Underused Cards in EDH

Cow31337Killer
Posts: 139
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 1
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Cow31337Killer » 4 years ago

I was surprised to see there wasn't a thread for this already, so I figured I'd make one here. Post a card you think is awesome but doesn't really get the attention it deserves. Maybe you have a story about a certain card that you really vibe with even though it's not a format defining staple. Sometimes it's fun to pull off a sweet play with a card that people don't generally see all that often, and I think at it's heart that's one of the things that makes EDH such a great format. I'll start off with a personal favorite of mine: Elderscale Wurm|M13

Image

Elderscale Wurm|M13 is a card that, in my opinion, is criminally undervalued. His ability, besides being an incredibly unique effect in green, can also be an absolute tank against most aggro or token strategies. With this guy out, your opponent can't win through normal means of combat damage, and is essentially forced to find removal for Elderscale Wurm|M13 before they can swing in for the kill. I've had games where an opposing board full of tokens has been forced into a standstill against this guy, giving me several turns to build up my own board state while they waited to top deck into some sort of removal. In my Yeva, Nature's Herald|M13 deck I'll sometimes flash him out at instant speed in the middle of combat to survive an otherwise game-ending Craterhoof Behemoth|AVR trigger. And, at it's core, the card is a 7/7 with trample, which slots perfectly into the common green strategy of playing big creatures to Overrun|M12 your opponents. Currently on EDHREC this card sees play in just about 650 decks. That's way too low in my opinion. Are there better 7 drops out there? Of course! But in the right scenario Elderscale Wurm|M13 can be a star player against decks that rely on direct damage to win. Feel free to discuss your thoughts on Elderscale Wurm|M13 and to post your own underused cards below!

EDIT: Resizing the image cause it was kind've too big
Last edited by Cow31337Killer 4 years ago, edited 1 time in total.

ilovesaprolings
Posts: 833
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by ilovesaprolings » 4 years ago

I play it and honestly it's just weak. I love wurms, this is one of the best wurm, but it's still weak. 7 life is very low, it's easy for an opponent to just kill it and take away that 7 life. It doesn't protect you from infect or commander damage. Its life is negligible, if i play this when i'm at 4 i go back to 7... almot useless
Sadly he's just outclassed by exquisite archangel and resolute archangel

Cow31337Killer
Posts: 139
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 1
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Cow31337Killer » 4 years ago

ilovesaprolings wrote:
4 years ago
I play it and honestly it's just weak. I love wurms, this is one of the best wurm, but it's still weak. 7 life is very low, it's easy for an opponent to just kill it and take away that 7 life. It doesn't protect you from infect or commander damage. Its life is negligible, if i play this when i'm at 4 i go back to 7... almot useless
Sadly he's just outclassed by exquisite archangel and resolute archangel
I mean maybe but those cards are white so I'm not sure it's fair to directly compare their effects to a green card. Of course white is going to have better life-gain and/or damage prevention effects, cause that's one of the things white is best at. In a mono-green deck, where few other creatures can offer what Elderscale Wurm|M13 offers, I think it's a worthwhile inclusion, especially if your meta is more casual and has a lot of aggro or creature based strategies. Also, even when comparing it to the angels you mentioned, I would argue that Elderscale Wurm|M13's effect has more long term potential than either of them.

FetalTadpole
Posts: 18
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by FetalTadpole » 4 years ago

Aura Thief
I swear by this card. Most enchantments are no longer a problem if you control them. It's almost always relevant, it'll block flyers, it's not even expensive ($5) for being such an old card. I'm the only one I've ever played with who ran it.

Fertilid
Got a +1/+1 counter theme? If you can abuse the counters on Fertilid you've got it made. You can even give the lands to other people and force them to shuffle their library. Nothing feels better than squeezing every last drop of value out of a single Fertilid. It's even an elemental for Omnath or Horde of Notions shenanigans.

Engulfing Slagwurm
One of my favorite fatties and I rarely see it in lists. Give it trample for extra value or block with the meanest chumper of all time.

Lucifer, Sapere Aude
Posts: 79
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Lucifer, Sapere Aude » 4 years ago

Temporal Cascade

- Great multiplayer card, I most of times win games after using it. The secret? Choose the first mode and aggressively ramp with mana rocks so you cast it in early game : wreck completely both graveyards and hands of all players, but once you reach 7 mana with a powerful card-advantage engine general, you don't literally care so you lock and dominate the whole table with a 1 card combo. The versatility of other 2 modes is nice, but the first one is the one I prefer most, because I can easily break the simmetry. Very underrated, never saw anybody using it except me.

