Abuelo's Awakening

This set has lots of Artifacts for you to bring back with this, but the question is how many there are that are really worth spending this much mana on. The fact the Awakening makes it into a creature – one that can get increasingly large the more mana you have – softens the blow, but it still feels like there will be frequent situations when this just doesn’t feel very efficient. This set does have more graveyard stuff and artifacts than normal, so I imagine this will work well enough to be nice in many decks, but it’s probably not amazing.

Acrobatic Leap

One mana tricks that give +1/+3 are rarely worthwhile in Limited. The boost is enough to save a creature in combat, but not enough to help it win combat often enough. The flying and untap angle here do make it so you can both punch in for lethal in the air or ambush a flyer, but those use cases are all much too frequent for this to be something that makes the cut in all your white aggro decks.

Adaptive Gemguard

4-mana 3/3s have not performed well of late. The fact aggro decks can just attack into them with their two and three drops while they hold up a combat trick has been a real problem. This one can get bigger if you have artifacts and creatures lying around, and that’s certainly doable. It even counts itself for the effect.

Attentive Sunscribe

There are some vehicles in the set, in addition to many White cards that like it when you tap your stuff. This adds a decent bonus to those effects, while also being an early artifact to get those kinds of things going.

Bat Colony

This is definitely a build around, since it does way too little in any deck that has too few caves. You kind of need at least one bat when you cast it, and then to get two counters to feel like you're getting there. That…doesn't sound easy. I think this is an unplayable in most White decks, but Cave decks do look legit enough for me to think this will have a home in that type of deck.

Clay-Fired Bricks

Hitting a land drop and gaining two life isn't bad, and it also has a very relevant card type. Then in the late game it has a massive impact on the board. Like, the kind of impact that drastically improves your chances of winning.

Cosmium Blast

We see a card like this in most sets, and as usual – it’s efficient, but situational enough that it definitely isn’t premium. It’s far better when you’re not an aggro deck, since in that type of deck you want removal that lets you get rid of a creature before they ever get to block.

Dauntless Dismantler

Two mana ¼s aren't the worst thing, and this has some genuine upside. This set has a ton of artifacts, including Map tokens, and making those things all enter tapped seems relevant, as does the ability to potentially destroy more than one artifact at a time.

Deconstruction Hammer

One to play and one to equip for +1/+1 is a borderline playable, and this set has more than enough targets for the disenchant effect for this to turn into a removal spell. I think this will be a surprisingly good Common, because it can destroy so many permanents in the format.

Dusk Rose Reliquary

Oblivion Rings are usually great in Limited, and this one is crazy efficient! But obviously, having to sacrifice something really lowers the power level. Still, White has lots of map and gnome tokens, so giving up something that doesn't matter seems doable enough for this to be pretty good. Adding Ward to the mix certainly matters too. I'm a bit skeptical this will grade out as premium removal, as the set up is very real.

Envoy of Okinec Ahau

Solid base stats, and a passable mana sink ability. Not much more to say about it.

Fabrication Foundry

Even in a set with lots of artifacts, a mana rock that taps for mana that can only be used for them isn’t something I’m super pumped about, and the reanimation ability isn’t particularly good either., since it makes you give stuff up to give something back, it won’t be that easy to come out ahead.

Family Reunion

I like this take on a mass pump effect. White can go wide, as usual, in this format, so buffing everything is a big game sometimes, but having the hexproof option attached is nice too, as it makes this useful in a wider variety of situations – namely, at times when your opponent tries to remove one of your creatures. The total package is a solid card you’re going to want one of in a lot of your White creature-heavy decks.

Get Lost

The flexibility and efficiency here is great…but giving your opponent two map tokens is some very real downside. It would be in any format, but in this one? Where there are lots of bonuses for controlling artifacts, having permanents go to the graveyard, and exploring? In other words…you’re never going to trade 1-for-1 with this, and that really hurts how effective it can be in your typical game. You can use it on your own permanent if you desperately need maps, and that will come up on occasion, but that doesn’t make a huge difference.

Glorifier of Suffering

Putting a counter on TWO separate creatures is a pretty nice payoff for throwing away a gnome token or a map token, and can really make an attack far more formidable. It can also put a counter on itself, which is nice. This seems like a quality payoff for the aggressive sacrifice decks in the format.

Guardian of the Great Door

A two mana 4/4 flyer is nuts, but this obviously takes serious set up, and will never come down on turn two. The good news is, a 4/4 flyer is relevant all game long, and if you play this on like turn five when you also play a three drop, that’s still a pretty great turn. As we’ve already seen, white is definitely able to go wide with tokens of the map and gnome varieties too, so that isn’t far-fetched.

Helping Hand

This feels reasonably efficient when you get back a three mana creature, and there is certainly graveyard stuff in the set, but this is still a card that feels a bit too situational to be anything special. It feels pretty bad in your opening hand, for example. Entering tapped definitely hurts too.

Ironpaw Aspirant

We see two mana 1/1s with this ETB all the time, and they tend to be solid or better. So, getting a ½ instead is amazing. This makes it a 2/3 with nothing else around, which makes for a great two turn play, and then in the later game you can put the counter somewhere more meaningful. Obviously, this works well with the Green-White theme of having higher base power, too. I think this a great Common.

Kinjalli's Dawnrunner

As with all the good Explore creatures, this one feels great no matter what happens. A 3-mana 1/1 with double strike that draws you a card is good, and a three mana 2/2 with double strike that gives you some card selection is probably even better!

Kutzil's Flanker

It can flash in and eat a whole lot of more expensive creatures, while giving you another effect of value – either shutting down a graveyard deck, or gaining you some life and improving your next few draws. Alternatively, if there is a turn where a whole bunch of stuff of yours left the battlefield, it can come down as a larger creature. That last mode won’t come up as often as you’d think, we’ve seen that in the past with this effect, but this makes up for that by having these other very useful modes. It’s hard to imagine ever casting this and feeling bad about it.

Malamet War Scribe

This is quite the boost. We see white creatures that give +1/+1 all the time, and that additional power is a significant upgrade. You don't even have to be going that wide for this to have an impact on the board, as it will make just about any board better at attacking.

Market Gnome

This is great sacrifice and craft fodder. Both of those look doable in White.

Might of the Ancestors

This is a boost that can make just about any creature into a much better attacker, and you get the trigger the turn you play it, provided you play it in your first main phase. Still…there are situations where a card like this just doesn’t do enough to make your board state any better, and it feels miserable in those situations.

Miner's Guidewing

A one mana 1/1 with Flying and Vigilance isn’t a great card on its own, but getting to explore when it dies is pretty sweet. You do need another creature around for that part to matter, though.

Mischievous Pup

This can save a creature from removal or rebuy an ETB, and it can ambush stuff too.

Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation

A 6-mana 6/6 with Vigilance isn’t bad top-curve in most Limited decks, and tripling creature tokens can be pretty insane! You won’t always be able to take advantage of that part of the card, though. The gods in this set all turn into lands when they die, and then give you a way to get them back – and getting Ojer Taq back isn’t too challenging, as attacking with three creatures usually won’t be too hard in a White deck, especially if you’ve tripled a token-making effect. Getting a 6/6 Vigilance back even a single time is enough to break some games wide open, even if we don’t take the token-multiplying effect into account. In short, Ojer Taq is big and hard to get rid of entirely.

Oltec Archaeologists

I love that they gave this a mode where it does something even if you don’t have an artifact to get back, as this type of card can be pretty bad when you can’t do something with the ETB, and Scry 3 is pretty big, it really improves your next couple of draws. Meanwhile, if you can get an artifact back we’re talking about a two-for-one. This inefficient stat-line definitely holds it back some, but I think most White decks will play the first copy of this.

Oltec Cloud Guard

This is a great rate for what you get, especially when you consider artifact synergy.

Oteclan Landmark

One mana to scry 2 isn’t very good, even in a format where you can sacrifice or tap this for value. But…this is way more than that, because crafting it isn’t a hug challenge, and the creature you get is a legitimate threat, because giving flying to your other attackers makes for a powerful effect. Between the format’s artifact synergy, and this card’s upside, this looks like a really nice Common to me

Petrify

They really are giving Pacifism upside these days! This one can shut off abilities and hit artifacts too! The problem with this card in this format is that there is a prominent sacrifice theme, and even an entire mechanic – in Craft – that lets you exile permanents you control, there’s also a bunch of cards that let you tap your creatures and artifacts for value, and so on. In other words, Petrify will have a hard time giving you a full card of value consistently, because your opponent will still be able to do enough stuff with their permanents that this doesn’t shut the card down entirely

Quicksand Whirlpool

Casting this for six is kind of rough, but casting it for three is solid enough, especially in less aggressive decks.

Resplendent Angel

Even without any other life gain in your deck, we're talking about a creature with great stats that can threaten to swing for 5 lifelink damage and make another body in the later stages of the game

Ruin-Lurker Bat

A one mana 1/1 with these keywords is a nice starting point. Makes it great with equipment and counters and stuff, and when it reaches the stage of the game when it can't rumble, it can help you find meaningful cards.

Sanguine Evangelist

A three mana 2/1 that makes a 1/1 Flyer is already a great Limited card, but this tacks on so much additional value! Getting a flyer when it dies too means your opponent can basically never remove this profitably, and they are kind of going to want to remove it because Battlecry is a pretty big problem on some board states. This just gives you so much value for the mana cost, and it has an incredibly high floor thanks to its ETB and death triggers.

Soaring Sandwing

So, the landyclers in Blue, Black, and Green all really interest me because of the descent mechanic. White doesn’t really have that going on, though you might be able to use it with craft at least. Still… I think that makes this a little less useful. You can throw this away early to hit a land drop, and in the late game if you gives you a beefy creature that can gain you life, which can sometimes help you stabilize

Spring-Loaded Sawblades

Let’s set “Craft” aside for a moment. Two mana for 5 damage to a tapped creature at instant speed is a pretty decent rate. Sure, it’s fairly restrictive – and not really the kind of removal spell an aggro deck is excited about, but it can definitely trade up in many situations, and even produce blow outs when combat tricks are involved. I think that card alone would be about a C+ – with the caveat that you don’t really play it in aggro. But this comes with the upside of Crafting later, and when it does, you get a pretty beefy vehicle. A 5/5 vehicle with Crew 1 is formidable, and if you happen to have some other artifacts lying around - like Map tokens, you can animate it without having to Crew at all. It definitely takes some work to transform it, and you can’t count on always pulling it off, but because the front is already a nice card.

