I could add either an M for Meta power level, or a V for Vacuum power level. This could be done... we have the technology, gentlemen, we can rebuild him. Oh, and ladies, too (gotta PC up my quotes from the 70's and 80's).

On second thought, I've been considering cards in a "vacuum" and I came to this conclusion: what the heck does the vacuum represent? Am I rating cards based on where I think they fall on average across all cards ever printed in Magic? What do I have to compare it to in a vacuum? Merfolk of the Pearl Trident looks pretty decent if the rest of the game is full of 2/1 creatures for 3 mana like Reclamation Sage, but it looks pretty awful if you have creatures for 1 mana like Figure of Destiny. Do I just compare it against other D cards? Theoretical decks that don't exist? Decks that once existed, but now currently don't?

I realized I have no idea what a "vacuum metric" would be, how one would quantify it, or even begin to measure it. Unless you all have some way of defining the parameters of the vacuum, I think I'll have to stick to meta-analysis.

Perhaps some valuation against other D cards would be most useful? It would cover 1) how to generally evaluate some cards as better than others, and 2) where a player with only D cards should be looking to start with deckbuilding.
eg, "start with this, not that... or maybe this if you're after some specific narrow design particular to this card"

I don't know if I said this already but the majority of the cards form this set are not playable.

Rotted Hulk is very playable.

Well it survives Grasp of Darkness but falls to Complete Disregard so I'm conflicted.
Maybe if we could stack more than one Omnath.

With Eldritch Moon just around the corner, I find myself thinking about the D cards again. While we have not yet seen what the EMN D cards will be, I have to wonder if there will be "rotations" again in the D cards. Everyone noted - rightly - last time around that the changes WotC were implementing felt like they were timed for Origins and had little bearing on the current state of the metagame. A thought occurs to me...

What if WotC/Stainless are forced to work a long way in advance on programming these updates, such that their information WAS accurate at the time they gave the green light for the D card rotations? That might mean changes to our format have a similar "time delay" just like metagame fixes to Standard. Perhaps they cannot quickly drop in a change due to the way they've structured the updates or whatever, and we'll be seeing metagame "fixes" that made more sense during the ramp days of Battle for Zendikar. Since the D cards can draw upon existing cards, I would be inclined to say that they could do more frequent updates and toss in a few D card rotations whenever they like, but perhaps there is some bit of arcane programming or budgeting or something that prevents them from doing so.

What do you think? Will we be seeing metagame fixes that would have been at home during BFZ, will they have rotations that make sense with the more recent OGW/SOI update, or will there be any rotations at all with the EMN D cards update? I for one am curious to find out, expect another in-depth analysis post from me when WotC updates us about EMN.

Eldritch Moon D Card Update

(If Wizards failed to show us all of the D cards released on their Facebook spoiler, I will rewrite this post later to reflect any additional changes.)

It's that time everyone: time to analyze the new D cards and what it means for our future. As hard as it is for me to believe (and it still leaves me wondering if there aren't 5 more D cards WotC failed to spoil for us yet), so far it looks like there are only 5 D cards in the Eldritch Moon update! Since we only have 5 to look at, let's really look at them:


Just to link them further: Enlightened Maniac, Foul Emissary, Drownyard Behemoth, It of the Horrid Swarm and Wretched Gryff. So, let's get down to brass tacks.


WHAT THEY (WotC/Stainless) DID DO:

* Supported 1 new deck archetype unique to its expansion; the pattern is broken unless more D cards magically appear later.
* Added simple incarnations of one new mechanic: emerge.
* Added at least one card that could reach staple status if emerge is a competitive mechanic (Foul Emissary), and possibly others.
* Continued with bannings/rotations: Archangel of Tithes was swapped for Angelic Destiny due to coding issues, and Sylvan Ranger was swapped for Ainok Guide presumably to hurt 4-5 color decks, especially Superfriends.
* Shattered any expectations about converted mana cost due to the emerge mechanic (the mana costs start at 3 this time, proceed to 4, then go 7, 8, 9!)


WHAT THEY DIDN'T DO:

* Add any rares or mythic rares (Drownyard Behemoth and Foul Emissary are uncommon); this pattern continues to hold.
* Add any noncreature cards (if the D card updates are going to shrink like this, it makes sense that they won't have much room for anything else)
* Keep the numbers even across colors or rarities (we have a blue card, a green card, and three colorless cards that in a different light can be construed as two more blue cards and one more green card; and 3 commons, 2 uncommons)
* Provide any support for meld or escalate (not that they need any)


Unless any hidden D cards show up later (which I'm still hoping for), 5 new cards have been added to our D cards with Eldritch Moon (18 cards total counting duplicates), a disappointment to say the least. This only enables one new archetype deck, and makes the most (numerically) anemic offering to our D card pool to date. That being said, the new emerge cards look like fun, so perhaps not all is lost.

This unprecedented 5 card addition leads me to wonder if there will be any set pattern in the future. Will small sets begin offering 5 D cards, and only adding one new archetype deck in the future? Will large sets be the only ones that add 10 cards (and 2 archetype decks)? Or will WotC play it fast and loose, adding however many D cards and archetype decks they feel like adding with each expansion, regardless of its size? I don't know, but a smaller D card update does not bode well in my opinion. If the D cards are the only group they feel safe "rotating," it makes more sense to me to keep the D cards as relevant as possible so that when they do need to change our format, there are more tools to exchange.

Speaking of rotations... while I will not comment here about Archangel of Tithes becoming Angelic Destiny (other people are already covering that conversation, and it is an Origins change so the D cards are not directly affected), we can definitely talk about Sylvan Ranger becoming Ainok Guide. This is precisely the sort of example I was talking about in the paragraph above: since Sylvan Ranger was one of the only major tools of 4-5 color Superfriends WotC could touch in the D cards, they sent it packing for an inferior card that hurts many other multicolor decks outside of Superfriends. What if the D cards had more tools to choose from, though? Specifically, what if instead of nerfing Sylvan Ranger, they had added a planeswalker removal spell in black? Instead of trying to take away what few tools we possess in the D cards, give us more so that WotC doesn't paint themselves into a corner. If we start slowing down the rate of added D cards and nerfing the good ones just to spite a dominant (or just popular) deck archetype, sooner or later the D cards will have no good cards left. At that point, WotC are left with either 1.) adding answers to the format on the next update, or 2.) power-balance rotations on expansion cards.

As for new players, this update could have been better but does offer an interesting new deck archetype, and the big emerge creatures may offer some new choices to ramp and reanimator. I would say that ramp benefits more than reanimator, since the eldrazi are chock full of on-cast triggers rather than enter-the-battlefield triggers (Drownyard Behemoth is an exception). Sacrificing more of your own creatures could lead to some sort of aristocrats-style newbie deck as well, giving Gravedigger some new purpose. I can also imagine sacrificing Reclamation Sage, Lifespring Druid or Darkslick Drake from our current D cards for a newbie emerge deck, or indeed Gravedigger on an endless chain.

Final Thoughts: Wizards of the Coast gets a grade of D+ for this D card update. The emerge deck looks like fun, but why is it the only deck? Rather than nerf Sylvan Ranger, why not address the elephant in the room, planeswalkers? Even if you cannot give black a planeswalker kill spell due to rarity, how about giving red a really good PW burn spell (or face burn spell) that doesn't cause tempo disadvantage? You might have at least gotten a grade of C- if there had been 10 D cards in this update instead of 5. You are setting yourselves up to be forced into rotating/banning expansion cards if you don't break this cycle. It's not a difficult choice, just give the D cards some better utility such as planeswalker removal.

This is the Duels team you're talking about here.

You explained every well its deficiencies with choosing D cards. Track record speaks for itself.

