Vampiric Fury
1.0 // 2.5 This is cheaper than most Trumpet-Blast type effects, but only buffing Vampires is enough of a restriction that I’m not that thrilled about it. If you really got their on vampires, it isn’t a bad inclusion, but there are lots of Red decks that won’t play this.
Selfless Spirit
4.0 This is a great aggressive two drop, and the ability to offer indestructibility to your whole board gives it some amazing upside that will really frustrate your opponent.
Town Gossipmonger
3.5 This is better than it looks. It is really easy to transform as early as turn two, and once it is Incited Rabble it is a really effective attacker, especially in the early game.
Forsaken Sanctuary
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Haunted Dead
3.5 4-mana for a 2/2 and a 1/1 Flyer is decent, and this can keep coming back from your graveyard! Discarding two cards might sound steep, but in this format, you can get a ton of upside out of discarding cards.
Port Town
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Gisa's Bidding
3.5 This is great, it was an Uncommon last time, so downshifting it to Common is pretty spicy. Without Madness, it is a passable rate. With Madness it is downright nasty. Three mana for two 2/2s at Instant speed is a great rate. Casting this for its Madness cost is very doable, too.
Make Mischief
2.0 In a roundabout way, this does give you three damage for three mana. If you look at this as a three mana 1/1 devil that does 1 to something on ETB it sounds a lot better, as you get to add to the board while picking something off. If you can’t kill something with the 1 damage it does get a lot worse.
Gnarlwood Dryad
3.0 A one mana 1/1 with deathtouch is always playable, and this has the upside of becoming much more relevant in the mid to late game.
Convolute
1.5 This is passable counter magic, and performs especially well in the early game, but the fact it gets worse the longer the game goes on is rough.
Lunarch Mantle
1.5 This offers a reasonable boost for the cost, but the downside of getting 2-for-1’d is still very real. This can work alright in really aggressive decks, but won’t always make the cut.
Field Creeper
1.5 This is a little better than it looks. It is both an Artifact and a Creature, which means it gets you halfway to Delirium all on its own.
Certain Death
2.5 This is certainly clunky, but it deals with anything and drains 2 life, which helps offset how expensive it is.
Incendiary Flow
4.0 Two mana to do 3 to a creature is always premium removal, and this has exile upside that really matters.
True-Faith Censer
3.0 This is a very efficient Equipment, especially if you’re in Green-White and have lots of humans. +2/+1 and Vigilance is enough to make just about any creature into a problem.
Pack 1 Pick 2: Faith Unbroken
Daring Sleuth
3.5 This starts with passable base stats, and transforming it is pretty easy in Blue. Once transformed, it is a creature your opponent really has to account for, since it can generate a ton of clues.
Faith Unbroken
2.5 This card is incredibly swingy. 4 mana to exile something and give a creature +2/+2 is an incredible rate, and if the creature and Enchantment stay around, your opponent loses. However, if your opponent finds a way to kill the Enchanted creature, they probably win, because you get absolutely blown out.
Uncaged Fury
2.5 This is a very nice trick. It is a little expensive, but it makes most creatures win combat, and it has the potential to allow an unblocked creature to just finish off your opponent. The first copy should be valued fairly highly.
Foul Orchard
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Ghoulcaller's Accomplice
3.0 This has solid base stats, and the fact you can get a Zombie out of it from the graveyard is great! Obviously, the rate on that second body isn’t amazing, but card advantage is card advantage. It also means you can discard or mill this and still get some nice value out of it.
Aim High
1.5 This type of trick is rarely good. The stats boost is medium for two mana, and Reach and untapping are mostly only relevant on defense, which is the worst possible time to use a trick.
Briarbridge Patrol
3.0 This isn’t quite as good as it looks, which is partly why they downshifted it from Uncommon. A 4-mana 3/3 isn’t very good, and while this has a big text box, it doesn’t do anything that good. It does generate Clues for you whether it blocks or gets blocked, which means you do ultimately get a 2-for-1 out of it pretty often. I wouldn’t count on being able to effectively utilize the card’s other ability, though. These sorts of effects always underperform in Limited, partly because you can’t really build a deck with enough monsters to cheat into play. So, you don’t often have something worth putting into play with the effect – oftentimes, it is better to just hold on to all of your clues.
Thraben Foulbloods
2.5 A three mana 3/2 isn’t very good, but a three mana 4/3 with Menace is! Delirium is very accessible too, though you won’t usually have it when you’re playing this on turn three.
Spontaneous Mutation
1.5 Like most -X/-0 Auras, this isn’t very good – even with Flash! It doesn’t get close enough to removing an entire card to feel like its worth it. It does get a small boost because of all the Prowess in the set, but you’re still hoping to play something better.
Merciless Resolve
1.5 There are some expendable bodies in this format for sure, and the fact you can sacrifice a land is nice. But this is still fairly clunky for the effect, which often amounts to you breaking even on cards. That’s not especially exciting.
Dauntless Cathar
3.5 Trading this off for something and then getting a flying token out of your graveyard feels great. Also works well if you want to sacrifice it or you end up milling it.
Thornhide Wolves
2.0 Last time around, this vanilla 4-mana ⅘ played surprisingly well. It is quite large for the format, and has a useful creature type.
Insatiable Gorgers
2.5 A 4-mana 5/3 isn’t too bad, even if it has to always attack, and the Madness upside is nice to have.
Haunted Fengraf
1.0 This is bad for your mana base, and the fact it is random is a pretty big problem.
Pack 1 Pick 3: Nearheath Chaplain
Neglected Heirloom
3.5 The base form of the Heirloom is a solid piece of Equipment, and once it transforms it can make any creature into a major threat. Transforming it isn’t always easy of course, and works best in Red-Green, but because it has such a good baseline, it is worth valuing fairly highly.
Nearheath Chaplain
4.0 A 4-mana 3/1 with lifelink definitely isn’t good, but you can exile this from your graveyard to make two 1/1 tokens! This feels like a 2-for-1 most of the time, it feels great to trade it off – and it can even be a really pesky attacker.
Veteran Cathar
3.5 This has good base stats, and the ability to give double strike to your humans can be quite formidable. It is quite expensive to do it, though.
Stensia Masquerade
2.0 If you’re a Vampire deck, playing one of these is decent. The fact it has Madness means you can treat it as a trick sometimes that gives First Strike to all of your attackers. Buffing your Vampire is nice too! The problem here is that this card is pretty bad if you’re behind.
Convolute
1.5 This is passable counter magic, and performs especially well in the early game, but the fact it gets worse the longer the game goes on is rough.
Obsessive Skinner
3.5 Without Delirium, this is a two drop that usually makes the cut. When you get Delirium going, it becomes an impressive value engine, giving you a +1/+1 counter every turn.
Insatiable Gorgers
2.5 A 4-mana 5/3 isn’t too bad, even if it has to always attack, and the Madness upside is nice to have.
Apothecary Geist
3.0 This was a big overperformer last time around. Its stats line up reasonably well in the format, and it gains you that 3 life pretty often.
Sanitarium Skeleton
1.0 // 2.5 If you need sacrifice fodder, this is pretty nice. If you don’t, you aren’t playing it.
Ghoulcaller's Accomplice
3.0 This has solid base stats, and the fact you can get a Zombie out of it from the graveyard is great! Obviously, the rate on that second body isn’t amazing, but card advantage is card advantage. It also means you can discard or mill this and still get some nice value out of it.
Confront the Unknown
1.5 This only gives +1/+1 a little too often to be anything special. Some really clue-heavy decks can get some good use out of this, but it isn’t exactly the payoff you’re hoping for.
Alms of the Vein
1.0 Even if you can consistently cast this for its Madness cost, Alms of the Vein is fairly disappointing. The six point life swing is nice, but doesn’t feel worth a card most of the time.
Aim High
1.5 This type of trick is rarely good. The stats boost is medium for two mana, and Reach and untapping are mostly only relevant on defense, which is the worst possible time to use a trick.
Pack 1 Pick 4: Noose Constrictor
Moonmist
0.5 Even with all this additional upside, this is still a fog, and those are rarely worth it in Limited.
Curious Homunculus
3.5 This can help you ramp into some nice spells, and once it transforms it becomes a really problematic threat. Spell and graveyard decks are very real in the format, so transforming it is very doable.
Noose Constrictor
3.5 This is a great two-drop that has nice stats, can threaten to become quite large, and helps you do things with Madness and Delirium.
Dusk Feaster
2.5 This is pretty bad if you can’t get delirium going. The good news is, by the time you’re going to want to cast this, you’re pretty likely to have it in a deck like Black-Green. At that point, it is a 5-mana ⅘ Flyer – which is pretty nice!
