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Premier Draft NEO 19 February 2022

19 February 10:54 - jo0105 7 Wins - 2 Losses
Maindeck
Creature (12)
1 Mothrider Patrol image
1 Go-Shintai of Shared Purpose image
1 Tatsunari, Toad Rider image
1 Containment Construct image
1 Golden-Tail Disciple image
1 Jukai Preserver image
1 Spirited Companion image
1 Jukai Trainee image
1 Kodama of the West Tree image
1 Sky-Blessed Samurai image
1 Kappa Tech-Wrecker image
1 Greater Tanuki image
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (11)
1 Historian's Wisdom image
2 The Long Reach of Night // Animus of Night's Reach image
3 Befriending the Moths // Imperial Moth image
1 Intercessor's Arrest image
1 The Fall of Lord Konda // Fragment of Konda image
1 Azusa's Many Journeys // Likeness of the Seeker image
1 Era of Enlightenment // Hand of Enlightenment image
1 Eater of Virtue image
Land (17)
5 Swamp image
6 Forest image
6 Plains image
Sideboard
1 Ironhoof Boar image
1 Network Disruptor image
2 Akki Ronin image
1 The Reality Chip image
1 Papercraft Decoy image
2 Dramatist's Puppet image
1 Bearer of Memory image
1 Invoke Despair image
2 Boseiju Reaches Skyward image
1 Tamiyo's Compleation image
1 Spell Pierce image
2 Ecologist's Terrarium image
1 Invoke the Winds image
2 Short Circuit image
1 Reckoner's Bargain image
1 Harmonious Emergence image

Pack 1 Pick 1: Tatsunari, Toad Rider
Tatsunari, Toad Rider image 4.5 This 3-mana 3/3 has a ton of upside. If you can manage to cast an Enchantment you’re going to end up with 6/6 worth of stats that is very difficult to block, and that even drains your opponent when you play Enchantments! It is definitely kind of a build around, as it really needs Enchantments to excel, but because it has such a reasonable baseline you can even play this in a deck with only one Enchantment and feel pretty good about it. And..this set has a lot of Enchantments, so getting enough of them in your deck isn’t a very big ask.
Okiba Salvage image 2.0 We see 5 mana reanimation spells a lot, and they tend to be kind of mediocre. This is because you don’t often have something in your graveyard that is worth paying 5 mana to reanimate. In other words, you not only need a large enough creature, it also needs to be in the graveyard. When you add +1/+1 counters to the mix, like this does, it does become easier to feel like you’re getting your 5 mana’s worth out of the card. However, you do need to have an Artifact and Enchantment to get those. I would be much happier with this card if it gave you one +1/+1 counter if you had an artifact, and another if you had an Enchantment, but it is all or nothing – and that certainly hurts it a little bit, even in a format where it seems getting one of each of those is fairly doable. If you have a couple of crazy good bombs, it does get better than that.
Dockside Chef image 3.0 The BR deck is really about sacrificing stuff, as it often is – and you’ll have plenty of expendable things to sacrifice for value with the Chief, and there are other sacrifice synergies around too! It seems like a one drop that can really net you some serious cards in the mid to late game.
Walking Skyscraper image 3.0 You probably want to be casting this for 6 consistently to play it in your deck – but I actually don’t think that’s a huge hurdle in this format. There’s lots of things that modify your creatures, and playing a 6-mana 8/8 with Trample and Hexproof when its untapped is pretty spicy! I think this will probably be a nice playable for just about any deck that isn’t super aggressive.
Coiling Stalker image 3.0 If you Ninjutsu this in, you end up paying two for a 2/1 that puts a counter somewhere. Note, by the way, that “somewhere” can be on itself, too! Now you obviously also returned a thing to your hand, so it isn’t all upside, but still, it seems like a reasonable deal. And it is the kind of creature that is a pretty real problem if your opponent can’t get blocks in front of it.
Uncharted Haven image 2.5 Coming into play tapped is definitely a downside, but the ability to name a color is great. I do think the dual lands are slightly better, as they always tap for two colors you probably need, and this will only ever tap for one, but if you need fixing, this is fine.
Simian Sling image 3.0 This compares really favorably with Tormentor’s Helm for Kaldheim. It gives the same stats boost and the same ability that punishes blocking. The difference is this is a bit more expensive to Equip – or in this case Reconfigure, but the fact you can just play t his as a creature is a huge upgrade. They’ve given us a lot of nice one drops of late, and this looks like one to me. It can attack effectively early, and then when it can no longer do that, you can suit up another creature who can take advantage of the ability more effectively.
Brute Suit image 2.5 This is a nice little Vehicle at Common. 1 to crew is super easy, and its no joke as an attacker. As we’ve seen, there’s lots of Vehicle stuff going on this set too.
Tamiyo's Compleation image 3.5 This is a more powerful take on this type of removal than we usually get. Usually, the bummer with this type of Blue removal spell is that you simply lock down a creature and it doesn’t untap – you don’t stap activated abilities and static abilities – but you actually do with this, and that’s a massive upgrade. Its nice that it can even turn off Equipment – as sometimes that will be worth doing.
Return to Action image 2.0 Black often gets this kind of trick that returns a creature to the battlefield when it dies these days, and then tend to be alright, although I prefer it when they cost a single Black mana. Still, this one does actually increase your creature’s power, which means you can use it to help you take down the other creature in combat a little more effectively, and it will even gain you some life! Its useful against removal too, of course. But, its still situational enough that I’m not super high on it.
Moonsnare Specialist image 3.5 This is a very good common. We have seen 4-mana 2/2s that Bounce a creature be very good in the past, and that’s what we have here as a base line. The Ninjutsu upside being tacked on means it can feel a little more like a Man-O’-War since you’re paying three mana, and being able to do it at instant speed may also enable you to break up an opposing block or something, which is pretty spicy.
Mnemonic Sphere image 2.5 This is basically an Artifact-based version of Hieroglyphic Illumination, which was an Instant you could pay 4 for to draw two cards, and it had cycling for one Blue mana. Hard for a card like this to ever be bad, since at worst it replaces itself really efficiently. Then there’s this format artifact synergy and so forth!
Intercessor's Arrest image 3.5 This is premium removal. The fact it shuts down blocking, attacking, crewing vehicles, and activated abilities is great. This format does have more ways to blow up Enchantments than normal, but it also has more payoffs for Enchantments than normal, so its probably a wash.
The Modern Age image 3.0 So, looting a couple of times is decent card selection, though like with a lot of these, you’re going to kind of wish you were adding to the board right away, instead of having to wait a couple of turns. As is this case with most of these creature-sagas, you get great value for your mana – in this case, a two mana ⅔ Flyer that loots twice – but the trade off is that you have to really wait for it. Still, Chapter I and II are the kinds of things that are at least useful all game long, so this isn’t one where you really need to play it early or you’re going to be disappointed.
Mountain image
Pack 1 Pick 2: Containment Construct
Containment Construct image 3.0 Man, if we had this in Crimson Vow it would have been absurd thanks to all the Blood tokens! This format also has a mechanic that involves discarding, though – and its Channel. If you Channel a card to get some effect and the construct exiles that card for you, it is going to feel pretty insane. You really only need to pull it off once to feel pretty good about it. So, if you have 0 ways to discard cards in your deck, you probably don’t play this, but as long as you have at least one, I don’t think you cut it. This is because it has passable stats and has a useful card type in Artifact, which is likely to help you with synergy too. It will be pretty hard to end up with 0 cards that have you discard, so I don’t really think it needs a build around grade.
Go-Shintai of Hidden Cruelty image 3.0 A 4-mana 2/2 with death touch is not a great statline, but obviously being able to pick off 1 toughness creatures when your opponent has one is definitely going to feel pretty huge, and there will be a decent number of them lying around. Once you get to where you can kill X/2s, though, is where this thing can really get silly. Like the other Shrines in this set, this card is perfectly fine even if its your only shrine, and I’m glad they designed them this way, as opposed to the way we’ve seen them in the past. Because yeah, the fail case of a 4-mana 2/2 that can trade with anything and pick off X/1s is a pretty good floor, while the ceiling is pretty amazing.
Azusa's Many Journeys image 2.5 This isn’t that exciting past the early game. You probably won’t be able to play the extra land if you don’t play it on turn two or three. Gaining 3 life doesn’t hurt, and might help you get to the point where this becomes a creature, but I’m not super impressed with the creature in the later game either. That said, in the early game, this has a decent shot at ramping you and then giving you a nice creature for the board a couple of turns later. So yeah, this is a card where the effectiveness will vary wildly depending on what part of the game it is. Early it will be very nice, in the mid-to-late game it won’t be very impressive.
Towashi Guide-Bot image 3.0 This looks pretty nice. A 4-mana 2/1 that puts a counter on a creature is quite good, and obviously there is a fair bit of synergy in this format for artifacts and modifications – including this card, which comes with the pretty nice ability to draw you a card. It is very likely it will only cost you 3 because of the counter it puts somewhere, and I can get behind that cost pretty happily – anything less than that and this will really generate some serious card advantage.
Reckoner Shakedown image 1.5 This is a pretty neat take on a Coercion Effect, as it is effectively a modal card that takes away your opponents best card, or it gives you a look at your opponents hand and puts two +1/+1 counters on one of your creatures or vehicles. Individually, those two effects are probably about a D. The discard effect only allows for a one-for-one trade and doesn’t change your board at all, while putting two +1/+1 counters on a thing for this much mana at Sorcery speed is really clunky. The discard effect is also pretty close to a dead card in the really late game, so having the other option will really matter there.
Master's Rebuke image 3.0 We see versions of this card all the time, and it always ends up being Green premium removal. It allows you to kill a lot of things pretty cheaply, and having a large enough Green creature in play to make it work isn’t that hard. You do have to be a little careful with when you use it, because if they blow up your creature in response it is some really terrible news.
Towashi Songshaper image 2.0 It won’t be hard for it to be a 3/2 attacker on many turns, and that’s not too shabby as an artifact payoff.
Papercraft Decoy image 2.0 This is another card where the trigger only requires it to leave the battlefield, so it getting blinked, or going back to your hand for ninjutsu will also give you the option of paying 2 to draw a card. You won’t always have the mana vailable to do it of course, but I think you’ll have it often enough that this is a pretty solid two drop in most decks.
Careful Cultivation image 2.5 In a lot of formats, a two mana 1/1 that can tap for Green mana is very playable, and this is better than that in a lot of ways, since you can stick it out there at Instant speed. Meanwhile, the Aura side of things does a pretty good of ramping you too, and offers a solid stat boost. I do sort of feel like you’re going to be more interesting in Channeling this the most of the time, as I think that’s the best deal you can get here.
Reckoner's Bargain image 2.0 This type of effect tends to do alright, especially in decks with a sacrifice theme – which in this format will mostly mean Black-Red. It is sort of an Instant speed Tormenting Voice, in the sense that you give up two cards to draw two cards – its just that one of them is an artifact or creature in play. Using this in response to a removal spell, or to get rid of something expendable will always feel nice, but there are also situations where you can’t find a spot to use this because you just don’t have the resources to make it worth it. The life gain is a nice addition, but doesn’t power it up a ton.
Armguard Familiar image 2.5 This is a very solid playable. A two mana 2/1 with Ward 2 is already pretty close to passable, so adding the Reconfigure upside is really nice. It is a nice little creature early, and in the late game it can lend a much-needed stats boost, as well as a little bit of protection, for a more relevant creature.
Gift of Wrath image 2.0 This is the kind of Aura I feel alright about playing. +2/+2 and Menace is a very real stats boost, and the fact that this leaves behind a creature token when the enchanted creature dies is quite nice – and helps mitigate against the risk of getting 2-for-1’d. Now, it is still an Aura, and probably only one that you run in very aggressive decks, but it will be solid there.
Repel the Vile image 2.5 This is much better in this format than it would be in your typical one. There are so many Enchantments around that that mode might actually be the one that is available to you the most often, and the fact it can take down large creatures is no small thing either. It isn’t quite premium, giving the restrictions and the cost, but it seems like a fine Common.
Island image
Pack 1 Pick 3: The Long Reach of Night
Orochi Merge-Keeper image 3.0 This can accelerate your mana, and when it gets modified it can do it even more quickly! Being able to play your 4 mana cards a turn earlier than your opponent is pretty nice! Mana dorks do of course always have the downside of being pretty mediocre in the later part of the game, but the upside they give you early tends to make them pretty nice.
Reito Sentinel image 1.0 Milling doesn’t seem to be a major component of this format for the most part, whether you’re miling yourself or someone else. BG definitely has some graveyard stuff going on, and that’s probably where this will be at its best, but I’m still not overly impressed with a 3-mana 3/3 Defender. The cool thing you can do with it in the extreme late game is start using its ability to draw whatever you want to every single turn, but I’m always skeptical that type of strategy will end up working out in Limited. It doesn’t very often!
The Long Reach of Night image 2.5 I never love effects that give the opponent a choice between two things – especially when the options are discard or sacrifice a creature, because there are many board states where doing one or the other is no problem for your opponent, and because they have a choice, that means chapter I and II won’t always feel that great. That said, there will certainly be times where it is “pick your poison” for your opponent and have they have no good option, and because you do it two turns in a row, you’re more likely to produce that situation than you might otherwise be. The creature you eventually get can be pretty tough, and Chapters I and II do make it pretty likely there’s at least a few creatures in the graveyard.
Commune with Spirits image 1.0 This is cheap and gives you some decent card selection. But…it also doesn’t really do a whole lot, and cards like that seem to be getting worse and worse in Limited these days. It seems like it will be easy to cut this.
You Are Already Dead image 2.5 This has a really interesting design. I’m normally not big on this type of effect, as actually doing some damage to something often takes up some resources, so spells that can only remove damaged creatures are often not all that playable. However, in this case they lowered the mana cost to ONE, and they added a cantrip. At that point, we’re talking about a card that is certainly playable. Keep in mind that it does need a damaged creature to target, so it isn’t really the kind of cantrip you can cycle whenever you want. You won’t usually generate a 2-for-1 with this, because of the resources you gave up to damage the creature in the first place, but the cantrip pretty much makes up for that, and on occasions where you can get a 2-for-1, this will feel downright amazing. It is still a super situational removal spell, but it is priced to move, and I think you’ll end up playing the first copy in most Black decks. Playing more than that is probably asking for trouble due to its situational nature.
Kami of Industry image 1.5 There will be too many situations where you either have no Artifact to reanimate, or you have one that you can bring back but it doesn’t really do anything on the board at the stage of the game yo’ure in. A five mana 3/6 as a baseline doesn’t help the card out either, even though that isn’t disastrous. I think the idea is that in the BR deck, you can easily sacrifice whatever it is you bring back, but I still have a hard time seeing this work out often enough.
Wanderer's Intervention image 2.5 This is restrictive about what it can kill – both because of the 4 damage and the “attacking or blocking” restriction, but it will often feel reasonably efficient. I don’t quite consider something like this premium because of how restrictive it is, but I think you end up playing the first copy pretty often in your White decks
Kami of Restless Shadows image 1.0 // 3.0 If you aren’t returning a Ninja or Rogue to your hand consistently with this, it is going to be much worse. Putting your best graveyard creature on top of your library is nice, but not nearly as good, because you aren’t actually gaining a card, you’re just doing some card selection, and that’s just a massive step down. Returning a creature to your hand is likely to give you a 2-for-1, while that’s not possible if you’re putting something on top. Obviously, if the creature you put back is a bomb or something you’ll still be pretty happy, but if that’s all this is doing, it probably isn’t worth it, as a 5-mana 3/3 is a pretty bad statline.
