Finally, we see our first day of impressive common spoilers (excluding Goblin Heelcutter, Soul Summons, and Ethereal Ambush, of course) and they look quite juicy.

Finally, a card that truly ramps in one single color. I’m sorry, Embodiment of Spring, but your gold nature is off putting for fixing and/or ramp. While Whisperer of the Wilds is not quite a mana fixer (unless your decks hunger for double green), she ramps for you like a good Druid (or in this case, a shaman), and gets you to your desired fives and sixes with gusto. She also turns into a Sol Ring, much like Joraga Treespeaker (although not as good) when her Ferocious is active. A great card for decks with a high ceiling. Her drawback is that she doesn’t really block well, but what more can you expect from an overblown Devoted Druid?

Cunning Strike is sadly, chaff. Its output just isn’t worth the input cost, and it reminisces of Ember Shot. Cards with the golden text “Draw a card” on them along with an additional burn effect are often unplayable due to their high mana investment and Cunning Strike is no different. 2 damage to a creature as late as turn 5 does not function as removal, and 2 damage to target player isn’t good burn, either. I see this card wheeling a lot, and don’t really see it as a sideboard option either.

Grim Contest is the fight effect for this draft format. It capitalizes on the high toughness nature of many creatures in this format, and allows them to eat other creatures for minimum input. Grim Contest is also an instant, which makes it all the more enticing. Its the kind of card you can splash for without any qualms, and is probably a high priority pick for Abzan and Sultai decks. Archers’ Parapet and other early blockers become a legitimate threat to creatures, rather than simply gumming up the board, which is very worthwhile. Doran would be proud.

Harsh Sustenance is probably going to be a fine include in many decks, but in fewer numbers. Even though it has a high ceiling, as with all cards that scale off of having large numbers of creatures on the board, it has an incredibly low floor. In the early game, taking out a Morph is quite possible, though not guaranteed and highly dependent on both your curve and your opening hand. Aside from token strategies, Harsh Sustenance will probably not kill anything of higher value in the late game. I would venture playing one or even two in a nontoken strategy, while one that banks on tokens can’t have enough of it. I think of it as a viable sideboard option against quick aggro decks, because 2 and 3 toughness creatures can be eaten with the card with some semblance of ease. It also shines in parity situations when the board is gummed up with high toughness blockers and you want to take out something high value. Boardstalls happen a lot in Khans, so I would side one in in matchups where a stall is likely.

War Flare seems like a card that would define this format, beating out Rush of Battle in almost every regard, except the potential lifegain. Not only can this card be used offensively, it can also be used defensively to generate massive card advantage. As an instant, it becomes far, far better than Rush of Battle ever could be, and the untap effect is more than powerful. I would venture so far as to say that War Flare is a mini Flying Crane Technique, and could be simply devastating. I think I would P1P1 this in packs where the rare isn’t of sufficient quality. (I’m looking at you, Frontier Siege)

Arcbond is…interesting, to say the least. While not P1P1 material, the effect feels quite huge, and one of the first “each creature and each player” damage effects we’ve seen in a while. It’s a reactionary wrath, and would shine in situations where you’re behind, staring at a board that’s potentially unwinnable. Unfortunately, it require far too many moving parts for it to be a wrath, as you would need a creature that’s on blocking duty (if you’re attacking, there’s not much chance that you’d need to use Arcbond in those situations to begin with, unless you want to bait a block), and a creature willing to attack into it of sufficient size, so that Arcbond wipes the board. All these conditions make it a lot poorer than other red pseud0-wrath effects, such as Earthquake or Starstorm. I would side the card in in slower Temur strategies where my opponent is running a far quicker deck with low toughness creatures. It’s interesting to note that your high toughness blockers may survive an Arcbond, as it scales according to the damage dealt, and not the power of the creature. More shenanigans can be carried out by using Arcbond with a creature with Deathtouch, such as Mardu Hateblade (although that takes four mana to set up, and three colors), or Heir of the Wilds.

Wild Slash definitely looks like a high pick in red decks, since it has the golden amount of damage on it to take out opposing Morphs and Manifests with ease. Its Ferocious isn’t really that important, as the only reactionary spell that could thwart a Wild Slash, Feat of Resistance, often puts the target outside the range of the spell anyway. Simple, strong card, and well placed at uncommon for its low price and potential in the format.

Tasigur, the Golden Fang looks like a sweet card to draft. I would pick him for his stats alone, and the fact that he has Delve. A 4/5 on an early turn, say around turn 4 or 5 in general, can be quite the roadblock to your opponent’s board. His toughness is also in a great spot, as he blocks Hooting Mandrills, and Abzan Guides with proficiency, and you come out on top every time. His regrowth effect is only secondary to his stats, but lets you pull ahead quite nicely in longer drawn out games. He fuels your other Delve cards, so higher cost Delve cards can be played without worrying too much, such as a Treasure Cruise or two, or Shambling Attendants. He feels really well placed in terms of stats and abilities for this format, and I think he’s a P1P1.

