The following was done in a span of three days 2 months ago after the arrival of Dark Ascension, this isn't to be taken very seriously at all, as this is one player's thoughts on the set as a whole, this entire set review will cover all 8 categories,
White, Blue, Black, Red, Green, Multicolor, Lands and
Artifacts. The final thoughts on the set as a whole will be posted at the end of the review, but for now enjoy.
For the purpose of this review i will be using the following points system.
1 – Avoid this if you can
2 – Maybe can be useful here, depending on the situation
3 – Middle of the Road material
4 – 2 copies or more, always
5 – Always go for it if you got it.
White
#2)
Bar the Door – 2/5, for a combat trick it’s not bad, but not desirable, i’d leave it unless you absolutely are going a weak toughness route.
#3)
Break of Day – 3/5, Fateful Hour i feel is what saves this card from being a 2, sure the boost for +1/+1 is nice but when it’s a pinch it’s nice to have indestrucibilty on your side.
#4)
Burden of Guilt – 2/5, Unless you go a control route avoid it, i mean sure enchanting a opponent’s creature is nice, since it only says enchant creature and all, still only draft when necessary.
#5)
Curse of Exhaustion – 2/5, control spells like this make me wonder if limited is truly getting any good stuff these days, since innistrad’s arrival it’s seemingly getting more interesting, but more difficult as well.
#6)
Elguad Inquisitor – 3/5, A solid body with lifelink, puts a extra creature on the battlefield, which is also rather nice, expect to at least see 2 of these pass through your draft, if your going white i’d recommend drafting 1 of them.
#7)
Faith’s Shield – 3/5, Combat is something of White’s forte these days and while protection is nice, fateful hour is what gives the boost to the overall limited score of the card, protection for you and your entire team for the rest of the turn is quite handy in a pinch.
#8)
Gather the Townsfolk – 4/5, Often or not 2 mana sorcery’s usually turn out to suck but when they put 2 1/1′s on the field and have fateful hour that allows for 5 1/1′s to be present, it makes it quite desirable honestly for this good draft card, i hope this is the first of many.
#9)
Gavony Ironwright – 2/5, Fateful hour is the only thing that saves this from being a 1 on my scale, 3 mana 1/4′s are nice and all but at the uncommon level i’d rather be drafting Fiend Hunter from Innistrad instead, but a +1/+4 boost from fateful hour helps in a pinch.
#10)
Hollowhenge Spirit – 3/5, Flash flyers often have a habit of being rather clunky, but it’s enter the battlefield effect seems like a great overall thing when something isn’t going your way.
#12)
Lingering Souls – 5/5, probably the best uncommon of the color so far, 3 drop sorcery that brings out 2 1/1 spirits with flying, even without flashback it’s still super powerful, a must have for any white player.
#13)
Loyal Cathar/Unhallowed Cathar – 3/5, 2 different creatures but the transformation happens when it’s dead, really and for 2 white mana it gives it that nice i’m just gonna keep attacking vibe regardless, the vigilance also helps here.
#14)
Midnight Guard – 3/5, another middle of the road guy, sure he untaps every time a creature hits the board, 2/3′s though are nothing to scoff at in limited
#15)
Niblis of the Mist – 2/5, 3 mana for a flying 2/1 is kind of a little over costed here, espically for it’s secondary ability of tapping a creature, at least it’s not a 1 here.
#16)
Niblis of the Urn – 3/5, This is better honestly, a 1/1 flyer that when attacking can also tap a creature down, the more perfectly balanced of the 2 for this particular color.
#17)
Ray of Revelation – 3/5, Probably one of the only spells worth drafting in white for this set, i mean if your drafting green/white humans go for it easily, it does deal with those nasty curses and such.
#19)
Sanctuary Cat – 1/5, 1 drops in this format that are vanilla aren’t that desirable espically a 1/2 vanilla, thus why it’s kind of like a last resort pick here.
#21)
Silverclaw Griffin – 2/5, 5 mana is a awful lot to spend in limited in white even for a 3/2 flyer with first strike, your better off spending the 5 mana on something more worthwhile.
#22)
Skillful Lunge – 2/5, Combat tricks are nice and all, but they are getting old here, seriously.
#26)
Thraben Heretic – 3/5, Something that deals with nasty graveyard creatures is excellent here, limited needed something like this to compete with the zombies of Innistrad as well as the other things here, even for 2 mana and a 2/2 it’s nice
Rares Good to Draft:
Thraben Doomsayer, Increasing Devotion, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Rares i wouldn’t mind taking: Requiem Angel, Seance, Sudden Disappearance
Rares to Pass: Archangel’s Light
Blue
#27)
Artful Dodge – 2/5, combat tricks are nice as i previously stated but however they are getting very old here and i don’t want to constantly have to worry about this particular card taking up one of the many slots in my deck.
