Despite being the biggest mainline MTG set of all time, Wizards somehow managed to fit Foundations’ entire spoiler season into just one week. They even threw in the Starter Collection and Foundations Jumpstart too, for good measure. That’s an awful lot of cards to take in all at once. Granted many of these are reprints, so we have some idea of how they’ll play. As for the new cards, however, it’s question marks all around. While no man can truly know the future, these MTG Foundations cards appear to be the best of the bunch.
6 | Banner Of Kinship
- Mana Value: 5
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Text: As this artifact enters, choose a creature type. This artifact enters with a fellowship counter on it for each creature you control of the chosen type. Creatures you control of the chosen type get +1/+1 for each fellowship counter on this artifact.
Banner of Kinship is the definition of an easy win for a list like this. Typal decks have always been popular in MTG, and they’re getting a ton of support in Foundations. This support is always welcome, but all the more so now following Bloomburrow, which was a full-on Typal-matters set. Thanks to this, it seems typal decks have some serious potential in Standard, and Banner is the ideal card for them.
Even with just a few creatures of the same type in play, Banner acts as a pretty serviceable Overrun effect. No Trample, of course, but the fact that it persists beyond one turn is a major upside. In the right go-wide deck, such as Elves or Goblins, you can easily get boosts in the +4/+4 to +5+5 range going, too, which are very hard to deal with.
In Commander, all of the above goes double. Typal decks are even more popular there, and wide boardstates are easier to achieve. Coat of Arms is a popular and widely played card in the format, and Banner is as good if not better. It doesn’t scale up after it enters play, but it also doesn’t scale down if your board gets wiped, so swings and roundabouts.
Whether you’re a Standard or Commander player, Banner of Kinship is clearly one of the best new MTG Foundations cards. Hold onto those borderless copies if you get one; I expect they’ll be worth a fair chunk in the years to come.
5 | Koma, World-Eater
- Mana Value: 3GGUU
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 8/12
- Card Text: This spell can’t be countered. Trample, Ward 4. Whenever Koma deals combat damage to a player, create four 3/3 blue Serpent creature tokens named Koma’s Coil.
Say hello to the new scariest threat in Standard. While Atraxa and Valgavoth are probably still better reanimation targets, Koma is a creature you can reasonably hardcast. Once you do it’s hard to remove and even harder to kill in combat, and it can give you a winning boardstate in a single swing.
We’ve been trained as Magic players to undervalue big stats and splashy effects in favor of interactive abilities. Most of the time that training pays off, but occasionally a card stacks up enough raw value to be worth running regardless. I believe Koma is one such card. It’s not difficult to get out with the amount of quality ramp we’ll have in Standard, and once you do there’s not much your opponent can do about it.
Sure they can pay the Ward cost, but then they’re effectively Time Walking themselves to kill your creature. If they can’t kill it, then it’s going to crash in for big damage and add another 12 power to the board. Koma is so good that it will probably push players to run sacrifice-based removal like Extract a Confession or Deadly Brew. Even then, such cards are terrible once the Serpent tokens land, so there’s not a perfect solution. Get ready to see a lot of Koma soon, in both Standard and Commander.
4 | Boltwave
- Mana Value: R
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Card Text: Boltwave deals 3 damage to each opponent.
Boltwave is one of the simplest cards in MTG Foundations, and also one of the best. One red mana to deal three damage to your opponent is a historically playable rate. Lava Spike sees play in Burn decks in Legacy, after all. Boltwave is actually even better than Lava Spike, too, since it doesn’t target. This means it can hit your opponent through a Leyline of Sanctity, which is a big deal for Burn decks.
It’s very rare that we see cards like this printed, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Boltwave show up in Burn decks in every format. Standard actually has a very decent Burn list shaping up for new Standard, and Pioneer, Modern, and Legacy are going to love it, too. You may not expect the most impactful card in a new set to be a one-mana uncommon, but I foresee Boltwave being exactly that once the dust settles.
On top of all that, Boltwave is also semi-decent in Commander. Burn spells generally aren’t worth playing in multiplayer, since they only affect a single opponent. Boltwave hits all three at once, however, which makes it a much juicier prospect. You can pair it with the new Niv-Mizzet or Rakdos, Lord of Riots for some truly disgusting value swings. If you play Magic at all beyond Standard, you’ll want to get your playset of Boltwave sooner rather than later.
