V. Artifacts, Enchantments & Lands
Brittle Effigy - A method of creature removal for blue and green decks. As this does have the ability to remove a creature from the game, that has a benefit. But most of the time the high cost to do so isn't worth it for other colors, especially those packing white.
Crystal Ball - This is going to be another ubiquitous time stealer, just like
Sensei's Divining Top. You will see this played a lot, as the activation cost is low and people will love the ability to smooth their draws. Actually, what I see happening in the future is someone with this and SDT out who uses SDT, then
Crystal Ball, then SDT again. It just means slower games.
Dark Tutelage - I have yet to see Bob be used in EDH. Although
Dark Tutelage is more resilient, I still don't think it will see play.
Leyline of Anticipation -
Vedalken Orrery that can come out on the first turn? This is going to be pretty sweet for all those control players out there. I can't imagine too many blue based decks that wouldn't like this card.
Leyline of Sanctity - This makes me remember that I don't think I've ever seen anyone play
Ivory Mask in a game before. It's actually better than
Ivory Mask, as the troll shroud allows you to target yourself with something like
Opportunity or
Ancestral Vision. I would think that it sounds pretty good, but it just won't be that popular.
Mystifying Maze - Online, this is our only equivalent of
Maze of Ith. Although this one can tap for mana, unfortunately it has a pretty high activation cost. It's good for the late game when you don't have anything to do with your extra mana, and can stop things like the Eldrazi from hitting you (although you still have to deal with the Annihilator). However, before turn 10, it can often leave you with a choice: Do you keep mana open to use it, or do you try and advance your gameplan by casting spells? I can't wait for the real
Maze of Ith to show up online.
Sword of Vengeance - A mini piece of Kaldra equipment, I actually think this is pretty good. It's another piece of equipment that gives trample, and therefore makes sure that you get your Commander damage through. First strike and the power boost are nice, and vigilance is great for defense. The haste is just icing on the cake.
Temple Bell - The "fixed"
Howling Mine. The main issue with
Howling Mine was that your opponents got to draw the cards before you did. However, now you can draw immediately, or just wait until it is about to be your turn. Expect this card in Group Hug decks, as well as decks that just want to draw more.
Wild Evocation - This can lead to some crazy games, as it's a random
Braids, Conjurer Adept. I can see this used in group hug decks, as well as used by some of those deck builders that love random effects.
VI. Creatures
Aether Adept - Updated
Man-o'-War, I don't expect you will see this one getting much use other than in Wizard themed decks like Azami.
Air Servant - Lots of Generals out there are dragons, and as such, have flying. This is an expensive
Icy Manipulator for those guys. I don't know if it's worth it, but it does have the ability to tap down multiple flyers at the same time.
Angelic Arbiter - Seems like every set needs
an angel. When I first read this card, I thought it's ability applied to all players. However, as it works only on your opponents, it's just a beating. I suspect you will start seeing it in Mayael type decks, as well as other controlling decks using white. Keep in mind that this card doesn't prevent people from attacking, then killing it with an instant on another player's turn.
Captivating Vampire - I haven't seen too many vampire themed decks, but this guy will obviously fit into one. However, you would have to work pretty hard to get any use out of the stealing effect. Without something like tokens and
Conspiracy out, no one is really going to want to overextend like that.
Conundrum Sphinx - At first I didn't like this card. But after thinking about the number of ways people can manipulate or see the tops of their libraries, with everything from
Crystal Ball to
Oracle of Mul Daya, I really don't like it. It's just not worth it to give your opponents any form of card advantage. Unless you really want to push the Group Hug theme.
Cyclops Gladiator - The effect isn't that great in the land of giants that is EDH. The high red casting cost isn't all that fun either. I guess it can pick off a couple of smaller guys over time, but don't think it's worth it.
