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By: Tarmotog, Naoto Watabe
Oct 08 2008 3:32am
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Hi all, today I'll be talking about MED II cards that have potential to go into decks. Even at the end of the MED II release season, it looks like not many MED II cards have seeped into Singleton play yet. I guess it is inevitable since many of the cards are rather specific in what they do. Players have gotten their dual lands though.

Also, there aren't that many great cards since many have been reprinted from the Coldsnap theme decks. This is a good chance to get those too.

Here are some of the cards from MED II that you may consider picking up:

Black

Krovikan Horror

This card was once one of the key pieces of cards played in an old extended. Its main use was for to generate card advantage together with Squee, Goblin Nabob with cards like Zombie Infestation or even Wild Mongrel. This is probably the second squee available in Singleton.

This thing about this card is that its ability triggers at every end of turn which makes it technically more abusable than
Squee, Goblin Nabob if you can somehow manage your graveyard properly. It's a real pity you can't have three of this in this format since if they were sitting on each other, you get to return 2 at every player's end of turn.

I think that this card might have legacy applications waiting to be discovered.

Imperial Seal

A strictly worse Vampiric Tutor but having another copy of the same effect is really powerful in Singleton. Once more and more tutors join the cardpool, we'd have to choose some over others and this will probably be with one of the higher ranked few.

Dance of the Dead

Another Animate Dead variant to go into the Worldgorger Dragon combo deck. With so much tutoring available in Singleton, the Worldgorger Dragon deck may very well be the most powerful combo deck in the format which is capable of a turn 2 kill. Just have one of the 3 reanimation enchantments, a win condition and a way to put the dragon into the graveyard and the game is easily set. The only problem is that the deck can be attacked from multiple angles so it is definitely not "perfect".

Necropotence

The "crap rare turned bomb" of its time but probably not as crazy as Tarmogoyf. I believe that the main problem with it is its casting cost and what you intend to do with the cards you draw because you no longer draw cards after you cast it.

The problem about the cost can be solved easily using Shadowmoor filterlands and
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.

So now comes the problem of what to use it for.

Traditionally, decks that played it would have some way to gain life or win on the next turn.  Fogotten cards like
Zuran Orb or Ivory Tower are the top favourites to go with Necropotence.  Monoblack decks have used cards like Drain Life or Soul Burn to gain some life and even Corrupt in the later years. Spinning Darkness from Weatherlight is a good choice too.  Even with lifegain, Nevinyrral's Disk was used to kill the enchantment as a backup plan.

Then,
Necropotence went over to breakfast cereal land and helped made Cocoa pebbles (a combo deck involving Goblin Bombardment, Ornithopter and Enduring Renewal ) and the more famous Trix (or Donate + Illusions of Grandeur ) work. In those decks, Necropotence simply drew cards and players played their combo to win.

So how does one use this in Singleton?

I don't have any ideas now but I'd put it into a deck that can either win with the cards drawn or have some form of life gain. Hoping to cast it often is not a good plan and drawing a large amount of cards puts you at risk of dying to burn spells.
 

Blue

Sea Drake

This card is great in legacy because of such plays:
Turn 1,
Chrome Mox set to blue, lay a City of Traitors, cast the 4/3 flyer, done.
Legacy has access to 8 of such lands that produce 2 colorless mana. So this becomes the base for "Faerie Stompy" (which uses
Sea Drake) and "Dragon Stompy" (which uses red instead).

I'd say that now is not really the right time to throw
Sea Drake into a deck since only Mana Crypt can let you make such plays.
I would wait until after Exodus hits the online stores before making a "Stompy" variant for Singleton.
Maybe a deck that utilizes hordes of efficient fliers may be a good home for it now.

Personal Tutor

My first impression was : Mystical Tutor #2 !!
It didn't take me long to find out that since it originated from a set without instants, it naturally only found sorceries even though many of the "sorceries" from that set have gotten the errata to become instants. I personally feel that it get an errata to turn it into a sorcery
Mystical Tutor but it's no wonder it's not restricted in Vintage. It's very much restricted if you can't find instants at all. Even so, there are some decks in which this card can shine.

