So when I plot all the common creatures next to each other, organized by casting cost, here's what I'm noticing:
Blue seems to have the best common creatures. And by 'best' I mean cards that do fine without much other help. Deepwater Hypnotist is a generic 2/1 basically, with a potential upside. Nyxborn Triton is benchmark 2/3 for 3 with definite upside later. Chorus is a very aggressive flier for 4 mana. Floodtide Serpent is as big as Green's Snake of the Golden Grove, with a lot of possible interactions. Sphinx's Disciple tops the curve at 5 for an undersized flying body, but one that also draws you cards.
Green has the most creatures at common, but only four of them are outright good. Swordwise Centaur is a little hard to cast but is the largest creature at 2cc (3/2). Nyxborn Wolf is fine at 3cc, but it can be stopped by literally everything. Pheres-Band Tromper seems to be Green's most reliable creature at 3/3 for 4, with definite growth potential. Snake is fine at 5, but has its limitations, as others have pointed out. The others include Charging Badger, Satyr Wayfinder (which is fine too, but seems to be best in BG with a few of the new Spiders in your deck), Setessan Oathsworn (needs work to get up to Nessian Courser, but can get bigger), and Setessan Starbreaker (he unfortunately can't kill Enchantment Creatures, only Auras).
White has some aggressive early guys but boy does its higher CC guys suck. Loyal Pegasus can lead to some explosive starts if you have other cheap evasion. Nyxborn Shieldmate might be the best of the cycle because of the cheap Bestow. Akroan Skyguard is mini-Wingsteed Rider, so I have to expect he'll be decent. After that, you have the Oreskos Sun Guide (Traveling Philosopher with bonus) and Elite Skirmisher, who is pretty fragile and who you have to pump/enchant before combat to tap down blockers. Great Hart marks the return of Pillarfield Ox, so nothing really exciting there. He does block well at least. Griffin Dreamfinder is pretty expensive for a smaller Coastal Chimera, though I guess the utility of recursion might be worthwhile. I'm not that enthused by White.
Red I have trouble evaluating. I think it's creatures are ok, but they aren't clearly ok as compared to say, Blue. Impetuous Sunchaser is the best follow-up to a T1 Loyal Pegasus, but his size makes him pretty vulnerable. RW is actually pretty solid pairing, given you can go Pegasus into Sunchaser into Bestow Shieldmate to Sunchaser. Kragma Butcher is fine as a 2/3 who might sometimes be able to pressure as a 4/3 in the right circumstances. Cyclops of One-Eyed Pass is big as a 5/2 for 4, but he'll run into a bear and bite it more often than not. Pharagax Giant seems pretty good, relatively speaking. If you have the aforementioned RW deck, or an aggressive deck in general, that five damage is going to mean a lot, especially when you get a 3/3 on top of it. As a 5/5 he's the second largest common creature after a Tributed Snake (7/7), but Snake should almost never be a 7/7. I can conceive of more scenarios in which your opponent is likely to give you a 5/5 and spare themselves 5 damage than to give you a 7/7 and deny you four life.
Black...what do I say about Black. I'm never impressed by Black's creatures, and this time isn't any different. The Eidolon at 2/1 is fine but that Bestow cost is really high for what you get. Brawler is a bad bear. Servant of Tymaret is fine as a three drop who can at least stop most early guys, but his regeneration is costly, and I don't know if you'll be able to leave it up and still develop your board. Forsaken Drifters is like the opposite of Returned Centaur, but he curves into Bestowing Nyxborn Triton to get you a 6/5, so there's that. As vulnerable as the Cyclops is to bears. Warchanter seems expensive as a base 3/3 for 5. If you can tap him somehow to let him grant subsequent Intimidate to himself, he seems ok. At least that way he can swing in. Marshmist Titan is the biggest common creature at base stats, so if you can curve into him he should be a solid pressence. Really mediocre if you can't though.
As far as spell effects go, I think Red got the best ones. It has two good removal spells at common, Bolt of Keranos and Fall of the Hammer. Black's commons are really dicey in this regard; Asphyxiate seems like really narrow removal, and Necrobite hasn't been all that great historically. Boon of Erebos could usually accomplish the same thing for two less mana. Weight of the Underworld does at Sorcery speed what Pharika's Cure does as an instant, if that tells you anything. It does let you shrink some sizeable Voltrons though, where Cure would do nothing.
Blue's common spells aren't as good as they were in THS. Instead of Voyage's End and Griptide, we get Retraction Helix and Sudden Storm. I'm on the fence about Nullify, but leaving up double blue isn't as easy as Remove Soul's 1U. Divination is Divination. Crypsis is the one I am having trouble evaluating.
I think White might have the second-best spells at common. Excoriate will get rid of anything, and Revoke Existence is the cheapest answer to problem Enchantments available. Mortal's Ardor isn't exactly Battlewise Valor, but it's half the cost and grants a quick lifelink to help you win the damage race.
Green's best spells seem to be Mortal's Resolve (Green God's Willing? Almost.) and Karametra's Favor. I was iffy on the Favor, but color fixing and ramp plus cantrip seems good after more consideration. You just need a guy to carry it. Aspect of Hydra could be good if you were Green enough, but that's got to be a case-by-case assessment.
So there. Given all that, I still think Blue came out on top in a vaccuum, but like I said, the archtypes are going to change how these cards score. RW together are actually kind of scary, not even counting the options you had in Theros. Green I feel lost out; it's commons this time just aren't as good as they were in THS, even though Tromper is much better than Staunch-Hearted Warrior in the four spot.
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Ferenczys posted a message on Best commons and uncommons from born of the godsPosted in: Limited (Sealed, Draft) -
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redthirst posted a message on Warning: High Quality CounterfeitsSince they're Chinese, aren't they technically High Quarity Counterfeits?Posted in: News
Spam infraction. Also insensitive towards Chinese people & Asians.
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I didn't notice this until you pointed it out. Lol. I have learned to never pay attention to "flavor text"...more like "that italic stuff at the bottom."
Ahhhh a Johnny. Or a sarcastic mofo. Either way, magic becomes a bit more interesting in this world. But less cutthroat and competitive.
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I agree with the fact that MTG doesn't need bikini armor and schoolgirl thongs. Though I don't think this card is anywhere near as provocative as other cards. See -