MTG Salvation

Allies: The Allies in this set are aggressively slanted and tend to have very little defensive value due to the nature of Rally. While I recognize that there's a small number of cards that can generate them at instant-speed by and large they're anemic threats on your opponents' turns. In a duel setting this isn't usually going to be a serious concern but in a multiplayer setting it worries me greatly. Moreover, none of the cards struck me as being especially pushed and I personally don't foresee the Ally deck/strategy being especially competitive. As such you won't see me covering many of the Ally cards in this set review. I'm sure that people will use Allies (both old and new) to build fun and interesting decks but from a competitive standpoint I don't feel especially compelled to analyze the tribe and its long-term impact on the multiplayer sphere. I'm just not expecting it to be a significant player. Beyond that I just don't see the value in stating things like "Munda, Ambush Leader, March from the Tomb and Ally Encampment are good in Ally decks." No kidding dude. I'm just not going to bother rating the Allies because I think they're all terrible Magic cards.

Eldrazi: When it comes to keywords such as Devoid and Ingest I'm not going to assign much value to them. They're interesting bonuses (well, Ingest is at least) but not inherent reasons to play with the cards. Moreover, most Eldrazi have cast triggers which makes them resilient to Counterspells but weak Reanimate targets. I'm not going to state that each and every time I analyze one so consider this the blanket statement that covers all of them. Beyond that I'll tress that processors such as Blight Herder do have very real drawbacks but a the same time cards like Bojuka Bog, Scavenging Ooze and Return to Dust help to ensure that it's substantially mitigated in Constructed formats.

Awaken: Random evasionless dorks don't have much value in lategame multiplayer situations. Additional blockers never hurt but at the same time an additional 4/4 isn't going to dramatically improve your relative board position. As such this isn't a mechanic that particularly interests me. Don't expect to see me assign much value to it.

Landfall: Multiplayer games tend to run long and feature decks that have higher land counts to support higher quality cards. As a result Landfall tends to over-perform within the sphere and you can expect my ratings to reflect that.

Converge: Converge, for the purposes of BfZ, is basically a joke keyword. Virtually every card with the keyword has strictly better counterparts in the sense that they always provide the maximum effect at no additional cost. See Radiant Flames vs Slagstorm or Exert Influence vs Mind Control. While the mechanic isn't inherently good or bad it's implementation was horrendous so don't expect to see much in the way of favorable reviews. It's a trash mechanic that isn't worth your time.

Bane of Bala Ged: I think that most 5+ CMC threats that die to removal at no benefit and that provide people with heavy incentives to remove them are unplayable pieces of trash. BoBG is no exception. Some exceptions exist (think Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur) but by and large you won't catch me playing with these kinds of cards in my lists. One thing that I need to stress is that the Exile trigger is basically just a drawback in my mind. Just compare this card to Shivan Dragon for example. It's not a playable Magic card or anything but at the very least no one is going to kill it until it becomes a problem. That is, if I'm holding a Doom Blade I have no incentive to kill the Dragon until it's attacking me. Until then it could easily be used to defeat my adversaries for me or even bait my opponent into using a ton of mana for nothing. Either way I'm going to wait until the last second to deal with it because I can easily afford to wait. The problem (yes, problem) with cards like Bane of Bala Ged is that anyone with removal is priced-in to using it before it becomes a threat. Once it's declared as an attacker it's too late to stop the trigger and so people have a lot of incentive to axe the thing beforehand. Given that it's otherwise just a dorky 7 drop with no ETB/dies trigger I really don't think that it's a playable Magic card. Even in the Urzatron decks that frequently produce 7 mana on turn 3 I still just expect this thing to die for no value. As such I personally think that it's trash tier and don't recommend fielding it.

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D[/b]

Blight Herder: Despite the fact that this card has a relatively high setup cost the payoff is definitely there. The problem with cards like Cloudgoat Ranger is that they don't actually win multiplayer games of Magic. A variation that swarms the board and ramps you towards your game-enders that can is very appealing in that sense because it stabilizes you early on but also helps to secure the lategame. This isn't a "must have" by any means but insofar as your deck is playing cards like Withered Wretch, Scavenging Ooze, Return to Dust, etc. this is certainly a passable 5 drop. Bluntly put I'm not exactly sure why I like this card, I probably shouldn't, but something about a 7/8 across 4 bodies for 5 that also Black Lotuses you into your game-ending bombs sounds powerful to me. The fact that it's conditional means that it'll probably never see play in super serious competitive decks but I mean I generally play Bojuka Bogs and Withered Wretched in my Black decks anyways and insofar as you're reliably meeting the condition the card seems fine. It's not Primeval Titan or anything but it's still a creature that can generate a fairly large amount of extra mana and that's certainly going to enable some busted sequences a reasonable % of the time.

Constructed Grade [b]C-[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

Conduit of Ruin: Anything that tutors and ramps piques my interest for EDH and as far as Constructed is concerned there are plenty of Urzatron/Cloudpost decks that are always on the lookout for new, powerful additions to their roster. Unfortunately the body is rather anemic and "top of deck" tutoring is many orders of magnitude weaker than its "to hand" counterpart which leaves me skeptical that this card will do much work outside of EDH. People have a lot of incentive to remove this thing and it doesn't actually generate card advantage so running it out as your first real play doesn't seem especially competitive to me. It's obviously great if it survives, it's extremely easy to curve this into a big Eldrazi, but most people should see that coming from a mile away so I wouldn't get too greedy with the tutor trigger if you can help it. All-in-all I think that this card looks a lot better than it'll play out so I don't expect to see it much outside of combo decks like Animar, Soul of Elements in EDH that can really "go off" with tutors and ramp. You can obviously play it in most EDH decks (insofar as you have some powerful things to nab with it) but please don't fool yourself into thinking that this is a bomb in the format or anything. Paying 6 mana to Vampiric Tutor for a small subset of threats is extremely marginal and because it's a cast trigger you can't even find things like Artisan of Kozilek to propagate some sort of chain. I want to stress that it's certainly a playable card but not one that you should necessarily get excited over.

Constructed Grade [b]C-[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]C[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

Oblivion Sower: This is my favorite Eldrazi in the set and it's not particularly close. As-is it does a decent Primeval Titan impersonation and that's before you take into account the fact that cards like Bojuka Bog, Deathrite Shaman, Scavenging Ooze, Withered Wretch, etc. are all things that you probably want to be running in your MP lists anyways. It's extremely easy to build your decks in such a way that you'll routinely be jamming ~3 lands into play with this thing and that just seems absurd to me. Now, the fact that you can't Reanimate this thing is obviously unfortunate but at the same time it does improve the overall health of the game. The problem with cards like Sylvan Primordial is that as soon as someone plays one every Clone and Reanimate effect will be headed towards it because it's just the best possible thing to be doing at all times. Sower is "fixed" in the sense that you have to cast it "the fair way" for 6 mana and from then on you can't just copy/recur the thing to oblivion. This means that you can actually plays games of Magic as opposed to having matches end as soon as the first "ramp fatty" hits the field. What I love most about this card is that you can blindly jam it in any deck as a pseudo-Primeval Titan and a very large % of the time you'll just get 2 lands and a big body. It's obviously at its best in decks that do have some forms of exile but I personally think that you can still run this thing "as is." Now, the one caveat is that these kinds of cards tend to fare better in "competitive" metas than they do in overly casual ones. This is because newer players don't always own Fetchlands and they often cheat on lands in their lists which reduces the likelihood of thing hitting ~2 lands. I don't want to bore you with too much math but at 25 lands you have ~36.6% probability of hitting 2 or more lands but 20 lands you only have a ~40% probability. In metas devoid of Fetchlands filled with decks "cheating" on lands the card is only "powerful" 40% of the time which isn't mind-blowing by any means. It's a rather anemic threat if you're just getting 1 land off of the trigger so you do have to be somewhat mindful about when and where to field the thing. Still, again, I need to stress is that there's no opportunity cost to playing a card like Scavenging Ooze in a multiplayer setting to begin with so as long as you're already playing with exile effects this is a completely absurd Magic card.