Our first in the cycle of uncommon dragons, Wardscale Dragon is as vanilla as they get. His ability is not really that important, except that he turns off Kill Shot in the niche circumstance that your opponent actually has it, but otherwise, quite unimportant. A 4/4 in the sky for six mana isn’t a bad deal, and especially as KTK has so few fliers, and even fewer that can tussle with a 4/4, he could be the finisher your deck needs. The only issue with this is that they’re within Throttle range, but a potential finisher is a potential finisher.

We’ve established that 4/4 fliers for six will be pretty good in a format with two packs of KTK drafted alongside one of FRF. So, the ability on Mindscour Dragon makes your opponent mill four cards. I think the mill is almost irrelevant on this card aside from giving you more information about your opponent’s deck, and that the four damage in the sky is more of a threat to your opponent than the mill itself. Still, the corner case exists where your opponent has Abzan Guide, and you’re racing them with this card’s mill, but I doubt that would realistically occur.

I think that Noxious Dragon is the best of the cycle of uncommon dragons, as it not only gives you a 4/4 threat, but also gives you additional value as it leaves, though that might be minimal. Its death is often always a two-for-one, which makes it of far higher quality than the other Dragons. I think all the uncommon Dragons are good first picks, but Noxious Dragon even more so.

Shockmaw Dragon’s trigger won’t do much most of the time, unless you’re up against a token strategy, in which case it will be quite the massacre. Its threat of activation will also prevent your opponent from flipping up a Ponyback Brigade, and causes all the token generators in your opponent’s hand to be quite dead. This dragon alone spells the end of a token strategy, and would possibly cause your opponent to sideboard out all their 1/1 token generators. Aside from this circumstance, however, he’s pretty much just a vanilla 4/4 in the air, and by turn 7 or more, 1 damage to each creature probably won’t cause you to gain any value.

Destructor Dragon is also a two-for-one, somewhat like Noxious Dragon, but of a far lower quality. It lets you eat a land, a Banner, or in rare instances, a Siege or so on its way out. Most of the time I believe it would simply take a land with it, and by the time the dragon is actually removed, mana would probably not be a problem for your opponent. Its ability increases in value when you’re up against an opponent with a 5 or 4 color deck, and their mana is tenuous at best. Removing some fixing could cripple your opponent and remove access to cards containing that color.

Fruit of the First Tree, is unfortunately not a card in many circumstances. It tells you grand tales about survivability and card advantage, but it won’t often come to pass. I don’t really see many circumstances where this card is viable, except maybe sided in against a big beats deck, but that seems like a waste of a card slot, really.

While Warden of the First Tree at least makes you play two colors, it’s a straight up bomb. It’s FRF’s iteration, and the first “fix” of the absolutely broken Figure of Destiny. The fact that once you get to six mana, there’s little to stop you from snowballing the Warden into a huge threat which gains you life and tramples over for massive points of damage is quite fear-inducing. Definite snap first pick, and possible game-ender.

Lightning Shrieker is Fate Reforged’s Lava Axe variant, with a reshuffle effect. It looks like the ideal top end for an all-out aggressive strategy that needs final points of damage to win a game. It also reminisces of Ball Lightning, but at a higher premium. It’s not for all decks, but can be quite devastating in the deck that really wants one or two of it.

Ojutai, Soul of Winter

Flying, vigilance

Whenever a Dragon you control attacks, tap target nonland permanent an opponent controls. It doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.

Ojutai, Soul of Winter may be a little expensive, at seven mana, but the format has been slow and grindy so far, so it seems likely to continue that trend. A 5/6 flyer is a huge body, and it can block very well, as well as deal massive chunks of damage to your opponent. It also carries on it a sort of Detain effect, locking a nonland permanent out of the game whenever Ojutai or another Dragon swings. Not only does it carry tempo advantage, but is a great game ender as well. I wouldn’t hesitate to P1P1 Ojutai, Soul of Winter.

Wildcall is a strange spell, and can be used at any point in the game to good effect. Not only can it put a 2/2 body on the board on turn 2, which may turn out to be important against aggressive decks, but it can also turn any Manifest that it puts into play into a sort of Hydra. It becomes a pretty damn good topdeck when you’re flooding out, or during parity situations when you’re in a topdeck war. The only issue I see with Wildcall is that it requires double green to play, which is a little off-putting, as we’re coming from a three-color set. Another point of note is that it gives you exact value for any value of X, unlike many Hydras. Whatever the mana cost, the Manifest you put out will have power and toughness exactly equal to the mana you paid for the spell, which is great. For example, when X=3, I get a 5/5 Manifest. Not only that, it synergizes with Abzan “counters matter” cards.

Cheers,

Brick