The Ultimate Duskmourn: House of Horror Limited Set Review

Last updated on February 22, 2025

Overlord of the Mistmoors | Illustrated by Steven Belledin

I’ve never been a big fan of horror. However, back in 2011, Innistrad completely won me over with its stunning top-down designs of classic gothic horror, and to this day it’s still one of my favorite MTG sets of all time. Duskmourn takes the same concept but focuses on the more modern elements of the horror genre. From demonic clowns to evil toys and plenty of jump scares thrown in for good measure, this set looks like a wonderful love letter to the genre, and I’m all here for it. Today, I’ll be looking over the entire set and reviewing each individual card for Duskmourn Sealed play and Booster Draft.

As always, I want to remind you that this is a review based on my initial impressions of the cards. It’s hard to figure out how these cards will play out without knowing things like the speed of the format or the relative power levels of the colors and archetypes. Hence, my reviews are largely based on the card’s quality in a vacuum or assuming that their specific archetype is playable.

Rating Breakdown

Get Out | Illustration by Mirko Failoni

I use a comparative rating system on a scale of 0-10. Here’s a rough guide to what each rating means:

10: The absolute best of the best. 10s make a meaningful impact on any game, especially when playing from behind, and they’re extremely tough to beat. Cards like Season of Loss or Fecund Greenshell.

8-9: Extremely good cards, usually game-winning bombs and the most efficient removal spells, though not quite good enough to be a 10/10. Could also be the mythic uncommon of the set (though these are harder to predict). Cards like Season of Gathering or Darkstar Augur.

5-7: Important role-players. These are typically great uncommons that really drive you towards playing a particular color, like build-arounds and good removal, as well as very powerful commons. Cards like Fell or Savor.

2-4: The average Limited card. Most commons end up in this range, and most of your Limited decks are made up mostly of these. Cards like Bakersbane Duo or Treeguard Duo.

1: These cards aren’t playable in your main deck, usually because they’re too situational, but they could be useful out of the sideboard or might be the last card to be added. Cards like Barkform Harvester or Whiskerquill Scribe.

0: Absolutely awful cards. Virtually unplayable in every scenario, and you should never put these cards in your main deck. Cards like Sylvan Tutor or Relentless Rats.

Set Mechanics

Duskmourn has two major mechanical themes: the graveyard and enchantments. To highlight these themes, we have a lot of brand new and returning mechanics that help to bring them together.

Rooms

I usually do these in alphabetical order, but rooms are Duskmourn‘s wackiest new design, and the eerie mechanic references them, so I just had to do them first. Room cards are essentially split card enchantments. As you cast them, you choose one half of them to cast, and you get an enchantment with that half active. Then, you can choose to unlock the other door as a sorcery. These are really interesting and difficult to know exactly how they’ll play out. Many of them have a half that’s a lot more enticing, particularly for Limited play, so we can often evaluate these cards as if they were just that one half with the other as a free bonus. Regardless, mechanics that give you options and choices to make in gameplay are always fun, and rooms look like they’ll be no different.

Delirium

Delirium is a nice, returning mechanic from back in Shadows over Innistrad. Similar to threshold or descend, this cares about the contents of your graveyard, but it looks for different card types. For reference, there are nine card types that can go into your deck and seven that appear in this set: land, creature, instant, sorcery, artifact, enchantment, and planeswalker. Instants and sorceries of course go to the graveyard very easily, but the key to delirium is finding ways of getting the other card types into your graveyard. This is something you mostly need to consider when drafting your deck, as prioritizing artifact creatures and enchantment creatures will help your deck come together in a big way.

Notably, delirium is entirely centered in the Jund () color space for this set.

Eerie

Eerie is basically just the constellation mechanic that we’ve seen before in Journey into Nyx and Theros Beyond Death. Eerie effects are abilities that trigger whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, or whenever you unlock the second door on a room card. We’ve seen this mechanic do some incredible things in the past, and I don’t see any reason why it won’t be great here. You should keep an eye out in particular for anything that gives you free enchantments, like an enchantment that creates an enchantment token, or something similar. Double triggering good eerie cards is some sweet value that you’ll really want to try and go for.

Impending

Impending is a new spin on the suspend mechanic from Time Spiral, appearing on five mythic rare enchantment creatures in this set. Impending is an alternate casting cost for these spells that allows you to cast them for cheaper, but they won’t be creatures right away. Instead, they enter purely as enchantments but with some time counters on them. You then remove a time counter during each of your end steps, and they become creatures when the last one is removed. Spoiler alert: All the cards with this mechanic are extremely powerful, and impending gives them quite a bit of extra functionality.

Manifest Dread

Another spin on an existing mechanic, manifest dread is an upgrade to the manifest mechanic from Fate Reforged. Whenever you manifest dread, you look at the top two cards of your library, choose one of them to put onto the battlefield as a face-down 2/2 creature, and the other goes to your graveyard. This is an exceptional way of fueling your graveyard while giving you the ability to get a creature card as your manifest more easily. It’s a powerful mechanic that appears to fit very nicely in the set and even has its own Draft archetype.

Survival

The survivor mechanic rewards yours creatures for surviving the combat phase. Survival represents abilities that trigger if the creature they’re on is tapped at the beginning of your second main phase. The easiest way to enable this of course is to attack and have them survive the combat, but that might be more difficult than it sounds. As such, the set also has ways to enable this mechanic by tapping your creatures for value. This will be an interesting mechanic to try and enable, though it looks like the one that’s most likely to fall short of the mark.

Draft Archetypes

Like most modern Limited sets, Duskmourn follows the structure of having draftable archetypes for each of the 2-color pairs in this set. Here’s what we’re looking at:

• Azorius (): Eerie Tempo
• Dimir (): Eerie Control
• Rakdos (): Sacrifices
• Gruul (): Delirium Aggro
• Selesnya (): Survival
• Orzhov (): Reanimator
• Golgari (): Grindy Delirium
• Simic (): Manifest Dread
• Izzet (): Room Control
• Boros (): Small Creature Aggro (Having power 2 or less matters)

White

Acrobatic Cheerleader

Rating: 3/10

If you run Acrobatic Cheerleader out on turn 2 and your opponent doesn’t have an answer or their own 2-drop, you get to attack for free, pick up your flying counter, and now you have a decent threat. That’s a few steps to go through, but this survivor is a 2-drop, which your aggro decks will need.

Cult Healer

Rating: 3/10

A 3/3 with the ability to sometimes gain lifelink is pretty solid. Cult Healer fills your curve nicely and can help win races. This human isn't exciting by any measure, and it’s probably not worth playing without a lot of enchantments in your deck, but it’s a fine common.

Dazzling Theater // Prop Room

Rating: 0/10

Spending a whole card to either give your creatures convoke or essentially give all your creatures vigilance simply isn’t worth it. Neither door of Dazzling Theater // Prop Room affects the board or does anything that we actually care about.

Dollmaker’s Shop // Porcelain Gallery

Rating: 8/10

Two mana for an enchantment that creates a 1/1 token whenever you attack sounds pretty damn good. I’d play that just on its own, but Dollmaker's Shop // Porcelain Gallery is a room card, and we have another half to look at. Six mana allows you to turn all your creatures into X/Xs, which is of course a bigger upgrade if most of your creatures are very small, but it’s honestly not that exciting otherwise. This is a powerful card for sure, but it has its limitations.

Emerge from the Cocoon

Rating: 4/10

Emerge from the Cocoon is exactly the sort of card that you need if you build the reanimator deck. Obviously, you need some reanimation spells, but the important fact is that this is common. Gaining some life is a really nice bonus, just in case whichever creature you get back doesn’t last long enough to protect your life total.

Enduring Innocence

Rating: 8/10

Mentor of the Meek was always a fantastic card, and Enduring Innocence looks quite a bit better. It only triggers once each turn, sure, but getting to come back as a pure enchantment when it dies means this ability is likely never going away. Plus, a 2/1 lifelinker is bound to make a difference in combat when you need it to. The 2-power aggro deck looks strong, and this is probably one of its better rares.

Ethereal Armor

Rating: 2/10

Ethereal Armor is a nasty reprint from the days of Return to Ravnica. It represents a large buff of stats for just 1 mana, but it also comes with all the inherent downsides that any aura has. If you put this on a creature and that creature is removed, you just lost two cards to your opponent’s one, which can be a devastating swing in a game. Still, if you find the right window to resolve it, it might do some work. It’s just very unreliable at doing that.

Exorcise

Rating: 5/10

There are so many enchantment creatures in this set that Exorcise will often be a 2-mana spell that exiles a target creature. It should have at least a few targets against every matchup, and it’s cheap and efficient enough to make its way into your main decks and be a premium removal spell at that.

Fear of Abduction

Rating: 6/10

What a beating this’ll be! Six mana for a 5/5 upgraded Banisher Priest with flying is pretty epic. You do have to exile a creature of your own to cast Fear of Abduction, but at least you get that creature back eventually. Where this nightmare particularly shines is in a reanimator deck, where you can frequently bypass that additional cost by cheating it into play.

Fear of Immobility

Rating: 4/10

Even costing 4 mana, these Frost Lynx variants always perform pretty well, allowing you to stall your opponent and make a nice tempo swing in the same turn. What’s even nicer about Fear of Immobility is that you can also use it to enable a survival trigger without attacking with that creature, so I’d be very happy to have this at the top of my aggro curve.

Fear of Surveillance

Rating: 3/10

I mean, it’s called Fear of Surveillance, so obviously it surveils. For the most part, this is just a simple 2-drop, but all the little upsides add up. I think they make this a fine card to run, especially if it synergizes particularly well with your deck’s strategy.

Friendly Ghost

Rating: 2/10

Friendly Ghost would be quite the nasty card if it had flash, but sadly you can only do this at sorcery speed. This spirit does do a fine job of enabling survival, but that’s about it.

Ghostly Dancers

Rating: 10/10

Ghostly Dancers looks like an obscenely broken card to me. A large Auramancer is already good, but it does so much more than that. Unlocking a door on a room you control could end up netting you a ton of free mana for very little cost, while immediately triggering its eerie ability to create a 3/1. Then every other enchantment you play nets you a free 3/1. And they all fly? This is just absurd and has to be one of the cards I’m happiest to open. Oh look! It also has 2 power to synergize with red/white’s theme.

Glimmer Seeker

Rating: 6/10

If you’re planning on doing the survival thing, you’d be hard pressed to find many better payoffs than Glimmer Seeker. Creating tokens and drawing cards are among the strongest effects in Limited, making this something I’m really interested in enabling. Combat tricks, tap effects, you name it, I want any and all of them to help make this work.

Grand Entryway // Elegant Rotunda

Rating: 5/10

Grand Entryway // Elegant Rotunda is exactly the sort of card I want for any deck based around eerie. An enchantment that creates an enchantment token double-triggers anything with eerie. Better yet, this is a room, so you get yet another trigger when you unlock the second room. This is one card that can trigger eerie three times by itself and even has a powerful effect. This is going to be one of the most important commons to make these decks work.

Hardened Escort

Rating: 2/10

This soldier is technically a way of enabling any survival trigger, and while a 2/4 isn’t trivial for your opponent to deal with in combat, it’s also not exactly guaranteed to survive the combat itself. I don’t think this is the way to enable these triggers, but it does its job if you need it to.

Jump Scare

Rating: 3/10

One-mana combat tricks have been overperforming in recent sets, and Jump Scare looks like no exception. Aggressive decks need ways to push through damage, and survival decks need ways of ensuring their creatures survive combats, both of which this does excellently.

Leyline of Hope

Rating: 0/10

Leyline of Hope might have looked like an interesting card if there was a reason to want it. But there’s no lifegain deck to build in the set, meaning even if you get this leyline onto the battlefield, it’ll hardly do anything.

Lionheart Glimmer

Rating: 5/10

I didn’t think Lionheart Glimmer looked like much at first, but note that it doesn’t need to attack to trigger. You can cast this cat on turn 5, and it still buffs the other creatures you attack with that turn. On top of that, it’s a creature with just 2 power, which may not look impressive, but it does play into the red/white archetype very nicely.