Olivia's Dragoon
3.0 This card would be solid in any format, but in this one it is even better! It has a useful creature type and can help you get Delirium and Madness cards going.
Bloodmad Vampire
2.5 A three-mana 4/1 isn’t a terrible rate for an aggro deck, and this has big upside! Sometimes you can cast it for two, and it gets bigger when it gets in for a hit. Madness increases your chance of making that happen, too, since you can effectively flash it in at the end of your opponent’s turn sometimes.
Spontaneous Mutation
1.5 Like most -X/-0 Auras, this isn’t very good – even with Flash! It doesn’t get close enough to removing an entire card to feel like its worth it. It does get a small boost because of all the Prowess in the set, but you’re still hoping to play something better.
Intrepid Provisioner
3.0 This is a solid Human payoff. The +2/+2 it offers often gives you a much better situation to attack with, and the 3/3 Trample body isn’t the worst thing.
Epitaph Golem
0.0 // 2.5 This is better than it looks! This is a format where you can actually end up milling yourself out, especially in Black-Green. Once your library is out of cards, the Golem not only helps you avoid losing because you’re out of cards – it also effectively lets you draw whatever card you want every single turn. It takes a fairly particular deck for this to make the cut, though.
Grapple with the Past
2.5 You usually want one of these in Green. It helps you get delirium and helps you get value out of the graveyard.
Aim High
1.5 This type of trick is rarely good. The stats boost is medium for two mana, and Reach and untapping are mostly only relevant on defense, which is the worst possible time to use a trick.
Ghoulcaller's Accomplice
3.0 This has solid base stats, and the fact you can get a Zombie out of it from the graveyard is great! Obviously, the rate on that second body isn’t amazing, but card advantage is card advantage. It also means you can discard or mill this and still get some nice value out of it.
Pack 1 Pick 5: Spectral Shepherd
Falkenrath Gorger
2.5 Black/Red is already loaded up with Vampires and discard outlets, so the Gorger giving all of your Vampires Madness actually comes up. That said, many vampires in the set already have Madness, so it isn’t always going to do something. Still, it is a one mana 2/1 with upside – hard to go wrong there.
Graf Rats
1.0 You don’t play this unless you’re very desperate for a two drop or you have Midnight Scavengers.
Noose Constrictor
3.5 This is a great two-drop that has nice stats, can threaten to become quite large, and helps you do things with Madness and Delirium.
Spectral Shepherd
3.0 UW is all about spirits, and it has a sub-theme of abusing ETB abilities. The Shepherd’s activated abilities can help you trigger them, while also allowing you to save your Spirits from removal.
Essence Flux
0.0 // 2.5 The Blue-White Spirit deck has a blink/flicker sub-theme, as Essence Flux tells you. If you have enough Spirits with ETB abilities, this is playable. But there are many decks it doesn’t work out in, even Blue/White ones!
Bloodbriar
2.5 This is a pretty real payoff for sacrifice decks, and it has passable base stats.
Ingenious Skaab
3.5 This is an amazing common. If you took away its ability to change its stats OR Prowess, it would still be pretty high quality – but it has both! This is incredibly difficult to block, and it can hit really hard so that’s kind of a problem for your opponent.
Jace's Scrutiny
2.0 This is a little better than it might look at first, largely because the format has both a Spell deck and an Investigate deck. This ultimately replaces itself thanks to the Clue, and the -4/-0 can end up blanking an attack at worst, and sometimes you can even set up a really advantageous combat situation where your opponent actually loses a card.
Wild-Field Scarecrow
3.0 This is a passable defensive creature that is great at fixing your mana and helping you get Delirium.
Drogskol Shieldmate
2.0 This isn’t as impressive as it looks. +0/+1 to your whole board is not impactful in most situations. Still, it is a three mana ⅔ with Flash and upside, so it is super solid.
Rush of Adrenaline
2.0 This is a decent trick. The toughness boost of only 1 does mean your creature will die more often with this than you might like, but +2 power and trample for one mana can also result in huge blowouts.
Pack 1 Pick 6: Apothecary Geist
Vessel of Nascency
0.0 // 3.0 This is actually a very important card for Delirium decks. It can often get you delirium all on its own, as it puts itself and 4 cards from the top of your library into your graveyard. Getting an Enchantment in there can be particularly difficult, but this makes sure it happens for you! It is certainly a buildaround, as it isn’t really a card you want outside of Black/Green, but it is one of the most important Commons for that deck.
Groundskeeper
1.0 You do mill yourself a lot in Green, so the idea here is that if you milled a land you need, you can get it back. Mostly, though, that isn’t worth doing.
Weirding Wood
2.0 This fixes your mana and generates a Clue, and some decks are definitely in the market for that.
Steadfast Cathar
2.5 This is a solid two drop, as attacking as a ⅔ in the early game is pretty nice.
Pyre Hound
1.0 // 3.5 This is a buildaround, but it is also an incredibly important and powerful Common for the Blue-Red deck. It gets massive in that deck, and the Trample is a real problem for your opponent.
Exultant Cultist
2.5 This is good sacrifice fodder, and can be especially spicy with Emerge. Even in the absence of those things, the fact you can trade this off for a 2-for-1 feels pretty good.
Dawn Gryff
2.0 A three mana 2/2 Flyer was a lot better back in 2016, and I think this format is similar enough for this to be solid.
Apothecary Geist
3.0 This was a big overperformer last time around. Its stats line up reasonably well in the format, and it gains you that 3 life pretty often.
Puncturing Light
2.5 This can kill a decent number of creatures in the format, and it does it fairly efficiently. Obviously, it is a little too narrow to be premium, but its fine.
Wild-Field Scarecrow
3.0 This is a passable defensive creature that is great at fixing your mana and helping you get Delirium.
Pack 1 Pick 7: Strength of Arms
Moonmist
0.5 Even with all this additional upside, this is still a fog, and those are rarely worth it in Limited.
Reaper of Flight Moonsilver
2.5 The base stats here aren’t good – but if you have Delirium going, the Reaper can represent lethal on a lot of board states.
Morkrut Necropod
2.5 This is a pretty scary creature. A 7/7 with Menace is a real pain to block! It does come with a pretty big downside, but giving up expendable creatures or lands to swing with this thing isn’t too shabby.
Epitaph Golem
0.0 // 2.5 This is better than it looks! This is a format where you can actually end up milling yourself out, especially in Black-Green. Once your library is out of cards, the Golem not only helps you avoid losing because you’re out of cards – it also effectively lets you draw whatever card you want every single turn. It takes a fairly particular deck for this to make the cut, though.
Drownyard Explorers
2.0 This has decent defensive stats, and eventually draws you a card. It is a fine card for the grindy Clue decks, though most other decks aren’t that interested.
Tormenting Voice
2.5 This is better in this format than it is in pretty much any other! It helps you get Delirium and discard things with Madness, on top of also being a nice card for the Blue-Red spell deck since it triggers all of your payoffs.
Swift Spinner
1.5 This is a passable creature that can ambush block some stuff, but it doesn’t always make the cut.
True-Faith Censer
3.0 This is a very efficient Equipment, especially if you’re in Green-White and have lots of humans. +2/+1 and Vigilance is enough to make just about any creature into a problem.
Strength of Arms
2.5 This is a nice trick. One mana for +2/+2 tends to play pretty well, and the times you can get a 1/1 token out of this feel really insane, and its very doable, especially in GW.
Pack 1 Pick 8: Rabid Bite
Stitcher's Graft
0.0 This might be cheap to play and equip and offers a significant boost, but the downside here is far too much. You don’t want go have to give up permanents just to untap creatures.
Rabid Bite
3.5 This is premium removal. You have to be careful about when you use it, because your opponent can interact in response and blow you out. But when you get the chance to use it, it ends up dealing with most creatures very efficiently.
Fogwalker
2.5 This does not tap down a creature – keep that in mind! It only keeps it from untapping, so if the creature isn’t already tapped, its ETB ability doesn’t do anything. A two man ⅓ with Skulk is definitely difficult to block, though, and this even has a useful creature type.
Swift Spinner
1.5 This is a passable creature that can ambush block some stuff, but it doesn’t always make the cut.
Apothecary Geist
3.0 This was a big overperformer last time around. Its stats line up reasonably well in the format, and it gains you that 3 life pretty often.
Intrepid Provisioner
3.0 This is a solid Human payoff. The +2/+2 it offers often gives you a much better situation to attack with, and the 3/3 Trample body isn’t the worst thing.
