Artifacts are great, because they can typically go into any deck. Although the most common ones involve mana fixing and acceleration, there are plenty of others with fun defensive and offensive effects that you will enjoy.
Totems - Often overlooked, these provide acceleration early, and bodies late. These go well in mono-colored and multicolored decks. They are good because they dodge the typical sorcery speed mass removal like
Wrath of God and
Damnation, just like man lands. Sometimes you just need an additional attacker, or even an additional blocker. Just remember not to activate
Phyrexian Totem with an opponent who is playing red. Bonus points if you make use of the blue totem in a game.
Mana help - These are land search artifacts that can help you fix your colors, or just make sure that you continue hitting your land drops. The Kite is actually one of my favorite cards. Many times you are going to have a couple extra mana at the end of your turn, and if you can turn that into a little bit of deck thinning, it's awesome. Plus, it's so low key, people tend to ignore it. I definitely recommend you pick one up if you don't have one already.
Akroma's Memorial - A very good card, turning all of your creatures into Akroma's is nothing to sneeze at. Your guys will be able to effectively dodge most removal from the moment they hit the table. This works well with both large beaters and creature swarms. The casting cost is high, but it's worth it for the effect.
Crystal Shard,
Erratic Portal - I group these together because they both play bounce effects. If your deck has a lot of creatures with "enters the battlefield" abilities, why not get more than one use out of them. Keep in mind that online, you can put
Crystal Shard in any deck, as opposed to normal EDH rules.
Damping Matrix - A Linvala for everyone, this is good at shutting down Commanders, card drawing, and equipment. Can definitely hose some decks, and that makes it worth it.
Defense Grid - Sometimes you want to be able to cast your spells in peace during your turn. This is a good way to make sure and avoid opposing combat tricks and counterspells, or at the very least, make them more difficult to cast.
Eldrazi Conscription - Not really an artifact, but it can go in any deck. This is great because it turns any of your creatures, from a
Birds of Paradise to a
Phylactery Lich, into a hulking monstrosity. There are times when people will be caught with their pants down, and that will make this card worth it.
Eldrazi Monument - Who wouldn't want to make their team indestructible and have flying? The trick is being able to pay the upkeep. Whether this means token creation, using
Bloodghast and
Nether Traitor, or just sacrificing one of your men, you should be able to beat down your opponents pretty quickly with this card out.
Forcefield - Being able to play with old school "power cards" online is always fun. This is very good at reducing Commander damage, as well as damage from other large beaters, for a minimal price. Unfortunately, it won't work on Uril, but it does work on just about everything else.
Jester's Cap - Kind of a catch all card for dealing with problems that your deck can't handle before they hit the table. If your deck depends on the graveyard, you can search out an opponent for their
Relic of Progenitus or
Tormod's Crypt. Or, if you prefer, you can just snag their legendary Eldrazi and remove them from the game. Although it doesn't effect the board, it can help you in the long run.
Proteus Staff - This one is a little dicey. It gives you the ability to tuck an opponent's Commander, and can do the same for any of the legendary Eldrazi. The problem is, you might like what pops up even less. However, if you know what is coming up in your deck, you can use it on one of your creatures as well.
Quicksilver Amulet - Nothing wrong with being able to drop large fatties into play on the cheap. More resilient than
Elvish Piper, you have the ability to put a creature into play during combat, or at the end of an opponent's turn. Works well with something like
Woodfall Primus to act as spot removal as well. Besides, who wants to pay 15 mana for Emrakul.
Rings of Brighthearth - A lot of cards in the format have activated abilities, so why not double them up? Although the most common and busted use is in combination with planeswalker abilities, it works in tandem with everything from cycling lands to enchantments like
Sterling Grove. If your Commander has an activated ability that costs a lot to use, such as
Mayael the Anima, you will definitely like this as well.
Sculpting Steel - A lot of times people are going to be playing powerful artifacts. So why not just copy them? Who wouldn't want their own
Sword of Fire and Ice if their buddy is playing with one? It's rare when their isn't a good target out there for this card.
Spawning Pit - This isn't a tremendously great card, but it does help you recover from board wipes. There are a lot of mass removal spells played out there, and when you sacrifice your guys in response, you are building up an army for later. In addition, there are lots of times when sacrificing a creature is beneficial, such as saving your Commander from tuck effects. Works best in token decks.
