#mtgfoundations

Green

Go Forth: Instant speed Lay of the Land is pretty spicy, and I could definitely see this taking the slot of a card like Bushwhack, though they serve pretty different roles. I definitely think this card is both worth testing and worth playing in some decks, even if it’s just decks that want to protect their elves from shocks and their Halflings from bolts.

Hungry Megasloth: This guy’s super cute and pretty cool, but it’s just not the requisite beef or utility needed to slot into green decks these days.

Razorgrass Invoker: Wake up babe new invoker just dropped! Like most invokers, it’s not great in the format, especially since it doesn’t give any keywords, to help out, like trample.

Saurian Symbiote: This guy’s just 1 full mana too expensive to be anything at all, which is a shame since he’s such a cool guy.

Scythecat Cub: This lil kitty goes hard. I don’t think this should be replacing Bristly Bill’s, but it’s a huge add in addition to it. In a deck that has more ways to get a 2nd land drop than normal (running harrow, a rampant growth effect, ways to get back fetches, etc), this is a slam dunk, but also is most of the good parts of Bristly Bill anyway, so it should be a generically good card whenever it shows up. 

Slimy Piper: This guy just attacks as a 3/2 and that’s frankly about enough. If you needed more out of a go-wide deck for it, it also gets to attack with impunity, which is always a huge boon. I think this guy just punches significantly above its weight.

Spined Tyrranax: This guy’s cool, but he is just too vulnerable and resource intensive for a 5 drop.

Woodland Liege: Stompy decks have a surprisingly high count of beasts, or at least can engineer their deck to fit this, but it’s still a very fragile body to make justifying it seem worthwhile at all.

Braulios of Pheres Band: I’m not a fan of 5s you have to untap with :/ 

Dionus, Elvish Archdruid: This card is so incredibly busted that it makes me want to build elves for this gal. Holy hell an untap every turn is incredibly based.

Hurska Sweet-Tooth: I’m not a huge fan of this card, despite how high it can go in theory, mainly because most of your lifegain in this format is either the result of combat or in piecemeal, and paying 1 for each instance of lifegain you want to turn into damage suuucks.

Shroofus Sproutsire: I think this guy’s really cute and I will not be playing him.

Slinza, the Spiked Stampede: Suffers from the “competing with Thrun” dilemma. Unfortunately, that makes Slinza pretty unplayable even if you’re flush with incidental beasts.

Sutina, Speaker of the Tajuru: This is about the best rampant growth on a creature we have in the format, if not in general. Plus, enabling you to more reliably trigger landfall is a nice bit of gravy on a creature you don’t need to swing once with to feel good about.

Forgotten Ancient: This guy gets real big, but I honestly don’t think it’s great for us, where it just takes too long to get going for a 4 drop imo.

Gift of the Gargantuan: We have brainsurge at home; Brainsurge at home: is this

Advocate of the Beast: I thought this card was so damn cool when I played it in M14. The good news is that it is still quite cool, but the bad news is that it is not good, and never was.

Aggressive Instinct: Me when the best art for Bite Down is sorcery speed 😔

Ainok Artillerist: 4/1 for 3 moment.

Ainok Guide: This ol dog had to walk so that campus guide could run in limited. Pressing F for respects.

Baloth Woodcrasher: This guy is really funny, especially because at its core, it is indeed a 4/4 for 6 mana that is only that unless you get a land drop after.

Bounty of Skemfar: This card’s quite cool, and I think it isn’t crazy to play it in elves, but it’s like 3rd on wayfinder elves that you put in.

Druid of the Anima: yknow if this was on arena in 2020 I would have played it in real gladiator decks and I think that just tells you how far we’ve come.

Garruk, Caller of Beasts: This guy goes so hard for being the second decent 6 mana planeswalker. Completely disinterested with the normal structure of planeswalkers, you just want to slam prime time off this guy and look smug after, and I mean you should do that here too. The green creature restriction kind of honks, but there’s still a good sized pile of creatures to get for free off this, enough that I’d be willing to try it in sneak attack decks as another way to put in a ghalta.

Garruk’s Packleader: Beast Whisperer before he glew up, truly a beautiful moment

Grazing Gladeheart: I think someone (maybe me) will play this once or twice in our format, and those people are crying for help, don’t ignore the sights, ask if they’re ok

Groundswell: I don’t think we really have the gas for a Gruul Blitz deck, but this I think is legitimately worth considering in GW counters, where there’s a lot of ways to have trample and/or double strike, and adding a bunch of power attacking is very choice. I don’t think I would play it elsewhere though, even if you have a decent volume of lands.

Ivy Lane Denizen: This guy has no right to be so smug, get him out of my face, remove them from my sight, the bastard

Murasa Ranger: The fact that this hill giant needed you to pay FOUR GODDAMNED MANA to make it a 5/5 should tell you how bad BFZ limited was.

Orchard Strider: Generous Ent at home ass vibes lmao

Overwhelm: In exactly a GW tokens deck, this card slaps super hard, but it’s also 7 to cast, which even with convoke helping alleviate is quite a lot. The other question is do you ever want to cast this tapping 3 of the things that are going to get 3 extra power? Because otherwise, just play overrun or overcome and get the much more important flexibility of trample.

Predator’s Strike: Our bar is so much higher, like, come on.

Primeval Herald: This is a lil baby prime time that teaches you just how many things to be grateful of prime time for, between toughness, finding nonbasics, mana cost, and it all synthesizes into one medium bad card that makes you appreciate having the big old giant around <3

Rampant Growth: We haven’t played a lot of similar effects, and this one is by and large worse than the other rampant growths we might play (or at least Into the North, needing to play caves is kind of suspect).

Realm Seekers: This card isn’t good in our format, but it’s also so bad everywhere, like wow this was made for 4 players at 20 life and it really shows (derogatory).

Retreat to Kazandu: We have gotten a lot of better versions of this effect in recent years, but the modularity of gaining life or putting on counters is a nice touch, as is not being tied to a creature like Bill and co. I think I’d only play it in a pile of cultivates, but it’s not a horrible include.

Snapping Gnarlid: This guy is just not worth thinking about, so don’t.

Somberwald Beastmaster: I might put this into sneak as a pile of stats that gets sneaked in and doesn’t go away at end of turn. This is also incidentally synergistic with the other creatures that sacrifice into more bodies or come with friends. Being able to get a wide board off of this guy entering is a significant mark in their favor.

Tukatongue Thallid: This is certainly no Doomed Traveler, and I think that distinction is becoming more and more relevant, making this guy more and more just a relic of a bygone era where we didn’t have a handful of doomed traveler effects.

Undergrowth Champion: This guy is a lot of the things I like about Tireless Tracker but without a huge downside of Tracker, which was that he’s shockingly vulnerable (pun intended) in the first two turns of his existence. With Champion, if you play this then hit a land drop, it becomes a force that’s both hard to deal with and needs to be reckoned with. In dedicated lands decks, this card goes super hard, but I think it also has a home anywhere that you have fetches and creatures that are annoying to deal with.

Verdeloth the Ancient: I’m gonna be real, I’ve never liked this card–it just is too expensive to be what boils down to a big pot of stats, especially when the competition is so fierce these days. That said, if you’re a non-sneak attack Channel deck, this is one of the better Channel payoffs barring things like Banefire.

Voice of the Woods: I don’t really want to mess with 5 mana 2/2s without protection that want to gain consistent value. It just looks like way too much work, especially when you really want to activate twice before you’re feeling like you’re getting away with something.

Multicolor/Colorless

Averna, the Chaos Bloom: Averna kind of got mucked over by Discover supplanting cascade for the most part, meaning the number of playable cards it triggers on is quite unfortunately very low.

Bituminous Blast: Removal + get another card is pretty exciting, though the number of decks that actually can really afford to play this is pretty low in the format, since you really don’t want to hit dead cards (like mana drain on an empty stack), and you generally want to be hitting 3-4 drops with this, so you want to be mindful of your curve. I think this all melts into being a pretty niche but effective card that I’d be interested to see in like Mardu Pyro or maybe a deck like Jund Bard.

Enlisted Wurm: I think this card is closer than it looks (Trumpeting Carnasaur but without versatility or blinkability) but it’s still not quite at the place it needs to be in order to really feel worthwhile.

Fusion Elemental: Even if the cost is trivial, vanilla creatures are just actively bad and this one doesn’t bring anything that can be interpreted as exciting to the table.

