Cosimo Galluzzi
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
will byers stan first human second

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blake kathryn
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PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
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Keni
Sweet Seals For You, Always
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@seismic-lawns
Gladiator Big Talk: Pioneer Masters, Multicolored
So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card and call them Big Talks, and now they live here! Some notes:
This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in Pioneer Masters. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format.
I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.
Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.
Without further ado, let's start off with Anax and Cymede:
Anax and Cymede: Iâm pretty confident that the RW blitz deck is going to be real, and this couple is both a decent body on their own, but also has the benefit of making pumps on them give power and trample to your whole team, which makes this have significant reason to be slotted in and played. If the RW blitz deck is played in the next year, this card should be in it.
Ashen Rider: Say hello to one of your best persist targets, that gets you significant value even when killed, and is good on a regular board and scary when youâre already ahead and can afford to hit a land.
Assemble the Legion: I think this card just takes a bit too long to really get going, even if, once it does, it just takes over the game. You need your cards to have some decent amount of immediate impact, and thatâs the primary and singular true flaw of this card. If it triggered on entry and upkeep, I think itâd stand a chance in todayâs economy, but thatâs a different card, and this card is almost certainly not playable.
Azorius Charm: This card is one of the best charms we have, because it does 2 modes at a decent rate and it has 2 modes that youâd actually like to cast. Those modes donât fully overlap, but the removal mode hits a sweet spot of being good and cheap, and the other two are legitimately good fallbacks for if you either need to gain more life than removing an attacker does or if you donât have pressure on you and just want to cycle it.
Blood Baron of Vizkopa: Protection from white and from black with 4 toughness is largely hexproof against all but a small collection of removal spells, but being a 5 mana 4/4 is a bit awkward while it doesnât have any other evasion. Against Jeskai decks where itâs going to be hard to muster 4 power of nonwhite creatures against it, it could be decent, but itâs hard to justify if decks are going deeper into red than just bonecrusher, a few great removal spells, and fury.
Boros Reckoner: For the holidays this year, we get another stuffy doll, and one thatâs not embarrassing otherwise! I think itâs still not enough to find a home outside of the stuffy doll deck, but itâs totally defensible in a few decks and obviously great in a niche meme deck.
Bring to Light: I donât think the 5color pile is going to be that great, but I do think it will be able to often hold its own, especially now that Bring to Light can act as a lot of a silver bullet, able to easily be a second copy of your wraths, single-target removal, and haymakers at the same time. Plus, it works scarily well with cards like snapcaster mage, so a deck not too dissimilar from Pioneerâs Niv to Light deck seems definitely doable for us, especially with really good 2c haymakers and enablers.
Cartel Aristocrat: This cardâs very good for the crats deck, though its one weakness is sweepers as opposed to yahenniâs vulnerability to a lot more Single Target Removal. Itâs just a really good card to consistently get in, block about as perfectly as you want, or just be a sac outlet that is very hard to kill.
Catacomb Sifter: This card is scarily good at smoothing out your draws as the entire purpose of its beingâit generates a mana to ensure you get to 4 mana or above 4 and that also triggers itself, but it also just causes jund or abzan crats decks to keep checking what theyâll draw until they find something good enough, which can be an achillesâ heel of the deck occasionally.
Chromanticore: I was feeling pretty good about this card, but the more I think about it the worse it looks, getting to the point where it kind of just looks like a harder to cast Lyra, and Iâm just not excited about that anymore in the current or next year.
Counterflux: Wowie Invert Polarity did a goddamn NUMBER on this card oofa doofa
Destructive Revelry: I think naturalizes have a pretty high bar at this point, and Revelry does a lot to help clear that bar, but I think Iâd still rather have broader removal or removal that does more in its slot, like Cindervines or First PigÂ
Dragonlord Atarka: I can see this as a good sneak target or one of your highest end in a Big Gruul deck, where it acts as a second copy of fury that deals a bit more damage in both respects, which, for a sneak attack deck, gets a lot of mileage.
Dragonlord Dromoka: I was pretty decently high on this card, but now Iâm coming to terms with the fact that it just is an idiot without a real way to protect itself until it becomes relevant.
Dragonlord Kolaghan: This dragon just being a big hasty idiot that gives haste to your other idiots is largely enough to get some people on board, but for Ellesandra specifically itâs a way to make a spell and dragonstorm into a win without more mana or board presence, and that might be enough for me to get excited for the deck.
Dragonlord Ojutai: I think Ojutai has ultimately become outclassed by Dream Trawler, but itâs still not a laughable card, especially because you get to go a turn before it can be targeted, at which point you can be holding up your mana drain or the like again.
Dragonlord Silumgar: Silumgarâs steal being contingent on him sticking around just makes him all around awkward, and it means you have to put a lot of work into keeping him around just in order to have a steal effect.
Dreadbore: Youâre totally at liberty to play this, and itâs fine, but we have so many options for removal these days that dreadbore just gets a little less interesting and appealing each time.
Dreg Mangler: YOOOOO ITâS THE JUICE BAYBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE yeah, hell yeah, fuck yeah play this card, itâs the fucking juice, baybee, play this card, hell yeah
Epic Experiment: Iâm gonna be real I stopped reading this card halfway through back in 2014 Iâm sure as hell not reading it now.
Fleecemane Lion: This is, in fact, a watchwolf with upside, but that upside is pretty meek these days. That said, if you can make it work, it goes hard, and an unkillable threat is a pretty neat thing.
Garruk, Apex Predator: I love Garruk so much, and this is one of my favorite planeswalkers around, but it is definitely 7 mana and doesnât put in a ton of effort to live up to that mana cost. Making deathtouch creatures on a plus is nice, outright destroying Teferis and Vronos is cute and all, but itâs just so much mana in a format where 7 mana can say âsinglehandedly turn the game aroundâ and itâs still dubious if weâll play it.
Ghor-Clan Rampager: This cardâs awfully close to playable, but really only if you consider it to be a pump spell and not a 4/4 trampler for 4. However, our room for pump spells is super low, so you have to be getting your mileage out of both sides, and more than another pump spell or protection spell would give you.
Kioraâs Follower: This is a super versatile mana dork, and I could see it popping up in UG ramp shells as a mana dork that has added utility as a way to muck Wandering Emperors (and, in some part, Wandering Rescuers) without significantly sacrificing on its ramp potential, and it works really well with the myriad ways we have to get more mana from our lands. Oh yeah, and this singlehandedly gives me the joy needed to maybe try building paradorks again now that we have a small pile of new ways to combo off or increase our reach.
Lotleth Troll: This guyâs kind of like psychic frog, except much, much worse. Psychic Frog is one of the strongest creatures in our format, so much, much worse than that is probably still playable or at least close to it.
Loxodon Smiter: Iâm dubious of how good this card is, but if BR midrange ever gets to the dominance that jeskai is enjoying right now, itâs pretty safe for a GW deck to sleeve up the now 3 ways to cheat out big idiots by opponents playing kroxa and Liliâs
Lyev Skynight: I might play this card in skies, but itâs a 3 drop that is only pretty good in a format where the bar is often higher than that.
Martial Glory: I like this card; I even think that it is playable in a RW blitz deck, but I canât bring myself to believe that a 2 mana giant growth has the juice to make it in this format, so even if I try out RW blitz, I doubt Iâll be sleeving up this card in it until convinced otherwise.
Medomai the Ageless: This cardâs goofy as hell, and thereâs a few ways we have of turning him into infinite turns, but also. This card SUCKS.
Nivix Cyclops: Yeah someone is going to kill me with this card in an izzet blitz deck and Iâm going to say âyeah, someone was going to kill me with this card in an izzet blitz list eventually.â
Possessed Skaab: Cardâs cool and all, but it is the combination of the worst gravediggers weâve ever seen and the worst archeomancers weâve seen, and thatâs not a combination that turns into a playable card.
Progenitor Mimic: This card is very sweet, and has a lot of goofy applications, but it also is a 6 mana clone, so it really can only be awful in our format, and thatâs coming from someone who tried to make Canlander clones into a deck that won a match and failed.
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed: The good news is that I do consider Ruric Thar to, by and large, have Ward - Pay 6 life, and he is a funny card to have that text. The bad news is that I also think heâs still not worthwhile, even in a ramp shell that can get him out on turn 4ish.Â
Selesnya Charm: Unlike Azorius Charm, this charm suffers from âno on-rate mode syndrome,â a condition where the card is too hard to cast to be a worthwhile 2/2 for 2 with flash (compared to Virtue of Loyalty), super restrictive for removal, and quite inefficient for a pump spell. That said, I could still see it being played, I just think it needs to be for the versatility in specific, and if your deck too often picks the same mode, it might be an option to switch to a better card for that mode.
Sin Collector: The fact that this doesnât temporarily exile the card is quite nice, and essentially the only fact keeping it off an easy dismissal. That said, itâs still not that good, just not an inherently bad choice.
Sire of Insanity: This card is actually a pretty good litmus card, which is to say, a card that tells you if youâre winning or not. If your opponent doesnât answer the card before it triggers, youâre winning, and if they answer it, youâre losing, probably because they removed your 6 drop for either 1 or 2 mana. A mark of a good magic player is being able to tell that theyâre losing or winning without playing a really bad 6 drop.
Skyrider Elf: This is, ironically, a creature that gets worse the more mana you put into it on a per mana basis. For example, a 2 mana 2/2 flier is pretty good, and the stats are reasonable. A 3 mana 3/3 flier is also pretty good, but, with no text, itâs a bit less exciting. At 4 mana, a 4/4 flier needs some pretty decent text to become worthwhile, and at 5 mana, a 5/5 flier is actually quite a mediocre to even bad statline, especially when you consider that its real casting cost at that point is WUBRG.
Steam Augury: There is, in fact, a reason that the phrase is EoTFoFYL and not EoTSAYL, and itâs further than just FoF getting printed first. Giving your opponent agency over which exact card you get is pretty awkward, and for steam auguryâs particular case, it makes the prospect of this 4 mana probably-draw-two-or-draw-a-less-powerful-three a bit unexciting.
Stormchaser Mage: I mean, youâll play this card in Izzet Blitz, but Iâm doubtful itâll make the grade elsewhere, and even in blitz itâs really just a swiftspear sidegrade at best.
Swift Warkite: This card is bad but it looks interesting sometimes. If we get a legitimate archaeomancer at 3, this card becomes a lot more interesting, but as is, getting a couple etbs off a 3 drop isnât quite enough for me to be on board.
Thunderclap Wyvern: This whole set has been pinging my 2014-2017 nostalgia alarms, but this one hits especially hard. Itâs also not good, arguably even in skies.
Urban Evolution: This card is just deeply unexciting for our format imo. It sorta gets the job done in the right deck, but even then, we just have treasure cruise and dig for the time being, yâknow?
Zendikar Incarnate: Wow, this cardâs bad. 4 toughness on a 4 drop whoâs only saving grace is that it can have a huge front end is really awkward, especially when like⊠they totally couldâve just made this an X/X and not an X/4.
Athreos, God of Passage: Athreos might be the best of the Theros 15 (I actually think theyâre third, but go off king) sheerly due to their ability to strongarm the opponent so easily. With a sac outlet, all removal on your creatures become either bounce effects or are lava spikes while theyâre at it, and either way, youâre feeling happy. 3 mana for 3 blood artists is a great rate, and thatâs the baseline for Athreos, because the alternative is just that you get an immense lever of control to get back your doomed travelers, sac outlets, high impact enters effects, and more with pretty minimal effort. Plus it can sometimes be a 5/4 with indestructible, but you frankly couldnât care much less about that part.
Bounding Krasis: Before THB this had value in pod lines, but now itâs redundancy for them which is ok i guess, but itâs a tutor line, you donât need redundancy (a little redundancy is a little appreciated though).
Ephara, God of the Polis: Ooooooh fun a way to draw a card a turn or with a good chunk of work checks notes two cards a turn Iâm so enthuuuuused.
Frostburn Weird: Why the hell did I agree to making these comprehensive, I want a nap.
Gift of Orzhova: This cardâs pretty interesting for the GW auras or bogles decks that Iâm expecting to start making their way into the gladiator ecosystemâflying is the cream of the crop, but lifelink gives you pretty insane amounts of time to enact your gameplan before you have to start worrying about pressure, or lets you trivialize the race with their preexisting board, which is a great thing for the bogles decks to do.
Growing Ranks: I think this has to give you a 3/3 ever turn for you to actually be satisfied with it, but thatâs not the hardest ask. The issue is really that it makes the token on your upkeep, meaning you have to keep your board up longer before any payoff and your opponent always has the ability to react to the board state you have in order to minimize your gameplan. Itâs a bit of a red flag when your opponent playing the game is counter to a cardâs performance.
Iroas, God of Victory: Iâm pretty confident that this is the best of the OG Theros 15, even though I donât think itâs the most likely to have a home in gladiator (Godpilled Xenagos already has a home and a very comfortable seat in that home). However, if youâre a RW aggro deck and playing 4 drops, this one is hard to remove and makes it so your creatures just always win combat, between making blocks twice as difficult for opponents and making sure they just donât die in combat. On top of that, when itâs a creature it effects itself, so it has 7 power, canât take damage on attacks, and has menace. Iâm testing this one in naya bard class, and Iâd make a good recommendation that RW decks that focus on turning things sideways start sleeving up this card too.
Karametra, God of Harvests: You donât need lands after you hit 5 mana, you already (should) have enough to cast all your spells, or maybe all but one of your spells. There is Iâm pretty sure no amount of lands you could tutor with this to make me say that it feels worthwhile in any deck in the format.
Keranos, God of Storms: God, I hate that this card was legitimately quite good generically at one point, but we have well outgrown this guyâs mana cost, enough that we can replicate a lot of his function for less or fewer hoops. That said, he's really not embarrassing to play in shells that can consistently draw some extra cards.
Kruphix, God of Horizons: It is legitimately pretty funny that all of the lines on this card are just the most unnecessary words you could imagine. 5 mana for no hand size (something I doubt we would pay 0 mana for) and Horizon Stone (a card you also shouldnât play, even if you could) is just pretty laughable. Even in a ramp shell where you might store and use excess mana, itâs really hard to imagine that it would be worth a card to make that possible.
Mogis, God of Slaughter: 2 damage is so little these days, especially for it being the only thing that Mogis does. These days, we can do more damage by sneezing and playing like a 2 drop, we donât need a 4 whose only job is sometimes dealing 2 damage unless itâs more convenient for them to sac a creature they donât care about.
Nightveil Specter: Weâve come a long way in the decade since this got printed, and now I think if you wanted this card you got your answer 6 months ago with Thieving Aven, or even 5 years ago with Thief of sanity. That said, this cardâs very iconic, and isnât embarrassing to play, even still.
Pharika, God of Affliction: god, this godâs sad. Making a supply of deathtouchy snakes is neat, but being unable to hit your opponentâs yard without giving them the snake is wack, especially when you consider that Deathrite Shaman and Scavenging Ooze both give you the same effect regardless of if youâre using your graveyard or eating your opponentâs.
Phenax, God of Deception: Mill isnât viable in gladiator unless itâs going infinite, and even then this card is 5 mana to start enabling mill, which is frankly highway robbery in any format but limited.
Rubblebelt Raiders: This era of magic design had a strange love for vanilla or french vanilla creature designs, and this isnât any exception, and to be clear, I donât mind that, it just means that a bunch of creatures just read to have keywords beeeg, and that doesnât quite cut it alone, because you also need the secret keywords kinda-cheap and quickly-kills-your-opponent. These raiders donât quite have that.
Ajani, Mentor of Heroes: Ajani is kind of underwhelming for being a 5 drop, but he does a lot of things I like in planeswalker design, which are 1) kills your opponent while upticking, 2) giving you card advantage while upticking, and 3) giving you consistent versatility in what you want to do regardless of roughly where his loyaltyâs at. All that in mind, Ajani is a great card to distract the opponent while you keep attacking with the enormous creatures you have drawn and pumped up thanks to him, acting as both the source of your opponentâs problems and also a red herring with the actual problem being that you have creatures in your hand, deck, and battlefield. That said, Ajani really needs a preexisting board or a notable lack of pressure, and that with a 5 mana payment is a tough sell.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver: Ashiok fails some of those tests that Ajani succeeds at, but they are cheap and scary quickly, with their +2 buying a lot of time on a cheap planeswalker while also demanding the opponent keep their loyalty low so you canât get all the fun things you stole. I donât love how low-impact ashiok is for the first few turns of existence, though, so Iâm not exactly the most excited to be sleeving this card up.
Domri Rade: Domri is a weird card, in the sense that he kind of just runs away with the game when played on turn 2, and gets worse and worse as the game goes on. Iâm very hesitant that Iâll play him in decks like Bard class, but in a more traditional stompy gameplan I think he works quite well.
Kiora, the Crashing Wave: Kiora is a Kraken machine, but it runs into the problem where she takes a lot of work to make that happen, and otherwise, sheâs arguably just an explore that leaves behind a small speed bump. It could be that Iâm looking at her with too much of an aggro-slanted midrange lens, but her +1 is pretty middling to just be paying off with more explores.
Narset Transcendent: Narset doesnât fit the mold exactly of the eraâs planeswalker design, but she makes up for it with the fact that both her first abilities are pretty close to reading draw a card, and that she comes in with SIX FUCKIGN LOYALTY. So, sheâs pretty low impact, and she doesnât do anything herself to really protect herself, but she also has enough loyalty that your opponent has to commit a lot to killing her.Â
Sarkhan Unbroken: This is one of the better planeswalker designs to see, and enables you to have a lot of versatility both the turn you use him and thereafter. The + is simple and doesnât leave room for feelbads, like a lot of the others in this set, and also does a good impression of 5feri. Similarly, making a giant dragon on the - is something Iâm very much here for, allowing you to help close out a game or gain a blocker that doesnât get bolted. Oh, and also, that ultimate just says âwin the gameâ if you include Dragonlord Kolaghan and Terror of Mount Velus in your deck.
Xenagos, the Reveler: This is a card that reads a lot like Burning tree Emissary on a 4 mana planeswalker, where it either reduces its cost by refunding some mana, or starts contributing to the board without downticking. Iâm probably going to try this out in Sneak Attack decks, but might also include it in bard class lists for a little bit, as playing this when it upticks for 3+ mana feels really free.
Alive // Well: Neither side of this card is something you want to cast.
Armed // Dangerous: I really wish this were an instant, but there are plenty of threats in blitz decks where Armed is totally acceptable as a sorcery as well.
Aureliaâs Fury: Iâm not impressed by the idea of casting this card, but I would love to be proven wrong, especially where this has the versatility between being removal, silence, and/or clearing the way for an alpha strike. Iâm just really put off by the fact that RW in addition to the X does a lot to limit what it can remove, who it can tap, and if you have an extra point of damage to throw at the opponent to stop them from casting spells.
Down // Dirty: Neither side of this card is really something you want to cast, though I could reluctantly be convinced of Dirtyâs viability (it is, however, worse than your top 3 regrowths, and thus hard to justify).
Far // Away: Both sides of this card are 1 mana more than youâre really willing to spend on them.
Give // Take: Give is unexciting, but on rate. Take is wacky, and Iâll even dare to say, bad.
Jaradâs Orders: Is entomb plus Eldamriâs Call worth a 4 mana sorcery? I donât think so, in part due to the fact that true costs rise exponentially with mana costs: Iâd pay 2 mana for either part of this, but 4 mana is more than double 2 mana, and so what I expect out of my 4 drop is more than just Entomb + Eldamriâs call, and this card is even worse than both of those combined.