Eldritch Moon D Card Ratings

I know that the metagame will not settle down for a while, but I will judge these new D cards based on my previous analysis (towards the lower half of page 2, starting here: http://forum.nogoblinsallowed.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=14251&start=20#p446272). Mostly I hope to judge them in the context of the D cards, but I may speculate on the constructed deckbuilding aspects as well. Ready? Alright, here goes 5 card reviews to add to the previous ones... (why? why only 5 cards? give me something to write about WotC!)

Blue

Enlightened Maniac - 1.0
E - 2.0
P - 2.0

My gut feeling tells me that this will be a card that newbies grow on with emerge cards, flickering effects, and graveyard recursion until it is no longer good enough to occupy space in the deck. It is not "bad" per se: you get a total of 3 power and 4 toughness spread across two creatures for 3U, which compares to Incubator Drone fairly well. Enlightened Maniac is better for flickering and such, but the token cannot produce mana. I won't rule out that some deck may want it even with fully unlocked cards, but I would call that deck unknown for now.


Green

Foul Emissary - 3.0
E - 0.0
P - 3.0

I may be a little generous here, but if there is an emerge deck, then surely this is one of the defining cards of any G/X emerge deck. Unfortunately, replacing itself is not good enough for non-emerge decks (it compares unfavorably to Elvish Visionary most of the time, since there is the potential of revealing no creatures), so I think this sits it solidly at a 3.0. I'm also being generous in terms of potential, but it sure does feel good when you draw yourself a relevant creature, emerge out a nasty eldrazi, and get a 3/2 for your troubles. If you start recurring the ETB effect he could do some digging for you, and Foul Emissary might not be a bad target to return from the graveyard. He's a fat little workhorse of the emerge deck.


Colorless

Drownyard Behemoth - 2.0
E - 1.0
P - 2.0

Due to having flash, this card could possess the chops necessary to be in a constructed deck. It feels like a nice consolation prize when you sac some big creature that was about to die to removal and flash in a Drownyard Behemoth. In a game against the AI, I was pleased that it was able to pull off the flash blocking trick without being instantly destroyed by the AI's Sinister Concoction that was open and ready on the board. Momentary hexproof is better than nothing, and I think this card is okay in general... not really exciting, but definitely okay. As a point of trivia, Drownyard Behemoth is now the highest converted mana cost of all the D cards.

It of the Horrid Swarm - 2.0
E - 2.0
P - 1.0

Not my favorite emerge card, but it can still do some tricks for you if you want to go wide. I'd probably run them in a deck that wants Decimator of the Provinces, for instance. However, I have discovered firsthand that the AI is making good use of the removal suite available to it, and there are any number of ways for a 4/4 to die at the moment, not least of which being Collective Defiance. When the large body is gone, the pair of 1/1's don't go too far on their own.

Wretched Gryff - 2.0
E - 2.0
P - 2.0

A 3/4 flier that draws you a card is pretty decent vs. the AI, a magnet for removal certainly. Wretched Gryff has the cheapest emerge cost, and can reasonably be cast for 3U off of a 2-drop critter. Having played some games with a D-card emerge deck, I can attest that you will also sometimes cast this card for 7 colorless as a perfectly reasonable play as the game grinds on (sometimes you reach the mana to hard-cast the others as well, but hitting 7 mana is a whole world of difference compared to hitting, say, 9 mana). There's nothing to rave about here, it's just kind of decent in the right emerge deck.


Final Thoughts on the Eldritch Moon D Cards: We have some reasonable options for one type of deck (emerge), and some iffy options for archetypes such as aristocrats, flicker, or possibly control in the case of Drownyard Behemoth. I can't get over the fact that we only got 5 cards this time; it is half the size of any other set's D card allotment. This could be a sign that the pattern was an anomaly, or that they are shifting their paradigm to only have one deck archetype for small set expansions. I'll be curious to see how many D cards arrive with Kaladesh and Aether Revolt, to try to draw a better conclusion about what WotC is doing. For now, I am disappointed even though I like emerge. While I don't like to double-post, I'll be preparing an in-depth number crunch below to take a long, hard look at the D card statistics, partly to see what it is lacking and where.

Statistical Analysis of the D Cards

Let's peel back the layers even further, and go deep into the numbers. This post is for those of you who enjoy taking a hard look under the hood and crunching numbers; it won't be for everyone. My intention here is to discover any discrepancies, irregularities, and imbalances that exist within the D cards as they currently exist. My hypothesis is this: since we have been receiving irregular updates that do not affect the colors equally, the colors will not be at even distributions and some will have more of a lion's share of cards than others. This does not present judgments on the quality of those cards, just the numbers. I'm going to list some easily quantifiable metrics (# of creatures, creatures at each CMC, etc.), and then further down I will have more "arguable" metrics such as measuring the amount of "removal" that exists for a given color in the D cards. Take a deep breath, grab a drink... and let's dive in.


Section One: Color by Number

White: 18 total
Creatures: 13
* Creature CMC 1: 3
* CMC 2: 3
* CMC 3: 3
* CMC 4: 2
* CMC 5: 1
* CMC 6: 0
* CMC 7: 1
Enchantments: 3
Instants: 1
Sorceries: 1

Blue: 20 total
Artifacts: 1 (Esperzoa, you weirdo. Also counted in creatures.)
Creatures: 15
* Creature CMC 1: 0
* CMC 2: 4
* CMC 3: 5
* CMC 4: 3
* CMC 5: 2
* CMC 6: 1
Enchantments: 1
Instants: 4
Sorceries: 0

Black: 24 total
Creatures: 19
* Creature CMC 1: 1
* CMC 2: 5
* CMC 3: 4
* CMC 4: 7
* CMC 5: 1
* CMC 6: 1
Enchantments: 1
Instants: 1
Sorceries: 3

Red: 17 total
Creatures: 11
* Creature CMC 1: 2
* CMC 2: 2
* CMC 3: 2
* CMC 4: 3
* CMC 5: 2
Enchantments: 2
Instants: 1
Sorceries: 3

Green: 20 total
Creatures: 14
* Creature CMC 1: 1
* CMC 2: 4
* CMC 3: 3
* CMC 4: 2
* CMC 5: 2
* CMC 6: 1
* CMC 7: 1
Enchantments: 1
Instants: 4
Sorceries: 1

Artifacts/Colorless/Lands: 35 total
Artifacts: 5 (6 if you count Esperzoa, but I am counting it here as a blue card for the purposes of section distribution; 4 of the artifacts are also counted with creatures)
Creatures: 8
* CMC 1: 0
* CMC 2: 1
* CMC 3: 2
* CMC 4: 1
* CMC 5-6: 0
* CMC 7: 2
* CMC 8: 1
* CMC 9: 1
Lands: 26 (6 basic lands, and the two 10-card dual-land cycles; notably, Wastes is the only one that produces dedicated colorless mana)

Thoughts from Section One: Red and White have gotten the shaft here, especially Red. Red has a weird slightly-top-heavy curve, and needs 3 more cards just to be at parity with Blue and Green. White could probably use a touch more fat in its curve, like an angel that costs 5 or 6 mana (Voice of the Provinces or something similar, or even the ubiquitous Serra Angel at uncommon). Black is oddly the king here numerically, yet most of the card slots are spent on CMC 4 creatures with a truly unusual spike compared to the other colors. Artifacts/colorless could use some extra additions to smooth out the curve and bring them a little closer to where the other colors are; in particular, I'd like to see more equipment and more noncreature artifacts (or even colorless instants/sorceries). In all of the colors, I'd like to see more noncreature spells: Mark Rosewater has said before that when designing commons for a set, you want about half of them to be creatures, and half to be noncreature spells. The ratios here are way, way off from that.


Section Two: Removal by Number

Removal will be divided into creature removal, and utility removal (meaning noncreature card types). The two can overlap on cards such as Countermand and Into the Maw of Hell.


White Removal: 3 total
Creature Removal: 2
Utility Removal: 2 (Suppression Bonds counts twice)

Honorable Mention: Dauntless River Marshal acts as soft creature removal, if you have the mana to spare.


