UB cards that are much stronger with flash

[DirkGently]

Idly brainstorming some of the new commanders, and Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer is pretty low in the EDHrec rankings so he caught my eye. Of course there's plenty of value to get gotten from the usual suite of discard synergies, but one element that I think is being largely unexplored is that he provides the ability to cast any spell as though it had flash, provided you have an instant-speed discard outlet.

For example, board wipes are a lot stronger if you can cast them as instants since you can afford to wait until the last possible second, thus giving other players the chance to deal with the problem instead, or to catch more enemy creatures cast after your turn, or to see if it's a problem you need to solve or if the threat is headed elsewhere. Most types of answers are available at instant speed naturally, but board wipes usually aren't.

Any creature with a tap ability also becomes a lot stronger, or anything that really wants to attack, since it's less vulnerable and more surprising. Or anything that triggers on your upkeep.

I'm open to specific suggestions or general musings. Just kinda brainstorming atm.

[Serenade]

I was thinking about auras. There are combat-focused ones (adding protections or deathtouch), the recursion ones (Shade's Form, False Demise, etc.), and curses.

[Sinis]

Everything is better with Flash. Board wipes, blockers, removal. Everything. Prior to its M20 Reprint, Leyline of Anticipation was a $20 card.

I think by pursuing this line of inquiry, you might end up with a good-stuff deck where you're just playing the best things. The best wipe, but modified to have flash. The best blockers, but modified to have flash. The best anything... you get the picture.

There are definitely some things that are asymmetric based on the idea they're sorceries, like Wash Out, I suppose.

[DirkGently]

I think by pursuing this line of inquiry, you might end up with a good-stuff deck where you're just playing the best things.

Possibly, but I'd still need ways to enable the discard and/or get value from the discard. Like Aquamoeba is fine but Merfolk Looter is probably better since I'm up a card. So it's probably split into discard outlets and good value spells. That said, a lot of the better instants become a lot less interesting when everything has flash, so it's probably a lot more sorcery-heavy with things like etb creatures becoming stronger than instant-speed removal.

[Sinis]

So it's probably split into discard outlets and good value spells.

TBH, I was also thinking of building Oskar (since I'm a Dimir mage in my heart of hearts). I think one of the big things is looking for quality instant speed discard spells. Obviously Frantic Search is cash money in this deck. But, how do you feel about Thirst for Knowledge. That in mind, Thirst for Meaning? We might need to run some weird variety of cards to make this kind of go. We can use stuff like Aquamoeba to proxy Leyline of Anticipation, but that feels like a copout to me in some sense.

[Mookie]

Grave Betrayal, Rise of the Dark Realms, and Wound Reflection all come to mind as amusing options. Also, any powerful tap abilities / combat triggers, as you've mentioned - Lord of the Void, Archon of Cruelty, Rakshasa Debaser, and Drana, the Last Bloodchief are all significantly better if you actually untap with them. Jace's Archivist and Magus of the Coffers also seem like interesting options.

More broadly, the cards that benefit most from flash tend to be expensive, high-risk, high-reward cards. This is especially true of creatures, which are much better if they can't randomly die to a sorcery-speed board wipe. On the flip side, the strategies that benefit most from splash tend to be highly interactive ones - if lots of your spells have flash, it's easier to hold open mana for countermagic / removal, and you only need to use that removal on things that will actually harm you. Even if your gameplan is to flash everything out, it's probably still a good idea to pack plenty of instants.

As for discard outlets.... personally, I'd lean towards artifacts / enchantments over instants/sorceries - that way, you only need to have one available. In particular, I would value those outlets being cheap to use - Thirst for Knowledge and other loot spells seem like they would be pretty annoying to include, since they add too much tax to cast big stuff. Zombie Infestation, Tortured Existence, and Call the Bloodline all seem strong inclusions.

[Gamazson]

Obligatory callout to Unfulfilled Desires. This card has been in every UB deck I have built for years, especially reanimator focused builds. At first glance the cost's may seem steep, but in practice I have never regretted spending the life and mana each turn. It is a great way to turn mana left open for a counter spell into card selection.

[DirkGently]

Ooh, good suggestions. Not sure if the upside is big enough for infestation or call the bloodline (especially since you have to navigate the additional costs, they aren't just "discard a card"), but desires and tortured existence are pretty slick. With existence you can just keep using one creature to recur the other over and over, so you'll always have one of the two in play, which is super fun.

[Sinis]

Instant speed outlets: Teferi, Master of Time seems good here.

