MTG Salvation

5.0: The best of the best. (Herald of Anguish
4.5: Incredible bomb, but not unbeatable. (Freejam Regent. Ridgescale Tusker, Aetherspire Harvester)
4.0: Good rare or top-tier uncommon. (Untethered Express, Release the Gremlins, Rishkar, Peema Renegade
3.5: Top-tier common or solid uncommon. (Aether Chaser, Maulfist Revolutionary, Daring Demolition, Gifted Aetherborn
3.0: Good playable that basically always makes the cut. (Dawnfeather Eagle, Aether Swooper, Chandra's Revolution, Scrounging Bandar)
2.5: Solid playable that rarely gets cut. (Hinterland Drake, Aetherstream Leopard, Sweatworks Brawler, Prey Upon])
2.0: Good filler, but sometimes gets cut. (Lathnu Sailback, Welder Automaton. Frontline Rebel, Ghirapur Osprey)
1.5: Filler. Gets cut about half the time. (Night Market Aeronaut, Aether Herder, Mobile Garrison, Highspire Infusion)
1.0: Bad filler. Gets cut most of the time. (Aether Inspector, Universal Solvent, Foundry Assembler)
0.5: Very low-end playables and sideboard material. (Prizefighter Construct, Night Market Guard, Dramatic Reversal)
0.0: Completely unplayable. (Lost Legacy, Dubious Challenge)

Angel of Sanctions - 4.5. Fairgrounds Warden on steroids. Even if they deal with it once, you can just embalm it on the next turn and force them to have a second answer for it. The 3/4 flying body is generally big enough to stop all common threats, but probably won't be big enough to end the game by itself so this doesn't quite reach best bomb in the set tier.

Anointed Procession - 2.5. (1.0, 3.0 in a token deck) Panharmonicon was a card that looked like a joke in limited but ended up being pretty damn strong in the right deck, and I'm not going to make the same mistake again with this card. While embalming a creature after this is good value, the real dream is to cast a spell that's actually worth its mana cost in tempo with this, such as Stir the Sands, since you can almost immediately make back the investment you put into this card. I'm skeptical about whether or not there are enough tokens in most white decks to be worth doing literally nothing on turn 4, but am certain that this will become one of the best cards in your deck if you have at least 6-7 token producers in the deck.

Annointer Priest - 1.0. On one hand, 2 for 1s are amazing. On the other hand, a pair of 1/3s isn't exactly my idea of a relevant limited body. Every single 2 mana exert creature such as Gust Walker gets past this, and don't get me started about this not being able to block 3 mana 3/2s well, of which there are a billion in this format. The ability is something, but I doubt you'll get enough tokens to make this more than a Lone Missionary in most games.

Approach of the Second Sun - 0.5. Getting to 7 mana, casting a do nothing, and then waiting 7 more turns to win the game is way too slow in any modern limited format to actually work as a win condition. Potential sideboard card for absurdly slow control mirrors, but even then, I'm skeptical.

Aven Mindcensor - 2.0. The last ability might as well be flavor text, so how good is a 3 mana 2/1 flash flyer? There are only 3 maindeckable commons in black that really punish x/1s, and a 2/1 flier can profitably attack in the air until turn 5 in this format, so this card should be good filler for aggressive white decks (aka, most of them).

Binding Mummy - 2.0 (1.5, 2.0 in BW). While getting taps with your embalms is nice, it's more of a minor upside and doesn't really push this card out of filler tier. You really need to be playing real zombies to push this out of that, and it turns out that most of the zombies in the format are filler that you don't really want to include in your deck, which doesn't give me high hopes for this card.

Cartouche of Solidarity - 1.5. There aren't enough trials to warrant playing this card primarily for a trial enabler, so you need to ask yourself how good +1/+1 and first strike along with a 1/1 solder token is for 1 mana. This effect seems reasonable in aggro decks that can make use of an extra body and doesn't care about the card disadvantage, and everything but blue has some sort of upside for the token, whether that be pumping it up with a Pursue Glory or sacrificing the token to a Soulstinger or Exemplar of Strength. Many decks would be okay with playing this as mediocre filler if needed, so this should be a little better than most cards of this effect.

Cast Out - 3.5. Hits anything relevant on your opponents board, can be used to blow out your opponents combat trick, and even cycles for W. 4 is a tad pricy though and at the end of the day this only 1 for 1s, so this must settle for just being considered as good as the premium common removal spells.

Compulsory Rest - 3.5. I was expecting the pacifism variant of the set to be much better due to being able to turn off embalm, but it looks like wizards knew exactly what they were doing. This is still great given that we're now in a world where incidental bounce effects don't really exist anymore, since 2 mana to kill something is incredibly efficient.

Devoted Crop-Mate - 3.0. The value is real, but I don't actually know how many times you'll actually have a 2 drop in the yard to bring back, since very few 2 drops in the format actually trade with each other. I still wouldn't ever cut this from my deck, but given how I think a large part of this format will be racing, I'm not going to rate this as high as I normally would (3.5).

Djeru's Resolve - 2.0. Since it does not boost power, this card won't do much when you're behind on board. What it's good for is if you're in a racing and trading situation, in which case a 1 mana tempo swing is actually reasonable, and cycling will make it so that this card is never completely useless. This also untaps an exert creature which is huge given that that seems like white's main mechanic, so I'd be happy maindecking the first one, although I won't prioritize it too highly.

Dusk - 4.0. Potentially devestating as you can build your deck to be immune to the first half, making it somewhat close to a one-sided Wrath in matchups where your opponent has a bunch of 3+ power creatures. Then again, there will probably be many matchups where your opponent is beating you down with Wind Drake and this card does nothing.

Fan Bearer - 2.5. 1 mana tappers are great, 2 mana tappers less so since that really starts eating into your mana. While Pacification Array was great, that card could improvise out stuff and wasn't vulnerable to removal. While this card is still good enough that you'll generally always run the first one in your white decks, I'm not as happy to do so as I would be for other tappers. This does have the upside of you being able to place a -1/-1 counter on it though, which is good for those needy green and black creatures.

Forsake the Worldly - 1.5. Important artifacts and enchantments aren't really prominent in this format, and maindecking a sideboard card that costs 2 to cycle probably isn't worth it, especially when white doesn't have any natural cycling synergies.

Gideon of the Trials - 4.0. Strange planewalker in that your reward for keeping this alive isn't to drown your opponent in tokens or card advantage, but rather be able to attack with a 3 mana 4/4 indestructible creature. This card is terrible when your opponent has profitable attacks with 2+ creatures, but has the potential to snowball the game to victory if you're able to play it early and keep it alive. I imagine this ends up being roughly as good as a premium uncommon, since it's too inconsistent to be considered a bomb rare given how it can just read 1WW: Gain 3 life.

Gideon's Intervention - 1.5. I read the first two lines of text and thought it was completely unplayable. Then I noticed that the last line of text wasn't actually flavor text, and thought that this more resembled Pacifism. Then I thought about it some more and settled on this being a 4 mana Defang, which seems like mediocre filler. 4 mana is when sorcery speed aura based removal starts to get a little too expensive to be worth taking as a premium pick as Sleep Paralysis has shown us, and this card is worse than that as it effectively turns the creature into a 0/x wall, and doesn't even prevent tapping for activated abilities. Sometimes you just need removal for big creatures, but you aren't particularly happy playing this unless you're a flyers deck, much like Captured by the Consulate and Guard Duty. There will be times where you get the blowout of say, naming Colossapede, neutering your opponent's Colossapede on the board and preventing them from casting their second one in hand. And then there will be times where you name Tah-Crop Elite, realize that your opponent still gets the exert trigger because this is a very mediocre removal spell, and then feel bad about your life. Decent against tokens though, so maybe gets a lot better against black decks running a lot of zombies, since those are the only relevant tokens in the set that seem to appear on multiple cards.

Glory-Bound Initiate - 4.0. A 4/4 lifelink for 2 is pretty stupid even if it can only attack every other turn, and you always have the option to attack as a 3/1 if your opponent has no profitable blocks against it. There aren't that many ways to punish x/1s, so this card will do quite a bit of work if it can attack twice.

Gust Walker - 3.0. Now this is a bear that I can get behind. The card either attacks past or trades through all fliers before 5 mana, and so this bear maintains its relevance very late into the game when most bears would just hit a board stall and start to become useless. This also avoids trades with your opponent's embalm creatures, which can be very important at denying value from your opponent. A pillar common 2 drop in white.

Impeccable Timing - 1.5. This style of card has just perpetually disappointed me in the past couple of sets, and I'm not going to make the same mistake again. It's a way to interact with your opponent if you are light on removal, but not a very good one. On offense, this makes it so your creature doesn't force through damage, and on defense, you're susceptible to getting blown out by a pump spell, of which there are many decent ones in the format. Add in how you need to hold mana up in order to use this on defense, and there's just too many hoops to jump through for this to be good.

In Oketra's Name - 1.5. The main common zombie payoff, which is unfortunately given how zombies do not seem good in this format. Inspired Charge was a key card in Kaladesh fabricate decks, and getting that effect for 2 mana is pretty sweet. Then again, not boosting all of your guys can make this card significantly worse than the charge in many cases, so it's unlikely that this will be as integral of a piece for those decks.

Mighty Leap - 2.0. 2 mana pump spells are generally mediocre filler, but flying can randomly force through damage and end the game, so this gets a slight bump.

Oketra the True - 4.5. 4 mana for effectively a 6/6 indestructible is pretty nuts, but keep in mind that you can neuter this god moreso than others by just putting a couple of -1/-1 counters on it. Getting 3 other creatures on the board with Oketra's ability doesn't seem too difficult if you just curve 2->3->Oketra->ability and do not trade your creatures off, making this a relatively easy payoff. The activated ability isn't really efficient, but is something to do with your mana and helps enable this god.

Oketra's Attendant - 3.5. A 5 mana 3/3 flier isn't particularly efficient, but being able to cycle this early and then embalm it or just cast it twice gives this card enough flexibility that you'll be very happy including this in any white deck. A 3/3 flying body should generally be relevant in most board states as larger fliers are relatively uncommon, but this won't single handedly swing the game in your favor unless your opponent has to deal with this via removal, in which case getting two removal spells out of them would be a pretty good deal if they don't have tempo on you already.

Prepared - 3.5 (2.5 in W, 3.5 in GW). The white combat trick is a solid playable by itself, since the lifelink and surprise blocker can easily swing a race in a favor. Add in a lategame fight spell (albeit without any power/toughness increasing effects), and you have yourself a card that should be close to a premium removal spell.

