Monday, December 8th – Hi! Still sick. Still finding cheap casual cards in the Mirage through Tempest blocks. Still writing. Let’s go.Hi! Still sick. Still finding cheap casual cards in the Mirage through Tempest blocks. Still writing. Let’s go.
(EDIT: So sick, apparently, that when I wrote this, I left in two large mistakes. Changing them. Then going back to bed. Sorry.)
Legacy’s Allure ($0.50)
Flexibility: 7
Price: 7
Overall: 7
Legacy’s Allure is one of those spells that’s great in multiplayer, since it’s so resistant to being killed. Early on, nobody wants to waste an enchantment removal spell on it, since you’ll just sacrifice it anyway to steal the best low-power creature on the board… Which allows it to last four or five turns, where you can start stealing real creatures.
Yes, there are certain metagames where any “steal creature” effects will be met with absolute death. But if this isn’t your metagame, and most aren’t that bloody, then this is a solid second-turn drop that will work for you as long as you remember the upkeep trigger.
If you’re the kind of guy who forgets upkeep effects, then forget this. It’ll just frustrate you.
Limited Resources ($1.00)
Flexibility: 2
Price: 5
Overall: 4
Let’s be honest and say that I love this card, since it’s an effect you can’t find anywhere else in Magic; if you’re playing at a ten-man table with unlimited range, this can devastate people. Even an eight-player table will generally fall hard, simply because they’re building their decks under the assumption that they’re going to get more than two land drops.
That said, though it’s a great card, Limited Resources is like a combo piece in that if you’re not specifically building decks to take advantage of it, you’re probably going to be just as inconvenienced (if not more) by it. That means what you have here is a great, low-cost card to build a deck around, but you can’t expect to use it elsewhere.
Living Death ($4.00)
Flexibility: 7
Price: 3
Overall: 6
The good news is that you really only need two or three of these to make this work. The bad news is that it’s such an insanely powerful card that you’ll want to throw it into darn near every Black deck you play. Why is it so good? Well, I can’t really say it better than Abe Sargent did last week, so scroll down about halfway and read his wisdom.
There are a lot of watered-down reprints of Living Death, none of them as good. Do yourself a favor and get at least one copy of the original.
Marton Stromgald ($1.00)
Flexibility: 3
Price: 4
Overall: 3
Sadly, Marton Stromgald is fragile and expensive; for four mana, two of it Red, you get a 1/1 creature. This is not the stuff of legends, really.
That said, if you have a token-based deck that relies on churning out guys, Marton can be a powerhouse; like the Spanish Inquisition, nobody ever sees him coming, and he can make an attack with six 1/1s into a smash-face victory. He’s a house on defense, too. Sure, he’s gonna die unless you can save him, but who doesn’t like a challenge?
Mogg Maniac ($0.75)
Flexibility: 6
Price: 5
Overall: 6
Mogg Maniac is one of those cards that just clicks nicely in multiplayer; as a measly 1/1, it dies to anything that looks at it, but it’s an incredible 1/1 on defense, mainly because when it dies it’s going to hurt something. And the bigger the attacker (barring trample, of course), the worse someone is going to get hurt. It’s like a cheaper, one-shot Stuffy Doll.
The good news is that Mogg Maniac isn’t just defense against critters, but it’s also pretty darned good at warning off Earthquake-happy players who want to finish off the table in a torrent of fire. Sure, you can do it, but you’re gonna take the hit, too. And at two mana, it’s easy on the mana curve!
Natural Order ($4.00)
Flexibility: 5
Price: 3
Overall: 6
The “flexibility” here is a little bit misleading, because if you don’t have a heavy Green deck, this is useless. If you do, this is the must-have card, allowing you to exchange a Saproling token for the best Green critter in your deck. I can’t count the number of times I’ve exchanged a Multani’s Acolyte for a Multani, Maro-Sorcerer that played stomp-face with all the guys who thought they’d just pop whatever I brought into play. Likewise, go fetch your Verdant Force, or just about anything else ludicrously big.
