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Nissa, Vastwood Seer Price at All Time Low - Magic the Gathering (MTG) Trends

8/14/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

Nissa, Vastwood Seer (Amazon | TCGPlayer) saw a lot of Standard play during her heyday. As a double-sided creature, it’s very unlikely that we will see her reprinted any time soon. Since leaving Standard, the Vastwood Seer has seen only a little bit of play in Modern as a part of the occasional Kiki Chord deck. While little more than a Borderland Ranger on her front side, her back-side, Nissa, Sage Animist, is a fairly good planeswalker.

As of Mid-August 2017, Nissa, Vastwood Seer is selling for around a mere $6-7. Even her foil is only fetching about $18. While a multiplier of 3 is fine for a foil, one that is ubiquitous in Commander as Nissa, Vastwood Seer is likely to be much higher than that. Not to mention, this is a double sided mythic rare card. You would think her foil price would have a multiplier closer to 4, such as with Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy.

While not a big deal in multiplayer as a Commander (only about 250 decks on EDHREC), Nissa, Vastwood Seer does see play in over 4500 decks as a member of the other 99. While Borderland Ranger is a good card in that format, her planeswalker side is even more valuable in that format than in Standard. She’s also a very good Commander in 1v1, although that format doesn’t drive prices in the way that multiplayer does, at least not currently.

Nissa, Vastwood Seer does not transform into a planeswalker until you control at least seven lands in play. But Nissa, Sage Animist is worth the wait. Her first ability allows you to draw a card, and if it’s a land card, put it directly into play. That’s already pretty good. She can also create a 4/4 legendary token. But her ultimate is extremely good, which can untap 6 target lands, and turn them into 6/6 Elemental creatures permanently. While all of these abilities were good in Standard, there are far more opportunities for her to transform in EDH.

As a card that once peaked at $32, there’s plenty of room for Nissa, Vastwood Seer to grow. While it’s doubtful that she’ll hit $30 again without being in a surprise Top 8 appearance in Modern or some other Eternal format, her foil price could easily reach that again. That would mean her non-foil version would probably follow suit in price to about $10-12. It’s hard not to see yourself doubling your money on Nissa, Vastwood Seer in a few years.

While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Nissa, Vastwood Seer as a target for price speculation, it is fairly easy to predict that her price will rise considerably as time goes on. It is fairly easy to say that Nissa, Vastwood Seer is a solid buy, especially if you’re planning on playing a Green Commander deck that would typically play a copy of her.

DISCLAIMER: The writer currently owns no copies of this card for any purposes.

Wildfire Eternal in Standard and EDH - Magic the Gathering (MTG) Casual Hits

8/14/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

Every so often, we come across cards that seem to only see play at the fringes of competitive play, but seem to have far greater potential on paper. Sometimes, cards like these tend to have wide price disparities when it comes to two trading card sales platforms in particular, those being Amazon and TCGPlayer. One card from Hour of Devastation that has shown clear signs of being such a card is Wildfire Eternal (Amazon | TCGPlayer). It’s cards like these that we come to term “casual hits.”

In mid-August 2017, Wildfire Eternal was roughly a $0.39 card on TCGPlayer, but $1.19 on Amazon. This multiplier of 3 for a Magic card seen on Amazon’s Top 100 Single Trading Cards is not all that unusual. But for a card that’s seen little Standard play outside of an occasional Red/Green Energy deck, what’s so special about Wildfire Eternal?

First of all, Wildfire Eternal has a very interesting conglomeration of creature types: Zombie Jackal Cleric. There aren’t a lot of Red Zombies running around, so he has that going for him. Second of all, he has the Afflict mechanic. This allows him to pair well with a Legendary Creature from Hour of Devastation, Neheb, the Eternal. We’ve looked at the Legendary Minotaur before as another casual hit - although his price on Amazon and TCGPlayer have remained more in line with one another. Afflict 4 means that if he is blocked, that defending player loses 4 life. That’s pretty powerful. The fact that Wildfire Eternal only has 1 power isn’t really that big of a deal, since he has 4 power. He also has a very powerful second effect.

While it’s hardly a unique ability, being able to cast an instant or sorcery card for free from your hand is very powerful. This can happen whenever he attacks and isn’t blocked. There are plenty of good cards that you can threaten using this ability. It makes an opponent have to decide between losing 4 life and potentially having you cast a powerful card. All this for 4 mana is not a bad deal at all.

This is a far more powerful creature than the last one that had a similar ability, Oracle of Bones. That Minotaur had this ability when it entered the battlefield if its Tribute wasn’t paid. What’s a Tribute you ask? In this case, it meant that the Tribute ability didn’t activate if an opponent decided to let the Oracle gain two +1/+1 counters. The Oracle was a fragile 3/1 without the Tribute, so making it into a 5/3 was a fair trade-off most of the time. While the Oracle of Bones did see some play in Standard, it didn’t really make many waves as it was a vanilla 5/3 most of the time - although it did have haste.

While Wildfire Eternal doesn’t have haste, you can potentially get a lot of value from his attacks. But his lack of being able to immediately attack is probably why he doesn’t see much Standard play. This by no means makes him a bad card overall.

Is There a Deck in Standard for Wildfire Eternal?

There is a possible deck for Wildfire Eternal in Standard, however. It’s a variation on some of the Approach of the Second Sun combo decks that have seen some success in the past. Here’s one variation of it on Deckstats called Second Eternal Sun:

Lands (23)
3 Aether Hub
1 Blighted Cataract
9 Island
6 Mountain
4 Spirebluff Canal

Spells (33)
2 Abrade
4 Approach of the Second Sun
2 Censor
4 Disallow
2 Essence Scatter
3 Glimmer of Genius
2 Harnessed Lightning
3 Hieroglyphic Illumination
2 Negate
2 Reason // Believe
3 Saheeli Rai
4 Slip Through Space

Creatures (4)
4 Wildfire Eternal

Sideboard (15)
2 Commit // Memory
1 Essence Scatter
3 Fevered Visions
2 Hour of Devastation
2 Sphinx of the Final Word
2 Sweltering Suns
3 The Locust God

This is a pretty cool deck that Wildfire Eternal plays a big role in. Approach of the Second Sun is a pretty cool win condition if you can happen to cast two copies in the same turn. Wildfire Eternal allows you to potentially cast at least one copy for free. Slip Through Space, in particular, is a cute way to get him through without being blocked. Saheeli Rai is a great way to copy your Eternal and give that token haste so that you can get instant value from him. Reason / Believe is a great way to dig through your deck in its first half, and Believe can help you cheat a Wildfire Eternal into play.

Is this Wildfire Eternal & Approach of the Second Sun combo deck any good? It has the pieces to be good, certainly. We’ll see how it actually performs in the long run.

Wildfire Eternal in EDH

Of course, if Wildfire Eternal is not going to see much play in Standard or Modern, why not EDH? After all, casting an instant or sorcery for free in EDH is a big deal. Unsurprisingly, he’s been included in a few Neheb, the Eternal decks so far. But he hasn’t been an auto-include in any EDH deck yet. Still, there are some very powerful cards that he can allow you to cast for free.

In the early going, Wildfire Eternal saw play in some Nicol Bolas and Nekusar, the Mindrazer decks in order to cheat in some very useful spells.

In Nicol Bolas, casting Dark Intimations, a five-mana spell with three colors in its casting cost, for free, is very strong. Slave of Bolas is a fun card to cheat in, as well - stealing a creature, giving it haste, then sacrificing it. Dropping Cruel Ultimatum, a seven-mana spell with lots of color requirements, is even better. While nowhere as exciting in Nekusar, dropping a Past in Flames or Reforge the Soul for free is certainly useful.

While you won’t see him in a competitive Modern deck any time soon, and probably much in Standard, either, Wildfire Eternal is a useful card nonetheless. Its foil price is around $3, which is not a high number for a useful rare. It could rise over time if it finds more permanent homes, but clearly it already has some demand.

Whenever you have a free card attached to another card, it’s going to see play somewhere. If it’s a casual hit, you should be sure to hold onto it. Wildfire Eternal is definitely a keeper.

Brimaz, King of Oreskos - Strong in Cat Tribal EDH / Commander - Magic the Gathering (MTG)

8/13/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

As a cat lover, I absolutely adore this card. As a Magic player, I absolutely adore this card. Brimaz, King of Oreskos (Amazon | TCGPlayer) is a 3/4 Cat Soldier with Vigilance that costs only 1WW to cast (1, White, White). On top of that, he's a Legendary Creature, making him a perfect Commander for Cat/Soldier Tribal. With the release of the Commander 2017 deck, Feline Ferocity (Amazon | TCGPlayer), Brimaz, King of Oreskos got a new look from many EDH players looking to improve the Cat Tribal pre-constructed deck.

Whenever Brimaz attacks, you put a 1/1 white Cat Soldier creature token with Vigilance onto the battlefield attacking. Whenever he blocks, you also put a 1/1 white Cat Soldier token with Vigilance, blocking that creature. While these tokens likely are going to die, they become extra things for your opponent to be concerned about during combat. Brimaz is a very solid mythic rare creature.

The first deck that came to mind for Brimaz was a competitive White Weenie aggro deck in Standard. Indeed, he did see play in some highly competitive White Weenie decks, including this one deck piloted by Sam Black at the 2015 World Championship. He also popped up in a wide range of other aggressive strategies, such as Mardu Aggro, Selesyna Aggro, and even Abzan Midrange. He was a very solid card.

While Cat Aggro never become a thing in the Standard environment that Brimaz entered, the King of Oreskos still saw a fair amount of Standard play just on the basis of being an aggressive creatures that brought little buddies with him. He’s also popped up in the occasional Modern deck and even shows up in the occasional Legacy Death and Taxes deck.

But right away, it was very clear that his usefulness in Commander was going to make up most of his long-term value.

Brimaz, King of Oreskos in Cat Tribal EDH / Commander

With new Cats from Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation, and Commander 2017, Cat Tribal just became a serious deck to be reckoned with in EDH. But, many of the newer cats are Green or Green and White. There are a couple of new Green and White Legendary Creatures that would probably serve as better commanders for Cat Tribal. But Brimaz can still play a big role in a Cat Tribal deck. If you want to stay mono White, though, then it's perfectly fine to use him as your Commander.

As a Commander, there are so many ways to abuse these incoming tokens, it's not funny. First of all, there’s Cathar's Crusade. This is an enchantment that triggers each time a creature enters the battlefield on your side. It becomes ridiculous with these effects in play, giving all of your creatures a +1/+1 counter for each token that enters. There’s also a token doubler called Anointed Procession which can double the amount of tokens that Brimaz creates.

Also, if you're playing Coat of Arms, this Cat Soldier token will pump up all of your Cats and Soldiers by 1/1 just by entering. It’s also useful alongside Door of Destinies If you're playing Cat or Soldier tribal (or a combination of the two). While the tokens don't tick up the counters on the Door, their power and toughness are helped by it.

According to EDHREC, as of August 2017, there are only about 150 listed Brimaz EDH decks with the King of Oreskos as the Commander. However, as a member of the other 99, Brimaz sees play in over 2500 other Commander decks. The Commanders that have used him most include Iroas, God of Victory, Kemba, Kha Regent, and Aurelia, the Warleader. With Arahbo, Roar of the World, Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist, and Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith looking like solid Cat Tribal Commanders, Brimaz should be seeing far more play soon.

Brimaz, King of Oreskos Price History and Future Value

Once a 30 dollar card, the price of Brimaz, King of Oreskos fluctuated a fair bit during his time in Standard. He preordered for as much as $35, and fell to around $20 shortly around the release of Magic 2015. But as the Born of the Gods set stopped being opened, Brimaz saw his price rebound to about $30 around the release of Khans of Tarkir. After his rotation from Standard, his price dipped below $10. His lowest point was around $7 in March of 2017, but with a price that low, people finally started buying him again.

With the spoiling of Feline Ferocity, his price jumped about 10 percent from under 9 to just over 10 bucks. As the most valuable card from Born of the Gods, barring a reprint, Brimaz’s price should go up as more Commander interest buys him up. While it’s unlikely that Brimaz will hit $30 again based on just Commander demand alone, because he’s been seen in other formats, a surprise showing could cause his price to spike that highly again.

In an case, Brimaz, King of Oreskos is definitely worth buying. He’s good in a wide range of Commander decks, not just Cat Tribal, although he’s exceptional in those decks. With playability on the fringe of Modern and even Legacy, Brimaz is one surprise showing away from being $30 again. But, it’s more likely that he’ll just be a steady gainer back to $15-20 over the next few years, outside of a buyout event.

