Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

He costs a lot of mana, but if you play him, you’re going to win in almost every situation, and that’s not something you can say about most cards. It will be virtually impossible for your opponent to not get their board wiped by his -X, and then you can just tick him until he wins the game. The mana cost is a big hurdle, but it is one worth jumping over.

Alpine Watchdog

So, a two mana 2/2 with Vigilance is pretty passable. This guy does have some small additional synergies as a result of being a card that the RW signpost uncommon can search up, and that does increase his value for sure.

Angelic Ascension

People always overrate this kind of card. It can do a lot of stuff for sure -- you can use it to downgrade one of your opponent’s creature, or to upgrade one of yours -- the latter is more frequently going to be the plan, because a 4/4 Angel won’t be much of a downgrade most of the time. The ideal thing to do with this is going to be to use it at instant speed somehow -- either on a creature that is going to die to removal anyway, or in response to an opponent attacking, so you can turn your smaller creature into a 4/4 that can block more effectively. All that said, this kind of card pretty much always underperforms. It is exciting to think about turning your one drop into a 4/4 angel -- but you are effectively 2-for-1ing yourself to pull that off, which is a bit dangerous. It can win you the game if your opponent doesn’t have an answer, but if they do – you are going to be in trouble tempo-wise. This is just a solid playable, and not much more.

Anointed Chorister

So, a one mana 1/1 with lifelink is generally not a card worth playing – it just won’t be relevant for very long, but adding an activated ability here makes things interesting. It is by no means an efficient way to pump the chorister, but if you are flooding out it gives you a reasonable mana sink, one that can turn the Chorister into quite the scary attacker in the later part of the game. This format also has life gain payoffs, and that matters too!

Aven Gagglemaster

On its own, this is a 5-mana 4/3 flyer that gains you 2 life when it comes down – that is already a card you always play, and the Gagglemaster gaining you 4 life instead isn’t going to be far-fetched. White decks will always play the first copy of this pretty happily.

Basri Ket

He doesn’t do a great job of protecting himself, but he does do a great job at improving your board state. He can sort of protect himself a little in the sense that he may make one of your creatures into a better blocker, but most of the time Basri wants you to be turning your creatures sideways. You can’t take advantage of indestructibility if you don’t, and you can’t take advantage of his -2 without attacking either. His -2 will be able to just end games sometimes if he comes down late, and that’s going to be awesome, and also means he is good pretty much all game long. His emblem is strong too, churning out tokens and making your whole board bigger every turn is a powerful thing. Even if he just comes down, does his +1, and does his -2 the next turn, you’re usually going to be getting WAY more than 3 mana’s worth of value out of him. Basri is good, but I don’t think he’s a bomb.

Basri's Acolyte

This kind of creature always performs pretty well. You’re adding ⅘ worth of stats to the board for 4 mana, and ⅔ of it is has lifelink. That’s a great deal for a Common especially. And sure, it can’t put the counters on itself ever -- and you need at least two other creatures to really reap all the benefits. Those are limitations to be sure, but not huge ones.

Basri's Lieutenant

This gives you a lot for the investment. A 4-mana ¾ with Vigilance is usually a playable card, and you have a lot more going on here. You get to add a counter to a creature when he comes down -- which includes Basri. So at worst you’r elooking at a 4-mana ⅘ with Vigilance -- and it will be one that, when it dies, creates a 2/2 Knight with vigilance. Protection from multicolored isn’t a huge factor here, but it does matter a little bit.

Basri's Solidarity

This is very hit or miss. If you don’t have a good board state, it isn’t very good. If you have a decen board state, it is alright, and if you’ve gone really wide, it is hugely powerful. Obviously, White, and especially RW is going to be good at going wide, but cards that are sort of all or nothing like this often concern me. I like a card to at least have a reasonable fail case, and that isn’t what we have here, so that does limit it somewhat.

Celestial Enforcer

If you don’t have fliers, you probably hope you don’t play this, but as long as you have 4 or 5 Flyers, this probably gets into the playable range, and that isn’t a crazy thing to achieve. Tap down effects are always nice in Limited, and even a situational one like this is well worth playing.

Concordia Pegasus

This can attack early, but doesn’t exactly do anything super meaningful most of the time. This format does have +1/+1 counters and a flying archetype, and does help make it better. You will play this for sure, but you’ll also cut it a decent chunk of the time.

Containment Priest

This is here to help constructed formats. In Limited, it won’t be very often that non-token creatures are entering the battlefield without being cast. But, the good news is, that a 2-mana 2/2 Flash is probably a C anyway. It can flash in and take down X/2s that cost more mana, or kill 1/1s, and it has what are perfectly solid stats. It isn’t special in Limited, but it is a solid two-drop. That rare moment when you do manage to get someone with the ETB ability will feel incredible, but it won’t happen much.

Daybreak Charger

This is a nice aggressive two drop. It starts with reasonable enough stats and then has a very real ETB ability. Giving something +2/+0 is often enough to enable attack that you didn’t have before, and giving the boost to a creature token or an evasive creature feels particularly satisfying. This is a premiere two-drop for White aggressive decks.

Defiant Strike

If White doesn’t have some sort of theme built around spells or combat tricks, this card is usually not very good. Sure, it does replace itself, but the stats boost is meaningless or may as well be far too often for me to play this most of the time.

Dub

This Aura gives a big enough stats boost and a good enough keyword ability that it is worth the risk of getting 2-for-1’d. It is especially nice on lifelinkers or flyers. Aggro decks will virtually always play the first copy.

Faith's Fetters

This is a great removal spell every time we see it. Sure, it costs twice as much as Pacifism, but I think it more than makes up for it. For one thing, it shuts down activated abilities. For another, it can be used on any permanent that might have a problematic activated ability -- most of the time you’ll wnat to put this on a creature obviously, but that flexibility is nice. Finally, it also gains you 4 life -- which makes it a little less painful to tap out to play this or something like that. Overall, Fetters is great because it does a much better job of entirely shutting down a creature than most White removal spells. Also, the life gain has some extra synergy in this format, so that helps too.

Falconer Adept

While this has some mediocre stats, the plethora of tricks, +1/+1 counters, bounce spells, and more frequently allows this attack more than once, and if you can do that, you’re doing a really good job since that means you are getting 2 birds to come along for the right. You can go wide in a hurry with this.

Feat of Resistance

Protection is just really powerful – the obvious way to use this is to win combat one way or another, by making your creature big enough and also giving it protection from whatever it is in combat with – but you can also use it in response to removal to save a creature, or if your opponent has only blockers of one color and you need evasion for lethal, it can do that too. Not to mention, it puts a +1/+1 counter on the creature, and there is synergy for that in this set. Now, your opponent can still respond to Feat with removal to 2-for-1 you, but the flexibility and upside is real enough that I don’t see a reason to cut the first couple of copies of this in most White decks.

Gale Swooper

These are reasonable stats for an evasive creature. Giving something else Flying is a very real ETB trigger, and one that will frequently make attacks happen that just couldn’t before. I think you always run your first copy of this.

Glorious Anthem

This type of card can be frustrating sometimes, because you get it on a board where you just don’t have much of a presence, but the effect offered by the anthem is pretty powerful, and does impact the board immediately in most cases, enabling attacks that weren’t possible before you played it. You do need to be a heavy creature deck, and going pretty wide to really take advantage of it, but that doesn’t look to be a problem in White decks in this format.

Griffin Aerie

Turning life gain into actual cards feels great, and a 2/2 flyer is definitely a real card -- especially if you can get more than one of them out of this -- even the first one is given to you at a pretty good rate, so if this really starts churning them out things could get interesting. Obviously, you have to have a deck that can not only gain life -- but gain 3 or more life a turn at least a few times a game for this to be worth it, and as a result of that I think we do have to go with a buildaround here. It is stone unplayable in many decks. But in a deck that can really get things going with it, it is going to be one of the best payoffs in your deck, since it provides you with a very real win condition.

Idol of Endurance

Most decks in Limited won’t have enough cards with a CMC of 3 or less to make this worthwhile. Another aspect you have to have is some way of loading up your graveyard. Now, you can accomplish this by trading aggressively in the early game for sure, and that will really pan out sometimes, but the set up cost here is very real. Real enough that this will be a dead card most of the time in the early part of games, and even in the mid-game most of the time. In the late game it is definitely a value engine, provided you were able to exile like 3 things, making sure that you can cast a creature every turn at that stage of the game is a serious advantage. But still, I think for your deck to really succeed with this you have to be doing some strange things. First, you need a low curve, and second, you need to be able to get to the late game. Those two things don’t always go hand in hand.

Legion's Judgment

This being Sorcery speed is kind of sad, because sometimes when it is an Instant, you can use it after combat tricks and things resolve, which can really blow people out. It can kill big stuff, and most people have enough targets that it is a reasonable main deck card, but it is nowhere near premium removal with its major limitations.

Light of Promise

I would advise against play this. If you’re new to my set reviews, you may not know that I absolutely hate Auras that don’t give me some kind of value that actually adds to the board. This is an Aura that does absolutely nothing on its own. You have to have life gain around -- and even though the BW deck in this format is about gaining life, I’m still not interested in an Aura that makes me do extra work to get a bonus. Putting it on something with lifelink is tempting, but I’m going to resist that temptation. I realize that the creature gets absolutely huge as you gain more life, since it gets a counter for every single point of life you gain, but the investment here is huge, risky, and requires some serious help to be worth it. I’m not interested in all of that when I’m putting a 2-for-1 on the line.

Makeshift Battalion

This does a good job of supporting both the go-wide deck and the +1/+1 counter deck. But it isn’t stellar – a 3-mana 3/2 won’t be surviving more attacks, and while a 4/3 has a better shot – it isn’t exactly a juggernaut either.

Mangara, the Diplomat

So, a 4-mana 2/4 with Lifelink is already very playable, and this obviously comes with a ton of extra value, since it punishes opponents for playing more than one spell a turn, or attacking you with one or more creature. It doesn’t straight up stop them from doing those things, but drawing cards any time those things happens is some serious business that will completely change the state of the board in many situations. Now, sometimes it will be too little too late, but most of the time Mangara will shift things in your favor.

