Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Set Review - Blue
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
aegis turtle
Jamie: 3/10 control deck filler... cheap wall
TJ: 2/10 its an alright blocker, but without any power it won't actually stop any attacks, just slow the damage a bit. Not really worth a card
Melvin: Reasonable casting cost. I don’t think you want to shell out any more mana for a wall than this.
anticipate
Jamie: 5/10 mostly filler, but being able to see more cards in deck and find your bombs/removal is nice
TJ: 6/10 solid card. take a look at he top three and grab the best one.
Melvin: The name of our spin-off podcast.
archipelagore
Jamie: 6/10 powerful, but pricey. This has big finisher energy.
TJ: 7/10 it's slow. but a 7/7 that chills a creature when it comes in is pretty powerful. if you manage to get multiple mutates on this creature than it will be lights out.
Melvin: I’m going to call him Al-gore for short.
avian oddity
Jamie: 8/10 being able to grant flying to a big ol creature at instant speed is powerful!
TJ: 6/10 a four mana 2/4 flyer is alright. But I expect I'd rather be giving something huge flying and drawing a card.
Melvin: Someone forgot how to bird when they created this creature. Or they were just winging it.
boon of the wish-giver
Jamie: 7/10 draw 4 cards for 6 is a bit pricey. powerful late game card with cycle as a backup plan is very solid.
TJ: 8/10 I may be over rating this. But drawing 4 cards is absurd, even if at sorcery speed. and having the option to cycle instead so it isn't stranded in your hand is excellent
Melvin: Never miss an opportunity to draw four cards.
capture sphere
Jamie: 7/10 decent removal, little bit pricey.
TJ: 8/10 premium removal. clears out a creature from combat and any tap activated abilities. having flash is also a really nice touch
Melvin: Chris Pratt looks so sad in the art.
convolute
Jamie: 3/10 counter spells that are good early game, but terrible late game aren't my cup of tea
TJ: 4/10 If i have a lot of flash cards it gets better. but holding up mana for counters rather than developing in the early game is not great. and this gets much worse in the late game when they have extra mana
Melvin: Counterspells should always be polite.
crystacean
Jamie: 4/10 big booty blocker isn't too shabby, only crabby
TJ: 3/10 super cute but also pretty weak.
Melvin: I azure you, this aquamarine animal will fit pyrite in any limited deck. I might be jaded, my my mouth hangs agate when I see the six toughness onyx.
dreamtail heron
Jamie: 6/10 decent stats, and drawing cards when mutating seems good!
TJ: 6/10 four mana for a 3/4 flier that draws a card is pretty excellent. it's not amazing on it's own but drawing cards whenever you mutate is a great way to mitigate the potential card disadvantage if they have removal.
Melvin: If I can get this to survive, I’ll be drawing lots of cards from heron out.
escape protocol
Jamie: 7/10 seems powerful with some really good ETBs
TJ: 7/10 ETBs are powerful, reusing ETBs is extra cool. seems like a powerful engine for a cycling deck. You can even protect your creatures from removal. The worst mode is to untap a creature that attacked, or to remove a creature from combat.
Melvin: My escape protocol is screaming like a child and running away with arms flailing.
essence scatter
Jamie: 7/10 looking at this as cheap removal for the powerful mutate creatures, set is creature heavy so I will be playing multiple copies of this in any blue deck.
TJ: 6/10 essense scatter is among the better counters for limited I think. creatures are what win the game and this hits them for a really low cost
Melvin: If you broke down my nightmares into their essence, you’d get clowns, spiders, Fox News, and empty snack bags.
facet reader
Jamie: 6/10 always loot!
TJ: 6/10 it's a human and it digs through the library for relatively cheap. I dig it
Melvin: I’m more a facet skimmer. I just want to know if the crystal is the murderer.
frost lynx
Jamie: 6/10 a classic
TJ: 7/10 frost lynx always seems to be the card you always want in your deck. plus it has it's best art yet!
Melvin: Nice hair-fur. Literal frosted tips.
frostveil ambush
Jamie: 5/10 this is so pricey for the effect, but does seem solid enough late game.
