RTR Commons and Uncommons

Hello everyone!

As I said yesterday, almost all of Return to Ravnica has been spoiled! As of this writing, there are only 4 cards left to be revealed, so now is a great time to start discussing what sweet goodies we get to play with for the next 2 years! Yesterday, I only went over Rares and mythics so today I want to spotlight on the commons and uncommons. Usually commons and uncommons never wow you or inspire you to build a new deck, but instead they are simply good cogs in the machine that is your deck.

This is the new creature to join the party with Kami of Ancient Law and Ronom Unicorn, except this time we have a card with a generic enough name to possibly be in a core set. I used to play War Priest of Thune back in the day, and Keening Apparition is just better because you can jam on turn 2, get some damage in, and then get rid of the enchantment as opposed to waiting to get value.

Now this card is one that I'm not sure will actually be good or not. It all comes down to how good detain winds up being. I think the ability will be good, at which point this guy will be awesome for tempo reasons. Being a human makes Champion of the Parish better, adding to the potential for a great WW deck. The only thing that isn't great about him is that after the ETB he's just a white Goblin Piker. Regardless, I think detain is an incredibly good ability that will see lots of play in standard, and this guy is low enough on the curve to make it worthwhile!

Wow! Now this is a cool card! I mentioned before that BG Splinterfright may be a deck, but this card may be a good enough reason to add blue in! There are many advantages to this card, starting with how it costs 1 mana less than Splinterfright. This means, no you can turn 2 enchant your forest, turn 3 mill yourself 3 to see if you hit a creature, assuming you do curve right into Splinterfright. Also, if you draw this card later you can just enchant an untapped land to start getting immediate value from the card! Keep in mind this is merely decent if you want to mill your opponent because they can just choose to not tap the land that will hit themselves/you will just draw them cards as you mill them into flashback spells. But to mill yourself? This card is super efficient!

Nothing to see here, just an essential reprint that will see play

Now this card is cool! We already have tons of ETB effects that cards like Restoration Angel abuses, but there is also a cool 3 card combo with this card that can soft-lock your opponent out of the game: 2x Faerie Impostor, 1x Mistbind Clique. With an Impostor in play (or you can play it with no other creatures and just retain priority in response to the ETB trigger) cast Mistbind Clique championing the Impostor. Then you can play another Impostor, bouncing your Clique which returns the first Impostor to your hand. Rinse and repeat every turn and you can lock your opponent out of mana for the rest of the game! I honestly think this combo may be enough to give new life to mono-blue faeries in Modern as another ingrained combo to control the game. Obviously rebuying things like Spellstutter Sprite and Vendilion Clique is a big game too, so Imposter will be a solid addition!

This card actually came out a while back, and I didn't think anything of it until ADB explained why it's so good: It will be the only 2 mana counterspell in standard post rotation, and it scales so it's (hopefully) never going to be dead like mana leak eventually is. The fact that it exiles is a good bonus. He pointed out how back in the day Faeries played 4x Broken Ambitions to fill the 2 mana counterspell slot with the bonus value of a scry 1. When I stopped and thought about it, I realized I really do need Syncopate in all my blue decks! This card will see tons of play! The Odyssey foil is at 8 right now, but will only go up as Syncopate sees more play, so if you're planning on playing a pimped blue deck, buy now!

Now this is a great sideboard card! Nihil Spellbomb was such a good card because it would draw you a card so you would never feel like you were actually down a card while attacking the opponent's graveyard. Also, late game you could just cycle it into more action. Now look at Cremate! This will be able to hold down cards like Unburial Rites and Snapcaster Mage while still holding value vs cards like Lingering Souls, Gravecrawler, and anything else that recurses from the yard assuming your timing is right.

So now we have the new Doom Blade variant, and this one is pretty cool! Obviously this is completely dependent on the meta to determine its playability, but I think starting off there will be enough targets to make it worthwhile. However, its stock will go down as Gatecrash and the third set are released and the meta is filled with more multi-colored dudes.

This card is cool, but probably isn't playable. But if the format needs it, now we have another set of Pillar of Flame type effects at instant speed. If mono-red were a thing (which I don't think it will), this would definitely go right in!

I think this is the best common Overload spell we have seen this far! This is basically a mini-Mizzium Mortars, and may not see play because of that card, but if the format is so fast where Mortars can't overload soon enough, then Electrickery may see some play. Of course, we also face the sad reality of just being 1 mana less than Bonfire of the Damned, and it might be that Electrickery is just that - a trick.

