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by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist  Gaining life is a very popular thing to do in Magic the Gathering. While most life-gain specific cards don't become widely adopted in competitive play, they are a huge part of casual "kitchen table" Magic. However, there is a lot to like about Sanguine Sacrament, an instant from the Ixalan set. Not only can this card gain you some life, but you even have the chance to reuse it over the course of the game! Let's break it down. Sanguine Sacrament is an instant that costs XWW. This means you must have two White mana and enough mana to pay for X to make it worth casting. Already, this seems like a fair investment, as later in the game, you can pump quite a bit of mana into this card. Being at instant speed means you can potentially use this card gain yourself enough life in order to not be dealt lethal damage. Best of all, you gain twice as much life as you pay for X.
Now, to make this card "worth" casting, you need to be able to invest quite a bit of mana into X. However, there is one thing about this card that makes it potentially valuable: when you cast it, you put it at the bottom of your library instead of putting it in your graveyard. That's actually a really big deal. Because this card is an instant, you can use it early in the game when you may not otherwise have a play in order to gain some quick life, even if it's only 2 or 4 life. Every point of life matters in Magic. While this card wasn't going to see much play in Standard nor Modern, there is the possibility that this card may still see play in a semi-competitive combo deck. A deck that can produce a good deal of mana can make great use of this card. The real place for Sanguine Sacrament to shine is in Commander (EDH), where life-gain is not only useful, but can be an asset. There are many win conditions in Magic that involve having a certain life total, and this is one way to potentially gain yourself enough life to satisfy them. There's Felidar Sovereign, for example, which lets you win the game if you have 40 or more life at the beginning of your turn. Sanguine Sacrament being at instant speed means that you can cast this card at the end of an opponent's turn. It can be a quick and dirty way to gain enough life to let the Sovereign win you the game. It's not the only way to win with this card, but it's one of the more popular ones. In EDH, there's also a popular creature called Rhox Faithmender that doubles any lifegain effect that you may have while he's on the battlefield. Also, a popular enchantment called Sunbond gives its enchanted creature as many +1/+1 counters as points of life that you gain. Sanguine Sacrament definitely belongs in any MTG deck that runs those cards. Sanguine Sacrament is worth keeping an eye on because it does something that's popular in casual Magic, and casual Magic players make up the majority of the player base. It can fit into a wide array of strategies, and while it's not a primary card to enable a strategy, it does complement them. Lifegain is always going to be good in Magic. Also, since it has the ability to either keep combo decks alive with its effect or even win the game by increasing your life total beyond a certain level, it's always going to have some demand.
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by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist  Winterflame from Khans of Tarkir is no Fire // Ice. Whereas Fire // Ice, a popular Legacy card, was a split card which let you choose which half to cast, Winterflame gives you the ability to get one or both effects. Most of the time, you would choose both. But it’s not quite as good as the classic split card.
Fire for 1R gave you the option to split the 2 damage between one or two creatures or players. Ice gave you the option to not only tap a target permanent for 1U, but also drew you a card. Winterflame is definitely a powered down version of these two effects. It only allows you to tap creatures, which isn’t quite as useful as Ice, plus you don’t get the benefit of drawing a card. It’s much weaker than Electrolyze, which is basically Fire except that it also draws you a card, also for 1UR. It’s a weaker version of those two cards. Adding drawing a card as a third option while still only allowing two to be chosen would have made this much better. As it is, Winterflame probably wasn’t even good enough to be a rare. Although Khans of Tarkir turned out to have plenty of powerful cards, Winterflame was certainly not one of them. It didn’t really see any sideboard play. Even in Commander, a format that tends to adopt many competitively shunned spells, only a handful of Melek, Izzet Paragon decks bothered to include this card. Outside of Khans of Tarkir Limited (drafts and sealed deck), this card was pretty much a dud. by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist  If any Magic the Gathering deck archetype was boosted more than Humans by the Avacyn Restored set, it would be Angels. Being that the premier card of the set Avacyn, Angel of Hope is an Angel, this should have probably been an obvious consideration of Wizards of the Coast Research & Development. It couldn’t be overlooked that once relatively unplayable Angel cards suddenly have a bit more value because of this set. In particular, Requiem Angel is very glad Avacyn is now free of the Helvault!