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Buy your copies of Brimaz, King of Oreskos on Amazon or TCGPlayer!

Bloodforged Battle-Axe - Magic the Gathering (MTG) Commander 2017 Card Review

8/9/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

The Commander 2017 pre-constructed decks for Magic the Gathering have introduced more than a few very strong cards for the Commander format. One of these is a one-mana Equipment called Bloodforged Battle-Axe. It's like an improved version of Bonesplitter, except that this axe can actually copy itself!

At only 1 mana to cast and 2 mana to equip, Bloodforged Battle-Axe gives the equipped creature +2/+0. Also, whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, you create a token that's a copy of Bloodforged Battle-Axe! That's a pretty awesome way to stack up Equipment in a hurry!

This Axe offers a very minor initial investment that can copy itself many, many times over. Also, the tokens then can copy themselves. So if a creature has multiple Bloodforged Battle-Axes equipped, it can create a whole token of Axe tokens in a hurry.

Another great thing about the way Bloodforged Battle-Axe is worded, a creature with double strike that successfully deals damage to a player can cause this Equipment to be copied twice! On the second trigger, you can end up with three total Axe tokens, because the first token will copy itself, as well! If you have something like Parallel Lives or Doubling Season in play, it becomes all the more ridiculous.

Plus, there's another Equipment in Commander 2017 called Hammer of Nazahn. This legendary artifact allows you to immediately attach an Equipment that comes into play to a creature. That means all of those tokens can be equipped right away for free! It also doesn't hurt to play something like Puresteel Paladin to make equip costs cost zero mana instead, allowing you to use these tokens quickly.

Imagine a deck that plays Hellkite Tyrant having a card like this. With the Tyrant's instant win condition of having 20 artifacts in play, you may be able to automatically win a lot of games just having a bunch of copies of this Axe in play!

There are many advantages to having a card like this, especially in decks that care about how many artifacts you have in play. There will be plenty of Commander decks that will find a slot for this one-mana artifact, even some that may not be 100 percent Equipment based. Any deck that benefits by having a lot of artifacts in play can find a home for this unique Equipment.

How would you use Bloodforged Battle-Axe?

Saheeli Rai & Felidar Guardian Infinite Combo (Copy Cat Combo) - Magic the Gathering (MTG) Design Blunders

8/9/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

On April 27, 2017, Felidar Guardian was Emergency Banned in Standard effective 4/28/17 as the Saheeli Rai & Felidar Guardian Infinite combo - also known as the Copy Cat combo - was overrunning Standard. I saw this coming, as did many other people. Of course, you can still try Copy Cat Combo in Modern, if you'd like. But for reasons I'll outline below, the combo isn't nearly as potent as it proved to be in Standard

On the initial spoiling of the combo, my reasoning was that it would become a bit too powerful for Standard. Initially, I received some backlash for this opinion, whereas I expect more support. Of course, there would be an eventual realization that Felidar Guardian was ruining the format. As it turned out, those who thought it would be a disaster were completely correct. It was nice to be vindicated. But at the same time, it was a bit depressing that Wizards so clearly overlooked a design blunder.

The Origins of the Saheeli Rai & Felidar Guardian Combo

Saheeli Rai was way too cheap at $5 for the longest time. The planeswalker was already part of a couple of infinite combos in Modern with Liquimetal Coating and Altar of the Brood or Disciple of the Vault. But a competitive list never came out of it. Still, sooner or later, players knew that a card would be released that would make the 3-mana planeswalker part of something broken, right?

This happened!

REALLY, WIZARDS!? You just brought back Splinter Twin combo... in STANDARD!

Or is it?

Splinter Twin & Deceiver Exarch proved to be such a ridiculously powerful combination in Standard that me and a good many other players left competitive Magic for awhile because of it. Two card combos are absurd when they are as easy to perform on turn four on a consistent basis.

The combo was quite simple. You'd play Deceiver Exarch at the end of an opponent's turn since it had flash. Then the next turn, while an opponent is tapped out, you drop the 4-mana Enchantment Splinter Twin. This enchantment allows you to tap a creature to make a copy. However, because you're copying Deceiver Exarch, which has the ability to tap or untap a permanent, each of the copies can untap the original Exarch. This means you can tap and untap the Exarch an infinite number of times to make as many copies as you'd like. You just make enough copies to deal lethal damage to your opponent, and you can attack with them immediately since those copies have haste.

Sure, there are ways to disrupt the combo, but it proved consistent enough to spawn its own archetype. The only reason it stopped in Standard was that Rise of the Eldrazi, and thus Splinter Twin, left Standard at rotation in October.

Many players, myself included, refused to play Modern competitively as long as the combo was the heart of a powerful deck archetype there, too. Modern also had Pestermite, which is a similar card to Deceiver Exarch, giving you two creatures that could create the combo. Wizards finally banned Splinter Twin after deciding it was finally time for that combo not to be a deck anymore While Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker still does the same thing as Twin, it's harder to cast. Kiki-Jiki can still work as a win condition, but it's not the main condition of any deck anymore.

So is the Saheeli Rai & Felidar Guardian combo just as good, or even worse?

Ordinarily, Felidar Guardian is just a good card on its own. But alongside Saheeli Rai, you can create infinite madness. You use Saheeli's -2 ability to make a token of the Felidar Guardian. That token uses its ability to "blink" Saheeli Rai. This means she comes back with full loyalty counters on her. Then you get to use the -2 ability again to continue the process. You rinse and repeat until you have enough Guardians to swing in for lethal damage. Yes, those tokens have haste.

What makes this combo better in some ways is that even if it’s disrupted, either Saheeli Rai or Felidar Guardian can find other targets to make good on their abilities. The Guardian can blink any permanent you control. This means even lands! You can blink a tapped land and tap it again for extra mana! Yes, using the Exarch's flash ability to enter on an opponent's end step can be better. A lot of times you'd tap down an opponent's land to make responding to your combo with counter magic more difficult.

In Modern, you can play Exarch in this deck, too! In fact, you can build a really, really good Jeskai Control deck with these two cards! Saheeli Rai can even Scry 1 for you and deal 1 damage to each opponent! Then you get to play all the counter magic and burn spells your typical Jeskai deck would already play! Saheeli can also copy other creatures and artifacts you control. So you can still get value from either half of the combo even if the other half becomes somehow unavailable.

Fortunately, as good as the interaction between these cards are, it's not going to be as dominant as the combination of Splinter Twin & Deceiver Exarch became. There are instant speed ways to deal with the Guardian, like Fatal Push with Revolt active. There is Declaration in Stone in Standard, and potentially Fatal Push, as well. But the Declaration is still Sorcery speed, so it could still be too late of an answer. It’s also possible to burn away Saheeli before the Guardian can copy her, which is fairly easy to do since she brings herself down to a single loyalty. So it’s a bit easier to disrupt than Deceiver Exarch and its 4 toughness was during its Standard days.

In Modern, you can stop the combo from resolving with Abrupt Decay targeting Saheeli Rai, particularly if you use it in response to the planeswalker’s ability. Even though the -2 ability would take priority, by the time the copy of the Guardian resolves, there will be no Saheeli Rai to blink. Saheeli Rai can be dealt with quite quickly with Lightning Bolt, as well. Path to Exile and Dismember will do the trick, too, just as they always did for dealing with Deceiver Exarch. So this combo is also a bit easier to stop in Modern than Twin was.

Still, this combo was still a strong one to build around in Standard. Many players are shocked that no one at Wizards R&D caught this very obvious combination. Some people called for an emergency ban of Felidar Guardian. One Twitter user also demanded an apology from Wizards for their oversight. It seemed that Wizards committed an extremely obvious design blunder. Aether Revolt was already considered an overpowered set as it is, so creating a new infinite condition seems just absurd.

Is the Saheeli Rai & Felidar Guardian Really Broken?

As good as this combo is on paper, many people thought it was more of a "fixed" Splinter Twin combo if anything. The argument was that there wasn't a lot of card selection spells in Standard right then. This meant that consistent Turn 4 wins are a lot less likely than they were years back. However, while the Saheeli Rai/Felidar Guardian deck wasn't quite as consistent as Splinter Twin combo decks were, it proved to be an effective win condition.

Did one or both cards actually need to be banned? There was the sentiment that it would likely take the printing of other cards to bring this deck to a dangerously over-powered level. However, with Wizards now making banned and restricted list announcements more often, players decided that if it did become too busted, it would be dealt with.

In the early going of Aether Revolt being legal in Standard, Saheeli Rai & Felidar Guardian combo decks performed quite well. Jeskai Saheeli was the most successful build at the outset. A Jeskai Saheeli deck placed 7th at SCG Columbus. There are also four-color Saheeli decks that are performing well, and are also often known at Copy Cat Combo. Even in Modern, Copy Cat Combo has also seen some success, at least on Magic Online.

In paper Magic, the deck quickly won at least one major Standard event. Dylan Donegan of MTG Card Market took down SCG Richmond with his Jeskai Saheeli deck! So while the archetype hadn't broken the format just yet, it quickly became clear that the combo was definitely a good one to build around. As a deck that can win, players battled to find the best version of this deck!

By late April 2017, so many Saheeli Rai & Felidar Guardian combo decks (affectionately known as Copy Cat Combo) had won an unbelievable number of events. It finally became clear to Wizards that the Copy Cat combo had actually become almost just as bad as Splinter Twin had been. It was announced that Felidar Guardian would be emergency banned in Standard as of 4/28/2017, as to not ruin a brand new Standard format featuring the widely praised Amonkhet set.

Was the Copy Cat combo a design blunder on the part of Wizards? Clearly, this particular interaction was overlooked. It was definitely a strong enough combo to be at the core of a Standard deck from the get-go - and perhaps a solid Modern build will still be found in the long run. Fortunately, Wizards recognized that Copy Cat combo was becoming oppressive in the format, before it became the Splinter Twin combo in Standard all over again.

Of course, another deck would take Copy Cat Combo's place in needing the banhammer. But that was for a much different reason, and that's a whole different story altogether.

How to Improve the Liliana, Death Wielder Planeswalker Deck - Magic the Gathering Amonkhet

7/29/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

The Liliana, Death Wielder planeswalker deck has proven to be a popular product. Many players are asking how to improve upon what is already the start of a decent deck. It's built around the -1/-1 counter theme, which is strong not only in Amonkhet but even stronger with Hour of Devastation. Before you go any further, you may want to refer to our out-of-the-box review of the Amonkhet Liliana planeswalker deck to see if this is a deck you want to build upon.

When making suggestions on how to improve these introductory decks, it makes the most sense to use the current set as the starting point. The reason not to use previous sets is two fold. First of all, you want this deck to be playable for as long as possible.but secondly, if another set is going to be released with similar mechanics directly afterward, you're buying into an archetype that has room to improve. While this won't always be the case, specially with wizards of the coast moving away from a consistent block structure, Hour of Devastation has proven to be a strong resource for improving this particular deck. Let's just say that this deck improvement article was worth the wait.

Possible additions from Hour of Devastation

Ammit Eternal

Probably the best addition to this deck is Ammit Eternal. Besides his awesome creature typing, Ammit Eternal fits right into what this deck is trying to do. We don't mind having to spread around some -1/-1 counters to be a bit ahead of the curve. A 5/5 for 2b is amazing, even if he gets weaker with each spell your opponents cast. However, we will have ways of actually taking advantage of this apparent drawback in this deck as you will soon see.

But there is far more upside to this guy. He can lose those counters if he deals combat damage to a player, so he does have a reset button. And even if he doesn't, as soon as he is blocked his afflict 3 ability causes your opponent to lose 3 life immediately. This afflict ability can certainly make combat interesting, so Ammit Eternal could be an all star in this deck.

Banewhip Punisher

While he may be an outside contender for a slot in this deck, Banewhip Punisher is worth looking at for purposes of considering the options. You may put a -1/-1 counter on a target creature when she comes into play . This doesn't seem all that great for 3 mana, but we’ll have ways to make that more relevant. Plus, the Punisher has an ability to sacrifice herself for 2B to destroy a creature with a -1/-1 counter on it. This can be very useful against a problematic creature. Compared to a couple of our other options that we’ll get to, though, it probably won’t make the cut.

Obelisk Spider

Another 3-drop to consider is Obelisk Spider. A 1 / 4 with reach isn’t bad, but it has a couple of strong abilities. The first allows you to put a -1/-1 counter on any creature it deals combat damage to, and whenever you put a -1/-1 counter on a target creature, you gain 1 life and each opponent loses 1 life. The problem with Obelisk Spider is that he’s a bit too defensive for what we’re trying to do.

