Time for another round! Digging into some more interesting rares this time. I’m still not quite sure what to do about the off-color kicker that is rampant in this set. Until we know more about fixing, it’s going to be a huge variable.

Karn, living legacy

This is a very interesting planeswalker in Limited. The +1 is almost a nothingburger, since there doesn’t look to be that many artifacts in DMU. The -1 is okay, as you could just spend 1 mana to draw a card. Or spend more mana for a wider selection. And the -7 looks to have some power, provided you have enough artifacts; a risky bet in limited. So on the surface, this looks like a weak ‘walker in Limited. It can’t protect itself and the ultimate looks weirdly conditional.

I think that misses the play pattern. I suspect 99% of time with Karn the play pattern will be +1/+1/+1/-7. This leaves you with a reusable lightning bolt every turn, since you can just use the three powerstones. Since it’s an emblem, Karn doesn’t have to survive using the ultimate. So I read this card as “Suspend 3, Win the Game”. Yes you need to be able to defend Karn but casting it seriously warps the game and puts immediate pressure on your opponent. Which is just what I for from my bombs.

Game-Warper

Keldon Flamesage

To judge this card properly, one probably has to do a bunch of math with the hypogeometric calculator. FINE. But first let’s unpack what it does. A 2/3 for 3-mana isn’t great, but the floor is reasonably high. It’s a magic card, it’s fine. The Enlist allows it to tap another creature to add its power to its own. So tapping a 2/2 would allow the Flamesage to attack as a 4/3. Also fine. But where it really shines is the triggered ability where it goes looking for a spell. But how often would that happen?

Let’s start with the most optimistic outcome. You built the nuts blue/red spells deck with 11 instants and sorceries that all cost 4 mana value or less. Assuming you always have a 2/2 to Enlist, you have a 74% (!) to hit a card you can cast. That sounds… fantastic. Note that it doesn’t expire at the end of turn nor does it allow you to cheese sorceries in at instant speed.

Midrange outcome: you have 7 valid targets (instants/sorceries at 3 MV or less). Let’s also only guarantee a 1-power Enlistee. Now you’re down to 44% of a hit. Which isn’t bad, it’s obviously sweet when it happens. But the odds of your Flamesage surviving to try again are pretty low.

Cynical: 5 targets, 3 MV or less. Now it’s 33%. Yikes.

I think the likelihood of the midrange outcome far outweighs the optimistic one. And frankly, it’s going to take a lot of savvy drafting to have as many as 7 targets. I think this card is a moderate build-around. But the ceiling is a lot lower than it looks. That’s not even taking into consideration that you have a board state where you have an extra body to Enlist and you’re able to attack. I want to have a “spells-matter” deck before landing this, not taking this and forcing spells.

variable playable

Monstrous war-leech

First, what a name! But also what a tricky card. First, it just dies if your graveyard is empty. So figure out a way to fill a graveyard and/or have high MV cards and/or have other cards that care about the graveyard. I think this card will be very close to unplayable without the kicker. Which means for five mana, you need to be getting your money’s worth. Anything less than 4/4 *plus* valuing stocking up your graveyard isn’t going to be worth it. I would think of this as a gold card that you can/should get on the wheel once you are committed to graveyard shenanigans in Dimir. That said, as both an mini-enabler and mini-payoff, it will be quite happy in that deck.

Variable playable