If you have a Green deck, this will serve as one hell of a boost for it, guaranteed. It’s worth getting at least two or three of ‘em.
Necromancy ($1.75)
Flexibility: 8
Price: 4
Overall: 6
I’m a big fan of reanimation spells in multiplayer, since once you’ve dispatched your worst nightmare on the board, they can get it back and working for you. Necromancy is one of the best reanimation spells for multiplayer, since in a pinch it can work as an instant at the cost of burying the critter at end of turn, bringing in a blocker when you need it — and given that Animate Dead only costs a single mana less, for 2B instead of 1B you get quite the upgrade.
Keep in mind that you can use Necromancy to fetch things you want dead by the end of the turn — there’s been any number of occasions where a just-before-end-of-turn Necromancy has fetched a Kokusho, The Evening Star from someone’s graveyard, making life miserable for us all.
Phyrexian Walker ($0.50)
I’m not telling you to get this. It’s terrible. But I do nominate this for “Most mismatched flavor text in all of Magic.”
I mean, look at the card’s stats. Then read the flavor text. Then wonder what the hell they were thinking.
Power Sink ($0.10)
Flexibility: 9
Price: 9
Overall: 8
This is a pretty sweet card for fighting control matches — if they can’t pay the mana, they’re not going to have any mana left for other Counterspells, making this a wonderful thing to pick a fight with just before your beginning of turn arrives. And as an X spell, it does have the occasional misfire in the late game when someone has infinite amounts of mana — but in general, four times out of five this destroys the spell you’re looking to stop. The other time, it empties their mana pool, at least stopping further shenanigans. And for ten cents, come on!
Pox ($2.50)
Flexibility: 4
Price: 4
Overall: 5
Much like Limited Resources before it, Pox is a great card to build a casual deck around — okay, people will hate it since it eats their hand and land and life, but it’ll be effective enough that generally they’ll hate it in impotent fury. But the Black-heavy nature of it means that it’s going into one deck, a mono-Black deck, and that’s about it.
There are a zillion Pox decks out on the Internet — that’s the advantage of having a card that’s been around for a while. And Pox decks can be generally cheap to build if you strip out all the expensive Legacy chrome that gets crufted around it. My advice is that if you’re looking for a no-prisoners-taken Casual deck to whip out occasionally to remind your table that hey, you could be meaner than you are now, Pox is a solid choice.
Price of Progress ($2.50)
Flexibility: 7
Price: 4
Overall: 6
I’ve long championed Price of Progress as a fine niche card; if all of your opponents are playing with fancy-shmancy land bases, tricking their decks out with trilands and fetchlands and what-have-you lands, this can often kill them in one shot come the late game. You have nine lands? All of them non-basics? Well, take eighteen damage at instant speed, and everyone else with non-basics takes damage, too!
Sadly, the popularity of Price of Progress — people are, apparently, down with POP — means that it’s more expensive. But at 1R for a potential game-ender, it’s well worth the $10 to pick up a full set.
Rashida Scalebane ($0.50)
Flexibility: 3
Price: 7
Overall: 4
Not the strongest card you can get for five mana, but every casual table loves to have Dragons, and Rashida does ugly things to them once he goes active. I wouldn’t put four of him in a deck, but I very well might throw one in as a surprise one-of just to keep my friends on their scaly toes.
Reins of Power ($1.00)
Flexibility: 8
Price: 6
Overall: 8
I picked this card as one of the finest Blue multiplayer cards ever printed, and only the double-Blue in the casting cost stops this from being a 9 on Flexibility. Using Reins of Power, you can kill someone with their own army, or steal someone else’s army to block an incoming attack (to your benefit), or just yank everything away at instant speed to sacrifice it all to, say, Goblin Bombardment. Reins of Power has saved my bacon so many times I’m calling it my Pork Protector, and you should have four. Now.
