Ranking
For card-by-card rankings, reference my full spreadsheet linked in this tweet:
First part of my First Pick at Ravnica Allegiance Limited Review: the rankings spreadsheet. Based off @MikeSteinMTG 's template.— Ari Lax (@armlx) January 13, 2019
Blog posts to come talking about bigger structural things that are lost in the individual rankingshttps://t.co/BzaJXVApQ4
A quick note relative to other rankings. I'm much more interested in figuring out which C to B level cards are better than each other, as those distinctions help you fill a deck with above replacement cards and actually read signals. I care less about whether a mediocre card is a C- or D+ or whether a rare better than the best uncommons is a A- or A+. So here are the adjusted metrics.
D to C-: Degrees of cards I would rather cut.
C: Not usually cutting it from a deck, but not exciting to have.
C+ and B-: Various degrees of better than replacement, a deck full of these is great as it beats opponents drawing more replacement level cards.
B to B+: Distinctly better cards that really impact a game more than filler.
A- to A: Great uncommons that extremely difficult to beat, best rares, etc.
Gruul
-Like I said in my last post, Gruul has a lot of five drops to choose from. The general plan when confronted with this issue is definitely don't take the just OK ones highly, and if you randomly pick up a few of those stop worrying about the ones that are just a bit better than OK. Mammoth Spider is a slight exception because reach plays a unique role.
-Similar to how I liked what Orzhov presented but felt Rakdos wasn't quite coming together, I'm not sure I love the red parts of Gruul. There's fine filler bodies, but nothing super exciting outside of multi-colored cards. Add in Open the Gates and I expect to see a fair amount of three color green decks. Gruul seems likely to splash for the four power matters cards in black.
-Gruul creatures are comically larger than everything else. Fight spells as removal are largely defending against fliers, and a big issue is that the ground creatures you care about have deathtouch and you should not fight those.
Top Commons
1. Frenzied Arynx - Just a stupidly large creature with another four upsides.
2. Skewer the Critics - Kills deathtouch creatures, and I expect casting multiple spells when spectacle-ing this is more important here than in Rakdos.
3. Savage Smash - Still a good rate removal spell that beats opposing large things and deals bonus damage.
4. Sauroform Hybrid - Two drop that doubles as a 6/6 later on is great in a format where 6/6 is insanely big.
5. Open the Gates - Really into fixing to splash powerful black removal or Simic multicolored cards, and this is better than a Guildgate. If you take Simic Guildgate and want to splash black cards it doesn't work, take this and you always hit.
6. Scorchmark - Trades for stuff, costs two. Might be overrating this relative to a 2/2.
7. Mammoth Spider - I think Rampaging Rendhorn is more powerful, but Mammoth Spider is a less replaceable five drop with some random other five drop with power and toughness.
8. Burning-Tree Vandal - Filtering cards is important in a deck trying to hit five mana and trying to keep casting five drops once it gets there.
Honorable Mentions: Territorial Boar, Rampaging Rendhorn
Top Uncommons
1. Rhythm of the Wild - This card is messed up. Giving all your big idiots haste and making all your little idiots big is a huge upgrade.
2. Flames of the Raze-boar - Also messed up. So many ways to get Plague Wind'ed.
3. Clan Guildmage - Two drop that lets you run your lands into your opponent until they die or takes out a good blocker.
4. Trollbred Guardian - Baseline is good, big mode is relatively cheap to unlock and crunches multiple things.
5. Sunder Shaman - Not a two drop, harder to cast if you splash, but just a great body if you stick it on time that non-green decks will struggle with.
Honorable Mentions: Zhur-Taa Goblin, Clamor Shaman, jeez these are all really good and there are more great uncommons in Gruul
Simic
-Simic is weird on a couple levels. First off, it's hard to quite tell what the blue and green overlap is. Then you really dive down and realize there's solid defensive options across the colors ending with green stuff just being big enough to block and attack once you lock up a win. Then you realize Simic has no good removal, so how is the archetype answering relevant opposing threats? I think Simic is really just Simic splash for answers, and due to the flexibility of Open the Gates that might even mean going Sultai for black removal if that's what you end up with.
-Counter magic also peaks in Simic. There isn't as much good adapt as you would want, but there's a lot of things to do at instant speed with your mana and a shortage of ways to answer things. Set your deck up to not waste turns if they don't cast something you need to counter, and don't waste counters on things that really aren't necessary.
-The "seven drop theme deck" is probably base Simic, but I can't imagine going down that road with just Simic cards unless you get a bunch of uncommon level ramp. And this is all an "if" as in "if you can even pull off a heavy seven drop deck".
