Hey there!
In the barren spell between the paper and online releases of Shards of Alara, I’ve turned my eye to Shards of Alara Limited evaluations. While I’ve had little chance to get my hands on the new cards – there aren’t any prereleases where I live — I still have some strong views on the strengths and weaknesses of the set as a whole. My card evaluations are largely abstract, but my massive experience (and success) with the multicolor environments of Invasion and Ravnica draft help me a great deal.
My process this time: rank the cards in each color. I’ve divided them into tiers. The tiers are basically defined as follows:
Tier 1: A card I’m happy to first pick.
Tier 2: Cards that will always make my deck if my mana can support it.
Tier 3: Cards that that will often make my deck, but certainly not always. Tier 3 is also where I’ve put very deck-specific cards, like Tezzeret the Seeker or Master of Etherium.
Tier 4: Cards that are outright terrible, cards that I’ll have to be extremely desperate to put in my deck, or cards that may see rare sideboard usage.
This article is part 1 of 2. Today, we look at the mono-colored cards. Next time, we look at the multicolor cards on offer. I’m not going to comment on every card, just the ones that may seem out of place or interesting. As for more strict advice on archetypes… Nick will be delivering that sometime soon.
There are a few things that are quite obvious from looking at the set. For example, the format’s going to be relatively slow since there aren’t many good beatdown creatures other than the abundance of White bears. The other thing that really jumped out at me is that Red is amazing and Blue is terrible. Red has lots of cards that are very close to Tier 1 and a very deep Tier 2. Blue, however, has an almost non-existent Tier 1, and a huge Tier 3, since all of its cards are quite mediocre.
I’ve included the list with only the commons at the end, since those will be the most useful for drafts. As I mentioned above, I’ll be back next week with a look at the Gold cards, and probably again in a couple months to review my predictions after some time doing Drafting With Rich.
White
Tier 1
Battlegrace Angel
Elspeth Knight Errant
Scourglass
Oblivion Ring
Tier 2
Sigiled Paladin
Knight of the White Orchid
Excommunicate
Knight of the Skyward Eye
Sanctum Gargoyle
Knight-Captain of Eos
Akransan Squire
Welkin Guide
Resounding Silence
Ethersworn Canonist
Tier 3
Ranger of Eos
Sunseed Nurturer
Bant Battlemage
Yoked Plowbeast
Metallurgeon
Dispeller’s Capsule
Rockcaster Platoon
Angelsong
Guardians of Akrasa
Tier 4
Angel’s Herald
Angelic Benediction
Cradle of Vitality
Gustrider Exuberant
Invincible Hymn
Marble Chalice
Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
Soul’s Grace
I’m not entirely sure how good Scourglass is. It’s obviously awesome if your deck is all artifacts, but how often is that going to happen? If you don’t have that many artifacts, it seems playable, but certainly no bomb. It’s then a terrible Wrath effect because it gives them an extra turn to bash you once you’ve got them to over-commit.
I don’t really need to tell you that Oblivion Ring is awesome, because you were still drafting it just over 6 months ago. I just want to explain that I have it in Tier 1 since it’s probably the best answer to all the real bombs floating around.
I’ve always been quite disdainful of Fog effects. Even the “playable” ones like Dawn Charm and Tangle were cards that it pained me to put in my deck. Angelsong, however, is one that I won’t be particularly unhappy to play. It’s still not great, and I’d rather not have it in my maindeck, but it can occasionally steal a game, and the other 99.9% of the time it will cycle.
Sadly there aren’t enough targets to make Ranger of Eos good, although getting two Arkansan Squires seems pretty cool.
I can see Resounding Silence moving down the pick order as people start playing around it more and more. When I pay four for this type of effect, I want it to be able to do something on offense, like the reasonable Neck Snap and the miserable Aethertow can offer.
Blue
Tier 1
Sharding Sphinx
Tier 2
Covenant of Minds
Esper Battlemage
Fatestitcher
Resounding Wave
Kathari Screecher
Tier 3
Gather Specimens
Cloudheath Drake
Jhessian Lookout
Kederekt Leviathan
Call to Heel
Steelclad Serpent
Master of Etherium
Etherium Sculptor
Skill Borrower
Courier’s Capsule
Cancel
Tezzeret the Seeker
Coma Veil
Filigree Sages
Spell Snip
Outrider of Jhess
Dawnray Archer
Tier 4
Vectis Silencers
Cathartic Adept
Etherium Astrolabe
Memory Erosion
Mindlock Orb
Protomatter Powder
Sphinx’s Herald
Tortoise Formation
Yeah, Blue is lame.
