Tuesday 26 December 2017

Option Density


There is an old MtG rule of thumb that says the player who spends more mana in a game of magic wins the game. While certainly a long way of 100% accurate it is still a strong trend. Magic is incredibly resistant to general rules, the game is so broad and complex there are (paradoxically) always exceptions, there are times to split Fact or Fiction 5-0 and such! It is best to avoid making sweeping claims or statements involving the dreaded "always" term when discussing magic. With that all in mind I have been observing an incredibly strong trend in cube. As the title might have hinted at, the player with the greatest option density is the one who is most likely to win. This is certainly a less strong trend than the mana spent claim but it does have some nice insight to offer just in understanding it as a core aspect of magic.

Renegade MapI started to appreciate the concept of option density when I was trying to break down and understand the card quality effects on offer in the game. The better ones typically gave you more options and that rather obvious nugget of insight has stuck with me since. Then, more recently I was wrestling with the issue of why one drops are just so damn good in the cube. When a mere three drop needs to be off the charts good to get a look in to the cube but basically any one drop with 2 power, 2 damage, or the words "draw a card" on it and you have not just a cube playable card but a card that will often see a lot of action. Renegade Map gets cast well in excess of ten times more than a bomb finisher card like Hazoret and is also played well over four times as much. It rather all fell into place in my head. The strength of one drops derives significantly from the greatly increased option density they bring to a game of magic. The underlying reason for one drops being good is revealing of an aspect of magic that is both obvious but also ethereal. When I say that the player who won had more option potency over the course of the game that sounds entirely reasonable but not something you can then imagine a way to replicate. When we start to look at it in terms of option density we can begin to understand how we are going to take advantage of this. Good choices and lots of them leads to winning in magic.


I do need to caveat this whole essay. It is very much one of those near impossible to measure things. It only holds true that many good choices leads to winning when you are able to do so while keeping all other things equal. Like, if all things are equal, the better player wins. You can measure the option density easily but you cannot so easily ascribe value to those options. More critically you cannot have all other things equal and yet have differing option density. Other things have to be different to give you those greater options! Further more, the concept takes no account of matchups. Option density works quite well in cubes and in limited and in some constructed formats however in something like standard it rather falls apart. You may well have a fairly option dense deck that just has a weak matchup against an option light deck. More contained metas will not so readily adhere to the trend of option density leading to greater chances of winning. Option density is one of those more fundamental things in magic, like mana curves or consistency, or power to cost ratio, it is just something you want to understand and appreciate. It is an SI unit of magic. It is often the reason to why a card is so good or why a line of play is optimal. I find I often take a "needless" hit in combat when I have instant removal in hand. I let them hit me, I see what they do post combat and then I remove their dork in the end step. The reason is often put down to information but I also like to think of it in terms of increasing my option density. I am paying some life to have more options. I am happy to pay a few life to upgrade the potential target value on my removal spell in a lot of situations.

Adanto VanguardSo, let us consider what many would think of as a great opening hand. We will have in it an Elite Vanguard, an Adanto Vangaurd and a Brimaz, King of Oreskos. With this we will have three Plains and for your last card you can choose between another Plains or any four drop of your liking! This is perfect mana efficiency and curve with nice high power level cards that all work towards the same end. So, in a classic sense this is a great hand however I think conventional wisdom misleads us. Now when I look at this hand what I see is a hand with basically zero option density. The only option you have at any stage before turn four will either come off the top of your deck or it will just be doing nothing instead of something, which is rarely going to be strong... My ideal openers for most archetypes in cube would typically be 3 lands, a pair of one drops and a pair of two drops. This kind of hand simply has a much higher option density than the former hand. Not only does it offer four ways of curving out to turn three with perfect mana efficiency (as opposed to just one) but it also accommodates potential draws more kindly. Again, this must be understood in terms of averages, having two comparable one drops is less valuable than having the option on a proactive threat or some disruption, the latter will be a much more meaningful option generally.

