We've now the entire M15 set spoiled, and with pre-release events right around the corner, there's always the discussion of which color looks best!
Of course, it's hard to accurately say until we've put the cards to play, felt out the environment's pace, etc., but I'm just curious what you guys are predicting, largely based on the commons and uncommons of the colors.
Sound off! (And happy Fourth, everybody!)
EDIT: And hey, if you want to bag on what you think is the worst color, go for it!
White and Green look really good and blue looks solid. Black looks pretty bad.
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EDH Decks UWB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic's spring of life RUG Animar, Soul of the Elements and friends... lots of them WBG Karador king of two worlds (value and attrition) WRKalemne's Angels BRUG Yidris's Wild Party UWBR Breya's Terrifying Tinker Toys UBRThe Pretender
The Black promo its so far from the others but the rest of the picks including the chance to get a crap rare (except waste not) balance the thing with white. Green promo and blue are just worse than black, but the rest of the picks seems pretty solid. It may sound stupid but if I get black seeded booster I will look with more interest to uncommon than rares.
I think I will pick B or W, and go for GW UB GB or UW. Red its for me, the last choice this time.
Can someone please remind me of the "new" format for pre-release events. I believe the last I played in was Scars of Mirrodin.
You can use your promo card in your deck, correct? But when do I choose my "faction pack"? At the beginning of the tournament or after I bust my packs, and what comes in that pack?
I agree, I think the black promo is the best. Five-power flier for five with built in card advantage (unless the opponent wants a strong disadvantage otherwise) is great. Phytotitan seems quiet weak. I think the white Angel is good if you know you can get the mana. You put the game into a racing state of attacking back and forth without worrying about blocking, and then drop her when you're inside 5 life or so... Seems risky, but strong. Siege Dragon is good too, but pricy and the Wall ability is probably irrelevant.
I didn't see anything overwhelming from white at a glance -- past Serra Angel, which is the case with black and Sengir, for me -- but I like Blue and Green.
Can someone please remind me of the "new" format for pre-release events. I believe the last I played in was Scars of Mirrodin.
You can use your promo card in your deck, correct? But when do I choose my "faction pack"? At the beginning of the tournament or after I bust my packs, and what comes in that pack?
I agree, I think the black promo is the best. Five-power flier for five with built in card advantage (unless the opponent wants a strong disadvantage otherwise) is great. Phytotitan seems quiet weak. I think the white Angel is good if you know you can get the mana. You put the game into a racing state of attacking back and forth without worrying about blocking, and then drop her when you're inside 5 life or so... Seems risky, but strong. Siege Dragon is good too, but pricy and the Wall ability is probably irrelevant.
I didn't see anything overwhelming from white at a glance -- past Serra Angel, which is the case with black and Sengir, for me -- but I like Blue and Green.
I think you choose the color when you sign up for the prerelease if nothing has changed since Theros block. I don't think there is a seeded pack as well; just 6 boosters of M15. If that's the case, it's basically the luck (or no luck) of the draw. If you pick black as your color, you might be unfortunate enough to open a terrible black pool and be forced into other colors entirely. It happened to me in the Journey into Nyx prerelease. I picked green and even with the seeded pack, my green pool was absolute trash. I ended up going Izzet colors instead, which meant the promo and seeded pack were pretty much useless.
I think black has the best promo, but just glancing through the rest of the color looks pretty meh to me. Black's spot removal is rather poor. White actually has some decent options brought over from Theros block. Oreskos Swiftclaw is a very aggressive card especially if your opponent doesn't have a two or three drop to respond. Oppressive Rays makes your opponent choose between getting in damage or playing spells in the early game. The white promo is probably the second best promo as well. If both your opponent and you are low on life, the angel might put racing in your favor especially if your opponent has smaller creatures that need to attack into the angel.
I was also thinking Red, followed by Green... I'd play Red and go R/g
Red has fast dudes, and a lot of removal in all rarities. Most of them can even go to the face, and you even have ramp at common to cast your Promo Dragon...
Now that you guys mention it, red does look quite fast and has good removal. Good ole Incinerate is always great in limited.
As I said I haven't done a pre-release involving the "color packs", so I'm finding it interesting looking ahead how that affects your deck before you even really begin. I guess if black does seem to be weak, yet the promo is best, there's an argument to not go that route. Of course, a promo could be Grave Titan and you still may not end up playing it because your black pool is so weak.
That was kind of my whole intention behind this thread — figuring out where the best balance of risk would lie when factoring the card pool of a color and its promo. Then again, you'll almost always be two colors, so if you figure you can get seven black playable or so including your big Demon, it's still probably a safe bet — and of course that works for any color.
