Average Picked At: 5.40 Total Times Picked: 104 Average Last Seen At: 4.74 Total Times Seen 412
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: The fail case of being a one mana 1/1 is pretty ugly, so you definitely need to be able to do some Mutating to make it worth while. The good news is, there is plenty of Mutate in this set, and when you do get this trigger -- which will frequently let you pick off small creatures, or even larger ones if you do it after combat -- when you do get that trigger it will be pretty nice, and offset some of the risks of Mutating.
Average Picked At: 3.44 Total Times Picked: 87 Average Last Seen At: 3.11 Total Times Seen 262
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: So, by giving a Mutate creature Flash, you open up some very interesting options. For one thing, the mutate trigger here is excellent -- bouncing something at instant speed is huge, especially in this format with Mutate all over the place. You can also Flash it in to make a creature suddenly larger so that it can win combat, in addition to bouncing something else. Then, like all of these, you can potentially trigger the Mutate effect multiple times, and then things will be really silly!
Average Picked At: 12.09 Total Times Picked: 140 Average Last Seen At: 9.79 Total Times Seen 2091
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: Vanilla 3-mana 4/2s will make the cut sometimes, but you kind of hope they don’t.
Average Picked At: 10.26 Total Times Picked: 177 Average Last Seen At: 9.08 Total Times Seen 1973
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This is a decent payoff for going wide with Humans, but don’t expect it to survive that first swing!
Average Picked At: 1.82 Total Times Picked: 39 Average Last Seen At: 1.98 Total Times Seen 66
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: It is nice that you get to make the choice here -- because you can choose whatever is best for you. Most of the time that will let you come out ahead, but board states where the impact is negligible won’t be that uncommon, and it isn’t like you will always have even permanents and your opponent will have odd ones -- in those cases it will be amazing! But it has a pretty random nature to it overall, in the sense that you can’t really determine what CMC creature son the board will have. Still, I think in the end, the fact that you get to make the choice means you will come out ahead most of the time.
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: A 4-mana 4/4 with Reach and Trample is great. Mutate Naturalize is nice too, as is being able to put this on to something to make it a 4/4 and give some extra keyword abilities. I always like being able to run mainboard Artifact and Enchantment hate, and this makes that really easy.
Average Picked At: 11.36 Total Times Picked: 156 Average Last Seen At: 9.46 Total Times Seen 2100
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: This is an interesting Vigilance payoff, and you’ll play it sometimes if you have enough Vigilance, because in those scenarios it gives a big boost for only one mana. You’ll cut this a lot, though.
Average Picked At: 11.93 Total Times Picked: 46 Average Last Seen At: 8.40 Total Times Seen 748
Pro Rating: 0.0 Pro Comment: You need to do way too much to make this work. It just won’t happen.
Average Picked At: 3.87 Total Times Picked: 108 Average Last Seen At: 3.65 Total Times Seen 286
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: Yet another Mutate payoff that helps you get around the potential for a 2-for-1. Like all the Mutate cards, you can kind of look at it as a split card -- it can be a 4-mana 4/4 if that’s what you need -- which is usually a good rate in Limited anyway -- or it make a creature into a 4/4 that gets you a card from the ‘yard. You can also put it UNDER the creature to get the card in a situation where you have a creature bigger than 4/4, but that does seem less ideal mana-wise most of the time. But yeah, Getting any permanet back from your graveyard when this mutates is great. It also has Hybrid mana, so you don’t have to be locked into BG to play it.
Average Picked At: 6.88 Total Times Picked: 58 Average Last Seen At: 5.12 Total Times Seen 458
Pro Rating: 1.5 // 3.5 Pro Comment: So, you probably need at least two instants and sorceries in your graveyard for this to feel like it is worth it, and once you get 3 or more you will really be in business. The fact it exiles stuff isn’t going to be HUGE in this format, but it will matter sometimes. So, the problem with a card like this is usually that it is effectively blank, or almost blank for much of the early game, and that can be a pretty big problem! I also think you really need to be a spell-heavy deck to really take advantage of it, because those decks will make it stop being a blank card more consistently and earlier in most cases. I don’t think it is a foregone conclusion that Red decks will have the necessary 7+ Instants and Sorceries to make Blitz of the Thunder-Raptor make sense, and I think that your average deck that probably has 3-5 instants and sorceries will probably not be getting the best out of it.
