Share your hidden gems
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Sept. 22, 2024, 2:25 p.m. by hyalopterouslemur
So I've been thinking about pet cards, and ones that have unique abilities.
I'll start with one: March of Souls. Slightly more expensive than most wipes, yes, but it's useful in token decks.
Allow me to explain: You get to reuse all your death and entry triggers all at once. Doubling effects also apply if you have any, but also, with an anthem or two (or just Cathars' Crusade) you now have the biggest creatures on the battlefield.
If you're playing black, there's another cool effect: Grave Pact and friends trigger after everyone creates their spirits, so your opponents have to sacrifice them immediately after creating them.
TypicalTimmy says... #4
Sounds like an honest answer to me...
I stand by my beloved and deadly combo, which was to swing with Savage Ventmaw to float the mana. Then cast Howl of the Horde into See the Unwritten
Now you've already had combat for the turn, but if you build for ETB effects such as Warstorm Surge and Elemental Bond, things get really interesting, really fast...
September 22, 2024 6:55 p.m.
DrukenReaps says... #5
hyalopterouslemur trolling my opponents with banding? Yes. Trolling you with that answer? Nope.
I don't currently run any mono-colored decks but some of the ones I have run just have ~10 legendary creatures. Banding makes attacks and blocks so completely in your favor and if you have any indestructible, like say one of the millions of gods, that's just free blocks and attacks. You will have to stop the game for like 5 minutes while everyone's eyes glaze over about your explanation of how banding works though xD
September 22, 2024 8:04 p.m.
Because my Commander of choice is Ghired, Conclave Exile
I am a big fan of the card Heat Shimmer! I love when people play a juicy target that I can effectively clone for myself.
September 22, 2024 8:21 p.m.
Winds of Abandon is a card I am regularly told is mediocre. In actual practice, I find it wins games with little downside. The ability to have a one-sided wrath, with exile to boot, can easily clear the way for a victory, allowing you to punch through your creatures with little fanfare. It can help you come back from behind - resetting their board while leaving your own intact. And, worst comes to worst, you can cast it for its regular price to remove a threat.
While giving opponents mana is a downside, the restriction of basic lands often mitigates this downside substantially. Particularly in mid to high power games where many folks are running 3+ colors, most folks do not have many basics in their deck to begin with. Resetting the board while only giving out a couple lands is often a low price to pay.
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Regarding the banding lands, think of it this way hyalopterouslemur - would you use a land drop to play a card that reads “If a creature with trample is blocked by a Black legendary creature you control, all overflow damage is dealt to that creature instead of to you.”?
Banding is uniquely situated as the only true counter to Trample in the game. Take a 1/1 with Banding blocking a 99/99 with Trample. Because the controller of the creature with banding gets to choose where the attacker’s damage is dealt, they can deal all 99 damage to the 1/1, and zero of the trample damage to themselves as defending player.
Not bad, if you have a high saturation of legends they interact with the card. Probably not worth it if your only legend in the color is your commander.
September 22, 2024 8:33 p.m.
RiotRunner789 says... #8
Dystopia: Normally, at least two players are in green and or white. Only been a dead card once, otherwise it typically takes out 4-12 permanents.
Gift of Doom: I never see anyone else playing this, but sacking a creature to make another creature indestructible, with added bonus that it doesn't use the stack, it's too good.
Peacekeeper: Old card no one thinks of. Great when no one has removal and their only way to win is to swing.
Tower of the Magistrate: Best used on opponents creatures. In response to attempting to equip Lightning Greaves or a great and unexpected way for a voltron to suddenly drop all of its equipment while attacking.
September 23, 2024 9:27 a.m.
Argivian Find: This card is surprisingly good in decks that depend on particular artifacts or enchantments being on the field.
Fanatical Devotion: A free sacrifice outlet that lets you regenerate a more critical creature. This has been really good in token based decks for me.
Leadership Vacuum: I feel this card is underplayed. It gets around all sorts of protection and it just wrecks partners/backgrounds.
September 23, 2024 10:47 a.m.
I never see it around much, but I love Planar Birth in my white mill deck. Even if I'm only ramping 2 lands, that's great, but a lot of the time I hit 5-7 plains. And the fact that it's just basics means it dodges a lot of the downside of opponents doing fetches and things.