Red's removal just seems really strong to me. Wizards has been scaling the removal back lately but the red removal is actually pretty efficient. Most of it is at uncommon, however. But I always think red is amazing. I'm surprised there is so much love for white. I have zero experience with convoke so maybe it's better than I think it is.
For what it's worth, the opposite of evergreen is "deciduous" so I suggest we start using that from now on to refer to shroud, banding, islandhome, etc.
To be honest this set seems super balanced. Black seems to be the worst color without it's staple Doom Blade. It seems black's mechanic is to mill yourself and sacrifice creature and use the abundant amount of creature recursion to keep up the cycle. This whole engine doesn't go so well along side convoke and blood host as the only sacrifice outlet is a let down. Black have tons of great cards but many of those cards seems to be better in other colors (EX: Feast on the Fallen + instant speed burn; Xathrid Slyblade + auras; Wall of Limbs + Soulmender; Necromancer's Assistant + Undergrowth Scavenger).
Black is the most fragile color in the sense it has a harder time "comboing with itself", so I would avoid picking black as first color.
The other four colors all looks pretty good to be a first pick and i feel like only play testing will tell which one is the best blind pick. I will go with blue just because I"m excited about the UR artifacts deck and the UG primadox one.
I go with green. The commons look solid, convoke seems to fit the theme of the colour the best, so even if such cards come around, you should not have a hard time going for it, and overall green seems to be where you want to be. I kind of dislike black to be honest, a lot of clunky cards, no doom blade, gravedigger as well as stab wound at uncommon do not impress me. Its a bit frustrating.
I look a lot at commons and uncommons, but at least for Sealed (AKA prerelease), I seriously consider the rares as well.
As awesome as the black promo is, look at the rest of black's rares:
Cruel Sadist - Perhaps the best you can hope for, but awfully slow.
Ob Nixilis, Unshackled - Certainly playable, but that first ability is never going to be relevant, and the second isn't all that great with black's lighter-than-normal removal suite.
In Garruk's Wake - Fantastic finisher in the late game, but slooooooooow. If aggro is a thing in this format (and it looks likely), you'll be dead long before you can cast this.
Necromancer's Stockpile - I don't think discarding creatures is something you're going to want to do too often in Limited.
Stain the Mind - Considering the only cards they're likely to have multiple copies of are filler anyway, this will at best be an occasional method to get rid of their bomb before it hits. But even in that role, it's most likely only something you bring in from Game 2 on, and it's a hit-or-miss race to draw it before they get to play said bomb. Ick.
Waste Not - Waste not your time unless you luck into a couple of Mind Rots, because there's not much discard in M15.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (included since it seems to count as one of black's rares) - Not playable in Limited. It just isn't.
I guess I may as well go through the rest while I'm at it....
Genesis Hydra - Late game bomb, no question, and can even be a good middle-game card if your deck is chock full of creatures.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard - Could work...certainly a much better shot in Sealed than Draft. Playable.
Kalonian Twingrove - Going to try hard to go mono green with this as my rare. Much more predictable in Sealed than in Draft, but easy to build around in either.
Life's Legacy - Good break-glass-in-case-of-emergency card. Probably the weakest of green's rares, but not a weak card.
BLUE:
Polymorphist’s Jest - Blowout! Swing in with your army and eliminate any creature foolish enough to block. All for only 3 CMC. What's not to love?
Stormtide Leviathan - The very definition of game-ending bomb. Expensive for sure, but if you untap with him in play, it's practically game over.
Ætherspouts - Potential game ender. Seriously. Zap their army and then swing with yours. Wary players won't be caught napping though, especially in Game 2.
Chasm Skulker - Lots of good card draw in M15 (seriously, Divination AND Jace’s Ingenuity?), but even without any extra help, this is certainly playable.
Master of Predicaments - Certainly playable for stats alone, and the ability, while a bit random, can be very powerful.
Jalira, Master Polymorphist - Again, creatures are usually at somewhat of a premium in Limited, so you don't want to be saccing them too often. Decent if you can get some blue (or white) token generators around her, but even then you could end up with that filler common creature as a replacement and feel gyped. Not the rare I'd want to pull.
Chief Engineer - Eeeeeehhhh. Only a couple artifacts that really need the help. His 1/3 stats for only 2 CMC make him playable, but his ability will leave the majority of players wanting much, much more for their build-around rare.
RED:
Burning Anger - Fall of the Hammer may have been my favorite Limited card in Theros block. Yes, this is a rare vs a common, and much more expensive, but the effect is just fantastic. I'd be quite happy to pull this.
