Now that there has been a ton of Sealed and Draft pools, what are some cards you did not expect to do some of the heavy lifting? Are there some cards that you think others should take note of?
I want to avoid Rare and Mythic discussion here; while they're important to note and are very powerful, they are not going to be pulled very consistently compared to the Commons and Uncommons.
What I'm seeing so far is:
Ephara's Enlightenment: Dropping this T3 on just about anything is super fun! Dropping it T3, then T4 1drop play this again is also nice. It's a repeatable Heroic enabler... that gives flying. Played a bigger creature? Return this to your hand and play it on that! I'll gladly drop this on things with flying just because they get +1/+1 counters. You can very quickly grow anything with Heroic with this card. Good thing Battlewise Hoplite is in colors!!
Loyal Pegasus: I was skeptical about this card at first, the attack/block alone clause really gets to me, but I watched a buddy cram 3 in a deck and have really fast threats. They can attack with each other. I still don't like the 1 toughness, but it is a 1 drop...
Retraction Helix: Super flexible card! For just U you can hit Heroic or Inspired, and save one of your things or set your opponent back! Sprinkle a Triton Tactics in there to just lock boards down for a few turns. This card took me by surprise. It's nice that it's in a different set than Voyage's End as you'll never have to decide between the Scry or the other benefits.
Nyxborn Cycle: The Black one is bad, the Red one is worse, the rest are good. BNG is still slow enough that 5 mana bestow is very relevant and worth the deck space. I do like the White one the most since the stats are solid enough to cause problems and he remains cheap enough to get out early on an Akroan Skyguard; however, the Blue one is the best, in my opinion, more stats, toughness is getting pretty relevant as First Strike and Red removal become more prevalent, and still pretty fair to cast at 5 mana.
Karametra's Favor: It's just Nylea's Presence for creatures... Reprint? Wait! It enables both Heroic and Inspired! Suddenly it's way less bad and reprinty and much more functional! So... Why wasn't one of the two just not printed? I'm assuming that Favor is much better than Presence as it's Ramp, Fix, and Enabling vs just Fix. So... Wow? Talk about subtle. They both exist simply because Green needed (wanted? deserved?) the mana fixing, but not 3 packs worth of picking this; Presence will be in 2 packs so you can't abuse having 5 of these, but you can still pull 1 or 2 normally. Pretty not broken, pretty good planning, pretty functional, pretty cool stuff.
Spiteful Returned: Effectively a +3/+1, and for what it does I think is aggressively cost. The other 4 mana bestowers are either Rare or do not give this kind of offense.
I didn't get to see much else, I only played a Sealed 2HG event all weekend.
I'll have to disagree with the Nyxborn Eidolon being bad. I was skeptical when it was first spoiled, but in the white black, there's so much enchantment recursion that he's actually pretty decent. You almost always want to play him as a creature early game and let him trade with something if possible. When you get it back later in the game, in the game, bestowing for 5 isn't that big a deal. He doesn't really have a place in any other color pair, but in the WB enchantment decks he's fine.
I seem to be the only one that gives forsaken Drifters any love. In the WB and BG decks he's great since they want enchantments and creatures in the graveyard, respectively. With 4 power, he's typically going to trade with something else early to mid-game if they block.
Odunos River Trawler is great. Since there's so many enchantment creatures in the set he's usually just a cheaper Gravedigger.
Noble Quarry can finish games pretty quickly. Given how common it is to end up in a board stall, it can completely swing the game.
The removal in this set is, overall, a lot better than Theros. Asphixiate, Nullify and Fall of the Hammer are especially great and they're all common.
I think you're underrating Favor here. It fulfils a few roles so perhaps it can be considered a "workhorse card". Of course, bestow cards are probably gonna be picked over it but when there's no choice, I won't be unhappy picking it when it tables and sleeving it maindeck. It cantrips, which is a passing mark.
And let's not compare it to Nylea's Presence. One's utility and the other has just one function.
I'll have to disagree with the Nyxborn Eidolon being bad. I was skeptical when it was first spoiled, but in the white black, there's so much enchantment recursion that he's actually pretty decent. You almost always want to play him as a creature early game and let him trade with something if possible. When you get it back later in the game, in the game, bestowing for 5 isn't that big a deal. He doesn't really have a place in any other color pair, but in the WB enchantment decks he's fine.