Thousand Moons Crackshot

Sometimes you’ll be able to attack with this and really open the floodgates on your opponent by getting their best blocker out of the way, but three mana is a lot, and your opponent also always knows this is coming, making it a lot less useful. You’re rarely going to use this ability early, and by the late game it has some diminishing returns.

Thousand Moons Infantry

A three mana 2/4 with kind-of sort-of vigilance is decent, and the idea here is to get multiple taps out of the Infantry for your cards that want you tap creatures or artifacts for effects. I can see this performing that role decently enough

Thousand Moons Smithy

You’ll often get a very efficient creature up front, and transforming this isn’t a huge ask, nor is using the mana it produces to cast artifacts or creatures, so that you get even more awesome tokens. It certainly takes some time, and set up, but it’s definitely worth the effort.

Tinker's Tote

Three mana for two 1/1s is almost a passable rate, and this one card gives you THREE artifacts, something that is valuable in White in this format, as we’ve seen throughout this video. The added life gain bonus is nice to have too. I think this looks like a quality common because of all the stuff it enables – whether it be tapping, carfting, or sacrificing artifacts

Unstable Glyphbridge

It’s a board sweeper that will almost always allow you to come out way ahead. First, you get to make the choices, so you can give your opponent their worst 2 power or less creature while keeping your best one, and then this can transform into a flying threat that forces them to choose between attacking or casting spells every turn

Vanguard of the Rose

This has solid aggro stats to start with, and any time you have 1 mana and an artifact or creature available, attacking with it is going to drive your opponent nuts. Especially if you can give up something expendable

Warden of the Inner Sky

If you can buff this a bunch, it becomes a very real problem for your opponent, but tapping three artifacts and/or creatures at a time, and at Sorcery speed, is a really big ask

Akal Pakal, First Among Equals

This is a pretty insane artifact payoff. In a format with map tokens and plenty of other artifacts, this doesn't really feel like a build around. Especially because only triggering it once will feel good, so even in a deck with like 4 artifacts, you're playing this. It draws you cards, descends, loads the graveyard, etc

Ancestral Reminiscence

This is a functional reprint of Sift, which in the olden days of Limited was a pretty good card. But…paying 4 and not impacting the board with a Sorcery can be pretty rough, even if this helps with the graveyard. You might end up running one of these in control decks, but I don’t think it always makes the cut

Brackish Blunder

Just the bounce part of the card is usually a passable card, so getting a map token if the creature is tapped makes this pretty appealing. Now…not being a permanent in Blue does hurt a card a little bit because of Descent stuff, but the fact this gives you a Map helps check some boxes for artifact decks.

Braided Net

I kinda wish this could just tap stuff all the time, instead of only making it happen thrice. Once you craft, it can draw you cards and then come back as the net, and the whole package here is a good card. Tapping things three times is pretty big, and shutting off abilities is a great cherry on top

Chart a Course

It is two mana to draw two reasonably often, and that’s an insane deal. Even when you can’t quite make that happen, two mana to draw two and discard 1 isn’t a bad deal, especially in a format with graveyard stuff all over the place

Cogwork Wrestler

This can Flash in and kill just about any X/1, which tends to feel pretty good.. If you can combine it with some other creatures, it can even take down bigger things. You do need to have that mode work out more often than not to make it worth it, because just using this to blank a couple of damage isn’t nearly as good, but that’s not the worst fail case either.

Confounding Riddle

We've seen cards before with these two options, more or less, and they have performed pretty well. One of the downsides of counter magic is that if your opponent plays around it after you left mana up, it can feel terrible. This fixes that problem by having another powerful mode - a mode that is extra strong in a format where Blue us so into the graveyard. Getting one card in hand and several in the yard will often feel like two cards of value in this set

Council of Echoes

When this bounces something, it will feel pretty good. Adding a big flier and subtracting from the opposing board feels great. When this doesn't bounce something…it will feel way inefficient and overcosted. Seems to me getting Descend 4 going by the time you cast this is a reasonable expectation, though

Didact Echo

A 5-mana 3/2 that draws you a card is already kind of passable – after all, it can generate a 2-for-1. But..if this always had Flying? It would be an amazing Common. While it having flying won't be that automatic, Descend 4 does seem fairly achievable by turn 5 for Blue decks in this format

Eaten by Piranhas

This coming with Flash is kind of a game changer. Without it, this would be the usual mediocre Blue removal spell that doesn’t ever entirely remove a creature. Spending a card on removal and having the creature still able to block and attack, even if it’s smaller, is really frustrating. And in this format that’s extra bad because of all the stuff that lets you sacrifice or tap creatures for value, among other things. But, when you add Flash, suddenly you can use this to make the creature you put it on die in combat, before your opponent ever has a chance to get more value out of it

The Enigma Jewel

Look! It’s Sol Ring! Sort of. Entering tapped and only tapping to activate abilities is a pretty big downer, and means you often won’t be able to do anything with this – or at least, you won’t be able to do something often enough with it for it to being something you want to play. Just having Map tokens isn’t enough. Then, transforming this is incredibly difficult too, and even when you do transform it it won’t always do something. It feels like this is here mostly for constructed.

The Everflowing Well

This is divination with upside, and that certainly seems solid enough. Sometimes making another permanent you control into a copy of one you cast will certainly matter – but you have to keep in mind there will be plenty of times where it doesn’t. Plus, transforming this in the first place isn’t exactly a walk in the park, even if it does help you get there itself

Frilled Cave-Wurm

A 4-mana 2/5 is mediocre, but there are definitely worst stat-lines. The Descend upgrade here is a big one too, as it suddenly makes the Cave-Wurm into a formidable attacker. That said, this is never going to feel like anything special. The floor is a very inefficient creature and the ceiling is one with slightly above-rate stats

Hermitic Nautilus

A two mana ¼ with Vigilance is kind of passable, so it's nice this comes with a useful type and has the option of sometimes being a 4/1

Hurl into History

5 mana for something that can't even counter everything is sort of brutal. But this set has fewer instants and sorceries than normal, and also getting to Discover means you're getting a 2 for 1

Inverted Iceberg

The front side of the card has a useful card type, loads your graveyard, and replaces itself. It would probably be a C all on its own. And in the late game you can transform it into a creature that your opponent is going to have to do something about. Even if it doesn’t impact the board on turn two, I think it does enough for the cost and the upside is big

Kitesail Larcenist

I don't normally love removal that turns something into a treasure, because it’s yet another form of Blue removal that doesn’t entirely deal with something. But when stapled to a creature it is pretty awesome, especially one this efficient. You even have the option of turning something of yours into a treasure too, which sometimes will be the right call

Lodestone Needle

If this were only the card on the front, it would be a 0.0. Spending a card to stun something for two turns…just isn’t worth it. But it does have another side! And it lets you explore on the cheap, which…I like. But I still feel like the front is so ineffectual, and crafting it takes enough work that I'm not very impressed.

Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel

A two mana 2/1 with Flash and Flying is a pretty nice card, and the fact you can loot when you hit your opponent is already enough for me to be fairly excited about this. Card selection is just…really important in Limited. Should you ever get the chorus counter thing going, stuff will really start to feel silly – it will be like every card you discard has Madness, and that’s pretty sweet.

Marauding Brinefang

The common landcyclers feel like they will be extra good in the graveyard decks in the format, and Blue is definitely interested in the graveyard. This is because you can get extra value out of landycling these early – as it puts a permanent into your graveyard. Then, like usual with landcyclers, in the later stage of the game you get a beefy creature

Merfolk Cave-Diver

This has passable starting stats, and it's a great explore payoff. Gets especially spicy with repeatable explore

Oaken Siren

A two mana ½ with Flying and Vigilance that happens to be an artifact would probably be borderline playable in this format, so I think adding in the mana for artifact stuff does enough to make it a card that will make the cut in many Blue decks

Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch

This has great stats, and a powerful ability. Rebounding your Abrades and stuff is no joke. It is worth noting that Instants aren't as plentiful in this set as in most, so this probably won't be as good as it would be in most sets. Still, it is a great Flyer, and if it rebounds a single thing, you're going to come out way ahead. On top of that, it doesn't stay dead. It does take some time of course, but that’s fine

Orazca Puzzle-Door

It’s an artifact, which some Blue decks care about, and it puts two cards into your graveyard all on its own, something other Blue decks care about. Mix that in with the fact that what this does for the cost is kind of passable anyway, and I think we’re talking about a solid playable

Out of Air

So, this is either a Harder-to-cast Essence Scatter, or a harder-to-cast Counterspell. I’m not super enthusiastic about either of those modes. Countermagic that costs double blue can be rough in Limited, because you are far from guaranteed to have it up when you need to. That’s sort of true of all counterspells, but one with more mana intensive requirements in a format where your mana just isn’t very good is extra hard to use

Pirate Hat

If you can Equip this for one consistently, it looks pretty solid to me. The stats boost isn’t the best thing ever, but if you’re sticking it on things for 1 mana it will feel plenty good, especially because artifacts and loot triggers are better than normal in this format

Relic's Roar

Normally, if we see this effect without card draw attached, it isn’t playable. This is because the stats boost you get for the cost often isn’t worth it, especially because if your creatures are large enough this doesn’t really offer a boost at all. But at one mana? Well…I still don’t think it’s very good. It’s just too variable as to how much of a boost it actually offers. It’s tempting to imagine buffing a 1/1 with it, because it will feel like a Blue giant growth, but the higher the base stats of your creature is, the worse this gets

River Herald Scout

You would happily play a two mana 2/3 with Surveil one, and you’d happily play a two mana ½ that draws you a card, and you’re getting one of those every time you cast it

Sage of Days

This is a nice way to load your graveyard in a hurry, and it isn’t that far from Scry 3 on ETB, which would make for a nice card. The stat-line isn’t good of course, but I think this does the kind of thing you want to be doing in Blue in this format