Constructed Grade [b]A-[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]B+[/b]

Cube Grade [b]B[/b]

Scour from Existence: To anyone wondering if 1-2 color decks will play this thing the answer is a resounding "no." I'd love to be able to remove Enchantments in Black decks as much as the next guy but 7 mana is just way too high of a price to pay to remove a single threat from a single opponent. Even in formats like EDH I just wouldn't add this to my deck "as an out to Iona, Shield of Emeria/Humility" or whatever because that doesn't feel like a winning line to me. All is Dust is reasonably affordable and way more powerful so I'll personally stick to running that in my lists for the time being.

Constructed Grade [b]D-[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D-[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D-[/b]

Titan's Presence: This card is way too over-hyped and I can guarantee you that it's significantly weaker than it seems. Decks like mono-Blue Tron can consider running 1, MAYBE 2, but to anyone out there who thinks that they'll be slamming 4 of these in those lists you are very much mistaken my friend. 3 mana spot removal with multiple conditions is as marginal as it gets so please don't start thinking about this as some Swords to Plowshares "savior" for colors that lack hard removal. It's a marginal playable at best and even the best decks for it will only run a small number of copies.

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger: In Cube he seems like an extremely busted Renimator target but at the same time I won't be adding him to my own. Much like Sword of Body and Mind he'll just create too many "non-games" where some of the players die on the 4th-5th turn because they ate 1-2 attacks from a threat that promptly milled them out of the game. Trust me when I say that no one at the table wins when things like that happen. From a purely competitive standpoint he's God-tier but I personally recommend taking a pass on this one.

With respect to Constructed he's a 10 drop that doesn't immediately win the game so he's not going to see play outside of Reanimator (or possibly Oath of Druids) and Cloudpost/Tron decks. With respect to Reanimator he's definitely in top 5 best targets (at least in my opinion) and I'd happily field him myself. He's better at actually killing people than Griselbrand is and he's less vulnerable to removal than Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur is but realistically his average clock is still slower than either. I do, however, think that he's quite a bit better than Inkwell Leviathan even though I recognize the fact that he can be Swords to Plowsharesed, bounced, etc. It really just depends on your meta and the types of interaction (i.e. removal) being fielded by the other players. Either way the card seems fine in the archetype but he's certainly not going to revolutionize it like Griselbrand has. With respect to Tron/Post decks I think that he's generally worse than the old Eldrazi if for no other reason than his lack of Annihilator and anti-death clause (relevant for Eye of Ugin abuse and mill protection). Exiling cards is cool and all but you really do need at least 2 attacks to kill a player off whereas old Eldrazi generally only need 1. I do like his ETB trigger, nabbing 2 perms is sweet, but the cards fall flat otherwise. That being said I would still happily play the guy in most Post/Tron decks because he's definitely in the top 1% of big dumb idiots to ramp out.

Despite the hype surrounding this card I personally think that he's a bit overrated in EDH. he's fine because he's a huge threat who exiles multiple permanents and even though the "exile on attack" trigger is weaker in 100 card formats the singleton nature means that you'll randomly hose combos and such which is always sweet. Unfortunately the vanilla 10/10 body is relatively anemic for 10 mana and it takes way too many hits to actually mill someone out so he's definitely not a bomb or anything. Old Ulamog is significantly scarier in my mind because Annihilator is just so absurdly powerful. I know that this one can be Reanimated and such, that's cool and all, but I think that people are blowing his power-level out of proportion. Unlike Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur he can't be thwarted with most forms of spot removal but at the same time it takes millennium for this guy to actually clear a table out. He's simply not going to race degenerate combo/prison decks to a win given that he needs to hit players ~4 times each to seal the deal. Obviously if you're playing with an unfair deck and your opponent aren't then he'll probably do a lot of work but I mean what does that prove exactly? That good decks can beat bad ones? I'm pretty sure we all had that one figured out already. Still, I want to credit where it's due and this guy does bring something new to EDH. Before if you were playing a non-Blue deck you didn't always have a super powerful creature that you could just revive on turn 2 off of a natural discard, Faithless Looting, Entomb, etc. Most of your options were too weak, slow or vulnerable to removal but this new Ulamog is extremely difficult to remove once he sticks. His clock isn't insanely fast or anything but if your meta isn't riddled with Blue-based combo and/or Prison/Stax/Mana Denial he does in fact present a significant clock. That is, the more "fair" your meta is the more unfair this card becomes.

Constructed Grade [b]A[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]B[/b]

Cube Grade [b]B[/b]

Void Winnower: If this card isn't on your radar then let me assure you that it should be. Most people are dismissing it as being too weird, slow, unreliable, whatever but I can assure you that this is an extremely competitive Magic card. Stax strategies which seek to prevent your opponents from ever resolving spells is one of the most powerful multiplayer tactics that you can possibly employ. Any creature/artifact that reads "your opponents can't cast 50%+ of the spells in their deck" is definitely going to see play within them. Ignore the cost, ignore the body, ignore the block clause, you are playing this thing for one sentence and one sentence alone. Now, let me be clear, I understand that this card doesn't just win the game when it hits the field. That's not the point. I'm not telling you to play a generic ramp deck that tops out with this guy in the foolish hope that it'll seal the deal. No sir. I'm telling you to play this in a deck with cards like Winter Orb, Tangle Wire, Smokestack, Possessed Portal and Nullstone Gargoyle that're already making it extremely difficult for your opponents to play Magic. Black decks in particular are best suited to using these kinds of creatures because of its ability to recur them on the cheap. Your cards like Smallpox, Contamination, Necrogen Mists,  Death Cloud, Braids, Cabal Minion, Mindslicer, etc. are all fantastic at limiting your opponent's options at which point you can lean on things like Animate Dead and/or Necromancy to recur threats such as Void Winnower and Nullstone Gargoyle to seal the game up.

Constructed Grade [b]C[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]B[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

Emeria Shepherd: I'm sure that most players are aware of the Sakura-Tribe Elder combo by now and it only takes a sac outlet (say Altar of Dementia) for this to do silly things with cards like Kor Cartographer and/or Solemn Simulacrum. There's also cards like Prismatic Omen which, again, can lead to some rather absurd sequences involving this spicy little vixen. My problem with all of these combos is that they feel significantly slower and weaker than plain old Land Tax/Endless Horizons into Goblin Charbelcher so suffice it to say that I'm not sold on her just yet. While you arguably jam her in a Reanimator style deck given that the color already has bombs such as Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Iona, Shield of Emeria, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, etc. it's not as though it needed another one. A pseudo Sheoldred, Whispering One in White is "fine" but it already has that in Reya Dawnbringer. The problem with Emeria Shepher, which is the same problem that Reya has by the way, is that the card is too weak to cast "the fair way." She's virtually an 8 drop if you want to get immediate value from her (hint: you do) and, again, it's not as though her "combo kills" are any better than what the color can already muster. If you're just looking for a generic, value finisher it's tough to field her over Angel of Serenity if for no other reason than the fact the one is actually a 7 drop whereas the other is a phony. Bear in mind that I've basically ignored the fact that most decks (especially EDH lists) don't even have that many actual Plains in them to begin with and it's not as though mono-White is much of a thing. Even the 4/4 stats leave something to be desired but realistically that doesn't matter all that much. Avid EDH players should probably pick these up at some point but not until you're paying bottom dollar for them. I don't hate her in in the format but that's mostly because I see her as a decent card in Stax decks (think Hokori, Dust Drinker and Avacyn, Angel of Hope). She fuels cards like Smokestack and Possessed Portal insanely well, especially if you're constantly cycling a mana rock (such as Gilded Lotus) while hiding behind cards like Winter Orb and Tangle Wire. I'm not sold on playing her as much a combo/generic value finisher though.

