doesn’t really make up for that, though it does help some, since it means that it can at least trade with X/2s, and X/1s effectively can’t block it. If you can find a way to give this death touch, that will unlock its full potential, but overall, I think you cut this more often than you’ll play it.
Mimic image 1.0 So, this doesn’t seem amazing to me, though the flavor is quite good. Like most treasures, it can only be used the one time to give you mana, so it isn’t even the best fixing ever. And yeah, it can turn into a creature sometimes, and that’s nice upside to have on your mana, but I’m just not sure this will feel like it is worth an entire card very often. You’ll play it if you really need fixing, or maybe you have some artifact synergies, but that’s probably about it
Earth-Cult Elemental image 2.5 This offers some decent top-of-the-curve stats for Limited, and it has a pretty nice D20 ability. It won’t be awesome to roll 1-9, but the effect is at least symmetrical. It will be true that sometimes it doesn’t hurt your opponent as much as it hurts you, but the opposite will sometimes be true too. Then, the effect is one sided if you roll a 10 or more, which will be well worth the mana you spend. If you always roll 10-20 with it, it is probably one of the better Commons in the set, but unfortunately it won’t go that way, we have to think about the fail cases too! The presence of Treasure in this set also means your opponent will have more permanents than normal to sacrifice, which weakens it further.
Scion of Stygia image 3.0 If you know me, you know I’m a pretty big fan of Blue creatures with bounce or tap down effects, and this is a distinctly D & D version of it, but it seems pretty good to me. The nice thing about it is, even if you roll 1-9 with it, you’re getting reasonable value out of a 3-mana 2/1, and the tap down might prevent an attack or enable a better one for you. Then, when you hit 10-20, which is slightly more likely, you’re going to feel like you’ve got an amazing deal. Basically, 1-9 this will feel like a 2.0, and 11-20 will feel like a 3.5. I think that means it gets a 3.0
Compelled Duel image 1.0 I’m never a huge fan of this type of card. It isn’t easy to get 2-for-1’d when you cast it, and it is fairly situational. However, this is cheaper than most versions of this we’ve seen. +3/+3 is going to be enough to make just about any creature into a problem, though keep in mind that your opponent only needs to use one blocker here – it isn’t that all creatures have to block – just one does. So you need to end up in situations where the 3 damage either wins you the game or you take down an important creature, but a lot of the time their important creature will be attacking you.
Price of Loyalty image 1.0 // 2.5 Even with the Treasure upside, this probably won’t be worth it for most decks. Threaten effects aren’t amazing in most formats, since they tend to do very little except in two situations. One of these is that you’re able to kill your opponent when you do it, and the other is that you have some sacrifice outlets that make it easy to turn the effect into a removal spell that gives you some value. However, this does look like it might be worth playing in the Black-Red deck, as there is one red Sacrifice effect at Uncommon, two black sacrifice effects at Common, and one at Uncommon, so setting up the sacrifice is actually going to be doable there, making the card a solid playable in a deck that gets its hands on some of those effects.
Pack 1 Pick 8: Herald of Hadar
Aberrant Mind Sorcerer image 3.5 10-20 is the preferable option, and you have a slightly higher chance of getting that, and 1-9 isn’t too shabby either, as returning a removal spell to the top of your library is some powerful card selection. If you always got the 10-20 effect, it would be a 4.0, and if you always get 1-9, it would probably be a 3.0, so let’s split the difference at 3.5.
Herald of Hadar image 1.5 This is a bit clunky as a 5-mana 4/4, but the activated ability, as expensive as it is -- is a pretty nice late game mana sink. The ability, no matter what you roll, provides some serious reach. It is probably still too slow to make the cut on a super regular basis, though.
Deadly Dispute image 2.0 The prevalence of treasure, especially in Black-Red, will make this better than it looks. This kind of effect often plays a lot like Tormenting Voice, which is to say – its pretty replaceable, but I think this will be better than usual thanks to the fact it is good with treasure and it produces treasure. It of course still comes with the upside of being able to sacrifice a creature in response to removal, at which point you really aren’t going down a card either.
Half-Elf Monk image 3.0 Mastery Decoy effects still tend to be pretty good in Limited. Tapping down your opponent’s best creature every turn often just feels like removal, and this has the minor added bonus of being able to attack and still use the ability. I say “minor” because it is only a ¼, so that’s not exactly incredible. Still, this is a pretty nice common for White.
Devour Intellect image 0.5 // 2.5 Letting your opponent choose to discard whatever they want this is not very good, but with Treasure you can turn it into a better Thoughtseize, and that’s pretty neat. I think this really needs a build around grade, because it is pretty awful in a deck with 0 treasure, but if you are BR, you’ll probably have the Treasure you need to make this work pretty well. Still, a card like this is better in the early game, and has diminishing returns as the game goes on, and you can’t count having treasure early, so don’t expect to fire this off on turn one or two for the more effective mode
Spare Dagger image 1.0 The stats boost it offers is pretty weak, and giving up a whole card to ping something isn’t really something I’m interested in. This IS an equipment, and RW cares about that, so it probably gets played more often than it would in most formats
Goblin Javelineer image 1.5 This probably won’t be great in Limited. A one mana 1/1 with Haste might feel reasonable on turn one, but it is pretty terrible thereafter, and adding the ability to ping things that block it doesn’t really make up for that, though it does help some, since it means that it can at least trade with X/2s, and X/1s effectively can’t block it. If you can find a way to give this death touch, that will unlock its full potential, but overall, I think you cut this more often than you’ll play it.
Pack 1 Pick 9: Planar Ally
Hill Giant Herdgorger image 2.5 This seems like a fine finisher for Green decks. You’re probably going to hope you have a rare or Uncommon in that slot, but this card is similar enough to Ravenous Lindwurm and Honey Mammoth to make me feel like it has a nice shot. I have a feeling it might not be quite as good as those cards, because this format looks like it is probably going to be faster than Kaldheim, but it looks pretty solid to me
Bull's Strength image 1.5 Like most versions of this that we’ve seen, it is pretty reasonable. The boost it gives will allow you to win combat, and trample will even allow you to do some damage out of nowhere. The untap clause also gives a creature pseudo vigilance, or allows you to ambush an opposing creature, though like with most tricks, you generally prefer to use it offensively -- but the additional flexibility doesn’t hurt. It is still a trick though and comes with all those inherent risks I always talk about -- its situational, and if things go wrong you get blown out really hard.
Boots of Speed image 2.0 The boost this offers for the casting cost and the equip cost is pretty reasonable, as paying one more to give something new Haste and +1/+0 will feel pretty good sometimes, especially in a set where there’s an Equipment archetype.
Hoard Robber image 1.0 It is nice that this can make treasure, but a 1/3 just isn’t going to be getting in very often without some significant help. I don’t think you play this most of the time.
Planar Ally image 3.5 We have seen a lot of 5-mana 3/3 Flyers of late that have some ability, and they’ve all been pretty nice cards for Limited, and I think that’s what we have here. Venturing with every attack is great, as the Ally, left unchecked, will be able to get you through dungeons all on its own. This format does have more large flyers than usual as a result of the heavy Dragon theme, so this may find itself unable to attack effectively more than it would in most formats, but I think this is still a pretty good Common.
Bar the Gate image 3.0 This seems like a pretty good counterspell. They always come with big downsides, like how situational they are, and three mana for one is normally not a card you really want to play, but when some additional value is added on to countermagic, it becomes increasingly worth it, and that’s what we have here. Sure, it doesn’t counter everything -- but creatures are the most common thing your opponent will do, so it will often have targets. Venturing into the Dungeon isn’t quite “draw a card” most of the time, but it gets close enough that I’m actually pretty interested in the first copy of this for most Blue decks.
Pack 1 Pick 10: Fates' Reversal
Critical Hit image 1.0 Two mana for double strike alone isn’t the most impressive trick. The creature you use it on generally already has to be fairly impressive for it to be worthwhile, and it won’t even always allow you to win combat if your creature isn’t big enough. It is easy to imagine using this on your 6/6 Trampler, and that will happen sometimes, but you have to think of all the situations where the effect is negligible, which will be the majority of the time. The whole “natural 20” thing is cute, but won’t happen often enough for that to factor into the grade much.
Fates' Reversal image 2.5 So, usually Black has a common that lets you return two creatures, and it is usually a serviceable enough card that you basically always want the first copy of. They are situational, since they don’t do anything until late, but they can really help you grind out a win. This doesn’t do that exactly but I could see it offering similar value sometimes as a creature + Venture won’t feel too shabby.
Circle of the Moon Druid image 2.5 A card that is always a 3-mana 4/2 is like a 2.0 and a card that is always a 3-mana 2/4 is a 1.0. This gives you the best of both of those, as you’d rather have the 4/2 as the attacker and the 2/4 as the blocker most of the time.
Deadly Dispute image 2.0 The prevalence of treasure, especially in Black-Red, will make this better than it looks. This kind of effect often plays a lot like Tormenting Voice, which is to say – its pretty replaceable, but I think this will be better than usual thanks to the fact it is good with treasure and it produces treasure. It of course still comes with the upside of being able to sacrifice a creature in response to removal, at which point you really aren’t going down a card either.
Shocking Grasp image 1.5 The effect here isn’t very exciting. This Blue “combat tricks” really need your board to already have something big enough to deal with an attacking creature, or to blow up a block, and that really makes them pretty unimpressive. Obviously, adding a cantrip to the card does it make it better, because it means that at worse, you’re going to be able to Cycle this, but it still isn’t something that will make the cut in your deck all that often.
Pack 1 Pick 11: Herald of Hadar
Brazen Dwarf image 1.0 This doesn’t look very good. A two mana ⅓ isn’t a good stat-line these days, and the fact it might damage your opponent a little bit doesn’t really make up for that for me. It just won’t do enough to feel worth the mana or the card in most decks.
Compelled Duel image 1.0 I’m never a huge fan of this type of card. It isn’t easy to get 2-for-1’d when you cast it, and it is fairly situational. However, this is cheaper than most versions of this we’ve seen. +3/+3 is going to be enough to make just about any creature into a problem, though keep in mind that your opponent only needs to use one blocker here – it isn’t that all creatures have to block – just one does. So you need to end up in situations where the 3 damage either wins you the game or you take down an important creature, but a lot of the time their important creature will be attacking you.
Herald of Hadar image 1.5 This is a bit clunky as a 5-mana 4/4, but the activated ability, as expensive as it is -- is a pretty nice late game mana sink. The ability, no matter what you roll, provides some serious reach. It is probably still too slow to make the cut on a super regular basis, though.
Ranger's Longbow image 1.5 This gives a reasonable boost and key word for the cost, though it isn’t anything special.
Pack 1 Pick 12: +2 Mace
You Find the Villains' Lair image 2.0 Cancel is not usually a great card in Limited. Counterspells are a little too situational, and it is often just going ot be better to add to your board with three mana than count on your opponent playing something that you will counter. In a lot of ways, counter magic in Limited is just bad removal, because you have to have the mana up to use it at the exact right time, or it doesn’t do anything. Basically, a card like Cancel just ends up being a card you have left in your hand after you’ve played everything else, and it might do a thing, but it also might have cost you the game. This gets around that problem with another mode though. Sure, it doesn’t add to the board either, but it still gives you something to do with it that will be more immediate and more of a sure thing in situations where that’s a good idea. Normally, Cancel is like a 1.5, but I think this does enough to make the cut more often than that.
+2 Mace image 2.0 This gives an alright boost for the mana it costs to play and equip, but it isn’t crazy efficient or anything, and it will probably be cut a decent chunk of the time.
Clever Conjurer image 2.5 This ability only being Sorcery speed is a bummer, but it is still a pretty useful one to have on a 3-mana ⅔. Notably, it can untap lands for you, helping you ramp. And that’s probably the way you’ll use it the most. This seems like a solid playable.
