Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Limited Set Review – Multicolor, Artifacts and Lands

Drifter: D

5 mana 3/3s are obviously terrible, flash or not. +1/+1 counters are good to mutate onto, since the new creature retains those and you immediately get a huge one, but spending 5 mana for your mutate fodder is really not where you want to be either. This is a low D.

Drifter: B

Well, I’ve been mentioning it a lot, so I think you saw a high grade coming! This card fixes, helps you hit land drops in a format where that’s going to be really important, and is fantastic mutation fodder because you always get your card back and it grants Vigilance for free, solid upside on huge creatures. It goes in any deck (worse in aggro, but still fine) and doesn’t commit you to anything so it’s a great early pick, more like a high B there and a mid B elsewhere.

Drifter: D

I would give this a much higher grade if it just said “Whenever a creature mutates” but having to use this as the foundation every time is really awkward. I think you need to be a really dedicated Mutated deck with lots of them before you want this card, and the effect is still weak and opens you up to losing to removal even if you are; you need to mutate a full three times onto this creature to be happy with the rate. I would consider playing it if I had enough high value mutates like Dreamtail Heron and Auspicious Starrix that I really just wanted more cheap fodder, but my deck has to both be pretty busted and not have better cards to put in. I suspect throughout this entire Draft format, I’m unlikely to play this card more than say once or twice, and not be happy to do so.

Drifter: A

This is fantastic in a cycling set – you can ditch some really huge creatures and reanimate them with this, and get immense value. Worth noting that this both fights and can eat something in combat – you won’t always be able to eat their best creature twice since the two helpings of damage will usually kill it, but it’s still a 3 for 1 at instant speed and sometimes you’ll have something like Titanote Rex or Void Beckoner which are colossal enough to just not care. This is a fantastic splash in a format full of great fixing; it’s still a low A but merits the grade.

Drifter: A

Returning just one permanent is fantastic, but this card pulls into the low A range because the threat of just leaving it on the board is so immense, and it makes every further mutate stacked onto it so busted.

Drifter: S

A 6/6 Trample that can never be killed will win you most late games, and this one is even splashable – you don’t need to be 3-colour to play Brokkos at all (although he is a bit better if you can hardcast the first body, since it leaves you more mutate fodder for recurring him).

Drifter: D

This is never card advantage, incredibly awkward removal at any stage of the game, and pretty bad late since you’re unlikely to have lots of cards in hand. I can’t really see a deck that would especially want this, but I give it a low D since there are probably decks which can’t do better than this for the 23rd card, and it is still better than anything in the F tier.

Drifter: A

This card is always a solid 1 for 1, being a 1/3 Deathtouch, and then every turn it gets value and makes the situation worse and worse for your opponent. Gaining 3 life and drawing a card is nuts; this makes every removal spell you have a 2 for 1, and makes attacks and blocks a nightmare for your opponents. I would be reasonably happy to splash this card even, since the format has really good fixing, though it is certainly worse there.

Drifter: D

Everything this card does, it does badly. Being tricolour is a death knell for a card with a pretty poor effect – you want your small creatures and tokens to die, but then this card’s converted mana cost stipulation won’t let you return anything! Sacrificing it to gain 4 or 5 life is nice, but really not enough to save it – I could see it in a deck with really a ton of graveyard synergy (so a deck that’s very rare in this format to begin with and high value 1 and 2 drops, so I’ve left it at low D, but could easily see moving it down to F.

Drifter: B

This is extremely efficient removal that’s a solid splash; it does hurt if you don’t have enough Humans in your deck but they’re plentiful at common in both black and white. Even if you don’t have enough Humans, you’re still not going to want to cut this card.

Drifter: D

This Ultimatum is kind of underwhelming – your graveyard needs to be pretty stacked for this to just win you the game and most decks won’t be able to cast this on turn 7 so much as turn 11 or 12 or even later. Every Ultimatum is going to suffer in grade for being ridiculously hard to cast; this one is at least Green so 3 colour is more reachable, but it’s really not worth warping your deck for if the fixing doesn’t line up.

