Average Picked At: 6.25 Total Times Picked: 119 Average Last Seen At: 5.07 Total Times Seen 772
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This has some mediocre stats, but boy -- it has a very strong Magecraft trigger. Being able to put a counter anywhere is very strong, and if you have Instants, it can be particularly punishing.
Average Picked At: 6.90 Total Times Picked: 327 Average Last Seen At: 6.45 Total Times Seen 2173
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This dies to pretty much everything, but it has a nice magecraft effect. Giving this flying will frequently be the option you go with, as this attacks pretty hard in the air. Note, by the way that if you cast two spells, you can choose both options, will be particularly nice sometimes.
Average Picked At: 6.51 Total Times Picked: 374 Average Last Seen At: 5.90 Total Times Seen 2021
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: This ends up feeling like an upgraded Elvish Visionary often enough that this card is very worth playing. A 1/1 pest and a card that is good in your situation is just great for two mana.
Average Picked At: 12.52 Total Times Picked: 251 Average Last Seen At: 10.38 Total Times Seen 3653
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This gives a nice permanent boost to one creature - +2/+2 and pumping the rest of the board is nice too. It will often enable a pretty nice attack – but it does really need a significant board state to be worthwhile.
Average Picked At: 5.74 Total Times Picked: 367 Average Last Seen At: 5.15 Total Times Seen 1964
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: This looks like it wouldn’t be especially good, but because you can choose to get it at exactly the right time (assuming you Learn), it often has a major impact on the game, allowing an attack that you just didn’t have before.
Average Picked At: 1.17 Total Times Picked: 29 Average Last Seen At: 2.06 Total Times Seen 35
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: This is a good card, albeit a kind of weird one. A 5-mana ⅖ with Flying and Double Strike is already pretty nice -- those are just great stats on an evasive creature! Then, he gives you a powerful effect every combat...though he also gives your opponent a pretty powerful one too. Now, you are the one who gets to decide which one they get and which one you get, and you can always pick the option that most benefits you and the one that least benefits them, but no matter what you’re giving them, they’re going to be getting something reasonably nice. Most of the time, I would imagine if you’re wide enough you’ll give yourself the counters and let them draw a card, for example. Giving them the Flyer seems particularly bad since it gives them a free way to block Shadrix -- but sometimes giving them counters will be fine too, because sometimes those aren’t a big help. Shadrix will normally take over games, but there will be some times where you can’t find a good option to give your opponent, which will be rough.
Average Picked At: 1.86 Total Times Picked: 44 Average Last Seen At: 1.94 Total Times Seen 67
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: Like all the Deans, both sides are pretty good. Shaile’s ability to put counters on new creatures is really good, especially because with Flying and Vigilance, Shaile can get an attack in before using the ability. Meanwhile, Emrbose is a little bit weirder of a card, but he has a lot to offer! He can make your creatures bigger with his first ability, though you’ll normally want to make sure it can survive the two damage -- so in other words, it needs to have at least two toughness before the counter. He’ll also be able to pick off opposing X/1s with that ability, which is nice additional flexibility. Then, the +1/+1 counter payoff he has is nice, as drawing a card any time one of your creatures with a counter dies is powerful -- and it might even give you a reason to use his ability on one of your X/1s, since it will basically amount to sacrificing and drawing a card.
Average Picked At: 11.39 Total Times Picked: 283 Average Last Seen At: 9.56 Total Times Seen 3334
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: So, the boost here isn’t going to always allow your creature to outright win combat, but that’s okay, because if your creature doesn’t win combat, you still get something back – a 3/2 Spirit. Obviously, this will feel best when you use it to help you kill a creature in combat, AND get the spirit, but even just getting the Spirit isn’t too bad.
Average Picked At: 6.91 Total Times Picked: 113 Average Last Seen At: 5.52 Total Times Seen 830
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This card is a potent +1/+1 counter payoff. When it comes down it immediately buffs a creature, and makes it so that creature drains the opponent for one life when it attacks. That’s not a bad deal, and that’s pretty much the fail case. If you end up with a synergistic +1/+1 counter deck, her presence on the board will make the game close to unwillable for the opponent. Now, she is super undersized for her cost, so taking her down won’t be too hard, but left unchecked she seems pretty great.
Average Picked At: 10.79 Total Times Picked: 112 Average Last Seen At: 8.47 Total Times Seen 1287
Pro Rating: 1.0 // 3.0 Pro Comment: It is generally too difficult to really make this thing work. It mostly ends up being a one mana 1/1. You can end up in some Lorehold decks where it does more than that, but they are few and far between.