Living Phone

Rating: 4/10

Living Phone is really impressive. It’s small, but this toy card is great to trade off and replace with a new creature. Let’s run this through the hypergeometric calculator. If we assume there are around 27 cards left in the library and 10 possible hits for this ability to see, you have a 92% chance of getting a card from it. Even with as few as five creatures left, you’d still have a two-in-three chance. I like those odds, making this essentially a creature that draws you a relevant card when it dies.

Optimistic Scavenger

Rating: 7/10

Neon Dynasty’s Generous Visitor proved itself to be a powerhouse build-around for enchantment decks, and this version is even better. Unlike the former, if you play an enchantment creature, you can have this scout put a +1/+1 counter on that creature. This set is custom-built to enable good eerie triggers, and this is one of the better ones we’re likely to see.

Orphans of the Wheat

Rating: 4/10

Odds are that an early Orphans of the Wheat will be able to attack as a 3/2, 4/3, or even 5/4 each turn for at least a couple of turns. It enables survival, synergizes with token makers, and generally does a lot more than your average 2-drop, though I wouldn’t want to play it without some good synergies.

Overlord of the Mistmoors

Rating: 10/10

I’d be very surprised if this didn’t turn out to be the best card in Duskmourn or at least in the top five. An insane token generator in white, Overlord of the Mistmoors is like a Grave Titan but somehow better. Sure, it costs 1 mana more, but that’s where the downsides stop. The impending cost lets you cheat it out early, the tokens fly for some reason, it’s an enchantment, it’s in the perfect color for the reanimator deck… need I go on? This thing is just laughably absurd, and it shouldn’t be too hard to win a game after playing it.

Patched Plaything

Rating: 4/10

Patched Plaything is really just a 2/1 double striker for 3 mana, but if you reanimate it or flicker it, it’ll be a 4/3. It also foregoes the -1/-1 counters if you manifest it and turn it face up. That’s fairly good, I suppose. I can think of worse things to reanimate than a 4/3 double strike, so this looks like it could satisfy multiple roles in the format.

Possessed Goat

Rating: 4/10

This is what the reanimator deck was missing: a strong discard outlet. When you consider that you really want to be able to discard a big threat to reanimate later, discarding a card feels a lot less like a cost. Even outside of reanimator, you can toss away an excess land and your Possessed Goat can be swinging as a 4/4 as early as turn 3 if you really wanted it to. The fact that it’s a key piece for reanimator makes me think this card is one of those overperforming 1-drops that ends up as one of white’s best commons in Duskmourn.

Reluctant Role Model

Rating: 5/10

Once you’re able to get the first trigger off, the rest become a lot easier. Once Reluctant Role Model picks up flying, you should be able to keep attacking and surviving more and more combats. The issue really is just getting that first trigger to resolve, but once it does, this snowballs out of control and should take over a game very quickly.

Savior of the Small

Rating: 4/10

We’re seeing this time and time again, but these survival triggers live and die by how easy they are to enable. Savior of the Small seems okay, but not only do you need to enable this kor, but you also need good targets for the ability, which isn’t actually guaranteed if you’re trying to make sure your creatures survive combat as opposed to trading off.

Seized from Slumber

Rating: 4/10

White removal spells that only destroy tapped or attacking creatures usually fall short because of how bad they are when you’re trying to be proactive. Seized from Slumber can at least simply destroy any creature, assuming you can pay 5 mana, while also being a nice, efficient way of killing most attacking creatures. It’s unlikely to be premium removal, but it does look quite playable.

Shardmage’s Rescue

Rating: 4/10

Shardmage's Rescue has a lot going for it. It’s essentially a white version of Snakeskin Veil, a card that has performed consistently well in every set where it’s been printed. On top of that, it triggers eerie abilities and just generally synergizes with cards in the set, so I’d definitely look to pick it up early.

Sheltered by Ghosts

Rating: 7/10

Faith Unbroken was one hell of a card in Eldritch Moon, and Sheltered by Ghosts looks miles better. Having your Oblivion Ring variant also be a creature aura might sound like a downside, but the ward it grants the creature should make this a bit less fragile than usual. Ultimately, this is cheap, and it’s effective at answering anything you need to.

Shepherding Spirits

Rating: 2/10

Two mana to landcycle isn’t terrible, but recent sets have proven that they’re not quite as good as they used to be. It’s interesting that they fuel delirium really nicely, as well as help to set up your reanimation spells. Shepherding Spirits is a bit underwhelming for a 6-drop, so it probably won’t make the cut unless it works with your deck’s synergies.

Split Up

Rating: 9/10

This white card might be the most dangerous card in the entire set. Three mana to wipe out potentially your entire board is a very real blowout, one that you should avoid at all costs. If your opponent has white mana, you should try not to give them the opportunity to use Split Up effectively. Leave some creatures back when you attack at the very least. This card is simply a 3-mana board wipe that could be as good as a Plague Wind at times. Even if it’s hard to set up, the potential speaks for itself.

Splitskin Doll

Rating: 5/10

This is excellent. Most cheap creatures have 2 power anyway, plus there’s an entire theme designed around it, so it’s not hard to imagine Splitskin Doll will straight up draw you a card more often than not. I’d try to pick up as many of these as I could for just about any white deck.

Surgical Suite // Hospital Room

Rating: 5/10

Both halves of Surgical Suite // Hospital Room look quite strong. Reanimating a cheap creature for 2 mana is something we’ve seen a lot recently, but they’ve rarely come with upsides as good as this one. Being an enchantment to trigger eerie in one thing, but you also get access to the Hospital Room side, which can really take over a game and allow you to push through damage.

The Wandering Rescuer

Rating: 9/10

Oh boy, The Wanderer never fails to impress does she? This samurai card has a lot of functionality and a lot of potential gameplay options. Firstly, you could just run The Wandering Rescuer out as early as turn 3 and start beating down with it. A 3/4 with double strike is extremely aggressive, after all. Having flash means you could flash this white creature in to block something, which given its stats is very easy to set up. You can even use its hexproof ability to protect something on your board from a removal spell. Any one of these modes looks impressive by itself, but having all three on one card puts this well over the top.

Toby, Beastie Befriender

Rating: 5/10

Toby, Beastie Befriender’s 4/4 token comes with a very hefty downside, but it still can’t be understated just how powerful 5/5’s worth of stats for 3 mana can be. There isn’t really a token theme in this set, so I don’t think you’re very likely to enable the second ability and give your tokens flying, but Toby looks very solid regardless. 

Trapped in the Screen

Rating: 4/10

Is it just me who wants this altered with the image of Yugi’s grandfather trapped in the television screen from early Yu-Gi-Oh? I hope not. Anyway, Trapped in the Screen is the common Banishing Light for the set. Ward definitely helps against the enchantment removal that players are much more likely to main deck in this format, and you really need to be able to remove things, so it does its job well enough.

Unidentified Hovership

Rating: 8/10

While being a vehicle isn’t that great, Unidentified Hovership is essentially a spiritual reprint of Skyclave Apparition, which was an extremely powerful card in its day. Three mana to answer virtually any creature in a way that removes it permanently is a really good deal, even if a 2/2 flying vehicle isn’t that good of a threat on the board.

Unsettling Twins

Rating: 4/10

I know that WotC tries their best not to mention the IPs they’re riffing on, but this one’s a little more on the nose than usual. We’ve seen the Unsettling Twins design a lot before, like Irregular Cohort and Person of Interest, and it’s pretty much always good. Factor in the 2-power theme in red/white and I think this looks like a premium common for white.

Unwanted Remake

Rating: 4/10

These types of effects are rarely that good, but costing 1 mana is definitely something to pay attention to. I actually prefer the idea of using Unwanted Remake on your own creature in response to a removal spell to give yourself a 2/2 for 1 mana. That is at least a nice buyout option if you run this in your main deck and your opponent doesn’t play anything worth killing. 

Veteran Survivor

Rating: 3/10

The big issue I have with Veteran Survivor is how unlikely you are to be able to trigger it early in the game, due to there being nothing in anyone’s graveyards until at least turn 2 or 3. By the time graveyards start to fill up, this is outclassed and either can’t attack or will be traded for, so I don’t see how this functions as much more than an aggressive 1-drop.

Blue

Abhorrent Oculus

Rating: 7/10

The question is, will Abhorrent Oculus be more like a Murktide Regent or a Skaab Ruinator? Let me put it this way: There’s a very good reason why you may not have seen the latter card before. I wouldn’t just put this eye creature in any blue deck; I’d need to have ways to enable it by filling my graveyard in some way, but once it hits the table, it gives enough advantage to start running away with the game quite nicely.

Bottomless Pool // Locker Room

Rating: 4/10

The room you’ll care about playing first is Bottomless Pool. Bouncing a creature from the board, even if temporarily, is something that blue decks are going to want to do often to simply slow down their opponents. From there, the Locker Room half of Bottomless Pool // Locker Room is a little expensive for what it does, but it’s a great free upside to have on this simple, defensive card.

Central Elevator // Promising Stairs

Rating: 3/10

Central Elevator // Promising Stairs is such a cool design. I’m a sucker for alternate win conditions, especially ones that are doable in Limited. This card is extremely slow and doesn’t affect the board in any way, which is a huge knock against its playability. But blue/red’s theme is supposed to be room control, so I could definitely see this being a strong card in that deck.

Clammy Prowler

Rating: 2/10

This looks like a pretty strong way to enable survival. There’s only one problem: Blue doesn’t do survival in this set. I honestly don’t know why Clammy Prowler is here. It’s not unplayable by any stretch, but it doesn’t really synergize with any of blue’s themes.

Creeping Peeper

Rating: 3/10

I’m always a big fan of these blue mana dorks. Creeping Peeper looks especially good given that it has functionality in every one of blue’s Draft archetypes, so I can see this being a really solid common for the color.

Cursed Windbreaker

Rating: 4/10

I feel like I mention in every set how you’ve got to love a Wind Drake with some upside. Manifest dread is always going to be better than a simple 2/2 anyway, because it might turn into something bigger and always fuels the graveyard, but also the flying ability comes from the equipment that's left behind after it dies. Cursed Windbreaker a very solid card that feels right at home in blue/green and is probably good enough to be played in other decks.

Daggermaw Megalodon

Rating: 2/10

A 5/7 with vigilance like Daggermaw Megalodon is really quite annoying, but blue is the color that can take advantage of this the least. None of its archetypes really care about the graveyard, so getting this blue creature in there isn’t much of an advantage. This shark is still a landcycler, so it’s fine.

Don’t Make a Sound

Rating: 4/10

They do seem to be printing a variant of Quench in literally every set these days. I really don’t like the “upside,” since the whole point of these counterspells is for your opponent not to pay the mana. But Don't Make a Sound is still a fine interactive spell for a blue deck if you want it.

Duskmourn’s Domination

Rating: 6/10

Oh, how far we’ve come from the days of Mind Control and Confiscate. These are simply not printed anymore because they were among the strongest effects in all Limited. Now, you’re no longer removing the best creature on the board and ending up with the best; instead, you remove the best creature and end up with a mediocre one. Duskmourn's Domination is powerful, don’t get me wrong, but it’s probably not the incredible slam dunk pick that other mind control variations have been in the past.

Enduring Curiosity

Rating: 8/10

There’s so much to like about this card, even beyond the fact that it’s adorable. Enduring Curiosity triggers from every creature that deals combat damage to a player, so you get to draw more than once in a turn, something that a lot of similar effects haven’t allowed you to do. Then there’s the flash ability, which you can use to block something in combat or just flash in after your opponent declares no blocks to surprise them with all your extra card draw. On top of that, this blue glimmer comes back as an enchantment when it dies, and you can keep drawing cards. It won’t dominate a game, but Enduring Curiosity is extremely powerful when played in the right way.

Enter the Enigma

Rating: 2/10

This cantrip is incredibly annoying but honestly not that strong. I like that Enter the Enigma draws you a card, so it’s never going to be a bad card to draw, but it’s never going to be a high priority to pick up for your deck.

Entity Tracker

Rating: 7/10

Seeing blue get its own Verduran Enchantress is really nice. Three of blue’s four Draft archetypes are heavily focused on enchantments, so this looks like a perfect card for the color. Entity Tracker even has flash for some reason and is a bit burlier than your average enchantress.

Erratic Apparition

Rating: 2/10

Erratic Apparition is a mediocre common honestly. It’s probably most at home in blue/white, but it doesn’t look good enough to make the cut very often. It’s just not very impactful.