Drifter: D

Wow, I get the second and third best cards in my deck late in the game after I’ve painstakingly built my mana base around this card? I spared this an F entirely because it requires triple Green rather than a different colour and there are common cards like Fertilid, Migration Path, and Migratory Greathorn in Green that make this a lot easier to cast, since they often net you two lands, so maybe if your deck just has those and is good enough at fixing then you’re reasonably happy to play this card, but it’s very rare and this is a low D.

Drifter: A

There are five commons with Vigilance in Selesnya this format but a couple of them are really unexciting. Still, I rate this highly because the base case is so good – tapping for 1 mana, still being able to attack for 3, and having a really good defensive body adds up to a whole lot alongside the potential to just be busted if you do have some Vigilance creatures. I consider this a low A.

Drifter: B

General Kudro’s grade is on the lower side because you really need a lot of Humans and it’s going to be hard to get enough in many decks. He also has some negative synergy with himself – buffing Humans to then sacrifice them isn’t really what you want to do unless you have to. Still, just being a great anthem effect for the Humans deck is worth a lot, and there will be many times when sacrificing two is still worth it since destroying their biggest creature is just so good. Orzhov tends to be the best place for Kudro anyway, so I suspect most decks won’t splash him.

Drifter: B

That second ability is fantastic, providing incidental graveyard hate and a solid mana sink, and meaning this card is good early and late. It’s not quite as good as Slimefoot, the Stowaway, since eventually you’ll each run out of creatures in graveyards, but this card is a high B just on that basis. There are no Legendary Humans at common/uncommon so that first line isn’t worth very much, but hey sometimes you’ll get a rare one and it’ll be great!

Drifter: D

Unlike Emergent Ultimatum, this card requires you to be at least Simic, which hurts it a lot – it’s really hard to take off the wheel on that basis . This is at least a draw five since it puts the cards you don’t put in play in your hand, and often it will recoup a lot of the mana investment you put into it by putting stuff in play. This card really relies on having Green cards like Migratory Greathorn, Fertilid, and Migration Path since those can net you two lands, but at least two of those are commons. All in all, I think I’m going to leave it at high D since it does require jumping through a bunch of hoops and the right deck, more so than Emergent Ultimatum (but for a far better effect) and the format has enough card draw that I think the need for this sort of effect is lessened. I could see moving this up to C- in a future update, based on how the common Simic decks play out.

Drifter: S

A 5 mana 6/6 flying trample is the best statline you can get, and if you can afford to wait and use this ability then you get a free card alongside an immediate massive swing. Even if they have removal after that, you’ve gotten immense value and if they don’t, then you’re threatening more triggers!

Drifter: D

It’s really hard to cast this in Jeskai, and honestly I don’t think the payoff is really that great for doing so – by the time you can, it’ll be like turn 10 at least and this doesn’t impact the board that well immediately. This also just isn’t that necessary in a set full of great ways to draw cards, so I don’t think this card will really be that exciting. I would certainly give it a much higher grade if it were Green, the only colour with good tools to cast Ultimatums, but it’s not.

Drifter: B

This is mostly just a 2 mana 2/2 with a really strong late game ability, which is a good card! It’s exceptionally good this format, since there’s a ton of ramp. I don’t expect the first ability to be worth that much, since Crystals are just okay and there aren’t tons of mana dorks, but in some decks it will have some solid upside on top.

Drifter: B

I give this a B mostly because its firebreathing combines really well with this evasion and mutating onto it is just stone nuts. There’s also a Menace theme in Rakdos this set, so there’s more of it at common.