Violent Outburst: This opens up a decent amount of strategies, but it’s really only a great Rhinos card, and unfortunately that deck is nowhere near the requisite consistency to be viable in gladiator. Living End might be the one card they could reprint to actually make this card worthwhile in gladiator.

Shardless Outlander: I’m a big fan of cards like this, and it’s a slam dunk in my cube, but ultimately it doesn’t have most of the things that a cycling threat needs, which are more explosive power and a cheaper cycling cost.

Starnheim Memento: I really hate manaliths and this certainly is a manalith, but it’s also definitely going to kill me because that AA is quite powerful and might just save the card in decks that have tall but nonevasive threats in abundance, like perhaps in a counters deck.

Leonin Scimitar: Short Sword Moment amirite gamers

Gorgon Flail: Basilisk Collar at home be like

Maelstrom Colossus: I like this guy but he’s awkward with how most sneak decks play, meaning it’s going to be hard to actually trigger the cascade here.

Metalspinner’s Puzzleknot: This is one of the most playable of the puzzleknots, which I say not as a praise, but rather that the bar is not very high to get there, and essentially being a few synergies attached to a 5 mana divination is better than average for the cycle.

Ash Barrens: I think in 2 color decks this is essentially a free include to make your mana a bit more consistent from t2 onward, and in 3c it’s playable if you are not incredibly pip-dense and can afford to play a hair reactively in the early game.

Cave of Temptation: Filter lands have a super high bar to clear, and while this gets closer than most, it doesn’t get there.

Kabira Crossroads: We have a couple of lands like this now, and I don’t think any of them are particularly good. In white decks with prime time i could see including it if you just want lands that are better than duals or basics if you fetch them, but the downside is pretty large here.

Black

Revoke Demise: I am a big fan of No One Left Behind for being able to modulate between 2 and 5 mana, but I think I’m much less of a fan when the reduction is only by 2, even with the slight consolation of a couple of life. I don’t think I’d play the smaller version, and I’m skeptical I’d be happy to play either, so I think you should pass on your Demise Revoking License.

Scourge of the Undercity: This is a very mid creature that I think once in a blue moon could be almost close to playable. I don’t think it will ever get to playable, but these kinds of cards are easy to overlook and are on rare occasions the right card for a job. 

Wriggling Grub: Mmmmmm tasty grub, any creature that’s not horribly below rate and turns into multiple bodies is enough to get an eyebrow raise, and this lil guy being 3 bodies makes it a very efficient fuel piece for crats decks.

Aphelia, Viper Whisperer: I am really interested by this girlie, but there’s a few hangups. Her body is great defensively, but runs into a lot more trouble offensively, so attacking to make a token really only makes sense on t3, but that’s also a pivotal turn where mana use is really important. Her ult is also nice, but seems hard to make worthwhile since it quickly turns more and more trivial to trade with her and make her contribution irrelevant. I might try her in Jund bard, but I don’t expect much staying power out of her.

Evereth, Viceroy of Plunder: The bar for sac outlets is surprisingly low, and I think this passes the bar despite not being an instant speed sac outlet. It’s a pretty strict upgrade to Defiant Salvager, and if you hold up your mana well (and you really should), she can be a sizeable nail in an opponent’s coffin that can only really be answered by an exile effect. Also, flying defiant salvager is just pretty nutty. You can reasonably stop there.

Fumulus, the Infestation: I think this guy is just unfortunately too narrow all around, and is going to struggle to find a good home to sit in long term, even if making all your dudes doomed travelers is exciting.

Nazar, the Velvet Fang: Yeah no, I think Ambition’s Cost is already not fantastic, and one I have to protect and work for? No chance.

Ozox, the Clattering King: There’s a part of me that thinks this might make it in crats, but 3 mana for each 2 bodies is kind of pushing my patience a little bit. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if it made it, but I think your mana sinks are still better spent elsewhere most of the time.

Rev, Tithe Extractor: I think this is just a good creature. It’s a little annoying that you need to connect with her around to get any meaningful value, but it is just a boardwide permanent ragavan, and you know that’s nothing to scoff at, especially when she makes it easier to get there. I could see this in Ruin Your Evening or a few other decks that are more go-wide in black to ensure triggers and consistently accrue card advantage.

Gorex, the Tombshell: Gorex is I think just too small to be worthwhile, even if it is a slow gravedigger on top of that. I might want to try it in Dredge as a pretty easy 2 mana 4/4, but it’s not much more to just play one of the other cool dredge cards instead.

Dark Confidant: Yeah this card’s sick, obviously. I do think I like it most in decks that want utility creatures, which does indeed whittle its applications slightly, and this does die to the jeskai answers that are at their peak right now, but it’s a classic, and it definitely can work well in some shells.

Howling Banshee: Unfortunately, our bar for 4s is just so comically high, which sucks, because I like cards like the Banshee.

Killing Glare: Nah, even decks on a lot of removal look more shallow than this needs.

Priest of Gix: Meat Storm Meat Storm Meat Storm Meat Storm but yeah essentially this is only a card for combo applications, and while I think they’re playable and potent, these kinds of combo decks haven’t been well-positioned in years.

Serpent Assassin: Ravenous Chupacabra, eat your heart out.

Army of the Damned: I want to try this in a cheat out spells deck, because it’s funny as hell, but the card shouldn’t be played without parent supervision.

Balustrade Spy: This is a really cool card to have on arena, but it’s a HUGE cost to make it into a combo piece for our format, especially since our charbelcher decks wanted to have a few lands, we might be able to get away with a belcher/oracle combo, but on that note, this is admittedly worse than most other ways we have to combo out in our format that’s seen play, and we’ve played Cow tech in this format.

Bloodgift Demon: I’m kind of surprised that this guy wasn’t already on arena, but uh it does suck that your 5s just are so good these days because I want to play these cool bad cards like I can with 2 drops

Creeping Bloodsucker: Oh, hey, it’s a bad 2 drop that you can still play and win with! Actually this seems fun in the lifegain decks for being a cheap blocker with power that also hurts and gives you nice triggers. I’d play it in a deck with more than 3 pridemates.

Dark Supplicant: hehehehehe no

Devouring Swarm: We have better sac outlets for the most part, but this having flying is pretty neat. That said, I think it only edges out like Defiant Scavenger and even then, that’s a little bit of a stretch.

Dross Hopper: 2 mana monoblack sac outlet at instant speed baybeee! That said, I don’t think it’s good, I just like seeing more free sac outlets.

Endless Cockroaches: it’s worse than my new enby polycule Ozox and Jumblebones but it does fit the role of “keeps being a spell to cast with a free sac outlet” which is something I guess

Gnawing Zombie: Gnaw, I’m good.

Grave Strength: If your dredge decks have creatures that want to kill your opponent I think this spell goes hard and you should play it. Ok that’s about it.

Graveblade Marauder: Wowie Unstoppable Slasher really did a number on this guy. I think you can still get away with playing this, but damn is the Slasher just so much better.

Heartstabber Mosquito: I hate mosquitos with a burning passion and (unrelated) also hate this card.

Moan of the Unhallowed: You know, I think you could do worse. Not terribly worse, mind you, but I think it’s possible to do worse than this card.

Necropolis Regent: Being immediately relevant in combat is nice, but it is ultimately a victim of “Mythic from before 2018 Syndrome” where it has a very big dumb effect but dies to every piece of removal in the book. That said, if you double all your creatures’ power off of it and then it dies, I think you’re ultimately still pretty happy.

Night’s Whisper: Yeah you like having more sign in blood effects, although this one is worse than literal SiB a surprising amount of the time, with the huge uptick in draw punishers in the last two years. But like yea still play this.

Pharika’s Chosen: I love this card so much. Don’t play Typhoid Rats 2 Electric Boogaloo, but this girl’s got the vibes.

Read the Bones: I'm one part mad that I missed this card in my first draft of this review, and one part glad that it happened while the card was grossly outmoded.

Reaper from the Abyss: I absolutely love this guy, he was one of the first Mythics I played with in a deck, and god is it fun to annoy the hell out of people by killing a threat each turn if you played magic: the gathering. Is it good? Well it’s awful easy to kill, but I think it’s at least close to playable, and it would fill me with untold joy to see it pop off.

