Hoo boy. Well, my move to Denver is now complete, and by the time this article is published, the entirety of Core Set 2021 will have been released, with all 259 cards available for our perusal. But even before that happened, I noticed a surprising amount of very powerful Blue cards in the set. This week I want to go over six of my favorites that I think are real all-stars, some of which I can see even breaking through to older formats.

Frantic Inventory

So we all know this is a functional reprint of Accumulated Knowledge. That alone should prove that it's great. The problem with Accumulated Knowledge is that it came out way back in Nemesis (and good on it for being one of the three playable cards in that set!), which was literally 20 years ago. So a lot of people may not have a good frame of reference for it.

The thing about this card is that it's very much like Rune Snag - which is, I guess, another card that came out 14 years ago - where the first copy is worse than a playable counterpart, but each subsequent copy is significantly better. Whereas the first Rune Snag is worse than a Mana Leak, every future copy is much better.

Similarly with Frantic Inventory, the first copy you play is literally just a cantrip; it's the front half of a Think Twice, which was a heavily played card in its day. But the second copy you play is strictly better than Divination, both in timing and cost. The third copy you play is practically Ancestral Recall (kinda). And the fourth copy you play is just bonkers! Frantic Inventory is an amazing, card-drawing tool for Blue mages, and I would assume it sees plays in several formats.

See the Truth

See, in a vacuum, I'm pretty sure that Frantic Inventory is a better card than See the Truth, but in a deck poised to take advantage of it, See the Truth is fantastic. See the Truth is just another in a long line of Blue instants and sorceries that want to emulate Ancestral Recall. Just like Visions of Beyond before it, the promise of drawing three cards is strong with this one.

On its face, it's literally a sorcery-speed Anticipate, another card that sees a ton of play in Constructed. But when you dig a little deeper, you have a card that is potentially letting you draw three for two mana (how very Frantic Inventory of it). Honestly, I don't think there are many ways in Standard to take advantage of the "draw all of them" bonus on the card, but I have to assume this card is a house with Snapcaster Mage, and your incentive to play it over something like Serum Visions seems high.

One downside is that, being a sorcery, you can't actually hit it with Torrential Gearhulk, which is unfortunate, and would be a great combination for the two Pioneer-legal cards. The list of cards that can hit this from the graveyard is pretty narrow - Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Finale of Promise, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Kess, Dissident Mage, to name a few - but they're all pretty decent, and I feel like See the Truth is good enough to see play somewhere.

Barrin, Tolarian Archmage

Barrin is a pretty famous wizard in Magic lore and this is the second time we've had an actual Barrin creature card; the first was way back in Urza's Saga before legendary creatures even had their own creature type. (Seriously. His card type is "Summon Legend" and his rules text actually has to inform you that he counts as a Wizard. What a time to be alive!)

This Barrin, just like the Barrin of old, bounces a creature back to its owner's hand, but this time it can also bounce a planeswalker as well. He's also a 2/2 now, instead of just a 1/1. Basically, Barrin is doing his best Aether Adept impersonation, while also having a second clause. Barrin states that if a card is returned to your hand during your turn, you get to draw a card. This means that Barrin can bounce one of your own cards and draw you a card, or you can use other cards that bounce your things, like, you know...Teferi, Time Raveler.

In the right deck, Barrin can actually be a pretty powerful engine, and I like the idea of finding recurring ways to profit from cards returning to your hand.

Stormwing Entity

On its face, this card is terrible: five mana for a 3/3 flier is butts. But that's not what this is, and we all know that. This card, like others on this list, reminds me of another card, and that's part of how we all evaluate Magic cards. We find cards that did similar things, and see how they performed in a competitive environment. The card in question here is Illusory Angel. Both are formidable fliers that require an additional mana investment to get them into play.

While Illusory Angel requires you cast any spell, and the Stormwing Entity requires an instant or sorcery, the Entity might get the nod here due to its prowess and the ability to scry 2 when it enters the battlefield. Additionally, it also only costs two mana once you've played a spell, so it can typically come down on turn three in Standard, or even earlier in older formats. If you were looking for a solid threat to supplement the Arclight Phoenix deck, this could be a great option.

Discontinuity

I've always been a huge fan of Time Stop. While the card never saw a ton of play, and costs a hefty six mana, it was the kind of Magic card I always loved. It did something super obscure and abstract, and it required a huge paragraph of its own reminder text, because no one had any idea what "end the turn" meant when a card instructed you to do so. Time Stop was always part counterspell, part Time Walk, although six mana was too expensive for either, in truth.

Discontinuity, however, is an interesting addition to the Time Stop family. Specifically, it is exactly Time Stop, but if you happen to cast it on your own turn, it only costs two mana. This is useful in case your opponent casts something like a Nexus of Fate on your end step, letting this act as a two-mana counterspell. It's also useful for things like "you lose the game effects" that trigger on your turn, which you can now avoid for two mana.

This card is really interesting because the obvious desire is to use it during your opponent's turn, to, you know, stop it. But encouraging you to use it on your own turn and look at the benefits of doing so is pretty sweet.

Sublime Epiphany

Finally, we come to Cryptic Command. You see how a lot of the cards on this list have similar qualities of other Blue staples from Magic's past? Sublime Epiphany is a thing of beauty. While the cost, again, is somewhat prohibitive at six mana, the amount of value you're getting can't really be denied. You're already getting three of the four Cryptic Command modes with counter a spell, draw a card, and bounce a permanent; but we're also looking at countering an activated or triggered ability, and creating a token of a creature you control.

Being able to copy a creature is pretty sweet, especially if you have something of value on the board. Being able to copy your Dream Trawler, while also drawing a card, countering a spell, and bouncing a planeswalker is pretty nuts. While I know six mana makes this difficult to be a four-of, but I assure you, the decks that want it will be playing at least two of these in their 60 (or 80, I guess, in 2020).

Guys, I'm super excited to talk more Core Set 2021 in the coming weeks and try out the new cards. Let me know which cards have piqued your interest, and I hope you're all staying safe! Be sure to check out both the Freshly Brewed podcast Rob and I do, as well as our upcoming Core Set 2021 Set Review on Twitch and YouTube, for more Core Set 2021 insights. As always, I love you guys, drop me a comment below, use promo code FRANK5 for 5% off, and I'll catch you next week!

Frank Lepore

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