Sunblade Samurai image 3.0 If you have 5 mana, you can cast it as a fairly reasonable body with Vigilance – and if you’re having problem finding mana in the early part of the game, you can Channel it away to find another land. And it even gains you some life! It isn’t that far from being a 5-mana 4/4 with Vigilance that has cycling for 2 mana. Flexibility like this really trumps the fact that neither half of this card would be amazing on its own.
Jukai Preserver image 3.0 At worst, this is a 4-mana 4/4, and its much better than that because it allows you to put counters wherever you want. The Channel part of the card is nice too, because sometimes utilizing this more like a trick, or spreading around the modifications is just better anyway. It slots nicely into the RG Modification deck, as well as Green-White Enchantments.
Grafted Growth image 1.5 We have seen similar cards before, and the fact they fix and ramp for you while adding a little something to the board always makes them pretty reasonable, especially if you’re in the market for mana of any color. You probably don’t play it in a two-color deck, though.
Tamiyo's Compleation image 3.5 This is a more powerful take on this type of removal than we usually get. Usually, the bummer with this type of Blue removal spell is that you simply lock down a creature and it doesn’t untap – you don’t stap activated abilities and static abilities – but you actually do with this, and that’s a massive upgrade. Its nice that it can even turn off Equipment – as sometimes that will be worth doing.
Dismal Backwater image 2.5 Like always, these provide some very nice fixing, and its nice to see them at Common, as it will make splashing a third color pretty simple. Fixing is great, even if you aren’t going three colors – a dual land really helps your mana base in a two color deck.
Pack 1 Pick 4: Boseiju Reaches Skyward
Enormous Energy Blade image 1.0 The buff to power is a ton, and does make it so a whole lot of creatures can become good attackers, but because it taps the creature when it equips to it, you have to wait an entire turn to actually make that happen. I think that’s too big of a cost when you’re already paying 3 to play it and 2 to equip. This card definitely has a bit of potential, as +4/+0 can really be a big deal, but I have a hard time seeing it work out.
Walking Skyscraper image 3.0 You probably want to be casting this for 6 consistently to play it in your deck – but I actually don’t think that’s a huge hurdle in this format. There’s lots of things that modify your creatures, and playing a 6-mana 8/8 with Trample and Hexproof when its untapped is pretty spicy! I think this will probably be a nice playable for just about any deck that isn’t super aggressive.
Boseiju Reaches Skyward image 3.0 I’m always pretty concerned about a 4-mana card that doesn’t immediately add to the board in any way – and that’s certainly what we have going on here. Searching up a couple of Forests will be nice, but it isn’t that impactful in the immediate future. Chapter II may be something you don’t even want to do because you may not want to draw another land. Ultimately it will add to the board though, and usually with quite the formidable creature, but like with a lot of these – it taking a couple of turns can be a bit brutal in games where you need something that does something more immediately. Still, if you are able to draw the two lands, and then transform this a couple turns later, it will be a real presence on the board.
Essence Capture image 2.0 This is a card we’ve seen printed a few times now, and its always decent. Once you get down to two mana, Counterspells get pretty interesting, and while it is unfortunate this one costs double blue, it is still fairly easy to get value out of it, as most decks will have 15+ targets, and the +1/+1 counter is a great thing to tack on.
Gift of Wrath image 2.0 This is the kind of Aura I feel alright about playing. +2/+2 and Menace is a very real stats boost, and the fact that this leaves behind a creature token when the enchanted creature dies is quite nice – and helps mitigate against the risk of getting 2-for-1’d. Now, it is still an Aura, and probably only one that you run in very aggressive decks, but it will be solid there.
Repel the Vile image 2.5 This is much better in this format than it would be in your typical one. There are so many Enchantments around that that mode might actually be the one that is available to you the most often, and the fact it can take down large creatures is no small thing either. It isn’t quite premium, giving the restrictions and the cost, but it seems like a fine Common.
Bearer of Memory image 1.5 This doesn’t have great base stats, and its ability is incredibly costly, and even not that impressive in the extreme late game. This isn’t something you’ll play most of the time.
Thundersteel Colossus image 2.0 This is a pretty neat design for an Equipment. It isn’t nearly as discounted as most of them are, but it is also massive and very easy to crew – coming with Trample and Haste generally means it is going to wreck face pretty significantly the turn it comes down, and it’s a big enough threat that your opponent will usually need to find a way to deal with it. I don’t think the most aggressive decks will be remotely interested in this, but as a top-curve win condition for grindier or controlling decks, I could see this pulling some weight.
Regent's Authority image 1.5 A 3-mana 3/2 with Vigilance is usually reasonable playable, and this one comes with a very nice ability. You won’t always have an Enchantment in your graveyard of course, but there are enough Enchantments in this set that you’ll have them reasonably often, and obviously casting one off of this ability is like drawing a card, and that’s pretty darn powerful. Like with all of these, its great that they designed them so that they can trigger the ability on their own – but you can also use other Samurais/Warriors to trigger the ability if you’ve got them around. 32 – Regent’s Authority – 1.5 This is a solid trick. One mana for +2/+2 tends to be a good rate in general, and the additional enchantment/legendary creature upside is something you’ll be able to take advantage often enough.
Network Disruptor image 3.0 This does enough to be a nice little one drop. Tapping a permanent won’t always matter, but there will be turns where doing that allows you to get a much better attack in. Meanwhile, being a one mana 1/1 Flyer in this set is better than normal anyway – both because of Ninjutsu and the plethora of ways that there are to modify creatures. Its also an artifact, and that’s a nice thing to have too. This seems like a Common that overlaps into tons of different Blue archetypes, and that’s great.
Guardians of Oboro image 2.0 A 3-mana ¾ with Defender is kind of okay in a more controlling deck, and if you modify this one – or other creatures with Defender – they can attack. That’s kind of cool, though not exactly an incredible payoff. This seems fine.
Mountain image
Pack 1 Pick 5: Befriending the Moths
Suit Up image 1.5 These types of effects are almost always not worth it – they keep pushing them on us, though! What makes them bad is the fact that you only resize a creature. Making one into a 4/5 for 3 mana is not normally going to be a very good rate, and that’s even if you’re including the ability to turn Vehicles on like this can. You’re going to get a small stats boost in most cases, and that just isn’t worth the risk of getting blown out by removal. They did do one thing here that’s pretty interesting though: They added a cantrip. That certainly makes this better, as at worst you can sort of cycle this for three mana, and if you do manage to resize a creature and win combat you’ll actually feel like you’re doing something – but it still isn’t very good for the same reasons these effects never are: They don’t do enough for their cost and they are also very risky!
Akki Ronin image 1.5 If you need a two drop Samurai it is certainly that, though adding rummage to an attack isn’t super exciting in this format, it does allow you to sift through your library a bit.
Kami of Restless Shadows image 1.0 // 3.0 If you aren’t returning a Ninja or Rogue to your hand consistently with this, it is going to be much worse. Putting your best graveyard creature on top of your library is nice, but not nearly as good, because you aren’t actually gaining a card, you’re just doing some card selection, and that’s just a massive step down. Returning a creature to your hand is likely to give you a 2-for-1, while that’s not possible if you’re putting something on top. Obviously, if the creature you put back is a bomb or something you’ll still be pretty happy, but if that’s all this is doing, it probably isn’t worth it, as a 5-mana 3/3 is a pretty bad statline.
Nezumi Bladeblesser image 2.5 If you can give it either of these keywords, you’ll be pretty happy, and if you can give it both, it will feel quite formidable. Menace and Deathtouch are pretty nasty together, since you can kill both things that block it
Ninja's Kunai image 2.5 You pay a total of 3 mana for Lightning, and that’s not a bad rate in Limited. What’s more is, it also lets you get some synergy – and not only the obvious artifact and Equipment synergy – but also some sacrifice synergy for the RB deck
Commune with Spirits image 1.0 This is cheap and gives you some decent card selection. But…it also doesn’t really do a whole lot, and cards like that seem to be getting worse and worse in Limited these days. It seems like it will be easy to cut this.
Golden-Tail Disciple image 2.0 It is an Enchantment, which is good for the format, and the fact it has lifelink means it is a good creature to modify. Its nothing special, but you’ll play it a fair bit.
Chainflail Centipede image 2.0 This is a Gray Ogre who attacks as a 4/2, with some reconfigure upside. I’m not ultra impressed with this as a creature or Equipment you put on something else. I mean, its fine, but I think you end up cutting it more than you’ll play it. It just isn’t very efficient no matter how you use it, and the stats boost is only useful if you’re the attacker.
Befriending the Moths image 3.0 Chapter I and II will very likely enable attacks you didn’t have before, and that’s a pretty big deal. Especially because this eventually adds meaningfully to the board by giving you a 2/4 Flyer. It will be a bit of a bummer to play on a completely empty board, but that won’t be happening that often. This looks like a good Common to me, one you can first pick sometimes.
Dokuchi Shadow-Walker image 2.0 This seems like the kind of Ninja who will only make your deck if you’re really loaded up with payoffs for Ninjas and Ninjutsu. It just isn’t that impressive either way you play it.
Scoured Barrens image 2.5 Like always, these provide some very nice fixing, and its nice to see them at Common, as it will make splashing a third color pretty simple. Fixing is great, even if you aren’t going three colors – a dual land really helps your mana base in a two color deck.
Pack 1 Pick 6: Befriending the Moths
Reito Sentinel image 1.0 Milling doesn’t seem to be a major component of this format for the most part, whether you’re miling yourself or someone else. BG definitely has some graveyard stuff going on, and that’s probably where this will be at its best, but I’m still not overly impressed with a 3-mana 3/3 Defender. The cool thing you can do with it in the extreme late game is start using its ability to draw whatever you want to every single turn, but I’m always skeptical that type of strategy will end up working out in Limited. It doesn’t very often!
Short Circuit image 1.5 This is fairly mediocre. It doesn’t stop enough of what a card can do for it to be that effective as removal. Sure, it has less power and it can’t fly – but it still lets the creature block, it can still have a death trigger, it can still have an activated ability, it can still have a static ability, and heck – it can even still attack, just less effectively! It having Flash does mean sometimes you can set this up so that you can kill an attacking creature with a double block, and when you can do that it will feel alright, but you just won’t always be able to make that happen.
Unstoppable Ogre image 2.0 The enter the battlefield trigger on the card won’t always do something for you, but there will be a decent number of situations where it allows you to attack more effectively with your board. It can also crew everything which is nice.
Kaito's Pursuit image 2.0 This trend of them giving us Mind rots that have some other small effect continues! Paying three to make your opponent discard two is usually about a 1.5 It gives you a 2-for-1, but you also don’t add to the board, and it can be a pretty bad top deck in the late game. But, if you’re in a Ninja deck – which will usually mean Blue-Black – the fact this will give Menace to some of your creatures is pretty nice. If you’re in Black in general, you’ll be hard pressed not to end up without at least a few ninjas, so I think you end up playing this a reasonable chunk of the time.
Befriending the Moths image 3.0 Chapter I and II will very likely enable attacks you didn’t have before, and that’s a pretty big deal. Especially because this eventually adds meaningfully to the board by giving you a 2/4 Flyer. It will be a bit of a bummer to play on a completely empty board, but that won’t be happening that often. This looks like a good Common to me, one you can first pick sometimes.
Gift of Wrath image 2.0 This is the kind of Aura I feel alright about playing. +2/+2 and Menace is a very real stats boost, and the fact that this leaves behind a creature token when the enchanted creature dies is quite nice – and helps mitigate against the risk of getting 2-for-1’d. Now, it is still an Aura, and probably only one that you run in very aggressive decks, but it will be solid there.
Undercity Scrounger image 1.5 This gives Black some access to fixing and ramp, which is nice, but the stats are underwhelming and the death requirement won’t always line up for you.
You Are Already Dead image 2.5 This has a really interesting design. I’m normally not big on this type of effect, as actually doing some damage to something often takes up some resources, so spells that can only remove damaged creatures are often not all that playable. However, in this case they lowered the mana cost to ONE, and they added a cantrip. At that point, we’re talking about a card that is certainly playable. Keep in mind that it does need a damaged creature to target, so it isn’t really the kind of cantrip you can cycle whenever you want. You won’t usually generate a 2-for-1 with this, because of the resources you gave up to damage the creature in the first place, but the cantrip pretty much makes up for that, and on occasions where you can get a 2-for-1, this will feel downright amazing. It is still a super situational removal spell, but it is priced to move, and I think you’ll end up playing the first copy in most Black decks. Playing more than that is probably asking for trouble due to its situational nature.
Bearer of Memory image 1.5 This doesn’t have great base stats, and its ability is incredibly costly, and even not that impressive in the extreme late game. This isn’t something you’ll play most of the time.
Island image
Pack 1 Pick 7: Befriending the Moths
Invigorating Hot Spring image 4.0 This definitely has the most interesting design of all of the signpost Uncommons. It also has some pretty awesome art! I think it is probably also the one that is the hardest to gauge. That said, I think it looks pretty good. RG is about modifying stuff, so this gives you a payoff for Modifying your creatures by giving them haste, and it also provides a way for you to modify your creatures, since it can move counters from itself on to creatures. This will also give the creature Haste, obviously enough. It is basically an Enchantment that gives you one +1/+1 counter a turn over four turns – generally, an Enchantment that gives you a counter every turn tends to be pretty powerful, and while this will eventually run out of counters, being able to do it 4 times ia pretty big deal. This format has a fair bit of synergy for Modifications too, in addition to what Invigorating Thermal Springs has to offer, so being able to put a counter on a thing carries some extra weight here.
Befriending the Moths image 3.0 Chapter I and II will very likely enable attacks you didn’t have before, and that’s a pretty big deal. Especially because this eventually adds meaningfully to the board by giving you a 2/4 Flyer. It will be a bit of a bummer to play on a completely empty board, but that won’t be happening that often. This looks like a good Common to me, one you can first pick sometimes.
Papercraft Decoy image 2.0 This is another card where the trigger only requires it to leave the battlefield, so it getting blinked, or going back to your hand for ninjutsu will also give you the option of paying 2 to draw a card. You won’t always have the mana vailable to do it of course, but I think you’ll have it often enough that this is a pretty solid two drop in most decks.
Debt to the Kami image 2.5 Keep in mind, your opponent chooses what gets exiled when you use this. So, mostly, it will feel like a three mana edict effect, and those have waning value as the game goes on and your opponent is more and more likely to have something very expendable to give up. It can be pretty potent early. And, because you choose the option, you can at least choose the one that is the toughest for them to decide – for example if they have only one creature or one enchantment the choice is easy – but its also pretty easy if they only have two of one of them and so forth. The fact its an Instant means you can deploy it at the exact right time a little more easily too – but still. Its removal that you don’t really have enough control over.
Bearer of Memory image 1.5 This doesn’t have great base stats, and its ability is incredibly costly, and even not that impressive in the extreme late game. This isn’t something you’ll play most of the time.
Spell Pierce image 0.0 We see this reprinted a lot, and while it tends to be a key sideboard card in constructed, it is pretty bad in Limited. Most decks have very few things it can actually counter, and you also have to hope that when they do cast something you can counter you have your one Blue mana up and they can’t pay the 2 additional mana. This just won’t do anything far too often. Even as a sideboard card, I’m not interested.
Akki War Paint image 1.0 Getting an Enchanted creature destroyed is a pretty good way to lose a game because you get 2-for-1’d. Nice Auras tend to do something to offset that risk, and this doesn’t. This does give a pretty nice boost for the cost, and the set has payoffs for "modified" things, but I still have a hard time getting behind this.
