Hey guys. This is going to be my review for NPH exclusively for limited (Draft and Sealed). This means I am ONLY going to talk about the commons and uncommons of the set. Please don't look here if you're looking for opinions on what might be good in standard, because frankly I don't really care.
I will be using the scale that Conley Woods has used for his set reviews, as follows:
Conley's Ratings:
5.0: I will always play this card. Period.
4.5: I will almost always play this card, regardless of what else I get.
4.0: I will strongly consider playing this as the only card of its color.
3.5: I feel a strong pull into this card's color.
3.0: This card makes me want to play this color. (Given that I'm playing that color, I will play this card 100% of the time.)
2.5: Several cards of this power level start to pull me into this color. If playing that color, I essentially always play these. (Given that I'm playing that color, I will play this card 90% of the time.)
2.0: If I'm playing this color, I usually play these. (70%)
1.5: This card will make the cut into the main deck about half the times I play this color. (50%)
1.0: I feel bad when this card is in my main deck. (30%)
0.5: There are situations where I might sideboard this into my deck, but I'll never start it. (10%)
0.0: I will never put this card into my deck (main deck or after sideboarding). (0%)
And now, on with the review!
Apostle's Blessing :1mana::sympw:
Instant (C)
Target artifact or creature you control gains protection from artifacts or from the color of your choice until end of turn.
A good trick, but not amazing. This is the trick that sometimes makes your deck a la Tel-Jilad Defiance. Hard to get a lot of value from but will be useful whenever you draw it. 1.5
Auriok Survivors :5mana::symw:
Creature - Human Soldier (U)
When Auriok Survivors enters the battlefield, you may return target Equipment card from your graveyard to the battlefield. If you do, you may attach it to Auriok Survivors.
4/6
The ability is pretty much never going to be useful, making this a vanilla 4/6 for 6. It's a decent body in the same way Hexplate Golem is, but sometimes you'll want it depending on curve. 1.0-1.5
Cathedral Membrane :1mana::sympw:
Artifact Creature - Wall (U)
Defender
When Cathedral Membrane is put into a graveyard from the battlefield during combat, it deals 6 damage to each creature it blocked this combat.
0/3
Can be played in colorless, which makes it an immediate comparison to Wall of Tanglecord. I don't think this is quite as good as Wall of Tanglecord, but it may be a bit better. I'm not sure I will always play this card in any deck, white or not, but it's quite good at what it does. 2.0-2.5
Dispatch
Instant (U)
Tap target creature. Metalcraft - If you control three or more artifacts, exile that creature.
Very mediocre without Metalcraft, very good with it. Since this will be first pack in an artifact lighter pack than MBS or SOM, I don't know how high you can take this to commit. My opinion is still really shaky on this card. 2.5-3.0
Due Respect :1mana::symw:
Instant (U)
Permanents enter the battlefield tapped this turn.
Draw a card.
Doesn't really do much, but it cantrips. Still, significantly worse than Tel-Jilad Defiance as a 2 CMC instant cantrip since you can get good value off of Defiance fairly often. 1.0
Exclusion Ritual :4mana::symw::symw:
Enchantment (U) Imprint - When Exclusion Ritual enters the battlefield, exile target nonland permanent.
Players can't cast spells with the same name as the exiled card.
Removal for anything, compare to Turn to Slag, which has proven to be an extremely good card. 3.0
Significantly weaker than Pacifism, but still removal. Better than Guard Duty, though. 2.5
Inquisitor Exarch :symw::symw:
Creature - Cleric (U)
When Inquisitor Exarch enters the battlefield, choose one - You gain 2 life; or target opponent loses 2 life.
2/2
2 CMC for a 2/2 that does nothing is kind of bad considering how many 2/2s that come down on turn 3 in this block. The ability doesn't really do much, and WW mana cost is a big hit to playability. That said, I'm pretty much always playing him if I have him and I'm in heavy white, since it's fine, but it really doesn't pull me towards white at all. 2.0
Lost Leonin :1mana::symw:
Creature - Cat Soldier (C)
Infect
2/1
The strength of Priests of Norn is that it's good in non-infect, and Tine Shrike pulls me more towards infect than this guy. That said, in terms of mana to power ratio it's a very good infect card. Still, as fragile as Digester means this is going to quickly be dwarfed a lot of times. 2.0
Quite solid body. Will play in a decent number of white decks. 2.0
Marrow Shards
Instant (U)
Marrow Shards deals 1 damage to each attacking creature.
One of the cards I'm not really looking forward to because it changes the entire dynamic of combat in this block. The effect isn't big but it will be very annoying to play against. When you play it it'll often not do much but when you play against it and don't think about the card sometimes you'll just lose to it. 2.0
Master Splicer :3mana::symw:
Creature - Human Artificer (U)
When Master Splicer enters the battlefield, put a 3/3 colorless Golem artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
Golem creatures you control get +1/+1.
1/1
Very good effective power to mana cost ratio. Even if the Splicer dies, it's still a Hill Giant too, which is very solid. I expect this card to be a very high pick. 3.5
Incredibly powerful common. Nothing blocks this effectively, so you can almost think of this as a slightly worse unblockable. Imagine a 3/1 flying for 2 colorless and 2 life, and it's only slightly worse than that. Yes, it dies to every piece of removal in the format, but is still the most efficient common in the entire set. While I can't say I want to pick it as high as a 4.0, if I don't someone else will, and the fact that it's really colorless will make me play it in every deck. 4.0
Remember the Fallen :2mana::symw:
Sorcery (C)
Choose one or both - Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand; and/or return target artifact card from your graveyard to your hand.
When I first saw Morbid Plunder, I thought that card was decent. Playing with it more, it's much more powerful than I first gave it credit for. This card is as good as Morbid Plunder, and splashable. 3.5
Sensor Splicer :4mana::symw:
Creature - Artificer (C)
When Sensor Splicer enters the battlefield, put a 3/3 colorless Golem artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
Golem creatures you control have vigilance.
1/1
Mediocre. Not costed low enough to be aggressive, and 3/3 vigilance isn't the best defensive creature. A filler card. 1.5
Shattered Angel :3mana::symw::symw:
Creature - Angel (U)
Flying
Whenever a land enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, you may gain 3 life.
3/3
5 mana 3/3 fliers have proven to be consistently good in limited. This one has a fairly relevant upside. 3.0
It's better than Tine Shrike, but not by much. 1.5-2.0
Suture Priest :1mana::symw:
Creature - Cleric (C)
Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may gain 1 life.
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, you may have that player lose 1 life.
1/1
Blood Seeker was underrated at first glance by a lot of people. This guy will be pretty good. 2.0
War Report :3mana::symw:
Instant (C)
You gain life equal to the number of creatures on the battlefield plus the number of artifacts on the battlefield.
There has to be some really ridiculous situation for you to ever want to play this card. Nothing but lifegain is clearly bad. 0.0
Argent Mutation :2mana::symu:
Instant (U)
Target permanent becomes an artifact in addition to its other types until end of turn.
Draw a card.
Costs a bit too much; doesn't really do enough. About as good as Steady Progress, which is not really good. 1.0
Arm with Aether :2mana::symu:
Sorcery (U)
Until end of turn, creatures you control gain "Whenever this creatures deals damage to an opponent, you may return target creature that player controls to its owner's hand."
Situational sorcery speed unsummon for 3 mana. Quite bad, but a lot of people will have BCSM (Best Case Scenario Mentality) for this. Really, it's not good. 1.0
Blighted Agent :1mana::symu:
Creature - Human Rogue (C)
Infect
Blighted Agent is unblockable.
1/1
Blue is already a good support color to infect decks. This is one of the best infect 2 drops in that deck. 3.0
Chained Throatseeker :5mana::symu:
Creature - Horror (C)
Infect
Chained Throatseeker can't attack unless defending player is poisoned.
5/5
This guy sort of commits you to poison, since he can never get there by himself without a card like Virulent Wound. Still, the body is solid, and he's very dangerous when active. 2.5
Corrupted Resolve :1mana::symu:
Instant (U)
Counter target spell if its controller is poisoned.
The value of a 2 mana counter over a 3 mana one isn't as high in limited as it is in constructed. Even in infect you will often want to counter something before you can damage your opponent, too, especially in blue, which can often be a control infect deck. Filler card even in the deck that it can be played in. 1.5
Deceiver Exarch :2mana::symu:
Creature - Cleric (U)
Flash
When Deceiver Exarch enters the battlefield, choose one - Untap target permanent you control; or tap target permanent an opponent controls.
1/4
Auriok Replica body with flash and an additional upside. Very solid blue card. 2.5-3.0
Just don't play this thing. It doesn't do anything and is card disadvantage. Should be obvious it's unplayable. Raised to 0.5 because it can turn 1 power infect creatures into 0 power infect creatures, though it's still card disadvantage when you do so. 0.5
Gitaxian Probe
Sorcery (C)
Look at target player's hand.
Draw a card.
A card for when you want to effectively play a 39 card deck. Very good for a cantrip, but it's still mainly useful as a cantrip so you wouldn't play it over business cards. Still, I wouldn't feel bad about playing it in any deck. 2.0
Impaler Shrike :2mana::symu::symu:
Creature - Bird (C)
Flying
When Impaler Shrike deals combat damage to a player, you may sacrifice it. If you do, draw three cards.
3/1
Super solid flying body and card draw. I take my Serum Rakers high and this is significantly better than Serum Raker. 3.5
Mental Misstep
Instant (U)
Counter target spell with converted mana cost 1.
This doesn't do anything in limited. There's very few 1 drops anyone plays and for this to do anything at all you have to draw it before your opponent plays a 1 drop. Don't be deceived by playability in eternal formats, because in limited the only time I'd ever side this into my deck is if I see 3+ 1 drops in game 1. 0.0-0.5
Mindculling :5mana::symu:
Sorcery (U)
You draw two cards and target opponent discards two cards.
A lot of card advantage, but very slow. Can break open an even game, but doesn't pull you out of a losing game and doesn't advance your position too much in a winning game compared to any other 6 drop. I think of it as filler. 1.5
Numbing Dose :3mana::symu::symu:
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant artifact or creature
Enchanted permanent doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.
At the beginning of the upkeep of enchanted permanent's controller, that player loses 1 life.
This is significantly worse than Bonds of Quicksilver, which is a card I don't like playing maindeck. It's okay, it's removal, and it can kill someone, but don't expect very much out of it. 1.5
Psychic Barrier :symu::symu:
Instant (C)
Counter target creature spell. Its controller loses 1 life.
This counter is actually quite decent in limited. Don't overrate it, as it has the same weaknesses of all counters in limited, forcing you to have untapped mana when the opponent plays a spell and not after, but it's not bad. UU is a big hit, though. 2.0
See what I said about Shattered Angel. Hard to make this combat trick a real combat trick, because it's so obvious in the same way Darksteel Sentinel is obvious, but the body for the mana cost is good. 3.0
Tezzeret's Gambit :3mana::sympu:
Sorcery (U)
Draw two cards, then proliferate.
A high pick for any color, as it provides card advantage which many colors don't get easy access to. Very few decks will not play this card. 3.5
Vapor Snag
Instant (C)
Return target creature to its owner's hand. Its controller loses 1 life.
A good trick, essentially no difference from Unsummon yet still strictly better. 2.0
This is a card that when played, will singlehandedly shift the focus of the game to itself. That's usually a sign of a very powerful card. Very little removal actually kills this guy and he's incredibly hard to block profitably. This is a legitimate uncommon first pick, and a card you really want to open. 4.0
Wing Splicer :3mana::symu:
Creature - Human Artificer (U)
When Wing Splicer enters the battlefield, put a 3/3 colorless Golem artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
Golem creatures you control have flying.
1/1
Very good body for the mana cost. Be careful, though, as you might get blown out by losing the Splicer himself in the middle of combat and running your golem into a bigger creature. 3.0
Blind Zealot :1mana::symb::symb:
Creature - Human Cleric (C)
Intimidate
Whenever Blind Zealot deals combat damage to a player, you may sacrifice it. If you do, destroy target creature that player controls.
2/2
First pickable common removal + creature. It's not as hard to block as you'd think, though, and not really splashable, but it's both aggressively costed for the evasion and able to be a strong removal card. 3.5
Caress of Phyrexia :3mana::symb::symb:
Sorcery (U)
Target player draws three cards, loses 3 life, and gets 3 poison counters.
It can do a lot of things, and isn't amazing at any of them. Usually, you'd want to draw with this, but it can be very punishing against infect. It can be a win condition in infect, but is a very clunky way to poison someone. As a base 5 mana draw 3 cards lose 3 life, it's okay but not amazing, and I feel like it's a little worse than that. Still, card advantage is fine, and I'll probably run this most black decks. 2.0-2.5
Dementia Bat :4mana::symb:
Creature - Bat (C)
Flying
:4mana::symb:, Sacrifice Dementia Bat: Target player discards two cards.
2/2
Mediocre body, mediocre effect. Too slow at either. Too bad black can't get those 5 mana 3/3 fliers that blue and white does. 1.5
Despise
Sorcery (U)
Target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose a creature or planeswalker card from it. That player discards that card.
Doesn't do as much as you really want to in limited, but still good. Duress was a card you usually played and this is more relevant than Duress. 2.5
Dismember :1mana::sympb::sympb:
Instant (U)
Target creature gets -5/-5 until end of turn.
Incredibly good. Better than Grasp of Darkness, Spread the Sickness, or Go for the Throat most of the time. There are very few cards I'd ever pass this up for.
4.5
Enslave :4mana::symb::symb:
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant creature
You control enchanted creature.
At the beginning of your upkeep, enchanted creature deals 1 damage to its owner.
Mind Control is incredible in limited. It has an upside but costs 1 more mana. Still, see the note for Dismember. 4.5
Entomber Exarch :2mana::symb::symb:
Creature - Cleric (U)
When Entomber Exarch enters the battlefield, choose one - Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand; or target opponent reveals his or her hand, you choose a noncreature card from it, then that player discards that card.