I seem to be the only one that gives forsaken Drifters any love. In the WB and BG decks he's great since they want enchantments and creatures in the graveyard, respectively. With 4 power, he's typically going to trade with something else early to mid-game if they block.
Odunos River Trawler is great. Since there's so many enchantment creatures in the set he's usually just a cheaper Gravedigger.
Noble Quarry can finish games pretty quickly. Given how common it is to end up in a board stall, it can completely swing the game.
The removal in this set is, overall, a lot better than Theros. Asphixiate, Nullify and Fall of the Hammer are especially great and they're all common.
Maybe I haven't seen enough of Nyxborn Eidolon, but if he's only good in that one BW deck that tries to abuse Enchant recursion... I won't vouch for him, but I guess I'll not knock him.
Asphyxiate and Excoriate feel awkward. Removal is good! Don't get me wrong. But the tapped/untapped clauses are weird; Excoriate lets your opponent attack with the thing you want to kill, and drawing Asphyxiate into a board you're losing just feels bad since the thing you do want to kill is tapped and attacking you. It says removal, I want to kill the thing that I want to kill, but it has these awkward hoops to jump through. Look at Divine Verdict; has a hoop, but allows you to prevent what the big thing does. These two don't prevent the thing, they react to the thing. Does that make them bad? Yes. Does that rule them out of limited? I have no idea. I picked up 3 of these in the event I played, I ended up cutting all three; I talked to some of the other white players and heard similar things, awkward, but some did keep them because "removal".
Asphyxiate and Excoriate feel awkward. Removal is good! Don't get me wrong. But the tapped/untapped clauses are weird; Excoriate lets your opponent attack with the thing you want to kill, and drawing Asphyxiate into a board you're losing just feels bad since the thing you do want to kill is tapped and attacking you. It says removal, I want to kill the thing that I want to kill, but it has these awkward hoops to jump through. Look at Divine Verdict; has a hoop, but allows you to prevent what the big thing does. These two don't prevent the thing, they react to the thing. Does that make them bad? Yes. Does that rule them out of limited? I have no idea. I picked up 3 of these in the event I played, I ended up cutting all three; I talked to some of the other white players and heard similar things, awkward, but some did keep them because "removal".
I'm not a big fan of Excoriate, but Asphyxiate is great. It's not uncommon for there to be ground stalls do to things like Sedge Scoripion, Baleful Eidolon, Archetype of Courage/Finality, Gorgons, Servant of Tymaret, etc. I had three Asphyxiates in one of the prerelease decks and never had a problem hitting a valid target with them.
For me, Fearsome Temper helped a great deal at the pre-release. It enabled heroic on some dudes and helped at least one creature get through quite often in the early game. I would pick it quite highly in a draft.
Excoriate is certainly a pretender to Divine Verdict, But Asphyxiate is premium removal, considering the expensive removal we had in THS. I will certainly play as many copies of it as I can pick. It may be awkward at times; the timing has to be right. Like you don't wait for them to stick something on Wingsteed Rider, you kill it immediately because there's not much of a window.
Excoriate did a lot of work for me during prerelease, but my #1 non-rare card was easily Bolt of Keranos. Excellent removal for creatures that can go to the face, or kill some planeswalkers.
Nyxborn Cycle: The Black one is bad, the Red one is worse[...]
Nyxborn Eidolon is the worst of the Nyxborn cycle, but black is so deprived of low-drops that a Goblin Piker with upsides is relevant to that color. Nyxborn Rollicker, however, is deceptively powerful. Red is lacking in good cheap heroic enablers and card advantage at common, and Rollicker gives it just that on top of a cheap creature that you can quickly voltron to victory. If I'm playing Red and I see a Rollicker, I always pick it for its versatility alone.
Thou shall never cast Hopeful Eidolon on t1 (unless Ordeal).
Thou will almost always cast Nyxborn Eidolon on t2.
The moment you feel comfortable casting a Bestow creature on its own, you know you struck gold.
I dunno the nonsense some are talking about Nyxborn Eidolon. It's so versatile! It's the card that Fleshmad Steed always aspires to be but tilts instead.
I want to avoid Rare and Mythic discussion here; while they're important to note and are very powerful, they are not going to be pulled very consistently compared to the Commons and Uncommons.
