Illustrated by Simon Dominic
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Breakdown Analysis

Core Set 2021

Speed
How quickly most games are decided.
 
Slow
Fast
 
 
 
Quite Aggressive
Prince/Pauper
Power difference between rares and commons.
 
Pauper
Prince
 
 
 
Mostly Pauper
Synergy
Importance of cards working together.
 
Unimportant
Important
 
 
 
Fairly Important
Removal
Effectiveness of the available removal.
 
Ineffective
Effective
 
 
 
Pretty Good
Balance
Power balance between colors and decks.
 
Unbalanced
Balanced
 
 
 
Pretty Balanced
Lands/Colors
How many lands and colors generally see play.
17 Lands
2 Colors
Mana Fixing
Ability to fix for more than two colors.
 
Difficult
Easy
 
 
 
Possible but difficult

Summary

Core Set 2021 is a fairly aggressive, straightforward 2-color format. Generally, decks contain 17 lands and are defined by synergistic commons and uncommons, as there are not too many bomb rares.

Speed
How quickly most games are decided.
Speed
 
Slow
Average
Fast
 
 
 
Speed
Quite Aggressive
Card Name
Card Name
Card Name
Card Name
Card Name
Card Name
Card Name
Card Name
Two drops are very important! Even vanilla two drops are much better than usual.
M21 is all about curving out, make sure you have a good curve with lots of low drops.
Prince/Pauper
Power difference between rares and commons.
Prince/Pauper
 
Pauper
Average
Prince
 
 
 
Prince/Pauper
Mostly Pauper
Best Commons
Card Name
Card Name
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M21 games are mostly driven by strong color pair synergies at common and uncommon.
Best Rares/Mythics
Card Name
Card Name
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Card Name
There are powerful rares, but mostly at mythic. The majority of rares are good but not unbeatable.
Synergy
Importance of cards working together.
Synergy
 
Unimportant
Average
Important
 
 
 
Synergy
Fairly Important
Card Name
Card Name
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Card Name
M21 is not a complex set, but deck synergy is of above average importance to get the most use out of your cards and ensure wins.
As a core set, M21 is light on complexity and does not have any new or unique mechanics. But M21 still has strong synergy among cards with evergreen abilities.
Removal
Effectiveness of the available removal.
Removal
 
Ineffective
Average
Effective
 
 
 
Removal
Pretty Good
Card Name
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Most colors have access to at least one decent to good removal spell at common. There are also very efficient uncommon removal spells available.
White has Swift Response, which is at odds with the aggressiveness of the color. Secure the Scene is a very bad removal spell which makes White's removal much worse than the other colors.
Check out the full M21 removal guide!
Balance
Power balance between colors and decks.
Balance
 
Unbalanced
Average
Balanced
 
 
 
Balance
Pretty Balanced
M21 is fairly balanced between all of the color pairs, but being an aggressive format, Blue-Black control - and control in general - is somewhat underpowered.
Lands/Colors
How many lands and colors generally see play.
Land Total
17 Lands
Color Total
2 Colors
M21 is a fairly aggressive core set and abides by general aggressive curve rules.
Some hyper aggressive decks may want 16 lands, but you very rarely want 18 lands.
Mana Fixing
Ability to fix for more than two colors.
Mana Fixing
 
Difficult
Average
Easy
 
 
 
Mana Fixing
Possible but difficult
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All ten gainlands are at common, so a single splash is possible but generally avoided, given the aggro nature of the format. There are also few cards that are worth the splash.
However, mana fixing is terrible in limited by default - so try to pick up an on color dual if you can!