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Premier Draft MID 27 September 2021

27 September 03:19 - spiffer10 7 Wins - 1 Losses
Maindeck
Creature (16)
1 Larder Zombie image
1 Liesa, Forgotten Archangel image
1 Covert Cutpurse // Covetous Geist image
1 Bat Whisperer image
1 Novice Occultist image
2 Shady Traveler // Stalking Predator image
1 Fleshtaker image
2 Vampire Interloper image
1 Ritual Guardian image
1 Festival Crasher image
1 Ludevic, Necrogenius // Olag, Ludevic's Hubris image
1 Falcon Abomination image
2 Vampire Socialite image
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (21)
1 Olivia's Midnight Ambush image
1 Croaking Counterpart image
1 Thraben Exorcism image
1 Ritual of Hope image
1 Geistflame Reservoir image
2 Electric Revelation image
1 Play with Fire image
1 Ghoulish Procession image
1 Hungry for More image
3 Rotten Reunion image
1 Dissipate image
1 Flip the Switch image
1 Defenestrate image
1 No Way Out image
2 Eaten Alive image
1 Necrosynthesis image
1 Neonate's Rush image
Land (17)
8 Mountain image
9 Swamp image
Sideboard
1 Fleshtaker image
1 Ritual Guardian image
1 Ludevic, Necrogenius image
1 Falcon Abomination image
1 Larder Zombie image
1 Liesa, Forgotten Archangel image
1 Obsessive Astronomer image
1 Dissipate image
1 Flip the Switch image
1 Ritual of Hope image
1 Stolen Vitality image
1 Thraben Exorcism image
1 Croaking Counterpart image
1 Revenge of the Drowned image
1 Duress image
1 Blood Pact image

Pack 1 Pick 1: Geistflame Reservoir
Geistflame Reservoir image 1.0 // 3.0 So, one part of the card can turn into a source of removal, or help you finish off the opponent. Meanwhile, the second part of the card can help you get some card advantage -- and basically help you find more spells to put more charge counters on the Reservoir. Now, having to pay two to pseudo-draw that card is pretty rough, and makes it a little less likely you’ll be able to play what you hit. Keep in mind that it does let you play lands, so never play a land before using the ability! Basically, if a game goes long, this can both generate card advantage and kill stuff, and that can be a real boon. However, keep in mind that it will do stone nothing the turn you play it most of the time, and that’s a real liability. Obviously, you’ll really need to be in the UR spells deck to take full advantage of this. If you don’t have enough spells for charge counters, the card isn’t worth it most of the time.
Dryad's Revival image 1.0 If this were just three mana to return a card from your graveyard to your hand it wouldn’t be very good. That’s just not a great rate most of the time, as that’s a very real amount of mana and you’re only getting one card out of the deal. Basically, it is card selection, and card selection that is contingent upon you having something in your graveyard worth getting back int he first place. Not doing anything to add to the board is a real problem. Adding Flashback does mean this can give you a 2-for-1 in the long run which isn’t too shabby, but I still don’t love this, even in a graveyard set. I thinkt his is a super replaceable card that doesn’t do something real way too often.
Stromkirk Bloodthief image 3.5 Gray Ogre stats are always ugly, but this does some pretty real stuff! If you play it in your second main phase and end your turn, you’ll get that counter a decent chunk of the time. Keep in mind too, it can put the counter on itself, so you don’t even have to be all in on Vampire tribal to make use of the ability. It is a 2/2 that can grow throughout the game, and when you have other vampires around, it gets even better. You won’t always be able to damage your opponent of course, but both Black and Red are pretty well equipped with nice ways to do it.
Mystic Skull image 2.5 Two mana for an artifact that filters is horrendous! If that’s all this was, it would be a 0.0. Obviously though, this is Innistrad, so this can transform into a scary thing -- Mystic Monstrosity. The Monstrosity not only has some pretty nice stats, it also provides great fixing. This is neat, because filtering usually isn’t very good in Limited, though it can help you out in a pinch, so the fact this turns into much better fixing is cool! Your total investment of 7 mana is a bit steep for a ⅚ of course, but it isn’t too crazy either, and you pay it installments. Note too, that this can be transformed at Instant speed, something that certainly matters.
Rotten Reunion image 1.5 Hating on a couple graveyard cards and getting a couple of Zombies that can either pressure your opponent or act as sacrifice fodder seems alright for a three mana investment.
Startle image 2.0 I don’t normally play most Blue “combat tricks” that shrink the power of a creature, but this tacks on enough additional stuff that it seems like it will be pretty solid. The problem with this kind of card is it isn’t always possible for you to trade card-for-card with it, since your creature has to already be big enough to kill the other creature. However, this lets you draw a card and makes you a Decay Zombie, and that’s quite a bit for only two mana! The times where you are able to use this card to help you kill an opposing creature it will feel insane!
Duel for Dominance image 2.5 This isn’t going to be premium removal. It will simply be 1G to Fight often enough that it just can’t get there. When you do get the +1/+1 bonus it will feel good for sure, and if it always did that, it would be premium, but as it is, I think it falls short of that designation. Its still decent Green removal of course, but not the kind you go after super hard.
Galedrifter image 3.0 This isn’t quite a hard counter, but its pretty close, and adding to the board while you counter a thing isn’t bad, even if what you’re adding is a token that can’t block and can only attack once. 55 – Galedrifter – 3.0 A 4-mana 3/2 Flyer is a 1.5, so getting a second body out of this, even if it isn’t the most efficient one when you Disturb it, is going to be some nice additional value.
Vampire Interloper image 2.5 This has nice aggressive stats, and looks like a decent enabler for all the Black-Red cards that care about your opponent losing life.
Siege Zombie image 2.0 This seems passable, as in the early game it has alright stats, and in the late game it can be a real source of reach. It can also help you activate cards that give you a bonus if an opponent has lost life. Still, it does ask for a lot to make the opponent lose that 1 life, and it just won’t always be doable.
Burn the Accursed image 2.5 This isn’t exactly premium, but is an instant that kills most stuff, damages your opponent, and even exiles creatures, which certainly matters here.
Bramble Armor image 2.5 This is a pretty decent boost when it equips for free, and it will also help you get coven online if that’s what you need. Equipping it after that first time is a little rough for sure, but if it keeps giving you coven or making creature sin to threats, that is reasonable.
Mounted Dreadknight image 2.0 This has a decent baseline, and sometimes it will be especially big. Not a bad thing to have at the top of your curve.
Hedgewitch's Mask image 1.5 This is a decent, albeit unimpressive, piece of Equipment. One to play and two to equip is kind of alright, and the upside of being unblockable by bigger stuff doesn’t hurt. It can help you get Coven. Still, this format doesn’t seem to have a huge equipment theme, and that probably means this gets cut a lot.
Pack 1 Pick 2: Electric Revelation
Ominous Roost image 0.0 // 3.5 Obviously, if you don’t have enough Flashback going on, you can’t really play this. It is going to be an F in many, many decks. 3 mana for a 1/1 flyer that can’t block is abysmal! However, if you can get 3 or more tokens with this, and some decks will be able to do it, it is going to be a pretty real win condition in grindy decks with lots of flashback.
Beloved Beggar image 3.5 This looks pretty good. You play it early as a reasonable blocker, until it inevitably dies, and then in the late game it can come out of your graveyard and be a very real win condition. Six mana for a 4/4 with Flying and Vigilance certainly isn’t insanely efficient, but it isn’t that far off from what I’d be willing to pay. The 0/4 side won’t ever allow you to actually trade with anything, but keeping your opponent at bay with has some value, especially since it becomes a win condition later. Also, keep in mind you can put this in your graveyard by other means and just skip the 0/4 part sometimes. It also can help you get Coven!
Grizzly Ghoul image 3.0 A 4-mana 4/3 with Trample is already pretty decent, though not incredible, especially for two colors of mana. Still, that’s the baseline of this card. On a lot of turn 4s, creatures go down, so this being a 5/4 or even a 6/5 after a trade isn’t exactly far-fetched. There will also be times where it is just absolutely massive, but don’t count on that happening super often. So yeah, there’s a reasonable baseline here, and a pretty nice ceiling.
Rotten Reunion image 1.5 Hating on a couple graveyard cards and getting a couple of Zombies that can either pressure your opponent or act as sacrifice fodder seems alright for a three mana investment.
Thraben Exorcism image 0.5 Against some opponents this will feel really good -- namely, against UW -- but against other decks it just won’t have targets often enough to be worth it.
Electric Revelation image 1.5 This is an expensive Tormenting Voice, buts it’s an instant and it has flashback. This format does have a graveyard theme for sure, so discarding cards to cast this isn’t a huge deal. Still, it doesn’t impact the board in any way, and is replaceable overall.
Shadowbeast Sighting image 3.0 This is decently efficient when you first cast it, and when you cast it the second time you’re going to be getting a 2-for-1.
Stolen Vitality image 1.5 This is a decent trick that give you lethal out of nowhere on an attacking creature, and one that can also be used defensive quite effectly thanks to the First Strike. Now, using this kind of card defensively is definitely not optimal, but it is upside for sure. I don’t love that it only bumps toughness by 1, since if you’re the one attacking, there’s still a good chance your creature will die.
Duel for Dominance image 2.5 This isn’t going to be premium removal. It will simply be 1G to Fight often enough that it just can’t get there. When you do get the +1/+1 bonus it will feel good for sure, and if it always did that, it would be premium, but as it is, I think it falls short of that designation. Its still decent Green removal of course, but not the kind you go after super hard.
Falcon Abomination image 3.0 This is a Wind Drake with some reasonable upside. Obviously this Zombie token doesn’t give you quite as much value as most Zombie tokens, but it still adds to the board in a way that will have at least some impact. The two bodies will be nice sacrifice fodder, and they’ll also just be good at pressuring your opponent.
Return to Nature image 0.5 Its nice that this does three different things, making it a more reasonable main deck card, but I’m still pretty skeptical about main decking it on a regular basis. This format has artifacts and enchantments, but not a ton of them, and while exiling something from a graveyard is nice, yo’ure often only getting half a card of value when you do it, since your opponent already cast their spell with flashback or their creature with disturb. I think this should probably still start in your sideboard.
Lunarch Veteran image 2.5 A two mana 1/1 with the life gain effect certainly isn’t impressive. The Disturb effect really matters though, as getting back a flyer that can also gain you some life. Neither half of this card is going to be letting you trade very often because they are so small, but this still seems like a solid Common.
Famished Foragers image 3.0 A 4-mana 4/3 is sort of passable already, and this will often be able to come down and give you some mana, which -- if nothing else, you can use to rummage using its ability. Sometimes, it will enable a pretty impressive double spell turn too, which will feel amazing. You won’t always be making that happen, but the card has a very reasonable baseline and a pretty nice ceiling.
Pack 1 Pick 3: Novice Occultist
Bereaved Survivor image 3.0 A 3-mana 2/1 is pretty ugly. Transforming this is fairly doable, though, and once it transforms it is a pretty nice little card, though it won’t always have things worth reanimating.
Dreadhound image 3.5 This looks like some nice top curve to have around. It brings decent stats, and milling three cards can help you out a ton in this format -- and Dreadhound itself loves it, since each creature that is milled by that trigger will make your opponent lose one life. Players will be milling themselves in this format and creatures are going to be dying, so the Dreadhounds ability to slowly bleed the player is pretty darn powerful. Especially in the BR deck, which can do all sorts of extra stuff if it makes the player lose life. This seems like a six drop that is a very real win condition.
Shadowbeast Sighting image 3.0 This is decently efficient when you first cast it, and when you cast it the second time you’re going to be getting a 2-for-1.
Novice Occultist image 2.5 It won’t always be easy to trade with this and get a 2-for-1 since it’s a ½, so ideally you will sacrifice this to something for value, in which case you don’t really go down a card at all! I could see this ending up as a key common for both BW and UB.
Unblinking Observer image 2.5 This will help you cast enough stuff that it seems like a solid Common. It fits nicely in the UR spells deck and the UW deck, which will be the most disturb heavy deck in the format. I’m giving it a 2.5.
Tireless Hauler image 3.0 Like with most of the werewolves, just the front side of the card is reasonable – a 4/5 with Vigilance can do some decent work! But it also has its werewolf side, where it has the potential to really dominate a board.