Rodolf Duskbringer: Eh, this guy is a 6 mana 4/4 that likely won’t have any protection the turn you play him, and his reanimation wants you to put even more mana into it, so I’ll pass.

Ruthless Technomancer: Generating a whole lot of treasures is nice, but I really wished this did something more with its enters effect. I’m sure it’ll find a place somewhere, but I also doubt it’ll be a long standing piece in a deck.

Scion of Darkness: hehehehehe noooo

Ukud Cobra: I’m so here for the random uncommons from DTK getting reprinted for the first time in foundations it fuels me, they’re bad but they fuel me

Ulcerate: This was a shockingly playable card before they started printing good removal, like fatal push. Now? no.

Urge to Feed: I’m trying to figure out how many vamps you need for this to be quite nice and it’s somewhere between 2.5 and 18 I think, either way, not looking great.

Wakedancer: More like sleepdancer amirite gamers

Red

Frontline Heroism: I do like that this can make sorcery speed combat stuff more exciting, and I think this will be a legitimately good piece for heroic decks. Turning “Spell that targets” into even just a 1/1 blocker on top of that is nice, and if the spell cantrips, does other good things, or even just makes the creature real beeg, this card really goes above and beyond.

Hearts on Fire: God I love these lesbians so much. This is not a terrible spell in a RW wide valiant deck, but it’s probably not worth a slot unless you’re in some way building your lesbian theme deck (which is valid and good).

Sandstorm Crasher: I was decently high on this card for a bit, but at 4 mana and needing to last a turn and exert to get 1 copy, I think I’m actually pretty low on the card in practice. It’s just such a deeply rigid design that you don’t actually have much going in the way of flexibility of what you can or want to do with it that just sours me a lot on the card. Its best use may be to play in a deck like sneak that can make it easier to get it attacking and your impact is greater, but at that point there’s little reason to run it over Delina to get nonlegendary copies and the chance at multiples, but who’s seen Delina in the wild in the past calendar year?

Scholar of Combustion: This is a really cool sidegrade to Archeomancer, and is great for getting a fake extra turn by exiling something like a mana drain just with threat of use. It’s certainly no snapcaster, but it’s a really interesting card to consider for decks that just want to torture their opponent a little.

Anep, Vizier of Hazoret: I’m significantly higher on this guy than I should be, but any creature that essentially draws 2 cards on their first attack is hard to pass up in my book, and at least try in a bard class list where it’s also not hard to buff up or protect the 4/2, which is the worst part of the card by far.

Cleon, Merry Champion: This seems super cool in blitz as a way to hopefully chain pump spells, and when it doesn’t hit another castable spell, you still have the opportunity on the next turn to cast them. I really hope a UR or RW blitz deck comes out of this release, and that this factors into it.

General Kreat, the Boltbringer: This guy goes hard, being both an impact tremors and a pseudo-rabblemaster in one is really nice, especially since you don’t have to attack with Kreat specifically to still pop off. Play her in goblins, and I think she’s got enough applications to find play in other niche decks potentially.

Gornog, the Red Reaper: Cowards can’t block warriors is usually just a somewhat funny line, but holy shit this makes it worthwhile, turning each of your opponents’ creatures into a card that pumps your whole team eventually. Play this card in red decks that want your opponent to die, because the baseline is a 3/3 haste that falters a creature on attack.

Ivora, Insatiable Heir: I’m gonna say I’m not a fan of Ivora here. She’s a little too much work to make her shine, and I don’t think we’re in a space to really make a deck to capitalize on her right now. When we do get a really good and proper madness deck, though, she’s gonna slap. As is, if someone makes Tour d’France a deck again, this will certainly get in.

Brothers Yamazaki: Rip Brothers in a singleton format 😔

Rionya, Fire Dancer: The fact that this is baseline a Kiki Jiki per combat is admittedly quite nice. Also, this goes infinite with Combat Celebrant, and I’m fairly certain can win regardless of blockers with a storm count of 1, so the kiki typal deck just keeps getting better.

Blood Feud: 6 mana to destroy 2 creatures situationally is not worthwhile in our format.

Ghitu Encampment: I think this creature land is fine, but nothing to write home about. You’ll play it in 1-2c decks with red, I think, but it’s among the first to go if you’re cutting utility/enters tapped lands.

Akroan Crusader: Akroan Crusader is a good card for blitz decks, but ultimately is on the lower end of cards with staying power in that deck. Making creatures without heroic triggers is about the most medium payoff you can ask for, but you’ll legitimately still take it.

Anje’s Ravager: This card is going to be core for red going into the future methinks. This is an on-rate creature that generates card advantage consistently while also not being an enormous cost sunk into it. I don’t think the madness is anything to really take seriously, but it’s little extra gravy if Thoughtseize gets played significantly more.

Arena Athlete: This is under the bar for your blitz cards, as iconic as this guy is.

Boldwyr Intimidator: 7 mana is so hot for a red 5/5 without flying ngl

Coordinated Assault: This card’s not for us I don’t think, but I just love the vibes of Theros.

Crimson Wisps: Yeah I’ll take more expedites, join the club the more the merrier.

Falkenrath Marauders: I think we can do considerably better these days, but its potential to go really far is intriguing. That said, I’d just rather get the beef upfront in the current year.

Fiendish Duo: This only doubling damage to opponents really puts a damper on this one, but being a surprise 10-20 damage in the right scenario in sneak attack at least makes me start thinking, though it certainly doesn’t beat out anything significant, I don’t think.

Fiery Fall: Yeah I’m not excited.

Goblin Goliath: This card’s a real vibe but it is awful in our format.

Goblin Rabblemaster: I think we’re past the point where this is just playable in our format, but it is good in goblins, so you’ll play it there. I think you also play it in the warriors deck if someone decides to try that again.

Goblin Researcher: I don’t think you’d play this 3 years ago, let alone now.

Kruin Striker: This typically gets to be a 3/1 trampler most of the time, which isn’t quite enough, I don’t think. However, in go-wide decks where it reliably is a 4/1 on t3

Markov Blademaster: Double striker that grows is pretty cool and good, but being a 1/1 double strike on 3 makes me dubious that it can get through outside of some really specific strategies.

Markov Enforcer: I think this card’s just kind of bad for us, ngl

Markov Warlord: Yeah same here

Mogg Flunkies: HELL YEAH MOGG FLUNKIES WE’RE SO BACK idk play these guys in goblins or maybe some really aggressive shells but they’re not amazing

Pyrophobia: Common red removal moment

Satyr Hoplite: This is I think surprisingly close to playable in RW heroic, but it’s really scraping as far deep as you want to go.

White

Eidolon of Astral Winds: Obviously, an enchantment creature with constellation has a very low bar for being worthwhile in enchantress. One that has vigilance, a decent body, and becomes an evasive vigilant beatstick on constellation as a baseline is a slam dunk in enchantress shells for sure.

Faithful Pikemaster: This is a really wacky and interesting body, but I don’t care to analyze it too much because it’s a 4 drop :/

Generous Pup: This is a really powerful and unique effect to have on-rate at 2 mana in counters decks. However, I do think there is a much higher bar for creatures that don’t somehow put a counter on themselves, and this falls under that bar in a pretty major way. However, I really think this is strong enough to be the exception to the rule, especially when lots of those threats can or do buff your other creatures.

Brigone, Soldier of Meletis: Now we’re talking - this gal does a great job growing and then rewarding you for it, and often lets you have your cake and eat it too with the added vigilance. Very nice add.

Psemilla, Meletian Poet: Getting 2 constellation tiggers each turn you cast an enchantment is already a pretty sizeable bonus that you’re super happy to play. It being able to realistically attack at times is also nice, but the only part necessary to play the card is the fact that it makes all your enchantment creatures, do nothing enchantments, and shrines also give you at least a blocker and usually also an additional trigger on your constellations.

Qala, Ajani’s Pridemate: This is a good version of a pridemate, giving you all the tools you need to go off, but it does run into the snag of being a 4 drop pridemate, meaning it can’t be reanimated by most of the threeanimators you want to run and generally pushing it to be a game closer, which this card’s not super amazing at.

Thurid, Mare of Destiny: I’m hesitant to say that I think this is a good card for gladiator, but if you can get its copy ability to trigger, you are having a field day. The only issue is that there are a very limited number of playable Horses and similar species in gladiator, and even fewer that are actually actively good. As much as I want 2 6/4 Vine Mares, I doubt this card has the capability to make huge waves. That said, someone should build the GW lifegain horselike deck, because that sounds sick as hell.

