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Premier Draft AFR 31 July 2021

31 July 09:13 - KracherLP 7 Wins - 2 Losses
Maindeck
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (9)
1 Unexpected Windfall image
1 Goblin Morningstar image
1 Dancing Sword image
2 Farideh's Fireball image
1 Dueling Rapier image
1 Dragon's Fire image
1 Rally Maneuver image
1 Minimus Containment image
Creature (14)
1 Hulking Bugbear image
1 Blink Dog image
1 Armory Veteran image
1 Adult Gold Dragon image
2 Ranger's Hawk image
1 Planar Ally image
3 Keen-Eared Sentry image
1 Red Dragon image
1 Hobgoblin Captain image
1 Monk of the Open Hand image
1 Half-Elf Monk image
Land (17)
8 Plains image
9 Mountain image
Sideboard
1 Goblin Javelineer image
1 Celestial Unicorn image
1 Brazen Dwarf image
1 Dawnbringer Cleric image
1 Displacer Beast image
1 Gloom Stalker image
1 Power Word Kill image
1 Paladin's Shield image
1 Boots of Speed image
1 Unexpected Windfall image
1 Spare Dagger image
1 You're Ambushed on the Road image
1 Greataxe image
1 Silver Raven image
1 Power of Persuasion image
1 Sorcerer Class image
1 Shocking Grasp image
1 Mordenkainen's Polymorph image
1 Bar the Gate image

Pack 1 Pick 1: Power Word Kill
Tiamat image 3.5 The cost here is pretty rough, being WUBRG and all that -- but it is a 7-mana 7/7 that will usually be able to draw you at least one card -- and that card will be another Dragon. The mana cost definitely holds it back, but if you end up with a good mana base that can actually make this happen, obviously enough, Tiamat will feel like a bomb. This is probably going to be the most doable in RB, because you have access to the most treasure in that color pair. However, thanks to that mana cost, you really can’t be valuing this the same way you could a mono-colored or two-colored bomb
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!
Bag of Holding image 2.5 This was a predictable reprint, given the theme of this set. Last time we saw it, it was a Rare, and it was a pretty decent card. Having a card that just lets you sink mana into it to loot is itself a nice thing to have around, and the fact that you can actually eventually get the stuff back that you put on the Bag is nice upside, though it won’t come up that often. It still doesn’t have a real board presence, so it isn’t nearly as good as a creature who can loot for you
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.
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.
Dueling Rapier image 2.5 So, the Equip cost here is obviously really steep, and +2/+0 for a single Red mana would not be an awesome combat trick, but in this case we’re talking about a combat trick that has the stats boost stick around in one form or another. Even if your creature dies, you have something on the battlefield, even if it does cost a lot to Equip, and if you can help a creature win and survive combat and keep this equipped to it, it’s going ot feel pretty good. In a lot of ways, it is still a glorified combat trick, but I’ve underestimated auras and equipment with Flash in the past, dismissing them as combat tricks, so I thinkt his will defy expectations. Still, it probably isn’t much more than a solid playable.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Contact Other Plane image 3.0 So, with a 1-9 you’re getting an Instant speed Divination that costs one extra, which isn’t great, that would probably be a 1.5 or 2.0, but isn’t the worst fail case when the 10-19 gives you a pretty great effect for the cost -- like Behold the Multiverse without Foretell, and that’s a good place to be. Obviously, rolling the 20 will be completely absurd. If that’s what this card always did, it would be like a 4.0. We have to sort of think about what’s the most likely with this, and I think the fail case is passable enough that I’m pretty happy with this over all, as 10-19 is a pretty likely outcome, and that card would probably be a B-. In the end, I think all of that makes this a 3.0.
+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.
Pack 1 Pick 2: Goblin Morningstar
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!