Now the real difficulty is evaluating the worth of an option. Not all choices are equal and so you want powerful options rather than just as many as you can get your hands on. Most things in magic are partly quantifiable, you can asses their worth in mana terms or card terms or some amalgamation of physical resources. Information and options however are incredibly hard to quantify. These are the ethereal resources in magic. To make matters even more complicated these effects will not have a fixed value. There are times having a look at someones hand will be worth almost everything you have, perhaps 19 life and the rest of your hand and mana! Other times a look at someones hand will be utterly worthless. The same can be true of physical cards and effects that are more tangible but it is usually less dramatically so. I cannot really offer much in the way of a guide to evaluating the worth of options and information with them being so vague and varied. The only real thing to do is play lots and think about things. Experience and practice will improve the worth of options and information to you as well as help you guess at their value. The more you understand the core concepts in magic, such as option density, the more value they will have to you and the better you will be able to judge that value.

Glasses of UrzaI can at least provide a nice illuminating little example of how information and options scale with each other very well. Let us try and consider the relative value of a Gitaxian Probe for the two starting hands we discussed earlier. In the aggressive white hand with zero options a look at their hand may give you a good idea if you are going to win or lose that game but it isn't going to have a significant impact on the game because your hand has such limited alternate lines of play. You may elect to not run out your Adanto Vanguard because you see a Disfigure and you want to try and bait it with something else. Your Probe can give you information that does give you a relevant choice. It turned the previously bad do nothing line of play into one with some merit. For the hand of one and two drops however the Gitaxian Probe is far more likely to have a relevant and significant impact. Based on what you see you can much better evaluate the real values of your four distinct lines of play and choose the best one with greater confidence. The more information you have the better your options become. Information can make a seemingly terrible play become good in the case of the do nothing instead of making the Vanguard. All options gain value with information and often the low value options gain the most. This demonstrates that having options is of value even when they don't seem like good lines of play.

You don't need Probes, Inquisitions or Glasses of Urza to obtain information in magic. Information is available in many ways. It comes naturally as your opponent physically shows you things by playing them or revealing them with effects. It can be inferred by the decks people are playing which lets you make educated guesses about what might be in their deck which in turn can be used to predict what is in their hand based on how they have played thus far. You can just bypass or supplement this logical inference and try to read what people have by their body language and tics. You will get information as the game goes on and therefor the more options you have at your disposal the more you will be able to scale it with the information you glean.

Izzet CharmA good way to get a foothold into understanding the value of options is to look at modular cards. If you break them down and turn them into parts you can get an insight into what you are paying. Izzet Charm is a nice easy example. The card is borderline cube worthy which makes it a pretty decent card. Broken down however it is pretty much a Shock, a Spell Pierce or a Careful Study each for an additional mana. Your extra options are seemingly worth half a mana each what with there being two of them! Now, that isn't fully revealing as to how the cost of options scale as this is half a mana nominally or it is +50% of the cost of the effect. It is harder to test so easily further up the curve as there are no cards so convenient as Izzet Charm for dissection in the four mana range. You can also look at it as just an option on not-Careful Study rather than two alternate options and this would make the nominal cost of an option closer to one mana and not the half mana the other method suggests. The reality is somewhere in between with jsut these two effects and with many more other effects also further changing it too! Suffice it to say it seems much more like a nominal mana cost all the way up. Abrade and Doomfall suggest the cost of the option is a little higher at a full mana but then they are offering more powerful pairings in a single colour. They support the argument for looking at the cost of an option in terms of a not X as opposed to specifically Y. You would then look at Y and consider the value of not Y and factor in both.

