transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:14] What is up, everybody? Welcome to another episode of Limited Resources, this episode number 849. My name is Marshall, I'm one of your Limited Resources, and joining me on the line, all the way from Denver, Colorado, it's Luis Scott-Vargas. Luis, it is set review time. We're gonna go back to school today, apparently.

Speaker 2:
[00:35] Oh yeah, and you know, this is looking like a good set. We've had, I don't wanna say a drought exactly, but the last couple of sets have not really been to my taste, I will say. And Secrets of Strixhaven, I love the original Strixhaven, it's one of my favorite sets, and this looks like it's picking up right where it left off.

Speaker 1:
[00:54] Definitely, we get to reveal the secrets today, at least for the commons and uncommons, because that's what we're gonna do on the show this time around. We're gonna go over every single common and uncommon in Secrets of Strixhaven, and that is so that you are prepared for when the format goes live, whether it's a pre-release release event or subsequent drafts, seals, tournaments, etc. We want you to be ahead of the curve, and that's why we're gonna go over every single card with you today. Before we do, we want to say thank you to everybody who supports us on Patreon. It's patreon.com/limitedresources, and it's really a great way to support your favorite content creators. You get a thank you card and a sticker in the mail if you become a Patreon supporter of ours, and we really appreciate everybody who does so. We also want to say thank you to Ultimate Guard. If you've got magic cards at the card, deck, or collection level, anything in that range, whether it's actually playing the cards, think play mats and sleeves, or transporting them from one place to another in deck boxes, or storing and organizing them from a collection level, think backpacks, binders, that type of stuff, they are going to have some of the best products on the market. They use premium materials and really well thought out designs to combine into really great products. Just thumbs up, A+, great stuff from Ultimate Guard. If you have any needs of these types, you should check out ultimateguard.com. And if you want to buy something, you can get it from your favorite online retailer or local game store. Thank you, Ultimate Guard. We appreciate your support of the show. Luis, before we get into actual magic cards, we are going to discuss each card, but we're also going to give it a grade.

Speaker 2:
[02:40] Yeah, so we use a grading scale that goes from A through F with two subgrades. It's the same one we always use. And it goes in the same order. We've got A's, we've got bombs, game winners, cards that are good in many situations, special in behind, and the best cards in the set. You don't typically see a lot of these in the common or uncommon, but every now and then, one sneaks in. We're talking cards like Sally Pride or The Last Ronin. B's are cards that actively pull you towards their colors or in this particular case a school, because most of the draft archetypes are going to end up in one of the five schools. We'll cover the draft archetypes and mechanics before we get to all the cards. So we're talking cards that pull you that direction, solid removal, the better, like kind of like the best commons and the good uncommons. The best uncommons actually get to A level these days, but again, we'll see about that. We're talking cards like Genghis Frog or Shredder's Technique. C's are playable, the pawns of Limited. They're pretty interchangeable. You're going to play some amount in your deck. They're kind of the average card, the cards that when you take it fifth pick, you feel okay about it, but you're not super stoked. You end up with a bunch of these in every deck. We're talking cards like regular removal, kind of like the better combat tricks, decent creatures, cards like Retro Mutation or Ice Cream Kitty. D's are cards that you prefer not to run. They are playable. D's these days are cards you can certainly put in your deck, but they're a little bit worse than the C's. They're a little bit junky, mediocre, situational, sometimes a high set up cost. Cards where if your friend hands you a deck, it has four or five of these, you're like, oh, this draft didn't really go great. So we're talking cards like Zoo Escapies or Donatello's Technique. As sad as that makes me, but Donatello's Technique is not where it was at. And then the F's are cards that are just straight up unplayable. Cards that cost a million mana, cards that refer to planeswalkers, cards that just are not, you know, cards like Omniscience or Broadcast Takeover and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And then our two sub grades are Sideboard, we'll see plenty of these in the Comments and Uncomments Review, cards that you wouldn't really want to main deck. They're probably around the D level main deck or maybe C level. But when you board them in, they could be A or even B level. We're talking cards like Negate or Destroy Target, Artifact or Enchantment, Destroy a Creature of Flying cards. You wouldn't really want in your main deck, but can be very effective post-board. One thing that's kind of interesting about this category, because of the prevalence of Best of One thanks to Arena, a lot of these cards have a lot of get-out-of-jail-free clauses that they cycle or this card draws a card or does some damage. So sideboard cards are getting pushed more and more towards main deck, but we still will talk about a couple sideboard cards if we run into them. And then lastly, our favorite category, the build arounds, cards that on their own don't do enough or maybe anything, but they can be the best card in your deck when you build around it. Cards like Everything Pizza, fantastic build around.

Speaker 1:
[05:19] Yeah, so we're of course going to be focusing on our discussion of the card. That's the most important part because that's where we will kind of hedge and talk about what maybe our prediction might be or which way we're leaning. But you know, in order to put kind of a punctuation mark, we found that sometimes the discussion would actually lead people to think that we thought something maybe that we didn't about the card. For example, if a card comes up and we say, well, it's a great card, but and then we maybe discuss some of the downsides to it, sometimes just the nature of human communication can make you think, oh, well, they don't like that card then, even though the disclaimer that started it was, it's a great card that can kind of lose its punch. And so when we give it a B plus, even after having kind of nitpicked it, it helps you go, okay, they really do like the card or they're closer together on their actual thoughts on it than maybe if we have a disagreement about it. So that's what the grades are for. And then Luis, you know, we've had a few sets out of the last bunch here that have only had five archetypes, where there's only been five archetypes out of the 10 possible color pairs that have been focused on from a design and development standpoint. But the big difference is those were both smaller sets and this is a full size.

Speaker 2:
[06:32] Exactly. Yeah. So as much as, you know, we've talked a lot over the past couple months about, are, you know, are small sets good? What is five archetypes look like? All that. And there's some positives and negatives, more negatives as we have that discussion. When it comes to Strixhaven, the full size set part is huge because that gives them more room to have multiple archetypes within the same school. That gives you more room to have good crossover cards because we're going to talk a lot about like, oh, this is good for both the increment and the Opus mechanic. That's a mechanic that overlaps pretty heavily. And we're actually get to the mechanics right now. So let's start at the top with the splashiest mechanic in the format, Prepared. This goes across all colors. And Prepare, basically, it's a creature with the adventure frame where it's a creature, and that's what it counts like in your deck, in your hand, in your graveyard. But on the bottom right, it has another spell. So Studious First Year is the example I'll be using. It's maybe the best green common, actually. So it's green for a 1-1. It enters Prepared. And while it's Prepared, you can cast a copy of its spell. Its spell, Rampant Growth. One in a green sorcery, search your library for a basic land card, put it into play, tapped. So the way it works, and you can even learn this in the actual mechanics articles, when a creature with Prepared is in play and Prepared, you have a copy exiled that you can cast when you could normally cast it. You can't cast Rampant Growth in an instant because it's a sorcery. And then once you cast it, it's no longer Prepared. So Studious First Year is a one-shot, one and done. You play it on turn one, Rampant Growth on turn two, great. There are other creatures which don't enter Prepared, and you have to do something to make them Prepared. And there's some that if you jump through some hoops, you can prepare them multiple times. So there's a lot of cool stuff going on with Prepared, and we're going to see how it plays out because each creature individually just does a different thing. They're very different cards. One thing that ties all the mechanic together is because they count as creatures. They're like creatures with ETBs, so raised deads and blinks and stuff like that tend to be pretty good.

Speaker 1:
[08:25] Because they re-prepare, you can... Okay, yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 2:
[08:28] We'll give you the opportunity to re-prepare, depending on how it works out. So let's now talk about the five mechanics for each school and what the draft archetype is supposed to be as a result. So for Silver Quill, we have Reparte. This is a mechanic that says whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets a creature, do X. X is different on every of these spells. So again, it's more of an ability word, but this is the Silver Quill, the black-white mechanic, and as a result, their theme is Reparte Agro, where you're supposed to basically, because Reparte looks at cards that target, instant or sorcery that target creatures, that could be a pump spell on your creature or a removal spell on their creature. Obviously the removal spell part is a little bit stronger, but they both give you good options and good reasons to be doing the thing. So when I look at Silver Quill, you're gonna be looking for instants and sorceries to target things, and again, combat trick is a big part of that if it's gonna be an aggro deck. For Prismari, the red blug school, you have Opus, which is whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, do X. Doesn't end there though, because that would just be kind of like prowess basically, or spellcraft or whatever. It also says if five or more mana was spent to cast that spell, do Y. And Y could be an outgrowth of X, it could be a bigger version, it could be something completely different. For example, Color Storm Stallion is one blue red for a 3-3 elemental horse at rare, it has Ward 1 and haste, and it is Opus. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, this gets plus one plus one until the turn. However, if you spent five or more mana on that spell, create a token that's a copy of this creature. So this is kind of like 3-3 prowess, Ward haste, and it's a rare, but if you spend five mana on the spell that triggers it, you've all of a sudden have a second one, then you do it again, you have four. I mean, you can obviously see how that goes nuts. And that of course feeds nicely into the Prismari theme, which is Opus Spellcasting, blue-red spells with an emphasis on slightly more expensive spells. So definitely got some cool stuff going. This is obviously one of the front runners for one of the cooler schools, just because they've really nailed the blue-red decks at this point. Like how often does blue-red fizzle in one of these formats? And the answer is almost never. So black-green, blue-green, can't say the same, but blue-red, they got that one down at least. The next mechanic is infusion for witherbloom, so that's the black-green school. And infusion says, if this creature or if this card gained life, it does something different. So again, an ability word, these cards vary wildly. You've got a creature like old growth educator, which is two black-green for a 4-4 vigilance reach, an uncommon, and has infusion. When this creature enters, the two plus one plus one counters on if you gain life this turn. So this just checks right when you play, did you gain life this turn? Do something.

Speaker 1:
[11:17] So it cares about you gaining, having gained life, that's it.

Speaker 2:
[11:20] Right. There's spells that when you cast them, if you've gained life, do a bigger thing. There's creatures that say at the end of your turn, if you've gained life, do a thing, so they trigger over and over again. So it's again, one of those ability words where that the input basically is gain life, the output is a variety of different things, and the timing is different. So you just kind of have to read all the cards to try to figure out what all is going on with them. And of course, as you would imagine, the witherbloom theme is a green black life gain. You've got, you know, it makes, there's a bunch of cards that make pests, if you remember from Pest Infestation or Original Strixhaven, the one one that dies and gains a life. So there's like, life gain swarm is what they call it. Build up an army of pests and other creatures, gain lots of life, overwhelm your opponent. So I don't know if that's going to translate to aggro.

Speaker 1:
[12:05] Automatically skeptical.

Speaker 2:
[12:07] Right. Even that description, it's like, you're a life gain beat down deck. Okay, cool. Yeah, this is going to work out great. But, and you know, Witherbloom was a little bit behind the top three schools. Witherbloom and Lorehold were the two that were the most behind. An original Strixhaven, that of course does not have anything to do with this Strixhaven. The cards are just going to be different. But I would say this description makes me a little skeptical. Lorehold, their mechanic is an amazing one. And we know this because it's flashback. It has a bunch of spells that have flashback. Flashback's an awesome mechanic. It lets you recast the spell from the graveyard and exile it. At a drastically different cost sometimes. And that ties really nicely into Lorehold's theme, which is flashback excavation. It has a lot of cards that trigger or do something different or have some sort of advantage if a card left the graveyard this turn. So when you look at that, you can figure out like, okay, so flashback triggers all these Lorehold cards. And, you know, Lorehold, despite being red white, and this is the part I like about Lorehold, is they tried last time and they're going to try again this time to make something other than just red white beat down, which is their most common, like how many of the red white archetypes in draft these days just feel like another version of red white beat down?

Speaker 1:
[13:23] It's like eight or nine out of 10.

Speaker 2:
[13:24] Lots of creatures. Okay. Yeah. That's red white beat down.

Speaker 1:
[13:26] Yeah. It's like eight or nine out of 10 probably.

Speaker 2:
[13:29] Lots of creatures. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[13:30] Totally.

Speaker 2:
[13:31] Lorehold is, I think, going to feel pretty different based on the cards. And then lastly, another fan favorite, Quantrix, the green blue school, Increment. Their mechanic is called Increment, and this at least is always the same on cards. So you get a freebie. Increment, whenever you cast a spell, if the amount of mana you spent is greater than this creature's power or toughness, put a plus one plus one counter on this creature. And note, I use spell as shorthand for incident or sorcery a lot. On increment, it literally means any card you're casting. I think that's actually like something magic is not doing optimally. Maybe the way they set it up, magic, it's too late now to change it. But spell meaning any card you cast and spell colloquially meaning incident or sorcery to a lot of people is obviously a bit rough. But increment basically just means when you cast expensive cards, your creatures grow. And that's pretty cool. I like that. I'm pretty happy to play expensive cards in my deck and figure out ways to make it pop off. And the Quandrix theme for blue green is incremental value. Grow your creatures with counters that get bigger and bigger. Accelerate mana, draw cards, attack with huge creatures, et cetera. So there's a lot of X spells. There's some cards that pay you off for having X spells. You see fractals, the zeroes, zeros that get plus one, plus one counters. And Quandrix looks like a blue green ramp deck of sort, but increment, of course, is the kind of thing that's going on. As far as other mechanics, there's a mythic rare cycle Paradigm, which when you cast the spell, you then get to cast it every single turn. It just goes on the stack every single turn at the beginning of your first main phase. Those are all pretty good. There's Converge, which is a five-color mechanic where these creature or these spells do something different based on how many colors you spent on it. And Converge is just pretty strong. Like generally, the cards look pretty good. And we've got, that's about it. They added a new subtype to artifacts, which is Book, but I don't even know how that's relevant. So those are the mechanics. Those are the five schools, and those are kind of what's going on with the cards here. And as we evaluate these cards, these are the kind of mechanics. And the first thing to stand out, by the way, just to kind of prime ourselves going in, is Increment and Opus overlap pretty heavily. They both want you to cast expensive cards. And if you remember Strixhaven, Quandrex and Presmario were best friends there, too. There was a lot of Timur decks in that format.

Speaker 1:
[15:56] That's all I drafted in that format.

Speaker 2:
[15:58] Oh, I know. Timur's your favorite three-color pair. Blue-green's your favorite two-color pair.

Speaker 1:
[16:02] Yeah, I just drafted Timur every single time. I was like, all right, what kind of Timur deck am I getting this time?

Speaker 2:
[16:09] Yeah, and I think it worked out pretty well.

Speaker 1:
[16:11] Did.

Speaker 2:
[16:12] So there you got your mechanics, you got your cards, you got your themes. Let's get to the actual cards themselves and start grading them, huh?

Speaker 1:
[16:20] Alrighty. So what we're gonna do is we're, what we normally do is start with the signposts and commons, which are the gold uncommons. This set being so focused on just five archetypes rather than 10, there's actually 10 cards, there's 10 gold cards at the common and uncommon level per pair. So we're just gonna go through those. Normally we get just a couple of signposts. Here we're gonna get a lot of signs pointing in a direction. I think it's gonna be very clear what these archetypes are trying to do based on Luis' breakdown just now, plus these 10 cards each. But that's good, we'll take it. It gives us more information about what's happening. So we're gonna start off with black, white. So silver quill here is our first one. And our first card up is a common called Inkling Mascot. It is black, white for a 2-2 Inkling cat with repartee. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets a creature, I'm gonna kind of skip that part going forward, but just as a reminder, instant or sorcery targets a creature. This creature gains flying until end of turn and you surveil one.

Speaker 2:
[17:30] So 2 mana 2-2, and it can gain flying and surveil if you cast a spell.

Speaker 1:
[17:35] How many times do I need to trigger this before I'm happy is my question?

Speaker 2:
[17:39] I mean, if you're, yeah, just once is probably all right. I don't think that would be, I don't think that would end up being too bad.

Speaker 1:
[17:46] 2 mana 2-2 in that's gold, you know, two specific colors is a little rough. Man, but surveil one is pretty powerful for, you know, doing things that you're probably going to be doing anyway, kill their creatures, surveil one, get in for two. It looks above the curve to me.

Speaker 2:
[18:05] Yeah, I would say that this looks like a classic C and you're just not going to cut it out of your Silver Quill Ducks very often.

Speaker 1:
[18:11] Exactly. Next is Killian's Confidence. This is the same mana cost, black, white. For this one, it's a sorcery at uncommon. It says target creature gets plus one, plus one until enough turn, draw a card. So right away, you know, I'm just in, right? Like this is the color pair that wants to target creatures with instance and sorceries. This one does that and it immediately gives me my card back. So I'm already pretty happy with that just because I'm getting triggers plus a card and it's only two mana. But it also says whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to a player, you may pay a black-white hybrid. So either a black or a white mana. If you do return this card from your graveyard to your hand, oh, let's just do it all over again.

Speaker 2:
[18:53] This looks awesome. This looks like a rock solid reason to be in this archetype. I would say Killian's Confidence looks like a B to me.

Speaker 1:
[19:01] It does to me too. And that looks like one of those kind of cornerstone cards for an archetype.

Speaker 2:
[19:06] It's also a card you can just discard and if you get milled or something, like any of those things, like when it's in your graveyard, it's chilling, you know?

Speaker 1:
[19:14] Totally. I like that. Next up is Scalding Administrator. Same mana cost, again, black, white. This one's a 2-2 dwarf cleric at uncommon. It has menace, repartee, put a plus one plus one counter on this creature. And when this creature dies, if it had counters on it, put those counters on up to one target creature. Geez, that's a push card there, Luis. That's a 2-mana 2-2. Look at the gap between uncommon and common for those two.

Speaker 2:
[19:46] 2-mana 2-2 with menace, and it grows, and it gives away its counters at the end.

Speaker 1:
[19:50] Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 2:
[19:52] This looks excellent to me.

Speaker 1:
[19:54] And remember, repartee doesn't care which thing you target with it. Like, it doesn't have to target Scalding Administrator. You just kill their guy. This thing becomes a 3-3. You pump up some other creature, this thing becomes a 4-4. Like, this is nuts.

Speaker 2:
[20:08] Yeah, I like probably B-plus for Scalding Administrator. This one just looks like the kind of card where it's like, if you don't kill this right away, it's going to stack two counters, and then when it dies, it's going to give away those counters. And you just play this on turn two, and you hit them with menace three times before they can even do anything.

Speaker 1:
[20:23] Totally. We also, you said that this archetype is meant to be assertive aggressive, right?

Speaker 2:
[20:29] Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1:
[20:30] Yeah, and if you look at our first three cards, we all line up with getting damage through. Next one is Silver Quill Charm. So this is once again, the same mana cost, black, white. This one's an instant and uncommon though. And you can choose one of three options. Option one, put two plus one plus one counters on target creature. Option two, exile target creature with power two or less. And option three, each opponent loses three life and you gain three life. Wow, that is a really nice trio there for just two mana. And instant speed too.

Speaker 2:
[21:04] Yeah, I mean, this is everything Silverquill wants, I would say.

Speaker 1:
[21:07] Wow.

Speaker 2:
[21:09] The combat trick is great. The removal spell is great. They both trigger rep RTE, which is really nice. And then you can also just use it as a lightning bolt if you need to or to gain three if you're in a close race.

Speaker 1:
[21:21] And instant speed too, like everything perfect here, right? The combat trick part being super important there. And then even sometimes that last mode, in like your opponent is racing, they make an attack. Now their creatures are tapped and you fire off your Silverquill charm, drain them for three and you're going to win that race. I like B plus for Silverquill charm too. I mean, these last two on comments just seem very push for the archetype.

Speaker 2:
[21:49] Yeah, I agree. I think B plus for the Silverquill charm.

Speaker 1:
[21:52] Abigail's back. Abigail poet laureate, no longer a first year, I guess, one black white for a two, three legendary bird bard. This is uncommon with flying. So three mana, two, three flyer. And it says, whenever you cast a creature spell, Abigail becomes prepared. So this is one of the prepare cards that doesn't automatically start that way. But if you cast a creature, she's prepared. And then, what is her spell? It is called heroic stanza. It's one and a black white hybrid for a sorcery that says, put a plus one plus one counter on target creature. And this is one also that you were, or this is the type that you were mentioning too, Luis, right? Where you can re-prepare. Is that right?

Speaker 2:
[22:39] Yeah. I mean, she could just become prepared again. So you like play her turn three, turn four, play a two drop, use heroic stanza. And then the next turn, play another creature, do it again. And I mean, I think that the fact that it can do it multiple times is certainly relevant. You're getting a two, three flyer that they kind of have to kill. Because if they don't kill it, you're going to get to cast a spell that targets over and over again, which not only triggers all your rip RT cards, it's also this becomes just like a three, four, then a four, five flyer. Like it doesn't seem like that's going to go too poorly for you. So Abigail looks like, again, a really solid reason to be in SilverQuilt. I would probably give it a B plus.

Speaker 1:
[23:19] I would too.

Speaker 2:
[23:21] If you have this in play, I feel like you're going to need to kill it. Like I don't really know.

Speaker 1:
[23:25] It just does everything. You know, it's interesting because we'll have a better sense once we're done with the set review. Maybe these cards are push and this is a powerful set or whatever, but either SilverQuilt's awesome or this whole set is really pumped up because these cards are nuts so far. And we're what, five cards in? Yeah, B plus for Abigail.

Speaker 2:
[23:46] It's looking good for right now.

Speaker 1:
[23:48] No kidding. Next up is Imperious Ink Mage. This is one black white for a 3-3 orc warlock. This is common. It's got Vigilance and when it enters, you surveil two. Wow, that's another good common. 3-3 Vigilance surveil two on ATB. That's just another good card.

Speaker 2:
[24:06] Yeah. It doesn't fit like the mechanic really in any specific way, besides digging for your spells, I guess, but I think it's just a good card. I don't see a problem with... I think you'd always pretty much play this card.

Speaker 1:
[24:18] Yeah. Would you go above C-plus for Imperious Ink Mage?

Speaker 2:
[24:22] I think I would even just give it a C. I don't know. Maybe a C-plus.

Speaker 1:
[24:25] Dang, man. Three mana, 3-3 with two relevance.

Speaker 2:
[24:29] Okay, look. Here's the only thing. We're six cards deep and they've all looked pretty awesome.

Speaker 1:
[24:33] I'm starting to hedge too, dude. I'm like, all right, maybe they're just all awesome.

Speaker 2:
[24:37] Yeah. That kind of implies to me that these cards are just going to be very strong.

Speaker 1:
[24:41] Let's go see on Imperious Ink Mage and see what happens. Next is Snooping Page. This is same mana cost one black white for a 2-3 human cleric. This one's uncommon and it has, repartee, this creature can't be blocked this turn. And whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you draw a card and lose a life. The only question I have is, how much removal can you get? Instance and Sorceries that are targeting their stuff so that you don't have to put all your eggs in one basket and try to put plus one plus one counters on your Snooping Page and then also get the card and all the extra damage. And I want to spread my risk out a little bit because these cards are so good on their own.

Speaker 2:
[25:28] Right. You don't want to be loading this up with counters and just have it get bounced or removed. An unblockable creature with a couple of counters is kind of nice.

Speaker 1:
[25:36] No, I mean, it's great if you're all in on it and it works, but yeah.

Speaker 2:
[25:41] I would say that you're going to want a decent amount of removal if you can get it. And if you can't, then you're going to have to, you are going to play a decent amount of pump spells, but you do want to hedge if you can. You don't want to always just be playing removal spells and playing pump spells and getting killed by.

Speaker 1:
[26:00] I would go B for Snooping Page. What do you think?

Speaker 2:
[26:03] Yeah, I would go B for this too. Again, I think a pretty useful shorthand for me is like, if your opponent cast this on turn three, how do you feel? And the way I would feel is like, oh man, I got to kill that thing.

Speaker 1:
[26:13] Absolutely. And the use case of you or your opponent, whoever, this card gets played, then they untap, kill something, and then hit you is already like, you're in bad shape. Like you're in really bad shape if your opponent does that. So yeah, I like B for Snooping Page. Secs is Social Snub. This was our preview card. This is one black white for a sorcery. When you cast this spell while you control a creature, you may copy this spell. Each player sacrifices a creature of their choice. Each opponent loses one life and you gain one life. So this got kind of interesting, right Luis? Cause it doesn't trigger repartee, right?

Speaker 2:
[26:54] This doesn't trigger repartee. It is good if you have like a weak creature, or a sac creature or token or whatever to sacrifice. Or you just like, you play a two drop, they play a two drop, or sorry, they play a two drop, you play a two drop, then they play a good three drop. And you're like, all right, I guess I'll just social snub trade off our first two turns for each other and get to life as part of the deal.

Speaker 1:
[27:16] Yeah. And you know, now, so my view on this card, obviously with a little context here has changed, which is on one hand, the not targeting something thing, much, much worse, right? This would be so much better. But the drain life better. I mean, this deck looks aggressive. It looks like it's good at getting damage through flying evasion counters, all this stuff that we've seen just out of a handful of cards here. And when that's the case, draining your opponent for two can be a big, big deal in a tight game. So I don't know how I feel about social snub overall. Like, do you have room for removal spells that don't, that aren't instance and sorceries that target stuff? I mean, I would want all of them to be that based on what I've seen.

Speaker 2:
[28:02] Definitely, but I think the biggest thing with social snub is like, do you have good fodder to sacrifice to it? Because if you do, I think the card's pretty powerful.

Speaker 1:
[28:10] Totally. And you can, of course, just fire it off as three mana make them sack their one and only creature.

Speaker 2:
[28:16] Yeah, and drain one. I mean, I would say that social snub is like a C, except if you're good at doing the thing, it could be bumped up a little bit.

Speaker 1:
[28:23] Okay, C with upside. Next is render speechless. This is two black white for a sorcery. This is common. It says target. Opponent reveals their hand. You choose an on land card from it. That player discards that card, put two plus one plus one counters on up to one target creature. So does this satisfy repartee? No, right?

Speaker 2:
[28:49] Yeah, targets creature.

Speaker 1:
[28:51] So it is still targeting a creature, even though it's not the first thing listed or whatever.

Speaker 2:
[28:56] Yeah, I mean, that's just part of the spell, though. Yeah, this definitely targets creature. I think the whole joke is it's a discard spell that also targets a creature, so you can kind of set your thing.

Speaker 1:
[29:03] Well, then I'm interested in it.

Speaker 2:
[29:04] Turn nicely. Yeah, render speechless. It looks like a C. You don't want a lot of these. Pretty good. I mean, turn three, snooping page. Turn four, render speechless. Attack for four, draw a card. Take your four, drop out of your hand or whatever, or take your removal spell that would have stopped this.

Speaker 1:
[29:21] That's just crazy. Yeah, I agree, though. I would want, you know, probably ideally zero or one of these, I guess. But if I get, you know, two, if I get a solid trigger plus getting a card out of their hand, I would still give render speechless, like a D plus. Like, I'm not jumping out of my chair for this card.

Speaker 2:
[29:40] Yeah, I think that's probably right.

Speaker 1:
[29:42] Last silver quill card is Sturin Honormancer. And this has kind of a weird mana cost, but there's a subset of these cards. It is two white, black, and then also a white-black hybrid. So it's five mana total. You have to play a white and a black, but then the last mana can be white or black. So it's a little bit more flexibility on the mana cost there.

Speaker 2:
[30:06] In a silver quill deck, this is effectively three white-black. You're not really going to run into an issue with the hybrid there.

Speaker 1:
[30:13] Exactly. The hybrid is a benefit. It looks harder to cast, like just to your eyeball maybe, but it's actually not. So five mana, four five rhino bard. It's uncommon. And it says, when this creature enters, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of creatures you control. Put one of those cards into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.

Speaker 2:
[30:40] Yeah, a pretty solid card, I would say. Five mana, four five, at the worst is you draw a card and sometimes you're going to draw more. I'm in.

Speaker 1:
[30:52] So you always draw one, but you get to look at more. Am I reading that right?

Speaker 2:
[30:59] Technically, if they kill this in response, you might not even draw one, but that's a pretty corner case, I think.

Speaker 1:
[31:04] But normal, just on its own, just draw the next card. But if you have three creatures, you look at three, take one. Wow. I mean, it doesn't... I don't really... How does it fit, I guess, is what I would ask, but also who cares, right? This is just very solid value card, five mana, four or five draw a card with some selection.

Speaker 2:
[31:23] I mean, five mana, four or five draw a card is a card that you wouldn't be stoked about, but you would probably play a lot of the time. And this couldn't be quite a bit better, because filling your graveyard is generally better than not, and you get to look at a lot of cards.

Speaker 1:
[31:36] I would give it a B for Sturin Conermancer. I mean, never cutting that ever.

Speaker 2:
[31:42] Yeah, I don't think you're going to.

Speaker 1:
[31:43] All right. So that moves us to Prismari, where our first card up is Prismari Charm. It is red-blue for an instant at uncommon. Choose one of three options, similar, same template as the others. First option, surveil two, then draw a card. Nice. Second option, Prismari Charm deals one damage to each of one or two targets. Situationally excellent. And then the last one is return target non-land permanent to its owner's hand. So you got bound spell, pick off a couple of small things or get a little velocity going.

Speaker 2:
[32:22] Yeah, it's pretty hard to argue against any of the charms being around a B. This one looks a little bit worse than the Silver Quill Charm, but it's still fine. Like, surveil to draw a card means it's never going to be dead. And a bound spell, plus the deal one, deal one can be really sick.

Speaker 1:
[32:37] That is the kind of one that can really get you a nice little two for one. Yeah, I like B for Prismari Charm. I agree, though, it's a little worse than the Silver Quill version. Next up is San'ar Unfinished Genius, which is blue-red for a 0-4 Legendary Goblin Sorcerer at Uncommon. And it says San'ar enters prepared. And you can tap to create a treasure token. Activate only if you've cast an instant or sorcery spell this turn. That's pretty interesting. Now San'ar's spell is Wild Idea, three blue-red for a sorcery that says, search your library for an instant or sorcery card, reveal it, put it in your hand, then shuffle.

Speaker 2:
[33:25] A pretty bad spell. You only cast this if you have literally nothing else to do, or there's a spell you desperately need, which is not that likely to be the case. But on the other hand, two-minute 0-4 that whenever you play a spell, you can tap it and make a treasure. That seems pretty great. I think that Prismari is going to want to play this card.

Speaker 1:
[33:46] I think so, too. Especially if the curve goes high, which it looks like it's not.