Fifty Feet of Rope image 2.0 Well, this is interesting. “Climb Over” won’t matter very often, and “Tie Up” is perhaps a little too situational too. Because it doesn’t tap the creature as part of the effect, it will only do a thing against creatures that already tapped. The part that intrigues me the most is Venturing into the Dungeon, but even that seems a little clunky, though it is obviously a late game mana sink. The first two modes will be hard to make use of early or even late, and the Venture into the Dungeon option is pretty good late, but I can see this sitting ont he table doing very little early, and that’s kind of rough. This is definitely the kind of card it is easy to miss on, because it is both unusual and utilizes a new mechanic, but I don’t think I’m super high on it right now
Goblin Morningstar image 3.5 This looks like some pretty good Equipment ot me. While the stats boost isn’t incredible or anything, adding Trample does mean it will be nice to put on medium to large creatures, and the fact that you get a 1/1 goblin when you play it is quite nice, really making up for the other inefficiencies. It equipping to that goblin certainly is nice too, especially as a two-drop.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Pack 1 Pick 3: Dancing Sword
Dancing Sword image 4.0 So, if this were just 1W for an Equipment that Equipped for one and gave +2/+1, I would already be on board. That’s a great boost for the cost. Obviously, the added bonus that it can become a 2/1 Flyer when that’s something you need more is pretty nice. A +2/+1 boost can eventually get outclassed, especially if you don’t have Evasive creature, so, the sword’s ability to just turn into one will definitely come up, though I think a lot of the time, you might prefer to keep it as an Equipment. Either way, this is a very good card worth a pretty high pick.
Burning Hands image 3.5 As we’ve seen with most of this cycle, this is a pretty good card even without the color hosing effect. Normally, two mana to do 2 to something at Instant speed would probably be a 2.5. It isn’t quite premium, just because it can only kill small stuff and not that efficiently. However, I do think adding the huge upside against Green permanents in a big deal, as when you go against a Green deck this will feel like a 4.0!
Yuan-Ti Fang-Blade image 2.5 This has a powerful combat damage to a player trigger, and because it has death touch your opponent will be put in a difficult position with it sometimes. Repeatable Venturing seems pretty powerful, and UB seems the most well-positioned to help creatures like this get evasion
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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 1 Pick 4: Hulking Bugbear
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!
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
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.
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.
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.
Contact Other Plane image 3.0 So, with a 1-9 you’re getting an Instant speed Divination that costs one extra, which isn’t great, that would probably be a 1.5 or 2.0, but isn’t the worst fail case when the 10-19 gives you a pretty great effect for the cost -- like Behold the Multiverse without Foretell, and that’s a good place to be. Obviously, rolling the 20 will be completely absurd. If that’s what this card always did, it would be like a 4.0. We have to sort of think about what’s the most likely with this, and I think the fail case is passable enough that I’m pretty happy with this over all, as 10-19 is a pretty likely outcome, and that card would probably be a B-. In the end, I think all of that makes this a 3.0.
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
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.
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.
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.”
Pixie Guide image 2.0 This has a reasonable floor. Two mana ⅓ flyers tend to be sort of acceptable in Limited, and the upsider here is pretty alright too. UR especially will be able to take advantage of the effect, but most decks that are at least part Blue will probably have 2-3 cards that involve a d20, so it will come up some. This isn’t especially close to good, though it isn’t bad either.
Pack 1 Pick 5: Farideh's Fireball
Sphere of Annihilation image 4.0 This iis of course symmetrical, but because you get to decide the mana to pay for it, you will be able to find a way to make it feel less symmetrical most of the time. It is a big bummer that it doesn’t do anything immediately. Waiting a whole turn for it to do its thing will sometimes feel way too slow, especially if you’re behind. So, the card is a bit finicky. You need the mana value to line up well, and you have to wait an entire turn for it to do something. Even with all that in mind, I think this is a reasonably powerful card, though all of those variables don’t make it super amazing. I think I’m going to start the format valuing it fairly highly though, and playing it in pretty much any Black deck where I can get it. This type of effect just is not easily replaceable.
You Meet in a Tavern image 3.0 Both options on this can be quite powerful. Sometimes you really need to find yourself a couple of creatures in the top part of your deck, and other times pumping the whole board is great. This is a rather clunky Sorcery, but both modes can be great in the right situation
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 1 Pick 6: 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
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.
Keen-Eared Sentry image 1.5 This doesn’t seem that good to me. Giving yourself hexproof won’t matter very often, and neither will limiting your opponent to only one venture a turn. Maybe this is here to help provide some Dungeon hate for constructed, where venturing more than once a turn will happen all the time, but in Limited, it isn’t going to happen so often that you desperately want this little two drop. It does have an okay baseline, so it isn’t terrible, but its text box won’t matter that much.
Improvised Weaponry image 3.0 This probably isn’t quite premium removal, given that it does 2 for three mana and is a Sorcery. However, the fact that it can hit the opponent and it is a removal spell that gives you fixing and ramp is definitely appealing, even if won’t feel that efficient.
