Average Picked At: 6.22 Total Times Picked: 36 Average Last Seen At: 4.54 Total Times Seen 218
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: Most decks have a reasonable number of cards that will be able to be destroyed by this, and one cool thing here is that you get mana back – even if your permanents get destroyed by this, and that softens the blow a bit if there’s some collateral damage. But there will be board states where this either hits you more than your opponent, or doesn’t make enough of a difference, since it is so focused only on killing really low CMC things. Now, this format does have a reasonable number of creature tokens that this can hit, and that certainly matters. I think it will have enough things it can blow up that it is certainly a solid card, but this is the kind of card where I wouldn’t really be surprised if I was wrong in either direction.
Average Picked At: 11.32 Total Times Picked: 262 Average Last Seen At: 9.65 Total Times Seen 3331
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This is a solid little +1/+1 counter payoff. Sometimes when you put a counter on something it is a bummer that it gets killed, but this makes sure to give you some value no matter what!
Average Picked At: 3.74 Total Times Picked: 174 Average Last Seen At: 3.51 Total Times Seen 467
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This is some pretty nice ramp, and it comes on a fairly reasonable body. Casting this is going to feel pretty good on turn 4, and unlike some other ramp creatures, it brings decent stats when you play it in the late game.
Average Picked At: 4.89 Total Times Picked: 390 Average Last Seen At: 4.51 Total Times Seen 1521
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This is expensive and clunky, but it also isn’t too far from being a removal spell that has “draw a card,” added to it. Now granted, most of the cards you can get with the Learn part aren’t exactly going to be worldbeaters, but they are still cards, and adding that effect to a removal spell seems pretty nice. Exiling an instant or sorcery doesn’t hurt either. This often really drastically changes the game between removing your opponents best thing and drawing you a card.
Average Picked At: 7.47 Total Times Picked: 100 Average Last Seen At: 6.13 Total Times Seen 894
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: I think this looks like a nice card, and I like that it has a design that synergizes with itself. Even if you have no other artifacts, he gets a power boost from the Treasures that he makes you. If you can get this to a 4/2 I think you’ll feel like you’re getting there. And, the fact he makes treasure means he gives Red some pretty decent fixing and ramp, something UR is especially interested in.
Average Picked At: 10.02 Total Times Picked: 41 Average Last Seen At: 6.34 Total Times Seen 410
Pro Rating: 0.0 // 1.0 Pro Comment: This card is not especially good in Limited, even if you have cards with Learn. There just aren’t enough planeswalkers for this card to matter. I mean, sure, if you see this late and you have some Learn going on, having this ready to get out of your sideboard will definitely be some upside for your Learn cards, but you’re not going to run into planeswalkers or have them very often, and that’s why I think this is a straight F as a main board card, and like a D out of your Lessonboard.
Average Picked At: 2.72 Total Times Picked: 29 Average Last Seen At: 2.77 Total Times Seen 63
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This card has a cool design, but I don’t think it is a bomb. Mostly, it just gives you a huge vanilla creature, and the spell isn’t easy to cast either. Now, you know, a 22/22 can only die to so many things, so I’m not saying its bad, just that it isn’t really a bomb either.
Average Picked At: 7.12 Total Times Picked: 154 Average Last Seen At: 6.03 Total Times Seen 935
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This is pretty close to being Rain of Revelation, and that was a pretty great draw spell. Sometimes you won’t want to discard the instant or sorcery, especially if you ended up with a couple lands you don’t need, but you still end up seeing a lot of cards for a reasonable cost, and -- importantly, at instant speed.
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: This is a good card, albeit a kind of weird one. A 5-mana ⅖ with Flying and Double Strike is already pretty nice -- those are just great stats on an evasive creature! Then, he gives you a powerful effect every combat...though he also gives your opponent a pretty powerful one too. Now, you are the one who gets to decide which one they get and which one you get, and you can always pick the option that most benefits you and the one that least benefits them, but no matter what you’re giving them, they’re going to be getting something reasonably nice. Most of the time, I would imagine if you’re wide enough you’ll give yourself the counters and let them draw a card, for example. Giving them the Flyer seems particularly bad since it gives them a free way to block Shadrix -- but sometimes giving them counters will be fine too, because sometimes those aren’t a big help. Shadrix will normally take over games, but there will be some times where you can’t find a good option to give your opponent, which will be rough.
Average Picked At: 5.29 Total Times Picked: 45 Average Last Seen At: 4.44 Total Times Seen 221
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: These are good fixing, and they’ll help you splash. Don’t underestimate how nice it is, even in a two-color deck, to have one land that can produce either color, it is really great for your mana base. You should never be first picking these, but I think you should value them over most medium cards in packs if you’re in one or both of the colors it produces.