Self-Reflection

Paying 6 to copy a creature is pretty rough. Hard to consistently get your man's worth there. However, with Flashback in the mix this has 2-for-1 potential, and Blue mills itself enough for this to give you nice value out of the graveyard

Shipwreck Sentry

We see two mana 3/3s with Defender that can only attack when X happens in a turn, and they always end up being decent. Even when they can’t attack, they have nice bodies that your opponent usually can’t just attack into, and on the turns they can rumble, they are pretty good at that too

Sinuous Benthisaur

This has some insane potential. Even if you just have two caves, this is a 6-mana 4/4 that draws you two cards. That’s really amazing, and even with one cave it’s a passible card. Now…if there are no Caves around it’s awful, but if your deck has 4 or more caves in it, you’re going to be happy to play this most of the time

Song of Stupefaction

Lowering a creature’s power just isn’t enough to be worth a card most of the time, although I do think milling gives you enough value itself in this format that this isn’t unplayable, but I think you’ll be able to find better enablers and payoffs for milling yourself than this thing

Spyglass Siren

This looks like a great one drop. It reminds me a bit of Voldaren Epicure, and that’s some great company to keep. You get a decent enough one mana 1/1 Flyer, and then some additional value on top of that? Value that has some format-specific synergy? Yeah, this is good

Staunch Crewmate

I think this will be a two mana 2/1 that draws you a card pretty darn often in Blue, and that’s a great card

Tishana's Tidebinder

There are enough abilities around for this to actually counter something reasonably often, and turning the permanent vanilla is pretty big. You will encounter situations where you have to run this out without getting that value, though

Unlucky Drop

Because it puts the creature back in your opponents deck, it does actually let you trade 1-for-1, and that’s important. Keep in mind your opponent makes the choice about where to put the card. This does get a small knock simply for not being a permanent, in a color where permanents really matter

Waterlogged Hulk

A one mana artifact that can load your graveyard is better in this format than it is in most – as we’ve seen Blue cares about artifacts and the graveyard, and this checks the most boxes. Then, when you craft this it becomes a very real easy-to-crew vehicle, that in the really late game can just close it out for you. I think the front does what you want to do in Blue and getting to the point where you get the vehicle is easy enough that this looks quite strong

Waterwind Scout

Wind Drake + Map token for three mana seems like a quality Common to me. Explore and artifacts both matter in Blue, and this helps you do both of those. This looks like a pretty good deal

Waylaying Pirates

I love creatures that ETB and stun something, and while this makes you jump through a hoop – I think that hoop is pretty easy to jump through in Blue. Adding a decent body to the board and getting a blocker out of the way at the same time is going to be pretty strong. If you’re in the Pirate-Artifact deck, and you just curve out and play this on turn four, your opponent is going to be in serious trouble.

Zoetic Glyph

I like this. It reminds me of Mightstone’s Animation. While it doesn’t replace itself up front the way Animation did, this format has lots of random artifact tokens that this can animate into a very real creature, and the Glyph does replace itself if your opponent can ever deal with your creature, and they probably have to in one way or another, since a 5/4 isn’t really the kind of thing you can ignore. I do think drawing a card up front is better than Discovering when the Glyph goes to the graveyard, but this seems like it will be in a good spot in the format, just like Mightstone’s Animation was

Abyssal Gorestalker

This looks a little too awkward. There are too many situations where it hurts you more than your opponent. Sure, there are also the times where it's amazing, but there aren't enough of those to offset the downside.

Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal

I’m already sold on a 5-mana 4/4 with Flying and Lifelink. That’s the kind of creature that can win virtually any race, so the fact you have way more than that going on here is amazing. Ripping apart your opponents’ hand and getting additional value for doing that every time this attacks is amazing, and then like all the gods in the set, he gives you value no matter what, because he turns into a land when he dies. And that land can allow you to get this creature back in play too! Getting him back doesn’t have the most challenging requirement either

Another Chance

Playing one copy of this effect is usually a good idea in Black decks in Limited, but that’s even more the case in this format, since milling yourself and loading the graveyard in general is easier than normal, and there are more payoffs than normal for doing it too. You still probably don’t want more than one of these, but that first copy is something I’m going to value pretty highly for a common

Bitter Triumph

Paying life for this is going to be the better option, but doing stuff with the graveyard is a good idea in this format, so sometimes you can discard things for very real value, like triggering descent stuff. I think it will be easy enough to make the additional cost not matter much for this to be premium removal. After all, it deals with anything for two mana

Bloodthorn Flail

Without the discard option, this would be a 1.0 With it, in a set that has heavy graveyard stuff going on, especially in Black, it's probably a 1.5. It does seem like it will be hard to consistently get a card worth of value out of it

Bringer of the Last Gift

Obviously, this effect is crazy powerful, but it is pretty hard to make sure you get more benefit out of it than your opponent does. I mean, you do get to keep your 6/6 Flyer in play and blow up everything else, but if your opponent has a more well-stocked graveyard than you do, there’s a good chance you don’t come out ahead when the dust clear. And…if I’m paying EIGHT MANA for something, I kind of want it to consistently make sure I’m in a more beneficial situation than my opponent is. And sure, you can play this in a self-mill deck to increase your chances, but you’re also going to encounter that kind of deck in this format. It just feels like there will be enough times where playing this is either a wash or actively bad for you

Broodrage Mycoid

This will make a 1/1 on a decent number of turns and it has passable stats

Canonized in Blood

You probably need at least two counters before this feels like it’s worth it, and I think that’s definitely doable. It’s great that in the late game, you also have the ability to put a very real flyer into play too, while also triggering your other descent stuff. This seems like a very nice payoff for the various descending strategies – which, keep in mind can include self mill, sacrifice, and more

Chupacabra Echo

Giving something -2/-2 when this enters seems eminently doable, and that’s already a good card. After all, it's a 2-for-1 most of the time. By the mid to late game, it will feel a lot like the original chupacabra

Corpses of the Lost

So, the floor here is a three mana 3/2 with Haste. That’s a passable enough card, and the fact you can just keep bouncing this to your hand and generating more bodies every single turn is pretty awesome. If you can get that going, it will feel like a pretty awesome engine

Dead Weight

This is good every time we see it, especially because they tend to put it in formats where you can get some extra value out of it. One mana for -2/-2 is already premium, as you can trade up all the time, but the extra value in this format comes as a result of all of the Descend. Permanents that are removal spells are going to give you some nice extra value, and that’s certainly true here

Deathcap Marionette

We’ve already seen that descending is a key part of what Black wants to do in this format, and the Marionette helps you do it while being capable of trading with anything thanks to death touch

Deep Goblin Skulltaker

The Gray Ogre statline is ugly, even with Menace, but this can grow without a ton of effort, and obviously the bigger it gets, the better Menace feels

Deep-Cavern Bat

While you can’t really call this type of an effect a 2-for-1, since your opponent can get the card back with relative ease, the kind of disruption this card gives you is pretty serious. If you play it on turn two and take your opponents only two or three drop (depending on who went first), you’re already getting some serious value out of this, and this thing even comes with Flying and Lifelink!

Echo of Dusk

It’s fine on turn two, and Black decks will get it to 3/3 and lifelink pretty often, and once it’s there there’s a good chance it has at least some relevance on just about any board

Fanatical Offering

This probably isn’t quite Deadly Dispute, but I think that’s a pretty good comparison. This format has lots and lots of expendable stuff around, and this will often feel like you’re giving up very little to draw two and get a Map token, and that’s some serious value

Gargantuan Leech

This is very much a build around. You want to cast this for five or less, or it won't feel good. It's unplayable in a deck with 2 or fewer caves, mediocre with 3, and probably only solid with five or more

Grasping Shadows

4 mana is kind of a lot for something that just gives a couple of keywords to a creature, and it only gives it to them when the creature attacks alone. That said, deathtouch + lifelink tends to make it so you can attack with something on most turns, and sometimes it offers a really serious boost. Shadows’ Lair drawing you some cards after all that is pretty sweet too, but this does seem rough on board states where you’re not the beat down. I mean…sometimes you just can’t attack, and this will feel blank when that’s the case

Greedy Freebooter

This is some amazing sacrifice fodder, especially because the sacrifice effects in this format let you sacrifice creature or artifacts, and this one card gives you two of those. It does get a lot worse in situations where you can’t sacrifice it easily, as it will be a little more difficult to get a card of value out of it. I think that probably makes it a build around

Join the Dead

This is great without Descend, and with it it’s incredible. Always remember that double Black ends up being a problem sometimes, but this is so efficient that it doesn’t matter much.

Malicious Eclipse

This type of card is always pretty awkward in Limited. The effect has a really high ceiling for sure, but the floor is bad because you just don’t end up in decks very often where you can be certain it will hurt your opponent more than you when you cast it. If you find yourself in a control deck that doesn’t have many creatures that die to this, it can work out reasonably well, but that kind of deck just doesn’t come together often enough. This is mostly sideboard material.

Mephitic Draught

This is another card that is great sacrifice fodder, but not really worth it if you’re not consistently available to get rid of it. When you can it feels awesome, because it gives you a very efficient 2-for-1. But there will be enough Black decks that aren’t that good at sacrificing that I think this needs a build around grade.

Preacher of the Schism

A three mana 2/4 Death touch is something you’d almost always play, and the upside here is pretty nuts! It doesn’t really matter which of these you get to trigger, you’re going to be very happy with the outcome. Note, by the way, that if you and your opponent have the exact same life total, you get to trigger both – that won’t come up a ton of course, but the times it does will be pretty nuts! Because it’s a death toucher, it will be capable of attacking all game long too, as there just won’t be situations where your opponent can block it without losing whatever they block with.

Primordial Gnawer

This is an ugly stat-line, but it does make sure you get a 2-for-1. Still…the stat-line is bad enough that I don’t think this ends up always making the cut.

Queen's Bay Paladin

If you get one vampire back with this, it will feel insane. If you get two, it's probably unbeatable. There is enough graveyard and stuff and enough vampires in black that this probably doesn't need a buildaround grade.

