Throne of Eldraine: Draft Format Set Review
Throne of Eldraine: Draft Format Set Review
Hi, my name is Stefan Schütz. My nicknames on other platforms include Sedris, DaSedris and MentalMisstep. Usually I play Legacy and Modern and care about preparing for big tournaments every once in a while. You can reach out to me via @KingofTraitors on Twitter even though I am pretty new to it.
For people who know me it might look unusual that I write something about Limited, but I actually enjoy drafting quite a bit and I am motivated to practice/grind the new set as I want to prepare for the Tabletop Mythic Championship VI in Richmond in November.
Since I am a fan of LSV's Set Reviews I thought it might be a cool idea to try to make my own Set Review for the upcoming Throne of Eldraine Draft format before reading LSV's Review, so that I can compare my first impression and understanding with his own and see where I might be wrong, or which cards and strategies are generally not easy to evaluate. At first I planned to do this only as practice for myself, but why wouldn't I make it readable for everyone as it is a big time investment and there might be some interesting conclusions to draw from this going forward.
Disclaimer:
Keep in mind that I am not trying to copy LSV's style here for my own profit or anything close to that. I am mostly liking his reviews and I thought this could be a fun thing to do. Also, unlike his set review, I will only try to analyze the cards in regards to the Draft format, not sealed (but obviously many ratings are accurate for the latter format as well). I wrote this review before reading almost any other content or resources about the format. For the sake of experimenting and evaluating by in-depth analyzing and theoretical first impressions I have neither played nor watched gameplay of it actively yet.
You can check LSV's rating scale if you follow https://www.channelfireball.com/tag/lsvs-set-review/ and click on any article that says "Limited Set Review" in its title. To get moderately accurate card evaluations he generally awards rating points from 0 to 5 including fraction numbers. That means some cards might have ratings like 2.5, because they are generally good playables that will often make the cut, but are not as good as 3.0 playables that almost always make the cut into your decks. While 5.0 are unstoppable bombs, 1.0 would be the rating of a bad filler and so on.
You can use the search function (ctrl + f) and enter one of the following titles to get to the respective chapters on this page:
#Color Commons
#Color Uncommons
#Color Rares & MythicRares
#Top 5 Commons Color:
#Conclusion - Color
#Multicolor Uncommons
#Multicolor Rares & Mythic Rares
#Conclusion - Multicolor
#Colorless Artifacts & Lands
#Final Conclusion
Without further adue, lets jump right into the...
#White Commons
Ardenvale
Paladin
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Knights 2.0
While drafting
Mono-White offers 2 (3 if you count Linden, the Steadfast Queen, which you
probably shouldn’t) other payoffs, they seem a little underwhelming compared to
the other colors’ payoffs for Mono colored decks (especially if you are in a
Swarm-type strategy where Ardenvale Paladin itself appears clunky/less needed).
A 4 mana 2/5 with potential upside is generally not too shabby, but this one
gets worse when you expect deep white to be mostly aggressive/attacking in this
set. However, even though you might not be in a mono colored deck, the Adamant
text on this card will probably be relevant sometimes in a BW or RW Knights deck or
some sort of other 2 color white deck which pushes this card above the rating
of a below average filler.
Ardenvale
Tactician
Rating 3.0
Contextual
Rating – Knights 3.5
A 2/3 Flyer
for 3 in a set full of 2/2s is generally a good start but obviously even better
when it has upsides like being a Knight or having the potential to tap down
blockers/slow down the opponents combat before it is even on the battlefield.
What Adventure does on this card is not exactly following the patterns of most
Adventure cards where you would usually want to play the Adventure half first
to get full value. Ardenvale Tactician however will mostly be dropped onto the
field as early as possible. Adventure still means this card has a high
upside when drawn way later in the game. I generally expect Adventure cards to
be highly sought-after card picks in draft.
Bartered
Cow
Rating 1.5
At first I
misread this card and thought it would give you a Food token upon entering,
which would be much better. The way Bartered Cow actually works doesn’t seem particularly appealing to me and white doesn’t have many great payoffs for having Food later in the
game anyway. Also, since white will mostly be aggressive in this set, it will
be hard to find a shell where the cow is worth the slot. You might sometimes need
a Hill Giant, though.
Beloved
Princess
Rating 0.5
Contextual
Rating – Mono white “go wide”/Aggro 1.0
Beloved
Princess is really unexciting on all fronts: A 1 mana 1/1 with marginal downside
is usually not worth a card. Being Human isn’t helping in this set (to be fair not
super relevant for white cards most of the time) and unless you enchant her for
consistent clocking/racing or are trying to close the door quickly (which means you are in a
very aggressive/swarmy deck that needed a somewhat playable 1 drop desperately) this is just
not where you want to be. Sure, Beloved Princess has Lifelink and she can essentially
drain your opponent for 1 in super stalled boards without small creatures, but
the reality is that when you have to make those excuses to put a 1 mana 1/1
with slight upside into your deck you are in a very rare/specific scenario or
something went wrong on your road down there.
Faerie Guidemother
Rating 2.0
Contextual
Rating – Mono white “go wide”/Aggro 2.5
This will
be on the low end of the rating scale for Adventure cards but is still decent if
you are in an aggressive type of deck. Compared to Beloved Princess this one
goes into almost the same strategies and does better in most situations even
though I don’t expect it to be a high pick at all.
Flutterfox
Rating 2.5
Contextual
Rating – Aggressive white or Decks with Foods/Artifacts 3.0
I might
overestimate this card but from my view this is one of the few “payoffs” for
having Food on the table in white. You might get in a hit or two on the ground
and ideally it proceeds to clock your opponent right after that, because you
make the fox fly. Obviously sometimes this will only be a 2/2 but 2/2s with a
relevant upside are generally something I would not dismiss quickly.
Fortifying
Provisions
Rating 1.0
Contextual
Rating – Food/Enchantment theme 1.5
Even though
this card seems like it could have a worthwhile impact for 3 mana, you usually
don’t want many copies of those kind of cards in your deck since it is most of
the time way worse to drop this on turn 3 instead of something that can attack
or block (or influence the game in a meaningful way). There will be spots where
this will add +5 or even more toughness to your board for blocks or where you
might have easier attacks because of it. In some rare occasions, for example when you are
desperate for Food producers or enchantments, you would like to pick this up,
but this shouldn’t be high on your list at large.
Knight of
the Keep
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Knights 2.0
The classic
3 mana 3/2 vanilla won’t be great in this set either, but sometimes you are
short on 3 drops or are happy to draft an additional Knight. Since this set has
a lot of 3 drops to offer for the Knight colors (WBR), you will mostly
refrain from picking this until you are forced to.
Lonesome
Unicorn
Rating 2.5
Contextual
Rating – Knights 3.0
A great
example of when Adventure combines two very mediocre or bad cards to one good
card. 3 mana for a 2/2 Vigilance Knight on it's own doesn't cut it. The same is true for a 5 mana 3/3 with
the same ability. However, being able to have both of them in one card
makes this worth the trouble. The Unicorn is a way for your attacking deck to
not run out of stuff to put onto the board, but this also complements the curve
of a defensive white deck alongside Bartered Cow. When you are missing a
3 drop for a Knight deck you usually want to pick this over Knight of the
Keep. All in all a good card, but keep in mind that both halves are not
inherently on rate at all.
Outflank
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – “go-wide” Decks 2.0
Outflank
appears to be mostly a “filler removal”. What I mean by that is that if
you are low on combat tricks/removal spells you might want to pick this card higher,
but usually there is more consistent and less conditional stuff to pick up. It
is however clear that this card scales up a lot by how actively you swarm the
board with creatures. If a weenie/go wide/swarmy strategy will be successful
alongside the aggressive type of Knight archetype (which I am not sure about), I might have to reevaluate Outflank.
Prized
Griffin
Rating 2.0
A 5 mana
3/4 flyer is playable a decent amount of time but not greatly sought after by
any means. You would like this in race situations (because it often denies an
attack the turn it comes down and then starts clocking for 3 with evasion), but
mostly in decks that are more midrange or control than aggro.
Silverflame
Ritual
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Mono white weenie/go wide/aggro 2.5
Being able to reliably distribute counters on 3 creatures is the threshold where this becomes somewhat playable, but to be content about
this in your deck you need to have even more creatures on your battlefield on average. If you are able
to fulfill that requirement and also make this card Adamant consistently this
scales up from a filler to decent card. The vigilance part isn’t especially
impactful often. Context is important here.
Silverflame
Squire
Rating 2.0
Contextual
Rating – Aggressive strategies 2.5
While a 2
mana 2/1 is a bad filler and 3 mana is clearly too high of a wage to be “On
Alert”, this is a good way of making your deck curve out or use your mana
better due to it being flexible. Ideally you would like to have this in a deck
that attacks a bunch.
Shining
Armor
Rating 1.0
Contextual
Rating – Knights 3.0
If you subtract
the Flash keyword and the etb trigger from this card it becomes apparent that
4W in total is way below rate/too slow for what this card does. The peak usage
of this card is when it is a combat trick that stays, or when having an
artifact on the battlefield activates any of your payoffs (for example
Flutterfox). Again: Context matters a lot.
Trapped in
the Tower
Rating 3.0
Contextual
Rating – Aggressive strategies 3.5
Pacifism is
a very efficient card and usually a highly picked removal spell so evaluating
this comes down to weighing its downside (not being able to enchant flyers)
versus its upside (shutting off the target’s activated abilities). There are
about 7 relevant flying creatures in the set at common and 18 at higher rarity,
while there are about 7 activated abilities on non-flying creatures that are
still relevant when they can’t enter combat at common and roughly 10 of those
abilities at higher rarity, which means that the card will not be able to
answer bombs sometimes. There are also a relevant amount of sacrifice and
bounce spells/abilities in this set that make Pacifism less appealing in
general. It being an enchantment has some value in specific situations.
The downside might not be super relevant if you are an aggressive deck just
looking to take out blockers. However generally speaking I would rate the disadvantage
it has over Pacifism higher than the upside. In the context of Throne of
Eldraine Draft I therefore value this a little lower than I would normally.
That doesn’t change the fact that this will still be your number one common
white removal spell to pick, but it might tell us something about the power
level of white commons in Eldraine and that it might be better to be
aggressive when you are in white.
True Love’s
Kiss
Rating 1.0
While this
card is potent against the right deck in the right situation (hello legendary
mythic artifact cycle), it doesn’t look like a maindeckable card in Draft to me.
At the very latest you will dismiss this once you realize that occasionally
cycling this for 4 on an opponent’s Food token is too slow and doesn’t even always work
because they sometimes leave 2 mana up.
Youthful
Knight
Rating 2.5
A 2 mana
2/1 with First strike is generally decently playable. Much more in an attacking
deck though. Add Knight as a creature type and you have one of your main common
building blocks for aggressive white decks in this set. First strike but low
toughness also works well with all the Adventure combat tricks.
#Top 5 Commons White:
5. Youthful
Knight
4. Silverflame
Squire
3. Lonesome
Unicorn
2.
Ardenvale Tactician
1. Trapped
in the Tower
#White Uncommons
All That
Glitters
Rating 1.0
Contextual
Rating – UW Artifacts or strategies with an abundance of Food tokens 2.5
Under
normal circumstances casting this card will not go well for several reasons:
Either your opponent has a bounce spell or any sort of removal spell and will 2-for-1
you or blow you out in combat, or you just don’t have enough
artifacts/enchantments to make it worth 2 mana. There are some possible deck
constructions where this card goes completely nuts and single-handedly (well, you need a creature as well obviously...) steamrolls
your opponent, but decide wisely if it is
worth speculating on that pick.