Howl of the Hunt image 2.5 This kind of card pretty much always performs. Combat tricks and Auras both have some pretty serious problems. The chief one is that you can get totally blown out if you’re not careful. However, Auras with Flash tend to play reasonably well every time we see them, provided they are reasonably costed, and I think this one is. You have to be careful about when you play it of course, but if your opponent has no way to interact, this is basically a combat trick that takes something down, and then the Aura itself sticks around. The fact it works this way helps you mitigate the potential card disadvantage, since you’ll use the Aura to help you kill something up front. The werewolf upside here matters too. You usually want to be the aggressor with a trick, but giving your Wolf or Werewolf pseudo-vigilance is pretty nice, and having the option to ambush block is okay too.
Silver Bolt image 1.5 If you need removal really badly, you’ll play this in your main deck where it can be kind of passable. Especially because when you end up against werewolves, it will actually be a pretty good deal.
Dawnhart Rejuvenator image 3.0 We have basically seen this card before -- Centaur Nurturer in War of the Spark, and it was pretty nice. It gives you fixing, and while it might not be the most imposing creature, the life it gains you can help you get to your next turn, where you can make use of that mana.
Immolation image 2.5 This is like Red “Dead Weight.” It isn’t quite as good as Dead Weight is, at least as removal, because you don’t really want to pumping the power of a creature -- you want to be outright killing it. But it does have the additional upside of pumping your larger evasive creature so that you can do lethal or something. I do think the ability to kill X/2s for a single mana is pretty nice, but this definitely isn’t premium removal.
Duress image 0.5 As always, this is a sideboard card. It misses too often to be worth it in your main deck. Even when you can hit stuff with it, it might have Flashback!
Ritual Guardian image 2.0 If this was a 3-mana 3/2 that always had Lifelink, it would probably be a 2.5 or 3.0. The fact this won’t always have it, and in fact probably won’t have it a decent chunk of the time, makes this significanlty worse than that, because a 3-mana 3/2 is just an ugly stat line these days.
Pack 1 Pick 4: Play with Fire
Dissipate image 2.5 Three mana counterspells, especially those that cost Double blue, usually aren’t great. The cost of leaving that mana up can be very real. You should generally just be adding to the board while you can, after all. Leaving up mana to try to counter something when you have other options can really cause you some significant problems! So generally, you end up just using it when you don’t have other stuff you could be doing. Adding the exile clause does matter in this format though, between Flashback, Disturb, and other graveyard shenanigans.
Play with Fire image 4.0 So, this is Shock with upside, and that’s something I can get behind. It will often be able to kill three and four drops for only a single mana, and that’s great, and in a pinch it can go for your opponent and give you a bit of card selection, which isn’t too bad. You’ll always have something to do with this, and it will often be premium removal.
Silver Bolt image 1.5 If you need removal really badly, you’ll play this in your main deck where it can be kind of passable. Especially because when you end up against werewolves, it will actually be a pretty good deal.
Startle image 2.0 I don’t normally play most Blue “combat tricks” that shrink the power of a creature, but this tacks on enough additional stuff that it seems like it will be pretty solid. The problem with this kind of card is it isn’t always possible for you to trade card-for-card with it, since your creature has to already be big enough to kill the other creature. However, this lets you draw a card and makes you a Decay Zombie, and that’s quite a bit for only two mana! The times where you are able to use this card to help you kill an opposing creature it will feel insane!
No Way Out image 1.0 Tacking a Decay zombie on to Mind Rot isn’t that great, especially in a format where people will happily discard many of their cards.
Hedgewitch's Mask image 1.5 This is a decent, albeit unimpressive, piece of Equipment. One to play and two to equip is kind of alright, and the upside of being unblockable by bigger stuff doesn’t hurt. It can help you get Coven. Still, this format doesn’t seem to have a huge equipment theme, and that probably means this gets cut a lot.
Lunarch Veteran image 2.5 A two mana 1/1 with the life gain effect certainly isn’t impressive. The Disturb effect really matters though, as getting back a flyer that can also gain you some life. Neither half of this card is going to be letting you trade very often because they are so small, but this still seems like a solid Common.
Voldaren Stinger image 2.0 Your opponent does have to respect this as an attacker if you have the mana up, so this gives you a good way to chip in for one damage to activate your Bloodthirst stuff.
Geistwave image 2.5 This is a neat design for a bounce spell.. Bouncing an opposing nonland permanent for two mana is usually a decent card. It doesn’t give you the value of a whole card unless you use it in response to a trick or something, but it gives you some reasonable tempo and has that blow out upside. Using this to bounce your own thing is actually pretty interesting, since you do net a card, and if what you’re bouncing gives you some value from bouncing it, that’s going to feel pretty good! Especially if you do it in response to removal or something like that. Its probably just a C, but the “bounce your own stuff” upside is very real.
Bounding Wolf image 2.0 Reach is extra good in this format because there are a ton of flyers as a result that everything that has disturb comes back as a Flyer. So if you’re in Green, you’re going to need a way to stop that. Bounding Wolf can do it, and it even ambush block thanks to flash!
Bat Whisperer image 2.5 If this always gave you a bat, it would be at least a 3.5. One nice thing about the bat too is that it might help you enable future cards that give you a bonus if your opponent has lost life on a particular turn. Sometimes it will be a 4-mana 4/2 though, and that’s pretty bad.
Pack 1 Pick 5: Ghoulish Procession
Dire-Strain Rampage image 0.5 This card mostly screams “Commander” to me, but I don’t think it will be completely useless in Limited. For one thing, it can destroy some normally hard-to-destroy permanent types. And yeah, ramping your opponent in exchange won’t always feel great, but by the late game it won’t matter a ton. Although, in a set with a bunch of expensive abilities you can use from the graveyard it might matter a little bit more. Anyway, you can also use it to target your own stuff for ramp and fixing. However, doing nothing on your turn 3 to cast this is definitely a liability. This is mostly a card that I think you’ll play out of your sideboard when your opponent has scary artifacts and/or enchantments, or a card you’ll run if you’re desperate for fixing.
Ghoulish Procession image 3.0 If your deck has a decent number of non-token creatures and/or lots of way to take down opposing creatures, this looks pretty nice. And doing either of those things in Black doesn’t look crazy difficult! Sure, the tokens are temporary, but paying two mana for a token factory like this seems very nice, even if they are decaying.
Festival Crasher image 0.5 // 2.5 This has a very mediocre baseline. A two mana ⅓ these days is probably a D-. It does have some real upside though, and the threat of activation is pretty real! If your opponent just has a 2/2, and you attack with this and leave mana up, they just can’t afford to block it! Chaining multiple spells together is obviously the dream, but don’t count on doing that a ton in Limited. This will make the cut in decks with a decent number of spells, and probably be something you pass on in any other deck.
Silver Bolt image 1.5 If you need removal really badly, you’ll play this in your main deck where it can be kind of passable. Especially because when you end up against werewolves, it will actually be a pretty good deal.
Crawl from the Cellar image 2.0 This is an interesting take on the usual Sorcery that lets you return two creatures to your hand. The first time you cast this, the value is going to be pretty nice, provided you have a zombie, as it effectively replaces itself while making a creature bigger. The second time is less efficient, but in the you pay 5 mana for a 2-for-1 and two +1/+1 counters, which actually isn’t too bad. Now, you really would prefer to be putting these counters on zombies that don’t have decay to get full value out of them, but a significant chunk of the time that’s probably where the counter goes, and you may also just not have anywhere to put the counter in the first place.
Harvesttide Sentry image 2.5 This has decent base stats and if you can get coven going, it becomes a lot harder to easily block this thing.
Homestead Courage image 1.0 This gives a nice, efficient boost twice. It isn’t a boost that always makes a difference, though, and even when it does, I’m not sure it will always feel like you’re getting a full card worth of value. Being cheap to flashback is good for flashback payoffs, and also makes it easy to turn it back into day, and that matters.
Shadowbeast Sighting image 3.0 This is decently efficient when you first cast it, and when you cast it the second time you’re going to be getting a 2-for-1.
Secrets of the Key image 3.0 Paying one Blue to investigate isn’t great, even to me, and I love Clue tokens! However, the additional flashback on it is very real, and means that in the end, this card end sup being a 3-for-1, even if it does it kind of slowly. You end up paying 5 mana for three Clues, and that’s not too shabby. Between Flashback, Investigate, and Disturb, this format looks to be kind of slow and grindy, and if that’s true, Secrets of the Key will be something you want one of in virtually all of your Blue decks, as the card advantage is very real. I thinkt he first copy will be a 3.0, though they do have diminishing returns after that because it doesn’t really impact the board.
Bird Admirer image 2.5 A 3 mana ¼ with Reach makes the cut reasonably often in most Limited formats, and this will sometimes be a much larger creature. Seems like a solid Common to me! I’m giving it a 2.5.
Pack 1 Pick 6: Shady Traveler
Flip the Switch image 1.5 This isn’t quite a hard counter, but its pretty close, and adding to the board while you counter a thing isn’t bad, even if what you’re adding is a token that can’t block and can only attack once.
Search Party Captain image 3.5 A 4-mana 2/2 that draws you a card is like a 2.0, and decreasing that cost even by 1 is a huge upgrade. So, the fact that sometimes you can play this for two or one mana and then cast what you draw seems really good. This is one of White’s better Commons.
Bladebrand image 1.5 This is a reprint, and it is one that is pretty mediocre. Giving death touch + a cantrip is pretty nice in combat, but it is a very narrow card overall because it is only useful in combat. Sure, I guess you can cast it just to cycle it, but that’s pretty rough! There are some silly things you can do with it sometimes, like give death touch to something that is being triple blocked, but a lot of the time you just use this and trade a creature on the table for one in your library. And, while that’s fine, it is certainly not a great card, and not one that makes the cut more than half the time.
Shipwreck Sifters image 1.5 A two mana ½ who loots is fine, and this one can get bigger. I don’t think you’ll want to discard a spirit or a card with Disturb to it all that often, since the power of those cards is often in the fact that you get the two bodies, but you’ll discard those things sometimes and it’ll get bigger.
Timberland Guide image 3.0 This is a reprint, and even if it wasn’t, we see cards like this a lot, and I also like them a decent amount. They are nice as two drops, as they can be two mana 2/2s, and then in the later game you can put the counter somewhere more relevant. There isn’t a +1/+1 counter deck in this format, but the counter this guy brings with him can really help you set up Coven, since you add him to the board and put the counter somewhere else, and you’re already 2/3 of the way there!
Festival Crasher image 0.5 // 2.5 This has a very mediocre baseline. A two mana ⅓ these days is probably a D-. It does have some real upside though, and the threat of activation is pretty real! If your opponent just has a 2/2, and you attack with this and leave mana up, they just can’t afford to block it! Chaining multiple spells together is obviously the dream, but don’t count on doing that a ton in Limited. This will make the cut in decks with a decent number of spells, and probably be something you pass on in any other deck.
Raze the Effigy image 1.5 This format doesn’t have a ton of artifacts, but having the option to destroy an artifact on a decent combat trick certainly makes it more flexible.
Shady Traveler image 3.0 A 3-mana 2/3 with Menace is a card you’ll play sometimes – probably a 2.5, and it will come into play as or transform into Stalking Predator pretty regularly, in which case you’re getting an amazing deal!
Geistwave image 2.5 This is a neat design for a bounce spell.. Bouncing an opposing nonland permanent for two mana is usually a decent card. It doesn’t give you the value of a whole card unless you use it in response to a trick or something, but it gives you some reasonable tempo and has that blow out upside. Using this to bounce your own thing is actually pretty interesting, since you do net a card, and if what you’re bouncing gives you some value from bouncing it, that’s going to feel pretty good! Especially if you do it in response to removal or something like that. Its probably just a C, but the “bounce your own stuff” upside is very real.
Pack 1 Pick 7: Hungry for More
Hungry for More image 2.5 For a total investment of 5 mana, you get 6/2 worth of stats with a whole bunch of keyword abilities. Those creatures of course die at the end of your end step, but the life swing they will allow for will often make it a pretty reasonable deal. You also won’t always (or even usually) trade one of these vampires for a card, so in a way you’re sort of Lava Axing your opponent here, though obviously it is significantly better than that! There are some other useful synergies too -- the vampire creature type for one thing, and the fact that you can use the tokens for fodder in your second main phase. Still, even with all of that in mind, I don’t feel like this is a signpost Uncommon that really pulls you into its color pair. In fact, I don’t think it gets particularly close to getting there.
