A huge thanks to TheMagicManSam for appearing on the show - he makes incredible high quality Magic: the Gathering content on CZcams as well, so make sure to check him out at czcams.com/users/themagicmansam33 and let him know we sent ya!
The Command Zone If you guys play that one Yidris deck, try swapping evacuation with Mind's Dialation. It is such a fun card for edh where not many people know the card even though it's a standard legal card
My favourite underplayed card is "defense of the heart." Usually in a multiplayer game you can play it on turn 3 or 4 and have it trigger the following upkeep because there will be one player who has a go wide strategy. This means it's basically a tooth and nail for 4 mana with the downside of giving your opponent's time to react to it. Usually they won't want to spend removal on it in the early game though unless they've seen it be played before.
I use a somewhat similar card (Pattern of Rebirth, it's actually affordable) and people really don't want to see it because anyone who can read "put creature card(s) from your library onto the battlefield" just knows shit is gonna go down Defense of the Heart is just so extreme, how can people not remove it if they have the option to xD if you run specific combos, this thing just reads "During your upkeep, you win the game", just like Protean Hulk I mean come on xD
@@kurtgrgelwrx8376 when I made this comment, people weren't playing defense of the heart and I never really played it in decks that abused it. It also wasn't particularly expensive
according to gatherer, these are the numbers of odd cmc cards vs even. it helps you understand just how powerful void winnower is. odd: 8686 (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15) even: 9039 (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16)
I am considered to be a chaos player in my local game store and the other players don't play blue against me as I blow up all islands just for fun. I have been told that the better players love it when I am at their table on commander nights as nobody knows where I am going or who is first on my hit list. I was also told that I am a player that likes to watch the world burn.
Great Topic and really enjoy that you always comment toward keeping a health playgroup. Voidwinnower has taken off in my group; I think about two-thirds of the decks are running it (amazing EDH card and easy pickup). Really enjoyed all of the unique cards you chose to talk about. I knew a few but some were just as new to me as you guys. I think Invasion Plans is my fave of the cards talked about. Totally want to build with that card in mind.
What a great suggestion! That would be really cool in a situation where you and the player you target with Head Games both need a board wipe and you help them find it. I'm totally going to try this out!
This episode really made me excited to have recently started playing EDH. My local EDH scene is very spikey and "best cards only" (excluding OG dual lands and Power 9 and such) and that's why I turned my nose up at EDH - my group made it look like another "most money wins" format, and I'm so glad to hear you guys say that no, that's NOT the only way to play EDH. Now I'm building a flavor-focused Marchesa, the Black Rose deck, and I've never had more fun in a building process. Thanks to you, Josh, Jimmy and Sam, for saving this format for me.
elemental bond, khalni heart expedition and journey of discovery. i found all in my random cards as i built my mono selvala, heart of the wilds deck from things i had laying around with no use, but they all seem great.
Old podcast is old. Came back here to make the comment, I saw this podcast a bit ago and its what made me want to build Etali. It's mono red, I'm usually a blue + (other color) player. It focuses on the attack step where I'm usually an "outside of combat" style EDH player. It predominantly plays by making actively risky and aggressive plays where I'm usually a "behind the scenes scheme" player. Long story short everyone hates my Etali Eldrazi deck. Thanks guys!
Somberwald Sage. That dorky little 3 mana 0/3 taps for three mana of any one color. I first saw it in a friend's Rith the Awakener deck almost two years ago, and now it is in every green deck I play. Of course, then Ezuri, Claw of Progress came out and it is now the single best ramp spell I run in that deck for the price, rivaled only by a late game Gyre Sage. I've run the sad-forest sage in Bant, Mono-Green, Abzan, Jund, and Temur at this point, and it has been a key piece in all of them.
Not EDH related, but Somberwald Sage helped get me into the top 8 of the Avacyn Restored prerelease; I was frequently lucky enough to tap it for the WWW necessary to cast Avacyn. The card pairs well with Druid's Repository.
Just a heads up guys, I run a mono blue Talrand EDH and an allstar in any game I play is Thwart from Merc set. Essential the same as foil but rather than discard you return three islands to hand. Always catches people off guard. Love the show!
I had forgotten foil existed, discard two is pennies for the free spell. I've simulated foil with Mind Over Matter and discarding a couple cards to untap lands for counterspell and its just lovely, they could see that coming though unlike foil
I like temur sabertooth. 2GG 4/3 with 1G: return a creature you co troll to your hand, temur sabertooth gets indestructible until end of turn. Let's you block the really heavy hitters with the sabertooth assign weaker blockers and return them to give the sabertooth indestructible. Plus it helps dodge targeted removal and boardwipes. And if you've got an ETB heavy deck this keeps those triggers going :3
I play a 5C planeswalker EDH using Karona the false god. What i use to protect my dear planeswalkers are what I call "Hostage Takers" (similar to what Chamber of manipulation does) to basically take other people's creatures to body block any attacks at me/them. Cards like Rubinia Soulsinger, Merieke Ri Berit, Beguiler of Wills, Callous Oppressor, Preacher.. I find it a somewhat more versatile deterrence in most cases.. it has the added advantage that people don't want to commit to the board, shuts down some commander heavy strategies, protects my planeswalkers, and if the board is mostly empty Karona is free to be passed around to swing at everyone ^^ Just my secret deck tech that i'm really proud of, cuz it synergises so well on so many levels. weaknesses I've experienced though are token based strategies, hexproof, and decks that are too fast for me to build defenses for my planeswalkers to generate advantage.
I keep a rule for myself that aside from ramp, I can only use two "staple" cards. For example, in Prossh my two staples are Phyrexian Arena and Sylvan Library. (Huh. Guess I like card draw)
i even run the (tango)" have lands" in my marchesa deck with only 11 basics in its mana base. there still good. i cut them when i added the filterlands, but they came back in quick.
In my playgroup a friend of mine and I are the ones in charge of making every game descend into chaos. My friend plays Pheldagriff decks and I play Zeedru decks ,but, we only use RNG based cards, sorta. One of the new additions to my deck was Faerie Artisans, from the new EDH decks, f.e. .
