Strixhaven is here in all of its wizarding glory. We’ve got 5 enemy color pairs, dual-colored commons, and a focus on having fun through casting spells. Returning is the FIRE philosophy around commons to the point these quick hits might not exactly be a quick read.
Mechanics
Magecraft – Present in all 5 colors, Magecraft is a keyword that finally shorthands a fan favorite “Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery”. Now there’s not a ton of copying spells in pauper cube, but there’s a decent amount of fun things to cast and get a bit of extra value.
Learn/Lessons – Learn and lessons are bonded at the hip, when a card instructs you to learn you have the choice between getting a lesson from outside the game (read: your sideboard) or rummaging away cards. Lessons are a bit more flexible in that they can be put into the main deck sans any way of learning. Both of these seem to have been used very cautiously as both the cards that learn and the lessons they get are very minimal effects
Ward – Ward is a keyworded version of a nebulous effect we’ve seen over the years. Templated as “Ward N – Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays N”, this a super welcome revision to the somewhat pesky Hexproof and Shroud.
Omniczech: Combat Professor was immediately compared in the discord to the classic banger that is Serra Angel. I think that this comparison is pretty reasonable with some caveats. This doesn’t pass the bolt test but also given that it’s a triggered ability that targets can keep anything back for defense while still chipping in itself. I like this in theory but would love to hear some community opinions.
Phizzled: I guess I can see where people are seeing Serra Angel. I’m clearly less excited than the folks who made that comparison, though I’ve found analog Rhox Veteran to be very serviceable. I’ve run Parhelion Patrol in a personal fork of the cube for a year [correction: two years, now] and while I like the permanent buff a little more than spreading vigilance around each turn, This could be a reasonable tweak for the Patrol’s slot, but I’m not sure it’s the most interesting variant.
Omniczech: There’s a lot of modal spells in this set, which honestly is a great move. Defend the campus might not be quite there on either front, but I hope we see more of this in the upcoming sets, cause removal/team pump is a great duo of white decks looking to win through going wide.
Phizzled: I’m in the same boat: design for best-of-one is giving us some more versatile options. Unfortunately, Smite The Monstrous isn’t quite efficient enough, and team buff is a bit too expensive to be exciting to me.
Omniczech: We’ve already got plenty of “remove target tapped creature” in white at common. This is the first one that just exiles and permanently gets rid of a threat. I’m unsure how much this type of textural change matters, but I’m open to the idea of this being included.
Phizzled: At the risk of like-for-like consideration (and the possibility of making a change for the sake of making a change) this feels like a sidegrade to Angelic Purge that doesn’t help aristocrat strategies. There are also reasonable swaps for Arrest variants, at the cost of reducing the consistency of Totem-Guide Hartebeest.
Omniczech: Ok, I need to get this off my chest. I was a HUGE fan of WR cycling in standard and its extended GW counterpart. eternal dragon is a card I have a lot of fond memories of. With that said, I don’t think Pilgrim is a good card. It’s incredibly slow to get it back and its enters the battlefield trigger isn’t amazing. This is a super cool design but I think it’s not quite there.
Phizzled: Eternal Dragon is a delight of a recurring threat in Type 4, and I agree that I loved it. I like the idea of an unconditional land search in white, but I mostly want my white three drop cards to impact the board with their ETBs. I’m not expecting this to supplant our current set of threats.
Omniczech: The less wordy version of Dragons of Tarkir’s Servant of the scale, Star Pupil is a nice way to make sure that your 1 drops are still getting value should they die. These can chump block to save you a bit of damage as well as growing another creature. I’m not 100% sold but this shows promise.
Phizzled: As long as we can make +1/+1 counters work, I’m excited for the possibility of making this work. Obviously the thing White decks have been missing in the Cube is half of Arcbound Ravager.
Omniczech: A quick look through similar effects to this shows that this might be one of the most cost-efficient tuck effects at common. That said, this tucking 2 deep puts it in a weird place of mucking a draw a few turns away. That said it’s not hard for this to be soft removal at 3 Mana and I don’t really hate that at all.
Phizzled: Blue is getting some surprisingly diverse and powerful removal. This kills tokens the same way any bounce spell would, but doesn’t necessarily creature based decks out in a way that Claustrophobia has. I’m actually torn on whether this is a card that serves a need Blue currently has.