Rampaging Spiketail

We recently saw cards with landcycling for two really underperform, but they have some advantages in this format. Like all land cyclers, this has the upside of getting you a land when you draw it early, and being a reasonably relevant card in the later stages of the game. And in this case, the Spiketail is likely to enable a pretty good attack when you cast it. But the extra value of land cyclers comes as a result of this format’s graveyard-heavy theme. Cycling this counts as descending, and it also makes it more likely you get to Descend 4 or 8, and you can also exile it from your graveyard for Craft

Ray of Ruin

We always get a super clunky Black Sorcery removal spell at Common, and they are always kind of meh. It can deal with a lot of things, but it will basically never do it efficiently, and Scry 1 being tacked on isn’t exciting enough for this to rise above a 2.0

Screaming Phantom

It has passable stats and helps enable all of your graveyard shenanigans that you’re almost guaranteed to have in Black

Skullcap Snail

It’s important than this exile instead of letting the opponent discard, as you don’t want to be helping your opponent get Descend stuff going. As usual, a two mana 1/1 with this effect is solid

Soulcoil Viper

This has almost passable stats, and an ability with huge upside. Loading your graveyard is quite doable in the format, and I especially like the idea of playing this alongside land cyclers. Basically, the floor is reasonable, and the ceiling is high

Stalactite Stalker

One mana 1/1s with menace tend to be nice on turn one, and this way can grow relatively easily and even turn into a removal spell. Seems like you'll get a lot for your investment

Starving Revenant

Even without the Descend part, I would be pretty pumped about this card. Solid stat-line, and gives you serious card selection, and/or a way to load the graveyard, and/or card draw. Getting a 2 for 1 seems common place, and the ceiling on the card is pretty nuts! It can help you Descend on its own of course, and draining life when you draw is really good. I think the whole package gets this to the lower bomb tier

Stinging Cave Crawler

A three mana ⅓ with death touch isn’t good. It isn’t a disaster either, since it can trade for stuff, but it isn’t something thar would make the cut every time either. So, for this to be worth it, you're hoping to get Descend going. And once you do, your opponent is going to have a hard time not getting 2 for 1'd. The card does work well with itself, as sometimes a ⅓ death toucher will buy you the time you need to get to the point where you have Descend 4

Synapse Necromage

The stat-line is bad, but this replaces itself with two bodies which are really valuable in this format, even if they can’t block. There’s just so much you can do with them in the format, with sacrificing the most notable. I think this ends up giving you a ton for the mana you invest

Tarrian's Journal

Two mana Artifacts that don’t have an immediate impact on the board can be a liability in Limited, but the upside here makes it worth it. The ability it has while it’s the journal isn’t bad to begin with, especially if you have Map counters and other fodder, and then transforming this in the late game is absolutely huge. Casting creatures from your graveyard is incredibly powerful, and that kind of advantage will make it very hard for your opponent to overcome it. Even if you draw this late, transforming it right away really isn’t that hard

Terror Tide

Sweepers are powerful, but they can be awkward in aggressive Limited decks. This one also takes some serious set up, but it does seem like a pretty insane card in any controlling black deck. That puts this in a weird spot. You first pick this almost any time you see it, but if you're an aggro deck by pack 2 or 3, you probably don't want to take it very highly

Tithing Blade

Two mana for an Edict effect is usually a 2.0 or so in Limited. Good in the early game, not so good later in the game. But this is an artifact that will be great to sacrifice, and obviously the Craft upside is big here too. Once transformed, this creates a life difference of two between you and your opponent during your upkeep, and that makes your opponent’s life very difficult. Crafting this is relatively easy too

Visage of Dread

This will hit a card in your opponent's hand every single time on turn two, and it will often have a card to hit much later than that. It does have the potential of feeling terrible when you wiff, but it makes up for that with the Craft upside, which is likely going to be accessible by the stage of the game when it does wiff. Disrupting the opponent early and getting a big monster late will feel best of course.

Vito's Inquisitor

The starting stat-line is bad, but growing this and making it evasive seems doable enough for this to perform reasonably well. Especially because you can do it at instant speed and whenever you want

Abrade

This is great every time it gets printed, and it might actually be better here. Two for 3 damage at instant speed is already premium, but this format has a ton of artifacts and artifact creatures too, and this can also destroy those outright.

Ancestors' Aid

+2/+0 and First Strike is going to win combat a huge percentage of the time, and in addition to the value treasure normally gives you in the form of mana, there’s lots of other stuff you can do with it in the format

Belligerent Yearling

This has nice starting stats, and the fact its power can go up can allow it to stay relevant all game long

Bonehoard Dracosaur

This has incredible stats that will make it so virtually nothing in the set can block or attack through it effectively, and on top of that it has an absolutely insane upkeep trigger. If the Dracosaur only exiled them and let you play them, that would be good. If it only let you exile them and gave you Dinosaurs and Treasure that would be good. But it does both. Even just triggering it a single time is going to be enough to pull you way ahead in most games. The only downside here is that the Dracosaur doesn’t make sure you get some kind of value the turn it comes down. In other words, if your opponent removes it right away, the fail-case is pretty mediocre

Brass's Tunnel-Grinder

Obviously, this sets up the first counter on its own, and once you transform this you get a pretty absurd land. Discovering when you cast a spell each turn us a big deal. The downside is you have a three mana card that doesn't add to the board. It will also take a while to transform, even if you’re good at Descending, you’ll need two more turns before you get the Cave

Brazen Blademaster

The starting stats are rough, but it seems like this will attack as a reasonably often

Breeches, Eager Pillager

A three mana 3/3 with First Strike is already a 3.5, and this has massive upside. You may even be able to access that upside the turn it comes down, provided you have a Pirate in play who can attack. And even when you don’t have other pirates, Breeches can get these triggers on his own, and they are all pretty great

Burning Sun Cavalry

I like that this triggers when you’re a blocker too, as it makes the card far better when you’re behind

Calamitous Cave-In

Cave decks look pretty legit in this format, and this feels like a card that can really enable that type of deck – it reminds me a lot of Gates Ablaze, a card with a similar sweeper effect that checked for Gates. It will be great if you have lots of Caves, and terrible if you don’t

Child of the Volcano

Hill Giant statlines have been bad lately. But, if this can consistently come down as a 4/4, it will feel pretty nice, and that seems doable. After all, all that needs to happen is you attack and your opponent decides to trade, things like that. Then, it has the potential to grow easily on subsequent turns too, especially when paired with the more graveyard-oriented colors like Black and Blue

Curator of Sun's Creation

Even if this is potentially powerful, the fact your opponent can probably attack into it with impunity, or kill it for two mana, makes it hard for me to get excited

Daring Discovery

If you hit a two drop creature with this, it feels like a 5-mana 2/2 that makes three things unable to block. That’s not too shabby, and sometimes it will be better. Of course, sometimes you’ll also not get a creature at all. Additionally, this effect is highly situational, and not really worth using except in the situation where it allows you to win the game anyway, so I think we have to look at the Discover part almost as an alternate mode that you use when the creatures can’t block part is irrelevant, which will be often

Diamond Pick-Axe

It looks a lot like Goldvein Pick, a piece of equipment that really overperformed in Kaldheim. The stats boost is modest, but generating treasure is a huge deal, especially in decks that care about artifacts, but it isn’t hard to find uses for them in any deck

Dinotomaton

A 4-mana 4/3 Menace is pretty close to a 2.5, so the upside of giving something else menace right away is pretty nice! It won’t always enable a good attack, but it will pretty frequently, especially if you’re curving out

Dire Flail

The front side of this is a playable card, especially in an artifact set. One to play and one to equip for +2/+0 is a solid rate. It stands a good chance of enabling an attack you just wouldn’t have otherwise, so the Craft upside here is pretty big! Especially because it makes the Equipment give an even larger power boost and more importantly, lets you sacrifice stuff to do damage to opposing creatures! That’s pretty insane, and the Craft doesn’t really ask that much of you. This looks fine if you never craft it, and really strong if you do

Dowsing Device

Playing an artifact creature to trigger this is best, because then you can guarantee that the Haste part matters, so you get the most value. Transforming this seems very doable, and the land is obviously relevant if you managed to transform it in the first place

Dreadmaw's Ire

This is a high-quality combat trick. One mana for +2/+2 and trample tends to play quite well on its own when we see it. It helps many a creature efficiently win combat while inflicting some damage on the opponent, and in this case you’ve even got a great shot at destroying a random artifact. It will feel truly busted when you can pull that off, and it also means it has sort of an alternate mode where you turn it into Shatter sometimes when your creature goes unblocked. I can’t imagine you ever cut this trick from any aggressive Red deck, and I think I even want to take it fairly early. This just does so much for one mana

Enterprising Scallywag

A two mana 2/2 that makes a treasure every end step is close to a 3.5, especially in a format with lots of artifact stuff going on. This doesn’t quite do that of course, but I think it will spit out treasure reasonably often

Etali's Favor

You just don’t want to pay for that stats boost when you’re seriously risking getting 2-for-1’d. The Discover part does mean that this makes sure to give you back a card, but the card you get back won’t be impressive enough to offset this card’s weak effect, at least not enough for this to be the kind of Red card you’re interesting in playing consistently

Geological Appraiser

This isn’t that far from being Bloodbraid Elf, and that card is absolutely absurd. Sure, the creature you cast isn’t the most efficient, but you’re always getting a 2-for-1 when you cast this, and you’ll always feel like you’re getting 4 mana or more worth of value too. That’s just insane

Goblin Tomb Raider

This will be a one mana 2/2 with Haste fairly frequently, especially in the mid-to-late game, and that kind of body matters surpsingly often, even at that stage of the game. It’s also a solid enough play on turn one.

Goldfury Strider

The base stats here are very underwhelming, and the idea here is that you can use some combination of artifacts and creature tokens that are available in the set to make this a 5/5 trampler, in which case you’re talking about something significantly more impressive. It is a pretty big bummer that you have to do it at sorcery speed, as the threat of activation here would make it a lot better. You’re just…not always going to have the extra stuff around to buff this, and even when you do, I don’t think you’re going to feel like you’re doing something all that impressive.

