Glowing Ranks: Played and Unplayed From Commander 2014

Hey all. Landdrops here with another episode of Glowing Ranks.

Today we're gonna talk Commander 2014. I've had a pretty swell time checking out the new tech, and now felt like a good chance to get out of the streets and report in on my findings.

Since I've been a little behind the curve, I'm double dipping on Top 5's today, and it's going to work out. There's a lot to like out of the C14 stuff- some I've gotten a chance to play, some I haven't. So there's the dichotomy- 5 best cards I played, and my fave five that are looking to get in on the action.

THE UNPLAYED


5. Aether Gale

I don't have a copy of this card yet, and though apprehensive, I'm gonna trust GG's assessment in the review and throw it into my Barrin "Pile Of Fairness" deck I wrote about last time.

Unlike other blue cards, my biggest concern is the slowness of the card, not maintaining six legal targets. Sorcery speed makes this card, too fair. Maybe it find a home with other fair things. I don't know.








4. Fell the Mighty

This Lin Sivvi Rebels deck I've been running is going to love another one-sided "Power Wrath." Retribution of the Meek is one of the biggest bombs I have to use in conjunction with Mirror Entity. While this costs a little bit more, I'm with GG on this- Fell the Mighty is gonna be a house everywhere it can see play.

The big reason is that it has the capacity to protect low-power Aggro Commanders like Daxos and Doran, creating an evasion haven for these guys to go Voltron and put your opponent a turn behind the curve. It's a solid card that's easy on the eyes.





3. Masterwork of Ingenuity

I'm a sucker for clone effects and equipment, which made me apprehensive in my pre-order due to the "pizza milkshake" concept. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, this is what I mean.

Pizza = Good.

Milkshake = Good.

Pizza + Milkshake = Plain Gross.

Another reason to play this card is that not only can you tutor for it with Stoneforge, Taj-Nar Swordsmith, Steelshaper's Gift, and Stonehewer Giant, but it's also a great card for the mono-Blue Trinket Mage package. Do your opponents like to show off their Swords of X and Y? Do they like to play Jittes and swing beats? If so this is a nice metagame option for like, one-fifth to one-tenth of the market price for the Good Stuff.

2. Domineering Will

DW is a card I predict to be much more one-sided in a deck where Barrin is the general. At instant speed, I can generate about as much or more value in an opponent's combat step with exponential opportunities for value.

The lines of play are always going to result in x-for-1 trades, where x is dependent on how you want to interact with Barrin, especially with mana later on in the game.


1. Malicious Affliction


My top card is Double Doom Blade, and the reason it's not in any deck yet is because I have yet to ascertain what this card means. It's not bright. It's not vivid. It's that morbid, disgustingly good kind of card I try to save for my favorite decks.

Recently, I retired Greel, so it might be a while before I find a home for this sucker. If the fixing were better, this is really a Glissa T's card, but not one I want to have to count on, with it being double black and Glissa T's having double green. We'll see. I might just get the itch to throw it in anyway.

THE PLAYED

5. Nahiri, the Lithomancer

Now, Nahiri isn't a card I've physically played, but I've seen enough of it already to tell you it's kind of exciting, even though I'm not fond of walkers coming from the Command Zone.

With her Stoneforging ancestor and the aforementioned Equipment tutor package, Nahiri is in a unique position to power up bad equipment and break the top tier cards. Add the Lithomancer to a list of cards the rock with Skullclamp. Mono-White now has a way to create a card draw engine.

The -2 is also nice when you have clunky Kaldra pieces or an Argentum Armor for which there is no reason on this earth to pay full price.

Overall, I'm still okay with it. It's not game-ending, but she does work.

4. Daretti, Scrap Savant

I'm surely guilty of liking this card too much, but I don't think anyone can blame me.

I've already dusted off the Inglourious Basterds "Doh-me-neek Dee-co-co" jokes when I activate his abilities. I hold out my hand and say, "More Dah-ray-tee."

None of the Daretti cards in my group stay out for long, but it's too fun to miss every time Goblin Pope of Artifacts finds himself out and looting. So don't be a square. Buy your Daretti today.

3. Titania, Protector of Argoth

I texted GG about this card, but what I really wanted to do was pull a Back to the Future and say, "Yo, Chuck. This your cousin, Marvin Berry. You know that sound you been looking for?" and then hold the phone up so he could hear the sounds of repeated Strip Mines and multiple Life from the Loam triggers as I stomp my opponents with 5/3's.

No one wants, or should buy, the mono-Green Commander product- unless you want all of the Elves. But unlike Titania, that bores me.