(See, something good did come out of that awful mythic rare from Dark Ascension!) Requiem Angel is a 5/5 flyer with a six mana casting cost (5 colorless, 1 White) with a decent effect. Whenever another non-Spirit creature you control dies, you put a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying onto the board. For 6 mana, this is OK. She gets better alongside Herald of War, also from Avacyn Restored, who can reduce the casting costs of your Angels for each +1/+1 counter on the Herald. This means you can cast Requiem Angel for as little as one mana, not that it would happen often. Requiem Angel was a neat card, but she never really saw Standard play, which shouldn’t be too surprising due to her position on the mana curve. Requiem Angel in Commander / EDH Interestingly enough, Angel Tribal Commander decks, such as Sephara, Sky’s Blade, aren’t the key home for Requiem Angel. Rather, she’s great in the Commander decks that can best take advantage of the Spirit tokens she creates. Notably, unlike a lot of creatures who generate tokens when other creatures die, Requiem Angel doesn’t care if those creatures are tokens or not, which is a major plus in decks who basically thrive off of their token generation. No Commander has recruited her as much as Teysa Karlov, whose ability to copy triggered abilities and give creature tokens vigilance and lifelink makes Requiem Angel an obvious include. Her predecessor from Guildpact, Teysa, Orzhov Scion, has also recruited Requiem Angel to create the 3 white creatures she can sacrifice in order to exile a target creature. For quite some time, Ghave, Guru of Spores was the Commander she was paired with most. This seems a strange pairing until you consider that Ghave decks produce a lot of tokens, especially Saprolings. So, when any of those Saprolings die, especially when sacrificed using Ghave’s ability, you get a Spirit token. Another Commander who takes advantage of Requiem Angel is Jazal Goldmane. This makes sense since Jazal can boost the flying Spirit tokens the Angel creates. It makes even more sense when you consider Requiem Angel was re-printed in the same Commander 2014 deck as Jazal. Token-happy commanders such as Thalisse, Reverent Medium, Emmara Tandris, and Darien, King of Kjeldor also co-opt her services on more than a few occasions. While she’s hardly any sort of token deck staple, Requiem Angel is a good one to have around for those Commanders who can maximize her abilities. by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist  Q: How much are 100 Magic playing cards worth?
A: This is one of the more interesting Magic the Gathering finance related questions I’ve been asked. It really comes down to what is in those 100 cards. If it’s mostly land cards, then the stack is relatively worthless. If it’s 100 commons and uncommons, typically no vendor will buy them, since typically stores buy in bulk of 1000 at a time and pay about $3-5/thousand. If there are rares in the pile, you’re looking at least $0.08 to $0.10 per rare, and likely more depending on what the rare is. A stack of 100 rares, for example is going to get you likely $8 or more from a local game store that buys Magic cards. But it’s more likely to be a mixture. It is true that you can buy lots of 100 Magic the Gathering cards for anywhere between $4 and $8 online. Some have more rares than others, and some will have more duplicates than others. But as far as selling them yourself, if there’s nothing of substantial value among the 100 cards, you’re probably looking at a value of between $0.25 and $1. You can learn a lot more about what Magic cards are worth in my post: Magic Card Values: What Are My Magic the Gathering Cards Worth? by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist  Boros Affinity in Pauper?