#29)
Bone to Ash – 4/5, in any non constructed format counter spells are what blue players desire here, with this however you not only counters a spell but get a free card out of it, making it even more worthwhile.
#31)
Chant of the Skifsang – 3/5, For a 3 drop aura it’s not that bad, better then a lot of the prevention tricks in this set so far, of which there is none prior to this card.
#32)
Chill of Foreboding – 3/5, usually 3 mana mill spells turn out to be total jank but in limited this thing is going to be a beast, blue’s getting some decent material here.
#35)
Divination – 4/5, Card draw in this format is very limited and with a reprint like this returning for said format i wonder if it’s not going to be impacted by the fact there’s stuff like Burning Vengeance and Snapcaster Mage available.
#38)
Griptide – 2/5, for something that puts a creature on top of it’s owner’s library 4 mana is a little much, if it was 3 mana i’d consider making it a middle of the road card on my scale.
#40)
Headless Skaab – 2/5, Not one of the more desirable zombies if your going that route but if not then i’d suggest to avoid this at all costs.
#42)
Mystic Retrieval – 4/5, returning your spells and such is awesome and all, espically when you can go Red/Blue and play a burning vengeance style deck with this card, since it returns instants and sorceries to your hand, giving you that much more fuel.
#43)
Nephalia Seakite – 3/5, 2/3 flash fliers in limited are nice, but 4 mana makes it a little easier to cast when your playing blue due to stuff like Deranged Assistant.
#44)
Niblis of the Breath – 2/5, 2/1 flier that untaps things, excellent here honestly but with so many three drops in this format it’s kinda hard to decide if this is good early on.
#45)
Relentless Skaabs – 3/5, 4/4′s normally are good here and with undying i think this card makes it a 3 instead of a 2/5 even with the high 5 mana cost it’s still a decent beater.
#46)
Saving Grasp – 3/5, a much better combat trick that saves a creature when necessary or threatened by a spell, even with a white flashback cost it’s still decent for blue.
#47)
Screeching Skaab – 4/5, Powering a zombie deck early on with this guy is going to be key, with Deranged Assistant and him i think zombies is going to be tough to beat in limited.
#48)
Secrets of the Dead – 4/5, Finally a enchantment spell that rewards flashback costs for players, even for 3 mana it’s still really good and will power a flashback deck to victory.
#49)
Shriekgeist – 3/5, so many 2 drops so little time but when it takes 2 cards off the defending player’s library it helps all the better here.
#50)
Soul Seizer/Ghastly Haunting – 2/5, sure a creature that turns into a Mind Control is a nice thing and all but it’s a 1/3 for 5, which takes up a lot of resources early on and is easily dealt with removal.
#51)
Stormbound Geist – 3/5, a 3 drop that has flying, undying and can only block other fliers, it’s ok, i mean it’s got it’s advantages like chumping and coming back as s 3/3 here, plus it has some serious evasion.
#52)
Thought Scour – 4/5, If you draft blue at all this card is one not to be avoided, since the fact is it deprives resources of your opponent early on if you choose and let’s you draw a card, which isn’t half bad honestly.
#53)
Tower Geist – 5/5, i only ever give 5′s when i see a effect like his, getting a card when he enters the battlefield, putting the other into the graveyard, as well as a flying 2/2 for 4 mana, sign me up.
Rares i would draft: Call to the Kindred, Geralf’s Mindcrusher, Increasing Confusion
Rares i wouldn’t mind drafting: Counterlash,
Curse of Echoes, Dungeon Geists
Rares to avoid: Beguiler of Wills
Black
#54)
Black Cat – 3/5, Sure a 1/1 is not much to talk about but when it’s 2 mana and forces a opponent to discard a possible threat when it dies, fantastic and with a ton of sacrifice outlets in limited this is a potential target for them.
#55)
Chosen of Markov/Markov’s Servant – 2/5, Well for a DFC in this set, it’s not really that great for black unless you run a tribal vampires deck in limited and have some great bombs to go with it, for a 3 mana card that you gotta tap a vampire to transform it into a vanilla 4/4 i’m just not seeing it.
