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We got a set review that's a little longer today. We'll be going over Black and Multicolored cards from Throne of Eldraine and boy do we have some powerful and fun cards. Let's go ahead and dive in after we review my grading scale.
I will not be going over cards that I believe will not see play in Standard and I will not be going over the Commander cards that will not see Standard play. For example, cards like Silverwing Squadron (Brawl rare) and Lonesome Unicorn will be omitted since they are just Limited/Commander cards and saying, "This is just a Limited card" repeatedly gets old rather fast. Don't worry though, I will be covering all the rare and mythic cards in the actual Throne of Eldraine set. So, if you like a certain rare or mythic, it will be mentioned in the review.
Keep in mind I'm rating all these cards for Standard playability. I will mention Modern applications if I believe the card has some.
Each card will be listed by color, then alphabetically by name.
Each card will be 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 (0 ratings are not listed).
1 - Unlikely to see play. (Light of the Legion)
2 - Could see fringe play, or occasional sideboard card. (Drowned Secrets)
3 - Commonly played, staple in a single deck, or frequent play in several decks. (Oath of Kaya, Thought Erasure, Lava Coil)
4 - Format staples. Sees play in multiple decks, one of the best cards in the format. (Hydroid Krasis, Risen Reef, Field of the Dead, Nissa, Who Shakes the World)
5 - Format warping. If you're in these colors, you play that card. (Teferi, Time Raveler, Narset, Parter of Veils)
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2.5 - This card is powerful, I'm just not sure we have the tools to fully abuse her. Opponent untapping with this card is a scary. I'd keep an eye on her, especially for Theros / Devotion. |
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2.5 - Knight lord for your   Knight deck with some evasion. Seems solid to me. |
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3 - Solid Knight with a good body that can act as a combat trick. I believe Knights will be the go to Knight deck and Blacklance Paragon seems solid in that deck. |
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2 - While I don't think this card is great, I don't want to underestimate creatures with graveyard recursion. This makes Cauldron Familiar an excellent sacrifice outlet if you can generate enough Food tokens. |
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2 - To me this seems like a worse Desecration Demon. I see this troll being a lethal attack, but your opponent can stop it three turns in a row, that's too much time for your opponent to recover, even if you're drawing cards / gaining life. |
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2 - Could see some Sideboard play depending on the metagame. I'm skeptical because it's mostly against big green decks but Noxious Grasp should get that slot over Epic Downfall. |
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2 - It's another 1-drop Knight, though it's probably just better to play Knight of the Ebon Blade here. |
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4 - Hero's Downfall was a format defining card and Murderous Rider is no different, especially since always gets you a 2/3 Lifelinker. Having the option to just play as a 2/3 Lifelinker against hyper aggressive decks is awesome! |
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2.5 - Great against decks that rely on damage for their removal but otherwise it's just a much worse Rotting Regisaur. I mean it's probably just a wore Rotting Regisaur overall. |
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3 - A knight with evasion is probably good enough for the Knight deck but being able to act as a Gravedigger makes it a staple in Knight decks. |
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2 - We don't have a quick to generate Rat tokens which really holds this card back. Four turns to steal a creature is just too slow. |
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3 - This card is so hard to evaluate as I'm not sure where it really goes. You obviously want it in a deck that has creature recursion or that can re-grow cards from the graveyard to cast or just to pitch again. Rankle can get out of hang quick in a discard deck, especially if you play Thought Erasure or Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage first to clear the way for Rankle. |
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3.5 - This Knight is such a sleeper as it gives a deck that normally has no reach, reach in burn damage. Be prepared to die when you finally stabilize the battlefield with creatures just to have those last few points of your life drained. |
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2 - I've seen people compare this to Whip of Erebos and let me just stop you right there. This card is much worse than Whip of Erebos. Losing life to reanimate instead of gaining life, being slow, and being restricted to only reanimating the cards currently in your graveyard are all drawbacks. It also gets bounced by Teferi. I still like this card but I don't expect to see it in Tier 1 decks, just fun brews. |
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2.5 - This card is going to do nothing or be an all-star. It plays well with Teferi, Karn, and Ashiok. I look forward to brewing with it but I hope it's not just busted in half with Teferi which it seems to be... |
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3 - In case Knights or any tribal synergy is too good, we can send them back to the shadow realm with Witch's Vengeance. It's also a great way to clear out zombie tokens from Field of the Dead so your creatures can swing in and kill your opponent. |
Top 5 Black Cards
Onto the Multicolored cards!
