Whir of Invention and Inventors' Fair are two Kaladesh block cards that are on my radar for the same reason. They are really competitive Modern cards masquerading as Standard cards. They don't see Standard play in any top decks, if much at all. However, they do see play in a variety of Modern decks, including Lantern Control and various Prison decks, among others. Both are pretty cheap – under $2 each as of this writing - haven't been reprinted in Challenger decks, and they do really useful things.

Inventors' Fair gives artifact-heavy decks free life every turn if you control 3 or more artifacts, and that's not nothing. The Fair also can act as a tutor for any artifact card you want from your deck. While it has to be sacrificed to do so, it's still a strong ability.

Whir of Invention is an artifact tutor that puts the card directly into play, and can even have its casting cost reduced by tapping artifacts with Improvise! Both of these cards are really solid investments as what they do is just really good. I don't really like Whir foils at the moment, as their price is trending in the wrong direction. But I do like Inventors' Fair foils, if you want to go deep on them. I just don't see either of them being reprinted in foil any time soon.

Inventors Fair and Whir of Invention both seem like pretty safe investments, even if you don't plan on building the decks anytime soon. To me, the Fair is the better investment as it's more versatile being colorless. Whir has three required Blue mana in its mana cost which does restrict its flexibility a bit, even though many artifact decks are primarily Blue anyway. But if you're looking to break into investing in Modern Magic the Gathering cards, these are two strong candidates for adding to your Magic collection.

Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter has been a two-of in Standard Green/White Aggro decks and is a decent card in a number of EDH decks. However, the Human Artificer from Kaladesh has also been a consistent bestseller on TCGPlayer in both the nonfoil and foil varieties. What has made Oviya Pashiri so popular?

When she was first spoiled, I saw her as sort of a "poor man's" Rhys the Redeemed. She's nowhere as good as the popular token Commander, and she's also mono-green whereas Rhys is both green and white. This somewhat limits her as a Commander, although she is certainly a plausible choice if mono-green Tokens is what you're looking to build. Really, though, she's better as a member of the 99 in Trostani, Selesnya's Voice and the aforementioned Rhys the Redeemed.

Oviya's tap abilities are decent for a 1 mana 1/2 creature. Her first tap ability costs 2G and creates a 1/1 colorless Artifact creature token. While this doesn't seem like an awesome ability, with cards that double tokens like Anointed Procession alongside it in Standard, plus Doubling Season or Parallel Lives in EDH, it's perfectly fine. It's comparable to Rhys the Redeemed's ability to create an Elf token.

The seond of Oviya's tap abilities is quite good for 4G. It creates a X/X creature token where X is the number of creatures you control when you resolve the ability. This token is almost always going to be worth the cost and is great to have in an aggro deck. It's especially good when you have Procession or another token doubler on the board.

Really, you can't ask much more from a one-drop creature. For a card that doubled in price from $0.25 to $0.50 in March of 2018, though, it's not like she's blowing people away. She's just very good as a role player. However, as she is good in EDH, it's not a bad idea to invest in foils, as not only are they more reprint proof, but her long-term value will be in EDH. They will provide better return on investment in the long-term. While I don't see Oviya as a long-term staple anywhere, she's a solid Legendary creature worth having in your collection.


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Nissa, Vital Force is one of two Nissa planeswalkers in Kaladesh. This 5-mana planeswalker is included in the set itself, whereas the other Nissa, Nature’s Artisan, is included in the Planeswalker decks for this set. How good is Nissa, Vital Force when compared to past Nissa planeswalkers? From the looks of it, pretty darn good. Players  pointed out early on that her ultimate ability can be used after only a single turn. So, how well do all of her abilities stack up?

Her +1 is similar to that of Nissa, Worldwaker’s, in that she turns a land into an Elemental creature. However, there are some important differences with Vital Force’s +1. First of all, Worldwaker’s ability makes that land permanently a creature. This +1 only makes that land a creature until your next turn. However, you get a 5/5 with haste instead of a 4/4 with trample. She also un-taps the land, which essentially could give you an extra mana if you decided instead to tap that land for mana instead of attacking. Functionally, this is a similar ability, although the permanency and trample that Worldwaker’s +1 offered is better in some cases.