Fear of Failed Tests

Rating: 4/10

I’m sure this is a fear that we’ve all faced at one point or another. Fear of Failed Tests has a lot of potential. It can be neutered by anything with 3 toughness or greater, so that’s not great, but we’ve seen a couple of ways of making it unblockable that might be useful. This looks especially scary if you use Jump Scare on it, hit, and draw four cards. This has a lot of potential, though it doesn’t look like something you can put in just any deck.

Fear of Falling

Rating: 6/10

This is already an Air Elemental upfront, which is a very solid creature for the top of your curve, but that trigger puts it way over the edge. Fear of Falling is so hard to interact with in combat; you basically need to have two flying blockers, both capable of trading with it, since it removes one of them from the equation. This is incredibly annoying to play against and honestly looks really good.

Fear of Impostors

Rating: 6/10

Normally when you remove your opponent’s card and replace it with a creature, you don’t actually just get a 3/2 out of the deal. You’re never down on this exchange and you get to counter anything, not just big creatures. Flashing Fear of Impostors in to counter a timely removal spell sounds like a big tempo swing, and I’d be happy to play this in any blue deck.

Fear of Isolation

Rating: 4/10

I started playing Magic in 2009, and the first set to come out for me was Zendikar. I was a huge fan of Kor Skyfisher, so as I’m sure you can imagine, I’m a huge fan of this card. You could always bounce a land if you really wanted to, but the key is to return anything with a good enters trigger. Given the existence of eerie, that’s near enough any enchantment on your board. This isn’t the strongest card, but I still really like it.

Floodpits Drowner

Rating: 6/10

If all this merfolk did was tap a creature and put a stun counter on it, that would already be a very strong card, similar to Merfolk Trickster in the past. Floodpits Drowner somehow does so much more than that, potentially allowing you to remove that creature permanently if you want to or just have a solid attacker on board. This is an especially strong tempo play, so it probably fits best in blue/white, but I’d play it anywhere to be honest.

Get Out

Rating: 4/10

It does seem very appropriate to have a card named after such a phenomenal modern horror movie. Get Out is also pretty decent. Double blue is a little hard to enable, but this does enough things to warrant that cost, and the ability to counter a creature spell is particularly important.

Ghostly Keybearer

Rating: 5/10

A lot of the rooms in this set have a powerful, expensive side, and you’d rather start them on the cheaper side. Ghostly Keybearer could potentially net you a lot of extra mana if it connects, and it’s not unreasonable as a simple Phantom Monster until then. I think I’d want to have several rooms in my deck before starting this, but the potential is there to get a lot of extra advantage from it.

Glimmerburst

Rating: 3/10

Is it a bit too much to call this a Mulldrifter with flash? Probably, right? Yeah, Glimmerburst won’t play out anywhere close to that powerful, but drawing two cards and creating an enchantment token is a very nice combination to have.

Leyline of Transformation

Rating: 0/10

Leyline of Transformation is completely unplayable. There are next to no typal synergies in the set, and hence no reason to want Leyline’s effect in the first place.

Marina Vendrell’s Grimoire

Rating: 0/10

While Marina Vendrell's Grimoire’s ability to draw five cards for just 6 mana is a great deal, that’s not so great that I’d be willing to risk losing the game immediately after. Pro tip: If a card makes it easier for your opponent to win the game, it’s probably really bad!

Meat Locker // Drowned Diner

Rating: 3/10

Both halves of Meat Locker // Drowned Diner are a little overcosted for what they do, but they both function well in a control deck. This looks right at home in the blue/red deck, which is trying to be slow and play a lot of rooms, though I don’t think this is too playable outside of that deck.

Mirror Room // Fractured Realm

Rating: 6/10

Three mana to create a copy of a creature you control is pretty nice. You aren’t going to be interested in the 7-mana door, but it’s a free bonus, and you could cheat on the mana by unlocking it with a different effect. Overall, I can see why this deserves to be a mythic rare, but it’s not that exciting for a Limited deck. It’s just decent.

Overlord of the Floodpits

Rating: 9/10

Another Overlord and another busted mythic. Overlord of the Floodpits is actually one where the impending cost isn’t all that enticing. Five mana is very achievable, and it might honestly be better to just hard cast. Regardless of how you play this avatar horror, it’s a powerful card that floods you (pun definitely intended) with card advantage very quickly.

Paranormal Analyst

Rating: 6/10

Getting to draw a card whenever you manifest dread would be good, but thanks to the way manifest dread works, you get lots of agency over what you’re drawing. Not only do you control what becomes manifested, but this detective allows you to control what goes into your hand. Paranormal Analyst looks like a great, cheap payoff for the blue/green deck.

Piranha Fly

Rating: 1/10

A creature like this would be a premium common about 10-15 years ago. Nowadays, I’m not impressed. Piranha Fly has no synergies with any of blue’s themes other than being okay as an aggressive tempo creature. Would it have been too much to ask for this to be an enchantment creature? I’m sure you’ll play this fish insect every so often, but I’m not going to be happy about it.

Scrabbling Skullcrab

Rating: 1/10

Hedron Crab, this is not. Scrabbling Skullcrab suffers from quite a few drawbacks. While you can mill yourself, it’s the Jund colors () that care about filling the graveyard, not blue. Secondly, you could try to mill your opponent out, but it’s far too slow to be a win condition, and you might end up fuelling your opponent’s graveyard synergies. I don’t think either option is all that appealing, so this crab is likely worse than it appears.

Silent Hallcreeper

Rating: 7/10

A 1/1 unblockable creature with no downsides is pretty scary to play against. Thankfully, an opponent can only draw one card with Silent Hallcreeper, but picking up two +1/+1 counters and then turning into something else and keeping those counters might end up being bigger upsides in the long run.

Stalked Researcher

Rating: 3/10

I’m always a fan of these defensive 3/3 2-drops. Eerie should be relatively easy to trigger if you want to get an attack in, but I honestly don’t mind just having Stalked Researcher sit back and trade for creatures bigger than this wizard throughout the game.

Stay Hidden, Stay Silent

Rating: 4/10

I like that we’re now seeing Claustrophobia variants printed at 2 mana with no downsides more often. Six mana is a bit too expensive to put much stock in the ability to remove the creature permanently, and without it, this is often going to be too easy to get around. Still, even if this only temporarily removes a creature, plenty of decks should be interested in this, plus it triggers eerie abilities.

The Mindskinner

Rating: 0/10

Okay then. This is actually my favorite card in the set thanks to the fact that I run Bruvac the Grandiloquent in Commander. Unfortunately, I can’t see any reason to try to play it in Limited. Triple blue is a prohibitively hard casting cost to enable, and turning all your damage into milling your opponent is actually more likely to benefit them than to act as a win condition for you. Note also that while it’s unblockable, it has no protection against removal spells. Your opponent could just take a hit, mill a bunch of cards for their strategy while taking no damage, and then kill it. I hope I’m wrong, but it’s not coming together for me.

The Tale of Tamiyo

Rating: 3/10

As I’ve said a lot, blue cards don’t have much in the way of graveyard synergies in this set. Even though The Tale of Tamiyo looks like a strong enabler for a graveyard deck, there just isn’t one in the format unless you splash for this. Given that, it’s hard to see this saga being a reliable source of card advantage, and the final chapter isn’t even guaranteed to do much when the set has no themes built around instants and sorceries.

Tunnel Surveyor

Rating: 5/10

They’ve become a lot more common in recent sets, but 3 mana for a 2/2 and a 1/1 is just excellent. Better yet, the 1/1 token is an enchantment to trigger eerie abilities. Tunnel Surveyor is likely the best blue common, and it’s probably not close.

Twist Reality

Rating: 2/10

Three mana to manifest dread isn’t a very good deal, even at instant speed. Of course, the point is that this is a modal spell, and you can take advantage of having access to both modes. You have to want a Cancel in the first place to want this 3-mana counterspell, so I could see Twist Reality’s rating going up if the format turns out to be on the slow side.

Unable to Scream

Rating: 1/10

One mana just to do this to a creature isn’t a good plan. The aura is easily removed, and the creature still has things to do while on the board. We’ve seen past similar cards like Kasmina's Transmutation be awful in their respective formats, and the mana discount doesn’t do enough to sell me on Unable to Scream.

Underwater Tunnel // Slimy Aquarium

Rating: 2/10

Under normal circumstances, Underwater Tunnel // Slimy Aquarium would look pretty overcosted and unplayable. What edges it for me is the fact that it’s a room. We have a room archetype that’ll presumably clamor to get as many rooms as possible, and this is a common that this archetype should be able to pick up for free. It isn’t good, but it does look like a playable card in blue/red specifically.

Unnerving Grasp

Rating: 6/10

Unnerving Grasp is really just a souped up Man-o'-War, which is a pretty exciting card to have around. This’ll do a good job at slowing down your opponent while applying more pressure. We’ve been told that blue is a tempo color in this set, and excellent cards like this make me inclined to believe that.

Unwilling Vessel

Rating: 5/10

If you can get any counters on Unwilling Vessel, it becomes an incredibly dangerous threat. Your opponent always has the out of killing it before that happens, so this is probably something I’d rather not run out on turn 3. I’d sooner play it on the same turn that I could get at least one trigger from it to guarantee getting something out of the death trigger. I’d also be aware that a considerable amount of this set’s removal exiles, so it might be a plan to keep an Unwanted Remake around to kill it in response.

Vanish from Sight

Rating: 3/10

We see these in every set, and like every other set, the strength of Vanish from Sight lives and dies by the speed of the format. The slower the format, the more powerful this is. As long as blue is a playable color, I’m sure it’ll find a home.

Black

Appendage Amalgam

Rating: 3/10

We’ve finally gotten to a color that wants to do stuff with its graveyard. Appendage Amalgam isn’t going to set the world alight, but getting one or two hits in with this should help to fuel your graveyard. You could even flash it in to block something annoying! It’s basically a textbook example of a simple Limited common.

Balemurk Leech

Rating: 3/10

This isn’t doing much, but depending on how many times you can trigger eerie during a game, it’ll start adding up. Plus, Balemurk Leech is just a good size for a 2-drop in general, so there’s no harm in running it.

Cackling Slasher

Rating: 3/10

Deathtouch is best suited for smaller creatures, but once they get as big as this assassin, it seems less useful. However, what the ability does on a bigger creature like Cackling Slasher is dissuade double blocking. Blocking your 4/4 deathtoucher with a pair of 3/3s doesn’t sound quite so good.

Come Back Wrong

Rating: 6/10

This is first and foremost an unconditional removal spell, and regardless of your deck, you can always use it for this purpose. On top of that, Come Back Wrong gives you some extra value when you kill anything with an enters trigger, or if you have ways of sacrificing a creature for value. A lot of time, this’ll just be fine, but every now and again it’ll be quite a lot stronger than that.

Commune with Evil

Rating: 4/10

Three mana is a lot to spend on something that doesn’t affect the board, but gaining 3 life at least makes up for that in some way. Commune with Evil does a great job of putting more cards into your graveyard while also letting you replace it with the best card out of your top four, so I’d imagine a lot of graveyard-centric decks will want to use this.

Cracked Skull

Rating: 1/10

Coercion isn’t very good at all, and neither is an aura that makes a creature die to any damage. Worse yet, Cracked Skull is best played on turn 3, but if your opponent hasn’t played a creature in their first couple of turns, this might not even be castable. This just looks bad, even if it’s not technically unplayable.

Cynical Loner

Rating: 3/10

Too much has to go right to enable Cynical Loner’s trigger, and it isn’t even that good to begin with. Sure, getting an Entomb off in the right deck can be quite strong, but there are a few too many hoops to jump through for it to be worth it.

Dashing Bloodsucker

Rating: 5/10

Attacking as a 4/5 lifelinker is pretty strong, but Dashing Bloodsucker could be even bigger. This isn’t restricted to once per turn, so you could sandbag some enchantments and play several of them for a big swing in one turn. You of course shouldn’t play this vampire warrior in a deck that has too few enchantments, but it does a lot of work when you enable it properly.

Defiled Crypt // Cadaver Lab

Rating: 5/10

Starting on Defiled Crypt and then unlocking Cadaver Lab is naturally the way this card was designed to give you the most value. On top of that, you can always simply cast Defiled Crypt // Cadaver Lab as Raise Dead if that’s what your situation asks for. But once you’ve played Defiled Crypt, how else is it going to trigger? The best answer for that is likely by reanimating creatures, which makes this look like a very decent payoff for that deck. 

