Hello folks! I hope you are having a strong and fun Friday. Today I want to take a gander at my picks for the best cards from Core Set 2020. We just got the full spoiler Tuesday, so I took a deep dive then to unpack all of the sweet new cards that we are getting.

New sets are the lifeblood of the game, and the return of Core Sets that began last year are one of the ways that we are getting some new blood that's not based on the ongoing storyline. Now, I do think that last year's Core Set 2019 was not pushed much at all, as it felt very by-the-numbers to me in places. But now that they have a new set in the modern era under their belt, this set should hopefully push into some fun territory.

Does it? Let's take a look-see!

Honorable Mention #1 - Vilis, Broker of Blood

Let me ask you a quick question... how much does this guy remind you of, say, Griselbrand? Both cost 8 mana. Both are big bodies that fly. Gris had lifelink but was smaller and harder to cast. Now, because you could immediately pay a seven-fold of life for an equal amount of cards without anything else, Griselbrand was immediately impactful, and has been ban-hammered in Commander. Yet.....Vilis? You can spend one Black mana for two life lost, two cards drawn, and you kill creatures while you do so - so he's basically a stronger effect for most Black decks at the kitchen table as he interacts with your foes' stuff and works well with any life loss effect out there. But why contrast these? Put them together! He'll double the cards drawn with Gris. He's a strong killer of stuff and drawer of cards! Vilis is here.

Honorable Mention #2 - Gruesome Scourger

I know that it might just be me! But this card has such mad value, right? Sure, I admit my bias. As a casual aficionado, I am constructed to love any card with an enters-the-battlefield trigger. But even still, I cannot be the only one who thinks this card has what it takes to make the cut at your next kitchen table night, right? The damage range on this can take out a lot of players or their planewalkers. Now if this could damage any target's it'd be on my top ten for sure. But still, it's seems like a strong addition to many decks for kitchen table shenanigans. Note that it's a Warrior for your Najeela, the Blade-Blossom decks.

Honorable Mention #3 - Thirsting Bloodlord

I don't know if this is an experiment or not. But this is weird. Why would you print a card like this for a planeswalker deck? I mean, sure, you would add more of that type in. For example, Huatli's Dinosaur themed deck you had more Dinosaurs being printed, but there weren't any new lords or must-grabs like this. Ditto the Angrath Pirate deck, as well as other planeswalker decks over the years with tribal themes. Why this in the Sorin Vampire deck? No idea. But it's weird. I would recommend picking up a playset from the secondary market prior to the price rising, as a four mana 3/3 lord that pumps your whole team is likely something you'd want to run in many builds at the kitchen table.

10. Chandra, Awakened Inferno

Let's be honest here. At the kitchen table, six mana planeswalkers tend to be drop-able more reliably as the game will often go that long. And in any multiplayer game, her +2 is just nasty powerful. Just sit back and let everyone die. She'll immediately be at 8 loyalty, and you can keep on digging. And oh, you can't counter her, and then you cannot kill her until I put the +2 on the stack, and it will still resolve. Thus, you will be getting some Chandra hate. Also, much like Elspeth, the Sun's Champion, you have a middle ability that can sweep part of the board. If you build around it, none of your dorks will be harmed. And the final ability can handle any creatures or planewalkers that may dare to confront you. What's not to love?

9. Yarok, the Desecrated

Yarok, the Bringer of Fun Times is a strong and powerful body at the kitchen table. No one wants to swing into it, so you can likely keep back many a foe while you net double triggers. Note that these work for any permanent not just dorks or something. That means you get the sweet sweet music of multiple lands for landfall decks, or even something like Flight of Fancy netting you four cards. Get ready for enters-the-battlefield overload! Yarok is here to party, and it brought a passel of people with it.

8. Kaalia, Zenith Seeker

Of the various new legendaries, I enjoy New Kaalia the best. Why? Well, let's take a look-see. First? She's cheap. You can drop her for three mana easily. Not only can you bring her down more reliably, but she's also recur-able and abusable with a number of Black and White cards that care about creatures with cheap casting costs. Such as Cavalier of Night or Sun Titan:

Her flying and vigilance are good at pushing the board around, and her enters-the-battlefield is both powerful very flicker-able. She's in White, the color of many blinking effects out there. She's strong, powerful, cheap, and blink-able. What's not to love?

7. Brought Back

Two mana. Two permanents of any type. Return tapped under your control. There have been previous effects printed previously in this genre of card! But they've cost a lot more mana. This is a much simpler effect at two mana. You just cast it as you have the mana available, and you can drop it earlier. You can also build around it more. For example, you could grab a fetch land and a Sakura-Tribe Elder off the same turn and put them back under your control very early in the game. You can return your one- and two-drops off a three-mana sweeper with this in your hand. It's good stuff! Enjoy bringing them Back.

6. Scheming Symmetry

First of all, before I dive into this card, I want to say that this is my favorite art in Core Set 2020, by a long shot. I adore this so much. It's also an Imperial Seal for you - one mana at sorcery speed to put any card from your deck on top of your library. Only, instead of you losing life when you cast it, you give your foe the same advantage. Now your foe will go first, so they will typically draw their tutored spell before you draw yours. But that's not how things have to work here in your deck. Like many a supposing symmetrical theme, you built around it, so you are better built to draw first. You can easily tap a Sensei's Divining Top or many other card drawing effects to get yours first. You can also set up a powerful trigger like, say, Call of the Wild, or and then put the biggest creature in your deck onto the battlefield for without the other being bothered by counter magic. If your creature is big enough and haste, you might win before your foe can even take their turn! And this is just the start. (Call was printed in a Modern legal Core Set, in case you wanted to try out this combo in Modern, as an fyi).

