Boareskyr Tollkeeper

This is a nice little two drop that makes your opponent’s life a little bit more difficult, and it pairs well with the UW deck in the format which can absue ETB abilities. It is sweet that you can even make lands enter tapped! I think the trigger here is going to give you some pretty real tempo.

Champions of Tyr

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!

Flaming Fist Duskguard

The boon you get here isn’t that exciting, but yeah – it is staples to a two mana 3/1, and that’s a decent aggressive stat-line. This is probably a bread and butter type two drop for White decks.

Mace of Disruption

The idea is that you have duplicates created by Double Team, and while that is going to happen, the fact that the perpetual +1/+0 is so conditional makes this pretty bad, as the initial boost isn’t really enough to make the card worth playing.

Moradin's Disciples

This sort of White creature has been good in lots of formats. Tapping things down with an attack trigger is just a really great way to get some effective attacks in. And, in this particular case, it also means that it will be easier for you to trigger Double Team, and once you have two Disciples attacking, your opponent is basically never going to block again. The statline is mediocre for sure, but its a powerful 2-for-1, so I don’t care too much.

Patriar's Humiliation

So, a one mana instant that does damage to a creature equal to the number of creatures you have in play is usually about a 2.0. It can be really efficient removal, but it requires enough set up that it isn’t premium. This adds the “creature loses all abilities” text to the mix, which means that you can get a bonus effect that keeps that creature from ever having abilities again, which can matter sometimes. More importantly, it means that even in a situation where you can’t quite kill a creature this can do still do something. You do still need to be killing things with this for it to be worth a slot in your deck, but basically the fail case is less awful than usual.

Ranger Squadron

Without Double Team, this is not a very good card – the stats just don’t look good. But, this is a Double Team creature with Flying, and that means yo’ure pretty likely to get that second copy. And yeah, it is two copies of an inefficient creature, but we’ve seen in many Limited formats that any sort of effect that gives you card advantage tends to be good, even if what you’re getting isn’t efficient.

Seatower Imprisonment

This looks like a really impressive removal spell – it will compare favorably with Sleep with the Fishes. It shuts down the creature almost entirely, and gives you a two mana 2/1 with Double team? That’s definitely worth 4 mana, and this is definitely premium removal. There is a sacrifice theme in this set which can make this worse, but you get to hold on to your creature even if that goes down.

Soldiers of the Watch

It feels pretty hard to give Double Team cards anything lower than a 2.5. This is because they all have serious 2-for-1 potential, and even this fairly underwhelming Double Team creature seems solid.

Sune's Intervention

In Limited, you’ll basically always be able to gain 3 life, make two knight tokens, and seek a nonland permanent. That’s a 2-for-1 with some bonus life gain – so the times where you can also blow up an artifact or enchantment will feel pretty insane! It is also an instant, so the knights can ambush stuff. I think this is probably an A-.

Sworn to the Legion

Basically, this gives double team to all of your things. This means that you can actually chain double team together. Even if you play a creature that you got from double team, it will gain it again when you cast it, so it just keeps going. That is undoubtedly powerful, and this will give you some significant value. There is a big problem here though, and that’s that this costs 6 mana and won’t really have an immediate impact on the board. Yes, your things gain double team, and sometimes that will make you more willing to attack, but if your creatures were already pretty mediocre attackers, this isn’t going to help you out very much. So, you kind of have to have the right creatures already or this won’t matter. I think that really holds it back.

Valiant Farewell

This doesn’t seem like an amazing combat trick. That’s because it costs two mana and only offers +2/+0 to your creature, and without a toughness boost, that means your creature’s chances of surviving combat are significantly lower. Now, it does replace itself, and it also offers a permanent boost to your next creature. And that value certainly helps this card out, but it still means that in a lot of situations you’ll use up this trick and a creature, and end up not really gaining anything on the board. So the tempo doesn’t seem awesome. The times where you can use this and keep your creature alive will feel absurd, though!

Vladimir and Godfrey

This looks pretty good. Sure, a 3-mana 3/2 is nothing special, but the fact you can bring them back later in the game is pretty amazing. Obviously, your deck will need some 1/1s to make them worth it, but even just having 3 or 4 1/1s or 1/1 tokens will make this card worth running in Limited. Just bringing it back once is amazing value.

Calim, Djinn Emperor

So, like a lot of cards in this set – this is pretty wacky – so wacky that the whole text doesn’t even fit on the card which…probably not a good thing! Anyway, a 6-mana ⅚ with flying and Ward 2 is already pretty good. Then you add the card’s ability to basically be cycled while also tapping down a permanent and you have something really interesting – and it gets even better, because you get a copy of the Djinn in your deck that you can draw later! Now, in your typical game of Limited you’re not going to reach the point where Calim can come back from the graveyard, but getting the value out of one extra Calim seems pretty reasonable. It does cost triple Blue, and that kind of cost can be a pain, but this seems pretty great over all.

Hypnotic Pattern

These Blue cards that just lower power don’t tend to be very good, and I think that’s true here, even with the perpetual -2/-0. Sure, it costs one, but most of the time you don’t get a card worth of value out of a card like this. Looking at it as “removal” is pretty dangerous, because the creature you use it on will still be able to do pretty much everything a creature can do. Sure, maybe it doesn’t attack or block as well – but it can do both of them. And, using this as a trick isn’t great either, because your creature still needs enough power to kill the thing you use it on.

Lizardfolk Librarians

Like all the Double Team cards, this has a built-in 2-for-1. Now, the 2/4 stats aren’t exactly exciting, but the fact you end up Scrying 4 and only using up one card to do it isn’t too bad when added to the statline. You don’t always want to attack with a 2/4, because obviously it has better stats for blocking – but it is hard for most of these Double Team cards to not be solid or better.

Signature Spells

The turn you play this, it doesn’t do anything, and that’s pretty rough for a six mana card. After that, though, you get a free 3 mana spell every turn, and that’s obviously quite strong. Now, the problem is, that this card checks your deck only for instants and sorceries that cost three, and this isn’t always something you’ll end up with enough of to make this card worthwhile. You probably need at least 3 cards that fit the bill, and sometimes that won’t be enough since you might draw two of them. Still, copying a spell every turn for free is big value. There are some downsides to be sure though, so keep that in mind.

Snowborn Simulacra

This seems pretty good. As long as you are getting two duplicates it will feel worth the mana, and if you can do more than that – which isn’t out of the question – you’ll get even more value, especially because you can put one into play. Now, it is a Sorcery that won’t impact the board right away unless you are paying a total of 7 – or you make a copy of something cheap. One really neat thing here is that it can copy any permanent! But yeah, this is sort of like a card that can make a bunch of clones, meaning it is reliant to what permanents are around, but it will basically always have the ability to copy a couple of things. So yeah, I think even as clunky as this can be sometimes, this is probably a bomb. Just imagine paying 5 for this, getting copies of the three best creatures – provided you get to your next turn, going to be hard for you to lose!

Thayan Evokers

So, basically, this is a 3-mana 2/2 that lets you loot – and you always loot into Lightning Bolt, which is pretty awesome. Obviously, you need to be at least splashing Red to play this card, otherwise you can’t cast the bolt! It also works well alongside other conjure effects – which includes Double Team – which – oh by the way – this card also has, so it actually becomes a 3/3 by the time it is attacks for the first time. And then you get another Lightning Bolt! So uh..yeah, this is usually going to be a 2-for-1, while also drastically improving your card quality with those Bolts. It will also easily get to a 4/4 all on its own. That’s just a crazy amount of value!

Undersimplify

This is a pretty neat design. So, a counterspell that lets your opponent ignore it for two isn’t usually great in Limited, since you have to have the mana up at the right time and your opponent also has to not have the mana to pay for it. But they soften the blow of your opponent paying 2 to ignore it, since you weaken a creature when you target it with this, whether the spell actually gets countered or not. Now, that’s mostly just a consolation prize, but it does at least mean this does something when your opponent has the mana, unlike most counterspells like this. I think you’ll still cut this reasonably often, though.

Water Weird

When you hit your opponent with this, you get a pretty good trigger. You either get to grow the Weird, or Surveil 1, and both are pretty nice options.

Wizened Githzerai

This doesn’t seem that good to me. Sure, it can chump block or trade and make a creature worse, but chumping is not something you want to be doing a whole lot. And yeah, the -2/-0 sticks around no matter what happens to the creature, but I still feel like this is a two drop you will cut pretty often.

Grave Choice

This has a neat design, because it tries to get around the downsides most Edict effects have. They tend to feel pretty good early, but when the board gets wide enough, you end up killing something pretty irrelevant. Grave Choice takes away the ability to sacrifice tokens, and now your opponent giving up their weakest creature could come with consequences – and that is that you get a duplicate of the card in your hand. Now, there will be plenty of times when your opponent can just sacrifice something that’s not a big deal and you get nothing, and sometimes getting a copy of their mediocre two drop won’t matter either – but I think the upgrades to this Edict make it better than most of them tend to be in Limited. It isn’t premium removal, but its not bad either.

Hook Horror

This is kind of an Alchemy version of Persist. Basically, you get a 5-mana 3/3 that gives you a 2/2 when it dies, and when that 2/2 dies, you get a 1/1. That’s three bodies on one card, which is great for sacrifice effects and the like. It can also just represent a 2-for-1 or even 3-for-1 in a regular deck.

Mind Spike

This is a neat take on Duress – and that’s what this is for the most part. You do get less info about your opponents hand, because they only reveal cards you can hit. Normally Duress isn’t really playable in your main deck in limited, however this adds the bonus of just turning into a one mana draw one when you don’t hit something. That gets around the main problem with Duress, which is that it does stone nothing way too often. Still, you do pay 2 life, and this isn’t exactly a hugely impactful card regardless of which thing happens, so you’re going to cut it a lot. But you’ll play it more than Duress!

Sewer Plague

This is premium removal. Sure, -2/-2 for three mana isn’t great, but the fact that the creature keeps getting -1/-1 every turn means that it will often set things in motion for a larger creature to die. It basically can kill things as big of a 3/3 before your opponent gets a chance to do anything, too.

Stroke of Luck

This seems like a passable card selection spell. Two mana to get the best card in your top 4 isn’t horrendous, and occasionally you’ll get more than one card. This is probably the most likely to happen with lands, but sometimes you end up with several copies of something in Limited and it might do something on occasion. Still, it doesn’t impact the board, and it is just card selection 99% of the time, so it is pretty easy to cut.

The Hourglass Coven

This is a bomb. You end up paying 6 mana for 9/9 worth of stats, and on top of that the Coven buffs your OTHER warlocks, and then the two cards you get from the spellbook also bring beneficial effects along with them. This card can really turn a game around for you.

Chaos Balor

Well, this has a fitting name, because its attack/death trigger is pretty chaotic! All of the abilities give you something that can be bad and something that can be good. Because you have control over the ability, you’re going to be able to choose what is the best for you and the worst for your opponent. If you really need mana, you’ll be happy to do 2 to yourself to get it. If your opponent has a bunch of X/2s you can kill, you’ll be happy to give those creatures +2/+0 in exchange for killing several of them. Similarly, if using the ability on your own stuff gives you lethal – you probably do that. I think the most common outcome with the card will be to use it to throw away a land or two to seek one or two nonland cards while doing one of the other effects on your opponent. Giving them treasure has a tendency to not really matter late, and because you have a ⅘ Flyer you’re going to be hitting them pretty hard. Now, no doubt about it, this card is going to be a bit awkward sometimes, but overall I think you get a reasonably efficient flyer that will do more good than bad for you.