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2 - Owl seems fine in a enchantment / artifact deck, it's just hard to cast. I think this card will get better once we get devotion and more artifacts / enchantments from Theros. |
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2.5 - This card can be a blowout if you are able to copy it two times. It creates a very big swing that will break midrange matches. |
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2.5 - While I don't have a deck where this card slots in, it's an extremely powerful affect. It reminds me of Open the Vaults. While it's not all artifacts and enchantments, it's also one sided. Yet another card that will probably get better come Theros. |
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2.5 - Now this is a mill pay off. However, it's honestly just a solid card overall. Ghastly Demise with a counter spell attached. Sign me up! |
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2.5 - This card is good but it's only going to be a singleton in a control deck. Still a solid finisher. |
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2 - I don't really get this card. It needed to deal one damage to a player whenever they drew a card in order to be good, or have haste. |
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3 - This seems to me to just be a better Urban Evolution. I'm so glad it gets around Narset and the cards you exile are protected from Thought Erasure. Ramp master approves this card. |
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3 - Bloom Tender is all grown up! Faeburrow Elder ramps hard and is fine in three color decks, it's obviously nuts alongside Niv-Mizzet Reborn and can even be fetched up the aforementioned dragon. |
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2 - I don't like that this hurts you too, I think it would've been fine as a one-sided effect, but it's not a one-sided effect. It also just gets bounced by Teferi. I'm not really seeing the upside to this card. Even if it kills a planeswalker your opponent has already gotten some value out of it. |
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2.5 - An anthem for Knight decks that gives them reach via burn and has a crazy effect if the game goes long. Depending on how the metagame shapes up this could be good enough. |
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2.5 - Just a solid 2-drop knight for knights. Nothing crazy but it's solid. |
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2.5 - Turning your Opts and other card draw spells into 1/1 Blue Faerie creatures is powerful. Just must watch out for Teferi which can just bounce this card and Narset which turns off the card completely. |
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3.5 - This card seems great in a   Arclight Phoenix / Crackling Drake deck. Giving your Crackling Drake Trample seems gross. It's also a three-mana walker that goes up to 6 loyalty which means it dodges the hate card, Fry. |
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4 - Making multiple tokens without losing loyalty is very reminiscent of Elspeth, Sun's Champion. I expect Garruk to see plenty of play and take over games relatively quickly, especially since we no longer have a Teferi, Hero of Dominaria to tuck him away. |
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3 - This is the food token pay off. If we get a food token deck, I expect Savvy Hunter to be a big part of it. |
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2.5 - Solid Knight lord I just think that has the better Knights and that 3 color Knights is a bit much for an aggressive deck. |
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2 - I hate to keep saying but Teferi... But Teferi. I do like this card though; it reminds me of Assemble the Legion but a little different. Solid for the sideboard against decks that can't deal with enchantments like Grixis. |
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2.5 - Worse than Paradise Druid but some decks want more mana creatures and Maraleaf Pixie can fill that slot well. |
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3.5 - Another 3-mana walker that only pluses and goes straight to 6 loyalty making it very hard to kill and dodges Fry. The next turn he goes to 7 and can make that token into a 3/3. You can even play the Gilded Goose then cast Oko on turn two and turn the goose into a 3/3. That's a pretty good starting curve. |
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2 - Esper Artifacts/enchantment? Maybe, Alela gets out of hand very quickly. She's just fragile. |
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2.5 - I like Korvold and I hope it's good enough but Teferi really hurts creatures that cost 5 mana and don't have an impactful enter the battlefield ability. |
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3 - Chulane is extremely good if you can untap with him and your opponent does not have a Narset. Teferi is also very good against Chulane but at least you can play Chulane and some other creature right after to trigger his ability. |
Top 5 Multicolored Cards
The Top 5 Black cards were pretty good and in good order. However, for the multicolored cards we still had two leftover three's in Chulane, Teller of Tales and Faeburrow Elder.The multicolored cards pack the hardest punch so far from what I've seen. Every color (along with the multicolored cards) has had a four-star card thus far and I think that's great. Cards seem powerful but not really format warping. Which is a good thing.
Tomorrow we'll be going over the Red and Artifact cards. I'll see you then!
As always, thanks for reading,
Ali Aintrazi
Follow me @AliEldrazi