Omniczech: Hey, it’s another preordain variant! We love those kinds of things in this cube! This might be the best take on the instant speed versions of this trick and bare minimum better than recent inclusion deliberate. This is almost assuredly getting in even if just over that card.
Phizzled: Huh. Our cube lacks fetches or consistent shuffle effects, so scrying to the bottom is usually a dead card, but we have a variety of ways to make use of cards in the graveyard. I’m not upset about this, though I’m still worried about the consistently great tools Blue is getting while we’re trying to play catch up with other colors.
Omniczech: Frost lynx is a great limited card that has been printed for years, and it was only a matter of time before we saw a card that was just out and out better. I’m a bit bullish on this card and think it might be better than Man-O’-War at this point with the density of enters the battlefield triggers.
Phizzled: I like this as a pretty good Wind Drake variant. I’m not sure I like this better than Man-O’-War in the abstract, since that kills tokens cleanly, but this can open the door as an actual “I win” button instead of setting up a board stall in the late game. I’m excited to chat about this in the Q&A.
Omniczech: Mana Leak might be better than this most of the time, but there’s a part of me who’s interested in some of the blue counter suite being a bit more conditional and this might help that goal. Not a slam dunk, but something I figured was worth mentioning.
Phizzled: Conditional counters are sometimes a concern, but creatures are by far the largest chunk of the Cube. Is trading something like Mana Leak’s flexibility worth the exile clause?
Omniczech: Alright, this at first pass looks like some super jank removal, but I think there’s a bit more than that. A lot of time at common when we get this polymorph/removal style effect it’s a small token, here it’s big enough that this winds up reading as something that upgrades a 1/1 that’s been outclassed in the midgame. I do want more community opinions here, but I think this is a lot more interesting than first pass would indicate.
Phizzled: Exile is a meaningful word, but this is less likely to shrink most of your opponent’s creatures. One of my regular playgroup pointed out that this is great with Living Weapon, but we only have a few of those. I think this is desinted for the same “close, but not quite” designation we gave Phantasmal Form a few years ago.
Omniczech: I am uncertain about this, but the line of text here is familiar, as it’s some reasonable % of a Crackling Drake. missing on any type of evasion is a bit of a bummer, but the idea of using this in your wincon light controlling deck is something that genuinely intrigues me.
Phizzled: I guess we get the benefit of this not being negatively impacted by firing off Treasure Cruise or another delve spell in the midgame, but this reads as doing a lot of work to just make a (maybe) big creature that can kill Guardian of the Guildpact.
Omniczech: Ward is on its first outing, and it kind of shows here. Aerialist isn’t amazing but is a 4 mana 3 power flyer which is harder to remove. Likely we’ll see some variants of this and hopefully one of them hits that sweet spot.
Omniczech: Pikers aren’t an amazing creature archetype. They’ll sometimes trade up but just as often seem to trade down for 1/1s. Poet manages to somewhat dodge this by being able to jump itself for just 2 life. While this isn’t nearly as good as some riffs on the theme of “aggressive creature that can pay life to be more efficient”, I think it’s still worth noting that this is probably better than it looks.
Phizzled: I played the occasional Fledgling Djinn on the cafeteria tables in high school. I don’t mind the 2 power, or even the fact that you have to sometimes pay life to be evasive. Vampire Interloper was good enough for long enough, without the conditional evasion, and Olivias Dragoon seems like a less onerous threat for blank aggro.
Omniczech: This is obviously very similar at first glance to something like nameless inversion however, it’s over half the effect for half the cost. At this point, this is just as much an aggressive combat trick to sneak in 2 more damage as it is a removal spell, where Inversion tends to just be removal. I’m a fan of this.
Phizzled: I’m generally a fan, as well. This kills a good portion of creatures in the cube, and allows enough of our own creatures to hit a little harder. I’ve got no problems with this as a Nameless Inversion or Disfigure substitute.
Omniczech: I have no idea what this card wants to be. However, it’s got enough weirdness attached to it that I’m just fascinated by it. I think the best place for this to live would be a low-to-the-ground Black/Red deck that is willing to turn a pile of 1/1s into damage if they get blocked? I think that the biggest issue with this is the sorcery speed, it’s heavily broadcast and doesn’t do enough to justify that downside.
Phizzled: The planeswalker flavor text is absolutely noted. I would like this more if it gave one of the creatures “must be blocked this turn if able” or something. This doesn’t feel quite like enough for the cost, but I’m not sure which aspect of the card is preventing me from being excited by it.
