Definition:

Hot rares - very useful and powerful rares. Value should run into the more than 6 bucks range. Very versatile..usually will work against most decks. Examples: Urza's Rage/Absorb/Undermine
Good rares - Useful but sometimes you will wish its something else. eg Bribery/Ghitu Fire/Wrath of God. Price will be in the rage of 4-7 bucks a piece.
Medium rares - very important against certain archetypes and good sideboard material. Sometimes medium rares are fun to play with. Price range : 2-5 bucks Eg Sacred Ground/Teferi's response/Nightscape Master
Lousy rares - I shall not list this but I can give examples ... Planeswalker Mischief...

HOT RARES

Divine Sacrement
Enchantment
1WW
All white creatures get +1/+1.
A must for your White Weenie deck which I expect will be strong in Odyssey.

Divert (rare)
Instant
U
Change the target of target spell with a single target unless that spell's controller pays 2.
It works for a lot of evil things. It stops : Haunted Echoes, Urza's Rage, Stone Rain, Counterspell. Misdirection was hot..why shouldn't this be?

Extract (rare)
U
Sorcery
Search target player’s library for a card, and remove that card from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library
Its a very good card, reduces the number evil things to counter. Will break a Combo-deck if combined with Duress.

Haunting Echoes (rare)
3BB
Sorcery
Remove all cards in target player's graveyard other than basic land cards from the game. Search that player's library for all cards with the same name as cards removed this way, and remove them the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
Unlike the blue counterpart (Traumatize), this will work by itself. This card will have a more devastating effect compared to Lobotomy for only 1 extra mana. Its devastating but do not put more than 2 in a deck.

Epicenter (rare)
4R
Sorcery
Target player sacrifices a land.
Threshold - All players sacrifice all lands instead.
Red has never had problems getting more than 7 cards in the graveyard. Shock..Rage...Fire/Ice... A perfect land reset button after burning off opponent's creatures and casting those hasted weenie goblins.

Savage Firecat (rare)
3RR
Creature - Cat
Trample
Savage Firecat comes into play with seven +1/+1 counters on it. Whenever you tap a land for mana, remove a +1/+1 counter from Savage Firecat.
0/0
5 for a 7/7 trampling ***** cat! What more can I say? Just go all the way.

Call of the Herd (rare)
2G
Sorcery
Put a 3/3 green Elephant creature token into play.
Flashback - 3G
3 for a 3/3 and again 1 turn later? This is what I call card-advantage.

Shadowmage Infiltrator (rare)
1UB
Creature - Wizard
Shadowmage Infiltrator can't be blocked except by black or artifact creatures. When Shadowmage Infiltrator deals damage to a player, draw a card.
1/3
Finkle's the reason I am still see hope in my favourite Blue-Black deck.

GOOD RARES:
1) Aegis of Honour - Only a sideboard card
2) Balancing Act - its actually Armageddon, Persecute, Wrath of God all in 1..but timing is everything.
3) Devoted Caretaker - White Weenie rejoice!
4) Karmic Justice - This is such an evil card against mass destruction decks.
5) Mystic Crusader - I pity the opponent if he plays Black/Red once this card hits the table
6) Persuasion - A replacement for Bribery/Dominate but its an Enchantment..so there is weakness.
7) Traumatize - This card alone won't win you the game for Blue players.
8) Upheaval - Powerful but since its a sorcery, its relegated to down here.
9) Kamahl - Good but there are better rares(the 7/7 trampling ***** cat anyone?). Its a legend, you can't more than 1 Kamahls in play.
10) Molten Influence - a good rare but it sucks if your opponent doesn't pack much instants (eg black..green...)
11) bearscape - Sometimes counters can be such a pain..just try and pull this bugger thru.
12) Ground seal - A good sideboard and its a cantrip!
13) Krosan Beasts - Works only if you have more than 7 cards in graveyard.
14) New frontiers - Good mana acceleration. It will work better if Type 2 offers something like : When opponent plays a land, it deals x damage to him/her.
15) Spellbane centaur - Anti-blue only for sideboard.
16) Terravore - It can grow bigger. Its good only because it has trample. Perfect for a landie deck.
17) Iridescent angel - The casting cost is a bit too high. Does not have protection from Lands.
18) Mystic Enforcer - depending on the metagame..this could be nasty for Black.
19) Gravestorm - Useful for mono-black decks.

MEDIUM RARES

1) Patron Wizard - Build yourself a wizard deck. There are loads of good wizards out there (Vodalian Mystic,Vodalian Hypnotist, Temporal Adept, Archivist, Stormscape Apprentice)
2) Graceful Antelope - A real fun card to play with if you could pull it off.
3) Thought devourer - 4/4 flier for 4cc. Drawback? Use spellbook! Its fun! Nightscape familiars will make it even more fun!
4) Upheaval - Again, use the 0cc spellbook with Megrim for some massive damage. This card has very good potential
5) Mirari - What? How could I put Mirari here in this category? I feel I could pack better cards instead of Mirari in my deck. I do not see Mirari as a ground breaking card in Type 2. nevertheless its a fun card to play if you can pull it off.
6) All the dual Rare lands - I prefer those pain lands.