Pauper is a highly competitive tournament format in Magic the Gathering. It is a format of only common cards, with a relatively small ban list. For years, the format really shined on Magic Online, but now, it has become supported in Paper Magic, as well. What's great about Pauper is the sheer amount of competitive decks you can play. This particular deck, a Boros Affinity deck, once went 4-0 in a Daily Event. While this list we’re looking at today is from 2013, the archetype is still very viable. The best part about this list, is that in MTGO terms, the deck only costs about 10 tix. As you'll discover though when we peruse the list, about 8 tix of that is for the 2 copies of Pyroblast in the sideboard! In paper, it's a mere $40 or so. This is a ridiculously cheap deck! Affinity was always a strong archetype in Pauper, but wasn't getting 4-0 in Daily events until this list popped up. So, what makes this Pauper Affinity deck different? Let's take a look! The Deck List! Creatures 4 Ardent Recruit 4 Vault Skirge 4 Court Homunculus 4 Porcelain Legionnaire 4 Glint Hawk 3 Auriok Sunchaser Non-Creatures 4 Bonesaw 4 Bonesplitter 4 Galvanic Blast 2 Prophetic Prism 2 Lightning Bolt 1 Flayer Husk Land 7 Plains 4 Great Furnace 4 Ancient Den 3 Boros Guildgate 1 Mountain 1 Vault of Whispers Sideboard 3 Stone Rain 2 Lone Missionary 2 Journey to Nowhere 2 Flame Slash 2 Pyroblast 2 Smash to Smithereens 2 Electrickery The Creatures! While this is not a typical Affinity deck, having Artifacts does indeed matter quite a bit here. Starting off with our Ardent Recruit, we have a 1/1 guy that has a Metalcraft ability that gives him +2/+2. Metalcraft is attained by having at least three artifacts on the battlefield. Since the artifact lands (Great Furnace, Ancient Den, and the lone Vault of Whispers) count towards activating this ability, you're most often going to be getting a 3/3 creature for 1 mana! Vault Skirge is a Pauper stalwart. For 1 and a Phyrexian mana (black or 2 life) you have a 1/1 flyer with lifelink. With the one copy of Vault of Whispers in the deck, it's possible to cast it without paying the 2 life. But being an artifact itself, as well as having lifelink, it's worth paying the life just for the creature (especially if casting Skirge gives you Metalcraft!) Having four of these in the deck guarantees a pesky 1/1 flyer with lifelink that gets better with the equipment in the deck! Next we have four Court Homunculus. The Court Homunculus is similar to Ardent Recruit, in that it costs a single white mana, except that it gains +1/+1 as long as you control any other artifact. What's especially interesting about him, though, is that he himself is an artifact. If you simply control another Court Homunculus, it becomes a 2/2. If that wasn't enough, we have a full playset of another Pauper favorite, and one-time Tempered Steel stalwart, Porcelain Legionnaire! For two and a Phyrexian mana (White or two life), you get a 3/1 with first strike. Being able to play him on Turn Two is ridiculous, and he himself is also an artifact! Glint Hawk is a fun little card which used to abuse Mox Opal when it was legal in Standard. But the Hawk became relatively forgotten outside of some Pauper Affinity builds. But in this deck, Glint Hawk works well with the several 0 drop artifacts in this deck. Also, if you would miss a land drop anyway, you can bounce an artifact land back to your hand in order to replay it. The Hawk is a 2/2 flyer, so this down-side really isn't too bad. You have a full playset of these, as well. The last creature is a trio of Auriok Sunchaser. It's a 1/1 for 1W, but its Metalcraft ability gives it +2/+2 and flying! A 3/3 flyer for 2 mana is pretty silly. Non-Creature Lineup! As if the deck couldn't win with just its creature lineup alone, the non-creature spells are pretty interesting, too! The first one is a zero drop, Bone Saw, an equipment that has an equip cost of 1, and gives the equipped creature +0/+1. Seriously, though, you're rarely going to care about equipping this. Mostly, it exists to more easily activate Metalcraft, and to give you something to bounce for Glint Hawk. Next is a full playset of Bonesplitter. It's probably the best equipment in Pauper outside of perhaps Armadillo Cloak. It's a staple in White Weenie, which has been a very competitive strategy in Pauper over the years. Bonesplitter costs only 1 to play and only 1 to equip. It gives a creature +2/+0, and with the flyers in this deck, you can get in some cheap evasive damage very early on! Galvanic Blast is an okay burn spell until you see that it deals 4 damage to target creature or player if you have Metalcraft! Without Metalcraft, it's just a Shoc. But with how often you’ll have Metalcraft, the 4 Galvanic Blasts can almost win you the game on their own! Paired with the 2 Lightning Bolt in the main board, you have plenty of both removal and direct damage. Lastly, we have Prophetic Prism and Flayer Husk. Prophetic Prism is a two-drop artifact that draws you a card when it enters. It also allows you to filter your mana, which is very important in this