What about Spellshapers? This could be a deck for Bog Witch. Bog Witch in particular doesn't use the stack, so you'll get the mana before Oskar triggers.

There's also just a generally value-oriented route. Stuff like Mask of Memory is already pretty good, but if you know what you're going to cast anyway, the drawback becomes a lot easier to handle.

There are also cycling cards in general. First to mind is Archfiend of Ifnir, but for the most part, these things aren't terribly interesting or are already instants and you're just adding a mana cost on top to make it cantrip.

[Stapler]

Here's my current iteration of Oskar:

SPOILER

Show

Hide

Oskar the Grouch

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander

1 Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer

Loots (15)

1 Magus of the Bazaar

1 Thought Courier

1 Merfolk Looter

1 Enclave Cryptologist

1 Bonded Fetch

1 Obsessive Stitcher

1 Unfulfilled Desires

1 Network Terminal

1 The Celestus

1 Teferi, Master of Time

1 Attunement

1 Thirst for Meaning

1 Thirst for Knowledge

1 Frantic Search

1 Ancient Excavation

Loot Payoffs (7)

1 Containment Construct

1 Feast of Sanity

1 Bone Miser

1 Archfiend of Ifnir

1 Ominous Seas

1 Teferi's Ageless Insight

1 Alhammarret's Archive

Recursion (5)

1 Tortured Existence

1 Unearth

1 Reanimate

1 Animate Dead

1 Connive//Concoct

Fattys (5)

1 All-Seeing Arbiter

1 Atemsis, All-Seeing

1 Nezahal, Primal Tide

1 Archon of Cruelty

1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion

Removal (10)

1 Waterfront Bouncer

1 Gilded Drake

1 Shadowgrange Archfiend

1 Scourge of Fleets

1 Hagra Mauling

1 Commit//Memory

1 Treachery

1 Make an Example

1 Damnation

1 Decree of Pain

Protection (9)

1 Swan Song

1 An Offer You Can't Refuse

1 Wash Away

1 Fierce Guardianship

1 Force of Negation

1 Force of Will

1 Malakir Rebirth

1 No Mercy

1 Vengeful Pharaoh

Extra Draw (2)

1 Boon of the Wish-Giver

1 Sea Gate Restoration

Mana (13)

1 Expedition Map

1 Sol Ring

1 Wayfarer's Bauble

1 Arcane Signet

1 Dimir Signet

1 Mind Stone

1 Fellwar Stone

1 Liquimetal Torque

1 Talisman of Dominance

1 Worn Powerstone

1 Thran Dynamo

1 Dreamscape Artist

1 Vizier of Tumbling Sands

Lands (33) (plus 3 MDFCs)

1 Ash Barrens

1 Bloodstained Mire

1 Command Tower

1 Fabled Passage

1 Fetid Pools

1 Flooded Strand

1 Geier Reach Sanitarium

7 Island

1 Marsh Flats

1 Misty Rainforest

1 Otawara, Soaring City

1 Polluted Delta

1 Prismatic Vista

1 Riptide Laboratory

1 Sunken Hollow

1 Sunken Ruins

5 Swamp

1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

1 Underground River

1 Underground Sea

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

1 Volrath's Stronghold

1 Watery Grave

Approximate Total Cost:

Atemsis, All-Seeing is a pretty perfect fit for the deck; giving it flash enables a player-ending hit with only a small window to interact, the deck is naturally interested in having a wider variety of mana values in the deck to allow Oskar to remain cheap to cast even in the late game, and it has a loot ability to boot. Similarly, Nezahal, Primal Tide and Kozilek, the Great Distortion are strong fattys for the reanimation half of the deck that can also pitch cards for Oskar, with Kozilek in particular being potentially pretty nasty with flash. All-Seeing Arbiter is another fun one (and I do love how both cards with "All-Seeing" in the name share a similar mechanic).

Theft at instant-speed can be incredibly disruptive; imagine taking someone's Elesh Norn in the middle of combat. Treachery does it for free (which can be important if you're discarding multiple cards to one loot effect, like Magus of the Bazaar or Attunement) and Gilded Drake does it for relatively cheap, while also having synergy with cards like Waterfront Bouncer and Scourge of Fleets (the latter of which is pretty good at instant speed too).

Reanimation at instant speed gives you a lot of options. Someone voltroning up with a single creature and swinging at you? Grab your Archon of Cruelty. Someone's going off with a board full of artifacts and enchantments? Grab someone else's Bane of Progress. Reanimate and Animate Dead give you the option to get things from anyone's yard, though I also like Connive//Concoct for being a unique mana value for Oskar.

