Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: A 4-mana 3/3 Trampler isn’t a very good rate, but this comes with a nice enough “lone attacker” Samurai/Warrior pay off, as this format has a lot of artifacts. You’ll be able to make use of it often enough for this to make the cut in most Red decks. If you have some other lone attacker payoffs, the fact it has trample will feel pretty good!

Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: This seems like a solid little Ninja if you’re in the market for those. The Ninjutsu is very nicely costed, though keeping in mind that you have to return a thing to your hand does make it seem a bit less efficient. And really, neither casting this the normal way nor Ninjutsuing it is going to make you feel like you’re doing a great job. Its solid, and Lifelink makes it a good creature to Modify.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: Wow. They really did it…this is a ninja turtle! Anyway, a two mana ⅓ with Deathtouch is always playable. Being able to trade for everything is a big deal, and this comes with Ninjutsu and the ability to naturalize something when it hits the opponent…and there is plenty of stuff it can blow up in this format.

Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: This has a really interesting design. I’m normally not big on this type of effect, as actually doing some damage to something often takes up some resources, so spells that can only remove damaged creatures are often not all that playable. However, in this case they lowered the mana cost to ONE, and they added a cantrip. At that point, we’re talking about a card that is certainly playable. Keep in mind that it does need a damaged creature to target, so it isn’t really the kind of cantrip you can cycle whenever you want. You won’t usually generate a 2-for-1 with this, because of the resources you gave up to damage the creature in the first place, but the cantrip pretty much makes up for that, and on occasions where you can get a 2-for-1, this will feel downright amazing. It is still a super situational removal spell, but it is priced to move, and I think you’ll end up playing the first copy in most Black decks. Playing more than that is probably asking for trouble due to its situational nature.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: This is better in this format than it is in most, because there are artifacts everywhere. I think you can count on most opponents having at least 5 targets for this, and many will have more. Adding the +1/+1 counter to the mix is pretty nice. Against the most artifact-centric of decks it is just going to feel like one of your best cards, and against an opponent only playing a few artifacts, it will feel a bit like Plummet – but I think that range is still enough to play the first copy in the main deck of most Red decks.

Pro Rating: 1.5
Pro Comment: These types of effects are almost always not worth it – they keep pushing them on us, though! What makes them bad is the fact that you only resize a creature. Making one into a 4/5 for 3 mana is not normally going to be a very good rate, and that’s even if you’re including the ability to turn Vehicles on like this can. You’re going to get a small stats boost in most cases, and that just isn’t worth the risk of getting blown out by removal. They did do one thing here that’s pretty interesting though: They added a cantrip. That certainly makes this better, as at worst you can sort of cycle this for three mana, and if you do manage to resize a creature and win combat you’ll actually feel like you’re doing something – but it still isn’t very good for the same reasons these effects never are: They don’t do enough for their cost and they are also very risky!

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: So, looting a couple of times is decent card selection, though like with a lot of these, you’re going to kind of wish you were adding to the board right away, instead of having to wait a couple of turns. As is this case with most of these creature-sagas, you get great value for your mana – in this case, a two mana ⅔ Flyer that loots twice – but the trade off is that you have to really wait for it. Still, Chapter I and II are the kinds of things that are at least useful all game long, so this isn’t one where you really need to play it early or you’re going to be disappointed.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: With no other creatures around, this is effectively a 4-mana 4/4 with Haste. It is unfortunate that its ability doesn’t count itself, but the card is pretty good even before that additional upside. Sometimes this will come down and be able to do a significant chunk of damage with the Attack trigger. Putting counters on stuff when it attacks can also really improve your attacks.

Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: I never love effects that give the opponent a choice between two things – especially when the options are discard or sacrifice a creature, because there are many board states where doing one or the other is no problem for your opponent, and because they have a choice, that means chapter I and II won’t always feel that great. That said, there will certainly be times where it is “pick your poison” for your opponent and have they have no good option, and because you do it two turns in a row, you’re more likely to produce that situation than you might otherwise be. The creature you eventually get can be pretty tough, and Chapters I and II do make it pretty likely there’s at least a few creatures in the graveyard.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: This is quite the modification payoff! Now, if you’ve only got one modified creature, it isn’t going to be able to do a whole lot, but with 2+, your chance of reanimating a creature are pretty reasonable. This has a fine baseline as a 3-mana ⅔ with Menace too, which also makes it easier for you to attack with more than once. It also means that Unforgiving One is also a good creature to modify in the first place, and luckily it counts itself! I do think that it requires enough set up that it isn’t something you take super highly.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: This is a nice little Common. A 3-mana ⅔ with Menace is a decent starting point, and adding an “attack alone” payoff to the card is nice, and the one you get here is going to be pretty relevant, especially if you play the Samurai on turn 3. It is likely to help you either double spell or play a 4-drop on turn 4, and either of those are pretty appealing.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This is very good. Even without Channel, this would be an excellent card, as it will let you add a decent body to the board while taking down an opposing creature. Going after the opponent's face is really nice upside too. But, then you add Channel to the mix, and you make a far more flexible card. I mean, most of the time you’ll want to cast this because of the 2-for-1 potential, but sometimes you’ll have to fire this off as a straight up removal spell for less mana.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: Drawing three and discarding two has you break even on cards with some pretty good card selection, while also maybe loading the graveyard. And if you have a random artifact you don’t really need in your current situation, this ends up feeling even more potent. I think Blue decks will usually play their first copy of this.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: I don’t love the stat-line here, but if you can consistently generate 2/2 tokens with it, its going to feel pretty good. That said, a 5-mana 4/4 will frequently be an underwhelming attacker, so counting on it doing its thing more than twice is probably a little too optimistic. Now, this set does have a lot of Equipment and Auras – both things that this card also synergizes with, so maybe it will be a good attacker more often than I think – but it still has the not insignificant set-up cost that demands you have both an artifact and enchantment around in the first place. Which, while doable, does further limit a card that has a pretty ugly floor as a 5-mana 4/4. It is definitely going to generate some serious value in decks that really get there with it, but right now I’m not ultra impressed with this signpost Uncommon.

Pro Rating: 1.5
Pro Comment: A 3-mana 3/2 with Vigilance is usually reasonable playable, and this one comes with a very nice ability. You won’t always have an Enchantment in your graveyard of course, but there are enough Enchantments in this set that you’ll have them reasonably often, and obviously casting one off of this ability is like drawing a card, and that’s pretty darn powerful. Like with all of these, its great that they designed them so that they can trigger the ability on their own – but you can also use other Samurais/Warriors to trigger the ability if you’ve got them around. 32 – Regent’s Authority – 1.5 This is a solid trick. One mana for +2/+2 tends to be a good rate in general, and the additional enchantment/legendary creature upside is something you’ll be able to take advantage often enough.

Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: Like all cards that do phasing things, this has a variety of uses. You can use it to blank opposing creatures for a turn, you can use it to save some of your stuff from removal, you can use it if your opponent tries to put an Aura on one of their creatures, and so forth. I think this can phase enough things at once, and there’s enough different ways to use it, that it seems like a pretty reasonable card, though it isn’t super powerful or anything. There will be times where using this just doesn’t do anything, and that always hurts a card’s stock.

Pro Rating: 5.0
Pro Comment: This new Umezawa is very powerful. Adding a card selection and drawing effect to every ninjutsu is a great payoff, and Satoru would be a very strong build around if that’s all that was going on here, but all of your cards gain ninjutsu too, so it isn’t even a build around! So yeah, now you get a huge effect when you ninjutsu things, one that certainly trumps any sort of downside that comes with having to bounce a creature to your hand. There’s some upside there too – because you can rebuy ETB abilities or even cheat a creature into play for way less mana!

Pro Rating: 1.5
Pro Comment: Three bodies + Scry 3 for six isn’t the worst thing ever, but it also isn’t quite as impactful as I’d like a six mana spell to be. Those three bodies can help, but there are also plenty of board states where they don’t do a whole lot for you.

Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: You’ll get the most value out of this if you’re casting stuff from your graveyard, so it does require at least a little bit of set-up. If you are just casting things from your hand, you aren’t actually gaining cards, you’re getting a discount – and while a discount is nice, getting two whole cards of value out of this will pretty much always be better. Of course, it costs quadruple Red, and by the time you have that kind of mana, your graveyard is pretty likely to be stocked. As with all of these cycles, though, that mana is also a hefty downside in Limited, as getting quadruple of a single color can be tough in your typical 2-color Limited deck. The payoff here is good for sure, but I think the other cards in this cycle give you more for the difficult mana cost. If this was easy to cast, I would probably give it a 3.5, but I think the challenge of casting it makes it a 2.5.