Omniczech: Another card that’s a bit of a stumper, the Dissector presents us a really odd type of aristocrat. It is sorcery speed and costs mana, which are the obvious downsides. However, for these downsides, you get a respectable body for the mana cost, and it can spread its counters around to other creatures you control. I honestly have no idea what the community verdict on this will be, but I’m intrigued.
Phizzled: I was dismissive at first, because the sorcery speed really hurts, and because some chat about the least appealing aristocrats implies we really want to use them as combat tricks. But I can see some potential in keeping a reasonable 3/3 back while sending in upgraded threats until your opponent is dead. I’m not counting on this making a splash, but I like it more the more I think about it, which doesn’t always happen.
Omniczech: Anyone who’s seen me talk about cube knows I love one-drops that have a pile of text on them. This is a creature that’s not dreadfully appealing to block that if it dies incidentally can be cashed in for some card draw. I’m a fan of this.
Phizzled: Evasive one drops are going to get looked at regardless of the color. This just happens to be good at carrying Bonesplitter and as sacrifice fodder for the above mentioned aristocrats. I’m very excited to find space for our new frog overlord.
Omniczech: I know this says learn on it. That’s not the reason I included it. It’s a nice little bonus, but what I like about this is pairing it with other token generators. This turns your dragon fodder into a couple of hasty bears, same for a lot of other token generators, this cast on turn 5 with an attended knight is sending 5 power your opponent’s way that they might not be prepared for. I don’t think this is an absolute slam dunk, but I think it’s an interesting way for the boros token-ish decks to get a bit more damage through.
Phizzled: We have fewer creatures in red than we used to that aren’t already hasty, so I think I have to consider how much the buff is going to matter, especially since the implication is that you’ll need another spell to get the effect. Instant speed for discard two cards to draw a card is not worth two mana to me, but giving two counters to two different creatures is playable often enough.
Omniczech: I really wish this was just a bit better. This plays nicely with a lot of other mechanics. It shocks opponents off escape, adds extra damage for flashback. Really interesting but I’m not sure this is large enough or does enough to warrant inclusion.
Phizzled: Without a bunch of ways to repeatedly trigger the ability, it seems underwhelming to me. We have other threats that are slightly more consistent that didn’t make it (e.g. Emberhorn Minotaur) and I worry about signaling support for mechanics that aren’t present in the cube isn’t ideal.
Omniczech: not to sound like a broken record here, but pikers are fine. A piker that you can later pay 5 to buy back as a 3/2? that’s better. I think this is unimpressive but solid. I don’t know if there’s an easy thing to slide out for this but I kinda like this take on “creature flashback.”
Phizzled: We have just enough rummaging in red in the cube for me to think about this heavily. Aggressive bodies that we don’t mind turning sideways at any point in the game is intriguing. I’m not sure it’s good enough.
Omniczech: Another entry that falls firmly into the “I have no idea what this is” category. It’s either a hasty grey ogre or it’s a 3/3 for 3 on blocks. I think this is ultimately too slow to make waves in the cube but is certainly interesting.
Phizzled: This is definitely weird. I want to test it to see how many times I’d end up caring about the ability in a typical cube deck, but a creature that can grow by eating spent removal spells isn’t something I feel we should immediately dismiss. It only needs to be a 4/4 for 3 mana to outclass anything else red offers, right?
Omniczech: Ok, this is a lot of body for not a lot of mana if you’ve got spare bodies lying around. It’s also just a reasonable body in the mid to late game. Survives red removal and generally is gonna be on the bigger side of the board, a big hit with me all in all.
Phizzled: It feels so weird to think of this as a 2 drop, since you’re rarely going to be able to actually cast it (or, more accurately, rarely going to want to cast it) on turn two. Is the body big enough to feel like you’re catching up when you do play it turn 4 or 5?
Omniczech: This kind of combat trick is one that I find really interesting. Splitting the pump across a counter and a regular pump means this is impactful outside the turn it’s cast which I really like. That said when a card like this grants trample I’m a bit more interested.
Phizzled: This feels like a hedged bet, and I’m wondering what it’s hedging for. I appreciate the counter, but reach means I’m going to misplay this at some point trying to play defense, and I know I’ll regret that. Give me an updated Symbiosis or non-tribal limited River Heralds Boon. I hesitantly dislike this.
Omniczech: Why does this need to say basic? I would love if this could join the ranks of natures lore and three visits and fetch our new fancy snow duals. That said, this being ramp that also allows you to rummage away something is interesting at a bare minimum.