Aftershock

- A card that destroy 3 out of 5 card types without restrictions in monored with a laughable drawback? Yes please.

- Amnesia

Like temporal cascade, but even more obscure card. Mass discard for monoblue decks? Yes please. I love it in Riku because unlike the Cascade, this works better if copied.

User avatar
FoxM1
I'm certainly something
Posts: 17
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by FoxM1 » 4 years ago

By far my favorite card that I never see anyone else play is Meletis Charlatan.

There is so much you can do with the politics of game with this on the field. You can make friends or you can make enemies. I personally like to use it in my Kruphix group hug deck.

User avatar
lyonhaert
Posts: 641
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 4
Pronoun: they / them

Post by lyonhaert » 4 years ago

Mindslicer is one of my favorite mean cards, but the most common of my choices at 2262 decks on EDHREC. Mindmoil is fairly underrated (1837 decks on EDHREC). Threshold really isn't hard to achieve for Krosan Restorer (1483 decks). Infinite Reflection (565) and Mirrorweave (631) can do some fun shenanigans.

But my favorites, and even more "pet card" than the others:

Homura, Human Ascendant (458 decks)
My favorite example from long ago was somebody playing Ob Nixilis Unshackled as a third creature to trigger my Defense of the Heart hoping that having to sacrifice one of the two creatures would be a catch-22 (not that this would have stopped a Kiki-Jiki+Conscripts combo). I got Homura and Giant Adephage, sacrificing Homura. Somebody wiped the board before it got back around to me.

Faceless Butcher (500 decks)
Can flicker a creature, protect one from a wipe, exile permanently with an instant-speed sacrifice outlet. But curiously the wording of this one puts the card back into play under its owner's control. Flicker targets on my bucket list for this card include Prime Speaker Zegana and Phage the Untouchable. Let me know if you can think of others. :P

Head Games (390 decks)
Ridiculous every time I've used it, even if I'm not about to sacrifice a Mindslicer. So far people get mad at the person who cast the removal/wipe that wrecked their board rather than the enabling person who put said card in the caster's hand. :hmm:

Essence of the Wild (128 decks)
Lots of fun with Spider Spawning and a hefty graveyard.
Chainer bbb
"Image"
(rebuild after Geth)
Other
r Lathliss
bw Breena
To-Build Pool
rb Obosh Burn
gw Dromoka

User avatar
SocorroTortoise
Not A Turtle
Posts: 369
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: San Diego, CA

Post by SocorroTortoise » 4 years ago

I've never liked that Elderscale Wurm gets shut down by Blood Artist and friends. Maybe it's just my meta but I've always found small life loss effects to be fairly common.

Acidic Soil - My pick for most underplayed, at least in slower metas. I've lost track of how many games I've won off the back of this and Price of Progress, which admittedly sees a little more play.
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box

User avatar
Mookie
Posts: 3460
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 47
Pronoun: Unlisted
Location: the æthereal plane

Post by Mookie » 4 years ago

One of my favorite games of limited, ever, involved using Sign in Blood to get past an Elderscale Wurm after my opponent's entire board was locked down by Xathrid Gorgon. Good times....

As for my own underplayed card, I'll throw out Possibility Storm. It's an excellent disruptive card, since it makes it difficult for opponents to consistently play the right answers. Also works really well alongside anything that cares about casting spells, such as Monastery Mentor, Kykar, Wind's Fury, Beast Whisperer, or Swarm Intelligence. Even sillier alongside cards like Thousand-Year Storm and Aetherflux Reservoir. Alternatively, use it to cheat out Eldrazi (even getting any nasty cast triggers). Or use it as a lock piece with Ruric Thar, the Unbowed or Teferi, Time Raveler.

User avatar
75chan
Shoegaze ♥
Posts: 81
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by 75chan » 4 years ago

Mookie wrote:
4 years ago
One of my favorite games of limited, ever, involved using Sign in Blood to get past an Elderscale Wurm after my opponent's entire board was locked down by Xathrid Gorgon. Good times....