Speaker 2:
[33:52] If this isn't good in your Prismari deck, I think your Prismari deck is probably in trouble. Because yeah, Opus does want you to have five mana spells, but like this is going to be, I think this will be fine. Like, I think that this will be fine in pretty much all the decks, because you're still going to be playing removal spells that cost two mana, all that sort of thing.

Speaker 1:
[34:11] Totally, and I mean, that's basically what Wild Idea says, right? It says trigger, target, Opus thing.

Speaker 2:
[34:17] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[34:18] It's like, it doesn't do much, but at least it, you know, especially if you end up with a pile of a trick trigger.

Speaker 2:
[34:23] It kind of double triggers on Opus, because it gets...

Speaker 1:
[34:25] Probably.

Speaker 2:
[34:26] Whatever it gets, it then, next turn you cast that, and that probably triggers Opus. I would imagine you're doing something along those lines.

Speaker 1:
[34:33] Yeah. Whatever. I like B minus for San'ar, Unfinished Genius. This doesn't seem bomby to me, but I would be really surprised if you didn't want this card in your deck.

Speaker 2:
[34:46] Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1:
[34:48] Next is Vibrant Outburst. This is blue-red for an incident uncommon. It says it does three damage to any target and then tap up to one target creature.

Speaker 2:
[35:00] Yeah, I mean, this is awesome. I think Vibrant Outburst is going to be one of the better uncommon for Prismari. It's just so good at keeping you alive, removing things. If you're on the defensive or offensive, it either kills a creature and then taps an attacker or kills a creature and taps a blocker. It's just two-minute deal for you, which you're already pretty happy with.

Speaker 1:
[35:23] No kidding. Sometimes it just kills the opponent. Yeah, I like B for Vibrant Outburst. And obviously, this archetype cares about passing instance in sorcery. So any of them that are even playable are at a premium probably. And ones that are really good like this are just off the charts valuable.

Speaker 2:
[35:42] Yeah, I don't think even B minus would be, or sorry, B plus would be crazy.

Speaker 1:
[35:47] Yeah, no, I agree.

Speaker 2:
[35:49] It's really strong.

Speaker 1:
[35:50] Really, really good for Vibrant Outburst. Next is Abstract Paint Mage. This is blue-red and then a blue-red hybrid. So another of those mana costs. It's a 2-2 Jhin Sorcerer at Uncommon, and it says at the beginning of your first main phase, add blue-red, but you can only spend the mana to cast instant and sorcery spells. That's kind of busted though, right?

Speaker 2:
[36:18] I mean, this is a Smoky Lounge, right?

Speaker 1:
[36:19] Right.

Speaker 2:
[36:20] It's a 3-mana 2-2, and doesn't do anything for a turn. All that is not ideal, but 2-mana a turn is a lot.

Speaker 1:
[36:29] That's a huge bump. God, I don't know. This definitely seems like the swingiest, right? Because the times when it's good, it's just going to be so stupid to be able to untap and have 6-mana to throw around on instant and sorceries in a deck that's kind of built for it. But the times when you just don't have anything to cast with it, this card, you know, really suffers. I mean, it really, really suffers if you need that. It's also like, if you have an instant that is really better to cast on your opponent's turn and you have to kind of fire it off on your main, there's some-

Speaker 2:
[37:05] It can lead you to turn some awkward paths to try to get the value. But again, think about it from the other side. If your opponent plays this on turn three, you're not gonna let them untap with it if you can help.

Speaker 1:
[37:15] Yeah, you're terrified.

Speaker 2:
[37:16] That gives it some value already because even in a hand where it's mediocre to bad, you're still gonna force your opponent to deal with it.

Speaker 1:
[37:24] You know, I think the real inflection point then, Luis, is well, what if they do? What if they spend their one or two mana, you know, removal spell to kill your kind of awkward to cast three drop? Three mana two-two, by the way, like really bad stats.

Speaker 2:
[37:42] Yeah, the stats are not ideal.

Speaker 1:
[37:44] It is fairly punishing to run out. It just means that I'm compressing its zone a little bit here because I think the downside is very legit, but this also seems like one of the type of cards that, if you and I were playing a tournament, Luis, and I said, how is your round? And you said, oh, my opponent played abstract paint mage on three and I didn't have an answer, so you lost. Yeah. You know, like that would not shock me, right? Like this card could just take over. Grading wise, I don't know, do you want to split the difference and go somewhere like C plus range or something? Like it obviously has the upside of a B.

Speaker 2:
[38:20] I think C plus is right. It's definitely not a B, but it has a high, the high end is good.

Speaker 1:
[38:25] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[38:26] The high end really does do something, I feel like.

Speaker 1:
[38:28] Yeah. We'll go C plus on abstract pain mage, high ceiling, low floor. Next up is elemental mascot. This is one blue red for a one four elemental bird at common. It's got both flying and vigilance. So three mana, one four flying vigilance with opus. This creature gets plus one plus zero until end of turn. And then if you did the five mana part of opus, exile the top card of your library, you may play that card until the end of your next turn.

Speaker 2:
[38:58] And it's next turn cause you're not playing it for free.

Speaker 1:
[39:01] You gotta actually pay.

Speaker 2:
[39:03] Yeah, which takes a lot away from this card. Like it's still a threatening card and a one four flying vigilance, actually pretty good stats.

Speaker 1:
[39:09] It is.

Speaker 2:
[39:11] But if you cast opus and then you flip your top card, like you can play lands, which is nice. But if you flip a card, like you don't get to play it right away for free. So it's kind of like a delayed card draw. Still looks pretty solid to me though. I think you'd be happy to play this in your opus decks.

Speaker 1:
[39:26] I think so too. This type of card is splitting the difference between what these types of decks always face, which is there's always some number of cards that are really good temporarily, usually in combat think like prowess, or this thing gets plus whatever plus zero, where it becomes unblockable, things like that versus more value-oriented versions of it, where it's like when you cast an Instinct or Sorcery, you get some tangible advantage card advantage or board advantage or something that's not combat-based, and this one splits the difference. The thing that pushes it over the top for me are the baseline stats for a common. A three mana for a one for flying vigilance is like, yeah, that's probably just good enough. If it chips in for two damage every once in a while, because you're triggering mini opus and then every once in a while you just get a random card for free. It's like, yeah, sure. To me, that's probably adding up just to be on rate good enough. So I like C plus for elemental mascot. This seems to come together.

Speaker 2:
[40:29] I think so. I think it's going to be a solid card once you get into play.

Speaker 1:
[40:31] Yeah, I like that it's both and not just trying to do one thing or the other. Next is spectacular sky whale. That is spectacular. It is two blue red for a one for flying elemental whale. This one's uncommon and it has opus. This creature gets plus three plus zero until end of turn. And then mega opus put three plus one, plus one counters on it instead. How does get out of hand pretty quickly?

Speaker 2:
[41:00] Sure does.

Speaker 1:
[41:02] This one is the first version of what I was talking about though. This is the combat-based version where the primary use case is four mana, one four flyer, then you cast two spells the next turn and it gets plus six plus zero and hits them for seven.

Speaker 2:
[41:21] I mean, the real payoff here is less on the opus and more on just casting multiple cheap spells.

Speaker 1:
[41:27] Exactly. Normally, I don't actually like those as much. It takes a specific blue-red build slash archetype to make those really sing. But man, this thing has evasion and plus three plus O is no joke. Like that adds up really quickly.

Speaker 2:
[41:46] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[41:47] I really like the three plus one plus one counters part two because it gives you a little bit of a different avenue. It's still the same type of thing, but it is a much different game plan. If you're on the defense where you say, okay, go and you've got your one four and you're like, well, I'm probably going to cast a five mana something and you may not want to attack into this type of thing. Again, to me, this one is more skewed towards that first strategy for blue red, which I'm less of a fan of, but this one still just seems on power level to be perfectly fine. And I mean, dude, there's going to be dumb turns with Spectacular Skywell, like, just do gaming this.

Speaker 2:
[42:23] I mean, this could be some turn five kills where if you play like a bunch of spells plus like in some of them are pump spells or something. But I just give it a beat. Yeah, my main concern with the Spectacular Skywell is it's not the best on defense.

Speaker 1:
[42:38] No, it's okay though, right? You still could just cast like a one minute instant. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[42:43] Yeah, you're probably not going to have man out most of the time, I wouldn't imagine.

Speaker 1:
[42:46] Okay.

Speaker 2:
[42:47] But, yeah, I think that Skywell...

Speaker 1:
[42:53] If it's a four-four blocker, like even a decent chunk of the time.

Speaker 2:
[42:58] Yeah, my concern is less that it's a four-four blocker and more that it's going to be a one-four blocker most of the time. Like, I just don't think you're going to leave spells up defensively that often.

Speaker 1:
[43:12] I mean, just like any instant speed removal or I don't know.

Speaker 2:
[43:16] Sure. I mean, if you leave man up and you don't attack with your Skywell, then maybe they don't attack. But a lot of the games is just not going to play out that way, I don't think.

Speaker 1:
[43:25] Okay. So what do you want to give it?

Speaker 2:
[43:28] I mean, I would give it probably like a C plus, B minus sort of thing. B minus is probably fine.

Speaker 1:
[43:33] B minus?

Speaker 2:
[43:35] Look, the games with the Skywhale are going to be kind of lopsided, where like some of the games, it's going to look really bad. And then some of the games, it's going to be very, very good. Like, I don't think it's... Obviously, there's a whole range of games, but I think that the fail cases are going to be real with this card. It's not unambiguously good like, you know, like the lightning bolt or something like that. So, I do think that the sky whale will lead to some pretty gross turns where you cast multiple spells in the same turn. It's totally a dangerous card.

Speaker 1:
[44:06] Yeah. But again, you know, we do, we really have to focus on either, where does, where are the winds pointing for Prismari in general? Is it one shot aggressive or is it value based? And we still don't have a feel, right, based on this, right? Like Prismari charm kind of straddles the line. Senar is more towards the value end of things. Abstract Pain Mage is more towards value, but Vibrant Outburst, Elemental Mascot and Spectacular Skywhale.

Speaker 2:
[44:37] I would say Elemental Mascot is both, it definitely is a value.

Speaker 1:
[44:40] It is in the middle. But I mean, dude, if you go, I mean, I know I'm just cherry picking here, but like if you go Elemental Mascot into Spectacular Skywhale and you get to untap, like your opponent's like, how much damage am I taking, right? Like vibrant outbursts, you tap down your one block or play any other spell. It's like, okay, well, game's over, you know? So kind of cool if they are going to lean that way. But I agree with you. I like B-minus for the Spectacular Skywhale because it is skewed towards that one side. Let's see what the trend does as we move forward here. The next card is Stadium Tidal Mage. This is too blue-red for a 4-4 Jinn Sorcerer at Common. It says, whenever this creature enters or attacks, you may draw a card if you do discard a card. This one also kind of straddling that middle ground. It is a 4-4 for 4 in blue-red, but also provides that card selection value going for you too. What do you think of Stadium Tidal Mage?

Speaker 2:
[45:40] I like the stats. Blue-red doesn't usually get 4-mana 4-4s.

Speaker 1:
[45:44] No, they don't.

Speaker 2:
[45:45] It's funny, because we're not that impressed with 4-mana 4-4s out of green, and that's actually like straight green 3 for a 4-4 is just below the curve. It'd need to have something else. Also, it's got a big tube of toothpaste. What's going on there?

Speaker 1:
[45:59] That is a tube of toothpaste.

Speaker 2:
[46:05] I think that having one or two of these in your Prismarie deck seems totally fine.

Speaker 1:
[46:08] Totally, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[46:10] I would give it a C.

Speaker 1:
[46:11] I would give it a C, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[46:13] But it looks fine to me.

Speaker 1:
[46:14] It does to me, too.

Speaker 2:
[46:15] 4-4 looter. You play this, you're probably going to have a decent play next turn as well.

Speaker 1:
[46:18] Right? Yeah, I like it. Next up is Stress Dream. This is three blue red for an instant and uncommon. It says it deals five damage to up to one target creature. That's really funny templating. Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one of those cards into your hand and the other on the bottom of your library. They really wanted to make sure that you could cast this.

Speaker 2:
[46:42] Yeah, well, there's no creatures in play.

Speaker 1:
[46:44] Even if there's nothing out there. This is, yeah, I mean, this is your big opus uncommon, right? It just triggers that and it's two for one.

Speaker 2:
[46:56] Yeah, triggers opus, kills a creature, draws a card, like even with some card selection. I mean, Stress Dream looks awesome. I would say Stress Dream is probably like a B plus.

Speaker 1:
[47:05] It's a B plus, right? I mean, two for one.

Speaker 2:
[47:07] Opus Tech is really going to want this card. It's two for one with card selection, triggering opus at instant speed. You really can't ask for more.

Speaker 1:
[47:13] Just triggering the big version of opus too. Yeah, I mean, this is just crazy. B plus for Stress Dream. Next is Rapturous Moment. This is four blue red for a sorcery. It's uncommon. It says draw three cards, then discard two cards and add blue blue, red, red, red.

Speaker 2:
[47:31] I like this card. This is cool.

Speaker 1:
[47:33] Do you?

Speaker 2:
[47:34] Yeah, draw three, discard two, get five mana, trigger opus, trigger opus. I bet this leads to some pretty nice little turns.

Speaker 1:
[47:41] So you're basically just digging for another five mana, like for Stress Dream or whatever.

Speaker 2:
[47:47] Yeah, or you already have it and you're just setting it up.

Speaker 1:
[47:51] Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2:
[47:52] So it's kind of like one mana, draw three, discard two, but again, the opus trigger part is pretty big.

Speaker 1:
[47:58] Okay. Yeah, no, I could see it. This would lead to the game ending in a lot of cases, because you're so likely to be able to find something to cast, even if it's not like another five mana plus, even if you just get to cast another incident or sorcery, like from what we've seen, again, thinking Spectacular, SkyWayle, Elemental Mascot type stuff. Is this card like individually powerful?

Speaker 2:
[48:24] No, the main reason it's not is because it's gated until you get to six mana. So first of all, one mana, draw three, discard two, would be very strong, but it's so expensive that you don't get to do that until turn six. And imagine you miss your sixth land drop. That's one of the concerns with all these kinds of cards. So I would say in a dedicated opus deck, it's probably like a B, but if you're not doing that, then it does fall off of it, I would say.

Speaker 1:
[48:53] Isn't it like a D or something if you're not? Let's say you don't have anything in play and you fire off Rapturous Moment. Are you happy?

Speaker 2:
[49:06] Well, when I say dedicated opus, I mean a deck that is doing a lot to make that work, as opposed to just having some opus cards in your deck. A natural blue-red deck is going to have some amount of this stuff.

Speaker 1:
[49:18] For sure.

Speaker 2:
[49:18] It just has to.

Speaker 1:
[49:19] Yes. Okay. So build around B for Rapturous Moment.

Speaker 2:
[49:23] Build around B looks good for Rapturous Moment. Cool card for sure.

Speaker 1:
[49:26] Yeah. Last Prismari card is-

Speaker 2:
[49:29] This is the way, by the way, to make your spectacular skyway.

Speaker 1:
[49:32] Right.

Speaker 2:
[49:32] It's ludicrous.

Speaker 1:
[49:34] Yeah. Last Prismari card is Visionary's Dance. This is seven mana. It's five blue-red for a sorcery. It's common though. And it says create two three-three blue and red elemental creature tokens with flying. But you can pay two mana and discard this card. And it says look at the top two cards of your library. Put one of them in your hand and the other in your graveyard.

Speaker 2:
[50:03] Yeah, this is the exact kind of the similar one from Strixhaven, the seven mana spell that made some elementals.

Speaker 1:
[50:10] That's right.

Speaker 2:
[50:12] So here the buyout is two mana, discard a card, discard it. So they basically, it doesn't count as casting a spell when you do that, which is fine, but it's not going to trigger Opus when you're spending the two mana, just keep in mind.

Speaker 1:
[50:26] But you get a card selection and a card for two mana, which is like pretty good, right?

Speaker 2:
[50:30] I mean, yeah, two mana, look at the top, two mana sleight of hand at instant speed is not like a card you'd by itself want to play, but stapled to a seven mana make two, three, three flyers sounds great to me.

Speaker 1:
[50:40] It does to me too.

Speaker 2:
[50:42] Because that's a good spell to cast on seven mana. And when you don't need it, you can spend two to discard it. It's one of the things I like about both Prismari and Quandrix is they have these really good finishers at common. This is just a really good way to close out games at common at very low cost to your deck because of the discard ability. So I would give Visionary's Dance a C plus. I think you want a couple of these in a lot of your Prismari decks.

Speaker 1:
[51:05] Yeah, I think so too. I think you're going to be playing that card. All right, next up is Green Black, which is Wither Bloom. So this is first card up is called Bogwater Lumerit. Lumeray, Lumerit. It's black green for a 2-2 Spirit Frog and it's common. And it says whenever this creature or another creature you control enters, you gain a life. Which of course is the thing that it's paying attention to.

Speaker 2:
[51:37] This looks like it gets, you know, makes the whole like...

Speaker 1:
[51:41] What is it called, an infusion or whatever?

Speaker 2:
[51:43] Yeah, witherbloom, like infusion mechanic work really nicely. Like I don't think you're going to be unhappy with this card pretty much anytime in witherbloom. This looks like a C plus to me.

Speaker 1:
[51:52] It looks like a C plus. And if it's not a C plus, then they screwed up. Next up is Teacher's Pest. This is black green for a 1-1 Skeleton Pest and uncommon. It has menace and whenever this creature attacks, you gain a life. There you go. And this one also has, you can pay green black to return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. Wow, that is really annoying.

Speaker 2:
[52:19] Yeah, two mana, one, one menace. So it's going to get in there, gains a life. So it's got like kind of pseudo life length, but not on the way, not unblocking. And then it just comes back for two mana. Two mana is not a lot.

Speaker 1:
[52:30] No, that's really cheap. Any type of sacrifice thing can go. You know, the downside, of course, is that just as it sits, it's not big. It's a 1-1.

Speaker 2:
[52:41] Yeah, you would always play this card though. It's just so much value. Like, it also, it comes back tapped, so it can block. So if they play it 2-1 and you play this, they're just like dumpstered. Like, what are they going to do? They're not going to attack into it. I guess if they have an exile ability, then sure. So I like C plus for teacher's pest. Looks like a nice little annoying card.

Speaker 1:
[53:01] Yeah, very annoying.

Speaker 2:
[53:02] Maybe even a B minus, honestly.

Speaker 1:
[53:03] Yeah, let's go B minus.

Speaker 2:
[53:04] Because it's good with self milk too.

Speaker 1:
[53:05] Definitely, let's go B minus.

Speaker 2:
[53:06] And it triggers life gain. Yeah, B minus on teacher's pest. This looks like it does everything the Wither Bloom deck wants, even though it's obviously a little small.

Speaker 1:
[53:13] Wither Bloom charm is next. It's green-black for an instant uncommon. Choose one of the next three. You may sacrifice a permanent. If you do, draw two cards. There's your teacher's pest combo. You gain five life? Or destroy target nonland permanent with mana value two or less? That's really good too.

Speaker 2:
[53:39] Yeah, those are all very solid.

Speaker 1:
[53:42] What do you think about that you gain five life?

Speaker 2:
[53:47] I think that it's basically an infusion enabler. Like, that's why you're doing that. There's no other real reason, I don't think.

Speaker 1:
[53:54] Because five is a decent chunk of life, but a whole card for that is a little tough.

Speaker 2:
[53:59] Yeah, you're not really going to be using that. But the thing is, I think that one's good, too. I think it's just, you know, it's the sort of thing where you need other cards to make it good, but clearly the cards exist, especially if there's infusion cards that key off, like, how much life you gain, you know? So we'll see about that.

Speaker 1:
[54:18] Yeah, interesting with that first mode, too. This is an instant, so you can sacrifice a creature that's going to die anyway, whether it's blocking or getting killed by a removal spell and get your two cards. It also just says you can sacrifice a permanent, so if it's in the late game, you can sac a land.

Speaker 2:
[54:36] Yeah, that's a great mode to have on this charm. It means late game, the destroy target nonland permanent, the cost two mode is not going to be that spectacular, but once lands are basically free, turning your charm into a draw two, I mean, that seems like it'd break a game open pretty easily.

Speaker 1:
[54:52] Totally. I like B for witherbloom charm. Looks like it has all the bases covered. Next is Essence Knit Scholar. This is black, green, and a black-green hybrid. So three mana total for a 3-1 dryad warlock at uncommon. It says, when this creature enters, create a 1-1 black and green pest creature token with whenever this token attacks, you gain a life. And at the beginning of your end step, if a creature died under your control this turn, draw a card.

Speaker 2:
[55:27] And this card looks awesome. So you get 3 mana for a 3-1 plus a pest. I would be in for that in Witherbloom no matter what. And then it says, if one of your creatures died, you draw a card? And that's incredible.

Speaker 1:
[55:40] That's really nice. Yeah, you can see a pretty common use case where you play this and then the next turn, you just attack with your pest, right? And your idea is, well, I want to trigger infusion. And then if they don't block it, you're like, sure. And if they do, you're like, all right, I'll just get my card on end step anyway. So like all of these are good things for you. And meanwhile, you're getting a three mana, three one that just kind of gets to sit there. So that's because obviously the one downside is that it just has the one toughness. So attacking with it is probably precarious, like it'll trade off for a lot of smaller creatures. But there are very valid use cases that don't involve this thing attacking. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[56:21] I think that the Essence Knit Scholar looks awesome. I'd give it a B plus.

Speaker 1:
[56:24] B plus for Essence Knit Scholar. Next is Grapple with Death. This is one black green for a sorcery. It's common. And it says destroy target artifact or creature and you gain one life.

Speaker 2:
[56:39] Perfect card. I mean, this is awesome. This is really good common. It's a sorcery. It's like the only knock on it, but that's not even really much of one. And it kills anything, including artifacts and you gain a life for your infusion cards. I like B plus for grapple with death as well. These are both close to A's, but not quite there.

Speaker 1:
[56:56] Yeah, totally. And you know, the sorcery speed isn't even that punishing because most of the infusion stuff cares about it on your turn anyway, right? Like when it ETBs or whatever.

Speaker 2:
[57:06] So like, yeah, if you're trying to use the infusion part, then that certainly is not a big deal.

Speaker 1:
[57:10] So grapple with death. B plus. Next is mind roots. This is the same cost, one black green for a sorcery at uncommon. And it says target player discards two cards. Put up to one land card discarded this way onto the battlefield tapped under your control. Target player discards. You get one of their lands?

Speaker 2:
[57:34] This is really cool card. It's basically it's a way to punish them for discarding lands, which is the like firing those off on turn three sounds awesome because it's like, okay, I guess I have to give you two spells. Like isn't mine roots really sweet?

Speaker 1:
[57:46] That's awesome. And you only get one, so it's not like completely broken where like, if they discard two lands, you're just like, thanks, like that would just be ludicrous. But this is what a really interesting take on a discard spell.

Speaker 2:
[58:01] Yeah, I think mine roots is really cool. I would give it a B honestly.

Speaker 1:
[58:05] I think it's just really good. Like how do you go wrong?

Speaker 2:
[58:09] I mean, the way you go wrong is you cast it on turn three and they just discard two spells and you spent your turn three not affecting the board. That is how it goes wrong, I think.

Speaker 1:
[58:19] But I guess that's just like not the worst though, right?

Speaker 2:
[58:23] It really is not, but man, if you're asking, how does this fail?

Speaker 1:
[58:27] Yeah, the fail case is obviously that it's late game and they don't have any cards, right? And you're like, wow.

Speaker 2:
[58:35] That is a fail case though, that is not the one I would be the most concerned with. I think that the main fail case I'd be concerned with here is that you just cast it on turn three against like a Silver Quill Duck, they discard two spells and just keep killing you because you spent your turn three doing nothing. Okay.

Speaker 1:
[58:52] But it's also a bad top deck in that other scenario. So there's, I guess, two knocks on it.

Speaker 2:
[58:58] That's just true of all discard spells. And so it's taking turn three up. But the thing is, casting this on turn three looks a lot better than most discard spells because if they discard a land you get to ramp, they really don't want to do that.

Speaker 1:
[59:09] They really don't want to do that. This card is awesome.

Speaker 2:
[59:11] I would actually give B minus to Mind Roots, but it's gonna feel pretty tough when they cast it on turn three and you're like, oh wow, I guess, and once you're discarding A land, you just discard two and it's just like, all right, you could have all the lands. I mean, that's so brutal, right?

Speaker 1:
[59:24] Oh man, yeah, this card is-

Speaker 2:
[59:26] You're excited to cast this card.

Speaker 1:
[59:27] I am.

Speaker 2:
[59:28] It's gonna pull you into Wither Bloom by itself.

Speaker 1:
[59:30] It is. It says, the best ideas stem from dreams. I wonder if the designer of this card was like, oh, you know, what if they get the land? Oh yeah, there you go. B minus for mind roots. Next is Pest Mascot. This is one black ring for a two, three, trampoline pest ape at common, by the way. And it says, whenever you gain life, put a plus one plus one counter on this creature.

Speaker 2:
[59:58] Yeah, it's legit.

Speaker 1:
[59:59] Totally legit. And by the way, after now that we're most of the way through three of the schools, yeah, these cards are pushed.

Speaker 2:
[60:07] Yeah, I think that's like ultimately the conclusion. All the cards just look awesome.

Speaker 1:
[60:11] They just look great.

Speaker 2:
[60:12] That's cool. A high power level format. I like it. We'll see how it plays out, but I am excited.

Speaker 1:
[60:16] So are we willing to go more than C plus on Pest Mascot? Does it get the B range at common?

Speaker 2:
[60:23] No, I don't think it does because it's just not always going to work. And even then, it needs like three counters before you really start to feel like you're getting somewhere. It's still going to be a solid card.

Speaker 1:
[60:33] Three? I mean, if I gave you a four or five for three to trample?

Speaker 2:
[60:37] But it's not a turn three, four, five, right?

Speaker 1:
[60:39] No, no, it's not.

Speaker 2:
[60:42] So I feel like...

Speaker 1:
[60:45] Yeah, I feel like the Pest Mascot... Whenever you gain life. That's cool.

Speaker 2:
[60:49] I would give it a C plus.

Speaker 1:
[60:50] C plus for Pest Mascot. Next up is Lewin Exchange Student. Uh-oh. This is two black green for a three, four legendary elf druid uncommon. And it says, Lewin enters prepared. Exile, and then it also has Exile Creature card from your graveyard. Lewin becomes prepared, activate only as a sorcery. So enters prepared and then can be re-prepared. The spell for Lewin is Pest Friend, which is a one mana, green or black. So a green-black hybrid for a sorcery that says, create a one-one black and green pest creature token with whenever this creature, whenever this token attacks, you gain a life. So four mana, three, four. Already set to go on spending one extra mana for a one-one pest. And then you can exile creatures from your graveyard to repest friend at one mana per. Dude, that is really nice. That is good.

Speaker 2:
[61:50] Yeah. I mean, you just, playing this on turn five to make a pest, and a three, four is already like kind of nice. And that's how you're going to want to play a lot of the prepared creatures is if you can slow roll them until you can immediately cast their spell. And then you end up getting to just do this pretty much as many times as you want. Not infinite, obviously, but like, there's going to be a lot of games where this can cast three to four pest friends.

Speaker 1:
[62:14] Right. And it's like.

Speaker 2:
[62:15] And you're my pest friend.

Speaker 1:
[62:19] And it's really easy, right? Because there's no mana associated with the re-preparation. It's just exile this. OK, pay my mana. OK, do it again. OK, do it again. And you can just spend a late game turn, just basically emptying out your graveyard of any creatures and turning them into it to pass for only one mana each. It is sorcery speed, so your opponent could break it up somehow. But like, man, B plus for a Luin exchange student.

Speaker 2:
[62:44] Oh, yeah, I would say I would say B plus like amazing card. I don't want to say exactly like trending towards a minus, but it's it's very good there.

Speaker 1:
[62:53] Next up is Old Growth Educator. This is two black green for a four four tree folk druid at uncommon. It has vigilance. Nice. It also has reach, which I really appreciate. Yeah. So four mana for four vigilance reach. Good on offense, good on defense. And then it has infusion. When this creature enters, put two plus one plus one counters on it. If you gained life this turn. I mean, that is probably worth like a sacrificial pest attack, for example, right?

Speaker 2:
[63:25] For two additional counters on such a powerful card, especially if you're in a matchup where like that, the two, like you're playing, you know, like red green or something where the stats really, really matter.

Speaker 1:
[63:37] You know what I want? I want either, I want to see if, I don't know if it's here, but I want a black or a green one mana instant that gives my thing death touch. Like these pests look like they're going to be jamming and people are going to want to just be snapping them off.

Speaker 2:
[63:51] That being said. You're just not going to block the pest because you don't want their infusion stuff to work, but obviously sometimes you might have to.

Speaker 1:
[63:59] But doesn't it just when they attack or?

Speaker 2:
[64:01] No, no, pests are when they die. Oh, these are the new pests.

Speaker 1:
[64:04] Yeah, new pests. When they attack, you gain a life. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[64:08] I just completely short-cut it because it just was called pest. It was black green. It said one life. My brain literally did not a single time put that connection together.

Speaker 1:
[64:16] Yeah. So I'm thinking you're going to save them for when you want to get your infusion trigger, but you cash them in. Probably going to die.

Speaker 2:
[64:23] You send them in and then they probably will die because you should block them. It's the opposite. That's actually much more interesting.

Speaker 1:
[64:29] That's why I want my death touch instant now. It's like, oh, I'll block your pest, haha. Anyway, old growth educator though, is just a pile of power and toughness ultimately. Like it's 4-4 or maybe it's 6-6. So it is a little difficult, I think, to give it a super high grade, but it is a lot of power and toughness on some decent stats.

Speaker 2:
[64:52] Yeah. I would probably say it's like a B minus. Like it's really going to hinge on how easy it is to gain life. Because if they're giving it to you, not for free, but at very low cost, and this is a 6-6 a lot of the time, then that's a very different experience. Then it's actually kind of hard to gain life and you have to do a lot of work for it. Because then I'm a little less excited about this. But if it's just a 6-6, not for free, but close to free, a good portion of the time, then yeah, I mean for old growth educator.

Speaker 1:
[65:23] Yeah. I have it in the C plus to B minus range.

Speaker 2:
[65:27] That's where I would start it.

Speaker 1:
[65:28] Especially when you put it up against Luh and Exchange student, you're like, okay, well, these are both the same cost and the same rarity and the same thing.

