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Quick Draft AFR 5 August 2021

5 August 09:26 - itay2222 7 Wins - 1 Losses
Maindeck
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (7)
1 Precipitous Drop image
2 Grim Bounty image
1 Thieves' Tools image
1 Ray of Enfeeblement image
1 Barbarian Class image
1 Eyes of the Beholder image
Creature (16)
1 Lightfoot Rogue image
2 Death-Priest of Myrkul image
1 Orcus, Prince of Undeath image
3 Swarming Goblins image
1 Drider image
1 Sepulcher Ghoul image
1 Hoard Robber image
1 Plundering Barbarian image
1 Shambling Ghast image
2 Vampire Spawn image
1 Baleful Beholder image
1 Hobgoblin Captain image
Land (17)
7 Mountain image
9 Swamp image
1 Evolving Wilds image
Sideboard
1 Old Gnawbone image
1 Gnoll Hunter image
2 Baleful Beholder image
1 Xorn image
1 Hired Hexblade image
1 Secret Door image
1 Farideh's Fireball image
1 Spiked Pit Trap image
1 Fifty Feet of Rope image
1 Kick in the Door image
2 Deadly Dispute image
1 Shocking Grasp image
1 Price of Loyalty image
1 Silver Raven image
2 Devour Intellect image

Pack 1 Pick 1: Orcus, Prince of Undeath
Orcus, Prince of Undeath image 5.0 So, at worst, this is a 4-mana 5/3 with Flying and Trample. That’s already a B, because it is a cheap creature that puts your opponent on a very fast clock. So, the option of pumping extra mana into him for additional effects is upside on an already impressive card. If you pay 7 and kill all the X/2s on the board, or get back like a two-drop to the battlefield that’s going to feel pretty great. It just seems like, at worst, you have a creature that pressures your opponent in the sky really effectively, and at best you have a card that completely reshapes the board in your favor. And yes, the -X/-X part is symmetrical, but because you have complete control over it, you’ll only use that part when it is beneficial for you, making it feel a lot less symmetrical. I think this does enough to be a bomb
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
Ray of Enfeeblement image 3.0 One mana for -4/-1 to a creature is already a pretty nice deal. It won’t outright kill all of them, but they will certainly be enfeebled enough to be taken down in combat pretty much all the time, and that will feel pretty efficient. Then, against people playing White, it gets a massive upgrade to the point it is one of the best cards in your deck.
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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 2: Swarming Goblins
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
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
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
Ranger's Longbow image 1.5 This gives a reasonable boost and key word for the cost, though it isn’t anything special.
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
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.
Celestial Unicorn image 3.0 GW is the color pair most interested in gaining life in this format, and this is a very nice Common payoff for that kind of deck. And, it can be pretty solid in other decks too, as it isn’t like GW is the only deck where you’ll be able to gain life. This can get big fast, and has a reasonable starting point as a 3-mana 3/2. It seems like a pretty good Common.
Sepulcher Ghoul image 2.5 This has passable base stats, and on most attacks it will be able to threaten becoming a 4/3, so your opponent will have to take that into account. Free sacrifice effects like this always play pretty well since you can virtually always use the effect, though in this case, you can only do it once. It looks like the Ghoul is well-positioned for the BG deck especially, since that deck’s all about stuff dying, and it will also pair nicely in BR, where you can use the Threaten effect to steal a creature and sacrifice it. I think all of that helps makes this two mana 2/1 a card you play a significant chunk of the time in Black.
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
Priest of Ancient Lore image 3.5 This is a pretty great Common. People are always complaining white doesn’t have enough card draw, so getting an ETB ability like this will make them happy. In Limited, this will be a 2-for-1 a lot of the time, and the fact it gains that 1 life is no small thing either, since GW is all about gaining life.
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.
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.
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 3: Grim Bounty
Cloister Gargoyle image 3.0 A 3-mana 0/4 that ventures into the dungeon is probably already a decent card for the format, but this looks to be one of the bigger payoffs for completing dungeons at lower rarities, as it becoming a ¾ Flyer is a pretty big deal -- that kind of size almost always matters on an evasive creature, and it is going to give you value when it ETBs no matter what.