Silvos got retired because of just how nuts the dedicated Titania Aggro-Loam deck has been. There are so many elements of combo and card advantage and tempo that are just too good to pass up.

Titania is the card I thought she was going to be in the Legends Review, and the deck is exactly what I thought it would be. All in all, it's fresh, unique, and I hope R&D are able to find more ways to combine these styles of effects and incorporate them into Commander.

2. Reef Worm

Lil Reefy fit perfectly into the Barrin deck I'd started playing at the time it was spoiled, so I knew it was a must-have in the pre-order.

Again, the Worm's been as good as anticipated, comboing with Barrin to give me chump blocks, a threat, and multiple chances to bounce things that are in my way.

There are some people who haven't gotten the Kraken yet. Obviously, this deck is a great niche include because it's always going to be, as Qui-Gon says, the proverbial "bigger fish."

1. Myriad Landscape

I got 8 copies of Myriad Landscape in my pre-order. That's not only a testament to how much I believe in the power of card advantage, but also in anticipation of this card tripling or quadrupling in price.

Being that most of my decks at any given time are mono-colored, this wasn't just mindless and arbitrary either. All of my decks are packing the immense value you're going to get from this card. It's one tap-land I think I can get behind, even in decks that I thought might not want it.

Opening hands with 2 lands and a Landscape have never been so sweet. Getting value at your deck's foundation is the best thing the design team did for us in this product, and that kind of structural support really helps to pave way for more of these big bad monsters and spells they also like to pump out every year. It's just one card, but Myriad Landscape is a gigantic step in the right direction.

What did you like in C14? What did you hate? Let us know in the comments below!

Pass Da Turnski.
-UL

Glowing Ranks: White Legends

It's Thor's Day, and we're back continuing to sort out these mono-colored power rankings.

In case you've forgotten, here's what we've done so far.
Green Commanders
Red Commanders
Blue Commanders

Time to Rank!

Honorable Mentions

Jareth, Leonine Titan

Jareth is a cool card, and often a handful to deal with.

As part of the Onslaught cycle of Pit Champions, the easiest comparison to make is to Silvos- and that's one where it's probably not even close. Whereas Silvos can roll downhill with a lot of power and little regards for itself, a longer game is always going to favor Jareth.

A common theme among the White Legends, as you'll see, is granting color protection, and generally being defensive. While we haven't even begun to break into the Top 5, we're already seeing that White's defensive tactics are how they generate offense.

With a combination of Righteousness and color protection at activated ability speed, a Vigilant Jareth is adept at chunking away Commander damage while staunchly defending your life total. The ability to untap and get protection from multiple colors at instant speed typically means that short of a Wrath, or holding up a Duplicant, the 6-mana that gets invested in casting Jareth is going to be mana well sunk. He draws a lot of answers, so if you pace yourself well, many of your better cards can slip under the radar.

Darien, King of Kjeldor

The Coldsnap Royalty doesn't crack the Top 5, but his presence should be noted, due in part to his uniqueness among white-colored brethren.

Darien is where everything I've said about the better White Legends- Defense is offense, blah blah blah- goes to die. The truth is that the best way to defend is to let the damage happen.

Since his ability is going to turn players away from attacking, Darien decks are uniquely suited for some of the format's mana that typically goes in multi-colored decks. City of Brass, Tarnished Citadel, and even Ancient Tomb are nice ways to crank out small armies.

When used in conjunction with the Soul Sisters, the loss is basically moot. You'll take damage, get a dude, and get it back.

Generally, this is a great strategy. However, there is a reason he didn't make it any further in my Power Ranks, and the answer is as easy as Doom Blade. The deck relies so much on Darien and really wide combat zones that answering the deck is as easy as any removal spell in the format. Or if you want to be particularly vindictive, waiting to Wrath until after you've let the player ping his or herself to death.

5. Cho-Manno, Revolutionary

Cho-Manno is a Rebel, and the deck designed around him has a cause: Defensive Voltron Combo.

Pariah, Pariah's Shield, and Entangler are all extremely accessible cards which combine to create a damage-free board state.

There are a couple reasons Cho-Mo got the nod over one of these other decks. The first is that this combo, without budget restriction, is more tutorable and protectable than ever before. The addition of Heliod's Pilgrim and Plea for Guidance to the plethora of Equipment and Enchantment tutors on the market only means that you'll be able to find a piece of your combo every time.

Another reason is that Cho-Manno doesn't have to be the creature that eats everything up, leaving the door open for Auratouched Mage and Boonweaver Giant to help dig these cards out of your library. Hundred-Handed One and Pallisade Giant are also sweet cards that can support their Rebel leader in this way too.