Constructed Grade [b]C[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]C[/b]

Cube Grade [b]C[/b]

Felidar Sovereign: "You win the game" on a trivial condition? You don't have to twist my arm on this one. This one of the most criminally underplayed White cards in the game since it's basically a free shot to win games out of nowhere (especially in formats such as EDH). I get that MP Magic tends to be casual in nature and so these kinds of cards are frowned-upon but from a purely competitive perspective this is a card that you definitely want to have in your collection. As we'll soon see the Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant deck got a lot better with BfZ so I highly recommend grabbing these at some point. You don't have to ruin the game by slotting them in your go-to decks but if you're ever looking for cheap and easy wins then this is the perfect card for you. It only takes 1-2 White lifegain spells to put you well over 40 life (think Congrgate) and with Emeria, the Sky Ruin it's not as though 1-2 pieces of interaction are going to thwart your well-laid plans.

Constructed Grade [b]B[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]A[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D[/b]

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: This is a perfect example of 'Walker that has next-to-no value in an MP setting in my mind. Beating in for 5 doesn't interest me in the slightest and while I'm assuming that Ally lists will appreciate the 2/2 Token I'm not scrambling to jam that effect into most of my decks. The ultimate is arguable reasonable but I can't remember the last time that I've seen a "good deck" play Honor of the Pure so an indestructible version of the thing doesn't seem very appealing to me. It's not some game-ending effect that will grind the table out even if you manage to get multiples into play. Like most 'Walkers I expect him to see more play than he deserves and being in the Wrath of God color certainly helps but I'd still happily play against this guy any day of the week. He just doesn't have enough of an impact on the game to justify his inclusion into most decks.

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D[/b]

Planar Outburst: Wrath of God and Day of Judgment aren't so expensive that most players will be forced to play with these marginal 5 CMC alternatives but for players looking to field decks that're Standard/Modern legal you don't have much say in the matter. In EDH you have vastly superior options (think Hallowed Burial) but at the same time any Wrath is going to be playable so there's a relatively high floor on this type of effect. Cube is similar in the sense the best ones won't be able to find room for a card like this but at the same time it's probably going to cheap and easy to acquire which is usually more important than most other factors. This isn't a "must own" by any means, Tragic Arrogance from Magic Origins is a significantly more powerful card than this, but you can still feel decent about playing this spell in any multiplayer sphere.

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]C[/b]

Cube Grade [b]C[/b]

Quarantine Field: I think that Banishing Light is an incredibly overrated Magic card and this feels like a strictly worse version to me. That should give you a good idea on my opinion of it. I think that baseline card of "pay 4-6 to exile 2-3 things" is completely unplayable and I don't care if scales to 10+ mana some % of the time. Paying 4 mana to exile a single threat from a single opponent is just such a horrendous rate that I can't possibly envision myself playing with this thing. Even in Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx decks I'm just never going to field it over actual game-enders because this does not just end the game if you sink 12 mana into it. The only role that this card serves, in my mind, is that if you're able to generate infinite mana then you can use it to exile everyone's nonland perms. That's it. Don't buy-in to the hype surrounding this card because I can guarantee you that it's significantly weaker than people think.

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D[/b]

Retreat to Emeria: I can understand not wanting to play Luminarch Ascension in 100% of your White decks but even then things like Sacred Mesa and Mastery of the Unseen are probably going to significantly outperform something like this in the long-run. I get that Retreat is a "fire-and-forget" spell that doesn't require further investments but the problem with these kinds of cards is that they're best played early and very little value later on. Still, the 1/1s aren't going to accomplish much in a MP setting so unless you can somehow sit on a throng of them and go off with some Fetchlands I can't imagine actually closing a game out with this type of effect.

Constructed Grade [b]D-[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D-[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D-[/b]

Serene Steward: If you've overlooked this card go back and take another glance. The biggest weakness of most Soul Sister decks is that other than the 4x Ajani's Pridemate the deck doesn't have much access to affordable meat. Obviously in an ideal world we'd all have Serra Ascendants and Archangel of Thunes but those just aren't affordable cards for the masses. What I like this Steward is that she allows you to field another set of "big dumb bears" who, while weaker, are less vulnerable to removal. Those decks frequently play cards like Squadron Hawk and Spectral Procession so splitting the counters is definitely relevant. She's also cheap and a threat herself, unlike Cradle of Vitality, a card which is probably now obsolete. I won't BS you and act like having to pay W isn't significant, it's definitely a huge drawback compared to Ajani's Pridemate, but even then I still think that most budget versions of the deck are going to want some number of these to help them close games out. Finally, as I previously alluded to, this archetype was further "buffed" with the reprinting of Felidar Sovereign which further reduces its reliance on cards such as Serra Ascendant to close games out. A simple Emeria, the Sky Ruin + Sovereign recursion suite will probably get there eventually so as long as you have meaty blockers (such as Serene Steward) to buy some time you'll easily pick up some wins every now and then.

[spoiler=Soul Sisters]

[/spoiler]

Constructed Grade [b]C[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D[/b]

Stasis Snare:  I expect to see this card played more than it should but I'm personally not a big fan of marginal 1-for-1s. It doesn't have the same flexibility that Oblivion Ring/Banishing Light have (not that I'm a huge fan of those cards either mind you) nor the efficiency that Swords to Plowshares offers. On the plus side it's easier to cast than Unmake, it adds 2 Devotion for Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and being an Enchantment definitely matters when you have things like Eidolon of Blossoms in your 60. Still, the point of this entry (and the upcoming one for Ruinous Path) is to caution the reader that these kinds of removal effects lose a significant amount of value in multiplayer and to remind you to carefully consider whether or not it's in your best interest to include them. 3 mana to remove a single threat from a single opponent is a steep price to pay and decks that lack sufficient ways to generate card advantage will suffer if they field too many marginal effects such as that.

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D[/b]

Anticipate: Cards like Ponder, Preordain, Impulse and Anticipate are solid playables in every Blue deck in every format. Not only do they they smooth your draws and help you dig into the strongest cards in your deck but they also require absolutely no support in order to function optionally. They also offer additional minor benefits such as enabling Treasure Cruise and/or triggering Prowess but let's ignore that for the time being and stick to the basics. These cards are infinitely superior to alternatives such as Brainstorm (and Ponder to a lesser extent) if your deck doesn't have access to a critical mass of cheap shuffle effects such as Fetchlands and Tutors. Brainstorm, on its own, is a draw 1 for 1. That's completely unplayable and makes it one of the most overrated casual cards in the game. If you can use something like Fabricate to shuffle 2 useless lands/cards away with it then you have a worthwhile effect but if you're just drawing the same cards that you put back then you haven't significantly changed anything. Given that many players don't own all of the awesome Fetchlands and Tutors and given that you still should play with cheap cantrips I highly recommend acquiring things like Preordain and Anticipate that don't require any support in order to function. You can blindly jam them into any Blue deck of any format and consistently expect to get full value from your spell. Anticipate, at 2 mana, is clearly a step below something like Preordain but by no means does that make it terrible. A huge % of your decks won't have many 2 drops to begin with so the difference in mana isn't always that significant. The fixing really does go a long way to giving you consistently powerful draws and enables you to avoid playing marginal cards. To the people who don't think that these cards are good in formats like EDH I hope that you'll take this opportunity to reconsider your position on the cards. After all, they're good in EDH for exactly the same reasons that they're good in Constructed. At the end of the day very few cards in your list are better than your Cyclonic Rift, Rite of Replication, Fact or Fiction, Bribery, Diluvian Primordial etc. and drawing into spells that aren't on that level is just plain worse than hitting your 10/10 bombs as frequently and consistently as possible. Rather than fielding a bunch of marginal filler that you'll inevitably draw you can simply jam a bunch of cantrips into those slots and dig your way into the cards that actually matter (while hitting your land drops along the way). This is especially relevant if you're playing with combos because at some point you'll want to stop hitting things like mana rocks and Counterspells in order to assemble them. For all these reasons and more you really do want to be playing with cheap cantrips in your Blue decks as opposed to fielding marginal garbage that help you hit 100 cards. Drawing your best cards in a favorable order is just so much better than playing with a bunch of filler that can't compete with your strongest threats and/or combos.