Nine Lives

So, for 3-mana you get to prevent 8 separate instances of damage. I say 8, because when the 9th instance of damage happens, Nine Lives goes away and you lose the game. So the question is, how much time are you buying yourself by preventing eight sources of damage? It is a hard question to answer, and one that is highly dependent on what your opponent is doing. If they are an aggro deck, every single one of their creatures that hits you puts a counter on this. If they are a more controlly deck, this is probably more effective, because those decks have fewer creatures and thus fewer sources of damage. It is made stranger by the fact that – in a lot of ways – playing it early is not a good call. Generally, if this is in your hand, you’re going to need to take a lot of hits – get down low on life – before you play it, to take full advantage of what the card can do for you. This is weakened by the fact that there are a few cards in this set that cause a loss of life, instead of damage – too. This means if you DO go really low, there are a few cards that can STILL kill you, and that’s going to be a real bummer. I think overall, this just won’t do enough for you most of the time. It will buy you some time, but cards that do that are rarely worth it in Limited – it isn’t like you are going to combo off or something most of the time. Don’t play this.

Pack Leader

Pack Leader is a really good lord, and is good even on its own. It is a two mana 2/2 that can’t be killed by combat damage when it is attacking, which means that it gives you an attacker every turn that is virtually free -- and your opponent has to respect the fact you might have tricks or other nonsense, so on many board states, they will just have to let it through. Then, you throw in the pump to all Dogs, not to mention the fact that it makes all of them have that damage prevention ability, and you have an impressive little guy right here.

Rambunctious Mutt

He’s just not very efficient if he isn’t taking down an Artifact or Enchantment, and while this format has a decent number of those, it doesn’t have so many that this guy always makes the cut.

Revitalize

This card is normally not worth it. However, this does gain you 3 life, which several cards in this set check for, and if you’re in a deck with several of those payoffs, it is probably going to make the cut a reasonable chunk of the time.

Runed Halo

So, this is sort of like removal. It makes it so that you can sort of disregard your opponent’s best creature in play -- except that the creature can still block your creatures and stuff. It is a pretty sweet answer that can deal with your opponent’s bomb, but it doesn’t really answer that creature, it just makes it worse. So we can’t just say this is removal straight up, and it certainly isn’t premium. And yes, you can gain protection from spells and stuff too, but you’ll rarely do that in Limited.

Sanctum of Tranquil Light

Decks with 3+ Sanctums are a real thing in this format, but this is one of the more underwhelming ones, even when you get your Sanctum stuff going. Tapping stuff down is a good way to prolong the game, and sometimes helps you enable attacks, but the other Sanctums are all better than this one. You’re really only going to play it in a Sanctum deck.

Seasoned Hallowblade

While he isn’t quite as good as Adanto Vanguard, I think the comparison is warranted. Both are great attackers all game long thanks to their ability to become indestructible, and both can even be effective blockers all game long -- if that’s what you need -- because of the ability. Discarding a card is a hefty cost for sure, but generally you’ll be doing it to trade with something of your opponent’s -- whether a creature in combat or a removal spell -- so going down the card isn’t as brutal as it sounds. The fact he has to tap down to become indestructible does mean that your opponent’s removal spells will at least make it tap, and that might be frustrating, but still -- a two-drop that attacks all game long is great. Even just the threat of activation means your opponent will be taking three to the face a lot with this!

Secure the Scene

The flexibility here is pretty nice. However, the mana cost and giving your opponent a 1/1 soldier aren’t so nice – it is especially clunky as a Sorcery. Removing something and then giving your opponent a creature, even a 1/1 creature, is just a huge downside. It really slows you down to not get a whole card of value out of this.

Selfless Savior

One-mana 1/1s are often not very good in Limited because their board presence is so negligible, and they quickly become irrelevant. This Dog comes with an extra ability that is pretty nice though. He can do a bad Mother of Runes impression, in that your opponent always has to contend with the fact that while the Dog is in play, it can be used to really mess up lots of things -- like combat and removal spells.

Siege Striker

So, generally, 3-mana 2/2s with Double Strike are a pretty good rate in Limited and most of the time, this will at least be capable of getting there -- though keep in mind that it can only get bigger from its ability when it attacks, so it doesn’t block quite as effectively as most double strikers. But still, this seems like a nice payoff for going wide, and really generates a creature who can represent a ton of damage on his own. Now, tapping down your creatures when you attack is no joke -- it isn’t something you’ll always have the time to do, and oftentimes just attacking with everything is better. However, sometimes you just need to send in one attacker, and this guy can do that for you.

Speaker of the Heavens

So, let’s look at this on the French Vanilla test first -- how good is a one mana 1/1 with Vigilance and Lifelink in a set that has a reasonable number of +1/+1 counters? It is probably kind of ok, something that will make the cut about half the time. But, if your deck is SUPER good at gaining life, this becomes a very real threat, since churning out 4/4 angels is no joke. Even if you can only get a single Angel out of this, you’re more than getting your mana’s worth -- but gaining 7 in a single turn, even in a format with a lifegain archetype -- is going to be a challenge. You have to really get there on life gain for that to ever happen, and I don’ think you should count on it. Now, if you are in a BW deck that can gain some life, even if 7 seems far-fetched, it is probably worth running this guy, just because you might pull it off a couple of times. But I think that, even in a life gain deck that really gets there, it will be kind of hard to achieve.

Staunch Shieldmate

Well, those are some impressive stats on a one mana creature – we’ve never seen a one mana 1/3 with no downsides at all. That said, while he might do well on the vanilla test, he still isn’t all that impressive in Limited. He is quickly outclassed without some help, and you’ll only play him if you really need a one drop for a super aggro deck.

Swift Response

Two mana to kill a creature at instant speed is a pretty good deal – even if this can only target tapped creatures. That does mean this is not an ideal removal spell for aggro decks, who want to get blockers out of the way – but in more mid-rangey or control decks, this will be a nice spell – one that will usually give you a tempo advantage, and one that can sometimes get blowouts out of the fact that your opponent uses a combat trick while attacking. Now, it is still situational, and as I said all decks don’t want it, so it definitely isn’t premium.

Tempered Veteran

So, this guy starts with some pretty mediocre stats, but he has some nice activated abilities that are solid mana sinks. One mana to add a counter is a great deal -- but it is so efficient because you won’t always be able to do it. Paying 6 for a single counter is less impressive, but in the late game adding a counter every turn even if you are flooding out isn’t too bad, especially because after that first counter you can start paying a single White mana to add additional counters.

Valorous Steed

This is a nice Common. 5-mana for 5/5 worth of Vigilance stats across two bodies is a nice deal, especially in a format with some nice go-wide payoffs. You probably don’t want more than two of these since they cost 5, but it will do some nice work for you in any deck.

Vryn Wingmare

A 3-mana 2/1 flyer is usually borderline playable, but this also comes with a symmetrical tax effect. As a result of that, you don’t really want to be playing this in a deck that has lots of non-creature spells -- but if your deck is mostly creatures, you’re going to be in business with this, since it will hate on your opponent more than you, in addition to having reasonable stats.

Warded Battlements

This is weird because it is a payoff for go-wide aggro decks, where the boost will be the most effective – but also weird because it has Defender, and that’s not usually what you’re looking for in an aggro deck. The Battlements are probably actually at their best in the UW skies deck – those decks usually need blockers on the ground while they attack in the air, and +1/+0 on a bunch of flyers is pretty nice. Still, you don’t even always run it in those decks.

Barrin, Tolarian Archmage

This is Man – O’-War with a bunch of upside, and I’m all about that. Bouncing an opposing permanent is typically what you’ll do, and that will feel really good, since you’re adding to your board and subtracting from your opponent. But what really feels great is to bounce one of your own creatures that has an ETB ability, or that is shut down by an Aura, because you not only get to take advantage of THAT, you also get to net an additional card.

Cancel

This is a hard counter, but three mana is just too much for no other effect. Counterspells have the huge downside of you needing to have mana up at the exact right moment or they do nothing. In most games of Limited, you want to be adding to your board with your mana, and this doesn’t do that – and sometimes, it won’t do anything.

Capture Sphere

This is always pretty good removal for Blue. It doesn’t shut off static abilities, but it does pretty much everything else you’d like from your removal spells.

Enthralling Hold

Mind Control effects are VERY strong, even situational ones. This is because they are effectively removal spells that add to your board. The fact it can only steal tapped creatures is a bit of a let down, since it means that your opponent will generally be getting one hit in with something before you can steal it -- and this being narrow certainly pushes it below “bomb” range. But even with that limitation, this effect is powerful enough that I want to first pick this most of the time when I see it.

Frantic Inventory

I actually enjoy these “Collect ‘em All” type cards in Limited, as they make for interesting decisions even later on in packs. Obviously, you don’t want to play this if you only have 1, it is woefully inefficient -- and even 2 isn’t really where you should be playing it. I think you need to get at least 3 before you start playing it, and any more than that and it becomes increasingly impressive. It doesn’t hurt that UG has payoffs for drawing cards, and UR has payoffs for spells either. Keep in mind, by the way -- in Limited you can play as many copies of something as you can get your hands on, so you can go higher than 4.

Frost Breath

I am never a huge fan of this type of situational effect. Sure, you can use it offensive, to get some attacks in, or defensively, to make a creature miss two rounds of attacks, but there are too many situations where it doesn’t do anything. For these effects to be worth it they usually need something else going on.

Ghostly Pilferer

This is a nice creature. Making it unblockable is nice, and gives you some serious inevitability, and allows for it to be relevant all game long, as does the fact that you can draw cards with it when you untap it and you have some mana available. The part that hates on spells cast from places other than the hand won’t come up a ton, but that’s okay, because the rest of this card is quite good.

Jeskai Elder

A two mana ½ with Prowess isn’t the most amazing -- we have seen a few different two mana 1/3s with Prowess in the past -- but the damage trigger here letting you loot is pretty nice. That said, a ½ can’t really threaten a whole lot of creatures as an attacker, even with Prowess, and the elder will rapidly become irrelevant on many board states, because it just isn’t big enough. It is pretty nice on turn two, but after that it isn’t all that impressive.

Keen Glidemaster

Its nice that this is a two-drop who can stay relevant all game long, since flying definitely allows that.

Library Larcenist

This card is a real overperformer. Blue has enough ways to get creatures through for damage that this draws you a card way more often than you might think on paper.

Lofty Denial

This is pretty terrible if you don’t have a flier, and if you do have one it is pretty passable, but still not great. Counterspells have serious issues in Limited because of how difficult it is to leave mana up for them, and this isn’t even a hard counter.

Miscast

Countermagic that asks for card types that aren’t “creature” generally aren’t worth it in Limited, and this one isn’t either.

Mistral Singer

Wind Drake stats + Prowess = a very good Common for Blue. It will attack well and be a pain to interact with thanks to that Prowess.

Opt

This is always pretty decent, especially in formats that have spell payoffs, and this one does.