You Happen On a Glade image 3.0 I like this. It gives Green decks some really good fixing -- and that’s the option that will feel worthwhile the most often. However, one eventually reaches a stage in a game where top decking a fixing spell like this isn’t what you want to be doing, and by that stage of the game you probably have something in your graveyard yo’ud love to get back. I don’t really see myself cutting the first copy of this in most Green decks, especially if I’m splashing or 3 colors
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.
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.
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.
Goblin Javelineer image 1.5 This probably won’t be great in Limited. A one mana 1/1 with Haste might feel reasonable on turn one, but it is pretty terrible thereafter, and adding the ability to ping things that block it doesn’t really make up for that, though it does help some, since it means that it can at least trade with X/2s, and X/1s effectively can’t block it. If you can find a way to give this death touch, that will unlock its full potential, but overall, I think you cut this more often than you’ll play it.
Gnoll Hunter image 3.0 This is a fine two drop. It is a bear as a baseline, and it can get bigger if it has enough friends. That’s good enough upside for this to be a nice two-drop for Green decks.
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
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
Steadfast Paladin image 3.0 Two mana 2/2s with Lifelink tend to be solid enough in Limited, especially in a format with a life gain archetype. It will also wield Equipment pretty effectively.
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.
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!
Pack 1 Pick 4: Drider
Iron Golem image 2.5 This is like Juggernaut, a card that is still pretty solid in Limited. It is a bit of a bummer that didn’t give it the “can’t be blocked by walls” thing, since there are a few of them in this set, but either way this is a nice little creature. It is sure to die in combat because it has to block and attack constantly, but it has high enough power that it will kill most stuff at least.
Drider image 3.0 This doesn’t have good base stats, but it does have a good combat damage trigger. Even just getting one Spider out of this will feel great, and it feels like UB is well-equipped with enough ways to make this evasive that it will feel pretty strong when it lines up that way. It won’t always do that though, and sometimes it will just be an inefficient creature.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
Eyes of the Beholder image 3.0 It is pretty difficult for a card to be premium removal when it costs 6 mana – unless of course it also draws you a card, like Rise of Extus in Strixhaven. Eye of the Beholder can definitely kill almost everything, but six mana is a whole lot! It is an Instant, which does means sometimes you’ll be able to manufacture some blowouts. I think you’ll always be reasonably happy with the first copy of this, but running more than that is pretty risky.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 1 Pick 5: Thieves' Tools
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.
Ingenious Smith image 3.0 This set has a decent number of Artifacts in it., so the ETB ability will probably draw you a card like half the time in a typical White deck. The other part of the card, However, does count Treasure, and while Treasure is more concentrated in other colors than White, it is all over the set, so it growing from Treasure is a very real possibility.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
Secret Door image 1.5 In the early game, this can block reasonably well, and in the late game it has an ability that is a reasonable mana sink, and one that can actually give you a ton of value. Only Venturing at Sorcery speed is rough of course, because you have to telegraph to your opponent you won’t be interacting with them, but if you’re flooding out, this ability is going to look pretty good. You probably still don’t play this a ton though.
Pack 1 Pick 6: Farideh's Fireball
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
Dungeon Crawler image 2.5 One mana 2/1s don’t tend to be amazing in Limited, largely because everyone plays lots of creatures, and they’ll get bigger than it in a hurry! However, the upside of this returning to your hand when you complete a dungeon is pretty nice. Even if it is just a 2/1, getting it back for even once in the game will feel pretty good. And, if you’re in Black, I think it is pretty likely you complete at least one dungeon over the course 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.
Arborea Pegasus image 3.0 This is a pretty good Common. The ETB trigger will almost always enable an attack you didn’t have before, and that means that the Pegasus will have an immediate impact on the board, in addition to being a 4-mana 2/3 Flyer itself.
Arcane Investigator image 2.0 A two mana 2/1 isn’t great these days, but this one does come with a pretty nice late game effect. No matter what you roll, being able to draw cards late is pretty nice. Still, for the bluk of the game, the Investigator is just not very good. It will be outclasses quickly in the early game, and in the mid-game it will be even more useless.
Farideh's Fireball image 5.0 I think this sneaks into the lower range of premium removal. 5 mana to do 5 to something at Instant speed is perhaps not the most efficient thing ever, but it does kill most stuff, and the fac that your opponent also always takes 2 is enough to nudge this into that premium range. Sure, it will do 2 to you sometimes too, but that’s okay. This is the kind of card that will plummet in its score if the format turns out to be fast though, so keep that in mind.