Craving of Yeenoghu

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.

Dragonborn Immolator

A 4-mana 2/4 that can get +1/+0 for two mana is probably a 2.5, so the death trigger here is really sweet, as it will be able to make your next creature more formidable.

Flames of Moradin

There are a decent number of Artifacts in this set, but not really enough for this to be something you want to play. It just won’t do enough most of the time. Sure, you can kill your own artifact to get another temporary copy of it or whatever, but I’m not interested. If your opponent has 5+ artifacts, you can consider siding it in, but that isn’t going to happen very often.

Genasi Rabble-Rouser

This is a pretty strong Common. A two mana ⅓ with the ability to pump its power for one and a Red is probably pretty close to a 2.5, so obviously adding Double Team to the mix is pretty nice. This is a nice two drop for aggressive Red decks.

Giant Fire Beetles

Like all the Double Team cards, I think this looks pretty good. Having Menace means it will be able to effectively attack and get you that copy on a lot of boards. Getting both of them will feel great, and that’s especially true if you can augment them in some way.

Gnoll Hunting Party

I think if you can make this cost 5, you feel fine about that, and anything less than that is pretty amazing. The whole Double Team thing will give you another copy of this fairly large creature, and that second copy is going to cost five at the worst, because you had to attack with the Hunting Party to get Double Team to do its thing. A 4/4 with First Strike is not something that can be ignored, and you can get two of them here! This looks pretty good in a deck with lots of creatures.

Goblin Trapfinder

This is some pretty nice sacrifice fodder, since it provides you with two separate bodies! This is basically a one mana 1/1 that draws you a card when it dies – and yes, the card you draw is very specific, but it is still giving you a pretty real card most of the time. This is probably at its best in Black-Red, but it seems like a fine inclusion in any Red deck.

Incessant Provocation

As usual, the Threaten effect in this set is a build around. There is sacrifice stuff around - Seplucher Ghoul at Common can sacrifice things for free, and if you have cards like that the Provocation will be something you want to play, since you can get rid of their creature permanently and get a bonus on the way there! If you don’t have 3+ ways to sacrifice creatures though, you hope you’re not playing this. It does perpetually force the creature to attack, but that really isn’t going to feel like enough most of the time.

Kardum, Patron of Flames

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.

Kobold Warcaller

We have seen a lot of one mana 1/1s that can tap and give haste to things, and they tend to be pretty decent. This is obviously an upgrade, because you don’t actually have to cast your creature for it to get the Haste – you can use this during your opponents end step and then cast the Haste creature on your turn, for example. Plus, the creature will keep haste no matter where it goes! It still isn’t amazing or anything, but seems like a fine one drop for aggressive Red decks.

Mephit's Enthusiasm

This is premium removal. Two mana for 4 damage is great, even on a Sorcery, so the fact that you’ll sometimes get to buff your next creature is the cherry on top.

Tiefling Outcasts

Pretty wild to see a one mana lord, but that’s definitely what this is! The +1/+0 boost will pump a reasonable number of creatures in the set, and if you can find a way to get in with the outcasts, you get a second copy! Then you have two 2/1s at worst! Sometimes it will be hard to attack with this without it dying, but most Red decks will have enough creatures with these types that it will always impact the board.

Unexpected Allies

I’m not a huge fan of this, mostly because at Sorcery speed, it is very easy to disrupt. Your opponent need only respond in any number of ways to get a 2-for-1. Now, if you wait until your opponent’s shields are down, this can do some work, since it makes your creature hit harder, and gives double team to whatever you want – and sometimes there will be spicy options. The +2/+0 means that it will be easier for you to at least get a trade with the attack, and the fact you get First Strike sometimes is a nice bonus that makes the creature very hard to block. However, this set seems to have a high power level, and I’m not sure how much value I see in playing something that is easy to mess up.

Uthgardt Fury

This seems really good. I would already be on a 3-mana Enchantment that does 4 damage to anything when it enters. That’s a great removal spell that can also go to the dome. And, on top of that, Uthgardt Fury also changes the rules of damage. The first time I read this I thought it was symmetrical – but NOPE! It only hurts your opponent, and it makes it so their creatures are significantly worse, since damage won’t go away anymore. Now, I do think that’s going to have a more minimal effect than it might seem, but it does definitely make those creatures worse. So this is premium removal with impressive upside.

Warriors of Tiamat

A 5-mana 4/2 with Haste isn’t something you want to play, but combining haste with Double Team is pretty spicy, since it means unlike other Double Team creatures, you can get that extra copy of the card before your opponent has a chance to untap. The downside, of course, is lots of cheap creatures and removal can trade with this thing, but they still have to find a way to deal with it twice, and that’s pretty nice.

Arcane Archery

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.

Favored Enemy

So basically, this is an Enchantment version of Prey Upon that also gives you some pretty real additional value. The Temur decks in the format will have a lot of dragons, and most decks will have 3+ cards with the same creature type, so getting the +1/+1 counters out of this is also going to happen. Prey Upon is usually like a 2.0 – you need enough large creatures to make it worth it, but that isn’t asking a whole lot in Green, and the counters are real enough upside.

Follow the Tracks

This is an interesting take on ramp and fixing. You get to choose one of the Uncommon gates, meaning you can effectively get a land that produces whatever color you need, while also ramping – and the Gate lands all can draw you a card in the late game too. This is certainly a little clunky, but the ramp and fixing it offers is a pretty big deal.

Oyaminartok, Polar Werebear

The whole hexproof part makes it hard for your opponent to find a way around it at first, and then when you start cranking out food you end up netting mana and gaining cards, which is pretty darn powerful. The mana can only be used on Blue creatures, but that’s what this Polar Bear will be getting you, so it works out quite nicely. Many of the creatures in the spellbook actually cost three mana or less, so you can even cast one of them right away! Basically, this is a value engine that can pretty effectively fuel itself – and a creature with great stats.

Verdant Rejuvenation

If ramp is a viable strategy in this format, this is a pretty spicy win condition! You need to have something on the board, but if you just have a 4-drop in play this is usually going to do some serious work! Sure, you don’t pick what gets sought, but it kind of doesn’t matter at that point. There is enough ramp in Green that it seems like this might actually be a possibility. This card could end up 0.0 or a 4.0, depending on how viable ramp is.

You Line Up the Shot

So, this is the usual “Crushing Canopy” type effect we see, but it is actually a little bit better. This is because instead of paying three up front, you can choose to pay in installments. It is also better because it can also just be cycled away for one mana. This card does suffer a bit from the fact there are some adventures in this set that let you deal with the same sorts of things, and they turn into creatures, so those are probably just better than You Line Up the Shot. But still, any time you add Cycling to a card that can be situationally useful, it tends to be playable, and I think that’s what we have here.

Jon Irenicus, the Exile

This looks quite good. It has some passable defensive stats and a very powerful effect. It either substantially mills your opponent or draws you a card, and that’s pretty good! I’m not a huge fan of straight up mill win conditions, but because this synergizes with itself, I’m pretty happy. This is going to draw you a card a decent chunk of the time the turn you play it, and it will basically guarantee you draw one off of it every other turn, and that seems like a sweet value engine.

Liara of the Flaming Fist

This is the Red/White signpost uncommon. Unsurprisingly, it is a go-wide aggro deck – in this case, it is really built around the Double Team mechanic, as that is the easiest way to get cards with the same name. Notably, this also will help you out with tokens! The fact you can give anything double team and first strike is pretty spicy too, as you can give it to your best creature to get another copy – and First Strike helps that creature survive. Note, by the way, that ability can only be used once. Period. Not once per turn! But still, having that ability once seems pretty strong.

Minthara of the Absolute

Minthara of the Absolute – 3.0 This is the signpost Uncommon for BW, a color pair all about permanents leaving the battlefield, so you’ll be able to ratchet up the intensity on this pretty easily. I mean, a 4-mana 2/4 that gives +1/+0 to your whole board is a card you always play, and while it isn’t that immediately most of the time, it will get there relatively easily, and then beyond. It is nice that if you get multiple copies of this they feed off of each other too. I don’t feel like this is a signpost Uncommon that really puls you into its deck – but it is a card you’ll never cut if you ARE Black/White.

Tasha, Unholy Archmage

This is a pretty cool planeswalker! Her +1 makes it a heck of a lot harder for your opponent to take you down, and even if they do the -1/-1 counters she gives them stick around. Her -2 is also pretty neat, and can be used to protect her, but your opponent getting the choice about the card does mean that sometimes you won’t get something especially useful. Adding Ward 2 to the mix does increase the chances that that creature can stick around and protect her, though - and sometimes you’ll get something pretty awesome! Then, her ultimate is the kind that will win you the game on the spot. I think her +1 and -2 are both quite good, and getting to her ultimate really isn’t that hard. She’s a massive bomb.

Ulder Ravengard, Marshal

Most of the time, this will be able to come down and immediately have a large impact on the board, since adding double team to one of your other creatures is a pretty big deal. It suddenly makes offering a trade with that creature better, so it will often result in an attack you didn’t have before – and if you did already have the attack, that’s fine too – since getting the copy will be even better! Then when he starts rumbling, he makes sure to give you back more value by conjuring creatures to your hand. So, pretty hard to ever come out behind here, and if your opponent can’t keep it in check, it will run away with the game.

Gate of the Black Dragon

So, these five gates don’t fix mana for you at all, and coming into play tapped can be a liability, but they mostly make up for that by being capable of drawing you a card in the late game – and the card you draw is always a nonland, and that’s a big deal. There is only one Gate payoff in the set, and it isn’t good.

Gate to Manorborn

So, these five gates don’t fix mana for you at all, and coming into play tapped can be a liability, but they mostly make up for that by being capable of drawing you a card in the late game – and the card you draw is always a nonland, and that’s a big deal. There is only one Gate payoff in the set, and it isn’t good.

Gate to Seatower

So, these five gates don’t fix mana for you at all, and coming into play tapped can be a liability, but they mostly make up for that by being capable of drawing you a card in the late game – and the card you draw is always a nonland, and that’s a big deal. There is only one Gate payoff in the set, and it isn’t good.

Gate to the Citadel

So, these five gates don’t fix mana for you at all, and coming into play tapped can be a liability, but they mostly make up for that by being capable of drawing you a card in the late game – and the card you draw is always a nonland, and that’s a big deal. There is only one Gate payoff in the set, and it isn’t good.

Gate to Tumbledown

So, these five gates don’t fix mana for you at all, and coming into play tapped can be a liability, but they mostly make up for that by being capable of drawing you a card in the late game – and the card you draw is always a nonland, and that’s a big deal. There is only one Gate payoff in the set, and it isn’t good.

Klement, Novice Acolyte

This is really good. If you play this on turn two, the boost it gives to your hand will be insane! Sometimes you’ll get it at a point in the game where it doesn’t do much with its ETB, but most of the time it will buff at least one thing in your hand. While its specialized versions are all quite good, they do seem a little less powerful than some of the others – but that’s probably because it is better on the front side than most of them. I think the Black/White one looks the best, as getting two 2/2 tokens right away is huge! But like with all of this, every single one of these looks quite good.

Lae'zel, Githyanki Warrior

Yep, the front side on this one is another very good card. It is a 4-mana 2/4 with Double Strike that dodges the first removal spell that is pointed at it. Then, this can specialize for only 1 mana, and when it does the effect it gives you more than makes up for the card you discard. One really cool thing is that if you manage to transform this before it is ever targeted with removal, you actually get an ETB trigger when your opponent tries to remove it and it blinks itself.