Sun Droplet - This card has been decreasing in popularity. It used to be that I would see it just about every game. Now, I rarely do. It does well for reducing the damage you take, and also works well in tandem with effects that trigger when you gain life. It's pretty passive, so many times people will ignore it. However, if no one has been an aggressor and people are wondering who to attack, they will attack the guy with the
Sun Droplet.
Tormod's Crypt - Just a good overall card. People don't play with enough graveyard removal. You should put in at least one or two of these cards, because many of the best and most powerful decks use their graveyard as an additional resource, and you are going to want to cut them off at the pass.
V. Blue Creatures
Blue typically helps most with card draw effects. However, it also has some good beaters, with some interesting abilities.
Aeon Chronicler - Card draw in combination with a big body at the end. The best part about the Chronicler is that the card draw cannot be countered. Sure, someone can
Stifle the effect once, but you won't see anyone out there try to as they usually have bigger fish to fry. And a hasty big guy when you're done drawing is nothing to sneeze at.
Arcanis the Omnipotent - Another card drawing creature, this guy can get pretty crazy. The good thing is that he comes with a built in ability to protect himself. He's going to need it, because he definitely comes with a target on his head. But if you are able to use him just once, he more than pays for himself.
Clone - The great thing about
Clone is that it doesn't target. So you can copy shroud creatures with it. Since this is EDH, there is usually a big scary monster out there, so why not have your own copy? Once they fix the Commander bug (Commanders are immune to the legend rule online), this card will be even better.
Dominating Licid - A very good theft card. You can use this licid's ability at instant speed. So if someone attacks you, you can use another opponent's creature to block. You can also steal one creature, then when a better one comes along, unattach the licid and grab the better one. Good times.
Ethersworn Adjudicator - Ok, so this technically isn't a blue creature, in that you need to at least be in Esper colors to fully take advantage of it. But in the late game, you can remove multiple creatures in one turn. You can also destroy pesky enchantments. Heck, even if you drop him on turn 5 people will be scared of him. Plus, he has pseudo-vigilance, which is nothing to be sneezed at.
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner - Although there's a lot of mass removal out there, there is also a lot of targeted removal. The best part about this card is that if you have another, more potent creature threat on the board, it takes three targeted removal spells to get rid of it: Two for Kira, then one for the bigger threat. If your opponent ignores Kira, he just leaves himself open to having to deal with the next threat you put out there.
Lighthouse Chronologist - I've never seen anyone ever get this guy active. But it just seems like it would be good, right? Obviously does better in mono-blue decks.
Mnemonic Wall - Blue didn't have a whole ton of recursion until recently. Sure, there is
Relearn and
Recall. But this is another way to recur your sorceries and instants, but it leaves behind a blocker! Which means that it will work well with
Crystal Shard to help out with recursion, or just stand in front of a Titan to prevent some damage.
Soramaro, First to Dream - I've never seen anyone else play with this guy, and it makes me sad. First of all, he has evasion. Second, he draws cards. And just by using his ability once, you increase his power and toughness by two! His ability also works well with
Seer's Sundial and landfall cards. Combined with
Reliquary Tower, he's a force to be reckoned with.
Sphinx of Magosi - I've definitely seen this guy played. Again, he is large and has evasion. He can draw cards and pumps himself each time he uses his ability. He requires a significant blue investment, but I don't think you'll complain when you have him out.
Sun Quan, Lord of Wu - How to make all your creatures unblockable. This is a cheap legend that should definitely see more play. Although blue isn't typically the color of aggression, it is capable of make some pretty large dudes. Putting this guy into play can end games in your favor very quickly.
Vesuvan Doppelganger - Not as popular as
Vesuvan Shapeshifter, it's still really good. As you may have seen in my last article, I was able to use one of these to copy an
Eternal Witness when it came into play, then turn into an Eldrazi the next turn without a mana investment. Being able to copy the best or largest creature on the field isn't a bad ability. Plus, it doesn't target, just like
Clone.
VI. Blue Spells
Blue excels in card advantage and theft, and the list of cards below aren't going to break that mold.
Cast Through Time - Who doesn't like free spells? I actually think this does better in decks that aren't mono-blue, as there are a ton of other spells out there in other colors that you would like to copy.
Demonic Tutor?
Kodama's Reach?
Beacon of Immortality? And there are definitely other more powerful cards that this one teams up with.
Echoing Truth - There are lot of players using token decks out there (I'm one of them), and sometimes it's nice to wipe their board cheaply and at instant speed. Also can be used as individual removal just fine.