Find the Path image 2.5 I think you’re getting pretty solid value here, between getting some ramp and venturing into a dungeon. Venture won’t always feel like drawing a card, but later on in the dungeons it will give you that kind of value, and even the early rooms in the dungeons seem decent enough.
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
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
Pack 1 Pick 7: Sepulcher Ghoul
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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Sepulcher Ghoul image 2.5 This has passable base stats, and on most attacks it will be able to threaten becoming a 4/3, so your opponent will have to take that into account. Free sacrifice effects like this always play pretty well since you can virtually always use the effect, though in this case, you can only do it once. It looks like the Ghoul is well-positioned for the BG deck especially, since that deck’s all about stuff dying, and it will also pair nicely in BR, where you can use the Threaten effect to steal a creature and sacrifice it. I think all of that helps makes this two mana 2/1 a card you play a significant chunk of the time in Black.
Pack 1 Pick 8: Spiked Pit Trap
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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
Pack 1 Pick 9: Ray of Enfeeblement
Ray of Enfeeblement image 3.0 One mana for -4/-1 to a creature is already a pretty nice deal. It won’t outright kill all of them, but they will certainly be enfeebled enough to be taken down in combat pretty much all the time, and that will feel pretty efficient. Then, against people playing White, it gets a massive upgrade to the point it is one of the best cards in your deck.
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
Herald of Hadar image 1.5 This is a bit clunky as a 5-mana 4/4, but the activated ability, as expensive as it is -- is a pretty nice late game mana sink. The ability, no matter what you roll, provides some serious reach. It is probably still too slow to make the cut on a super regular basis, though.
Deadly Dispute image 2.0 The prevalence of treasure, especially in Black-Red, will make this better than it looks. This kind of effect often plays a lot like Tormenting Voice, which is to say – its pretty replaceable, but I think this will be better than usual thanks to the fact it is good with treasure and it produces treasure. It of course still comes with the upside of being able to sacrifice a creature in response to removal, at which point you really aren’t going down a card either.
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.
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.
Pack 1 Pick 10: Fifty Feet of Rope
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
Ranger's Longbow image 1.5 This gives a reasonable boost and key word for the cost, though it isn’t anything special.
Sepulcher Ghoul image 2.5 This has passable base stats, and on most attacks it will be able to threaten becoming a 4/3, so your opponent will have to take that into account. Free sacrifice effects like this always play pretty well since you can virtually always use the effect, though in this case, you can only do it once. It looks like the Ghoul is well-positioned for the BG deck especially, since that deck’s all about stuff dying, and it will also pair nicely in BR, where you can use the Threaten effect to steal a creature and sacrifice it. I think all of that helps makes this two mana 2/1 a card you play a significant chunk of the time in Black.
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
Shocking Grasp image 1.5 The effect here isn’t very exciting. This Blue “combat tricks” really need your board to already have something big enough to deal with an attacking creature, or to blow up a block, and that really makes them pretty unimpressive. Obviously, adding a cantrip to the card does it make it better, because it means that at worse, you’re going to be able to Cycle this, but it still isn’t something that will make the cut in your deck all that often.
Pack 1 Pick 11: Hoard Robber
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.
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.
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.
Clever Conjurer image 2.5 This ability only being Sorcery speed is a bummer, but it is still a pretty useful one to have on a 3-mana ⅔. Notably, it can untap lands for you, helping you ramp. And that’s probably the way you’ll use it the most. This seems like a solid playable.
Pack 1 Pick 12: Eyes of the Beholder
Eyes of the Beholder image 3.0 It is pretty difficult for a card to be premium removal when it costs 6 mana – unless of course it also draws you a card, like Rise of Extus in Strixhaven. Eye of the Beholder can definitely kill almost everything, but six mana is a whole lot! It is an Instant, which does means sometimes you’ll be able to manufacture some blowouts. I think you’ll always be reasonably happy with the first copy of this, but running more than that is pretty risky.
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.
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.
Pack 1 Pick 13: Secret Door
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
Secret Door image 1.5 In the early game, this can block reasonably well, and in the late game it has an ability that is a reasonable mana sink, and one that can actually give you a ton of value. Only Venturing at Sorcery speed is rough of course, because you have to telegraph to your opponent you won’t be interacting with them, but if you’re flooding out, this ability is going to look pretty good. You probably still don’t play this a ton though.