Lulu, Forgetful Hollyphant

Pretty much every card with Specialize looks quite good, and this is no exception. Most of them are playable or better on their front side – and that’s certainly the case here, as a 3-mana ⅓ with Flying that grants Flying to the next creature you cast is definitely a good card – probably a 3.0 on its own. Then, it of course synergizes with itself when it transforms, since it pays you of for attacking with flyers – and all the payoffs are pretty great.

Rasaad, Monk of Selune

So, this is a Banisher Priest-type creature, and that’s always a great card in Limited! The downside is of course that your opponent can find removal and get their thing back, but you usually still took their creature for a few turns. The good news too, is that Rasaad can Specialize into a larger creature – making it harder to kill, and all of them also give you an effect that helps soften the blow if your opponent does get rid of him. The White one makes it a vanilla 1/1, and the others all give you a death trigger that gives you some value on the board. Specialize 5 is pretty darn high, but the front of the card alone is probably a 3.5, so this looks great.

Alora, Rogue Companion

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.

Gale, Conduit of the Arcane

You would always play a 4-mana ⅔ that returns an instant or sorcery from your graveyard to your hand when it enters the battlefield, at least, assuming you have 5 or more cards it can get back. And then, once this specializes, it becomes a really good payoff for casting spells. I think the Blue/White one seems the most powerful, since it adds new bodies to the board, but every single specialized version of this card is very powerful. I think this is a bomb.

Imoen, Trickster Friend

A two mana 2/1 that is unblockable when it attacks alone is something you’d pretty much always play. So, the fact that this has Specialize is pretty amazing. Once it specializes, it becomes completely unblockable, and then it gives you some pretty powerful effects when you hit your opponent. Now, she does need some spells in the graveyard to fuel her abilities, so you’re obviously going to want to run a bunch of spells alongside Imoen to get the full value out of her. I think this looks like another bomb with Specialize. It starts out as a good card, and then becomes a great one.

Vhal, Eager Scholar

A 3-mana 2/1 that can tap and loot for free is something you’d usually play in Limited. Unlike some of the other Specialize creatures out there, this is one where you have to have it stick around on its front side for awhile if you want to get good value out of it, because when it transforms it consumes the study counters you get for looting and gives you a powerful effect depending on how many counters it had. So it takes a little while to get it going, but because the front is already a nice card, and the specialized versions of it all give you some powerful effects, this still looks really good.

Sarevok the Usurper

Before this Specializes, it is a pretty nice card. Even if you only have a single creature in your graveyard, being able to offer that boost every turn is pretty relevant. Saervok can even pump himself! Then, if your graveyard has some more going on, it becomes even more potent. And obviously, once Saervok specializes, he becomes even more impressive. I don’t actually love the Blue-Black versino of Saervok, but the other three – and especially the Menace one – are pretty scary. A 4/4 Menace that gives Menace and a stats boost to another creature every turn is going to end a lot of games.

Shadowheart, Sharran Cleric

This creature is all about aggression! A two mana 2/2 with death touch and the 1 damage every end step effect is a pretty solid card. You can trade it for anything, and in the mean time it can really pick away at your opponent. Of course, the effect is symmetrical, and sometimes you’ll have to be careful, but if you play this in an aggro deck, that’s mostly going to benefit you. Especially because, once your opponent has low enough life, you can specialize this into a pretty scary creature that now gives you a bonus for losing life on your turn, in addition to various other powerful effects.

Viconia, Nightsinger's Disciple

This looks pretty nuts for an Uncommon. It starts out with good base stats and a graveyard hate effect, and then with Specialize it can become one of five other creatures depending on the color of the card or the type of land you discard. The fact you can discard lands and get this to turn into one of those other creatures is what really makes them seem awesome. Once it becomes the other form of Viconia, you end up getting back the card of value back that you discarded to specialize anyway, especially if you discarded a land!

Ambergris, Citadel Agent

A 3-mana 3/2 with Haste that can let you throw your hand away to draw two cards is a card you’d pretty much always play. That attack trigger can actually be pretty good, because it means you can simply discard your hand of 0 or 1 card, and you actually gain cards. Once it specializes, most versions of it give you a bonus for discarding cards, in which case actually throwing more cards away is going to be really spicy. And, even if you have 0 cards in your hand, you discarded a card the turn you played it to Specialize it, so you’ll at least get some bonus right away. Like most Specialize cards, this looks like a very powerful card.

Gut, Fanatical Priestess

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!

Karlach, Raging Tiefling

A two mana 2/2 with First Strike is usually a 3.5, so the specialize upside here is quite good. It does cost 6 mana – which is a ton – but the fact that you can Specialize it from the graveyard helps soften that blow, since you can just wait to do it until late. And when you do that, it comes back as a more powerful creature who can’t block – but comes with some other really big upside. I think this is a bomb.

Wyll, Pact-Bound Duelist

This looks quite good. The idea is to play it and steal an opposing creature or artifact and then on the next turn specialize, and when you do you can sacrifice a creature or an artifact and then get one of the powerful effects that Wyll offers. Basically, he ends up feeling like a removal spell that is also a really formidable creature.

Jaheira, Harper Emissary

This starts with solid stats, and has hexproof that will actually matter on occasion. Then, when she specializes, you get to naturalize and get an additional effect. That’s some pretty nice artifact and enchantment hate to run in your main deck, and because it starts out as such a solid two drop, I like the overall package here. Even if you don’t have something to naturalize, her other specialize effects offer decent value.

Lukamina, Moon Druid

Well, this is super strong. Her base form as a 3-mana 2/2 that gets you a basic land from your deck is a solid card, even if you don’t get to choose what land you get. Then, once it specializes, it becomes super good regardless of what form it takes. They all come with super powerful effects, and they all return to the battlefield tapped in Lukamina’s original form, and that means the whole thing starts over again, you even get to seek another land, and then you can specialize her again for more action. It kind of reminds me of Huntmaster of the Fells, and that’s a good comparison! Now, she is vulnerable for awhile, if you play her early – but she still gives you good value in the worst case scenario, and has absurd upside.

Skanos, Dragon Vassal

So, the base card here is pretty solid. A 5-mana 4/4 isn’t so much, but giving +4/+0 to another attacking creature is the kind of boost that can turn any creature into a threat. Then, once you Specialize he gains a keyword ability and you get to also give a keyword ability to that creature, which is a nice upgrade. Now, he does not exactly repay you for the full card you spend to Specialize with him, so discarding a real card to Specialize him won’t feel amazing, but you can discard lands too, and that certainly will feel amazing. And even discarding a real card in the right situation is well worth it. I think this looks like a strong Uncommon.

Wilson, Bear Comrade

Even if Wilson didn’t have Specialize, he would be a 3.0 at worst, as he is just a great French Vanilla creature. Then, once he transforms, in most of his forms he gains an additional keyword, he gets bigger, and he gains an ability he can use from the graveyard, and all of those effects ar epretty darn good. I think this is an A-.

Ancient Gold Dragon

7 mana is a lot, but what you get for that investment is incredible, since you’re going to get some number of additional flyers when it hits the opponent. They even come down untapped, so it will be virtually impossible for your opponent to find a way to win if you hit them with the Dragon – even just 2-3 tokens is a big deal. It does take a while to get the mana to cast this, and it does need you to untap and attack before it wins you the game, but it is still a bomb.

Archivist of Oghma

A two mana 2/2 with Flash is usually a decent card, since it can ambush block and kill X/2s, and this one comes with a pretty nice hatebear effect. Drawing a card is huge so getting to do it when your opponent searches is nice! Now, in your typical Limited game ther ewon’t be that much searching going on, but triggering this once or twice over the course of a draft is pretty sweet, and because it has Flash your opponent may not even know to play around it!

Ascend from Avernus

This seems a little too costly to be worth it. I mean, paying 6 mana you should probably expect to get back around two things..and that isn’t remotely worth it. Yeah, if you pump a ton of mana into it then maybe you’re doing something, but this card also suffers from the fact that none of the White decks in the format are really graveyard decks – I guess Black/White is to some extent, but it isn’t a super big theme.

Blessed Hippogriff

So, if you took the Adventure away here, you’d have a 3.0 Reasonably costed Flyers that can send another creature into the air always play quite well. The Adventure part of the card isn’t always going to come up, but it is nice that if you find a way to use it ahead of turn 4, you get some pretty real value – maybe even a 2-for-1! Even just setting up a chump block that your creature survives is pretty decent use of the card, since you get a whole creature later. Does having the Adventure do enough to get this to a B-? I don’t quite think it does. The problem is just that indestructible isn’t as useful as often as you’d think. Still, this is one of White’s best Commons.

Celestial Unicorn

This is a Forgotten Realms reprint, and it is a solid little life gain payoff, that goes especially well in the GW deck. It was never super impressive or anything, but hey – it can definitely grow throughout the game in a good GW deck.

Dawnbringer Cleric

This is another reprint from Forgotten Realms. It is a decent little two drop. If you’re the life gain deck, it can get those triggers going, and the format has enough artifacts and Enchantments that those modes are reasonable too.

Devoted Paladin

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.

Flaming Fist Officer

This starts as a Gray Ogre, and that’s always a pretty awful statline – mostly because plenty of one mana cards can deal with it. However, it likes it when creatures go away, whether they die or get blinked, and that means it will be useful in both BW and UW. Still, it probably isn’t the payoff that really makes those decks good, it is just sort of a decent card.

Guardian Naga

Another Adventure where neither half is especially good. The ADventure is an expensive Disenchant, and the creature has underwhelming stats for 7, even with Vigilance and its ability to not take damage during your turn. You won’t always have something to use the Adventure side on, but it is pretty nice that you can run this in your main deck without a huge cost. After all, you do still get a creature eventually, even if it is overcosted.

Guiding Bolt

We see this effect a lot, and it is usually worth playing in your main deck, though not terribly exciting. Most decks have targets for a removal spell like this, but not so many you can look at this as premium, even with Scry 2 attached. Still, the first copy seems pretty solid.

Horn of Valhalla

So, if this was just the adventure side, it would be a pretty nice card. Getting multiple bodies out of one card is always nice, and sure paying 1 or 2 for X isn’t incredible, but it does scale all game long. You can make a bunch of bodies to protect you or to pressure your opponent. And the equipment side would also be a pretty nice card on its own – at worst it gives +1/+1, and sure sometimes it will feel clunky, but in the end you have two quality cards stapled together. They synergize well with one another too, and casting the Adventure and then playing the Equipment is going to end a lot of games.

Icewind Stalwart

Hill Giant stats aren’t something I love, and I’m not sure the ETB ability here will do something often enough to really overcome that. There are certainly creatures with ETB abilities to abuse and the like, but you still won’t have this matter often enough for it to be anything special.

Lae'zel's Acrobatics

This is another card that is all about reusing ETB abilities that I’m not that pumped about. Sure, you can use this to save a creature from removal and stuff like that too, but there will be times where it just won’t be worth using because you need to be able to block and stuff. You can of course set up blocks and then use it – and sometimes your opponent will wait to use removal until that point – and when you do that the value will be good, but I still feel like this is asking for too much to be going on to be worth it very often. You need the right situation or it just isn’t very good. This does have a high ceiling, no doubt – if you roll a 10 through 20 and have like, two ETB abilities, it will do some serious work – but I’m pretty skeptical you’ll pull that off often enough.