On top of that, the best cards in the deck are extremely recurrable. Replenish, Retether, Nomad Mythmaker, and even Auramancer are all playable, and force your opponent to have to be opportunistic with how they get damage in.

The inherent weakness of this deck is that you have to dedicate some amount of resources to doing your own set of damage. The upside is that it's entirely possible, the longer you draw the game out. At some point, your opponent, if they're not playing with a removal engine, is going to do so.

While I've practically built the deck for you, there's still plenty to consider. And if you run with this idea, be sure to send me your list.

4. Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant

On a Stack episode a while back, we talked about how the Kamigawa flip legends have taken major slides back due to the imposition of indestructible Gods.

That said, I believe Rune-y can still stick around. With a handful of cards that can protect permanents, not just creatures, and a few cards that make Enchantments untargetable, there's still plenty of shade for him and his Essence to thrive in a more competitive metagame.

Additionally, the value that R-T's Essence provided is enough incentive to continue to build decks around it. Eating all of the damage will take some key cards out of your opponent's hands while forcing them to use their better answers.

As far as I can tell, this deck can still go strong, as long as it's been adapted to the newer landscape.

3. Kemba, Kha Regent

As we get closer to the top, the big theme you'll see is that these decks are good defensively as they are on offense.

Kemba is the beginning of this trend. As Voltron was a strategy before the Kha Regent was a Commander, assembling a deck racing to 21 was always going to be an easy task.

With the addition of 2/2 kitty value, the Kemba deck is really set for offense and defense short of an Overrun.

Overall, she's poised to make a threat out of either turning sideways with Swords or acting as a diet version of Rhys the Redeemed. Definitely one of the better offense-based decks in the white color pie.

2. Lin Sivvi

Like Cho-Manno, Lin Sivvi is a deck trying to play grindy defense and protect your life total. Aside from that, these decks couldn't be further apart.

Lin Sivvi is a very grindy deck whose aim is to challenge the length of the game. Acting as the centerpiece to all the action, Lin Sivvi can call on a handful of Toolbox players to chump, dump and recycle.

I play this deck, and I've said before it plays a lot like the Glissa T's Control Engines, because you can remove and Wrath your way out of most of the problems.

However, there are some iterations of this deck aiming to create infinite life-gain loops. Either way, there is a lot of defending that happens with this deck.

Still, if you can get into the super-late game, the power of this deck is going to be pretty immense. Smaller combos, like Phyrexian Processor and Children of Korlis, are bound to create some big tokens to smash with, while Mirror Entity often shows just how much damage he and a couple friends can do with the 13 or 14 mana you've probably accumulated by then. With Lin Sivvi, the offense is late, but often a 1 or 2 turn clock.

1. Eight-and-a-Half-Tails

At the top we find "almost Ninetales," and the reasons are obvious if you've ever played or played against it.

Though a very small little Fox Cleric, Eight and a Half Tails offers up one of the most unique little combination of abilities you'll ever see on one card. I love being able to interact on the stack, so to have the power of targeting a card as a spell sitting on the stack is extremely powerful- especially for 2W, and especially in white.

Again, Tails offers up a powerful ability that can be used to get damage through or put up the pillowfort. Though a lowly 2/2, Tails is probably not going to win with Commander damage, but I've seen it happen with access to a couple of pro-white Swords or enchantments.

Like Lin Sivvi, and even Jareth, their ability to "sink mana" can effectively be used to solidify and protect your board state, which is the commonality among successful mono-White EDH.

Pass Turn.
-UL

Glowing Ranks: Blue Legends

Welcome back Zoners!

Today we're going blue in our Commander Power Rankings.

As we all know, Blue is probably one of the best colors in all of Magic. Being the pinnacle color in Control, a tangential color for artifact combos, and the most direct route to card draw, ranking the blue Legends can be a very subjective task due to the redundancy of function, and whether or not you compare the combo decks at their most potent, least potent, or a confusing average.

So let's rack 'em up and rank 'em!

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Thassa, God of the Sea

Mono-U devotion is a pretty big deck in Standard for a little while longer, mostly because of access to hybrid symbols.

Still, I've found Thassa to be a pretty strong Commander, and that's obviously without Nightveil Specters and Frostburn Weirds.

Thassa presents incredible value. It's an aggressive deck that can afford to sacrifice a few counterspells for more threats. When coupled an every turn chance to smooth your draws, the Thassa build paves the way for a very precise, turn-sideways kind of deck, where Thassa puts a nice bit of pressure on your opponents quickly.