Pack 1 Pick 14: Shocking Grasp
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 1: Old Gnawbone
Old Gnawbone image 3.5 A 7-mana 7/7 Flyer is certainly imposing, but it better be for that cost! One nice thing here is that you will be able to get Treasure out of this the turn you play it, so even if your opponent kills it on their turn, you at least get something. Of course, the problem here is that you probably don’t really need treasure if you were able to cast Old Gnarlbone, and while this format does seem to have a significant number of mana sinks, I’m just not sure you’ll have anything to do with all the treasure this produces.
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.
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
Trickster's Talisman image 3.0 This gives a decent stats boost for the cost, and the option to give up the Talisman to copy a creature is going to be pretty busted sometimes
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.
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.
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
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.
Gnoll Hunter image 3.0 This is a fine two drop. It is a bear as a baseline, and it can get bigger if it has enough friends. That’s good enough upside for this to be a nice two-drop for Green decks.
Sepulcher Ghoul image 2.5 This has passable base stats, and on most attacks it will be able to threaten becoming a 4/3, so your opponent will have to take that into account. Free sacrifice effects like this always play pretty well since you can virtually always use the effect, though in this case, you can only do it once. It looks like the Ghoul is well-positioned for the BG deck especially, since that deck’s all about stuff dying, and it will also pair nicely in BR, where you can use the Threaten effect to steal a creature and sacrifice it. I think all of that helps makes this two mana 2/1 a card you play a significant chunk of the time in Black.
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.
Valor Singer image 3.0 This type of effect tends to be a bit better than it looks. I mean, on his own he is effectively a 3-mana 3/3 in most cases, and you’ll often have other creatures on which you can use the ability that might have more of an impact. At the very least, this seems like a solid playable.
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
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 2 Pick 2: Swarming Goblins
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.
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
Plate Armor image 3.0 This is some pretty solid Equipment. 3 to play and 3 to equip can be a little costly, but the good news is that whatever you put this on is going to become a problem, as +3/+3 is enough to make virtually any creature a lot scarier. Ward 1 is nice too, as it makes the amount of mana you spend on this hurt a little less when they kill your creature. Sometimes you’ll be able to Equip it for less, especially in RW which really likes Equipment.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 2 Pick 3: Grim Bounty
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.
Barrowin of Clan Undurr image 3.5 The ETB trigger here is nice on a 4-mana 3/3, but the real value comes from whether or not you have completed a dungeon, as Barrowin offers you an excellent attack trigger, one that will make it pretty easy for you to get some amazing value out of this card, especially because it Ventured! BW looks pretty good at completing Dungeons too, so I imagine this is in the lower range of first pickable
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
Pack 2 Pick 4: Plundering Barbarian
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
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.
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.
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.
Price of Loyalty image 1.0 // 2.5 Even with the Treasure upside, this probably won’t be worth it for most decks. Threaten effects aren’t amazing in most formats, since they tend to do very little except in two situations. One of these is that you’re able to kill your opponent when you do it, and the other is that you have some sacrifice outlets that make it easy to turn the effect into a removal spell that gives you some value. However, this does look like it might be worth playing in the Black-Red deck, as there is one red Sacrifice effect at Uncommon, two black sacrifice effects at Common, and one at Uncommon, so setting up the sacrifice is actually going to be doable there, making the card a solid playable in a deck that gets its hands on some of those effects.
Ranger's 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.
Eyes of the Beholder image 3.0 It is pretty difficult for a card to be premium removal when it costs 6 mana – unless of course it also draws you a card, like Rise of Extus in Strixhaven. Eye of the Beholder can definitely kill almost everything, but six mana is a whole lot! It is an Instant, which does means sometimes you’ll be able to manufacture some blowouts. I think you’ll always be reasonably happy with the first copy of this, but running more than that is pretty risky.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
Pack 2 Pick 5: Evolving Wilds
Purple Worm image 3.5 Even if you always paid 7 for this, it would be kind of alright, and it will frequently just be 5 mana. Adding Ward to a card like this really matters too, because the big downside with this kind of creature is that your opponent might be able to kill it for very little mana. Now, there’s still a pretty good chance they can kill it for less than 7, but killing it for less than 5 won’t be a common occurrence! This seems like a nice finisher for Green decks
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Arcane Investigator image 2.0 A two mana 2/1 isn’t great these days, but this one does come with a pretty nice late game effect. No matter what you roll, being able to draw cards late is pretty nice. Still, for the bluk of the game, the Investigator is just not very good. It will be outclasses quickly in the early game, and in the mid-game it will be even more useless.