For loot effects, I want to shoutout Network Terminal and The Celestus as looters that can hide in your manabase and avoid creature sweepers, as well as Attunement, which hilariously gives itself flash once you've cast it once.

No Mercy and Vengeful Pharaoh are rattlesnakes that can get a free bite on someone the first time around. With all the loot effects, you'll have Pharoah in your yard whenever you want it to be.

Teferi's Ageless Insight and Alhammarret's Archive are great with all the looters, and even better when you can flash them in to get a full turn of use out of them before they inevitably get blown up.

Some other cards I considered or am considering:

Necrogen Mists, Necrogoyf, and Gibbering Descent (the last two even have madness) are really strong disruption engines when your commander lets you break parity on them, but might give the deck too high of a threat profile for the group/power level I want to play at.

The Scarab God and Xanathar, Guild Kingpin get pretty significantly better when you add flash. I just feel like my deck has too many mana sinks as it is to really get much value out of these.

Galecaster Colossus is cute with Oskar being a wizard, but then I remembered Hullbreaker Horror existed and kinda lost interest.

Hostage Taker and Phantasmal Image: Hostage Taker is a strong card held back by being a slow sorcery speed removal/value card, so giving it flash removes one of its weaknesses. Similar to Gilded Drake, cloning something at instant speed for 2 mana is extremely powerful. I'll make room for these after I play some games and find the weak links.

Bazaar of Baghdad is a card I thought about proxying but ultimately decided not to; if you actually own one, this seems like one of the most appropriate decks you could run it in within all of EDH.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Skirge Familiar all day, every day. One of the best discard outlets by far, even better amongst the rubbish.

[RxPhantom]

What about some of the discard/cycling payoffs from Amonkhet block? *checks Scryfall* Yikes. Nevermind. Just Drake Haven then. It could get out of control if your'e discarding so often. Overall though the strategy that speaks to me most with this commander is discard with stuff like Necrogen Mists so you can grossly break parity.

[Gamazson]

I have had a thought. It probably isn't a good one.

I have been trying to make Dimir artifact reanimator work for 6 years give or take. Oskar might be a good commander to try again. Specifically I like how he interacts with Artificer's Intuition. Mirrodin Besieged would also gain additional synergy. I'm gonna leave this idea to percolate.

On a more general note Pulse of the Grid may also be worth including for it's potential reusability.

[Sinis]

I have been trying to make Dimir artifact reanimator work for 6 years give or take. Oskar might be a good commander to try again. Specifically I like how he interacts with Artificer's Intuition. Mirrodin Besieged would also gain additional synergy. I'm gonna leave this idea to percolate.

I did something not-quite-reanimator-y with Rona, Disciple of Gix when Dominaria came out. It felt pretty good. Very artifact-themed (along with Sagas).

[NZB2323]

Grave Pact in response to one of your creatures being destroyed seems good.

Fate Unraveler in response to an opponent playing a spell allowing them to play a bunch of cards seems good.

You could play Revel in Riches in response to a board wipe or on an opponent's end step to win the game on your upkeep.

[Legend]

Faerie Tauntings
Nymris, Oona's Trickster

[narglfrob]

Love love love this thread. I am going to build this deck for sure.

Some ideas for cards that get better at instant speed:

• Bladegriff Prototype
• Mindleech Mass
• Scion of Darkness
• Sphinx Ambassador
• Wrexial, the Risen Deep
• Extravagant Replication
• Clever Impersonator
• Living Death
• Sepulchral Primordial
• Diluvian Primordial
• Command the Dreadhorde

Edit: Here is my first draft. Aiming for mid-tier powerlevel, but even still its a rough draft in need of some tweaking. Let me know what you think!

Vedalken Orrery in the Command Zone

[kirkusjones]

Not stronger with flash necessarily, but Phantasmagorian always put in serious work in Manaless Dredge as a discard outlet. I'm fiddling around with an Oskar list currently, we'll see if it ends up making the final cut.

[ukkuhrmakhai]

Maralen of the Mornsong gets much better with flash. EOT of Maralen → Tutor Opposition Agent is a lock. Maralen is still pretty terrible on her own though.

Cloud of Faeries can cycle and net mana depending on what lands you are running.

Gitaxian Probe also seems particularly good with looters since you can almost always cast it when you discard it.