Bat Whisperer image 2.5 If this always gave you a bat, it would be at least a 3.5. One nice thing about the bat too is that it might help you enable future cards that give you a bonus if your opponent has lost life on a particular turn. Sometimes it will be a 4-mana 4/2 though, and that’s pretty bad.
Silver Bolt image 1.5 If you need removal really badly, you’ll play this in your main deck where it can be kind of passable. Especially because when you end up against werewolves, it will actually be a pretty good deal.
Clarion Cathars image 2.5 We see this basic card a lot, and its always solid. Two bodies for four mana is nice, and the reasonable stats distributed across them is pretty good.
Thraben Exorcism image 0.5 Against some opponents this will feel really good -- namely, against UW -- but against other decks it just won’t have targets often enough to be worth it.
Howl of the Hunt image 2.5 This kind of card pretty much always performs. Combat tricks and Auras both have some pretty serious problems. The chief one is that you can get totally blown out if you’re not careful. However, Auras with Flash tend to play reasonably well every time we see them, provided they are reasonably costed, and I think this one is. You have to be careful about when you play it of course, but if your opponent has no way to interact, this is basically a combat trick that takes something down, and then the Aura itself sticks around. The fact it works this way helps you mitigate the potential card disadvantage, since you’ll use the Aura to help you kill something up front. The werewolf upside here matters too. You usually want to be the aggressor with a trick, but giving your Wolf or Werewolf pseudo-vigilance is pretty nice, and having the option to ambush block is okay too.
Path to the Festival image 2.0 This is pretty clunky since it doesn't add to the board at all. It can do it again from the graveyard though, which can potentially really turbo your mana. It is also reasonable fixing, and if you're splashing a third color, that Scry will be nice.
Stuffed Bear image 1.0 This set doesn’t have much of an Artifact theme. If it did, the BEar would be a little more interesting. As it is, it is a creature that you have to pay mana for every turn to actually make into a creature. And, while that activation isn’t so bad the first time around, you eventually end up having to pay a ton of mana for this to actually be a card on the board that matters, and I don’t really think you want to be doing that.
Pack 1 Pick 8: Fleshtaker
Fleshtaker image 4.0 This looks like a pretty strong signpost Uncommon. It starts with solid base stats, and every time it attacks your opponent really has to take stock of just how big it might become! On top of that, it is a more general sacrifice payoff, which works with itself as well as other cards, and gaining life and scrying is pretty nice additional value to add to sacrifices.
Otherworldly Gaze image 0.5 Loading the graveyard is important in this format, its true, but a card that pretty much only does that, while giving you some card selection, isn’t something I’m interested in. You never get the card back. There are so many cards that load the graveyard while doing actual other things!
Evolving Wilds image 3.0 This is always really nice fixing, and I tend to like it even more than the rare dual lands here, especially because it throws itself in the graveyard and that definitely matters in this set.
Homestead Courage image 1.0 This gives a nice, efficient boost twice. It isn’t a boost that always makes a difference, though, and even when it does, I’m not sure it will always feel like you’re getting a full card worth of value. Being cheap to flashback is good for flashback payoffs, and also makes it easy to turn it back into day, and that matters.
Pestilent Wolf image 2.5 That’s a lot of mana to give a bear Deathtouch! Still, it starts out as a two mana 2/2, and has the ability to trade with anything later in the game. Wolf is also a somewhat useful creature type. I think the whole package is probably a 2.5
Famished Foragers image 3.0 A 4-mana 4/3 is sort of passable already, and this will often be able to come down and give you some mana, which -- if nothing else, you can use to rummage using its ability. Sometimes, it will enable a pretty impressive double spell turn too, which will feel amazing. You won’t always be making that happen, but the card has a very reasonable baseline and a pretty nice ceiling.
Unruly Mob image 2.0 This is a reprint from our other two visits to Innistrad, and it wasn’t very good either time -- a 1.5 at best! It does grow as the game goes on, but it starts really small and grows pretty slowly. Only growing when your creatures die is tricky too. However, this will probably be better in this format than we’ve seen in the past, mostly because BW is a sacrifice deck this time around, and that combos pretty well with the Mob. The GW deck has lots of tokens too, so yeah, I think maybe this ends up being a solid playable this time around.
Pack 1 Pick 9: Vampire Interloper
Mystic Skull image 2.5 Two mana for an artifact that filters is horrendous! If that’s all this was, it would be a 0.0. Obviously though, this is Innistrad, so this can transform into a scary thing -- Mystic Monstrosity. The Monstrosity not only has some pretty nice stats, it also provides great fixing. This is neat, because filtering usually isn’t very good in Limited, though it can help you out in a pinch, so the fact this turns into much better fixing is cool! Your total investment of 7 mana is a bit steep for a ⅚ of course, but it isn’t too crazy either, and you pay it installments. Note too, that this can be transformed at Instant speed, something that certainly matters.
Rotten Reunion image 1.5 Hating on a couple graveyard cards and getting a couple of Zombies that can either pressure your opponent or act as sacrifice fodder seems alright for a three mana investment.
Startle image 2.0 I don’t normally play most Blue “combat tricks” that shrink the power of a creature, but this tacks on enough additional stuff that it seems like it will be pretty solid. The problem with this kind of card is it isn’t always possible for you to trade card-for-card with it, since your creature has to already be big enough to kill the other creature. However, this lets you draw a card and makes you a Decay Zombie, and that’s quite a bit for only two mana! The times where you are able to use this card to help you kill an opposing creature it will feel insane!
Vampire Interloper image 2.5 This has nice aggressive stats, and looks like a decent enabler for all the Black-Red cards that care about your opponent losing life.
Bramble Armor image 2.5 This is a pretty decent boost when it equips for free, and it will also help you get coven online if that’s what you need. Equipping it after that first time is a little rough for sure, but if it keeps giving you coven or making creature sin to threats, that is reasonable.
Hedgewitch's Mask image 1.5 This is a decent, albeit unimpressive, piece of Equipment. One to play and two to equip is kind of alright, and the upside of being unblockable by bigger stuff doesn’t hurt. It can help you get Coven. Still, this format doesn’t seem to have a huge equipment theme, and that probably means this gets cut a lot.
Pack 1 Pick 10: Rotten Reunion
Rotten Reunion image 1.5 Hating on a couple graveyard cards and getting a couple of Zombies that can either pressure your opponent or act as sacrifice fodder seems alright for a three mana investment.
Thraben Exorcism image 0.5 Against some opponents this will feel really good -- namely, against UW -- but against other decks it just won’t have targets often enough to be worth it.
Shadowbeast Sighting image 3.0 This is decently efficient when you first cast it, and when you cast it the second time you’re going to be getting a 2-for-1.
Stolen Vitality image 1.5 This is a decent trick that give you lethal out of nowhere on an attacking creature, and one that can also be used defensive quite effectly thanks to the First Strike. Now, using this kind of card defensively is definitely not optimal, but it is upside for sure. I don’t love that it only bumps toughness by 1, since if you’re the one attacking, there’s still a good chance your creature will die.
Return to Nature image 0.5 Its nice that this does three different things, making it a more reasonable main deck card, but I’m still pretty skeptical about main decking it on a regular basis. This format has artifacts and enchantments, but not a ton of them, and while exiling something from a graveyard is nice, yo’ure often only getting half a card of value when you do it, since your opponent already cast their spell with flashback or their creature with disturb. I think this should probably still start in your sideboard.
Pack 1 Pick 11: Ritual Guardian
Howl of the Hunt image 2.5 This kind of card pretty much always performs. Combat tricks and Auras both have some pretty serious problems. The chief one is that you can get totally blown out if you’re not careful. However, Auras with Flash tend to play reasonably well every time we see them, provided they are reasonably costed, and I think this one is. You have to be careful about when you play it of course, but if your opponent has no way to interact, this is basically a combat trick that takes something down, and then the Aura itself sticks around. The fact it works this way helps you mitigate the potential card disadvantage, since you’ll use the Aura to help you kill something up front. The werewolf upside here matters too. You usually want to be the aggressor with a trick, but giving your Wolf or Werewolf pseudo-vigilance is pretty nice, and having the option to ambush block is okay too.
Dawnhart Rejuvenator image 3.0 We have basically seen this card before -- Centaur Nurturer in War of the Spark, and it was pretty nice. It gives you fixing, and while it might not be the most imposing creature, the life it gains you can help you get to your next turn, where you can make use of that mana.
Duress image 0.5 As always, this is a sideboard card. It misses too often to be worth it in your main deck. Even when you can hit stuff with it, it might have Flashback!
Ritual Guardian image 2.0 If this was a 3-mana 3/2 that always had Lifelink, it would probably be a 2.5 or 3.0. The fact this won’t always have it, and in fact probably won’t have it a decent chunk of the time, makes this significanlty worse than that, because a 3-mana 3/2 is just an ugly stat line these days.
Pack 1 Pick 12: Dissipate
Dissipate image 2.5 Three mana counterspells, especially those that cost Double blue, usually aren’t great. The cost of leaving that mana up can be very real. You should generally just be adding to the board while you can, after all. Leaving up mana to try to counter something when you have other options can really cause you some significant problems! So generally, you end up just using it when you don’t have other stuff you could be doing. Adding the exile clause does matter in this format though, between Flashback, Disturb, and other graveyard shenanigans.
Hedgewitch's Mask image 1.5 This is a decent, albeit unimpressive, piece of Equipment. One to play and two to equip is kind of alright, and the upside of being unblockable by bigger stuff doesn’t hurt. It can help you get Coven. Still, this format doesn’t seem to have a huge equipment theme, and that probably means this gets cut a lot.
Geistwave image 2.5 This is a neat design for a bounce spell.. Bouncing an opposing nonland permanent for two mana is usually a decent card. It doesn’t give you the value of a whole card unless you use it in response to a trick or something, but it gives you some reasonable tempo and has that blow out upside. Using this to bounce your own thing is actually pretty interesting, since you do net a card, and if what you’re bouncing gives you some value from bouncing it, that’s going to feel pretty good! Especially if you do it in response to removal or something like that. Its probably just a C, but the “bounce your own stuff” upside is very real.
Pack 1 Pick 13: Festival Crasher
Festival Crasher image 0.5 // 2.5 This has a very mediocre baseline. A two mana ⅓ these days is probably a D-. It does have some real upside though, and the threat of activation is pretty real! If your opponent just has a 2/2, and you attack with this and leave mana up, they just can’t afford to block it! Chaining multiple spells together is obviously the dream, but don’t count on doing that a ton in Limited. This will make the cut in decks with a decent number of spells, and probably be something you pass on in any other deck.
Harvesttide Sentry image 2.5 This has decent base stats and if you can get coven going, it becomes a lot harder to easily block this thing.
Pack 1 Pick 14: Flip the Switch
Flip the Switch image 1.5 This isn’t quite a hard counter, but its pretty close, and adding to the board while you counter a thing isn’t bad, even if what you’re adding is a token that can’t block and can only attack once.
Pack 2 Pick 1: Defenestrate
The Celestus image 3.5 So, this is a mana rock that fixes for you. In most formats you don’t end up playing a 3 mana mana rock like this, but because this one has so much additional upside, I think you end up playing it in a lot of decks. It can change night to day on the spot and vice versa. In this format, that will frequently have at least some effect on the board state, and the fact that it lets you gain a life and loot any time it shifts between night and day is great, and effectively means that you can tack that on to its activated ability. So yeah, fixing, card selection, and tampering with Day/Night however it suits you results in this being pretty nice. Perhaps even good enough to take with a first pick.
Brood Weaver image 2.5 A 4-man 2/4 with Reach is often a fine playable -- something like a 1.5 or a 2.0, and making another Reach spider when it dies is solid enough.
Necrosynthesis image 1.5 If this was just an Aura with the “Whenever another creature dies” bit, it would be close to unplayable. It doesn’t give an immediate stats boost, and it doesn’t do anything to mitigate against card disadvantage. However, it comes with an additional effect that does help mitigate against that disadvantage, since it will give you some pretty serious card selection when it dies. It is nice too that it doesn’t look at counters alone, it looks at the creature’s power, and that means you’ll always be netting a card when the thing dies. Now, it does still have the very real downside of not buffing the creature at all at first, but the creature will grow over the course of the game. Still, this isn’t great. Sure it replaces itself, but the effect of the Aura isn’t that great in the first place. Even with Zombies dying left and right, this doesn’t seem worth it.
