It was weak in brother’s war too. The only real thing blue got was some soldier stuff for standard and it was weak af in limited. I think they are scared to make blue op and it’s hard to balance so they try to make it weaker since it can be super un fun when blue is powerful in limited.
@@GhGh-gq8oo I just want a viable mill deck in limited again. I loved the non-bot draft eldraine mill deck and the rare multiple teferi's tutelage m21 mill deck. As long as it's not a deck that can't always be gone for, at least. Not really much into the idea of a mill deck being one of the likely outcomes from every drafting pod.
I'm so ready for this Limited format! I got bored & burnt out on Brother's War unexpectedly fast, and the only thing keeping my interest was Arena Cube Draft. Because of that, I've been sitting on a bunch of gems & gold just itching for this set to drop. February 7th needs to hurry up & get here! 😅
I could see Trawler Drake ending up closer to a B if proliferate ends up working well or even if the format is more aggressive. Just getting it up to a 3/3 will make it a decent early beater, and it’s not crazy to imagine it swinging as a 4/4 or 5/5 consistently in a well-supporting deck
I'm really surprised people don't seem to like blue very much, it has a really nice shell for a tempo burn type deck with poison that looks really promising in UG and UB, and the UR deck looks really nice this time. Mesmerizing Dose, and Experimental Augury look like a very nice backbone for all of these blue archetypes to work off of and I really like all of them. I'm not as big on UW, admittedly the synergies there look unimpressive, but I think all the proliferate stuff will really make the backbone of some strong decks.
I agree with those saying Blue is weak. At common, fairly weak, better at uncommon. I've been argued up on it by a few people, though, including good players. I think it's better than Red, but I'd see it as the second weakest colour.
I think I'm in the "blue is clunky for limited" group. It seems to be the colour with very little toxic creatures, which would make all that proliferate worth it. If you can pair it with a color that has good aggressive toxic creatures, I think blue will be a decent support colour, but not the main one. The best card for me is probably the clone equipment that comes attached to a 2/2 token. For 3 mana, that's insanely overpowered! Looking forward to the limited shenanigans it can bring.
I like the art for this set, but it can be a little hard to parse because there is so much going on. Instead of depicting the thing the card is, there is so much extra stuff in the background and around it. Shadows, tentacles, machine parts, all add to the atmosphere immensely but it is also visual clutter, especially when they are depicting things that are not very intuitive to begin with.
I love the flavor and the art in the set but it is indeed starting to blur a bit. A lot of clutter and detail in many cards and sometime it's hard to figure out what's going on
To paraphrase LSV on the BRO sunset show, looks like blue is taking another set off. I could be wrong of course but… Adding to /effecting the board is so important to Limited now, I don’t see blue being good very often unless they start printing something like ‘draw 2, create a 1/1 flyer’.
I guess I haven't played limited in a while, but has power creep gone up that much that a 5-mana 4/3 flying is printable at common now (and is only a C+ here)? I remember in the past Air Elemental (3UU 4/4 flying, usually uncommon) used to be considered a pretty good first-pickable card for limited, and Snapping Drake (3U 3/2 flying, usually common) was also a pretty reasonable threat... and I guess this one being 4/3 and not 4/4 means Snapping Drake would trade up with it, but 4-power flyers at common almost never showed up before.
@@NizzahonMagic True... I guess a 4/3 flying for 5 is stronger than most common flying creatures, but I guess rare and mythic flyers for 5 mana can be 4/5 or 5/5 nowadays (Sphinx of Clear Skies), and Tekuthal is a 4-drop that eats this in combat.
I'll go against grain and say blue isn't that bad. The artifact theme and pairing with white is junk yes but when paired with black or green, it shines. If can get a few poison counters at start of game with black or green, one can simply go defensive and keep digging through your deck proliferating until the opponent hits 10 counters. It's common 1/1 flyer 2 for 1 counters blacks 1/1 toxic flyer. (Of course whites 1/2 flyer sticks around better but doesn't replace itself if removed) The 0/3 1 mana scry-every-turn wall and the unblockables are very nice for defending against early game toxic creatures and going offensive late game. Seems weakest against green
I’m not falling for the limited meme of building around long game anymore. The best way to get max wins on opening weekend will probably be to just throw together a low to the ground red white deck with 16 lands and just rush people down who are messing around trying to do meme stuff with poison counters.