As for my own underplayed card, I'll throw out Possibility Storm. It's an excellent disruptive card, since it makes it difficult for opponents to consistently play the right answers. Also works really well alongside anything that cares about casting spells, such as Monastery Mentor, Kykar, Wind's Fury, Beast Whisperer, or Swarm Intelligence. Even sillier alongside cards like Thousand-Year Storm and Aetherflux Reservoir. Alternatively, use it to cheat out Eldrazi (even getting any nasty cast triggers). Or use it as a lock piece with Ruric Thar, the Unbowed or Teferi, Time Raveler.
I can swear by Possibility Storm! Great disruptive card. Symmetrical? I don't think so!

My most underplayed card would be Rune of Protection: Green etc. 155-172 decks on EDHREC? Nah, they deserve way more. If you don't have enchantment hate it can be a pain to connect for damage, and if you don't need the color, just cycle it away! Top tier pillowfort cards.

A runner-up would be Scout's Warning. It's not very flashy, but the fact that it cycles just makes it so much better. Draw it early and don't need it? Just get rid of it! Not an amazing card, but surely it deserves more than 292 decks.
SocorroTortoise wrote:
4 years ago
I've never liked that Elderscale Wurm gets shut down by Blood Artist and friends. Maybe it's just my meta but I've always found small life loss effects to be fairly common.

Acidic Soil - My pick for most underplayed, at least in slower metas. I've lost track of how many games I've won off the back of this and Price of Progress, which admittedly sees a little more play.

I run both in Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. They're both super nice, especially with Gisela or Glacial Chasm to break the synergy.
I swap decks a lot
wr Avacyn with defensive blinking
ur OG Jhoira spellslinger without MLD or eldrazi
and some other stuff that are more or less messy


Best card

Cow31337Killer
Posts: 139
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 1
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Cow31337Killer » 4 years ago

lyonhaert wrote:
4 years ago
Essence of the Wild (128 decks)
Lots of fun with Spider Spawning and a hefty graveyard.
I thought I was the only one who liked this card haha. I play it in my mono green decks a lot. Nothing feels better than slamming a Howl of the Night Pack|M10 after Essence of the Wild|ISD comes down. Howl is actually another favorite underused card of mine.

User avatar
Rorseph
Compleat Fool
Posts: 147
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: they / them
Location: The Sixth Sphere of Phyrexia
Contact:

Post by Rorseph » 4 years ago

Here are some of my pet cards that EDHREC says are run in 1% of decks or less.

Angelic Renewal
This is excellent insurance against board wipes, both yours and your opponent's. If you're running Voltron with white, you should run this card.

Viashino Heretic
This is a card I'm surprised isn't run more. Repeatable artifact destruction that also does damage is handy. I've run this is almost all of my decks that have had red.

Vanishing
Protection for one of yours, or lock out an opponent's creature. Great versatility.

Nimble Obstructionist
A Stifle that cantrips and that doubles as a surprise flying blocker or just a flying equipment carrier.

Recall
Further proof that given a deep enough card pool, Blue can do it all.
"From void evolved Phyrexia. Great Yawgmoth, Father of Machines, saw its perfection. Thus The Grand Evolution began."
—Phyrexian Scriptures


Aurelia | Maelstrom Wanderer | Primer: Thassa | Uro | Primer: Volrath

User avatar
RxPhantom
Fully Vaxxed, Baby!
Posts: 1513
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted
Location: Southern Maryland

Post by RxPhantom » 4 years ago


I've played against plenty of mono-green decks that run both Kodama's Reach and Cultivate but not this, when this card is strictly better. I run all three in my Goreclaw deck.
Can you name all of the creature types with at least 20 cards? Try my Sporcle Quiz! Last Updated: 2/18/22 (Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty)

User avatar
darrenhabib
Posts: 1812
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by darrenhabib » 4 years ago

Given that this isn't a "hidden gems" thread, and literally underused, I've given my list of cards comparable to power level. So although some are played in literally thousands of decks, they still represent a disproportional amount of play for what they can do.

The numbers are from EDHREC. I've ordered these from the least played to most.

Riptide Shapeshifter (150 decks)
This can be an extremely powerful and versatile card, but it requires a special kind of way of looking at your deck to figure out it's true worth. You need to see numbers of creature types to figure out if it's going to be good for you. But there are going to be thousands of decks that this is great in that people just are going to be unaware about. If you have lots of one-off creature types then you can use this at any stage of the game to get that creature. Think Praetor (Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur), Elephant (Terastodon), Djinn (Tidespout Tyrant), Gorgon (Damia, Sage of Stone), Elder (Nezahal, Primal Tide), Avatar (Diluvian Primordial) as examples of creatures types that are easily played as singles in your deck.
It is mana intensive but the ability to use it at instant speed means that you can catch people unaware of what you can do in response to plays.