Arcum Dagsson

There's no real order to the Honorable Mentions. Personally, I think this deck is more garbage than good, and I've been vocal about that here on the blog.

A few years back GG tested this deck against Jhoira, one of the premier top Tier decks, and it straight up folds to the extra disruption Jhoira gets to play.

Sacrificing counterspell spots for more permanent-based Artifact griefer cards is both the Dagsson deck's strength and weakness. I'm not a big fan of approaching the game with the arrogance of a Stax deck that comes in and says, "You have to beat me," because it shouldn't work, and more than likely won't if your opponent knows how to build decks and play properly.

With Metalworker unbanned as of a few days ago, this deck obviously gets better. However, I only mention Arcum because my credibility would be questioned if I didn't, even though Wizards has recently printed a card which should allow the Arcum delusions of grandeur to disappear.

Muzzio, Visionary Architect

MUZ-ZI-OOOO!!!!

Easily a better deck than Arcum, particularly if you want to play Stax. The deck doesn't have to commit to silly artifact token generators, and bad dude mana rocks. This deck gets to play real artifacts, good combos, and back it all up with counters. It's a pretty good plan overall, as Muzzio is versatile enough to play early or late, either working to get the deck going, or coming in later to find a threat to end the game.

I'll admit I got very confused about the way his ability worked. I was under the impression that the CMC of your highest cost artifact had to be less than or equal to the card you found when you looked at the top of the library. This is separates the Muzzio from the Arcum, and why, even though you have to invest mana, this deck is better than his Coldsnap counterpart.

5. Thada Adel, Acquisitor

Welcome to the real decks, ladies and gents.

It's safe to say that the Thada Adel deck can have it all and is rolling very deep in terms of toys. Between Sol Ring re-prints and an extra set of Mirrodin seeing print following her Worldwake debut, Thada is a very dangerous, proactive, and fun deck to play.

My favorite quality of this deck is the amount of information you can gather in looking at your opponent's library. While her combat damage trigger is really fair when compared with Master of Predicaments, Sphinx Ambassador, Daxos, and other cards that allow you to play your opponent's stuff, there's still plenty of value to be found by just taking away your opponent's most powerful artifact stuff.

4. Braids, Conjurer Adept

Braids was one of my favorite decks for quite some time. The ability to play threats for free and leave room for answers without a whole lot of other nonsense provides a very wide set of skills for just about every situation.

I wasn't even playing what would be considered a full strength Braids deck, and the results were a success.

30+ threats and 20+ Instants was the recipe that insured I always had something to play for the Braids trigger, and always had a response to something another person was playing.

3. Talrand, Sky Summoner

Now, Talrand is a deck that I believe is a lot better than the lists the Internet has to offer.

Though it can be weak to removal heavy decks, the amount of counter-magic and control that can be crammed into the 99 is massive and always getting better. Don't believe me? Just look at Aetherspouts and Polymorphist's Jest. The only direction this deck can go is up, in terms of ammunition.

2. Azami, Lady of Scrolls

All hail the mighty card draw combo queen! Though the artwork may reveal quite a mess, it's all about Wizard tribal and Mind Over Matter.

Though this deck has been accepted as universally good, and really is (again, unlike the false acclaim of Arcum Dagsson), the weakness to me of Azami is that this deck wants to play creatures that don't really want to attack. Still, because control cards are getting better, the deck can afford to play a few.

1. Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir

Teferi tops the list for me for a variety of reasons. Number one, he has immediate impact, and can be played whenever you need.

Number two, he combos with Knowledge Pool, effectively shutting people out of the game. Unlike Azami, his two-card combo is completely tutorable, and able to shut the game down pretty quickly. It's safe to say none of the other mono-blue Commanders can really do this, and live to see it.

The last reason Teferi bests his blue counterparts is his flexibility. Teferi is all about tempo- specifically, removing your opponent's ability to respond whilst increasing yours. Unlike the other decks on this list, Threats and counterspell quantities can be liberally played with to suit the greater metagame.

Pass Turn.
-UL

Glowing Ranks: Red Legends

Happy Weekend Again Zoners!

Continuing with our on-going Glowing Ranks segment, today's topic is Red Legends.

Because the card advantage is basically non-existent when we compare it to the other "slices" in Magic's color pie, Red has been historically the "least competitive" mono-color.

Although I don't disagree with the popular opinion, I can tell you that Red decks still have a lot to offer the general metagame, forcing tempo and pressure even without the taboo. When up against the amalgam of 20 years of Magic's most overpowered, it's a daunting task to risk managers and control players who feel the need to play the format with better support.

