M10 Limited Review and Guide to Drafting
Hi I’m Geoff Fletcher and I’m from England; land of rain, whinging and pretty sporadic Magic Pro Tour results. Whilst I can’t change the former two, a group of us from dear old Blighty including the likes of the Orsini-Jones brothers (Marco and Matteo), Mark Glennister (who made top 16 at Honolulu playing my deck) and myself have been trying to turn our magical fortunes around as a nation. I have written before for a European site www.magicmadhouse.co.uk and am honoured to find myself in a position to produce content for gameplayer whilst I am on my travels in New Zealand. For my first articles over here I wanted to focus on the current limited environment in a way that will hopefully provide some insight to players whatever their level. To this end: I have produced a comprehensive series to help players with M10 limited and, making card evaluation in general by taking an in depth evaluation of the available cards and talking extensively about how I arrive at my conclusions.
The series will be split into five parts each concentrating on the cards available to one colour and its overall strategy in draft. The articles will not all be equal in length: this first one is going to have an in depth discussion about how to evaluate cards, whilst the last one will seek to draw some overall conclusions and judgements about the format.
Those who have read my articles before will recognise the next bit in its entirety but since this best describes the method I continue to use when exploring new limited formats I am leaving it unchanged for people new to my writing and strategy articles as a whole.
In my belief the way most players evaluate cards can be broadly split into 3 categories:
1) ‘In a vacuum’(Absolute): Here the raw power and utility of the card is assessed against an average of what past cards of a similar role and casting cost have been able to achieve, or in the case with new concepts the question how much bang do you get for your buck is asked.
2) In context of the cards around them (Contextually): Here cards are evaluated based on how they perform their role with a nod to how they interact with the specific cards in their format e.g. a 2 damage removal spell like shock is no good in a format where all the relevant threats have 3 toughness despite its great effect to cost ratio.
3) ‘Anecdotally’: Here a cards worth is based on whether it performed well in an actual game played by the player. This form of analysis is like a super-specific version of contextual analysis.
The bad news is these modes of assessment can lead to players drawing some very different conclusions about the same card!!! The good news is that in at least some part all the conclusions contain truth, the difficult bit is aligning them to tell a full story. The most common mistake made by players evaluating a card is to use only one of these methods and it has lead many a well respected player to draw some retrospectively very odd conclusions about a cards value e.g.
A particularly well known article writer (who shall remain nameless) declared Garruk Wildspeaker to be a bad Call of the Herd (CotH), whilst comparing Bitterblossom very unfavourably against Phyrexian Arena. With Garruk, the writer saw contextually that planeswalkers would be fairly easy to attack or burn, therefore drew his conclusion, but he did not recognise Garruk’s raw potential to provide triple or more 3/3s for only 4 mana nor the versatility of having 3 effects in one card that made Garruk see reasonable play in the last format where CotH saw none. Meanwhile looking at Bitterblossom in a vacuum one could conclude that a card from your deck was better than a 1/1 flying faerie yet in a fast environment with loads of synergistic interactions for the Fae this was certainly not the case.
Each of my card evaluations will try to include an element of both absolute and contextual comment on the card being assessed. I do not yet have enough experience to provide much anecdotal evidence but also find it to be generally the worst evaluation since it often trips up less experienced players. Many weaker players conclude a card is good because they used it to win a game yet forget more easily the time it sat dead or did nothing or could have been something that did the same job far quicker. A classic example of this is cards that are too expensive at the top end of the curve as they still provide a high impact against an opponent who is struggling ( flooded or screwed a bit) e.g. even Viashino Skeleton gets to look good on an empty board.
Alongside my commentary I am going to include a score out of 10 for each card, but I see this as almost arbitrary in comparison to the description. The score is however useful in quantifying my belief in the comparative worth of any two cards. Since I view the rating as a comparative aid as opposed to an absolute measure I am only going to provide a limited grading description detailed below:
1-2: This card is pretty much unplayable with some possible sideboard use or as an occasional 23rd spell
3-5: These cards pad out an already good deck. A player maybe pleased to table the occasional one but they will be unlikely to be the reason you win games
6-8: These cards are solid stalwarts of any good limited deck in its colours. It would easily be possible for a player to win games in which they simply played a succession of cards of this quality in some kind of timely fashion; the more of these you can get hold of the better.