I actually own a foil Foil, it amuses everyone who looks in my collection binder. I remember exiling like five creatures with Wall of Nets during the Exodus prerelease (my first prerelease). I really liked this specific podcast and it's got my mind racing.
Two cards, that is not seen often in EDH, and has overperformed time and time again in my EDH decks: Strands of Night and Psychic Surgery. I play Strands of Night in Geth, Lord of the Vault and Psychic Surgery in Talran, Sky Summoner. Strands of Night is straight up bonkers! With enough Swamps, a sac outlet, a Cabal Coffers or a Crucible of Worlds in play. You can reanimate any one of your creatures almost an infinite amount of times, at instant speed!! This works very well with Kokusho, the Evening Star and Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Psychic Surgery is not as broken as Strands of Night. But it can work wonders! Basically, it DESTROYS tutors! Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Vampiric Tutor etc. They tutor cards to the top of the library! Bye bye win condition! + since the deck is mono blue, I can save counter spells for when I really need them, since I might just exile some great cards with the surgery. It also works as a some-what political tool, since the exile effect is a "may abilitie".
I run Psychic Surgery in Thada Adel and it is absolutely brutal there. Even without me forcing it, it can seriously hurt anyone running fetch lands or tutors. The first time I played with it, it really surprised the whole group.
Love Fiery Gambit! I'm running it and a ton of other coin flip cards in my Niv-Mizzet/Krark's Thumb deck, including Game of Chaos and the alternate win-con enchantment Chance Encounter.
One important thing that wasn't talked about too much here: Power level ! I deliberately build Commander decks of varying power levels - and I'm always looking at rather silly/wonky combo or even chaos decks for the weaker range of power levels.
I'm a bit late here, but this is something I feel really strongly about. I have to admit, I keep a fair number of staples in some of my decks, especially when I have a weaker overall strategy. However, I always tuck in some surprises! Here are a few (whole bunch) of my favorites: "Overtaker" - Much like Chamber of Maipulation. Higher cost to activate, but lower to cast, and grants haste. Bonus: it's a merfolk. "Wild Swing" - A little silly, but this one creates great tension. "You can't always hit what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find... you hit what you need." "Mindclaw Shaman" - Never even see this one mentioned anywhere. Depending on your meta, this can be a huge blowout, or a wiff. "Haunted Cloak" - Haste, vigilance and Trample are all great keywords, and a 1 mana equip cost puts it even with a lot of plain old haste granters. "Dakra Mystic" - A lovely 1-drop. A great skill tester, everyone draws or dumps their top card, it's up to you. Politics abound here. "Psychic Surgery" - Tutor hate triggers a fair bit on its own, but I run this in Thada Adel. Leaves some tutors DoA and lowers opponent card quality. "Fleshwrither" - Turns itself into any 4 drop, straight from library to battlefield. In black too for easy reuse. "Dulcet Sirens" - Forcing a creature to attack the player of your choice is almost as good as controlling it in many cases. This will do that for you for 1 mana on a stick. "Do or Die" - Another one I never see used. Sure, it can't kill a specific creature, but it almost always does a 2 for 1 or better. Often it is enough to cripple an opponent regardless of their choice, and it is only 2 mana!!! "Eerie Interlude" - Handily reuses ETB abilities, but so much more. With this in hand, you can safely dodge *any* boardwipes or spot destuction that would otherwise disrupt you. Exile, tuck, destroy, -X/-X, it doesn't matter. At absolute worst, just use it in combat to save any of your creatures that would die.
Also, while I am at it, diversify your mana rocks! The new Cultivator's Caravan is a fantastic rock that can beat face. If you're not color intensive, Pristine Talisman, Seer's Lantern and Magnifying Glass are cute. Pristine's incremental life gain is a continuous value. The later 2 have decent mana sinks built in for those moments when you don't need the extra mana.
I run Zendikar Resurgant in my Animar Deck, and usually the turn it comes down is a do nothing, but after it's crazy. Though that with Cryptolith Rite (another overperformer) and haste is also pretty great.
I love Fiery Gambit in my Zada deck. The second sentence targets a creature, so you copy the spell with Zada for each creature you control (and you control a lot of creatures) :P
Not all playgroups consist of people that can devote a lot of time to upgrading/changing their decks due to shifts in the meta game. In such scenarios I think house rules that make people have more fun (for instance by "banning" mass land destruction) are great!
Mystic Remora has been in almost all my blue decks ... you can't really go wrong with it. A card that I like and I am surprised not seeing anyone I know play is "Perplex": 1BU, either counter target spell (same CMC as Cancel) or has the player casting the spell discard his hand. And if you don't need it, it can even be a tutor for another card with same CMC thanks to transmute.
Mystic remora is a house. I have been playing it for years now. Josh has a good point it is definitely great mid-game, but don't be afraid to cast it on turn one like Jimmy said. people like to play mana rock early game and you might as well get value if you don't have any other play. awesome episode guys. I always enjoy listening.
My playgroup always tells me Foil is a bad card but I refuse to believe that. Every time I play Mizzix and I have blue untapped they look at me and ask if it resolves but when I tap out they think they're safe. NAH SON.
The only thing about preconstructed commander decks is the lack of removal. In the game video from The Command Zone, both games were ended by 1 huge threat which no one had removal for. Managorger Hydra and the Blue White flier which is the same thing.
I am surprised to not see Ice Caves on this list I enjoy Humility a lot - I had a Zedruu enchantment deck that ran all kinds of crazy enchantments: Humility, Aether Flash, Dovescape, Burning Sands was my favorite lock. I would use Light of Sanction to keep my creatures around and Powerstone Minefield to win fights when attacking. Ice Caves and Steam Vines are in there for a little bit of control, I also ran Enduring Ideal to just drop all this on the field along with Paradox Haze and a Copy Enchantment. The best part was all the enchantments except Light of Sanction were all viable targets to give away with Zedruu.
Ceta Sanctuary in any Five-Color deck. Especially when the general is Scion. I'm looking at the top three cards of my deck every turn. 2. Cleansing Meditation or Back to Nature.
Void Winnower is absolutely insane. It's been in and out of my main deck, but after straight up losing 2 games against it, I've put it back in. Last night I pretty much locked down a game with Gaddock Teeg, Sanctum Prelate (on 3) and Void Winnower out at the same time. I don't think I can play without it now.
