This has great base stats, and if you’re in White you probably have some Spirits to bring back from the graveyard too, which makes her absurdly powerful.
The modality here can be pretty nice, though most of the time you’re going to use it as removal. And sometimes, the creature you really want to use it on is a Human, and in those cases this can be pretty bad.
This type of effect always underperforms. Since both players get to make their choice, your opponent will always be able to hold on to their best creature. So will you, but if your best creature isn’t already the best one on the battlefield, casting this doesn’t actually accomplish much, and that’s frustrating. This feels great when your opponent is overwhelming you with quantity more than quality, but if they have the best creature on the battlefield, you’re in trouble.
For one mana, you end up with a 1/1 and a 1/1 Flyer. That’s a great deal, and also makes this great sacrifice fodder.
This is a pretty nice payoff for Humans. Paying 3 mana for 4/4 worth of stats feels pretty good, and also makes the Cathar good sacrifice fodder.
Casting this once in hand and once from your graveyard over two turns can often really turn a game around, as it allows you to attack far more effectively while severely hampering your opponent’s ability to attack effectively. You can of course also cast it from your hand and flash it back all in the same turn, which wins the game on a lot of board states.
Adding to the board while taking away from your opponent is a great feeling, and that’s exactly what the Hunter does! It may not permanently remove something, but at a minimum it tends to greatly disrupt your opponent’s game play, and in the situations where they can’t kill it, it often wins you the game.
This is a power house. For a total of five mana you can get 4 1/1 flying tokens. That’s enough to quickly the end the game or help you stabilize if you were behind.
Being able to buff your whole board on two separate attacks with only one card is pretty powerful! If you have the mana, you can also do it all at once!
A 6-mana 5/5 flyer can close out a game on its own, and that’s certainly true here, since it also gives you a flying token every time one of your non-Spirits dies.
If your graveyard is well-stocked, this can produce some impressive value. Problem is, White isn’t amazing at getting things in the graveyard in this format, so it isn’t something that will just come together every time you draft it.
There are lots of Spirits in this set, and this will be doubly true while Battleground Geist is in the format. It has passable stats and impacts the board right away.
This is an incredibly powerful planeswalker. At worst, he cranks out a 2/2 wolf every single turn – which is more than enough to allow you to protect him and eventually overwhelm your opponent. Using his removal effect is great too, especially in situations where Garruk can survive and transform! Once transformed, he is even better in most ways. He creates death touch wolves and has an easily accessible ultimate that is a graveyard based Overrun – which often wins the game the turn you use it.
If you manage to get a really good self-mill deck going – preferably one that has a win condition like Spider Spawning – Gnaw to the Bone becomes a really good card at helping you survive long enough to outvalue your opponent with the graveyard. There are lots of decks where it is unplayable, though.
In the end, you get a 1/1 and a 2/2 for one mana. Sure, you don’t have them both at the same time, but you’re still getting an amazing rate – and the wolf is great for sacrificing too!
This is a better Zombie payoff than the one in the main set. Lords are always quite powerful, and the additions of deathtouch and damaging your opponent when a Zombie dies is great.
This is an amazing spirit payoff that has solid base stats as a Wind Drake. While it doesn’t grant hexproof to itself, granting to all of your spirits is no joke.
A 4-mana 4/1 with Haste is a good card, and this one can grant itself indestructibility with a free sacrifice effect! When you can sacrifice Humans, it even gets bigger. This is a monstrous threat to deal with on virtually any board state, as you just can’t ignore a 4-power evasive creature – and even if you want to do something about it, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to.
This is a great place to put Auras or Equipment, as Hexproof makes it very difficult for your opponent to interact. And that’s good, because there are lots of board states where the Geist isn’t that good on his own. After all, he’s only a 2/2. The best you can hope for is that you’ll trade him off and get in for 4 with the Angel. But if you can support Geist with combat tricks and other things to enhance it, it can get truly absurd.
This gives you some insane value, since it makes sure you have something to cast on virtually every turn. Keep in mind you can cast cards from either graveyard, although you do have to have the right colored mana to cast them.
A 4-mana 2/2 that makes a 2/2 and gains you 2 life is a great Limited card. Huntmaster of the Fells is far better than that! Partly because it can transform into the larger Ravager of the Fells while damaging stuff, and partly because when it flips back to the Huntmaster, you get that original trigger all over again!
Obviously, this buffs most creatures in Red/Green, and making all of your werewolves stay stuck in their more powerful form is awesome.
Sigarda is virtually unkillable, and represents a 4-turn clock. If that’s not a bomb, I’m not sure what is.