Outland Liberator image 3.0 A two mana 2/2 that can sac to blow up an artifact or enchantment would make the cut in pretty much every Limited format. It is nice having a reasonably-statted creature that can deal with permanents that can be quite hard to deal with in Limited! And once night rolls around, this one gets even scarier, not only becoming larger, but also just decimating the artifacts and enchantments your opponent has, since it can blow them up with each attack. Artifacts and Enchantments aren’t massive themes in this set, and that does hold it back some, but it will still be nice card to have in Green decks
Candletrap image 3.0 This is pretty cheap removal. Before you get Coven online, it definitely isn’t great removal, because allowing the creature to still block is usually not what you want to be doing. It can’t do damage at least, but it still a presence on the board, and that means you aren’t trading a full 1-for-1. But its nice than in the later game, you can just get rid of that creature entirely. Still, it is probably a little too slow and clunky to be premium.
Evolving Wilds image 3.0 This is always really nice fixing, and I tend to like it even more than the rare dual lands here, especially because it throws itself in the graveyard and that definitely matters in this set.
Defenestrate image 3.5 This looks like premium removal -- and its flavorful too! Throwing a flyer out the window wouldn’t accomplish much. Anyway, this can kill most stuff for only three mana. And yeah, sometimes a flyer will be what you need to kill, but this efficiency is great.
Larder Zombie image 1.5 So, a one mana ⅓ isn’t amazing, especially with Defender! But at least it can block and kill X/1s. Its ability asks for several creatures in play, and I guess the idea is that you’ll be making Zombie tokens so doing that might not be too hard! The ability itself isn’t bad -- as it can give you card selection and/or help you load up the graveyard. Still, I don’t see this being especially good overall.
Falkenrath Perforator image 2.5 In a set where this had no synergy at all, this would probably be a 1.5. The stats aren’t good, and the 1 damage just isn’t enough to make up for that. However, this set’s BR archetype has a lot of cards that give you extra effects if your opponent lost life, and this is one way you can make that happen. Plus, its a vampire, and while the tribal themes for vampires aren’t massive int his set, they are still there! I think all of that is enough to bump this up to a solid playable.
Rotten Reunion image 1.5 Hating on a couple graveyard cards and getting a couple of Zombies that can either pressure your opponent or act as sacrifice fodder seems alright for a three mana investment.
Lunarch Veteran image 2.5 A two mana 1/1 with the life gain effect certainly isn’t impressive. The Disturb effect really matters though, as getting back a flyer that can also gain you some life. Neither half of this card is going to be letting you trade very often because they are so small, but this still seems like a solid Common.
Flare of Faith image 2.0 This seems like a decent trick if you’re a White aggro deck with lots of Humans in it. It gives a decent stats boost that will often allow your creature to win combat. Two mana for just +2/+2 is pretty mediocre for a trick, but the Human upside will make it worth running often enough
Cathar Commando image 2.5 You can flash this in to ambush block an X/3, and most X/3s will cost more than the Commando, so that’s nice! The additional utility of blowing up artifacts and enchantments doesn’t hurt either. This is a solid Common.
Eccentric Farmer image 1.5 Lands will end up in your graveyard more often than normal in this format because of self-mill, and the Farmer brings some of that mill with him! You’ll get a land out of this reasonably often, and making sure you hit your next land drop and loading your graveyard has decent value.
Pack 2 Pick 2: Ludevic, Necrogenius
Ludevic, Necrogenius image 3.5 Like a lot of DFCs, this has some great flavor! Its also a pretty good card. A two mana ⅔ that mills you is exactly what a lot of decks in this format will want, since the graveyard can really be abused as a resource. Then, when the game gets late, Ludevic can transform into Olag. The cost to transform is a little steep with double blue and double black, but it is definitely doable. And, as long as you exile at least one thing, Olag will be a 5/5 copy of that card, and that definitely has some potential. It takes a long time to really to get to where you can transform Ludevic, but its nice that he’s useful before his Hubris takes over as a more imposing creature.
Skaab Wrangler image 2.5 This is a two mana 2/1 with some reasonable upside. In the later part of the game that ability can actually do some work, though you won’t always be in a position to activate it.
Voldaren Ambusher image 2.5 On its own, this will sometimes just be a 3-mana 2/2 that does 1 to a thing. If that’s what it always was, it would be solid, but there are some significant hoops to jump through. First, your opponent has to have lost life some way. Most typically, that will be from an attack, but there are also other means that allow you to do that. Second, you can upgrade it if you have enough vampires. I do think this BR deck will be a real pain to play against sometimes, because you might just end up having to block more riskily in some situations to keep a card like this from being really good. But yeah, this does have a super high ceiling, where it will feel like Flame-Tongue Kavu, but sometimes it will just be a Gray Ogre, and that’s abysmal. I think that awful floor really holds it back.
Ritual of Hope image 1.0 // 3.0 This is a nice payoff for going wide, especially if you can get Coven going, since it becomes Inspired Charge for half the cost! The good news is, by the time a card like this tends to be useful, you’re reasonably likely to have Coven online, since you’ll have to have a board with several different creatures on it, and those several different creatures are likely to have 3 or more powers among them. Obviously, you won’t be playing this other than in fairly aggressive decks, but it seems like a nice pump spell for them.
Component Collector image 1.5 This has decent stats and an ability that will give you a bit of value, though it certainly isn’t exciting
Timberland Guide image 3.0 This is a reprint, and even if it wasn’t, we see cards like this a lot, and I also like them a decent amount. They are nice as two drops, as they can be two mana 2/2s, and then in the later game you can put the counter somewhere more relevant. There isn’t a +1/+1 counter deck in this format, but the counter this guy brings with him can really help you set up Coven, since you add him to the board and put the counter somewhere else, and you’re already 2/3 of the way there!
Novice Occultist image 2.5 It won’t always be easy to trade with this and get a 2-for-1 since it’s a ½, so ideally you will sacrifice this to something for value, in which case you don’t really go down a card at all! I could see this ending up as a key common for both BW and UB.
Consider image 1.5 This format has a spells matter deck in UR and it has various graveyard synergies, so this seems like a decent inclusion. It is a lot like Opt, and that’s not a bad comparison! That said, it is also pretty darn replaceable, especially if you’re not in a deck that cares about the graveyard or spells, and it will often be an easy card to cut in those situations.
Unblinking Observer image 2.5 This will help you cast enough stuff that it seems like a solid Common. It fits nicely in the UR spells deck and the UW deck, which will be the most disturb heavy deck in the format. I’m giving it a 2.5.
Moonrager's Slash image 4.0 3 mana to do 3 to any target is already a premium removal spell, and this will sometimes just be Lightning Bolt! This is easily premium, and easily Red’s best Common.
Search Party Captain image 3.5 A 4-mana 2/2 that draws you a card is like a 2.0, and decreasing that cost even by 1 is a huge upgrade. So, the fact that sometimes you can play this for two or one mana and then cast what you draw seems really good. This is one of White’s better Commons.
Baithook Angler image 3.0 This looks like a nice Common. A two mana 2/1 can trade with lots of stuff, and then the fact that you can get another reasonably costed body out of your graveyard is pretty amazing. I mean, that’s 4 mana for a 2/1 and a ½ Flyer. And sure, you don’t get the bodies at the same time, but that’s still a pretty nice card.
Celestus Sanctifier image 2.0 If you are changing between night and day a lot, this gives you some decent card selection, and even lets you load the graveyard a bit -- like with Flashback or Disturb cards. That said, it has mediocre stats, and the ability isn’t incredible, and it won’t always be easy to get going in the first place.
Pack 2 Pick 3: No Way Out
Dawnhart Wardens image 3.0 A 3-mana 3/3 is a great baseline, and this will pump the power of your whole board some of the time. Seems like a singpost Uncommon that will put you into its colors reasonably often.
Skaab Wrangler image 2.5 This is a two mana 2/1 with some reasonable upside. In the later part of the game that ability can actually do some work, though you won’t always be in a position to activate it.
Mourning Patrol image 2.5 A 3-mana 2/3 with Vigilance is fine, so the fact that this can come back as a 2/1 with Flying and Vigilance is pretty nice! Both halves in this case very capable of trading, too.
Neonate's Rush image 2.5 When you manage to kill a creature with this, it is going to feel incredible. When you can’t, this is less true. However, it is an enabler for all the pseudo-bloodthirst in the format and it replaces itself, AND it will often only cost two mana, making the outcome a lot more palatable.
Eccentric Farmer image 1.5 Lands will end up in your graveyard more often than normal in this format because of self-mill, and the Farmer brings some of that mill with him! You’ll get a land out of this reasonably often, and making sure you hit your next land drop and loading your graveyard has decent value.
Gavony Trapper image 3.0 Master Decoys are always pretty nice in Limited. They can act as removal of sorts and stay relevant all game long. This has the additional upside of being a 0 power creature – which might not sound like upside, but in Coven decks having a creature with 0 power can really matter.
Candlelit Cavalry image 2.5 On a base level, this is a 5-mana 5/5, something that makes the cut in some Green decks anyway, and it will gain trample sometimes. Seems decent enough.
Shipwreck Sifters image 1.5 A two mana ½ who loots is fine, and this one can get bigger. I don’t think you’ll want to discard a spirit or a card with Disturb to it all that often, since the power of those cards is often in the fact that you get the two bodies, but you’ll discard those things sometimes and it’ll get bigger.
Blood Pact image 2.0 Its nice this is an Instant, it makes it a lot more palatable that it is. Instant speed Divination for three mana is pretty nice, and most Black decks will play the first copy of this. In a pinch, you can also use it to do 2 to your opponent, either to finish them off or trigger a bunch of your pseudo-bloodthirst effects, but mostly you’ll want to be drawing the cards.
Unruly Mob image 2.0 This is a reprint from our other two visits to Innistrad, and it wasn’t very good either time -- a 1.5 at best! It does grow as the game goes on, but it starts really small and grows pretty slowly. Only growing when your creatures die is tricky too. However, this will probably be better in this format than we’ve seen in the past, mostly because BW is a sacrifice deck this time around, and that combos pretty well with the Mob. The GW deck has lots of tokens too, so yeah, I think maybe this ends up being a solid playable this time around.
Rotten Reunion image 1.5 Hating on a couple graveyard cards and getting a couple of Zombies that can either pressure your opponent or act as sacrifice fodder seems alright for a three mana investment.
No Way Out image 1.0 Tacking a Decay zombie on to Mind Rot isn’t that great, especially in a format where people will happily discard many of their cards.
Pack 2 Pick 4: Vampire Interloper
Mystic Skull image 2.5 Two mana for an artifact that filters is horrendous! If that’s all this was, it would be a 0.0. Obviously though, this is Innistrad, so this can transform into a scary thing -- Mystic Monstrosity. The Monstrosity not only has some pretty nice stats, it also provides great fixing. This is neat, because filtering usually isn’t very good in Limited, though it can help you out in a pinch, so the fact this turns into much better fixing is cool! Your total investment of 7 mana is a bit steep for a ⅚ of course, but it isn’t too crazy either, and you pay it installments. Note too, that this can be transformed at Instant speed, something that certainly matters.
Mourning Patrol image 2.5 A 3-mana 2/3 with Vigilance is fine, so the fact that this can come back as a 2/1 with Flying and Vigilance is pretty nice! Both halves in this case very capable of trading, too.
Mounted Dreadknight image 2.0 This has a decent baseline, and sometimes it will be especially big. Not a bad thing to have at the top of your curve.
Immolation image 2.5 This is like Red “Dead Weight.” It isn’t quite as good as Dead Weight is, at least as removal, because you don’t really want to pumping the power of a creature -- you want to be outright killing it. But it does have the additional upside of pumping your larger evasive creature so that you can do lethal or something. I do think the ability to kill X/2s for a single mana is pretty nice, but this definitely isn’t premium removal.
Tapping at the Window image 2.5 This gives some decent card selection while also loading your graveyard, and you end up with a 2-for-1 after you cast it the second time – and you’ve also seen a ton of cards!
Falcon Abomination image 3.0 This is a Wind Drake with some reasonable upside. Obviously this Zombie token doesn’t give you quite as much value as most Zombie tokens, but it still adds to the board in a way that will have at least some impact. The two bodies will be nice sacrifice fodder, and they’ll also just be good at pressuring your opponent.