Minimus Containment

This is a Forgotten Realms reprint. It is decent removal – being able to deal with any permanent type is pretty nice. Still, it never really felt premium, since you are giving your opponent back some very real value, especially when you use this early, as it can ramp them into more powerful spells.

Monk of the Open Hand

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.

Pegasus Guardian

I don’t normally love “blink” or “flicker” cards in Limited – but that’s usually only when that’s all a card can do. This card gets the situational benefits of that kind of effect, while also being a nice creature. It can save a creature from removal, or rebuy an ETB trigger, and those things are neat, but still too narrow if its all a card does. It is certainly an overcosted creature, but you’ll often be able to play it and also get the 1/1 Flyer the turn you play it, since it looks at a creature leaving the battlefield in any way, so generating those tokens is going to be pretty nice. I really like that it is both an enabler and a payoff for those types of effects.

Portable Hole

This is a reprint from Forgotten Realms, and it was pretty mediocre in that Limited format. You can definitely play it in your White decks and it usually won’t feel horrible, but there will be some games where you have no real targets for this. Your typical Limited deck will probably have 4-5 things it can hit, and that’s a little too narrow.

Priest of Ancient Lore

This is a Forgotten Realms Reprint, and it was White’s best Common in that set, and I think that will be true here too. It will give you a lot of 2-for-1s, and it gains you life which the GW deck is extra interested in. Sure, it doesn’t have Flying like inspiring Overseer, but that card was absurd – this one is merely a very very good Common, instead of a format-warping one.

Rally Maneuver

This trick wasn’t very impressive in Forgotten Realms. It has 2-for-1 potential to be sure, but you’ll be surprised by how often things don’t line up the way you need them to for this to actually do something meaningful.

Rescuer Chwinga

A two mana 2/2 with Flash is already playable, and this has an extra ability that really matter sometimes. You can of course use it to save a permanent from removal, or you can use it to rebuy an ETB ability. You won’t always get to do something with it, but it is pretty good upside on an already solid card.

Scouting Hawk

So, the times where this gets you that Plains, it will feel quite good. Problem is, there will be a significant chunk of the time where it can’t do that, and a 3-mana 1/1 Flyer is pretty dang abysmal. You can set it up to some degree of course, especially if your opponent went first. But if you go first it is a heck of a lot harder to make sure the ETB ability does something. Basically, it will feel like a 1.0 when you don’t get a land, and a 3.0 when you can. I guess that makes it a 2.0.

Steadfast Paladin

This is a reprint that was nice in the Lifegain deck in Forgotten Realms. It is certainly nothing special, but it does enough that you play it most of the time in White.

Steadfast Unicorn

We’ve seen a lot of one drops with this sort of mass pump ability kind of underwhelm in the past, but that Vigilance makes a difference! Your board becoming better at attacking and hanging around to block can really alter races. Now, this still isn’t amazing or anything, but it seems like a solid one drop, where most similar cards were cards you cut more often than you played.

Stick Together

This is a pretty wacky Wrath effect. Perhaps a little too wacky! You’ll frequently be able to hold on to some stuff, but so will your opponent. You don’t really have enough control over how this is going to go for this to be something I really want to play most of the time. It can be powerful, but there will be significant times where it doesn’t do enough or worse – it does more good for your opponent than you!

You Hear Something on Watch

This was a solid card for slower decks in Forgotten Realms Limited. Being able to kill a whole lot of creatures in the format for only two mana is nice, even if it is situational – and that is the mode you’ll use the most on this. But the board pump comes up sometimes too!

You're Ambushed on the Road

This was not really playable in Forgotten Realms. It is tempting to look at a card like this and think of all the ways you can use those two modes – but too often neither of the modes is actually worth using up a card. Now, this format does have more reasons to return your own stuff to your hand, but I don’t think that makes this all that much better.

You're Confronted by Robbers

Neither mode is great for the mana investment – but three 1/1 soldiers at instant speed for 4 mana is already enough for this card to be a C at worst. You can use those bodies to ambush block stuff, or just to go really wide if you’re interested in doing that. What’s nice is, if you are already wide enough, you can use this to tap down blockers at the end of your opponent’s turn and go for the win.

Air-Cult Elemental

This is a Forgotten Realms reprint, and it was a fairly disappointing card in that format. In fact, Blue in general was very underpowered in that set! I mean, I normally love a creature that enters the battlefield and bounces something, and if this format is slow enough this will probably be better than it was in Forgotten Realms – but it is hard to get away from my skepticism.

Ancient Silver Dragon

This is the worst card in this cycle when it comes to Limited. It costs more mana than the others, and it doesn’t have an ability that inherently adds to the board. What’s more is, rolling a number that is 10+ and drawing the rest of your library and losing on the spot is a very real possibility in Limited, especially by the time this hits your opponent with this 8 drop. Obviously, this is still incredibly powerful, if you can draw 10 and then untap, you probably win the game, but the risks are very real.

Blur

This is a decent way to blink a creature. Adding “Draw a Card” to it makes a big difference, because it means it replaces itself – and that’s good, because you won’t always have a way to use this card effectively enough. The UW deck is about blinking creatures and stuff, and obviously this can get the job done in that deck.

Charmed Sleep

This is a reprint, and last time we saw it was a pretty good removal spell. In a format with lots of blink effects and some sacrifice stuff this probably gets a little worse, but it still costs three mana to deal with pretty much any threat. Not turning off all its activated or static abilities can be a bummer, but this still looks pretty good for a Blue deck.

Clever Conjurer

This is another Forgotten Realms reprint, and it was fairly unimpressive in that format. It can help you ramp, which is cool, but the fact you can’t use the ability at instant speed is a huge bummer, as it makes the card wayyy worse. It can’t be used to threaten to untap things when your opponent attacks you and things like that.

Contact Other Plane

Another Forgotten Realms reprint! Over the last year or so, most cards that JUST draw you two cards for 4 mana, even at instant speed, have been really disappointing. Limited has become more and more about adding to the board when you spend mana, and this just doesn’t do it. Now, it isn’t terrible, if you roll a 10 through 20 it is a pretty nice draw spell, and I don’t hate the idea of running one of these in your Blue decks, but you really can’t have that many cards that don’t add to the board and hope to do well.

Displacer Kitten

This comes with a repeatable way to blink creatures, which is nice if you have the abilities to abuse. The thing that’s a bit awkward, though, is that it wants you to play noncreature spells and have creatures that are worth blinking, and you only have so many cards in your deck, so getting a consistent number of both of those things can be pretty rough. The stat-line is also really awful. Still, the ability to blink stuff at instant speed on a card that actually adds to the board is definitely a thing in this format.

Draconic Lore

Six mana to draw three is probably a 1.5 at best, and a 4-mana Draw 3 is probably a 3.5. So obviously, you need to be in UG or UR to take full advantage of this, as those are both Dragon tribal decks. Because those are really focused archetypes in the format, I don’t really think this needs a build around grade.

Dragonborn Looter

Having to pay mana to loot is a pretty big downgrade from a merfolk looter type card, even if it is only one mana. Looting is good of course, because it improves the quality of your draws. However, We’ve seen a lot of these lately and they have felt like a 1.5- type card. However, this is a cheap Dragon, something that both UR and UG a going to be interested in, and that definitely matters.

Dream Fracture

I don’t think I’m in for this. This is basically Cancel, a card that usually just isn’t good enough in Limited most of the time. A three mana hard counter needs to do something extra usually to be playable in Limited, and the extra here isn’t that great – both you and your opponent draw a card, so you sort of break even. The cost of leaving mana up, especially two mana of the same color, can be a pretty big one. And yeah, you probably get to untap and use your new card first, but this is still basically just Cancel.

Gale's Redirection

This is basically a 5-mana counter spell that then gives you the card that you counter. So, it is sort of a 5-mana hard counter that draws you a card. It will be especially gross if you roll a 15 or higher, since you don’t even have to pay mana! Now, it is still situational, your opponent can sometimes play around something like this and that’s brutal, but I still think it is pretty good.

Goggles of Night

This has a pretty sweet combat damage trigger – Scry 1 and draw a card is just really good in Limited, and if you can make this do its thing with regularity, you’ll just win! Now, the problem is – this doesn’t enhance the statistics of the creature at all, so what you need is a creature who is already evasive. Good news is, UB has a lot of nice ways to make creatures hard to block, so this slots in nicely there as a very real way to generate insane value. But there will still be times where you just can’t put this on something meaningful. Still, the effect is powerful enough that I’m pretty interested in playing this, provided my deck has a decent amount of evasion.

Guild Thief

This is a Forgotten Realms reprint – and not a super impressive one. Starting out as a 1/1 is Brutal, and sure it can get bigger, but it just won’t be very good at attacking, even after coming down on turn two. In the late game you can make it unblockable, but only for a pretty huge cost, and making this into a tapped 2/2 at that stage of the game just isn’t good enough.

Illithid Harvester

The freeze down effect from the Adventure is often going to really enable a good attack for you – and it can also buy you the time to get to the next turn so you can cast the Harvester itself. The enter the battle field ability can most obviously be used to downgrade opposing creatures, but you can also use it on your own stuff if that’s advantageous. But yeah, casting the Adventure one turn and the Harvester the next turn is going to feel powerful. Now, a 2/2 isn’t nothing, so it isn’t quite getting rid of cards entirely, but the fact you add that 4/4 board to the body, and the same card gave you very real value on the previous turn makes it hard not to see this as an excellent card.

Irenicus's Vile Duplication

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+.

Juvenile Mist Dragon

This is a great Uncommon, potentially the best one in Blue – at least the best one that doesn’t have Specialize. A 5-mana 4/3 Flyer is probably a 2.5 at worst, so adding the Freeze down effect to a creature with that statline is a really big deal. It will enable new attacks the turn you play it, and then start really doing serious damage in the sky. It also has an important creature, and an ETB ability I’m very interested in rebuying in this format, and it is great even if you aren’t doing that.

Kenku Artificer

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.

Kindred Discovery

So, the creature type you’ll usually name with this is Dragon, since that’s really the only tribal deck in the set. And uh..yeah, this is a pretty insane card draw engine if you have enough creatures with the type you name. It is sort of nice that in a pinch, you can just name a creature type you have in play and attack with it to draw a card right away, though that obviously isn’t the ideal use of this. The downside of a 5-mana Enchantment is that it won’t impact the board right away, but it stands a pretty good chance of at least drawing you one card the turn you play it. Then, if you’re drawing more cards you’re pretty likely to draw more Dragons and keep the chain going. It doesn’t really feel like this needs a build around grade, as I think most UR and UG decks in the format will have enough dragons to get good use out of this. It IS still a pretty clunky enchantment, though.

Lapis Orb of Dragonkind

Three mana rocks usually aren’t that good in Limited, even if they can add mana of any color! And this one can only add Blue. The upside, of course, is you get to scry when you cast a Dragon with it. But that isn’t the most exciting payoff. Sure, Scry 2 is nice, but it isn’t something that pays you off for playing this three mana card that doesn’t add to the board in any real way. I guess if you have some really big dragons to ramp into this gets a little more interesting, but there are better ways to ramp in the format.

Pseudodragon Familiar

This is solid cheap Dragon. A three mana 2/1 Flyer isn’t the most impressive rate, but the ability to send your other creatures into the sky in the mid to late game definitely matters. This seems like a nice Common for Blue.

Ray of Frost

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.