Drifter: B

This is a high B, because it recoups the card disadvantage of mutate immediately by drawing you a good spell and then the threat of drawing more is nuts. I don’t think it’ll be hard to get great instants and sorceries for this, since Red has tons of removal this format. This isn’t even a multicolour card; I would it just in Red, even if I weren’t Izzet, because mutating it is just that great. I don’t think base Blue decks will want this as much unless they have several Gust of Winds and fliers, since the instant/sorcery pickings are otherwise a bit threadbare. I considered low A for this, but I think not wanting it in base Blue does hurt it enough to push it down.

Drifter: C+

Narset is much weaker than your regular mythic planeswalker; its power mostly comes from that strong minus ability but it’s awkward unreliable removal that won’t always have good targets and it makes her hard to protect; you’ll often end up just shooting a 2 drop with it and often just nothing because you would rather cast your spells than discard them. The + ability is fairly underwhelming since you can only cast noncreatures with the ramp and gaining two life is nice, but they will be doing their utmost to kill her anyway; your life total is very much a secondary concern with Narset out. If she were just two colour or in Green, I would give her a solid B, but even in high fixing formats, there are costs to splashing for many nongreen decks – you do have to take the gainlands over good cards sometimes to enable splashes – so I’m leaving her at high C+.

Drifter: B

I leave this at high B because oftentimes you won’t have good 3 CMC or less targets to bring back or you’ll have to sandbag it for a while until you can trade with something, but once you do then this card is absolutely absurd – it has the mutate stacking effect I keep talking about, where it’s really dangerous for them to leave it in play, since you can just get more value. Being playable in just black and white decks makes this a really solid early pick.

Drifter: S

This is up there on best cards in the set. It has an absurd body, is easy to cast especially in Green, you don’t even need to splash it if you just plan to mutate it, and that final ability will just win you the game.

Drifter: C

This is really dependent on what good enter-the-battlefield/death triggers you have, but I suspect it won’t really be worth the splash in most decks, especially since it’s not in Green. The problem with this kind of card is you’re going to run out of fodder relatively quickly, so it won’t just churn out 1/1s for the rest of the game.

Drifter: A

This card’s ability is totally busted; you often want to mutate it on turn 3 since it’s so cheap and that way you draw a card immediately. After you draw your first card, they must have removal or they fall further and further behind and if they do, you just got an easy 2 for 1 and forced them to expend a great card; this card will be a good 2 for 1 almost always, and will just run away with the game often too. A 2/4 body also means you dodge a lot of common removal. All in all, I expect this to be a high A and it’s my pick for best uncommon in the set.

Drifter: B

I consider this a high B, since it’s solid whatever it does – it grows your smaller creatures until you can start drawing cards, where it becomes really busted. The failcase of putting a +1/+1 counter on a creature is still pretty good. I think it’s a pretty medium splash unless you really have a lot of big creatures – this is a card you mostly want to play early, so I couldn’t justify A for it.

Drifter: A

This card is nuts at a base rate, but gets even better if you already have Trample creatures on board, of which there are plenty in Gruul. It’s worse as a splash since you’re less likely to have those as most of them are in Green, the colour you’ll be splashing, but you will do so anyway because it’s a 6/6 for 5 that threatens to win the game if they don’t have removal or the board isn’t stalled. I consider this an S in Gruul, but being double red and a far worse splash makes this a high A overall.

Drifter: C+

I think Regal Leosaur is saved a lot by being playable in both Red and White; there’s enough token production and small creatures at common that this ability is really nice – +2/+1 threatens really a ton of damage. This is a card you actively want to prioritise if you’re going wide, but it is a bit awkward that it leaves you with one fewer attacker for subsequent turns in mutating, and you will be forced to hold it sometimes. This is a low C+.

Drifter: B

(My original grade was C- because I forgot that Rielle worked with cycling, oops! I looked over the cards that loot/rummage and there weren’t many good ones so I didn’t think she was that good! Apologies, I was reviewing hundreds of cards this week).

