Zendikar Limited, priceless treaLULLMAGE MENTOR AGAIN FUCK

Disclaimer: I only play Limited, I play a lot of it, and I'm good at it. Not the best here, not even close, but better than most of the people who will be calling me retarded itt.

Limited threads here have traditionally been worthless as actual resources, and I wanna change that. I want this first page to be a collection of our collective understanding of the format, and not just a snapshot of my first impressions.

To achieve this, I'm going to be continually updating my first posts as we learn new things about cards and archetypes. I want people to actually look up things in this thread, instead of it just being the usual circlejerk.


General Limited Information

Major themes in Zendikar are Landfall and Allies. They have different implications for Sealed and Draft, and I'll be discussing them seperately in the relevant sections.

Evasion: There is one unblockable common creature. There are 9 common and 6 uncommon creatures that fly or (easily) jump, and 4 more common fly-enablers (cards that allow other creatures to fly.) Trample is rare, with a single uncommon creature. There are three common creatures with Intimidate (two of which are conditional,) and a single Falter guy.

Artifacts / Enchantments: There are a lot of them. Cards that can deal with both ([card]Kor Sanctifiers[/card], [card]Relic Crush[/card], [card]Mold Shambler[/card]) can almost always expect to find a target.

The amount of flying in Zendikar is slightly above average, and other forms of evasion are rare. The format appears to be slower than Alara block, which means flying should be very important, especially in Sealed. [card]Oran-Rief Recluse[/card] is good!

Zendikar Sealed

Colors: In regular, non-multicolor blocks, you generally want to play 2 or 3 colors in Sealed, and Zendikar is no exception. You open 84 cards. On average, you'll have about 14 cards in every color, about 5 artifacts, and about 5 nonbasic lands.

Zendikar also seems to have about the usual playable/crap ratio of cards for Limited. Monocolor is out of the question, and you have to be very lucky to get enough playables for going strictly two colors. Usually, you will want to go two main colors and a splash.

There is about the usual amount of manafixing for a monocolor set: [card]Harrow[/card], [card]Khalni Heart Expedition[/card], and [card]Expedition Map[/card] at common, and [card]Frontier Guide[/card], [card]Khalni Gem[/card], and the CIPT duals at uncommon. For the sake of completeness, [card]Explorer's Scope[/card] is worth mentioning as a card that does not explicitly fix your mana, but might help find your colors faster. Kind of.

As usual, Green gets all of the good mana fixing/acceleration, and will probably be a major color in most Sealed decks.

Landfall: Landfall is a major theme in Zendikar, appearing on 15 commons and 4 uncommons. You can expect to open about 10 Landfall cards, and every deck will be playing 3-5 of them.

The existence of Landfall might push the usual baseline of 17 lands slightly upwards, to 18 or 19. If this happens, it will also mean a shift towards more cards with higher manacosts being playable, which in turn means a slower format. It's too early to tell whether this will be the case, though. In any case, effects that allow you to put more lands into play a turn (particularly including the incredible [card]Harrow[/card]) should be valued even higher than in most Limited formats.

Allies: Allies are a linear mechanic spread over creatures of all five colors. There are 9 common and 5 uncommon Allies, which means you can expect to open about 7. Generally speaking, this will not be enough to support Ally themes in Sealed decks. Unless you manage to open 4 or more playable Allies in your colors, you should probably be evaluating them at "face value."

Zendikar Draft

Colors: Zendikar Limited does not reward monocolor to any great extent, and unless you pick up, say, a [card]Primal Bellow[/card] and a [card]Timbermaw Larva[/card] early on, you should be thinking about two colors, as usual. Colors are sharply delineated, and signals should be as clear as they ever are; pay attention to them.

Landfall: I don't think Landfall is any sort of archetype. Green Landfall cards are going to be powerful because of the acceleration, but other than that, Landfall is not a strongly linear mechanic and having Landfall cards shouldn't prompt you to pick up more Landfall cards.

Allies: Allies are quite interesting in draft, with several powerful cards that are largely or completely worthless to people not drafting Allies. It remains to be seen whether a base-green Ally deck might be possible, but I'm skeptical as to the power level. I think a more likely way you're going to be drafting allies is picking up something like a [card]Turntimber Ranger[/card] early, and then prioritizing on-color Allies somewhat higher than usual.

I could be way off base here, but overall I don't think Allies is going to be a real deck. It feels more like it will sometimes be a minor theme in some draft decks, running maybe 6 or 7 good Allies.

This post has been edited by Floral Spuzzem on Sep 25 2009, 07:37 AM

WHITE

Cards are roughly in draft pick order. Commons and uncommons only.

5 - Bomb. You always play this if you're in the color, and you'll want to think about splashing it if you're not. You're happy to first pick these cards. Getting a card like this 3rd pick or later is a big signal that the color is open.
4 - Strong card. You almost always play this if it's in one of your major colors, and it's a reason for considering a color as a splash. You'll sometimes first pick these cards. Seeing one of these around 6th pick is a signal that the color is open.
3 - Workhorse card. You usually play these if they're in your colors, subject to mana curve issues.
2 - Marginal. You can play these to fill out your curve. If there are too many 2s in your deck, that's a sign that you need to play more colors, or that you've screwed up the draft.
1 - Usually unplayable. You should feel bad if you're playing these. They can be a 23rd card occasionally.
0 - Unplayable.

[card]Journey to Nowhere[/card]
First-pick creature removal, obviously. Note the combo with [card]Narrow Escape[/card] and [card]Into the Roil[/card].
Draft: 5
Sealed: 5

[card]Windborne Charge[/card]
This is a ridiculously good finisher. If you catch an opponent with his pants down in the mid-late game, this is 10 damage, easy.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 5

[card]Shepherd of the Lost[/card]
This guy is one of the biggest non-rare flyers around. 3 toughness looks like the magic number in this format; all the removal does 2, or gives -2/-2. 3 power means he kills [card]Oran-Rief Recluse[/card], which is the only Reach creature in the set. His abilities mean he'll completely dominate the air a lot of the time.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4-5

[card]Arrow Volley Trap[/card]
This is 5 damage, not 4 as was previously spoiled. That's a big difference: this kills every non-rare attacker in the set except for [card]Vastwood Gorger[/card]. You should know that you're not going to be paying this for the trap cost, practically ever (when you do, it's a complete blowout.) Still, it'll 2-for-1 a reasonable amount of the time, which more than makes up for the rest of the times when it's a weaker Divine Verdict.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4

[card]Pitfall Trap[/card]
Pretty much the exact opposite of the Arrow Volley Trap. You can play this for its trap cost a lot of the time, and it's tough to play around. It'll never 2-for-1 though, and sometimes you'll have this stuck in your hand with a flyer kicking your ass.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4

[card]Kor Sanctifiers[/card]
The body is acceptable, but only because there are a ton of 2/2s running around. That's not why you play him, though: Zendikar has artifacts and enchantments all over the goddamn place, and this guy will be consistently awesome. Holding him back until he sees a target is the right call for all but the most balls-to-the-wall aggro decks.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4

[card]Kor Skyfisher[/card]
The ability is going to be a drawback about 50% of the time, you'll bounce a land and not care about 30% of the time, and you'll return a Sanctifiers or have a great Landfall dude out and pump the fist about 20% of the time. So yeah, mostly a drawback, but that's how he's priced so it all works out. Bottom line is he's an easy to cast 2/3 flyer.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4

[card]Kor Aeronaut[/card]
Kinsbale Balloonist was good. It also only had one W in its cost. This is very color-intensive whichever way you want to play it, but it's great if you can reasonably expect to play it early. I'd want to play this with 7 white sources or more.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Brave the Elements[/card]
This does a lot of neat things. Sometimes it'll counter removal, sometimes it's a combat trick, sometimes it's a finisher, and sometimes it'll just nuke a [card]Paralyzing Grasp[/card]. The lack of a Pacifism in the set hurts its 2-for-1 potential a lot, but you're still going to be happy to see this in your hand 95% of the time.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4

[card]Kazandu Blademaster[/card]
This is a good weenie even if you ignore the whole Ally thing. If you pick up multiples, it can get sick pretty fast. Unfortunately, WW rarely works n Limited, and I don't think it has the tools to work here. This card is still fine, provided you have 8+ white sources.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 3 (can be 4 in the right deck, but not usually)

[card]Kor Hookmaster[/card]
It's pretty good at what it does. If you're going aggro, you'll want this guy.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 3

[card]Bold Defense[/card]
Unkicked, this is [card]Warrior's Honor[/card], which is not tragic I guess. Kicked, it's obviously great, but people are going to see this coming, which limits its power. I think it's likely to be much better in Sealed than in Draft.
Draft: 3
Sealed: 4

[card]Makindi Shieldmate[/card]
He's a [card]Horned Turtle[/card] that can't attack all by himself, which is not awful but doesn't exactly excite me. Just one more ally makes him actually good, though.
Draft: 3
Sealed: 3

[card]Kor Cartographer[/card]
He doesn't manafix, and the value of acceleration tends to drop off pretty sharply by the time you get to 4 mana. He's a little like a [card]Drumhunter[/card] without the card draw, which is to say pretty bad. If your deck is top-heavy, though, he can be significantly better.
Draft: 2-3
Sealed: 3

[card]Caravan Hurda[/card]
Don't laugh. This isn't Alara, and there just aren't infi 5/x dudes running around. This guy is actually a pretty respectable wall.
Draft: 2-3
Sealed: 3

[card]Steppe Lynx[/card]
He goes in the super-aggro white weenie deck that almost never actualy works.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 1

[card]Cliff Treader[/card]
He goes in your sideboard, you bring him out against Mountains, man I'm pro at this. If you have to, you can maindeck him if you're really aggro or you're short on 2-drops.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 2

[card]Narrow Escape[/card]
The 4 life does matter, but this is still going to be horrible tempo most of the time. If you have a [card]Journey to Nowhere[/card], though, then suddenly it's a lot better.
Draft: 1-2 (2-3 with a Journey to Nowhere)
Sealed: 2 (3 with a Journey to Nowhere)

