MTG Salvation

I really like the way -1/-1 counters are used on the 2 green creatures, either you can get a small creature that slowly grows with an upside (life gain when attacking or tapping for mana) or you can kill off another creature to get the big version immediately. And a 3/4 or 4/4 for 2 is big enough to make an additional cost of killing off your 1 drop appealing (particularly if said 1 drop gave extra value like Thraben Inspector).

The monuments are decent and if a mono color creature heavy strategy exists it could definitely make use of running 1-2 monuments for the dual benefits of reduced cost and creature cast trigger. The fact that the trigger doesn't care about color makes them decent limited options too possibly even off color.

Cast Out is crazy good, simply adding flash to an Oblivion Ring style card is already borderline worth the 1 extra mana. But adding cycling at the bargain cost of W is amazing. Being a cheap cycling enchantment also helps with reaching delirium. Although expensive at 4 mana it might also be worth testing in modern as a way to answer the majority of threats including Emrakul (both versions).

This is why I love cycling. Multi bounce effects like this can cause huge blowouts in limited but because they are useless early game they rarely see play. However simply adding cycling makes the card much more appealing, you can cycle early on but still have the blowout potential for the late game.

Renewed Faith reprint is nice, it was always one of my favorite life gain anti aggro/burn spells, 2 life and a card for 2 mana most of the time but with the ability to gain 6 life if you desperately need it (solid play with Torrential Gearhulk too, early cycle RF late game flash TG gain 6 life block and kill something).

Serpopard ... Gaea's Herald loses a good typing but gains a respectably aggressive body for only 1 more mana. Wizards continue their efforts to kill off control and make aggro (particularly midrange) supreme. That said -

In standard it's currently useless, there just isn't a strong enough counter control deck to justify it as a sideboard option (let alone a maindeck one). Fingers crossed wizards is about to change this and Serpopard is a preemptive answer.

In modern it's also not currently a counter heavy format but with the ability to be played from C.Company it's sure to see some play in sideboards.

In legacy the ability to get it out against Miracles even through counterbalance is potentially worth testing.

I suspect that like the masterpieces these actually look a lot better in physical card form than as a digitalized picture viewed on a smart phone.

My first reaction was a wtf?!? But given I had the sane reaction to the future shifted cards and the masterpieces and then came to love both I'm going to give things the benefit of the doubt.

As to the card choices I can only say that this must have been some blue players wet dream. Force, Counterspell, Daze, Counterbalance, Cryptic, Pact and even Consecrated Sphinx?!? That's many of the best blue cards from modern, legacy and EDH. Feels a bit weird that Brainstorm didn't make the list.

If you are referring to the "living reflection" mechanic used by Jonathon Loucks in the 2nd Great Designer search, then no, not at all.

To put it simply Embalm is the creature version of Flashback while Living Reflection would be the creature version of Replicate (a single time). Both give you 2 uses but they do it in a very different way and at different times. Embalm is similar to creatures like Soul of Zendikar while Living Reflection is a decendant of Stangg.

I just don't classify things in the same way I guess, to me misstep = potential maindeck counter, rejection = sideboard hoser. Even though Rejection has the words "counter target ... spell" I don't actually consider it a proper counter in any way, it is just too narrow, for me counters are maindeckable and it is a hoser. If we are going into hoser territory it's the best blue hoser since Dispel.

Even if you want to talk counters in general it is still inaccurate since one of the best legacy counters was printed just after misstep - Flusterstorm (printed a few months later in the commander products).

There are currently a trifecta of enablers, after Grapple and Vessel the 3rd is Gather the Pack which we lose when Origins rotates. It was the enabler that dug deepest and the one that could potentially give you card advantage by netting you 2 cards.

Not even close to mental misstep (there's a huge difference between hard countering a set cost (something that almost every deck has) for free even and countering a subset of cards (which even if that subset is pretty popular isn't in every deck) which was maindeckable. It is a great cheap counter and sideboard card though.

All the standards, walkers especially Chandra, Smuggler's Copter, Gearhulks, enemy fast lands and of course Filigree Familiar.

The card with the most potential in eternal formats though is Authority of the Consuls. Sure to become a common sideboard for white decks in modern/legacy and a good silver bullet to fetch with Enlightened Tutor too. Slowing hasty attacks including combo based ones (Sneak Attack, dredge and Legendary Reanimator Spring to mind) as well as gaining heaps of life against swarm/token decks is a very potent combo on a 1cc enchantment.

I'm actually thinking Sultai, mainly because of Kiora. We've lost a lot of enablers and her -2 is one of the better remaining ones (usually 1-2 cards into hand and the rest into the graveyard) she also provides decent ramp, an alternate win condition and extra planeswalkers to trigger delirium.

Very solid vehicles for limited although probably not aggressively costed enough to make the jump yo standard. Freighter in particular seems pretty amazing 3 mana and 2 crew for a 4/3 that becomes a 5/4 trampler when it attacks is solidly aggressive.

It's definitely one of the better vehicles and if they are at all viable this will probably be one of the main ones (although Smuggler's Copter feels like more of a sure thing).

Originally one of the few issues I had with the set was disappointment at there being little of interest for older eternal formats. However with the addition of the Masterpieces and Authority of the Consuls (a very strong hoser silver bullet/sideboard option) that has turned around.

Even without a full spoiler I can honestly say that Kaladesh is already my most anticipated new set in years. If the limited format is any good it's a sure thing to become one of my top 5 favorite sets.

Very nice! At 4 mana I don't think it's quite good enough to cut it in standard (although i'd love to be proved wrong at the moment i'd much rather have a cheap conditional counter like Negate or be able to deal with Emrakul etc. using Summary Dismissal) and it's not up to Cryptic Command level for modern but for EDH having that much versatility in a counterspell is amazing. It's nice how it can deal with uncounterable spells by either choosing new targets for them or copying them yourself.