Kaho, Minamo Historian (226 decks)
My first foray into posting threads for commander was actually for this gal, and about being one part of your 99 and not meaning as your commander. You can check out the article still on MTGSalvation => Kaho, Minamo Historian, the best all purpose tutor not in black.
She is just incredible under utilized.

Vanish into Memory (371 decks)
If you've never played with or against this card then you'll have to trust me that the tempo swing for four mana is incredible. There is almost always a big target for it in multiplayer games, so your are easily drawing 5 cards (or more). It can be used in several different ways. To remove an opponents creature that may be causing problems at that moment in time, or you can use it to save one of your own creatures.
Discarding cards isn't really a downside considering you get to filter through so many cards.
I'd play this card over Fact or Fiction (24036 decks) in an Azorius color paired deck any day of the week as it offer so much versatility.

Portcullis (372 decks)
This card causes so many problems to so many decks in hard to fathom ways. Basically as soon as you cast it no more creatures hit the battlefield. OK, so you're thinking "well I just cast creatures out and in no time at all somebody will remove it".
So people just cast their creatures over the next couple of turns as usual. But already this is a huge tempo swing. Those creatures have not effected the game. There is also no surprise value. Everybody gets to see what is coming up. Now this in turn will start to make opponents hesitant about actually removing it. The player that does draw removal for it, might be scared off what other opponents have put under it. So they just stop casting creatures into it and don't use their removal on it.
For the player who cast it, you're probably creature light deck, and it buys you time to draw into mass creature removal. So you get the maximum amount of value when you cast removal. Otherwise you're potentially being pressured into casting removal on much smaller amount of creatures because you are still being pressured.
This is very close to Humility but colorless (so playable in any deck). And if you've played against/with Humility you'll know how much it effects the game.

Hunting Grounds (390 decks)
Has to be in the right build, but make sure you put it on your "is it potential to play" list anytime you have a creature deck with Selesnya in your color pie.

Null Brooch (464 decks)
This discard seems scary, but a counterspell every turn when you have enough of a board presence often locks up games. Plus it has the effect that each opponent doesn't want to play their big spells into it, so you're actually holding off way more spells than you first think. It's not like it's actually just countering a single spell each turn round. It's preventing players from casting any relevant spells often.
For any non-blue deck that wants more control over power plays.

Kalemne's Captain (422 decks)
I wouldn't say a shoe-in, but way better than number of decks reflect. At the end of the day it's still a 5/5 for 5 mana, and then going forward you can hold up the mana to threaten the mass removal. It's not as good as Bane of Progress as it's more mana intensive, but you can use it as a political tool, holding off using it if opponents don't get too frisky with you or what artifacts or enchantments they play.

Wheel of Sun and Moon (522 decks)
There is a lot going on with this card, and it does require special thinking about it can work for your deck. But the easy mode is just enchanting a graveyard strategy player and shutting them completely off.
But you can play it on yourself if you've got special ways to reuse certain cards in your deck. Too many numerous ways to mention any, but keep this card in mind, especially if graveyard strategies are popular among your meta (I mean what meta doesn't have them!?)

Mystic Barrier (899 decks)
Probably gaining some stock as people figure out Pramikon, Sky Rampart ability through playing with and against. But Mystic Barrier is still better as you can keep changing directions, and honesty holds up as my favorite "casual" card to play in commander. Every time I play it it effects that game more than almost any other card that isn't directly winning the game. It's just surprisingly good and fun. The way you can dictate whats going on in the game makes it one of the most political cards without needing to talk to your opponents. You get to decide how the action plays out.

Experimental Frenzy (917 decks)
Obviously a well known card, but underrepresented for deck that have red and have a lack of draw.

Magus of the Future (992 decks)
Same as Experimental Frenzy in that it's one of the most powerful effects literally in the game of Magic. This gets overshadowed by it's enchantment cousin Future Sight, and for good reason as creatures are more fragile than enchantments normally. But still it has the same effect and simply better than Oracle of Mul Daya (people will argue about playing two lands), which people just can't afford $$ moneywise. This is a $2 card and if you've got a mana base than supports triple blue, then you should really look to this as a potential card.