Drain Power is my pet card makes your opponents tap out and give you all the mana they can't spend at instant speed. If you have layline of anticipation out is basically shuts down someones turn if they are about to combo off.
I just placed my first ever Card Kingdom order.... and it was for a Playset of Foil lol. New to your channel and definitely enjoying all the great content.
Not sure if Kismet effects are non-staples or not but, I used to run it and Loxodon Gatekeeper in the same deck with Blind Obedience and Urabrask. (And now they've printed Authority of the Consul).
so with kess i run possibility storm. my deck is all one blue draw spells(with typical storm cards) so ill play my one blue spells to get out random like cruel ultimatum. the best part is when u play the card its considered a cast and then when the card u reveal is played its a second cast so every spell gives me 2 cast triggers to ramp my storm effects off of. also typically my friends dont have any answers to this card and r forced to play with cards they have no control over
Market Festival and Dawn's Reflection are AMAZING mana ramp. The only concern is, if anyone is playing land destruction, you will be SUPER sad. I run those cards in my 5 colour deck because its only running 5 basic lands. And the enchantment ramp can let you use the mana on the same turn (If you have 5 lands, you enchant the untapped one). Three mana is very good for so many spells Intuition, Frantic Search, Most mana rocks, Most counter spells, Most removal, Trinket Mage, Buried Alive, Phyrexian Arena, Dack Fayden. Yes, my 5 colour deck is a reanimator style because Esper doesn't let you run our lord and saviour Bolas. Or Faithless looting. Or Dack Fayden.
Cauldron of souls has been in my main deck since I started edh... was in vela the nightclad... stayed in when that deck became tasigur... and still in when it rolled over to thrasios + ravos
Favorite combos cauldron + sidisi, undead vizier + mikhaeus unhallowed = search for three and put a 5/7 death touch in play... and mikhaeus plus puppeteer clique +ashnod's altar ... would be better if I could afford phyrexian altar, but still awesome. Bonus points with grave pact in play
The best part about Foil is "discard", so you can reanimate the card you discarded. VALUE ! Im going to test Foil in my 5 colour edh deck. Since my main colours are Blue Black Green. Its a reanimator deck.
I adore my collection of 1 mana blue counter spells. They aren't amazing on their own, but if you are splashing blue and you know a certain thing is popular in your meta and is causing you problems, say artifact based combos got popular in your play group, then throw in a Ceremonious Rejection or Annul. Nobody expects that splashy blue guy with one blue mana open to really mess up their day. The cards I mean are: Abjure, Annul, Blue Elemental Blast, Ceremonious Rejection, Dispel, Envelop, Hydroblast, Intervene, Invasive Surgery, Mental Misstep (can counter sol ring before you've even taken your first turn, nobody sees that coming), Nix, Outwit, Spell Snare, Steel Sabotage, Stifle (Such a great card), Swan Song, Turn Aside. I'm so well known in my playgroup for teching these against popular meta threats that if I'm ever sat around with a single blue mana open play almost grinds to a halt. People just start throwing out low threat distractions and castling up. It's got to the point I sometimes don't even bother to put them in my deck and I can threaten play around them with 1 blue mana open, cause nobody knows which if any I might have.
I once built a Xenagos, God of Revels deck and managed to play my commander turn 2 in a 6 man game with a turn 1 Burgeoning, then I played Void Winnower turn 3 and "poked" someone for 22 damage. Everyone was locked out of their commanders for a few turns and it lead to many shenanigans.
So I’ve been playing edh for about 9 months, and I have had the mind set for a while that I want to win and I want to use the beat cards, but recently that’s not as fun. I run an almost optimized gitrog monster combo deck normally, but about a week ago I decided to build a mostly budget scorpion god infect deck and it’s honestly a lot of fun. I’m playing a bunch of cards that would be mostly considered bad cards, but they are all pretty new to me! It’s honestly a great experience
Willow Satyr 2GG (4) Creature - Satyr (1/1) You may choose not to untap Willow Satyr during your untap step. Tap: Gain control of target legendary creature for as long as you control Willow Satyr and Willow Satyr remains tapped.
I've run Foil to great success in my Edric weenie deck. I almost always have A TON of cards in my hand (I even run Reliquary Tower and Spellbook) so the alternate casting cost is really relevant. You could say it's not such a great card in other decks, but Edric can take advantage of Foil in a lot of situations. Obviously, Force of Will is better most of the time, but I'm kinda on a budget and Foil will get the job done.
I know the episode is a little old and Sam is in college, but is it at all possible to get him on Game Knights? You guys are quickly becoming my favorite podcast, and Sam is by far one of the best channels on the platform. I know I'm not alone in thinking these things, and it would be fantastic if it could all work out. As always thank you for the amazing content, and keep up the great work.
You mention Zendikar Resurgent and it's potential, I use it in my Animar deck, once it's out and animar has a decent amount of counters, you start dropping creatures and drawing and dropping more creatures. It's an awesome chain affect. I run mostly colorless creatures like eldrazis so that I can cast them for free with animar. :)
@thecommandzone I love playing panglacial wurm in my green edh cause I search a lot in it and with green ramp it is just a creature I can cast whenever I search
Wall of nets can have the opposite effect of what you want, if you're playing in a etb-heavy meta. Chances are people will swing at you just for the chance of reusing their etb-triggers and/or saving their creatures to have a presence after the next boardwipe
For me, I like to have a couple of competitive deck which doesn't run fun cards. But I also have a couple of fun decks which lets everyone have fun. Nin, Pain Artist and Zedruu.
If you want to try an unusual Commander, I suggest Grenzo, Dungeon Warden and the Hellbent mecanic. No goblin in this deck, the focus is Hellbent and make others discard. Grenzo is an awesome commander for that as it's easy to cast for any amount of mana you may want and it gives you lots of extra resources. Along with some Scry or cards that send creatures to the bottom of the deck, and it's an easy overkill. Not to mention it gets hilarious if you manage to get Sire of isanity on the field (well, for you only). Another awesome commander is Horde of notions in a 5 colours Super Friends RP deck. Tell the story you want with the deck, the only common point the stories will have is that in the end, Nicol Bolas was behind all of it. Not to mention it allows funny stuff like Demonic Pact and Zedru in the same deck. (Appear to play group hug at first then finish them off maliciously with the big boss)
Okay I am so happy that you dudes are collaborating. Literally my three favorite content creators in the same podcast. One minor thing though, a lot of these were "staples" and almost all of them are cards that focus on keeping your opponents from doing anything. It was a great episode, don't get me wrong, but a lot of what you talked about at the start was opposite of what you showed in the episode.