Good options can be well worth an extra mana but it is not quite that simple. As already stated, there is a huge range on the value of options. A fixed mana cost can only be ascribed to an average result, or better still, an acceptable extra cost on the base effect for when the option holds no value. The option on a card might be game winning but the card isn't going to be playable if mostly that option is blank and it costs more than a mana more than a card that does the same except for this rare bonus option. An option should be looked at for cost purposes as if it were a blank meaning that a good option should be affordable when operating at its floor. The power of the option is measured by the ceiling, scaling and frequency of the good outcomes. You need to have it all, the low cost and the potential for good to come of it. If you can perfectly evaluate the value of everything else the value of options becomes simple algebra. If mode A on a binary card is consistently useful and powerful (in other words comparable to something you would play without option B attached) with an average value X and mode B has zero value 90% of the time and 5X value 10% of the time then the value of mode B is 1.5X. You add them together due to the broad playability of mode A and as such the high variance mode B offers quite a lot of value to the card. This gets less simple when we start to consider increasing instances of mode A not having value and the resulting value of the modal card is more like an average of the expected value from modes A and B.
Cryptic Command
This is all well and good when contained within some modal one off card but for yet further complexity we should be considering the interaction of all of our cards. If we can get increased value from the effects of a spell due to the flexibility of that spell then we can do the same with our whole deck. This is where we really come back to the one drops. One drops have the most modes of interaction with your other cards than anything else (other than free spells of course, but I don't need to write a dissertation on why those are great!) and as such they afford the most scaling of extra value due to extra options with your other cards. Elite Vanguard and Shock turn out to be good for surprisingly similar reasons to why Cryptic Command is good!

We are happy to pay up to an extra mana on cube worthy effects for the option on another option! We are also happy to throw a card payment into the mix with examples like Vampiric Tutor and Faithless Looting supporting that assertion. With mana and cards being the two primary resources in magic and options being worth either or both of them it is pretty clear options are a big deal. Cards like Ponder do nothing but give options! It is easy to look at a modular card and see three or six distinct modes or however many ways to play it there are. It is relatively easy to count how many ways you can differently do a card quality spell too. These are the one shot option injections some spells provide. Typically the cards that offer the most options are things that are in play for a while. Ideally those with abilities, perhaps free ones you can use at any time. A card like a Carrion Feeder, Cryptbreaker, Kytheon or a Mother of Runes, a Grim Lavamancer or a Town Gossipmonger. These cards will generally out option density the biggest names out there because they come down early and offer all the typical creature options as well as bonus ones for lots of turns. One of the biggest strengths of the energy based midrange decks in standard at the moment is that they have a lot of cheaper cards that have insane option density. When you are sat on a pile of energy and can turn it into 1/1 thopters or +1/+1 counters as you see fit at any point in the game you have a lot of opportunity to outplay people and make the best of the situation. Planeswalkers feel very option dense and in some respects they are. The thing is they don't come down super early, they get killed very quickly or they simply end the game pretty quickly. I suspect the average activations for planeswalkers is going to be around three. It might seem like a lot because more text is involved, the options are more distinct and so forth. In practice however a vanilla creature probably has comparable options over the course of a turn. Attack or not? Planeswalker or face? Block or not and so forth.

Fatal PushVanilla creatures and planeswalkers offer ongoing options fairly slowly. They also both do so at a predictable rate. You know when the walkers are triggering, what they can do and so forth. Their options are all restricted by turn phase and game rules. These kinds of cards are one kind of option density, then you have modular spells that can do different things and that is a different kind of option density. Then you have very narrow spells that do exactly one thing like a Fatal Push. They provide option density by giving you the option on when you do what that card does. Fatal Push has a much greater option density than an Oust despite having a narrower range of potential targets due to the greater number of occasions you can cast it. Even so, having either in hand increases your overall option density when they have targets. Fatal Push has higher option density than Oust as it is instant over sorcery. It also has a greater option density than another instant card with greater target range such as a Hero's Downfall due to the much lower cost. Not only can you Push things from the start of the game but you can also do so in combination with doing other things at the same time with much greater ease further increasing the option density difference.

The last distinct type of option density generation I touched on earlier, they are the things in play with the cheap, instant speed, repeatable abilities. Lotleth Troll is a good example as is Arguel's Bloodfast, Walking Ballista, Deathrite Shaman etc. They have repeatable, instant, and cheap (or free!) effects that can be used at any point in time. The option density is pretty extreme with such cards and it is a big part of why these cards shine. The key thing to remember is that it is not just how many different things a card can do or how many times it can do them that lead to option density. Simply being able to do one specific thing at a wide range of occasions is a great way to obtain option density as well.

