Preview season is back! Or finally here! And/or finally not involving alchemy cards that require assessing six different cards to grade a single card. But we have a Grandma in the house helping with Lil Liliana which means there’s a sliver of spare time to think about Magic cards. Whew.
As befitting my lack of time, I simplify my rating scale to seven categories
- Game Changer (bomb)
- Power (Grade: B)
- Draft Changer (build-around)
- Signal (best common)
- Variable Playable (playable cards with a good home)
- Filler (reluctantly playable cards and/or no good deck)
- Actively Avoid
tolarian Geyser
Part of me will always love any set in Dominaria simply for the flavor of having Tolaria, Adarkar, Benalia (obv) in the flavor text. Here we have an interesting spin on the Lunar Rejection of a cantrip bounce cards. These have historically been fantastic: tempo bounce with drawing a card to offset the inherent card disadvantage is great. The Geyser adds an interesting wrinkle: kicker upside but at sorcery speed. The loss of instant-speed interaction is a big blow: it can’t be used to blow out your opponent’s tricks. Gaining life in a BW deck sounds nice but not game breaking. I think this will be a very solid playable, with some decks wanting it more than others
Variable playable
serra redeemer
Anytime a card with “Serra” in the name doesn’t have vigilance, I get a little sad. But still, this looks really intriguing. 5-mana for a 2/4 flying is not on rate in modern limited. But its ability to add two +1/+1 counters to any small creature that enters the battlefield (cast or flickered) can rapidly get out of hand. Pull it off once and you feel good (5-mana for 4/6 worth of distributed states), pull it off twice you basically have created Citadel Siege or Broker’s Ascendancy. But it’s not a sure thing, since you have to actually cast/bounce/flicker the cards to get the trigger and as a curve topper, you’ve generally cast a bunch of your spells already. I think that makes this a build-around, looking for ways to break this card rather than just jamming it in any deck with plains. That said, the Raise the Alarm variant might be a perfect chocolate & peanut butter situation.
Draft-Changer
Volshe tideturner
The Tideturner is an updated Vodalian Arcanist except it provides blue and can also be used for kicked spells. It’s too soon to tell if 1/3 will be useful for defensive speed, but this is a frontrunner for best blue common, given it’s utility as a 2-drop. We’ll see!
Signal
Cut Down
FINE I’ll do a non-Azorius color. If I must. This is a very, very fun little card. 1-mana, instant-speed removal but only kills small things. Given how Easy Prey, Eliminate, etc. always see play for defensive speed reasons alone, I think this is going to be fantastic. And at one mana value… (fans self). Never ever underestimate spells that cost 1-mana. Extremely mediocre combat tricks often become great at 1-mana, and instant-speed removal is much better than any combat trick. That it maxes out at killing a 2/3 is well worth the price.
Benalish Dad 