Explosive Entry image 3.0 This is better in this format than it is in most, because there are artifacts everywhere. I think you can count on most opponents having at least 5 targets for this, and many will have more. Adding the +1/+1 counter to the mix is pretty nice. Against the most artifact-centric of decks it is just going to feel like one of your best cards, and against an opponent only playing a few artifacts, it will feel a bit like Plummet – but I think that range is still enough to play the first copy in the main deck of most Red decks.
Rugged Highlands image 2.5 Like always, these provide some very nice fixing, and its nice to see them at Common, as it will make splashing a third color pretty simple. Fixing is great, even if you aren’t going three colors – a dual land really helps your mana base in a two color deck.
Pack 1 Pick 8: Golden-Tail Disciple
Go-Shintai of Ancient Wars image 3.5 A 3-mana 2/2 with First Strike is already pretty playable, especially in a format with lots of ways to modify creatures, and the fact you get to do some additional damage to the opponent or (more rarely) a planeswalker if you have spare mana lying around is pretty nice. Obviously it gets spicier if you have more Shrines around.
Futurist Sentinel image 2.0 We have seen a Colorless version of this in the past – I think it was called Irontread Crusher or something – and it was alright, but nothing special. It is pretty reasonably costed both to cast and to crew – it lets you rumble with a much larger creature than you would normally be able to on turn 5!
Kindled Fury image 1.5 We’ve seen this many times before, and its always a passable trick. +1/+0 and First Strike for one mana isn’t a bad deal since it allows many creatures to win combat – first strike just does a great job of turning a trade into something much better for you.
Reckoner's Bargain image 2.0 This type of effect tends to do alright, especially in decks with a sacrifice theme – which in this format will mostly mean Black-Red. It is sort of an Instant speed Tormenting Voice, in the sense that you give up two cards to draw two cards – its just that one of them is an artifact or creature in play. Using this in response to a removal spell, or to get rid of something expendable will always feel nice, but there are also situations where you can’t find a spot to use this because you just don’t have the resources to make it worth it. The life gain is a nice addition, but doesn’t power it up a ton.
Golden-Tail Disciple image 2.0 It is an Enchantment, which is good for the format, and the fact it has lifelink means it is a good creature to modify. Its nothing special, but you’ll play it a fair bit.
Lucky Offering image 1.5 This is actually passable in your main deck in this format, since there are so many artifacts, and many of them can be blown up by this. It is still narrow enough that I don’t love putting in the main deck.
Gift of Wrath image 2.0 This is the kind of Aura I feel alright about playing. +2/+2 and Menace is a very real stats boost, and the fact that this leaves behind a creature token when the enchanted creature dies is quite nice – and helps mitigate against the risk of getting 2-for-1’d. Now, it is still an Aura, and probably only one that you run in very aggressive decks, but it will be solid there.
Swiftwater Cliffs image 2.5 Like always, these provide some very nice fixing, and its nice to see them at Common, as it will make splashing a third color pretty simple. Fixing is great, even if you aren’t going three colors – a dual land really helps your mana base in a two color deck.
Pack 1 Pick 9: Tamiyo's Compleation
Okiba Salvage image 2.0 We see 5 mana reanimation spells a lot, and they tend to be kind of mediocre. This is because you don’t often have something in your graveyard that is worth paying 5 mana to reanimate. In other words, you not only need a large enough creature, it also needs to be in the graveyard. When you add +1/+1 counters to the mix, like this does, it does become easier to feel like you’re getting your 5 mana’s worth out of the card. However, you do need to have an Artifact and Enchantment to get those. I would be much happier with this card if it gave you one +1/+1 counter if you had an artifact, and another if you had an Enchantment, but it is all or nothing – and that certainly hurts it a little bit, even in a format where it seems getting one of each of those is fairly doable. If you have a couple of crazy good bombs, it does get better than that.
Uncharted Haven image 2.5 Coming into play tapped is definitely a downside, but the ability to name a color is great. I do think the dual lands are slightly better, as they always tap for two colors you probably need, and this will only ever tap for one, but if you need fixing, this is fine.
Brute Suit image 2.5 This is a nice little Vehicle at Common. 1 to crew is super easy, and its no joke as an attacker. As we’ve seen, there’s lots of Vehicle stuff going on this set too.
Tamiyo's Compleation image 3.5 This is a more powerful take on this type of removal than we usually get. Usually, the bummer with this type of Blue removal spell is that you simply lock down a creature and it doesn’t untap – you don’t stap activated abilities and static abilities – but you actually do with this, and that’s a massive upgrade. Its nice that it can even turn off Equipment – as sometimes that will be worth doing.
Mnemonic Sphere image 2.5 This is basically an Artifact-based version of Hieroglyphic Illumination, which was an Instant you could pay 4 for to draw two cards, and it had cycling for one Blue mana. Hard for a card like this to ever be bad, since at worst it replaces itself really efficiently. Then there’s this format artifact synergy and so forth!
The Modern Age image 3.0 So, looting a couple of times is decent card selection, though like with a lot of these, you’re going to kind of wish you were adding to the board right away, instead of having to wait a couple of turns. As is this case with most of these creature-sagas, you get great value for your mana – in this case, a two mana ⅔ Flyer that loots twice – but the trade off is that you have to really wait for it. Still, Chapter I and II are the kinds of things that are at least useful all game long, so this isn’t one where you really need to play it early or you’re going to be disappointed.
Mountain image
Pack 1 Pick 10: Azusa's Many Journeys
Azusa's Many Journeys image 2.5 This isn’t that exciting past the early game. You probably won’t be able to play the extra land if you don’t play it on turn two or three. Gaining 3 life doesn’t hurt, and might help you get to the point where this becomes a creature, but I’m not super impressed with the creature in the later game either. That said, in the early game, this has a decent shot at ramping you and then giving you a nice creature for the board a couple of turns later. So yeah, this is a card where the effectiveness will vary wildly depending on what part of the game it is. Early it will be very nice, in the mid-to-late game it won’t be very impressive.
Reckoner Shakedown image 1.5 This is a pretty neat take on a Coercion Effect, as it is effectively a modal card that takes away your opponents best card, or it gives you a look at your opponents hand and puts two +1/+1 counters on one of your creatures or vehicles. Individually, those two effects are probably about a D. The discard effect only allows for a one-for-one trade and doesn’t change your board at all, while putting two +1/+1 counters on a thing for this much mana at Sorcery speed is really clunky. The discard effect is also pretty close to a dead card in the really late game, so having the other option will really matter there.
Careful Cultivation image 2.5 In a lot of formats, a two mana 1/1 that can tap for Green mana is very playable, and this is better than that in a lot of ways, since you can stick it out there at Instant speed. Meanwhile, the Aura side of things does a pretty good of ramping you too, and offers a solid stat boost. I do sort of feel like you’re going to be more interesting in Channeling this the most of the time, as I think that’s the best deal you can get here.
Reckoner's Bargain image 2.0 This type of effect tends to do alright, especially in decks with a sacrifice theme – which in this format will mostly mean Black-Red. It is sort of an Instant speed Tormenting Voice, in the sense that you give up two cards to draw two cards – its just that one of them is an artifact or creature in play. Using this in response to a removal spell, or to get rid of something expendable will always feel nice, but there are also situations where you can’t find a spot to use this because you just don’t have the resources to make it worth it. The life gain is a nice addition, but doesn’t power it up a ton.
Gift of Wrath image 2.0 This is the kind of Aura I feel alright about playing. +2/+2 and Menace is a very real stats boost, and the fact that this leaves behind a creature token when the enchanted creature dies is quite nice – and helps mitigate against the risk of getting 2-for-1’d. Now, it is still an Aura, and probably only one that you run in very aggressive decks, but it will be solid there.
Island image
Pack 1 Pick 11: Jukai Preserver
Reito Sentinel image 1.0 Milling doesn’t seem to be a major component of this format for the most part, whether you’re miling yourself or someone else. BG definitely has some graveyard stuff going on, and that’s probably where this will be at its best, but I’m still not overly impressed with a 3-mana 3/3 Defender. The cool thing you can do with it in the extreme late game is start using its ability to draw whatever you want to every single turn, but I’m always skeptical that type of strategy will end up working out in Limited. It doesn’t very often!
Commune with Spirits image 1.0 This is cheap and gives you some decent card selection. But…it also doesn’t really do a whole lot, and cards like that seem to be getting worse and worse in Limited these days. It seems like it will be easy to cut this.
Kami of Industry image 1.5 There will be too many situations where you either have no Artifact to reanimate, or you have one that you can bring back but it doesn’t really do anything on the board at the stage of the game yo’ure in. A five mana 3/6 as a baseline doesn’t help the card out either, even though that isn’t disastrous. I think the idea is that in the BR deck, you can easily sacrifice whatever it is you bring back, but I still have a hard time seeing this work out often enough.
Jukai Preserver image 3.0 At worst, this is a 4-mana 4/4, and its much better than that because it allows you to put counters wherever you want. The Channel part of the card is nice too, because sometimes utilizing this more like a trick, or spreading around the modifications is just better anyway. It slots nicely into the RG Modification deck, as well as Green-White Enchantments.
Tamiyo's Compleation image 3.5 This is a more powerful take on this type of removal than we usually get. Usually, the bummer with this type of Blue removal spell is that you simply lock down a creature and it doesn’t untap – you don’t stap activated abilities and static abilities – but you actually do with this, and that’s a massive upgrade. Its nice that it can even turn off Equipment – as sometimes that will be worth doing.
Pack 1 Pick 12: Network Disruptor
Enormous Energy Blade image 1.0 The buff to power is a ton, and does make it so a whole lot of creatures can become good attackers, but because it taps the creature when it equips to it, you have to wait an entire turn to actually make that happen. I think that’s too big of a cost when you’re already paying 3 to play it and 2 to equip. This card definitely has a bit of potential, as +4/+0 can really be a big deal, but I have a hard time seeing it work out.
Network Disruptor image 3.0 This does enough to be a nice little one drop. Tapping a permanent won’t always matter, but there will be turns where doing that allows you to get a much better attack in. Meanwhile, being a one mana 1/1 Flyer in this set is better than normal anyway – both because of Ninjutsu and the plethora of ways that there are to modify creatures. Its also an artifact, and that’s a nice thing to have too. This seems like a Common that overlaps into tons of different Blue archetypes, and that’s great.
Guardians of Oboro image 2.0 A 3-mana ¾ with Defender is kind of okay in a more controlling deck, and if you modify this one – or other creatures with Defender – they can attack. That’s kind of cool, though not exactly an incredible payoff. This seems fine.
Mountain image
Pack 1 Pick 13: Akki Ronin
Suit Up image 1.5 These types of effects are almost always not worth it – they keep pushing them on us, though! What makes them bad is the fact that you only resize a creature. Making one into a 4/5 for 3 mana is not normally going to be a very good rate, and that’s even if you’re including the ability to turn Vehicles on like this can. You’re going to get a small stats boost in most cases, and that just isn’t worth the risk of getting blown out by removal. They did do one thing here that’s pretty interesting though: They added a cantrip. That certainly makes this better, as at worst you can sort of cycle this for three mana, and if you do manage to resize a creature and win combat you’ll actually feel like you’re doing something – but it still isn’t very good for the same reasons these effects never are: They don’t do enough for their cost and they are also very risky!
Akki Ronin image 1.5 If you need a two drop Samurai it is certainly that, though adding rummage to an attack isn’t super exciting in this format, it does allow you to sift through your library a bit.
Commune with Spirits image 1.0 This is cheap and gives you some decent card selection. But…it also doesn’t really do a whole lot, and cards like that seem to be getting worse and worse in Limited these days. It seems like it will be easy to cut this.
Pack 1 Pick 14: Short Circuit
Short Circuit image 1.5 This is fairly mediocre. It doesn’t stop enough of what a card can do for it to be that effective as removal. Sure, it has less power and it can’t fly – but it still lets the creature block, it can still have a death trigger, it can still have an activated ability, it can still have a static ability, and heck – it can even still attack, just less effectively! It having Flash does mean sometimes you can set this up so that you can kill an attacking creature with a double block, and when you can do that it will feel alright, but you just won’t always be able to make that happen.
Island image
Pack 1 Pick 15: Spell Pierce
Spell Pierce image 0.0 We see this reprinted a lot, and while it tends to be a key sideboard card in constructed, it is pretty bad in Limited. Most decks have very few things it can actually counter, and you also have to hope that when they do cast something you can counter you have your one Blue mana up and they can’t pay the 2 additional mana. This just won’t do anything far too often. Even as a sideboard card, I’m not interested.
Pack 2 Pick 1: Boseiju Reaches Skyward
Ogre-Head Helm image 4.0 This is a bear with some really good upside that lets you reload your hand if it hits the opponent. I would already be sold if all the Helmet did when it was equipped was grant the stats boost – paying 3 for that is a great deal! But adding in the ability to sacrifice the creature to find some more gas makes it even better! It will make almost any creature into a formidable attacker in the late game.
Runaway Trash-Bot image 1.5 // 3.0 Obviously enough, you need to really get there on a graveyard-centric artifact/enchantment deck or this is going to be a pretty disappointing card. If you do get there, this looks like a pretty reasonable payoff. As long as it is like, a 2/4 you’re going to feel alright, especially because its likely to grow from there.
Sky-Blessed Samurai image 3.0 Almost no matter what White deck you’re in, casting this for 5 is a pretty reasonable expectation, and that is quite the efficient flyer. Sometimes it will be even more efficient than that!
Reinforced Ronin image 3.0 Even if we don’t look at some of the synergies this card has, it would probably be pretty solid. You can play it and get in for 2 when you can, and when you can’t, you can effectively cycle it away with channel. However, there are several things in this set that make this better than all of that. First, it isn’t too bad with ninjutsu, since you can have it come down out of nowhere, and its returning to your hand anyway. Second, it is good with “attacks alone” Samurai stuff, because it can come down and get those benefits immediately, making it a much more problematic attacker than it would otherwise be. And third, its an Artifact, and there are various cards in this set that do a thing when an Artifact enters the battlefield, and it can trigger them repeatedly.
Boseiju Reaches Skyward image 3.0 I’m always pretty concerned about a 4-mana card that doesn’t immediately add to the board in any way – and that’s certainly what we have going on here. Searching up a couple of Forests will be nice, but it isn’t that impactful in the immediate future. Chapter II may be something you don’t even want to do because you may not want to draw another land. Ultimately it will add to the board though, and usually with quite the formidable creature, but like with a lot of these – it taking a couple of turns can be a bit brutal in games where you need something that does something more immediately. Still, if you are able to draw the two lands, and then transform this a couple turns later, it will be a real presence on the board.
Ironhoof Boar image 2.5 This really reminds me of the Bloodrush Mechanic, which allowed you to pay some mana and discard a creature card for a trick – so, yeah. This isn’t the greatest as a creature or a trick – the small toughness boost does limit the number of combats you can win with the boar’s channel, but it also has the upside of really letting you run over a creature and do a ton of damage. I like the flexibility here.
Eiganjo Exemplar image 3.0 It counts itself of course, so even without any other samurais around it attacks as a 3/2. One really nice thing is that you can play this, and then on the same turn attack with another Samurai, and +1/+1 is likely to help it attack more effectively.
Akki Ronin image 1.5 If you need a two drop Samurai it is certainly that, though adding rummage to an attack isn’t super exciting in this format, it does allow you to sift through your library a bit.
Jukai Preserver image 3.0 At worst, this is a 4-mana 4/4, and its much better than that because it allows you to put counters wherever you want. The Channel part of the card is nice too, because sometimes utilizing this more like a trick, or spreading around the modifications is just better anyway. It slots nicely into the RG Modification deck, as well as Green-White Enchantments.