Archon of
Absolution
Rating 3.5
A 4 mana
3/2 flyer with 2 relevant upsides is almost certainly an auto-include into any
deck that can reliably cast it on turn 4. Whether protection from white and half a Ghostly
Prison are good or not definitely depends on the situation, but the floor of
this card is already on rate so it can’t be wrong to pick this over the
majority of white commons most of the time.
Deafening
Silence
Rating 0.0
The most
relevant thing this will ever do is being an Enchantment for All that Glitters,
Flutterfox, Dance of the Manse and the likes, which is surely not worth one mana
and a card in general. When preventing your opponent from casting 2
Adventures per turn is relevant for you to stay in the game, you are better off
playing other cards to make a comeback.
Glass
Casket
Rating 3.5
Cask can be
better than Trapped in the Tower a relevant amount of times and is a solid
removal spell all around as it also gets rid of big creature tokens and has a
relevant upside for some decks by being an artifact.
Mysterious
Pathlighter
Rating 2.5
Contextual
Rating – Adventures 3.5
This is an
on-rate card with a slight upside in any deck with a couple Adventures that can
also scale up well as a threat when you have about 4-5 or even more Adventures.
Starting off a draft with this and picking up the Faerie Guidemothers and
Silverflame Squires other drafters might have passed early is about as
reasonable as picking this up later for a deck with only 2 Adventures.
Rally for
the Throne
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Mono white “go wide” 2.5
While most
of the time Rally will be a worse version of Raise the Alarm, some specific
decks might be particularly interested in this. It doesn’t offer the huge
Adamant payoff that you would prefer for it to be good and it will mostly be
playable when 2 small creatures for one card are better than one on-rate sized
creature.
Righteousness
Rating 2.0
Essentially
a very conditional removal spell for big attackers. Considering that you don’t
want to be the attacking deck when you play this, you should adjust your
priorities depending on what deck you are possibly drafting. Combos with cards
like Fling are cute but not of high relevancy for the evaluation of this
specimen.
Shepherd of
the Flock
Rating 3.5
I may be
biased here but I really like this card: It is a 2-for-1 versus removal spells,
can bounce permanents with etb triggers, rest your adventure creatures to use
their adventure part another time or can just be thrown out on turn 2 for the
Aggro deck’s curve. Almost every white deck will want to play this card.
Syr Alin,
the Lion’s Claw
Rating 3.5
This card
will mostly be a great pick for any white deck that has a couple creatures on the
board on average but its value goes up for Knight decks or “go wide” type of
strategies quite clearly.
Venerable
Knight
Rating 3.0
2/1s for 1
need to have a relevant upside to be considered solid picks which is exactly
what Venerable Knight offers. We have seen this style of dies trigger a lot on
cards but it definitely gets better the earlier you get the creature with it on
board which is why it’s especially good on a one drop.
#White Rares & Mythic Rares
Acclaimed
Contender
Rating 2.5
Contextual
Rating – Knights 3.5
A 3/3
vanilla for 3 is almost always good as it doesn’t die while attacking into 2/x
creatures or while blocking them. What makes this card fantastic is it’s
trigger though, which very often will give you a relevant spell in the right
deck.
Charming
Prince
Rating 3.5
Oddly enough this is a premium bear in white that is worse but
still good enough in aggressive decks, because of the scry 2 and the option to give pseudo
vigilance or maybe flickering something with an etb.
Giant
Killer
Rating 4.0
Whether
this simply taps down blockers, any threat, or even enters the dream scenario
where you destroy a big creature and then cast it to perma-tap another big
creature, it will always be at least good enough to be in your deck. Sometimes
even better.
Happily
Ever After
Rating 0.0
I have
really tried to think about a way to give this a 0.5, but I just can’t. Even
when you bring it in for the life gain post board it is mostly inefficient
since it costs you 3 mana and your opponent draws as well. If you ever win a
game with this card's upkeep trigger in Draft you have a decent story to tell
your friends.
Hushbringer
Rating 2.0
This is
another card where I’m not sure how to evaluate it. Generally speaking, a 1/2
flyer with lifelink isn’t great but can be a filler sometimes. In some
situations it works well with pump spells and/or +1/+1-counters. What’s hard to get is how
good or bad the static ability will be and how often it will be detrimental to
your own game plan. I would not be too high on this for starters but might
change my mind after reevaluating later.
Linden, the
Steadfast Queen
Rating 1.0
Contextual
Rating – Mono white 3.5
I have to
admit that I can’t analyze this card without the aspect of it being in a mono
colored deck (or deep white with a very tiny splash for about 3 cards). In
those decks she comes across as a card you would always want since Linden has
good stats for a 3 drop and enables all-in racing with tokens/many small
creatures via life gain. In a 2-color deck with evenly-split color requirements
she is barely castable on turn 3 and therefore not really playable.
Worthy
Knight
Rating 3.0
Contextual
Rating – Knights 3.5
If you
can’t trigger it reliably about 1-2 times per game, this Knight is not at all
worthy. However, when you curve Knight into Knight into Knight every turn this
is as good as it gets for a mono-white turn 2 play in Eldraine Draft.
Harmonious Archon
Rating 4.5
This card
can do many different nasty things: You can either buff your board full of weak
creatures to get in for huge amounts of damage out of nowhere, or you can attack with a 3/x
into a big blocker to trade it off in your postcombat main
phase by casting the Archon. Even when the board is even or stalled, this card
just brings a 4/5 flyer and 2 potential 3/3s to the table to break the stall.
You might also want to play this as your curve topper in an aggressive white
deck. Disregarding all context you should probably always pick this
when your deck is likely to cast it on turn 6.
Realm-Cloaked
Giant
Rating 5.0
As white
appears to be very creature based, a 5-mana wrath effect can sometimes not be
as great as we would imagine. This downside is offset by the fact
that we get a 7/7 vigilance for 7 after we cleaned up the board, which rewards
us for playing heavily towards stabilizing and turns the Giant into a crazy
bomb.
The Circle
of Loyalty
Rating 4.5
Contextual
Rating – Knights 5.0
This card
is super good on its own even when you don’t have any synergies with it. In a
Knight dedicated deck this is just obscene. This is also the rarity at which
Ethereal Absolution should have been.
#Conclusion - White
White looks
very creature-heavy and mostly aggressive. It is a little light on removal
compared to usual, which makes being a proactive deck also better. There are
non-aggressive 2-color decks where you want white as a complementary color or as
a splash, but you are generally better off being on the attacking side. The
overall quality of white cards is not bad plus it has a decent amount of good
commons and uncommons.
Notable Archetypes:
BW and RW
Knights
Mono white
go-wide
GW beatdown,
go wide or midrange
WU Artifacts/Enchantments
#Blue Commons
Charmed
Sleep
Rating 3.5
Solid. Your
best bet for having consistent removal in your deck in blue in this Draft
format. Charmed Sleep being an enchantment can be relevant under certain
circumstances. Be wary though, since there are a lot of sacrifice/bounce
effects in this set (looking at Shepherd of the Flock) that can 2-for-1 this
kind of removal.
Corridor
Monitor
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Artifact heavy 2.0
A 2 mana
1/4 isn’t exciting but a playable filler in a defensive deck with flyers or as
a sideboard card. Being an artifact and finding synergies for its etb trigger
will be the way you will make this worth a card or more. Not many decks want
this.
Didn’t Say
Please
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Mill 2.0
Cancel is
always a playable filler but not where you exactly want to be most of the time.
Even when the milling sometimes has advantages (for example when you control
Vantress Gargoyle) it is generally a downside, especially against black decks. It also seems not to be a great idea to hold up 3 mana versus white
aggressive decks in this format, especially on the draw. You can sideboard this
in in specific matchups against bombs or play it when you are a very controlling
deck, though.
Mantle of
Tides
Rating 1.0
Contextual
Rating – UX cantrips and heavy Artifacts 1.5
This card
is extremely unexciting unless you can equip it instantly consistently at which
point you are probably leaving up about 2-3 mana anyway so you could have used
that to equip it sorcery speed. Other than that I can see it being decent in a
deck that combines a bunch of card-draw enablers and requires artifacts for
synergies.
Merfolk
Secretkeeper
Rating 1.0
Contextual
Rating – Self mill/Graveyard based strategy or actual Mill 2.5
Merfolk
Secretkeeper is another card on the low-end rating scale of Adventure cards, but still has a few applications
as a sideboard card against aggressive decks or as a playable filler in a deck
that focuses on milling yourself for graveyard synergies, or milling your
opponent out in grindy games as a win condition, which probably won’t come up a
lot. Notably, since this card will not a high priority pick for most players,
you might sometimes be able to pick up a pair or more during first or second
pack last picks which can make you want to be actively drafting them, as they become
better the more you have.
Mistford River
Turtle
Rating 1.5
Mostly not
great but there are scenarios where it is nice along the lines of first walling
your opponent’s small creatures and then trying to get through with an
unblockable big beater and some other creatures while your opponent has to
multi-block the Turtle to death since it would repeat the next turn otherwise.
Playable filler when you want to stall for later in the game or as a sideboard
card.
Moonlit
Scavengers
Rating 3.0
A 6 mana
4/5 is very bad but I think it will not be hard to activate it’s trigger
between Food tokens, random artifacts and auras etc. Just make sure that you
have enough enablers for it and don’t help your opponent to reuse their
Adventure cards when the tempo isn’t worth it anymore.
Opt
Rating 2.5
Contextual
Rating – UX Cantrip payoffs 3.0
Opt is
usually not a super high pick in limited since if you can’t cast it on turn 1
it is sometimes hard to fit into your curve without losing relevant tempo, but
this time we have cards in the set that reward us for drawing the 2nd
card during a turn, which might change the equation so you might prioritize
their enablers. I would still try to not pick it over removal or other good
commons early on.
Queen of
Ice
Rating 3.0
Solid
common that should make it into most blue decks since it’s Adventure half can
be used defensively or aggressively while having an on-rate body + ability as a
creature.
Run Away
Together
Rating 3.0
This is an
Unsummon with relevant “upside” in this set because of Adventures and etb triggers. Run Away Together can make your deck more consistent in running its engine. This obviously can also just be a neat combat confusion or a blowout when your
opponent casts a removal spell on one of your creatures, while they control an
expensive threat or token. It works super well vs the
auras in this set too, but unless your deck has a lot of synergy with it you
might not want too many copies of Run Away Together. Its ability can be a downside sometimes and it is somewhat situational.
Steelgaze
Griffin
Rating 2.0
Contextual
Rating – UX Cantrips 3.5
This is one
of the commons that’s worth picking earlier even if you don’t have a
sufficient number of enablers drafted yet. It will be mostly irrelevant that
it’s not 4/4 the turn you play it or for blocking purposes but you definitely
want to prioritize draw effects higher after picking up one of those so you can
potentially quickly clock your opponent.
So Tiny
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Mill 2.5
Usually
this will be a bad combat trick or removal for small creatures that once in a
while becomes a soft removal spell for big creatures in grindy games but if you
are already in a control type of deck with Mill elements you might want to pick
those up a little earlier before it gets last-picked by other drafters. I don’t think that this card justifies playing mediocre or below-rate mill cards (most mill cards in Throne of Eldraine are rather underwhelming) at all, though.
Tome Raider
Rating 3.0
While Tome
Raider isn’t as exciting as its cousin Cloudkin Seer from M20, it is still a
decent common that you should play more often than not. It also has a role as
enabler for stuff that rewards you for drawing cards and has many small synergies
with other cards in this set.