[card]Pillarfield Ox[/card]
You never want to play this guy, but sometimes you have to.
Draft: 1-2
Sealed: 2

[card]Kor Duelist[/card]
I hate these sorts of guys. Sure sometimes you'll put an [card]Adventuring Gear[/card] or [card]Trusty Machete[/card] on him and he'll be awesome, but most of the time he'll just sit around all alone looking stupid.
Draft: 1-2
Sealed: 1

[card]Ondu Cleric[/card]
Aggro decks don't want him. Control decks don't want him. The 10 white allies deck wants him, but I don't think that deck actually works any significant percentage of the time.
Draft: 1 (can go up to 3 if you have infi allies)
Sealed: 1

[card]Kor Outfitter[/card]
This guy is just a mana-intensive bear most of the time.
Draft: 1-2
Sealed: 1

[card]Nimbus Wings[/card]
Doesn't do enough, card disadvantage.
Draft: 1
Sealed: 1-2

[card]Noble Vestige[/card]
Doesn't attack, doesn't block, the ability is shit.
Draft: 1
Sealed: 1

[card]Sunspring Expedition[/card]
This would play a role if it gave you the 8 life immediately. It doesn't, so it won't.
Draft: 0
Sealed: 0-1

[card]Landbind Ritual[/card]
This is a lot of life if you're in monowhite. I have no idea why you'd want a lot of life if you're in monowhite.
Draft: 0 (1 in monowhite)
Sealed: 0

[card]Shieldmate's Blessing[/card]
Healing Salve is not playable, and this is strictly worse.
Draft: 0
Sealed: 0

[card]Quest for the Holy Relic[/card]
This needs everything to go right or it's a blank. Then, if everything goes right, it's still unimpressive.
Draft: 0
Sealed: 0




I'm not a fan of White in most Limited formats, and this is no exception. There are a lot of fairly efficient bears, and then, nothing. Neither of the traps hit blockers, which is just unbelievably painful for the aggro archetype White seems to be going for.

I think White will be a splash/minor color in Zendikar Limited, and not a bad one: there's good removal and some fine flyers. I'm just not seeing why I would want to be heavily into the color, unless I have multiple rare bombs.

This post has been edited by Floral Spuzzem on Sep 25 2009, 09:31 AM

BLUE

Cards are roughly in draft pick order. Commons and uncommons only.

5 - Bomb. You always play this if you're in the color, and you'll want to think about splashing it if you're not. You're happy to first pick these cards. Getting a card like this 3rd pick or later is a big signal that the color is open.
4 - Strong card. You almost always play this if it's in one of your major colors, and it's a reason for considering a color as a splash. You'll sometimes first pick these cards. Seeing one of these around 6th pick is a signal that the color is open.
3 - Workhorse card. You usually play these if they're in your colors, subject to mana curve issues.
2 - Marginal. You can play these to fill out your curve. If there are too many 2s in your deck, that's a sign that you need to play more colors, or that you've screwed up the draft.
1 - Usually unplayable. You should feel bad if you're playing these. They can be a 23rd card occasionally.
0 - Unplayable.


[card]Living Tsunami[/card]
4/4 flyers are invariably insane in Limited, and this is no exception. You usually won't want to cast it turn 4, but it's going to be a huge threat no matter when you finally decide you have enough lands. The fact that it combos nicely with Landfall and all the CIPT lands as well is just gravy.
Draft: 5
Sealed: 5

[card]Windrider Eel[/card]
Remember how good [card]Halcyon Glaze[/card] was in Ravnica? This is probably better. It's going to be 4/4 often, and will sometimes be completely broken if you have any multiple-land-per-turn shananigans in your deck.
Draft: 4-5
Sealed: 4-5

[card]Sky Ruin Drake[/card]
Blue decks generally want two things: evasive dorks, and huge blockers to stall the ground why the evasive dorks do their thing. This guy is good at doing both those things (sadly not at the same time, but still.) 5 is a lot of toughness in this format. He's a lot better than he looks at first glance.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4-5

[card]Umara Raptor[/card]
Wind Drakes are always at least playable, and even just one more Ally makes this really, really good.
Draft: 3-4 (can be 5, if you're actively drafting Allies)
Sealed: 4

[card]Welkin Tern[/card]
It's a cheap, evasive dork, in a format without pingers. What's not to like?
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4

[card]Aether Figment[/card]
This fails the usual kicker card design of being useful in both modes, in that you basically never want to play it unkicked. Kicked, however, it's an amazing card, especially in Sealed; the crucial 3 toughness makes it hard to remove in the format, and the unblockability wins games.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 4

[card]Reckless Scholar[/card]
3 mana is a lot more than 2, especially when you're looking at an opening 7 with 1 or 2 lands and this. The 2 power is relevant, though, even though you're obviously never playing this for the body. Bottom line: it's worse than [card]Merfolk Looter[/card], but a lot of cards are. This is still going to be good.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 4

[card]Gomazoa[/card]
It's removal. Not amazing removal, but blue removal never is, and this is pretty much as good as it gets. It blocks bears, it has three toughness, and it will eventually probably trade with something bigger than itself. That's good enough.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 4

[card]Whiplash Trap[/card]
You'll rarely be paying this for the trap cost, but paying 3UU for the effect is perfectly fine. This guy can completely wreck an opposing deck's tempo, or get some flying blockers out of your way.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Merfolk Seastalkers[/card]
This is one of those cards that is much better in a Sealed environment, where you can eventually expect to use its ability 2 or even 3 times a turn. It's probably still very playable in Draft, though; it's nice to have cards you can pump excess mana into, and tapping down your opponent's creatures is always amazing.
Draft: 3-5
Sealed: 4-5

[card]Paralyzing Grasp[/card]
[card]Glimmerdust Nap[/card] was pretty bad in Lorwyn, but Zendikar is a very different, and much slower, format. There is also very little Vigilance in the set, and this will almost always be good to tap down some giant green dude, or a blue flyer who's been ruining your day.
Draft: 3
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Into the Roil[/card]
Unlike Aether Figment, this is a well-designed kicker card, and will be played plenty both kicked and unkicked. In Sealed, you'll generally want to wait until you have the mana for it to cantrip; in Draft, it depends on the game's tempo.
Draft: 3
Sealed: 3

[card]Summoner's Bane[/card]
It's not Mystic Snake, it's not amazing, but it's still playable. I don't think you play this like a traditional counter; you just basically hit the first creature you see with it, when you have 4 mana you're not using for anything. The 2/2 is very helpful for not making this, tragic, tempo-wise.
Draft: 2-3
Sealed: 3

[card]Ior Ruin Expedition[/card]
This is the only non-rare card draw in the format, and it is awful. "Draw two cards" spells should always be great topdecks; that's part of what makes them good. This, like all of the other expeditions, is a horrible topdeck. In addition, unlike [card]Courier Capsule[/card], it can't draw you out of mana screw. In sealed, a two-land hand with the Capsule was generally a keep; a two-land hand with this will often be a mulligan.
That said, it's still probably playable, in some decks. Just don't mistake this for a good card draw spell, because it really isn't.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 2-3

[card]Cancel[/card]
In general, this card is too slow for Limited, even in slow formats. It's not unplayable, but you should usually not be happy about playing them.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 2

[card]Kraken Hatchling[/card]
I'm not a big fan of Steel Wall. Al least this is in the right color, and it will cramp an aggro deck's style for a while. I still don't think it's playable in anything resembling a normal deck. Sideboarding it in against an infi bears deck probably works, though.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 1

[card]Shoal Serpent[/card]
5/5 is gigantic in this format. The fact that it can only attack sometimes obviously hurts, as does the lack of evasion.
Draft: 1-2
Sealed: 2-3

[card]Trapmaker's Snare[/card]
This can be okay, if you've opened or drafted multiple good traps. You need at least 3 to make this at all good, though. A big issue with it is that unless you're willing and able to leave 1U extra mana open, whatever trap you're fetching with this loses the element of surprise. That can be okay, though.
Draft: 0-3 (depending on what you have to tutor for)
Sealed: 0-3 (depending on what you have to tutor for)

[card]Merfolk Wayfinder[/card]
This card is unplayable in Sealed, where you're unlikely to ever be playing more than 7 or 8 Islands, making the ability fizzle more often than not, leaving you with a body that would be unplayable at 2 mana. In draft, it's probably playable but unexciting in a mono-blue deck (only.)
Draft: 1-2
Sealed: 0-1

[card]Spreading Seas[/card]
This isn't quite as terrible as these cards usually are. It still won't do anything a lot of the time, though, and it's slow and clunky. Generally avoid, unless you're playing multiple [card]River Boa[/card]s and/or [card]Merfolk Seastalkers[/card].
Draft: 1
Sealed: 2

[card]Lethargy Trap[/card]
This card invites you to imagine what it's like at its best; crippling an opponent's decisive alpha strike, destroying his board position, and winning you the game. Unfortunately, that's not actually what it will do most of the time; most of the time, it's just going to be the worse half of an [card]Agony Warp[/card], for twice the cost.
All the same, when this works, it can sometimes really work. I think you'll have to be aware of this card, but it's not going to be worth playing most of the time.
Draft: 1
Sealed: 1-2

[card]Seascape Aerialist[/card]
This is obviously completely worthless in anything but a dedicated Ally deck, and it's kind of unexciting in one of those.
Draft: 0-2 (2 if you're going hardcore Allies)
Sealed: 0

[card]Caller of Gales[/card]
A poor, fragile body with an overpriced Jump effect stuck onto it. Might be playable if you're really desperate for a way to get flying, but you're in blue, so you're not.
Draft: 1
Sealed: 1-2

[card]Spell Pierce[/card]
[card]Negate[/card] was great in M10. Zendikar, on the other hand, doesn't have [card]Overrun[/card] and [card]Fireball[/card], two giant uncommon bombs that were stopped cold by Negate. And unfortunately, Negate's alternate purpose of stopping random Doom Blades and Lighning Bolts is also compromised, because cheap removal is cheap, and this won't be countering much of anything in the late game. So generally, no. I could see it being boarded in, sometimes.
Draft: 1
Sealed: 1

[card]Hedron Crab[/card]
It's a pity that this card is an uncommon, because as a common, it might have had a chance of spawning an archetype, a la [card]Vedalken Entrancer[/card]. As is, this is mostly unplayable. In Limited, you need to be prepared to mill a minimum of 20 cards for it to be a legitimate win condition, and this can't generally do that.
If you somehow end up with 2 or more of these, they get a lot better.
Draft: 1
Sealed: 1

[card]Tempest Owl[/card]
This is worthless unkicked, and far too expensive kicked. 1/2 flyers are always awful in Limited.
Draft: 0-1
Sealed: 1

[card]Trapfinder's Trick[/card]
This will whiff roughly always.
Draft: 0
Sealed: 0

[card]Quest for Ancient Secrets[/card]
This is a good sideboard card against mill, and a poor sideboard card against reanimation. Unfortunately, neither of those two archetypes actually exist in Zendikar. So no, never playable.
Draft: 0
Sealed: 0



If you're playing blue in Zendikar, you're playing it for the amazing evasion dudes, because everything else kind of sucks. Counters are bad, and card draw is next to non-existent. The bounce effects are good, but with the post-M10 rules, they'd need to be a lot better to be anything more than "playable, if you're in the color anyway."