#57)
Curse of Thirst – 2/5, Curses in limited may vary since the fact of the matter is they are so widespread over a lot of the different colors of the block, meaning if you want to draft a curse deck it’s more ill advisable then anything.
#58)
Deadly Allure – 2/5, I’m not too impressed by this whatsoever i mean for 1 black you could probably end up playing a creature like Diregraf Ghoul in this format, but i suppose flashback kind of saves it here.
#59)
Death’s Caress – 3/5, for a removal spell here it’s not that bad, even if it 5 mana to play, it’s still nice to have some removal here.
#60)
Falkenrath Torturer – 3/5, 2/1′s that you can give a boost to are nice, but this one i believe is a middle of the road since it requires humans to do the job effectively.
#61)
Farbog Bonefinger – 2/5, for a 5 mana 2/2 that gives a -2/-2 to one creature it’s kind of over costed here, for 5 mana i’d rather just go ahead and play something like Bloodgift Demon or even Mokrut Banshee here.
#65)
Gravepurge – 4/5, 3 mana recursion for all your creatures and you get to draw a card, a high value card for Black finally here.
#66)
Gruesome Discovery – 2/5, 4 mana discard that requires you to have morbid to make use of it, sure some things might die but i wouldn’t waste a slot unless i had no other option for Black
#67)
Harrowing Journey – 4/5, Black really has a undervalued card draw motif here, with this being one of the three spells that does it this set, for 5 mana it’s basically a Sign in Blood and a half which is nice as a uncommon.
#68)
Highborn Ghoul – 3/5, Zombies tribal is nice and all for 2 black, 2/1 intimidaters but i’d much rather take something like Spectral Rider over this if i wanted intimidate at least it’s a 2/2
#72)
Sightless Ghoul – 2/5, Not one of the more impressive zombies of the block, considering it cannot block and has Undying, only pick this if you are going tribal and need a extra early attacker.
#73)
Reap the Seagraf – 3/5, a balanced mix of flashback and that for 2 zombie tokens as a common give it all that much more incentive to draft a zombies deck here.
#74)
Skirsdag Flayer – 4/5, Solid limited removal if you got a ton of sacrifice outlets and want to clear a opponent’s board, as a 1/1 for 2 mana too it’s a balanced piece of removal.
#75)
Spiteful Shadows – 2/5, Psuedo Lifelink here is nice and all but meh honestly.
#76)
Tragic Slip – 5/5, best removal spell for black this set honestly, what more needs to be said.
#77)
Undying Evil – 2/5, for a undying card enabler it kind of is lame and is just basically another combat trick here.
#78)
Vengeful Vampire – 3/5, 6 mana flying, undying 3/3′s are kind of nice but for the late game material here.
#79)
Wakedancer – 4/5, Morbid enabler that grants tokens, yes please in limited.
Rares i would Draft:
Geralf’s Messenger, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Zombie Apocalypse, Increasing Ambition
Rares i wouldn’t Mind drafting:
Ravenous Demon/Archdemon of Greed, Gravecrawler, Fiend of the Shadows
Rares to Avoid:
Curse of Misfortunes
Red
#81)
Afflicted Deserter/Werewolf Ransacker – 2/5, For the first card of a color you’d expect it to be more useful in limited but if it had to be good, it’s only good when it transforms, but stopping it from changing is simple, play lots of spells which is what limited dows well.
#83)
Burning Oil – 3/5, for a Incinerate with flashback it’s very useful here, deals 3 damage to attackers or blockers in both white and red colors, making red/white seem useful, allowing for perhaps easier alpha strikes.
#84)
Blood Feud – 1/5, 6 mana to make 2 creatures fight, i’d rather pay 6 mana for a really useful card like the mythic of this color, Moonveil Dragon
#86)
Erdwal Ripper – 3/5, for 3 mana and with haste it’s nice, plus it gets the pump from dealing damage since it’s a vampire plus it’s a common so expect to see these a lot.
#87)
Faithless Looting – 4/5, red so needs card draw, this is it, 1 mana card draw at sorcery speed, excellent, flashback excellent, a overall worthwhile pick for red players.
#88)
Fires of Undeath – 2/5, sure a 3 mana spell that deals 2 damage to target creature or player is nice, but if you want the flashback cost you gotta go black, which means vampires.
#90)
Fling – 3/5, Decent reprint for a instant, it’s nice to see another reprint for Innistrad which is a constant, which means you can expect to see a lot of high power creatures being flung.
#91)
Forge Devil – 4/5, Sure 1 drops that ping you and a creature are limited, but when they can attack the very next turn or get rid of a blocker against you early on, it’s worthwhile here.
