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Today we wrap up with War of the Spark. We'll be going over all the powerful and sweet multicolored cards from the set. This is how I'll be grading the cards.

Each card will be listed by color/guild, then alphabetically by name.

Each card will given a rating of 1-5. If a card would receive a 0, meaning it will see no play in that format ever, its rating is left off the list.

Rating - Explanation - Standard - Examples

0 - Will never see play in this format (Sphinx's Decree, Crafty Cutpurse (Most Rivals of Ixalan cards)).

1 - Unlikely to see play. (Amplifire)

2 - Could see fringe play, or occasional sideboard card. (Crushing Canopy, Disdainful Stroke)

3 - Commonly played, staple in a single deck, or frequent play in several decks. (Thought Erasure, Shock)

4 - Format staples. Sees play in multiple decks, one of the best cards in the format. (History of Benalia, Wilderness Reclamation)

5 - If you're in these colors, you should almost assuredly be playing that card. (Teferi, Hero of Dominaria)

	3 - "Now do you know the benefits of peace?" If you don't then Ajani will show you the way by growing your token horde and bashing your opponent in the face for a million damage all while leaving your creatures untapped so you can make an even bigger army with March of the Multitudes.
	3 - We hardly knew you Bedevil. Angrath's Rampage is almost always a cheaper Bedevil and it also gets the random Carnage Tyrant here and there. Also worth noting that it dodges Dive Down too.
	2 - This card is a lot better than I gave it credit for. It just destroy all your opponent's best permanents. As long as they are not swarming the battlefield it's going to be a blow out. A powerful card in the midrange mirror match.
	3 - This was a card that Aristocrats was looking for, while it still wants a free sacrifice outlet I believe they'll be able to make do with Cruel Celebrant since she'll trigger of tokens and creatures.
	2 - Rampant Growth + Terminate all in one nice package. I like casting this into a Carnage Tyrant, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, or even a Hydroid Krasis.
	2.5 - A solid answer to both Arclight Phoenix and Rekindling Phoenix and also cheaply answers most planeswalkers. A tool I'm sure Esper players are going to love having as it's so much cheaper to cast than Vraska's Contempt and does very similar things.
	3.5 - This Domri is a lot better than the other one. It's basically a Gift of Paradise where you trade the life gain for the ability to kill your opponent's creatures, anthem your creatures with +1/+0, AND make your creatures uncounterable... This is a pushed walker for sure.
	3 - I don't think this card should be in Standard but here we are. It's not too powerful it's just an annoying card and gives control decks another viable counterspell option which they already have a plethora of.
	3 - Slith Firewalker is all grown up and he's better than ever. Dreadhorde Butcher on curve will quickly get out of hand. It's great in a Rakdos aggressive deck or an sacrifice deck.
	2 - The only home I saw Elite Guardmage in is a Vannifar shell as a 4-drop to tutor up and a solid one to sacrifice to find yourself a 5-drop.
	3 - What a card! This one is very powerful and currently underrated. Destroying a creature, gaining four life, and then making at least a 4/4 zombie all for 5 mana. That's not even mentioning the part where you can mill yourself or your opponent four cards.
	3 - Feather has a sweet ability but more than that she's a 3/4 flier for 3 mana. Those are very good stats for a 3-drop creatures, when you're able to juggle your pump spells it really just pushes her over the top more than anything.
	2 - A great way to dump your hand into the graveyard while buying time to cast your new spells. I love that it's an instant and also is not card disadvantage. A great way to fill the graveyard for Dreadhorde Invasion, Boneyard Parley, or even Primevals' Glorious Rebirth,
	2 - A 2-drop with proliferate is always something to keep an eye on, it's convenient that this raptor is in token colors where it could easily proliferate +1/+1 counters.
	2 - A good pay off card for decks that play Enigma Drake, the question you then have to ask yourself, is it better than Enigma Drake? Probably not.
	1.5 - Vampire mana hawk! Such a weird card because of its abilities. They are all relevant but counteract each other a bit. I wish it was a 2/4 so it wouldn't just die to any Lighting Bolt card but as it does and I just don't think it's quite good enough for Standard.
	2 - A sweet build around me card. Let's you use your lands for all sorts of fun things, you can also abuse the return a land to you hand by playing things like Evolution Sage, Wayward Swordtooth, or Tatyova, Benthic Druid.
	2 - Another solid card for a sacrifice deck, however you need to be sacrificing the permanent to trigger the devil's ability, you can't just have your creatures die. Treasure tokens are a great way to trigger this ability.
	2 - I like this card but ultimately it's a two for one. You are trading two cards for a single card and it's hard to make that worthwhile in Standard. Especially since if this spell is countered you get so far behind. A fun card but I don't quite thing we have powerful enough creatures to make it into a Tier one deck.
	4 - We have our second best 5 mana planeswalker behind Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. He may not untap two lands but over a couple of turns your opponent is really going to feel that exiling ability. Especially when paired with other discard spells like Thought Erasure or even Nicol Bolas, the Ravager.
	2.5 - I love this card, it's so fun and unique and it's a solid 5 mana commander general. It's going to be a fun card to build around in Standard, you have so many possibilities. It should be drawing you an average of 3-4 cards whenever you cast him. The only problem I ran into with Niv-Mizzet Reborn was sometimes mana but other times just almost decking myself. Might be worth it to play a way to shuffle your cards back into your deck like Clear the Mind.