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
Baleful Beholder image 3.0 If you’re looking for some kind of finisher in a Black deck, this Beholder isn’t a terrible place to turn. Sometimes giving menace to your whole time will just win you the game on the spot, other times it won’t do anything --- the average situation is probably somewhere in the middle. Like, it lets one of your creatures attack who couldn’t, but that’s still not bad when attached to a 6-mana 6/5. Additionally, the fact it can get rid of Enchantments in a pinch is nice too.
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
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
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 7: Armory Veteran
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 1 Pick 8: Paladin's Shield
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.
Baleful Beholder image 3.0 If you’re looking for some kind of finisher in a Black deck, this Beholder isn’t a terrible place to turn. Sometimes giving menace to your whole time will just win you the game on the spot, other times it won’t do anything --- the average situation is probably somewhere in the middle. Like, it lets one of your creatures attack who couldn’t, but that’s still not bad when attached to a 6-mana 6/5. Additionally, the fact it can get rid of Enchantments in a pinch is nice too.
Bulette image 2.5 We’ve seen a lot of creatures like this in the past, and they’re not usually anything amazing, though their ability to grow throughout the game is nice, and they do eventually become a problem for your opponent. Because it counts the death of any creature, you will find that this gains that counter a decent chunk of the time.
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
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.
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.
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 1 Pick 9: Dueling Rapier
Tiamat image 3.5 The cost here is pretty rough, being WUBRG and all that -- but it is a 7-mana 7/7 that will usually be able to draw you at least one card -- and that card will be another Dragon. The mana cost definitely holds it back, but if you end up with a good mana base that can actually make this happen, obviously enough, Tiamat will feel like a bomb. This is probably going to be the most doable in RB, because you have access to the most treasure in that color pair. However, thanks to that mana cost, you really can’t be valuing this the same way you could a mono-colored or two-colored bomb
Dueling Rapier image 2.5 So, the Equip cost here is obviously really steep, and +2/+0 for a single Red mana would not be an awesome combat trick, but in this case we’re talking about a combat trick that has the stats boost stick around in one form or another. Even if your creature dies, you have something on the battlefield, even if it does cost a lot to Equip, and if you can help a creature win and survive combat and keep this equipped to it, it’s going ot feel pretty good. In a lot of ways, it is still a glorified combat trick, but I’ve underestimated auras and equipment with Flash in the past, dismissing them as combat tricks, so I thinkt his will defy expectations. Still, it probably isn’t much more than a solid playable.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 1 Pick 10: Goblin Javelineer
Fifty Feet of Rope image 2.0 Well, this is interesting. “Climb Over” won’t matter very often, and “Tie Up” is perhaps a little too situational too. Because it doesn’t tap the creature as part of the effect, it will only do a thing against creatures that already tapped. The part that intrigues me the most is Venturing into the Dungeon, but even that seems a little clunky, though it is obviously a late game mana sink. The first two modes will be hard to make use of early or even late, and the Venture into the Dungeon option is pretty good late, but I can see this sitting ont he table doing very little early, and that’s kind of rough. This is definitely the kind of card it is easy to miss on, because it is both unusual and utilizes a new mechanic, but I don’t think I’m super high on it right now
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.
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.
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.
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 11: Brazen Dwarf
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.
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.
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
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.
Pack 1 Pick 12: Spare Dagger
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
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.
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 1 Pick 13: You're Ambushed on the Road
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.
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.
Pack 1 Pick 14: Greataxe
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
Pack 2 Pick 1: Adult Gold Dragon
Adult Gold Dragon image 4.0 This has a bunch of key words and good stats. Flying, Lifelink, and Haste combine quite well, as they can help you to quickly put the game out of reach for your opponent. The Dragon will often be able to hit your opponent at least once, even if they have removal, and any more than that and you’re talking about a massive gap in life totals in your favor. The one disadvantage the Gold Dragon has is that 3 toughness can die to a whole lot of things, but I still think the combination here is quite nice, though probably not quite a bomb. While it doesn’t definitely give you value even if it dies, Haste + Lifelink + Flying does a good job of giving it a pretty good chance to do that
Goblin Morningstar image 3.5 This looks like some pretty good Equipment ot me. While the stats boost isn’t incredible or anything, adding Trample does mean it will be nice to put on medium to large creatures, and the fact that you get a 1/1 goblin when you play it is quite nice, really making up for the other inefficiencies. It equipping to that goblin certainly is nice too, especially as a two-drop.