Pack 1 Pick 13: Vampire Spawn
Vampire Spawn image 2.5 This might not quite be Siege Rhino, but it seems pretty nice. A 3-mana 2/3 isn’t where you want to be normally, but the ETB trigger here is pretty real. It is a bit odd that Black doesn’t really care about life gain this time around, but that’s okay. The drain effect here is a total net gain of 4 life – in other words, it creates a gap of 4 life between you and your opponent, and that’s pretty nice in a race. This seems like a solid playable.
Feign Death image 1.5 Versions of this effect that are good tend to give the stats boost up front. That’s significantly better than this because it allows a smaller creature to win combat against something bigger, but this doesn’t do that. Sometimes you’ll just have to use it on a chump block, which won’t feel great. It is nice that it basically counters most removal, and it isn’t bad, just not like Supernatural Stamina or other cards we’ve seen that have been pretty solid. This just won’t do enough to make the cut super often.
Pack 1 Pick 14: Paladin's Shield
Paladin's Shield image 1.0 We have seen Equipment like this before, and I’ve never really been impressed by it. A boost to toughness alone is very rarely something you’re after in your Equipment, and while this does have Flash, so you can use it as sort of a combat trick, it will usually only ever save your creature, and not really help it win combat. Then, after you get to attach it for free that one time, the Equip cost is really high for what this is. RW decks do have an Equipment sub-theme, and that helps it out a little bit, but not enough for it to be something you play regularly.
Pack 2 Pick 1: Cloister Gargoyle
Bard Class image 1.0 This set does have a significant number of legendaries in it, but I’m not convinced there will be enough to really make this worthwhile. It is all about legendaries, and does literal nothing if you don’t have enough of them. I could give it a build around grade, but I think it will be so difficult to make this work that I don’t think I need to go there
Barbarian Class image 1.0 // 3.0 The base level of this one probably wouldn’t be worth it all on its own, even with all the d20 stuff in the set. It just won’t create a different outcome all that often, though obviously it does make those d20 cards better. Once you add level two, you are getting a very real payoff for rolling dice, as +2/+0 and Menace is a pretty big deal, and then Level 3 adding Haste to the mix -- regardless of Dice being rolled, seems nice. So, how good would this be if you just paid 6 up front for all of this? Well, not amazing, but paying it in installments is obviously better. Still, I think your deck will be dependent enough on having dice effects that this won’t really work in every deck, and even when it does I don’t see it being amazing. Because it is so dependent on dice, I think this needs a buildaround grade, because in your Average red deck with like 3-4 dice effects, it probably isn’t worth it. You probably need 7+ to get there.
Cloister Gargoyle image 3.0 A 3-mana 0/4 that ventures into the dungeon is probably already a decent card for the format, but this looks to be one of the bigger payoffs for completing dungeons at lower rarities, as it becoming a ¾ Flyer is a pretty big deal -- that kind of size almost always matters on an evasive creature, and it is going to give you value when it ETBs no matter what.
Wild Shape image 2.0 I’m not usually a big fan of tricks that grant hexproof, they are just too situational! But this gets around that with some pretty nice modality. You can still get Hexproof if you need it, but it has two other modes that can be useful in different situations, and having an option between those three things is pretty nice, though not incredibly. A 1/5 with Reach is probably just going to enable a block you didn’t have before, which isn’t a great thing to give up a card for most of the time, and making something into a 3/3 with Trample won’t always matter either. So, the 1/3 option is probably the best one. Still, for only one mana this does a kind of okay job, and it is certainly decent
Mordenkainen's Polymorph image 1.0 This kind of card always looks really cool, and that’s because it is easy to think of situations where it does something. But, even though there are several of them -- like making a creature big enough to block something it couldn’t before, or shrinking an opposing creature, or doing 4 lethal damage int he air, or saving a creature from damage-based removal -- even with all of those possibilities, you’d be surprised how infrequently a situation emerges where this will actually do something. We’ve seen a ton of cards like this over the years, and they always significantly underperform. I can’t see that changing here.
Find the Path image 2.5 I think you’re getting pretty solid value here, between getting some ramp and venturing into a dungeon. Venture won’t always feel like drawing a card, but later on in the dungeons it will give you that kind of value, and even the early rooms in the dungeons seem decent enough.
Spare Dagger image 1.0 The stats boost it offers is pretty weak, and giving up a whole card to ping something isn’t really something I’m interested in. This IS an equipment, and RW cares about that, so it probably gets played more often than it would in most formats
Scion of Stygia image 3.0 If you know me, you know I’m a pretty big fan of Blue creatures with bounce or tap down effects, and this is a distinctly D & D version of it, but it seems pretty good to me. The nice thing about it is, even if you roll 1-9 with it, you’re getting reasonable value out of a 3-mana 2/1, and the tap down might prevent an attack or enable a better one for you. Then, when you hit 10-20, which is slightly more likely, you’re going to feel like you’ve got an amazing deal. Basically, 1-9 this will feel like a 2.0, and 11-20 will feel like a 3.5. I think that means it gets a 3.0
You Find a Cursed Idol image 2.0 This seems like a solid card to me. The modality here is great, and most of the time if you can blow up an Artifact or Enchantment, that’s where you’re going to go, but it is great that it has a fail case of Venture + Treasure, which won’t always feel like a whol card’s worth of value, but it gets pretty close. This is sort of like a Naturalize with Cycling in that sense, and that’s always a decent card
Dawnbringer Cleric image 2.5 None of these effects are amazing, but the flexibility this card offers is quite nice. Mostly, you’ll gain 2 life with it, which will be okayish -- but when you have an Enchantment to destroy or a key card to remove from your opponent’s graveyard, it will feel especially good. Gaining life also matters some in this set, so there’s some synergy to be had. I think this is a solid playable.
Charmed Sleep image 3.5 I’m always hesitant to give Blue removal a “premium removal” grade, because it seems more often than not they don’t get there due to various disadvantages, but I think this gets there just barely. It did last time we saw it too. It doesn’t shut down static or activated abilities, but most creatures will become useless once this is on it.
Zombie Ogre image 2.5 This has kind decent defensive stats, but the real value comes from its ability to Venture into the Dungeon, which it can do without any mana investment at all. Sure, you have to have your creature die, but that’s a common enough occurrence that this will be able to Venture for you a decent amount of the time. Playing it in the second main phase after a creature has ALREADY died will feel particularly good, because you’ll be getting that value at your End Step most of the time. This seems like a solid Common
Hoard Robber image 1.0 It is nice that this can make treasure, but a 1/3 just isn’t going to be getting in very often without some significant help. I don’t think you play this most of the time.
Hoarding Ogre image 2.0 This has Hill Giant stats and a serviceable attack trigger. Because it makes treasure, you can really count this creature as fixing, and that’s typically a valuable thing to have in Limited, plus this set has some nice treasure payoffs.
Pack 2 Pick 2: Drizzt Do'Urden
Drizzt Do'Urden image 5.0 So, a 5-mana 3/3 with Double Strike is almost passable, and this does a heck of a lot more than that! You pay 5-mana for 8/4 worth of stats across two bodies with very real key word abilities. And that would probably be enough for this to be a really good card but then you add the fact that Drizzt gets bigger when creatures with higher power die, and you’re talking about a bomb. Especially because that 4/1 dying will make Drizzt into a 4/4, so there is built in synergy, you don’t have to go hard on really making Drizzt good -- it just will be
Loathsome Troll image 2.5 A 5-mana 6/2 is not very good, though it does make Pack Tactics get going all on its own, and that certainly is relevant int his format. Still, a 2-drop can block it and take it down! The good news is, if you have the time and the mana, it has a solid ability it can use from the graveyard. It going on top of your library is not super good, since you have to replace your draw to get it back, and there’s a reasonable chance what you were going to draw was going to be better, but when it returns to your hand it will feel pretty good, and obviously that’s true when it goes to the battlefield as well. Still, this doesn’t have the best stats ever, even accounting for Pack Tactics, and its ability is both expensive and going to feel actively mediocre when you roll a 1-9
Wizard Class image 3.0 This is much less buildaroundy than most of the other Classes, and that’s good news, because it will just be nice in any Blue deck, though it does get better the better you are at drawing cards. The level one Enchantment is pretty irrelevant, but drawing two at level two will feel nice, and obviously leveling this up all the way will feel great, as getting a counter every turn is quite nice. It is quite slow, of course, and that holds it back significantly, but I think it looks pretty nice overall.
Scion of Stygia image 3.0 If you know me, you know I’m a pretty big fan of Blue creatures with bounce or tap down effects, and this is a distinctly D & D version of it, but it seems pretty good to me. The nice thing about it is, even if you roll 1-9 with it, you’re getting reasonable value out of a 3-mana 2/1, and the tap down might prevent an attack or enable a better one for you. Then, when you hit 10-20, which is slightly more likely, you’re going to feel like you’ve got an amazing deal. Basically, 1-9 this will feel like a 2.0, and 11-20 will feel like a 3.5. I think that means it gets a 3.0
Rimeshield Frost Giant image 3.0 Ward 3 is pretty big, and for a creature this size, it may just feel like Hexproof some games, since your opponent will need a pretty hefty removal spell to deal with it in most cases, and it will be pretty hard for your opponent to ever take it down without paying at least what you paid for the Giant.
Devour Intellect image 0.5 // 2.5 Letting your opponent choose to discard whatever they want this is not very good, but with Treasure you can turn it into a better Thoughtseize, and that’s pretty neat. I think this really needs a build around grade, because it is pretty awful in a deck with 0 treasure, but if you are BR, you’ll probably have the Treasure you need to make this work pretty well. Still, a card like this is better in the early game, and has diminishing returns as the game goes on, and you can’t count having treasure early, so don’t expect to fire this off on turn one or two for the more effective mode
You Find the Villains' Lair image 2.0 Cancel is not usually a great card in Limited. Counterspells are a little too situational, and it is often just going ot be better to add to your board with three mana than count on your opponent playing something that you will counter. In a lot of ways, counter magic in Limited is just bad removal, because you have to have the mana up to use it at the exact right time, or it doesn’t do anything. Basically, a card like Cancel just ends up being a card you have left in your hand after you’ve played everything else, and it might do a thing, but it also might have cost you the game. This gets around that problem with another mode though. Sure, it doesn’t add to the board either, but it still gives you something to do with it that will be more immediate and more of a sure thing in situations where that’s a good idea. Normally, Cancel is like a 1.5, but I think this does enough to make the cut more often than that.
Leather Armor image 0.5 This probably isn’t worth playing. Its cool that it equips for free, but the bonus it gives is negligible enough to not be worth a card in most scenarios. If you end up with a deck with a crazy amount of Equipment payoffs, which RW might have, MAYBE you end up playing it, but that’s probably the only time you do
Hobgoblin Captain image 2.5 This looks like it might be a nice two drop for aggressive decks in the format. A two mana 3/1 is already playable in many formats, and because he supplies half the power necessary to make pack tactics go off, it seems likely he will have first strike a lot. For now, I have it at 2.5, but if aggro is huge in this format, it will probably move up.
Veteran Dungeoneer image 3.5 This seems like a pretty darn good Common. As I’ve said throughout the video, Venturing isn’t quite drawing a card most of the time, but it gives you value that isn’t that far away from drawing a card, and if this was a 4-mana ¾ that drew you a card, it would be amazing. And again, this won’t quite feel like a 2-for-1 all the time, but it does do a lot for the mana cost, and enough to be one of White’s best Commons.
Silver Raven image 1.5 One mana 1/1 flyers don’t tend to be very impressive in most Limited formats unless they have a lot going on. And, while Scry 1 is a little more than nothing, it isn’t that good, either. It does mean it still does a thing in the late game, and improving your draws matters, but yeah, this is pretty mediocre overall. If the set had more of an Artifact theme it would be better, but it just isn’t there.
