Doom Foretold
At first, second, third, and 15th read I thought this was asymmetrical, and forced your opponents to sacrifice a permanent every turn. This card is so heinously bad that I can't even believe it's real. I'm sure there's a time and place for this, but I'm not going to be the one to find it. Unlike other bad rares this isn't even a fun build around.
Rating: 0/5
While I'm not confident this is a great card, it turns out somewhere in the 5th-8th reading I actually knew what this did and then lost it by reading it more. My assumption was that this card gave your opponent the bonus if you couldn't sacrifice a permanent, enabling a war that you'd always be a turn behind in. As it happens, you can just sacrifice Doom Foretold, so this has a floor of 4 mana edict for non-token permanents. This is also a powerful card when you're opponents not doing anything, as you'll instantly get the bonus of a 2/2 Siege Rhino that also draws a card and forces a discard from the opponent.
Amended Rating: 3/5
Lochmere Serpent
This is an incredibly powerful and resilient creature, that will almost
always act a 6 mana attacking creature removal spell in addition to all
of the other things it does. The ability to come back repeatedly really
gets me here, as a 7/7 will be of utmost importance to kill, but once
you do it just comes back without caring. Normally I'd appease this
with a 3.5, but I think in Throne of Eldraine it deserves a higher
grade.
Rating: 4/5
I'll be honest, I was so commited to the 3.50 joke from South Park that I was going to give this a 3.5, and then talked myself into a 4 after deeming that stupid. While I'm not quite giving this a 5, this is one of the best 10 cards in the set. Gaining unblockable is so stupid on a creature this big, and when you're opponent plays it you often feel as though there was nothing you could have done.
Amended Rating: 4.5
Gingerbrute
Rating: 1/5
I've played with this card enough to like it a lot more, as it often forces a race that you'll have a nice leg up on. I'm only happy with this in mono Green, but as I believe that to be one of the best decks I think Gingerbrute performs much better than I thought. Putting Rosethorn Halberd on this feels incredibly stupid, and is often good enough to win games on its own. The more 1 drops you have, the better this card gets, as you'll have starts that force your opponent to stop attacking you, making a 1/1 unblockable a real closer.
Amended Rating: 2/5
Midnight Clock (I forgot to even put the name in the review)
Another card I love that doesn't look like it'll win a whole lot of
games, Midnight Clock is just as slow as the clock in your office during
a bad day at work. You don't have to bog down the game for this to be
effective, you have to stop it completely, in which case I'd rather just
include a couple Merfolk Secretkeepers to ensure my opponent decks out
before me instead of spending upwards of 18 mana for a personal
Timetwister. The ramp side of this isn't the worst, but as you need
Blue to cast it it doesn't look nearly as good as Spinning Wheel at
uncommon. I envision casting this, investing millions of mana in it,
only for my opponent to Disenchant it at the 11th hour.
Rating: 1.5/5
Just like Doom Foretold, I didn't read this correctly, although here I missed that this triggers each upkeep, and not just your own. While there's likely to be more awkwardness with this triggering in someones upkeep rathet than when you'd want, the speed this goes off is about 40% faster than I thought, accounting for a few activations. The difference in speed compared to what I thought makes this drastically better, as rather than dying a few turns before this cracks, it'll always strike just before it's too late.
Amended Rating: 3.5/5
Ill-Gotten Inheritance gives me some pause here, as the last time I did a set review (that I never released publicly) I gave that card a terrible rating and ended up totally wrong. While this looks more obviously weak to me, it could have a time and a place against certain decks, especially when they're flush on 1 power creatures. As a sideboard card I'm really into this as when it's good it's incredible, but I think this effect generically isn't worth a card and 4 mana. Drain theme decks might actively want this, although I'm very unsure if those actually exist yet.
Rating: 1.5/5
Two factors are to blame for the grossly incorrect rating on this one. As I did the set review in order without looking ahead, I wasn't aware of Syr Konrad, Smitten Swordmaster, or Tempting Witch as I was reviewing this card . If I remember correctly, I added the last sentence after finishing the review, but didn't adjust the rating as I wasn't sure how much better this got. Factor two is just how many small creatues actively get played in this set, as this makes anything 2 power or smaller look embarassing while still toning down anything bigger. If you've got a bunch of Food, you can even gain enough life that your opponent will just get taxed too much taking you out. While I think this card is currently pretty overrated, I'd happily maindeck it in most Black decks, and it gets incredibly stupid if you can get 2 in play at once.
Amended Rating: 3/5
Next edition I'll be talking about cards I overrated, as there's enough of those to look back at as well.
The biggest lesson for me today is to read cards, but read them slowly.
Until next time,
Kevin
@sealedawaymtg on Twitter
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