deck! The Flayer Husk is a Living Weapon equipment that comes into play with a 0/0 creature token attached to it. The Husk gives its equipped creature +1/+1, so it's a nice cheap creature. When the creature dies, or you find a better target for the Husk, it gives that creature +1/+1 for an equip cost of 2. It's not quite Bonesplitter, but it works well. The mana base is 7 Plains and 1 Mountain, with 4 Great Furnace (the red artifact land), 4 Ancient Den (the white Artifact land), 3 Boros Guildgate (red/white), and a single Vault of Whispers (for help with casting the Vault Skirges). The Sideboard! As is the case with many Pauper decks, the majority of the cost of the deck comes from a single card in the sideboard. In this case it's Pyroblast. Basically, what Pyroblast does for a single red mana is counter any target blue spell or destroy any blue permanent. If you don't want to spend the $8 or so to acquire them, though, you could probably just switch them out for 2 more copies of Lightning Bolt. The rest of the sideboard is typically Pauper staples. 3 Stone Rain lets you keep decks off of their most important lands or colors. 2 Lone Missionary can be boarded in against more aggressive decks or burn decks. Gaining that 4 life can certainly be a big deal in certain matchups, especially where this deck will need to race often. For creature removal, we have 2 Journey to Nowhere, 2 Flame Slash (which deals 4 damage to target creature, but is at sorcery speed), and the aforementioned Pyroblasts. We also have Electrickery, which with its very cheap overload cost murders all 1 toughness creatures on your opponent's side of the board. Lastly we have Smash to Smithereens, which is played in many sideboards in other formats. It's excellent artifact removal that also deals 3 damage to that artifact's controller, all for 1R! Impressions of the Deck It's easy to see how this deck wins. It requires very little mana to get going and can survive land destruction and artifact destruction, since it plays plenty of copies of 1 and 2 drop cards. The most expensive card casting cost wise in the deck is technically Porcelain Legionnaire. That will be boarded out in certain match-ups anyway! The best part about this deck's creatures is that they are bigger than their mana costs would lead you to believe. There are plenty of flyers in this deck, and the Bonesplitters alone can lead to some very quick damage. The creature line-up can hold down both the air and ground quite well! Also, the deck has a nice burn package in it. The only thing I'm not crazy about in the deck is probably the lone Flayer Husk. I'd personally run a third Lightning Bolt, and I'm not sure the deck needs the Vault of Whispers or a fourth Legionnaire, either. If I removed these, I'd max out the Bolts. The main reason I feel this way is that 4 Blasts and 4 Bolts in some combination can kill a player outright. But the list, as is, should work fantastic, as it proved in that Daily Event. Side-boarding doesn't look too hard with this deck, either. Honestly, the sideboard probably will only be relevant in mirror matches or against Delver decks. The deck is quick enough that it can win in a hurry. I can see card advantage perhaps becoming an issue, but each card you play delivers a ton of value. Also, the power of each card you can swing with makes up for that. You don't have to overextend yourself with this deck in order to win, which I really like. This deck picks up where White Weenie really started failing. As long as you have that single red source and Metalcraft, this deck can beat you in the air, on the ground, and with pure burn spells. I still want to see 4 Bolts mainboard, and this is something I'll be playing around with myself. If you're looking to get into competitive Pauper, this is the deck to try, I'd say! Minus the Pyroblasts, you're looking at a maximum $6 investment. Not much to lose here, especially since the artifact lands are the majority of that expense, and they're always good to have in Pauper! Plus, you may have the majority of the cards already if you've been playing online for awhile, if not all! Congrats to twoduckcubed for authoring and piloting this 4-0 to victory! Here is the deck list! If you’re looking for a newer, albeit more expensive (30+ tickets / $70), version of this Boros Metalcraft deck, check out this tournament winner piloted by Klybby in October 2017. by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist  When compared to his predecessor in the original Zendikar, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is easier to cast with a potentially much more devastating ability. He only costs 4 mana to the Bloodchief of Ghet’s 7 mana casting cost, meaning he gets into play much sooner. Also, the Bloodchief has a tap ability, which while good, it doesn’t beat the Traitor’s ability. The Traitor of Ghet causes any opponent’s non-token creature that dies to be exiled and you get a 2/2 Zombie token out of it. Also, you can pay 2B and sacrifice a Vampire or Zombie, except himself, to put 2 +1/+1 counters on Kalitas. He even has lifelink!
