Contrary to the title of this week's installment, my excuse is much less humanitarian. But we're here now. Better late, or whatever.
Anyway, what Sarah MacLachlan never tells you when she's busy talking about puppies and kittens is that every year, thousands upon thousands of mediocre rares, commons, and uncommons go unused in Kitchen Table and competitive Magic games.
It's a real tragedy for these poor cards, and so we wanted to give a shout out to some of those cards that haven't made our starting 99's.
So let's get to it! THIS IS THE STACK!
VENSER'S JOURNALIST'S PICK
I love the unexpected. For a while, my Isperia the Inscrutable deck was centered around a bunch of flying and unblockable weenies with board-wide buff spells and enchants, and for a while this was one of those "buff" enchantments.
The problem with it was that it's just so damn expensive. I really love what this card stands for and what it can do and I definitely think I'll try working with it again, but the fact of the matter is that it's not fast enough for two player and it is a hate magnet for multiplayer.
Ways I've tried working around the cost: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV (because 6 is slightly less than 7), Caged Sun (also very expensive), Gauntlet of power (real-world expensive), and, sadly, Kor Cartographer. All were either hate targets, mana vacuums, or oxygen thieves (sorry Cartographer, you'll just have to return to your homeland forgotten). At this point, I can only hope that one day I will successfully make a blue deck with a bunch of stupid red dragons.
Johnny Confidant- THUMBS DOWN
Usually I'm a fan of cards that have interesting interactions with the board like this. I can see that this card could prove advantageous in a token production deck. The card is nice in theory, though lacks utility in practice.
Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
I don't really want to play this card, but I admire the ambition. If you can get this out and win with it, nice work. It is an accomplishment.
Grandpa Growth-THUMBS DOWN
Yay for flavor!!! So, this card works correctly, in a flavor sense, which is more than can be said for most top-down designs. The tricky bit is that its effect is simply not strategically advantageous. How many creatures do you need to upgrade before this is actually worth a card to cast? If I had a couple sheets of paper and ten minutes of uninterrupted concentration, I could demonstrate a complex proof which establishes: the limit on the power of this effect as your number of creatures approaches infinity is, in fact, one 'card'. Unfortunately, you can't ever truly have infinite creatures within the game; the comprehensive rules state that there must be an arbitrary limit to iterative loops. So, in effect, Day of the Dragons can never be worth 'a card'.
I don't know why R&D always has to give these kinds of cards the shortest possible end of every stick. It is an Enchanment, which is the card type reserved for both the most and least broken cards. It is prohibitively expensive for no real reason; it isn't like your average deck can produce triple Blue and a board full of creatures without flat out winning, so an incredibly unique board state has to be created to draw any advantage from this effect. Finally, you have to actually punish yourself continuously by play this nonsense deck constructed out of dozens of little Blue critters and very little real action. I have bronchitis. I just ain't got time for that.
GRANDPA GROWTH'S PICK
This is a really strange topic. If we are talking straight up about cards that almost make it into my deck, but rarely, if ever, do, then my normal criterion of: 'Thumbs Up if I would play it', is a little awkward. Yea, that sentence had a subordinate clause within another subordinate clause. What, are you some kind of grammarian?
I make it a point to play Islands. Island->"Go" is much scarier and much more powerful than laying any other basic on turn one. I also make it a point to play plenty of card manipulation. Along those lines, all my decks that have Island also have Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordain. An opening hand can look pretty suspicious, but as long as you have one of these cards you can feel safe and confident keeping a wider variety of starting hands. Now, I teeter back and forth on exactly how much of this type of effect I want to have. It takes a balance between this and the more traditional card drawing spells that actually net you card advantage. Sleight of Hand is pretty much where I end up drawing that line most of the time. Is it good? Sure is, but it isn't so good that I can't live without it or find something more powerful.
Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
I've been playing cards like these more in my Daxos deck as of late, oddly enough hitting the right amount really is key. Sure, you can put in every kind of "scry x, draw" cards in but really it starts with the best of these Brainstorm and continues downhill from there with the likes of Ponder and all the way to Sleight of hand here.
Honestly if you don't use Top, Crystal Ball or Darksteel Pendant top manipulate your topdeck i'd suggest no more than 2 of these and a Fact or Fiction. Granted if you have a Scroll rack and a Big Jace your'e really going to be moving cards around like a boss, but not everyone puts up with that for long.
Venser's Journalist- NOT SURE
I agree with GG that this is a good card, and that it has it's limitations. I've been willing to put this in a "Talrand says NO" deck though because it's Blue and does things to my library. The only real reason why I'm sitting on the fence with Slight of Hand is because of Impulse, but that doesn't mean I'm going to pull Slight of Hand out of all my decks in favor for Impulse. That'd just be impulsive.
Uncle Landdrops- I WISH HAD FOUR THUMBS, SO I COULD GIVE THIS FOUR THUMBS DOWN
1. It requires you to play less disruption/removal (or even worse- less lands), which makes this less relevant than an actual spell. Why not just have more of what you're looking for?
2. The trade-off is terrible, and when I see someone play this, all I can think is either 1) the player is desperate, or they've cast this on Turn 1, and therefore don't really know how to use it. Going down an untapped Island on your turn is a lot worse than having an extra card that you potentially can't cast. Just ask Sensei's Divining Top.
3. The Murphy Defense. Just like your average Droid, the card you're looking for is statistically not likely to be one of 2 or 3 on top of your library. That is, unless you're cheating, or you are Gabriel Nassif with a Cruel Ultimatum, or Shahar Shenhar playing UWR Flash in Standard and Modern at this year's Magic World Championships.
