The Uncommon Throne

As it's early in the format's lifecycle, this ranking will likely have a few changes while things shake themselves out and people optimize their strategies.  With that said, I've seen each following card overperform to an extent that I'm confident that it belongs as one of the best 10 uncommons in this set.

As most of the uncommon Gold/Hybrid cards are great in their respective strategies, but quite committal, I've stuck to mono-colored cards for this article.  Clockwork Servant is also out, although I'm not confident it should make the list.

Honorable Mentions: Oakhame Adversary, Beanstalk Giant, Faerie Vandal, Animating Faerie.

Competition at uncommon is steeper than I've ever seen, and I'd say that all of the above cards could be a top uncommon in most sets where they've got a bit of contextual support.  While I wouldn't be the slightest bit unhappy to start my draft with any of the above cards, they fall short of making the list.


Notable Omissions: Syr Carah, the Bold, White/Red cards

I know others have had good experiences with Syr Carah, but whenever I've cast it I just wish it was something else.  3/3s for 5 aren't relevant enough in combat, and my Red decks haven't been hurting for a late game card advantage engine, just something to deal the last few points immediately.

White and Red have some strong uncommons, like Mysterious Pathlighter and Shepherd of the Flock in White, and Syr Carah, the Bold and Slaying Fire in Red.  Blacks uncommons are so universally incredible that combined with the best uncommons from Blue and Green there's no room here for White and Red cards.

10. Revenge of Ravens 

If you'd have told me I'd be starting this list with Revenge of Ravens just a few weeks ago I would have called you, whoever you are, a maniac.  While there's quite a bit to unpack with why this card is actually good, I can summarize by saying that there's a lot of small creatures attacking this time around, and Black has life drain as a major color theme, meaning that it's not safe to just take millions off this ability.  Playing against this card in multiples is as depressing as Magic ever gets, as the vast majority of creatures quickly gain defender.  I still think most players are overrating this, as any controlling deck just won't care about this whatsoever, but I'd rather start my Draft with Revenge of Ravens vs. any White or Red uncommon.

9. Keeper of Fables

4/5 is a great set of stats with a lot of creatures having 4 toughness and quite a few 4/4s running around.  The ability is harder to make work than I'd have expected as Green isn't flush with non-Humans, and as you're only ever getting one card each turn no matter how many creatures connect this doesn't snowball out of control quickly.  It's rough to take a hit from the passive, but not game ending, and as the ability is also mandatory it can be awkward when one of the major archetypes is trying to mill you out.  I think the format is relatively hostile to this card compared to my initial impression, although I'm still stoked to first pick Keeper of Fables out of strong packs.

8. Foulmire Knight

During my set review I noted a lower than usual amount of fliers, specifically ones that you're interested in killing.  With all of the ground combat that goes on a result, this card is just a card positive brick wall that's nearly impossible to punish outside of exactly Syr Carah, the Bold.  With Forever Young and Witch's Cottage in Black it's not unreasonable to forcibly trade this off and continuously accrue value by rebuying it a bunch.  As a non-human Knight this also scales off every tribal bonus in the set, and I'd describe Foulmire Knight as one of the most consistent over performers in the set as a result.

7. Edgewall Innkeeper

Adventuring steadily downwards in my pick order has been Edgewall Innkeeper, which I had initially pegged as best uncommon in the set by a lot, but has failed me enough times that it finds itself dropped to 7th.  My biggest gripe with this card is that if you don't take it relatively early in pack 1, or even pack 2, you just don't have enough time to fulfill the build around condition.  Taken early this card is still totally busted, as when you've got the time to take Adventure cards a bit higher than usual this is just a ridiculous draw engine that must always be killed at a tempo disadvantage.  While I don't expect this card to slide much further, this is the card on this list that's most likely to fall off. 

 

6. Order of Midnight

Most of the time, this is going to come down as a 2 mana 2/2 flier that can't block and happens to have Knight typing.  While that's a fine enough package, late in the game this is a Gravedigger that trades the ability to block with Flying and an option to cast it in installments.  While you're not getting the total package right away if you're splashing this, this is one of the very few cards in the set I'd try for.  Black has a great life drain plan supported across lots of cards, and a 2 mana evasive flier with 2 power will greatly facilitate those plans, while also accruing value in long games.