Pursued Whale

This is a nice efficient creature, but being a 7-mana 8/8 isn’t what makes this impressive. Giving your opponent that 1/1 token is pretty nice. It has a little bit of upside for your opponent -- after all, you are giving them an extra body -- but it also has the significant downside of making all of your opponent’s creatures attack, right into this 8/8 body and whatever else you have on the board. There will certainly be times where your opponent would have been attacking anyway, and that’s going to suck -- but a decent amount of the time, this will force them to attack before they want to, right into your board, at which point the game might pretty much be over. The Whale also is hard to kill with removal spells because of all the extra mana it asks for to target it -- adding 3 to the cost is no joke, and it means that even if things go badly and the Whale is killed right away, you aren’t taking a huge tempo hit, because it is likely your opponent is paying at least 5 mana to kill it, and usually more.

Rain of Revelation

4 mana to draw 3 and discard one is a great rate, especially at instant speed. It can help you trigger Prowess on your creatures, or can help you activate effects that give you bonuses for drawing extra cards -- in addition to the fact that it just lets you dig pretty deep into your deck. Blue decks will pretty much always want one copy of this, and I think the first copy is actually something to go after pretty aggressively.

Read the Tides

This has two modes, and while it doesn’t do either thing very efficiently, it is nice that it gives you options. Sometimes the bounce effect can win you the game, and when it can’t, you can use this to draw some cards. Now, if you’re behind your opponent it probably won’t help you much, but at parity of if you’re ahead, it is pretty nice.

Rewind

4 mana for a counterspell is a ton, and while this is “free” in a sense, that fact won’t matter in the vast majority of Limited games. You just won’t have another instant or activated ability to spend that untapped mana on most of the time, so you’re just looking at what is basically a 4-mana hard counter, and that’s something that you don’t want to play in Limited. Your opponent playing around it is pretty devastating, and it is a lot harder to do well tempo-wise with a 4-mana counter. I can see decks coming together sometimes that are loaded up with instants and/or activated abilities, in which case it becomes a little better, but I think you steer clear most of the time.

Riddleform

The fail case here is not very good -- an Enchantment that lets you pay 3 mana to Scry 1 is not worth playing. The question becomes: how many times does this have to become a Sphinx to be worth while? And I feel like the answer is: at least twice. And that is perfectly doable within a spells deck, but this card really isn’t going to be the kind of payoff that takes over games for you. It is just a solid payoff you’ll include in your deck.

Roaming Ghostlight

My favorite Common in the set, the Ghostlight is great because it adds to the board while you take away from your opponents’, AND it adds a very relevant evasive body to the board. For a Common, it shifts games way in your favor.

Rookie Mistake

It is hard to line this up in an advantageous way, it is just so weird. However, it is cheap, and this format has spell payoffs, so that saves it from being completely unplayable.

Rousing Read

I’m not usually a fan of Auras that don’t give you some sort of value to off-set their risks -- namely, the risk of getting 2-for-1’d. An Aura has to either give a pretty significant bonus, or off-set that risk with some additional value, to overcome being a card I won’t play. Rousing Read does enough for me to want to play it. It nets you a card when it comes down -- even giving you some card selection, and the bonus it gives is no joke either. +1/+1 and flying is the type of bonus that can dramatically alter a board state. Now, you do still need to be weary of casting this when your opponent has mana up and cards available, because if they kill the target you still get 2-for-1’d, but as long as you’re careful, you’re usually going to be okay with this. It will be particularly nasty on the Megalodon! I’m giving this a C+ -- I think Blue decks will play the first copy of this every time.

Sanctum of Calm Waters

This Sanctum is kind of passable if you don’t have other Sanctums – or at least that’s true if you’re in a reanimator or Teferi’s Tutelage deck, both of which like the repeatable draw effect. It obviously gets significantly better if you’re packing some other Sanctums.

See the Truth

In Limited, you’re just not going to be able to make it so this lets you draw all three cards very often, so it is just a Sorcery speed Anticipate, something that gets cut a lot.

Shacklegeist

This format doesn’t have very many spirits, so this gets a grade mostly on being a nice aggressive flyer. Shipwreck Dowser – 3.5 A 5-mana 3/3 that returns an instant or sorcery to your hand is already a pretty good card -- it can help you get back a powerful removal spell while also having a large enough body to trade with something -- and that’s a 2-for-1.. Adding Prowess to the mix makes it even more appealing, since it can become a 4/4 pretty easily, and usually at Instant speed. Now, there is a downside here -- if your deck doesn’t have a decent number of spells, and you are just playing this as a 5-mana 3/3 that’s not going to feel too good. However, I don’t think it is a stretch to say most decks will have 4 or 5 instants or soceries, and if that’s the case you’re looking at a pretty good card.

Shipwreck Dowser

A 5-mana 3/3 that returns an instant or sorcery to your hand is already a pretty good card -- it can help you get back a powerful removal spell while also having a large enough body to trade with something -- and that’s a 2-for-1.. Adding Prowess to the mix makes it even more appealing, since it can become a 4/4 pretty easily, and usually at Instant speed. Now, there is a downside here -- if your deck doesn’t have a decent number of spells, and you are just playing this as a 5-mana 3/3 that’s not going to feel too good. However, I don’t think it is a stretch to say most decks will have 4 or 5 instants or soceries, and if that’s the case you’re looking at a pretty good card.

Spined Megalodon

Big hexproof guys like this usually can find a place in Limited. They are at their best in more controlling decks, as it provides a large Blocker who your opponent just can’t interact with. Hexproof creatures also tend to be good places to put Auras, since getting 2-for-1’d when you put it on a hexproof creature is so unlikely. It is a nice bit of additional value that this Scries when you attack with it, too. UB Reanimator is a very real deck in this format, and this is one of the Commons that you’re pretty happy to play there.

Stormwing Entity

I would definitely sign up for a 5-mana 3/3 that had Scry 2 in most decks, but this has a whole bunch of addition text! Prowess means it will often be larger and will really be a nuisance in combat for your opponent, and the fact that it can reduce its cost is pretty crazy too. If you have enough instants and sorceries around, double-spelling this won’t be a crazy thing to do at all -- it will be pretty commonplace, provided you have stuff that costs between 1 and 3, anyway. And if you are casting this for three mana you’re getting an insane deal! So, this gives you a sizable and efficient body in the sky, in addition to smoothing out your draws, and that is a pretty great card for Limited.

Sublime Epiphany

Ok so, even with the bottom 3 options -- returning a nonland permanent, creating a token copy of a creature you control, and drawing a card, you’re looking at a super powerful card in Limited that will net you a 2-for-1 at least, and allow you to really disrupt your opponent -- you might bounce their best creature, and create a token copy to block one of their other creatures, for example. Then, you add the counter-magic aspect of the card into the mix and it gets even sillier! If you actually counter a spell with this AND do all that other stuff, you’re going to be getting at least a 3-for-1. Now, it is going to be tempting to be greedy with this, and hold on to it until you can counter something -- but it will often be optimal to just go for it when you have the bottom three options, so be ready to be flexible with this. Overall, I think this spell has such a massive impact on the game that I’m willing to consider it a bomb.

Teferi, Master of Time

Teferi brings an interesting static ability to the table -- being able to use loyalty abilities at instant speed is pretty crazy, and it means you can use them on your turn and on your opponent’s turn. His abilities are pretty great, too -- looting twice every turn is no joke, and making an opposing creature phase out can certainly protect him to some degree, and then obviously enough, his ultimate is crazy and will win the game on the spot. I think frequently you’ll play Teferi, loot, and then use the phase out ability on your opponent’s turn to keep him alive for another couple of turns. That will usually be enough to keep him around enough to help you loot three times, plus he absorbs some damage -- and that’s without him having a ton of protection to protect him anyway. Teferi helps you rip through your deck, messes with your opponent’s board, and can end the game with his ultimate.

Teferi's Ageless Insight

This is a win more card, and it doesn’t directly impact the board in any real way, and that always sends up a red flag for me. Now, there is a decent amount of looting and card draw in this set, and the Insight is definitely a payoff for a UR deck that is going to be about drawing extra cards, and there are some very real payoffs for that (including another card with “Teferi” in its name we will see momentarily), but even with that as a supported archetype, it is far from a foregone conclusion that Teferi’s Ageless Insight will be worth running in all of your Blue decks, or even all of your UR decks. That said, if you can turn this into the engine that it has the potential to be, it is going to feel pretty awesome. It probably needs to net you 3 cards before you feel great about the situation.

Teferi's Protege

Looting is nice because it helps you get through your library and gives you nice card selection. This looter also comes with reasonable stats for the investment as a ⅔. It is somewhat limited as a looter since it asks for two mana every time you do it, but that’s ok -- it is a good place to be spending your mana as the game goes long, and it will definitely have a positive impact on the outcome of long games. This is a solid Blue common.

Teferi's Tutelage

This card is a surprising powerhouse. There are enough draw effects in this format that Tutelage decks are a very real thing in the format, and if you end up with two of these you’ve got a really good chance of hitting 7 wins, as you’ll just mill your opponent out before they know what hit them. Even the first copy is a nice win condition in control decks.

Tide Skimmer

A 4-mana ⅔ flyer is generally not worth playing unless you’re desperate – but this brings a pretty sweet ability to the table that can really turn into a card-drawing engine. Sure, you have to have other flyers around -- but even if you only have like 4 flyers in your deck, you will be playing Tide Skimmer. Obviously this pairs the best with White, because those are the two colors with the most flying, and sometimes this will really take over games in a deck with a ton of flyers.

Tolarian Kraken

This guy is a bit clunky but his ability is an alright thing to have around. At worse, you can do it once on your turn to get a blocker out of the way and enable some nice attacks. If you have some ways to draw cards at Instant speed -- and you probably will in Blue -- that will be even better, because it will let you tap down things on your opponent’s turn which will also prevent a creature from attacking. The 1 generic mana is a very reasonable cost for this nice effect. All that said, the mediocre stats do definitely hold this card back.

Tome Anima

This card seems like it would be solid, but it just isn’t. It has mediocre stats that make it a liability as a blocker in many situations, and even as an unblockable attacker it doesn’t really feel that great.

Unsubstantiate

Two mana to bounce a creature at Instant speed alone is usually playable, and this comes with the added upside of being able to target spells that are on the stack. This effectively allows you to counter things -- though, if your opponent has the mana to just play it again -- and they will sometimes -- it isn’t going to be worth it. You do go down a card just for tempo with a card like this, but that is often worth it.

Vodalian Arcanist

This two-mana 1/3 does a good job of blocking early, and then gives you some nice extra mana to utilize.

Waker of Waves

This card is pretty awesome. When you play it as a creature it gives you a huge body that immediately impacts the board by lowering the power of your opponents’ creatures, and that already would probably be playable, but it really gets pushed over the edge by its pseudo-cycling effect. You can use it in the early game to help you hit a land drop or find something else you need, and this plan gets even more attractive in UB, where reanimator decks are quite powerful. This is the premiere non-rare creature you want in that deck, since it is great to reanimate and it comes with a way to put itself in the graveyard.

