As the last of the Core sets to be released, it seems that Wizards went all out on their last chance to get it right. While I will leave it to others to evaluate the set as a whole, overall I have been quite impressed with the Commons. Sure, there are the usual fare of unplayable chaff. But the overall card quality seems to be slightly higher than in more recent sets, and even the typical role-players have generally been tweaked to make them more interesting.
As far as specifics go, the Renown mechanic looks quite strong, with nearly all of the Commons playable at worst, and a few probably will see widespread play. The Spell Mastery keyword is a little more varied, but even here several will probably make an impact on the format. Additionally, there are several excellent reprints returning to the format. Finally, there are numerous cards with interesting and decent 'enters-the-battlefield' type effects or repeatable abilities, which is a level of complexity that has been missing from Commons as of late. In a way these cards harken back to much earlier sets while still feeling balanced at Common, and this does a great job of evoking the idea of going back to Magic's roots.
Now that we have the whole set, what cards are you most excited about?
Quick glance through the set and this is what excites me
ReplyDeleteAmpryian Tactician - helps RW tokens a lot - creates a threat that can't be swept away with Festergloom/Scouring Sands while providing an immediate boost to get damage through. Sometimes your creatures are all dead and Trumpet Blast/War Flare is a blank. This card won't be as blank, even though it can get his by Nullify/Bone to Ash.
Celestial Flare - finally have an answer to hexproof other than nullify and disdainful stroke
Cleric of the Forward Order - puts the hurt on Mono-Red out of the sideboard of W/x Control decks
Fiery Impulse - cheap removal that can sometimes kill X/3s will help Izzet Control stay top tier
Ghirapur Gearcrafter - Sandsteppe Outcast #5-8.
Mage-Ring Bully - quite the upgrade to Valley Dasher. Bully will be beating down
Separatist Voidmage - 4 mana man-o-war kills tokens, resets your own Garys, and unlocks Pacified friends. Could be to expensive but effect is obv strong/flexible
Undead Servant - get 3 in the yard then play this and re-cast it with bounce effects for a lot of 2/2s. Not worth building around solely for this but the GB delve shell could put this to good use.
Bonded Construct - great with other aggressive 1 drops and haste creatures. Welcome to the mono-red team, Mr. Bond.