Last week I talked about adjusting expectations, and in particular, the usefulness of my ranting about facets of Magic that bother me. From the feedback I’ve gotten from many of my readers, perhaps I was a bit hasty in deciding my rants don’t really do anything useful. So, the good news is that if something is worth ranting about, I’m not going to shy away from it. However, I’ll limit the rants in frequency and spend more time making sure that they have a positive impact, such as offering up reasoned solutions to the problem, etc.
At some point in the near future, I plan on addressing what I’ll tentatively term as the “Clever Quotient” in Standard, but that’s going to take some time to research and reason through. However, the idea of “cleverness” in Magic obviously applies to other formats, so I thought it might be fun to start the conversation in regards to Elder Dragon Highlander.
So what do I mean about “cleverness” in Magic? When I used to do the “State of Green” set reviews, one of the measures I used was cleverness. The term
goes back to a conversation that started back in 2002 in response to something Randy Buehler, then R&D Lead Developer, wrote in one of his
weekly development columns.
I went on
a rant in response
to it, and then Chad Ellis (recently featured in a Ted Knutson
“Conversations”
interview) chimed in with
his thoughts,
basically agreeing with me and expanding on my points. As usual, Chad boiled away the heat of my column and got to the light in the topic, coining the phrase “clever” which has stuck with me ever since. Here’s what I latched onto as a definition of Clever Magic Card:
“Clever things often happen at instant speed and bend or break the rules.”
I’ll go into the points we were making in the upcoming column, but for now I thought it would be interesting to talk about Clever Magic Cards in EDH.
One of the appeals of EDH is the chance to play big, splashy, “haymaker” Magic cards that do crazy and fun things and make great stories afterwards. Many of these sorts of cards tend to operate at sorcery speed—either some sort of big, dominating creature, or a big, swingy sorcery, or some crazy artifact or enchantment combination. It’s tempting to stuff your deck full of these sorts of cards and cards that go find those cards, and when you add in the mana fixing and acceleration, there’s not much room left for other cards.
While these sorts of haymaker cards are generally awesome, there’s a downside—locking yourself too far into your own main phase limits the interaction you have with the other players. Especially in multiplayer games, there are lots and lots of phases outside of your own main phase that you’d like to have opportunities to act and react to what other players are doing. The big, splashy haymaker cards typically don’t let you do that, and often while you’re waiting to have the right mana or board state to play your haymakers, you don’t have much to do. If you find too many turns in EDH outside of the first few turns where you basically play a creature or utility-type spell on your turn and then have nothing to do (outside of maybe assigning blockers) during each other player’s turn, you’re robbing yourself of some areas of enjoyment.
Think about the EDH player who’s playing blue, when he passes his turn with mana up. As his opponent, you know he’s likely got some way to interact with you or the other opponents if he wants to, either with a counterspell or some other instant-speed shenanigans. It keeps him engaged and plugged in to what’s going on during each player’s turn, whether he actually does something or not. Conversely, the green mage who tapped out to play Child of Gaea is pretty well disconnected from any play opportunities outside of the combat step. I think we can all take a lesson from the blue EDH player when building our decks to consider upping the “Clever Quotient” of our decks, to allow us to more fully engage in all the various turns around the table rather than just our own turn.
I won’t go into blue Clever Cards here because, well, you can’t walk through a list of blue instants (roughly 377 including hybrids) without tripping over Clever Cards. There’s an embarrassment of riches, because for the entirety of Magic design and development, blue has been considered the “clever color.” Instead, I’d like to touch on Clever Cards in the other colors that might be good to consider for your EDH decks.
GREEN
When I query the card database for green instants, I get 215 cards. Many of those are Giant Growth or Fog variants, or lifegain spells that I wouldn’t generally assess as particularly clever, but despite all that, there are a fair number of interesting ones and some other instant-speed cards to consider:
Crop Rotation: This powerful instant can open up all sorts of possibilities depending on the land toolbox you’ve got in your deck, which could include Maze of Ith, Strip Mine, Glacial Chasm, Arena, and Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, all of which can be helpful during your opponent’s turn.
Natural Selection: while this is definitely pretty shabby when you compare it to Brainstorm for your own benefit, it’s still helpful in that you can manipulate someone else’s library, either screwing up their Sensei’s Divining Top activation or Vampiric Tutor setup, or helping a temporary ally draw the best of the top three cards (and a Temple Bell could aid in this approach).
Run Wild: Giving a big, beefy creature trample and regeneration unexpectedly can be extremely unpleasant either on your own creature or someone else’s creature when they’re attacking the big bad of the table.
Serene Sunset: If your EDH games have a fair amount of Red-Zone combat, this spell can really be an unpleasant surprise for someone, especially if there are deathtouch creatures involved.
Scryb Ranger: Keep in mind with this awesome gem that you can untap anyone’s creature, which can certainly throw a big monkey wrench in somebody’s plans.
Harmonic Convergence: If one or more players at your table loves their enchantments, and you don’t play too many yourself, this spell can be devastating to force them to draw through and replay all of the enchantments all over again.