I'm glad other people are getting behind putting 'janky' stuff in their deck cause it's fun and not crazy powerful. My Heartless Hidetsugu deck was really chaotic and fun (Warp World, Whims of the Fates, Thieves auction...as I get to 17:45 and they're talking about pretty much the same concept lol Cyclonic Rift is one of those cards that I'd be okay if it was banned and it probably needs to be but is too good not to play. Couple solid cards that aren't necessarily hyper efficient but really good in EDH (just my favorite fogs, if someone wants more types of cards I'll post some more): Riot Control Blunt the Assault Respite Batwing Brume Tangle/Moment's Peace/Constant Mists The life gain on top of a fog effect is so great in EDH/
I have TWO cards that no one seems to type down in the comments: One Common from Original Ravnica, and one super cheap rare from Prophecy. BOTH are Green Cards. One's a Creature, the other is a "World Enchantment" for all of you Group Huggers out there. Here goes: STONE-SEEDER HEIROPHANT: 2GG for a 1/1. While she is super weak, there is MAJOR upside to her. 1) 2 Devotion to Green. 2) Her ability is a Tap Ability (no costs.) And 3) ... It's the O.G. Landfall mechanic. "Whenever a Land comes into play, UNTAP Stone Seeder Hierophant." TAP: Untap Target Land. I'll just allow you to think of possible interactions and mana ramping you can have once you see the card for yourself in action. ------------- What if you could summon up to 3 Avengers of Zendikar? In a Singleton Format? Well, if you Parallel Lives, Doubling Season, or a Primal Vigor, you can. (*I did say UP TO 3.) The card is called "Dual Nature." While it does not have the "World" supertype, it is a World Enchantment. 4GG. Just summon a creature, and watch the hilarity or horror commence. 2 Massacre Worms, 3 AoZ's? Two Legendary Commanders (if you have Mirror Gallery)... the possibilities are screwy, but if you play a Creature-Deck (or heaven forbid a TOKEN DECK...) well, the effects DO activate. If you have 6 lands when you play AoZ and you have a Doubling Season... your mind will reel as you summon 3 Avengers, and 36 0/1 Plant Tokens in one go! (God help you if you have Cathars' Crusade!) Oh, it's a .50 Rare BTW. You're welcome.
my groups always just said if its a deck you win with you switch decks for the night and you cant use same deck in a row. so we always bring 4+ decks and you know your only playing a deck you hate a few times so we allow almost anything.
A huge thanks to TheMagicManSam for appearing on the show - he makes incredible high quality Magic: the Gathering content on CZcams as well, so make sure to check him out at czcams.com/users/themagicmansam33 and let him know we sent ya!
The Command Zone If you guys play that one Yidris deck, try swapping evacuation with Mind's Dialation. It is such a fun card for edh where not many people know the card even though it's a standard legal card
The Command Zone I just wanted to say that there is a card in green that gives you X X/X tokens I think it's GGX real bad stuff.
Starting a petition for Sam as a permanent third host to the CommandZone
Sam could be in every Magic video on every good channel from this point on and I would not complain.
Silver Fang I guess that makes Sam a staple
Topic starts at about 7:40
My favourite underplayed card is "defense of the heart." Usually in a multiplayer game you can play it on turn 3 or 4 and have it trigger the following upkeep because there will be one player who has a go wide strategy. This means it's basically a tooth and nail for 4 mana with the downside of giving your opponent's time to react to it. Usually they won't want to spend removal on it in the early game though unless they've seen it be played before.
jeeeeeez. what a beast!
I use a somewhat similar card (Pattern of Rebirth, it's actually affordable) and people really don't want to see it because anyone who can read "put creature card(s) from your library onto the battlefield" just knows shit is gonna go down
Defense of the Heart is just so extreme, how can people not remove it if they have the option to xD if you run specific combos, this thing just reads "During your upkeep, you win the game", just like Protean Hulk
I mean come on xD
I used to use that to grab Kiki Conscripts combo in my Maelstrom Wanderer deck.
@@kurtgrgelwrx8376 when I made this comment, people weren't playing defense of the heart and I never really played it in decks that abused it. It also wasn't particularly expensive
@@fingerling1231 damn how long ago was that haha
according to gatherer, these are the numbers of odd cmc cards vs even. it helps you understand just how powerful void winnower is.
odd: 8686 (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15)
even: 9039 (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16)
Blink wall of Nets with the first trigger on the stack, no more creatures because of that glorious split text.
"The Great Aurora" is one of the best mono Green Mass Removal! also messes up with indestrucible stuff.
I have 25 commanders, 5 well tuned, and 20 with the leftovers. it's a good way to change the things
I am considered to be a chaos player in my local game store and the other players don't play blue against me as I blow up all islands just for fun. I have been told that the better players love it when I am at their table on commander nights as nobody knows where I am going or who is first on my hit list. I was also told that I am a player that likes to watch the world burn.
Pls no :(
BOIL!!!!!!! Ahahahahaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!
My two Patreon Subscriptions teaming up for a video in my favorite format?! Can't wait to get off work to watch this!
Preston Jackson dreams do come true
Great Topic and really enjoy that you always comment toward keeping a health playgroup. Voidwinnower has taken off in my group; I think about two-thirds of the decks are running it (amazing EDH card and easy pickup). Really enjoyed all of the unique cards you chose to talk about. I knew a few but some were just as new to me as you guys.
I think Invasion Plans is my fave of the cards talked about. Totally want to build with that card in mind.
This is an amazing conversation, thank you
"Aviation Migration" hahahah. Jimmy, you should make card names for wizards.
For me. My sleeper cards are Orcish Lumberjack, turns your forest into a black lotus. And Fatespinner, messes with people's whole turn.
the Lumberjack is such a cool card.