This post has been edited by Floral Spuzzem on Sep 27 2009, 05:43 PM

BLACK

Cards are roughly in draft pick order. Commons and uncommons only.

5 - Bomb. You always play this if you're in the color, and you'll want to think about splashing it if you're not. You're happy to first pick these cards. Getting a card like this 3rd pick or later is a big signal that the color is open.
4 - Strong card. You almost always play this if it's in one of your major colors, and it's a reason for considering a color as a splash. You'll sometimes first pick these cards. Seeing one of these around 6th pick is a signal that the color is open.
3 - Workhorse card. You usually play these if they're in your colors, subject to mana curve issues.
2 - Marginal. You can play these to fill out your curve. If there are too many 2s in your deck, that's a sign that you need to play more colors, or that you've screwed up the draft.
1 - Usually unplayable. You should feel bad if you're playing these. They can be a 23rd card occasionally.
0 - Unplayable.



[card]Marsh Casualties[/card]
Most of the time, this will completely wreck your opponent's board and then present him with the worst blocking options ever.
Draft: 5
Sealed: 5

[card]Hideous End[/card]
You need 5 black sources in your deck to play this. If you can, obviously you do.
Draft: 5
Sealed: 5

[card]Vampire Nighthawk[/card]
I didn't know Black was supposed to get flyers this good. Seriously, this guy is ridiculously awesome, and will be a huge headache for your opponent both on offense and on defense.
Draft: 4-5
Sealed: 4-5

[card]Disfigure[/card]
This is extremely good, and will routinely take down creatures with much more than 2 toughness, as a combat trick. It's very comparable to Nameless Inversion, although possibly not quite as good. Still easily firstpickable.
Draft: 4-5
Sealed: 4-5

[card]Heartstabber Mosquito[/card]
7 mana is still okay in Limited, and this guy is really good. You'll generally want to wait until you can play the kicker.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4-5

[card]Mind Sludge[/card]
Half your mana sources need to be black to play this; it's obviously not splashable (mana cost notwithstanding.) The format is probably slow enough that you can expect this to gut your opponent's hand even in draft.
Draft: 3-5 (depending on the number of black mana sources)
Sealed: 3-5 (depending on the number of black mana sources)

[card]Gatekeeper of Malakir[/card]
This guy is only good if you're playing 8 or more black sources (and only great if you're playing 10 or more.) If you have less than 10 black sources, deduct 1 from the below scores for every black source you have less than 10.
Draft: 5 (or less, see above)
Sealed: 4 (or less, see above)

[card]Surrakar Maurader[/card]
This is an excellent dude. If your opponent is not playing black, he'll be serving a steady diet of pain until he's removed.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4

[card]Vampire Lacerator[/card]
2-drops for 1 are always awesome, and the drawback doesn't matter too much (unlike [card]Guul Draz Vampire[/card].)
Draft: 4
Sealed: 2-3

[card]Soul Stair Expedition[/card]
This is the only Expedition that's actually good, as opposed to "playable I guess." It gets you card advantage, and the Landfall thing hurts less than for most of the others, since you'll want to wait for good targets anyway.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 4

[card]Crypt Ripper[/card]
This guy is good even if you're only 50% black. Basically, if you can be confident of playing him on turn 4, he's going to be good. The haste is rarely going to matter, but his base stats are just fine.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 3

[card]Nimana Sell-Sword[/card]
He's a Hill Giant at worst, which is probably fine. He also gets good fast, with Ally friends.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Vampire Hexmage[/card]
This guy has the "Nekrataal effect"; his ability is so memorable and flashy that people will totally forget that he has first strike. In any case, there are plenty of cards in Zendikar that get charge or +1/+1 counters. The first strike means this guy can block a guy with +1/+1 counters on him, deal first strike damage, then sac himself to remove the counters. This isn't likely to come up too often, but it's a nice trick to remember.
Ultimately, though, this guy is a 2/1 first striker for 2, which is good in the abstract, but probably much better in Draft than Sealed.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 2-3

[card]Guul Draz Vampire[/card]
This guy is interesting: a 1-drop that you're not really excited about playing early. There is only one artifact creature in Zendikar, so Intimidate is pretty good... getting your opponent down to 10 is the hard part.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 2-3

[card]Quest for the Gravelord[/card]
Creatures die a lot in Limited. This will take a while to kick in, but the body it gives you is pretty nice. Unfortunately, it sucks when you're getting beaten down because you don't have enough creatures. It's still probably good.
Draft: 3
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Giant Scorpion[/card]
This is a nice defensive man. Not flashy, but does his job well. He'll hold back bears, and will eventually trade with something larger than himself. Pity he's no spider.
Draft: 3
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Feast of Blood[/card]
There are a couple of cards in Zendikar that encourage a Vampire theme, but this is the only non-rare one. If you can get it working, the effect is obviously stellar. It's unplayable with 3 or fewer Vampires in your deck, borderline with 4 or 5, and first-pick removal if you have more than 5.
The bad news is that there are only 3 common and 3 uncommon Vampires in the entire set. This means that on average, you'll have about 10 Vampires to go around in a draft. Picking up 5 of them is possible, but by no means guaranteed. Be careful about picking this up early; there's an excellent chance you'll be stuck with it, and not have enough Vampires to play it.
Draft: ? (Depends heavily on which pack you're in, and what you've drafted so far. If you can reliably get it to work, it's a 5, but that's a big if.)
Sealed: ? (See above, depends on your number of Vampires. Unplayable in most Sealed decks.)

[card]Hagra Crocodile[/card]
A 5/3 for 4 is good, but not hugely impressive. The fact that this guy will not always be a 5/3, and that he can't block, are two pretty significant strikes against him. Playable if you don't have better dudes in your 4-slot.
Draft: 2-3
Sealed: 2

[card]Hagra Diabolist[/card]
Unplayable without other Allies, but can be fairly potent with enough buddies. There would have to be at least 4 or 5 other Allies in my deck before I'd consider playing him.
Draft: 0-3
Sealed: 0-2

[card]Vampire's Bite[/card]
The kickered version is a nice life swing, but ultimately I'm not sure this does enough. Combat tricks that don't save your dude tend to suck in Limited.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 1-2

[card]Bog Tatters[/card]
[card]Bog Wraith[/card] was maindeckable because worst-case, it was a Hill Giant. This, on the other hand, is unreal bad if your opponent doesn't have any Swamps. If he does, it's still not quite as good as Bog Wraith was, but it's fine then. Strictly sideboard material.
Draft: 1-2
Sealed: 2

[card]Grim Discovery[/card]
Raise dead effects usually aren't horrible in Limited, but aren't very exciting either. This is more expensive, but can get you back a land as well. This will never matter, unless you're playing U/B with [card]Reckless Scholar[/card], if which case it still isn't a fantastic effect.
Draft: 1-2
Sealed: 2

[card]Needlebite Trap[/card]
There isn't a lot of playable lifegain; you can't expect to reliably play this for its trap cost. Which is a pity, because it would be nice if it could help turn on your Guul Draz Vampires and Lacerators. Unfortunately, it's very overcosted without the trap aspect. Sideboard material, at best.
Draft: 1
Sealed: 1-2

[card]Desecrated Earth[/card]
Land destruction tends to not be that great in Limited, and you'll generally have much better cards you want to run in your 5-slot.
Draft: 1
Sealed: 1

[card]Blood Seeker[/card]
The body's just not good enough, and the effect isn't strong enough. A 2-drop 1/1 needs to make up for the loss of board presence is some way, and this doesn't.
Draft: 1
Sealed: 0-1

[card]Mire Blight[/card]
These effects tend to be terrible in Limited. The fact that there's no pinger in Zendikar doesn't help. Avoid.
Draft: 0-1
Sealed: 0-1

[card]Mindless Null[/card]
Unplayable, and would be even without the drawback.
Draft: 0
Sealed: 0

[card]Ravenous Trap[/card]
Not a Limited card.
Draft: 0
Sealed: 0


Black is very interesting, with many cards that want you to go heavily into the color. The splash potential is surprisingly low, with all of the best cards wanting BB or more. This is good news for black drafters, since you can expect nonblack drafters to pass you all the [card]Hideous End[/card]s they can't really justify committing to.

With all those cheap common and uncommon vampires, there's probably a decent black aggro deck in there somewhere. I have a sneaking suspicion that Black will be overdrafted, though, at least to start with, so watch those signals like a hawk.

This post has been edited by Floral Spuzzem on Sep 27 2009, 05:40 PM

RED

Cards are roughly in draft pick order. Commons and uncommons only.