Hit the Mother Lode

Discover 10 sounds exciting, but you’re pretty likely to hit something much cheaper in most Limited decks, and by the time you’re casting this, you’re probably not desperate for treasure

Hotfoot Gnome

A three mana 3/1 with Haste with a useful card type in Artifact is probably a 1.5, but it’s nice this can tap to give things haste. Once it isn’t a very good attacker on its own – which will be often – it can at least make your other creatures into better attackers. Still, this isn’t nearly as good as one mana 1/1s with this ability that we’ve seen in the recent past

Idol of the Deep King

The front side of this is a playable, albeit inefficient removal spell. It’s nice it can hit the opponent too! The thing it transforms into…is….very mediocre, though. The free equip is nice, but +2/+0 isn’t much to write home about, and this won’t quite feel like a 2-for-1 most of the time, because the Equipment side just isn’t worth a card. Still, it’s removal with some real upside

Inti, Seneschal of the Sun

This is an insane two drop. It counts when anything attacks, so you don't even have to put it in harm's way to get this amazing attack trigger, which let's you rummage with the extra value of a counter and trample. This will be an absolute beating if your opponent can't deal with it

Magmatic Galleon

While this isn't quite a 5 mana 5/5 that kills something and gives you a treasure, it isn’t that far off, either. Being a vehicle instead of always a creature is a definite downgrade, but this still generates easy 2-for-1s

Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might

A 4-mana 4/4 trampler is a card that always makes the cut, and Ojer’s ability will definitely enhance most of your Red removal spells, which is pretty nice, though not something that will come up all the time. When Ojer dies, you get a little bit of a mana boost, and you’ll have the ability to get him back, although that’s going to be fairly challenging in Limited, because you need a source of noncombat damage that will do 4 – which isn’t exactly common place – and you’ll need the mana left over to transform it. So…basically, this is mostly a 4-mana 4/4 trampler with some minor upside

Panicked Altisaur

This seems solid for five mana. It’s hard to attack through, and it can chip away at your opponent in the late game

Plundering Pirate

Creatures that make treasures on ETB virtually always over perform, and the stat-line here is a bit better than what we usually see. Treasure brings extra value in an artifact format too. I think this is one of Red’s better commons

Poetic Ingenuity

A 3/1 token is great, and I'd like this even without the treasure part. I think this does probably need a build around grade, as Red isn't so into artifacts in this set that this will always work for you

Rampaging Ceratops

This has solid stats and blocking it is no easy task.

Rumbling Rockslide

This can kill lots of things at 4, and it does scale the longer the game goes. It’s a bit clunky as a 4-mana Sorcery, so it isn’t premium removal, but the first copy of it seems pretty appealing in most Red decks

Saheeli's Lattice

This might be the best Tormenting Voice effect we’ve ever seen. That type of card is always fine, as it lets you dig deeper in your deck, but this one has a ton of upside. First, it’s an artifact in a format where that matters. It’s also a permanent in a format where that matters more than being an instant or sorcery, And this is a format where you can get extra value out of discard, and on top of that, this can turn into a very real creature in the later stages of the game. Playing this on two and then getting a creature later sounds awesome

Scytheclaw Raptor

This has good aggressive stats, and the symmetrical effect will sometimes punish your opponent

Seismic Monstrosaur

This probably isn’t as good as the land cyclers in Blue, Black, and Green, as those are the colors that are best with the graveyard, but Red isn’t completely uninterested in the ‘yard, and the creature you get here isn’t the most inefficient thing either. The ability to throw away lands late when you’re flooding out comes in handy too

Sunfire Torch

So…this is a really roundabout Shock. It takes some extra steps, and more total mana, but eventually it does 2 to something! You can also keep it around for a meager power boost if you want. Being an artifact and a card that can put itself into the graveyard has extra value here too, but I do think this takes too much work to really be looked at as premium removal.

Sunshot Militia

This seems like a decent way to finish your opponent off in Red artifact decks. Even if they stabilize, this two drop can make it impossible for them provided you have artifacts and creatures around, and that’s not a huge ask. This only being Sorcery speed, like most of these effects, certainly matters, as being able to wait until the end of your opponents turn would mean you can keep all our blocks up – but still, I think this will do enough to warrant a slot in your deck

Tectonic Hazard

This is sideboard material, your opponent has to have a ton of X/1s for this to be worth it.

Triumphant Chomp

One mana for two damage is always premium, even at Sorcery speed, and this will often be able to do significantly more than that. Paying one to do 4 with this seems very doable, and that’s just crazy!

Trumpeting Carnosaur

A 6-mana 7/6 Trampler that discovers 5 is a bomb. It’s going to give you two cards worth of value, and more than 6 mana worth of value too! It is very difficult for your opponent to ever come out ahead, so it’s awesome that you can also discard this for removal earlier in the game when that’s what you need. There are enough ways to get it back from your graveyard in this format that it will give you 3-for-1 potential sometimes too

Volatile Wanderglyph

This will let you rummage when you attack or crew a vehicle, but perhaps most importantly, it lets you do it when you tap it using one of the many cards in this format that lets you tap artifacts and creatures for value. It doesn’t seem essential for that type of deck, but it certainly seems useful.

Zoyowa's Justice

I'm not interested in this kind of justice. I get it, you can use it an attempt to get yourself a better card, or downgrade an opposing one, but too much is left up to chance. You have no idea how it will go, and it will backfire far too often

Armored Kincaller

This will gain you three pretty often in Green, and that’s a pretty good ETB to have on a three mana 3/3

Basking Capybara

This seems like a solid two drop. Obviously a 1/3 isn’t where you want to be, but a two mana 4/3 is some serious business, and Green is good enough at getting there on Descend that you can expect this to have a very relevant body by the mid game

Bedrock Tortoise

So, during your turn it is effectively a 4 mana 6/6 with Hexproof. It’s still a 6/6 on their turn too, and it offers bonuses to the rest of your board too? Sign me up

Cavern Stomper

This thing means business, and in addition to adding such a nice body to the board, it also improves your next draw significantly. The ability is costly, but there are certainly times where it matters

Cenote Scout

This is either a one mana 1/1 that draws you a card, or a one mana 2/2 with Surveil 1. Both are cards you would happily play

Coati Scavenger

This does a pretty good impression of Eternal Witness. You have to set it up of course, but when you do get a permanent back it will feel amazing, and if you have to play it on curve, you don’t feel too bad about things

Colossadactyl

This is a great statline and keyword combination for the cost. Not much more to say here

Disturbed Slumber

This effect is basically never worth it. I get it, you can ambush your opponent’s attacker with a land, or suddenly do 4 out of nowhere, but the times where that’s actually worth a card are infrequent. I’d rather have something that permanently adds to the board

Earthshaker Dreadmaw

You know they had to make a Colossal Dreadmaw reference, and they did it by giving us a strictly better version. Even drawing one card off of this is an excellent deal, and that seems doable - and the ceiling is a lot higher! And the fail case is just the original Dreadmaw

Explorer's Cache

So the turn you play this, you can immediately put a counter on a creature, and then the next turn you can do it too. How good is that for two mana? Well…not that good, especially at Sorcery speed. But the fact that this keeps getting counters when things with counters die means that it will keep on having counters for you, and there’s enough of a counter theme in Green that this will probably over perform

Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant

A 12/12 trampler is going to be a problem for your opponent, but paying 8 for that isn’t actually that good of a deal these days, so you need the ETB trigger to do something ot feel like you’re getting there and…it just…won’t in Limited. By the time you cast Ghalta you’re just not going to have other creatures in your hand, and even when you do have something to play, keep in mind you aren’t actually gaining any cards of value, you’re just getting a discount, and that is substantially weaker. Sure, if you’re ramping and you need a big trampler for the late game, Ghalta fits the bill

Glimpse the Core

It has been a long time since they gave us a two mana ramp spell like this. It can't grab any basic land like Rampant growth, but it still gets you to 4 on turn three, and even has Cave upside. The question becomes "Would it just be better to play a two mana 2/2, though?" And given what formats have looked like lately, the answer is usually gonna be yes, especially because this is pretty bad when you get it late. If there is a legit ramp deck in the format, this is likely to play a role in it, but I am very skeptical given that we haven't seen a legit ramp deck work out in Limited since like…Strixhaven

Glowcap Lantern

I like exploring repeatedly, but this doesn’t do much to improve the creature up front

Growing Rites of Itlimoc

This is a reprint, and it wasn’t that good last time we saw it in Limited. The initial effect is kind of underwhelming for the cost, and while transforming it is doable, in Limited you often just don’t have anything to do with all the mana it can give you, especially by the time you can actually transform it. You’re mostly getting the front-side of this card when it comes to Limited, and it’s nothing special

Huatli, Poet of Unity

I’m already pretty excited about a three mana ⅔ that searches up a basic land. That card is at least a 3.5-, as it can generate some very real 2-for-1s while making sure you hit land drops and fix your mana. Then, if you transform Huatli – which isn’t that far-fetched – the Saga she becomes is absolutely absurd, as it quickly adds to the board with Chapter I, grabs you yet another card with Chapter III, and then offers a huge buff to the Dinosaurs you have, and most of the time, you’re going to have three. You’re not always going to get the chance to transform her, but becaue she has such a good floor and a really high ceiling.