Then again, when Nissa, Vital Force first entered Standard, the man lands Hissing Quagmire, Lumbering Falls, Needle Spires, Shambling Vent, and Wandering Fumarole were still in Standard. Her +1 ability actually worked well with these manlands, as not only would they become 5/5 lands with haste, but gain any abilities that they would have if they were activated. For example, Lumbering Falls would still gain hexproof, meaning opponent’s couldn’t target it with spells. Hissing Quagmire would still have deathtouch, Needle Spires would still have double strike and Shambling Vent would have lifelink. Wandering Fumarole’s ability to switch power and toughness wouldn’t really matter, though. Those man lands wouldn’t stay in Standard long with Nissa, Vital Force, but when they were, she had fun with them.

Vital Force’s -3 lets you get a permanent card back from your graveyard to your hand. This isn’t a bad ability, but going from 5 to 2 loyalty right away seems like a fairly high price to pay. However, this ability can be useful in certain situations. But paying 5 mana for this Regrowth ability right away doesn’t feel awesome. Still, it’s a mode that will probably be used at certain junctures of the game, so it’s a decent second ability. It’s nowhere as good as untapping up to 4 Forests, however, as Worldwaker could do.

The ultimate ability is the one that has most players excited. Essentially, it’s a Horn of Greed that only benefits you. Drawing a card just by having a land enter the battlefield under your control is really solid. Note that you don’t actually have to play it, meaning that cards like Splendid Reclamation that bring lands into play does the trick, too.

Horn of Greed, an artifact most recently featured in Conspiracy: Take the Crown, actually only draws a player a card when he/she actually plays a land. It also helps all players and not just yourself. For only -6, this is a really good ultimate. With how easy it is in Standard to put land cards into your graveyard to use Splendid Reclamation, Nissa, Vital Force looked like the piece that deck needs to be really good. (That never really happened, but  it could have.)

Nissa, Vital Force is a really solid planeswalker. The ultimate ability is actually quite good, as is the +1 ability. I’m not sure how I feel about the minus ability, although being able to retrieve any permanent card is handy. With 5 loyalty and a CMC (Converted Mana Cost) of 5, it seemed a sure thing this Nissa would see play, perhaps even in Modern.

But, what really happened?

Indeed, Nissa, Vital Force has seen play, notably as a one-of in some Saheeli Rai / Felidar Guardian Copy Cat Combo decks. But most consistently, she's been a one-of in some Temur Energy decks, often in the sideboard. So, while she hasn't enabled decks to succeed in the way that Nissa, Worldwaker once did, she's become a complementary piece of a very good  Standard deck archetype.

However, this is only part of her story! As I predicted, Nissa, Vital Force has sneaked into a few Modern decks as a one-of, mostly in the sideboard. One example is this tournament-winning Titan Breach deck. Other decks that have utilized Nissa, Vital Force include Valakut/Scapeshift combo decks and Elves. In Legacy, she's even made the main boards of some competitive Elves decks!

Beyond her obvious utility in Commander, especially  in Atraxa, Praetor's Voice decks which can always use and abuse planeswalkers, Nissa, Vital Force has become a competitive role player in not just Standard, but Modern and Legacy, as well! Outside of some Lands decks in Legacy and the occasional Tooth and Nail deck in Modern, Nissa, Worldwaker hasn't built nearly the same resume of competitive playability in non-rotating formats!

So to answer the question of how good is Nissa, Vital Force? She's been a bit better than Nissa, Worldwaker in the long run, and that's saying something!

Yet, Nissa, Vital Force has been available as low as $2.00 apiece! While her price has slowly recovered since then, there's little doubt she's been pretty undervalued.

Back in October of 2016, Authority of the Consuls was one of 5 cards under $5 to watch in Kaladesh. Every card on that list are still good investments, including Depala, Pilot Exemplar, Insidious Will,  and Toolcraft Exemplar. In particular, Panharmonicon, has become a smash hit in Commander.  

Authority of the Consuls 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 Magic card to watch is the consistent disparity between its price on Amazon and TCGPlayer. Authority of the Consuls was consistently a Top 100 best seller in Trading Cards on Amazon. While it was a $1 card on TCGPlayer for most of its life, Authority of the Consuls was a $4 card at one time. Then, 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.

Blind Obedience and Authority of the Consuls

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.

Authority of the Consuls in EDH

Blind Obedience actually sees about 50 percent more play than Authority of the Consuls in EDH (as of November 2018), 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. They complement one another instead of merely being redundant. There is definitely demand from the Commander crowd, which explains the higher price on Amazon; many Commander-friendly cards see higher prices on Amazon.