Dreams of the Dead

Giving white or black creatures the ability "Unearth" (from Shards of Alara) is pretty neat I'd say. Do note that it is not exactly the same. They gain cumulative upkeep 2 which means they can stay in play longer or the get a free cumulative upkeep counter which may be used with cards that care about such counters.

A neat point to take note is that cards that remove creatures from the game and bring them back later on actually work according to the Shards of Alara Grixis tutorial video about Unearth that can be found linked from magicthegathering.com.

This essentially means that
Dreams of the Dead works well with cards like Momentary Blink, Astral Slide and even Vanish into Memory (the card made by "us" in YouMakeTheCardContest4).

Otherwise, returning cards like
Shriekmaw or even Loxodon Hierarch and hybrid cards would be great too.

Green

Elvish Spirit Guide

The first time I knew about this card was when it was used in Monogreen Stompy decks from ages ago. The deck comprised of green cards like Rogue Elephant and Ghazban Ogre together with the "most powerful" Rancor. Elvish Spirit Guide was somewhat a Dark Ritual to churn out these cards early so that you would have a chance to win in the course of the next few turns.
The next time I saw it in a competitive deck was in the "few" land
Goblin Charbelcher deck and the number went down to 2. It served as another mana source in that deck.

So considering its historical uses,
Elvish Spirit Guide was probably the green Lotus Petal used to cheat out early plays. In Singleton, it might find a home in some very aggressive decks or some combo decks. I don't have any concrete ideas on how to use this yet.

Forgotten Lore

This card might be used in decks like the Heartbeat of Spring combo deck as yet another spell to return spells. However, its limitations have to be considered before trying to use it. Its timeshifted black version didn't see much play but I think that it is not a bad idea to use Shrouded Lore in decks like UB control with Psychatog out to cheat back Fact or Fiction for 1 mana. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth helps you use this card too so using it to get back "lesser" spells is also not a bad option.

Thermokarst

This card deserves a mention because it is yet another green land destruction spell. Like Ice Storm, this card is very competitively costed. Worth getting one so that you can destroy lands when you feel like doing so.

Red

Imperial Recruiter

This little guy is currently overhyped in the online world unless I am mistaken about its uses in the mainstream formats.
From what I know, it belongs in a Food Chain deck that uses this card to chain into itself and into cards like
Mulldrifter that would "Seething Song" into other cards.

Another use I am currently aware of is to search out
Painter's Servant to combo off with Grindstone from Tempest.
For me, I have a deck that welcomes him: the
Reveillark deck since both cards want to have something to do with cards of power 2 or less. Otherwise, it's probably as good as a Goblin Matron in other decks?

Anarchy

Before MED II, I had a big problem when I played with my red deck. It could never ever beat Worship. This card is one of the only cards available to red that can let you get out of a Worship lock that doesn't need to blow up everything you have in play. What else does red need to do?

Burnout

Counter target instant if it's blue. Turtle-trip (slow cantrip). Another nice sideboard choice against blue mages which lets you get greedy.

Pyrokinesis

Alternate casting cost spell is good but do take note that it ONLY deals damage to creatures which isn't a very bad thing by itself but it is one of the few cards that let you not lose tempo when you remove blockers. I'd say this card is a great sideboard card but it can be maindecked if you are not afraid of not having a target.

An-Zerrin Ruins

Creatures of the chosen creature type do not untap. A different way to hose creature type based strategies. I'd get one just in case there comes a time where I need to use it.

White

Ravages of War

Armageddon #2 ! With more of the same card available, I think some decks can built around this effect. I personally like casting spells so playing such a card is almost always a no for me but I feel that it indeed has the potential to seal the game after some aggressive plays or when you manage to control the board. There is a reason why Armageddon was removed from the core set from 7th edition. Having more makes old school white weenie decks a decent strategy to play with.

Artifacts

Despotic Scepter

Destroy target permanent you own. Why would you want to do that? You can play this in a deck that swaps control of permanents with your opponents and use this artifact to destroy what you gave them. The Karona, False God avatar lets you pull off such nonsense. Another card that does something like this is Mirrodin's Tel-Jilad Stylus.

Elkin Bottle

This card would probably be used for the slower Singleton formats available online as a card drawing engine.