Protection of the Hekma - 0.5. Dampening Pulse was great because it neutered your opponent's low power creatures which makes blocking for them terrible on certain boards. This card doesn't help at all with board control, and so should not really be compared to Dampening Pulse despite looking like it. The main thing this will do is stopping a swarm of 1/1s from attacking you, which they generally can't do anyways if you have any sort of a board. Thinking about what this does against non 1/1s, it's effectively gaining you somewhere from 5-10 life if you cast this while at 20, which is pretty terrible for a 5 mana play that you probably won't be able to cast before taking damage. (preventing 1 damage from a bear is effectively gaining 1 life, and this can at most prevent 10 damage from bear attacks since you start at 20) You can argue that this makes gaining extra life more valuable, but eh. Seems like a good sideboard card if you're getting beat down by a bunch of 1/1 fliers, but the number of decks in this format that actually have that as a wincon is near 0, making this a card that I would avoid like the plague.

Regal Caracal - 4.0. 7/7 in stats for 5 mana is very efficient, and most of those stats even have lifelink! While there doesn't seem to be as many payoffs for going wide as I would like, you'll probably try to go wide with this card and play In Oketra's Name if available. The bodies are a little weak to completely take over a game, but this should be great for contesting the board against your opponent, especially in a racing situation.

Renewed Faith - 1.0. Implement of Improvement does functionally the same thing as this card, and that ended up being good filler for the decks that cared about revolt or improvise, and bad/mediocre filler for the decks that don't. Seeing that there aren't nearly as many cards in white that cares about cycling as there were in Aether Revolt that cared about revolt/improvise, so I don't see this being better than bad filler in most cases. The choice to gain 4 extra life does add a teensy bit of value to this card, but 2 mana cyclers generally need to do something more than just cycling to be better than bad filler.

Rhet-Crop Spearmaster - 2.5. A 4/1 first strike is a nightmare to block so even though this card is vulnerable to the 3 -1/-1 counter commons in black, this seems like a very important workhorse card for white decks in the format. A lot worse in defensive decks, but luckily white's late game is so garbage that most white decks should be aggressive.

Sacred Cat - 2.0. Doomed Traveler was a card that was surprisingly playable despite the terrible starting body, due to human and sacrifice synergies, and I think this little cat will function similarly. Cards like Exemplar of Strength and Soulstinger just want any 1 drop creature that they can sac for value, and this does the job. You'll generally be able to find something for this to do given that it's a 1 drop that can embalm into a zombie.

Seraph of the Suns - 2.5. (2.0 in aggro, 3.0 in control) 7 mana is a lot of mana for a 4/4 flier, and even though this one is indestructible, it doesn't actually dodge black's common removal spells (Final Reward, -1/-1 counter stuff) and isn't large enough to eat large common ground creatures such as Colossapede. While this is a decent finisher for a control deck, white doesn't seem like it really is suited for control in this format, so I'm skeptical that this will end up being prioritized above playable commons. Think Exquisite Archangel, but probably worse.

Sparring Mummy - 1.0. While untapping a creature matters a lot more in a format with exert, a hill giant is miserable in this format and being a zombie doesn't matter that much given how zombies as a whole isn't well supported. At it's best in a mythical deck where every creature was either a zombie payoff or an exert creature, this probably doesn't even become better than mediocre filler, so eh.

Start - 3.0 (1.5 in W, 3.0 in BW). Oath of Gideon was embarrassing without ally synergies, but getting vigilant soldiers at instant speed should make that side at least mediocre filler. The black side is when things start to get spicy, since you can sac a token from the front side to fuel the murder. The combined cost of 4BW for a 1/1 and murder is still a bit slow for this card to be truly top tier, but the flexibility of being able to split this up into two effects over two turns should make this good enough to be considered a good playable.

Supply Caravan - 1.0. 5 mana 3/5s have never been any better than bad filler, and conditionally getting a 1/1 token doesn't really drag this card out of those depths.

Tah-Crop Elite - 2.5. While a 4 mana 2/2 flier isn't exactly the most efficient of stat lines, antheming your guys off of the exert every other turn is a very relevant trigger in most white decks. I'm not sure if the going wide token theme is supported enough in this set given how embalm doesn't really increase the number of creatures on your board like fabricate can, but the ability is still great with your random 2 and 3 drop aggressive creatures, so I imagine that this will be an important workhorse common for the aggro white decks regardless.

Those Who Serve - 1.5. A 3 mana 2/4 with a semi-relevant creature type would normally be great in most formats, but in the power creeped world of Amonkhet full of 2 mana evasive bears, fliers, and 4 mana 4/3s with upside, playing defensive bodies that become obsolete in a turn isn't exactly where you want to be.

Time to Reflect - 1.5 (0.5, 2.0-3.5 in BW with a minimum of 5 zombies). Smite was a reasonable playable in Gatecrash as a defensive combat trick, but I don't know how I feel working to be able to play a card of that power level. This is a good amount better than smite since it also works on offense and prevents embalming, but the zombie requirement makes this rather hard to activate reliably. Zombies seem to be a bad tribe in this format so I'm not a fan of working for a smite, but if I somehow lucked myself into the zombie deck, I would gladly take these very highly.

Trial of Solidarity - 3.5. A sorcery speed Inspired Charge should be an effect that most white decks are interested in, and this one even gives vigilance for your exert creatures. Being able to get this back with a Cartouche can also be devestating, as you'll generally win the game with two attacks on board. Given how white's main strategy in this format seems to be to go aggressive with exert creatures, this should be a very high priority as it's core to that strategy.

Trueheart Duelist - 3.0. Ghoulcaller's Accomplice was pretty great in SoI limited, and this card is a strictly better colorshifted version of that card! The drop to a 3 mana embalm cost is actually a pretty big deal as a grey ogre is way better than whatever a 4 mana 2/2 is. That being said, a bear doesn't look so hot compared to a 2 mana 3/3 flier or 3/3 trampler, so this gets a slight ding in score for not being able to profitably block the best common 2 drops.

Unwavering Initiate - 3.0. Dauntless Cathar was a great card despite it's average stat line because of getting additional value after dying, and I expect this card to be similar quality. While 5 mana for a 3/2 vigilance is harder to fit in than a 2 mana 1/1 spirit is, the body should end up trading for more than the spirit would, making this card a potentially better late game mana sink.

Vizier of Deferment - 3.0. The base body is a bit weak for me to be excited playing this card, but the ability can trigger one of your EtB abilities, unexert one of your guys, neutralize a combat trick from your opponent, save your creature from a post combat removal spell, kill an enemy embalm token, remove -1/-1 counters from your guys, get rid of attached enemy cartouches… okay, this card is significantly better than I originally thought before writing that list. Grey Ogre is still not a good body, but there's enough utility in the ability to make this card a good playable.

Vizier of Remedies - 2.5. Probably the closest we're going to get to color hosing in modern magic, the ability hoses the majority of removal options that black has at common, and can lead to some pretty great starts in GW or BW when combined with creatures that EtB with -1/-1 counters. A 2/1 in some matchups, and counters all of your opponents removal in others, which should average out to solid playable.

Winged Shepherd - 2.0. Aven Battle Priest was pretty bad filler in Magic Origins, so does adding vigilance and cycling make the card any better than that? Turns out, yes! A 3/3 flier is generally relevant (although somewhat unexciting) in many board states even if it costs 6, and the main weakness of it being stuck in your hand doing nothing due to you not having enough mana is completely gone as you can just cycle it for another card if needed. It's still inefficient enough that you probably don't want to take these terribly highly, but I'd happily play the first one in my deck unless I was hyper aggressive and heckbent.

Ancient Crab - 2.0. A 1/5 will generally stonewall the majority of ground threats that cost 5 or less, but this doesn't really provide any synergy to your deck otherwise, being a bad attacker and a crab. That being said, blue is looking to be very defensive in this format, and given how garbage the other 3 drops are at stopping exert creatures, this is looking like the premier defensive 3 drop for blue in the format. UU and not even being able to block Hooded Brawler, Bitterblade Warrior, and Gust Walker makes this still a bit sketchy, but blocking most everything else should put this at good filler tier.

Angler Drake - 4.0. 6 mana 4/4 fliers have proven to be reasonable, and this one even comes with an unsummon attached to it! Unsummon effects on creatures have historically been very good, and it will probably be slightly better in this format than most due to Embalm being a thing. There are actually zero other fliers that can contest this below rare, so I expect this to be one of the top uncommons (if not the top) in the set.

As Foretold - 0.5. So if you play this on turn 3, turn 5 you can cast a 2 drop for free, turn 6 you can cast a 3 drop for free, etc. While this seems like it could be useful, chances are you'll play out all of your relevant lower plays way before that, making this do nothing in many cases. I suppose if you built a durdle deck that involved a lot of card draw and couldn't possibly cast all of the amount of cards drawn then this can be useful, but at that point you probably didn't need this card in the first place. This should just be a waste of a card slot in most decks, although I'm sure that some insane deck with Kefnet the Mindful will make this card look like an allstar.

Aven Initiate - 3.0. Snapping Drake with late game upside? Sign me up! This slots both into aggressive and defensive decks, and is probably the best blue common in the set as 2 3/2 fliers can be tough to deal with, especially in a stalled board.

Cancel - 1.5. Same old cancel, same old rating. Slightly worse because of embalm, slightly better because blue has very little ways to interact with their opponent at common.

Cartouche of Knowledge - 2.0. Inbetween a Stratus Walk and Spectral Flight, this card should do enough that you'd be happy to include it in most of your decks. The general problem with this effect is that blue decks tend to win with fliers anyways, so there aren't as many relevant targets to suit up. That being said, this card replaces itself and can potentially make one of your ground guys relevant again, so I can't imagine this being any worse than good filler.

Censor - 2.0. A 1 mana cycler can only be so bad, and this one even randomly counters a spell from your opponent early in the game. Force Spike can be great if it counters a large drop from your opponent, but is generally bad because it does nothing in the late game, so cycling greatly improves the playability of this.

Commit - 3.0. Memory seems pretty bad given that the effect is symmetrical and you have to dump 6 mana into the card in the first place, giving your opponent initiative to do stuff with their hand. Commit on the other hand, is a generally better Griptide that even works on spells, which can easily mess up your opponent's combat plans. Given how there are a decent amount of negative EtB effects in the format such as Exemplar of Strength, this should produce more value than normal and be a good playable common-level trick/pseudo-removal spell. Putting it 2nd from the top is generally better than just putting it on top, since most of the time you would rather have them just draw a random card and not immediately replay the thing you put on top. Worth noting that there is one situation where that's not the case, and that's when your opponent is stuck on mana and desperately needs to draw a land for their turn. Griptide would make it so it's not possible for them to do so, whereas this card gives them an out.