 

5. Bog Naughty 

Trading Food for Last Gasps is the real dream for a Food pay-off.  Combat becomes impossible with Bog Naughty and a Food or two in play, and with this effect stapled to a 5 mana 3/3 flier everything about this card is great.  While there's definitely some work associated, as there aren't a lot of ways to gain free Food, killing a single creature with this ability is often enough to swing a game, with the threat to do it again in the absence of an answer.

 

4. Trail of Crumbs

My experience with this format has been lots of grindy games, and in a deck with just a few other ways to make Food this card is unreasonable.  Lifegain from food buys you the time needed to continuously activate this, and the ability select the best permanent from 2 means that you can dig for what you need, often additional ways to keep activating Trail of Crumbs.  I've also really liked this card as a plan B for aggressive decks, as if you're in the market for Gingerbrute you can trade that rascal in for something else once it's no longer useful.  Every Green deck can make solid use of Trail of Crumbs, but when built around it feels incredibly oppressive.

 

3. Syr Elenora, the Discerning

At absolute worst this is a 5 mana 1/4 that's hard to target and draws a card.  While that's not an effect to write home about, when you've got a few cards in hand this is just stupid.  Anytime you can hold onto 4 cards or more this will demand a trade or answer, and in either exchange you're significantly advantaged.  As a finisher this can kill incredibly quickly, as in your Blue decks it's not unreasonable to be at a consistent full grip thanks to cards like Unexplained Vision and Witching Well.  To top all of this off this combines great with Run Away Together, and even has Knight text which will have relevance occasionally.

2. Epic Downfall

Blowout generated by Epic Downfall turn games around fast, as this always trades up in mana and even exiles, stopping future recursion or death triggers.  Despite how hostile this format is to splashing, Epic Downfall is so efficient that it bucks that trend, and I'm especially happy to splash for this in my otherwise mono-colored deck.  The only drawback here is the Sorcery speed, but even without the ability to blow out multi-blocks and combat tricks this card is absolutely insane.

 

1. Syr Konrad, the Grim

Nearly every time I see this card come down I assume I'm going to lose.  Thus far, I've lost to every aspect of this card, almost independently of all its other text.  Decked? Yep.  Combo killed? Sure.  Attacked? Absolutely.  White and Blue enchantment based removal is a joke on this card, as the incredibly powerful static ability is still intact, and under Charmed Sleep the active is also still live.  As if Syr Konrad needed any more help, he's quite Knightly, and as such works with all of the various Knight cards, most notably Barrow Witches which ensures that you access a back-up copy if the game comes to that.  #1 barely does this card justice, as I'd put it above most of the Rares and Mythics in my pick order, somewhere between 10th and 15th best card in the set.

Disagree or agree? Think I made a major snub? I'm always happy to talk on Twitter @sealedawaymtg, in the comments here, or by e-mail at sealedawaymtg@gmail.com

Until next time,
Kevin

Goodbye, Modern Horizons Part 3: R/W and W/B

Today we're going to talk about W/B Changelings and R/W Slivers, both tribal based decks that try to make the best of having White cards in your deck.

R/W "Slivers"

R/W Slivers is a deck based around the "Sliver" mechanic, where all of your creatures provide some bonus to all slivers.  This deck hopes to assemble a few different groups of Slivers in order to enable a specific strategy.  I would describe the two groups as beatdown and boardstall. The beatdown Sliver curve involves any 2 mana "Sliver" on turn two, Lancer Sliver on 3, and Cleaving Sliver on 4.  This curve enables a difficult block for 8 on turn 4, and unless your opponent can get rid of Cleaving Sliver or Lancer Sliver, and often both, it's pretty easy to secure victory from here by just attacking every turn.  The boardstall curve involves Blackback Sliver on 2, Lancer Sliver on 3, and Irregular Cohort on 4.  With this curve, rather than attack the opponent your hoping to keep their creatures at bay with a wall of First Strike creatures.  As the game drags on and you finish deploying your hand, you can just never attack the opponent and ping them to death with Bladeback Sliver's ability.  Ideally, any Sliver deck should be able to take advantage of both gameplans, which is what makes the deck powerful.  Lancer Sliver is easily the most important common in any Slivers deck, as while it is nearly useless on its own it enables everything the deck wants to do.