Rimeshield Frost Giant

Another reprint, and a pretty medium one. This has some decent-sized ground stats, and Ward 3 does make it hard to get this thing out of the way, but it isn’t a GREAT 5-drop, and really you’re hoping for a better one.

Robe of the Archmagi

Well, this can draw you a whole lot of cards, and if you have Shamans, Warlocks and Wizards around, the equip cost being one is going to feel pretty amazing. The downside here is similar to what we saw with the Goggles earlier – this doesn’t buff the creature at all, so you need something that is already fairly good at attacking, either because it is big or because it is evasive. And the types where you pay the 4 mana cost and your opponent removes your thing will be brutal! Still, this has the potential to draw a lot of cards, and fairly efficiently too.

Shocking Grasp

Normally I’m not a big fan of cards that just lowers power, but if you add a cantrip to pretty much anything, it becomes a substantially better card, and that’s certainly true here! The worst case is you take two less damage and draw a card, and while that’s not amazing, it isn’t the worst thing ever. The times where you manage to actually use this as a full-blown trick that keeps your creature alive and kills theirs is going to feel particularly insane, since you get a two mana 2-for-1! Now, that won’t happen a ton, but it will happen!

Soulknife Spy

Another Forgotten Realms reprint, and this was one of the few Blue Commons in that set that I would describe as “Good.” A card that draws you a card when it hits the opponent is pretty sweet when it comes with solid stats, and this definitely does. If you can give it evasion in some way, it becomes a must kill, and even when you aren’t able to do that, it still becomes something your opponent better trade for.

Sword Coast Serpent

A two mana Instant that bounces a creature is usually like a 1.5. Using that in response to a trick or an Aura or something is especially good, because you end up getting tempo and a 1-for-1, but the fact that this is an Adventure makes it a lot less painful if you end up getting ONLY tempo out of it. Then, in the late came, this is a pretty impressive monster that will be unblockable sometimes. Like a lot of Adventure cards, each side individually isn’t that impressive, but the fact you get both of these things out of one card is a pretty big deal, and is better than it might look on digital paper.

Tymora's Invoker

This has mediocre stats as a two drop, but it is nice that in the extreme late game it can draw you those two cards. If you just keep drawing lands, this helps you fix that! But, it is still quite expensive, and pretty meaningless in the early game.

You Come to a River

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.

You Find the Villains' Lair

This wasn’t especially good in Forgotten Realms. Sure, it has two modes and everything, but neither of them is especially good, and both are fairly situational. This can be Cancel, or a three mana Faithless Looting, and that just isn’t something you’re always in the market for.

Young Blue Dragon

This is a really good Common for Blue. Again, I know neither side looks that impressive, but being able to use this early as a draw spell, and then playing a meaningful Flyer with a good creature type in the later game is really sweet. After all, it is a 2-for-1!

Altar of Bhaal

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.

Ambition's Cost

4 mana to draw three is nice and all, but as a sorcery that loses you three life as well, this seems way too clunky. You can’t not add to the board at all while you’re spending four mana, unless the game is getting really long.

Ancient Brass Dragon

Obviously, this is insane in Limited – as is the rest of this cycle. Sure, there is a bit of luck involved with the die roll, but chances are good you’ll reanimate at least one thing every time you hit your opponent with this, and that’s just insane. Sometimes you will reanimate way more than that, and only very rarely will you get nothing. The only thing that keeps it from being a straight A+ is that it doesn’t give you that value immediately, meaning that answering this with removal saves your opponent. The best bombs still give you something even if your opponent has the removal. But I’m splitting hairs here – it is a massive bomb.

Armor of Shadows

This is a solid trick. Any time one costs only a single mana, it warrants some serious consideration to make your deck. +1/+0 isn’t the greatest thing ever – your creature really needs decent size already to fully take advantage of this as a trick, but it IS a power boost that will upgrade enough creatures and let them do lethal to an opposing creature. On top of that, it can also save a creature from damage or destroy removal, which is some nice secondary upside.

Baleful Beholder

This is a Forgotten Realms reprint. It was pretty mediocre in that set. There were too many situations where neither ETB mattered, and when this is a 6-mana 6/5 and not much else, it feels pretty bad. I think it looks like it will perform similarly in this set.

Black Dragon

Forgotten Realms ended up being fast enough that this big dragon really underperformed. In most formats, this would have been really good, and I fully expect this to be better in this format than in that one. This comes down with a very real body and kills something, and you definitely get 7 mana’s worth of value. This format also has some pretty legitimate reanimator stuff going on, so getting this to come into play early is a real possibility.

Black Market Connections

This has a pretty cool design! It can generate a whole lot of value, but at the cost of life. However, all three options are pretty appealing! The card draw effect kind of makes this Phyrexian Arena-like – apart from the fact that it makes you pay twice the life. It does balance out to some extent, since you can also get creatures and treasure with it. It definitely gets better if you have some ways to gain life, as that minimizes the downside, but either way this feels fairly powerful.

Blood Money

7 mana for a Wrath is a whole lot, even if you are getting tapped treasure. Most of the time when you cast this, you’re pretty unlikely to have anything worth spending treasure on, since you already have 7 mana, and you certainly won’t have any mana sink creatures hanging around. This is probably just a C.

Bonecaller Cleric

So, here is one of the reanimation effects that I mentioned earlier. It is pretty nice that this is a two drop that can do two-drop things early, and then if you load up the ‘yard it can reanimate something like Black Dragon or something even better! This will work the best in BG, which is quite good at milling itself.

Cast Down

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.

Chain Devil

We see these creatures that ETB and make both players sacrifice something a lot, and they are usually pretty medium. It is nice that this one says “nontoken,” as your opponent having a token when you play an effect like this is pretty brutal. Of course, it also means that you can’t sacrifice a token to it either! There are decks in this format that will have good sacrifice fodder and stuff, and I think this will slot in as a decent card in most Black decks.

Deadly Dispute

This is a powerful reprint. Giving up a creature or artifact for two cards and a treasure is an excellent deal, especially if you are sacrificing a treasure in the first place, and that’s something you’ll be able to do, especially in Black-Red. This also enables you to discard stuff you want to reanimate or whatever.

Demogorgon's Clutches

This is an underwhelming reprint. It is a Mind Rot with some added value, but the added value is too minimal for it to really be that much better than Mind Rot.

Drider

This was decent in Forgotten Realms. Obviously when you can get in with it, it generates some very serious value, but it does have a stat-line that makes it kind of challenging to do that with regularity. There are of course ways to make it evasive, especially in UB.

Eldritch Pact

This has a cool design…one that is sort of hard to evaluate. This can potentially kill your opponent or mill them out, or you can use it on yourself if it’s a situation where drawing a whole bunch of cards However, it feels like there will be too many situations where doing either of these things is worth it, and its brutal having a 7 drop that just doesn’t do something useful. It sort of feels like this needs to be winning you the game when you cast it, or it isn’t worth it. It does seem like it could be a real win condition in some control decks, but I’m pretty skeptical of this thing.

Eyes of the Beholder

This was a mediocre removal spell in Forgotten Realms, and that’s probably what it will be here, too. Six mana is a ton, and while this can kill a whole lot of things, you’ll usually be spending more mana than your opponent spent to cast the creature that you kill. It is something you end up playing when you need the removal, but you basically never want more than one – it just isn’t anywhere close to premium.

Ghost Lantern

This looks like a pretty nice Adventure Equipment. Neither side is going to be great, but being able to use it to return a creature, and then playing an Equipment seems pretty good. While you could play this early, a lot of the time I think it will be better to wait until you can use the Adventure and then cast the Equipment. The equipment won’t offer a boost at all initially, but as the game progresses, it will start putting counters on your stuff, and that seems pretty strong. It feels like you will get a full card of value out of each side of this.

Gray Slaad

So, the Black-Green deck in this format is pretty interested in milling itself, and this looks like a nice enabler and payoff for that deck. A 4/1 with Menace and Deathtouch is pretty hard to interact with! However, you pretty much have to be in that deck, or the Adventure on this isn’t very good, and the creature won’t be that good either. Only counting creature cards for it to get the bonus is pretty rough too. This probably means this needs a build around grade. It will be a really good Common for Black/Green decks, but pretty mediocre for everyone else.

Grim Bounty

This is a little clunky at 4 mana, but being able to kill anything for that cost was pretty good in Forgotten Realms, and it will be pretty good here too. It is a removal spell that even helps you splash, and gives you the treasure synergy you need.

Grim Hireling

This is really good. It comes down and makes it so your creatures can generate treasure that turn, AND THEN, it also lets you cash in treasures for removal, which is pretty crazy. It is definitely vulnerable, but the turn you play it can generate value right away, and if left unchecked it will take over the game.

Grim Wanderer

This was in Forgotten Realms, and it wasn’t very good. While the creature is obviously above rate, setting it up so you can cast it is harder than you might think, so most of the time when you do finally cast it, it isn’t really that imposing as a 5/3. Lots of three drops in the format can easily trade with it.

Guildsworn Prowler

I think this is a good Common. A two mana 2/1 with death touch is generally going to be a 2.5, since it is fairly cheap and can trade for anything. When you can draw a card off of this, it will feel particularly absurd. Obviously, if it would draw you a card even if it was blocking, it would probably be a B because it would always be a 2-for-1. But if you do find a way to draw that card, it will feel pretty nice! It can be a nice sacrifice outlet, in addition to being a nice attacker and blocker.

Hoard Robber

This was a big overperformer in Forgotten Realms, where its stat-line really lined up in such a way that actually blocking it early was a challenge in a sea of 2/1 creatures, so it would generate a fair bit of treasure. It will probably be a little less good here, as part of what made it great was fairly format specific, but it is still a pretty nice Common.

Intellect Devourer

Your opponent gets to make the choice of what they exile of course, so that limits just how powerful this can be, but as long as you are getting something with the Devourer it is going to feel pretty good! Taking a card from an opponents hand and then using it is just a great deal, even if it is just a land. Sometimes your opponents hand will be empty, and in those cases this won’t feel great, but it still has a fail case as a 4-mana 2/4.

Manticore

This wasn’t very impressive in forgotten Realms, and it probably won’t be that good here either. This sort of “kill a damaged creature” effect ends up being pretty narrow, and even when you give the creature Flash, you’ll have a harder time than you might think getting it to do its thing. When you can kill something with this it feels pretty amazing. When you end up having to cast it without triggering the ability, it feels pretty bad.

Nefarious Imp

This is a decent payoff for creatures leaving the battlefield, especially because it is stapled to such a reasonable creature. Scry 1 isn’t going to let you take over the game or anything, but it definitely helps!

Pact Weapon

This is a pretty cool card, and also very all or nothing! Obviously, having a creature attack, draw you a card, and pump itself is pretty powerful. You will hit a land sometimes and your creature will get no boost, and that’s kind of a problem on a lot of creatures – but because you draw a card it softens the blow. You can also lose a ton of life and pump your creature a ton, in which case it feels amazing! Now, the downside is that you might end up killing yourself. As long as the Weapon is equipped, you can’t lose, but should your opponent simply remove the creature this is on, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to lose! So all in all, this is a tough card to evaluate. The upside is massive, but the downside is too. I think you will benefit from this card a ton in a typical game, but there are definitely going to be games where it doesn’t work out.

Shambling Ghast

This was a very nice common for Black in Forgotten Realms. It can really keep your opponent from attacking you early, especially because it can generate 2-for-1s against two X/1s, but just the fact it can block and kill two drops is pretty sweet too. Being able to get treasure out of it is really nice too.