Spoils of the Hunt image 3.5 So even without any treasure at all, this is a 3-mana Rabid Bite at Instant speed, which is already a card I would be interested in. It also compares pretty well with Ambuscade, a card that cost the same and always gave +1/+0 in addition to the punch effect. The treasure upside is nice, because sometimes your creature won’t have the power necessary to be good with Spoils of the Hunt. However, if you’re in Green anyway, your creatures will mostly be good with this. One does have to be cautious with spells like this, as your opponent removing the creature you target is an epic blow out, but because its an Instant, it won’t be that hard to find an ideal window. I think this is premium removal
Devoted Paladin image 3.5 Pumping your whole board and giving it Vigilance almost always seems to allow for some serious attacking on your part. After all, your creatures are bigger, and you’re going to be able to leave them all back as blockers even if you’re going to attack with them! We’ve seen similar cards like Dawnfeather Eagle end up great in Limited, and this format does look like it has the means to go wide effectively, and if that’s true, the Paladin is going to be one of the cards you want the most to round out your top curve.
Pack 2 Pick 3: Grim Bounty
You Find Some Prisoners image 2.0 I think this is a bit underwhelming compared to the other Uncommon “Choose your Adventure”-style cards. If you can hit an Artifact with it that will be nice, but the second ability is a little too random, though it will certainly be useful most of the time in the later game, as it effectively draws you a card. Still, You Find some Prisoners is likely to sit in your hand for a long time before it actually does something, and even when it does do something, it normally isn’t going to feel that powerful.
Sudden Insight image 2.5 This won’t always be that easy to get going, especially because this set doesn’t really have a big graveyard theme, but in the late game it seems pretty likely to draw you 3+ cards, and obviously it can do even more than that. It does cost 6, and it is utterly terrible until the relatively late game, so it is hard to get overly excited about it, but I think it is a decent draw spell to have a single copy of in your Blue decks.
Reaper's Talisman image 3.0 This looks like some pretty nice Equipment. One to play and two to equip for Death touch and an “attacks alone” trigger is kind of an okay deal, especially because those two things pair so well together. You often would find yourself rumbling with just a small death toucher anyway, so draining two on top of that will be a very real problem for your opponent. Keep in mind, the creature only has death touch on the attack, so don’t move this to a blocker and expect it to have death touch.
Vampire Spawn image 2.5 This might not quite be Siege Rhino, but it seems pretty nice. A 3-mana 2/3 isn’t where you want to be normally, but the ETB trigger here is pretty real. It is a bit odd that Black doesn’t really care about life gain this time around, but that’s okay. The drain effect here is a total net gain of 4 life – in other words, it creates a gap of 4 life between you and your opponent, and that’s pretty nice in a race. This seems like a solid playable.
Grim Bounty image 3.5 This is premium removal. It might be a somewhat expensive Sorcery, but it kills pretty much everything for 4 mana, and even gives you a treasure back, almost making it so it costs three mana with some fixing upside!
Dawnbringer Cleric image 2.5 None of these effects are amazing, but the flexibility this card offers is quite nice. Mostly, you’ll gain 2 life with it, which will be okayish -- but when you have an Enchantment to destroy or a key card to remove from your opponent’s graveyard, it will feel especially good. Gaining life also matters some in this set, so there’s some synergy to be had. I think this is a solid playable.
You Come to a River image 3.0 This is a solid modal card. Usually, just a card that does the “Fight the Current” option, is something that makes the cut a decent chunk of the time. It has the flexibility of dealing, at least temporarily, with multiple permanent types, and you can even use it to actually take away a card permanently if your opponent tries to put auras or combat tricks on their creatures. The other option you’ll basically only choose when its lethal, but that is some nice upside to have on an already solid card.
Mordenkainen's Polymorph image 1.0 This kind of card always looks really cool, and that’s because it is easy to think of situations where it does something. But, even though there are several of them -- like making a creature big enough to block something it couldn’t before, or shrinking an opposing creature, or doing 4 lethal damage int he air, or saving a creature from damage-based removal -- even with all of those possibilities, you’d be surprised how infrequently a situation emerges where this will actually do something. We’ve seen a ton of cards like this over the years, and they always significantly underperform. I can’t see that changing here.
You Find the Villains' Lair image 2.0 Cancel is not usually a great card in Limited. Counterspells are a little too situational, and it is often just going ot be better to add to your board with three mana than count on your opponent playing something that you will counter. In a lot of ways, counter magic in Limited is just bad removal, because you have to have the mana up to use it at the exact right time, or it doesn’t do anything. Basically, a card like Cancel just ends up being a card you have left in your hand after you’ve played everything else, and it might do a thing, but it also might have cost you the game. This gets around that problem with another mode though. Sure, it doesn’t add to the board either, but it still gives you something to do with it that will be more immediate and more of a sure thing in situations where that’s a good idea. Normally, Cancel is like a 1.5, but I think this does enough to make the cut more often than that.
Soulknife Spy image 3.0 Creatures with this combat trigger tend to be pretty nice in Limited, and this one has more reasonable stats than the ones we usually see at lower rarities. Drawing a card is big, and is the kind of thing your opponent will have to account for one way or another, or the extra cards this gets you will help you win the game. It doesn’t hurt that UB has a significant number of ways to make the creature evasive, either! One particularly nasty combo that you’ll see a lot, because the two cards are Common and Uncommon two will be Fly + Soulknife spy.
Swarming Goblins image 3.0 This seems like a pretty nice 5-drop. The worst case is 5 mana for a 4/3 and a 1/1, and that’s a pretty passable card -- if you get two tokens out of this it is going to feel well worth the investment, and obviously on the rare occasions you hit 20 you’ll feel like you’re robbing the bank.
Owlbear image 3.5 This is reminiscent of Sarulf’s Packmate, and that’s a good Green Common to emulate. This gives you a very real body -- a 4/4 with Trample can be relevant on many board states, but obviously the ETB draw a card effect is what really makes this great. It will be virtually impossible for you not to get a 2-for-1 out of this Bear, and the value it gives you will be great. Sure, costing 5 does mean you can only run so many, unlike the Packmate which had Foretell, making it much easier to jam a bunch of them into your deck, but you should still value that first 1-2 copies pretty highly. There’s a good chance this is Green’s best common
Pack 2 Pick 4: Blink Dog
Blink Dog image 1.0 This doesn’t look very good. 3 mana for a 1/1 with Double Strike is rough, and the Phase effect is cool, but also costly. I guess if you have some Equipment he can get interesting, but I think you mostly won’t play this
Ray of Frost image 3.0 This whole cycle of color hosers is nice, because they are all perfectly playable cards even if you don’t play against the color they hate on, and when you do play against them, the cards in this cycle will get a massive upgrade, and that’s certainly the case here. The fact this doesn’t tap the creature itself is pretty rough, as you have to wait until your opponent has a tapped creature for it to really do something. The fact it has Flash does make it easier for you to find that window, but if this card didn’t have the Red-hating upside, it would probably just be a 2.5. And, against decks with Red targets for this, it will feel premium
Underdark Basilisk image 2.5 It is pretty hard for small creatures with Deathtouch not to be playable, since they bring the capability of trading with anything. This makes them relevant all game long, though never super impressive. They also tend to be good with fight and punch spells
Air-Cult Elemental image 3.0 This is one big Man-O’-War! A 6-mana 2/5 Flyer is a bad rate, but because this bounces another creature, you’ll often feel like you’re getting your mana’s worth. If you know me, you know I always love this kind of effect – and there’s a reason for that, it is great in Limited! Adding to your board while subtracting from your opponent’s is one of the best feelings you can have! And yeah, while the 2/5 stats aren’t exactly incredible, it is enough that the elemental can still be a little bit of a threat in the sky, or be an effective blocker. It does cost 6 mana, so you don’t really want more than one of them, but I think I’m going to value the first copy relatively highly.
You See a Guard Approach image 1.0 Individually, these effects are not worth an entire card. They’re just too situational. Sure, it feels good to give your creature hexproof in response to removal, but there will be lots of times where that effect doesn’t matter. The tap effect is even more underwhelming, and while it can allow you to stop something from attacking you, or maybe help you attack more effectively, it will also be useless a decent chunk of the time. Each of those, cards, individually -- would be almost unplayable. If you put them together, you obviously have a better card that you’ll actually be able to use sometimes, but I still don’t think it is very good.
Price of Loyalty image 1.0 // 2.5 Even with the Treasure upside, this probably won’t be worth it for most decks. Threaten effects aren’t amazing in most formats, since they tend to do very little except in two situations. One of these is that you’re able to kill your opponent when you do it, and the other is that you have some sacrifice outlets that make it easy to turn the effect into a removal spell that gives you some value. However, this does look like it might be worth playing in the Black-Red deck, as there is one red Sacrifice effect at Uncommon, two black sacrifice effects at Common, and one at Uncommon, so setting up the sacrifice is actually going to be doable there, making the card a solid playable in a deck that gets its hands on some of those effects.
Farideh's Fireball image 5.0 I think this sneaks into the lower range of premium removal. 5 mana to do 5 to something at Instant speed is perhaps not the most efficient thing ever, but it does kill most stuff, and the fac that your opponent also always takes 2 is enough to nudge this into that premium range. Sure, it will do 2 to you sometimes too, but that’s okay. This is the kind of card that will plummet in its score if the format turns out to be fast though, so keep that in mind.
Paladin's Shield image 1.0 We have seen Equipment like this before, and I’ve never really been impressed by it. A boost to toughness alone is very rarely something you’re after in your Equipment, and while this does have Flash, so you can use it as sort of a combat trick, it will usually only ever save your creature, and not really help it win combat. Then, after you get to attach it for free that one time, the Equip cost is really high for what this is. RW decks do have an Equipment sub-theme, and that helps it out a little bit, but not enough for it to be something you play regularly.
Devour Intellect image 0.5 // 2.5 Letting your opponent choose to discard whatever they want this is not very good, but with Treasure you can turn it into a better Thoughtseize, and that’s pretty neat. I think this really needs a build around grade, because it is pretty awful in a deck with 0 treasure, but if you are BR, you’ll probably have the Treasure you need to make this work pretty well. Still, a card like this is better in the early game, and has diminishing returns as the game goes on, and you can’t count having treasure early, so don’t expect to fire this off on turn one or two for the more effective mode
Eyes of the Beholder image 3.0 It is pretty difficult for a card to be premium removal when it costs 6 mana – unless of course it also draws you a card, like Rise of Extus in Strixhaven. Eye of the Beholder can definitely kill almost everything, but six mana is a whole lot! It is an Instant, which does means sometimes you’ll be able to manufacture some blowouts. I think you’ll always be reasonably happy with the first copy of this, but running more than that is pretty risky.
Ranger's Longbow image 1.5 This gives a reasonable boost and key word for the cost, though it isn’t anything special.
Pack 2 Pick 5: Sepulcher Ghoul
Hulking Bugbear image 3.0 Any time we see a 3-mana 3/3 with Haste it tends to be a pretty solid aggressive creature, though certainly not the most exciting card ever, but it is definitely efficient!
Hill Giant Herdgorger image 2.5 This seems like a fine finisher for Green decks. You’re probably going to hope you have a rare or Uncommon in that slot, but this card is similar enough to Ravenous Lindwurm and Honey Mammoth to make me feel like it has a nice shot. I have a feeling it might not be quite as good as those cards, because this format looks like it is probably going to be faster than Kaldheim, but it looks pretty solid to me
You Come to the Gnoll Camp image 2.0 Like most of this cycle, this has two effects that are good in the right situation, but pretty narrow. Putting them together does make for a better card, and sometimes aggro decks really want a card that just blanks a couple of blockers – and they also are pretty happy with a combat trick, even if this one isn’t the greatest. The lack of significant toughness boost makes it a challenge for this to help your creature survive combats, but that’s alright. The first copy of this seems like a decent inclusion for Red aggro decks.
Celestial Unicorn image 3.0 GW is the color pair most interested in gaining life in this format, and this is a very nice Common payoff for that kind of deck. And, it can be pretty solid in other decks too, as it isn’t like GW is the only deck where you’ll be able to gain life. This can get big fast, and has a reasonable starting point as a 3-mana 3/2. It seems like a pretty good Common.