You Are Already Dead image 2.5 This has a really interesting design. I’m normally not big on this type of effect, as actually doing some damage to something often takes up some resources, so spells that can only remove damaged creatures are often not all that playable. However, in this case they lowered the mana cost to ONE, and they added a cantrip. At that point, we’re talking about a card that is certainly playable. Keep in mind that it does need a damaged creature to target, so it isn’t really the kind of cantrip you can cycle whenever you want. You won’t usually generate a 2-for-1 with this, because of the resources you gave up to damage the creature in the first place, but the cantrip pretty much makes up for that, and on occasions where you can get a 2-for-1, this will feel downright amazing. It is still a super situational removal spell, but it is priced to move, and I think you’ll end up playing the first copy in most Black decks. Playing more than that is probably asking for trouble due to its situational nature.
Disruption Protocol image 2.0 If you have enough Artifacts around and consistent access to Blue mana, this seems reasonable. If you are paying 1UU for it, then you’re not getting a very good deal – Cancel is just so much worse than Counterspell! There are enough Artifacts in this set, though, that I think this will be Counterspell often enough that I just want to give it a C. Counterspells have their problems in Limited – namely that you have to have the mana up at the right time – which in a way makes them very conditional removal – but when the mana you need to leave up is two or less, we see the Counterspells end up being fairly playable, and I think that’s what we have here.
Suit Up image 1.5 These types of effects are almost always not worth it – they keep pushing them on us, though! What makes them bad is the fact that you only resize a creature. Making one into a 4/5 for 3 mana is not normally going to be a very good rate, and that’s even if you’re including the ability to turn Vehicles on like this can. You’re going to get a small stats boost in most cases, and that just isn’t worth the risk of getting blown out by removal. They did do one thing here that’s pretty interesting though: They added a cantrip. That certainly makes this better, as at worst you can sort of cycle this for three mana, and if you do manage to resize a creature and win combat you’ll actually feel like you’re doing something – but it still isn’t very good for the same reasons these effects never are: They don’t do enough for their cost and they are also very risky!
Kami of Industry image 1.5 There will be too many situations where you either have no Artifact to reanimate, or you have one that you can bring back but it doesn’t really do anything on the board at the stage of the game yo’ure in. A five mana 3/6 as a baseline doesn’t help the card out either, even though that isn’t disastrous. I think the idea is that in the BR deck, you can easily sacrifice whatever it is you bring back, but I still have a hard time seeing this work out often enough.
Master's Rebuke image 3.0 We see versions of this card all the time, and it always ends up being Green premium removal. It allows you to kill a lot of things pretty cheaply, and having a large enough Green creature in play to make it work isn’t that hard. You do have to be a little careful with when you use it, because if they blow up your creature in response it is some really terrible news.
Blossoming Sands image 2.5 Like always, these provide some very nice fixing, and its nice to see them at Common, as it will make splashing a third color pretty simple. Fixing is great, even if you aren’t going three colors – a dual land really helps your mana base in a two color deck.
Pack 2 Pick 2: The Reality Chip
The Reality Chip image 5.0 So, this is a two mana 0/4 that lets you know what the top card of your library is at worst. That’s..not exciting, but not entirely unplayable either. If you manage to Reconfigure the Chip though, you end up with the very powerful ability to play lands and cast spells from the top of your library – and that’s the kind of thing that will just generate insane value for you. The downside is you lose the 0/4 who is actively adding to the board, but there’s a good chance that onc eyou Equip this, you’ll be able to add a ton to the board on your next turn, and that will help you overcome that. It is a bit clunky – as paying two to play it and three to reconfigure it is a bit slow, but I think there is some pretty impressive upside here. If you’re allowed to untap with this Equipped to something, its going to be tough for you to lose the game.
Circuit Mender image 3.5 This is a nice little card. A 3-mana ⅔ that gains you 2 life is already kind of playable, especially i a set with lots of artifact payoffs, and then it even replaces itself when it dies! Its large enough to enable a 2-for-1 every once and a while – and if you combine it with blink or bounce it gets even sillier, because it lets you draw the card when it leaves the battlefield, and that means if it leaves in any way! Combining it with Ninjutsu could be especially back-breaking.
Prosperous Thief image 3.5 This looks pretty nice. A 3-mana 3/2 that made Treasure when it hit the opponent would already be playable, so adding the Ninjutsu angle, and the fact that it is more generally a Ninja/Rogue payoff, and you have something even nicer!
Bamboo Grove Archer image 2.5 This is a very nice defensive creature. A two mana 3/3 with Reach will slow the board to a grinding halt in the early game, and the fact that you can use it as a Plummet sometimes is nice upside. It isn’t exactly the kind of card all decks will want, but grinder Green decks will probably be happy to play a few of these – while aggro decks probably aren’t playing it at all.
Eiganjo Exemplar image 3.0 It counts itself of course, so even without any other samurais around it attacks as a 3/2. One really nice thing is that you can play this, and then on the same turn attack with another Samurai, and +1/+1 is likely to help it attack more effectively.
Dramatist's Puppet image 1.5 There’s a lot of counters in this set, so taking them away from your opponent or adding them to your own things is definitely relevant, but it still won’t always actually be able to do a thing, and when it can’t it will still be a 4-mana 2/4, which is pretty bad.
Iron Apprentice image 2.0 This format has plenty of counters, so putting more on this thing isn’t a huge stretch. It also gives you a creature that enters the battlefield modified, which powers up a bunch of cards in this format.
Searchlight Companion image 3.0 This gives you some reasonable value for the cost, and its also a great card to combine with Ninjas, since it is not only evasive, but it also has an ETB ability, so recasting it will give you another token, and that’s some nice value to get on top of whatever it is you did with Ninjutsu.
Undercity Scrounger image 1.5 This gives Black some access to fixing and ramp, which is nice, but the stats are underwhelming and the death requirement won’t always line up for you.
Shrine Steward image 1.0 // 2.5 This has some ugly stats, but if your deck has even 2 Shrines and/or Auras, it is probably worth running. While this set does have plenty of Enchantments, it doesn’t have so many Auras and Shrines that you’ll always end up with enough of them to run the Steward.
Kami's Flare image 3.5 Two mana to do 3 is always premium, so also doing 2 to the opponent sometimes is pretty nice. This is one of Red’s best Commons.
Armguard Familiar image 2.5 This is a very solid playable. A two mana 2/1 with Ward 2 is already pretty close to passable, so adding the Reconfigure upside is really nice. It is a nice little creature early, and in the late game it can lend a much-needed stats boost, as well as a little bit of protection, for a more relevant creature.
Era of Enlightenment image 2.0 Like most of these saga-creatures, it is slow at adding to the board – so getting in the late game will sometimes be a bummer, but at least this one has some use right away, even late, as Scry 2 can help you dry what you really need to draw. The life gain can also help you survive the fact that you couldn’t add to the board right away too. Then, it becomes a 2/2 with First Strike, and that’s a creature is relevant all game long in most cases. While its a bit slow, the value this generates will feel nice – its spread out, but ultimately you get a 2/2 with First Strike that scries 2 and gains you 2 life, and that’s a pretty nice investment.
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Pack 2 Pick 3: The Long Reach of Night
Runaway Trash-Bot image 1.5 // 3.0 Obviously enough, you need to really get there on a graveyard-centric artifact/enchantment deck or this is going to be a pretty disappointing card. If you do get there, this looks like a pretty reasonable payoff. As long as it is like, a 2/4 you’re going to feel alright, especially because its likely to grow from there.
The Long Reach of Night image 2.5 I never love effects that give the opponent a choice between two things – especially when the options are discard or sacrifice a creature, because there are many board states where doing one or the other is no problem for your opponent, and because they have a choice, that means chapter I and II won’t always feel that great. That said, there will certainly be times where it is “pick your poison” for your opponent and have they have no good option, and because you do it two turns in a row, you’re more likely to produce that situation than you might otherwise be. The creature you eventually get can be pretty tough, and Chapters I and II do make it pretty likely there’s at least a few creatures in the graveyard.
Historian's Wisdom image 2.0 This is an Aura I can get behind playing in Limited. That’s because it will replace itself pretty often, as +2 power on your biggest creature has a pretty decent shot at drawing you that card. That means you are no longer in danger of getting 2-for-1’d like you would be with a typical Aura. Now, it is still a little tricky to use, you have to be careful not to get blown out the turn you cast it, and it isn’t game-breaking or anything – but it seems perfectly solid.
Mirrorshell Crab image 1.5 This is either an overcosted 5/7 or an overcosted Mana Leak. As is usually the case with these Channel cards, though, having the option between those things is much better than those things are individually! In this case, I do think both of the options are pretty underwhelming, though.
Kaito's Pursuit image 2.0 This trend of them giving us Mind rots that have some other small effect continues! Paying three to make your opponent discard two is usually about a 1.5 It gives you a 2-for-1, but you also don’t add to the board, and it can be a pretty bad top deck in the late game. But, if you’re in a Ninja deck – which will usually mean Blue-Black – the fact this will give Menace to some of your creatures is pretty nice. If you’re in Black in general, you’ll be hard pressed not to end up without at least a few ninjas, so I think you end up playing this a reasonable chunk of the time.
Papercraft Decoy image 2.0 This is another card where the trigger only requires it to leave the battlefield, so it getting blinked, or going back to your hand for ninjutsu will also give you the option of paying 2 to draw a card. You won’t always have the mana vailable to do it of course, but I think you’ll have it often enough that this is a pretty solid two drop in most decks.
Favor of Jukai image 2.0 Channeling this will be the better deal most of the time, as the tricks we see that offer that same boost and reach always tend to be pretty playable, but it is nice that you can also use this as a more permanent boost in situations where that’s better.
Bearer of Memory image 1.5 This doesn’t have great base stats, and its ability is incredibly costly, and even not that impressive in the extreme late game. This isn’t something you’ll play most of the time.
Spell Pierce image 0.0 We see this reprinted a lot, and while it tends to be a key sideboard card in constructed, it is pretty bad in Limited. Most decks have very few things it can actually counter, and you also have to hope that when they do cast something you can counter you have your one Blue mana up and they can’t pay the 2 additional mana. This just won’t do anything far too often. Even as a sideboard card, I’m not interested.
Suit Up image 1.5 These types of effects are almost always not worth it – they keep pushing them on us, though! What makes them bad is the fact that you only resize a creature. Making one into a 4/5 for 3 mana is not normally going to be a very good rate, and that’s even if you’re including the ability to turn Vehicles on like this can. You’re going to get a small stats boost in most cases, and that just isn’t worth the risk of getting blown out by removal. They did do one thing here that’s pretty interesting though: They added a cantrip. That certainly makes this better, as at worst you can sort of cycle this for three mana, and if you do manage to resize a creature and win combat you’ll actually feel like you’re doing something – but it still isn’t very good for the same reasons these effects never are: They don’t do enough for their cost and they are also very risky!
Kitsune Ace image 3.0 I like that this gives you some vehicle payoffs even if it isn’t the card that is doing the crewing. Lending first strike makes a lot of vehicles hard to block, and you can untap it with its ability so that even if it crewed a vehicle it can be a blocker on your opponents turn. That’s all some pretty good upside on a two drop.
Voltage Surge image 3.0 One mana to do two to a creature is usually pretty close to premium removal – you will be able to pay one mana to kill many creatures that cost more! This having the additional “sacrifice an artifact” option to upgrade it to doing 4 damage is definitely enough for it to be premium, as doing 4 for one mana is a really good deal, though you may not always have an expendable artifact to give up.
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Pack 2 Pick 4: Intercessor's Arrest
Prosperous Thief image 3.5 This looks pretty nice. A 3-mana 3/2 that made Treasure when it hit the opponent would already be playable, so adding the Ninjutsu angle, and the fact that it is more generally a Ninja/Rogue payoff, and you have something even nicer!
Behold the Unspeakable image 4.0 While it of course doesn’t add to the board immediately, Chapter One will make it a lot harder for you opponent to punish you for that being the case, so you are very likely to still be in a decent position by the time you untap and get Chapter II, which will either draw you FOUR cards, or let you scry 2 and draw 2 – both of those outcomes are pretty great. The creature it transforms into always won’t be that imposing - and in some cases it may not be able to stick around very, but it is likely to be able to do something at least, and I think that’s acceptable after what you got from Chapter II.
Oni-Cult Anvil image 3.5 Because it can sacrifice itself, it is – at worst, this is a two mana 1/1 token that drains the opponent one life. That’s not exactly exciting, but that’s pretty much the fail case here. This can also be a pretty sweet engine, since you can just keep giving up the same 1/1 every turn to drain the opponent one life, since it allows you to sacrifice tokens, and that’s pretty spicy – it will feel al little bit like getting Cauldron Familiar and Witch’s Oven together – and you have it all on one card! It is obviously a bit slow at what it does, but the engine aspect seems pretty sweet to me.
Jukai Trainee image 2.0 They decided to give this samurai the old Bushido mechanic. It’s a two mana 2/2 that is harder than most two mana 2/2s to block or attack through, and that’s probably enough of an upside for you to play it a decent chunk of the time.
Fang of Shigeki image 2.5 One mana 1/1s with Deathtouch are always playable, mostly because they have the ability to trade up with just about anything. This one also comes with Enchantment and Ninja upside, though in Green probably only the former matters. Still, you probably won’t ever cut the first few copies of these from your Green decks.
Kitsune Ace image 3.0 I like that this gives you some vehicle payoffs even if it isn’t the card that is doing the crewing. Lending first strike makes a lot of vehicles hard to block, and you can untap it with its ability so that even if it crewed a vehicle it can be a blocker on your opponents turn. That’s all some pretty good upside on a two drop.
Network Disruptor image 3.0 This does enough to be a nice little one drop. Tapping a permanent won’t always matter, but there will be turns where doing that allows you to get a much better attack in. Meanwhile, being a one mana 1/1 Flyer in this set is better than normal anyway – both because of Ninjutsu and the plethora of ways that there are to modify creatures. Its also an artifact, and that’s a nice thing to have too. This seems like a Common that overlaps into tons of different Blue archetypes, and that’s great.
Akki Ember-Keeper image 3.0 This is a nice little two drop. It has passable stats and a nice ability that makes sure your board stays populated when your modified creatures die. There are a plethora of ways to modify them, so getting a creature token or two out of this isn’t far-fetched at all, and that’s some pretty great value.
Disruption Protocol image 2.0 If you have enough Artifacts around and consistent access to Blue mana, this seems reasonable. If you are paying 1UU for it, then you’re not getting a very good deal – Cancel is just so much worse than Counterspell! There are enough Artifacts in this set, though, that I think this will be Counterspell often enough that I just want to give it a C. Counterspells have their problems in Limited – namely that you have to have the mana up at the right time – which in a way makes them very conditional removal – but when the mana you need to leave up is two or less, we see the Counterspells end up being fairly playable, and I think that’s what we have here.
Coiling Stalker image 3.0 If you Ninjutsu this in, you end up paying two for a 2/1 that puts a counter somewhere. Note, by the way, that “somewhere” can be on itself, too! Now you obviously also returned a thing to your hand, so it isn’t all upside, but still, it seems like a reasonable deal. And it is the kind of creature that is a pretty real problem if your opponent can’t get blocks in front of it.
Intercessor's Arrest image 3.5 This is premium removal. The fact it shuts down blocking, attacking, crewing vehicles, and activated abilities is great. This format does have more ways to blow up Enchantments than normal, but it also has more payoffs for Enchantments than normal, so its probably a wash.