Key Commons: Lancer Sliver, Cleaving Sliver, Bladeback Sliver
Important Roleplayers: Irregular Cohort, Imposter of the Sixth Pride

Every card in a Slivers deck does double duty as both a pay-off card and enabler all at once; this deck thrives on having as many Slivers in play as physically possible so that they'll all become stronger as a result.  Diversity is going to be the name of the game here, as having one of each different Sliver is going to be a lot more powerful than having multiples of any, as only Lavabelly Sliver and Cleaving Sliver scale well in multiples.

General Pick Order for Sliver Decks: Winds of Abandon, Serra the Benevolent, Force of Virtue, Cloudshredder Sliver, Giver of Runes, Battle Screech, Firebolt, Sunbaked Canyon, Hollowhead Sliver, Pyrophobia, Magmatic Sinkhole, Cleaving Sliver, Irregular Cohort, Striking Sliver, Bladeback Sliver, Enduring Sliver, Lavabelly Sliver, Spiteful Sliver, First Sliver's Chosen, Valiant Changeling, Answered Prayers, Rhox Veteran, Imposter of the Sixth Pride, Fists of Flame, Settle Beyond Reality

Winds of Abandon is at it's absolute best here, as with Hollowhead Sliver and Striking Sliver in play you can easily churn through your deck until you find it while your opponent has no profitable attacks, and you can often instantly win the turn you cast it as well.  If I first pick Winds of Abandon, I generally want to end up here although I know I can be happy to end up in any White deck.  Cloudshredder Sliver is also unbelievably strong in this deck, it acts as a must answer threat if cast early and an Overrun type effect when cast later on, it's only lower in the order than Winds and the other White rares as it's so much more committal.  Remember that you're generally a base White deck, and as such build your deck around being 9/8 or 9/7 in favor of White, or 8/8.  Every non-Sliver card you play comes at a real cost, so keep your creature count high and avoid playing too many Rhox Veterans and Answered Prayers, although the first of each will be strong.  Lavabelly Sliver is pretty mediocre in this deck despite being your gold uncommon, it facilitates the "ping you to death" plan enabled by Bladeback Sliver a bit, but it just doesn't stand on its own as a hard to cast 2/2 for 3.

Don't splash here, as your deck is so inherently aggressive you can never afford to stumble even if your end goal is to force a board stall.  16 Lands is my norm although if your curve is high (multiple 5s, usually) or if you have a few Cycling lands, play 17.  At the risk of being a broken record, if you're playing cards with WW in their cost, bias toward playing more Plains so that your deck functions effectively.

Takeaways

Slivers was a real homerun in this format; it had multiple distinctive gameplans that worked well together, and played like no other Limited aggressive deck that I've ever seen.  This deck is not particularly resilient to removal or it'd be a much bigger player in the format, as is it's just a middle of the pack archetype that you never hope to get into but don't want to avoid, either.  Lavabelly Sliver is a weirdly underpowered gold card, especially in the context of this format, as it wouldn't do anything without Bladeback Sliver to incentivize pinging the opponent to death.  My first game of this format involved losing to a very diverse Slivers deck although I still initially wrote this deck off as it was incredibly overdrafted in the first few weeks Modern Horizons was available on Magic Online.  I really hope Wizards looks at this deck when they design future Limited aggressive strategies, as it's a lot more interesting than the combo of cheap creatures and combat tricks.

W/B "Changeling"

This is the worst deck in the entire format, and calling it supported or an archetype is incredibly generous.  Avoid ending up here without knowing White and Black are both incredibly open, as there aren't any real pay-offs for putting these two colors together.  In general, White Black decks will be combinations of Battle Screech, Mob, and Rares. The Changeling theme is reliant on a pile of specific uncommons that you want one of, and in general lead down the road of having awful mana.  Unlike in U/R and R/W where the Horizon Canopy land is awesome to have, this deck is a lot less capable of taking damage from its lands as it's often playing a much slower game.  B/W wants to play Defile but be base White, and wants to cast Changeling Outcast on turn 1 and Answered Prayers on turn 3.