Compelling Argument - 1.5. (1.0, 2.0 with cycling synergies) Given how the base effect is literally never worth a card, this rate is purely based on how good U: Draw a card is, and it's probably actually okay given how there are a fair amount of cycling and spells in the yard synergies in blue. Shouldn't be any worse than mediocre filler, as crazy as that sounds.

Cryptic Serpent - 3.0. This set's version of Gearseeker Serpent or Fen Hauler. This seems like a solid playable on turn 5 and insane on turn 4, but I assume most decks won't have enough super cheap cycling to get this out on 4, making this more on the solid playable side as opposed to much higher. Given how blue has a fair amount of U: Cycle cards that no one else wants, you should be able to get the cycling density needed for this to be a good playable relatively easily.

Curator of Mysteries - 4.5. 4 mana 4/4 fliers are way above the curve, and this one even draws you half a card every time you cycle, which adds up given how many cyclers there are in blue. I don't think you'll ever use the cycling ability, but when you're stuck on a single blue on turn 2, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Decision Paralysis - 1.0. A 4 mana Frost Breath would range from good filler to bad filler depending on how aggressive blue decks are in the format, and given how I see a bunch of terrible 2 and 3 drop aggressive creatures in blue, I'm guessing this lies somewhere closer to the bad side of the spectrum.

Drake Haven - 4.0. I want to believe that this is the one durdly enchantment that will cross the threshold into actually being good, and that may be a reality given how blue has Compelling Argument, Hieroglyphic Illumination, River Serpent, and Floodwaters at common. Turning all your cycling cards into cantripping wind drakes is clearly nuts, and this is a single card win condition if your deck has a good amount of those effects. You'll probably need 2 triggers to make this worth it, and that seems trivially doable given how many blue cycling effects are at common.

Essence Scatter - 2.5. 2 mana is efficient enough for a counter that will hit most of your opponent's relevant spells, and I'd be happy starting 1 in the maindeck.

Failure - 0.5. It's like the worse half of Unsubstantiate with almost no upside. Do not play this card.

Floodwaters - 2.0. Into the Void was an amazing spell, but costing 2 more makes it significantly less so. Bouncing seems pretty good in a format where creature tokens and cards that put -1/-1 counters on their own stuff are prevalent though so I'd be surprised if you didn't want one of these in your blue deck especially considering how you can cycle it away if it's not relevant.

Galestrike - 3.5. Drag Under was a great card, and this card is probably even a little bit better since it can blow out combat tricks, and the downside of returning a tapped creature doesn't matter as much given how blue does not want to be aggressive in this format.

Glyph Keeper - 4.0. Not too exciting defensively when you're behind since it can't block any relevant creatures without trading, but will take over the game on a stalled board if your opponent doesn't have fliers. The ability makes dealing with this creature via removal a nightmare, so you'll have to deal with it the old fashioned way by outracing it or blocking it with a 3 power flyer.

Hekma Sentinels - 2.0. (2.0, 2.5 in UB) A 3 mana 2/3 is embarrassing against the 2 drop exert creatures available in this format, but there are enough cycling abilities for you to get this trigger relatively consistently, in which case a 3 mana 3/4 is… still not that good against all of the 4 mana 4/3s in the format! The card is still probably good enough since cycling synergies seem to be the only thing blue has going for it at common, but its statline isn't good enough to escape filler tier. Way better in UB since cyclings the main thing going on with that color combination.

Hieroglyphic Illumination - 2.5. Inspiration has never been a great playable by itself, but that was mainly because there were situations where it would rot in your hand because it cost too much tempo. Being able to cycle it for U significantly increases the relevance of the card in those situations to get you to the late game, where this does a good job of giving you an incremental advantage. Cycling seems especially important in blue given all of the synergies involving it and having spells in your yard, so this should be prioritized pretty highly.

Illusory Wrappings - 1.5. Reduce in Stature was not a good card in DTK, and this seems much worse in a format where many creatures can exert for value with this placed on it or use it as fodder for -1/-1 tokens. Sometimes you just need an answer to Colosapede, but it's much like a worse Sleep Paralysis in that you only do this when you're desperate.

Kefnet the Mindful - 4.0. As much as I want to believe that this is not just a slightly better Jayemdae Tome in disguise, I would not be surprised if that's what this card ended up being. Thinking about the possible scenarios, in your opening hand on the draw, if you play this out on turn 3, then you can either play a single land or spell on subsequent turns in order to activate this god on turn 4 and keep it active. On the play, you're going to need to use its ability on turn 4 in order to activate it. That means that your opponent gets free reign of the board until turn 4 and gets to smash your face in. If they have a removal spell for your god then you probably lose the game immediately as you did nothing for 4 turns, and if they don't then this god will probably take over the game assuming you can swing the race in your favor. Drawn in the mid-late game, this is a Jayemdae Tome that will animate in the course of 3-4 turns and probably win you the game either through card advantage or with the body. Thinking about the decks that this is good in, all this card is asking you is to be a controlling blue deck, which is a pretty common thing. Sometimes it'll randomly win you games when your opponent's early draw sucks, other times it'll just be a tome which control decks are okay playing with anyways. The potential is definitely there to take this card highly, but it's inconsistent enough that I don't think it's quite on the level of a true bomb.

Labyrinth Guardian - 3.0. A 2 mana 2/3 is above the curve (ish), and the downside isn't generally that bad since you're generally trading 1 for 1 with a spell anyways, at which point you can just embalm it for more value! A good on curve play, although it falls off later in the game as the body won't be relevant then.

Lay Claim - 3.0. On one hand, it's Mind Control which is absurd. On the other hand, it's 7 mana, which is a ridiculous amount of mana for this effect especially given how aggressive the format looks to be. Cycling luckily saves the day, since you can just cycle this card when you have no hope of casting it. I'd rather take cards that I can more consistently cast over this in general, but this is a reasonable 7 mana card to play for defensive blue decks (most of them).

Naga Oracle - 1.5. 4 mana 2/4 is a miserable stat line in this format with all of the 4/3s around, but scry 3 is a reasonable enough effect that you'll probably begrudgingly play this as mediocre filler. Keep in mind that scry gets worse the more mana sinks there are, and blue decks will tend to have a lot of those around given Aven Initiate.

New Perspectives - 1.0. A 6 mana draw 3 at sorcery is very expensive given that Tezzeret's Ambition didn't end up being better than bad filler, but that was in a format where Renegade Freighter existed. Unfortunately, aggro and midrange seem strong in this format so I don't think you'll have the time to durdle with this card.

Open into Wonder - 2.0. The effect initially seems amazing, then you think about what blue is trying to do and ask yourself if you're really happy paying 4 mana to tap your Seeker of Insight and Ancient Crab for 2 damage and to draw 2 cards. The real comparison is whether or not this is better than Hieroglyphic Illumination in most cases, and I'd be surprised if it was. Blue just doesn't seem like it has a deck that's aggressive enough to want to attack with 3+ creatures, so I don't see this being as great as it seems. The ceiling is still pretty high, but the floor is low.

Pull from Tomorrow - 3.5. You're generally not happy casting this before 5 mana, but having the flexibility of being able to cast this at any point in the curve is nice, even if it doesn't really do anything under 3 mana. 4+ cards is when draw spells begin to become very good, and this does that at 6 mana and instant speed, which can make it pretty incredible. I'm not entirely sure if you'll have enough time to cast this before just rolling over to exert creatures though so I can't see prioritizing this over top tier uncommons.

Reduce - 2.5 (1.5 in U, 2.5 in UR). The baseline is effectively a Cancel which is mediocre filler, but Rubble gives this an interesting upside in UR, since you can cancel their play while you're ahead on the board, and then rubble their lands effectively time walking them. This is still win-more and you probably could have just developed another creature for a similar effect, but the blowout potential probably boosts it enough into playable tier, since this sounds like an effect that UR decks would generally want to close out the game.

River Serpent - 2.0. A 6 mana 5/5 that sometimes can't attack isn't great but passable in blue, and enabling cycling synergies for U should be enough to push this into good filler territory. You aren't going to be excited playing this in your deck, but it fills a role.

Sacred Excavation - 1.5. (Unplayable to 2.5 depending on how many high impact cyclers you have) Blue actually has some common high impact cycling cards with Shimmerscale Drake, River Serpent, Hieroglyphic Illumination that it's not out of the question that this card is completely unplayable. Getting back your late game cards that you cycled early can make this significantly better than a Divination. A 4 mana draw 2 is still not great given how blue seems to have enough card advantage at common, but the durdle inside of me wants to believe.

Scribe of the Mindful - 1.0. Watchful Automaton is probably the closest thing we have when thinking about when a 3 mana 2/2 is playable, and this card's ability is nowhere near as good as paying 3 to scry 1. Being forced to sacrifice this card is not good, since you can't even trade this off and get a spell back (although you can chump for a turn). While having the late game option to get your best spell back can be okay, spending 4 mana to get a spell back and a chump block isn't exactly my idea of a good playable card.

Seeker of Insight - 1.5. Aether Theorist was pretty great despite having a terrible 1/3 body, but that card guaranteed you scrys which was super helpful during mana screw situations. Cycling doesn't count as casting a spell, so if you are stuck on 2, then the odds of you actually activating the ability are very slim. Scrys are also less valuable in this format due to mana sinks being available so I don't think this card will end up any better than mediocre filler despite the ability.

Shimmerscale Drake - 2.5. A reasonable flying body for 5 and randomly cycles if needed. Probably blues best late game finisher, although the body is not nearly as relevant as it normally would be due to the exert creatures in the format.

Slither Blade - 1.0. There aren't any real combos with this card to make playing a 1 mana 1/2 good, and putting -1/-1 counters on this feels rather bad.

Tah-Crop Skirmisher - 2.5. Curio Vendor was terrible, but two Curio Vendors sounds like a solid playable to me. You'll be happy with any trade you can get with this creature, and your opponent will go out of their way to make sure that doesn't happen. This also attacks back for 2 instead of 1 in a racing situation vs exert, and so is much better than a 1/3.

Trial of Knowledge - 2.5. I love my blue durdly draw spells, and Sift has generally been a pretty efficient draw spell, especially in a format with discard and graveyard shenanigans. Being able to get this back to your hand is obviously great as well, and the Cartouche of Knowledge is definitely one of the more playable Cartouches. That being said, Hieroglyphic Illumination is way more important for the synergies that blue is going for, and may be more important to most blue decks than this card is. While this card should generally be a little better than that, it's not better enough for me to give a higher rating.

Vizier of Many Faces - 3.5 - Clone has generally been a good playable since even when you're behind, you can copy your opponents best creature and trade for it, and this card even comes with embalm value. Clone does seem weaker in a set with exert, since if you're behind then your opponent can often exert their guy to counter this card (Tah-Crop Elite, Ahn-Crop Crasher, etc), but that's probably a minor point in the grand scheme of things.

