Core sets generally offer a smorgasbord of flavor, spanning all sorts of sets and reprinting staples to keep them in Standard. Any given booster can be incredibly rewarding or dishearteningly devastating, pulling a rare you have 20 copies of already from the other core sets, or a new rare that fits perfectly into a deck you have already built around that tribe or mechanic. It makes for fun supplemental options. Let’s take a look at the handful of spoilers we have thus far:
Trusty Packbeast
It’s like the white equivalent of Gravedigger, focusing on artifacts instead of creatures. This card is by no means amazing, but it’s a decent play, especially for a common, to recover an artifact with 2/3 wheels at only 3cmc. It is basically the only common/uncommon that has caught my eye from the spoilers thus far, and that’s reason enough to give it a mention.
Vivien Reid
Vivien is one of the more fun planeswalkers to me, though most would prefer a planeswalker that stays under 5cmc. But, as many do the simple math, her 5cmc at +1 loyalty for 6 loyalty at end of turn keeps you ahead of the curve. But are her abilities worth it? I think so! A shallow creature/land tutor, removal, and an emblem that gives indestructible to all creatures? That’s disgusting. The emblem alone makes this card interesting, but the other two abilities offer plenty of assistance and synergy with green.
Gigantosaurus
Gigantosaurus may sound like a ridiculous name, but it is dangerously close to a real dinosaur (Giganotosaurus), and they are virtually identical. Either way, a 10/10 for 5 is amazing, I don’t care if you need 5 green. A 10/10 in green with the mana ramping options currently available is an easy plug in a lot of deck layouts.
Patient Rebuilding
My wife has been regularly asking me to return her draw/mill deck to its former glory, from the abomination it is now of being solely a draw deck. This card is a perfect blend for draw/mill and plays well off of Jace’s Erasure. Draw/mill is a fun Magic dynamic, and this card is a great addition to that concept.