Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: All the cards with Cycling in this set are way better than they look. They are functionally split cards that you can just cycle when what they do doesn’t matter. Plus, if you’re in RW you’re really looking for a critical mass of these and will just jam all of them into your deck. And..yeah, sometimes this effect doesn’t matter, since you need to be going wide. But you can just cycle it away! Then, when it does matter, it will feel pretty great.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: Like the other Ultimatums, this is easier to cast than it looks. This is maybe the weakest of the cycle for Limited, since the others are powerful cards all on their own, and Emergent Ultimatum asks you to have some other sweet stuff going on to really excel, but it is still great.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: So, the static ability will come up sometimes in this format, but it won’t be a regular occurence, so I think looking at Kinnan independent of that is the thing to do. Without that, he is a Grizzly bear with an expensive, albeit powerful, activated ability. It is a great mana sink for late in the game, and yeah -- if you have some mana sources that can get doubled, you’ll get there even faster.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: So, a 4-mana Sorcery that divides 5 damage is already something I am very much in on. Sure, it can’t hit players, but I don’t care, that is an effect that isn’t too hard to get a 2-for-1 out of, and sometimes you can do even better than that! Then, if you’re Jeskai, you get a nice additional effect -- one that will probably lead to you using the card differently. Instead of killing stuff, you’ll probably just make it so 5 things can’t attack or block, since that is often just going to be lethal depending on the board state. So, either mode of this card is really powerful, and it is very good even if you don’t go the Jeskai wrote.

Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: This is some decent stats for three mana, especially because with Vigilance, he will often be able to attack on boards where he also happens to be a good blocker, and Vigilance lets him do both.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: This is a nice spell payoff that can big in a hurry, which feels good when you have Trample along for the ride.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: The ideal thing you want to do is play this for the Mutate cost, since it gives you a discount on the card and gives you the powerful Mutate trigger -- tapping down one of your opponent’s creatures for a turn is no joke, especially because if you put the Archipelagore on to something that was on the battlefield the previous turn (which is likely) it can get in there and rumble right away! Obviously, the more it mutates, the more tapping you get to do, and that’s awesome. And yeah, doesn’t hurt that if you have this and no creatures, you can at least pay 7 mana for a 7/7 with some Mutate upside.

Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: So, Edict effects may be extra good in a format with Mutate, since people will more frequently not be going wide as a result. But Edict effects can really let you down by the later part of the game -- like turn 5 when you play this. It can also have a nice effect -- but I mean, is making a creature into a 4/6 for 5 mana, while making your opponent sac something really that great? I don’t think it is. Making your opponent lose their worst creature is pretty close to irrelevant on many boards by that point. Sure, if you stack Mutating it gets sillier, but I’m still not in love with this one.

Pro Rating: 2.5 // 3.5
Pro Comment: Four mana to get two permanents back from your graveyard is pretty nice on its own. The Sultai upside also lets you tutor up a card with it, and that’s pretty nice.

Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: As a ½, it can block the human tokens in this set, and with the death ability it has, it creates a 4 point swing in life. That’s not insignificant. This is not a bad thing to sacrifice to various effects, nor is it a bad thing to mutate on to. But it isn’t exactly amazing in either of those cases either.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: Another card upgraded considerably by cycling. Giving your opponent’s team -1/-1 until end of turn will sometimes have a big impact, either cause it kills their X/1s outright, or you can use it to really mess up combat for your opponent. But about half the time, and maybe more, it doesn’t do anything significant, and that’s when you can Cycle it.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This guy is interesting. Obviously he isn’t so good in the early game, since you are unlikely to have creatures in your graveyard, but by the time you can get even one in there, he is still not a bad play as a two mana 2/2, especially because in the late game he can help you tutor up the best creatures in your deck -- assuming you’re willing to lose a creature in the process. And hey, the creature you lose will actually make the Artisan even bigger! And in theory, the Artisan will just get bigger and bigger as the game goes on anyway.

Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: If you can set this up reliably to get two cards back from your graveyard, it is a decent thing to have a singleton copy of, since in the late game it can really pull you ahead.

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: 2.5
Pro Comment: It isn’t exciting, but a 6-mana 6/6 that gains you 4 life can go a long way towards helping you stabilize against more aggressive decks.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: A three-mana ⅔ with Reach is usually playable, and this has good mutate upside. You can use it to lend reach to a creature who really needs it, if you are mutating it and putting it underneath a big creature, but the more valuable option will usually be to Mutate with this on top, since it will be a ⅘ who also gains the abilities of whatever is underneath it.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: Triomes are really nice, giving you three colors of mana AND being cyclable.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: A 3 mana 3/3 that gains a random keyword ability or +1/+1 counter each combat is pretty nice. I also like that it makes sure it doesn’t ever give you double of the key word counters, which would obviously be useless. So, if left out long enough the Giant becomes a 4/4 with all those keyword abilities -- that isn’t ultra likely or anything, but just getting more and more powerful every turn seems is great! And it is colorless, so you know you’ll get to play this 100% of the time.