Vizier of Tumbling Sands - 1.5. A 3 mana Druid of the Cowl isn't very exciting even if this can do things like untapping your exert creatures, but the value there is diminished given that blue doesn't have any natural exert creatures. A 2 mana cycler that untaps something is probably still good enough to be meh filler, but I would not be excited to play this card.

Winds of Rebuke - 2.5. Unsummon seems to be a bit better in a format with Cartouches, cards like Exemplar of Strength sacrificing other creatures, and embalm tokens. Incidental mill also helps turn on River Serpent, so this should be a solid playable that you'll be happy to play, especially given how blue just doesn't have that many ways to interact with your opponent otherwise.

Zenith Seeker - 2.5. The only relevant creature in blue that you even want to give flying is a late game River Serpent, so you'll need to look towards your other color to have a reasonable target for this. A 4 mana 2/2 flier is pretty terrible, but the effect is good enough that you can probably find some sort of value for it, although it'll probably come up infrequently.

Archfiend of Ifnir - 4.5. Very efficient body for the cost, and even has a ridiculous ability and incidental cycling to boot! The ability is definitely worth building around as even getting 1 trigger can potentially destroy your opponents board, so it seems safe to classify this as a bomb.

Baleful Ammit - 3.0. A 3 mana 3/2 lifelink for 3 is very solid, and the option to make it a 4/3 is just pure upside.

Blighted Bat - 2.0. Some decks don't really want a 3 mana 2/1 flier, but between the ability and having a relevant creature type, this should make fit most black decks.

Bone Picker - 3.5. A 4 mana 3/2 flying deathtouch is already a good playable, and the ability can lead to some very sweet tempo swings if your opponent ever decides to trade or if you have a sacrifice outlet.

Bontu the Glorified - 4.0. If you have fodder such as Doomed Dissenter to sac starting from turn 4 onwards, then this will be dealing 5 menacey damage a turn. If you have an empty board with no creatures to sac, then this does nothing. Playing a relevant creature to sac and then paying 2 mana to sac it to enable this god isn't exactly the easiest thing to do, but it's hard to complain when this is just getting in for so much damage.

Cartouche of Ambition - 2.5. Mark of the Vampire was a surprisingly good card, and this reminds me enough of that card that I'm willing to rate this relatively highly for an aura. +1/+1 isn't as big as +2/+2 obviously, but getting the -1/-1 counter on something can enable some synergies in black as well as potentially killing/neutering one of your opponent's creatures. Lifelink will randomly swing races in your favor (especially on a flier), so this seems like a solid playable.

Cruel Reality - 1.0. (1.0, 2.5 in insanely slow control without good win conditions) While this eventually kills your opponent by itself, getting to 7 mana and then needing another 3-4 turns for this card to start doing serious damage is a lot of work for a win condition. I could see very slow control decks running this as a win condition, but you'll probably want to avoid it otherwise.

Cursed Minotaur - 2.0. Average stats with an aggressive ability and relevant creature type should make this a good filler in many decks.

Destined - 2.5 (1.5 in B, 2.5 in BG). If you need a mediocre combat trick, then this is your card. It may read close to Rush of Vitality, but the lifelink on rush makes it more flexible as it can single handedly swing a race in your favor, which was good for the aggro decks that wanted these tricks and frequently found themselves in that situation. The green side of this card makes it more interesting as being able to alpha strike your opponent is very valuable, especially when you get it for free as a second half of a mediocre combat trick. If GB ends up needing a way to break a board stall (which it generally does), then I could see this being a decent pick in those colors. If you're just in B without any G though, then just treat this as a Precise Strike in pick order.

Dispossess - 0.0. The new Lost Legacy of the set, this card is even worse as it only targets artifacts, which aren't prominent in this format.

Doomed Dissenter - 3.0. Sultai Emissary in a format where putting -1/-1 on your guys is something you want to do? Sign me up! The Emissary was a critical card in DTK for exploit decks that wanted to sacrifice their decks, and I imagine that there's enough payoffs in this format for this card to play a similar role.

Dread Wanderer - 3.0. A 2/1 body is pretty weak, but this seems like the type of format where you would be happy with any 1 drop that you can sacrifice to effects such as Exemplar of Strength and Soulstinger, and this fits the bill. Normally this type of card comes with the condition that it can't block, but this can actually block and trade with your opponents bears, which is really nice. Not the type of card that will swing a game in your favor, but rather give you utility and incremental advantages over time.

Dune Beetle - 2.0. I was hoping that this is the set where the horned turtle stat line was playable, but this card looks not great in a set of Gust Walker, Bitterblade Warrior, and Hooded Brawler. This still blocks random other bears and 3/2s, but doesn't fit well in aggro decks, and is relegated to good filler as a result.

Faith of the Devoted - 3.5. (1.0, 3.5 in UB cycling) UB is the only deck I see that can both get a high enough density of cycling cards for this to be a legitimate win condition and have the defensive tools for this to function. Draining your opponent for 2 each cycle quickly adds up if you can reliably get 4+ triggers, so this should be a reason to go all in on cycling for that deck.

Festering Mummy - 2.0. The permanence of the counter makes this a good deal better than Festering Goblin, and being a 1 mana sac outlet in a format that puts -1/-1 counters on your own creatures for value should make this a good (filler) enabler for cards like Soulstinger.

Final Reward - 3.0. 5 mana is apparently the going rate for unconditional instant removal nowadays Tidy Conclusion, but luckily this card is as close to unconditional as it can be, since it even deals with pesky embalm creatures. Should be as good as the conclusion was, which was below the best commons in the set, but still the best black common in the set.

Gravedigger - 3.0. A little bit awkward with embalm, but getting a bear with your 4 mana recursion effect is generally good enough for you to be happy to play this card in all of your black decks.

Grim Strider - 3.0. (1.5 in control, 3.0 in aggro) On the draw, if you play a single card starting from turn 2 onwards, playing this on turn 4 would leave you with 4 (11-4lands-3spells) cards in hand, making this a 2/2 and potentially a 3/3 to 4/4 on turn 5 depending on whether or not you can play 2 cards at that point. On the play this is a 3/3 and maybe a 4/4 on turn 5. As a result, this card seems meh on the draw and great on the play, so I'd try to side this out on the draw and in on the play. The card clearly gets a lot better with ways to empty your hand such as just having a super low curve and being aggressive or playing cards like Miasmic Mummy, so aggro decks seem to be its natural home, where it will probably be amazing if you have a good density of 1-2 drop things to do. Weirdly gets worse with cycling, since it's harder to empty your hand in time.

Horror of the Broken Lands - 2.0. A 5 mana 4/4 is rather poor in a world of 5/5s, but cycling for B and randomly smashing for 8+ damage from the ability should make this decent filler for decks with a reasonable amount of cycling.

Lay Bare the Heart - 1.0. I've been burned by my previous optimism of Transgress the Mind being better than mediocre filler, and that was a devoid card in a set that cared about playing devoid spells. If you're playing this card early in the game then you're not curving out, which means you're probably losing. 2 mana is low enough that it won't take up your entire turn so you might be able to play this turn 4/5 without losing tempo and it does hit the majority of what you need it to hit, so I can see this card deserving a slot in the maindeck if you're low on ways to interact with your opponent's bombs/removal otherwise. Gets better the fewer 2 drops you have.

Liliana, Death's Majesty - 4.5. Rise from the Grave isn't exactly my idea of an amazing planeswalker, but the value rises considerably in a format where every color has a common cycling creature that costs 5+ mana, and I probably underestimate the ability to make an army of 2/2 zombies if this lives.

Liliana's Mastery - 4.0. Coursers' Accord for 5 mana is a pretty good rate, and there do seem to be enough random zombies in the set such as Cursed Minotaur and Doomed Dissenter to get some additional value from the ability.
I'm still a little skeptical that 3/3s are even good in this format, but 6/6 in stats for 5 mana is efficient enough that I'll probably end up taking this over all commons and most uncommons.

Lord of the Accursed - 3.0. 3 mana 2/3s is a standard rate although especially poor in this format, and being a zombie lord in a color with zombies should make this card a solid pick on par with the best commons. The available common zombies are generally weak though so I'm not terribly hopeful that this is relevant, but if there is a reason why zombies are good, it would be this card. Think Chief of the Foundry, but probably a little better due to the menace ability.

Miasmic Mummy - 1.5. Filler stats, relevant creature type, and a symmetrical discard ability that you can potentially exploit to your advantage. The decks that want some combination of these things will play this card as average filler, and the decks that don't will ignore it. Black seems to have enough payoffs for these things in general, so I'm hopeful that you'll be okay playing this at least as mediocre filler in most decks.

Nest of Scarabs - 2.0. 90% of the time we get a sweet enchantment in a set, it ends up being too slow and completely unplayable. This one is slightly more interesting if you can place -1/-1 counters on multiple creatures, which makes it way easier to get enough scarabs you need to make this card relevant. Given the tempo loss on turn 3 to play this card, I imagine you really need at least 4 scarabs before you're happy about playing this card, so how good this will be depends on how easily black decks can get 4 -1/-1 counters after playing this. There seems to be enough enablers to make this card playable, but I'm not sure how good it is given that black doesn't have too many uses for a bunch of 1/1s.

Never - 4.0. Sorcery speed Hero's Downfall with a 4 mana Shamble Back attached to it. Premium efficient removal is typically rated at the best common tier of 3.5, and the shamble back will probably be good enough in a set with embalm to push this a little past that.

Painful Lesson - 1.0. Live Fast and Succumb to Temptation were examples of mediocre to bad filler, and EMN was considered a pretty slow and grindy format, which makes me not hopeful that this card will be any better. Since control decks are the only type of decks that want this effect, the 2 life matters considerably more there when trying to stabilize against aggro. I don't really see this being playable given that there are better options for card advantage in the set.

Pitiless Vizier - 2.0. A 4 mana 4/2 is obviously not a good rate, but threatening indestructibility makes this a very solid blocker in decks that can reliably get cycling (UB).

Plague Belcher - 3.5. A 3 mana 3/2 menace is fine on its own, and this comes with random zombie upside and can potentially be a 3 mana 5/4. Doomed Dissenter into this is a pretty solid opener, and black decks should have enough zombies that the last line of text will actually be relevant at times. Not quite consistent enough to take over top uncommons, but this seems as good, if not better than premium common removal.

Ruthless Sniper - 4.0. Now this is a cycling payoff! Turning all of your cycles into -1/-1 counters will quickly decimate your opponents board if you have a good density of them, and it will be very hard for your opponent to do anything if they do not have an answer to this card.