Blue Removal: 2 total
Creature Removal: 2
Utility Removal: 1 (Countermand counts twice)

Honorable Mention: Tempo cards include Grip of the Roil, Frost Lynx, Murk Strider and Kapsho Kitefins. If you use enough of these they can start to feel like removal, but for the purpose of this post I will not be counting them as proper removal.


Black Removal: 2 total
Creature Removal: 2
Utility Removal: 0

Honorable Mention: The black D cards have more removal... for dedicated decks: Lys Alana Scarblade, Kindly Stranger and Nightfire Giant all fit this description. Nightfire Giant could also kinda kill planeswalkers, and Mind Raker does discard which theoretically could act as removal as well... but I'm not counting any of these corner cases for this purpose.


Red Removal: 6 total
Creature Removal: 6 (Ember Hauler, Inferno Fist and Bloodpyre Elemental are counted for this purpose, as they are all generic costs that are relatively easy to use and don't require building around)
Utility Removal: 1 (Into the Maw of Hell is counted twice here)

Honorable Mention: Goblin Arsonist, Pyromancer's Assault and Barrage Ogre could all kill things in weird ways... but none of them are counted towards the removal total.


Green Removal: 1 total
Creature Removal: 0
Utility Removal: 1 (Reclamation Sage)

Honorable Mention: Green has never been great at creature removal, but it has combat tricks in Primal Bellow, Wildsize and Chorus of Might that could all theoretically act like a kill spell or a finisher on a good day. Not all days are good though, so they don't count for this purpose.


Artifact/Colorless/Land Removal: Naught.

Honorable Mention: Drownyard Behemoth can be a surprise 5/7 blocker with hexproof, which is pretty good and will sometimes act as a kill spell. It would have a high mana cost and a lot of restrictions as a kill spell though ("Destroy an attacking creature without evasion with toughness 5 or less" for 9 mana, or 7U emerge), and with that many stipulations it falls into the same area as Kindly Stranger in that not many decks can use it to full effect. For that reason, it is not counted as a removal spell.


Thoughts from Section Two: At first blush, Red would appear to be the king of removal, and it is... for small creatures. There's a notable change in effort to deal 4 damage instead of 2 damage, and Into the Maw of Hell is the only "unconditional" destroy spell (every creature in our format that would die to the words "destroy target creature" also die to 13 damage, unless I am forgetting some very bizarre corner case... putting three Siegecraft on the same creature doesn't count, because that's dumb... oh fine, maybe a Nantuko Husk could be saved on a good day, if they really felt like it). Anyway, to be blunt, all of the colors need more removal (Red could maybe use more creatures instead, or just more cards period). White is doing okay, I might give it Misfortune's Gain. Blue needs Cancel badly, I might also give it Chant of the Skifsang for removal, and Chronostutter just for the art. Black is in a strange position: it has the most D cards by far, yet its removal is questionable outside of a dedicated deck. Murder should have gone into the D cards, but I think we could still see something like Eyeblight's Ending on the elf theme, or something setting-specific in a future set like Chill to the Bone; I also want to see Mind Rot in the list as a staple effect of Black, and to be greedy (and kill planeswalkers), Corrupt. If we feel Red is doing poorly even with that stack of removal, just add Flame Slash and Jaws of Stone and be done with it. For Green, I'd give it Naturalize and maybe Leaf Arrow to fill things out; if I'm feeling greedy, Bramblecrush.


Conclusion: There are more angles to analyze the D card list from (utility effects like green mana ramp, build-around themes like allies or surge, etc.), but many of these are difficult to compare amongst the colors (like comparing apples to nuclear weapons). The colors are close to being in balance, but there are some glaring problems like Black's fat stack of 4-drops, or Red's lack of cards. It is my guess these problems will get worse rather than better with time: the D card releases seem highly focused on supporting one or two archetype decks, the only real deviation from that has been a cycle of somewhat generic creatures, one per color, that came with the OGW/SOI update (Champion of Arashin, Metropolis Sprite, Rotted Hulk since Black needed another 4-drop, Ember Beast and Spined Wurm). The team at WotC (Drew Nolosco? Hopefully he has more people on the team to help him) is probably just trying to make new archetype decks playable with each release, but if they don't pay any attention to color distribution, card type or converted mana cost then the D cards could get further and further out of whack until someone pays attention to the growing disparity. For now, the differences are small but noteworthy; hopefully there will be an overhaul of the D cards before the problem grows to a glaring size.

Kaladesh D Card Update

(If Wizards failed to show us all of the D cards released on their Facebook spoiler, I will rewrite this post later to reflect any additional changes.)

I know that I have been absent here for a long while, and I haven't been playing as much Duels lately due to my time being spent other places (I have been working hard on a mod for Shadowrun: Hong Kong, with about 400 hours of work into it so far). However, I will continue to give some analysis of the D cards from continued interest of mine, and if you think I'm wrong in my analysis then by all means, explain why. Without further ado, let's get into it.


The Kaladesh D Cards: Aether Theorist, Thriving Turtle, Weldfast Wingsmith, Salivating Gremlins, Riparian Tiger, Sage of Shaila's Claim, Thriving Rhino, Empyreal Voyager and Ballista Charger.


WHAT THEY (WotC/Stainless) DID DO:

* Supported 2 new deck archetypes unique to its expansion; it may be that only the big sets get two archetype decks going forward.
* Added simple incarnations of two new mechanics: energy counters and vehicles (or just vehicle, singular).
* Added at least two cards that could reach staple status if energy is a competitive mechanic (Thriving Rhino and Empyreal Voyager), and Salivating Gremlins may be a staple in any artifact token deck.
* Filled in at least one spot all the way up the mana curve from 1 through 5 converted mana cost.


WHAT THEY DIDN'T DO:

* Add any rares or mythic rares (Ballista Charger and Empyreal Voyager are uncommon); this pattern continues to hold.
* No new bannings/rotations, leaving the existing card pool intact.
* Add more than one artifact to the D card pool during an artifact-themed set.
* Add any cards that either are not creatures, or whose sole purpose is not to turn into a creature.
* Keep the numbers even across colors or rarities (we have 4 blue cards (Empyreal Voyager counts twice), a red card, 4 green cards, and a colorless card; and 7 commons, 2 uncommons)
* Provide any cards with the fabricate mechanic, despite putting in cards that reward artifact token strategies (Salivating Gremlins, Weldfast Wingsmith)


Unless any hidden D cards show up later, 9 new cards have been added to our D cards with Kaladesh (34 cards total counting duplicates), an odd number given past distributions but close to the 10 I was expecting. This enables two new archetype decks, but it leaves me scratching my head as to why they only added one single artifact card with the release of an artifact set. It seems to be a good time for new players if you like energy though, because 6 out of the 9 total cards are made for the energy archetype deck.

I think my prediction that large sets will start being the only ones with 2 new archetype decks (and roughly 10 or so cards to support them) is correct. When we see Aether Revolt, I'll be curious to note if it has one archetype deck (and around 5 cards) or two; one archetype would be in keeping with the Eldritch Moon update. WotC does seem to be playing a little loose with the precise number of D cards each update, but they hover near the same amounts so I think these are minor variations. It may be that they are trying to add the fewest cards possible to keep the D card pool small, but I think one more (cheaper) artifact wouldn't have hurt this time around, or a nice common fabricate creature.

The lack of rotation this time suggests that WotC feels we have a sufficiently diverse metagame. Whether that is true or not, it signals that they are going to observe a while longer and perhaps see if Kaladesh shakes up the format on its own. It's too early to call, but I am certain that if Kaladesh does not make a big enough splash then Aether Revolt will come packing rotations/bannings. We will see.

As for new players, this update pushes midrange aggro hard. You're not going to kick the opponent's legs out from under them with just Thriving Turtle, Aether Theorist and Sage of Shaila's Claim, so really this is all about setting up your 3-5 mana critters. Green's pump spells will look amazing on Empyreal Voyager, and might give you excess energy to pump into creatures you would otherwise be budgeting like a miser. When that doesn't work, it seems that hope rests with Thriving Rhino, as one activation will make it as big as a fully-formed Tajuru Stalwart, and the second activation pushes it into the company of Erhnam Djinn. I'm not quite sure what a new player hopes to do with the other archetype deck yet, but I guess we'll find out. From the D cards, it seems as though they are giving reward cards for artifact token strategies, but without providing the engine to make them work.

Final Thoughts: Wizards of the Coast gets a grade of C for this D card update. I am not particularly enthusiastic about the energy deck so far, but my mind could change. I am excited by Salivating Gremlins, and I want to give vehicles a try so Ballista Charger might at least get tested. Every card is either a creature or becomes a creature, so the lopsided ratios for the D cards continue and seem unlikely to abate any time soon. I still want to see them put some better tools into the hands of new players (and veteran players), but so far they are not capitalizing on the potential the D cards have in this way. The pool grows, but not in the meaningful ways I'd like.

Kaladesh D Card Ratings

I know that the metagame will not settle down for a while, but I will judge these new D cards based on my previous analysis (towards the lower half of page 2, starting here: http://forum.nogoblinsallowed.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=14251&start=20#p446272). Mostly I hope to judge them in the context of the D cards, but I may speculate on the constructed deckbuilding aspects as well. Ready? Alright, here goes 9 card reviews to add to the previous ones...

Blue

Aether Theorist - 2.0
E - 1.0
P - 2.0

The closest comparison we have in the card pool is Sigiled Starfish. While the time of the starfish may be long gone, it is possible that the extra point of power and the energy creation of this card could make it desirable for some deck.

Thriving Turtle - 2.0
E - 1.0
P - 2.0

Um, I guess you could do worse than a 1/4 for U, but that's assuming it can safely attack once. It does provide energy, makes an early blocker, and could grow to monstrous proportions in an alternate reality. Some combination of these factors might make it indispensable, but I'm reserved for now.

Weldfast Wingsmith - 1.0
E - 2.0
P - 2.0

So, Phantom Monster does pose an interesting proposition for blue beatdown, but they probably have enough better options... oh wait, this is conditional flying. A newbie might win some games on the back of the wingsmith, assuming they can cobble together enough artifacts. Lord knows the D cards aren't helping much. This is definitely designed to be replaced by, say, Whirler Rogue.


Red

Salivating Gremlins - 4.0
E - 3.0
P - 3.0

YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!



...

Okay, in all seriousness, these little guys are tasty. So, there's this mechanic called, I dunno, prowess or something? People seem to like it. But wait, this doesn't trigger for each artifact spell... it triggers for every artifact. Every clue, every servo, every thopter. Pia and Kiran Nalaar and especially Whirler Rogue are backbreaking plays after this guy hits the board. I'm rating this at 4.0 because I personally feel that there will be enough iterations of the "artifact enters the battlefield" deck that this will have multiple homes. I'm genuinely curious if I can crank out something with clue tokens.


Green

Riparian Tiger - 1.0
E - 2.0
P - 2.0

Meh. Okay, so let's say you have so much energy production that this is ALWAYS a 6/6 trampler when it attacks. Does green have anything else interesting it could be playing as a 5-mana beatstick? Why yes, green has no shortage of stompy critters. Is it worth it to play this as an energy producer? With all the cards unlocked, I'm going with no. So, this is for newbies as a trampling game ender. Certainly a far better target for a big pump spell than Spined Wurm ever thought about being.

Sage of Shaila's Claim - 2.0
E - 1.0
P - 1.0

The one that's hard to predict. Produces lots of energy, but not much else. Downright terrible against a field full of 1/1 servos. Is the energy production enough of a reason for inclusion? I'm going with "sometimes, but it's not a guaranteed pick." It might be worse, or better. Notably for newbies, this has the Elf creature type as a 2-drop, so it could potentially add to the D card elf deck build.

Thriving Rhino - 3.0
E - 3.0
P - 2.0

Right off the bat, let's be clear that a 3/4 for 2G is a square deal. There's a window when it's easier to kill and not as good at blocking, but it compares favorably to Tajuru Stalwart, and in an energy deck it can keep going. That potential to keep growing makes this a very dangerous if innocuous critter, and it will demand a removal spell from your opponent sooner rather than later. Like Tajuru Stalwart it may not quite be good enough on its own, but with any other energy counters around I would not underestimate it.


Gold/Multicolor

Empyreal Voyager - 3.0
E - 3.0
P - 3.0

Flying tramplers are not all that common, and this one has a built-in mechanic to take advantage of your pump spells. I don't think it makes the cut outside of an energy deck normally, but newbies will make use of it all over the place. It might get crowded out with other options in the same slot on the curve, but if you want to mess around with energy, this is the D card that gets the engine going.


Colorless

Ballista Charger - 1.0
E - 2.0
P - 2.0

While I am a fan of vehicles, this particular one does not inspire me as much. I could see its value rising in a format clogged with servo and thopter tokens, except it waits a bit late in the game to try to help against the swarm. I could also see it being valuable as a blocker against midrange, but who knows if that'll be relevant? I don't think this one quite fits, but it will be fun for new players I'm sure.


Final Thoughts on the Kaladesh D Cards: Energy is a "parasitic" mechanic, meaning that in order to make the best use of it, your deck has to commit more and more to the strategy. For that reason, I am disappointed with the narrow application of this D card update. They don't lack for power exactly, and Salivating Gremlins in particular is a bright spot I expect to see more of. These tools are mostly specific to one deck type though, with the exception of Ballista Charger, and it does not seem exciting enough. I still can't help but feel that the D cards do not have enough artifacts yet, and that this update needed a lot more than just one.

Statistical Analysis of the D Cards (Kaladesh Update)

This post is for those of you who enjoy taking a hard look under the hood and crunching numbers; it won't be for everyone. My intention here is to discover any discrepancies, irregularities, and imbalances that exist within the D cards as they currently exist. My hypothesis is this: since we have been receiving irregular updates that do not affect the colors equally, the colors will not be at even distributions and some will have more of a lion's share of cards than others. This does not present judgments on the quality of those cards, just the numbers. I'm going to list some easily quantifiable metrics (# of creatures, creatures at each CMC, etc.) for each color in the D cards. Take a deep breath, grab a drink... and let's dive in.


Section One: Color by Number

White: 18 total
Creatures: 13
* Creature CMC 1: 3
* CMC 2: 3
* CMC 3: 3
* CMC 4: 2
* CMC 5: 1
* CMC 6: 0
* CMC 7: 1
Enchantments: 3
Instants: 1
Sorceries: 1

Blue: 23 total
Artifacts: 1 (Esperzoa, you weirdo. Also counted in creatures.)
Creatures: 18
* Creature CMC 1: 1
* CMC 2: 5
* CMC 3: 5
* CMC 4: 4
* CMC 5: 2
* CMC 6: 1
Enchantments: 1
Instants: 4
Sorceries: 0

Black: 24 total
Creatures: 19
* Creature CMC 1: 1
* CMC 2: 5
* CMC 3: 4
* CMC 4: 7
* CMC 5: 1
* CMC 6: 1
Enchantments: 1
Instants: 1
Sorceries: 3

Red: 18 total
Creatures: 12
* Creature CMC 1: 2
* CMC 2: 2
* CMC 3: 3
* CMC 4: 3
* CMC 5: 2
Enchantments: 2
Instants: 1
Sorceries: 3

Green: 23 total
Creatures: 17
* Creature CMC 1: 1
* CMC 2: 5
* CMC 3: 4
* CMC 4: 2
* CMC 5: 3
* CMC 6: 1
* CMC 7: 1
Enchantments: 1
Instants: 4
Sorceries: 1

