Mist Raven
4.0 This leds you add a pretty real body to the board while also subtracting from your opponent’s board. This gives you a huge leg up in most games, whether you’re ahead or behind.
Summary Dismissal
1.5 The stack doesn’t usually get very large in Limited, so this is mostly just a 4-mana counterspell that can go after abilities as well as spells. That’s not great.
Thing in the Ice
4.0 There’s a well-supported spell deck in this format, so flipping this is fairly doable. It takes awhile to get there of course, but paying two mana for a 7/8 that bounces a bunch of stuff is a great deal! This format does have a lot of Horrors, though, so sometimes you won’t bounce everything.
Biting Rain
2.5 If you’re going to end up in a control deck, Biting Rain is a nice inclusion, as it does a great job of keeping aggro decks in check. Obviously, if you’re an aggro deck, you don’t want this.
Compelling Deterrence
2.5 Two mana to bounce a non-land permanent is usually playable, especially in a format with a spell deck! The Zombie upside is nice too, especially in situations when your opponent has an empty hand, when this basically feels like Doom Blade!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Steadfast Cathar
2.5 This is a solid two drop, as attacking as a ⅔ in the early game is pretty nice.
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.
Pack 1 Pick 2: Incendiary Flow
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.
Scourge Wolf
4.0 A two mana 2/2 with First Strike is something you always play, so the fact this can gain double strike in the mid-game is a great upgrade.
Topplegeist
3.5 Without Delirium, Topplegeist is already a playable card. Then, if you can get Delirium online, this becomes absolutely insane, as tapping down a creature every turn can really shift the game in your favor.
Call the Bloodline
0.0 // 3.0 In the right deck, this can be very powerful! There is a lot of Madness in this set, especially in Black-Red, and this is one of the best ways to get Madness going, since it also lets you add a very real body to the board.
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.
Incendiary Flow
4.0 Two mana to do 3 to a creature is always premium removal, and this has exile upside that really matters.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ravenous Bloodseeker
2.5 This is a nice discard outlet that can be pretty obnoxious to block in the early game.
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.
Evolving Wilds
2.5 Wilds is always a nice way to fix your mana, and in this format getting a land into your graveyard has extra value.
Pack 1 Pick 3: Confirm Suspicions
Barter in Blood
2.0 This card is pretty awkward. The format is littered with cards that do good stuff when they die, or that do things from the graveyard. The idea here is that you’d sacrifice some of those expendable things, but the problem is your opponent is just as likely to have them.
Confirm Suspicions
1.5 Counter magic that is this expensive usually isn’t worth playing in Limited. The three clues are enough upside for this to make a cut in the most controlling decks, but you won’t play it most of the time.
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.
Forsaken Sanctuary
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
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.
Bound by Moonsilver
4.0 This is amazing removal, and it was at Uncommon last time around. Downshifting it is pretty surprising, because it deals with most things in the format quite effectively! Its great you can move it around when you need to, too.
Ravenous Bloodseeker
2.5 This is a nice discard outlet that can be pretty obnoxious to block in the early game.
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!
Weirded Vampire
1.5 This is bad if you don’t cast it with Madness, and mediocre when you do.
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.
Fiend Binder
2.5 The stat-line is ugly for the cost, but tapping down an opposing creature every time it attacks can allow you to do tons of damage.
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.
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: Drag Under
Barter in Blood
2.0 This card is pretty awkward. The format is littered with cards that do good stuff when they die, or that do things from the graveyard. The idea here is that you’d sacrifice some of those expendable things, but the problem is your opponent is just as likely to have them.
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.
Graf Harvest
2.0 Menace to Zombies upgrades a decent number of board states, and this isn’t a bad mana sink either.
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.
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.
Howlpack Wolf
2.0 This has decent stats, and if you're in Red/Green it basically has no downside.
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.
Weirded Vampire
1.5 This is bad if you don’t cast it with Madness, and mediocre when you do.
Wild-Field Scarecrow
3.0 This is a passable defensive creature that is great at fixing your mana and helping you get Delirium.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 1 Pick 5: Ingenious Skaab
Bonds of Faith
3.0 The modality here can be pretty nice, though most of the time you’re going to use it as removal. And sometimes, the creature you really want to use it on is a Human, and in those cases this can be pretty bad.