Speaker 2:
[65:36] These aren't the same card.

Speaker 1:
[65:37] And they're not the same card. Last card for Witherbloom is Root Manipulation. This is five menace, so three black green. For a sorcery, uncommon. Says, until end of turn, creatures you control get plus two plus two and gain menace. And whenever this creature attacks, you gain one life. So here's your pest payoff. You know, if you just end up with a pile of one-ones, Root Manipulation can end the game. Pretty easily. Plus two plus two and menace makes... That does make blocking extremely difficult. It's also sneaky good with just big creatures, right? Whenever you give menace, sometimes it's just like, I have a three-four, a four-four, and another four-four, and you're just like Root Manipulation, and even a board that you didn't have good attacks in before all of a sudden becomes a big problem. Obviously, the downside is that if your board is whittled down or isn't big, or if you're not really in a position where this can win you the game, or force your opponent to make uncomfortable blocks or whatever, then it kind of does nothing, which is a big downside. But this is like, it's powerful stuff for five mana.

Speaker 2:
[66:53] Yeah, I mean, it does require you to have a board, but how many creatures do you think you need before this becomes good?

Speaker 1:
[66:58] Three.

Speaker 2:
[66:59] Three?

Speaker 1:
[66:59] I think so.

Speaker 2:
[67:01] Yeah, that seems like the number.

Speaker 1:
[67:02] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[67:05] There's a lot of life totals where this card does really good work, and there's a lot of life totals looking at both sides where it's not going to be that good. I think it's probably a good card. I do think it will be dead some amount of the time. Getting three to four life back means you can attack all out with a little bit more confidence, and Menace, when you're attacking with three creatures, requires a lot. There are two creatures, instead of, they have three creatures out, and you have three creatures out, and they can block one of your creatures, because Menace stacks really nicely when you have multiple creatures attacking.

Speaker 1:
[67:35] Yeah, and a basic use case might be something like you have a two, two, and two, three, threes or something. These are not exciting cards, right? And that's what, 14 damage that you're able to send over, plus you gain three.

Speaker 2:
[67:47] Yeah, and gaining three life.

Speaker 1:
[67:48] Yeah. And of course, if the game has gone long, if you have a bunch of pests, if you have a few big creatures, if you have, you know, just kind of anything that cares about hitting the opponent, like this goes up. The downside is real, so we can't ignore it, though. It has that conditional nature, but I don't know. It does feel like this is the, you know, one of the few cards in your deck that could steal games where other cards couldn't, and that does have some value.

Speaker 2:
[68:14] It's a finisher.

Speaker 1:
[68:15] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[68:16] See, do you want a finisher, you know? That was the main question.

Speaker 1:
[68:19] I don't really know. I would go C plus on route manipulation and see how, I don't have it at the level. See how the archetype goes. I don't either. Not for a finisher. Finishers are not high on the priority list, you know, usually finishing the game as a-

Speaker 2:
[68:35] There's just a lot of cards that can finish the game, and a card that requires you to have a bunch of creatures in play is obviously like, you've already done a decent amount of work there, but it's a powerful card. I like C plus for route manipulation. It's the kind of card that you'll put in decks, and it's rarely going to perform at C plus level. It's going to perform at like B plus level or D plus level. There's not that many places it can go.

Speaker 1:
[68:58] The other good shortcut for cards like this that I like to use is, take something that costs the same amount of mana, and is at the same rarity. So any five mana creature that's in this color pair, even if it's a common, and really ask yourself how much worse would that card be than this? And in other situations, like ones where you're behind, how much better would it be? And a lot of times you'll find that just a random five mana common in the color pair will perform better in most scenarios than root manipulation. But in a few cases, root manipulation would be like the best card in the set. It might be the only card that actually matters. So that's how I like to break it down in my head. Okay, what do we got next? Lorehold? First one up is Carole History Buff. This is red-white for a 2-3 legendary vampire cleric. This one's uncommon. And it says whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, Carole becomes prepared. And what is his spell? It's called Pack a Punch. It is one red-white for a sorcery that says Millicard. Put two plus one plus one counters on target creature. It gains trample until enough turn. So two mana, two, three. If one of your... If you get to flash something back or have it for any other reason, leave, then it becomes prepared. Then you can cast Pack a Punch. And then maybe you can get the train rolling with the Mill card into another thing, and then do stuff. It is a two mana, two, three at base though, which is already fine, right?

Speaker 2:
[70:45] Yeah. I mean, you're going to be always happy to play this card, because it's again the same sort of thing where like your Lorehold decks are going to be doing this thing, because what else are you doing? You know, why are you playing Lorehold if that's not the case? And so you and your opponent are both going to, I think, rightfully assume like this is going to be a threatening card. And once you cast Pack a Punch, once you feel like you've gotten paid off, I would say.

Speaker 1:
[71:07] I think so, yeah. It is slow, it is clunky, it does require some things to go right, but they put the floor high enough that you can be patient. You can say, sure, I'll just wait. I would go B-minus for Corolla history buff. It is a little on the clunkier side, mana-wise. You know, this doesn't have that really clean line of like, you know.

Speaker 2:
[71:33] It doesn't have a clean curve. Like when you're looking at it, you're like, what am I gonna do with this? It's like, well, I don't know yet exactly.

Speaker 1:
[71:39] Right. I'll have it on the battlefield for a while, and then we'll see is kind of how it plays out. And that's okay. I don't think that makes it bad. What do you think for Corolla? I said C+.

Speaker 2:
[71:53] I like B-minus, I think. It's close, but a two mana, two, three, that has a pretty threatening ability in the game, is I think a fine card. Like I think you're mostly gonna be happy with that card.

Speaker 1:
[72:03] Reasonable. Next up is Lorehold Charm. This is red-white for an instant. At uncommon, choose one of three options. You can have each opponent sacrifice a non-token artifact of their choice, womp. Or you can return target artifact or creature card with mana value two or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, nice. Or you can have creatures you control get plus one, plus one and gain trample until end of turn. That's all your creatures.

Speaker 2:
[72:35] Yeah, this looks like the worst charm we've seen so far.

Speaker 1:
[72:38] Definitely. Like way more conditional.

Speaker 2:
[72:42] Like none of these things are going to do much in the first four turns of the game. So you know, five turns of the game, six turns of the game. I don't know.

Speaker 1:
[72:51] Right. It's somehow the late game charm out of red, white for two mana. And these are all conditional, I mean, highly conditional. Like the first one is almost irrelevant. It's so conditional. The second one is like, sure, you're getting a two drop at best back for your two mana, that this is nothing to jump out of your seat about, right? You're not even up a card or up mana on the exchange. And then the last one can end the game under certain specific circumstances, but every other circumstance, it doesn't. I mean, I guess you could even use it defensively if you needed to. But I mean, that's really the only one that, you know, just it's a combat trick, right?

Speaker 2:
[73:32] Like, yeah, this is more a combat trick than anything else. The one thing I like the most about it is that it, the second mode does trigger all the lower hold stuff. So like, you're never cutting this in a lower hold deck, you know, that's not what's going to happen.

Speaker 1:
[73:44] Instant speed trigger lower hold stuff and you're even money? Yeah, okay, you're right. That's actually pretty good. Still, I assume the lower hold charm's on the lower end of, I mean, definitely worse than the charms that we've seen so far. Like, is it even a C? I guess that's my first question. Is lower hold charm a C?

Speaker 2:
[74:04] Yeah, it's a C.

Speaker 1:
[74:05] Okay.

Speaker 2:
[74:05] Plus one, plus one in trample on all your creatures is a pretty strong ability.

Speaker 1:
[74:10] It is.

Speaker 2:
[74:11] And returning a creature back from the graveyard to trigger your stuff and get a little value, that seems fine. I don't know what's up with the artifact thing, but.

Speaker 1:
[74:21] Right. Okay, so we'll go C on lower hold charm. Next is Molten Note. This is White-Red Axe for a sorcery at Uncommon. It says, Molten Note deals damage to target creature equal to the amount of mana spent to cast this spell. Well, that's interesting. And then it says, untap all creatures you control. This is a sorcery, by the way. So just to be clear, that does include the red and the white mana then rather than just the normal.

Speaker 2:
[74:53] Right, so it's an X spell that two mana deal, two, three mana deal, three, et cetera. And then you untap all your creatures. So I guess that is the idea to like attack and then post combat Molten Note.

Speaker 1:
[75:04] Yes, which is very awkward. And then it also has flashback. It's flashback cost is six white red. So that is how much you've paid for it at that point, right?

Speaker 2:
[75:20] Yeah, so that's just gonna deal eight.

Speaker 1:
[75:22] It's just locks in at eight. You can't.

Speaker 2:
[75:24] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[75:24] Okay. Yeah, I don't... This is a strange card, but I don't really care. Like you could also just erase, untap all creatures you control. And I don't think I would... It would change my evaluation really at all.

Speaker 2:
[75:39] I mean, look, you're gonna play an X deal X, cause again, the red white spotted for free. So it's two mana deal two, three mana deal three, all the way up the curve.

Speaker 1:
[75:49] It's amazing.

Speaker 2:
[75:49] With flashback eight mana deal eight. Yeah, you're gonna play that card.

Speaker 1:
[75:52] That just kills two creatures. I mean, that's what that does.

Speaker 2:
[75:55] It's a B. I mean, it's just not much wrong with that.

Speaker 1:
[75:58] Two for one removal that is efficient versus the normal X spell that isn't. Next is pursue the past, yet another red white spell. This one's a sorcery at common. And it says you gain two life. You may discard a card if you do draw, wow, draw two cards. And this one also has flashback for two red white, so four mana on flashback. Hey, if you're gonna dirtle, like give me some life in there so I can have a little cushion, right?

Speaker 2:
[76:28] Yeah, and the flashback, I mean, obviously, you know, as we know, it triggers all your lore hold stuff, which is pretty cool. So yeah, I'm like in pursue the past.

Speaker 1:
[76:38] Yeah, looks like a C.

Speaker 2:
[76:39] This looks like a C.

Speaker 1:
[76:40] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[76:40] Like if you're playing the lore hold deck, I just can't really imagine not wanting this card in my deck.

Speaker 1:
[76:47] This is a pure engine card. I mean, it just stocks up your graveyard with other flashback spells plus itself. I would say though, that you probably have to be careful about how many pursue the past you run. I mean, if you could just discard them to each other, then you get the like looter argument going, but it is a sorcery speed, not doing a whole lot. Yeah. Next up is Spirit Mascot. So you thought you liked cards that cost red and a white. Here's another one. This one's a 2-2 Common Spirit Ox, and it says, whatever one or more cards leave your graveyard, put a plus one plus one counter on this creature.

Speaker 2:
[77:26] Yeah. So this is the, do the school's thing and get paid for it sort of deal.

Speaker 1:
[77:32] Yeah. So basically you want to start the game off with your Spirit Mascot on two and then set up for doing the thing. The knock on this archetype is that it's clunky, right? Flashback basically always costs more mana than it did to cast prior. And that's when you actually get these triggers, not when you fire off the thing at face value. And it was kind of the failure of Lowerhold in the first version of the set. So the question is, are there enough non-flashback ways to trigger this ability in the set? If there are, like ones that we've seen here where it like, oh, it just removes a card from your graveyard, and then your Spirit Mascot grows, this card could be very, very strong, a really solid common for this deck. But if you're waiting around to start flashing back stuff for four or five, we've seen eight mana one, that's just a little too slow and a little too late, I think, for the Spirit Mascot. So to me, maybe it's just the bad taste in my mouth from Originals, Strixhaven, Lowerhold, but I'd start off a little on the lower side, like a C-minus for the Mascot. But I would be delighted if this thing's like a C-plus, and you can kind of routinely get stuff out of your graveyard without having to pay big flashback costs.

Speaker 2:
[78:48] I think it's probably going to be closer to a C than a C-plus, but I think your Lowerhold decks are typically going to play it.

Speaker 1:
[78:53] Okay. All right. C-ish for Spirit Mascot. I hope that's true. That's the best case. Next is Practiced Scrollsmith. This one costs red, white, and a red-white hybrid, so a three-mana total for a three-two dwarf cleric at uncommon. It's got first strike, so three-mana, three-two, first strike, and when this creature enters exile target, non-creature, non-land card from your graveyard until the end of your next turn, you may cast that card. Wow, that is awesome. Gets a card out and gets you some card advantage.

Speaker 2:
[79:31] Yeah, and it also triggers all your stuff. So yeah, like you said, it gets a card out. So it's like, you will play this card sometimes when you don't even intend on casting the spell.

Speaker 1:
[79:41] Right. Now, it is non-creature, non-land. So you're hitting like instant sorceries, maybe an artifact.

Speaker 2:
[79:48] You do have to do a little bit of work. It's not, you know, to make sure you have a target. It's not a complete freebie. I like B for practice. No, B plus for practice. Scrollsmith, it's a three-two, first strike.

Speaker 1:
[80:00] Three-two, first strike, potential two for one that triggers all your stuff. I like B plus for the Scrollsmith as well. That's another one of those, like, hallmark cards where, if that one's not good, then the archetype flopped. Next up is Borrowed Knowledge. This is two red-white for a sorcery at uncommon. And it says choose one. You've got two options. First, you can discard your hand, then draw cards equal to the number of cards in target opponent's hand. That's cool. Or you can discard your hand, then draw cards equal to the number of cards discarded this way. So this is like full dirtle. Like this is a four-mana sorcery and that's all it does. Like you get nothing on board. But man, that is desirable in lower hold, right? Like to just, like wouldn't you be thrilled to just dump your hand, stock up your graveyard. It's just you have to pay four-mana sorcery.

Speaker 2:
[80:58] I think this card is bad. I think it's like an F actually.

Speaker 1:
[81:01] There's no way this card can be good, right?

Speaker 2:
[81:04] No, no. The problem I have with this card is that you need, in order to draw a lot of cards on it, you have to cast it pretty quickly. And if you cast it pretty quickly, you're not getting that much out of it. So, like you're discarding your hand to draw that many cards. Like that's not very impressive. I don't know. This just looks like an F. Borrowed knowledge looks no good to me.

Speaker 1:
[81:27] Right. It would be broken. But this is the desirable effect. You would love to be able to do it if it were cheap, if it cost one mana or zero mana or whatever. Two mana even. You might be interested in just ditching your hand and getting those cards back because having cards in Graveyard for Lorehold is so important. You cannot, especially at sorcery speed, pay four mana and just be like, your move, I mean, your opponent is gonna absolutely run you over. So yeah, I would just give you that. Yes. Next up is Startled Relic Sloth. Oh, you don't want to wake this guy up.

Speaker 2:
[82:02] No, no.

Speaker 1:
[82:02] This is two red, white for a 4-4 sloth beast. It's uncommon. It has both trample and lifelink, and at the beginning of combat on your turn, exile up to one target card from a graveyard. What a cool design. You can nab your opponent's stuff, but you can also just trigger Lorehold on your side.

Speaker 2:
[82:23] Yeah, really cool. And it even happens right away. It's beginning of combat. So even if they kill it before you get an attack in, it's still pretty nice.

Speaker 1:
[82:32] You know, I'm going to... Here it is, Luis, you from now on are going to be the startled relic sloth, and I'm going to be... We haven't got to it yet, but I'm going to be the Colossus of the Blood Age. How do you... Is that... We'll refer to ourselves only in those terms and demand everybody else does. Anyway, the startled relic sloth looks pushed across the board to me, and it looks like a B+.

Speaker 2:
[82:54] Yeah, I totally agree.

Speaker 1:
[82:56] Next up is Wilt in the Heat. This is the same cost, two red, white, for an instant, excuse me, at common. And it says, this spell costs two less to cast if one or more cards left your graveyard this turn. Again, looking for free ways to do this is becoming more and more important, and we've seen a few already. It says, Wilt in the Heat deals five damage to target creature. If that creature would die this turn, exile it instead. So we have a four-mana instant that kills most creatures, and it can even get cheaper at just two. That's nice for a common.

Speaker 2:
[83:32] Yeah. I mean, you're happy enough casting this for five mana, and then sometimes it's going to cost two mana. For four, yeah. Sorry, I meant four mana. But when you're doing your thing, it's really nice.

Speaker 1:
[83:43] Really nice. It's still a one-for-one removal spell. It's still four mana baseline to cast. It is difficult to make those profitable. This one can be because five damage actually does kill things to cost five and six mana. But your basic use case is it is going to be break even or less unless you can trigger the thing. Then if you can, I think it becomes premium level removal.

Speaker 2:
[84:10] Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1:
[84:11] So overall, I think I would give it a C-plus for Wilt and the Heat, not assuming that you can just always have it for two mana. If you could, I would give it a B.

Speaker 2:
[84:21] The better this becomes. If your deck is just an awesome, perfect lorehold deck, then this is like a B.

Speaker 1:
[84:26] Yes, exactly. And now it's me, the Colossus of the Blood Age. What do I do? I am a four white, red, six six artifact creature. Oh, I'm a construct at Uncommon. And it says when this creature enters, it deals three damage to each opponent and you gain three life. And when this creature dies, discard any number of cards, then draw that many cards plus one. Yeah, this thing is just clowning borrowed knowledge too. I mean, obviously, they're different grade of card, but still, this allows you to pitch those last couple of cards and you even get a bonus card out of the deal. And by the way, it's a six mana six six that helixes them when it eats you bees. I mean, that's just a lot.

Speaker 2:
[85:15] Yeah, this looks awesome. My inclination is to give it a B, but it could even be a B plus. The gaining three life part is just such a big upside where it's just like, you play this, even if they kill it, you maybe get to do the, discard some cards and draw a card, and you gain three life.

Speaker 1:
[85:32] Right. We love, I mean, these are the type of cards that are really great at stabilizing. I still would just like B for Colossus at the blood age of 60.

Speaker 2:
[85:40] I wouldn't quite give it a B plus, but it is very good.

Speaker 1:
[85:43] And very annoyingly, I think the startled relic sloth is much better. So that's, that's, I planted my flag a little too soon. That brings us to the promised land, Quandrix. Let's see how good it is. Please be good. First up is Cuboid Colony. This is that one that we mentioned. It's blue-green for a one-one flash flying trample. It's an insect at uncommon. So you got a two-mana one-one with those abilities, but it has the spotlight mechanic for Quandrix, which is increment. And again, that's whenever you cast a spell, if the amount of mana you spent is greater than the, this creature's power or toughness, this thing gets a plus one, plus one counter. So this is only a one-one. Theoretically, you cast it on two, and then for the next few turns, it's picking up plus one, plus one counters.

Speaker 2:
[86:41] Yeah, really easily becomes a two-two and a three-three. And then to make it a four-four, you have to play a four-mana spell. It's really not that hard.

Speaker 1:
[86:48] It's like a ramp deck, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[86:50] This just looks awesome. I would give Cuboid Colony a B. Like, it will be a bad top deck, but if you have this in your opening hand, it's like a two-mana four-four flying. You know, it takes a few turns to get up there, but you get effectively that value. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[87:05] I love it already. Cuboid Colony B. Next is Growth Curve. This is green-blue for a sorcery at uncommon. It says, put a plus one plus one counter on target creature you control, then double the number of plus one plus one counters on that creature. Oh man. I saw growth and my mind was thinking rampant growth. This is the other claim. This is make some creature massive. What do you think about cards like this, Luis? This is definitely verging into that win more kind of vibe, right? Where if you're doing the increment thing and you already have a nice big creature, it's often not in your best interest to try to double down on it. In this case, literally by throwing an uncommon pump spell at it that just leverages their removal even more. That said, if you are doing the increment thing, I mean, this can make one of your creatures just huge at sorcery speed.

Speaker 2:
[88:09] Yeah, I was going to say, the only thing better than winning is winning more, but yeah, I don't think this card's going to have a great record when you put it in your deck.

Speaker 1:
[88:16] Sorcery speed's rough, too.

Speaker 2:
[88:19] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[88:20] Yeah, I would go D on growth curve. I just think that if you're doing the increment thing, you're going to be generating value and winning the game, and this isn't the way.

Speaker 2:
[88:29] Yeah, I agree, I agree. I don't think it's the card you want.

Speaker 1:
[88:34] Dude, is this the best card name I've ever seen in my entire life? It's called terafractal. That is so good. Oh my God, that's good. It is green, blue, X for a one, zero. Well, that's not good. It's a dinosaur fractal at common. It has flying, but it says this creature enters with X plus one plus one counters on it. And when this creature enters, you gain two life. So what is it if I do two to three, two flying? For four.

Speaker 2:
[89:16] So you spend two if you spend four mana. Yeah, you get a you get a three, two flying game, too, which is fine.

Speaker 1:
[89:22] But it's not like amazing. Is this kind of meant to be playable at that range? But then since this deck can produce a three mana for a two, one flying game, too, is not that bad.

Speaker 2:
[89:35] Not that bad.

Speaker 1:
[89:36] Right. So so like that. So let's say the one mana for X, two mana for X. You're like, sure. But this deck can make a ton of mana, right? I mean, it has some ramp elements to it. So this is like late in the game. You're like, sure, I'll just spend seven mana on my terra fractal. And it's it's huge. Is that kind of the idea?

Speaker 2:
[89:55] It seems to me like one of the things that's cool about this card is like, you would have imagined this was going to be an uncommon in a lot of the cases.

Speaker 1:
[90:02] Right.

Speaker 2:
[90:03] But at this point, it's a common, which is pretty cool. I think this is a C plus common. The fact that it's a good three mana play, a good four mana play, and then gets bigger and better from there on, that works pretty nicely for me.

Speaker 1:
[90:19] You can play it for two, right? Just gain the two.

Speaker 2:
[90:22] Yeah, if you're desperate, yes, you can.

Speaker 1:
[90:25] Next up is Quandrix Charm. This is blue-green for an instant. Choose one of three options. It is uncommon. Counter-target spell, unless this controller pays two. Oof. Destroy target enchantment, or target creature has base power and toughness 5-5 until end of turn.

Speaker 2:
[90:47] Cool.

Speaker 1:
[90:47] That's good. The first one is a flexible counter-spell.

Speaker 2:
[90:52] It's a quench with a bunch of upside.

Speaker 1:
[90:54] Yeah. That's how I see it. Quench with upside.

Speaker 2:
[90:57] Yeah. And I think that that's totally fine.

Speaker 1:
[90:59] Really fits well in this deck. One thing of note is that if you make your creature a 5-5, any of the plus one plus one counters on it, just make it bigger than that, and that is kind of one of the core things for this. So you could attack with a creature that looks pretty big and make it absolutely massive at instant speed here. Destroy target enchantment is the least powerful, but when it's good, it's great. So I like Quandre's charm. Your framing to me is exactly how I see it. It's quench with upside, and that's pretty good. B minus for Quandre's charm?

Speaker 2:
[91:34] I'd probably just give it a B. I think this card's gonna play out pretty nicely.

Speaker 1:
[91:37] B for Quandre's charm. Next is Paradox Surveyor. This is blue-green and a blue-green hybrid. So three mana for a 3-3 elf druid and uncommon. It's got reach. And when this creature enters, look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a land card or a card with X in its mana cost from among them, and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. That's great. For 5 mana, you're going to hit, or excuse me, for 5 cards, you're going to hit a land like the vast majority of times. Then that's pretty cool that they give you a little bit of a late game nod there with the X spell, because you're probably not going to have that many cards with X spells in your deck, more in this archetype than others, but still not that many total. But it gives you the chance if you end up ripping your Paradox Surveyor on turn eight of hitting even a pterifractic.

Speaker 2:
[92:31] I mean, they're putting X spells are common too.

Speaker 1:
[92:33] Yeah. So that's cool.

Speaker 2:
[92:35] They're making it a little bit more likely. But yes, I think it's pretty cool that I think you could end up with a deck that has like three or four X spells without too much trouble, which means that it mostly gets a land and then sometimes picks up a card that at that point in the game, you probably are interested in seeing.

Speaker 1:
[92:50] B?

Speaker 2:
[92:51] Yeah, I like B for this. I mean, three, three, like, pretty much all the hybrid stuff is going to end up being about that, is my guess.

Speaker 1:
[92:58] Procter's Gaze is next. This is two green blue for an instant at uncommon. And it says, return up to one target non-land permanent to its owner's hand. Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield, tapped, then shuffle.

Speaker 2:
[93:21] So, ramping growth plus bounce at instant speed? Yeah, I'm in for this.

Speaker 1:
[93:25] I love it. I absolutely love it.

Speaker 2:
[93:28] Yeah, this, I mean, any card that says put a land into play or get a land, you're just like, always like, oh yeah, I'm in, that sounds great.

Speaker 1:
[93:36] I mean, that is true. I'm a sucker for that. But this is, you know, because the downside, right, of playing cards like ramping growth is that you leave yourself a bit vulnerable during that time period, right? Where you're not really affecting the board. This shores that up. I mean, this just says, well, I'm a little behind on board, but now we're even because I bounce your thing, but I get my land. And you can even do this at instant speed where, you know, you can use it to blank a combat or even better, you can bounce it on end step and really set them back time wise and then untap and do something big. I like B minus for Proctor's Gaze. I may be a little high on that, but that's where I'm going to go. What are you going to say?

Speaker 2:
[94:18] I would give it a C plus. I think you are maybe a little high.

Speaker 1:
[94:22] Tam observant sequencer is next. This is two blue green for a four three legendary Gorgon wizard at uncommon. And this one actually has landfall. Whenever land you control enters, Tam becomes prepared. Tam spell is Deep Sight. It is blue green for a sorcery that says you draw a card and gain a life.

Speaker 2:
[94:44] Do you like this card too?

Speaker 1:
[94:46] My God. These cards are just like, like I actually don't want to play the set just in case Quandrix is bad because I'll be so disappointed. Because this is, this is like the dirtliest. Like this is exactly what I want to be doing. Like landfall, Deep Sight, keep the engine rolling, but they don't make it too easy, right? Like you still have to pay and.

Speaker 2:
[95:08] No, you're going to get down to like eight life, but then you have lots of lands and cards. And then, and then things will go start going well.

Speaker 1:
[95:13] I want that tension. Um, so four mana, four, three. And as you mentioned before, a lot of times you want to play these things off curve, right? Like so much better if you can immediately do it. I guess, though, the problem is you can't Deep Sight that same turn either. So you're just going to play this on four because you're not going to wait till six, right?

Speaker 2:
[95:37] No, I think you're I think well, it's less. Yeah, it's less necessarily waiting till six and deciding like, because four and six are the two breakpoints. Playing on five doesn't really get you that much.

Speaker 1:
[95:50] Doesn't do much.

Speaker 2:
[95:53] Yeah, I think that most of the time you're going to want to run it out on four, but it depends what's in there, Dak. You'll know a little bit more at that point.

Speaker 1:
[95:59] Right. Can I just go B on Tam observant sequencer or is it even a little better?

Speaker 2:
[96:05] Yeah, you could go B. I think you're probably, it's probably closer to a B minus just because it's kind of expensive and you do have to up on top with it.

Speaker 1:
[96:14] Right. Thank you.

Speaker 2:
[96:17] But it's certainly something that could work out.

Speaker 1:
[96:19] Next is embrace the paradox. That is three blue green for an incident common. Draw three cards. You may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield tap. I, Luis, I'm so all in for quandary.

Speaker 2:
[96:33] Purses wants to draft quandary right now.

Speaker 1:
[96:35] Right now. Like right now. I mean, we talked about this type of card. What an episode or two ago. I love this type of card. The one that gets you cards plus ramp and keeps that tension high because you're spending five mana to not do a whole lot. But then you get to untap and do a whole lot. I love cards like this. What word do you want to be at on a grade for it, though? This is five mana and nothing happens to the board of consequence the turn that you cast it. That is a very steep cost. You cannot afford to play two of these in most games and still have a chance of winning. One probably, but it makes it a little less.

Speaker 2:
[97:21] I think it's probably about a C plus level card, but you're right that they don't really get better at multiples. You don't need a second one most of the times. You might want two because you want to draw your first one, but you don't really need to cast a second and brace the paradox. You've already ramped and drawn a bunch of cards. What else are you waiting for?

Speaker 1:
[97:37] Right. Yeah, I mean, my gut says it's probably like a C. I mean, this is a, in modern era, limited, really, really steep cost to pay. But I mean, I'll draft it at a B level. Who are we kidding? Next up is Fractal Tender. This is our other preview card. This is the three blue, green, three, three, elf wizard and uncommon. It's got ward two. It has increment. And it says, at the beginning of each end step, if you put a counter on this creature this turn, then you get a zero, zero, green and blue fractal creature token and put three plus one plus one counters on it. You know, the thing that's interesting about it is it has increment, so it has the ability to pick up these counters anyway. But if there's any other way to put a counter on it, you also would still get the three, three.

Speaker 2:
[98:21] So yeah, it only cares if you do it once, so it's not you're not getting like tons and tons of value in that sense. Like putting three counters on it doesn't make three fractals or whatever, but it's still obviously just an awesome card.

Speaker 1:
[98:35] It is. And I mean, it does trigger on each end step. Like if you have some type of counter engine going, you could play it, put one on it, get a thing, go to their turn, put one on it. You know, I don't know if that exists, but I mean, this card is clearly dangerous. It's very threatening to the opponent. It has Ward 2 to protect itself. The ceiling is extremely high on Fractal Tender. The question is, do you actually get to untap or have that thing like I just described often enough to make it worth it? That's the question mark to me. And I'm not sure. You know, it is a five mana 3-3. Like you are paying a cost to get this engine rolling for sure.

Speaker 2:
[99:17] Ward helps. I mean, at the stage of the game where you play this, if you play this turn five pass, they can probably kill it and pay for the ward. But if they don't, you probably just win because they couldn't kill this. And then next turn, you're getting a free 3-3 plus this is getting bigger. And it's just like things keep going from there. So I think Fractal Tender looks like a B minus to me.

Speaker 1:
[99:37] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[99:38] So there is one thing to note is there is a kind of a dive down, kind of blue give a creature a plus 0 plus 3 and hex proof card. And that card is a really nice combo. You play this on turn six and you can kind of protect things up.