Average Picked At: 4.82 Total Times Picked: 55 Average Last Seen At: 3.93 Total Times Seen 182
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: Most of the time it is going to be hard to name something with this that your opponent has, at least in the early going of the format. Although I guess it is pretty funny against a Lesson your opponent might get. Over time, it does become easier to take advantage of a card like this, as once people start figuring out the format, there’s a consensus over what cards one should and shouldn’t play, which makes it easier to name a common or something your opponent very likely has. This is already a thing in the early going, but it is a little harder to make work. Now, if it turns out getting info about your opponents’ hand is easier than I’m guessing, then this will be a lot better, but as it is, it will probably just be a two mana 3/2 like 90% of the time, and only do that other thing 10% of the time. When it does that other thing, it will feel pretty good, but it just won’t happen often enough.
Average Picked At: 5.83 Total Times Picked: 380 Average Last Seen At: 5.40 Total Times Seen 1945
Pro Rating: 1.5 // 3.0 Pro Comment: This is yet another lesson that you wouldn’t really ever want in your main deck, as a 5-mana 4/4 just isn’t good these days, but being able to draw this when you “Learn” sounds pretty good!
Average Picked At: 11.32 Total Times Picked: 96 Average Last Seen At: 8.35 Total Times Seen 1254
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: So the idea here is that you can make this into a one mana 2/2 flyer if you have enough instants and sorceries lying around. For the most part, giving others of your creatures base power 2 probably won’t be an upgrade, or if it is one, it will be a very small one, and that certainly hurts this card’s case a little bit. I like that this can rumble in the air when you use spells and all that, but I’m not overly impressed here.
Average Picked At: 1.19 Total Times Picked: 42 Average Last Seen At: 1.20 Total Times Seen 42
Pro Rating: 5.0 Pro Comment: Two of the five main archetypes in this set are ramp decks, and that goes a long way towards making this card better than it looks This gets a further upgrade because its a lesson. You don’t really want to draw this early, even in a ramp deck, and if you have ways to “Learn” to grab it from your sideboard, you don’t have to worry about that happening, so it really mitigates significantly against that downside. Basically, it feels like you end up starting every single game with this in your hand, but not taking up the space of an actual card, and that’s super powerful, especially because it adds so much to the board.
Average Picked At: 10.35 Total Times Picked: 286 Average Last Seen At: 8.99 Total Times Seen 3122
Pro Rating: 2.5 Pro Comment: This starts out with really reasonable stats, and then in the late game it can enable your payoffs for moving stuff out of your graveyard while also giving your other creatures flying. That late game mana sink is going to end games sometimes, but keep in mind that it is pretty expensive to use the ability, so you often won’t be able to make more than one thing fly.
Average Picked At: 9.21 Total Times Picked: 303 Average Last Seen At: 8.14 Total Times Seen 2954
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: This is a pretty nice Common. By turn 5 you’ll often have something this can bring back without really trying, so just playing this, getting something back, and having a 2/2 flyer is going to feel pretty good. I think basically every White deck in the format will want the first copy of this.
Average Picked At: 3.50 Total Times Picked: 376 Average Last Seen At: 3.59 Total Times Seen 1087
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: This is most likely Red’s best common. 3 mana for 4 damage at Instant speed is always great in Limited, and this also can’t be countered, which actually matters in this format as Blue seems to have several playable counter spells in this format.
Average Picked At: 5.84 Total Times Picked: 157 Average Last Seen At: 4.87 Total Times Seen 689
Pro Rating: 3.0 Pro Comment: Fight cards are always nice in Limited, and while the best ones give some sort of stats boost, this one makes up for not doing that by being a modal card. So, if the Fight part on this works as removal for you, you’ll probably use it, but if a situation comes upw here you can counter your opponents thing before that, you probably choose the counter option. Neither option here is amazing, but having a choice between them is very nice.
Average Picked At: 3.95 Total Times Picked: 162 Average Last Seen At: 3.76 Total Times Seen 512
Pro Rating: 4.0 Pro Comment: I would have been reasonably happy with a two mana 2/2 with Lifelink and Menace, or a 2-mana 2/2 with the spell reduction ability, but obviously this has all of that stuff! It is going to give you a lot for two mana. It will attack well early, and then make your spells cheaper – this will allow you to trigger Magecraft more easily, while also pumping your creatures with combat triggers. Your removal spells will cheaper as well as your tricks, anyway. This is an excellent Uncommon.
Average Picked At: 5.74 Total Times Picked: 144 Average Last Seen At: 5.31 Total Times Seen 816
Pro Rating: 3.5 Pro Comment: This is a powerful life gain payoff. It begins as a 3-mana 4/2 that comes into play tapped, which is already a fairly passable card – this returning to your hand any time you gain any amount of life is going to really be a problem for your opponent in the long run, as it has the kind of size that may just let it attack every single turn, since the downside of it trading with something is so minimal. There’s enough life gain in this set that this looks like a real value engine.