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.
Graf Harvest
2.0 Menace to Zombies upgrades a decent number of board states, and this isn’t a bad mana sink either.
Geist of the Archives
3.0 This is surprisingly good. It can block lots of creatures in the format, and a free Scry every upkeep does a great job of improving the quality of your cards.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Insolent Neonate
2.5 This is a solid one drop that can chip in for some nice damage early, and then cash itself in for a card later in the game.
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 6: Geist of the Archives
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.
Stone Quarry
2.5 These always enter tapped, which is a little bit of a bummer, but they still provide some quality fixing.
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.
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.
Geist of the Archives
3.0 This is surprisingly good. It can block lots of creatures in the format, and a free Scry every upkeep does a great job of improving the quality of your cards.
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.
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.
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!
Weirded Vampire
1.5 This is bad if you don’t cast it with Madness, and mediocre when you do.
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 1 Pick 7: Wretched Gryff
Avacyn's Pilgrim
3.5 Mana dorks are amazing in the early game, as playing your three drops on turn two is very powerful. They get worse in the late game, when they have small irrelevant bodies and you don’t need the mana anymore. Still, the early game upside is enough to make the Pilgrim something you take highly.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Wolfkin Bond
3.0 This is a surprisingly good Aura, and one you’re usually going to want one of in your Green decks. 5 mana is a lot, but the fact this gives you a 2/2 means that you do a good job of mitigating against the risk of getting 2-for-1’d.
Fiend Binder
2.5 The stat-line is ugly for the cost, but tapping down an opposing creature every time it attacks can allow you to do tons of damage.
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.
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.
Pack 1 Pick 8: Second Harvest
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.
Graf Rats
1.0 You don’t play this unless you’re very desperate for a two drop or you have Midnight Scavengers.
Lupine Prototype
0.0 A 2-mana 5/5 is great, but this is effectively a blank card for most of the game, and by the time it can attack and block, a 5/5 is no longer the most impressive 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.
Howlpack Wolf
2.0 This has decent stats, and if you're in Red/Green it basically has no downside.
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.
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.
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 9: Wretched Gryff
Biting Rain
2.5 If you’re going to end up in a control deck, Biting Rain is a nice inclusion, as it does a great job of keeping aggro decks in check. Obviously, if you’re an aggro deck, you don’t want this.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Steadfast Cathar
2.5 This is a solid two drop, as attacking as a ⅔ in the early game is pretty nice.
Pack 1 Pick 10: Imprisoned in the Moon
Topplegeist
3.5 Without Delirium, Topplegeist is already a playable card. Then, if you can get Delirium online, this becomes absolutely insane, as tapping down a creature every turn can really shift the game in your favor.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 1 Pick 11: Forsaken Sanctuary
Forsaken Sanctuary
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
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.
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!
Weirded Vampire
1.5 This is bad if you don’t cast it with Madness, and mediocre when you do.
Fiend Binder
2.5 The stat-line is ugly for the cost, but tapping down an opposing creature every time it attacks can allow you to do tons of damage.
Pack 1 Pick 12: Gavony Unhallowed
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.
Graf Harvest
2.0 Menace to Zombies upgrades a decent number of board states, and this isn’t a bad mana sink either.
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.
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.
Pack 1 Pick 13: Crow of Dark Tidings
Graf Harvest
2.0 Menace to Zombies upgrades a decent number of board states, and this isn’t a bad mana sink either.
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.
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 1 Pick 14: Magnifying Glass
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.
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 1 Pick 15: Laboratory Brute
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.
Pack 2 Pick 1: Forgotten Creation
Invisible Stalker
3.5 An unblockable hexproof creature represents some pretty serious inevitability, especially if you can put Equipment or Auras on it.
Forgotten Creation
3.0 A 4-mana 3/3 isn’t great, and Skulk on a 3/3 is kind of funny – because it means there are lots of creatures that can effectively block it. Its ability to help you reload your hand can also be fairly situational and awkward, but if you’re given the time to set it up, pitching lands to draw extra cards is pretty good.
Graf Rats
1.0 You don’t play this unless you’re very desperate for a two drop or you have Midnight Scavengers.
Ironclad Slayer
2.5 This format has some quality Auras and Equipment, especially in Green-White, so this is able to return a quality card a decent chunk of the time, and the fail case isn’t too terrible.