Rags - 1.5. 4 mana to -2/-2 the board is just too inefficient since your opponents will generally have beefier creatures by that stage of the game, and 7 mana to steal your opponent's embalmed Sacred Cat isn't exactly my definition of value. There will be some set of situations where this card is amazing and wins you the game, but most of the time this is just going to be too conditional to do anything meaningful.

Scarab Feast - 1.5. (1.0, 1.5 in cycling decks, esp UB)There are plenty of things in black and blue that care about cycling, and cycling for B is cheap enough that this should be average filler in the decks that care about that.

Shadow of the Grave - 0.5. The earliest you could make this into a Divination would be to cycle 2 1 mana spells and this, and 4 mana and a 3 card combo for a divination isn't exactly my idea of a good payoff. Getting one card out of this means that you just worked to turn a card into 2: Cycle, which seems miserable so I don't expect this card to be playable unless you are desperate for a 23rd card and have an abundance of cyclers.

Soulstinger - 3.0. The base rate of a 4 mana 2/3 that puts 2 -1/-1 counters on a thing when it dies is a solid defensive body, and a 4 mana 4/5 is a reasonable payoff for having a creature you can sacrifice for value. You can even put more -1/-1 counters on this to turn this to enable your other -1/-1 counter cards and cash this in for a larger removal spell. The total package seems powerful enough for this to be a very good playable, thought it takes some work to get there.

Splendid Agony - 3.0. Grim Affliction was a pretty solid playable in New Phyrexia, and while this card probably isn't quite as good as proliferate, being able to distribute your counters across two of your opponents creatures can be quite the blowout. Significantly better than cards like Cruel Finality, since in the event that you try to use this as a combat trick and your opponent blows you out, at least the counters stay on the creature so you can block it in future turns.

Stir the Sands - 3.0. A 4 mana flash, cantripping zombie or 3 zombies for 6 mana by themselves are both decent playables by themselves, and with those powers combined, this card should settle into good playable territory. Bonus points if you have things that care about zombies, such as the uncommon zombie lord.

Supernatural Stamina - 2.5. I was a big fan of Unnatural Aggression as a solid playable in Oath of the Gatewatch, and this is a functional reprint of that and should be just as good. This may be a little worse due to black having -1/-1 EtB triggers on their guys, but eh.

Tresspasser's Curse - 1.0. I don't like cards that give zero card advantage or board impact, and even though draining your opponent for 5-6 over the course of the game can be interesting, it's probably not worth the downside of drawing this in a topdeck war or spending your turn 2 doing so.

Trial of Ambition - 2.0. 2 mana sac effects have generally been good filler in limited, and there aren't enough tokens in this set to really change this. You generally just want to trade this for your opponents 2 drop, but it gets awkward when you're on the play and can't use this.

Unburden - 1.0. Mind Rot gets way better with cycling, but the format seems aggressive, and 2 mana to cycle costs enough tempo for this card to still be bad filler. Your opponent discarding cards might even be a downside due to heckbent mechanics, although there aren't that many things that punish you there.

Wander in Death - 1.5. More bad filler cards with 2: Cycling! This may get better in a format where there are large creatures that cycle, but not enough to push this out of bad filler.

Wasteland Scorpion - 2.5. A solid defensive body for the defensive decks that want it, and cycling lets you replace this for when you're getting beat down by fliers.

Ahn-Crop Crasher - 3.5. Just a 3 mana 3/2 haste is already above the curve, and faltering an annoying blocker can lead to some incredibly aggressive and explosive starts. This does suffer the same problem that Goblin Heelcutter did of getting blocked by 2 bears, and exert does come with a real drawback of not being able to force through damage the next turn, but I imagine this card to seriously carry some of your games to victory.

Battlefield Scavenger - 3.0. The bear body won't be too relevant as the game progresses, but the ability affects all of your exerts, and should be able to accrue a ton amount of incremental advantage as the game progresses if you have exert triggers.

Blazing Volley - 1.0. There aren't enough 1 toughness creatures in the format for me to be happy maindecking it, but it's a serviceable sideboard card.

Bloodrage Brawler - 2.5. Pale Rider of Trostad immediately comes to mind, and that card ended up being mediocre filler even in a set with madness due to the 2 for 1 possibility being a huge issue. Weirdly enough though, I think Amonkhet's mechanics are actually a better fit for discarding your own cards than Innistrad was: madness meant that you couldn't curve out with the pale rider, whereas heckbent and embalm means that you can cast this on turn 2 and still enable your synergies. Unfortunately for this card, this set seems like a 3 mana 3/2 set so expect to feel sad about getting 2 for 1ed when your opponent plays their 3 drop. The upside of forcing through ~8 damage on the play is still high enough that this card still seems like a solid playable for most decks, but it's far from being actually amazing.

Bloodlust Inciter - 1.0. 1 mana 1/1s are more attractive when random Exemplar of Strength are lurking around and heckbent is semi-supported, but your deck needs to be hyper aggressive or have specific synergies in mind in order to want to play this card. I don't think it'll make most red decks, but weirdly enough will see play in potentially the most degenerate ones.

Brute Strength - 2.0. This card was surprisingly strong in Oath of the Gatewatch since forcing through damage is a huge deal for red, but creatures are much larger in this format than in that one which diminishes it's playability.

By Force - 0.5. There aren't enough artifacts in the format for me to be comfortable maindecking this, especially since this doesn't have the fallback of cycling for a card or being a grey ogre like Manglehorn or Dissenter's Deliverance

Cartouche of Zeal - 1.0. Hammerhand ranged from bad filler to good filler depending on how aggressive your red deck was, and I imagine that this will end up the same way. I wouldn't play this unless your deck was the hyper aggro deck and/or had trials to recur, but it could be almost playable in that deck.

Combat Celebrant - 3.5. Not untapping itself for the second combat phase makes this card a lot worse than I initially read, since this relies on you having a winning board besides this card in order to make use of the phase. While this card will win you games where you're a fair amount ahead on the spot, it's not necessarily the insane bomb that it looks like.

Consuming Fervor - 2.0. The base rate is actually efficient enough that I could see maindecking this in a very aggressive deck. Turning your 2/2 into a 5/5 attacker on turn 3 for R is an incredible amount of pressure, and even if it eventually goes back down to a 2/2, getting your bear in for 9-12 damage over turn 3/4 for a single R is pretty insane. This gets even better if you have ways to abuse putting -1/-1 counters on your guys, so the potential for this card is very high. That being said, this won't go into every R deck and can be miserable if it won't break a board stall, so I wouldn't get too crazy over this.

Cut - 4.0 (3.5 in R, 4.0 in RB). The top half is already a 3.5 just by itself due to how efficient it is, and the aftermath gives you a nice lategame fireball to the face if you are in black.

Deem Worthy - 3.5. 7 damage is high enough to effectively turn this into a Murder, and having a 4 mana almost Electrolyze mode on the card allows you to deal with those pesky utility creatures while getting some value back. While the base mode is a little expensive, both sides combined push this into a card that you'd generally be happy picking very early in the draft.

Desert Cerodon - 2.0. 6 mana 6/4 is not a great rate, but being able to cycle it away early for a single red makes its very serviceable as an incidental finisher.

Electrify - 3.0. I don't think this will be quite as good as Chandra's Revolution was in Aether Revolt since this doesn't hit many common finishers, but it's value is increased as it's your only common removal option in red that hits midgame creatures.

Emberhorn Minotaur - 2.0. Serviceable base rate, and serviceable exert ability. This card may just be the quintessential example of a good filler card.

Flameblade Adept - 1.0. Cycling (which is the most common way to trigger this) comes at a 1-2 mana tempo loss, so you're probably not too happy if your opponent double blocks and you need to cycle to just end up at parity with them. Insolent Neonate has shown us that 1 drop menace guys are generally pretty good if they have relevant abilities, but I don't think this particular ability is good enough for this to be any better than bad filler.

Fling - 1.0. 2 for 1ing yourself isn't generally a good way to win a game, especially given how you need to sacrifice a good creature in order to kill anything relevant. This will do wonders in the Limits of Solidarity deck though so keep an eye out for that, but otherwise leave this in the board.

Glorious End - 1.0. This is a super sweet effect, but in order for this to do anything, you need to first have profitable attacks, and next need to actually be confident enough that you will win the game on the next turn through your opponents open mana. To demonstrate how this card can be extremely awkward, suppose your opponent is at 2 life with an empty board and a couple of cards in hand, and you have 5 mana, a bear, and this in hand. You play your bear and pass, and then your opponent plays a bear. If you Glorious End to counter your opponents bear, then you instantly lose the game if your opponent has a magma spray. On the other hand, this is the exact type of situation where you'd want to play this card since it denies your opponent a board and wins the game for you if it works out. This just seems like way too much of a win-more card, and is risky enough that I don't think it's worth including in your deck in most cases. I'd much rather have a card like Limits of Solidarity, since it achieves a similar effect as this card without costing you the game if it doesn't work out.

Glorybringer - 5.0. An efficient flying hasty dragon that does a repeatable impression of Inferno Titan? Sounds like the best limited card in the set for me. Only getting the trigger on attack and not being available on defense is somewhat of a downside, but when you're just murdering your opponent's creatures and getting in for 4 flying damage, you probably won't care.

Harsh Mentor - 1.5. Even though the ability may make this card seem better than just a bear, when you actually look up which commons and uncommons have activated abilities in the set, you'll find out that this will probably just be a bear without relevant creature types 90% of the time, which is very solidly bad filler tier. There are ~1-2 relevant common targets per color so perhaps this is good enough to be mediocre filler, but I'm not even sold on that.

Hazoret the Fervent - 4.5. Skipping your 1 drop, if you play 1 land and spell a turn, you'll have 1 card in your hand either turn 6 on the play or turn 7 on the draw, so you need to ask yourself how good a 5/4 indestructible haste with this ability is at that point, which still sounds pretty insane. This card singlehandedly gives you inevitability (chuck your lands to the face) and stonewalls any ground force that may be trying to attack you. Obviously gets better the faster you can empty your hand, but there will definitely be games where you get stuck on mana and it becomes super awkward to turn this god on. Inconsistencies prevent it from getting a straight 5.0, but if you're a hyper aggressive hellbent deck then this could easily get there.

Hazoret's Favor - 1.0. If you use this ability on a creature, your opponent can chump block your creature with their weakest creature, and effectively trade their weakest creature for the creature you pump with this effect. That means that in order for this to be good, your opponent either needs to have a board that this effect can break through or no weak creatures to throw away chump blocking, and you need to be able to put enough pressure such that you're okay throwing away your guys after one attack.

