Eleven is my favourite number.

With 6 commons, 6 uncommons, and 3 rares, we expect to see just over 1 (1.213) Deserts per pack. This means in sealed, you’ll likely see about 5 or 6 Deserts (including the expected 0.335 Deserts per pack of Amonkhet), and 22 Deserts distributed among your draft packs in your pod.

Of the 17 cards that care about Deserts, 6 of them are actually Deserts themselves with a sacrifice ability granting a bonus. Keeping this in mind, the 17 cards give you 1.345 “Deserts-matters” cards per pack of Hour of Devastation. You can expect 5 to 6 cards that care about your Deserts in sealed, and to have 21 or 22 floating around your draft pod. 

The colours may not match up well in sealed or draft, and caring about Deserts will dry up pretty quickly when you draft the third pack, as Amonkhet had no such subtheme, only having the one green cycler that can grab Deserts. However, Shefet Monitor was apparently our preview into the colour that cared the most about Deserts in Hour of Devastation: with 8 cards that fit into green decks (2 colorless, 2 lands, and 4 actually green cards) compared to what the other colours can offer (4 to 5 cards), green is the colour that can best take advantage of the Desert subtheme of this block if you get enough Deserts to get these bonuses.

Due to the tribal subtheme, the major tribes showcased are Angels, Humans, Spirits, Zombies, Vampires, Wolves and Werewolves, and Scarecrows. They break down as such:

0.109 Angels in White and Red

2.320 Humans (0.774 White, 0.246 Blue, 0.209 Black, 0.260 Red, 0.831 Green)

0.622 White Spirits, 0.397 Blue Spirits

0.923 Zombies (0.447 Blue, 0.476 Black)

0.958 Vampires (0.473 Black, 0.484 Red)

1.039 Wolves and Werewolves (0.467 Red, 0.571 Green)

0.167 Scarecrows (all colorless artifacts)

Skulk, though not a major theme of the set, is a new mechanic showing up as follows:

0.152 Blue cards

0.251 Black cards

Investigate, and the Clues the keyword actions make are referenced on:

0.334 White cards

0.560 Blue cards

0.430 Green cards

Madness, a returning mechanic, shows up on:

0.230 Blue cards (0.438 discard outlets)

0.372 Black cards (0.448 discard outlets)

0.393 Red cards (0.305 discard outlets)

The ability word Delirium is mostly in Abzan colours:

0.223 White cards

0.317 Black cards

0.409 Green cards

Cards that help Delirium are the discard outlets above, self-milling cards, and cards that make you sacrifice a permanent:

0.322 Blue self-mill cards

0.171 Black self-mill cards

0.255 Green self-mill cards

0.292 White sacrifice cards

0.255 Black sacrifice cards

Cards that have graveyard interaction, or have additional non-delirium use in a graveyard are:

0.205 White cards

Any average card amounts in a colour under 0.150 were considered negligible unless it was the secondary colour of that theme or mechanic.

The cards with or reference subtype Ally are:

1.155 White cards (0.357 with Cohort)

0.407 Black cards (0.214 with Cohort)

0.489 Red cards (0.285 with Cohort)

0.199 Green cards

The cards with keyword Support are:

0.361 White cards

0.382 Green cards

(In addition, there is an uncommon in each of these colours that gains a bonus whenever it has a +1/+1 counter on it.)

The cards with keyword Surge are:

0.510 Blue cards

0.377 Red cards

(In addition, there is a Red card at uncommon, and a UR rare that cares about you casting your second spell in a turn.)

The cards with Devoid are:

0.956 Blue cards

1.373 Black cards

0.678 Red cards

0.442 Green cards

The cards that involve {C} are:

0.265 cards with {C} in its mana cost

3.192 cards that use {C} in its nonreminder rules text, of which are 0.688 Blue cards 0.616 Black cards 0.214 Red cards 0.367 Green cards 0.787 Land cards 0.286 Artifact cards

The cards that produce Eldrazi Scion tokens are:

0.142 Blue cards

0.214 Green cards

The cards where colorless matters are:

0.168 each Blue and Black cards

The cards that exile opponent’s cards are:

0.153 White cards

0.145 Blue cards

0.382 Black cards

(I have included blue here due to it being the primary colour for the Ingest Processor archetype in BFZ.)

The cards that gain life are:

0.332 White cards

0.228 Black cards

0.174 Green cards

(However, there are no life gain matters cards in OGW.)

Given this data crunch, you could assume the existence of the following in limited:

A WB or RW Allies / Cohort deck (plays well with the high asfan of Mardu Allies in BFZ) A GW Support deck (perhaps with Allies to play well with BFZ) A UR spells deck (with some prowess creatures) A UB or BR Colorless deck (plays well with the high asfan of Grixis devoid cards in BFZ)

Any average card amounts in a colour under 0.150 were considered negligible unless it was the secondary colour of that theme or mechanic. The cards that have or reference subtype Ally are composed of:

0.698 White cards (0.253 with Rally)

0.164 Blue cards

0.445 Black cards

0.424 Red cards (0.201 with Rally)

0.298 Green cards (0.155 with Rally)

The cards that have or reference keyword Awaken are composed of:

0.209 White cards

0.317 Blue cards

0.153 Black cards

The cards with ability word Converge are composed of:

0.258 Blue cards

0.180 Green cards

The cards that have keyword Devoid are composed of:

1.246 Blue cards

1.177 Black cards

0.796 Red cards

0.640 Green cards

The cards where colourless-ness matters are:

0.271 Black cards

0.335 Red cards

The cards that produce Eldrazi Scion tokens are:

0.252 Blue cards

0.164 Black cards

0.416 Green cards

The cards with keyword Ingest or exile opponent’s cards are:

0.686 cards specifically with Ingest

0.492 Blue cards (0.343 with Ingest)

0.582 Black cards (0.297 with Ingest)

0.236 Red cards

The cards with subtype Processor are:

0.292 Blue cards

0.134 Black cards (Mind Raker, Ulamog’s Nullifier, and Wasteland Strangler)

0.153 generic Colourless cards

The cards that gain life are:

0.445 White cards

0.230 Black cards

The cards where life gain matters are:

0.290 Black cards

0.038 White cards (Serene Steward)

The cards with ability word Landfall are:

0.153 each White, Blue, and Black cards

0.457 Red cards

0.396 Green cards

The cards that can trigger Landfall other than land for turn are:

0.260 Green cards