What draws me to the red decks I've played is both the inherent challenge of overcoming better designs and flipping the script on the players who are more Wrath-inclined. By going all-in, dedicating a majority of your deck to aggressive combos, most of the best decks have success in creating an early pressure, which forms chaos, which opens up the game to players making mistakes. And if you play them with tempo, it can both render control-heavy decks completely useless and set you up on a path to victory.

Coupled with the latest in R&D, there's really never been a better time to invest in the Red sector, and I'll show you why.

Honorable Mentions

Starke of Rath

Starke is my latest red deck as a result of my Old Border/New Border "Double Rainbow" Mono-colored project. While not good by himself (hence why he didn't crack the Top 5, and probably not even a top 10), he's worth mentioning in relation to the upward trend.

The first Commander product is what gave Starke an actual chance at the table, as he inherited a very lonely road named Homeward Path. Add an Expedition Map, and now you have two copies, giving us a "free" slot in our mana base and a real slot which could also provide design for a nice set of nonbasics, which does come in handy.

As mentioned in the Better Deckbuilding article, the trick with Starke is to assemble a removal engine with an indestructible artifact, and a way to copy his ability, whether it be the beat-me-over-the-head Rings of Brighthearth, or an untap effect like Umbral Mantle. Using the Stack, your first target is the indestructible item, and then whatever thing your opponent has, making sure Starke never leaves.

The amount of half-decent cards that can enable Starke and aid in building an offensive engine give this deck a very nice little control package that gives you enough time to find other heinous combos you'd want to play with Rings, or perhaps you just take the route I did and load it up with Dragons for the later stages. Overall, it's a neat deck with cool tricks that gives you a chance, which, if you're any good, is really all you'll need.

Squee, Goblin Nabob

This is a deck I've heard about for a long time, and a new design in my playgroup.

Often, most of the red card draw spells aren't going to give you an advantage, because they take cards away. With Squee as your Commander, these problems can be lessened, and a Red engine deck can begin to emerge.

Unlike Starke, Squee is probably the most travelled commander you'll see. The card will go to the graveyard, the player's hand, and the battlefield more than several times throughout the course of the game, and it is both very difficult to stop, and inefficient to waste single removal spells on. He'll basically do whatever you want, whenever, from the too-easy Skullclamp, to the



5. Ashling, the Pilgrim

When I first started this blog a couple years ago, one of the big gimmicky decks was the self-explanatory Ashling + 99 Mountains design.

The idea behind this deck, and most "Aggro" red decks in the format is that they're going to try and find a nice combination of combat damage and burn to finish an opponent off. Ashling is pretty successful in this way, considering that she has the ability to do two things at once: Control the board and deal damage to everyone and everything.

What limits her from beating out the other decks in the list is how many times you're going to have to cast her in a given game. Hence the Mountains moniker and joke for this deck. You have to commit to a serious amount of lands, but it's worth it. There are very few other cards you'll want to play that are as good as just laying down Mountain, and at a certain point, all you'll need to have is one big combat dealing 6-10 damage to make sure you're ahead. Of course, getting a Loxodon Warhammer or Basilisk Collar will help too.

4. Heartless Hidetsugu

In terms of using Warhammer and Collar to combo with damage, HH is just superior. The ratio of damage-to-CMC is not only a signficantly better return on investment compared to Ashling, but it's also a lot easier to set up. While Ashling comes out earlier, it will still take turns to set up the bomb, whereas HH sets up proactively and is the last part of your combo to come to the party.

One of the other things about HH is that he matches up significantly better with decks using life gain strategies, effectively halving the big boppers like Beacon of Immortality, and stopping the slow-rolling Oloro deck from staying ahead in the game, and therefore keeping the deck from its big Lim-Dul's Vault or Ad Nauseam.

HH also makes burn spells better, as he magnifies them exponentially throughout the course of the game. Two activations of HH can effectively put you in a position where one 4 power dude and a decent Fireball can finish an opponent, potentially more than one.

3. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

HH and Kiki-Jiki are really "even," I think, but for the purposes of this list, Kiki wins. Though significantly less consistent than Heartless Hidetsugu, the better combos in this deck are better than the things that HH can do in a 1v1 situation. In the HH/Kiki matchup, I also think Kiki wins due to the innate creature-based design and the fact that HH's best plays can be dealt with effectively in mono-red.

Against most other decks, I think HH is going to hold up better on the whole, as Kiki-Jiki, even if you don't go infinite, brings a stigma to the table that people might not like. He's going to be a lot harder of a commander to stick at the table than HH, even if HH brings more devastation.

