Welcome to my take on the pre-release primer! Instead of trying to be a sad photocopy of the fine work Limited Resources et al do, I like to do a quick breakdown of the major properties of a limited set: removal, combat tricks, blue nonsense, and splashing. How these four stack up go a long way in determining the speed of the format, viability of enchantments, etc.

Removal

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By the numbers, there are 16 pieces of removal, 5 of which are at uncommon. By comparison. This feels average-ish (Eldraine had 9 & 8, M20 10 & 3). The usual hits are here: three red direct damage at instant speed, a green fight card, white pacifism. Note that black has unconditional, instant, removal at common, so be wary of that. Also, blue looks unusually stocked with removal with two fairly unconditional options at common and two quasi-tricks (bounce and Slimebind) at common as well.

Combat Tricks

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Okay, so basically nothing is safe. White and green have 1-mana plays, with and without foretell. Blue has a bounce spell at 1 mana (when foretold) and a pair of flashes that can impact combat math. Even black has a respectable option at 2-mana. As for red, well as is often the case red’s idea of a combat trick is a burn spell and they have plenty of those.

blue nonsense

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Nothing too odd jumps out at blue as it has its usual suite of tools. Bounce, card draw, counterspell etc. Note two pretty good options for counterspells, both at 2-mana. Looks to be a reasonable tribal theme, supported by changelings scattered throughout the set. No really aggressive creatures or tempo plays that I see.

splashing

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The artifact is at uncommon, so let’s just assume that’s not going to be a thing. There’s no Evolving wilds, though snow-dual-lands (the hyphens are getting out of control) will be in each pack (?). But green, green has the tools. Two at common and two at uncommon, covering both snow and regular splashing mana. There are a lot of gold uncommons (and the sagas) so 5C Green might be a source of great hilarity.