Driven // Despair

Driven to Despair might be a good Aftermath card to consider for our purposes. Both halves of the card only cost 2 mana. For 1G, Driven gives all of your creatures trample until end of turn, and also allows your creature to draw a card each time they deal combat damage to a player that turn. This is a nice way to gain some extra card advantage. The Aftermath side, which costs 1B to cast from the graveyard, gives all of your creatures menace - meaning each creature must be blocked or two or more creatures. If this wasn’t enough, each time one of your creatures deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card.

As this is like two cards in one, we could sneak a copy into our deck for a strong effect. We’ll see if it makes the grade.

The Scorpion God?

I really want to dip into red to play the scorpion god, but he sort of throws off the deck's mana base. But being able to draw a card each time a creature with a -1/-1 counter dies on it is so powerful. Can we make it work? We will have to see. This is a very powerful creature. But is it worth being our only Red card in the deck? Probably not.

Cards to Consider from Amonkhet

Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons

Being the master of -1/-1 counter shenanigans in EDH, it’s no surprise that we will want to consider Hapatra.Whenever she deals combat damage to a player, you may put a -1/-1 counter on a target creature. Then, whenever you put a -1/-1 counter on a creature, you create a 1/1 Snake creature token with deathtouch. That’s some good value right there! Being a Legendary Creature, however, we will only want to have a couple of copies in our deck. Drawing an additional copy is often going to just feel really bad.

Hapatra's Mark

This one-mana instant may be key to our deck. It gives a target creature hexproof, meaning opponent's spells can't target that creature. But, it also removes all -1/-1 counters from that creature. In a few cases, this is very good for us. We may sneak a copy or two in.

Nest of Scarabs

Here’s an Enchantment that’s perfect for this deck that was surprisingly not included in the original Planeswalker deck. It does something very similar to Hapatra in that it makes a token whenever you put a -1/-1 counter on a creature. These tokens are only 1/1 Black Insect tokens, however.

But there’s an upside to Nest of Scarabs. You get to create a token for each -1/-1 counter you place. So if there’s one counter, you get one, but if you need to place two, you get two tokens. These little guys can add up fast! Plus, if you get more than one Nest of Scarabs onto the battlefield, their abilities stack and you get an additional token.

Plague Belcher

It’s easy to see that Plague Belcher has a drawback that has made him relatively underappreciated early on in his Standard life. When he comes into play, you have to put two -1/-1 counters on a creature you control. It could easily be him, or another creature of yours that’s expendable. The Plague Belcher, though, becomes a lot better when you have Hapatra or Nest of Scarabs or both on the field. You can always sacrifice a token and get another one in return, or two if you have Nest of Scarabs, or even three if you have both a Nest and Hapatra on board at the same time.

A 5/5 for 3 mana is simply very powerful, as is the case with Ammit Eternal. But this isn’t all Plague Belcher does. Whenever another Zombie you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life. This incidental life loss can win you a game here and there, especially since there is going to be a fair amount of Zombies in this deck.

What Do We Keep and What Do We Cut in the Planeswalker Deck?

Now that we’ve identified several cards that we want to play, we have to decide what will stay and what will go.

Here is the original deck list:

Planeswalker (1)

1 Liliana, Death Wielder

Creature (20)

1 Festering Mummy
2 Dune Beetle
4 Tattered Mummy
1 Channeler Initiate
2 Baleful Ammit
3 Desiccated Naga
2 Gravedigger
1 Crocodile of the Crossing
2 Giant Spider
2 Decimator Beetle

Sorcery (2)

2 Liliana's Influence

Instant (2)

2 Splendid Agony

Artifact (3)

1 Edifice of Authority
1 Luxa River Shrine
1 Oracle's Vault

Enchantment (7)

2 Trial of Ambition
2 Cartouche of Ambition
2 Cartouche of Strength
1 Gift of Paradise

Land (25)

4 Foul Orchard
1 Grasping Dunes
11 Swamp
9 Forest

We would like to keep the exclusive cards to the deck of possible, so we will start with them first.

Tattered Mummy is a planeswalker deck exclusive, and while it’s not the best two drop in the world, there are several things going for it. First, it’s a 1 / 2 Zombie, which fits into our Zombie sub theme. It's also a good target for -1/-1 counter fodder. Plus, when it dies, each opponent loses 2 life. We will keep the full four copies for now.

On the other hand, Desiccated Naga and her three copies will have to go. Her 4 Mana ability isn't bad, but it can only be activated with a Liliana Planeswalker on the battlefield. While gaining 2 life while also making an opponent lose 2 life seems good, it's not worth running over something like Ammit Eternal. We will be swapping these three copies out for that card.

Liliana, Death Wielder and her support cards, Liliana's Influence can remain for now. They still work into our game plan.

Festering Mummy is a good little creature. Unfortunately as a Singleton, he is taking up a space we will need for something else. So he needs to go.

Baleful Ammit is a decent creature, especially when you can dump the -1/-1 counter on something expendable. But these two copies will go to make room for the superior Plague Belcher. We will have a third copy in place of the Festering Mummy.

Channeler Initiate isn't a deck exclusive, but is a creature we want to keep around nonetheless. We will end up cutting the two defensive Giant Spiders to have two more copies.

Dune Beetle is a 1 / 4 creature for two Mana. This is the deck slot which we need for Hapatra, so out go the vanilla beetles and in go two of our better cards.

The two copies of Gravedigger don’t really fit our deck’s theme. We can get away with running 18 creatures, especially with our added token production. These can go and we can add in two copies of Driven // Despair. The trample and card draw will be helpful. The Aftermath side is just gravy.

Gift of Paradise is a cute card that can help us ramp mana. But with a couple more Channeler Initiates in the deck, this is extraneous. We can put a copy of Hapatra's Mark in its place.

The last card we need to include somehow is Nest of Scarabs. This Enchantment complements our deck’s entire strategy. Fortunately, there are some easy cuts to make here. The “brick counters” cards, while interesting, don’t really need to be in here now that we’re adding a more aggressive bent to the deck.

So out go the three artifacts in the deck, and in go three copies of Nest of Scarabs.

Now, here’s what our revised deck list looks like, with improvements to the Mana base:

Planeswalker (1)

1 Liliana, Death Wielder

Creature (18)

2 Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons
4 Tattered Mummy
3 Channeler Initiate
3 Plague Belcher
3 Ammit Eternal
1 Crocodile of the Crossing
2 Decimator Beetle

Sorcery (2)

2 Driven // Despair
2 Liliana's Influence

Instant (3)

2 Splendid Agony
1 Hapatra's Mark

Enchantment (9)

3 Nest of Scarabs
2 Trial of Ambition
2 Cartouche of Ambition
2 Cartouche of Strength

Land (25)

4 Blooming Marsh
4 Foul Orchard
1 Grasping Dunes
9 Swamp
7 Forest

We now have greatly improved the core of this Planeswalker deck. Where you take it from here is up to you. We could easily add cards such as Fatal Push to the deck, since Kaladesh and Aether Revolt will remain in standard together. But for purposes of this exercise, it makes sense to just consider Amonkhet on. However, we’ll make an exception in the case of Blooming Marsh. This is the only green and black dual land besides Foul Orchard that will remain in Standard for a bit, and we already had four of those.

We want to make this deck as rotation proof as possible. That's why we won't make suggestions that include cards from earlier sets. If you're planning on playing this deck casually, there are plenty of ways you could go in exploiting -1/-1 counters.

What would you add to this deck to make it better fit your playstyle? Which direction would you take it?

Magic the Gathering (MTG) Trends - Neheb, the Eternal from Hour of Devastation

7/23/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

For all the talk about Magic the Gathering finance ruining the game, it is important for those who are well invested in the game to watch price trends of key cards in sets both old and new. While the early returns on Hour of Devastation is that it isn’t one of the most “valuable” sets in recent years, there are, of course, some good, playable cards in the set that are definitely trending when it comes to sales. One of these is the Red mythic rare Minotaur, Neheb, the Eternal.

Neheb, the Eternal is an important card from Hour to Devastation to watch. The raw power of this creature is still being explored in Commander as both a Commander and as one of the “other 99” cards in a variety of Commander decks. While demand from the Commander crowd is definitely real, what has caused Neheb to fall to $2.50 and steadily climb back up to $4 in such a short amount of time.

Not every Magic the Gathering set has them, but Hour of Devastation has a number of cards which I would term “casual all-stars.” Neheb, the Eternal is definitely one of these, and as a mythic rare in a small set, he could be very valuable in both the near future and the long-term.

How does Neheb, the Eternal Work?

A five-mana Mono Red Minotaur with 4 power and 6 toughness is a good start. Having “afflict 4” puts him into contention for Standard playability. Essentially, Afflict means that whenever an opponent blocks a creature which Afflict, the defending player loses a certain amount of life. In this case, that’s 4 life, or 20 percent of a player’s starting life total. That’s a lot.

But for 5 mana, this isn’t quite enough to find a home in competitive play. It’s what his final ability reads. At the beginning of your post-combat main phase, you get 1 Red mana for each one life your opponents have lost this turn. This means that if you play Neheb, the Eternal before combat and deal damage after his summoning, you can gain Red mana in the same turn.

Typically, unless you have a creature with haste, or need it to satisfy some other condition, you play creatures after combat. But because Neheb, the Eternal can offer you a benefit in the same turn that he’s cast, he can help pay for himself.

How to Use Neheb the Eternal in Standard, Modern, and other 60-card Competitive Formats

Typically, for cards with a converted mana cost of 5 or more to see consistent Standard play, they must have an immediate effect on the game as soon as they enter play. The same is true for Modern, as well, but the bar is set much higher for the potency of the card’s effect. While Neheb, the Eternal can start paying for himself in the same turn, he would have to be able to attack immediately (i.e. have Haste) to plug into that higher echelon of the mana curve.

While he’s probably too slow a card for Modern, in the right deck, he can fit into certain strategies in Standard. You would need to build a midrange sort of deck that has a strong life-loss engine. If you play a lot of creatures with Afflict, for example, Neheb would fit at the top of that curve. The deck would also have to lean towards predominantly Red mana, which is probably not a problem. There is the ability to build a Standard deck that could play a copy or two of Neheb, the Eternal to be an endgame finisher. But his true strength would be in a Mono-Red deck, where his mana production will be most effective.

Neheb, the Eternal in Commander (EDH) and Casual Play

As soon as you enter the multiplayer world of Commander, Neheb, the Eternal’s power level expands incredibly. Red mana acceleration stapled on a 4/6 creature with Afflict 4 becomes pretty relevant. There are so many ways to “ping” players in Commander that Neheb can generate a large amount of mana in a hurry. Turning that mana into direct damage can end games quite quickly. Think of the mana that he could generate as part of a Heartless Hidetsugu strategy, in which player’s life totals are halved on a regular basis!

Even in one-on-one Commander, you can set up Neheb, the Eternal in such a way to be a powerful mana generator, as well as a strong attacker. He’s a better multiplayer Commander than a 1-vs-1 Commander, but he’s still a solid creature. There are so many decent 5-mana Red creatures in Commander, however, that Neheb, the Eternal needs to be part of a greater life loss/direct damage strategy (such as Purphoros, God of the Forge) to be effective.

In casual “kitchen table” Magic, Neheb, the Eternal is definitely worth of attention. He’s a force in multiplayer casual games. But even in traditional one-on-one Magic, he’s just a really fun card to play with and build around.

The Organic Rise and Fall of Neheb, the Eternal’s Price

What there’s most to like about Neheb, the Eternal is that his price seems to be gaining stability rather quickly. After pre-ordering for $5, an initial surge of supply cut his price in half. Then, even after no competitive Standard play thus far, his price rebounded to $4.50 before a second wave of supply brought it back down to $4. What does this tell us? People really want this guy.

As I doubt that competitive players are eating up this guy, it seems that your everyday Magic player is looking to add these to their deck-building toolbox. There’s always talk of Magic card price speculation driving up prices. That doesn’t seem to be the case at all here.

What is the price ceiling on a card like Neheb, the Eternal? We’ve seen that $2.50 is probably a reasonable floor, and if he sees any Standard play at all, his price could reach the realm of around $10. You probably missed your chance at getting Neheb at his floor, especially as Minotaur Tribal fans are picking him up quickly. As for Neheb, the Eternal foils, they are already pushing $15, which for a mythic rare that is definitely playable in Commander, is already a fair price.