I think it’s even being a bit generous putting Sharding Sphinx in the first Tier. The main reason I don’t want to first pick it is that it’s Blue, but I think it’s worse than the average Air Elemental because of its Artifact status. It seems likely his ability will rarely affect your other creatures, because there are very few artifact creatures with evasion.
Even the second Tier of Blue cards isn’t particularly impressive. Fatestitcher is a little slow, and Resounding Wave is a little underwhelming since by the time you get to eight mana to cycle it they likely have sufficient mana to simply replay both the guys you bounced next turn.
It’s hard for me to evaluate Tezzeret, but it doesn’t look there are enough artifacts worth searching out for him to be impressive. I guess if you have tons of artifacts then he can be a delayed trample-less Overrun.
Gather Specimens seems like a bad Overwhelming Intellect, which wasn’t always playable in a pretty slow format. I know it looks like a Control Magic, but leaving six mana up without it looking obvious isn’t the easiest thing in the world.
Black
Tier 1
Vein Drinker
Infest
Executioner’s Capsule
Tier 2
Archdemon of Unx
Fleshbag Marauder
Skeletal Kathari
Grixis Battlemage
Tar Fiend
Salvage Titan
Blister Beetle
Viscera Dragger
Tier 3
Bone Splinters
Dregscape Zombie
Corpse Connoisseur
Death Baron
Scavenger Drake
Shore Snapper
Undead Leotau
Dreg Reaver
Cunning Lethemancer
Onyx Goblet
Puppet Conjurer
Resounding Scream
Tier 4
Ad Nauseam
Death Greeter
Demon’s Herald
Glaze Fiend
Immortal Coil
Banewasp Affliction
Shadowfeed
Infest isn’t going to be as good as it was in Onslaught / Legions / Scourge – the morph format – but it still has potential for some big card advantage. Black also has a decent number of three toughness creatures to really take advantage of it.
I’m generally not a fan of cards like Bone Splinters. I hated having to put Deathbomb or Call for Blood into my deck. Bone Splinters is definitely different. Since there are so many Black, Blue, and Red creatures with Unearth, it doesn’t seem like it will be too hard to find a creature to sacrifice for next to no cost.
I’m not entirely sure about where Scavenger Drake should be. It’s the type of card that I’d need to play with more to see if it justifies a cost of four. I know I’d be happy to play it at three, but at four it might just be too slow if you start on the back foot.
Onyx Goblet is a reasonable finisher. It’s probably going to be slightly worse than Lava Axe most of the time, but it’s definitely a solid role player that will be very good in the right kind of deck.
Red
Tier 1
Predator Dragon
Caldera Hellion
Flameblast Dragon
Tier 2
Resounding Thunder
Magma Spray
Vithian Stinger
Bloodpyre Elemental
Skeletonize
Soul’s Fire
Jund Battlemage
Hell’s Thunder
Tier 3
Hissing Iguanar
Dragon Fodder
Scourge Devil
Rockslide Elemental
Exuberant Firestoker
Incurable Ogre
Ridge Rannet
Bloodthorn Taunter
Thorn-Thrash Viashino
Lightning Talons
Tier 4
Crucible of Fire
Dragon’s Herald
Goblin Assault
Goblin Mountaineer
Thunder-Thrash Elder
Viashino Skeleton
Vicious Shadows
Volcanic Submersion
Where Ancients Tread
Wow, is Red good. The three cards in Tier 1 are amazing, and will often win games almost singlehandedly. After that Red has five good common removal spells and a Tim (pinger). The creatures are a little mediocre, but they all have more power than toughness, which is exactly what I’m looking for when I have so much removal. Even Incurable Ogre, the latest incarnation of the Drossodile, is reasonably good because of how hard he hits.
Red isn’t all that deep however, with a pretty quick drop off to the back end of Tier 3. Bloodthorn Taunter and Thorn-Thrash Viashino will probably see more than their fair share of play to fill out the back end of lots of Red decks with about 15 really good cards.
Dragon Fodder is nice with all the Devour creatures, and it plays reasonable early game defense because everyone hates trading their ‘real’ creatures with your crappy tokens.