9-10: These cards are amazing they will change the game totally around for whoever plays them with the potential to either provide stunning tempo or close to win on the spot.
This system is primarily useful to give people a quantitative guide to how positive or negative my comments are and also to aid distinguishing pick order between cards that fulfil similar roles or are key components in the same strategy.
N.B. This card review does not come with pictures and stats for all the cards. As a result I recommend opening the official sortable M10 spoiler in a window alongside it in order to get the most out of what you read.
Without further ado I will get to talking about the cards:
White Review
Ajani Goldmane
This card is nuts for limited mainly due to its second ability although all of them are fine. What makes it so good is the continual threat alongside letting all your roughly equal drops suddenly become roughly better than theirs. Vigilance here is amazing as it lets you gain enormous offensive tempo through attack but also lets you defend Ajani. This card does have a notable downside, that unless you have 2 or more creatures on board when you play it it’s reduced to a kinda mediocre life gain spell, but creature stall is so common in M10 (due to mass vanilla-ness) this situation will seldom crop up and if any colour can win via tempo rush it’s white. Always pick this first pick unless you get foil Baneslayer angel see below and consider switching colours to white if you draft this at any point. The raw power of this is in the same ballpark as Overrun only this is more reliable!!!
Rating 9.1
Angel's Mercy
In this format card advantage is everything since most games seem to fall to last man standing or biggest or most evasion this means a card that cannot apply pressure or stop the enemies cards is terrible. Even a bad bear (2/2 creature) is almost always better and these are pretty bad in this format. Newbies if you learn one thing from this article learn that burning a card for some paltry life gain (under 15-20) is BAD.
Rating 0.5
Armored Ascension
This is a real gambler’s card in this format since getting 2 for 1ed by removal may well lose you the game yet if it goes unanswered for even 2 turns you will likely win. Even in a 2 colour deck this will usually give +3/+3 and flying or better, meaning if the opponent taps out it could well win a race on the spot. Overall I think this card is a safer gamble than it feels despite the dearth of good early creatures, leading to tempo being a weaker option vs control since if you play it on a creature that has already been outclassed then you don’t really lose so much to a removal. In the drafts I have seen thus far this card goes far later than it should so is a potential hidden gem to watch out for make sure it doesn’t pass you later than 5th if you’re in White.
Rating 4-6.5 (depending on how many plains you play)
Baneslayer Angel
If you have played magic more than once and do not realise this card is amazing for limited you should probably easy up on the drugs and maybe consider Monopoly as the safer option. It has an awesome size to casting cost, evasion and two other highly relevant abilities. It is almost impossible to lose a damage race with this card in play. This card is even better in this format since it is slow enough that bombs can be drawn and played in around 50% of games. The size of this card combined with first strike means it’s very hard to burn or kill in combat and if you play around Divine Verdict and pack a little enchantment removal there is very little that can remove it at all. This card is about as ridiculous as it could possibly be even the protection is relevant since it basically means protection other bombs. Pick and play this whenever possible.
Rating 9.7
Blinding Mage
This is a totally excellent common because for W each turn it can shut down the opponents best attacker or blocker as required acting as removal for their best non-utility creature until this is killed. If you’re playing white you will be happy to get as many as you can get. This and Pacifism are very close in power level since both can be removed but the potential for this to breakthrough by tapping on their endstep then your main phase to neutralise 2 blockers possibly makes this a touch better especially in multiples.
Rating 8.2
Captain of the Watch
Another nuts rare for white. This generates incredible tempo and card advantage especially if you have other soldiers in the deck. The fact it gets 9 power for 6 mana is something I have seen win many games on its own. Discounting monetary value I believe this may be a more powerful better pick than Ajani, because it allows you to draft amazing synergy into your deck and is a whole army in a card. This gets crazy when paired with Overrun and Ajani or even Glorious Charge. Pick this 1st pick and consider changing secondary colour to white in order to play this.