In order to succeed with this deck, your best bet is to watch how your mana base will end up during the entirety of the draft.  This means that if you decide you want to play Defile, Answered Prayers is out of the question, as is Irregular Cohor.  Alternately, if you want to try to play Valiant Changeling early in the game, cheap Black cards can't make the final cut, especially cards like Cordial Vampire and Undead Auger.  Pick a base color here and stick to it, your deck is wildly inconsistent otherwise.

Key Commons: Mob, Irregular Cohort

As the synergies in this deck don't pan out, you're looking for cards that are good on their own with a small nod to wanting a bunch of creatures in play.  Cards that make multiple bodies are important, and Mob is great when you have cards that generate multiple bodies

General Pick Order: White/Black Mythics and Rares, Battle Screech, Graveshifter, Mob, Changeling Lords (King of the Pride, Undead Auger, Throat Seeker, etc), Changelings

As I advocate for avoiding this deck entirely, I would bias myself toward only taking strong generic White/Black cards early, and only deciding to be this deck after I know I have no other real options.  Putting together King of the Pride and Changeling Outcast can be worthwhile, but you're not going to want to do it without seeing King of the Pride 9th+ and essentially getting it for free.  Drafting this deck feels like resisting arrest, as you're going to fight to do anything else the entire time, only to ultimately succumb to playing with King of the Pride.

As with any other White deck, try to end up base White as a concession to hard to cast, time sensitive cards like Answered Prayers and Irregular Cohort.  These decks are typically slow but have relatively low curves, despite this try to play 17 lands here as a concession to how bad the mana often is.

Takeaways

I regret glossing over this deck in Episode 3 of the podcast, as it's really unfortunate to have such an unusable combination of colors in any draft format.  White and Black are both very self-serving in Modern Horizons, and as such they're the hardest colors to put together.  Defile, Crypt Rats, and Changeling Outcast just can't easily coexist with Answered Prayers, Segovian Angel, and Irregular Cohort, and that's where this deck generally falls flat.  This deck generally takes shape as two separate mono-color decks, which both work great but are hard to draft as they require their respective color to be wide open at the table.  Etchings of the Chosen is an interesting card to be sure, but in this format it's rarely strong enough to play unless you're lucky enough to name Bird.  This deck is so bad that I'd rather fight over Snow or Ninjas with two other players at the table than know for a fact I was the only Whie/Black drafter at the table.

Until next time, where we cover G/W and R/G!

Kevin
@sealedawaymtg on Twitter
podcast
Episode 3 available now!

Goodbye, Modern Horizons Part 1, U/B and U/R

A Modern Horizons Retrospective and Definitive Primer.

Modern Horizons will go down as my favorite Limited environment of all time, something I think a big segment of the Limited community shares.  In somewhere around 250+ drafts (I lost my stats to MTGO deleting my data, something I'm going to account for in the future), I only got to do 90% of what I think was really possible in the format.  I drafted every mono-color deck multiple times each, and every supported archetype each in the double digits.  Sometimes I milled my opponents, sometimes I milled myself for value.  Cats, Goblins, Zombies, Angels, Slivers, Crabs, Vampires and even Soldiers; I drafted piles of different tribal decks.

Missing for me were a real deck based on Urza, Lord High Artificer, the Good-Fortune Unicorn/Persist/Sacrifice outlet combo deck, an aura deck based around Face of Divinity, and a Sisay, Weatherlight Captain deck; maybe some things I couldn't even have dreamed of, too.  All things I'll keep in mind when flashback drafts role around someday.  I can't possibly overstate how many possibilities existed in this set, even if some of the grandiose vision from the designers never got realized, the possibilities weren't endless but damn close.

In today's article, I'm going to talk about how two of the ten color pair based decks come together, what synergies drive them, and what cards might shine in them that aren't obvious at first glance.   As we look back, I want to reflect on what worked for each archetype and what didn't.  Keep an eye out for four more parts to this series, where I'll get to every color pair in the set.