Wall of Runes

This is a decent inclusion if you’re really defensive, but even there it isn’t great.

Wishcoin Crab

This has stats that line up reasonably well against early attackers, and if you’re in the market for that, you’ll probably play it.

Alchemist's Gift

This is a decent trick, if you choose the deathtouch option you will be virtually guaranteeing that you kill the other creature, and that can be particularly spicy against a double block. You’ll choose the lifelink option if you just need the stats boost to win combat.

Archfiend's Vessel

So, this isn’t very good unless you’re in a reanimator deck. If that’s what you’re up to, this is a great uncommon for you, since reanimating the vessel gives you a huge flying demon token.

Bad Deal

This card is exactly what its name is. It is tempting to imagine the 4-for-1 this gives you in ideal scenarios, but it just doesn’t happen. It is mostly just a bad draw spell.

Blood Glutton

This doesn’t have great stats, but trading with it and gaining some life is surprisingly decent, and it is a way to repeatedly gain life, something that the life gain decks really want.

Caged Zombie

It seems like this ability would be a nice way to close out games, and it is sometimes, but it is more challenging to set up than it looks at first, since you need a creature to die and you need to have mana available to use the ability.

Carrion Grub

So, how high does the power need to be here for you to feel like you’re doing alright? Well, honestly, a 4-mana ⅖ is a decent enough deal -- especially when it mills you four cards and enables ograveyard strategies like this can, and I think most of the time you won’t have a problem getting this to be a ⅖, and it will often be larger. It doesn’t have evasion or anything, but the self-mill and good blocker -- which can later become a better attacker potentially too -- is pretty nice. I like that they decided to let its power continue to change while it is in play, instead of simply having it check what the highest power is when it comes down, too. This may have some potential combat-trick-esque effect -- say, if you can sacrifice a creature or discard a card or mill yourself at instant speed, and suddenly bump its power up.

Crypt Lurker

This card really ended up overperforming. It helps you set up things for the reanimator deck, and its ¾ body lines up surprisingly well, and sacrificing a creature to this ends up making sense more often than you’d think too.

Deathbloom Thallid

This is always a nice creature when we see it. It has decent stats for attacking, blocking, or trading, and then gives you a 1/1 when it dies, which is pretty good for the overall investment.

Demonic Embrace

This card makes any creature into a threat, and then when that creature dies, you just get it back. This is a hard card to beat.

Duress

This is too narrow of a discard spell to every play in your main deck.

Eliminate

This does an efficient job of killing small creatures at Instant speed, and that makes it premium removal.

Fetid Imp

Creatures with death touch are always nice because they can trade with pretty much anything, and Fetid Imp can trade for way more than to having Flying! And, in the mean time, it isn’t a bad attacker in the air.

Finishing Blow

This is a little bit expensive, but it can kill pretty much everything and it does at Instant speed, so the 5 mana is well worth it.

Gloom Sower

This card is mostly not very good – it has low toughness for the cost and is very easy to take down. However, it does slot reasonably well into the UB reanimator deck, and that helps make it a more appealing card.

Goremand

This is a very efficient Flyer that comes with all kinds of upside! It has a little downside too, since you have to sacrifice a creature to cast it, but that is often worth it for a creature this imposing, especially because it subtracts from the opponents’ board too. Where it gets really nasty is in the reanimator deck, where you don’t end up actually sacrificing anything, and your opponent still does.

Grasp of Darkness

This is premium removal, it kills things really efficiently. The one downside is that it costs double Black, but if you’re playing a Black deck that isn’t much of a downside.

Grim Tutor

Grim Tutor is great in a 99-card singleton format where you get to build your deck out of any and all the cards ever, since it will be netting you a powerful card or one that is great in a given situation -- in Limited, Grim Tutor’s functionality is nowhere near as high. Sure, you can get that removal spell you need, or find a bomb, but paying 3 mana and 3 life for that isn’t a great deal, especially because for many cards you search up, you won’t be able to cast it the turn you get it either! In many ways, this amounts to a 3-mana draw 1 -- it is admittedly a little better than that -- but still, I only see myself playing this in a super controlling deck that is planning on winning with an incredible bomb, because in those situations you have a few targets that are at least intriguing, but even then I’m not very interested din this.

Hooded Blightfang

A 3-mana is already a solid playable -- being able to block and survive against so many creatures is great, and with deathtouch around, the best your opponent will be able to do is trade. The Blightfang, though, can actually be aggressive as far as 1/4s go, because it drains 1 life when it attacks, meaning it threatens 2 damage any time it attacks, while gaining you one life, and a ¼ Deathtouch isn’t something that is easy to block on many board states. The planeswalker aspect will come up, but only very rarely. Obviously, the more deathtouch creatures you have, the better, but even on its own, Blightfang is a good card defensively and offensively, and I think it does enough to get into the lower range of first pickable.

Infernal Scarring

I generally don’t like this when we see it. It does replace itself if the creature dies, but it just gives such an underwhelming statsboost. You’ll play it in more aggressive decks, but even then it won’t always make the cut.

Kaervek, the Spiteful

Because his effect is symmetrical, you don’t really want to be playing him in a deck with lots of X/1s, or even a deck that is very creature heavy. That said, you do pretty much always come out ahead with Kaervek, since the whole board is weakened and you added a creature to the board. There will certainly be times where playing him isn’t advantageous for you, but his effect is big enough and irreplaceable enough that I think he’s usually worth it.

Kitesail Freebooter

This is a nice disruptive creature that also comes with some reasonable French Vanilla stats. Even though they get the creature back if they kill him, he will usually have disrupted their plan enough to really cause them problems, while also still getting traded for 1-for-1.

Liliana, Waker of the Dead

So, this new Liliana seems nice for Limited, though I don’t think she’s a bomb. Her +1 is nice because it simultaneously takes cards away from the opponent, eventually damaging them if they don’t make sure they have something to discard. That discard effect is symmetrical, so keep that in mind -- but it also synergizes well with her -3, which is a nice effect if you can get some cards in your graveyard. Cards in your graveyard will happen organically of course, but there will undoubtedly be times where she comes down and the best you can do with it is give -1/-1 to something, which won’t be enough a lot of the time, especially as you lower her loyalty to one. Her ultimate is also powerful, and synergizes with her +1 quite well. It is definitely the kind of ultimate that can end games, and it is great you reap the rewards right away -- not only does the creature reanimate when you go to combat, it has Haste, so you can send it in right away if you need to. So, I think the whole package here is a very good card for Limited, but she isn’t a bomb planeswalker -- those are the kinds that can actively protect themselves, and have removal effects that take a lot less effort than Liliana.

Liliana's Devotee

So, there are enough Zombies in this set that a 3-mana ⅔ that gives +1/+0 to all Zombies is probably worth playing already, but I think what makes this card extra good is the ability to make a Zombie token at the end of your turn if a creature died that turn. Obviously, it will be a 3/2 Zombie as long as the Devotee is around. Paying two mana just won’t be possible sometimes, but it is the kind of thing that can really torment your opponent late, since you will be able to attack aggressively into their trades, and then get a Zombie at the end of your turn. I think the reasonable floor here, coupled with a fairly powerful ability, makes Devotee a card that I want to be taking with a first pick sometimes.

Liliana's Standard Bearer

This has Flash, but most of the time you won’t be taking advantage of it by flashing this in to block, since it obviously isn’t so good at that. Instead, it having Flash makes it so that you have a much wider window to take advantage of the ETB ability. If your board gets wrecked on your opponents’ turn, you can still Flash in the bearer at the end of their turn and draw some cards, and generally just drawing one card with this feels pretty good! And sometimes you’ll be able to do significantly more than that.

Liliana's Steward

I don’t like this very much. Sure, it is a one drop that can kind of stay relevant all game, but its relevance is basically always very small. A one mana ½ is quickly outclassed in Limited, and giving this up to make your opponent discard a card of their choice doesn’t seem great to me either.

Malefic Scythe

A two mana Equipment that costs 1 to equip and gives +1/+1 would be a card that is already a borderline playable, and this thing just keeps getting better and more efficient as the game goes on.

Masked Blackguard

This is something you play sometimes, it is a two-drop that maintains some relevancy all game long because of its ability, even if the creature itself and its ability are pretty darn inefficient.

Massacre Wurm

A 6-mana 6/5 that gives -2/-2 to only your opponent’s creatures is very powerful. Obviously this can kill X/2s outright, but you can also set up situations where he comes down and kills bigger things too, if you attack your opponent and they block in various ways. The life loss is no joke either, and -- as the name implies, this can really massacre the board and your opponent in many scenarios. You can also play it in your first mainphase to enable attacks, and then force your opponent into ugly blocks they have to do to survive, while they still lose life. Sometimes it will just be a 6/5, but that won’t happen often, and as far as fail cases go, it could be worse!

Mind Rot

This is always underwhelming. It can 2-for-1 your opponent early, but at the cost of you not developing the board, and then in the late game it often does nothing.

Necromentia

This type of card is always bad in Limited, because 1) it doesn’t impact the board at all, and 2) It is difficult to know what to name in Limited, especially in Bo1, and 3) even if you DO hit something with it, you have to think about how likely it was your opponent would have drawn the card anyway -- and in most cases, it isn’t that likely. So generally if you’re playing this, you are basically mulliganing and paying 3 mana with your opening hand -- so don’t do it.

Peer into the Abyss

Well, this is pretty wacky, and definitely a “Greatness at any cost” card for Black decks. So, a lot of the time this will help you reload your hand, and not only that, but you’ll end up with some insane card selection, keeping whatever cards are the best in the top half of your deck. Keep in mind, if you are spending the 7 on this, you probably aren’t doing anything else on your turn, so you won’t get to hold on to all of those cards, you’ll have to discard down to 7. The fact that this doesn’t do anything to change the board is a bit of a concern, as if you’re behind you’re just going to end up even further behind after you cast this. Sure, if you get to untap you might be ok, but it will be hard to find the time to cast this -- and don’t forget you’re also lowering your life while you’re at it. It seems too expensive to really be something most decks want.

Pestilent Haze

This kind of card is usually not ultra impressive in Limited. It is hard to find situations where this really works -- you need it to impact your opponent’s side of the board more or it just isn’t worth it. And while the loyalty counters thing is a nice additional option, it won’t come up much in Limited.

Rise Again

5-mana to reanimate is not usually very good in Limited, but this format is the exception to that rule. There is a very real and well-supported reanimation deck, and this Common is one of the key cards for it.