Unexplained
Vision
Rating 1.0
Contextual
Rating – Adamant 3.0
I realized
that blue Adamant cards are not to be treated the same as white
Adamant cards/mono-color payoffs for example. The reason is: While other colors are
most likely forced to be deep into one color to get the Adamant effects
consistently, blue can just play cards that cycle like Tome Raider or Opt and
that way increase the chance of drawing lands. For example this makes it pretty easy to have 3 blue sources for Unexplained Vision by turn 5 or 6 if you
have enough of glue to make your deck stick together. Sure, a 4U sorcery draw 3
is not very interesting, but when you consistently scry 3 it becomes one half of
Precognitive Perception, which was a pretty highly picked card in Ravnica
Allegiance Draft. Sometimes you might also want to get an extra
enabler for your “2nd card drawn”-payoffs, but I’m not a 100% sure
how early you are allowed to pick this on average, because it is still clunky
and tempo negative so you don’t want to have too many copies of it anyway.
Vantress Paladin
Rating 1.0
Contextual
Rating – Adamant 3.0
A 2/2
flying Knight for 4 is very below rate even when it is a Knight and especially
when it is blue. Contrary to Unexplained Vision this card needs to be in a
deep blue deck, because it is a 4 drop unless you want to drop it on turn 5 or
later on average to get the bonus. When it works on curve it should be pretty
good, but I’m not sure how often the mono blue deck comes together.
Wishful Merfolk
Rating 2.0
Wishful
Merfolk reminds me of a worse version of Returned Phalanx (which was a pretty
good card in draft). Even though this card has only 2 toughness, you will
mostly want it in a defensive deck, but it is fine to play it in any blue deck
as a filler to not get overrun. It is a reasonable 2-drop for deep blue
decks as well.
Witching
Well
Rating – 2.5
Contextual
Rating – UX Cantrip and Artifact decks 3.0
Witching
Well’s power level hovers between an expensive Inspiration and a card way
better than Inspiration. Reactive or slow blue decks can easily spare a mana to drop this onto the board
without hurting their actual curve. Depending on how important tempo is to
you and how important artifacts are this card scales up or down. For starters,
I would pick this card earlier than later because one copy usually fits into
any blue deck without being detrimental to your curve or synergies regardless
and for some decks you might want as many copies of this as you can get. Starting to pick Wells early might be the way to go.
#Top 5 Commons Blue
5. Moonlit
Scavengers
4. Run away
Together
3. Queen of
Ice
2. Tome
Raider
1. Charmed
Sleep
#Blue Uncommons
Animating
Faerie
Rating 2.5
Contextual
Rating – Food or Artifact themes 3.5
The decent
floor of this card makes it way less risky to pick it early or when you are not
sure to have a lot of reliable enablers for its Adventure side. It also
shouldn’t be hard to get a good amount of Food or Artifacts together for it to be
substantially way above-rate when you play it on curve.
Faerie
Vandal
Rating 3.0
Contextual
Rating – UX cantrip decks 3.5
This is
again a payoff card that can be picked early, because it is not hard to get a
decent number of enablers for it. It’s already good when you trigger it once
but it becomes intimidating when it gets even bigger. Very solid uncommon.
Frogify
Rating 2.5
This isn’t
the best kind of removal, but still something to often pick up. The danger of
this is that your opponent can still block and maybe (if they are a black deck)
return their creature back to hand, which is very relevant when it’s a bomb you
are targeting that otherwise would not have been able to chumpblock if it was
Charmed Sleep or Trapped in the tower. However, sometimes it is neat to deal
one damage to an opposing creature and afterwards enchant it with Frogify. This possible play pattern makes the
downside of being horrible versus bounce slightly less relevant.
Hypnotic
Sprite
Rating 3.5
Hypnotic
Sprite is an above rate 2 drop if you are able to fulfill the double blue
requirements, but can also just be a 2-for-1 which makes it a pretty good card
all around, even though I don’t rate 3 mana counters highly in this format.
Into the Story
Rating 2.0
Contextual
Rating – Mill 3.5
This card
will be an expensive version of Opportunity a lot of the times, which makes it
clunky and not appealing unless your games usually enter a very grindy
state and you trade a lot of cards with your opponent. There is also the Mill-type of deck where this is definitely a high pick later on, but I believe you don’t
want to commit on this card early in the draft. If you are
desperate for raw draw spells there is Unexplained Vision at common. You will
usually be able to pick up one of those.
Mystical
Dispute
Rating 2.0
Mystical
Dispute is an interesting card. A 3 mana Mana Leak is usually not great in
limited, but since you can also play this in your splash color (it doesn’t need
double blue to cast) and because it has a huge upside vs blue decks, Mystical Dispute can
probably be rated higher than other 3 mana counterspells.
Overwhelmed
Apprentice
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Mill payoffs and Mill decks 2.5
A 1 mana
1/2 isn’t great and milling your opponent can, depending on context, be a
downside but the scry ability can make this worth it in some decks. The value
of Overwhelmed Apprentice goes up if you have cards that reward you for milling your opponent or
generally can make use of a cheap body that has scry 2.
Sage of the
Falls
Rating 2.5
Contextual
Rating – UX cantrips 3.0
This will
be great in a defensive deck where you can really work with the slow but steady card quality it
provides. It might be one of your best enablers if you are heavy
into the UX cantrip archetype.
Syr
Elenora, the Discerning
Rating 3.5
The blue
card of the “Syr Cycle” seems like the most boring but also most consistent one. Her
power will usually be around 2 to 4, making her a fine clock. While the
Knight creature type might not be relevant, she also provides an
additional enabler and some synergy with/for your cantrip decks plus has some
pseudo protection from removal.
Turn into a
Pumpkin
Rating 4.0
It really
doesn’t matter if you are in a cantrip heavy deck, or can make use of the Food
upside: Turn into a Pumpkin will most of the time be a
great deal since it is a very flexible bounce spell that cantrips and is definitely way above-rate,
#Blue Rares & Mythic Rares
Emry,
Lurker of the Loch
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Artifact/Self mill Decks 3.5
Rare payoff
for being deep in the artifact or graveyard synergy strategies. Probably not
insane in the average blue pile but will definitely take over games in the
right decks.
Fae of
Wishes
Rating 3.5
Evaluating
this card has been a rollercoaster of feelings for me: First you see that it’s
Adventure half is not great in limited because you would rather play all your
good cards in your main deck. Then you realize that a 2 mana 1/4 flyer with
upside is usually already very good, but discarding 2 cards for a self-bounce is super
expensive and will probably not come up a ton. After all, if you get this card
early you can prioritize decent sideboard cards and on-color playables higher
since you really only need 1 or 2 different playable cards to wish for, which
makes this an above rate 2 drop, but not as exciting as most other Rares or Uncommons,
because it is sluggish.
Folio of
Fancies
Rating 0.5
Contextual
Rating – Artifacts or UX Cantrips 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Mill 3.0
This card
seems hardly useful at all in draft since it is slow and also gives your
opponent cards. There is the possibility of milling your opponent out in one or
two big turns when you have a ton of mana available and sometimes you might be
desperate for an artifact or a draw enabler, but I would not touch this under
normal circumstances.
Gadwick,
the Wizened
Rating –
4.0
Contextual
Rating – UX Cantrip Decks 4.5
As already
noted under Unexplained Vision, you don’t need to be in super deep blue to make
triple blue cards work in my opinion here. Gadwick will be a clear bomb in any
blue deck that can either utilize his ability to refill or trigger his second
ability a decent amount of times.
Midnight
Clock
Rating 1.0
I don’t
really know how to evaluate Midnight Clock, but I think the decks that most want
this are slow and grindy decks or decks that take advantage of the ramp it
provides. Otherwise there are cards you are better off paying 3 mana for. When its last ability triggers you probably win the game, but at that
point you should probably have won anyway if you are a grindy deck that plays
cards to 2-for-1 or better your opponent. Maybe this can serve as a win
condition/expensive mana rock split card for decks that really need ways to win
the game.
Mirrormade
Rating 1.0
Contextual
Rating – UX Artifact heavy 3.0
On average,
Mirrormade comes across as too inconsistent to work, so it might rot in your
hand a relevant amount of time, but when you worked for it in your draft and
later pick it up or are already early committed to an artifact heavy deck then
it comes in handy. In addition, you can also copy creature auras with it which
sometimes will just act as a removal-copy.
Stolen by
the Fae
Rating 3.5
Depending
on what the target is, this card can either provide a big tempo swing or a good
amount of value. Don’t forget that while targeting your own Adventure- or etb
trigger-creatures for value, your opponent can blow you out with a removal
spell in response. Stolen by the Fae also doesn’t go well vs an opposing Shepherd of the
Flock or sacrifice effects.
Vantress
Gargoyle
Rating 4.0
I wouldn’t
call the Gargoyle a bomb but on par rating-wise with bombs probably (weird, I
know). It doesn’t completely take over the game when you drop it on turn 2 but
it is extremely efficient/undercosted when you make it work and it is not hard
to do that. This also fuels most blue synergy archetypes because it’s an
artifact and mills both players so you can’t do much wrong by picking it early.
Brazen
Borrower
Rating 4.0
This card
is just all around flexible, very above-rate mana wise and you are highly
likely to make a wrong decision by not playing or picking it when you are
already blue.
The Magic
Mirror
Rating 0.5
Contextual
Rating – High Instant/Sorcery count 2.5
The Mirror
is generally not where you want to be since you need to reduce its cost by at
least 4 to make it somewhat worthwhile and castable (it doesn’t count your
Adventures!). You might sometimes be in a deck where you can reliably cast this
and it becomes good, but slow nontheless. Don’t forget that you need a way to kill
your opponent or remove the mirror within 7 turns or less, which is the maximum
of turns you have when you drop this around turn 6-7, since drawing cards with
it is not a may-effect. This will not come up very often, but you should keep
that in mind for building slow defensive grindy/control decks when you have one
of the cases where you already picked this.
#Conclusion - Blue
Blue has a
relevant number of synergy/situational cards that only pull their weight under
the right circumstances. It still has enough good commons and a nice supply of
fliers to be able to go deeper in and is generally a complementary or synergy
color in this set.
Notable Archetypes:
UR and UB
cantrips
UG foods,
WU Artifacts/Enchantments
UB Mill or self
mill
#Black Commons
Bake into a
Pie
Rating 4.0
Premium
removal and high pick. It doesn’t matter how good you can make use of the Food
token or not, this will almost always go into your black deck.
Barrow
Witches
Rating 1.0
Contextual
Rating – Knights 3.0
Without a
reasonable number of Knights in your deck this is a below rate filler and
should rarely be what you are desperate for. However, if you've picked up some Knights along the way, this
is a valuable and not hard to find pickup later on.
Eye
Collector
Rating 1.0
Even though
this card might fuel some weird aggressive non-human decks or graveyard
strategies, I would usually stay away from it until I know that I might need it,
because even then it is not exciting.
Festive
Funeral
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Self mill/Grindy strategies 3.0
Without
synergies this is a highly overcosted version of Disfigure or Last Gasp that
scales up in the late game. With a little help this can be a Demon’s Grasp or
better. If your deck is lacking removal you shouldn’t skimp here, but it is
probably contextual whether you really want this.
Foreboding
Fruit
Rating 2.5
Contextual
Rating – Mono black/UB cantrips 3.0
Divinations
with drawbacks are generally not a great place in limited because they are
tempo negative, but again: Context matters. Grindy black decks might want this
a lot and if you are able to make use of foods while also fulfilling the
Adamant requirement (which doesn’t seem easy unless you are mono black) this
definitely gets better by quite a bit. This might even be one of the commons mono
black wants badly.
Forever
Young
Rating 2.0
Contextual
Rating – Self mill/UB cantrip decks 2.5
Forever
Young is potentially very powerful, but needs some pieces to work efficiently.