Heart-Piercer Manticore - 4.0. The base creature + embalm ability is a 3.0 by itself since the body is efficient for its mana cost, so it's a matter of how much the Fling ability adds to this card, and I think it adds a fair amount. While you generally aren't going to use it on turn 4, it's sometimes great to force a trade between, say, your zombie token and their Tah-Crop Elite. Where this gets really interesting is late in the game, since being able to 5 your opponents face or force a trade on a very scary enemy creature with your 5 attack creature adds a considerable amount of reach to your gameplan, especially when it's a free ability tacked onto a 4 mana 4/3 that you already got value out of. This seems like a premium utility creature assuming your deck has high power guys that you'd be happy to fling, and that should be common across most red decks.

Hyena Pack - 1.5. As Prakata Club Security has shown us, a 4 mana 3/4 doesn't seem to be better than mediocre filler in modern limited formats. In order for this stat line to be truly good, it needs to be able to stonewall the common 2/3 drops in the format and attack profitably through most 2-4 drops, which doesn't seem likely given the 2 mana 1/4 in the format.

Insult - 4.0. This may as well read 4RR Sorcery - Deal 4 damage to target creature and player, your creatures deal double damage this turn since casting the first half of this card without the second seems pretty bad in the majority of cases. That being said, double damage is probably similar to Trumpet Blast in many cases, and a 6 mana Chandra's Outrage and Trumpet Blast seems like a very powerful game ending effect for an aggressive red deck.

Limits of Solidarity - 2.0. Act of Treason effects are generally very feast or famine - sometimes they're great and win the game through a board that would otherwise be stalled, other times you're behind and they do absolutely nothing. Adding cycling eliminates the weakness of the second mode, as you can just cache it in for another card in that situation, making this a solid addition to any even remotely aggressive red deck.

Magma Spray - 3.0. I was off with my Shock evaluation last review, and I'm not making the same mistake again. There are an abundance of 2 toughness creatures at 2 and 3 mana in this format, including pesky embalm creatures that this handily deals with at insane efficiency.

Manticore of the Gauntlet - 1.5. Red doesn't have that many good creatures to put the -1/-1 counter on, and a 5 mana 5/4 that bolts your opponent's face would probably only be considered good filler. I don't think the downside makes this card that much worse than that on most boards, but it's enough for a slight ding in rating.

Minotaur Sureshot - 2.5. The base rate isn't particularly efficient, but profitably trading with every flier in the format is rather strong, and the pump ability should make this relevant in most stages of the game, although you may have to spend some tempo for this to do so.

Nef-Crop Entangler - 3.0. A 3/3 trample for 2, sign me up! The 1 toughness is a liability in some matchups, but the exert ability makes this card very difficult to block, and is too important for the aggro decks to pass up.

Nimble-Blade Khenra - 2.0 (1.5, 3.0 in UR). Sanguinary Mage was a card that I initially thought was mediocre but grew on me as the format progressed. A 1/3 is pretty terrible at attacking, but being able to threaten a block as a 2 mana 2/4 makes this a very strong 2 drop for those types of decks. You don't really want this in your aggro decks since it's tough to get enough triggers to even make this as good as a bear, but you'll probably want it in UR.

Onward - 1.0. I suppose the dream for this card is to cast both sides on your 5/1 flier and 20 them in the air, but in the real world, this card will probably read 3 mana: give your 3/2 +3 attack until the end of the turn. This just seems too situational to be good since you need to cast the entire thing at sorcery speed to make the double strike good, at which point your opponent will just chump block, and doubling power isn't even that efficient unless you either Consuming Fervor your bear, or cast it on a huge guy.

Pathmaker Initiate - 2.5. Goblin Tunneler was a pretty bad early play but could take over the late game by making your dorks unblockable, and adding the 2nd point of power goes a long way in making this a respectable card.

Pursue Glory - 2.0 (1.5, 2.5 in RW). Situational abilities with cycling attached tend to be good enough to include in your deck, but not good enough for you to be exceptionally happy playing them.. Red doesn't seem to have a token theme this time around, so this probably will only be good in RW.

Soul-Scar Mage - 1.0 (1.0, 2.5 in decks with 4+ burn spells and 8+ overall spells) A 1 mana 1/2 prowess is a pretty terrible rate as the base body can't trade with many creatures, and a 2/3 isn't large enough to survive combat against many cards. The ability can be very powerful though, since turning Magma Spray into a permanent -2/-2 can result in this card blocking and killing a 4/3 with the spray. That being said, you'd probably need at least 4 burn spells and 8 total spells before I'd consider this being better than bad filler, and I'm skeptical that red actually has a high enough density of these spells for this card to actively be good.

Sweltering Suns - 1.5. Red sweepers have generally been bad in limited because red tends to be the most aggressive color with low toughness creatures, making this be a nonbo with the core strategy of the color. Then again, cycling makes anything still playable, so you'll probably find a spot for this in your deck even if all of your creatures get wiped by it.

Thresher Lizard - 2.0. There doesn't seem to be enough heckbent support for you to consistently enable this card early, but randomly getting a 4/4 out of your 3 mana 3/2 late game should be enough value for you to not be completely embarrassed playing this in most decks. This may be a reason to try to go out of your way to become heckbent by playing a bunch of 1 mana stuff and Miasmic Mummy, but that's still a big commitment for a 3 mana 4/4. Very strange that this is only heckbent support in the entire set for pure red cards.

Tormenting Voice - 1.5. This has always been a spell synergy enabler and late game flood insurance card, and both seem relevant in this format, although neither seem as important as they would be in other formats.

Trial of Zeal - 3.5. Touch of the Void has generally been a 3.0 tier card, and this card even has the upside of randomly getting it back from cards that you would generally play in your deck anyways. I don't expect it to be super common that you'll be able to cast this twice in a game, but it's something to build around and will be backbreaking in the games where you pull it off.

Trueheart Twins - 3.0. Triggering off of your other exert creatures is huge, since you can play this on turn 5 for immediate board impact. I may be too blinded by the best case scenario since this ability sometimes amounts to just +1/+0 on your team for the current turn, but the upside is high.

Violent Impact - 1.0. Cycling 2 is as good as bad filler, since the ability doesn't actually do anything in this format. You'll play it if you need cycling enablers, but you will not be happy playing this card in most cases.

Warfire Javelineer - 3.5. It should be fairly easy to get this to be as good as a Mardu Heart-Piercer with all of the spells that cycle, and anything more than that is just gravy. It takes some amount of work to enable this card, but the payoff is definitely there.

Benefaction of Rhonas - 1.0. Commune with the Gods wasn't particularly good, and that was in a format with creature enchantments! Maybe you really need a way to enable your River Serpents, but that sounds like a pretty terrible reason to run this card.

Bitterblade Warrior - 2.5. Deathtouch is much better on defense than on offense, since it's mostly a weaker unblockable on offense. It's still hard to cut this from most green decks, but not getting toughness on the exert makes this card trade for an opposing bear or Tah-Crop Skirmisher, which is not what you really want out of your 2 drop in this format. Seems like the weakest out of the 3 2 drop exert creatures, which speaks to the power of these creatures as this is still a solid playable.

Cartouche of Strength - 3.5. Effectively a 3 mana Hunt the Weak that gives your creature trample and randomly enables trials. Sounds like a top tier common to me!

Champion of Rhonas - 3.0. The dream is clearly to cast this and then exert it turn 5 for a Colossapede and then cast another Colossapede, but how realistic is that scenario? If you cast this on turn 4, you'll probably be able to cheat out one creature in your hand before running out of creatures to play, and in a top deck scenario, you just played a Hill Giant which is pretty bad. The inconsistencies make me think that this card is only decent playable tier since for the games where you can cheat something out, other times you'll be facing down a 4 mana 3/4 and being embarrassed for playing a hill giant.

Channeler Initiate - 3.5. A mana dork that grows into a 3/4 over time is pretty good, but thinking about it, the stats aren't great at any point in the curve, since it's a 1/2 on turn 3, a 2/3 on turn 4, and a 3/4 on turn 5. This card is very bad at being aggressive unless you put the counters on something else. Comparing this to Exemplar of Strength is pretty interesting, since even though this is a rare and seems way better due to the mana ramp aspect, the exemplar can actually attack as it grows, making it far better in an aggro deck where you can't sac your 1 drop to make a huge guy on turn 2.

Colossapede - 2.5. A 5 mana 5/5 is usually big enough to dominate the ground, which is something that most green decks are interested in. I could see this rating being lowered due to a lack of synergy with the mechanics in the set, but big dumb dinosaurs (or insects) are generally a good plan in most limited formats.

Crocodile of the Crossing - 3.5. There are enough tools to support this -1/-1 theme in green that this should just end up reading as a 4 mana 5/4 haste, which basically attacks on the same turn as Renegade Freighter and is roughly as good. The fail case of being a 4 mana 4/3 haste is still perfectly fine as well, and the 4th point of toughness really pushes this over the edge as very few things can profitably block this in combat at that stage of the game.

Defiant Greatmaw - 3.5. A 3 mana 4/5 is a pretty good reason to be playing enabler cards such as Oashra Cultivator. The base rate of a 3 mana 2/3 that removes a counter is borderline playable, but the upside is high enough to build around this card, and maybe even just sacrifice your 2 drop to pump this.

Dissenter's Deliverance - 1.5. There aren't really enough high impact artifacts in this set for this to be essential in the maindeck, but it's hard for G: Cycle to be completely worthless.

Exemplar of Strength - 4.0. This card reminds me too much of Longtusk Cub to give any lower of a rating. Both cards involve snowballing quickly out of control if you can get multiple attacks from it, and while this card can't feed off of random other energy cards you have, the option to place counters on one of your other creatures (say, a Sacred Cat) to get a turn 2 4/4 can quickly snowball the game in your favor.

Giant Spider - 1.5. Spiders are generally great if they block all common/uncommon flying threats in the format, and mediocre otherwise as they're usually inefficient for their cost without reach. This spider does block every single common/uncommon flier in the format except for Angler Drake so there is hope for this card being okay, but the problem is that most fliers simply bounce off of this, and a 4 mana 2/4 is abysmal in a format full of 4 mana 4/3s. Green does need a way to protect against fliers, but I'm not particularly happy playing this in the maindeck.

Gift of Paradise - 1.0. Ain't nobody got time to ramp at 3 mana, unless you're living the dream and trying to cast Sandwurm Convergence, in which case godspeed.

Greater Sandwurm - 1.5. 7 mana is high enough that this card really is just 2 mana: Cycling in most cases, but having a late game fatty that you can cycle away is still decent for non-aggro decks.

Hapatra's Mark - 1.5. This card seems awkward since if your creature has -1/-1 counters on it, then it's probably not a creature that your opponent will block since it's generally weak. The blowout potential is large if your opponent tries to trade with say, your 2/2 Exemplar of Strength, but the times where this is just a worse Ranger's Guile won't feel good.