Urdnan, Dromoka Warrior: This guy is cracked, I don’t know what else to tell you. Its baseline is a 2/2 that attacks with first strike, which is totally passable, but it also: A) triggers even if he doesn’t attack B) gives double strike most of the time if you’re playing the counters deck and C) can set up a better or more protected creature to capitalize more on the ability. I think if you’re on a counters deck with white this might be one of the most exciting includes to see.

Brimaz, King of Oreskos: You can usually consider Brimaz to be a 3 mana 4/5, which is SUPER above rate, and that value only gets better and better if Brimaz isn’t contested in some axis. Brimaz is cracked and you should play him in decks with Plains in them.

Tenacity: This card isn’t that good, but in any wide-focused deck, this just represents a laughably big life swing that can definitely be overcome in our format, but buys you a metric ton of time and this also untaps creatures to be blockers and adds damage. That said, being very reliant on a preexisting board and 4 mana is a lot to ask for a card that just pads your life total out a ton.

Akroan Skyguard: We weren’t this desperate when people were making Feather blitz decks and there’s no chance we’re that desperate now.

Angelic Cub: This one’s different from skyguard in that it does the valiant thing, but also it’s still very low quality and not needed for any deck imo. Seeing it next to Skyguard does wonders to realize it’s not what it’s cracked up to be. 

Banisher Priest: I’m kind of surprised that we didn’t see this earlier, but I would 100% play Seal from Existence since creatures are just so much more vulnerable than enchantments in nearly every case.

Cage of Hands: Friends don’t let friends play 3 mana pacifisms. Sorry bud, I don’t make the rules.

Chains of Custody: With very minimal exceptions, this is just going to be worse than Sheltered by Ghosts, and also worse than cards like Seal from Existence, so I’ll pass on these chains.

Chosen by Heliod: Cantripping enchantments are neat, but I’m much more skeptical of auras, especially when they don’t add power. If this added even 1 power I’d be interested, but it doesn’t quite get there. Divine Favor: This feels like THE classic bad aura for 2010s limited, which is iconic, but still bad.

Elite Skirmisher: Love this orb guy’s energy, but yeah no

Expedition Raptor: God why am i doing this comprehensively I really shouldn’t but I’m too stubborn not to.

Felidar Sovereign: This guy’s like aetherflux reservoir but worse, but it’s still a cute thing for certain decks. Not a good thing, mind you, but cute.

Godsend: Ok hear me out here, this adds a good amount of stats, and also goes reeeally well with a lot of keywords, chiefly any evasion, vigilance, and/or trample. Being enough stats to make the abyss out of a creature and also exiling a blocker each attack is pretty huge. I think the equipment decks should take a nice long look at this, bc it’s hot.

Herald of War: I don’t think this one’s it, chief. Needing to get a swing in before it does anything tangible is a real hard sell, especially when it’s just cost reduction after you’ve already hit 5 mana.

Jubilant Mascot: This guy joins the “not a good card but damn i love their energy” club.

Nykthos Paragon: yeah this guy’s 6 mana. Our bar is so high these days, but 6 mana’s always gonna be tough imo.

Ojutai Exemplars: I’m not convinced these folks are anything to write home about, but they’re certainly interesting to think about, and if you treat them like a 5 drop with an opt or the like, they’re pretty nice as a removal resistant threat. That said, thinking of them as a 5 makes them fight for a far more competitive slot unfortunately.

Recumbent Bliss:  Eventide common moment, I didn’t even know this card existed until writing this.

Relief Captain: You need to be going really wide for this to be impressive, but if you can actually support 3 with this, it’s moderately above rate. However, I think that setup is just a little too high of an ask for me, but I wouldn’t be infinitely shocked to see it in a really wide list. I think it also works decently as an actual 4 drop for wide strategies, as most of those decks’ higher cost slots are actually 3 drops in reality when you convoke them out, so having real 4+ drops might be better than one would think, though I don’t really believe the captain themself is worthwhile.

Repel the Darkness: I cast magic missile on the darkness!

Serra’s Embrace: I legitimately can’t think of anything to say other than you don’t need to think about this card because lord knows I’m not.

Shoulder to Shoulder: I think this card is better than it looks! This card looks like it’s totally unplayable, but it’s actually just pretty bad!Stone Haven Outfitter: I think the Outfitter is deeply defensible and not much more for equipment decks, but cheap cards that are defensible are the bread and butter of our format, so I’m confident it’ll see play at some point.

Sungrace Pegasus: Sungrace Pegasus is the second best 1/2 with flying and lifelink in magic, and I can say that with a moderate amount of confidence. Unfortunately, there are only 2, and the first place awardee, Hushbringer, doesn’t really see play already.

Sunspear Shikari: I could see this in an equipment list a couple of years ago, but at this point, we have cards that are shikari’s success state natively, so why bother?

Tethmos High Priest: This is an ironic card, because its success state is one of the best effects you can get at that cost, and has lots of homes, but making a deck that both wants the 2animate and can reliably trigger heroic is a tall order that doesn’t seem worthwhile.

Triplicate Spirits: This card’s really good and tokens decks should be on it to go evasive on top of wide.

Wingsteed Rider: I could see this guy in a blitz deck, if not just for evasion that reliably gets bigger with spells in a deck that can struggle to get evasion on top of growth.

Blue

Delightful Discovery: The good news is that I think this is firmly a spell that you can consistently cast to be on rate (4 mana), and it’s not that hard to get this to be 3 mana. On the other hand, this card is tough in how reliant it is on your opponent, and when your opponent is not being proactive, this can really falter. I think this is, in a vacuum, good enough, but in a more defined space, it gets worse the more blue or slower midrange is in the rest of the field.

Gilded Scuttler: Tired - a stunning creature that flies. Wired - a sub par stunner that is unblockable 🤔 I think this card’s just quite bad, partly in that fliers already were close enough that you don’t want to make sacrifices on rate, and also in that we really never played a frost lynx with a straight face in this format, and I think we’re far from that being the case.

Phantasmal Shieldback: I am not a fan of this card, in part because I think that Elvish Visionary effects are just a tad overrated, but also in that this card takes a decent amount of work to actually draw you that card. The good news is that it is hard for this to not die, and if it doesn’t, it’s probably a good sign, but I don’t think 1/3 cantrip that eats the most useless targeting effect or chumps a 3/2 is particularly worth a slot in your deck.

Cynette, Jelly Drover: Jellyfish girl is super cute but I don’t really think this is the kind of card you want in skies, partially on account of being too small on both bodies to justify a 4 drop and being a vulnerable lord. I think you can both do better and aren’t hurting for more cards to fill the slot this would fill. That said, making bodies (and making fliers) on both entry and death makes this an interesting card to think about in a lot of scenarios, including as a pile of 3 bodies where you’re happy if the first two stay alive.

Neerdiv, Devious Diver: The milling effect isn’t something I’m super excited by, but the graveyard rewarding ability is enormous. Drawing cards whenever you reassemble your skeletons or think twice or Uro or (currently more likely) Phlage, or whatever floats your graveyard is massive, and is going to land this card in a lot of homes, from dredge to breach to even certain jeskai decks potentially.

Plagon, Lord of the Beach: Yeah I’m not a fan of assform effects, and this one is no exception. If anything, it has more problems than most assforms, where it doesn’t let walls attack, and takes a sizeable investment for being a 3 drop. At least it almost always cantrips on etb, that’s a little consolation.

Pol Jamaar, Illusionist: I am skeptical for how good this typal payoff is, where it’s a sizeable chunk of mana, and kind of expects you to do more with the cards you draw than with the creature you get, which rubs me the wrong way. I think he’s worth testing in typal decks that already feature one of his types (like Humans or Wizards) but even then I’m both skeptical and don’t think it merits a deck to be made for them.

Taeko, the Patient Avalanche: I think the biggest boon of this guy is that he is an easily unblockable 4/5 for 4, and that’s pretty huge. His middle ability is pretty cool, but it’s also not the most important part and not super impactful except for pushing more damage through. If anything, I quite like it as a little bit of insurance for things like Path and Wandering Emperor to punish for not hitting Taeko in a deck that is a tallish midrange deck. Otherwise, I think we’ve kind of outmoded the blue 4 drop as it used to exist in gladiator, and so it might struggle to fill the same void when we’ve left GE Kefnet, y’know? 

