It doesn't feel like it's been that long since the last one of these, does it? But with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles just around the corner, it's time to have a look at the cards that might draw you into drafting certain strategies. Here are my picks for the best common and uncommon in each color.

East Wind Avatar

With no additional help, East Wind Avatar is a reasonable creature. With minimal help, this card becomes a problem. With the amount of tokens in the set, this can put the game out of reach in no time. It attacks for a bunch and is very difficult to block. It also plays defense pretty well thanks to the combination of vigilance and pretty high toughness.

Mighty Mutanimals

I've seen some discussion around this card being too good to be an uncommon. That remains to be seen, but it's abundantly clear that this card is indeed mighty. Bare minimum, this is five power and four toughness for four mana. Spread across two bodies, that's usually going to be better than one big creature. If you ever get to trigger this multiple times, it's going to get out of hand quickly.

Retro-Mutation

This is basically Blue Murder. Murder is a fine card in most modern sets, but Blue doesn't usually get to have it, so that moves it up several notches. Now, obviously it's not exactly the same, because you have to have to be in combat with the target creature in order for it to die then and there. Still, though, you can just use this as a more typical Blue removal spell to stop something from attacking if that's what you need to do.

Donatello's Technique

This being my pick is somewhat reliant on you being able to turn Sneak into a bonus rather than a cost. Divination is rarely a good card in modern Limited, but it's usually playable. Being able to cast it for one mana is obviously a big improvement, and if you can also re-buy an enters ability, it's easy to imagine this card being incredible. The floor isn't high, but the ceiling is.

Anchovy & Banana Pizza

Question. would you rather eat this pizza or the pie from Bake into a Pie? Anyway, there is an artifact theme in this set, so this actually might be better in-context than its nearly-identical predecessor. Since Bake was one of the best Black cards in its set, that makes me think that an improved version has to be pretty good, too.

Shredder's Technique

Similar to Donatello above, Shredder really wants you to have solid ETB creatures in order to get the best out of his technique. Unlike the Blue counterpart, I think Murder at sorcery speed is still just about fine in Limited these days, especially when you occasionally get to pop a problematic enchantment.

Null Group Biological Assets

If this creature didn't have first strike, it would be pretty poor. With first strike (while attacking, but that's when it matters here anyway), it looks pretty solid. It dies to a stiff breeze, but is your opponent ever blocking this if you have open mana and cards in-hand? Like Raphael below, this pays you off for doing what you should already be doing, and that's usually the recipe for a solid asset.

Raphael, Most Attitude

A 4/3 menace for four would be all right in most Limited formats. Raphael has much more going on than that, though. His abilities all synergize nicely, with menace enabling attacks that then enable your card advantage engine. This asks very little of you, and rewards you for doing what most Red decks want to do already.

Primordial Pachyderm

Look, this card isn't the most exciting, but it is very good. The stats and key words to cost ratio is solid if uninspiring and the two life is a nice little nudge toward stabilizing the board if you're behind. If you're even or ahead, it's a 4/4 trampler that's can tussle with almost anything that's likely to be on-board when this comes into play.

Novel Nunchaku

Green has a lot of good uncommons, but I think this card is going to be the most consistent. Fight spells can be tricky to use, but if you pick your spot right, this will be one of the best we've seen in a while. Providing a stat boost is basically mandatory for fight spells nowadays, but this one leaving behind a legitimately useful equipment is a real boon. On a stalled-out board, this could be back-breaking, enabling attacks that might otherwise be impossible.

Conclusion

On the surface, this set has a lot in common with Marvel's Spider-Man. However, one major difference is that I do think Red is playable this time around. At the very least, it seems to have more coherent game plans. Both Boros () and Izzet () look to be well supported.

One thing to look out for is that a lot of the Rares are excellent. You should value catch-all removal highly. If you're not lucky enough to open a bomb, your deck needs to have a clear strategy. This means that knowing which lower rarity cards to value highly is crucial.