2/2
I really like this card. It combines 2 strong black cards that were in M11: Duress and Gravedigger, and puts them into 1. 3.0
Evil Presence
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant land
Enchanted land is a Swamp.
Nothing I can say about this card that shouldn't be obvious. Don't play it unless your opponent is playing some kind of monstrosity of a manabase, and even then, probably don't play it. 0.0
Geth's Verdict :symb::symb:
Instant (C)
Target player sacrifices a creature and loses 1 life.
There are a lot of small creatures in this format. It's really good that this is instant, but the chance of hitting something very good with it are low. 2.5-3.0
Grim Affliction :2mana::symb:
Instant (C)
Put a -1/-1 counter on target creature, then proliferate.
More super strong black removal. Weaker than the last few, but still very good. This is the one that doesn't draw you into the color by itself, though, but you always like having it. 3.0
Ichor Explosion :5mana::symb::symb:
Sorcery (U)
As an additional cost to cast Ichor Explosion, sacrifice a creature.
All creatures get -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the sacrificed creature's power.
There are very few situations where this card is actually good. Expect a lot of BCSM and a lot of disappointment. It's just too slow and too situational. You have to survive to 7 mana, have a medium sized creature, and still be alive while your opponent has multiple creatures out for this to do anything. Your opponent has to have 3 creatures to get card advantage out of a 7 mana spell at all, and you have to give up a reasonable creature. Also worthless when you're in a good position and super worthless when you don't have a creature. 1.0
Mortis Dogs :3mana::symb:
Creature - Hound (C)
Whenever Mortis Dogs attacks, it gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
When Mortis Dogs is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, target player loses life equal to its power.
2/2
Strong aggressive card, just like Loxodon Convert. In fact, quite a bit better than Convert. Will get through damage and trade in pretty much any situation, if it's not just taking 1/5 of your opponent's life total out every turn. 2.5
Parasitic Implant :3mana::symb:
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
At the beginning of your upkeep, enchanted creature's controller sacrifices it and you put a 1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
A removal spell with a lot of weaknesses, but can still get the job done. I don't think I'd ever like to play it, but it's definitely not unplayable. 1.5
Pith Driller :4mana::sympb:
Artifact Creature - Horror (C)
When Pith Driller enters the battlefield, put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
2/4
Good body that also can kill or cripple opposing creatures. There aren't many times I wouldn't want to play this. 3.0-3.5
Postmortem Lunge :xmana::sympb:
Sorcery (U)
Return target creature card with converted mana cost X from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.
Extremely BCSM card. People always look at a card like this and think about bringing back a big creature and killing someone with it, but this kind of card is traditionally just very bad. On top of that, this is more inefficient than traditional effects of this kind. 1.0-1.5
Reaper of Sheoldred :4mana::symb:
Creature - Horror (U)
Infect
Whenever a source deals damage to Reaper of Sheoldred, that source's controller gets a poison counter.
2/5
Another infect creature that will take over a game when played. Everything I said about Viral Drake applies. He's very hard to block, very hard to remove, and punishes the opponent for getting rid of it a lot of times. 4.0
Too expensive for too small of a body. It's got a huge weakness to a big portion of the removal in the block, too. While a 4 power infecter can sound strong on paper, think about how little you want to ever play Dross Harvester, and note that this guy is easier to kill. 1.0
For a 1/1, it's very solid. This is a 1/1 attacker I wouldn't mind playing, which is usually untrue about 1/1 attackers. 2.0-2.5
Whispering Specter :1mana::symb::symb:
Creature - Specter (U)
Flying
Infect
Whenever Whispering Specter deals combat damage to a player, you may sacrifice it. If you do, that player discards a card for each poison counter he or she has.
1/1
Very strong infect card. Like a slower Plague Stinger, but can put an opponent down and prevent them from recovering sometimes. If you drop if after you've dealt a bit of damage to the opponent, and they don't have an immediate answer, this guy can just put your opponent so far behind from a single swing that they simply can't recover. 3.5
Act of Aggression :3mana::sympr::sympr:
Instant (U)
Gain control of target creature an opponent controls until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste until end of turn.
I originally read this as a sorcery, and thought it was quite bad. Knowing it's a sorcery, this is actually a very strong combat trick that people need to watch out for. 3.0
Artillerize :3mana::symr:
Instant (C)
As an additional cost to cast Artillerize, sacrifice an artifact or creature.
Artillerize deals 5 damage to target creature or player.
It's a removal spell, can sometimes give a little value. It's a little better than Fling, but not by that much. Holding 4 mana back is definitely a lot. 2.0-2.5
Fallen Ferromancer :3mana::symr:
Creature - Human Shaman (U)
Infect
:1mana::symr:, :: Fallen Ferromancer deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
1/1
I was thinking this was solid because it's a pinger, but it's significantly better than most pingers we've seen. This is closer to Trigon of Corruption than it is to Prodigal Pyromancer, in a format with a lot more 1/1s as well. It's fragile and slow, not as strong as Vedalken Anatomist but still very strong. The fact that red looks a bit weaker in this format gives more reason to cut it off and take this card. 3.5 - 4.0
Flameborn Viron :4mana::symr::symr:
Creature - Insect (C)
6/4
Another card for the RG dinos deck, worse than pretty much all the other dinos but still gets the job done. 2.0
Furnace Scamp
Creature - Beast (C)
Whenever Furnace Scamp deals combat damage to a player, you may sacrifice it. If you do, Furnace Scamp deals 3 damage to that player.
1/1
Not useful in limited, and even in constructed this might only see play in a super specific deck. 0.5
Geosurge :symr::symr::symr::symr:
Sorcery (U)
Add :symr::symr::symr::symr::symr::symr::symr: to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast artifact or creature spells.
I can't see myself ever playing this card. 0.0
Gut Shot
Instant (U)
Gut Shot deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
Remember when Wizards said Hornet Sting isn't green for any particular reason because any color could get an effect like that? Well... It's actually quite playable in this block because of the abundance of 1 toughness creatures. 2.5
Ogre Menial :3mana::symr:
Creature - Ogre (C)
Infect
:symr:: Ogre Menial gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
0/4
You probably won't ever get there on red infect, making this guy not that good. It does fight well with most creatures so, so it's not horrible, but having this guy in a deck probably means he's not going to do much relevant damage to your opponent. 1.5
Priest of Urabrask :2mana::symr:
Creature - Human Cleric (U)
When Priest of Urabrask enters the battlefield, add :symr::symr::symr: to your mana pool.
2/1
Moderately sized body that lets you play another card on turn 3. Not bad, but definitely doesn't push me towards red. 2.0
Rage Extractor :4mana::sympr:
Artifact (U)
Whenever you cast a spell with ϕ in its mana cost, Rage Extractor deals damage equal to that spell's converted mana cost to target creature or player.
I don't think you can expect to pick up enough Phyrexian mana cards to make this card really do anything, and I don't think you can expect to cast this before most of them either. While it can do something, it's a very BCSM card and will almost never do anything useful. Imagine if Furnace Celebration only had 1 pack to work off of and was harder to trigger. 0.5-1.0
Sometimes this card will win games. Still, the only time this kind of card has decent has been Concussive Bolt, and this is nowhere near as good as Concussive Bolt. Definitely don't BCSM this card. 1.0
Scrapyard Salvo :1mana::symr::symr:
Sorcery (C)
Scrapyard Salvo deals damage to target player equal to the number of artifact cards in your graveyard.
If it said creature or player, it might be solid removal, if a little on the weak side. As is, this card is pretty awful. 1.0
Not bad as a card to just put in a good portion of decks. 4 mana 4/2 with a relevant ability for any color or 5 mana 4/2 haste in red is fine. 2.0
Tormentor Exarch :3mana::symr:
Creature - Cleric (U)
When Tormentor Exarch enters the battlefield, choose one - Target creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn; or target creature gets -0/-2 until end of turn.
2/2
This guy is very good, and definitely pulls me into red. First good card in an apparently very weak color. 3.0
Victorious Destruction :4mana::symr:
Sorcery (C)
Destroy target artifact or land. Its controller loses 1 life.
Mediocre. If it weren't for this being a Mirrodin block, this card would be really bad, instead, it's just a mediocre removal spell. 1.5
Volt Charge :2mana::symr:
Instant (C)
Volt Charge deals 3 damage to target creature or player. Proliferate.
Second actually good card. Traditionally good burn spell, definitely first pickable. 3.5
Vulshok Refugee :1mana::symr::symr:
Creature - Human Warrior (U)
Protection from red
3/2
Solid body, but not splashable. The protection is pretty good, too. Still, this color looks weak. 2.5
Whipflare :1mana::symr:
Instant (U)
Whipflare deals 2 damage to each nonartifact creature.
Seems pretty decent, but you have to consider that when you think of 1-2 toughness creatures, you're often thinking of artifact creatures, particularly Myr. Still, it's a sweeper and those are generally good to have. 3.5
Beast Within :2mana::symg:
Instant (U)
Destroy target permanent. Its controller puts a 3/3 green Beast creature token onto the battlefield.
Pretty good. Has a lot of utility, but the 3/3 in limited is a lot better than a 3/3 in constructed. Don't know how high I'd pick it, but it's a good card. 2.5
Brutalizer Exarch :5mana::symg:
Creature - Cleric (U)
When Brutalizer Exarch enters the battlefield, choose one - Search your library for a creature card, reveal it, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it; or put target noncreature permanent on the bottom of its owner's library.
3/3
It's very expensive, but both its abilities are useful. While it's slow, casting it will give you a good effect in any situation. 3.0
Corrosive Gale :xmana::sympg:
Sorcery (U)
Corrosive Gale deals X damage to each creature with flying.
Pretty much a sideboard card. A bit better than the rest of the flying hate in the block, but it's the quintessential sideboard card. 0.5
Death-Hood Cobra :1mana::symg:
Creature - Snake (C)
:1mana::symg:: Death-Hood Cobra gains reach until end of turn.
:1mana::symg:: Death-Hood Cobra gains deachtouch until end of turn.
2/2
A bear with some use even after bigger creatures come down. Quite solid. 2.5
Glissa's Scorn :1mana::symg:
Instant (C)
Destroy target artifact. Its controller loses 1 life.
It's a Shatter with upside. Not much to say about this card. 3.0-3.5
Maybe this will herald serious aggro infect decks in Standard. This is limited, though, and he's quite mediocre. The fact that any X/2 makes you not really want to swing with this guy, in a deck that wants to do nothing but swing makes this feel really useless sometimes. 1.5
Greenhilt Trainee :3mana::symg:
Creature - Elf Warrior (U)
:symtap:: Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn. Activate this ability only if Greenholt Trainee's power is 4 or greater.
2/3
Significantly worse than Blooshot Trainee. Killing a creature is worth holding back a 4 power dude. Pumping another one of your creatures isn't really. 2.0
Leeching Bite :1mana::symg:
Instant (C)
Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Another target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
It's a significant combat trick that doubles as removal. Because of the -1/-1, I expect this to be better than almost every traditional Giant Growth effect. 2.5
Maul Splicer :6mana::symg:
Creature - Human Artificer (C)
When Maul Splicer enters the battlefield, put two 3/3 colorless Golem artifact creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Golem creatures you control have trample.
1/1
Too expensive, and Trample doesn't really do anything. Probably the worst of the Splicers by a large margin. Still, it's technically a 3-for-1, but then you realize that Hearthcage Giant wasn't that good and for 1 more mana than this guy, you got a 5/5 and 2 3/1s and this guy looks really weak. 1.0
Mutagenic Growth
Instant (C)
Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
It's alright. The real power of this card is surprising opponents game 1 when they can't really play around this card. Other than that, a Giant Growth is always pretty decent, and this will be particularly strong in Infect. 2.5
Mycosynth Fiend :2mana::symg:
Creature - Horror (U)
Mycosynth Fiend gets +1/+1 for each poison counter your opponents have.
2/2
I can't really see this guy fitting in any deck for what it's trying to do. Maybe you'll cast a Virulent Wound and a Spread the Sickness in a non-Infect deck and this will be pretty good, but other than that, he's just a Gray Ogre. 1.5-2.0
Noxious Revival
Instant (U)
Put target card from a graveyard on top of its owner's library.
I'm not sure when you'd ever want to play this card. Pretty bad. 1.0
Another dino that's worse than all the other existing dinos, except this time it's by a pretty large margin. The drop from 5-6 power to 3 is a pretty big drop. I'm not sure I'd want this very much even in the deck that it fits in. 1.5
Spinebiter :4mana::symg::symg:
Creature - Beast (U)
Infect
You may have Spinebiter assign its combat damage as though it weren't blocked.
3/4
It's a decent infect card. The ability, however, sort of works against what you want to do with infect on a 4 toughness body, which is kill off smaller creatures. Hitting someone's life total effectively makes this a Craw Wurm with the Thorn Elemental ability, which would be good, but we expect more aggressive costing on infect creatures so I don't know how good it really is. 2.5
It's quite good at 4 mana and 4 life, and also quite good for 6 mana in green. Solid beatstick in a lot of decks, though I'd be pretty reluctant to play it in a non-green deck because the 4 life can sometimes just make it so you never want to play it and it's a dead card. 2.5
Triumph of the Hordes :2mana::symg::symg:
Sorcery (U)
Until end of turn, creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain trample and infect.
A fixed Overrun. Can sometimes just end games, but doesn't consistently just win the game the moment it resolves. The strength of Overrun is that if you don't kill the opponent, you just wrecked their board and put yourself in a near-win situation. When this card doesn't win the game, it puts yourself in a much less instant win situation, but it can still be a strong card. 3.0
Viridian Betrayers :1mana::symg::symg:
Creature - Elf Warrior (C)
Viridian Betrayers has infect as long as an opponent is poisoned.
