It's good in different situations than Odric, I don't agree that it's just straight up more powerful. Odric lets you play out all your stuff and get bonuses off of your own creatures, and he buffs your whole team. This card only buffs itself, and is only really good for winning against an opponent who plays a lot of cards with strong keyword abilities, otherwise it is a 5 mana 3/3. It's a lot more reactive and conditional than Odric which I think makes up for the difference in how strong it can be in a best-case scenario.
Odrix, Parasite Queen 3BB
Legendary Creature - Insect (m)
At the beginning of each combat, if your opponents control any creatures with flying, those creatures lose flying until end of turn and Odrix gains flying until end of turn. The same is true for first strike, double strike, deathtouch, haste, hexproof, indestructible, lifelink, menace, reach, trample, and vigilance. Odrix gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each creature that lost any abilities this way.
3/3
Better than Expected: Bloodfire Expert- In Jeskai. This is Jeskai's Alpine Grizzly, a creature that trades well or combines well with removal to get some real damage in. Jeskai doesn't have many better options for hitting hard early. Disdainful Stroke - it doesn't hit morphs, but it hits a lot of bombs. Probably not as good in Draft as Sealed. Mystic of the Hidden Way - Board stalls are common, and this guy ends them. Woolly Loxodon - Wins all morph combat.
Worse than expected: Bitter Revelation - This was in a Sultai deck. I felt like I had enough three mana options for filling up my graveyard, and it competes directly with Treasure Cruise, which I think is a much much better card. Rakshasa's Secret - Mind Rot is a lot worse in a set that is slow and people hold onto cards in their hands longer.
I played Temur and I felt like I could deal with anything short of a huge bomb, which was nice. You get huge fat creatures, good tempo plays, and burn. Abzan does have a lot of removal but the Outlast creatures are SO slow and get hosed really bad by bounce. Abzan Charm is ridiculous though, easily the best one, since it just says "exile target creature."
Jeskai Charm
I think people are seriously undervaluing the last mode of this card. Realistically, the other Charms will usually be 1-for-1 removal, but thanks to Prowess, Jeskai Charm is secretly a 3 mana instant Overrun. In the ranking of charms I've seen so far, Jeskai is usually listed as number 4 or 5 but it does something huge that none of the other charms can do. So load up on prowess, play this card, win easily.
A general piece of advice for drafting Khans: At a draft table there are 8 people. There are 5 clans. That means unless the packs are way out of balance or the drafters are bad, that 3 clans will have 2 people drafting them and 2 clans will have 1 person drafting them. Try to be one of those two people drafting a clan that no one else is.
Yeah Abzan looks insanely powerful and not beatable, just as a BW deck splashing green. I see why Outlast as a mechanic is as powered-down as it is.
This Limited format looks like it is going to be pretty great and reward decks built around synergies, not just raw card power (though there is plenty of that.) I'm still pretty skeptical that Jeskai or Temur will be able to beat an Abzan or Sultai deck, but there are still a lot of cards to be revealed.
I wonder if by Eggs MaRo means that Sultai will have a bunch of "cycle from play" cards: cards that you sacrifice to draw a card and get a minor effect. Or maybe they'll just reprint that cycle of Eggs.
This card is first-pickable in Limited, this isn't Zendikar where you need to remove a 1 or 2 toughness creature or else get for like 6 by it. "Toughness 3 or greater" is barely a restriction, it just makes it harder to clear out chumpblockers, which I am okay with. I want this set to be slow and grindy, with 5 color goodstuff decks being entirely possible.
Transguild Courier at uncommon would have been really cool to add synergy to artifact decks and convoke for any color.
Or something that deals with triplicate spirits/fliers better. Windstorm, infest, pyroclasm. Just something to punish white weenie a little bit more so it wasn't the default best choice. Or they could have done Illness in the Ranks and really hated on it. Or an artifact like One-Eyed Scarecrow.
Most 6 drops should win you the game and be hard to kill. Silverback is harder to deal with than most nonrares (but still not impossible), but if it's getting chumpblocked it doesn't win you the game any faster than any other 6 drop. Most decks want 1-4 high cost creatures to top off the curve, and Silverback is one of the better nonrare ones. It doesn't mean you should play 6 of them, but it does have a slight edge over most cards that are similar to it.
I think Silverback's biggest competitor for space in a deck is Siege Wurm. I would rather run 1 of each than 2 of either one. It's good to have a variety of threats, since there will be some decks that can deal with Wurm but not Silverback (by killing it with damage) and there will be some decks that can deal with Silverback but not Wurm (by chumblocking it with little creatures).
Legendary Creature - Insect (m)
At the beginning of each combat, if your opponents control any creatures with flying, those creatures lose flying until end of turn and Odrix gains flying until end of turn. The same is true for first strike, double strike, deathtouch, haste, hexproof, indestructible, lifelink, menace, reach, trample, and vigilance. Odrix gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each creature that lost any abilities this way.
3/3
Bloodfire Expert- In Jeskai. This is Jeskai's Alpine Grizzly, a creature that trades well or combines well with removal to get some real damage in. Jeskai doesn't have many better options for hitting hard early.
Disdainful Stroke - it doesn't hit morphs, but it hits a lot of bombs. Probably not as good in Draft as Sealed.
Mystic of the Hidden Way - Board stalls are common, and this guy ends them.
Woolly Loxodon - Wins all morph combat.
Worse than expected:
Bitter Revelation - This was in a Sultai deck. I felt like I had enough three mana options for filling up my graveyard, and it competes directly with Treasure Cruise, which I think is a much much better card.
Rakshasa's Secret - Mind Rot is a lot worse in a set that is slow and people hold onto cards in their hands longer.
I think people are seriously undervaluing the last mode of this card. Realistically, the other Charms will usually be 1-for-1 removal, but thanks to Prowess, Jeskai Charm is secretly a 3 mana instant Overrun. In the ranking of charms I've seen so far, Jeskai is usually listed as number 4 or 5 but it does something huge that none of the other charms can do. So load up on prowess, play this card, win easily.
Skulltorch Hunter should cost 1 less: Rotting Fensnake, Incurable Ogre
I don't think they do Gravedigger at common anymore, unfortunately.
I like Horned Turtle with Lifelink.
The rest seem like fine commons.
I'm going to try to stick to Wedge-colored comboes. Some things that stand out to me:
Archer's Parapet or Dragon's Eye Savants + Kin-Tree Invocation
Crippling Chill + Prowess seems good.
Mardu Blazebringer + ferocious is good.
Roar of Challenge + Awaken the Bear or something with deathtouch.
Heart-Piercer Bow + Heart-Piercer Bow
This Limited format looks like it is going to be pretty great and reward decks built around synergies, not just raw card power (though there is plenty of that.) I'm still pretty skeptical that Jeskai or Temur will be able to beat an Abzan or Sultai deck, but there are still a lot of cards to be revealed.
Or something that deals with triplicate spirits/fliers better. Windstorm, infest, pyroclasm. Just something to punish white weenie a little bit more so it wasn't the default best choice. Or they could have done Illness in the Ranks and really hated on it. Or an artifact like One-Eyed Scarecrow.
I think Silverback's biggest competitor for space in a deck is Siege Wurm. I would rather run 1 of each than 2 of either one. It's good to have a variety of threats, since there will be some decks that can deal with Wurm but not Silverback (by killing it with damage) and there will be some decks that can deal with Silverback but not Wurm (by chumblocking it with little creatures).