Profit // Loss: Both of these cards are within a half mana of being on rate (well, Profit is close), but I donât think Iâm interested in either part of it as a magic card, and the awkward part of fuse, despite it really all being upside, is that the fused card is ultimately just a bit worse than the sum of its parts, and its parts are all individually uninspiring.
Protect // Serve: Neither of these effects are actually interesting to me, especially at their costs. Once again, I think both halves are 1 mana more than they should be, and the fused spell is a bit worse than the sum of both halves.
Rakdosâs Return: Mind Twist gets a lot worse when it isnât random and scales 1 mana worse. That said, it also punches your opponent in the face, so it gets a solid mark up in my books. Its colors are not the best for an X spell that you want big early, but it can do a lot of harm if your opponent isnât emptying out their hand by turn 5.
Render Silent: I really donât think that added silence is enough to add to your cancel to play it over, say, Sarumanâs Trickery, and I donât think our combo players are here to play cancel in the current year.
Toil // Trouble: This is another one that I really wish was an instant (though it would be very cracked at instant speed). As is, neither side is super enticing to me, but I would be lying if I said that hitting an opponent for 4 + their hand size didnât make my eyebrow raise a hair or two.
Turn // Burn: Even if youâre just consistently playing one side at a time, this cardâs surprisingly effective, and this is one of the few cards that actually plays particularly well with the design space of Fuseâit allows UR to have a card it normally wouldnât see on its own at the cost of a bit less efficiency on the individual components. In this case itâs murder, but also itâs not a huge drop of efficiency, when turn is a spell that you wouldnât sleeve up, but are happy to cast when it lets you win combat or stop a combo turn, and Burn is a card we are willing to play when itâs connected to other cards as well.
Unexpected Results: Holy shit this card is so bad, I cannot stress this enough, this card sucks ASS. Donât play it, and then donât play it 3 more times that you wouldâve hit land off it before casting your 3 drop.
Wear // Tear: This card is a Pioneer and Modern staple and itâs not super hard to see why, where the versatility between hitting 2 things or 1 on either side is really tantalizing, and, unlike other cards in this cycle, the combined spell is actually a little bit above the rate you would typically get for destroying 2 noncreature permanents.
Gladiator Big Talk: Pioneer Masters, Green, Colorless, Lands
So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card and call them Big Talks, and now they live here! Some notes:
This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in Pioneer Masters. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format.
I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.
Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.
Without further ado, let's start off with Alpha Authority:
Green
Alpha Authority: Giving hexproof is pretty nutty on something with a constellation trigger or similar and it makes the card in GW Aura stompy pretty interesting. Otherwise, Iâm not enthused.
Aspect of Hydra: In a very Ultrajelle-styled monogreen list, this card easily can represent 4-5 more power by the time you untap on turn 3, with a ton of GGG cards, this is one that really gives you a payoff for playing cards like Yorvo and MOM Polukranos, and that earns it a thumbs up in my books.
Bassara Tower Archer: More things that say hexproof on them make the bogles/aura stompy deck better and better, and this is an amazing card for the deck that legitimately makes the deck actually look viable.
Boon Satyr: I think this card hasnât aged particularly well, but itâs definitely not embarrassing to play. Would I play it, even in an enchantress/auras shell? Probably not. Is it very defensible and likely to kill me? Yea, yeah it is.
Commune with the Gods: I donât think this card is particularly playable in all but a few decks, but decks like 3animator that desperately want to avoid milling Cthonian Nightmare are super happy to see this card. If youâre in a similar boat with an enchantment, this cardâs totally defensible, but otherwise you just donât need this card.
Conclave Naturalists: Reclamation Sage at home ass vibes
Experiment One: This idiotâs pretty good, but itâs a little outclassed in monogreen by a decent spread of cards in the last decade. Itâs not bad, and might still be enough in monogreen or counters decks, but itâs not really fighting a downhill battle.
Gladecover Scout: A creature below 3 mana with hexproof is enough to be playable in at least 1 to 2 decks, and while this is not much else, it gets the job done for sure.
Hero of Leina Tower: Sometimes you are in a spot where you could win with a sneeze of a mana sink, but this card both doesnât make it easy nor exciting to do so. I donât think Iâd play it, but I could see a counters deck thatâs trying it and not make a stink about it.
Honored Hydra: I maybe could see this in a dredge list, but 4 mana 6/6 is not as exciting as it used to be, and paying 6 for it is pretty embarrassing.
Hornet Nest: This is a card that I love so goddamn much, but holy shit itâs bad, especially against any deck with plains and/or swamps, and also a good portion of decks with islands outside of that.
Leafcrown Dryad: Man it is not a good look for bestow when this common thatâs major ass is one of the better cards with the mechanic Iâve seen.
Mistcutter Hydra: This cardâs truly a masterclass in âhow much bullshit can we put on a XG hydra and still have it not quite be enough,â and it turns out this is the exact answer, or at least it was in 2021. Now, the barâs probably a bit higher, but that G pip to keep it always under curve for green is rough.
Nemesis of Mortals: Play this in decks with big graveyards because itâs nearly a Gurmag Angler that doesnât exile. Itâs just a great card that does gross things as long as all the gross things you want are beeeeg
Nessian Asp: not worth the text on this review, but they are relationship goals and also just lil guys
Nissa, Vastwood Seer: It turns out a Civic Wayfinder that is super relevant late game is at least worth considering in lands shells. I donât particularly think it lands itself in many other decks, but itâs certainly worth thinking about. (Side note: Iâll consider testing this in Bard Class, but after Lukamina started to flounder, Iâm not the most optimistic. Saying âdraw cardsâ instead of âdiscard cardsâ is a big improvement, though.)
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar: This card was the beeâs knees when OGW was relevant, but that was mainly for being a 3 mana walker that didnât suck total ass in a sea of cheap walkers that were developed into being total hogwash. Now, making bodies without power on 1 is a bit awkward, boards arenât quite as wide as they were in BFZ standard, and an ultimate that was a scary inevitability back in 2015 is now a lot more difficult to last until. I think it still has some homes, such as decks like Superfriends+Wraths, where you want any walker that can make bodies to protect itself, but its applications are a lot more narrow now.
Oath of Nissa: This is another card that appeals to like 4 people, but Iâm one of those people so LETâS GOOOOOOOOOOO!!! This card is great for enchantress and superfriends, where it is a 1 mana cantrip that triggers your constellation effects in the former, and trivializes the biggest pitfall of the latter, which is its many, many double-pipped spells.
Polukranos, World Eater: I love how beeg this guy is, but he definitely has had a tough time staying super relevant in the face of specifically Questing Beat and GGG cost cards. In our format, heâs also going to have an uphill battle fighting for slots taken by Wingbane Vantasaur and the like, making him likely only find a home in ramp-heavy shells, where that Monstrosity ability can reliably proc for 7+ mana, which is largely where I want to see it before Iâm happy.
Seed Guardian: This is a very cool, funny guy, but your bar for 4 drops is just so damn high these days, and I think ol seedy is going to be a victim of that.
Shamanic Revelation: This card has a problem of versatility - Itâs all focused to one exact purpose: drawing you 30 cards, which means it asks you to make sacrifices and doesnât provide an out when they canât be made. When you are behind or rebuilding, this cardâs ass. Meanwhile, a card like The Great Henge has the most potential when rebuilding, and otherwise costs you little enough that you donât have to go all in to still feel like youâre adequately capitalizing on it.
Skylasher: I feel like this card was kind of the start of âhow much can we push a card without changing its stats from whatâs on rate?â and theyâve now just come to the conclusion that they can make 3/2s and 3/3s for 2 in green instead of throwing 4 things at it trying to make something just exciting enough for people to play standard and no more than that. If youâre playing UG tempo, I could see this card making the cut, but I doubt youâre playing that deck.
Sylvan Caryatid: I am very interested in where people place this relative to other 2 drop dorks, because weâre getting to the point where you might be affording 3 2 drop dorks (and thatâs generous), so your options are very wide for a slot that is pretty narrow. That said, I think Sylvan, Paradise Druid, and Fanatic of Rhonas/Bloom Tender is a very nice spread and might just become the standard, ensuring that you will get to play your 4 drops on turn 3 with very limited exceptions at this point.
Sylvan Primordial: I think this is just a card for lands decks, and, while Iâll think about it for sneak attack, I think its only value for that deck is being a big idiot that sneaks in to kill an orb or O-Ring more than ramping at all, and itâs a weird one to be competing with some really impressive threats like primetime, wurmcoil, and carnosaur.
Unravel the Aether: This is a good answer to certain kinds of artifacts and enchantments (gods, the one ring, etc), but we just donât have enough of those that are worth running a specific disenchant that still leaves them access to it over broader removal or more efficient removal.
Voyaging Satyr: I think I might play this in a lands deck, as long as Iâm pretty consistently getting a Nykthos or Lotus Field out. Otherwise, Iâm not particularly interested over any other 2-drop dork.
Whisperwood Elemental: I think this cardâs way better than its cost and stats belie. It offers really good wrath protection when youâre ahead, and regardless of your board position, it quickly adds to the board and provides a very annoying threat. Its ability being its own sac outlet also means that the opponent essentially has to spend different turns answering Whisperwood and the rest of your board. I think its homes are a bit more narrow than every green midrange deck, but thereâs a swath of decks with forests and creatures that should at least think about this in one of their few 5 drop slots.
Woodland Wanderer: I donât think this card is really interesting in any deck, including 5color slop piles, where itâs just a pile of stats, and really needs to be converged for 4 to be interesting on size.
Avatar of the Resolute: This cardâs cracked in counters decks and should be played in them. Thereâs nothing else to write, itâs sweet.Â
Nylea, God of the Hunt: Yeah the formula they followed for the og monocolored gods really sucked, and nylea is one of the worst victims of it, maybe only behind Heliod.
Nyleaâs Disciple: This is another centaur which pings my nostalgia meter, but itâs alsoooooooo bad.
Reverent Hunter: This cardâs not bad as long as your devotionâs 3+, but it is very bad when played on 2 off a dork, which is like the whole reason you play your huge GGG threats, is because you can play them on 2.
Brood Monitor: This cardâs a little interesting and might have some combo/token/sacrifice implications, but if itâs not doing something absurd, itâs not worth playing.
Fog: Donât play fogs, at least before weâve added isochron scepter or something functionally similar.
Nissaâs Pilgrimage: The big pull I have for cultivate in this format is that itâs a very cheap and non-greedy way to set yourself up on fixing for the rest of the game. This card forgoes that, with the weird tradeoff of sometimes drawing you an extra land, which doesnât seem worth it to me.
Skyreaping: I donât see a reason that you would ever play this card, itâs just so situational for our format.
Stampeding Elk Herd: Weâre at the point where your 5 mana 5/5 can just always give your dudes trample, but it is a lot of elk and is great for the oko theme deck.
Gather the Pack: This cardâs a weird one to consider, where you can go card positive with it, but it also is about the worst of these kinds of cards in our format, not grabbing either lands or any other type, and relying on a density of instants/sorceries which dilute the amount of creatures available to grab.
The Great Aurora: This is one of my all time favorites, and I actually could see this being worthwhile in some GX ramp decks as a green wrath in a color very lacking in them, where you can also turn excess lands into additional cards. And while itâs very hard to cast in tokens, it counts the tokens shuffled in, so each one will count as an additional card to draw, potentially turn into a land drop, and use to stop any pesky specific permanents.
Hunterâs Prowess: This cardâs just too much mana and commitment to one creature for me to be comfortable sleeving it up.
Miming Slime: Yeah, Iâm just not a fan anymore of threats that are hyper-dependent on your other threats, and, again, this is particularly bad to play on turn 2, which is a big factor in my choice of green 3 drops.
Natural Slate: I wouldnât be too shocked to see this in someoneâs deck, where it hits orb, most O-rings, and a host of other decent cards, and the upside of costing 1 less than youâre used to is pretty significant.
Colorless/Lands
Bane of Bala Ged: The good ol reliable for when you want to feel the villainy of annihilator but still want to play an absolutely dogwater creature. You can just pass on this one, donât worry.
Scion of Ugin: sometimes I ask myself why I bother making this comprehensive, but you know what? This is a card in the set, and youâre legally allowed to play it!
Void Winnower: I think this is in an awkward spot in our format, where it doesnât close out the game fast enough for its high cost, even if it does do wonders when it hits the field. 4 drops are really good, and making them dead in the water is nice, but this card isnât good for sneak attack and wouldnât realistically have a good home elsewhere.
Crackdown Construct: I know we got Fumarole, but that combo is not good, and this is the bad card of most of the combos with it.
Darksteel Ingot: You donât need to play manaliths, and if you want to, you should just play Skyclave Relic instead.
The Chain Veil: Iâm still skeptical on if I want to run this in planeswalker decks, because the effect is brutal with 2+ walkers on the field, but it does just cost a billion mana to make work. I think my end result is going to be âkeep it if it enables a couple combo lines, and cut it if youâd just be running it for value.â
Haven of the Spirit Dragon: This is the good one! An unclaimed territory is already ok-good in dragons, but more importantly, being a regrowth for a dragon is HUGE. I donât think that this is that valuable for returning Ugins, but the half of the cracking is well worth the cost of admission if youâve got a medium of high-value dragons.
Hissing Quagmire: This is one of my favorite creature lands, and it gets the job done at a damn cheap rate. Having a deathtouch blocker for not a ton of mana is big enough that most BG decks that take a turn off or under curve should heavily consider it.
Lumbering Falls: Iâm deeply mid on this oneâcreature lands already have the benefit of dodging half of removal, and so getting one that dodges all of it instead doesnât actually interest me that much, especially when it represents so little damage compared to Vinestalk.
Needle Spires: Double strike on a creature land is very valuable, and the card gets a lot of value out of a weenie-benefiting board, so stuff like Luminarch Aspirant, anthems, etc. are going to send this land from quite good to game-winning, and only using a land for that is really nice to see.
Shambling Vent: This landâs fine, but itâs small enough that the lifelink is not that interesting, though I do value the low mana cost a bit more than I value the trigger of the restless land, so it probably could make it into a deck or two.
Spawning Bed: I understand why, but the fact that this activation cost is so incredibly high is really painful, especially considering how much I like the design.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: I do not know how to impress upon you that this card is great and you should play it other than saying hell yeah fuck yeah.
Wandering Fumarole: Iâve played this card far too much while it was in modern, and lemme tell you, itâs ok but not that much more than that. These days, the cheap cost and attacking first strike of Restless Spire goes a very long way to make the slot not suck that fumarole does little to move past.
Gladiator Big Talk: Pioneer Masters, Black/Red
So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card and call them Big Talks, and now they live here! Some notes:
This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in Pioneer Masters. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format.
I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.
Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.
Without further ado, let's start off with Baleful Eidolon:
Black
Baleful Eidolon: The parts that frustrate me about this era of design is that it assumes that Typhoid Rats was an on-rate magic card, so one with another type and a bit of versatility needs to cost 2 instead of 1, and itâs one of the good things to come out of modern design philosophy to help keep these kinds of cards more relevant.
Basilica Screecher: Extort is not good enough to justify playing otherwise bad cards.
Behold the Beyond: There are bad and medium decks that are overjoyed for this card, but otherwise this card is bad. Being 3 demonic tutors is really good when it will definitely win/threaten to win the game, but it also is the bar you need to clear in order to justify it.
Blood Scrivener: This cardâs interesting, but I do think it can slide into black aggro decks, where any avenue to keep you competitive with card advantage is pretty important.
Cruel Revival: This cardâs sick as hell, but itâs also just very not-for-our-format.
Crypt Incursion: This is so much mana for a piece of grave hate that just gains you life đ
Dark Deal: This cardâs sick as hell, and itâs great to see more wheel effects along with Bowmasters and Sheoldred, and the life/board swings from it can turn a game around. I legitimately would recommend this in a good portion of decks with Bowmasters and Sheoldred, as wheels are just so good to run with them.
Devour Flesh: Edicts are almost always pretty bad, and I donât think this card is really an exception, especially when RW cards that go wide and have immediate impact are becoming so prevalent.
Dictate of Erebos: I havenât seen Grave Pact running around pretty much at all since WOE dropped, and I really donât think a 2nd one will significantly change that.
Gurmag Angler: I love this card so damn much and it wins way more games than it realistically should. You should play it in decks that have cards that go into the graveyard and also swamps. Truthfully, the real answer is that you also want to be a midrangey deck thatâs ok with playing a 5/5 for 3 and expecting that itâs a 5/5 for 4, but itâs still a huge swath of decks it fits into.
Lifebane Zombie: I think 1 toughness is killer for this card, and Iâm not really feeling it, even if youâre playing D&T into Ellesandra and know seâs going to be on Bretagard Beats. I think it just doesnât have the juice in it.
Liliana, Heretical Healer: Liliana is very good in specific homes, but itâs also a bit hard to analyze for other decks in our format. Not having an ability to remove creatures on the planeswalker side is really rough, so if youâre not getting some mileage between the +2 and -X decently easily, I think itâs not too valuable to slot Liliana in.
Nighthowler: This cardâs pretty good for Dredge/3animator/whatever you want to call your volume-based graveyard strat. Itâs a little bit more expensive on the front side than Iâd like, but the bestow cost is pretty reasonable to supe up a creature with a keyword.
Ob Nixilis Reignited: Ob Nix has not aged well at all in the modern era. He suffers a ton from template planeswalker syndrome, and it doesnât fit particularly well when the protection is purely proactive, not reactive at all. I think ONE Vraska checks most if not all of the boxes that this does, and much better, and even she hasnât seen much play.
Painful Truths: Weâve gotten a ton of sign in blood effects in the past year, but we do still suffer a lack of 3 mana draw 3s, so this might find a home yet. That said, I wouldnât hold my breath for this seeing play, as Iâd rather just see another sign in blood in its slot most of the time.
Priest of the Blood Rite: This card is super neat, but itâs enormously dwarfed by Unholy Annex nowadays.
Rescue from the Underworld: This card is how you get me interested in a 5 mana reanimate - you secretly make it a victimize you can play at instant speed. The downside is that the creature you sac is always victimized back, but thereâs plenty of really good applications for this card. I donât know where it lands in order of zombifyâs, but itâs high enough up that it can get the job done for sure.
Returned Centaur: Welcome back to Centaur corner - This was one of the only synergistic centaurs in Karadorâs colors, since it filled up your yard for Karador to recast from. In gladiator, this card costs 4 mana and doesnât kill your opponent, so Iâm off it.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier: Look, what some gladiator players will do for a tutor that doesnât just humiliate them is frankly sickening. Some people are going to play Behold the Beyond, and play Demonic Counsel without an easy plan for turning on Delirium, so a DT that leaves behind a creature that blocks well is enough to probably get those players to do some very gross things.
Silumgar Butcher: This guyâs not good, but heâs got some truly rancid vibes (affectionate).
Soulflayer: You shouldnât try to make soulflayer a thing, but some of you are gross and should feel gross, and this is one of those cards thatâll let you feel gross, you sick fuck (<3)
Tasigur, the Golden Fang: Hey I heard you like Gurmag Angler, so what if you had the GAngler, but 1 cheaper, 1 less power, and an AA if youâre in UB or GB that just ruins your opponentâs day at instant speed. I think you should play this card if you want to have 4 mana open on an end step and are either UBx or GBx.
Tormented Hero: I want this card to see some play, because itâs very cool and good, but I also wouldnât be too surprised if it fell to the wayside in our format.
Ubul Sar Gatekeepers: This gatekeeper is too toxic for me to like, and certainly not girlboss enough.
