Super Secret Sunday 18

Welcome back to Super Secret Sunday where we discuss underplayed cards, under the radar strategies, and under-thought thoughts. I am your old Grandpa Growth and this week were going to take a look at some cards that other people think are underplayed...but that I think are played a little too much. Let's jump right in.


Fans of this card think it is noodly. I tend not to like investment cards that don't have near instant payoff or the potential to generate a big card advantage. I have yet to see a deck in Commander that really needs this or at least wants to have this instead of a mana ramp spell or mana rock. The primary advantage would come from casting multiple cheap spells, but...why are you doing that? Is this some weird Storm deck? Sounds gimmicky. Leave this one on the sidelines.








It is often hard to take a stand against planeswalkers. For the most part, they are the best cards in their colors and usually some of the most powerful threats in a Commander deck. Chandra has had some ups and downs, but she must be one of the weaker planeswalkers in the story or something. Her cards tend to be a little lackluster it seems. Chandra Nalaar is in a very weird spot for me. I think it falls a bit short of being powerful enough to make the cut in my Commander decks. More often than not I am playing several cards that are skirting on the low side of the power curve in my Red decks. That could be telling of the color's low impact in the Commander format or maybe just the opposite. Maybe a mediocre Red card is exactly what the format needs to stay balanced and exciting. I am stuck waiting around for something a bit flashier, with a bit more sizzle.


I was pretty excited to see this get printed back in Worldwake. It can draw a lot of cards. Rebound is sick. An awesome, elegant mechanic that just oozes value. That all sounds great, right? So what is the problem? Let's compare this to an old blue standby: Opportunity. An Uncommon, a few years back on the power creep, Instant speed. It draws four cards for the same mana cost. Being an Instant usually makes a card cost 1-2 mana more. Drawing a card costs a bit less than 1 mana on its own. For a cost comparison see: Concentrate. Recurring Insight is a rare. It is hard to judge the impact upping a card's rarity will have on it's power level; at least, it's not always consistent. The main idea that I am driving at here is that Recurring Insight just doesn't deliver the goods for how slow and expensive it is. For a six mana Sorcery, I really want to be getting more than 6 cards. That would certainly be worth paying for, but I routinely get less than that out of my Recurring Insights. Which is why I have tabled it indefinitely.

That's all for this week youngins'. I'll be back next week with some more low-flying tech and sometime soon with another In General article.

P-p-p-p-pass...