Constructed Grade [b]C+[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]C+[/b]

Cube Grade [b]C+[/b]

Coastal Discovery: Unlike Mulldrifter you're never happy to cast the spell half of this card and the fact that it's virtually an 7 mana creature (assuming that actually you want to block with it) means that people calling this a "better" Phyrexian Gargantua are missing an extremely important distinction. If you're going to slot this into your decks try to take advantage of the fact that it's a "spell creature" and pair it with things like Augur of Bolas and Archaeomancer if at all possible. An even better idea would be to simply exclude it ;).

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D[/b]

Dampening Pulse: I've never seen a competitive Cumber Stone deck and I don't expect that to change regardless of the number of versions that they print. Multiplayer isn't a format where players are generally winning games by turning small creatures sideways so this is basically just a mulligan as far as I'm concerned. Much like Fog Bank this is a card that I would actively choose to have in my opponents' decks because no Control, Combo, Ramp, Stax, Prison, Mana Denial, etc. deck will ever care about this type of effect. Even token decks are going to win with Overruns, they're not going to clear a table out with small threats, so please don't kid yourself into thinking that this is a powerful, playable Magic card. I can assure you that it's not.

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D[/b]

Part the Waterveil: Every "take and extra turn spell" is a competitive Magic card. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. If you're a Blue EDH/2HG player you simply must acquire one of these and even if FFA Constructed is more your speed there's still plenty of powerful ways to abuse taking extra turns. Now, I realize that Wizards has finally caught on the fact that players were just taking all of the turns using cards like Archaeomancer and Crystal Shard but even though the new variations Exile themselves they're still must-haves in rampy, combo-centric formats such as EDH and Constructed Multiplayer. As much I'd like to provide examples of specific decks that will play this card, the answer is basically "any big mana Blue deck." Insofar as your deck has powerful ramp and a strong endgame you'll probably benefit wildly from taking extra turns. I'm already thinking about generals such as Narset, Enlightened Master, Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Arcanis the Omnipotent, Damia, Sage of Stone and Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur and with respect to Constructed I'm mostly thinking about rampy Cloudpost style decks that win with things like Upheaval fueled by Thran Dynamo style ramp.

Constructed Grade [b]C[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]A[/b]

Cube Grade [b]C-[/b]

Retreat to Coralhelm: If Mind Over Matter has taught us anything it's that free triggers on free effects leads to degenerate outcomes. Playing a land is a free effect that generates mana and given that we live in a world of Fetchlands you can basically think of this thing as a Lotus Cobra of sorts. Right now I'm mostly thinking about Simic/Bant decks that use things like Arbor Elf and Kiora's Follower to untap lands Enchanted with things like Utopia Sprawl but also ones where you can go "infinite" with a card like Knight of the Reliquary. The card does a ton of work in Genesis Wave decks since you can basically just stack a million untap triggers, use Kiora's Follower to untap Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or Gaea's Cradle and as long as you have something like Eternal Witness or Greenwarden of Murasa to re-buy your Genesis Waves you should be able to slam your entire deck into play. Another aspect of Retreat to Coralhelm that we shouldn't overlook is that even when your deck isn't ready to do busted things just yet it digs deeper towards the cards that you're missing. I don't want to oversell this point because I wouldn't play this card if it were just a 3 mana Enchantment that let me Scry 1 every turn (and Landfall isn't guaranteed by any means) but it's a bit of extra, marginal value that should be accounted for. The point is that there's going to be powerful, unfair applications for this thing so there's absolutely no reason to avoid picking them up assuming that it's just a bulk uncommon. I'm almost positive that it'll slot right into the degenerate Prophet of Kruphix decks that generate ridiculous sums of mana to do absurd things.

Constructed Grade [b]C+[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]C[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D[/b]

Ugin's Insight: With Recurring Insight at 6 CMC you have to be getting a lot of Scry value to make this type of card worthwhile. If I'm paying 5 mana at Sorcery speed to draw 3 cards I better be getting at least a Scry 4 in the interim. That way I may not be getting the exact quantity of cards that I'm looking for but at least the quality will be relatively high. As such I'd be relatively happy to play this in decks that have a bunch of Archaeomancers and various 5-7 drops (such as Future Sight and Diluvian Primordial) but I'm not going to jam in in creature-light shells that cap out with Snapcaster Mages and Rhystic Studys. It's relatively niche in that sense so I wouldn't put a high priority on acquiring them. While you could arguably jam them in the Omniscience deck the reality is that if you're casting big draw spells with an Omni in play then you've probably already won. Scry 10 is cool and all but likely win-more at that point. With respect to EDH I really like this card in big Blue combo + ramp decks such as Sharuum the Hegemon and Oona, Queen of the Fae that feature an expensive Commander and plenty of 2 card combo kills. Always having access to a 6-10 drop General makes the card significantly more promising and Scrying 6+ to find key combo pieces is very relevant in the format. Past a certain point you stop needing quantity and simply need the highest quality cards that your deck can muster.

Constructed Grade [b]C[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]B[/b]

Cube Grade [b]C[/b]

Ulamog's Reclaimer: Mnemonic Wall is a marginal playable as far as I'm concerned and as such I'm completely unwilling to work for a similar alternative. In a world of creatures such as Snapcaster Mage and Archaeomancer I don't consider this to be a playable Magic card.

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]F[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

Defiant Bloodlord: Sanguine Bond #2 for EDH is where this guy will see the most play but please don't misinterpret that as me calling him "good  in EDH." I like that you can tutor for him with cards like Survival of the Fittest and I do think that being a creature (as opposed to an Enchantment) is generally a buff in that specific format. Green and Black are two of the strongest colors and Green has a ton of creature-based tutors whereas Black has a plethora of powerful + cheap recursion options. That being said at 7 mana it's extremely difficult to do anything truly abusive with this guy. The Exquisite Blood infinite combos have never been especially competitive and this guy certainly isn't going to change that. While you could arguably play him as a value beater alongside Exsanguinate, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Kokusho, the Evening Star, etc. as someone who loves to playing those kinds of decks I can assure you that I'd personally never field the thing myself. It's a 7 mana spell that doesn't win the game whereas something like Necrologia almost always will. It's a cool card that will probably make some casual players happy but until I can Buried Alive this + something else and win the game off of Victimize or Living Death I'm just not going to bother with weak combo kills when I can just lean on Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion and/or Necrotic Ooze + Triskelion + Phyrexian Devourer, etc. It's entirely possible that I'm being unfairly critical towards this thing but I'm just never going to run it over things like Rune-Scarred Demon, Sheoldred Whispering One or even Sepulchral Primordial in most decks. I don't want to be playing with conditional 7 drops that die to removal even if they enable a small number of marginal combos.

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]C[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

Kalastria Healer: Ally decks aren't a "thing" as far as I'm concerned and the trigger is too weak to actually abuse. Given that I would never play a 2 mana 1/2 that drains for 1 (which is what this card will be 99% of the time) I don't see a compelling reason to acquire them. 

Constructed Grade [b]D-[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D-[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

Mind Raker: I'm definitely not willing to work for a weak Unnerve on a useless body.

Constructed Grade [b]D-[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D-[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

Ob Nixilis Reignited: Casting this guy on a clear board is going to be virtually impossible and his -3 isn't going to drastically change anything the vast majority of the time. His average use-case will be a 5 mana removal spell and even if you live the dream it's not as though his ultimate actually wins you the game. Much like Gideon I have no interest in this card whatsoever and recommend avoiding him if possible.

Constructed Grade [b]D+[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D+[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D[/b]

Painful Truths: With respect to Constructed this is basically just a draw 3 for 3 in the right shells and that's a relatively powerful Magic card. It's not going to run away with the game like Syphon Mind can but you get your ROI immediately which isn't a feat that draw engines such as Phyrexian Arena can boast. It's just a middling draw spell that you should feel relatively happy to resolve at basically any stage of the game. If I don't sound excited it's because I'm not. You literally have to be playing a 3 color, non-Blue deck to make this card playable and even then it's just a marginally improved Ambition's Cost. If you're playing Mardu or Abzan or whatever then you can certainly consider playing this thing but even then I'm probably just going to stick to things like Outpost Siege and Syphon Mind that have a higher power-ceiling.

Moving on to EDH, a draw 3 for 3 is interesting but I can guarantee you that this card is significantly weaker than it seems. To anyone thinking "oh, but it's better than Ambition's Cost et al." you are just plain wrong. The fact that you have pay 3 colored mana to cast the thing means that you can't use your colorless mana rocks such as Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Basalt Monolith, Worn Powerstone, Thran Dynamo etc. so more often than not you're just going to float your colorless mana anyways. You're also never going to find room for this thing in your Blue decks and since you need to be playing with 3 or more colors just to make it playable it's  really asking for a lot. In that sense I think that it's almost strictly worse than cards like Ambition's Cost and Ancient Craving in EDH and those aren't even draw spells that I play in my competitive decks. Don't even get me started with this card in 1-2 color decks when you already have access to Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, etc. I get that not everyone plays with a bunch of ramp and card draw in their MP decks (be it EDH or not) but it's hard for me to get excited over a draw spell that's difficult to ramp out.

To anyone who just wants a "buy or not buy" answer, I'm firmly in the "not buy" camp. For this card to be good you have to be playing 3 colors, none of which are Blue, in a deck that doesn't have much colorless ramp. That's such a trivial % of my multiplayer decks that I couldn't possibly imagine getting a worthwhile return on this thing.

Constructed Grade [b]C[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]C[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

Retreat to Hagra: Even if this were simply a 3 mana Subversion it still wouldn't be a competitive multiplayer card and this doesn't even gain 1 life for each opponent that you drain. I personally think that these kinds of cards are actively bad because they piss the entire table off without improving your board nor providing a significant clock. Since multiplayer tends to be an "all things being equal" format you never want to provide people with an incentive to focus their attention on you if it can be avoided. Do not play with this card.

Constructed Grade [b]D-[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D-[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D-[/b]

Rising Miasma: I don't even think that Infest is a playable Magic card in most MP settings let alone this POS. It's too much mana for too little impact.

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D[/b]

Ruinous Path: Hero's Downfall is extremely overrated in my opinion and this card is basically strictly worse as far as I'm concerned. Spot removal isn't good for much other than disrupting combos and killing attackers both of which are things that you can't really do at Sorcery speed. I'm not saying that you shouldn't ever run spot removal in multiplayer, you gotta do what you gotta do, but 9 times out of 10 these 3 CMC removal spells are just flat-out worse than Go for the Throat in my experience. 'Walkers lose a lot of their value in an MP setting where you can virtually never stabilize the board and tend to draw a lot of hate anyways so it's almost never worthwhile paying more than 1-2 mana for your removal.

Constructed Grade [b]C[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]C[/b]

Cube Grade [b]C[/b]

Smothering Abomination: I'm a fan of big, cheap fliers and drawing cards so I can kinda get behind this badboy. I know that it's an unpopular opinion but I love to whip out Contamination/Smokestack/Braids, Cabal Minion decks every now and then and this guy seems like he could slot directly into that style of deck. Even if you're not going deep on a Stax strategy there's always things like Attrition and Grave Pact which reward you for fielding recursive threats such as Reassembling Skeleton and Bloodghast. I want to stress that this is a fringe playable at best (think Blight Herder, not Oblivion Sower) but once it falls to ~50 cents or whatever I see no harm in acquiring some to fool around with. Drawing cards for free is a powerful effect and the body is big, cheap and evasive which is perfect given that Reassembling Skeleton decks are already have incentive to field some Equipment.

Constructed Grade [b]C[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]C[/b]

Cube Grade [b]C-[/b]

Vampiric Rites: Ever since tucking stopped being a thing the value of sac outlets plummeted in EDH. They were never that great to begin with (people overrate them in general IMO) but at this point it's almost pointless to even bother with the things unless they're supporting various infinite combos. Protecting your dudes from exile effects is still mildly relevant at times but in general the effect isn't worth a card. The format is just too fast and too powerful for you to be messing around with expensive, do-nothing effects. The reason I highlight this is because people often fall into habits/mindsets that can be difficult to break even after they become obsolete. Once upon a time I happily played cards like Infernal Tribute in my Black decks (even outside of EDH) and I almost tricked myself into thinking that Vampiric Rites was a real card as a result. I mean, look at how cheap it is! And that free lifegain! Wow! Yeah... no. If you're playing 4 mana to draw a card via Reassembling Skeleton (or whatever) you're not actually doing something especially powerful/competitive. It feels good because it's "infinite value" but in reality you're just spinning your wheels for marginal value. I will still happily play free sac outlets sac as Viscera Seer and Sadistic Hypnotist, they enable some extremely degenerate sequences of plays, but I'm basically done with 2+ mana sac outlets at this point. I'm willing to fool around with legitimate threats (such as Flesh Carver) but if I'm just looking to draw cards and generate value this isn't where I want to be anymore. Now, obviously this is just a bulk uncommon that won't cost you a dime, feel free to grab some for your collection, but don't hold your breath waiting for some uber Bloodghast value deck to crop out after its released. You might play it as a 1-of every now and then but this effect isn't exciting by any means.

Constructed Grade [b]D+[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D+[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

Wasteland Strangler: I'm not willing to work for a conditional, weak version of Shriekmaw/Bone Shredder/Nekrataal. Pass.