#92)
Heckling Fiends – 2/5, sure a 2/2 for 3 mana is nice and all, but when you gotta pay mana for it’s ability, i’d much rather pay for something like Olivia Voldaren or something like that.
#93)
Hinterland Hermit/Hinterland Scourge – 3/5, a much better DFC for this set, sure it has a transform clause like all other werewolves, but it costs 2 mana to play and is easily playable in this set’s many DFC style decks for limited.
#97)
Markov Warlord – 4/5, Late game 6 drops like this are sweet and yet sickeningly expensive, 4/4 with haste and two creatures can’t block awesome way to finish off a opponent with a uncommon.
#100)
Nearheath Stalker – 3/5, Undying is perhaps the only reason this is a middle of the road card here, sure it’s a 4/1 but it becomes a 5/2 in the long run, great for blocking then attacking.
#101)
Pyreheart Wolf – 3/5, Another undying card, so little time, but it basically makes half your team or all your team unblockable due to the first ability to allow only 2 or more blockers for each creature, with undying for 3 mana it’s also a nice end game material card in limited.
#102)
Russet Wolves – 2/5, 4 mana vanilla 3/3′s are nice and all but the lack of abilites turns me off here.
#103)
Scorch the Fields – 3/5, Land destruction and pinging humans for 1 damage each, not bad but not good.
#104)
Shattered Perception – 2/5, Sure for 3 mana it’s great to reload your hand with new cards, but in limited you’d maybe only use this once, unless you had a way of returning spells to your hand or something.
#105)
Talons of Falkenrath – 1/5, Enchantments like this turn me off of this color 2 mana to enchant, 2 mana to activate and with flash it still doesn’t save it.
#106)
Torch Fiend – 4/5, removal for stuff like Runechanter’s Pike and the like is sweet, even for 2 mana, Shatter on a stick anyone?
#107) W
rack with Madness – 3/5, great way to remove a serious threat in this format by making a creature target itself, even as a common this is pretty middle of the road material.
Cards i Would Draft:
Flayer of the Hatebound, Increasing Vengeance, Hellrider.
Cards i wouldn’t mind Drafting:
Moonveil Dragon, Markov Blademaster, Mondronen Shaman/Tolovar’s Magehunter,
Cards to Avoid:
Curse of Bloodletting, Alpha Brawl
Green
#108)
Briarpack Alpha – 3/5, for a 4 mana card that has flash and grants a temporary boost to a creature it’s kind of nice to flash this in as a blocker in response to your opponent’s attack then counter attack afterwards.
#109)
Clinging Mists – 2/5, A Fog is still a dog’s combat trick here, just add fateful hour and boom you get clinging mists.
#110)
Crushing Vines – 3/5, For removal it’s not bad honestly, middle of the road material for nasty fliers or artifacts.
#111)
Dawntreader Elk – 2/5, For a new Civic Wayfinder, it’s gotta prove to be better then land fetching in the form of a good reprint in this set, which isn’t the case here.
#113)
Favor of the Woods – 1/5, Lame enchantment is very lame here.
#116)
Gravetiller Wurm – 3/5, for a potential 8/8 with trample it’s not that bad, i mean a 4/4 though is nothing to scoff at in green and with morbid i feel with a creature dying this guy is going to get crazy big, crazy fast.
#117)
Grim Flowering – 2/5, Sure green has card draw, but expensive late game card draw, 6 mana is kind of a lot to spend on a single draw spell, without flashback no less.
#118)
Hollowhenge Beast – 2/5, Another vanilla 5/5 here for 5 mana is not what this set needs, it’s just a piece of filler.
#119)
Hunger of the Howlpack – 3/5, A morbid enabler that puts 3 +1/+1 counters is good, for 1 mana to boot, nice little piece of limited tech for green.
#121)
Kessig Recluse – 2/5, for 4 mana a 2/3 deathtouch reach creature isn’t that desirable.
#122)
Lambholt Elder/Silverpelt Werewolf – 4/5, a very nice DFC when it changes, but a 3 mana 1/2 that changes into a 4/5 with card draw potential is what gives it such a high score.
#125)
Scorned Villager/Moonscarred Werewolf – 4/5, Another really good DFC for it’s color, adding mana for 2 mana is not bad and this gives a new meaning to mana acceleration in DFC form.
#126)
Somberwald Dryad – 3/5, Middle of the road 2/2′s for 2 mana with forestwalk, sure it’s a nice touch but we’ve seen it before.
