It's that time of year again—set reviews! Before I go into the review, I would like to remind readers that, in general, the most financially savvy thing to do at prerelease is to ship everything you open. Barring another Jace, the Mind Sculptor—and there isn't one in this set—virtually all mythic rare and rare cards drop in value following the prerelease. I cannot hammer home this point enough, particularly for mythic rares. Only preorder rare and mythic rare cards that you need for tournaments immediately following the release date (e.g., GP: Providence).

For this set review, I've evaluated all of the mythic rares, as well as what I see to be interesting/constructed-relevant rares and uncommons. I will come out and say, right now, that I think the suite of rares in this set is quite weak as far as constructed is concerned. However, this is made up for, in part, by the prevalence of strong cards at uncommon.

I have divided my evaluation of each card into three categories—the SCG preorder price, my projection of the card's value once the price stabilizes, and a rationale for each decision.

As usual, all predictions good until Jace rotates from Standard.

Mythic Rares

Batterskull

SCG preorder price: $25

Projected value: $15

Rationale: I've done some testing with this card, and while it is a powerful threat, I think people are overestimating its potential. The time when you really want this card is against the true aggro decks, where the Lifelink is relevant—Boros, Vampires, and Deadguy Red. If this card hits, and isn't immediately removed, it can very quickly end games against those decks. That's if the Mystic lives. A lot of people seem to be assuming that your Stoneforge Mystic is going to live long enough to be able to cheat this card into play. Against a real Red deck—and believe me, with Furnace Scamp in the mix, the Red deck will be real—the Mystic rarely lives, and you are stranded with a 5-mana card in hand as they proceed to kill you on turn four. So, yes, the card is a solid tool versus aggro, but there will definitely be draws where Sword of War and Peace will be better in Caw-Blade (e.g., when you have Squadron Hawk), and the Sword is almost certainly better in creature-heavy midrange decks like Naya.

Against Jace decks, this is a mediocre threat, as they can just take 4, slam Jace, and return it to your hand—particularly if they've dealt with Mystic. Against Valakut, any Blue deck will want Sword of Feast and Famine or Sword of War and Peace, because the former provides mana for countermagic and powerful discard, while the latter is a much faster clock.

Don't get me wrong, this is a nice addition to the Mystic toolkit, but it is much more of a situational role-player than many seem to believe.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

SCG preorder price: $6

Projected value: $2–$3

Rationale: This is yet another example of a card with powerful abilities that is overcosted as far as Standard is concerned. The card will see play in Commander, particularly in mono-White, B/W, or G/W token decks.

Etched Monstrosity

SCG preorder price: $3

Projected value: bulk mythic

Rationale: 5 mana for a 5/5 is unimpressive these days, and needing to have access to all the colors to make this a still-highly-vulnerable threat makes this card effectively unplayable. There are better ways to draw three cards, and better creatures to beat down with.

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

SCG preorder price: $5

Projected value: $8–$10, foil $20–$25

Rationale: Projections here are based on the assumption that Reanimator has finally found a reanimation target that wins the game against any deck. In addition, I'm assuming that's what Reanimator is essentially missing in the post–Mystical Tutor era, and that Jin-Gitaxias makes the deck a Tier 1.5 strategy. The draw-seven ability enables the Reanimator pilot to chain exhumes/animate deads and keep pumping fatties onto the board, while the hand reduction places the opponent instantly into top-deck mode. My guess is that this card is another Iona.

Karn Liberated

SCG preorder price: $50

Projected value: $25

Rationale: While Karn hitting the table doesn't mean you automatically win the game like Nicol Bolas does, he's still quite the impressive board- and hand-control engine, and the reset ability can be quite powerful. He's also really hard to kill. Having said that, that number in the upper-right corner is a bit high for Karn to be anything more than a one-of in constructed, and even then only in ponderous control decks like U/W Proliferate. However, much like Nicol Bolas, this card will be a Commander and Cube favorite, and everyone will want to own one. In addition, he's colorless, and can go into essentially every Commander deck ever made.

Phyrexian Obliterator

SCG preorder price: $25

Projected value: $10

Rationale: I'm not sure how I feel about this card. 4 mana for a 5/5 trampler is a decent deal, and the protection is decent, even if Dismember, Go for the Throat, Journey to Nowhere, and all those -1/-1 counters skirt around the issue. This is probably better than Abyssal Persecutor for mono-Black strategies, but mono-Black doesn't have any ways of interacting with spells and planeswalkers, so I'm doubtful as to the relevance of this card. I think it will be tried, but in the end I think the impact is minimal. Ship these at the prerelease if you open them.

Sheoldred, Whispering One

SCG preorder price: $5

Projected value: $2–$3

Rationale: Another fun Commander that is just a bit too expensive and slow in board impact to be a player in Standard. Still, the Abyss effect is quite nice in Commander.

Sword of War and Peace

SCG preorder price: $25

Projected value: $20–$25

Rationale: For once, a preorder price seems to be spot-on. Yes, the abilities on this card aren't very impressive (unless you're being hit by a Mirran Crusader holding a Sword—ouch!). Nevertheless, this card could have had no abilities whatsoever and still be constructed-playable just because the protections it gives are so relevant. This is an absolute house against aggressive decks if it is ever equipped to anything. Dismember might rain on its parade a little, but probably not by much.