It's also good for effects that play into a Group Hug style of kitchen table play. Let's all tutor! You'll help Bob search for a land so he can get out of mana screw! And we can play the nice person with the same card and effect, so there is nothing to lose! It's a fun card with a useful slate of abilities, so get ready!

5. Cloudkin Seer

I don't know if we have any easy data that shows it off; but Elvish Visionary has to be one of the most played Elves in casual land. According to EDHREC.com, it has more than 6100 decks registered. Compare that to popular Elves like Yeva, Nature's Herald (4983), Timberwatch Elf (1689), Ezuri, Renegade Leader (2019), and Edric, Spymaster of Trest (4362). Only a handful of critical mana Elves (Llanowar Elves - 22k; Fyndhorn Elves - 10k, etc) are played more. Think about that. Little ol' Elvish Visionary is played almost 50% more than Edric! Now, why am I spending so much time going over Elvish Visionary in casual?

Because Cloudkin Seer is a flying, 2/1 Visionary, and that's a strong card. It plays into a powerful cachet. Sure, it may only be half the card drawing of something like, say, Mulldrifter. But at three mana? With flying and 2 power? This is incredible. It's going to be loved in shells that care about enters-the-battlefield or reanimation. It has two pertinent tribes as well. It's card flow, it's splashable, and it's even a cheap common. What's not to love here?

4. Portal of Sanctuary

On social media, as well as in my conversations around the kitchen table, I really haven't seen Portal of Sanctuary get the love that it should be getting from the Casual Fans. This thang is amazing. It reprints an effect we've only seen a few times -

The most recent of these came down in the first Modern Legal expansion set - Mirrodin. You can also see the Erratic Portal that it resembles. Now, to be fair, the newest iteration of this card means that it cannot be targeted at another's dork, nor are they forced to keep a mana open if they don't want to have their best scuff bounced. But most folks out there ain't putting this in those decks anyway, they put them in ones that relish self-bouncery. Cards like the above Cloudkin Seer, Mulldrifter, or ones that have to self-bounce to abuse, as they don't have abilities to merely flicker - such as Thornscape Battlemage. You can use it to save stuff from mass removal or targeted, protect something post-bounce, and a lot more. I like using this after you have stolen a dork with an enchantment like Control Magic. After a better dork comes along, you can bounce your dork and your aura. You can recast your Control Magic on the better target and your foe must spend mana again to recast their creature. It's awesome!

3. Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord

There are four key things that I think make Sorin really work for us. Let's go over them in order:

1. Just three mana - Sorin is incredibly strong as he can come down very early. In fact, his cost is even easy on the colors, as most three-mana walkers require two colored mana and one colorless but Sorin is different in kind.
2. Two Plus One Abilities - You may not have noticed, but both of his first abilities add loyalty to him. The first is strong as you are tossing on two abilities and likely a counter onto a dork, and the next is a drain ability if you have a Vampire you want to give up for the cause of killing a dork or finish off a planeswalker you just attacked into.
3. Starts With 4 Loyalty - Very few three-mana planeswalkers have that much loyalty. Not including the static ability ones from War of the Spark that only had one minus ability, only Ajani, Caller of the Pride, Gideon Blackblade, Teferi, Time Reveler, and Vivien, Champion of the Wilds have at least 4 starting loyalty. That's it. That means it will be hard for your foe to kill it early by overwhelming it or something.
4. The Strong Ultimate is Immediate and Doesn't Kill Sorin - There are a few modern planeswalkers, such as Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, that could be dropped quickly, and used with it's ultimate as soon as it arrived, but you had to kill it. But this? It's just -3, and it's incredibly easy to abuse on the third turn! Drop this, -3 it, drop a powerful Vampire, and then your Sorin is still on the battlefield. That's incredible.

Simply put, the combination of these four abilities will force folks to deal with your Sorin early, or not at all.

2. Chandra, Acolyte of Flame

Note that most of the things I just mentioned about Sorin also apply to Chandra, Acolyte of Flame as well. Three mana? High loyalty? An ultimate that won't kill her? Now, she won't toss on a bunch of +1 counters as easily, but neither of her first two abilities drain her, and her second is a strong one you can learn into. Drop her on turn three, make two 1/1 hasties, swing, keep all of the loyalty on your leader? That's strong. And unlike Sorin, she doesn't require a commitment to a single tribe, she's good in more builds. Her -2 can take over battlefields with ease as she re-casts a cool removal spell. If you cast a strong burn spell, such as Lighting Bolt or some variant thereof, then dropping her and re-Bolting something else is strong. As a result, she is strong. And just one card keeps her from my top spot!

1. Golos, Tireless Pilgrim

Sigh. Wizards, this card is wrong. Any land? You aren't even trying to make people work for it with just a basic land here, are you? And it's yet another example of how I think you aren't often designing good Commanders for Commander. It's inspired me to have an open talk with you... This card is wrong. It's not wrong in the sense that it sucks. It doesn't suck; it's amazing. Getting any land from your deck for 5 mana and dropping it out the battlefield is very, very strange for mono-colored decks - haven't we learned anything from Expedition Map? Do you need your final piece of the Urza-tron, or another Cloudpost? And this card is incredibly powerful for Commander, as well as other kitchen table brews. This card is going to be so dominant that it's wrong.

I may not like it, but it's clearly the top choice for decks moving forward...

And there we go! What did you think of my list? Did I miss anything? What are you most exited to open and play? Just let me know.

P.S. - Next Tuesday's column is dedicated to building decks from 2020. It's mostly written already. I expect to invest my July 9th column about why Golos is, in my opinion, yet another example of a badly designed Commander and I'll make the case for why I believe that Golos and similar cards are wrong for the format.