Goblin Rabblemaster - Not bad, not bad. Gives you persistent tokens, which can result in all sorts of fun, and gets in for some good damage if sprung at the right time. He's playable.
Hoarding Dragon - Yeah, he's playable too. The stats alone demand it. But I don't think his artifact ability is going to matter most games.
Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient - Not a bad card, but very few artifacts that he can work with in M15, and most are uncommon or rare. Again, playable based more on cost-to-stats ratio than his ability, but much less so than Hoarding Dragon.
Goblin Kaboomist - If you can find a way to boost his toughness, he's fantastic. Without? I'd play him, but have a pit in my stomach the whole time, which I suppose is the point!
Crucible of Fire - Requires mostly other rares to be useful. Yes, it combos with the red promo, but even then it's just a "win more" card. Not really what you want to get in Limited.
Aggressive Mining - Probably the last rare I'd want to pull; especially in Sealed, I would feel completely robbed. Why must red always be bogged down with a random, useless rare like this?!
WHITE:
Spirit Bonds - So I hear having more creatures in Limited is a good thing. I also hear having lots of flying creatures is powerful in Limited as well. I'd be ecstatic to have this as my rare pull.
Avacyn, Guardian Angel - Yes, please! Helps you shrug off the few removal spells likely to come your way, and a flying 5/4 with vigilance for 5 CMC is promo-worthy. I'd be delighted to get her.
Preeminent Captain - First strike is really scarce in M15, so that alone makes him a great creature. The fact that many of white's creatures are Soldiers and can be dropped for free is just gravy.
Spectra Ward - A tad expensive, but practically game-winning in a couple turns. Very, very little that can stop a creature enchanted with this.
Return to the Ranks - With relatively light removal in M15 Limited, this won't be nearly as impacted as in Constructed play, but it certainly still has a place. Definately playable.
Mass Calcify - Two turns faster than In Garruk's Wake, and can potentially hit your own creatures if you're not going mono white. That makes it better in Sealed--where I'd say it's perhaps even worth mainboarding--than Draft.
Hushwing Gryff - Has uses, but much less powerful in Limited than in Constructed. Also directly conflicts with the white promo and a lot of other white cards...more than any other color except green, actually. So while a flash flying creature is always nice, this could also inadvertently shut down some of your own cards. Ick.
So, while other have debated the power of commons, uncommons, and the promos in the set, based on the non-promo rares alone, I think white and green are far above the rest. There are no rares that I would consider unusable in Limited.
Red is next, though there's a couple rares (Crucible of Fire and especially Aggressive Mining) I'd be unhappy with and probably couldn't even use.
Next is blue, which also has some lackluster or downright unusable rares, but blowout potential with the others.
Black brings up the distant rear. Outside of Cruel Sadist and Ob Nixilis, I can't see victory in Limited on the backs of any of their rares.\
Conversely, I think black has the best promo by a mile, then white, red, green, and the terribad blue Mercurial Pretender. With all that in mind (plus the fact that I think the color has above-average commons and uncommons), I think white is the best choice for prerelease. (And I'll just pray for no Hushwing Gryff, who's playable but certainly the weakest rare.) Best chance for consistently good cards and a good build-around rare in addition to the promo. If I can't get white, I think green is a close second.
I haven't looked at the promos as much. So far I've only studied the commons and uncommons to get a general idea of the set. I'm just answering the question in general of what looks like the best color for limited.
I think it's black. The set looks very thin on answers and black and red have the most. Also, the set's creatures are a bit lackluster. At C or UC, there aren't too many bomby creatures (like Serra Angel) or spells (like Mind control). This leads me to believe that this format is going to either be dictated on bomb rares opened or deck archetypes with lots of synergy. Outside of the durdly creatures, black is essentially tied with blue and white for evasive creatures (2 of blue's flying creatures need help to be cast or have flying).
On its own, Black looks solid. If every deck was monocolored, I think black would dominate. What I'm paying attention to while learning to draft this set is how important being in an archetype is and what cards are relevant to them. Archetypes I'm paying close attention to is UR artifacts, UG bounce, BW lifegain, Wx tokens along with all the typical aggro and control color pairings (UW flyers, RB Aggro, etc.)
If we are talking about prerelease - don't forget that one whole booster is seeded. It is mentioned in one of todays articles that all cards in the booster have a higher chance to be of your choosen color, not only the rare. And there seem to be some quite useful black cards at common an uncommon, so I wouldn't dismiss black only because of ratehr meh rares (though to be honest I would LOVE to open an Urborg, since I can use it for at least one of my constructed decks :P).