4. The number of playable Miracle cards that people probably want to cast are closer to zero, while the availability of Scry substitutes is enormous now, and though they don't replace your card, they make sure you don't get a dud later.
5. Darksteel Pendant. Crystal Ball. Merfolk Looter. Thought Courier. This is another list of subtitutes that will do most of the things you're already trying to do at least 5-6 more times in a game.
6. I believe the Joker proved to everyone that having a plan is overrated. So why (meta-metagame) so serious-suh?
7. I understand the enjoyment of playing with yourself. I just think the kitchen table's not the most hygienic place to do it.
8. None of them can go on an Isochron Scepter.
JOHNNY CONFIDANT'S PICK
Johnny Confidant- THUMBS DOWN
This was my second year of playing EDH, and during this time I learned quite a lot. Mainly:
- The importance of a mana curve. Just because you can play all the fatties doesn't mean you should.
- Don't overextend - It's easy to keep pressing when you have the lead, but if you go too far and someone sweeps, you're left with nothing. Likewise, don't try to take things too far too early or else you become a target and are out of the game quickly.
- Not every card that is good in 60 constructed formats is relevent in EDH. Desecration Demon found his way into my Karador deck around the time Gatecrash was released. I wanted to experiment with drafting and he worked for me in limited, so I figured he'd extend his power over to EDH.
Sadly all was not well in Necra land. When I drew him I didn't need him. When I played him no one sacrificed anything and I felt like a parrot repeating "before your combat step, do you sacrifice a creature herp-a-derp". The last straw came while facing a similar deck. I had Demon in play and an opponent played Grave Pact. Well, lesson learned.
Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
I guess I'm the only one that plays the Desecration Demon. Other than playing against token decks, there's some decent pressure you can make in Commander.
Grandpa Growth - THUMBS DOWN
All three of the things JC said were true about Commander...are actually just true of Magic. Actually, if you remove the specifics, they are true of every game, including life. What is a mana curve? The idea of constantly expanding your resource base AND ACTUALLY UTILIZING all of those resources early and often. What is overextension? Committing more resources than is safe or strategically advantageous. Some cards are fine in Standard and bad in Commander. People use the phrase 'Commander card' as shorthand for: too expensive to be realistic. Commander is just one end of that spectrum. Angel of Serenity is too expensive to be realistic in Modern. Thragtusk is too expensive to be realistic in Legacy. This information definitely makes players better, but it makes the game better too. The average quality of your opponent has gone up slightly, making every game that much more challenging and more rewarding for everyone.
Venser's Journalist- THUMBS DOWN
JC's right about the usually poor translation of "good" cards from 60-card format to Commander. This is no exception. If there's a possibility to put multiple copies of this guy in your deck, you'll probably benefit more from his ability, since you'll be more likely to draw him early on.
Sure, he's a nice beefy 6/6 Flyer that has potential for growth, but if you put him out late game he's just another chump. One of the lessons I've learned is that good EDH decks need either great synergy or enough control to get one of many win cons out. This demon doesn't have much synergy unless you're going Demon-tribal (not popular, last I checked) nor does it give you much control (since you're not the one who says whether a creature is sacrificed).
Based on cost-power alone, he's a good fighter/defender, but in the end I'd rather have a Bloodgift Demon. At least with the Bloodgift, you can draw into something awesome quicker.
UNCLE LANDDROPS' PICK
This is a card I'm still trying to get in a good home. I heard about it on CommanderCast a while back, and it's become a pet card I'm just not willing to trade or part with, but not good enough to make into a deck either. It's a real shame too. I like just about everything about this card.
Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
I ran a Merieke Ri Berit deck a few months ago and could have really used this guy as a back-up to a back-up. Merieke, Shackles and this guy would have made a solid theft trio that could have made sweet sweet misery for my opponents. Sad to say for the time being that my Merieke deck has been taken apart for a more personal project but she will return and i will be looking for this card!
my only grief to have with this is that with the rise of Derevi players i'll have a harder time keeping threats that can be taken back through untapping. oh well, time to adapt.
Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
Card is pretty great. Not sure what people don't like about it. It's insane early AND post-Wrath. Maybe you don't get the choicest morsels, but people get awfully nitpicky for no reason. This card is a walking Vedalken Shackles...which I understand is a lot worse than a not-walking shackles, but a lot of decks straight up CANNOT beat shackles. There are plenty of cards that fall into this category of: 'good if done' right. You have to protect it, you have to set it up, it needs Haste, it needs time, whatever/whatever. This doesn't cost six. It costs three.
Some people don't really understand what makes a card powerful on a whole. Instead they have to use this weird, personalized heuristic system. Don't let irrelevant details throw you off the trail of the relevant ones. Is Deathrite Shaman bad because it can't remove Planeswalkers from the bin? No.
Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
The thing to remember about this card is that it does not give you total control... at least on the surface. You can get control of the creature you really want if you kill all the others first. But then why not just kill all their creatures? Or just use the Beguiler of Wills?
I do like the concept of this card though. It's very flavorful. And in most situations, having control of another person's creature will give you some advantage. One fun use for this particular card is to gain control of your opponent's creature, then sacrifice gained creature to sac-engine like Scarecrone or Trading Post. But in that case, Preacher should be renamed Cult Leader. Or are they the same to begin with???
Be sure to check out GG's article tomorrow as he talks about his favorite hits from 2013. Until Tuesday!
-UL/GG/VJ/JC
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