Ultimate Price: This is one of the worst 2 drop removal spells you could play in our format, and it doesnât look like it, but itâs truly awful, and will almost always leave you disappointed.
Whip of Erebos: I think lifelink is one of the most underrated keyword abilities you can get, and boardwide lifelink is something already piquing my interest. I think in a deck that has Troll and similar cards but doesnât need to be reanimating them, this fits best, as itâs a pretty bad reanimate, but a pretty good effect before the reanimate.
Xathrid Necromancer: In the humans typal deck, this card goes quite hard, essentially doubling your boardâs potential until the necromancer is killed, and in crats decks, it acts as a small pile of doomed dissenters, allowing for a lot of beef with just a few sacrifices.
Abhorrent Overlord: This card just does not add the requisite beef to be anywhere near good enough, especially for a (jesus) 7 drop.
Disciple of Phenax: I think itâs pretty telling that the next time they decided to make an effect like this, it was on a 2 drop. This is nowhere near good enough to justify being a 4 drop.
Erebos, God of the Dead: You know, the OG theros gods seem pretty bad, actually. Like, this is just greed but with more text that rarely matters. I think you should play the THB erebos first, and donât play that one either.
Illness in the Ranks: This is so obviously a sideboard plant what are you looking at me for?
Keepsake Gorgon: This is limited fodder, but it kind of feels weird that 2/(3+) deathtouch is such an impossible statline to cost well. Like it makes sense, but itâs just a bit weird-feeling.
Cavern Lampad: Yâall remember intimidate? What an absolute dogshit mechanic for real.
Liliana Vess: This planeswalker looks pretty bad these days, but you know what people will do for a tutor. That said, the thing they shouldnât do is play this card EYOOOOOO
Oath of Liliana: An edict effect for 3 is really unappealing, but one that can come with a 2/2 is a lot more up-my-alley. That said, itâs pretty unlikely that both abilities of this card will trigger on the same turn, which is typically what I want to feel great about this card. Itâs not impossible, but itâs certainly a challenge. Itâs a lot easier to feel good about this card if you just want a couple zombies, and thereâs at least one deck that can make that happen.
Ovalchase Daredevil: This creature is really goofy and has homes in places, but Iâm dubious that they include homes in this format. We donât have great ways to skirt the cost of playing this card or get value out of it from the hand. Anyoneâs welcome to pester me about how thatâs not true and thereâs actually a sick combo for this card in gladiator right now.
Ruinous Path: Murder is better than this, full stop. Donât play murder, and donât play ruinous path.
Stain the Mind: One of these days, someoneâs going to get very salty about Tainted Oracle (again) and then theyâre gonna sleeve up this card and probably lose but they might cast this card and that might be a little funny.
Bile Blight: You donât hate tokens this much.Â
Dark Betrayal: You donât hate yourself that much.
Dark Petition: Iâm not sickos, but these sickos will sacrifice their secondborn for another medium quality tutor and itâs gross. Itâs even crazier because this oneâs slightly better than medium (provided getting to spell mastery is relatively trivial).
Touch of Moonglove: THIS CARD IS BAD clap clap clapclapclap
Worst Fears: God I really need to play the omnispell adept deck in order to cheat this spell out, itâs all I want. One of my favorite magic stories is playing a bad GB ramp deck in KTK standard, and my opponent let me resolve worst fears while they had Pearl Lake Ancient out, so I activated the pearl lake agentâs ability to bounce all their lands with some mana floating, then before they resolved, i used their removal spell to kill the ancient, and then proceeded to discard all those lands. Good times.
Red
Bloodfire Enforcers: overcosted red creature with a billion power and 2 toughness is one of my favorite genders.
Boulder Salvo: God we really have come a long way since OGW thank god.
Burning Anger: Hoooooooly shit this card sucks. Itâs so bad jesus
Chandra, Flamecaller: Ok ok ok I know this card looks like ass, but hear me out: ok no this card is ass I just like planeswalkers and lesbians and her little dog elementals that she comes with.
Draconic Roar: Is this card good? I think the answer is âprobably not,â as the dragons deck wants broader removal more often and the burn-y decks probably donât have a high enough density to warrant this.
Exquisite Firecraft: Short answer - This card is either the 2nd or 3rd best 3 drop red spell that deals 4, and your deck probably only wants to go 1-2 of these effects deep. Longer answer - This card is definitely worse than Ghostfire Slice, and is worse in most decks than Uthgardt Fury, and how often do you see Uthgardt? I think people just way overshoot the amount of space we have for 3s in card evaluation (myself included), and it makes it so that you really just need your actual 3s to be doing more than 4 damage (Slice is only a 3 half the time), so this is actually competing with Soul Sear and the like on top of Fury and less so with slice, so your room for this card just ends up startlingly low, and this cardâs pretty unexciting for an already cramped slot.
Fall of the Hammer: Bite Down at home moment.
Ghirapur Gearcrafter: This cardâs bad, but Iâm glad itâs here :3
Heart-Piercer Manticore: This card looks so much better as an uncommon ngl, but itâs still a 4 drop in the year of our lord 2024.
Humble Defector: This card is just bad, do not trick yourself into thinking that itâs good or that your cards are simply better than your opponents. Itâs like the bad parts of Loran but worse and without a rec sage attached.
Kozilekâs Return: After Pyroclasm dropped I have been a lot more critical of this card, so I think this is only anything in BEEG RED:âą:
Labyrinth Champion: Coach!?!?
Legion Loyalist: ACAB, but at least this cop is open about clubbing your shins and kneecaps specifically. I think heâs worth sleeving up, if only in goblins and hyperaggro red. That battalion trigger is a lot for a 1 drop.
Makindi Sliderunner: I think this cardâs not good but Iâm also not your dad, so prove me wrong :P
Mogisâs Warhound: Ok real talk i played this in limited and it was pretty consistently good. I think it has 2 problems that stop it from being good in gladiator: First, the base creature kind of sucks, and by the time that the bestowed creature dies, this will probably not be a reasonable creature. Second, even if it was decently good enough, it just doesnât have a good home. The RW heroic deck likes spells pretty specifically or at least needs a good reason to play auras, and one being kind of barely ok enough doesnât cut it.
Oath of Chandra: This is another oath that is fully just straight bad, or I guess pan bad in Chandraâs case.
Ordeal of Purphoros: The ordeals are just bad right? Iâd love to be wrong but I canât imagine 2 mana + aura + work is anywhere near worth it for a bolt.
Outpost Siege: We have come a long way from getting one card a turn for 4 mana, to the point where I truly hope you donât play this card or feel the need to these days.
Pia and Kiran Nalaar: I think this card is butchered by both the fact that itâs a 4 drop in an environment super hostile to all but the best 4s.
Purphorosâs Emissary: This bestower is particularly common and mana intensive, and ergo bad.
Scab-Clan Berserker: This girlieâs got the juice, but Idk if itâs enough as a 3 drop to be dubiously able to hit the opponent when Ahn-Crop Crasher is a real magic card.
Scourge of Valkas: Oh shit this cardâs in pioneer? Hell yeah maybe there is a reason to play this format. Uh anyway play this in dragons.
Stormbreath Dragon: Just being a 4/4 flying creature that canât get pathâd legitimately might be enough. Path and Swords are such dominant spells that against a large chunk of the tournament scene this just reads as hexproof. Idk if itâll make it long term, but this is a great tech piece for the current meta, I think.
Wild Slash: This is one of 3 playable shocks in the format, next to burst lightning and Play with fire, and I think that you can get away with playing any one of them and not really noticing the difference long term, which does indeed make this card playable.
Zurgo Bellstriker: Look itâs an Isamaru, so youâre not gonna complain. Eat your vegetables and kill your opponents with a 1 mana 2/2, alright?
Ash Zealot: Another great example of how good your 3s need to be vs your 2s, this card could never trigger in a game and it would still be largely overperforming because itâs a 2/2 first strike haste and thatâs what you need in your 2 slot.
Purphoros, God of the Forge: This card is pretty solidly the best of the monocolored gods, in the sense that it does something impactful to the board without putting extra mana into it, and its AA makes combat hellish for your opponent. Is it better than Hazoret or the hasty 4 youâll put in? Iâm a bit doubtful, but in a RW or naya tokens list, I could definitely see this guy putting in enough work to earn a long term spot in the deck.
Pyromancerâs Assault: This card really sucks, and thereâs no other way to say it.
Stoneshock Giant: [Big red creature] at home moment.
Crumble to Dust: We just donât need this card in any deck. Stone Rain largely fills the same role and the only one who plays that is Mink when trying to tilt me specifically (<3).
Goblin Heelcutter: This card does a lot, but itâs a 3 or 4 drop in this format, and this card doesnât do nearly enough to justify at either of those mana costs in here.
Reckless Bushwhacker: Bushwhacker is my favorite gender - its surge is easy to hit, and playing it with surge just turns your opponent into a fine paste that doesnât get back up, and I love the vibes.
Smash to Smithereens: I played this in modern immediately following Eldrazi Winter and lemme tell you nothing hits better than breaking a chalice of the void to exactsies the opponent in the finals of an RCQ level event.
Thopter Engineer: This cardâs interesting, but I donât know how I feel about it in a world with so much competition to just be getting a thopter and haste, but it is a pretty unique effect for the Rx scraps decks, so it benefits from being really easy to find a home for.
Expedite: Expedite is the lil cantrip that could, and Iâm pretty confident that it could again here, even if youâre not getting a huge benefit from haste, just drawing a card and triggering heroic/valiant is enough most of the time.
Limits of Solidarity: Act of Treason is not a card worth thinking about in our format.
Mizzium Mortars: Wake up babe new replacement for Mephitâs Enthusiasm dropped. Iâm gonna be real happy slotting this into a bunch of red decks that donât typically want sweepers, but will be real happy for this when they desperately need a sweeper and this shows up.
Radiant Flames: We have so many options for this effect these days, and this is not significantly better than anything weâre used to or already have. I wonât be too shocked seeing this though, as an ability to modulate between sweltering suns and pyroclasm is a nice touch toward making it more likely that it wraths your opponentâs board and not your own.
Seismic Stomp: Falters are great but we have sundering eruption and I donât think anyoneâs itching for another.
Gladiator Big Talk: Pioneer Masters, White/Blue
So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card and call them Big Talks, and now they live here! Some notes:
This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in Pioneer Masters. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format.
I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.
Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.
Without further ado, let's start off with Archangel of Thune:
White
Archangel of Thune: This girlie goes hard, but in an era where we have so many high-value white 5s with lifelink, this one looks pretty medium outside of decks that are all in on cards like Vito and Enduring Tenacity.
Artful Maneuver: I really like this set partly because of commons like these that are completely horrendous but still important cards from their contexts. God I loved Tarkir block.
Celestial Archon: This is just unfortunately just an enormous amount of mana for some pretty âjust idiotâ stats, which donât make me excited -_-
Chained to the Rocks: This card is worse than it looks, but still absolutely playable in decks that are already specifically RW. You should play this, but with the knowledge that it will not be free to make it online, even if it only takes 1 fetch to do so. I wouldnât play this in 3 color, but Iâm not a jeskai pilot, so it could be playable there, and Iâm just more skeptical than I should be.
Dictate of Heliod: I have gotten a lot more critical of anthem effects during 2024, and here is about the most commitment to anthems you can really get, which is not a good thing. At this point we have a lot of good options for things that can be anthems and it makes our bar pretty high. This really gets nowhere close.
Extricator of Sin: The bar for aristocrafts cards is getting higher at a pretty wild rate, and this card I think would have just been an âinteresting thoughtâ to add into crats back in 2021, and three years later I donât think it gets particularly close.
Ghostblade Eidolon: This honestly could see some play and I wouldnât be that shocked, but 3 mana for a 1/1 double strike is super below rate, and most decks donât even want to use a slot for that card, but an enchantress shell could theoretically want this.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: This is one of the best Chadâs around - his 0 is totally passable, and even the spots where you are stuck in just making a 2/2 per turn are fine. His +1 is pretty good, especially for potentially enabling a -4 while sticking around if youâve got a decent board state, and the -4 is really good (because anthems are great when versatile and resistant to removal), especially as something you can often do alongside other effects over the life of Gids.
Hero of Iroas: The auras deck is a real thing that has only really needed a dedicated pilot for at least a few months now, and this is a very narrow addition to it, but still a good one, very least for making cards like sheltered by ghosts cost W and such.
Hopeful Eidolon: This oneâs a lot easier to picture making it into a deck than Ghostblade, as enchantress does like the prospect of a somewhat versatile early blocker that triggers constellation effects, and this does that job very well. That said, this is also just not a creature thatâs much to write home about, so that may well be itâs downfall for playability.
Imposing Sovereign: This effect is really good, and itâs especially good the earlier it can come down, and the more you can capitalize on the fact that all your opponentâs blockers need to wait a turn before they can ever block. In decks like Death and Taxes, or really just any deck with a lot of aggressive creatures and removal theyâre comfortably able to use proactively, this card shines a lot. That said, I think at the moment the tournament meta is not well positioned for this galâthe more mana drains and t3feriâs there are, the worse things are for a creature thatâs really just shining if your opponent is playing primarily to the board. I think right now sheâs not gonna make it, but bookmark her for a couple months down the road or if any of Drain, Cruise, or Dig get banned.
Keening Apparition: If I had a nickel for each creature this was functionally identical to in our format that was in an arena set in the past 2 months, Iâd have 3 nickels, which isnât a lot, but itâs weird it happened one more time than the joke structure usually allows for.
Knight of the White Orchid: Hell yea buddy this cardâs great, and itâll be especially good in any season finals for lower seed players. This card also just like is a house - first strike is big, and itâs not really hard to engineer this to grab you a surveil land or just an untapped plains on either side of the table. Card just goes hard and is a good piece for the early game.
Kytheon, Hero of Akros: So the bar for 2/1s for 1 has risen a decent chunk since 2015 when kind of design was relatively unheard of, but this cardâs still good. A savannah lions with an ability to protect itself that also incentivizes already good play patterns is just always going to be good, and on top of that almost all the words on Gideonâs side are good and/or not actively bad, so thereâs not really room to complain.
Lagonna-Band Trailblazer: I was a huge fan of this card for commander when I first started playing because I had a Karador Centaur-typal deck, and this was one of the like 10 playable centaurs at the time. Man, Iâm really glad I started playing with Theros block, because I think I would not have liked it if I was already enfranchised by then.
Linvala, the Preserver: Wowie uh this cardâs not aged well at all, and frankly was never that good in the first place, which just makes it a bit more sad. Just 2 years later weâd get Lyra and that kinda just gives everything a sense of perspective, yâknow?
Lotus-Eye Mystics: Thereâs like 2 decks that are pretty darn stoked that this card exists now, but those decks also probably didnât want to play auramancer so like why start now?
Phalanx Leader: A lot of these âjust heroicâ creatures are surprisingly interesting to think about, but this one just requires so much commitment on a very vulnerable body to feel like anything other than embarrassing, so Iâll pass.
Secure the Wastes: This cardâs aged pretty steadily poorly in my eyes, and Iâve come to realize itâs an effect that is almost never super wanted, let alone needed. The one saving grace of the card is that itâs instant speed, but Iâd still almost always rather play something that is consistently on-rate or does an effect that is more desired reactively.
Silence: I donât think Silence has a great place in our format, and thatâs coming from someone who is quite possibly the most vocal supporter of Silence effects in non-combo decks in the format. If itâs gonna have a home, itâll be in a deck that can afford to easily pivot from controlling the board to comboing off, which makes me realize that it might have a home in Pact Oracle decks if they ever truly recover from the loss of DT and decide they want a silence effect (they typically donât need it).
Silkwrap: God this card sucks so bad. Itâs truly beautiful how far O-rings have come in the past 5 years.
Sphere of Safety: Enchantress is eating fucking good today my friends. God this cardâs great, and Iâm so happy to see this really help (along with a few other cards this set) to bring the 3-5 color enchantress decks together.
Spirit of the Labyrinth: I really enjoy these D&T pieces that are multi-typed, because it really stretches what packages these decks can include by a couple of notches. On top of that, this cardâs just pretty good, and is a nice touch to punish the decks I donât like by forcing them to have removal before they cast their Cruise or + their 5feri.
Starfield of Nyx: This is not actually a good enchantress card, and really itâs only justifiable if youâre trying to reanimate an omniscience or something similarly game-ending. The second big issue, though, is that if youâre using this to get omniscience itâs the most narrow way to do so by far in a deck with a pretty large swath of ways to cheat out omni before t10.
Swift Reckoning: Iâm glad that cards like this are here, because itâs a good reminder of where we started, where this was an exciting uncommon for being pretty revolutionary when it had flash. Weâve come a long, long way since then, and Iâm pretty happy for us to get there.
War Oracle: I think if this was a 4/3 itâd be (well firstly, itâd be bonkers, but itâd also be) enticing enough for me to try some where, but the fact that itâs pretty uncommon for it to get to attack with 4 power turns me off a lot for it. However, I think this cardâs weirdly close to being in a good spot for it being a 4 mana uncommon in gladiator.
Eidolon of Rhetoric: Unlike Spirit of the Labyrinth, this card doesnât excite me much, especially because it got outmoded in paper by Archon of Emeria 3 years ago, so itâs hitting Gladiator DoA.
Evangel of Heliod: I think this card is a funny Brawl/Commander card, but Iâm both not excited to play white 6âs in gladiator and doubtful that this can realistically get you enough tokens to be impressive at all.
Fiendslayer Paladin: This card looks pretty bad, and itâs not very good, but if youâre wanting to play the Auras deck and/or an aggressive white deck, and your opponentâs gonna be on grixis or similar colors, this is a great card to sleeve up.
Heliod, God of the Sun: Was this card ever good? I donât remember it being anything ever, and it looks so bad by our modern standard for Gods or just cards in general.
Ajani Steadfast: This card is not that great, but itâs a slam dunk in one of my favorite decks to pick up, Superfriends. This cardâs -2 is great, and with even just 1 good creature out, the +1 pads out your life total and lets you attack pretty easily into board stalls. Is this card good? I donât think so. Does it have a good chance of slotting in somewhere and staying there? I think the answer to that one is yes.
Call the Gatewatch: I see so few copies of the legendary tutor from Kaldheim, and this one is so, so, so much worse.
Hushwing Gryff: I got deja vu before realizing that my thoughts on Mesa Pegasus in J25 are the exact same as this card: This card is 2nd (or, really, probably around 3rd) in a slot that doesnât exist anywhere, so donât think about it.
Oath of Gideon: I am so happy to see this card, especially being paired with BFZ gideon, where it really shows its strength. Getting 2 blockers for your walkers or for your life total if your opponent is aggressive is really nice, and it then pays that off by letting you do big downticks on planeswalkers with a lot more wiggle room, and enabling huge effects a lot easier. I think it only realistically has a home in superfriends, but it does have a good home there.
Sageâs Reverie: This card has the ability to be good enough in certain applications, but Iâm just not interested in the work needed to get it to that point, because I think you need to be drawing 3 cards to start being impressed with this, and ideally putting it on something with hexproof, because this is asking for a big blowout.
Hallowed Moonlight: Iâm not a huge fan of this card, but I would be remiss if I said it didnât have some applications. Like, if Iâm against howdy for round 1 of a season end, Iâd sincerely consider slotting this in. Same idea goes for if you think UFO or I are going to play sneak attack against you or the like. Even then, itâs not amazing, but it gets the job done decently well in a slot that can be used for silver bullets without being too awful if you donât get full value off it.