Rating 9.2
Celestial Purge
Outside Shards block this can’t really be played in the main since most decks are 1-2 colours meaning it will miss too often, but it’s still awesome from the board, possibly even better given the slow bomb based nature of the format. Pick this whenever you can afford to pass a more mediocre card like Silvercoat Lion or possibly better if your decks really good already.
Rating 0-8.5 (depending on opponents deck)
Divine Verdict
People call this the new Neck Snap but this is far better than that. Firstly the ability to snag blocking creatures makes this very solid on attack or D. Secondly the format being slow and bomb based means 4 mana to kill almost any bomb in the format as almost all of them use the red zone to win is still awesome. This is probably not as good as pacifism but due to the viability of maindecking enchantment removal in this format getting the job done for good is well worth a look and makes this a more difficult decision. This is a very high pick probably 1st-4th but still often goes much later when it really shouldn’t, grab this over pretty much all the common creatures.
Rating 7.8
Elite Vanguard
In a fast tempo base format this would be the nuts but here its pretty mediocre as it receives very little backup due to drafting enough soldiers being much more difficult than it looks and a lack of abilities on cheaper guys meaning they are outclassed really fast. This isn’t bad it’s just not nearly as good as it should be and unless you can get multiples and a very tempo based deck this is probably just an ok mid-late pick. Grab this around 5th-9th and run it either when you really need to lower curve or in the rare case you can draft a super fast tempo deck.
Rating 5
Excommunicate
This card is another casualty of the formats low tempo because the time it gains is often not so relevant. It gains a little in stalls if it can remove a key blocker to allow an evasion creature to deal lethal or such like. In this format a lack of counter placing and decent enchantments also make this weaker than in its original home since the chance to 2 for 1 is largely removed. This is a pretty low pick but due to setting them back a draw is still always playable in your 23.
Rating 4.2
Glorious Charge
This card is a little hard to evaluate since its worth is very situational. It could be great in a tempo rush or late game big-board scenario yet very mediocre in a race or resource-trading scenario. I think overall this is reasonable since it can usually do something ok like save a 3 toughness guy from lightning bolt, or let 1 Hill Giant defeat another. It does run a risk of causing a 2 for 1, yet at the same time can cause a devastating blow out in a key big attack step. Don’t pick this high but you could run one or two in a swarm deck or if you have to.
Rating 4.5
Griffin Sentinel
All creatures that only fight are pretty dull if they have 1 power and this is no exception. Flying makes this not terrible as it can hold of early Bears while constantly nibbling away but ultimately other than providing a little early stability this does far too little to be of interest. Play this as a 23rd card if you have to and avoid picking it whenever possible.
Rating 3.8
Guardian Seraph
Wow yet another white bomb rare although this is only medium spicy compared to the special delights in the rare/mythic slot thus far. This is ultra efficient giving a much needed relevant mid to early play to any deck and the ability ranges from reasonable to amazing depending on if your opponent has big guys or not. This is a straight first pick if you are already white and a decent pull towards it if not. I think in limited this is a modicum weaker than Serra Angel but haven’t had time to try it yet and probably very close with Air elemental. This is a solid 1st pick choice and obviously excellent if you are passed it.
Rating 8.8
Harm's Way
This card is excellent and will often 2 for 1 by saving a trade in combat then destroying an opposite evader or utility man. The cheap cost of this card means even as a trade it can gain massive tempo but there is a small danger of removal causing a 2 for 1 because damage no longer stacks. It’s worth noting this is amazing in interaction with your opponent’s deathtouch creatures. This card is a solid 1st pick and should be snapped up 1st-3rd, whilst not a reason to play white on its own I may even condsider splashing it.
Rating 8.5
Holy Strength
Like playing cards that do nothing? Utter trash: never play or pick this unless its part of some crazy bet.
Rating 0.2
Honor of the Pure
Another really strong white rare. Note I didn’t say bomb this time although in mono-white this probably still is a bomb, in 2 colour it will just be very decent. If you have 10 or so white creatures the chance to boost the 3-4 of them you’ll draw in the average game probably beats having an average dude in place of this, but once numbers start to exceed this amount the card gets awesome.
Rating 6-8.3 (depending on white creatures in your deck)
Indestructibility
This card is sadly pretty mediocre as a bunch of removal exists in M10 that ignores indestructible, plus you can bounce the target for this or remove in response. That said this on a bomb may sometimes go the distance but its pretty dull. Don’t pick or play this when you don’t have to and possibly rank it a modicum higher if you have a great target for it.