Patron of the Orochi (1036 decks)
My very first commander, so holds a special place for me. But I'm talking about a card in your 99. It's really really really powerful. Not as good as Seedborn Muse, sure, but a second Seedborn Muse effect can be understood by most.

Will Kenrith (1091 decks)
I think still one of the most overlooked planeswalkers for power in your 99. A lot maybe because people are not playing in red, so they feel like they are missing out on the Rowan partner value. But by himself he is one of the most powerful planewalkers in the game, so do not be distracted by that, play him on his ability to shut down creatures, draw cards and cost reduction, and incredible emblem in the right decks.

Dreamscape Artist (1264 decks)
In the blue which does not have much access to land ramp, Dreamscape Artist can offer you ramp every turn. I think the "3" mana puts people off, but the lands come into play untapped, so really this card only costs you 1 mana to use. It does have card disadvantage from hand, but obviously with access to more mana you can play out spells that draw you cards more readily. Also good for graveyard strategy decks as well.

Uncage the Menagerie (1451 decks)
I think this one will be down to complexity of figuring out how good it is given your deck. But this is one hell of an action card. It scales, so early on you can simply cast it for 3 mana to get a one drop if requiring mana fixing. But then you can cast it for 5 mana later on in the game and get 3 x 3 cmc creatures, which I bet you is going to get you perfect action for that stage of the game.
Really this just comes down to figuring out your converted mana costs you lazy bums!!

Kira, Great Glass-Spinner (1506 decks)
In many ways just gives your creatures hexproof, as opponents don't want to waste a spell to get through it. Have you guys heard of hexproof? Do you think hexproof on your creatures is worth it? Ha ha tricked you, that was a rhetorical question, of course it is.

Medomai the Ageless (1878 decks)
Starting to climb up with popularity, but still an underrated card for what it actually does. Extra turns on legs. Will take over a game more easily than you think.
I mean if you compare it to other much more popular 6 drops, like Sun Titan (27496 decks) and Grave Titan (12301 decks), this guy has a way higher ceiling on potentially winning games.

Slate of Ancestry (2099 decks)
Again probably the "discard" scares people off a little, but as an artifact this should be in way more decks. Going wide with creatures is one of the most popular themes in commander, so should be in way more decks. Just simply an oversight by deck builders. The discard doesn't matter when you are getting exponentially more cards.

Walking Atlas (2156 decks)
One of my "tech" cards for most draw decks outside of green. Really underused card still as it's often an extra land drop every turn for decks that can consistently draw cards.

Faerie Artisans (2732 decks)
The most popular card on my list, but I still might say the most underplayed for power. Honestly this card if not answered within a few turns, just takes over the game. It's hard to put a value on this card when you look at it or put it into your deck, because you don't know what the outcome is right? But trust me once you're getting a version of every opponents creatures, the value is just overwhelming. Every ETB/LTB effect your opponents are playing you get also. You have a guaranteed blocker each turn to put in the way of attacks. Probably the card that always over-performed for me every time I've put it onto the battlefield.
The good thing is that normally it takes a while for opponents to remove it as well, because there is no quantifiable amount of value when you cast it. It's just when opponents figure out how ridiculous good it is after already getting value that the might have to Demonic Tutor specially for removal, it's that good.

User avatar
UnfulfilledDesires
Posts: 128
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: they / them
Location: Albuquerque, NM, USA

Post by UnfulfilledDesires » 4 years ago

Márton Stromgald (403 decks): He's basically a red Craterhoof Behemoth for half the mana, albeit a little tricky to use. He's also a Knight! I haven't swung with Márton too many times, but in my limited experience opponents never realize how powerful he is until I've already attacked. "Wait, they're how big? Wow."

Emerald Charm (304 decks): I always try to have ways to remove Humility in my creature-based decks. This card hits all manner of scary enchantments for a mere one mana, & doubles as a ritual if you have any permanent that taps for two or more mana. It can enable a surprise block via the untap or the rare loses-flying mode. I've been putting Emerald Charm in more & more of my decks lately.

