When discussing a new set, many commentators and reviewers focus on the best cards — the cards everyone wants to find in their packs. In Limited environments, however, knowing what cards not to play is also incredibly important. This is especially important in Sealed, where you have to evaluate a pool of roughly 90 cards all at the same time. By removing the ones that are unplayable, picking the cards you will play becomes that much simpler.

For this reason, I’d like to share my own list of 12 rares and mythic rares that I hope not to open in my M13 Prerelease this weekend. The rankings start with the card I’d like to see least, and the cards get progressively better as we go along.

As a caveat, I’m not trying to be negative about the set; I’m actually very excited for M13. Any set is going to have cards that are unplayable in Limited, and I think it’s useful to point out which cards these are.

1. Battle of Wits

I’ve heard a lot of people talking about taking their entire Sealed pool and mashing it together with 40 of every basic land if they pull Battle of Wits. While amusing, it also sounds like a quick way of losing. For some people, the one game they manage to steal might be worth it, but not for me.

2. Worldfire

Sorry, combo players, but at 9 mana, Worldfire is far too unwieldy for me. Even if you could cast it, breaking this card’s fearful symmetry is incredibly difficult, turning the game into a race to sticking the first creature or burn spell.

3. Omniscience

In Sealed, the 10 in this card’s upper corner may as well just be a million. (Good thing it’s selling for $5!)

4. Boundless Realms

Normally, I love ramp spells. My favorite draft environment is Rise of the Eldrazi, which featured “battlecruiser Magic” with huge creatures and other major mana sinks. Boundless Realms would have been great in Rise of the Eldrazi.

Unfortunately, M13 isn’t ROE. Ramping from 7 mana to a ton sounds great, but what are you going to use that mana on? Maybe a huge Volcanic Geyser, but regardless of what you plan on casting, Boundless Realms forces you to play with a card that will dead for most of the game, and might cause you to be dead before you can profit from it.

On the other hand, there is one card that wants 2 mana of every color…

5. Door to Nothingness

The Door is about as unwieldy as Battle of Wits, and just as vulnerable to removal. However, 5-color decks are not completely out of the question, especially if you have multiples of great mana-fixers like Farseek and Gem of Becoming. Warping your deck to be 5 colors is significantly less bad than making it over 200 cards, so the Door is still better than the Battle overall.

6. Wit’s End

On the surface, Wit’s End looks like a good card. It fills your head with dreams of forcing your opponent to discard their entire grip of goodies. Unfortunately, at 7 mana, that dream is unlikely to ever happen. By the time you cast it, your opponent will likely only have 2 or 3 cards left — and wouldn’t you rather cast something that actually affects the board?

Wit’s End isn’t completely unplayable, especially in some sort of B/G ramp deck, any deck with Liliana (you lucky player), or a Grixis deck with Gem of Becoming. In general, though, you’d be better off playing a mid-size creature.

Whew. So we’re halfway through the list. Beyond this point, I would seriously consider playing any of the cards I list, especially if they showed up in colors where I already had strong cards. However, these cards by themselves wouldn’t be enough to push me into using their color.

7. Touch of the Eternal

This card is hard to evaluate, since its effect is so different from anything else in the set. Overall, it seems powerful but unwieldy. You’ll almost always have at least 8 permanents in play when it kicks in, and setting yourself to 8 life (or more) every turn is a great way to delay your opponent from killing you. On the other hand, there’s a good chance you’ll just be dead before you can cast this, and even after you cast it, your opponent still has one turn to go nuts on your life total. Even if it sticks, Touch of the Eternal doesn’t really help you win; it just delays you from losing.

8. Gilded Lotus

Quite a few people were excited when Gilded Lotus was previewed, as it saw play in a deck that won a Pro Tour. But that deck was enabled by Tinker, one of the most broken cards ever. M13 isn’t nearly at that power level.