In Standard, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet proved himself to be a major competitor, making him a $20-25 card in mid-April 2016. He’s pretty good in Modern, too! Because of this, his price tag put him a bit out of reach for some Commander players for some time. When he left Standard, however, his price dropped closer to $12, allowing for more people, especially EDH players, to fit him into their collections. There are so many good mono-Black Commanders already. But Kalitas not only can get you an army of Zombie tokens while shutting off any graveyard-based strategies. He can also make himself bigger, meaning he could potentially take out players on his own. So, why hasn’t Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet become more of a player in EDH where it seems like he would be very powerful? Part of the problem is that he prevents any decks that work at all out of the graveyard to function, while still being able to use your own graveyard. Basically, he can draw hate very quickly. As a member of the 99, he’s still quite useful, but again he draws a lot of hate. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is definitely one of the more powerful Legendary creatures from recent sets. The pieces are there for him to lead formidable decks, and perhaps a bit too formidable for your everyday Commander group to want to deal with on a regular basis. EDHREC has a good sampling of decks with Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet as the Commander. You can check out their Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet page to get an idea of what sorts of EDH decks people build around him. by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist  The Legendary Dragons of Kamigawa are some of the more memorable cards from Champions of Kamigawa. Two of them are considered to be very good, two more of them are pretty good in Commander, but one has never really caught on as a Commander himself. This is the Green Dragon, Jugan, the Rising Star. His effect is good enough that he’s seen play as part of the 99 in some decks. But can you build around him?
Since Jugan’s ability is all about +1/+1 counters, you sort of want to go all out on this theme. Unfortunately, a lot of the best counter-abusing cards are in White. So in Green, you’ll want to take advantage of all of the token producers and use cards that can benefit from having a bunch of counters placed on them. On top of lots of ways to ramp your mana and create lots of tokens, there are plenty of ways to make your token army deadly. Thanks to one TappedOut user with a decent Jugan Commander list, I was able to come up with this deck list below. Whereas the list I found focused primarily on tokens, I found other cards to blend the counter and token strategies in even better ways. Commander Jugan, the Rising Star 3ggg Creatures (16) 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder 1g 1 Champion of Lambholt 1gg 1 Eternal Witness 1gg 1 Fertilid 2g 1 Lifeblood Hydra xggg 1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer 2g 1 Wild Beastmaster 2g 1 Bloodspore Thrinax 2gg 1 Fangren Firstborn 1ggg 1 Forgotten Ancient 3g 1 Fungal Behemoth 3g 1 Ant Queen 3gg 1 Bane of Progress 4gg 1 Hydra Broodmaster 4gg 1 Rampaging Baloths 4gg 1 Avenger of Zendikar 5gg Spells (45) 1 Hardened Scales g 1 Helix Pinnacle g 1 Earthcraft 1g 1 Regrowth 1g 1 Revive 1g 1 Sword of the Animist 2 1 Arachnogenesis 2g 1 Ashnod's Altar 3 1 Awakening Zone 2g 1 Beastmaster Ascension 2g 1 Blasting Station 3 1 Cultivate 2g 1 Deep Reconnaissance 2g 1 Harrow 2g 1 Journey of Discovery 2g 1 Kodama's Reach 2g 1 Nissa's Pilgrimage 2g 1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar 1gg 1 Search for Tomorrow 2g 1 Squirrel Nest 1gg 1 Beacon of Creation 3g 1 Explosive Vegetation 3g 1 From Beyond 3g 1 Harmonize 2gg 1 Hunting Wilds 3g 1 Into the Wilds 3g 1 Parallel Lives 3g 1 Seer's Sundial 4 1 Skyshroud Claim 3g 1 Doubling Season 4g 1 Eldrazi Monument 5 1 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury 3gg 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter 2ggg 1 Nissa's Expedition 4g 1 Nissa, Worldwaker 3gg 1 Primal Vigor 4g 1 Restock 3gg 1 Caged Sun 6 1 Death's Presence 5g 1 Nissa's Renewal 5g 1 Akroma's Memorial 7 1 Boundless Realms 6g 1 Howl of the Night Pack 6g 1 Praetor's Counsel 5ggg 1 Decree of Savagery 7gg Lands (38) 36 Forest 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist  Many of the Legendary Creatures in Magic the Gathering’s Legendary-happy Kamigawa Block are absolutely terrible as Commanders. A few of them are actually pretty cool. One you rarely hear about is Infernal Kirin.