TJ: 7/10 a blowout card in the late game and a cycler in the early game. the effect is good when you are ahead, behind, or at a stall. plus its an instant. good card
Melvin: It’s April 14th and it’s snowing in Chicago. I’m in my own Frostveil Ambush.
glimmerbell
Jamie: 4/10 filler, such a smol body.
TJ: 4/10 it flies I guess. I'm sure I'm missing something about this activated ability and I'll lose to it. But until then it gets a 4
Melvin: Dinnerbell > Glimmerbell
gust of wind
Jamie: 6/10 bounce with card draw, this will be nutter butters in a heavy flyer deck
TJ: 6/10 there is a lot of flying in this set, so I imagine it will often cost two. But a cantrip that gets a nice tempo post is solid. Just be careful about what kind of mutate triggers you may be setting your opponent up for.
Melvin: Excuse you!
hampering snare
Jamie: 4/10 seems fine to tip the scales in combat, but not something I'm looking to run in a lot of blue decks
TJ: 3/10 a decent combat rick. I would be more interested in running it than usual because of the cycling ability. But I'm still not excited by it
Melvin: Hampering Snare: When as a child you trapped a sibling under a laundry basket.
keep safe
Jamie: 4/10 seems a bit niche-- will only hit removal spells, might get stuck in your hand. Wish this had cycling!
TJ: 5/10 a cantripping protection spell. nothing fancy. I wouldn’t mind running one
Melvin: I’m glad they’ve got owls as umpires at home plate. They give a hoot about getting the calls right.
mystic subdual
Jamie: 6/10 can mitigate the power on a big mutated creature with lots of abilities.
TJ: 5/10 getting rid of all abilities with flash seems excellent. I'm more interested in shutting down a mutate engine than I am in lowering the power by two. The problem is that a big beefy creature will still be swinging so it isn't great as an actual removal spell.
Melvin: When someone offers me chocolate cake. Same look.
mythos of illuna
Jamie: 8/10 copying the best creature on the board is powerful! being able to cast for 3 colors is busted.
TJ: 9/10 the best thing on the battlefield is yours now. if you happen to pay the mana to get full value than it's absurd, but on it's own it's already fantastic. it's only restriction is that a permanent is on the battlefield worth copying
Melvin: So you make a clone and it fights something? Wasn’t this the plot of the last Will Smith movie?
neutralize
Jamie: 7/10 love the cycling on this! makes so it's not a horrible top deck
TJ: 8/10 a non conditional counterspell that you can cycle is fantastic. when you need fuel it will dig further. when you need to stabilize it's got you covered
Melvin: A counterspell with two modes. You might need some sort of neutra-system to weigh your options on how to use this.
of one mind
Jamie: 8/10 lots of decks will meet requirement for this being a 1 mana draw two. Yowza!
TJ: 8/10 a divination that may only cost one if you are running creatures
Melvin: Of one mind and six legs.
ominous seas
Jamie: 6/10 this is fairly slow, but getting out on turn two, with some other card draw in the deck is powerful enough!
TJ: 7/10 if this didnt have cycling I would be more skeptical of such a slow payoff card. But when you draw it too late in the game you can just cycle it away. in the cycle deck this seems like a cheap payoff card but is probably too slow in a non cycle deck. without any assistance it wont pop until turn 10. and an 8/8 is a heck of a creature but that's a lot of time
Melvin: If you’re going to try and put eight counters on this in a game of limited, you better get kraken.
phase dolphin
Jamie: 4/10 this isn't evasive, so being able to grant something unblockable is nice, but limited. This will be easily killed in combat. Being able to give this a flying counter would make this appealing.
TJ: 5/10 its got enough toughness to survive combat, but has no natural evasion of it's own. may only get one trigger off of the dolphin.
Melvin: Everyone remembers their dolphin phase in high school. Except the cool kids, who skipped it on porpoise.
pollywog symbiote
Jamie: 7/10 payoff for mutate, cheap cost, makes things cheaper. I'm in!