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MOTL Moderator for:

First you say cards that are effective in sideboard only are rated "Good"... then you say Extract will be "Hot". Why you say this I don't understand, because for example Extract is clearly card disadvantage and won't affect your opponent's hand, permanents or graveyard in any way. Sideboard ONLY, and only if metagame forms to have combos of sorts.

Balancing Act won't be Armageddon, Persecute and Wrath of God all in 1. Your opponent gets to decide which permanents he sacrifices, so it's kind of partial Wrath of God and partial Armageddon for your opponent, but only in the way he chooses to have less impact on his game.

To me your reasoning on the cards was pretty obvious and boring, you didn't bring any insight on the cards that are less obviously good. What about Nefarious Lich or all the other combo-ish rares?

-Ron

quote:

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Originally posted by kevy:
Divine Sacrement
Enchantment
1WW
All white creatures get +1/+1.
A must for your White Weenie deck which I expect will be strong in Odyssey.

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Could be cool, there are a lot of good white critters in the set.

quote:

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Divert (rare)
Instant
U
Change the target of target spell with a single target unless that spell's controller pays 2.
It works for a lot of evil things. It stops : Haunted Echoes, Urza's Rage, Stone Rain, Counterspell. Misdirection was hot..why shouldn't this be?

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Ooh! Ooh! I know the answer to that question. Because Divert says "...unless that spells controller pays 2." Misdirection could be cast without tapping any mana, and it didn't have an "unless" clause in it. That element of surprise was key, and divert is hardly a replacement.

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Extract (rare)
U
Sorcery
Search target player’s library for a card, and remove that card from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library
Its a very good card, reduces the number evil things to counter. Will break a Combo-deck if combined with Duress.

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I agree that this card is strong, but is it better than Lobotomy?

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Haunting Echoes (rare)
3BB
Sorcery
Remove all cards in target player's graveyard other than basic land cards from the game. Search that player's library for all cards with the same name as cards removed this way, and remove them the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
Unlike the blue counterpart (Traumatize), this will work by itself. This card will have a more devastating effect compared to Lobotomy for only 1 extra mana. Its devastating but do not put more than 2 in a deck.

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This card is a little bit sick. I really had to read it a couple of times when I first saw the spoiler. If this gets through mid-game, someone is in trouble.

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Epicenter (rare)
4R
Sorcery
Target player sacrifices a land.
Threshold - All players sacrifice all lands instead.
Red has never had problems getting more than 7 cards in the graveyard. Shock..Rage...Fire/Ice... A perfect land reset button after burning off opponent's creatures and casting those hasted weenie goblins.

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This card Rocks!! I can't wait to get board control and start throwing this around. You're right, threshold will have to be had though, because without it, this card is worthless; that's the only drawback though.

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Savage Firecat (rare)
3RR
Creature - Cat
Trample
Savage Firecat comes into play with seven +1/+1 counters on it. Whenever you tap a land for mana, remove a +1/+1 counter from Savage Firecat.
0/0
5 for a 7/7 trampling ***** cat! What more can I say? Just go all the way.

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Just as long as you don't cast anything after it! If someone tries to bounce it and you molten influence, he's down to a 5/5. You got to be careful with this guy.

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Call of the Herd (rare)
2G
Sorcery
Put a 3/3 green Elephant creature token into play.
Flashback - 3G
3 for a 3/3 and again 1 turn later? This is what I call card-advantage.

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Great card. Great casting cost too. I look forward to playing it, twice!

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Shadowmage Infiltrator (rare)
1UB
Creature - Wizard
Shadowmage Infiltrator can't be blocked except by black or artifact creatures. When Shadowmage Infiltrator deals damage to a player, draw a card.
1/3
Finkle's the reason I am still see hope in my favourite Blue-Black deck.

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Better than Ophidian? I think so. Finkel has better evasion than the ophid and his colors go oh so well together. This is going to be the expensive card from the set (at least for awhile).

Don't forget that there are some pretty good uncommons and commons as well.

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2nd in refs in SC
2nd ranked poster in SC

55 and counting on my Yavimaya Barbarian collection...

Resident expert on anything to do with chemical engineering. (Well not everything.)

I hope that these thing are as hot as i hope that they are.

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if a frog had wings it wouldnt bump its arse when it hopped.- Red Foreman-That 70s Show

I want as many last caresses as is out there, ill trade for them

i also want your leeches