Sanctum of Stone Fangs

This is the best of the Sanctum cycle, and really the only one you consistently play on its own. Draining an opponent every turn really adds up, and gives you some serious inevitability.

Sanguine Indulgence

Most Black decks are after the first copy of this, even if they can’t get life gain going. Paying 4 to get back two creatures is pretty reasonable, and the kind of thing that can help you win the long game.

Silversmote Ghoul

A 3-mana 3/1 that can sacrifice itself to draw a card is already solid, but this does a whole lot more. Gaining 3 life a turn is fairly attainable, and even just getting this guy back once is not going to be fun for your opponent, as it will usually represent a 2-for-1. Creatures who don’t stay dead, and just keep coming back and attacking -- even if they are somewhat fragile, like the Ghoul, are excellent in limited, because card advantage really is king, and that’s what he’ll generate for you. I really like that this has a reasonable floor, and an impressive ceiling.

Skeleton Archer

There are lots of X/1s in this format, so this really overperforms. Doesn’t hurt that it can go after the opponent too sometimes.

Tavern Swindler

This weird card is mostly here as another way to help the BW deck gain 3 or more life in a turn, thus triggering all the payoffs.

Thieves' Guild Enforcer

This will have the stats boost and death touch some of the time, but don’t count on it being consistent, unless you’re in a mill deck, which is definitely a thing in this format, but not something that always works out.

Village Rites

I think it is fair to compare this to Tormenting Voice. Both cost you two cards to get you two cards. And yes, there are some differences -- the Rite needs a creature in play and it is an Instant, but I think this will serve a similar purpose. If you have lots of creature tokens, or use it in response to removal, or sacrifice a creature shut down by an Aura, it is going to feel pretty good -- and if you have sacrifice synergies it will be a little better to, but I think that it only makes the cut in your deck about half of the time, and usually just barely as a 23rd or 24th card.

Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose

Vito might be a low-drop, but he really takes over games. If you already have ways to gain life he gets better, but because he can give your whole board lifelink anyway, he can really just do it all on his own – well, I guess he needs creatures, but you know what I mean. The damage he does and the life he gains you adds up in a big way, and he tends to be unbeatable if he is on the board for long.

Walking Corpse

This is a vanilla two drop that you’ll play only out of desperation.

Witch's Cauldron

This isn’t super well-positioned in this format. It is challenging to find yourself in situations where you can really abuse this, and it often just sits on the table doing very little.

Battle-Rattle Shaman

This type of effect is easy to underrate, I think -- but don’t make that mistake! +2/+0 to a creature every combat makes creatures able to attack that could not have attacked before! This is especially spicy with creature tokens, who are pretty expendable, but turning them into 3/1s makes them into more of a problem for your opponent. Note by the way, in a pinch, the Shaman can also target himself, making the fail case of the card less miserable than it would have been otherwise. I’m not saying I think you should take this super early or anything -- after all, the creature has a pretty weak body for 4 mana, even if it can be a 4/2 on your turn -- but it is a serviceable card for Red decks that will really help them find ways to send in attackers in a way they couldn’t before.

Bolt Hound

A 3-mana 2/2 with Haste usually isn’t anything special, but this is a lot more than that. The Warcry effect here will be adding additional damage to the board, and will often enable creatures to attack who just couldn’t before. The Hound is obviously going to really shine in aggro decks, especially those that go wide. And, if you can keep it alive after that first attack, it will do it again on the next turn! There will definitely be some games that start with 2-drop, bolt hound, and attack for 5 -- and then you can do it again the next turn!

Bone Pit Brute

This isn’t terrible to have at the top of your curve. His own stats aren’t great, but at least he has Menace! The fact he gives +4/+0 to something when he comes down is what keeps him from being completely terrible, though. That will often make an attack happen that just couldn’t before.

Burn Bright

I never love this kind of mass pump effect in Limited. I like to get a toughness boost too, because that makes it far more flexible. If your creature was dead when your opponent blocked, it still will be even if you use this, and that means that this is really only worthwhile when you can do straight up lethal, really limiting its prospects.

Chandra, Heart of Fire

Her first +1 can give you some serious card advantage in the later stages of the games, effectively allowing you to draw 3 cards a turn once you end up in a situation where you don’t have cards in your hand. Sure, you won’t be able to play them all every turn, but the ability will still result in being an additional card on turns in the late game at worst. Her +1 kills small creatures, or can even threaten your opponent by damaging them. A planeswalker who can draw cards and be repeatable removal tends to be good, and that’s what we have here. Her ultimate is no joke either, since she will often be letting you cast enough spells that you can end the game. Theoretically you will have the 5 mana you used to play her +6 thefrom the ability, so you get to search up at least 11 mana worth of spells and just fire them all of on the same turn.

Chandra's Incinerator

So the worst case here is a Red colossal dreadmaw, and that is reasonable, but this does more than that -- since it can reduce its cost, and allow you to turn burn you point at your opponent into removal spells. Now, setting this all up won’t be incredibly easy in Limited, but most Red decks will have sources of non-combat damage, and just having a few of those will usually make this a really good card for you. If you can do 3 to your opponent and kill their X/3, you’re going to be getting some serious value no matter what -- and if you can do it multiple times, it will just be silly. It takes some setting up, but nothing insane -- and for htat reason I think this is worth taking early, especially with such a reasonable floor.

Chandra's Magmutt

This has Grizzly Bear stats and the ability to do 1 to the opponent every turn, and that ability means that the Magemutt stays relevant all game long, after being a decent play on turn two. This will end up threatening a lot of extra damage on the opponent.

Chandra's Pyreling

So, two mana 1/3s are borderline playables most of the time, and this does come with some upside -- noncombat damage turning this into a ⅔ double striker is no joke, and just the threat of that happening will often mean your opponent is unable to block it effectively, so they have to risk getting hit for 4. As we’ve already seen, there are ways to do noncombat damage -- like the Magemutt and various burn spells, so it isn’t a pipe dream to make that happen. That said, you also will be hard-pressed to end up with a legit burn deck in Limited that can trigger this all the time -- instead, its somewhere in the middle.

Conspicuous Snoop

This card is pretty neat -- and even quite powerful -- but that’s probably only true in constructed formats. This set just doesn’t have enough Goblins for playing this to make sense. Sure, his baseline is as a 2-mana 2/2 that gives you information about the top card of your library -- but it is information you’re also giving your opponent, so that upside is kind of a wash. It has a challenging casting cost for turn two as well, and that makes it a bit worse, because it isn’t even a regular old easy-to-cast Girzzly Bear, having two Red on turn two is not a guarantee. I think all of that means you only play this in this format int he worst of situations.

Crash Through

This is nice in the spells deck, since it triggers a bunch of stuff and replaces itself, but pretty much unplayable everywhere else.

Destructive Tampering

This is mostly a sideboard card, but if you’re in a really aggressive deck, consider playing one of them because they give you a way to win a game even if your opponent stabilizes.

Double Vision

It looks like a lot of fun because that text box is so sweet, but the fact is that it is a 5-mana Enchantment that doesnt’ do anything to impact the board immediately, something that can get you in a lot of trouble. If you untap things can get pretty sweet -- but they aren’t guaranteed to at all, you have to have an instant or sorcery to get copied to reall reap the rewards. Your average limited deck has 3-5 instants and sorceries, and that’s nowhere near enough. You have to really get there on instants and sorceries to ever want to be playing this, and while I think that’s doable, it isn’t going to be easy. For that reason, I think I would say most decks in this format should not be playing this, but if you get -- say, 10+ instants or sorceries, it becomes worth doing. Keep in mind you can’t chain a bunch of instants and sorceries together and get copies of all of them in one turn, this only works on the first instant or sorcery on a given turn.

Fiery Emancipation

Triple damage is some pretty exciting text, and while this is kind of a clunky Enchantment, it will normally have a huge and immediate impact on the board -- provided you have creatures, it is going to make your board incredibly frightening the turn it comes down. No matter what creatures you have, as long as you have a few, this will usually be a huge issue for your opponent. Now, it does have an ugly fail case where you have like one thing in play, but the decks that want to play this in Limited will be fairly creature heavy. Even if you’re behind, it suddenly makes your blockers a heck of a lot more lethal.

Furious Rise

This is a nice 4-power payoff. It effectively draws you an extra card every turn, and that’s the kind of advantage that will win you the game after you trigger it a few times -- it is just hard for your opponent to keep up with that. It is obviously a build around -- an aggressive Red deck that doesn’t have creatures with high power won’t play this, and it is unlikely a UR spells type deck would either -- this is mostly here for the RG deck, which is all about 4 or more power.

Furor of the Bitten

This gives a reasonable boost for the cost, but probably not quite enough to be worth the risk of a 2-for-1, especially because you can end up setting yourself up for the 2-for-1 just by playing this, since it forces your creature to attack. It can also be used to force an opposing creature to attack, but that additional use still doesn’t make it very good.

Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge

So, the fail case here is a 3-mana 5/4 Flyer with Defender -- that’s actually a kind of reasonable card in Limited. It can lock down lots of creatures for a reasonable investment. Making a treasure token at your end step for every nontoken creature that died during your turn is pretty nice -- it gives you a solid source of fixing and ramp, something Red doesn’t always have access to. In addition to that, if you have enough artifacts -- which Treasure tokens are -- Gadrak can start attacking, and that will be pretty sweet. Keep in mind, you can play this after a particularly messy combat, you may find yourself making a ton of treasure. Most of the time, it is probably reasonable to expect he makes you one treasure on a given turn -- but that’s still pretty nice.

Goblin Arsonist

So, this is a one mana creature that can trade up for X/2s, and even threaten 2-for-1s when your opponent has two X/1s in play. It can also just ping the opponent for one when that is going to be meaningful. It also has a little bit of extra value in the Sacrifice deck, since it will give you some sort of value in addition to whatever the sacrifice effect gives you.

Goblin Wizardry

This slots in nicely into the spell deck, because it IS a spell that will trigger your spell payoffs, and it creates two tokens who are spell payoffs too.

Havoc Jester

So, a 5-mana 5/5 is usually pretty solid in Limited, and this comes with some powerful upside -- letting you ping something every time you sacrifice a permanent. It does this without asking for an additional mana investment of any kind -- so, as we saw with Mayhem Devil in the past -- that is a very powerful ability. You have to end up with some sacrifice action going on, but if you’re in Black-Red especially that won’t be all that hard. On top of that, the floor here is just very reasonable, as it is an efficient creature.

Heartfire Immolator

This is a strong Uncommon. You could take Prowess away from this and have it be good, or you could take the Sacrifice effect away and it would probably STILL be good. The two abilities together have synergy too, obviously, since Prowess will raise his power. Basically this is a two drop that is relevant all game long, can attack well and threaten to grow, and has an ability that can function as removal.