Even when you are not a self mill or sacrifice type of deck it’s probably not
too bad if you have one copy in your deck. You might end up in a Blue-Black
deck with a couple of cards and graveyard interactions that reward you for
drawing your second card as well, where this might be a nice crossover enabler
plus payoff.
Giant’s
Skewer
Rating 1.0
This card
gives some stats and the potential of generating one or maybe two Food tokens
on average at a very bad rate. I would not recommend playing this unless you
are desperate for artifacts since it is an artifact itself. It doesn’t even
provide Food consistently.
Lash of
Thorns
Rating 2.0
A combat trick
that rewards a variety of situations. For example having creature tokens or
creatures with first strike.
Locthwain paladin
Rating 2.0
Contextual
Rating – Mono Black or Knights 3.0
A 4 mana
3/2 with menace is just slightly below the rate of a good filler.
As with the rest of the Paladin cycle, if you are able to fulfill its
requirements or make use of the Knight creature type, this card will be a good
or solid playable in your deck.
Lost Legion
Rating 2.5
Contextual
Rating – 2 color Knights 3.0
A 3 mana
2/3 that has Scry 2 upon entering is a solid playable for a black deck. When
the Knight type matters this card gets a slight boost in rating.
Malevolent
Noble
Rating 2.0
As the
floor of this card is a bear, it is usually not the worst to have one of those
in your deck. The situations where you want to actively pick it are when you
are in some Black-Green type of food deck or have a lot of creature fodder to
sacrifice for it. Sometimes it is worth boarding this card in if you see
multiple Pacifism or other Aura Removal effects.
Memory
Theft
Rating 1.5
This should
mostly be a sideboard card, but can be a filler for some decks too. The
scenarios in which you blowout the opponent with it will probably be less
likely to happen percent-wise compared to the times it only discards one card
or whiffs if you have this in your deck already game 1, which is why it is
better as a means to react to certain decks.
Reaper of
Night
Rating 1.0
Reaper of
Night is a pure value/late game card and is around the bottom of Adventure
cards rating-wise, since it is extremely clunky and slow. There is still a
decent number of situations where you might want to board this in or have one
copy in your main deck, yet you should probably not actively pick it in most
drafts.
Reave Soul
Rating 3.5
Reave Soul
isn’t as flexible as Bake into a Pie but is very efficient at what it’s doing.
There is rarely a threshold to how many of those you want to pick up, since
they are mostly just great and in cases where they aren’t, you can just
sideboard one or more out.
Smitten
Swordmaster
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Knights 3.0
While Child
of Night was never a limited Top-tier common, adding Knight creature type and
payoff for Knights to this card makes it very appealing for those decks.
Tempting
Witch
Rating 2.5
Contextual
Rating – Food decks 3.0
This card
isn’t great at anything specifically, but it does a lot of things at once: Blocking,
creating a Food and posing a threat in long, grindy or boardstalled games when
it starts to cash in foods for 3 life loss every other turn. I could be biased
on this one, but I feel like it is a decent card to pick up for most black
decks.
Wicked Guardian
Rating 2.0 –
2.5
While black
has two 3 mana creatures that have 3 toughness at common, you might still want
to mostly play this in black-blue or black-green decks where you have enough
ways to get your draw without losing a creature. There are times where you will
be able to play it in other color combinations as well but you should probably
not prioritize it if you don’t already have the set up in those.
#Top 5 Commons Black:
5.
Foreboding Fruit
4. Lost
Legion
3. Tempting
Witch
2. Reave
Soul
1. Bake
into a Pie
#Black Uncommons
Belle of
the Brawl
Rating 2.0
Contextual
Rating – Knights 3.0
A 3 mana
3/2 Menace is an above rate filler, but not for a defensive deck. As soon as you
are aggressive and are interested in Knights this card goes up in value.
Bog Naughty
Rating 2.5
Contextual
Rating – Foods 4.0
“Don’t play
with Food” is a saying this Faerie has probably never heard of. If you can
support it, Bog Naughty gets you into the drivers’ seat of the game quite
quickly when it sticks. Other than that a 5 mana 3/3 flyer is playable, but
not exciting.
Cauldron
Familiar
Rating 0.5
Contextual
Rating – Foods/Sac outlets/Witch’s Oven 3.0
Another
Friend of Food. The number of lives this cat has depends on how much Food you
set the table with. There are some strong combinations with sac outlets here,
most prominently Witch’s Oven will give you an endless chumpblocker that drains
1 on entering. The floor of this card is pretty low, but it has a decent
ceiling.
Cauldron’s
Gift
Rating 3.0
It
shouldn’t be too hard to pay triple black for a 5-drop even in a dedicated 2
color deck. Considering the +1/+1 counter, this card is a slightly above rate
reanimation spell which makes this a fine pickup even early on.
Epic
Downfall
Rating 4.0
Reave
Souls’ counterpart, but this time it exiles. Generally better, because it hits many
bombs which is important for good removal. It also denies
possible recursion. Not being able to kill a 2 drop on curve with this should
make it clear that you should not treat this as a 2-drop card in your
deckbuilding process, even when you are reactive.
Foulmire
Knight
Rating 3.5
This card
just seems like a good deal all around. A Knight, a 1/1 deathtoucher for 1 in
the worst-case scenario and otherwise netting a card at instant speed possibly
makes this a want for all black decks.
Order of
Midnight
Rating 3.5
Maybe a
better version of Gravedigger? Quite interesting. Being able to split your mana
is luxury and also having the possibility of just dropping this on turn 2 to
clock or curve in a Knight deck or a scenario where you want to pressure your
opponent might just push this over the top slightly. The downside is
negligible.
Revenge of
Ravens
Rating 0.5
Way
overcosted in average scenarios. It is reasonable to sideboard this in against
decks that go wide though.
Specter’s
Shriek
Rating 1.5
This card
is basically “Force of Thoughtseize” if you don’t discard a black card. I would
not want to maindeck this usually, but picking it up as a sideboard card can be
valuable.
Syr Konrad,
the Grim
Rating 3.0
Contextual
Rating – Self mill/Mill/Sacrifice synergies 3.5
Syr Konrad
does something for almost every black theme, but even though he is a Knight you would want him the least there (while still being a decent pickup for those
decks). He really shines when you are milling, sacrificing or returning
(looking at Forever Young) a bunch of creatures. Syr Konrad, the Grim is a card that
wins in stalled board states and generally is a wincondition if circumstances are right.
#Black Rares & Mythic Rares
Ayara,
First of Locthwain
Rating 3.5
Well, in case
you are mono black this card will be either the reason why you draft this
archetype or be very high on your list. If you are 2-colored but play a lot of
swamps you can still run her as a decent 4-5 drop if you have some amount of
fixing (for example in black-green) and it will sometimes be worth it. Draining
on the etb of every black creature you play and drawing off of chumpblockers is
very valuable and if unanswered she can grind out your opponent often.
Blacklance
Paragon
Rating 3.5
Contextual
Rating – Knights 4.0
Blacklance
Paragon is a premium card for any black deck in the sense that at its floor its
acting as a conditional Lightning Helix with deathtouch for attackers. You also
have the flexibility of dropping it turn 2 as a clock (or for your Knight
curve) and it gets even better in a Knight themed deck.
Clackbridge
Troll
Rating 4.0
This guy
reminds me of Desecration Demon, which was a very good card in draft, even
though its drawback was much more problematic. Sometimes you would just get raced
by an aggressive deck with a lot of creatures. Clackbridge Troll kind of
circumvents that by always giving you life and a card, so you can potentially
still keep up, but it also creates creatures for your opponent and costs 1 more,
which means it might not deal damage the first 3 turns or even more than that.
This card will not always be consistently doing the same and that’s fine, since
it will net you some life and cards on average.
Murderous
Rider
Rating 4.0
It really
doesn’t matter if your deck has any synergies with Murderous Rider since you
are always playing him in a black deck. Hero’s Downfall + a 2/3 LIfelink Knight
is just too good of a deal in one Adventure card. Sadly you can’t return this
with Forever Young or Order of Midnight.
Oathsworn
Knight
Rating 3.0
Contextual
Rating – Knights 3.5
While
Murderous Rider goes in all kind of decks, Oathsworn Knight is still decent for
most black decks but excels at being an oversized Knight for 3 in an aggressive
Knight deck. You might not be impressed by it since it could get chumpblocked
twice and then walled, but then it already made its impact and that’s worth more
than a card.
Piper of
the Swarm
Rating 4.5
Even though
he might seem slow, Piper of the Swarm is a hard to beat bomb that will very
quickly win you the game if you get to activate it’s second ability once
usually. You will want this in any black deck as it is cheap and gives you
options to use your mana worst case.
Wishclaw
Talisman
Rating 0.5
Contextual
Rating – Artifact decks 1.5
Another
hard to evaluate card. Usually this can go wrong in so many different ways that
I would tell you to stay away from it, but this set offers a fair share of
artifact synergies and for example black has Malevolent Noble to sacrifice it
in response to its ability so your opponent doesn’t get any value out of
it… which still makes it a bad Diabolic Tutor at best, but sometimes you
might need a flexible card that gets your artifact count up or searches for a
bomb. I believe that if I will ever play this card in draft, it will be for
the sake of consistency.
Witch’s
vengeance
Rating 3.5
A
conditional removal spell that sometimes sweeps entire boards. It has a high
ceiling but a low floor. Makes it still good enough to be a decently
sought-after removal spell.
Rankle,
Master of Pranks
Rating 4.5
Unless your
opponent dispatches Rankle quickly with a removal spell, he will already have
done its damage after one or two attacks. Even though edict effects aren’t
great in this environment usually, sacrificing your 2 worst creatures and
trading them for opposing ones while dealing some damage in the air might be a
pretty good deal, while at the same time being able to discard any high cost
cards your opponent still might have in hand. The draw ability is sometimes
risky to choose but will often enough be relevant too so that all makes him a
bomb, if piloted well.
The
Cauldron of Eternity
Rating 4.0
Contextual
Rating – Self mill 4.5
You might
need to work a little for it, but this card rewards it greatly by being able to
reuse all creatures in your graveyard at a fair cost. It is not needed to
commit to the deep self mill variants. It will make this card better though.
Broadly speaking, what this card does at 6 mana casting cost is already good
enough sometimes, but too fair. You would like to have it cost 4 or 2 ideally
so it is cheap and fast enough to still be relevant when you are behind on
board. Remember that it does only put your creatures that die on bottom of your
library, not the ones you mill after it hit the table, so don’t worry if you
run out of stuff to return in your graveyard while you still have mill spells
or other shenanigans in your deck. The main risk of running this card is it
being slow or you getting outtempoed and the extra value not mattering, so
decide wisely while building your deck.
#Conclusion - Black
Black comes
across as the strongest color in this set to me, as its cards are very good on
average and it offers a good supply of removal plus has support for both grindy
and aggressive archetypes. It has some lonesome bad fillers and unplayables in uncommon,
but those are mostly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
Notable Archetypes:
BG Foods
BR and WB
Knights
UB Mill or Self
mill and UB grindy or tempo decks
Mono black
sacrifice and/or foods
#Red Commons
Barge In
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Red Green beatdown 2.0
The
baseline of this card is slightly below rate but it resembles a filler. If you
want to make the trample part work consistently, you will most likely need
green as a complementary color so you get huge enough creatures to make it
matter. Not to forget that “non-Human” excludes many Knights, so it won’t be that
good in Knight decks.
Bloodhaze
Wolverine
Rating 1.0
Contextual
Rating – UR Cantrip decks 3.0
Bloodhaze
Wolverine is secretly a blue-red card since it works the best together with
draw enablers and should be a core building block for that archetype. You might
sometimes play this as a bad filler in other decks.
