Average Picked At: 9.44 Total Times Picked: 32 Average Last Seen At: 8.13 Total Times Seen 234
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: I don’t normally like 3 mana tricks, even if they give sizable boosts and trample like this. One and two mana tricks are usually where its at. Three mana is a ton, and it means that you have less opening to use a trick, and it means you are taking a greater risk if things go sideways. However, this trick definitely gives back for the risk that you take, since it substantially upgrades your next creature spell.
Average Picked At: 1.33 Total Times Picked: 3 Average Last Seen At: 1.20 Total Times Seen 5
Pro Rating: 5.0 Pro Comment: Well, this is super strong. It has great stats as a 4-mana 4/3 Flyer, and the ETB ability substantially upgrades the next creature you cast one way or another. That gets extra spicy because it also has Double Team,w hich means you get another 4/3 Flyer and that ETB trigger again, and because it can Fly, getting that second copy isn’t going to be a huge stress. Heck, it might even be the card you cast that gets upgraded by the first ETB trigger!
Average Picked At: 11.94 Total Times Picked: 16 Average Last Seen At: 9.31 Total Times Seen 292
Pro Rating: 1.0 // 2.0 Pro Comment: Another Green card that enables the graveyard payoffs, and it also lets you return something to your hand. That’s..not amazing for a three mana Sorcery. This is probably another build around, because outside of the Black/Green deck I don’t really know why you run this thing. It just gives you some card selection for a clunky cost, so you really need other reasons to load the yard.
Average Picked At: 1.50 Total Times Picked: 4 Average Last Seen At: 1.75 Total Times Seen 4
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: So, a three mana Sorcery that gives you a tapped 4/1 with Menace is probably pretty close to playable. If it came into play untapped it would actually be pretty solid! But it is really nice you can get that 4/1 body and then get the Altar, and the Altar is actually a pretty nice little reanimation engine. The problem there can be actually setting up the reanimation, so this kind of card can do stone nothing for awhile – but the Adventure gets you around that downside. Exiling something in play to reanimate something is certainly situational, but it will be worth doing often enough – and the card will already have impacted the board.
Average Picked At: 12.40 Total Times Picked: 5 Average Last Seen At: 6.94 Total Times Seen 75
Pro Rating: 1.0 // 3.5 Pro Comment: Artifacts are far from a big theme in the format, but there are enough of them around that this having a target is kind of doable. But I think your typical Blue deck in the format probably has 1-2 Artifacts, and that just..isn’t going to be enough. If you are in UB or UR you will have access to some treasure, but those color pairs still aren’t that into artifacts in general. So…if you end up in a deck that can consistently make this into a 3-mana 1/1 that makes a 3/3 Flyer, you’re going to be super happy, but that deck just won’t happen very often. Drawing this early and not having an artifact to target is going to be an awful feeling.
Average Picked At: 3.90 Total Times Picked: 10 Average Last Seen At: 3.25 Total Times Seen 52
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: Like most Specialize cards, I think this looks pretty nice – although this might be the worst of the specialize cards in the format. Six mana is a lot for a 4/3, and while she does set up a Fight when she comes down, you won’t always be able to make a fight happen that actually exiles a creature, and exiling the thing you Fight is necessary to really make Gut worth Specializing. If you do exile something and specialize her, she is pretty crazy, since she makes you a hasty token version of the thing that you exile. On her own, she can just take down a 2/2 before specializing, and that isn’t terrible.. Still, her casting cost and specialize cost are both high enough that I don’t think I’m eager to first pick her, which isn’t something I’ve said this week about a specialize creature!
Average Picked At: 7.55 Total Times Picked: 11 Average Last Seen At: 5.65 Total Times Seen 64
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: This is a Forgotten Realms reprint, and a pretty nice one. Against a Red creature it is really absurdly strong, since it shuts off the card’s ability and taps it down at instant speed. If it always did that, it would probably be a 4.0 – it is THAT good of removal. Now, the card is far less powerful against non-Red creatures, since it doesn’t tap the thing down or take away the ability, so you have to wait until your opponent has something tapped down for it to do its work.
Average Picked At: 10.00 Total Times Picked: 1 Average Last Seen At: 7.75 Total Times Seen 6
Average Picked At: 7.37 Total Times Picked: 19 Average Last Seen At: 5.98 Total Times Seen 77
Pro Rating: 2.5 // 3.5 Pro Comment: This Specialize creature seems a little more build-aroundy than most of them do. On its own, it can make itself unblockable and hit for three, but then it has to return to your hand, and that’s not…amazing. Obviously, making something else unblockable that has an ETB ability or something is super good, but you won’t always pull that off. Then, once Alora specializes, she adds an extra bonus to the creature returning to your hand, but you still really need to be returning something that gives you value already – either by hitting your opponent hard or retriggering ETB – because the bonuses don’t seem that great for the most part. Basically, if your deck doesn’t have much in the way of ETBs to rebuy, this doesn’t seem especially good, and if you do – she’ll be quite good.
