Bulk changes on the data set

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Starting this thread to keep track of sweeping changes across pairings for a card or a type of card.

I'll centralise the implementation of these changes, and suggest what I can find, but I'm always happy to hear suggestions.

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I deemed the Throne of Makindi to be hopelessly low in ratings. Nothing can make it better, and I don't think it improves any card.

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Disenchant, Negate and Broken Wings don't improve anything apart from cards caring about instants, namely Master of Winds, Umara Wizard, Magmatic Channeler, Umara Mystic and Relic Amulet. These get incidental improvement, or only part of an improvement, so I've set the improvement in ratings of the 3 instants to "less than 1/2 a grade".

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Basic removals (i.e. which don't have a dependency on anything their owner can control) can't be improved much, so I've rated "Not at all" everywhere for Disenchant, Broken Wings and Negate - apart from when they're paired up with Windrider Wizard and Rockslide Sorcerer, since they respectively loot or ping when the instants are played. I improved their rating by less than 1/2 grade in these cases.

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Hagra Mauling is an instant so it goes with Windrider Wizard and Rockslide Sorcerer + the card selection spells (Silundi Vision) for which its rating would improve by less than 1/2 a grade. But it is imprved as well by all the guys that bring back a land to your hand! I put a bump of 0.5 grade for these: Tazeem Raptor, Pyroclastic Hellion, Wayward Guide-Beast and Kazandu Stomper.

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Tazeem Raptor, Pyroclastic Hellion, Wayward Guide-Beast and Kazandu Stomper improve significantly (half a grade I'd say) all the MDFCs as you get to play them as lands with the confidence that you'll get them back to play them as spell later after bouncing them.

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And what about Nissa's Zendikon? Your opponent would think twice about getting rid of your 4/4 land if it can come back as an effect in your hand. Interesting considerations... would put 1/2 a grade most of the time, apart from when it's a pathway, Jwari Disruption (the opponent can easily play around it)

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Cliffhaven Sell-Sword, Highborn Vampire and Musara Brute, with their flavour text, aren't too synergistic. They're Warriors however, and the 3/1 could do with some help to survive combats. I've counted that all 3 of them would get better with Warrior-friendly cards: Kor Blademaster (21), Resolute Strike (35), Kargan Intimidator (145), Akiri, Fearless Voyager (220), Kargan Warleader (224), Relic Axe (248).

The 3/1 would be marginally better with Angelheart Protector (3), Malakir Rebirth (111), Oblivion Hunger (119).  

Some more inspiration for later: Pelakka Predation, Shadow's Verdict, Soul Shatter, Zof Consumption, Nahiri's Lithoforming, Thundering Rebuke, Jwari Disruption

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Nahiri's Binding doesn't help anything else much specifically, as any removal, and can't be made better by anything. Maybe Into the Roil (62) to move it onto another threat as they grow bigger? That's it I think.

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of course, the pathways!!! 6 of them (why not 10...), which could help making Tazri's ability cheaper (less than 1/2 a grade each time) Springmantle Druid bigger (less than 1/2 a grade each time), and Verazol much better (1/2 a grade each time) for each additional colour (arguably, any but the 2 you're already playing... but that's going into too much details maybe). Conversely, they could be providing a tad more colour flexibility by being bounced by our 5 ways of getting lands back in hand (Tazeem Raptor, Pyroclastic Hellion, Wayward Guide-Beast, Kazandu Stomper and Nissa's Zendikon), but that's less than 1/2 a grade improvement.

Well worth doing, this one - that's 10% of the pairings sorted in one go!

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well, not 10%, 5%...! we did reach 10% of the total pairings being done via bulk upload!

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had a go at Forsaken Monument - it seemed straightforward to evaluate as both a payoff and as an enabler:

• improves all colorless creatures: all artifact creatures
• improves all the permanents that produce {C} by less than half a grade, as when you're at 5 mana, having 1 more doesn't often matter in Limited: Base Camp, Crawling Barrens, Throne of Makindi (ah - it can be made a bit better then somehow, that one!)
• improves all artifacts generally by making them give 2 life: less than 1/2 a grade for noncreature artifacts, and 1/2 grade for artifact creatures, as this comes on top of getting +2/+2
• Lithoform Engine gets a full grade bump for being able to duplicate pumped up artifact creatures
• Myriad Construct as well, for creating many 3/3s when it gets sacrificed
• it's a legendary artifact, so it doesn't like itself :)
• everyone else gets a flat 0
• nothing can really improve it - I couldn't find anything?

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Legendaries doesn't like duplicates, so each legend is a total clash against its own copy. Not that you should not try to get as many as possible of them in your deck, since they're usually quite good; but having 2 in hand or drawing one when you've got one which is doing good in play is like having a dead card. 

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pump spells make creatures better in a variety of ways, but they themselves don't get improved much by anything else - not as pumps at least. They can be improved by other cards that care about instants and sorceries, or about targeting, or about kicker... so here's the list of pump spells that would not be improved by anything ...

• Allied Assault
• Dauntless Unity
• Makindi Stampede
• Resolute Strike (which is actually made better by equipments too)
• Inordinate Rage
• Might of Musara

...but by:

• (for all)
  • Windrider Wizard
  • Rockslide Sorcerer
  • Lithoform Engine
• (for kicked spells)
  • Merfolk Falconer, making your kicked spells scry
  • Roost of Drakes, making your kicked spells create Drakes
  • Vine Gecko, making your kicked spells cheaper
  • Lullmage's Familiar, making your kicked spells gain you 2 life
  • Verazol, the Split Current, copying your kicked spells

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Pelakka Predation: what can improve it? Of course, all the land bouncer - we've done that already. Maybe something that gives cards to the opponent, like Farsight Adept? or something that gets you to see your opponent's hand to take your picks, like Acquisition Expert? or bouncing spells like Into the Roil, Inscription of Insight and Cunning Geysermage? or bringing back a creature from your opponent's graveyard with Zareth San? That'd be only marginal, as nothing guarantees that there'll be a target with CMC>=3. That's it I think. 0 for everyone else.

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 Shadow's Verdict: here's a spell that actually clashes with a variety of cards:

• all creatures with CMC=<3 and Jace (total clash on 99 pairings)
• "8 cards in your opponent's graveyard" triggers (marginal or total clash, depending on how good the effect is): Anticognition, Lullmage's Domination, Merfolk Windrobber, Blackbloom Rogue // Blackbloom Bog, Mind Carver, Nimana Skitter-Sneak, Soaring Thought-Thief, Relic Golem
• all token generators: Attended Healer, Felidar Retreat, Squad Commander, Inscription of Insight, Roost of Drakes, Iridescent Hornbeetle, Scute Swarm, Swarm Shambler, Phylath, Nahiri, Myriad Construct
• all cards with recursion: Agadeem's Awakening (total clash), Blood Beckoning (marginal clash), Inscription of Ruin (marginal clash), Nullpriest of Oblivion (marginal clash), Skyclade Shade (total clash), Thwart the Grave (marginal clash), Bala Ged Recovery (marginal clash), Musara Sproutling (marginal clash), Orah (total clash)

that's a lot of clashes! All these cards will be made worse by Shadow's Verdict. I guess that what could make it better is anything tempo, cheap removal, lifegain to last until then... that's maybe too deep into details for a bulk change - I'll leave that to individual rating.

One thing though: all creatures with CMC>3 might be made more valuable (1/2 a grade?) since they remain alone on the battlefield. but then, creatures with menace, or with a trigger when they connect, might get even better... OK, that's a case-by-case review.

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Base Camp improves all gold Wizards, Warriors, Clerics and Rogues. It's neutral for non-gold ones - let's say that the colour flexibility it gives you for casting and activating, and the fact that it arrives in play tapped balance themselves out. And for every other spell, it's slightly clashing - supposing that you've got the base camp in your mana base instead of a basic land, it might color-screw you, on top of coming into play tapped.

Conversely, there's not much that improves Base Camp. That's 0 everywhere, apart from Forsaken Monument.

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having a go at UB "mill to 8": the payoffs for doing that are only 8 (interesting number...): 

the enablers that would make these 8 better are:

• 10 millers: Glacial Grasp, Maddening Cacophony, Merfolk Windrobber, Ruin Crab, Zulaport Duelist, Mind Drain, Nimana Skydancer, Shadow Stinger, Soaring Thought-Thief and Relic Golem, improving these payoffs by half a grade or less depending on how much and how often they mill 
• 26 removal, all improving by less than half a grade by putting (more quickly) a permanent in the graveyard

1. Disenchant
2. Kabira Takedown // Kabira Plateau
3. Ondu Inversion // Ondu Skyruins
4. Practiced Tactics
5. Smite the Monstrous
6. Bloodchief's Thirst
7. Deadly Alliance
8. Drana's Silencer
9. Feed the Swarm
10. Hagra Mauling // Hagra Broodpit
11. Inscription of Ruin
12. Subtle Strike
13. Vanquish the Weak
14. Cinderclasm
15. Cleansing Wildfire
16. Molten Blast
17. Roil Eruption
18. Shatterskull Smashing // Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass
19. Sizzling Barrage
20. Synchronized Spellcraft
21. Thundering Rebuke
22. Thundering Sparkmage
23. Broken Wings
24. Rabid Bite
25. Nahiri, Heir of the Ancients
26. Relic Amulet

Some of these cards had additional interactions to consider, so the grading was very much case-by-case...

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having a go at landfall now. There are 25 cards with the keyword: Canyon Jerboa, Fearless Fledgling, Felidar Retreat, Makindi Ox, Prowling Felidar, Ruin Crab, Skyclave Squid, Dreadwurm, Skyclave Shade, Akoum Hellhound, Moraug, Fury of Akoum, Skyclave Geopede, Spitfire Lagac, Valakut Exploration, Canopy Baloth, Kazandu Mammoth // Kazandu Valley, Kazandu Nectarpot, Lotus Cobra, Scute Swarm, Skyclave Pick-Axe, Territorial Scythecat, Brushfire Elemental, Nissa of Shadowed Boughs, Omnath, Locus of Creation and Phylath, World Sculptor.
They can be improved in various ways by:

• 13 cards which are getting lands in hand or on the battlefield, or allow to play more lands. There are in 2 categories, depending on their repeatability, if they can be played at instant speed, if they can allow to go over the 1 land drop per turn, and on the number of lands going on the battlefield at once:
  • minor improvement: Tazeem Raptor,  Pyroclastic Hellion, Wayward Guide-Beast, Ancient Greenwarden, Kazandu Stomper, Reclaim the Wastes,  Scale the Heights , Yasharn
  • big improvement: Cleansing Wildfire, Nahiri's Lithoforming, Roiling Regrowth, Vastwood Surge, Murasa Rootgrazer
• we've ignored draw selection cards which could be helping to MDFCs, it's a bit of a stretch to consider that an improvement, even if the opportunity is there

each payoff card is improved differently depending on the landfall effect, so again it's a case-by-case review.

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Confounding Conundrum: as a hate card for ramp decks that replaces itself, I'd say it can't be actively supported or supporting anything, apart in the fringe case of using Cleansing Wildfire twice on your opponent, in which case they're down a land... so that's a "not at all" from both ends.

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going for UG kicker now. there are 7 payoffs: Coralheim Chronicler, Merfolk Falconer, Risen Riptide, Roost of Drakes, Vine Gecko, Lullmage's Familiar and Verazol, the Split Current. Some of them make kicked spells better by making you loot, scry, gain life, make a token or make a copy of a spell; or make themselves better by allowing to get a card, getting a counter or getting a boost.

we can count as well that all the spells allowing to ramp up in mana help to pay kicked CMCs: Ancient Greenwarden, Lotus Cobra, Reclaim the Wastes, Roiling Regrowth, Scale the Heights, Tangled Florahedron, Vastwood Surge, Vine Gecko and Lullmage's Familiar again, Skyclave Relic. Murasa Rootgrazer, Omnath, Forsaken Monument and Throne of Makindi have built-in ramp elements, but they are dependent respectively on having lands in hand, a second land coming in play, having colorless mana sources, and having a lot of time to play with charge counters - too much of a stretch to be repeatably used to support kicked spell payment.

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equipments - Maul of the Skyclaves, Mind Carver, Scavenged Blade, Skyclave Pick-Axe, Ravager's Mace, Cliffhaven Kitesail, Relic Axe, Utility Knife: they support the equipment theme of the set (that is, Kor Blademaster, Resolute Strike, Fireblade Charger, Akiri, Fearless Voyager and Nahiri, Heir of the Ancients, not many!).

Some of them can support spell and abilities that care about power and toughness: Kazuul's Fury, Inscription of Abundance, Khalni Ambush, Rabid Bite, Myriad Construct.