Top Commons
1. Aeromunculus - 2/3 flying for three is a bargain, and 3/4 post-adapt rules the skies and honestly a lot of the ground too.
-Counter magic also peaks in Simic. There isn't as much good adapt as you would want, but there's a lot of things to do at instant speed with your mana and a shortage of ways to answer things. Set your deck up to not waste turns if they don't cast something you need to counter, and don't waste counters on things that really aren't necessary.
-The "seven drop theme deck" is probably base Simic, but I can't imagine going down that road with just Simic cards unless you get a bunch of uncommon level ramp. And this is all an "if" as in "if you can even pull off a heavy seven drop deck".
Top Commons
1. Aeromunculus - 2/3 flying for three is a bargain, and 3/4 post-adapt rules the skies and honestly a lot of the ground too.
2. Slimebind - Two mana removal that honestly neutralizes everything that doesn't cost seven. Even if it was a 5/5 it's now a 1/5, good luck with that.
3. Sauroform Hybrid - Good two drop that turns into a win condition, but also unlike Gruul all the blue two drops suck.
4. Open the Gates - Gotta splash for removal somehow.
5. Chillbringer - Obviously strong, but the five slot is still overloaded from green. If you have a Rampaging Rendhorn instead it's worse but not devastating.
5. Chillbringer - Obviously strong, but the five slot is still overloaded from green. If you have a Rampaging Rendhorn instead it's worse but not devastating.
6. Senate Courier - Four toughness and flying is just a big stop sign to attackers.
7. Senate Griffin - Finishers aren't as hard to find as in Orzhov, but this is a fine rate for one.
7. Senate Griffin - Finishers aren't as hard to find as in Orzhov, but this is a fine rate for one.
8. Arrester's Admonition - I don't think this is a great tempo card, but I don't mind it as a cantrip that stems early beats and sometimes saves a relevant card from removal.
Top Uncommons
1. Sharktocrab - Really insane rate to start, and if you ever get to trigger it twice by moving counters or something I can't imagine losing.
2. Frilled Mystic - Counter spells are good, two for ones are good, this is good.
3. Trollbred Guardian - Biggest of the big idiots that doesn't default cost a million mana
4. Skatewing Spy - Bad rate to start, effect is a bit harder to utilize wildly than I expected without seeing the full set, but giving everything flying is still hard to beat.
5. Combine Guildmage - Kinda hard to get off the ground without other cards helping, but moving counters makes combat impossible and this enables a couple broken synergies like Sharktocrab.
-Past the first couple removal and fliers, the Azorius mono-colored commons are relatively unexciting. It feels like there are sizing and rate issues that are going to be made quickly apparent in a game, and I wouldn't want to lean heavily on the replacement level cards here.
-The Azorius multicolor cards on the other hand are really good removal and finishers. This points towards Azorius not being a guild you want to fight over, similar to Selesnya last set. The filler cards are a little better though, so it's less likely you end up with a mostly open Azorius deck that is still bad. Also not similar to Golgari, which needed a lot of very specific cogs to get off the ground.
-Azorius could also support full on Esper, similar to what I mentioned with Orzhov. Whether you are "Orzhov-Blue" or "Azorius-Black" there likely just depends on what multicolored cards you get passed.
Top Commons
1. Lawmage's Binding - Three mana removal that hits Guildmages and 5/5s, not sure what more you want.
2. Slimebind - Efficient removal spell that trades up well.
3. Summary Judgment - Efficient removal spell that also trades up slightly less well.
4. Azorius Knight-Arbiter - Solid finisher that really holds the fort in races.
5. Chillbringer - Solid finisher that pulls slightly less weight in races.
6. Senate Courier - Good rate blocker on curve, handles most fliers and chips away.
7. Impassioned Orator - Good two drops are hard to find.
8. Senate Griffin - Still just a reasonable flier.
Honorable Mentions - Arrester's Admonition, Syndicate Messenger
Top Uncommons
1. Ministrant of Obligation - Still really stupid, even without sacrifice outlets you can just attack them with it. What are they going to do, block and give you two fliers?
2. Sky Tether - One mana removal for non-Guildmages, feels like the next couple of cards are great but still interchangeable fliers while removal at this rate is unique.
3. Sphinx of New Prahv - This isn't a great blocker but it kills very fast, abilities largely hampers expensive black removal and Summary Judgment but not other colors.
4. Senate Guildmage - Low cost looters are extremely powerful, and both being a 2/2 and gaining life negate the usual downside of cheap looters putting you behind against aggro.
5. Azorius Skyguard - Strong set of abilities, but just a bit fragile as a 3/3.
Honorable Mentions - Spirit of the Spires
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