Ruination ($0.50)
Flexibility: 4
Price: 6
Overall: 3
For twice the price and a Sorcery-speed spell, you can destroy all non-basic lands instead of dealing damage to their controllers. I’m not a fan of this, because it leaves them alive to come get you… But on the other hand, it’s a fifth the price. So if you’re too cheap (or too thrifty, if you like) to get Price of Progress, you can pick this up for two bucks.
Sadistic Glee ($0.25)
Flexibility: 7
Price: 8
Overall: 6
Hey. You like Jund? You like the way Algae Gharial, Rockslide Elemental, and Scavenger Drake quietly build momentum with each other creatures’ death — something that happens an awful lot in multiplayer? Well, for a single Black mana, you can turn almost any critter you like into a Jund monstrosity, gaining +1/+1 tokens galore!
Put it on something good. Almost any creative player can think of a way to use a bunch of +1/+1 tokens; the only problem is, of course, that it’s a fragile ol’ creature enchantment, but at least the tokens stay on your guy when he dies.
Scars of the Veteran ($0.25)
Flexibility: 4
Price: 7
Overall: 3
At five mana, Scars is really expensive for a Constructed combat trick…. But on the other hand, you can get it for free, and preventing seven damage is a lot. Preventing seven damage and swelling your blockers’ butt is even nicer.
Problem is, removing a White card from the game is a lot harder to justify in a color that struggles to draw cards — Blue gets a ton, so Force of Will is fine. Black can get cards on demand at some cost, so Contagion is all right. Scars is okay, and worth looking at, but a tough sell except in certain decks, so a 4 it is.
Shadow Rift ($0.25)
Flexibility: 6
Price: 7
Overall: 5
It’s not for every deck. But “Oh, my largest guy is now unblockable, I’ll draw a card” is a trick that often ends games, and for a buck it’s not a bad thing to have in your arsenal.
Shattering Pulse ($0.25)
Flexibility: 6
Price: 7
Overall: 5
There have been a lot of Shatter effects over the years, but this is among the best because it’s reusable. Buyback is such a fun mechanic, and this was printed long before they realized how potent it was, so for five mana you can destroy any artifact and have your spell back to do it again.
The only problem is, of course, that this is useless if nobody has artifacts, making this heavily metagame-dependent. But because it is a buyback spell, packing a singleton copy Just In Case makes it something where you can merrily pop Signets all day until a good target shows up.
Skyshroud Elf ($0.25)
Flexibility: 7
Price: 7
Overall: 5
Druid of the Anima is a punk, yo.
Soltari Guerrillas ($0.75)
Flexibility: 5
Price: 5
Overall: 6
The 2WR mana cost lowers this card’s flexibility, but the nice thing is that once the Guerrillas (Guerillae? Guerrillarian?) is on the board, it can pick off targets at will. Attack the guy who’s defenseless and start picking off someone else’s utility guys! Yes, it’s a creature and prone to dying to all the stupid things that creatures die to, but a) hardly anyone plays Shadow critters these days, and b) it’s potentially reusable creature kill, which is always a nice thing to have in multiplayer.
Soltari Visionary ($0.25)
Flexibility: 5
Price: 7
Overall: 6
Like the Guerillen above, Soltari Visionaries really only goes in heavy White decks, but it pops enchantments with style while doing two to the face, making it a great backup to the usual slew of Disenchant effects. Full Disclosure: I hardly ever play a White deck without throwing in at least one of these puppies.
Spike Cannibal ($0.25)
Flexibility: 3
Price: 7
Overall: 3
For years, I have played with copies of this in my Black decks, envisioning the day when I’ll cast this at a multiplayer table and slaughter seventy Simic creatures at once, gaining a 100/100 guy in the process.
This has never happened, and I’ve been playing with him for like four years.
