The spoiler is complete! FF7 Remake Intrograde (or whatever) hasn’t arrived yet! This new monitor is almost more than I can handle! I definitely feel overstimulated.

Assessing signals (aka Best Commons) is the quintessential, “easy to get 90%, hard to ace that last 10% outlier”. Yes, the removal spell, the reliable efficient creature are almost always the finalist. But it’s worth keeping an eye out for the weird ones, like Lantern Bearer.

white

White has an interesting bounty to choose from. There are very solid creatures that also check the “enchantment” box, something that I think every white deck will care about to varying degrees. And then there’s a the removal spells, with the Gideon’s Reproach and Pacifism effect. I think the enchantment-dog-cantrip will be a glue card in every white deck, removal is removal, and efficient 2-drop that can still a play role later (even outside of RW)

blue

As usual, really interesting mix from blue. Because blue never has obviously great removal or great-early-creatures, it’s always more of speculating “what’s the glue card here?” Armguard Familiar strikes me an an uncharastically (for blue) Good-early-and-good-late, type of card. Mnemonic Sphere reeks of Golden Egg, being a free cantrip or artifact-drawing-two-cards. The Moonsnare Prototype is similar, in that it ramps early and is a removal spell late, though there are a lot of conditions attached. Short Circuit is borderline removal, the Specialist is Man-o-War with ninjutsu (!), and Tamiyo’s Compleation is expensive Claustrophobia. When in doubt, choose the cheaper cards with the most flexibility and that’s what we’re going to do here.

black

Some classics and some really interesting twists. Lethal Exploit looks like solid cheap removal. Twisted Embrace is a sweet twist on the “4-mana removal for black” as it requires you having a creature (that’s bad) but it also leaves an enchantment in play (that’s good!) as well as +1/+1. The Undercity Scrounger looks enough like Sailor of Means (and is an artifact) that I think it will always be in demand. Clawing Torment is very interesting. It’s cheap, it checks the enchantment box, it removes a blocker (if it’s a defending creature) makes it a little smaller (if it’s attacking) and drains a little. That’s quite the collection of small things that might might add up to a card. Which brings us to the Kami. 4 MV for a 3/4 is fine, but if you jump through the hoops (enchantment and artifact) it pays you off handsomely with a card. This reminds me *a lot* of Blade Juggler, and despite costing an extra mana I think should be respected.

green

A lot of intriguing stuff from green. First, a lot of bi-modal cards with channel. A 6-drop that could also instead fix your mana? Yes please. The Saga of Master Seshiro is probably a reach, but a card that enables some good attacks that then turns into a 5/5 with unbelievably sweet art is a card that I want to make great. Master’s Rebuke looks like a great bite card at low cost and instant speed. And Geothermal Kami might be absolutely ridiculous, pulling Sagas back. Or a creature so you can instead use the channel mode. Or that enchantment removal spell in black? I see shenanigans in its future.

red

The two pieces of instant speed removal are clear frontrunners. The others are a bit of a mixed bag. A cheap creature/equipment, a solid 3-drop that also accelerates you, a cantrip the checks the artifact box and can turn into a creature, and finally a quasi-bimodal card. I think the third slot is a close match between the Synthesizer and the Samurai, and I’ll give a slight nod to the aggression inherent to red and pick the samurai. Real close.