Sigil of Myrkul

So, we’ve already seen a few cards that check for creature cards in your graveyard, and Sigil of Myrkul is both an enabler and a payoff, which is pretty nice. Now, when this Enchantment is doing nothing it will feel pretty miserable, but it looks like BG and ot a lesser extent Black-White will be able to set this card up, and once you are getting a counter and death touch on a creature every turn, this looks like a pretty darn good card. I think it is something of a build around – you need to make sure you have a lot of creatures to take full advantage of this, and you need other ways to mill yourself – and not every BG or BW deck will be able to do it.

Skullport Merchant

This was nice in Forgotten Realms, and it will be here too. It has nice defensive stats, and it does the kinds of things you want to be doing when you’re a defensive situation – since it can draw you cards. It of course also lets you fix your mana.

Summon Undead

Here’s another pretty solid reanimation spell. It also mills you, to set up your cards that care about cards in the graveyard, and I like that. There are enough ways to discard cards in this format that I think setting this up is very doable. It probably does need a build around grade, because if you aren’t in a deck with any targets WORTH reanimating, it isn’t worth playing.

Thieves' Tools

This was underwhelming in Forgotten Realms, and it will be here too. The UB deck in the format is about making creatures unblockable, and the BR deck likes treasure – but both of those were true in Forgotten Realms and this still didn’t really do enough to make the cut with regularity.

Vampire Spawn

This was a nice little common in Forgotten Realms. It has passable stats and creates a life point difference of 4 just from entering the battlefield. That is surprisingly good!

Wand of Orcus

It is 3 to play and 3 to equip, which is significant, but the creature you put this on basically HAS to be blocked, and because this gives your creature death touch when it attacks, your opponent won’t be able to block it super effectively very often – their creature will die, no matter how large it is. It is nice that it gives deathtouch to all of your Zombies too, which includes the tokens as well as other random Zombies in the set. Basically, this will put your opponent in “Pick your poison” mode. They have to have a body to stop whatever you equip this too, or you’re going to generate so many Zombie tokens that they can’t do anything about it.

Ancient Copper Dragon

This is a 6-mana 6/5 Flyer that generates some number of Treasure tokens when it hits your opponent, and that’s pretty awesome. You won’t’ always have something to spend that treasure on, mind you, but mana sinks and card draw spells can make sure you do. It doesn’t take over the game quite as impressively as the White, Black, and Green dragons in this cycle can, since it doesn’t add or improve your board inherently, but it is still a highly efficient creature that will give you a bunch of mana.

Battle Cry Goblin

Looks who’s back! This was arguably the best Uncommon in Forgotten Realms Limited. It can really get Pack Tactics going pretty easily thanks to its pump effect, and if you have other Goblins around it becomes even more absurd – and there are definitely some other ones around – one of which we’ve already seen in this video. What really makes it great is that it is basically a two drop that scales all game long – he tends to basically feel like an X spell, because you can just play it and use all your mana to buff it and your other goblins, which usually also means you get a token – so he basically always come down as a very relevant creature. Forgotten Realms was certainly a different format than this one, but I think this is an amazing Uncommon in basically any Limited format.

Breath Weapon

These sorts of tribal payoff board sweepers always disappoint in Limited, and that’s because there are too many situations where they don’t do enough. Sure, you can have a super Dragon-centric deck, but there are enough Dragons that most opponents will have them too. So, the number of dragons and creatures with 3 or more toughness your opponent has just really isn’t something you can control, and generally speaking they will have a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t die to this. This is mostly a sideboard card, I think. If you go up against someone who is really aggressive and has lots of creatures that this dies to, you definitely want to bring it in.

Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind

I’m more interested in this Orb than I was in the Blue one, as giving a Dragon haste is no small thing! That said, I still am not in love with a three mana mana rock that produces only a single color. Not adding to the board can just be so brutal these days. I think this deserves a build around grade. If your deck has 5 or more dragons – and especially a few that are 5 or 6 drops – this is probably a 2.0, but in all other Red decks it is basically unplayable.

Dragon's Fire

This was a premium removal spell in Forgotten Realms, and it will probably be even better here, since this set is way more into Dragon than that one was. Two mana to do 3 at instant speed is already premium, so the dragon upside is pretty amazing.

Dueling Rapier

This ended up being surprisingly solid in Forgotten Realms, but that format turned out to be fairly aggressive, and there was an Equipment deck. Without that synergy, this is basically a one mana trick that gives +2/+0 and then the boost sticks around. That can definitely be good, but because it doesn’t offer any boost that will assist your creature in SURVIVING combat, it is a bit more limited. Your creature will usually just go down, even if it takes another creature with it. Then, you have to deal with Equip 4, which is pretty ugly. I mean, you definitely end up playing one of these in really aggressive Red decks, but you cut it a fair bit too.

Earth-Cult Elemental

This was a bit of a disappointment in Forgotten Realms. It has passable stats, but six drops that didn’t like…gain you life, were kind of a liability in that format. It will probably be a little bit better here, but its ETB ability isn’t that great either. By the time this comes down many players have expendable permanents, so it is mostly the kind of thing your opponent will shrug about. It is passable as a top-curve creature, but that’s about it.

Farideh's Fireball

This is another Forgotten Realms reprint. It was a solid removal spell in that format, though it turned out to be a little clunky. It definitely isn’t premium removal, but I think chances are good that this will perform better in this format than it did in Forgotten Realms.

Fiendlash

So, Two mana to cast and three to equip for +2/+0 and Reach isn’t amazing. That card is probably a 1.5 at best. The whole damage part of the card is pretty spicy, though, and definitely provides an upgrade! Because it bumps the power of the creature, it is likely that it can do some significant damage. So you Equip this to your creature and attack, and your opponent kind of just has to take it, because blocking could lose them a creature and result in a bunch of damage. It is nice that it adds Reach to the mix too, so you can use it somewhat defensively as well. The ideal situation is probably putting this on something to attack, and then moving it to something else that you plan on blocking with. That does cost a whole lot of mana to do of course, so you won’t always pull it off. But yeah, I like the idea of attacking with something with this equipped, since your opponent will be in a world of hurt. You can also do some wacky stuff by damaging your own creature when this is around too!

Hobgoblin Captain

This was one of the great two drops in Forgotten Realms, and it will probably be quite good here too! It gets you half way to Pack Tactics on its own, and getting to attack with First Strike is surprisingly easy. This is going to be one of Red’s best commons.

Improvised Weaponry

This was pretty nice in Forgotten Realms. It could kill enough creatures in that format that it sort of overperformed. It may not be quite as good here, but 3 mana to do 2 to anything and getting a treasure back is a pretty solid deal.

Jaded Sell-Sword

Ramping into Treasure with this felt decent in Forgotten Realms, but it definitely wasn’t amazing. It can come down and attack on almost any board when you do get it those two keyword abilities, but when it is just a 4-mana 4/3 it feels pretty bad, and that happens a little too often.

Nalfeshnee

A 6-mana 4/6 Flyer is probably a 2.5, and this comes with some pretty awesome upside! Because this format has Adventures, you won’t have that hard of a time casting cards from exile, and getting a hasty temporary version of all of those creatures is very, very strong. This is a bomb.

Reckless Barbarian

This is a bear that has a useful creature type and it has some pretty real upside too. These creatures who can sac for mana are generally not as good as they look. They give you fast mana for sure, but you also have to use up a whole card just to get that mana, and that kind of thing is significantly worse in Limited than it is in constructed formats. You definitely use this mana when it gives you a nice advantage, but giving up something on the board for mana is a very real cost! We’ve seen that with cards like Treasure Hound and Skirk Prospector, and I think that’s probably going to be true here too.

Red Dragon

A 6-mana 4/4 Flyer is definitely overcosted, and I do think the ETB ability here does enough to make up for that, but it is still nothing more than a decent playable. You don’t even usually want more than one, even in a dragon deck.

Storm King's Thunder

This card is really cool, but it isn’t really here for Limited. You need a bunch of mana and a spell that is cheap enough you can still cast it for this to be worth it. Paying 4 to make only a single copy of some cheap spell isn’t going to feel very good. You probably need to be making two copies with this to feel like you’re getting there, and that means you need 5 mana + a spell that you can still cast that turn to get it doubled, and it is going to be pretty hard to set that up. This format definitely has treasure which can help here, but not so much that you can really go wild with this.

Swashbuckler Extraordinaire

A three mana 2/2 that makes a Treasure is right around a 2.5, so the fact that this also gives you a pretty powerful Treasure payoff is quite nice. Double strike is no joke, especially if you have a creature with evasion, and it will definitely be worth giving up a Treasure for that on a lot of boards. One really great thing is that if you have additional treasure, you can give more than one thing double strike. It is also great that the turn you play the Swashbuckler you can already give something double strike.

Two-Handed Axe

A trick that just gives double strike isn’t usually that impressive, but you can use this pretty happily in the early game just to chip in for more damage, ahead of casting this as an Equipment – that’s not something you want to be doing with a normal double strike. Now, the Equipment here isn’t amazing, I don’t think. Doubling power is pretty nice of course, but it doesn’t make your creature any less vulnerable in combat. Sticking this on something evasive is what you really want to be doing, but if you put it on most things, it does turn that creature into a pretty real threat. I just wish it were a little less clunky. Still, you have two solid cards here and that’s nice.

Unexpected Windfall

This is a card that is great in constructed, but much less impressive in Limited. Spending 4 mana and giving up two cards to get back two cards and a couple of treasure just isn’t as impactful. That doesn’t mean this is bad – but it definitely isn’t something you run in all of your Red decks.

Valor Singer

This looks like it will be a nice common here, just as it was in Forgotten Realms. +1/+0 doesn’t sound like a lot, but you’d be surprised how often that boost can alter your attacks. It can even pump itself, so it is basically a 3-mana 3/3 if that’s what you need.

Wrathful Red Dragon

A 5-mana 5/5 Flyer is a 3.5, and the upside here is very real! If the only way your opponent can deal with this Dragon is by blocking or damaging it…well…they are probably going to lose, since the Dragon can do damage to pretty much anything – either finishing off your opponent off or serving as removal. Lots of decks will have lots of Dragons too, so the turn you play the Dragon you’ll often be able to attack with dragons that are already in play and the ability will cause your opponent serious problems.

You Come to the Gnoll Camp

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.

You Find Some Prisoners

So, this either lets you Shatter something, or it lets you take the best card from your opponents top three. While that latter option is definitely sweet, it isn’t actually that powerful, because you’re still just getting back one card with it, and you still have to cast the card you choose. There are enough Artifacts in this set that I think this is actually a pretty reasonable main deck card, where you can just use the “Interrogate” option against an opponent who doesn’t have a target.

Young Red Dragon

This is a pretty nice Common. It makes you a treasure early, which can actually allow you to play this very Dragon on turn three, which is pretty nice! It can also be used for other purposes too of course. The creature you get can’t block, which is a liability sometimes, but it looks like an effective enough attacker that I’m not too concerned about that.

Ambitious Dragonborn

It is a pretty big deal that this checks the graveyard, because if it didn’t, it would be pretty challenging to make this big enough. That said, even with it checking the graveyard, there are going to be times where this is a Hill Giant or worse, and that’s brutal – and the big payoff in the end is just a big vanilla creature – which is fine, but it isn’t the most impressive ceiling either.