This offers an impressive boost to your Vampires, which will be the bulk of your creatures in Black/Red.
The boost this offers isn’t really worth it, unless you have a lot of Humans, because then you can turn trades into an advantage.
This is really good against Vampires and Zombies, but it is even solid when your opponent has 0 of them. After all, it is basically a colorless two mana Shock – and it adds itself to the graveyard, helping you with delirium.
In original Innistrad, this was a nasty combo with Invisible Stalker. Sadly, the Stalker and the Cleaver won’t be in the format at the same time, and that definitely hurts this card’s stock. It costs a lot to cast and to Equip. While lifelink is nice, this is often just too clunky.
This gives a decent enough boost for its casting cost, but sacrificing a creature is a steep price to pay for many decks.
A 4-mana 5/5 is nice. One that has a text box entirely filled with downside is not.
This nicely fixes your mana, while also giving you an Artifact in the graveyard for Delirium.
Most three mana mana rocks aren’t worth using in Limited, and that’s mostly true here. It can be used to break up Delirium, or take away some other graveyard value, which has its uses, but more often than not the ETB ability has little to no effect on the game.
Wilds is always a nice way to fix your mana, and in this format getting a land into your graveyard has extra value.
This is bad for your mana base, and the fact it is random is a pretty big problem.
Three mana to make a copy of your best creature is usually a good deal, and so is the fact that in the later stages of the game you can do it again – and usually on a more powerful creature!
Once you’ve cast this and flashed it back, this gives you a 2-for-1 with really good card selection, and it loads up the graveyard too, which is likely to give you even more value than that.
This is very powerful when you have a well-stocked graveyard, something that is eminently doable in this format. Cranking out tokens and buffing all of your Zombies makes this a pretty amazing engine.
An unblockable hexproof creature represents some pretty serious inevitability, especially if you can put Equipment or Auras on it.
This leds you add a pretty real body to the board while also subtracting from your opponent’s board. This gives you a huge leg up in most games, whether you’re ahead or behind.
A 5-mana 4/4 Flyer is some serious business, and its nice that this one lets you loot – something that is extra good in a format with Madness, Flashback, and Delirium.
This is very slow and clunky. You do eventually get a 2-for-1 out of it, but there are better ways to recur instants and sorceries in this format.
Milling yourself with this is more often what you want to be doing in this format, as milling your opponent might just end up helping them. Overall, this has mediocre stats and an effect that isn’t all that impressive.
Bouncing stuff doesn’t generally let you trade for a card – instead it just gives you tempo. But this is cheap enough that you can get a pretty good deal, especially because you can bounce something again later in the game.
Generating a 2/2 every turn for only two mana is great! Having to sacrifice a creature every time is less so, even in a format with sacrifice fodder.
This card is pretty awkward. The format is littered with cards that do good stuff when they die, or that do things from the graveyard. The idea here is that you’d sacrifice some of those expendable things, but the problem is your opponent is just as likely to have them.
Free sacrifice effects that aren’t limited to once per turn always play incredibly well. Your opponent can’t ever rule out that you’re going to use this ability, and they always have to respect it. There is plenty of sacrifice fodder in the format, too.
A 4-mana 3/3 flyer that can crank out 2/2 Flyers is already a bomb, so the fact that the Keeper can transform into a Vampire lord that pumps all of those bats is absolutely insane!
Cards that damage your opponent and don’t do anything else are rarely worth it in Limited. This does have the capacity to do up to six for only one card, but you have to pay 7 mana to get there. It is kind of a funny card, because it has kind of an ugly baseline, but it actually gets better in multiples, since you are more likely to find a critical mass that lets you burn out your opponent. Problem is, since this is part of a bonus sheet, actually getting multiples of it won’t happen very often.
A 4-mana 2/2 flyer isn’t the best rate, but the ETB effect here does enough for this to be solid.
Gravedigger for three mana is a nice card, even if you can only get back Zombies and it is entirely random! This delivers a nice 2-for-1 in most Black decks.
A tutor for five is really bad. This does add Flashback, which means in the long run you can get a 4-for-1 out of it, but it is so clunky and expensive that you’re probably going to lose if you’re wasting your time casting it.
This is a nice removal spell that can be particularly good against multiples or tokens. It is also two removal spells in one if the game goes long enough!
If you can get even one Demon out of this, it is completely insane. You won’t always be able to do that, though. You need to have creatures around worth tapping and something has to have died that turn. This is a situation you can certainly create in this format, but it won’t always line up perfectly.
This is not a very good removal spell without Morbid, though it is just barely passable. With morbid, though, it can kill virtually everything for only one mana. That upside is accessible, and enough for this to be premium.