Huatli's Final Strike

We see this kind of effect all the time at Common in Green, and it’s always one of Green’s must commons. It’s great removal that has occasional 2-for-1 upside thanks to the stats boost. You always have to be a little careful, in case your opponent can respond to you casting it, but the fact it’s an instant means you can find a nice window more often than not

Hulking Raptor

A 4-mana 5/3 with Ward 2 is pretty close to a 3.0, and this generates some extra mana for you. You won’t always be able to do something with that mana, especially in the late game, but it isn’t unreasonable to think this will let you play a more powerful card or more cards the turn after you play it, and having that tacked on to a relevant body makes for a nice card

In the Presence of Ages

I think you’ll want one of these in most Green decks. It helps you load the yard while drawing you a couple of cards in most cases

Intrepid Paleontologist

A two mana 2/2 that can tap for mana of any color is already a great card, and this has an activated ability with two really relevant uses. First: You can use it to hate on the graveyard, something that certainly matters in a format with two prominent graveyard mechanics in Craft and Descend. Second, you can use it to exile your own dinosaurs and get them back on a later turn. Keep in mind, it can use its own mana to pay for that ability

Ixalli's Lorekeeper

This is some serious ramp in a deck with lots of dinos, and close to unplayable when you don't

Jade Seedstones

The initial effect isn’t the worst for four mana, as it really does impact the board most of the time, and then later in the game you’re getting a huge artifact creature that’s likely to gain you some life. It’s going to be pretty hard for you to lose the game when you craft this, and the floor is a nice enough card

Jadelight Spelunker

I love Explore, and you’re telling me this will let me do it for every mana I have? That’s nuts. It will come down as a large creature that nets you a few cards most of the time, and it’s hard for me to want to say no that. Even playing it on turn two is good, and things really just scale from there. I think that makes it a bomb

Kaslem's Stonetree

The front side of this isn’t great, although the fact it can hit any land means it can help you dig for Caves if you’re interested in doing that – and you probably are, because the Stonetree crafts with Caves! Later, it can become a beefy enough creature. Overall…I’m not actually that impressed here. It doesn’t add to the board on the front side, and crafting with Caves is challenging enough that you can’t really count on getting the 5/5. There are just so many better cave payoffs in the set, that this isn’t really the one you’re desperate for

Malamet Battle Glyph

One mana for fight is often a playable card in Green, but this one comes with serious upside! Because it’s so cheap, resolving a creature and then using this to fight in the same turn will be a regular occurrence, and getting a permanent boost that makes your creature more capable of surviving and winning a fight with an opposing creature is awesome

Malamet Brawler

The awkward thing about this card is that by the time you can attack with something else that is worth giving trample to, your Brawler is probably not going to uh…brawl very well. I mean, it’s a fine two drop, but not one I’m excited about

Malamet Scythe

When you use this as a combat trick, it’s going to feel pretty good. After all, it helps your creature win combat and keeps +2/+2 sticking around. After that initial equip, having to pay 4 at a time to move this will feel rough, but if you’ve already traded one-for-one, we’re just talking about upside at that point.

Malamet Veteran

A 5-mana 5/4 trampler is sort of passable, and the fact that this can hand out +1/+1 counters, including to itself, when you have enough permanents in your graveyard, is pretty nice. Descend 4 is pretty approachable by the time the Veteran comes down too

Mineshaft Spider

This has mediocre stats, but it does help you with graveyard stuff

Nurturing Bristleback

This adds a very real presence to the board at 7 mana, and cycling is extra good in a set with Descend

Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth

It gives you a huge body for the cost, and it very much has the ability to get creatures and lands off the top of your deck and put them directly on the the battlefield. Attacking with a creature like this is always going to feel good, as your opponent can basically never just take 6 from it and survive, since you’re going to add something else to the board pretty much every time. If the card ended there, it would probably be an A- -- because it would be a bomb that needs at least a turn to get going, but you add in the God upside here – where it turns into a land when it dies, and we’re talking about an even bigger bomb, especially because getting to 10 permanents isn’t a huge ask by the late game, and Ojer Kaslem will be coming back

Over the Edge

There are enough artifacts and enchantments in this set and – importantly – enough artifact creatures for this to work pretty well as a removal spell. The double Explore mode isn’t too bad either.

Pathfinding Axejaw

This will either be a 4-mana 5/4 with Surveil 1, or a 4-mana 4/3 that draws you a card. Both of those are pretty nice for the cost.

Poison Dart Frog

This fixes your mana, ramps you, and can even trade for anything. That last part is nice, because mana dorks have diminishing returns the longer the game goes, but this one will also do something

Pugnacious Hammerskull

So, if this were a three mana 6/6 with defender, it would be pretty solid. Not attacking stinks, but that’s going to be the biggest body on the board almost always, and it certainly impacts it. Works well with cards that care about power too, and Green always has those. But this is way better than a 6/6 with defender, since it can also smash in as an attacker. Getting a stun counter is downside, sure - but being able to attack with this every other turn isn’t terrible. Then there's the fact that if you have a Dino around, which is very doable, it has no downside

River Herald Guide

This is another Explore ETB creature that gives you a really good rate, regardless of which Explore thing happens

Seeker of Sunlight

A one mana 1/1 just isn’t’ a stat-line that stays relevant, and while this has the ability to stay more relevant thanks to it’s activated ability, it’s costly enough and clunky enough at sorcery speed that it is only something you’re going to start using in the extreme late game. This is bad at virtually every other stage

Sentinel of the Nameless City

A good stat-line for the cost, a nice keyword for a ¾ and it gives you at least some value no matter what? And sometimes all kinds of value? Yeah, this is good.

The Skullspore Nexus

This does make it really hard for your opponent to ever come out ahead when they try to remove your creatures, or trade with them in combat, and casting this for something like 4 or 5 mana isn’t exactly far-fetched, though we do need to take into account the times where this just gets stuck in your hand. I do think you can look at it as a card that impacts the board in most situations though, since the effect it has will drastically alter the game right away, often making your attacks and blocks far more problematic the minute it comes down. The double power effect will also wreak havoc on combat

Spelunking

You really need to be playing a Cave for this to feel worth it most of the time, because you're gonna need to gain life to offset the downside of playing something that doesn't impact the board at all. It is kind of passable if you can't, but if you don’t have at least 3 caves, you probably shouldn't play it

Staggering Size

This offers a big enough boost to make a creature win combat pretty often, and trample can result in some pretty serious damage to your opponent too. I think you’ll play one of these in lots of aggressive Green decks

Tendril of the Mycotyrant

This feels fine on turn two, and then in the late game it is an insane mana sink that will add a massive body to the board. It’s tough to beat at that stage

Thrashing Brontodon

This is a reprint. Like last time, it has efficient stats and has upside that lets you blow up some key permanents

Twists and Turns

Scry 1 before you explore is a big upgrade, and obviously this can help you find the lands you need to transform it, and once transformed it's a great late game mana sink. The fact it explores when it ETBs is awesome too! I don't really think this needs a build around grade, since even on its own it seems playable, provided you're a slowish Green deck. And you're pretty likely to have more explore without even trying too

Walk with the Ancestors

5 mana to return a permanent to your hand is rough, but getting to cast something else while you do helps soften that blow

Abuelo, Ancestral Echo

A three mana 2/2 Flyer with Ward 2 is already pretty nice, and, while the ability to blink stuff isn’t always useful, the times where it is good, it tends to be really good, especially when rebuying Enter the Battlefield abilities

Akawalli, the Seething Tower

This has solid base stats and it is a really great payoff for Descend. After all, it ends up being a 7/7 with trample that can’t be blocked by more than one creature when you have Descend 8! I do wish it helped you get descend, so it was both a payoff and an enabler – those often make the best signpost uncommons, but it’s such a good payoff for loading the graveyard with permanents that it still looks like a nice signpost Uncommon

Amalia Benavides Aguirre

Exploring whenever you gain life is something I’m interested in, especially on a two mana 2/2 with Ward Pay 3 life. That Ward often means the only way your opponent can deal with her – and they are going to want to – is by losing some life, and that means Amalia generates at least some value no matter what, while having the upside of being an insane value engine. Obviously, you’re not going to be destroying all other creatures in Limited, but that’s fine, she’s still really great, though keep in mind life gain isn’t an absolutely massive theme in the set

The Ancient One

The Ancient One can get you to Descend 8 pretty quickly with that ability…but this still amounts to being a two mana 8/8 that doesn’t impact the board in the early game, and by the time you’ve invested six total mana you still might not quite be at the point where he can attack and block. That seems like too much of a liability to me. He definitely makes all the descend mechanics work in the later stages of the game, but he’s really bad early

Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon

She starts small, but oftentimes the turn you’ll play her you’ll immediately turn her into at least a 2/3 and get an extra body to play with. Keep in mind, because it says “one or more” you’re getting a maximum of one counter per combat, but that’s still enough for her to perform quite well

Bartolomé del Presidio

Gobbling up expendable creatures and map tokens to get bigger is pretty nice. The best thing about this card is that it doesn’t have the restrictions we often see on this kind of effect these days – you can use it as many times a turn as you want, and it doesn’t cost any mana. This means just attacking with Bartolome is going to give your opponent a headache, as things could go very wrong no matter what they decide to do. Sacrificing to this also triggers things that care about descend

The Belligerent

A 4-mana 5/5 with Crew 3 isn’t exactly the very model of a modern-playable vehicle, but that attack trigger is nuts. A treasure + a card every time it attacks is sure to quickly overwhelm your opponent. Even just getting one swing in with this will feel great, as your opponent will often have a hard time taking it down without losing something of theirs

Caparocti Sunborn

So, Red-white is good at making map tokens and creature tokens, so the idea here is yo’ull be tapping those. And when you can, Caparocti will feel crazy good, and you’ll be talking about a 2-for-1. The fact it has decent base stats to go alongside that makes me very impressed with this signpost Uncommon

Captain Storm, Cosmium Raider

This is a great Artifact payoff in a format with lots of artifacts, and she counts herself, so you’ll always have somewhere to put a counter

Deepfathom Echo

At worst, this will be an upgraded version of whatever your best creature is. Getting to explore every combat is great, and the fact you can play this in your first main phase and get that trigger right away is impressive. It’s also nice that you can choose to keep it around as a 4/4 If that’s just better than whatever else you have going on. IT also means this clone isn’t as reliant on your board state as most are. This looks great – Exploring every turn shouldn’t be underestimated

Gishath, Sun's Avatar

It’s definitely big and scary and can get you some dinosaurs out of your deck, but only having 6 toughness on an 8-mana card is pretty rough, even with the other keywords around. If you can get in for a hit and draw at least one card with it, it will feel worth it, but you’re far from guaranteed to pull it off. It wasn’t good during our last visit to Ixalan, and it won’t be this time either. It’s just too expensive and not even always that impressive when you do finally cast it