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Pack 2 Pick 5: Spirited Companion
Invigorating Hot Spring image 4.0 This definitely has the most interesting design of all of the signpost Uncommons. It also has some pretty awesome art! I think it is probably also the one that is the hardest to gauge. That said, I think it looks pretty good. RG is about modifying stuff, so this gives you a payoff for Modifying your creatures by giving them haste, and it also provides a way for you to modify your creatures, since it can move counters from itself on to creatures. This will also give the creature Haste, obviously enough. It is basically an Enchantment that gives you one +1/+1 counter a turn over four turns – generally, an Enchantment that gives you a counter every turn tends to be pretty powerful, and while this will eventually run out of counters, being able to do it 4 times ia pretty big deal. This format has a fair bit of synergy for Modifications too, in addition to what Invigorating Thermal Springs has to offer, so being able to put a counter on a thing carries some extra weight here.
Futurist Sentinel image 2.0 We have seen a Colorless version of this in the past – I think it was called Irontread Crusher or something – and it was alright, but nothing special. It is pretty reasonably costed both to cast and to crew – it lets you rumble with a much larger creature than you would normally be able to on turn 5!
Clawing Torment image 2.0 This can outright kill X/1s, and takes away the ability of all creatures to block – while also slowly bleeding the opponent out. If you’re in a really aggressive Black deck, I can see playing this, but in situations where you aren’t the beatdown, it isn’t going to be very good. Your opponent just won’t always care about their creature getting a little smaller and being unable to block. It is notable that it is an Enchantment you can keep around on the table for awhile, and you kind of want to because it hurts your opponent – and that goes well in the Black-White deck, which wants an Artifact and Enchantment to be around for its various effects This is probably mostly an aggro deck special.
Dramatist's Puppet image 1.5 There’s a lot of counters in this set, so taking them away from your opponent or adding them to your own things is definitely relevant, but it still won’t always actually be able to do a thing, and when it can’t it will still be a 4-mana 2/4, which is pretty bad.
Fade into Antiquity image 2.5 There are so many Artifacts and Enchantments in this set that this will virtually always have a target, and is something you’ll basically always want one of in your main deck. It even kills a ton of creatures! I do still think that it is a little too restrictive to be straight up premium, but its pretty close.
Kami of Restless Shadows image 1.0 // 3.0 If you aren’t returning a Ninja or Rogue to your hand consistently with this, it is going to be much worse. Putting your best graveyard creature on top of your library is nice, but not nearly as good, because you aren’t actually gaining a card, you’re just doing some card selection, and that’s just a massive step down. Returning a creature to your hand is likely to give you a 2-for-1, while that’s not possible if you’re putting something on top. Obviously, if the creature you put back is a bomb or something you’ll still be pretty happy, but if that’s all this is doing, it probably isn’t worth it, as a 5-mana 3/3 is a pretty bad statline.
Repel the Vile image 2.5 This is much better in this format than it would be in your typical one. There are so many Enchantments around that that mode might actually be the one that is available to you the most often, and the fact it can take down large creatures is no small thing either. It isn’t quite premium, giving the restrictions and the cost, but it seems like a fine Common.
Papercraft Decoy image 2.0 This is another card where the trigger only requires it to leave the battlefield, so it getting blinked, or going back to your hand for ninjutsu will also give you the option of paying 2 to draw a card. You won’t always have the mana vailable to do it of course, but I think you’ll have it often enough that this is a pretty solid two drop in most decks.
Akki War Paint image 1.0 Getting an Enchanted creature destroyed is a pretty good way to lose a game because you get 2-for-1’d. Nice Auras tend to do something to offset that risk, and this doesn’t. This does give a pretty nice boost for the cost, and the set has payoffs for "modified" things, but I still have a hard time getting behind this.
Spirited Companion image 2.5 Well, it looks like White got an Elvish Visionary! That’s always a pretty nice card in Limited – as adding something to the board and getting a card out of it feels pretty good.
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Pack 2 Pick 6: The Fall of Lord Konda
Essence Capture image 2.0 This is a card we’ve seen printed a few times now, and its always decent. Once you get down to two mana, Counterspells get pretty interesting, and while it is unfortunate this one costs double blue, it is still fairly easy to get value out of it, as most decks will have 15+ targets, and the +1/+1 counter is a great thing to tack on.
Go-Shintai of Ancient Wars image 3.5 A 3-mana 2/2 with First Strike is already pretty playable, especially in a format with lots of ways to modify creatures, and the fact you get to do some additional damage to the opponent or (more rarely) a planeswalker if you have spare mana lying around is pretty nice. Obviously it gets spicier if you have more Shrines around.
The Fall of Lord Konda image 2.5 When you have a target for Chapter I, this is going to feel pretty darn good. Unfortunately, Chapter II is practically meaningless, so the other two chapters really need to carry their weight. But yeah, if you hit something with Chapter I and then get Fragment of Konda two turns later, you’ll feel like you’re doing a pretty good job, as you’ll end up with 2 cards worth of value. However, when you can’t hit a thing with Chapter I, there is almost no reason to cast this, and that certainly hurts. This format does have lots of ways to modify creatures, so 4 power will probably show up reasonably often, but probably still not often enough for this to quite do the job consistently enough to be anything more than a 2.5. If you get a hit with Chapter I, it will feel like a 3.5 – if you don’t, it’ll feel like a 1.0 at best, so there’s a pretty big chasm there.
Tamiyo's Safekeeping image 1.0 I’m not a big fan of this type of card. It can save your creatures from a lot of stuff for sure, but the fact it doesn’t buff the creature at all means that, when it comes to combat, this isn’t necessarily going to do enough to be worth using, since your creature is less likely to be able to kill an opposing creature. So, this is the most useful at countering a removal spell, which is certainly a nice effect, but it’s a narrow enough use that I don’t love running this. If you have some bombs or other late game win conditions it does get a little better, but I don’t think its very good overall.
Kaito's Pursuit image 2.0 This trend of them giving us Mind rots that have some other small effect continues! Paying three to make your opponent discard two is usually about a 1.5 It gives you a 2-for-1, but you also don’t add to the board, and it can be a pretty bad top deck in the late game. But, if you’re in a Ninja deck – which will usually mean Blue-Black – the fact this will give Menace to some of your creatures is pretty nice. If you’re in Black in general, you’ll be hard pressed not to end up without at least a few ninjas, so I think you end up playing this a reasonable chunk of the time.
Tamiyo's Compleation image 3.5 This is a more powerful take on this type of removal than we usually get. Usually, the bummer with this type of Blue removal spell is that you simply lock down a creature and it doesn’t untap – you don’t stap activated abilities and static abilities – but you actually do with this, and that’s a massive upgrade. Its nice that it can even turn off Equipment – as sometimes that will be worth doing.
Automated Artificer image 2.0 There are enough artifacts in this set that this will actually be able to ramp your mana reasonably well, and it has some decent stats.
Dramatist's Puppet image 1.5 There’s a lot of counters in this set, so taking them away from your opponent or adding them to your own things is definitely relevant, but it still won’t always actually be able to do a thing, and when it can’t it will still be a 4-mana 2/4, which is pretty bad.
Gift of Wrath image 2.0 This is the kind of Aura I feel alright about playing. +2/+2 and Menace is a very real stats boost, and the fact that this leaves behind a creature token when the enchanted creature dies is quite nice – and helps mitigate against the risk of getting 2-for-1’d. Now, it is still an Aura, and probably only one that you run in very aggressive decks, but it will be solid there.
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Pack 2 Pick 7: Ecologist's Terrarium
Bronze Cudgels image 1.5 This has a unique design, but the lack of a boost to toughness and the requirement to pump mana into it is pretty hefty. I can sort of see late game situations where you just have all the mana in the world to use on this, and at that stage of the game its going to be pretty nice, as you can just put in on anything and that creature will have to be blocked. But what about the rest of the game? In the early going, it is pretty close to useless, because you just won’t have enough mana to make it do anything significant. So I have a hard time getting behind this with any enthusiasm. There’s an equipment and an artifact theme in this set that definitely give it some bonus points.
Heiko Yamazaki, the General image 3.0 A 4-mana 3/3 Trampler isn’t a very good rate, but this comes with a nice enough “lone attacker” Samurai/Warrior pay off, as this format has a lot of artifacts. You’ll be able to make use of it often enough for this to make the cut in most Red decks. If you have some other lone attacker payoffs, the fact it has trample will feel pretty good!
Experimental Synthesizer image 2.0 So, up front it effectively draws you a card, and because this only costs one mana, it won’t usually be hard for you to play that card – and, it very nicely allows you to play lands. Now, this does mean playing it really early isn’t going to feel great, because you are less likely to be able to utilize whatever you hit, but starting around turn 4 it starts to be a nice play, and it effectively ends up as a 2-for-1, because you can also get a Samurai out of it. I do think the awkwardness of playing this early definitely hinders it, but I think you’ll end up playing this often enough in Red decks, perhaps the most in RB, which likes sacrificing them. But it also overlaps a bit into other archetypes – UR likes artifacts in general and RW like Samurai, for example.
Short Circuit image 1.5 This is fairly mediocre. It doesn’t stop enough of what a card can do for it to be that effective as removal. Sure, it has less power and it can’t fly – but it still lets the creature block, it can still have a death trigger, it can still have an activated ability, it can still have a static ability, and heck – it can even still attack, just less effectively! It having Flash does mean sometimes you can set this up so that you can kill an attacking creature with a double block, and when you can do that it will feel alright, but you just won’t always be able to make that happen.
Era of Enlightenment image 2.0 Like most of these saga-creatures, it is slow at adding to the board – so getting in the late game will sometimes be a bummer, but at least this one has some use right away, even late, as Scry 2 can help you dry what you really need to draw. The life gain can also help you survive the fact that you couldn’t add to the board right away too. Then, it becomes a 2/2 with First Strike, and that’s a creature is relevant all game long in most cases. While its a bit slow, the value this generates will feel nice – its spread out, but ultimately you get a 2/2 with First Strike that scries 2 and gains you 2 life, and that’s a pretty nice investment.
Ecologist's Terrarium image 2.5 Having colorless fixing at Common is pretty nice, and could definitely help decks splash a third color, and the fact this can only give you a counter once its done its job in fetching you a land is pretty solid.
Crackling Emergence image 1.5 This is a neat take on a land animation spell – making it so the land doesn’t die when the creature does is definitely a nice little upgrade, but these types of spells basically always underperform. They are the most impressive in the early game in a lot of ways – but you also don’t want to be hindering the way you develop your board, and by turning a land into a creature, you might be doing just that. It is kind of exciting to think about your opponent trading a real creature for this, but it isn’t as good of a deal as it seems – you’re still just trading 1-for-1.
Return to Action image 2.0 Black often gets this kind of trick that returns a creature to the battlefield when it dies these days, and then tend to be alright, although I prefer it when they cost a single Black mana. Still, this one does actually increase your creature’s power, which means you can use it to help you take down the other creature in combat a little more effectively, and it will even gain you some life! Its useful against removal too, of course. But, its still situational enough that I’m not super high on it.
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Pack 2 Pick 8: Ecologist's Terrarium
Sokenzan Smelter image 3.0 This is a two mana 2/2 with some pretty nice upside. There are artifacts aplenty in this set, so having an expendable one around to turn into a 3/1 with Haste isn’t going to be super hard. That said, you also won’t always have an Artifact that is worth sacrificing either.
Saiba Trespassers image 2.0 This is a mediocre creature if you cast it that way, but it has the upside of freezing down two opposing creatures, and that’s something that can be pretty nice in the right situation, such as those where your opponent is dead as a result of not being able to block for a couple of turns. That mode is certainly the more powerful one, but it is pretty situational, so the fact it can be a creature if that’s what you really need isn’t too bad.
Tamiyo's Safekeeping image 1.0 I’m not a big fan of this type of card. It can save your creatures from a lot of stuff for sure, but the fact it doesn’t buff the creature at all means that, when it comes to combat, this isn’t necessarily going to do enough to be worth using, since your creature is less likely to be able to kill an opposing creature. So, this is the most useful at countering a removal spell, which is certainly a nice effect, but it’s a narrow enough use that I don’t love running this. If you have some bombs or other late game win conditions it does get a little better, but I don’t think its very good overall.
Armguard Familiar image 2.5 This is a very solid playable. A two mana 2/1 with Ward 2 is already pretty close to passable, so adding the Reconfigure upside is really nice. It is a nice little creature early, and in the late game it can lend a much-needed stats boost, as well as a little bit of protection, for a more relevant creature.
Befriending the Moths image 3.0 Chapter I and II will very likely enable attacks you didn’t have before, and that’s a pretty big deal. Especially because this eventually adds meaningfully to the board by giving you a 2/4 Flyer. It will be a bit of a bummer to play on a completely empty board, but that won’t be happening that often. This looks like a good Common to me, one you can first pick sometimes.
Ecologist's Terrarium image 2.5 Having colorless fixing at Common is pretty nice, and could definitely help decks splash a third color, and the fact this can only give you a counter once its done its job in fetching you a land is pretty solid.
Mnemonic Sphere image 2.5 This is basically an Artifact-based version of Hieroglyphic Illumination, which was an Instant you could pay 4 for to draw two cards, and it had cycling for one Blue mana. Hard for a card like this to ever be bad, since at worst it replaces itself really efficiently. Then there’s this format artifact synergy and so forth!
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Pack 2 Pick 9: Ironhoof Boar
Reinforced Ronin image 3.0 Even if we don’t look at some of the synergies this card has, it would probably be pretty solid. You can play it and get in for 2 when you can, and when you can’t, you can effectively cycle it away with channel. However, there are several things in this set that make this better than all of that. First, it isn’t too bad with ninjutsu, since you can have it come down out of nowhere, and its returning to your hand anyway. Second, it is good with “attacks alone” Samurai stuff, because it can come down and get those benefits immediately, making it a much more problematic attacker than it would otherwise be. And third, its an Artifact, and there are various cards in this set that do a thing when an Artifact enters the battlefield, and it can trigger them repeatedly.
Ironhoof Boar image 2.5 This really reminds me of the Bloodrush Mechanic, which allowed you to pay some mana and discard a creature card for a trick – so, yeah. This isn’t the greatest as a creature or a trick – the small toughness boost does limit the number of combats you can win with the boar’s channel, but it also has the upside of really letting you run over a creature and do a ton of damage. I like the flexibility here.
Akki Ronin image 1.5 If you need a two drop Samurai it is certainly that, though adding rummage to an attack isn’t super exciting in this format, it does allow you to sift through your library a bit.
You Are Already Dead image 2.5 This has a really interesting design. I’m normally not big on this type of effect, as actually doing some damage to something often takes up some resources, so spells that can only remove damaged creatures are often not all that playable. However, in this case they lowered the mana cost to ONE, and they added a cantrip. At that point, we’re talking about a card that is certainly playable. Keep in mind that it does need a damaged creature to target, so it isn’t really the kind of cantrip you can cycle whenever you want. You won’t usually generate a 2-for-1 with this, because of the resources you gave up to damage the creature in the first place, but the cantrip pretty much makes up for that, and on occasions where you can get a 2-for-1, this will feel downright amazing. It is still a super situational removal spell, but it is priced to move, and I think you’ll end up playing the first copy in most Black decks. Playing more than that is probably asking for trouble due to its situational nature.
Disruption Protocol image 2.0 If you have enough Artifacts around and consistent access to Blue mana, this seems reasonable. If you are paying 1UU for it, then you’re not getting a very good deal – Cancel is just so much worse than Counterspell! There are enough Artifacts in this set, though, that I think this will be Counterspell often enough that I just want to give it a C. Counterspells have their problems in Limited – namely that you have to have the mana up at the right time – which in a way makes them very conditional removal – but when the mana you need to leave up is two or less, we see the Counterspells end up being fairly playable, and I think that’s what we have here.