3/1
A solid body that's interesting because it's solid no matter what deck you're playing. Take it high if you're infect, and play it if you have it if you're not infect. 3.0
Viridian Harvest
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant artifact
When enchanted artifact is put into a graveyard, you gain 6 life.
Unplayable. 0.0
Vital Splicer :3mana::symg:
Creature - Human Artificer (U)
When Vital Splicer enters the battlefield, put a 3/3 colorless Golem artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
:1mana:: Regenerate target Golem you control.
1/1
Pretty decent for a Splicer. Doesn't immediately stand out to me as amazing but I don't dislike it at all. 2.5
Alloy Myr
Artifact creature - Myr (U)
:symtap:: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
2/2
It's good. Not quite as good as Palladium, about as good as any of the mana Myr. 3.0
Very strong card in any color, one of the best commons in the set if you're in white. 3 toughness is awesome, and the ability is very good. 3.5
Conversion Chamber
Artifact (U)
:2mana:, :symtap:: Exile target artifact card from a graveyard. Put a charge counter on Conversion Chamber.
:2mana:, :symtap:, Remove a charge counter from Conversion Chamber: Put a 3/3 colorless Golem artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
It's probably the only remotely playable "put charge counters, remove them to get creatures" card in the block. It's not amazing, but can be very solid. When it gets going, especially with Proliferate, it can be good, but even then, it's quite slow to just get vanilla 3/3s. 2.0
Darksteel Relic
Artifact (U)
Darksteel Relic is indestructible.
This is a lot worse than Liquimetal Coating, and Liquimetal Coating is not a card I generally want to play. I can't give it just a 0.0 though because unlike all the other cards I gave an 0.0, and despite this card's card text, this actually does -something-. 0.0-0.5
Gremlin Mine
Artifact (C)
:1mana:, :symtap:, Sacrifice Gremlin Mine: Gremlin Mine deals 4 damage to target artifact creature.
:1mana:, :symtap:, Sacrifice Gremlin Mind: Remove up to four charge counters from target noncreature artifact.
I feel like this will have a use against every deck you play against. While it looks kind of narrow at first glance, the cheap cost and fact that so much of the block is artifact creatures and charge counter cards means I think this is actually very good. 3.0
It's okay as a filler card, but doesn't really do that much. 2 toughness doesn't really block all that much to make the Vigilance relevant. The weakness of this guy compared to the Skirge is that on this body, the Vigilance is just much less useful than Lifelink. 1.5
Immolating Souleater
Artifact Creature - Hound (C)
:sympr:: Immolating Souleater gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
1/1
I don't think I often want to go all in on this card. It dies in combat to everything, and on a creature with no evasion, I just don't think it will ever do anything that relevant. It can get in a little damage, but then it will cost mana if you want to not be losing out on the life trade. A filler card sometimes. 1.5
Insatiable Souleater
Artfact Creature - Beast (C)
:sympg:: Insatiable Souleater gains trample until end of turn.
5/1
It's about as bad as Scoria Elemental. Sure, it's not that bad since it will probably do some damage and is colorless, but better than Scoria Elemental doesn't exactly mean much. 1.0
Isolation Cell
Artifact (U)
Whenever an opponent casts a creature spell, that player loses 2 life unless he or she pays :2mana:.
Costs too much and doesn't really do anything. Don't play this card. 1.0
Kiln Walker
Artifact Creature - Construct (U)
Whenever Kiln Walker attacks, it gets +3/+0 until end of turn.
0/3
Not bad. It's very efficient on offense and can block bears without dying, though you don't really want to block with this guy. 2.0-2.5
Mindcrank
Artifact (U)
Whenever an opponent loses life, that player puts that many cards from the top of his or her library into his or her graveyard. (Damage dealt by sources without infect causes loss of life.)
Please don't play mill, especially not mill that relies on a non-mill win condition happening. This card is just horrible. 0.0
Mycosynth Wellspring
Artifact (C)
When Mycosynth Wellspring enters the battlefield or is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
A little worse than Ichor Wellspring, but it's still very good, and a card you can build around. 3.0
Necropouncer
Artifact Creature - Equipment (U)
Living weapon
Equipped creature gets +3/+1 and has haste.
Equip
It's not horrible, but I feel like it's the Living Weapon where the Living Weapon matters the least. When you cast it, a 3/1 haste will probably not be doing anything relevant, but putting it on a creature for 2 mana can often give a huge boost. It also makes your later creature draws very dangerous for your opponent. 2.0-2.5
Pestilent Souleater
Artifact Creature - Insect (C)
:sympb:: Pestilent Souleater gains infect until end of turn.
3/3
Not bad, not great. I don't feel bad playing him in infect, but I would if I wasn't in infect. 1.5-2.0
Phyrexian Hulk
Artifact Creature - Golem (C)
5/4
Another dino. I'm not sure he's as good as Hexplate Golem, but he is definitely better than Razorfield Thresher. A filler dino for the deck. 1.5
Pristine Talisman
Artifact (C)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool. You gain 1 life.
Signets are nice, even if they don't mana fix and cost 3. The lifegain is actually quite good. 3.0
Shrine of Boundless Growth
Artifact (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep or whenever you cast a green spell, put a charge counter on Shrine of Boundless Growth.
:symtap:, Sacrifice Shrine of Boundless Growth: Add to your mana pool for each charge counter on Shrine of Boundless Growth.
I don't see what this card really does. It gets you mana very slowly. I can't see myself ever playing this card. 0.0
Shrine of Burning Rage
Artifact (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep or whenever you cast a red spell, put a charge counter on Shrine of Burning Rage.
:3mana:, :symtap:, Sacrifice Shrine of Burning Rage: Shrine of Burning Rage deals damage equal to the number of charge counters on it to target creature or player.
Probably the best of the Shrines. It's actually a solid removal card for any deck, though beware that it's a horrible topdeck. 3.0
Shrine of Limitless Power
Artifact (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep or whenever you cast a black spell, put a charge counter on Shrine of Limitless Power.
:4mana:, :symtap:, Sacrifice Shrine of Limitless Power: Target player discards a card for each charge counter on Shrine of Limitless Power.
Again, I don't see this card ever really doing anything. Slightly better than the green one I guess. 0.5
Shrine of Loyal Legions
Artifact (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep or whenever you cast a white spell, put a charge counter on Shrine of Loyal Legions.
:3mana:, :symtap:, Sacrifice Shrine of Loyal Legions: Put a 1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature token onto the battlefield for each charge counter on Shrine of Loyal Legions.
It doesn't give you incremental advantage as a lot of token producers do, so it can be hard to know exactly when to use it, but it's quite good. Sometimes you crack this card and just win the game. 2.5-3.0
Shrine of Piercing Vision
Artifact (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep or whenever you cast a blue spell, put a charge counter on Shrine of Piercing Vision.
:symtap:, Sacrifice Shrine of Piercing Vision: Look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of charge counters on Shrine of Piercing Vision. Put one of those cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
It's basically a delayed cantrip with slight upside. However, the upside isn't really all that great. I probably only want to play this card as filler, but it's not bad filler since it enables metalcraft while in play. 2.0
Gray Ogre Living Weapon? I like it a lot. Expect it to be a lot stronger than it looks at first glance. 3.0
Surge Node
Artifact (U)
Surge Node enters the battlefield with six charge counters on it.
:1mana:, :symtap:, Remove a charge counter from Surge Node: Put a charge counter on target artifact.
Seems too situational to me. There are very few cards that use charge counters that are worth spending a whole card on recharging them to be useful. 1.0
Trespassing Souleater
Artifact Creature - Construct (C)
:sympu:: Trespassing Souleater is unblockable this turn.
2/2
This guy can wear away at an opponent without them being able to do anything. Very solid in blue, and still quite good in any color. 2.5
Phyrexia's Core
Land (U)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
:1mana:, :symtap:, Sacrifice an artifact: You gain 1 life.
This land is probably even worse than Glimmerpost for most decks, can be useful in decks that want sacrifice outlets. Take it if you need it, don't expect that much though. 1.0
Impressions:
Blue and White look very solid. Red and Green are full of mediocre cards. There are a lot of artifacts that seem fine in any deck. Black has tons of amazing removal. I feel like, looking at the commons and uncommons, I want to be in blue/black, which is further reinforced by the fact that blue and black are very strong in Mirrodin Besieged. This set actually allows you to go into a UB infect deck and have it not be shaky, but time will tell whether or not that's a really good deck or not.
On the other hand, there are a lot of very bomby rares in this set, which is a concern of mine. I feel like a large portion of deck colors will just be determined by which bomb rare you opened, in a way similar to MBS. In MSS, the 2nd pick often means nothing at all because you just see a pack with the rare taken, because MBS has a lot of bomb rares, and I'm afraid that NPH might be like that as well. Still, though, I'd have to draft with this set to say how much I really like it. The strong commons and uncommons do look very fun to play with, at least.
Phyrexia's Core is a free pickup to cycle Wellsprings for non-red decks.
Defensive Stance is pseudo-removal vs 1 power infect dudes, which there are quite a number of. A control deck doesn't care about 0/2 infect walls. Not good, but not 0.0
Phyrexia's Core is a free pickup to cycle Wellsprings for non-red decks.
Defensive Stance is pseudo-removal vs 1 power infect dudes, which there are quite a number of. A control deck doesn't care about 0/2 infect walls. Not good, but not 0.0
Updated to add these interactions. Phyrexia's Core is playable in the deck but no one should want it high and it's a land you might as well as throw into the deck in the right deck.
Defensive Stance is 0.5 because it will only be sided in against infect, and only certain infect decks, and will still be only mediocre against those decks, but does have sideboard use as you pointed out.
Your post was very good ... Seemed like a lot of cards for one sitting to read about but I agreed with you on a lot of things.
One card in particular you severly underrated was Act of aggression, it is extremely amazing against infect and still decent against everything else. One of the big things you missed was that it is instant making you be able to steal your opponents 2/1 infect guy and block his ichor claw myr with it... Plus against infect decks it rarely matters how much life you spend so leaving 3 mana up could mean several combat tricks in a white deck now. I'd say definetly a 2.0 - 2.5 with it actually being better the fewer removal spells you actually have since you'll have more options.
I also thought the draw 2 target player discards 2 is going to be a pretty relavent card since it's the first real playable discard spell printed in the block... A very good win more type of card if you fan get to the mana with a decent board position.
Forced Worship I feel isn't too strong since it's almost worse than bonds of quicksilver in some cases. Fallen ferromancer feels really really vulnerable at 1 toughness so giving it 3.0 is very generous as it's extermely weak to red and black removal and I'm not a fan of priest of ... Gheix (you know the one) since having a red aggro deck needing a 2/1 is not likely since most the time red can quickly need to be defensive against infect.
One final note green and artifact cards don't have references to them but I was able to flip between the spoiler to get the text.
I just wanted to note that ultima66 sounds like a solid player (this coming from a 1900+ limited rated player [honestly not trying to brag but just clarifying I'm not a scrub]) so I'd take his advise if you don't know much about limited, though I differ slightly on opinion on some cards most are absolutely spot on.
Final final note the red artifact the deals damage = phyrexia mana gets much much better in a triple new phyrexia draft so if your like the shop near me and draw triple new set for a while don't be surprised the amount of card advantage you'll get off this bad boy.
Your post was very good ... Seemed like a lot of cards for one sitting to read about but I agreed with you on a lot of things.
One card in particular you severly underrated was Act of aggression, it is extremely amazing against infect and still decent against everything else. One of the big things you missed was that it is instant making you be able to steal your opponents 2/1 infect guy and block his ichor claw myr with it... Plus against infect decks it rarely matters how much life you spend so leaving 3 mana up could mean several combat tricks in a white deck now. I'd say definetly a 2.0 - 2.5 with it actually being better the fewer removal spells you actually have since you'll have more options.
I also thought the draw 2 target player discards 2 is going to be a pretty relavent card since it's the first real playable discard spell printed in the block... A very good win more type of card if you fan get to the mana with a decent board position.
Forced Worship I feel isn't too strong since it's almost worse than bonds of quicksilver in some cases. Fallen ferromancer feels really really vulnerable at 1 toughness so giving it 3.0 is very generous as it's extermely weak to red and black removal and I'm not a fan of priest of ... Gheix (you know the one) since having a red aggro deck needing a 2/1 is not likely since most the time red can quickly need to be defensive against infect.
One final note green and artifact cards don't have references to them but I was able to flip between the spoiler to get the text.
I just wanted to note that ultima66 sounds like a solid player (this coming from a 1900+ limited rated player [honestly not trying to brag but just clarifying I'm not a scrub]) so I'd take his advise if you don't know much about limited, though I differ slightly on opinion on some cards most are absolutely spot on.
Final final note the red artifact the deals damage = phyrexia mana gets much much better in a triple new phyrexia draft so if your like the shop near me and draw triple new set for a while don't be surprised the amount of card advantage you'll get off this bad boy.
Oh, I must have misread Act of Aggression then. I read it as a Sorcery. As an instant, yes, that makes it quite a good combat trick.
I don't think I put Mindculling at an incorrect rating, and I don't really think it's a win-more card. It's a lot of card advantage when it works, it just comes down very late and I don't think you want to play that many 6 drops. 1.5 is supposed to be filler, and I guess it's closer to a solid card that will usually get played when I have it, which I guess puts it at 2.0, but I don't think I'm really misevaluating it.
I don't think Forced Worship is worse than Bonds because the main problem I have with Bonds is simply that it costs too much mana. 3 mana seems much more reasonable for a mediocre pseudo removal spell, and it actually deals with the creature before it gets to attack you. Maybe it's closer to 2.0 also, but it seems fine to me.
The pinger is slow like I said and vulnerable, but it's still a pinger. Embersmith is also very vulnerable and takes mana, and is situational, and is extremely good. The pinger also deals with things bigger than 1 toughness too. No matter how many weaknesses a pinger has, they tend to always just be very good in limited because they're repeatable removal.