As colorless mana fixing and ramp, the Lotus still respectable in a Sealed deck…but you need to have something that’s worth ramping up to, and putting an 8-mana card in your deck can be quite risky. That said, it’s very useful in EDH, and it’s currently selling for a decent amount (about $3.50), so you could get a decent trade out of it at the very least.

9. Reverberate

10. Redirect

Because of their similar effects and costs, I always think of these two as a pair, so I’ll evaluate them together. Both cards are good, but they don’t slide into all decks. Their effectiveness is hindered by the fact they can often rot in your hand without any use; they can’t be easily splashed; and their effectiveness depends directly on the quality of other cards being played.

Of the two, I slightly prefer Redirect, since it can be used as a counter-and-then-some on many of your opponent’s instants, sorceries, and enchantments. (Yes, Redirect can change the target of an Aura on the stack!) Reverberate, on the other hand, leaves the original spell on the stack, so it will rarely negate the effects of your opponent’s spells outright — although it could win you the game if you’re both at 3 and you copy their Searing Spear, for instance. Where Reverberate shines is its ability to target your own instants and sorceries, giving your double mileage out of your removal and burn, which Redirect can’t accomplish.

Overall, these cards can pay off, but they often feel unsatisfying to open in the rare slot compared to a big creature or sweeper. Their effects are probably too complicated and swingy to show up at uncommon, but on an emotional level, these really do feel more like uncommons to me.

11. Hamletback Goliath

Of all the seven-cost creatures in M13, Hamletback Goliath is the only one without some form of evasion. The card’s potential is huge, but it’s still just a dumb ground-pounder that can be blocked by whatever dork your opponent has around — or, even more embarassingly, blocked perpetually by something like Duty-Bound Dead. On the other hand, the single red in its mana cost means it’s very splashable, so I can see a deck with no other options trying to use this as a finisher. It’s also a great blocker for a color that often doesn’t get large creatures.

12. Stormtide Leviathan

Few indeed will be the decks that survive long enough to cast this, but its evasion and attacking restriction mean that it usually will just win you the game if you untap with it, which is more than most of the other cards on this list can say. Unfortunately, unlike green and its range of fatties, blue has no way of accelerating the game to 8 mana. Rather, a blue mage’s best bet is to slow it down with defensive creatures like Fog Bank and Void Stalker, complemented by permission spells like Rewind, Sleep, Essence Scatter, Encrust, and even Downpour. Your second color can likely add even more options for survival and/or acceleration, such as mana ramping or quality removal. Unfortunately, the difference between 5 and 8 mana often may as well be a million, and even with this on the field, you can still get blown out by a big flyer.

Honorable Mentions: Dual Lands

(Thanks, reddit!)

This is the fourth time the ally-color dual-lands have been printed in a core set. In the past, I’ve been underwhelmed and mildly disappointed when I open one, but the disappointment goes away a little when I can fit them into my deck. I’m sure M13 will be the same. They’re great enablers when they match one or both of your primary colors, but sometimes you have a Drowned Catacomb and nothing even splashable in UB. Them’s the breaks; at least they’re playable in Constructed and good trade fodder.

So, once again, here are my picks for the 12 worst cards to find in your Sealed pool:

Battle of Wits Worldfire Omniscience Boundless Realms Door to Nothingness Wit’s End Touch of the Eternal Gilded Lotus Reverberate Redirect Stormtide Leviathan Hamletback Goliath

Some of these cards are very powerful in other formats — notably, Omniscience in EDH — but they don’t shine in Sealed.

Other contenders for the list included two of the tribal lords (Elvish Archdruid and Lord of the Pearl Trident), the oddball Trading Post, Fervor, and the extremely conditional Phylactery Lich. Ultimately, I decided all of those were still somewhat playable, so they were spared the indignity of me telling them why they suck.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Disagree with my list? Let me know in the comments!

Also, check back soon for my analysis of which colors are best in M13 Limited! (Spoiler: you probably shouldn’t play red.)