Magic Reborn: Fallen Empires Commons - Part I

In 38 days, the Magic Reborn League will have its kick-off! To read more on the Reborn League, you can find all the info right here.
We will start with sealed. A starterdeck 4th Edition, 2 boosters of Chronicles and 2 boosters of Fallen Empires. As you could read in my last blogpost, I don’t know much about Fallen Empires, so I dug into the set and in this article series, I will give you my top 3 of all the commons of each color.

Some general information about the commons in Fallen Empires

There are only 7 commons per color. Each color has at least 2 tribes. Some commons have 4 different artworks, and some only 3. This makes some commons a little less common, due to the amount of appearances on the printsheet (C3 and C4).

White

The tribes in White are Soldiers and “Townsfolk” (after the Big Creature Update, they became Humans). The very best common in this color is Order of Leitbur, a.k.a. the white pump Knight. A good second is Icatian Javelineers, a 1/1 for W which has the ability to “ping” once. In a limited format, this ability can be huge. It can remove a small creature, inflict the last damage to a creature to kill it or just hurt your opponent if they remove your Javelineers.

For third place, It’s a close call for me. Icatian Money Changer seems bad, since it starts by dealing 3 damage to you. It can be an option to include it in a slow control deck. A 0/2 for W is a nice early blocker, and if you can keep it around, it can give you some life. The fact that you can only use his ability in your upkeep, makes it bad again, in my opinion.

Farrel’s Zealot can be good, if you have a way to give it Evasion, via Jump or Flight (both in 4th Edition). Other than that, it’s a 2/2, so it’s just better to block it. Then there’s a worse version of Samite Healer, which I won’t even bother talking about, so let’s move on tot he last 2 commons; Icatian Infantry and Icatian Scout Both are 1/1’s for W. Infantry has 2 abilities and Scout only 1. Scout has the advantage to give another creature first strike, but since it has .to tap to do so, third place goes to Icatian Infantry.

Blue

Blue has a war going on between fishtails (Merfolk) and crustaceans (Homarids). While that’s comically in its own way, blue has some terrible commons.

High Tide is fringe playable as a mana ramp (but nice if you want to play Deep Spawn!). Vodalian Soldiers is a vanilla 1/2 for 1U and although I like the flavor of Homarid (in that it uses the tide of the sea to become stronger or weaker), it starts as a 1/1 for 2U, so that’s just bad.

Merseine can be a good card to play against a lategame threat. Say your opponent has a Sengir Vampire and he attacks you with it. If you can cast Merseine on it, your opponent will have to pay 3BB to remove a counter, which is a huge tax. This might buy you enough time to find a more definitive answer.

Tidal Flats can be great, since first strike is a premium in limited. But your opponent can just pay 1 if they want to undo it. Say they attack with a Vodalian Soldiers and you block with two 1/1’s, they would only have to pay 1 mana to be able to kill both creatures, so that doesn’t seem very good.

Vodalian Mage seems like a good way for a slow deck to slow down a fast deck. In the early game it can tax your opponents spells. However, it costs 2U to cast him and can then only be used as soon as the next turn, which makes it very slow. Homarid Warrior is a card I really like. A 3/3 for 4U isn’t that great, but tob e able to gain shroud, makes it hard to kill in limited. And if you have a way to untap it (Twiddle is in 4th Edition), this can be an anoying card.

To make a top 3 for limited out of these cards is hard. My number one would be Homarid Warrior, second place would go to Merseine and in third place would be very dependant on the deck I’m trying to build. Sometimes High Tide can be good. If you have Lord of Atlantis, Vodalian Soldiers might be an option and in some decks, Vodalian Mage might do the trick. I’ll give it to High Tide, though.

Black

Ok, this one is easy. Number one, two and three are Hymn to Tourach, number four is Order of the Ebon Hand, a.k.a. the black pump Knight. Nothing to see here, move along.

Red

Just kidding, let’s do the rest of Black.

Black has Knights (they were called Clerics back then) and Thrulls. The Thrulls are a slave race, created by the Order of the Ebon Hand. The Thrulls came to an uprising against their masters, and they mean business.

After Order of the Ebon Hand, there’s just one more Cleric; Initiates of the Ebon Hand. A nice color fixer for B. There are 4 common Thrulls. Armor Thrull, which has a neat trick up his sleeve to give a permanent boost to another creature. Basal Thrull, which can give you a mana ramp if needed. Necrite, which, like Farrel’s Zealot, can kill a creature if unblocked and Mindstab Thrull.

The latter get’s my vote for third place in black. If you have enough ways to keep the board clear of creatures, or have a way to give evasion to Mindstab Thrull, this card is brutal. Discarding three cards is very rough. If you succeed in doing so, the odds are in your favor for that game!