U/B "Ninjas"

U/B Ninjas is a deck based around cheap, evasive creatures with an end goal of generating value off various combat focused abilities.  Sometimes you'll survive an opposing blocker with an Azra Smokeshaper, or create an Illusion army with Moonblade Shinobi.  When the deck is firing on all cylinders, you might swap a Ninjitsu creature for another, only to put that original Ninja in place of something else.  Your opponents are rarely left with good options aside from sweeping your board with Crypt Rats, Winds of Abandon, or Dead of Winter, all cards that have a large deck building cost.  In general your opponents could stabilize against your cards that are weak on their surface, but they'll be at 0 life before that would happen.  Repeated hits for 3 damage add up quickly, and this deck can easily finish off a low life opponent with its numerous evasive creatures and tempo oriented spells.

Key Commons: Changeling Outcast, Faerie Seer, Gluttonous Slug (Enablers)
Moonblade Shinobi, Azra Smokeshaper, Ninja of the New Moon (Pay-offs)

If you take a look at my pick-order list from a few days ago, one thing you might notice is how high Changeling Outcast and Faerie Seer are listed.  This deck is the reason for that high placement, as Ninja decks with multiple copies of these cards are substantially more powerful than those without.  Not only are these the cheapest evasive creatures in the set at common, but Changeling Outcast is a Ninja for the various cards that care and Faerie Seer will repeatedly set up your future draws with the Scry 2, something that is a nice bonus on turn 1 that turns into a huge consistency advantage as it gets repeatedly returned to hand and recast.  Gluttonous Slug is at it's best here, as having creatures repeatedly enter play will grow it to an enormous size, and an 0/3 menace on turn 2 can put in Moonblade Shinobi on turn 3 in a pinch to get things rolling.  The Ninja pay-offs are relatively self explanatory, as once you have a bunch of enablers your game plan is to repeatedly put them into play with Ninjitsu to generate bonuses and persistent, big hits of damage.

General Pick Order for Ninja Decks: Rare Ninjas (Fallen Shinobi/Mist Syndicate Naga), Ingenious Infiltrator,  Watcher for Tomorrow, Twisted Reflection, Mob, Man-o-War, Changeling Outcast/Faerie Seer, Defile, Moonblade Shinobi, Gluttonous Slug, Azra Smokeshaper, Ninja of the New Moon.

Other common cheap creatures will often be filled in as needed, like Eyekite, Pondering Mage, and Putrid Goblin. Smokeshroud can generally be picked up late and it's pretty great to have the 1st/2nd copy.  Phantom Ninja is awful, avoid playing it unless you have multiple Ingenious Infiltrators or you're short creatures in general.

Avoid splashing in this deck, and expect to play 16-17 lands with 9 sources of whatever color you have more one drop creatures in.  Bad spells like Umezawa's Charm are acceptable in this deck if your spell count ends up really low, as opponents are put under so much pressure to constantly block.

Takeaways

This deck works, but too well for the format's own good.  Playing this deck gives a feeling of constantly deceiving and tricking the opponent unlike any limited deck I've ever played, but being on the receiving end has led to some of the most unfun and tedious feeling games of Magic I've ever played as well.  Any game in which you get to put in Ingenious Infiltrator turn 2 on the play, victory is nearly assured, the snowballing advantage accrued from this point is almost insurmountable barring astronomically poor draws or an insane series of draws from the opponent.  Right after the London Mulligan was introduced, I nearly won a game off of a mulligan to 3 where the hand I kept was Island, Swamp, Ingenious Infiltrator, and if I had just played a bit better I would have gotten there.  The only thing that ended up hurting this deck was its own success, as it remained consistently over drafted for the formats entire life cycle.  With no Infest style sweeper in the format, you often have to kill every single creature this deck plays, or run them over when they have one of their weaker draws.  I'd rate this deck's existence as the biggest blemish on a perfect format, as if the cards here were just a touch weaker it wouldn't suck to play against so much.