Keen-Eared Sentry image 1.5 This doesn’t seem that good to me. Giving yourself hexproof won’t matter very often, and neither will limiting your opponent to only one venture a turn. Maybe this is here to help provide some Dungeon hate for constructed, where venturing more than once a turn will happen all the time, but in Limited, it isn’t going to happen so often that you desperately want this little two drop. It does have an okay baseline, so it isn’t terrible, but its text box won’t matter that much.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Contact Other Plane image 3.0 So, with a 1-9 you’re getting an Instant speed Divination that costs one extra, which isn’t great, that would probably be a 1.5 or 2.0, but isn’t the worst fail case when the 10-19 gives you a pretty great effect for the cost -- like Behold the Multiverse without Foretell, and that’s a good place to be. Obviously, rolling the 20 will be completely absurd. If that’s what this card always did, it would be like a 4.0. We have to sort of think about what’s the most likely with this, and I think the fail case is passable enough that I’m pretty happy with this over all, as 10-19 is a pretty likely outcome, and that card would probably be a B-. In the end, I think all of that makes this a 3.0.
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.
Precipitous Drop image 3.5 I think I would play this most of the time even without the “completed dungeon” bonus. The Aura + Venture is going to be good enough for that, and then the completed dungeon bonus makes this far more potent. One nice thing about this card is that you can stick it on a creature and then get the bonus later once you complete a dungeon, at which point it slikely to just kill whatever it is. I think this gets into the lower range of premium.
Neverwinter Dryad image 2.5 This is a fine one drop. It ramps for you, and that looks to be a good strategy in this format, especially in UG. It is nice that if you play it early it might actually attack for a bit too
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 2 Pick 2: Dragon's Fire
Feywild Trickster image 1.0 // 3.5 How good this card is will be super dependent on the rest of your deck, since a Gray Ogre is just a horrible stat-line these days. The good news is, as long as you get one token out of this you’re probably doing alright, and more than that will be incredibly powerful. Still, while d20s are around in this set, you probably need 5+ cards that involve them for this to do its thing, and for that reason I think I need to give this a build around grade.
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
Shessra, Death's Whisper image 3.0 This is a pretty sweet card. The idea is, you play her and force an opposing creature to block one of your creatures, ideally, killing that creature and keeping yours alive. Then, at the end of the turn you can pay 2 life to draw a card if that happened. Obviously, it doesn’t have to line up perfectly for her to draw you cards and stuff -- it can happen on any turn, but what I described is sort of the ideal scenario. The problem I see, though, is that the ETB trigger won’t matter a decent chunk of the time, so setting up that first draw is definitely not a foregone conclusion. She also has really bad stats for the cost. Still, in most games she’s likely to draw you a few cards, but I can’t help but think she’s a bit more underwhelming than the other signpost legendaries
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.
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
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
Pack 2 Pick 3: Farideh's Fireball
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.
Death-Priest of Myrkul image 4.0 This card really feels like a Rare, and that’s always a good sign for an Uncommon! Sure, he has some ugly stats for the cost, but everything else going on here is great. There are enough creatures with those types in Black in this set that it will be pumping 3-5 of the creatures in your deck, and sometimes more, but the real value comes from the ability to make 1/1 Skeletons, which, if the Deathpriest is in play, will of course be 2/2 skeletons! You won’t always be able to trigger that effortlessly, but it will happen often enough for the Deathpriest to be a very real problem for your opponent, and the great thing is, after you make that first one, you’re going to be getting value even if they do find removal for it!
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.
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
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.
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
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.
Pixie Guide image 2.0 This has a reasonable floor. Two mana ⅓ flyers tend to be sort of acceptable in Limited, and the upsider here is pretty alright too. UR especially will be able to take advantage of the effect, but most decks that are at least part Blue will probably have 2-3 cards that involve a d20, so it will come up some. This isn’t especially close to good, though it isn’t bad either.
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.
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.
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 2 Pick 4: Ranger's Hawk
Keen-Eared Sentry image 1.5 This doesn’t seem that good to me. Giving yourself hexproof won’t matter very often, and neither will limiting your opponent to only one venture a turn. Maybe this is here to help provide some Dungeon hate for constructed, where venturing more than once a turn will happen all the time, but in Limited, it isn’t going to happen so often that you desperately want this little two drop. It does have an okay baseline, so it isn’t terrible, but its text box won’t matter that much.