As reviews are mixed on this set for now, the supply is probably not going to be nearly as high as Amonkhet’s. This means a card like Neheb, the Eternal looks like a good investment. While I would hardly speculate on him, this is a good creature that definitely has a future in the casual Magic world, and may even have his day in the sun in Standard.

Magic the Gathering (MTG) - Bitter Feud - Commander 2014 Card Review

7/16/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

Magic: the Gathering has many cards that do similar things, and Bitter Feud is one such card that acts as a sort of redundancy for existing cards. To be fair, Bitter Feud is one exclusive card from the Commander 2014: Built from Scratch deck that I am surprised hasn't gotten more love. Its effect is essentially the same as Furnace of Rath and Dictate of the Twin Gods, doubling damage done to players and permanents.

The difference with Bitter Feud is that it designates two players, so that in a multiplayer environment, it would only affect two players. The cool thing about this, obviously, is that in a multiplayer setting, you need not be affected by the effects of the doubled damage.

You could make the argument, of course, that Furnace of Rath and Dictate of the Twin Gods are enough for this sort of effect. In Commander, however, having redundancy is important when you only have one copy of each card that isn't a basic land. In a one-on-one setting, it's understandable that Bitter Feud would indeed be a bit too redundant, as if you have all three of these on the board, you're increasing damage by eight whole times, which is a bit much perhaps.

As far as decks that actually have played Bitter Feud with any regularity, unsurprisingly Heartless Hidetsugu tops the list. Since his ability deals damage equal to half of each player's life total (rounded down), his deck absolutely loves any damage-doubling effect. Some Queen Marchesa decks have begun to include this card, too, despite Marchesa being a Commander you'd expect to be packing this sort of ability.

Bitter Feud is definitely a fun card in that it essentially puts two players into a life-and-death struggle. In 1v1 Commander, this is a particularly interesting card to consider, as long as the deck playing it can deal damage very quickly. It's a well-designed card for multiplayer Commander politics, and can be a deadly weapon in 1v1 Commander when deployed correctly.

While aggressive burn lists aren't extremely popular in the Commander format, they do exist. If ending games quickly by doubling damage is something you want to do, then Bitter Feud is definitely worth a look to play alongside other damage-doublers such as Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods, and the like.

Is Mana Confluence Better Than City of Brass? - Magic the Gathering (MTG)

7/11/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

If you've been playing Magic the Gathering for a long time, you might look at Mana Confluence and think: "Wait, isn't this City of Brass?" You would be mostly correct. However, this "pain" land is actually slightly better than the classic City of Brass.

Mana Confluence VS City of Brass

With City of Brass, anytime it became tapped, you took one damage. However, with Mana Confluence, you only take damage when you actually tap it for mana. While this is a very minor difference, it does technically make it very slightly better. It also means that there are now functionally two Cities of Brass in existence, meaning you can essentially run 8 copies of essentially the same card in one Constructed deck.

While paying 1 life to color-fix can sound like a lot, keep in mind that City of Brass has been used for a very long time in multiple formats. It's still used in some fringe Modern decks. Also, anything that would tap down lands would force you to take 1 damage. Mana Confluence only pains you when for tapping mana. Basically, Mana Confluence is a five-color pain land. However, it doesn't have the ability to tap for colorless mana without a life cost, such as the traditional "pain lands" from Ice Age/Apocalypse/Tenth Edition.

There's another case in which Mana Confluence is strictly better than City of Brass. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, which makes all lands in play Swamps in addition to their other types, was in Standard at the same time as Mana Confluence. This is great, because Urborg gives Mana Confluence the additional ability to tap for Black mana. Because it's an additional ability, you can tap it for Black mana without paying 1 life. While this is now a corner case ruling, it's important to remember just in case.

Mana Confluence in Modern and Other Eternal Formats

After enjoying quite a bit of play in Standard, Mana Confluence really only sees play in Dredge decks in Modern. It also sees play in dome Green/White Humans decks, and the occasional Allies deck. Interestingly enough, some Ad Nauseum combo lists play City of Brass over Mana Confluence, and it's not really clear as to why. Mana Confluence also sees play in Legacy Dredge, and the occasional Vintage deck in Magic Online.

Mana Confluence is definitely worthy of Commander play, and according to EDHERC, sees slightly more play than City of Brass. Unsurprisingly, both usually see play in the same decks. With Commander 2016's four-color commanders, Mana Confluence saw a slight rise in play. Atraxa, Praetor's Voice, Breya, Etherium Shaper, and Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder are the three Commanders who utilize Confluence the most.

Mana Confluence Price and Speculation

As a solid mana-fixer and a functionally superior version of an existing land, it's not surprising that Mana Confluence is a card with a fair amount of demand. Most of that demand comes from Commander, which is also not surprising, as it can fit in pretty much any three-color, four-color, or five-color EDH deck.

The price of Mana Confluence has remained fairly steady around $5-7 since it rotated from Standard in October of 2015. The funny thing is that it was reprinted as a Zendikar Expedition in Oath of the Gatewatch, just a few months after losing its Standard eligibility. The Expedition started out at $87.99 before falling to around $48. Both are solid pickups going forward, especially the Expedition version. Mana Confluence could be reprinted at some point. But even if it is, there's plenty of demand for it, since it fits into such a wide variety of decks.

It's actually a bit surprising that we don't see this card more in Modern than we do. But in any case, this land is superior to City of Brass, and will see play in Commander for many, many years to come.

Magic the Gathering (MTG) All Time Low - Kozilek's Return Price and Value Analysis

7/7/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

At its peak, Kozilek’s Return was a $25 card. But after not seeing the play many people had expected it to see in Eldrazi decks, Kozilek’s Return’s price has been on a steady downward trend. With its rotation in October 2017, its market price is around $4. However, it may not go much lower than that, due to seeing Modern and Legacy play.

The Legacy play makes sense. It’s a one-of in Legacy Sneak Attack sideboards, since it is technically possible to cast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and take advantage of Kozilek’s Return’s second effect. But most of the time this is a Pyroclasm for one more mana that also happens to be colorless - meaning it dodges things like protection from red or protection from colored spells, which can be relevant at times. We’ve also seen a side-boarded copy of Kozilek’s Return in the occasional Miracle Control or OmniTell deck.

The Modern play is a bit more confusing. Primarily, Kozilek’s Return has been seen in Grixis Death’s Shadow Aggro decks. Again, it’s basically a colorless Pyroclasm for one more mana, as there is no Eldrazi to cast in that deck. But, yet again, being colorless helps against certain creatures, such as Burrenton Forge-Tender, which sees some sideboard play.

As a one-of in Modern and Legacy sideboards, and only barely any Standard play towards the end of its Standard life, it’s hard to see this card going much lower in price. This is definitely a good card in certain Eldrazi decks to help clear the way for the Titans such as Ulamog and Emrakul. Its exile ability is certainly decent, too. Of course, the main thing helping it keep its value is that it’s a mythic rare. Plus, being an Eldrazi-themed card, its price is propped up a bit, as well.

While it may list for $5, no one is paying much more than $4 for Kozilek’s Return now. It could hit as low as $2 or even less as Oath of the Gatewatch stock is liquidated around October 2017. But it may be worth holding onto if you already have copies. If it falls really low, it may be worth picking up a copy or two for the long run, as there is a chance that this card gets adopted by more Modern and Legacy decks in the future.

Magic the Gathering (MTG) All Time High - Weathered Wayfarer - Price and Value Analysis

7/5/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

Weathered Wayfarer is one of those cards that you buy for $5, and three years later, it's $10! As of July 5th, 2017, Weathered Wayfarer has a TCG Player market price of roughly $10. The 9th edition printing is slightly higher than the original Onslaught, but the price points are nearly identical when you factor in shipping costs. (Although, on Amazon, the price points are reversed - which is interesting.)

Playability

While Weathered Wayfarer has seen occasional play in the Modern format, this creature's value is most appreciated in EDH. But despite seeing play in over 4000 deck lists on EDHrec, there isn't one commander that favors Weathered Wayfarer.

The reason for this is probably the simplicity of the Wayfarer ability. For just one White mana, you can tap Weathered Wayfarer to add any land card from your deck to your hand. Plus, Weathered Wayfarer is only a one drop creature to begin with. Basically, as long as decks use white mana and play lands, Weathered Wayfarer will be a great way to get some early card advantage.

Future Value

The supply of both printings of Weathered Wayfarer isn't all that high. Buy list prices aren't extremely high, and there's an over 40 percent spread between retail and most buy list prices. This is because despite being such a good card, most vendors don't seem concerned about running out quickly. Looking at the rapid growth of EDH, however, this supply probably won't last.

There is a real chance that Weathered Wayfarer could be reprinted, however. The wayfarer doesn't have many flavor restrictions that would keep it from being in an expansion set down the road. It definitely makes sense on a commander deck. This would have to be printed on a.major set release to see its value tank, however. A lot of players will soak up the supply of it in commander decks, because most players will just keep their copies.

As far as foil prices are concerned, Weathered Wayfarer is probably a good one to pick up. 9th edition foils push $30 and Onslaught foils about $25. That's not high considering how playable this card is in non rotating formats and how much rarer foils were with those sets.

Magic Online Cues

With the rising popularity of 1v1 Commander on Magic Online, Weathered Wayfarer nearly doubled in price online. It wasn't really expensive there to begin with, and it had an additional theme deck printing on MTGO. But being around 0.5 tix and jumping to 1 ticket a copy in a few days is obviously a sign of something.

There are Breya, Etherium Sculptor decks that play Weathered Wayfarer. She's one of the top commanders in the 1v1 Commander leagues right now. The Wayfarer is good in a lot of 1v1 Commander decks, actually. Obviously, the value is high in multiplayer EDH, as well. But it seems that the 1v1 Commander demand is driving the price online. If Wizards adopts 1v1 Commander as a sanctioned competitive format in paper Magic (who knows it could happen!) then Weathered Wayfarer’s price would probably spike.

Potential Price Spike and Reprint Risks

Honestly, the multiplayer EDH community in paper Magic is probably enough to make this a $20 card some day, especially if there’s no reprint incoming. But so many people are probably holding their copies right now that if there is a price spike, it could right itself very quickly.

When I think about reprint risk, I’d definitely be investing in a foil copy if I needed one for an EDH deck or if I wanted to try it in Modern Death and Taxes. It’s also a pretty fair deal on Magic Online at anywhere around 1 tix; the supply isn’t great there, either. I really like Weathered Wayfarer going forward, and this is definitely a card that without a reprint will become $15 to $20 very quickly once the current supply runs dry.

If Weathered Wayfarer does get reprinted in the near future, I’d definitely be picking up the new copies. This is just a really, really solid creature that does something that will be good forever.

Seraph of the Sword - Magic the Gathering (MTG) Card Review

7/1/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

It is true that many Magic the Gathering players have an affinity for Angel cards - although they do not affect players' casting costs. With Seraph of the Sword from the Magic 2014 Core Set, we have an Angelic version of Fog Bank for 4 mana that conveniently has no Defender on it. Would she prove to be a good card in Constructed, as well?

Seraph of the Sword was an obvious Limited bomb when it was first spoiled. Not only is Seraph of the Sword a 3/3 flyer that’s very splashable, but she can’t be dealt combat damage. This means that she could single-handedly block bombs - except things like Colossal Whale from the same set, which will just "devour" it. Even creatures with deathtouch can't affect Seraph of the Sword in combat, since at least 1 damage must be dealt for deathtouch to activate. It’s an easy first pick, hands-down. But since we're obviously not drafting Magic 2014 anymore, what does she do on her own?

Of course, Angel cards are always popular, and most tend to find a home somewhere. Seraph of the Sword would seem welcome in a wide array of Commander decks. However, she hasn't found many homes. You would think a 4-mana Angel would find a home, considering that there aren't all that many. But besides seeing play in the occasional Avacyn, Angel of Hope or Gisela, Blade of Goldnight Angel Tribal deck, Seraph of the Sword sees inconsistent play in EDH .

Is the Seraph good enough for Constructed play? As far as Core Sets rares go, this is in the middle of the pack. But there are just a lot better creatures that cost four mana in Construct, so it's little surprise that Seraph of the Sword never found a home in Standard. Outside of some casual Angel decks, there are just better options for this deck slot. However, besides the fair amount of EDH player, she does she play in some Budget Cubes as a creature who's solid on offense and defense.

