Welcome all to a brand new week on the 'Daily Dose of Kaladesh'. We now have the complete list of cards for Kaladesh and its now time to look forward to the end of this week where players will be able to partake in the wonderment that is prerelease weekend. Players will get six packs of Kaladesh, a spindown dice, some deck advice, and a sweet date-stamped foil mythic or rare from the set. Once you’ve opened all of your packs, it will be time to build a minimum 40-card deck to battle players at your local game store. Today I’m going to talk about the commons that you will want to make sure are in your deck-list when you start battling it out this weekend.
Kaladesh will be filled with artifacts that will be able to cause some major headaches. Fragmentize is a removal threat that you can play main board instead of leaving it in the sideboard for specific matches during Limited. Most if not all decks will have at least some artifacts in their deck due to the sheer number of them in the set.
Each block, there are usually a Pacifism type card that fits with the theme of the set or block. In Shadows Over Innistrad we saw Bound by Moonsilver and in Kaladesh we have Revoke Privileges. Being able to shut down a creature from crewing a Vehicle is quite an important line of text on this card and will be pertinent throughout your prerelease weekend.
Counterspells are always strong in Limited, as like removal, there is so few of them. Having the added bonus of card looting will make this a must play in all Blue decks when playing the Limited format. Being that Limited formats are usually the slowest of formats, Failed Inspection being four mana shouldn’t be an issue.
Where Failed Inspection is a counterspell that you will need to have a deck that is heavy in blue to play, Revolutionary Rebuff can be played in more decks. Thanks to its cheap casting cost, you will also be use it in a lot more turns without having to leave up a lot of mana to cast it.
If this modal spell was just “choose one” and “choose one or both” it would still be a versatile recursion spell. Being able to choose both modes with the spell makes this a two-for-one value spell. In Limited formats you always want to try and have cards in your deck that are able to provide that two-for-one value whether is be recursion, card draw, or removal spells.
Subtle Strike provides another modal spell that if played correctly can result in some major value. This card is similar in nature to Borrowed Malevolence, but improves on it in two ways. Subtle Strike allows you to use both modes for only one mana instead of three mana which is a huge difference in allowing you to continue to play other threats as well. The second advantage is in giving a creature a +1/+1 counter instead of +1/+1 until end of turn.
This combat trick works extremely well with Vehicles you have attacking. A lot of time, Vehicles will be large creatures that your opponent will chump block, but Built to Smash will punish them and get in a ton of damage. Anytime you can do three extra damage for one mana, it’s a very useful card.
Damage spells like Chandra’s Pyrohelix are very versatile in that they can be used to kill off one creature, two creatures or just deal damage straight to your opponent. Spells like this will allow you to manage combat scenarios better. Being able to play this on your opponent’s end step after they’ve tapped out in their second main phase, will allow you to kill creatures that were in combat that have taken some amount of damage already.
Like Fragmentize, this card will allow you to deal with all of the artifact (and a few enchantments) that will be plentiful in Kaladesh Limited. Being an instant is an added bonus and will add to the versatility of this removal.
Mana fixing cards are always strong and will make sure that you aren’t stuck on one colour or allow you to get your splash colour for your deck. Like a lot of cards in this set you will get an added bonus of two Energy to use for one of your many Energy outlets.
There are five Puzzleknot artifacts in Kaladesh and this appears to be the one Puzzleknot that gets you the most value. It allows you to gain six life, while providing you with six Energy to use. Using the Energy economy, six Energy will net you three +1/+1 counters, or allow you to activate a lot of artifact Energy outlets.
Let me know if there are other Commons that you want to be opening during Kaladesh prerelease.
Thanks for reading the 'Daily Dose of Kaladesh' today, where I talked about the must picks when it comes to Common cards from Kaladesh. Join me tomorrow when I continue the conversation on the Kaladesh Limited format when I talk about the best Uncommons you want to be seeing in your Kaladesh packs.