Phizzled: Basic is backbreaking, here. I know we don’t currently have Gaeas Bounty in the cube, but the typed duals mean I still want to be greedy and support the five color nonsense we promised not to make too easy. I’m not sure how to value the rummage, which isn’t super green. Does that actually put this on par with the 3 mana ramp we have? I truly can’t tell. “Drawing” a card and fetching a basis feels fine at instant speed with Krosan Tusker but this reads as less appealing than the big pig, for multiple reasons, to me.
Omniczech: I’m not sure if this is the right fight spell to include but this potentially being a 1 mana fight with a stat boost attached is something I’m interested in. That said this is still the type of green removal I’m not in love with, and a reasonable number of green decks aren’t at density for this to reliably be 1 mana.
Phizzled: I usually assume we can’t get the discount on spells like this, so we really care about whether this is enough of a buff for fighting. On average, this is going to be more expensive than Epic Confrontation and deal less damage over turns than Cartouche of Strength, both of which I consider the pinnacle of fight spells. We recently passed over Struggle for Skemfar, and I think it’s correct to do that here, as well.
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Omniczech: I’m not sure if this is a good card, it is a lot of power and toughness wrapped into one. Probably a whiff but I do really love this big lovely bear and her tiny friend.
Phizzled: I kept trying to justify the need to test this out to myself, but we have 4 cmc threats with tokens, better offensive prowess, or hexproof already in the cube. This feels outclassed on three different axes, but I spent more time thinking about it than I anticipated.
Omniczech: Wow, I really can’t believe that we’re at this point with bears. This is actually just barely not there, having 8 lands is a large requirement but seeing more cards where they’re reasonable on curve and beefy and under costed if you hit it in the late game.
Phizzled: This is a heck of a bear, and I honestly expect it to do something in standard. Reach is the wrong keyword for an early threat that I want to incidentally survive while I build my GreenX deck up to 8 lands. I will note that I appreciate that it doesn’t have memory issues or a trigger that happens when you hit the right number of lands.
Omniczech: I was overjoyed to see the use of non-mana ward values. I think that this with any type of counter magic is something a select portion of cube owners will have a GREAT time with. Someone voluntarily taking 3 to target this with removal only for you to cast a counterspell feels like peak “haha, control is easy” vibes.
Phizzled: There aren’t many commons that say “this spell can’t be countered” so the professor (adjunct professor?) is always going to be a presence. The body is bigger than a lot of our fliers, and bigger than many of the threats I’ve happily played in Orzhov decks. Thematically this fits with other cards currently in our multicolored section, and I’m excited to talk about it if only for that reason.
Omniczech: The way I read this is a 4 mana removal spell that eventually puts 2 +1/+1 counters onto another creature. I’m a fan of that, though if this just languishes it’s a bit underwhelming on all counts. A bit too big of a valley between the best and worse case for me.
Phizzled: This creates some potentially tough decisions for your opponent, unless they have a swarm of 1/1 tokens to sppeed bump the Squad. I’m not confident this grows anything threatening early enough in the game to have a significant impact.
Omniczech: I want to like this, I really do. I’m a big fan of things that if you squint at them look a bit like Vampire nighthawk. This is just a bit too far from that to be truly good, but I’m ready for that day to come.
Phizzled: I’ve found modal threats like Boot Nipper to be serviceable when they are boring, but this seems a little too inconsistent and doing both things it could potentially do to supplant the cards white and black currently have.
Omniczech: I want to like the big dumb controlling wincon, but the sad reality is that this is a huge flashy spell when more controlling decks can win with a 2/2 and enough time. While this ups the clock, I don’t think it’s offbeat take on cycling is enough to override the fact this is 7 mana for a card that a couple of bounce spells can undo.
Phizzled: There is some amazing goldfish hand where you discard this and get to cast Ancestral Recall on your oppnent’s first turn while your’e on the draw, but our most broken fast mana isn’t, usually, that broken. The 7 mana cost is pretty expensive, when you could be casting a buyback spell to lock out the game instead of making two 4/4s that have no evasion.
Omniczech: I think this card was talked about more than it should have been. I don’t think this is good, I think it also is a confusing card for newer players and just isn’t worth it on many counts.
Phizzled: I must have missed the internet the day people were excited about this. I’m not excited enough about the power or the ability. Scry is not as powerful as it was in the past.
