Foundations (FDN) Limited Primer — Blue

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Foundations (FDN) will hold its prerelease events on November 8, 2024, and officially launch one week later on November 15, 2024. Want to learn more about single-card ratings and recommendations in Limited? Then check out this FDN Limited primer series!

Rating Scale

5.0: Must-take, unconditionally; gives you a near-winning advantage
4.5: Must-take if you’re in the right colors; gives you a huge advantage
4.0: Worth a first pick, with excellent synergy with the color pair’s theme; can be the deciding card for splashing, switching colors, or moving into a color pair
3.5: The best uncommons and commons in the set and other cards of sufficient strength, with good synergy with the color pair’s theme; can be the key card for moving into a color pair
3.0: Important cards for a color pair’s theme and other above-average cards; you’ll want them in your final deck
2.5: Average, usually a decent curve filler
2.0-1.0: Below average; you generally prefer not to play them, but they can be filler when necessary (not too many)
0.5-0.0: Unplayable; basically never play them, as they will only help you lose

Ratings

Score: 3.5
Comment: When you play blue in Limited you’ll basically have some Wizards, and a five-mana instant that draws three is playable anyway; being able to reduce its cost is even better.

Score: 2.5
Comment: By the time you can cast it, you won’t necessarily have an instant or sorcery to use it on. Gaining cards is great, but you should still treat it as a five-mana 3/6 creature at worst.

Score: 2.5
Comment: For four mana it bounces something on entering and leaves a 3/2 body behind, which is really good for tempo.

Score: 2.5
Comment: This set has a threshold theme, and surveil 3 is quite deep. The 2/2 Octopus is basically a freebie, and there are some Wizard synergies too.

Score: 2.5
Comment: It’s weak when played bare, but it grows whenever you draw a card, which makes it a flyer that keeps getting bigger every turn after it enters. Pick up a few more card-draw effects and it hits hard. If you have enough draw synergy you can actually pick it higher; if not, it grows rather slowly.

Score: 4.5
Comment: A six-mana 5/5 flyer that casts a Fact or Fiction when it enters, so a 5/5 flyer only costs two mana now, right? XD

Score: 2.5
Comment: She needs to be paired with white’s Celestial Armor, and then you can reliably make a Dragon-Beast after every attack.

Score: 2.0
Comment: A curve creature. Prowess usually won’t trigger many times, and a 3/2 body after one trigger isn’t great, while a 2/1 is even more shriveled.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A core creature for the draw-two theme; every time you draw your second card each turn, it triggers and places a counter.

Score: 3.0
Comment: At instant speed it makes two 1/1 Faeries and taps down a creature. A very good tempo card that often has unexpected uses on offense and defense.

Score: 3.0
Comment: As long as you can keep making land drops after you cast it, you can gradually paralyze your opponent’s defenses.

Score: 3.5
Comment: King of tempo: as long as she’s on the battlefield, all your other spells have flash.

Score: 3.0
Comment: In a deck that can draw two cards each turn, the rate at which it produces 2/2 copies grows geometrically. The only drawback is that its body when it first arrives is too weak, and the decision point when casting it on four mana is a bit painful.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A solid five-drop for a blue-based draw-two deck; a flyer with 4 toughness matters quite a bit.

Score: 1.0
Comment: In Limited you usually don’t have the time to slowly pick up instants and sorceries; the tempo is bad and it has no effect on the board, so I don’t recommend it.

Score: 4.0
Comment: In this version, when Kaito has the board advantage he can quickly ultimate and bury your opponent in a ninja army; when he doesn’t, his performance is more subtle. But at least he’s a looting machine and fits blue’s draw-two theme well, so you still can’t let him [+1] too happily.

Score: 4.0
Comment: It draws two and discards two on entering, and once threshold is met, making an 8/8 when attacking is far too strong.

Score: 3.0
Comment: This won’t be a card you cast on time at three mana; it’s closer to a card you use after turn six. The expected value is draw three or more for three mana, which is quite good as powerful mid-to-late-game card draw to refill resources.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Grandpa is a powerhouse! A two-mana 2/1 flyer is a great beater, and drawing your second card can make a bunch of little flyers, which is awesome!

Score: 2.5
Comment: A counterspell that can loot lets you play slower without breaking your tempo; whenever I’m playing blue I’d want to include one.