Blow Your
House Down
Rating 1.5
While this
card can be good as a 1-of in aggressive red decks it will mostly be optimal to
have it in the sideboard to bring it in at the right time.
Brimstone
Trebuchet
Rating 2.5
Brimstone
Trebuchet is a pure synergy card that goes slightly above-rate in the correct
decks and situations. If you are a Knight deck and are playing versus blue,
black or white, this will usually do a lot of work by stopping small flyers
which red is usually not super good at, apart from getting rid of them via removal
spells. You might also be in a blue red deck with an artifact subtheme, or
generally a red deck where having some direct damage to close out the game can
be practical. The biggest problem with this card is that you will often be an
attacking deck when you are red and that it has defender which is not exciting
for a 3 drop, but it still looks playable overall.
Crystal
Slipper
Rating 1.5
The Slipper
appears to be playable, but not exciting. It enables some burst-damage via haste
or can be a playable filler in a blue-red deck with a need for artifacts.
Embereth
Paladin
Rating 2.0
Contextual
Rating – Mono red or Knights 2.5
A 4 mana
4/1 haste should usually be worth its investment if it can get in for 4 and
then force a trade with something that’s roughly worth the same amount of mana
the turn after. Without a little support, that is often not the case. Being a
Knight and having Adamant for a +1/+1-counter makes this appealing enough for
at least 2 archetypes though.
Fling
Rating 2.0
A situational
removal spell that can also often give relevant reach. You
might not want to actively pick this generally, but it is not the worst to have
one copy of this in your deck.
Merchant of
the Vale
Rating 2.5
Contextual
Rating – UR cantrip decks 3.0
A
combination of a bad filler and a solid playable makes a good playable in the
draw payoff deck and a decent filler in most other red decks. Once again,
Throne of Eldraine looks like a format that rewards you for actively drafting little synergies and decks over raw power cards.
Ogre Errant
Rating 2.0
Contextual
Rating – Knights 2.5
Ogre Errant
is a slightly better Hill Giant outside of Knight decks, which makes it a decent
filler.
Raging
Redcap
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Knights 2.0
Another
Knight that seems very mediocre outside of a Knight deck, but still attacks for
quite a bit when combined with combat tricks and other pump effects.
Redcap
Raiders
Rating 3.0
Being able
to attack for 4/3 trample with a 3 drop on turn 4 and maybe again on turn 5
makes this a slightly better-than-usual 3 drop for aggressive red decks. You
need to have enough non-Human support though to make it worthwhile, which
doesn’t seem particularly hard.
Rimrock
Knight
Rating 2.5
Contextual
Rating – Aggressive red strategies and Knights 3.0
This is
another “curve-Adventurer” in the sense of that it will make your deck more
consistent even though both halves are not inherently exciting. The only
question this asks to your deck is whether it is aggressive or not.
Scorching
Dragonfire
Rating 3.5
This is
very efficient removal, simply put.
Searing
Barrage
Rating 3.0
A little on
the expensive side, but still a necessary pickup if you want a draft deck that
doesn’t always fold to a strong opposition. The slight upside of blazing your
opponent for 3 will come up often and makes it less awkward for aggressive
decks to play a clunky removal spell compared to predecessors like Command the
Storm.
Seven
Dwarves
Rating 1.5
This sadly
only becomes good at 4 or more copies, but it might happen often enough that you
want to pick up a 2-drop missing for your curve anyway and so you will
sometimes randomly end up with multiples of those.
Thrill of
Possibility
Rating 2.0
Contextual
Rating – UR cantrips 3.0
While being
an instant Tormenting Voice doesn’t do a lot for most limited decks, it is
certainly relevant for the draw payoffs so you can activate their bonuses at
instant speed. Generally, it might not be the worst to have exactly one copy in your red
deck anyway, because it helps against flooding at a low cost.
Weaselback Redcap
Rating 1.0
For this
card to pull its weight it needs to be a missing piece for Knight/Swarm or
other aggressive synergies/strategies, which I don’t believe it will be too
often. Mediocre filler.
#Top 5 Commons Red:
5. Merchant
of the Vale
4. Rimrock
Knight
3. Redcap
Raiders
2. Searing
Barrage
1.
Scorching Dragonfire
#Red Uncommons
Burning-Yard
Trainer
Rating 2.0
Contextual
Rating – Knights 3.5
As a 5 mana
3/3 with trample and haste, the Trainer doesn’t really look great but okay. It
is needed to have a decent number of Knights in your decks to make this card go
from playable to desirable.
Claim the
Firstborn
Rating 1.5
Contextual
Rating – Sac outlets 3.0
I haven’t
particularly looked at all the possible targets for this card, but I believe it
to be better than Act of Treason in decks with a bit of sacrifice-outlets and a
little worse versus green decks when it comes out of aggressive decks. A
Threaten effect usually isn’t great when it can’t get a big blocker out of the
way, but this might be efficient enough for its cost to be squeezed into some
big turn for lethal attacks or the likes.
Embereth Shieldbreaker
Rating 2.0
This will mostly be played because you either
don’t have enough Knights or you lack 2 drops, but I assume the Adventure upside makes
this a fine maindeckable sideboard card often enough.
Ferocity of the Wilds
Rating 0.5
Contextual Rating – RG Beats, Red aggressive 2.0
It is funny that the main “go wide” deck in
this format will be white and have a lot of Humans so this card will be mostly
a blank in it. In a Knight deck, unless you are heavily red, you will also
mostly have Human Knights so you can’t really utilize this efficiently. You
need to be in the RG Beats or Red Aggro Archetype to have a shot at making this
playable.
Joust
Rating 2.0
Contextual Rating – RG Beats or Knights 3.5
A 2 mana Prey Upon in red seems playable, but
red creatures don’t usually have high toughness. You will often have to combine this
with either Knights or green creatures in order to turn it into a decent removal
spell.
Mad Ratter
Rating 0.5
Contextual Rating – UR cantrips 3.5
This card is probably only really good in the
UR Draw archetype and even there it’s kind of clunky too. I wouldn’t mind
picking this up in the middle of the draft or later, but I would be cautious
picking this early, unless I heavily commit to the archetype. When it gets
rolling it might win you the game single-handedly, though.
Redcap Melee
Rating 3.5
Even though this card has a huge drawback, it
being so mana efficient might still make this a high pick and maindeckable
removal. You probably will not be able to cast this early on most of the time,
but you will be able to have a highly efficient turn 3, 4, 5 or even later
often enough to make this a great card. Redcap Melee gets better in aggressive or tempo-oriented
decks.
Skullknocker Ogre
Rating 2.5
The way this card is probably meant to work
is that you drop it on turn 4 and force your opponent to chumpblock, because
otherwise his best card could get discarded. I find this small upside not
appealing enough to get me over the huge downside of cycling lands that my
opponent didn’t play because I cast this card. 4/3 are definitely okay stats
for a red 4 drop, generally speaking, but I don’t love this card. Rated a
little higher because RG beats is a deck.
Slaying Fire
Rating 4.0
3 mana Lightning Strike is still a great
removal spell that offers reach. The Adamant upside will be relevant often
enough, even if you don’t go mono red or deep red aggro. It might not really
matter if you deal 3 or 4 damage with this card early on, because it will be
targeted at a 3 drop a lot of times, but it matters when it deals 4 to the face
or to a 4 drop when you draw it later.
Syr Carah, the Bold
Rating 3.5
Syr Carah doesn’t really offer a great body for
a Knight deck, but she threatens to run away with the game even without spell
support. Coupled with the upside of pinging small creatures and being a Knight it turns her into a solid uncommon.
#Red Rares & Mythic Rares
Bonecrusher Giant
Rating 4.5
Bonecrusher Giant combines an on-rate removal
spell with an undercosted 3 drop that has a decent upside. You might think of
its ability as a downside too, but the damage to your face will be less
relevant than the damage to your opponent when you are the one attacking with a
4/3. Your opponents will struggle to recover from you killing their 2 drop and casting this on curve, but it can’t be classified as a bomb.
Fervent Champion
Rating 1.5
Contextual Rating – Knights 3.0
1/1 first strike and haste on a one drop plus
two other possible upsides is definitely something that makes me want to take a
closer look at it, but after all this can easily be blocked when you try to
get its attack trigger off, unless you have an equipment or a combat trick to
let it survive. It will generally be a good card for aggressive Knight decks
but other than that I don’t see a lot of room for this guy.
Fires of Invention
Rating 1.5
I don’t really see how Fires of Invention can
work consistently in a draft deck without making your whole deck clunky when
you don’t have it. You probably need multiple copies of this to consider
anything close to that and since it is a rare you will likely not have a
functioning deck at all if you go that route. I guess you could see it as a
possible color-fixing card, if you really want to consider all possibilities.
Irencrag Feat
Rating 0.5
There are no big red dragons in this set, so
without at least a fifth land or some color fixing, this will not power out big
threats early which would be its sole purpose. You can potentially ritual into
Sundering Stroke with this, which can be hilarious, but rarely makes putting
Irencrag Feat into your deck worth it.
Irencrag Pyromancer
Rating 2.0
Contextual Rating – UR cantrips 4.5
This is a real bomb in the carddraw archetype. Other than that you get an overcosted wall that sometimes spews out a bolt,
which can be a little better than a playable filler.
Opportunistic Dragon
Rating 4.0
A 4 mana 4/3 flyer with potential upside? Sign
me up! This is not a bomb, but definitely something you want to always jam into
your red decks.
Sundering Stroke
Rating 4.0
Sundering stroke will resemble a Plague Wind or
a Lava Axe + Shock to get in for lethal often so it is already super good
without it’s mono color upside. If you are in mono red or can somehow manage to
pull off having 7 red mana, then it swings the game in your favor even quicker
and harder. You will even want to play this in an aggressive low-curve deck,
because it can just finish off your opponent by shooting 7 direct damage, or
give you a chance at coming back into the game. Nevertheless, 7 mana can sometimes
just be too expensive.
Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
Rating 4.0 – 4.5
You definitely need to be heavy red to utilize
this cards potential to a reasonable extent and you would like to be mono red
for it to be maximizing its impact. I’m not sure if it is insanity to pick this
card early and simply try to force mono red because of how powerful it is, but
it will be a high priority pick for any deep red deck.
Embercleave
Rating 4.0
This being a strong combat trick that can deal
heavy damage, but also staying as an equipment later makes it a perfect
noncreature slot for any aggressive deck with red, even when it costs 4 mana.
Robber of the Rich
Rating 4.0
A bear with reach and haste is a solid playable.
When you add a card advantage mechanism whenever it connects it becomes a
relevant threat that has to be stopped to some extent.
#Conclusion - Red
Almost all Red archetypes in this set are
aggressive, maybe apart from the UR cantrips archetype (which is still
proactive). Red commons are not super exciting on average, but the color offers
some removal, a variety of different 2-drops and only 2 bad rares. The average
quality of red cards is not as exciting as for example black or blue, but I
might underestimate mono red and its synergies.
Notable Archetypes:
RW or BR Knights
Red Green Beatdown
UR Cantrips
Mono red Aggro
#Green Commons
Curious Pair
Rating 1.5
Contextual Rating – Foods, Adventures 2.0
Curious Pair will usually be below the rate of
an Adventure card for you to pick it reasonably often. One should Prioritize
this higher when it becomes clear that Food enablers are needed.
Fell the Pheasant
Rating 2.0
Since the set has a relevant number of flyers
and this also brings a Food token with it, I would advise to maindeck one copy
in decks that either don’t have a good amount of removal spells otherwise, or in decks
that have huge problems to deal with flyers. Apart from that: Good sideboard
card.