While no one is falling over themselves trying to acquire copies of Seraph of the Sword, her price has been fairly consistent for the past few years. She's never quite hit $1, but has hovered around the $0.75 mark for quite some time. Seraph of the Sword is a card that could be reprinted someday, so if you're looking to pick up a copy, the best investment would be to pick up a $2 foil. Foil prices tend to stay more consistent, and this is a card best suited for a reprint in a preconstructed deck. Really, the Seraph could see more Commander play than she does, and perhaps someday a new Angel Legendary Creature will be printed that will be happy to run her on a regular basis. Until then, she's just a nice card to have in your collection

MTG Commander - Bring to Light in 5-Color EDH / Commander Decks

6/30/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

Of all the Battle for Zendikar cards we reviewed on Gaming Successfully, one in particular was very popular. It wasn’t the new Kiora, Master of the Depths or any of the other planeswalkers. The most popular of all of our Battle for Zendikar spoilers was Bring to Light. It's a very interesting sorcery that costs 3UG and has Converge.

In our review, we found that there is plenty of potential for Bring to Light. This is especially the case in Commander, and in 4 and 5-color decks where its true power can be realized. Considering the amount of interest this particular card has, we’ve decided to go into greater depth into how Bring to Light can be used most effectively.

Bring to Light in Modern

As far as Constructed goes, it will take quite a specific brew that doesn’t mind waiting to have 4 or 5 colors of mana to seek out a specific creature and/or combo piece. There was a lot of fun during the early days of Battle for Zendikar Standard when people were cheating Siege Rhinos into play. It wasn't a bad deck and could win some games, although it wasn't going to win any major tournaments.

The one deck that I had in mind which seemed a natural fit was Scapeshift in Modern. Scapeshift decks already run four colors and has access to five. The sorcery Scapeshift itself costs 4 mana, so barring counter-magic, you could tutor up Scapeshift and win the game. I just don’t know what you’d cut from the deck to play a 5 mana sorcery that isn’t an optimal draw a good chunk of the time. People have definitely been trying, though, with varied success.

One interesting theme that has been discussed surrounding Bring to Light is using it cast the 0 CMC casting cost spells from Time Spiral: Ancestral Vision, Hypergenesis, Living End, Restore Balance, and Wheel of Fate. These spells have some powerful effects, but can’t ordinarily be cast unless they are Suspended with the costs on the card or cast for free by a Cascade Spell. In fact, Cascade cards have been used to great effect with Living End in the infamous Modern combo deck and has been also done at times with Restore Balance. Bring to Light gives you another way to play these cards for free without investing any extra colored mana. But is it worth ramping up to 5 mana just to have a chance to tutor them out?

The most important aspect to consider in Modern is how rampant counter-magic is in the format, especially Remand. Who wants to Bring to Light a Living End only to have it countered, or worse, put into their hand where you then have to suspend it? Granted, this is the same deal as with Cascade, which requires you to still cast the spell, even if it is for free. But with Cascade, you typically get the 3 or 4 mana to cast them far more quickly than you would with Bring to Light.

The chance of your opponent essentially countering 2 cards at once feels bad. With the Cascade spells, you typically will just have an opponent counter that and not simply wait for you to tutor the card you really want before actually casting a counterspell. A 5 mana card just seems a bit too slow to jam into Constructed if all it does is set you up to potentially waste one of your combo cards and possibly a whole turn.

The one of these five that I feel could benefit the most from Bring to Light is Hypergenesis, a card that only sees play in Commander decks like Phelddagrif and Maelstrom Wanderer. Hypergenesis is super good if you have a stacked hand of bombs. Being a “group hug” type of Commander, Phelddagrif decks don’t mind suspending it until such time that it’s okay to let everyone dump their hands onto the table. Maelstrom Wanderer would just cascade into it at often random times, making it not quite optimal for the deck.

Bring to Light makes it so that you can play Hypergenesis when you actually want to play it. This should help the card’s playability a bit. The only requirements are that you play blue and green, and there are plenty of Blue/Green commanders happy to oblige. But often Hypergenesis will be the best target, especially in a two-color deck. Getting a Birds of Paradise or another 1 or 2 mana creature doesn’t feel so powerful for 3UG.

The true power of Bring to Light will be in five-color Commander decks. This card’s true power comes from being able to simultaneously tutor and cast 4-5 CMC spells from the deck. The question is what spells are there for Bring to Light to get and how powerful is it as one of the 99. Underwhelmed by its Constructed prospects, it seems that there is real potential for this 5-mana Converging sorcery in Commander. Let’s take a look.

Scion of the Ur Dragon

Imagine a tutor that could go get a Dragon and put it directly onto the battlefield without having to pay its mana cost! True, Sarkhan Unbroken can help you do that in a big way. So how can Bring to Light help the 5-color Dragon deck? Most of your best Dragons are 6 or more mana, but there are some targets that this tutor can find you in a pinch.

One particular card that Bring to Light is good at getting is Crux of Fate, which is a 5-drop Black board wipe that can destroy all Dragons or all non-Dragons. In a dedicated Dragon deck, this is a sweet boardwipe. Being able to tutor it up and play it all for five mana is pretty sweet, providing you can tap WUBRG.

Creatures you could get with Bring to Light include Dragonlord’s Servant (1R to let you cast Dragon spells for 1 less), Dragonspeaker Shaman (1RR to let you cast Dragon spells for 2 less), Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon (who can kill opponents out of nowhere with Infect, and Thunderbreak Regent (which makes it painful for opponents to use targeted removal on your dragons). Kaalia of the Vast and Stormbreath Dragon are other creatures you tend to see in Scion that would be Brought into the Light easily.

Sorceries you may want to tutor up with Bring to Light include Fearsome Awakening (reanimate a Dragon with +2/+2) and Living Death (awesome with lots of Dragons in the grave). For instants, you have Sarkhan’s Triumph for 2R to tutor up any Dragon to your hand - which probably doesn’t seem like the most cost-effective way to do so, but it works in a pinch. You also have access to a suite of removal spells in Utter End, Putrefy, and Mortify. These cost 4, 3, and 3 respectively, but in the right spot, paying 5 with 3 or 4 different colored mana could be the difference in a game.

Verdict: B in this deck. There are enough solid target for Bring to Light to rarely be a dead card once you get to 3 out of 5 colors of mana. It gives you access to a bomb like Living Death, a one-sided boardwipe like Crux of Fate, and a few of your utility creatures. Grabbing a removal spell in a pinch isn’t bad, either, since otherwise you’d spend a Demonic Tutor or even Diabolic Tutor seeking them out sometimes.

Slivers

Sliver Overlord / Sliver Queen / Sliver Hivelord / Sliver Legion

If there were any archetype that appreciated Bring to Light, it would be Slivers. There are very few Slivers that even cost more than 5 mana. Those would be Battering Sliver (5R), Fury Sliver (5R), Megantic Sliver (5G), and Groundshaker Sliver (6G). Groundshaker and Battering Sliver both give trample, but Battering Sliver helps all Slivers, while Groundshaker only helps yours. Horned Sliver gives all Slivers trample for only 2G, however, so you can live without those two in play. Megantic Sliver gives all your Sliver +3/+3 and Fury Sliver gives all Slivers (including those you don’t control) double strike. Those would be the only 4 that you would care about that can’t be tutored up by Bring to Light.

The coolest thing about Bring to Light in Slivers is that you can get any of the WUBRG Slivers into play with it. Whichever one you’re not playing as your Commander can be almost essentially be cast from the deck! Slivers have such a toolbox to draw from that Bring to Light is essentially: WUBRG: Cast target Sliver with converted mana cost 5 or less from your deck. That’s extremely good and can probably be a game-winning play in some circumstances.

Beyond that, Bring to Light can tutor up Distant Melody (to draw you a bunch of cards) or Patriarch’s Bidding (to bring back a ton of Slivers). It also can tutor up Utter End to exile any nonland permanent that’s bugging you and/or preventing you from winning the game outright.

Yes, Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Tutor and company can get you the card you need when you need it, but getting 2 cards out of 1 is always cool and with Slivers, the synergy is there to make tutoring up the right guy super strong.

Verdict: A- in this deck. It doesn’t get every Sliver ever, but besides Megantic Sliver and Fury Sliver, it can get pretty much anyone you need. Plus tutoring up Distant Melody or Patriarch's Bidding under certain circumstances feels pretty good.

Allies

Top Commanders: General Tazri, Karona, the False God and Reaper King

With Battle for Zendikar, Allies have been a big deal. While only a handful became Standard playable, Allies got plenty of good cards for 5-color Ally tribal commander. Best of all, the ones you care about are 5 mana or less, so hurray.

While there weren't any 5 color Legendary Allies printed in Battle for Zendikar, there was one in Oath of the Gatewatch, General Tazri. Because of her 5 color ability, this makes her eligible to play every color Ally in a Commander deck led by her. So can she and the other two 5-color Legends commonly seen with Allies use Bring to Light to their advantage?

Karona, the False God gives all creatures of a chosen type +3/+3 until end of turn whenever she attacks. The downside is that Karona gets to run around the table as each player gets control of her during each upkeep. There are ways around this, like equipping her with Assault Suit or attaching any of the Vow Auras to her, which all prevent her from being able to attack you. Then she can get really fun.

Reaper King is another option, and by using Enchantments like Conspiracy and Xenograft to make all your creatures Scarecrows in addition to their other types, each creature that enters play basically says: destroy target permanent. Ouch.

General Tazri can tutor up any Ally from your deck when she enters the battlefield. While Bring to Light isn't 100 percent necessary, pretty much any Ally you'll want will be CMC 5 or less.

For purposes of Bring to Light, Reaper King is probably the one who can use it the best. With Reaper King, you can tutor up lots of Changeling creatures, which count as both Allies and Scarecrows without any outside assistance. Karona prefers to be more of an Enchantment-happy deck, something that Bring to Light doesn’t really like unless you’re playing all of the Theros block Gods. More on that later.

The best allies you can tutor up? Turntimber Ranger is the most obvious choice, as he costs 5 mana (3GG) and can overrun the board with Wolf tokens. Hagra Diabolist costs 4B and can make opponents lose life rather quickly. Kabira Evangel offers your Allies protection from the color of your choice each time he or another Ally enters battle. Seascape Aerialist costs 4U and gives all your Allies flying when he or another Ally enters.

From Battle of Zendikar? The only one I’d bother to tutor up is Drana, Liberator of Malakir. Her ability to quickly pump your team is pretty awesome when you’re going for an alpha strike. There’s another one I like, Tajuru Warcaller, who costs 3GG, and has a Rally trigger that gives all your creatures +2/+2 until end of turn. He’s stupidly fragile as a 2/1, though. None of the others seem like considerable enough threats to warrant being pulled out by Bring to Light.

Verdict: C. You can get some nice advantage by tutoring out Changelings and the right Ally when you need one, but it’s not really best suited in the 99 when it comes to Allies. In a more typical Reaper King deck, though, it’s going to be fine for grabbing any Changeling or Scarecrow you want, as most are 5 or less CMC. But even in that build it’s barely a C card choice.

Karona Enchantress

Because of the fact that Karona works best with the five Vows (and Assault Suit) being played on her to make her downside into an upside, it makes sense that she’ll want lots of Enchantments surrounding her. While she makes an interesting Tribal commander, which is why some Ally players like her, the real cool thing she can do is play God Tribal.

That’s right. Karona is typically built with the Theros Gods in mind. All 15 are played in some Karona lists. Best of all, all of the Theros block gods cost 5 CMC or less. So any of these can be solid targets with Bring to Light. Karametra, God of Harvests perhaps isn’t the best in this deck, but she’s almost always going to get you at least a land or two (her ability to grab Forests and Plains aren’t limited to basic lands). Having between 10-15 realistic targets for Bring to Light seems a decent plan.

You can go get Chromanticore, too, but you can’t use its alternate casting cost to Bestow it on another creature, which is probably the best thing about it in the first place, so that’s not really going to ever be a realistic target unless it happens to be your only remaining target for Bring to Light or something.

Verdict: B-, while not necessary as one of the 99, Bring to Light can seek out any of the Theros Gods you want or need at any given time. It’s otherwise pretty weak in an Enchantress deck, unless you’re using it to cast Demonic Tutor or Diabolic Tutor from your deck, which isn’t really that great.

Child of Alara

The best targets in Child of Alara aren’t really that wonderful. It’s typically a control deck based around planeswalkers. That said, Theros Gods appear in quite a few Child lists, as their being indestructible is really good with Child’s effect of blowing up all non-lands. You can also get any wraths, such as Supreme Verdict or Wrath of God with Bring to Light. Other than that, though, there’s nothing else exciting to get.