Tormenting Voice
2.5 This is better in this format than it is in pretty much any other! It helps you get Delirium and discard things with Madness, on top of also being a nice card for the Blue-Red spell deck since it triggers all of your payoffs.
Merciless Resolve
1.5 There are some expendable bodies in this format for sure, and the fact you can sacrifice a land is nice. But this is still fairly clunky for the effect, which often amounts to you breaking even on cards. That’s not especially exciting.
Pack 1 Pick 9: True-Faith Censer
Vampiric Fury
1.0 // 2.5 This is cheaper than most Trumpet-Blast type effects, but only buffing Vampires is enough of a restriction that I’m not that thrilled about it. If you really got their on vampires, it isn’t a bad inclusion, but there are lots of Red decks that won’t play this.
Forsaken Sanctuary
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Port Town
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Make Mischief
2.0 In a roundabout way, this does give you three damage for three mana. If you look at this as a three mana 1/1 devil that does 1 to something on ETB it sounds a lot better, as you get to add to the board while picking something off. If you can’t kill something with the 1 damage it does get a lot worse.
Lunarch Mantle
1.5 This offers a reasonable boost for the cost, but the downside of getting 2-for-1’d is still very real. This can work alright in really aggressive decks, but won’t always make the cut.
Field Creeper
1.5 This is a little better than it looks. It is both an Artifact and a Creature, which means it gets you halfway to Delirium all on its own.
True-Faith Censer
3.0 This is a very efficient Equipment, especially if you’re in Green-White and have lots of humans. +2/+1 and Vigilance is enough to make just about any creature into a problem.
Pack 1 Pick 10: Dauntless Cathar
Foul Orchard
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Aim High
1.5 This type of trick is rarely good. The stats boost is medium for two mana, and Reach and untapping are mostly only relevant on defense, which is the worst possible time to use a trick.
Briarbridge Patrol
3.0 This isn’t quite as good as it looks, which is partly why they downshifted it from Uncommon. A 4-mana 3/3 isn’t very good, and while this has a big text box, it doesn’t do anything that good. It does generate Clues for you whether it blocks or gets blocked, which means you do ultimately get a 2-for-1 out of it pretty often. I wouldn’t count on being able to effectively utilize the card’s other ability, though. These sorts of effects always underperform in Limited, partly because you can’t really build a deck with enough monsters to cheat into play. So, you don’t often have something worth putting into play with the effect – oftentimes, it is better to just hold on to all of your clues.
Spontaneous Mutation
1.5 Like most -X/-0 Auras, this isn’t very good – even with Flash! It doesn’t get close enough to removing an entire card to feel like its worth it. It does get a small boost because of all the Prowess in the set, but you’re still hoping to play something better.
Dauntless Cathar
3.5 Trading this off for something and then getting a flying token out of your graveyard feels great. Also works well if you want to sacrifice it or you end up milling it.
Thornhide Wolves
2.0 Last time around, this vanilla 4-mana ⅘ played surprisingly well. It is quite large for the format, and has a useful creature type.
Pack 1 Pick 11: Veteran Cathar
Neglected Heirloom
3.5 The base form of the Heirloom is a solid piece of Equipment, and once it transforms it can make any creature into a major threat. Transforming it isn’t always easy of course, and works best in Red-Green, but because it has such a good baseline, it is worth valuing fairly highly.
Veteran Cathar
3.5 This has good base stats, and the ability to give double strike to your humans can be quite formidable. It is quite expensive to do it, though.
Apothecary Geist
3.0 This was a big overperformer last time around. Its stats line up reasonably well in the format, and it gains you that 3 life pretty often.
Alms of the Vein
1.0 Even if you can consistently cast this for its Madness cost, Alms of the Vein is fairly disappointing. The six point life swing is nice, but doesn’t feel worth a card most of the time.
Aim High
1.5 This type of trick is rarely good. The stats boost is medium for two mana, and Reach and untapping are mostly only relevant on defense, which is the worst possible time to use a trick.
Pack 1 Pick 12: Aim High
Moonmist
0.5 Even with all this additional upside, this is still a fog, and those are rarely worth it in Limited.
Epitaph Golem
0.0 // 2.5 This is better than it looks! This is a format where you can actually end up milling yourself out, especially in Black-Green. Once your library is out of cards, the Golem not only helps you avoid losing because you’re out of cards – it also effectively lets you draw whatever card you want every single turn. It takes a fairly particular deck for this to make the cut, though.
Grapple with the Past
2.5 You usually want one of these in Green. It helps you get delirium and helps you get value out of the graveyard.
Aim High
1.5 This type of trick is rarely good. The stats boost is medium for two mana, and Reach and untapping are mostly only relevant on defense, which is the worst possible time to use a trick.
Pack 1 Pick 13: Essence Flux
Graf Rats
1.0 You don’t play this unless you’re very desperate for a two drop or you have Midnight Scavengers.
Essence Flux
0.0 // 2.5 The Blue-White Spirit deck has a blink/flicker sub-theme, as Essence Flux tells you. If you have enough Spirits with ETB abilities, this is playable. But there are many decks it doesn’t work out in, even Blue/White ones!
Ingenious Skaab
3.5 This is an amazing common. If you took away its ability to change its stats OR Prowess, it would still be pretty high quality – but it has both! This is incredibly difficult to block, and it can hit really hard so that’s kind of a problem for your opponent.
Pack 1 Pick 14: Weirding Wood
Weirding Wood
2.0 This fixes your mana and generates a Clue, and some decks are definitely in the market for that.
Dawn Gryff
2.0 A three mana 2/2 Flyer was a lot better back in 2016, and I think this format is similar enough for this to be solid.
Pack 1 Pick 15: Moonmist
Moonmist
0.5 Even with all this additional upside, this is still a fog, and those are rarely worth it in Limited.
Pack 2 Pick 1: Byway Courier
Battleground Geist
2.5 There are lots of Spirits in this set, and this will be doubly true while Battleground Geist is in the format. It has passable stats and impacts the board right away.
Diregraf Colossus
4.0 You have to be a heavy Zombie deck to unlock this card’s full potential, but once you’re there this is great. It is especially nice that you get a payoff whether or not you play it before or after all of your other Zombies.
Midnight Scavengers
2.5 This can give you a pretty nice 2-for-1, and if you have Graf Rats in your deck it has the potential to become an incredibly scary creature.
Abundant Maw
2.5 This has a big body and Lightning Helixes your opponent, so its hard to go wrong there! Especially because Black has plenty of good sacrifice fodder for Emerge.
Fleeting Memories
1.0 Clues are good and all, but this isn’t a great format to try and mill your opponent out in. Several decks in this format want cards in their graveyard. Turning on their delirium and Flashback cards isn’t really something you want to be doing. There are some clue-heavy control decks where this can work out as a win condition, but you’re really playing with fire.
Hope Against Hope
1.0 This Aura isn’t really worth the downside. Sure, it can offer a massive boost – but there are times where it doesn’t offer a big enough one to off-set how dangerous playing this card is. Your board already has to be good in most scenarios, too. Getting 2-for-1’d is a big enough risk that you need your Auras to do more than this.
Morkrut Necropod
2.5 This is a pretty scary creature. A 7/7 with Menace is a real pain to block! It does come with a pretty big downside, but giving up expendable creatures or lands to swing with this thing isn’t too shabby.
Drag Under
2.5 Bouncing something at Sorcery speed and going down a card normally isn’t worth it. However, this replaces itself, which makes a really big difference! It means you still get the tempo but don’t go down a card, and there’s a spell deck in this format, so any spell that draws you a card already gets more value.
Borrowed Hostility
0.0 This is bad. It is a build-your-own Sure Strike, except it costs twice the mana – and it isn’t like Sure Strike is that impressive to begin with.
Epitaph Golem
0.0 // 2.5 This is better than it looks! This is a format where you can actually end up milling yourself out, especially in Black-Green. Once your library is out of cards, the Golem not only helps you avoid losing because you’re out of cards – it also effectively lets you draw whatever card you want every single turn. It takes a fairly particular deck for this to make the cut, though.
Olivia's Dragoon
3.0 This card would be solid in any format, but in this one it is even better! It has a useful creature type and can help you get Delirium and Madness cards going.
Alchemist's Greeting
3.0 If you’re only casting this normally, it is clunky as heck. If you have enough discard outlets though, it becomes a premium removal spell.
Byway Courier
3.5 This is good at trading off for things, and the Clue it gives you means you’re going to get a 2-for-1.
Puncturing Light
2.5 This can kill a decent number of creatures in the format, and it does it fairly efficiently. Obviously, it is a little too narrow to be premium, but its fine.