U/R "Draw Two"

 

U/R Draw Two is a deck based on cards that get more powerful for each card drawn in a given turn, such as Fists of Flame and Thundering Djinn, and cards that gain an ability once the 2nd card of a turn is drawn, such as Eyekite and Spinehorn Minotaur.  This deck is best defined as an "Aggro/Combo" deck similar to Modern's Infect, as you're generally trying to use pump spells to kill your opponent on an early turn.  Eyekite is your consistent damage source, as it's easy to turn on repeatedly and attack for 3 over and over, while Spinehorn Minotaur excels when going for a quick kill with Fists of Flame.  You'll want both together in multiples as different combinations of draws will ask for different facilitators.  This deck should be made up of as many Eyekites and Spinehorn Minotaurs as you can get with some random aggressive creatures like Orcish Hellraiser and Mooblade Shinobi to round things out.  You're going to want Fists of Flame, Phantasmal Form, and a healthy amount of cards with Cycling as well as cheap removal spells like Pyrophobia and Magmatic Sinkhole.  This deck is generally weak to removal spells, as you're not going to have a lot of threats in your deck in general, and you're very reliant on pump spells to actually kill the opponent.

Key Commons: Eyekite, Spinehorn Minotaur (Enablers)
Fists of Flame, Phantasmal Form, Reckless Charge, Cycling Cards (Pay-offs)

The general gameplan for U/R is to combine Spinehorn Minotaur and Eyekite with Phantasmal Form to kill the opponent quickly over the course of two turns.  Phantasmal Form interacts incredibly well with these creatures, as Eyekite will become a 5/3 and Spinehorn Minotaur a 3/3 Doublestrike with Flying, adding up to an easy 11 damage as early as turn 4.  You'll want to supplement this with cards like Reckless Charge for quicker kills, especially with Spinehorn Minotaur, and as many Cycling cards like Windcaller Aven and Viashino Sandsprinter as you can afford to keep the "draw a card" metric enabled every turn. U/R Draw Two is less reliant on individual pieces than U/B, like one mana creatures, but is never as powerful or resilient.

General Pick Order for Draw Two Decks: Seasoned Pyromancer/Bazaar Trademage, Fiery Islet, Firebolt, Man-o-War, Thundering Djinn, Magmatic Sinkhole(first copy), Oneirophage, Pyrophobia, Eyekite, Spinehorn Minotaur, Red then Blue Cycling Lands, Phantasmal Form/Fists of Flame, Windcaller Aven.

As U/R can struggle with big creatures like Murasa Behemoth or even a large Abominable Treefolk, picking up some snow lands to turn on Winter's Rest is more important here than in other blue decks.  Like U/B, any creatures that are cheap will often find a home here, like Orcish Hellraiser and Bladeback Sliver, and you'll want Pondering Mage in any version of this deck that's less combo oriented and slower.  Rain of Revelation is much better than Fact or Fiction in this deck, so keep that in mind as well.  Generally, take removal highly and stay open, and move in once you start seeing Eyekite/Spinehorn Minotaur late and Fists of Flame/Phantasmal Form late.

You should almost always play 16 lands, as many of your cards will say "Draw a Card" on them somewhere, and flooding out can be pretty disastrous as these decks often lack staying power.  Fiery Islet is unbelievably strong in this deck, as it fixes your mana, turns on your theme, and you're in a great position to not care about your life total too much.  Like U/B, don't splash here unless your playing a controlling version of U/R, as your mana is being stretched to the limit already.

Takeaways

"Draw Two"'s existence is a testament to how flexible Magic can be as a game.  This is the first set where this has been a major draft theme, and not only does it have a lot of built-in support but it plays great as well.  The subtext of this mechanic is that it's trivial to activate during your own turn, but takes a lot more work during the opponent's.  You'll certainly be able to generate some blow-outs with Rain of Revelation after blocks, but it's a rarity.  U/R was my favorite deck in the format, as there was no greater feeling then assembling a creative kill combining Fists of Flame and Spinehorn Minotaur and some other random piece to get an unexpected turn 5 kill.  I certainly wish this deck had access to a card like Dive Down or even Negate, but I think that would have further exacerbated the problems that U/B Ninjas already have and thusly understand the exclusion of a good protection effect.  Admittedly, this deck was a tad tougher to get into than I would have liked, as aside from taking an early Thundering Djinn and praying, only Fiery Islet consistently let me end up in this deck.

Signing Off,
Kevin
@sealedawaymtg on Twitter
sealedawaymtg.podbean.com in Podcast form, with Episode 2 out now!