2. Purphoros, God of the Forge

The new God on the block has really come out and made quite an impression on the greater metagame. Being a no-nonsense, tough-to-remove ETB and Combat Damage machine, the God of the Forge is a formidable Aggro deck.

One of the reasons for Purfy's vastly superior success when compared to the other gods is the fact that the card is generally not going to be a creature if you're playing it right. Unlike his fellow com-Pantheons, Purph's strength lies in a combination of him, haste outlets, and spells/permanents that spit out copious amounts of tokens. The deck's success is attributed mostly to the noncombat damage each opponent takes when he comes into play, which avoids people playing their own chump blockers while you create your own.

It is very similar HH and Ashling in this respect, the big differences being resilience and like Kiki-Jiki, it's dedication to token copies for ETB value. This blend is really a potent recipe for face-smashers everywhere.

1. Norin the Wary

Despite the God's magnanimous presence, he still pales in comparison to the effect of the Norin deck. Together, the two are also a pretty unbeatable 2 damage every turn.

What makes Norin so good is his ability to get everyone's best creatures via Confusion in the Ranks or Pandemonium, while basically dodging every relevant removal spell.

The deck is surely one of the more inconsistent decks without reliable tutelage for the key combo pieces, but it's nothing a Crystal Ball and Scroll Rack and Memory Jar and a few Wheel Effects can't find. In the meantime, this deck can also bide time with Genesis Chamber and Kiki-Jiki, as most of the better cards in Red fit right into this deck without too much tinkering.

The result is a map of various routes to chaos, which becomes a powerful ally for the Norin deck and a hard thing for an opponent to have to play against when they're already playing against another person.

That's all we have for today. Do you like these ranks? Do you disagree? Did I miss something? Lemme know in the comments below.
-UL

Glowing Ranks: Planeswalkers

Welcome back to Glowing Ranks, Uncle Landdrops' silliest-and-almost-serious way of arranging cards and card types.

Today I'm serving up an order for the Magic's Masters of the Multiverse and Leading Leaders in Loyalty Counters. I've got ten on the plate, so let's get cracking.

10. Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Grixis is a color combo I don't play much, but something I like to admire when I see people playing it.

Nico B is at the forefront of most of these constructed decks, and almost always slotted into 5-color decks because it covers everything on the table with its two abilities.

Short of Karn Liberated, and the as-yet-to-be-determined new Garruk, there are few P-Dubs that can really impact a board state when you're down and get you back into it. Though more expensive, I liken these cards to Umezawa's Jitte in this way.

This is the altered work from Duel Decks: Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas, which I like quite a bit more than the prints from Conflux and m13. They look more like a monument to Magic's most evil than a portrait of the living thing. And this art, well, it looks like he had it commissioned to put up in his living room, you know, where he reads all the books (See original Nicol Bolas).

9. Elspeth, Sun's Champion

El-Speth. OoooAaahh!

Our third, hero-emerging Elspeth hardly comes out in my group anymore without an "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" allusion, because let's face it- She is the master of Karate and Friendship, for everyone. Just ask Ajani.

Though my appreciation for Knight-Errant is awesome, she's just too easy to like. With more token and Wrath power, this Elspeth has been more up my alley. I've enjoyed the times I've casted her, because in multiplayer, she's proven to keep herself alive for at least a couple turns with both abilities.

Now that the whole Theros block is over and done with, this art takes on new meaning, as we now know what the Godsend is- but how is she holding it before we know? How does she have it before he gets it?

8. Liliana of the Dark Realms

By far and away this is my favorite Liliana.

She doesn't do much like Original Vess. She isn't aggressive, like when she has the Veil. But she's hella effective.

This is one of the best printings that have happened for mono-Black in the format, and could happen. Having recurrable access to Swamps ensures that you're going to get to at least 6 Swamps for Grave Titan, and you don't have to worry about drawing lands for the next 2-3 turns.

While I'm not excited about her hair looking like a batwing, the art doesn't matter when you get to have a non-color-pie advantage.

7. Karn Liberated

If John the Revelator hadn't beaten him to the punch, Karn the Liberated would've written the book on the seven seals.

Like Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, P-Dub Karn has the power to walk into a game and help you crawl out of it, should you fall behind.

Unlike Nicol B, Karn's penchant for justice and colorless mana makes him twice as dangerous. He can go in any deck and instantly improve it, and handle all those Indestructible threats. And he does all this while gaining you life, forcing your opponents to commit damage to him, hoping that you won't start the game over again.