5 - Bomb. You always play this if you're in the color, and you'll want to think about splashing it if you're not. You're happy to first pick these cards. Getting a card like this 3rd pick or later is a big signal that the color is open.
4 - Strong card. You almost always play this if it's in one of your major colors, and it's a reason for considering a color as a splash. You'll sometimes first pick these cards. Seeing one of these around 6th pick is a signal that the color is open.
3 - Workhorse card. You usually play these if they're in your colors, subject to mana curve issues.
2 - Marginal. You can play these to fill out your curve. If there are too many 2s in your deck, that's a sign that you need to play more colors, or that you've screwed up the draft.
1 - Usually unplayable. You should feel bad if you're playing these. They can be a 23rd card occasionally.
0 - Unplayable.


[card]Burst Lightning[/card]
The kickered and unkickered versions of this could be separate cards, and they'd still both be first-rate removal.
Draft: 4-5
Sealed: 4-5

[card]Inferno Trap[/card]
This card is unique in that playing it for its trap cost kind of makes you feel bad; normally you want to remove creatures before they smash your face in. It's nice to have the option, though. In any case, this is great removal without even taking the trap aspect into account.
Incidentally, Burst Lightning is better than this because of the ability to hit players, but the difference in power is marginal.
Draft: 4-5
Sealed: 4-5

[card]Geyser Glider[/card]
This is a fine body for the cost, even without the flying. With the evasion, it is first rate. The lack of flying on defense hurts, but it's still well above the Limited curve for a red creature.
Draft: 4-5
Sealed: 4-5

[card]Bladetusk Boar[/card]
Evasive guys are always good in Limited, and especially so in red, which doesn't get a lot of them. This is a very solid man. The 2 toughness is kind of a pity, since he has a pretty big "kill me" target painted on him, but some creatures were born to draw removal I guess.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4

[card]Magma Rift[/card]
This is a significant step down from Inferno Trap and Burst Lightning because of the sorcery speed and the land sacrifice. The extra damage is nice, but there actually aren't a lot of creatures with 5 toughness. Also, this would really really like to be able to hit players.
Still, removal is removal, and you'll never be sad to have this in your deck.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4

[card]Plated Geopede[/card]
This guy is incredible in the right deck; he may as well be unblockable in the early game, and as long as you keep the lands coming, he'll be hurting your opponent, a lot. I think he's still playable in non-aggro, although somewhat less exciting.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 3

[card]Murasa Pyromancer[/card]
A 6 mana dude who dies to everything is usually a terrible deal. He'll usually hit the board after you already have one or two Allies out though, which is going to be good enough. If you manage to play another Ally after him, it's going to be awesome. The format is slow, repeatable creature kill is king, even when it's as fragile and wonky as this.
Draft: 3-4 (Assuming an average number of allies; he's obviously unplayable if you only have 1 or 2 other allies, and a bomb if you have 6 or 7 others.)
Sealed: 4 (Again, assuming an average number of playable allies.)

[card]Torch Slinger[/card]
You always want to wait for the kicker if you have any choice at all. He's a lot better than he looks.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Punishing Fire[/card]
Always serviceable, and sometimes you'll live the dream and play it in response to a lifegain land, and it'll be backbreaking. That's not something you should count on, though. Just play it like a regular Shock, and don't worry about keeping mana open unless you saw lifegain in your opponent's deck from a previous game.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Shatterskull Giant[/card]
This is a great body, especially for red. Not much to say about it, it has the magic 3 toughness, you really can't ask for more.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Ruinous Minotaur[/card]
The good news is that your opponent will never really want to let the drawback come into play. The bad news is that he'll rarely have to: 2 toughness and no evasion on a 3-drop makes it really hard to ever get in. The stats are still good, although I question how often he'll be trading up.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 3

[card]Spire Barrage[/card]
A slightly cheaper Corrupt without the lifegain. This is playable in any deck with 8 or more Mountains, although it's only first-pick quality in monored.
Draft: 3 (4-5 in monored)
Sealed: 3

[card]Goblin Ruinblaster[/card]
I'm not a fan of land destruction in Limited, but this is the kind of tempo swing I could get behind. If you don't have a target for him and are forced to play him unkicked, he's rather suboptimal but still playable. With kicker, however, he really shines in an aggressive deck, presenting a threat and crippling your opponent's ability to respond in one neat little package.
Whether or not he'll have a target is anyone's guess, of course, although with five common and five uncommon nonbasics, the odds aren't terrible.
Draft: 3
Sealed: 2

[card]Highland Berserker[/card]
He's a fairly efficiently costed ally, and I think that might be enough. The ability seems like a lot of words for something that will come into play very rarely. Usual caveats for 2/1 two-drops apply, aggro decks only, etc.
Draft: 3 (2 if you see him in pack 3 and you don't have allies)
Sealed: 2

[card]Tuktuk Grunts[/card]
He's the usual mediocre Ally deal: not a creature you want to play on his own (or with 1-2 other Allies,) but fine if you have more than that, and moderately exciting if you've been actively drafting Allies.
Draft: 3 (2 if you see him in pack 3 and you don't have allies, 4 if you're heavily into Allies)
Sealed: 3 (with an average number of Allies)

[card]Molten Ravager[/card]
This is a weird dude; it looks like he can't decide whether he wants to be a [card]Wall of Fire[/card] or a firebreathing attacker. The 4 toughness is pretty nice for the latter role though, although he needs a prohibitive amount of mana to make him effective. The good news is that when you can't spare the red mana to make him beat down, he does a pretty good job of defending.
Overall, he's not terrible dude. Weirdly out of flavour for red, but that's not a bad thing; I was getting tired of all the horrible low-toughness firebreathers.
The following numbers assume a deck where half your mana sources are red; if you're monored or close to it, add a point to both scores.
Draft: 2-3
Sealed: 3

[card]Goblin Shortcutter[/card]
The ability is situational, and will be worthless a lot of the time. He's a 2/1 for 2 with a perk, though, which is playable in the right deck (and even the wrong deck, if you're desperately in need of 2-drops.)
Draft: 2-3
Sealed: 2

[card]Goblin War Paint[/card]
This sort of spell tends to see play in aggro draft decks. The haste is a very nice bonus.
Draft: 2-3
Sealed: 2

[card]Slaughter Cry[/card]
This is a bit expensive for a combat trick, and the fact that it doesn't save a creature from removal hurts a lot. Sometimes it'll just be completely ludicrous, and will kill a huge dude while still letting your guy live, but overall it's worse than any of the green combat tricks.
Draft: 2-3
Sealed: 2-3

[card]Goblin Bushwhacker[/card]
This generally seems like a terrible creature stapled to a terrible pump spell. It seems like it would rarely actually grant haste to anything besides itself, and +1/+0 to your creatures at sorcery speed is not something you want to spend mana on, even if you do get a bonus 1/1 dork out of the deal. That said, red seems to have decent tools for an early offense rounded out by mid-game evasion and burn; there might be a super-aggressive draft deck that wants this guy.
Draft: 2-3
Sealed: 1-2

[card]Unstable Footing[/card]
The anti-prevention effect is really shitty in Zendikar (more so than it usually would be,) so if you're playing this, it's strictly for the overpriced Lava Axe. On the plus side, a Limited deck that actually plays Lava Axe won't really care if it costs 4 or 5, so this is fine for decks that want it.
Draft: 2-3
Sealed: 1-2

[card]Zektar Shrine Expedition[/card]
Ball Lightnings that your opponent can see coming are a whole lot worse than ones that aren't telegraphed 2-3 turns in advance. You can activate this in your opponent's turn, though, giving this a sort of shitty [card]Divine Verdict[/card] option if necessary.
The real problem with this card is that it's utter shit when you're in topdeck mode, you've got your opponent on 3 life, and you really need a finisher. Yeah, it's fine when everything goes right and you plop it down on turn 2 and then bam 7 damage on turn 5, but it just won't work out like that a lot of the time. I'm not a huge fan.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 1-2

[card]Quest for Pure Flame[/card]
Ultimately, this won't do as much as you'd like it to, but it's still going to be extra damage eventually, and an aggro deck will care about that sort of thing. Your opponent will see it coming from a mile away, obviously, but it's hard to play around it effectively.
The bad news is that 4 counters seems like a lot, if you don't manage to play this early. If your opponent is at 10 life or less when you play this, it might as well be a blank. Similarly, if you're having trouble getting through, this guy isn't going to help.
Overall, it feels a little too "win-more" to be consistently useful, and doesn't quite do enough when it works to make up for the time when it doesn't.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 2

[card]Mark of Mutiny[/card]
Compared to [card]Act of Treason[/card], the +1/+1 counter is actually going to be a drawback most of the time. It would be nice if there was decent sacrifice outlet in the set like [card]Vapire Aristocrat[/card] in M10, but sadly [card]Carnage Altar[/card] is all we have. Still, decks that would normally want [card]Lava Axe[/card] might still want this.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 1-2

[card]Hellfire Mongrel[/card]
This guy will be pretty annoying to play against, but annoying does not equal good. He's either going to trade with a bear real quick, or he'll sit around pretending he's a real creature and hopi
ng to lay some smack down with his ability. Neither option is very attractive for the cost.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 2

[card]Seismic Shudder[/card]
There are too many decks this is shitty against. Pick it up late, sideboard it, and side it in against infi goblins or if you see a [card]Scute Mob[/card] or something.
Draft: 1-2
Sealed: 1

[card]Demolish[/card]
Nonbasics in Zendikar mostly work their mojo up front: there's little point in removing a [card]Soaring Seacliff[/card] as opposed to an Island, for example. 4-mana land destruction is quite bad generally, and bad in Limited specifically. This is strictly sideboard material, to be brought in if you see some artifacts you really want to remove (although I'm not convinced there actually are any like that in the set,) or a Valakut, I guess.
Draft: 1
Sealed: 1

[card]Runeflare Trap[/card]
There are no cards in the entire set that will realistically allow you to play this before turn 5. Just forget it, this card is not for Limited.
Draft: 0
Sealed: 0


Overall, Red really really wants to be aggro as fuck. Its creatures are better than they tend to be, and its burn is pretty damn good too. Its best spells are all highly splashable, though, which means everyone will be taking all your removal. Committing to red early on is not going to be a generally good idea.