So these two guildmages I feel are the best 2 guildmages because of their lower abilities. Recursive removal is pretty sweet, and both of these guildmages can effectively prevent the opponent's board from being relevant at all! The Azorious one is the less likely of the 2 to get a ton of play, but the Rakdos one is epic!

Here we have the 2 last cards to complete the first half of the charms cycle. And yes, they are both good! Both feel like very flexible sideboard cards more than maindeck decks though. Starting with Rakdos Charm, what do we have? Tormod's Crypt is obviously useful in a variety of situations, but it also hoses other decks with the other abilities! Obviously a shatter is good too because it's still on the natural curve for that effect. The last ability seems the strangest, but I will table that one for a minute... Moving over to Golgari Charm, we have Shrivel/Demystify/Wrap in Vigor. Obviously each piece has its applications, but I think the best part of this card is the Shrivel effect. Killing little dudes is good too, but both of these cards are good sideboard options vs Splinter Twin. With Rakdos Charm, we can go back to the third ability. When your opponent has the inifnite creatures in play, just cast charm and make them take infinite damage! With Golgari Charm you can either kill their infinite Pestermites or fog their infinite Deceiver Exarchs. Overall I feel Rakdos Charm is better than Golgari Charm, but every card gets its day in the limelight.

Now this is a cool card! 5 mana for what is net draw 2, but is really draw 4. Just like how Brainstorm doesn't actually net any additional card, but is considered to basically be ancestral recall, so with Thoughtflare be considered an instant speed Tidings. If you really want to be a stickler and hang on the fact that you have to discard 2 cards, remember flashback is a thing. Whether the card has its own flashback or if you're playing Snapcaster Mage, Thoughtflare is the real deal!

Hello watchwolf! Here is where you realize magic is such an intricate game: Compare Call of the Conclave vs Watchwolf - both are 3/3s for GW however then things get very different. Unsummon is pretty bad vs Watchwolf, however vs a token it's like a Swords to Plowshares! With populate, the token gains tons of value, and different cards pump the different types of creatures (Intangible Virtue vs Honor of the Pure). Also worth nothing is how this loses to Negate where Watchwolf does not, but this can also be Snapcastered. Also, this doesn't play well with Thalia... Overall though these will function the same and Call will be played.

This card seems like the nutter butters to me. If Azorious Arrester is potentially playable, then this guy is incredible! For an extra blue mana we get an extra point of power PLUS flying. Also, the fact that he costs 3 mana really doesn't matter much as if we're going to curve into him, we need some pressure to make the detained turn useful. Also worth noting is that Skyknight is also a Human, so once again Champion of the Parish gets a lot of support. WW will probably splash blue just for SkyKnight and probably Geist, or maybe go for the UW Delver/Champion hybrid Sam Black was advocating this past year. However regardless of what happens I think Skyknight will be a part of it!

And now, we have the first super playable Unleash card! While no one is surprised by it being printed, we are all interested to see what happens. I personally think it's a natural fit in Zombies because 8 1 mana 2 power creatures is never enough! It can also go in mono-red decks, but when you think about it, you realize that mono-red is better splashing black, and then you're just back to zombies again... Regardless, this absolutely assures Zombies is the deck to beat going into the new season. I will start posting potential decklists soon, but I know the Zombies deck is basically building itself! 4x each of Gravecrawler, Rakdos Cackler, Diregraf Ghoul, Rakdos Shred-Freak, Lotleth Troll, Geralf's Messenger, Dreg Mangler..... That's aggro as piss! Ready or not, Rakdos Cackler is coming to a turn 1 near you!

So this is 4 of a 5 card cycle. The Azorious is released, but I don't have a picture for it. The Azorious Keyrune is UW: for a 2/2 flying dude. So before, I was talking about how awesome Chromatic Lantern was, but I think it just replaced by the Keyrunes! Unless you're paying a 4+ color deck, I think the Keyrunes are just better because you gain so much value going late! Making a blocker/having a win condition is great, and at the same time we get mana ramp and mana fixing! Sidenote: One of my friends pointed out the Rakdos one's flavor text can be misinterpreted as the most painful dildo in the world, but I'm not going to go there.

Wow! That was a lot of cards! I am incredibly excited for RTR to finally hit the shelves so I can finally try out some new cards and decks! That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie

Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com

@ThingsILack