Similar to his Blue counterpart, Cloudhoof Kirin, he has an ability that activates whenever you cast an Arcane or Spirit spell. Unlike Cloudhoof, though, who mills cards from the top of a target player’s deck, Infernal Kirin causes players to discard cards equal to the converted mana cost of the card you cast. This makes it a lot more hit or miss. But, it can be potentially devastating, as well. There are plenty of good Spirit and Arcane spells, but not nearly as many in Black as there are in Blue. However, the good news is that there is plenty of support for discard in Black. So while all-out Spirit Tribal is necessary for Cloudhoof Kirin, the same is not true of Infernal Kirin. The Spirits and Arcane spells you do play in an Infernal Kirin deck are somewhat random. But because it’s the converted mana cost of the cards you care about, they don’t even really have to be all that good to begin with. It’s a fun deck to try, even if it’s not the most consistent at following the Commander’s gameplan. You can actually build an Infernal Kirin deck for as little as $50! If you're looking to build something fairly competitive around Infernal Kirin, you can build either a Spirit Tribal deck or a Discard themed deck. How would you play Infernal Kirin? by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist  Ghoultree is one of my favorite rares in Magic the Gathering's Dark Ascension set. I don’t think it’s hard to see why. Yes, it costs 8 mana to cast, but it’s a 10/10 Zombie Treefolk (awesome creature type combination, by the way) that costs 1 less to cast for each creature card in your graveyard.
It’s not impossible to see Ghoultree being cast for as little as 4 or 5 mana as the game progresses. The single Green mana cost means that you don’t have to be playing strictly mono-green to cast him. Many of the more powerful Green cards have multiple Green mana symbols for a reason. Having only one means that you can potentially cast him for just a single mana. That’s a lot of value. This card is full of flavor, and it’s actually a good card. Kudos to the design team on this one. It never became any sort of competitive staple, and certainly didn’t help top 8 any Star City Opens or Pro Tours. But, it definitely helped win a Friday Night Magic tournament or two. Zombie decks were extremely powerful during the original Innistrad era and this guy saw play when Return to Ravnica came around. Just as an out-of-nowhere big guy it was hard not to find a way to jam him into a fun brew. Obviously, Ghoultree is a good card in EDH, where the likelihood of him being cast for a single green mana is not only possible, but likely. Sapling of Colfenor smiles upon this guy as a strong Treefolk ally. Doran, the Siege Tower doesn’t mind having him around, either. Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and Sidisi, Brood Tyrant love having a ton of creature cards in the graveyard, so why not get a 10/10 for one mana? There are definitely applications. Being a Zombie doesn’t hurt his cause, either. Just having a 10/10 beater without trample isn’t the best thing in Commander. But, if Ghoultree is cast for next to no mana or cheated onto the battlefield some other way, he can become a Zombie Elephant in the room that someone needs to deal with. by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist  With the printing of Modern Masters 2017, plenty of Magic the Gathering cards often played in the Modern format saw huge drops in price due to their being reprinted in the set. This led to Modern decks being built at an astonishing rate, including Eldrazi Ramp. One of the cards featured in that highly competitive deck is Matter Reshaper, which wasn’t reprinted in Modern Masters 2017.