Verdict: C-, it has decent targets but Bring to Light is a bit of an awkward choice for this deck’s 99.

Progenitus

Here we have another Commander that loves Planeswalkers, but also really likes the Theros gods. Also, Child of Alara being able to be in the 99 gives Bring to Light a saucy target. Maelstrom Archangel, which is also seen in some Child builds, is also lots of fun to play with, cheating any nonland card into play whenever she deals combat damage to a player. Grabbing boardwipes is okay, too.

Verdict: C. Not sure I’d play it in my 99, but it can tutor up Child of Alara, which bumps it up a few points.

Horde of Notions Elemental Tribal

Tutoring up Mulldrifter and Shriekmaw at CMC 5 feels OK to me. Getting Torrent Elemental at 4U, a card really only playable in Elemental Tribal EDH, seems OK, too. Tutoring Incandescent Soulstoke, the Elemental lord who can let you cheat Elementals from your hand into play for 1R is less exciting, but fine. Soulstoke forces you to sacrifice those Elementals, but Horde of Notions can always get them back. Ingot Chewer and Wispmare are fine for value plays, but don’t seem worth casting Bring to Light. Grabbing Reveillark seems fine to reanimate a couple of little guys seems fine though.

There are a bunch of other cool Elementals you can get. Animar, Soul of Elements would be my favorite target. Forgotten Ancient can rack up quite a few +1/+1 counters for you to share with the rest of your army. Lord of Extinction is one of the most powerful Elementals ever, and he’s only 3BG. You could also bring in Fusion Elemental, an 8/8 for WUBRG - just to say you did it.

While not quite as exciting as what you can do with Slivers, Bring to Light does go get you your value creatures, although in the case of the Evoke creatures, you’re probably better off naturally drawing them and Evoking them to naturally reuse with Horde of Notions, anyway.

Verdict: B+. You get a pretty sweet variety of value with Elementals as you do with Slivers. Being able to tutor out Animar is pretty sweet, too.

Cromat

Typically, Cromat is a “Super Friends” Commander, in that the deck plays all the Planeswalkers you can stuff into a deck. Other players just build 5-color good stuff decks. Basically, anything that you’d want to get in Child of Alara or Progenitus decks you can and would get here.

Verdict: C-, you’ll want to focus on the Planeswalkers, probably, and this doesn’t feel like an optimal use of a slot in your 99.

Atogatog

Atog tribal is a cute deck, but besides grabbing Living Death or Patriarch’s Bidding (which are good in Slivers, too) and the usual suspects like Eternal Witness, this is probably the worst of the 5-color decks to play this

Verdict: D+. I wouldn’t play it in here. It would work, but it’s sub-optimal.

Overall, Bring to Light does work in a lot of 5-color strategies, but it’s probably not optimal in every deck. It can take the place of Diabolic Tutor in some decks, especially Slivers and Elementals, which is not nothing. If the tuck rule, which allowed players to return your Commander to the deck, wasn’t changed to allow you to prevent your Commander from being returned to the deck, this would always be a pretty good way to get your Commander back. As such, you technically still could, especially if you’ve cast your Commander a bunch of times in that game. This is a pretty sweet toolbox card in the right deck.

Could Bring to Light be good in other Commander decks that aren’t 5-color? I wouldn’t suggest it in Maelstrom Wanderer, as Cascading into it means you can only get 0 CMC spells. But there are plenty of Blue/Green/X decks that want certain creatures, instants or sorceries, so I definitely wouldn’t count it out. However, as we’ve seen, the real power is getting that full 5 CMC value out of the card you tutor, so in 2 or 3 color decks you’re definitely getting diminished returns. U/G/x decks have some decent targets, but most of them are 4 or 5 mana, so Bring to Light is pretty useless.

With the Commander 2016 decks came 4-color Legendary Creatures, along with the Partner Commanders which also allow for 4-color EDH decks. Bring to Light seems pretty solid in these decks, seeking out key spells at various points in the game. That's a whole other article, though.

I’d really love to see someone make Bring to Light a way to find the final piece of an unbeatable combo. I’m fairly certain that won’t happen outside of some crazy fringe Friday Night Magic deck or in casual play. What I am certain of is that Bring to Light will see some play in 5-color and other decks in Commander, which should keep it from ever falling to true bulk status.

How would you use Bring to Light in Commander? Or if you dare, how would you use it in Constructed?

Updated 6/30/2017

MTG - Void Winnower Mythic Rare Card Review : You Can't Even!

6/30/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

Void Winnower is quite an odd Eldrazi. All “can’t even” and other “odd” jokes aside, the Winnower is pretty unique in its abilities. 9 mana for an 11/9 is already pretty good. Being unable to be blocked by creatures with even converted mana costs gives it a rather unusual form of evasion. But Void Winnower goes even beyond that, preventing opponents from casting spells with even converted mana costs. Obviously, this is a Limited bomb that you can likely drop before turn nine, but how good is it in Constructed?

For starters, tokens can’t block Void Winnower, due to tokens having a 0 CMC. According to a ruling from Wizards, 0 is considered even. Mathematical debates aside, it’s going to be fairly tough to chump block this guy. Then again, plenty of removal is at odd converted mana costs, so there are definitely ways to deal with this behemoth.

What Void Winnower seems best at is being a metagame answer to the big even converted mana cost spells in Standard. At the time of Void Winnower's release, these were Ugin, the Spirit Dragon at 8 mana and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger at 10 mana being the chief concerns. With Eldrazi Ramp a legitimate deck archetype, especially in Modern, Void Winnower is certainly a legitimate candidate for sideboard play. It can randomly hose a number of decks if their key cards have even converted mana costs.

In EDH, Void Winnower is a “just say no” card that will lock some Commanders out of the game. It’s a pretty mean card in the format. While someone will probably find an answer to it in a multiplayer game, it will wreak havoc while it remains in play. It may come down to using Swords to Plowshares on it and gaining the owning player 11 life. The fact that it can help your team get through for extra damage is also another big consideration. Because it's colorless, Void Winnower can be included in a wide variety of decks.

Naturally, the Commanders that will want to use Void Winnower the most are those that can sometimes cast him for free (Rakdos, Lord of Riots and Animar, Soul of Elements) or cheat him into play (Mayael the Anima and Jhoira of the Ghitu). But pretty much any deck can make use of Void Winnower if you can somehow get him into play on the cheap. Because he doesn't have an on-cast trigger, he's actually a big threat and always worth putting into play no matter how you do it.

While he may only be a $2 card for most of his life in Standard, there's so much demand from casual Eldrazi deckbuilders and both kitchen table and competitive EDH players that Void Winnower won't stay cheap forever. He's definitely a keeper.

How would you use Void Winnower?

Does Pheres-Band Warchief Make Centaur Tribal Possible? - Magic the Gathering

6/29/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

If you were ever thinking of building a Centaur Tribal deck in Magic the Gathering, the Centaur tribe does have a few good things going for it. Centaurs actually do have a lord creature: Pheres-Band Warchief from Journey Into Nyx. This Warchief gives his fellow Centaurs not only +1/+1, but also both trample and vigilance. He's also a 3/3 himself with trample and vigilance. That's a lot of value for only four mana.

Did Pheres-Band Warchief Ever See Play in Standard?

There was a lot of speculation on what a Centaur Tribal deck in Standard would look like. It seemed like the pieces were there. Mono-Green Devotion was a strong archetype at the time, and it was thought he could see play in a Centaur-oriented version of the deck. Nylea's Disciple was a card that saw a fair amount of play at the time, and she could gain you a lot of life. The Warchief would make her into a 4/4 vigilant trampling threat, too. Swordwise Centaur was a 3/2 for two Green mana that saw a lot of play at the time, too. A 4/3 with vigilance and trample for only 2 mana seemed too good. Also, Courser of Kruphix was a major player at the time, and he is also a Centaur. At 5 mana, Centaur Battlemaster was a 3/3 Heroic creature that could gain 3 +1/+1 cottners. With Aspect of Hydra a major part of Green Devotion, this guy could have been extremely big. There was also Fated Intervention, which was a card that many Limited players called "surprise Centaurs," which would have fit in a Centaur deck as well. This deck never happened, though.

Naya Blitz was a real deck at the time, too, and there were also pieces for a Naya Centaur deck to work. Centaur Healer was a great sideboard card in Standard at the time while also having a reasonable 3/3 body. But with the Warchief, the Healer not only gained you 3 life, but would become a real threat for only 3 mana (1GW). Another solid Centaur was Fanatic of Xenagos, who seemed made for a Centaur tribal deck. Chronicler of Heroes was a fringe card at the time, but with plenty of ways to gain +1/+1 counter in the format, it seemed even this Centaur would be playable in some way as a feasible draw engine. Lagonna-Band Trailblazer may have been a White one-drop, but a 0/4 Centaur is a great way to hold the ground while you build up your army.

Neither of these decks ever happened. There would be Herald of the Pantheon in Magic Origins, but a Centaur Tribal deck didn't really have room for much of an Enchantment subtheme. So was Centaur Tribal just never meant to be?

Is Centaur Tribal Possible in Modern with Pheres-Band Warchief?

The Standard that Pheres-Band Warchief was a part of is long past. But as we look to Modern, is there anything good there that could make this deck possible now? Sadly, the cards that Centaur Tribal picks up in Modern aren't that many. Loaming Shaman is a nice card, but not really meant for a Centaur Tribal deck bent on aggro. Burning-Tree Shaman is a decent 3 mana creature that punishes playsers for using activated abilities that aren't mana abilities. Really, the best card that the deck picks up ins Stonebrow, Krosan Hero, who's good, and we'll get to him in a minute. However, while the deck gains some useful pieces and some additional staples like Lightning Bolt, it's too slow for the Modern format.

Is Pheres-Band Warchief a Useful Piece in a Centaur Tribal EDH deck?

In Commander, there are currently only three Centaur Legendary Creatures. They are Seton, Krosan Protector, Stonebrow, Krosan Hero, and Karador, Ghost Chieftain. All three are prety good Commanders, but Karador Centaur Tribal is more just for fun. Seton decks are most focused on Druids. So the only deck that Pheres-Band Warchief seems to fit best in is alongside Stonebrow. He sems like a perfect fit for Stonebrow decks, as Stonebrow's ability gives any of your attacking creatures with trample an extra +2/+2 until end of turn. While there are a limited amount of Centaurs in the game, there are enough other good creatures with Trample to fill out the deck. This includes a really good Centaur in Stonehoof Chieftain who gives other attacking creature trample and indestructible. He's 8 mana and not Modern-legal, but in EDH, he's great.

Sadly, Stonebrow, Krosan Hero is far from being a popular Commander. While there are good Centaurs, there aren't enough cards that make Centaur Tribal a deck that people really want to build. Currently, it's really only a deck that is just for fun. Even then, Pheres-Band Warchief is omitted from a bunch of Stonebrow decks.

Pheres-Band Warchief Price History and Future Value

As you might expect, Pheres-Band Warchief is pretty much doomed to long-term bulk rare status. He preordered for about a dollar before quickly falling to a quarter. The only way that Pheres-Band Warchief ever becomes worth anything is if we get a whole slew of good Centaurs in the future all at once. It's sad, because this is a good creature. But for this Warchief to truly be good, Commander isn't going to be where it happens. It would have to be a four of in a sweet kitchen table tribal deck. Even then, I can't ever see him being worth more than a dollar.

While Pheres-Band Warchief is underplayed in the couple of decks he may actually be good in, it's fairly easy to see why he's been overlooked in Commander. He still should see more play than he does, though. If Centaur Tribal ever does become a feasible deck with more support outside of just creatures, though, this Warchief will likely be a vital piece of that deck. Unless, of course, they print a better lord creature.

Magic the Gathering (MTG) Penny Stocks - Silence the Believers Price History and Card Review

6/29/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

Silence the Believers: An Answer to Bestow Creatures and the Gods of Theros

The Strive mechanic from Journey Into Nyx created some very interesting cards. Silence the Believers is an interesting piece of removal for Black. It's essentially an instant-speed version of Gild, exiling a target creature for four mana. However, while it doesn't give you the Gold "trophy" that Gild does, it does have the ability to exile additional creatures for 2B each.