Demon of Death's Gate - A large flying demon with an interesting alternative casting cost. Obviously this goes well with tokens as well as
Grave Pact effects. Can also go well in decks with lots of recursion, in case you want to get a second use out of some of your creatures. I really like that they gave him trample.
Fauna Shaman - A fixed version of
Survival of the Fittest, this will be a good budget alternative. Unfortunately, it's not nearly as good as Survival, as creatures are far more vulnerable, you have to wait a turn to use it, and you can only use it once a turn. I'm guessing you will still see it played though. If you really want Survival but can't afford it, go ahead and get this one. Although it's not very cheap, it is still less than 5 tix right now.
Fire Servant - An auto include in any big red deck. Unfortunately it doesn't double creature damage, but you can't have everything.
Gaea's Revenge - Large. Haste makes it good. Lack of trample is annoying, but that would be too good I guess. Oh well.
Harbor Serpent - Uses a fixed version of Islandhome. The Islandwalk ability is nothing to sneeze at. Unfortunately for the serpent, there are just better large beaters out there.
Hoarding Dragon - I'm just not seeing it. The problem is that plenty of games use "remove from the game" effects like
Condemn and
Swords to Plowshares, so without a sacrifice outlet readily available, you may never get the artifact you search up. Doesn't even work with blink effects. I think it'll end up working about 50% of the time. Depending on how artifact heavy your deck is, this can be good or bad.
Knight Exemplar - I saw a knight based deck that used Oros as it's commander a while back. It really liked using
Buried Alive to put Haakon,
Kinsbaile Cavalier and
Mirror Entity in the graveyard. It looked like fun, but not too resilient. I think this would go well in that type of deck, but few others.
Manic Vandal -
Viridian Shaman in red. This card makes sense, but the main reason the Shaman sees play is because of it's creature type.
Phylactery Lich - Cool idea for a card. Unfortunately, there is plenty of artifact hate out there in this format. And without some additional boost, either flying or trample or deathtouch, this guy doesn't stand up to snuff.
Serra Ascendant - Another card that seems made for EDH. Getting this guy out on turn one is just plain silly, as he is basically a 6/6 flying lifelinker. Now, he can still be dealt with, but expect to be missing a nice chunk of your life total by that point. If you are playing a "threatening" Commander, and this guy drops turn one, be prepared to take your licks. Even late game, if people still have decent life totals, he brings plenty of bang for the buck.
Steel Overseer - Obviously works well in artifact based decks like Sharuum. The question is whether he is worth it. He is cheap and comes down early, so that's good. I think that if you have the ability to pump out a lot of artifact creature tokens, like through the use of
Sharding Sphinx or something similar, he can be good. Otherwise, he's just slow.
Stromtide Leviathan - I really like this card. He's basically
Island Sanctuary on a big beefy creature. Should be good in control decks as a way to lock things down late game. Plus he's pretty efficiently costed as well. He would go well in my Dakkon deck, as well as the older Isperia one.
Vengeful Archon - The PureMTGO preview card, it seems like he's made for EDH. Again, he's efficiently costed, and he flies. The ability to redirect damage is nothing to sneeze at. Another worthwhile late game finisher.
War Priest of Thune - People used to play with
Kami of Ancient Law, so they will probably play with this. I know that I played
Aven Cloudchaser in some of my decks just to do the same thing, and although the War Priest costs 2 less, it doesn't have flying. I guess it's a presonal preference.
VII. Conclusion
So what's good? I'll tell you what's good! Here are my top nine in terms of overall utility, in no particular order.
9. The Titans (I'm cheating here, I know)
Now if you want a deal, I'm sure that most of the rares are going to get cheaper over time, and the non-Standard tournament Mythics will drop also. Just keep an eye out for anything with a high casting cost that seems like it has a narrow use. So the
Angelic Arbiter,
Brittle Effigy,
Hoarding Dragon,
Reverberate,
Redirect,
Stormtide Leviathan, and
Vengeful Archon are all a ticket or less, and other rares should all get cheaper as well. Anything that is Standard playable and mythic, however, is going to cost a pretty penny. If you take a look, though, things have already dropped off a good amount, so feel free to grab what you want now.
