Dominaria Review!

The full set has been spoiled here! So now I get to talk about specific cards instead of just the big overview stuff I did a few weeks ago. But I still have some big picture thoughts at the end.

White
I think there's some space for Danitha, Capashen Paragon in Boggles decks, certainly in my take on the deck. Fall of the Thran is surprising, as Armageddon effects have been a no-go for Wizards, however this implementation of that mechanic makes a lot of sense, since it has a way to get both players back in the game. Tragic Poet, a reprint that hasn't been seen since Urza's Legacy, makes for a nice way to get a lot of use out of Sagas, while also giving White more to do. I think that's a good-and interesting- reprint. I'll get to why in a bit.

Blue
Playing up the artifact and artificer theme isn't a big surprise, so cards like The Antiquities War or callbacks like The Mirari Conjecture work. I wouldn't be surprised if Artificer's Assistant became an all-star role player in both limited and Constructed: giving any Historic spell +1 scry for free is a nice touch. Deep Freeze is a pretty epic shift to common from Imprisoned in the Moon, Lignify, or Song of the Dryads effects. Precognition Field is a neat way to tweak Blue's 'look at top of library' effects. Sage of Lat-Nam has now undergone three different rarity shifts-common, rare, now uncommon-I doubt there are many cards that could make this claim. And Tempest Djinn is going into my mono-blue aggro deck, Hard Time Killing Floor Blues.

Black
Probably one of the best removal spells printed in a long time, Cast Down, is making a debut. Thrulls as a creature type are back! Lich's Mastery + Squee the Immortal, Eternal Scourge or Misthollow Griffin could make for a fun but janky combo. Settle the Score is going to be a Big Deal for a planeswalker deck. I don't think I've seen an effect that adds counters to planeswalkers in this fashion before and I believe that it's going to lead to some gnarly board states. Finally, Yargle, Glutton of Urborg is going to be a fan favorite and why not? Giant frog spirits? That's awesome and terrible.

Red
The red Sagas seem to be the weakest of the lot, which is unfortunate. Though Power Conduit + The First Eruption could be really cool to test out. 2 free mana a turn and a +1/+1 counter on a crittur? This seems worth trying out. Glory of cool things neat but still neat! Squee the Immortal is the third creature I can think of that can be cast from the exile zone. I hate to say I said this would happen but I did say this would happen: WotC cannot unbreak a rule. There will be more and more permanents that, despite being exiled, will be allowed to return.

Green
Grow from the Ashes is an interesting twist on the 'make spells cost less' that WotC did with treasure tokens. Having the land enter the battlefield untapped means that the spell effectively costs 2 instead of 3, or 3 instead of 5, and Broken Bond does something similar. The hype over Marwyn, the Nurturer is, I think, overrated. You either have an easy to kill creature that can generate a ton of mana if you invest over time, or an easy to block attacker that requires investment if you want it to be big. Sporecrown Thallid is one of the cheapest lord effects I can recall seeing and I think that's pretty cool. Territorial Allosaurus has great flavor text but what a lousy dinosaur.

Multicolor
So here's where all the legends are! I am puzzled by Jodah, Archmage Eternal's ability: Why is this RWU? Rona, Disciple of Gix is a solid build around card and as I said about Squee (and could say about the new Karn) the exile zone is now a playground.

Artifacts
Bloodtallow Candle means I don't have to go searching hard for the artifact to put in my Garbage Cube set. I think I would've liked Howling Golem more if it had been a 3/3 but perhaps the drawback just isn't enough to make it that aggressive. I think Traxos, Scourge of Kroog is going to be really easy to beat down with.

Lands
The mana fixers are solid, the rares proven from Innistrad block and the common ones have abilities I expect. Nothing too flashy but still usable.

Conclusions: in limited, this set looks a bit slower than the average bear but that's OK, since I think there are a lot of interactions to exploit and kicker needs games to go a little long to be effective. I also believe that there are going to be some cool interactions with older (maybe even much older) cards for players to explore although that might be mostly due to Historic + artifacts than anything else. There is a lot to like in Dominaria overall and the power levels seem spread out rather nicely. I am not seeing an obvious discrepancy, which is good!

Finally, I believe that between the new enchantment type Saga, the cycle of creatures for XXX of their color, plus the printing Tragic Poet, we've got some hints about what WotC is going to do next. I'm guessing Theros will be the next plane to visit: enchantment theme, devotion mechanics, and a story that fans want to know more about. It hits a lot of markers!

That said, I'd rather see the return to a place like Llorwyn or even further adventures on Dominaria-although I don't know what location would support enchantment and devotion themes-but that's my theory! We'll all know more soon but between then and now there's both the new Battlebond set AND the return of core sets! So I'll have to hold onto this prediction for awhile.