Draft Trainer

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Limited Quiz

Answered: 0/20
Accuracy: 0
Promising Vein
Average Picked At: 7.55
Total Times Picked: 51
Average Last Seen At: 6.86
Total Times Seen 328
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: In the Lord of the Rings set, we saw that an Evolving Wilds that can tap for mana, but costs 1 generic to sacrifice, was a pretty big downgrade from a traditional Evolving Wilds. Having to pay one just makes a world of difference. That said, it does have a useful subtype in this set, and that probably means it will be a bit more useful than its predecessor.
Deeproot Pilgrimage
Average Picked At: 3.40
Total Times Picked: 5
Average Last Seen At: 4.57
Total Times Seen 32
Pro Rating: 1.0
Pro Comment: This has the potential to help you go wide in a hurry, that’s for sure. But…I worry a little bit about the many situations where you can’t really effectively tap your merfolk to get it going – and those are definitely going to come up. I’m not sure that it isn’t just better to play some random two mana 2/2 than it is to play this, since you will immediately add to the board if you go the other route, as opposed to this which has you jump through some hoops. So, I’m pretty skeptical about this to start the format
Visage of Dread // Dread Osseosaur
Average Picked At: 5.86
Total Times Picked: 22
Average Last Seen At: 4.53
Total Times Seen 110
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: This will hit a card in your opponent's hand every single time on turn two, and it will often have a card to hit much later than that. It does have the potential of feeling terrible when you wiff, but it makes up for that with the Craft upside, which is likely going to be accessible by the stage of the game when it does wiff. Disrupting the opponent early and getting a big monster late will feel best of course.
Relic's Roar
Average Picked At: 13.05
Total Times Picked: 42
Average Last Seen At: 11.08
Total Times Seen 611
Pro Rating: 0.0
Pro Comment: Normally, if we see this effect without card draw attached, it isn’t playable. This is because the stats boost you get for the cost often isn’t worth it, especially because if your creatures are large enough this doesn’t really offer a boost at all. But at one mana? Well…I still don’t think it’s very good. It’s just too variable as to how much of a boost it actually offers. It’s tempting to imagine buffing a 1/1 with it, because it will feel like a Blue giant growth, but the higher the base stats of your creature is, the worse this gets
Buried Treasure
Average Picked At: 10.61
Total Times Picked: 28
Average Last Seen At: 8.98
Total Times Seen 470
Pro Rating: 1.5
Pro Comment: Paying two mana for a treasure is terrible, but this can at least give you an actual card from out of the graveyard, and that certainly matters in this format, where this is likely to get milled or sacrificed for value. I’m still not sure I really want to be playing this on turn two, basically ever, so maybe you mostly want to mill it. For now, I’m not very interested in this
Waterwind Scout
Average Picked At: 4.21
Total Times Picked: 63
Average Last Seen At: 4.01
Total Times Seen 178
Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: Wind Drake + Map token for three mana seems like a quality Common to me. Explore and artifacts both matter in Blue, and this helps you do both of those. This looks like a pretty good deal
Jadelight Spelunker
Average Picked At: 2.11
Total Times Picked: 9
Average Last Seen At: 2.36
Total Times Seen 11
Pro Rating: 4.5
Pro Comment: I love Explore, and you’re telling me this will let me do it for every mana I have? That’s nuts. It will come down as a large creature that nets you a few cards most of the time, and it’s hard for me to want to say no that. Even playing it on turn two is good, and things really just scale from there. I think that makes it a bomb
Council of Echoes
Average Picked At: 9.17
Total Times Picked: 18
Average Last Seen At: 6.59
Total Times Seen 131
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: When this bounces something, it will feel pretty good. Adding a big flier and subtracting from the opposing board feels great. When this doesn't bounce something…it will feel way inefficient and overcosted. Seems to me getting Descend 4 going by the time you cast this is a reasonable expectation, though
Sage of Days
Average Picked At: 11.42
Total Times Picked: 38
Average Last Seen At: 9.59
Total Times Seen 473
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: This is a nice way to load your graveyard in a hurry, and it isn’t that far from Scry 3 on ETB, which would make for a nice card. The stat-line isn’t good of course, but I think this does the kind of thing you want to be doing in Blue in this format
Pirate Hat
Average Picked At: 10.77
Total Times Picked: 60
Average Last Seen At: 9.81
Total Times Seen 493
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: If you can Equip this for one consistently, it looks pretty solid to me. The stats boost isn’t the best thing ever, but if you’re sticking it on things for 1 mana it will feel plenty good, especially because artifacts and loot triggers are better than normal in this format
Itzquinth, Firstborn of Gishath
Average Picked At: 4.50
Total Times Picked: 18
Average Last Seen At: 4.22
Total Times Seen 73
Pro Rating: 4.5
Pro Comment: A two mana 2/3 with Haste is a great place to start, and this comes with quite the kicker. If you have two extra mana, you get this awesome punch effect. Keep in mind, you have Itzquinth do the damage. If this was always a 4-mana 2/3 with Haste that did two to something, that would be a great Limited card – and this has the flexibility of coming down earlier when that’s better and letting another dinosaur do the damage. Yeah…that’s pretty nuts. This looks like an incredible signpost Uncommon
Guardian of the Great Door
Average Picked At: 4.94
Total Times Picked: 17
Average Last Seen At: 3.94
Total Times Seen 76
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: A two mana 4/4 flyer is nuts, but this obviously takes serious set up, and will never come down on turn two. The good news is, a 4/4 flyer is relevant all game long, and if you play this on like turn five when you also play a three drop, that’s still a pretty great turn. As we’ve already seen, white is definitely able to go wide with tokens of the map and gnome varieties too, so that isn’t far-fetched.