Venser, Shaper Savant: Venser is a huge get for the format: Being a remand when you need it but also a body and, barring that, a flash blocker that bounces a problematic or protected attacker is a huge tempo swing. Plus, blinking Venser is perhaps the best feeling you can get in magic, maybe just behind buying back a capsize with 6 more mana untapped.

Archeomancer: Surprised we haven’t gotten this one yet, but this is ultimately a couple slots deep into a pretty niche effect, which is rough for this wizard, but it’s definitely still at a rate that decks purely focused on getting time warp back

Azure Drake: magic the gathering amirite

Concentrate: This is surprisingly close to a rate that I’m happy with, but not enough so that I’m willing to play it along with, say, plan the heist. And, that’s not a card i’m chompin at the bit for

Experimental Aviator: I was really surprised that this guy didn’t end up in Kaladesh Remastered, but it’s not worth thinking about in constructed terms for the most part.

Kapsho Kitefins: I really thought this card froze on creatures entering, and the fact that it doesn’t makes it far under the bar it needs to have.

Krovikan Mist: Yeah no we don’t have the density or quality of illusions to make the mist worthwhile. Maybe in 15 years, but definitely not now.

Lord of the Unreal: Yeah same goes for this guy, even if they are neat.

Merfolk Pupil: I’m stoked that this merfolk has made it to arena, and I think if you’re making the UG merfolk deck work, this is a legitimately decent card to put in there. Otherwise, it’s not noteworthy. Notworthy, if you will. (Editor's Note: Google docs corrected this back to noteworthy and I spent a full 2 minutes trying to figure out what the hell I thought was a joke in the stupor I spent reviewing these cards.)

Opportunity: You don’t need this card, or at least all of it. If you need card volume, you’re ok with sorcery speed to get it cheap, or your ok with fast volume but smaller, but it’s hardest to compromise to big fast volume when it’s very expensive.

Owl Familiar: It's kinda fucked up that Blue didn't have an elvish visionary until 2019 when you think about it. Aren't they supposed to be the best at card draw?

Pestermite: Our KPI (kiki potential index) is pretty low in this format for myriad reasons, but pretty chief among them is the fact that we don’t have a free kiki jikki effect, which means we have to add another piece to make, say, Fable of the Mirror Breaker work in its stead. Eventually we’ll have a few ways to actually twin, but right now it’s not worth looking much into.

Purple-Crystal Crab: This is usually worse than an Elvish Visionary, and especially plays poorly into getting bowmastered and the like.

Remand: Reprieve has been putting in a lot of work since LOTR came out, and I refuse to believe Remand would be any exception, even though it is generally worse since it doesn’t work on the growing pool of “can’t be countered” cards.

Sky-Eel School: I’m unironically so glad that Jumpstart sets gives these old, absolutely unplayable commons, they add a lot of spice to the good cards.

Smoke Shroud: This is I think almost playable, but it’s gonna need a good chunk of further ninjas that are fully playable to make a deck work in some way with it.

Soul Read: I’d still rather play Supreme Will, but this is an interesting one to think about.

Sphinx of Enlightenment: In the wake of a 6 mana Sphinx that FoF’s coming out alongside this, I’m really down on one that draws about the same amount of cards and also gives the opponent a card.

Sprite Noble: I could get down on this card in a skies deck, but it is ultimately a pretty underwhelming card for the deck, occasionally getting to be Favorable Winds is cool, but not that eye-popping for an archetype that definitely could use more splashy forms of help.

Stitched Drake: Did yall hear that Drake sued Kendrick Lamar for damages lmao, anyway uh this card probably also deserves the shame that Drake feels or something, idk I'm really tired and I just realized that this card is also new to gladiator so now it's your problem too.

Special Guests

Condemn: I think this is going to be in our top 4 white removal spells despite its restriction. Putting it on the bottom of deck is much better than destruction, but it is a little worse than exile, and the amount of shuffling in our format makes it a less-than-completely-permanent answer. That said, it’s still incredible for the format.

Sphinx’s Tutelage: This card is the core of a mill deck being possible, but that said, it’s not good enough for our format without some serious help.

Goblin Bushwhacker: This guy’s great, an absolute classic, and makes people’s life totals disappear better than most.

Bloom Tender: Bloom Tend ‘er? I barely even know ‘er! Seriously though this card’s cracked: adding even 2 mana on t3 is a huge boon and it wins games in the same axis as fanatic of rhonas.

Akroma’s Memorial: This card is super vulnerable to removal, but it also makes your creatures good enough to not care as much about when this thing dies, and more about how you can capitalize.

Temporal Manipulation: Getting a second literal time warp I don't think is that huge, but it is double the number of literal time warps we had before, which is big.

Multicolor

Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate: I love my girl so much and having first strike helps a ton. This is going to slam into Jund Bard, but also I would be interested in having a WBr style of Ruin your Evening that can lean into reanimating high quality 3s like Laelia and Crucias, though maybe after we get OG Alesha with Pioneer Masters.

Anthem of Champions: I and unconvinced that we are in the business of just anthems but if we are then 2 mana is a good reason to. I'd think about it in Bretagard Stompy

Ashroot Animist: A mini-Xenagos is cool, but again, your bar for 4s are huge and this is going to struggle to clear it without protection, haste, or any further keywords.

Dreadwing Scavenger: This bird is really cool, and the body’s quite nice with threshold, but they do a pretty slow job of filling up the yard in practice, so I’m hesitant to want it in a dredge list.

Elenda, Saint of Dusk: I don't think Elenda is the best 4 drop you have access to, but having protection from the best removal spells in the format is huge, and if it's ever a 5/5 with menace, she's hard to compete with. Definitely worth testing.

Fiendish Panda: This is a cool af pridemate, but ultimately any pridemate above 3 mana is a lot more suspect due to being much harder to protect and threeanimate. It’s just a pretty low impact 4 which is a bit of a death knell for it in the format.

Koma, World-Eater: oooooooooooooooooooo thicc worm; this one I think works well in a sneak or ramp shell, and once it connects you just desperately need a wrath. The unfortunate part is that this is a very committal card–they really need to answer koma with a board wipe, but a boardwipe does fully answer Koma and their Coils, so it doesn’t do much for a deck that wants Koma to stick around, it just limits the answers to cards that are already played well and play better into Koma.

Kykar, Zephyr Awakener: I wish this card had some kind of protection for itself, but it’s still quite good as is, and offers a powerful versatility that’s easier to play than OG kykar. That said, OG kykar hasn’t been seen in a bit, and current jeskai decks are in the business of just winning instead of playing payoffs for noncreatures after landing a 4 drop.

Niv-Mizzet, Visionary: Like half of Niv-Mizzets, this one's pretty bad. The good thing about most of the Niv’s is that they can trigger themselves in some way, and this one doesn’t give any help. It’s great to turn a bolt to face into an ancestral, but it’s ultimately more work on a 6 drop that really shouldn’t require more work to make good.

Perforating Artist: 3/2 deathtouch is not a horrible statline, but it doesn’t really give me any interest in wanting to play it, and its end step trigger is also kind of mid.

Wardens of the Cycle: I really like this creature in any deck that can consistently turn on Morbid to be a phyrexian arena on a stick that also doesn’t have to be if more cards is not worth gaining life instead. That said, I’m not sure how many great homes there are for these cute elves that can make that condition happen.

Zimone, Paradox Sculptor: Any counter doubler is enough to pique a little bit of interest, but this struggles in doing so by being pretty slow. I could see her working out well in a GXu counters deck, but I don’t think it’s pushed enough to really try that as a deck, so it might have some trouble finding a real home.

Consuming Aberration: On one hand, this guy gets so big, but on the other, right now is the worst time to randomly mill the opponent and also milling them out is not ever likely to happen.

Lathril, Blade of the Elves: This is just a decent creature, and Elves occasionally gets good use out of black and/or a payoff for a volume of elves. That said, it’s a 4 drop with 3 toughness, it needs to last a turn to be worthwhile either way, and it’s not particularly competitive in its run for a 4 drop, so it might not be for our format.

Progenitus: See Darksteel Colossus (below), but harder to generally get out and ironically folds to about the same size of cardpool. 

Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim: A sac outlet that pads your life total and can turn creatures into vindicates is pretty good. One that also has deathtouch and is a 2/3 for 2 is also quite nice.