I don't think the Priest is really good either, but I feel like Oxidda Daredevil is playable enough and good in certain decks, and Priest is a little better.
I disagree with some of your ratings, but it's hard to rate brand new cards without playing with them and you put yourself out there so kudos.
Caress of Phyrexia - It's slow and clunky, but card advantange is card advantage. In infect it has the added bonus of being a Lava Axe if your opponent has 7 poison counters. Obviously I'll side it out against infect but I'd never cut it from the main. I'd rate it a 3.0.
Act of Aggression - This is the only card that jumped out at me where your rating is way off. It's a windmill slam first pick. If this is in your hand your opponent almost certainly has no good attacks. Dismember is awesome but at the end of the day it's 1-for-1 removal. AoA will sometimes just take out an attacker but it's not hard to get two cards out of it and sometimes it's just good old Threaten. AND it's colorless. The scale kind of breaks down on this since it's colorless and I will always play it, period, but it's not deserving of a 5.0. Easily 4.5 though, the only non-rare I would consider taking over it is Enslave.
And some minor quibbles on ratings. I'd splash red just for Volt Charge, which makes it a 4.0. Ditto for Glissa's Scorn. Leeching Bite is a 3.0, I'd never cut that from my deck if I'm in green.
Overall your ratings seem pretty reasonable, nice work. Kind of makes me want to do one for the rares
I disagree with some of your ratings, but it's hard to rate brand new cards without playing with them and you put yourself out there so kudos.
Caress of Phyrexia - It's slow and clunky, but card advantange is card advantage. In infect it has the added bonus of being a Lava Axe if your opponent has 7 poison counters. Obviously I'll side it out against infect but I'd never cut it from the main. I'd rate it a 3.0.
Act of Aggression - This is the only card that jumped out at me where your rating is way off. It's a windmill slam first pick. If this is in your hand your opponent almost certainly has no good attacks. Dismember is awesome but at the end of the day it's 1-for-1 removal. AoA will sometimes just take out an attacker but it's not hard to get two cards out of it and sometimes it's just good old Threaten. AND it's colorless. The scale kind of breaks down on this since it's colorless and I will always play it, period, but it's not deserving of a 5.0. Easily 4.5 though, the only non-rare I would consider taking over it is Enslave.
And some minor quibbles on ratings. I'd splash red just for Volt Charge, which makes it a 4.0. Ditto for Glissa's Scorn. Leeching Bite is a 3.0, I'd never cut that from my deck if I'm in green.
Overall your ratings seem pretty reasonable, nice work. Kind of makes me want to do one for the rares
Caress of Phyrexia is where it is because I will side it out against infect. I feel like a 3.0 is a card I will always play in the color, and this is not true about Caress. Also, I realize that it's card advantage but I think that you're overrating the pure card advantage aspect of it a bit. I feel like Vivisection is a solid 3.0 that you can splash, and I think Vivisection is a better card than Caress.
I went back over Act of Aggression. I now think it is a 3.0. Yes, it is much better than a Threaten being an instant, and easily makes strong 2 for 1's, but remember that it's still conditional. Your opponent DOES need to have 2 attacking creatures for it to be a blowout, and 4 life does matter. With those drawbacks in mind, I think it's a 3.0.
As for Volt Charge and Glissa's Scorn, they ARE the Shatter/Galvanic Blast/Revoke Existence of the set. They are very high pick 1 for 1 removal commons that you splash. The reason I put them where they are is because I just think that they're lower than a true 4.0 in terms of raw power. Like you said, artifacts are differently rated because the scale generally talks about cards being committing to a certain color. This is true in general, which is a weakness of the scale. You cannot get through all the vectors of how good or bad a card is based on a simple numerical scale. The reason it is there is simply to be a quick measure of how good cards are you can see at a glance, but I don't personally like it very much. It is simply for the convenience of others.
I would actually rate Vivisection where you have Caress, as a 2.0-2.5. I only want to play it if I have a couple of guys I can sac for value like Oculus or Myr Sire. I don't usually want to play Vivisection as soon as I have 4 mana since it will probably put me pretty far behind on the board but I wouldn't have a problem casting Caress on turn 5.
But I ain't budging on Act, it's one of the best cards in the set. You don't need them to have two attackers to blow them out, just one attacker and a creature that trades with it will do the trick. Agree to disagree I suppose, I just hope everyone at the prerelease values it as low as you so I can wreck them with it Blind With Anger was the nuts in CHK and Act is better.
Very good post; agreed with you on most of these. I was kind of surprised to see you underrate some of the shrines so deeply because you can crank up the charge counters on those surprisingly fast. If you're in one or two colors, you can easily have them up to 3-4 counters the turn after you play them, even more so if you're playing blue and have lots of little counters and cantrips.
Also, to Duncan, I think fallen feromancer is pretty awesome personally. He's a little expensive in terms of the overall mana you need to sink into him, but he is an infecting pinger, meaning that he essentially sticks on -1/-1 counters for 2 mana a turn. 3.0 might be a little high of a rating, but he definitely falls at least into the 2.5 category.
Also, I think you missed a few cards like the prateors, blade splicer, and batterskull were the ones I noticed.
I'm not convinced Viral Drake is first pick rediculous. Very mana intensive.
The fact is, the moment he comes down on the board, the game becomes about the Drake. In limited it's like playing against Jace: the longer it's active the less chance you have of winning. Think about how highly you pick other creatures like that: Phyrexian Juggernaut, Vedalken Anatomist, Golem Artisan.
Very good post; agreed with you on most of these. I was kind of surprised to see you underrate some of the shrines so deeply because you can crank up the charge counters on those surprisingly fast. If you're in one or two colors, you can easily have them up to 3-4 counters the turn after you play them, even more so if you're playing blue and have lots of little counters and cantrips.
Yes, I realize this. I was rating them by their effect. If I get 4+ tokens for 5 mana, that's good. The red one does a significant amount of damage, that's good. The green one makes mana, and it just doesn't DO anything. The black one is a very expensive way to make an opponent discard, and they can easily play around it when they see it. The blue one is a cantrip no matter how fully charged it is: it can never be all that powerful. Even assuming you take 2 turns and get 4 counters on the green or black shrines, they tend to not really do anything useful.
Also, I think you missed a few cards like the prateors, blade splicer, and batterskull were the ones I noticed.
I said I'm not covering rares. There would be very little point to in a limited only set review. There's not much I can actually say about rares because they're not going to be seen as much as commons and uncommons and my description for most of them is that they're good enough to first pick.
How is this strictly better than Unsummon? You've never saved one of your own creatures from removal, clearly.
Strictly was the wrong word then, because I wasn't thinking about that interaction. It is still better than Unsummon in most cases and the life loss to yourself is minor when you have to save your own creature.
I mostly agree with your assessments. Points I disagree on:
Tezzeret's Gambit needs to be rated higher. There is very little card draw in this block. I'd play this in almost every deck.
Corrupted Resolve in the right deck is quite good and should be rated higher. It helps a G/U or B/U Infect deck quite a bit, letting it play a bit like a Fish deck--especially with the 1/1 unblockable Infect blue guy. Bombs more or less define this block's Limited format, so having a catch-all counterspell that is totally splashable is MONEY.
I think you over-rated some of the black cards. Geth's Verdict, for example, is good for constructed but not that good in limited due to masses of little guys (mana myr, etc.). It's not really a removal spell.
Beast Within deserves to be rated higher. Sure, a 3/3 Beast is better in Limited than in Constructed. But, again, this format is bomb-driven and being able to handle anything from an opposing Sword to a Steel Hellkite, while doubling as an instant speed Beast for yourself is really good. Wait, this thing is splashable too? Geeeez... bust out the Beast tokens, y'all. Anyway, the Beast token is minimized if you are playing against Infect or if you have an evasive guy, or non-W&P Sword.
My only criticism is that you don't like Beast Within because of how good 3/3's are in limited, and you don't like conversion because it only pumps out vanilla 3/3's. I'm saying this because I think you're undervaluing the removal spell, and I think your assessment of conversion chamber is spot on.
My only criticism is that you don't like Beast Within because of how good 3/3's are in limited, and you don't like conversion because it only pumps out vanilla 3/3's. I'm saying this because I think you're undervaluing the removal spell, and I think your assessment of conversion chamber is spot on.
I don't think they're particularly good or bad. 3/3s in limited often end up trading for a card. They're at the right power point where people have to kill them, and a high enough toughness that it often costs a card you care about to trade for the 3/3, be it a removal spell or relevant creature.
What this means is that Beast Within is usually going to trade 2 cards you care about for 1 card an opponent cares about. Sometimes you'll be paying 3 mana for a flash 3/3, which is acceptable, but not great. In a deck with multiple 4 toughness or more creatures, it gets better, but a lot of times you're going to spend Beast Within to kill something scary, then spend another card to kill the Beast.
The problem with Conversion Chamber isn't that 3/3s are weak. Again, it will often cost a card for an opponent to deal with the 3/3. If they kill the chamber the turn you put a charge counter on it, you spent 5 mana and did nothing, and probably wasted a turn. The chamber isn't effective until it's made 2 golems, which takes 4 turns, and you've put 11 mana into it. Also, it will almost never actually make a golem on turn 5, which is the soonest it can on its own, because there will not be an artifact for it to remove. It needs to be midgame AND you need to be able to spend several turns on the Chamber for it to be effective.
I completely disagree with you assessment of the card Dismember. For black, this is an absolutely excellent spell, maybe even better than grasp of darkness due to its dragon slaying ability and its ability to be splashed. However, four life is a high amount to lose to kill most creatures in limited. Sure, I'd pay 4 life to kill a Hoard Smelter Dragon any day, but how about to kill Priests of Norn, Blightwidow, or Ogre Resistor? No chance. Obviously I'm not arguing against the card when fighting Infect (I would sideboard it 100% of the time against Infect, no matter what), but against damage based decks, this card is not a 4.
I think its either a 3 or a 3.5, something I could figure out after getting to play with it.
Also, War Report is solidly a .5 for me (where as you placed it at zero). Against non-infect decks, this card can gain enough life to justify the cost, especially against cards like Myr Smith, where this card could potentially gain 15 or so life. Control decks with Blight Widows, Wall of Tanglecords and Priests of Norn could enjoy this card greatly after forcing the opponent to over commit. I would not be saying this if it wasn't for Phyrexian Mana, which is what gives this card a significant margin of usage in the sideboard.
I agree with your stances on the 1/4 Infect Guy who Proliferates for 3U and the Infect guy that when it takes damage it gives the source that many poison counters.
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Strictly, Precisely; exactly, restricted to something. When you're not an English major, don't pretend that you are.
Agree with above poster about Geth's Verdict, it is nowhere near 4.0. Edict is not a good card in a format with tons of small creatures. It's terrible against cards like Myr Sire, not to mention a lot of cards in the format do something upon death so they can sac Perilous Myr to kill one of yours guys.
On top of that NPH has splicers, so edict is bad against them when they just sac the 1/1.
It's certainly not a bad card but it's not a first pick, not close.
@Lolmogoyf: Dismember is more splashable than Volt Charge and kills more things, so it's generally better of a first pick. Volt Charge is solidly a 3.5, so I don't think I can give Dismember a lower rating. It's just a matter of Dismember being a card you can very easily "splash" for but you don't even HAVE to make your manabase worse to splash it, and being better at killing things than Galvanic Blast, Grasp of Darkness, Volt Charge, Burn the Impure, etc.
And yeah, Geth's Verdict is not a 4.0. I don't know why I gave it a 4.0, but I was definitely thinking of how Edicts were generally very good in constructed. I'll change that to 2.5-3.0.
I agree with an above poster that you underrate a bit Parasitic Implant. Sure, it's slow and clunky, but it let's you kill /any creature of your choice, no restrictions/ (except shroud, obviously,) no other black card in the format does that. As amazing as Dismember is, it can't do much against praetors and other huge-butted bombs, who coincidentally, are the creatures you most need to get rid of in a game. If I'm playing black, I'd always maindeck this, so 3.0
Also, I disagree that the green shrine is a 0. If you play it in turn 3 and play a green spell in turn 4, you get explosive 8 mana in turn 5. If you got something bombastic, dropping it so early, might spell the end of the game right there. In most cases, simply dropping two good 3-4 CMC cards in the same turn will be good enough. In the right deck is at least a 2.0. In a vacuum, at least 1.0
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
That's completely irrelevant. One can review sets at any time regardless of when they release.
My friends printed out a rating like this for [MBS] pre-release, so similar ratings must exist somewhere, however RTFM'ing (because that's what I always do before I ask stupid/simple questions) leads one to finding no threads started by Ultima with this purpose. Could just search forums/google. =)
The problem with issuing simple ratings is the value of a card can vary significantly based on what kind of deck you're building. Giving an "average deck" rating doesn't help much since people don't play with average decks.
Ignoring rares is also a mistake, as rares decide a significant fraction of Limited games. If one color has significantly more or less bomby rares than another, that affects how powerful that color is.
Hmm, you might want to post this in the Limited forum.
For the record, I disagree with almost every one of your ratings that I saw. I got about halfway through White before I gave up.
Generally speaking, MTGS has wanted to keep discussion of unreleased sets to the New Card Discussion subforum.
And it's fine if you disagree with me. As many have pointed out, there are ratings I have incorrect, and if I change my mind, I may fix them. I don't think I'm an amazing player or anything; I just feel like I want to do this because limited is the only format I care about at all, and I feel like most of the thought I put into Magic is becoming a better technical player. If you think I'm wrong, feel free to tell me what I'm wrong about or make your own thread.
I can say off the top of my head that my initial impression of Vedalken Certarch was completely wrong, which I thought was a high pick that pushed you into blue. My impression of Trigon of Rage was also completely wrong, which was that it was a card you were happy to play in any deck.
The problem with issuing simple ratings is the value of a card can vary significantly based on what kind of deck you're building. Giving an "average deck" rating doesn't help much since people don't play with average decks.