Thraben InspectorAnother good way to understand option density is to appreciate why Thraben Inspector is so good. Broadly speaking the card adds up to a Merchant of Sectrets, that extra toughness is not the reason one is a world better than the other. Thraben Inspector is a great deal better than Sea Gate Oracle as well and it adds up to rather less than that. What makes Inspector such a great card is the huge array of relevant options he brings at such a negligible cost. His option density is very high indeed, even discounting when you use the clue. Just when you make him combined with the many things you can do with a dork in play each turn add up to a lot pretty fast. Sure, it is not anywhere near the option density of a Deathrite Shaman but then that is one of the best cards in magic. Deathrite is also not a free inclusion as it doesn't come with that redeeming clue. You don't always run the Shaman when you can because your deck might not support it properly. All you need to support Inspector is white mana!  It is his low cost that ensures you can make him from the get go, you start the game with the option to use him at most stages. He is a lot more option dense than a seemingly more option dense cards like Savage Knuckleblade simply because the Inspector is relevant in hand and play from that much sooner. Thraben Inspector is not powerful much like Merchant of Secrets is not powerful, Inspector is good because it is option dense. It has very little impact on your resources and returns a significant array of options making it one of the most playable, sought after, and played white cards in the cube. It it not really more option dense than any other one drop dork, that is a strength they all share. Option density I would say counts for more than the mana efficiency reasons of why you play one drops so heavily in magic. So, yes, all one drop dorks are on average decently option dense over the course of an average game and this makes them valuable. Inspector is so good because it provides this value at a negligible card cost.

Understanding option density and the relevant impact it should have on a game should help in all areas of your magic game. It is useful for card evaluation, it is useful in deck design and useful in making in game choices too. I think all magic players are all well aware than options are valuable, how they get them and so forth. The reason there is plenty of discussion and content on things like mana curve but little to none on option density is not ignorance in the community but the ethereal nature of option density. You cannot so easily put numbers to how valuable an option is and it is all so entirely contextual. For the most part "options are good" has been simple and accurate enough to be all that is really needed on the matter. It is all you can say in the general sense and beyond that you need an exact context to be defined to say anything else of use. This essay has been fairly hard work writing and probably comes across a lot like a first draft! Ultimately all I feel like I have written is "options are good" and "as you get better, you will get better". I am not sure I offered any concrete and practical ways to implement the understanding of option density. The hope is simply that any greater understanding is part of what leads to getting better and that by reading this you have gained some insight into the game and are now better!


Thursday 14 December 2017

Results for Rotisserie V


Me (aluren) and Swanker (grixis delver delve tempo) 5-1

Farlo (ironworks combo) and The Phyrexian (RDW) 3-3

Old Fava Beens (uw control) 2-4

Sideshow Cob (white weenie) and Action Dan (the rock) 1-5

The specific match breakdown is below;



Action DanSideshow CobOld Fava BeensThe PhyrexianMeFarloSwanker
Action Dan-1 - 21-21-20 - 22-10-2
Sideshow Cob2 - 1-2-11-21-20-2
Old Fava Beens2-12-1-1-20-21-20-2
The Phyrexian2-11-22-1-1-22-11-2
Me2 - 02-12-02-1-2-10-2
Farlo1-22-12-11-21-2-2-1
Swanker2-02-02-02-12-01-2-


I consider this more of a victory for Swanker than myself as I was pretty lucky in a number of my games and also got thoroughly smashed by Swanker himself. He lost his only match to Farlo which was a highly favourable matchup for Swanker. He could have done the clean sweep far more easily than anyone else. His deck was very well suited to the meta.

This event solidified some opinions I have of this format. Primarily that is that both fair decks and linear decks are rather a liability. The Phyrexian was who I thought would be taking this event down. His deck was beastly and had good matchups. What ended up happening was that he lost a game to a brutal sideboard card in most matches. He lost to my Auriok Champion, Cob's Kor Firewalker, a Witchbane Orb, a Righteous Confluence, a Sphinx of the Steel Wind, etc. This effectively made him 0-1 down going into every best of three and as such a small amount of flood and screw cost him far more than expected. His performance did not reflect the general power of his deck. In a known meta with few people and sideboards the red deck is not quite such a big name. It was much like my affinity list in the previous rotisserie. I thought the deck was one of the best possible versions of one of the best possible decks in general. It just came rather unstuck to people who prepared well against it and it had little ability to counter their counters or their main game plan. 