Hellkite Punisher

This is a big ol’ dragon, and it is going to be an alright finisher for some decks. Costing 7 and not doing SOMETHING that allows it to leave value behind even if it dies is pretty rough though, and there are going to be some big swings in games where one player sticks this and can swing for 10+ the next turn -- but if the opponent has any removal at all, the player who played the Punisher is going to be in a world of hurt because of the tempo.

Hobblefiend

This guy can starts out reasonable and can get progressively larger throughout the game, something that pairs quite well with Trample. It is a very reasonable card for setting up sacrifice payoffs, since it can do it so cheaply.

Igneous Cur

This thing is a borderline playable on its own, but it can be fetched by the RW signpost uncommon, increasing its value a little bit.

Kinetic Augur

This gives you some nice card selection and in a spell deck can often actually represent a pretty real threat, too. It is a little bit awkward alongside the UR signpost, which returns instants or sorceries to your hand, which is a bit of a nonbo alongside the Augur, but I still like it.

Onakke Ogre

3-mana 4/2s are borderline playables, and this set has various payoffs for 4 power, so you’ll play this a little more than you might think.

Pitchburn Devils

This has terrible stats, but it has a death trigger which allows it to trade for things with 6 power, or – even better, can sometimes allow you to get a 2-for-1. That said, it is hard to overcome the inefficiency here.

Sanctum of Shattered Heights

This is not very good unless you’re in a Sanctum deck, where it does two key things. First, it is removal, and second it gives you something to do with your duplicate sanctums.

Scorching Dragonfire

This is really efficient removal, and the exile clause is nice. This is definitely premium.

Shock

This almost always trades up, and it can even do the last 2 damage to your opponent. This is premium removal.

Soul Sear

3-mana to do 5 at Instant speed is quite good, and certainly premium removal. That is not hard to trade up with, and it can really manufacture some blowouts thanks to it being an Instant. The “turn off indestructible” part of the card usually won’t make a huge difference, but it will matter sometimes.

Spellgorger Weird

This is definitely a build around. Most decks can get away with playing it, but it will really only be the UR deck that can take full advantage, turning into a full-fledged win condition.

Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner

A 3-mana ⅔ with Haste is usually in the lower range of playable, and she comes with two nice activated abilities. Making other power 2 or less creatures unblockable for only a single mana means that she can represent some serious inevitability for your opponent, and her card draw effect is a great way to help an aggressive Red deck reload. Red decks are notorious for running out of gas too early, but Soubira makes it hard for that to happen.

Sure Strike

This trick virtually always allows your creature to win combat, and that’s the kind of trick that aggressive decks are after.

Terror of the Peaks

Well, this is a bomb. You can really tell because when you chop up the card, it is still really good. Take away any of the three abilities it has, and it would still be incredibly good! But it has all of them -- including a highly efficient evasive body, an effect that punishes opponents if they kill it, and the last ability which really pushes it into insane territory, which lets you turn every creature you play into a removal or burn spell. I like that even if they kill it before you get to untap and go crazy, they are at least taking 3 damage, too.

Thrill of Possibility

This is an upgraded Tormenting Voice, and I’m all for that in a format with lots of spell payoffs! This lets you dig deeper into your deck and improve your card quality, so you’ll play that first copy a decent chunk of the time.

Traitorous Greed

Threaten effects need a lot of work to be good in Limited, and I don’t see the necessary pieces here, even if this does make you treasure. You have to win the game when you cast them or they are virtually useless, and that’s just too narrow.

Transmogrify

Well, Red usually gets at least one Rare or Mythic that is a super random card that looks like fun, but isn’t so good in Limited, and that’s what we have here. Most of the ways you could use this, you are really relying on chance. If you use it on your opponent, you have to hope they get a worse creature -- something that is a safe bet if they have a bomb in play, but something that is definitely not guaranteed against most creatures. If you use it on yourself, you kind of have to hope that you hit something better. Now, sure -- you could use this on a creature token, but even in cashing in a token for a random creature for 4 mana isn’t going to be worth it way too often. I think it is best to steer clear of this.

Turn to Slag

This is clunky as heck, but it does kill most things, and there is enough good Equipment in this format that you’ll even blow up some Equipment sometimes. It isn’t premium removal, but it is serviceable.

Turret Ogre

This has decent stats to begin with, and then it is a nice 4-power payoff that has 4-power itself, making it slot quite nicely into the RG deck especially.

Unleash Fury

This kind of card is pretty bad in Limited. It really only does something worthwhile if your creature goes unblocked and you can kill your opponent. It won’t workout especially well as more of a combat trick, because chances are good your creature is still gonna die. It gets a little better if you have some First Strikers and tramplers, but I still don’t like it very much.

Volcanic Geyser

So, this is never going to efficiently do damage – it just can’t how it is costed. However, it makes up for some of that with its flexibility. It scales as the game goes on and can even go for the opponents’ dome, and it does it all at Instant speed.

Volcanic Salvo

It is easier than it looks to cast this for a reasonable cost, and when you do, you pretty much always get a 2-for-1, and that really reshapes the board.

Azusa, Lost but Seeking

So, this card is great in some constructed formats, like Modern, and it is a great reprint for EDH too -- but in Limited? She’s not very good. Yes, playing extra lands is great -- but the decks that can really abuse her in constructed are capable of things you just won’t be able to do in Limited -- like drawing tons of cards, or playing and replaying lands that bounce over and over again. She will sometimes come down on turn three and let you get to 5 or 6 mana on the next turn, and that will be nice -- but it isn’t going to be what happens with her most of the time. You frequently won’t have the extra lands to really take advantage of her ability, and if you draw her in the mid-to-late-game she is all but useless.

Burlfist Oak

This will always be at least a 4/5 on your turn, and it can always threaten to get even larger with Instant speed draw spells. It is a little less impressive as a blocker, though, and it does die to lots of removal when its vulnerable.

Canopy Stalker

Creatures who force your opponent to block them are pretty nice, as they really complicate combat for an opponent. Life gain being attached to this is kind of nice too. But still, stats aren’t great here, and your opponent will frequently just put a 2/X in front of it and be fine. I think this is a solid playable, but not much more.

Colossal Dreadmaw

Look, its the Dreadmaw! I’m not sure we’ve ever seen THIS card before. But if I had to guess, I’d say that a 6-mana 6/6 with Trample is a reasonable die, and a fine thing to top your curve with.

Cultivate

This is a pretty classic ramp spell, and it is one I always like in Limited. This is because it also provides great fixing, potentially even enabling you to splash a double-colored card, since it can grab you two lands. This is definitely fixing you’re going to be on the look out for if it looks like you’re going to be a three colored deck, and even if you aren’t, there will be some decks interested in the ramp this can give you.

Drowsing Tyrannodon

A two-mana 3/3 is an excellent blocker in the early game that represents a real obstacle for aggressive opponents. Making into an attacker isn’t hard either, as he counts himself, so just putting one piece of equipment or one counter on the Tyrannodon makes it so he can rumble with his impressively efficient stats.

Elder Gargaroth

A 5-mana 6/6 with those three keywords is great, and there’s way more than that here! Most often, you’ll probably find yourself making a Beast token or drawing a card. The Beast token option is great, because it allows you to add to the board in a very tangible way That option makes it so you can be pretty aggressive on many board states, since it provides you with an extra blocker. Drawing a card is something worth doing if you already have a nice board presence, and gaining life is something you’ll do when you’ll be dead when you don’t do it. The fact it gives you an option between these three things are great, and the fact that it has Vigilance and Reach means that it will often be doing these things when your opponent attacks too, since you’ll generally be able to block their stuff. Now, while the Gargaroth does a great job of giving you value if you go to combat, he is vulnerable to removal spells, since he doesn’t make sure you get something out of the deal in that situation, but still. His size means there isn’t a plethora of removal that can deal with him at lower rarities, and really pointing out that he “dies to removal” and doesn’t give you any value back is pretty nitpicky. I still think the whole package here is enough to be a bomb.

Feline Sovereign

There are enough Cats and Dogs in this set that Feline Sovereign’s first static ability will have a very real impact on some board states. Even on its own, the Sovereign represents a 3-mana ⅔ who can blow up artifact or enchantments when it hits the opponent, and that is decent. If your deck even has 3 or 4 other cats, the Sovereign will perform better than that, and I don’t think it is far-fetched to think that will happen.

Fierce Empath

So, to some extent, we can compare this to Elvish Visionary, a card that is always a solid Limited playable. The Visionary is a two mana 1/1 that draws you a card -- the Empath is a 3-mana 1/1 that draws you a card. Obviously the main difference there is that the Visionary draws you a random card from your deck, while the Empath searches up a big ol’ creature. Additionally, there are some real pros and cons there -- with the Empath, if you don’t have something to find, you’re going to be really sad with what you have -- while the Visionary always does something, but it isn’t guaranteed to draw you a big creature the way the Empath is. So, where does the Empath fall with all that said? Well, I think most Green decks will have 3 or so targets for this, and if that’s the case, the Empath is a solid playable. Grabbing your best big creature with this is going to feel good a lot of the time -- I mean, that’s often what you’re hoping you draw with extra draws in the late game anyway, right? But the downsides of the card do keep it from being more than just a solid playable for me.

Fungal Rebirth

This SEEMS like it would be really sweet, but it is way harder to set up in a way to take full advantage of it than I expected. Mostly it will just be 3 mana to return a permanent, and that’s not worth it.

Garruk's Gorehorn

This is a vanilla creature with huge power and low toughness, and I’m not really looking to play that most of the time.

Garruk's Harbinger

A 3-mana 4/3 who can’t be targeted by Black stuff is a pretty solid card already, and the Herald has a hugely powerful combat damage trigger, which will generally be allowing you to draw an extra card every turn. Now, despite the efficiency, if you get this guy late he will often be unable to successfully attack and survive -- but if you can get him down early and even just in one hit, he will more than pull his weight.

Garruk's Uprising

This is definitely a build around, but a pretty good one. We have seen 3-mana Enchantments that draw you a card any time you play a power 4 or higher creature before -- this obviously blows that out of the water by having all sorts of other text. Drawing you a card when it comes down, provided you have the right creature in play, and giving trample to the whole board is a nice additional thing to add. That said, this will be very difficult to play in a deck that only has something like 3 creatures who have 4 or more power -- just giving trample to the whole board just won’t cut it -- you need to be drawing when it comes into play and/or a couple of times after it comes down, and even though this card is Green, I don’t think you’re guaranteed to pull that off.