Demonic Counsel

Rating: 0/10

No, absolutely not. Demonic Tutor itself would be a 1/10 at best, and Demonic Counsel doesn’t even have the buyout of guaranteeing your third land drop. Even if you’re able to search for the best card in your deck, most of the time that card isn’t worth the extra 2 mana you’ve spent to play it.

Derelict Attic // Widow’s Walk

Rating: 3/10

Widow’s Walk doesn’t look very enticing to me, but at least Derelict Attic functions as a Divination, so whatever you get on top of that is essentially a free bonus. I still think you’ll have to want a room to really be after it, so Derelict Attic // Widow's Walk looks solid in the blue/black deck, or perhaps in sacrifices, but it probably doesn’t make the cut in other black decks.

Doomsday Excruciator

Rating: 1/10

Doomsday Excrutiator is wildly uncastable, so we’re not interested in even trying. The only thing that gives this demon a rating is the fact that you could try reanimating it, which even bypasses its first ability. Even then, you’re probably better off having reanimate targets you can actually cast as a backup plan.

Enduring Tenacity

Rating: 3/10

This might have been interesting if there were more lifegain in this set beyond random lifelinkers, but sadly, that’s not the case. Enduring Tenacity is mostly a vanilla creature that can trigger eerie when it enters and when it dies, which isn’t nothing. But I wouldn’t expect to get all that much from the lifegain trigger on this snake.

Fanatic of the Harrowing

Rating: 2/10

I normally love enters triggers that give some value, but this cleric looks like too much mana to be spending for what you get in return. Fanatic of the Harrowing looks better in reanimator, where this helps you to discard a big creature for later, but outside of that I don’t see it being great.

Fear of Lost Teeth

Rating: 3/10

These sorts of creatures are always annoying. The classic Goblin Arsonist, which can usually trade up for a 2-drop, and Fear of Lost Teeth even gains you a little bit of life. I’d imagine you’d play as many of these as you could find, but they look a lot stronger in the eerie and sacrifice decks.

Fear of the Dark

Rating: 3/10

Glimmers aren’t very common in this set, so this’ll actually be active quite a lot of the time, and the combination of menace and deathtouch is really brutal. These sorts of 5-drops tend to be quite weak, but Fear of the Dark seems to be at least a little better than your average one.

Final Vengeance

Rating: 4/10

It’s always good to see a Bone Splinters variant to enable the sacrifice theme. That’s where Final Vengeance will shine, but some other black decks are likely to have some nice fodder to sacrifice to it, so I’d keep an eye out for it if that’s the case.

Funeral Room // Awakening Hall

Rating: 5/10

The biggest downside of Funeral Room // Awakening Hall is that it doesn’t really affect the board like a regular Blood Artist would. That said, it’s still a powerful trigger to have. Awakening Hall is a free bonus, but one that looks far too expensive to cast. However, there are at least a few ways to unlock this for a big mana discount, so I’d be looking out for those to combine with this because the unlock trigger is extremely powerful.

Give In to Violence

Rating: 3/10

Lifelinking combat tricks are especially nasty to play against. Not only do they end up trading for a creature in combat, but the life swing loses you so much tempo that it’s always disheartening to see. Black’s themes in this set are on the controlling side, so Give In to Violence might not have a home, but it’s good enough on defense that it should still be playable.

Grievous Wound

Rating: 0/10

I’d sooner want to play Lava Axe and guarantee the extra damage. Once you wound your opponent, they can often just chump block to avoid taking damage. On top of that, Grievous Wound does nothing to help you deal damage and nothing to affect the board, so I’d advise not playing it in the first place.

Innocuous Rat

Rating: 4/10

Love it. The simple design of a 1/1 that dies into a 2/2 is tried and tested. It’s always good, especially as fodder in a sacrifice deck, but you’ll be happy to play this rat in just about anything. Innocuous Rat is sure to be among black’s best commons.

Killer’s Mask

Rating: 3/10

Killer's Mask is okay, but the upfront ability of a 2/2 with menace for 3 mana is a little underwhelming. Leaving behind an equipment and fueling your graveyard are upsides that make this playable, but it’s not particularly exciting.

Let’s Play a Game

Rating: 2/10

These modes are all unimpressive on a 4-mana spell. If you’re enabling delirium and getting access to all three at once, then sure Let's Play a Game sounds worth the cost. I’d guess this is better off starting in your sideboard and then bringing it in whenever the first mode is relevant, but if you can’t enable delirium it’s probably completely unplayable.

Leyline of the Void

Rating: 0/10

Are they ever going to print a new black leyline? I guess not. I don’t think the graveyard ever matters enough to want to play Leyline of the Void, not to mention that if you have to cast it, it doesn’t even do anything to whatever is already in the graveyard.

Live or Die

Rating: 5/10

The big payoff with Live or Die is reanimating a big creature at instant speed. Killing a creature for 5 mana is fine but on the expensive side, but if you reanimate it during combat, you can often block with your new creature, killing an attacker in the process.

Meathook Massacre II

Rating: 0/10

All the abilities on this sequel to The Meathook Massacre are very appealing. What’s not appealing is that horrific casting cost. Quadruple black is just unreasonable for any 2-color deck to access. If you were somehow mono-black, then sure, Meathook Massacre II becomes a decent card to cast, but that doesn’t seem very likely to happen.

Miasma Demon

Rating: 5/10

If you have any cards that you’re willing to discard to Miasma Demon, it can be extremely devastating. Still, I have to question how many cards you’ll be able to discard and whether it’s even worth doing sometimes. Still, I’m probably being too critical. All this needs to do is enter and trade a land or two of yours to kill something of your opponent’s, and it will clearly be worth it.

Murder

Rating: 4/10

Ah, how the mighty have fallen. There was once a time when Murder would be picking up a grade far higher than this, but removal isn’t quite as good as it used to be. This black card is still fine, and you’ll probably play it, but it’s now just a good common rather than the broken uncommon it once was.

Nowhere to Run

Rating: 5/10

Now this is a premium removal spell. Two mana to give -3/-3 has proven a very good rate for removal, but on top of that, Nowhere to Run is an enchantment to trigger eerie and even turns off ward while in play. That’s just good value if I’ve ever seen it.

Osseous Sticktwister

Rating: 6/10

This scarecrow looks perfect for the delirium decks. It’s an artifact creature to fuel it, it has a powerful trigger for when you do hit delirium, and a 2/2 with lifelink is just good for a 2-drop. The only thing Osseous Sticktwister doesn’t do is put more cards into your graveyard, but it’s so good at everything else that I think it can be forgiven for that.

Overlord of the Balemurk

Rating: 8/10

This is on the weaker side for the overlords, and yet it’s still incredibly powerful. Overlord of the Balemurk is the only one that you can cast for 2 mana with impending, and it immediately fuels your graveyard while probably drawing you a good card. If you draw it late, you can just hard cast it, and it does even more. This black creature looks like the strongest delirium enabler in the set, which is honestly what you’d expect from a mythic rare.

Popular Egotist

Rating: 4/10

Popular Egotist isn’t a very good way to enable the sacrifices deck, but this rogue is a decent payoff for it. Draining for 1 is an ability that adds up quickly when done in multiples, and with no restrictions on it, you could likely do so very easily. 

Resurrected Cultist

Rating: 3/10

A 4/1 creature is quite good at trading off with a lot of creatures, and you get two goes out of it thanks to its delirium ability. Resurrected Cultist doesn’t do much else beyond that, but that’s good enough to make the cut.

Spectral Snatcher

Rating: 3/10

I think this is the most interesting of the landcyclers. Black is the perfect color for it, given that it enables delirium and can be reanimated. I mainly want to play Spectral Snatcher for those reasons, so it probably won’t make the cut in the sacrifices deck, but it’ll be good otherwise.

Sporogenic Infection

Rating: 4/10

Cruel Edicts normally suck because you have so little control over what’s sacrificed. This edict actually does give you a little bit of choice over it, though. If your opponent controls two creatures, you can enchant one, and they have to sacrifice the other. If they control three, you can still enchant their worst one, and they have to sacrifice something better. Plus, Sporogenic Infection is an enchantment with some ways of picking it up to replay, so it could definitely play out better than it looks.

Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber

Rating: 7/10

I think Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber is the first room that excites me because of the more expensive door. Five mana to create a 6/6 flier is a great deal and is something that must be dealt with. The Unholy Annex side is less interesting, as losing 2 life per turn is quite a big cost, but it suddenly looks good once you have the demon token on your side. There are a few ways in this set to lock doors so you can unlock them again, and Ritual Chamber might be the best room to use those with, so I’d keep an eye on that.

Unstoppable Slasher

Rating: 8/10

Unstoppable Slasher really feels like the villain in a classic slasher movie (hence the name, I suppose). This zombie kills anything in its path and even has you dead pretty quickly. Even from 20 life, this kills you in just three hits (20 -> 18 -> 9 -> 7 -> 3 -> 1 -> 0). And if you manage to kill it yourself, it just comes back again. This is incredible and is going to be so annoying to have to play against.

Valgavoth’s Faithful

Rating: 4/10

This is really interesting for the reanimator deck. Since Valgavoth's Faithful doesn’t need to tap when you activate it, it can just be 5 mana to reanimate a creature. But then it does so much more. You can split the cost over two turns, and you can make use of the fact that it’s a creature, perhaps by reanimating it with something that only targets small creatures. I think it does enough to earn its place in the deck, for sure.

Valgavoth, Terror Eater

Rating: 3/10

Valgavoth’s the big bad of Duskmourn’s storyline, so it must be good right? Well, it is, but at 9 mana, Valgavoth, Terror Eater is wildly uncastable. I think it’s still playable, but only because the reanimator deck exists. Without the ability to cheat it into play, Valgavoth isn’t going to be on the board any time soon. Once in play, it basically wins you the game single-handedly, so there’s that, but you need the right deck for it.

Vile Mutilator

Rating: 5/10

Seven mana is quite a lot, but you do seem to get your mana’s worth for it. Vile Mutilator is black’s big reanimation target in the set, allowing you to bypass the additional cost of casting it while still giving you the value of that incredible triggered ability. It’s just about castable if you need it to be, but I’d imagine you’d prefer to focus on cheating it out.

Winter’s Intervention

Rating: 4/10

Sure, we’ll take it. Winter's Intervention deals damage, which is a fair bit worse than giving -X/-X, but you can’t argue with killing a small creature and gaining life.

Withering Torment

Rating: 5/10

Black getting easier access to enchantment removal is pretty reasonable, to be honest. Two life isn’t much of a cost, and Withering Torment is even a splashable card if you happen not to be drafting black but are lacking removal of your own.

Red

Bedhead Beastie

Rating: 2/10

While it’s true that red is doing some graveyard shenanigans in this set, I doubt it cares too much about this beast. Red is still trying to be aggressive in nearly all its archetypes, so wasting time paying 2 mana to cycle Bedhead Beastie just isn’t likely to be possible.

Betrayer’s Bargain

Rating: 5/10

While Betrayer's Bargain is obviously tailormade for the sacrifices deck, the fact that you have the buyout option of paying 4 for it makes it very playable in any red deck. This is just a great removal spell for the format and something I’d look to pick up early.

Boilerbilges Ripper

Rating: 4/10

I’m a sucker for anything that can mimic a Flametongue Kavu. Boilerbilges Ripper is a little on the expensive side, and you won’t be able to cast this and Threaten their creature in the same turn, but it still gets the job done. There should be plenty of throwaway permanents to sacrifice to this and get your value when it counts.

Chainsaw

Rating: 5/10

You don’t have to sell me on dealing 3 damage for just 2 mana. Chainsaw is a cool design overall, but that 3 damage is really all we care about. Picking up rev counters and acting as a mediocre equipment is a free bonus, but not something that pushes the card over the top or anything.

Charred Foyer // Warped Space

Rating: 7/10

Four mana to cast an extra card from exile every turn is a really good deal. Warped Space might not look like much, but consider a turn when you’ve exiled something that costs around 4 or 5 mana that you want to cast. Just spend a little extra to unlock Warped Space instead, get it for free, then everything you hit is free for the rest of the game. Charred Foyer // Warped Space is a nice little package that is probably good enough in any red deck in the format.