Speaker 1:
[99:52] Yeah. Because I mean, the games where Fractal Tender survives and you're doing the thing, it'll be an A. I mean, it just will straight up take over the entire game. But yeah, in the meantime, you spend five mana and have it killed. That's good. B, B minus, B plus depending on your build and who you're playing against or what deck you're playing against for Fractal Tender. Last, Quandrix card is Fractal Mascot. This is four blue green for a 6-6 Fractal Elk. Look at that. Look at Elmer. Oh man, he's all shiny. It's a common Trampler, by the way, so 6 mana, 6-6 Trample. It says, when this creature enters, tap target creature an opponent controls and put a stun counter on it. How does that compare for you versus gaining some life? We look at these big 6-mana common ramp payoffs as one thing we really value is gaining life or maybe creating a 1-1 token, something that help you survive to the next turn. This certainly does that.

Speaker 2:
[100:56] Yeah, I think the Fractal Mascot is what, it's comparable to the Gain 4 thing, but a little better when you're being aggressive or a lot better. And sometimes it'll be like, will this tap down a 4-4? Some is often going to tap down something slightly smaller. So maybe it would be better if it was Gain 4, but I think it's pretty close. And that's balanced by the fact that it is also better when you're being aggressive. So that's pretty important too.

Speaker 1:
[101:28] Yeah. And then it is important to note the trample on Fractal Mascot because a 6-6 trample is big. It's just, it will often be the biggest creature on the battlefield. And if you've ramped it out a turn early, dude, that's a big swing, right? Like if you take any of these spells that have that ramp component that we mentioned and you play them before this and run this thing out on turn 5, it is almost guaranteed to be the biggest creature and lock down their best creature for a turn cycle as well. That is a valuable ramp target. And the fact that the first place that our minds went is could I gain life? How can I use this as a way to stabilize if I've gone embrace the paradox and I took a big hit, Fractal Mascot helps me stabilize the board pretty quickly. So it's checking both boxes. I can't really ask for more than that.

Speaker 2:
[102:21] Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1:
[102:22] See? I mean, I'm not going to jump out of my chair, but...

Speaker 2:
[102:25] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[102:26] Oh my God, Luis, this Quandrix looks so sweet. Okay. We are now going to go to blue. It'll be funny. There's not that many cards left. So many gold cards.

Speaker 2:
[102:39] Yeah, we front loaded it on doing all the multicolor.

Speaker 1:
[102:42] But really, honestly, this is one of the upsides to a five archetype build is that you do feel like you have a much better understanding of what they do before you go in. And I like that for newer players who are listening, who are like, okay, I got my feet under me. I know what each archetype is doing. With 10, it can be a little daunting. Okay, our first blue card up is Chase Inspiration. It's blue for an incident common, and it says, chart creature, you control gets plus zero plus three and gains hexproof and talent of turn. So that's the one you were just mentioning in the lease.

Speaker 2:
[103:13] Yeah. And if you've got good creatures to protect, this card's awesome. One mana to save a creature. Like this card always works pretty well. I would give it a C.

Speaker 1:
[103:22] I agree. These overperform.

Speaker 2:
[103:24] It's just one mana and it's hexproof and plus O plus three. There's not much that's killing your creature when that's what's happening.

Speaker 1:
[103:30] Exactly. Next up is Divergent Equation. It is blue, X, X for an instant at Uncommon. And it says, return up to X, target instant and or sorcery cards from your graveyard to your hand. And then you exile this.

Speaker 2:
[103:50] So it's three mana to get one back, five mana to get two back. At instant speed, it can like play to opus and increment. And that's one thing is that, you know, opus and increment overlapped pretty heavily in like what they're looking for. I think one of these is like a finisher, doesn't sound crazy to me, but I do think it's the sort of thing that is not a card I'm gonna heavily prioritize at all.

Speaker 1:
[104:15] Yeah, I agree. One at most, very situational.

Speaker 2:
[104:21] So it's like a D or a build around C, whatever you want to call it. Like, imagine a control deck where you get to spend a bunch of time casting removal spell, removal spell, removal spell, and you cast this for seven mana. It seems like you would probably be pretty happy with how that all played out.

Speaker 1:
[104:37] Next up is Fractal Anomaly. This is blue for an incident uncommon. It says, create a 0-0 green and blue Fractal creature token and put X plus one plus one counters on it, where X is the number of cards you've drawn this turn.

Speaker 2:
[104:52] So this is a payoff for being good at drawing cards. I mean, casting a draw three and then playing this, because it counts the card in your turn for your draw steps. So casting a draw three and then casting this is a one mana 4-4 sounds pretty good. It's a good way to make up on tempo for when you do want to cast your card draw spell.

Speaker 1:
[105:13] Yeah. I think the hard part is that the baseline use case of casting it on your turn with just as a 1-1 is below the bar for sure. So then, but then it kind of jumps, right? Like now you kind of want to get to a 3-3 or 4-4 out of the deal for the one mana. Being an instant means you really want to do it on your opponent's turn. I don't know, it's starting to be like I'm having to craft a scenario that's probably not that realistic to make Fractal Anomaly really good, but it is really good in that scenario.

Speaker 2:
[105:49] Yeah. You do have the buyout of it just being a 1-1, which obviously that's not good, but it means it's not a dead card. The fact that it's always going to do something is pretty nice. One thing that is a bummer is embrace the paradox, the draw three puts the line into play tapped, so you don't get to go turn five, play this, play a land, play Fractal.

Speaker 1:
[106:15] Totally, because that would have been... I mean, that probably still will happen, just you have to do it later. I'm interested in Fractal Anomaly. I'm interested. I'm not... I'm skeptical, but interested, I guess, is what I would say.

Speaker 2:
[106:29] Yeah, I would probably give it like a D, but in some decks, it's going to be closer to a B. If it's reliably... Like, this is a card... I want to be clear that I think the card has a lot of potential, because this isn't like, oh, let's look back on the set review. What card did we miss on? We didn't miss that this card could be really good. I just think we're going to have to see a little bit more about what those decks look like in order to see how often this makes up for the fact that you spent a bunch of time drawing cards.

Speaker 1:
[106:54] Right. And I'm with you, by the way. I would start it off at D. Like, this is a difficult card to make.

Speaker 2:
[106:59] Great.

Speaker 1:
[107:00] Next is Fractalize. This is blue X for an incident uncommon. And it says, until end of turn, target creature becomes a green and blue fractal with base power and toughness, each equal to X plus one. So this is a combat trick?

Speaker 2:
[107:16] Well, it's an interesting one, because for one mana, you can make their creature into a one-one base.

Speaker 1:
[107:23] Oh, because...

Speaker 2:
[107:24] But for like five mana, you can make your creature into a four-four base. And if you have a fractal that has a bunch of counters on it, this is plus one plus one, or more, depending on how much you pump into it. Like, imagine you have a three counter, like a three-three fractal. You spend three mana on this, now it's a five-five.

Speaker 1:
[107:41] Interesting. Hmm.

Speaker 2:
[107:49] Yeah, I think I think it's pretty strong.

Speaker 1:
[107:51] That is very flexible when you factor in the fact that you could shrink down your opponent's creature.

Speaker 2:
[108:01] So, to do that, you would just play... Most of the time.

Speaker 1:
[108:04] You would just play, pay blue, and their thing becomes a one-one base. That's right?

Speaker 2:
[108:11] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[108:12] That's pretty good.

Speaker 2:
[108:13] And against most decks, that's going to be a one-one, like...

Speaker 1:
[108:18] Exactly.

Speaker 2:
[108:18] Don't cast this on the fractals of the mirror, as I'm saying.

Speaker 1:
[108:21] Right. Yeah, no, I like that. That's really cool. I mean, it's a kind of a mid, pump spell, but if you factor in instant speed shrieking down a block, that's a complete game changer for a card like this. I like it. I mean, I would give this like a C plus or maybe even a B minus, like if it's just a removal spell, a decent chunk of the time.

Speaker 2:
[108:44] Yeah, I like C plus, I think, but I think it definitely has some good stuff going on.

Speaker 1:
[108:52] Next up is Procrastinate. This is a timely one for tax season.

Speaker 2:
[108:58] I'm interested to see what you think about this card.

Speaker 1:
[109:00] Okay, it's blue X for a sorcery at common. And it says Tap Tartar Creature put twice X stun counters on it. Wow. So the question becomes, can we just call this a removal spell? Or at what point can we just call this removal, right?

Speaker 2:
[109:21] Yeah. And I think, imagine you spend three mana, there are things, four stun counters. You spend four mana, there are things, six stun counters. Like, I was kind of set to look at this card and think like, no, this just doesn't seem like amazing. It's just an expensive stun. But it's like, no, it's kind of just a removal spell.

Speaker 1:
[109:39] That's so many stun counters.

Speaker 2:
[109:42] Yeah. You can get to the point where like, they're coming back, you know, it's done. So, I kind of like see on procrastinate, I think it's actually just a fine spell.

Speaker 1:
[109:53] I think you're right. It just feels like it's just going to meaningfully lock down anything. These are counters, right? You could put this on your guy, on our preview card, get the 3-3 fractal out of the deal.

Speaker 2:
[110:09] Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[110:10] Maybe you have to tap it down.

Speaker 2:
[110:12] If you wanted to, you could.

Speaker 1:
[110:14] Banishing Betrayal is next. One in a blue for an incident common. Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand. Surveil one. Sure.

Speaker 2:
[110:26] Yeah, this one looks... Because there's three pseudo removal spells in blue, not even counting Essence Scatter. So there's Procrastinate, there's Banishing Betrayal, and then there's another one of the put a card on top, run behind, put a card on top or bottom. And I think the Banishing Betrayal is likely the worst one. Bounce Surveyor one is fine, but it's just not something I'm like that excited about, you know?

Speaker 1:
[110:49] Right, I agree. This looks like a C-minus or something.

Speaker 2:
[110:53] Yeah, so you can play it if you need to, but it's just not a card I'm really gonna spend a lot of early picks on.

Speaker 1:
[111:00] Next card has been really performing well, especially in modern era Limited. It's Essence Scatter, one in a blue, instant common counter-target creature spell. I mean, creatures are the most important thing in Limited, and having an efficient answer for them when creatures are effectively always relevant is good. I mean, it's two mana, it's a lot of the time you end up ahead on the exchange.

Speaker 2:
[111:25] I think Essence Scatter has a pretty good chance of just being the best blue common. I would give it probably a B minus. One thing to note is that this is a spell-heavy format in terms of themes, in terms of people spending five or six mana on spells, like instance and sorceries in order to do stuff. So there are going to be times when Essence Scatter really doesn't do the trick for you.

Speaker 1:
[111:45] That's true. That's true. Some matchups a little better than others, but yeah, it's still just C plus B minus range. Like the efficiency is just so hard to ignore.

Speaker 2:
[111:56] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[111:57] Next is Flow State. This is one in a blue for a sorcery at uncommon. It says, look at the top three cards of your library, put one of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. If there's an instant card and a sorcery card in your graveyard, instead put two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. Sweet.

Speaker 2:
[112:22] Yes, it starts at sorcery speed anticipate. And then if you have an instant sorcery, all of a sudden you get to keep two of the three, turns into a little expressive iteration of sorts. I don't mind it.

Speaker 1:
[112:31] I like that. Yeah, that's a very, that's a sweet little card draw spell good at any point in the game. I guess I would give it a B minus. I mean, assuming you can get an incident of sorcery, and I mean, if it's turn six or seven, and you have that, and you top deck flow state, like you are in business, right? You're getting two of the best top three cards of your library, I mean, that's nuts.

Speaker 2:
[113:04] Yeah, I mean, I think B minus is right for flow state. The main thing I would caution people on is just cast this card on turn two. Like you don't need to save it to try to get an additional card if it's going to cost you. So I think people are maybe a little bit more prone to do that than you might want. But yeah, it's a good card. Like I'm always happy to play this card. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[113:28] Next up is Hydrochanneler. This is one in a blue for a one, three merfolk wizard at common. It taps to add blue, but you can only spend the mana to cast an incident or sorcery spell. It also has another activated ability. One, tap it, add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast an incident or sorcery spell.

Speaker 2:
[113:48] Yeah. I'm really curious about this card because this is another one that looks like it could be quite good.

Speaker 1:
[113:52] Definitely.

Speaker 2:
[113:53] But I'm not sure how it's going to end up playing out.

Speaker 1:
[113:57] Yeah. It just feels like with stuff having like flashback or X spells and all that stuff, that a hydrochanneler is going to be put to good use. And you know, you're getting a one, three for two mana. So at least it's an okay blocker, not a good blocker, but you know, the extra point of toughness is appreciated there. I'd give it a C for hydrochanneler. I think it's going to, I think you're probably going to want to play cards like this in the decks that have a bunch of that stuff. Next is Landscape Painter. This is one and a blue for a two, one merfolk wizard at common. And it enters prepared. Its spell is called Vibrant Idea. It's four and a blue for a sorcery that says draw two cards.

Speaker 2:
[114:41] I mean, two minute to one, and later in the game, you just spend five minute to draw two cards. Sounds pretty good. I think that, again, the main the main thing to keep in mind with this is just just trade it off early. You don't need to be trying to save this to to get your two cards. Like, I don't think you should spend you should you should not pay big costs to do that.

Speaker 1:
[115:03] Yeah, these are both mediocre cards. And so this thing, you know, you're really kind of trying to leverage this, the sum of its parts, right? You're trying to say, well, you got to get something out of both of these sides on average to make it really good. But I agree with you. If you are presented with a situation where you're going to try to be greedy and go for your vibrant idea, I would not do that. Next is Muse Seeker. This is one in a blue for a one, two elf wizard at Uncommon. It has opus, draw a card. Then if it's big opus, you can cast, then discard a card unless five or more. Man, it was supposed to cast that spell. So it's-

Speaker 2:
[115:50] So it's a looter. It's a looter when you play spells, except if you opus the spell, then it's no longer a looter. It just straight up draws.

Speaker 1:
[115:57] I like that. Incinery, sorcery, yeah, that's sweet. I mean, the big question mark for many of these is, how many instances sorceries are we actually running in a good version of these decks? Because I think we're thinking like a whole lot of them, but unless there's a bunch that make creatures, that was the key. Like for example, in the first set, where there was multiple spells that triggered and cared about things that trigger instance of sorceries, but the effect of them was to make like a token creature or something like that, so you could still build out a board. And that usually ends up being the difference, because if all of them are card draw and manipulating other cards and maybe some removal in there or whatever, there is a limit on how many of those you can play and still have a functional deck. I would assume that Muse Seeker is going to be very good. I would be very aggressive about playing my Muse Seekers and taking them and stuff until proven otherwise.

Speaker 2:
[116:59] Muse Seeker looks awesome. I think that you're gonna just be happy to play this card. You're opponent's gonna assume that it's gonna do good things. And by virtue of being a looter, it's gonna find you more spells. So I don't think you're gonna miss out there.

Speaker 1:
[117:17] I would go B on Muse Seeker.

Speaker 2:
[117:20] Yeah, I like B for that. It just looks like a really nice one.

Speaker 1:
[117:23] Next is Tester of the Tendential. This is one and a blue for a 1-1 Jhin Wizard at uncommon. It has increment and it says at the beginning of combat on your turn, you may pay x. When you do, move x plus 1 plus 1 counters from this creature onto another creature. I mean, that's definitely annoying for the opponent. You just play this thing on turn two, and then all you have to do is just cast your spells as normal. And then I like that. The ability to move the counters off at some point is kind of cool. Downsides to this card, well, it is very fragile. It's a 2-mana 1-1, so they could just kill it. And the other one, of course, is that on turn 2, you're happy. If you draw it later, you're quite a bit less happy, I would say.

Speaker 2:
[118:15] I mean, this really just asks the question, is a 2-mana 1-1 increment card good?

Speaker 1:
[118:19] Yes.

Speaker 2:
[118:20] Because if the answer is yes, which I believe it is, then this card is totally fine. And the fact that it can start offloading the counters, I mean, that's just nice.

Speaker 1:
[118:28] Where do you want to go for it? Like, is it a C? Is it a C plus? I mean, I wouldn't put this in the B range.

Speaker 2:
[118:32] I love the C plus. I don't think it's quite B range, but I don't, it's honestly not that far. Like, when you play this on turn two, it's just gonna be a three, three and two turns really easily. Like, it's not, that's not gonna be challenging. And then, once it is, like, you're just like, gonna be able to start moving counters around, because this is gonna be one of the more valuable cards, which shrinks this and lets it do its thing again. I think it's gonna work out pretty nicely.

Speaker 1:
[119:01] Yeah, and I think it has that quality that you mentioned, too, which is that if you play it on Tier 2, your opponent's gonna want to kill it. Like, they're not gonna want to just be like, yeah, let's just let this game go.

Speaker 2:
[119:11] Yeah, and then, yeah. It's a two drop that has a lot of value over the course of the game. I like that.

Speaker 1:
[119:16] Next up is Deiluge Virtuoso. This is two and a blue for a two, two human wizard at common. It says, when this creature enters, tap target creature an opponent controls and put a stun counter on it. And then it has Opus. This creature gets plus one plus one until end of turn. If five or more mana was spent, then this creature gets plus two plus two instead.

Speaker 2:
[119:43] Yeah, so it's a frost links that has kind of prowess.

Speaker 1:
[119:49] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[119:49] Double prowess on your expensive cards.

Speaker 1:
[119:52] I mean, it's weird because we've had a couple of these frost link style cards that have flopped. When I see these, I'm like, this has to be good, right? But now I don't know.

Speaker 2:
[120:01] Yeah, I think, so frost links used to be quite good. It's fallen a bit from there. Like, I don't think, I no longer am like, ooh, frost links, that's gonna be awesome, you know? Like, I just don't think that that's generally the case anymore. But how much extra stuff do we need on our common frost links before we think it's good? It's like, are you not entertained? Is this not good enough?

Speaker 1:
[120:26] No kidding. I mean, if this card sucks, it's just another like, power creep or whatever, but.

Speaker 2:
[120:33] Certainly it's a C at the minimum. The question is, is it a C plus? I think it's probably like a C.

Speaker 1:
[120:39] It's probably a C. Again, this also goes back to that question for Prismari about are we temporarily buffing our stuff and beating down, or are we getting value? This is a common that points us to that first approach. Next up is encouraging aviator. This is two and a blue for a two, three flying bird wizard at uncommon. It says, whenever this creature attacks, it becomes prepared and its spell is jump, which is a blue instant that says, target creature gains flying until end of turn. And that's from what, like, alpha or something?

Speaker 2:
[121:19] Yeah, yeah. Yeah, this card's sweet.

Speaker 1:
[121:24] Super cool that they're putting real cards on there, too.

Speaker 2:
[121:27] Oh, that goes so far for me, in terms of making me interested in what these things are doing.

Speaker 1:
[121:32] Very.

Speaker 2:
[121:34] It's really big. I just think it's very, very cool.

Speaker 1:
[121:38] Good card.

Speaker 2:
[121:40] Yeah. The fact that it can just continue to recharge itself and continue to kind of make the whole thing go, it's kind of like a three-minute, two-three flyer that just makes one of your other creatures flying every turn if you want it to. Right.

Speaker 1:
[121:53] And it does it that turn, right? Like, I can attack with both, get prepared, instantly cast jump before blocks, and my other thing gets through.

Speaker 2:
[122:04] Yeah. It lets you do the thing.

Speaker 1:
[122:07] I don't have to, yeah, it does what I want it to do, I guess is what I'm saying.

Speaker 2:
[122:09] Exactly.

Speaker 1:
[122:10] B?

Speaker 2:
[122:11] It also gives you a steady stream of spells, which I think is quite valuable as well.

Speaker 1:
[122:17] That's a great, yeah. Just every turn cast something? Who cares if it's even relevant? I go B on encouraging aviator. That seems good.

Speaker 2:
[122:28] Yeah. I like B. I think it's just going to be a very strong card. It's, how annoyed am I when they play this is definitely a big part of it.

Speaker 1:
[122:36] Definitely. And this is annoying. Next is Matter Bending Mage. This is two and a blue for a 2-2 human wizard at Uncommon. It says, when this creature enters, return up to one other target creature to its owner's hand.

Speaker 2:
[122:52] Here we are. Here we are.

Speaker 1:
[122:54] Whenever you cast a spell with X in its mana cost, this creature can't be blocked this turn. That's funny. This is like, I mean, at the point of whenever you cast a spell with X, this is like maybe the Marshallist card ever. Like this is like, we are so, but now the last part falls a little bit because it's like, okay, it becomes unblockable, who cares? But holy smokes, straight up awesome Manowar that even has a little bit of upside. Is this like bending, bending or?

Speaker 2:
[123:34] I don't think that they would say that they are using the Avatar IP.

Speaker 1:
[123:37] Okay, so different bending.

Speaker 2:
[123:40] It's possible that they are.

Speaker 1:
[123:41] I mean, you could blood bend, why can't you matter bend, you know? I would go B for matter bending mage.

Speaker 2:
[123:51] Yeah, I like B. I don't think it could be B plus level, but look, three mana to two bounce a creature, that is still very good.

Speaker 1:
[123:58] It's still good.

Speaker 2:
[123:59] We're not to the point where we're calling that one bad.

Speaker 1:
[124:01] No.

Speaker 2:
[124:02] And the fact that it sometimes is just randomly unblockable, sure. That's not bad.

Speaker 1:
[124:07] Yeah. Manowar is still good. Next up, oh man, look at this, Luis. The one, two punch. They went Manowar into divination for us here, but it's even better. It's quick study, two and a blue, instant draw two cards at common from, what was this from? I can't remember. But at any rate, instant speed draw two.

Speaker 2:
[124:31] Yeah. Instant speed draw two for three mana, probably like a C minus, but you know, right. We'll just give it a C. We can give it a C for old time's sake.

Speaker 1:
[124:38] There's spells matter all over the place in this set, so. And it was from Wilds of Eldraine, by the way. Next up is textbook tabulator. This is two and a blue for a zero three frog wizard at common. It has increment. And whenever you see a zero with increment, that's, you know, you're getting counters. And it says when this creature enters, surveil two. Increment is nice, but, you know, what are your goals for this? Becoming a two five? Which it will.

Speaker 2:
[125:13] I mean, two five is a pretty good blocker. I think that that's a reasonable thing to consider. But yeah, I don't really know what exactly you're hoping for. I mean, I think this is the pieces here work together nicely. It's good stats. It's going to increment really easily on the first two spells, at least, and Surveil 2 gives you a little bit of card selection.

Speaker 1:
[125:34] Surveil 2 is powerful. I would give textbook tabulator a D, however. Given the power level of the cards that we've seen so far, this is not on that same level, even of the cards.

Speaker 2:
[125:47] No, I think you're right about that. That is true.

Speaker 1:
[125:49] Next up is Brush Off. This is two blue blue for an incident uncommon. And it says, this spell costs one on a blue less to cast if it targets an instant or sorcery spell. It goes from two blue blue to just one on blue. And it says, counter target spell. So four mana counter a spell, two mana counter an incident or sorcery spell. That is nice.

Speaker 2:
[126:13] Yeah. Cool design. This is definitely like the set for it. There's no doubt about that. But I also think like, it just really comes down for me, how badly do you want to counter spell in your deck?

Speaker 1:
[126:26] Yeah. And four mana counter spell? No, not badly at all.

Speaker 2:
[126:32] Yeah. So like, yeah, sure. Sometimes it's a two mana counter spell, a negate. You don't really feel like you really won when you negate them.

Speaker 1:
[126:39] No, you don't.

Speaker 2:
[126:41] So I think that, yeah, I think that it's okay, but it's more of a sideboard card. Like this looks like a sideboard C plus main deck, like C, C minus, something like that. Really what it's gonna come down to is, does your deck have a bunch of expensive instance, which counters get better the more expensive instance you have, and some decks can make good use of this, but most decks are just gonna look at this and be like, I don't really need to play this card.

Speaker 1:
[127:08] Right, not very efficient overall. Next is Campus Composer. This is three in a blue for a three, four merfolk bard at Uncommon. It has ward two, and it says, this creature enters prepared. Its spell is called Aquios, or Aquius Aria. It is four in a blue for a sorcery, and it says, oh, that's pretty good, create a three, three blue and red elemental creature token with flying.

Speaker 2:
[127:42] I mean, this card seems awesome.

Speaker 1:
[127:43] Beautiful curve, right?

Speaker 2:
[127:45] Yeah, gives you the perfect curve. It just like does all the things you want it to do, and it does it at a pretty good rate.

Speaker 1:
[127:52] Really good. Yeah, I like... Man, it might even be a B plus.

Speaker 2:
[127:57] Yeah, I mean, your opponent plays the sun turn four, four toughness, ward two, it's probably not gonna kill it. And then next turn, they just play a three, three flyer, they're up a three, four plus a three, three for one card.

Speaker 1:
[128:08] And they got to cast a five mana sorcery, which might be relevant.

Speaker 2:
[128:12] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[128:13] Dude. And it's a good blocker. Yeah, yeah, that's really nice. I like B plus for campus composer. That's kind of a classic two for one, all upside. And like you said, a four toughness ward two, that is very, you need at least uncommon level removal to kill that. And even then you might not be able to. Next up is run behind. This is three and a blue for an instant at sorcery, at sorcery, at common. It says this spell costs one less to cast if it targets an attacking creature and it does what you think it does. Target, creatures, owner puts it on the choice of the top or bottom of their library.

Speaker 2:
[128:54] Yeah, I mean, this is obviously going to be fine. Like, there's no real way that this isn't good. Is it going to be the best removal spell? I think Essence Scatter probably is a little better, but you know, run behind is pretty good. Like, it's just probably C plus, I would say C plus level. These all play at about C plus level in my experience.

Speaker 1:
[129:13] All right, that's fair enough. C plus for run behind. Next up is Spellbook Seeker. This is three and a blue for a three, three flying bird wizard at common. And it says this creature enters prepared, and its spell is Careful Study. Blue for a sorcery, draw two cards, then discard two cards. Don't get it twisted. You're not getting up on cards.

Speaker 2:
[129:36] You're not going up on cards, but it's still pretty good though. Like, I think that it's gonna end up...

Speaker 1:
[129:43] Definitely.

Speaker 2:
[129:43] Being a card worth playing, just because it's a free spell plus a four-mana 3-3 flyer with decent upside. We're still not so far away that that's not approachable, but, I mean, we have seen a high-power level set so far, so that is worth keeping in mind.

Speaker 1:
[129:58] Yeah, and when you're getting your Careful Study for free, it's like, that's some valuable card selection, maybe some graveyard stocking. I mean, Lorehold wants this effect more than anything, but what do you think C for Spellbook Seeker?

Speaker 2:
[130:11] I think it's C, maybe even C minus.

Speaker 1:
[130:13] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[130:14] It's crazy.

Speaker 1:
[130:15] I know, I know.

Speaker 2:
[130:16] How much power creep seems to have happened, but I mean, people clearly like powerful limited formats, so I guess there's a reason for that.

Speaker 1:
[130:24] Yeah, I mean, we're both excited about this set. So, Muse's Encouragement is next. This is four and a blue for an instant at common. It says, create a 3-3 blue and red elemental creature token flying and surveil two for your five-mana instant.

Speaker 2:
[130:42] I think this card is great. This one looks really good to me because it's a five-mana instant that triggers all your stuff that you care about, and you can just pass the turn, leave it up, and a 3-3 flying that also surveils two is pretty nice. It even has like the little bit of ambush potential. Like this, I think, is the real deal. Muse's Encouragement looks, I mean, it's a C. I'm not saying this is a B-level card. I'm just saying this looks like a rock-solid common.

Speaker 1:
[131:07] Agreed. This is a great place to put five mana. You're going to see a ton of that card get cast, I think. Next is Orisa Tide Choreographer. This is four and a blue for a 2-2 legendary merfolk bard at uncommon. And it says, this spell costs three less to cast if creatures you control have total toughness, 10 or greater. And here's the key. When Orisa enters, draw two cards. So five mana 2-2 draw two, or if it's late game and some kind of board got stalled out, you are looking at a two mana 2-2 draw two at that point, which is relevant. It gives you a lot of wiggle room to actually cast one of those spells.

Speaker 2:
[131:53] Yeah, I mean, it's a Moldrifter that later in the game is going to be cast for two mana, which that's a point in the game where Moldrifter is also pretty exciting. So sounds pretty great to me.

Speaker 1:
[132:03] Yeah, this card looks amazing. I mean, maybe amazing. It's a little strong. Right up my alley, right up our alley.

Speaker 2:
[132:10] It looks good. But I think that you're going to be happy to play this card.

Speaker 1:
[132:14] I think so too. I'd go B minus on Orisa. I mean, is this a type of card that you could bounce and do it again or get some kind of card advantage engine going off of? Well, why not?

Speaker 2:
[132:26] It even costs two mana at a point in the game where you're getting up to that sort of thing.

Speaker 1:
[132:30] Right. I'd go B minus for Orisa, though. It is still five mana, mostly.

Speaker 2:
[132:37] Yeah, I like B minus. I don't think you need to go straight up B. But it's a good card. You're going to take a lot of the time.

Speaker 1:
[132:45] That's us being very responsible, because we both.

Speaker 2:
[132:47] Yeah, that's us being respectful and responsible.

Speaker 1:
[132:49] Yes. Last blue card is Homesickness. This is four blue blue for an instant uncommon. It says target player draws two cards, tap up to two target creatures, put a stun counter on each of them. I you know, I can never there's been multiple printings of cards like this where you're kind of meant to wait till their combat step, then lock down a couple of other things and get some cards. And when you do pull them off, they are powerful, right? Like it's hard for your opponent to kill you if you're resolving this. And then the two cards go a long way at that point in the game. But the cost of it, you know, needing to get to six man in the first place does seem very real to me. Like there was a similar card in two sets ago, right? In Lorwin?

Speaker 2:
[133:40] Yeah, the-

Speaker 1:
[133:41] The Merfolk one?

Speaker 2:
[133:43] There was the, well, yeah, there was the Merfolk one. There was the Rime Frost, which is the vivid one.

Speaker 1:
[133:50] That's the one I'm thinking of, yeah. What do you think? Homesickness.

Speaker 2:
[134:00] I think I would play it most of the time. You're getting such a nice little boost when it comes to expensive spells because of opus and increment. You are just getting that extra value, you know?

Speaker 1:
[134:14] Yeah, that's true. You may be, if it's a tiebreaker or a close call, you're actually a little happier to run one. I agree. I would give Homesickness a C.

Speaker 2:
[134:26] Yeah, I would give it a C as well. I think that's right.

Speaker 1:
[134:29] All right, let's move on to black. Our first black card is called Burrog Bane Maker. It is black for a 1-1 death touch frog warlock at common. And it has activated ability, one and a black, this creature gets plus one plus one until enough turn. I don't know, man. I mean, I'm always down for one mana 1-1 death touch. They tend to perform quite well and this one has a little bit of upside on it. I'm not really sure where it fits exactly, but maybe I don't need to care about that if it's just good enough on its own. Like a relevant one drop is already kind of a desirable thing.