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
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.
Pack 2 Pick 6: Gnoll Hunter
Moon-Blessed Cleric image 3.0 This does a pretty good Heliod’s Pilgrim impression. It can’t tutor the card right to your hand, but it lets you get any kind of Enchantment, not an Aura, and it also comes with better stats for the cost, so I think it will end up playing very similarly to the Pilgrim, who tends to be a pretty nice card to have in most limited formats. Obviously you need some Enchantments to really get it going, but that doesn’t seem like a difficult hurdle.
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.
Gnoll Hunter image 3.0 This is a fine two drop. It is a bear as a baseline, and it can get bigger if it has enough friends. That’s good enough upside for this to be a nice two-drop for Green decks.
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.
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.
+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.
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
Arcane Investigator image 2.0 A two mana 2/1 isn’t great these days, but this one does come with a pretty nice late game effect. No matter what you roll, being able to draw cards late is pretty nice. Still, for the bluk of the game, the Investigator is just not very good. It will be outclasses quickly in the early game, and in the mid-game it will be even more useless.
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 2 Pick 7: Shambling Ghast
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.
Barrowin of Clan Undurr image 3.5 The ETB trigger here is nice on a 4-mana 3/3, but the real value comes from whether or not you have completed a dungeon, as Barrowin offers you an excellent attack trigger, one that will make it pretty easy for you to get some amazing value out of this card, especially because it Ventured! BW looks pretty good at completing Dungeons too, so I imagine this is in the lower range of first pickable
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.
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.
Arcane Investigator image 2.0 A two mana 2/1 isn’t great these days, but this one does come with a pretty nice late game effect. No matter what you roll, being able to draw cards late is pretty nice. Still, for the bluk of the game, the Investigator is just not very good. It will be outclasses quickly in the early game, and in the mid-game it will be even more useless.
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.
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.
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: Kick in the Door
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Bar the Gate image 3.0 This seems like a pretty good counterspell. They always come with big downsides, like how situational they are, and three mana for one is normally not a card you really want to play, but when some additional value is added on to countermagic, it becomes increasingly worth it, and that’s what we have here. Sure, it doesn’t counter everything -- but creatures are the most common thing your opponent will do, so it will often have targets. Venturing into the Dungeon isn’t quite “draw a card” most of the time, but it gets close enough that I’m actually pretty interested in the first copy of this for most Blue decks.
Pack 2 Pick 9: Vampire Spawn
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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 2 Pick 10: Baleful Beholder
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 2 Pick 11: Baleful Beholder
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.
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.
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.
Pack 2 Pick 12: Price of Loyalty
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.
Eyes of the Beholder image 3.0 It is pretty difficult for a card to be premium removal when it costs 6 mana – unless of course it also draws you a card, like Rise of Extus in Strixhaven. Eye of the Beholder can definitely kill almost everything, but six mana is a whole lot! It is an Instant, which does means sometimes you’ll be able to manufacture some blowouts. I think you’ll always be reasonably happy with the first copy of this, but running more than that is pretty risky.
Silver Raven image 1.5 One mana 1/1 flyers don’t tend to be very impressive in most Limited formats unless they have a lot going on. And, while Scry 1 is a little more than nothing, it isn’t that good, either. It does mean it still does a thing in the late game, and improving your draws matters, but yeah, this is pretty mediocre overall. If the set had more of an Artifact theme it would be better, but it just isn’t there.
Pack 2 Pick 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.
Arcane Investigator image 2.0 A two mana 2/1 isn’t great these days, but this one does come with a pretty nice late game effect. No matter what you roll, being able to draw cards late is pretty nice. Still, for the bluk of the game, the Investigator is just not very good. It will be outclasses quickly in the early game, and in the mid-game it will be even more useless.