Ancient Bronze Dragon

This is a huge flyer that will also add a huge number of +1/+1 counters to your board. The White and Black dragons are generally going to be better, because they add actual creatures to the board, where Ancient Bronze Dragon really needs you to have those other creatures already to make it work – but you’ll usually have plenty of stuff to put those counters on. You can even put the counters on the Dragon of course, but if you can it will usually be better to put them elsewhere.

Band Together

We have seen cards that cost the same and only let one creature do damage equal to their power to something, and they tend to be pretty close to premium. This lets you have two creatures do the damage, which is significant for two reasons. First, it means you can find more situations where this will function as removal. Second, it makes you less vulnerable to your opponent interacting, since now they can kill one of your creatures and you can still do some damage. I think the whole “two creature” side of things is enough to make this premium.

Belt of Giant Strength

This doesn’t seem that good to me. Obviously a 10/10 is huge, but to equip this card efficiently, your creature already has to be pretty big – which also means that giving a base power and toughness of 10/10 is much less of an upgrade. This is just a weird card. Paying 6 mana to equip this to a 4/4 just…doesn’t seem that impressive. It is just so clunky!

Choose Your Weapon

This is a Forgotten Realms reprint, and it was fine in that set. It is a pretty typical modal card in that both parts of it are pretty underwhelming. The trick wouldn’t be good enough to play and the Flyer removal spell would be a sideboard card. You lump these two mediocre cards together though, and you end up with a card that will be able to do something meaningful reasonably often. Still, you end up cutting it a lot.

Circle of the Land Druid

So, this really enables the Black/Green decks in the format, and that’s good – because a two mana 1/1 that returns a land from the graveyard to your hand just…does not seem that good to me. It does mean it is nice to sacrifice and stuff, but this probably needs a build around grade. If you’re in Black/Green this is a solid Common – in the other decks? You don’t want to be playing it.

Circle of the Moon Druid

This was alright last time around. The 4/2 side was nice for getting pack tactics on line, and being a 2/4 when on defense is pretty good too. It basically gives you two nice, but unexciting stat-lines, and you get the optimal one for whether you’re attacking or blocking.

Draconic Muralists

This is a 4-mana 4/3 that draws you any Dragon in your deck, and this format has a lot of dragons, including some bombs! This is a great 2-for-1, especially in the Dragon tribal decks.

Dread Linnorm

Like a lot of Adventure cards, neither side of this thing blows you away. The trick is expensive for what it does, and fairly situational, and the creature is big and only sort of hard to block. But when you get both on one card, it is a completely different thing. It isn’t that difficult to generate a 2-for-1 with it. You have to pick your spots for the trick to work well to be sure, but it can help your creature win combat and it can even counter a removal spell. So, using that trick in the mid-game, and then slamming this 7/6 late is going to feel pretty good. You probably don’t want more than one copy of this in the end, but I do think that first copy is a pretty nice Common.

Druid of the Emerald Grove

This is quite good. A 4-mana 2/2 that always sought up two basic lands and put them in your hand is a card you would play in a whole lot of decks! It ensures you hit land drops, and fixes your mana really well. So, the fact that sometimes you get to put one or both of those on the battlefield is really serious upside. This might be Green’s best Uncommon.

Druidic Ritual

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.

Emerald Dragon

Neither half of this card is super exciting. Only countering activated or triggered abilities from noncreatures just won’t come up very much, so you’re mostly paying for a clunky Dragon that will occasionally be able to use its adventure.

Ettercap

Always nice to have a main deck Plummet that can also be a creature when you don’t have a target. Like most of the Commone Adventure creatures in this set, neither side of the card is anything special, but the fact this can do both – and sometimes get you a 2-for-1 – makes this very playable.

Gnoll Hunter

This was a great two drop in Forgotten Realms, and it will be here too.

Hill Giant Herdgorger

In Forgotten Realms, if you were in Green, you really needed one of these to help you stabilize against the formats aggro decks, and it did a pretty darn good job between its size and the life gain effect. It will likely fill a similar role in Green decks int his format. All of these big ol’ green creatures that gain you life have been pretty solid in recent formats, and I think that’s true here.

Inspiring Bard

Neither mode here is amazing, but you’ll almost always be in a situation where one of them is useful. If you’re behind, you’ll gain life, and if you’re ahead, you’ll buff something so you can send it in.

Jade Orb of Dragonkind

I think this is the best card in this cycle. A +1/+1 counter is no joke, and Green decks have more general interest in ramping than the other two colors have. It is still a three mana mana rock, and those can be a real liability – you need to add to the board after all!

Lurking Roper

This was solid in Forgotten Realms. Even if you aren’t that good at gaining life, if you’re in a more controlling deck or a ramp deck, this can be a real road block because of its size. Obviously it is way better when you’re gaining life, because you can also start rumbling with it and effectively giving it Vigilance.

Owlbear

This was pretty good in Forgotten Realms. This easily sets up a 2-for-1 because of its ETB ability and its size, and it really isn’t too shabby as an attacker.

Owlbear Shepherd

This is a pretty nice Green value engine, provided you can get enough power on the board. There is a lot of high power out there, so it is actually fairly doable. I also like that it is a 3-mana ¼, which means it can do a decent job of blocking on the ground. I think this will be easy enough to set up that it looks quite powerful.

Poison the Blade

I’m never super high on this kind of trick. Yes, it makes any creature trade for anything, and then you draw a card, which is nice. But your creature you use this on is usually also going to be dying in combat, so the advantage you get out of this is less impressive. I mean, it is definitely fine, but I don’t plan on going after it that early, or even always playing it.

Prosperous Innkeeper

This was really nice in Forgotten Realms, and it will be here too! Gaining the life is a big deal, especially in Green/White, and the fact that it ramps and fixes for you is great.

Scaled Nurturer

Even without the Dragon upside, this would probably be a 2.5. Mana dorks are just really nice, since you get to add to the board and pull ahead of your opponent in mana at the same time.

Split the Spoils

This is basically a Green Fact or Fiction, which is pretty wild. It takes a whole lot more set up than Fact or Fiction though! You need to have 5 permanent cards in your graveyard to make casting this worth it, since you want to maximize the number of cards you get out of it, and while Black/Green is good at loading up the graveyard, that’s still a pretty big requirement. The upside here is that you’re probably getting at least 2 cards back for three mana, and sometimes you’ll really put your opponent in a tough spot. Basically, this is kind of a roundabout version of the kind of card that returns creatures form your graveyard to your hand – and one that takes extra set up. I think this is probably a nice one-of in graveyard decks in the format, but still not amazing.

Sylvan Shepherd

This has passable stats and it is a repeatable source of life gain, which GW is especially interested in.

Traverse the Outlands

This definitely ramp you in a big way. Getting three lands off of this is pretty doable. The question, though, is whether you’ll have a need for so much mana in most Limited games – and the answer is probacanbly no. You just won’t have a big threat to ramp into most of the time, you have to get some wacky rares to make it work – like Earthquake Dragon. It does fix for you in addition to the ramp, but still…it is hard to imagine situations where you want to pay 5 mana to search up a whole bunch of lands you’re probably not in need of.

Undercellar Myconid

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.

Underdark Basilisk

This was solid in Forgotten Realms. It gets extra good alongside effects that let it damage things – like Band Together – because the Death touch allows it to take down anything. Outside of that, it does a decent job of deterring attacks early, since it can trade for any of your opponents attacks. It also stays relevant all game long.

Wild Shape

This was not good in Forgotten Realms. Sure, it has a bunch of modes, but the only one that tends to matter is the Hexproof one, and that effect is pretty darn narrow. It feels good when you blank removal with it of course, but there are lots of situations where there is just no real way to use this card effectively.

You Meet in a Tavern

This was way too clunky in Forgotten Realms, but I imagine it will be a little better here. Each of the modes is definitely appealing, since the first option will regularly draw you 2+ cards, and if you already have a developed board, the +2/+2 can do some serious work.

Alaundo the Seer

It basically lets you loot – which is always good, but instead of discarding the card, you effectively give it suspend! Now, the suspend will be quite high on expensive cards, which is what you probably want to discard more often than not. There will be times where you just can’t wait for something like this. You also can’t play lands off of this, and if you want to load your graveyard this doesn’t do that either. However, the card selection + the value it can give you in a few turns seems pretty nice.

Astarion, the Decadent

A six mana 4/4 with Deathtouch and Lifelink isn’t a great card. The stats aren’t that impressive, and at that stage of the game there will be things that can trade 1-for-1 with it. It would probably be a 2.5. This does give you a pretty nice payoff for gaining life or damaging your opponent though, and since it can gain you life in the first place it will often be able to fuel itself, at least to some extent. It also makes any damage your opponent takes a problem. So, yeah – I think the whole package here looks like a pretty nice card, even if it is a little clunky. The worst case is that this trades for something and gains you 4 life – and that’s not a bad fail case.

Catti-brie of Mithral Hall

A two mana 2/2 with First Strike and Reach is already a B-, so the Equipment and +1/+1 counter upside is really nice to add to the card. It is already a great place to put Equipment and counters because of those keywords, so the fact it can get more out of Equipments than most creatures and she can use up +1/+1 counters to kill attacking or blocking creatures is just amazing. If you’re in Green/White, I don’t envision it being that hard to get this to get the upside going on this thing.

Gorion, Wise Mentor

Yep, Adventures are back in this set! There aren’t any in this video, but there are plenty of mono-colored ones, and that means that this copying your Adventure spells is super strong. If you ever played with Lucky Clover and Adventures last time around, you probably know that! This also has nice base stats of course, and though it won’t be a cake walk to cast in this format, it is certainly doable. It is in the three colors with the most Adventures, so getting there on Adventures won’t be that hard. This does need a build around grade, because if your fixing isn’t good enough, or you don’t have enough Adventures, it is merely solid.

Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter

So, this thing loves Artifacts, and pays you off reasonably well for them. One kind of fun thing you can do with him is give up an artifact creature, get two treasure tokens, and then turn those tokens into more bodies. Basically, he can help you go wide with your tokens and/or fix your mana, and the various sacrifice synergies around make him even better! Like the other three color legendaries in this set – he is definitely a build around, but when you get there, he’s going to be good! You need a good number of artifacts and good mana to play him. That will probably be somewhat easy, because the BR deck is a treasure deck in this format, so splashing Jan Jansen won’t be that hard there. As a result, this probably doesn’t really need a build around grade, as a whole deck in the format will very easily slot this in.

Kagha, Shadow Archdruid

Here is the Black-Green signpost Uncommon. As is often the case, Black/Green is about the graveyard. Kagha will usually mill something when she attacks that you can use. The downside is, she’s only a ¼, and even with death touch that makes her fairly vulnerable – she can be double blocked and you can still only trade, for example. For that reason, Kagha will be at her best when you have other ways to mill yourself. Luckily, it looks like that’s what BG is about, and that won’t be that difficult.

Kalain, Reclusive Painter

This is one of the cards that comes directly from Forgotten Realms, and boy – it was powerful as the signpost Uncommon for the Black/Red treasure deck, a role it fills again here. The Black/Red deck was the best deck in that format, and while this format is substantially different, I think Kalain will still be quite good. A two mana ½ that makes a treasure is something you’d basically always play, so the fact that you get to buff every creature you cast using treasure is a pretty big deal. This looks to be a super strong signpost common again.

Korlessa, Scale Singer

As Korlessa tells you, UG is a dragon tribal deck, and this is quite the payoff! The format has enough cheap Dragons that casting them from the top – even in the mid-game is very doable. This also gives you a nice defensive creature who can stall things till you can start casting bigger dragons, and the info it gives you about the top of your library is pretty important too.