	3.5 - A Lightning Helix for non-Red decks? Sign me up! Not only is it a Lightning Helix but it also punishes your opponent for attacking your planeswalkers and it buys you more time to deploy other walkers when your current ones are attacked. I love this card and I'm glad it exists.
	2 - A good way to get counters on your tokens real quick while also gaining some life which is very relevant where aggressive decks are popular. Being an instant also allows you to do combat tricks or to make your creature outgrow a Shock or Lightning Strike.
	3 - Ral is a four-mana walker that can go to six right away. Usually spell decks durdle and Ral still allows you to durdle and cantrip through your deck but you are also slowly killing because of his passive. The "opps, I win" combo is good here because it doesn't require you to play any bad cards. Expansion // Explosion is an excellent card and it just so happens to deal infinite damage to your opponent if you have two of them with another spell on the stack.
	2 - Baby Prophetic Bolt is great! I also love that this Sleight of Hand variant puts the other card in the graveyard instead of on the bottom of your library.
	1.5 - A worse Doom Whisperer that's even harder to cast. I'll pass.
	1 - Not a good card, it's just so hard to have the stars align where you're able to get what you want and give your opponent something worthless.
	1 - An unreliable battlefield wipe in White? Why? Just play Cleansing Nova or Settle the Wreckage.
	3 - I really like Sorin. I think he will enable an aristocrat shell while also enabling a midrange shell. Curving from Gideon Blackblade/History of Benalia into Sorin is amazing against any sort of creature deck.
	2 - While the effect is sweet the card is too narrow and glacially slow. If only it could remove counters from sagas.
	1 - Cards like this and Underrealm Lich always read as good but are never played because they are too grindy and slow. This is the same concept but it also has a restriction. Hard pass.
	3 - My favorite planeswalker from the set! Tamiyo is a fantastic card that digs through your deck and fuels your graveyard all while protecting you from things like Thought Erasure and The Eldest Reborn. Tamiyo is going to be pretty nutty in Simic Nexus decks.
	4 - I never would've believed we'd get another playable Teferi so soon. This card is very good, at least it can also be used against control decks to turn off their counterspells.
	2.5 - Another board wipe variant that works well with enter the battlefield triggers and flash creatures. Returning a Frilled Mystic while killing all my opponent's creatures then untapping my lands with Wilderness Reclamation and having Frilled Mystic at the ready, that's my dream land.
	2.5 - Tolsimir is a very solid creature to Vannifar into as it provides value in creatures, removal, and life gain. A welcome addition for pod mom.
	2.5 - A colored Smother with a bit of upside. Sadly competes with Cast Down, and I believe Cast Down/Moment of Craving to just be the better removal spells at the moment.
	2.5 - So many board wipe variants, this one can just be a Plague Wind in the right deck. The dream is to cast this then attack with your token while having your Dreadhorde Invasion give your zombie token lifelink. You can even do it after you attack with your lifelink zombie token to not only kill all the creatures but to gain all the life in the process.
	2 - Ashiok is fantastic in older formats and still pretty decent in Standard. I love that you can mill yourself with Ashiok and it still only exiles your opponent's things.
	2 - Dovin's passive will be overlooked a lot until you realize your Absorb and Lightning Strikes all cost more to cast. Then you'll be annoyed. Dovin will slow down decks like Control and Wilderness Reclamation. Even against burn if you can keep their creatures off the battlefield then they're going to have a hard time burning you out quickly with an active Dovin.
	3 - Kiora is underrated. She comes into play with seven loyalty for a 3 mana planeswalker! She essentially ramps you for one at the very least, while also drawing you cards when you cast your big creatures. She can also give a creature pseudo vigilance. She really is more versatile then she reads.
	3.5 - Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor were both great excellent cards. Saheeli will be too, especially since she won't die like the other cards from a board wipe or a Pyroclasm.
	2 - Samut does cost a little more than Rhythm of the Wild and Domri but you get to give all your creatures has while pumping them every turn and smoothing out your draws with the Scry 1 ability, which is often overlooked.
	2.5 - Currently Tezzeret is a fringe playable card but if we get an artifact set while he's legal or just a handful of powerful artifacts, Tezzeret could easily warp the metagame around him. Just keep an eye out for powerful artifacts in upcoming sets. He also does have the best +2 animation for a planeswalker in MTG Arena.

Top 10 Cards from War of the Spark

1. Teferi, Time Raveler
2. Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
3. Gideon Blackblade
4. Nissa, Who Shakes the World
5. Saheeli Sublime Artificer
6. Domri, Anarch of Bolas
7. Oath of Kaya
8. Angrath's Rampage
9. Dreadhorde Invasion
10. Commence the Endgame

Lots of planeswalkers in the top ten. It is worrying that Teferi, Time Raveler is at the top. I believe Esper will be the best deck going forward as it gained a lot of tools from this set and it was already one of the better control decks in the format. Hopefully Gideon and Nicol Bolas can keep Esper in check. I'm just not sure I want to live in a world where Teferi and Nicol Bolas are the best planeswalkers as both can be extremely annoying to play against.

Time will tell, regardless this set is amazing and there are so many more cards that are as powerful as Angrath's Rampage-Commence the Endgame but they just don't quite cut it for me. I do want to give a nod toward Liliana, Dreadhorde General but her casting cost has me push her into the top 15 instead of the top 10.

I hope this set flips Standard on its head as I'm ready to play against and with new decks!

As always, thanks for reading,

Ali Aintrazi

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