Sepulcher Ghoul image 2.5 This has passable base stats, and on most attacks it will be able to threaten becoming a 4/3, so your opponent will have to take that into account. Free sacrifice effects like this always play pretty well since you can virtually always use the effect, though in this case, you can only do it once. It looks like the Ghoul is well-positioned for the BG deck especially, since that deck’s all about stuff dying, and it will also pair nicely in BR, where you can use the Threaten effect to steal a creature and sacrifice it. I think all of that helps makes this two mana 2/1 a card you play a significant chunk of the time in Black.
Scaled Herbalist image 2.0 When you get this down early, it will feel pretty nice. It doesn’t have the best stats, but you are likely to have the extra lands necessary to take advantage of its ability. In the mid-to-late-game it becomes increasingly useless though, unless you’re able to draw a whole bunch of cards
Valor Singer image 3.0 This type of effect tends to be a bit better than it looks. I mean, on his own he is effectively a 3-mana 3/3 in most cases, and you’ll often have other creatures on which you can use the ability that might have more of an impact. At the very least, this seems like a solid playable.
Arcane Investigator image 2.0 A two mana 2/1 isn’t great these days, but this one does come with a pretty nice late game effect. No matter what you roll, being able to draw cards late is pretty nice. Still, for the bluk of the game, the Investigator is just not very good. It will be outclasses quickly in the early game, and in the mid-game it will be even more useless.
Hired Hexblade image 3.0 This seems like a solid card. Worst-case, you have a grizzly bear, and best case you have a two mana 2/2 that draws you a card -- which is just a great deal. There is enough treasure in this set that casting this with it isn’t a pipe dream, but you probably shouldn’t expect to be able to do it on turn two. Still, playing this later, once you have that treasure, will be nice since it will have relevance in the late game too when you do it.
Ranger's Longbow image 1.5 This gives a reasonable boost and key word for the cost, though it isn’t anything special.
Pack 2 Pick 6: Manticore
Critical Hit image 1.0 Two mana for double strike alone isn’t the most impressive trick. The creature you use it on generally already has to be fairly impressive for it to be worthwhile, and it won’t even always allow you to win combat if your creature isn’t big enough. It is easy to imagine using this on your 6/6 Trampler, and that will happen sometimes, but you have to think of all the situations where the effect is negligible, which will be the majority of the time. The whole “natural 20” thing is cute, but won’t happen often enough for that to factor into the grade much.
Ray of Frost image 3.0 This whole cycle of color hosers is nice, because they are all perfectly playable cards even if you don’t play against the color they hate on, and when you do play against them, the cards in this cycle will get a massive upgrade, and that’s certainly the case here. The fact this doesn’t tap the creature itself is pretty rough, as you have to wait until your opponent has a tapped creature for it to really do something. The fact it has Flash does make it easier for you to find that window, but if this card didn’t have the Red-hating upside, it would probably just be a 2.5. And, against decks with Red targets for this, it will feel premium
Boots of Speed image 2.0 The boost this offers for the casting cost and the equip cost is pretty reasonable, as paying one more to give something new Haste and +1/+0 will feel pretty good sometimes, especially in a set where there’s an Equipment archetype.
Manticore image 3.0 These types of “kill something that was damaged” effects are often underwhelming, just because it takes more work than you'd think to consistently manufacture situations where that happens -- in particular, situations where you can make it happen without giving up significant resources, like an ugly block or an attack. However, when they add Flash to the mix, the card gets significantly more interesting because it means there will be a wider variety of situations where you can make that part of the card work. Plus, in a fail case this gives you a passable Flying body. Don’t count on this to feel like a Flying Ravenous Chupacabra all the time, but it will do that often enough to be a pretty nice common.
Hill Giant Herdgorger image 2.5 This seems like a fine finisher for Green decks. You’re probably going to hope you have a rare or Uncommon in that slot, but this card is similar enough to Ravenous Lindwurm and Honey Mammoth to make me feel like it has a nice shot. I have a feeling it might not be quite as good as those cards, because this format looks like it is probably going to be faster than Kaldheim, but it looks pretty solid to me
Potion of Healing image 1.5 Most of the time we see this kind of effect on a spell and it costs one fewer total mana than Potion of Healing does to draw you a card and gain you some life. This lets you pay it in installments though, and it is nice that you can just play it to draw the card and hold on to the life gain for a little bit later, especially if you’re in GW and you have some things that this can trigger for you. Still, this card seems pretty replacable, just like Revitalize and similar cards we’ve seen. You’ll probably cut it more than you play it.
Djinni Windseer image 3.5 I was already pretty sold on a 4-mana 3/3 Flyer, so adding the d20 effect is just gravy. Even just Scrying 1 with this will feel like you’re getting nice value, and sometimes it will do more than that. The set also has some d20 payoffs, especially in UR, making it marginally better than that. It isn’t the most exciting card, but it is a pretty darn good Common.
Gnoll Hunter image 3.0 This is a fine two drop. It is a bear as a baseline, and it can get bigger if it has enough friends. That’s good enough upside for this to be a nice two-drop for Green decks.
Mimic image 1.0 So, this doesn’t seem amazing to me, though the flavor is quite good. Like most treasures, it can only be used the one time to give you mana, so it isn’t even the best fixing ever. And yeah, it can turn into a creature sometimes, and that’s nice upside to have on your mana, but I’m just not sure this will feel like it is worth an entire card very often. You’ll play it if you really need fixing, or maybe you have some artifact synergies, but that’s probably about it
Pack 2 Pick 7: Steadfast Paladin
Gloom Stalker image 2.5 This is pretty bad if you haven’t completed a dungeon, and if you have, it is pretty good, but still not incredible.
Dawnbringer Cleric image 2.5 None of these effects are amazing, but the flexibility this card offers is quite nice. Mostly, you’ll gain 2 life with it, which will be okayish -- but when you have an Enchantment to destroy or a key card to remove from your opponent’s graveyard, it will feel especially good. Gaining life also matters some in this set, so there’s some synergy to be had. I think this is a solid playable.
You Find a Cursed Idol image 2.0 This seems like a solid card to me. The modality here is great, and most of the time if you can blow up an Artifact or Enchantment, that’s where you’re going to go, but it is great that it has a fail case of Venture + Treasure, which won’t always feel like a whol card’s worth of value, but it gets pretty close. This is sort of like a Naturalize with Cycling in that sense, and that’s always a decent card
Steadfast Paladin image 3.0 Two mana 2/2s with Lifelink tend to be solid enough in Limited, especially in a format with a life gain archetype. It will also wield Equipment pretty effectively.
Deadly Dispute image 2.0 The prevalence of treasure, especially in Black-Red, will make this better than it looks. This kind of effect often plays a lot like Tormenting Voice, which is to say – its pretty replaceable, but I think this will be better than usual thanks to the fact it is good with treasure and it produces treasure. It of course still comes with the upside of being able to sacrifice a creature in response to removal, at which point you really aren’t going down a card either.
Shortcut Seeker image 2.0 This has some okay defensive stats, but unfortunately it needs to do damage to a player to actually do something real, making it kind of an odd card. UB is going to be pretty good at making creatures gain evasion, but I’m not super interested in this.
Leather Armor image 0.5 This probably isn’t worth playing. Its cool that it equips for free, but the bonus it gives is negligible enough to not be worth a card in most scenarios. If you end up with a deck with a crazy amount of Equipment payoffs, which RW might have, MAYBE you end up playing it, but that’s probably the only time you do
Djinni Windseer image 3.5 I was already pretty sold on a 4-mana 3/3 Flyer, so adding the d20 effect is just gravy. Even just Scrying 1 with this will feel like you’re getting nice value, and sometimes it will do more than that. The set also has some d20 payoffs, especially in UR, making it marginally better than that. It isn’t the most exciting card, but it is a pretty darn good Common.
Pack 2 Pick 8: Flumph
Flumph image 2.0 This has a strange design, but I think overall it seems fine.. Symmetrical card draw kind of just leaves you and your opponent at parity, and in the mean time this can block a whole lot of stuff.
Farideh, Devil's Chosen image 3.5 I never thought I’d say this -- but there are enough cards that let you roll a d20 in this set for Farideh to be quite impressive. Flying and Menace usually just means “umblockable,” and you’ll also draw a card about half the time which is just silly. There probably aren’t quite so many d20 cards in this set for Farideh to be super easy to really abuse, but it seems like there’s enough for it to do pretty good
Jaded Sell-Sword image 3.0 A 4-mana 4/3 is passable, and the Treasure upside here is nice. It will make it a formidable attacker the turn it comes down.
Spare Dagger image 1.0 The stats boost it offers is pretty weak, and giving up a whole card to ping something isn’t really something I’m interested in. This IS an equipment, and RW cares about that, so it probably gets played more often than it would in most formats
You Find the Villains' Lair image 2.0 Cancel is not usually a great card in Limited. Counterspells are a little too situational, and it is often just going ot be better to add to your board with three mana than count on your opponent playing something that you will counter. In a lot of ways, counter magic in Limited is just bad removal, because you have to have the mana up to use it at the exact right time, or it doesn’t do anything. Basically, a card like Cancel just ends up being a card you have left in your hand after you’ve played everything else, and it might do a thing, but it also might have cost you the game. This gets around that problem with another mode though. Sure, it doesn’t add to the board either, but it still gives you something to do with it that will be more immediate and more of a sure thing in situations where that’s a good idea. Normally, Cancel is like a 1.5, but I think this does enough to make the cut more often than that.
Deadly Dispute image 2.0 The prevalence of treasure, especially in Black-Red, will make this better than it looks. This kind of effect often plays a lot like Tormenting Voice, which is to say – its pretty replaceable, but I think this will be better than usual thanks to the fact it is good with treasure and it produces treasure. It of course still comes with the upside of being able to sacrifice a creature in response to removal, at which point you really aren’t going down a card either.
Kick in the Door image 2.5 This card reminds me a lot of some of the cards we saw in Strixhaven, which seemed like they didn’t really do that much, but it turned out Learning for one or two mana was good, even if the other effect was negligible, and I think that’s kind of what we’re looking at here. Without Venture, this card would be pretty close to an F. One mana for a counter and Haste and not being able to be blocked by a few creatures just wouldn’t be worth a whole card, but I think with Venture attached you suddenly have a card that will feel sort of like Guiding Voice from Strixhaven. It will make a new creature able to attack right away, or make an old one able to attack thanks to the counter, while also netting you value from Venturing.
Pack 2 Pick 9: Spare Dagger
Barbarian Class image 1.0 // 3.0 The base level of this one probably wouldn’t be worth it all on its own, even with all the d20 stuff in the set. It just won’t create a different outcome all that often, though obviously it does make those d20 cards better. Once you add level two, you are getting a very real payoff for rolling dice, as +2/+0 and Menace is a pretty big deal, and then Level 3 adding Haste to the mix -- regardless of Dice being rolled, seems nice. So, how good would this be if you just paid 6 up front for all of this? Well, not amazing, but paying it in installments is obviously better. Still, I think your deck will be dependent enough on having dice effects that this won’t really work in every deck, and even when it does I don’t see it being amazing. Because it is so dependent on dice, I think this needs a buildaround grade, because in your Average red deck with like 3-4 dice effects, it probably isn’t worth it. You probably need 7+ to get there.
Wild Shape image 2.0 I’m not usually a big fan of tricks that grant hexproof, they are just too situational! But this gets around that with some pretty nice modality. You can still get Hexproof if you need it, but it has two other modes that can be useful in different situations, and having an option between those three things is pretty nice, though not incredibly. A 1/5 with Reach is probably just going to enable a block you didn’t have before, which isn’t a great thing to give up a card for most of the time, and making something into a 3/3 with Trample won’t always matter either. So, the 1/3 option is probably the best one. Still, for only one mana this does a kind of okay job, and it is certainly decent
Mordenkainen's Polymorph image 1.0 This kind of card always looks really cool, and that’s because it is easy to think of situations where it does something. But, even though there are several of them -- like making a creature big enough to block something it couldn’t before, or shrinking an opposing creature, or doing 4 lethal damage int he air, or saving a creature from damage-based removal -- even with all of those possibilities, you’d be surprised how infrequently a situation emerges where this will actually do something. We’ve seen a ton of cards like this over the years, and they always significantly underperform. I can’t see that changing here.