My Aluren deck was linear in a different way to the RDW list, it was reliant on too many singleton cards which in turn made it quite vulnerable. My backup plan was super limp aggression which is a poor backup in most cases! Farlo at least had multiple combos within his list thus making him more robust. Ashiok and Gonti had good odds on shutting down my combo in one hit. Extract would have been a brutal sideboard card against me. I was lucky to dodge such things, mostly I think due to having a deck (appropriately) not regarded as tier one. I was actually aiming at a Melira Pod combo deck to begin with so that I could run several combos in the one list for that added safety. Sideshow Cob took crucial cards for that plan early on in the draft so I had to change direction. I knew this was a very real possibility and so had opened with taking all the good fixing thus remaining incredibly flexible for a long way into the draft. 

The fair decks include the white weenie, the uw control and the rock lists in this event. They typically have little opportunity to use the format to wildly increase their own power when compared with a simple cube booster draft yet they had to compete with exotic combo decks that are not possibile in the booster drafts. Narrow decks gain access to loads of cool cards that are not in most drafting cubes, indeed rotisserie has a vast array of potential archetypes that would dwarf even formats like modern and legacy. All the best cards for the three archetypes being looked at here are pretty much all in the drafting cube already! In a booster draft you don't have to worry about all the mental things that can happen in magic and so nice solid fair decks do very well just with high card power level. In a format like rotisserie you really need to be doing something a little bit extra. The meta is so much wider that fair lists are pulled to hard in different directions and end up insufficiently capable of handling what is going on. Even Swanker was concerned about being overly fair and was thinking about tossing in a Donate / Domic Pact or Spliter Twin combo into his list to give him that extra punch. When I did a Azorius based control deck I lent on miracles and Isochron Scepter to be my unfair things. Basically, the fair decks lose to the unfair decks and the linear decks lose to the sideboards (in concert with the complete information). 

Swanker attributed his and my success to lots of card quality and selection. Certainly it is known to be a good thing to have in magic in general and certainly it has more impact when you are playing with tailored sideboards and high synergy decklists! I attribute Swankers success mostly to the well placed archetype. It had disruption so as to handle the unfair decks, it was proactive so that it could capitalize on it's disruption and force the issue and it had very high power level individual cards so that it could go toe to toe with the fair decks. I thought he would fold to the RDW list but he was sufficiently cheap that he could avoid taking critical early damage and won out with more card advantage effects. Swanker managed to be proactive without being linear, he managed to be disruptive and interactive without being stretched too thin by the broad meta, and he managed to make a deck sufficiently in the middle ground that no one really had any good sideboard tools to bring in against him. 


Decklists and Draft for Rotisserie V

Our fifth online rotisserie decklists and draft. This one took about six months, some real life got in the way for a few people and it went of the boil a little. It was all still good and fun, there were just some subtle mistakes and oversights made, or at least, noticeably more than usual! Sorry for the awful myriad of formats these lists show up in. It barely works on my desktop so I cannot imagine this will be pretty on a mobile device...


Sideshow Cob

Decklist

1
Mother of Runes
Thraben Inspector
Kytheon
Champion of the Parish
student of warfare
Mardu Woe-Reaper
Soldier of the Pantheon

Skullclamp
Swords to Plowshares

2
Stoneforge Mystic
Loyal Cathar
Knight of the white orchid
Thalias lieutenant

Umezawa's Jitte
Gather the Townsfolk
Honour the Pure

3
Kitchen Finks

Spectral Procession
Council's Judgment
Spear of Heliod

4
Sublime Archangel

Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

5
Archangel Avacyn

Lands
Westvale Abbey
15 x Plains

SB
stony silence
Kor Firewalker
Disenchant
Mirran Crusader
Containment Priest



Farlo

Lands

Spire of Industry
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Academy Ruins
Seat of the Synod