@@GhGh-gq8oo ngl i went boros last 2 sets with samr mindset lol. but reds early drops seem so bad! Woo a 1/1 haste that can sometimes tap to do a damage.. woo a 1/1 trample that slowwwwly gets bigger. Or those equipment creatures, which are pretty weak, slow, and clunky. Overall creatures seem lower power numbers than usual to compensate for toxic being a win condition. The red card that prevents all blocking seems like it completely obliterate opponents who rely on stalled board states though so, you might be right. Green creatures in particular seem like they will just be able to plow through the stalling poison decks and blacks weak toxic creatures. I mean to speak of Sealed, draft might be much different. Black has so so so much good removal tho I worry the big creatures won't last long
After the last two sets, I always start evaluating the strategies checking how good aggro is, and then I move on from there. Still have to take a look at it all together, but it seems like this time around we might be getting a slightly slower environment. Where slightly is the key word lol
I think redeeming factor of Mindsplice Apparatus is that it has Flash, and you can keep it in your hand with a counter spell. Then play it at the end of their turn, giving you an instant discount. I understand, that it is probably too expensive..
It will really depend on how controlling you can be. You mention holding up counters and I personally think most of them actually look very decent for limited. But do you think it's enough eventual payoff to take off turn 4+ to start building with it? Selesyna and Gruul look very fast this format.
not sure you should call blade of shared souls clone cuz i dont think it gets ETBs like clone does. It's more of a repeatable turn a token into your strongest creature or whatever
@@cax1175 If, for example, you used Aspirant's Ascent on a creature that already has Toxic 3, does it now have both Toxic 1 & 3? Thereby causing 4 poison on combat damage? I'm usually a rules nut but I haven't gotten around to reading any rules changes that may have been made with ONE.
@@LightningStryke27 actually I think that creature gives Toxic to creatures with deathtouch. I was looking at it for my Fynn, the Fangbearer deck (deathtouch/infect aggro).
@@LightningStryke27 You right, I just looked up that card, it buffs/grants Toxic+1. Confirms it stacks, reading the card explains the card lol. "Plague Nurse" is the card name for reference, it is a green common.
Whats happening with this set story? Looks like there are more planeswalker casualties than during Bolas storyline. Like half of the gatewatch are compleated.
So Nissa and Lukka basically get compleated off screen, Nahiri gets infected, drops the Great Furance into the black layer (I can't remember its name) then her compleation finishes, Vraska gets compleated in the black layer and Jace gets compleated because he basically stays with Vraska until her compleation fully takes hold. Also, Tibalt is apparently compleated off screen by Vorinclex's seed thing. Finally, Elspeth is in a void now with the Sylex blast.
Don't you think (some) will be cured? Apparently halo has some anti-phyrexian effects, and there's literally a legendary called Living Cure. Also, I'm fairly certain Elspeth didn't technically die.
Some cool cards are coming out of this set but overall I'm just not impressed. I don't care for oil counters, infect, poison, toxic, etc. None are mechanics I'd ever build around and I'm someone who generally wants a deck of every color and arch type. I even built a surveil deck a few years ago. I've always felt like infect was a mistake and I just don't play with it. Even watching Mr Infect Craig on CZ doesn't make me want to try it again. It just isn't fun to play or to play against.
I think the escaped experiment is much worse, personally I'd give it a D- or an F. It's when it attacks so you can't even use it when your opponents are attacking, and it wont help you trade, nor can you grow its body late game. All in all there's probably much better things you can do with the 2 mana.
It is awful in Limited, definitely an F. I say that with extreme confidence. And explained quite clearly why that's the case. Remember, I'm not talking about any other formats, where it definitely looks good.
I've been watching this channel since 2018 and the set reviews have always been favorites of mine. Thanks for all your hard work :)
Thanks for watching!
Same here, yo. Same here.
Man, the effort and energy you put in to all these reviews is greatly appreciated. Seriously, super impressive
Glad you like them!
A large majority of the rares this set are going to be so strong/fun in limited, super exciting
Blue's looking super weak this set. Hopefully we don't have a repeat of Forgotten Realms
It was weak in brother’s war too. The only real thing blue got was some soldier stuff for standard and it was weak af in limited. I think they are scared to make blue op and it’s hard to balance so they try to make it weaker since it can be super un fun when blue is powerful in limited.
@@GhGh-gq8oo I just want a viable mill deck in limited again. I loved the non-bot draft eldraine mill deck and the rare multiple teferi's tutelage m21 mill deck.
As long as it's not a deck that can't always be gone for, at least. Not really much into the idea of a mill deck being one of the likely outcomes from every drafting pod.
Keening stone mill was possible in bro but you had to build around it
As usual
@@GhGh-gq8oo nah in bro Izzet was my most played devk together with Rakdos. Red was just op, but blue was good.
I'm so ready for this Limited format! I got bored & burnt out on Brother's War unexpectedly fast, and the only thing keeping my interest was Arena Cube Draft.
Because of that, I've been sitting on a bunch of gems & gold just itching for this set to drop. February 7th needs to hurry up & get here! 😅
I could see Trawler Drake ending up closer to a B if proliferate ends up working well or even if the format is more aggressive. Just getting it up to a 3/3 will make it a decent early beater, and it’s not crazy to imagine it swinging as a 4/4 or 5/5 consistently in a well-supporting deck
Yep, I could definitely see that happening.