Find the Path image 2.5 I think you’re getting pretty solid value here, between getting some ramp and venturing into a dungeon. Venture won’t always feel like drawing a card, but later on in the dungeons it will give you that kind of value, and even the early rooms in the dungeons seem decent enough.
Spare Dagger image 1.0 The stats boost it offers is pretty weak, and giving up a whole card to ping something isn’t really something I’m interested in. This IS an equipment, and RW cares about that, so it probably gets played more often than it would in most formats
Scion of Stygia image 3.0 If you know me, you know I’m a pretty big fan of Blue creatures with bounce or tap down effects, and this is a distinctly D & D version of it, but it seems pretty good to me. The nice thing about it is, even if you roll 1-9 with it, you’re getting reasonable value out of a 3-mana 2/1, and the tap down might prevent an attack or enable a better one for you. Then, when you hit 10-20, which is slightly more likely, you’re going to feel like you’ve got an amazing deal. Basically, 1-9 this will feel like a 2.0, and 11-20 will feel like a 3.5. I think that means it gets a 3.0
Pack 2 Pick 10: Silver Raven
Scion of Stygia image 3.0 If you know me, you know I’m a pretty big fan of Blue creatures with bounce or tap down effects, and this is a distinctly D & D version of it, but it seems pretty good to me. The nice thing about it is, even if you roll 1-9 with it, you’re getting reasonable value out of a 3-mana 2/1, and the tap down might prevent an attack or enable a better one for you. Then, when you hit 10-20, which is slightly more likely, you’re going to feel like you’ve got an amazing deal. Basically, 1-9 this will feel like a 2.0, and 11-20 will feel like a 3.5. I think that means it gets a 3.0
Devour Intellect image 0.5 // 2.5 Letting your opponent choose to discard whatever they want this is not very good, but with Treasure you can turn it into a better Thoughtseize, and that’s pretty neat. I think this really needs a build around grade, because it is pretty awful in a deck with 0 treasure, but if you are BR, you’ll probably have the Treasure you need to make this work pretty well. Still, a card like this is better in the early game, and has diminishing returns as the game goes on, and you can’t count having treasure early, so don’t expect to fire this off on turn one or two for the more effective mode
You Find the Villains' Lair image 2.0 Cancel is not usually a great card in Limited. Counterspells are a little too situational, and it is often just going ot be better to add to your board with three mana than count on your opponent playing something that you will counter. In a lot of ways, counter magic in Limited is just bad removal, because you have to have the mana up to use it at the exact right time, or it doesn’t do anything. Basically, a card like Cancel just ends up being a card you have left in your hand after you’ve played everything else, and it might do a thing, but it also might have cost you the game. This gets around that problem with another mode though. Sure, it doesn’t add to the board either, but it still gives you something to do with it that will be more immediate and more of a sure thing in situations where that’s a good idea. Normally, Cancel is like a 1.5, but I think this does enough to make the cut more often than that.
Leather Armor image 0.5 This probably isn’t worth playing. Its cool that it equips for free, but the bonus it gives is negligible enough to not be worth a card in most scenarios. If you end up with a deck with a crazy amount of Equipment payoffs, which RW might have, MAYBE you end up playing it, but that’s probably the only time you do
Silver Raven image 1.5 One mana 1/1 flyers don’t tend to be very impressive in most Limited formats unless they have a lot going on. And, while Scry 1 is a little more than nothing, it isn’t that good, either. It does mean it still does a thing in the late game, and improving your draws matters, but yeah, this is pretty mediocre overall. If the set had more of an Artifact theme it would be better, but it just isn’t there.
Pack 2 Pick 11: Owlbear
Sudden Insight image 2.5 This won’t always be that easy to get going, especially because this set doesn’t really have a big graveyard theme, but in the late game it seems pretty likely to draw you 3+ cards, and obviously it can do even more than that. It does cost 6, and it is utterly terrible until the relatively late game, so it is hard to get overly excited about it, but I think it is a decent draw spell to have a single copy of in your Blue decks.
Mordenkainen's Polymorph image 1.0 This kind of card always looks really cool, and that’s because it is easy to think of situations where it does something. But, even though there are several of them -- like making a creature big enough to block something it couldn’t before, or shrinking an opposing creature, or doing 4 lethal damage int he air, or saving a creature from damage-based removal -- even with all of those possibilities, you’d be surprised how infrequently a situation emerges where this will actually do something. We’ve seen a ton of cards like this over the years, and they always significantly underperform. I can’t see that changing here.
You Find the Villains' Lair image 2.0 Cancel is not usually a great card in Limited. Counterspells are a little too situational, and it is often just going ot be better to add to your board with three mana than count on your opponent playing something that you will counter. In a lot of ways, counter magic in Limited is just bad removal, because you have to have the mana up to use it at the exact right time, or it doesn’t do anything. Basically, a card like Cancel just ends up being a card you have left in your hand after you’ve played everything else, and it might do a thing, but it also might have cost you the game. This gets around that problem with another mode though. Sure, it doesn’t add to the board either, but it still gives you something to do with it that will be more immediate and more of a sure thing in situations where that’s a good idea. Normally, Cancel is like a 1.5, but I think this does enough to make the cut more often than that.
Owlbear image 3.5 This is reminiscent of Sarulf’s Packmate, and that’s a good Green Common to emulate. This gives you a very real body -- a 4/4 with Trample can be relevant on many board states, but obviously the ETB draw a card effect is what really makes this great. It will be virtually impossible for you not to get a 2-for-1 out of this Bear, and the value it gives you will be great. Sure, costing 5 does mean you can only run so many, unlike the Packmate which had Foretell, making it much easier to jam a bunch of them into your deck, but you should still value that first 1-2 copies pretty highly. There’s a good chance this is Green’s best common
Pack 2 Pick 12: Price of Loyalty
You See a Guard Approach image 1.0 Individually, these effects are not worth an entire card. They’re just too situational. Sure, it feels good to give your creature hexproof in response to removal, but there will be lots of times where that effect doesn’t matter. The tap effect is even more underwhelming, and while it can allow you to stop something from attacking you, or maybe help you attack more effectively, it will also be useless a decent chunk of the time. Each of those, cards, individually -- would be almost unplayable. If you put them together, you obviously have a better card that you’ll actually be able to use sometimes, but I still don’t think it is very good.
Price of Loyalty image 1.0 // 2.5 Even with the Treasure upside, this probably won’t be worth it for most decks. Threaten effects aren’t amazing in most formats, since they tend to do very little except in two situations. One of these is that you’re able to kill your opponent when you do it, and the other is that you have some sacrifice outlets that make it easy to turn the effect into a removal spell that gives you some value. However, this does look like it might be worth playing in the Black-Red deck, as there is one red Sacrifice effect at Uncommon, two black sacrifice effects at Common, and one at Uncommon, so setting up the sacrifice is actually going to be doable there, making the card a solid playable in a deck that gets its hands on some of those effects.
Ranger's Longbow image 1.5 This gives a reasonable boost and key word for the cost, though it isn’t anything special.
Pack 2 Pick 13: Hill Giant Herdgorger
Hill Giant Herdgorger image 2.5 This seems like a fine finisher for Green decks. You’re probably going to hope you have a rare or Uncommon in that slot, but this card is similar enough to Ravenous Lindwurm and Honey Mammoth to make me feel like it has a nice shot. I have a feeling it might not be quite as good as those cards, because this format looks like it is probably going to be faster than Kaldheim, but it looks pretty solid to me
Ranger's Longbow image 1.5 This gives a reasonable boost and key word for the cost, though it isn’t anything special.
Pack 2 Pick 14: Ray of Frost
Ray of Frost image 3.0 This whole cycle of color hosers is nice, because they are all perfectly playable cards even if you don’t play against the color they hate on, and when you do play against them, the cards in this cycle will get a massive upgrade, and that’s certainly the case here. The fact this doesn’t tap the creature itself is pretty rough, as you have to wait until your opponent has a tapped creature for it to really do something. The fact it has Flash does make it easier for you to find that window, but if this card didn’t have the Red-hating upside, it would probably just be a 2.5. And, against decks with Red targets for this, it will feel premium
Pack 3 Pick 1: Paladin Class
Paladin Class image 4.5 This is one of the best Class Enchantments. The base of the card isn’t especially good, but once you get up to the second level, you’ve paid 4 mana for an Anthem and a tax on your opponent’s spells during your turn, and I think that would probably be a card I always played, and this has the upside of letting you pay that 4 mana in installments, as well as the fact that it can go to level three, at which point it will make one of your creatures into a really frightening attacker every turn.
Guild Thief image 2.5 It is nice that this becomes larger when it hits players, but as a two mana 1/1 it won’t be doing that a whole lot without some extra help. It can eventually become unblockable of course, but paying 4 to make your 1/1 unblockable is going to feel really bad sometimes, especially because the Thief is so darn easy to kill. Sometimes you’ll be able to get a blocker out of the way and really get going with it, though.
Moon-Blessed Cleric image 3.0 This does a pretty good Heliod’s Pilgrim impression. It can’t tutor the card right to your hand, but it lets you get any kind of Enchantment, not an Aura, and it also comes with better stats for the cost, so I think it will end up playing very similarly to the Pilgrim, who tends to be a pretty nice card to have in most limited formats. Obviously you need some Enchantments to really get it going, but that doesn’t seem like a difficult hurdle.
Portable Hole image 2.0 This will feel pretty good to use on a two-drop permanent, as you will come out ahead mana wise and it will prevents death triggers and stuff like that. It can also deal with all of the Class Enchantments, which will certainly come up. However, just being able to hit two and one mana permanents is a liability in Limited. This isn’t something that will even always make the cut. It could end up being better if aggro decks are a big deal in this format.
Veteran Dungeoneer image 3.5 This seems like a pretty darn good Common. As I’ve said throughout the video, Venturing isn’t quite drawing a card most of the time, but it gives you value that isn’t that far away from drawing a card, and if this was a 4-mana ¾ that drew you a card, it would be amazing. And again, this won’t quite feel like a 2-for-1 all the time, but it does do a lot for the mana cost, and enough to be one of White’s best Commons.
Priest of Ancient Lore image 3.5 This is a pretty great Common. People are always complaining white doesn’t have enough card draw, so getting an ETB ability like this will make them happy. In Limited, this will be a 2-for-1 a lot of the time, and the fact it gains that 1 life is no small thing either, since GW is all about gaining life.
Jaded Sell-Sword image 3.0 A 4-mana 4/3 is passable, and the Treasure upside here is nice. It will make it a formidable attacker the turn it comes down.
Feign Death image 1.5 Versions of this effect that are good tend to give the stats boost up front. That’s significantly better than this because it allows a smaller creature to win combat against something bigger, but this doesn’t do that. Sometimes you’ll just have to use it on a chump block, which won’t feel great. It is nice that it basically counters most removal, and it isn’t bad, just not like Supernatural Stamina or other cards we’ve seen that have been pretty solid. This just won’t do enough to make the cut super often.
Farideh's Fireball image 5.0 I think this sneaks into the lower range of premium removal. 5 mana to do 5 to something at Instant speed is perhaps not the most efficient thing ever, but it does kill most stuff, and the fac that your opponent also always takes 2 is enough to nudge this into that premium range. Sure, it will do 2 to you sometimes too, but that’s okay. This is the kind of card that will plummet in its score if the format turns out to be fast though, so keep that in mind.
Herald of Hadar image 1.5 This is a bit clunky as a 5-mana 4/4, but the activated ability, as expensive as it is -- is a pretty nice late game mana sink. The ability, no matter what you roll, provides some serious reach. It is probably still too slow to make the cut on a super regular basis, though.
