Welcome all to the Daily Dose of Core 2019, where Prerelease week continues!
In preparation for this weekend, I’m doing a series of articles to help you prepare for your local Prerelease. If you missed yesterday’s article, go read it to find out which commons you'll want in your deck. Today, I’ll be talking about the 18 cards you will open called uncommons. These are the key to building a good Prerelease deck, and often decide how good your deck will be overall.
Here are the top uncommons for your Core 2019 Prerelease weekend:
Ajani’s Pridemate – In white alone, there are eight cards that will gain your life. That is in addition to an artifact called Fountain of Renewal that gives you a life on each of your upkeep steps. For just two mana, Ajani's Pridemate can quickly get out of control in the right deck.
Hieromancer’s Cage – We have seen enchantments like this before and it's good to have one of them in the format now. It’s a way for white to deal with any nonland permanent on the battlefield. And with little to no enchantment removal, there’s a good chance Hieromancer's Cage will be a permanent removal.
Exclusion Mage – This is great for tempo advantage, and is a way to force your opponent to re-use their mana just to cast the same spell. This was strong at four or five mana in Dominaria with Academy Journeymage. At three mana, it's just plain ridiculous.
Mirror Image – Do you like one of your creatures to the point of wanting move of it? With Mirror Image, that's an option.
I’m okay playing this at any point in the game to copy your best creature. There is the drawback of it being a dead card if you have no creatures on the battlefield, but that's unlikely to happen often in Limited.
Sleep - Simply put, this spell wins games. If you ever find yourself in a creature stalemate, Sleep will give you two turns worth of attacks so you can get in a lot of damage in a short amount of time.
Sift – This is a great card advantage/selection spell. Drawing three cards for four mana is very strong. For the discard, you can either get rid of a card in your hand you didn’t want or just keep the best two cards you just drew. With only one blue in the casting cost, you should be able to splash this in multiple decks if needed.
Gravedigger – This classic reprint is back, and I couldn’t be happier. Gravedigger provides pure value by returning a creature from your graveyard to your hand while being a 2/2 creature to boot.
Murder – Simply the best removal card in the format. No drawbacks here, just destroy target creature. It is hard to splash, so black will have to be one of your main colours if you want this in your deck.
Plague Mare – This card has been dubbed the baby black Goblin Chainwhirler, since it effectively stops all 1 toughness creatures from ever being played. Plauge Mare can be used to kill your opponent's creatures, weaken them before an attack, or finish off some creatures just when they thought they were safe after combat.
Reassembling Skeleton – If you’ve ever faced a regenerating creature in any Limited format, you know how annoying they can be to try and get through. Reassembling Skeleton is the same annoyance level. You can bring it back whenever is convenient for you. You don't even need to spend the mana when it dies to use its ability. This is a great card if you have any spells that require a sacrifice, like Demon of Catastrophes.
Dragon Egg – This is another one of those creatures that can sometimes stop your opponent from attacking you because they don’t want you have a stronger creature. In this case, that creature is a 2/2 Flying Dragon that can pump itself. Dragon Egg will work well with the odd Dragon synergy cards in the set too.
Lightning Strike – A great card in any format, but with limited removal spells in Limited, it stands out even more. You can even use it to finish off your opponent if the game comes down to it.
Siegebreaker Giant – There's a good chance this creature will get some damage throughout whenever it attacks. Being a 6/3 with trample, Siegebreaker Giant will get through almost any blocking creature, and with its ability you can even pick and choose which creatures can block it. Its ability could even help you get some other attackers through too.
Thud – This is a great card to get some damage out of a creature that might not be useful anymore due to the current state of the battlefield. It does lose the Instant advantage that Fling had, but it's still a great way to get a large amount of damage to any target for just one mana. I like using it as a finisher if your opponent is low on life.
Reclamation Sage – There are plenty of good enchantments and artifacts in Core 2019, and most players will have them in their main deck during prerelease. Playing this in your deck will be a great way to destroy those pesky permanents while putting a 2/1 creature on your side of the battlefield.
Recollect – Want to cast a card again? Recollect puts any card from your graveyard back in your hand. With true power cards in short supply, this is a great way to cast them multiple times.
Vine Mare – With only one sweeper in the format (Cleansing Nova) and one expensive rare (Fraying Omnipotence) serving as ways to deal with this creature, it will be almost impossible for your opponent to kill this outside of combat. And if you can get an Aura like Blanchwood Armor or Oakenform on Vine Mare, that's likely game over for your opponent.
Draconic Disciple – Another versatile creature that helps you ramp in the early game while providing a 2/2 creature. Late in the game you can always sacrifice it to put a 5/5 Flying dragon on the battlefield.
Skyrider Patrol – This card is like Pegasus Courser in that it gives another of your attacking creatures evasion. However, this time you can also pump it up with +1/+1 counters as well.
Diamond Mare – The last in the line of Mare creatures, this horse gives you a 1/3 for two colourless, making it a great early game blocker. It also gives you a life for each spell you cast of a certain colour while on the battlefield. See Ajani’s Pridemate for a good combo.
Rupture Spire – Another mana fixing card that fits nicely in any deck. While playing it might mean that you'll be short on mana for a turn, in the long run it helps knowing that you won't have to worry about different colours of mana for your spells.
And there you have it folks! You now have a guide to help you choose the best commons and uncommons for the Core 2019 Prerelease. Thanks again for reading the guides and articles here on the Daily Dose. If you have any comments, suggestions, or ideas that you’d like me to write about during preview season, post a comment or send me a message.
Join me again tomorrow as I continue Prerelease week with a guide to combat tricks and removal spells in the Core 2019 Limited format.