Speaker 2:
[135:08] My guess is that it's going to be pretty good. I don't know exactly how good, of course, but I think that the Bane Maker looks solid. I don't really know how you can turn down a 1-mana death touch.

Speaker 1:
[135:20] I know. Again, any card that costs one mana and is relevant to the game is powerful. We've seen how good it is if you can start off your game by casting a one drop. The one thing that tends to push you over the top as well is if there is a bite card, like a green bite spell, then having cheap death touchers around goes a long way as well. I would start off with a C- for Burrog Bane Maker. It doesn't seem to really fit super well into anything, but power level wise, it's there. C- for me for Burrog Bane Maker.

Speaker 2:
[135:56] I think it's just a C.

Speaker 1:
[135:57] I think it's a little better. Okay.

Speaker 2:
[135:59] Yeah. I just think it's going to play out pretty nicely.

Speaker 1:
[136:02] Well, I'm going to tell you exactly what's going to happen to Burrog Bane Maker.

Speaker 2:
[136:06] It's true. It's true.

Speaker 1:
[136:07] Dissection practice.

Speaker 2:
[136:09] It's even right there.

Speaker 1:
[136:10] His Black for an Instant and Uncommon. And it says, target opponent loses one life and you gain one life. Up to one target creature gets plus one plus one until end of turn. And up to one target creature gets minus one minus one until end of turn. That's a lot for one mana.

Speaker 2:
[136:29] Yeah. I mean, they put it on common for a reason. And I think that this looks great in the RepRT decks, by the way, but also the game life. So it's like a cross deck synergy where it's like good with the infusion, good with RepRT. Just pretty solid combat trick overall. Minus one minus one, plus one plus one for one mana is typically not that far from where you'd want to be.

Speaker 1:
[136:54] Yeah. It makes combat really, really tough, especially in the first few turns of the game. You can basically always use that to win combat. I would give it a C-plus for dissection practice. Looks very playable to me. Maybe not jump out of your chair for it, but worth the inclusion in your deck.

Speaker 2:
[137:12] Yeah. I think C-plus is about right. It's not quite B-level, but it's going to play out really nicely in my experience.

Speaker 1:
[137:19] Lecturing Scornmage is next. It's black for a one-one human warlock at uncommon. It has RepRT. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, that targets a creature. Put a plus and plus one counter on this thing. Yeah. I mean, I mentioned it before. Yeah. It's just, you know, where do you want to start? And I think that if you're playing that deck, given that we've seen that Silver Quill looks aggressive and is very good at targeting its own stuff, I mean, Lecturing Scornmage is probably very scary to see. Turn one.

Speaker 2:
[137:57] Yeah. It's not seem hard to make this into a 3-3 pretty quickly.

Speaker 1:
[138:02] And in Silver Quill, you want to be turning stuff sideways. I mean, I'm assuming that you're not running this in black ring very much, right?

Speaker 2:
[138:12] It will depend on the contents of your deck, but yeah, I think that that's usually true.

Speaker 1:
[138:16] This is probably going to fall to the black white player the most. I would give it a B in that context. I guess what I'm saying is I want to give it a build around grade, where if you're in silver quill, I think it's a B. I think if you're outside of that, it's probably a lot less good.

Speaker 2:
[138:32] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[138:33] Next is-

Speaker 2:
[138:34] I would say that you're not that likely to play it outside of exactly silver quill, because I think the Witherboom decks are going to have other constraints on their mana.

Speaker 1:
[138:43] Exactly. Next up is Masterful Flourish. This is black for an instant at common. Target creature you control gets plus one plus zero and gains indestructible until end of turn. Well, I didn't get my gives it death touch, but maybe this will upgrade your pest tokens to be able to kill something, probably not. I think I'm kind of not interested in Masterful Flourish.

Speaker 2:
[139:10] This looks good in silver quill and pretty much unplayable in Witherboom, is my guess. Masterful Flourish looks like a C minus for silver quill, maybe a C like if you're really doing the thing. But yeah, not something that I think you're going to be that excited about.

Speaker 1:
[139:25] Yeah, overall, I guess it's probably like a D, but silver quill is maybe a C minus or something. Next up is End of the Hunt. This is one in a black for a sorcery at Uncommon. It says, target opponent exiles a creature or planeswalker they control with the greatest mana value among creatures and planeswalkers they control. These do really well. The correlation between mana value and thing you want to kill is very close. Like those circles almost always overlap on the Venn diagram of those. There are times when it doesn't, but you'd be surprised how often magic gets distilled down to just, well, how much did you pay for that? Okay, kill that then.

Speaker 2:
[140:12] Yeah, this is less an edict to like a classic like, oh yeah, this thing kills their worst creature and more just a removal spell. I would judge this as just a good removal spell.

Speaker 1:
[140:26] I would too. I would put it at B, for example. I really like cards like this. They way overperform relative. Like if you have them in the edict framework, get out of that immediately.

Speaker 2:
[140:37] Yeah, I mean, clearly sometimes you're not gonna get the thing that you want to get. Most of the time you will. And most of the time, even if it's not literally like, oh man, I want to kill their other five drop, but you killed a five drop, you're pretty, pretty happy with that. You're not gonna be doing anything.

Speaker 1:
[140:51] You think of two mana and it scales. They can have a 10 drop and you could kill it. You know, it's like, yeah. So I go B on end of the hunt. What do you think?

Speaker 2:
[141:03] Yeah, I like B. This is just gonna do what you want most of the time.

Speaker 1:
[141:07] Next up is Last Gasp. This is one on a black for an incident. Common turn creature gets minus three, minus three until end of turn. Yep, that would be an old card.

Speaker 2:
[141:19] That would be the best black common.

Speaker 1:
[141:21] Yeah, for sure. Not for sure, but definitely on the list, you know, depending. But I would say B minus for Last Gasp. We talk a lot about if removal spells can trade up mana wise and Last Gasp can.

Speaker 2:
[141:38] Yeah, it is just really efficient, really good. There's no deck that doesn't want it. You know, yep, just should be take it and be happy about it.

Speaker 1:
[141:46] Next up is Leech Collector. The one in a black for a 2-2 human warlock at uncommon. And it says whenever you gain life for the first time each turn, this creature becomes prepared and this creature's spell is bloodletting, which is black for a sorcery that says each opponent loses to life.

Speaker 2:
[142:10] So it doesn't chain. It doesn't, you know, it isn't a drain where you're like, all right, I'm going to play this and start using it. But it is, it is, I think, a pretty strong threat when you have this in play. And, you know, your opponent's going to be, they'll be pretty unhappy with most of the game actions you take will end up being bad for them. You're going to be able to gain life pretty easily. You're going to be able to start draining them out.

Speaker 1:
[142:32] I like beef for Leech Collector. I mean, it's a two-mana card, right?

Speaker 2:
[142:36] It's a two-mana card that in the late game is like...

Speaker 1:
[142:39] It's a problem.

Speaker 2:
[142:40] You know, they did limit it luckily to just one per turn, but you could still get this going like every single turn, I would say.

Speaker 1:
[142:49] Yeah, there's definitely a chance. And that, too, is going to add up pretty quickly, too. Next up is Melancholic Poet. This is one in a black for a two-two elf bard. It's common, and it has a repartee. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets a creature, each opponent loses one life and you gain one life.

Speaker 2:
[143:16] Yeah, solid card. Looks like a C. You just play it in your silver quill decks and probably not in your witherbloom decks is my guess.

Speaker 1:
[143:22] It's just going to be annoying. Yeah, the silver quill deck looks really annoying. Next up is Rabbit Attack. This is one in a black for an instant at uncommon. It says, until end of turn, any number of target creatures you control each get plus one plus zero and gain. When this creature dies, draw a card. Well, I guess there's what I was asking for, kind of.

Speaker 2:
[143:45] I mean, any number of target creatures you control, that's pretty nice.

Speaker 1:
[143:50] That is nice, especially with pests and stuff. Like you just send them in, they get blocked, then you do this and draw a bunch of cards.

Speaker 2:
[143:57] I mean, if you can make this into a draw too, like especially when it might allow a trade up when you normally wouldn't have been able to trade up, like I'm pretty happy about that. I like C plus for rabbit attack.

Speaker 1:
[144:11] I do too.

Speaker 2:
[144:12] You have to have a lot of creatures in your deck, but you should probably, in wither bloom and silverquill both, you know, end up there a lot of the time.

Speaker 1:
[144:21] And you can use it defensively. Yeah, you're just going to be able to get something out of rabbit attack.

Speaker 2:
[144:27] I feel like it's not going to be hard to end up in a spot where this really pays you off.

Speaker 1:
[144:32] Next up is Send In The Pest.

Speaker 2:
[144:37] Send In The Pest.

Speaker 1:
[144:39] This is one in a black for a sorcery at common, and it says, each opponent discards a card. You create a one, one black and green pest token that says whenever this token attacks, you gain one life.

Speaker 2:
[144:56] It's a ravenous pest, right?

Speaker 1:
[144:58] A ravenous pest. Yeah, I love these cards. I mean, I think I maybe overvalue these. There's been a couple of sets of late where they've been really good, but I tend to kind of start off high on them and then go from there. So I think I really like Send In The Pest. Like, you're getting a two for one-ish? I don't even see. I just think I want to just stack up. I mean, maybe is it worse because of like the decks that want stuff in the graveyard or whatever? Like, are you?

Speaker 2:
[145:37] Not enough.

Speaker 1:
[145:38] They discard a flashback spell.

Speaker 2:
[145:39] I don't think this is a C+. Like, this card is just going to be really obnoxious to play against.

Speaker 1:
[145:43] Okay. C, C+, for sending the pest. Next is Adventurous Eater. Uh-oh, here's our card. Two and a black for a three, two human warlock at common. It enters prepared and it has the spell Have a Bite. It's black for a sorcery, put a plus one, plus one counter on target creature. You gain a life. Yeah, I mean, this is just another good silver quill card, right? Did they add, they tacked on the gain of life to throw a loom in with their loom?

Speaker 2:
[146:16] Don't, don't, don't forget with her.

Speaker 1:
[146:18] Yeah, I'm not forgetting it. I, but I mean, this just seems, you know, three mana, three, two makes your thing bigger. Targets a thing like that's a lot for, you know, repartee and all that. It looks like, I mean, man, it's just tough because these cards are also pushed. I mean, this is like, it's got so much going on, but I just know it's like a C minus.

Speaker 2:
[146:39] Yeah. Yeah. Oh, this is not a, not slightly worse than average, I would assume.

Speaker 1:
[146:45] Yeah, exactly. Next up is Arnon Deathbloom Botanist. This is two and a black for a 2-2 legendary vampire druid at uncommon with death touch. And whenever a creature you control with power or toughness, one or less, one or less dies. Wow. Target opponent loses to life or you gain to life. I keep looking for extra little things to do with pests. And it's like, yeah, they got my back on that. Holy smokes.

Speaker 2:
[147:18] Yeah, there's no shortage. I mean, this is a powerful ability. And it's a death toucher, so it can trade off pretty nicely too.

Speaker 1:
[147:25] Seriously.

Speaker 2:
[147:29] I like where this one's at. I think Arnon looks to me like a B. Like I think most witherbloom decks are gonna have a pretty easy time of finding ways to use this card.

Speaker 1:
[147:37] Yeah, that's impressive. Next up is Cost of Brilliance. This is two in a black for a sorcery. It's common. It says, target player draws two cards and loses two life. Put a plus one plus one counter on up to one target creature. So this is another like that gold card right?

Speaker 2:
[147:53] Combat tutorial.

Speaker 1:
[147:55] Yeah, it is. But what I meant was it's splitting the difference between doing something, but also targeting your creature for repartee.

Speaker 2:
[148:03] Yeah, it does both those things.

Speaker 1:
[148:06] I mean, combat tutorial was excellent.

Speaker 2:
[148:09] Combat tutorial is a banger, for sure. And this can also nudge them out if you really need it to.

Speaker 1:
[148:16] Yeah, dude, that really matters, right? Especially for these aggressive, chippy decks like the silverquill deck, that's going to come up for sure. Like, okay, I can get you to two, finish you off with the cost of brilliance. If not, oh, I'll take some cards, put a counter, trigger my repartee, attack you. I mean, dude, I would have my eye on this card. I'm going to start with C plus for cost of brilliance. This feels like a better positioned version of the prior one, of Combat Tutorial.

Speaker 2:
[148:47] I think it's probably a little worse just because the two life does matter a lot, but I think overall, it's going to play great.

Speaker 1:
[148:54] I think it's worse as a card individually, but like...

Speaker 2:
[148:57] But it has more going on in the set.

Speaker 1:
[148:58] Right. Combat Tutorial was like, sure, I'll take a count. This just has like so much more going on and fits the archetype better too.

Speaker 2:
[149:05] Yeah, no, I agree with that.

Speaker 1:
[149:07] Foolish Fate is next. It's two and a black for an instant uncommon. It says destroy target creature. And then it says infusion. If you gain life this turn, that creature is controller. Dang, loses three life. Man.

Speaker 2:
[149:23] Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty happy with... I'm pretty happy with where it starts, you know?

Speaker 1:
[149:28] No kidding. I would go B on Foolish Fate. I don't think I want to go higher than that for a three-mana removal spell, but like it's right there.

Speaker 2:
[149:38] Yeah. I think that when you, you're not really going to play this card, like play into the infusion on this card, like, and care that much about it. It's just a nice little bonus. It will come up though. I mean, it's not, it's not irrelevant.

Speaker 1:
[149:52] So I guess the play pattern with the pest is attack with it, gain the life, then Foolish Fate, your blocker. You take the extra, you lose three more life, and then, you know, I have a better attack or whatever.

Speaker 2:
[150:04] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[150:05] That's probably going to be the, like, slow roll of the format, right? Next up is Poisoner's Apprentice, two and a black for a two, two orc warlock at uncommon. Infusion, when this creature enters, target creature and opponent controls gets minus four, minus four, until one turn. If you gain life this turn, holy smokes.

Speaker 2:
[150:25] Yeah, I mean, this is your flame tongue kavu. This is your uncommon like, if you can do the thing, this is a huge payoff. If you can't, this is obviously not, it's all or nothing.

Speaker 1:
[150:35] It is.

Speaker 2:
[150:35] You win or you don't.

Speaker 1:
[150:37] So basically you just need to know how many ways you have to gain life on your turn, and then appropriately decide whether you're gonna play your Poisoner's Apprentice or not. Because otherwise, you just can't really play a 3-mana 2-2. So let's put it into the context of you have decided that you do have enough ways to do it. How high of a grade does it get to? B plus, A minus?

Speaker 2:
[151:09] Build around B plus, like, whatever gains you get from it costing 3 mana, you kind of lose by it requiring mana a lot of the time to make it work. Not always, sometimes you don't need more mana because you attack with a pest and boom, that's it. But I would say that in a good witherbloom deck, this is probably a B level card.

Speaker 1:
[151:36] Yeah, agreed. Build around B plus slash just B. Very, very strong. Next is pull from the grave, two and a black for a sorcery at common. Return up to two target creature cards from your graveyard to your hand. And then the witherbloom bump, you gain two life.

Speaker 2:
[151:54] Yeah, there we go. That's what I wanted to see. I mean, this card looks great. I like, look, Sphinx's Revelation, it did the perfect thing. Oh, I'm not saying this is Sphinx's Revelation.

Speaker 1:
[152:07] I'm going to let you land that plane, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[152:10] I think that a big part of a big good combination that's really nice is drawing cards and gaining life.

Speaker 1:
[152:18] Right.

Speaker 2:
[152:18] Because the life gives you the time to use the cards. And in this particular case, like, yeah, I mean, this is, this is going to do exactly what you want it to do.

Speaker 1:
[152:26] For sure. Draw two spells in this case, gain the two, maybe get some bonuses from that and then play them. Six mana, pull from the grave, get back my Poisoner's Apprentice.

Speaker 2:
[152:40] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[152:41] C for pull from the grave.

Speaker 2:
[152:45] How do we, what's the way to describe that it's a C, but the first one is worth a lot?

Speaker 1:
[152:49] Yeah, totally. That is interesting, because the second one is like, you know, a D or D minus or something.

Speaker 2:
[152:56] If you get to the end of the draft, like, this is a C level card, yes. But if you get to the end of the draft and you don't have one of these, you might want to upgrade it.

Speaker 1:
[153:03] You're going to be sad. Next is Olney Alley Shopkeep. This is two and a black for a two, three goblin warlock at common with menace. And in fusion, it gets plus two plus zero. And as long as you've gained life this turn.

Speaker 2:
[153:24] Yeah, this looks like a D. This looks like the kind of card you're going to cut a lot of the time.

Speaker 1:
[153:27] Agreed. Next up is Cheerful Osteomancer. Osteo meaning bones?

Speaker 2:
[153:35] Bone, yeah. Osteomancer.

Speaker 1:
[153:37] Osteomancer.

Speaker 2:
[153:39] This one I like too, by the way.

Speaker 1:
[153:41] Okay. This is three in a black for a four, two orc warlock at common that enters prepared and has raised dead as its spell. Black sorcery, return chart, creature card from your graveyard to your hand. Classic. I mean, we literally call these raised dead effects, don't we?

Speaker 2:
[154:04] Yeah. That's what's so powerful about this theme or about this keyword is they, I think, figured out a way to make it look like two times cooler, maybe three times cooler by having. Imagine this was, well, this creature is prepared, you can pay a block to return a creature. That is so much less cool than just it literally being raised dead.

Speaker 1:
[154:25] Seriously.

Speaker 2:
[154:28] It's honestly not that close, how much cooler it is. I think the Osteom answer is a great card, by the way. I think it's a very solid card, but it just highlights how good of a mechanic prepared is. I think they did a good thing here. I would give it a C plus.

Speaker 1:
[154:45] And that's a common, by the way. So that's really impressive. Yeah. C plus for cheerful Osteomancer. Next is Eternal Student, which is three and a black for a four, another four, two.

Speaker 2:
[154:59] I've known a few of these.

Speaker 1:
[155:04] Three and a black for a four, two zombie warlock at uncommon. And it has activated ability, one and a black exile this card from your graveyard to create two one-one white and black Inglene creature tokens with flying. Whoa. Dang, that's really good. Cause you know, normally you look at a four or two and you're like, ah, it's just gonna trade off for some. It's like, who cares? Trade it for literally anything. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[155:35] I mean, this, this-

Speaker 1:
[155:36] And you can activate that whenever you want?

Speaker 2:
[155:41] Yeah, it's not sorcery. It's interesting. They don't usually do that, but I guess at expert level sets, they have a little more latitude, huh?

Speaker 1:
[155:47] Yeah. Interesting. I would have assumed that that would be sorcery speed. That's excellent.

Speaker 2:
[155:52] Or they'd be tapped. That's, that is typically how they do these things.

Speaker 1:
[155:55] It feels like. She was entering her 50th year of graduate study with no signs of stopping.

Speaker 2:
[156:11] I mean, is it B or B plus?

Speaker 1:
[156:12] At least a B. Right. Is it a B plus? I think it is a B plus. It's really close because it does trade down. So it's like, you're not, but it's a great blocker. Like it just sits there and like your opponent's like, Oh man.

Speaker 2:
[156:25] And if you sacrifice it, like that's obviously just money as well.

Speaker 1:
[156:28] Totally. B plus for Eternal Student for me. Two, one, one flyers. Like what?

Speaker 2:
[156:35] Yeah. It's a messed up card for sure.

Speaker 1:
[156:36] They can block. Like I'm just, I'm looking for the downside of losing it. Next up is Wander Off, which is three and a black for an instant at common. And it says exile target creature. C.

Speaker 2:
[156:57] I mean, yeah. Maybe C plus. Probably C. Probably C.

Speaker 1:
[157:01] Four mana is a lot.

Speaker 2:
[157:02] Yeah. But it's obviously a very good card.

Speaker 1:
[157:05] Yeah. And exile is great. It just, it has come up so much more now. Like just exiling is just so much better than it used to be. Next is Arcane Omens. This is four and a black for a sorcery at uncommon. And it says, it has converge. Target player discards X cards where X is the number of colors of mana spent to cast this spell.

Speaker 2:
[157:32] Yeah. So this is for in a two color deck, it's five mana discard two, terrible. In a three color deck, it's five mana discard three, also not good enough. So you need to be four or five colors. And this is just not worth it. Like there may be a converge deck floating around somewhere. And if that's the case, then yeah, I would play this card in that deck. But I'm not going to go out of my way to do that. And I think this looks like a build around D.

Speaker 1:
[158:00] Yep. That's exactly where I was at. And that's a little insulting, but it is what it is. Arcane Omens, build around D. Next up is Skavene Shade Lock. This is four on a black for a four, six snake warlock and uncommon. And then it says at the beginning of your first main phase, this creature becomes prepared. And its spell is Venomous Words. It's black for a sorcery that says target creature you control, gets plus two plus zero and gains death touch until end of turn. This thing is kind of interesting. It's really leaning on its stats. It's a five mana four, six. That's kind of the most important thing. Then you have to wait all the way till your next turn. But then you're getting, you know, the bar for these free spells or however you want to describe them is really low. Like it just doesn't have to do much. And this is, I mean, this targets a thing. So you're getting repartee going. It does give it plus two plus. So like that's good on pest tokens and stuff. Like a 3-1 death touch pest is kind of nice. Maybe the most annoying thing ever. And then this also just prepares for free every turn. It just keeps happening.

Speaker 2:
[159:21] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[159:24] Yeah, I mean, I mean, I mean, you know, it's a five mana card, so it's not going to be the most in demand. But I would give Scathing Shadelock like a B. I mean, a card that just generates these triggers and this thing every single turn. I mean, on its own, it becomes a 6-6 death touch, which is pretty annoying too. Like, and that's like worst case.

Speaker 2:
[159:47] Yeah, I think that the fact that it's uncommon gives you a little bit of a hint too. I think that is a useful way to look at things. And in this particular case, it's like, yeah, I think that the Shadelock looks like you would want one of these, this is a pretty, pretty burly attacker, sets up some nice attacks. It is unfortunate that it takes a whole turn cycle to be prepared.

Speaker 1:
[160:06] That's the rough part.

Speaker 2:
[160:08] Yeah, I think that's okay.

Speaker 1:
[160:10] Next black card is Sneering Shade Rider. This is four and a black for a three, three vampire warlock. At common, it has flying. And it says, when this creature enters, each opponent loses two life and you gain two life.

Speaker 2:
[160:29] Five mana, three, three. It says a mortuary thrall or whatever, the black, white one from Ravnica.

Speaker 1:
[160:36] Drain them for two.

Speaker 2:
[160:37] Yeah, the first one is worth a good amount.

Speaker 1:
[160:40] Yeah, it is. It's just, when you're getting beaten down by a silver quill deck and they place Neering Shade Rider, you're just like, okay, now it's like I'm down two more life. I can't race because they gain life and they have a 3-3 flyer, even though it's kind of a mid common. That is really good. My guess is it's probably not good enough for Wither Bloom just because it has the text you gain two life on it. Maybe it is. It's like probably borderline. But to me, this definitely passes the bar of a five mana common. Is it good enough? Do I even want to put it on my deck? Yeah, I think Sneering Shade Rider, you do. That said, I would probably give it like a C- because it's just up against bangers all over the place.

Speaker 2:
[161:30] A big thing you want to keep in mind when you look at cards like this is not just how good is this card. When we're looking at a rating, it's also like, what's the opportunity cost of putting this in your deck and taking it? And five drops, everything is just so much worse for expensive cards. That is just how it works.

Speaker 1:
[161:46] Yeah, exactly. C-?

Speaker 2:
[161:50] I like C- for the Shade Rider, though. It's a little bit like when we were talking about Pull from the Grave. Yeah, it's a C-level card. I would adjust it downwards a little based on how often you actually end up wanting it.

Speaker 1:
[162:02] Last black card is called Forum Necro Scribe. This is five and a black for a five for Troll Warlock at Uncommon. It has Ward, discard a card and repartee whenever you can. Sorry, I won't read that every time. Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. Holy smokes.

Speaker 2:
[162:25] Yeah, I mean, six mana, five, four, it's going to guaranteed get a little bit of a value because they have to discard a card to deal with it. And then if you get to start targeting stuff, you start getting stuff back. I'm in for that.

Speaker 1:
[162:40] Yeah, and we have seen many ways to repeat target, you know, to be able to kind of redo it turn after turn at the uncommon level.

Speaker 2:
[162:47] Yeah. And this looks like a finisher.

Speaker 1:
[162:48] Yeah, this is one where if you do it once, it's it's they're going to have a hard time winning. I would go C plus for Forum Necroscribe. It is six mana. It is a bit difficult to set up, but the ward is very relevant late in the game. And if you get to untap with this thing and do the repartee thing, you are winning, like for sure. So I say C plus. What do you think?

Speaker 2:
[163:13] I could even see B minus. Like, just having one of these in your hand is going to, or in your deck, it's going to be, make, lead to, I think a pretty different experience. Like, I think you're going to be pretty happy with having this as your top end card. It just looks very threatening to me.

Speaker 1:
[163:27] It does to me too. Red is next. Our first card is called Ancestral Anger. It's read for, it's read for a sorcery at common. It says, turn creature gains trample and gets plus X plus zero until an end of turn where X is one plus the number of cards named Ancestral Anger in your graveyard. Oh fun. But here's the buried lead. You also get to draw a card.

Speaker 2:
[163:53] Yeah, this is a reprint, so.

Speaker 1:
[163:55] This is a reprint? Oh, what's it from?

Speaker 2:
[163:59] Some, some set.

Speaker 1:
[164:01] Oh, Innistrad Crimson Vow.

Speaker 2:
[164:03] Yeah, there we go. I just knew we had seen this card before.

Speaker 1:
[164:05] You're right. I do remember it now that you say that. So, in this setting, what are we thinking? It, so it targets, but.

Speaker 2:
[164:18] It's a red card, so that doesn't really matter.

Speaker 1:
[164:20] So that doesn't matter, but it is a spell.

Speaker 2:
[164:25] It's okay for Prismari. It's probably better for Lorehold, though I'm not even sure what they're doing with it exactly.

Speaker 1:
[164:32] Yeah, I mean, they have the ability to maybe fill up their graveyard, and yeah, I don't know. This one feels a little... I mean, basically, the way I see it is, it's a cantrip, right? It's a red sorcery speed draw card that gives you like some minor upside. So if your deck wants that, then you want this. I assume it's like a D.

Speaker 2:
[164:53] Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1:
[164:55] Next up is dual tactics. This is red for a sorcery at uncommon. It deals one damage to target creature. It can't block this turn, and this card has flashback for just one in a red.

Speaker 2:
[165:12] This is a pretty aggressive card.

Speaker 1:
[165:14] It is.

Speaker 2:
[165:15] It does also, I mean, it's probably good because one mana deal one with flashback is pretty nice. I think that that does some good stuff.

Speaker 1:
[165:26] One of the keys here is that you can cast it, flash it back the same turn, which lets you either get two damage on one thing to kill it, or make two things not be able to block in one turn and just kill them.

Speaker 2:
[165:38] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[165:39] It's also worth noting that dead creatures cannot block, so you could just kill stuff with it.

Speaker 2:
[165:44] I would mostly view this as like a lava dart, where it just is a one mana deal one with flashback, and then sometimes the unable to block part is going to come up for you.

Speaker 1:
[165:54] Okay. Yeah, this only hits creatures.

Speaker 2:
[165:59] Well, players can't block, so.

Speaker 1:
[166:04] You know, Gut Check says this is going to be good, right? It gives you... It's going to be good. Yeah. Like, I would start it off at B for dual tactics. If I had to guess whether it was a B plus or a B minus, I would say minus, but I'm going to still just start at B.

Speaker 2:
[166:20] I would say B minus, but yeah, it's going to be a very solid card. I think that there's no doubt about that for me at least.

Speaker 1:
[166:26] Two spells in one turn. I mean, again, let's keep thinking back to Prismari. Are we aggressive one shot with creatures or are we value it is getting further and further towards the aggressive one shot with creatures and dual tactics in that deck is a house. Like both of your guys can't block and I get two spell cast triggers, like that's game ending. So I like that too. Next is impractical joke. This is read for a sorcery at uncommon. Says damage can't be prevented this turn. Impractical joke deals three damage to up to one target creature or planeswalker. So red sorcery speed deal three to a play to a creature, or maybe a planeswalker. Do they make those anymore? Like when was the last time we had a freaking planeswalker and it can't be prevented?

Speaker 2:
[167:14] Yeah, obviously a great car. Obviously a deal three. And the damage can't be prevented part like might come up here and there, but it's obviously just mostly the, just getting a ton of value off the fact that it's just one man a deal three. So that gives it makes it like a B, almost B plus, really good value.

Speaker 1:
[167:33] Ultra efficient. Next up is Expressive Fire Dancer. This is one in a red for a two to human sorcerer at common. It has Opus. This creature gets plus one plus one until end of turn. And then if it was five or more, this creature also gains double strike until end of turn. And again, we see yet another vote for the more aggressive version of the Blue-Red Spells deck. The Opus deck does look like the payoffs are in that aggressive. This is a common. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[168:03] That makes me want to go a little higher on ancestral anger, which is funny because Opus, the mechanic itself doesn't really lend itself to it. Like that looks like a slower deck sort of thing. But I think given how these cards look, I would much rather, I would mostly rather just be like, assume that you want to be a little bit more aggressive, or at least that's where they're leading us to.

Speaker 1:
[168:26] Totally. The pay, you know, you have to look at the payoffs and that's where all the winds are blowing. That said, Expressive Fire Dancer looks fine. You know, you can use it to get in for that. You know, it's probably a good to drop for the deck. I still am not high on those type of cards as being, you know, they are very synergy based. They need a bunch of stuff around them. They can be fragile. I would say, I still probably say C- for Expressive Fire Dancer, but that's in the Prismari deck. So not exactly a glowing review. What do you think?

Speaker 2:
[169:01] Yeah, I like C-, like you're not going to get double strike that often, but this is a good two drop. Like it's frightening.

Speaker 1:
[169:07] Two drop, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[169:09] I mean, it's a nice combo with Ancestral Anger, if you can set it up to like pump it and then give it double strike. Yeah. But like that's, we're talking about a lot of stuff at that point.

