Average Picked At: 9.39 Total Times Picked: 41 Average Last Seen At: 7.70 Total Times Seen 432
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: This trick isn’t that likely to help your creature win combat, but it does blank an attack and gain you some life at worst, and the fact it blanks most removal isn’t too bad either. Add Amass to the mix and I think you have a card that makes the cut in your deck sometimes, but for a trick to really be worthwhile it does need to be more useful in combat than this is
Average Picked At: 3.44 Total Times Picked: 9 Average Last Seen At: 2.58 Total Times Seen 19
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: Chapter I won’t always have a target – but at least you get tempted by the ring, Chapter II isn’t always meaningful, and Chapter III is likely to draw you at least two cards. I think if you get to steal something with Chapter I, and you’re in a spot to take advantage of stunning a couple of creatures, this will feel pretty good, but there are definitely going to be situations where this is too slow and doesn’t impact the board enough. In the end, you get great value for your mana investment.
Average Picked At: 10.69 Total Times Picked: 16 Average Last Seen At: 7.05 Total Times Seen 179
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: It is a little sad that they chose this card to represent such an epic moment, because it is mediocre at best. Even in a set with lots of legendaries, this sort of removal spell tends to just be too narrow, even at one mana! This set has lots of legendaries, and making your creature into a ring-bearer also makes it legendary, but you still can’t always count on having one around, and even when you do, setting up an advantageous situation where this actually does something can be a challenge.
Average Picked At: 1.33 Total Times Picked: 3 Average Last Seen At: 1.33 Total Times Seen 3
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: Scry 2 on every end step is a pretty decent effect, though getting it out of a card that doesn’t really impact the board is less than ideal, and overall I think maybe the Palantir is just too slow to be great. The first couple turns when your opponent goes with the mill option it will likely do very little, and then once they can’t safely choose that option anymore they are likely to give you cards, but you also have to be pressuring your opponent in some way for them to be that concerned about their life total. It definitely has an impressive ceiling as a value engine, but it will take too many turns to start doing something meaningful to be great.
Average Picked At: 5.44 Total Times Picked: 66 Average Last Seen At: 5.26 Total Times Seen 291
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This is a strictly better Essence Scatter, and Essence Scatter is always decent in Limited. It is cheap and counters the most common type of spell in your typical game.
Average Picked At: 2.89 Total Times Picked: 9 Average Last Seen At: 2.52 Total Times Seen 28
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: A two mana 2/2 with Vigilance and Ward 1 isn’t a bad starting point, and Pippin comes with a heck of an ability! Protection from an entire card type is pretty great, and means that Pippin can not only help your creatures dodge removal, he can also make your creatures unblockable in the right situation. Of course, he can’t use his ability on himself, so most of the time your opponent will prioritize getting rid of him, but at least Ward 1 makes that a little bit more challenging. Still, the fail case here is a nice card, and the ability to protect stuff is quite good
Average Picked At: 2.33 Total Times Picked: 6 Average Last Seen At: 2.11 Total Times Seen 9
Pro Rating: 5.0 Pro Comment: Unsurprisingly, Sauron is incredibly strong. Even just finding a way to target him is going to be a challenge, even in a set that is this legendary-heavy, and even if you can pay the Ward cost you’re still 2-for-1ing yourself at the very least. In fact, its even worse, since you get to Amass before Sauron dies! Add in the fact that this can give you value from the One Ring and it can reload your hand, and we’re definitely talking about a bomb
Average Picked At: 3.58 Total Times Picked: 26 Average Last Seen At: 3.36 Total Times Seen 72
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: Even if you don’t think about the Threaten effect, a three mana 1/1 that makes a 2/2, or alternatively puts 2 counters on an Army you already have is a pretty nice rate. With the threaten effect in the mix it gets even better, especially if you’re in Black/Red and you have some cheap sacrifice outlets
Average Picked At: 10.11 Total Times Picked: 37 Average Last Seen At: 8.45 Total Times Seen 490
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: A 4-mana ¾ Menace isn’t the worst stat-line, and this will be a 4/4 sometimes
Average Picked At: 6.68 Total Times Picked: 60 Average Last Seen At: 6.06 Total Times Seen 317
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: Giving up a real creature for this is not very good, as you end up 2-for-1ing yourself, but if you have a treasure or food, or expendable body to sacrifice, this will do a decent job. Its nice that it can go after the opponent, and that will sometimes close out games. Still, it takes enough set up to actually be worthwhile that you’re not always going to play it
Average Picked At: 6.17 Total Times Picked: 29 Average Last Seen At: 5.50 Total Times Seen 106
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: There are many ways to make tokens in this set, and lots of Food and Food payoffs, so Peregrin’s ability to give you more Food and cash in that food for cards is pretty impressive. The stats are underwhelming to be sure, but this is a very real value engine
Average Picked At: 5.30 Total Times Picked: 53 Average Last Seen At: 4.70 Total Times Seen 272
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: You get three 3/2 worth of stats for two mana here. And sure, you don’t get it all at the same time, but this still looks like a solid two drop.