Lace with Moonglove: This cantrip definitely deserves consideration thanks to the way trample and deathtouch interact now with the new combat rules.
Reincarnation: Not only is this a fun way to cash in a peon for a huge beatstick of your own, but the flexibility to help someone else (presumably at someone else’s expense) makes this a multiplayer gem.
Spore Cloud: Again, if your EDH games have a fair amount of Red Zone combat, this spell can really screw over one or more players during the attack step. Negating an alpha strike and then leaving players wide open for another turn can really turn the tables.
Haze Frog: I only mention Haze Frog because he’s a fog effect that lets you potentially take out an attacker if its toughness is small enough. Might be a nice pet to pair up with Vhati il-Dal, eh?
Others to consider:
Avoid Fate, Emerald Charm, Reclaim, Seedling Charm, Vigorous Charge, Vitalize, Withstand Death, Bind, Evolution Charm, Lammastide Weave, Provoke, Reap, Repopulate, Tangle, Wrap in Vigor, Caller of the Claw, Chord of Calling, Mercy Killing, Natural Affinity, Realms Uncharted, Snakeform, Momentous Fall, Storm Seeker, Dramatic Entrance, Reach of Branches, Cloudthresher, Summoning Trap
BLACK
When I query the card database for black instants, I get around 200 cards, actually less than green much to my surprise! Many of those are creature kill or Dark Ritual-esque spells that I wouldn’t assess as particularly clever, but there are some others of interest:
Darkness: While Fog in green isn’t really all that clever, when you Fog in black you can really take people by surprise (I did this very thing in my Skithiryx deck two weeks ago).
Misinformation: Much like I advocate Head Games as a way to either punish a player or help another player take down the big bad at the table, Misinformation can do similar things for much cheaper at instant speed, either stacking their library with cards they don’t need, or helping someone else draw something to help out the table (and again, this combines well with Temple Bell if you didn’t do this before their draw step).
Tainted Strike: I consider this a staple black card whether you’re playing poison or not, because in EDH there are bound to be creatures out there that hit for nine or more power, and sometimes it’s easier to kill someone who needs killing with poison counters than with damage (say they’ve just gained infinite life).
Withering Boon: While you expect the blue player to counter a spell, you can really rock someone’s world when the black player says “no” to a creature spell being cast — like, say, a general?
Grim Reminder: If you know your metagame well, you can really take advantage of this card by playing all the staples and then crushing people for playing those same staples. Especially good when paired with reusable bounce!
Sudden Spoiling: Such a great spell to just devastate a player who thinks they’ve got an unapproachable defense or an unstoppable offense.
Murderous Spoils: It’s a bit pricey, but there are so many good pieces of equipment out there, and with Mirrodin block, that it could certainly be worth it to kill a creature and take control of its Sword of Light and Darkness or Umezawa’s Jitte. The new Kemba decks would hate you for this one!
Nemesis Trap: I nearly pulled the trigger on playing Cracked Visage way back in the day, but this upgrade has me pretty close to the edge. Exiling the target and being able to create an exact copy of the creature is perfect, especially if the attacker has some nice comes-into-play or leaves-play abilities.
Others to consider:
Ebony Charm, Entomb, Vampire’s Bite, Virulent Swipe, Batwing Brume, Cauldron Haze, False Cure, Fate Transfer, Grave Consequences, Imp’s Mischief, Imps’ Taunt, Plunge into Darkness, Ragged Veins, Shadow of Doubt, Word of Command, Corpse Dance, Necromancy, Spoils of Evil, Wail of the Nim, Makeshift Mannequin, Memory Plunder, Muck Drubb, Traitor’s Clutch, Treacherous Urge.
RED
When I query the database for red instants, I got a whopping 275 cards! However, the vast majority of those are damage-dealing cards, which aren’t particularly clever in red, and neither are the ritual cards. While there are regrettably fewer clever gems in red than the other colors, there are a few to take note of:
Balduvian Rage: Howl from Beyond effects can be decent ways to interject in someone else’s turn, especially if your deck churns out a boatload of mana, but often it’s just not worth the card. Balduvian Rage solves that problem by replacing itself.
Brand: Used to be so much more fun when you used to
own
any tokens you created, but there are still cards out there that let you swap control of permanents, and Brand lets you snap ’em back under your control at instant speed when the time is ripe.
Mage’s Contest: Like Withering Boon above, no one expects a counterspell from the red mage, and the surprise can leave you the hero of the table (or leave your opponent so low in life as to make the spell a moot point).
Shaman’s Trance: An obviously awesome “screw you!” reply when someone casts Yawgmoth’s Will, but… Call me crazy, but I’ve fantasized about combining this with my own Yawgmoth’s Will and Vedalken Orrery for a long time now.
Final Fortune: I don’t play red too often in EDH, but this is a card I’d likely often run because of the flexibility it gives you. Not only can you use it as simply a Time Walk to take two turns in a row, but in multiplayer it lets you interject yourself in between two other player’s turns when that might be a better move than taking two turns concurrently. Also, if it’s pretty obvious someone’s going to kill you during their turn, why not get an extra turn right before theirs to wreck some havoc and then rob them of the pleasure of killing you themselves? Lastly, don’t forget there are ways to avoid this card’s finality, so pack your Platinum Angel boys!
