Lashknife Barrier

Honestly, this isn't that terrible of a card. It's basically mass Absorb 1 that trips. If you've got a meta where you have a lot of little creatures and your opponents use a lot of small mass damage (like Circle of Flame), this might be an okay budget sideboard card. I'm trying to be as nice as I can to this card.

Pros: Creature protection, trips

Cons: Only prevents 1 damage from each source

Rating: 2.5/5

Smoke Teller

You want a solid Limited creature? Well, here;s a solid Limited creature. I've seen many of these get passed in drafts (I ended up with 6 in one draft) because they don't think it's that great, but that's based mostly on the ability. The ability is sometimes useful (depending on what your opponent pulled), but that's not what makes this card a solid Limited pick. It's a bear. Bears are good in Limited. It can trade with a face-down creature and it's a quick drop for faster decks. Is it a snap first-pick? No. Is it a fourth+ pick? Yeah, I'd say so. 

Pros: Bear with an ability

Cons: Off-colour sometimes useless ability

Rating: 3/5

Foresight/Manipulate Fate

Both of these cards probably look pretty bad. "Why would I want to exile three cards from my library and only get one in return?" I hear you cry in classic internet rage, but these cards are actually pretty good Game 1 cards. Think about it this way: how many times have you played an FNM match where you've drawn a completely dead card, either because your opponent is running the wrong kind of deck (ie: drawing a removal spell against a hexproof deck) or because you're running a combo deck and you didn't draw your last piece? It doesn't seem like my, but these cards both improve your chances of drawing something you need by taking out the chaff that you don't want. At the very least, you can use them to remove lands from your deck once you've got your land base set up. I say they're "Game 1" cards because I think they're good to have in the first game before you sideboard them out once you know what your opponent is playing.

Foresight

Pros: Allows for deck tuning on the fly

Cons: Slow trip, sorcery speed

Rating: 3/5

Manipulate Fate

Pros: Allows for deck tuning on the fly, cantrip

Cons: Sorcery speed

Rating: 3.5/5

Soratami Mirror-Mage

Despite the fact that I love the Kamigawa block, I'm not above admitting that it had terrible cards. This card is irredeemably bad. Basically, this costs 6 mana to bounce a creature, 5 if you haven't played a land that turn. Even for Limited, that's pretty bad and that's a format where 5 mana kill spells are considered usable. Even the body can't save it since a 2/1 flier for 4 is also bad. Sorry Kamigawa, but you had really bad cards.

Pros: Repeatable creature bounce

Cons: Bounces 3 lands, 2/1 flier for 4

Rating: 0/5