My "Definitive" P1P1 order for Modern Horizons

I was scrolling through Twitter this morning when I stumbled upon
https://twitter.com/_Malavi_/status/1158728682438942721/photo/1
This is Lars Dam's (Malavi on Twitter/MTGO) definitive P1P1 order for Modern Horizons.  I agree in a lot of places, but also disagree on just as many.  Here's my list:

Click on the picture to zoom in, I recognize it's a bit small.
I'm going to point out places where I have strong opinions, or why certain cards are where they are in the ranking.  The ranking starts in the top left at Yawgmoth, goes all the way down to Force of Virtue, and then goes to the next column and so on.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician #1

The best card in the set by a mile, Yawgmoth is also in one of the two best colors, Blue and Black, which I have tied.  Yawgmoth takes 0 work to build around and can be jammed into any deck that can cast him.  He's hard to kill, generates a persistent advantage, and has the potential to take over any game in which he survives.

Serra, the Benevolent #8

Everyone plays this card wrong, including myself for the longest time.  You should both rarely cast Serra on turn 4, and you should almost never make a token.  In the vast majority of games, if you can play Serra and +2 her, you win the game next turn with the Worship emblem.  The only decks that can viably beat this are Iceberg Cancrix/Stream of Thought Decks and decks containing Rank Officer.  It is very trivial to put more creatures into play than your opponent has removal spells in their library, and as your White decks rarely draw extra cards your opponent will deck out first from drawing any cards whatsoever.  A note on White cards in general on this list; I prioritize first picking good White cards as having the ability to draft a good White deck is a major privilege at most tables.

Winds of Abandon #11

Considered by many to be the best card in the set, this card can often be seen coming and gets much worse in games 2/3 where opponents can board in Prohibit or Mind Rake to beat it. This card is also not easy to splash as it's only powerful if cast for 4WW, so you can't realistically expect to cast it unless you can reliably overload it once you're at 6 mana.  Still a completely incredible card, but these are the reasons it's at #11 and not #1.

The First Sliver #19

This card is both much easier to cast than it looks, while being a lot more powerful than it looks at the same time.  The fact that it gives "All Slivers Cascade" is a big red herring, as all you really need is your 5 mana 7/7 Cascade to break most games wide open.  Of course you need to pick up enough Springbloom Druids and Arcumm's Astrolabes to cast this, but once you do the reward is more than worth it.  5 Color Slivers is also a completely reasonable although mediocre archetype that this opens up, and in that deck if you cast this card you often win instantly.

Sling-Gang Lieutenant #25

I pick this card 1st more than almost any other card in the set, but I am probably the lowest on it of anyone.  I think this card often traps people because it makes you feel smart when you make an attack that exactly kills the opponent combined with the ability, but in match-ups where your opponent is trying to deck you or is killing you with evasive creatures, this card is just 3 1/1s for 4 mana and that's just not good enough with how good 4 mana cards are in this set.  Like Winds of Abandon, this card is still incredible, but be wary of how cards make you feel vs. how much they translate into winning games other cards wouldn't.

Springbloom Druid #32

I got a lot more receptive to this card after Mythic Championship Barecelona, as this is a card a bunch of the best teams had as the best common in the set.  This card is just the perfect enabler, as every single kind of strategy can use it in some fashion as long as they can play enough green sources.  I think snow is the 2nd best strategy (after Ninjas) and this is by far the most important common for snow decks.

Firebolt #35

The best uncommon or lower removal in the set, there is a huge number of X/2 creatures in the set and this kills them all for just 1 mana.  The bonus utility of being able to kill and X/4 for 6 mana or another X/2 later in the game is massive, and both you and your opponent will often mill over this card for value at times.  Firebolt is just a huge problem solver in this set, although I think this would be a very favorable set for Shock for what that's worth.

Cloudshredder Sliver #44

This is the absolute best card you can have in a Slivers deck, and I'm a big fan of cards that open you up to archetypes that other people don't have the same access to.  Anytime I face down this card turn 2 on the play I feel like I can never win unless I instantly kill it or my opponent doesn't play a 3rd land, and that's an insane amount of power for a 2 mana card.  Late in the game this card often means oops I win unless there's instant speed removal involved.