3 | Sire Of Seven Deaths
- Mana Value: 7
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 7/7
- Card Text: First Strike, Vigilance, Menace, Trample, Reach, Lifelink, Ward—Pay 7 life.
With its mana cost of seven, hefty Ward cost, and ample evasion, Sire of Seven Deaths very much resembles Koma from earlier. Thanks to a few key differences, however, it’s quite a bit better. First of all, it’s a much better card for stabilizing against Aggro than our serpentine friend. Reach, Lifelink, and First Strike make it pretty much impossible to profitably attack into. Even with a souped-up Slickshot Show-Off will struggle against this monstrosity. Menace and Vigilance make it great on the attack, too.
The most important advantage Sire has over Koma is its mana cost. Seven generic sounds about as difficult as Koma’s cost in the context of Standard. Go back to older formats, however, and Tron becomes a factor. When you can consistently drop this monster on turn three, it starts looking a lot more attractive. Even if your opponent can just remove it right away, they’ll have to give up over a third of their life to do so. In formats where Shocklands and Fetchlands are common, this can easily put someone down to critical levels.
This means that Sire, while likely comparable to Koma in Standard, has a lot more potential in older formats. The fact that it’s an Eldrazi is significant too, what with all the new support the type got in Modern Horizons 3. While it’s really just a bunch of keywords thrown onto a vanilla body, Sire of Seven Deaths is still one of the best new cards in MTG Foundations. Sometimes simple is better.
2 | Crystal Barricade
- Mana Value: 1W
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 0/4
- Card Text: Defender (This creature can’t attack.) You have Hexproof. (You can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.) Prevent all noncombat damage that would be dealt to other creatures you control.
Tech cards rarely make it into ‘best cards’ lists for new sets. While they’re an essential part of the game, they’re just not usually as exciting as the latest big threat or hyper-efficient interaction piece. That said, I think Crystal Barricade, a consummate tech card, is one of the most exciting cards in Foundations by a long shot.
For just two mana, you’re getting a ton of utility here. A 0/4 Defender is great at holding off early Aggro onslaughts, which is crucial in current Standard. Gaining Hexproof is also super-relevant, as it turns off direct damage effects, discard effects, and a lot of graveyard hate all in one swoop. Standard has plenty of all three of those at the moment, so Barricade is a solid answer to bring in from the board.
Most tech cards like this would have no further text, but what makes Barricade truly special is its final ability. Preventing all noncombat damage to your other creatures is huge. This turns off common red removal like Torch the Tower and Pyroclasm.
Taken as a package Barricade does a hell of a lot for its low mana cost, in enough matchups to see Standard sideboard play at the very least. It also scales up very nicely into Commander, especially if you enjoy playing graveyard decks and need a way to protect your ‘yard from exile effects.
1 | Bloodthirsty Conqueror
- Mana Value: 3BB
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 5/5
- Card Text: Flying, Deathtouch. Whenever an opponent loses life, you gain that much life. (Damage causes loss of life.)
Sometimes the most obvious answer is also the right answer. Bloodthirsty Conqueror is, at the time of writing, the most expensive card in the set. Clearly, a lot of players think it’s one of the best cards in MTG Foundations, and I’m inclined to agree.
If the not-so-subtle flavor text didn’t clue you in, Conqueror is essentially Exquisite Blood on a body. This is a $25+ Commander staple, known for going infinite with Sanguine Bond and other similar effects. Just getting another version of it for the same cost is already a big deal. The fact that Conqueror can also swing for five in the air makes it much more competitive in current Magic, too, even if it is more vulnerable to removal.
Conqueror will obviously see plenty of Commander play, but it’s actually quite well-positioned for Standard too. We just got a new Sanguine Bond effect in Duskmourn with Enduring Tenacity, which handily curves right into Conqueror in Mono-Black. Combined with all the Bloodletter of Aclazotz combos, this gives Mono-Black Midrange a good chance to end the game on the spot.
As a card with clear cross-format appeal, Bloodthirsty Conqueror is an easy top choice for Foundations. It may not be the most interesting new card, but it’s certainly one of the most effective.