You should add him to your Xenagos deck!
surprised no one mentioned head games. cards so much fun and people never know what to expect.
What a great suggestion! That would be really cool in a situation where you and the player you target with Head Games both need a board wipe and you help them find it. I'm totally going to try this out!
Wow.. thank you for this! Gonna have to pick this one up =O
no problem!
Awesome to see Sam on this podcast! Love both of your works :)
This episode really made me excited to have recently started playing EDH. My local EDH scene is very spikey and "best cards only" (excluding OG dual lands and Power 9 and such) and that's why I turned my nose up at EDH - my group made it look like another "most money wins" format, and I'm so glad to hear you guys say that no, that's NOT the only way to play EDH. Now I'm building a flavor-focused Marchesa, the Black Rose deck, and I've never had more fun in a building process. Thanks to you, Josh, Jimmy and Sam, for saving this format for me.
elemental bond, khalni heart expedition and journey of discovery. i found all in my random cards as i built my mono selvala, heart of the wilds deck from things i had laying around with no use, but they all seem great.
Old podcast is old. Came back here to make the comment, I saw this podcast a bit ago and its what made me want to build Etali. It's mono red, I'm usually a blue + (other color) player. It focuses on the attack step where I'm usually an "outside of combat" style EDH player. It predominantly plays by making actively risky and aggressive plays where I'm usually a "behind the scenes scheme" player.
Long story short everyone hates my Etali Eldrazi deck. Thanks guys!
Somberwald Sage. That dorky little 3 mana 0/3 taps for three mana of any one color. I first saw it in a friend's Rith the Awakener deck almost two years ago, and now it is in every green deck I play. Of course, then Ezuri, Claw of Progress came out and it is now the single best ramp spell I run in that deck for the price, rivaled only by a late game Gyre Sage. I've run the sad-forest sage in Bant, Mono-Green, Abzan, Jund, and Temur at this point, and it has been a key piece in all of them.
Nathan Marcano it's a 0/1 I play that as well and it's died to staff of nin so I never forget how low the toughness is lol
I really love Somberwald too. she's in Xenagos :)
Not EDH related, but Somberwald Sage helped get me into the top 8 of the Avacyn Restored prerelease; I was frequently lucky enough to tap it for the WWW necessary to cast Avacyn. The card pairs well with Druid's Repository.
Nathan Marcano If you're playing an Ezuri, Claw of Progress edh deck, you should consider some morph creatures because morph doesn't go on the stack.
Just a heads up guys, I run a mono blue Talrand EDH and an allstar in any game I play is Thwart from Merc set. Essential the same as foil but rather than discard you return three islands to hand. Always catches people off guard. Love the show!
I had forgotten foil existed, discard two is pennies for the free spell. I've simulated foil with Mind Over Matter and discarding a couple cards to untap lands for counterspell and its just lovely, they could see that coming though unlike foil
If you're running Foil, you may as well include Gush while you're at it.
I like temur sabertooth. 2GG 4/3 with 1G: return a creature you co troll to your hand, temur sabertooth gets indestructible until end of turn.
Let's you block the really heavy hitters with the sabertooth assign weaker blockers and return them to give the sabertooth indestructible. Plus it helps dodge targeted removal and boardwipes. And if you've got an ETB heavy deck this keeps those triggers going :3
Fiery gambit also works with Zada, Hedron grinder, so if you are ok with bolting all your creatures, you get a bunch of chances to win three flips.
Yes, shout out to Void Stalker. I have used it for fun and utility so often in my Jalira deck. Void Winnower is nasty, but also in Jalira.
29:13 there's also Lantern of Insight! I love it! 1cmc artifact!
I really enjoyed this episode, so much in fact that I've seen it twice.
I play a 5C planeswalker EDH using Karona the false god.
What i use to protect my dear planeswalkers are what I call "Hostage Takers" (similar to what Chamber of manipulation does) to basically take other people's creatures to body block any attacks at me/them.
Cards like Rubinia Soulsinger, Merieke Ri Berit, Beguiler of Wills, Callous Oppressor, Preacher.. I find it a somewhat more versatile deterrence in most cases.. it has the added advantage that people don't want to commit to the board, shuts down some commander heavy strategies, protects my planeswalkers,
and if the board is mostly empty Karona is free to be passed around to swing at everyone ^^
Just my secret deck tech that i'm really proud of, cuz it synergises so well on so many levels.
weaknesses I've experienced though are token based strategies, hexproof, and decks that are too fast for me to build defenses for my planeswalkers to generate advantage.
Dope episode, awesome guest, two thumbs up.
I keep a rule for myself that aside from ramp, I can only use two "staple" cards. For example, in Prossh my two staples are Phyrexian Arena and Sylvan Library. (Huh. Guess I like card draw)
i even run the (tango)" have lands" in my marchesa deck with only 11 basics in its mana base. there still good. i cut them when i added the filterlands, but they came back in quick.
In my playgroup a friend of mine and I are the ones in charge of making every game descend into chaos. My friend plays Pheldagriff decks and I play Zeedru decks ,but, we only use RNG based cards, sorta. One of the new additions to my deck was Faerie Artisans, from the new EDH decks, f.e. .
I actually own a foil Foil, it amuses everyone who looks in my collection binder.
I remember exiling like five creatures with Wall of Nets during the Exodus prerelease (my first prerelease).
I really liked this specific podcast and it's got my mind racing.
Two cards, that is not seen often in EDH, and has overperformed time and time again in my EDH decks: Strands of Night and Psychic Surgery.
I play Strands of Night in Geth, Lord of the Vault and Psychic Surgery in Talran, Sky Summoner.
Strands of Night is straight up bonkers! With enough Swamps, a sac outlet, a Cabal Coffers or a Crucible of Worlds in play. You can reanimate any one of your creatures almost an infinite amount of times, at instant speed!! This works very well with Kokusho, the Evening Star and Gray Merchant of Asphodel.
Psychic Surgery is not as broken as Strands of Night. But it can work wonders! Basically, it DESTROYS tutors! Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Vampiric Tutor etc. They tutor cards to the top of the library! Bye bye win condition! + since the deck is mono blue, I can save counter spells for when I really need them, since I might just exile some great cards with the surgery. It also works as a some-what political tool, since the exile effect is a "may abilitie".
I run Psychic Surgery in Thada Adel and it is absolutely brutal there. Even without me forcing it, it can seriously hurt anyone running fetch lands or tutors. The first time I played with it, it really surprised the whole group.
Love Fiery Gambit! I'm running it and a ton of other coin flip cards in my Niv-Mizzet/Krark's Thumb deck, including Game of Chaos and the alternate win-con enchantment Chance Encounter.
Ever gotten the win with Chance Encounter?
Not yet, but I'll get there. Especially since I run Frenetic Efreet in the deck.
You can't overload rift with snapcaster mage Jimmy. Flip Jace does though :)
One important thing that wasn't talked about too much here: Power level !
I deliberately build Commander decks of varying power levels - and I'm always looking at rather silly/wonky combo or even chaos decks for the weaker range of power levels.
I can't believe I never see Bubbling Muck, it's exactly High Tide in black
I'm a bit late here, but this is something I feel really strongly about. I have to admit, I keep a fair number of staples in some of my decks, especially when I have a weaker overall strategy. However, I always tuck in some surprises! Here are a few (whole bunch) of my favorites:
"Overtaker" - Much like Chamber of Maipulation. Higher cost to activate, but lower to cast, and grants haste. Bonus: it's a merfolk.
"Wild Swing" - A little silly, but this one creates great tension. "You can't always hit what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find... you hit what you need."
"Mindclaw Shaman" - Never even see this one mentioned anywhere. Depending on your meta, this can be a huge blowout, or a wiff.
"Haunted Cloak" - Haste, vigilance and Trample are all great keywords, and a 1 mana equip cost puts it even with a lot of plain old haste granters.
"Dakra Mystic" - A lovely 1-drop. A great skill tester, everyone draws or dumps their top card, it's up to you. Politics abound here.
"Psychic Surgery" - Tutor hate triggers a fair bit on its own, but I run this in Thada Adel. Leaves some tutors DoA and lowers opponent card quality.
"Fleshwrither" - Turns itself into any 4 drop, straight from library to battlefield. In black too for easy reuse.
"Dulcet Sirens" - Forcing a creature to attack the player of your choice is almost as good as controlling it in many cases. This will do that for you for 1 mana on a stick.
"Do or Die" - Another one I never see used. Sure, it can't kill a specific creature, but it almost always does a 2 for 1 or better. Often it is enough to cripple an opponent regardless of their choice, and it is only 2 mana!!!
"Eerie Interlude" - Handily reuses ETB abilities, but so much more. With this in hand, you can safely dodge *any* boardwipes or spot destuction that would otherwise disrupt you. Exile, tuck, destroy, -X/-X, it doesn't matter. At absolute worst, just use it in combat to save any of your creatures that would die.
Also, while I am at it, diversify your mana rocks! The new Cultivator's Caravan is a fantastic rock that can beat face. If you're not color intensive, Pristine Talisman, Seer's Lantern and Magnifying Glass are cute. Pristine's incremental life gain is a continuous value. The later 2 have decent mana sinks built in for those moments when you don't need the extra mana.
I run Zendikar Resurgant in my Animar Deck, and usually the turn it comes down is a do nothing, but after it's crazy. Though that with Cryptolith Rite (another overperformer) and haste is also pretty great.
Oh yeah - Cyrpolith Rite was on my list but we agreed to only talk about 4-5 cards each so I had to save it for another episode.
I love Fiery Gambit in my Zada deck. The second sentence targets a creature, so you copy the spell with Zada for each creature you control (and you control a lot of creatures) :P
Not all playgroups consist of people that can devote a lot of time to upgrading/changing their decks due to shifts in the meta game. In such scenarios I think house rules that make people have more fun (for instance by "banning" mass land destruction) are great!
Palliation Accord. Thanks so much for recommending this card.
this one was very nice episode, more like this - pretty please :)
Great video, thank you!
Mystic Remora has been in almost all my blue decks ... you can't really go wrong with it.
A card that I like and I am surprised not seeing anyone I know play is "Perplex": 1BU, either counter target spell (same CMC as Cancel) or has the player casting the spell discard his hand. And if you don't need it, it can even be a tutor for another card with same CMC thanks to transmute.
Mystic remora is a house. I have been playing it for years now. Josh has a good point it is definitely great mid-game, but don't be afraid to cast it on turn one like Jimmy said. people like to play mana rock early game and you might as well get value if you don't have any other play. awesome episode guys. I always enjoy listening.
Kody Alamos this is my favorite edh deal card. have 1 in each deck that runs blue. and so cheap bought 4 for 1.00usd
My playgroup always tells me Foil is a bad card but I refuse to believe that. Every time I play Mizzix and I have blue untapped they look at me and ask if it resolves but when I tap out they think they're safe. NAH SON.
never safe!
"You thought your were safe because I cast Force of Will earlier, but wait, there's more shenanigans!"
Kysk8s3
Foil made it into my 30$ Talrand deck years ago and, even though I've added value over the years, Foil remains in the deck.
I play a Chaos deck and once I used Foil to counter a turn 1 sol ring... it was the laugh of the table...
I will 100% be adding Foil to my Shu Yun sneak attack deck. So perfect.
The only thing about preconstructed commander decks is the lack of removal. In the game video from The Command Zone, both games were ended by 1 huge threat which no one had removal for.
Managorger Hydra
and the Blue White flier which is the same thing.
Foil is about £10 here in the U.K. So a viable and cheap alternative to force of will 😁
Fiery Gambit is really fun with Zada, Hedron Grinder. You choose the target creature upon casting Fiery Gambit, so it will get copied by Zada.
I'm a big fan of Worship in white deck. it often is unplayed also reconnaissance for the nice effect on a heavily under-played card.
Slyphorever Reconnaissance is just so good as a card that gives vigilance.