Fierce Witchstalker
Rating 3.5
This Wolf is simply very efficient, regardless
of deck strategy as long as you are green. I would draft redundant copies of
this over many other green commons if I can.
Garenbrig Carver
Rating 2.5
Once more we witness how the Adventure mechanic
combines two mediocre below-rate cards to a single solid playable card.
Garenbrig Paladin
Rating 3.0
Without Adamant this would mostly be a solid
playable. Having the potential to enter as a 5/5 and fitting very well into the
RG beatdown theme makes this much better in my books.
Garenbrig Squire
Rating 2.5
2 mana 2/2s with relevant upsides are nice to
have and this one might deal a bunch of chip damage due to this fact. This is
generally a card for attacking decks with some kind of Adventures, though.
Insatiable Appetite
Rating 1.5
Contextual Rating – Foods 2.0
This is a decent combat trick that gets a
little better in decks where you often have spare Food laying around.
Maraleaf Rider
Rating 2.0 – 2.5
Without the activated ability this would be a
plain 2.0, but being able to convert a Food into a forced block gives this some
possible extra applications.
Outmuscle
Rating 3.0
Hunt the Weak with an Adamant upside that will
most likely result in a free attack when it is activated. The upside becomes
more relevant in boardstalls. Once the game gets to that point, the
requirement is also fulfilled easier. The risk of getting blown out by a
removal in response to this 4 Mana sorcery fight spell is as real as usual and something to be very aware of.
Return to Nature
Rating 0.5
This shouldn’t be in your main deck under normal
circumstances in draft, but it serves a purpose as a sideboard card.
Rosethorn Acolyte
Rating 3.0
The mana fix on this one is barely worth
anything, but relevant, because it will synergize with adventure payoffs plus it
is an okay blocker on 3 and ramps. It is worth a little more than one card.
Rosethorn Halberd
Rating 1.5
This having Equip 5 makes it not really appealing
for me unless you are in the RG Beats deck. Even then it is probably not
difficult to pick one of those up late since most other drafters probably don’t
prioritize this highly as well. Sometimes it might be worth playing because it
is an artifact in some UG style deck.
Sporecap Spider
Rating 2.5
Sporecap Spider isn’t exciting, but solves your
classic problem against flyers in green decks as most other spiders did before
it. While this exemplar has no offensive qualities, it can stall most flying 3
and 4 drops in this set for quite a bit.
Tall as a Beanstalk
Rating 1.5
A clunky creature aura that only casts
permanent giant growth can’t be saved by putting text onto it that only becomes
relevant when you have a specific mythic rare. As usual, the general rule of
auras applies here: When your opponent is very light on removal, this can be
brought in as a sideboard card as its value goes slightly up. However, I don’t
expect a lot of removal light decks in this format.
Tuinvale Treefolk
Rating 3.0
This combines two fillers to a reasonably
playable card you often want one or 2 copies of in your green deck. Be aware
of the fact that casting Oaken Boon while your opponent has mana for
interaction up might not be the best idea, because it can result in you not only
losing the Adventure part, but also fizzling the spell, completely countering
it and putting it into the graveyard.
Wildwood Tracker
Rating 1.5
Contextual Rating – RG Beats 2.5
In the right deck this can be a 1 mana 2/2,
which makes this a somewhat desirable piece for the potential RG beats deck. Wildwood Tracker
usually doesn't fit into any other deck.
Wolf’s Quarry
Rating 1.5
Contextual Rating – Food deck 2.0
Even though this provides you with some
potential Food and chumpblockers (or small attackers), it is way below rate for
what the mana cost would imply, unless you are in a dedicated Food deck. At 5
mana this might have been a pretty good card.
#Top 5 Commons Green:
5. Garenbrig Paladin
4. Rosethorn Acolyte
3. Tuinvale Treefolk
2. Outmuscle
1. Fierce Witchstalker
#Green Uncommons
Beanstalk Giant
Rating 3.5
3 mana ramp spells are usually not great in
limited, because they are tempo negative, but this one gives you an untapped land. It will fit your curve nicer sometimes and also brings a huge guy
with it later. That is why it is clearly a heavily sought after uncommon. Starting with this
early and prioritizing some other fixings, this might be one of the few ways to
play a reasonable 3 color deck in this format.
Edgewall Innkeeper
Rating 4.0
1 Mana 1/1s are usually not worth a card in
limited. As soon as this one replaces itself it is already good. When it
draws 2 and/or threatens to draw more, it pulls you actively ahead in cards.
Generally, you wouldn’t want to play the bottom tier Adventure cards just
because you have this in your deck, but most of them are medium fillers at worst
so you might play one or two in case you got some other Adventure synergies or
the likes with them. I would say this is probably not great when you only have
2 Adventure cards in your deck but it gets good with about 4-5 and scales up
obviously, because it can snowball you ahead in cards if you draw it early.
Worth to draft as soon as possible in the draft.
Flaxen Intruder
Rating 2.5
Unless you have a huge payoff for playing
an early 1/2 (for example Edgewall Innkeeper or some reward for having a body
on board), you will usually wait for seven mana to play the adventure side
first which makes this effectively an on-rate 7 drop with a minuscule upside. That’s
still enough value for the mana cost, considering it is an Adventure card. The
Naturalize upside is nice to have, but will not come up very often I believe, because it is rather unlikely to get through with a pretty weak creature like Flaxen Intruder.
Giant Opportunity
Rating 2.0
Contextual Rating – Foods 3.5
This card definitely does a better Food per
mana exchange than Wolf’s Quarry, but is 3 mana for 3 Food tokens really where
you want to be in limited tempo wise? You definitely need to be consistently
able to get the 7/7 with this card for it to be good, and that will usually be
around turn 5 on average, which is still fine I believe but not as exciting as when
you first read it, since you need the correct deck for it and it gets blown out
by some bounce shenanigans sometimes.
Keeper of Fables
Rating 4.0
The Cat is pretty simple to evaluate: 5 mana
4/5 is an almost on-rate deal, but being able to connect for one or more cards
(or threaten that ability and make your opponent’s blocks awkward) the turn it
comes down and having the potential to run away with the game is great and you
will very likely always play this in your green decks. You might need to look
at your curve and not have a super slow deck for this to be good, which is the
case most of the time for green decks in this format.
Kenrith’s Transformation
Rating 3.5
While this card is a little situational
sometimes, it mostly counts as a removal spell for big creatures or creatures
with strong abilities that also cantrips. Sometimes you might want to make your
1/1 bigger or kill something that has 3 or more damage on it with it
immediately too. The fact that Kenrith’s Transformation is cantripping makes it a fine pickup.
Oakhame Adversary
Rating 3.0
This card seems interesting to evaluate for
limited. A 4 mana 2/3 Deathtouch is usually not a great stat line when its
third line of text becomes irrelevant as soon as it trades, but it threatening
carddraw makes it at least go well with other attackers or removal. The cost
reduction will not be online turn 2 usually, but sometimes this will allow you
to squeeze it in later in your curve as a cheap threat which makes this card
all around a slightly above-rate 4 drop.
Once and Future
Rating 2.5
Once and Future is slow, but if your deck
doesn’t fall apart by playing a completely tempo negative card, this can
usually make the cut as a 1-of because it wins long games for you. I wouldn’t
prioritize it highly, but I believe you will often take this before picking up some of
the filler creatures.
Syr Faren, the Hengehammer
Rating 3.0
Contextual Rating – RG Beats 3.5
Since green Knight decks will rarely be a thing, being a human creature is a small downside. If you have enough
forests in your deck to land this on turn 2 or if you can support it with pump
effects in any meaningful way then it might be worth quite a bit in either your
green-white or RG beats deck.
Trail of Crumbs
Rating 2.0
Contextual Rating – Foods 3.5
Well, without any support this is just not
worth the effort and the mana, but in a dedicated food deck this gets out of
hand pretty quickly. If you can somehow stabilize the board, Trail of Crumbs will bury your
opponent in card advantage. You might want one or two food-sac outlets in your
deck to be able to “go off”, but that is not a high priority. Just something to keep in mind. It is important to realize that this card needs
a lot of things to go right in your deck to get the payoff, but it will sometimes
be a high priority pick later on in the draft.
#Green Rares & Mythic Rares
Feasting Troll King
Rating 4.5
A very above-rate 6 drop. You need quadruple
green but that should most of the time be doable. Even without any food
synergies this card just seems very good on its own and will always make the
cut in your green deck, as it tramples towards victory, even after dying once.
Gilded Goose
Rating 3.5
Contextual Rating – Foods 4.0
It won’t be loose to pick up this goose at any point
in your draft for a green deck, even for aggressive decks. Ramping out your 3
or 4 drop while not being a stone-cold dead manadork topdeck later, as it can
gain some life, is pretty good. This gets a lot better in a dedicated Food
deck or with some Food payoffs since it makes golden eggs all day.
Lovestruck Beast
Rating 4.0
While this card works particularly well with
Edgewall Innkeeper, even without any 1/1 creatures in your deck this will be
worth the mana since it can still block as a 5/5 for 3 and will wall-off most
aggressors to enable your later drops. You ideally have some more 1/1s than
the one from Heart’s Desire in your deck, in order for Lovestruck Beast to become a very undercosted
4-turn clock, but it is in no way needed for the card’s playability.
Once Upon a Time
Rating 2.0
While this card might look very good for a fair
share of constructed decks, in limited this won’t be as effective. On average
if you draw it after your first cast spell it is below rate, so you either need
to make value out of it being an instant or use it as a glue to hold your deck
with few high-impact cards together. At worst, this will be a
decent filler. Sometimes you will obviously have it in your opener and make
your mulligans better, which is very nice but not the norm.
Return of the Wildspeaker
Rating 4.0
This is almost a bomb. Mostly because of the
instant-speed mass pump which can be devastating for your opponent in combat on
some board states. The ability to sneak this in for a bunch of cards, at times
when it is unlikely that the target gets removed, makes this a very solid rare
in most green decks, even though you would like to have the ability of creating
a board with multiple creatures consistently to reach its full potential. Return of the Wildspeaker may sometimes be clunky or situational, but the
average outcome combined with its ceiling tells me to pick this early and
always.
Wicked Wolf
Rating 4.0
Contextual Rating – Foods 4.5
Even without the second ability this would
already be a straight up 3.5 since it 2-for-1s a lot of times while gaining a
tempo advantage. It is not needed to have a dedicated Food deck for the Wolf to
be incredibly efficient. This will get very wicked if you have many Food tokens
available, though.
Wildborn Preserver
Rating 4.0
Flash and Reach on a Bear is decent. Being able
to grow out of proportions on multiple occasions seems great. It’s not hard
to find a reason to auto-include this into your green draft deck.
Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig
Rating 3.5 – 4.5
Well, here we have a card that clearly wants to
be in mono green, as dropping this turn 5 in a 2-color deck will usually only
be very slightly above rate and not consistently work. You might sometimes play
this in a deck with tons of forests or some fixing, but I’m kind of unsure if
it is correct to take the risk of picking this early and then missing out on a
strong common that fits way easier into most decks. If you ever commit to mono
green, this becomes your best turn 3 play probably.
Questing Beast
Rating 4.5
Compared to Yorvo you don’t have to ponder a
second about whether you should draft this or not. This card has so much good
text on it that it has to be great. Considering all keywords and abilities, I
would call this worth about 2 mana more than you pay for it, which is huge.
Questing Beast is great on defense and offense, has some sort of evasion and
sometimes helps removing bombs like planeswalkers. Not much else to say.