Speaker 1:
[169:16] We are. But I agree with you that Ancestral Anger does go up, now that we have like, you know, four or five versions of the temporary buff creatures. Next up is Goblin Glasswright. This is one in a red for a 2-2 Goblin Sorcerer. This one's common and it enters prepared and its spell is called Craft with Pride. It's red for a sorcery that says create a treasure token.

Speaker 2:
[169:43] I like this card.

Speaker 1:
[169:44] I do too. I do too. I mean, they really did a good job.

Speaker 2:
[169:49] That can give you a little free spell, give you a treasure, just like it helps ramp you. It does a lot of cool stuff.

Speaker 1:
[169:55] I like C for Goblin Glasswright.

Speaker 2:
[170:00] Yeah, I would just give it a straight C. I agree.

Speaker 1:
[170:01] Living History is one in a red for an enchantment at Uncommon. It says when this enchantment enters, create a 2-2 red and white spirit creature token. And it says whenever you attack, if a card left your graveyard this turn, target attacking creature gets plus 2 plus 0 until end of turn. And I'm not, I mean, I got to see more here of the commons in white particularly, but this lore hold stuff looks a little clunky.

Speaker 2:
[170:28] Looks a little fancy, like a little finicky. You're just like, okay, how am I setting this up? How often is that actually going to be the case? You know?

Speaker 1:
[170:35] But this is a, you know, it's not a creature technically, but it's a 2-mana enchantment that gives you a creature. And it just sits out there whether the creature dies or not and gives you this bonus. So it's like, this is kind of a why not.

Speaker 2:
[170:51] Yeah. You kind of already got paid up front.

Speaker 1:
[170:54] Exactly.

Speaker 2:
[170:56] It is true.

Speaker 1:
[170:58] That said, I'm still a little skeptical. I mean, I guess I would go like B-minus. Maybe C-plus for living history.

Speaker 2:
[171:08] I like C-plus.

Speaker 1:
[171:10] I'm just skeptical, man.

Speaker 2:
[171:11] I just think it's going to be okay. But the juice is largely not worth the squeeze, as it were.

Speaker 1:
[171:18] Right. Thunder Drum Soloist is next. This is one in a red for a 1-3 dwarf bard at uncommon. It's got reach and opus. It deals one damage to each opponent. And if it's super opus, it's three damage instead. Again, this one still follows into that first camp. It's not value-based, it's still damage-based. This one's a little different because it doesn't temporarily buff and get in that huge one-shot style attack, but it certainly chips away at them.

Speaker 2:
[171:56] Yeah. I mean, a 1-3 reach that pings for one off spells, like, I think that a lot of spell decks would just play that card anyway.

Speaker 1:
[172:06] And I think definitely the way that Prismari set up with the combat-based payoffs, even though this one's not going to get into combat that often, this one's going to pile on a bunch of extra damage, and I like it for the deck a lot. Operating under the assumption that the Prismari deck functions well and is a good archetype, I would have a Thunder Drum soloist every single time. I'd give it a B for that deck.

Speaker 2:
[172:29] Yeah. I think it's a B in the Aggressive Prismari deck for sure. I don't think that the Oral deck is necessarily out of the running for this card. 2-minute 1-3 reach that can be annoying and ping them is still pretty reasonable.

Speaker 1:
[172:43] You're right. And Flashback will trigger the 3 damage a lot, right? For the more expensive side. Next up is Tome Blast. This is 1 in a red for a Sorcery Common. It does 2 damage to any target and you can flash it back for 4 in a red.

Speaker 2:
[172:58] It's Firebolt, but yes, not quite.

Speaker 1:
[173:00] But not quite. But still excellent. It is Sorcery Speed. But, you know, it's really funny because this isn't a real question, but it's just funny that if the flashback was 3 in a red, like, would this card be better or worse, right? It's like, it would be better, but having the flashback be 5, like, does trigger all the big opus stuff, which can really matter. So it's kind of funny, but it seems really well positioned for that reason, for the opus decks.

Speaker 2:
[173:39] Yeah, I mean, this is going to be just a great card for any red deck. Like, you're never going to take this card out of your deck.

Speaker 1:
[173:44] Do you have it above a C level? C plus?

Speaker 2:
[173:47] I would give it a C plus, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[173:48] Yeah, agreed. Next is-

Speaker 2:
[173:50] If you just look at it from the capacity of, like, you play a two drop and they tone blast it, like, I don't know, I feel like that's pretty much, you know, advantage you. Yes.

Speaker 1:
[174:03] That is a major bummer for the opponent. Next up is Blazing Fire Singer. This is two and a red for a two, three dwarf bard at uncommon, and it enters prepared and it's spelled- This is so cool, Luis, that they did this. Just that they're using real spells. It's delightful. It's Seething Song. Two and a red for an incense that adds five red mana to your mana pool. I mean, I don't think that's- Is that great?

Speaker 2:
[174:36] No, this doesn't look very good to me. Well, let's see. You play this on turn three. On turn four, you go Seething Song, play a six drop, I guess is the idea.

Speaker 1:
[174:44] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[174:44] How often- Often, I think Blazing Firesinger is going to end up in a spot where you either play it and they kill it. Just fine. That's like neutral-ish. You spent three mana, that's about a good break point. You play it and you have nothing to Seething Song with, or you play it and you have something to Seething Song with. And it's not just how likely is each scenario. It's like, how good is it when you have something? That's pretty good when you have something, but I don't know that it's like, I'm really stoked about all this.

Speaker 1:
[175:11] No, I think the real issue is that the floor is in the middle. It's a three mana, two, three. That's the focus, because if I'm getting more or less free rolled a Seething Song, fine, because Seething Song is okay if you're getting free rolled. Right? But I really like, man, the difference, if this was a three, three versus the two, three, for example, would be really big. I think it's the difference between me being like, I'm in, I'm going to play that every time versus. Sure, I guess I'll play my Blading Fire Singer if I need a three drop or whatever.

Speaker 2:
[175:46] Yeah. I think this is just just going to take a very specific deck to be good. And even in that deck, like would show a bunch of expensive spells and that's kind of the way to do it. But even in that deck, you're just going to draw this sometime and have it not really work.

Speaker 1:
[176:01] C? Looks like a C minus to me, honestly. Next up is Charging Strife Knight. This is two and a red for a three, three Spirit Knight. At uncommon, it has haste and you can tap it to discard a card and draw a card.

Speaker 2:
[176:20] Yeah, this card's really cool. I mean, it's a three mana, three, three haste.

Speaker 1:
[176:23] And I just want to turn it sideways.

Speaker 2:
[176:25] Pretty good, but you get to. And then you can hand back and loot when you need it to.

Speaker 1:
[176:31] Yes. Either way, I guess I'm probably turning it sideways. But they largely have gone away from this, right? Like creatures that are clearly meant to be attacking don't often have tap activated abilities.

Speaker 2:
[176:43] So it's a bit of tension. Is it good tension?

Speaker 1:
[176:47] A little tension is good.

Speaker 2:
[176:47] A little tension is good.

Speaker 1:
[176:50] That said, C+, B-,

Speaker 2:
[176:55] I like B-, I mean, look, when you play this and you don't have a good attack, it's a hasty looter, rummager. And when you do have a good attack, you'll feel pretty good about it. I think it's kind of a win either way.

Speaker 1:
[177:09] You're right. You're right. B- for Charging Strife Knight. Next up is Rubble Rouser, which is two in a red for a one for Dwarf Sorcerer at common. When this creature enters, you may discard a card if you do draw a card. And it also has Tap, exile a card from your graveyard to add red. When you do, this creature deals one damage to each opponent. That's cool. Yeah, that's really cool, actually. It rummages on ETB and then it can mana ramp you a little bit.

Speaker 2:
[177:50] Yeah, this looks exactly like what Lowerhold wants, actually.

Speaker 1:
[177:52] Exactly.

Speaker 2:
[177:53] Like, it gets a little rummage, it sets itself up for the first time it provides mana, and then you get to enable all your stuff, not even at no cost, at like negative one cost, because you're actually getting mana off of it.

Speaker 1:
[178:06] Totally. Yeah, I like it for Lowerhold a lot. I don't see it going anywhere else necessarily, but for them, I mean, I would give it a C in Lowerhold.

Speaker 2:
[178:14] Yeah, it might be a C+.

Speaker 1:
[178:16] Might be a C+. That's very synergistic, yep. Next is Seize the Spoils. This is two in a red for a sorcery at common. It says, as an additional cost to cast this spell, discard a card, draw two cards, and create a treasure token. This is a reprint as well.

Speaker 2:
[178:39] Yeah, this looks like a not that exciting card. They've been trying to give us a lot of extra reasons to play the discard, the tormenting voice type cards. And I think this one, if you have to play it, it's totally fine, but I don't think it's that exciting.

Speaker 1:
[178:57] No, but I mean, go back to that Prismari deck, like this fits.

Speaker 2:
[179:03] Yeah, yeah, no, it does.

Speaker 1:
[179:05] I agree with you though, it's not that exciting. I would give it a D plus for season spoils.

Speaker 2:
[179:10] If you have to play it, you have to play it, but it's not really going to be where you want to be.

Speaker 1:
[179:14] Strife Scholar is next. This is two and a red for a three, two orc sorcerer at common. It has ward, pay to life, and an interest prepared. And its spell is awaken the ages, which is a five and a red sorcery that says create two, two, two red and white creature spirit tokens.

Speaker 2:
[179:35] You know what's kind of funny is like some amount of these spells I've just never heard of. Like where did this card come from?

Speaker 1:
[179:41] I mean, are these all reprints?

Speaker 2:
[179:44] I mean, they're all real cards as far as I know.

Speaker 1:
[179:47] Oh, I thought some were and some weren't.

Speaker 2:
[179:50] Oh, is that true?

Speaker 1:
[179:51] I thought so. Yeah, cause I, there's a ton of these I haven't heard of.

Speaker 2:
[179:55] Yeah, that maybe it made that probably does make more sense than I just haven't heard of these cards.

Speaker 1:
[180:00] Cause I feel like every time I see one that I recognize, I'm like, oh, cool, and then the rest, I'm like, yeah, whatever. So this is an interesting take. We've often had the two mana that then you can spend five or six later to do something. But this is a three mana that then you can pay six mana later to do something. And then they kind of, interestingly, maybe tacked on ward pay to life on a two toughness creature. Combat is kind of your main concern with it dying. Strife Scrawler looks not super great.

Speaker 2:
[180:37] It looks fine. Yeah, it looks fine.

Speaker 1:
[180:39] D plus for Strife Scrawler?

Speaker 2:
[180:40] What I don't like about it is it's a three, two that is going to die when it gets into combat. That's what three twos do. But then also it's got a six mana spell on it. So like, I'm not sure how, like am I supposed to just not do anything with this card for three turns and then cast a mediocre spell? Like that doesn't sound amazing to me.

Speaker 1:
[180:59] No, none of this does. I would go D plus for Strife Scrawler.

Speaker 2:
[181:07] Yeah, I like D plus for it, which it is exactly what D pluses are, which is you can play this card and it's fine, but I think you can usually do a little bit better.

Speaker 1:
[181:18] Yeah, fringe playable. Next up is Tablet of Discovery. This is two and a red for an artifact. It's uncommon. And it says, when this enters, mill a card, you may, oh, you may play that card this turn. And then it taps to add red or double red, but only to cast instant sorcery spells.

Speaker 2:
[181:39] Hmm, I think this card's really cool. It's a really neat design, first of all, but-

Speaker 1:
[181:43] This turn.

Speaker 2:
[181:44] So you mill a card, and then if it's something you can play, like if you mill a land, you could play it, if you haven't played a land yet. If you mill a spell, well, it taps for two mana for instance in sorcery, one mana otherwise.

Speaker 1:
[182:01] That's cool. I like that it replaces itself, although it is just a little tricky to, I mean, maybe playing it on turn three isn't ideal, but that is kind of when you want the ramp part.

Speaker 2:
[182:15] Yeah, that's what I think is going to be a little tricky with this, is I think that you are not going to want to play this on turn three so much, but if you don't play it on turn three, like you are losing out on some of the ramps, so I don't really know the answer to how that's going to play out so much.

Speaker 1:
[182:34] Yeah, it feels like a card that's kind of split down the middle. It is cool though. I think I would give it...

Speaker 2:
[182:46] I kind of want to give this a B.

Speaker 1:
[182:48] I don't want it to go a lot lower.

Speaker 2:
[182:54] It seems pretty great to me. I don't know.

Speaker 1:
[182:58] I just feel like you kind of can't have both. You know what I mean? It's like I'm reading it as one card or the other rather than both. Like it's either late game replaces itself-ish, but then the ramp isn't very good or it's early game and you kind of have to forego the card, but then you get like a decent mana rock. And I'm not really interested in either of those. Put them together? I'm interested, but I'm not at the B level, I guess. I think I would give it like a C.

Speaker 2:
[183:32] I think this is a good card because I think what you can do is you can just take a turn off. Like, you can get both. Like, if you play this on turn four, that way if you flip a land, you just get to play it right away. And you have two to three mana to play the card with, and then you still are getting a decent amount out of the ramp.

Speaker 1:
[183:50] Okay, so that's a sweet spot.

Speaker 2:
[183:52] Yeah, that's kind of how I see it.

Speaker 1:
[183:53] Okay, that's cool. I like that. C plus, I would go for Tablet of Discovery. What do you want to give it?

Speaker 2:
[183:59] I think this looks like big Lorehold or even, or Prismari, both look like they would utilize this card pretty nicely.

Speaker 1:
[184:07] So what grade do you want to give it?

Speaker 2:
[184:09] I'll give it a B. I would still give it a B.

Speaker 1:
[184:11] Holy smokes. Next is Unsubtle Mockery.

Speaker 2:
[184:15] You're gonna really like this card. You're gonna take that card highly.

Speaker 1:
[184:17] Mockery or Tablet?

Speaker 2:
[184:19] No, the Tablet. The Mockery too, because it's just a great card. But I feel like the Tablet's gonna be like a slow burn. I think you are gonna like the Tablet a lot.

Speaker 1:
[184:27] Yeah, I think the thing, the real key is like if I can mill a card that I can use this thing to cast, then it's like so good, you know, or hit the land drop. I like what you said about playing it on four. Four, that makes sense to me, because you have a better chance to hit and hit a land and cast the thing and all that stuff. Next is Unsaddle Mockery, two in a red instant common. Unsaddle Mockery deals four damage to target creature, surveil one.

Speaker 2:
[184:55] Yeah, this one's nice.

Speaker 1:
[184:56] Very good. Is it a B minus or a C plus? It's a B minus, right?

Speaker 2:
[185:03] Can it just be a B? Three mana deal, four surveil one, instant speed. Seems pretty great.

Speaker 1:
[185:09] Yeah, that is really good. All right, B for Unsaddle Mockery. Next up is Garrison Excavator. This is three in a red for a three, four orc sorcerer at uncommon. It's got menace. And whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, create a two, two red and white spirit creature token. Well, there's your payoff.

Speaker 2:
[185:33] Yeah, I mean, three, four menace is fine. That's not really what we're after. But every time, I mean, imagine if you played a turn three rubble rouser and you played this on turn four and you just immediately can make a thing. Like that sounds incredible.

Speaker 1:
[185:48] That sounds really good. If you play a card off of Tablet of Discovery, that is leaving your graveyard, right?

Speaker 2:
[185:59] Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[186:00] So that's a thing too.

Speaker 2:
[186:01] There we go. Your favorite card works with that too.

Speaker 1:
[186:03] Yeah, B+. Gerskin Excavator for lore hold is like a B+, right?

Speaker 2:
[186:13] Something like that, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[186:15] But for like Prismari, it's like shrug.

Speaker 2:
[186:20] Yeah. I think for Prismari, well, you know, I have faith that they're going to do a pretty good job of like doing some good crossovers. So I actually think that these are not just going to be lore hold or just Prismari cards. I think that we're going to see a pretty good amount of like, hey, this actually works pretty nicely here. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[186:44] So I would give Gerskin Excavator a B, but in lore hold, it's probably like a B plus. That's what I would say.

Speaker 2:
[186:53] Yeah. I like that. I think that's good. I think this is going to be one of the good buildarounds.

Speaker 1:
[186:57] Next is Micah Reader of Ruins. This is three and a red for a four, four legendary human artificer at Uncommon. It has Ward, pay three life. And whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may sacrifice an artifact. If you do, copy that spell and you may choose new targets for the copy.

Speaker 2:
[187:19] I'm not seeing a lot of cheap or free artifacts.

Speaker 1:
[187:21] What's my artifact I'm sacking?

Speaker 2:
[187:25] Floating around. So I'm skeptical of this one, I will say.

Speaker 1:
[187:29] I would start Micah Reader of Ruins off at a D.

Speaker 2:
[187:32] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[187:33] Even though it does have decent stats, that's just not what carries the day in these types of sets. Next is Tackle Artist. This is three and a red for a four, three trampling orc sorcerer at common. And it has Opus put a plus one, plus one counter on it. And Super Opus put two plus one, plus one counters on it instead.

Speaker 2:
[187:56] So four mana, four, three trample, and then plus one, plus one counters. All right. Yeah. This looks like a C.

Speaker 1:
[188:01] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[188:01] Like you're going to be happy to play this card. You're not going to necessarily like, you're not going to have to take this card early.

Speaker 1:
[188:09] No, no, definitely not. And by the way, this is yet another vote for the creature-based version of it. So obviously that's where it's at. Next up is Archaics, it being Prismari. Next up is Archaics Agony. This is foreign red for a sorcery at uncommon. It says converge Archaics Agony deals X damage to target creature, where X is the number of colors of mana to cast a spell. And it says exile from the top of your library, exile cards from the top of your library equal to the excess damage dealt to that creature this way. You may play those cards until the end of your next turn. Still though, this just feels like the other one, right? Where it's just like, well, are you actually hitting for four?

Speaker 2:
[189:04] Yeah, and this is exactly that. It's like, if you can spend four colors, then I'm kind of in. If you can spend two colors, I'm definitely not. So the only interesting one is, at three colors, what do you do?

Speaker 1:
[189:19] Right, and I think the answer is no. I really do think you wanna be able to at least get to four.

Speaker 2:
[189:27] I think you'd like the dream of getting to four for sure.

Speaker 1:
[189:29] Yeah, like if I knew I could only make three colors, I don't know that you can do this converged stuff.

Speaker 2:
[189:37] Yeah, that's kind of where I'm at too. I think that it's certainly possible that this ends up being, you know, like some of the converged cards are like okay on two to three, but my guess is we're gonna wanna be like five pretty strongly.

Speaker 1:
[189:50] Right, you wanna, I mean, realistically, we're being conservative by saying four, I mean, you want five. Like you wanna be able to do five, you wanna cast this for five. Like if you do that, now you're in business. You know, you can kill a three, three, get two cards, kill even a four, four and get a card back. So this is obviously a build around card being converged. You don't just throw this into a red deck. I would give it a build around, I mean, I'd give it a build around B if you can get to five colors. Like this card is strong, it kills something and maybe even draws you a card or two.

Speaker 2:
[190:26] Yeah, I'm skeptical that you can do it. If you can get to five colors, it is strong, but yes, I agree.

Speaker 1:
[190:31] Next up is Artistic Process. This is three red, red for a sorcery. It's uncommon and you can choose one of three options. You can have it deal six damage to a creature or deal two damage to each creature you don't control or create a three, three blue and red elemental creature token with flying that has haste and talent of turn. That is a nice card. One for one removal or on those particular board states where they've gone wide, you could just wipe out their board. And then the fail case, if that's what you want to call it, is a five mana, three, three haste with flying.

Speaker 2:
[191:08] Yeah, this looks great. It's going to kill one thing inefficiently, a lot of things potentially quite well, or make a three, three when all else fails.

Speaker 1:
[191:18] Yep.

Speaker 2:
[191:18] And also with haste, might as well just get an extra three.

Speaker 1:
[191:21] I like B for artistic process. That versatility really adds up to me.

Speaker 2:
[191:25] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[191:27] Next is heated argument. That's four and a red for an instant at common. It deals six damage to target creature. You may exile a card from your graveyard. If you do, it also deals two damage to that creature's controller. Yeah. Yeah, I'm in for this. I mean, it's hard to get excited about a five-manner removal spell, but this one really, you know, you're talking about the crossover type stuff. This one really does the thing. Like the extra two damage can really add up in a Prismari deck, casting a five-manner removal spell that kills basically anything at six damage means you're going to trigger your super opus across the board. And the two damage extra damage is actually going to matter in that scenario too. And in lower hold, it still nabs a card from your graveyard, which will trigger that stuff too. I like C for heated argument.

Speaker 2:
[192:25] I can see it's a completely playable card. It's not something you're not going to be like, oh, man, I finally got one of those.

Speaker 1:
[192:32] No, but I think it's very playable, which is saying a lot for a five-manner removal spell. Next up is Pigment Wrangler. This is four and a red for a four four orc sorcerer at uncommon. It's got Flying and it enters Prepared, and its spell is called Striking Pallet. It is red for a sorcery that says, when you next cast an instant or sorcery spell this turn, copy that spell, you may choose new targets for the copy.

Speaker 2:
[193:03] How much do you like a five-manner four four flyer? Because that is not bad.

Speaker 1:
[193:07] I think I like it. I think it gets the thumbs up, like a five-manner four four player would probably be a C, or flyer would be like a C or...

Speaker 2:
[193:18] It would be a C. I don't think it would be much better.

Speaker 1:
[193:19] Right. So this one gives you a clunky but free-ish way to double an innocent sorcery. I mean, that puts it... And then at least keeps it at C or solidifies it there, or maybe even makes it a C+.

Speaker 2:
[193:42] Is it a C+, it's kind of the question, I think.

Speaker 1:
[193:44] I think, sure, sure. I go C+.

Speaker 2:
[193:47] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[193:50] It's close though. Next up is Rearing Embermare. This is four and a red for a four or five horse beast at common, and it has Reach and Haste, a decent combo, but it doesn't do anything else.

Speaker 2:
[194:05] Yeah, this looks super replaceable.

Speaker 1:
[194:08] I would give this a D.

Speaker 2:
[194:09] Yep. Agreed.

Speaker 1:
[194:11] Next up is Zealous Lorecaster. This is six mana, five and a red for a four four giant sorcerer at common. And it says when this creature enters, return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand. That still seems too slow to me. I love two for ones.

Speaker 2:
[194:31] I think you're going to want one of these. Do I think that it's not a high pick? No. So this is probably, you could probably pick this around a C minus level, but I think one of these looks pretty nice.

Speaker 1:
[194:45] Yeah. A decent overlap, Prismari gets a thing back and then does get a card out of the graveyard to trigger Lorehold. There's something there. My gut just says that Zealous Lorecaster is like a D. It's just so expensive, six mana for a four, four, even though I really do like the ability. I'll go D plus on it. You think it's like C minus?

Speaker 2:
[195:09] I think it's like a C. C minus is fine, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[195:11] C or C minus, okay. That'll move us to green. First card is called Oracle's Restoration. This is green for a sorcery at common. And it says, target creature you control gets plus one plus one until end of turn. You draw a card and gain a life. This one kind of does everything.

Speaker 2:
[195:34] Yeah, it is a sorcery, but it replaces itself and gains a life. Looks pretty great.

Speaker 1:
[195:39] Yeah, I think it's actually pretty good. Cause you can just kind of sneak these in on curve, maybe unlock an attack that you didn't have, replace itself, get some triggers, gain a life, et cetera. I mean, would you give it a D plus, C minus? Like, I don't think it's a C.

Speaker 2:
[195:55] Really?

Speaker 1:
[195:56] No.

Speaker 2:
[195:56] Cycling? Cycling? Doing it all?

Speaker 1:
[195:59] Well, it's just green. Like, why do I want to cycle it? Like if it was red or blue.

Speaker 2:
[196:03] Well, cause the gain of life, it's a cycling life gain card in your deck.

Speaker 1:
[196:07] I guess what I'm saying is, I like the life gain. The fact that it cycles is okay, but I'm not generating any extra value off of that, you know?

Speaker 2:
[196:21] True. I think it's a C. I think that you're, I suspect that the Witherbloom decks will be pretty happy with this card.

Speaker 1:
[196:30] Okay. Yeah, I think I'll go C minus on Oracles Restoration. Next up, oh, it's a card you read. Studious First Year. This is the green one, one bear wizard at common, and it enters prepared, and it has its spell is Rampant Growth, it's one in a green sorcery, search your library for a basic land card, put it on the battlefield, tapped, and then shuffle. Dude, this is sweet, right? It's awesome. Starting on turn one.

Speaker 2:
[196:54] If this isn't the best green common, I'm not really sure what it is going to be.

Speaker 1:
[196:58] Yeah, this has to be the front runner.

Speaker 2:
[197:03] It's just so much value, gives you a nice creature to sacrifice, gives you a rampant growth, your converge decks will like this. It just kind of does it all.

Speaker 1:
[197:12] It does. What grade would you give Studious first year?

Speaker 2:
[197:17] I'd give it a B minus, I think.

Speaker 1:
[197:20] C plus, B minus range.

Speaker 2:
[197:21] You could do C plus, sure. It's in that tier. It's in the best common, but not as good as the good on commons tier.

Speaker 1:
[197:27] Right. Wild Hypothesis is next. It's green X for a sorcery at common, create a 0,0 green and blue fractal creature token, put X plus 1 plus 1 counters on it and surveil 2.

Speaker 2:
[197:48] So for three mana, you get a four, four? No, two, two.

Speaker 1:
[197:53] Two, two.

Speaker 2:
[197:55] Then you surveil two, four mana, you get a three, three. I would not play this unless I really wanted to, unless I really wanted X spells.

Speaker 1:
[198:06] Same, it's meant to scale with the game, but it kind of doesn't do well at any stage. I just, I feel like you're gonna be looking for higher rarity stuff for your like late game, and this is not good early game. I mean, the surveil two does go a long way, but man, the price is steep. I would give it a D for wild hypothesis.

Speaker 2:
[198:32] Yeah, I agree. If you want this card, like you, there's not another person at the table likely to really want it. Like there's some Quandrax decks that would definitely want this card.

Speaker 1:
[198:40] There are, and there are some cards that care about X spells and all that. So it has some place, but.

Speaker 2:
[198:45] Two men and one one surveil too, baby.

Speaker 1:
[198:47] Yeah, let's go. Next is Burrog Barrage. This is one in a green for an instant. At common, it says target creature you control gets plus one plus zero until enough turn. If you've cast another instant or sorcery spell this turn, then it deals damage equal to its power up to one target creature and opponent control. So it's templated a little weird, but you don't get the bonus unless you've cast another instant or sorcery, but it does do the fight either way.

Speaker 2:
[199:17] It's always a bite and then sometimes it's going to, if you cast an instant or sorcery, so I guess a Quandrix card in some respects, but obviously any of the decks can play this card just fine.

Speaker 1:
[199:29] I love that artwork. He's all geared up. Yeah, I mean, I would give this a C plus. And as I noted before, we already have...

Speaker 2:
[199:39] It's going to be a good removal spell.

Speaker 1:
[199:40] Yeah, for... We've got the Wither Bloom 1-1. For Wither Bloom, it works well with the 1-1 Death Toucher and any other Death Touchers it'll be good too. Next is Environmental Scientist. This is one in a green for a 2-2 Human Druid at uncommon. When this creature enters, you may search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it in your hand and then shuffle. Goaded.

Speaker 2:
[200:06] Yeah. I mean, this is going to be one of the better on comments for sure. This looks like a B plus to me.

Speaker 1:
[200:10] Me too.

Speaker 2:
[200:11] I just really can't imagine it. Like, I love Civic Wayfinder. This is a two mana instead of a three mana, straight up same card.

Speaker 1:
[200:16] Yes. That is exactly what this is.

Speaker 2:
[200:20] I am in, you know.

Speaker 1:
[200:21] Do we quit magic when it becomes one mana? Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[200:25] That gives us a sign.

Speaker 1:
[200:27] It's like, okay, they've gone too far. Next is follow the Lumerets. This is one in a green for a sorcery. It's common and it has infusion. Look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a creature or land card from among them and put it into your hand. If you gain life this turn, you may instead reveal two creature and or land cards from among them and put them into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom in a random order. And that's out of four. So, most green decks probably are very live to hit two if you've infusioned.

Speaker 2:
[201:07] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[201:09] I would really need to though. I don't want to play this unless I...

Speaker 2:
[201:13] Yeah, if you're not infusing, I feel like this is not particularly great.

Speaker 1:
[201:18] Now, two mana, one mana you can pay for this, but two mana is too much. So, I'm playing this if I can infusion somewhat regularly and then I'm probably playing one of these or zero. So, I would give Follow Loom Reds probably a D plus in that witherbloom deck. It's probably like a C minus.

Speaker 2:
[201:39] Look, here's the great part, as always, if you don't, if no one else wants it, you, I mean, if you're the one who wants it, you're gonna get it late. You don't have to take this card early. It's gonna be good in your deck, but it's not a card you need to really heavily prioritize or anything.

Speaker 1:
[201:54] Exactly. Next is Glorious Decay. It's one in a green for an incident common. It says choose one, destroy target artifact, or it deals four damage to target creature with flying, or exile target card from a graveyard and draw a card. So there's your fail.

Speaker 2:
[202:10] This is exactly what I was talking about, right? Yep.

Speaker 1:
[202:15] That is an overlappy card, no doubt about it.

Speaker 2:
[202:19] So, I just don't really like any of these things though.

Speaker 1:
[202:23] I agree. I agree.

Speaker 2:
[202:25] I would still call this a sideboard card. Look, I appreciate it. They tried their best to make it not a sideboard card, and yet.

Speaker 1:
[202:32] It is a sideboard card. I agree. Next up is Infirmary Healer. This is one in a green for a 2-3 cat cleric at uncommon. It enters prepared, and its spell is Stream of Life. It's green X for a sorcery target player gains X life.

Speaker 2:
[202:51] Stream of Life, that's awesome.

Speaker 1:
[202:53] That is amazing. Is it good?

Speaker 2:
[202:57] Yeah, I guess I would probably be happy with this card, honestly.

Speaker 1:
[203:01] Yeah, it's a two mana 2-3. So again, when the spell itself isn't like super impactful or something that's really important, you know, you kind of look to the floor, right? Like, well, what am I getting? You know, if they're going to tack on Stream of Life, sure. Target player gains X life. Yeah, it's not a great card. But if I'm getting it for free and I get a two mana 2-3, I'm in. Like, great. So I would give this card like a C+.