Gnarled Sage

This has some decent stats and keywords, and sometimes it gets bigger. It is a surprisingly good road block for decks in this format.

Heroic Intervention

People get excited when they see these two powerful keywords, but this card wasn’t all that good in Limited last time, and I don’t see that changing. The keywords are undoubtedly powerful, but the card is more situational than it might seem at first. Those two keywords are useless in the majority of situations, and only come in hand in response to a removal spell, or in combat. Even in combat though, this effect will sometimes just functionally be a fog, because you would need creatures that are big enough to kill your opponent’s creatures in combat to make the use of this card meaningful, otherwise you’re just going down a card and delaying the inevitable. Now, all that said, I don’t think this is unplayable or anything -- I just wanted to start harshly on the card because I know it is the kind that some will overrate. In the end, it is definitely situational, but I think it is an alright card to have as the 23rd or 24th card in your deck. It can operate as a Fog, or as a combat trick, or as a way to counter a removal spell -- none of those things are very good most of the time, but this still does enough to make the cut.

Hunter's Edge

We see cards like this a lot, and they’re always pretty good removal spells for Green decks. They come with the downside of usually being pretty clunky and risking a 2-for-1, so be careful when you cast it. The good news here is that this straight up does damage and isn’t a fight effect, so you don’t need to end up with a creature just the right size to survive fighting something else. It also means that the creature you use it on will be able to attack right away more easily, since it won’t have taken any damage.

Invigorating Surge

On its own this is 3-mana for two +1/+1 counters at Instant speed, which is sort of okay. Obviously it gets better when you have other counters around.

Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse

Her ability to make Cat tokens any time you draw a second card in a turn is pretty amazing, and is where most of her value will come from. Green isn’t normally the best at drawing cards, but in this set the UG archetype is all about drawing cards --and pairing with Red probably means some card draw too. Her activated ability is somewhat awkward, as when you have the six mana to pay for it, you generally won’t have that many cards in your hand -- even if you are drawing extra cards. Still, it is some reasonable additional upside to have -- sometimes making the whole board into 3/3s is going to be worth it.

Life Goes On

This gains you a bunch of life and that’s all. That’s not something you usually play in Limited. Maybe if you are GW and have some of the White life gain payoffs it can make it, but that won’t happen often.

Llanowar Visionary

Wow, this is a strong common. If you just had a 3-mana 2/2 that tapped for Green, it would be solid -- if you just had a 3-mana 2/2 that drew you a card when it entered the battlefield, it would be pretty good. This card is basically Llanowar Elves and Elvish Visionary stapled together -- in terms of the name and the effects. So, this ramps you, and can also pretty easily give you a 2-for-1 because of the card it draws.

Ornery Dilophosaur

This card’s main downfall is that it costs 4 and frequently only has two toughness, which makes it die to a whole lot, and you’re usually losing tempo when it happens. It does have Deathtouch, which allows it to trade with whatever, but costing 4 makes that a lot less impressive. Becoming a 4/4 when it attacks is nice additional upside, but it isn’t that impressive, really.

Portcullis Vine

This can block some stuff early and then replace itself late. Neither of those are very exciting.

Pridemalkin

So, worst case scenario you have a 3-mana 3/2 with Trample here. That’s acceptable, but luckily it does even more! For one thing, you can put the counter anywhere -- like on a larger creature who will benefit more from Trample. For another, it gives Trample to any other creatures you control with +1/+1 counters too, so this will often come down and shake up the board. The fact that it can add something to the board right away, no matter what, is always attractive too. +1/+1-adding creatures who are reasonably efficient have always been good in Limited, and that’s what we have here -- in addition to some nice synergy.

Primal Might

I always love fight spells that pump your creatures. This is because it makes more of hte creatures in your deck capable of killing something and surviving when they Fight. One of the best things ever is to pump your creature and fight your opponent’s only blocker, only to smash in with your now bigger creature -- and Primal Might really lets you do that. Even at 1G, you’re getting a card that is always a good card in Limited, and you can of course pump even more mana into it if you have it available, which will often allow this to be a Green removal spell that can take down most things. If you are just paying G, you have Prey Upon, a solid card in most formats. And obviously this has way more upside than that. Now, keep in mind, that if your opponent kills your Fighter in response to this, you’re going to be utterly blown out, especially if you put a bunch of mana into it -- so you have to choose your spots, but when you can cast this safely, it is going to wreck a lot of boards.

Quirion Dryad

So, a two-mana 1/1 isn’t good, but it is a two mana 1/1 that gets a +1/+1 counter any time you play a spell that isn’t Green. Now, achieving that can be a bit awkward in Limited -- because, theoretically, if you’re playing a two-drop like the Dryad, you’re probably a base-Green deck -- but the good news is that Green in most Limited formats has really good fixing, so you can definitely end up in a deck that is base Green, but a pretty big chunk of your spells are capable of growing the Dryad. Keep in mind too, that it can work a bit like Prowess -- where you can do stuff at Instant speed to grow her, and sometimes manufacture blowouts when you do. At this early stage of spoilers, I am really hoping there is a GX Multi-color archetype, and that the Dryad is a signpost uncommon -- if that’s the case, she could very well turn into a card that takes over games in that type of deck.

Ranger's Guile

This is a fairly decent combat trick for Limited. The stats boost isn’t hte mos impressive for the cost -- but Hexproof is where this gets some extra power, since it means you can no tonly use Guile to win combat, you can use it to save your creature.

Return to Nature

This does enough different stuff that you can maindeck it without really being disappointed about it, but it is still generally better to bring in out of the sideboard.

Run Afoul

This is mostly just a sideboard card. An edict for only flyers is a dead card too often, and even as a sideboard card it leaves a lot to be desired.

Sabertooth Mauler

He starts with some pretty mediocre stats, but growing every time something dies means he will overcome that limitation pretty quickly. Note by the way, it will get that counter at the end of the turn whether it is your creature or your opponent’s who died. It tends to get quite large and is able to attack on most turns since it will untap in a lot of different scenarios.

Sanctum of Fruitful Harvest

This Sanctum fixes for you, which you might be in the market for in any deck, and in the Sanctum deck it can make it way easier for you to play multiple colors.

Scavenging Ooze

This is a two-mana 2/2 with all kinds of upside. Sure, it needs graveyards to feed on, so it won’t always be able to get big in the early game, but graveyards will end up with cards in them one way or another, and the Ooze’s ability to grow larger, disrupt graveyard strategies, and even gain you life is very powerful. It results in a 2-drop that is not only relevant all game long, but is the best creature on the board all game long in many cases.

Setessan Training

This gives a reasonable enough boost and replaces itself. It isn’t as good here as it was in Theros, where Enchantments came with a lot of upsides, but its still a fine card.

Skyway Sniper

This can pick off small flyers which is nice, but that doesn’t happen as often as you’d think in this format.

Snarespinner

This blocks flyers well, outright killing many of them. Green often needs something like this to combat flyers, and the first copy makes the cut reasonably often.

Sporeweb Weaver

Just these stats and Reach would be a kind of okay card, but getting a 1/1 token and a life every time it is damaged is huge. Generally, given the stat-line here, that will mean when it blocks, and it basically bogs down the board to the point where basically only 4-power things can really attack you profitably, and that’s pretty much all on its own! Hexproof from Blue is some nice additional upside.

Thrashing Brontodon

This creature has nice stats, and it has some nice utility, being able to blow up Artifacts and Enchantments. This lets you play a way to hate on those in your deck without playing a card that is horrible in situations where you aren’t up against those permanent types.

Titanic Growth

This is a stat boost that will allow your creature to win almost all combats, and that’s the kind of trick most aggro decks feel okay about running.

Track Down

This is Green Sorcery-Speed Anticipate, and it is a pretty darn replaceable card. You’d rather be playing something that adds to the board than getting some card selection in most decks.

Trufflesnout

This is a nice little card. Either option is a card you’d probably play. Having an option to choose which of those is ideal makes this a nice Common, and one that has synergy for some of the life gain payoffs in the format, as well as the +1/+1 counter payoffs.

Warden of the Woods

This is a nice blocker who attacks reasonably well too. This comes with some additional value that will make things really obnoxious on your opponent, too. If your opponent has to kill the Warden, it is going to really punish them for it -- netting you two cards is no joke, and amounts to a 3-for-1. Most of the time, your opponent just won’t kill this because of that -- but its size is going to make it something they have to kill a decent chunk of the time.

Wildwood Scourge

This is a great pay-off for the +1/+1 counter deck, and it can get really huge in a hurry. It is also nice that it just scales all game long, making it something that can fit pretty much anywhere on your curve.

Alpine Houndmaster

I always like cards that pay you off for having other cards in your deck, or other copies of the card in your deck, and the Huntmaster definitely does. A two mana 2/2 that already has upside, which can potentially draw you 1-2 cards is quite nice. Now, the two creatures you can search up with it are definitely sub-par -- something that I think makes this card even more interesting -- but I still think it will be worth doing. We’ve seen 3-mana 2/2s that can search up other copies of itself turn out to be pretty nice in Limited, so I think this will work well too. Then, it is a payoff for going wide, since it raises its power whenever it attacks -- and obviously, searching up 1-2 cards helps you go wide too!

Conclave Mentor

So, this is the signpost uncommon for GW, which is all about +1/+1 counters! This will make all of those cards better. It doesn’t hurt that it can gain you a little life when it dies too, and if you have been putting the counters on it, there’s a good chance it will be a substantial amount of life.

Dire Fleet Warmonger

So, this really pushes you in the direction of being a sacrifice deck, and he is pretty great for sacrificing things. On the surface, a 3-mana 3/3 is a good deal, and the fact you can cash in a creature every turn to make him a 5/5 with trample means that he is imposing on many board states. This Sacrifice effect doesn’t cost any mana either, so it can be particularly devastating to steal your opponent’s creature before combat and then sacrifice it to the Warbringer.

Experimental Overload

There are a lot of good cheap spells in this format, and that makes this really easy to make work. Even if you just get a 2/2 out of it, you're likely to get a 2-for-1, and by the late game the token you make from this becomes a legitimate win condition. Getting back a removal spell and making a reasonably sized token is a surprisingly powerful turn!

Indulging Patrician

So, a 3-mana ¼ with flying and lifelink is already a pretty nice card.+. It defends well and gains you life while it does, and it can also hit the opponent to create two point life swings, which isn’t insignificant. Then, you tack on a pretty powerful ability -- making your opponent lose 3 life any turn you gain 3 is great, and if you just manage to trigger that once, you’re going to be pretty happy -- if you do it more than that, well, your opponent’s probably dead or close to it. Keep in mind, by the way, that it causes loss of life -- this means you don’t also gain 3 life when your opponent loses the life, because it isn’t damage, so lifelink doesn’t matter there. How good the Patrician will be will really depend on how easy it is to gain 3 life on a given turn. Because the Patrician gains 1 on its own, you only need to gain 2 more life the rest of a turn -- this means that combining the Patrician with combat tricks might be especially devastating by the way.