Stuffed Bear image 1.0 This set doesn’t have much of an Artifact theme. If it did, the BEar would be a little more interesting. As it is, it is a creature that you have to pay mana for every turn to actually make into a creature. And, while that activation isn’t so bad the first time around, you eventually end up having to pay a ton of mana for this to actually be a card on the board that matters, and I don’t really think you want to be doing that.
Timberland Guide image 3.0 This is a reprint, and even if it wasn’t, we see cards like this a lot, and I also like them a decent amount. They are nice as two drops, as they can be two mana 2/2s, and then in the later game you can put the counter somewhere more relevant. There isn’t a +1/+1 counter deck in this format, but the counter this guy brings with him can really help you set up Coven, since you add him to the board and put the counter somewhere else, and you’re already 2/3 of the way there!
Stolen Vitality image 1.5 This is a decent trick that give you lethal out of nowhere on an attacking creature, and one that can also be used defensive quite effectly thanks to the First Strike. Now, using this kind of card defensively is definitely not optimal, but it is upside for sure. I don’t love that it only bumps toughness by 1, since if you’re the one attacking, there’s still a good chance your creature will die.
Jack-o'-Lantern image 1.5 Well, if this set wasn’t screaming “Halloween!” at you already, it is now! This card looks kind of alright for Limited. Exiling a problem card in a graveyard and drawing a card for a total investment of two mana really isn’t that bad, and then it is fixing from your graveyard too, which seems fine. I definitely don’t think you always run this, but it seems like it will be your 23rd card sometimes, especially if you’re interested in the fixing.
Vampire Interloper image 2.5 This has nice aggressive stats, and looks like a decent enabler for all the Black-Red cards that care about your opponent losing life.
Pack 2 Pick 5: Eaten Alive
Devoted Grafkeeper image 4.0 This is a very strong signpost uncommon, with it really pushing you in the direction of Disturb. It both loads your graveyard a bit and pays you off for disturb -- and flashback, for that matter. And then, it of course has Disturb itself! In the end, you end up paying 5 mana for a 2/1 and a 3/1 Flyer, plus all that other upside, and that’s an excellent deal.
Otherworldly Gaze image 0.5 Loading the graveyard is important in this format, its true, but a card that pretty much only does that, while giving you some card selection, isn’t something I’m interested in. You never get the card back. There are so many cards that load the graveyard while doing actual other things!
Evolving Wilds image 3.0 This is always really nice fixing, and I tend to like it even more than the rare dual lands here, especially because it throws itself in the graveyard and that definitely matters in this set.
Falkenrath Perforator image 2.5 In a set where this had no synergy at all, this would probably be a 1.5. The stats aren’t good, and the 1 damage just isn’t enough to make up for that. However, this set’s BR archetype has a lot of cards that give you extra effects if your opponent lost life, and this is one way you can make that happen. Plus, its a vampire, and while the tribal themes for vampires aren’t massive int his set, they are still there! I think all of that is enough to bump this up to a solid playable.
Crossroads Candleguide image 1.0 You’ll play it you’re desperate for a creature or fixing, but you really hope you don’t have to, because it doesn’t do either thing particularly well.
Bat Whisperer image 2.5 If this always gave you a bat, it would be at least a 3.5. One nice thing about the bat too is that it might help you enable future cards that give you a bonus if your opponent has lost life on a particular turn. Sometimes it will be a 4-mana 4/2 though, and that’s pretty bad.
Eaten Alive image 3.5 There is a lot of sacrifice fodder int his format, so casting this for only one Black is very real, and the fail case is that you pay 5, which is perfectly fine. Exiling stuff has extra value in the format too.
Search Party Captain image 3.5 A 4-mana 2/2 that draws you a card is like a 2.0, and decreasing that cost even by 1 is a huge upgrade. So, the fact that sometimes you can play this for two or one mana and then cast what you draw seems really good. This is one of White’s better Commons.
Return to Nature image 0.5 Its nice that this does three different things, making it a more reasonable main deck card, but I’m still pretty skeptical about main decking it on a regular basis. This format has artifacts and enchantments, but not a ton of them, and while exiling something from a graveyard is nice, yo’ure often only getting half a card of value when you do it, since your opponent already cast their spell with flashback or their creature with disturb. I think this should probably still start in your sideboard.
Larder Zombie image 1.5 So, a one mana ⅓ isn’t amazing, especially with Defender! But at least it can block and kill X/1s. Its ability asks for several creatures in play, and I guess the idea is that you’ll be making Zombie tokens so doing that might not be too hard! The ability itself isn’t bad -- as it can give you card selection and/or help you load up the graveyard. Still, I don’t see this being especially good overall.
Pack 2 Pick 6: Falcon Abomination
Faithful Mending image 3.0 Looting twice and gaining some life isn’t a bad deal for two mana, and being able to do it again from the graveyard is pretty nice. This will let you see a ton of cards in your deck, while simultaneously helping you put things in your graveyard. It does have the downside of, you know, not doing a whole lot immediately, but the life gain does help out a tiny bit on that front. I think the first copy looks appealing in most UW decks, but you don’t want to stock up on too many cards that don’t affect the board.
Storm Skreelix image 3.0 This is a pretty nice signpost for Blue Red, as it is simultaneously a cost reduction effect for spells and a win condition for those spell decks. It will often be a 4/4, especially in a set with flashback! It seems strong enough to me that it can pull you into its colors and is worth a first pick sometimes.
Mounted Dreadknight image 2.0 This has a decent baseline, and sometimes it will be especially big. Not a bad thing to have at the top of your curve.
Flare of Faith image 2.0 This seems like a decent trick if you’re a White aggro deck with lots of Humans in it. It gives a decent stats boost that will often allow your creature to win combat. Two mana for just +2/+2 is pretty mediocre for a trick, but the Human upside will make it worth running often enough
Falcon Abomination image 3.0 This is a Wind Drake with some reasonable upside. Obviously this Zombie token doesn’t give you quite as much value as most Zombie tokens, but it still adds to the board in a way that will have at least some impact. The two bodies will be nice sacrifice fodder, and they’ll also just be good at pressuring your opponent.
Duress image 0.5 As always, this is a sideboard card. It misses too often to be worth it in your main deck. Even when you can hit stuff with it, it might have Flashback!
Thraben Exorcism image 0.5 Against some opponents this will feel really good -- namely, against UW -- but against other decks it just won’t have targets often enough to be worth it.
Bramble Armor image 2.5 This is a pretty decent boost when it equips for free, and it will also help you get coven online if that’s what you need. Equipping it after that first time is a little rough for sure, but if it keeps giving you coven or making creature sin to threats, that is reasonable.
Howl of the Hunt image 2.5 This kind of card pretty much always performs. Combat tricks and Auras both have some pretty serious problems. The chief one is that you can get totally blown out if you’re not careful. However, Auras with Flash tend to play reasonably well every time we see them, provided they are reasonably costed, and I think this one is. You have to be careful about when you play it of course, but if your opponent has no way to interact, this is basically a combat trick that takes something down, and then the Aura itself sticks around. The fact it works this way helps you mitigate the potential card disadvantage, since you’ll use the Aura to help you kill something up front. The werewolf upside here matters too. You usually want to be the aggressor with a trick, but giving your Wolf or Werewolf pseudo-vigilance is pretty nice, and having the option to ambush block is okay too.
Pack 2 Pick 7: Eaten Alive
Devoted Grafkeeper image 4.0 This is a very strong signpost uncommon, with it really pushing you in the direction of Disturb. It both loads your graveyard a bit and pays you off for disturb -- and flashback, for that matter. And then, it of course has Disturb itself! In the end, you end up paying 5 mana for a 2/1 and a 3/1 Flyer, plus all that other upside, and that’s an excellent deal.
Flip the Switch image 1.5 This isn’t quite a hard counter, but its pretty close, and adding to the board while you counter a thing isn’t bad, even if what you’re adding is a token that can’t block and can only attack once.
Revenge of the Drowned image 2.5 4 mana to Time Ebb a creature isn’t amazing. It does let you trade 1-for-1 with what you target, since your opponent has to redraw that card again, and that’s nice. The 2/2 Zombie of course can’t block, so you can’t really manufacture a huge blowout most of the time. It is a body that will be relevant when you untap though.
Pack's Betrayal image 1.0 Rummaging a few times a came with this seems fine, but not exactly game breaking. It does have decent stats to go along with that ability.
Eaten Alive image 3.5 There is a lot of sacrifice fodder int his format, so casting this for only one Black is very real, and the fail case is that you pay 5, which is perfectly fine. Exiling stuff has extra value in the format too.
Abandon the Post image 0.0 // 2.5 I’m not a huge fan of this type of card, mostly because it basically does nothing unless you win the game with it. That said, if you have six mana available to cast it both times in a single turn, it does stand a pretty good chance of stealing a win out of nowhere. A card like this is soo all-in on aggro though that I think we do need to give it a buildaround grade If you are an aggro deck, you’ll probably play one copy of this and feel alright about it. Otherwise you pretty much can’t play it.
Geistwave image 2.5 This is a neat design for a bounce spell.. Bouncing an opposing nonland permanent for two mana is usually a decent card. It doesn’t give you the value of a whole card unless you use it in response to a trick or something, but it gives you some reasonable tempo and has that blow out upside. Using this to bounce your own thing is actually pretty interesting, since you do net a card, and if what you’re bouncing gives you some value from bouncing it, that’s going to feel pretty good! Especially if you do it in response to removal or something like that. Its probably just a C, but the “bounce your own stuff” upside is very real.
Celestus Sanctifier image 2.0 If you are changing between night and day a lot, this gives you some decent card selection, and even lets you load the graveyard a bit -- like with Flashback or Disturb cards. That said, it has mediocre stats, and the ability isn’t incredible, and it won’t always be easy to get going in the first place.
Pack 2 Pick 8: Vampire Socialite
Vampire Socialite image 4.0 The baseline of a two mana 2/2 with Menace is a pretty good starting point, and then you add in all the vampire and pseudo-bloodthirst upside, and you have a pretty nice signpost uncommon. One really nice thing here is that you get paid off if you already have vampires in play when you play it and if you play it first. This looks like a strong signpost uncommon. One that might be worth taking with a first pick sometimes.
Stormrider Spirit image 1.5 This is a reprint from our last trip to Innistrad, where it was mediocre. You can flash it in to ambush block a small thing, and then it is a decent threat in the air, but it isn’t especially efficient.
Pack's Betrayal image 1.0 Rummaging a few times a came with this seems fine, but not exactly game breaking. It does have decent stats to go along with that ability.
Larder Zombie image 1.5 So, a one mana ⅓ isn’t amazing, especially with Defender! But at least it can block and kill X/1s. Its ability asks for several creatures in play, and I guess the idea is that you’ll be making Zombie tokens so doing that might not be too hard! The ability itself isn’t bad -- as it can give you card selection and/or help you load up the graveyard. Still, I don’t see this being especially good overall.
Stuffed Bear image 1.0 This set doesn’t have much of an Artifact theme. If it did, the BEar would be a little more interesting. As it is, it is a creature that you have to pay mana for every turn to actually make into a creature. And, while that activation isn’t so bad the first time around, you eventually end up having to pay a ton of mana for this to actually be a card on the board that matters, and I don’t really think you want to be doing that.
Thraben Exorcism image 0.5 Against some opponents this will feel really good -- namely, against UW -- but against other decks it just won’t have targets often enough to be worth it.
Tapping at the Window image 2.5 This gives some decent card selection while also loading your graveyard, and you end up with a 2-for-1 after you cast it the second time – and you’ve also seen a ton of cards!
Pack 2 Pick 9: Necrosynthesis
Brood Weaver image 2.5 A 4-man 2/4 with Reach is often a fine playable -- something like a 1.5 or a 2.0, and making another Reach spider when it dies is solid enough.
Necrosynthesis image 1.5 If this was just an Aura with the “Whenever another creature dies” bit, it would be close to unplayable. It doesn’t give an immediate stats boost, and it doesn’t do anything to mitigate against card disadvantage. However, it comes with an additional effect that does help mitigate against that disadvantage, since it will give you some pretty serious card selection when it dies. It is nice too that it doesn’t look at counters alone, it looks at the creature’s power, and that means you’ll always be netting a card when the thing dies. Now, it does still have the very real downside of not buffing the creature at all at first, but the creature will grow over the course of the game. Still, this isn’t great. Sure it replaces itself, but the effect of the Aura isn’t that great in the first place. Even with Zombies dying left and right, this doesn’t seem worth it.