Inundate - This would be fun to play in a mono-blue deck. Clear out everyone's blockers, or just set them behind, and move in for the kill.
Jace Beleren - Underrated, if only for his ability to get rid of his bigger brother. If you use his abilities in such a way as to avoid coming close to his ultimate, sometimes people will ignore him, especially if they get a free card every once in a while.
Mind Spring, Braingeyser, Opportunity, Recurring Insight - Card draw at it's most basic. Nothing wrong with that. Opportunity is instant speed, which is nice. Recurring Insight is one of my favorite draw spells, and has never failed to draw me a butt load of cards. Some people will try to dump their hands while waiting for it to rebound, but most of the time they can't do enough.
Mystical Teachings - A good tutor, needs you to play black to be most effective. Sometimes you just need that Consume the Meek to clear the board.
Overwhelming Intellect - Counter and card draw rolled into one. Keep in mind that you can use this on Emrakul. You won't counter the Eldrazi, but you will draw a ton of cards.
Personal Tutor - Another cheap tutor. If you have SDT in play, you can draw it and use it the same turn.
Spelljack - If a counterspell costs 6 mana, then it better be good. Fortunately, this one is. You've never lived until you Spelljack someone's Blatant Thievery.
Telemin Performance - Every once in a while you will run into someone that is pretty creature light. This card can bring the pain in those situations. If they are creature light, the creatures they play are going to be pretty powerful. Actually, people play powerful creatures in general, so you will be happy most of the time you cast this.
Tezzeret the Seeker - There are a lot of artifact based decks out there that like this guy, but he doesn't have to go into just Sharuum and Arcum decks. You can use him to tutor up equipment, or mana help. The ability to tutor multiple times is always useful.
Trickbind - You don't want Emrakul to give your opponent an extra turn?
Trickbind to the rescue! There are a lot of effects that get played in these games, so you definitely shouldn't have trouble coming up with something to counter. Basically a cheaper (in terms of cost) version of
Stifle.
Twincast - The blue
Fork. Why not copy someone else's
Recurring Insight? Copying isn't a bad way to go in these games, as there will typically be a bunch of powerful stuff thrown around.
VII. Green Creatures
Green not only has some big beaters, but some overlooked recursion and card draw. On top of that, there are some unusual effects provided by some of these cards.
Baru, Fist of Krosa - Baru is especially good in mono-green decks, but can do well in Guild decks as well. Keep in mind that he pumps all your guys when
any Forest comes into play, meaning on your opponent's side as well. Pumping your guys is good, but giving them trample is even better.
Caller of the Claw - Another form of Wrath insurance, holding this guy back can allow you to overextend a little bit. Although having bears isn't particularly exciting, at least you will be able to put on some immediate pressure after the board is wiped.
Copperhoof Vorrac - Sort of a big, dumb, beater, this guy can get really, really large anytime you have 3 other opponents. Giving him trample makes him better, obviously, but you can also combine him with effects like
Fling or
Greater Good. Sort of a cheaper
Hamletback Goliath. I've tried to get him into a couple of decks, but for some reason he doesn't quite make the cut.
Forgotten Ancient - He truly is forgotten. He can accumulate a stupid number of counters very quickly. The ability to move those counters around is great and has multiple purposes. You can stick them on a creature you have with evasion, or put a counter on a
Woodfall Primus to re-set it. There are a ton of uses for this guy, but he never gets played any more.
Frontier Guide - When I first saw this one, I thought it was just a more fragile version of
Journeyer's Kite. However, upon closer inspection, it puts the land
directly into play. This means that if you draw another land, you can play it as well, so you are accelerating essentially every time you get to activate it. Pretty sweet, if you can get more than a couple uses out of it.
Jedit Ojanen of Efrava - He's a large forestwalker. On top of that, he spits out tokens. Obviously he isn't as good as
Grave Titan, but you can see where they got the idea for the big, black giant. Don't underestimate his ability to connect and bring the pain.
Mold Shambler - More green removal on a stick. Although the mold hippo isn't as good as
Acidic Slime due to the inability to be abused by blink effects, his ability to get rid of any non-creature permanent is nothing to be sneezed at. Then, bounce him and do it again.
Paleoloth - This is an interesting one. There are a lot of large creatures out there, and if you play with a few of them, you should be able to get at least one or two cards back from your graveyard. Good in Mayael decks, but not just limited to those. Even better with something like Kiki-Jiki or
Splinter Twin. Recursion is always nice.