So what I’m saying is that I want to like him. I want someone to have much better luck with him to prove that the little tickle at the back of my head that says, “COOL, USE THIS” isn’t the same voice that told the guys at Jonestown to drink the Kool-Aid. But I’m pretty sure it is.
Spike Weaver ($2.00)
Flexibility: 6
Price: 4
Overall: 5
The Weaver is a reusable Fog, and that’s very valuable in multiplayer — once you can control the flow of attacks, the better. And, with some judicious spells to add counters, of which there are many (Sadistic Glee, anyone?), you easily create infinite Fog effects, allowing you to only let combats happen if you like the results.
The double-Green makes it tricky for other decks to cast, but again, in a heavy Green deck, this is often a must-have.
Spirit of the Night ($7.50)
Flexibility: 4
Price: 6
Overall: 6
Here’s the deal. Sometimes, in a Black deck, you want a big, stupid finisher. This is one of the best big, stupid finishers that Black’s ever had printed — it has haste, so it comes out of nowhere, it flies, has first strike, it has trample, and it does Dragon-sized damage. You’ll only want one or two in your deck because it’s the top end of any sane mana curve, but that one or two wins games.
Survival of the Fittest ($11.50)
Flexibility: 8
Price: 3
Overall: 4
Survival of the Fittest is one of those cards that makes a toolbox deck work — which is ironic, because it’s a very specific tool itself. It’s horrendously expensive, of course, but when you need it it’ll make certain kinds of decks sing — particularly, the kind that need a very specific critter in play at a given time. That makes this a have-to-have for creature-based combo decks, fills up graveyards quite nicely for backbreaking Living Deaths, plays wonderfully with Madness effects like Arrogant Wurm, and acts as critter tutoring.
It’s expensive. And I wouldn’t advise getting a copy until you have a deck that really is going to abuse it. But when that day comes — and oh, almost certainly it will — then shell out for it, m’kay?
Thawing Glaciers ($4.00)
Flexibility: 8
Price: 3
Overall: 5
There are those who swear by the Glaciers as a slow way of thinning out your deck in a long game. And it’s great for that, making this a top pick for decks that aim to win very long battles through attrition… Which, okay, is most multiplayer decks.
If I was being rational, I’d probably rank this a 7 or an 8, because it’s a land and really, it will do a lot of good for you. But I am not that enamored of the Glaciers because they haven’t worked that well for me in real life, so I’m going to be petty and give them a 5 because really, for sixteen bucks they should be so awesome they win you the game.
Take that, Glaciers. Work better for me next time!
Tithe ($2.50)
Flexibility: 7
Price: 3
Overall: 7
I love Tithe. I have four in every one of my White decks where I can afford it, because outside of Land Tax this is one of the best land-fetching spells ever created. With a Tithe, you can keep stupidly land-light hands and still be pretty much guaranteed to cast what you want. If you have Dual Lands, as I do, then raise this to a Flexibility of 8, because getting a pair of Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrublands[/author] with a Tithe is sweet indeed.
For a while, the Tithe dropped as Ravnica’s bouncelands were everywhere, thus frustrating my attempt to ask, “So, anyone have more land than I do?” — but thankfully, that’s passed, and once again on the end of my first turn I can consistently get two Plains. Neat.
Tombstone Stairwell ($0.50)
Flexibility: 4
Price: 6
Overall: 3
I’m not a fan of this card, because it’s a combo piece. That said, it’s a fun and powerful combo that’s been around for years — the kind of combo that’s entertaining to lose to because you feel that you might almost be able to abuse the Stairwell yourself – and if you’ve never heard of this card before, then do yourself a favor and Google the words “Tombstone Stairwell deck.” If that intrigues you, then picking up four is the work of two easy bucks.
