Cards for the Journey, Part Two

We've started a new season of Monday Pauper Deck Challenge, and as always it's interesting to see which cards from the latest set are making the biggest impact on the format. At the end of my set review for Journey Into Nyx, I highlighted ten cards that I thought would have the most impact on the format. So I decided to examine how my predictions have lined up in the metagame thus far. Last time, I looked at the third and fourth most commonly played Commons from Journey. Today, I will finish with the other two.

As a reminder, my data is based on a quick survey of the 16 decks that have placed in the Top 8 of MPDC since Journey Into Nyx was released. I tabulated the results, and picked out the four cards that have had the most copies played. Here are the other two:

The second most commonly played Common from Journey Into Nyx, coming in at fifteen copies, is Feast of Dreams. While it's no Doom Blade, in a metagame dominated by enchantments and enchantment creatures, Feast of Dreams proves to be quite good. Many of the current contenders use creatures Auras to one extent or another, and Bestow creatures are also quite popular. While there certainly is the possibility that this will be a dead card in your hand from time to time, at least right now, this seems like an excellent inclusion, particularly as a Sideboard card.

The most commonly played Common from Journey Into Nyx, coming in at sixteen copies, is Font of Return. This is the first time a Common has allowed you to return up to three target creatures from the graveyard (although much older sets did have some X spells that allowed you to return X creatures). As such, this will almost always be a three-for-one. While it doesn't have any immediate effect on the board, and is vulnerable to removal unless you leave up the mana every turn, the potential value of this card is indisputable. It's no Gravedigger, but it's as good of recursion as we are likely to see in the future.

So how did I do on my set review? Sadly, I failed to mention either of these cards in my top ten cards from Journey Into Nyx, although I did at least rate Font of Return as playable. But my assessment of Feast of Dreams was obviously incorrect. In the current metagame, it's playable even in the main.

Let me close with a shout-out to DrChrisBakerDC and RRR726, who both correctly guessed the top two cards. Thanks for reading, and see you next time.