Fiery Islet #45

I think this is probably the most underrated rare in the entire set, as it's often picked for its monetary value and not to get put into decks.  As a piece of U/R aggressive decks, this card drastically raises your consistency, giving you consistent access to both colors of mana without slowing you down, while also acting as a "draw a card" enabler for your Spinehorn Minotaurs/Eyekites later on in the game.  As I generally build my U/R decks with 16 lands due to the large amount of cyclers, this card allows for much better 9/8 or 10/7 mana bases depeding on your color split, and this is the deck that cares the least about taking damage from a land.

Trumpeting Herd #50

Another card I've seen get a bad rap, Trumpeting Herd is a weird card because it can act a bit slow while being awkward when you want to use Winding Way in your deck as well.  With that said, 3/3s are a good size in a format full of 2/2s,  and making two of them for 4 mana is an incredible rate.  The real kicker for me is that this card scales so well in multiples.  The first copy will buy you time to cast future copies, which get better as you get more and more 3/3s each turn.

Force of Rage #52

Another card I rarely see played correctly, this really shines the brightest in R/B, as you can use it as a defensive tool to kill an opposing attacker, while also putting counters on your Gluttonous Slug, while also sticking around until your upkeep so that you can sacrifice it to Bogardan Dragonheart.  Offensively this is just a harder to block Ball Lightning for a cheaper cost, although that mode comes secondary to the defensive option.

Fact or Fiction and Rain of Revelation #77/78

These cards are super super close in powerlevel, as there's enough cards you want to put in your graveyard intentionally that Rain of Revelation is often just 4 mana instant draw 3 anyways.  Fact or Fiction also gets severely worse against better players, and as it effectively "mills you" 5 cards it can be a concern in multiples in decks that want it. In general I always take the first Fact or Fiction over first Rain unless I'm already U/R, and I would rather one of each in decks that want this effect.

Snow-Covered Forest/Island #82/83

Snow decks are more often base Green compared to Blue, so being able to cast your Green spells more easily is a generally higher benefit.  Snow Island has the advantage of turning on Blizzard Strix and Winter's Rest, which both only need 3-4 snow lands in a deck to be good enough.  Picking these this highly is a concession to how good U/G snow decks are, just like where Changeling Outcast and Faerie Seer are higher up on the list for Ninja decks.

Settle Beyond Reality #91

Despite this card existing as the top white common on this list, I don't think Settle Beyond Reality is better than Answered Prayers or Irregular Cohort.  It is much more splashable however, and it can provide strong utility to any deck looking to exile creatures or blink its own.  I often play this card most often in Green decks with Springbloom Druid, where I generally want 1-2.

Sword of Sinew and Steel #100

This card is not very good, and only sits where it does as an insane sideboard card vs. B/R decks or artifact heavy decks.  I generally only play this card these days if I'm a token strategy with few pay-off cards, or for a Snow deck to suit up Springbloom Druids for later relevance.

Notable Omissions

• Urza's Rage:  The vast majority of players would increase their win percentage substantially by never putting this card in their deck.  Past all of the text that rarely matters, this is a 3 mana deal 3, not a remotely good enough rate in a format as powerful as this.  You're playing this because you don't have enough removal, and once in a while in a deck built around casting it for 12 to win, stop picking this card highly, it sucks.
• Dregscape Sliver: I would personally pick this card above Scale-Up at #80, but other people value this card so low that I almost always table it if I want it.  Part of this pick order list is accounting for what other people do, and cards that are underrated just can't get picked too highly when they always make it around the table.  Force of Rage is in a similar boat but makes it on the list as it's just so strong it doesn't matter.
• Cycling Lands:  People in general don't value these highly, and only the Jund colored ones are real stand-outs.  Don't sleep on them but you don't have to 4th pick Secluded Steppe over anything reasonable.

This list is pretty subject to change on any given day, but today this is my feel for how I'd pick the top 100 cards in the set.  Aside from Yawgmoth, any cards near each other are relatively close in power level and should be picked with some of your own preference in mind.

Kevin
@sealedawaymtg on Twitter
Sealed Away MTG in podcast form.