Master Warcraft: Really?
REALLY
? How have I missed this card in EDH? Taking control of someone’s attack phase and deciding how or if everyone else blocks can totally devastate the entire board during someone else’s attack phase and leave you sitting pretty.
Omen of Fire: Hate this brutal rarely comes at instant speed, but I thought it was worth mentioning since, you know, screwing with people’s islands is always fun, right? Oh, sorry about those Plains dude…
Others to consider
: False Orders, Magnetic Theft, Outmaneuver, Double Cleave, Fork, Reroute, Reverberate, Reiterate, Shunt, Blind Fury, Grab the Reins, Ricochet Trap, Wild Ricochet, Brawl, Radiate, Word of Seizing.
WHITE
When I queried white instants come to find out white’s right up there near blue with around 320 instants, and while the vast majority of them are creature removal, damage reduction/lifegain, or some sort of Limited creature combat spells, I did find a fair number of interesting possibilities:
Blaze of Glory: This classic not only helps you defend yourself from an onslaught, or not only help someone else defend themselves from an onslaught, but you can force a creature to block that might not want to. Flexibility, and of course style points for breaking out this oldie but goodie.
Dawn Charm: I’ve listed quite a few Charms above, but it’s hard to beat Dawn Charm in terms of sheer usefulness in defending yourself or others.
Debt of Loyalty: There are certainly going to be creatures your opponents play that others will be desperate to get rid of, so when they do why not bring them over to your side? Why yes, I believe I will regenerate your poor Kozilek!
Martyrdom: You can use this to save everyone’s bacon from some devastating mass damage… and heck, wouldn’t it be fun to have your Fungusaur take it for the team?
Stonecloaker: Don’t forget about this flexible staple, either as a one-shot, save-my-creature-and-nuke-a-graveyard-card, or as graveyard control with buyback, with a 3/2 flying body all for just three mana. Simply fantastic.
Second Sunrise: So the jackass just floated a bunch of mana, cast Obliterate, and then played a fatty that’s going to kill everyone before they can recover? Imagine how sad he’s going to be when you undo all that and suddenly everyone’s back in the game and pissed at that dude…
Dust Elemental: I consider this a life insurance policy to save three of my creatures from mass removal over and over again, a policy I might sometimes want to cash out for a large 6/6 flier.
Thoughtweft Gambit: How many of you had to hover over this to see what the card was? Yeah, I raised my hand too. While I’m not entirely sure the effect is worth the mana cost and card slot, there’s no denying you can seriously screw with people with this card depending on the timing—either as a fog to save your bacon or other people’s bacon, or as an ambush for creatures attacking you, or as a way to leave someone seriously vulnerable to the table by casting this during his end step.
Others to consider:
Mana Tithe, Orim’s Chant, Pull from Eternity, Scout’s Warning, Abeyance, Batwing Brume, Cauldron Haze, Double Cleave, Honorable Passage, Momentary Blink, To Arms!, Turn to Mist, Whitemane Lion, Aven Mindcensor, Lapse of Certainty, Mercy Killing, Oblation, Truce, AEther Shockwave, Harmless Assault, Master Warcraft, Mirrorweave, Reverent Mantra, Seht’s Tiger, Miraculous Recovery.
Obviously this isn’t an exhaustive list, but merely cards that jumped out to me as ones that could be useful in EDH—I’m sure I’ve overlooked some. Searching by color also left out true gold cards, but since the word count is already getting pretty large I’ll hit on those in a future column.
I hope I’ve given you some ideas here to diversify your EDH decks and expand the interactive playing field in your multiplayer games. Keep in mind the opportunity cost of keeping your mana up for instants that you don’t end up using because a good time to use them didn’t come up. It’s better to lean towards the cheaper Clever Cards for this reason, and it’s also a good idea to adjust your deck with ways to use any of that unused mana during the last end step before your turn.
Have a great weekend! If you’re in the area hope to see you at Richmond Comix for FNM and EDH tonight.
Take care,
Bennie
starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com
Make sure to friend/follow me at:
http://twitter.com/blairwitchgreen
Â
http://community.wizards.com/blairwitchgreen
 New to EDH? Be sure to check out my EDH Primer, part 1
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/multiplayer/17911_You_Lika_The_Juice_An_EDH_Primer_Part_1.html
, part 2
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/multiplayer/17943_You_Lika_The_Juice_An_EDH_Primer_Part_2.html
, and part 3
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/17976_You_Lika_The_Juice_An_EDH_Primer_Part_3.html
.
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My current EDH decks:
Geth, Lord of the Vault (Zombie Apocalypse)
Mystery General (Proliferate, under construction)
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P.S. Â I’m sad to report that my EDH Relentless Rats deck is missing, thinking back I think I may have left it behind at the Richmond Scars of Mirrodin prerelease, along with my trade binder (which was a compact, 4-card page black binder that zipped close). I know it’s
been a while, but if by chance anyone may have seen it or know anyone who found it please point them in my direction. I appreciate it!