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Sarkhan's Triumph
This is bound to be worth $3-$5 in a few years if the set follows the typical trend of small third sets. This is narrow but it is also very powerful and I expect you to be able to grab these for free from draft chaff or trade for them a playset at a time for like a bulk rare. Put these in a box and sit on them. Foils are bound to be insane also. There are two red dragon enablers at uncommon in the set and I fully expect them to get there.
Surrak, the Hunt Caller
As an EDH player, I saw this card and said "Yuck, this is worse than Yeva, Nature's Herald but Standard players have been a bit more charitable in their assessment. This is essentially a 5/4 haste if you have 3 power of creatures in play, something that is doable. Turn 1 elf into turn 2 Courser into this turn 3 is strong, for example. Still, conditional haste seems weak. Formidable is a toughest trigger to pull off. They should call it "Megaferocious". If the payoff for getting a win-more board state like Formidable isn't, well, formidable, then the card is not great. I think this could see play, but I feel like this is a justifiable $2 preorder. Seems like even people who like it aren't buying.
Icefall Regent
What if Dungeon Geists had more power and frost armor? Could this be the dragon that mono-blue is looking for? It gets the job done, is hard to kill and adds two pips. All in all, I would say this card is very attractive. If there is a card in the set that I think has the most upside at a $2 preorder, you're looking at it. The spikes seem split on the card, however, so if you go in, realize you're gambling.
Damnable Pact
What does black really want? Does it want a necrofireball like this or does it want to pay 2 mana for Sign in Blood rather than 4? Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is a big reason why this card has potential, but that will be gone soon. This seems like it could be better than Skeletal Scrying in certain circumstances. It's hard to say what the deal is here, but this is likely a bulk rare unless someone breaks it early after release. This gets worse in three months when mana is harder to come by. The spikes don't know what to think.
Commune with Lava
This seems kind of similar to Damnable Pact except this has a ton of upside. I don't think standard wants it, but Storm would absolutely get a kick out of this. It costs a lot of mana, but if you're playing a ton of rituals, this will draw you into more rituals. Is this better than Past in Flames in those situations? Past has a flat cost and gives you access to guaranteed rituals in your yard. If you can't beat graveyard hate, maybe this is a tool, but it is hard for me to say this is what the deck needs not having tested. This is yet another $2 preorder, so no one seems all that excited. There is a good discussion going about whether this would replace Epic Experiment which is a good question to be asking. It DOES say end of your NEXT turn, which is the real relevant part here. Still, storm doesn't want to play a bunch of rituals to get mana, play this for x=10 then pass the turn hoping to go off next turn, so you need to keep mana up to cast what you draw into. This card is tricky but I don't see much interest yet.
Myth Realized
This seems like it could get big very quickly. You basically have an unwrathable creature that has megaprowess and can get +1/+1 counters for 2W. Does a deck want this? Hard to say! This is sold out at $4, though, which means people are more excited for this than they are for the new Dungeon Geists. Abrupt Decay and the like makes this tough to love in Modern, but Standard may want this. See what people are saying. a $4 buy-in severely cramps upside, but you could end up buying now at discount if you want these to play with. There is hype here.
Dromoka's Command
Sold out at $3, this may be the best of the cycle. Each of these commands has a mode that is basically a sideboard card and the fact that they are maindeckable makes them attractive. This is very strong, but a scenario I see being a bit awkward is trying to blank a burn spell and not being quite sure which other mode to pick. Still, people are really excited about this card. I am among them.
Clone Legion
From the makers of Megamorph comes "Megaclone".
Probably destined to be a bulk mythic, I could see some EDH decks putting this in, I just don't think they won't take it back out again. 9 mana is steep to only target one player, but you could end up cloning a ton of value cards against a Roon deck or getting a million tokens. Still, that leaves you with board parity. For 9 mana, I want Insurrection, not board parity.
If you’re reading this, you’re all set, parrend!
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