Ignoring rares is also a mistake, as rares decide a significant fraction of Limited games. If one color has significantly more or less bomby rares than another, that affects how powerful that color is.
Yes, it does, but the real problem with reviewing rares isn't that they're irrelevant. They are just a huge portion of the set, and take a lot of time to look at. Also, many of them end up with effects that are not nearly as simple as commons or uncommons and take experience to get a feel for exactly what they do. Rares will greatly effect sealed in terms of color power evaluation, but less so draft, because you see less rares overall in draft. Also, the most powerful rares will always get first picked, which means they singlehandedly decide what colors someone wants to play, and often has no effect on the people next to that drafter "wanting to go into that color" for the more powerful cards. If black was more powerful than other colors because of powerful bomb rares, for example, there's more incentive to NOT go into black when you don't open a bomb rare because it just means it's more likely the person next to you opened a bomb rare in black.
About the numbers: I don't like them. I know a lot of people don't like numbers. The thing is, using Conley Woods's number metric is a way to rate cards that is proven used by someone who does know what he's doing, and it simply makes it easier to get a feel for cards very quickly. Personally, I think the only way to really get an idea of where I take what is through experience, and number ratings do an extremely poor job of representing where cards actually get picked. I feel like most set reviews are filled with just "look at this rare, think about how awesome it will be" and there's no real substance. I want to get away from that and make something that can actually be useful. I think talking about a card like Slash Panther is WAY more important to actually being informative than talking about a card like Dismember or Batterskull. It's obvious Batterskull is a first pick. It's obvious Dismember is very good. There's no discussion to be had there. Whether you want to play Slash Panther in any deck that's not running red, how much better it gets if you're in red, what kind of deck are you looking for when you're running Slash Panther, etc, that's where the actual discussion is.
Noxious Revival deserves more then a 1.0, right? I don't think it's "pretty bad." Especially in limited. In a format where so many of your cards are one-ofs, this lets you redraw a removal or that bomb you lost. The fact that any color has access to this makes it all the better.
Noxious Revival deserves more then a 1.0, right? I don't think it's "pretty bad." Especially in limited. In a format where so many of your cards are one-ofs, this lets you redraw a removal or that bomb you lost. The fact that any color has access to this makes it all the better.
Raise Dead effects often sound good on paper, but in practice, you just don't really want them. You'll often say "Raise Dead is pretty good when my deck has a Shivan Dragon" or "Salvage Scout sounds like a good card since I can rebuy my Steel Hellkite" but then you play with them and they really just don't do anything.
Noxious Revival takes this a step further and is card disadvantage when you play it. If it was a good effect and there was card disadvantage attached to it, I would think it was mediocre. But you take an already mediocre effect and attach card disadvantage to it, and you're left with a pretty subpar card.
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I will be using the scale that Conley Woods has used for his set reviews, as follows:
Conley's Ratings:
5.0: I will always play this card. Period.
4.5: I will almost always play this card, regardless of what else I get.
4.0: I will strongly consider playing this as the only card of its color.
3.5: I feel a strong pull into this card's color.
3.0: This card makes me want to play this color. (Given that I'm playing that color, I will play this card 100% of the time.)
2.5: Several cards of this power level start to pull me into this color. If playing that color, I essentially always play these. (Given that I'm playing that color, I will play this card 90% of the time.)
2.0: If I'm playing this color, I usually play these. (70%)
1.5: This card will make the cut into the main deck about half the times I play this color. (50%)
1.0: I feel bad when this card is in my main deck. (30%)
0.5: There are situations where I might sideboard this into my deck, but I'll never start it. (10%)
0.0: I will never put this card into my deck (main deck or after sideboarding). (0%)
And now, on with the review!
Apostle's Blessing :1mana::sympw:
Instant (C)
Target artifact or creature you control gains protection from artifacts or from the color of your choice until end of turn.
A good trick, but not amazing. This is the trick that sometimes makes your deck a la Tel-Jilad Defiance. Hard to get a lot of value from but will be useful whenever you draw it.
1.5
Auriok Survivors :5mana::symw:
Creature - Human Soldier (U)
When Auriok Survivors enters the battlefield, you may return target Equipment card from your graveyard to the battlefield. If you do, you may attach it to Auriok Survivors.
4/6
The ability is pretty much never going to be useful, making this a vanilla 4/6 for 6. It's a decent body in the same way Hexplate Golem is, but sometimes you'll want it depending on curve.
1.0-1.5
Cathedral Membrane :1mana::sympw:
Artifact Creature - Wall (U)
Defender
When Cathedral Membrane is put into a graveyard from the battlefield during combat, it deals 6 damage to each creature it blocked this combat.
0/3
Can be played in colorless, which makes it an immediate comparison to Wall of Tanglecord. I don't think this is quite as good as Wall of Tanglecord, but it may be a bit better. I'm not sure I will always play this card in any deck, white or not, but it's quite good at what it does.
2.0-2.5
Dispatch
Instant (U)
Tap target creature.
Metalcraft - If you control three or more artifacts, exile that creature.
Very mediocre without Metalcraft, very good with it. Since this will be first pack in an artifact lighter pack than MBS or SOM, I don't know how high you can take this to commit. My opinion is still really shaky on this card.
2.5-3.0
Due Respect :1mana::symw:
Instant (U)
Permanents enter the battlefield tapped this turn.
Draw a card.
Doesn't really do much, but it cantrips. Still, significantly worse than Tel-Jilad Defiance as a 2 CMC instant cantrip since you can get good value off of Defiance fairly often.
1.0
Exclusion Ritual :4mana::symw::symw:
Enchantment (U)
Imprint - When Exclusion Ritual enters the battlefield, exile target nonland permanent.
Players can't cast spells with the same name as the exiled card.
Removal for anything, compare to Turn to Slag, which has proven to be an extremely good card.
3.0
Forced Worship :1mana::symw:
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature can't attack.
:2mana::symw:: Return Forced Worship to its owner's hand.
Significantly weaker than Pacifism, but still removal. Better than Guard Duty, though.
2.5
Inquisitor Exarch :symw::symw:
Creature - Cleric (U)
When Inquisitor Exarch enters the battlefield, choose one - You gain 2 life; or target opponent loses 2 life.
2/2
2 CMC for a 2/2 that does nothing is kind of bad considering how many 2/2s that come down on turn 3 in this block. The ability doesn't really do much, and WW mana cost is a big hit to playability. That said, I'm pretty much always playing him if I have him and I'm in heavy white, since it's fine, but it really doesn't pull me towards white at all.
2.0
Lost Leonin :1mana::symw:
Creature - Cat Soldier (C)
Infect
2/1
The strength of Priests of Norn is that it's good in non-infect, and Tine Shrike pulls me more towards infect than this guy. That said, in terms of mana to power ratio it's a very good infect card. Still, as fragile as Digester means this is going to quickly be dwarfed a lot of times.
2.0
Loxodon Convert :3mana::symw:
Creature - Elephant Soldier (C)
4/2
Quite solid body. Will play in a decent number of white decks.
2.0
Marrow Shards
Instant (U)
Marrow Shards deals 1 damage to each attacking creature.
One of the cards I'm not really looking forward to because it changes the entire dynamic of combat in this block. The effect isn't big but it will be very annoying to play against. When you play it it'll often not do much but when you play against it and don't think about the card sometimes you'll just lose to it.
2.0
Master Splicer :3mana::symw:
Creature - Human Artificer (U)
When Master Splicer enters the battlefield, put a 3/3 colorless Golem artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
Golem creatures you control get +1/+1.
1/1
Very good effective power to mana cost ratio. Even if the Splicer dies, it's still a Hill Giant too, which is very solid. I expect this card to be a very high pick.
3.5
Porcelain Legionnaire :2mana::sympw:
Artifact Creature - Soldier (C)
First strike
3/1
Incredibly powerful common. Nothing blocks this effectively, so you can almost think of this as a slightly worse unblockable. Imagine a 3/1 flying for 2 colorless and 2 life, and it's only slightly worse than that. Yes, it dies to every piece of removal in the format, but is still the most efficient common in the entire set. While I can't say I want to pick it as high as a 4.0, if I don't someone else will, and the fact that it's really colorless will make me play it in every deck.
4.0
Remember the Fallen :2mana::symw:
Sorcery (C)
Choose one or both - Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand; and/or return target artifact card from your graveyard to your hand.
When I first saw Morbid Plunder, I thought that card was decent. Playing with it more, it's much more powerful than I first gave it credit for. This card is as good as Morbid Plunder, and splashable.
3.5
Sensor Splicer :4mana::symw:
Creature - Artificer (C)
When Sensor Splicer enters the battlefield, put a 3/3 colorless Golem artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
Golem creatures you control have vigilance.
1/1
Mediocre. Not costed low enough to be aggressive, and 3/3 vigilance isn't the best defensive creature. A filler card.
1.5
Shattered Angel :3mana::symw::symw:
Creature - Angel (U)
Flying
Whenever a land enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, you may gain 3 life.
3/3
5 mana 3/3 fliers have proven to be consistently good in limited. This one has a fairly relevant upside.
3.0
Shriek Raptor :3mana::symw::symw:
Creature - Bird (C)
Flying
Infect
2/3
It's better than Tine Shrike, but not by much.
1.5-2.0
Suture Priest :1mana::symw:
Creature - Cleric (C)
Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may gain 1 life.
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, you may have that player lose 1 life.
1/1
Blood Seeker was underrated at first glance by a lot of people. This guy will be pretty good.
2.0
War Report :3mana::symw:
Instant (C)
You gain life equal to the number of creatures on the battlefield plus the number of artifacts on the battlefield.
There has to be some really ridiculous situation for you to ever want to play this card. Nothing but lifegain is clearly bad.
0.0
Argent Mutation :2mana::symu:
Instant (U)
Target permanent becomes an artifact in addition to its other types until end of turn.
Draw a card.
Costs a bit too much; doesn't really do enough. About as good as Steady Progress, which is not really good.
1.0
Arm with Aether :2mana::symu:
Sorcery (U)
Until end of turn, creatures you control gain "Whenever this creatures deals damage to an opponent, you may return target creature that player controls to its owner's hand."
Situational sorcery speed unsummon for 3 mana. Quite bad, but a lot of people will have BCSM (Best Case Scenario Mentality) for this. Really, it's not good.
1.0
Blighted Agent :1mana::symu:
Creature - Human Rogue (C)
Infect
Blighted Agent is unblockable.
1/1
Blue is already a good support color to infect decks. This is one of the best infect 2 drops in that deck.
3.0
Chained Throatseeker :5mana::symu:
Creature - Horror (C)
Infect
Chained Throatseeker can't attack unless defending player is poisoned.
5/5
This guy sort of commits you to poison, since he can never get there by himself without a card like Virulent Wound. Still, the body is solid, and he's very dangerous when active.
2.5
Corrupted Resolve :1mana::symu:
Instant (U)
Counter target spell if its controller is poisoned.
The value of a 2 mana counter over a 3 mana one isn't as high in limited as it is in constructed. Even in infect you will often want to counter something before you can damage your opponent, too, especially in blue, which can often be a control infect deck. Filler card even in the deck that it can be played in.
1.5
Deceiver Exarch :2mana::symu:
Creature - Cleric (U)
Flash
When Deceiver Exarch enters the battlefield, choose one - Untap target permanent you control; or tap target permanent an opponent controls.
1/4
Auriok Replica body with flash and an additional upside. Very solid blue card.
2.5-3.0
Defensive Stance
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets -1/+1.
Just don't play this thing. It doesn't do anything and is card disadvantage. Should be obvious it's unplayable. Raised to 0.5 because it can turn 1 power infect creatures into 0 power infect creatures, though it's still card disadvantage when you do so.
0.5
Gitaxian Probe
Sorcery (C)
Look at target player's hand.
Draw a card.
A card for when you want to effectively play a 39 card deck. Very good for a cantrip, but it's still mainly useful as a cantrip so you wouldn't play it over business cards. Still, I wouldn't feel bad about playing it in any deck.
2.0
Impaler Shrike :2mana::symu::symu:
Creature - Bird (C)
Flying
When Impaler Shrike deals combat damage to a player, you may sacrifice it. If you do, draw three cards.
3/1
Super solid flying body and card draw. I take my Serum Rakers high and this is significantly better than Serum Raker.
3.5
Mental Misstep
Instant (U)
Counter target spell with converted mana cost 1.
This doesn't do anything in limited. There's very few 1 drops anyone plays and for this to do anything at all you have to draw it before your opponent plays a 1 drop. Don't be deceived by playability in eternal formats, because in limited the only time I'd ever side this into my deck is if I see 3+ 1 drops in game 1.
0.0-0.5
Mindculling :5mana::symu:
Sorcery (U)
You draw two cards and target opponent discards two cards.
A lot of card advantage, but very slow. Can break open an even game, but doesn't pull you out of a losing game and doesn't advance your position too much in a winning game compared to any other 6 drop. I think of it as filler.
1.5
Numbing Dose :3mana::symu::symu:
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant artifact or creature
Enchanted permanent doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.
At the beginning of the upkeep of enchanted permanent's controller, that player loses 1 life.
This is significantly worse than Bonds of Quicksilver, which is a card I don't like playing maindeck. It's okay, it's removal, and it can kill someone, but don't expect very much out of it.
1.5
Psychic Barrier :symu::symu:
Instant (C)
Counter target creature spell. Its controller loses 1 life.
This counter is actually quite decent in limited. Don't overrate it, as it has the same weaknesses of all counters in limited, forcing you to have untapped mana when the opponent plays a spell and not after, but it's not bad. UU is a big hit, though.
2.0
Spined Thopter :2mana::sympu:
Artifact Creature - Thopter (C)
Flying
2/1
Sort of a Wild Griffin, sort of a Pegasus Charger. Mid-high pick that's much better than Gust Skimmer.