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]F[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

Zulaport Cutthroat: This is the "good version" of Kalastria Healer and it reminds me a lot of Blood Artist. I'm ashamed to admit that I criminally underrated the Artist for an extremely long time since I often thought of it as a do-nothing 2 drop who could be combo'd with mass removal to gain a bit of life and deal a bit of damage. Whoop-de-doo! In practice the card is actually exceptionally powerful to the point where it can easily cause another player to lose the game outright. Obviously you can gun it down with removal but I don't exactly mind if people are focusing on my 1 and 2 drops. While the Cutthroat arguably doesn't scale as well in big FFA games the effect is still extremely powerful when it's properly supported. Black and White has access to tons of powerful mass recursion spells (Living Death, Immortal Servitude, Return to the Ranks, Rally the Ancestors, etc.) which can often be paired with free sac outlets (such as Viscera Seer) in order to combo kill players/tables out of the game. he even has the Human subtype which is perfect for the Xathrid Necromancer "Humans matter" archetype that naturally wants to be using cards like Skirsdag High Priest and Angel of Glory's Rise. As you can probably imagine creatures are played, killed, and recurred en masse in that style of deck so I can easily envision scenarios where this does obscene amounts of work. Unlike some of the other Black entries I personally this to be a "must have" and highly recommend that you make a concerted effort to acquire some. It's good in both fair and unfair strategies, it's a relevant 2 drop for any creature-based deck (something that Black sorely lacks) and I can't imagine that it'll cost you anything so this seems like a no-brainer to me.

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Constructed Grade [b]B[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D[/b]

Cube Grade [b]C[/b]

Akoum Firebird: 6 mana and a condition to recur a 3/3 that (basically) can't block? Thanks Wizards /sarcasm! Please don't waste your time with this steaming pile of trash. You are not going to grind a multiplayer table out with one of these and there's no sac outlet in the world powerful enough to abuse 6 mana, conditional recursion.

Constructed Grade [b]D-[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D-[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D-[/b]

Barrage Tyrant: Bosh, Iron Golem this card is not. Red is actually extremely capable at recurring Artifacts and being unable to sac itself is a huge drawback. Given that Bosh only see fringe EDH play to begin with I don't see a reason to acquire this card. 2+ mana sac outlets are just so freaking hard to abuse in Constructed formats. Even if you have creatures such as Wight of Precinct Six/Mortivore in your deck these Fling effects are still almost always way too slow, unreliable and weak given that they're at-best killing players off one at a time. More often than not they simply succumb to pressure/interaction at which point they maybe become king-makers. Play to win, not crown another champion yourself.

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D[/b]

Boiling Earth: These kinds of cards are strictly worse than Earthquake as far I'm concerned (a card which is grotesquely underplayed by the way) and should never see play as a result. I realize that EQ hits your own stuff as well but the fact that it scales extremely well into every stage of the game while simultaneously acting as a potential win condition makes it many orders of magnitude more powerful than marginal crap such as Boiling Earth.

Constructed Grade [b]F[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]F[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

Dragonmaster Outcast: As much as I try and step outside of my own meta and biases I've never been able to get a good sense for how powerful these "Scute Mob" style cards are. I'm personally of the opinion that having something, anything on your side of the field is significantly better than having nothing because I've noticed that newer/weaker/inexperienced players often get overwhelmed with the sheer volume of cards in play. As a result they usually shy away from attacks against players who have some semblance of a board. That being said as seasoned player I'm personally never going to be intimidated by 1/1s for 1 which is exactly what this card is for most of the game. It literally just sits there (either in your hand or in play), does nothing, then hopefully people ignore it once you hit the required number of lands. They don't, I've never seen someone "go off" and make a bunch of Dragons with this thing, but maybe it works for other players? Where I don't mind this card is in Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx decks because you really do want to be casting as many Red permanents as possible in those lists and things like Outpost Siege make hitting the requisite number of lands a trivial pursuit. It is likely the best generic Red 1 drop if only because it can theoretically win the game on its own despite the fact that in my many years of playing I've yet to see it actually happen. If you like building Nykthos decks I recommend acquiring them but otherwise I probably wouldn't bother unless your meta is removal-light.

Constructed Grade [b]B[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]C[/b]

Cube Grade [b]C[/b]

Nettle Drone, Tunneling Geopede: Cards can say "each opponent" and still be unplayable garbage. These are irrelevant threats that provide irrelevant clocks and aren't going to do anything other than paint a huge target on your back as you simultaneously piss the entire table off while casting marginal threats.

Constructed Grade [b]D-[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D-[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

Radiant Flames: Uhh... a Slagstorm variant that only works in 3+ color decks and that can't use colorless ramp? Cool? This card is clearly "fine" under those conditions but why in God's name would you ever purchase these over things like Anger of the Gods that always do their job? Again, this card isn't unplayable in 3+ color decks but it's so freaking conditional at no benefit that I'll just refuse to ever play with and/or purchase it out of spite.

Constructed Grade [b]C[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]C[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

Rolling Thunder: While moderately versatile these kinds of cards tend to be significantly weaker than their Earthquake/Comet Storm variants in a MP setting. While it's easy to get a 2-for-1 with this thing or even dome a player for 8 later on this just isn't the kind of card that's going to win you games of Magic.

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D[/b]

Serpentine Spike: 7 mana at Sorcery speed to conditionally kill 3 creatures is so wildly unplayable that it's not even funny. At that point you may as well just wait for Insurrection or jam something like Mob Rule to deliver some savage beatdowns. 

Constructed Grade [b]D-[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D-[/b]

Cube Grade [b]D-[/b]

Zada, Hedron Grinder: While I'm generally supportive of 4 CMC threats that can win games on their own I tend to prefer things like Master Transmuter and Crypt Ghast that don't require big boards. This guy's power-ceiling is crazy high but he's basically just another variation of Purphoros, God of the Forge who players can actually interact with. He just doesn't do all that much unless you have a board full of tokens but at that point all you're doing is enabling people to turn spot removal into legitimate spells against you. Whereas a card like Coat of Arms would force them into "mass removal or bust" scenarios this card literally dies to everything. You also need a board full of dudes, this guy in play AND some Hatred-esque spell to get value from his effect which means that he's extremely conditional, unreliable, inconsistent and demanding (with respect to deckbuilding). This is troublesome for a color such as Red which doesn't have access to consistent tutors (Gamble doesn't count) or cheap + powerful forms of card draw. With respect to EDH, again, I struggle to believe that this guy could possibly be superior to Purphoros, God of the Forge as a Commander. I'm more than happy to be proven wrong but I just don't see it happening.

Constructed Grade [b]D[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]D[/b]

Cube Grade [b]F[/b]

From Beyond: This is definitely one of the most overrated cards in the set, especially in formats such as EDH. I like tutors as much as the next guy but paying 6 mana to find one of ~three cards in your deck is an atrocious rate. This is also a piss-poor form of ramp given that it doesn't start paying dividends until turn 3-4 (and that's assuming that you ramp this out in the first place) given that there's a ton of Basalt Monolith-esque cards that will just enable you to jam 7 drops on turn 3. I've never considered Awakening Zone to be a playable Magic card and while thing is arguably more powerful I just can't imagine slotting it into a competitive ramp shell (in any format). If you're putting this card in your deck it's because you want a Green Bitterblossom to fuel your Smokestacks or whatever and not because you're looking for some OP form of ramp. I can definitely see it being played in Mass Polymorph decks and whatnot too but I just don't understand why players are clamoring to slot these into their typical ramp decks. Green just got Frontier Siege, a way better card that no one plays (I have no idea why, the card is absurd) but then this gets released and everyone loses their mind? Much like Awakening Zone (another massively hyper card that flopped) I sincerely doubt that this card will have many competitive applications so prepare to disappointed my friends.

