Pro Rating: 4.5
Pro Comment: This is really good. If it was just the 7 mana get two Angels thing, it would probably be a reasonable finisher. That’s the kind of card that you can get you back to parity from behind, pull you ahead from parity, or seal the deal if you’re ahead. This also has the indestructibility clause, which will often just let you attack with your whole board, since you now have two 4/4 angels protecting you, though sometimes, the indestructibility won’t matter. It is held back by being so expensive -- BUT -- that is obviously mitigated by the fact that this can just be a land for you in the early game. I think having to play this as a land will make you sad sometimes, but the flexibility this has is really important. There are many limited games where you just don’t get to 7 mana. Having this trapped in your hand that whole game is a nightmare, but by giving you the land option you end up with something really nice. It can even come into play untapped if you are willing to pay the life, and that’s nice. There are also a few ways to return lands to your hand in the format. So, obviously enough, it isn’t going to be quite as impactful as a land -- but adding that flexibility to such a powerful card does enough for this to get into the lower range of a bomb for me.

Pro Rating: 1.5
Pro Comment: So, if you’re playing several spells with Kicker, this can work. It gives you a mana boost and even lets you splash some powerful spells that you want to kick! If you only have a few spells with kicker, I’m not sure the hit to your mana base is worth it though.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: This reminds me of Pirate’s Cutlass, and that’s a very good place to be, as that was one of the best non-rare piece of Equipment we have seen in Limited in a long time. This actually costs one less than the Cutlass, and when you have a Warrior in play, it will be even better! Where it isn’t quite as good as the Cutlass is in the fact that it does not give the same pump to non Warriors. Still, it actually has a pretty reasonable Equip cost after that first one you get as a freebe.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: This creature is going to be pretty scary on the board in the early game. It will typically be a 5/3 with Trample, and if you can back it up with removal and/or tricks it is going to wreck face. Still, only 3 toughness on an attacking creature on turn 4 isn’t exactly incredible, so you will frequently need those other cards to really back it up.

Pro Rating: 0.0 // 2.5
Pro Comment: This ends up being a hard counter a significant chunk of the time, especially in UB which does a good job of milling. If you can’t consistently get this to be a hard counter, you probably don’t play it, but if you can it ends being a pretty nice card to have around.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: If he was just the planeswalker without kicker, it seems like he would be a pretty okay card. Hitting lands with his 0 ability will feel particularly nice, because it will really allow you to net a bunch of cards. He doesn’t protect himself, but he is a card-drawing engine if left unchecked, and I’m happy about that at this low of mana cost.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: So, two mana 2/1 flyers tend to be pretty solid but this comes with some very real upside since if you Kick it you can steal Artifacts. This set isn’t filled with artifacts -- if it were, this would be a bomb -- but I think there are enough artifacts, including Equipment that it equips to itself for free, that this will probably manage to steal you an artifact once or twice during a draft -- and that’s some good upside on an efficient evasive creature.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This thing doesn’t stay dead, and that’s pretty good news for a creature with high power. It can’t block, but it can just keep coming back and attacking all game long, either as a 3/1 – or, even better, as a 5/3.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: It is a 4-mana 4/4 that, sure, dies to any spell targeting it – but it makes 1/1s when that happens, so it is really more upside than it is downside. Additionally, the kicker on it will really matter in this format. With all the modal spell/lands this will end up making a 1/1 token at least most of the time you kick it, and sometimes it will be even sillier! Basically, no matter what your opponent does, this is going to leave something behind on the board, in addition to being a relatively efficient creature on top of that.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: Returning a Kicker card from your graveyard is nice, especially because the card doesn’t actually have to have been kicked for you to get it back. This is a 3-mana 3/3 as a baseline too, which isn’t too bad.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: A two mana 2/1 is a D+ at best these days, we just expect better stats for a two mana investment. However, the kicker upside here is quite strong in the late game.

Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: Decent stats and a decent ETB trigger here. It won’t always do something -- but I think more often than not, it will give you an attack you didn’t have before you played the Protector. That, plus okayish stats make this a fine inclusion in White decks.

Pro Rating: 4.5
Pro Comment: Casting it without Kicker is honestly not a bad deal at all -- sometimes the counters will make for a nice trick or save a creature, and being able to Fight something at Instant speed for two mana is usually a playable card all on its own. If it was just a modal card without Kicker, it would already be good. But, adding Kicker to the mix makes this really good. It becomes a 5-mana spell that pumps your creature, which is going to make the fight part better, and it will also gain you more life potentially since you make a creature better. While 5 mana IS kind of a lot, and this has the downside of all fight cards -- playing it into open mana is very dangerous because of the risk of getting 2-for-1’d -- I think the upside here makes it worth the risk, especially as an Instant. You just have to carefully pick your spots with it, and if you do, kicking it will have a big impact on the outcome of many games.

Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: So, a two mana 1/1 with double strike is actually a reasonable rate -- it is effectively a 2/1 with upside, in that it can just outright kill X/1s in combat and is a great place to stick Equipment and Auras, and use combat tricks. This is already good with equipment, but the Equipped Warriors get double strike thing makes it even better. Now, you can’t really count on that always coming up, but obviously the RW deck will be the best at using it. It also means that playing it will sometimes immediately impact the board, since it may make your attacking creatures way scarier!

Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: This is a surprisingly serviceable payoff for the Kicker deck, as getting whatever value out of what you kicked AND making this a 5/5 feels great, as it is often a very difficult creature to block effectively.

Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: So, this isn’t QUITE a Green Hangarback Walker, but it doesn’t feel that far off. It start out small, but can get larger every turn if you have a spare mana lying around, and it makes sure that it will leave an impact on the board thanks to the fact that creatures with +1/+1 counters who are targeted will give you an Insect token. This is basically a little guy who will quickly become a problem for your opponent.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: If it were always 5 mana, it would probably be decent -- even though it can hit anything, it would be a little bit too clunky to consider premium. But, at 4 mana it gets into premium territory, and at 3 it is even better than that.

Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: A 3-mana 2/1 with Flying and Flash is already a reasonable card, but this is also a Rogue that mills your opponent, and that’s something that the UB decks are pretty interested in.

Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: So, jus the Mammoth side of this would be a very good creature. A 3-mana 3/3 that becomes a 5/5 multiple times a game is pretty sweet. A lot of the DFC modal cards in this set have one side that is really narrow or expensive, so you can imagine playing the land far more often, but in this case, I think you play the Mammoth almost every time, unless you’re really desperate for mana.