Rielle is a fantastic cycling payoff, turning it from card parity into advantage. There’s enough cycling in the set that that alone makes her really powerful, but she’s also great with Facet Reader and Cloudpiercer, two decent commons in Izzet. I’ve left her at high B, because she’s not as exciting a topdeck and doesn’t add much to the board in general, but I am excited to splash her in dedicated cycling decks in Azorius and Boros alongside regular Izzet decks.

Drifter: C+

This Ultimatum’s effect is obviously absurd, but it’s incredibly hard to cast in Mardu colours. It’ll probably be worth playing like 4 or 5 sources of your off-colour and having this as a late game hedge, and I do think the fixing is great in this format even outside Green, with cards like Farfinder and the common gainlands, so I’m giving it a high grade for now.

Drifter: B

The dedicated cycling deck will want to take this card in the A range and even splash it, but it’s just great in practically every deck since there’s common cycling in every colour. Even if you don’t have much cycling, you probably will still want to run this since it’s a 2 mana 3/2 that they might well remove on sight, since they don’t know your deck.

Drifter: C+

Skull Prophet filling your graveyard for the Golgari payoffs is nice, and it is pretty solid when played on turn 2 but you do need to be base Golgari to ever play this card, it doesn’t fix you very well, and it’s not really that exciting all in all. Also, some of your sources will be tied up in cards like Farplace Finder/taplands/other land fetchers, so this card will be harder to play on turn 2 than in most formats.

Drifter: A

Powerful mana sink that scales with your other fliers? Sounds good to me. This card is a solid splash even, since that ability is just so powerful in the late game, though it’s more like a B if you’re taking it for that purpose.

Drifter: B

Here’s a list of common/uncommons with Flash. As you can see, they’re actually pretty plentiful this set; black has a theme with them, so I have this card at low B. It’s a bit hard to cast and underwhelming the turn you play it, but if you can go end of turn flash this in and then untap and draw a card, that’s a great swing.

Drifter: S

This is another one of those busted Mythics where you don’t even have to be 3 colour, because this really just demands that you are base White and you can even splash it outside Boros and Orzhov. Whatever you do with it, it swings for massive damage and takes out a creature freely, and if you can and end up having to then sure you can play it as a 4 mana 3/5 double strike too (which is total nuts). I feel like I’m mentioning the threat of repeated activation for too many cards by this point, but it is very important, and will force them to remove this fast, or you’ll just get to shoot down another creature in a couple more turns.

Drifter: F

Song of Creation isn’t a may ability – it has some really scary potential to deck you, since you draw two cards off every single spell. Discarding your hand end of turn means that you won’t be able to play that many of those spells either, or play the ones you want because you’ll draw them in the wrong order – even if you play two good things a turn, you’re putting yourself on a really fast clock and if your opponent is either advantaged or at parity, you’re likely not to be able to win fast enough to overcome that. A 2 drop will edge you closer to dying, but won’t really add much to the board so you won’t kill them much more quickly. It’ll take a while to build up enough lands to play two expensive things a turn anyway, unless you wait for ages before playing this card. Song also immediately puts you in topdeck mode, and does nothing to alleviate the fact that when you draw a land, you get time walked, so you really are incentivised to wait till you reach that anyway before you can play it.

I think that combination of factors means that it isn’t worth it for any deck – it’s hard to draw your cards in the right order for this to always do what you want with the discard your hand end of turn, and you have to race yourself, and wait till 8 mana or so to play this just to ensure you have a shot at winning that race. I could see Song working in a format that has a really high density of burn or mill, where decks can can convert their cards into a rapid kill, but this one is nowhere close.

Drifter: C+

Sprite Dragon misses the B range for me, while being a high C+, mostly through being multicolour and a very medium splash; the card’s really powerful since it just gets incremental value off cards you want to play anyway and ticks up over the course of the game. I think you want to mutate it only when you can go for a really devastating swing, with say three or four counters, since it’s great to have in play and you don’t want to play into their removal that much.