TJ: 7/10 plenty efficient on it's own while enabling you to power out mutate spells and dig for more
Melvin: In draft, I don’t think this card is a signal that you should kermit to blue.
pouncing shoreshark
Jamie: 6/10 4/3 flash for 5 not exciting, but being able to mutate this will be annoying tempo for the opponent
TJ: 6/10 the flash on this creature is going to make combat difficult. 4 mana to upgrade one of your creatures while bouncing one of theirs has the makings of a blowout.
Melvin: In Ikoria, shark jumps over you.
reconnaissance mission
Jamie: 4/10 expensive set up, maybe looking to play in a evasive heavy deck though
TJ: 5/10 awful slow engine. but once online it'll be tough to not overtake the game with that much card advantage. cycling improves it nicely
Melvin: Sometimes I drive around looking for new take out restaurants. Same concept.
sea-dasher octopus
Jamie: 8/10 CUTE! POWERFUL! mutating this onto a flyer will be delightful
TJ: 8/10 flash onto an unblocked creature to draw a card. or just an efficient instand speed creature on it's own. This card isn't super flashy bu you'll always be happy when it's in your hand and it will pull more than it's share of weight for that mana cost.
Melvin: And just in time for Christmas, this will come in a “Secret Lair” set along with Sea-Dancer Octopus, Sea-Prancer Octopus, Sea-Vixen Octopus, Sea-Comet Octopus, Sea-Cupid Octopus, Sea-Donner Octopus, and Sea-Blitzen Octopus
shark typhoon
Jamie: 7/10 powerful, but expensive! A lot of times will probably just cycle to make a big ol shark late game.
TJ: 7/10 I don't know if I envision myself casting this as an enchantment too often. Most often you've got room for maybe 10 non creatures and I don't know how many I'll have left after casting this. But the cycle ability is really solid. for three mana it's a 1/1 flier that draws a card and only gets more efficient the more mana you spend. If I have six mana I'd likely rather have the flying 4/4.
Melvin: This would make an okay movie.
startling development
Jamie: 5/10 looking at this as removal/ possibly making opponents creature smaller to deal with in combat. seems flexible, and the cycling makes it something I will run in every blue deck
TJ: 6/10 a trick that either upgrades our creature or downgrades theirs. having cycling for one mana makes it worth running but I'm not sure how often I'll actually cast this
Melvin: So did one of the baby eagles turn into a serpent? I’m not sure what’s going on here.
thieving otter
Jamie: 5/10 will need to work to make this evasive, but powerful effect to warrant trying to build around
TJ: 4/10 a cutie that draws cards. for three mana it's got a good effect but needs help to actually connect with the opponent
Melvin: If you haven’t played a Scroll Thief-type card in limited before, you otter try this one.
voracious greatshark
Jamie: 8/10 powerful! 5/4 flash creature awesome enough, being able to counter a creature spell makes this so dang appealing. Will have interesting choices in combat-- try to eat a creature or wait to to counter something.
TJ: 8/10 a five mana 5/4 with flash is already solid. countering a creature on top of it all makes this card a complete blowout package.
Melvin: We’re going to need a bigger removal spell!
wingfold pteron
Jamie: 7/10 hexproof is gross and using this as part of a mutate stack will be incredibly irritating.
TJ: 5/10 Not my favorite of the cycle. 6 mana is a lot to ask for a 3/6 with either flying or hexproof. Really seems like its at it's best if you pick hexproof then mutate onto it but for six mana I'm sure there is still cheaper.
Melvin: Why does this dinosaur have two wings? In case it gets a pteron one.
wingspan mentor
Jamie: 7/10 powerful ability to grant flying to a big dumb monster, would be nice with a flicker effect.
TJ: 7/10 3 mana creature that gives something flying and boosts the team. seems excellent in most decks
Melvin: My last wing mentor died in an unfortunate accident. He said he had everything under control, but we were out of milk and the Atomic sauce was over a million scoville units! They had to close the Buffalo Wild Wings for three days to clean up the mess.
