Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Daily Arena!

With the recent release of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, and the addition of IKO draft on Arena, I thought I’d supply some links to good resources for players new to the format, as well as some information condensed from some of those resources.

First, check out the MTG Arena Zone Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths limited set reviews.

Another thing to check out might be The Draftaholics Anonymous rankings for Pack 1 Pick 1 choices for Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.

Limited Resources is a great resource for limited players in general. Their Ikoria Set Review: Commons and Uncommons contains in-depth card-by-card reviews and discussion from Marshall Sutcliffe and Luis Scott-Vargas.

Luis Scott-Vargas has a series of limited set reviews for each set, and these are an indispensable resource for card evaluation. I will provide a link to the relevant review here, then add aggregated versions of some of the most salient information below.

Ikoria Limited Set Review

Here are some highlights/takeaways from the resources linked above:

Top White Commons

Checkpoint Officer

Drannith Healer

Imposing Vantasaur

Pacifism

Snare Tactician

Top Blue Commons

Dreamtail Heron

Essence Scatter

Frost Lynx

Startling Development

Thieving Otter

Top Black Commons

Blood Curdle

Boot Nipper

Dark Bargain

Dead Weight

Memory Leak

Top Red Commons

Drannith Stinger

Fire Prophecy

Go For Blood

Prickly Marmoset

Rumbling Rockslide

Top Green Commons

Essence Symbiote

Fertilid

Greater Sandwurm

Humble Naturalist

Ram Through

All Cards Sorted into Tiers, By Color

*

(SEALED)

(DRAFT)

Note: Very situational cards show up twice with a red asterisk. Another note: Cards that are better specifically in sealed or draft will show up twice marked withorin the relevant position in the table.

Some notes on situational cards (marked by red asterisks* above) from LSV…



Sanctuary Lockdown

“In a deck with 8+ Humans or so, this offers a pair of powerful effects. Giving your squad a boost is nice, and being able to throw some Humans at any problem isn’t awful either. This doesn’t really start to pop until you’re making tokens or have a ton of Humans, making it a good reward for dedicated decks.” – LSV



Solid Footing

“The first split rating, this card is not great outside of vigilance decks that also have low power/high toughness creatures running around (waddling around?). That’s somewhat narrow, though when this works it is a pretty powerful card – one mana to give a 1/5 effectively +5/+1 is nice. I also find it funny that this is called Solid Footing, when it’s a card that’s either good or horrendous, and rarely lands on ‘solid’.” – LSV



Whisper Squad

“That rating is a little tongue-in-cheek, but it’s not that far off. This is unplayable with 1-2 copies, passable with 3, and starts to get interesting at 4+. I’d say the sweet spot probably is 4-5, as you only want to draw one. This provides a lot of sacrifice fodder, as well as a steady stream of chump blockers. I’d be wary of this if you didn’t have a way to sacrifice it for benefit, as four 1/1’s is still pretty weak.” – LSV



Pyroceratops

“In a spell-heavy deck, Pyroceratops is a good payoff. +1/+1 counters also play very well with mutate, as they buff the creature regardless of which card ends up on top. I’d want 8+ spells before I played this, and it starts really heating up at around 12 spells.” – LSV



Weaponize the Monsters

“In deck with sufficient token production, Weaponize the Monsters is a good threat. It being able to hit players is key, as you can start chumping and tossing creatures at the opponent. In a normal deck, this is not really worth a card, as you have to do a lot of work to make it better than a Shock. I also love the name – it sounds quite ominous.” – LSV

Hopefully this will be helpful to someone who is playing this format in limited and needs some sage wisdom from the pros. It was definitely helpful to me to put it together.

As always, feel free to send any questions, comments and criticisms to me here, on Reddit, on Twitter at @DailyArena or on Facebook via the @DailyArenaMTG page.

Peace.



Joseph Eddy is a Father, Husband, Son, Brother, Software Developer, and Gamer. Magic is his favorite hobby, and he’s looking forward to seeing you all on Arena. He streams Magic Arena on a weekly basis (or more), but currently is unable to keep to a set schedule.