Drogskol Reaver: If I read this card from the bottom up, I like it a lot more, mainly because I don’t have to then read it with the knowledge that it’s unplayably expensive since it’s 7 mana for a creature without protection that doesn’t square up well to dream trawler. Dryad Militant: I really like Dryad Militant as the go-to Savannah Lions with upside, and boy is it good in a surprising bunch of matchups. You’ve seen how many cards I’ve said “this doesn’t play well into [blue spells with delve]”? Well this one really is.

Prime Speaker Zegana: i think card volume just isn’t that important, y’know? And wowie this card folds like a cheap suit to any removal, it’s not a fun time.

Savage Ventmaw: I really have a soft spot for this card, but it really doesn’t have a home here, I don’t think. I love this card a lot though, and am glad it’s on arena.

Trygon Predator: I think I’m lower on this card than most, and it’s partly because generically good UG cards have to reach a higher bar than most colors due to the dearth of hard removal. That said, if you have decided to play UG without a hyperspecific synergy, you could certainly do worse than this guy.

Wilt-Leaf Liege: I really like Liege in GW decks, and I think GW stompy will love a card that screws over discard and also pumps its creatures decently well.

Boros Charm: 4 damage for 2 is nice, and the other modes are also very nice. I think this just straight up slots into each deck with mountains and plains in it.

Unflinching Courage: Lifelink is nice, but I don’t like auras. I’m sure someone will think about sleeving this up in Sanctum Stompy though, so there’s that?

Colorless, Artifacts, and Lands

Sire of Seven Deaths: This girlie goes so hard and is probably the best Persist target we will have for a decent while. This is definitely going into sneak as a protected 14 point life swing and is probably about on par with Atraxa as a reanimate target on account of the reach, first strike, and Ward of 7 life.

Banner of Kinship: So imagine if your typal anthem needed a board already present to be anything? Alright, you have? You have now imagined Banner of Kinship and also already know why it’s awful.

Fishing Pole: This is a very cute and neat card, I love it so much. And some parts of it make it look like it could be playable, but it’s really only useful in combo applications where you could win with anything since you already have intruder alarm and a mana dork and another creature and something else as well to make it a payoff.

Leyline Axe: This card’s cool as hell and equipment decks should play it, esp where it’s either free off itself or is a decent stoneforge target/payoff.

Quick-Draw Katana: this knife is pretty mid but it’s got a Vibes Report: B+, I like glow and I like knife, and I also really appreciate the template change for first strike they did in this set.

Ravenous Amulet: I really dislike how mana intensive the whole card is, and that combined with the sorcery speed on the sac outlet really sours me on the card.

Scrawling Crawler: Loran has shown me that each player drawing a card is usually not the end of the world, and when you can capitalize it with a mini sheoldred it’s a lot more exciting. I think I’d only play it in decks with other draw punishers, like bowmasters or the Razorkin, but I do think it has a home in decks that punish.

Soulstone Sanctuary: This is a very interesting land in that you only need to activate it once, but it runs into a problem after the first turn online, in that it is uniquely vulnerable to sorcery speed answers, unlike typical creature lands. That said, I think there may be a home for it as a relatively cheap creature land, but you really want to get something out of it not turning back into a noncreature permanent to justify it.

Adventuring Gear: I’m not a huge fan of these kinds of cards, but I could legitimately see it in a lands deck, because +2/+2 isn’t something to scoff at, and it’s cheap at all points. So if land etb’s are the easiest thing to do, I think this is the best of these effects for those decks, especially if you’re planning on Harrowing at instant speed.

Rogue’s Passage: I think this is really high up there in terms of colorless utility lands, but I also think that we always have a lower budget for colorless utility lands than we think, and this really best fits if you’re in a deck of 2 or fewer colors, or a very pip non-intensive 3 colors.

Darksteel Colossus: I think big idiots that shuffle themselves in from the yard are generally a trap unless they're OHKO's, and this one really isn't. Like a lot of other cards, it doesn't push out EMNrakul for the slot in like Sneak.

Feldon’s Cane: I think it’s not that difficult to find a use for this cane, but I doubt it actually merits a slot in a deck with very minimal exception, but if you’re in the strike zone for this it’s great.

Fireshrieker: I feel like we have better things to do with our equipment, but double strike is a really powerful keyword and if this is our best option for it then yknow so be it.

Pyromancer's Goggles: Something something TYS time, don't play this elsewhere (unless you're like me and are gonna try to make big spells.deck work).

Steel Hellkite: I feel like Ellesandra is going to ruin my day with this card and I will still never be convinced it’s good. That said, it is a neat channel outlet both for playing it and activating its abilities in a turn, which I do appreciate.

Ambush Wolf: This is just not a magic card that pulls its weight well, so here goes Vibes Report: I don’t think I can just say this is a lil guy, so C. Really is a Nothing Special.

Apothecary Stomper: Don’t worry we’ll keep it rolling with Vibes Report: Now THIS is a big lil guy, and I love him. B+.

Beast-Kin Ranger: I do think this is almost ok, but we’re going to the Vibes Report: Dog owners get a big plus, so this fella’s a solid B.

Cackling Prowler: Ward 2 is kind of big on this effect, but everything else about this card doesn’t have the juice, including the Vibes Report: I just don’t love the guy, but I respect the game, so he gets a C+.

Eager Trufflesnout: This guy dies so easy, and though it usually dies with a food coming in, it’s nowhere near good enough for the game objects or food fight decks.

Elfsworn Giant: More creatures that say Landfall - Make a dude are nice to have in the format, even if Scute Swarm overshadows them, so I could see this occasionally seeing play in specific lists, potentially if making elves is important.

Elvish Regrower: The unfortunate thing for this card is that we only really play our regrowths for efficiency, but it is legitimately interesting to see a buff E-Wit that doesn’t go for efficiency or volume.

Felling Blow: Hunt the Weak meets its punchy cousin, like most prior fight spells. This one is obviously better usually, but not really enough for me to want to play it, including in counters decks.

Loot, Exuberant Explorer: I’m actually a little bit stoked for this guy after Prerelease, after I realized he’s one of our few ways to enable things like 6 drops on turn 3, especially in lands decks, but even more than that, he also gives a big payoff to ramping out, with an instant speed cheat effect. I will probably consider him in Sneak and any ramp decks I build, but I think the lil guy’s just good and pretty hard to kill.

Mossborn Hydra: Finally, a Scute Swarm that doesn't play like ass <3 my love. I think you ultimately play this and Scutes, even though scutes is better, but this guy’s no slouch either.

Needletooth Pack: I really wish 5s were less competitive than they are, because this card’s cool as hell but your slots give little enough room that if it’s not giving Thrun a thrun for its money it’s not able to get in.

Preposterous Proportions: Perfect vibes, ngl, but it really only works in a deck that gets to 7 and also has most of its stuff with trample innately. We’re also getting 2 different overrun effects, though, so I am skeptical you’ll want this over an uncommon.

Quakestrider Ceratops: I’m not certain if this is a good card or playable at all, but it does have a power to cost rate and a higher power than most creatures in magic, and if you are set up to capitalize on it, it’s some huge stats. I would be a little surprised if in the next 5 years we didn’t find a use for this big of a body with something.

Quilled Greatwurm: This guy’s kind of booty in our format. 6 mana is close to a million, and you rely on this loop that’s so comically easy to disrupt and all it gets you is a bit of recursion that eliminates all of the benefit you had from the guy the last time he was on the field. I think sneak’s the best home, but even then it relies on nothing going wrong and a lot going right for it to be anything other than a 7/7 stick.

Spinner of Souls: The fact that this card says another is a huge bummer, because it means it’s just built to get bolted right before your other creatures get dealt with, and it means that the spider really doesn’t pull its weight as a flagbearer and is unlikely to gain any value.

Sylvan Scavenging: It’s so very easy to get this to be a 3/3 machine and that’s hard to manage at 3 mana. That said, your 3 drop is often what will be turning this online, so it’s awkwardly competing for the same slot, but placing a counter on your 3/2 on 2 also isn’t horrible.

Treetop Snarespinner: This guy is actually kind of neat as a hard to kill blocker that acts as a mana sink, but it is still a candidate for a  Vibes Report: D+. This fella’s cool but not anything else and also I like birds a little more than spiders.

Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen: Dwynen is cool, and great to see at uncommon, but it just doesn’t have the juice these days, including in elf typal, where it’s just a lot to ask for 4 mana when there’s plenty of better lords.

Genesis Wave: This card is one of my favorites, and I expect it’s gonna be a big hit in sneak decks, especially alongside channel, where an X=10 to 14 is going to win the game in all but the rarest circumstances.

Mild-Mannered Librarian: This is just too much mana to work with. Drawing a card is nice, especially since it doesn’t need to stick to still cantrip, but wowie 4 is a lot of mana on top of your card invested in your bad 1 drop.

Overrun: This one is a classic, and I expect it to see some play, because it’s a huge boost that makes a crazy number of board states lethal. I don’t expect it to see a huge amount of play, but it gets the job done if you reliably get a few creatures on board.

Joraga Invocation: I thought about this card for a while and thought back to how it played in ORI, but there it really was more of a green wrath than a kill spell, and you just always want a version of this that gives trample because the goal of this is not to kill some creatures, it’s to put your opponent’s life total to 0.

Thornweald Archer: You know, I think I could see this in an elf deck if it’s otherwise struggling with getting under a big threat or dealing with fliers. I don’t think it’s good, but I can see it getting in an elf deck once in a blue moon.

Heroes’ Bane: Theros block was interesting, since there were tons of explosive green creatures that could get very big and scary and win games, but none of them were worthwhile because of Polukranos. Now, they’re just not at rate!

Mold Adder: This guy’s pretty bad, and, frankly, even if your opponent casts a couple of U or B spells, it’s just way too situational, even in the right matchup, for it to be anything special.

Ordeal of Nylea: I like this cycle, but they are admittedly quite bad. I wouldn’t play this one, it’s just too tough to ensure it cracks.

Predator Ooze: I think our removal suite is diverse and powerful enough now that a 1/1 indestructible is not all it looks cracked up to be, and it always will stay a bit below where you want it to be, especially for a GGG casting cost.

Rampaging Baloths: This is a super cool card, but it’s also not great, even in the lands deck, frankly.

Battlesong Berserker: See my thoughts on Billowing Shriekmass (just a lil bit above). Replace “flier” with “menacer” and we’re on the same page.

Boltwave: I think this card won’t make it into our format, but we really are approaching the point where there can be a fairly dedicated burn deck. If I’m wrong on that though, then it probably doesn’t have a home.

Bulk Up: Power doublers are something you only want a couple of, but they can be incredible in the right home, and afaik this is by a good margin the best of these that we have access to.

Chandra, Flameshaper: I was very put off by a chandra that costs 7 but it gives off very similar energy to hope's beacon and these abilities aren't like sneeze at them abilities. That said, it doesn't copy a 2 drop you play for free off her, so who knows

Courageous Goblin: I think this is almost worthwhile in a RG stompy deck, where this just almost always gets to be a 3/2 for 2, but we also can just play 3/2s for 2.

Crackling Cyclops: Ngl this one goes kind of hard, and it’s kind of necessary to kill or block in a UR or RW blitz deck, and that’s ngl a lil scary.

Dragon Trainer: So, who’s out here building the jeskai blink deck to get a bunch of dragon tokens because it ain’t me.

Electroduplicate: Having a Twinflame with a bit more application is exciting, but it’s probably not your better option for combo applications. I would be happy to see this in big/medium red though, where it hits a sweet spot of having a high ceiling and having a purpose past just getting another etb.

Fiery Annihilation: We’ve had a few 3 mana deal 5’s, and this one is not the best, but it’s certainly a fine card in a replaceable slot. If, a year down the road, my seeded opponent in a finals is definitely going to be on equipment or a stoneforge package, I might sleeve this up.

Goblin Boarders: Call me a bad limited common, because I be Goblin without Boarders eyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Goblin Negotiation: X damage spells that can’t go face have such a high bar to clear, and this one doesn’t get particularly close, though making a lot of goblins is a fun time.

Gorehorn Raider: So uh it’s time for Vibes Report: A+, holy hell this is a hot bullgirl and just wowie wowie zowie I’m a lesbian.

Incinerating Blast: Welcome back, 5 mana deal 6 with not super significant upside, we didn’t miss ya, bud.

Kellan, Planar Trailblazer: Good ol Savannah Lion stats are a great start, but, moreover, having further mana sinks that let you develop a board without committing more cards to it, and a 3/2 double striking end state is a great place to end up.

Rite of the Dragoncaller: This is a lot of work to start making dragons, and I feel like we’ve gotten fast enough in the format to push cards like this out more often than not, so I’m not confident we’ll see it show up often if at all.

Searslicer Goblin: Goblin machine go brr, this one's good. Being a cheap piker that doesn’t need to get into the red zone itself to get tokens is huge.

Slumbering Cerberus: I’ve been waffling on whether this is good or bad, but I think I’ve landed on it being good in control and decks that have Goblin Bombardment. 2 toughness is killer for this getting to attack well, and it ends up being a much more effective blocker than an attacker, and as an attacker this will get into awkward situations of being too readily tradeable to be worth the 4 power for 2 mana statline.

Sower of Chaos: Alright folks, time to get out to the fields to sow the seeds of chaos starts singing Oh, What a Beautiful Morning as he works.

Strongbox Raider: Damn they really want shock to be good in this limited huh. I think if this card were a 5/4 it could even be playable in our format, but yeah dying to a person in another game blowing their nose does a lot for shuttering its playability.

Twinflame Tyrant: This is cool and despite not having haste it does still double damage immediately. I might try it in sneak as a good surprise blocker/combat trick, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it in medium red.

Brazen Scourge: Look, I’ve spent the last couple of years disparaging a bunch of cards that are slightly better than a 3/3 haste for 3, and so it would be remiss of me to praise this batch of cute lil guys but damnit they’re so cute!

Burst Lightning: Most of our Shocks with upside aren’t meaningful enough to need to play it over regular literal shock, but Burst Lightning’s versatility do put it a step ahead of most competitors, enabling either cheap removal, as is more commonly used, or the ability to spend way more mana than desired (which is to say 2 more mana than you’d like) to be able to double the damage and clear a huge swath of possible creatures. I think I’d rather a strangle variant still, but this is almost certainly the best Shock you can add to your deck.

Firespitter Whelp: Yeah guttersnipe has been low grade for a while and this is a change but not like an amazing one. Also very weird that it’s a new card in the reprint section.

Flamewake Phoenix: This card has seen constructed play before in Hollow One decks, but those decks rarely sleeve the phoenix now, and that’s in 60 card, where the impact is a little less important. Here, phoenix is often a tool to rarely be seen in its ideal conditions, and the reward for doing so is a lot less impressive in the year 2024, especially when we do have options like Phoenix of Ash which are similarly easy to get on the battlefield, and one is way more impactful and pressuring than the other.

Frenzied Goblin: This guy is surprisingly good and maybe even playable in goblin typal decks, but it does kind of feel like a one-time use card once the board state develops to have 2 creatures opposite you. However, getting rid of a blocker and incentivizing being blocked itself is a valuable thing to have on a pivotal turn.

Goblin Surprise: I wouldn’t be surprised if a goblin deck got more traction after this release, and this could certainly make the cut in some lists.

Seismic Rupture: It’s always nice to see more uncommon attempts at sweepers, and this one feels like a pretty classic version of it, even if it’s a DTK special.

Slagstorm: It's not a good option of a sweeper but it is one of them. You just always want Bro’s End or Anger or Suns though, almost without question.

Dropkick Bomber: This one is interesting, and I think frankly you’ll play it for being a lord that can sometimes give game-ending evasion, even without thinking too much. It does 100% rely on a goblins deck coming together, though.

Skyraker Giant: Look, this guy having reach was a big deal when Origins was coming out, and now it’s so boring it’s gone from uncommon down to not being in the limited environment. That’s #progress.

Ball Lightning: don't make a balls joke don't make a balls joke don't make a balls joke don't make a ba-- UH ANYWAY i guess you can play it in monored, but it's a lil awkward when it folds to all the cheap removal pretty poorly 

Hoarding Dragon: This card is a really nostalgic card for me, and I’m not sure why, other than it was in my first core set and that leaves an impression, but it’s nice to see it at the rarity it deserves, because god it sucks ASS

Mindsparker: 3/2 first strike for 3 is almost enough to pique my interest, but I do think I want a little bit more, so if I’m pretty guaranteed to go up against a deck on Path/Get Lost or Cruise/Drain, I’ll probably sleeve this up at a season end.