Liliana's Elite
1.5 Even in this graveyard-centric format, Liliana’s Elite often isn’t worth it. The upside here is that it is a large vanilla creature, and the downside is that it is awful in the early game, and mediocre in the mid-game.
Pack 2 Pick 2: Dauntless Cathar
Traveler's Amulet
2.5 This nicely fixes your mana, while also giving you an Artifact in the graveyard for Delirium.
Second Harvest
0.0 You just don’t end up with enough tokens for this to actually be worth playing. Sure, doubling clues and some random creatures can be nice, but this card is entirely blank far too often.
Gatstaf Arsonists
2.5 This is a solid finisher. A 5-mana 5/4 is obviously not great, but a 5-mana 6/5 with Menace? Yeah, that closes out a lot of games.
Ruthless Disposal
2.5 This can definitely kill some stuff, but because it asks for so much, the end result is often still a 3-for-2, which isn’t exactly amazing. Now, if you have good sacrifice fodder and cards you want to discard anyway, you can offset the downside. This has a high ceiling, but also a miserable floor.
Blessed Alliance
3.5 The most useful mode on this is usually making your opponent sacrifice an opposing creature. Paying 2 mana for that isn’t amazing, especially when your opponent attacks with multiple creatures. However, the fact you can pump some extra mana into this for some extra effects is great.
Dauntless Cathar
3.5 Trading this off for something and then getting a flying token out of your graveyard feels great. Also works well if you want to sacrifice it or you end up milling it.
Byway Courier
3.5 This is good at trading off for things, and the Clue it gives you means you’re going to get a 2-for-1.
Ingenious Skaab
3.5 This is an amazing common. If you took away its ability to change its stats OR Prowess, it would still be pretty high quality – but it has both! This is incredibly difficult to block, and it can hit really hard so that’s kind of a problem for your opponent.
Macabre Waltz
2.5 You want one of these in virtually every Black deck. It is great at bringing back your best creatures, and it can even help you load the graveyard!
Magnifying Glass
1.0 This is a very clunky mana rock. It is nice that it can produce Clues, but it doesn’t exactly do that efficiently either.
Exultant Cultist
2.5 This is good sacrifice fodder, and can be especially spicy with Emerge. Even in the absence of those things, the fact you can trade this off for a 2-for-1 feels pretty good.
Drownyard Explorers
2.0 This has decent defensive stats, and eventually draws you a card. It is a fine card for the grindy Clue decks, though most other decks aren’t that interested.
Gnarlwood Dryad
3.0 A one mana 1/1 with deathtouch is always playable, and this has the upside of becoming much more relevant in the mid to late game.
Pyre Hound
1.0 // 3.5 This is a buildaround, but it is also an incredibly important and powerful Common for the Blue-Red deck. It gets massive in that deck, and the Trample is a real problem for your opponent.
Pack 2 Pick 3: Elder Deep-Fiend
Elder Cathar
3.0 This is a pretty nice payoff for Humans. Paying 3 mana for 4/4 worth of stats feels pretty good, and also makes the Cathar good sacrifice fodder.
Elder Deep-Fiend
4.5 If you flash this in, it is going to drastically alter the state of the game for both you and your opponent. Tapping four permanents is no joke. You’re normally going to want to tap opposing creatures to allow you to attack in for a ton, but you can even use this to tap down lands and things like that. Blue has good sacrifice fodder too, so you don’t usually feel like you’re losing a whole card to cast the Fiend at a discount.
Mockery of Nature
2.5 This format has a decent number of Artifacts and Enchantments, and if you have a target, the Mockery will feel amazing. However, there aren’t so many of them in the set that this will consistently give you that sweet 2-for-1.
Thermo-Alchemist
3.5 This is a great payoff in Blue-Red, but most Red decks in the format have enough instants and sorceries in them to make the Alchemist playable.
Crawling Sensation
0.0 // 4.0 This is an amazing buildaround. It quickly gets you Delirium, and it adds to the board while loading up your graveyard with all that sweet, sweet value. That said, it doesn’t work in just any deck – it is mostly here for Black/Green.
Gavony Unhallowed
2.0 This starts with some pretty bad stats, but it can definitely grow in this format, especially in a deck like Black-White, which has a substantial amount of Sacrifice stuff.
Drogskol Shieldmate
2.0 This isn’t as impressive as it looks. +0/+1 to your whole board is not impactful in most situations. Still, it is a three mana ⅔ with Flash and upside, so it is super solid.
Angelic Purge
2.5 2-for-1ing yourself to destroy something isn’t great, but there is enough sacrifice fodder in this format that the first copy of Angelic Purge usually makes the cut.
Sanitarium Skeleton
1.0 // 2.5 If you need sacrifice fodder, this is pretty nice. If you don’t, you aren’t playing it.
Magmatic Chasm
0.0 // 2.0 You’re not going to play this unless you’re an all-in aggro deck, and even then it is sometimes a real problem that flyers can still block.
Morkrut Necropod
2.5 This is a pretty scary creature. A 7/7 with Menace is a real pain to block! It does come with a pretty big downside, but giving up expendable creatures or lands to swing with this thing isn’t too shabby.
Swift Spinner
1.5 This is a passable creature that can ambush block some stuff, but it doesn’t always make the cut.
Drownyard Explorers
2.0 This has decent defensive stats, and eventually draws you a card. It is a fine card for the grindy Clue decks, though most other decks aren’t that interested.
Pack 2 Pick 4: Lone Rider
Ghoulraiser
3.0 Gravedigger for three mana is a nice card, even if you can only get back Zombies and it is entirely random! This delivers a nice 2-for-1 in most Black decks.
Lone Rider
3.0 In the right format, this would be bonkers! Unfortunately, this format doesn’t have a dedicated life gain archetype, so gaining 3 or more life with it and transforming it into It That Rides as One isn’t as easy you might think. It is certainly doable, but not something that happens with regularity.
Uncaged Fury
2.5 This is a very nice trick. It is a little expensive, but it makes most creatures win combat, and it has the potential to allow an unblocked creature to just finish off your opponent. The first copy should be valued fairly highly.
Erdwal Illuminator
3.5 Blue has a lot of ways to make Clues, so the Illuminator does a great job of generating extra value, which also having some pretty solid stats.
Pick the Brain
0.5 Yeah, Coercion is never worth it in Limited, and the Delirium upside here may as well be flavor text.
Intrepid Provisioner
3.0 This is a solid Human payoff. The +2/+2 it offers often gives you a much better situation to attack with, and the 3/3 Trample body isn’t the worst thing.
Puncturing Light
2.5 This can kill a decent number of creatures in the format, and it does it fairly efficiently. Obviously, it is a little too narrow to be premium, but its fine.
Laboratory Brute
1.5 You want to be milling yourself in this format, but there are lots of better cards out there that can do the job.
Imprisoned in the Moon
2.5 This was Rare last time, downshifting it to Common will have a pretty significant impact on the format. That said, it isn’t amazing removal in Limited. Giving your opponent extra mana isn’t great, but it is usually better than whatever their best creature is. Still, you don’t really feel like you get a full card of value when you play this.
Ember-Eye Wolf
2.5 This overperformed last time. A lot of the time, this sort of creature that can buff its power for mana isn’t very impressive, because you end up having to spend a lot of mana just to make it trade. However, adding Haste to the mix, along with a useful creature type, makes a significant difference. This even has a bit of Fireball potential in the late game.
Take Inventory
1.0 // 3.5 This card can get really silly, especially in Blue-Red decks that can generate awesome value from spells that draw cards. Obviously, you want to get multiples of these, so that they can scale as the game goes on. Even if you only have two, you probably play them – and if you end up with 4+, it feels amazing.
Crow of Dark Tidings
3.0 This is a great card for getting Delirium going, and that’s definitely something you want to be doing – especially in Black/Green and Black/White. It even attacks in the air quite effectively!
Pack 2 Pick 5: Strength of Arms
Vampiric Fury
1.0 // 2.5 This is cheaper than most Trumpet-Blast type effects, but only buffing Vampires is enough of a restriction that I’m not that thrilled about it. If you really got their on vampires, it isn’t a bad inclusion, but there are lots of Red decks that won’t play this.
Shrill Howler
3.5 This might only have one toughness, but because it can’t be blocked by creatures with lower power, you don’t need to worry too much about your opponent trading up. Once transformed it becomes an absolute monster, drastically increasing its toughness and generating a body when it hits your opponent.
