Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Set Review - Black
Both Jamie and TJ are using a rating scale of 10 for this set. Jamie is basing hers on limited play, while TJ is giving more of a holistic rating. Melvin is just being Melvin.
Other Colors
Bastion of remembrance
Jamie: 6/10 might be great in a go wide human deck with the drain and gain as a finisher.
TJ: 6/10 a three mana 1/1 with a blood artist ability that doesn't go away seems worth it. it can make chump blocks seem favorable and alpha strikes into a win.
Melvin: Bastion never forgot the Never Ending Story.
Blitz Leech
Jamie: 5/10 I'm looking at this as an expensive removal spell- will likely be able to kill a big creature in combat but with the tiny butt likely won't survive.
TJ: 6/10 being able to kill a 3/3 or less easily, and a 7/7 or less as a one for one isn't bad. add on that it can swing back with a lot of power and blowout a creature that has been hording powerful counters. I think I won't feel bad having a copy in my deck. I think it will be a blowout more often than a dud and just alright the rest of the time.
Melvin: If you see a Blitz Leech coming, look for a quick route for throwing because you know you’ve got one on one coverage on your receivers. Shoot, wrong game.
blood curdle
Jamie: 9/10 splashable removal! being able to give a menace counter is so dang good!
TJ: 9/10 kill a think cleanly, splash it in any deck. and get a menace counter, which is a seriously underrated ability. great card. it's even an instant.
Melvin: If your blood is curdling, put it in the microwave on low for ten second intervals until you reach the desired consistency.
Boot nipper
Jamie: 7/10 deathtouch will be more desirable in a set with big ol monsters.
TJ: 7/10 I think it's going to be deathtouch more often than not but having some versatility in how you play this is great. I like this whole cycle
Melvin: I’m fine with boot nippers. It’s the hat nippers I fear.
bushmeat poacher
Jamie: 5/10 could be an interesting build around, seems decent with Bastion of Remembrance.
TJ: 4/10 It's a decent effect but it's slow for four mana, plus a mana to activate, and tapping the creature. the life gain is a plus and may end up a powerful engine in the right deck that is looking to grind.
Melvin: What meat?
Call of the death-dweller
Jamie: 7/10 cheap recursion that enhances the creatures seems amazing!
TJ: 5/10 Requiring that the creatures are CMC three or less is a bit of a bummer but it's still a lot of value. Being able to throw deathtouch onto one ofthem makes it into a psuedo removal spell. I would be happy playing this in an aggro deck to rebuild the board state and keep the pressure on.
Melvin: Usually sounds like yodeling.
Cavern WHisperer
Jamie: 6/10 decent stats. could be nasty in a dedicated mutate deck
TJ: 6/10 if you ignore the triggered ability it's still a decent rate to play a 4/4 for four with menace. the discard ability seems like a poweerful add-on that will occasionally grab some powerful removal or top end creatures from your opponents hand.
Melvin: Jennifer Love Hewitt starred in the Ghost Whisperer from 2005 to 2010. I liked that show. That’s all I have on this one.
chittering harvester
Jamie: 6/10 expensive, and hit or miss with the sac.. if opponent has a go- wide human deck won't be very hard hitting.
TJ: 5/10 expensive edict. your opponent will probably have some weaker creatures on the board at that stage in the game.
Melvin: I thought it was just chipmunks under the porch, but it was worse.
corpse churn
Jamie: 6/10 i like this as a late game spell to get back your best creature, early game won't be super exciting though.
TJ: 7/10 rebuy your best critter while digging for an even better option? Seems pretty powerful as a late game recovery spell that can get back a big baddy
Melvin: That’s a weird way to make butter.
Dark bargain
Jamie: 6/10 card draw/selection in black is a good tool to have.
TJ: 5/10 I know this card is decent and a great end of turn trick to set up for future turns. But the effect is so expensive for me to enjoy casting it.
Melvin: A dark bargain is what you’re secretly getting with every Taco Bell order.
Dead weight
Jamie: 8/10 efficient removal always makes it into my black decks.
TJ: 9/10 dead weight rhymes with "is great" you do the math
Melvin: I mean, we could do the podcast with two people.
Dirge bat
Jamie: 9/10 stats great, repeatable removal is so nasty.
TJ: 9/10 I would play a four mana 3/3 with flash and flying without an extra incentive. But adding a clean removal spell in the late game that could be repeated is wild
Melvin: You have to use a regulation dirge bat in dirgeball.
durable coilbug
Jamie: 4/10 reminds me of reassembling skeleton. a bear that can be a repeatable chump blocker late game doesn't seem terrible.
TJ: 3/10 annoying, But I don't know if I'd call it powerful. In some strategies it will be an expensive way to keep an engine going in the late game but I'm meh on it.
Melvin: Durable, rustproof, and dishwasher safe.
Duskfang Mentor
Jamie: 8/10 would be amazing with a blink effects, powerful effect for a reasonable cost.
TJ: 7/10 lifelink is real good in limited. especially when you can put +1/+1 counters on a lifelinking creature
Melvin: Oh hey, it’s Wyldstyle from the Lego Movie.
easy prey
Jamie: 8/10 great early game removal with cycling back up for late game. I'm in.
TJ: 9/10 conditional removal sucks. Unless that conditional removal has my favorite keyword. Then it's almost perfect.
Melvin: Originally titled “Eat Prey Love” until someone heard there was a book with that name.
extinction event
Jamie: 6/10 RNG factor here means you might not be able to get rid of the threat.