Harvest Season - 0.5. 3 mana ramp spells are already a tough sell in limited given how much tempo you lose playing them and how worthless they are in the late game, and this one actually requires you to work for it. I suppose the dream is to go 1 drop dude into 2 drop dude into this for 2, but that just seems very win-more and doesn't account for the times where you don't have a profitable attack and this card does literally nothing. This just doesn't seem good anywhere since the decks that can reliably trigger it (aggro) don't want to spend their turn 3 ramping, and the decks that actually want this for the ramp and fixing probably won't be aggressive enough to make this any better than a situational Rampant Growth.

Haze of Pollen - 0.5. Fog is generally not worth a card, and spending 3 mana to cycle is expensive enough that I'm not happy with either mode of this card in most cases.

Honored Hydra - 4.0. A tramply Cowl Prowler isn't exactly my idea of a bomb, but this gets much more exciting when you can either cheat it into the yard and embalm it on turn 4, or get it removed and embalm it again. The card just represents too much value as a finisher to not take early, and while this probably won't end up being a true bomb, it won't be very far off.

Hooded Brawler - 3.0. Renegade Freighter, is that you? A 3 mana 5/4 is clearly ridiculous, and even if this only becomes that every other turn, this is efficient enough to set the pace for what the format will be, which is probably aggression. A format defining common, and I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being 3.5, which i'm not giving to it as it's not as good in non-aggro decks.

Initiate's Companion - 2.0. You're going to be hard pressed to actually get in damage with this card due to its low toughness, but there aren't too many things that punish the 1 toughness on this card, making it passable filler. Note that you can't ramp with this card since mana empties between phases, but randomly unexerting your exert creatures is also nice.

Manglehorn - 2.0. Most of the artifacts that you want to hit (such as the monument cycle) are at uncommon so I'm skeptical about how maindeckable this card is. That being said, the blowout potential is large enough that you'd probably do it if you were low on playables, and it's probably better to take a premium sideboard card over mediocre filler.

Mouth - 3.5. A 3 mana 3/3 is already a solid playable, and getting a conditional 4 mana Divination afterwards is just pure value. Neither side will single handedly swing a losing game in your favor, but you can get many incremental advantages out of this, especially with the abundance of 3 power creatures in green.

Naga Vitalist - 2.5. Doesn't fix your mana, but is a vessel for a -1/-1 counter, and ramps you to your fatties for 2 mana. A solid playable for more defensive decks, and meh for aggressive ones.

Oashra Cultivator - 2.5. Seemingly innocuous, this forces your opponent to exert their 2 mana bears to get past this, is a vessel for -1/-1 counters, and even lives through those counters and eventually fetches you a land that may enable a splash. This can lead to some very strong plays, and enables enough things for it to be taken very highly.

Ornery Kudu - 2.0. A 3 mana 2/3 is very bad, but a 3 mana 3/4 is good. You should be able to typically find something to place the -1/-1 counter on, or remove it via a card like Quarry Hauler, so this will probably end up falling somewhere around good filler.

Pouncing Cheetah - 1.5. The 2 toughness means that this won't really do a good job ambushing and eating smaller creatures, but dodging a turn 3 Trial of Zeal on the draw and forcing your opponent to Magma Spray this on their turn can be pretty annoying, and this can also give your opponent a false sense of security by not exerting their guy. This isn't efficient enough stats or synergy wise to be better than mediocre filler, but you could do worse for 3 drops.

Prowling Serpopard - 3.0. The stats are great, but the mana cost is annoying, and the abilities may as well just be flavor text. 3 mana 4/3s generally aren't as good as 3 mana 3/4s as they'll trade often with other 3 mana cards as opposed to beating them in combat, so I don't think this will end up being as good as say, Thriving Rhino.

Quarry Hauler - 2.0. Green has a surprising amount of things that place -1/-1 counters on your own guys, and removing one from say a Ornery Kudu seems like a strong play. This provides enough utility and synergy with reasonable base stats that it should be good filler for most green decks.

Heaven - 4.0. (0.5 in G, 4.0 in GR) Savage Twister, is that you? The first half of the card being instant speed is incredibly relevant, since you can always endstep it for G if you don't need to kill fliers, and then just Savage Twister your opponent's board. Green tends to have the largest creatures on the board so this sometimes ends up being a 1 sided wrath, and even being a 2 sided wrath isn't too bad.

Rhonas the Indomitable - 4.5. Green seems to have enough 4 power creatures at 4+ on the curve that you'll consistently be able to attack with this on turn 4 if you work for it, and even if you can't, you'll eventually be able to activate this card's ability and make your own 4 power creatures. Being able to eventually +4/+0 and trample your guys on turn 6+ coupled with being able to attack with a huge 5/5 deathtouch indestructible creatures adds an incredible amount of pressure to most green boards to make this a bona-fide bomb, even if it will sometimes do nothing when you're on the backfoot.

Sandwurm Convergence - 4.5. (1.0 in reality due to how aggressive the format is, 5.0 in decks that can get to 8 mana without dying) 8 mana spells generally need to win you the game by themselves to even be considered worth playing, and this will surprisingly do that. Getting a 5/5 on the turn you play it and every turn after helps stabilize you when you play it and gives you inevitability on the ground over the course of the next few turns. Immediately invalidating all of your opponent's fliers sounds like a random bonus, but is what actually pushes this card into the realm of insane finisher as it completely eliminates the primary weakness of the infinite 5/5 ground plan, which is the inability to stop fliers. This is an incredible card that will singlehandedly win you the game if you can get to 8 mana in okay shape (especially considering how difficult it is to kill an enchantment) so the real question is whether or not there exists a green deck in this format that can get there. I'm hopeful that there will be, and will windslam this card to find such a deck, but in reality, the format is probably so aggressive that this isn't a thing.

Scaled Behemoth - 3.5. Plated Crusher was a premium ramp target in BFZ, and while this card doesn't have trample, costing 6 mana makes it significantly easier to cast than the crusher. Not having evasion prevents this from getting a higher rating as this gets beaten in a race by your opponent going wide or using fliers, but eh.

Shed Weakness - 2.5. +2/+2 for 1 is a solid rate for good filler combat tricks, and the minor upside on this one is more relevant than most as many green creatures will place these counters.

Shefet Monitor - 3.0. Krosan Tusker was a great green divination that was randomly cast as a 7 mana 6/5, and this is a good 6 mana 6/5 that can can be randomly cast as a 4 mana Divination/mana ramp spell. Great for enabling splashes as well, even though neither side is particularly efficient. Can't see cutting this from any green deck though, so I imagine it'll end up being a good playable. Deserts also seem surprisingly playable, especially Cradle of the Accursed and Grasping Dunes

Sixth Sense - 1.0. Green creatures aren't exactly known for their evasion, so I'm not sure if there will be an archetype that actually wants this card. I suppose GU would be the best home for it, but I'm not convinced that you'll consistently get enough fliers to make this a playable card, especially since blue doesn't have any fliers that cost less than 4.

Spidery Grasp - 1.5. 3 mana is a lot to pay for a combat trick, and even though this has ambush potential and is a way to unexert your dude, I don't see playing this unless I was very low on other ways to interact with my opponent.

Spring - 1.5. (1.0 in G, 1.5 in GU) Natural Connection has shown us that 3 mana ramp spells are pretty terrible in limited, even in a format with landfall and converge, so the front half is terrible by itself. It goes without saying that a 6 mana Inspiration is abysmal as well, so the question is whether or not stapling two bad filler cards together makes the card any better than bad filler, and thinking about it some more, it actually should push it up to at least okay filler. A large problem with ramp is that you can easily get flooded and not be able to do anything with your mana, but this has a built in way to spend your mana, even if it's incredibly slow. This may be closer to Urban Evolution than it seems, so I'm giving this card the benefit of the doubt and starting it at good filler, though I'm fairly sure the format's just too aggressive to be spent durdling around with this.

Stinging Shot - 2.0. Green is especially weak to fliers which are rather common, so this has a lot of upside for a card that generally wouldn't be maindeckable. I'd probably always maindeck the first copy this card due to the cycling as it's very important for green to have answers to fliers, and side it out when needed.

Synchronized Strike - 3.5. Dauntless Onslaught was a very strong card, and untapping your exert guys can be especially brutal. This is the highest rating I've given a combat trick in quite some time, but Untapping exert guys really is just that good.

Trial of Strength - 2.0. The dream of recurring this is too strong for me to give this any lower of a rating, but I know in my heart that a 3 mana 4/2 is just not very good in a world of Tah-Crop Skirmisher.

Vizier of the Menagerie - 4.0. Getting half of a Future Sight attached to an efficient on curve body sounds like a lot of value to me. While you'll probably only get a card every other turn, there will also be some degenerate turns where you just keep on chaining creatures off the top. I'm currently rating it at the same rating as Lifecrafter's Bestiary, since they seem very comparable, with the bestiary giving you more cards and being more resilient to removal, while this card is a body that can block vs aggro.

Watchful Naga - 1.5. Getting a profitable attack off of a Grey Ogre is very ambitious, but I suppose this at least forces a trade and replaces itself if you manage to pull it off. The dream is to get multiple triggers off of this, but that seems like a tall order. Wouldn't be surprised if this dropped down to bad filler since the grey ogre stats are really bad, but how could I give anything that can repeatedly draw cards such a rating?

Ahn-Crop Champion - 3.5. Efficient base stats, and GW is full of exert creatures ready to be untapped. Untapping exert creatures can really be exceptionally strong, and given how exert creatures tend to not trade in combat, untapping two creatures is probably enough for this card to pull its weight with this rating.

Aven Wind Guide - 4.0. Most creatures in U and W with embalm have flying and/or vigilance already, so the lord effect is merely very good as opposed to game breaking insane. The base rate is still good though, and being able to embalm this as well gives this card a feeling of inevitability, since if you can't remove this creature twice then you'll probably die slowly to an army of vigilant fliers.

Bounty of the Luxa - 3.5. Drawing an extra card every other turn seems pretty sweet, and getting the mana inbetween turns will help you catch up on tempo given the initial mana investment spent on this card. It doesn't quite give you as many cards as card]Lifecrafter's Bestiary[/card] would, but it's not too far off from that.

Decimator Beetle - 3.5. The ability can really screw up your opponent's board, so this becomes a must deal with threat if you have profitable attacks with it and -1/-1 counter sto play with. The failcase of being a 5 mana 3/4 in stats isn't great, but the upside is there for this to be still taken highly.