The Matter Reshaper only costs 3 mana to cost, but one of those must be a true "colorless" mana. In Eldrazi decks, this is really never going to be a problem. His “when it dies” effect is also very powerful. When the Reshaper dies, you look at the top card of your deck. If it’s a permanent card that costs 3 mana or less, he puts it into play, including if it’s a land. If the card isn’t a permanent that costs 3 mana or less, you put it into your hand. Either way, he can easily replace himself by putting another card into play or another one in your hand. Sure, if Matter Reshaper gets removed from play (exiled) by a removal effect like on Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares, you won't get the ability. But, more often than not, you'll make sure that he dies. In any case, if he hits the graveyard, you will get something out of him, either way, which is important for keeping tempo. The height of Matter Reshaper’s popularity was in February 2016, as Eldrazi decks were rampaging through the competitive Standard scene. In October, when cards from Oath of the Gatewatch were no longer eligible to be played, there was suddenly a huge supply available. As Modern isn’t nearly as popular as Standard when it comes to competition, his value has suffered over the years, making him one of the cheapest Magic the Gathering playable creatures out there. This rare creature from Oath of the Gatewatch is probably one of the more underrated Eldrazi. Years on, he still sees a good amount of play in a variety of Modern and Legacy Eldrazi decks. As part of a smaller set that was opened a lot, there are a lot of copies out there. If you’re planning on playing Eldrazi any time in the future, this is a card you want a play-set of on-hand (four copies). Eldrazi is his best deck, obviously, and while that’s the only niche he really fits into, that's a highly competitive deck archetype that's not going anywhere. by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist Worst Fears was playable in Standard. Is it good in other formats like EDH?  Worst Fears is a mythic rare card from Magic the Gathering’s Journey into Nyx set. A quick look at the card from veteran Magic players saw the popular effect of the Mirrodin artifact Mindslaver on a sorcery. That seems pretty good, until you realize you only get one shot at it, as it’s removed from play after you cast it.
Controlling your opponent's turn is always fun. Yes, Worst Fears does cost eight mana - seven colorless and one Black - which is a bit pricey. But, considering that casting Mindslaver costs 6 mana to cast and the activated ability costs 4 mana, this is a relative bargain. Unlike Mindslaver, though, you can't reuse this card, as it's exiled as soon as it's played. As an artifact, there are many ways to get Mindslaver back into play and use it again. That reusability is why the original Mindslaver is so good, after all. Being a one-shot effect, is this really worth playing? Still, Worst Fears can be a pretty scary card. Especially late in the game, being able to control an opponent's turn can be devastating. Also, having only a single black mana in its mana cost makes it playable in a wide-array of control shells. Even then, many players consider Worst Fears a waste of a mythic rare slot. Then again, I can understand them not wanting to print an effect like this at rare for Limited purposes - even if it was on Mindslaver back in the original Mirrodin days. In today’s Magic, being able to draft this at rare would have made it too much of a problem. That’s why when Mindslaver was reprinted in Scars of Mirrodin, it was bumped up to mythic rare. Just as it was in its original Standard heyday, it was yet again an important card in that Standard format, as well. Modern Tron made heavy use of Mindslaver to great effect for many years, so it was thought Worst Fears could be played a bit in Constructed. Of course, eight mana is a lot, regardless of the format it’s being played in. But, the 8-mana sorcery did sneak into a few Standard decks back in 2014. It did see play in a few Mono-Black Devotion decks, a major competitor during Theros block Standard. One 8th place Standard PPTQ UB Control deck ran a copy in the sideboard. Pro Ali Aintrazi even played a mainboard copy of Worst Fears in his January 2015 Sultai Delve deck at a Standard Open in Washington DC. A "Mono Green" deck even ran one copy in its sideboard, as this Green deck splashed Black mana for Pharika, God of Affliction and Doomwake Giant. Since early 2015, it hasn't seen much in the way of competitive play, in Modern, or otherwise. Worst Fears does see some play in Commander. The Commander who's made the best use of this sorcery is Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge. Jeleva has an ability to exile cards from the top of your deck, and you can cast any instants or sorceries from those exiled cards without paying their mana cost. This means you can play Worst Fears for free whenever you want. In other Commander decks, it's just not really worth an 8 drop slot. The later in the game Worst Fears is played the better, so it's a good effect. But, since you only get one shot at it, you had better play it at the perfect time. Really, it's best if you can find a way to cast it for free. Otherwise, it's not worth casting in most decks. While it had its uses back in its Standard legal days, nowadays you'd be better off with Mindslaver. by Phoenix Desertsong, Gaming Successfully Staff On October 8th, 2017, Wizards of the Coast revealed a new logo for Magic: the Gathering. As with anything new, there were mixed reactions. Here it is:  This new logo is meant to be in line with the logo for Magic the Gathering: Arena. My initial reaction to this news was definitely surprise. The other reactions I've seen have ranged from "hate it" to "I don't hate it." I'm not seeing many positive reactions so far, although there are a few.
