Average Picked At: 10.40 Total Times Picked: 73 Average Last Seen At: 9.12 Total Times Seen 808
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This seems like a solid utility land cycle. They enter tapped, so you don’t want too many of them, but the fact you can cash them in in the later stages of the game for a card is really nice, and can help when you’re flooding out.
Average Picked At: 9.93 Total Times Picked: 68 Average Last Seen At: 8.61 Total Times Seen 715
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: This is red’s usual really mediocre modal removal spell. 5 mana for 5 damage at Sorcery speed isn’t anywhere close to premium – it is super clunky and firing it off on something that is cheaper than it is rough. Destroying Equipment matters a little for sure, but the fact that most Equipment in this format has “For Mirrodin!” probably means you don’t even get a full card of value if you do that
Average Picked At: 10.37 Total Times Picked: 73 Average Last Seen At: 8.58 Total Times Seen 747
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: A one mana Aura with Flash that gives +1/+1 is already somewhat acceptable. The boost isn’t massive, so it can’t win that many combats, but the fact that it leaves a permanent buff behind really matters, because it means you effect the board in the short-term and long-term when you can win combat. Then, when you get Corrupted going, this becomes really good, as +2/+1 and First Strike is going to win you most combats, and the boost is once again permanent! One mana tricks really tend to overperform, even when the lack the ability to save a creature from most removal like this
Average Picked At: 6.03 Total Times Picked: 33 Average Last Seen At: 4.82 Total Times Seen 167
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: In Limited, this is going to be a 3-mana 3/3 with Menace and the rest of the text won’t matter on a regular basis. I guess if you went first and play this on turn three, and your opponent played a non-basic on turn one, it has a shot at chipping in for two extra damage – and that’s probably going to be the usual way that ability triggers.
Average Picked At: 3.65 Total Times Picked: 91 Average Last Seen At: 3.41 Total Times Seen 260
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: Even without the Toxic-hating upside this card has, it would be quite good! One mana for 2 damage just tends to be a great deal, even allowing you to trade up for lots of 3 and 4 mana cards. Toxic is really everywhere in the format too, so you’re going to be able to do the 4 damage with this at some point in most games.
Average Picked At: 11.12 Total Times Picked: 67 Average Last Seen At: 9.13 Total Times Seen 788
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This seems like a solid utility land cycle. They enter tapped, so you don’t want too many of them, but the fact you can cash them in in the later stages of the game for a card is really nice, and can help when you’re flooding out.
Average Picked At: 10.03 Total Times Picked: 58 Average Last Seen At: 8.40 Total Times Seen 754
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: This isn’t especially powerful on its own, as a poison counter isn’t worth a ton on its own – but this is a spell that replaces itself, and the UR deck will make decent use of it
Average Picked At: 9.02 Total Times Picked: 61 Average Last Seen At: 6.60 Total Times Seen 581
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: This will have its moments, but this format also has a lot of tokens and creatures who give you value when they die, and when your opponent has those to sacrifice this won’t feel worth a card at all, even with the poison counter on top
Average Picked At: 3.67 Total Times Picked: 15 Average Last Seen At: 3.15 Total Times Seen 44
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: A three mana 1/1 that makes a 3/3 token is already a really good card – pretty close to Blade Splicer - but this comes with the additional upside of occasionally spitting out another 3/3. Now, making that happen isn’t going to be easy, as getting three artifacts into play in one turn is a big ask in Limited, but I think it will happen on occasion.
Average Picked At: 1.40 Total Times Picked: 5 Average Last Seen At: 1.40 Total Times Seen 5
Pro Rating: 4.5 Pro Comment: If you’re making tokens, this is going to make your day! Generating all those extra tokens is great, especially because as a baseline, you’ve got a 4-mana 4/4 here. If you have enough expendable tokens around, Mondrak can also become indestructible, which is a nice thing to have on a card that can function as a pretty impressive engine
Average Picked At: 2.68 Total Times Picked: 38 Average Last Seen At: 2.71 Total Times Seen 87
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: A two mana 1/1 Double Strike always plays really well – it does a great job against other X/1s, and can trade for X/2s, while having all kinds of additional upside with Equipment, tricks, and other buffs. So, adding Toxic 1 to the mix is pretty sweet – especially because it means this will give the opponent two poison each time it goes unblocked. This will also hold all the Equipment in the set really well.
Average Picked At: 1.57 Total Times Picked: 14 Average Last Seen At: 1.55 Total Times Seen 21
Pro Rating: 5.0 Pro Comment: So, if we take away the “X is 5 or more” part of this card, it would already be quite good. While it will never feel super efficient, the fact it scales all game long is great. That card would probably be at least a 3.5, and adding the additional late game upside is pretty massive, because killing an opposing creature and reanimating one of yours is a pretty incredible 2-for-1.
Average Picked At: 5.00 Total Times Picked: 25 Average Last Seen At: 4.98 Total Times Seen 152
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: Proliferate is already a good thing to be doing in this format, so the fact this also lets you drain your opponent for two when you do it is great. There’s enough proliferate in the format that I think this will be a good inclusion in most Black decks
Average Picked At: 1.69 Total Times Picked: 13 Average Last Seen At: 1.63 Total Times Seen 20
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: So, every turn, you get an increasingly large Haste Trampler that gets sacrificed at the end of the turn. This can obviously let you pressure your opponent pretty effectively, but it also doesn’t add something to the board that has a permanent impact on it, and that definitely matters. Still, the presence of Proliferate and other oil counter nonsense in the format does mean that you can get this going faster than it might look at first. If your deck has some sacrifice payoffs going it can get really silly too.
Average Picked At: 7.03 Total Times Picked: 80 Average Last Seen At: 6.07 Total Times Seen 558
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This always provides some solid fixing, even for two color decks. It can be particularly appealing when you are splashing one card, as just a single basic land and the Expanse are often enough to make that work.
Average Picked At: 4.50 Total Times Picked: 4 Average Last Seen At: 4.00 Total Times Seen 25
Pro Rating: 0.0 Pro Comment: Pretty much every set has an unplayable Planeswalker buildaround, and that’s certainly what we have here! This does have an effect that does something with any permanent with counters on it, but it is just a way worse version of Proliferate, so you’re not going to be interested.
Average Picked At: 6.29 Total Times Picked: 106 Average Last Seen At: 5.74 Total Times Seen 497
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: Two mana 3/1s tend to play pretty well in aggro decks, and that’s what you get up front here – and then you have the option of moving the Equipment to other stuff – like if you really want your token to be a 2/2, or if something else can benefit from the stat boost. +1/-1 certainly isn’t amazing, but this is really cheap to play and equip, which will be especially nice with Equipment payoffs in the set.
Average Picked At: 12.35 Total Times Picked: 52 Average Last Seen At: 9.90 Total Times Seen 864
Pro Rating: 0.5 Pro Comment: This is a sideboard card. Against someone who isn’t a creature heavy deck, it is worth using. Against your typical Limited deck, though, it isn’t. It will just wiff far too often, and going down a card for no effect is brutal.
Average Picked At: 1.71 Total Times Picked: 14 Average Last Seen At: 1.78 Total Times Seen 24
Pro Rating: 5.0 Pro Comment: Mind control is an incredibly powerful effect, as taking an opposing creature and gaining it on your side of the board is effectively a 2-for-1. This comes with the additional absurd upside of making a token if you pay 5 or more for X. 7 mana to steal an opposing permanent and make a copy of it is insane, and an easy 3-for-1! The one downside here is it can be a little awkward early, but even stealing a two drop with this can be a play that flips the game wildly in your favor.
Average Picked At: 4.20 Total Times Picked: 15 Average Last Seen At: 3.63 Total Times Seen 47
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This is a pretty sweet two-mana creature! Obviously she has above-rate stats, but the fact that she weakens the Toxic mechanic is nice upside, as is her ability to reanimate a creature or artifact that has died during your turn. That second part is definitely going to be more important, but what we’re looking at here is still a two mana 3/3 with substantial upside