Rating 2.5
Lifelink
Note: THIS IS NOT SPIRIT LINK it is in fact a really terrible card that looks like it and will GIVE LIFE TO YOUR OPPONENT when on their guy. Removing the dual functionality on Spirit Link moves it from playable pseudo-removal to the worst imaginable jank, don’t draft or play this.
Rating 1
Lightwielder Paladin
Another solid white rare offering very good stats and a very relevant ability allowing it to outclass all common creatures and almost all uncommons in the combat step save for Enormous Baloth. The damage ability can be randomly awesome, BR has more removal for this than any other combination but they must hit it quickly. This is solid 1st pick yet cannot be splashed and would not be worth changing colours for.
Rating 8.6
Mesa Enchantress
Very hard to find enough reasonable cards to combo with, it probably needs 5 or more to be worthwhile so if you have 3 Pacifism and 2 Entangling Vines give it a shot otherwise steer well clear. The reason for this is that this does nothing on its own but lose you tempo and a card which the 1st enchantment gets back but only after 2 are you in profit so you have to get this and 2 decent enchantments in a relevant time-frame for negligible gain.
Rating 1.2
Open the Vaults
An interesting combo piece for constructed that lacks anything meaningful to interact with in this format. Don’t draft or play this.
Rating 0.6
Pacifism
An excellent efficient removal spell the epitome of what white removal should be yet this carries a mild vulnerability to Acidic Slime or other maindeck enchantment removal. This is a solid 1st pick and should go 1st-4th.
Rating 8.1
Palace Guard
A purely better Horned Turtle making it decent to pair with evaders. The possibility of a multi-block and the ability to gain from other soldiers really lift this from super mediocre to fairly decent filler. Running 1-2 of this is okay especially in a soldier heavy deck, but it should still only be considered for 22nd and 23rd slots in most decent decks because it can’t really generate pressure. Pick this 9th-12th since it can help you out in a pinch.
Rating 4.7
Planar Cleansing
Another white bomb rare. In this slow format the fact you can play round this whilst your opponent cannot should allow for some pretty nasty blowouts. If you can keep back 1-2 decent threats whilst they commit unawares this hould be enough to ensure victory.
Rating 8.8
Razorfoot Griffin
A solid guy for a solid cost, good as both attacker and on D this is a solid mid pick, probably worth getting 5th-8th. First strike is very relevant as this will play opposite all the other decent common flyers that have 2 or less toughness.
Rating 6.5
Rhox Pikemaster
This is a very good pick that offers strong stats and an excellent synergy with other soldiers especially the Veteran Swordsmith. One has to be a little careful with this not to get greedy with attacks or blocks in a way that allows a removal based blowout but this is still really solid. This card is probably not a 1st pick or reason to go white but should be taken around 3rd-5th pick.
Rating 6.2-8 (depending on number of soldiers you have)
Righteousness
This often functions as a very cheap removal for the opponent’s best creature, which is excellent. It does have the catch that you can be 2 for 1ed by removal or if you don’t have a relevant blocker then it does nothing, but when this shines it will generate excellent tempo whilst trading a far better card. This card is obviously worse than stuff like Divine Verdict due to being situational but still better than most common creatures.
Rating 7.4
Safe Passage
This card is close to being a bomb and is vastly better than people realised earlier on. It can totally dominate an opposing alpha strike or allow you to make your own with impunity. It can act as Fog or effectively counter Lightning Bolt, Overrun, Tendrils of Corruption, Fireball, or Earthquake!! The ability to nullify many of the formats best bombs while simultaneously providing a route to victory should not be ignored. This is made all the better by the fact each colour has only 10 Uncommons, so a player doing well in this limited format will most likely have some of the cards you want to stop with this. Take this 2nd-5th pick and provided you have enough creatures feel free to play as many as you like of this card, it’s probably even worth splashing for.
Rating 8
Serra Angel
At uncommon this is amazing, Air Elemental is already a bomb this just takes it one notch better, cranking the volume to eleven. This is a great 1st pick and if I have this and 1-2 other good white cards I’ll find a way to play them somehow. The angel is super efficient and there are many stalled games where you just make this and ride it to victory.