Average Picked At: 10.33 Total Times Picked: 6 Average Last Seen At: 6.53 Total Times Seen 91
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: This is not a great stat-line in Limited, but it has a useful creature type, I guess? You probably only run this if you’ve whiffed on all the better Dragons out there.
Average Picked At: 1.67 Total Times Picked: 3 Average Last Seen At: 1.50 Total Times Seen 4
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: So, a 4-mana 4/3 with Haste is probably a 2.5 at worst, and then this comes with what is mostly upside, since it will seek and exile cards every time it attacks. A 4/3 is big enough on most boards that your opponent does have to make a decision about Kardum. Then, when it dies you get some pretty serious value. Now, you do have to use those cards quickly or you lose them, but you’ll be able to get at least one card out of Kardum most of the time. His first flame counter may not do anything, but the remaining triggers should do something! There will be times when Kardum can’t attack and stuff, but when that’s the case you can just threaten to trade him off. Make sure if you play Kardum that you value one mana cards a tiny bit more, since you really need him to be able to seek on the first trigger.
Average Picked At: 12.41 Total Times Picked: 27 Average Last Seen At: 10.36 Total Times Seen 306
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: This was a fine card in Forgotten Realms, and it probably will be here. Neither mode is anything special. The bounce mode will come up the most, and the times where you can use it in response to a combat trick and blow your opponent out will feel nice, as will the times where you can generate some tempo, but keep in mind bouncing things is always card disadvantage. The second mode this has also doesn’t generally net you a card – but sometimes it can close out a game. You’ll end up playing one of these in Blue decks and you’ll feel fine about it.
Average Picked At: 6.50 Total Times Picked: 12 Average Last Seen At: 6.00 Total Times Seen 86
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: So, this is basically a clone that can only clone your stuff, and gives it Flying. That’s a decent card, because you can always make it a copy of your best creature – and usually it will get that upgrade from Flying. This can be especially good with all the ETB abilities in the set. There are lots of legendaries in the set too, so the fact that it lets you copy legendaries does matter. Basically the question here is: How often do you feel like you’re getting your mana’s worth with a card like this? And I think the answer is: reasonably often, but sometimes this will be kind of a miserable card to have in your hand. I think his is a C+.
Average Picked At: 7.55 Total Times Picked: 11 Average Last Seen At: 5.51 Total Times Seen 87
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: This seems like a decent aura, especially once you get in the graveyard. The fact it can keep coming back is nice, although after the second time you bring it back you are getting negative stats to go with the Haste, which is far less good – those first two activations will be a pretty nice way to add stats and Haste to a creature you play for only one Red mana though. It is probably at its best if you find a way to discard it early, and you never actually cast it the traditional way.
Average Picked At: 7.83 Total Times Picked: 23 Average Last Seen At: 6.71 Total Times Seen 218
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: This is a Forgotten Realms reprint, and it is a pretty solid card, especially if you’re good at going wide, at it looks like Red-White will be able to do that, both with tokens and double team.
Average Picked At: 2.33 Total Times Picked: 15 Average Last Seen At: 2.17 Total Times Seen 29
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: This is premium removal. This format does have a lot of legendary creatures, but this can still kill a massive percentage of creatures in the set for only two mana, and that’s really great.
Average Picked At: 12.22 Total Times Picked: 23 Average Last Seen At: 9.98 Total Times Seen 316
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: Neither option here is great. Individually, they would probably both be a 1.0. +3/+1 for two mana just isn’t a big enough boost, and making a couple of things unable to block doesn’t always matter either. It isn’t the worst thing in the world to run in your deck, but you probably do cut it more than you play it.
Average Picked At: 7.75 Total Times Picked: 8 Average Last Seen At: 5.77 Total Times Seen 81
Pro Rating: 2.0 Pro Comment: Another Forgotten Realms reprint. This was a decent one drop in that format, as getting the counters on it came a little easier than I expected it to. Getting it in play late doesn’t feel very good, though.
Average Picked At: 4.21 Total Times Picked: 28 Average Last Seen At: 3.90 Total Times Seen 116
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: I like this common a lot. A 3-mana ½ that gives you a 1/1 token is probably a 2.0 and a 3-mana ½ that taps for mana of any color is probably a 2.5. Stapling both of those together and adding another token to the mix is pretty dang impressive. Even if your opponent takes this down before it can make mana, it leaves two 1/1s around, and if they don’t, you can probably ramp into your 5 drop on turn 4, which is pretty sweet.
Pro Rating: 1.5 Pro Comment: There are enough Dragons in this set that this will get its cost reduced some…but man, it really needs to have its cost lowered to really be playable. You need to paying like 7 for this for it to really be worth it, so you need something like 8 mana worth of dragons in play. While doable, it won’t always be easy to get there. The payoff in the end is pretty nice, as it is likely to end the game when it attacks, but it also dies to a whole bunch of stuff! It can come back from the graveyard of course, but it can only come back by giving up a land which…will also make it harder to cast it! I really feel like the payoff for this should be a little better – like give it Ward 5 or something at least! It is far too vulnerable for a card that is this hard to set up.