I like Karn. I tend to slot my copies into decks that really need the help, and happen to have a few other P-dubs hanging around. It's a fantastic card, with a pretty nifty design, and I don't like blindly throwing good cards into decks for the sake of themselves. That's foolish.

6. Garruk Wildspeaker

Much like the 3/3 Beast token Garruk Wildspeaker creates, he too, is a tale as old as time.

Being more sentimental, he's one of my favorite Planeswalkers, not only because he's simple, but also because he does everything Green needs him to do- Ramp, Make a Dude, Make Dudes Bigger. Pure elegance for a wildman.

I've picked the Duel Decks artwork because it is my first copy of Garruk, and I played the crap out of it. I still do.

Untapping two lands is often gross. Combined with Gaea's Cradle, Nykthos, and potentially Deserted Temple, you're looking at insane value.

Mostly, I prefer to cast him at 5 so I untap and Kodama's Reach. That's my favorite piece of value.

5. Chandra Ablaze

I have yet to play Pyromaster or the Firebrand, but so far Chandra Ablaze seeems to be the most playable of her various iterations.

Mostly, it's for the card draw. This is an easy advantage to get in Red, and it hurts the whole table because if they are seasoned Commander players, they have their turns planned before it rolls around back to them.

I've also used her +1 ability in conjunction with Squee, and other nonsense things I play in Red, simply because Red decks generally need spellshaping outlets to help it maintain consistency. There are just too many effects that it can't do regularly.

4. Gideon Jura

Of all the planeswalkers in all the Multiverse, Gideon Jura's design has to be one of the most innovative and underrated.

Access to all three of his abilities make him innately powerful. Add to that a plus ability to control your opponent's combat step, and you've got yourself a stew going.

He attacks, he protects himself, he controls your opponent's creatures- I'm shocked I don't see more of him at the table.

Between Gideon, Sarkhan the Mad, and Jace TMS, I think people can clearly see where Magic had to transform what it meant to be a planeswalker. Not that Sarkhan the Second was good, I just believe that they decided some of the experiments on these guys made them a little too good.

3. Tezzeret the Seeker

Unlike the other Planeswalkers with Duel Decks art, I find I like original Tezz the best because he looks like a Klingon with a robot arm, which is surprisingly more comforting than the weird, anorexic-looking alternative.

Tezzeret is #3 here because I do so many cool things with the second ability.

The most notable is a tutor for 0 to go get Seat of the Synod or Darksteel Citadel. Have you ever wanted blue ramp? Well, this is how we turn our Tezzeret into a Liliana of the Dark Realms.

Once we have the lands, he's a Garruk Wildspeaker. The more colors in the deck, the merrier. I'll play artifact lands for days.

Generally, I keep the costs of my cards lower, but with Tezz, the best strategy is to keep all your relevant artifacts less than 3 if you can, thereby "idiot-proofing" your tutor, and keeping up your Tezzeret so they have to attack into it. There is no reason to sacrifice your planeswalker, even for a Solemn Simulacrum (need I remind you Pilgrim's Eye is also a slightly better game off Tezz), if you don't have to. So don't be silly.

2. Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

The artist for this card, Eric Deschamps, really hit a home run with Tamiyo. I love the work here. Smooth, elegant, multi-dimensional, abstract- it's perfect.

Which really, matches the card. Like most planeswalkers, her ultimate is a bit of a pipe dream, but the beauty of that ultimate is that every card that goes to the graveyard and comes back to your hand will be useful.

Moving upwards, her ability to stall out creatures and use that to further the card advantage makes her incredible value.

1. Garruk, Primal Hunter

Garruk 2.0 tops my list of Planeswalkers, mostly for sentimental reasons, but also for his -3 ability. This is going to be a lot of cards in Green if you play it correctly. In most cases, I tend to draw somewhere near 7-9 cards every time I activate it, and that's just nuts, considering that Harmonize is three cards for 2GG, and that drawing an amount of cards like that in a Green deck means you're drawing more threats.

The other two abilities are weird and theme-y. I guess my one criticism of this card is that you're taking Garruk up by making tokens to go off with-- more tokens? I'm not particularly excited about that, but the card draw more than makes up for it.

Anyway, that's all I got for today. Be sure to vote on today's poll.

Pass.
-UL

Who's your favorite planeswalker?

Jace

Elspeth

Garruk

Liliana

Chandra

Other

Poll Maker

Glowing Ranks #1: Counterspells

G'day Zoners!