But I agree with JRE47 that despite having far the best promo, black rares mostly aren't that exiting for limited (the only thing he forgot that you could probably open another copy of your promo, which would be awesome for black ;))
I'm tempted to say white, though red looks tempting as well (and honestly, white/red aggro is going to be what I'm hoping for usually). White has plenty of answers as well as a promo that affects the game the minute it hits the board, regardless of disruption (as opposed to the black promo which, if killed or exiled immediately, won't do much, or the red promo which may kill walls but other than that actually has to survive to attack in order to affect the board). White has several answers, and its best answer can be essentially played for free. White has several efficient and evasive creatures. I've seen a few places where people rate white as the lowest and I just don't see it that way.
Here is how it looks to me.... although time will tell how accurate this is...
Blue has some good uncommons/commons but an awful promo (probably the worst one ever) and many bad rares. As such it is the worst pick... but a great supplemental color for whatever color you do pick potentially. I would NOT pick it as your color though as you are basically wasting your promo and the guaranteed on color rare by doing so. If you open the goods for blue... use them as a supplement to whatever color you did pick.
White has a decent promo... and the best overall rares... but seems to focus alot more on quantity than quality in its common/uncommon creatures... with lots of token generators etc. I think choosing white will give you a consistently good pool... but likely not the best pool at your prerelease (but you could still easily win by playing better)
Green has the bigger dudes as usual... no surprise... Not a huge fan of it's promo though (very slow) and some of its rares are meh. Green seems like it wants to go for the long game... but I think it will have a tough time getting past red aggro decks as red looks strong this time around... so I'd put green in the middle of the pack
Black has the best promo... but a wide spread at rare... some are good and some are baaaaaad. I think the best black pull is going to be very strong (esp splashing red or blue)... but the majority of pools will be tough. Not a safe pick in my mind but it will net some of the best decks at the prerelease for people who get the support in the packs (stab wounds, the better black rares, etc).
Red is a beast this time around. The 2nd best promo... lots of removal... good rares (minus one) and very aggressive creatures. I think red aggro is the best deck this time around (and I don't even normally play red. I'm usually going white or blue).
So... I'd say
1. Red
2. White
3. Green
4. Black
5. Blue
although Green and White are very close. Black will situationally be amazing but overall will be a weaker color.
Not only does Red have some of the best cards in each of the rarity slots, it all comes together to form an explosive midrange deck with some nasty teeth. I'll be picking Red and hoping for some green ramp or white support. There's just few ways to go wrong with the red possibilities. I mean, yeah, playing Crucible is probably always wrong, and Agressive mining is only going to be useful late game, but I mean, Generator Servant into Siege Dragon is wicked.
Did you analyze that by yourself or did you just read PVDDR's article today and presented his evaluation as your own lol.
I did my own evaluation originally but I did read his article before posting this and it did sway me a little. For example... he seems more down on black than I am (I think the good black pulls might be the best overall with that promo backing them up)... and I missed that the blue promo only targeted your creature so I was slightly higher on blue before that. I also meant aggressive mining when I said one bad red rare... but reading his article crucible is also bad... so there should be 2 bad red rares.
Still I do agree with him mostly and he is far better at this stuff than I am.
EDIT: there have also been plenty of times I didn't agree with his assessment... (likely to my own detriment)... but in the end it's about playing what you think will be fun or is best! For example... in RTR I really liked Rakdos and Selesneya (went with Rakdos)... but PV liked Azorius. I know that's a while back but that is one that stuck out in my mind alot since I played RTR alot more than most sets... it was also interesting since everyone seemed so high on Golgari at the time. Man I miss RTR... what a fun set.
Since the set was completely spoiled, I think I've completely 180'd on my picks for the weekend.
Initially I was on the Black train because of its promo, but the creatures just don't seem to be there for me. I'd love to get the 4R: Deal 2 damage Skelton Knight dude, though... he seems like a bomb in himself. But Stabwound at uncommon is going to be rough for black, and the 5 cmc removal spell seems like a lot when a lot of the set is smaller creatures. Lastly, it's best cards cause life loss for the player -- Ulcerate, Sign in Blood, the jump Vampire, Necrogen Scudder, something else I think -- and that's not irrelevant.
Picking red will give you a great shot at having probably two Incinerates in your deck to deal with the Indulgent Tormentor (black promo). All its removal blasts him and green can Plummet him or block it with the Spider (not ideal though, because they can just sit there and bleed you). Poor white has no way to deal with him past the O-Ring Sliver if they want to play around Devouring Light and just not attack.
