Average Picked At: 3.22 Total Times Picked: 9 Average Last Seen At: 3.31 Total Times Seen 16
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: UR in this format has a focus on drawing extra cards, and the Pyromancer is probably the best payoff for it in the entire format. Lightning Bolting something every time you draw that second card is incredible, and even just doing it once will be solid -- doing it more than that and you’re really going to be in business. Because there are other payoffs for drawing extra cards in this format, I don’t think it will be that hard to construct a deck that can abuse the Pyromancer in Limited.
Average Picked At: 5.00 Total Times Picked: 2 Average Last Seen At: 3.25 Total Times Seen 8
Pro Rating: 2.5 // 4.5 Pro Comment: This reminds me a lot of Serpentine Strike from Battle for Zendikar. Sure, it costs 7 mana, but it gives you 7 mana worth of value, since 7 damage divided around is going to usually be enough for a nice 2-for-1, and will sometimes be able to do even more than that. The fact it can also go to the face is great too, as 7 damage is no joke, and can sometimes just end a game. Obviously, if you’re playing mono-red it is completely absurd, and becomes a complete and utter bomb, since 7 damage to three things is insane. Still, funny thing about it is that it is probably also worth splashing just for the divided 7 damage.
Average Picked At: 6.13 Total Times Picked: 15 Average Last Seen At: 5.51 Total Times Seen 73
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: Wind Drake is usually pretty decent in most formats, and that’s what you get when you cast the creature side of ithis Obviously though, the Adventure part adds some significant upside. You are going to need artifacts in your deck to make this be at its best, but that won’t be all that hard thanks to Food. Three mana to make a food token into a 4/4 is pretty nice, especially because if you go that route, you also have the Wind Drake part of the card to cast on a future turn. This card is nice because you can take it and you know you’ll play it, even if you have 0 artifacts, and if you do end up with them, it gets some nice additional value.
Average Picked At: 1.25 Total Times Picked: 4 Average Last Seen At: 1.25 Total Times Seen 4
Pro Rating: 5.0 Pro Comment: Garruk is a huge bomb. Even if all he was a 6-mana sorcery that destroyed a creature and drew you a card, we would be talking about a good card, but he’s much more than that! He can crank out wolf tokens who protect him in two different ways – being able to block, and raising his loyalty – he is just going to take over games between killing stuff and making tokens. His ultimate might not always be easy to get to, since he can only raise his Loyalty with the death of his Wolf tokens, but even if you never get to use it, he’s going to be a stone cold bomb.
Average Picked At: 12.18 Total Times Picked: 33 Average Last Seen At: 10.31 Total Times Seen 382
Pro Rating: 0.5 Pro Comment: This is mostly just sideboard hate to bring in against someone who has a lot of flyers.
Average Picked At: 10.39 Total Times Picked: 36 Average Last Seen At: 8.72 Total Times Seen 338
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: Two mana 2/1s are barely playable these days, but this has a useful creature type and it can pump its power, which is enough to make it a reasonable inclusion in some decks.
Average Picked At: 3.61 Total Times Picked: 18 Average Last Seen At: 3.39 Total Times Seen 37
Pro Rating: 1.0 // 4.0 Pro Comment: This card is all about one thing: Adventuring, and it is a dang good payoff for it. I think it won’t be all that difficult to get 4-5 cards with Adventure, and if you have that, you probably want to play this. However, if you really get there on creatures who can Adventure, this is going to be an insane value engine. He might be fragile as a 1/1, but I think even drawing one card off of this makes it worth it, and if you really get going, he is just going to win you the game.
Average Picked At: 3.00 Total Times Picked: 4 Average Last Seen At: 2.06 Total Times Seen 16
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: One of these effects will always be useful, they’re all pretty good in the right situation. It is still just a 2 mana 2/2, but one that lets you smooth out your draws, gains you some life, or lets you blink a creature for some value is pretty nice.
Average Picked At: 9.12 Total Times Picked: 8 Average Last Seen At: 7.25 Total Times Seen 115
Pro Rating: 0.5 Pro Comment: I think a lot of people will see the one mana for +7/+7 here and overrate this. That is indeed a huge stats boost, but the fact that it only works on blocked creatures is a huge limitation. Combat tricks are usually used the most by aggressive players, this one wants you to be defensive. I think I’m going to avoid playing this most of the time, just because you can’t guarantee it will always be useful – there are plenty of games where being defensive never really makes sense.
Average Picked At: 1.00 Total Times Picked: 3 Average Last Seen At: 1.20 Total Times Seen 5
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: So, a 4-mana 4/4 with Vigilance, Deathtouch and Haste is amazing on the Vanilla test alone. This also can’t be blocked by small creatures which is pretty nice. The other parts of the card won’t come up often in Limited – there aren’t many ways to prevent damage, and there aren’t many planeswalkers – so that text doesn’t mean much for us. There will be common creatures in this format that can just block and trade with it, or worse just straight up win combat – but even then, this can trade with anything, it can attack and hang back and block, and it can attack right away – that’s a powerful combination.
Average Picked At: 6.87 Total Times Picked: 47 Average Last Seen At: 6.18 Total Times Seen 211
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: I’m never a big fan of Cancel variants, unless they bring something big to the table. The good news for Didn’t Say Please is that there is a legit mill deck in this format, so its effect is actually kind of useful. The problem with a 3 mana counter spell is that you find yourself having to leave up a considerably percentage of your mana to be able to use it. I think sometimes people make the mistake of thinking of a counterspell like a removal spell, but in a lot of ways, they are worse, at least in Limited. This is because you have a smaller window to use this card where it will actually get rid of something -- you HAVE to have the mana up when they play whatever it is you want to get rid of. With removal spells, it doesn’t matter when you cast it, so you have a much wider window to use them. This means that top-decking removal tends to be way better, for example. You’ll play this in your controlling mill decks, but not anywhere else.
Average Picked At: 5.77 Total Times Picked: 13 Average Last Seen At: 4.95 Total Times Seen 58
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: A one mana 2/1 with some upside is nice, mostly because it can trade up with lots of creatures, even those with mana costs of 3 or 4, and it attacks really well early. This comes with some additional value too, since it can put a +1/+1 counter on another Knight when it dies. That’s a pretty solid package.
Average Picked At: 8.87 Total Times Picked: 15 Average Last Seen At: 7.20 Total Times Seen 102
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: A 3-mana Mana Leak is close to unplayable in Limited. Having to leave up 3 mana for a counterspell is a big ask, especially when your counter isn’t a hard counter. The later the game goes, the weaker something like this gets, and it is way easier to play around this type of counterspell than a hard counter. Still, I think you can get away with mainboarding this, because a one-mana Mana Leak is pretty solid, and that’s what it will be sometimes. I think in an ideal world it starts in your sideboard, though.
Average Picked At: 7.50 Total Times Picked: 8 Average Last Seen At: 5.90 Total Times Seen 35
Pro Rating: 0.0 Pro Comment: Tutor effects can already be too clunky for Limited, but this one is actually pretty efficient and gets you multiple cards -- but the fact that you don’t even get to do it all three times is what really ruins this card for me. Sure, chances are, you’ll get to get 2 cards with it and your opponent will get one – so maybe you come out ahead, but if your opponent has a huge bomb you just handed it to them. I don’t think I want to play this card in the format at all.
Average Picked At: 3.10 Total Times Picked: 10 Average Last Seen At: 2.72 Total Times Seen 31
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: This is an excellent removal spell, we have had many 3 mana do 3 damage instants over the years, and they are always premium removal. This comes with the added bonus of the Adamant mechanic, which if you can pull it off, make sit so this can do 4 damage instead, and that’s pretty nice.
Average Picked At: 6.38 Total Times Picked: 34 Average Last Seen At: 5.83 Total Times Seen 195
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: This is a nice removal spell for Blue decks. This has all the problems Aura-based removal tends to have of course -- bounce spells and sacrifice effects make it look pretty bad, and it doesn’t turn off static abilities.
Average Picked At: 3.65 Total Times Picked: 37 Average Last Seen At: 3.15 Total Times Seen 106
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: This is a premium. 4 mana instant speed removal is already in the premium range, and the fact that this makes a Food token is some nice additional value. You can use that token to gain some life on a later turn, or use it with a card that takes advantage of the tokens in some other way.
Average Picked At: 8.40 Total Times Picked: 20 Average Last Seen At: 7.12 Total Times Seen 246
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: 4-mana for a 3/2 with Menace isn’t a great rate but is almost passable. Obviousy, though, this comes with additional upside thanks to Adamant – and a 4-mana 4/3 with Menace is some serious business.
Average Picked At: 6.50 Total Times Picked: 12 Average Last Seen At: 5.45 Total Times Seen 81
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: Everything this does, it does super efficiently. Two mana 2/2 flyer is good, two mana mana dork also good – it can win you games attacking in the air, or by helping you ramp out fatties.
Average Picked At: 4.27 Total Times Picked: 11 Average Last Seen At: 4.55 Total Times Seen 66
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: It isn’t that hard to end up in a RG deck where Grumgully just pumps most of your creatures, and when you do, she is a pretty awesome value engine.