Feywild Trickster image 1.0 // 3.5 How good this card is will be super dependent on the rest of your deck, since a Gray Ogre is just a horrible stat-line these days. The good news is, as long as you get one token out of this you’re probably doing alright, and more than that will be incredibly powerful. Still, while d20s are around in this set, you probably need 5+ cards that involve them for this to do its thing, and for that reason I think I need to give this a build around grade.
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
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.
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.”
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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 2 Pick 5: Planar Ally
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.
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.
Yuan-Ti Fang-Blade image 2.5 This has a powerful combat damage to a player trigger, and because it has death touch your opponent will be put in a difficult position with it sometimes. Repeatable Venturing seems pretty powerful, and UB seems the most well-positioned to help creatures like this get evasion
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 2 Pick 6: Dawnbringer Cleric
Displacer Beast image 4.0 This seems quite good for an Uncommon. It has sort of passable stats, especially because it does a whole lot more than just sit around as a 3-mana 3/2! The ETB trigger will be quite nice, as Venturing will give you some very significant value. It isn’t quite Professor of Symbology, but I think the comparison helps illustrate why this card will be good. The fact it can bounce itself back to your hand won’t always come up, but in the late game, it can help you venture through a dungeon all on its own, and that will often be a pretty big deal.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 2 Pick 7: Displacer Beast
Displacer Beast image 4.0 This seems quite good for an Uncommon. It has sort of passable stats, especially because it does a whole lot more than just sit around as a 3-mana 3/2! The ETB trigger will be quite nice, as Venturing will give you some very significant value. It isn’t quite Professor of Symbology, but I think the comparison helps illustrate why this card will be good. The fact it can bounce itself back to your hand won’t always come up, but in the late game, it can help you venture through a dungeon all on its own, and that will often be a pretty big deal.
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 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.
Clattering Skeletons image 3.0 A 4-mana 4/3 is fine, and this comes with a nice enough death trigger. Venturing is going to be a big part of this format -- think learn/lessons in Strixhaven -- so any card that can do it for you is going to be a little better than it looks.
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
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 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.
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
Pack 2 Pick 8: Ranger's Hawk
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Pack 2 Pick 9: Keen-Eared Sentry
Keen-Eared Sentry image 1.5 This doesn’t seem that good to me. Giving yourself hexproof won’t matter very often, and neither will limiting your opponent to only one venture a turn. Maybe this is here to help provide some Dungeon hate for constructed, where venturing more than once a turn will happen all the time, but in Limited, it isn’t going to happen so often that you desperately want this little two drop. It does have an okay baseline, so it isn’t terrible, but its text box won’t matter that much.
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.
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
Contact Other Plane image 3.0 So, with a 1-9 you’re getting an Instant speed Divination that costs one extra, which isn’t great, that would probably be a 1.5 or 2.0, but isn’t the worst fail case when the 10-19 gives you a pretty great effect for the cost -- like Behold the Multiverse without Foretell, and that’s a good place to be. Obviously, rolling the 20 will be completely absurd. If that’s what this card always did, it would be like a 4.0. We have to sort of think about what’s the most likely with this, and I think the fail case is passable enough that I’m pretty happy with this over all, as 10-19 is a pretty likely outcome, and that card would probably be a B-. In the end, I think all of that makes this a 3.0.
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.
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 2 Pick 10: Boots of Speed
Shessra, Death's Whisper image 3.0 This is a pretty sweet card. The idea is, you play her and force an opposing creature to block one of your creatures, ideally, killing that creature and keeping yours alive. Then, at the end of the turn you can pay 2 life to draw a card if that happened. Obviously, it doesn’t have to line up perfectly for her to draw you cards and stuff -- it can happen on any turn, but what I described is sort of the ideal scenario. The problem I see, though, is that the ETB trigger won’t matter a decent chunk of the time, so setting up that first draw is definitely not a foregone conclusion. She also has really bad stats for the cost. Still, in most games she’s likely to draw you a few cards, but I can’t help but think she’s a bit more underwhelming than the other signpost legendaries
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.
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.
Pack 2 Pick 11: Rally Maneuver
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.
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.
Pixie Guide image 2.0 This has a reasonable floor. Two mana ⅓ flyers tend to be sort of acceptable in Limited, and the upsider here is pretty alright too. UR especially will be able to take advantage of the effect, but most decks that are at least part Blue will probably have 2-3 cards that involve a d20, so it will come up some. This isn’t especially close to good, though it isn’t bad either.