Pack 2 Pick 14: Deadly Dispute
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 1: Death-Priest of Myrkul
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
Gretchen Titchwillow image 3.5 That stat-line is a passable one for a defensive creature that does something else, and Gretchen definitely does, supplying you with a very powerful mana sink ability that will be a life saver in the late game. The extra land part of the card won’t always matter, since most of the time when you start using this ability you’re probably not going to be in desperate need of more lands, but it could definitely help, especially in UG, which is a ramp color pair as it often is.
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!
You Happen On a Glade image 3.0 I like this. It gives Green decks some really good fixing -- and that’s the option that will feel worthwhile the most often. However, one eventually reaches a stage in a game where top decking a fixing spell like this isn’t what you want to be doing, and by that stage of the game you probably have something in your graveyard yo’ud love to get back. I don’t really see myself cutting the first copy of this in most Green decks, especially if I’m splashing or 3 colors
Arborea Pegasus image 3.0 This is a pretty good Common. The ETB trigger will almost always enable an attack you didn’t have before, and that means that the Pegasus will have an immediate impact on the board, in addition to being a 4-mana 2/3 Flyer itself.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 3 Pick 2: Xorn
Xorn image 3.0 This has passable stats, and its ability to multiply treasure will definitely come up sometimes, especially in the Black Red deck. However, I wouldn’t count on that always coming up.
Trickster's Talisman image 3.0 This gives a decent stats boost for the cost, and the option to give up the Talisman to copy a creature is going to be pretty busted sometimes
Check for Traps image 2.0 This kind of discard spell is usually worth playing in Limited. The fact it can hit anything is a pretty big deal, and means it has utility pretty much all game long. The additional instant/flash upside can even matter a little bit!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
Sepulcher Ghoul image 2.5 This has passable base stats, and on most attacks it will be able to threaten becoming a 4/3, so your opponent will have to take that into account. Free sacrifice effects like this always play pretty well since you can virtually always use the effect, though in this case, you can only do it once. It looks like the Ghoul is well-positioned for the BG deck especially, since that deck’s all about stuff dying, and it will also pair nicely in BR, where you can use the Threaten effect to steal a creature and sacrifice it. I think all of that helps makes this two mana 2/1 a card you play a significant chunk of the time in Black.
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 3 Pick 3: Hobgoblin Captain
Ingenious Smith image 3.0 This set has a decent number of Artifacts in it., so the ETB ability will probably draw you a card like half the time in a typical White deck. The other part of the card, However, does count Treasure, and while Treasure is more concentrated in other colors than White, it is all over the set, so it growing from Treasure is a very real possibility.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You Hear Something on Watch image 3.0 This seems like a pretty nice Common. Sure, the removal effect only works on attackers, so if you’re the beat down it won’t feel great -- but the good news is if you are the beat down, you’re probably interested in the other mode, since it pays you off pretty well for going wide. The removal is too situational to be premium, but it will kill lots of attackers, and having the board pump effect as an option is pretty nice.
Arcane Investigator image 2.0 A two mana 2/1 isn’t great these days, but this one does come with a pretty nice late game effect. No matter what you roll, being able to draw cards late is pretty nice. Still, for the bluk of the game, the Investigator is just not very good. It will be outclasses quickly in the early game, and in the mid-game it will be even more useless.
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.
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.
Pack 3 Pick 4: Swarming Goblins
Moon-Blessed Cleric image 3.0 This does a pretty good Heliod’s Pilgrim impression. It can’t tutor the card right to your hand, but it lets you get any kind of Enchantment, not an Aura, and it also comes with better stats for the cost, so I think it will end up playing very similarly to the Pilgrim, who tends to be a pretty nice card to have in most limited formats. Obviously you need some Enchantments to really get it going, but that doesn’t seem like a difficult hurdle.
Targ Nar, Demon-Fang Gnoll image 3.0 This is the signpost uncommon for RG, a color pair that is all about Pack Tactics. Targ comes with its own Pack Tactics ability, and its one that is pretty nice, though not incredible. However, because he has the ability to double his own power, he can make Pack Tactics happen pretty easily, and him attacking with just a couple of other creatures can be a real problem. Still, right now at least, I think that this signpost Uncommon falls a little bit short of being one you want to take with a super early pick. It doesn’t seem like the kind of card that will take over games often enough.
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
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
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.