Larder Zombie image 1.5 So, a one mana ⅓ isn’t amazing, especially with Defender! But at least it can block and kill X/1s. Its ability asks for several creatures in play, and I guess the idea is that you’ll be making Zombie tokens so doing that might not be too hard! The ability itself isn’t bad -- as it can give you card selection and/or help you load up the graveyard. Still, I don’t see this being especially good overall.
Falkenrath Perforator image 2.5 In a set where this had no synergy at all, this would probably be a 1.5. The stats aren’t good, and the 1 damage just isn’t enough to make up for that. However, this set’s BR archetype has a lot of cards that give you extra effects if your opponent lost life, and this is one way you can make that happen. Plus, its a vampire, and while the tribal themes for vampires aren’t massive int his set, they are still there! I think all of that is enough to bump this up to a solid playable.
Rotten Reunion image 1.5 Hating on a couple graveyard cards and getting a couple of Zombies that can either pressure your opponent or act as sacrifice fodder seems alright for a three mana investment.
Flare of Faith image 2.0 This seems like a decent trick if you’re a White aggro deck with lots of Humans in it. It gives a decent stats boost that will often allow your creature to win combat. Two mana for just +2/+2 is pretty mediocre for a trick, but the Human upside will make it worth running often enough
Pack 2 Pick 10: Ritual of Hope
Ritual of Hope image 1.0 // 3.0 This is a nice payoff for going wide, especially if you can get Coven going, since it becomes Inspired Charge for half the cost! The good news is, by the time a card like this tends to be useful, you’re reasonably likely to have Coven online, since you’ll have to have a board with several different creatures on it, and those several different creatures are likely to have 3 or more powers among them. Obviously, you won’t be playing this other than in fairly aggressive decks, but it seems like a nice pump spell for them.
Component Collector image 1.5 This has decent stats and an ability that will give you a bit of value, though it certainly isn’t exciting
Consider image 1.5 This format has a spells matter deck in UR and it has various graveyard synergies, so this seems like a decent inclusion. It is a lot like Opt, and that’s not a bad comparison! That said, it is also pretty darn replaceable, especially if you’re not in a deck that cares about the graveyard or spells, and it will often be an easy card to cut in those situations.
Unblinking Observer image 2.5 This will help you cast enough stuff that it seems like a solid Common. It fits nicely in the UR spells deck and the UW deck, which will be the most disturb heavy deck in the format. I’m giving it a 2.5.
Celestus Sanctifier image 2.0 If you are changing between night and day a lot, this gives you some decent card selection, and even lets you load the graveyard a bit -- like with Flashback or Disturb cards. That said, it has mediocre stats, and the ability isn’t incredible, and it won’t always be easy to get going in the first place.
Pack 2 Pick 11: Neonate's Rush
Neonate's Rush image 2.5 When you manage to kill a creature with this, it is going to feel incredible. When you can’t, this is less true. However, it is an enabler for all the pseudo-bloodthirst in the format and it replaces itself, AND it will often only cost two mana, making the outcome a lot more palatable.
Shipwreck Sifters image 1.5 A two mana ½ who loots is fine, and this one can get bigger. I don’t think you’ll want to discard a spirit or a card with Disturb to it all that often, since the power of those cards is often in the fact that you get the two bodies, but you’ll discard those things sometimes and it’ll get bigger.
Blood Pact image 2.0 Its nice this is an Instant, it makes it a lot more palatable that it is. Instant speed Divination for three mana is pretty nice, and most Black decks will play the first copy of this. In a pinch, you can also use it to do 2 to your opponent, either to finish them off or trigger a bunch of your pseudo-bloodthirst effects, but mostly you’ll want to be drawing the cards.
Rotten Reunion image 1.5 Hating on a couple graveyard cards and getting a couple of Zombies that can either pressure your opponent or act as sacrifice fodder seems alright for a three mana investment.
Pack 2 Pick 12: Stolen Vitality
Stuffed Bear image 1.0 This set doesn’t have much of an Artifact theme. If it did, the BEar would be a little more interesting. As it is, it is a creature that you have to pay mana for every turn to actually make into a creature. And, while that activation isn’t so bad the first time around, you eventually end up having to pay a ton of mana for this to actually be a card on the board that matters, and I don’t really think you want to be doing that.
Timberland Guide image 3.0 This is a reprint, and even if it wasn’t, we see cards like this a lot, and I also like them a decent amount. They are nice as two drops, as they can be two mana 2/2s, and then in the later game you can put the counter somewhere more relevant. There isn’t a +1/+1 counter deck in this format, but the counter this guy brings with him can really help you set up Coven, since you add him to the board and put the counter somewhere else, and you’re already 2/3 of the way there!
Stolen Vitality image 1.5 This is a decent trick that give you lethal out of nowhere on an attacking creature, and one that can also be used defensive quite effectly thanks to the First Strike. Now, using this kind of card defensively is definitely not optimal, but it is upside for sure. I don’t love that it only bumps toughness by 1, since if you’re the one attacking, there’s still a good chance your creature will die.
Pack 2 Pick 13: Larder Zombie
Crossroads Candleguide image 1.0 You’ll play it you’re desperate for a creature or fixing, but you really hope you don’t have to, because it doesn’t do either thing particularly well.
Larder Zombie image 1.5 So, a one mana ⅓ isn’t amazing, especially with Defender! But at least it can block and kill X/1s. Its ability asks for several creatures in play, and I guess the idea is that you’ll be making Zombie tokens so doing that might not be too hard! The ability itself isn’t bad -- as it can give you card selection and/or help you load up the graveyard. Still, I don’t see this being especially good overall.
Pack 2 Pick 14: Thraben Exorcism
Thraben Exorcism image 0.5 Against some opponents this will feel really good -- namely, against UW -- but against other decks it just won’t have targets often enough to be worth it.
Pack 3 Pick 1: Liesa, Forgotten Archangel
Liesa, Forgotten Archangel image 5.0 A 5-mana ⅘ with Flying and Lifelink would always make the cut in your deck. It would probably be a B at worst -- that’s a great French Vanilla creature! Liesa also has the ability to return creatures of yours that die to your hand, and she also hates on graveyard strategies a bit by exiling your opponents creatures when she dies. That’s a lot of action, and she’s definitely a bomb. She even impacts the board righta way sometimes, where you can suddenly attack because you know your creatures will come back when they trade! And, if you untap with her in play, she’s going to start making the race impossible for your opponent
Dawnhart Wardens image 3.0 A 3-mana 3/3 is a great baseline, and this will pump the power of your whole board some of the time. Seems like a singpost Uncommon that will put you into its colors reasonably often.
Hound Tamer image 4.0 You would always play this card if it was always Hound Tamer. It has good stats and an ability that can be a nice place to sink mana in the late game, so obviously the fact it can also be a larger creature that grants Trample to a bunch of stuff is awesome.
Odric's Outrider image 3.5 This is pretty good. First, it counts itself dying, so most of the time the Outrider will give you some value, even if he isn’t long for this world. The BW deck is all about sacrificing and the GW deck is all about going wide, partially with tokens, and it is a good fit in either of those decks since creatures will be dying a whole lot. And really, creatures just die all the time in Magic anyway! So yeah, I think the whole package here looks pretty strong, like the kind of engine that can really win you a game, and the floor is pretty reasonable.
Celestus Sanctifier image 2.0 If you are changing between night and day a lot, this gives you some decent card selection, and even lets you load the graveyard a bit -- like with Flashback or Disturb cards. That said, it has mediocre stats, and the ability isn’t incredible, and it won’t always be easy to get going in the first place.
Drownyard Amalgam image 2.0 This sets up some graveyard value for you and has a decent defensive body, not to mention an ability that will sometimes help you close out a game. A lot of the time though, it just won’t do enough. Seems reasonable in some controlling decks.
Revenge of the Drowned image 2.5 4 mana to Time Ebb a creature isn’t amazing. It does let you trade 1-for-1 with what you target, since your opponent has to redraw that card again, and that’s nice. The 2/2 Zombie of course can’t block, so you can’t really manufacture a huge blowout most of the time. It is a body that will be relevant when you untap though.
Moonrager's Slash image 4.0 3 mana to do 3 to any target is already a premium removal spell, and this will sometimes just be Lightning Bolt! This is easily premium, and easily Red’s best Common.
Stolen Vitality image 1.5 This is a decent trick that give you lethal out of nowhere on an attacking creature, and one that can also be used defensive quite effectly thanks to the First Strike. Now, using this kind of card defensively is definitely not optimal, but it is upside for sure. I don’t love that it only bumps toughness by 1, since if you’re the one attacking, there’s still a good chance your creature will die.
Stuffed Bear image 1.0 This set doesn’t have much of an Artifact theme. If it did, the BEar would be a little more interesting. As it is, it is a creature that you have to pay mana for every turn to actually make into a creature. And, while that activation isn’t so bad the first time around, you eventually end up having to pay a ton of mana for this to actually be a card on the board that matters, and I don’t really think you want to be doing that.
Rotten Reunion image 1.5 Hating on a couple graveyard cards and getting a couple of Zombies that can either pressure your opponent or act as sacrifice fodder seems alright for a three mana investment.
Bramble Armor image 2.5 This is a pretty decent boost when it equips for free, and it will also help you get coven online if that’s what you need. Equipping it after that first time is a little rough for sure, but if it keeps giving you coven or making creature sin to threats, that is reasonable.
Bladebrand image 1.5 This is a reprint, and it is one that is pretty mediocre. Giving death touch + a cantrip is pretty nice in combat, but it is a very narrow card overall because it is only useful in combat. Sure, I guess you can cast it just to cycle it, but that’s pretty rough! There are some silly things you can do with it sometimes, like give death touch to something that is being triple blocked, but a lot of the time you just use this and trade a creature on the table for one in your library. And, while that’s fine, it is certainly not a great card, and not one that makes the cut more than half the time.
Mourning Patrol image 2.5 A 3-mana 2/3 with Vigilance is fine, so the fact that this can come back as a 2/1 with Flying and Vigilance is pretty nice! Both halves in this case very capable of trading, too.
Pack 3 Pick 2: Vampire Socialite
Rite of Harmony image 2.5 To really make use of this, you’re going to need to be getting multiple creatures or Enchantments into play on a single turn. If you cast this and just get one card, you’re effectively just Cycling in a very situational way, and that’s really not very good! You’ve gotta draw at least two cards with this for it to replace itself. So the best idea here is to make creature tokens after you cast it, and GW does look capable of that. The Flashback part of the card makes it even harder for you to really take advantage, but once its in your graveyard it is a little more acceptable to flash it back and only play one thing that draws you a card, because at that point it has already done enough. I think most Green/White decks will be able to make this work somewhat, but I do think the hoops you have to jump through are pretty real.
Vampire Socialite image 4.0 The baseline of a two mana 2/2 with Menace is a pretty good starting point, and then you add in all the vampire and pseudo-bloodthirst upside, and you have a pretty nice signpost uncommon. One really nice thing here is that you get paid off if you already have vampires in play when you play it and if you play it first. This looks like a strong signpost uncommon. One that might be worth taking with a first pick sometimes.
Devoted Grafkeeper image 4.0 This is a very strong signpost uncommon, with it really pushing you in the direction of Disturb. It both loads your graveyard a bit and pays you off for disturb -- and flashback, for that matter. And then, it of course has Disturb itself! In the end, you end up paying 5 mana for a 2/1 and a 3/1 Flyer, plus all that other upside, and that’s an excellent deal.
Dryad's Revival image 1.0 If this were just three mana to return a card from your graveyard to your hand it wouldn’t be very good. That’s just not a great rate most of the time, as that’s a very real amount of mana and you’re only getting one card out of the deal. Basically, it is card selection, and card selection that is contingent upon you having something in your graveyard worth getting back int he first place. Not doing anything to add to the board is a real problem. Adding Flashback does mean this can give you a 2-for-1 in the long run which isn’t too shabby, but I still don’t love this, even in a graveyard set. I thinkt his is a super replaceable card that doesn’t do something real way too often.
Baithook Angler image 3.0 This looks like a nice Common. A two mana 2/1 can trade with lots of stuff, and then the fact that you can get another reasonably costed body out of your graveyard is pretty amazing. I mean, that’s 4 mana for a 2/1 and a ½ Flyer. And sure, you don’t get the bodies at the same time, but that’s still a pretty nice card.