Drifter: F

Titans’ Nest doesn’t affect the board, takes a whole bunch of turns to really have an impact, and is almost never worth a card. All this on a card you need to splash, prioritise fixing for, make your deck more inconsistent, play taplands… so thanks for the offer but I’ll pass.

Drifter: B

The threat of repeated activation is huge enough that I’m happy to give this a B, but you do need fodder for it to be great because it doesn’t swing for a whole lot and removal is still a 1 for 1 against it (slightly more even since on turn 5, a vanilla 3/3 is rarely worth a full card so if you used a real creature to mutate for it, you’re actually behind).

Drifter: A

Vadrok is surprisingly splashable, only really requiring a commitment to Red, and that boosts his grade in my book, since you want to mutate him most of the time anyway. He’s also just great if you can play him on turn 3, but that’s very hard for most decks to do. Red has access to a lot of good removal this format at cost 3 or less so really I’m happy to run him wherever. I consider him on the high side of A, since he does as all the other gold mutate cards that draws cards do, in that he remains in play and forces them to remove him quickly or he just runs away with the game, and he gives you value against removal.

Drifter: D

The average Limited deck just doesn’t have enough noncreature spells for splashing this to be really exciting. If you’re specifically in one of the rare decks which is like Izzet spells splash white, it can be pretty good, but it’s not really well-supported in the format as we saw from the Red review. It’s a mediocre topdeck, and you need to draw minimum three cards to be happy, since 4 mana draw two you have to splash for is awful.

Drifter: B

6 cards is a lot, and if this ever hits then you get a ton of value. You want about 5-6 humans alongside some nonhumans for this to be fantastic, and there’s not a quota every deck can fill so I’ve brought it down a bit, but it’s still a high B.

Drifter: D

The problem with this card is that the maths just never works out for it. Even if you have 10 cyclers, this card is only 44% to deal at least 4 damage on turn 7 on the draw, and 4 damage is about the start of where you’re okay to have it (to learn how to work this stuff out, see my article here – I inputted 39/10/12/4 into StatTrek.com’s hypergeometric calculator), so it’s really not worth it even with 10! This rises to 64% with 12 and 79% with 14, but at that point that’s an incredibly dedicated cycling deck, and even in those, it will be rare that you’ll get as many as that. For all of that work, the payoff isn’t even that great – you have 4 mana 4 damage that scales up in the late game but is very unlikely to do more than 6 or so until really late in the game, and this all assumes you’ve actually cycled or traded off all those cards. I’ve given this a low D because it’s realistically so unlikely to work, but it’s possible that the dedicated cycling decks will be able to stall till turn 15 or whatever, since they’re better set up to do so than most, and at that point it might do more like 8.

Being able to go face at least means that two of these will kill them with a little prior damage, if you are the perfect deck for this card, but really this card is not even good in most dedicated cycling decks. I also haven’t even mentioned the costs associated with Cycling a lot, but they’re still very relevant… I could see moving it down to F, but I’ve shown mercy for now.

Drifter: C+

These are reasonable stats, and this is a lot of lifegain over time for free; even if you don’t have another Vigilance creature, this will probably be 4 or 5 life over the course of the game, and if you do have one then it gets really absurd and makes it very hard to race you, and there are a full five at common this format (though Maned Serval and Mosscoat Goriak are really weak, and their role as good blockers is kind of fulfilled by this card anyway).

Drifter: C-

This is mostly a vanilla 2/2 for 2 that’s hard to cast, unless you’re in exactly Dimir.

Drifter: B

I really like this card: it’s a strong mana sink that can tutor up your best cards, scales well into the late game, gets bigger as creatures trade, and is playable in Green or Black alone. I leave it at high B only because it has some anti-synergy with mutate, which green and black really want to be doing – they work off the same resource in disposable creatures, but honestly I could see moving it up to A anyway.