Rating 9
Siege Mastodon
Solid in a ground stall and okay on offence too, this is no Craw Wurm but is very much better than the other non-green common big-guys and as such makes a very decent mid pick that can hold the ground late. Get this 5th-8th pick.
Rating 6
Silence
This is pretty dull in limited, putting you a whole card behind just for the potential to dodge a few effects making it unplayable in this arena.
Rating 0.1
Silvercoat Lion
Small and dull in a format where tempo is hard to generate, this is outclassed very rapidly and is not a soldier so cannot power up. The speed simply doesn’t seem to be available to make this relevant meaning it is a low pick probably 7th-10th. This can be okay against enemy 3/2s and the like and may trade up but is hugely dull when it doesn’t.
Rating 4
Solemn Offering
This is a great board card since there is a lot of enchantment-based removal and some decent equipment available to most decks. It can be viable to main this effect especially in sealed since with Entangling Vines decent enchantments are fairly well spread by colour. Pick this whenever there is no pick you strongly need, as when this hits something relevant you will be well ahead.
Rating 0-8 (varies with targets)
Soul Warden
This card is a real trap in this format as its green counterpart was great in planar chaos, where tempo was very viable and racing common, yet here far too often you may be at 40 life but slowly lose to a board you lost control of. This is terrible in sealed and maybe okay in draft depending on match up, it may be worth getting for the sideboard and could be picked 8th-10th.
Rating 3
Stormfront Pegasus
This is excellent, an early attacker that maintains relevance through evasion. It is very efficiently costed and should be picked highly around 3rd-6th pick. Having a bunch of these may be one of the few ways to rush the opponent to an early demise.
Rating 6.8
Tempest of Light
Inflexible and therefore bad this is a million times worse than Solemn Offering and should probably not have a pick wasted on it. If your opponent has loads of enchantments and you don’t this may be worth a slot from the board.
Rating 2.8
Undead Slayer
This card is great against black and trash when you’re not playing against the hordes of darkness. As such if you have enough playables to grab a good board choice do go ahead but this is strictly filler when not fighting the right opponent and a pretty bad 23rd card that I may run land over.
Rating 2-7 (depends on targets)
Veteran Armorsmith
This is a decent early drop because it can help your team, and outclasses nearly all the other 2-drops. That said it is in turn outclassed pretty fast by most decks so shouldn’t be grabbed over more relevant threats. When looking at the spoiler I thought it possible to live the dream of having multiples of each of the soldiers, but in reality I’ve never seen it come together for sealed or draft. This is probably worth a mid pick around 6th-9th , maybe higher if you have real curve issues.
Rating 5.7-6.3
Veteran Swordsmith
This is the better of the two soldier veterans by some way and is excellent in multiples with 3 power staying relevant for much longer than 2. I like to have these over most of whites non-flying common creatures and will grab them 4th-7th when I can.
Rating 6.3-7
Wall of Faith
This card can stop you losing for quite a while on the ground so if you can kill them with your evasion these can be really strategic but they are still a pretty low pick since they supply no offence whatever and simply serve to keep good decks ahead. Pick these if your decks good already and not losing may be good enough.
Rating 5-6
White Knight
This carding would be excellent in most formats but here is just decent since its hard to build enough tempo to make it really killer. First strike is nice and as usual pairs well with green pump or red burn but it is when the protection gets used that this can really shine. This would be a really high pick in many formats but is probably only mid to high in this case but it’s still superior to most of whites common creatures. Pick this around 3rd-6th.
Rating 6.5
Conclusion
White as a whole offers mainly very good rares and uncommons with a common pool that is deep in removal but light on larger creatures to win the game. To make up for the deficit in win condition type commons for white it does well to pair with its allies blue, or particularly green in my experience so far. White looked to me like it would be the standout best colour for draft just after I read the spoiler but in reality seems a bit over-drafted to be consistent but you should always keep your eyes open to see if this powerful colour is available. If you have interesting comments or questions please write to geofflfletcher@hotmail.com but please don’t flame as I will just block your further correspondence permanently.
