Pro Rating: 5.0 Pro Comment: So, Urabrask effectively draws you an extra card every turn, while downgrading your opponents draw on their turn. Forcing them to play the card that is revealed now or never is going to be pretty nice sometimes, and it will definitely force them to make some painful decisions. It is actually a really cool design for Red to get this type of effect as a way to downgrade an opponents draw. Anyway, Urabrask is definitely a bomb – he also brings decent stats to go with the exile card draw effects.
Average Picked At: 6.99 Total Times Picked: 171 Average Last Seen At: 6.11 Total Times Seen 973
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: The ETB trigger here can be nice in a lot of situations, where it buys you more time or makes it so you can attack more effectively on your turn. Like with all of these, you get a pretty decent creature that has the upside of helping you fix early.
Average Picked At: 11.95 Total Times Picked: 38 Average Last Seen At: 9.29 Total Times Seen 676
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: This is an interesting piece of Equipment. My first instinct is that this is probably not very good, since it doesn’t augment the stats of the creature you put it on, but this is a card where threat of activation is going to be very real, as it is relatively cheap to take down a blocking creature with the effect. Now, it does absolutely nothing when you’re on the back foot, and is only good if you’re the beat down, but I think this might be a little better than it looks. It is cheap to cast, cheap to equip, and its ability is also reasonably costed, so much so that it will make people really think about whether they want to block. Also, if you combine this with death touch it can be particularly nasty! I think in aggressive decks this is actually a decent playable.
Average Picked At: 1.90 Total Times Picked: 31 Average Last Seen At: 1.78 Total Times Seen 41
Pro Rating: 5.0 Pro Comment: A ⅖ with Flash is actually pretty reasonable at ambushing things, but the real value of course comes from the cards it puts Collection counters on. Even on its own, it pretty much draws you two cards, and because of Flash, you can put this down at the end of your opponents turn, untap, and make use of one those cards before your opponent can do something about it in most cases. On the next turn you can use the other card if she survives. Then, the additional Vampire upside is huge, and the hybrid mana situation also means you can play this in a whole lot of decks.
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: These offer good fixing, and being able to pitch them for a whole card in the late game is really nice, as it offers you some flood insurance and gives you somethign to do with all your mana. Like most duals, this is something you should value as a C+. It will really help your mana, and that’s more important than normal in a set with a big 3-color focus.
Average Picked At: 1.84 Total Times Picked: 31 Average Last Seen At: 1.90 Total Times Seen 43
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This is a 3-mana 3/2 Lifelinker with upside, and that’s the kind of thing you pretty much always play. On turn three you won’t always have something to get back, but you can trade aggressively on turn two and maybe get some value when you cast the Rescuer. Obviously, the creature can’t attack or block and that’s a bummer, but once the Rescuer goes down – and it probably will – that creature becomes whole again. It is also nice that if it has any abilities, those still matter when the Rescuer brings it back – even while its in play.
Average Picked At: 7.44 Total Times Picked: 146 Average Last Seen At: 6.52 Total Times Seen 1009
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This isn’t the most efficient removal spell, but at least its an Instant, and it comes with some extra value with the mill effect. The way this format is looking, you probably want to mill yourself more often than your opponent since you can get a lot of value going in that direction. This isn’t premium removal, but it seems like a solid Common.
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: The additional toughness on the rebalanced version does make a significant difference as it makes it far more likely that it manages to survive. So in the end, this is basically a trick that sticks around, often winning the combat for you. The treasure upside doesn’t hurt either. One of these seems like a solid inclusion in aggressive Green decks.
Average Picked At: 1.12 Total Times Picked: 8 Average Last Seen At: 1.10 Total Times Seen 10
Pro Rating: 5.0 Pro Comment: This Vivien looks great. She can protect herself by using her -1 to generate large tokens, and her +2 and +1 abilities both give you some pretty nice effects. The +2 can help you Birthing Pod creatures in play to replace them with something better, and her +1 will often draw you a couple of cards. So yeah, she protect herself and draws you cards, and those are the kinds of things you want your planeswalkers to do. She’s a bomb.
Average Picked At: 2.55 Total Times Picked: 22 Average Last Seen At: 2.53 Total Times Seen 63
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: This is a a sweeper that really gives you a ton of control over how much damage it does. Of course, to unlock full flexibility, you’re going to need to have a well-stocked graveyard. That seems pretty doable in Black-Red, but still, there’s some real set up, and sometimes you just won’t have what you need to make this do what you want. Then again, sometimes you’ll be able to use this and keep some of your stuff alive while sweeping the opponent. So yeah, this has a wide range of outcomes – some of them are going to be awful, some will be great.
Average Picked At: 11.89 Total Times Picked: 38 Average Last Seen At: 8.33 Total Times Seen 550
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: This is a reprint, and not an especially good one. Last time we saw it there was a significant life gain theme, but that’s not really the case here, so gaining life with this isn’t that great. There are a few cards in the format that check for life loss and life gain, and this could do some work in such a deck, but a lot of the time this is just a Bear.
Average Picked At: 10.02 Total Times Picked: 136 Average Last Seen At: 8.51 Total Times Seen 1340
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: This looks pretty nice. A one mana 1/1 with Menace and First Strike is kind of a pain to interact with early, and it’s a great place to put counters and stuff. Then, once it becomes irrelevant, it can also just ramp and fix for you. This provides a lot for only one Red mana.
Average Picked At: 4.59 Total Times Picked: 46 Average Last Seen At: 3.75 Total Times Seen 245
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: A 3-mana 2/1 – and one that costs double white – is just really bad. Scrying any time a creature enters the battlefield is nice upside though, and if you can make enough tokens or double spell with creatures, it will end up netting you a card. I think this will net you a card often enough that I want to start the format valuing this card pretty highly, bad stats and all.
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: This has an impressive body, but both ways of turning it into a creature are kind of a pain, especially because it has no evasion. The format’s plethora of creature tokens can just block this.
Average Picked At: 11.00 Total Times Picked: 126 Average Last Seen At: 9.00 Total Times Seen 1528
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: As is usually the case with this card -- it will have enough targets that main decking it isn’t the worst thing in the world, though it is much safer to keep it in your sideboard.
Pro Rating: 5.0 Pro Comment: Wow, talk about value! Whichever two things you choose, you’re getting a great deal, since you have a 7-mana 7/7 with Reach, and Trample and TWO ETBS that are pretty relevant. Making the 4/4 and putting a shield counter on the Titan feels like the best option most of the time, and that’s pretty awesome. It might cost 7, but it certainly gives you what a 7 drop SHOULD give you, a card that swings the game wildly in your favor. This is a bomb.
Average Picked At: 4.37 Total Times Picked: 188 Average Last Seen At: 4.27 Total Times Seen 676
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: I always love Frost Lynx type creatures because of the amazing tempo they generate by freezing something down while you add to the board. Now, freezing something down takes a little bit of setup with the Regulator, but if yo’ure in Blue White you’ll have access to lots of +1/+1 and Shield counters, so I think this will do its thing a big chunk of the time – and on top of that it has efficient flying stats.
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This doesn’t have a great stat-line, but it does do a pretty consistent job of drawing you a card. You can often just play it on a board where you know you’re going to attack with a creature with a counter, so you can net a card right away, meaning the best your opponent can do is get 2-for-1’d.
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This is a fairly legitimate win condition in slower Blue decks in the format, and especially in Blue-Black where you have lots of incentive to mill yourself.
Pro Rating: 5.0 Pro Comment: You’ll usually be able to get the first mode going on this going the turn you play this, and that’s pretty good! The Cabaretti are definitely about going wide, so getting the second mode will happen regularly as well, but the third mode is less often. This will often impact the board right away. There will of course be times where Jetmir is just a 4-mana 5/4 too, but the potential to pump your whole board, and it being relatively easy to get the first part going makes this a great card.