Drifter: B

Companion is sometimes reasonable for this because Even cards, especially at 2 and 4 mana, are the bread-and-butter of Limited formats anyway. Still, you’re usually going to be better off just playing it as a 6 drop that might net you a creature. I’ve left it at B because it only gets even creatures and only among the four you mill, so there’s a very real chance of it missing or getting you a a low value target – if it could just take from your graveyard, this card would obviously just be busted, but it’s very far from that.

Drifter: B

Jegantha is easy enough to Companion, and gives you a lot of value if you do. Drawing an extra card every game is fantastic. She’s also fine without Companion since most decks will have room for a 5 mana 5/5 that’s easy to cast and ramps you.

Drifter: C+

Jubilant Skybonder gets a high C+ because the base case of 3 mana 2/2 flier isn’t really that exciting, and your opponents often won’t need to remove this potentially for a long time anyway. That being said, in dedicated flier decks, she’s much better but that requires you to mostly be Blue – Skybonder is actually pretty medium as a mono White card. It’s nice to mutate onto her early as well, since she makes their removal a lot more awkward to use against the new creature.

Drifter: B

The vast majority of decks won’t be able to Companion this, but it’s a solid card in decks with lots of nonhumans anyway.

Drifter: A

Keruga is great whether you Companion here or not. The format seems pretty slow and you can still cycle stuff, so Companioning her is going to be reasonable for plenty of decks anyway, but you do want to make sure you have good blockers on turn 3 – the dream is obviously lifelink creatures like Splendor Mare or Grimdancer.

Drifter: B

Don’t try to Companion this, it’s just too hard! That being said, it’s great in any deck with plenty of permanents that cost 2 or less, and fine even if you don’t have many of those.

Drifter: A

This is a Companion ability that is straight up easy, and rewards you heavily. Having played with it in the early access event, I can say that the copy ability comes up a ton, and I think this is a great card by itself for any deck. Copying removal on turn 6 and 7 can lead to some truly incredible blowouts, and even if you do have to flash it in and trade you’re doing fine.

Drifter: A

Odds is tougher than evens to pull off, since 2s and 4s are so important in Limited; it’s possible sometimes but really not something I would rely on when picking cards. But you don’t need to – this is a 5 mana 6/5 that improves half of your creatures (and removal spells in Red).

Drifter: C+

There are decent Trample cards at common (not Brushwagg! It’s also worth noting that Fierce Tigorilla usually wants Menace, and this might not be enough to push you to give it Trample) in both these colours and you can really break open a board stall to finish them with several using this ability. You’re still happy without many of those because a 4 mana 4/3 that can burn them for 4 at will is a solid card in most decks.

Drifter: C+

I don’t think you actually need much Menace to run this at all. Three creatures is enough that this is mostly a 2/2 unblockable for 3, which is just a fine card in many decks, and this can lead to some big Mutate swings too. Still, Rakdos has a Menace theme at common, which gives this a lot of additional upside, especially with say Ferocious Tigorilla.

Drifter: C+

Don’t try to companion this! But it’s a 4 mana 4/5, you can’t really go wrong.

Drifter: A

This is mostly going to be too tough to Companion unless you take it p1p1, and even then it won’t always be worth it. But it’s a 4/5 flier for 5 that gets you some additional value from enter the battlefield effects (and at least gives your creatures vigilance for a turn), so it’s great. You can also use it to flicker creatures they steal with Gyruda!

Drifter: C+

Zirda making creatures unable to block is very relevant in any deck trying to beat down; it doesn’t do a whole lot else and its Companion stipulation is impossible though. Making Cycling 2s into 1s, and a few other cards in the set like the white tappers a little bit better helps a bit, but doesn’t massively change the grade. It’s a 3 mana 3/3 with some upside at least.