I'm really surprised people don't seem to like blue very much, it has a really nice shell for a tempo burn type deck with poison that looks really promising in UG and UB, and the UR deck looks really nice this time. Mesmerizing Dose, and Experimental Augury look like a very nice backbone for all of these blue archetypes to work off of and I really like all of them. I'm not as big on UW, admittedly the synergies there look unimpressive, but I think all the proliferate stuff will really make the backbone of some strong decks.
*dies on turn 5 to curve out*
Imma be honest nizza I had a good FNM now I'm glad you uploaded
Sweet! I just finished white last night and here you are again! I'm very interested in this set. Gonna get back on Arena.
I agree with those saying Blue is weak. At common, fairly weak, better at uncommon. I've been argued up on it by a few people, though, including good players. I think it's better than Red, but I'd see it as the second weakest colour.
I think I'm in the "blue is clunky for limited" group. It seems to be the colour with very little toxic creatures, which would make all that proliferate worth it. If you can pair it with a color that has good aggressive toxic creatures, I think blue will be a decent support colour, but not the main one.
The best card for me is probably the clone equipment that comes attached to a 2/2 token. For 3 mana, that's insanely overpowered! Looking forward to the limited shenanigans it can bring.
I think you are right, that blue is not strong as a standalone colour, but I also think, that it pairs very nice with every colour except white
I like the art for this set, but it can be a little hard to parse because there is so much going on. Instead of depicting the thing the card is, there is so much extra stuff in the background and around it. Shadows, tentacles, machine parts, all add to the atmosphere immensely but it is also visual clutter, especially when they are depicting things that are not very intuitive to begin with.
I love the flavor and the art in the set but it is indeed starting to blur a bit. A lot of clutter and detail in many cards and sometime it's hard to figure out what's going on
They’ve been making blue weak in the past few sets for limited.
Well, since sharks are keeping me awake, might as well watch this video the second it comes out
Tell me more about these sharks
@@dagreen92 Probably loan sharks. They've gotta stay awake so they can run before the henchmen bust in and break their knee caps
@@The.QuasiOG my thoughts exactly
Mill in draft is going to be fun!
To paraphrase LSV on the BRO sunset show, looks like blue is taking another set off. I could be wrong of course but…
Adding to /effecting the board is so important to Limited now, I don’t see blue being good very often unless they start printing something like ‘draw 2, create a 1/1 flyer’.
I guess I haven't played limited in a while, but has power creep gone up that much that a 5-mana 4/3 flying is printable at common now (and is only a C+ here)?
I remember in the past Air Elemental (3UU 4/4 flying, usually uncommon) used to be considered a pretty good first-pickable card for limited, and Snapping Drake (3U 3/2 flying, usually common) was also a pretty reasonable threat... and I guess this one being 4/3 and not 4/4 means Snapping Drake would trade up with it, but 4-power flyers at common almost never showed up before.
Yes, creature power creep is real. Air Elemental is probably a C+ these days.
@@NizzahonMagic True... I guess a 4/3 flying for 5 is stronger than most common flying creatures, but I guess rare and mythic flyers for 5 mana can be 4/5 or 5/5 nowadays (Sphinx of Clear Skies), and Tekuthal is a 4-drop that eats this in combat.
@@Lasersharp It also dies to lots of common and uncommon 2 and 3 mana removal, which really matters in terms of tempo.
Very few D ratings this set. A lot of Cs and Fs. Why do you think that is?
I felt like some of these blue cards were overrated by a point or two. Definitely some C's that should've been C- or D+ I thought.
I'll go against grain and say blue isn't that bad. The artifact theme and pairing with white is junk yes but when paired with black or green, it shines. If can get a few poison counters at start of game with black or green, one can simply go defensive and keep digging through your deck proliferating until the opponent hits 10 counters. It's common 1/1 flyer 2 for 1 counters blacks 1/1 toxic flyer. (Of course whites 1/2 flyer sticks around better but doesn't replace itself if removed)
The 0/3 1 mana scry-every-turn wall and the unblockables are very nice for defending against early game toxic creatures and going offensive late game.
Seems weakest against green
I’m not falling for the limited meme of building around long game anymore. The best way to get max wins on opening weekend will probably be to just throw together a low to the ground red white deck with 16 lands and just rush people down who are messing around trying to do meme stuff with poison counters.
@@GhGh-gq8oo ngl i went boros last 2 sets with samr mindset lol. but reds early drops seem so bad! Woo a 1/1 haste that can sometimes tap to do a damage.. woo a 1/1 trample that slowwwwly gets bigger. Or those equipment creatures, which are pretty weak, slow, and clunky. Overall creatures seem lower power numbers than usual to compensate for toxic being a win condition.