Clockwork Percussionist

Rating: 4/10

A 1/1 haste creature is pretty bad, but Clockwork Percussionist can get in at least a point or 2 of damage when you draw it early, and it basically draws you a card even when you draw it late. This monkey is also great as sacrifice fodder and for fueling delirium. All that adds up a surprisingly effective little card.

Cursed Recording

Rating: 0/10

I could honestly see this being a thing in some sets, but there’s no focus on instants and sorceries here. Your average deck isn’t going to have very many of them, so I could envision a situation when you play Cursed Recording and only have one or two things to copy for the whole game. That’s not really worth it, especially when you have to cast this in advance and not affect the board for a turn. 

Diversion Specialist

Rating: 4/10

It’s weird. You’d think that sacrificing a creature to essentially draw a card would be a good thing? The problem is that sacrifice decks end up being very mana hungry, and that doesn’t play well with Diversion Specialist’s ability. You can’t pay 3 mana to Threaten a creature, another 1 mana to sacrifice it, and still expect to have mana left over to play a spell that you exile. Dark-Dweller Oracle was just bad whenever we’ve seen it, and while this is a bigger creature, I don’t have high hopes for it.

Enduring Courage

Rating: 4/10

I want to be higher on Enduring Courage, but I just don’t like it. On the turn you play this dog, it’s nothing more than a lousy Hill Giant. Definitely not something you’re happy about playing. It then essentially makes every creature into a bigger haste threat, which is definitely valuable, but I’m just concerned that you might be giving up too much with how weak this is upfront.

Fear of Being Hunted

Rating: 5/10

This is a really annoying card with a surprising amount of utility. Of course, playing Fear of Being Hunted onto an empty board is very threatening by itself. You’re always forcing a trade with whichever creature they might have available to block, but here’s the kicker! If your opponent has just one creature up, it’ll be forced to block this red creature while your other creatures get through. That’s pretty nice, and the stats are good too, making this a very powerful, aggressive threat.

Fear of Burning Alive

Rating: 6/10

By the time you get to 6 mana, I’d assume you probably have delirium, turning Fear of Burning Alive into a pretty absurd play. It’s a little overcosted, but a Flametongue Kavu is still a Flametongue. This is worth working towards, and if you’re lucky enough to get them in multiples, they’re extremely good when played together.

Fear of Missing Out

Rating: 5/10

This feels more like a red/green gold card than simply a red card. Not only is that deck trying to fuel delirium, but it’s also very aggressive, making these extra combat phases a lot stronger. I don’t remember ever seeing a 2-drop that could do this, so I’m interested to see where a card like Fear of Missing Out lands, but it does look very strong to me.

Glassworks // Shattered Yard

Rating: 4/10

What I don’t like about Glassworks // Shattered Yard is that it’ll be very important for blue/red rooms to pick up, but any deck will be happy to play it, so you just won’t be passed many of them. This is solid common removal, and obviously works extremely well in the room deck.

Grab the Prize

Rating: 2/10

Yet again, we see another variant on Tormenting Voice. Grab the Prize probably performs a fair bit better in this set, as it likely puts two card types into your graveyard for delirium. However, it’s still just fine, and not something you’re ever going to struggle to pick up.

Hand That Feeds

Rating: 2/10

Seeing Hand That Feeds attack as a 4/2 with menace sounds good, but it’ll take a few turns to make that happen, and this mutant is just a vanilla 2/2 until that point. I’m sure you’ll play this in some decks, but I think we can find better.

Impossible Inferno

Rating: 2/10

Five mana burn spells, even at instant speed, are a little too expensive to be reliable. It’s nice that Impossible Inferno can sometimes draw you an extra card, but it’s not enough to make you want an expensive burn spell if you didn’t already. You’ll certainly play a copy of this every now and then, but almost never the second copy.

Infernal Phantom

Rating: 6/10

The base rate of a 2/3 that deals 2 damage when it dies is honestly really strong. If you can get any eerie triggers on it, which some of red’s decks will be able to do really comfortably, Infernal Phantom starts becoming a very potent threat. What’s particularly nice is that this looks like it’ll fit in many different decks. It’s great in aggro, great with lots of rooms, and even better in sacrifices. It’s just an all-round great card.

Irreverent Gremlin

Rating: 4/10

A 2/2 with menace for 2 is pretty annoying in the early game. It might get as many as three unimpeded hits in before your opponent can deal with your Irreverent Gremlin. The trigger isn’t irrelevant, but it’s not the most impactful either. This is probably just a good 2-drop for any aggro deck, and you won’t want it elsewhere.

Leyline of Resonance

Rating: 0/10

Come on, it’s a leyline, of course it’s unplayable in Limited. Leyline of Resonance might be a cool build-around, but I doubt you can trigger it anywhere near enough times for it to be relevant.

Most Valuable Slayer

Rating: 4/10

Most Valuable Slayer’s ability is so awkward to play against. +1/+0 and first strike to any attacking creature each turn is a great way to break board stalls and get some free attacks in. It’s even got 2 power, so it synergizes with the red/white theme really well. 

Norin, Swift Survivalist

Rating: 6/10

I’ve always loved Norin, the Wary. I built a Commander deck around that card a long time ago, so I’m stoked to see the character return like this. I think Norin, Swift Survivalist is really good, actually. It’s a 2/1 for 1, which is a great start for an aggressive creature. The trigger allows you to have some built-in protection for your attackers while also sometimes letting you reuse triggered abilities and the like. Also, it’s so cheap that there’s very little downside in having Norin exile itself and then recast it.

Overlord of the Boilerbilges

Rating: 10/10

Oh boy, here we go. If the white overlord is copying Grave Titan, Overlord of the Boilerbilges is clearly copying Inferno Titan. While not quite as good as the titan, it has that impending cost so you can cast it earlier as a simple removal spell. Once this is an active creature, it’s virtually unbeatable, as it mows down any and all blockers your opponent might muster up. Also, the damage can go to the face! I love this card, and it’s bound to be one of the strongest in the set.

Painter’s Studio // Defaced Gallery

Rating: 3/10

They did it! They finally reprinted Orcish Oriflamme with its “correct” mana cost. For those who don’t know, Oriflamme was on the first ever ban list because while costing 4 mana, some versions were misprinted and cost 2 mana instead. The card is basically useless at four, but at 2 you might be onto something. Plus, you have the Painter’s Studio half which lets you draw two cards at some point later in the game? Painter's Studio // Defaced Gallery looks like a nice, solid card to me.

Piggy Bank

Rating: 4/10

This thing is pretty monstrous. I mean, it’s a 3/2 for 2, and that’s just good on every metric. Plus, Piggy Bank is an artifact creature, so trading it off is great at fueling delirium. It’s clearly most at home in the red/green deck, but its efficiency makes it at least playable in just about any deck.

Pyroclasm

Rating: 4/10

I’m really glad to see Pyroclasm back. This card is so simple and a great way to hose aggro decks that get a little too out of hand. It’s worth main decking for sure, but don’t be afraid to side it out if it’s bad in the matchup. If you have a deck of large creatures, it’s not too hard to set up a big blowout turn where this is practically Plague Wind.

Ragged Playmate

Rating: 3/10

This is so nasty. Early game, it’s just a vanilla creature, but in the late game Ragged Playmate starts getting very scary. This reminds me of Passwall Adept, a card that didn’t work often due to being in the slowest color in a very slow format, but it was still capable of winning games. This is mostly just a cheap creature, but it does help you to break board stalls very effectively.

Rampaging Soulrager

Rating: 2/10

While 3 mana for a 4/4 sounds great, controlling two unlocked doors is a little too much to ask for not enough payoff. The room deck is defensive, so you might be interested in a simple 1/4 creature, but Rampaging Soulrager isn’t going to be a priority.

Razorkin Hordecaller

Rating: 5/10

Big haste creatures are a great way to top off your curve in an aggro deck, and Razorkin Hordecaller looks pretty decent. The 1/1 Gremlin token doesn’t attack, so it's particularly good at giving you some insurance against an opponent’s counterswing. It doesn’t even need to attack itself for it to trigger, if it’s better for you to only attack with an evasive creature, for example.

Razorkin Needlehead

Rating: 6/10

This is basically the red Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, right? Right? Sure, Razorkin Needlehead isn’t quite as good, but it’s still very punishing when played early. Double red is a little restrictive, but this is still a good play even on turn 4 or 5. This is a must-kill threat that accumulates damage very quickly.

Ripchain Razorkin

Rating: 2/10

Duskmourn looks like a format that’s heavily synergy-driven, and Ripchain Razorkin doesn’t actually fit in any of red’s archetypes very well. It’s fine, and you’ll play it sometimes, but it doesn’t look particularly interesting.

Scorching Dragonfire

Rating: 5/10

Three damage for 2 mana at instant speed is great. Exiling the target is very relevant here, especially as it means that creature won’t fuel delirium. Scorching Dragonfire is just great, and you should take as many as you can find.

Screaming Nemesis

Rating: 9/10

A 3/3 haste creature for 3 mana is excellent, and you’d play that in most red decks already. But this trigger is just obscene. You just can’t block Screaming Nemesis profitably or even point damage-based removal at it, and that shuts off a lot of options. If you leave this back on defense, then similarly, your opponent can’t even attack into it without risking taking a lot of damage back or losing valuable creatures. This might honestly be a 10/10, simply because it’s so cheap and easy to cast. I can’t imagine this format will have anything quite as scary as this on turn 3.

The Rollercrusher Ride

Rating: 10/10

All this card really asks of you is that you have delirium enabled and you have mana. That’s surely not that hard right? If you have those things, The Rollercrusher Ride lets you deal 6 damage to three creatures for just 6 mana. That’s absurd! It doesn’t seem too hard to imagine this completely wiping out any opponent’s board when you cast it. And it doesn’t even stop there! It then stays in play as a doubler for noncombat damage, or you could sacrifice it for value, or god forbid bounce it back to your hand and replay it.

Ticket Booth // Tunnel of Hate

Rating: 2/10

Much like some of the other common rooms we’ve seen, Ticket Booth // Tunnel of Hate is really overcosted. On the other hand, giving you a little bit of upfront value and then leaving an extra permanent for room or sacrifice synergies is enough to make this just about playable.

Trial of Agony

Rating: 5/10

“Punisher” mechanics, where your opponent can choose the option that’s best for them, are often quite bad. However, if you just look at Trial of Agony as a 1-mana spell that at the bare minimum stops two creatures from blocking this turn, I’d say that’s a pretty good deal. When that’s the case and you see one of them dying as a pure upside, I think you’re looking at a really strong card. No matter what, this massively influences combat for the turn and should be at minimum a one-for-one trade with a creature. I’d never run it outside of an aggro deck, but it looks exceptional in aggro.

Turn Inside Out

Rating: 3/10

This is a pretty great combat trick, especially for the 2-power matters deck. For just 1 mana, you can have any creature trade up with a bigger creature and then replace it with a reasonable creature afterwards. Make Your Mark is a card that impressed me a lot in Strixhaven despite thinking it was unplayable, and I expect Turn Inside Out to be even better.

Untimely Malfunction

Rating: 1/10

I do like modal spells, but Untimely Malfunction feels weird to me. All these modes are extremely niche and even the combination of them probably isn’t enough to warrant a spot in your main deck. It does however look like an exceptional sideboard card.

Vengeful Possession

Rating: 5/10

Threaten effects live and die by how good the sacrifice theme in a set is. Vengeful Possession’s rating is based entirely on assuming that this is a good archetype. Stealing a creature for the turn, getting an attack in, then sacrificing it for some benefit is a great combo and definitely one worth building towards.

Vicious Clown

Rating: 3/10

This is a 2-power creature that manages to attack for a lot more damage than that, and it slots perfectly into the 2-power matters deck. Vicious Clown is nice and aggressive while synergizing with the theme, which is really all you can ask for.

Violent Urge

Rating: 3/10

I’m simply not a fan of Kindled Fury, but even I have to pay attention to the possibility of Violent Urge randomly giving double strike when you’re not expecting it. This is still first and foremost a combat trick, but that double strike is a scary upgrade to see.