Speaker 2:
[203:30] Yeah, I like C+. I think that you actually could, I mean, this card could be pretty sick in the late game. Sometimes you're just going to like gain nine life. You know, you're just sitting there doing nothing.

Speaker 1:
[203:39] It's true. And it'll trigger your infusion. Lumoret's Favor is next. This is one in a green for an incident uncommon. It says, infusion, if you cast a spell, copy it, if you gain life this turn, you may choose new targets for the copy. What does it do? Target creature gets plus two plus four until end of turn. Two of those would be pretty good. Spreading around four power and eight toughness.

Speaker 2:
[204:09] Yeah, if you can get to a point where like you're, you're able to gain life attack half mana up, like you could really do some damage here.

Speaker 1:
[204:18] Yeah. And this is clearly a pest. You know, you attack with a couple of pests and you've gained the life and now you're just sitting on your Lumeret's favor and your opponent is very incentivized to just try to eat those pests up. They're just going to block with their two, two and their three, three and be like, sure, I'll block like this. And then you go, cool, Lumeret's favor, lose your guys. It's like, oh. And it's an okay combat trick on its own. Plus two plus four does win most combat.

Speaker 2:
[204:47] Yeah, I think that, I think that.

Speaker 1:
[204:48] Give it a C.

Speaker 2:
[204:50] Yeah, I like C for this. I could definitely see this card working out kind of nicely.

Speaker 1:
[204:54] I could too. Next up is Mindful Biomancer. This is one and a green for a two, two Dryad Druid, which is a common. And it says when this creature enters, you gain one life and you can pay two and a green. This creature gets plus two, plus two untalented turn. You can only activate it once each turn, but you can do it whenever you want. This is kind of a classic threat of activation type card. It enters the battlefield. You get your little bonus for infusion or whatever. And then when you turn it sideways, if they have a three, three, they can't block it. And you don't have to pay the three mana. So you get in for two.

Speaker 2:
[205:34] Spotting you a life gain at the start is pretty nice.

Speaker 1:
[205:38] It is. I think Mindful Biomancer is like a C.

Speaker 2:
[205:42] Yeah, it's a C. I don't think you're gonna cut this card from your deck very often.

Speaker 1:
[205:45] Yeah. Next up is Noxious Newt. This is one and a green for a one, two Salamander at common. Ooh, and it has death touch. So now we've got two separate small creatures with the bite spell that have death touch. So that is, that's kind of what you want to see for green. And then it taps at green. I wonder if they were tempted to make it tap for more colors, you know, for the converge throw ins.

Speaker 2:
[206:15] Yeah, but it was hard. I mean, this is obviously a little bit like the Butler from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This is super great card. I don't know if it's literally the best green common, cause I think the ramping growth one might still be better, but they're very close. And they both look really good at enabling like the Quandrix ramp stuff. Wither, Bloom, I'm a little bit less sure about it.

Speaker 1:
[206:35] For sure. Yeah, I mean, I like C though for Noxious Newt. And if I had to go above or below, I would go above, but I still, I think I would just stick it C.

Speaker 2:
[206:45] I would just C+. I think C+.

Speaker 1:
[206:46] I think so. Okay, fair enough. Next is Cholonian or Cholonian. How would you say that?

Speaker 2:
[206:54] Cholonian, I think.

Speaker 1:
[206:55] Cholonian Tackle. This is two and a green for a sorcery at uncommon. It says target creature you control gets plus zero, plus 10 until end of turn. Then it fights up to one target creature an opponent controls. Funny enough, this also works really well to do death touch small creatures. Just turns this into a sorcery speed removal spell.

Speaker 2:
[207:22] This is a really funny card.

Speaker 1:
[207:23] That's a weird card.

Speaker 2:
[207:25] Plus 10, it's three-mana.

Speaker 1:
[207:28] Sorcery speed, okay. I don't know. It looks like a kind of like a C minus to me. I mean, it's three-mana sorcery speed fight.

Speaker 2:
[207:40] It doesn't look great to me. I don't know.

Speaker 1:
[207:42] Would you rather have plus one, plus one or plus zero, plus 10?

Speaker 2:
[207:47] Plus one, plus one I think unlocks a lot more, especially sorcery. It's not like you're mid-combat doing it and having it really work out, you know?

Speaker 1:
[207:55] I know. Like, how can I be getting eight times more stuff and not be, or not eight times, but eight more things and be not as happy? I think I just go C minus on Shaloni and tackle.

Speaker 2:
[208:08] Yeah, I like that. I mean, there's going to be times when it does some pretty ridiculous stuff, I would imagine.

Speaker 1:
[208:13] I agree. And all the Doran players are like, what's this? Next card is Efflorescence, it's a cool name, two and a green for an instant at common. And it says put two plus one plus one counters on target creature. And then it has Infusion. That creature also gains Trample and Indestructible until end of turn if you've gained life.

Speaker 2:
[208:43] So, you really need to have the Infusion in order to unlock the high end of this card. I think this card doesn't look very good.

Speaker 1:
[208:52] It's too risky, right? I mean, even if you have Infusion, you're still paying three mana to target your own thing and if it gets bounced or killed, it doesn't matter that you had Infusion. I would give Efflorescence a D.

Speaker 2:
[209:07] Yeah, I like D. Look, there will be some times when it does something good for you, but most of the time, that's just not going to be the case.

Speaker 1:
[209:13] Yeah. I mean, I like the power level. I just don't like the risk. Next is Emile Vastland's Roamer. This is two and a green for a 3-3 legendary elf druid and uncommon. It says, creatures you control with plus one plus one counters on them have trample, and you can pay four and a green and tap this thing to create a zero zero green and blue fractal creature token. Put X plus one plus one counters on it where X is the number of differently named lands you control. Man, big gap between two and three there, huh?

Speaker 2:
[209:51] Yeah, because if you're if you're spitting five mana and tapping it to make a three, a three three and then it has trample, who cares about that really? I mean, mostly it's just a three mana, three three with a pretty solid activated ability that you're I would say most games are limited, you're not going to be activating that ability too much. But when you do, it's going to be good. Definitely, it's a nice it's a nice ability to have, for sure, for sure.

Speaker 1:
[210:14] And if you just have one random other land, even if you're just straight up, let's say, Quandrix or whatever, you know, now you are making the three threes. And if you are in the converged deck, it does seem kind of absurd. But as you said, I mean, the floor is high on this. So I like Emile Vassland's Roamer at like, at least a B.

Speaker 2:
[210:32] I would say B, because I think most of the value is in the, in the three mana, just three three part. But then when, when the other part comes out, like that is a, that is something your opponent has to respect for sure.

Speaker 1:
[210:43] For sure. And it looks like there's no speed control on this either. You can just like say go with all your mana up and, you know, they assume you're gonna make one of these things or whatever, right? So it's, it's kind of, even if you're only making two two's, that's not, not a zero. Next up is Shopkeeper's Bane. This is two and a green for a four two badger pest. It's common. It has tramples. And when it attacks, you gain two life because it's a pest, but bigger. Three mana, four, two trample, attack gain, two.

Speaker 2:
[211:23] If you care about the gain, it's good. If you don't, it's really not.

Speaker 1:
[211:27] It's really not. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[211:28] That's, that's basically what it comes down to, I think.

Speaker 1:
[211:30] Pretty decent with the bite and fight spells here too. I think I would give shopkeepers Bain a D.

Speaker 2:
[211:40] Yeah, that seems about right. Like one of the things I'm liking of seeing a lot of these cards is, there's a lot of cards here that I wouldn't play in most decks, but I would play in the decks that want them. And that's a great place to be.

Speaker 1:
[211:52] That is.

Speaker 2:
[211:52] Like that is, that is what you want to see.

Speaker 1:
[211:54] Yeah. It's interesting. Cause you mentioned that there's a lot of these like pivot type cards that cover a bunch of different things. And then there's some that fall into one home. And that's, that does make drafting a little more curated, but without you knowing it, right? It kind of inceptions you into being like, I drafted a good deck. Next up is Thornfist Striker. This is two and a green for a three, three elf druid at uncommon. It has ward one and infusion, creatures you control get plus one plus zero and have trample as long as you've gained life this turn. A lot of these ones that trigger, that if you trigger them by attacking with a pest, they make things good for you. This is another one of those.

Speaker 2:
[212:39] Yeah, I mean, this one looks like a beater.

Speaker 1:
[212:41] It does.

Speaker 2:
[212:43] I suspect Thornfist Striker is gonna be like a B minus. Like it just looks like it hits pretty hard, a little hard to remove.

Speaker 1:
[212:50] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[212:50] It seems pretty good to me.

Speaker 1:
[212:52] I like B minus two. Next is Topiary Lecturer. This is two and a green for a one, two elf druid at uncommon. It has increment and tap, add an amount of green equal to this creature's power. Dang. That is cool. That is gonna lead to some busted turn fours and fives, for sure.

Speaker 2:
[213:18] So if you cast this on three, then turn four, it taps for one mana. Just to start with, and if you play a two mana spell, all of a sudden this now taps. So you go turn three, turn four, play two mana spell. You can still play a four-drop.

Speaker 1:
[213:30] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[213:30] Yeah, this looks pretty nice.

Speaker 1:
[213:32] Dude, this is cool. I like B-plus for Topiary Lecture, especially for Quandrix, where the mana is gonna be really great.

Speaker 2:
[213:39] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[213:39] Like, they'll have a lot. The X spells and places to put that mana. Next up is Aberrant Mana Worm. This is three and a green for a two-five worm at uncommon. It's got Trample, and whenever you cast an incident or sorcery spell, this creature gets plus X plus zero until end of turn, where X is the amount of mana spent to cast that spell.

Speaker 2:
[214:03] Yeah, this reminds me a little bit of the Spectacular Whale, the one-four. They get plus three plus zero. Where like, defensively it's okay, and then, you know, it's a two-five is pretty good. And then sometimes it's attacking as like a six-five or a seven-five, so it's pretty good on offense.

Speaker 1:
[214:22] And Trample's nice and good five toughness there.

Speaker 2:
[214:25] Yeah, this looks like probably like a C plus to me.

Speaker 1:
[214:28] It does to me too, that's a pushed card. It's only four mana, like that thing's gonna hit pretty good. Next up is Hungry Graffalon. It's three and a green for a three-four giraffe. It's common, it's got reach and increment. But increment starts pretty high here, right? Three power, so you gotta cast something that costs four more to get even the first counter on it. It looks like a D to me, honestly.

Speaker 2:
[214:56] Yeah, if you get one counter on this, you feel okay about it, but you're not like-

Speaker 1:
[214:59] Four-five reach for four, yeah, that's true. And you probably will. But it's slow. I don't know, I do like a three-four reach, like that is a very good defensive stance, you know, for if you're trying to go into the late game and it attacks okay, you know? So I do like the stats, but I don't know, I just keep going back to some of the absurdly powerful uncommons that we saw at the gold slot and a lot of those, I mean, there's 10 of each at the gold cards at common and uncommon. We're not even in the rares or mythics yet. It's going to be tough for cards like Hungry Graffalon to find a home, I think, in a powerful slot.

Speaker 2:
[215:35] Yeah, I totally agree.

Speaker 1:
[215:37] Next is Pestwood Sloth. This is rude. Sorry, Pestbrood Sloth. This is three and a green for a four four plant sloth at uncommon with reach. Boy, flyers are in a hostile environment here against green. When this creature dies, create two one one black and green pest creature tokens whenever this creature attacks, you gain a life. That's pretty dang good, man.

Speaker 2:
[216:04] Discard's awesome. You don't have to be doing anything in particular for discard to be good. And it certainly gets the job done if you're playing the witherbloom.

Speaker 1:
[216:16] What was the stupid spider that we played in like, I think it was in like Common and Uncommon Cube for a while.

Speaker 2:
[216:24] The number spider, the 2-4?

Speaker 1:
[216:25] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[216:26] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[216:27] Move over. Pestbrood Sloth, welcome to the fold here. I would give it a B just on power level, just on rate.

Speaker 2:
[216:35] Yeah, definitely. Pestbrood Sloth looks great to me.

Speaker 1:
[216:38] Zimone's Experiment, 3 in a green for a sorcery at Uncommon. Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal up to two creature and or land cards from among them. Put the rest on the bottom in a random order. Put all land cards revealed this way onto the battlefield, tapped and put all creature cards revealed this way into your hand. Cool. Very difficult to miss in a typical green deck. Getting the lands right away is nice.

Speaker 2:
[217:16] Yeah, this looks sweet. The ramp part really makes up for the fact that you're spending turn four, maybe not doing that much.

Speaker 1:
[217:23] Right. And I mean, I guess the best is to just to split, get one extra land and then get the spell that you want to cast with it. But I mean, if you revealed land, land, land, creature, creature, you could just put two lands onto the battlefield, like if that's what was the most important thing.

Speaker 2:
[217:42] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[217:44] I mean, these type of cards come at a pretty steep cost.

Speaker 2:
[217:47] I think mostly the split is going to be one and one.

Speaker 1:
[217:49] That's the ideal. Yeah. I think I would say C for Zimone's experiment.

Speaker 2:
[217:55] I like C. I don't think you need to go much lower.

Speaker 1:
[218:00] Or higher. Additive Evolution is next. It's five mana, three green green for an enchantment. It's uncommon. And it says, when this enters, create a zero zero green and blue fractal creature token, put three plus one plus one counters on it. And at the beginning of combat on your turn, put a plus one plus one counter on target creature you control. It gains vigilance until end of turn.

Speaker 2:
[218:23] This is nice.

Speaker 1:
[218:24] Dude, really nice. That's a combo with our tender too. I remember we were talking about cards that could give you plus one plus one counters like over and over again for the fractal tender. Well, here you go. You need two uncommons that both cause five mana, but you can do it.

Speaker 2:
[218:45] Yeah, but I mean, just base level, this is a five mana 4-4 that leaves behind an enchantment that gives you pretty significant value.

Speaker 1:
[218:51] Definitely.

Speaker 2:
[218:52] And you don't even have to put the fourth counter on that same creature.

Speaker 1:
[218:56] Yes.

Speaker 2:
[218:58] I like this card additive, but it looks nice.

Speaker 1:
[219:01] Super good. I would say B plus for additive evolution, like a decent starting spot. And like you said, really good leftovers.

Speaker 2:
[219:08] I mean, it's just the kind of card that like, as long as you're not losing, as long as you can survive a bit, I think it will end up paying you off nicely. Like you'll feel it. I mean, I'm not saying a plus and plus one counter every turn is like, oh yeah, you can't lose, but it's like plus and plus one counter and vigilance means like just a lot of boards are gonna get pretty good for you.

Speaker 1:
[219:29] Totally. And it gives you that inevitability too. Like just keep, just stay alive and keep some creatures on the board and this thing will take over. Next up is Tenured Concocter. This is four and a green for a four or five troll druid at common. It has vigilance. So five mana for five vigilance. And whenever this creature becomes the target of his spell or ability, an opponent controls, you may draw a card and it has-

Speaker 2:
[219:55] Played back against Reparte.

Speaker 1:
[219:57] Yeah. It's a reverse version. And then it has infusion. This creature gets plus two plus zero, as long as you've gained life this turn.

Speaker 2:
[220:05] Infusion is like, oh man, we got to put infusion text on this. What do we do?

Speaker 1:
[220:09] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[220:09] Plus two plus zero.

Speaker 1:
[220:10] Yeah. It's like the filler, filler infusion text. This is good. Like that's a common, bro. Four or five vigilance with two extra abilities.

Speaker 2:
[220:25] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[220:28] You know, experience tells us to go C minus D plus for a card like this. I go a little higher. I'll go C minus. I'll go on the high end of our, like, these cards almost never, you know, crack into the C plus, B minus range. They do every once in a while, though. But I start C minus on 10 year concocter. What do you think?

Speaker 2:
[220:48] Yeah, that sounds, that sounds legit to me. Next is, oh, it is nice that when you play this, they're there, you know, they have, if they have removal, like they're, they're not going to get off easy. Like you do get to punish them for it.

Speaker 1:
[221:02] Exactly. Next is Snarl Song. This is five and a green for a sorcery at Uncommon. It says, it has converge, create two zero zero fractal creature tokens, put X plus one plus one counters on each of them, and you gain X life where X is, that's right, the number of colors of mana spent to cast this spell. I mean, it seems like a good converge payoff, but like, are we convinced that converge is something that you can consistently do or do it all?

Speaker 2:
[221:36] I think it probably will be a deck, because they have a lot of converge cards in here, and this looks like a pretty well tested set.

Speaker 1:
[221:44] It does, it has that vibe already.

Speaker 2:
[221:48] So, I don't have a strong reason to think that converge is like, not going to work out, but they are just clearly just straight up build arounds, like this is not a card you would just casually put in a deck. So, we'll have to kind of see how that plays out. I'm assuming that the converge cards, cause they all look to be pretty similar power level. Like, if you cast this for four, you get four life and two for fours.

Speaker 1:
[222:16] I mean, it's huge. That's pretty good.

Speaker 2:
[222:18] This one's a little stronger than some of the other ones. But yeah, I would say they're mostly like into like, if you're doing it, they're like in the B to B plus range, which is kind of where you want your build arounds to be.

Speaker 1:
[222:28] Yes, especially cause other decks presumably won't want this. I mean, this does get kind of interesting. Six mana, two two twos, gain two, not that great. But if you are splashing, if you have the ability to make any other mana, I think you're already there at two three threes, gain three life for six. You know, at least as a passable bar. And if four or five, I mean, I think this card's like a B plus. So I'd give it a build around B plus because that's where I expect to see it.

Speaker 2:
[222:56] Yeah, that sounds about right to me.

Speaker 1:
[222:58] Okay, so what do we have, white still? And then, and then a very, I think a very small handful of colorless and lands because, again, the gold card's kind of eat up so much and it's set like this. First white card is called Daydream. It is white for a sorcery at uncommon. It says exile target creature you control, then return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control with a plus one plus one counter on it. And you can flash this back for two and a white. Key thing here, though, Luis, this is a sorcery.

Speaker 2:
[223:34] Yeah, it would be busted.

Speaker 1:
[223:36] It would be really, really good.

Speaker 2:
[223:38] If it wasn't. But yeah, how good is this? I think it's probably pretty good. Feels like a flash. I think the flashback cards are generally just pretty good in general. And then I feel like this is going to, I don't know, do enough stuff that I think that you're going to be pretty happy with it overall.

Speaker 1:
[223:58] Yeah. I mean, what's the joke here? Flashback for Lorehold is good, but like just ETBs?

Speaker 2:
[224:06] ETBs mostly. It's a plus one plus one counter as well. So it's a pump spell.

Speaker 1:
[224:10] Okay.

Speaker 2:
[224:12] It's repartee. It's like you get to target multiple times. So I think Silverquill might actually be better for this.

Speaker 1:
[224:19] So you would like attack and then like post combat blanket, and then you get it untapped with a counter and you get your trigger from repartee or something?

Speaker 2:
[224:31] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[224:32] Because it's a sorcery, like you can't.

Speaker 2:
[224:33] Or you just repartee trigger repartee that you want on a creature that's like not attacking.

Speaker 1:
[224:38] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[224:40] And I think that that could probably work out pretty well.

Speaker 1:
[224:43] That's enough. That's enough meat on the bone for sure. C plus for Daydream?

Speaker 2:
[224:48] Yeah, I like C plus.

Speaker 1:
[224:49] Can't get into B level.

Speaker 2:
[224:50] This card looks to me like a card that could be common. And again, if that's the case, like what is happening?

Speaker 1:
[224:56] Yeah, actually you're right. So it's probably a B plus. Next is Dig Site Inventory. This is white for a sorcery at common. It says put a plus one plus one counter on target creature you control. It gains vigilance until end of turn and it has flashback for white.

Speaker 2:
[225:13] Yeah, similar. Like this looks to me like if you're doing the lower hold thing or you're doing the silver quill thing, then you probably want to play these cards.

Speaker 1:
[225:24] Is this better than Daydream?

Speaker 2:
[225:28] Depends on your deck, I think. I think Daydream is much higher high end, but yeah, this could totally be better.

Speaker 1:
[225:35] This is like you get to do two triggers the same turn easily and attack, which seems good. I would give this a build around C.

Speaker 2:
[225:51] Yeah, that sounds legit.

Speaker 1:
[225:52] Next is Elite Interceptor. This is white for a one, two human wizard. It's common. It enters prepared and its spell is called Rejoinder, which is one and a white for a sorcery. You may tap or untap target creature, draw a card. Man, we are three cards into white and they all are repartee specialists.

Speaker 2:
[226:19] I like Elite Interceptor a lot. I mean, who doesn't like three of an inspector, right?

Speaker 1:
[226:24] Totally. And this one, it affects combat.

Speaker 2:
[226:29] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[226:31] Wow. Yeah, I mean, that looks like a very solid C to me. It might even just be as... Actually, I would give it a C plus for Elite Interceptor.

Speaker 2:
[226:40] Oh yes, C plus for sure.

Speaker 1:
[226:42] Dude, one mana?

Speaker 2:
[226:44] The only thing is, it's a clue that if this thing dies, you don't get the clue anymore. So like, you do have to keep that in mind. But yeah, I mean, I think that the Elite Interceptor looks like a great comment to me.

Speaker 1:
[226:56] I agree, and also, like, let me outline this scenario. You play Elite Interceptor. They use a removal spell to kill it. Like, who's really behind in that transaction, right? Like, yeah, sure, you didn't get your spell, but they had to use a removal spell on your one drop. Like, you're pretty happy. Next, that card's gonna do serious work. I'm already scared of it. Next up is Graduation Day. This is white for an enchantment. It's uncommon. It has repartee. Whenever you put a plus one plus one counter on target, so wow, put a plus one plus one counter on target creature you control for repartee. It just sits there and does that.

Speaker 2:
[227:36] Yeah, this looks great.

Speaker 1:
[227:38] It does not spot you one, however.

Speaker 2:
[227:40] No, but like, having this in play seems like it's gonna be pretty strong.

Speaker 1:
[227:45] I agree. This just seems like a nightmare. And from what we've seen, there's lots of support for repartee. I mean, not only the first three cards in white, but the ones from before too. So.

Speaker 2:
[227:57] I mean, if you were starting with this, like, if your opponent plays this on turn one, you're just gonna be like, oh my God, this is gonna be annoying.

Speaker 1:
[228:05] Totally. You know, the downsides to these cards are very significant. They're a terrible top-dex late game, and they often don't do what you think they're gonna do because you kind of put them in this, you know, best case scenario type thing. But for me, I'm gonna, you know how I often have the thing where like, you gotta prove it? Like I want, I'm gonna be the opposite. I'm taking and playing Graduation Day, and I will be the sacrificial lamb if it's not as good, because it just looks really good to me. And this deck looks really good to me too. I give it a build around B.

Speaker 2:
[228:40] Yeah, I like Graduation Day build around B. And honestly, the build around is just be silver quill. I don't think you're gonna have too much trouble if you're silver quill of making good use of this.

Speaker 1:
[228:48] Exactly. Next is Interjection. This is white for an instant. It's common target creature gets plus two plus two and gains first strike until end of turn. So we are now five cards in, and they all either enable or care about ripartite.

Speaker 2:
[229:04] Yep, well, to be fair, we also do it in order of casting cost. And one mana spells are where you put a lot of these.

Speaker 1:
[229:12] Okay. Still five for five, bro.

Speaker 2:
[229:15] Great point, he says.

Speaker 1:
[229:17] Five for five. This combat trick looks fine. I would give it a C minus.

Speaker 2:
[229:26] Yeah, sounds about right. I mean, this is kind of pushed.

Speaker 1:
[229:29] It's a little pushed, and it's in a set that cares about it a little bit more. Good card. Next up is Ennis Debate Moderator. This is one and a white for a one, one legendary human cleric at uncommon. And when it enters exile up to one other target creature control, return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step. And it says at the beginning of your end step, if one or more cards were put into exile this turn, put a plus one plus one counter on Ennis.

Speaker 2:
[230:03] Another blink card. This plays nicely with the other blink card, too, if you know, with that, if that ends up being what you want to do. Also, just two mana for a one, for basically a two, two blinker.

Speaker 1:
[230:17] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[230:17] And that seems pretty reasonable to me.

Speaker 1:
[230:19] It does. I'd give Ennis a B.

Speaker 2:
[230:24] Yeah, I like B for Ennis.

Speaker 1:
[230:25] That's a great way to start a game or to fill out the middle part of your curve where you freeze something up or whatever and he just keeps growing.

Speaker 2:
[230:33] Yeah, I mean, really what you want to look for when you've got Ennis is you want to look for just good ETBs and then you can go pretty hard, I would imagine.

Speaker 1:
[230:40] Yeah. Next is Group Project. This is one in a white for a sorcery at Uncommon. Create a 2-2 red and white spirit creature token and it has flashback, but there's no mana associated with it. It's tap three untapped creatures you control. Nice.

Speaker 2:
[231:00] This card is awesome. Dang, that's good. Looks really sick.

Speaker 1:
[231:05] The trick with these ones that let you tap things like this is that you can often do both modes, both things in the same turn. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[231:13] And this is going to be two mana for two 2-2s a lot of the time. Cause it already, again, spots you one cause this one. So it's really not that hard to end up there.

Speaker 1:
[231:25] Yeah. That is dope.

Speaker 2:
[231:27] I like B for Group Project.

Speaker 1:
[231:29] Easy B. Easy B. Next is Harsh Annotation. This is one in a white for an instant uncommon. It says destroy target creature. That's the good news. Bad news, its controller creates a 1-1 white and black inkling creature token with flying.

Speaker 2:
[231:45] Yeah. I'm not loving that, to be honest.

Speaker 1:
[231:48] Nope. Nope. These, every time these fail.

Speaker 2:
[231:54] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[231:54] They have not found the lower limit of a creature that you can turn the thing into that makes these good. And this turns it into a good creature. Like arguably upgrades some creatures. Yeah. Still, they can be a catchall. They can be, I don't have any other removal. They can be good against certain bombs or whatever, but I would give it a D, like, or D minus. You should not be playing harsh annotation. Quill Blade Laureate is next. This is one in a white for a one-one human cleric at uncommon. It's got double strike and it comes prepared. And it has the spell of two-fold intent, which is a one in a white sorcery that gives target creature plus one plus zero and double strike until end of term, which really makes you want to cast it on something other than it.

Speaker 2:
[232:50] But I think which I think is the idea. But a two mana one one double strike isn't even that far away from a card I'm interested in.

Speaker 1:
[232:57] No, it's actually right pretty close, isn't it?

Speaker 2:
[233:01] And as a result, I think I would be pretty happy to just put this card in the deck and set up some big attacks with two-fold intent.

Speaker 1:
[233:10] And set up yet more repartee.

Speaker 2:
[233:16] I mean, I'd probably give it like a C plus.

Speaker 1:
[233:18] C plus probably.

Speaker 2:
[233:19] I don't think we're quite B level.

Speaker 1:
[233:21] Yeah, I'm with you. Next up is Rapier Whit. This is one in a white for an instant a common. It says tap target creature. If it's your turn, put a stun counter on it and draw. And then you also draw a card. Yeah?

Speaker 2:
[233:43] I mean, two mana to stun something and draw a card or tap and draw a card? I'm fine with both of those things.

Speaker 1:
[233:49] If it's your turn, put a stun counter on it. Interesting. That's interesting. So that's to make it...

Speaker 2:
[233:58] It basically, I think effectively it's to make it so like, it's not two mana, tap, draw and put a stun counter, but it gives you some interesting optionality.

Speaker 1:
[234:10] Yeah, it's funny. What I'm actually thinking is, is it like, maybe I don't want the stun counter. I guess it's just, you're going to target your other stuff all the time. But, you know, I, I'm just trying to think of it in terms of repartee, you know? But whatever. Sure. This looks like a D plus. Yeah, there's nothing really to complain about, but it's not, not that impactful. And there, I think you're hoping for better ways to get this stuff going.

Speaker 2:
[234:47] Like, yeah, you're going to end up cutting this card at some amount of the time. I wouldn't, I would imagine.

Speaker 1:
[234:52] The problem is, is it like, if you want to get repartee going, then you're going to do your own combat tricks If you want a removal spell, you're going to try to draft removal spells, not this thing. Next up is Shattered Acolyte. This is one in a white for a 2-2 Dwarf Warlock at common. It has lifelink, and you can pay one and sacrifice this creature to destroy an artifact or enchantment. Common, by the way.

Speaker 2:
[235:16] It's like, I mean, here's a question. Should I put this card in cube? Like, they push it. We've got a bunch of 2-2s that sack to destroy artifacts and enchantment. Now they just have lifelink. Obviously, this card is good. It's like a C-plus or something. Yeah, I think it's a 2-minute 2-2 lifelink is really nice.

Speaker 1:
[235:35] It is. C-plus for Shattered Acolyte. It maybe takes a small hit because this isn't a set that's all about artifacts or enchantments, that those are not core theme things, but still, they're around. Next is Stone Docent. It's one and a white for a 3-1 Spirit Chimera. It is common and it has white. Exile this card from your graveyard. You gain two life, surveil one, and you can only activate it at sorcery speed. I mean, it's a perfectly powerful card, but like, lower hold wants it, trade it for something, and then exile it and get a trigger. Is that the joke?

Speaker 2:
[236:22] I mean, it's certainly a lower hold card. The question is, is it a good enough one? Two-minute 3-1 that later you can gain life surveil two, and obviously trigger all your stuff. That's like the big part about that. Yeah, I think I would be in for that.

Speaker 1:
[236:34] Okay, a playable two-drop, you'd call it?

Speaker 2:
[236:37] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[236:38] So a C-minus?

Speaker 2:
[236:40] I would give it a C-minus. I think that you're probably going to play this more often than not in Lorehold, and you're probably not going to play it when you're Silverquill, and you won't always play it in Lorehold. But if you have like three or four things that care about graveyards, like it's a two-minute 3-1, like you're totally fine card.

Speaker 1:
[236:55] Next up is Owlin Historian. This is two and a white for a two-three bird cleric at common. It's got flying, and it says when this creature enters, surveil one. And whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, this creature gets plus one, plus one until end of turn.

Speaker 2:
[237:14] Maybe I'm Owlin for you. Yeah, I mean, it's a pretty good card. Three down at two, three, flying, surveil one. How spoiled are we? Can you turn that down?

Speaker 1:
[237:27] I know this card's going to be a D plus or a C minus or something, but I just read it and I'm like, well, it can't be.