Urabrask, the Hidden

SCG preorder price: $8

Projected value: $4-5

Rationale: Awesome card for Commander, and probably will see play in the Big Red decks that are floating around right now. However, for a true aggro Red deck, this is overcosted by 1 mana. If you want a 4-power hasty man, you need a Hero (of Oxid Ridge, that is). Koth is also a better threat against control decks.

Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger

SCG preorder price: $4

Projected value: $2

Rationale: 8 mana for a 7/6 trampler just isn't a good deal. Plus, while the abilities are awesome, especially in ponderously slow Commander games, in constructed, these abilities need to hit on turns three or four to have a real impact on the game. Yet another Commander-only card.

Rare

Birthing Pod

SCG preorder price: $4

Projected value: $5–$6

Rationale: Food Chain this is not. Slow as molasses, and vulnerable to artifact removal . . . this is. Patrick Chapin and all the other Birthing Pod fanatics are living in Magical Christmasland and need to come rejoin us on Planet Earth. This is a persistent threat-advantage engine, and it will find a deck, but don't expect it to suddenly shatter Standard. It's an interesting engine for midrange decks, that's all.

Blade Splicer

SCG preorder price: $2

Projected value: $5

Rationale: I wanted to put this card in the bulk category, because I find this cycle boring/unimpressive, but then someone pointed out the whole "4 power for 3 mana" thing, and I looked more closely. The most interesting and most likely to be tried synergy is with Birthing Pod. Blade Splicer → Vital Splicer/Master Splicer → Precursor Golem/Wing Splicer is an interesting set of interactions, since each sacrifice leaves a dude behind. Granted, this particular interaction is probably too cute and irrelevantly tribal, but something like Blade Splicer → Vengevine → Baneslayer Angel (plus two 1-drops to recur the ’vine) is quite powerful.

Hex Parasite

SCG preorder price: $5

Projected value: $7

Rationale: This card is interesting. It can be tutored up by Trinket Mage as an answer to opposing planeswalkers, but because the ability is an mana ability, in many cases, you may not have the mana to kill the planeswalker outright. However, even if it doesn't kill—oh, say, Jace, the Mind Sculptor?—in one turn, it will kill it on the following turn, even if it is bounced, etc. This card is a slow answer to Jace, granted, but it is an answer.

Moltensteel Dragon

SCG preorder price: $1.50

Projected value: 65% chance of bulk, 35% chance of $2–$3

Rationale: Normally, expensive vanilla flyers aren't Standard-playable. However, Big Red is already a fringe deck, and this card has the ability to just completely own players if it survives a turn. Imagine turn-four Moltensteel Dragon, turn-five land, tap out and pay 10 life, swing for 14. In most decks, this would seem far too vulnerable, but as a sideboard card in aggressive Red decks, or as a player in Big Red, this might be a good finisher. It's still probably a bulk rare, but I wouldn't completely count this card out.

Myr Superion

SCG preorder price: $3

Projected value: $1.50

Rationale: This seems like a decent card if it finds a home in the right deck. By right deck, I mean Fauna Naya or Elves. Being able to tutor this up and play in on turn three, after a turn-two Fauna Shaman, seems like a decent play. However, that only works under the condition that you also have a Level 1 Joraga Treespeaker (which can also give you a turn-two Superion if you draw it naturally). Another possible line is turn-two Lotus Cobra, turn-three fetch land, Superion, 2-drop (or turn-two Cobra, turn-three Cobra, fetch, two Superions). It's also worth noting that AEther Vial cheats this into play quite nicely, and it's usually bigger than Tarmogoyf.

However, all of the above scenarios feel a bit too much like Magical Christmasland to me, and the downside of this card is huge—namely, it gets stranded in your hand and does absolutely nothing. I think the card is extremely swingy, but that it's easy enough to prevent from hitting that most decks won't want to run many of them.

Phyrexian Metamorph

SCG preorder price: $4

Projected value: $5–$6, foil $20

Rationale: Probably the best Clone variant printed to date, and will 150% see Vintage play as a replacement for Sculpting Steel—hence the foil value. This could also see play in Metalworker decks or Affinity in Legacy. I don't know how much Standard play it will see, as Clone effects tend to not see much Standard play barring buttressing the resilience of a combo deck, but if any Clone card has a chance, it's this one.

Puresteel Paladin

SCG preorder price: $6

Projected value: 65% at $5, 35% at $10

Rationale: Move over Kor Outfitter, you've just been replaced. Tempered Steel/Quest wants this card hard, as it makes all of your equipment instantly live, up to and including Argentum Armor. Puresteel Paladin greatly helps minimize the awkwardness of the Quest draws where the equipped Memnite is suddenly bounced or condemned, leaving the Quest player with two lands and a 6-mana equip cost. If this card makes Quest into a real deck, it hits $10. However, given some of the fundamental weaknesses of that strategy, I doubt it will.

