Average Picked At: 6.60 Total Times Picked: 5 Average Last Seen At: 4.85 Total Times Seen 71
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: So, these five gates don’t fix mana for you at all, and coming into play tapped can be a liability, but they mostly make up for that by being capable of drawing you a card in the late game – and the card you draw is always a nonland, and that’s a big deal. There is only one Gate payoff in the set, and it isn’t good.
Average Picked At: 8.25 Total Times Picked: 8 Average Last Seen At: 5.73 Total Times Seen 65
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: 4 mana to draw three is nice and all, but as a sorcery that loses you three life as well, this seems way too clunky. You can’t not add to the board at all while you’re spending four mana, unless the game is getting really long.
Average Picked At: 5.88 Total Times Picked: 34 Average Last Seen At: 5.28 Total Times Seen 172
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This is a Forgotten Realms reprint. It is decent removal – being able to deal with any permanent type is pretty nice. Still, it never really felt premium, since you are giving your opponent back some very real value, especially when you use this early, as it can ramp them into more powerful spells.
Average Picked At: 13.00 Total Times Picked: 1 Average Last Seen At: 10.00 Total Times Seen 11
Average Picked At: 1.00 Total Times Picked: 2 Average Last Seen At: 1.00 Total Times Seen 3
Pro Rating: 4.5 Pro Comment: This is a 6-mana 6/5 Flyer that generates some number of Treasure tokens when it hits your opponent, and that’s pretty awesome. You won’t’ always have something to spend that treasure on, mind you, but mana sinks and card draw spells can make sure you do. It doesn’t take over the game quite as impressively as the White, Black, and Green dragons in this cycle can, since it doesn’t add or improve your board inherently, but it is still a highly efficient creature that will give you a bunch of mana.
Average Picked At: 6.83 Total Times Picked: 6 Average Last Seen At: 4.77 Total Times Seen 45
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: A trick that just gives double strike isn’t usually that impressive, but you can use this pretty happily in the early game just to chip in for more damage, ahead of casting this as an Equipment – that’s not something you want to be doing with a normal double strike. Now, the Equipment here isn’t amazing, I don’t think. Doubling power is pretty nice of course, but it doesn’t make your creature any less vulnerable in combat. Sticking this on something evasive is what you really want to be doing, but if you put it on most things, it does turn that creature into a pretty real threat. I just wish it were a little less clunky. Still, you have two solid cards here and that’s nice.
Average Picked At: 12.40 Total Times Picked: 5 Average Last Seen At: 6.94 Total Times Seen 75
Pro Rating: 1.0 // 3.5 Pro Comment: Artifacts are far from a big theme in the format, but there are enough of them around that this having a target is kind of doable. But I think your typical Blue deck in the format probably has 1-2 Artifacts, and that just..isn’t going to be enough. If you are in UB or UR you will have access to some treasure, but those color pairs still aren’t that into artifacts in general. So…if you end up in a deck that can consistently make this into a 3-mana 1/1 that makes a 3/3 Flyer, you’re going to be super happy, but that deck just won’t happen very often. Drawing this early and not having an artifact to target is going to be an awful feeling.
Average Picked At: 9.04 Total Times Picked: 23 Average Last Seen At: 7.53 Total Times Seen 244
Pro Rating: 1.0 // 3.0 Pro Comment: As usual, the Threaten effect in this set is a build around. There is sacrifice stuff around - Seplucher Ghoul at Common can sacrifice things for free, and if you have cards like that the Provocation will be something you want to play, since you can get rid of their creature permanently and get a bonus on the way there! If you don’t have 3+ ways to sacrifice creatures though, you hope you’re not playing this. It does perpetually force the creature to attack, but that really isn’t going to feel like enough most of the time.
Average Picked At: 11.71 Total Times Picked: 14 Average Last Seen At: 8.36 Total Times Seen 248
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: This is a card that is great in constructed, but much less impressive in Limited. Spending 4 mana and giving up two cards to get back two cards and a couple of treasure just isn’t as impactful. That doesn’t mean this is bad – but it definitely isn’t something you run in all of your Red decks.
Average Picked At: 3.00 Total Times Picked: 1 Average Last Seen At: 1.67 Total Times Seen 3
Pro Rating: 4.5 Pro Comment: This seems pretty good. As long as you are getting two duplicates it will feel worth the mana, and if you can do more than that – which isn’t out of the question – you’ll get even more value, especially because you can put one into play. Now, it is a Sorcery that won’t impact the board right away unless you are paying a total of 7 – or you make a copy of something cheap. One really neat thing here is that it can copy any permanent! But yeah, this is sort of like a card that can make a bunch of clones, meaning it is reliant to what permanents are around, but it will basically always have the ability to copy a couple of things. So yeah, I think even as clunky as this can be sometimes, this is probably a bomb. Just imagine paying 5 for this, getting copies of the three best creatures – provided you get to your next turn, going to be hard for you to lose!