Omniczech: I know we don’t have Piston-fist cyclops, but the fact this is only 2 mana had me interested. I still think this is a bit of a miss but super close for me. I love a hybrid spell but I think a 3/3 for 2 is still not enough of a payoff for this.
Phizzled: The low mana cost is the real draw, here, I guess. I’m not sure this is a more interesting control finisher for Blue Red (or either separately) but I don’t like jumping through hoops to just turn an undercosted threat into a properly costed threat (that also sort of costs a card).
Omniczech: I think this is a watershed moment for commons. This is most of a Fork, easier to cast, instant speed, almost exactly what I’d want out of this type of spell. There’s one big catch in my mind though. What spells are we copying with this that is worth including a sometimes momentarily dead card? This followed by Treasure cruise is a huge play. This also basically guarantees if your opponent doesn’t have double counters your spell will resolve at least once. I know there’s a knee-jerk reaction to see cards powerful in other formats and assume they’re good here, I just want to put this through the mental paces for it.
Phizzled: Yeah, Treasure Cruise is pretty good to double. But I dream of a Boros deck that has Seeker of the Way online and gets to go wider with Battle Screech or one of the team buffs. If I can’t copy my bomb spells to immediately win the game consistently, I would probably rather just have another copy of whatever the dream spells are in the cube. I don’t want to be a downer, but I hate the idea of top decking this late.
Omniczech: We don’t support life gain as an archetype. It specifically runs against most game plans while still occasionally running into the “drew all my payoffs/support and none of the other” issue. I think there’s a case for this being in some cubes as a weird version of Ajanis pridemate, but I’m not sure it’s a great fit here.
Phizzled: This is a wonky grow effect in a color pair that doesn’t have much in the way of life gain (though green does have the best life gain spell currently in the cube). I’m unsure when this will feel great in a Green Black deck, but at least it as menace as s consolation prize.
Omniczech: There’s been a lot of riffs over the past 4 years of “Instant that regenerates a creature without using the word regenerate in the text box”. This one has my interest because of two things. Incidental life gain in a midrange-oriented color pair is super nice. The fact that this also grants deathtouch makes it a pseudo-removal spell and I’m pretty big on it. Your random enters the battlefield trigger happens again, you eat their creature and gain 2 life. Seems pretty solid to me.
Phizzled: While there is a nice best-case scenario, I wonder what happens if I pretend this card is only the worst of its part? Am I okay at instant speed in Green and Black giving one of my threats deathtouch? What about giving one of my creatures undying in response to a kill spell? Both seem fine, and I assume I’ll find that two great tastes taste great together.
Omniczech: This is almost enough of a keyword soup reasonable body combo to merit inclusion, but it feels odd tossing trample on something that trades for a reasonable amount of this cube. Fingers crossed we see a version of this with some beefier stats.
Phizzled: I concur. The text box is what I want, but the stats leave something to be desired. This isn’t my Jund-em-out value cube creature quite yet.
Omniczech: A lot of folks forgot about Otherworldly Outburst and I can’t blame them. I do think having this as a single pip combat trick of one of two colors is neat. I don’t know if it’s better than any of the existing Boros cards, but I’m willing to hear the case for it if someone wants to make it.
Phizzled: I haven’t recently played Outburst, but I remember thinking it was a clever way to upgrade some of my weaker aggro threats in the past.
Omniczech: Ok, I know I’ve already made one comparison to serra angel] but I’m gonna do it again. This is an evasive, vigilant 4/4 for 5, what do you want from me? I have mixed feelings about the card and the color pair, as Boros has traditionally been a go-wide strategy, but I can see this being the type of card that people really want to be included.
Phizzled: I really like the combination of size and evasion in a color pair that can readily remove a single blocker on any given turn. I don’t know if I love the combination as the cube is currently constructed. If the card is a bad fit, do we tweak the cube to feel more natural with the sloth?
Omniczech: Flickering this feels like a bunch of fun, but without some way to rebuy the enters the battlefield trigger, this is a bit anemic for a gold card.
Phizzled: I actually really like the idea of this, but not being able to play multiples the way you might in retail draft hurts. I assume we’ll be passing on it.
Omniczech: This is growth spiral with some extra sprinkled in. I don’t think that adding 2 mana for one more card makes this good enough to make the cut.
Phizzled: I have pretty much the the same criticism. This is a sidegrade or a downgrade, and I’m less excited that I know others have been about it.