3.0
Spire Monitor :4mana::symu:
Creature - Drake (C)
Flash
Flying
3/3
See what I said about Shattered Angel. Hard to make this combat trick a real combat trick, because it's so obvious in the same way Darksteel Sentinel is obvious, but the body for the mana cost is good.
3.0
Tezzeret's Gambit :3mana::sympu:
Sorcery (U)
Draw two cards, then proliferate.
A high pick for any color, as it provides card advantage which many colors don't get easy access to. Very few decks will not play this card.
3.5
Vapor Snag
Instant (C)
Return target creature to its owner's hand. Its controller loses 1 life.
A good trick, essentially no difference from Unsummon yet still strictly better.
2.0
Viral Drake :3mana::symu:
Creature - Drake (U)
Flying
Infect
:3mana::symu:: Proliferate.
1/4
This is a card that when played, will singlehandedly shift the focus of the game to itself. That's usually a sign of a very powerful card. Very little removal actually kills this guy and he's incredibly hard to block profitably. This is a legitimate uncommon first pick, and a card you really want to open.
4.0
Wing Splicer :3mana::symu:
Creature - Human Artificer (U)
When Wing Splicer enters the battlefield, put a 3/3 colorless Golem artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
Golem creatures you control have flying.
1/1
Very good body for the mana cost. Be careful, though, as you might get blown out by losing the Splicer himself in the middle of combat and running your golem into a bigger creature.
3.0
Blind Zealot :1mana::symb::symb:
Creature - Human Cleric (C)
Intimidate
Whenever Blind Zealot deals combat damage to a player, you may sacrifice it. If you do, destroy target creature that player controls.
2/2
First pickable common removal + creature. It's not as hard to block as you'd think, though, and not really splashable, but it's both aggressively costed for the evasion and able to be a strong removal card.
3.5
Caress of Phyrexia :3mana::symb::symb:
Sorcery (U)
Target player draws three cards, loses 3 life, and gets 3 poison counters.
It can do a lot of things, and isn't amazing at any of them. Usually, you'd want to draw with this, but it can be very punishing against infect. It can be a win condition in infect, but is a very clunky way to poison someone. As a base 5 mana draw 3 cards lose 3 life, it's okay but not amazing, and I feel like it's a little worse than that. Still, card advantage is fine, and I'll probably run this most black decks.
2.0-2.5
Dementia Bat :4mana::symb:
Creature - Bat (C)
Flying
:4mana::symb:, Sacrifice Dementia Bat: Target player discards two cards.
2/2
Mediocre body, mediocre effect. Too slow at either. Too bad black can't get those 5 mana 3/3 fliers that blue and white does.
1.5
Despise
Sorcery (U)
Target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose a creature or planeswalker card from it. That player discards that card.
Doesn't do as much as you really want to in limited, but still good. Duress was a card you usually played and this is more relevant than Duress.
2.5
Dismember :1mana::sympb::sympb:
Instant (U)
Target creature gets -5/-5 until end of turn.
Incredibly good. Better than Grasp of Darkness, Spread the Sickness, or Go for the Throat most of the time. There are very few cards I'd ever pass this up for.
4.5
Enslave :4mana::symb::symb:
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant creature
You control enchanted creature.
At the beginning of your upkeep, enchanted creature deals 1 damage to its owner.
Mind Control is incredible in limited. It has an upside but costs 1 more mana. Still, see the note for Dismember.
4.5
Entomber Exarch :2mana::symb::symb:
Creature - Cleric (U)
When Entomber Exarch enters the battlefield, choose one - Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand; or target opponent reveals his or her hand, you choose a noncreature card from it, then that player discards that card.
2/2
I really like this card. It combines 2 strong black cards that were in M11: Duress and Gravedigger, and puts them into 1.
3.0
Evil Presence
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant land
Enchanted land is a Swamp.
Nothing I can say about this card that shouldn't be obvious. Don't play it unless your opponent is playing some kind of monstrosity of a manabase, and even then, probably don't play it.
0.0
Geth's Verdict :symb::symb:
Instant (C)
Target player sacrifices a creature and loses 1 life.
There are a lot of small creatures in this format. It's really good that this is instant, but the chance of hitting something very good with it are low.
2.5-3.0
Grim Affliction :2mana::symb:
Instant (C)
Put a -1/-1 counter on target creature, then proliferate.
More super strong black removal. Weaker than the last few, but still very good. This is the one that doesn't draw you into the color by itself, though, but you always like having it.
3.0
Ichor Explosion :5mana::symb::symb:
Sorcery (U)
As an additional cost to cast Ichor Explosion, sacrifice a creature.
All creatures get -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the sacrificed creature's power.
There are very few situations where this card is actually good. Expect a lot of BCSM and a lot of disappointment. It's just too slow and too situational. You have to survive to 7 mana, have a medium sized creature, and still be alive while your opponent has multiple creatures out for this to do anything. Your opponent has to have 3 creatures to get card advantage out of a 7 mana spell at all, and you have to give up a reasonable creature. Also worthless when you're in a good position and super worthless when you don't have a creature.
1.0
Mortis Dogs :3mana::symb:
Creature - Hound (C)
Whenever Mortis Dogs attacks, it gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
When Mortis Dogs is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, target player loses life equal to its power.
2/2
Strong aggressive card, just like Loxodon Convert. In fact, quite a bit better than Convert. Will get through damage and trade in pretty much any situation, if it's not just taking 1/5 of your opponent's life total out every turn.
2.5
Parasitic Implant :3mana::symb:
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
At the beginning of your upkeep, enchanted creature's controller sacrifices it and you put a 1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
A removal spell with a lot of weaknesses, but can still get the job done. I don't think I'd ever like to play it, but it's definitely not unplayable.
1.5
Pith Driller :4mana::sympb:
Artifact Creature - Horror (C)
When Pith Driller enters the battlefield, put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
2/4
Good body that also can kill or cripple opposing creatures. There aren't many times I wouldn't want to play this.
3.0-3.5
Postmortem Lunge :xmana::sympb:
Sorcery (U)
Return target creature card with converted mana cost X from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.
Extremely BCSM card. People always look at a card like this and think about bringing back a big creature and killing someone with it, but this kind of card is traditionally just very bad. On top of that, this is more inefficient than traditional effects of this kind.
1.0-1.5
Reaper of Sheoldred :4mana::symb:
Creature - Horror (U)
Infect
Whenever a source deals damage to Reaper of Sheoldred, that source's controller gets a poison counter.
2/5
Another infect creature that will take over a game when played. Everything I said about Viral Drake applies. He's very hard to block, very hard to remove, and punishes the opponent for getting rid of it a lot of times.
4.0
Toxic Nim :4mana::symb::symb:
Creature - Zombie (C)
INfect
:symb:: Regenerate Toxic Nim.
4/1
Too expensive for too small of a body. It's got a huge weakness to a big portion of the removal in the block, too. While a 4 power infecter can sound strong on paper, think about how little you want to ever play Dross Harvester, and note that this guy is easier to kill.
1.0
Vault Skirge :1mana::sympb:
Artifact Creature - Imp (C)
Flying
Lifelink
1/1
For a 1/1, it's very solid. This is a 1/1 attacker I wouldn't mind playing, which is usually untrue about 1/1 attackers.
2.0-2.5
Whispering Specter :1mana::symb::symb:
Creature - Specter (U)
Flying
Infect
Whenever Whispering Specter deals combat damage to a player, you may sacrifice it. If you do, that player discards a card for each poison counter he or she has.
1/1
Very strong infect card. Like a slower Plague Stinger, but can put an opponent down and prevent them from recovering sometimes. If you drop if after you've dealt a bit of damage to the opponent, and they don't have an immediate answer, this guy can just put your opponent so far behind from a single swing that they simply can't recover.
3.5
Act of Aggression :3mana::sympr::sympr:
Instant (U)
Gain control of target creature an opponent controls until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste until end of turn.
I originally read this as a sorcery, and thought it was quite bad. Knowing it's a sorcery, this is actually a very strong combat trick that people need to watch out for.
3.0
Artillerize :3mana::symr:
Instant (C)
As an additional cost to cast Artillerize, sacrifice an artifact or creature.
Artillerize deals 5 damage to target creature or player.
It's a removal spell, can sometimes give a little value. It's a little better than Fling, but not by that much. Holding 4 mana back is definitely a lot.
2.0-2.5
Fallen Ferromancer :3mana::symr:
Creature - Human Shaman (U)
Infect
:1mana::symr:, :: Fallen Ferromancer deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
1/1
I was thinking this was solid because it's a pinger, but it's significantly better than most pingers we've seen. This is closer to Trigon of Corruption than it is to Prodigal Pyromancer, in a format with a lot more 1/1s as well. It's fragile and slow, not as strong as Vedalken Anatomist but still very strong. The fact that red looks a bit weaker in this format gives more reason to cut it off and take this card.
3.5 - 4.0
Flameborn Viron :4mana::symr::symr:
Creature - Insect (C)
6/4
Another card for the RG dinos deck, worse than pretty much all the other dinos but still gets the job done.
2.0
Furnace Scamp
Creature - Beast (C)
Whenever Furnace Scamp deals combat damage to a player, you may sacrifice it. If you do, Furnace Scamp deals 3 damage to that player.
1/1
Not useful in limited, and even in constructed this might only see play in a super specific deck.
0.5
Geosurge :symr::symr::symr::symr:
Sorcery (U)
Add :symr::symr::symr::symr::symr::symr::symr: to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast artifact or creature spells.
I can't see myself ever playing this card.
0.0
Gut Shot
Instant (U)
Gut Shot deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
Remember when Wizards said Hornet Sting isn't green for any particular reason because any color could get an effect like that? Well... It's actually quite playable in this block because of the abundance of 1 toughness creatures.
2.5
Ogre Menial :3mana::symr:
Creature - Ogre (C)
Infect
:symr:: Ogre Menial gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
0/4
You probably won't ever get there on red infect, making this guy not that good. It does fight well with most creatures so, so it's not horrible, but having this guy in a deck probably means he's not going to do much relevant damage to your opponent.
1.5
Priest of Urabrask :2mana::symr:
Creature - Human Cleric (U)
When Priest of Urabrask enters the battlefield, add :symr::symr::symr: to your mana pool.
2/1
Moderately sized body that lets you play another card on turn 3. Not bad, but definitely doesn't push me towards red.
2.0
Rage Extractor :4mana::sympr:
Artifact (U)
Whenever you cast a spell with ϕ in its mana cost, Rage Extractor deals damage equal to that spell's converted mana cost to target creature or player.
I don't think you can expect to pick up enough Phyrexian mana cards to make this card really do anything, and I don't think you can expect to cast this before most of them either. While it can do something, it's a very BCSM card and will almost never do anything useful. Imagine if Furnace Celebration only had 1 pack to work off of and was harder to trigger.
0.5-1.0
Razor Swine :2mana::symr:
Creature - Boar (C)
First strike
Infect
2/1
Better than Ogre Menial. It will have to be seen exactly how good this guy is, but I like him.
2.0
Ruthless Invasion :3mana::sympr:
Sorcery (C)
Nonartifact creatures can't block this turn.
Sometimes this card will win games. Still, the only time this kind of card has decent has been Concussive Bolt, and this is nowhere near as good as Concussive Bolt. Definitely don't BCSM this card.
1.0
Scrapyard Salvo :1mana::symr::symr:
Sorcery (C)
Scrapyard Salvo deals damage to target player equal to the number of artifact cards in your graveyard.
If it said creature or player, it might be solid removal, if a little on the weak side. As is, this card is pretty awful.
1.0
Slash Panther :4mana::sympr:
Artifact Creature - Cat (C)
Haste
4/2
Not bad as a card to just put in a good portion of decks. 4 mana 4/2 with a relevant ability for any color or 5 mana 4/2 haste in red is fine.
2.0
Tormentor Exarch :3mana::symr:
Creature - Cleric (U)
When Tormentor Exarch enters the battlefield, choose one - Target creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn; or target creature gets -0/-2 until end of turn.
2/2
This guy is very good, and definitely pulls me into red. First good card in an apparently very weak color.
3.0
Victorious Destruction :4mana::symr:
Sorcery (C)
Destroy target artifact or land. Its controller loses 1 life.
Mediocre. If it weren't for this being a Mirrodin block, this card would be really bad, instead, it's just a mediocre removal spell.
1.5
Volt Charge :2mana::symr:
Instant (C)
Volt Charge deals 3 damage to target creature or player. Proliferate.
Second actually good card. Traditionally good burn spell, definitely first pickable.
3.5
Vulshok Refugee :1mana::symr::symr:
Creature - Human Warrior (U)
Protection from red
3/2
Solid body, but not splashable. The protection is pretty good, too. Still, this color looks weak.
2.5
Whipflare :1mana::symr:
Instant (U)
Whipflare deals 2 damage to each nonartifact creature.
Seems pretty decent, but you have to consider that when you think of 1-2 toughness creatures, you're often thinking of artifact creatures, particularly Myr. Still, it's a sweeper and those are generally good to have.
3.5
Beast Within :2mana::symg:
Instant (U)
Destroy target permanent. Its controller puts a 3/3 green Beast creature token onto the battlefield.
Pretty good. Has a lot of utility, but the 3/3 in limited is a lot better than a 3/3 in constructed. Don't know how high I'd pick it, but it's a good card.
2.5
Brutalizer Exarch :5mana::symg:
Creature - Cleric (U)
When Brutalizer Exarch enters the battlefield, choose one - Search your library for a creature card, reveal it, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it; or put target noncreature permanent on the bottom of its owner's library.
3/3
It's very expensive, but both its abilities are useful. While it's slow, casting it will give you a good effect in any situation.
3.0
Corrosive Gale :xmana::sympg:
Sorcery (U)
Corrosive Gale deals X damage to each creature with flying.