Score: 2.0
Comment: A sideboard card. How necessary a three-mana 0/6 wall is depends on how fast this set is; being able to tap to surveil 1 is a resource point in slow decks.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A five-mana 4/3 flyer has an acceptable body, and there’s usually a creature on board that can attack to trigger raid. Generally you attack first to enable raid, then slap it down in your second main phase to draw cards.

Score: 3.5
Comment: Its baseline value is a four-mana 3/3 flash flyer, and it’s even stronger if you have powerful spells in the graveyard!

Score: 3.5
Comment: Blue in this set puts a lot of emphasis on the draw-two and threshold themes, and this will be a key engine. It’s also a two-mana flying vigilance creature, so its early harassment isn’t bad either.

Author’s extra rating: an evolved version of Merfolk Looter, but it basically can’t take part in attacks, so you’d only consider it if you have card-draw sources.

Score: 2.0
Comment: A weakened version of Vanish from Sight that can only bounce creatures; just use it when you need to.

Score: 2.0
Comment: What a sturdy turtle, standing tall! A one-mana 0/5 can shut down many aggro plans, and the ultimate clash of spear and shield begins!? It may be worth more in the sideboard than the main deck!?

Score: 3.5
Comment: Sneaky. When your opponent is playing blue and leaves four mana open, remember to play around it.

Score: 3.0
Comment: The more you take, the stronger it gets, and the tempo will be explosively good!

Score: 2.5
Comment: It’s just an Essence Scatter, and being able to counter creatures is still worth main-decking in Limited.

Score: 4.0
Comment: It can copy nonland, noncreature permanents too. The only drawback is that it can’t save you on an empty board, but in the vast majority of cases, once it’s in and has made copies twice, you’re about to win.

Score: 2.0
Comment: If you’re short on playables in the blue draw-two theme you can run one, but -1/-0 really doesn’t do much…

Score: 3.0
Comment: There are six planeswalkers in this set in total, and being able to answer planeswalkers is worth a higher score.

Score: 2.5
Comment: Excellent body, and prowess lets it trade up. A very stable four-drop for the curve, and surveil 2 on entering adds extra value.

Score: 2.0 ~ 3.0
Comment: If it’s just a four-mana 3/3 it’s only worth 2.0. But if your deck has two or more of these powerful one-mana instants/sorceries, its value as a tutor is worth a 3.0.

• Divine Resilience (White, instant)
• Joust Through (White, instant)
• Eaten Alive (Black, sorcery)
• Stab (Black, instant)
• Burst Lightning (Red, instant)
• Giant Growth (Green, instant)

Score: 2.0
Comment: The body is too weak; maybe you could run one in red-blue?

Score: 0.5
Comment: Please use other counterspells.

Score: 0.0
Comment: Ten mana is probably not achievable in Limited, and if you can reach it you probably don’t need it anymore.

Score: 1.5
Comment: Bouncing while also needing to target your own creature is hard to use well, and by the time you have the room to bounce your own value creature to get value again, you’re about to win without it anyway.

Score: 1.5
Comment: If you really want to copy things, just use it when you open Extravagant Replication.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Important in white-blue draw-two; I recommend taking it early.

Score: 3.0
Comment: In white-blue draw-two it can trigger twice. A good card.

Score: 0.5
Comment: It’s basically a six-mana hard counter plus preventing damage once; there are many more efficient cards, so it rarely gets its turn.

Score: 2.5
Comment: To use it, first, your deck needs no fewer than 9 instants and sorceries; second, you need some self-mill or surveil means, and being able to speed it out on four or five mana is still pretty reliable.

Score: 3.0
Comment: With no cards like Claustrophobia in this environment, a one-mana Aura that turns a creature into a dummy may be blue’s best removal. When playing blue, remember to pick it highly to offset the impact of the opponent’s bomb creatures!

Conclusion

Looking at blue overall, it revolves around drawing your second card each turn, flying creatures, and a little bit of flash tempo. However, blue lacks big bombs that settle the game on entering, and its relatively strong cards mostly need some resources and board built up early to reach their full potential. In addition, blue creatures’ bodies still lag far behind red and green, and its removal is generally inefficient, so it’s reasonable to guess that blue cards in FDN Limited will still take the secondary-color route, though some interesting ideas may emerge, so let’s wait and see!