Grim Bounty image 3.5 This is premium removal. It might be a somewhat expensive Sorcery, but it kills pretty much everything for 4 mana, and even gives you a treasure back, almost making it so it costs three mana with some fixing upside!
Goblin Javelineer image 1.5 This probably won’t be great in Limited. A one mana 1/1 with Haste might feel reasonable on turn one, but it is pretty terrible thereafter, and adding the ability to ping things that block it doesn’t really make up for that, though it does help some, since it means that it can at least trade with X/2s, and X/1s effectively can’t block it. If you can find a way to give this death touch, that will unlock its full potential, but overall, I think you cut this more often than you’ll play it.
Gnoll Hunter image 3.0 This is a fine two drop. It is a bear as a baseline, and it can get bigger if it has enough friends. That’s good enough upside for this to be a nice two-drop for Green decks.
Scion of Stygia image 3.0 If you know me, you know I’m a pretty big fan of Blue creatures with bounce or tap down effects, and this is a distinctly D & D version of it, but it seems pretty good to me. The nice thing about it is, even if you roll 1-9 with it, you’re getting reasonable value out of a 3-mana 2/1, and the tap down might prevent an attack or enable a better one for you. Then, when you hit 10-20, which is slightly more likely, you’re going to feel like you’ve got an amazing deal. Basically, 1-9 this will feel like a 2.0, and 11-20 will feel like a 3.5. I think that means it gets a 3.0
Pack 3 Pick 2: Shambling Ghast
Yuan-Ti Malison image 4.0 Woo boy, this is a very powerful two drop, the kind that can take over a game, and that’s not something one often says about two drops! It can be unblockable for as long as you want it to be, and that part of the card alone would be a card you basically never cut. The adventure trigger is amazing, and will quickly give you a ton of value. Left unchecked, this two drop can legitimately end games. I do think it falls just short of bomb status since it is so easy to kill, but it gets about as close as any two drop can get.
Guild Thief image 2.5 It is nice that this becomes larger when it hits players, but as a two mana 1/1 it won’t be doing that a whole lot without some extra help. It can eventually become unblockable of course, but paying 4 to make your 1/1 unblockable is going to feel really bad sometimes, especially because the Thief is so darn easy to kill. Sometimes you’ll be able to get a blocker out of the way and really get going with it, though.
Magic Missile image 3.5 This is premium removal. These types of spells that let you divide damage are always great, because you can sometimes take down multiple creatures with them at once. And, this can also just kill X/3s reasonably efficiently, or go after the opponent to help you close out a game.
Djinni Windseer image 3.5 I was already pretty sold on a 4-mana 3/3 Flyer, so adding the d20 effect is just gravy. Even just Scrying 1 with this will feel like you’re getting nice value, and sometimes it will do more than that. The set also has some d20 payoffs, especially in UR, making it marginally better than that. It isn’t the most exciting card, but it is a pretty darn good Common.
Shortcut Seeker image 2.0 This has some okay defensive stats, but unfortunately it needs to do damage to a player to actually do something real, making it kind of an odd card. UB is going to be pretty good at making creatures gain evasion, but I’m not super interested in this.
Shambling Ghast image 2.5 This looks like a nice little one drop to me. It can be a real pain if your opponent has two X/1s in play, since you can make a two-for-one out of your one drop, and those situations will happen. And the good news is, when the -1/-1 part isn’t useful -- and it won’t always be -- you get to make a treasure, which means this little one drop gives you fixing and ramp pretty early on in the game.
Dragon's Fire image 4.0 Two mana for 3 damage is always premium removal, and this has some pretty relevant dragon upside that can make it an even better removal spell
Jaded Sell-Sword image 3.0 A 4-mana 4/3 is passable, and the Treasure upside here is nice. It will make it a formidable attacker the turn it comes down.
Scion of Stygia image 3.0 If you know me, you know I’m a pretty big fan of Blue creatures with bounce or tap down effects, and this is a distinctly D & D version of it, but it seems pretty good to me. The nice thing about it is, even if you roll 1-9 with it, you’re getting reasonable value out of a 3-mana 2/1, and the tap down might prevent an attack or enable a better one for you. Then, when you hit 10-20, which is slightly more likely, you’re going to feel like you’ve got an amazing deal. Basically, 1-9 this will feel like a 2.0, and 11-20 will feel like a 3.5. I think that means it gets a 3.0
Hill Giant Herdgorger image 2.5 This seems like a fine finisher for Green decks. You’re probably going to hope you have a rare or Uncommon in that slot, but this card is similar enough to Ravenous Lindwurm and Honey Mammoth to make me feel like it has a nice shot. I have a feeling it might not be quite as good as those cards, because this format looks like it is probably going to be faster than Kaldheim, but it looks pretty solid to me
Charmed Sleep image 3.5 I’m always hesitant to give Blue removal a “premium removal” grade, because it seems more often than not they don’t get there due to various disadvantages, but I think this gets there just barely. It did last time we saw it too. It doesn’t shut down static or activated abilities, but most creatures will become useless once this is on it.
Dwarfhold Champion image 2.5 A two mana 3/1 tends to be a reasonable baseline for aggro decks, and this comes with some decent additional upside. Gaining toughness when you equip it will feel pretty nice, as obviously a 3/1 is pretty vulnerable
Kick in the Door image 2.5 This card reminds me a lot of some of the cards we saw in Strixhaven, which seemed like they didn’t really do that much, but it turned out Learning for one or two mana was good, even if the other effect was negligible, and I think that’s kind of what we’re looking at here. Without Venture, this card would be pretty close to an F. One mana for a counter and Haste and not being able to be blocked by a few creatures just wouldn’t be worth a whole card, but I think with Venture attached you suddenly have a card that will feel sort of like Guiding Voice from Strixhaven. It will make a new creature able to attack right away, or make an old one able to attack thanks to the counter, while also netting you value from Venturing.
Pack 3 Pick 3: Forsworn Paladin
Forsworn Paladin image 4.0 This looks pretty good. First, it provides some nice fixing and ramp since it can churn out treasure, and then it also has an ability that is a pretty potent Treasure payoff. Even without treasure, the ability to pump something +2/+0 would feel pretty good, but if you can give that thing death touch, that’s when things will get really interesting. This is nice too, because one of the things it looks like treasure decks will want is mana sinks, and Forsworn Paladin is nice there as well. On top of all of that, it is a one mana 1/1 with Menace, a creature that can attack fairly effectively in the early game, and which can pump itself with its ability, so if you have the ability to give it death touch, you’ll be taking down two things no matter how your opponent blocks. The whole package makes for quite an impressive one drop.
Rally Maneuver image 2.0 This is an interesting trick. You typically want to only be spending 1-2 mana on tricks, but when they start being able to target multiple creatures, I get interested in more expensive ones too, since they at least have the possibility of creating a 2-for-1. This would obviously be better if it just gave +2/+0 and First Strike to two thing, but there will be situations where this lines up pretty nicely, allowing two of your creatures to win combat while gaining you some life. It is sort of unfortunate that it requires you to target two separate creatures, but this still seems pretty solid as far as tricks go. The first copy seems like it will be pretty good in White aggressive decks.
Temple of the Dragon Queen image 2.5 Even without dragons, this offers some pretty nice fixing. It is always a bit awkward with these types of lands that make you choose a color, because sometimes you have to play it earlier and name the color of something you aren’t splashing, just cause you need a different color of mana, but this still looks like the kind of fixing that will help decks splash stuff
You're Ambushed on the Road image 1.5 LIke most of this cycle, this card takes two options that would not be a great card on their own and puts them together, and the product is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. White-Blue especially is interested in bouncing its own creatures to retrigger ETB abilities, so that part of the card will come up in ways other than just to save a creature from removal. The trick part is mediocre, but will find its place. Each card individually would be a 1.0 at best, but together, I think the options make this card a pretty decent playable.
Spare Dagger image 1.0 The stats boost it offers is pretty weak, and giving up a whole card to ping something isn’t really something I’m interested in. This IS an equipment, and RW cares about that, so it probably gets played more often than it would in most formats
Hoarding Ogre image 2.0 This has Hill Giant stats and a serviceable attack trigger. Because it makes treasure, you can really count this creature as fixing, and that’s typically a valuable thing to have in Limited, plus this set has some nice treasure payoffs.
Manticore image 3.0 These types of “kill something that was damaged” effects are often underwhelming, just because it takes more work than you'd think to consistently manufacture situations where that happens -- in particular, situations where you can make it happen without giving up significant resources, like an ugly block or an attack. However, when they add Flash to the mix, the card gets significantly more interesting because it means there will be a wider variety of situations where you can make that part of the card work. Plus, in a fail case this gives you a passable Flying body. Don’t count on this to feel like a Flying Ravenous Chupacabra all the time, but it will do that often enough to be a pretty nice common.
Shortcut Seeker image 2.0 This has some okay defensive stats, but unfortunately it needs to do damage to a player to actually do something real, making it kind of an odd card. UB is going to be pretty good at making creatures gain evasion, but I’m not super interested in this.
You Hear Something on Watch image 3.0 This seems like a pretty nice Common. Sure, the removal effect only works on attackers, so if you’re the beat down it won’t feel great -- but the good news is if you are the beat down, you’re probably interested in the other mode, since it pays you off pretty well for going wide. The removal is too situational to be premium, but it will kill lots of attackers, and having the board pump effect as an option is pretty nice.
Plummet image 0.5 This is a weird card to see these days, since “sideboard” type cards are becoming less and less of a thing in Limited. Instead, they give us modal cards that do sideboard-type things, but have much better fail case than sideboard cards. Anyway, this is something you should pretty much never main deck, but not too terrible if you go up against an opponent with enough targets.
Mimic image 1.0 So, this doesn’t seem amazing to me, though the flavor is quite good. Like most treasures, it can only be used the one time to give you mana, so it isn’t even the best fixing ever. And yeah, it can turn into a creature sometimes, and that’s nice upside to have on your mana, but I’m just not sure this will feel like it is worth an entire card very often. You’ll play it if you really need fixing, or maybe you have some artifact synergies, but that’s probably about it
Shambling Ghast image 2.5 This looks like a nice little one drop to me. It can be a real pain if your opponent has two X/1s in play, since you can make a two-for-one out of your one drop, and those situations will happen. And the good news is, when the -1/-1 part isn’t useful -- and it won’t always be -- you get to make a treasure, which means this little one drop gives you fixing and ramp pretty early on in the game.
Pack 3 Pick 4: Barrowin of Clan Undurr
Blink Dog image 1.0 This doesn’t look very good. 3 mana for a 1/1 with Double Strike is rough, and the Phase effect is cool, but also costly. I guess if you have some Equipment he can get interesting, but I think you mostly won’t play this
Dragon's Disciple image 2.0 This is a nice Dragon payoff, as being able to play this as a two-mana 2/4 will feel pretty great, especially on turn 2! Adding Ward 1 to all your dragons isn’t too shabby either. The fact that this has a fail case of being a two mana ⅓ gives it a not entirely terrible floor too. There are enough Dragons around in this set for you to be able to take full advantage of this a decent chunk of the time. You probably need like 3 in your deck to feel good about it, but when you get there, this will be a nice card for you.
Barrowin of Clan Undurr image 3.5 The ETB trigger here is nice on a 4-mana 3/3, but the real value comes from whether or not you have completed a dungeon, as Barrowin offers you an excellent attack trigger, one that will make it pretty easy for you to get some amazing value out of this card, especially because it Ventured! BW looks pretty good at completing Dungeons too, so I imagine this is in the lower range of first pickable
Price of Loyalty image 1.0 // 2.5 Even with the Treasure upside, this probably won’t be worth it for most decks. Threaten effects aren’t amazing in most formats, since they tend to do very little except in two situations. One of these is that you’re able to kill your opponent when you do it, and the other is that you have some sacrifice outlets that make it easy to turn the effect into a removal spell that gives you some value. However, this does look like it might be worth playing in the Black-Red deck, as there is one red Sacrifice effect at Uncommon, two black sacrifice effects at Common, and one at Uncommon, so setting up the sacrifice is actually going to be doable there, making the card a solid playable in a deck that gets its hands on some of those effects.