The Great Henge
Rating 4.5 – 5.0
If we somehow get this on the board, it will
reward us for trying to stabilize… A LOT. One should never underestimate a card
that gives your creatures a Glimpse of Nature-esque bonus in general, but this
also makes it easier for you to cast new creatures, makes them bigger and gains
life so you can stay alive long enough to overwhelm your opponent. If this
wouldn’t be tied to having a bunch of creatures in your deck and sometimes be
very expensive, I would have rated it a clear 5.0, but it needs some context to
reach its full potential and turn into an unstoppable bomb.
#Conclusion - Green
Finally, Green looks like the color where you
will have nonfunctional decks the least amount of times in this set. The average green
card is always playable and there are almost no bad fillers. It complements
black and red very well and grants access to most of the food enablers and
higher sized creatures.
Notable Archetypes:
UG Foods or tempo, BG Foods
RG Beatdown
GW Midrange, beatdown or go wide
GW Midrange, beatdown or go wide
Mono Green beatdown
#Multicolor Uncommons
Arcanist’s Owl
Rating 3.0
Contextual Rating – heavy artifact theme 3.5
The quadruple-hybrid symbol cycle is a nice way
to have access to high quality multicolor uncommons which are not easily
splashable into 2-color decks that are not from the respective combination, but
can also go into mono color decks. Since each of the cards appears to have very
specific archetypes and decks where they shine, I will have to go through them
one by one.
Arcanist’s Owl offers you a reasonable deal for
a flyer if you can drop it on turn 4 reliably, but for it to be worth it’s
rarity you need to consistently get something out of its trigger. I expect a
fair number of decks to have about a 50% chance to whiff with this but that
would still make it worthwhile in my books if you have hits like Trapped into
the Tower or Charmed Sleep in your deck. In a dedicated artifact-theme deck,
this is your all-around feel-good package.
Covetous Urge
Rating 3.5
While Covetous Urge is the only noncreature
card in this cycle, its blowout potential is the highest on this list, as it
can sometimes take your opponent’s bomb and allow you to cast it yourself. That is usually enough to win the game. This card is obviously good value most
of the time, but very slow and tempo negative at first.
I expect this to be better in defensive decks that try to stabilize early but I
could see this being jammed into any blue-black or mono colored deck, just
because its ceiling is high. As a side note: The results of resolving this
aren’t super consistent.
Resolute Rider
Rating 3.5
Contextual Rating – BW Knights 4.0
As long as you are able to cast this
consistently by turn 4, it is a great deal unless it gets immediately removed.
If you get to untap with Resolute Rider, you are usually able to get in free
attacks or kill off small creatures for the investment of 3 mana every turn. Sometimes
this card will also single-handedly keep you alive in a race situation or win it
for you. For a black-white Knight deck it is one of the best possible 4 drops available.
Fireborn Knight
Rating 3.0
Contextual Rating – RW Knights 3.5
Compared to Resolute Rider this isn’t helpful
in every situation but it’s offensive potential is much higher and forces a
quick answer as well, or it will eat chumpblockers every turn. In
Boros-Knights this becomes better by a relevant margin.
Oakhame Ranger
Rating 3.5
The Knight creature type isn’t super relevant
here, but it really helps the mono white aggressive decks get enough payoffs.
Apart from that, even in a green-white Adventure/Food or midrange deck, this
should be a good deal and a threat on its own.
Loch Dragon
Rating 4.0
If this didn't trigger upon entering, it
would be much worse in my opinion, or let’s say: Less great. Loch Dragon is obviously
great for all kind of heavy blue or heavy red decks and it also activates your
cantrip payoff cards in blue-red, even when it gets answered immediately. If it
connects once or twice it usually should do enough for you to pull ahead via
card quality or allow you to come back from a situation where you were slightly behind.
Thunderous Snapper
Rating 3.5
I don’t really love this card compared to the
rest of the cycle, but it is still above rate for a 4-drop and the ability can
let you snowball out of control. The problem is, that you need to be
allowed to cast high cost spells after it, which implies that you didn’t fall
behind early.
Elite Headhunter
Rating 2.5
Contextual Rating – Sacrifice theme/Knights 3.5
At 4 mana you would like to get much more than
a 2/3 with menace and a small upside, so you need to have fodder (or Food in
this case) for this lying around to make it repeatedly shock creatures. Having
some Food providers or some creature material to sacrifice makes this a good
card. It should be a serviceable 4 drop in BR Knights.
Deathless Knight
Rating 2.5
Contextual Rating – Food 3.5
Again a card that is mostly Knight for flavor,
as you will rarely put this into one of your Knight-themed decks. That is not a
problem, since 4/2 haste for 4 with recursion is a reasonable card if you can
either pressure your opponent or build up some defense so it can roleplay as
your win condition. You usually want to have some amount of Food tokens in your
deck though, or this becomes significantly worse.
Rampart Smasher
Rating 3.5
This is neither special, nor bad. 4 mana 5/5 with
upside and non-human is exactly what you are looking for in the RG beats deck. As
soon as you are either in that one, or mono-colored, you should answer the question "Should I pick this?" with a simple "YES".
Shinechaser
Rating 2.5
Contextual Rating – heavy Artifacts 3.5
For this to not be underpowered you need to
have at least a food token or some sort of artifact/enchantment lying around,
which shouldn’t be too hard to do. When this becomes a 3/3, it enters the
territory of a relevant blocker too, because of vigilance.
Drown in the Loch
Rating 2.0
Contextual Rating – Mill 3.5
A card that doesn’t seem very consistent in
what it wants to do if you don’t support it. If you have cards that randomly
mill your opponent already, this becomes a nice pickup, but this isn’t the kind
of payoff you want to pick early to find a reason to get your mediocre mill
cards. It will mostly turn out randomly to either be in your deck or not. The
floor is pretty okay though, as it might kill 3 drops around turn 5 in most
blue-black decks.
Wintermoor Commander
Rating 2.5
Contextual Rating – Knights 4.0
A multicolor 2/1 deathtouch isn’t great, but in
a Knight deck this is a premium-threat. If it attacks together with another
decently sized knight, it forces your opponent to block it so that it won’t
repeat again next turn, but you can easily make those blocks unappealing by giving it a
high toughness. It reminds me a lot of a pseudo Pegasus Courser, but for Knights
only and with upsides, as both attackers have relevant abilities that can act
as fake-evasion.
Inspiring Veteran
Rating 1.5
Contextual Rating – Knights 3.5
This is as simple as it gets for a
tribal-payoff: Bad in non-Knight decks, great in Knight decks that can go wide.
Wandermare
Rating 3.5
If you are green-white you can already pick
this somewhat highly since it is a 3 mana 3/3 with possible upside. You only
need to get one trigger to make it an above-rate 3 drop by a relevant margin
and sometimes it grows even bigger and just stomps your opponent.
Improbable Alliance
Rating 1.0
Contextual Rating – UR Cantrips 4.5
I would recommend against playing this in any
other deck than UR Cantrips, but there might be some fringe scenarios where
it is correct to do so (I can’t really see any at the moment though, maybe it
has to do with needing an enchantment or a win condition). If you are in the
right deck, this only has to provide about 3 triggers on average to come close
to a bomb, because it essentially gets better the more chumpblockers you will
have. Gaining time makes you produce more flyers and hit your opponent for a
little damage in the air steadily.
Maraleaf Pixie
Rating 3.5
Since you need to be specifically blue-green,
this won’t usually be a very high pick early but it complements decks that want
to play 3 colors and also helps blue-green decks to get up the flyer count plus
is a manadork and very efficient. I wouldn’t pass this one if I’m already
going that direction.
Steelclaw Lance
Rating 1.5
Contextual Rating – Knights 3.5
Another “force feed” card for Knights. Great in a Knight deck, but otherwise below
rate.
Savy Hunter
Rating 4.0
You simply need to be able to cast this on 3
reliably to want this, as it isn’t only a Food enabler. It also is a payoff by itself. It doesn’t have any synergy requirements for your deck. The floor is
high, the ceiling as well. Savy Hunter is just a pretty good card.
Grumgully, the Generous
Rating 4.0
This is similar to Savy Hunter in that you don’t
need a specific deck to make this worth more than 3 mana, but it obviously
comes in handy if you are able to get more than 2 triggers out of it. That’s
when it starts to snowball and win you the game.
#Multicolor Rares & Mythic Rares
Dance of the Manse
Rating 0.5
Contextual Rating – heavy
artifacts/enchantments 3.5
Dance of the Manse is quite the opposite to the
2 cards we had before. This is largely unplayable unless you have enough stuff
rolling around that you can potentially return with this. It can't get back auras, so it doesn't even serve the purpose of a removal-reanimation. You need to be able to
either mill yourself for more targets, or have some sort of dedicated artifact
and enchantment deck to turn this from an unplayable card to decent one. It will most of the time not be worth it.
Very low floor, but decent ceiling if you are able to pay 8 mana and have targets.
Lochmere Serpent
Rating 4.5
Whatever deck you are playing, as long as you
can resolve this around turn 6-7, this will just be insane by itself and
threaten to win the game. Excess lands can be used for extra cards or evasion
and it can potentially come back a couple of times. I wouldn’t blame anyone who
concedes when this enters during their turns combat step on the opponent’s side
of the battlefield.
Doom Foretold
Rating 3.0 – 3.5
This card is kind of situational and has
drawbacks, but I can see this being strong in a situation where, for example,
you forced your opponent into the defense with your black-white Knight deck and
then land this on turn 4 where it makes them sacrifice their only creature and
proceeds to prevent them from playing something big. If they keep on playing
multiple medium-sized things, though, or have a lot of Food in their repertoire,
then this card seems very dangerous for yourself, which means your best bet to
get value out of this might be to land it when the opponents board is empty and
you can immediately get the payoff. It also fits surprisingly well into a deck
with Dance of the Manse. All things considered I wouldn’t prioritize this too
highly as it seems inconsistent, but it is definitely better than the average
card.
Outlaw’s Merriment
Rating 4.5
Even though this doesn’t produce Knight tokens,
this will be a hard-to beat bomb for many decks. The randomness-factor isn’t
really relevant here. Most outcomes are good deals and fit into a fair share
of situations quite well. This is not only great for any deck that wants to go
wide, but a card you want to play in any deck that can cast it. Its biggest weakness
is, that it doesn’t have immediate board-impact for 4 mana.
Faeburrow Elder
Rating 3.5
Contextual Rating – 3 colors or more 4.0
A 3 mana 2/2 vigilance creature with the
ability of doing double the work of Birds of Paradise is generally appealing.
You might often even make this a 3/3 or a 4/4, due to hybrid cards or splashes,
which are not unlikely when you already put this into your deck. Usually Faeburrow Elder
is good enough even in 2 colored decks.
The Royal Scions
Rating 4.0
Contextual Rating – UR cantrips 4.5
As blue-red decks tend to not have a huge board
presence early in the game, it helps that The Royal Scions have such high loyalty. They can
take one or two hits without getting removed instantly. Every ability on this
card is at least decent and it obviously fits perfectly into the UR cantrip
deck. It’s ultimate is even worded like Hypothesizzle, in that it generates a
trigger after drawing the cards, so you can’t miss the draw 4 even if your
opponent is able to remove the target in response.
Oko, Thief of Crowns
Rating 4.5
It’s a little obnoxious how much loyalty Oko
quickly can reach if you don’t answer him quickly. Playing versus this card
will often feel hopeless and you might just slowly get grinded out. For
example: If you are on the draw, miss your 2 drop and your opponent lands this
and makes a Food token, what are you supposed to do on your turn 3? Not play
your best creature? There aren’t really many ways out. The best way to beat
this is by having a better curve than your opponent and aggroing it down, or
simply having a burnspell after it traded Food for creature, which is still not
great. Oko will always be overly efficient for anyone who resolves him.