VIII. Bonus Decklist
So you may remember the article I wrote about Sasaya
a few weeks ago. Recently, the guy who actually won the game that I reported on in that article, Sheldama, contacted me, and gave me permission to show his decklist. It has changed a few cards since then, but the basic idea is the same.
So basically it's a creatureless deck using Planeswalkers and board control. I'll let him describe the deck in his own words:
"I basically started the deck as a 5 color planeswalker deck but didn’t have the Gideon, Ajani or Elspeth so I decided to cut White all together. And with no 4 color generals, Green was quick to follow. So that left me with Grixis.
This is definitely one of those politicking decks that you can’t just go on the rampage with. First off all you want to establish some sort of long term card advantage. The reality is that online very few people will play a creature the first couple turns so if you can manage to kill whatever 1-2 drop creatures on the board and then stick a Jace Beleren, you are absolutely golden. There is no phase 1-2 plan for the deck per say, unless you get some freak turn 5 Thraximundar eating the table... But that only happens 1 out of every 10 games really. The plan is this: Hit a land drop every single turn. Seriously. Between Thawing Glaciers, Journeyer's Kite, and card draw you need to hit a land drop every time so that when you get to a point where Thraximundar is an option and you can replay him a couple times.
Gameplan:
Step 1: Establish long term card advantage.
Step 2: Stay alive.
Step 3: Kill people.
Win conditions are as follows:
- Headshots: Mystical Teachings is your friend. If someone is playing a life gain effect like Beacon of Immortality or a Loxodon Warhammer on a Chameleon Colossus or something you can kill them with a False Cure off the Teachings. Tutoring for Insurrection wins games sometimes. A kicked Rite of Replication is well.... Rite of Replication. You saw how Grab the Reins killed the Momir player the game you reported. Radiate on a Consume Spirit or the likes also has potential.
- Thraximundar: If you stick to the “play a land every turn” plan, you can just stock up to the point where you can recast him 4 or 5 times and by the end of the game you will have a full grip of answers and other people will have 2-3 cards which don’t really do anything anymore and so their resources to answer are reduced
- Protect the Queen. Sorin Markov or Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker can end the game, together they dominate.
Everything is built on packages really.
Mystical teachings is a building block and Tezzeret is a building block, so those 2 cards are important tutor targets and you want to protect them. I am thinking about adding recall and relearn to the deck just to be able to reuse them."
6 Comments
Maze of Ith IS online, albeit hard to obtain since its only in promo form.
Overwhelming Stampede does give trample.
Yes Maze is online, and can be picked up for about 25 tix currently. Worth it IMO as it's a beautiful rattlesnake card, though very likely to get destroyed. Think it was only given out to judges in a recent online tourney, but there's a bunch floating around.
maze was given out to everyone who qualified for the last MOCS. top-32 also got a foil version.
Wow, two big mistakes. Sorry guys.
I'm more upset about screwing up Overwhelming Stampede. That's just a case of RTFC. Obviously with trample the card is much better. Not top 10 better, but still better.
I honestly had no idea about Maze of Ith. I knew that it wasn't in any of the MED sets, and hadn't seen anyone play it yet. I assumed that it would probably come out in the next MED set and we had to wait till then to get it. Wrong assumption I guess. 25 tix is a lot, though. I would probably wait till MED 4 comes out to see if I could get a cheaper version before shelling out that kind of cash. Of course, now that I know it's out there, I may not be able to wait...
I liked this list as it gave me a few cards to consider for my Jund and for my gruul decks. I have Hoarding Dragon in my Jund deck already and mainly because its a red air elemental and is a decent 5 mana dragon. I doubt the ability will ever work but its such a narrow use im sure there is something in SoM which is made to work with this.