We already noted the benefits from Forsaken Monument on colorless artifacts earlier.

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Utility Knife and Scavenger Blade, as basic equipments, don't improve nor get improved by much else than what was just looked into in the previous post, apart from creatures with evasion: flying, trample, unblockable, menace are all keywords that work well with a pump. Lifelink would too. that makes 53 cards with marginal improvement.

NB: there's noone with first strike in the whole set! only the Maul of the Skyclaves and Kor Blademaster give it. The angle of Destiny does have double strike.

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Zof Consumption: this card, apart from being a sorcery that triggers Windrider Wizard and Rockslide Sorcerer, and a MDFC that works well with Tazeem Raptor, Pyroclastic Hellion, Wayward Guide-Beast, Kazandu Stomper and Nissa's Zendikon, triggers only 1 payoff: Marauding's Blight-Priest's ping. Apart from that, it does not get improved by much else.

[FanF]

Correction, Zof consumption triggers the abilities from Attended Healer and Scion of the Swarm, on top of Marauding's Blight-Priest.
It as well supports the life total-related effects of Angel of Destiny, Blood Price, Feed the Swarm, Lithoform Blight and Malakir Rebirth. I've left aside the life cost to get the mythic MDFCs on their land side as the option is really incidental in Limited.

Been a bit to quick with this one.

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Just had a go at the Party keyword: matching the effect of the 92 Party sub types on the 32 Party-matter cards - now, that's a big add!!!

A lot of subcases there (e.g. Warrior not making Warriors' Party ability better, apart if it's about their casting costs; or Stonework Packbeast making everyone a lot better; or the Full Party special keyword being really something to aim for...?) so a bit of manual work still.

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BTW, that previous post counted as deep diving into WU Party. 

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Having a go at WB Clerics. A lot of individual cases, most of which are about +1/+1 counters and life gain. But still: done.

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now on Rogues, which is mostly UB, with dashes of R and G. lots of individual cases again... and quite a bit of overlapping with mill and "8 cards in the graveyard".

Forgot to mention earlier to be careful about Stonework Packbeast, Tajuru Paragon and Veteran Adventurer.

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impacted: 903

total: stopping counting, there's too much overlap with the previous bulk additions! we're standing currently at ca. 24000 entries, including 10000+ manual ones (some of which may have been added to a pairing already graded...)

Now going after WR Warriors, and taking the opportunity to add equipments in there, while we're at it. Lots of individual considerations, again.

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impacted: 4031

completion: 26368

going for Wizards and their associated instants and sorceries... there's a lot...!... plenty of non-Wizard "instant and sorcery" matter done along the way, such as Lithoform Engine and other Silundi Vision... all reviewed case-by-case... Done! 

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now looking at life gain, in the WBG colors. Interesting considerations with Roiling Vortex, Angel of Destiny, Scourge of the Skyclaves... and lots of "not at all".

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completion: 28330

reviewed the +1/+1 counter synergies in WBG, it was actually quite straightforward.

[FanF]

Massive edits to the database - re-thinking about the impact of having absolute grades already including the potential of a card to have its dependencies fulfilled (or to simply combo out with other cards) was biasing results. Measures were taken:

• revised the absolute gradings of each card to a grading reflecting the card face value in a vacuum (e.g. Attended Healer is a 2/3 for 3W, which is pretty bad, say 1; now, every life gain effect - one-off or repeatable - will increase its rating; other Clerics to which it can give lifelink will get improved by it too)
• adapted the level of improvements to reflect that (e.g. a one-off life gain trigger is less that half a grade improvement, but a repeatable trigger is a full grade improvement)
• added improvement rating for every card that depends on finding other cards, e.g. Tajuru Paragon gets a minor uptick from any Party member; Silundi Vision gets an uptick from every instant and sorcery; or Agadeem's Awakening gets an uptick from every creature. These cards got their absolute grading reviewed accordingly, e.g. Silundi Vision starts at a plain 0 (if you don't have other instants or sorceries, it's pretty useless, and starts to be interesting when you have a 7 or so); Agadeem's Awakening would start at a much higher base since pretty much every Limited deck is supposed to have creatures, and putting them back directly in play is really powerful; Tajuru Paragon is a 3/2 for 2, which is not too bad!