Open the Armory: Another copy of Kellanâs adventure is nice, and thereâs a couple decks that might want that. That being said, the biggest draw of Kellanâs adventure was not the spell itself, but that it also drew a decently on-rate creature. This tutor lacking that makes it a much, much harder sell, but I could see a couple of decks sleeve this up without feeling bad about it.
Reprisal: I remember when this card was cool as hell and my favorite removal spell in standard, but uh our slots for removal are slim and this cardâs restriction make it not a reasonable include.
Tragic Arrogance: I donât love a nonland cataclysm these days, and this card is really only that. I think youâd just play a gearhulk despite giving that choice back over their way, and I wouldnât play that these days either.Â
Blue
Aetherling: The definition of beef has really changed over the last decade - it used to be that any hard to kill idiot, regardless of mana cost, could be played in a control deck without much thought, and be quite good. Now, weâve kind of settled on 2 kinds of beef, being either something that fills another role in the deck and kills the opponent or something that is like 5-6 mana and just 180s the direction of the game if youâre behind on the board. Cards like Aetherling are the casualty of that shift in direction, and itâs a little sad to see that sometimes.
Anchor to the Aether: Bad limited removal is bad limited removal. Iâm gonna be real, though, Iâm a bit shocked with how many of the new cards are in some way bangers; itâs a great time.
Aqueous Form: For example, this card should see some play, especially if bogles decks decide to play islands in this format. This is a really cool card to both smooth out your draws and provide evasion to stuff thatâs huge and hexproof or has heroic triggers.
Artisan of Forms: I think this cardâs just straight bad, and I canât really put it any other way. Donât work for your phantasmal image, kids.
Bident of Thassa: This card just doesnât commit to the board enough to be worth a card in your deck, especially at 4 mana.
Chasm Skulker: I think I like cards like Nadir Kraken more, but I really do have a soft spot in my heart for cards that grow with card draw, and this is one of the classics for that, and frankly, is a pretty good card for the slot, too.
Cloudfin Raptor: This card is pretty funny to see right now, where, thinking about it, this card really has a difficult time eventually getting to a 3/4, which is where you probably need it to get quickly to feel good about it, and otherwise, Iâd just rather play a spyglass siren or the like.
Crush of Tentacles: Upheaval this is not, and itâs pretty difficult to actually live the dream in any way. If youâre getting to enough mana to cast the surge cost side of this, you probably canât rebuild that turn, and despite the 8/8, I think you need to rebuild right after a mass bounce to feel good about it.
Dayâs Undoing: I have a long history with this card, and I think itâll either find a home in this format, or will have a home early. If youâre a deck with an easy time playing on your opponentâs turn, this card doesnât have a real downside. I donât really think itâll slot into the control decks iâm used to seeing, just because those already are winning on card advantage, but itâs a card Iâm confident Iâll see across the table.
Illusory Angel: This cardâs bad, and if you consider itâs real cost (whatever spell you play first), it immediately becomes at or below rate, and has nothing else really going for it.
Jace, Vrynâs Prodigy: This is probably either the best or 2nd best looter we have in the format, and itâs just so much effect for so little. Even just looting a few times then getting 2 life/worse attacks a turn after that is great, and if you ever snapcaster with it youâre in heaven.Â
Jhessian Thief: I said this in a conversation over imposing sovereign, but the bar for 3s really is so much higher than for 2s, meaning you donât just want a saboteur effect, you want one with evasion or that mercilessly kills the opponent, not a 1/3 thatâs occasionally a 2/4 instead.
Master of Waves: I could definitely see a merfolk deck slotting this card in as a way to add 10ish power to the board on a bunch of bodies, but outside of that, this format is just poorly positioned for blue permanents that arenât subtlety right now.
Mizzium Skin: This is definitely a card that is legal in the gladiator format. Is it good? I hope not, frankly.
Niblis of Frost: This just is more commitment to the board than its homes are probably willing to spare for a pretty mild effect.
Nimbus Naiad: nah
Opal Lake Gatekeepers: Look, I think the gates deck is not that outlandish in our format and this card still sucks there.
Quicken: This cardâs not amazing, but it does offer a pretty huge upside if you find yourself wishing treasure cruise had flash at an end step. I think itâs worse than consider/opt, but can be slotted into those slots if you are gunning for plays like cantrip into cruise if opp doesnât act proactively enough.
Rapid Hybridization: You donât have to play these effects, we have good removal in every other color (except maybe green), and lord knows youâre not playing monoblue.
Scatter to the Winds: This was one of the first in our line of âcancels with versatilityâ but now we just get âcancels with upsideâ so whatâs the point?
Shipbreaker Kraken: This was the coolest rare possible when I started playing, and I eventually realized that it was just fully bad. This card is just completely bad. Probably cool at least in limited though.
Sight Beyond Sight: Wow billy whyâd your mom let you have TWO sleight of hands? The answer is 3 generic mana, turns out. This is just so deeply bad, and itâs an effect that really only looks interesting at 3 mana, not 4.
Stormtide Leviathan: BEEG WHALE. I think this is not a great card, nor the best persist target, but it is certainly funny, and likely will win games only a little worse than some other persist hits.
Tah-Crop Skirmisher: COM MON PI KER clap clap clapclapclap
Temporal Trespass: This card is just so cool, and I would argue that it fits pretty well into some shells that wouldnât necessarily play time warp. That said, this card takes a lot to be happy with it, so my guess is that it will only be played in turns or dredge decks until at least treasure cruise is banned.
Tidebinder Mage: I donât think I can see this card legitimately seeing play in our format, and after a bit of thought, I donât think even in season finals situations could I really picture it. Being a hard to cast 2/2 really hurts when itâs not shutting down an important creature, and a lot of its targets donât actually suffer much from it, like Samwise, Inti, Wingbane Vantasaur, Scooze, etc.
Windrider Patrol: I think the biggest insult of this card is that they think that scrying 2 is a huge effect, when you just want to kill them, and this card doesnât even do that in our format đ
Silumgar Sorcerer: I truly enjoy this card, but I will say that you should just play the Overcharged Amalgam instead.
Sphinx of Magosi: God this card is such a real one, but it is demonstrably worse than a card I probably shouldnât have played, but did: Faerie Formation.
Thassa, God of the Sea: This card gets a huge bonus from being a machine that turns creatures into unblocked creatures, but itâs very expensive to be that kind of machine, and most decks either donât need the effect out of redundancy, or donât need it out of playing on a different axis.
Clutch of Currents: Sorcery speed unsummons are gross and frankly bad.
Flitterstep Eidolon: Maybe someone will pick this card up, but that bestow cost is criminally high, and the creature itself is pretty middling as far as slither blades go.
Hidden Strings: Iâm so glad this is on arena so I can play lotus field, but also this card sucks here.
Jace, Architect of Thought: I want this card to be anything, but it's quite bad - itâs 4 mana for a + that we pay 1 mana for these days (Tamiyo), and its other two abilities are also pretty middling. Weâve come a long way to get to the point where a 1 mana creature is a better planeswalker than Jace in every ability, but itâs where weâre at.
Jace, Memory Adept: This planeswalker is a lot better in 40 card than it is in 100 card singleton.
Oath of Jace: Ok, I know that I hyped up Oath of Gideon a lot, but the truth is that most of the Oaths are quite bad. Case and point, Oath of Jace, which is not worth playing, even if you are scrying 3 each turn, which you wonât be.
Retraction Helix: Iâm sure thereâs something funny to do with this card, and with a Jeskai Ascendancy and/or Paradox Engine this card goes hard, but Iâm doubtful itâs going to find a home with a dedicated pilot, which is what a card like this desperately needs.
Dramatic Reversal: I donât think we have any of the pieces that really let this combo off, but I will say that we do have an infinite with this card, retraction helix, 9 mana from nonland permanents, and Scholar of the Ages. In this essâgets shot
Enter the Infinite: This card does kind of just win the game if you cheat it and have the right deck built, but again, there hasnât been a dedicated/tournament player for this style of deck in a long while, and I think combos with Enter the Infinite are pretty low on the list of combo decks Iâd like to see or think is likely.
Part the Waterveil: This is one that I think just wonât see play. Itâs worse than Time Warp in a couple of ways and the versatility it adds is unlikely to ever come up. It could come up in a turns list, but those decks I do not think want to go 5 deep on time warps.
Tome Scour: Thereâs 2 decks that are so stoked to see this card, and no one else wants to touch it. Simple as that.
Void Shatter: We have better cancels with better upsides, and the fact that this doesnât pitch to subtlety is a real downside.
Gladiator Big Talk: Jumpstart Foundations, Green/the Rest
So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card and call them Big Talks. Foundations and Jumpstart Foundations are very big sets, so I've decided to move them over here! Some notes:
This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in the main set of Foundations. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format or in the Main set, which is out! Find the Green and the Rest reviews here.
I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.
Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.
Without further ado, let's start off with Go Forth:
Green
Go Forth: Instant speed Lay of the Land is pretty spicy, and I could definitely see this taking the slot of a card like Bushwhack, though they serve pretty different roles. I definitely think this card is both worth testing and worth playing in some decks, even if itâs just decks that want to protect their elves from shocks and their Halflings from bolts.
Hungry Megasloth: This guyâs super cute and pretty cool, but itâs just not the requisite beef or utility needed to slot into green decks these days.
Razorgrass Invoker: Wake up babe new invoker just dropped! Like most invokers, itâs not great in the format, especially since it doesnât give any keywords, to help out, like trample.
Saurian Symbiote: This guyâs just 1 full mana too expensive to be anything at all, which is a shame since heâs such a cool guy.
Scythecat Cub: This lil kitty goes hard. I donât think this should be replacing Bristly Billâs, but itâs a huge add in addition to it. In a deck that has more ways to get a 2nd land drop than normal (running harrow, a rampant growth effect, ways to get back fetches, etc), this is a slam dunk, but also is most of the good parts of Bristly Bill anyway, so it should be a generically good card whenever it shows up.Â
Slimy Piper: This guy just attacks as a 3/2 and thatâs frankly about enough. If you needed more out of a go-wide deck for it, it also gets to attack with impunity, which is always a huge boon. I think this guy just punches significantly above its weight.
Spined Tyrranax: This guyâs cool, but he is just too vulnerable and resource intensive for a 5 drop.
Woodland Liege: Stompy decks have a surprisingly high count of beasts, or at least can engineer their deck to fit this, but itâs still a very fragile body to make justifying it seem worthwhile at all.
Braulios of Pheres Band: Iâm not a fan of 5s you have to untap with :/Â
Dionus, Elvish Archdruid: This card is so incredibly busted that it makes me want to build elves for this gal. Holy hell an untap every turn is incredibly based.
Hurska Sweet-Tooth: Iâm not a huge fan of this card, despite how high it can go in theory, mainly because most of your lifegain in this format is either the result of combat or in piecemeal, and paying 1 for each instance of lifegain you want to turn into damage suuucks.
Shroofus Sproutsire: I think this guyâs really cute and I will not be playing him.
Slinza, the Spiked Stampede: Suffers from the âcompeting with Thrunâ dilemma. Unfortunately, that makes Slinza pretty unplayable even if youâre flush with incidental beasts.
Sutina, Speaker of the Tajuru: This is about the best rampant growth on a creature we have in the format, if not in general. Plus, enabling you to more reliably trigger landfall is a nice bit of gravy on a creature you donât need to swing once with to feel good about.
Forgotten Ancient: This guy gets real big, but I honestly donât think itâs great for us, where it just takes too long to get going for a 4 drop imo.
Gift of the Gargantuan: We have brainsurge at home; Brainsurge at home: is this
Advocate of the Beast: I thought this card was so damn cool when I played it in M14. The good news is that it is still quite cool, but the bad news is that it is not good, and never was.
Aggressive Instinct: Me when the best art for Bite Down is sorcery speed đ
Ainok Artillerist: 4/1 for 3 moment.
Ainok Guide: This ol dog had to walk so that campus guide could run in limited. Pressing F for respects.
Baloth Woodcrasher: This guy is really funny, especially because at its core, it is indeed a 4/4 for 6 mana that is only that unless you get a land drop after.
Bounty of Skemfar: This cardâs quite cool, and I think it isnât crazy to play it in elves, but itâs like 3rd on wayfinder elves that you put in.
Druid of the Anima: yknow if this was on arena in 2020 I would have played it in real gladiator decks and I think that just tells you how far weâve come.
Garruk, Caller of Beasts: This guy goes so hard for being the second decent 6 mana planeswalker. Completely disinterested with the normal structure of planeswalkers, you just want to slam prime time off this guy and look smug after, and I mean you should do that here too. The green creature restriction kind of honks, but thereâs still a good sized pile of creatures to get for free off this, enough that Iâd be willing to try it in sneak attack decks as another way to put in a ghalta.
Garrukâs Packleader: Beast Whisperer before he glew up, truly a beautiful moment
Grazing Gladeheart: I think someone (maybe me) will play this once or twice in our format, and those people are crying for help, donât ignore the sights, ask if theyâre ok
Groundswell: I donât think we really have the gas for a Gruul Blitz deck, but this I think is legitimately worth considering in GW counters, where thereâs a lot of ways to have trample and/or double strike, and adding a bunch of power attacking is very choice. I donât think I would play it elsewhere though, even if you have a decent volume of lands.
Ivy Lane Denizen: This guy has no right to be so smug, get him out of my face, remove them from my sight, the bastard
Murasa Ranger: The fact that this hill giant needed you to pay FOUR GODDAMNED MANA to make it a 5/5 should tell you how bad BFZ limited was.
Orchard Strider: Generous Ent at home ass vibes lmao
Overwhelm: In exactly a GW tokens deck, this card slaps super hard, but itâs also 7 to cast, which even with convoke helping alleviate is quite a lot. The other question is do you ever want to cast this tapping 3 of the things that are going to get 3 extra power? Because otherwise, just play overrun or overcome and get the much more important flexibility of trample.
Predatorâs Strike: Our bar is so much higher, like, come on.
Primeval Herald: This is a lil baby prime time that teaches you just how many things to be grateful of prime time for, between toughness, finding nonbasics, mana cost, and it all synthesizes into one medium bad card that makes you appreciate having the big old giant around <3
Rampant Growth: We havenât played a lot of similar effects, and this one is by and large worse than the other rampant growths we might play (or at least Into the North, needing to play caves is kind of suspect).
Realm Seekers: This card isnât good in our format, but itâs also so bad everywhere, like wow this was made for 4 players at 20 life and it really shows (derogatory).
Retreat to Kazandu: We have gotten a lot of better versions of this effect in recent years, but the modularity of gaining life or putting on counters is a nice touch, as is not being tied to a creature like Bill and co. I think Iâd only play it in a pile of cultivates, but itâs not a horrible include.
Snapping Gnarlid: This guy is just not worth thinking about, so donât.
Somberwald Beastmaster: I might put this into sneak as a pile of stats that gets sneaked in and doesnât go away at end of turn. This is also incidentally synergistic with the other creatures that sacrifice into more bodies or come with friends. Being able to get a wide board off of this guy entering is a significant mark in their favor.
Tukatongue Thallid: This is certainly no Doomed Traveler, and I think that distinction is becoming more and more relevant, making this guy more and more just a relic of a bygone era where we didnât have a handful of doomed traveler effects.
Undergrowth Champion: This guy is a lot of the things I like about Tireless Tracker but without a huge downside of Tracker, which was that heâs shockingly vulnerable (pun intended) in the first two turns of his existence. With Champion, if you play this then hit a land drop, it becomes a force thatâs both hard to deal with and needs to be reckoned with. In dedicated lands decks, this card goes super hard, but I think it also has a home anywhere that you have fetches and creatures that are annoying to deal with.
Verdeloth the Ancient: Iâm gonna be real, Iâve never liked this cardâit just is too expensive to be what boils down to a big pot of stats, especially when the competition is so fierce these days. That said, if youâre a non-sneak attack Channel deck, this is one of the better Channel payoffs barring things like Banefire.
Voice of the Woods: I donât really want to mess with 5 mana 2/2s without protection that want to gain consistent value. It just looks like way too much work, especially when you really want to activate twice before youâre feeling like youâre getting away with something.
Multicolor/Colorless
Averna, the Chaos Bloom: Averna kind of got mucked over by Discover supplanting cascade for the most part, meaning the number of playable cards it triggers on is quite unfortunately very low.
Bituminous Blast: Removal + get another card is pretty exciting, though the number of decks that actually can really afford to play this is pretty low in the format, since you really donât want to hit dead cards (like mana drain on an empty stack), and you generally want to be hitting 3-4 drops with this, so you want to be mindful of your curve. I think this all melts into being a pretty niche but effective card that Iâd be interested to see in like Mardu Pyro or maybe a deck like Jund Bard.
Enlisted Wurm: I think this card is closer than it looks (Trumpeting Carnasaur but without versatility or blinkability) but itâs still not quite at the place it needs to be in order to really feel worthwhile.
Fusion Elemental: Even if the cost is trivial, vanilla creatures are just actively bad and this one doesnât bring anything that can be interpreted as exciting to the table.
Violent Outburst: This opens up a decent amount of strategies, but itâs really only a great Rhinos card, and unfortunately that deck is nowhere near the requisite consistency to be viable in gladiator. Living End might be the one card they could reprint to actually make this card worthwhile in gladiator.
Shardless Outlander: Iâm a big fan of cards like this, and itâs a slam dunk in my cube, but ultimately it doesnât have most of the things that a cycling threat needs, which are more explosive power and a cheaper cycling cost.
Starnheim Memento: I really hate manaliths and this certainly is a manalith, but itâs also definitely going to kill me because that AA is quite powerful and might just save the card in decks that have tall but nonevasive threats in abundance, like perhaps in a counters deck.
Leonin Scimitar: Short Sword Moment amirite gamers
Gorgon Flail: Basilisk Collar at home be like
Maelstrom Colossus: I like this guy but heâs awkward with how most sneak decks play, meaning itâs going to be hard to actually trigger the cascade here.
Metalspinnerâs Puzzleknot: This is one of the most playable of the puzzleknots, which I say not as a praise, but rather that the bar is not very high to get there, and essentially being a few synergies attached to a 5 mana divination is better than average for the cycle.
Ash Barrens: I think in 2 color decks this is essentially a free include to make your mana a bit more consistent from t2 onward, and in 3c itâs playable if you are not incredibly pip-dense and can afford to play a hair reactively in the early game.
Cave of Temptation: Filter lands have a super high bar to clear, and while this gets closer than most, it doesnât get there.
Kabira Crossroads: We have a couple of lands like this now, and I donât think any of them are particularly good. In white decks with prime time i could see including it if you just want lands that are better than duals or basics if you fetch them, but the downside is pretty large here.
Seat of the Synod and Vault of Whispers: New artifact lands are always a sight for sore eyes, and this now pushes the number of them that are in Gladiator to 15, and the untapped ones up to 4, which makes a whole lot of cards better. Make sure to take a look at your decks to see if you have any synergy that might make you want these, and slot these in if youâre in UB.
Gladiator Big Talk: Jumpstart Foundations, Black/Red
So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card and call them Big Talks. Foundations and Jumpstart Foundations are very big sets, so I've decided to move them over here! Some notes:
This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in the main set of Foundations. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format or in the Main set, which is out! Find the Black and Red reviews here.
I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.
Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.
Without further ado, let's start off with Revoke Demise:
Black
Revoke Demise: I am a big fan of No One Left Behind for being able to modulate between 2 and 5 mana, but I think Iâm much less of a fan when the reduction is only by 2, even with the slight consolation of a couple of life. I donât think Iâd play the smaller version, and Iâm skeptical Iâd be happy to play either, so I think you should pass on your Demise Revoking License.