Authority of the Consuls in Modern?

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. There’s also long been 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. 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 Magic card worth picking up and holding for the long term.

Aetherflux Reservoir is one of the coolest Magic cards in the Kaladesh set. Not only does it allow you to pay 50 life to deal 50 damage to a target creature or player, but it can gain you a lot of life during the course of the game. In Kaladesh Standard, one deck found a way to take full advantage of this life gain while also giving you a powerful win condition. This deck is White/Blue (W/U) Reservoir, at one time the best Aetherflux Reservoir deck in Standard.
 
Here's the deck list:
 
Creatures (16)
4     Thraben Inspector 
2     Pilgrim's Eye    
3     Reflector Mage 
4     Cloudblazer    
3     Torrential Gearhulk
 
Spells (17)
3     Essence Flux   
4     Anticipate   
4     Unsubstantiate  
4     Engulf the Shore   
2     Glimmer of Genius  
 
Artifacts (3)
3     Aetherflux Reservoir   
 
Lands (24)
13     Island  
3     Plains   
4     Port Town 
4     Prairie Stream  
 
Sideboard (15)
2     Dispel 
3     Negate   
2     Stasis Snare   
4     Niblis of Frost  
2     Summary Dismissal  
2     Jace, Unraveler of Secrets  

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Looking for an unusual but competitive deck that you can build for about $100 to play? Blue/Black (U/B) Colossus may be the deck for you! The deck is named after the deck's strongest creature, Metalwork Colossus. This archetype has posted strong results in Magic Online  and has been piloted by multiple players.
 
Here's the decklist:
 
Creatures (15)
 
4  Glint-Nest Crane    
1  Scrapheap Scrounger   
4  Foundry Inspector   
2  Elder Deep-Fiend   
4  Metalwork Colossus   
 
Spells (22)  
 
3  Metalspinner's Puzzleknot   
4  Prophetic Prism   
4  Spatial Contortion   
4  Cultivator's Caravan   
2  Hedron Archive   
2  Panharmonicon   
3  Skysovereign, Consul Flagship  
 
Lands (23)
 
4  Aether Hub
1  Geier Reach Sanitarium   
2  Inventors' Fair   
7  Island  
4  Sanctum of Ugin   
2  Spawning Bed   
3  Spirebluff Canal   
 
Sideboard (15)  
 
3  Ceremonious Rejection   
2  Harnessed Lightning   
3  Negate
3  Incendiary Sabotage
1  Panharmonicon   
2  Thought-Knot Seer   
1  Lashweed Lurker
 
Creatures Breakdown
 
Glint-Nest Crane is extremely good in this deck. It's going to essentially draw you a card whenever he enters the battlefield. But he can get even better as you'll see later.
 
Scrapheap Scrounger is an interesting one-of. He's a 3/2 for 2 mana, however, which allows him to crew the Vehicles in the deck. His recursion ability is a bit tricky to use as this is primarily a mono-Blue deck before dipping into the sideboard. But Aether Hub and Cultivator Caravan can provide the black mana if you need it.
 
Foundry Inspector may look like a simple artifact lord, but he's actually one of the key creatures in the deck. Not only does the +1/+1 help your creatures and vehicles, but being 3 power means that the Inspector can crew the vehicles you need, too.
 
Elder Deep-Fiend  has already proven to be a good creature. With his alternate Emerge casting cost, you will be tapping down 4 permanents a lot. In this particular deck, he's a great way to finish off the game. As it turns out, there's a fairly quick way to get him into your hand and onto the field long before you would think he could.
 
A full playset of Metalwork Colossus may seem like overkill considering that he's an 11 drop. But there are plenty of noncreature artifacts in the deck, including the Vehicles when they aren't being crewed. It doesn't take much to make this a 10/10 for relatively cheap. The recursion ability can be useful, but since you have Sanctum of Ugin in the deck, you'll be able to get another copy to your hand as soon as you cast him. Sanctum also allows you to get any other colorless creatures in your deck, too, which could often be Elder-Deep Fiend. The earlier you can get down a Colossus, the more quickly you can cast a Fiend for 2 Blue mana. Likewise, when you cast a Fiend, you can go get a Colossus.
 