This is powerful because it reanimates efficiently and does it twice, but this format isn’t loaded up with amazing things to reanimate, limiting its effectiveness. If you’re good at milling yourself and you have a few big scary things around it can do some serious work.
If this hits your opponent, it is pretty much game over for them. However, making that happen isn’t always easy! 7 mana is a lot, and for that big of an investment I kind of expect this to do something immediately to give me some real value, but instead, if your opponent has removal, you end up with nothing but a massive tempo hit. It is still incredibly strong, don’t get me wrong – but the cost of the card and the lack of permanent value keep it out of bomb territory.
Three mana for a three damage instant is already a high pick – so the Morbid upside here turns this into an absolutely incredible burn spell.
Blaze is always a nice card in Limited, and this one can even be flashed back! Obviously, it does a lot less damage when you flash it back since you have to invest three Red into it, but you can usually get a 2-for-1 out of this, or just use it to finish off your opponent.
One mana to loot twice is a good deal, and this has flashback. This is an amazing discard outlet for Madness, and can help with delirium too.
Keep in mind that this card does not say “up to” nor is it optional. In other words, if you want to play this with nothing else on the board, it will ping itself. This isn’t too bad when it can pick off an opposing creature, but there are lots of board states where it just can’t do that.
A three mana 2/2 with First Strike is a great starting point, and once this transforms it becomes a massive problem, especially if you have some other werewolves around.
This is cool, but it is very difficult to cast this and actually be able to cast some things from your graveyard. You need an enormous amount of mana to make it happen, and that just isn’t something you can do in Limited.
This is a very inefficient creature, but cashing in expendable creatures to Shock your opponent or their creatures is pretty nice.
If you have free or cheap sacrifice outlets to pair with this (and this format has them!), it is insanely powerful. If you don’t, it is almost unplayable. You know, the usual for Threaten effects.
This is cheaper than most Trumpet-Blast type effects, but only buffing Vampires is enough of a restriction that I’m not that thrilled about it. If you really got their on vampires, it isn’t a bad inclusion, but there are lots of Red decks that won’t play this.
The Conscripts can allow you to attack effectively on almost any board state, between adding a Hasty body to the board and stealing your opponent’s best permanent – which is usually a creature It gets even nastier if you have some free sacrifice outlets, so that you can get rid of their creature permanently – but even if you don’t, the Conscripts are going to have an extremely positive effect on the outcome of the game.
Mana dorks are amazing in the early game, as playing your three drops on turn two is very powerful. They get worse in the late game, when they have small irrelevant bodies and you don’t need the mana anymore. Still, the early game upside is enough to make the Pilgrim something you take highly.
Five mana is a lot for card that doesn’t impact the board immediately – but Gutter Grime kind of does. It suddenly makes it so all of your creatures give you value when they die, and that value can quickly snowball.
This is passable without Morbid, and the times where you can add this very real body to the board and gain 5 life are incredible.
A human lord is welcome in Green in this format – and so is a Werewolf lord! So its great that the Mayor can do both. It is especially powerful as a werewolf, because it effectively cranks out a 3/3 every turn.
Even with all this additional upside, this is still a fog, and those are rarely worth it in Limited.
A three mana 0/1 is pretty awful, and dies to pretty much everything but this does seriously ramp your mana if you get to untap. The problem is, you both need the Sage to survive and something to spend the mana on, and neither are a guarantee.
This card is insane, and was one of the defining cards of original Innistrad draft. Just like that format, this one is loaded up with ways to mill yourself, so Spider Spawning is incredibly effective both times you cast it, and makes many game-states unwinnable for your opponent. This really only works in a deck that is built around it, but it will usually be the most powerful card in your deck when you pull that off.
This gives out a lot of +1/+1 counters for only four mana total, and can drastically improve your board state.