Pretty much a sideboard card. A bit better than the rest of the flying hate in the block, but it's the quintessential sideboard card.
0.5
Death-Hood Cobra :1mana::symg:
Creature - Snake (C)
:1mana::symg:: Death-Hood Cobra gains reach until end of turn.
:1mana::symg:: Death-Hood Cobra gains deachtouch until end of turn.
2/2
A bear with some use even after bigger creatures come down. Quite solid.
2.5
Glissa's Scorn :1mana::symg:
Instant (C)
Destroy target artifact. Its controller loses 1 life.
It's a Shatter with upside. Not much to say about this card.
3.0-3.5
Glistener Elf
Creature - Elf Warrior (C)
Infect
1/1
Maybe this will herald serious aggro infect decks in Standard. This is limited, though, and he's quite mediocre. The fact that any X/2 makes you not really want to swing with this guy, in a deck that wants to do nothing but swing makes this feel really useless sometimes.
1.5
Greenhilt Trainee :3mana::symg:
Creature - Elf Warrior (U)
:symtap:: Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn. Activate this ability only if Greenholt Trainee's power is 4 or greater.
2/3
Significantly worse than Blooshot Trainee. Killing a creature is worth holding back a 4 power dude. Pumping another one of your creatures isn't really.
2.0
Leeching Bite :1mana::symg:
Instant (C)
Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Another target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
It's a significant combat trick that doubles as removal. Because of the -1/-1, I expect this to be better than almost every traditional Giant Growth effect.
2.5
Maul Splicer :6mana::symg:
Creature - Human Artificer (C)
When Maul Splicer enters the battlefield, put two 3/3 colorless Golem artifact creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Golem creatures you control have trample.
1/1
Too expensive, and Trample doesn't really do anything. Probably the worst of the Splicers by a large margin. Still, it's technically a 3-for-1, but then you realize that Hearthcage Giant wasn't that good and for 1 more mana than this guy, you got a 5/5 and 2 3/1s and this guy looks really weak.
1.0
Mutagenic Growth
Instant (C)
Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
It's alright. The real power of this card is surprising opponents game 1 when they can't really play around this card. Other than that, a Giant Growth is always pretty decent, and this will be particularly strong in Infect.
2.5
Mycosynth Fiend :2mana::symg:
Creature - Horror (U)
Mycosynth Fiend gets +1/+1 for each poison counter your opponents have.
2/2
I can't really see this guy fitting in any deck for what it's trying to do. Maybe you'll cast a Virulent Wound and a Spread the Sickness in a non-Infect deck and this will be pretty good, but other than that, he's just a Gray Ogre.
1.5-2.0
Noxious Revival
Instant (U)
Put target card from a graveyard on top of its owner's library.
I'm not sure when you'd ever want to play this card. Pretty bad.
1.0
Rotted Hystrix :4mana::symg:
Creature - Beast (C)
3/6
Another dino that's worse than all the other existing dinos, except this time it's by a pretty large margin. The drop from 5-6 power to 3 is a pretty big drop. I'm not sure I'd want this very much even in the deck that it fits in.
1.5
Spinebiter :4mana::symg::symg:
Creature - Beast (U)
Infect
You may have Spinebiter assign its combat damage as though it weren't blocked.
3/4
It's a decent infect card. The ability, however, sort of works against what you want to do with infect on a 4 toughness body, which is kill off smaller creatures. Hitting someone's life total effectively makes this a Craw Wurm with the Thorn Elemental ability, which would be good, but we expect more aggressive costing on infect creatures so I don't know how good it really is.
2.5
Thundering Tanadon :4mana::sympg::sympg:
Artifact Creature - Beast (C)
Trample
5/4
It's quite good at 4 mana and 4 life, and also quite good for 6 mana in green. Solid beatstick in a lot of decks, though I'd be pretty reluctant to play it in a non-green deck because the 4 life can sometimes just make it so you never want to play it and it's a dead card.
2.5
Triumph of the Hordes :2mana::symg::symg:
Sorcery (U)
Until end of turn, creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain trample and infect.
A fixed Overrun. Can sometimes just end games, but doesn't consistently just win the game the moment it resolves. The strength of Overrun is that if you don't kill the opponent, you just wrecked their board and put yourself in a near-win situation. When this card doesn't win the game, it puts yourself in a much less instant win situation, but it can still be a strong card.
3.0
Viridian Betrayers :1mana::symg::symg:
Creature - Elf Warrior (C)
Viridian Betrayers has infect as long as an opponent is poisoned.
3/1
A solid body that's interesting because it's solid no matter what deck you're playing. Take it high if you're infect, and play it if you have it if you're not infect.
3.0
Viridian Harvest
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant artifact
When enchanted artifact is put into a graveyard, you gain 6 life.
Unplayable.
0.0
Vital Splicer :3mana::symg:
Creature - Human Artificer (U)
When Vital Splicer enters the battlefield, put a 3/3 colorless Golem artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
:1mana:: Regenerate target Golem you control.
1/1
Pretty decent for a Splicer. Doesn't immediately stand out to me as amazing but I don't dislike it at all.
2.5
Alloy Myr
Artifact creature - Myr (U)
:symtap:: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
2/2
It's good. Not quite as good as Palladium, about as good as any of the mana Myr.
3.0
Blinding Souleater
Artifact Creature - Cleric (C)
:sympw:, :symtap:: Tap target creature.
1/3
Very strong card in any color, one of the best commons in the set if you're in white. 3 toughness is awesome, and the ability is very good.
3.5
Conversion Chamber
Artifact (U)
:2mana:, :symtap:: Exile target artifact card from a graveyard. Put a charge counter on Conversion Chamber.
:2mana:, :symtap:, Remove a charge counter from Conversion Chamber: Put a 3/3 colorless Golem artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
It's probably the only remotely playable "put charge counters, remove them to get creatures" card in the block. It's not amazing, but can be very solid. When it gets going, especially with Proliferate, it can be good, but even then, it's quite slow to just get vanilla 3/3s.
2.0
Darksteel Relic
Artifact (U)
Darksteel Relic is indestructible.
This is a lot worse than Liquimetal Coating, and Liquimetal Coating is not a card I generally want to play. I can't give it just a 0.0 though because unlike all the other cards I gave an 0.0, and despite this card's card text, this actually does -something-.
0.0-0.5
Gremlin Mine
Artifact (C)
:1mana:, :symtap:, Sacrifice Gremlin Mine: Gremlin Mine deals 4 damage to target artifact creature.
:1mana:, :symtap:, Sacrifice Gremlin Mind: Remove up to four charge counters from target noncreature artifact.
I feel like this will have a use against every deck you play against. While it looks kind of narrow at first glance, the cheap cost and fact that so much of the block is artifact creatures and charge counter cards means I think this is actually very good.
3.0
Hovermyr
Artifact Creature - Myr (C)
Flying, vigilance
1/2
It's okay as a filler card, but doesn't really do that much. 2 toughness doesn't really block all that much to make the Vigilance relevant. The weakness of this guy compared to the Skirge is that on this body, the Vigilance is just much less useful than Lifelink.
1.5
Immolating Souleater
Artifact Creature - Hound (C)
:sympr:: Immolating Souleater gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
1/1
I don't think I often want to go all in on this card. It dies in combat to everything, and on a creature with no evasion, I just don't think it will ever do anything that relevant. It can get in a little damage, but then it will cost mana if you want to not be losing out on the life trade. A filler card sometimes.
1.5
Insatiable Souleater
Artfact Creature - Beast (C)
:sympg:: Insatiable Souleater gains trample until end of turn.
5/1
It's about as bad as Scoria Elemental. Sure, it's not that bad since it will probably do some damage and is colorless, but better than Scoria Elemental doesn't exactly mean much.
1.0
Isolation Cell
Artifact (U)
Whenever an opponent casts a creature spell, that player loses 2 life unless he or she pays :2mana:.
Costs too much and doesn't really do anything. Don't play this card.
1.0
Kiln Walker
Artifact Creature - Construct (U)
Whenever Kiln Walker attacks, it gets +3/+0 until end of turn.
0/3
Not bad. It's very efficient on offense and can block bears without dying, though you don't really want to block with this guy.
2.0-2.5
Mindcrank
Artifact (U)
Whenever an opponent loses life, that player puts that many cards from the top of his or her library into his or her graveyard. (Damage dealt by sources without infect causes loss of life.)
Please don't play mill, especially not mill that relies on a non-mill win condition happening. This card is just horrible.
0.0
Mycosynth Wellspring
Artifact (C)
When Mycosynth Wellspring enters the battlefield or is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
A little worse than Ichor Wellspring, but it's still very good, and a card you can build around.
3.0
Necropouncer
Artifact Creature - Equipment (U)
Living weapon
Equipped creature gets +3/+1 and has haste.
Equip
It's not horrible, but I feel like it's the Living Weapon where the Living Weapon matters the least. When you cast it, a 3/1 haste will probably not be doing anything relevant, but putting it on a creature for 2 mana can often give a huge boost. It also makes your later creature draws very dangerous for your opponent.
2.0-2.5
Pestilent Souleater
Artifact Creature - Insect (C)
:sympb:: Pestilent Souleater gains infect until end of turn.
3/3
Not bad, not great. I don't feel bad playing him in infect, but I would if I wasn't in infect.
1.5-2.0
Phyrexian Hulk
Artifact Creature - Golem (C)
5/4
Another dino. I'm not sure he's as good as Hexplate Golem, but he is definitely better than Razorfield Thresher. A filler dino for the deck.
1.5
Pristine Talisman
Artifact (C)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool. You gain 1 life.
Signets are nice, even if they don't mana fix and cost 3. The lifegain is actually quite good.
3.0
Shrine of Boundless Growth
Artifact (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep or whenever you cast a green spell, put a charge counter on Shrine of Boundless Growth.
:symtap:, Sacrifice Shrine of Boundless Growth: Add to your mana pool for each charge counter on Shrine of Boundless Growth.
I don't see what this card really does. It gets you mana very slowly. I can't see myself ever playing this card.
0.0
Shrine of Burning Rage
Artifact (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep or whenever you cast a red spell, put a charge counter on Shrine of Burning Rage.
:3mana:, :symtap:, Sacrifice Shrine of Burning Rage: Shrine of Burning Rage deals damage equal to the number of charge counters on it to target creature or player.
Probably the best of the Shrines. It's actually a solid removal card for any deck, though beware that it's a horrible topdeck.
3.0
Shrine of Limitless Power
Artifact (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep or whenever you cast a black spell, put a charge counter on Shrine of Limitless Power.
:4mana:, :symtap:, Sacrifice Shrine of Limitless Power: Target player discards a card for each charge counter on Shrine of Limitless Power.
Again, I don't see this card ever really doing anything. Slightly better than the green one I guess.
0.5
Shrine of Loyal Legions
Artifact (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep or whenever you cast a white spell, put a charge counter on Shrine of Loyal Legions.
:3mana:, :symtap:, Sacrifice Shrine of Loyal Legions: Put a 1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature token onto the battlefield for each charge counter on Shrine of Loyal Legions.
It doesn't give you incremental advantage as a lot of token producers do, so it can be hard to know exactly when to use it, but it's quite good. Sometimes you crack this card and just win the game.
2.5-3.0
Shrine of Piercing Vision
Artifact (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep or whenever you cast a blue spell, put a charge counter on Shrine of Piercing Vision.
:symtap:, Sacrifice Shrine of Piercing Vision: Look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of charge counters on Shrine of Piercing Vision. Put one of those cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
It's basically a delayed cantrip with slight upside. However, the upside isn't really all that great. I probably only want to play this card as filler, but it's not bad filler since it enables metalcraft while in play.
2.0
Sickleslicer
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Living weapon
Equipped creature gets +2/+2.
Equip
Gray Ogre Living Weapon? I like it a lot. Expect it to be a lot stronger than it looks at first glance.
3.0
Surge Node
Artifact (U)
Surge Node enters the battlefield with six charge counters on it.
:1mana:, :symtap:, Remove a charge counter from Surge Node: Put a charge counter on target artifact.
Seems too situational to me. There are very few cards that use charge counters that are worth spending a whole card on recharging them to be useful.
1.0
Trespassing Souleater
Artifact Creature - Construct (C)
:sympu:: Trespassing Souleater is unblockable this turn.
2/2
This guy can wear away at an opponent without them being able to do anything. Very solid in blue, and still quite good in any color.
2.5
Phyrexia's Core
Land (U)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
:1mana:, :symtap:, Sacrifice an artifact: You gain 1 life.
This land is probably even worse than Glimmerpost for most decks, can be useful in decks that want sacrifice outlets. Take it if you need it, don't expect that much though.
1.0
Impressions:
Blue and White look very solid. Red and Green are full of mediocre cards. There are a lot of artifacts that seem fine in any deck. Black has tons of amazing removal. I feel like, looking at the commons and uncommons, I want to be in blue/black, which is further reinforced by the fact that blue and black are very strong in Mirrodin Besieged. This set actually allows you to go into a UB infect deck and have it not be shaky, but time will tell whether or not that's a really good deck or not.
On the other hand, there are a lot of very bomby rares in this set, which is a concern of mine. I feel like a large portion of deck colors will just be determined by which bomb rare you opened, in a way similar to MBS. In MSS, the 2nd pick often means nothing at all because you just see a pack with the rare taken, because MBS has a lot of bomb rares, and I'm afraid that NPH might be like that as well. Still, though, I'd have to draft with this set to say how much I really like it. The strong commons and uncommons do look very fun to play with, at least.
Defensive Stance is pseudo-removal vs 1 power infect dudes, which there are quite a number of. A control deck doesn't care about 0/2 infect walls. Not good, but not 0.0
Updated to add these interactions. Phyrexia's Core is playable in the deck but no one should want it high and it's a land you might as well as throw into the deck in the right deck.
Defensive Stance is 0.5 because it will only be sided in against infect, and only certain infect decks, and will still be only mediocre against those decks, but does have sideboard use as you pointed out.