Non-Creature Spells Breakdown
 
Metalspinner's Puzzleknot and Prophetic Prism both offer card advantage by drawing you a card when they enter the battlefield. This is essentially how you ramp up into a Colossus in the early game by using their combined converted mana cost. It helps that the Prism can fix your mana, too, which is very helpful when you board inthe red cards from the sideboard. Also, the Puzzleknot can be sacrified to draw you another card. The life loss usually isn't going to be that relevant.
 
Spatial Contortion is a versatile card in this deck. This deck has plenty of colorless mana sources. Not only can you use it as a removal spell, but since there are high-toughness creatures in this deck, the extra 3 power can help you win the game out of nowhere.
 
Cultivator's Caravan not only is a solid mana rock, but he can punch in for 5 damage when he's crewed. This vehicle shouldn't be underestimated. Plus, he can tap for mana as soon as he comes down. Hedron Archive is another piece of mana ramp that can be cashed in later for cards. Better yet, its converted mana cost of 4 helps you get the Colossus down faster.
 
 
Panharmonicon is an awesome artifact, and it's getting plenty of deck brewers excited. Here's the first time we've seen Panharmonicon at the heart of a competitive Standard deck. There are so many enter the battlefield abilities in this deck between the artifacts and creatures that having 2 copies of this will let you copy them once or even twice. Even just copying the card draw of the Puzzleknots and Prisms is worth casting the Panharmonicons for. Plus, having a 4 CMC is yet another way to ramp out the Colossus.
 
Rounding out the spells is one of the best Vehicles in Kaladesh, Skysovereign, Consul Flagship. 5 mana for this much power is proving to be good across several different Magic formats. The 3 damage is pretty relevant, and with Panharmonicon, you get that ability twice (a third time if you control two Panharmonicons). Also, having a 5 CMC means that a Colossus is a lot easier to cast. Having Skysovereign as part of a 1-2 punch means you can do damage in the air and on the ground.
 
Lands
 
Aether Hub is proving to be a very strong land. While you can only use the color fixing ability once, usually once is enough. Geier Reach Sanatarium is a useful one-of that allows both players to "loot." With the card advantage that this deck already has, this will usually benefit you more than the other player. Inventor's Fair is both a colorless mana source, and another way to seek out a Metalwork Colossus if you need one.
 
We've already discussed the benefits of Sanctum of Ugin in this deck, and that's why there are a full four copies. There are also two copies of Spawning Bed, which is both a colorless mana source and a way to create three 1/1 Scion tokens later in the game. Whether you choose to use them to attack or pop them for mana depends on the situation. There are also three copies of the red/blue "Fastland" Spirebluff Canal. This appears strange until you look at he sideboard, which has several Red cards which would be difficult to cast with regularity even given all the mana fixing in the deck. The mana base is rounded out by 7 basic Islands.
 
Sideboard
 
Ceremonious Rejection counters any colorless spell, of which there are many in Standard. Harnessed Lightning gives you a way to deal with some problem creatures as you ramp up to your bigger creatures. Negate is pretty self explanatory, and is a great way to deal with opposing vehicles, as they start out as non-creature spells. Incendiary Sabotage may be a double-Red spell (@RR), but sometimes, sacrificing an artifact and dealing 3 damage to all creatures is just what you need to get the board state under control.
 
Thought Knot Seer is useful against control decks, taking your opponent's best answer out of their hand. It's also very good with Panharmonicon, of which there is a third copy in the sideboard. Rounding out the board is Lashweed Lurker, which puts a nonland permanent back on top of an opponent's library. This is a good answer for things like Emrakul, the Promised End which would otherwise be difficult to remove. The third Panharmonicon also makes your Deep-Fiend better by allowing you to tap down 8 permanents instead of 4.
 
 
As a budget deck, this is a pretty good one, and it's been able to make several top finishes in competitive tournaments. As the season progresses, you may be able to get some of these cards inexpensively enough that the deck as a whole may actually cost you less than $100. If I were to choose a deck until Battle of Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch rotate from Standard, this would be my pick.

Toolcraft Exemplar 
 
This Dwarf looks like it could be pretty exceptional. Already he's seeing play in Boros Dwarves and turning him into a 2/3 is extremely easy. Thraben Inspector brings along a Clue token that gives yiu the artifact, as well as Pia Nalaar. Smuggler's Copter, Fleetwood Cruiser, and Skysoverign, Consul Flagship are all solid vehicles to serve as other artifacts in the deck. A 2/3 who will often have first strike for only one mana is super good, and Depala, Pilot Exemplar pumps him into a 3/4. It's possible we'll see him in other formats, as well where artifacts are far more plentiful.  