Card | Pro Rating | AI Rating | APA | Picked | ALSA | Seen |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ss-rare|White|Creature — Angel
|
4.5 | 4.5 | 2.50 | 2 | 2.60 | 5 |
ss-common text-light|White|Enchantment — Aura
|
3.0 | 3.3 | 5.75 | 4 | 7.50 | 7 |
ss-rare|White|Sorcery
|
3.0 | 3.6 | 5.00 | 1 | 4.50 | 2 |
ss-common text-light|White|Creature — Human Soldier
|
3.0 | 2.6 | 7.83 | 6 | 6.67 | 46 |
ss-common text-light|White|Creature — Human Soldier
|
3.0 | 2.1 | 9.19 | 16 | 8.17 | 136 |
ss-common text-light|White|Instant
|
3.0 | 1.5 | 10.80 | 5 | 9.89 | 56 |
ss-uncommon|White|Creature — Human Cleric
|
4.0 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 1.00 | 1 |
ss-uncommon|White|Sorcery
|
4.0 | 3.9 | 4.00 | 1 | 3.00 | 3 |
ss-uncommon|White|Instant
|
2.5 | 2.3 | 8.67 | 6 | 6.75 | 83 |
ss-rare|White|Creature — Angel
|
4.5 | 5 | 1.00 | 1 | 2.50 | 2 |
ss-uncommon|White|Enchantment
|
0.0 // 3.0 | 0.7 | 13.00 | 1 | 7.00 | 17 |
ss-common text-light|Blue|Creature — Spirit
|
2.5 | 2 | 9.54 | 13 | 8.10 | 146 |
ss-mythic|Green|Legendary Planeswalker — Garruk
|
5.0 | 5 | 1.00 | 1 | 1.00 | 1 |
ss-common text-light|Green|Instant
|
0.0 // 2.5 | 1.5 | 10.71 | 7 | 9.74 | 58 |
ss-common text-light|Green|Creature — Wolf
|
3.0 | 3.2 | 6.00 | 9 | 7.40 | 50 |
ss-uncommon|Blue|Black|Creature — Zombie Soldier
|
3.5 | 3.6 | 4.80 | 5 | 4.86 | 43 |
ss-uncommon|White|Blue|Creature — Spirit Soldier
|
3.5 | 3.8 | 4.33 | 3 | 3.68 | 25 |
ss-mythic|Black|Red|Creature — Vampire Noble
|
5.0 | 4.6 | 2.00 | 1 | 2.00 | 1 |
ss-mythic|White|Blue|Legendary Creature — Spirit Cleric
|
4.0 | 5 | 1.00 | 1 | 1.00 | 1 |
ss-mythic|Blue|Black|Creature — Zombie Wizard
|
4.5 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 1.00 | 1 |
ss-mythic|Red|Green|Creature — Human Werewolf
|
5.0 | 5 | 1.00 | 1 | 1.00 | 1 |
ss-uncommon|Red|Green|Creature — Wolf
|
3.5 | 3 | 6.56 | 9 | 4.96 | 33 |
ss-mythic|White|Green|Legendary Creature — Angel
|
5.0 | 5 | 1.00 | 1 | 1.00 | 1 |
ss-uncommon|Black|Red|Creature — Vampire Soldier
|
3.5 | 3.8 | 4.40 | 10 | 5.04 | 38 |
ss-uncommon||Artifact — Equipment
|
2.5 | 2.4 | 8.40 | 5 | 6.59 | 54 |
ss-common text-light||Artifact — Equipment
|
2.0 | 2.1 | 9.22 | 9 | 8.97 | 107 |
ss-uncommon||Artifact — Equipment
|
1.5 | 2.5 | 8.00 | 5 | 6.07 | 48 |
ss-uncommon||Artifact — Equipment
|
1.5 | 1.4 | 11.00 | 3 | 7.38 | 21 |
ss-uncommon||Artifact Creature — Juggernaut
|
1.0 | 2.1 | 9.00 | 1 | 4.55 | 16 |
ss-common text-light||Artifact
|
2.5 | 2.1 | 9.15 | 13 | 7.94 | 142 |
ss-uncommon||Artifact
|
1.0 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 9.33 | 7 |
ss-common text-light||Land
|
2.5 | 4.2 | 3.33 | 3 | 4.50 | 6 |
ss-common text-light||Land
|
1.0 | 2.1 | 9.00 | 12 | 8.90 | 166 |
ss-rare|Blue|Instant
|
4.0 | 4.6 | 2.00 | 1 | 2.00 | 5 |
ss-common text-light|Blue|Instant
|
2.5 | 2.8 | 7.14 | 7 | 7.33 | 47 |
ss-rare|Blue|Creature — Human Wizard
|
4.0 | 3.3 | 5.75 | 4 | 5.09 | 15 |
ss-uncommon|Blue|Creature — Human Rogue
|
3.5 | 1.1 | 12.00 | 1 | 6.50 | 3 |
ss-common text-light|Blue|Creature — Bird
|
4.0 | 4.1 | 3.50 | 4 | 4.00 | 8 |
ss-uncommon|Blue|Creature — Bird