TJ: 7/10 I feel like it's going to be good more often than it's bad. a clean sweeper would definitely be powerful but this has the potential to be devastating.
Melvin: Is this why there aren’t actual any real chocolate bunnies anymore?
Gloom Pangolin
Jamie: 3/10 big booty filler.
TJ: 2/10 I gave it this rating because it simplifies to 1/5 which is all this is.
Melvin: No gloom for me, I get hunger pangolins.
grimdancer
Jamie: 7/10 flexibility of counters is great here. powerful stats for the cost.
TJ: 8/10 all three versions of this creature are good at different stages of the game. a perfect reliable tool for it's mana cost.
Melvin: Hey, if you don’t like line dancing you don’t have to be rude about it.
heartless act
Jamie: 8/10 cheap removal.
TJ: 5/10 better in constructed, lots of counters in limited.
Melvin: I mean, this is basically how Old Yeller ended.
hunted nightmare
Jamie: 8/10 huge creature for small cost might be lucky enough to cast onto a battlefield where opponent has no creatures... or playing a decent bit of cheap removal to get rid of the deathtouched creature. The power is worth the drawback.
TJ: 8/10 giant creature way ahead of rate even if it needs to hang back on defense until you can answer the deathtouch counter. but if they have zero or one creature on the board this is going to express deliver some pain.
Melvin: This is me, if I was the portrayed hunter but the nightmare I’m hunting is the last can of Lysol disinfectant spray in the tri-county area.
insatiable hemophage
Jamie: 7/10 deathtouch worth the cost, mutating is some nice gravy!
TJ: 6/10 use it in your two headed giant deck. otherwise it's a deathtoucher that may occasionally go the extra mile with mutate.
Melvin: Not so much hemoglobin, more like hemo-gobbling.
lurking deadeye
Jamie: 8/10 will be annoying! being able to take out a big creature that you chump blocked is powerful stuff.
TJ: 8/10 chump block their biggest creature then serve it for supper with this flashy card
Melvin: Everyone in chat when they see a missed lethal attack and chimes in to point it out.
memory leak
Jamie: 5/10 a bit pricey for the effect. I would probably sideboard this in against opponents with bomb heavy decks
TJ: 4/10 blah. I'm usually bored by these cards
Melvin: The picture should just be a snapshot of Magic Arena lagging out.
Mutual destruction
Jamie: 8/10 bone splinters with flash is appealing. being able to sacrifice a creature in response to removal. or just trading your weakest creature for opponents best creature is good enough
TJ: 7/10 trade your weakest creature for their strongest. it's still a one-for-two but at least it may have flash.
Melvin: See previous Taco Bell jokes.
mythos of nethroi
Jamie: 9/10 awesome, cheap removal. Casting for 3 colors obviously nutter butters.
TJ: 9/10 cards incredibly good, and it's splashable. hard to imagine that you ever wont play this card when you have access to it.
Melvin: And so it was that the monster devoured all twenty members of the MacNougget clan in one sitting. It is a tale both sweet and sour.
nightsquad commando
Jamie: 5/10 decent stats for 3 mana, will be good for go wide human deck.
TJ: 4/10 reasonable raid creature in an aggressive deck. unexceptional otherwise
Melvin: Oh no! Monsters are attacking Diagon Alley!
serrated scorpion
Jamie: 2/10 not doing enough!
TJ: 1/10 meh, not worth the card in your deck
Melvin: I’ve never heard of a scorpion being knighted before.
suffocating fumes
Jamie: 4/10 could mess up a token strategy deck or turn the scales in your favor in combat. Cycling makes this card maindeckable.
TJ: 6/10 being an instant means this could be super fun in combat. cycle it when it sucks
Melvin: Crack a window, bro.
unbreakable bond
Jamie: 5/10 expensive recurrsion, but adding lifelink makes this desirable.
TJ: 5/10 reanimation spell, slow and requires a good card in the grave. But this card helps by giving it lifelink
Melvin: After the story line in the Game of Thrones, Arya goes on to befriend a giant raccoon thing.
unexpected fangs
Jamie: 6/10 combat trick and granting lifelink for such a reasonable price.
TJ: 7/10 solid trick. both counters stick around which makes it better than previous iterations.
Melvin: No one expects the Spanish Fanquisition!
unlikely aid
Jamie: 5/10 indestructible is appealing, but could get blown out with removal in response.
TJ: 4/10 usually these effects are underwhelming for me. takes a lot of work to really set up a "gotcha!" and the rest of the time it's alright
Melvin: The human saw it as transport across the bog. For the monster, it was carry-out.
void beckoner
Jamie: 7/10 looking to cast this for cycling cost most of the time, will be nice in combat.
TJ: 7/10 deathtouch on an 8/8 is hilariously unneeded. But the cycle ability is quite powerful at instant speed. and in the late game it's certainly a monster
Melvin: Not as scary as a Glenn Beckoner
whisper squad
Jamie: 2/10 this isn't squadron hawk! No evasion makes me not interested. too much effort to get a bunch of 1/1s.
TJ: 1/10 I'm rating it low but I'm certain I'll lose to it at least once
Melvin: Whisper squads seem perfectly comfortable in any player’s library.
zagoth mamba
Jamie: 5/10 fairly powerful effect- can make combat annoying.
TJ: 3/10 seems like you will often have better mutate targets unless this is in your opening hand every game. every time I draw it past turn three I expect to let out a disappointed sigh.
Melvin: I wish I could play more than the limit for these in Standard. I really want Mamba No.5.