Leafkin Avenger

I always like cards that are reasonably efficient, and have abilities that can be useful all game long, and that’s what the Leafkin does. It is the signpost uncommon for the RG deck, which is all about high power -- and both of its abilities are all about that -- and, you know, obviously it has 4 power itself. You don’t always need extra mana in the later part of the game, but if you have some mana sinks and some six drops, it will be relevant a decent chunk of the time. Oh, and this guy has a built in mana sink too! It might be expensive, but in the late game it will be an ability that puts your opponent on a quick clock -- and it can tap for mana and use the ability all in the same turn, which makes it a little more plausible you’ll be able to use it.

Lorescale Coatl

I always like this card when it gets printed! A 3-mana 2/2 that grows progressively larger as the game goes on is nice, especially because you don’t have to contribute any resources to it getting larger. The Coatl gets better the more card draw you have, but even just a +1/+1 counter every turn is pretty nice. Now, the Coatl is pretty inefficient initially, and there will definitely be times where you play this and your opponent can kill it for 1-2 mana, and that’s going to be pretty rough.

Niambi, Esteemed Speaker

Okay so, there really aren’t going to be enough legendary cards in this format for her second ability to work, so mostly what you’re paying for here is the 2-mana 2/1 that can bounce one of your creatures and gain you some life. As always with this type of effect, it is particularly nice to bounce something with an ETB ability, or a creature shut down by an aura-based removal spell. So, mostly she is a difficult to cast Goblin Piker with some decent upside.

Obsessive Stitcher

Looting is always really good in Limited, especially when its free. It just allows you to drastically improve your card quality, and over the course of the game it can really play a role in who wins and who doesn’t. Then, the fact this comes with a reasonably costed reanimation effect is nice too -- and you can do it at instant speed! Obviously because she’s a creature, you aren’t going ot be surprising anyone when you reanimate something, but the fact that you can do it at the end of the turn and attack with your reanimated creature is great. Basically, the Sticher lets you dig through your library for your past cards, and when necessary can give herself up to give you another chance with one of your best creatures -- that’s powerful. She is just really well-positioned in this format, where she is a key part of Teferi’s Tutleage decks as well as reanimator decks.

Radha, Heart of Keld

So, a 3-mana 3/3 that has First Strike is already good, and Radha does a lot more than that! Letting you play lands off of the top of your library is quite powerful -- it effectively draws you extra cards, and then the fact that she can become huge if you have a bunch of mana lying around is nice. Now, becoming huge won’t do a whole lot, other than guarantee your opponent will be chump blocking it, because Radha doesn’t have any sort of evasion to really make the boost frightening -- but forcing the opponent to throw a creature in front of her every combat is pretty nice. Radha is very powerful -- an efficient, aggressive creature with a nice card advantage ability, and a nice late-game manasink.

Sanctum of All

This is cute but not worth going down the rabbit hole for. You just won’t get enough Sanctums for it to be worth it. Searching them up is cool, but generally by the time you have mana for this you’ll have found the others, and you’re basically never getting six or more shrines in play to get the bonus going.

Twinblade Assassins

This can turn into a card-drawing engine, and definitely will cause problems for your opponent. The idea of chump blocking or even trading becomes a lot less palatable when they know you’re going to just draw a card at the end of your turn. It also has some pretty nice stats on top of all of that!

Watcher of the Spheres

This is a nice signpost uncommon for UW -- a two mana 2/2 flyer that reduces the cost of Flyers is already great -- but I think what really powers this up is the fact that it becomes a 3/3 on turns where you play flyers -- and potentially even bigger if you can play multiple flyers! The Watcher will threaten the opponent in the air, while helping you quickly deploy your air force.

Chromatic Orrery

This is a cool design, but not something you want in limited. Sure, it provides you with a bunch of mana -- but how often do you need mana beyond 7 in Limited? Not very often. There just won’t be anything to do with the mana, and yeah -- it can let you play whatever cards you want to some extent, or make it a little safer for you to splash, but I still don’t think I’m interested in this -- even if it does also have the potential to draw you cards, you only get there after a silly mana investment.

Chrome Replicator

So, you mostly shouldn’t run this if you aren’t able to make its effect trigger a decent chunk of the time, and that usually means that you’re going to need a couple of pairs of duplicate non-token permanents. It is fine if you aren’t ALWAYS getting that extra 4/4, and you wont be, even in a deck with enough duplicates, but if you can get it sometimes you’re going to be in business, as when it works out this feels kind of like a bomb!

Epitaph Golem

This has bad stats and an ability that isn’t especially again, unless you’re matched up against a Teferi’s Tutelage deck.

Forgotten Sentinel

This has bad stats and a textbox that is just downside, but it does have 4 power, and some decks care about that.

Mazemind Tome

However you end up using this, you’re going to be getting a pretty good deal. Scrying a few times and gaining 4 isn’t too bad, and neither is drawing some cards and then gaining 4. It can be a little slow at times, but the life you get back from it helps offset that, at least a little bit. This really has a measurable impact on the game in terms of card advantage and card quality.

Meteorite

This is an expensive mana rock, but it is fixing, and it can even Shock something, so that helps make it a little more reasonable to play.

Palladium Myr

The mana boost this gives you is really nice, and while that sort of thing tends to only matter in the early game, this format does have some mana sinks around that can keep it relevant for longer. It does die to pretty much everything, but if you can just tap it for mana once I don’t think you care.

Prismite

This has bad stats and it is bad at fixing mana. If you’re desperate for a two drop or fixing you’ll play it, but that’s it.

Short Sword

This gives a reasonable boost for the cost, and in this format it really seems to overperform. It makes a lot of creatures get to 4 power for the RG deck for example.

Silent Dart

This is the kind of thing that you run only if really light on removal. It just isn’t very efficient.

Skyscanner

Casting this always feels pretty decent. It replaces itself and then gives you a body that you can do something with – whether that’s attacking, trading, chump blocking, or being sacrificed for an effect, it all feel likes gravy at that point.

Solemn Simulacrum

The Simulacrum is usually going to get you a 3-for-1, and that’s pretty great. He gets you a land -- which both fixes and ramps you -- and he draws a card when he dies. Provided you can trade him for something, you’re going to feel pretty great. I also love colorless fixing in Limited, and this is an excellent example of that. He isn’t going to win you the game outright or anything, but the value Solemn Simulacrum can give you is amazing.

Sparkhunter Masticore

Masticores are cool to see again, but this one doesn’t seem awesome for Limited. A 3-mana ¾ is nice stats wise, but 2-for-1ing yourself to get there is not so nice. This set does have 6 planeswalkers in it -- but they are all Mythic Rare, so it isn’t going to be able to use that ability, which is the best one it has, very often. The ability to become indestructible is nice, but is fairly costly. This would have been a really interesting card in War of the Spark, where it would actually be considerably better -- but in a set with all Mythic Rare planeswalkers, he’s just a solid playable -- his abilities don’t quite do enough to overcome that downside.

Tormod's Crypt

This isn’t usually worth it in Limited, as it can only do one thing. There IS a legit graveyard deck in this format, which makes it a reasonable sideboard card, but you should never put this in your main deck.

Animal Sanctuary

As a colorless land, one does always have to consider the impact it will have on a mana base, and this will be hurting you in that department. However, the activated ability it has is legitimately powerful, and this format has enough creatures of those types -- especially cats and dogs -- that most decks will probably have something like 3-5 creatures that this can put counters on. And, if you get to that point, this is a land that is worth running despite the implications it has for your mana base. Having a regular old land in your deck turn into a source of serious value is a great feeling, and is sort of like getting card advantage out of it, since your opponent’s lands won’t be doing anything remotely like this.

Bloodfell Caves

This give you nice fixing and even gain you some life! You should value these over most medium cards if they are in your color or you’re interested in fixing.

Blossoming Sands

This give you nice fixing and even gain you some life! You should value these over most medium cards if they are in your color or you’re interested in fixing.

Dismal Backwater

This give you nice fixing and even gain you some life! You should value these over most medium cards if they are in your color or you’re interested in fixing.

Fabled Passage

This gives you really good fixing, something that every Limited deck wants, since Limited mana bases tend to be so bad, even in two-color decks!

Jungle Hollow

This give you nice fixing and even gain you some life! You should value these over most medium cards if they are in your color or you’re interested in fixing.

Radiant Fountain

Even in the life gain deck this isn’t worth it. It does huge damage to your mana base, and gaining 2 life doesn’t make up for that.

Rugged Highlands

This give you nice fixing and even gain you some life! You should value these over most medium cards if they are in your color or you’re interested in fixing.

Scoured Barrens

This give you nice fixing and even gain you some life! You should value these over most medium cards if they are in your color or you’re interested in fixing.

Swiftwater Cliffs

This give you nice fixing and even gain you some life! You should value these over most medium cards if they are in your color or you’re interested in fixing.

Temple of Epiphany

This fix for you and help you smooth out your draws, so they can really play a key role in helping smooth out the beginning of your game. If they are in both your colors you should value them over most medium cards, and if you’re interested in splashing you should value them even more.

Temple of Malady

This fix for you and help you smooth out your draws, so they can really play a key role in helping smooth out the beginning of your game. If they are in both your colors you should value them over most medium cards, and if you’re interested in splashing you should value them even more.

Temple of Mystery

This fix for you and help you smooth out your draws, so they can really play a key role in helping smooth out the beginning of your game. If they are in both your colors you should value them over most medium cards, and if you’re interested in splashing you should value them even more.

Temple of Silence

This fix for you and help you smooth out your draws, so they can really play a key role in helping smooth out the beginning of your game. If they are in both your colors you should value them over most medium cards, and if you’re interested in splashing you should value them even more.

Temple of Triumph

This fix for you and help you smooth out your draws, so they can really play a key role in helping smooth out the beginning of your game. If they are in both your colors you should value them over most medium cards, and if you’re interested in splashing you should value them even more.

Thornwood Falls

This give you nice fixing and even gain you some life! You should value these over most medium cards if they are in your color or you’re interested in fixing.

Tranquil Cove

This give you nice fixing and even gain you some life! You should value these over most medium cards if they are in your color or you’re interested in fixing.

Wind-Scarred Crag

This give you nice fixing and even gain you some life! You should value these over most medium cards if they are in your color or you’re interested in fixing.

Plains

Island

Swamp

Mountain

Forest