Sylvan Shepherd image 2.5 This looks like it has a lot going on because of the d20 stuff, but it is basically just a 3-mana ⅔ with Vigilance that gains you 1-2 life when it attacks. That’s basically a textbook solid playable, especially in a format that does have some life gain payoffs
Greataxe image 1.0 +4/+0 is the kind of boost that makes almost any creature capable of attacking, but an Equip Cost of 5 is way too much. This is equipment that might be nice in the later part of the game, since you can just keep sending your guys in, but it will sit on the table doing nothing the rest of the game
Boots of Speed image 2.0 The boost this offers for the casting cost and the equip cost is pretty reasonable, as paying one more to give something new Haste and +1/+0 will feel pretty good sometimes, especially in a set where there’s an Equipment archetype.
Hoard Robber image 1.0 It is nice that this can make treasure, but a 1/3 just isn’t going to be getting in very often without some significant help. I don’t think you play this most of the time.
Scion of Stygia image 3.0 If you know me, you know I’m a pretty big fan of Blue creatures with bounce or tap down effects, and this is a distinctly D & D version of it, but it seems pretty good to me. The nice thing about it is, even if you roll 1-9 with it, you’re getting reasonable value out of a 3-mana 2/1, and the tap down might prevent an attack or enable a better one for you. Then, when you hit 10-20, which is slightly more likely, you’re going to feel like you’ve got an amazing deal. Basically, 1-9 this will feel like a 2.0, and 11-20 will feel like a 3.5. I think that means it gets a 3.0
You Find a Cursed Idol image 2.0 This seems like a solid card to me. The modality here is great, and most of the time if you can blow up an Artifact or Enchantment, that’s where you’re going to go, but it is great that it has a fail case of Venture + Treasure, which won’t always feel like a whol card’s worth of value, but it gets pretty close. This is sort of like a Naturalize with Cycling in that sense, and that’s always a decent card
Steadfast Paladin image 3.0 Two mana 2/2s with Lifelink tend to be solid enough in Limited, especially in a format with a life gain archetype. It will also wield Equipment pretty effectively.
Pack 3 Pick 5: Devoted Paladin
Monk of the Open Hand image 2.5 This card reminds me a lot of the BW double-spell deck from Kaldheim. If you can get your curve low enough, this guy can grow relatively quickly and without you having to commit significant resources. It does look like a low-curve aggro deck is a thing in this format too, especially in RW, so I can see this being a nice fit there. This is also the Monk that the Planeswalker we saw earlier -- Grand Master of Flowers can tutor up, so it should go up in your pick order if you have the Grand Master. It takes some work to make the Monk worth playing if you don’t have the Grand Master, but if you find yourself with a low curve, this will be a nice fit.
Soulknife Spy image 3.0 Creatures with this combat trigger tend to be pretty nice in Limited, and this one has more reasonable stats than the ones we usually see at lower rarities. Drawing a card is big, and is the kind of thing your opponent will have to account for one way or another, or the extra cards this gets you will help you win the game. It doesn’t hurt that UB has a significant number of ways to make the creature evasive, either! One particularly nasty combo that you’ll see a lot, because the two cards are Common and Uncommon two will be Fly + Soulknife spy.
Bull's Strength image 1.5 Like most versions of this that we’ve seen, it is pretty reasonable. The boost it gives will allow you to win combat, and trample will even allow you to do some damage out of nowhere. The untap clause also gives a creature pseudo vigilance, or allows you to ambush an opposing creature, though like with most tricks, you generally prefer to use it offensively -- but the additional flexibility doesn’t hurt. It is still a trick though and comes with all those inherent risks I always talk about -- its situational, and if things go wrong you get blown out really hard.
Thieves' Tools image 2.5 This will fight nicely into UB, because that color is all about making small creatures evasive and getting value when they do combat damage, and it will fit nicely in BR because it likes treasures.
Half-Elf Monk image 3.0 Mastery Decoy effects still tend to be pretty good in Limited. Tapping down your opponent’s best creature every turn often just feels like removal, and this has the minor added bonus of being able to attack and still use the ability. I say “minor” because it is only a ¼, so that’s not exactly incredible. Still, this is a pretty nice common for White.
Spoils of the Hunt image 3.5 So even without any treasure at all, this is a 3-mana Rabid Bite at Instant speed, which is already a card I would be interested in. It also compares pretty well with Ambuscade, a card that cost the same and always gave +1/+0 in addition to the punch effect. The treasure upside is nice, because sometimes your creature won’t have the power necessary to be good with Spoils of the Hunt. However, if you’re in Green anyway, your creatures will mostly be good with this. One does have to be cautious with spells like this, as your opponent removing the creature you target is an epic blow out, but because its an Instant, it won’t be that hard to find an ideal window. I think this is premium removal
Ranger's Longbow image 1.5 This gives a reasonable boost and key word for the cost, though it isn’t anything special.
Devoted Paladin image 3.5 Pumping your whole board and giving it Vigilance almost always seems to allow for some serious attacking on your part. After all, your creatures are bigger, and you’re going to be able to leave them all back as blockers even if you’re going to attack with them! We’ve seen similar cards like Dawnfeather Eagle end up great in Limited, and this format does look like it has the means to go wide effectively, and if that’s true, the Paladin is going to be one of the cards you want the most to round out your top curve.
Unexpected Windfall image 2.0 This seems like a decent card for Most red decks to get one copy of. 4 mana is a lot for Tormenting Voice, but the two Treasure you get means this card also gives you some very real fixing, in addition to helping you dig deeper into your deck.
Armory Veteran image 2.5 This has a solid baseline, and becomes pretty scary when you stick Equipment on him, as adding Menace to whatever other boost he’s getting will be formidable.
Pack 3 Pick 6: Delver's Torch
Ranger's Hawk image 2.0 One mana 1/1 flyers are almost never that great in Limited unless they have something else worthwhile going on. The good news for this Hawk, is that it does! In the early game it can attack a bit in the air, but it will quickly be forced to stop attacking. Luckily, it has a late game mana sink that seems pretty good -- venturing into dungeons every turn will definitely allow you to grind out some wins late. Now, the cost of doing it isn’t small -- having to have another untapped creature isn’t a guarantee, but if you are at parity or ahead of your opponent, it won’t be that hard to make it happen. I think this is a solid playable.
Clever Conjurer image 2.5 This ability only being Sorcery speed is a bummer, but it is still a pretty useful one to have on a 3-mana ⅔. Notably, it can untap lands for you, helping you ramp. And that’s probably the way you’ll use it the most. This seems like a solid playable.
Delver's Torch image 2.0 The cost of playing this and Equipping it is pretty high for only a +1/+1 stat boost. Venturing every time the creature attacks is where the real value is, but as high as I am on Venture, I’m not a huge fan of this card. It doesn’t do a whole lot to help one of your creatures attack that couldn’t already attack before, and I think that’s the big thing you want Equipment to do for you, and +1/+1 isn’t going to do it that often, which won’t feel great for such a high Equip cost. If you already have Evasive creatures or a big creature it could be nice because you can get the Venture going, but yeah, I think this is clunky and overwhelming overall
Swarming Goblins image 3.0 This seems like a pretty nice 5-drop. The worst case is 5 mana for a 4/3 and a 1/1, and that’s a pretty passable card -- if you get two tokens out of this it is going to feel well worth the investment, and obviously on the rare occasions you hit 20 you’ll feel like you’re robbing the bank.
Half-Elf Monk image 3.0 Mastery Decoy effects still tend to be pretty good in Limited. Tapping down your opponent’s best creature every turn often just feels like removal, and this has the minor added bonus of being able to attack and still use the ability. I say “minor” because it is only a ¼, so that’s not exactly incredible. Still, this is a pretty nice common for White.
Mordenkainen's Polymorph image 1.0 This kind of card always looks really cool, and that’s because it is easy to think of situations where it does something. But, even though there are several of them -- like making a creature big enough to block something it couldn’t before, or shrinking an opposing creature, or doing 4 lethal damage int he air, or saving a creature from damage-based removal -- even with all of those possibilities, you’d be surprised how infrequently a situation emerges where this will actually do something. We’ve seen a ton of cards like this over the years, and they always significantly underperform. I can’t see that changing here.
Air-Cult Elemental image 3.0 This is one big Man-O’-War! A 6-mana 2/5 Flyer is a bad rate, but because this bounces another creature, you’ll often feel like you’re getting your mana’s worth. If you know me, you know I always love this kind of effect – and there’s a reason for that, it is great in Limited! Adding to your board while subtracting from your opponent’s is one of the best feelings you can have! And yeah, while the 2/5 stats aren’t exactly incredible, it is enough that the elemental can still be a little bit of a threat in the sky, or be an effective blocker. It does cost 6 mana, so you don’t really want more than one of them, but I think I’m going to value the first copy relatively highly.
Silver Raven image 1.5 One mana 1/1 flyers don’t tend to be very impressive in most Limited formats unless they have a lot going on. And, while Scry 1 is a little more than nothing, it isn’t that good, either. It does mean it still does a thing in the late game, and improving your draws matters, but yeah, this is pretty mediocre overall. If the set had more of an Artifact theme it would be better, but it just isn’t there.
Dire Wolf Prowler image 1.5 This starts off with very mediocre stats. A Gray Ogre is just abysmal, and while it has a decent activated ability that can make it a 4/4 with Haste, I don’t think this does enough to be saved from being a card you cut significantly more often than you play it.
Pack 3 Pick 7: Manticore
Scaled Herbalist image 2.0 When you get this down early, it will feel pretty nice. It doesn’t have the best stats, but you are likely to have the extra lands necessary to take advantage of its ability. In the mid-to-late-game it becomes increasingly useless though, unless you’re able to draw a whole bunch of cards
Elturgard Ranger image 3.0 So, for 5 mana you get a 4/1 and a 2/2 -- in other words 6/3 worth of stats. A 5-mana 6/3 wouldn’t be good, but spread across two bodies this gets pretty interesting, plus a 4/1 with Reach has the kind of size to take down some of the dragons in the set, and that definitely matters. It feels like you’ll be able to get a 2-for-1 out of this a decent chunk of the time, and I think most Green decks will be interested in playing the first copy.
Clever Conjurer image 2.5 This ability only being Sorcery speed is a bummer, but it is still a pretty useful one to have on a 3-mana ⅔. Notably, it can untap lands for you, helping you ramp. And that’s probably the way you’ll use it the most. This seems like a solid playable.
Inspiring Bard image 2.5 A creature with just the Bardic Inspiration ability is usually a solid playable, but it does come with the downside of not doing anything with a +2/+2 boost doesn’t matter -- like if you have to play defense, or don’t have another creature. Adding the “Song of Rest” option means that in those situations, you could an ability that is far more useful, and that’s pretty nice. It probably still isn’t more than a solid playable, though.
Air-Cult Elemental image 3.0 This is one big Man-O’-War! A 6-mana 2/5 Flyer is a bad rate, but because this bounces another creature, you’ll often feel like you’re getting your mana’s worth. If you know me, you know I always love this kind of effect – and there’s a reason for that, it is great in Limited! Adding to your board while subtracting from your opponent’s is one of the best feelings you can have! And yeah, while the 2/5 stats aren’t exactly incredible, it is enough that the elemental can still be a little bit of a threat in the sky, or be an effective blocker. It does cost 6 mana, so you don’t really want more than one of them, but I think I’m going to value the first copy relatively highly.