Duress image 0.5 As always, this is a sideboard card. It misses too often to be worth it in your main deck. Even when you can hit stuff with it, it might have Flashback!
Candlelit Cavalry image 2.5 On a base level, this is a 5-mana 5/5, something that makes the cut in some Green decks anyway, and it will gain trample sometimes. Seems decent enough.
Raze the Effigy image 1.5 This format doesn’t have a ton of artifacts, but having the option to destroy an artifact on a decent combat trick certainly makes it more flexible.
Otherworldly Gaze image 0.5 Loading the graveyard is important in this format, its true, but a card that pretty much only does that, while giving you some card selection, isn’t something I’m interested in. You never get the card back. There are so many cards that load the graveyard while doing actual other things!
Mounted Dreadknight image 2.0 This has a decent baseline, and sometimes it will be especially big. Not a bad thing to have at the top of your curve.
Sungold Barrage image 2.5 This is far from premium removal, as cards with 4 toughness aren’t incredibly common to see on the table. They will be a little more common in this set thanks to DFC creatures, who tend to be larger on one side. It can kill a lot of scary things for sure, but it is too situational to be anything more than solid.
Electric Revelation image 1.5 This is an expensive Tormenting Voice, buts it’s an instant and it has flashback. This format does have a graveyard theme for sure, so discarding cards to cast this isn’t a huge deal. Still, it doesn’t impact the board in any way, and is replaceable overall.
Hedgewitch's Mask image 1.5 This is a decent, albeit unimpressive, piece of Equipment. One to play and two to equip is kind of alright, and the upside of being unblockable by bigger stuff doesn’t hurt. It can help you get Coven. Still, this format doesn’t seem to have a huge equipment theme, and that probably means this gets cut a lot.
Pack 3 Pick 3: Olivia's Midnight Ambush
Mystic Skull image 2.5 Two mana for an artifact that filters is horrendous! If that’s all this was, it would be a 0.0. Obviously though, this is Innistrad, so this can transform into a scary thing -- Mystic Monstrosity. The Monstrosity not only has some pretty nice stats, it also provides great fixing. This is neat, because filtering usually isn’t very good in Limited, though it can help you out in a pinch, so the fact this turns into much better fixing is cool! Your total investment of 7 mana is a bit steep for a ⅚ of course, but it isn’t too crazy either, and you pay it installments. Note too, that this can be transformed at Instant speed, something that certainly matters.
Bladestitched Skaab image 3.0 This is an efficient Zombie lord, and this set has lots of Zombies! This will be great in UB decks.
Tireless Hauler image 3.0 Like with most of the werewolves, just the front side of the card is reasonable – a 4/5 with Vigilance can do some decent work! But it also has its werewolf side, where it has the potential to really dominate a board.
Revenge of the Drowned image 2.5 4 mana to Time Ebb a creature isn’t amazing. It does let you trade 1-for-1 with what you target, since your opponent has to redraw that card again, and that’s nice. The 2/2 Zombie of course can’t block, so you can’t really manufacture a huge blowout most of the time. It is a body that will be relevant when you untap though.
Stormrider Spirit image 1.5 This is a reprint from our last trip to Innistrad, where it was mediocre. You can flash it in to ambush block a small thing, and then it is a decent threat in the air, but it isn’t especially efficient.
Olivia's Midnight Ambush image 3.5 This is decent removal if it is day time or neither night nor day, and when it is night time, its just insane. If it was only the night time mode it would be an easy 4.5! As it is, I think it has a reasonable enough base line and a high enough ceiling that we can call it premium.
Stuffed Bear image 1.0 This set doesn’t have much of an Artifact theme. If it did, the BEar would be a little more interesting. As it is, it is a creature that you have to pay mana for every turn to actually make into a creature. And, while that activation isn’t so bad the first time around, you eventually end up having to pay a ton of mana for this to actually be a card on the board that matters, and I don’t really think you want to be doing that.
Soul-Guide Gryff image 2.5 This has decent Flying stats, and exiling a card with Flashback or Disturb is pretty relevant in the format.
Consider image 1.5 This format has a spells matter deck in UR and it has various graveyard synergies, so this seems like a decent inclusion. It is a lot like Opt, and that’s not a bad comparison! That said, it is also pretty darn replaceable, especially if you’re not in a deck that cares about the graveyard or spells, and it will often be an easy card to cut in those situations.
Eaten Alive image 3.5 There is a lot of sacrifice fodder int his format, so casting this for only one Black is very real, and the fail case is that you pay 5, which is perfectly fine. Exiling stuff has extra value in the format too.
Shipwreck Sifters image 1.5 A two mana ½ who loots is fine, and this one can get bigger. I don’t think you’ll want to discard a spirit or a card with Disturb to it all that often, since the power of those cards is often in the fact that you get the two bodies, but you’ll discard those things sometimes and it’ll get bigger.
Raze the Effigy image 1.5 This format doesn’t have a ton of artifacts, but having the option to destroy an artifact on a decent combat trick certainly makes it more flexible.
Pack 3 Pick 4: Covert Cutpurse
Corpse Cobble image 2.0 Giving up a creature for another creature, or several creatures for one creature isn’t something that is super appealing to me. Now, this does combo pretty well with Decay tokens, since you can sacrifice them before they sacrifice themselves at the end of combat, and there are some other nice sacrifice fodder cards around, and it has Flashback. Its also an instant, so you can sacrifice a big thing your opponent is removing and get a big creature all over again, which will feel pretty nice. All of that means it isn’t unplayable, but I’m a bit skeptical this will be the kind of Blue Black card that really pulls you into the color pair.
Covert Cutpurse image 3.5 This has a very high ceiling. If you kill something when you play it, then trade with the 2/2, and then use the Disturbed creature to trade (which will be easy because deathtouch), you’re getting a 3-for-1! That said, that ceiling isn’t super realistic, mostly because it can only kill things that have been damaged, and a good chunk of the time, you’ll have to give up a creature to make that happen. Still, you’re getting a pretty good deal, even keeping that in mind. You get two bodies out of one card, and both are quite capable of trading, and that’s going to feel pretty good.
Ritual of Hope image 1.0 // 3.0 This is a nice payoff for going wide, especially if you can get Coven going, since it becomes Inspired Charge for half the cost! The good news is, by the time a card like this tends to be useful, you’re reasonably likely to have Coven online, since you’ll have to have a board with several different creatures on it, and those several different creatures are likely to have 3 or more powers among them. Obviously, you won’t be playing this other than in fairly aggressive decks, but it seems like a nice pump spell for them.
Abandon the Post image 0.0 // 2.5 I’m not a huge fan of this type of card, mostly because it basically does nothing unless you win the game with it. That said, if you have six mana available to cast it both times in a single turn, it does stand a pretty good chance of stealing a win out of nowhere. A card like this is soo all-in on aggro though that I think we do need to give it a buildaround grade If you are an aggro deck, you’ll probably play one copy of this and feel alright about it. Otherwise you pretty much can’t play it.
Return to Nature image 0.5 Its nice that this does three different things, making it a more reasonable main deck card, but I’m still pretty skeptical about main decking it on a regular basis. This format has artifacts and enchantments, but not a ton of them, and while exiling something from a graveyard is nice, yo’ure often only getting half a card of value when you do it, since your opponent already cast their spell with flashback or their creature with disturb. I think this should probably still start in your sideboard.
Component Collector image 1.5 This has decent stats and an ability that will give you a bit of value, though it certainly isn’t exciting
Tireless Hauler image 3.0 Like with most of the werewolves, just the front side of the card is reasonable – a 4/5 with Vigilance can do some decent work! But it also has its werewolf side, where it has the potential to really dominate a board.
Candlelit Cavalry image 2.5 On a base level, this is a 5-mana 5/5, something that makes the cut in some Green decks anyway, and it will gain trample sometimes. Seems decent enough.
Brimstone Vandal image 2.5 A 3-mana ⅔ with Menace is already something you play a decent chunk of the time, so the addition Night and Day value here is pretty great! On its own, it is a 3-mana ⅔ with Menace, and will do a a bit of damage over the course of the game. This is a quality common.
Bramble Armor image 2.5 This is a pretty decent boost when it equips for free, and it will also help you get coven online if that’s what you need. Equipping it after that first time is a little rough for sure, but if it keeps giving you coven or making creature sin to threats, that is reasonable.
Duress image 0.5 As always, this is a sideboard card. It misses too often to be worth it in your main deck. Even when you can hit stuff with it, it might have Flashback!
Pack 3 Pick 5: Croaking Counterpart
Croaking Counterpart image 2.5 This is a fun card, and a nice callback to Cackling Counterpart. However, it doesn’t seem incredible in Limited. Three mana to make a 1/1 copy of a thing will sometimes not feel too badd -- like if a creature has a bunch of abilities and stuff, but there will be plenty of times where paying 3 for that 1/1 doesn’t accomplish much other than making a chump blocker. Even with Flashback, I don’t see this lining up well regularly enough to be very good. It certainly has a high ceiling, one dependent on what is in play, but the floor isn’t so good.
Kessig Naturalist image 3.5 If it is day time, you get a pretty decent two drop that might be able to trade for something and ramp your mana a bit -- or even better, just ramp you mana without dying! If its night, you get a really nice Werewolf/Wolf lord that will be pumping a good chunk of your deck in RG. And, of course, like with all of these, it can go back and forth between the two modes. Additionally, setting thing up on turn two to start keeping track of day and night might be a big deal, too. Overall, I think this is a strong enough signpost Uncommon that it pulls you into its color pair, even very early on.
Voldaren Ambusher image 2.5 On its own, this will sometimes just be a 3-mana 2/2 that does 1 to a thing. If that’s what it always was, it would be solid, but there are some significant hoops to jump through. First, your opponent has to have lost life some way. Most typically, that will be from an attack, but there are also other means that allow you to do that. Second, you can upgrade it if you have enough vampires. I do think this BR deck will be a real pain to play against sometimes, because you might just end up having to block more riskily in some situations to keep a card like this from being really good. But yeah, this does have a super high ceiling, where it will feel like Flame-Tongue Kavu, but sometimes it will just be a Gray Ogre, and that’s abysmal. I think that awful floor really holds it back.
Drownyard Amalgam image 2.0 This sets up some graveyard value for you and has a decent defensive body, not to mention an ability that will sometimes help you close out a game. A lot of the time though, it just won’t do enough. Seems reasonable in some controlling decks.
Duel for Dominance image 2.5 This isn’t going to be premium removal. It will simply be 1G to Fight often enough that it just can’t get there. When you do get the +1/+1 bonus it will feel good for sure, and if it always did that, it would be premium, but as it is, I think it falls short of that designation. Its still decent Green removal of course, but not the kind you go after super hard.
Shady Traveler image 3.0 A 3-mana 2/3 with Menace is a card you’ll play sometimes – probably a 2.5, and it will come into play as or transform into Stalking Predator pretty regularly, in which case you’re getting an amazing deal!
Ardent Elementalist image 3.0 This will get you a pretty nice 2-for-1 most of the time, especially since as a 2/1, it stands a pretty good chance of trading with something in addition to getting you back a key instant or sorcery.
Candlelit Cavalry image 2.5 On a base level, this is a 5-mana 5/5, something that makes the cut in some Green decks anyway, and it will gain trample sometimes. Seems decent enough.
Flare of Faith image 2.0 This seems like a decent trick if you’re a White aggro deck with lots of Humans in it. It gives a decent stats boost that will often allow your creature to win combat. Two mana for just +2/+2 is pretty mediocre for a trick, but the Human upside will make it worth running often enough
Rotten Reunion image 1.5 Hating on a couple graveyard cards and getting a couple of Zombies that can either pressure your opponent or act as sacrifice fodder seems alright for a three mana investment.
Pack 3 Pick 6: Shady Traveler
Diregraf Rebirth image 3.0 5 mana to reanimate thing from your graveyard normally isn’t a great card in Limited -- but this has two things going on that certainly upgrade it. Sometimes, it will cost less mana, and it has Flashback. The cheaper cost applies for when you flash it back too, which is nice! If you do Flash this back, it means you’re getting a 2-for-1. Now, it still has the limitations of most reanimation spells in Limited -- you won’t always have a thing worth reanimating, but this format is graveyard-centric, and doing it in this format looks far more doable than in most. I still thinkt he set up here is real enough that it isn’t quite enough to pull me into the color pair.
