Sadly I had to miss the pre-release event due to “family” and other “reasons”. We’re postponing sleep training Baby Narset until after our overseas trip in a week, which is proving to be a bit grueling. The best part is that every time I attempt to force the conversation with Benalish Momma, Baby Narset–sensing danger–immediately sleeps 6+ straight hours. Very crafty.

Onto the magic cards. There’s usually a very clear subset of Best Commons (aka Signals) just from the spoiler. Reasonably efficient or instant-speed removal, cantrips, and efficient creatures always make for good Signals because they usually fit into any deck archetype. Let’s see what we’ve got.

red

Really good slate of aggressive cards to choose from here. One of the big questions is “what percent of a card is a Powerstone?”. Given how they ramp and can be used for sacrifice fodder, I think almost every deck outside of the most traditional curve-out is going to use them and use them well. I think the Explosion and the Mutt and the Scrapsmith are the obvious frontrunners as any deck will use them. I have my eye on Mishra’s Domination. It definitely has the highest likelihood of being a D+, but the two modes of “remove a blocker” and “make a creature a must-answer threat” covers a lot of game-states.

green

Lots to love here. Hand smoothing, good removal, and unconditional Powerstone creation are going to always find a home. OG Giant Growth is good because one-mana combat tricks remain solid even in this decade. The other two are more odd. Usually a 4-drop is precluded from this conversation because how many 4-drops can you really stuff in a deck? But if you have a big stompy green deck, I think you’ll take as many honey mammoths as you can. The 4/2 Burowing Razormaw is also interesting. I don’t think every deck will want it, but a 4/2 is a HECK of a blocker. And with all the graveyard shenanigans about, I think a lot (thought not all) decks will want this.

blue

Once again, Blue looks to be doing a little bit of everything. Curate looks like it really brings the room together, the Weakstone is shockingly good and cheap removal, then it’s draw cards, counter some spells (though warning: Powerstones can be used to pay the 4), a funny cantrip-ing animate, 5-mana removal, a defensive card, and an aggressive/chumpy card draw (?) creature. Whew! Really good 2-mana counterspells will always be in demand, and after that it’s anyone’s guess. I think the Weakstone and Curate will probably round it out.

white

There’s a lot of things I can say, but I really only care about the reprint of Disenchant with Richard Kane Ferguson art. Be still my beating heart.

black

Lotta stuff here to choose from! Ultimately I think the lower-cost is going to be the most important. DMU taught us not to sleep on cost reduction, so Disfigure, Remorse, and Fracture will have to be forcibly dislodged by non-removal before I think otherwise. Maybe all the recursion and unearth will decrease the value of 1:1 removal.

Golden Egg Frontrunner

One final note for our friend here. Again 4 mana is expensive. You can only fit so many into a deck. However, what percent of decks will gladly pack one of these to guarantee a 1.5 for 1? 80% More? Time will tell.