Also, yes banding, I really love banding in a non-ironic way : ) On the rare occasion you can use banding and deathtouch together is super nice.
September 23, 2024 6:56 p.m.
Some of my favorites;
Capsize:Its always got value in mid-late games and can deal with many different board-states. Once you get enough mana down, end-of-last-opponent's turn bounce can dominate gameplay. And when its down to you and one opponent it can force inevitable wins. Bouncing their best plays just creates huge tempo swings with little downside.
Crystal Shard:This card provides protection for your creatures while being a threat to inattentive players. It can go in any deck but works best in blue ones. It also lets you repeat ETB/LTBs and becomes a synergy engine when played with Aether Vial.
September 23, 2024 8:39 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #12
Xenic Poltergeist for all the zero cmc artifacts and copies, Spreading Plague for token decks, Talon of Pain for pinger situations (like Scalding Tongs or Thumbscrews) and Artificer's Hex for all the various pairs of boots people are always throwing around. Just to throw a few out there. OOH! And Iceberg because blue battery-like effects are weird.
September 23, 2024 9:13 p.m.
FormOverFunction thank you for reminding me about Scalding Tongs, that's such a classic card. I feel like random ping damage was everywhere back in old games and when I saw that it reminded me of like 5 people sitting around saying, 1 damage to you, 2 damage to you, for a few hours.
And I actually did get a copy of Artificer's Hex and it is super fun! Such a good suggestion, because at face value it looks limited in use, but I feel like it always has a good target and is so hard to get rid of.
September 25, 2024 12:27 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #14
Thanks!! Just tonight I got to use Titans' Nest for my natural disaster deck; so great for a mana-hungry deck. Basically scary for land if you need it, load the yard for mana, skip past stuff that doesn’t help… so great.
September 25, 2024 11:07 p.m.
hyalopterouslemur says... #15
I guess it's just that I tried putting the band lands in Captain Sisay and it never worked out for me.
Speaking of lands, Primal Order is a hilariously colorpie-breaking hoser you can put in a monogreen deck. (I wouldn't dare put it in any deck I play a lot of duals.) The cool thing about it is, a lot of players pimp out their mana base with nonbasics just because they can, putting in OG duals (if they can afford them), shocks, painlands, fetchlands, filter lands, and maybe even checklands (even though this mana base looks like checklands would almost always enter tapped). Then they get hit with 10+ every turn. And to think it's from Homelands.
September 26, 2024 8:02 p.m.
SteelSentry says... #16
I don't like the banding lands for taking up your land drop, but Defensive Formation gives you banding for your blockers, as well as the earlier statement about negating trample.
One card that does work with the lands, that I think should be played a lot more with a suitable package for your strategy, is Crop Rotation. It's popular in land strategies, but there are so many good utility lands nowadays that even nonland strategies should consider it. At the least, you can trade a basic for a rainbow land to help fix your mana. (This totally counts as "hidden", right? :p)
September 27, 2024 6:37 a.m.
FormOverFunction says... #17
hyalopterouslemur that primal order is so great!! I have that in my wubrg natural disaster deck, it also has one of the best pieces of art in the game. Such a gorgeous painting of a weird magic reflection, and it punishes fancy lands!!
September 27, 2024 9:50 a.m.
In a slightly similar vein to banding and Defensive Formation, a card I've got in my Queen Marchesa deck that I've never been able to play but always wanted to is Fight or Flight. I think it could really screw up combat focused decks and could be really useful as a political tool.
September 27, 2024 10:41 a.m.
hyalopterouslemur says... #19
Kyren Negotiations is interesting for token decks. "Some call us Tim." And it's another one that doesn't care about summoning sickness.
DrukenReaps says... #2
I think ye ole bands with legendary lands ought to make a comeback. Unholy Citadel and friends. I've got the black one in my Olivia, Crimson Bride deck since I'm using only legendary vampires for the creatures. Sounds super specific but legendary creatures are just so commonplace... and if you play mono-color I think whichever one matches your color is going to be funny there and banding will just let you make all the best decisions in combat. Plus this "enchantment" being a land makes it almost untouchable.
September 22, 2024 4:34 p.m.