#127)
Strangleroot Geist – 5/5, One of the best uncommons of the color honestly, 2/1 that turns into a 3/2 for 2 mana with haste and undying beast of a card.
#128)
Tracker’s Instincts – 4/5, Allowing to put a creature into your hand for 2 mana from the top 4 cards of the library is excellent here, with flashback it’s pretty good as well.
#129)
Ulvenwald Bear – 3/5, a 3 mana 2/2 is good and when morbid is enabled it’s a bit better here.
#130)
Village Survivors – 2/5, 4/5 vigilance with fateful hour to grant vigilance no thanks.
#132)
Wild Hunger – 3/5, Great finisher material for 3 mana here, with flashback it’s just that much better.
#134)
Young Wolf – 2/5, 1 mana undying with no real abilites, sorry folks, undying has it’s really good card already.
Cards i would Draft:
Vorapede, Wolfbitten Captive/Krallenhorde Killer, Predator Ooze, Increasing Savagery
Cards i wouldn’t mind Drafting:
Ghoultree, Feed the Pack, Deranged Outcast
Cards to Avoid:
Lost in the Woods
Multicolor, Lands and Artifacts
Multicolor
#135)
Diregraf Captain – 4/5, A very good uncommon for the set overall, a zombie lord that has deathtouch and makes opponent’s lose life whenever a zombie dies, pretty sweet.
#136)
Drogskol Captain – 4/5, Spirit lord and wow, granting hexproof and +1/+1 at the uncommon level is pretty simplistic and awesome.
#141)
Immerwolf – 4/5, Wolf lord for the set, grants wolf and werewolves +1/+1 and non human werewolves cannot transform back, excellent.
#143)
Stromkirk Captain – 4/5, Last of the lords for the set, not bad, granting first strike along with the usual +1/+1 boost for all vampires, meaning multicolor had a good uncommon showing this time around.
Artifacts
#144)
Altar of the Lost – 1/5, i don’t think i’d use this very much honestly, first you’d need like 14 flashback spells to even justify this particular card and with flashback not returning in Avacyn Restored, it kind of justifies the 1/5.
#145)
Avacyn’s Collar – 2/5, For 1 mana it doesn’t do enough, sure it may churn out tokens for your dead guys, but that doesn’t really save it here honestly, even for a poultry 2 mana.
#146)
Chalice of Life/Chalice of Death – 1/5, Just avoid this at all costs, it isn’t even worth inclusion into your deck and this being the second last Double sided card of the set is sure as hell dissapointing.
#148)
Excutioner’s Hood – 2/5, Honestly i expect a little more out of equipments for s small set, just intimidate alone for 2 mana and then 2 mana to attach, sorry.
#150)
Heavy Mattock – 2/5, sure it helps humans, but it doesn’t do much besides a traditional +1/+1 pump here and for it’s cost it’s just dissapointing still.
#153)
Warden of the Wall – 3/5, A much better artifact for the set honestly, changes into a 2/3 with flying and you can tap it to add 1 mana for a mere 3 mana, not bad mid game material here.
#154)
Wolfhunter’s Quiver – 1/5, The equip cost alone makes this a 1/5 in my book you gotta spend 5 mana on a 1 mana equipment to equip it, but then it only usually will hit werewolves, not.
Lands
#155)
Evolving Wilds – 4/5, Nice reprint is still nice.
#157)
Haunted Fengraf – 3/5, For a recursion land it’s good, well costed and well rounded making this a middle of the road material card.
Cards i would Draft: Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Havengul Lich, Huntmaster of the Fells/Ravager of the Fells, Grafdigger’s Cage, Vault of the Archangel
Cards i would Consider drafting:
Grim Backwoods.
Cards to Avoid:
Drogskol Reaver, Jar of Eyeballs, Helavault, Elbrus, the Binding Blade/Withengar Unbound.
Well with that, this is all 158 cards done in a limited review format, what this applies to is Draft, nothing but draft, suffice it to say this set has been out 2 months since this article was typed up, so without further ado here are the final thoughts on this set.
Dark Ascension has been interesting to say the least, 158 cards of unique horror flavor which goes quite well in limited, as well as some cards going better for constructed purposes obviously. Double Faced Cards in this set are equally as interesting as the last and with 2 mythic Double Faced Cards in this set compared to the last one, it is sure to be of some interest to players, but with a overall feel of horror i'm going to give Dark Ascension on a limited stand point a well earned 4 out of 5 werewolves.
That's it for another article, stay tuned tommorow when i catch back up on missed content.