Sepulcher Ghoul image 2.5 This has passable base stats, and on most attacks it will be able to threaten becoming a 4/3, so your opponent will have to take that into account. Free sacrifice effects like this always play pretty well since you can virtually always use the effect, though in this case, you can only do it once. It looks like the Ghoul is well-positioned for the BG deck especially, since that deck’s all about stuff dying, and it will also pair nicely in BR, where you can use the Threaten effect to steal a creature and sacrifice it. I think all of that helps makes this two mana 2/1 a card you play a significant chunk of the time in Black.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 5: Precipitous Drop
Choose Your Weapon image 2.5 Both options here are super underwhelming, and will only be useful and efficient in some very specific situations. But, like with all of these cards, putting two situational effects together really does make for a significantly better card, as the situations where you can use that card are drastically increased, even with a card that has two incredibly situational options. Sometimes you’ll find yourself doing lethal with “Two-Weapon Fighting” and sometimes you’ll find yourself killing an opposing Flyer fairly efficiently. I think that makes this a solid card.
Barrowin of Clan Undurr image 3.5 The ETB trigger here is nice on a 4-mana 3/3, but the real value comes from whether or not you have completed a dungeon, as Barrowin offers you an excellent attack trigger, one that will make it pretty easy for you to get some amazing value out of this card, especially because it Ventured! BW looks pretty good at completing Dungeons too, so I imagine this is in the lower range of first pickable
Hama Pashar, Ruin Seeker image 3.5 UW is all about Dungeons, especially triggering them with ETB abilities, and getting two triggers out of dungeon rooms is pretty powerful. Hama is definitely small for the cost, but I don’t see it being very difficult to get a ton of value out of her
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.
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.
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
Shocking Grasp image 1.5 The effect here isn’t very exciting. This Blue “combat tricks” really need your board to already have something big enough to deal with an attacking creature, or to blow up a block, and that really makes them pretty unimpressive. Obviously, adding a cantrip to the card does it make it better, because it means that at worse, you’re going to be able to Cycle this, but it still isn’t something that will make the cut in your deck all that often.
Arborea Pegasus image 3.0 This is a pretty good Common. The ETB trigger will almost always enable an attack you didn’t have before, and that means that the Pegasus will have an immediate impact on the board, in addition to being a 4-mana 2/3 Flyer itself.
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.
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 3 Pick 6: Lightfoot Rogue
Intrepid Outlander image 3.5 This starts out with nice base stats. Reach tends to perform pretty well in Limited, especially in colors that don’t have that much access to Green, and obviously the Pack Tactics trigger here is quite powerful. Venturing into Dungeons is going to be the source of a ton of value in this format, and Intrepid Outlander can help you do it sometimes
Lightfoot Rogue image 2.5 This is a solid two-drop, though not an overly impressive one for an Uncommon. What you get out of a roll 1-10 and 11-19 really isn’t that different in most scenarios, but it is nice that this gains death touch when it attacks, meaning that your opponent has to give something up to kill it. Unfortunately, the format seems to have enough 1/1 tokens lying around that that isn’t that impressive. Obviously rolling a 20 with it will make it super amazing, but it won’t do that most of the time. It also has the very real downside of not having death touch on defense. One of the nice things about death touch is how good it is both attacking and blocking, but you don’t really get that upside here.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
Sepulcher Ghoul image 2.5 This has passable base stats, and on most attacks it will be able to threaten becoming a 4/3, so your opponent will have to take that into account. Free sacrifice effects like this always play pretty well since you can virtually always use the effect, though in this case, you can only do it once. It looks like the Ghoul is well-positioned for the BG deck especially, since that deck’s all about stuff dying, and it will also pair nicely in BR, where you can use the Threaten effect to steal a creature and sacrifice it. I think all of that helps makes this two mana 2/1 a card you play a significant chunk of the time in Black.
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.
Pack 3 Pick 7: Death-Priest of Myrkul
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!
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.
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.
Leather Armor image 0.5 This probably isn’t worth playing. Its cool that it equips for free, but the bonus it gives is negligible enough to not be worth a card in most scenarios. If you end up with a deck with a crazy amount of Equipment payoffs, which RW might have, MAYBE you end up playing it, but that’s probably the only time you do
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.
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.
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
Ranger's Longbow image 1.5 This gives a reasonable boost and key word for the cost, though it isn’t anything special.