Stone Quarry
2.5 These always enter tapped, which is a little bit of a bummer, but they still provide some quality fixing.
Forsaken Sanctuary
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Lunarch Mantle
1.5 This offers a reasonable boost for the cost, but the downside of getting 2-for-1’d is still very real. This can work alright in really aggressive decks, but won’t always make the cut.
Jace's Scrutiny
2.0 This is a little better than it might look at first, largely because the format has both a Spell deck and an Investigate deck. This ultimately replaces itself thanks to the Clue, and the -4/-0 can end up blanking an attack at worst, and sometimes you can even set up a really advantageous combat situation where your opponent actually loses a card.
Certain Death
2.5 This is certainly clunky, but it deals with anything and drains 2 life, which helps offset how expensive it is.
Aim High
1.5 This type of trick is rarely good. The stats boost is medium for two mana, and Reach and untapping are mostly only relevant on defense, which is the worst possible time to use a trick.
Weirding Wood
2.0 This fixes your mana and generates a Clue, and some decks are definitely in the market for that.
Strength of Arms
2.5 This is a nice trick. One mana for +2/+2 tends to play pretty well, and the times you can get a 1/1 token out of this feel really insane, and its very doable, especially in GW.
Drag Under
2.5 Bouncing something at Sorcery speed and going down a card normally isn’t worth it. However, this replaces itself, which makes a really big difference! It means you still get the tempo but don’t go down a card, and there’s a spell deck in this format, so any spell that draws you a card already gets more value.
Pack 2 Pick 6: Lone Rider
Elder Cathar
3.0 This is a pretty nice payoff for Humans. Paying 3 mana for 4/4 worth of stats feels pretty good, and also makes the Cathar good sacrifice fodder.
Lone Rider
3.0 In the right format, this would be bonkers! Unfortunately, this format doesn’t have a dedicated life gain archetype, so gaining 3 or more life with it and transforming it into It That Rides as One isn’t as easy you might think. It is certainly doable, but not something that happens with regularity.
Dauntless Cathar
3.5 Trading this off for something and then getting a flying token out of your graveyard feels great. Also works well if you want to sacrifice it or you end up milling it.
Terrarion
1.5 This does a solid job of fixing your mana, and it helps you get delirium early by putting an Artifact in the graveyard.
Grotesque Mutation
2.0 This is a decent trick. While the small toughness boost isn’t going to always keep your creature alive, the lifelink can really alter a race in your favor.
Macabre Waltz
2.5 You want one of these in virtually every Black deck. It is great at bringing back your best creatures, and it can even help you load the graveyard!
Wild-Field Scarecrow
3.0 This is a passable defensive creature that is great at fixing your mana and helping you get Delirium.
Exultant Cultist
2.5 This is good sacrifice fodder, and can be especially spicy with Emerge. Even in the absence of those things, the fact you can trade this off for a 2-for-1 feels pretty good.
Borrowed Malevolence
2.0 This doesn’t feel amazing no matter how you cast it. If you can Escalate it, the boost it offers your creature and the -1/-1 it gives an opponent’s can be pretty nice, but three mana is steep enough that I don’t love this.
Rush of Adrenaline
2.0 This is a decent trick. The toughness boost of only 1 does mean your creature will die more often with this than you might like, but +2 power and trample for one mana can also result in huge blowouts.
Pack 2 Pick 7: Dauntless Cathar
Elder Cathar
3.0 This is a pretty nice payoff for Humans. Paying 3 mana for 4/4 worth of stats feels pretty good, and also makes the Cathar good sacrifice fodder.
Woodland Stream
2.5 These always enter tapped, which is a little bit of a bummer, but they still provide some quality fixing.
Murderer's Axe
1.0 This mostly isn’t worth it. Sure, you want to be discarding in this format to set up Delirium and cast things for their Madness cost, but there are lots of better ways to do that. The fact there isn’t any other Equip cost on this at all is rough, because even in this format there are situations where you just can’t move this.
Dauntless Cathar
3.5 Trading this off for something and then getting a flying token out of your graveyard feels great. Also works well if you want to sacrifice it or you end up milling it.
Laboratory Brute
1.5 You want to be milling yourself in this format, but there are lots of better cards out there that can do the job.
Magmatic Chasm
0.0 // 2.0 You’re not going to play this unless you’re an all-in aggro deck, and even then it is sometimes a real problem that flyers can still block.
Jace's Scrutiny
2.0 This is a little better than it might look at first, largely because the format has both a Spell deck and an Investigate deck. This ultimately replaces itself thanks to the Clue, and the -4/-0 can end up blanking an attack at worst, and sometimes you can even set up a really advantageous combat situation where your opponent actually loses a card.
Confront the Unknown
1.5 This only gives +1/+1 a little too often to be anything special. Some really clue-heavy decks can get some good use out of this, but it isn’t exactly the payoff you’re hoping for.
Strength of Arms
2.5 This is a nice trick. One mana for +2/+2 tends to play pretty well, and the times you can get a 1/1 token out of this feel really insane, and its very doable, especially in GW.
Pack 2 Pick 8: Confront the Unknown
Vampiric Fury
1.0 // 2.5 This is cheaper than most Trumpet-Blast type effects, but only buffing Vampires is enough of a restriction that I’m not that thrilled about it. If you really got their on vampires, it isn’t a bad inclusion, but there are lots of Red decks that won’t play this.
Foul Orchard
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Soul Separator
1.0 You need a nicely stocked graveyard and lots of spare mana to fully utilize this. So, basically, this is a little bit too clunky, and asks too much of you at the same time.
Confront the Unknown
1.5 This only gives +1/+1 a little too often to be anything special. Some really clue-heavy decks can get some good use out of this, but it isn’t exactly the payoff you’re hoping for.
Deny Existence
2.0 Most decks have enough creatures for this to be playable, though it is always rough to try to use one of these when your opponent casts a noncreature spell.
Alms of the Vein
1.0 Even if you can consistently cast this for its Madness cost, Alms of the Vein is fairly disappointing. The six point life swing is nice, but doesn’t feel worth a card most of the time.
Stormrider Spirit
2.0 The Spirit decks in this format have lots of cards that let them operate at instant speed, so this having Flash works pretty well. You can leave up counter magic and removal, and if you don’t need it, add a very real body to the board. You can of course also Flash it in and ambush block stuff, which can feel pretty great.
Puncturing Light
2.5 This can kill a decent number of creatures in the format, and it does it fairly efficiently. Obviously, it is a little too narrow to be premium, but its fine.
Pack 2 Pick 9: Drag Under
Battleground Geist
2.5 There are lots of Spirits in this set, and this will be doubly true while Battleground Geist is in the format. It has passable stats and impacts the board right away.
Abundant Maw
2.5 This has a big body and Lightning Helixes your opponent, so its hard to go wrong there! Especially because Black has plenty of good sacrifice fodder for Emerge.
Hope Against Hope
1.0 This Aura isn’t really worth the downside. Sure, it can offer a massive boost – but there are times where it doesn’t offer a big enough one to off-set how dangerous playing this card is. Your board already has to be good in most scenarios, too. Getting 2-for-1’d is a big enough risk that you need your Auras to do more than this.
Morkrut Necropod
2.5 This is a pretty scary creature. A 7/7 with Menace is a real pain to block! It does come with a pretty big downside, but giving up expendable creatures or lands to swing with this thing isn’t too shabby.
Drag Under
2.5 Bouncing something at Sorcery speed and going down a card normally isn’t worth it. However, this replaces itself, which makes a really big difference! It means you still get the tempo but don’t go down a card, and there’s a spell deck in this format, so any spell that draws you a card already gets more value.
Epitaph Golem
0.0 // 2.5 This is better than it looks! This is a format where you can actually end up milling yourself out, especially in Black-Green. Once your library is out of cards, the Golem not only helps you avoid losing because you’re out of cards – it also effectively lets you draw whatever card you want every single turn. It takes a fairly particular deck for this to make the cut, though.
Puncturing Light
2.5 This can kill a decent number of creatures in the format, and it does it fairly efficiently. Obviously, it is a little too narrow to be premium, but its fine.
Pack 2 Pick 10: Exultant Cultist
Traveler's Amulet
2.5 This nicely fixes your mana, while also giving you an Artifact in the graveyard for Delirium.
Second Harvest
0.0 You just don’t end up with enough tokens for this to actually be worth playing. Sure, doubling clues and some random creatures can be nice, but this card is entirely blank far too often.
Ingenious Skaab
3.5 This is an amazing common. If you took away its ability to change its stats OR Prowess, it would still be pretty high quality – but it has both! This is incredibly difficult to block, and it can hit really hard so that’s kind of a problem for your opponent.