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.
Pack 2 Pick 12: Keen-Eared Sentry
Keen-Eared Sentry image 1.5 This doesn’t seem that good to me. Giving yourself hexproof won’t matter very often, and neither will limiting your opponent to only one venture a turn. Maybe this is here to help provide some Dungeon hate for constructed, where venturing more than once a turn will happen all the time, but in Limited, it isn’t going to happen so often that you desperately want this little two drop. It does have an okay baseline, so it isn’t terrible, but its text box won’t matter that much.
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.
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 2 Pick 13: Silver Raven
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.
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 2 Pick 14: Power of Persuasion
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.
Pack 3 Pick 1: Red Dragon
Gelatinous Cube image 4.5 A 4-mana 4/3 that exiles an opposing creature is excellent. And sure, if your opponent kills the Cube they’re going to get back the creature -- but, given enough time you can “dissolve” that creature, which will make it so they won’t get it back. Even without that Dissolve effect, this is basically Ravenous Chupacabra, and with it, it is way better. I think this gets in the lower range of “bomb” territory.
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!
Death-Priest of Myrkul image 4.0 This card really feels like a Rare, and that’s always a good sign for an Uncommon! Sure, he has some ugly stats for the cost, but everything else going on here is great. There are enough creatures with those types in Black in this set that it will be pumping 3-5 of the creatures in your deck, and sometimes more, but the real value comes from the ability to make 1/1 Skeletons, which, if the Deathpriest is in play, will of course be 2/2 skeletons! You won’t always be able to trigger that effortlessly, but it will happen often enough for the Deathpriest to be a very real problem for your opponent, and the great thing is, after you make that first one, you’re going to be getting value even if they do find removal for it!
Red Dragon image 3.0 Like the rest of this cycle, this looks like a nice card. A 6-mana 4/4 Flyer is almost passable, and the fact this does 4 to your opponent is kind of a big deal, as it will really accelerate your clock, and the time times when it allows you to just finish off your opponent will feel especially good. I think you can first pick this in some weaker packs.
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 3 Pick 2: Hobgoblin Captain
Wight image 3.5 A two-mana 3/2 that enters tapped would already be a decent playable, but the additional effect here is quite good. Most of the time you won’t be making more than one Zombie, but that’s fine. if you are up against this card, trading with it will feel pretty miserable because of that Zombie token. You can even triple block something huge to take it down and still get back a little bit of value. Basically, it is a nice attacker and blocker that replaces itself. It isn’t super exciting, but it is definitely pretty good.
Druid Class image 2.0 I’m not very impressed with this. Gaining a life for every land isn’t worth a card, and while this does level up, neither of the things it levels up into are that good. Playing more than one land a turn is pretty hard to take advantage of after the very early game, because you just won’t have extra lands, and if you do -- you’re probably flooding! Level three is where you finally get something that is worth a whole card in Limited, but you paid a total of 10 mana to get there, and the final product is just a big vanilla creature. Yes, the fact you pay installments does matter, but overall, I think you’ll end up cutting Druid Class a significant chunk of the time.
Cleric Class image 1.5 // 3.5 GW is about gaining life, and this will fit in really well there. Like with most of these, the level 1 Enchantment probably wouldn’t be worth playing, but I think the next two abilities on this one are quite potent. Level 2 gives you an Ajani’s Pridemate effect, which is great if you have some life gain, and Level 3 lets you reanimate a creature and gain some life, which will also mean you put a counter somewhere. The total package here is pretty appealing, but probably still a pretty serious build around. It has a kind of reasonable floor as most decks can take advantage of the reanimation, but it is probably not going to be very good in your typical White deck, and like a B in a GW deck that is good at gaining life
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.
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.
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
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.
Ranger's Longbow image 1.5 This gives a reasonable boost and key word for the cost, though it isn’t anything special.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Pack 3 Pick 3: Minimus Containment
Bag of Holding image 2.5 This was a predictable reprint, given the theme of this set. Last time we saw it, it was a Rare, and it was a pretty decent card. Having a card that just lets you sink mana into it to loot is itself a nice thing to have around, and the fact that you can actually eventually get the stuff back that you put on the Bag is nice upside, though it won’t come up that often. It still doesn’t have a real board presence, so it isn’t nearly as good as a creature who can loot for you
Hunter's Mark image 3.5 Even without the upside against Blue decks, Hunter’s Mark would be a very good removal spell for Green. Instant speed punch is great, especially when it comes with the additional upside of sometimes only costing a single mana! This is premium removal.