Scourge of the Undercity: This is a very mid creature that I think once in a blue moon could be almost close to playable. I donât think it will ever get to playable, but these kinds of cards are easy to overlook and are on rare occasions the right card for a job.Â
Wriggling Grub: Mmmmmm tasty grub, any creature thatâs not horribly below rate and turns into multiple bodies is enough to get an eyebrow raise, and this lil guy being 3 bodies makes it a very efficient fuel piece for crats decks.
Aphelia, Viper Whisperer: I am really interested by this girlie, but thereâs a few hangups. Her body is great defensively, but runs into a lot more trouble offensively, so attacking to make a token really only makes sense on t3, but thatâs also a pivotal turn where mana use is really important. Her ult is also nice, but seems hard to make worthwhile since it quickly turns more and more trivial to trade with her and make her contribution irrelevant. I might try her in Jund bard, but I donât expect much staying power out of her.
Evereth, Viceroy of Plunder: The bar for sac outlets is surprisingly low, and I think this passes the bar despite not being an instant speed sac outlet. Itâs a pretty strict upgrade to Defiant Salvager, and if you hold up your mana well (and you really should), she can be a sizeable nail in an opponentâs coffin that can only really be answered by an exile effect. Also, flying defiant salvager is just pretty nutty. You can reasonably stop there.
Fumulus, the Infestation: I think this guy is just unfortunately too narrow all around, and is going to struggle to find a good home to sit in long term, even if making all your dudes doomed travelers is exciting.
Nazar, the Velvet Fang: Yeah no, I think Ambitionâs Cost is already not fantastic, and one I have to protect and work for? No chance.
Ozox, the Clattering King: Thereâs a part of me that thinks this might make it in crats, but 3 mana for each 2 bodies is kind of pushing my patience a little bit. That said, I wouldnât be surprised if it made it, but I think your mana sinks are still better spent elsewhere most of the time.
Rev, Tithe Extractor: I think this is just a good creature. Itâs a little annoying that you need to connect with her around to get any meaningful value, but it is just a boardwide permanent ragavan, and you know thatâs nothing to scoff at, especially when she makes it easier to get there. I could see this in Ruin Your Evening or a few other decks that are more go-wide in black to ensure triggers and consistently accrue card advantage.
Gorex, the Tombshell: Gorex is I think just too small to be worthwhile, even if it is a slow gravedigger on top of that. I might want to try it in Dredge as a pretty easy 2 mana 4/4, but itâs not much more to just play one of the other cool dredge cards instead.
Dark Confidant: Yeah this cardâs sick, obviously. I do think I like it most in decks that want utility creatures, which does indeed whittle its applications slightly, and this does die to the jeskai answers that are at their peak right now, but itâs a classic, and it definitely can work well in some shells.
Howling Banshee: Unfortunately, our bar for 4s is just so comically high, which sucks, because I like cards like the Banshee.
Killing Glare: Nah, even decks on a lot of removal look more shallow than this needs.
Priest of Gix: Meat Storm Meat Storm Meat Storm Meat Storm but yeah essentially this is only a card for combo applications, and while I think theyâre playable and potent, these kinds of combo decks havenât been well-positioned in years.
Serpent Assassin: Ravenous Chupacabra, eat your heart out.
Army of the Damned: I want to try this in a cheat out spells deck, because itâs funny as hell, but the card shouldnât be played without parent supervision.
Balustrade Spy: This is a really cool card to have on arena, but itâs a HUGE cost to make it into a combo piece for our format, especially since our charbelcher decks wanted to have a few lands, we might be able to get away with a belcher/oracle combo, but on that note, this is admittedly worse than most other ways we have to combo out in our format thatâs seen play, and weâve played Cow tech in this format.
Bloodgift Demon: Iâm kind of surprised that this guy wasnât already on arena, but uh it does suck that your 5s just are so good these days because I want to play these cool bad cards like I can with 2 drops
Creeping Bloodsucker: Oh, hey, itâs a bad 2 drop that you can still play and win with! Actually this seems fun in the lifegain decks for being a cheap blocker with power that also hurts and gives you nice triggers. Iâd play it in a deck with more than 3 pridemates.
Dark Supplicant: hehehehehe no
Devouring Swarm: We have better sac outlets for the most part, but this having flying is pretty neat. That said, I think it only edges out like Defiant Scavenger and even then, thatâs a little bit of a stretch.
Dross Hopper: 2 mana monoblack sac outlet at instant speed baybeee! That said, I donât think itâs good, I just like seeing more free sac outlets.
Endless Cockroaches: itâs worse than my new enby polycule Ozox and Jumblebones but it does fit the role of âkeeps being a spell to cast with a free sac outletâ which is something I guess
Gnawing Zombie: Gnaw, Iâm good.
Grave Strength: If your dredge decks have creatures that want to kill your opponent I think this spell goes hard and you should play it. Ok thatâs about it.
Graveblade Marauder: Wowie Unstoppable Slasher really did a number on this guy. I think you can still get away with playing this, but damn is the Slasher just so much better.
Heartstabber Mosquito: I hate mosquitos with a burning passion and (unrelated) also hate this card.
Moan of the Unhallowed: You know, I think you could do worse. Not terribly worse, mind you, but I think itâs possible to do worse than this card.
Necropolis Regent: Being immediately relevant in combat is nice, but it is ultimately a victim of âMythic from before 2018 Syndromeâ where it has a very big dumb effect but dies to every piece of removal in the book. That said, if you double all your creaturesâ power off of it and then it dies, I think youâre ultimately still pretty happy.
Nightâs Whisper: Yeah you like having more sign in blood effects, although this one is worse than literal SiB a surprising amount of the time, with the huge uptick in draw punishers in the last two years. But like yea still play this.
Pharikaâs Chosen: I love this card so much. Donât play Typhoid Rats 2 Electric Boogaloo, but this girlâs got the vibes.
Read the Bones: I'm one part mad that I missed this card in my first draft of this review, and one part glad that it happened while the card was grossly outmoded.
Reaper from the Abyss: I absolutely love this guy, he was one of the first Mythics I played with in a deck, and god is it fun to annoy the hell out of people by killing a threat each turn if you played magic: the gathering. Is it good? Well itâs awful easy to kill, but I think itâs at least close to playable, and it would fill me with untold joy to see it pop off.
Rodolf Duskbringer: Eh, this guy is a 6 mana 4/4 that likely wonât have any protection the turn you play him, and his reanimation wants you to put even more mana into it, so Iâll pass.
Ruthless Technomancer: Generating a whole lot of treasures is nice, but I really wished this did something more with its enters effect. Iâm sure itâll find a place somewhere, but I also doubt itâll be a long standing piece in a deck.
Scion of Darkness: hehehehehe noooo
Ukud Cobra: Iâm so here for the random uncommons from DTK getting reprinted for the first time in foundations it fuels me, theyâre bad but they fuel me
Ulcerate: This was a shockingly playable card before they started printing good removal, like fatal push. Now? no.
Urge to Feed: Iâm trying to figure out how many vamps you need for this to be quite nice and itâs somewhere between 2.5 and 18 I think, either way, not looking great.
Wakedancer: More like sleepdancer amirite gamers
Red
Frontline Heroism: I do like that this can make sorcery speed combat stuff more exciting, and I think this will be a legitimately good piece for heroic decks. Turning âSpell that targetsâ into even just a 1/1 blocker on top of that is nice, and if the spell cantrips, does other good things, or even just makes the creature real beeg, this card really goes above and beyond.
Hearts on Fire: God I love these lesbians so much. This is not a terrible spell in a RW wide valiant deck, but itâs probably not worth a slot unless youâre in some way building your lesbian theme deck (which is valid and good).
Sandstorm Crasher: I was decently high on this card for a bit, but at 4 mana and needing to last a turn and exert to get 1 copy, I think Iâm actually pretty low on the card in practice. Itâs just such a deeply rigid design that you donât actually have much going in the way of flexibility of what you can or want to do with it that just sours me a lot on the card. Its best use may be to play in a deck like sneak that can make it easier to get it attacking and your impact is greater, but at that point thereâs little reason to run it over Delina to get nonlegendary copies and the chance at multiples, but whoâs seen Delina in the wild in the past calendar year?
Scholar of Combustion: This is a really cool sidegrade to Archeomancer, and is great for getting a fake extra turn by exiling something like a mana drain just with threat of use. Itâs certainly no snapcaster, but itâs a really interesting card to consider for decks that just want to torture their opponent a little.
Anep, Vizier of Hazoret: Iâm significantly higher on this guy than I should be, but any creature that essentially draws 2 cards on their first attack is hard to pass up in my book, and at least try in a bard class list where itâs also not hard to buff up or protect the 4/2, which is the worst part of the card by far.
Cleon, Merry Champion: This seems super cool in blitz as a way to hopefully chain pump spells, and when it doesnât hit another castable spell, you still have the opportunity on the next turn to cast them. I really hope a UR or RW blitz deck comes out of this release, and that this factors into it.
General Kreat, the Boltbringer: This guy goes hard, being both an impact tremors and a pseudo-rabblemaster in one is really nice, especially since you donât have to attack with Kreat specifically to still pop off. Play her in goblins, and I think sheâs got enough applications to find play in other niche decks potentially.
Gornog, the Red Reaper: Cowards canât block warriors is usually just a somewhat funny line, but holy shit this makes it worthwhile, turning each of your opponentsâ creatures into a card that pumps your whole team eventually. Play this card in red decks that want your opponent to die, because the baseline is a 3/3 haste that falters a creature on attack.
Ivora, Insatiable Heir: Iâm gonna say Iâm not a fan of Ivora here. Sheâs a little too much work to make her shine, and I donât think weâre in a space to really make a deck to capitalize on her right now. When we do get a really good and proper madness deck, though, sheâs gonna slap. As is, if someone makes Tour dâFrance a deck again, this will certainly get in.
Brothers Yamazaki: Rip Brothers in a singleton format đ
Rionya, Fire Dancer: The fact that this is baseline a Kiki Jiki per combat is admittedly quite nice. Also, this goes infinite with Combat Celebrant, and Iâm fairly certain can win regardless of blockers with a storm count of 1, so the kiki typal deck just keeps getting better.
Blood Feud: 6 mana to destroy 2 creatures situationally is not worthwhile in our format.
Ghitu Encampment: I think this creature land is fine, but nothing to write home about. Youâll play it in 1-2c decks with red, I think, but itâs among the first to go if youâre cutting utility/enters tapped lands.
Akroan Crusader: Akroan Crusader is a good card for blitz decks, but ultimately is on the lower end of cards with staying power in that deck. Making creatures without heroic triggers is about the most medium payoff you can ask for, but youâll legitimately still take it.
Anjeâs Ravager: This card is going to be core for red going into the future methinks. This is an on-rate creature that generates card advantage consistently while also not being an enormous cost sunk into it. I donât think the madness is anything to really take seriously, but itâs little extra gravy if Thoughtseize gets played significantly more.
Arena Athlete: This is under the bar for your blitz cards, as iconic as this guy is.
Boldwyr Intimidator: 7 mana is so hot for a red 5/5 without flying ngl
Coordinated Assault: This cardâs not for us I donât think, but I just love the vibes of Theros.
Crimson Wisps: Yeah Iâll take more expedites, join the club the more the merrier.
Falkenrath Marauders: I think we can do considerably better these days, but its potential to go really far is intriguing. That said, Iâd just rather get the beef upfront in the current year.
Fiendish Duo: This only doubling damage to opponents really puts a damper on this one, but being a surprise 10-20 damage in the right scenario in sneak attack at least makes me start thinking, though it certainly doesnât beat out anything significant, I donât think.
Fiery Fall: Yeah Iâm not excited.
Goblin Goliath: This cardâs a real vibe but it is awful in our format.
Goblin Rabblemaster: I think weâre past the point where this is just playable in our format, but it is good in goblins, so youâll play it there. I think you also play it in the warriors deck if someone decides to try that again.
Goblin Researcher: I donât think youâd play this 3 years ago, let alone now.
Kruin Striker: This typically gets to be a 3/1 trampler most of the time, which isnât quite enough, I donât think. However, in go-wide decks where it reliably is a 4/1 on t3
Markov Blademaster: Double striker that grows is pretty cool and good, but being a 1/1 double strike on 3 makes me dubious that it can get through outside of some really specific strategies.
Markov Enforcer: I think this cardâs just kind of bad for us, ngl
Markov Warlord: Yeah same here
Mogg Flunkies: HELL YEAH MOGG FLUNKIES WEâRE SO BACK idk play these guys in goblins or maybe some really aggressive shells but theyâre not amazing
Pyrophobia: Common red removal moment
Satyr Hoplite: This is I think surprisingly close to playable in RW heroic, but itâs really scraping as far deep as you want to go.
Scion of Opulence: I think this is tempting for the pile of blood decks, but iâm not that excited even there, where itâs still a pretty uncommon trigger on a pretty bad body for a pretty middling effect.
Gladiator Big Talk: Jumpstart Foundations, White/Blue
So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card and call them Big Talks. Foundations and Jumpstart Foundations are very big sets, so I've decided to move them over here! Some notes:
This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in the main set of Foundations. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format or in the Main set, which is out! Find the White and Blue reviews here.
I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.
Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.
Without further ado, let's start off with Eidolon of Astral Winds:
White
Eidolon of Astral Winds: Obviously, an enchantment creature with constellation has a very low bar for being worthwhile in enchantress. One that has vigilance, a decent body, and becomes an evasive vigilant beatstick on constellation as a baseline is a slam dunk in enchantress shells for sure.
Faithful Pikemaster: This is a really wacky and interesting body, but I donât care to analyze it too much because itâs a 4 drop :/
Generous Pup: This is a really powerful and unique effect to have on-rate at 2 mana in counters decks. However, I do think there is a much higher bar for creatures that donât somehow put a counter on themselves, and this falls under that bar in a pretty major way. However, I really think this is strong enough to be the exception to the rule, especially when lots of those threats can or do buff your other creatures.
Brigone, Soldier of Meletis: Now weâre talking - this gal does a great job growing and then rewarding you for it, and often lets you have your cake and eat it too with the added vigilance. Very nice add.
Psemilla, Meletian Poet: Getting 2 constellation tiggers each turn you cast an enchantment is already a pretty sizeable bonus that youâre super happy to play. It being able to realistically attack at times is also nice, but the only part necessary to play the card is the fact that it makes all your enchantment creatures, do nothing enchantments, and shrines also give you at least a blocker and usually also an additional trigger on your constellations.
Qala, Ajaniâs Pridemate: This is a good version of a pridemate, giving you all the tools you need to go off, but it does run into the snag of being a 4 drop pridemate, meaning it canât be reanimated by most of the threeanimators you want to run and generally pushing it to be a game closer, which this cardâs not super amazing at.
Thurid, Mare of Destiny: Iâm hesitant to say that I think this is a good card for gladiator, but if you can get its copy ability to trigger, you are having a field day. The only issue is that there are a very limited number of playable Horses and similar species in gladiator, and even fewer that are actually actively good. As much as I want 2 6/4 Vine Mares, I doubt this card has the capability to make huge waves. That said, someone should build the GW lifegain horselike deck, because that sounds sick as hell.
Urdnan, Dromoka Warrior: This guy is cracked, I donât know what else to tell you. Its baseline is a 2/2 that attacks with first strike, which is totally passable, but it also: A) triggers even if he doesnât attack B) gives double strike most of the time if youâre playing the counters deck and C) can set up a better or more protected creature to capitalize more on the ability. I think if youâre on a counters deck with white this might be one of the most exciting includes to see.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos: You can usually consider Brimaz to be a 3 mana 4/5, which is SUPER above rate, and that value only gets better and better if Brimaz isnât contested in some axis. Brimaz is cracked and you should play him in decks with Plains in them.
Tenacity: This card isnât that good, but in any wide-focused deck, this just represents a laughably big life swing that can definitely be overcome in our format, but buys you a metric ton of time and this also untaps creatures to be blockers and adds damage. That said, being very reliant on a preexisting board and 4 mana is a lot to ask for a card that just pads your life total out a ton.
Akroan Skyguard: We werenât this desperate when people were making Feather blitz decks and thereâs no chance weâre that desperate now.
Angelic Cub: This oneâs different from skyguard in that it does the valiant thing, but also itâs still very low quality and not needed for any deck imo. Seeing it next to Skyguard does wonders to realize itâs not what itâs cracked up to be.Â
Banisher Priest: Iâm kind of surprised that we didnât see this earlier, but I would 100% play Seal from Existence since creatures are just so much more vulnerable than enchantments in nearly every case.
Cage of Hands: Friends donât let friends play 3 mana pacifisms. Sorry bud, I donât make the rules.
Chains of Custody: With very minimal exceptions, this is just going to be worse than Sheltered by Ghosts, and also worse than cards like Seal from Existence, so Iâll pass on these chains.
Chosen by Heliod: Cantripping enchantments are neat, but Iâm much more skeptical of auras, especially when they donât add power. If this added even 1 power Iâd be interested, but it doesnât quite get there. Divine Favor: This feels like THE classic bad aura for 2010s limited, which is iconic, but still bad.
Elite Skirmisher: Love this orb guyâs energy, but yeah no
Expedition Raptor: God why am i doing this comprehensively I really shouldnât but Iâm too stubborn not to.
Felidar Sovereign: This guyâs like aetherflux reservoir but worse, but itâs still a cute thing for certain decks. Not a good thing, mind you, but cute.
Godsend: Ok hear me out here, this adds a good amount of stats, and also goes reeeally well with a lot of keywords, chiefly any evasion, vigilance, and/or trample. Being enough stats to make the abyss out of a creature and also exiling a blocker each attack is pretty huge. I think the equipment decks should take a nice long look at this, bc itâs hot.
Herald of War: I donât think this oneâs it, chief. Needing to get a swing in before it does anything tangible is a real hard sell, especially when itâs just cost reduction after youâve already hit 5 mana.
Jubilant Mascot: This guy joins the ânot a good card but damn i love their energyâ club.
Nykthos Paragon: yeah this guyâs 6 mana. Our bar is so high these days, but 6 manaâs always gonna be tough imo.
Ojutai Exemplars: Iâm not convinced these folks are anything to write home about, but theyâre certainly interesting to think about, and if you treat them like a 5 drop with an opt or the like, theyâre pretty nice as a removal resistant threat. That said, thinking of them as a 5 makes them fight for a far more competitive slot unfortunately.
Recumbent Bliss:Â Eventide common moment, I didnât even know this card existed until writing this.
Relief Captain: You need to be going really wide for this to be impressive, but if you can actually support 3 with this, itâs moderately above rate. However, I think that setup is just a little too high of an ask for me, but I wouldnât be infinitely shocked to see it in a really wide list. I think it also works decently as an actual 4 drop for wide strategies, as most of those decksâ higher cost slots are actually 3 drops in reality when you convoke them out, so having real 4+ drops might be better than one would think, though I donât really believe the captain themself is worthwhile.
Repel the Darkness: I cast magic missile on the darkness!
Serraâs Embrace: I legitimately canât think of anything to say other than you donât need to think about this card because lord knows Iâm not.
Shoulder to Shoulder: I think this card is better than it looks! This card looks like itâs totally unplayable, but itâs actually just pretty bad!Stone Haven Outfitter: I think the Outfitter is deeply defensible and not much more for equipment decks, but cheap cards that are defensible are the bread and butter of our format, so Iâm confident itâll see play at some point.
