Alchemy: Dominaria Limited Ratings
Priest of Possibility
Pro Rating: 3.0This will often be able to get at least one of these keyword abilities, and getting 2-3 isn’t impossible. Flying is the one you’re hoping for the most, but they are all pretty nice upgrades. There will be times when you wiff though, and then you’re just looking at a Grizzly Bear.
Pull of the Mist Moon
Pro Rating: 4.5This is a bomb that will allow you to make a massive impact on the board. If you don’t kick it, it is Oblivion Ring, which is a great card! If you do kick it, you also get to turn a creature in your hand into Banisher Priest, which is just absurd!
Oracle of the Alpha
Pro Rating: 4.5This is pretty silly, and lets you play with the Power 9 in Limited! Even if we take that part of the card away, we’re looking at a 3-mana 2/3 with Flying that Scries 1 when it attacks. That’s an easy 4.0 So, how good is shuffling the Power 9 into your deck? Well…not all of the cards in it are going to be great by the time you play the Oracle. I know it sounds crazy, but if you don’t have anything to spend the mana on, Black Lotus and the Moxen are pretty late-game top decks. Meanwhile, Time Walk and Ancestral Recall are absolutely absurd all game long. Timetwister can be pretty nice in a situation where your opponent is ahead of you on cards in hand, but it isn’t the most amazing thing either. So, what I’m saying is, shuffling in the Power 9 is not all upside. The good news is, adding Scry does mean you can Scry away the less useful ones. In the end, getting the Power 9 is more upside than downside, and this is a bomb – but not an unbeatable one.
Skywriter Djinn
Pro Rating: 4.0This is a 4-mana ¾ with Flying that draws you at least one card when it ETBs, and sometimes it will draw you way more cards than that. Several of the cards in the Djinn’s spellbook aren’t actually that useful in Limited, though, and that holds it back a little.
Trove Mage
Pro Rating: 0.0There aren’t enough good Artifacts in this format to play this.
Vesuvan Mist
Pro Rating: 3.5If you don’t kick this, it is a card that is typically a 2.0 or a 2.5. Bouncing a permanent at instant speed is a decent effect, and this format does have a legit spell deck. The Kicker upside is a huge deal, though, as it actually nets you a card in addition to giving you tempo.
Darigaaz's Whelp
Pro Rating: 3.0There aren’t enough Dragons in this format for this to be great. That said, it is a two mana 2/1 as a baseline, and that’s a nice card. And even if you don’t have any other dragons in your deck, you can still kick this to make it a 4 mana 3/2 with Flying. If you do have a couple of Dragon Whelps in your deck it gets significantly better.
Diminished Returner
Pro Rating: 3.5This has really nice stats and it can come back from the graveyard once as a 3/2. That generally means we’re talking about a 2-for-1 here, and it is one that can attack really hard in the early game.
Smogbelcher Chariot
Pro Rating: 4.0A 3-mana 3/3 with these three keywords and Crew 3 is probably at least a 3.0. The stat-line itself isn’t impressive, but those keywords means that it can’t ever be blocked without killing two things. So, the added bonus of giving the creature that Crews it one of those keywords is excellent. Crew 3 is harder to pay than you might think, though.
Ghitu Embercoiler
Pro Rating: 3.5A two mana 2/2 with Prowess is great in this format, so the added upside of letting you rummage every turn is amazing. You can discard lands to it and you’ll still be able to seek up a card. Almost any card is going to feel like a good deal, though sometimes you won’t be able to cast the card you seek.
Spellchain Scatter
Pro Rating: 0.5 // 2.5You’re definitely interested in this if you’re a spell deck. Using this to get a copy of a cheap spell and then casting that cheap spell in the same turn will often trigger a bunch of stuff, or help making your Tolarian Terrors cheaper. On top of that, if you kick it, you have far more flexibility. That said, it is still just a card that nets you one card, and sometimes it won’t line up that well. It definitely feels like a build around. If you’re not Blue-Red, I don’t think you play it.
Marwyn's Kindred
Pro Rating: 3.0This is the kind of wacky thing Alchemy can allow for. So, the idea here is you pump a ton of mana into this to make a whole bunch of elves, including a massive Marwyn. Domain decks in this format are pretty good at generating absurd amounts of mana late, and this does seem like a real win condition for those decks. It does demand a ton of mana to really do its thing though, even a lot for Domain decks!
Nantuko Slicer
Pro Rating: 4.0If you don’t kick this, you get a 2-for-1. If you do kick this, you get a 3-for-1. Sign me up!
Vinesoul Spider
Pro Rating: 3.0A two mana 3/2 with Reach is a pretty nice rate and a body that stays relevant all game long. Randomly putting a land from your deck into your graveyard is a little awkward in this format, though. Most Green decks are domain decks, and many of them only have 1-2 lands with a specific type. So, it seems like a decent chunk of the time this might mill something you don’t want it o mill! That said, if you’re in a more aggressive Green deck, this looks pretty good, because it will decrease your chances of flooding out while giving you an aggressive body.
Wandering Treefolk
Pro Rating: 4.0This starts with a great stat-line, and then it has a very powerful ability that Domain decks will very easily take advantage of. Paying 3-4 mana to seek up a creature is a great way to use all the mana you have, and it generates the card advantage that allows you to go over the top of your opponent.
Bloodsprout Talisman
Pro Rating: 0.0This is pretty awful. It is mostly worse than a mana rock, since a mana rock generates mana for anything, and this just decreases the cost of one thing. AND it enters tapped. It is far too clunky and the payoff isn’t worth the card.
Darigaaz, Shivan Champion
Pro Rating: 5.0A 5-mana 5/5 Flyer is a great rate, and this gives you a powerful Dragon with an Egg counter on it every turn. It does take a few turns for his Dragon friend to join the party, but it does mean that even if your opponent takes down Darigaaz, there is going to be some value left behind. And if they don’t kill him quickly, the value will be too much to overcome.
Juggernaut Peddler
Pro Rating: 2.5This lets you disrupt your opponent a bit, but the flip side is that your opponent will likely do the same to you on the next turn and so on and so forth until it doesn’t have any cards to get rid of. That kind of makes it seem like this is a wash, though the fact you get to disrupt your opponent first makes a difference! Especially if you can find a way to make it so the Peddler’s ability doesn’t effect you much on the next turn.
Niambi, Beloved Protector
Pro Rating: 3.5This kind of ability is always a little bit harder to line up than you might think. This is because of the timing restriction. The creature has to have gone into the graveyard the turn you play Niambi, or it doesn’t work. Giving her Flash does increase the number of situations where she can do her thing, and really – reanimating anything with her at all is a great deal on top of getting a 2-mana 2/2.
Teferi's Contingency
Pro Rating: 1.5This is mostly a hard-to-cast Cancel. Sometimes you’ll hit something that you can make cost more, but this is Limited, so it won’t happen that often.
Tiana, Angelic Mechanic
Pro Rating: 3.0The Vehicle upside on this card will only very rarely matter, so this is mostly a three mana 3/2 with Flying, which is a nice enough card.
Vodalian Tide Mage
Pro Rating: 4.0Playing this and then attacking your opponent is going to feel great. You won’t always be able to set things up so you get a copy of a creature, but you’ll be able to often enough that this is a great card.
Coalition Construct
Pro Rating: 3.5There are a lot of Humans in this set (and a bunch of Human tokens too), so that’s usually what you’ll want to be naming with it, especially in decks like RW and BW. It is nice that if your hand happens to have a creature or two in it of a particular type, you can also just go with that if you’d like an immediate upgrade to a card in hand. The same can be said of cards on board.
| Card | Pro Rating | AI Rating | APA | Picked | ALSA | Seen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
ss-rare|White|Creature — Kor Cleric
|
3.0 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-uncommon|White|Enchantment
|
4.5 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-mythic|Blue|Creature — Bird Wizard
|
4.5 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-rare|Blue|Creature — Djinn
|
4.0 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-uncommon|Blue|Creature — Human Wizard
|
0.0 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-uncommon|Blue|Instant
|
3.5 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-uncommon|Black|Creature — Dragon
|
3.0 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-uncommon|Black|Creature — Phyrexian Skeleton
|
3.5 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-rare|Black|Artifact — Vehicle
|
4.0 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-rare|Red|Creature — Human Wizard
|
3.5 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-uncommon|Red|Instant
|
0.5 // 2.5 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-mythic|Green|Sorcery
|
3.0 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-rare|Green|Creature — Insect
|
4.0 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-uncommon|Green|Creature — Elemental Spider
|
3.0 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-uncommon|Green|Creature — Treefolk
|
4.0 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-rare|Black|Green|Artifact
|
0.0 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-mythic|Black|Red|Green|Legendary Creature — Dragon
|
5.0 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-rare|White|Black|Creature — Human Artificer
|
2.5 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-rare|White|Blue|Legendary Creature — Human Cleric
|
3.5 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-rare|White|Blue|Instant
|
1.5 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-rare|White|Red|Legendary Creature — Angel Artificer
|
3.0 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-rare|Blue|Green|Creature — Merfolk Wizard
|
4.0 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
|
ss-rare||Artifact Creature — Construct
|
3.5 | 0 | 15.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 |
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, so that’s usually what you’ll want to be naming with it, especially in decks like RW and BW. It is nice that if your hand happens to have a creature or two in it of a particular type, you can also just go with that if you’d like an immediate upgrade to a card in hand. The same can be said of cards on board.'))
About Limited Ratings
- 5.0 The absolute best you can get.
- 4.5 Incredible bomb, but not unbeatable.
- 4.0 Good rare or top-tier uncommon.
- 3.5 Top-tier common or solid uncommon.
- 3.0 Good playable that always make the cut.
- 2.5 A solid playable that rarely gets cut.
- 2.0 A good playable, but is sometimes cut.
- 1.5 Filler card but sometimes gets cut.
- 1.0 Not good filler and often gets gut.
- 0.5 Almost Unplayable and mostly sideboard material.
- 0.0 Not playable at all.
AI Limited ratings are gathered with data from MTGA Assistant, while Nizzahon Magic provides the Pro ratings. The key difference is that the Pro ratings and comments are made before the set officially releases, while the AI ratings dynamically update with new data. It would be best to use the Pro ratings as guidance as sets are released and the AI Ratings a couple of weeks after release. Here is an explanation of how we score the cards: