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Theros Beyond Death - Top 5 Black Cards
In almost every set, I am disappointed by White and Red, the colors least conducive to doing well in EDH. Luckily, there’s always black.
Combo pieces, removal, and reanimation. Always fun toys here.
5) Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Grade: C+
Home: Combo Reanimation, Devotion
Range: Narrow
You know him, you love him, it’s Gary!
Bad case scenario is that you’re playing against 4 other players, you shock everyone with only Gary’s Devotion, and gain 8 life. From there, more devotion, and some monoblack reanimation combo aside some infinite mana combo, Nim Deathmantle, Ashnod’s Altar and the like.
4) Nightmare Shepard
Grade: C
Home: ETB Decks, Death Trigger Decks, Sac decks
Range: Narrow
A decent flying body, with a novel ability of token reanimation of a sort. Nightmare has some nominal tribal support (sorta but not really). Not sure how to break this, but extra bodies and abilities never hurt.
3) Gravebreaker Lamia
Grade: C
Home: Reanimator Deck
Range: Narrow
I love playing out of the yard, especially if I can get things cheaper. Flashback spells being cheaper is a start, and if we can play this cheap to, like Entomb to Reanimate, then being able to Entomb another thing. Lifelink on a medium sized body is also nice.
2) Drag to the Underworld
Grade: B+
Home: Black Decks with few colors
Range: Very Wide
Ideally, this is a cheap Murder. Black is always coming with a new 2 CMC removal with restrictions, and this is more of the same. Instead of being limited to creature types to target, limited cost type is interesting. Given how easy it is to activate even in multicolored decks, it’s a great option for any deck looking for another removal.
1) Erebos’s Intervention
Grade: B+
Home: Any Black Deck
Range: Wide
Spot removal that can blow past indestructible with nice lifegain, and some amazing GY hate - being able to single out specific cards across multiple graveyards, with an “up to” clause? Fantastic! And all at instant speed.
Honorable mentions
Underworld Dreams - I was contemplating this and Gary as the number five as a reprint and combo piece, but since I like Gary more, I went with that. Assuming you can get an infinite draw, this can be a good instant kill option.
Woe Strider - I look at this as a bigger and nastier Blood Artist. Coming in bigger, able to come back, and bringing sac fodder. Definitely not a replacement, but a worthy comparison
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Theros Beyond Death - Top 5 White Cards
Welcome back folks to EDH, A to Z. We’re looking at the...I gotta say disappointing...white cards of Theros Beyond Death.
Most of these are decent, but aside from the top choice, there’s nothing here I view as must have.
5) Archon of Sun’s Grace
Grade: C
Home: Enchanment Deck, Permanent Blink Deck
Range: Narrow
Pegasus tokens have an odd relation with lifelink, like with Storm Herd, a nice clunky card for Big Life decks. A 3/4 LL Flyer is solid, and the Lifelink anthem affect is self supporting. The potential to make a small army of Pegasi through conventional play, or a massive army with a dedicated blinky deck, is also a fun potential.
4) Transcendent Envoy
Grade: C-
Home: Voltron, Enchantment Decks
Range: Average
Discount cards, especially ones at such a low CMC, really help things snowball. Even better, it can be the target for what it enables, so a Voltron deck can really work with this
3) Banishing Light
Grade: C+
Home: Any White Deck
Range: Very Wide
I love a O-Ring effect, and Banishing Light has been one of my EDH go-tos ever since Nyx. A catchall removal, even at sorcery speed, is worth 3 mana for - Unconditional removal that can deal with indestructible or otherwise hard to kill creatures is excellent.
2) Shatter the Sky
Grade: C+
Home: Control Decks, Board Wipe Decks
Range: Narrow
4 CMC wraths rarely get added to EDH these days, so every Shatter the Sky we get makes Fumigate and the typical standard legal 5 CMC wiper look like trash. The last board wipe I really liked was Wings of Abandon, and that was in Modern Horizons at 6 CMC.
1) Idyllic Tutor
Grade: A-
Home: Any Deck with Enchantments
Range: Wide
Since most every EDH deck packs enchantments for removal, utility, value, or win-con, Idyllic Tutor is an old friend we haven’t seen since Morningtide. A great reprint of an EDH beloved card that sees moderate usage but a two digit price is very welcome.
Highly recommend of buying a single when you can.
Honorable Mentions:
My fave cards that don’t quite cut it.
Eidolon of Obstruction - A super niche card, but it can really annoy a superfriend player’s day. With good stats and a creature type for a 2 drop, it’s fairly solid - but in a format like EDH where mana
Elspeth Conquer’s Death - Dear heavens, this card is clunky and slow, but I love every step of it. Hard exile removal which can hit a lot of problem creatures is great. Messing with your opponents ability to spellcast is also nice, but niche. Resurrection with a buff is also nice, but your opponent had several turns to deal with the Saga or use GY hate. It’s like White getting The Eldest Reborn, but not nearly as good.
The Birth of Meletis - A great card for a Control deck to have. It gets you land (fixing mana with Dual lands in Multicolor Decks), it has some early defense, and a touch of lifegain. It’s like a more specific Angelic Wall.
Sentinel’s Eyes - A very cheap, recursive-capable Aura has some potential
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Theros Beyond Death - Top 5 Blue Cards
Hi Folks, back at it again with my favorite five blue Theros Beyond Death cards. This list is highly subjective, and I’d love to hear your picks for your favorite blue cards of this set. Have any fun plays in Arena? Let me know, I’d love to hear about it!
5) Stern Dismissal
Grade: C-
Home: Spellslinger Decks
Range: Narrow
Finally, after all these years - a strictly better Unsummon! Since Unsummon is always at the verge of being played, and I think this pushes that type of card to playable. Blue has occasional problems with Enchantments, and the ability to deal with them, albeit temporarily, feels like a nice extra bit of functionality.
4) Thassa’s Intervention
Grade: C
Home: Blue Utility Cards
Range: Very Wide
Options are great, especially on Counterspells with “Cost Extra” which can end up dead in later turns. This insulates from that since the cost is pretty hefty, making it a spell I don’t mind playing at 4 or 5, which I hate doing for Counterspells. Digging for cards at instant speed and usually drawing the best two is a great fallback, especially at instant.
3) Thassa’s Oracle
Grade: B-
Home: Lab Man Deck
Range: Very Narrow
Alt Win-Cons can always be abused, and this can be redundancy for Lab Man decks. That alone gets a mention on the list.
Aside from that, the digging is rather tame.
2) Nadir Kraken
Grade: C+
Home: Kraken Tribal, Literally any Blue Deck, Draw-Go, Sac Fodder
Range: Narrow
Hello, annoying creature. Assuming you just keep paying, netting a decent sized kraken and an army of chump blockers is chief and efficient. Being able to do this at least once a round is nice. It’s also odd for other players to try to justify to themselves using single target removal on such a creature - it’s slow to become a threat, doesn’t have evasion, leave it for others to deal with.
1) Kiora Bests the Sea God
Grade: C+
Home: Steal Decks, Sacrifice Decks
Range: Narrow
Casting anything over 4 mana, especially when you get to 6+ CMC, always feels riskier thanks to the prevelence of counterspells in a multiplayer game. But sometimes, a card is so splashy you make an exception for it.
A hexproof 8/8 Kraken to start is great. That brings up all kinds of shenanigans for recursion and Flickering, like Sentinel of the Pearl Trident or Venser the Sojourner.
The hard tapdown effect and stealing effects as well? Just gravy. Sure, it targets a player (not scaling well to Multiplayer), but opening up one player to get ganked by the table is a great idea. A finale of stealing the best permanent on the board makes this a godly card in a battlecruiser game.
More so than White, Blue has some great cards at all rarities - here are a solid bunch I felt worth mentioning.
Honorable mentions -
Wavebreak Hippocamp, Stinging Lionfish, Naiad of Hidden Coves - A lot of decks like playing on other turns anyway, and Draw-Go can get some utility out of these. The fact that they’re all enchantment has some potential synergy with White tutoring or Constellation, but that’s just ambient synergy - I don’t see a build-around.
Sphinx Mindbreaker - Scales fairly into EDH, and flickering it like crazy is a good way to end a Mill game.
Serpent of Yawning Depths - For all your Kraken needs! Kraken and Co support is rather rare, and for a casual Whelming Wave style decks, this can do some work
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Throne of Eldraine - Black
Sorry about the slow post - I left the draft for this open (alongside other work I had for MTG) and lost like 3 hours of work when it wouldn’t save. Oof.
Clackbridge Troll
Grade: C
Home: BBC (Big Black Creatures)
Range: Narrow
I typically view cards that let opponents tap down your creatures, or give your opponents things, or allows them to have choices, rather negatively. Clackbridge here has enough abilities and sheer power to muscle through value.
Most fun making some diplomatic scenarios - seeing if someone will sac something to save a player from dying. It makes it fun to ponder what fun can happen.
Compare with Boldwyr Heavyweight, another fun not-quite hug card.
It can also work well defensively in a pinch, played in the second main phase as a 5 mana 8/8 blocker, which is tolerable.
I also like following him up with a low to mid level sweeper, like Pyroclasm or Languish, to remove other players options to sacrifice, so even if they want to do so, they’re gonna have to lose something that matters.
Murderous Rider
Grade: A
Home: Any Deck. Really.
Range: Very Wide
IMO, the best card in the set.
Hero’s Downfall for 2 more life is worth it every day of the week, and it doesn’t lose a card slot in just being removal. The 2/3 lifelink body is underwhelming, but its bottom deck ability has some interesting possibilities with Divining Witch - Laboratory Maniac plays.
At the end of the day, I wish I could survive a non-aggro game in MTGA without getting ganked and stonewalled by this dude. Thems the breaks
- Me, playing Piper of the Swarm
Grade: A-
Home: Sac Synergy, Rat Tribal, Most Black Decks
Range: Average
This card goes to work.
In Rat (or changeling) tribal, it can quickly get to work in stealing the best creatures on the board. Sure, it can die really easy (not passing the Bolt test even) but since a lot of removal in EDH is unconditional or otherwise really good, then this guy is eating removal that would otherwise hit more important creatures you’re running.
Menace is a decent buff as well, especially if you’re running Ink-Eyes that can really benefit from it.
Even with zero support, it’s a decent growing threat to drop early and dump mana into.
Taste of Death
Grade: C+
Home: Most Black Decks as Board wipe
Range: Average
Scaling to EDH really makes it worthwhile - sure, WOTC stuck it into the Brawl deck, but if this is what we get, I’ll take that every day.
Going three creatures goes deep - unless I’m running tokens or a wide board, I may only have a single creature I feel like losing. The fact that this doesn’t care about targeting at all, and gets around every conventional form of protection makes it even more amazing.
A trio of food offers some nice life, or artifacts, or Food synergy. Makes a nice gift to stabilize with.
Witch’s Vengeance
Grade: C-
Home: -X Removal Usage?
Range: Narrow
I debated having this on the honorable mentions list, as it’s more niche than it could be.
Hitting one creature types makes it attractive against tribal decks - unless they’re packing lords (like Elves or Merfolk) or are too big to be affected (Angels, Dragons, Giants).
I feel it better hits vocation style, like aiming for Advisors, Druids, or Clerics, and view this as -X removal, killing one target, and getting additional kills by happenstance.
Blacklance Paragon - I view this as a Black kill spell with limitations - like Doom Blade, a conditional piece of removal, hitting attacking creatures that can be blocked by Black creatures and aren’t indestructible.
Order of Midnight - I like playing Gravedigger in a lot of decks. Splitting the effect from the creature is an interesting choice - I lose out on ETB abuse for an easier to use piecemeal creature.
The Cauldron of Eternity - The replacement effect of messing with your graveyard is a deal breaker for me - what’s the point in doing a GY deck if you’re not restocking it?
Chitterling Witch - It scales, but it’s a weak scaling. Removal is okay, but I think Phyrexian Plaguelord is a better go-to.
Specter’s Shriek - Nice for those control sadists who run a Thoughtsieze type package - for the same cost and speed, there’s way less restrictions on what can be
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MTG Game Night 2019
Still working on reviewing Eldraine. Probably will be done by the time we get to the next set.
Keep in mind last year’s Game Night, of which none made appearances in my EDH meta, nor saw a lot of mention or usage at large. Of the five mythics, only Rot Hulk was particularly notable.
Highcliff Felidar
Grade: B
Home: Any White Deck
Range: Average
One of the better ETBs of the Game Night 2019 creatures. Removal that hits the biggest creature they run and scales with Multiplayer helps, and unlike most white removal, it doesn’t have a downside like them getting land or gaining life.
More importantly, you get to choose. No targeting. Sure, it won’t get shrouded indestructible creatures, but it’ll get the shrouded ones! Since it doesn’t target players either, good luck protecting against this!
Biggest downside is it’s prohibitive cost. It’s a phenomenal Resurrection target, and a 5/5 Vigilance is very attractive.
Sphinx of Enlightenment
Grade: C
Home: Any Blue Deck
Range: Wide
Drawing three is typically worth four mana, like Concentrate at Sorc speed. Adding on a 2 Mana 5/5 Sphinx flyer with some 1 card for an opponent is pretty solid. Straightforward and boring.
Like the Felidar above, it’s a good rez target, like most fatties with useful ETBs.
Calculating Lich
Grade: D+
Home: Token Aggro Deck
Range: Narrow
While this can synergize to multiplayer, given that A LOT of turns in EDH have either no creatures attacking, or few (Voltron) creatures attacking, or a game ending army hitting hard, there’s actually a smaller role for this than I initially thought.
Unlike Fiendish Duo below, this relies on mass attacks of creatures, hopefully attacking on multiple turns - it feels more attuned to Conspiracy multiplayer than EDH.
I believe that when planning for EDH decks that will have effects that relate to opponents, like cloning effects, that can do well, can also have scenarios where they whiff. In my opinion, it’s best to build your deck to exploit those effect, and then
Fiendish Duo
Grade: B-
Home: Damage Decks, Multiplayer decks
Range: Average
Carrying a Furnace of Rath that doesn’t hit you is pretty nice. Most Red damage doublers have to either be under your control, or just deal double damage to everyone. These double damage decks want to land more than one, so that the humble Lighting Bolt goes from 3, to 6, to 12 or more damage. Hitting anyone that’s not you for double makes it attractive for other players to exploit as well.
The baseline body is also nice, a 5/5 First Striker at 6 mana is excellent on defense as well as on offense. Notable it doesn’t double damage to permanents, so that’s reasonable if underwhelming.
Earthshaker Giant
Grade: C
Home: Ramp, 1v1 Decks
Range: Narrow
Unlike the others, this scales the worst in multiplayer - it’s a helluva buff, but it’s only hitting your creatures, and unlike similarly styled creatures like End-Raze Forerunner, which has Haste itself for swinging.
It feels the most boring of the batch, and becomes a Colossal Dreadmaw after it’s ETB.
That said, it’s a solid option. It grants buffs and evasions and requires hard removal to scour from the battlefield.
That’s my quick take on these fun creatures. IMO, there’s better fatties in each color available now, and easily so -
For White I’d recommend Angel of Serenity or Sun Titan.
For Blue I’d recommend Inspired Sphinx or Torrential Gearhulk.
For Black I’d recommend Noxious Gearhulk or Soul of Innistrad.
For Red I’d recommend Moonveil Dragon (for go-wide decks) or Utvara Hellkite (for dragon heavy decks)
For Green I’d recommend Avenger of Zendikar or Giant Adephage.
And for any color, I always recommend Wurmcoil Engine Soul of New Phyrexia for commanders on a budget.
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Throne of Eldraine - White
Been a while, but Eldraine has been...inspiring. The full set got dropped, and I’m pumped.
I love Disney, and the fairy tales their based off of. I’ve hopped into Magic Arena, so feels like the right time to blog again.
Eldraine doesn’t seem overpowered, and has far more that I hoped for for EDH.
Check out my Top 5 picks, and some honorable mentions. Let me know what you think.
Top 5
All that Glitters
Grade: B-
Home: Voltron
Range: Narrow
For Enchantment based Voltron Decks, this is pretty great. Like Ancestral Mask this can snowball really well.
It’s a straightforward and elegant spell, and feels as balanced as can be hoped for - until you’re on the receiving side.
Giant Killer
Grade: B
Home: Any Deck, really
Range: Wide
Feels like Intrepid Hero’s cousin. I like Smite the Monstrous effects, and a tapper attached to that for W is fine - Fan Bearer is a decent creature in a pinch.
Harmonious Archon
Grade: B+
Home: Counters/Anthems/Buffs, Control Oriented Decks, Token Deck, Archon Tribal?
Range: Average
Effecting Base Power has always been interesting to me.
Playing this alone is 10/11 PT, some of which has flying, over three bodies, for 4WW, which is EDH playable on it’s own in my book. Given the large average creature size in the format, reducing base power to 3/3 is quite a damper on things.
Buffing a potential army of 1/1 Saprolings, Humans, Soldiers, Goblins, or other tokens you have is also potent, functionally acting as a +2/+2 aura for them - like Dicate of Heliod!
Changelings and Archons won’t be affected, so there’s also some synergy with other archons, Blazing Archon and Silent Sentinel have seen some niche play in my group, so letting them stay big is nice.
Realm Cloaked Giant
Grade: B
Home: Board Wipe Indestructible, Giant Tribal
Range: Average
Giant tribal doesn’t get much love.
If you’re playing a big tribe like Giants, board wipes hurt a lot. So being able to slam down some sweepers that’s one sided feels pretty dope. While multiple copies are synergistic in Standard, we’ll have to settle for not killing our own dudes.
For the board wipes deck, it’s a sub-par board wipe, but offering a big body offsets that.
The Circle of Loyalty
Grade: B+
Home: Token Deck, Knight Tribal
Range: Narrow
This has it all. Legendary Synergy, token production, Tribal Buff, and Tribal discount. Being as cheap as WW is pretty great.
I’m a sucker for big flashy spells, and this is phenomenally fun to look at. A big buff, tons of Knight creation, all of it makes a Legendary Knight deck a serious subtheme option. Even as a 6 or 4 drop it’s very attractive. Sure, it’s a priority target for Shatter’ing things, but what big artifact isn’t? EDH lets you bring out the big toys - embrace it and make an army of knights.
Honorable Mentions
Archon of Absolution - It’s no Windborn Muse, but it’s another annoying defensive card.
Charming Prince - None of these modes are overwhelmingly interesting, but they’re nice, especially the slow blink.
Deafening Silence - there’s some serious utility as an Anti-Combo Control card, as well as players who wanna force others to play battlecruiser magic
Happily Ever After - every alt win con is inherently interesting, and the hoops to jump through here make it very fair. A great name for a fun card.
Hushbringer - Yet another control loving card, this will probably replace Hushwing Gryff in a lot of my decks.
Mace of the Valiant - Better in a token deck. Given the iffy time I had playing it in MTG Arena’s Brawl pre-con, I think the hoops to jump through as too much.
Silverwing Squadron - Scaling is always appreciated in EDH. While I’ve never likes “P/T equal to number of creatures you control” the Flying and Vigilance work well together, and dropping, say, three Knight tokens a swing, goes a long way to fixing that.
Worthy Knight - The low CMC knight enabler that makes plenty of “squires” for a knight army.
Youthful Knight - Honorable mention for giving me flashbacks to the XBOX game Magic BattleGrounds. YOUTHFUL KNIGHT YOUTHFUL KNIGHT
See you soon campers with more Eldraine.
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Throne of Eldraine - Blue
Top 3
While I normally have a top 5, I felt only these three were really EDH worthy. Plenty of cards are worth an honorable mention, but I felt the following are a cut above the rest.
Faerie Formation
Grade: C
Home: Token Deck, Faerie Tribal Decks
Range: Wide
A 5 mana 5/4 flyer is good, especially for a tribe that rarely gets that big - only Oona compares in P/T and cost. Making extra Faeries and drawing a card for 3U is nice as well.
The card is straightforward and usable in a lot of decks. Disappointing it’s only available from the Brawl precons.
Mirrormade
Grade: C
Home: Clone Decks, Artifact Decks
Range: Narrow
Ideally you want your own things to copy, like a Sword of X and Y or Propaganda but what I really want to do is copy an even better card one of my opponents brought to the table that I need in the moment.
Functionally acts as a duplicate for a lot of noncreature permanents that can’t be traditionally cloned in a singleton format allows significant versatility I haven’t seen before.
The Magic Mirror
Grade: C
Home: Spellslinger Decks, Combo Decks
Range: Narrow
Potentially as cheap as UUU, this rolls together some massive draw potential with the utility of Spellbook (what every draw heavy player needs).
Synergizes easily into spellflinger decks, as it likes instants and sorceries in the graveyard. Also a good choice for artifact reanimation - another reason to play Argivian Restoration!
Drawing one, two, three, four, and so on cards makes it magnet for removal, so be prepared. A backup of a Reliquary Tower or Thought Vessel helps if you get heavy handed.
Honorable Mentions
Animating Faerie - As the first Adventure card I was exposed to, I have a soft spot for this. Getting a 4/4 on turn 2 is still pretty good for EDH, especially if it’s a Mana rock or small utility Artifact - or that Sol Ring you landed early. Casting both sides is ultimately a 6/6 for 6 over two turns, some of which have flying.
Faerie is a relevant tribe as well, so this makes even better.
Brazen Borrower - There’s yakking back and forth whether this is a good mythic or not. Regardless, it’s an efficient card, and it looks to be a good workhorse.
Fae of Wishes - I love a good wish card, but I also find that it slows everything down. Being repeatable is nice for a big casual game,
Folio of Fancies - Circular draw is fair, and milling that doesn’t hit you is great - if someone feels like drawing heavily into their deck, this may give them pause.
Frogify - Shutdown. Doesn’t always work, but monoblue could always use some more removal, even if it is soft.
Hypnotic Sprite - I’m not jazzed about the limitations of a counterspell, but being a counterspell + body makes it more attractive.
Into the Story - Draw 4 for 4 at instant Speed! Technically there’s another requirement, but 7 cards in any other players graveyard? Easy pickings in EDH, especially in a mill deck, discard deck, or against GY decks.
Midnight Clock - It’s just a rock until Cinderella’s Clock strikes 12, and then the spell ends! Hitting yourself with a Timetwister effect has always been powerful, but I think this is pretty slow, even with payments over time.
Shimmer Dragon - decent big blue creature in an artifact deck with lots of synergy.
Vantress Gargoyle - sure, it has limitations, but it’s still really big for a 2 drop, and it has flying.
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The New Approach
Hi y’all. Been silent for a while.
Took a break from blogging, because I have a lot less free time than in the past - doing a full write up wasn’t so bad for a college kid with a part time job, less so for full-time working adult.
Every time a new set rolled around, it felt too overwhelming to review. I’d get a color or two done, then the next one came out.
So instead, going to just do much smaller scale reviews, just looking at commanders.
Hope y’all like it.
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Modern Horizons - Blue
Ah, a new take on Modern Masters.
And you know what that means! New toys and reprints for EDH!
Gotta grind these before the next set spoilers come out…this week.
Archmage’s Charm
Grade: A-
Home: Most Blue Decks
Range: Very Wide
Ah, charms. Who doesn’t like 3 options!
Feels like Cryptic Command lite, and you can do a Cancel, Divination, or steal a nice Mana rock. She’s never the best counterspell, but she’s a swiss army knife most of the time.
Bazaar Trademaster
Grade: C
Home: Blink Decks, Graveyard Decks
Range: Narrow
Getting some draw, filling the yard, and having a solid body makes for an attractive creature. I don’t like net card loss, but EDH makes use of a lot of graveyard strategies, so there’s some serious potential here.
On the other hand, beware of net card loss if you can’t take advantage of it, and at the end of the day a 3/4 Flyer isn’t huge for EDH.
Echo of Eons
Grade: A-
Home: Sadistic Blue decks
Range: Average
Doing this twice feels mean.
I love messing with other players, and stocking up on a new hand of cards. On top of getting a ton of discard triggers (Leovold would have loved this, but other mill or discard commanders will love it to) and draw triggers, flashback for 2U makes it even more fun to play out of the yard - that’s if you’re not already casting it for free.
Flusterstorm
Grade: A-
Home: Any deck going into multiplayer
Range: Very Wide
EDH faces far more Instants and Sorceries that can be game ending out nowhere, or board wipes to interrupt your lovely board state, or a pumped up Fireball about to kill your weakest opponent - and put you on the chopping block.
Optimally you can make this cost more than your opponent has available to deal with. Usually this will be a minimum of (2), but can be higher from other players interacting - some may help you if they know you have a Flusterstorm, or you can play cheap spells first.
It can whiff (it always seems to whiff for me) as it can’t deal with creatures, planeswalkers, enchantments, artifacts, so there’s plenty of scenarios where it fails you, or your opponent has extra mana up to deal with your tax, but (U) is a fair cost for an occasional ace in your sleeve.
Fact or Fiction
Grade: C+
Home: Any Blue Deck
Range: Very Wide
Usually a draw 2-3 at instant speed for 4 is fine. I’ve even done 4-1 splits when I know something is an opponent’s combo piece.
And even if they get put in the graveyard, so what? That’s basically your second hand in EDH.
Force of Negation
Grade: B+
Home: Blue Counterspells, Combo Decks
Range: Narrow
While it doesn’t replace Force of Will due to the limited card types, having a second free counterspell is never a wrong choice. Exiling the counterspell is occasionnaly useful, but doesn’t really make the card. Being at Cancel cost makes it okay to hard cast as well as a backup use case.
Future Sight
Grade: C
Home: Spellslinger Deck, Any Blue Deck
Range: Very Wide
Always a nice toy for EDH decks that want to cast a lot. And I mean a lot of spells. Functionally at least an extra card in hand, it lets you really play out of your library well. And if you can remove all your lands and make your spells free...well, you’ve already broken the game, and this just makes it smoother.
Marit Lage’s Slumber
Grade: C+
Home: Snow Decks
Range: Narrow
Solid usage in a Scapeshift deck that can cheat out extra basic snow lands, as well as a deck that recur the enchantment and utilize Mirror Gallery effects to pump out Marit Lage tokens.
Honestly, if your opponents can’t deal with one big token, they didn’t bring the right removal.
Mirrodin Besieged
Grade: B
Home: Artifact Decks, Cheerio Artifacts
Range: Narrow
An artifact synergy spell is nice, and not having a clause that limits it to once a turn helps a lot. Then you can blink it and choose Phyrexian and have an alt win con ready to go.
In an artifact deck that can really spit out cheap artifacts (and some back from the graveyard that you’re stocking), it makes a great alternate win-con alongside Mechanized Construction.
Rebuild
Grade: C-
Home: Cheap Mana Rocks, ?
Range: Sideboard
Nice removal against artifact heavy decks, good at recycling mana rocks, good for dodging mass artifact removal against you.
Probably has some wicked combo I’m not capable of thinking up.
All that on top of the option to cycle it out makes it a solid choice to have in your collection, if not in any particular deck.
Tribute Mage
Grade: C+
Home: Any Artifact deck needing 2 CMC tutoring
Range: Very Wide
Two mana is the right size for Signets, which every multicolor deck can utilize, as well as fun equipment like Illusionist’s Bracers and Nim Deathmantle. Fun 2 CMC artifacts include Baleful Strix, Ethersworn Canonist, and the Mana Myr cycle.
A solid swiss army knife to have.
Urza, Lord High Artificer
Grade: A
Home: Artifacts, Combo Decks
Range: Wide
The high synergy with artifacts, ability to combo out a ton of mana, and being able to dump that out into your library, Urza is a butt-kicking card.
Decent target for blinking a Karn-made token.
His second ability feels like something like Opposition-level power - just tapping artifacts (equipment and creatures doing double duty) instantly, and color fixing to Blue if you need. It’s not game breaking, but certainly is powerful.
With shuffling, it’s a lot harder to cheese this ability - assuming you haven’t exiled all but 1 card of your library, a la Doomsday.
POSSIBLE
Choking Tethers - I really like the utility of opening up one player to get pounded on by the rest of the table, and Cycling makes sure it’s never dead
Cunning Evasion - Feels like a Blue Reconnaissance, which I occasionally like for fun shenanigans
Everdream - Tacking on a cantrip for 2U feels weird, but when you’re doing a ton of 1 CMC Instants, it might be worth it
Faerie Seer - Small fliers can find some play, ETB is fine, creature types are relevant
Iceberg Cantrix - Might have some Snow fun Scapeshift style, but I’m including it for the memes
Man O’ War - A workhorse even in EDH. Not spectacular, but fun for Blinking decks, or the padding out the fist version of a deck shell
Mist-Syndicate Naga - Not sure how good it’ll be unless it’s constantly swapping out for Ninjas, but it has some potential. Extra bodies is always good, but 3/1 doesn’t impress me much
Moonblade Shinobi - Decent Ninja, and adds a Flying Illusion that makes follow up attacks with Ninjutsu work
Phantom Ninja - An unblockable creature with a relevant creature type. Nominal usage in the gimmicky Ninja deck
Rain of Revelation - Instant speed triple draw and beats Sift now, makes for a decent Blue card for slower decks that want to play on other players turns
Oneirophage - In draw heavy decks, an evasive creature that can have explosive growth makes it much better than your average big dumb flyer
Scour All Possibilities - Sorcery really hurts this, but doing it twice helps. Digging three deep can be interesting.
Scuttling Sliver - Weak for a Sliver IMO, as tapping rarely seems to be relevant, as you’re always kinda snowballing anyway, and Untapping for tricks and extra abilities doesn’t seem to compare to flooding the field with bodies.