I've come around most on GREEN. It's an odd set because it has a lot of small creatures, but doesn't appear like it's going to be super fast. I think all of Green's creatures are just going to boss the battlefield. The 2/3 with Convoke that drops a +1/+1 counter seems like he'll be solid, the Rhino is good and Elvish Mystic can get your off to some dream starts.
I initially thought Phytotitan was just horrible, but slow as he is, he's always coming back and they're going to have to keep handling him. The green Paragon makes him much better with trample, too. Green does look a little slow, but if you can get behind its 2-drop wall or the Spider, I think you'll be OK once Siege Wurms and Rhinos start dropping. I kind of want to play the 2G Fertile Land aura that gains you two life when it comes into play and go T1: Mystic, T2: Enchant Land, Turn 3 Rhino. Maybe I'm just stupid, because I know no one is giving that Fertile Land aura any credit, but it'll let you splash a bomb perhaps and the 2 life gain probably makes up for not dropping a blocker that turn.
I'm either going to pick Red or Green and hope to play RG or GU or GB. I just really like Frost Lynx a lot (art and abilities) and think blue is a good complement to green with cards like the Lynx and Divination to provide gas. I think Red/Green is the real dream with the King Kird Ape online and Incinerating your own Hornet's Nest when they swing with their whole army.
Thing about phytotitan is it comes back into play on your upkeep tapped... So if it dies it is not coming back really for 2 turns... And it only has 2 toughness and no evasion so it dies to a lot... Giving it trample does help a lot but I generally don't like cards that need a combo to be good... Phytotitan is borderline good on its own and becomes a bomb the longer a game goes. It will be interesting to test out in limited!
Verdant haven is excellent though in limited... especially since there is no land destruction in this set... Even then most people don't run LD anyway. Looks like you will be going green though as you like it paired with most colors. Should be a solid option. Good luck!
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Of course, it's hard to accurately say until we've put the cards to play, felt out the environment's pace, etc., but I'm just curious what you guys are predicting, largely based on the commons and uncommons of the colors.
Sound off! (And happy Fourth, everybody!)
EDIT: And hey, if you want to bag on what you think is the worst color, go for it!
G Daniel Gelon Craw Wurm Count: 759
R It's Lightning Helix!!
EDH Decks
UWB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic's spring of life
RUG Animar, Soul of the Elements and friends... lots of them
WBG Karador king of two worlds (value and attrition)
WRKalemne's Angels
BRUG Yidris's Wild Party
UWBR Breya's Terrifying Tinker Toys
UBR The Pretender
I think I will pick B or W, and go for GW UB GB or UW. Red its for me, the last choice this time.
You can use your promo card in your deck, correct? But when do I choose my "faction pack"? At the beginning of the tournament or after I bust my packs, and what comes in that pack?
I agree, I think the black promo is the best. Five-power flier for five with built in card advantage (unless the opponent wants a strong disadvantage otherwise) is great. Phytotitan seems quiet weak. I think the white Angel is good if you know you can get the mana. You put the game into a racing state of attacking back and forth without worrying about blocking, and then drop her when you're inside 5 life or so... Seems risky, but strong. Siege Dragon is good too, but pricy and the Wall ability is probably irrelevant.
I didn't see anything overwhelming from white at a glance -- past Serra Angel, which is the case with black and Sengir, for me -- but I like Blue and Green.
G Daniel Gelon Craw Wurm Count: 759
R It's Lightning Helix!!
I think you choose the color when you sign up for the prerelease if nothing has changed since Theros block. I don't think there is a seeded pack as well; just 6 boosters of M15. If that's the case, it's basically the luck (or no luck) of the draw. If you pick black as your color, you might be unfortunate enough to open a terrible black pool and be forced into other colors entirely. It happened to me in the Journey into Nyx prerelease. I picked green and even with the seeded pack, my green pool was absolute trash. I ended up going Izzet colors instead, which meant the promo and seeded pack were pretty much useless.
I think black has the best promo, but just glancing through the rest of the color looks pretty meh to me. Black's spot removal is rather poor. White actually has some decent options brought over from Theros block. Oreskos Swiftclaw is a very aggressive card especially if your opponent doesn't have a two or three drop to respond. Oppressive Rays makes your opponent choose between getting in damage or playing spells in the early game. The white promo is probably the second best promo as well. If both your opponent and you are low on life, the angel might put racing in your favor especially if your opponent has smaller creatures that need to attack into the angel.