What I'm seeing so far is:
Ephara's Enlightenment: Dropping this T3 on just about anything is super fun! Dropping it T3, then T4 1drop play this again is also nice. It's a repeatable Heroic enabler... that gives flying. Played a bigger creature? Return this to your hand and play it on that! I'll gladly drop this on things with flying just because they get +1/+1 counters. You can very quickly grow anything with Heroic with this card. Good thing Battlewise Hoplite is in colors!!
Loyal Pegasus: I was skeptical about this card at first, the attack/block alone clause really gets to me, but I watched a buddy cram 3 in a deck and have really fast threats. They can attack with each other. I still don't like the 1 toughness, but it is a 1 drop...
Retraction Helix: Super flexible card! For just U you can hit Heroic or Inspired, and save one of your things or set your opponent back! Sprinkle a Triton Tactics in there to just lock boards down for a few turns. This card took me by surprise. It's nice that it's in a different set than Voyage's End as you'll never have to decide between the Scry or the other benefits.
Nyxborn Cycle: The Black one is bad, the Red one is worse, the rest are good. BNG is still slow enough that 5 mana bestow is very relevant and worth the deck space. I do like the White one the most since the stats are solid enough to cause problems and he remains cheap enough to get out early on an Akroan Skyguard; however, the Blue one is the best, in my opinion, more stats, toughness is getting pretty relevant as First Strike and Red removal become more prevalent, and still pretty fair to cast at 5 mana.
Karametra's Favor: It's just Nylea's Presence for creatures... Reprint? Wait! It enables both Heroic and Inspired! Suddenly it's way less bad and reprinty and much more functional! So... Why wasn't one of the two just not printed? I'm assuming that Favor is much better than Presence as it's Ramp, Fix, and Enabling vs just Fix. So... Wow? Talk about subtle. They both exist simply because Green needed (wanted? deserved?) the mana fixing, but not 3 packs worth of picking this; Presence will be in 2 packs so you can't abuse having 5 of these, but you can still pull 1 or 2 normally. Pretty not broken, pretty good planning, pretty functional, pretty cool stuff.
Spiteful Returned: Effectively a +3/+1, and for what it does I think is aggressively cost. The other 4 mana bestowers are either Rare or do not give this kind of offense.
I didn't get to see much else, I only played a Sealed 2HG event all weekend.
"Reveal a Dragon"
Kragma Butcher is an extremely aggressively costed beater, given that it's almost always a 4/3 for 3.
I seem to be the only one that gives forsaken Drifters any love. In the WB and BG decks he's great since they want enchantments and creatures in the graveyard, respectively. With 4 power, he's typically going to trade with something else early to mid-game if they block.
Odunos River Trawler is great. Since there's so many enchantment creatures in the set he's usually just a cheaper Gravedigger.
Noble Quarry can finish games pretty quickly. Given how common it is to end up in a board stall, it can completely swing the game.
The removal in this set is, overall, a lot better than Theros. Asphixiate, Nullify and Fall of the Hammer are especially great and they're all common.
And let's not compare it to Nylea's Presence. One's utility and the other has just one function.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
Maybe I haven't seen enough of Nyxborn Eidolon, but if he's only good in that one BW deck that tries to abuse Enchant recursion... I won't vouch for him, but I guess I'll not knock him.
Asphyxiate and Excoriate feel awkward. Removal is good! Don't get me wrong. But the tapped/untapped clauses are weird; Excoriate lets your opponent attack with the thing you want to kill, and drawing Asphyxiate into a board you're losing just feels bad since the thing you do want to kill is tapped and attacking you. It says removal, I want to kill the thing that I want to kill, but it has these awkward hoops to jump through. Look at Divine Verdict; has a hoop, but allows you to prevent what the big thing does. These two don't prevent the thing, they react to the thing. Does that make them bad? Yes. Does that rule them out of limited? I have no idea. I picked up 3 of these in the event I played, I ended up cutting all three; I talked to some of the other white players and heard similar things, awkward, but some did keep them because "removal".
"Reveal a Dragon"
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
Thou shall never cast Hopeful Eidolon on t1 (unless Ordeal).
Thou will almost always cast Nyxborn Eidolon on t2.
The moment you feel comfortable casting a Bestow creature on its own, you know you struck gold.
I dunno the nonsense some are talking about Nyxborn Eidolon. It's so versatile! It's the card that Fleshmad Steed always aspires to be but tilts instead.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG