Wizards are certainly testing the boundaries with this set. I suspect it will split the play base somewhat into those who love it and those who hate it. I imagine it will bring in new players and so we will probably see more limit testing stuff. I am fine with the theme crossover and like plenty from the set but found it marred by some bad design. Flavour wise the set gets top marks but in terms of mechanics and general design it is pretty comfortably the worst set in a long time. That is taking the card design as an average and gives no consideration to things like constructed and limited play. If a set plays well in limited and/or improves standard that is far more relevant than it having some cards that are poorly designed. So my critique might sound harsh but it is pretty minor. Further to that the design quality of recent years has been really good. Yes, they have been too powerful and too plentiful, and had some awkward effects on constructed but the quality of design within the sets has been excellent of late. The only design criticism I could bring up is overly wordy and/or needlessly wordy cards. I don't mind a wordy card if there is a good reason to do so but being short on ideas is very much a bad reason! Nothing wordy compares to all this dice rubbish however. Coin flipping was always reserved for a few joke cards and yet here it has been extended out to seemingly serious cards and is a big part of the set. The D&D feel was easily achieved without such a heavy lean on the dice cards. It could have been restricted to a couple of silly cards or at the very least been designed in a less obnoxious way!
It is not all bad of course, there are some cool things and cards I am excited to play with. That however is the other issue here. I am experiencing some serious burnout with the pace of releases. This is the fourth set of new cards this year. I was really hyped for Kaldheim. I was keen on Strixhaven, I was nervously curious about MH2, but come this set I just wasn't that bothered any more. I have been slower to test things, much slower to acquire new cards, slower to review them, and I am sourcing far fewer cards than I would have in the past. You can even see it in the attention to detail in my reviews. I have simply misread much more than I usually would and a lot of that is the result of interest, or the lack there of.. Four new sets a year is plenty, three would be preferable, the pace of new cards this year isn't sustainable. I am pretty sure my stomach for magic is higher than the average so here is to hoping it gets dialed back before damage is done to the player base's stamina. If I am getting the burnout others must be too.
As I was reviewing the main set I kept finding cards that felt like they should be in silver bordered sets or commander product. Having now seen all the commander cards I can see why that didn't happen as they were even more extreme. This is not a great thing. I guess this is technically a core set which along with actual silver bordered sets, commander product, and arguably Modern Horizon's product, is one of the more suitable place for sillier stuff. The least suitable of those others but still...
The power level is somewhat calm compared to recent years at least however there appears to still be a wealth of additions and high hopes testers. Lots of good cards with few great or broken cards it seems. I usually rank the additions best to worst but I can't easily pick between them here. I like a few cards more than the others but this isn't really for power reasons. I love the Class cards. I am a big fan of Shambling Ghast and You Find Some Prisoners. I am really intrigued by the whole venture thing and am hoping it to outperforms my expectations (a bit like energy did) where none of it seems quite good enough and so it must be better in practice than in a theoretical sum of its parts.
*commander product card
Additions
Lolth, Spider Queen
Portable Hole
Hive of the Eye Tyrant
Hall of Storm Giants
Den of the Bugbear
Lair of the Hydra
Cave of the Frost Dragon
Plundering Barbarian
Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar
Werewolf Pack Leader
Ebondeath, Dracolich
Shambling Ghast
You Find Some Prisoners
Ranger Class
Paladin Class
Preist of Ancient Lore
To Test With High Expectations
Prosperous Inkeeper
Loyal Warhound
Hurl Through Hell*
Nadaar, Selfless Paladin
Zariel, Archduke of Avernus
Yuan-Ti Malison
Varis, Silverymoon Ranger
Froghemoth
Demilich
Bag of Devouring*
Iymrith, Desert Doom
Forsworn Paladin
Wild Shape
Death Tyrant*
Check for Traps
To Test With Low Expectations
Inferno of the Star Mounts
Eye of Vecna
Xanathar, Guild Kingpin
Orcus, Prince of Undeath
Dungeon Crawler
Ellywick Tumblestrum
Flameskull
Midnight Pathlighter*
Icingdeath, Frost Tyrant
Dawnbringer Cleric
You See a Pair of Goblins
Wight
Ranger's Hawk
Extract Brain*
Meteor Storm
Volo, Guide to Monsters
Dancing Sword
Warlock Class
Minsc, Beloved Ranger
Sorcerer Class
Westgate Regent
Monk Class
Demogorgon's Clutches
Monk of the Open Hand
Immovable Rod*
For the Constructed Reserves
Moon-Blessed Cleric
Acererak the Archlich
Unexpected Windfall
Treasure Vault
Hobgoblin Bandit Lord
Xorn
Cleric Class
Ingenious Smith
Fighter Class
Tasha's Hideous Laughter
The Blackstaff of Waterdeep
Circle of Dreams Druid
Mimic
Component Pouch
Rod of Absorption*
Minn, Wily Illusionist
Wish
Silver Raven
Maddening Hex* (too good not to get, too offensive to actually play with!)
The Book of Exalted Deeds
Trelasarra, Moon Dancer
Keen-Eared Sentry
Feign Death
Celestial Unicorn
Oswald, Fiddlebender
Pixie Guide
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