Itzquinth, Firstborn of Gishath

A two mana 2/3 with Haste is a great place to start, and this comes with quite the kicker. If you have two extra mana, you get this awesome punch effect. Keep in mind, you have Itzquinth do the damage. If this was always a 4-mana 2/3 with Haste that did two to something, that would be a great Limited card – and this has the flexibility of coming down earlier when that’s better and letting another dinosaur do the damage. Yeah…that’s pretty nuts. This looks like an incredible signpost Uncommon

Kellan, Daring Traveler

So, if we take the Adventure away here, we’re talking about a two mana ⅔ that will draw you a card sometimes when it attacks. That’s certainly a nice two drop, but also nothing special. The Adventure side is nice, because Explore can of course help you set things up so that you will draw a card more often with Kellan, and it won’t really be unusual to get two Map tokens from the effect. Casting both sides in the same turn will feel pretty nice in the late game too

Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar

A three mana 3/3 that shuts off your opponent’s spells during your turn is something that always makes the cut, and this comes with some awesome upside, since it will draw you a few cards sometimes. The easiest way to make this do its thing is to get +1/+1 counters with Explore, but any stats boost on your creatures will work

Master's Guide-Mural

A 5-mana 4/4 Golem isn’t exactly great, but keep in mind Blue-White does like having artifacts lying around, and this gives you two of them. If you can craft this in the later stages of the game, you end up with a pretty powerful Artifact that can immediately crank out another 4/4, and can make more later in the game too. I don’t love how expensive this is to craft or how much it costs initially, and I worry it will feel a little too slow, but this definitely has the ability to take over games

Molten Collapse

Even if you can never descend, this is premium removal. I mean, for two mana it deals with any creature – and planeswalker, which doesn’t matter much but hey, it’s upside! If you do descend, it will be nice that this can actually deal with something like a Map token, but honestly the second effect just won’t matter a big chunk of the time since it is so restrictive. Still, can’t really go wrong with adding more upside to Dreadbore

The Mycotyrant

On its own, this isn’t particularly impressive – after all, it’s a three mana 1/1 with Trample. However, getting it going so it generates Saprolings and grows itself doesn’t seem all that difficult, especially in Black-Green, and there are other fungi and saprolings in the set too. This is a pretty insane engine in the right deck, but kind of bad in lots of decks too, which I t hink means it needs a build around grade

Nicanzil, Current Conductor

This has nice base stats and it makes all of your Explores way better. Getting to put a land into play right when you hit it with Explore is super relevant in the early game, and while it drops off some late, it certainly doesn’t hurt. Getting an extra +1/+1 counter on Nicanzil also means it has the potential to stay relevant forever

Palani's Hatcher

So…the turn you play this, you’re getting a 5-mana 5/3, a 3/3 with Haste, and a 0/1 Egg. That’s amazing. And sure, your opponent might fire off removal before you go to combat, but that’s a narrow enough window that most of the time you’re going to get serious value before they ever have a chance to remove this. And I mean…the fail case is still that you have two 0/1 dinosaurs, which isn’t amazing, but you do still keep two bodies around even if they never let you go to combat. Then…if they do let you go to combat, well, the value you’re getting out of this will quickly overwhelm them. You just get so many good bodies for so little mana, and then even give Haste to any other dinos you might have!

Quintorius Kand

His +1 makes a very real body to protect him, and his -3 has the potential to grab a creature too – and no matter what you’ll get some spell out of it. The -3 will also do 2 to your opponent and gain you 2 on top of everything else thanks to Quintorius’ first ability. The ultimate will sometimes let you really go off too. But yeah, the total package here is definitely a bomb. He can protect himself, net you cards, and he has an ultimate that can win games – though I think most of the value actually comes from the other two abilities

Saheeli, the Sun's Brilliance

Obviously, you need something worth making a copy of, but you’ll often have that. Copying big scary creatures is nice, but so is copying creatures with ETB or death triggers, and there’s plenty of that to go around. Copying a Map token or something is certainly less exciting, but sometimes that will be useful

Sovereign Okinec Ahau

A 4-mana ¾ with Ward 2 isn’t a complete disaster, and this has an effect that synergizes well with Explore – and Green/White in general has several cards that pay you off for having cards that have power higher than their base power, so it doesn’t seem like a build around grade is necessary here. Most Green/White deck will just be able to make this work, and he’s pretty impressive when he does, because your creatures will get more and more of a boost as a result of the +1/+1 counters he gives them

Squirming Emergence

Loading the graveyard is very doable in this format, so this being able to bring something formidable back for three mana in the mid-to-late game seems reasonable. It does bother me a little that it itself is not a permanent, because most of your Black/Green decks are going to want as many permanents as possible to get the best mileage out of all the Descent stuff, and obviously it isn’t very good in your opening hand

Uchbenbak, the Great Mistake

A 5-mana 6/4 with Vigilance and Menace is already a pretty imposing creature, and this one can come back in the later stages of the game. Having to deal with this problematic of a body twice in a game isn’t going to be easy. That said, Descend 8 is pretty intense, and even with Blue-Black being good at milling itself, it isn’t exactly something you should always count on. Still, this looks like a really nice signpost Uncommon

Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz

A 4-mana 4/4 Flyer is a very efficient rate, and getting extra value out of sacrificing things is pretty amazing. I wouldn’t really count on frequently getting that 4/3 token, but it isn’t impossible, and gaining 2 life every time you sacrifice something will be very doable, especially with map tokens in the format. Obviously, if you ever do get that token, you’ll find yourself in a pretty much unbeatable position. Vito takes a bit of work, but it looks like it will be easy enough to get some nice value out of him

Wail of the Forgotten

This is a passable card when you don’t have Descend 8, and when you do it delivers some serious value. I mean, you’re not ecstatic about a two mana card that does one of these individually, but a card that gives you an option between all three is probably already playable. Then, with Descend online, this becomes a two-for-one that also generates some serious tempo. It will have its weaker mode far more often than the more powerful one, though

Zoyowa Lava-Tongue

A two mana 2/2 death touch is a solid enough starting point, so the fact that Zoyowa gives you such a huge bonus for descending is amazing. ESPECIALLY if you manage to start triggering him in the early game, which looks more than doable in the format. If your opponent can’t deal with him and you start making your opponent make these choices, none of them are going to feel very good. In the late game, they get a lot less impressive

Buried Treasure

Paying two mana for a treasure is terrible, but this can at least give you an actual card from out of the graveyard, and that certainly matters in this format, where this is likely to get milled or sacrificed for value. I’m still not sure I really want to be playing this on turn two, basically ever, so maybe you mostly want to mill it. For now, I’m not very interested in this

Careening Mine Cart

A 3 mana 3/3 vehicle with Crew 1 isn’t very good. I like getting Treasure, and that saves this from being actively bad, especially because it is a colorless source of fixing

Cartographer's Companion

This doesn’t feel like a great rate to me. You can sort of look at it as a 4-mana 2/1 that draws you a card or a 4-mana 3/2 with some card selection, and neither of those is very good…but there are some decks in the format that want cards that make two artifacts, as well as decks that want to explore and so forth, so it’s probably not terrible

Compass Gnome

We’ve seen this card before, more or less, and its always kind of mediocre. Putting the land on top is miles away from putting it in your hand. This offers passable fixing, but I think it will be especially attractive to Cave decks. As we’ll see in just a little bit, the set has a lot of caves, but still, getting your hands on enough to make the various Cave payoffs work is a little tricky – something like Compass Gnome helps make that easier

Contested Game Ball

You always pay that first two mana and you play this card, so you always end up kind of behind when it comes to cards and how much mana you spend to draw cards

Digsite Conservator

Graveyard hate is really legit in this format, as keeping your opponent from being able to craft or take advantage of Descent is going to really matter, so I think a two mana 2/1 that hates on the graveyard is probably already kind of playable. Add in the Discover upside and we’re talking about something that is perfectly solid. You won’t always have that 4 mana of course, but when you do you might generate a two-for-one, or at least really make your graveyard-loving opponent’s life a lot more difficult while getting a card to replace the Conservator

Disruptor Wanderglyph

There’s enough graveyard hate in this format that you don’t need to run something this inefficient and slow

Hoverstone Pilgrim

A 5-mana 2/5 Flyer with Ward 2 isn’t the worst thing ever, and this can really strip the graveyard bare. Alternatively, you can use it to put your own stuff back into your library, something that might actually matter in this format, where it looks possible to go pretty hard on milling yourself. Once you’re down to your last few cards, getting to decide what you’re going to draw always feels pretty sweet

Hunter's Blowgun

While I like that this gives you two different keywords depending on whether you’re being defensive or aggressive, they are also keywords that really only matter on the right creature. I think you end up not playing this most of the time, it’s just hard to get a full card of value here

Matzalantli, the Great Door

A three mana artifact that taps to loot…isn’t great, not in this world where we always need to be adding real things to the board. I mean, the card selection it offers over time can be valuable in games that go long, and it also synergizes well with the graveyard stuff in the set, but playing this on turn three isn’t going to feel good in most games – you just want a three drop creature most of the time. Then, once this transforms it…also isn’t anything special in Limited. You just don’t have enough things to spend mana on in Limited for this land to be that good when you transform it in the mid-to-late game

The Millennium Calendar

Another amazing flavor design, but probably terrible. Sure, you can get to 1,000 faster than you might think, since it counts everything untapping, and you can double the number of counters on it! But we’re still talking about a card that may as well do nothing until it actually wins you the game, and if you’re spending a card and a bunch of mana on that, you’re probably going to lose

Roaming Throne

A 4-mana 4/4 with Ward 2 probably always makes the cut anyway, especially when it’s this easy to cast, so the fact that this can take on a useful creature type is pretty nice! Triggered abilities definitely show up on lots of creatures in the format too, and you can always just look at your hand and pick a creature type that makes sense to you, it doesn’t really need to be a build around

Scampering Surveyor

Skittering Surveyor has a friend, I guess. And it looks pretty good! Ramping your mana, fixing your mana, and even helping you set up cave stuff seems like a pretty good deal when it comes attached to a 4-mana 3/2

Sorcerous Spyglass

This is an 0.0 every time we see it. Even IF you see a card that you get to name, turning off a card’s activated abilities isn’t worth a card, and we’re talking about the BEST CASE scenario