Mercurial Geists
3.5 If you have enough cheap spells, the Geists hit incredibly hard. If you’re playing Blue-Red, your deck will have enough spells in it without even trying.
Drownyard Behemoth
2.5 The main thing you want to do with this is Flash it in and ambush block a smaller creature, and that’s most creatures! If you do that, you’re going to get a 2-for-1. Sometimes that situation doesn’t present itself, and you just find yourself casting this as a 5/7, and it doesn’t feel nearly as good in those cases, but Blue has enough good sacrifice fodder that this will still feel pretty decent.
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.
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.
Wild-Field Scarecrow
3.0 This is a passable defensive creature that is great at fixing your mana and helping you get Delirium.
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.
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.
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.
Bound by Moonsilver
4.0 This is amazing removal, and it was at Uncommon last time around. Downshifting it is pretty surprising, because it deals with most things in the format quite effectively! Its great you can move it around when you need to, too.
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.
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.
Pack 2 Pick 2: Ulvenwald Hydra
Blazing Torch
2.0 This is really good against Vampires and Zombies, but it is even solid when your opponent has 0 of them. After all, it is basically a colorless two mana Shock – and it adds itself to the graveyard, helping you with delirium.
Ulvenwald Hydra
4.0 The fact this can search up non basics doesn’t matter a whole lot in this format. But you know what does? Having an absolutely massive creature, and that’s what this will be! Usually it is a 6-mana 7/7 with Reach, and it continually grows as the game continues.
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.
Forsaken Sanctuary
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Woodland Stream
2.5 These always enter tapped, which is a little bit of a bummer, but they still provide some quality fixing.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Certain Death
2.5 This is certainly clunky, but it deals with anything and drains 2 life, which helps offset how expensive it is.
Pack 2 Pick 3: Forge Devil
Forge Devil
1.0 Keep in mind that this card does not say “up to” nor is it optional. In other words, if you want to play this with nothing else on the board, it will ping itself. This isn’t too bad when it can pick off an opposing creature, but there are lots of board states where it just can’t do that.
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.
Blood Mist
0.0 This is bad. It isn’t worth the mana or the card. Double strike on one creature can sometimes be pretty sweet, but the fact it only works on one creature and only on your turn is rough. You basically already need a really good creature or this is irrelevant.
Forsaken Sanctuary
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
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.
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.
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.
Weirded Vampire
1.5 This is bad if you don’t cast it with Madness, and mediocre when you do.
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.
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.
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.
Deranged Whelp
2.5 This is a solid little two-drop and it has a useful creature type.
Pack 2 Pick 4: Collective Brutality
Bonds of Faith
3.0 The modality here can be pretty nice, though most of the time you’re going to use it as removal. And sometimes, the creature you really want to use it on is a Human, and in those cases this can be pretty bad.
Collective Brutality
3.5 The -2/-2 mode is a solid removal spell, so having the option to gain access to the other two modes is great – especially because discarding cards can be so good in this format.
Kindly Stranger
4.0 If Delirium is online, this is basically a 6-mana 4/3 that destroys a creature when it enters the battlefield. That’s insanely strong! Now, it does take some set up, and sometimes you don’t have six mana to do it all at once, but either way, the Stranger is very powerful.
Wild-Field Scarecrow
3.0 This is a passable defensive creature that is great at fixing your mana and helping 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.
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.
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.
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.
Sigardian Priest
2.5 This format has a ton of humans in it, so you often can’t tap creatures that you desperately want to tap. That makes this a lot worse than something like Master Decoy, but its still solid.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 2 Pick 5: Traverse the Ulvenwald
Traverse the Ulvenwald
3.0 I’m not usually very high on tutors in Limited, but this one costs a single Green mana, and the fail case is that you can throw it away to grab a basic land. This helps fix your mana, and can make lots of hands with low land-counts more keepable. Once you get delirium, it can tutor up creatures too, which is nice upside.
Graf Rats
1.0 You don’t play this unless you’re very desperate for a two drop or you have Midnight Scavengers.
Shreds of Sanity
2.0 If you’re in Red there’s a good chance you have a nice mix of Instants and Sorceries, and if you do, this is a pretty nice way to get back some removal spells.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Insolent Neonate
2.5 This is a solid one drop that can chip in for some nice damage early, and then cash itself in for a card later in the game.