Waltz of Rage

Rating: 9/10

Waltz of Rage is a spiritual successor to Chandra's Ignition, and that was a hell of a powerful card. You need to set it up, which isn’t trivial, but this has the potential of completely wiping out your opponent’s board while always leaving you with at least your best creature. If you can get that to resolve, it can win you the game on the spot. Even when it’s not quite that good, it shouldn’t be too hard to craft at least a two-for-one trade.

Green

Altanak, the Thrice-Called

Rating: 6/10

This isn’t exactly Spinewoods Armadillo, but it does hit a lot of the same notes. You can use Altanak, the Thrice-Called as acceleration early (assuming you’ve milled yourself a little) or as an enormous beater when you draw it late. It also goes nicely with black and white’s reanimation spells, so that’s worth keeping in mind. Also, keep an eye out for Say Its Name.

Anthropede

Rating: 3/10

Most of the good rooms don’t do a great deal while on the battlefield, so destroying them doesn’t seem quite as important as you might think. Still, Anthropede has good stats and having access to the ability to destroy a problematic room is a nice bonus.

Balustrade Wurm

Rating: 9/10

Balustrade Wurm does two very good things for you. The first is that you just cast it and win the game. A 5/5 with haste and trample is absurd and comes out of nowhere. But then, your opponent finally answers this wurm, and it just comes back again for one more go! The second thing might be even stronger though. Since this is perfectly suited for a delirium deck, you can just end up milling this and getting a huge monster without expending any cards to do so. At the end of the day, this is a big, dumb green creature that you ought to be happy casting in any on-color deck.

Bashful Beastie

Rating: 3/10

Green tends to get a lot of premium big creatures, but Bashful Beastie doesn’t really feel like one of them. I might be being a bit harsh there, but mediocre death triggers on 5-drops don’t tend to play out all that well. I’m assuming this is playable, especially in blue/green, but I hope we can find better.

Break Down the Door

Rating: 4/10

Given the high number of artifacts and enchantments in the set, Break Down the Door looks quite feasible to put into your main deck as solid removal. There’s even the simple buyout of getting to manifest dread if you really need to.

Cathartic Parting

Rating: 3/10

Same deal with this green card. There are enough artifacts and enchantments in the set that Cathartic Parting definitely feels worth it in your main deck. Don’t sleep on the ability to shuffle some cards back into your deck too, especially in the turbo self-mill strategies.

Cautious Survivor

Rating: 3/10

Just gaining 2 life is hardly the most interesting survival trigger you can come across, but a 4/4 elf for 4 is definitely more likely to survive a combat or two. Cautious Survivor actually triggers a lot more often than the other survival abilities we’ve seen.

Coordinated Clobbering

Rating: 6/10

Tapping your creature(s) looks like a downside since you won’t be able to attack with them after removing a blocker, but given that we have survival triggers to enable, it might end up being an upside. Coordinated Clobbering is also just 1 mana, so it’s incredibly easy to slot into a mana curve.

Cryptid Inspector

Rating: 3/10

Cryptid Inspector appears to be far too small to be worth playing in any deck that isn’t focused on manifest dread. In that deck, it looks like a solid card for your curve.

Defiant Survivor

Rating: 5/10

Picking up a free 2/2 just for surviving through combat is a very big deal. With only 2 toughness, that’s not likely to happen, so Defiant Survivor is definitely one of the cards that you’ll want to combine with enablers that tap it down. At the very least, this forces a trade because your opponent can’t afford to let it live.

Enduring Vitality

Rating: 7/10

The ability to turn all your creatures into mana dorks sounds a little weak to me, but there’s one huge combo that I like with it. Survival! Enduring Vitality is likely the best rare you could possibly get for a survival deck, allowing each of your survival creatures to tap themselves for mana and enable their triggers. You might even get a bit of relevant mana acceleration out of the deal.

Fear of Exposure

Rating: 5/10

Curving a 1-drop into a 2-drop into this on turn 3 sounds pretty good. Fear of Exposure also has the option of simply being a 5-drop, or better yet, enabling survival triggers. It just seems good overall, and you don’t need much going on to enable it.

Flesh Burrower

Rating: 3/10

Giving another creature deathtouch is pretty nice for helping to enable survival, but Flesh Burrower mainly functions as a cheap deathtouch creature in its own right. I’m a fan of those, and I’m sure this’ll end up in plenty of my green decks.

Frantic Strength

Rating: 2/10

Frantic Strength is really helpful for enabling survival, but so are all combat tricks. It’s overall on the weak side given its mana value, but survival decks need combat tricks bad enough that I’m sure this is in fact playable.

Grasping Longneck

Rating: 1/10

I don’t know… we’ve had a lot of 4/2s for 3 in recent sets, and I don’t think a single one has been good enough. I don’t think that Grasping Longneck is enough to change that.

Greenhouse // Rickety Gazebo

Rating: 3/10

Greenhouse is basically useless, so this card’s value rests entirely on Rickety Gazebo. Milling four cards and getting any two permanents back is honestly really good for enabling delirium. You need to actively want to be milling yourself before including a Greenhouse // Rickey Gazebo, but I feel like a lot of green decks in this set will at least have a little bit of that going on.

Hauntwoods Shrieker

Rating: 8/10

The floor on Hauntwoods Shrieker seems to be that you attack with it, trade off, and get an extra 2/2 out of the deal. That’s pretty good. Sometimes you'll manifest a big creature, and you can also cheat it face-up for a bit more value. But sometimes you won’t trade off, and that’s where this starts to shine. Either by saving it with combat tricks or by playing it against the right deck, this ability keeps triggering turn after turn, burying your opponent in free 2/2s, which will comfortably win you the game. 

Hedge Shredder

Rating: 5/10

A 5/5 vehicle for 4 mana that has a meager crew 1 is definitely on the efficient side. Hedge Shredder’s triggered abilities pair really nicely together and especially with all of the self-mill cards we’re seeing in green. It’s not a bomb rare by any means, but this definitely does enough to keep me interested.

Horrid Vigor

Rating: 2/10

Funnily, we’ve seen this exact same card in some recent sets, except it was black. And terrible. However, this set has survival, so guaranteeing that your attacker survives combat while taking out a blocker is highly desirable, so Horrid Vigor might end up being quite playable.

House Cartographer

Rating: 3/10

House Cartographer has exactly the kind of survival ability that stumps me. On the one hand, getting a random land for free is clearly good, but on the other, it’s not worth spending cards to enable it. It’s also pretty terrible to draw later in the game. It’s fine and playable, I just hoped for more out of an on-theme 2-drop.

Insidious Fungus

Rating: 5/10

Here’s some more artifact and enchantment removal, and I’m here for it. Insidious Fungus can even soak up a bit of damage by blocking and then sacrificing before damage. It also has the nice buyout of being able to sacrifice it to draw a card. I really like this fungus, and I’ll always be hoping to get one when I draft green.

Kona, Rescue Beastie

Rating: 5/10

Abilities like this in the past have been very bad, but cards like Elvish Piper could only use their ability and had no other relevance in the game. Kona, Rescue Beastie gets to do its thing while also being big enough to profitably attack and block. It almost feels like the ability is tacked on for free. Thing is, it might not do anything, so if your opponent can block and trade for Kona, should they bother? They might let it through and end up facing down a free 6-drop, but more often than not it’ll just be a land. I like that Kona asks that question of your opponent, and I think it’s got a good amount of potential. 

Leyline of Mutation

Rating: 0/10

Well, that’s five for five. Five new leylines (well, four new ones and a reprint), and five completely unplayable rares. I assume I don’t have to explain why Leyline of Mutation is bad. Moving on.

Manifest Dread

Rating: 4/10

Yes, love it. Love everything about it. Manifest Dread has a perfect name, it’s great 2-drop, and it potentially puts two card types into the graveyard by itself. No notes.

Moldering Gym // Weight Room

Rating: 2/10

Paying 3 mana for a Rampant Growth isn’t that great. Even when it comes with a 6-drop attached to it for later, that 6-drop is also very weak, and I’m not completely sold on the combination of them on Moldering Gym // Weight Room being good enough.

Monstrous Emergence

Rating: 5/10

The issue with bite spells is that when they’re sorceries, they’re too easy for your opponent to disrupt by removing your creature in response. Monstrous Emergence solves that problem and doesn’t even require you to have that creature on the battlefield in the first place. There is a downside though. Since this spell is the source of the damage, this doesn’t combo with deathtouch or lifelink creatures in the same way as other bite spells would. I think on balance this’ll be better, especially with the ability to reveal a creature from your hand.

Omnivorous Flytrap

Rating: 8/10

Omnivorous Flytrap has the makings of an extremely broken card, but it’s held back by the fact that it doesn’t do anything without delirium enabled. I like that though, because this feels like a really worthwhile payoff for enabling it. Two +1/+1 counters every time this attacks is an unbelievably good reward and given its high toughness, this plant should be pretty safe to attack with. I don’t think you’re very likely to reach six card types, but it’ll be fun to find out.

Overgrown Zealot

Rating: 5/10

Mana dorks are always great, and Overgrown Zealot is no exception. A 0/4 even does some good work blocking your opponent’s aggressive draws in the early game if you want it to. I don’t put a lot of stock in the ability to tap for 2 mana here, but it’s at least nice to have access to.

Overlord of the Hauntwoods

Rating: 6/10

Green sadly has the weakest of the overlords. Creating an Everywhere token is something that looks extremely powerful in Constructed, but it has so few uses in Limited. All that Overlord of the Hauntwoods does is accelerate you and fix your colors, which is fine, but hardly something that’s going to win you the game by itself. 

Patchwork Beastie

Rating: 4/10

Jamming a Patchwork Beastie on turn 1 is perfect for any delirium deck. The self-mill naturally fuels the theme, then you get a reasonable payoff with a 3/3. This feels a little on the slow side, but a cheap 3/3 should be a strong contribution to your board at most points in the game.

Rootwise Survivor

Rating: 6/10

Haste pairs extremely well with survival. You can keep the card in your hand and deploy it on a turn when it’s not going to die in combat, immediately triggering the survival ability. It’s especially good that turning a land into a 3/3 is actually one of the strongest triggers we’ve got. Rootwise Survivor looks great for the top of the curve in any aggressive green deck, not even just ones based on survival.

Say Its Name

Rating: 5/10

We’ve recently seen Malevolent Rumble and Cache Grab be among the best commons in their respective sets, and Say Its Name looks very powerful, too. It only mills three cards, but it balances that by allowing you to pick up any creature or land from your graveyard, not just from among the cards you milled. There’s also the really cool build-around ability that allows you to cheat an Altanak, the Thrice-Called into play. I hope this can come together, but it requires three copies of this plus at least one Altanak. I’m a huge fan of cards like this that give you an objective to build towards during the draft, and you’d better believe I’ll be going for it.

Slavering Branchsnapper

Rating: 3/10

I think this lizard is the strongest of the landcyclers. A 7/6 with trample is honestly a lot stronger than it looks. It’s an issue that Slavering Branchsnapper dies to removal spells and doesn’t leave you any advantage. Good 6-drops of the past at least gain you some life when they enter. But there’s enough benefit in allowing you to guarantee your land drops in a pinch that this is very much worth running.

Spineseeker Centipede

Rating: 5/10

Every time we’ve seen Civic Wayfinder, Borderland Ranger, or any other similar card, it’s been very strong. Spineseeker Centipede replaces itself, fixes your colors, and guarantees your next land drops. This even turns into a 3/3 with vigilance in the mid-late game so it can actually get into combat.

Threats Around Every Corner

Rating: 6/10

Threats Around Every Corner is basically just a 2/2 that ramps you for 4 mana, and that’s extremely good. It can of course do much more than that since it ramps you every time you manifest dread, but the point is that the base rate of the card is already excellent. While there aren’t a lot of big ramp payoffs to work towards, between unlocking doors and turning manifests face-up, there should be plenty of things to sink your mana into and keep this relevant throughout the game.

Twitching Doll

Rating: 7/10

No. No thank you. I don’t want anything to do with this nightmare of a spider card. Yeah, mana dorks are good and turning Twitching Doll into a bunch of 2/2s in the late game sounds amazing, but just no.