Kami of Industry image 1.5 There will be too many situations where you either have no Artifact to reanimate, or you have one that you can bring back but it doesn’t really do anything on the board at the stage of the game yo’ure in. A five mana 3/6 as a baseline doesn’t help the card out either, even though that isn’t disastrous. I think the idea is that in the BR deck, you can easily sacrifice whatever it is you bring back, but I still have a hard time seeing this work out often enough.
Blossoming Sands image 2.5 Like always, these provide some very nice fixing, and its nice to see them at Common, as it will make splashing a third color pretty simple. Fixing is great, even if you aren’t going three colors – a dual land really helps your mana base in a two color deck.
Pack 2 Pick 10: Era of Enlightenment
Dramatist's Puppet image 1.5 There’s a lot of counters in this set, so taking them away from your opponent or adding them to your own things is definitely relevant, but it still won’t always actually be able to do a thing, and when it can’t it will still be a 4-mana 2/4, which is pretty bad.
Iron Apprentice image 2.0 This format has plenty of counters, so putting more on this thing isn’t a huge stretch. It also gives you a creature that enters the battlefield modified, which powers up a bunch of cards in this format.
Undercity Scrounger image 1.5 This gives Black some access to fixing and ramp, which is nice, but the stats are underwhelming and the death requirement won’t always line up for you.
Kami's Flare image 3.5 Two mana to do 3 is always premium, so also doing 2 to the opponent sometimes is pretty nice. This is one of Red’s best Commons.
Era of Enlightenment image 2.0 Like most of these saga-creatures, it is slow at adding to the board – so getting in the late game will sometimes be a bummer, but at least this one has some use right away, even late, as Scry 2 can help you dry what you really need to draw. The life gain can also help you survive the fact that you couldn’t add to the board right away too. Then, it becomes a 2/2 with First Strike, and that’s a creature is relevant all game long in most cases. While its a bit slow, the value this generates will feel nice – its spread out, but ultimately you get a 2/2 with First Strike that scries 2 and gains you 2 life, and that’s a pretty nice investment.
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Pack 2 Pick 11: Papercraft Decoy
Papercraft Decoy image 2.0 This is another card where the trigger only requires it to leave the battlefield, so it getting blinked, or going back to your hand for ninjutsu will also give you the option of paying 2 to draw a card. You won’t always have the mana vailable to do it of course, but I think you’ll have it often enough that this is a pretty solid two drop in most decks.
Bearer of Memory image 1.5 This doesn’t have great base stats, and its ability is incredibly costly, and even not that impressive in the extreme late game. This isn’t something you’ll play most of the time.
Spell Pierce image 0.0 We see this reprinted a lot, and while it tends to be a key sideboard card in constructed, it is pretty bad in Limited. Most decks have very few things it can actually counter, and you also have to hope that when they do cast something you can counter you have your one Blue mana up and they can’t pay the 2 additional mana. This just won’t do anything far too often. Even as a sideboard card, I’m not interested.
Suit Up image 1.5 These types of effects are almost always not worth it – they keep pushing them on us, though! What makes them bad is the fact that you only resize a creature. Making one into a 4/5 for 3 mana is not normally going to be a very good rate, and that’s even if you’re including the ability to turn Vehicles on like this can. You’re going to get a small stats boost in most cases, and that just isn’t worth the risk of getting blown out by removal. They did do one thing here that’s pretty interesting though: They added a cantrip. That certainly makes this better, as at worst you can sort of cycle this for three mana, and if you do manage to resize a creature and win combat you’ll actually feel like you’re doing something – but it still isn’t very good for the same reasons these effects never are: They don’t do enough for their cost and they are also very risky!
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Pack 2 Pick 12: Jukai Trainee
Oni-Cult Anvil image 3.5 Because it can sacrifice itself, it is – at worst, this is a two mana 1/1 token that drains the opponent one life. That’s not exactly exciting, but that’s pretty much the fail case here. This can also be a pretty sweet engine, since you can just keep giving up the same 1/1 every turn to drain the opponent one life, since it allows you to sacrifice tokens, and that’s pretty spicy – it will feel al little bit like getting Cauldron Familiar and Witch’s Oven together – and you have it all on one card! It is obviously a bit slow at what it does, but the engine aspect seems pretty sweet to me.
Jukai Trainee image 2.0 They decided to give this samurai the old Bushido mechanic. It’s a two mana 2/2 that is harder than most two mana 2/2s to block or attack through, and that’s probably enough of an upside for you to play it a decent chunk of the time.
Disruption Protocol image 2.0 If you have enough Artifacts around and consistent access to Blue mana, this seems reasonable. If you are paying 1UU for it, then you’re not getting a very good deal – Cancel is just so much worse than Counterspell! There are enough Artifacts in this set, though, that I think this will be Counterspell often enough that I just want to give it a C. Counterspells have their problems in Limited – namely that you have to have the mana up at the right time – which in a way makes them very conditional removal – but when the mana you need to leave up is two or less, we see the Counterspells end up being fairly playable, and I think that’s what we have here.
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Pack 2 Pick 13: Dramatist's Puppet
Dramatist's Puppet image 1.5 There’s a lot of counters in this set, so taking them away from your opponent or adding them to your own things is definitely relevant, but it still won’t always actually be able to do a thing, and when it can’t it will still be a 4-mana 2/4, which is pretty bad.
Akki War Paint image 1.0 Getting an Enchanted creature destroyed is a pretty good way to lose a game because you get 2-for-1’d. Nice Auras tend to do something to offset that risk, and this doesn’t. This does give a pretty nice boost for the cost, and the set has payoffs for "modified" things, but I still have a hard time getting behind this.
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Pack 2 Pick 14: Dramatist's Puppet
Dramatist's Puppet image 1.5 There’s a lot of counters in this set, so taking them away from your opponent or adding them to your own things is definitely relevant, but it still won’t always actually be able to do a thing, and when it can’t it will still be a 4-mana 2/4, which is pretty bad.
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Pack 2 Pick 15: Forest
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Pack 3 Pick 1: Eater of Virtue
Eater of Virtue image 3.5 This is Bonesplitter with a whole bunch of upside, and Bonesplitter already tends to be a pretty solid piece of Equipment. +2/+0 for 1 to play and 1 to Equip is just a nice rate, and +2 often enables some nice attacks you didn’t have before. Now, I guess it isn’t all upside, because if you have a creature you would like to get back from the ‘yard later in the game, this won’t let you do it, but I still think the fact that this gets the keyword abilities of the creatures that die is more upside than downside. At the same time, you won’t always have creatures with keyword abilities for this to give other creatures, but still - I like this a lot.
Dokuchi Silencer image 3.5 This looks pretty good. If you ninjutsu it in, you’ll always have a card to discard to the effect. It sort of makes it a Bone Splinters on a stick, which is pretty good overall. Obviously, if it is able to get in more than once, it can really wreck the opposing board. Turning random creatures in hand to removal spells will usually be worth it.
Touch the Spirit Realm image 4.0 This is the Uncommon premium removal that White often gets. These Oblivion Ring effects are always very nice, because they do the job efficiently, and they are also reasonably flexible. The fact your opponent can get the thing back is a bit of a bummer of course, but that downside is well worth it. You’ll almost never Channel this in Limited, but being able to blink a creature is useful sometimes.
Blade-Blizzard Kitsune image 3.5 3-mana for a 2/2 Double Striker is actually a great rate, and I kind of think that would probably be a 3.0 in any format. Its just a creature that can punch above its weight class really well, easily take down other cards that are two and three mana, and it hits hard, and it is both a good blocker and attacker. This set has plenty of Auras, +1/+1 counters, and Equipment, all of which go really well with the Kitsune. The Ninjutsu here is some nice additional upside, as sometimes maybe you want to sneak in 4 damage for lethal, or there is some other benefit to casting it that way, but I think you’ll more frequently just cast this for three mana and Ninjutsu it – so, I don’t actually think the Ninja angle here is huge upside.
Iron Apprentice image 2.0 This format has plenty of counters, so putting more on this thing isn’t a huge stretch. It also gives you a creature that enters the battlefield modified, which powers up a bunch of cards in this format.
Guardians of Oboro image 2.0 A 3-mana ¾ with Defender is kind of okay in a more controlling deck, and if you modify this one – or other creatures with Defender – they can attack. That’s kind of cool, though not exactly an incredible payoff. This seems fine.
The Shattered States Era image 1.5 I like most of these creature-sagas a reasonable amount. Most of them are at least a 2.5…but not this one. 5 mana for a Threaten is costly. That type of effect is always so situational. Sometimes it will let you attack in ways you couldn’t before – and unlike a lot of Threatens you do eventually actually add to the board with this one – but I still don’t love it. Chapter II will only be meaningful on like half of your board states. You do ultimately get a 3/3 with Trample and Haste, but that’s not exactly a big deal by turn 7, and Chapters I and II are highly situational.
Undercity Scrounger image 1.5 This gives Black some access to fixing and ramp, which is nice, but the stats are underwhelming and the death requirement won’t always line up for you.
Dramatist's Puppet image 1.5 There’s a lot of counters in this set, so taking them away from your opponent or adding them to your own things is definitely relevant, but it still won’t always actually be able to do a thing, and when it can’t it will still be a 4-mana 2/4, which is pretty bad.
Mothrider Patrol image 2.0 So, this has a couple of nice synergy things going on. First, it is a Warrior with Flying, so it will frequently be able to attack alone and trigger those sorts of effects. Second, the fact it has Flying means it pairs nicely with Ninjutsu. And yeah, White has only one Ninja, but you’re not going to be playing Monowhite, so it could come up! Those things definitely help the card – it is a decent early game attacker that can then Master Decoy things in the late game. The cost of 4 mana is pretty steep for the effect, but it is still a nice on to have around in the late game.
Commune with Spirits image 1.0 This is cheap and gives you some decent card selection. But…it also doesn’t really do a whole lot, and cards like that seem to be getting worse and worse in Limited these days. It seems like it will be easy to cut this.
Short Circuit image 1.5 This is fairly mediocre. It doesn’t stop enough of what a card can do for it to be that effective as removal. Sure, it has less power and it can’t fly – but it still lets the creature block, it can still have a death trigger, it can still have an activated ability, it can still have a static ability, and heck – it can even still attack, just less effectively! It having Flash does mean sometimes you can set this up so that you can kill an attacking creature with a double block, and when you can do that it will feel alright, but you just won’t always be able to make that happen.
Voltage Surge image 3.0 One mana to do two to a creature is usually pretty close to premium removal – you will be able to pay one mana to kill many creatures that cost more! This having the additional “sacrifice an artifact” option to upgrade it to doing 4 damage is definitely enough for it to be premium, as doing 4 for one mana is a really good deal, though you may not always have an expendable artifact to give up.
Intercessor's Arrest image 3.5 This is premium removal. The fact it shuts down blocking, attacking, crewing vehicles, and activated abilities is great. This format does have more ways to blow up Enchantments than normal, but it also has more payoffs for Enchantments than normal, so its probably a wash.
Thornwood Falls image 2.5 Like always, these provide some very nice fixing, and its nice to see them at Common, as it will make splashing a third color pretty simple. Fixing is great, even if you aren’t going three colors – a dual land really helps your mana base in a two color deck.
Pack 3 Pick 2: Kodama of the West Tree
Kodama of the West Tree image 4.0 This is a 3-mana 3/3 with text box loaded with upside! Hard to go wrong there. Even if it just had Reach, it would probably be at least a C+ – but giving modified creatures trample, and letting you search up basic lands is pretty nice. Obviously, you’re going to need to do some modifying to take full advantage of the card, but that’s not a huge ask in this set.
The Long Reach of Night image 2.5 I never love effects that give the opponent a choice between two things – especially when the options are discard or sacrifice a creature, because there are many board states where doing one or the other is no problem for your opponent, and because they have a choice, that means chapter I and II won’t always feel that great. That said, there will certainly be times where it is “pick your poison” for your opponent and have they have no good option, and because you do it two turns in a row, you’re more likely to produce that situation than you might otherwise be. The creature you eventually get can be pretty tough, and Chapters I and II do make it pretty likely there’s at least a few creatures in the graveyard.
Dockside Chef image 3.0 The BR deck is really about sacrificing stuff, as it often is – and you’ll have plenty of expendable things to sacrifice for value with the Chief, and there are other sacrifice synergies around too! It seems like a one drop that can really net you some serious cards in the mid to late game.
Bronze Cudgels image 1.5 This has a unique design, but the lack of a boost to toughness and the requirement to pump mana into it is pretty hefty. I can sort of see late game situations where you just have all the mana in the world to use on this, and at that stage of the game its going to be pretty nice, as you can just put in on anything and that creature will have to be blocked. But what about the rest of the game? In the early going, it is pretty close to useless, because you just won’t have enough mana to make it do anything significant. So I have a hard time getting behind this with any enthusiasm. There’s an equipment and an artifact theme in this set that definitely give it some bonus points.
Sunblade Samurai image 3.0 If you have 5 mana, you can cast it as a fairly reasonable body with Vigilance – and if you’re having problem finding mana in the early part of the game, you can Channel it away to find another land. And it even gains you some life! It isn’t that far from being a 5-mana 4/4 with Vigilance that has cycling for 2 mana. Flexibility like this really trumps the fact that neither half of this card would be amazing on its own.
Voltage Surge image 3.0 One mana to do two to a creature is usually pretty close to premium removal – you will be able to pay one mana to kill many creatures that cost more! This having the additional “sacrifice an artifact” option to upgrade it to doing 4 damage is definitely enough for it to be premium, as doing 4 for one mana is a really good deal, though you may not always have an expendable artifact to give up.
Bearer of Memory image 1.5 This doesn’t have great base stats, and its ability is incredibly costly, and even not that impressive in the extreme late game. This isn’t something you’ll play most of the time.
Spell Pierce image 0.0 We see this reprinted a lot, and while it tends to be a key sideboard card in constructed, it is pretty bad in Limited. Most decks have very few things it can actually counter, and you also have to hope that when they do cast something you can counter you have your one Blue mana up and they can’t pay the 2 additional mana. This just won’t do anything far too often. Even as a sideboard card, I’m not interested.
Reckoner Shakedown image 1.5 This is a pretty neat take on a Coercion Effect, as it is effectively a modal card that takes away your opponents best card, or it gives you a look at your opponents hand and puts two +1/+1 counters on one of your creatures or vehicles. Individually, those two effects are probably about a D. The discard effect only allows for a one-for-one trade and doesn’t change your board at all, while putting two +1/+1 counters on a thing for this much mana at Sorcery speed is really clunky. The discard effect is also pretty close to a dead card in the really late game, so having the other option will really matter there.
Lucky Offering image 1.5 This is actually passable in your main deck in this format, since there are so many artifacts, and many of them can be blown up by this. It is still narrow enough that I don’t love putting in the main deck.
Towashi Songshaper image 2.0 It won’t be hard for it to be a 3/2 attacker on many turns, and that’s not too shabby as an artifact payoff.
Lethal Exploit image 3.0 Two mana for -2/-2 at Instant speed isn’t exactly premium, though it can kill a lot of stuff. And you can even use it combined with a block to take something down – though that’s always a little risky. That said, I think you’ll be able to do -3/-3 with this often enough that it sneaks into the lower B range. If it was always -3/-3 it would be a 3.5. And sometimes this will be even more than -3/-3 – though I think we have to accept the wide range of outcomes with this, and the fact that -2/-2 is probably going to happen a lot.
Iron Apprentice image 2.0 This format has plenty of counters, so putting more on this thing isn’t a huge stretch. It also gives you a creature that enters the battlefield modified, which powers up a bunch of cards in this format.
