you have to be a bad magic player to say these cards are mediocre, or there are way better cards than a few of these. gifts ungiven lets you get your two cards you want, skullclamp and tokens or cheap creatures (cough kobolds cough) says draw as many cards as you want. necropotence may not seem that good right away, but its one of those cards you have to test out to understand how good it is, thats why there was an entire pro tour season where everyone who was playing a good deck ran necro (see "black summer"). tinker gets your turn 1 darksteel colossus in formats where its legal, and the rest are just some pretty good cards. you have to be ridiculous and bad at this game to deny how good these cards are

  -- By Anonymous from nebraska on January 05, 2011

I agree with the first posting. At the time these were banned I can kind of see the power of the cards. But now? Seriously? No. There are a lot more cards that are over powered than these. And Channel will be seeing a come back especially with the Eldrazi. Who knows maybe it's going to be in the set.

  -- By zombie from Scranton,PA on March 17, 2010

Wow, how can you even say that you were disappointed with the power level of these cards? Kird Ape remains one of the most efficient beaters in aggressive zoo decks, Goblin Lackey puts down threats without even casting as early as turn 2, Tinker is still one of the most broken cards ever printed and the basis for innumerable tournament-winning decks through time, Necropotence is the epitome of card draw at often 5-7 cards for BBB the turn you play it, Channel is a turn 1 kill with any mana accelerant and a Fireball...need I go on? Pick this up while you can, these cards are gems.

  -- By Daniel from Fargo, ND on November 30, 2009

This is an amazing set. One out of the 15 (Channel) is pretty useless, but it makes it most likely due to nostalgia and that story every old magic player tells of "Channel + Fireball...". The other 14 are all must own, and with such a limited distribution you wont see many people sporting full copies of say Berserk on the tournament floor in their Stompy decks. Good job Wizards, much better the second time around. The new art on some of these is crappy, but overall an awesomely pretty set. The new Balance quickly replaced my DCI one. The Lotus Petal actually is an upgrade in the new silver frame as well, I was pleasantly surprised.

  -- By Nathaniel Graham from Columbia, MO USA on November 28, 2009

It was an Awesome idea when i first heard abot it. so I went ahead and preordered it right off the bat. really big mistake, really most of these cards are really bad. the only good ones were really the artifacts. The others i couldnt even figure out how to use in any of my decks. a really disappointment =/

  -- By Dan Birch from Medford, NJ USA on November 07, 2009