I don't hate it. I think it's fine, especially since card backs aren't being touched. While many people don't love the Deckmasters card backs, it makes no sense to change them, as then the backs don't fit the older cards. We probably won't see the card backs ever change, even though most people in this day and age use card sleeves. (By the way, Deckmasters was used on the backs initially because Magic: the Gathering was meant to be part of a series of Deckmasters games. For example, Arabian Nights was meant to be a separate stand-alone game. This, of course, never happened, but to remain consistent, the card backs had to remain the same.) What are your thoughts on the new Magic: the Gathering logo? Do you think it reflects the brand today as Magic moves into a new era? by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist  Helm of the Gods is an equipment from the Magic Origins set that costs only 1 mana to cast with an equip cost of only 1 mana. The Helm gives its equipped creature +1/+1 for each enchantment you control. In decks that live and die with Enchantments, this artifact is definitely worth considering.
Does it work in competitive Constructed play? Green/Black Constellation decks during the Journey into Nyx Standard era could use it. Heroic decks could use it, too, especially those that used a lot of Auras - which are also Enchantments. But, the Helm never really fit into any of those lists. Also, the Standard decks in Standard which could have used the Helm best when it was released lost all of the Theros cards a few months later in October 2015. However, with the release of Dragons of Tarkir, SaffronOlive of MTGGoldfish came up with a Standard "Bogles" deck featuring Conifer Strider and Sagu Mauler. It used the full four copies of Helm of the Gods and was a fairly fun deck. But, it wasn't a big winner or anything. Bogles decks in Modern could use it. But, again, it doesn't fit in what is already a deck vulnerable to dead draws. Modern Prison decks could find a slot or two and stick it on one of the few creatures in the deck. But, that is hardly a top tier deck, and it's more like cute tech than a true upgrade. Helm of the Gods in Commander / EDH In 60-card Constructed decks, there isn't much room to give. In Commander, though, Helm of the Gods can fit into a variety of decks because you have 99 slots to consider. Also, Commander decks have plenty of ways to tutor for it. Trinket Mage can grab it, being a one mana artifact. Being an equipment, Quest for the Holy Relic, Steelshaper’s Gift, Stoneforge Mystic, and Stonehewer Giant can also seek it out. You could get it with the creature Relic Seeker from Magic Origins, too. The Helm is a card that gets better as you go through the game. You just play it as soon as you need it. It could be a game-ender, and even a +2/+2 boost is worth the investment. Unlike an Aura, an Equipment is usually going to stick on the board when the equipped creature is gone. Immediately what comes to mind are Commander decks with a heavy Enchantment theme. This includes Tuvasa the Sunlit, Daxos the Returned, and the hated Zur the Enchanter. It also includes Voltron Aura-loving commanders like Bruna, Light of Alabaster, Krond the Dawn-Clad, and Uril the Miststalker. With such a minimal commitment of mana, the Helm could deal those last few points of Commander damage you need for the win. It can go on any creature, though. Any Commander deck that loves enchantments can use the Helm. Helm of the Gods will never be a money card, but bigger and better enchantments are printed all of the time in Magic the Gathering. If an Enchantment-happy deck is going to be in play for you, the Helm at least needs to be in your deck-building toolbox. |
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