Barrier of Bones
Barrier of Bones is an ok creature for slower, more card advantage centric decks. It gets you off to a good start with a first turn Surveil 1 enabling you to smooth out your draw for turn two. There are better things but a creature that can dig and hold of early creatures it’s not awful.
Bartizan Bats
A fine flyer if a bit fragile. If you need another four drop in limited this is a decent one but hopefully you have better options.
Blood Operative
I’m not 100% sure right now about how powerful Blood Operative will be but I think it’s nuts. 3 power for three mana is good right off the bat and it allows you to hit something in any graveyard, probably a Jump-Start card from your opponent’s graveyard most of the time though. Lifelink really helps with the last part of the card, Surveil is going to be a big player I think so being able to get extra information and bring back Blood Operative whenever you Surveil is going to make your opponent’s life very hard. Paying 3 life is a fair amount to pay and if you get in or block a couple of times with Blood Operative then it’s going to feel like it’s free, and everyone likes free things. A limited bomb and I think Blood Operative will be a constructed player.
Burglar Rats
Love it. It surprising how effective those effect can be on a two drop, early on in the game it’s negligible but later in when your opponent has few cards in their hand it can be devastating by throwing their upcoming plays off.
Child of Night
This two drop vampire has shown how effective it can be time and again. 2 power and Lifelink can really throw off combat maths, early in the game in can put you way ahead of your opponent and if you can power it up it can be a powerhouse in limited.
Creeping Chill
Four mana to drain 3 life is decent, the main word on this card however is “each” player. In a one on one game it’s not bad if a little highly costed, but in commander Creeping Chill gets so much better as it hits everyone, though you still only gain 3 life. It also has a cool effect if it’s put into your graveyard from your library, which is a good way to utilise it in conjunction with Surveil, because of this I could see it being played in limited but almost certainly not in constructed at four mana.
Dead Weight
This is a common all-star, it can get a utility creature early on in the game and make provide value in combat late. The one mana puts it over the edge for playability, two mana would feel a bit overcosted.
Deadly Visit
Great limited removal, of a little high costed, and it comes with card filtering. I like one Deadly Visit in limited but no more, the five mans cost outs me off a bit but the Surveil 2 does sweeten the deal.
Doom Whisperer
Bwah!? Usually demons in Magic come with a drawback, the whole power in exchange for your soul thing ya know? Doom Whisperer is a fantastic creature which is undercosted and has no drawback whatsoever, the paying 2 life to Surveil 2 might look like a drawback but it’s not as a reusable card selection ability like this is so powerful. With Flying and Trample Doom Whisperer will command limited tables as the bomb it is and definitely has a spot in constructed, I can’t wait to play with this guy.
Douser of Lights
A generic five mana 4/5, you’ll play it if you have nothing better on your top end in limited.
Gruesome Menagerie
I don’t like Gruesome Menagerie. It’s so many hoops to jump through to have three creatures costed at one, two and three. Getting all three creatures back gives you a good board advantage and the nice thing is that Gruesome Menagerie doesn’t target anything so you don’t actually have to have three creatures to return, but for five mana it would feel bad if you didn’t.
Hired Poisoner
It stops almost any creature and is super cheap while doing it. It’s great in limited to stem your opponents bomb creatures but won’t really win you any games.
Kraul Swarm
Kraul Swarm is fragile but that’s the beauty of it. Because of the 1 toughness it can have a slightly higher power, therefore being able to trade more often. The fact that you can rebuy it is great as it can keep applying pressure, even though you have to feed creatures through it. Good one of in limited, two if you have too but it feels a bit intense.
Lotleth Giant
It’s a huge cost for a 6/5 creature but the immediate Undergrowth effect is worth it. By turn seven you could easily have filled your graveyard with so many creature that Lotleth Giant puts you over the finish line, you obviously only want one in your limited deck due to its high cost but if you can dump a load of creatures into your graveyard the pay off is worth it.
Mausoleum Secrets
When I first do this card I thought a decent, fixed version of Demonic Tutor had been printed. Having to count something like creatures in a graveyard seemed like a fine caveat, meant that you could scale it yourself and the Undergrowth feels thematic. It only gets black cards though and this is where it falls apart, it’s not that there aren’t any black spells you want to find because there certainly are, it just feels too restricted. I think it was the right idea to restrict it like they did but I think because of it it want so much play.
Mephitic Vapors
If tokens is going to be a thing then Mephitic Vapors could well see standard play. It will be able to get a couple of creatures but also can dig you further into your library and at three mana that isn’t bad. The sorcery speed thing is annoying but sometimes you have to take the bitter with the sweet.