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.
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.
Pack 2 Pick 6: Alchemist's Greeting
Game Trail
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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 7: Insolent Neonate
Vessel of Endless Rest
1.0 Most three mana mana rocks aren’t worth using in Limited, and that’s mostly true here. It can be used to break up Delirium, or take away some other graveyard value, which has its uses, but more often than not the ETB ability has little to no effect on the game.
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.
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.
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.
Insolent Neonate
2.5 This is a solid one drop that can chip in for some nice damage early, and then cash itself in for a card later in the game.
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.
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.
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 2 Pick 8: Deranged Whelp
Howlpack Resurgence
3.5 This works pretty well if you have lots of Wolves or Werewolves, and even plays quite well with them. Because it has Flash, you can pass the turn, have your wolves and werewolves transform, and then play this on your opponent’s turn. If this can buff most of your board, its great – but you don’t play it until you have 10+ wolves or werewolves.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Swift Spinner
1.5 This is a passable creature that can ambush block some stuff, but it doesn’t always make the cut.
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.
Deranged Whelp
2.5 This is a solid little two-drop and it has a useful creature type.
Pack 2 Pick 9: Ingenious Skaab
Invisible Stalker
3.5 An unblockable hexproof creature represents some pretty serious inevitability, especially if you can put Equipment or Auras on it.
Graf Rats
1.0 You don’t play this unless you’re very desperate for a two drop or you have Midnight Scavengers.
Mercurial Geists
3.5 If you have enough cheap spells, the Geists hit incredibly hard. If you’re playing Blue-Red, your deck will have enough spells in it without even trying.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 2 Pick 10: Pyre Hound
Blazing Torch
2.0 This is really good against Vampires and Zombies, but it is even solid when your opponent has 0 of them. After all, it is basically a colorless two mana Shock – and it adds itself to the graveyard, helping you with delirium.
Woodland Stream
2.5 These always enter tapped, which is a little bit of a bummer, but they still provide some quality fixing.
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!
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.
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.
Certain Death
2.5 This is certainly clunky, but it deals with anything and drains 2 life, which helps offset how expensive it is.
Pack 2 Pick 11: Deranged Whelp
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.
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.
Weirded Vampire
1.5 This is bad if you don’t cast it with Madness, and mediocre when you do.
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.
Deranged Whelp
2.5 This is a solid little two-drop and it has a useful creature type.
Pack 2 Pick 12: Pyre Hound
Kindly Stranger
4.0 If Delirium is online, this is basically a 6-mana 4/3 that destroys a creature when it enters the battlefield. That’s insanely strong! Now, it does take some set up, and sometimes you don’t have six mana to do it all at once, but either way, the Stranger is very powerful.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 2 Pick 13: Shreds of Sanity
Shreds of Sanity
2.0 If you’re in Red there’s a good chance you have a nice mix of Instants and Sorceries, and if you do, this is a pretty nice way to get back some removal spells.
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.
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 2 Pick 14: 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!
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 15: Morkrut Necropod
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.
Pack 3 Pick 1: Thing in the Ice
Forge Devil
1.0 Keep in mind that this card does not say “up to” nor is it optional. In other words, if you want to play this with nothing else on the board, it will ping itself. This isn’t too bad when it can pick off an opposing creature, but there are lots of board states where it just can’t do that.
Thing in the Ice
4.0 There’s a well-supported spell deck in this format, so flipping this is fairly doable. It takes awhile to get there of course, but paying two mana for a 7/8 that bounces a bunch of stuff is a great deal! This format does have a lot of Horrors, though, so sometimes you won’t bounce everything.
Conduit of Storms
3.0 A three mana ⅔ that gives you a mana every time it attacks isn’t too bad, and this can transform into a fairly impressive Eldrazi Werewolf.
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.
Choked Estuary
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Deathcap Cultivator
4.0 This is a nice mana dork that can even fix your mana, and the fact it can get deathtouch is pretty nice. Most mana dorks stop being good in the late game, but adding deathtouch means this always has an impact on the board.
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.
Insolent Neonate
2.5 This is a solid one drop that can chip in for some nice damage early, and then cash itself in for a card later in the game.
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.
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!
