Hello everyone, and welcome to this special Commoner set review of Part the Mistveil (MST)! I believe this is the first time I’ve reviewed a set on FABREC which is primarily talented, so I’m very excited to dive into which cards I think will make a splash in the format. As a disclaimer, these are my initial early opinions on cards and I’m willing to believe that my evaluation on some of these, especially the Mystic cards, could be slightly off.

A New Talent Joins Flesh and Blood in Part the Mistveil

In these set reviews and in my own personal evaluations of new cards, the aspect in which I’ve struggled the most is in the introduction of new talents or hero classes. Oftentimes it’s difficult to be able to predict how deep the card pool for a new hero is or even how effective their talent can be.

In the case of a set like Tales of Aria, the dual talent nature of each of the three heroes meant their card pools were inherently wider and had at least two overarching themes (Ice focusing on taxing an opponent’s pitch, Earth on big numbers with a subtheme on recurring cards from the graveyard, and Lightning on generating go again and arcane damage). With Part the Mistveil‘s debut of Mystic heroes, this evaluation has never been more difficult, so I’ll run through my thought process of the general themes, mechanics, and how I’ve been viewing this new talent for Commoner.

Transcending with Inner Chi

Straight off the bat, the Mystic heroes rely on the new chi resource in order to activate their powerful abilities, which in turn require another blue card being played in the same turn to transcend. Theoretically, each transcended Inner Chi can pay for the entire activation of each hero’s ability, but I personally feel that it’s a lot of effort to flood your deck with Titanium Baubles, even if you do get to return them flipped to your hand upon transcending.

Of the three heroes, Nuu and Zen are by far the most interesting, as Nuu can spike specific matchups where the opposing hero is predisposed to playing more blues (Guardians and Iyslander, I’m looking at you), while Zen can easily set up the start of a potentially high-damaging turn. I’ll be keeping a close eye on these heroes and chi as a mechanic, but for now, I can’t confidently endorse any of the three heroes for Commoner in terms of competitive viability. That being said, I’ll still be examining their supporting pieces so that in the event any of them break out into the metagame, there will already be a foundation to build off of.

Mystic Equipment

While we’re on the topic of Mystic heroes, I’d also like to just make some comments about the swathe of Mystic equipment coming into the game. Firstly, they’re all incredibly flavorful and fun designs, with beautiful art to match, so hats off to the design team and art director for knocking all of that out of the park. As someone who grew up reading Wuxia novels, a lot of the tropes and storytelling beats are present in these cards, which is personally extremely pleasing to see.

That being said, I think that these are all largely unplayable within the current context of Commoner. In particular, the pieces of equipment that become uncloaked when you start your turn at exactly one life, while a great manifestation of the concept of struggling to break through and attaining enlightenment at the perfect opportunity onto the tabletop, ultimately don’t do enough to warrant playing most of the game with one fewer piece of equipment. Aqua Laps looks to be the most promising, functioning as a Snapdragon Scalers that can work on all attacks and having the versatility of blocking for a turn, though it will probably be about as telegraphed as Scalers, despite being cloaked. Stride of Reprisal is also quite promising, though I think it’s outclassed by Pouncing Paws from Round the Table.

Mystic Blues

MST also comes with quite the generous selection of blues from which to build a nice lineup for transcending. While I wouldn’t advocate putting in all eight of them in your deck unless you’ve built a deck that heavily leans into trying to transcend as early as possible (Zen, perhaps?), Rising Sun, Setting Moon, Homage to Ancestors, The Grain that Tips the Scale, Preserve Tradition, and Path Well Traveled all read generically powerfully to me, with the remaining three all having their own relevant use cases.

In an ideal world where I’m playing a Mystic hero, I’d want at least seven of these somewhere between my deck and inventory just for that flexibility between specific matchups. Alongside these legendary instants are a suite of blue-only cards that care about playing or pitching other blues to empower them. Of these, the three First Tenet of Chi cards, Moon, Tide, and Wind, are fantastic three-block actions that all have some form of relevancy and are really in line with my personal philosophy regarding making your blues work for you. Droplet is also quite an interesting card, doing its best Wounding Blow impression when empowered, though in the three Mystic heroes we have access to currently, I don’t think it’s any better than existing class-specific blues in their card pools.

Assassin Gets a Lot of Great Tools

I don’t really talk about Assassin in Commoner, and for good reason. The currently available Assassins both have very specific play patterns that can be easily exploited on defense, and they’re basically relegated to play every single stealth card in the game due to how littler options there are. MST brings five new stealth cards, and they’re all fantastic.

Four of them, Bonds of Memory, Desires of Flesh, Impulsive Desire, and Mind's Desire, all have an on hit effect of banishing the top card of the opponent’s deck, while still retaining the expected stat line of three power and defense for the red versions. This turns Arakni's first stealth attack (to which he gives go again), into a must-block, and even has extra synergy with the original contract cards from Dynasty, though that might require some more specific sequencing. My personal picks for the ones that will be the most effective are Desires of Flesh and Bonds of Memory, simply due to how often I believe they’ll net you the lifegain, though all of them are incredible upgrades to the existing stealth card pool.

Tiger Ninja Powers Up

A few months ago I wrote about my take on the Crouching Tiger Ira strategy, and MST brings with it a few nice options for the deck. Specifically, a whole new range of attack actions that create Tigers either on attack or on hit, allowing for better starter potential without having to destroy the Pouncing Paws or rely on a Predatory Streak. Red Biting Breeze is a great follow-up to an initial Kodachi swing, getting the buff from Ira and turning into a hard to block zero-cost, four-power attack that threatens to keep the damage flowing, and forcing the opponent to commit something lest they want the pain to continue.

In a similar vein, red Breed Anger is just a well-statted attack, and has the upside of not needing to hit to create the Tiger, and simply requiring you to have attacked with one before it in the chain. Lastly, I’d like to highlight red Untamed, a card which I think has potential, though it remains to be seen how hard it is to line up with the rest of your hand. The bonus of buffing the next Tiger here is especially nice as it doesn’t specify that it has to be the very next attack on the chain, and the natural go again means it can slot right in anywhere on the combat chain.

Concluding Thoughts on Part the Mistveil in Commoner

Overall, MST seems to be a set whose impact on Commoner will really hinge on how well the Mystic heroes and transcending Inner Chi as a mechanic will translate into the format and its limitations. I’m currently unconvinced of Enigma’s viability amongst the three, even though her cards read powerfully, as she just doesn’t seem to have a well defined identity or place within the existing metagame. I would not be surprised if Nuu or Zen become solid choices, though as I went through in my review, a lot of their cards will immediately benefit existing heroes, which I’m excited to play with and against upon the set’s full release. I sincerely hope that Mystic becomes a talent that stays around for a while and that Legend Stories Studio really fleshes out and develops the possible design space with it, as this looks to be one of the coolest sets we’ve received.

More Part the Mistveil Set Reviews:

Part the Mistveil Review – Expansion Slot

Part the Mistveil Review – Assassin

Part the Mistveil Review – Ninja & Generic

Part the Mistveil Review – Illusionist

Daniel Yam

Daniel is a competitive psychopath who has relegated himself into playing the most casual format of Commoner. Starting Magic at the onset of Shards block, he jumped into Flesh and Blood when the Ira demo decks were being given out to Australian stores and is a proud holder of a 4-digit GEM ID. In his spare time, he enjoys trying to convince his friends to play increasingly worse cards, going to museums, and playing Guild Wars.