|
3.0 | 2 | 9.50 | 2 | 5.00 | 9 |
ss-uncommon|Blue|Sorcery
|
1.5 | 2.2 | 8.91 | 11 | 6.75 | 91 |
ss-common text-light|Blue|Creature — Human Rogue
|
1.5 | 1 | 12.25 | 4 | 11.26 | 68 |
ss-common text-light|Blue|Sorcery
|
2.5 | 2.7 | 7.50 | 10 | 5.71 | 39 |
ss-common text-light|Blue|Creature — Homunculus
|
1.5 | 1.2 | 11.75 | 4 | 8.95 | 60 |
ss-uncommon|Black|Sorcery
|
2.0 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 10.50 | 4 |
ss-common text-light|Black|Creature — Vampire
|
3.0 | 1.2 | 11.70 | 10 | 10.20 | 66 |
ss-mythic|Black|Creature — Vampire
|
5.0 | 5 | 1.00 | 1 | 1.33 | 3 |
ss-common text-light|Black|Sorcery
|
1.0 | 0.7 | 13.00 | 4 | 8.53 | 62 |
ss-uncommon|Black|Creature — Vampire Noble
|
2.5 | 4.3 | 3.00 | 2 | 2.00 | 7 |
ss-common text-light|Black|Creature — Zombie
|
3.0 | 2.5 | 8.12 | 8 | 8.35 | 153 |
ss-rare|Black|Sorcery
|
0.0 | 4.6 | 2.00 | 1 | 4.25 | 5 |
ss-uncommon|Black|Sorcery
|
4.0 | 4.5 | 2.40 | 5 | 3.00 | 7 |
ss-rare|Black|Creature — Human Cleric
|
4.0 | 4.6 | 2.00 | 1 | 2.00 | 1 |
ss-common text-light|Black|Instant
|
3.5 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 5.25 | 6 |
ss-uncommon|Black|Sorcery
|
1.5 // 3.5 | 3.2 | 6.00 | 1 | 6.46 | 18 |
ss-mythic|Red|Creature — Dragon
|
4.0 | 4.6 | 2.00 | 1 | 2.00 | 1 |
ss-uncommon|Red|Instant
|
4.0 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 4.00 | 1 |
ss-rare|Red|Sorcery
|
4.0 | 4.8 | 1.50 | 2 | 1.33 | 3 |
ss-common text-light|Red|Sorcery
|
3.5 | 2.7 | 7.33 | 6 | 6.35 | 35 |
ss-common text-light|Red|Creature — Devil
|
1.0 | 1.8 | 10.00 | 5 | 10.31 | 112 |
ss-rare|Red|Creature — Human Rogue Werewolf
|
4.0 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 1.67 | 6 |
ss-mythic|Red|Sorcery
|
0.0 | 3.9 | 4.00 | 1 | 3.00 | 4 |
ss-uncommon|Red|Creature — Human Shaman
|
3.0 | 1.7 | 10.33 | 3 | 8.92 | 21 |
ss-common text-light|Red|Sorcery
|
1.0 // 3.5 | 1.7 | 10.33 | 6 | 8.05 | 61 |
ss-common text-light|Red|Instant
|
1.0 // 2.5 | 1.5 | 10.93 | 14 | 10.02 | 176 |
ss-rare|Red|Creature — Human Warrior
|
4.0 | 4.4 | 2.67 | 3 | 2.25 | 4 |
ss-common text-light|Green|Creature — Human Monk
|
3.5 | 1.4 | 11.00 | 1 | 5.00 | 8 |
ss-rare|Green|Enchantment
|
3.5 | 5 | 1.00 | 1 | 4.00 | 2 |
ss-common text-light|Green|Creature — Elemental
|
3.0 | 1.1 | 12.00 | 9 | 9.35 | 67 |
ss-rare|Green|Creature — Human Advisor Werewolf
|
4.5 | 4.6 | 2.00 | 4 | 1.75 | 5 |
ss-common text-light|Green|Instant
|
0.5 | 1 | 12.12 | 25 | 11.13 | 212 |
ss-uncommon|Green|Creature — Human Druid
|
2.5 | -0 | 15.00 | 0 | 4.50 | 3 |
ss-uncommon|Green|Sorcery
|
1.0 // 4.5 | 3.9 | 4.00 | 1 | 5.00 | 10 |
ss-common text-light|Green|Sorcery
|
3.5 | 2.8 | 7.20 | 5 | 7.00 | 43 |
AI Limited ratings are gathered with data from MTGA Assistant, while Nizzahon Magic provides the Pro ratings. The key difference is that the Pro ratings and comments are made before the set officially releases, while the AI ratings dynamically update with new data. It would be best to use the Pro ratings as guidance as sets are released and the AI Ratings a couple of weeks after release. Here is an explanation of how we score the cards: