Foundations (FDN) Limited Review: White

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 a week later on November 15, 2024. Want to learn more about how each card rates in Limited, with recommendations? Then check out this series of FDN Limited reviews!

Rating Scale

5.0: An unconditional first pick that brings you close to winning on its own.
4.5: An unconditional first pick if you are in the right colors; brings a huge advantage.
4.0: Worth first-picking. Great synergy with the color pair’s theme, and can be the deciding card for splashing / switching colors or moving into the color pair.
3.5: The set’s top uncommons and commons, plus other cards of sufficient power. Good synergy with the color pair’s theme, and a key card for moving into the color pair.
3.0: An important card for the color pair’s theme, or another above-average card that you want in your final deck.
2.5: Average. Usually a decent curve filler.
2.0 to 1.0: Below average. You generally lean toward leaving it out, and can use it as filler when necessary, but not too many.
0.5 to 0.0: Unplayable. Basically don’t play it; putting it in only helps you lose.

Ratings

Score: 3.5
Comment: Looking at white alone, this set has 14 Cats, including plenty of uncommon and common Cats. If it survives, it can keep making a kitty army!

Score: 2.5
Comment: A 5/4/4 vigilance body is barely passable. Being able to trigger its ability the turn it enters is an advantage, but it needs a go-wide theme to go with it.

Score: 2.0
Comment: In a lifegain theme it’s a very powerful card and the core of the theme; in every other case I don’t recommend playing it.
Extra rating: 3.5. It would be the first-pick core card if you lean toward a lifegain theme.

Score: 4.0
Comment: A simple and brutal effect: it protects one creature, then gives all your following creatures the chance to get through (evasion). Worth a first pick.

Score: 2.0
Comment: I’d recommend at most one team pump, usable in decks that make lots of tokens.

Score: 2.5
Comment: If you’re playing a slower deck or one with fliers as the main force, this card can set up a ground defense for you.

Score: 2.5
Comment: Having it join the attack itself means you need enough tricks to support it. It’s a good card for aggro decks.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Lifegain themes have always been strong in draft. This one has built-in flying and the ability to race, and if you pick several it gets very strong.
Extra rating: 3.5. A good creature you want to take early, and I think it has a chance to be the top common of the set.

Score: 2.0
Comment: Most of the time you’ll use it to save one creature. Team-wide indestructible works wonders, but it can’t trade up, so for defensive tricks it’s best to just take them when you happen to see them.

Score: 4.0
Comment: A bomb for the lifegain theme. If you first-pick it, check whether enough lifegain cards are being passed to you.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A four-drop supporting the +1/+1 counter theme. Giving a flier is great, and it can also hold off 2 to 3-mana creatures by itself.

Score: 1.5
Comment: The downside of +1/+1 is that it’s hard to trade for a creature, and a trick that only prevents combat damage isn’t good enough either.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Being able to make two 3/3 Knights is a good card that does offense and defense at once.

Score: 2.0
Comment: The effect is a bit like the former Seven Dwarves. If you’re the only one taking many copies, it might get very strong.

Score: 2.0
Comment: I think you’d only want this card in a draw-two theme, or as a transitional creature for going wide.

Score: 3.5
Comment: Seven mana is a bit high, but flash adds quite a bit to this card, and it may make your opponent misjudge the race.

Score: 3.0
Comment: For a common, first strike on offense is very powerful, and a 3/3 is also good on defense, making creatures in the +1/+1 counter theme terrifying.

Score: 2.5
Comment: It deals 3 on offense or defense while letting you use the one life gained to trigger a lifegain trigger. For narrow tricks like this I’d recommend just taking them when you happen to see them.

Score: 2.5
Comment: The previous set, DSK, proved that a two-mana kill on tapped creatures can swing tempo back well. It has a higher pick priority than the previous card.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A plain token-making creature that may be good with this set’s go-wide theme. Its own vigilance also pairs well with the +1/+1 counter theme.

Score: 2.0
Comment: In Limited you won’t play that many creatures costing two or less. If you build specifically around this card, your curve may end up so poor that your opponent runs you over, but if you want to beat down with small creatures it’s worth a try.

Score: 3.0
Comment: The best thing about white is going wide, and this forces your opponent to spend a removal spell on it.

Score: 3.0
Comment: In Limited, a card like this that spends your mana while also gaining resources is great, and plenty of fliers have 2 power or less.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A 3/1 lifelinker has an even bigger edge if it gets into a race. Most of the time you’ll want to cast it on turn 4 to maximize its value.

Score: 2.5
Comment: It can act as an offensive trick, and it doesn’t go away! And if the opponent doesn’t deal with it, they’ll quickly be killed by the creature wearing the Aura.

Score: 3.0
Comment: It can bring all your creatures back to the battlefield as flying Angels. If the attacker resolves this, the game is as good as won. Valkyrie’s blessing leads to victory!

Score: 2.5
Comment: A 4/3/3 flier is terrible when you’re behind, but in a lifegain theme, where gaining life keeps extending the game, surveil 1 is worth a lot.

Score: 4.0
Comment: Most of the time you can keep using [+1] to add counters, protect it, and unleash the ultimate, making a pile of kitties!

Score: 2.5
Comment: An important payoff for the lifegain theme. It can grow very large in this set, but you only consider it after you’ve picked good lifegain cards first.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A flier with a very good body, and it can also take away your opponent’s graveyard recursion options.

Score: 1.5
Comment: Only those focused on the lifegain theme will want to pick it, and it’s bad if you don’t draw it in your opening hand. Entering tapped also isn’t very impactful in Limited.

Score: 3.0
Comment: White’s universal removal. If you don’t see anything especially strong, I suggest you take it!

Score: 2.5
Comment: Flash lets it handle artifacts and enchantments, so it’s worth putting one in your deck.

Score: 4.0
Comment: A four-mana clean sweep is worth a first pick!

Score: 3.0
Comment: This set has 6 uncommon Angels, 3 common ones, and 4 rares and mythics in total, so it’s still easy to support.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A stable source of lifegain, and if you can add counters to it, it gets very strong!

Score: 2.5
Comment: This is one of the more restrictive removal spells in the set, and I recommend playing just 1.

Score: 2.0
Comment: It can protect your own permanents at instant speed, but its three-mana cost is rather high so it isn’t very good.

Score: 2.0
Comment: Since it no longer has the support of a Soldier theme like in the past, I think the two 1/1s in this set have little impact on the board, though flash can make your opponent miscalculate life totals when racing you.

Score: 1.5
Comment: A vanilla 2/1 body has low value in Limited. You’d only want it in an extremely aggressive deck, and in most cases you wouldn’t consider it.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Plain and simple vigilance flying! Its body almost outclasses every other flier. The downside is that on defense you won’t want to block with it if you have no trick in hand. If you don’t see a better threat, I suggest taking it.

Score: 2.5
Comment: It can remove any threat or bomb, and the 1/1 it makes is a very small threat.

Score: 3.0
Comment: There are a lot of Angels in this set, and as long as you pair it with just one, its value is very high, and your opponent will need to deal with it first.

Conclusion

This time white has the most powerful lifegain theme in Limited, and once built it will definitely be the strongest archetype! You can go the creature go-wide route, or pair it with other color pairs to suppress with air power, and you have the ability to handle any bomb your opponent has. White’s uncommon and common creatures are all excellent, and the seemingly plain two- and three-drops will be the solid fighting force of your deck!