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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 wrong

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 game

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 it’s not really worth trying a super inefficient creature for it.

Clinquant Skymage: Today I learned what “Clinquant” means - It does not mean “a flying creature that is playable in gladiator” for what it’s worth, but rather glittering and/or tinseled. Neat!

Curator of Destinies: If I had a nickel for every creature that FoF’d or Steam Augury’d, I’d have a decent number of nickels. If I had a nickel for each one that’s good today, I don’t think I’d 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 can’t find a home, and this one has a pretty good effect too so I think it’s 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 don’t 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, dude’s outfit is too monochrome to be fun at parties imo

Erudite Wizard: The problem with the “Draw two” 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 it’s any consolation, this one looks like it’ll be bad in limited as well.

Faebloom Trick: I think this card is surprisingly good especially for being an instant, but I don’t think there’s sincerely a home for this in Gladiator. It’s a very good limited uncommon, but it is still mostly just that.

Grappling Kraken: I really love this effect, but I’m allergic to this effect at 6 mana, so I think I’ll 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 you’re not concerned about countermagic but you are concerned about interaction otherwise, this is an absolute slam dunk. That said, the fact that it’s a lot worse into countermagic might make it really only worthwhile in a post-Mana Drain world.

Homunculus Horde: This isn’t even good in Ux Draw-twos, mainly because it just always folds to even the thought of a wrath and doesn’t 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 that’s 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 that’s the big appeal I see. That said, it also is there so it can make an 8/8 and it’s quite vulnerable if your goal is to use it for that purpose. All this is to say that you shouldn’t be counting on the 8/8 even if threshold is trivial, but the card can be good without the attack trigger if you’re set up for it.

Lunar Insight: I’m a little cynical of this card, but I think there’s 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 “draw two, make a dude” cards, and it plays very well as a piker flier and as a token producer. Emrakul’s 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, y’know?

Sphinx of Forgotten Lore: Tired: This needs to ambush something to be good, and it’s 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 dude’s 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-, it’s very cool to have a removal spell that’s not so negatively poised, and instead is still depicting a progression, just, somewhere new. I think that’s neat.

Aetherize: It’s exciting to see this card land here for the first time, but it’s 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 can’t have the more well-known option.

Extravagant Replication: It’s 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 don’t think this beats out the big 2 of Opt and consider, but it’s still quite good if you’re going deep on the slot.

Time Stop: I haven’t 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: I’m gonna be real: seeing “When this Aura enters,” as a complete phrase on a Magic card makes my eyes hurt for a second right now, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Bad Vibes Report: D for it though.

Arcanis, the Omnipotent: I don’t think we’re 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 hasn’t aged particularly well in the last 2 decades.

Dictate of Kruphix: I really don’t think we need or want to go deep on Howling Mine effects, but this does keep us moving in that direction. I think it’s 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 “ok if you know exactly what your opponent’s on in the finals of the season,” and then there’s cards like flashfreeze, which are bad even if they’re going into their preferred matchup.

Fog Bank: This falls into a subset of cards that don’t 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 “pay 2 more for flash”. While I don’t 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 card’s 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 card’s 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 card’s 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, it’s 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: There’s 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 ain’t it unless they’re 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 it’s partially because I like cards like Doppelgang so seeing another version of the effect does make me raise an eyebrow for GUx ramp decks.

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