Midnight Reaper
This is all value. It’s cheap, powerful and gives you card advantage at a small cost of one life. A limited all star with a definite standard career in midrange creature decks. I should probably have more to say but I think the card says enough for itself.
Moodmark Painter
I like the Undergrowth mechanic but I don’t think this is the best way to showcase it. Black doesn’t tend to pump power and toughness as often as white or green does and I feel that for four mana it could have provided a minus effect instead. Moodmark Painter is a good limited creature for black tempo decks and in the late game you’ve usually naturally Fueled your graveyard with creatures so there isn’t much effort to put in.
Necrotic Wound
This for me is the correct application of Undergrowth. A cheap removal spell is effective and in the late game becomes really powerful, if you can dump creatures into your graveyard early then you can power up Necrotic Wound and have it rival the power level of Fatal Push. Good in limited and depending on if there’s a graveyard based deck in the format, possibly a constructed player too.
Never Happened
I really like this card, it has a similar feel to Sorcerer’s Spyglass in the sense that you get to look at your opponent’s hand but don’t actually have to mess about with it. Never Happened is strictly better than Coercion if you’re going after your opponent’s hand, or you could decide that there’s nothing worth taking and instead take out a Jump-Start card or other particularly annoying card from their graveyard. I can see this actually being played in standard because of its diverse ability to attack hands or graveyards, especially with graveyard centric mechanics being a big thing.
Pilfering Imp
I quite like the idea of a creature with a built in hand disruption ability. You are spending three mana overall to use it but it only has the nonland restriction allowing you to take anything, and the 1/1 Flying body isn’t nothing as well. It’s too slow for constructed but in limited it’s great especially if you can recur Pilfering Imp.
Plaguecrafter
The body can be really useful as it will probably trade with something and early on and the enter the battlefield effect can help clear a path to get a creature through. It is a symmetrical effect so you have to throw something away as well but if worst comes to worst you can just ditch Plaguecrafter.
Price of Fame
Great removal spell, four mana might be a bit high but Price of Fame makes up for that by being an instant, having Surveil 2 and by using three very clear words “Destroy target creature”. Very few removal spells allow this much variance on targets so Price of Fame will see constructed play for that reason, but the card selection aspect won’t go unnoticed. My favourite part of Price of Fame though, I love the legendary caveat for the flavour as it brings the whole card together while reducing the mana cost to rival Terror and all other Terror variants. Thank to Dominaria I think we’ll be seeing a lot of this in the months to come in standard and it’s definitely worth it in limited to have an instant speed removal spell that’s easy to splash.
Ritual of Soot
A conditional Wrath effect is worse than a normal Wrath of God, Ritual of Soot falls into that category but it’s still worth playing. This gives you game against the lower to the ground decks that come out of the gates early; tokens, weenie decks etc. The later in the game you get the worse this card becomes and it starts to hit fewer and fewer creatures so I’m not sure where this plays, maybe in a tempo creature deck but then you run the risk of hitting your own creatures. Despite that downside Ritual of Soot will see play in constructed, standard for sure but modern could see a glimpse of it. Limited is probably more it’s home as limited tends to be more creature heavy and you want to make sure you hit your early creature drops, making Ritual of Soot a blow out in the early game.
Severed Strands
Severed Strands is a good limited removal spell even though you have to throw a creature away to cast it, the life gain is a nice balanced though. If you’re a creature heavy deck then oh will love Severed Strands but they can get clogged up in your hand if you don’t find enough creatures.
Spinal Centipede
Great early to mid game creature that leave a +1/+1 counter behind. You won’t mind throwing Spinal Centipede away for a trade in limited with this effect tacked on.
Undercity Necrolisk
Brilliant creature for limited, Undercity Necrolisk starts with a good body but can utilise your other creatures and gets bigger and bigger. The Menace is a nice kicker and helps you push damage through, you play this all the time in limited if you’re in black.
Veiled Shade
This three drop would be a little more effective if it had Flying but that may have made it a too good. I like that it’s a repeatable effect so if you have a low of mana you can sink it into Veiled Shade nicely to help trade up in combat.
Vicious Rumors
The mana cost is as low as it can be for this type of effect. However the effect is negligible at almost any point in the game, the best place I can see Vicious Rumors seeing play is multiplayer formats like commander.
Whispering Snitch
Whispering Snitch comes down early in limited, blocks well while possibly fending off an X/1 and plays really well with the heavy Surveil mechanic Dimir has going on. It only counts the first time each turn but if you can land multiples then they will start to put some distance between you and your opponent.
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