While this sounds pricey, the ability to exile any Auras attached to said creatures can be pretty relevant in the right Standard format. At the time it was released, Silence the Believers seemed sure to see play with the rampant use of Bestow creatures. Bestow creatures that have been played as Auras would be exiled, as well, rather than hitting the board as a creature when the enchanted creature leaves the battlefield. At times, you're going to 2 for 1 or even 3 for 1 your opponent with this card. For 4 mana, that is pretty decent. The additional Strive cost is fair, as well.

Also, since it is exiling a card, Silence the Believers is able to take care of Indestructible creatures. During the Theros block, the most popular indestructible creatures were the Gods. And most of them were played a lot. Used correctly, it's pretty efficient removal, especially against indestructibles. While the Strive cost can be pricey, in mono-black, with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx around, it could provide a lot of potential value printed onto one card.

What Really Happened with Silence the Believers in Standard?

Silence the Believers did see some amount of Standard play during the time of Theros block and Khans of Tarkir block, especially after the release of Magic Origins. The most successful deck to run Silence the Believers was Esper Dragons. Even then, it wasn't run in every Esper Dragons deck, and when it was, it was mostly a sideboard card. it was also occasionally seen in the mainboards of Abzan Midrange and Blue/Black (UB) Control.

Because of the metagame, it was worth running a copy. While the Gods weren't seeing as much Top 8 play at this point, there was one creature you really wanted to see exiled: Hangarback Walker. When the Walker died, he'd leave behind a bunch of flying Thopter tokens. Exiling the Walker means no tokens. It was also good against big creatures like the Dragons of the time and Siege Rhino. Four mana to deal with any one of these threats was worth it.

Silence the Believers Price History and Long Term Value

In most constructed formats, four mana is too much to remove any one creature. Typically, three mana is the most you'll see people want to pay, with cards such as Hero's Downfall and Murder fitting that bill. In Modern, 4 mana gets you Damnation. The format also has Path to Exile for a single White mana. So there isn't any room for Silence the Believers to succeed there, despite it probably being good in corner cases like against Aura-based Modern decks - Bogles, for instance. Usually, Path to Exile does the job, and Bestow and the Theros Gods (outside of maybe Keranos) see any Modern or Legacy/Vintage play.

How is Silence the Believers in EDH? Black is a very powerful color with plenty of mana acceleration available to it. Indeed, Silence the Believers does see a fair amount of EDH play, primarily in mono-Black decks. It's hardly a staple in the format, but as a card that can remove multiple creatures from play at once, it's certainly a playable removal spell. Exiling creatures is much more relevant in Commander than it typically is in other formats, but most Constructed formats usually have more efficient ways to do so.

Somewhat incredibly on Magic Online, Silence the Believers was a $5 card! It was actually worth more than $2 several other times during its Standard life. As it was a playable card in Standard, that's not totally crazy. In paper Magic, however, Silence the Believers was never worth more than $1.50, and that was at the release of Khans of Tarkir.

After its rotation from Standard, Silence the Believers' price hit about $0.25, but has slowly rebounded a penny at a time since then. This is mostly due to EDH playability. Still, you can easily find copies for a dime or two. While this card is hardly going to be a long-term sleeper, Silence the Believers could hit $1 in price someday, but it will be years before it does that.

Other than its EDH playability, the only way that Silence the Believers ever sees a major rise in price is if some Auras are printed that are poised to break the Modern format. While I wouldn't call Silence the Believers a good Magic "penny stock" to invest in, it can never hurt to stash a copy or two away of this bulk rare.

Magic the Gathering (MTG) Card to Watch - Blade Splicer

6/25/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

Once a 6 dollar card, Blade Splicer saw a dramatic drop in price when she was reprinted in Modern Masters 2017. At one point, her MM2017 printing dropped below a dollar and her original New Phyrexia printing has steadily dropped towards $1.50. But finally, the two printings are starting to converge in price and the Masters version is on a slow rise.

It's not a surprise to see this card finally recovering from its reprint. Blade Splicer saw lots of play during her time in Standard, especially in Birthing Pod decks. She's long been played in Modern, as well. Even with the banning of Birthing Pod in Modern, Blade Splicer still sees top table play in Hatebear decks. She also does fairly well in Commander.

A card with the competitive pedigree of Blade Splicer won't be around $1 forever. Even the New Phyrexia foils are still $3 and MM2017 foils are even less. The low New Phyrexia foil price is due to being a foil in an intro pack deck. But even that extra supply won't last forever.

Since Blade Splicer gives any Golems you control first strike, it's possible a golem creature might be printed at some point that will work well alongside her. We have seen her and Solemn Simulacrum work well together before. First strike is a very relevant ability. Four power for 3 mana is also just always going to be good.

While it's not likely that Blade Splicer will skyrocket in price, she is definitely not going to stay at this cheap price. It's always good to catch these long term holds early. This is a card that can only get better with time. People aren't really going to let her go at this point. This is especially evident on Pucatrade where she is widely sought after, but no one is really sending them. Of course, foils are the better investment, as they will be considerably more valuable sooner.

Are there other cards you think are worth watching? Let us know in the comments!

An EDH Deck for Only $1 on Magic Online!? SaffronOlive's "Penny Dreadful" Isperia the Inscrutible Flying Tribal Commander Deck

6/23/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

I happened to be browsing MTGGoldfish for some budget Commander decklists, and came across this Isperia the Inscrutible Flying Tribal Commander deck brewed by none other than the legendary SaffronOlive!

At the time, that I found this decklist, it hadn't yet been played on MTGGoldfish's Commander Clash video series. It would be featured on the Penny Dreadful episode of Commander Clash. In this episode, SaffronOlive would play this deck against four other decks that cost around 1 event ticket to build on Magic Online! (This Isperia deck costs about $30 to build in paper, which is still mega cheap!)

"Penny Dreadful" is a variant of Commander similar to 1DH in paper. In 1DH, you build a deck with cards that cost $1 or less each. In Penny Dreadful, you're looking to build an entire 100 card Commander deck - including the Commander - for 1 event ticket or less. This means spending only 0.01 tix - roughly a penny - on each card. While card values fluctuate, there's an official Penny Dreadful list that changes with each set release, so this is what you should build from. You can also use the Scryfall search engine, which has a filter for Penny Dreadful.

If you ever wanted to play Sphinx Tribal, or Flying Tribal in general, this is a nice cheap way to do so! There are three other "Penny Dreadful" decks featured in this Commander Clash video, led by Hazezon Tamar, Brago, the Eternal, and Shu Yun, the Tempest.

Here's the Penny Dreadful episode. The original episode page with the Penny Dreadful deck lists can be found here.

In case you’re interested in building an extremely cheap but fun tribal deck, here is the decklist!

Creatures (29)

1     Hypnotic Siren
1     Stratus Dancer
1     Stonecloaker
1     Argent Sphinx
1     Conundrum Sphinx
1     Dungeon Geists
1     Thunderclap Wyvern
1     Archon of Redemption
1     Cloudblazer
1     Guardian of Tazeem
1     Jwar Isle Avenger
1     Master of Predicaments
1     Prognostic Sphinx
1     Serra Sphinx
1     Sphinx of Lost Truths
1     Arbiter of the Ideal
1     Cerulean Sphinx
1     Draining Whelk
1     Sphinx of Jwar Isle
1     Sphinx of the Chimes
1     Sunblast Angel
1     Thousand Winds
1     Uyo, Silent Prophet
1     Alhammarret, High Arbiter
1     Diluvian Primordial
1     Emeria Shepherd
1     Goliath Sphinx
1     Resolute Archangel
1     Sphinx of Uthuun

Spells (21)

1     Curse of the Swine
1     Negate
1     Compulsive Research
1     Crib Swap
1     Dissipate
1     Dissolve
1     Forbid
1     Concentrate
1     Insidious Will
1     Plea for Power
1     End Hostilities
1     Jace's Ingenuity
1     Planar Outburst
1     Tidings
1     Traumatic Visions
1     Winds of Rath
1     Opportunity
1     Phyrexian Rebirth
1     Planar Cleansing
1     Recurring Insight
1     Treasure Cruise

Artifacts (9)

1     Brittle Effigy
1     Corrupted Grafstone
1     Azorius Cluestone
1     Azorius Keyrune
1     Magnifying Glass
1     Manalith
1     Ojutai Monument
1     Seer's Lantern
1     Spectral Searchlight

Enchantments (2)

1     Isolation Zone
1     Gravitational Shift

Lands (38)

1     Azorius Guildgate
1     Blighted Cataract
1     Calciform Pools
1     Coastal Tower
17     Island
1     Meandering River
1     Moorland Haunt
10     Plains
1     Tranquil Cove
1     Transguild Promenade
1     Vivid Creek
1     Vivid Meadow
1     Warped Landscape

If anyone would like me to do an in-depth deck tech on this deck, or any other deck, Penny Dreadful or otherwise, I’d be happy to do so. Just let me know. Until then, enjoy this extremely cheap EDH list!

Magic the Gathering (MTG) Anatomy of a Bulk Rare - Insidious Will from Kaladesh

6/20/2017

by Phoenix Desertsong, Gaming Successfully Staff

Here in the Anatomy of a Bulk Rare series, we’ve looked at a wide variety of cards worth less than 50 cents. There have been “true bulk” cards such as Serpentine Spike that no one will really ever play in Constructed. There’s somewhat playable creatures like Fathom Feeder. Then, you have a card that sees a fair amount of play in the ever-growing Commander format that’s probably still a bit underappreciated: Insidious Will.

Back in October 2016, Insidious Will was a $0.50 card that was buylisting for close to its retail price. Why’s that? People were actually pretty excited about this card. Even though it costs 4 mana for effects that typically cost only 2 or 3 mana, the versatility of this card seemed to make it worth it. With Baral, Chief of Compliance looking like he’d be a big part of Standard, it seemed to some people that Insidious Will was going to be at least a $1 or $2 card. This never happened, although Baral, who makes Instants and Sorceries you cast cost 1 less mana, is very good. In fact, Baral is probably going to be tied to this card’s long term value.

While two of its effect choices are Redirect and Twincast, which are cards that each cost 2 mana, being able to choose seems worth an extra price. And yes, Cancel is 3 mana as a straight counterspell. But wouldn’t having these choices in a control deck be a nice thing to have, even just as a one-of out of the sideboard?

The answer is yes, in Baral, Chief of Compliance Commander decks. Baral has become quite a force in the growing 1v1 Commander scene, thanks to Magic Online adopting the format as a competitive league. Considering the huge amount of foils that are wanted on PucaTrade, it’s clear that most demand for Insidious Will comes from Commander players. While Baral is hardly the only Commander that plays this versatile 4-mana instant, he’s definitely the one who’s added this spell to his library the most.

So what’s made this a bulk rare? It’s simply just not found relevance in the current Standard format. But long term, cards like this easily surpass $2. Foils of this card will definitely not be less than $2 forever, either.

When it comes to the anatomy of this bulk rare, it’s simply a card that was released at a time where its value simply hasn’t been realized. One copy per Commander player coming off the market at a time simply isn’t going to drive the price. This is a card that you want in foil if you’re looking to cash in on it in the long term. But as far as people who just want it to play with, it’s definitely well worth spending a couple hard earned dimes on so you can add into your collection.

Magic the Gathering Card to Watch - Authority of the Consuls from Kaladesh

6/20/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

Back in October of 2016, I identified Authority of the Consuls as one of 5 cards under $5 to watch in Kaladesh. Every card on that list I believe I still are good investments, especially Panharmonicon, which has become a smash hit in Commander. Authority is a great one-drop Enchantment that sees a bunch of Commander play, too. But unlike Panharmonicon which only saw strong Standard play early on in Kaladesh Standard, Authority of the Consuls is a strong sideboard card that has usability beyond Standard.

One major indicator that Authority of the Consuls is a MTG card to watch is the disparity between its price on Amazon and TCGPlayer. Authority of the Consuls has been consistently a Top 100 best seller in Trading Cards on Amazon. While it’s been a $1 card on TCGPlayer for most of its life, Authority of the Consuls was a $4 card at one time when it was seeing consistent sideboard play in two of the better decks in Standard at the time, Copy Cat Combo and Mardu Ballista. Copy Cat Combo is no longer a deck, so that has seen its play greatly decline. Still, we know that this card can be $4.

What’s so good about Authority of the Consuls? It’s really a bit better version of Blind Obedience, an Enchantment that many players once thought would be a great answer to aggro decks. But at two mana, it was often a turn too late. Forcing your opponent’s creatures to come into play tapped is huge, and an Enchantment that costs only 1 mana to do this is significantly better.