Ravenous Giant: We just don’t have a huge need for medium red beef, especially on the ground these days.

Stromkirk Noble: I’m slowly warming up to this guy, but our suite of creatures is getting progressively more diverse, and this guy is very easy to block unless a decent chunk of work is put in. It might just be worthwhile in mono red though, and I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a vampires deck slot this in.

Taurean Mauler: This guy gets Huge and I think does legitimately slot into most red typal decks, and also just some decks that wants a beater that will likely be overstatted pretty quickly.

Abyssal Harvester: I’ve thought about this card a while, and I think a 3/2 that needs to untap and be in a pretty specific situation to make you really happy is a lot to ask. Simultaneously needing to engineer putting your payoff into the graveyard in a specific turn and banking on it surviving is a lot of work that I’d rather just spend on a 4 drop reanimation spell.

Arbiter of Woe: I love these signpost uncommons of “you’re not supposed to cast this” because they always look weirdly appealing for gladiator, then I just remember that they’re appealing for putting into a peasant cube with reanimator spells.

Billowing Shriekmass: Y’know, I hate to drag a part of gladiator on my first tumblr dot com post about it, it’s really an amazing format, but I do miss the times where a 4/4 flier with marginal upside was like shockingly playable, and those days have been gone for years now. Unfortunately, I think that’s also the case for all magic, but I want to like this card a lot, and it’s hard to see it and know it’ll be quite bad.

Blasphemous Edict: I was pretty low on this card when I compared it to Blasphemous Act, but when I think of it as a 5 mana wrath it looks a lot better, especially as one that dodges indestructible. I think in a black and non-white control-slanted deck, I’ll want this, Season of Loss, and Damnation as my sweepers, with maybe a Languish if I want a 4th.

Bloodthirsty Conqueror: It's like Exquisite Blood if it was worth playing and could attack in, which turns out does a lot. I definitely can see this in a deck that cares about lifegain, and being a gun with Vito and the like does a lot to help.

Crypt Feaster: uuuuh sure is a common so welcome back to Vibes Report: C-, I do not have any clue about this guy and as much as I find mystery hot that cloak is barely holding on and I just don’t trust a wardrobe that reveals everything to a stiff breeze.

Gutless Plunderer: Eyy it’s not everyday we get to do two in a row! Vibes Report: A-, this dude’s having a great time and the little freak on the shoulder can get it!

High-Society Hunter: I’m not a huge fan of a boltable 5 drop grim haruspex. If you can get this to attack, it can do some good, but I’m doubtful you’re ever going to get there.

Hungry Ghoul: omnomnomnomnom any ghoul born after 1993 can’t cook… all they know is McDonalds, charge they phone, pay 1 mana and sacrifice another creature to buff, eat hot chip, and lie.

Infernal Vessel: It turns out that Archfiend’s Vessel is a lot worse when it’s 2 mana more. I know it’s a different effect but wow this card does not do itself any favors.

Infestation Sage: Planar Chaos-ass Doomed Traveler welcome in, the water’s great. Also this being an Elf is cool as hell. 

Midnight Snack: I’m gonna be real: This card is actually just bad. We have plenty of Vito effects and we flat out don’t need more things that make a food on etb for the deck. It just doesn’t fill a slot the food deck needs and there’s much better cards for the slot this tries to fill.

Nine-Lives Familiar: Really cool card, also doesn't like do anything 😔

Revenge of the Rats: This card’s good in the volume dredge deck and by the way here’s a totally unrelated video.

Sanguine Syphoner: well it sure is a common mediocre creatures so it’s time for my favorite Vibes Report: A+ I don’t know what gender this cutie is but I want them.

Seeker’s Folly: Mind Rots aren’t playable in gladiator, and this one is not close to an exception.

Soul-Shackled: Welcome back kids to Vibes Report: on one hand, kind of gross arms, on the other, you get a B for girl

Stab: hehehehe stab. You know, there was actually a time where I said people should play disfigure, and even implied that one might play multiple of the effect. Don’t. Please.

Tinybones, Bauble Burglar: Gender goals frfr. I think eventually we'll have a good waste not deck, and this is the kind of effect that you want for it, rather than more discard spells

Tragic Banshee: Yup. Sure is a 5 mana limited card that calls back to a sometimes good card from checks notes JESUS THIRTEEN YEARS OLD? ok i need to lie down

Vampire Gourmand: This card intrigues me but I doubt it will do anything in practice. The truth is that this card is a medium card in 3 aspects: Turning creatures into cantrips, evasive bodies, and sac outlets, and it’s so bad at the last one that it puts into question if you really need slots for the first two, and it’s not good enough in the first two to allay any fears.

Vampire Soulcaller: God, I kind of feel bad that black has been getting so many of the Vibes Report: C-, Look, this guy’s hot but he does make me realize I’m so glad I was in a committed relationship with a cute looking guy while I clarified my bisexuality because otherwise I’d definitely (unfortunately) sleep with this guy (derogatory to me 4 years ago).

Vengeful Bloodwitch: More Blartist is more good stuff so I'll take it. Play it where you play Blartist.

Zul Ashur, Lich Lord: I'm trying to figure out if this is just good in dredgepile and the more I think about it the more I lean to "it kind of works but like does it do enough" and I think the answer is realistically no.

Exsanguinate: This is really only a good card when you are gaining 3x the life that you put into the X, and we are not the format for that. I still like it a lot in commander, but mostly as a mana sink and/or a way to pad the life total, and here it does both of those jobs pretty poorly.

Rune-Scarred Demon: A second copy of Hoarding Broodlord that has some subtle differences is nice to see, and lets you do a lot of things in certain cheaty decks like reanimator. I don’t know if this long-term has a home, but it’s certainly a card that has pretty good applications.

Vampire Nighthawk: I could see this getting played in a mono-black deck, but we have Nighthawk Scavenger and that hasn’t been putting in great numbers for a while. It’s a card that I’m very glad we have even if I think it will have at best one real home.

Zombify: 4 mana reanimation is really nice to have around, and while we have a decent few options that I’d still be putting higher, Zombify is a classic and doesn’t pull its punches, so you won’t feel bad sleeving it up.

Crossway Troublemakers: I feel like this one is like 1 mana more than I'm happy with, but it's an interesting one. Not the worst thing to Sorin in, all things considered, but it’s certainly not much to write home about.

Deadly Plot: This card definitely suffers from charm-itis, and it’s a lil surprising since the second mode isn’t a card I’d want to play anyway

Maalfeld Twins: I get that this is a bad card on purpose, but I really wished this was not 6 mana :( 

Suspicious Shambler: There’s a funny aspect of this card that they’re actively trying to look like one really tall zombie and not like a human or anything. That just tickles me a lil bit.

Untamed Hunger: Uh yeah sure is the pain of a comprehensive set review sad trombone noise

Deathmark: Nah, restrictive removal is pretty bad.

Desecration Demon: We’ve come a long way since the OG Desecration Demon, but now our 6/6 flying demons come with dubious upside instead of shallow downside, and I don’t think this really operates on an axis that we haven’t outmoded, scaled past, or just never needed.

Dread Summons: I could get behind this in a dredge shell, but it hits a bunch of snags that sour me on it. Between tapped tokens, the horrible rate of mill, and the fact that milling your opponent is worse than ever with Cruise/Dig make me unenthused to sleeve it up.

Driver of the Dead: This is like Reveillark if you took it out back and shot its legs off. Don’t play this card, please.

Kalastria Highborn: While this is not a great creature and is super B intensive, putting mana into it is a huge life total swing, and that could make it worth at least testing in decks with other good vampires.

Myojin of Night’s Reach: These are the classics in “not worth it if you don’t play it as intended” and wowie. They are still very not worth it if not played as intended, and this one still isn’t worth it when played as intended, frankly.

Pulse Tracker: Ah, the ol’ DIY Savannah Lions, how we have historically not loved ye

Tribute to Hunger: This isn’t the greatest hunger…. This is just not worth it.

Vile Entomber: I think deathtouch is the only reason this card gets there in the end. Entombing is about on par with drawing 1.5 cards if you’re building correctly, and a 2/2 deathtouch on top makes this a very on-par creature for the format.