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Pack 3 Pick 3: Invoke Despair
Invoke Despair image 3.5 This has a pretty tricky mana cost for Limited, but it does seem pretty good. Your opponent will amost assuredly have a creature to sacrifice to this – and an Enchantment is pretty likely too. They will almost never have a planeswalker. The nice thing is, if they don’t have one of the permanents to sacrifice, you still get some nice value by making them lose 2 life and drawing a card. So yeah, you get a 3-for-1 whether or not your opponent has all three permanent types, and that flexibility really makes this a really good edict effect.
Historian's Wisdom image 2.0 This is an Aura I can get behind playing in Limited. That’s because it will replace itself pretty often, as +2 power on your biggest creature has a pretty decent shot at drawing you that card. That means you are no longer in danger of getting 2-for-1’d like you would be with a typical Aura. Now, it is still a little tricky to use, you have to be careful not to get blown out the turn you cast it, and it isn’t game-breaking or anything – but it seems perfectly solid.
Enormous Energy Blade image 1.0 The buff to power is a ton, and does make it so a whole lot of creatures can become good attackers, but because it taps the creature when it equips to it, you have to wait an entire turn to actually make that happen. I think that’s too big of a cost when you’re already paying 3 to play it and 2 to equip. This card definitely has a bit of potential, as +4/+0 can really be a big deal, but I have a hard time seeing it work out.
Dokuchi Shadow-Walker image 2.0 This seems like the kind of Ninja who will only make your deck if you’re really loaded up with payoffs for Ninjas and Ninjutsu. It just isn’t that impressive either way you play it.
Season of Renewal image 1.0 // 2.5 You need to be getting both a creature and an enchantment back when you use this, or you aren’t going to be getting enough for your investment. While Enchantments are pretty plentiful in this set, especially in Green, I do think this needs a build around.
Kitsune Ace image 3.0 I like that this gives you some vehicle payoffs even if it isn’t the card that is doing the crewing. Lending first strike makes a lot of vehicles hard to block, and you can untap it with its ability so that even if it crewed a vehicle it can be a blocker on your opponents turn. That’s all some pretty good upside on a two drop.
Tamiyo's Compleation image 3.5 This is a more powerful take on this type of removal than we usually get. Usually, the bummer with this type of Blue removal spell is that you simply lock down a creature and it doesn’t untap – you don’t stap activated abilities and static abilities – but you actually do with this, and that’s a massive upgrade. Its nice that it can even turn off Equipment – as sometimes that will be worth doing.
Harmonious Emergence image 1.5 Animating a land is always less powerful than it might seem, and even adding the indestructible angle here isn’t that exciting. It does give you a reasonably efficient creature, but its also one that effectively makes you give up mana if you want to be attacking with it. I do think it’s a little better than the Red one, because this one is going to be more formidable in the later stages of the game, and it snice that they are such a pain in combat thanks to the indestructibility.
Suit Up image 1.5 These types of effects are almost always not worth it – they keep pushing them on us, though! What makes them bad is the fact that you only resize a creature. Making one into a 4/5 for 3 mana is not normally going to be a very good rate, and that’s even if you’re including the ability to turn Vehicles on like this can. You’re going to get a small stats boost in most cases, and that just isn’t worth the risk of getting blown out by removal. They did do one thing here that’s pretty interesting though: They added a cantrip. That certainly makes this better, as at worst you can sort of cycle this for three mana, and if you do manage to resize a creature and win combat you’ll actually feel like you’re doing something – but it still isn’t very good for the same reasons these effects never are: They don’t do enough for their cost and they are also very risky!
The Shattered States Era image 1.5 I like most of these creature-sagas a reasonable amount. Most of them are at least a 2.5…but not this one. 5 mana for a Threaten is costly. That type of effect is always so situational. Sometimes it will let you attack in ways you couldn’t before – and unlike a lot of Threatens you do eventually actually add to the board with this one – but I still don’t love it. Chapter II will only be meaningful on like half of your board states. You do ultimately get a 3/3 with Trample and Haste, but that’s not exactly a big deal by turn 7, and Chapters I and II are highly situational.
Explosive Entry image 3.0 This is better in this format than it is in most, because there are artifacts everywhere. I think you can count on most opponents having at least 5 targets for this, and many will have more. Adding the +1/+1 counter to the mix is pretty nice. Against the most artifact-centric of decks it is just going to feel like one of your best cards, and against an opponent only playing a few artifacts, it will feel a bit like Plummet – but I think that range is still enough to play the first copy in the main deck of most Red decks.
Short Circuit image 1.5 This is fairly mediocre. It doesn’t stop enough of what a card can do for it to be that effective as removal. Sure, it has less power and it can’t fly – but it still lets the creature block, it can still have a death trigger, it can still have an activated ability, it can still have a static ability, and heck – it can even still attack, just less effectively! It having Flash does mean sometimes you can set this up so that you can kill an attacking creature with a double block, and when you can do that it will feel alright, but you just won’t always be able to make that happen.
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Pack 3 Pick 4: Invoke the Winds
Invoke the Winds image 4.5 As is the case with all the cards in this cycle, it is tricky to cast, but very powerful, and it is possible this is the most powerful of the bunch. Stealing an opposing permanent is one of the most powerful things you can do in Magic, as you remove whatever your opponent’s best artifact or creature is and add it to your own board. Untapping it might seem like a little thing, but frequently your opponent’s best thing will be tapped down, so getting it and being able to block with it right away actually matters. 5 mana is a very reasonable price for doing this – the problem is the quadruple Blue cost, which is usually tricky to assemble in Limited. That said, this is certainly powerful enough to take very, very early. Provided you keep it in mind and Blue is open, you should be able to draft fixing and lean a little extra into Blue so that you have a greater-than-normal chance of getting quadruple Blue mana in your deck. You probably need about 12 Blue sources to feel secure about it. While this is certainly hard to cast, I do think it is doable enough in this format, and the card is powerful enough, that it sneaks into the lower bomb range.
Historian's Wisdom image 2.0 This is an Aura I can get behind playing in Limited. That’s because it will replace itself pretty often, as +2 power on your biggest creature has a pretty decent shot at drawing you that card. That means you are no longer in danger of getting 2-for-1’d like you would be with a typical Aura. Now, it is still a little tricky to use, you have to be careful not to get blown out the turn you cast it, and it isn’t game-breaking or anything – but it seems perfectly solid.
Seismic Wave image 3.5 mana to do 2 to anything isn’t incredible, but the one damage it does to all non-artifact creatures is quite nice. There are lots of things this card can end up doing. For example, if you do the 2 damage to a non-artifact creature, this will actually end up doing 3 total. You can also use it kill an X/2 and then pick off an X/1 or two. This card will occasionally cause big blowouts against X/1s, and it probably makes non-artifact X/1s in this format a little bit worse than normal. I think in the end, this is premium removal.
Enthusiastic Mechanaut image 3.5 This has good stats and a nice keyword for the cost, and reduces the cost of Artifacts. Obviously, that’s what UR is all about in this set, so this will set you up nicely in that deck.
Shrine Steward image 1.0 // 2.5 This has some ugly stats, but if your deck has even 2 Shrines and/or Auras, it is probably worth running. While this set does have plenty of Enchantments, it doesn’t have so many Auras and Shrines that you’ll always end up with enough of them to run the Steward.
Towashi Songshaper image 2.0 It won’t be hard for it to be a 3/2 attacker on many turns, and that’s not too shabby as an artifact payoff.
Moonfolk Puzzlemaker image 2.0 This has decent stats and repeatedly Scrying does make your draws better. Its also an artifact for the decks that care about that, and a relatively cheap flyer for Ninjutsu.
Bearer of Memory image 1.5 This doesn’t have great base stats, and its ability is incredibly costly, and even not that impressive in the extreme late game. This isn’t something you’ll play most of the time.
Coiling Stalker image 3.0 If you Ninjutsu this in, you end up paying two for a 2/1 that puts a counter somewhere. Note, by the way, that “somewhere” can be on itself, too! Now you obviously also returned a thing to your hand, so it isn’t all upside, but still, it seems like a reasonable deal. And it is the kind of creature that is a pretty real problem if your opponent can’t get blocks in front of it.
The Modern Age image 3.0 So, looting a couple of times is decent card selection, though like with a lot of these, you’re going to kind of wish you were adding to the board right away, instead of having to wait a couple of turns. As is this case with most of these creature-sagas, you get great value for your mana – in this case, a two mana ⅔ Flyer that loots twice – but the trade off is that you have to really wait for it. Still, Chapter I and II are the kinds of things that are at least useful all game long, so this isn’t one where you really need to play it early or you’re going to be disappointed.
Kaito's Pursuit image 2.0 This trend of them giving us Mind rots that have some other small effect continues! Paying three to make your opponent discard two is usually about a 1.5 It gives you a 2-for-1, but you also don’t add to the board, and it can be a pretty bad top deck in the late game. But, if you’re in a Ninja deck – which will usually mean Blue-Black – the fact this will give Menace to some of your creatures is pretty nice. If you’re in Black in general, you’ll be hard pressed not to end up without at least a few ninjas, so I think you end up playing this a reasonable chunk of the time.
Wind-Scarred Crag image 2.5 Like always, these provide some very nice fixing, and its nice to see them at Common, as it will make splashing a third color pretty simple. Fixing is great, even if you aren’t going three colors – a dual land really helps your mana base in a two color deck.
Pack 3 Pick 5: Sky-Blessed Samurai
Invoke the Winds image 4.5 As is the case with all the cards in this cycle, it is tricky to cast, but very powerful, and it is possible this is the most powerful of the bunch. Stealing an opposing permanent is one of the most powerful things you can do in Magic, as you remove whatever your opponent’s best artifact or creature is and add it to your own board. Untapping it might seem like a little thing, but frequently your opponent’s best thing will be tapped down, so getting it and being able to block with it right away actually matters. 5 mana is a very reasonable price for doing this – the problem is the quadruple Blue cost, which is usually tricky to assemble in Limited. That said, this is certainly powerful enough to take very, very early. Provided you keep it in mind and Blue is open, you should be able to draft fixing and lean a little extra into Blue so that you have a greater-than-normal chance of getting quadruple Blue mana in your deck. You probably need about 12 Blue sources to feel secure about it. While this is certainly hard to cast, I do think it is doable enough in this format, and the card is powerful enough, that it sneaks into the lower bomb range.
Twinshot Sniper image 4.0 This is very good. Even without Channel, this would be an excellent card, as it will let you add a decent body to the board while taking down an opposing creature. Going after the opponent's face is really nice upside too. But, then you add Channel to the mix, and you make a far more flexible card. I mean, most of the time you’ll want to cast this because of the 2-for-1 potential, but sometimes you’ll have to fire this off as a straight up removal spell for less mana.
Malicious Malfunction image 1.5 // 3.0 These cheap board sweepers are frequently pretty awkward in Limited. Most decks have a decent number of creatures who will die to it, so finding an opening to cast it where it is purely beneficial can be hard. Still, it is one of the best possible ways to deal with an aggressive opponent, and casting it in those situations can be completely game ending. A card like that mostly feels like a sideboard card to me.
Sky-Blessed Samurai image 3.0 Almost no matter what White deck you’re in, casting this for 5 is a pretty reasonable expectation, and that is quite the efficient flyer. Sometimes it will be even more efficient than that!
Favor of Jukai image 2.0 Channeling this will be the better deal most of the time, as the tricks we see that offer that same boost and reach always tend to be pretty playable, but it is nice that you can also use this as a more permanent boost in situations where that’s better.
Reckoner's Bargain image 2.0 This type of effect tends to do alright, especially in decks with a sacrifice theme – which in this format will mostly mean Black-Red. It is sort of an Instant speed Tormenting Voice, in the sense that you give up two cards to draw two cards – its just that one of them is an artifact or creature in play. Using this in response to a removal spell, or to get rid of something expendable will always feel nice, but there are also situations where you can’t find a spot to use this because you just don’t have the resources to make it worth it. The life gain is a nice addition, but doesn’t power it up a ton.
Sunblade Samurai image 3.0 If you have 5 mana, you can cast it as a fairly reasonable body with Vigilance – and if you’re having problem finding mana in the early part of the game, you can Channel it away to find another land. And it even gains you some life! It isn’t that far from being a 5-mana 4/4 with Vigilance that has cycling for 2 mana. Flexibility like this really trumps the fact that neither half of this card would be amazing on its own.
Kindled Fury image 1.5 We’ve seen this many times before, and its always a passable trick. +1/+0 and First Strike for one mana isn’t a bad deal since it allows many creatures to win combat – first strike just does a great job of turning a trade into something much better for you.
Regent's Authority image 1.5 A 3-mana 3/2 with Vigilance is usually reasonable playable, and this one comes with a very nice ability. You won’t always have an Enchantment in your graveyard of course, but there are enough Enchantments in this set that you’ll have them reasonably often, and obviously casting one off of this ability is like drawing a card, and that’s pretty darn powerful. Like with all of these, its great that they designed them so that they can trigger the ability on their own – but you can also use other Samurais/Warriors to trigger the ability if you’ve got them around. 32 – Regent’s Authority – 1.5 This is a solid trick. One mana for +2/+2 tends to be a good rate in general, and the additional enchantment/legendary creature upside is something you’ll be able to take advantage often enough.
Ironhoof Boar image 2.5 This really reminds me of the Bloodrush Mechanic, which allowed you to pay some mana and discard a creature card for a trick – so, yeah. This isn’t the greatest as a creature or a trick – the small toughness boost does limit the number of combats you can win with the boar’s channel, but it also has the upside of really letting you run over a creature and do a ton of damage. I like the flexibility here.
Futurist Sentinel image 2.0 We have seen a Colorless version of this in the past – I think it was called Irontread Crusher or something – and it was alright, but nothing special. It is pretty reasonably costed both to cast and to crew – it lets you rumble with a much larger creature than you would normally be able to on turn 5!
Pack 3 Pick 6: Kappa Tech-Wrecker
Containment Construct image 3.0 Man, if we had this in Crimson Vow it would have been absurd thanks to all the Blood tokens! This format also has a mechanic that involves discarding, though – and its Channel. If you Channel a card to get some effect and the construct exiles that card for you, it is going to feel pretty insane. You really only need to pull it off once to feel pretty good about it. So, if you have 0 ways to discard cards in your deck, you probably don’t play this, but as long as you have at least one, I don’t think you cut it. This is because it has passable stats and has a useful card type in Artifact, which is likely to help you with synergy too. It will be pretty hard to end up with 0 cards that have you discard, so I don’t really think it needs a build around grade.
Kappa Tech-Wrecker image 3.5 Wow. They really did it…this is a ninja turtle! Anyway, a two mana ⅓ with Deathtouch is always playable. Being able to trade for everything is a big deal, and this comes with Ninjutsu and the ability to naturalize something when it hits the opponent…and there is plenty of stuff it can blow up in this format.
Scrapyard Steelbreaker image 2.0 This will slot pretty well into the Black-Red deck, which is mosty about sacrificing artifacts. With enough mana and artifacts in play, this creature becomes a real pain to block.
The Modern Age image 3.0 So, looting a couple of times is decent card selection, though like with a lot of these, you’re going to kind of wish you were adding to the board right away, instead of having to wait a couple of turns. As is this case with most of these creature-sagas, you get great value for your mana – in this case, a two mana ⅔ Flyer that loots twice – but the trade off is that you have to really wait for it. Still, Chapter I and II are the kinds of things that are at least useful all game long, so this isn’t one where you really need to play it early or you’re going to be disappointed.