Average Picked At: 6.90 Total Times Picked: 327 Average Last Seen At: 6.45 Total Times Seen 2173
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This dies to pretty much everything, but it has a nice magecraft effect. Giving this flying will frequently be the option you go with, as this attacks pretty hard in the air. Note, by the way that if you cast two spells, you can choose both options, will be particularly nice sometimes.
Average Picked At: 6.98 Total Times Picked: 142 Average Last Seen At: 5.65 Total Times Seen 812
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: Basically, you draw one card from your top three, and you exile another that you can cast until the end of your turn. So this is sort of a two mana Divination, albeit one that is very time sensitive. Note, by the way, that it does let you play lands from exile, so you can even cast this on like turn three, exile a land in your top 3 and put something else in your hand, and then play that land right away. Because you get to choose, there really is a reasonable chance you will get 2 cards out of it, even early.
Average Picked At: 14.19 Total Times Picked: 251 Average Last Seen At: 11.72 Total Times Seen 4151
Pro Rating: 0.0 Pro Comment: This is a neat design, but not really one that will work out in Limited. Even if you get like, six of these in your draft, the chances you have the necessary ones in your graveyard at some point aren’t great -- and that’s without even mentioning that you ALSO need a dragon for that effect do anything. Basically, this is just a Lava Axe-type effect, and those normally don’t play great in Limited, since they cost you a card and don’t affect the board.
Average Picked At: 13.00 Total Times Picked: 202 Average Last Seen At: 10.50 Total Times Seen 3699
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: Double strike ½ for three isn’t too bad, and makes this a good place to put counters or otherwise enhance it. That said, that doesn’t seem to be a HUGE focus for Red in this set, strange as that is.
Average Picked At: 6.90 Total Times Picked: 154 Average Last Seen At: 5.89 Total Times Seen 873
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: So, this helps trigger all the cards in RW that like it when things leave your graveyard, AND it will effectively draw you cards at the same time. That’s pretty powerful, so of course they had to make the creature rather inefficient, as a 5-mana ¾. Even with that limitation though, this is going to be quite good. ¾ is enough size to attack on lots of boards, and as long as the best your opponent can do is trade with this, you’re going to be in business, because the cards you get from the effect will help you come out ahead from the trade. In some situations, even if the Dustspeaker is going to die without killing anything, attacking will still be worth it for the effect. You can also get serious value by giving it evasion or stats boosts that make things harder on your opponent. If this gets to use that ability more than once, chances are you just win.
Average Picked At: 6.91 Total Times Picked: 113 Average Last Seen At: 5.52 Total Times Seen 830
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This card is a potent +1/+1 counter payoff. When it comes down it immediately buffs a creature, and makes it so that creature drains the opponent for one life when it attacks. That’s not a bad deal, and that’s pretty much the fail case. If you end up with a synergistic +1/+1 counter deck, her presence on the board will make the game close to unwillable for the opponent. Now, she is super undersized for her cost, so taking her down won’t be too hard, but left unchecked she seems pretty great.
Average Picked At: 3.50 Total Times Picked: 376 Average Last Seen At: 3.59 Total Times Seen 1087
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: This is most likely Red’s best common. 3 mana for 4 damage at Instant speed is always great in Limited, and this also can’t be countered, which actually matters in this format as Blue seems to have several playable counter spells in this format.
Average Picked At: 12.34 Total Times Picked: 276 Average Last Seen At: 10.09 Total Times Seen 3593
Pro Rating: 0.5 Pro Comment: I mostly don’t think you’ll play this. It has mediocre stats and an unexciting ability. The ability might be a little more useful in the RW deck, which likes it when things leave the graveyard, but mostly using this ability is super underwhelming. Now, if games in this format go long and you are out of cards and you can legit use this to draw the best card in your graveyard every turn, then it will be better than that -- but that won’t happen very often.
Average Picked At: 11.06 Total Times Picked: 333 Average Last Seen At: 9.19 Total Times Seen 3231
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This is underwhelming as a three-drop on curve, but in the late game it can become a legitimate win condition, especially in UG decks which are particularly good at getting lots of lands in play.
Average Picked At: 4.08 Total Times Picked: 437 Average Last Seen At: 3.90 Total Times Seen 1401
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: All the lessons are much better than they look, and that is certainly the case for Environmental Sciences. If you can pick up one of these, it effectively makes every single card you have with “Learn” into fixing. This means you can have pretty excellent mana for a splash simply by playing one basic land of another color. The life gain doesn’t hurt either.