Speaker 2:
[237:34] It might not be, but yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[237:35] I just can't find anything to complain about. C minus for Owlin Historian is where I'm going to land.

Speaker 2:
[237:44] Yeah, that's fine. I'll go C minus.

Speaker 1:
[237:46] Rehearsed debater is two and a white for a three, ginn bard at common with Vigilance and repartee. Um, this creature gets plus one plus one until end of turn. Filler.

Speaker 2:
[238:02] Filler. It's a D-level filler.

Speaker 1:
[238:03] D-filler. Next is Soaring Stoneglider. That's two and a white for a four, three. Elephant cleric at uncommon. This is an additional cost to cast this spell. Exile two cards from your graveyard or pay one and a white. So it's either five mana or two cards away from your graveyard in three mana. And it also is flying in Vigilance. This is a three mana, four, three flying Vigilance that triggers all your lower hold stuff or cost two extra mana.

Speaker 2:
[238:33] I mean, this card looks awesome. Like it's just not going to be hard to make it work in either way you want it to work. Like both in terms of enabling your graveyard stuff, but also just like being a big flyer. And I feels like it's going to combine really nicely to do both.

Speaker 1:
[238:48] Does that seems, man, when you do all of the things, it's going to go off. Also, elephants are cool. What do you think like?

Speaker 2:
[238:59] Probably like a B.

Speaker 1:
[239:00] B, right?

Speaker 2:
[239:01] Just seems like a premium lower hold card.

Speaker 1:
[239:03] It does. Spirit Call Enthusiast is next. It's two and a white for a three, three cat cleric at uncommon. It says whenever one or more tokens you control enter, this creature becomes prepared. And it's a spell is scroll boost, which is one and a white for a sorcery that says one or two target creatures, each get plus two plus two until enough turn. Man, they have laid that on thick. It feels like every single one of the white and even many of the black bonus spells or whatever you call these are like all just target something to make it a little bigger.

Speaker 2:
[239:40] So, I think the real question is going to end up being like, how good are the repartee like payoffs? Because we got the enablers here, we're no shortage there.

Speaker 1:
[239:51] Yes, I agree. That is exactly what I'm wondering. And we'll probably see, we've seen a little bit at common, but I mean, the uncommons in upper where that's, I think, really going to shine. This card seems really solid though. I mean, it's a three mana three, three. Token's thing is a little bit of a steeper hill, but I just view this extra spell as such a free roll. It's not entirely needed. That said, I'd give Spirit Call Enthusiast like a C, maybe. Maybe even a C minus, like three mana, three, three. If you're not really making tokens, it's not that good.

Speaker 2:
[240:28] Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1:
[240:30] Next up is stand up for yourself. Two and a white for an instant at uncommon, destroy target creature with power three or greater.

Speaker 2:
[240:40] Sure. That's pretty good. It kills most things I would imagine.

Speaker 1:
[240:43] Instant speed. C plus for stand up for yourself.

Speaker 2:
[240:47] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[240:48] Kind of designed to be inefficient.

Speaker 2:
[240:50] I think you're going to be largely pretty happy with this card, as far as I guess.

Speaker 1:
[240:54] Eager glyph mage is three and a white for a three, three cat cleric at common. It says when this creature enters, create a one, one white and black inkling creature token with flying. Man, the filler is pretty good these days.

Speaker 2:
[241:10] This is not filler. This is the best way to comment.

Speaker 1:
[241:13] Maybe.

Speaker 2:
[241:15] I mean, we'll see, but-

Speaker 1:
[241:16] It's really good.

Speaker 2:
[241:17] Four mana for a three, three plus a one, one flyer.

Speaker 1:
[241:20] That's fine. Don't get too excited.

Speaker 2:
[241:23] All right.

Speaker 1:
[241:24] Bro, have you read some of these cards?

Speaker 2:
[241:27] Yeah, no, I see. I hear what you're saying, but it's-

Speaker 1:
[241:30] It's good. It is really good.

Speaker 2:
[241:32] It is pretty great.

Speaker 1:
[241:34] Would you give it a B or a B minus? I was going to say C plus, but-

Speaker 2:
[241:37] I still think C plus. Okay. But I think it is quite good.

Speaker 1:
[241:42] It is very good. I mean, it's just, yeah. I am numb now to how insanely good these cards are. Honor-bound page-

Speaker 2:
[241:52] That is fair. That is fair. I hear that. But this kind of card is always the best card.

Speaker 1:
[241:59] It is. You're right. It's just the ones that just ask nothing of you and just give you fun.

Speaker 2:
[242:03] This is flying.

Speaker 1:
[242:04] It is crazy. That is just crazy. Honor-bound page is three and a white for a 3-3, first strike prepared cat cleric at common, and it has forum's favor. Guess what it does, Luis? It's white for a sorcery.

Speaker 2:
[242:20] Does it target a creature?

Speaker 1:
[242:20] Creature gets plus one plus one gains flying until end of turn. I mean, they just throw this stuff around. It's crazy. First, it's a 3-3 first strike and it comes prepared, so you don't need to do anything else. And gives you a half decent combat trick in a set that really cares about it for one of the schools. Yeah, these are just nuts. I guess I still just go C plus on this as well. In Silver Quill, it probably is like a C plus plus or a B minus or something.

Speaker 2:
[243:03] But yeah, I would say, yeah, I think that that's right. I think that it's probably like C to C plus is my guess.

Speaker 1:
[243:12] You see what his sword is there? It's like a fountain pen.

Speaker 2:
[243:17] Oh, it's like a pen, yeah, yeah, that's good.

Speaker 1:
[243:19] Ink Shape Demonstrator is next. It's three and a white for a three, four elephant cleric at Uncommon. It has ward two and repartee whenever blah, blah, blah. This creature gets plus one plus zero and gains lifelink until end of turn.

Speaker 2:
[243:35] I like this. This is a payoff because when you've got this going, you can just end up in a spot where you're like getting, basically all the tempo you've lost by casting like combat tricks and stuff, you're getting it back by far by getting the lifelink.

Speaker 1:
[243:52] Absolutely. And ward two goes so long. Again, this is that combo. You pointed out earlier, Luis, for toughness, ward two on a four drop. Yeah. It's very difficult to untap and kill. That's quite sweet. I like B for Ink-shaped Demonstrator.

Speaker 2:
[244:11] Yeah. I would give it a B. This looks great.

Speaker 1:
[244:13] Maybe even better in Silver Quill specifically. Summoned Dromadary. This is three. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Three and a white for a four, three Spirit Camel. It's uncommon. It's got Vigilance and it has the activated ability one and a white. Return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Wow. Activate only as a sorcery. That is annoying. So is this better? So we've had this type of card where it's like a two, two for two that you can bring back, right? This one's a four, three Vigilance that you can bring back, but it costs more mana. Does that make you more excited about this card?

Speaker 2:
[244:57] Way more excited.

Speaker 1:
[244:58] Okay. Because it's just a real spell, like a real full-on thing.

Speaker 2:
[245:01] Yeah. Well, there's two things going on. One is that it also is only two mana to return. So like the power level is just straight up higher, but more than that though, I think that the fact that you can, you get so much more out of this, that trading it off, it's a real card. They have to do something about it. And then you trade it off and you play it again. That seems like it's going to work out really well.

Speaker 1:
[245:26] It does to me too. I mean, you could very easily just get into a loop where you're just paying six mana to put this thing back on the battlefield. And unless your opponent has flyers, they are not in a good spot.

Speaker 2:
[245:37] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[245:37] That's cool. What do you want to give it? Like a B?

Speaker 2:
[245:41] I would give this a B. Look, there are some ways you can exile it. You can put a negative enchantment on it or something. You can play a five toughness creature and I guess block it. It's a vigilance too, so it just goes in. But some amount, you're playing red-black, you cast this on turn four and you don't have the common exile card. And what are you thinking at that point? You're thinking like, god damn it. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[246:02] How am I going to get through this thing? Yeah. Probably the only thing that keeps us in check is the three and a black exile at common. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[246:11] I mean, there's a couple other exile effects across the board, but yes, I totally agree.

Speaker 1:
[246:15] Yeah. Sweet. I like that card. Next is Ajani's response. This is four and a white for an instant. It is common. It says, this spell costs three less to cast if it targets a tapped creature, and you can destroy target creature.

Speaker 2:
[246:31] Yeah. These play out fine. These are always good.

Speaker 1:
[246:34] These are always just fine. I would give Ajani's response a C.

Speaker 2:
[246:39] Yeah. I agree.

Speaker 1:
[246:40] Reasonable removal. Next is ascendant dust speaker. This is four and a white for a three, four flying orc cleric. This is common. And when this creature enters, put a plus one plus one counter on another target creature you control. And at the beginning of combat on your turn, exile up to one target card from a graveyard. Dang, man. Yeah. These just do so much. Five mana, three, four flying. You do have to put the counter somewhere else. You can't just make it a four or five flyer like boohoo. And then it either enables your lower hold trigger or starts chewing up their flashback cards out of the yard or whatever. At common.

Speaker 2:
[247:26] This does not look like a common.

Speaker 1:
[247:27] It really doesn't look like a common. I'm going to give it a C plus just because it, something has to give. I can't just-

Speaker 2:
[247:36] Too many words.

Speaker 1:
[247:37] Yeah, it's just too much text on it. I'm going to go C plus for Ascendant Dust Speaker.

Speaker 2:
[247:41] Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 1:
[247:43] Last white card is primary research. This is four on a white for Enchantment and Uncommon. When this enchantment enters, return target non-land permanent card with mana value three or less from your graveyard to the battlefield. And it says at the beginning of your end step, if a card left your graveyard this turn, draw a card.

Speaker 2:
[248:00] Cool.

Speaker 1:
[248:01] Sweet Lorehold playoff. Because I wouldn't want to play either half of this on its own.

Speaker 2:
[248:09] No, no, not that close, honestly, either half.

Speaker 1:
[248:12] But put them together in a Lorehold deck and I'm in. It's good at milling, it's good at putting stuff in the yard, so you may even get a target for free in your graveyard. And then this can definitely become a card advantage engine if built around. I'd give it a build around B.

Speaker 2:
[248:34] Yeah, I think so. If you're getting two cards out of it right away, you're definitely just in the money at that point.

Speaker 1:
[248:39] Totally, and it becomes a really difficult card to deal with for your opponent. Okay, let's see what we've got for our artifacts and lands. It looks like there's, yeah, just a handful here. First artifact is called Diary of Dreams. This is two mana for an artifact book, as Luis mentioned before. Apparently some things can be, is JMD Toma a book now? It just has to be, right?

Speaker 2:
[249:04] If it's not, I don't understand what's going on.

Speaker 1:
[249:06] Right, but now it's just like really, don't mess with my JMD Toma. Anyway, two mana artifact book, uncommon. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, put a page counter on this artifact, and then you can pay five mana, tap, draw a card, but this ability costs one less to activate for each page counter on this artifact. I want this to be good really badly.

Speaker 2:
[249:32] Yeah, so-

Speaker 1:
[249:34] Like, where's the inflection?

Speaker 2:
[249:35] You have to get this to like two mana to draw, one mana to draw.

Speaker 1:
[249:38] Yeah. It does become tap, draw a card at some point. I mean, dude, like, there already is a framework for this type of thing. It doesn't really fit, right? Like, we've seen that the Prismari deck that is best at doing this, there's two that care about it, but that's the one that has all the, like, cheap cantrips and stuff. You know, it's really looking to put out those creatures that get big and beat down. It's not looking to sit back, cast a bunch of spells, get, cycle through your deck, and get some card advantage off of a card like this. That said, it may still just be worth it to throw this in there, or, and or, you could build around a version of it that's a little less towards the aggression and a little more towards the, the value side of things, in which case Dire Dreams would be really good, I think.

Speaker 2:
[250:29] Yeah. I think that there's a, this looks like a build around B where like, if you have a good controlling deck, maybe a converge deck with tons of removal or something.

Speaker 1:
[250:37] Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[250:38] Like you could, you could imagine, you could imagine this card working, but I don't know that it's going to work.

Speaker 1:
[250:44] Yeah. I like build around B and that feels a little optimistic from us. Next is Mage Tower Referee. This is two mana for a two, one artifact creature construct. It's common. And it says, whenever you cast a multicolored spell, put a plus one plus one counter on this creature. God, no. No.

Speaker 2:
[251:04] I'm out.

Speaker 1:
[251:05] No. For a two, one? Yeah. No, thank you. I'd give that an F. I'm not playing that card. What do you think? F?

Speaker 2:
[251:13] No. No, no shot.

Speaker 1:
[251:16] Luis calls foul. Page.

Speaker 2:
[251:18] I mean, the only defense is that it's a two mana, a two on which some decks are so desperate for that sort of thing. But yes, the ability is just not good.

Speaker 1:
[251:26] No. And the argument would be you made some drastic errors if you're like, I need this two, one in my deck. Next is page, loose leaf. Did you know that a leaf is two pages? Yeah. It's like where they folded over. Two mana for a zero, two legendary artifact creature construct at common. It taps to add colorless and it has grandeur. Discard another card named page loose leaf. And it says, and if you do so, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal an instant or sorcery card, put that card into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. So that acts as a way to not get punished by having multiples.

Speaker 2:
[252:13] Yeah, it's a two mana O2 mana dork.

Speaker 1:
[252:15] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[252:16] That's not nothing.

Speaker 1:
[252:18] No, it's not. Would you put this in the Quandrix deck that really does like to it? And then if for some reason you ended up with two of these, it is a common, then you could just pitch one to dig up an instant or sorcery.

Speaker 2:
[252:34] Yeah. I'm not saying that I would be the most thrilled to play this card, but it doesn't seem crazy to want to play it.

Speaker 1:
[252:41] No, it doesn't, especially in a ramp deck.

Speaker 2:
[252:45] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[252:46] You know, it looks like a C- or maybe even a C to me.

Speaker 2:
[252:52] I like C- I think.

Speaker 1:
[252:53] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[252:54] That's probably where I would go with that one.

Speaker 1:
[252:56] Next is Potioners Trove. This is three mana for an artifact at common. It taps to add one mana of any color, or you can tap it to gain two life, but only activated if you've cast an instant or sorcery this turn.

Speaker 2:
[253:14] Hmm.

Speaker 1:
[253:15] That's interesting actually.

Speaker 2:
[253:17] I mean, tapping it to gain two life a turn is pretty nice.

Speaker 1:
[253:20] Yeah. If you can consistently cast something, tap it to gain the two life, flash it back to gain the two life, that adds up. I mean, does this seem like only for the converge deck to you?

Speaker 2:
[253:37] I wouldn't say that, but if there is a controlling Prismari deck that has a lot of removal and spells and is trying to do that, a thing that ramps you and then just tap gain two life, like if you stabilize at six, then all of a sudden you start to use this thing, like you could make it, you could have it get out of grasp for your opponent for sure.

Speaker 1:
[253:56] Right. And there comes a point in the game where you've done all this setup but your life total can get low. And if you're now cast this, gain two life, flash something back next turn, that can get you out of that range. So it actually does serve a reasonable purpose in those type of decks. Also any deck that you're taking a turn to cast potioners' trove probably is interested in some life gain later because you're going to get...

Speaker 2:
[254:21] Yeah, I would imagine so.

Speaker 1:
[254:23] I mean, it looks like a D, like this doesn't look like the type of card that you just throw into any deck, but I could see it seeing play. I'm interested.

Speaker 2:
[254:32] Look, I actually think it's great that we've given a lot of cards like C slash D situational grades. That means this is going to be an interesting format.

Speaker 1:
[254:40] Definitely. I have a lot of questions.

Speaker 2:
[254:43] Yeah. So it's like, yeah, I would rather it not just be like, oh yeah, this card's an A, this card's an A, or all these commons are Cs to Bs, like they're all looking great. And it's like, well, that's not actually what I hope for.

Speaker 1:
[254:58] Agreed. And what you said before about how some cards seem to slot into a thing and some cards are kind of pivot cards. There's a lot of potential here. I'm excited for this one. Next up is Strixhaven Sky Coach. This is three mana for a 3-2 vehicle artifact, obviously. It is uncommon. It has flying. I'm going to get that crew cost in there now. Crew cost is two. And then it says, when this vehicle enters, you may search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, and then shuffle.

Speaker 2:
[255:29] Oh yeah.

Speaker 1:
[255:31] Yeah, I'm in for this.

Speaker 2:
[255:32] We're in for this one.

Speaker 1:
[255:33] Yep. This is card advantage. You know, where I've landed on vehicles like this, when they're kind of just scattered in, is like, if it can be that the vehicle isn't the focal point of the card or the most important thing, and the crew cost is one ideally, or maybe two, but not above that, then it's like, it's in range for consideration. And this one clears that bar. It's reasonable.

Speaker 2:
[255:58] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[255:59] I'd still give it like a C. Like, neither side is very good, right? A three, a three, two, flying crew, two is not, is, is mid. And it doesn't put the land on of the battlefield. Like it just gets you a land in your hand. Three mana to do that is not great either.

Speaker 2:
[256:19] Yeah. I think if you play a two drop with two power, and then you can play this and, and then crew and block, like I feel like you'll, you'll be pretty happy.

Speaker 1:
[256:28] That is part of a very good curve. I agree. What would you give it? I said C.

Speaker 2:
[256:34] Yeah, I would give it a C plus, I think.

Speaker 1:
[256:36] Okay. It does just enough to get it over the line.

Speaker 2:
[256:39] It's just slightly better than that. Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1:
[256:41] Next is a Biblioplex Tomekeeper. This is four mana for a three, four artifact creature construct a common. And when it enters, you choose up to one of these two choices. You can have target creature become prepared. And it notes that only creatures with prepare spells can become prepared. Because how do you mark it? Like it's not a counter, right? It's just a signifier of some sort. So yeah, I think so. And then it says, or it says, Oh man, that's rude. Target creature becomes unprepared. You lost your homework.

Speaker 2:
[257:15] Yeah, that's great.

Speaker 1:
[257:16] Yeah, it is really funny. I would give this an F though. I don't think I'd want to play this.

Speaker 2:
[257:20] No, I don't think that's where we're at.

Speaker 1:
[257:23] And then we've got three avatars. They're colorless, but not artifacts, it looks like. One is called Rancorous Archaic. And this is a five-mana avatar. It's a two-two at common. It, funny enough, has trample and reach, but it also has converge. Each creature enters with a plus one plus one counter on it for each color of mana that was spent to cast it. So you could have yourself a seven-seven trample reach here. So the first question, Luis, is, is this playable outside of converge? Like a specifically, a purpose-built converge deck?

Speaker 2:
[258:02] I don't think so.

Speaker 1:
[258:03] I don't think so either. It is a four-four trample reach most of the time. I just don't think that we really care, given the bar that this set has for creatures.

Speaker 2:
[258:15] Yeah, I just don't think that that's a great deal.

Speaker 1:
[258:18] Right. So if that's the case, then we're going to give it a build-around grade and add a common for a converge deck, especially if nobody else wants it. You know, that's a C, right?

Speaker 2:
[258:29] Yeah, that's exactly where I would put it.

Speaker 1:
[258:31] Yeah, card you could get. Next is Sundering Archaic. This is six mana for a three-three, again, avatar. This one's uncommon, though. This one has converge when it enters exile target nonland permanent and opponent controls with mana value less than or equal in number of colors of mana spent to cast this creature. It also has the activated ability to put target card from a graveyard on the bottom of its owner's library. It's still a six mana three-three, no matter which way you cut it, though.

Speaker 2:
[259:02] And you want to, and you're, if you converge for like three or four, it's pretty good. Converging for two is still fine, but you're not obviously that excited about that.

Speaker 1:
[259:10] Three does seem to be the key. And I got to say, if I'm designing converge cards, that's exactly what I would do. I would be like, if it's too good at two where everybody can play it, then it's just going to get swept up. So make it three and make them either stretch for it or just give it to converge deck entirely.

Speaker 2:
[259:29] I think that that's, that's where they're at with that, is my guess.

Speaker 1:
[259:31] It's great. I think that's beautiful.

Speaker 2:
[259:34] Again, I'm getting confidence that the designs here are good.

Speaker 1:
[259:38] This set is feeling really well designed early, I gotta say. Vibes are good. So, I mean, I guess one question is, if I take this card, put it in my two color deck otherwise, is it worth trying to produce another color of mana to make this good? Because I don't think you could quite pay six mana for a three, three that gets rid of a two mana card. I don't think you can quite do it.

Speaker 2:
[260:08] I don't think you can either. And I don't really care too much about the, like, the thing. Activated ability.

Speaker 1:
[260:13] Yeah, good for Laurel, maybe. Right, so who cares? But so, yeah, so, I mean, I think that this would probably fall into the converge deck category. And if, you know, in that deck, this is clearly awesome, right? Like I would give it an A. Or maybe an A minus.

Speaker 2:
[260:31] There is a converge deck here. There just clearly is.

Speaker 1:
[260:34] Yes, there is.

Speaker 2:
[260:35] Because we've got one more converge card to look through too, and it's going to be a good one too.

Speaker 1:
[260:39] Right, and in that deck, this card is a windmill. Right?

Speaker 2:
[260:45] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[260:46] I would give it an A minus for, build around A minus for converge deck. And I would play it if I could easily make a third color of mana, I think, in most decks. It is still a six mana, three, three. Next one is called Transcendent Archaic. This is seven mana for a six, six avatar. Again, uncommon. It's got vigilance and converge. You draw X cards where X is the number of colors of mana spent to cast this spell. If you draw one or more cards this way, discard two cards. And once again, we see that inflection point be at the three spot where you're actually profiting.

Speaker 2:
[261:27] Yeah. I think if you draw two cards...

Speaker 1:
[261:29] This fits the same description.

Speaker 2:
[261:30] This one's at least not a disaster if you draw two cards, to be honest.

Speaker 1:
[261:34] Draw two discard two is okay? Seven, seven for a seven mana, six, six vigilance draw two discard two. Yeah, you're right.

Speaker 2:
[261:40] Because you've already played this, the next turn you get to untap and use those cards. I mean, assuming you have at least one card in hand. Because when you're at that mana level, having one good card to play is pretty much all you need.

Speaker 1:
[261:52] Exactly. And lands are terrible at that point, generally.

Speaker 2:
[261:57] Yeah. So they're basically free. So I'm not taking away from everything we've said about converge. But I do think it is kind of funny that it is true that at two, most of them aren't good. But this one actually seems like it would be fine at two.

Speaker 1:
[262:13] Okay. So then the question becomes, in the converge deck, how good is this? And it's like B plus, A minus? B?

Speaker 2:
[262:26] B plus? I mean, honestly, it could be an A minus. Like imagine you cast this and you draw four cards and you have a six, six vigilance, then next turn, you're going to have a great play.

Speaker 1:
[262:34] Exactly. Or even five. I mean, if we're doing converge, you will sometimes do that. Yeah. So now you're up three cards with filtering? Like that's nuts. So yeah, I would say B plus, build around B plus. But here's the other question, do I put this in my Quandrix deck? I can ramp it out. I can get it down on turn six. I get a six, six vigilance that draws two, discards two. Is that worth it?

Speaker 2:
[263:03] No, probably not. I think Quandrix probably will have better things to do, is my guess. That's just my guess.

Speaker 1:
[263:09] Yeah. These are difficult. So build around B plus slash A minus for a transcendent archaic in the converged deck and then probably not going to see it outside of that. Okay. For lands, we've got a cycle of dual lands here. These are, what are they? Intertapped, da-da-da, and then they have activated abilities, surveil lands. Okay. Forum of Amity is the first one, and it looks like the formula follows for all of them. So this one is the black-white one, and ETB is tapped, it taps for black or white, and you can pay two black-white, tap it to surveil one, and there's one for each of the core color pairs that we mentioned. They seem great. These are common by the way.

Speaker 2:
[263:51] Fantastic. So it does make the Converged deck harder, that it's five lands instead of 10. Not that I expected there to be 10, it should be just five, but that is gonna make that a little bit tougher, you know?

Speaker 1:
[264:01] It also makes it harder that they're good. Yeah. It does make it interesting though, if you're Quandrix and you pick up a Titan's Grave, are you dabbling in the, Titan's Grave is the black-green one, are you dabbling in Converged? These are questions for down the line, but these are like at least a C+, right? Or maybe at most, maybe they're just a C+.

Speaker 2:
[264:25] These might be like a, yeah, they might be closer to B-, honestly. If you're thinking about, like, I know I'm Quandrix, do I want Paradox Gardens or like a playable? Like, it better be a really good playable.

Speaker 1:
[264:39] Seriously. It really, seriously, because our man is so bad. And there isn't much fixing here. We saw a few in the colorless space, but it wasn't the kind of stuff that you want to throw into every deck. So these are going to be at a premium C+, B-, level for each of these surveil lands. There are two other lands. There's an uncommon called Sky Coach Waypoint, and it taps for colorless. It also has activated ability 3 tap, and target creature becomes prepared. I just feel like we're going to be focusing on the cards that either come in prepared or that you can re-prepare easily like landfall and stuff, and not trying to shoehorn in these colorless lands.

Speaker 2:
[265:17] I just haven't seen a prepared card. I mean, we haven't seen the rares yet. Exactly.

Speaker 1:
[265:22] But I would assume that this is an F.

Speaker 2:
[265:25] Yeah, me too. I think that that's probably.

Speaker 1:
[265:28] And then this is important. There is teramorphic expanse in common. So land, it doesn't make man on its own, but you can tap in the sacket to search your library for a basic land card, put it in the battlefield, tap to then shuffle. This is the type of card that the converge deck is going to absolutely have to prioritize. I mean, there's just not that much land-based fixing in this set.

Speaker 2:
[265:49] I mean, I'm really excited to draft the converge deck, and I feel like you probably want to draft it fixing first.

Speaker 1:
[265:55] Agreed, and then pick up the stuff later. Yeah, and it also may be as simple as fixing first, wheel the converge cards, get everything on the last two packs. That could totally happen too. It really feels like converge is going to be like one person per draft probably thing. But pteromorphic, I would at least give it a C here. I mean, there's just not that much fixing, and it's always important to remember that your mana bases in Limited start out bad. We are used to 9-8 split and being like, well, it is what it is, but what it is is not good. So any duels or anything that you can use to help smooth that out will at least get you approaching okay compared to what you would really hope for, to be able to have both your colors in a timely fashion. So C, C plus for pteromorphic expanse.

Speaker 2:
[266:48] Yeah, I think that's about where it's gonna land. It's a high bar to not take lands in this kind of draft, for sure.

Speaker 1:
[266:56] Dude, this set looks sweet.

Speaker 2:
[266:58] Yeah, I'm excited. This looks really good.

Speaker 1:
[267:00] It looks really good. I can breathe again. We mentioned at the top of the show, but it's the thing I want to leave the listeners and viewers with, which is the breathing room on five colors is just so profound after we're coming off a set that didn't have that. That was still a good set. Like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was totally fine. But you could feel it, that they made five archetypes, but it just didn't get to really breathe and you can really feel it here, that they got to go deep on these archetypes because of all the extra card slots that they had to work with.

Speaker 2:
[267:44] Yeah, I'm most excited by converging the prospect of crossover synergy where... Yeah. It just is... And we don't know, we'll have to see. I mean, it's actually literally our job to figure this out. There might also be some nice little... Blue-white might be a deck in some capacity. We don't really know what that looks like yet.

Speaker 1:
[268:07] Right, there could definitely be some sneaky archetypes in here for sure.

Speaker 2:
[268:10] Yeah, I mean, who's to say there isn't, right? Yeah, I'm excited to see how that's going to end up looking too.

Speaker 1:
[268:16] I am too. Hopefully, this set review is useful to you as the listener. That is all of the commas and uncommons in this set. Really exciting. And this set hopefully will live up to original Strixhaven because that was a great set too. That's going to do it for this one. If you want to find us on social media, martial underscore LR and Luis's LSV pretty much everywhere, you can find everything related to the podcast at lrcast.com, including links to all the old shows, any old set reviews, anything that you want to listen to there, as well as, don't forget, Luis's YouTube channel. You can find the link to that right on the front or just search for LSV on YouTube, and you'll find him for daily drafts of varying formats, including primarily few drafts.

Speaker 2:
[269:00] Are you gonna say varying quality?

Speaker 1:
[269:01] No, no, no, they're all A+, one way or the other. But yeah, Cube is the primary, but he will also, I'm sure, you're gonna dabble in some Secrets of Strixhaven on there too.

Speaker 2:
[269:14] Oh yeah, most definitely.

Speaker 1:
[269:15] So when that comes out, you'll be able to see that as well over on Luis's YouTube channel. We also want to say thank you to everybody who supports us over on Patreon, as well as Ultimate Guard for their support of the show. If you need to pick up some sleeves, play mats, deck boxes, all that kind of stuff, make sure you check out the products on ultimateguard.com as they make the best stuff in the business. That is going to do it for this one. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. We'll see you next week.

Speaker 2:
[269:42] You totally changed what I was going to say because you talked about the products. And you've seen the- The McDonald's?

Speaker 1:
[269:48] The McDonald's guy. Yeah, I thought of that when I said that.

Speaker 2:
[269:51] The CEO, because for those who haven't seen this, there's like the new burger, the big arch burger or whatever. And he's like filming this little like kind of like TikTok video where he's supposed to be eating it. And you know, there's a lot of ways you could imagine that going. I personally would have probably tried to go in with some enthusiasm and stuff. But this guy, like it actually ended up working out really well for them, I think. But yeah, it was really funny because he was like, oh, wow, you know, this is a great product like this product has. You know, he's talking about it like a product, not like a burger, but like a CEO person. Like he's the CEO of McDonald's. And I heard this remix on TikTok where he's just like, eat the product, taste the product. You know, like it just because he kept calling it the product. So now whenever I hear anyone say product, I always think of like, eat the product, enjoy the product.

Speaker 1:
[270:37] I thought of it when I said that too.

Speaker 2:
[270:39] The second you said the product, it was the first thing that came to my mind.

Speaker 1:
[270:44] He ruined that word for every time, everybody.

Speaker 2:
[270:46] It's too good. And you know what? I honestly think though, like this is your job, you're the CEO. Like I actually don't think it's unreasonable of him to take that approach. Cause like, obviously this spurred a bunch of kind of copycats to, you know, Burger King did theirs and all that. But people still really talk about the McDonald ones more than anything else. And I think there's a pretty good reason for that.

Speaker 1:
[271:09] So it went viral.

Speaker 2:
[271:10] It went viral. And as we know, that's the greatest good you can have. So