Multicolor: 1 total
Creatures: 1
* Creature CMC 1-2: 0
* CMC 3: 1

Artifacts/Colorless/Lands: 35 total
Artifacts: 6 (7 if you count Esperzoa, but I am counting it here as a blue card for the purposes of section distribution; 4 of the artifacts are also counted with creatures)
Creatures: 8
* CMC 1: 0
* CMC 2: 1
* CMC 3: 2
* CMC 4: 1
* CMC 5-6: 0
* CMC 7: 2
* CMC 8: 1
* CMC 9: 1
Lands: 26 (6 basic lands, and the two 10-card dual-land cycles; notably, Wastes is the only one that produces dedicated colorless mana)

Thoughts from Section One: Red and White have gotten the shaft here, and Kaladesh was not helpful in this regard. Red has a weird slightly-top-heavy curve, and both White and Red need 5 more cards just to be at parity with Blue and Green. White could probably use a touch more fat in its curve, like an angel that costs 5 or 6 mana (Voice of the Provinces or something similar, or even the ubiquitous Serra Angel at uncommon). Black is still the king here numerically, yet most of the card slots are spent on CMC 4 creatures with a truly unusual spike compared to the other colors. Artifacts/colorless could still use some extra additions to smooth out the curve and bring them a little closer to where the other colors are; the addition of a single 5 mana vehicle notwithstanding, the D cards do not have the support needed to run an artifact deck, which is highly unusual considering Kaladesh is an artifact block. In all of the colors, I'd like to see more noncreature spells: Mark Rosewater has said before that when designing commons for a set, you want about half of them to be creatures, and half to be noncreature spells. The ratios here are way, way off from that, and Kaladesh's D card update has only made the gap worse by adding 8 creatures and 1 artifact that turns into a creature. As a final thought, the D cards have their first true multicolor card now with Empyreal Voyager, cracking the door open for the possibility of a "gold" block somewhere down the line to add more multicolor to the D cards. Of course, I would have expected more artifacts for an artifact set, so maybe this doesn't prove much of anything.


Section Two: Removal by Number

This section did not change with the Kaladesh update, much to my chagrin. With that in mind, I don't feel the need to re-post it.


Conclusion: The colors are close-ish to being in balance, but there are some glaring problems like Black's fat stack of 4-drops, or White and Red's lack of cards. I predicted the problems would only get worse with time, and this indeed appears to have happened: White and Red are being left behind, and the ratio of creatures to non-creatures is disastrously out of proportion. I am starting to think I have given the D cards more thought than anyone currently working for Wizards / Stainless, and they are just slapping together newbie archetype decks without any real consideration of how they are further shaping the D card pool for new players (the initial card pool during Origins I feel had a lot of thought and craft put into it). I guess the big question is, will we be seeing a White / Red archetype update with Aether Revolt? Even if we do, if it follows Eldritch Moon in only having 5 cards then it won't fix the color disparity, it will only narrow the gap. If Black is part of the Aether Revolt archetype, however, then the pool will continue warping further in weird directions.

As a final thought, I believe that they have managed to keep archetype power in some sort of rough balance (more like a hierarchy) by focusing new cards largely upon narrow strategies that don't synergize well with other things. Allies, eldrazi processors, colorless-matters / colorless mana pumps, energy counters and artifacts-matter are all pretty narrow mechanics for deckbuilding in the D cards. There's a little more wiggle room with surge, delirium and emerge, but they still don't want to be tossed casually into a deck. If the strategies don't play well with others, then those decks tend to remain at the power level they had when they first came out no matter how many cards get added. This may continue being the case unless a set rolls in without a "gimmick" mechanic, something very modular or even generic in its execution. For the moment, I predict seeing an endless stream of creature-based "gimmick mechanic X" archetype decks and cards for the D cards, with the real shakeups happening during card rotations.

Just so as you know I think your updates are insightful and interesting. It's true looking at it through the lens of what the wizards magic developers want to do they want to try and represent the set in a way but without giving too much away. At the end of the day it's a microcosm of what R&D have to think about for the overall set in making it fresh, interesting and not intentionally breaking anything. Of course they want the meta to change as it drives both originality and of course card sales. For the full set we get a chance to understand what is popular in the pro tours, and at times but not always it can inform what would be good in Duels.

Aether Revolt D Card Update

(If Wizards failed to show us all of the D cards released on their Facebook spoiler, I will rewrite this post later to reflect any additional changes.)

It's that time again: time for me to delve deep into the esoterica of the D cards, and to second-guess / overthink the decisions made regarding them by Wizards of the Coast / Stainless. I believe it is an important aspect of the game for new players who are coming in and playing through the campaign modes to unlock cards, but I begin to wonder if anyone paid to work on the game takes the matter as seriously as I do. Nevertheless, I shall continue to analyze this narrow aspect of the game and hope that it sheds some insight on something, for someone. If you think I'm wrong in my analysis then by all means, explain why. Without further ado, let's get into it.


The Aether Revolt D Cards: Aeronaut Admiral, Countless Gears Renegade, Deadeye Harpooner, Reckless Racer, Siege Modification, Lifecraft Cavalry, Unbridled Growth, Renegade Wheelsmith, Renegade Rallier, Irontread Crusher, Mobile Garrison, Renegade Map.


WHAT THEY (WotC/Stainless) DID DO:

* Supported 2 new deck archetypes, at least one of which is unique to its expansion (a D card vehicle deck can now be accomplished, even though vehicle decks are not unique to Aether Revolt); whether there are actually two new archetypes in the deck wizard or not remains to be seen.
* Added simple incarnations of one new mechanic: revolt.
* Added more cards than ever before for a single expansion: we have 12 new D cards this update, and for a small set no less!
* Added at least one card that could reach staple status if vehicle animation is a competitive mechanic (Siege Modification), and Renegade Rallier may be a staple in any G/W aggro / revolt deck.
* Filled in at least one spot all the way up the mana curve from 1 through 5 converted mana cost (predictably lumping up at 3 CMC).


WHAT THEY DIDN'T DO:

* Add any rares or mythic rares (Aeronaut Admiral, Deadeye Harpooner, Reckless Racer, Siege Modification, Renegade Wheelsmith and Renegade Rallier are uncommon); this pattern continues to hold.
* No new bannings/rotations, leaving the existing card pool intact.
* Keep the numbers even across colors (we have 5 white cards (Renegade Wheelsmith and Renegade Rallier count twice), 3 red cards, 3 green cards, and 3 colorless cards; and 6 commons, 6 uncommons)
* Provide any cards for this D card update with the energy or improvise mechanics.


Unless any hidden D cards show up later, 12 new cards have been added to our D cards with Aether Revolt (42 cards total counting duplicates), a generous amount which overshoots the 5 I was pessimistically expecting and the 10 I was hoping for. This enables two new archetype decks (if you call vehicles new), and I have to wonder why they didn't just extend this generosity during Kaladesh. Here we are though: new players can finally pilot a fresh-faced vehicles deck, and a G/W revolt archetype seems to be firmly in the mix as well.

Let me take an aside here for a moment to discuss the big winner of this update: the D card delirium deck. There are not one, but two 1-mana spells that are easily sacrificed (using no mana) for card-advantage-neutral benefit, both of which can help fix your mana problems, and which have the card types Artifact and Enchantment respectively. Yes, I'm talking about Renegade Map and Unbridled Growth. Delirium was always going to be one of those mechanics that continues getting support as new cards are added to the pool, but this almost feels purposeful. I think the delirium deck was already among the best in the D cards, and these additions should slip right in. I don't want to ignore Siege Modification though, as this is not just a big win for vehicles or the R/W Aura deck; imagine a new player managing to run away with the game just with turn 2 Child of Night and turn 3 Siege Modification. Fragile and easy to disrupt, sure... but you must deal with it or lose.

My prediction last time was apparently wrong, much to my surprise and delight: set size apparently will not have any direct bearing on the size of the D card update. Eldritch Moon may only have had 5 cards, but Aether Revolt gets 12?! I am happy to be wrong about this, and I hope that this is not just a fluke. If a couple extra cards start making their way into the D card updates, we could have room to breathe and include some nice basic effects that are applicable across a multitude of deck archetypes. Unbridled Growth and Renegade Map count as such inclusions here, and even Reckless Racer could help a new player in multiple ways, such as by turning on a madness strategy if they purchase SOI / EMN cards.

The ongoing lack of rotation suggests that WotC feels we have a sufficiently diverse metagame. Whether that is true or not, it signals that they are going to observe a while longer and perhaps see if Aether Revolt shakes up the format on its own. In general I think Wizards likes to keep the banhammer for special occasions and would prefer to not remove cards from a format. With such a large card pool it becomes increasingly difficult to shake up the format, so if things ever stagnate enough we might see more rotations/bannings then. For now, I predict they will let it ride.

As for new players, this update pushes aggro and midrange hard. Some new player out there is going to pull off Renegade Rallier returning a Countless Gears Renegade for fun and profit. Lifecraft Cavalry could make a curve-topper for the same deck, or it could be a nice midrange beatstick for a new player looking for a trampler. There's definitely some potential for newbie vehicles now, and Siege Modification has applications beyond that as a burst of unexpected first strike damage. There's even more possibility of running a 3-5 color D card deck using the new mana fixers Renegade Map and Unbridled Growth. Overall, I think this is a nice update for new players that opens up some possibilities.

Final Thoughts: Wizards of the Coast gets a grade of A- for this D card update. I am pleased that they have finally provided enough vehicles to toy around with, and the revolt mechanic is open-ended enough in how to pull it off that it will only improve with time as new methods to trigger it arrive. There appears to be some reverse-compatibility with old deck archetypes, and with 12 cards there was room for some utility effects like mana-fixing. 5 of the 12 cards were not creatures this time (although vehicles are toeing the line), so this has at least put the brakes on the lopsided creature/spell ratio of the D cards; in order to truly reverse it, we would need some updates that have 50% or more spells, but that seems highly unlikely as each new archetype deck so far has required creatures to make it function. This update came perilously close to getting a full A or A+ rating; if they had added a new removal spell or two and put the spell ratio to 50% or better, I would have given an A+ here.

Nice update again and nice analysis. It's good to have this commentary with each new update and analysis and thoughts on the why's. I would still be interested to know what the new uptake is overall for Duels. It must be daunting for new players to come into this game and realize there are hundreds of cards that are not immediately available. The fact as you point out that the D cards in one sense at least allow the deck archetype to be built albeit in a very limited build is understandable and I guess should be given due appreciation for what it is.

Aether Revolt D Card Ratings

I know that the metagame will not settle down for a while, but I will judge these new D cards based on my previous analysis (towards the lower half of page 2, starting here: http://forum.nogoblinsallowed.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=14251&start=20#p446272). Mostly I hope to judge them in the context of the D cards, but I may speculate on the constructed deckbuilding aspects as well. Ready? Alright, here goes 12 card reviews to add to the previous ones...

White

Aeronaut Admiral - 2.0
E - 2.0
P - 2.0

A 3-power flier is nothing to sneeze at, except that a 1-toughness flier will die to a thopter sneeze or a Shock. Making all of your vehicles fly is kinda interesting though, and I could see this finding a 1-of spot even in a non-newbie vehicle deck. For new players, this guy will be helpful for trading with Smuggler's Copter and taking your vehicles to the sky.

Countless Gears Renegade - 2.0
E - 3.0
P - 2.0

I am leaning on the conservative side for this guy right now, since triggering him on turn 2 basically means attacking with, and losing, a 1-drop. However, with a little patience I could also imagine this fellow being part of an engine with other cards as he bounces from hand to battlefield to graveyard and back again. If things really work out, this could be a staple sort of card for a single deck archetype, but I find it more likely that it doesn't quite get there and is relegated to newbie decks only.

Deadeye Harpooner - 1.0
E - 1.0
P - 2.0

So, this is a 2/2 for 2W that, on a good day when the wind is blowing right, could destroy a tapped creature. Even when you manage to pull it off, you might have to settle for a servo token that piloted a Smuggler's Copter, but at least that's better than nothing... and nothing is what you're likely to get out of this quite often. Prove me wrong, make the harpooner some kind of Royal Assassin if you're able to (hint: you won't be able to).


Red

Reckless Racer - 2.0
E - 2.0
P - 2.0

Nothing to rave about here, you won't be seeing this guy take over any player v. player games. However, I think it's a nice tool for new players to have access to, and it gives them a ready-built tool to pursue madness if those are the packs they want to buy. It also seems like a perfectly solid teaching tool to demonstrate how to get card selection in a vehicle deck, or just in an aggressive deck. It may not excite me, but I'm happy it's here for new players. A really enterprising sort could even put it to use for a reanimator deck.

Siege Modification - 3.0
E - 3.0
P - 3.0

I'm going on the optimistic side for this one. If the vehicle clause wasn't there at all and this was just +3/+0 and first strike, it would still be a great tool for new players to craft a super-aggressive aura deck with. Pair it up with flying or lifelink and the opponent has got quite a clock bearing down on them, or an unwinnable damage race. With the vehicle clause added in, suddenly a weird and interesting deck idea emerges. Can I get it to work? No idea, but I'm willing to try.


Green

Lifecraft Cavalry - 2.0
E - 3.0
P - 2.0

If you can play this card as a 6/6 trampler every time it comes down, it would almost have a home somewhere. Green has a lot of stellar 5-drop creatures, though, and the competition is fierce. Taking into account that sometimes this will be a 4/4 trampler instead, most likely it will remain a tool of new players rather than veterans. That is not to say this is a bad card if you can turn it on though, it can win a fight against 3/5 gearhulks and a lot of ground vehicles.

Unbridled Growth - 2.0
E - 2.0
P - 1.0

While I like this card, I mostly like it for new players and possibly, maybe for delirium. We do have aura tutoring/regrowing so this could be like a little tacked-on card draw when you want it in such a deck... I don't know if that deck is any good though. I think veteran players who want to fix their mana will usually find something else, but having the option at least is nice. I could imagine a 4- or 5-color deck that would rather use this than try to fetch a basic land, because the deck is so light on basic lands.


Gold/Multicolor

Renegade Wheelsmith - 2.0
E - 2.0
P - 2.0

Probably not going to turn any heads, even if it turns some creatures sideways. I could be wrong here, but the 3-drop spot is a hotly contested one in the decks that would want this card, and something tells me that it gets cut well before the final list. New players can definitely put this to some effective use though, for vehicles or just aggro.

Renegade Rallier - 3.0
E - 3.0
P - 2.0

I'm taking a risk by rating this one a bit higher, but I think it has some potential to be a very efficient beatstick and reanimator. It's not just creatures he can bring back, it's a permanent card of CMC 2 or less. I think this guy could put some sacrificial artifacts or enchantments to good use, although I may be overestimating him.


Colorless

Irontread Crusher - 1.0
E - 2.0
P - 1.0

With all of the token critters we have running around, this seems more likely to be on defense than offense. I like the art, but I have a difficult time imagining how you will be able to push the damage through. Still, if you can crew it early and often and maybe spring for tricks like trample or lifelink, you could put it to some use, especially as a newer player.

Mobile Garrison - 1.0
E - 1.0
P - 2.0

I want to like this card, but I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to be untapping with it. Obviously it could give another creature "vigilance," or put a pilot on blocking duty, but you can't put a pilot on attacking duty, the trigger comes too late for that. There might be something really clever to do with it, but I can't think of it right now. Spending 3 mana and 2 power to get 3 power just isn't sexy.

Renegade Map - 2.0
E - 2.0
P - 0.0

This is a great tool for new players, and I wouldn't be too surprised if a copy or two showed up in a veteran player's deck either. It depends a great deal on how much mana fixing the deck has, whether it runs green, how many colors the deck uses, and how many basic lands it runs. This could also be a little staple of delirium decks, maybe. I'm not jumping with joy over it, but I can imagine a deck where one or two copies of this might be the right call.