This post has been edited by Floral Spuzzem on Sep 29 2009, 04:17 AM

GREEN

Cards are roughly in draft pick order. Commons and uncommons only.

5 - Bomb. You always play this if you're in the color, and you'll want to think about splashing it if you're not. You're happy to first pick these cards. Getting a card like this 3rd pick or later is a big signal that the color is open.
4 - Strong card. You almost always play this if it's in one of your major colors, and it's a reason for considering a color as a splash. You'll sometimes first pick these cards. Seeing one of these around 6th pick is a signal that the color is open.
3 - Workhorse card. You usually play these if they're in your colors, subject to mana curve issues.
2 - Marginal. You can play these to fill out your curve. If there are too many 2s in your deck, that's a sign that you need to play more colors, or that you've screwed up the draft.
1 - Usually unplayable. You should feel bad if you're playing these. They can be a 23rd card occasionally.
0 - Unplayable.


[card]Baloth Cage Trap[/card]
Instant speed 4/4 for 5 is amazing, and will kill attackers all the time. The trap aspect will only come into play rarely, but when it does, even more amazing. This card is just really, really good, despite its Achilles heel of getting owned by bounce.
Draft: 4-5
Sealed: 4-5

[card]Harrow[/card]
This is the best manafixing/accel in the set, and also doubles as a great combat trick a lot of the time. I don't think you pick it over first-rate removal, but it's going to be firstpickable a lot of the time.
Draft: 4-5
Sealed: 4-5

[card]Timbermaw Larva[/card]
You play him and then cry when he inevitably gets Shocked (obvobvobv afgain.) He's still a ginormous attacker, though, and you still pick him high, and one of these days I bet someone's going to get to attack with him.
Draft: 4-5
Sealed: 4-5

[card]River Boa[/card]
Fantastic two-drop. There's very little in the set that trumps regeneration (notable exceptions are [card]Marsh Casualties[/card] and [card]Disfigure[/card],) and there aren't even any pingers that can keep him honest. He's obviously ridiculous against Islands, but he's probably the best non-rare 2-drop in the set even if you don't count his evasion ability.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4

[card]Baloth Woodcrasher[/card]
This is going to be the biggest dude around when attacking, almost all of the time. It can also instantly end a game with Harrow. It's one of the more swingy non-rare Landfall cards in that it really kind of sucks without Landfall, but just one or two extra lands makes it awesome (how many times are you planning to swing with an 8/8 trampler anyway?), and that should always be possible.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4-5

[card]Primal Bellow[/card]
Giant Growth-type cards are playable in Limited if they give +2/+2, awesome if they give +3/+3, and retarded good if they're any better than that. Accordingly, you want to play this if your Green is anything more than a splash.
Draft: 4 (could be 3 or 5, if you already know how heavily you're going to be in Green)
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Vines of Vastwood[/card]
The strict mana requirement on this pushes it just barely below Primal Bellow for me (keeping GG open is a lot harder than 1G), but obviously you're happy with either.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Turntimber Basilisk[/card]
This guy is hilarious with Harrow or Khalni Heart expedition etc. He's even more hilarious with [card]Savage Silhouette[/card]. In short, he's a great fit for Green, and combos well with a lot of green cards. Even when he's just playing fair, he's a 3-drop that kills the (usually) non-evasive dork of your choice, which is plenty fine.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4-5

[card]Mold Shambler[/card]
I'm a big fan of this guy. He's always fine, and sometimes he'll break the game wide open.
Draft: 4
Sealed: 4

[card]Territorial Baloth[/card]
This guy was orignally spoiled as a 5/5, which would have been amazing. At 4/4, he's still a very good generic Big Green Dude. These guys are what Green is all about. Pity about the lack of trample.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Vastwood Gorger[/card]
HE IS A MAN THAT IS BIG. Counts as an efficient fatty in this format. I think pick order is basically a toss-up between him and Territorial Baloth unless you have multiple Harrows; you pick whichever slot you have fewer playables in.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Quest for the Gemblades[/card]
This is often better than a simple +4/+4 enchantment, because while your opponent will see it coming, there's going to be a pretty horrible turn for him where you swing in with your guys, and you have an onboard, active Quest, and all his blocking options look like shit.
It's also the only Quest that potentially comes online fast. Still, it will normally take at least one turn, sometimes more, and that will occasionally be an issue. Also, when you draw this with a ground stall on the board, it won't be as helpful as you'd like.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 4

[card]Oran-Rief Survivalist[/card]
He's always a bear, and even one or two Allies can make him potentially great. Almost as importantly, he has a target on his head that's often all out of proportion to the actual threat he represents. Kelly Diggs wrote about how his opponents would vacillate between killing this guy or [card]Grazing Gladheart[/card], and while I think killing the Gladheart is always the right call Game 1, I understand the dilemma.
Draft: 3-4 (4-5 if you already have a bunch of Allies)
Sealed: 3

[card]Zendikar Farguide[/card]
A lot of decks are going to be Green; this guy is a very reasonable maindeck. You side him out against non-green decks, obviously. He's better in Sealed because pretty much every Sealed deck is green. In draft, if you already have a bunch of huge five-drop dorks, and you need to cut someone, then you cut him and side him back in against Green, but I think in Sealed I think you cut a [card]Territorial Baloth[/card] insted.
Draft: 3
Sealed: 4

[card]Frontier Guide[/card]
It's strange to see how much of this set's acceleration/fixing starts at 4 mana. I think this guy is really good in Sealed, but he should actually be fine in Draft, too. Every deck can use a card you can pump mana into, and you'll always have a Landfall guy or two you can turbocharge with this. Also, hurf hurf deckthinning hurf, but when games go long this guy will actually have a significant effect.
Draft: 3
Sealed: 4

[card]Oran-Rief Recluse[/card]
I think he's a reverse sideboard card, like [card]Celestial Purge[/card] was in Alara: you maindeck him, and side him out if your opponent doesn't show you any flyers Game 1. He's too good against flyers, and too close to playable otherwise, to want to leave him out by default.
Draft: 3
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Savage Silhouette[/card]
If this resolves, nothing kills your new fatty, as long as you have enough mana. That last part is kind of significant, though; 1G is a lot of mana to regenerate a dude. It's still going to be worth it most of the time.
Draft: 3
Sealed: 3

[card]Grazing Gladehart[/card]
This guy can buy you a lot of time if he's not dealt with. I think he's actually very decent. I think burning a removal spell on him right away is often going to be correct.
Draft: 3
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Greenweaver Druid[/card]
[card]Overgrowth[/card] dude that takes a turn to come online and can be removed by anything. I'm not terribly excited, but if you have 3 or more 6+ drops, or stuff you can do with ONE BILLION MANA, then you might want him. Note the subtle synergy between him and [card]Baloth Woodcrasher[/card], though: not only does he power out the Baloth on turn 4, but you have a much better chance of Landfalling him in the next two turns. I think you always play this dude if you have a Baloth.
Draft: 2-3
Sealed: 3

[card]Nissa's Chosen[/card]
2/3 is a good size to have. You obviously have to be heavy green to play this (I'd say 8 Forests at a minimum, and no Greenweaver Druid doesn't count,) but if you have that many, then it's okay, although never exciting. Sealed is going to be too slow most of the time.
Draft: 2-3
Sealed: 2

[card]Cobra Trap[/card]
Instant-speed creatures are always really good in Limited, but this may be stretching it a little. The trap is not going to come into play too often, 6 mana is quite a lot, and Zendikar doesn't have much for you to do with 1/1 dudes. I think this is maindeckable, but not very good except in very specific decks.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 2-3

[card]Khalni Heart Expedition[/card]
I think this is a pretty difficult card to evaluate. It continues the theme of providing acceleration/fixing just when you no longer really need it (seriously, this doesn't come online until you have at least 5 lands out already. [card]Shard Convergence[/card] was faster.) I'd be happy to call this worthless, except it does eventually get you your splash color, and Landfall means this will often be a great on-board combat trick. I don't think you put it into every deck, but with a couple of good Landfall dudes, I think it's playable.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 2-3

[card]Joraga Bard[/card]
One of the worst Allies, I think. Both the body and the ability fail to impress. It's still okay if you have 6 or more Allies, though.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 2

[card]Relic Crush[/card]
I don't think you maindeck this. It'll almost always have a target, but a 5-mana card to kill some crappy Expedition or a 2/2 Ally isn't a great use of mana. I hink you side it in if you're confident that it'll have two targets, or if there's an artifact/enchantment you saw in Game 1 that's bomby enough to require an answer, even if that answer costs 5 mana.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 2

[card]Tajuru Archer[/card]
Sideboard unless your deck is INFINITE ALLIES GO. He might be playable even in a vacuum if you see multiple [card]Welkin Tern[/card]s, and in a deck with a regular number of Allies (4), he can be an answer to 2/2 flyers too. Keep him in mind for Games 2-3, but he only goes maindeck in very exceptional decks.
Draft: 1-2
Sealed: 1

[card]Scythe Tiger[/card]
I don't like this guy at all. His stats are all wrong, and Shroud means no tricks. He trades with everything. If you drop him on turn 1, then he'll do 3 or hey maybe even 6 and then trade with a random dork, and meanwhile you're out of pressure and way behind on the board because you just time walked your opponent, idiot. If you drop him later then he doesn't do anything interesting and is just one more dumb dork clogging up the ground and making you sarifice a land for no good reason.
You're in Green, you have good creatures. Play them instead.
Draft: 1-2
Sealed: 1

[card]Tanglesap[/card]
There's exactly one non-rare creature in the set with (sometimes) Trample that gives a shit about having damage prevented to it, so this is basically an expensive Fog that can sometimes be a [card]Regenerate[/card] instead, if you have [card]Baloth Woodcrasher[/card]. Avoid.
Draft: 0
Sealed: 0

[card]Beast Hunt[/card]
Horrible piece of shit. With 17 creatures, you're going to be drawing like an average of 1.3 cards off it, which isn't exactly 4-mana territory. For 2 mana, this might have been playable in certain decks.
Draft: 0
Sealed: 0


Green is usually a super popular color in Limited, and I'm not seeing a good reason this would change for Zendikar. First-rate guys, first-rate pump, basically nonexistent removal (with a nod to the Basilisk.) Monogreen might be viable in draft if you pick up a [card]Tmbermaw Larva[/card] and a [card]Primal Bellow[/card] early, but the lack of any type of evasion really really hurts.