That was a good episode thanks so much Sam and The command Zone
Starting with bohemian rhapsody XD
I love your work lol
War's Toll, Withering Boon and Natural Selection are a few of my pet cards that most of my opponents never knew existed
I am surprised to not see Ice Caves on this list
I enjoy Humility a lot - I had a Zedruu enchantment deck that ran all kinds of crazy enchantments: Humility, Aether Flash, Dovescape, Burning Sands was my favorite lock. I would use Light of Sanction to keep my creatures around and Powerstone Minefield to win fights when attacking. Ice Caves and Steam Vines are in there for a little bit of control, I also ran Enduring Ideal to just drop all this on the field along with Paradox Haze and a Copy Enchantment. The best part was all the enchantments except Light of Sanction were all viable targets to give away with Zedruu.
omg Ice Cave is amazing
goodbye Cyclonic Rift hahaaaaaaaa
and that is a dank lock my friend
Ceta Sanctuary in any Five-Color deck. Especially when the general is Scion. I'm looking at the top three cards of my deck every turn.
2. Cleansing Meditation or Back to Nature.
Void Winnower is absolutely insane. It's been in and out of my main deck, but after straight up losing 2 games against it, I've put it back in.
Last night I pretty much locked down a game with Gaddock Teeg, Sanctum Prelate (on 3) and Void Winnower out at the same time. I don't think I can play without it now.
Drain Power is my pet card makes your opponents tap out and give you all the mana they can't spend at instant speed. If you have layline of anticipation out is basically shuts down someones turn if they are about to combo off.
I just placed my first ever Card Kingdom order.... and it was for a Playset of Foil lol.
New to your channel and definitely enjoying all the great content.
I ordered some foil Foils from CK myself. Card is insane!
Josh Lee Kwai Try counter foil card whit foi Foil and get that good feeling. :D
Lol - that is next level.
Not sure if Kismet effects are non-staples or not but, I used to run it and Loxodon Gatekeeper in the same deck with Blind Obedience and Urabrask.
(And now they've printed Authority of the Consul).
Skinshifter is a card ive always wanted to try, after listening to this I for sure will try it in a deck
so with kess i run possibility storm. my deck is all one blue draw spells(with typical storm cards) so ill play my one blue spells to get out random like cruel ultimatum. the best part is when u play the card its considered a cast and then when the card u reveal is played its a second cast so every spell gives me 2 cast triggers to ramp my storm effects off of. also typically my friends dont have any answers to this card and r forced to play with cards they have no control over
Market Festival and Dawn's Reflection are AMAZING mana ramp. The only concern is, if anyone is playing land destruction, you will be SUPER sad. I run those cards in my 5 colour deck because its only running 5 basic lands. And the enchantment ramp can let you use the mana on the same turn (If you have 5 lands, you enchant the untapped one). Three mana is very good for so many spells
Intuition, Frantic Search, Most mana rocks, Most counter spells, Most removal, Trinket Mage, Buried Alive, Phyrexian Arena, Dack Fayden.
Yes, my 5 colour deck is a reanimator style because Esper doesn't let you run our lord and saviour Bolas. Or Faithless looting. Or Dack Fayden.
Cauldron of souls has been in my main deck since I started edh... was in vela the nightclad... stayed in when that deck became tasigur... and still in when it rolled over to thrasios + ravos
Favorite combos cauldron + sidisi, undead vizier + mikhaeus unhallowed = search for three and put a 5/7 death touch in play... and mikhaeus plus puppeteer clique +ashnod's altar ... would be better if I could afford phyrexian altar, but still awesome. Bonus points with grave pact in play
similar to void snare, a really cool tsk card is vortex elemental. requires your opponent to swing but gets around hex proof.
😂 I love Canopy Vista! I use it and the Bi-cycle Land cause the dual type allows Karametra to yank them out
The best part about Foil is "discard", so you can reanimate the card you discarded. VALUE !
Im going to test Foil in my 5 colour edh deck. Since my main colours are Blue Black Green. Its a reanimator deck.
I adore my collection of 1 mana blue counter spells. They aren't amazing on their own, but if you are splashing blue and you know a certain thing is popular in your meta and is causing you problems, say artifact based combos got popular in your play group, then throw in a Ceremonious Rejection or Annul. Nobody expects that splashy blue guy with one blue mana open to really mess up their day.
The cards I mean are:
Abjure, Annul, Blue Elemental Blast, Ceremonious Rejection, Dispel, Envelop, Hydroblast, Intervene, Invasive Surgery, Mental Misstep (can counter sol ring before you've even taken your first turn, nobody sees that coming), Nix, Outwit, Spell Snare, Steel Sabotage, Stifle (Such a great card), Swan Song, Turn Aside.
I'm so well known in my playgroup for teching these against popular meta threats that if I'm ever sat around with a single blue mana open play almost grinds to a halt. People just start throwing out low threat distractions and castling up. It's got to the point I sometimes don't even bother to put them in my deck and I can threaten play around them with 1 blue mana open, cause nobody knows which if any I might have.
Stubborn Denial has been awesome in my meta as well. thanks for sharing!
My favourite wall is Wall of Reverence. It gains life each turn.
One of my favorites, something I hope Jimmy can use, is Laccolith Rig
I once built a Xenagos, God of Revels deck and managed to play my commander turn 2 in a 6 man game with a turn 1 Burgeoning, then I played Void Winnower turn 3 and "poked" someone for 22 damage. Everyone was locked out of their commanders for a few turns and it lead to many shenanigans.
So I’ve been playing edh for about 9 months, and I have had the mind set for a while that I want to win and I want to use the beat cards, but recently that’s not as fun. I run an almost optimized gitrog monster combo deck normally, but about a week ago I decided to build a mostly budget scorpion god infect deck and it’s honestly a lot of fun. I’m playing a bunch of cards that would be mostly considered bad cards, but they are all pretty new to me! It’s honestly a great experience
Willow Satyr 2GG (4)
Creature - Satyr (1/1)
You may choose not to untap Willow Satyr during your untap step.
Tap: Gain control of target legendary creature for as long as you control Willow Satyr and Willow Satyr remains tapped.
i have found it helpful to spend time going through my local lgs's common/uncommon bulk
you can find some commander gems there
Did that a while back and smiled at seeing a Crystal Seer.
I've run Foil to great success in my Edric weenie deck. I almost always have A TON of cards in my hand (I even run Reliquary Tower and Spellbook) so the alternate casting cost is really relevant. You could say it's not such a great card in other decks, but Edric can take advantage of Foil in a lot of situations.