Magnifying Glass
1.0 This is a very clunky mana rock. It is nice that it can produce Clues, but it doesn’t exactly do that efficiently either.
Exultant Cultist
2.5 This is good sacrifice fodder, and can be especially spicy with Emerge. Even in the absence of those things, the fact you can trade this off for a 2-for-1 feels pretty good.
Drownyard Explorers
2.0 This has decent defensive stats, and eventually draws you a card. It is a fine card for the grindy Clue decks, though most other decks aren’t that interested.
Pack 2 Pick 11: Angelic Purge
Elder Cathar
3.0 This is a pretty nice payoff for Humans. Paying 3 mana for 4/4 worth of stats feels pretty good, and also makes the Cathar good sacrifice fodder.
Angelic Purge
2.5 2-for-1ing yourself to destroy something isn’t great, but there is enough sacrifice fodder in this format that the first copy of Angelic Purge usually makes the cut.
Morkrut Necropod
2.5 This is a pretty scary creature. A 7/7 with Menace is a real pain to block! It does come with a pretty big downside, but giving up expendable creatures or lands to swing with this thing isn’t too shabby.
Swift Spinner
1.5 This is a passable creature that can ambush block some stuff, but it doesn’t always make the cut.
Drownyard Explorers
2.0 This has decent defensive stats, and eventually draws you a card. It is a fine card for the grindy Clue decks, though most other decks aren’t that interested.
Pack 2 Pick 12: Take Inventory
Uncaged Fury
2.5 This is a very nice trick. It is a little expensive, but it makes most creatures win combat, and it has the potential to allow an unblocked creature to just finish off your opponent. The first copy should be valued fairly highly.
Puncturing Light
2.5 This can kill a decent number of creatures in the format, and it does it fairly efficiently. Obviously, it is a little too narrow to be premium, but its fine.
Laboratory Brute
1.5 You want to be milling yourself in this format, but there are lots of better cards out there that can do the job.
Take Inventory
1.0 // 3.5 This card can get really silly, especially in Blue-Red decks that can generate awesome value from spells that draw cards. Obviously, you want to get multiples of these, so that they can scale as the game goes on. Even if you only have two, you probably play them – and if you end up with 4+, it feels amazing.
Pack 2 Pick 13: Lunarch Mantle
Forsaken Sanctuary
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Lunarch Mantle
1.5 This offers a reasonable boost for the cost, but the downside of getting 2-for-1’d is still very real. This can work alright in really aggressive decks, but won’t always make the cut.
Aim High
1.5 This type of trick is rarely good. The stats boost is medium for two mana, and Reach and untapping are mostly only relevant on defense, which is the worst possible time to use a trick.
Pack 2 Pick 14: Terrarion
Elder Cathar
3.0 This is a pretty nice payoff for Humans. Paying 3 mana for 4/4 worth of stats feels pretty good, and also makes the Cathar good sacrifice fodder.
Terrarion
1.5 This does a solid job of fixing your mana, and it helps you get delirium early by putting an Artifact in the graveyard.
Pack 2 Pick 15: Strength of Arms
Strength of Arms
2.5 This is a nice trick. One mana for +2/+2 tends to play pretty well, and the times you can get a 1/1 token out of this feel really insane, and its very doable, especially in GW.
Pack 3 Pick 1: Subjugator Angel
Moonmist
0.5 Even with all this additional upside, this is still a fog, and those are rarely worth it in Limited.
Burn from Within
4.0 X spells like this are usually not ever efficient, but the fact they scale all game long is quite powerful! You can finish your opponent off with it, and if you have enough mana, it can deal with anything!
Geier Reach Bandit
4.0 A three mana 3/2 with Haste is a great starting point, and when this transforms it not only gets +1/+1 – it also makes it so all of your werewolves immediately transform when they enter the battlefield, which is a pretty big upgrade.
Murderer's Axe
1.0 This mostly isn’t worth it. Sure, you want to be discarding in this format to set up Delirium and cast things for their Madness cost, but there are lots of better ways to do that. The fact there isn’t any other Equip cost on this at all is rough, because even in this format there are situations where you just can’t move this.
Blessed Alliance
3.5 The most useful mode on this is usually making your opponent sacrifice an opposing creature. Paying 2 mana for that isn’t amazing, especially when your opponent attacks with multiple creatures. However, the fact you can pump some extra mana into this for some extra effects is great.
Subjugator Angel
2.5 This was an underperformer last time. The idea of tapping down your opponent’s whole board and swinging for lethal is easy to imagine, but there are lots of board states where the ETB ability is actually irrelevant. And in those cases, you’re playing a creature that has a pretty bad stat-line.
Wretched Gryff
4.0 This is one of the best Commons in the set. Casting it for the full 7 mana is totally passable, and if you can sacrifice something that gives you value and cast the Gryff for three or four mana – which happens all the time – it feels particularly amazing.
Steadfast Cathar
2.5 This is a solid two drop, as attacking as a ⅔ in the early game is pretty nice.
Faithbearer Paladin
2.0 This is better than it looks. A ¾ with lifelink is pretty beefy in this format, and represents a very real road block for aggro decks.
Byway Courier
3.5 This is good at trading off for things, and the Clue it gives you means you’re going to get a 2-for-1.
Imprisoned in the Moon
2.5 This was Rare last time, downshifting it to Common will have a pretty significant impact on the format. That said, it isn’t amazing removal in Limited. Giving your opponent extra mana isn’t great, but it is usually better than whatever their best creature is. Still, you don’t really feel like you get a full card of value when you play this.
Borrowed Hostility
0.0 This is bad. It is a build-your-own Sure Strike, except it costs twice the mana – and it isn’t like Sure Strike is that impressive to begin with.
Borrowed Grace
1.5 So you can pay for +2/+2 to the whole board, or three mana for just one of these effects. Neither is very exciting.
Grotesque Mutation
2.0 This is a decent trick. While the small toughness boost isn’t going to always keep your creature alive, the lifelink can really alter a race in your favor.
Macabre Waltz
2.5 You want one of these in virtually every Black deck. It is great at bringing back your best creatures, and it can even help you load the graveyard!
Pack 3 Pick 2: Stormrider Spirit
Moonmist
0.5 Even with all this additional upside, this is still a fog, and those are rarely worth it in Limited.
Ulvenwald Captive
3.0 As is true in most formats, ramping your mana is pretty good! Even when it is attached to a two mana ½ with Defender. Its transformation isn’t the most impressive, but it does let you ramp mana even more, it gets bigger, and it loses defender.
Graf Harvest
2.0 Menace to Zombies upgrades a decent number of board states, and this isn’t a bad mana sink either.
Forsaken Sanctuary
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Choked Estuary
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Ravenous Bloodseeker
2.5 This is a nice discard outlet that can be pretty obnoxious to block in the early game.
Insatiable Gorgers
2.5 A 4-mana 5/3 isn’t too bad, even if it has to always attack, and the Madness upside is nice to have.
Dead Weight
3.5 This is premium removal, kills many things for only one mana. It is also a little better than normal in this format because of Delirium.
Grapple with the Past
2.5 You usually want one of these in Green. It helps you get delirium and helps you get value out of the graveyard.
Borrowed Hostility
0.0 This is bad. It is a build-your-own Sure Strike, except it costs twice the mana – and it isn’t like Sure Strike is that impressive to begin with.
Gisa's Bidding
3.5 This is great, it was an Uncommon last time, so downshifting it to Common is pretty spicy. Without Madness, it is a passable rate. With Madness it is downright nasty. Three mana for two 2/2s at Instant speed is a great rate. Casting this for its Madness cost is very doable, too.
Stormrider Spirit
2.0 The Spirit decks in this format have lots of cards that let them operate at instant speed, so this having Flash works pretty well. You can leave up counter magic and removal, and if you don’t need it, add a very real body to the board. You can of course also Flash it in and ambush block stuff, which can feel pretty great.
Liliana's Elite
1.5 Even in this graveyard-centric format, Liliana’s Elite often isn’t worth it. The upside here is that it is a large vanilla creature, and the downside is that it is awful in the early game, and mediocre in the mid-game.
Puncturing Light
2.5 This can kill a decent number of creatures in the format, and it does it fairly efficiently. Obviously, it is a little too narrow to be premium, but its fine.
Pack 3 Pick 3: Faith Unbroken
Startled Awake
3.0 This is really slow, but it is actually a legitimate win condition. Milling your opponent’s stuff can definitely backfire in a format with Delirium and other graveyard stuff, but milling thirteen at a time stands a good chance of finishing your opponent off before it matters too much. You certainly need to be a good control deck to make it work, so keep that in mind.