Panglacial Wurm - So it's the 13th turn, and you happen to draw
Cultivate. A lot of good that's going to do you. But wait, you have
Panglacial Wurm in your deck! So basically drawing
Rampant Growth late game is the same as an 8/5 trampler. A big beater that can turn late game search into more than that, this guy can bring the pain and help you out in the end game. Looking back, I probably should have found a way to include this creature in my Stonebrow deck from last week.
Primordial Sage,
Garruk's Packleader - Creature based card draw. Many times green decks are a third creatures. Turning all those guys into cantrips will make you happy. The Packleader's restriction is pretty minor, actually.
Rampaging Baloths - A very good landfall creature, in that it comes in a color that can drop more than one land a turn, and it pumps out very large tokens. Trample is icing on the cake.
Scute Mob - Not a bad creature after turn five, in which it can get very large very quickly. There are numerous ways to get him through, mainly through equipment and trample enablers. And his death with something like
Xathrid Demon or
Stalking Vengeance is nothing to sneeze at either.
Seedguide Ash - His stats aren't all that impressive, but what is good is the deck thinning, as well as the ability to put ANY three Forests into play upon death. This means that you can get dual lands and Rav shock lands. Sort of the precursor to Primeval Titan.
Silklash Spider - Flying defense, as well as the ability to
Hurricane on demand, without hitting players. Great against all those dragons out there.
Silvos, Rogue Elemental - A large, trampling regenerator is nothing to sneeze at. Along with this 8 power for 6 mana, I think he definitely deserves a shot.
Willow Satyr - I've never seen anyone play this but me, and I think that's criminal. In a format that is based around legendary creatures, being able to steal them should not be overlooked. If you have the ability to give him haste, he's even better. Besides, the best way to kill someone is to steal their Commander and beat them to death with it. Try it, you'll like it.
VIII. Green Spells
Some of these are situational, or have specific requirements. But they are all very good in the right decks.
Beacon of Creation - Obviously this requires a lot of forests, but it can spit out a ton of tokens even in two colored decks. The fact that it shuffles back into your library doesn't come up often, but I know of at least one game where I drew it again 3 turns after casting it the first time. Lots of tokens are always good.
Bear Umbra - This card effectively doubles your available mana. You can tap out during your first main phase and have all that mana available again for the second main phase. That should speed you up significantly. It's great with instant speed pump like
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and other activated ability that require mana but no tapping. And don't forget the infinite attack steps with
Aggravated Assault
Defense of the Heart - Pretty much a free
Tooth and Nail. Although it is conditional, it's a fairly easy condition to meet. You may take a beating while waiting for this thing to go off, but it should be worth it when you bust out with
Angel of Despair and Ulamog.
Harmonize - It may not seem like much, but three cards can dig you that much deeper to an answer. For a while there, green didn't have a whole lot of card draw, and this was a boon. Although green has received a lot more draw spells, this is still a very good card.
Hibernation's End - This is a pretty solid creature based tutor that leads to impressive amounts of card advantage. Although the creatures you get the first couple turns aren't typically that powerful, by turn three you can get some really good stuff.
Hurricane,
Squall Line - The green "direct damage" spells. There are a ton of flyers in this environment, and the ability to wipe the board of them is nothing to sneeze at. The ability to hurt players is a bonus.
Kavu Lair - More card draw for big beasts, which green usually excels at producing.
Nature's Spiral - Obviously not as good as
Eternal Witness, this is still good enough to get back that
Time Warp, Elspeth, or other card you just used. Recursion is good, and this is another cheap version.
One Dozen Eyes - Instant army! This is sort of a pet card, and I usually like dropping it right after someone clears the board. 6 creatures for one card is a pretty sweet deal.
Overrun - Great with token decks, or just decks that like to overextend. Giving everyone trample is always great, and the power and toughness boost can be what puts the card over the top.
Rancor - The original recurring aura. A lot of creatures and Commanders in the format are large, but don't have forms of evasion. This helps get your damage through. And you don't typically suffer the card disadvantage that most auras suffer.
Rude Awakening - An awesome late game card. You can go from having a clear board, to having an instant unexpected army. In addition, you can use it to untap all your lands if you need the extra mana. I know that this has been a game winner for me more than once.
Vernal Bloom - I think that people playing mono-green decks sometimes forget about this card. It's basically a
Nirkana Revenant for green, and that's great. Most of the time, there isn't a whole lot of other green being played out there, so you don't typically have to worry about helping your opponents.