Vault of Whispers
Ancient Den
Tree of Tales 
Great Furrnace

Darksteel Citadel
Sanctum of Ugin 
Ancient Tomb
City of Traitors 

Underground River
Watery Grave
Glimmervoid

0
Lotus Petal 
Mox Diamond
Mox Opal 

1
Hangerback Walker
Dark Ritual 
Chromatic Star
Chromatic Sphere
Terrarion

2
Spellskite
Thopter Foundry
Sword of the Meek 
Time Sieve
Etherium Sculptor 
Pentad Prism 
Demonic Tutor

3
Yawgmoths Will
Staff of Domination
Metalworker 
Scrap Trawler 
Whir of Invention
Timetwister
Tinker

Krark Clan Ironworks
Memory Jar
Emrakul, The Aeons Torn

Sideboard 

Sphinx of the Steel Wind
Show and Tell 
Chain of Vapor
Baleful Strix
Force of Will 



Swanker


Permanents (8)
Delver of Secrets

Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
Snapcaster Mage
Young Pyromancer

True-Name Nemesis
Dack Fayden
Vendillion Clique

Tasigur, the Golden Fang

Instants & Sorceries (18)
Fatal Push
Preordain
Ponder
Serum Vision
Burst Lightning
Inquisition of Kozilek
Thought Scour

Memory Lapse
Fire/Ice
Terminate
Hymn to Tourach
Izzet Charm
Mana Leak
Logic Knot
Censor
Arc Trail

Kolaghan’s Command

Treasure Cruise

Lands (14)
Polluted Delta
Flooded Strand
Misty Rainforest
Underground Sea
Volcanic Island
Badlands
Steam Vents
Blood Crypt
Creeping Tar Pit
Sunken Ruins
Underground River
Wandering Fumarole
Island x 2

Sideboard (5)
Abrade
Damnation
Dreadbore
Miscalculation
Witchbane Orb


Me

24 Spells

Birds of Paradise
Deathrite Shaman
Noble Hierarch

Duress
Cabal Therapy
Portent

Lim-Dul's Vault
Abrupt Decay
Diabolic Intent
Wall of Bloss

Cavern Harpy
Coiling Oracle
Whirlpool Rider

Sea Gate Oracle
Court Hussar
Eternal Witness
Man O War
Aether Adept

Spell Queller
Parasitic Strix
Recruiter of the Guard
Imperial Recruiter

Aluren
Academy Rector

16 Lands

City of Brass
Mana Confluence
Gemstone Mine

Wooded Foothills
Misty Rainforest
Verdant Catacombs

Bayou
Tropical Island
Savanah
Breeding Pool
Overgrown Tomb
Forest

Blooming Marsh
Hinterland Harbor
Darkslick Shores
Drowned Catacombs


Sideboard

Pact of Negation
Reclamation Sage
Auriok Champion
Bone Shredder
Brain Maggot



The Phyrexian


10 Mountains
Scalding Tarn
Bloodstained Mire
Wasteland
Barbarian Ring
Ramunap Ruins

Gitaxian Probe
Goblin Guide
Soul-Scar Mage
Monastery Swift Spear

Bomat Courier
Grim Lavamancer
Zurgo, Belllicker
Lightning Bolt

Chain Lightning
Lava Dart
Seal of Fire
Firebolt

Forked Bolt
Faithless Looting

Firebrand Archer
Thermo Alchemist
Harsh Mentor
Skullcrack

Searing Blaze
Incendiary Flow
Shrine of Burning Rage

Sulphuric Vortex
Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
Insult / Injury

Fireblast


SB

Red Elemental Blast
Ankh of Mishra
Black Vise
Fiery Confluence
Active Volcano



Old Fava Beens


Lands17
CardNWUBRG
Tundra11
Celestial Colonade11
Hallowed Fountain11
Arid Mesa11
Temple of Enlightenment11
Mystic Gate111
Glacial Fortress11
Adakar Wastes111
Prairie Stream11
Port Town11
Irrigated Farmland11
Flood Plain11
Myriad Landscape1
Island1
Island1
Island1
Plains1


1 Drops3
CardTNWUBRG
Path to ExileI1
Spell PierceI1
OptI1

2 Drops7
CardTNWUBRG
CounterspellI2
Arcane DenialI11
Thing In The IceC11
RemandI11
ImpulseI11
Lat-Nam's LegacyI11
NegateI11

3 Drops1
CardTNWUBRG
Wing ShardsI12

4 Drops4
CardTNWUBRG
Cryptic CommandI22
Jace, the Mind SculptorP22
Commit / MemoryI31
Supreme VerdictS121

5 Drops3
CardTNWUBRG
Mystic ConfluenceI32
Fractured IdentityS311
Tamiyo, The Moon SageP32

6 Drops2
CardTNWUBRG
Elspeth, Sun's ChampionP42
Torrential GearhulkC42

7+ Drops3
CardTNWUBRG
Karn LiberatedP7
Ugin, The Spirit DragonP8
Dig Through TimeI62



Sideboard5
CardTNWUBRG
HydroblastI1
Blue Elemental BlastI1
Divine OfferingI11
Righteous ConfluenceS32
CondemnI1






Action Dan


Vampiric TutorCollective BrutalityRecurring NightmareGarruk WildspeakerShriekmawWurmcoil Engine
ThoughtseizeLotus CobraLiliana of the VeilGonti, Lord of LuxuryAcidic SlimeNoxious Gearhulk
Elves of Deep ShadowSylvan CaryatidLiliana, Heretical HealerMeren of Clan Nel Toth
Tragic SlipDevoted DruidOphiomancerSolemn Simulacrum
Pack RatFlesh Carver
vampire hexmagePernicious Deed

SBLands
ThragtuskMarsh Flats
Ayli, Eternal PilgrimTemple Garden
Den ProtectorCanopy Vista
Torpor orbHissing Quagmire
Savra, Queen of the Golgari 8 Swamps
4 Forests





1Birds of ParadiseLightning BoltJace, Vryn's ProdigySwords to PlowsharesVampiric TutorForce of Will Path to Exile
2Tropical IslandMonastery SwiftspearSnapcaster MageStoneforge MysticThoughtseizeDemonic TutorCryptic Command
3BayouGoblin GuideVolcanic IslandBatterskullCollective BrutalityBrainstormJace, the Mind Sculptor
4Deathrite ShamanScalding TarnUnderground SeaArchangel AvacynRecurring NightmareTinkerCounterspell
5Verdant CatacombsChain LightningPolluted DeltaUmezawa's JitteGriselbrandEmrakul, The Aeons Torn Tundra
6Noble HierarchWastelandYoung PyromancerSkullclampWurmcoil EngineBaleful StrixCelestial Colonnade
7SavannahBloodstained MireFlooded StrandCouncil's JudgmentMarsh FlatsMox DiamondArcane Denial
8Windswept HeathFaithless LootingMisty RainforestDeclaration in StoneElves of Deep ShadowDark Ritual Mystic Confluence
9Wooded FoothillsInsult // InjuryTrue-Name NemesisRestoration AngelLotus CobraSword of the MeekArid Mesa
10Breeding PoolGrim LavamancerArc TrailKitchen FinksSylvan CaryatidThopter FoundryHallowed Fountain
11Overgrown TombThermo-AlchemistCreeping Tar PitElspeth, Knight-ErrantTemple GardenNecropotenceSpell Pierce
12Eternal WitnessFirebrand ArcherSteam VentsGideon, Ally of ZendikarCanopy VistaWatery GraveThing in the Ice
13Enlightened TutorGitaxian ProbePreordainMother of RunesShriekmawMetalworkerRemand
14Lim-Dul's VaultHarsh MentorFatal PushWalking BalistaGarruk WildspeakerMox OpalGlen Elendra Archmage
15DuressSoul-Scar MagePonderSmuggler's CopterDisfigureHangerback WalkerElspeth, Sun's Champion
16Spell QuellerChandra, Fire of KaladeshSerum VisionHallowed SpiritkeeperScavenging OozeKrark Clan IronworksKarn Liberated
17Pact of NegationSulphuric VortexBurst LightningThraben InspectorAcidic SlimeScrap TrawlerHydroblast
18Askhiok, Wankwave WeaverRed Elemental BlastPyroblastSpectral ProcessionThragtuskMemory JarBlue Elemental Blast
19Cabal TherapyAnhk of MishraKolaghan's CommandSublime ArchangelSkinrenderLotus Petal Commit Memory
20AlurenFireboltMemory LapseLand TaxLiliana of the VeilYawgmoth's Will Torrential Gearhulk
21Cavern HarpyLava DartTreasure CruiseSelfless SpiritLiliana, Heretical HealerSeat of the SynodWrath of God
22Imperial RecruiterFireblastTasigur, Banana KingDisenchantOphiomancerChromatic StarCondemn
23Recruiter of the GuardSearing BlazeFire/IceKytheonGonti, Lord of LuxuryChromatic SphereFractured Identity
24Academy RectorForked BoltInquisition of KozilekKnight of the white orchidvampire hexmageVault of WhispersImpulse
25Parasitic StrixSeal of FirePillar of FlameThalias lieutenantgrey merchant of asphodelPentad PrismOpt
26Man-o'-WarIncendiary FlowVendillion CliqueChampion of the ParishSurvival of the FittestSpellskiteLat-nam's Legacy
27Aether AdeptActive VolcanoHymn to Tourachstudent of warfareGrave TitanUrborg, Tomb of YawgmothSupreme Verdict
28Shardless AgentSkullcrackNever/ReturnContainment PriestMeren of Clan Nel TothGreat FurnaceDivine Offering
29Coiling OracleShrine of Burning RageBadlandsLoyal CatharVerdurous GearhulkTerrarionWing Shards
30Abrupt DecayZurgo BellstrikerBlood CryptGather the TownsfolkTorpor orbTree of TalesTamiyo, the Moon Sage
31Bone ShredderBomat CourierMana Leak Honour the PureFlesh CarverSanctum of UginTemple of Enlightenment
32Brain MaggotFiery ConfluenceDamnationMardu Woe-ReaperTragic SlipAcademy RuinsMystic Gate
33Reclamation SageBlack ViseWandering FumaroleSoldier of the PantheonHissing QuagmireAncient Den Glacial Fortress
34Drowned CatacombsBarbarian RingDelverMetallic MimicBow of NyleaDarksteel CitadelAdarkar Wastes
35Blooming MarshRamunap RuinsTerminateThalia, Guardian of ThrabenDevoted DruidAncient TombRighteous Confluence
36Darkslick ShoresMogg FanaticSulphur FallsThalia, Heretic CatharPernicious DeedCity of TraitorsPrairie Stream
37PortentIncinerateDragonskull Summitstony silenceVizier of remediesDimir SignetPort Town
38Mana ConfluencePithing NeedleUnderground RiverKor FirewalkerSolumn SimulcrumStaff of DominationIrrigated Farmland
39Sea Gate OracleZuran OrbDack FaydenKitakiWhip of ErebosTime SieveFlood Plain
40City of BrassChillIzzet CharmWestvale AbbeyMurderous RedcapSpire of IndustryMyriad Landscape
41Whirlpool RiderLeyline of SanctitySunken RuinsbalanceWoodfall PrimusUnderground RiverBoil
42Champion of WitsWarmthCensorPhyrexian RevokerPack RatSphinx of the Steel WindFlashfires
43Diabolic IntentCircle of Protection: RedLogic KnotArmageddonBitterblossomShow and Tell Choke
44Krosan GripKalitas, Traitor of GhetThought ScourMirran CrusaderWall of RootsChain of VaporTalisman of Progress
45Hinterland HarbourMon's Goblin RaiderMiscalculationSpear of HeliodSavra, Queen of the Golgari TimetwisterDig Through Time
46Auriok ChampionMountain GoatAbradeSuntail HawkWinding ConstrictorWhir of InventionElixir of Immortality
47Wall of BlossomsNorrin the WaryDreadboreLantern KamiSelvala, Heart of the WildsEtherium SculptorNegate
48Gemstone MineGoblin PikerWitchbane OrbAven SkirmisherAyli, Eternal PilgrimNim DeathmantleSphinx's Revelation
49Court HussarGoblin KitesailRelic of ProgenitusKitesail ScoutNoxious GearhulkMyr BattlesphereUgin, the Spirit Dragon
50Utopia SprawlGoblin Balloon Brigaide Tormod's CryptJudge's FamiliarDen ProtectorGlimmervoidForce Spike