Greataxe image 1.0 +4/+0 is the kind of boost that makes almost any creature capable of attacking, but an Equip Cost of 5 is way too much. This is equipment that might be nice in the later part of the game, since you can just keep sending your guys in, but it will sit on the table doing nothing the rest of the game
Owlbear image 3.5 This is reminiscent of Sarulf’s Packmate, and that’s a good Green Common to emulate. This gives you a very real body -- a 4/4 with Trample can be relevant on many board states, but obviously the ETB draw a card effect is what really makes this great. It will be virtually impossible for you not to get a 2-for-1 out of this Bear, and the value it gives you will be great. Sure, costing 5 does mean you can only run so many, unlike the Packmate which had Foretell, making it much easier to jam a bunch of them into your deck, but you should still value that first 1-2 copies pretty highly. There’s a good chance this is Green’s best common
Manticore image 3.0 These types of “kill something that was damaged” effects are often underwhelming, just because it takes more work than you'd think to consistently manufacture situations where that happens -- in particular, situations where you can make it happen without giving up significant resources, like an ugly block or an attack. However, when they add Flash to the mix, the card gets significantly more interesting because it means there will be a wider variety of situations where you can make that part of the card work. Plus, in a fail case this gives you a passable Flying body. Don’t count on this to feel like a Flying Ravenous Chupacabra all the time, but it will do that often enough to be a pretty nice common.
Pack 3 Pick 8: Planar Ally
Lurking Roper image 3.5 You would basically always end up playing a 3-mana ⅘ Wall. That might sound crazy to you, but the main reason Walls tend to not be great in Limited is because most of them can just block things and not damage them. The Roper isn’t just a wall, it is one that will kill almost everything that can attack into it in the early and mid-game. So, even if that’s all this was, I think the first copy would make the cut in most Green decks. So, when you add the bonus that it can attack, you’ve got a better card, and then you have a way to actually untap it too, and it is even better! Even if you can never untap the thing, it is going to be a pretty nice card, and if you can, it will be awesome
Planar Ally image 3.5 We have seen a lot of 5-mana 3/3 Flyers of late that have some ability, and they’ve all been pretty nice cards for Limited, and I think that’s what we have here. Venturing with every attack is great, as the Ally, left unchecked, will be able to get you through dungeons all on its own. This format does have more large flyers than usual as a result of the heavy Dragon theme, so this may find itself unable to attack effectively more than it would in most formats, but I think this is still a pretty good Common.
Kick in the Door image 2.5 This card reminds me a lot of some of the cards we saw in Strixhaven, which seemed like they didn’t really do that much, but it turned out Learning for one or two mana was good, even if the other effect was negligible, and I think that’s kind of what we’re looking at here. Without Venture, this card would be pretty close to an F. One mana for a counter and Haste and not being able to be blocked by a few creatures just wouldn’t be worth a whole card, but I think with Venture attached you suddenly have a card that will feel sort of like Guiding Voice from Strixhaven. It will make a new creature able to attack right away, or make an old one able to attack thanks to the counter, while also netting you value from Venturing.
Feign Death image 1.5 Versions of this effect that are good tend to give the stats boost up front. That’s significantly better than this because it allows a smaller creature to win combat against something bigger, but this doesn’t do that. Sometimes you’ll just have to use it on a chump block, which won’t feel great. It is nice that it basically counters most removal, and it isn’t bad, just not like Supernatural Stamina or other cards we’ve seen that have been pretty solid. This just won’t do enough to make the cut super often.
Potion of Healing image 1.5 Most of the time we see this kind of effect on a spell and it costs one fewer total mana than Potion of Healing does to draw you a card and gain you some life. This lets you pay it in installments though, and it is nice that you can just play it to draw the card and hold on to the life gain for a little bit later, especially if you’re in GW and you have some things that this can trigger for you. Still, this card seems pretty replacable, just like Revitalize and similar cards we’ve seen. You’ll probably cut it more than you play it.
Djinni Windseer image 3.5 I was already pretty sold on a 4-mana 3/3 Flyer, so adding the d20 effect is just gravy. Even just Scrying 1 with this will feel like you’re getting nice value, and sometimes it will do more than that. The set also has some d20 payoffs, especially in UR, making it marginally better than that. It isn’t the most exciting card, but it is a pretty darn good Common.
Clever Conjurer image 2.5 This ability only being Sorcery speed is a bummer, but it is still a pretty useful one to have on a 3-mana ⅔. Notably, it can untap lands for you, helping you ramp. And that’s probably the way you’ll use it the most. This seems like a solid playable.
Pack 3 Pick 9: Veteran Dungeoneer
Moon-Blessed Cleric image 3.0 This does a pretty good Heliod’s Pilgrim impression. It can’t tutor the card right to your hand, but it lets you get any kind of Enchantment, not an Aura, and it also comes with better stats for the cost, so I think it will end up playing very similarly to the Pilgrim, who tends to be a pretty nice card to have in most limited formats. Obviously you need some Enchantments to really get it going, but that doesn’t seem like a difficult hurdle.
Portable Hole image 2.0 This will feel pretty good to use on a two-drop permanent, as you will come out ahead mana wise and it will prevents death triggers and stuff like that. It can also deal with all of the Class Enchantments, which will certainly come up. However, just being able to hit two and one mana permanents is a liability in Limited. This isn’t something that will even always make the cut. It could end up being better if aggro decks are a big deal in this format.
Veteran Dungeoneer image 3.5 This seems like a pretty darn good Common. As I’ve said throughout the video, Venturing isn’t quite drawing a card most of the time, but it gives you value that isn’t that far away from drawing a card, and if this was a 4-mana ¾ that drew you a card, it would be amazing. And again, this won’t quite feel like a 2-for-1 all the time, but it does do a lot for the mana cost, and enough to be one of White’s best Commons.
Feign Death image 1.5 Versions of this effect that are good tend to give the stats boost up front. That’s significantly better than this because it allows a smaller creature to win combat against something bigger, but this doesn’t do that. Sometimes you’ll just have to use it on a chump block, which won’t feel great. It is nice that it basically counters most removal, and it isn’t bad, just not like Supernatural Stamina or other cards we’ve seen that have been pretty solid. This just won’t do enough to make the cut super often.
Herald of Hadar image 1.5 This is a bit clunky as a 5-mana 4/4, but the activated ability, as expensive as it is -- is a pretty nice late game mana sink. The ability, no matter what you roll, provides some serious reach. It is probably still too slow to make the cut on a super regular basis, though.
Goblin Javelineer image 1.5 This probably won’t be great in Limited. A one mana 1/1 with Haste might feel reasonable on turn one, but it is pretty terrible thereafter, and adding the ability to ping things that block it doesn’t really make up for that, though it does help some, since it means that it can at least trade with X/2s, and X/1s effectively can’t block it. If you can find a way to give this death touch, that will unlock its full potential, but overall, I think you cut this more often than you’ll play it.
Pack 3 Pick 10: Djinni Windseer
Djinni Windseer image 3.5 I was already pretty sold on a 4-mana 3/3 Flyer, so adding the d20 effect is just gravy. Even just Scrying 1 with this will feel like you’re getting nice value, and sometimes it will do more than that. The set also has some d20 payoffs, especially in UR, making it marginally better than that. It isn’t the most exciting card, but it is a pretty darn good Common.
Shortcut Seeker image 2.0 This has some okay defensive stats, but unfortunately it needs to do damage to a player to actually do something real, making it kind of an odd card. UB is going to be pretty good at making creatures gain evasion, but I’m not super interested in this.
Jaded Sell-Sword image 3.0 A 4-mana 4/3 is passable, and the Treasure upside here is nice. It will make it a formidable attacker the turn it comes down.
Scion of Stygia image 3.0 If you know me, you know I’m a pretty big fan of Blue creatures with bounce or tap down effects, and this is a distinctly D & D version of it, but it seems pretty good to me. The nice thing about it is, even if you roll 1-9 with it, you’re getting reasonable value out of a 3-mana 2/1, and the tap down might prevent an attack or enable a better one for you. Then, when you hit 10-20, which is slightly more likely, you’re going to feel like you’ve got an amazing deal. Basically, 1-9 this will feel like a 2.0, and 11-20 will feel like a 3.5. I think that means it gets a 3.0
Hill Giant Herdgorger image 2.5 This seems like a fine finisher for Green decks. You’re probably going to hope you have a rare or Uncommon in that slot, but this card is similar enough to Ravenous Lindwurm and Honey Mammoth to make me feel like it has a nice shot. I have a feeling it might not be quite as good as those cards, because this format looks like it is probably going to be faster than Kaldheim, but it looks pretty solid to me
Pack 3 Pick 11: You're Ambushed on the Road
You're Ambushed on the Road image 1.5 LIke most of this cycle, this card takes two options that would not be a great card on their own and puts them together, and the product is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. White-Blue especially is interested in bouncing its own creatures to retrigger ETB abilities, so that part of the card will come up in ways other than just to save a creature from removal. The trick part is mediocre, but will find its place. Each card individually would be a 1.0 at best, but together, I think the options make this card a pretty decent playable.
Spare Dagger image 1.0 The stats boost it offers is pretty weak, and giving up a whole card to ping something isn’t really something I’m interested in. This IS an equipment, and RW cares about that, so it probably gets played more often than it would in most formats
Manticore image 3.0 These types of “kill something that was damaged” effects are often underwhelming, just because it takes more work than you'd think to consistently manufacture situations where that happens -- in particular, situations where you can make it happen without giving up significant resources, like an ugly block or an attack. However, when they add Flash to the mix, the card gets significantly more interesting because it means there will be a wider variety of situations where you can make that part of the card work. Plus, in a fail case this gives you a passable Flying body. Don’t count on this to feel like a Flying Ravenous Chupacabra all the time, but it will do that often enough to be a pretty nice common.
Shortcut Seeker image 2.0 This has some okay defensive stats, but unfortunately it needs to do damage to a player to actually do something real, making it kind of an odd card. UB is going to be pretty good at making creatures gain evasion, but I’m not super interested in this.
Pack 3 Pick 12: Sylvan Shepherd
Price of Loyalty image 1.0 // 2.5 Even with the Treasure upside, this probably won’t be worth it for most decks. Threaten effects aren’t amazing in most formats, since they tend to do very little except in two situations. One of these is that you’re able to kill your opponent when you do it, and the other is that you have some sacrifice outlets that make it easy to turn the effect into a removal spell that gives you some value. However, this does look like it might be worth playing in the Black-Red deck, as there is one red Sacrifice effect at Uncommon, two black sacrifice effects at Common, and one at Uncommon, so setting up the sacrifice is actually going to be doable there, making the card a solid playable in a deck that gets its hands on some of those effects.
Sylvan Shepherd image 2.5 This looks like it has a lot going on because of the d20 stuff, but it is basically just a 3-mana ⅔ with Vigilance that gains you 1-2 life when it attacks. That’s basically a textbook solid playable, especially in a format that does have some life gain payoffs
Boots of Speed image 2.0 The boost this offers for the casting cost and the equip cost is pretty reasonable, as paying one more to give something new Haste and +1/+0 will feel pretty good sometimes, especially in a set where there’s an Equipment archetype.
Pack 3 Pick 13: Unexpected Windfall
Ranger's Longbow image 1.5 This gives a reasonable boost and key word for the cost, though it isn’t anything special.
Unexpected Windfall image 2.0 This seems like a decent card for Most red decks to get one copy of. 4 mana is a lot for Tormenting Voice, but the two Treasure you get means this card also gives you some very real fixing, in addition to helping you dig deeper into your deck.
Pack 3 Pick 14: Mordenkainen's Polymorph
Mordenkainen's Polymorph image 1.0 This kind of card always looks really cool, and that’s because it is easy to think of situations where it does something. But, even though there are several of them -- like making a creature big enough to block something it couldn’t before, or shrinking an opposing creature, or doing 4 lethal damage int he air, or saving a creature from damage-based removal -- even with all of those possibilities, you’d be surprised how infrequently a situation emerges where this will actually do something. We’ve seen a ton of cards like this over the years, and they always significantly underperform. I can’t see that changing here.
Draft Pick Overview