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My 540 Card Cube (WIP)
Foundry Street Denizen
Frenzied Goblin
Altac Bloodseeker
Borderland Marauder
Generator Servant
Torch Fiend
Goblin Roughrider
Krenko’s Enforcer
Inferno Fist
Lightning Strike
Soulmender
Wall of Limbs
Eternal Thirst
Child of Night
Red has fast dudes, and a lot of removal in all rarities. Most of them can even go to the face, and you even have ramp at common to cast your Promo Dragon...
As I said I haven't done a pre-release involving the "color packs", so I'm finding it interesting looking ahead how that affects your deck before you even really begin. I guess if black does seem to be weak, yet the promo is best, there's an argument to not go that route. Of course, a promo could be Grave Titan and you still may not end up playing it because your black pool is so weak.
That was kind of my whole intention behind this thread — figuring out where the best balance of risk would lie when factoring the card pool of a color and its promo. Then again, you'll almost always be two colors, so if you figure you can get seven black playable or so including your big Demon, it's still probably a safe bet — and of course that works for any color.
G Daniel Gelon Craw Wurm Count: 759
R It's Lightning Helix!!
Quotes:
1. Green
2. Black
3. Red
4. Blue
5. White
Black is the most fragile color in the sense it has a harder time "comboing with itself", so I would avoid picking black as first color.
The other four colors all looks pretty good to be a first pick and i feel like only play testing will tell which one is the best blind pick. I will go with blue just because I"m excited about the UR artifacts deck and the UG primadox one.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
As awesome as the black promo is, look at the rest of black's rares:
Cruel Sadist - Perhaps the best you can hope for, but awfully slow.
Ob Nixilis, Unshackled - Certainly playable, but that first ability is never going to be relevant, and the second isn't all that great with black's lighter-than-normal removal suite.
In Garruk's Wake - Fantastic finisher in the late game, but slooooooooow. If aggro is a thing in this format (and it looks likely), you'll be dead long before you can cast this.
Necromancer's Stockpile - I don't think discarding creatures is something you're going to want to do too often in Limited.
Stain the Mind - Considering the only cards they're likely to have multiple copies of are filler anyway, this will at best be an occasional method to get rid of their bomb before it hits. But even in that role, it's most likely only something you bring in from Game 2 on, and it's a hit-or-miss race to draw it before they get to play said bomb. Ick.
Waste Not - Waste not your time unless you luck into a couple of Mind Rots, because there's not much discard in M15.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (included since it seems to count as one of black's rares) - Not playable in Limited. It just isn't.
I guess I may as well go through the rest while I'm at it....
GREEN:
Chord of Calling - Oh yes please!
Hornet Nest/Hornet Queen - I'll gladly take either and not look back.
Genesis Hydra - Late game bomb, no question, and can even be a good middle-game card if your deck is chock full of creatures.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard - Could work...certainly a much better shot in Sealed than Draft. Playable.
Kalonian Twingrove - Going to try hard to go mono green with this as my rare. Much more predictable in Sealed than in Draft, but easy to build around in either.
Life's Legacy - Good break-glass-in-case-of-emergency card. Probably the weakest of green's rares, but not a weak card.
BLUE:
Polymorphist’s Jest - Blowout! Swing in with your army and eliminate any creature foolish enough to block. All for only 3 CMC. What's not to love?
Stormtide Leviathan - The very definition of game-ending bomb. Expensive for sure, but if you untap with him in play, it's practically game over.
Ætherspouts - Potential game ender. Seriously. Zap their army and then swing with yours. Wary players won't be caught napping though, especially in Game 2.
Chasm Skulker - Lots of good card draw in M15 (seriously, Divination AND Jace’s Ingenuity?), but even without any extra help, this is certainly playable.
Master of Predicaments - Certainly playable for stats alone, and the ability, while a bit random, can be very powerful.
Jalira, Master Polymorphist - Again, creatures are usually at somewhat of a premium in Limited, so you don't want to be saccing them too often. Decent if you can get some blue (or white) token generators around her, but even then you could end up with that filler common creature as a replacement and feel gyped. Not the rare I'd want to pull.
Chief Engineer - Eeeeeehhhh. Only a couple artifacts that really need the help. His 1/3 stats for only 2 CMC make him playable, but his ability will leave the majority of players wanting much, much more for their build-around rare.
RED:
Burning Anger - Fall of the Hammer may have been my favorite Limited card in Theros block. Yes, this is a rare vs a common, and much more expensive, but the effect is just fantastic. I'd be quite happy to pull this.
Goblin Rabblemaster - Not bad, not bad. Gives you persistent tokens, which can result in all sorts of fun, and gets in for some good damage if sprung at the right time. He's playable.