Average Picked At: 1.67 Total Times Picked: 6 Average Last Seen At: 1.67 Total Times Seen 6
Pro Rating: 5.0 Pro Comment: Well, this is strong. Even if your deck has 0 other Demons, Devils, Imps, or Tieflings, you get a 5-mana 4/4 Flyer that gives you a 1/1 Devil on your end step if you had a creature enter the graveyard. And, with Raphael in play, it will be a 2/2 with lifelink! Those devil tokens are always really pesky, and that’s going to be the case here. Chances are good your deck has several more creatures with those types too. That creature can go to the graveyard by any means – whether it is milled there, or one of your creatures dies.
Average Picked At: 2.75 Total Times Picked: 4 Average Last Seen At: 2.57 Total Times Seen 7
Pro Rating: 4.5 Pro Comment: Even if Wilson didn’t have Specialize, he would be a 3.0 at worst, as he is just a great French Vanilla creature. Then, once he transforms, in most of his forms he gains an additional keyword, he gets bigger, and he gains an ability he can use from the graveyard, and all of those effects ar epretty darn good. I think this is an A-.
Average Picked At: 6.56 Total Times Picked: 43 Average Last Seen At: 6.43 Total Times Seen 205
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This looks like it will be a nice common here, just as it was in Forgotten Realms. +1/+0 doesn’t sound like a lot, but you’d be surprised how often that boost can alter your attacks. It can even pump itself, so it is basically a 3-mana 3/3 if that’s what you need.
Average Picked At: 3.33 Total Times Picked: 9 Average Last Seen At: 3.56 Total Times Seen 38
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: We see this effect a lot, and it is usually worth playing in your main deck, though not terribly exciting. Most decks have targets for a removal spell like this, but not so many you can look at this as premium, even with Scry 2 attached. Still, the first copy seems pretty solid.
Average Picked At: 7.43 Total Times Picked: 23 Average Last Seen At: 5.88 Total Times Seen 188
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: We have seen a lot of one mana 1/1s that can tap and give haste to things, and they tend to be pretty decent. This is obviously an upgrade, because you don’t actually have to cast your creature for it to get the Haste – you can use this during your opponents end step and then cast the Haste creature on your turn, for example. Plus, the creature will keep haste no matter where it goes! It still isn’t amazing or anything, but seems like a fine one drop for aggressive Red decks.
Average Picked At: 9.93 Total Times Picked: 30 Average Last Seen At: 8.32 Total Times Seen 277
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: This was not particularly good in Forgotten Realms. You spend a lot of mana for a mediocre removal spell, and even getting the treasure back isn’t enough.
Average Picked At: 4.71 Total Times Picked: 7 Average Last Seen At: 4.90 Total Times Seen 57
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: So, Blue/Red is into both Dragons and Adventures, and boy – this is a super powerful payoff for both. A 5-mana 4/2 Flyer is actually a solid stat-line, so the fact it staples removal spells to your Dragons and Adventures is pretty insane. It also helps that there are two dragons in the format that are common that ALSO have adventures. So casting either half of those is amazing, and casting both will be close to unbeatable.
Average Picked At: 3.33 Total Times Picked: 9 Average Last Seen At: 2.92 Total Times Seen 31
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This was really nice in Forgotten Realms, and it will be here too! Gaining the life is a big deal, especially in Green/White, and the fact that it ramps and fixes for you is great.
Average Picked At: 7.86 Total Times Picked: 7 Average Last Seen At: 5.26 Total Times Seen 56
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: So, these five gates don’t fix mana for you at all, and coming into play tapped can be a liability, but they mostly make up for that by being capable of drawing you a card in the late game – and the card you draw is always a nonland, and that’s a big deal. There is only one Gate payoff in the set, and it isn’t good.
Average Picked At: 5.95 Total Times Picked: 22 Average Last Seen At: 5.89 Total Times Seen 184
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: In Forgotten Realms, if you were in Green, you really needed one of these to help you stabilize against the formats aggro decks, and it did a pretty darn good job between its size and the life gain effect. It will likely fill a similar role in Green decks int his format. All of these big ol’ green creatures that gain you life have been pretty solid in recent formats, and I think that’s true here.