Pack 3 Pick 8: Barbarian Class
Barbarian Class image 1.0 // 3.0 The base level of this one probably wouldn’t be worth it all on its own, even with all the d20 stuff in the set. It just won’t create a different outcome all that often, though obviously it does make those d20 cards better. Once you add level two, you are getting a very real payoff for rolling dice, as +2/+0 and Menace is a pretty big deal, and then Level 3 adding Haste to the mix -- regardless of Dice being rolled, seems nice. So, how good would this be if you just paid 6 up front for all of this? Well, not amazing, but paying it in installments is obviously better. Still, I think your deck will be dependent enough on having dice effects that this won’t really work in every deck, and even when it does I don’t see it being amazing. Because it is so dependent on dice, I think this needs a buildaround grade, because in your Average red deck with like 3-4 dice effects, it probably isn’t worth it. You probably need 7+ to get there.
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.
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.
Sepulcher Ghoul image 2.5 This has passable base stats, and on most attacks it will be able to threaten becoming a 4/3, so your opponent will have to take that into account. Free sacrifice effects like this always play pretty well since you can virtually always use the effect, though in this case, you can only do it once. It looks like the Ghoul is well-positioned for the BG deck especially, since that deck’s all about stuff dying, and it will also pair nicely in BR, where you can use the Threaten effect to steal a creature and sacrifice it. I think all of that helps makes this two mana 2/1 a card you play a significant chunk of the time in Black.
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
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.
Bar the Gate image 3.0 This seems like a pretty good counterspell. They always come with big downsides, like how situational they are, and three mana for one is normally not a card you really want to play, but when some additional value is added on to countermagic, it becomes increasingly worth it, and that’s what we have here. Sure, it doesn’t counter everything -- but creatures are the most common thing your opponent will do, so it will often have targets. Venturing into the Dungeon isn’t quite “draw a card” most of the time, but it gets close enough that I’m actually pretty interested in the first copy of this for most Blue decks.
Pack 3 Pick 9: Baleful Beholder
Gretchen Titchwillow image 3.5 That stat-line is a passable one for a defensive creature that does something else, and Gretchen definitely does, supplying you with a very powerful mana sink ability that will be a life saver in the late game. The extra land part of the card won’t always matter, since most of the time when you start using this ability you’re probably not going to be in desperate need of more lands, but it could definitely help, especially in UG, which is a ramp color pair as it often is.
You Happen On a Glade image 3.0 I like this. It gives Green decks some really good fixing -- and that’s the option that will feel worthwhile the most often. However, one eventually reaches a stage in a game where top decking a fixing spell like this isn’t what you want to be doing, and by that stage of the game you probably have something in your graveyard yo’ud love to get back. I don’t really see myself cutting the first copy of this in most Green decks, especially if I’m splashing or 3 colors
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.
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
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.
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.
Pack 3 Pick 10: Hired Hexblade
Check for Traps image 2.0 This kind of discard spell is usually worth playing in Limited. The fact it can hit anything is a pretty big deal, and means it has utility pretty much all game long. The additional instant/flash upside can even matter a little bit!
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.
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.
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
Sepulcher Ghoul image 2.5 This has passable base stats, and on most attacks it will be able to threaten becoming a 4/3, so your opponent will have to take that into account. Free sacrifice effects like this always play pretty well since you can virtually always use the effect, though in this case, you can only do it once. It looks like the Ghoul is well-positioned for the BG deck especially, since that deck’s all about stuff dying, and it will also pair nicely in BR, where you can use the Threaten effect to steal a creature and sacrifice it. I think all of that helps makes this two mana 2/1 a card you play a significant chunk of the time in Black.
Pack 3 Pick 11: Deadly Dispute
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.
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.
Arcane Investigator image 2.0 A two mana 2/1 isn’t great these days, but this one does come with a pretty nice late game effect. No matter what you roll, being able to draw cards late is pretty nice. Still, for the bluk of the game, the Investigator is just not very good. It will be outclasses quickly in the early game, and in the mid-game it will be even more useless.
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 3 Pick 12: Devour Intellect
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
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.
Clever Conjurer image 2.5 This ability only being Sorcery speed is a bummer, but it is still a pretty useful one to have on a 3-mana ⅔. Notably, it can untap lands for you, helping you ramp. And that’s probably the way you’ll use it the most. This seems like a solid playable.
Pack 3 Pick 13: Vampire Spawn
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
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.
Pack 3 Pick 14: Devour Intellect
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
Draft Pick Overview