Today we're kicking off a new TGZ segment to celebrate my favorite cards with specific functions int the typical Commander deck. Much like Oprah, I have favorite things, and while there's a laundry list of literature about them here on TGZ, Glowing Ranks will be where I'll grind out a concrete top 5. 

We'll be kicking off the series today with one of EDH's most controversial card archetypes- the counterspell. Here we go.

Honorable Mention- Cryptic Command

Duh. I felt really bad about not mentioning this in the list, but it's worth explaining why. 

Cryptic Command is more than just a counterspell. It does basically everything you'd want a card to do as a blue player, and so it's really impossible for me to justify putting it in a list where most of these cards don't do half the things Cryptic does.

I think it goes without saying that Lost in the Mist and Dismiss are two possible functions that this card can be, and neither of them could crack my Top 5, so I felt weird about putting this here, even if it is an excellent card. 

5. Negate

Playing enough removal to answer creatures has been, for a long time, a sufficient answer. Although I may have to change that with the Gods out now, I'm still much more inclined to sit back and let people have creatures, but not relevant game-ender spells. 

Negate is great, and though it sounds lyrical, it's doesn't make it less true. The power that this card has is miles above the silly, more specific counters like Annul or Swan Song. Hitting P-dubs is a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, and Negate has the ability to cover all the cards you really don't want to see in EDH. Creatures can be dealt with. G-Waves and Exsanguinates have to be stopped on the stack. 

It's not pure counterspell, but I'm okay with that. I mentioned a while back on The Stack that Island-Island is can be played into or played around. This is one of the advantages of Negate, especially in most of my double-colored decks. The mana cost allows me the flexibility to have other cards in my hand, and if all I have to give up is a creature, I'm not worried. 

4. Memory Lapse

Memory Lapse is a house. Against decks that can draw out of it, it still costs them resources. Against decks that can't, it stops their tempo "instantly." As I'm so often on the play due to my die-rolling deficiency, Memory Lapse is often the way I keep my opponent(s) from getting too far ahead. Used properly near the end of the game, it can even give you a whole turn before your opponent goes off.

Like Negate, the converted mana cost provides an insane flexibility for such a powerful card. However, unlike Memory Lapse, the better cards to counter are creatures in the late, and silly mana rocks like Sol Ring and Darksteel Ingot, or Cultivate, in the early game. 

In Daxos, I also play this when I decide that what my opponent's casting is something I really want. 

3. Lapse of Certainty

Lapse of Certainty has the same function as Memory Lapse, but it they are completely different. 

I won't argue that ML is better than LoC. In fact, I had a game last week where both were in my hand, and I ran into a mana situation because this is more expensive. Still, I'll be honest- it's ahead on this list because it's not blue.

That's not meant to be color-discriminatory, because I don't dislike blue as a color at all- it just goes along with what I was saying about broadcasting Island-Island earlier. This spell is surely going to catch people off their guard, and the element of surprise is great, even if you know I play this, and could expect it. 

I also like the art way better. It's kind of a weird thing to be from Conflux, especially because it doesn't look like anything from any of the Shards, but I'll take it. Some cards are just too playable to pass up.

2. Trickbind

This is a piece of tech I feel people know little about. 

For those who don't know GG, or have never played against him in a game of Magic, there's almost always going to be an Oblivion Stone, a Nevinyrral's Disk, or both in the context of a given game. 

Frustrated with having to force the Wraths, I decided it was time to find more answers than K-Grip. A Gatherer search following a particularly unpleasant game against Glissa T's proved to be well worth my while. I found this and another little spell called Interdict, which I immediately slammed into my decks the following week and proceeded to shutting down his silly slow-rolling. 

What I've discovered further about this card is that it breaks more than just Disks and Stones. Creatures with ETB effects are a vast majority of the meta, and Trickbind stops them too. The fact that this also adds triggered abilities gives this insane value. Terastodon and Tricking Purphoros with a huge Goblin Offensive on the stack are my best accomplishments to date when it comes to triggered abilities. Hitting Fetchlands and Strip Mines is also pretty tech too. 

1. Voidslime

I love everything about Voidslime. To me, this is the primo counterspell. It covers everything I'd want to stop, the art is sweet, and its converted mana cost makes it uniquely fitted for UG, which is a color combination I love to play. 

This card is one of the few special answers for infinite combo decks like Saffi or Black Mike, which thrive on triggered abilities. 

Like I said- I love everything about it. Even the bad flavor text. 

Well, that wraps up our first Glowing Ranks.

Do you have five favorite counterspells? Be sure to share yours in the comments below. Your thoughts are always appreciated. 

Thanks again! Pass Turn.

-UL