Smoke Shroud - More fun for Ninja Tribal - evasion, cheap recursion of an aura and a buff
Spell Snuff - Strictly better Cancel, so decent
Watcher for Tomorrow - Draw this slow feels week, but okay for a 2 drop
NAY
Blizzard Strix - Weak ETB with a condition on meh stats
Chillerpillar - Too much of a hoop to jump through for too little rewards
Exclude - It’s fine, but limitations on
Eyekite - Weak best case scenario
Phantasmal Form - Trick not worth a slot or cost
Pondering Mage - Expensive for a 3/4 with Ponder
Prohibit - Two weak cases for EDH, and paying more without a hard counter, this is trash
Scour All Possibilities - Weak double draw is disappointing
Stream of Thought - Unless it’s part of an infinite mana combo, not worth it. Even then, there are better options.
String of Disappearances - Cute call back, but not for EDH.
Twisted Reflection - Tricks bad for EDH
Windcaller Aven - Even with cycling, it’s meh
Winter’s Rest - Meh removal with conditions
That’s all for now campers!
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Modern Horizons - White
Ah, a new take on Modern Masters.
And you know what that means! New toys and reprints for EDH!
Gotta grind these before the next set spoilers come out...next week.
Force of Virtue
Grade: B+
Home: Go-Wide, Token Decks, MonoWhite
Range: Wide
Another Enchantment always help Go-Wide decks, and the ability do flash it in and not pay anything is even better. A solid Anthem, even paying the casting cost for, is always worth it.
Generous Gift
Grade: C+
Home: Any White Deck
Range: Very Wide
Never look a gift elephant in the mouth, eh?
A color-shifted Beast Within is always is welcome here. Removal of any permanent at instant speed is fantastic.
Giver of Runes
Grade: B
Home: Voltron
Range:
Mother of Runes that can also protect against colorless.
Yes it is Patrick, no matter what Maro tells use.
Unlike Mom, she can’t protect herself, so no chump block > tap to protect self.
On Thin Ice
Grade: B-
Home: Constructed Snow Decks
Range: Average
Hey, it’s Chained to the Rocks, but not Boros colored! Make all your Basic Lands snow lands, and it’s 1 Mana Sorc removal with no downside, and easy to use.
Ranger-Captain of Eos
Grade: C
Home: Niche decks that need a specific tutor
Range: Narrow
Good Blink Target, and there’s almost 800 creatures you can tutor with this, so there’s always something you can use. Locking out removal and other noncreature spells is also very useful. Anything from Mikeus to Kid-eon to the new Giver of Runes makes a great tutor target, and that’s just in White.
Solid stats and a good creature type round out a good creature.
Serra the Benevolent
Grade: A
Home: Angel Tribal, Flyers, Any White Deck
Range: Wide
My absolute fave of White. It can make a Serra Angel the second it comes down, or when Doubling Season hits with it, it can get it’s Worship Emblem.
She draws removal like a champ, hence the good protection the Angel provides.
Sisay, Weatherlight Captain
Grade: B
Home: Legendaries
Range: All over the place
It can tutor any sort of Legendary permanent - artifacts, creatures, planeswalkers - all good stuff. Sisay has a max size of 7/7, which is pretty good for a 3 drop.
Vesperlark
Grade: B
Home: Blink Decks, Rez Decks
Range: Narrow
The Lesser Reveillark, getting back one creature with power 1 or less, which is still surprisingly good. Much easier to get into play on turn 1 that the Rev and then abuse.
Pulling the new Deep Forest Hermit and flickering Vesperlark or the hermit it the tip of the iceberg when it comes to shenanigans.
Winds of Abandon
Grade: B-
Home: Any White Deck
Range: Wide
What’s better than a Board Wipe? A one-sided board wipe!
A good removal effect for 2 mana Sorc, the Overloaded version dodges any type of protection, and getting “compensated” with a basic land is harsh - especially when multicolored decks might not even run many Basic lands, so they can fail to find, making it even more one-sided.
On the Maybe List
Ephemerate - Double blink is pretty decent at instant.
Face of Divinity - Cheap abilities especially as you stack on Auras onto your Voltron creatures
First Sliver’s Chosen - Maybe if you want one big creature attacking, but I think Slivers like attacking more in a swarm.
Imposter of the Sixth Pride - Tribal options may be this card’s salvation
King of the Pride - Solid Cat Lord
Lancer Sliver - Decent
Martyr’s Soul - I think a 5/4 for 3 mana is interesting, but possibly not right for EDH. The mana rocks and Convoke can help, but I’m not sure yet
Recruit the Worthy - White’s worse Sprout Swarm for 1 less
Reprobation - Nice alternate to Pacifism
Rhox Veteran - Battle Cry and targeted tap down are a potent mix, letting you whale on a target
Segovian Angel - Ah, finally the White Angel one drop the tribe’s needed forever. Nominally interesting, but probably out of the league of being competitive
Splicer’s Skill - Not sure how well Splice works outside of the Arcane family, so this is probably worth checking out for cheap casting Jeskai decks maybe
Valiant Changeling - Possibly nice as a WW 3/3 Double Strike
Wing Shards - You can usually kill 2-3 things if you do it well, which is more than you need to kill Unblockable Souped up Voltron creatures with Protection from X
Not for EDH
Answered Prayers - Might be cute for the LG or Opal decks, but I feel it’s underpowered
Astral Drift - While it’s had it’s time in the sun in cycling decks, it’s not for EDH
Battle Screech - More for pauper than EDH
Dismantling Blow - Disenchant and Divination at this cost? No way!
Enduring Sliver - Slow, slow, slow. A decent bear, but I feel slivers can do better, even for a card slot
Gilded Light - Cycling is fine, but self protection could be found better with True Believer
Irregular Cohort - Does fair work, but unless you can really abuse the Changeling or ETB, not really worth it. Even when you can, there are other options.
Knight of Old Benalia - Decent ETB, but not enough
Settle Beyond Reality - I wanna remove something at Instant speed, for much less mana
Shelter - Other options make for better card slots
Soul-Strike Technique - Weak aura with replacement is disappointing.
Stirring Address - Hey, Overload in White! Still trash combat trick though
Trustworthy Scout - Functionally a bear with an ability that doesn’t work in EDH
Wall of One Thousand Cuts - I hate paying for mediocre things to be less mediocre
Zhalfirin Decoy - Tapping and weird antics does not make for good EDH creatures.
Stay tuned for Blue and more campers!
Let me know what y’all think!
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Ravnica Allegiance - Commanders
Time to take a gander at the new commanders! We have 8 new Legendary Creatures (and a bunch of them have implications for Quantum Commander), and not all are made equal here.
Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
1 of the 99: A+
Commander: C-
Builds: Part of Hate Bears
Great choice for 1 of the 99. Shuts down most early game efforts by Narset decks to free cast omnipotence. Punishes players that try to mana rock ramp into big spells.And this only effects your opponents. Nice.
Useful as a commander only in being accessible disruption - does it’s best work as a supporting card.
If you want her - get her fast. Modern will eat this up alive - 2 mana tron killer, on top of all the other mana cheat strategies it kills
Nikya of the Old Ways
1 of the 99: C
Commander: C
Builds: Land Ramp
Sure, you're just playing creatures, but you get double your mana! That's like 12 mana turn 6 with Nikya, or even more and earlier when you ramp! Also fixes your mana, which makes it a nice addition to creature based land ramp decks when you use her in a multicolor deck with 3+ colors.
Nikya is simple, and feels like a Rurik Thar vibe.