Vampiric Tutor ($12.50)
Flexibility: 8
Price: 2
Overall: 5
Legacy and Vintage say you can only have one of this in your deck, so by spending $12.50 you’ll get a copy of a very potent card. But while getting any card in your deck at near-instant speeds is always a solid effect, is it so great that it’s stronger than $12.50 of other singles you can buy, which will often get you seven or eight cards? Not in my opinion. It’s a very-nice-to-have, but not a must-have.
Volrath’s Stronghold ($5.00)
Flexibility: 4
Price: 3
Overall: 4
One of the few lands that allows you to recurse, the problem with the Stronghold is that it does chew up a draw phase. Poor players will invariably get stuck on “OMG, I CAN HAVE MY SENGIR VAMPIRE BACK!” and put it back on top of their deck six times to bring it out as a blocker, not noticing that the board is evolving to the point where a Sengir Vampire is pretty much irrelevant.
That said, it’s a fun card to have, it often comes in very useful when everyone else has burned up their Wrath of Gods and you want a threat now…. And you only need one or two, really. A solid choice, just not my first one.
Wall of Blossoms ($2.00)
Flexibility: 8
Price: 4
Overall: 6
On many occasions, Green would be more than happy to have a card that read, “1G: Draw a card.” This not only gets you a card, but it nets you a handy 0/4 blocker that serves as excellent defense. Combine it with something that returns cards to your hand (I use Stampeding Wildebeests) and you have the nascent beginnings of a card-drawing engine.
Or you can just have a free Wall. Either way, it’s a great thing to have.
Wall of Souls ($0.75)
Flexibility: 7
Price: 5
Overall: 6
Much like Mogg Maniac earlier, the Wall of Souls is excellent on defense because unless the attacker fliers, your opponent is going to receive a faceful of damage. This steers people away from attacking you, which is what you want in multiplayer games. And for 1B, it’s cheap and easy to cast. What’s not to love?
Winds of Rath ($1.00)
Flexibility: 4
Price: 7
Overall: 3
If you can’t afford a full set of Wrath of God, this is the next best thing — a five-mana spell that pops any creature with no enchantments on it. (Plus, I love the illustration on it.) While many players adore this card, the problem is that it can backfire; I did play with this in the days before I picked up my own Wrath, and sadly spells like Armadillo Cloak and Rancor became even more troublesome when my global destruction left my opponents with their best creature, happily clad in shimmering raiments of “Smash my face.”
If you can’t get Wrath, get this. But in general? Get Wrath.
Zirilan of the Claw ($2.00)
Flexibility: 2
Price: 3
Overall: 2
Sometimes I mention cards simply because they don’t get enough love. The Claw here is a card that’s only good in a themed Dragon deck, and useless anywhere else — but everyone loves Dragons, and this card is old enough that people have forgotten about the Claw!
So if you have a Dragon deck, consider this. You’ll be happy with it, I promise.
Zuran Orb ($1.00)
Flexibility: 8
Price: 6
Overall: 2
Some people like the Zorb. I hate it.
In some decks, the Zorb is okay; if you have a Crucible of Worlds or some other trick to recycle lands, then you have a life engine that’s mildly fair. I have no problem with that.
In most decks, however, the Zorb is an “Oh my Lord, I’m about to lose, I’d better sacrifice some lands!” card. And it gets played, and the guy sacrifices five lands and gains ten life, and now he’s down five lands and can’t do anything, but he’s managed to drag the game out for another three turns by accomplishing literally nothing at all but sacrificing all of his future potential to stall us.
What’s he gonna do? He has two lands and is at five life. Yes, you can live another turn by sacrificing those two lands, but you’re going to die the next turn anyway. Learn to concede with dignity. As it is, the Zorb usually serves the function of Sunny von Bulow’s life support machines, keeping a dead deck alive for no apparent purpose.
And you know, I would have used that comparison anyway even if she hadn’t died. That is how hip I am.
Signing off,
The Ferrett
The Here Edits This Here Site Guy
TheFerrett@StarCityGames.com