Another thing that hurts Green is the complete lack of two-mana acceleration (the Expedition doesn't count.) If you're not lucky enough to get any [card]Harrow[/card]s, you'll have to make do with [card]Greenweaver Druid[/card], which is okay but I'd really rather have a Rampant Growth.

This post has been edited by Floral Spuzzem on Sep 29 2009, 04:32 AM

ARTIFACTS

[card]Khalni Gem[/card]
This is actually incredible, the best fixer in the set after Harrow. It does everything; it lets you cast everything in your deck, it helps with Landfall, it's Karoo-style card advantage. It also only actually sets you back 2 mana on the turn you play it.
Yes, you need 4 mana to play it, but this set is weird that way.
Draft: 3-4 (I think you pick these up around 4th-5th pick)
Sealed: 5 (You always play it.)

[card]Blazing Torch[/card]
Worst Seal of Fire ever, but there's no Seal of Fire so bad it isn't useful in Limited.
Draft: 3-4
Sealed: 4

[card]Stonework Puma[/card]
You need at least 3-4 other Allies in your deck to make this playable, but that happens a lot.
Draft: 3
Sealed: 2-3

[card]Trusty Machete[/card]
This is okay. Better in Sealed, but totally playable in Draft, for most decks.
Draft: 3
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Expedition Map[/card]
Not as bad as it looks. If you're not in Green, this is the only common manafixing you get. It's going to be mandatory a lot of the time in Sealed, especially if yo're not playing Green, but it can be an okay splash enabler in Draft, too.
Draft: 2-3
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Explorer's Scope[/card]
I think this is fine in Sealed. It's unbelievably clunky, but it does accelerate, and can randomly fix your mana and/or put you far ahead in midgame tempo. Late-game, it actually helps you draw business cards.
Of course, you need to be attacking for it to do anything, so it's not going to go in every deck. It's also probably too slow for Draft.
Draft: 2
Sealed: 3-4

[card]Adventuring Gear[/card]
I don't think you want to play this. It's comparable to [card]Leonin Scimitar[/card], except the Scimitar worked on your opponent's turn as well.
Draft: 1-2
Sealed: 2

[card]Spidersilk Net[/card]
I can sort of imagine siding this in, occasionally. They never go in your maindeck, though.
Draft: 1
Sealed: 1-2

[card]Carnage Altar[/card]
Post-M10, this is trash. There aren't any efficient token generators, and there's simply no other decent way to use this that isn't rare (there are a couple or rares and Mythics that work decently with it.)
Draft: 0-1
Sealed: 0-1

[card]Trailblazer's Boots[/card]
Well, this sure isn't [card]Whispersilk Cloak[/card]. If you could count on the unblockability, this would be good in a lot of decks, but you really can't. There are 5 common and 5 uncommon nonbasic lands; most decks will have a nonbasic or two, but you can't count on them playing one early. And if they do, and you play this, they'll [card]Khalni Gem[/card] or [card]Harrow[/card] it away, and guess who ends up looking dumb?
Draft: 0-1
Sealed: 0-1

[card]Hedron Scrabbler[/card]
This is never playable.
Draft: 0
Sealed: 0


LANDS

[card]Akoum Refuge[/card]
[card]Graypelt Refuge[/card]
[card]Jwar Isle Refuge[/card]
[card]Kazandu Refuge[/card]
[card]Sejiri Refuge[/card]

The uncommon cycle of duals. In Sealed, you obviously play them if you're in both colors; the 1 life is not worth the cost if only one of their colors match. In Draft, these aren't anything like the tri-lands were in Alara, so don't get confused and pick them P1P3.


[card]Kabira Crossroads[/card]
[card]Piranha Marsh[/card]
[card]Soaring Seacliff[/card]
[card]Teetering Peaks[/card]
[card]Turntimber Grove[/card]

Kabira Crossroads and Piranha Marsh are interesting because although the effect is weaker than the other three, you can profitably play them turn 1, which is when you normally want to play a CITP land. I think you play all of these lands in most Sealed decks, if they're the right color. In draft, you'll only really want to pick up the U, R, and G lands, and only if the pack has no other playables.

This post has been edited by Floral Spuzzem on Sep 29 2009, 02:30 PM

Seems like this won't be too useful until the images are in /general/ because goddamn I can't be the only person who doesn't know all the cards by heart.

i hope your evaluation here is better than the evaluations that you made in the thread as stuff was spoiled, because otherwise look at this useless thread!

Well, yeah, but hopefully that won't be far off. Gatherer will have the cards within a day, I think?

I actually play, and am good at, Limited!

Anyway, if you'd read the first three paragraphs, you'd know that this isn't going to be a static page, and it's also not going to be a collection of my evaluations only. I'll update it with any non-retarded information people figure out as the format matures.

I want a Limited resource thread where people don't have to read 70 pages to figure out what the current thinking is on the format. Ideally, the first 7 posts will contain the collected wisdom of the entire thread at any given time.

This post has been edited by Floral Spuzzem on Sep 25 2009, 06:41 AM

Yeah I gave up reading rather quickly for the same reason. I will try again when the cards actually pop up.

This post has been edited by EBR261 on Sep 25 2009, 06:44 AM

Same here.

I will go out on a limb and suggest that if you get into green early a "multi-color good-stuff" deck may be a possibility.

hey dantes, there are no multicolored cards in this set

also this guy is retarded, let's not listen, etc

I actually play, and am good at, Limited!

Anyway, if you'd read the first three paragraphs, you'd know that this isn't going to be a static page, and it's also not going to be a collection of my evaluations only. I'll update it with any non-retarded information people figure out as the format matures.

I want a Limited resource thread where people don't have to read 70 pages to figure out what the current thinking is on the format. Ideally, the first 7 posts will contain the collected wisdom of the entire thread at any given time.

this is a good goal. also, i am actually hopeless at limited, but your comments in the other thread did not fill me with confidence.

maybe i missed some stupid in the other thread, but it isn't clear to me why Spuzzem is getting flamed. This is a useful exercise even if the evals are wrong.

edit: you really need to indicate what's common vs. uncommon. I guess the images being in would solve that problem too.

This post has been edited by NicotineJones on Sep 25 2009, 06:55 AM

He's catching shit because of his truly horrible evaluations in the main Zendikar thread. Some of them were incredibly bad. This is a legitimate exerciser though, or it will be, and I give him credit for that.

Limited Commons review:

http://mtgsalvation.com/zendikar-spoiler.html

White:
[CARD]Bold Defense[/CARD] - The original ability costs too much for too little, and the kicker costs way too much. 1.5/5
[CARD]Caravan Hurda[/CARD] - Not very good at all. It would probably sometimes make your deck at 4 mana as like a 27th playable in a control deck, but at 5 mana, it comes down way too late to be good against aggro decks. 1.5/5
[CARD]Cliff Treader[/CARD] - Not a bad card for an agressive deck. Pick these up mid-late, because they're great sideboard cards for aggro decks, even if they don't make your maindeck (though there's a decent chance they will). A 2-drop 2-power unblockable creature wins games. 2.5/5
Journey To Nowhere - Obviously a very high pick. One of, if not the best common removal in the format. 5/5
[CARD]Kor Cartographer[/CARD] - The value of this isn't static. It's bad in aggressive decks without landfall. It's good in control decks, and it can trigger landfall, which is often important. These are 7-8 picks, and they will almost always make it into your deck. 3/5
[CARD]Kor Outfitter[/CARD] - Not great. Double mana cost on an unexiting body with no relevant ability. These will often make your deck if you're agressive, but only pick them up late. 2/5
[CARD]Kor Sanctifiers[/CARD] - The kicker doesn't seem very good to me. Most of the common quest counter enchantments aren't that impressive, and the only common equipment that you might care about is Adventuring Gear. As a 2/3 for 3, it has some value, due to the number of 2 power 2 drops in the format, but it's not a 2 for 1 very often. 2.5/5
[CARD]Kor Skyfisher[/CARD] - A 2/3 with flying for 2 is good, even if it costs you a land drop. These are high picks for an agressive deck. Getting an extra landfall trigger helps to balance out the drawback. 4/5
[CARD]Makindi Sheildmate[/CARD] - 2W for a 1/4 defender isn't the worst thing in the world, and it obviously gets better with other Allies. Basically useless in aggro decks, and an iffy addition to most controlling decks. Pick these up at around the 10-14 mark, unless you're heavily dedicated to Allies. They will come late anyway, so expect them to table. 2/5-3/5
[CARD]Narrow Escape[/CARD] - Yuck. Costs too much, and the payoff is not good. 1/5
[CARD]Nimbus Wings[/CARD] - These are okay. White has access to a lot of early drops, so this can help you continue beating down even when they get a larger creature in play. You're obviously running the risk of 2 for 1s. 2/5
[CARD]Noble Vestage[/CARD] - This is just sort of a poopy card. I can't think of many situations where this would make it into my deck. 1.5/5
[CARD]Ondo Cleric[/CARD] - :-/ This guy isn't very good. You only play this guy in the ally-est of ally decks. He seems like a conditional, more expensive Soul Warden. 1.5/5
[CARD]Sheildmate's Blessing[/CARD] - It's a pretty whack combat trick. 1/5
[CARD]Steppe Lynx[/CARD] - I know that I've heard a lot of people talk about this card not being great, but I like it. I think it makes it into almost every white aggro deck, and it gets waaay better if you have some sort of mana enabler. It gets worse as a topdeck, but it's a 1 drop. Pretty obvious synergy with Kor Cartographer, Kor Skyfisher and green acceleration. 3/5
[CARD]Sunspring Expidition[/CARD] - Ehhh... This card is 'meh'. Life gain can be decent, and it's cheap, but this makes you jump through some hoops to get it, and it's obviously a shit topdeck. I'd bet this doesn't make your deck 90% of the time. 1.5/5
[CARD]Windborn Charge[/CARD] - Good card. Doubling up the useful Welkin Guide ability gives this a lot of potential as a midgame-breaking card. It usually equals 8 evasive damage coming at your opponent's face and if you're playing green, often a lot more. This card can often tilt the balance in a ground stall or straight up win you the game if you've done enough damage. 4/5

Blue:
[CARD]Caller of Gales[/CARD] - Limited in it's applications, it's a couple of damage early, and then best case later is hovering your green beaters over your opponents creatures. 1.5/5
[CARD]Cancel[/CARD] - Difficult to judge, because it was pretty good in a few formats, but pretty bad in Shards block. The slower the format is, and the worse aggro decks are, the better it gets. This seems to be a pretty fast format, so I'll assume that it's not going to be great. 2/5
[CARD]Into the Roil[/CARD] - This is a good card. 3.5/5
[CARD]Ior Ruin Expedition[/CARD] - This is like a worse version of Courier's Capsule. It doesn't fix mana problems, and like all the quest enchantments, it sucks as a topdeck. I still think it's playable in the right deck. 2/5
[CARD]Kraken Hatchling[/CARD] - Blue steel wall. It does what it does pretty well, which is make your slow, controlling deck not lose to early aggressive creatures, and will most likely keep your life total quite high for a long period of time. 3/5
[CARD]Paralyzing Grasp[/CARD] - Good blue removal. 4/5
[CARD]Reckless Scholar[/CARD] - For a looter, going from 2 mana to 3 mana is a pretty big jump. It doesn't make 2 land hands as keepable, and it doesn't start digging until turn 4. The extra power is pretty much irrelivant. Not a very good card. 2/5
[CARD]Shoal Serpent[/CARD] - This is actually a pretty good creature. A big roadblock that gets in there often enough. 3/5
[CARD]Sky Ruin Drake[/CARD] - 2 power fliers for 5 are usually underwhelming, but this one has a huge ass. Hard to kill, blocks and survives just about everything, and has the power to discourage attacks. I think these guys are pretty badass. 4/5
[CARD]Spell Peirce[/CARD] - Negate effects are so-so in limited (though I thought negate was quite good in M10 Sealed and Draft), but this one has the disadvantage of sucking late game. 1.5/5
[CARD]Spreading Seas[/CARD] - Unlike most Sea's Claim effects, this is actually not a terrible card. Sorcery speed cycling that has the potential to landscrew an opponent. The card draw makes this a runnable 26th-27th card to fill out your deck. 2/5
[CARD]Summoner's Bane[/CARD] - 4 mana counterspells are pretty poor, and 4 mana Remove Souls are even worse. It comes with a 2/2, so the package is a little prettier, but I actually don't like this card very much. 2/5
[CARD]Tempest Owl[/CARD] - This is pretty much dreck. As a 2 drop, it's poor, and as a 7 mana Panic Attack, it's godawful. 1/5
Trapfinder's Trick - Awful. 1/5
[CARD]Umara Raptor[/CARD] - Now we're talking! Wind Drake+ is good. This goes from being a solid addition to beastly depending on how many Allies you have, so draft accordingly. 3/5-4/5
[CARD]Welkin Tern[/CARD] - Another very, very solid flier for blue. You pick up a couple of these, and you're sitting pretty. 4/5
[CARD]Whiplash Trap[/CARD] - How often is the trap going to trigger? I don't think it's going to be very often at all. I'd treat this as a 5 mana instant speed Undo, which, while not unplayable, is pretty bad. 1.5/5
[CARD]Windrider Eel[/CARD] - Another really good flier for blue. 4/5

Black:
[CARD]Crypt Ripper[/CARD] - Another one of those cards that has to be evaluated based on your color. However, this is better than most shades, because it's bigger, and Haste is a very relevant ability. This card is more than playable in a two color deck. It's a 3/5 in a two color deck, and a 4.5/5 in a mono black deck.
[CARD]Desecrated Earth[/CARD] - This is a very interesting card. Against another slower deck, this can hurt a LOT. 5 mana is on the high side, but it's good in a lot of matchups. 3.5/5
[CARD]Disfigure[/CARD] - Very good card. Not just a creature-only shock, it's also a combat trick that is very difficult to play around. Pick up lots. 4/5
[CARD]Giant Scorpion[/CARD] - Another solid card. Control decks are going to love this thing. It stops 2 power creatures in their tracks, and anything that trades with it is going to cost more. You want lots of these dudes. 3.5/5
[CARD]Grim Discovery[/CARD] - How much land destruction and/or lands going to the graveyard is there going to be in a typical game? Hardly any at all. It's an overcosted Raise Dead almost all the time. 1.5/5
[CARD]Gul Draz Vampire[/CARD] - Good card. I originally had this a 1.5/5 because I didn't know it got fear when the opponent gets under 10. Now it does a bit of damage, waits around for a bit, and then "turns on" if you do a bit more damage. Good for a 1-drop. 3/5
[CARD]Hagra Crocodile[/CARD] - Ehhhh. Can't block. 4 mana. Fragile body. All of these things are working against it. It's going to trade down more often than it's going to slam in there. 1.5/5
[CARD]Heartstabber Mosquito[/CARD] - Nice! This is a very playable card. 2/2 fliers for 4 are playable, and the kicker is very relevant, if a bit pricey. Pretty much the ideal topdeck in a long, drawn-out game. 3.5/5
Hideous End - More removal you say? Awesome! The 2 life smack is a nice little bonus. 4.5/5
[CARD]Mindless Null[/CARD] - Oh wow. Terrible. 1/5
[CARD]Mire Blight[/CARD] - Very suboptimal removal. 1.5/5
[CARD]Nimana Sell-sword[/CARD] - Hill Giants are playable. Insert the part about it being better with Allies. 2.5/5-3/5
[CARD]Soul Stair Expedition[/CARD] - Gah. This is not very good. 1.5/5
[CARD]Surrakar Marauder[/CARD] - Neat! The only problem is that the ability is sort of reversed for how you want it to work. You want early-drop creatures to be evasive later, when early in the game it doesn't matter as much, and you're going to have to topdeck lands to turn this guy on. Still, this is going to add up damage on your opponent pretty quickly. Solid mid-pick. 3.5/5
[CARD]Vampire Lacerator[/CARD] - An aggressive 1-drop with an ability that fits it into aggressive decks almost exclusively. No sitting back and waiting with him. 3/5
[CARD]Vampire's Bite[/CARD] - This is pretty poor. As a combat trick, it's most likely a 2-for-1 for them. It's value comes when you have evasive guys, and you're trying to win a race. It offers a substantial life swing when it's kicked. I'm not keen on cards that require evasive creatures in order to be useful, but I think I might be going against the grain by saying that it's not unplayable. I think it can make it in a decent deck. 2/5

Red:
[CARD]Bladetusk Boar[/CARD] - Here's a guy you want. This is sort of like a red Snapping Drake, which is kind of awesome, especially for a more aggressive color. Solid early-mid pick. 4/5
[CARD]Burst Lightning[/CARD] - Well, this is a very good spell. Both the normal function and the kicker are important. Being able to dome for 4 is an incredible luxury that just pushes this over the top. Probably the second-best removal spell at common. 5/5
[CARD]Demolish[/CARD] - Sideboard card that can sometimes sneak in maindeck. It's function is to prolong the early game, which means that aggressive decks value this more highly. The artifact removal capability isn't going to matter very often. 2/5
[CARD]Goblin Bushwhacker[/CARD] - A mini pump ability attached to a small body. This is not very good. 1.5/5
[CARD]Goblin Shortcutter[/CARD] - This is a decent aggressive creature that doesn't lose all of it's utility later in the game. 2.5/5
[CARD]Goblin War Paint[/CARD] - Giant Strength++. You will play this sometimes. 1.5/5
[CARD]Highland Berzerker[/CARD] - It's an aggressive Ally. The first strike ability isn't too important, but the fact that it triggers other Allies, and you don't absolutely need a ton of ally creatures to make it playable are both good signs. 2.5/5
[CARD]Magma Rift[/CARD] - It's removal. This has a fairly substantial drawback, but it's going to kill 90% of the dudes in this format, so you can ignore that and pick it highly. 4/5
[CARD]Molten Ravager[/CARD] - Storm Shaman strikes again. This ranges from "meh" to pretty good. Unlike the black common shade, you don't want to play this in 2 color decks. 1.5/5-3/5
[CARD]Plated Geopede[/CARD] - Much has already been written about this card, but it's definitely a good card. Hard to block effectively, and when coupled with green's mana acceleration, it can get beastly. It actually reminds me a lot of Akki Underling (though obviously not as good) in that it looks great when you drop it on turn two (and not so much after that) and it's absolutely acceptable to keep it and 4+ lands in your opening grip. 3.5/5
[CARD]Ruinous Minotaur[/CARD] - I like this guy. The trigger only happens when you connect, which is obviously good. You don't need to worry that much about trading down, because it only costs 3. Trading a land for a lava axe is totally fine. 3/5
[CARD]Seismic Shudder[/CARD] - Well, we've already seen a shitton of common 1-toughness red 2 drops, so this is obviously not very good in an aggressive red deck (derp derp derp). It does do a pretty good job of slowing or stopping aggro decks. There are a good deal of cards that have 1 toughness in this format. Draft this late, put it in your sideboard, and be happy. 2/5
[CARD]Shatterskull Giant[/CARD] - Perfectly acceptable. 2.5/5
[CARD]Slaughter Cry[/CARD] - This is a good trick for red, much better than it usually gets. 2.5/5
[CARD]Spire Barrage[/CARD] - Siesmic strike that hits players at 5 mana. I mean, this is pretty good. 5 mana is quite a bit, and it's sorcery speed, and it doesn't gain you life like Corrupt or Tendrils, but it's still removal, and it can go to the dome. Doesn't play all that well with the other sacrifice-a-land cards in red. 3.5/5
[CARD]Torch Slinger[/CARD] - More removal for red. You can pretty much ignore the unkickered version, because it's a grey ogre. 5 mana for a shock and a guy isn't exactly knocking the doors down, but the amount of times this is going to be a 2 for 1 is high. There are a lot of creatures with 2 toughness or less in this format. 4/5
[CARD]Tuktuk Grunts[/CARD] - Another fine Ally. Like a few of the other ones, it has an average body to casting-cost ratio, so it's fine even if you don't have other allies. Pick it up mid-late. 2.5/5-3.5/5
[CARD]Zektar Shrine Expedition[/CARD] - This is probably the most powerful effect out of all of the Expeditions. It loses points because there isn't any sort of surprise factor. Still, 7 damage coming at an opponent is not a small amount. 2.5/5