Hoarding Dragon - Yeah, he's playable too. The stats alone demand it. But I don't think his artifact ability is going to matter most games.
Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient - Not a bad card, but very few artifacts that he can work with in M15, and most are uncommon or rare. Again, playable based more on cost-to-stats ratio than his ability, but much less so than Hoarding Dragon.
Goblin Kaboomist - If you can find a way to boost his toughness, he's fantastic. Without? I'd play him, but have a pit in my stomach the whole time, which I suppose is the point!
Crucible of Fire - Requires mostly other rares to be useful. Yes, it combos with the red promo, but even then it's just a "win more" card. Not really what you want to get in Limited.
Aggressive Mining - Probably the last rare I'd want to pull; especially in Sealed, I would feel completely robbed. Why must red always be bogged down with a random, useless rare like this?!
WHITE:
Spirit Bonds - So I hear having more creatures in Limited is a good thing. I also hear having lots of flying creatures is powerful in Limited as well. I'd be ecstatic to have this as my rare pull.
Avacyn, Guardian Angel - Yes, please! Helps you shrug off the few removal spells likely to come your way, and a flying 5/4 with vigilance for 5 CMC is promo-worthy. I'd be delighted to get her.
Preeminent Captain - First strike is really scarce in M15, so that alone makes him a great creature. The fact that many of white's creatures are Soldiers and can be dropped for free is just gravy.
Spectra Ward - A tad expensive, but practically game-winning in a couple turns. Very, very little that can stop a creature enchanted with this.
Return to the Ranks - With relatively light removal in M15 Limited, this won't be nearly as impacted as in Constructed play, but it certainly still has a place. Definately playable.
Mass Calcify - Two turns faster than In Garruk's Wake, and can potentially hit your own creatures if you're not going mono white. That makes it better in Sealed--where I'd say it's perhaps even worth mainboarding--than Draft.
Hushwing Gryff - Has uses, but much less powerful in Limited than in Constructed. Also directly conflicts with the white promo and a lot of other white cards...more than any other color except green, actually. So while a flash flying creature is always nice, this could also inadvertently shut down some of your own cards. Ick.
So, while other have debated the power of commons, uncommons, and the promos in the set, based on the non-promo rares alone, I think white and green are far above the rest. There are no rares that I would consider unusable in Limited.
Red is next, though there's a couple rares (Crucible of Fire and especially Aggressive Mining) I'd be unhappy with and probably couldn't even use.
Next is blue, which also has some lackluster or downright unusable rares, but blowout potential with the others.
Black brings up the distant rear. Outside of Cruel Sadist and Ob Nixilis, I can't see victory in Limited on the backs of any of their rares.\
Conversely, I think black has the best promo by a mile, then white, red, green, and the terribad blue Mercurial Pretender. With all that in mind (plus the fact that I think the color has above-average commons and uncommons), I think white is the best choice for prerelease. (And I'll just pray for no Hushwing Gryff, who's playable but certainly the weakest rare.) Best chance for consistently good cards and a good build-around rare in addition to the promo. If I can't get white, I think green is a close second.
Just my two bits....
I think it's black. The set looks very thin on answers and black and red have the most. Also, the set's creatures are a bit lackluster. At C or UC, there aren't too many bomby creatures (like Serra Angel) or spells (like Mind control). This leads me to believe that this format is going to either be dictated on bomb rares opened or deck archetypes with lots of synergy. Outside of the durdly creatures, black is essentially tied with blue and white for evasive creatures (2 of blue's flying creatures need help to be cast or have flying).
On its own, Black looks solid. If every deck was monocolored, I think black would dominate. What I'm paying attention to while learning to draft this set is how important being in an archetype is and what cards are relevant to them. Archetypes I'm paying close attention to is UR artifacts, UG bounce, BW lifegain, Wx tokens along with all the typical aggro and control color pairings (UW flyers, RB Aggro, etc.)
But I agree with JRE47 that despite having far the best promo, black rares mostly aren't that exiting for limited (the only thing he forgot that you could probably open another copy of your promo, which would be awesome for black ;))
My custom sets:
Caeia Block (Released - Beta)
Generals of Dareth (In Design)
Blue has some good uncommons/commons but an awful promo (probably the worst one ever) and many bad rares. As such it is the worst pick... but a great supplemental color for whatever color you do pick potentially. I would NOT pick it as your color though as you are basically wasting your promo and the guaranteed on color rare by doing so. If you open the goods for blue... use them as a supplement to whatever color you did pick.