IX. Conclusion
Well, this article has already taken a good amount of time, so I think that I'm going to hit up the remainder of the colors in the next article. If you guys have any favorite cards in blue, green, or artifacts that aren't mentioned here or in the list over at MTGSalvation, please list them in the comments! There are a ton of cards out there that can be used and are probably overlooked, so speak up!
X. Addendum
So obviously FTV: Relics is coming out this week. The MSRP is $34.99. Is it worth purchasing this set? Let's take a look at what you can get for your Commander decks:
Sword of Body and Mind
All but three of these cards are already available online.
Mox Diamond, although not played in Commander, is worth a good amount of cash all by itself. It may take a price hit, but probably not a big one. The Disk and
Memory Jar are both worth a couple of tickets. The rest of the stuff that is already available is nice, but much to write home about, and if you like them you probably already own them. However, these cards are all useful in that they go into just about any Commander deck.
The three cards that are not available online yet are the Sword,
Masticore and
Sol Ring. The Sword is coming out shortly, but you have to wait until next year for the Masticore. The Sword is good, but I'm not a big fan of milling strategies so I don't think it is as good as the originals.
Masticore already has an online equivalent in
Razormane Masticore, which isn't great but does the trick in the meantime. Of course, the stand out here is the third unavailable card that I have not mentioned yet:
Sol Ring.
Just how bad do you want that
Sol Ring? Keep in mind, this is a card that goes into almost every EDH deck. Can you live without it? Sure, why not? We've been doing fine without it for a couple of years now. But the first time someone drops one on you first turn, you will get pretty envious if you are anything like me. But the real question is, will it come out in MED4? Because if it does, you are going to pay significantly less than 35 bucks for it. And all you will have to do is wait a couple of months.
Looking at the past two From the Vault sets, how did they do? The Dragons set isn't worth the digital space it occupies. However, Exiled is pretty good. Specifically,
Strip Mine is worth 16 tickets. This is due to the fact that this set is the only place you could get the card. In addition,
Mystical Tutor and
Goblin Lackey are both over 6 tickets, due to their playability in Legacy.
So, should you get it? I don't know about you, but I'm getting a set. The cards are all playable, and
Sol Ring is the bomb. If you are getting this set solely for investment purposes, your investment will be tied up in whether the Ring gets printed in MED4. If it does, you're screwed, but at least you will still have
Mox Diamond in the set. If it does not get reprinted, though, you will be very happy indeed.
Hope you guys found some stuff to consider for your decks. Until next time!
Leviathan, aka Tarasco on MTGO
mrmorale32 at yahoo dot com
5 Comments
5 mana symbols 3 snaps and a circle for this article. I actually touch breifly on this subject in my third installment of my commander/edh premire. I may just have to link this article for reference.
A great primer. Though I can't believe you list Triskelevus over Triskelion under art creatures. I seem to have singles of a lot of the staples here which is really great. I guess my quest to improve my collection since last year has succeeded better than I expected. :)
As for the viability of FTV sets I sold most of my Exiled cards for well over the suggested retail price in total though that took time (3 months or so.)
Unfortunately, after thinking it over a lot, FTV Relics has lost nearly all its appeal for me. I've already picked up my Memory Jar for the upcoming implementation of Vintage with MED4 *shakes fist* and I haven't found a good enough reason to pick up the ever-depreciating Mox Diamond. That leaves me with the only other card of interest being Sol Ring. For one, if it is printed in MED4, which would make a lot of sense as both Mana Vault and the P9 are getting printed in MED4 *shakes fist again*, I would be upset for buying an ugly Sol Ring. I'm a sucker for old card art, sue me. However, if I can find one for around ~8 tix, I'll snatch it up in a heartbeat. It's just like how I ignored FTV Exiled but bought the Strip Mine alone before it surely skyrockets in December *more fist shaking*. However, if we get a Strip Mine reprint in MED4, a replacement will be in order.
As for the article, I enjoyed it very much, and will make it a point to skim that list when I'm at home with the client open. This Standard nonsense is giving me a headache, I need me some Commander :p
Thanks guys. Feel free to mention more stuff that was missed.
As for the Relics set, my concern is what would happen if they don't print Sol Ring in MED4. Then I would have to wait around until the next masters edition set comes out, which I recall hearing wasn't guaranteed. And that would suck but it is entirely possible. So I'm going to be conservative and get it. They haven't reprinted strip mine yet either.
I may get a relics set. I dont have any of the cards but Sensie's top, so its fine for me.