Malamet Veteran
Average Picked At: 11.55
Total Times Picked: 38
Average Last Seen At: 9.83
Total Times Seen 499
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: A 5-mana 5/4 trampler is sort of passable, and the fact that this can hand out +1/+1 counters, including to itself, when you have enough permanents in your graveyard, is pretty nice. Descend 4 is pretty approachable by the time the Veteran comes down too
Volatile Fault
Average Picked At: 10.64
Total Times Picked: 14
Average Last Seen At: 8.04
Total Times Seen 194
Pro Rating: 0.0
Pro Comment: There are many nonbasics in this format, but you still don’t want to run this. Destroying a land and letting your opponent search up any basic and getting it untapped just isn’t worth doing, even with a Treasure token attached.
Unstable Glyphbridge // Sandswirl Wanderglyph
Average Picked At: 1.57
Total Times Picked: 7
Average Last Seen At: 1.60
Total Times Seen 10
Pro Rating: 5.0
Pro Comment: It’s a board sweeper that will almost always allow you to come out way ahead. First, you get to make the choices, so you can give your opponent their worst 2 power or less creature while keeping your best one, and then this can transform into a flying threat that forces them to choose between attacking or casting spells every turn
Oltec Cloud Guard
Average Picked At: 3.47
Total Times Picked: 62
Average Last Seen At: 3.39
Total Times Seen 170
Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: This is a great rate for what you get, especially when you consider artifact synergy.
Rampaging Spiketail
Average Picked At: 8.78
Total Times Picked: 32
Average Last Seen At: 7.37
Total Times Seen 348
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: We recently saw cards with landcycling for two really underperform, but they have some advantages in this format. Like all land cyclers, this has the upside of getting you a land when you draw it early, and being a reasonably relevant card in the later stages of the game. And in this case, the Spiketail is likely to enable a pretty good attack when you cast it. But the extra value of land cyclers comes as a result of this format’s graveyard-heavy theme. Cycling this counts as descending, and it also makes it more likely you get to Descend 4 or 8, and you can also exile it from your graveyard for Craft
Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher
Average Picked At: 6.21
Total Times Picked: 42
Average Last Seen At: 5.06
Total Times Seen 266
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: Two mana for an Edict effect is usually a 2.0 or so in Limited. Good in the early game, not so good later in the game. But this is an artifact that will be great to sacrifice, and obviously the Craft upside is big here too. Once transformed, this creates a life difference of two between you and your opponent during your upkeep, and that makes your opponent’s life very difficult. Crafting this is relatively easy too
Ruin-Lurker Bat
Average Picked At: 3.18
Total Times Picked: 22
Average Last Seen At: 2.71
Total Times Seen 60
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: A one mana 1/1 with these keywords is a nice starting point. Makes it great with equipment and counters and stuff, and when it reaches the stage of the game when it can't rumble, it can help you find meaningful cards.
River Herald Scout
Average Picked At: 8.60
Total Times Picked: 40
Average Last Seen At: 6.95
Total Times Seen 339
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: You would happily play a two mana 2/3 with Surveil one, and you’d happily play a two mana ½ that draws you a card, and you’re getting one of those every time you cast it
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