Thraben Exorcism image 0.5 Against some opponents this will feel really good -- namely, against UW -- but against other decks it just won’t have targets often enough to be worth it.
Stormrider Spirit image 1.5 This is a reprint from our last trip to Innistrad, where it was mediocre. You can flash it in to ambush block a small thing, and then it is a decent threat in the air, but it isn’t especially efficient.
Bramble Armor image 2.5 This is a pretty decent boost when it equips for free, and it will also help you get coven online if that’s what you need. Equipping it after that first time is a little rough for sure, but if it keeps giving you coven or making creature sin to threats, that is reasonable.
Blood Pact image 2.0 Its nice this is an Instant, it makes it a lot more palatable that it is. Instant speed Divination for three mana is pretty nice, and most Black decks will play the first copy of this. In a pinch, you can also use it to do 2 to your opponent, either to finish them off or trigger a bunch of your pseudo-bloodthirst effects, but mostly you’ll want to be drawing the cards.
Pestilent Wolf image 2.5 That’s a lot of mana to give a bear Deathtouch! Still, it starts out as a two mana 2/2, and has the ability to trade with anything later in the game. Wolf is also a somewhat useful creature type. I think the whole package is probably a 2.5
Festival Crasher image 0.5 // 2.5 This has a very mediocre baseline. A two mana ⅓ these days is probably a D-. It does have some real upside though, and the threat of activation is pretty real! If your opponent just has a 2/2, and you attack with this and leave mana up, they just can’t afford to block it! Chaining multiple spells together is obviously the dream, but don’t count on doing that a ton in Limited. This will make the cut in decks with a decent number of spells, and probably be something you pass on in any other deck.
Ritual Guardian image 2.0 If this was a 3-mana 3/2 that always had Lifelink, it would probably be a 2.5 or 3.0. The fact this won’t always have it, and in fact probably won’t have it a decent chunk of the time, makes this significanlty worse than that, because a 3-mana 3/2 is just an ugly stat line these days.
Shady Traveler image 3.0 A 3-mana 2/3 with Menace is a card you’ll play sometimes – probably a 2.5, and it will come into play as or transform into Stalking Predator pretty regularly, in which case you’re getting an amazing deal!
Pack 3 Pick 7: Bat Whisperer
Fading Hope image 2.5 One mana to bounce a creature is a pretty nice deal. You don’t trade card-for-card of course, but there is massive tempo to be gained when you bounce something larger. And, the nice thing is, this lets you get a little value back from Scry if you find yourself having to bump something smaller. It is also nice its a cheap spell for UR and for Day/Night purposes.
Homestead Courage image 1.0 This gives a nice, efficient boost twice. It isn’t a boost that always makes a difference, though, and even when it does, I’m not sure it will always feel like you’re getting a full card worth of value. Being cheap to flashback is good for flashback payoffs, and also makes it easy to turn it back into day, and that matters.
Devious Cover-Up image 1.0 This is a hard counter, but four mana is a ton to have to have available at the right time, and the additional value this gives you just isn’t going to make up for that.
Eccentric Farmer image 1.5 Lands will end up in your graveyard more often than normal in this format because of self-mill, and the Farmer brings some of that mill with him! You’ll get a land out of this reasonably often, and making sure you hit your next land drop and loading your graveyard has decent value.
Neonate's Rush image 2.5 When you manage to kill a creature with this, it is going to feel incredible. When you can’t, this is less true. However, it is an enabler for all the pseudo-bloodthirst in the format and it replaces itself, AND it will often only cost two mana, making the outcome a lot more palatable.
Bat Whisperer image 2.5 If this always gave you a bat, it would be at least a 3.5. One nice thing about the bat too is that it might help you enable future cards that give you a bonus if your opponent has lost life on a particular turn. Sometimes it will be a 4-mana 4/2 though, and that’s pretty bad.
Stolen Vitality image 1.5 This is a decent trick that give you lethal out of nowhere on an attacking creature, and one that can also be used defensive quite effectly thanks to the First Strike. Now, using this kind of card defensively is definitely not optimal, but it is upside for sure. I don’t love that it only bumps toughness by 1, since if you’re the one attacking, there’s still a good chance your creature will die.
Return to Nature image 0.5 Its nice that this does three different things, making it a more reasonable main deck card, but I’m still pretty skeptical about main decking it on a regular basis. This format has artifacts and enchantments, but not a ton of them, and while exiling something from a graveyard is nice, yo’ure often only getting half a card of value when you do it, since your opponent already cast their spell with flashback or their creature with disturb. I think this should probably still start in your sideboard.
Pack 3 Pick 8: Obsessive Astronomer
Obsessive Astronomer image 2.5 Rummaging a few times a came with this seems fine, but not exactly game breaking. It does have decent stats to go along with that ability.
Soul-Guide Gryff image 2.5 This has decent Flying stats, and exiling a card with Flashback or Disturb is pretty relevant in the format.
Ritual Guardian image 2.0 If this was a 3-mana 3/2 that always had Lifelink, it would probably be a 2.5 or 3.0. The fact this won’t always have it, and in fact probably won’t have it a decent chunk of the time, makes this significanlty worse than that, because a 3-mana 3/2 is just an ugly stat line these days.
Otherworldly Gaze image 0.5 Loading the graveyard is important in this format, its true, but a card that pretty much only does that, while giving you some card selection, isn’t something I’m interested in. You never get the card back. There are so many cards that load the graveyard while doing actual other things!
Dawnhart Rejuvenator image 3.0 We have basically seen this card before -- Centaur Nurturer in War of the Spark, and it was pretty nice. It gives you fixing, and while it might not be the most imposing creature, the life it gains you can help you get to your next turn, where you can make use of that mana.
Celestus Sanctifier image 2.0 If you are changing between night and day a lot, this gives you some decent card selection, and even lets you load the graveyard a bit -- like with Flashback or Disturb cards. That said, it has mediocre stats, and the ability isn’t incredible, and it won’t always be easy to get going in the first place.
Eccentric Farmer image 1.5 Lands will end up in your graveyard more often than normal in this format because of self-mill, and the Farmer brings some of that mill with him! You’ll get a land out of this reasonably often, and making sure you hit your next land drop and loading your graveyard has decent value.
Pack 3 Pick 9: Rotten Reunion
Drownyard Amalgam image 2.0 This sets up some graveyard value for you and has a decent defensive body, not to mention an ability that will sometimes help you close out a game. A lot of the time though, it just won’t do enough. Seems reasonable in some controlling decks.
Stolen Vitality image 1.5 This is a decent trick that give you lethal out of nowhere on an attacking creature, and one that can also be used defensive quite effectly thanks to the First Strike. Now, using this kind of card defensively is definitely not optimal, but it is upside for sure. I don’t love that it only bumps toughness by 1, since if you’re the one attacking, there’s still a good chance your creature will die.
Stuffed Bear image 1.0 This set doesn’t have much of an Artifact theme. If it did, the BEar would be a little more interesting. As it is, it is a creature that you have to pay mana for every turn to actually make into a creature. And, while that activation isn’t so bad the first time around, you eventually end up having to pay a ton of mana for this to actually be a card on the board that matters, and I don’t really think you want to be doing that.
Rotten Reunion image 1.5 Hating on a couple graveyard cards and getting a couple of Zombies that can either pressure your opponent or act as sacrifice fodder seems alright for a three mana investment.
Bramble Armor image 2.5 This is a pretty decent boost when it equips for free, and it will also help you get coven online if that’s what you need. Equipping it after that first time is a little rough for sure, but if it keeps giving you coven or making creature sin to threats, that is reasonable.
Bladebrand image 1.5 This is a reprint, and it is one that is pretty mediocre. Giving death touch + a cantrip is pretty nice in combat, but it is a very narrow card overall because it is only useful in combat. Sure, I guess you can cast it just to cycle it, but that’s pretty rough! There are some silly things you can do with it sometimes, like give death touch to something that is being triple blocked, but a lot of the time you just use this and trade a creature on the table for one in your library. And, while that’s fine, it is certainly not a great card, and not one that makes the cut more than half the time.
Pack 3 Pick 10: Electric Revelation
Dryad's Revival image 1.0 If this were just three mana to return a card from your graveyard to your hand it wouldn’t be very good. That’s just not a great rate most of the time, as that’s a very real amount of mana and you’re only getting one card out of the deal. Basically, it is card selection, and card selection that is contingent upon you having something in your graveyard worth getting back int he first place. Not doing anything to add to the board is a real problem. Adding Flashback does mean this can give you a 2-for-1 in the long run which isn’t too shabby, but I still don’t love this, even in a graveyard set. I thinkt his is a super replaceable card that doesn’t do something real way too often.
Duress image 0.5 As always, this is a sideboard card. It misses too often to be worth it in your main deck. Even when you can hit stuff with it, it might have Flashback!
Raze the Effigy image 1.5 This format doesn’t have a ton of artifacts, but having the option to destroy an artifact on a decent combat trick certainly makes it more flexible.
Otherworldly Gaze image 0.5 Loading the graveyard is important in this format, its true, but a card that pretty much only does that, while giving you some card selection, isn’t something I’m interested in. You never get the card back. There are so many cards that load the graveyard while doing actual other things!
Electric Revelation image 1.5 This is an expensive Tormenting Voice, buts it’s an instant and it has flashback. This format does have a graveyard theme for sure, so discarding cards to cast this isn’t a huge deal. Still, it doesn’t impact the board in any way, and is replaceable overall.
Pack 3 Pick 11: Revenge of the Drowned
Revenge of the Drowned image 2.5 4 mana to Time Ebb a creature isn’t amazing. It does let you trade 1-for-1 with what you target, since your opponent has to redraw that card again, and that’s nice. The 2/2 Zombie of course can’t block, so you can’t really manufacture a huge blowout most of the time. It is a body that will be relevant when you untap though.
Stormrider Spirit image 1.5 This is a reprint from our last trip to Innistrad, where it was mediocre. You can flash it in to ambush block a small thing, and then it is a decent threat in the air, but it isn’t especially efficient.
Stuffed Bear image 1.0 This set doesn’t have much of an Artifact theme. If it did, the BEar would be a little more interesting. As it is, it is a creature that you have to pay mana for every turn to actually make into a creature. And, while that activation isn’t so bad the first time around, you eventually end up having to pay a ton of mana for this to actually be a card on the board that matters, and I don’t really think you want to be doing that.
Consider image 1.5 This format has a spells matter deck in UR and it has various graveyard synergies, so this seems like a decent inclusion. It is a lot like Opt, and that’s not a bad comparison! That said, it is also pretty darn replaceable, especially if you’re not in a deck that cares about the graveyard or spells, and it will often be an easy card to cut in those situations.
Pack 3 Pick 12: Duress
Return to Nature image 0.5 Its nice that this does three different things, making it a more reasonable main deck card, but I’m still pretty skeptical about main decking it on a regular basis. This format has artifacts and enchantments, but not a ton of them, and while exiling something from a graveyard is nice, yo’ure often only getting half a card of value when you do it, since your opponent already cast their spell with flashback or their creature with disturb. I think this should probably still start in your sideboard.
Bramble Armor image 2.5 This is a pretty decent boost when it equips for free, and it will also help you get coven online if that’s what you need. Equipping it after that first time is a little rough for sure, but if it keeps giving you coven or making creature sin to threats, that is reasonable.
Duress image 0.5 As always, this is a sideboard card. It misses too often to be worth it in your main deck. Even when you can hit stuff with it, it might have Flashback!
Pack 3 Pick 13: Rotten Reunion
Candlelit Cavalry image 2.5 On a base level, this is a 5-mana 5/5, something that makes the cut in some Green decks anyway, and it will gain trample sometimes. Seems decent enough.
Rotten Reunion image 1.5 Hating on a couple graveyard cards and getting a couple of Zombies that can either pressure your opponent or act as sacrifice fodder seems alright for a three mana investment.
Pack 3 Pick 14: Blood Pact
Blood Pact image 2.0 Its nice this is an Instant, it makes it a lot more palatable that it is. Instant speed Divination for three mana is pretty nice, and most Black decks will play the first copy of this. In a pinch, you can also use it to do 2 to your opponent, either to finish them off or trigger a bunch of your pseudo-bloodthirst effects, but mostly you’ll want to be drawing the cards.
Draft Pick Overview