Obviously, Force of Will is better most of the time, but I'm kinda on a budget and Foil will get the job done.
The start of this video! Haha! That was hilarious!
great episode!
I know the episode is a little old and Sam is in college, but is it at all possible to get him on Game Knights? You guys are quickly becoming my favorite podcast, and Sam is by far one of the best channels on the platform. I know I'm not alone in thinking these things, and it would be fantastic if it could all work out. As always thank you for the amazing content, and keep up the great work.
You mention Zendikar Resurgent and it's potential, I use it in my Animar deck, once it's out and animar has a decent amount of counters, you start dropping creatures and drawing and dropping more creatures. It's an awesome chain affect. I run mostly colorless creatures like eldrazis so that I can cast them for free with animar. :)
The singing is getting better and better ! =D
@thecommandzone I love playing panglacial wurm in my green edh cause I search a lot in it and with green ramp it is just a creature I can cast whenever I search
Foiled by a Foil Foil
Put it in the new commander 2017 deck Wizards printed, the one with wizards that print more wizards.
You forgot to say "curses"
I like the zendikar lands, especially the nickname tango lands
Wall of nets can have the opposite effect of what you want, if you're playing in a etb-heavy meta. Chances are people will swing at you just for the chance of reusing their etb-triggers and/or saving their creatures to have a presence after the next boardwipe
respond to the trigger so they don't get their dudes back
edit: you can use all of the tech for Fiend Hunter with Wall of Nets also
For me, I like to have a couple of competitive deck which doesn't run fun cards. But I also have a couple of fun decks which lets everyone have fun. Nin, Pain Artist and Zedruu.
@29:00 - you missed Fertilid. There was someone (totally not me) trying to make Ob Nixilis, Unshackled + Fertilid work...
If you want to try an unusual Commander, I suggest Grenzo, Dungeon Warden and the Hellbent mecanic. No goblin in this deck, the focus is Hellbent and make others discard. Grenzo is an awesome commander for that as it's easy to cast for any amount of mana you may want and it gives you lots of extra resources. Along with some Scry or cards that send creatures to the bottom of the deck, and it's an easy overkill.
Not to mention it gets hilarious if you manage to get Sire of isanity on the field (well, for you only).
Another awesome commander is Horde of notions in a 5 colours Super Friends RP deck. Tell the story you want with the deck, the only common point the stories will have is that in the end, Nicol Bolas was behind all of it. Not to mention it allows funny stuff like Demonic Pact and Zedru in the same deck.
(Appear to play group hug at first then finish them off maliciously with the big boss)
my sleeper (and one of my commanders) is hitonya the cruel. nobody expects it to be a turn 8 bord wipe that becomes a 3 turn clock with death touch.
I was lucky enough to open a foiled foil back in the day, and I love it! Nemesis or Prophecy I think. Pure awesomeness.
Mercadian Prophecy, set came out on my high school graduation date.
It was so bad, but I loved it so much.
Gitrog Monster at least gives Copper-Leaf Angel a moment to shine.
Lol
5 year old video was recommended to me, a blessing
+1 on Zendikar Resurgent - it's a star in my Omnath deck!
got a possibility storm for a saskia deck recommended from these guys and it hasnt dissappointed
Okay I am so happy that you dudes are collaborating. Literally my three favorite content creators in the same podcast.
One minor thing though, a lot of these were "staples" and almost all of them are cards that focus on keeping your opponents from doing anything. It was a great episode, don't get me wrong, but a lot of what you talked about at the start was opposite of what you showed in the episode.
i ve got a card ... Goblin Game ... and thx for sharing sams channel. subcribed, just in case.
I'm glad other people are getting behind putting 'janky' stuff in their deck cause it's fun and not crazy powerful.
My Heartless Hidetsugu deck was really chaotic and fun (Warp World, Whims of the Fates, Thieves auction...as I get to 17:45 and they're talking about pretty much the same concept lol
Cyclonic Rift is one of those cards that I'd be okay if it was banned and it probably needs to be but is too good not to play.
Couple solid cards that aren't necessarily hyper efficient but really good in EDH (just my favorite fogs, if someone wants more types of cards I'll post some more):
Riot Control
Blunt the Assault
Respite
Batwing Brume
Tangle/Moment's Peace/Constant Mists
The life gain on top of a fog effect is so great in EDH/
I have TWO cards that no one seems to type down in the comments: One Common from Original Ravnica, and one super cheap rare from Prophecy.
BOTH are Green Cards. One's a Creature, the other is a "World Enchantment" for all of you Group Huggers out there. Here goes:
STONE-SEEDER HEIROPHANT: 2GG for a 1/1. While she is super weak, there is MAJOR upside to her. 1) 2 Devotion to Green. 2) Her ability is a Tap Ability (no costs.) And 3) ...
It's the O.G. Landfall mechanic.
"Whenever a Land comes into play, UNTAP Stone Seeder Hierophant."
TAP: Untap Target Land. I'll just allow you to think of possible interactions and mana ramping you can have once you see the card for yourself in action.
-------------
What if you could summon up to 3 Avengers of Zendikar? In a Singleton Format? Well, if you Parallel Lives, Doubling Season, or a Primal Vigor, you can. (*I did say UP TO 3.)
The card is called "Dual Nature."
While it does not have the "World" supertype, it is a World Enchantment.
4GG.
Just summon a creature, and watch the hilarity or horror commence. 2 Massacre Worms, 3 AoZ's? Two Legendary Commanders (if you have Mirror Gallery)... the possibilities are screwy, but if you play a Creature-Deck (or heaven forbid a TOKEN DECK...) well, the effects DO activate.
If you have 6 lands when you play AoZ and you have a Doubling Season... your mind will reel as you summon 3 Avengers, and 36 0/1 Plant Tokens in one go! (God help you if you have Cathars' Crusade!)
Oh, it's a .50 Rare BTW. You're welcome.
Most of my white decks have Resolute Archangel in it~
my groups always just said if its a deck you win with you switch decks for the night and you cant use same deck in a row. so we always bring 4+ decks and you know your only playing a deck you hate a few times so we allow almost anything.
When I build a new deck, I always try to only have 5-10 cards that I have in other decks, and that really forces you to find new cards.