Goblin Assault seems like it could be good in the right deck, with lots of Devour and removal, but I’m generally not a fan of cards that get completely shut down by a Squire.
Green
Tier 1
Mycoloth
Tier 2
Naya Battlemage
Druid of the Anima
Feral Hydra
Rhox Charger
Wild Nacatl
Resounding Roar
Topan Ascetic
Cylian Elf
Court Archers
Drumhunter
Manaplasm
Sacellum Godspeaker
Skullmuncher
Tier 3
Mosstodon
Gift of the Gargantuan
Spearbreaker Behemoth
Soul’s Might
Cavern Thoctar
Jungle Weaver
Naturalize
Elvish Visionary
Keeper of Progenitus
Savage Hunter
Tier 4
Algae Gharial
Behemoth’s Herald
Godtoucher
Lush Growth
Mighty Emergence
Ooze Garden
Green is good in draft when it has things like a good curve, multiple pump spells, or excellent defensive creatures like Penumbra Spider. It is pretty mediocre when it focuses on accelerating out big dudes that get bounced or killed, and you’re left having invested a bunch of cards in mana while your opponent made some creatures. Shards is obviously leaning towards the fatty end of the spectrum, but it looks like you can craft a solid Green, White, or Red beatdown deck in draft.
Green’s real problem in this set is that nearly all of its commons are in the inferior tiers, while the higher tiers are composed of mostly uncommons and rares (which aren’t even overwhelming).
Mycoloth is the only Green card I really consider a bomb. It requires a bit of an investment, and I know I’ll feel a little sick when it gets bounced/Oblivion Ringed etc, but it won’t take too many turns of Saproling production to make the game not even remotely close.
I might have Druid of the Anima a little high, and it definitely loses a lot of value when you’re playing less than three colors, but it seems like in the Green/White/Red decks that will be most common it is excellent. There aren’t many exciting three-drops, so accelerating to turn 4 is important.
Perhaps Resounding Roar should move up since it’s the only non-creature card before Tier 3. It is a solid trick, and would definitely be rated higher if it provided trample.
I’m not sure about Gift of the Gargantuan. I think you have to hit both about half the time (and a creature four out of five times) to make this playable. If someone who knows more than I do about statistics cares to run the math assuming seventeen lands and seventeen creatures, I’d be interested in knowing what the results are, keeping in mind that you’re going to have drawn at least three lands by the time you play it.
I’ll finish up with my common mono-colored pick orders. Next week, the true gold of the set: Multicolor cards!
Until then…
Rich
White
Oblivion Ring
Excommunicate
Knight of the Skyward Eye
Sanctum Gargoyle
Akransan Squire
Welkin Guide
Resounding Silence
Bant Battlemage
Yoked Plowbeast
Metallurgeon
Dispeller’s Capsule
Angelsong
Guardians of Akrasa
Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
Gustrider Exuberant
Marble Chalice
Soul’s Grace
Blue
Fatestitcher
Resounding Wave
Kathari Screecher
Cloudheath Drake
Jhessian Lookout
Call to Heel
Steelclad Serpent
Etherium Sculptor
Courier’s Capsule
Cancel
Spell Snip
Outrider of Jhess
Vectis Silencers
Cathartic Adept
Tortoise Formation
Black
Executioner’s Capsule
Grixis Battlemage
Blister Beetle
Viscera Dragger
Bone Splinters
Dregscape Zombie
Shore Snapper
Undead Leotau
Dreg Reaver
Onyx Goblet
Resounding Scream
Death Greeter
Glaze Fiend
Banewasp Affliction
Shadowfeed
Red
Resounding Thunder
Magma Spray
Vithian Stinger
Bloodpyre Elemental
Soul’s Fire
Hissing Iguanar
Dragon Fodder
Incurable Ogre
Ridge Rannet
Bloodthorn Taunter
Thorn-Thrash Viashino
Lightning Talons
Goblin Mountaineer
Viashino Skeleton
Volcanic Submersion
Green
Druid of the Anima
Wild Nacatl
Resounding Roar
Cylian Elf
Court Archers
Mosstodon
Gift of the Gargantuan
Soul’s Might
Cavern Thoctar
Jungle Weaver
Naturalize
Elvish Visionary
Savage Hunter
Godtoucher
Lush Grow