Invasive Surgery
0.0 Yeah, no. This is far too narrow, even if you have Delirium active.
Faith Unbroken
2.5 This card is incredibly swingy. 4 mana to exile something and give a creature +2/+2 is an incredible rate, and if the creature and Enchantment stay around, your opponent loses. However, if your opponent finds a way to kill the Enchanted creature, they probably win, because you get absolutely blown out.
Pack Guardian
4.0 A 4-mana 4/3 with Flash would usually make the cut, so the fact you can discard a land to end up also getting a 2/2 is amazing, especially because getting a land in your graveyard might help you get Delirium.
Drag Under
2.5 Bouncing something at Sorcery speed and going down a card normally isn’t worth it. However, this replaces itself, which makes a really big difference! It means you still get the tempo but don’t go down a card, and there’s a spell deck in this format, so any spell that draws you a card already gets more value.
Drogskol Shieldmate
2.0 This isn’t as impressive as it looks. +0/+1 to your whole board is not impactful in most situations. Still, it is a three mana ⅔ with Flash and upside, so it is super solid.
Steadfast Cathar
2.5 This is a solid two drop, as attacking as a ⅔ in the early game is pretty nice.
Grotesque Mutation
2.0 This is a decent trick. While the small toughness boost isn’t going to always keep your creature alive, the lifelink can really alter a race in your favor.
Angelic Purge
2.5 2-for-1ing yourself to destroy something isn’t great, but there is enough sacrifice fodder in this format that the first copy of Angelic Purge usually makes the cut.
Briarbridge Patrol
3.0 This isn’t quite as good as it looks, which is partly why they downshifted it from Uncommon. A 4-mana 3/3 isn’t very good, and while this has a big text box, it doesn’t do anything that good. It does generate Clues for you whether it blocks or gets blocked, which means you do ultimately get a 2-for-1 out of it pretty often. I wouldn’t count on being able to effectively utilize the card’s other ability, though. These sorts of effects always underperform in Limited, partly because you can’t really build a deck with enough monsters to cheat into play. So, you don’t often have something worth putting into play with the effect – oftentimes, it is better to just hold on to all of your clues.
Stormrider Spirit
2.0 The Spirit decks in this format have lots of cards that let them operate at instant speed, so this having Flash works pretty well. You can leave up counter magic and removal, and if you don’t need it, add a very real body to the board. You can of course also Flash it in and ambush block stuff, which can feel pretty great.
Tormenting Voice
2.5 This is better in this format than it is in pretty much any other! It helps you get Delirium and discard things with Madness, on top of also being a nice card for the Blue-Red spell deck since it triggers all of your payoffs.
Haunted Fengraf
1.0 This is bad for your mana base, and the fact it is random is a pretty big problem.
Pack 3 Pick 4: Clear Shot
Battleground Geist
2.5 There are lots of Spirits in this set, and this will be doubly true while Battleground Geist is in the format. It has passable stats and impacts the board right away.
Hinterland Logger
3.0 This is a nice two drop. If you’re on the play and your opponent doesn’t have their own two drop, it can easily become a 4/2 Trampler in the early game, which is terrifying! That size is relevant all game long, too.
Anguished Unmaking
3.5 Hitting any type of permanent is great, and well worth paying 3 life for. That said, playing more than 1 or 2 of this can get a little sketchy because of the life payment. You can offset it by gaining some life, of course.
Clear Shot
4.0 This is great removal. Because of the stats boost, it makes most creatures capable of taking something down, and sometimes you can even get a 2-for-1 – like if the +1/+1 helps a creature win combat.
Thornhide Wolves
2.0 Last time around, this vanilla 4-mana ⅘ played surprisingly well. It is quite large for the format, and has a useful creature type.
Crow of Dark Tidings
3.0 This is a great card for getting Delirium going, and that’s definitely something you want to be doing – especially in Black/Green and Black/White. It even attacks in the air quite effectively!
Rush of Adrenaline
2.0 This is a decent trick. The toughness boost of only 1 does mean your creature will die more often with this than you might like, but +2 power and trample for one mana can also result in huge blowouts.
Deny Existence
2.0 Most decks have enough creatures for this to be playable, though it is always rough to try to use one of these when your opponent casts a noncreature spell.
Obsessive Skinner
3.5 Without Delirium, this is a two drop that usually makes the cut. When you get Delirium going, it becomes an impressive value engine, giving you a +1/+1 counter every turn.
Devilthorn Fox
1.5 A vanilla two mana 3/1 was better back in 2016, and this will be far more playable in this format than it is in more recent ones.
Borrowed Malevolence
2.0 This doesn’t feel amazing no matter how you cast it. If you can Escalate it, the boost it offers your creature and the -1/-1 it gives an opponent’s can be pretty nice, but three mana is steep enough that I don’t love this.
Sanitarium Skeleton
1.0 // 2.5 If you need sacrifice fodder, this is pretty nice. If you don’t, you aren’t playing it.
Pack 3 Pick 5: Butcher's Cleaver
Butcher's Cleaver
1.5 In original Innistrad, this was a nasty combo with Invisible Stalker. Sadly, the Stalker and the Cleaver won’t be in the format at the same time, and that definitely hurts this card’s stock. It costs a lot to cast and to Equip. While lifelink is nice, this is often just too clunky.
Village Messenger
2.5 This is great on turn one, especially if you’re on the play. You get to play this and get in for a damage, and if your opponent doesn’t have a one drop, this turns into a 2/2 Menace – and it's going to stay that way for quite some time. If you get it later in the game, it is significantly less impressive, but a 2/2 Menace can at least be relevant on most board states.
Hope Against Hope
1.0 This Aura isn’t really worth the downside. Sure, it can offer a massive boost – but there are times where it doesn’t offer a big enough one to off-set how dangerous playing this card is. Your board already has to be good in most scenarios, too. Getting 2-for-1’d is a big enough risk that you need your Auras to do more than this.
Brain in a Jar
0.0 Not worth it in Limited, even with a spell deck around. It is too slow and doesn’t really do anything to impact the game most of the time.
Stormrider Spirit
2.0 The Spirit decks in this format have lots of cards that let them operate at instant speed, so this having Flash works pretty well. You can leave up counter magic and removal, and if you don’t need it, add a very real body to the board. You can of course also Flash it in and ambush block stuff, which can feel pretty great.
Grapple with the Past
2.5 You usually want one of these in Green. It helps you get delirium and helps you get value out of the graveyard.
Steadfast Cathar
2.5 This is a solid two drop, as attacking as a ⅔ in the early game is pretty nice.
Drownyard Explorers
2.0 This has decent defensive stats, and eventually draws you a card. It is a fine card for the grindy Clue decks, though most other decks aren’t that interested.
Grotesque Mutation
2.0 This is a decent trick. While the small toughness boost isn’t going to always keep your creature alive, the lifelink can really alter a race in your favor.
Pyre Hound
1.0 // 3.5 This is a buildaround, but it is also an incredibly important and powerful Common for the Blue-Red deck. It gets massive in that deck, and the Trample is a real problem for your opponent.
Thornhide Wolves
2.0 Last time around, this vanilla 4-mana ⅘ played surprisingly well. It is quite large for the format, and has a useful creature type.
Pack 3 Pick 6: Drag Under
Geier Reach Bandit
4.0 A three mana 3/2 with Haste is a great starting point, and when this transforms it not only gets +1/+1 – it also makes it so all of your werewolves immediately transform when they enter the battlefield, which is a pretty big upgrade.
Indulgent Aristocrat
3.5 This is a great Vampire payoff. It is a bit awkward sometimes that you have to sacrifice something to put the counters on your creatures, but if you’ve got enough Vampires in play that is well worth the price.
Deranged Whelp
2.5 This is a solid little two-drop and it has a useful creature type.
Aim High
1.5 This type of trick is rarely good. The stats boost is medium for two mana, and Reach and untapping are mostly only relevant on defense, which is the worst possible time to use a trick.
Take Inventory
1.0 // 3.5 This card can get really silly, especially in Blue-Red decks that can generate awesome value from spells that draw cards. Obviously, you want to get multiples of these, so that they can scale as the game goes on. Even if you only have two, you probably play them – and if you end up with 4+, it feels amazing.
Drag Under
2.5 Bouncing something at Sorcery speed and going down a card normally isn’t worth it. However, this replaces itself, which makes a really big difference! It means you still get the tempo but don’t go down a card, and there’s a spell deck in this format, so any spell that draws you a card already gets more value.
