The cowards could have finished this set like 4 years ago had they not been cowards and actually focused on pioneer instead of wasting a bunch of art budget on alchemy cards. Truthfully, they could have done that and also remasters blocks like BFZ, DTK, THS and RTR, then maybe a lot of weight would be put off this set. Anyhow, tolerably late than never, we get about 6 months of UB-free Pioneer on Arena, that's fun. Well without all the trash common you may like for the art like how MTGO probably don't have some ancient trash for your Vintage decks.
Anyhow, I do have a chance to rant on this era of Magic cards, that's cool by me.
It really sucks that the wonky collectors’ numbers came from paper into Arena. Except these cards are in fact Arena cards, which has no collectors’ numbers visible. So now how do you even know which cards can always be opened and which can only be opened in a certain bonus sheet at a certain time? You know last time Arena had these bonus sheets it was clearly denoted with a different set symbol and set code (sucks there can’t be a Sisters’ War set now)? This time we just cram it all together for some reasons.
It’s a weird count of 27 cards instead of the usual 20. The other rarities are totally normal for some reasons. It seems pretty balanced, 3 cards for each monocolor + 1 card for each color pair + 2 colorless cards. Until you look deeper.
First off, there’s the Origins five, or almost there, because Chandra is missing. Not like she has ever been in Arena if you thought to say that. Not like any other card in this cycle is treated any better or worse, well except Lili in the spellbook I guess. I mean that whole tap to ping then cast spell to untap thing might get really old in this game, but I feel like it’s just a problem with having no better alternative than to move your mouse to the Chandra to click, then move your mouse to the spell to cast, all while maybe your opponent have to press the button (actually you can use spacebar) that passes because they definitely won’t be countering any of that.
Well Red do get a Chandra, just won’t be flipping. While the Abzan colors gets in addition a second planeswalker. So that definitely adds up to too many planeswalkers in a single set, and to add insult to injury Green gets two Nissas and White gets two Gideons. What a snapshot into a glorious era of MTG design when we have to repeat a set of Gatewatch characters every year.
What’s left for this “draft boosters”? This core set angel woman which is going for at least $30 for, let’s be real, such a lame ability, nowadays we deserve better /s. Blue has two sorceries that kinda mimics blue P9 cards. Black has this SOI card I like the art of, for just the cool pale hand dealing with apparently a Black Lotus. Red has a dragon with this dark art and a devoid card which I will forget because Scryfall sorting. And Green has a way to manifest every turn, no dread and no cloak.
Now onto the color pairs, the allied pairs get easily filled with Tarkir dragonlords. They don’t have the watermarks anymore, probably would have taken non-cowards putting DTK properly on Arena for them to get the watermarks. And the enemy pairs have a Garruk and 4 Ravnican cards, also missing guild watermarks. Two came from Dragon’s Maze, one from RTR and the last a Boros card upshifted from rare, I guess for once it may seem reasonable to not have to waste the wildcard that could have went to a dual land for this.
Last is probably one of the biggest Eldrazi after the titans that was in BFZ block. And Maze’s End, which is already in Arena.
Back to the imbalance we go. White and Blue has 8 cards each, Black has anywhere from 7 to 9 because one is a land that technically doesn’t have any way to check color identity of, and the other is a Sultai thrist trap. That cycle still isn’t fully on Arena, at least you got Alesha already. Red and Green has 9 cards each, because they do have the Gruulfriends’ oaths here (the others are somewhere else). At a certain point one should really say [[Chained to the Rocks]] is a Boros card.
In terms of commanders, there are 1 Green and White, 0 Blue, 1-2 Black (reason aforementioned), 2 Red And two artifact enchantments, full cycle still not on Arena.
Onto the color pairs, one card for each color, unless you’re part of Bant then you’re a Ravnican card. And there’s also the enemy manlands, which honestly is insane they charge rare wildcards for. Feel like a dedicated rant is deserved for how weak these cards were, how they were split between the sets of BFZ, how battle lands as a cycle still isn’t finished, etc.
Last two cards that caused the color imbalance are this big 5C Theros thing that people want to use as commanders for 5C reasons, and an Ugin land.
Each monocolor gets 15 cards, each color pair gets 2 cards and 5 colorless cards are left. Down here, it definitely gets weird with alongside all the RTR to BFZ era cards that finally got in, there’s also a whole section of cards that are already in Arena, arguably even recognizable in what recent-ish sets they came in. Maybe a paper Pioneer Masters set would have all these cards either way. Something like a cycle of cards with taplands in their back.
Down to commons, each color gets 13 cards (if you do consider a briefcase that opens for 1 mana of each color to still be a green card), each color pair get a card that’s more likely than not be downshifted from the old days, six colorless cards and one of each guildgate that’s slightly more likely to be the RTR era arts than the arts already on Arena. Down there there’s also a cycle of lands in the back, something ZNR designers may have considered.
(I should fill this space here, how did that got so low effort?)