Since he is not unbeatable later in the game, but snowballs out of control
slowly and steadily almost always, I would think of him as a high priority
bomb.
Stormfist Crusader
Rating 3.5
Contextual Rating – BR Knights 4.0
The design is neat to circumvent the drawback
all the cards similar to Howling Mine have by only drawing for both players at
the same time, so you never really 2-for-1 yourself. The way this card works
is, that giving your opponent outs in a boardstall or later in the game might
not be great if you are an aggressive deck, but on the other hand having this
early makes it hard for them to utilize all their cards and you will probably
just roll over them. Since this is a 2/2 menace Knight as well and deals some
direct damage, this is generally a good pickup if you are looking to play those
colors.
Garruk, Cursed Huntsman
Rating 5.0
If you are able to drop him down while being on
even footing with your opponent, you will usually be the victor eventually.
Even from behind, Garruk generates a relevant tempo swing, some value and if
your opponent doesn’t get rid of him immediately, all the 2/2 Wolves will be hard
to block since going up to 6 loyalty means that the games is probably going to
end next turn.
Escape to the Wilds
Rating 3.5
Escape to the Wilds usually first makes you
take a turn off, which can hurt, but it is definitely going to be worth it if
you are able to untap and unload all of the cards you exile with it in your
next turn. This can be good in 3 color decks to generate card advantage, or for
RG beats to refill in case you are low on high-drops.
#Conclusion - Multicolor
It seems like most of the multicolor cards are not too specific in their requirements, so you can pick most of them somewhat early in your draft, without restricting yourself too much or risking abandoning the pick too soon. Little risk, high reward, as almost all of them are powerful payoffs for you to either be in the respective color combination, or, regarding the hybrid cycle, deep into one single color. I expect that you often want to pick top-tier commons over them early, but a lot of times your draft might start off with a premium multicolor card or bomb as well so it is about even for both scenarios.
#Colorless Artifacts & Lands
Crashing Drawbridge
Rating 2.0
I kind of like this card, even though it
doesn’t seem especially great. The best scenarios for this will be when it
comes from the sideboard versus aggressive decks or when you are in an artifact-based
strategy. It helps a little that this card isn’t completely useless when you
want to apply pressure to your opponent, but it is still just a wall at the end
of the day.
Gingerbrute
Rating 1.0
Contextual Rating – Foods or Artifacts 1.5
Gingerbrute is pretty unexciting unless you are
desperate for Food or artifacts. You might sometimes want to play this in a “go
wide” deck but that’s about all this offers as a bad filler.
Golden Egg
Rating 1.5
Contextual Rating – Adamant, 3 color decks and
artifacts/foods, Cantrip Decks 2.5
You wouldn’t want to play this in every deck.
There will usually be about 2 to 3 players on a draft table that are interested
in Eggs, as it increases several counts of synergy cards or can be used as a
below-rate fixing. I might undervalue this and reevaluate later.
Henge Walker
Rating 1.0
Contextual Rating – Adamant 3.0
This is pretty unplayable if you can neither
profit from it being an artifact or fulfill its Adamant requirements. If you can, Henge Walker is a
pretty decent pick up. If you pay attention to what happens with
Henge Walkers you pass in draft, you can sometimes identify if there is
relevant competition for mono colored decks on the table and act accordingly.
Jousting Dummy
Rating 1.0
This is very below rate, and you only actively
want to put this in your deck if you are missing out on Knights, artifacts or 2
drops for your aggressive deck. Otherwise, this is simply a bad filler.
Locthwain Gargoyle
Rating 1.0
This is as medium as a filler can be, though
you would sometimes want to sideboard this in or play one copy of it in your
artifact-heavy deck.
Prophet of the Peak
Rating 2.0
Since this has neither a great rate, nor forces
you to be any specific deck (apart from that you might not want to be highly
aggressive, because Prophet of the Peak is rather slow), this is just fine and can sometimes be
a good pick up for curve toppers. Nothing more nothing less.
Roving Keep
Rating 1.0
This is pretty expensive and you probably can
do better with a lot of mana in this set on turn 7, but sometimes you might
really need a 7 drop that blocks and can possibly end the game turn 1000, I
guess. I’m excited for the first time I will see when Blow your House down
destroys this card.
Scalding Cauldron
Rating 2.5
Scalding Cauldron is actually a pretty good
removal for artifact themed decks, as it can be used instant speed and is kind
of easy to fit into your curve in those decks. If you are low
on removal in different themed decks, you might still want to prioritize this
over other decent commons as it helps you interact.
Signpost Scarecrow
Rating 1.5
Signpost Scarecrow is pretty uninteresting unless
you really need the bad-rate fixing it provides. It will rarely be decent in some
situations, because vigilance on this card doesn’t really help when your
opponent has 2 2/2s and they can just threaten to multi-block. Sometimes you
might get a free chumpblock because you kill their other guy with a removal
spell before damage but that’s about as good as it gets for this card. The
floor is rubbish.
Weapon Rack
Rating 1.5
I don’t know in which deck you would rate this high,
but it somehow does its job as a playable common by making your attackers
bigger in an aggressive deck, even though it is sluggish. Sometimes it might be good
enough to buff your defenses, but again: Not at a good speed or rate. Mostly
filler but probably okay to have one of them in your deck.
Clockwork Servant
Rating 1.5
Contextual Rating – Adamant 3.5
This might be okay when you are desperate for
artifacts, but it is mostly a great payoff for mono-colored decks. You might
probably not want to first pick it. It alone also isn’t a good reason to go for a
random mono deck. However, the closer you are to being mono color, the higher
you want to pick Clockwork Servant. Sometimes you are set on your deck early on in draft
so you might generally want to follow what happens with a Clockwork Servant you passed.
Enchanted Carriage
Rating 3.5
This will just be a decent 5 drop in most
decks. It is slightly above rate for the fact that it has no color requirements
and also increases artifact count/non-humans/generates token material in the
form of mice.
Heraldic Banner
Rating 2.0
This fits into many strategies: It can make
your attackers stronger in a go-wide deck, it might be decent in a mono colored
deck where it gives the bonus to all your creatures and sometimes you
would want this in an artifact deck for fixing purposes. Heraldic Banner isn’t
especially great at what it does but it delivers, which makes it a fine
playable.
Inquisitive Puppet
Rating 1.0
The Puppet is a little weird, because at first you might not
know where you can utilize it for any value. In a go-wide deck you
might see this as a bad filler, but the value of this comes mostly from being
an artifact that has scry 1 and can chumpblock twice. Low-end
filler in general.
Lucky Clover
Rating 0.5
Contextual Rating – High adventure count 3.0
Baseline requirements to have this in your deck
are quite high: You either need a reason to play a 2-mana vanilla artifact and
2-3 adventures or a heavy adventure-themed deck with about 5 or more of them.
Some Adventures have a great impact when copied (looking at all the
rares/mythics) but it will often just be a double combat trick or something
along those lines, so you need to get more than one trigger out of this usually
to be worthwhile.
Shambling Suit
Rating 1.5
Contextual Rating – artifacts/enchantments/Foods
2.5
With one Food or similar on board, this card is
medium, but as soon as you have 2 other artifacts or enchantments it has decent
stats already. The more, the better. I’m a little skeptical of how
consistently you will be able to make this a 3/3 or better though, so I would
only play it in a deck with high artifact/enchantment count.
Sorcerer’s Broom
Rating 1.0
Contextual Rating – Foods 1.5
2 mana 2/1 is a bad filler and being an
artifact plus having a very slow and expensive upside with sac outlets or Foods
doesn’t make it much better but I can see running this in a heavy Food deck if
you are lacking 2 drops.
Spinning Wheel
Rating 2.0
This is probably better than Midnight Clock in
most of the cases, as it gives you any color and can actually do something
impactful every once in a while before turn 15. Still, not greatly exciting unless
you are searching for fixing or ramp.
Witch’s Oven
Rating 1.5
Contextual Rating – Cauldron Familiar, Food
themes 3.0
Witch’s Oven is often an okay filler that gives
you some extra food over the course of the game, even when you don’t have great
synergies with it. You should not actively try to put this in your deck unless
you have a high demand for artifacts or Food tokens. If you have one or
multiple Cauldron Familiars this gets much more appealing, but that means
playing medium cards to make other medium cards better. While that can
sometimes be right, it is generally not a winning strategy.
Sorcerous Spyglass
Rating 0.5
Unless you are on heavy artifacts this should,
most of the time, not be in your main deck. At maximum usefulness it can be a
pickup as a sideboard card to deal with some of the mythic bombs in the format.
Stonecoil Serpent
Rating 4.0
Since this always fits the curve, scales up
well, has relevant keywords and just poses as a threat or relevant piece to your
board every single time you will draw it, this is a must-pick over most other
cards for any deck.
Valueland Cycle
Rating 2.0
Contextual Rating – Mono colored 3.0
All the lands from this cycle have the
same playability issues. You need 3 (THREE!) other lands with the
same basic land type already on the battlefield. Apart from mono colored decks, in which
they are obviously pretty good, they are mostly tap lands that
rarely have an upside in the majority of decks. You could rate some of them higher or lower,
but unless you have some weird late game strategy in a 2-colored deck with
Witch’s Cottage or Mystic Sanctuary, they probably all get picked about the
same. If you are heavy on one sort of basic (for example a 10-7 or 11-6 manabase), then they are definitely worth picking over some other playables.
Castle
Ardenvale
Rating 3.5
The castles
of the rare lands cycle have to be evaluated individually. Their playability in limited isn’t as restricted and they have different power
levels.
Castle
Ardenvale is probably tied with the black castle for being the best of the bunch, because it
provides you with a way to win the game on its own and allows you to chumpblock a
creature (without evasion) for eternity. All of that for the mere cost of a land slot.
Castle
Vantress
Rating 3.0
The blue
one seems like the least efficient one for limited. Scrying for 5 mana is so
slow and very tempo negative, but it is still a decent upgrade over a regular
land. There is no real downside to running it.
Castle
Locthwain
Rating 3.5
Castle
Locthwain draws cards for very little life when you are low on cards later,
which is obviously extremely valuable as it has almost no downside to run this
in your deck.
Castle
Embereth
Rating 2.0
Contextual
Rating – RX go wide 3.5
The red one
seems like the most inconsistent one: Either its ability isn’t largely
relevant, or you have about 4+ creatures on board and it makes combat awkward
for your opponent and/or helps rushing him down. A great pick up for any red
go-wide strategy, but not super important otherwise.
Castle
Garenbrig
Rating 2.5
This one is
essentially a forest that can be a Temple of the False God later on, without
having the huge drawback of the latter. This makes it a good pick up for green
decks with expensive creature spells.
Fabled
Passage
Rating 2.0
You might
not want to pick this very highly unless you are a non-aggressive 2 color deck
that has complex mana costs or even are splashing a third color (or more).
Remember that this CAN NOT search the etb trigger lands from this set, because while they
all have a basic land type they are not basic lands.
Tournament
Grounds
Rating 1.5
This is a
pretty great pick up for any Knight deck but isn’t a necessity, so you shouldn’t
ever pick this over good playables unless you are already splashing a third
color.
#Final Conclusion
Throne of Eldraine looks like an interesting draft format. There seem to be different aggressive, defensive and proactive midrangy but also reactive controlish decks available to draft. Throne of Eldraine generally has a high powerlevel, but not crazily high. 2 mana 2/2s with minor upside for curve are still decent fillers generally speaking since the importance of tempo is not to be underestimated. Neither Archetype or deck sticks out as a clear leader in powerlevel in particular for me yet, but you should respect the classic rule of "draft decks, not cards" here highly, as there are many cards that are strong in specific archetypes and near low-end fillers in others at the same time.
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