Also, I'm done putting in the card text.
One card in particular you severly underrated was Act of aggression, it is extremely amazing against infect and still decent against everything else. One of the big things you missed was that it is instant making you be able to steal your opponents 2/1 infect guy and block his ichor claw myr with it... Plus against infect decks it rarely matters how much life you spend so leaving 3 mana up could mean several combat tricks in a white deck now. I'd say definetly a 2.0 - 2.5 with it actually being better the fewer removal spells you actually have since you'll have more options.
I also thought the draw 2 target player discards 2 is going to be a pretty relavent card since it's the first real playable discard spell printed in the block... A very good win more type of card if you fan get to the mana with a decent board position.
Forced Worship I feel isn't too strong since it's almost worse than bonds of quicksilver in some cases. Fallen ferromancer feels really really vulnerable at 1 toughness so giving it 3.0 is very generous as it's extermely weak to red and black removal and I'm not a fan of priest of ... Gheix (you know the one) since having a red aggro deck needing a 2/1 is not likely since most the time red can quickly need to be defensive against infect.
One final note green and artifact cards don't have references to them but I was able to flip between the spoiler to get the text.
I just wanted to note that ultima66 sounds like a solid player (this coming from a 1900+ limited rated player [honestly not trying to brag but just clarifying I'm not a scrub]) so I'd take his advise if you don't know much about limited, though I differ slightly on opinion on some cards most are absolutely spot on.
Final final note the red artifact the deals damage = phyrexia mana gets much much better in a triple new phyrexia draft so if your like the shop near me and draw triple new set for a while don't be surprised the amount of card advantage you'll get off this bad boy.
Oh, I must have misread Act of Aggression then. I read it as a Sorcery. As an instant, yes, that makes it quite a good combat trick.
I don't think I put Mindculling at an incorrect rating, and I don't really think it's a win-more card. It's a lot of card advantage when it works, it just comes down very late and I don't think you want to play that many 6 drops. 1.5 is supposed to be filler, and I guess it's closer to a solid card that will usually get played when I have it, which I guess puts it at 2.0, but I don't think I'm really misevaluating it.
I don't think Forced Worship is worse than Bonds because the main problem I have with Bonds is simply that it costs too much mana. 3 mana seems much more reasonable for a mediocre pseudo removal spell, and it actually deals with the creature before it gets to attack you. Maybe it's closer to 2.0 also, but it seems fine to me.
The pinger is slow like I said and vulnerable, but it's still a pinger. Embersmith is also very vulnerable and takes mana, and is situational, and is extremely good. The pinger also deals with things bigger than 1 toughness too. No matter how many weaknesses a pinger has, they tend to always just be very good in limited because they're repeatable removal.
I don't think the Priest is really good either, but I feel like Oxidda Daredevil is playable enough and good in certain decks, and Priest is a little better.
Caress of Phyrexia - It's slow and clunky, but card advantange is card advantage. In infect it has the added bonus of being a Lava Axe if your opponent has 7 poison counters. Obviously I'll side it out against infect but I'd never cut it from the main. I'd rate it a 3.0.
Act of Aggression - This is the only card that jumped out at me where your rating is way off. It's a windmill slam first pick. If this is in your hand your opponent almost certainly has no good attacks. Dismember is awesome but at the end of the day it's 1-for-1 removal. AoA will sometimes just take out an attacker but it's not hard to get two cards out of it and sometimes it's just good old Threaten. AND it's colorless. The scale kind of breaks down on this since it's colorless and I will always play it, period, but it's not deserving of a 5.0. Easily 4.5 though, the only non-rare I would consider taking over it is Enslave.
And some minor quibbles on ratings. I'd splash red just for Volt Charge, which makes it a 4.0. Ditto for Glissa's Scorn. Leeching Bite is a 3.0, I'd never cut that from my deck if I'm in green.
Overall your ratings seem pretty reasonable, nice work. Kind of makes me want to do one for the rares
http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1959
Caress of Phyrexia is where it is because I will side it out against infect. I feel like a 3.0 is a card I will always play in the color, and this is not true about Caress. Also, I realize that it's card advantage but I think that you're overrating the pure card advantage aspect of it a bit. I feel like Vivisection is a solid 3.0 that you can splash, and I think Vivisection is a better card than Caress.
I went back over Act of Aggression. I now think it is a 3.0. Yes, it is much better than a Threaten being an instant, and easily makes strong 2 for 1's, but remember that it's still conditional. Your opponent DOES need to have 2 attacking creatures for it to be a blowout, and 4 life does matter. With those drawbacks in mind, I think it's a 3.0.
As for Volt Charge and Glissa's Scorn, they ARE the Shatter/Galvanic Blast/Revoke Existence of the set. They are very high pick 1 for 1 removal commons that you splash. The reason I put them where they are is because I just think that they're lower than a true 4.0 in terms of raw power. Like you said, artifacts are differently rated because the scale generally talks about cards being committing to a certain color. This is true in general, which is a weakness of the scale. You cannot get through all the vectors of how good or bad a card is based on a simple numerical scale. The reason it is there is simply to be a quick measure of how good cards are you can see at a glance, but I don't personally like it very much. It is simply for the convenience of others.
But I ain't budging on Act, it's one of the best cards in the set. You don't need them to have two attackers to blow them out, just one attacker and a creature that trades with it will do the trick. Agree to disagree I suppose, I just hope everyone at the prerelease values it as low as you so I can wreck them with it Blind With Anger was the nuts in CHK and Act is better.
http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1959
Also, to Duncan, I think fallen feromancer is pretty awesome personally. He's a little expensive in terms of the overall mana you need to sink into him, but he is an infecting pinger, meaning that he essentially sticks on -1/-1 counters for 2 mana a turn. 3.0 might be a little high of a rating, but he definitely falls at least into the 2.5 category.
Also, I think you missed a few cards like the prateors, blade splicer, and batterskull were the ones I noticed.
How is this strictly better than Unsummon? You've never saved one of your own creatures from removal, clearly.
The fact is, the moment he comes down on the board, the game becomes about the Drake. In limited it's like playing against Jace: the longer it's active the less chance you have of winning. Think about how highly you pick other creatures like that: Phyrexian Juggernaut, Vedalken Anatomist, Golem Artisan.
Yes, I realize this. I was rating them by their effect. If I get 4+ tokens for 5 mana, that's good. The red one does a significant amount of damage, that's good. The green one makes mana, and it just doesn't DO anything. The black one is a very expensive way to make an opponent discard, and they can easily play around it when they see it. The blue one is a cantrip no matter how fully charged it is: it can never be all that powerful. Even assuming you take 2 turns and get 4 counters on the green or black shrines, they tend to not really do anything useful.
I said I'm not covering rares. There would be very little point to in a limited only set review. There's not much I can actually say about rares because they're not going to be seen as much as commons and uncommons and my description for most of them is that they're good enough to first pick.
Strictly was the wrong word then, because I wasn't thinking about that interaction. It is still better than Unsummon in most cases and the life loss to yourself is minor when you have to save your own creature.
Tezzeret's Gambit needs to be rated higher. There is very little card draw in this block. I'd play this in almost every deck.
Corrupted Resolve in the right deck is quite good and should be rated higher. It helps a G/U or B/U Infect deck quite a bit, letting it play a bit like a Fish deck--especially with the 1/1 unblockable Infect blue guy. Bombs more or less define this block's Limited format, so having a catch-all counterspell that is totally splashable is MONEY.
I think you over-rated some of the black cards. Geth's Verdict, for example, is good for constructed but not that good in limited due to masses of little guys (mana myr, etc.). It's not really a removal spell.
Beast Within deserves to be rated higher. Sure, a 3/3 Beast is better in Limited than in Constructed. But, again, this format is bomb-driven and being able to handle anything from an opposing Sword to a Steel Hellkite, while doubling as an instant speed Beast for yourself is really good. Wait, this thing is splashable too? Geeeez... bust out the Beast tokens, y'all. Anyway, the Beast token is minimized if you are playing against Infect or if you have an evasive guy, or non-W&P Sword.
I don't think they're particularly good or bad. 3/3s in limited often end up trading for a card. They're at the right power point where people have to kill them, and a high enough toughness that it often costs a card you care about to trade for the 3/3, be it a removal spell or relevant creature.
What this means is that Beast Within is usually going to trade 2 cards you care about for 1 card an opponent cares about. Sometimes you'll be paying 3 mana for a flash 3/3, which is acceptable, but not great. In a deck with multiple 4 toughness or more creatures, it gets better, but a lot of times you're going to spend Beast Within to kill something scary, then spend another card to kill the Beast.
The problem with Conversion Chamber isn't that 3/3s are weak. Again, it will often cost a card for an opponent to deal with the 3/3. If they kill the chamber the turn you put a charge counter on it, you spent 5 mana and did nothing, and probably wasted a turn. The chamber isn't effective until it's made 2 golems, which takes 4 turns, and you've put 11 mana into it. Also, it will almost never actually make a golem on turn 5, which is the soonest it can on its own, because there will not be an artifact for it to remove. It needs to be midgame AND you need to be able to spend several turns on the Chamber for it to be effective.
I think its either a 3 or a 3.5, something I could figure out after getting to play with it.
Also, War Report is solidly a .5 for me (where as you placed it at zero). Against non-infect decks, this card can gain enough life to justify the cost, especially against cards like Myr Smith, where this card could potentially gain 15 or so life. Control decks with Blight Widows, Wall of Tanglecords and Priests of Norn could enjoy this card greatly after forcing the opponent to over commit. I would not be saying this if it wasn't for Phyrexian Mana, which is what gives this card a significant margin of usage in the sideboard.
I agree with your stances on the 1/4 Infect Guy who Proliferates for 3U and the Infect guy that when it takes damage it gives the source that many poison counters.
On top of that NPH has splicers, so edict is bad against them when they just sac the 1/1.
It's certainly not a bad card but it's not a first pick, not close.
And yeah, Geth's Verdict is not a 4.0. I don't know why I gave it a 4.0, but I was definitely thinking of how Edicts were generally very good in constructed. I'll change that to 2.5-3.0.
Also, I disagree that the green shrine is a 0. If you play it in turn 3 and play a green spell in turn 4, you get explosive 8 mana in turn 5. If you got something bombastic, dropping it so early, might spell the end of the game right there. In most cases, simply dropping two good 3-4 CMC cards in the same turn will be good enough. In the right deck is at least a 2.0. In a vacuum, at least 1.0
My friends printed out a rating like this for [MBS] pre-release, so similar ratings must exist somewhere, however RTFM'ing (because that's what I always do before I ask stupid/simple questions) leads one to finding no threads started by Ultima with this purpose. Could just search forums/google. =)
For the record, I disagree with almost every one of your ratings that I saw. I got about halfway through White before I gave up.
Ignoring rares is also a mistake, as rares decide a significant fraction of Limited games. If one color has significantly more or less bomby rares than another, that affects how powerful that color is.
Practice for Khans of Tarkir Limited:
Draft: (#1) (#2) (#3) (#4) (#5)
Generally speaking, MTGS has wanted to keep discussion of unreleased sets to the New Card Discussion subforum.
And it's fine if you disagree with me. As many have pointed out, there are ratings I have incorrect, and if I change my mind, I may fix them. I don't think I'm an amazing player or anything; I just feel like I want to do this because limited is the only format I care about at all, and I feel like most of the thought I put into Magic is becoming a better technical player. If you think I'm wrong, feel free to tell me what I'm wrong about or make your own thread.
I can say off the top of my head that my initial impression of Vedalken Certarch was completely wrong, which I thought was a high pick that pushed you into blue. My impression of Trigon of Rage was also completely wrong, which was that it was a card you were happy to play in any deck.
Yes, it does, but the real problem with reviewing rares isn't that they're irrelevant. They are just a huge portion of the set, and take a lot of time to look at. Also, many of them end up with effects that are not nearly as simple as commons or uncommons and take experience to get a feel for exactly what they do. Rares will greatly effect sealed in terms of color power evaluation, but less so draft, because you see less rares overall in draft. Also, the most powerful rares will always get first picked, which means they singlehandedly decide what colors someone wants to play, and often has no effect on the people next to that drafter "wanting to go into that color" for the more powerful cards. If black was more powerful than other colors because of powerful bomb rares, for example, there's more incentive to NOT go into black when you don't open a bomb rare because it just means it's more likely the person next to you opened a bomb rare in black.
About the numbers: I don't like them. I know a lot of people don't like numbers. The thing is, using Conley Woods's number metric is a way to rate cards that is proven used by someone who does know what he's doing, and it simply makes it easier to get a feel for cards very quickly. Personally, I think the only way to really get an idea of where I take what is through experience, and number ratings do an extremely poor job of representing where cards actually get picked. I feel like most set reviews are filled with just "look at this rare, think about how awesome it will be" and there's no real substance. I want to get away from that and make something that can actually be useful. I think talking about a card like Slash Panther is WAY more important to actually being informative than talking about a card like Dismember or Batterskull. It's obvious Batterskull is a first pick. It's obvious Dismember is very good. There's no discussion to be had there. Whether you want to play Slash Panther in any deck that's not running red, how much better it gets if you're in red, what kind of deck are you looking for when you're running Slash Panther, etc, that's where the actual discussion is.
WUControlWU
Commander (EDH)
WBRKaalia of the VastWBR
WRGMayael the AnimaWRG
Raise Dead effects often sound good on paper, but in practice, you just don't really want them. You'll often say "Raise Dead is pretty good when my deck has a Shivan Dragon" or "Salvage Scout sounds like a good card since I can rebuy my Steel Hellkite" but then you play with them and they really just don't do anything.
Noxious Revival takes this a step further and is card disadvantage when you play it. If it was a good effect and there was card disadvantage attached to it, I would think it was mediocre. But you take an already mediocre effect and attach card disadvantage to it, and you're left with a pretty subpar card.