Zegana, Utopian Speaker
1 of the 99: D-
Commander: D
Builds: Counter, Adapt Tribal
Kinda weak. Usually replaces itself, and gives your team with Counter Trample, but there's easier ways to do that than with a 4 drop. Adapt is a nice mana dump, but a 8/8 big dumb creature with trample is less of a threat and more of a removal magnet.
There’s better choices for 1 of the 99 as a four drop, especially with such an utterly lame ETB and buff effect.
My pick for worst commander.
Judith, the Sourge Diva
1 of the 99: C-
Commander: D
Builds: Combo, Aggro
Engine part for infinite sac triggers, like a classic of Beetleback Chief, Ashnod's Altar, and Nim Deathmantle. Except you can now downgrade to Goblin Instigator since Judith is the replacement for an Exsanguinate spell
Also does a decent job in making a decent aggro deck buff.
Teysa Karlov
1 of the 99: B
Commander: B-
Builds: Sac Decks, Death Trigger, Tokens
Extra death triggers, more token utility, good cost. Nice new Orzhov toy. Copy paste off of a Teysa, Orzhov Scion token build gives you the basics of what you need. Some playtesting will tweak, but a deck that already is Orzhov, likes sacrificing, and loves tokens, makes a good basis.
The Haunt of Hightower
1 of the 99: B+
Commander: C-
Builds: Mill, Circular Discard, Voltron (subtheme), Vampire Tribal
Works for Vamp Tribal, Counters Matter, Mill, Forced Discard. Less useful as a commander than as a huge value game. Shoe-in for Edgar Markov deck as a big scary vamp.
Loses some of it’s surprise factor as a commander. Also doesn’t pass the Bolt test when it lands.
Prime Speaker Vannifar
1 of the 99: A-
Commander: A
Builds: Birthing Pod Toolbox
Cuz one birthing Pod in your deck wasn't enough. Toolbox commander, with easier options to untap in Blue/Green for a creature than just the Pod
Like Lavinia, snag this before Modern buys them all.
Rakdos, the Showstopper
here we are now, entertain us
1 of the 99: C-
Commander: C(haos)
Builds: Group Hate decks, Demon tribal?
OP BEST COMMANDER!
Feels like it was made for MTGA first, which can do all of the annoying coin flipping "under the hood" so hearthstone players (like myself) can feel more at home.
Moderately powerful, nominal demon tribal markings, the ability is absolutely miserable to go through, and made worse as a commander who will definitely get Rez'd or replayed. Check with your group before playing this - going through 30 coin flips as an ETB effect is really annoying.
On top of that, great stats on a flying trampler make it a decent beater of a creature, if lacking in total Voltron potential.
That’s it for now campers, stay tuned for more Ravnica Allegiance picks!
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Ravnica Allegiance - Rare
Hi Campers!
Here’s where I pick the best of the rares of Ravnica, and give them a preliminary grade for how well I think they’ll do in EDH. Let’s go!
Best of the Rares: Bedevil
The natural evolution of Dreadbore from the last Ravnica set. Dealing with 3 nasty options at instant speed is a steal for 3 mana. Only Vindicate could be more fun, and that’ll never be Standard legal again.
Absorb - If you care about lifegain, it’s good. Otherwise it’s Cancel that’s harder to cast. I prefer to pay less than 3 mana to counterspell, and 3 life isn’t enough for me to usually care about. C-
Biomancer’s Familiar - The card is good even outside of the Adapt decks, as well as making that mechanic worthwhile in EDH. A-
Blood Crypt & Co - All the shocklands are bread and butter of EDH players who stay in the format for the long run. Each reprint just makes it better. 2+ color decks love it. A-
Cindervines - I like the pings, but the removal makes it nice. Just having it hanging can act as a deterrent. Not super-powerful, but interesting. C-
Deputy of Detention - Removal is always worthwhile. Being able to knock out same-named creatures is okay, and especially effective against token strategies and counter heavy decks. C
Electrodominance - Possibly the most EDH-esque card of the set, it lets you Fireball and playing another card (even cards that have Sorc speed, or Suspend cards with no CMC) A-
End-Raze Forerunners - A poor man’s Craterhoof Behemoth. Makes a good backup for the big beast, and a solid fatty of it’s own.
Ethereal Absolution - A purist EDH spell - hard to play in any other formats, but splashy enough (and wonky enought) to be played here. The buff and debuff are nice, and the weak token/GY hate effect is usable, especially in some Esper control decks that like to hold mana and assemble a combo. C
Glass of the Guildpact - A pure build around - a massively undercosted buff if you just happen to run 60%+ multicolored creatures, which is easy enough in EDH where mana fixing allows 5 Color decks. Or a fail. Build around C+
Gruul Spellbreaker - A rather weak protection ability all things considered, stapled to a well-costed, but quickly irrelevant, creature. D-
Guardian Project - Compare with Colossal Majesty, against what you’re likely to play in terms of creatures. More big critters, Majesty. More small critters, Project. C-
Hero of Precinct One - Weakish payoff, but no one would ever bother removing it except with incidental damage, so it might do some value game in some multicolor decks. D-
Incubation Druid - Decent ramp, and if you play something like Battlegrowth it can pump out some mana earlier. Otherwise it’s a good elf, and has some late game utility that most dorks lack C
Kaya’s Wrath - Nice board wipe, and EDH has easy mana fixing. Good side effect of lifegain, especially if you’re killing like 8+ creatures. B
Mass Manipulation - Go big mana, and steal lots of things. A big flashy spell screams EDH to me. Infinite mana for infinite stealing. Solid B+
Mirror Match - COIN FLIP FTW
If you’ve been paying any attention to some of the MTG Arena feeds, high rolls on this card have gotten a lot of attention. If it’s fun for any format, it’s fun for EDH. That, plus more coin flip synergy available has a lot going for it. MEME
Pestilent Spirit - A lot of ping options synergize, but monoblack can’t really swing that alone. Surprisingly solid body and abilities. I think this is not as good as I think it is, and I don’t think it’s that good. Up to C-
Priest of Forgotten Gods - A lot of token decks love interesting sac outlets. Any choice of targets to Shock and Pact is nice, and getting BB and a card is phenomenal. With the means to sac and recur things, as well as something to untap the Priest with, there’s a lot of options here. B+
Rampage of the Clans - Like a Beast Within, but hits everything Naturalize hates. Knocking out an enchantment or artifact heavy players can utterly decimate them, and replacing them with underpowered (for EDH) Centaurs feels pretty ok. C
Repudiate // Replicate - Counters are nice, and token copies are great, especially in EDH. Both are extremely relevant in EDH, even in decks not devoted to exploiting those abilities. B
Revival // Revenge - Resurrection is always potent, even with limitations, and lifegain on this scale (functionally gain YOUR LIFE) is phenomenal, especially in the Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood type of deck. B (I’m biased)
Simic Ascendancy - I love alternate win-cons, and I especially like those that do something on top of just sitting around. Sure, mana dump for Counters isn’t much, but it feels more dynamic than Helix Pinnacle. And synergizing in general with a +1/+1 deck is nice. A-
Smothering Tithe Feels like Orzhov’s Rystic Study. I like taxing with Propaganda effects and Study in a Control Esper decks, and I think this fits in great. In a format where people go for drawing effect hard, it has some real utility. B
Sphinx of Foresight - I just want it cuz all the modern players want it. There’s a lot of unexplored design with the Chancellor ability, and I hope it comes back. Nice for combos. And those nuts running Unesh Sphinx Tribal.
A beefy 4 drop for 4. C
Thrash // Threat - Feels like two mediocre cards slapped together into a tolerable one. I’m not stoked for either side, but a budget option card is still nice for Gruul. D
Tithe Taker - I love taxes, I like Afterlife. An easy to revive target for a lot of decks like Alesha. Not super impactful, but very annoying. C
Unbreakable Formation - I always come down hard on combat tricks, because they’re “once and done.” Saving your whole team in multiple scenarios is intriguing offensively and defensively. C-
Verity Circle - There’s a lot of mana dorks and other abilities that have tapping clauses, and free cards is neat. A mana dump ability to tap down creatures, even with a restriction, is also useful. Good value for 3 mana. B-
Warrant // Warden - Unlike the Gruul split card, this makes a token worth having, and is a removal ability that feels good to use, especially against big plays. Hopefully we’ll get some more interesting Sphinx tokens, like Angels (though this could have been an Angel IMO). B+
That’s the Rares of Ravnica Allegiance! Stay tuned for the Mythics, campers!
Stay warm kids!
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Mizzix of the Izmagnus - Budget
Mizzix of the Izmagnus - Budget
Hello, Magic Players!
I AM BACK WITH A FRESH NEW DECK TECH, FOR THE DISCERNING PLAYER!
This deck tech is for XYZ, who’s new to EDH, and
I’m looking to make a solid deck, that can hold it’s own in multiplayer, can be upgraded over time, feels fun to play, and can be bought at a very reasonable price.
Decklist - (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1747113#paper)
The Commander - Mizzix
From the 2015 Generation of “Experience” Commanders, Mizzix is the spellslinger of the bunch. She needs to hit the field, stay on the field, have you cast some spells, and survive past that.
Then she can storm off.
To protect her, we’re bringing in Mask of Avacyn, Whispersilk Cloak, Clout of Dominus, Robe of Mirrors, and Mystic Veil.
Spell Synergy
We want other cards that like spells.
Mystic Retrieval will get you an instant or sorcery twice, and be cheaper thanks to Mizzix. And Charmbreaker Devils does that and some work in combat. Melek, Izzet Paragon can give you double spells when you play off the top of your deck.
Guttersnipe shocks something any time you play a I/S, and when you cast 3-4 spells a turn, it can result in taking down an 8 toughness creature. Talrand, Sky Summoner also makes it more fun to cast.
Goblin Electromancer makes things easier to cast,
X Spells and Big Spells
We want high CMC spells to really exploit Mizzix’s ability.
Mass Manipulation, fresh from Ravnica Allegiance, is a fun EDH option.
Scour from Existence can deal with anything, and can be reduced to 0 CMC.
ManaBase
Terramorphic Expanse, by Dan Scott
We have some simple lands to work with. We want 14 Islands and 14 Mountains, and Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds to fetch them out of your deck. Izzet Boilerworks, Izzet Guildgate, Swiftwater Cliffs, Vivid Crag and Vivid Creek gives us some color, and Temple of the False God works well in EDH.
Upgradability
This deck is relatively similar to the Commander 2015 deck Mizzix came in - these parts are cheaper than buying the parts these days, and it’s going for $75+ on Amazon for the Original. My version isn’t pretty, but it’s solid, and can move from here.
ManaBase Upgrades
Steam Vents, by Yeong-Hao Han
Izzet Duals bring small amounts of power - nothing overwhelming, but some mana smoothing. You have a lot more options when your lands don’t enter tapped. Steam Vents (recently reprinted for Guilds of Ravnica), Shivan Reef, and other Rare dual lands offer faster mana and more reliability.
Spell Upgrades
Another part is that the spells I selected are rather budget. More powerful options like the ever fun Time Spiral or Time Stretch for UU, or going infinite with Archmage Ascension and Beacon of Tomorrows, beefier spells like these give Mizzix some obscene control options.
A personal favorite of mine is Expropriate. While I hate to give my opponents options, I feel there’s no bad choice here - for the caster!
Parting Thoughts
Mizzix is, like many commanders, easy to learn, and hard to master. She works well, is fairly straightforward, and is geared towards booming fun turns.
Have fun out there players!
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Ravnica Allegiance - Commons
Commons can get a bum rap in my average set review - I find few of them do a good, or even competent job, of earning a spot as one of your 99 cards.
I had to lower my personal disgust for anything but the best, optimized card in a deck to make this list of “pretty decent commons” list.
Best Common: Growth Spiral
I like Rampant Growth, and I think this does a fair job. Many Ramp spells like Kodama’s Reach ramp and put a land in your hand, so putting down extra lands is pretty synergistic. Drawing first, and the lack of restrictions on the land also lend to it’s wide utility.
Applied Biomancy - Combat boost is weak, but stapling fake Battlegrowth onto Unsummon is interesting enough to be experiment worthy.
Locket Cycle - A respectable mana rock. I liked the Cluestone in theorycrafting many a deck, and when you have 6+ decks and just need to pad them out with cards, this will help.
Deface - I like options. For R, the option to take out an artifact, or the less common Defender, is sufficient. Sorcery speed variety of Smelt for extra options - good if you. Of course, there’s always Vandalblast, Shattering Spree, or By Force if you need to hit more things.
Impassioned Orator - A soul brother? A bear that might like to fit in an incremental lifegain deck like Karlov
Lawmage’s Binding - Flash puts this into serious usability.
Pacisifism is still usable in EDH, but more expensive variants that come with more options have always been more desirable. Shutting down abilities, and playing when it’s not your turn definitely feel fair.
Persistent Petitioners - Finally some Advisor tribal. If you like Relentless Rats but wanna play monoblue, I got a new card for you. Buy 40 before the price goes to like 2 bucks each.
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Ravnica Allegiance - Uncommons
Now for some sweet uncommons!
My pick for the best uncommon: Rhythm of the Wild
Playing the creature game in EDH is fun, but it hurts when your big fatties get countered. Putting a stop to that secures your big creatures, and adding Riot functionally gives them all Haste. It’s a fantastic buff to any Creature team.
Archway Angel - Potential for 22 life if you have all eleven gates in a Maze’s End deck. Gatebreaker Ram, Gate Colossus also get a plug for the Gate deck, but aren’t as fun.
Eyes Everywhere - Nice thing to swap for, and for a non-blue player, you can make the swap permanent.
Or go for the 2nd best thing on the board, and let someone else go for the best nonland permanent on the board. It’s a very political enchantment.
Gyre Engineer - Mana dork that adds 2, and can be played turn 2? Nice. Good ramping tool, even if looks a bit odd
High Alert - Nice for Defender decks. Really a must for Arcedes 2.0 decks as a backup
Incubation // Incongruity - A decent draw spell (that can whiff) and a removal spell like Beast Within is pretty usable. Exile is a nice touch, especially in UG where it feels like a Pongify effect was expected
Mortify - One of the best EDH removal cards. Versatile workhorse in every deck it can fit in.
Orzhov Enforcer - The first Afterlife card I’m recommending, thanks to it’s defensive utility.
Afterlife as a whole is really nice, because most abilities that would make tokens (like those in Innistrad) involve exiling the original creature. This is a nice ability, especilally with a Sac and Revive engine like Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod’s Altar.
Vindicative Vampire - A worse version of Blood Artist for infinite sac triggers. If you’re new to the game, or need a redundant option, this will serve adequately.
Wilderness Reclamation - I never realized how much I missed Prophet of Kruphix until now. Untapping your lands has lots of potential, from burning on Mana dumps, Omnath, Helix Pinnacle - the options are endless
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Best of 2018 - Uncommons
Lets dig into some real EDH meat - some Uncommons!
I’ll pick the best uncommon by set, and rattle off some of my other picks to add to your EDH collection.