Average Picked At: 2.50 Total Times Picked: 8 Average Last Seen At: 2.55 Total Times Seen 21
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: He’s got decent base stats and it isn’t overly difficult to get the Ring to Tempt you here either. In fact, you can do something as simple as attack into a trade, then play Smeagol in your second main phase, at which point you get the Ring going and when you do that, you end up ramping your mana which is pretty nice! While the ramp part of Smeagol’s “Tempted by the ring” upside matters less and less as the game goes on, the fact you are milling your opponent eventually becomes relevant, and I think that will work fairly nicely. Smeagol is going to give you a lot of value all game long
Average Picked At: 8.14 Total Times Picked: 28 Average Last Seen At: 6.41 Total Times Seen 163
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: The best use for this is to ramp your mana, but the ability to untap permanents has lots of other upsides too, and I like that flexibility. A three mana ¼ isn’t amazing, but it isn’t too bad of a defensive body
Average Picked At: 9.73 Total Times Picked: 40 Average Last Seen At: 8.55 Total Times Seen 446
Pro Rating: 1.0 Pro Comment: This is cheaper than most versions of this effect that we see, but most versions of this effect also draw you a card, and The Ring Tempts You isn’t quite as good as that. Still, this will be effective in decks that end up with enough cards with ETBs. It is a bit of a bummer it can only hit creatures, as blinking Sagas can be particularly valuable. You can of course use it to help a creature dodge removal and stuff like that too. But Still, it seems like this type of card basically never makes the cut in Limited formats these days. It isn’t a disaster in the right deck, but actually generating a card of value with it is harder than you think. We’ve seen this be the case with basically every version of this effect in countless Limited formats at this point. While the list of situations where this is good seems long, the percentage of the time they come up just isn’t enough.
Average Picked At: 7.92 Total Times Picked: 64 Average Last Seen At: 7.00 Total Times Seen 397
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: Instants that temporary lower power usually aren’t very good, since they aren’t usually enough to help your creature win in combat or anything, instead they just feel like they delay the inevitable. However, Adding Amass to the mix does matter. If you think of this as a one mana 1/1 that gives a creature -3/-0 until end of turn, that sounds a lot better. It won’t always be that, but if it isn’t well, then it will put a counter on your Army, and that does increase the chances of this feeling more like a combat trick.
Average Picked At: 8.26 Total Times Picked: 62 Average Last Seen At: 7.30 Total Times Seen 435
Pro Rating: 0.5 Pro Comment: A one-sided -1/-1 effect can be good in the right match-up, but I mostly think this needs a sideboard grade. If you’re not able to take down creatures with it consistently it just isn’t going to be worth it, as the Ring tempts you alone just won’t be enough for the cost.
Average Picked At: 3.24 Total Times Picked: 70 Average Last Seen At: 3.12 Total Times Seen 162
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This looks like a nice Common. A three mana 1/1 Flyer that also gives you a 2/2, or alternatively, puts two counters on a creature you already control, is a very nice rate.
Average Picked At: 5.57 Total Times Picked: 21 Average Last Seen At: 4.67 Total Times Seen 101
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This is basically a White Remand, and that’s pretty nice! Sure, your opponent gets the card back and can cast it in the future, but Reprieve also replaces itself, so getting some nice tempo is actually a reasonable deal. There will be times in the late game where your opponent can just cast the thing you bounce without a whole lot of effort, but the fail case is still that you get to draw a card.
Average Picked At: 9.04 Total Times Picked: 45 Average Last Seen At: 7.64 Total Times Seen 400
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: Having two legendary creatures in play is very doable in this set, but you also shouldn’t always expect to be able to cast this for three. At four mana it is definitely a little bit clunky, but at least you can see up to 4 cards – which is a ton in Limited.