Gustha's Scepter

This card lets you hide your cards from discard strategies especially for storm decks that need certain cards and some card quantity. It at the very least is another storm count. Lets you dodge cards like the extreme Cranial Extraction or simple spot discards.

Helm of Obediance

This is a card that interests me. For those who do not already know, it combos with Leyline of the Void and Wheel of Sun and Moon to deck out the opponent. Having maindeck graveyard hate as a combo kill is not a bad idea. It easily fits into decks that need a kill condition and can easily go into a white deck which has Enlightened Tutor to find both pieces. The best part about this combo is that it does not rely on creatures and that makes it very hard to fight unless you have specific cards.
It's at least a random
Bribery which can be returned by Academy Ruins.

Jeweled Amulet

I like this card. It's somewhat like a mox and can help you cast cards that have heavy mana requirements. I use it in my storm deck as a way to store up blue mana or to add storm count.

Lodestone Bauble

I went to see what decks used this card and I was surprised with what I found. This card was even spotted in red aggressive decks as a way to fight land destruction spells. I am thinking Armageddon but maybe Stone Rain decks were very widely played too. Unfortunately, it works only with basic lands but I don't use many basic lands nowadays.

Mana Crypt

I have flipped a few coins with it in play and won all my tosses! That aside, Mana Crypt is a very powerful card that lets you cheat out plays 2 turns ahead of your opponent. As long as you can win before it starts stinging you to death, it would prove to be more useful than not. The only problem with this is that you will end up playing cards with some amount of generic mana in them so hybrid cards will be put aside so you lose some card choices as well.

Lands

Glacial Chasm

Too bad Exploration and the enchantment that lets you drop lands into play are not available online yet. Anyway, this card is quite good with Life from the Loam, if you have a number of lands in play already. A sneaky land to have.

Ice Floe

A weaker Maze of Ith but it can stop a non-flyer from attacking you again. Might make it into some control decks.

Dwarven Ruins cycle

This cycle of lands is what I consider to be the most underrated cards in the set. In Singleton, these lands are Tinder Farm  # 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10!

Snow-covered Basic Lands

Get your lands that work with Coldsnap cards now. Since it should be rather cheap.

Dual Lands

The best ever lands you want in your deck. They do everything shocklands do but they don't shock you or come into play tapped. Yeah. Get all 5 today.

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Overall, MED II is a set with a number of good cards to get. I would say that this set is worth spending your money on since the cards are really strong.

Sadly, I've been cursed or have encounted something similar. I have 554 cards from MED II but I have yet to open any money cards unless Imperial Recruiter can be considered one.

The deck that gained the most out of this set is the storm deck.
Most of the cards in this set have allowed the deck to move a turn faster from a consistent 5th turn kill to a consistent 4th turn kill. This moves the storm deck up to a high tier level now capable of goldfishing against a couple of decks.

This deck gained 5 lands, 2 tutors and a couple of artifacts to work with. Also, Underground Sea helps reduce the damage taken by the deck greatly.

I'd say no other decks have ever gained as many playable cards from a set before.

Anyway, I hope to bring some coverage on the Singleton100 event happening on the 11th October. See you guys there!

Until next time, this is Tarmotog wishing his packs could give him good cards.

2 Comments

by Tarmotog at Wed, 10/08/2008 - 09:38
Tarmotog's picture

Ack.. U're right.. That's a big mistake there.. the value of that helm in singleton would be reduced abit but even so, it's still a 2 card combo (leyline n helm) with the pieces costing 4 each. This would probably mean a shift from my intended "white game ender" to a "black game ender" which may actually make mono black a strong strategy with maindeck leyline together with cards like necropotence?

Decent writeup by walkerdog at Wed, 10/08/2008 - 08:26
walkerdog's picture

However
"

Helm of Obediance

This is a card that interests me. For those who do not already know, it combos with Leyline of the Void and Wheel of Sun and Moon to deck out the opponent. Having maindeck graveyard hate as a combo kill is not a bad idea. It easily fits into decks that need a kill condition and can easily go into a white deck which has Enlightened Tutor to find both pieces. The best part about this combo is that it does not rely on creatures and that makes it very hard to fight unless you have specific cards.
It's at least a random
Bribery which can be returned by Academy Ruins."

Wheel would not work with this... although it would cause an infinite loop tie I guess.