Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This gives you a great rate – you get 5/5 worth of stats for three mana! And sure, generally only one of them is going to be untapped, but when Alirios dies he leaves behind significant value. This is one of the best ETB abilities to abuse in this entire set too, so if you have ways to do that, considering utilizing them here.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: This gives you a nice mana boost in the early game, and then in the late game – when such an effect doesn’t feel especially useful – it gives you something that can actually impact the board in the form of a wolf token.

Pro Rating: 1.5
Pro Comment: This is an alright trick. You’ll play it sometimes in aggro decks.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: So, this can get pretty silly when you can get a graveyard to have both an Aura and a creature, and that isn’t that hard to do in this format. You will pretty much always get more than 5 mana worth of value when you do it, and it gets especially silly with Constellation and bombs. This can help you get back ahead from behind, which is awesome! The trade off is that it can be pretty terrible early, though.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This powerful Aura helps mitigate against the dangerous aspect of Auras – it keeps a 2-for-1 from really happening, because it gives you two Wolf tokens when it goes to the graveyard. 4-mana for +4/+4 to a creature is reasonably efficient too, especially when it is combined with the Wolf trigger, you are left with a pretty nice card. Your opponent might be able to deal with your huge Enchanted creature, but at least you are left with a couple of wolves who can be the targets of new Auras, can trade with stuff, or at worst – chump block things. And, 4 mana for two 2/2 wolves is actually a pretty reasonable rate! Keep in mind, though, that if the creature you are trying to put this one is killed in response, you won’t be getting those wolves, so it still comes with the downside of a lot of Auras – which is, playing it into your opponent’s untapped mana shouldn’t really be done, unless your opponent is out of gas, or you’re desperate. Most of the time though, finding a window to cast this won’t be too hard.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: So, on a base level, the Merchant is a 5-mana 2/4 that drains the opponent for two. That’s not very good. However, I think once it is draining for three, you’re getting decent value for your mana.. If you are draining 4 or more, you are in serious business. I think the Merchant has a high enough ceiling that taking it with an early pick is probably a good idea. You may have to abandon it, if your deck doesn’t end up with enough Black, but that’s fine. The upside is worth it.

Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: Neither mode here is stellar, but having them both on a single card is nice. Basically if you have mana up for this when your opponent plays something you can counter, that’s probably the mode you choose. But, if your opponent doesn’t cast something you can counter and you’ve left mana up, you can at least use it to draw a couple of cards.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: This can kill a large percentage of the creatures in the format with chapter I, and chapter II going after a card is some nice additional value. Chapter III is the one that really overperforms here because of the context of the format. Exiling a whole graveyard is a big deal, because there are a lot of graveyard things in this format. This is actually really good both early and late – early because it basically guarantees a 2-for-1, and late because it will kill something and then nuke the graveyard.

Pro Rating: 0.0
Pro Comment: This isn’t worth a slot in your deck. The Escape cost is too high – in both mana and cards you have to exile – so ever being able to use this repeatedly is unlikely.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This scales all game long, and is capable of killing anything if the situation is right. Sometimes, X-costed Sorceries that are removal spells have the donwnside of making you tap out to kill one creature, which on some boards can be dangerous – but the life gain this gives you helps make that less of a big deal. Now, the second mode – the ability to exile stuff from graveyards – will only be what you want to do a small percentage of the time, but it does come up on occasion.

Pro Rating: 0.0
Pro Comment: This card is a trap. People look at it and think it will be a worthwhile win condition in a control deck, but setting up is way too hard, the resources it asks for basically put you behind the eight-ball, even as a control deck. You’d much rather just be adding to the board and using your graveyard resources to do so.

Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: A 4-mana 4/4 with Reach and downside doesn’t sound amazing, but it actually lines up fairly well in this format. It is a sizable creature, and as long as you’re just always attacking with him, the fact he can’t block a big chunk of the time doesn’t matter! It is a little annoying that he has Reach – a purely defensive ability – but won’t be able to block with it very often. He does do a good job of stonewalling a board that has like…one flyer and not much else, at least.

Pro Rating: 5.0
Pro Comment: A 4-mana ¾ with flying and Lifelink is already a good. That’s just a lot of value for 4 mana. Those two key words together are quite powerful, because Flying makes the creature hard to block, and lifelink makes it pretty impossible for your opponent to race you, since if this is hitting your opponent, you are creating a 6-point gap between your life total and your opponent’s. Even if it can’t attack, a sizable flying blocker that gains you life is great! But then, of course, it comes with an Absurd Constellation ability – making you a 2/2 every time you play an Enchantment, and oh – by the way, those tokens will have lifelink because the Archon is also a Pegasus lord of course! This set is loaded up with Enchantments, so it isn’t even really necessary to go out of your way to build around this. It is a pretty incredible bomb.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: Now this is premium removal. 4 mana to kill anything at instant speed is already good and obviously 3 mana is Murder and this has the potential to only cost two Black mana! Now, it does matter that this can’t exile stuff -- since Escape puts extra value on cards going to the graveyard, but I think this is so efficient that it is really nitpicky to point that out.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: Her ability to blink creatures every turn isn’t bad -- it can allow you to abuse ETB abilities, and also gives one of your creatures pseudo-vigilance every turn. It also means that she will usually have some impact on the board right away, even if only effectively untapping a creature. Additionally, every color has Enchantment-based removal spells at lower rarities, and Thassa can make those fall off of your creatures. On top of that, if you have a ton of mana lying around, she can tap stuff -- which is a powerful effect -- but it does ask for a lot of mana, though it is a nice mana sink. Then, of course, if your devotion is high enough she becomes a huge, indestructible creature. So, where does that leave us? Well, she needs to be built around a little, and her activated ability is not exactly priced to move, and I think both of those things keep her from being a straight up bomb – but she has the real potential to be a value engine.

Pro Rating: 1.0 // 3.5
Pro Comment: This is a powerful 4-power build around that basically draws you a card every turn when you meet the requirement. Your deck has to have the right composition, but when it does, this will win you games.

Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: The Evangel also helps you avoid the dreaded 2-for-1, since if one of your creatures with an Aura gets killed, you get something back that puts you and your opponent at parity in terms of cards. One kind of weird thing to note about this card, is it doesn’t matter whose creature with an Aura dies, either way, you get the opportunity to put a small creature back into your hand. All that said, I feel like there is a considerable chunk of the time where this is just a 3-mana 2/3.

Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: A two mana 3/1 is already decent enough, and the exile clause here actually comes up in Limited, since there are so many cards with Escape.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: This starts with solid stats, and then has the ability to ping stuff if you cast a spell on an opponents’ turn. That ability often really complicates the board state for your opponent, especially if you have cards in hand on their turn. You can of course threaten to kill X/1s, but the Manticore can also help take down an attacker who was blocked, and can even go after the opponent when you need the reach.