Sungrace Pegasus: Sungrace Pegasus is the second best 1/2 with flying and lifelink in magic, and I can say that with a moderate amount of confidence. Unfortunately, there are only 2, and the first place awardee, Hushbringer, doesnât really see play already.
Sunspear Shikari: I could see this in an equipment list a couple of years ago, but at this point, we have cards that are shikariâs success state natively, so why bother?
Tethmos High Priest: This is an ironic card, because its success state is one of the best effects you can get at that cost, and has lots of homes, but making a deck that both wants the 2animate and can reliably trigger heroic is a tall order that doesnât seem worthwhile.
Triplicate Spirits: This cardâs really good and tokens decks should be on it to go evasive on top of wide.
Wingsteed Rider: I could see this guy in a blitz deck, if not just for evasion that reliably gets bigger with spells in a deck that can struggle to get evasion on top of growth.
Blue
Delightful Discovery: The good news is that I think this is firmly a spell that you can consistently cast to be on rate (4 mana), and itâs not that hard to get this to be 3 mana. On the other hand, this card is tough in how reliant it is on your opponent, and when your opponent is not being proactive, this can really falter. I think this is, in a vacuum, good enough, but in a more defined space, it gets worse the more blue or slower midrange is in the rest of the field.
Gilded Scuttler: Tired - a stunning creature that flies. Wired - a sub par stunner that is unblockable đ€ I think this cardâs just quite bad, partly in that fliers already were close enough that you donât want to make sacrifices on rate, and also in that we really never played a frost lynx with a straight face in this format, and I think weâre far from that being the case.
Phantasmal Shieldback: I am not a fan of this card, in part because I think that Elvish Visionary effects are just a tad overrated, but also in that this card takes a decent amount of work to actually draw you that card. The good news is that it is hard for this to not die, and if it doesnât, itâs probably a good sign, but I donât think 1/3 cantrip that eats the most useless targeting effect or chumps a 3/2 is particularly worth a slot in your deck.
Cynette, Jelly Drover: Jellyfish girl is super cute but I donât really think this is the kind of card you want in skies, partially on account of being too small on both bodies to justify a 4 drop and being a vulnerable lord. I think you can both do better and arenât hurting for more cards to fill the slot this would fill. That said, making bodies (and making fliers) on both entry and death makes this an interesting card to think about in a lot of scenarios, including as a pile of 3 bodies where youâre happy if the first two stay alive.
Neerdiv, Devious Diver: The milling effect isnât something Iâm super excited by, but the graveyard rewarding ability is enormous. Drawing cards whenever you reassemble your skeletons or think twice or Uro or (currently more likely) Phlage, or whatever floats your graveyard is massive, and is going to land this card in a lot of homes, from dredge to breach to even certain jeskai decks potentially.
Plagon, Lord of the Beach: Yeah Iâm not a fan of assform effects, and this one is no exception. If anything, it has more problems than most assforms, where it doesnât let walls attack, and takes a sizeable investment for being a 3 drop. At least it almost always cantrips on etb, thatâs a little consolation.
Pol Jamaar, Illusionist: I am skeptical for how good this typal payoff is, where itâs a sizeable chunk of mana, and kind of expects you to do more with the cards you draw than with the creature you get, which rubs me the wrong way. I think heâs worth testing in typal decks that already feature one of his types (like Humans or Wizards) but even then Iâm both skeptical and donât think it merits a deck to be made for them.
Taeko, the Patient Avalanche: I think the biggest boon of this guy is that he is an easily unblockable 4/5 for 4, and thatâs pretty huge. His middle ability is pretty cool, but itâs also not the most important part and not super impactful except for pushing more damage through. If anything, I quite like it as a little bit of insurance for things like Path and Wandering Emperor to punish for not hitting Taeko in a deck that is a tallish midrange deck. Otherwise, I think weâve kind of outmoded the blue 4 drop as it used to exist in gladiator, and so it might struggle to fill the same void when weâve left GE Kefnet, yâknow?Â
Venser, Shaper Savant: Venser is a huge get for the format: Being a remand when you need it but also a body and, barring that, a flash blocker that bounces a problematic or protected attacker is a huge tempo swing. Plus, blinking Venser is perhaps the best feeling you can get in magic, maybe just behind buying back a capsize with 6 more mana untapped.
Archeomancer: Surprised we havenât gotten this one yet, but this is ultimately a couple slots deep into a pretty niche effect, which is rough for this wizard, but itâs definitely still at a rate that decks purely focused on getting time warp back
Azure Drake: magic the gathering amirite
Concentrate: This is surprisingly close to a rate that Iâm happy with, but not enough so that Iâm willing to play it along with, say, plan the heist. And, thatâs not a card iâm chompin at the bit for
Experimental Aviator: I was really surprised that this guy didnât end up in Kaladesh Remastered, but itâs not worth thinking about in constructed terms for the most part.
Kapsho Kitefins: I really thought this card froze on creatures entering, and the fact that it doesnât makes it far under the bar it needs to have.
Krovikan Mist: Yeah no we donât have the density or quality of illusions to make the mist worthwhile. Maybe in 15 years, but definitely not now.
Lord of the Unreal: Yeah same goes for this guy, even if they are neat.
Merfolk Pupil: Iâm stoked that this merfolk has made it to arena, and I think if youâre making the UG merfolk deck work, this is a legitimately decent card to put in there. Otherwise, itâs not noteworthy. Notworthy, if you will. (Editor's Note: Google docs corrected this back to noteworthy and I spent a full 2 minutes trying to figure out what the hell I thought was a joke in the stupor I spent reviewing these cards.)
Opportunity: You donât need this card, or at least all of it. If you need card volume, youâre ok with sorcery speed to get it cheap, or your ok with fast volume but smaller, but itâs hardest to compromise to big fast volume when itâs very expensive.
Owl Familiar: It's kinda fucked up that Blue didn't have an elvish visionary until 2019 when you think about it. Aren't they supposed to be the best at card draw?
Pestermite: Our KPI (kiki potential index) is pretty low in this format for myriad reasons, but pretty chief among them is the fact that we donât have a free kiki jikki effect, which means we have to add another piece to make, say, Fable of the Mirror Breaker work in its stead. Eventually weâll have a few ways to actually twin, but right now itâs not worth looking much into.
Purple-Crystal Crab: This is usually worse than an Elvish Visionary, and especially plays poorly into getting bowmastered and the like.
Remand: Reprieve has been putting in a lot of work since LOTR came out, and I refuse to believe Remand would be any exception, even though it is generally worse since it doesnât work on the growing pool of âcanât be counteredâ cards.
Sky-Eel School: Iâm unironically so glad that Jumpstart sets gives these old, absolutely unplayable commons, they add a lot of spice to the good cards.
Smoke Shroud: This is I think almost playable, but itâs gonna need a good chunk of further ninjas that are fully playable to make a deck work in some way with it.
Soul Read: Iâd still rather play Supreme Will, but this is an interesting one to think about.
Sphinx of Enlightenment: In the wake of a 6 mana Sphinx that FoFâs coming out alongside this, Iâm really down on one that draws about the same amount of cards and also gives the opponent a card.
Sprite Noble: I could get down on this card in a skies deck, but it is ultimately a pretty underwhelming card for the deck, occasionally getting to be Favorable Winds is cool, but not that eye-popping for an archetype that definitely could use more splashy forms of help.
Stitched Drake: Did yall hear that Drake sued Kendrick Lamar for damages lmao, anyway uh this card probably also deserves the shame that Drake feels or something, idk I'm really tired and I just realized that this card is also new to gladiator so now it's your problem too.
Thoughtcast: This is in fact the Capital-B Big card I think artifact decks were missing to pop off, and I think uniquely brings up the Bots decks a significant amount. Play artifacts decks, kids.
Gladiator Big Talk: Foundations, The Rest (Special Guests, Colorless/Multicolored)
So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card and call them Big Talks. Foundations is a very big set, so I've decided to move them over here! Some notes:
This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in the main set of Foundations. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format or in Jumpstart Foundations, which I'll cover later.
I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is somewhat baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.
Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.
Without further ado, let's start off with Condemn:
Special Guests
Condemn: I think this is going to be in our top 4 white removal spells despite its restriction. Putting it on the bottom of deck is much better than destruction, but it is a little worse than exile, and the amount of shuffling in our format makes it a less-than-completely-permanent answer. That said, itâs still incredible for the format.
Sphinxâs Tutelage: This card is the core of a mill deck being possible, but that said, itâs not good enough for our format without some serious help.
Goblin Bushwhacker: This guyâs great, an absolute classic, and makes peopleâs life totals disappear better than most.
Bloom Tender: Bloom Tend âer? I barely even know âer! Seriously though this cardâs cracked: adding even 2 mana on t3 is a huge boon and it wins games in the same axis as fanatic of rhonas.
Akromaâs Memorial: This card is super vulnerable to removal, but it also makes your creatures good enough to not care as much about when this thing dies, and more about how you can capitalize.
Temporal Manipulation: Getting a second literal time warp I don't think is that huge, but it is double the number of literal time warps we had before, which is big.
Multicolor
Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate: I love my girl so much and having first strike helps a ton. This is going to slam into Jund Bard, but also I would be interested in having a WBr style of Ruin your Evening that can lean into reanimating high quality 3s like Laelia and Crucias, though maybe after we get OG Alesha with Pioneer Masters.
Anthem of Champions: I and unconvinced that we are in the business of just anthems but if we are then 2 mana is a good reason to. I'd think about it in Bretagard Stompy
Ashroot Animist: A mini-Xenagos is cool, but again, your bar for 4s are huge and this is going to struggle to clear it without protection, haste, or any further keywords.
Dreadwing Scavenger: This bird is really cool, and the bodyâs quite nice with threshold, but they do a pretty slow job of filling up the yard in practice, so Iâm hesitant to want it in a dredge list.
Elenda, Saint of Dusk: I don't think Elenda is the best 4 drop you have access to, but having protection from the best removal spells in the format is huge, and if it's ever a 5/5 with menace, she's hard to compete with. Definitely worth testing.
Fiendish Panda: This is a cool af pridemate, but ultimately any pridemate above 3 mana is a lot more suspect due to being much harder to protect and threeanimate. Itâs just a pretty low impact 4 which is a bit of a death knell for it in the format.
Koma, World-Eater: oooooooooooooooooooo thicc worm; this one I think works well in a sneak or ramp shell, and once it connects you just desperately need a wrath. The unfortunate part is that this is a very committal cardâthey really need to answer koma with a board wipe, but a boardwipe does fully answer Koma and their Coils, so it doesnât do much for a deck that wants Koma to stick around, it just limits the answers to cards that are already played well and play better into Koma.
Kykar, Zephyr Awakener: I wish this card had some kind of protection for itself, but itâs still quite good as is, and offers a powerful versatility thatâs easier to play than OG kykar. That said, OG kykar hasnât been seen in a bit, and current jeskai decks are in the business of just winning instead of playing payoffs for noncreatures after landing a 4 drop.
Niv-Mizzet, Visionary: Like half of Niv-Mizzets, this one's pretty bad. The good thing about most of the Nivâs is that they can trigger themselves in some way, and this one doesnât give any help. Itâs great to turn a bolt to face into an ancestral, but itâs ultimately more work on a 6 drop that really shouldnât require more work to make good.
Perforating Artist: 3/2 deathtouch is not a horrible statline, but it doesnât really give me any interest in wanting to play it, and its end step trigger is also kind of mid.
Wardens of the Cycle: I really like this creature in any deck that can consistently turn on Morbid to be a phyrexian arena on a stick that also doesnât have to be if more cards is not worth gaining life instead. That said, Iâm not sure how many great homes there are for these cute elves that can make that condition happen.
Zimone, Paradox Sculptor: Any counter doubler is enough to pique a little bit of interest, but this struggles in doing so by being pretty slow. I could see her working out well in a GXu counters deck, but I donât think itâs pushed enough to really try that as a deck, so it might have some trouble finding a real home.
Consuming Aberration: On one hand, this guy gets so big, but on the other, right now is the worst time to randomly mill the opponent and also milling them out is not ever likely to happen.
Lathril, Blade of the Elves: This is just a decent creature, and Elves occasionally gets good use out of black and/or a payoff for a volume of elves. That said, itâs a 4 drop with 3 toughness, it needs to last a turn to be worthwhile either way, and itâs not particularly competitive in its run for a 4 drop, so it might not be for our format.
Progenitus: See Darksteel Colossus (below), but harder to generally get out and ironically folds to about the same size of cardpool.Â
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim: A sac outlet that pads your life total and can turn creatures into vindicates is pretty good. One that also has deathtouch and is a 2/3 for 2 is also quite nice.
Drogskol Reaver: If I read this card from the bottom up, I like it a lot more, mainly because I donât have to then read it with the knowledge that itâs unplayably expensive since itâs 7 mana for a creature without protection that doesnât square up well to dream trawler. Dryad Militant: I really like Dryad Militant as the go-to Savannah Lions with upside, and boy is it good in a surprising bunch of matchups. Youâve seen how many cards Iâve said âthis doesnât play well into [blue spells with delve]â? Well this one really is.
Prime Speaker Zegana: i think card volume just isnât that important, yâknow? And wowie this card folds like a cheap suit to any removal, itâs not a fun time.
Savage Ventmaw: I really have a soft spot for this card, but it really doesnât have a home here, I donât think. I love this card a lot though, and am glad itâs on arena.
Trygon Predator: I think Iâm lower on this card than most, and itâs partly because generically good UG cards have to reach a higher bar than most colors due to the dearth of hard removal. That said, if you have decided to play UG without a hyperspecific synergy, you could certainly do worse than this guy.
Wilt-Leaf Liege: I really like Liege in GW decks, and I think GW stompy will love a card that screws over discard and also pumps its creatures decently well.
Boros Charm: 4 damage for 2 is nice, and the other modes are also very nice. I think this just straight up slots into each deck with mountains and plains in it.
Unflinching Courage: Lifelink is nice, but I donât like auras. Iâm sure someone will think about sleeving this up in Sanctum Stompy though, so thereâs that?
Colorless, Artifacts, and Lands
Sire of Seven Deaths: This girlie goes so hard and is probably the best Persist target we will have for a decent while. This is definitely going into sneak as a protected 14 point life swing and is probably about on par with Atraxa as a reanimate target on account of the reach, first strike, and Ward of 7 life.
Banner of Kinship: So imagine if your typal anthem needed a board already present to be anything? Alright, you have? You have now imagined Banner of Kinship and also already know why itâs awful.
Fishing Pole: This is a very cute and neat card, I love it so much. And some parts of it make it look like it could be playable, but itâs really only useful in combo applications where you could win with anything since you already have intruder alarm and a mana dork and another creature and something else as well to make it a payoff.
Leyline Axe: This cardâs cool as hell and equipment decks should play it, esp where itâs either free off itself or is a decent stoneforge target/payoff.
Quick-Draw Katana: this knife is pretty mid but itâs got a Vibes Report: B+, I like glow and I like knife, and I also really appreciate the template change for first strike they did in this set.
Ravenous Amulet: I really dislike how mana intensive the whole card is, and that combined with the sorcery speed on the sac outlet really sours me on the card.
Scrawling Crawler: Loran has shown me that each player drawing a card is usually not the end of the world, and when you can capitalize it with a mini sheoldred itâs a lot more exciting. I think Iâd only play it in decks with other draw punishers, like bowmasters or the Razorkin, but I do think it has a home in decks that punish.
Soulstone Sanctuary: This is a very interesting land in that you only need to activate it once, but it runs into a problem after the first turn online, in that it is uniquely vulnerable to sorcery speed answers, unlike typical creature lands. That said, I think there may be a home for it as a relatively cheap creature land, but you really want to get something out of it not turning back into a noncreature permanent to justify it.
Adventuring Gear: Iâm not a huge fan of these kinds of cards, but I could legitimately see it in a lands deck, because +2/+2 isnât something to scoff at, and itâs cheap at all points. So if land etbâs are the easiest thing to do, I think this is the best of these effects for those decks, especially if youâre planning on Harrowing at instant speed.
Rogueâs Passage: I think this is really high up there in terms of colorless utility lands, but I also think that we always have a lower budget for colorless utility lands than we think, and this really best fits if youâre in a deck of 2 or fewer colors, or a very pip non-intensive 3 colors.
Darksteel Colossus: I think big idiots that shuffle themselves in from the yard are generally a trap unless they're OHKO's, and this one really isn't. Like a lot of other cards, it doesn't push out EMNrakul for the slot in like Sneak.
Feldonâs Cane: I think itâs not that difficult to find a use for this cane, but I doubt it actually merits a slot in a deck with very minimal exception, but if youâre in the strike zone for this itâs great.
Fireshrieker: I feel like we have better things to do with our equipment, but double strike is a really powerful keyword and if this is our best option for it then yknow so be it.
Pyromancer's Goggles: Something something TYS time, don't play this elsewhere (unless you're like me and are gonna try to make big spells.deck work).
Steel Hellkite: I feel like Ellesandra is going to ruin my day with this card and I will still never be convinced itâs good. That said, it is a neat channel outlet both for playing it and activating its abilities in a turn, which I do appreciate.
Expedition Map: I love Expedition Map so much! I think we are in need of a land between the power level of Nykthos and at-its-peak Field of the Dead (which could be Field of the Dead now, but thatâs for discussion on the discord that I will avoid) to really push the cards like sylvan scrying, Prime Time, Map and more to be a land that is high impact and can do a lot of work when built around getting it onto the field consistently, and Map is in my opinion the most important piece to that puzzle (second to the land thatâs worth getting).
Gladiator Big Talk: Foundations, Green
So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card and call them Big Talks. Foundations is a very big set, so I've decided to move them over here! Some notes:
This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in the main set of Foundations. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format or in Jumpstart Foundations, which I'll cover later.
I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is somewhat baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.
Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.
Without further ado, let's start off with Ambush Wolf:
Ambush Wolf: This is just not a magic card that pulls its weight well, so here goes Vibes Report: I donât think I can just say this is a lil guy, so C. Really is a Nothing Special.
Apothecary Stomper: Donât worry weâll keep it rolling with Vibes Report: Now THIS is a big lil guy, and I love him. B+.
Beast-Kin Ranger: I do think this is almost ok, but weâre going to the Vibes Report: Dog owners get a big plus, so this fellaâs a solid B.
Cackling Prowler: Ward 2 is kind of big on this effect, but everything else about this card doesnât have the juice, including the Vibes Report: I just donât love the guy, but I respect the game, so he gets a C+.
Eager Trufflesnout: This guy dies so easy, and though it usually dies with a food coming in, itâs nowhere near good enough for the game objects or food fight decks.
Elfsworn Giant: More creatures that say Landfall - Make a dude are nice to have in the format, even if Scute Swarm overshadows them, so I could see this occasionally seeing play in specific lists, potentially if making elves is important.
Elvish Regrower: The unfortunate thing for this card is that we only really play our regrowths for efficiency, but it is legitimately interesting to see a buff E-Wit that doesnât go for efficiency or volume.
Felling Blow: Hunt the Weak meets its punchy cousin, like most prior fight spells. This one is obviously better usually, but not really enough for me to want to play it, including in counters decks.
Loot, Exuberant Explorer: Iâm actually a little bit stoked for this guy after Prerelease, after I realized heâs one of our few ways to enable things like 6 drops on turn 3, especially in lands decks, but even more than that, he also gives a big payoff to ramping out, with an instant speed cheat effect. I will probably consider him in Sneak and any ramp decks I build, but I think the lil guyâs just good and pretty hard to kill.
Mossborn Hydra: Finally, a Scute Swarm that doesn't play like ass <3 my love. I think you ultimately play this and Scutes, even though scutes is better, but this guyâs no slouch either.