User avatar
Rorseph
Compleat Fool
Posts: 147
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: they / them
Location: The Sixth Sphere of Phyrexia
Contact:

Post by Rorseph » 4 years ago

darrenhabib wrote:
4 years ago
Magus of the Future (992 decks)
Same as Experimental Frenzy in that it's one of the most powerful effects literally in the game of Magic. This gets overshadowed by it's enchantment cousin Future Sight, and for good reason as creatures are more fragile than enchantments normally. But still it has the same effect and simply better than Oracle of Mul Daya (people will argue about playing two lands), which people just can't afford $$ moneywise. This is a $2 card and if you've got a mana base than supports triple blue, then you should really look to this as a potential card.
I had no idea this card was so underplayed. It goes in any mono-blue deck and it's especially spicy in Thassa if you're looking at her for primary or backup Voltron strategies.
darrenhabib wrote:
4 years ago
Dreamscape Artist (1264 decks)
In the blue which does not have much access to land ramp, Dreamscape Artist can offer you ramp every turn. I think the "3" mana puts people off, but the lands come into play untapped, so really this card only costs you 1 mana to use. It does have card disadvantage from hand, but obviously with access to more mana you can play out spells that draw you cards more readily. Also good for graveyard strategy decks as well.
I need a few of these.
"From void evolved Phyrexia. Great Yawgmoth, Father of Machines, saw its perfection. Thus The Grand Evolution began."
—Phyrexian Scriptures


Aurelia | Maelstrom Wanderer | Primer: Thassa | Uro | Primer: Volrath

Sheldon
Posts: 105
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Sheldon » 4 years ago

Equal Treatment. It's in 31 decks. That's 0%

User avatar
Sinis
Posts: 2034
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted
Location: Toronto, Canada

Post by Sinis » 4 years ago

darrenhabib wrote:
4 years ago
I've given my list of cards comparable to power level.
Part of me feels very proud to have played all of these cards recently, except Faerie Artisans and Hunting Grounds.

My own list:

Adriana, Captain of the Guard (974 decks): Basically a permanent Overrun effect, Adriana sees surprisingly little play in decks that want to go wide. She also helms a paltry 157 decks as the commander on edhrec, which feels kinda bad, considering she's one of the Boros commanders that promotes token/aggro use the most and scales with the number of players at the table.

Careful Consideration (760 decks): For a generic draw or cycling effect, this sees remarkably little play, despite comboing very well with the fairly popular (7578 decks) Notion Thief. It's worth noting that people play Compulsive Research a significant amount more. Anyway, I thought this would see more play in U/B reanimator decks.

Ragged Veins (45 decks): It's not clear to me if this is just bad, or too situational, but it's something I play occasionally. Sometimes, players make attacks with indestructible creatures for value, or because they're forced to... Well, you can team block and play this (with Flash!) to dome a player for a ton. But, it sees next to zero play.

Blessing of Leeches (364 decks): I like this card a lot. Flashes in for cheap, and provides easy regeneration. Doesn't stop exile or bury, but, could protect your general as a stack effect, which seems like it should be more popular. It can't be the 1 life a turn that scares people off.

Helm of Possession (881 decks): I would think this effect would be desirable; you can trade your worst creature for their best.

Magus of the Tabernacle (489 decks): This shuts down a lot of go-wide decks, and provides a significant tax to players with even a moderate board presence. Also, a reasonable blocker.

Heaven // Earth (622 decks): Surprisingly not played much, as an instant hurricane. At worst, you can end of turn Heaven for 0 (for {G}), and then Earth on your own turn if that's the mode you need. In some games, you'll get to play both, which feels like a decent advantage.

User avatar
75chan
Shoegaze ♥
Posts: 81
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by 75chan » 4 years ago

Sinis wrote:
4 years ago

Ragged Veins (45 decks): It's not clear to me if this is just bad, or too situational, but it's something I play occasionally. Sometimes, players make attacks with indestructible creatures for value, or because they're forced to... Well, you can team block and play this (with Flash!) to dome a player for a ton. But, it sees next to zero play.
I've actually played this, I feel special now (long ago when my Gisela deck was 3-colored).

I've also tried making Hunting Grounds work in cube for the longest of time, but to no avail. Sadly I've just never played the kind of GW deck it goes into, but it's definitely a card I keep in mind.
I swap decks a lot
wr Avacyn with defensive blinking
ur OG Jhoira spellslinger without MLD or eldrazi
and some other stuff that are more or less messy


Best card

User avatar
lyonhaert
Posts: 641
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 4
Pronoun: they / them

Post by lyonhaert » 4 years ago

Sinis wrote:
4 years ago
Blessing of Leeches (364 decks): I like this card a lot. Flashes in for cheap, and provides easy regeneration. Doesn't stop exile or bury, but, could protect your general as a stack effect, which seems like it should be more popular. It can't be the 1 life a turn that scares people off.