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.
Tattered Haunter
2.0 This is a reasonable two-drop, though it does suffer from the fact that it is awful against the format’s flying tokens.
Guardian of Pilgrims
2.0 This has medium base stats, and has a medium ETB ability. So basically, it's medium.
Swift Spinner
1.5 This is a passable creature that can ambush block some stuff, but it doesn’t always make the cut.
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.
Pack 3 Pick 2: Declaration in Stone
Somberwald Sage
2.5 A three mana 0/1 is pretty awful, and dies to pretty much everything but this does seriously ramp your mana if you get to untap. The problem is, you both need the Sage to survive and something to spend the mana on, and neither are a guarantee.
Declaration in Stone
3.5 This removes things very efficiently. The downside is real, as you eventually get 2-for-1’d, but the flexibility and efficiency is enough for this to feel pretty great. It gets better in aggro decks, where you can put your opponent on the back foot and not really allow them to cash in the clue, since if they don’t add to the board, they die.
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.
Ride Down
3.0 Red-White is all about aggro, and Ride Down fits really well into a deck that is all about attacking. It is basically impossible for your opponent to set up a good block when you have this in your hand, and that’s exactly what you want.
Highland Lake
2.5 These always enter tapped, which is a little bit of a bummer, but they still provide some quality fixing.
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.
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.
Swift Spinner
1.5 This is a passable creature that can ambush block some stuff, but it doesn’t always make the cut.
Bound by Moonsilver
4.0 This is amazing removal, and it was at Uncommon last time around. Downshifting it is pretty surprising, because it deals with most things in the format quite effectively! Its great you can move it around when you need to, too.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 3: Mist Raven
Mist Raven
4.0 This leds you add a pretty real body to the board while also subtracting from your opponent’s board. This gives you a huge leg up in most games, whether you’re ahead or behind.
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.
Blood Mist
0.0 This is bad. It isn’t worth the mana or the card. Double strike on one creature can sometimes be pretty sweet, but the fact it only works on one creature and only on your turn is rough. You basically already need a really good creature or this is irrelevant.
Shreds of Sanity
2.0 If you’re in Red there’s a good chance you have a nice mix of Instants and Sorceries, and if you do, this is a pretty nice way to get back some removal spells.
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.
Wild-Field Scarecrow
3.0 This is a passable defensive creature that is great at fixing your mana and helping you get Delirium.
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.
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.
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.
Moonlight Hunt
2.5 This is a fairly effective removal spell, as you can often use it effectively even with just a single Wolf or Werewolf. Your deck does need to be loaded up with them for this to be at its best, though – as if you don’t have a wolf or werewolf in play, this does stone nothing.
Bound by Moonsilver
4.0 This is amazing removal, and it was at Uncommon last time around. Downshifting it is pretty surprising, because it deals with most things in the format quite effectively! Its great you can move it around when you need to, too.
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.
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.
Pack 3 Pick 4: Advanced Stitchwing
Blazing Torch
2.0 This is really good against Vampires and Zombies, but it is even solid when your opponent has 0 of them. After all, it is basically a colorless two mana Shock – and it adds itself to the graveyard, helping you with delirium.
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.
Graf Harvest
2.0 Menace to Zombies upgrades a decent number of board states, and this isn’t a bad mana sink either.
Advanced Stitchwing
3.5 This has decent base stats, and it is big enough that its ability to keep coming back from the graveyard is pretty great.
Port Town
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
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.
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.
Swift Spinner
1.5 This is a passable creature that can ambush block some stuff, but it doesn’t always make the cut.
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.
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!
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.
Bound by Moonsilver
4.0 This is amazing removal, and it was at Uncommon last time around. Downshifting it is pretty surprising, because it deals with most things in the format quite effectively! Its great you can move it around when you need to, too.
Pack 3 Pick 5: Curious Homunculus
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.
Foreboding Ruins
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Rise from the Grave
2.0 Most decks will have loaded graveyards in this format, so this card overperforms a bit. It still doesn’t always have a good target, 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.
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.
Insolent Neonate
2.5 This is a solid one drop that can chip in for some nice damage early, and then cash itself in for a card later in the game.
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.
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.