Season of Renewal image 1.0 // 2.5 You need to be getting both a creature and an enchantment back when you use this, or you aren’t going to be getting enough for your investment. While Enchantments are pretty plentiful in this set, especially in Green, I do think this needs a build around.
Short Circuit image 1.5 This is fairly mediocre. It doesn’t stop enough of what a card can do for it to be that effective as removal. Sure, it has less power and it can’t fly – but it still lets the creature block, it can still have a death trigger, it can still have an activated ability, it can still have a static ability, and heck – it can even still attack, just less effectively! It having Flash does mean sometimes you can set this up so that you can kill an attacking creature with a double block, and when you can do that it will feel alright, but you just won’t always be able to make that happen.
Dragonfly Suit image 2.5 This isn’t the best rate for a vehicle, but it is easy to crew and evasive, so I can see plenty of board states where its getting in through the air.
Eiganjo Exemplar image 3.0 It counts itself of course, so even without any other samurais around it attacks as a 3/2. One really nice thing is that you can play this, and then on the same turn attack with another Samurai, and +1/+1 is likely to help it attack more effectively.
Virus Beetle image 1.5 Adding to the board and taking something away from your opponents’ hand isn’t a bad play in the early to mid game, though it does get less impressive late. It comes with the Artifact type too, which is a useful thing.
Forest image
Pack 3 Pick 7: Greater Tanuki
Network Disruptor image 3.0 This does enough to be a nice little one drop. Tapping a permanent won’t always matter, but there will be turns where doing that allows you to get a much better attack in. Meanwhile, being a one mana 1/1 Flyer in this set is better than normal anyway – both because of Ninjutsu and the plethora of ways that there are to modify creatures. Its also an artifact, and that’s a nice thing to have too. This seems like a Common that overlaps into tons of different Blue archetypes, and that’s great.
Shrine Steward image 1.0 // 2.5 This has some ugly stats, but if your deck has even 2 Shrines and/or Auras, it is probably worth running. While this set does have plenty of Enchantments, it doesn’t have so many Auras and Shrines that you’ll always end up with enough of them to run the Steward.
Akki War Paint image 1.0 Getting an Enchanted creature destroyed is a pretty good way to lose a game because you get 2-for-1’d. Nice Auras tend to do something to offset that risk, and this doesn’t. This does give a pretty nice boost for the cost, and the set has payoffs for "modified" things, but I still have a hard time getting behind this.
Greater Tanuki image 3.0 This seems pretty nice. In the early game you can use it to fix and ramp your mana, and in the late game it can be a big beater that helps you close things out. It isn’t super incredible at doing either thing, but effectively being a split card with a worse Rampant Growth on one side and a worse Colossal Dreadmaw on the other gives you a decent option all game long.
Tamiyo's Safekeeping image 1.0 I’m not a big fan of this type of card. It can save your creatures from a lot of stuff for sure, but the fact it doesn’t buff the creature at all means that, when it comes to combat, this isn’t necessarily going to do enough to be worth using, since your creature is less likely to be able to kill an opposing creature. So, this is the most useful at countering a removal spell, which is certainly a nice effect, but it’s a narrow enough use that I don’t love running this. If you have some bombs or other late game win conditions it does get a little better, but I don’t think its very good overall.
Gift of Wrath image 2.0 This is the kind of Aura I feel alright about playing. +2/+2 and Menace is a very real stats boost, and the fact that this leaves behind a creature token when the enchanted creature dies is quite nice – and helps mitigate against the risk of getting 2-for-1’d. Now, it is still an Aura, and probably only one that you run in very aggressive decks, but it will be solid there.
Kitsune Ace image 3.0 I like that this gives you some vehicle payoffs even if it isn’t the card that is doing the crewing. Lending first strike makes a lot of vehicles hard to block, and you can untap it with its ability so that even if it crewed a vehicle it can be a blocker on your opponents turn. That’s all some pretty good upside on a two drop.
Akki Ronin image 1.5 If you need a two drop Samurai it is certainly that, though adding rummage to an attack isn’t super exciting in this format, it does allow you to sift through your library a bit.
Rugged Highlands image 2.5 Like always, these provide some very nice fixing, and its nice to see them at Common, as it will make splashing a third color pretty simple. Fixing is great, even if you aren’t going three colors – a dual land really helps your mana base in a two color deck.
Pack 3 Pick 8: Go-Shintai of Shared Purpose
Go-Shintai of Shared Purpose image 3.5 I like that the shrines this time around are creatures, as it is a lot easier to get value of them, and that’s certainly the case here. A 4-mana ⅓ with Vigilance that lets you pay one to make a 1/1 during your end step is a card that I would always be pretty happy with in Limited. Sure, the stat-line isn’t impressive, but cranking out a 1/1 every now and then is pretty nice. If you combine this with some of the other shrines, it is going to get particularly silly. It is probably ideal to wait to play this until you can use its ability in the same turn, that way you got something that added to the board either way. The stat-line does hold it back a bit, but I think this still might be something you take with a pretty high pick.
Upriser Renegade image 3.0 Its a little bit sad that the Outlaw doesn’t count itself, as modifying it would be incredible if it did! Still, Red has lots of ways to curve out with modified creatures, making this hit pretty hard.
Kindled Fury image 1.5 We’ve seen this many times before, and its always a passable trick. +1/+0 and First Strike for one mana isn’t a bad deal since it allows many creatures to win combat – first strike just does a great job of turning a trade into something much better for you.
Light the Way image 1.0 We see cards with two modal effects like this a lot, and they are almost always underwhelming. It seems like you’ll always be able to do something meaningful with one of the modes, but it just doesn’t work out that way all that often. When you can use it as a trick to help your creature win combat, or help a creature dodge removal, or you rebuy an ETB ability it will feel good, but mostly this won’t give you a full card worth of value often enough.
Armguard Familiar image 2.5 This is a very solid playable. A two mana 2/1 with Ward 2 is already pretty close to passable, so adding the Reconfigure upside is really nice. It is a nice little creature early, and in the late game it can lend a much-needed stats boost, as well as a little bit of protection, for a more relevant creature.
Bearer of Memory image 1.5 This doesn’t have great base stats, and its ability is incredibly costly, and even not that impressive in the extreme late game. This isn’t something you’ll play most of the time.
Searchlight Companion image 3.0 This gives you some reasonable value for the cost, and its also a great card to combine with Ninjas, since it is not only evasive, but it also has an ETB ability, so recasting it will give you another token, and that’s some nice value to get on top of whatever it is you did with Ninjutsu.
Brute Suit image 2.5 This is a nice little Vehicle at Common. 1 to crew is super easy, and its no joke as an attacker. As we’ve seen, there’s lots of Vehicle stuff going on this set too.
Pack 3 Pick 9: Mothrider Patrol
Guardians of Oboro image 2.0 A 3-mana ¾ with Defender is kind of okay in a more controlling deck, and if you modify this one – or other creatures with Defender – they can attack. That’s kind of cool, though not exactly an incredible payoff. This seems fine.
The Shattered States Era image 1.5 I like most of these creature-sagas a reasonable amount. Most of them are at least a 2.5…but not this one. 5 mana for a Threaten is costly. That type of effect is always so situational. Sometimes it will let you attack in ways you couldn’t before – and unlike a lot of Threatens you do eventually actually add to the board with this one – but I still don’t love it. Chapter II will only be meaningful on like half of your board states. You do ultimately get a 3/3 with Trample and Haste, but that’s not exactly a big deal by turn 7, and Chapters I and II are highly situational.
Undercity Scrounger image 1.5 This gives Black some access to fixing and ramp, which is nice, but the stats are underwhelming and the death requirement won’t always line up for you.
Dramatist's Puppet image 1.5 There’s a lot of counters in this set, so taking them away from your opponent or adding them to your own things is definitely relevant, but it still won’t always actually be able to do a thing, and when it can’t it will still be a 4-mana 2/4, which is pretty bad.
Mothrider Patrol image 2.0 So, this has a couple of nice synergy things going on. First, it is a Warrior with Flying, so it will frequently be able to attack alone and trigger those sorts of effects. Second, the fact it has Flying means it pairs nicely with Ninjutsu. And yeah, White has only one Ninja, but you’re not going to be playing Monowhite, so it could come up! Those things definitely help the card – it is a decent early game attacker that can then Master Decoy things in the late game. The cost of 4 mana is pretty steep for the effect, but it is still a nice on to have around in the late game.
Commune with Spirits image 1.0 This is cheap and gives you some decent card selection. But…it also doesn’t really do a whole lot, and cards like that seem to be getting worse and worse in Limited these days. It seems like it will be easy to cut this.
Short Circuit image 1.5 This is fairly mediocre. It doesn’t stop enough of what a card can do for it to be that effective as removal. Sure, it has less power and it can’t fly – but it still lets the creature block, it can still have a death trigger, it can still have an activated ability, it can still have a static ability, and heck – it can even still attack, just less effectively! It having Flash does mean sometimes you can set this up so that you can kill an attacking creature with a double block, and when you can do that it will feel alright, but you just won’t always be able to make that happen.
Pack 3 Pick 10: Bearer of Memory
Bronze Cudgels image 1.5 This has a unique design, but the lack of a boost to toughness and the requirement to pump mana into it is pretty hefty. I can sort of see late game situations where you just have all the mana in the world to use on this, and at that stage of the game its going to be pretty nice, as you can just put in on anything and that creature will have to be blocked. But what about the rest of the game? In the early going, it is pretty close to useless, because you just won’t have enough mana to make it do anything significant. So I have a hard time getting behind this with any enthusiasm. There’s an equipment and an artifact theme in this set that definitely give it some bonus points.
Bearer of Memory image 1.5 This doesn’t have great base stats, and its ability is incredibly costly, and even not that impressive in the extreme late game. This isn’t something you’ll play most of the time.
Spell Pierce image 0.0 We see this reprinted a lot, and while it tends to be a key sideboard card in constructed, it is pretty bad in Limited. Most decks have very few things it can actually counter, and you also have to hope that when they do cast something you can counter you have your one Blue mana up and they can’t pay the 2 additional mana. This just won’t do anything far too often. Even as a sideboard card, I’m not interested.
Lucky Offering image 1.5 This is actually passable in your main deck in this format, since there are so many artifacts, and many of them can be blown up by this. It is still narrow enough that I don’t love putting in the main deck.
Towashi Songshaper image 2.0 It won’t be hard for it to be a 3/2 attacker on many turns, and that’s not too shabby as an artifact payoff.
Mountain image
Pack 3 Pick 11: Harmonious Emergence
Harmonious Emergence image 1.5 Animating a land is always less powerful than it might seem, and even adding the indestructible angle here isn’t that exciting. It does give you a reasonably efficient creature, but its also one that effectively makes you give up mana if you want to be attacking with it. I do think it’s a little better than the Red one, because this one is going to be more formidable in the later stages of the game, and it snice that they are such a pain in combat thanks to the indestructibility.
Suit Up image 1.5 These types of effects are almost always not worth it – they keep pushing them on us, though! What makes them bad is the fact that you only resize a creature. Making one into a 4/5 for 3 mana is not normally going to be a very good rate, and that’s even if you’re including the ability to turn Vehicles on like this can. You’re going to get a small stats boost in most cases, and that just isn’t worth the risk of getting blown out by removal. They did do one thing here that’s pretty interesting though: They added a cantrip. That certainly makes this better, as at worst you can sort of cycle this for three mana, and if you do manage to resize a creature and win combat you’ll actually feel like you’re doing something – but it still isn’t very good for the same reasons these effects never are: They don’t do enough for their cost and they are also very risky!
The Shattered States Era image 1.5 I like most of these creature-sagas a reasonable amount. Most of them are at least a 2.5…but not this one. 5 mana for a Threaten is costly. That type of effect is always so situational. Sometimes it will let you attack in ways you couldn’t before – and unlike a lot of Threatens you do eventually actually add to the board with this one – but I still don’t love it. Chapter II will only be meaningful on like half of your board states. You do ultimately get a 3/3 with Trample and Haste, but that’s not exactly a big deal by turn 7, and Chapters I and II are highly situational.
Short Circuit image 1.5 This is fairly mediocre. It doesn’t stop enough of what a card can do for it to be that effective as removal. Sure, it has less power and it can’t fly – but it still lets the creature block, it can still have a death trigger, it can still have an activated ability, it can still have a static ability, and heck – it can even still attack, just less effectively! It having Flash does mean sometimes you can set this up so that you can kill an attacking creature with a double block, and when you can do that it will feel alright, but you just won’t always be able to make that happen.
Forest image
Pack 3 Pick 12: Historian's Wisdom
Historian's Wisdom image 2.0 This is an Aura I can get behind playing in Limited. That’s because it will replace itself pretty often, as +2 power on your biggest creature has a pretty decent shot at drawing you that card. That means you are no longer in danger of getting 2-for-1’d like you would be with a typical Aura. Now, it is still a little tricky to use, you have to be careful not to get blown out the turn you cast it, and it isn’t game-breaking or anything – but it seems perfectly solid.
Enthusiastic Mechanaut image 3.5 This has good stats and a nice keyword for the cost, and reduces the cost of Artifacts. Obviously, that’s what UR is all about in this set, so this will set you up nicely in that deck.
Moonfolk Puzzlemaker image 2.0 This has decent stats and repeatedly Scrying does make your draws better. Its also an artifact for the decks that care about that, and a relatively cheap flyer for Ninjutsu.
Kaito's Pursuit image 2.0 This trend of them giving us Mind rots that have some other small effect continues! Paying three to make your opponent discard two is usually about a 1.5 It gives you a 2-for-1, but you also don’t add to the board, and it can be a pretty bad top deck in the late game. But, if you’re in a Ninja deck – which will usually mean Blue-Black – the fact this will give Menace to some of your creatures is pretty nice. If you’re in Black in general, you’ll be hard pressed not to end up without at least a few ninjas, so I think you end up playing this a reasonable chunk of the time.
Pack 3 Pick 13: Reckoner's Bargain
Reckoner's Bargain image 2.0 This type of effect tends to do alright, especially in decks with a sacrifice theme – which in this format will mostly mean Black-Red. It is sort of an Instant speed Tormenting Voice, in the sense that you give up two cards to draw two cards – its just that one of them is an artifact or creature in play. Using this in response to a removal spell, or to get rid of something expendable will always feel nice, but there are also situations where you can’t find a spot to use this because you just don’t have the resources to make it worth it. The life gain is a nice addition, but doesn’t power it up a ton.
Kindled Fury image 1.5 We’ve seen this many times before, and its always a passable trick. +1/+0 and First Strike for one mana isn’t a bad deal since it allows many creatures to win combat – first strike just does a great job of turning a trade into something much better for you.
Futurist Sentinel image 2.0 We have seen a Colorless version of this in the past – I think it was called Irontread Crusher or something – and it was alright, but nothing special. It is pretty reasonably costed both to cast and to crew – it lets you rumble with a much larger creature than you would normally be able to on turn 5!
Pack 3 Pick 14: Short Circuit
Short Circuit image 1.5 This is fairly mediocre. It doesn’t stop enough of what a card can do for it to be that effective as removal. Sure, it has less power and it can’t fly – but it still lets the creature block, it can still have a death trigger, it can still have an activated ability, it can still have a static ability, and heck – it can even still attack, just less effectively! It having Flash does mean sometimes you can set this up so that you can kill an attacking creature with a double block, and when you can do that it will feel alright, but you just won’t always be able to make that happen.
Forest image
Pack 3 Pick 15: Akki Ronin
Akki Ronin image 1.5 If you need a two drop Samurai it is certainly that, though adding rummage to an attack isn’t super exciting in this format, it does allow you to sift through your library a bit.
Draft Pick Overview