Needletooth Pack: I really wish 5s were less competitive than they are, because this cardâs cool as hell but your slots give little enough room that if itâs not giving Thrun a thrun for its money itâs not able to get in.
Preposterous Proportions: Perfect vibes, ngl, but it really only works in a deck that gets to 7 and also has most of its stuff with trample innately. Weâre also getting 2 different overrun effects, though, so I am skeptical youâll want this over an uncommon.
Quakestrider Ceratops: Iâm not certain if this is a good card or playable at all, but it does have a power to cost rate and a higher power than most creatures in magic, and if you are set up to capitalize on it, itâs some huge stats. I would be a little surprised if in the next 5 years we didnât find a use for this big of a body with something.
Quilled Greatwurm: This guyâs kind of booty in our format. 6 mana is close to a million, and you rely on this loop thatâs so comically easy to disrupt and all it gets you is a bit of recursion that eliminates all of the benefit you had from the guy the last time he was on the field. I think sneakâs the best home, but even then it relies on nothing going wrong and a lot going right for it to be anything other than a 7/7 stick.
Spinner of Souls: The fact that this card says another is a huge bummer, because it means itâs just built to get bolted right before your other creatures get dealt with, and it means that the spider really doesnât pull its weight as a flagbearer and is unlikely to gain any value.
Sylvan Scavenging: Itâs so very easy to get this to be a 3/3 machine and thatâs hard to manage at 3 mana. That said, your 3 drop is often what will be turning this online, so itâs awkwardly competing for the same slot, but placing a counter on your 3/2 on 2 also isnât horrible.
Treetop Snarespinner: This guy is actually kind of neat as a hard to kill blocker that acts as a mana sink, but it is still a candidate for a Vibes Report: D+. This fellaâs cool but not anything else and also I like birds a little more than spiders.
Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen: Dwynen is cool, and great to see at uncommon, but it just doesnât have the juice these days, including in elf typal, where itâs just a lot to ask for 4 mana when thereâs plenty of better lords.
Genesis Wave: This card is one of my favorites, and I expect itâs gonna be a big hit in sneak decks, especially alongside channel, where an X=10 to 14 is going to win the game in all but the rarest circumstances.
Mild-Mannered Librarian: This is just too much mana to work with. Drawing a card is nice, especially since it doesnât need to stick to still cantrip, but wowie 4 is a lot of mana on top of your card invested in your bad 1 drop.
Overrun: This one is a classic, and I expect it to see some play, because itâs a huge boost that makes a crazy number of board states lethal. I donât expect it to see a huge amount of play, but it gets the job done if you reliably get a few creatures on board.
Joraga Invocation: I thought about this card for a while and thought back to how it played in ORI, but there it really was more of a green wrath than a kill spell, and you just always want a version of this that gives trample because the goal of this is not to kill some creatures, itâs to put your opponentâs life total to 0.
Thornweald Archer: You know, I think I could see this in an elf deck if itâs otherwise struggling with getting under a big threat or dealing with fliers. I donât think itâs good, but I can see it getting in an elf deck once in a blue moon.
Heroesâ Bane: Theros block was interesting, since there were tons of explosive green creatures that could get very big and scary and win games, but none of them were worthwhile because of Polukranos. Now, theyâre just not at rate!
Mold Adder: This guyâs pretty bad, and, frankly, even if your opponent casts a couple of U or B spells, itâs just way too situational, even in the right matchup, for it to be anything special.
Ordeal of Nylea: I like this cycle, but they are admittedly quite bad. I wouldnât play this one, itâs just too tough to ensure it cracks.
Predator Ooze: I think our removal suite is diverse and powerful enough now that a 1/1 indestructible is not all it looks cracked up to be, and it always will stay a bit below where you want it to be, especially for a GGG casting cost.
Rampaging Baloths: This is a super cool card, but itâs also not great, even in the lands deck, frankly.
Surrak, the Hunt Caller: This is one of my pet cards, so much so that it was my handle on this very blog for a crazy amount of time. Itâs also a good card! Giving your big beater haste every turn is pretty big (and is half the juice of Xenagos), and quite often, this will be able to, on curve, give himself haste, and a 5/4 with haste is a rare statline (despite him being uncommon in his last appearance :P )
Gladiator Big Talk: Foundations, Red
So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card and call them Big Talks. Foundations is a very big set, so I've decided to move them over here! Some notes:
This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in the main set of Foundations. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format or in Jumpstart Foundations, which I'll cover later.
I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is somewhat baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.
Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.
Without further ado, let's start off with Battlesong Berserker:
Battlesong Berserker: See my thoughts on Billowing Shriekmass (just a lil bit above). Replace âflierâ with âmenacerâ and weâre on the same page.
Boltwave: I think this card wonât make it into our format, but we really are approaching the point where there can be a fairly dedicated burn deck. If Iâm wrong on that though, then it probably doesnât have a home.
Bulk Up: Power doublers are something you only want a couple of, but they can be incredible in the right home, and afaik this is by a good margin the best of these that we have access to.
Chandra, Flameshaper: I was very put off by a chandra that costs 7 but it gives off very similar energy to hope's beacon and these abilities aren't like sneeze at them abilities. That said, it doesn't copy a 2 drop you play for free off her, so who knows
Courageous Goblin: I think this is almost worthwhile in a RG stompy deck, where this just almost always gets to be a 3/2 for 2, but we also can just play 3/2s for 2.
Crackling Cyclops: Ngl this one goes kind of hard, and itâs kind of necessary to kill or block in a UR or RW blitz deck, and thatâs ngl a lil scary.
Dragon Trainer: So, whoâs out here building the jeskai blink deck to get a bunch of dragon tokens because it ainât me.
Electroduplicate: Having a Twinflame with a bit more application is exciting, but itâs probably not your better option for combo applications. I would be happy to see this in big/medium red though, where it hits a sweet spot of having a high ceiling and having a purpose past just getting another etb.
Fiery Annihilation: Weâve had a few 3 mana deal 5âs, and this one is not the best, but itâs certainly a fine card in a replaceable slot. If, a year down the road, my seeded opponent in a finals is definitely going to be on equipment or a stoneforge package, I might sleeve this up.
Goblin Boarders: Call me a bad limited common, because I be Goblin without Boarders eyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Goblin Negotiation: X damage spells that canât go face have such a high bar to clear, and this one doesnât get particularly close, though making a lot of goblins is a fun time.
Gorehorn Raider: So uh itâs time for Vibes Report: A+, holy hell this is a hot bullgirl and just wowie wowie zowie Iâm a lesbian.
Incinerating Blast: Welcome back, 5 mana deal 6 with not super significant upside, we didnât miss ya, bud.
Kellan, Planar Trailblazer: Good ol Savannah Lion stats are a great start, but, moreover, having further mana sinks that let you develop a board without committing more cards to it, and a 3/2 double striking end state is a great place to end up.
Rite of the Dragoncaller: This is a lot of work to start making dragons, and I feel like weâve gotten fast enough in the format to push cards like this out more often than not, so Iâm not confident weâll see it show up often if at all.
Searslicer Goblin: Goblin machine go brr, this one's good. Being a cheap piker that doesnât need to get into the red zone itself to get tokens is huge.
Slumbering Cerberus: Iâve been waffling on whether this is good or bad, but I think Iâve landed on it being good in control and decks that have Goblin Bombardment. 2 toughness is killer for this getting to attack well, and it ends up being a much more effective blocker than an attacker, and as an attacker this will get into awkward situations of being too readily tradeable to be worth the 4 power for 2 mana statline.
Sower of Chaos: Alright folks, time to get out to the fields to sow the seeds of chaos starts singing Oh, What a Beautiful Morning as he works.
Strongbox Raider: Damn they really want shock to be good in this limited huh. I think if this card were a 5/4 it could even be playable in our format, but yeah dying to a person in another game blowing their nose does a lot for shuttering its playability.
Twinflame Tyrant: This is cool and despite not having haste it does still double damage immediately. I might try it in sneak as a good surprise blocker/combat trick, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it in medium red.
Brazen Scourge: Look, Iâve spent the last couple of years disparaging a bunch of cards that are slightly better than a 3/3 haste for 3, and so it would be remiss of me to praise this batch of cute lil guys but damnit theyâre so cute!
Burst Lightning: Most of our Shocks with upside arenât meaningful enough to need to play it over regular literal shock, but Burst Lightningâs versatility do put it a step ahead of most competitors, enabling either cheap removal, as is more commonly used, or the ability to spend way more mana than desired (which is to say 2 more mana than youâd like) to be able to double the damage and clear a huge swath of possible creatures. I think Iâd rather a strangle variant still, but this is almost certainly the best Shock you can add to your deck.
Firespitter Whelp: Yeah guttersnipe has been low grade for a while and this is a change but not like an amazing one. Also very weird that itâs a new card in the reprint section.
Flamewake Phoenix: This card has seen constructed play before in Hollow One decks, but those decks rarely sleeve the phoenix now, and thatâs in 60 card, where the impact is a little less important. Here, phoenix is often a tool to rarely be seen in its ideal conditions, and the reward for doing so is a lot less impressive in the year 2024, especially when we do have options like Phoenix of Ash which are similarly easy to get on the battlefield, and one is way more impactful and pressuring than the other.
Frenzied Goblin: This guy is surprisingly good and maybe even playable in goblin typal decks, but it does kind of feel like a one-time use card once the board state develops to have 2 creatures opposite you. However, getting rid of a blocker and incentivizing being blocked itself is a valuable thing to have on a pivotal turn.
Goblin Surprise: I wouldnât be surprised if a goblin deck got more traction after this release, and this could certainly make the cut in some lists.
Seismic Rupture: Itâs always nice to see more uncommon attempts at sweepers, and this one feels like a pretty classic version of it, even if itâs a DTK special.
Slagstorm: It's not a good option of a sweeper but it is one of them. You just always want Broâs End or Anger or Suns though, almost without question.
Dropkick Bomber: This one is interesting, and I think frankly youâll play it for being a lord that can sometimes give game-ending evasion, even without thinking too much. It does 100% rely on a goblins deck coming together, though.
Skyraker Giant: Look, this guy having reach was a big deal when Origins was coming out, and now itâs so boring itâs gone from uncommon down to not being in the limited environment. Thatâs #progress.
Ball Lightning: don't make a balls joke don't make a balls joke don't make a balls joke don't make a ba-- UH ANYWAY i guess you can play it in monored, but it's a lil awkward when it folds to all the cheap removal pretty poorlyÂ
Hoarding Dragon: This card is a really nostalgic card for me, and Iâm not sure why, other than it was in my first core set and that leaves an impression, but itâs nice to see it at the rarity it deserves, because god it sucks ASS
Mindsparker: 3/2 first strike for 3 is almost enough to pique my interest, but I do think I want a little bit more, so if Iâm pretty guaranteed to go up against a deck on Path/Get Lost or Cruise/Drain, Iâll probably sleeve this up at a season end.
Ravenous Giant: We just donât have a huge need for medium red beef, especially on the ground these days.
Stromkirk Noble: Iâm slowly warming up to this guy, but our suite of creatures is getting progressively more diverse, and this guy is very easy to block unless a decent chunk of work is put in. It might just be worthwhile in mono red though, and I wouldnât be too surprised to see a vampires deck slot this in.
Taurean Mauler: This guy gets Huge and I think does legitimately slot into most red typal decks, and also just some decks that wants a beater that will likely be overstatted pretty quickly.
Gratuitous Violence: Yeah I think it is gratuitous and we donât need the effect.
Gladiator Big Talk: Foundations, Black
So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card and call them Big Talks. Foundations is a very big set, so I've decided to move them over here! Some notes:
This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in the main set of Foundations. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format or in Jumpstart Foundations, which I'll cover later.
I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is somewhat baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.
Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.
Without further ado, let's start off with Abyssal Harvester:
Abyssal Harvester: Iâve thought about this card a while, and I think a 3/2 that needs to untap and be in a pretty specific situation to make you really happy is a lot to ask. Simultaneously needing to engineer putting your payoff into the graveyard in a specific turn and banking on it surviving is a lot of work that Iâd rather just spend on a 4 drop reanimation spell.
Arbiter of Woe: I love these signpost uncommons of âyouâre not supposed to cast thisâ because they always look weirdly appealing for gladiator, then I just remember that theyâre appealing for putting into a peasant cube with reanimator spells.
Billowing Shriekmass: Yâknow, I hate to drag a part of gladiator on my first tumblr dot com post about it, itâs really an amazing format, but I do miss the times where a 4/4 flier with marginal upside was like shockingly playable, and those days have been gone for years now. Unfortunately, I think thatâs also the case for all magic, but I want to like this card a lot, and itâs hard to see it and know itâll be quite bad.
Blasphemous Edict: I was pretty low on this card when I compared it to Blasphemous Act, but when I think of it as a 5 mana wrath it looks a lot better, especially as one that dodges indestructible. I think in a black and non-white control-slanted deck, Iâll want this, Season of Loss, and Damnation as my sweepers, with maybe a Languish if I want a 4th.
Bloodthirsty Conqueror: It's like Exquisite Blood if it was worth playing and could attack in, which turns out does a lot. I definitely can see this in a deck that cares about lifegain, and being a gun with Vito and the like does a lot to help.
Crypt Feaster: uuuuh sure is a common so welcome back to Vibes Report: C-, I do not have any clue about this guy and as much as I find mystery hot that cloak is barely holding on and I just donât trust a wardrobe that reveals everything to a stiff breeze.
Gutless Plunderer: Eyy itâs not everyday we get to do two in a row! Vibes Report: A-, this dudeâs having a great time and the little freak on the shoulder can get it!
High-Society Hunter: Iâm not a huge fan of a boltable 5 drop grim haruspex. If you can get this to attack, it can do some good, but Iâm doubtful youâre ever going to get there.
Hungry Ghoul: omnomnomnomnom any ghoul born after 1993 canât cook⊠all they know is McDonalds, charge they phone, pay 1 mana and sacrifice another creature to buff, eat hot chip, and lie.
Infernal Vessel: It turns out that Archfiendâs Vessel is a lot worse when itâs 2 mana more. I know itâs a different effect but wow this card does not do itself any favors.
Infestation Sage: Planar Chaos-ass Doomed Traveler welcome in, the waterâs great. Also this being an Elf is cool as hell.Â
Midnight Snack: Iâm gonna be real: This card is actually just bad. We have plenty of Vito effects and we flat out donât need more things that make a food on etb for the deck. It just doesnât fill a slot the food deck needs and thereâs much better cards for the slot this tries to fill.
Nine-Lives Familiar: Really cool card, also doesn't like do anything đ
Revenge of the Rats: This cardâs good in the volume dredge deck and by the way hereâs a totally unrelated video.
Sanguine Syphoner: well it sure is a common mediocre creatures so itâs time for my favorite Vibes Report: A+ I donât know what gender this cutie is but I want them.
Seekerâs Folly: Mind Rots arenât playable in gladiator, and this one is not close to an exception.
Soul-Shackled: Welcome back kids to Vibes Report: on one hand, kind of gross arms, on the other, you get a B for girl
Stab: hehehehe stab. You know, there was actually a time where I said people should play disfigure, and even implied that one might play multiple of the effect. Donât. Please.
Tinybones, Bauble Burglar: Gender goals frfr. I think eventually we'll have a good waste not deck, and this is the kind of effect that you want for it, rather than more discard spells
Tragic Banshee: Yup. Sure is a 5 mana limited card that calls back to a sometimes good card from checks notes JESUS THIRTEEN YEARS OLD? ok i need to lie down
Vampire Gourmand: This card intrigues me but I doubt it will do anything in practice. The truth is that this card is a medium card in 3 aspects: Turning creatures into cantrips, evasive bodies, and sac outlets, and itâs so bad at the last one that it puts into question if you really need slots for the first two, and itâs not good enough in the first two to allay any fears.
Vampire Soulcaller: God, I kind of feel bad that black has been getting so many of the Vibes Report: C-, Look, this guyâs hot but he does make me realize Iâm so glad I was in a committed relationship with a cute looking guy while I clarified my bisexuality because otherwise Iâd definitely (unfortunately) sleep with this guy (derogatory to me 4 years ago).
Vengeful Bloodwitch: More Blartist is more good stuff so I'll take it. Play it where you play Blartist.
Zul Ashur, Lich Lord: I'm trying to figure out if this is just good in dredgepile and the more I think about it the more I lean to "it kind of works but like does it do enough" and I think the answer is realistically no.
Exsanguinate: This is really only a good card when you are gaining 3x the life that you put into the X, and we are not the format for that. I still like it a lot in commander, but mostly as a mana sink and/or a way to pad the life total, and here it does both of those jobs pretty poorly.
Rune-Scarred Demon: A second copy of Hoarding Broodlord that has some subtle differences is nice to see, and lets you do a lot of things in certain cheaty decks like reanimator. I donât know if this long-term has a home, but itâs certainly a card that has pretty good applications.
Vampire Nighthawk: I could see this getting played in a mono-black deck, but we have Nighthawk Scavenger and that hasnât been putting in great numbers for a while. Itâs a card that Iâm very glad we have even if I think it will have at best one real home.
Zombify: 4 mana reanimation is really nice to have around, and while we have a decent few options that Iâd still be putting higher, Zombify is a classic and doesnât pull its punches, so you wonât feel bad sleeving it up.
Crossway Troublemakers: I feel like this one is like 1 mana more than I'm happy with, but it's an interesting one. Not the worst thing to Sorin in, all things considered, but itâs certainly not much to write home about.
Deadly Plot: This card definitely suffers from charm-itis, and itâs a lil surprising since the second mode isnât a card Iâd want to play anyway
Maalfeld Twins: I get that this is a bad card on purpose, but I really wished this was not 6 mana :(Â
Suspicious Shambler: Thereâs a funny aspect of this card that theyâre actively trying to look like one really tall zombie and not like a human or anything. That just tickles me a lil bit.
Untamed Hunger: Uh yeah sure is the pain of a comprehensive set review sad trombone noise
Deathmark: Nah, restrictive removal is pretty bad.
Desecration Demon: Weâve come a long way since the OG Desecration Demon, but now our 6/6 flying demons come with dubious upside instead of shallow downside, and I donât think this really operates on an axis that we havenât outmoded, scaled past, or just never needed.
Dread Summons: I could get behind this in a dredge shell, but it hits a bunch of snags that sour me on it. Between tapped tokens, the horrible rate of mill, and the fact that milling your opponent is worse than ever with Cruise/Dig make me unenthused to sleeve it up.
Driver of the Dead: This is like Reveillark if you took it out back and shot its legs off. Donât play this card, please.
Kalastria Highborn: While this is not a great creature and is super B intensive, putting mana into it is a huge life total swing, and that could make it worth at least testing in decks with other good vampires.
Myojin of Nightâs Reach: These are the classics in ânot worth it if you donât play it as intendedâ and wowie. They are still very not worth it if not played as intended, and this one still isnât worth it when played as intended, frankly.
Pulse Tracker: Ah, the olâ DIY Savannah Lions, how we have historically not loved ye
Tribute to Hunger: This isnât the greatest hungerâŠ. This is just not worth it.
Vile Entomber: I think deathtouch is the only reason this card gets there in the end. Entombing is about on par with drawing 1.5 cards if youâre building correctly, and a 2/2 deathtouch on top makes this a very on-par creature for the format.
Gatekeeper of Malakir: 3 mana for an edict on a body is not bad, and I donât think thatâs changed in the decade and a half since it was first seen. Iâd expect to see this in the occasional Mono Black Control deck.