Tyvar, the Pummeler

Rating: 9/10

A 3-mana 3/3 that was easy to turn indestructible for the turn would already be at least a 7/10. Throw in the fact that Tyvar, the Pummeler heavily synergizes with survival triggers and comes with an incredible Overrun later on, and you have a bomb rare on your hands. I feel like this is creeping towards the 10/10 range, but the biggest downside is that if your opponent can kill Tyvar, it won’t leave any advantage for you before dying. Still, it’s extremely powerful and will win a lot of games in short order.

Under the Skin

Rating: 5/10

Three mana for a 2/2 and a free card from your graveyard is a great deal. Granted, Under the Skin is no Eternal Witness, but we’ve consistently seen variations on it perform extremely well, and I’m sure this one will be very powerful.

Valgavoth’s Onslaught

Rating: 10/10

What a card! You always have the option of casting Valgavoth's Onslaught on 3 to create a 3/3 manifest if you really want to, but it really pays to wait as long as possible. Five mana for two 4/4s or 7 mana for three 5/5s is almost certainly going to take over the board, and you could even draw it after a mana flood and cast it for some even more ridiculous number.

Walk-In Closet // Forgotten Cellar

Rating: 1/10

Crucible of Worlds and Yawgmoth's Will are classic cards with a lot of power behind them, but neither are all that strong in Limited. The combination of them in Walk-In Closet // Forgotten Cellar isn’t either. I could maybe see wanting this in a heavy self-mill deck, but too much has to come together for it to be relevant, and it’s probably not worth going for.

Wary Watchdog

Rating: 4/10

This is probably just a solid, curve filling common, but Wary Watchdog looks like an extremely good one to me. It has the potential to trade off with a creature and overall put three relevant cards into your graveyard to fuel delirium, which few 2-drops are capable of doing at all.

Wickerfolk Thresher

Rating: 6/10

I feel like they should keyword the Coiling Oracle trigger at this point, since they keep using it so much. Anyway, Wickerfolk Thresher is busted. An above-rate 4-drop that contributes two card types for delirium, and once delirium is enabled it basically says to draw a card whenever it attacks. Absolutely fantastic.

Multicolored

Arabella, Abandoned Doll

Rating: 7/10

There’s not much that I hate more than an aggressive creature that kills you before you get a chance to block it, and an Arabella deck does exactly that. Red/white’s strategy is very good at going wide, and Arabella, Abandoned Doll can just sit there looking incredibly threatening. Once it turns sideways, you could be taking 4 or 5 damage out of seemingly nowhere, and blocking Arabella won’t help a whole lot. This is a great payoff for that deck and one that I hope I don’t play against too often.

Baseball Bat

Rating: 6/10

I was really high on Thunder Lasso in Outlaws of Thunder Junction Limited, but the aggro decks in that format never really came together. Baseball Bat hits a lot of the same notes of that card, so I’m quite high on it. What’s great though is that it can tap creatures that you control, enabling survival triggers if you want to do that, though tapping down a blocker so you can freely attack often accomplishes the same thing.

Beastie Beatdown

Rating: 6/10

Once you have delirium enabled, Beastie Beatdown really opens up. Savage Smash has been a very strong card the few times we’ve seen it and this goes way beyond what that ever did. Even if you can’t enable delirium, this is at least Rabid Bite, which isn’t great, but a nice backup.

Broodspinner

Rating: 6/10

The base rate of a 2/3 for 2 that surveils two cards on entering is really great already. The activated ability is quite expensive and turns a Broodspinner into probably about four or five 1/1 flying insects, which is extremely powerful. You can even do so at instant speed, allowing you to block with this before sacrificing it. It’s pretty strong overall, acting as both an enabler and a payoff for the delirium decks.

Disturbing Mirth

Rating: 7/10

I think this is one of the build-around cards that I’m most excited to try out for myself. Coming down and providing two cards and a sacrifice is a great deal for just 2 mana, but you’re then left with a blank enchantment that you can sacrifice for value later. Disturbing Mirth is powerful, great in multiples, and just great value however you play it. I love it.

Drag to the Roots

Rating: 7/10

We’ve seen so many variations of this exact same card before. It’s always very good, and I see no reason as to why Drag to the Roots won’t be either. Nice, clean answer to absolutely anything you could hope to come against.

Fear of Infinity

Rating: 4/10

I’m not quite as afraid of infinity as I perhaps should be. The fact that Fear of Infinity can’t block really limits its functionality. Blue/black is supposed to be a control deck, so even though this does have lifelink and can help keep you alive, the ability to block would have been a lot more desirable. You also have to recast it each time you get it back, and that might not be doable every time. 

Gremlin Tamer

Rating: 7/10

Creating creature tokens is just about the most valuable payoff trigger you can get for a Draft archetype. Gremlin Tamer is also a 2-mana 2/2 creature, so if you get this down early, you could overwhelm your opponent with an army of 1/1s extremely quickly. Your opponent basically has to answer this immediately if they want any hope of winning a long game.

Growing Dread

Rating: 4/10

Whenever you manifest dread, there’s still no guarantee you’ll be able to turn a creature face-up in a timely manner. As such, this trigger really isn’t happening very often. Growing Dread largely amounts to an instant-speed Manifest Dread with some very minor upside, which is good, but a little disappointing for a signpost uncommon.

Inquisitive Glimmer

Rating: 3/10

You’ll sometimes be able to cast this fox early enough that you can curve into a bigger enchantment on the following turn, but that’s about all that Inquisitive Glimmer does. Cost reductions aren’t all that relevant in Limited, so this is little more than a vanilla enchantment creature for your enchantment decks.

Intruding Soulrager

Rating: 5/10

How did they get into the room? In-tru-der window! No? Anyone? Yeah, okay…. Intruding Soulrager is an interesting payoff for the rooms deck. Most of the good ones give you an unlock trigger and then sit in play doing not much until you unlock their second door, so sacrificing them to draw a card doesn’t sound like a bad idea. I like that this crosses over into the red/black sacrifices archetype quite nicely, meaning that Grixis () decks utilizing this card might be a good option to draft.

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares

Rating: 7/10

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares seems like a really tough card to evaluate. This set isn’t exactly designed to enable ninjas, definitely not to the extent that Neon Dynasty was. Still, if you can find a window to drop Kaito in with ninjutsu, it does a lot on the board. You should immediately be able to surveil 2 and draw a card, and you may have returned a good triggered ability to your hand that you can reuse. You can also cast Kaito proactively and tap down defending creatures to make your combat phase more favorable for your other creatures. This planeswalker is certainly strong, though not quite as obviously as some others we’ve seen. It’ll require work to reach its full potential, but that should be worth going for.

Marina Vendrell

Rating: 4/10

It’s easy to give any 5-color card a flat zero given that Limited is mostly a 2-color format, and adding three whole colors of mana sounds virtually impossible. But I think Marina Vendrell has a lot of potential. This warlock’s enters trigger could potentially draw you several cards at once, and its activated ability allows you to effectively “flicker” a room in play and reuse some really powerful triggers. It can also be reanimated if you wanted. I’m not saying a Marina Vendrell deck is something you should definitely go for, but there’s a good amount of mana fixing available, and it might be worth trying at some point.

Midnight Mayhem

Rating: 5/10

While this is reminiscent of broken cards of the past like Heroic Reinforcements or Scurry of Gremlins, it’s missing one key feature: Midnight Mayhem does nothing to buff your team. As a result, the alpha strike that you get on the turn you play this card is significantly weaker than it could be. This does look strong, but it just looks a lot more like a big, dumb haste creature at the top of your curve rather than a sweet Overrun effect.

Nashi, Searcher in the Dark

Rating: 6/10

When you play Nashi, Searcher in the Dark on turn 2, it’ll more than likely get to attack about once or twice with minimal effort. Blue/black should have a lot of enchantments in this set, so you’re reasonably likely to draw a card or two from it, but I’m actually more interested in that +1/+1 counter. A 2/2 with menace is outclassed relatively quickly, so picking up a counter here or there should help to keep Nashi relevant for longer in the game. It’s admittedly quite weak when you draw it late, but otherwise, Nashi is a nice little card advantage engine with good synergies for the set’s theme, so I’m in for that.

Niko, Light of Hope

Rating: 10/10

Wow, I love this card. Niko’s first card back in Kaldheim was a little uninspired, but Niko, Light of Hope just does everything. Firstly, creating two Shards when this card enters lets you double trigger eerie abilities right away, which is awesome for just 4 mana. If it happens to die, you’ll always have those two Shards to do stuff with, which is great. If you’re ever allowed to untap with Niko, then it just takes over the game. Two mana to flicker a creature and turn those Shards into copies of whatever you flickered is amazing. Just the flicker is good enough, but you could do this with a big bomb rare and get a ton of damage in at the same time. I’m excited to play with Niko, and I’m sure this’ll be one of the strongest cards in the set.

Oblivious Bookworm

Rating: 7/10

I’d already be happy with a 2/3 for 2 mana that looted every turn. To be clear, that’s the floor on this card. Then, if I ever “do the thing” that blue/green is trying to do in the first place, I just draw a card instead? Fantastic, I’ll take as many Oblivious Bookworms as I can get.

Peer Past the Veil

Rating: 3/10

Peer Past the Veil requires quite a bit of setup, because not only do you want plenty of card types in your graveyard, but you ideally don’t want to discard any cards if you can help it. Red/green is supposedly an aggressive take on delirium, so while emptying your hand should be easy to do, I’m not sure if that deck cares too much about a big draw spell. I think this has the potential to be good, but it might not have a good home unless you splash it in a different deck.

Restricted Office // Lecture Hall

Rating: 7/10

Restricted Office looks like a really good board wipe, and one that’s most obviously good in the red/white deck. Restricted Office // Lecture Hall is basically a mono-white card, because Lecture Hall looks abominably bad. But yeah, it’s a good board wipe that you can make the most of in a deck with mostly small creatures, which white/red and white/blue look very well set up to do.

Rip, Spawn Hunter

Rating: 8/10

Naturally, the rare legendary creature based on survival has probably the best survival trigger. Odds are you can draw at least one creature with Rip, Spawn Hunter’s trigger, but the fact that you might hit two or three pushes this over the edge. This feels like the sort of card I’d be happy to start my draft with and build around, making sure to pick up as many survival enablers as possible.

Rite of the Moth

Rating: 5/10

Unburial Rites, this is not. The reanimator deck has plenty of reanimation spells, so I’m not worrying about picking up enough for the deck to work. Even though Rite of the Moth has flashback, the mono-color options honestly look a fair bit stronger. However, I can’t overstate the power of flashback. Whether you get two shots at this or just a free one having milled it, that’s a great value play. It’s also very color heavy, so no one else in a draft is going to want it and you might even be able to wheel it more often than not.

Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna

Rating: 7/10

The upfront ability of killing most creatures for just 2 mana is pretty great, and having that turn into an extra card every turn is even better. Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna kills creatures and draws you more cards, so what’s not to like here?

Sawblade Skinripper

Rating: 6/10

The best signpost cards for Draft archetypes are ones that operate as enablers and payoffs at the same time. Sawblade Skinripper isn’t the best of enablers, but it’s an excellent payoff. Even if you do sacrifice permanents to this, it picks up +1/+1 counters and gets quite big very quickly.

Shrewd Storyteller

Rating: 6/10

Shrewd Storyteller feels weird to me. When you can put +1/+1 counters onto any creature, the instinctual thing is to put them onto other creatures so that when this dies, your +1/+1 counters stick around. However, this almost wants to pick up its own counters, because the bigger it is, the more likely it is to trigger again on future turns. This survivor has a powerful trigger however you use it, and there are some good ways of enabling survival triggers to work very well with this.

Shroudstomper

Rating: 6/10

I love that we’ve been given essentially a miniature overlord for our reanimator deck. Seven mana with four color symbols is pretty hard to cast, but of course the reason to have Shroudstomper in your deck is to discard or mill it and play one of your many reanimate spells to get it back for cheap. This elemental has a great impact on the board, drawing you at least one card before dying and always trading for at least one creature when engaged in combat. Then you just reanimate it again and rinse and repeat. This is a very interesting strategy to have in this format, and with sweet payoffs like this around, I’m very excited to try it out for myself.

Skullsnap Nuisance

Rating: 4/10

A 1/4 flier for 2 mana is quite nice. Skullsnap Nuisance is a very unassuming creature, but it’s very defensive, which should be exactly what a blue/black control deck is after. Not much else I can say to be honest.