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.
+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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Neverwinter Dryad image 2.5 This is a fine one drop. It ramps for you, and that looks to be a good strategy in this format, especially in UG. It is nice that if you play it early it might actually attack for a bit too
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.
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
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
Pack 3 Pick 4: Monk of the Open Hand
Eye of Vecna image 3.0 This costs a fair bit of life, but drawing cards is always really nice in Limited, as signifcantly outcarding your opponent usually leads to victory. The fact it draws you a card right away is nice, and then – if you have the life, time, and mana – you can use it to draw more cards later. This might be the most well-positioned in the GW deck, which has the most life gain in the format, but I think it will be pretty good in any deck
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
Pack 3 Pick 5: Keen-Eared Sentry
Keen-Eared Sentry image 1.5 This doesn’t seem that good to me. Giving yourself hexproof won’t matter very often, and neither will limiting your opponent to only one venture a turn. Maybe this is here to help provide some Dungeon hate for constructed, where venturing more than once a turn will happen all the time, but in Limited, it isn’t going to happen so often that you desperately want this little two drop. It does have an okay baseline, so it isn’t terrible, but its text box won’t matter that much.
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.
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.
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.
Clattering Skeletons image 3.0 A 4-mana 4/3 is fine, and this comes with a nice enough death trigger. Venturing is going to be a big part of this format -- think learn/lessons in Strixhaven -- so any card that can do it for you is going to be a little better than it looks.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Pack 3 Pick 6: Unexpected Windfall
Black Dragon image 3.5 This is expensive, but it will have a huge impact on the board when you play it. It will virtually always be able to kill something of your opponent’s, and trust me -- playing a 4/4 Flyer and subtracting from your opponent’s side of the board is pretty game-changing. It won’t always let you take down their biggest, baddest creature, but this card will still swing games in your favor pretty effectively. It is a very impressive Uncommon. If this format ends up being really fast, it might slip a little bit, but for now I think it is pretty great.
Prosperous Innkeeper image 3.0 A two mana 1/1 that gives you treasure is already pretty decent. It gives you some real fixing and ramp, so adding the life gain effect to the Innkeeper makes for a pretty nice two drop for most green decks
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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 7: Celestial Unicorn
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Pack 3 Pick 8: Sorcerer Class
Sorcerer Class image 3.0 Getting Faithless looting for a Blue and a Red is a nice place to start here, as it will really help you find cards you want. Once you take this to level 2, things start to get more interesting, as you’re given a whole bunch of mana, and you can even use that mana to level it up to level three! Sadly, level three won’t be very impressive in Limited, as casting more than like two Instants and Sorceries consistently is a pipe dream, even in the most spell-heavy decks. Mostly, this is about Level 1 and 2 in Limited, and that seems like a fine card for most Blue-Red decks in this format. It might take a little bit of building around, but UR always has lots of spells, so I don’t see that being a big hurdle, especially because Level 1 is kind of alright all on its own
Split the Party image 2.5 This is a unique design for a bounce spell, and I think most of the time it will be pretty alright. You probably want to be bouncing two things with it to feel good about the amount of mana you spend on it, and you can do that as long as they have three creatures since it is rounded up. There will be times where it just doesn’t matter though, even when you bounce a couple of things. A decent chunk of the time, this will either simply delay the inevitable. This kind of effect does not allow you to trade card-for-card and is pure tempo, so keep that in mind. I think overall, that just makes this a 2.5
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.
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
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.
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
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.
Pack 3 Pick 9: Gloom Stalker
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 3 Pick 10: Half-Elf Monk
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
Ranger's Longbow image 1.5 This gives a reasonable boost and key word for the cost, though it isn’t anything special.
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.
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.
Pack 3 Pick 11: Unexpected Windfall
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.
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.
Neverwinter Dryad image 2.5 This is a fine one drop. It ramps for you, and that looks to be a good strategy in this format, especially in UG. It is nice that if you play it early it might actually attack for a bit too
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.
Pack 3 Pick 12: Shocking Grasp
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
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.
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
Pack 3 Pick 13: Mordenkainen's Polymorph
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.
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.
Pack 3 Pick 14: Bar the Gate
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.
Draft Pick Overview