Wolfkin Bond
3.0 This is a surprisingly good Aura, and one you’re usually going to want one of in your Green decks. 5 mana is a lot, but the fact this gives you a 2/2 means that you do a good job of mitigating against the risk of getting 2-for-1’d.
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.
Thraben Inspector
3.0 This is a nice one drop. Generating a clue is great value to add to a one mana ½, and it even has a useful creature type.
Pack 3 Pick 6: Ingenious Skaab
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.
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.
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.
Tattered Haunter
2.0 This is a reasonable two-drop, though it does suffer from the fact that it is awful against the format’s flying tokens.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ravenous Bloodseeker
2.5 This is a nice discard outlet that can be pretty obnoxious to block in the early game.
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.
Pack 3 Pick 7: Nebelgast Herald
Accursed Witch
3.5 This hits hard, can trade for many things, and when it dies it becomes a serious problem for your opponent. As a curse, it drains your opponent 1 life every upkeep, which really snowballs. It is especially nasty to sacrifice this to cast something with Emerge!
Nebelgast Herald
3.5 On its own, this is a three mana 2/1 flyer that taps down an opposing creature. You would always play that, and this comes with the additional upside of making every spirit you control tap something down. This can really allow you to attack for tons of damage, especially in the air.
Manic Scribe
2.0 This is another really awkward mill card. Milling can benefit your opponent enough in this format that going this route is highly questionable. That said, the Scribe is capable of milling the opponent out all on its own.
Rise from the Grave
2.0 Most decks will have loaded graveyards in this format, so this card overperforms a bit. It still doesn’t always have a good target, though.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 3 Pick 8: Harvest Hand
Blazing Torch
2.0 This is really good against Vampires and Zombies, but it is even solid when your opponent has 0 of them. After all, it is basically a colorless two mana Shock – and it adds itself to the graveyard, helping you with delirium.
Harvest Hand
4.0 A three mana 2/2 isn’t a great starting point, but trading this off or sacrificing it to something with Emerge is pretty amazing, because it comes back as a very real Equipment that has some Human upside. You end up getting a pretty amazing deal for only three mana.
Ravenous Bloodseeker
2.5 This is a nice discard outlet that can be pretty obnoxious to block in the early game.
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.
Geist of the Archives
3.0 This is surprisingly good. It can block lots of creatures in the format, and a free Scry every upkeep does a great job of improving the quality of your cards.
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.
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.
Fiend Binder
2.5 The stat-line is ugly for the cost, but tapping down an opposing creature every time it attacks can allow you to do tons of damage.
Pack 3 Pick 9: Convolute
Choked Estuary
2.5 Playing these untapped is fairly easy, and they do a good job of fixing your mana.
Deathcap Cultivator
4.0 This is a nice mana dork that can even fix your mana, and the fact it can get deathtouch is pretty nice. Most mana dorks stop being good in the late game, but adding deathtouch means this always has an impact on the board.
Insolent Neonate
2.5 This is a solid one drop that can chip in for some nice damage early, and then cash itself in for a card later in the game.
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.
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!
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.
Swift Spinner
1.5 This is a passable creature that can ambush block some stuff, but it doesn’t always make the cut.
Pack 3 Pick 10: Pyre Hound
Ride Down
3.0 Red-White is all about aggro, and Ride Down fits really well into a deck that is all about attacking. It is basically impossible for your opponent to set up a good block when you have this in your hand, and that’s exactly what you want.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 11: Shreds of Sanity
Shreds of Sanity
2.0 If you’re in Red there’s a good chance you have a nice mix of Instants and Sorceries, and if you do, this is a pretty nice way to get back some removal spells.
Wild-Field Scarecrow
3.0 This is a passable defensive creature that is great at fixing your mana and helping you get Delirium.
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.
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.
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.
Pack 3 Pick 12: Terrarion
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.
Swift Spinner
1.5 This is a passable creature that can ambush block some stuff, but it doesn’t always make the cut.
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.
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 13: Drownyard Explorers
Rise from the Grave
2.0 Most decks will have loaded graveyards in this format, so this card overperforms a bit. It still doesn’t always have a good target, though.
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.
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 3 Pick 14: 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.
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: Manic Scribe
Manic Scribe
2.0 This is another really awkward mill card. Milling can benefit your opponent enough in this format that going this route is highly questionable. That said, the Scribe is capable of milling the opponent out all on its own.