Final Thoughts on the Aether Revolt D Cards: Revolt is a somewhat open-ended mechanic that can combo with a lot of cards from Magic's past, and indeed Duels' past. While I'm not thrilled by the prospect, I can acknowledge that it will continue to improve with time rather than weaken, so that bodes well for the D cards. We got some of the vehicles we should have gotten in Kaladesh (in terms of number, not in terms of specific cards), as well as vehicle support cards. We even got mana fixing, an aggressive aura and a madness enabler. While none of it is eye-popping, I am relatively pleased with the offering this time around and I believe new players have some cool new tools in the toolbox. Even the veterans might be tempted by a thing or two... keep an eye on Renegade Rallier and Siege Modification.

Statistical Analysis of the D Cards (Aether Revolt Update)

This post is for those of you who enjoy taking a hard look under the hood and crunching numbers; it won't be for everyone. My intention here is to discover any discrepancies, irregularities, and imbalances that exist within the D cards as they currently exist. My hypothesis is this: since we have been receiving irregular updates that do not affect the colors equally, the colors will not be at even distributions and some will have more of a lion's share of cards than others. This does not present judgments on the quality of those cards, just the numbers. I'm going to list some easily quantifiable metrics (# of creatures, creatures at each CMC, etc.) for each color in the D cards. Take a deep breath, grab a drink... and let's dive in.


Section One: Color by Number

White: 21 total
Creatures: 16
* Creature CMC 1: 3
* CMC 2: 4
* CMC 3: 4
* CMC 4: 3
* CMC 5: 1
* CMC 6: 0
* CMC 7: 1
Enchantments: 3
Instants: 1
Sorceries: 1

Blue: 23 total
Artifacts: 1 (Esperzoa, you weirdo. Also counted in creatures.)
Creatures: 18
* Creature CMC 1: 1
* CMC 2: 5
* CMC 3: 5
* CMC 4: 4
* CMC 5: 2
* CMC 6: 1
Enchantments: 1
Instants: 4
Sorceries: 0

Black: 24 total
Creatures: 19
* Creature CMC 1: 1
* CMC 2: 5
* CMC 3: 4
* CMC 4: 7
* CMC 5: 1
* CMC 6: 1
Enchantments: 1
Instants: 1
Sorceries: 3

Red: 20 total
Creatures: 13
* Creature CMC 1: 2
* CMC 2: 2
* CMC 3: 4
* CMC 4: 3
* CMC 5: 2
Enchantments: 3
Instants: 1
Sorceries: 3

Green: 25 total
Creatures: 18
* Creature CMC 1: 1
* CMC 2: 5
* CMC 3: 4
* CMC 4: 2
* CMC 5: 4
* CMC 6: 1
* CMC 7: 1
Enchantments: 2
Instants: 4
Sorceries: 1

Multicolor: 3 total
Creatures: 3
* Creature CMC 1-2: 0
* CMC 3: 3

Artifacts/Colorless/Lands: 38 total
Artifacts: 9 (10 if you count Esperzoa, but I am counting it here as a blue card for the purposes of section distribution; 4 of the artifacts are also counted with creatures)
Creatures: 8
* CMC 1: 0
* CMC 2: 1
* CMC 3: 2
* CMC 4: 1
* CMC 5-6: 0
* CMC 7: 2
* CMC 8: 1
* CMC 9: 1
Lands: 26 (6 basic lands, and the two 10-card dual-land cycles; notably, Wastes is the only one that produces dedicated colorless mana)

Thoughts from Section One: Red and White have been shored up slightly with the Aether Revolt update. Red still has a weird slightly-top-heavy curve, though it has improved. White could still use a touch more fat in its curve, like an angel that costs 5 or 6 mana (Voice of the Provinces or something similar, or even the ubiquitous Serra Angel at uncommon). Black has passed along its crown to Green for now, which becomes an even wider gulf when you factor in multicolor and colorless cards that include green mana. Artifacts/colorless could still use some extra additions to smooth out the curve and bring them a little closer to where the other colors are, though the extra vehicles from Aether Revolt are appreciated; the D cards have only the barest support needed to run an artifact deck, which is highly unusual considering Kaladesh / Aether Revolt is an artifact block. In all of the colors, I'd like to see more noncreature spells: Mark Rosewater has said before that when designing commons for a set, you want about half of them to be creatures, and half to be noncreature spells. The ratios here are way, way off from that, although Aether Revolt is better than most with 5 of its 12 cards being noncreature spells. A step in the right direction is still only a single step though. The D cards have two more multicolor cards now, all of which are 3 CMC creatures. It wasn't so long ago that we didn't have any, so perhaps some changes don't take long to catch on with the D cards.


Section Two: Removal by Number

Removal will be divided into creature removal, and utility removal (meaning noncreature card types). The two can overlap on cards such as Countermand and Into the Maw of Hell. We have only one addition to make with Aether Revolt (Deadeye Harpooner), but since I skipped this section last time I will repost it for reference's sake.


White Removal: 4 total
Creature Removal: 3
Utility Removal: 2 (Suppression Bonds counts twice)

Honorable Mention: Dauntless River Marshal acts as soft creature removal, if you have the mana to spare.


Blue Removal: 2 total
Creature Removal: 2
Utility Removal: 1 (Countermand counts twice)

Honorable Mention: Tempo cards include Grip of the Roil, Frost Lynx, Murk Strider and Kapsho Kitefins. If you use enough of these they can start to feel like removal, but for the purpose of this post I will not be counting them as proper removal.


Black Removal: 2 total
Creature Removal: 2
Utility Removal: 0

Honorable Mention: The black D cards have more removal... for dedicated decks: Lys Alana Scarblade, Kindly Stranger and Nightfire Giant all fit this description. Nightfire Giant could also kinda kill planeswalkers, and Mind Raker does discard which theoretically could act as removal as well... but I'm not counting any of these corner cases for this purpose.


Red Removal: 6 total
Creature Removal: 6 (Ember Hauler, Inferno Fist and Bloodpyre Elemental are counted for this purpose, as they are all generic costs that are relatively easy to use and don't require building around)
Utility Removal: 1 (Into the Maw of Hell is counted twice here)

Honorable Mention: Goblin Arsonist, Pyromancer's Assault and Barrage Ogre could all kill things in weird ways... but none of them are counted towards the removal total.


Green Removal: 1 total
Creature Removal: 0
Utility Removal: 1 (Reclamation Sage)

Honorable Mention: Green has never been great at creature removal, but it has combat tricks in Primal Bellow, Wildsize and Chorus of Might that could all theoretically act like a kill spell or a finisher on a good day. Not all days are good though, so they don't count for this purpose.


Artifact/Colorless/Land Removal: Naught.

Honorable Mention: Drownyard Behemoth can be a surprise 5/7 blocker with hexproof, which is pretty good and will sometimes act as a kill spell. It would have a high mana cost and a lot of restrictions as a kill spell though ("Destroy an attacking creature without evasion with toughness 5 or less" for 9 mana, or 7U emerge), and with that many stipulations it falls into the same area as Kindly Stranger in that not many decks can use it to full effect. For that reason, it is not counted as a removal spell.


