A couple of articles back, I talked about what I thought might be some of the most important commons in Aetherdrift. With the advantage of hindsight, it's clear that several of those missed the mark. Turns out the format is much more grindy than some of us initially assumed.

But now we have a few weeks of data to go on, the true frontrunners have emerged. Looking at at 17lands, we can see what the actual best commons and uncommons are in each color. Here are a few of the cards that you might not have realized are among the best in the format.

Stampeding Scurryfoot

It's not exactly news to players with their finger on the pulse that Green is the de facto best color in Aetherdrift Limited. But did you know this unassuming little mouse is the highest winrate common in the set - and that's it's better than many cards of higher rarity. It has the highest win rate in opening hand of all commons and remains at number one when you switch to overall win rate in hand. In other words, it's the best common in the set to have in your first seven cards, and it's only slightly worse to draw it later on.

Gloryheath Lynx

This is one of the few cards in this article that does look like it belongs here, even to a casual reader. A 2/3 lifelink for 2 would be a good card in pretty much any format. Tack on the saddle ability, and yeah, a 63.6% win rate in opening hand makes a lot of sense. But there is more to this card than meets the eye. First of all, it's accomplishing all this despite being in one of the weaker colors. White isn't bad, but it isn't doing great either. Secondly, this card plummets when we change categories. It loses almost ten percent in win rate if you draw it later in the game. With games going so long and creatures being so big, it turns out that an under-costed 2/3 just doesn't matter after the first few turns.

Thundering Broodwagon

This is a fascinating card to think about. Despite being a hard-to-cast six-drop, it maintains a 60% win rate even in your opening hand. If you draw it later in the game, that jumps up to 63%. The only reason it isn't the clear best non-rare card in the set is because Haunt The Network pips it by 0.1% when we select win rate when drawn turn 1 or later.

Still, given that it pips the dimir card in both other categories, I'm happy to give Big Broods the win. It's clear that Green is the best color in the format, and it's clear, now, that the format is quite slow. It's no surprise that a six-mana two-for-one shines in these circumstances. It kills a relevant threat on the other side of the board and creates a pretty scary one for you. It even cycles, so you can reanimate it later on for extra value. Typically speaking, you shouldn't take a hard-to-cast gold card early in the draft, but this card does so much that it might be worth bending that rule.

Veteran Beastrider

Now this is an odd one. Selesnya's win rate is pretty much bang average among 17lands users. But here we have an uncommon that doesn't really do much to signpost what the deck is "supposed" to do, sitting very near the top of several win rate categories. Well, while the card being here is quite curious, the answer as to why is not: it's just really good. The saddles and mounts thing doesn't really pay off all that well, but having a powerful uncommon that could easily be a rare in another set does. Vigilance for your entire team is huge (in fact, it plays out better than that, because you are "supposed" to be mounting and saddling a lot in these colors). With games going long, you are going to get to activate the anthem effect - possibly more than once in a turn.

Molt Tender

Without looking it up, can you guess what the best deck is in Aetherdrift Limited? The sample size isn't huge, with 1913 game played as I write this, but "mono-Green + splash" is top of the pile, with a 61.7% win rate. What's weirder still is that mono-Green isn't far behind, on 59.5% (albeit with an even smaller sample size).

It makes sense, then, that a card that enables both ramping and splashing should feature in an article like this. I bet a lot of people, myself included, overlooked this as Birds of Paradise with downside, but it turns out several decks actively want to mill themselves. Yes, having to wait a turn to get your mana is a downside, but you have time to spare in this format. It helps that Green-Black is one of the best decks, too, but this card is good when paired with any color - including, apparently, more Green.