Krydle of Baldur's Gate

Like Kalain, Krydle was a signpost Uncommon in Forgotten Realms, and he’s a signpost Uncommon here too. He offers a ton of value for a two drop, since he lets you get through your opponents defenses, and if it is Krydle getting through, you get to drain a life and Scry 1 every time, which is a pretty big deal. In the late game, he can send in much larger creatures to be unblockable. He’s basically a great early-game threat that also works as a late-game win condition.

Lozhan, Dragons' Legacy

So, Blue/Red is into both Dragons and Adventures, and boy – this is a super powerful payoff for both. A 5-mana 4/2 Flyer is actually a solid stat-line, so the fact it staples removal spells to your Dragons and Adventures is pretty insane. It also helps that there are two dragons in the format that are common that ALSO have adventures. So casting either half of those is amazing, and casting both will be close to unbeatable.

Mazzy, Truesword Paladin

Mazzy really likes Auras! Boosting power and giving trample to enchanted creatures is a big deal. And, the fact she lets you get around the risks of getting 2-for-1’d is a big deal too! She does this by giving you back Auras that go to the graveyard. You only have a short window to cast them, but that will be enough most of the time. I think Auras are niche enough that we probably have to give this a build around grade.

Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm

Miirym gives us another dragon payoff, this one in Temur – and you can see how that bridges the gap between those two color pairs. A 6-mana 6/6 Flyer with Warde 2 is probably already a B, so the additional value this can generate is a big deal! Copying creatures is no joke – even copying some of the smaller dragons in the set is powerful. I think this synergizes well enough with both UG and UR that splashing it is going to be pretty easy – especially because both pairs have decent access to fixing.

Nalia de'Arnise

So, here’s a card that checks for Party – something that isn’t a huge theme within the set. The good news is, there are a whole lot of creatures with this type, so you’re always going to play this in your Black/White decks, especially because it has decent stats. It will be hard not to have 5 or more creatures with these types. It will probably be a bit of a challenge to get a full party, but I don’t see it being very difficult to get value out of casting creatures form the top of your library.

Neera, Wild Mage

One thing to note about this card is that the spell you put on the bottom of your library is removed from the stack and never resolves. I misinterpreted this card in my YouTube set review because I didn’t realize that! So, basically, if you cast something really cheap in the late game, it might be worth it to spin the wheel with Neera and see what happens, but the effect is so random that it just isn’t worth doing with just any old spell. So, basically, it can potentially upgrade spells, but it doesn’t really give you any card advantage, and a lot of the time you’ll just choose not to use its effect. This isn’t very good.

Oji, the Exquisite Blade

This signpost Uncommon tells us UW is all about abusing ETB abilities. I’m already pretty happy with a 4-mana 2/3 that gains me 2 life and scries 2, so the fact that double spelling lets you blink something is some nice additional value. It can target itself with that effect, which is pretty nice – but it can also help you abuse those abilities on other creatures. Now…double-spelling isn’t always super easy in Limited, but even if you just get that value going once you’re going to feel pretty happy with this.

Prosper, Tome-Bound

This is really strong. It doesn’t start with the best stat-line ever, but hey – at least it can block and stop a lot of things from attacking! That gets especially spicy too, because it effectively draws you a card every turn. Provided you get to your end step the turn you play it, you’re going to get at least a 2-for-1, and if Prosper sticks around, you’re going to get a ton of cards – and treasure too! It even lets you play lands, which is always great.

Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss

This is a neat design, but not really one that will work out that well in Limited. Now, the part of the card that likes creatures with mana abilities isn’t going to be that easy to get going. The format just doesn’t have enough of them. There are some, and obviously they get silly with him around, but you’re mostly paying for a 4-mana 4/4 that has an ability that really gives you an insane trigger when you cast a big spell. +7/+7 and trample is going to be enough to end the game or effectively end it on a whole lot of boards. Now, it is something that you won’t be able to trigger every game, because you won’t have that many seven drops, but if you’re in Red/Green you’re always going to play this, and a 7-drop or two will probably be in your deck.

Raphael, Fiendish Savior

Well, this is strong. Even if your deck has 0 other Demons, Devils, Imps, or Tieflings, you get a 5-mana 4/4 Flyer that gives you a 1/1 Devil on your end step if you had a creature enter the graveyard. And, with Raphael in play, it will be a 2/2 with lifelink! Those devil tokens are always really pesky, and that’s going to be the case here. Chances are good your deck has several more creatures with those types too. That creature can go to the graveyard by any means – whether it is milled there, or one of your creatures dies.

Thrakkus the Butcher

This is another color pair that loves dragons! This one is more about making them huge, scary creatures. And, on his own, Thrakkus attacks as a 5-mana 6/4 with Trample, which is pretty solid! I am a little less impressed with his Dragon payoff than I am with the Simic or Izzet Dragon singposts, and I don’t really feel like this is one that really pulls me into its color pair.

Trelasarra, Moon Dancer

This is our last signpost Uncommon, and it is another one that is a reprint from Forgotten Realms. It offers a very strong Life gain payoff, as it is basically a better Ajani’s Pridemate, since you get to Scry in addition to getting a counter! A turn two Trelassara can quickly get out of control in a Green/White deck, and it can even be very valuable in the late game.

Bag of Holding

This is a pretty cool card, but not a particularly good one most of the time. It is sweet that you can loot and get your cards back later, but you just have to spend so much mana to make those things happen, you’ll find yourself unable to spend it pretty frequently until the late game.

Basilisk Collar

This has been great Equipment every time we’ve seen it. Those two keywords are just great together, as making a creature capable of killing any other creature while it also gains you life is huge. It makes it hard for your opponent to race, while also making it challenging for them to attack.

Bronze Walrus

This is a pretty nice creature. It fixes your mana and ramps you, and even helps you improve your next few draws. This format has kind of a shortage of fixing when it comes to lands, so Artifacts like this or going to be extra sought after.

Chardalyn Dragon

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.

Cloak of the Bat

This sort of Equipment always seems to underwhelm. It feels like it should actually do something nice pretty often, but it just doesn’t. If you have a big ol’ creature it feels pretty good, but the awkward thing about the card is that if you want to take advantage of the Haste end of thing, you need to have the mana available to equip it to whatever new creature you play. The creature also has to already be pretty good for these keywords to do their job.

Fraying Line

This thing is pretty wacky, but to sum up: Every upkeep it exiles everything that doesn’t have a rope counter on it, unless the player whose turn it is pays two generic mana. Paying that mana also lets them put a rope counter on something. So uh..yeah, this being symmetrical is the big problem, because you just can’t control this enough to have it really be great. Sure, your first turn after you play it you can just not pay 2, but you and your opponent both keep your best creatures, and if your creature isn’t already the best one, that’s pretty miserable. This will often just lead to players paying 2 every upkeep until it is more advantageous for one of them to just exile everything, and I just…don’t like how little control you have over it. I’m not playing this.

Iron Golem

This has solid stats, but the whole has to block and attack thing is a pretty big downside. You end up in situations where the trades are super ugly for you, or worse – you can’t even trade because they have a large creature.

Lantern of Revealing

This is another pretty nice source of fixing. A three mana mana rock can definitely be clunky, but this turns into a pretty nice mana sink in the later game, since it can effectively draw you lands and put them into play, or at least let you Scry 1. It will certainly improve your draws in the late game, while helping you fix and ramp early.

Meteor Golem

7 is definitely a lot, but the fact it can come down and kill any nonland permanent is a big deal. Not all decks will really want a 7 drop, but it does seem like ramping is a pretty legit strategy in this format, in which case this will be pretty sweet. It also benefits from lots of cards that let you abuse enter the battlefield abilities.

Mirror of Life Trapping

This just seems way too wacky, especially because it is symmetrical. Like Fraying Line, it feels like the kind of card intended for big multiplayered commander games, so it is weird they printed it in an Arena-only set. This can help you abuse ETB abilities and stuff, but it also will just do all sorts of wacky things that you don’t even have full control over because its symmetrical.

Navigation Orb

This is a pretty solid source of fixing, although paying 5 total mana and not impacting the board might be brutal. It is basically a 5 mana colorless cultivate, and that isn’t amazing.

Pilgrim's Eye

This is pretty sweet at Common. It provides nice fixing while actually adding to the board, and a 1/1 Flyer can even chip in for some damage sometimes. Also another good card to blink over and over for value.

Prophetic Prism

Mana filters don’t tend to be great in Limited, but adding a cantrip to a card like this definitely makes me interested. We’ve seen this card in some really artifact-centric sets actually be quite good, but this format doesn’t have any big Artifact theme, so it doesn’t have that benefit here. It is probably mostly just solid.

Spiked Pit Trap

This was not particularly good in Forgotten Realms. You spend a lot of mana for a mediocre removal spell, and even getting the treasure back isn’t enough.

Baldur's Gate

Here is the only Gate payoff in the set! And uh..it is pretty bad. You need at least four gates to be netting mana, and the Gates aren’t so good in this set that you want that many of them. This is mostly just going to hurt your mana base. I think you basically never end up in a deck that can play this. Sadly, this card that is the set’s namesake and it is unplayable.

A-Sepulcher Ghoul

A-Earthquake Dragon

A-Monster Manual

A-Baba Lysaga, Night Witch

A-Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes

Seek New Knowledge

So, you end up only getting a 1-for-1 in the end, but because it always gets you two nonlands, that makes it significantly better than most draw spells which you can hit lands with. Now, the downside is you can’t use this to help you hit your third land drop – and that’s something that you usually want to use this sort of card for early, but this is mostly a mid-to-late game card, and that’s certainly a bit awkward on a two mana draw spell. Still, the card selection seems powerful and efficient enough that I think I would be interested in playing the first copy.

Yuan-Ti Scaleshield

This kind of effect always looks like it would be amazing, especially among less experienced players. I mean, Indestructible and Hexproof, what can possibly stop you! And yeah, there are situations where it can be good. But there are also lots of situations where it just doesn’t do enough. Yes, you can list off a lot of situations where this does something: like if you are in combat and you can save several creatures and kill a few of theres, or in response to removal – and while that is a lot of different situations, things don’t line up for this to do its thing often enough to be worth playing. A lot of the time, this just feels like an overcosted Fog, and Fog doesn’t tend to be good in Limited, because you go down a card without any impact on the board. We’ve seen this effect at two mana before and it wasn’t very good in Limited, so upping the cost to three doesn’t really interest me. Now, this does draw you a creature card if your opponent has cast a big enough spell, and when you can net a card and get the indestructible effect you’re going to be in business, even if you have to use this as a Fog, because the card replaces itself. But I’m still concerned there will be too many situations where you can’t really fire this off effectively.

A-Blessed Hippogriff

A-Steadfast Unicorn

A-Dragonborn Looter

A-Goggles of Night

A-Lapis Orb of Dragonkind

A-You Come to a River

A-Baleful Beholder

A-Eyes of the Beholder

A-Manticore

A-Kenku Artificer

A-Pseudodragon Familiar

A-Guildsworn Prowler

A-Young Blue Dragon

A-Sigil of Myrkul

A-Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind

A-Young Red Dragon

A-Circle of the Land Druid

A-Druidic Ritual

A-Emerald Dragon

A-Jade Orb of Dragonkind

A-Split the Spoils

A-Lantern of Revealing

A-Navigation Orb