Helm of Possession (881 decks): I would think this effect would be desirable; you can trade your worst creature for their best.
I use the Helm in my Chainer deck. I'm always sacrificing my creatures anyway for recursion, so with other sacrifice outlets around this helps form a removal tool, too.

Blessing also reminded me I've run Fallen Ideal (638 decks) a lot in the same deck as a very hard to remove sacrifice outlet. Blessing keeps ending up in my consideration pile for protecting Chainer... it just hasn't made the cut yet.
Chainer bbb
"Image"
(rebuild after Geth)
Other
r Lathliss
bw Breena
To-Build Pool
rb Obosh Burn
gw Dromoka

User avatar
SocorroTortoise
Not A Turtle
Posts: 369
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: San Diego, CA

Post by SocorroTortoise » 4 years ago

lyonhaert wrote:
4 years ago
Blessing also reminded me I've run Fallen Ideal (638 decks) a lot in the same deck as a very hard to remove sacrifice outlet. Blessing keeps ending up in my consideration pile for protecting Chainer... it just hasn't made the cut yet.
Fallen Ideal does so much work in the right deck as a recurring sac outlet that can lead to some huge swings. My favorite use so far has been in a Tana, the Bloodsower list for obvious reasons.
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box

User avatar
pokken
Posts: 6281
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 2
Pronoun: he / him

Post by pokken » 4 years ago

Unexpectedly Absent -- This removal spell is criminally underplayed in my opinion. Half the time it does what you need from a catchall exile removal for WW.

In general all of the familiars and medallions are underplayed. 2 mana ramp spells that often ramp more than one are great. They're situational but lots of decks could benefit from them but don't run them. Nightscape Familiar is a total house in grixis control decks.

Hour of Revelation does not see nearly as much play as it ought. I find it to be better than Austere Command most of the time, especially with the proliferation of Planeswalkers these days. The downside of getting your own stuff is rough but being able to deploy for WWW is just unreal advantage from a tempo perspective.

Winds of Abandon has also been way slower to adopt than I expect. I have always liked seeing it. It's just immensely powerful and flexible, and exiling things is huge. It's also a great planeswalker answer since you can keep your guys then kill them with combat damage.

The Skycloud Expanse cycle of lands is pretty underrated for budget mana in my opinion. They're all very cheap and almost always better than Terramorphic Expanse type cards that people play, or Vivid Crag type things. The flexibility of getting both colors on a land usually outweighs the drawback unless you're playing a control shell.

1U counterspells - in general all the 1u counterspells are underused, except maybe arcane denial. memory lapse, delay and dispersal shield are my faves.
Last edited by pokken 4 years ago, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Sinis
Posts: 2034
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted
Location: Toronto, Canada

Post by Sinis » 4 years ago

pokken wrote:
4 years ago
Hour of Reckoning does not see nearly as much play as it ought. I find it to be better than Austere Command most of the time, especially with the proliferation of Planeswalkers these days. The downside of getting your own stuff is rough but being able to deploy for WWW is just unreal advantage from a tempo perspective.
I'm sure you meant Hour of Revelation (5755 decks).

User avatar
pokken
Posts: 6281
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 2
Pronoun: he / him

Post by pokken » 4 years ago

Sinis wrote:
4 years ago
pokken wrote:
4 years ago
Hour of Reckoning does not see nearly as much play as it ought. I find it to be better than Austere Command most of the time, especially with the proliferation of Planeswalkers these days. The downside of getting your own stuff is rough but being able to deploy for WWW is just unreal advantage from a tempo perspective.
I'm sure you meant Hour of Revelation (5755 decks).
Yeah I fixed :) sorry.

User avatar
pokken
Posts: 6281
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 2
Pronoun: he / him

Post by pokken » 4 years ago

Oh, I had one more --
Teferi's Veil (457 decks)

This card is insane at protecting your voltron dudes from sweepers and other annoying interaction (fleshbag marauder type stuff, etc.). Control magic. whatever.

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Return to “Commander”