Intrepid Provisioner
3.0 This is a solid Human payoff. The +2/+2 it offers often gives you a much better situation to attack with, and the 3/3 Trample body isn’t the worst thing.
Ghoulcaller's Accomplice
3.0 This has solid base stats, and the fact you can get a Zombie out of it from the graveyard is great! Obviously, the rate on that second body isn’t amazing, but card advantage is card advantage. It also means you can discard or mill this and still get some nice value out of it.
Field Creeper
1.5 This is a little better than it looks. It is both an Artifact and a Creature, which means it gets you halfway to Delirium all on its own.
Galvanic Bombardment
2.5 // 4.0 You’ll always play this even if you only have one copy, and it becomes far better the more copies you have. If you have 4+, it becomes one of the best cards in your deck.
Pack 3 Pick 7: Drag Under
Battleground Geist
2.5 There are lots of Spirits in this set, and this will be doubly true while Battleground Geist is in the format. It has passable stats and impacts the board right away.
Mockery of Nature
2.5 This format has a decent number of Artifacts and Enchantments, and if you have a target, the Mockery will feel amazing. However, there aren’t so many of them in the set that this will consistently give you that sweet 2-for-1.
Game Trail
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Explosive Apparatus
1.5 This is by no means efficient, but if you’re hurting for Artifacts to get Delirium going more consistently, it can do the job.
Crow of Dark Tidings
3.0 This is a great card for getting Delirium going, and that’s definitely something you want to be doing – especially in Black/Green and Black/White. It even attacks in the air quite effectively!
Tormenting Voice
2.5 This is better in this format than it is in pretty much any other! It helps you get Delirium and discard things with Madness, on top of also being a nice card for the Blue-Red spell deck since it triggers all of your payoffs.
Drag Under
2.5 Bouncing something at Sorcery speed and going down a card normally isn’t worth it. However, this replaces itself, which makes a really big difference! It means you still get the tempo but don’t go down a card, and there’s a spell deck in this format, so any spell that draws you a card already gets more value.
Rabid Bite
3.5 This is premium removal. You have to be careful about when you use it, because your opponent can interact in response and blow you out. But when you get the chance to use it, it ends up dealing with most creatures very efficiently.
Dawn Gryff
2.0 A three mana 2/2 Flyer was a lot better back in 2016, and I think this format is similar enough for this to be solid.
Pack 3 Pick 8: Cryptolith Fragment
Cryptolith Fragment
2.5 This is a source of fixing that can become a very real threat. The situation won’t always allow you to transform it, but if your opponent has 10 or less life and you’ve got the Aurora of Emrakul attacking them, they are going to be in some serious trouble.
Graf Mole
3.0 This is a nice Clue payoff with solid stats. The life it gains you can really help you buy yourself the time to draw all of your extra cards.
Puncturing Light
2.5 This can kill a decent number of creatures in the format, and it does it fairly efficiently. Obviously, it is a little too narrow to be premium, but its fine.
Rush of Adrenaline
2.0 This is a decent trick. The toughness boost of only 1 does mean your creature will die more often with this than you might like, but +2 power and trample for one mana can also result in huge blowouts.
Spontaneous Mutation
1.5 Like most -X/-0 Auras, this isn’t very good – even with Flash! It doesn’t get close enough to removing an entire card to feel like its worth it. It does get a small boost because of all the Prowess in the set, but you’re still hoping to play something better.
Bloodbriar
2.5 This is a pretty real payoff for sacrifice decks, and it has passable base stats.
Laboratory Brute
1.5 You want to be milling yourself in this format, but there are lots of better cards out there that can do the job.
Field Creeper
1.5 This is a little better than it looks. It is both an Artifact and a Creature, which means it gets you halfway to Delirium all on its own.
Pack 3 Pick 9: Blessed Alliance
Moonmist
0.5 Even with all this additional upside, this is still a fog, and those are rarely worth it in Limited.
Geier Reach Bandit
4.0 A three mana 3/2 with Haste is a great starting point, and when this transforms it not only gets +1/+1 – it also makes it so all of your werewolves immediately transform when they enter the battlefield, which is a pretty big upgrade.
Murderer's Axe
1.0 This mostly isn’t worth it. Sure, you want to be discarding in this format to set up Delirium and cast things for their Madness cost, but there are lots of better ways to do that. The fact there isn’t any other Equip cost on this at all is rough, because even in this format there are situations where you just can’t move this.
Blessed Alliance
3.5 The most useful mode on this is usually making your opponent sacrifice an opposing creature. Paying 2 mana for that isn’t amazing, especially when your opponent attacks with multiple creatures. However, the fact you can pump some extra mana into this for some extra effects is great.
Faithbearer Paladin
2.0 This is better than it looks. A ¾ with lifelink is pretty beefy in this format, and represents a very real road block for aggro decks.
Borrowed Hostility
0.0 This is bad. It is a build-your-own Sure Strike, except it costs twice the mana – and it isn’t like Sure Strike is that impressive to begin with.
Borrowed Grace
1.5 So you can pay for +2/+2 to the whole board, or three mana for just one of these effects. Neither is very exciting.
Pack 3 Pick 10: Puncturing Light
Moonmist
0.5 Even with all this additional upside, this is still a fog, and those are rarely worth it in Limited.
Graf Harvest
2.0 Menace to Zombies upgrades a decent number of board states, and this isn’t a bad mana sink either.
Ravenous Bloodseeker
2.5 This is a nice discard outlet that can be pretty obnoxious to block in the early game.
Borrowed Hostility
0.0 This is bad. It is a build-your-own Sure Strike, except it costs twice the mana – and it isn’t like Sure Strike is that impressive to begin with.
Liliana's Elite
1.5 Even in this graveyard-centric format, Liliana’s Elite often isn’t worth it. The upside here is that it is a large vanilla creature, and the downside is that it is awful in the early game, and mediocre in the mid-game.
Puncturing Light
2.5 This can kill a decent number of creatures in the format, and it does it fairly efficiently. Obviously, it is a little too narrow to be premium, but its fine.
Pack 3 Pick 11: Steadfast Cathar
Invasive Surgery
0.0 Yeah, no. This is far too narrow, even if you have Delirium active.
Steadfast Cathar
2.5 This is a solid two drop, as attacking as a ⅔ in the early game is pretty nice.
Grotesque Mutation
2.0 This is a decent trick. While the small toughness boost isn’t going to always keep your creature alive, the lifelink can really alter a race in your favor.
Angelic Purge
2.5 2-for-1ing yourself to destroy something isn’t great, but there is enough sacrifice fodder in this format that the first copy of Angelic Purge usually makes the cut.
Stormrider Spirit
2.0 The Spirit decks in this format have lots of cards that let them operate at instant speed, so this having Flash works pretty well. You can leave up counter magic and removal, and if you don’t need it, add a very real body to the board. You can of course also Flash it in and ambush block stuff, which can feel pretty great.
Pack 3 Pick 12: Devilthorn Fox
Battleground Geist
2.5 There are lots of Spirits in this set, and this will be doubly true while Battleground Geist is in the format. It has passable stats and impacts the board right away.
Thornhide Wolves
2.0 Last time around, this vanilla 4-mana ⅘ played surprisingly well. It is quite large for the format, and has a useful creature type.
Deny Existence
2.0 Most decks have enough creatures for this to be playable, though it is always rough to try to use one of these when your opponent casts a noncreature spell.
Devilthorn Fox
1.5 A vanilla two mana 3/1 was better back in 2016, and this will be far more playable in this format than it is in more recent ones.
Pack 3 Pick 13: Steadfast Cathar
Steadfast Cathar
2.5 This is a solid two drop, as attacking as a ⅔ in the early game is pretty nice.
Grotesque Mutation
2.0 This is a decent trick. While the small toughness boost isn’t going to always keep your creature alive, the lifelink can really alter a race in your favor.
Thornhide Wolves
2.0 Last time around, this vanilla 4-mana ⅘ played surprisingly well. It is quite large for the format, and has a useful creature type.
Pack 3 Pick 14: Intrepid Provisioner
Intrepid Provisioner
3.0 This is a solid Human payoff. The +2/+2 it offers often gives you a much better situation to attack with, and the 3/3 Trample body isn’t the worst thing.
Field Creeper
1.5 This is a little better than it looks. It is both an Artifact and a Creature, which means it gets you halfway to Delirium all on its own.
Pack 3 Pick 15: Crow of Dark Tidings
Crow of Dark Tidings
3.0 This is a great card for getting Delirium going, and that’s definitely something you want to be doing – especially in Black/Green and Black/White. It even attacks in the air quite effectively!