Omniczech: As we know, Ivy Elemental isn’t in the cube these days. That said, an Ivy elemental that can be rebought to allow for multiple instances on the battlefield at the same time is very interesting to me.
Phizzled: I’m not thrilled by the idea of Simic needing to spend gobs of mana to make a creature that can’t actually close out the game. In combination with Biomathematician in limited you can at least grow all of your fractal tokens, but I’m not expecting to have that happen.
Omniczech: Maybe it’s time for me to reveal just how much of a paper old man boomer I am, but I really miss the days of quirion dryad being a great card. This isn’t quite the same thing, in fact, it’s a decent amount more restrictive. That said, I really love this as part of a UG tempo gameplan and could see myself making an impassioned plea for this being included.
Phizzled: I don’t think I’m quite ready for the new non-storm “cast or copy” variants to make a major impact, but if this grabs enough of the community, I could see testing it. I wish it had evasion, though.
Omniczech: This is one of those cards where I know it’s worse than other options we have available but I’m still strangely fascinated by it. It’s no Archaeomancer but part of me likes that for a colorless option.
Phizzled: Rebuying a pump or kill spell in a color that can’t normally do it might feel pretty good. I’m not sure what the average spell regrown (a turn before you can draw it) is most likely to be, which makes me hesitant about loving this. I assume someone in the Q&A will have some killer plays plotted out, though. (I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the evasive body is almost on rte.)
Omniczech: This is on par with cards like Pilgrims Eye and skittering surveyor a majority of the time. The only upside this has is it feels ok in aggressive leaning decks. Putting the land on top is enough of a down side that the piker body isn’t enough to negate the fact this is card filtering not card neutral, and if you opt not to search, this is just alpha myr and that’s not above replacement level. If they let us have this to hand with a reasonable body I’m very down though.
Phizzled: At two mana, this needed to be a replacement level effect. By the time I’m casting this, I assume I don’t want to see extra basic lands on top of my library. I’m not excited here.
Omniczech: I’ve spoken about this in the Discord, but the only lessons that truly caught my eye were these common colorless ones, none are amazing but our long-standing approach to the colorless section in this cube has been to provide cards that aren’t super optimal but help round out decks. Environmental sciences isn’t a great one, lay of the land has almost never been playable but I wanted to include all of these in the quick hits.
Phizzled: For two mana, this isn’t thrilling, but we’re already paying 3 mana via Wayfarers Bauble for the same ability. Bauble has some incidental upside as a permanent that can be sacrificed for Angelic Purge but mostly this feels like a reasonable replacement, if people really like the lessons.
Omniczech: Now this is a bit closer to what I want. Again, nothing amazing but also not a joke of a card either. Being able to make your random 2/2 into a 4/4 is pretty solid and allowing it a quick one-off attack and block is a solid bit of trinket text. For sure a consideration in my mind.
Phizzled: I’m still struggling to figure out how to value this, but the buff is permanent, and we’ve been looking for reasonable counters support. I’m just not sure this is it.
Omniczech: This is a really tough one, giving opponents any type of card advantage or even neutrality is a really rough downside. That said this does just answer almost any problem in any color. This is down to community opinions, but I think this is a lot more reasonable than first glance might show.
Phizzled: I’ve read this card so many times and been unable to determine how to value that one card. If you were going to lose the game because of a giant eldrazi, say, I think you’d take this deal in a heartbeat. If you just are struggling with a random 3/3, this reads as a coin flip.
Omniczech: Another preordain? Even without lessons, I can see some decks wanting to have access to a janky version of this effect. Another in the pile of “it’s better than a basic but not better than a reasonable on-color option.”
Phizzled: This is very much the kind of “glue” card I picture when I think of the colorless spells. This is never truly exciting, but I don’t think it needs to be to be considered seriously. We just ned to see if this holds decks together better than something we already have in colorless.
Omniczech: These were brought up several times through the preview season as they were slowly revealed. I am a huge fan of these. While 5 mana to scry 1 isn’t a great rate, I don’t think that’s the point. If you’re into the mid to late game and need to ensure you’re not flooding out, these are a great option to just slowly refine your draws. In short even with only 5/10 color pair represented, I prefer these over the enemy color gain lands and it’ll take a lot of solid arguing to get me to not include these.
Phizzled: I’m not thrilled to not have access to all ten of these to select from, but if there was ever a land cycle that would inspire me to break cycles, this is it. I think I really like these, and I hope others do as well.