Enigma Drake - 3.5. A 3 mana 1/4 flier is serviceable, a 3 mana 2/4 flier is good playable, and a 3 mana 3/4 flier or larger is insane. This won't singlehandedly be a reason to just start jamming offcolor spells that do nothing but cycle in your deck, but get multiples of these and/or the serpents, and that deck should be a very legitimate strategy.

Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - 4.0. The first ability isn't terribly relevant since if you're getting through with a bear, then your opponent probably doesn't have a creature for you to put the -1/-1 counter on. The second ability works for any -1/-1 counters you place though, and getting, say, 2 deathtouch snakes for a Splendid Agony at instant speed is nuts. GB seems to have a lot of things that combo with this, so I imagine this being as good as Winding Constrictor in Aether Revolt, if not better.

Honored Crop-Champion - 3.5. Good base stats, and a good ability. Going wide isn't as supported in this format as it would be in others, but +1/+0 adds up quickly in RW.

Khenra Charioteer - 3.5. Trample is insanely relevant in green which is just trying to win with fatties like Colossapede, so this creature should be highly valued as a result.

Merciless Javelineer - 3.5. The ability can turn all of your excess lands into -1/-1 counters and make combat math a nightmare, so this still seems pretty good despite it's poor stats.

Neheb, the Worthy - 3.5. A 3 mana 2/2 first strike is decent, and this even comes with the upside of being a lord for your minotaurs, which is pretty good on something like Cursed Minotaur. Giving +2/+0 once your heckbent seems very strong given that all of your minotaurs have first strike, so the combat ability will generally end up benefiting you even if it's symmetrical effect. I don't think there are actually enough minotaurs for this to be truly insane, but it's a solid creature that is playable by itself and has significant upside for some amount of your creatures.

Nissa, Steward of Elements - 3.5. Playing this on turn 3 and using the scry gives you a 3 loyalty walker that you can then use to sort of draw a card every other turn if you can protect it. The ultimate can be sometimes game winning, and othertimes do nothing when you are losing and your opponent has more than 10 life. Not being able to protect itself is a pretty big downside, so I'm not sold on this walker being better than just straight up removal since it won't do much when you are behind, nor will it snowball as hard as say Gideon in games where you're winning. The flexibility is probably high enough that this will end up better than I expected, but I'm not sure if this is better than premium common removal.

Samut, Voice of Dissent - 4.5. That is a lot of keywords tacked onto one creature. Slamming this on turn 5 when you have a profitable attack, or endstep into a turn 6 hasty random big creature such as Colossapede seems like a way to just win the game out of nowhere. Not being able to deal with 4/4s+ or fliers prevents this from getting full marks, but it's not that far off.

Shadowstorm Vizier - 3.5. If there is a color combination that cares about cycling, it's probably UB. Threatening to block as a 2/4 or 3/5 flier is great for a 2 mana card, so this should be solid despite not looking like it.

Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun - 4.0. While it can be difficult to get a creature token out early, the trigger just blows open board stalls completely, and forces your opponent to have an answer to it if you are anywhere near board parity. You can even use the trigger on itself once you embalm it, and force your opponent to have an additional answer.

Wayward Servant - 3.0. Black has a lot of zombies, and white can embalm up a bunch of zombies. Kalastria Healer was a critical part to the B ally decks in Zendikar block, and this card is functionally equivalent zombie version of that with a bear body to boot! Most black/white decks should be able to get at least a couple of triggers off of this, so this should end up being a relatively high pick and a reason to start piling on the zombies.

Weaver of Currents - 3.0. GU apparently has an identity crisis this set, since the best that wizards can come up with for their multicolored card is Palladium Myr, which is bizarre. There are enough huge things to ramp into this format that ramping from 3 to 6 is actually relevant, although I'm not sold on UG actually being a color combination that is playable.

Bontu's Monument - 1.0. The retreat cycle seems like a good cycle to compare these effects to since the number of creatures and lands in your deck are roughly the same. The cost reduction aspect is generally marginal, so I'm going to focus more on the secondary ability. Retreat to Hagra wasn't exactly my idea of a good card in BFZ, and this card is similar enough that I don't have high hopes of this doing enough.

Edifice of Authority - 3.5 (1.5 in aggro, 3.5 in control). Spending 4 mana to build your own version of Pacification Array can be good, but your deck needs to be okay with the game stalling out. Aggro decks will not want this since it takes too long before the ability prevents them from being able to block, but any midrange or control deck will gladly build this in order to keep an attacker at bay.

Embalmer's Tools - 0.5. (1.0 in BW zombie control). Spending 2 for a mana rock for your embalm creatures is way too situational to actually be worth a card, but gaining a win condition for your horde of zombies may be interesting. It seems rather hard to actually mill your opponent out with this since there aren't many spells that summon multiple zombies, but if you do get the fabled mill zombie deck, this seems like a sweet (albeit probably way worse than In Oketra's Name) inclusion.

Gate to the Afterlife - 1.0. I don't know what a God-Pharoah's Gift is, but without it, 3 mana doesn't seem good enough for this ability.

Hazoret's Monument - 2.0. Getting a free rummage with all of your creatures could easily win you a late game value battle, but getting to that point with a 3 mana do nothing enchantment may be tough. Looting gets worse in a format with mana sinks, so I'm not as high on this as I normally would be.

Honed Khopesh - 1.5. Veteran's Sidearm was an abysmal card, but this card only costing 1 mana to cast and equip makes me hopeful that it will find a home in an aggro deck that wants to empty their hand. The sidearm suffered from the problem of costing 2, but you can get this out on the board on turn 1 when you wouldn't be doing anything anyways, which makes this a fair amount better.

Kefnet's Monument - 1.5. I suppose this could do a decent impression of Gideon's Lawkeeper if your opponent attacks with one of their creatures, but it's very easy for your opponent to play around. Doesn't seem particularly impressive, but you probably will have more targets than you think with this due to creatures exerting themselves.

Luxa River Shrine - 1.0. The potential of infinite life appeals to the durdly side of me, but in reality this probably should never belong in your deck. There may be some control deck that wants this to stabilize the game since gaining 2 life a turn can be useful at times as pseudo-removal, but that's a stretch.

Oketra's Monument - 3.0. Retreat to Emeria was actually a pretty great card, and while not being able to pump your guys makes this a fair amount weaker, getting 5 or 6 1/1s out of a 3 mana investment is good enough that i'll probably jam this into any deck that doesn't need to curve out with a 3 drop creature (aka, any non hyper aggro deck). Unfortunately white decks seem to be mostly aggro and there aren't that many payoffs for going wide outside of RW.

Oracle's Vault - 3.0 (1.0 in aggro, 3.0 in control). This lies somewhere between a Rashmi, Eternities Crafter and Tamiyo's Journal. Getting a free card each turn after 3 bricks will win you a late game attrition battle, so the question is whether or not the first ability is fast enough for you to recoup the initial investment on this card. I imagine that this will be insane for the controls and terrible for the aggro decks, but the upside is high enough that I'd gladly take this reasonably and try to build around it.

Pyramid of the Pantheon - 1.0. I'm tempted to give this a 0.5 to discourage people from playing it, since it'll probably hurt most decks more than it'll help them. Playing this on turn 1, you effectively Stone Rain yourself for the first three turns, at which point you get a Gilded Lotus starting turn 5! The problem here is that the first four turns of limited generally matter much more than later turns, and mana is much less relevant from turn 5 onwards unless you're trying to do things like casting Eldrazi. The one deck where this could be useful is a pure 3+ color control deck that for whatever reason needs the fixing and the mana, but eh.

Rhonas's Monument - 3.0. Amazing when you're ahead, and miserable when you're behind. This gives you a way to break a board stall as you can just pump and throw a guy into your opponent each turn, but that's predicated on you having a board that you can race with in the first place. This should give aggressive decks enough reach to close out the deck so I would take this pretty highly for those decks, and deprioritize it otherwise.

Throne of the God-Pharaoh - 1.0. Unless your creatures can tap for some ability, this effectively is a generally worse version of giving your creatures +1/+0, which isn't a good effect in limited. Limited is generally way more about board control than it is forcing through damage, and this card just doesn't do anything to help you with board control. Works well with exert, but unless your deck is running 5 mana dorks, I don't see this card being played in most decks.

Watchers of the Dead - 1.5 It's hard for a bear to be any worse than mediocre filler in most formats, but 2 and 3 drops are so good in this format that I'm awfully close to giving this a 1.0. If only cat tribal were a thing.

Canyon Slough, Fetid Pools, Irrigated Farmland, Sheltered Thicket, Sheltered Thicket - 3.0. On color dual lands in most formats tend to be cards that you pick a little above good filler tier, and cycling pushes this cycle slightly over that.

Cascading Cataracts - 1.5. A Shimmering Grotto that only turns online on turn 6 doesn't really seem that appealing, but may not be as bad as it seems since you generally didn't want to grotto in the early turns of the game anyways. This seems like a filler land to enable the second half of your random aftermath cards, but it's a bit slow even for those purposes.

Cradle of the Cursed - 2.0. A 4 mana 2/2 isn't impactful enough to really impact the game in any significant way, but it's still something to do with your mana late in the game when you are flooded. This seems like a fine 18th land that you'd include in decks with many mana sinks (aka, most of them in the format) as a little bit additional flood insurance. I wouldn't get too crazy and run more than 2 of them in the majority of decks, but picking up the first one seems important enough that I'd probably prioritize it at around when you'd start taking good filler.

Evolving Wilds - 2.5. The only real source of mana fixing in this set outside of green. Prioritize these highly if you want to enable a splash, which should generally be rare.

Grasping Dunes - 3.0. Spending effectively 2 mana to put a -1/-1 counter may seem weak, but it's actually a pretty efficient ability that can be impactful that all stages in the game, especially given that it's effectively free on a utility land. For example, making a Giant Spider a 1/3 so that your Winged Shepherd can now force through damage can break a board stall in the late game, especially since the effect is persistent and not just -1/-1 until the end of turn. I'd always play the first one of these assuming that my deck doesn't have a ton of double mana symbol casting costs. Given how this is looking like an 18 land format with embalm and cycling wanting more mana, these types of utility lands may be of more importance than normal so the rating gets a slight bump for giving you something relevant to do with the excess mana.

Painted Bluffs - 2.0. Why hello there, Shimmering Grotto! Spending a 1 mana premium to enable splashes is a significant cost, so this land will typically only be used for very light splashes that you don't mind waiting to use until late in the game, such as the second half of Aftermath spells. Good filler land if you have something to splash, and not playable otherwise in a 2 color deck.

Sunscorched Desert - 1.0. Similar to Radiant Fountain, probably not worth the risk of straining your mana base unless you're mono-colored. The only reason to play this otherwise would be if there were substantial payoffs for playing deserts, and I don't think Shefret Monitor is quite good enough to be worth it.