Green:
[CARD]Beast Hunt[/CARD] - Chaff. A lot of the time, you pay 4 mana for 1 card, and that's just garbage. 1.5/5
[CARD]Grazing Gladeheart[/CARD] - Turns all of your lands into Kabira Crossroads. Seems pretty decent in a slower deck. 2.5/5
[CARD]Harrow[/CARD] - Harrow is going to be a pretty high pick in this format due to the number of landfall triggers there are, and being able to hit 3 in one turn will be pretty important. It also fixes your mana like a sumbitch. 4/5
[CARD]Joraga Bard[/CARD] - This is probably one of my least favourite Allies. The ability isn't good, and it's a 1/4 for 4. I wouldn't be very excited to play this even in an allies deck. 1.5/5-2/5
[CARD]Khalni Heart Expedition[/CARD] - This is one of the better expeditions. Like Harrow, getting 3 landfall triggers in one turn, accelerating, and fixing mana are all good things in this format. This also helps to trigger other expeditions. 3/5
[CARD]Mold Shambler[/CARD] - This is a good dude. I like him better than Acidic Slime if it were in ZEN, because 3/3 is pretty huge in this format with all of the 2 power creatures running around. The kicker is okay, and hitting lands even on turn 6 can be important, and sometimes your opponent has a troublesome artifact or enchantment (though that's not that often). 3/5
[CARD]Nissa's Chosen[/CARD] - As I just mentioned, having 3 toughness is good. Being a 2/3 for 2 makes this a pretty good offensive creature, and the fact that it can block other aggressive creatures without dying makes it a good defensive creature too. This will make your maindeck more often than not. 3/5
[CARD]Oran Rief Recluse[/CARD] - This is probably a sideboard card. There isn't too much flying in this format ouside of blue and (sort of) white, and the body is sort of poopy. It's a sideboard card against blue. 2/5
[CARD]Oran-Rief Survivalist[/CARD] - This is the backbone of good Ally decks. A grizzly bear coming into play, it grows for every Ally you cast after it. This is a high pick. 4/5
[CARD]Primal Bellow[/CARD] - This is pretty good. Assuming you're a two color deck split down the middle, this is equal to a giant growth on turn 6, and a +2/+2 on turn 4. Assuming you're mono green (or close to it), this is insane, and you should gobble it up. 2.5/5-4/5
[CARD]Relic Crush[/CARD] - Big, expensive artifact/enchantment destruction that can do it twice. Garbage. 1/5
[CARD]Savage Silhouette[/CARD] - This is sort of like Sheild of the Oversoul, just like that red haste enchantment was like Clout of the Dominus. It gives the P/T bonus, and makes it very difficult to kill (there are no things that stop regeneration in this format). You just want to cast it with regen mana up, so you don't get smoked by removal. 3/5
[CARD]Scythe Tiger[/CARD] - I really don't like this guy. If it were Rogue Elephant, it would be a ton better, but as it stands, it has 2 toughness, and so it sucks shit. Just like nobody wanted to remove Mist Leopard, nobody is going to care about this guy. 1.5/5
[CARD]Tanglesap[/CARD] - Doesn't cut it. 1/5
[CARD]Terretorial Baloth[/CARD] - This is awesome. 5 mana for a 4/4 is pretty standard at common, and it has +2/+2 landfall, so he's often going to be bigger. Harrow/Khalni Heart Expedition after blockers can make this guy a 10/10. 4/5
[CARD]Timbermaw Larva[/CARD] - This guy is also good. If you are mono green, he is first-pick quality. He reminds me of Hungry Spriggian. He's going to be pretty good in 2 color decks too. 3/5-4.5/5
[CARD]Vastwood Gorger[/CARD] - Unlike in Shards block, there isn't a whole ton of fat at the common level, so this guy is going to be enormous in comparison. 3.5/5
[CARD]Zendikar Farguide[/CARD] - It would be easy to write this guy off, but I think he's decent. Most likely a sideboard card, he can make your maindeck sometimes. 2/5

Artifacts:
[CARD]Adventuring Gear[/CARD] - Good stuff. Best common equipment. Combined with acceleration, this can make things beastly, and it's cheap. Play it turn 1, play your creature turn 2, equip turn 3, and go to town. 3/5
[CARD]Expedition Map[/CARD] - This isn't very exciting. Most of the time it's just a land with a manacost, but sometimes it has extra value. Getting a fetchland with landfall guys on the board can be important. If by the odd chance you are monocolor and you got one of the (good) rare CITPT lands, you'll probably want to play this. 1.5/5
[CARD]Explorer's Scope[/CARD] - I like this card. It's a landfall enabler, and it's cheap as heck. 2.5/5
[CARD]Hedron Scrabbler[/CARD] - This is not very good. You need to make at least a land drop a turn in order to make this even halfway decent as a grizzly bear. People might get confused and put it in their "landfall" deck, but you shouldn't get confused. 1/5
[CARD]Spidersilk Net[/CARD] - This is pretty bad. Toughness-only equipment is sort of hard to justify playing, even though it's really cheap. 1.5/5
[CARD]Stonework Puma[/CARD] - The question you have to ask yourself is whether or not you are playing Allies. If you are playing Allies, this will probably make your deck. If you are not playing Allies, this will not make your deck. 1.5/5-2.5/5

Lands:
[CARD]Kabira Crossroads[/CARD] - I like this land. It's one of the lands you want to play on your first turn in a controlling deck. It's a shame that white is so poor, and so inclined towards aggro. This isn't something you want to splash for, however. 2/5
[CARD]Pirhanna Marsh[/CARD] - This land is pretty bleh. 1 life is not very relevant. I don't know if you even play this in aggressive decks, because the payoff is so poor, and it could possibly distrupt your curve. 1.5/5
[CARD]Soaring Seacliff[/CARD] - This one could possibly "sea" play in the right deck. Probably something like UG or UR. Making your big guy fly over and smash your opponent is pretty good for just a land drop. 2/5
[CARD]Teetering Peaks[/CARD] - This is the best of the cycle, and one of the only ones you could possibly consider drafting over "real" spells for your deck. This also shines in a UR deck, because of the higher density of evasion cards. You might even want to splash for it, depending on how aggressive you are. 2.5/5
[CARD]Turntimber Grove[/CARD] - This one isn't great. The best case scenario for this is that it makes one of your creatures a bit too big to block profitably, and they have to let it through or chump it. 1.5/5

This post has been edited by Alfred on Sep 25 2009, 09:47 AM

Khalni Gem is uncommon by the mtgsal spoiler. You have it at common when you mention manafixers, and honestly it is a pretty big difference.

Alfred: i think you're underrating allies by implying you either have an ally deck or you don't. Consider a UB deck that picks up two wind drake allies and two hill giant allies; this is something that could easily happen without going out of your way to uprate allies. In practice, raptor is going to play a lot better than wind drake in that deck a significant percentage of the games you draw it.

Fixed, thanks.

Unless I fucked up, all commons and uncommons are now listed (in alphbetical order for now.) Cards are up on Gatherer already, you can click on the links.

The mtgsalvation review looks very bad to me. He gets the obvious ones, but I disagree with him on almost all the non-obvious evaluations. If anyone signs off on it, we can run with it, but I'm not a fan right now.

I'm planning to have a full set review up by the end of the weekend. I'll be integrating all suggestions/ideas/reviews/corrections that seem to have at least rough consensus (even if I don't agree with them,) so post away!

This post has been edited by Floral Spuzzem on Sep 25 2009, 09:10 AM

Sure, but I don't think I underrated them. I gave most of the good ones good ratings.

Just a few thoughts:

3 and 5 toughness seem to be the numbers to aim for. 3 toughness dodges almost literally all the toughness-based removal ([card]Blazing Torch[/card], [card]Torch Slinger[/card], [card]Punishing Fire[/card], unkicked [card]Burst Lightning[/card], [card]Marsh Casualties[/card], [card]Disfigure[/card],) and blocks bears all day (which infest the set, for some reason.) 5 toughness survives kicked [card]Burst Lightning[/card] and blocks almost everything. Dudes seem to be much smaller than they were in Alara.

There is almost no card draw in the entire set, it's amazing. There is one single non-rare card draw spell in the set, and it's the craptastic [card]Ior Ruin Expedition[/card]. No card draw in what I think will be a slow format means 2-for-1 stuff will be extremely important.

This post has been edited by Floral Spuzzem on Sep 25 2009, 09:22 AM

Sure, but I don't think I underrated them. I gave most of the good ones good ratings.

Whoops, didn't realize the mtgsalvation review was you, I was all "lol salvation." I still disagree with you on a lot of them, we'll hash it out.

Alfred your list would be more readable if you make the cardnames and points in bold and stick the points right after the names, maybe in [ ] brackets.

Oh and I value Whiplash Trap much higher, even when you have to pay full price for it 2/3 of time.

This post has been edited by Tyrael on Sep 25 2009, 09:37 AM