Sunbird Standard

We’ve seen time and time again, a three mana artifact that taps for mana of any color isn’t playable in Limited. It’s just too slow, and a mana boost like this just isn’t worth a card most of the time. However…this obviously has some real upside, since it can turn into a creature. And it can do it fairly flexibly, since it can exile any permanent type. That said, it is usually going to be a 2/2 Flyer that can tap for two mana – which is nice, but the set up cost of getting there is pretty significant. It takes quite the mana investment, even if the Standard itself can be used

Swashbuckler's Whip

So, one to play and one to equip to give a creature this tap effect for two mana seems…kind of alright. I’d like to pay one to tap things, but still. It is…kind of weird it also gives Reach. I guess that’s mostly a flavor thing, because the creature you put this on will often tap something before your opponent goes to combat, in which case Reach doesn’t matter. But anyway, this can tap things down for awhile, and then in the late game can just start Discovering, which is nice. Keep in mind, most of the time when you discover 10 for 8 mana, you’re going to get something worth far less, so it won’t ever feel efficient, but it’s a decent late game mana sink. Still…the whole package here seems passable, no matter what stage of the game it is

Tarrian's Soulcleaver

1 to pay and 2 to equip for Vigilance is awful. But, getting +1/+1 counters on your creature seems pretty doable in this format. This works especially well with Map Tokens, which are everywhere and have a built in effect that puts them in the graveyard, but things go to the graveyard all the time naturally, so this will certainly grow your creature. I do wish it got counters on itself instead of putting them on the creature, because it’s going to be pretty brutal when they can remove the thing you worked so hard to grow, and this definitely takes some serious time to get going in too many situations

Threefold Thunderhulk

It’s a 7-mana 3/3 that makes three 1/1s. That’s a ton of stuff to add to the board and is likely to stabilize you even if you’re behind! And then, it can make even more tokens when it attacks! And then threaten to eat those tokens to get even bigger! This will take over games if it isn’t dealt with immediately, and even if it is, your opponent is coming out behind because of the value it gives you on ETB

Throne of the Grim Captain

This is a super cool design, and I think you’ll actually be able to pull this off in Limited. Normally, a two mana Artifact that mills two wouldn’t be playable on its own, but there are going to be some decks in this format so reliant on Craft and/or Descend, that this delivers some pretty real value. And ending up with a reasonable mix of these four creature types isn’t impossible either. Still, you shouldn’t be playing this unless you can get value out of that front side – apart from hoping you mill creatures with the right types. So, this really feels like a build around

Treasure Map

This is a reprint, and it was pretty darn powerful last time. While it doesn’t impact the board immediately, the amount of mana you spend on it to cast and it and activate the ability is often available, and once it transforms it gives you a huge mana boost and/or a bunch of cards

Captivating Cave

Filter lands have been performing better, of late, at least in sets with multicolor themes, and while this set one doesn’t have a strong one of those, the fact this has a useful sub type and can be used to put some counters on stuff, while also setting up Descend, probably means it’s decent enough

Cavern of Souls

Even though this set has some prominent creature types, having a land that can only produce mana of any color for creatures with those types just isn’t good enough. You’ll have too many other cards that need colored mana that it can’t produce anything but colorless for, so it actually ends up being a pretty big hit on your mana base. There are going to be some occasions where you have very few noncreatures, and the creatures you do have are mostly the same type, and on those occasions it might make the cut, but most of the time it won’t

Cavernous Maw

There are enough Caves to get this going in some decks, and if your deck can take the hit to your mana this causes, it’s a pretty good creature land

Echoing Deeps

There aren’t that many lands it will be exciting to copy, but I guess copying some of the Discover lands isn’t too bad. Still, this will only produce colorless mana if you get it early and that’s pretty rough

Forgotten Monument

This tries to address the problem that most caves only produce colorless, and that’s a huge hit to your mana base if you’re not careful. If you do have enough Caves, this provides some nice fixing, but if you’re really reliant on getting this for your fixing your’e going to be in some trouble

Hidden Cataract

Entering tapped is certainly a problem sometimes, but they more than make up for it by getting you a card back in the later game thanks to Discover. The Cave type matters some too! I think you’re pretty much always playing the first copy of one of these. Obviously, if you have a bunch of one drops you’ll be less interested in them

Hidden Courtyard

Entering tapped is certainly a problem sometimes, but they more than make up for it by getting you a card back in the later game thanks to Discover. The Cave type matters some too! I think you’re pretty much always playing the first copy of one of these. Obviously, if you have a bunch of one drops you’ll be less interested in them

Hidden Necropolis

Entering tapped is certainly a problem sometimes, but they more than make up for it by getting you a card back in the later game thanks to Discover. The Cave type matters some too! I think you’re pretty much always playing the first copy of one of these. Obviously, if you have a bunch of one drops you’ll be less interested in them

Hidden Nursery

Entering tapped is certainly a problem sometimes, but they more than make up for it by getting you a card back in the later game thanks to Discover. The Cave type matters some too! I think you’re pretty much always playing the first copy of one of these. Obviously, if you have a bunch of one drops you’ll be less interested in them

Hidden Volcano

Entering tapped is certainly a problem sometimes, but they more than make up for it by getting you a card back in the later game thanks to Discover. The Cave type matters some too! I think you’re pretty much always playing the first copy of one of these. Obviously, if you have a bunch of one drops you’ll be less interested in them

Pit of Offerings

Hating on the graveyard definitely matters in this format, and this cave will often be able to produce colored mana. It still kind of stinks to have in the early game, but I think it’s good enough early enough to be fine

Promising Vein

In the Lord of the Rings set, we saw that an Evolving Wilds that can tap for mana, but costs 1 generic to sacrifice, was a pretty big downgrade from a traditional Evolving Wilds. Having to pay one just makes a world of difference. That said, it does have a useful subtype in this set, and that probably means it will be a bit more useful than its predecessor.

Restless Anchorage

Like all the cards in this cycle, the fixes your mana and has the ability to become very relevant creatures in the later stages of the game – creatures that are largely immune to Sorcery-speed removal. And never underestimate how big of a deal it is that one of your lands that produced mana for you early, remains a very real card late. This one even has evasion and generates Map tokens, which makes it really impactful

Restless Prairie

The creature this can become is no joke, as it not only gives you a decent body to swing with, it can buff your entire board!

Restless Reef

Another great creature land, this one becomes a beefy creature that can either load your graveyard or threaten to mill out your opponent

Restless Ridgeline

The creature might not be quite as impressive as the others, but the fact it can buff something else generally means it can open up a good attack for another creature too

Restless Vents

This creature’s hard to block and lets you rummage. A 2/3 is a little less relevant all game long than the other creature lands we’ve seen, but it’s still quite good

Sunken Citadel

This isn’t too terrible at fixing your mana, and this format has many more lands around for you to spend extra mana on, but it still isn’t insanely likely that it comes up, so you’re mostly playing this for the fixing

Volatile Fault

There are many nonbasics in this format, but you still don’t want to run this. Destroying a land and letting your opponent search up any basic and getting it untapped just isn’t worth doing, even with a Treasure token attached.

Plains

Island

Swamp

Mountain

Forest

Deeproot Pilgrimage

This has the potential to help you go wide in a hurry, that’s for sure. But…I worry a little bit about the many situations where you can’t really effectively tap your merfolk to get it going – and those are definitely going to come up. I’m not sure that it isn’t just better to play some random two mana 2/2 than it is to play this, since you will immediately add to the board if you go the other route, as opposed to this which has you jump through some hoops. So, I’m pretty skeptical about this to start the format

Subterranean Schooner

This us a good rate for a crew 1 vehicle with these stats, and would make the cut sometimes even without the Explore part. With it, we're talking about a strong card. Grows your creatures, draws you cards, and swings pretty hard

Acolyte of Aclazotz

There are plenty of expendable artifacts and creatures to be had in Black, and this also works well with Descend stuff. Draining 1 life at a time might sound small, but it really can keep you alive while pressuring your opponent

Bloodletter of Aclazotz

This basically a 4-mana 4/4 Flyer, and it has an immediate impact on many boards, since if you have some other creatures in play, your opponents choices about how to block become different. The triple Black does make it harder to cast in Limited than you might think, especially on curve

Defossilize

5 mana reanimation spells normally don't fair well in Limited, they are usually in the D range, even with some extra value tacked on, but I think this one will overperform. First, Black decks are great at loading the graveyard, and second, there are a cycle of big cycling creatures in the set who go great with this

Fungal Fortitude

+2/+0 will help a creature win lots of combats, and it doesn’t matter that there isn’t also a toughness boost, because the creature’s coming back! It feels especially busted with ETB abilities. This also helps you trigger descend stuff

Souls of the Lost

This is sort of a Black Tarmogoyf. That sounds cool, but believe it or not, Tarmogoyf isn’t anything special in Limited. This has a higher ceiling, because it just counts permanents and not permanent types, and this format certainly has a variety of ways for you to set up your graveyard, but the ceiling here is still a huge vanilla creature, one that you normally can’t really play reasonably on turn two. Sure, the discard/sacrifice part can allow you to set it up more, and discarding or sacrificing a land to make this a little bigger sounds fine, I’m still not impressed with the ceiling here. It takes some real set up, and you’re never really going to feel overjoyed to put this on the battlefield

Cosmium Confluence

You need caves to really get this going, but being able to search them up and animate them is pretty powerful if you do

Chimil, the Inner Sun

The “can’t be countered” part of this is mostly irrelevant but Discovering 5 every end step feels pretty good. You might only get a two drop or something but having it happen every turn is nice. Now, you probably need this to trigger twice before you feel okay with it, but the fact it gives you one of those triggers the turn you play it helps make up for that, as this will usually do something to the board right away, and it’s a value engine after that

Runaway Boulder

Lots of decks want to run as many permanents as possible because of Descend, and the Boulder gives you a removal spell that is still a permanent. Now…it is very far from being efficient, but it does deal with most things, and you can also cycle it away – which also matters for Descend. With all that in mind, it will definitely make the cut a decent chunk of the time