Gladiator Big Talk: Foundations, Blue
So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card and call them Big Talks. Foundations is a very big set, so I've decided to move them over here! Some notes:
This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in the main set of Foundations. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format or in Jumpstart Foundations, which I'll cover later.
I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is somewhat baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.
Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.
Without further ado, let's start off with Arcane Epiphany:
Arcane Epiphany: I think we have much better options, and I'd be surpised if you would be going for this option specifically, but I'd be glad to be proven wrongÂ
Archmage of Runes: 5 mana is just a metric ton for a guy that's not idiotic, protected, or having an immediate impact on the gameÂ
Bigfin Bouncer: Vibes Report: D-, come see me after class, these vibes are rancid, dude looks like he would shove me into a locker in 6th grade and also jesus that nose(?)
Cephalid Inkmage: This creature is super interesting, but ultimately it does a couple different things that are just done so much better by others that itâs not really worth trying a super inefficient creature for it.
Clinquant Skymage: Today I learned what âClinquantâ means - It does not mean âa flying creature that is playable in gladiatorâ for what itâs worth, but rather glittering and/or tinseled. Neat!
Curator of Destinies: If I had a nickel for every creature that FoFâd or Steam Auguryâd, Iâd have a decent number of nickels. If I had a nickel for each one thatâs good today, I donât think Iâd have any, including this one unfortunately. 6 mana is just a ton when 1 mana more gets you things like Atraxa, and you already have options like Dream Trawler if you do want to hard cast a 6 drop.
Drake Hatcher: 2 drops with vigilance and prowess are legitimately hard to be so bad they canât find a home, and this one has a pretty good effect too so I think itâs a shoe in for u based blitz and tempo decks. 3 toughness with prowess is also a very exciting statline, as it means someone will dodge bolt by casting any noncreature spell.
Elementalist Adept: I donât think this is anything, but flash and prowess really pique my interest and make me want to think about playing blitz and flash decks more. Vibes report: C, dudeâs outfit is too monochrome to be fun at parties imo
Erudite Wizard: The problem with the âDraw twoâ archetype is that the bar for how good your payoffs need to be to be gladiator/constructed playable means they essentially will never go at common or uncommon and be playable in gladiator. If itâs any consolation, this one looks like itâll be bad in limited as well.
Faebloom Trick: I think this card is surprisingly good especially for being an instant, but I donât think thereâs sincerely a home for this in Gladiator. Itâs a very good limited uncommon, but it is still mostly just that.
Grappling Kraken: I really love this effect, but Iâm allergic to this effect at 6 mana, so I think Iâll pass. If this effect ever comes around at 4 mana I will be very tempted though.
High Fae Trickster: I am a huge fan of cards like Tidal Barracuda and Yeva, that give you flash on things and still contribute to the board, and this does it the best by a good margin. If youâre not concerned about countermagic but you are concerned about interaction otherwise, this is an absolute slam dunk. That said, the fact that itâs a lot worse into countermagic might make it really only worthwhile in a post-Mana Drain world.
Homunculus Horde: This isnât even good in Ux Draw-twos, mainly because it just always folds to even the thought of a wrath and doesnât contribute to the board in a way that actually appeals to winning games. It also often takes a turn to get going at least and thatâs a tough sell on a 2/2 with no protection or other text.
Icewind Elemental: Vibes report: C+, this could be much higher but I really wish it had another type to show how goofy it is, like Elk.
Inspiration from Beyond: Any more ways to put Time Warp into my hand is going to catch my eye, and one that can do it twice is extra spicy. The 7 mana flashback is a ton, however, even if it is gravy on an already helpful plate.
Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator: This card's kinda not ok when you're even remotely ahead, and when you're close to parity it does a lot of work. Making 2/1s as a pretty cheap - ability and the fact that a couple fliers getting in refunds that loyalty really boosts my standing on the card. This might make me try doing WU skies again
Kiora, the Rising Tide: The good news is that this is flooting on a 3 cost body, so it can be reanimated quite easily and fills up the graveyard well, and thatâs the big appeal I see. That said, it also is there so it can make an 8/8 and itâs quite vulnerable if your goal is to use it for that purpose. All this is to say that you shouldnât be counting on the 8/8 even if threshold is trivial, but the card can be good without the attack trigger if youâre set up for it.
Lunar Insight: Iâm a little cynical of this card, but I think thereâs a home for this if you can consistently draw 3+ cards with it. If paradox ever becomes a more played deck, then this will be a choice quantity based draw spell.
Mischievous Mystic: I am very glad for this card to simply be the best version of the âdraw two, make a dudeâ cards, and it plays very well as a piker flier and as a token producer. Emrakulâs Messanger was a little nice, but having the resultant bodies actually be able to kill the opponent puts it a step above, truly.
Refute: Jeez, billy, why'd your mom let you have two futes? This card seems aight, this ain't like saruman's trickery but it is a cancel with significant upside
Rune-Sealed Wall: Double the scryfish, 1.5x the cost! That said, scryfish have never been all that, and it continues here. Vibes report: C+, not doing anything special, but quite cool.
Skyship Buccaneer: Very limited-coded. We have 5/5 fliers for 5 these days, yâknow?
Sphinx of Forgotten Lore: Tired: This needs to ambush something to be good, and itâs so hard to do that with 3 toughness. Wired: This evasive 3/3 that snapcasters on attack also gets to come in after my opponent commits to a wrath!
Strix Lookout: Better storm crow is still very bad, so Vibes Report: A, the dudeâs got lil goggles! omg look at him all cute n happy :3 :V
Uncharted Voyage: Strictly worse than another unplayable limited common, so welcome back to Vibes Report: B-, itâs very cool to have a removal spell thatâs not so negatively poised, and instead is still depicting a progression, just, somewhere new. I think thatâs neat.
Aetherize: Itâs exciting to see this card land here for the first time, but itâs always a bit awkward to actually use. It is useful as a replacement for settle in non-white control decks to still act as a blowout when you canât have the more well-known option.
Extravagant Replication: Itâs cool to see cards like these make their way onto arena and into standard, but it is very bad and you should not play it.
Fleeting Distraction: Cantrips can only get so bad, and while this one does require a target, it also has the benefit of being active on the board while also being a cantrip. I donât think this beats out the big 2 of Opt and consider, but itâs still quite good if youâre going deep on the slot.
Time Stop: I havenât seen much of Discontinuity lately, but Time Stop is an incredibly fun card and everyone should play it at least once in their life. Is it good? Probably not, all things considered, but god is it fun.
Starlight Snare: Iâm gonna be real: seeing âWhen this Aura enters,â as a complete phrase on a Magic card makes my eyes hurt for a second right now, but Iâm sure Iâll get used to it. Bad Vibes Report: D for it though.
Arcanis, the Omnipotent: I donât think weâre gonna see a great resurgence of Paradorks anytime soon, but this is the kind of card that pushes the deck one step further to really shine as a density based combo deck. That said, it hasnât aged particularly well in the last 2 decades.
Dictate of Kruphix: I really donât think we need or want to go deep on Howling Mine effects, but this does keep us moving in that direction. I think itâs almost defensible in a flash deck, but until Mana Drain/Dig Through Time are not major players in the meta, more ways to give your opponents cards and by extension flexible options is more bad than usual.
Flashfreeze: There are cards that fall into the camp of âok if you know exactly what your opponentâs on in the finals of the season,â and then thereâs cards like flashfreeze, which are bad even if theyâre going into their preferred matchup.
Fog Bank: This falls into a subset of cards that donât do anything but buy you a bit of time each turn, and while that can add up, you buy the same time better with just a counterspell or removal spell.
Harbinger of the Tides: This card is a classic, and I really love the mechanic of âpay 2 more for flashâ. While I donât think the merfolk typal deck is at its peak, this is a good thing that the mana for casting it represents a lot of things, like a mana drain, aetherize, subtlety, etc.
Mystical Teachings: I like this cardâs vibes quite a lot, but it does suffer from costing roughly a million mana in this format. This format is just too fast for this cardâs ideal play, where you get a legal target for it, then immediately cast that legal target, but the options of Mana Drain and Tainted Pact cost a ton of mana to get that going for. The cardâs still playable, but the game has gotten much faster since it last was in a new constructed format.
Sphinx of the Final Word: I remember when this card was first printed and there was a lot of hope for it, but it just fell flat because it was 7 mana in a format where getting to 7 also meant being able to cast good eldrazi. Here, itâs even worse, where you just have to contend with things like Dream Trawler and give me a reason to play a 7 mana dolt instead of a 6 mana cooler one.
Confiscate: Thereâs an unfortunate truth that this kind of effect sucks to play below 6 mana without some restriction, but also is just not good enough for a constructed format below 6 mana, and that means cards like Confiscate just ainât it unless theyâre a classic Mind Control, which is to say at 4 mana.
Rite of Replication: I actually like this card a little bit more than I should, but itâs partially because I like cards like Doppelgang so seeing another version of the effect does make me raise an eyebrow for GUx ramp decks.
Gladiator Big Talk: Foundations, White
So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card, and Foundations is looking to be a very big set for us, with 4 different products that each introduce new cards into the format, so I'm going to start putting them here. Some notes before we start:
This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in the main set of Foundations. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format or in Jumpstart Foundations, which I'll cover later.
I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is somewhat baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.
Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.
Without further ado, let's start off with Arahbo, the First Fang:
Arahbo, the First Fang: I love Arahbo's vibes so much and if you're dedicated it can certainly be good enough for a Cat typal deck. Ultimately, thatâs all this kind of design is here for, but itâs still cool in that space and I want to explore the deck now.
Armasaur Guide: This is the first of many limited commons that are fully unplayable in this format, so Iâm gonna grade them on vibes. This lil guy gets a vibes grade of B-, cute, nice flavor, but also too beeg and not silly enough to go the extra mile.
Cat Collector: Iâm gonna disparage a card for being a bad version of an effect with âWhen ~ enters, make a foodâ later on but I do think life gain = token is a slot that does exist in the food deck if maybe only a little bit, so Iâm a lot more hopeful about the old cat lady <3
Celestial Armor: Iâm more of a fan of Maul of the Skyclaves, and I really appreciate this being both a protection spell and slotting in as a stoneforge payoff without removing too much of what made maul good. That said, Maul giving first strike is no joke, but I think Celestial Armorâs versatility might push it into decks where Maul wouldnât.
Claws Out: I think you need 2-3 cats consistently to be happy playing this, and even then itâs not a great reason to play more cats than necessary. This effect is just too medium for gladiator these days.
Crystal Barricade: I was pretty down on this card, but I might try it in ruin your evening despite it not progressing the board much. Being a flagbearer that doesn't die to bolt is very nice. At the same time though, this does nothing at all so itâs probably just bad.
Dauntless Veteran: The fact that this attacks as a 3/3 minimum is cute, but itâs just a bit too low-impact for a 3 drop these days.
Dazzling Angel: This is roughly second to last on our Soul Warden tier list, and Iâm of the opinion that we should be drinking pretty shallowly from that well even in the decks that lean into that aspect a lot, so a somewhat vulnerable 3 drop one is suspect. Flying is also not that much of a benefit, since your soul wardens shouldnât be touching the red zone unless in emergencies.
Divine Resilience: I think this is a classic example of charmitis, where added versatility comes at the cost of neither option being actually individually enticing. I like my versatility, but I want to feel good about casting any one part of a card, and the base level is ok, but nothing I would actually slot in a deck these days.
Exemplar of Light: Flying Ajaniâs Pridemate is already tempting, but one that also draws you a card when you do or put a counter on it otherwise makes the draw big for a deck like BW ruin your evening, but on the other hand that deck has limited room for stuff with MV more than 3.
Felidar Savior: Hey there Basriâs Acolyte, how you doing ân how you been? I see, Basriâs kind of been a deadbeat for the past while and after having a reception as lukewarm as Teyoâs, felt it best to sit to the wayside this time round? Thatâs alright, weâre still happy to have his favorite cat around. Did you get a haircut? Oh an easier mana cost, thatâs cute. Iâm happy for you, it looks good on you. Yeah, I didnât want to beat around the bush either, but I just wanted to see howâre youâre doing before I let you know again that youâre great for limited but we just donât need you in any decks round here right now, sorry. Yeah, of course, any time you make your way around a standard set again, weâll be right here still. Hey, tell Basri I said hi, ok?
Fleeting Flight: This card is better than it looks, by a decent amount, at least in the sense that it does 3 different things that are separately each not worth a card, but doing 3 of them makes it a lot closer. That said, unless your deck wants specifically +1/+1 counter and flying, you will be disappointed sleeving this one up. Even if youâre in that niche, this is an ultimately small effect and you need to be going a lot taller than is probably wise into solitudes and paths right now.
Guarded Heir: I think itâs interesting that this doesnât make the iconic 2/2 with Vigilance, but this is essentially 2 blade splicers which frankly could be a lot worse.
Hare Apparent: So uh. This card is kind of cracked in many, many multiples. That said, Iâm doubtful we have both the ways to capitalize on its effects and also the ratio to maximize hares and payoffs. Itâs a super interesting proposition, though, and I think itâs more likely than not that the card has some great potential.
Helpful Hunter: I am always glad to get more Visionaries at 2, so always welcome. I feel like most decks on companion though have some incidental enchantment synergies and it might lead to hunter getting pushed out more.
Herald of Eternal Dawn: Now when's the Krumar of Eternal Dawn? Real talk though this just seems like a not great thing to cheat out when we've got elenda and atraxa and the like, yknow. There is a fun gotcha element to this having flash, but the reality is that the flash wonât actually come into play in decks that would be slotting Herald in.
Inspiring Paladin: Welcome back to buff dog alert, where we let you know the latest in upgrades to cards previously depicted as dogs. This episode, Ainok Bond-Kin! Now itâs 1 more cost, +1/+2, innately has first strike (on attacks), but has the downside of telling you to attack, you idiot, why would you waste attackers with first strike?! Which is a real downside, but not like that much to be fair.Â
Joust Through: This is a good 3rd option for Elspethâs Smite, and I like the push to having spells that previously would have abstract bonuses (exiling instead, conditional pluses, etc) now getting tangible bonuses that always apply. It doesnât make this one better than smite, but it does make it more interesting.
Luminous Rebuke: The vibes are brought down a lot by this being a functional reprint, but they are brought up a bit by two very brave lil guys, which i really appreciate. Vibes grade: B++
Prideful Parent: Very cute, not for us. Vibes report: A- ; The hardest part of parenting is not reacting with either a âyou fucking idiotâ or âoh my god youâre so cuteâ to your child doing something dumb as hell, and you know what theyâre killing it.
Raise the Past: I loved Rally the Ancestors way too much for my own good, and wowie zowie this is so much better for âfairâ strategies like Ruin your evening or WBx Aristocrats. This might not have the juice to last too long, but Iâm excited to see where it goes regardless.
Skynight Squire: Being a on-rate creature that grows with creatures entering is really hype, and this gets into the air really quickly. I think this will go into particularly go-wide or counters style decks, but I wouldnât slot it in unless youâre confident itâs going to fly fast.
Squad Rallier: We have a Savannah Lions with nearly the same text lmao iâm not playing a 4 drop version of this. Vibes report: C-, the birdâs not doing anything for me here, and I like goofy birds.
Sun-Blessed Healer: Yo this card is kinda messed up. 3/1 is much better than 2/3 for a lot of decks wanting to push damage (compare to Phyrexian Missionary) and reanimating any <=2 drop to the field gives incredible energy to Ruin Your Evening, where the first Luminarch Aspirant or Thalia is answerable but the second is much more annoying to beat.
Twinblade Blessing: Double Strike auras have traditionally been quite bad, but this one is the first with flash, and that can change quite a lot. That said, I think this is still just not worth a slot in constructed formats.
Valkyrieâs Call: I havenât seen that one moth that reanimates your non-fliers when they die in a good deal of time, and this is much, much worse in the sense that it doesnât impact the board the turn it comes in and costs quite a lot.
Vanguard Seraph: This card seems cool as heck in limited and I love surveiling in white, but Vibes Report: B, I love the aesthetics of Zendikari angels and the halo just always does it for me.
Ajani, Caller of the Pride: 3 mana planeswalkers from before the pandemic are weird bc they're either the most unfun, bonkers bs to deal with or just don't do anything remotely close to what a planeswalker wants to do. This guy is in the latter camp.
Angel of Finality: I'm stoked this is uncommon now but it's a classic nothing special
Savannah Lions: A classic, play it in cats
Ancestor Dragon: You know I think this isnât that horrible in all honesty, frankly to my surprise. Do I think itâs playable? God no, but itâs more playable than you think. A little.
Ingenious Leonin: Glad we have it now, but yeah it's bad
Jazal Goldmane: Jazal is very cool but like it also suffers from medium idiot syndrome, where it's really only good if you're ahead enough to play a 4/4for4 with 2 relevant words of text.
Leonin Skyhunter: We've outclassed this in the past few years but it's still a cool add.
Angelic Destiny: I think this card has dropped a lot in my eyes from when it was first seen in M12, where it demands your opponent give you an opening, and when the creature you suit up inevitably dies, it asks you to pay a lot of mana to get back to that state. Additionally, we have so much removal that exiles these days, that Iâm wary to include this into a really competitive slot.
Ballyrush Banneret: This is one to keep an eye on, because once we have cards like Captain of the Watch that really push a bunch of soldiers out, I could see this making the cut eventually.
Crusader of Odric: These kinds of creatures are really hard to be worth the work in singleton, and this one also doesnât do anything to reward you other than being a big idiot.
Dawnwing Marshal: 2/2 fliers for 2 are always something to pique the interest, but I think weâre at the point where we need slightly more going for it.
Felidar Cub: Were you playing Ronom Unicorn? Didnât think so.
Stasis Snare: Ah, the good ol days where Banishing light was too good for common so they made medium sidegrades of it forever until they gave up and put it at common.
Hinterland Sanctifier: Wake up babe new Soul Warden dropped! This is a big W for the decks that were playing all the bad versions of this effect, and Iâm so happy for them.
S H E
Not enough opportunities for me to use the word âbenthicâ in daily life. Gonna start using it to for everything.
âYes babe, your ass is fat and your pussy is benthic, now can you please lore dump your special interests to meâ
Hi judge!
Can you elaborate on the step-by-step of resolving Tempt with Discovery? When do opponents choose if they are tempted? Do they know if other opponents are tempted? Do they know what land you grabbed, or what lands other opponents grabbed? When you search for the additional lands, do you know what lands your opponents searched for?
Thanks!
This is a spell that almost no one resolves correctly, but to be fair its resolution has a lot of steps:
You search your library for a land and put it onto the battlefield.
Starting with the player whose turn it is and going in turn order, each opponent chooses whether or not they're going to search for a land card. The search doesn't happen until everyone has chosen.
Every opponent who chose to search for a land does so simultaneously and puts it onto the battlefield. Players should set their chosen card aside face down and only reveal it when everyone had made their choice.
For each opponent who chose to search for a land, you search for a land and put those lands onto the battlefield. Technically these are multiple, sequential searches but that only matters for cards like Aven Mindcensor.
Each library that was searched gets shuffled by the player who searched it. This is usually the owner, but sometimes isn't when cards like Opposition Agent get involved.
So... who knows what when?
All opponents know the first land you searched for before they choose whether or not to search for a land.
The choice to search or not is made sequentially, so your opponents will know if previous opponents were tempted or not.
Your opponents don't get to see what lands the others are searching for, though they can, of course, communicate with each other and make their intentions known.
You know what lands your opponents have searched for before you search for your additional lands.