Constructed Grade [b]C[/b] 

EDH Grade [b]C[/b]

Cube Grade [b]C[/b]

Greenwarden of Murasa: Even a bad Eternal Witness is still a very powerful Magic card and you should expect this thing to see a ton of play. Most modern Green decks win by extracting value from powerful spells/tutors such as Genesis Wave and Nissa's Revelation and your single best answer to removal/counters etc. is to simply "go infinite" and recur them indefinitely. This, by the way, is what makes this card is miles better than Deadwood Treefolk so you can just go ahead and ignore people making that comparison, It's one thing to recur creatures but it's another to nab that Primal Surge. If you're an avid Green mage you'll definitely want to pick these up to compliment your Witnesses since you can realistically play them in any Green shell. Worst-case scenario it's still a pseudo-Primeval Titan in the sense that it's another value 6 drop that beats removal. Even if you're not recurring a busted spell like Tooth and Nail you're still getting 1-2 things back and at that point it doesn't really matter what happens to the thing. If people want to Doom Blade the threat that recurred the 2 strongest cards that you played that game, God bless them! Obviously this card isn't on the same level as Primetime but it's still a powerful effect and it's one that you really do want to have on a body whenever possible. This is especially relevant for formats such as EDH where you're almost always playing cards like Survival of the Fittest, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Chord of Calling, Birthing Pod, etc.

Sylvan Scrying: A 2 mana, 50 cent tutor for Eye of Ugin, Cloudpost and Urza's Tower? Count me in! If you're ever planning on building a Tron/Post deck you're going to want 4 of these and since they're now affordable you don't have any excuse to omit them from your lists. I've never played the thing in EDH but I've played Crop Rotation enough that I have to imagine that it's playable. Not being able to fetch Bojuka Bog at instant-speed kinda sucks but if you're playing a Gaea's Cradle deck (or even a Cabal Coffers + Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth shell) I could imagine a world where you'd want a second Crop Rotation. There's just absolutely no reason not to own ~6 of these if they're only like a buck each so just grab them at some point.

Tajuru Warcaller: While I have no intention of ever playing this in an Ally deck it's a card that Sylvan Messenger can find (and that Wirewood Symbiote can bounce) and that conceivably wins games if you have a ton of Elves in play. I know that it doesn't grant Trample and I know that it costs 5 mana but I also know that Craterhoof Behemoth costs millions of dollars so I always like to keep an eye out for budget alternatives. I've always hated Joraga Warcaller since people can just kill it during combat at which point your Elf army does nothing. I don't think that it's especially playable in that sense. Tajuru Warcaller, at the very least, doesn't die to removal. Basically I would just keep an eye for this thing and try to pick one up at some point. Elves are the most competitive tribe by far in my mind and I certainly wouldn't be embarrassed to play this in a list.

Bring to Light: From Hypergenesis to Show and Tell to Doomsday there's no shortage of busted things that ~3+ color decks can find with this thing. It reminds me a lot of Wargate but it clearly has a significantly higher power-ceiling if you build your deck to support and ultimately abuse it. You really do have to think about this card as a Demonic Tutor of sorts because you're plain going to get a rebate on a bunch of that mana. If Dark Petition has taught us anything it's that you can still build hyper-competitive combo decks even if you need to front-load 5 mana on your tutors. As such I'm excited to see what people come up with to break this thing. Otherwise, even if you're just a casual player building fair, interactive decks then this is still a card for you. 4+ color decks really can treat it like a Green Sun's Zenith of sorts which they can even be used to fetch powerful + bizarre silver bullets such as Living End. It's still going to be a creature, Wrath, draw spell, whatever when you need it but the option is there to nab some relatively wild things in a pinch. Still, if you just want to Doomsday into a Laboratory Maniac or Hypergenesis a bunch of Eldrazi into play then this is definitely a card that you'll want 4 of. It's the perfect mix of fair and unfair without being horrendously overpowered (you're not going to see these played in every deck across every format or anything) to the point of ruining the game for others. This is definitely a "must have" from the set as it's one of the few cards that could easily see play for years to come. Tutors are just that good, especially in formats such as EDH.

Catacomb Sifter: This is another card that's generating a lot of hype but I'm personally not a fan of it. It has the same problem as Reaper of Wilds in the sense that they're both powerful-yet-fair Magic cards. If you're just looking for a pile of stats and some marginal upside, feel free to run these, but don't expect to ever beat the other BG player who curved Commune with the Gods into Animate Dead on a Sylvan Primordial. You're never going to consistently win games by casting generic threats that just attack/block. If you're just looking to play a fair game of Magic and want something solid to cast on turn 3 then this is fine. It's no Courser of Kruphix but it probably won't cost more than a few cents (as opposed to a few dollars) so there's always that to consider. Still, again, I feel compelled to remind you that this type of card just isn't going to win you a game of Magic and that you should probably consider adding a card like Basalt Monolith to your deck instead. Generating 7 mana on turn 3-4 (turn 1 Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, Arbor Elf, etc.) is probably going to win you a lot more games than dropping a decent body will.

Drana's Emissary: Kingpin's Pet has never made the cut in any of my lists and this card is significantly weaker as far as I'm concerned. This card, much like Retreat to Hagra, is actively bad as far as I'm concerned since it draws attention to yourself without providing sufficient defense against retaliation. Whereas Extort cards can be combo'd with things like No Mercy to put yourself out of "burn range" the same cannot be said about these variations that don't get the health scaling. Be it 2 or 10 players afflicted you're still only gaining the 1 life and that's not nearly enough to justify the fact that you just gave everyone at the table incentive to target you over someone else (all other things being equal obviously).

Fathom Feeder: While not on the same level as Baleful Strix I could definitely see myself playing with this card. It's a good blocker on turn 2 and a card draw engine on turn 10 so it's almost never going to be an actively terrible draw. Moreover, it's a really good attacker and one the more relevant Ingesters as a result. People just plain won't want to block this and you'll easily be able to chip a few cards away with it. In base you're wondering why that's relevant, the answer is Oblivion Sower. Between Bojuka Bog, the Feeder and Nightveil Specter UB can run a ton of low opportunity-cost exile effects which all make Oblivion Sower an unreal powerful Magic card. Given that the color combo already has Notion Thief an an insane value engine all it really lacked was a solid 6 drop that could gum up the ground. Grave Titan is cool and all but it doesn't exactly win games of Magic whereas ramping to ~11 mana almost certainly will. At that point all of your Rite of Replication and Rise of the Dark Realms style spells will easily seal the deal.

Kiora, Master of the Depths: This is another card that I think that most players are criminally underrating. The ability to immediately untap multiple mana producing permanents in an extremely powerful effect and everything else is a bonus as far I'm concerned. Blue/Green decks often feature powerful forms of acceleration such as Gaea's Cradle, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Arbor Elf and Kiora's Follower and hastily untapping multiples enables exceptionally degenerate sequences. From Genesis Wave to Tooth and Nail to Primal Surge it becomes trivially easy to slam your entire deck into play and defeat the table in one fell swoop. Moreover, Kiora will serve a vital role in Stasis, Winter Orb, Tangle Wire, Rising Waters, etc. style decks as a constant source of mana production. This is an extremely competitive archetype in formats such as EDH where come Denial Commanders (such as Derevi, Empyrial Tactician) are the tippity-top of the S tier. Beyond that she works well alongside Doubling Season and even if you're just using her to draw cards then that's fine too. Paying 4 to draw at Sorcery speed isn't special by any means but it's certainly not horrendous. The key concept that I need to stress is that untapping a Kiora's Follower and a Gaea's Cradle (or whatever) is just ridiculously strong and so I do expect to see her function as Garruk Wildspeakers 5 and 6 in big mana decks looking to chain Genesis Waves into Eternal Witnesses +  Garruks/Kioras to slam your entire deck into play on turn ~4.

Omnath, Locus of Rage: As with every other Landfall creature it's fairly important to treat this an N+1 drop where N is its converted mana cost. Omnath is clearly a powerful card, he even technically beats removal (not that anyone is going to lose sleep over a Lava Spike), but there's only so much room for 8 drops in modern Magic. If you can ramp this thing out on turn 4 or 5 and have him stick he'll easily take control of the game assuming that there isn't much mass removal floating around. He can also do silly things with cards like Scapeshift and he's even in the perfect colors for the Wildfire archetype. That being he's still a conditional 8 drop and so it's difficult for me to get very excited about him. This is especially true for Green cards in general because there's just so many ways to win the game once you reach that mana threshold. At that point Tooth and Nail is just about ready to end the game and even things like Genesis Wave or Primal Surge are primed to seal the deal. Whereas I see Omnath as a card who slowly wins the game if he's allowed to live for ~3 turns there's just a throng of alternatives who can do it immediately. I also have to emphasize the fact that Omnath is in fact conditional because it's not a God-given right that you'll have more lands to play in the later stages of the game. Curving Omnath into Sylvan Primordial or Scapeshift s obviously sweet but it certainly doesn't win the game on the spot and for that amount of mana and cards you easily could. I certainly don't think that Omnath is unplayable or anything but in a world of Rampaging Baloths and Avenger of Zendikars he's just another in a long line of strong beaters In Green.

Sire of Stagnation: I actually think that this card is underrated, if such a thing is actually possible. A lot of people have correctly analyzed that it's significantly weaker than Consecrated Sphinx but at the same time what good does it do to compare everything to the best card in a given CMC slot? I recognize that players have the ability to stop playing lands pas ta certain point and I also understand that in a MP setting you can do things like say to the table "Ok, who can kill this? Alright guys, let's just not play lands until X's turn." That is, I recognize that this card isn't going to run away with the game 100% of the time it gets left unchecked for 2-3 upkeeps. Even with that in mind I don't see why people are so skeptical about how powerful this thing figures to be. In the grand scheme of things this easily an S tier 6 drop threat because it's one of the few that can just plain win the game on its own. Blue already has access to cards like Sunder and Upheaval but even as a standalone threat it still realistically demands an answer. As much as I love cards like Grave Titan I've never actually beat a table down with one whereas this type card can actually just run away with the game by enabling unlimited Forbids and whatnot. Sire is certainly going to have high-highs and low-lows (it's a 6 drop that dies to removal) but any card that can win the game on its own in a MP setting is definitely worth acquiring and playtesting. Blue Black is already an extremely competitive color combo what with cards like Baleful Strix, Nightveil Specter, Notion Thief and Memory Plunder and it just got that much stronger.

Aligned Hedron Network: This is an interesting 1-2 of for creature-based decks that don't top-out with much in the way of actual fatties (think Wizards or Elves). That being said I don't plan on jamming this in my generic Control lists anytime soon because it's just way too slow and situational for most of the game. It's going to miss a throng of important targets each and every time that it's cast and it's not as though you're getting an insane rate to begin with. I'm not particularly worried about the fact that people will have the option to remove this thing at some point, temporary disruption is still fine, but what does worry me is the fact that most 5+ power creatures are going to be things like Titans/Primordials/Massacre Wurms/etc. that have amazing ETB triggers. Given that those creatures already generated valued to begin with and will then generate it again it's hard to argue that you significantly benefited from removing them for a couple of turns. What I'm trying to say is that this card is quite overrated so please don't think of it as the next "must have" colorless sweeper. 

Hedron Archive: Since you can already play things like Basalt Monolith, Worn Powerstone and Thran Dynamo in Constructed it's hard to imagine that this thing is going to make the cut in most competitive ramp decks. Paying 4 to ramp 2 just isn't an overpowered effect and the ability to cycle this thing for a couple cards later on isn't going to change that. If this is what you can acquire/afford, so be it, but in general I'd encourage you to pursue more unfair cards if at all possible.

What I don't understand is why this card is taking so much flak from the EDH community. I'm not saying this thing belongs in every deck or anything but off the top of my head it's going to make the cut in things like Kothophed, Soul Horder, Arcanis, the Omnipotent and Damia, Sage of Stone. Basically all of the expensive, card-advantage focused Generals are going to play this because they're already happily playing Ur-Golem's Eye so worst comes to worst you'll just make that swap. I'm clearly not arguing that this thing will edge out the OP ramp such as Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Worn Powerstone, Basalt Monolith, Thran Dynamo, etc. but some Generals want to run a lot more ramp than that so I really don't understand how people can bash on this thing. Again, I'm not saying that it's a must-have for every deck or anything, but if your General costs 6+ mana and generates card advantage then I doubt you'll be cutting this from your list.

Blighted Cataract, Blighted Woodland: The entire Blighted cycle is arguably playable but the 2-for-1s interest me more than the others. Most 1-2 color decks can support 4-8 colorless lands in general and even 3 color decks can usually support 2-3. I don't expect any of these to blow you away in practice but I also think that it's pointless to jam 12x Island and 12x Forest in your decks so if you don't have anything better to run I see absolutely no reason to omit these kinds of spell-lands from your lists.

Canopy Vista et al: Fetchlands and Farseeks around the world are rejoicing at this new infusion of blood. 

Lumbering Falls, Shambling Vent: It's important to stress the fact that these manlands aren't on the same level as others which can act as cheap blockers (Mishra's Factory) or legitimate win conditions (Celestial Colonnade). These are extremely marginal "Stirring Wildwoods" style manlands that you probably shouldn't feel excited to play. I would much rather have things like Simic Growth Chamber or Vault of the Archangel in my lists. I'm not saying that they're complete trash or anything but I mean I just wouldn't even add them to my UG or WB decks respectively even if I owned them. They're obviously strictly better than things like Orzhov Guildgate, feel free to play with them if you own them, but please don't go out of way to purchase these for casual play.

Mortuary Mire: I'm generally not a fan of marginal ETBT lands and this one is no exception. It doesn't for multiple colors, it doesn't tap for more than 1 mana, it doesn't have any meaningful effect in the first few turns of the game and even when it does recur something it's not as though you're suddenly up a card or anything. This will occasionally improve the average quality of your next draw at the cost of always costing you some tempo. As an avid Black Mage I'll probably acquire these but I don't expect to field them very often. I think that some casual decks will want 1 or 2 but I just would never slam 4 of these into my own lists. This just isn't on the same level as a card like Bojuka Bog which can provide some serious value at very little opportunity cost. You'll still play it in small quantities here and there but it's not an auto-include by any means. Look for places to weave them in but don't worry about jamming full playsets into anything.

Sanctum of Ugin: These "flood protection" lands that have value both early and late are interesting but you can tell that Wizards was playing scared with them. Eye of Ugin this thing is not. You basically have to be playing an Eldrazi deck to want this thing but even then it's hard to imagine how you could make room for it. In Constructed you're just plain going to run Cloudposts or UrzaTron and since this thing doesn't tap for colored mana your remaining lands will probably have to used to help you cast your key spells. I suppose that you could jam one of these into your EDH lists assuming that you were running a bunch of Eldrazi but that's a fairly niche application if you ask me. I mean the thing taps for mana and provides solid value on turn 10 so it's hard to hate on it but at the same time I'm not scrambling to play with and/or acquire them. It a boring, lackluster effect that can only ever see a fringe amount of play.

Shrine of the Forsaken Gods: I don't even think that this will make the cut in most colorless EDH decks lol. I have no what the Hell wizards was thinking with this one.

Spawning Bed: 7 mana is a lot to pay for a colorless Black Lotus. If your deck has 9+ drops or an absurd amount of card draw I could foresee wanting to run a couple of these to ensure that you'll be able to cast your important finishers at a reasonable pace. If, however, your deck starts at 2 and stops at ~7 then I certainly wouldn't bother with this thing. I recognize that it represents a 3/3 and 3 mana but you're just never going to be able to leverage those 1/1s into anything meaningful by that stage of the game.