From Rivals of Ixalan
Ravenous Chupacabra
This has been made a great showing in Standard and Limited. It makes a great creature in EDH, comparable with Nekrataal, with an ability to hit different things for a weaker combat body - in my opinion, it’s even better.
Notable for doing good work in Alesha decks.
Aquatic Incursion - Great for Merfolk tribal decks. Helps Curiosity effects or Voltron damage
Atzocan Seer - Dino tribal support, with recursion and mana fixing. Solid uncommon
Forerunner of the X - Merfolk, Pirate, Vampire, Dinosaur support, each synergizing well with the tribe
Legion Lieutenant, Merfolk Mistbinder - More tribal support
Thrashing Brontodon - A solidly build 3 drop, with the ability to act like Naturalize when needed
Now for my picks of Dominaria
Cast Down
Nothing like that sweet, sweet, 2 Mana Black removal. From the likes of old Terror to faves like Doom Blade, sacrificing options for cheaper kill spells gives black one heck of an edge.
Basically Every Legendary - Most of them are real interesting, promoting a build-around-me strategy. Yargle, memes aside, is lame, and Garna is underwhelming, but they all have solid potential as commanders, and most have some role in 1 of the 99
Dauntless Bodyguard - Can act as a walking totem armor, and can easily be recurred by almost any low level Rez ability (like Alesha)
Fungal Plots - If ya ain’t using the corpses, make ‘em mulch. With the added benefit of another use for Saproling tokens, this is a great addition to any Saproling tribal deck. Personally I still prefer Nightsoil
Jhoira’s Familiar - Styled like a Planeshift familiar, this can be even more useful - makes it easier to cast your commander, works for artifact tribal - a nice solid role.
Goblin Warchief - A nice reprint that makes a great addition to any Goblin tribal deck
Merfolk Trickster - Flash in, neuter a creature. And probably follow up with a removal spell. Buh bye indestructible.
Settle the Score - Removal. A bit pricey, but if you’re running a superfriends deck, it might be interesting.
Song of Freyalise - For a go-wide deck, this is a nice ramp option which makes everything into a Llanowar Elves.
The Eldest Reborn - Nice circular removal, forced discard (not so powerful), and a great Rez affect that hits anything.
Time of Ice - If you have a deck that can actively tap creatures, this can be a soft board removal.
The Multiplayer oriented set of Battlebond had a lot of fun mechanics, hopefully they get picked up again to make a bigger splash in EDH.
Fumble
The ultimate anti-Voltron tech. You play with enough people, this can hit. The biggest difficulty of using it is that any creature that you throw two or more Auras or Equipments on, will probably have some form of protection, so the likes of Arcane Lighthouse or Glaring Spotlight can help out.
Beast Within - A great color pie break, this lets Green decks deal with anything. A 3/3 Creature in a multiplayer format is far less threatening than in other formats.
Cheering Fanatic - Lets you power out anything one turn faster. The ability to choose as it attacks is phenomenal - I originally expected it to have to be named as it was played and never changed.
Oreskos Explorer - Lets you play catchup when you’ve missed land drops, or someone has been landramping. Allowing you to pick Plains can let you mana fix with dual lands.
Out of Bounds - You only have U? Maybe you can team up to play this with a friends help. If someone is comboing off, you’re all on the same side!
Swords to Plowshares - You play white, you play this.
Unflinching Courage - A humble but solid aura, useful in most any Selesnya deck
Veteran Explorer - If everyone ramps, but you have things to do with all that mana, it helps you the most. Woohoo!
A return to Core Sets was much desired. M19 delivered more than we hoped for IMO.
Mirror Image
Sometimes the best thing to Clone is what you brought to the table yourself. Or Clone a Clone of something you’ve already Cloned and control. A 1 mana discount makes it even more attractive.
Aether Tunnel - When it comes to Voltron, it’s Evasion, Evasion, Evasion
Draconic Disciple - Fixes your mana (especially useful in those 5C Dragon tribal decks), then becomes a 5/5 Dragon when you don’t need that anymore. Good early and good late.
Exclusion Mage - Man o War with better tribal tags
Psychic Corrosion - If you draw half your deck, they mill all of theirs. Works incremental and in bulk mill decks, which tend to draw anyway.
Reassembling Skeleton - Discard fodder, Sac bait, the possibilities are...not endless, but multitudinous
Reclamation Sage - One of the best EDH tools. Naturalize on a 2/1 body for all your removal and recursion needs
Regal Bloodlord - Some possible usage in LG decks, especially like Karlov decks which focus on incremental lifegain. A small army of Bat tokens can always come in handy
Reliquary Tower - Unlimited hand size has some niche usage in draw heavy decks, and doesn’t really cost a deck slot if it replaces a Basic land.
Time for Guilds of Ravnica, and the best from among them!
Goblin Creatermaker
I love option!. Shock and Artifact+ removal are fantastic! Right power to be Tutored by Imperial Recruiter or Recruiter of the Guard, or Rez’d by Alesha, makes a great EDH utility creature.
Chemister’s Insight - Draw on an Instant is always usable, and doing it twice is great. Jump-Start is a better Retrace, and I love it.
Circuitous Route - A poor man’s ramp. Still, mana fixing!
Conclave Tribunal - An over priced Oblivion Ring with the benefit of Convoke, works great in some go-wide decks
Crush Contraband - feels like Return to Dust, and can make a good supplement to decks looking for that
Demotion - The ability to shut down Activated Abilities makes it interesting. Knocking out a blocker is just gravy
Golgari Findbroker - A poor man’s Eternal Witness.
League Guildmage - Draw is a great mana dump, and getting a single Replicate option for R is pretty nice, especially for smaller CMC spells
Murmuring Mystic - Another Spellslinger tool, with better tokens than Young Pyromancer!
Sinister Sabotage - Mandatory Cancel replacement
Here’s my pick for the best of Ultimate Master’s Uncommons!
Angel of Despair
Removal is king in EDH. From board wipes, to specific answers, to counterspells, all of these have their place in a given EDH deck.
The ability to destroy any permanent, including Lands and Planeswalkers, really makes this a really great utility card. On top of a solid 5/5 flying body (worth about 5 mana) that removal is 2 mana, which is a good deal. Also one of my favorites targets in a Reanimator deck.
Anger and Brawn - Both of these have dropped to bulk prices thanks to the reprint, and make excellent buffs for many a deck
Apprentice Necromancer - Before last year, this risked going over $2. Thanks to a reprint here and in C17, new GY players have a cheap tool
Artisan of Kozilek - Another great eldrazi fatty, casting it (and not just from your hand, paying the cost, just casting it) also Rez’s another creature from your yard. A great 2 for 1!
Umbra - Boar and Snake - Both greath auras for Voltron, and any other deck
Buried Alive - Nice GY tutor. Cuz Entomb is still expensive.
Dawn Charm - A swiss army knife that was unbelivably originally printed at common. A three pronged
Eternal Witness - New card, same power. Been a great card since Fifth Dawn, still great now
Fecundity - REPLACEMENTS! If you kill your own stuff the fastest, you get the most out of this
Young Pyromancer - Spellslinger classique!
Laboratory Maniac - A fun alt win con that needed a reprint
Masters 25 ... didn’t have a lot of great stuff, especially at uncommon.
The big champ to get reprinted was Ash Barrens. Goes in every multicolored deck, and needed a reprint to keep the price from C16 down.
Cursecatcher - If you’re in the market for a counterspell, this can do the job sometimes.
Rancor - A great enchantment with evasion you can cast over and over again.
Willbender - A nominally useful Morph card
That’s all the uncommons for now! I’ll be back with the rares and mythics soon!
So long campers!
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