The other upside to Authority over Blind Obedience is that you also gain 1 life each time an opponent has a creature enter the battlefield (even tokens!) Blind Obedience had extort, which is a nice ability, but it first required your to cast a spell and also pay one mana to drain your opponents. In most cases, Authority of the Consuls is simply going to be more efficient.

Blind Obedience actually sees more than twice as much play as Authority of the Consuls in EDH (as of June 2017), but that’s because it also causes artifacts to come into play tapped. Also, in Commander, the Extort mechanic is more relevant, since mana is more plentiful and plenty more spells will be cast over the course of a game. Plus, Extort affects all opponents, so a single activation of Extort can drain each opponent for 1 life and gain you that much life. That’s often at least a 3 point life gain. So it’s much more cost effective.

Still, Authority of the Consuls and Blind Obedience see play in the same exact decks in Commander, as they complement one another instead of merely being redundant. So there is definitely demand from the Commander crowd, which explains the higher price on Amazon; many Commander-friendly cards see higher prices on Amazon.

It’s a bit surprising that Authority of the Consuls hasn’t been seen more in Modern. There are so many aggro decks in the format, too, so it seems like a no-brainer. The best part is that even if you happen to draw a second copy of Authority, the lifegain it can provide is still relevant. There’s also a good chance that it returns to more Standard sideboards after the rotation of the Battle for Zendikar and Shadows Over Innistrad blocks.

In any case, this is a really good card to pick up for $1 or less. It’s also very good to see that there’s tons of interest in both non-foil and foil copies of Authority of the Consuls on PucaTrade. If people want foil playsets of a card, they plan to have them for a long time. Since this is a card that could easily find itself being played more in Modern, and has room to grow in Commander, Authority of the Consuls is definitely a card worth picking up and holding for the long term.

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PucaTrade Trends - Dead Weight Among Top Traded Cards

6/19/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

Dead Weight is not a card that you might expect to be among the Top Traded Cards on PucaTrade. But recently, it’s cracked the Top 20. PucaTrade is a great way to pick up little cards that you might need for a deck. While Dead Weight was originally printed in Innistrad, it was also reprinted in Shadows Over Innistrad, so there’s a decent supply of them out there.

Also, while Dead Weight doesn’t see much competitive play, it actually is quite good in Dimir Control decks in Pauper. But isn’t Pauper more of a Magic Online format? While competitively Pauper is bigger online, there are becoming more and more paper Pauper tournaments at local game stores. This is a very good common to have around.

It’s a very simple Enchantment, one Black mana to give the enchanted creature -2/-2. It’s strong early game removal, but it’s also a nice way to weaken a bigger creature that might be out of range of your other removal spells. It’s also a way to bring a bigger creature down to the level of your creatures. Dead Weight is definitely not a dead card, even if it doesn’t currently see Standard play.

While Dead Weight isn’t the most exciting common, it’s interesting to see some players stocking up on copies. This is definitely a card to watch for and get ahold of as you see them, especially in foil. As it has been a part of many draft decks, there are plenty of copies to go around.

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Story of a Price Spike - Nimbus Maze from Future Sight (MTG)

6/18/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

Nimbus Maze is one of those cards that people expected to hit a $20 price for a long time. Why is that? It’s a decent dual land that can give you White mana if you control an Island, and Blue mana if you control a Plains. That sounds kind of backwards, but it is what it is.

The Maze is actually rather similar to the dual lands from Battle for Zendikar in that it cares about what basic land types you already control. But it’s a unique land in that it was one of those one-of oddities from Future Sight. Another land from that set, Grove of the Burnwillows, has become widely successful and very expensive. So why not Nimbus Maze?

Why not, indeed? It’s a valuable land in EDH, where people play Hallowed Fountain, Prairie Stream, and other lands with the basic land types Plains and/or Island. But as far as competitive play is concerned, especially Modern, you just never really see it. So why did this once $5 land slowly creep up to $8 over the course of 2016, and suddenly spike to nearly $40 (before settling around $25 for a bit) in late June of 2016?

First of all, copies of Nimbus Maze have been slowly trickling off of the internet for some time. Usually it’s one at a time, which is why the price increase has been so slow, but steady. A few speculators have bought multiple copies over the past few years, which has eaten up some of the supply. But these sales are rare enough that it’s made the card widely unavailable. It’s not a card that’s in high demand. Still, there is enough of a desire to have it available for Commander decks that people have been hoarding their copies.

What is a fair price for Nimbus Maze? Clearly, $25 is most certainly not. This simply isn’t a sustainable price for this card. The race to the bottom on TCGPlayer would be fairly quick. By “race to the bottom,” I mean sellers continuously undercutting each other until a price equilibrium is found.

At best, Nimbus Maze is probably a $10 card long-term. We've seen the market price of this card fall to around $8-12 by June 2017, depending on condition. What makes this a fair price is based mostly on the card’s overall scarcity. It’s doubtful that this land will be reprinted as there is really no expansion set that it makes sense to include within. (There was once speculation that it would be included as part of a new land cycle in Theros. But nothing ever came of that.)

If Wizards of the Coast decides to create a cycle of lands similar to it, which is totally possible, Nimbus Maze would definitely become a lot more valuable. Vendor buylists weren’t willing to pay much more than $4 to $5 after the spike, with the outlier being high as $7. By 2017, the buylist price is closer to $8, which is a good sign for the future of this card.

While the market did regain some sanity in regards to Nimbus Maze, there may yet be another spike in its future. It's not like there are a bunch of near-mint copies left on the open market. Still, with this spike in its price history, we can take away a few things from this event which can tell us a lot about what people think about this card.

Clearly, lands that are unique in some way are going to be worth something. White & Blue is a popular color combination, especially in Control-type decks. It’s actually a bit surprising that we don’t see Nimbus Maze more often in Modern. This may be due to the fact that the filter land, Mystic Gate, is much more playable in Modern. Being able to fix your mana by filtering the color you don’t need is very, very valuable when you need to cast cards that require 3 White or 3 Blue or some other tricky combination of colors.

So what’s holding this card back? It’s clearly Mystic Gate. That’s about a $20 card as of June 2017, about the same price as Nimbus Maze was post-spike. So if you want to put your $20 into a good dual land, I’d put it on the "strictly better" Mystic Gate. It’s already been reprinted as a foil Expedition in Oath of the Gatewatch, and it’s unlikely we’ll see these filter lands reprinted again soon. Filter lands in general seem to be a pretty solid investment. Nimbus Maze is a cool land, but it’s as expensive as it will ever get.

Clearly, Nimbus Maze’s price spike was due to a buyout. Yes, it was due to hit $10 eventually. But as the market sometimes does, there’s an opportunity seen by a few people who have the cash to buy out a ton of copies at once. Oddly enough, this usually benefits those who are holding onto single copies more than it does those that actually initiate the buyout. It also benefits those who had the foresight to stash away copies in anticipation of a price jump. There are a lot of happy people right now, and you have to give them credit for their foresight.

This is a card that simply isn’t widely available any more. Anytime that happens, silly price spikes can occur. While the story of this Nimbus Maze price spike has come to an end, it may not be the last for this unique land. But for all those that have called this card a great investment over the past few years, congratulations on your crazy gains. If you sold out at the right time and bought back in when it came back to earth, you have a chance to make a bunch of money again eventually.

Even if this card never enjoys a second spike, Nimbus Maze is definitely worth a $10 price tag.

Pucatrade Trends - Kazandu Refuge and Akoum Refuge - Magic the Gathering (MTG)

6/16/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

Kazandu Refuge and Akoum Refuge are two of the top traded cards on PucaTrade this past week. What's that about?

Originally printed in Zendikar, the Allied-color Refuge lands come into play tapped. However, when they do, you gain 1 life. For a long time, they were decent dual lands for players on a budget.

But with Khans of Tarkir came what players have come to call the “gainlands” at common. They come in all 10 color combinations as well. Still, the Refuges see play in EDH, since you can only play one of each nonbasic land in your deck.

What's interesting is that there seems to be sudden interest in these two Refuges, but not the other three (although Sejiri Refuge is in the top 50 top traded PucaTrade cards). Kazandu Refuge has 7 other printings and Akoum Refuge has 5. Albeit, those are limited printings as they appear only in preconstructed decks.

According to EDHREC, Akoum Refuge is the second most played of the three Refuges, with Kazandu coming in 4th. Jwar Isle Refuge, which is Blue/Black, comes in 1st. Sejiri Refuge, which is white/blue, comes in 3rd. The Green/White Refuge, Graypelt Refuge, comes in last. The Green/White Refuge, Graypelt Refuge, comes in last. It seems that someone had a pile of these they just wanted to unload.

Perhaps the reason we haven’t seen much price movement on the Refuges is that they simply have a good amount of supply. Akoum and Kazandu Refuges have the most supply, so it makes sense that they would be among the most traded. So if you have copies of these or any of the five Refuges you're looking to unload, it seems shipping them out on PucaTrade is better than just getting getting a nickel or so from your local buylist.

PucaTrade is the best way to trade Magic the Gathering and MTGO cards (plus event tickets and packs!) online. Join the PucaTrade fun today!

Asylum Visitor in Modern? - Magic the Gathering (MTG) Shadows Over Innistrad Penny Stock

6/3/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

There’s a lot of things to like about Asylum Visitor from Shadows Over Innistrad. Not only is she a vampire, but she has the Madness ability. This means if you happen to discard her, you can pay 1B to cast her! Having a 3/1 for 2 mana is good enough. But she also has an ability that may remind you of a poor man’s Dark Confidant and Phyrexian Arena rolled into one. At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, if that player has no cards in hand, you lose 1 life and draw a card. The beauty of this ability is that it’s a pure bonus

While people have built plenty a Madness deck and taken them to their Local Game Store, the Madness mechanic hasn’t quite broken through as a major contender in competitive play. Quite a few of these Madness creatures have made noise on Magic Online, though, so it seems that Asylum Visitor and friends have been a bit underappreciated. But with Asylum Visitor leaving Standard in October 2017, it seems that her time to shine is over… or is it?

It turns out that one clever deckbuilder found a way to work Asylum Visitor into a Modern deck! This Mardu Madcap Experiment list came in 8th place at SCG Modern IQ Ludlow, and it’s a cool one! Like Asylum Visitor, Madcap Experiment is a card that plenty of deck builders have brewed around, but it hasn’t found a consistent build just yet. Fortunately for Madcap Experiment, its drawback of potentially burning you to death is negated by the emblem of Gideon of the Trials, which prevents you from losing the game if you control a Gideon planeswalker.

So how do three copies of Asylum Visitor made it into this deck. Well, this deck has two planeswalkers that will require you to discard a card on occasion, Liliana of the Veil and Nahiri, the Harbinger. Ticking these gals up and essentially getting a free creature puts you ahead on tempo. Faithless Looting also requires you to discard a card, so the Visitor can come down in that case, too. Asylum Visitor is also nice as a choice to discard when an opponent activates his or her Liliana’s discard ability. The potential card advantage from her conditional Phyrexian Arena type ability is just gray.

The best part about Asylum Visitor is her price. On Magic Online, she’s often been available for a mere penny. In paper, she’s hung around $0.50, and has been under a dollar since June of 2016. If you’re looking for a penny stock to invest in from a set rotating from Standard, Asylum Visitor is definitely a good target. Beyond simply being a good Vampire for casual players to eat up, the Visitor could find a home in this Mardu Madcap archetype going forward. You really can’t lose much either way, especially on MODO.

P.S. While you’re at it, you may want to take a look at Madcap Experiment, which is around the same price or lower.

Start // Finish in Modern Dredge? - Magic the Gathering (MTG)

6/1/2017

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

Start // Finish MTG Amonkhet

Start // Finish is an uncommon card from Magic: the Gathering's Amonkhet set. It features the Aftermath mechanic, meaning that it has one half that you can cast from your hand, and another half that can only be cast from your graveyard. While it hasn't been much Standard play, Start // Finish does have some decent effects. As it turns out, one Dredge deck in Modern played a single copy in the main deck. Is this Aftermath card going to become a fixture in Modern Dredge decks?

Paying 2W to get two 1/1 tokens with vigilance at instant speed is a decent effect. But that's not really the best part about this card. It's Finish that people like most about this card. Paying 2B and the sacrifice of a creature allows you to destroy a target creature. Dredge decks have plenty of expendable creatures, so having this card end up in the graveyard is actually a sneaky way to kill a problem creature should the need arise.

Start // Finish is a solid card and it wouldn't be a surprise to see this card show up in more Dredge decks in the future. Really, any deck that plays off of the graveyard could find a way to use this card.