Average Picked At: 1.33 Total Times Picked: 43 Average Last Seen At: 1.35 Total Times Seen 52
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: Making Lurrus your companion is not generally a super great idea, since this format tends to be slow and other decks will start doing way more powerful things than you can. The good news is, a 3-mana 3/2 with lifelink that lets you cast cheap stuff from your graveyard is stupid good even if it isn’t your companion!
Average Picked At: 1.89 Total Times Picked: 19 Average Last Seen At: 2.85 Total Times Seen 43
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: Even if your deck doesn’t have a ton of spells, there’s a chance that Rielle could really shine in your deck, and that’s because of her second ability. Keep in mind, when you Cycle, part of the cast of doing so is “Discard a card:” that means that the first time you Cycle each turn with her, you end up drawing two cards. So basically, she is both a spell and Cycling build around -- and the most powerful thing to do would be to be able to take advantage of both of those things, but that won’t always be super easy. However, I do think ending up with a little bit of support for both things is enough too.
Average Picked At: 12.29 Total Times Picked: 147 Average Last Seen At: 10.04 Total Times Seen 2231
Pro Rating: 1.0 Pro Comment: This isn’t great, and is basically only the kind of card you run when you don’t have enough playables. It replaces itself, but the effect it has is really negligible.
Average Picked At: 9.39 Total Times Picked: 202 Average Last Seen At: 8.47 Total Times Seen 1833
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: So, this is Bone Splinters that has flash on occasion. Bone Splinters is never great, but it is passable when you need removal, especially in a deck with lots of expendable bodies. If you can give this Flash it does get significantly better, because then you can do it in response to removal and stuff like that. Still, it isn’t that easy to set that up.
Average Picked At: 14.77 Total Times Picked: 64 Average Last Seen At: 11.02 Total Times Seen 983
Average Picked At: 6.20 Total Times Picked: 205 Average Last Seen At: 6.06 Total Times Seen 1264
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: This is pretty clunky as a 4-mana Sorcery, but it does scale as the game goes on, and can deal with virtually any creature, provided you get some lands in play.
Average Picked At: 7.52 Total Times Picked: 208 Average Last Seen At: 6.43 Total Times Seen 1388
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: This is a mana creature with okay stats, and those always tend to be nice inclusions in Limited Green decks.
Average Picked At: 11.54 Total Times Picked: 147 Average Last Seen At: 9.47 Total Times Seen 2131
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: This is a reprint, and one that would be better in a set that has more of a graveyard theme. In this set, it is mostly just a fine 23rd card, like Tormenting Voice effects often are. It is a nice way to dig deeper into your deck, even if you do have some considerable set up costs in discarding two cards.
Average Picked At: 4.77 Total Times Picked: 223 Average Last Seen At: 4.54 Total Times Seen 951
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: I love herons in real life, and I’m glad this one seems pretty sweet in Limited. A 5-mana ¾ Flyer, which this is on a base level, is somewhat passable. It can serve as a finisher in decks that are really lacking one. But this does more than that, of course, thanks to the Mutate mechanic. If you play it first, it is a ¾ Flyer that might draw you a card later if you mutate on it. If you play it second, you can use it to give a beefier creature Flying and draw a card, or make a smaller creature into a ¾ flyer that draws you a card. That drawn card really helps avoid the 2-for-1 that you are potentially going to be dealing with here.
Average Picked At: 8.96 Total Times Picked: 248 Average Last Seen At: 8.39 Total Times Seen 1785
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: This is a very nice activated ability. Cashing in creatures for cards is always a nice thing to have in Limited, because it isn’t unusual for some of your early creatures to become kind of useless as the game wears on, and this gives you something really nice to do with them -- gaining life and drawing a card is great. Any time those two are put together I’m pretty happy, because the life you gain makes it more likely you’ll be able to use that extra card you drew before you die. You can also use it in response to removal, or on a creature who has been shut down by an Aura. This can also be used to sacrifice creatures who are blocking and would die anyway. A 4-mana 2/4 isn’t even the worst stats ever, and overall this is pretty nice in slower Black decks.