Drifter: A

Every turn, this gets more threatening and if you roll hexproof while at parity, then your opponent might well just lose the game; everything it does is good. It’s a great turn 3 play and still fantastic late, but I don’t think it makes S because it takes some time to get going which makes it a bit less exciting late, and it doesn’t give you value if removed unlike most S cards.

Drifter: C-

This is a format with lots of stuff to Ramp to, but honestly I still think you can do better than these for the most part – fixing is really good so you need these less, and Cycling still has a bunch of costs associated with it. This is a high power format, which makes these worse too. I’d give them a flat D if they didn’t have Cycling.

Drifter: D

+1/+1 counters are reasonably common this format, but you really need a lot of things that generate those and other high value counters to make this worth it – probably 10-12 good ones (not trample and such), and most decks won’t come close.

Drifter: D

This card just doesn’t do enough to warrant a slot in your deck; it doesn’t add much to a cantrip of 2, which is always pretty weak but especially weak in a Cycling format.

Drifter: D

We saw with Scalding Cauldron that this sort of effect can actually be pretty good, but this costs 1 more and so does it on turn 4 instead of 3, and is much more awkward to fit into your turn and double spell with.

Drifter: C

Fixing is good in this format, and there are lots of good splashes. If you have some good splashes already, I would take these over most C-s but you shouldn’t prioritise them if you don’t, since they could easily end up in the wrong colours or whatever. These are low Cs.

Drifter: B

This ability is fantastic, and this is a format with good fixing so it’s less costly to put a colourless land in your deck. I would be happy to run this in any deck with at least 4 or 5 4+ power guys, and might consider cutting it if I don’t have that and don’t have good fixing (but it’s pretty easy to reach that in a mutate format).

Drifter: C+

Evolving Wilds is far better than the tapped gainlands, because you can take it whenever and it will still be good at splashing whatever you want. It’s also much more useful when you’re trying to play 3 or 4 colours, and 2 colours with a single, double, or even triple splash is going to be very common.

Drifter: C+

Trilands have always been strong, and this time is no exception. They make your double colour cards and splashes both much easier, and I would be happy to take these at fairly high C+ in a format full of great splashes like this one. Cycling on these is definitely nice also, netting you a fresh draw in the late game.

Drifter

This is a format full of great fixing and multicolour shows us just how many good splash cards there are. I suspect you don’t need to prioritise fixing really that much, since there’s plenty, but outside Green you’re definitely going to want it higher and it’s going to be worth taking fixing there over medium playables much of the time, as long as you’re doing counts and making sure you’re still reasonably on track for 23. I’m not going to bother with a colour ranking for this set, as I did for Theros: Beyond Death, since I think it’s just not going to be that important – with the advent of Human Drafts on Arena, you really want to be drafting what’s open and paying attention to signals anyway (I did my first very article on that here!) and I think the power level is overall very high but spread in a balanced way across colours this format, and you’re often going to be just dipping into them anyway, sometimes playing 3 colours but more often just being 2 colours and a splash or two. While this is a slow format, I suspect that aggro will be pretty good in Red and White, especially early on as people are adjusting to the format, and would recommend prioritising it a bit higher if it seems open/you have some of the tools already. My experience of Ikoria so far is that it is a decision-intensive, complex, and incredibly engaging format, which is my favourite kind, and I look forward to seeing how that pans out!

Our Tier list is out now, and I plan to be amending my grades regularly, both in the form of regular written updates as I did for Theros: Beyond Death and on the fly. I’m a strong believer that tier lists are only as good as they are updated, so I will be diligent; stay tuned in! I also plan on continuing my Limited Spotlight series which analyses different bite-sized aspects of Draft, offering my regular Draft coaching service, and providing a strategy and tips guide akin to my Throne of Eldraine one a few weeks into the format. As always, you can find all my content as it releases on mtgazone.com/drifter!

Thanks for reading, and may you ever ride the giant mutant dinosaurs rather than be one of those crushed underfoot!