Thoughts from Section Two: At first blush, Red would appear to be the king of removal, and it is... for small creatures. There's a notable change in effort to deal 4 damage instead of 2 damage, and Into the Maw of Hell is the only "unconditional" destroy spell (every creature in our format that would die to the words "destroy target creature" also die to 13 damage, unless I am forgetting some very bizarre corner case... putting three Siegecraft on the same creature doesn't count, because that's dumb... oh fine, maybe a Nantuko Husk could be saved on a good day, if they really felt like it). Anyway, to be blunt, all of the colors need more removal (Red could maybe use more creatures instead, or just more cards period). White is doing okay, I might give it Misfortune's Gain. Blue needs Cancel badly, I might also give it Chant of the Skifsang for removal, and Chronostutter just for the art. Black is in a strange position: it has plenty of cards, yet its removal is questionable outside of a dedicated deck. Murder should have gone into the D cards, but I think we could still see something like Eyeblight's Ending on the elf theme, or something setting-specific in a future set like Chill to the Bone; I also want to see Mind Rot in the list as a staple effect of Black, and to be greedy (and kill planeswalkers), Corrupt. If we feel Red is doing poorly even with that stack of removal, just add Flame Slash and Jaws of Stone and be done with it. For Green, I'd give it Naturalize and maybe Leaf Arrow to fill things out; if I'm feeling greedy, Bramblecrush.


Conclusion: The colors are closer to being in balance, but there are some problems like Black's fat stack of 4-drops, or Red's (and to a lesser extent, White's) lack of cards. I predicted the problems would only get worse with time, but Aether Revolt has reversed this trend somewhat. Perhaps someone at Wizards/Stainless does actually care about the D cards, and they have charted out a years-long course that maintains something approaching an average between the colors. The other possibility, I guess, is that by dumb luck they managed to put out a more balanced D card update with Aether Revolt. I don't think that is the case though: this update bucks some of the trends of previous updates (more cards, more uncommons, more noncreature spells, etc.), which leads me to think there was some amount of theory-crafting applied to it. The fact that it specifically shored up some of the weaknesses I'd been observing makes me wonder if someone out there is reading my analysis and trying to put things right as best they can... most likely though, they have a tally board somewhere where they are independently tracking some of these same statistics and that influences their decision of what archetype decks to push through the next year.

As a final thought, I believe that they have managed to keep archetype power in some sort of rough balance (more like a hierarchy) by focusing new cards largely upon narrow strategies that don't synergize well with other things. Allies, eldrazi processors, colorless-matters / colorless mana pumps, energy counters and artifacts-matter are all pretty narrow mechanics for deckbuilding in the D cards. There's a little more wiggle room with surge, delirium, emerge and revolt, but they still don't want to be tossed casually into a deck. If the strategies don't play well with others, then those decks tend to remain at the power level they had when they first came out no matter how many cards get added. Vehicles are a noteworthy counterpoint here in terms of the artifacts themselves (not too hard to toss into a random creature deck), but obviously the vehicle support cards can be just as narrow as eldrazi processors. For the moment, I predict seeing an endless stream of creature-based "gimmick mechanic X" archetype decks and cards for the D cards, with the real shakeups happening during card rotations.

D Card List (Updated for Amonkhet)

The D cards are no longer sortable / searchable in the deck editor. This is a mistake, one I will correct as best I can by posting up the full list here. I will update this post as new cards become available, and link to this post as needed in the future. They are listed by mana cost, as they appear in the deckbuilder.


White

3 x Expedition Envoy
4 x Suntail Hawk
4 x Cliffside Lookout
3 x Dauntless River Marshal
3 x Kor Bladewhirl
4 x Kinsbaile Skirmisher
4 x Countless Gears Renegade
4 x Gust Walker
4 x Nimbus Wings
3 x Reprisal
3 x Skyhunter Skirmisher
3 x Deadeye Harpooner
4 x Heliod's Pilgrim
4 x Makindi Patrol
4 x Rhet-Crop Spearmaster
3 x Trial of Solidarity
4 x Solemn Offering
3 x Aeronaut Admiral
4 x Razorfoot Griffin
4 x Champion of Arashin
4 x Siegecraft
4 x Suppression Bonds
4 x Siege Mastodon
3 x Boonweaver Giant



Blue

4 x Thriving Turtle
4 x Welkin Tern
4 x Coral Merfolk
4 x Mist Intruder
4 x Metropolis Sprite
4 x Aether Theorist
3 x Telling Time
3 x Jorubai Murk Lurker
3 x Esperzoa
4 x Aeronaut Tinkerer
4 x Frost Lynx
4 x Benthic Infiltrator
3 x Grip of the Roil
3 x Darkslick Drake
4 x Enlightened Maniac
4 x Weldfast Wingsmith
4 x Dehydration
4 x Inspiration
4 x Countermand
4 x Sky-Eel School
4 x Jwar Isle Avenger
3 x Kapsho Kitefins



Black

3 x Indulgent Aristocrat
3 x Ruthless Sniper
4 x Bone Splinters
3 x Gurmag Swiftwing
4 x Scarred Vinebreeder
4 x Child of Night
4 x Corpse Hauler
4 x Sky Scourer
3 x Lys Alana Scarblade
3 x Kindly Stranger
4 x Bloodflow Connoisseur
4 x Crow of Dark Tidings
3 x Gravedigger
3 x Havoc Sower
4 x Accursed Spirit
4 x Mind Raker
4 x Rotted Hulk
4 x Stallion of Ashmouth
4 x Stromkirk Mentor
4 x Necromantic Thirst
4 x Bitter Revelation
3 x Nightfire Giant
4 x Horror of the Broken Lands
4 x Flesh to Dust
3 x Rise from the Grave
4 x Minotaur Abomination
4 x Stir the Sands



Red

4 x Flameblade Adept
4 x Goblin Arsonist
4 x Goblin Balloon Brigade
3 x Ember Hauler
4 x Goblin Piker
4 x Nef-Crop Entangler
4 x Inferno Fist
4 x Twin Bolt
3 x Flaring Flame-Kin
3 x Reckless Racer
4 x Ember Beast
4 x Salivating Gremlins
3 x Siege Modification
3 x Kird Chieftain
4 x Scrapyard Mongrel
4 x Ondu Champion
3 x Pyromancer's Assault
4 x Pursue Glory
4 x Traitorous Instinct
3 x Barrage Ogre
3 x Trueheart Twins
4 x Bloodpyre Elemental
4 x Boulder Salvo
4 x Desert Cerodon
3 x Into the Maw of Hell



Green

3 x Sunblade Elf
4 x Vessel of Nascency
4 x Unbridled Growth
3 x Primal Bellow
4 x Fog
4 x Ainok Guide
4 x Timberland Guide
4 x Stalking Drone
4 x Moldgraf Scavenger
4 x Sage of Shaila's Claim
3 x Reclamation Sage
3 x Lifespring Druid
3 x Foul Emissary
4 x Thriving Rhino
4 x Wildsize
4 x Lys Alana Huntmaster
4 x Primal Huntbeast
4 x Chorus of Might
4 x Explosive Vegetation
3 x Battlefront Krushok
4 x Spined Wurm
4 x Riparian Tiger
4 x Lifecraft Cavalry
4 x Yavimaya Wurm
3 x Birthing Hulk



Multicolor

3 x Renegade Wheelsmith
3 x Renegade Rallier
3 x Empyreal Voyager



Colorless

4 x Renegade Map
4 x Bronze Sable
3 x Bottle Gnomes
4 x Stonework Puma
4 x Strider Harness
4 x Mobile Garrison
3 x Juggernaut
4 x Irontread Crusher
3 x Ballista Charger
4 x Ruin Processor
4 x Wretched Gryff
4 x It of the Horrid Swarm
3 x Drownyard Behemoth



Land

24 x Plains
24 x Island
24 x Swamp
24 x Mountain
24 x Forest
24 x Wastes
2 x Woodland Cemetery
2 x Drowned Catacomb
2 x Rootbound Crag
2 x Clifftop Retreat
2 x Hinterland Harbor
2 x Isolated Chapel
2 x Sulfur Falls
2 x Dragonskull Summit
2 x Glacial Fortress
2 x Sunpetal Grove
4 x Forsaken Sanctuary
4 x Foul Orchard
4 x Highland Lake
4 x Stone Quarry
4 x Woodland Stream
4 x Cinder Barrens
4 x Meandering River
4 x Submerged Boneyard
4 x Timber Gorge
4 x Tranquil Expanse