The red card that prevents all blocking seems like it completely obliterate opponents who rely on stalled board states though so, you might be right. Green creatures in particular seem like they will just be able to plow through the stalling poison decks and blacks weak toxic creatures.
I mean to speak of Sealed, draft might be much different. Black has so so so much good removal tho I worry the big creatures won't last long
After the last two sets, I always start evaluating the strategies checking how good aggro is, and then I move on from there.
Still have to take a look at it all together, but it seems like this time around we might be getting a slightly slower environment. Where slightly is the key word lol
I think redeeming factor of Mindsplice Apparatus is that it has Flash, and you can keep it in your hand with a counter spell. Then play it at the end of their turn, giving you an instant discount. I understand, that it is probably too expensive..
It will really depend on how controlling you can be. You mention holding up counters and I personally think most of them actually look very decent for limited. But do you think it's enough eventual payoff to take off turn 4+ to start building with it?
Selesyna and Gruul look very fast this format.
not sure you should call blade of shared souls clone cuz i dont think it gets ETBs like clone does. It's more of a repeatable turn a token into your strongest creature or whatever
I don't know if blue is week, but it looks spicy
Has this video not been loading for anyone else? I can’t get it to play. Other videos on RUclips are so it’s just this one
Does Toxic stack?
That's really my only question about this set.
As far as what, like double strike? Yes
@@cax1175 If, for example, you used Aspirant's Ascent on a creature that already has Toxic 3, does it now have both Toxic 1 & 3? Thereby causing 4 poison on combat damage?
I'm usually a rules nut but I haven't gotten around to reading any rules changes that may have been made with ONE.
@@Ixidora it does stack. There's a green card that adds toxic 1 to creatures with toxic, I think
@@LightningStryke27 actually I think that creature gives Toxic to creatures with deathtouch. I was looking at it for my Fynn, the Fangbearer deck (deathtouch/infect aggro).
@@LightningStryke27 You right, I just looked up that card, it buffs/grants Toxic+1. Confirms it stacks, reading the card explains the card lol.
"Plague Nurse" is the card name for reference, it is a green common.
In a world where its vital to get 3 poison counters, I think Porlogue is much stronger than you give it credit for in a deck with corrupted mechanics.
Whats happening with this set story?
Looks like there are more planeswalker casualties than during Bolas storyline. Like half of the gatewatch are compleated.
Pretty sad my boy Jace was killed
@@Rhygenix I'm more sad for the poor Elspeth .. she deserved better, imho
So Nissa and Lukka basically get compleated off screen, Nahiri gets infected, drops the Great Furance into the black layer (I can't remember its name) then her compleation finishes, Vraska gets compleated in the black layer and Jace gets compleated because he basically stays with Vraska until her compleation fully takes hold.
Also, Tibalt is apparently compleated off screen by Vorinclex's seed thing.
Finally, Elspeth is in a void now with the Sylex blast.
@@marcoottina654 She did. I started MTG right around Theros, and used her planeswalker for my Jeskai Control deck. So it hits hard.
Don't you think (some) will be cured? Apparently halo has some anti-phyrexian effects, and there's literally a legendary called Living Cure. Also, I'm fairly certain Elspeth didn't technically die.
When is prerelease for this set? First weekend of Februrary?
Yeah.
Quicksilver Fisher C- (C+ if it had Flash)
These seem significantly weaker than the white cards, which scares me a little
Well shit. I was almost the 1st one here
Some cool cards are coming out of this set but overall I'm just not impressed. I don't care for oil counters, infect, poison, toxic, etc. None are mechanics I'd ever build around and I'm someone who generally wants a deck of every color and arch type. I even built a surveil deck a few years ago. I've always felt like infect was a mistake and I just don't play with it. Even watching Mr Infect Craig on CZ doesn't make me want to try it again. It just isn't fun to play or to play against.
Blue looks weak
Blue looking weak AF this set.
I think the escaped experiment is much worse, personally I'd give it a D- or an F. It's when it attacks so you can't even use it when your opponents are attacking, and it wont help you trade, nor can you grow its body late game. All in all there's probably much better things you can do with the 2 mana.
Weak sauce…
Mindsplice apparatus is crazy what are you talking about an f?!?
It is awful in Limited, definitely an F. I say that with extreme confidence. And explained quite clearly why that's the case.
Remember, I'm not talking about any other formats, where it definitely looks good.
It’s bad in limited. It will be good in legacy and vintage though.
Compared to white, blues rares seem like kind of a joke. My money is on blue being weakest in limited.
19:41 Would give it a B- / C , because of 3 Counters for Corrupted 🤷♂