Smoky Lounge // Misty Salon

Rating: 4/10

Smoky Lounge // Misty Salon screams “room deck”. That’s what I’d expect from a signpost uncommon for a room deck, but it’s a little too focused on it. Misty Salon is the big payoff here, but it requires a lot of setup to be worthwhile. This doesn’t feel like the sort of thing that leads me into rooms, but something I would actively want if I was already in rooms. 

The Jolly Balloon Man

Rating: 5/10

Perhaps the most horrifying artwork in the entire set, The Jolly Balloon Man is a powerful card that doesn’t feel like it has much of a home here. It synergizes nicely with the red/white theme, but throwing 1/1s at your opponent that pop in the end step doesn’t sound all that great. If you can pair it with some good enters or death triggers, then we’re talking. I’m unsure as to how often you’ll be able to do that, so my grade is a little conservative, but it might end up being a lot better as the format progresses.

The Swarmweaver

Rating: 9/10

Who else remembers Writhing Chrysalis? Yeah, me too! The Swarmweaver might even be worse than Chrysalis, and it’s still an incredibly powerful rare. Four mana for a 2/3 and a pair of 1/1 fliers plus you can grow those fliers if you have delirium. That’s just pure value and I love it.

Undead Sprinter

Rating: 7/10

When we see sacrifice decks in Limited sets, we tend to see a lot of payoffs and enablers, but not a great deal of perfect things to sacrifice. That’s exactly what Undead Sprinter is. It’s small and aggressive, the perfect card to sacrifice to any of your various outlets. It’ll just keep coming back and be a constant threat on the board to annoy your opponent with.

Victor, Valgavoth’s Seneschal

Rating: 7/10

We’ve seen quite a few ways to at least double trigger eerie with a single card, so forcing your opponent into discarding a card or two shouldn’t be too hard. Triple triggering it might be a little harder, but still very doable. Even without doing any of that, a 3-mana 3/3 is just good on the board, making Victor, Valgavoth's Seneschal at least a solid value play in any enchantment-heavy deck.

Wildfire Wickerfolk

Rating: 7/10

Wildfire Wickerfolk is just absurd, honestly. A 3/2 haste for just 2 mana is incredibly big, and once you’ve reached the late game and enabled delirium, you’ve got a miniature Charging Monstrosaur on your hands. A truly unbelievable card for this deck.

Winter, Misanthropic Guide

Rating: 1/10

Although Winter, Misanthropic Guide is an unquestionably cool-looking character, his card leaves little to be desired. Hand sizes in Limited are typically very small anyway, so reducing your opponent’s hand size to somewhere between one and three is never going to be all bad for them. Then, having both players draw two cards on your upkeeps is just mediocre at best. I get that the point is to reduce your opponent’s hand size, putting pressure on them to use their cards or lose them, but you can’t even get their hand size to zero without Kaito in your deck. Yeah, I’m just off it, but I guess Winter looks like it could be a cool Duskmourn Commander.

Zimone, All-Questioning

Rating: 8/10

As a mathematician myself, I really love Zimone as a character. I’m curious as to why this card’s art appears to show Zimone looking at the graph of a trigonometric function of some sort when its ability deals with prime numbers… but hey, that’s probably a bit too nerdy of a complaint. Yeah, Zimone, All-Questioning is great. Casting it on turn 3 creates you a 3/3 token, then you ideally want to trade that off and create a 5/5 a couple of turns later. That’s a lot for a 3-drop to be able to do, and I love the value on offer here.

Colorless

Attack-in-the-Box

Rating: 2/10

Is Attack-in-the-Box even that good? I don’t think so. You choose to have it gain 4 power, and then it’s chump blocked and you lose your creature? It does have some synergies with enabling delirium and sacrifices, but I don’t think it looks all that appealing.

Bear Trap

Rating: 1/10

We tend to get a lot of these artifacts that sacrifice themselves to do damage, and they’re always far too overcosted. Bear Trap actually looks like a defensible rate for what it’s doing, plus it helps to enable delirium, but I think it’s only marginally playable at best.

Conductive Machete

Rating: 4/10

Like the other manifest dread equipment, Conductive Machete is basically a decent creature upfront that leaves behind a mediocre equipment when it dies. That’s fine, and this helps to enable a few decks, so it’s firmly in the playable category for me.

Dissection Tools

Rating: 9/10

Sure, why not give us a Batterskull in manifest dread form? Dissection Tools is pretty absurd, and being a colorless card is a huge boon. You can pick it first, and it’ll make your final deck no matter what. The equip cost is a bit restrictive for a lot of decks, and for me, the thing that holds it back a bit. But it’s still incredible, and probably the number one first pick in the set.

Found Footage

Rating: 2/10

Found Footage earns a low grade, but I think it’s playable in the right deck. The first ability is basically flavor text. We don’t care about it and never have. But a cheap artifact that sends itself to the graveyard while replacing itself and possibly milling other cards does sound good to me. I’d rather use the set’s various artifact creatures to enable delirium, but this could definitely make the cut in some builds.

Friendly Teddy

Rating: 1/10

While this bear is technically playable and you want artifact creatures so they can enable delirium, Friendly Teddy isn’t good enough. We’ve seen this exact card in the past, with Runed Servitor, and it was basically never playable.

Ghost Vacuum

Rating: 7/10

Normally the token graveyard hate card in a set would be an easy 0/10, but not only are we in a graveyard-centric set, but Ghost Vacuum does a lot more than just attack the graveyard. Running this out early essentially stops your opponent from getting to delirium, as you cherry pick what you want to exile each turn. Then, assuming you’ve exiled some creatures along the way, you just turn this into a board of 1/1 fliers for some reason? This actually looks really obnoxious to have to play against, so you’d better bring your artifact removal.

Glimmerlight

Rating: 3/10

Two mana for a Short Sword plus a 1/1 glimmer isn’t too bad at all. You’re definitely getting enough for what you pay with Glimmerlight while also triggering eerie abilities. I think this is pretty good, but it just needs the right home.

Haunted Screen

Rating: 1/10

Flavor: 10/10

This is the biggest flavor hit for me. A black and white TV and you have to pay extra for color? Brilliant idea. The card itself is just a mana rock though, so Haunted Screen isn’t something you’re going to care too much about.

Keys to the House

Rating: 3/10

Locking doors on rooms that you’ve already opened is a potentially very powerful effect. I’m assuming that’s why so few cards in the set do it and why this does it so weakly. Still, Keys to the House at the very least can be landcycled to put an artifact into the graveyard and there are a lot of very powerful rooms that are begging to be locked so they can be reopened.

Malevolent Chandelier

Rating: 2/10

I think Malevolent Chandelier is the biggest variant of this effect that we’ve seen before. They usually land around the 4 or 5 mana mark and are pretty useless, so it’s nice to see it as an enormous, flying 6-drop. I don’t think you’ll ever want this outside of the most all-in of self-mill decks, and I’m not actually convinced that those exist yet.

Marvin, Murderous Mimic

Rating: 1/10

I had a quick look and there are only 24 creatures in the set with activated abilities, only two thirds of which are common or uncommon. As interesting as Marvin, Murderous Mimic’s ability might seem, it doesn’t look like anything will come together for it. This is definitely a card that was meant for Constructed play.

Saw

Rating: 2/10

This is pretty thematic given the movies it’s clearly referencing. I’m not sure that Saw is actually that good. Four total mana is a lot to pay to get this on the board and equipped, and from there it barely gives any bonus stats. It does look like it might be nice to enable the sacrifices deck, but I’m not sure it’s all that useful outside of that.

Lands

The “Triskaidekaphobia” Lands

Rating: 3/10

These appear in the basic land slot in 50% of Play boosters, so they won’t actually come up quite as often as common dual lands in some other sets. Still, they’ll be an important part of the format. You have very little control over when these enter tapped or untapped, but that’s not too relevant here. Ultimately, you should always play these if they’re in your color combination, but you shouldn’t need to spend high draft picks on acquiring them.

The “Verge” Lands

Rating: 3/10

The fact that these enter the battlefield untapped makes them extremely powerful for Constructed formats, but they don’t differ all that much from the common duals for Limited purposes. These are excellent ways of helping to fix in your 2-color deck, but not so good that you need to pick them above decent playables for your deck.

Terramorphic Expanse

Rating: 4/10

Every time we see Terramorphic Expanse reprinted, it’s still pretty good. Most decks are two colors, so it’s essentially a dual land for any deck, but it can give you the ability to splash a third color more easily. In this set, it’s especially good because it enables delirium by putting a land into your graveyard, which is something that’s very hard to do without discard or self-mill. 

Valgavoth’s Lair

Rating: 5/10

Uncharted Haven is always a playable land, but probably not something you care too much about picking up. But Valgavoth's Lair is so much better than that. Being an enchantment gives you the ability to trigger eerie abilities without spending mana, and it helps to fuel delirium if you mill it. This isn’t broken or a high pick by any stretch, but it’s a really nice card to have access to.

Special Guests

Once again, we have a selection of 10 Special Guest cards, which appear very rarely in Play boosters. You might go the whole format without seeing one, but just in case, let’s take a look.

Hallowed Haunting

Rating: 9/10

When we last saw Hallowed Haunting in Crimson Vow it wasn’t very impressive, but that’s just because the format wasn’t suited for it, not because it was a bad card. In a set packed full of enchantments, this looks like an incredible bomb. I’m a little concerned that it doesn’t do anything on the turn you play it, but you should be able to run away with the game very quickly if you’re allowed to untap with it.

Soul Warden

Rating: 2/10

Soul Warden has consistently been a solid card whenever we’ve seen it or a variant of it. There’s no lifegain synergy deck in this set, so I don’t think anyone is going to actively want it, but it might see some play every now and then.

Expropriate

Rating: 0/10

This is one of Commander’s most obnoxiously powerful cards, but in a set with shockingly little mana acceleration, a 9-mana sorcery is extremely uncastable. If you find a way to cast Expropriate, then sure, go ahead. But odds are you should never play this.

Phantasmal Image

Rating: 7/10

Phantasmal Image is a really powerful creature. Dying to anything that targets it is a hefty downside, but that didn’t matter 12 years ago, and it doesn’t matter now. This is still a 2-drop Clone that copies anything on the board, allowing you to pick up great abilities and have it be the biggest creature on the board. That’s a lot of functionality for just 2 mana. 

Damnation

Rating: 8/10

The classic color shift of Wrath of God is still really damn good. Four mana is a great price point for a board wipe, and you’ll often be able to commit something to the board after playing a Damnation. It's also another great piece of Duskmourn art, and one of the most expensive cards this set; really a good pull if you open this one!

Sacrifice

Rating: 0/10

I’ve never seen Sacrifice before, and there’s clearly a reason for that. It’s just awful. You commit far too many resources just to get, say, a 6-drop down a couple of turns earlier? There are already ways to do that without playing this terrible card.

Maddening Hex

Rating: 1/10

This isn’t a card you can put into your main deck and expect to work. Maddening Hex represents quite a lot of potential damage against the right strategy, but that makes it a solid sideboard option and not much more than that.

Unholy Heat

Rating: 7/10

Killing most creatures for just 1 mana makes this one of the strongest removal spells in the set. Delirium should be reasonably easy to enable for a lot of decks in this format, and even if you can’t do that, Unholy Heat is still able to efficiently kill small creatures in the early game.

Collected Company

Rating: 0/10

Collected Company is a powerful card that has seen tons of play in a variety of Constructed formats. But there’s a reason for that. When you play four copies of it and warp your deck such that you’re very likely to hit good creatures, it turns into one of the best cards you can cast. That isn’t something we can do in Limited. Playing this in your average Limited deck often misses, and you can’t guarantee that the creatures you get were worth it even when it hits.

Visually, though, this piece of Duskmour art is great, so there's that!

Noxious Revival

Rating: 0/10

While this can be a powerful combo card in Constructed formats, Noxious Revival is never going to be good to spend a whole card just to put a card onto the top of your library. You’re going down a card for no immediate gain, and that’s just not something you can afford to be doing.

Wrap Up

Vanish from Sight | Illustration by Billy Christian

This set has a lot to like about it, whether you’re a big horror fan or you just can’t stand looking at all those demented toys. This is the sort of Limited gameplay I usually love, so I’m hoping this set is good. Enjoy your prereleases!

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Until next time, take care of yourselves!