White has a decent promo... and the best overall rares... but seems to focus alot more on quantity than quality in its common/uncommon creatures... with lots of token generators etc. I think choosing white will give you a consistently good pool... but likely not the best pool at your prerelease (but you could still easily win by playing better)
Green has the bigger dudes as usual... no surprise... Not a huge fan of it's promo though (very slow) and some of its rares are meh. Green seems like it wants to go for the long game... but I think it will have a tough time getting past red aggro decks as red looks strong this time around... so I'd put green in the middle of the pack
Black has the best promo... but a wide spread at rare... some are good and some are baaaaaad. I think the best black pull is going to be very strong (esp splashing red or blue)... but the majority of pools will be tough. Not a safe pick in my mind but it will net some of the best decks at the prerelease for people who get the support in the packs (stab wounds, the better black rares, etc).
Red is a beast this time around. The 2nd best promo... lots of removal... good rares (minus one) and very aggressive creatures. I think red aggro is the best deck this time around (and I don't even normally play red. I'm usually going white or blue).
So... I'd say
1. Red
2. White
3. Green
4. Black
5. Blue
although Green and White are very close. Black will situationally be amazing but overall will be a weaker color.
I did my own evaluation originally but I did read his article before posting this and it did sway me a little. For example... he seems more down on black than I am (I think the good black pulls might be the best overall with that promo backing them up)... and I missed that the blue promo only targeted your creature so I was slightly higher on blue before that. I also meant aggressive mining when I said one bad red rare... but reading his article crucible is also bad... so there should be 2 bad red rares.
Still I do agree with him mostly and he is far better at this stuff than I am.
EDIT: there have also been plenty of times I didn't agree with his assessment... (likely to my own detriment)... but in the end it's about playing what you think will be fun or is best! For example... in RTR I really liked Rakdos and Selesneya (went with Rakdos)... but PV liked Azorius. I know that's a while back but that is one that stuck out in my mind alot since I played RTR alot more than most sets... it was also interesting since everyone seemed so high on Golgari at the time. Man I miss RTR... what a fun set.
Nothing
Modern:
Cruel Control, UR Delver, RUG midrange, Akroma's Elfmorial
EDH:
Animar, Chainer, Derevi the Stonehewer Mystic, Nekusar
Initially I was on the Black train because of its promo, but the creatures just don't seem to be there for me. I'd love to get the 4R: Deal 2 damage Skelton Knight dude, though... he seems like a bomb in himself. But Stabwound at uncommon is going to be rough for black, and the 5 cmc removal spell seems like a lot when a lot of the set is smaller creatures. Lastly, it's best cards cause life loss for the player -- Ulcerate, Sign in Blood, the jump Vampire, Necrogen Scudder, something else I think -- and that's not irrelevant.
Picking red will give you a great shot at having probably two Incinerates in your deck to deal with the Indulgent Tormentor (black promo). All its removal blasts him and green can Plummet him or block it with the Spider (not ideal though, because they can just sit there and bleed you). Poor white has no way to deal with him past the O-Ring Sliver if they want to play around Devouring Light and just not attack.
I've come around most on GREEN. It's an odd set because it has a lot of small creatures, but doesn't appear like it's going to be super fast. I think all of Green's creatures are just going to boss the battlefield. The 2/3 with Convoke that drops a +1/+1 counter seems like he'll be solid, the Rhino is good and Elvish Mystic can get your off to some dream starts.
I initially thought Phytotitan was just horrible, but slow as he is, he's always coming back and they're going to have to keep handling him. The green Paragon makes him much better with trample, too. Green does look a little slow, but if you can get behind its 2-drop wall or the Spider, I think you'll be OK once Siege Wurms and Rhinos start dropping. I kind of want to play the 2G Fertile Land aura that gains you two life when it comes into play and go T1: Mystic, T2: Enchant Land, Turn 3 Rhino. Maybe I'm just stupid, because I know no one is giving that Fertile Land aura any credit, but it'll let you splash a bomb perhaps and the 2 life gain probably makes up for not dropping a blocker that turn.
I'm either going to pick Red or Green and hope to play RG or GU or GB. I just really like Frost Lynx a lot (art and abilities) and think blue is a good complement to green with cards like the Lynx and Divination to provide gas. I think Red/Green is the real dream with the King Kird Ape online and Incinerating your own Hornet's Nest when they swing with their whole army.
G Daniel Gelon Craw Wurm Count: 759
R It's Lightning Helix!!
Verdant haven is excellent though in limited... especially since there is no land destruction in this set... Even then most people don't run LD anyway. Looks like you will be going green though as you like it paired with most colors. Should be a solid option. Good luck!