Spellskite

SCG preorder price: $2

Projected value: $4–$5

Rationale: This is Wall of Omens's new best friend. It's another 2-mana 0/4 that blocks every Goblin, all day long, and it comes with a relevant form of virtual card advantage for later in the game. The ability to redirect a crucial removal spell/burn spell is the most relevant here, as it can provide a Kira, Great Glass-Spinner effect to protect late-game bombs, or can absorb a crucial burn spell or two, enabling the control deck to continue to fight and take over the game. Oh, and it, too, can be recurred with Sun Titan. This little guy may not look like much, but he's actually a powerful tool that will see play in dedicated control decks.

Surgical Extraction

SCG preorder price: $12.50

Projected value: $8, foil $30

Rationale: Not much of a hit in Standard (see Alex Shearer's article on Channel Fireball for an excellent explanation for this), but a free and colorless Extirpate is a complete house in Legacy. A bunch of non-Black decks will be slotting a few of these into sideboards for dealing with troublesome combo matchups like High Tide and Dredge (and maybe Reanimator, now). Extraction also has value against the Ill-Gotten Gains lines in Ad Nauseam. Extraction might even be a better Wish target than Extirpate is in B/U/G and Esper Landstill, simply because it can be cast for free. Still, Split Second is nothing to scoff at, and Extirpate is probably better in the decks that want to naturally draw this card and have Black mana.

Other Rares

Bludgeon Brawl; Caged Sun; Chancellor of the Annex; Chancellor of the Dross; Chancellor of the Forge; Chancellor of the Spires; Chancellor of the Tangle; Fresh Meat; Glistening Oil; Invader Parasite; Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer; Lashwrithe; Life's Finale; Melira, Sylvok Outcast; Norn's Annex; Omen Machine; Phyrexian Ingester; Phyrexian Swarmlord; Phyrexian Unlife; Praetor's Grasp; Slag Fiend; Soul Conduit; Torpor Orb; Unwinding Clock; Xenograft

Projected value: bulk (or Commander-only $1–$2 cards)

Rationale: All of the big creatures are too expensive for their respective archetypes. Most of the other cards are underpowered for constructed, and/or are limited-only rares. Sorry mono-Black players, but Nightmare Lash was bad the first time around. Torpor Orb might have some potential, but I don't think it will be worth a card in most cases. Phyrexian Unlife is just an anti-Red color hoser, and a weak one at that. Caged Sun is good in Commander (see Gauntlet of Power), but probably not of constructed caliber. Melira is awesome flavorfully, but Infect isn't a big enough deal in constructed for her to see play, except maybe out of the sideboard. Life's Finale is just worse than Black Sun's Zenith and Day of Judgment. Why? Because mana cost still matters. Slag Fiend is not a real 1-drop; for that, we have Furnace Scamp.

Uncommon

Beast Within

SCG preorder price: $2.50

Projected value: $2

Rationale: Pongify has received an upgrade. This card is an interesting way of dealing with planeswalkers, of which there are very few ways of dealing, and it also doubles as Titan removal, etc. While not quite as good as Oblivion Ring, I still think it will see constructed play.

Despise

SCG preorder price: $1.50

Projected value: $4–$5

Rationale: Inquisition of Kozilek is currently going for $6, based on both Standard and Legacy play. Despise won't see play in Legacy, but is almost certainly better than Inquisition in Standard. Furthermore, because this is a third set in a normal draft format (unlike Rise), there won't be much New Phyrexia opened. It might not hit a solid $5, but $4 is easily attainable.

Dismember

SCG preorder price: $1

Projected value: $3

Rationale: This is actually a Red card. Aggro decks want to be packing at least three of them, probably four, because for those decks, this card is better than Path to Exile. It only kills anything played for the first four turns, and even after that, allows a Goblin Guide to kill a Titan and escape unharmed. In non-Red (or non-Vampires) decks, Grasp of Darkness and Go for the Throat might be better, simply because the life loss is quite relevant in the matchups versus aggro.

Dispatch

SCG preorder price: $1

Projected value: $3, foil $10

Rationale: Automatic four-of in Legacy Affinity, and will see play in Tempered Steel/Quest decks in Standard, as well. For those decks, this is better than Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares. Expect to see people playing Ancient Den in the near future, and thus for Affinity to convert to Esper to accommodate this card.

Mental Misstep

SCG preorder price: $5

Projected value: $3–$4, foil $20

Rationale: Not worth a card in Standard, unlike Spell Snare, because most of the relevant spells to counter are in the 2- to 4-mana range, and the deck that plays a 1-drop you want to counter—well, you don't want to pay 2 life to counter it (hello, Goblin Guide). Also not the second coming of Force of Will in Legacy, but it will be a solid role-player, in particular in aggressive tempo decks like Team America, Merfolk, and Bant. This is also an automatic four-of between main and board in High Tide, as it does an excellent job protecting the combo from Spell Pierce and opposing Missteps, as well as greatly reducing opposing decks' clocks (e.g., AEther Vial, Goblin Lackey, Noble Hierarch, etc.).