Ornamental Courage is a one-drop Instant from Kaladesh. It gives a target creature +1/+3 until end of turn and also untaps it. Combat tricks are always pretty good in Limited, especially drafts. But, they don't typically impact Standard unless they do something more special. Untapping a creature and giving it pseudo-Vigilance is definitely useful, though. This should definitely be a good common to have in your draft pile. 

As far as Constructed is concerned,  Ornamental Courage could be useful in some sort of aggressive Ally deck featuring Zada, Hedron Grinder. With Zada, you can target her with  Ornamental Courage and it untaps all of your creatures and gives them the +1/+3 boost. However, in an aggressive deck, you're looking more for something like Titan's Strength, which gives the opposite +3/+1 boost. It also lets you Scry 1 for each time Zada copies it.  So, it's not really an ideal choice for that type of deck.

While this is definitely a good common, being more of a defensive type combat trick means it hasn't seen much play outside of Limited.

Champion's Helm is a card that previously was only available in the Political Puppets deck of the original Commander pre-constructed deck series. Due to its scarcity and usefulness in a number of Commander decks, the Helm became a $10 card. Used mostly in "Voltron" style decks that focus on attacking with their Commander, Champion's Helm offers both Hexproof for any Legendary Creature it's equipped to, plus +2/+2 no matter what the creature happens to be. It's a very solid Equipment.

Being revealed as one of the Kaladesh Inventions means that more copies entered the market. Inititally, pre-ordering for $50 on Star City Games, some players feel that this is too high of a price for it. Being such a rarity, however, with such beautiful artwork, this should be a valuable card down the road. In particular, players of Kemba, Kha Regent and Zurgo Helmsmasher, both popular Commanders who frequently include this card, may want this Invention to pimp out their decks. Really, any Commander deck that attacks with their Commander on a regular basis can use this Equipment. The $50 price tag seems more than fair for the relative rarity of this card and its usefulness in Commander.

We’ve already reviewed Nissa, Vital Force here at Gaming Successfully. So to avoid repeating ourselves too much, here’s a rundown of Vital Force’s abilities.

+1: Untap target land you control. Until your next turn, it becomes a 5/5 Elemental Creature with haste. It’s still a land.

So right off the bat, Vital Force can add a 6th loyalty counter and potentially affect the board in a big way.

-3: Return target permanent card from your graveyard to your hand.

On the surface, drawing 2 cards seems better as a minus ability, especially when one or both can go into play if they are lands. But this allows you to pick up a card you really need.

-6: You get an emblem with “Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may draw a card.

Let’s just say with how easy it is to achieve this ultimate ability, you’ll probably draw a good amount of cards with this emblem.

Obviously, Vital Force is really good at protecting herself, as that Elemental sticks around during your opponent’s next turn, too. Nature’s Architect decidedly is not. The minus ability on Nature’s Architect seems better on the surface, but knowing exactly what you’re getting to your hand is good, too. There is value in card selection, after all! The ultimate on Nature’s Architect is probably game-winning, certainly, but not as useful from a card advantage standpoint.

Will watered down and under-powered exclusive Planeswalkers be the norm for headlining these Planeswalker Decks? That is probably the case. Do keep in mind that these aren’t meant to be as powerful as the Duel Decks planeswalkers, which are in fact, actual Standard-legal planeswalkers on their way out of Standard.

With Chandra, Pyrogenius, I considered her a fun card. It really seems that these planeswalkers were designed for newer players excited about casting their first planeswalker. So I’ll ask the same question as I did for her: is this planeswalker worth casting for 6 mana? Certainly not. Most of the time, the best case scenario is she finds you two lands to put into play and gain you 3 to 6 life. That may be worth 6 mana over the course of a couple turns in a vacuum, but I feel like she really doesn’t do enough.

That being said, I will take her over most intro pack rares any day. She’s highly collectible, and Nissa is an awesome character in Magic. I’m actually happy to check out these decks as they come out and look forward to reviewing them! I may even stick this Nissa into one of my Commander decks where I can just sit there and gain 3 life forever until I run everyone over with her ultimate. She’s underpowered, purposely so, but she CAN do something... eventually! Chandra is probably better overall, but I like my Nissa and I’ll find somewhere for her!

Until then, happy planeswalking!

~ Phoenix