Locations
And that’s where event cards slide in. These are a subsection of cards that are distilled fun in cardboard form.
What is an event card?
An event is any card that, when played, creates an event at the kitchen table, specifically for multiplayer. An event is not a casual friendly card like Rainbow Vale that you pass around the table, nor Humble Defector. Nope! Nor it is a powerful game-changing event that you fully control, like Wrath of God or Insurrection. Nope! Instead it’s a spell with an effect that really is fun, splashy, unforeseeable and interesting.
Take Pain's Reward as a good example. You cast it for 3 mana. Now bid any amount of life, and in turn order, more people bid life. The winner loses their bid and draws four cards. When you cast it, no one knows what will happen. Not the caster, not the various opponents, no one. And in a multiplayer game where you have 3 or 5 or 6 people who want to draw four cards, the results are more and more unplanned and unknown. That makes Pain's Reward a very good example of an event. Now, it’s not a very good event card. Given that the most commonly played multiplayer format is Commander, where people have 40 life and a serious fetish for all things card advantage, you will see a lot of folks winning with bids like 8 or 10 in order to draw four cards and prevent a foe from doing the same. And if you don’t win the bid, then you have lost card advantage, so Pain's Reward will never likely to be the hot new tech to unfurl for your next Commander night.
But you can see what the event here is. Unknown. Effects multiple people. It’s fun. That’s what an event card is.
With that out of the way, what are the best ten event cards (or mechanics) for multiplayer? The powerful ones that combine fun events with real power?
10. Fact or Fiction
This powerful card is one of the best events in the game because you really don’t know what you’ll flip over (usually). But you are guaranteed either three really bad cards or two good ones. You just don’t know which! But, since FoF is being played in a deck you built, you know that there’s nothing worthless there, right? It’s not like you are grabbing five random cards from the top of someone’s desk and just taking what you find there. You built the deck, you know what you are getting, and there is a fun interplay involved in making the stacks, and choosing the right one.
9. Mass Polymorph / Polymorph / Proteus Staff / Synthetic Destiny / Reweave / Chaos Warp/ Indomitable Creativity
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With some exception, these cards tend to be really powerful ways to get rid of a troublesome card, or to try to turn one of your own dopey cards into something much better. Did you topdeck a Birds of Paradise later in the game? Polymorph it and try for something better! And the mass abilities of cards like Mass Polymorph, Synthetic Destiny, and Indomitable Creativity have multiple applications.
8. Oath of Druids
The Oath of Druids was probably designed to be a fun casual card. Is it your upkeep? Do you have fewer creatures than your foe? Then flip over cards until you reveal one, drop it onto the battlefield, and put those revealed cards into the graveyard. Sounds like fun, right? Right! And then we had to go and break it. Here’s my creatureless deck save for this giant beater and Gaea's Blessing to auto shuffle the revealed cards and anything else back into my library for another Oath-go. And then we ran stuff to make sure that our foes played creatures like Verdant Touch and Forbidden Orchard. And we broke it so badly, and now Oath of Druids isn’t really known for being a great event for casual circles, but a powerful engine of death. Sorry Oath!
7. Cursed Scroll
In a similar vein, we took this great fun, card and then broke it so bad it was banned in Block Constructed. But this is a perfectly solid event card, right? “Hey Bob! I have a Swamp in my hand. Pick a card. Is it a Swamp? Nope? Blast it!” Make it into a scene! “Yes? Take two damage Bob! Or shoot that creature for two damage Bob.”I’ve often named a card that wasn’t in my hand at all to let people think I had it so they would play around it. There is a massive amount of bluffing and gambling with this thing. Of course, if you have just one card in hand, then this card reads: “3, Tap: Deal two damage to target creature or player.” Which frankly isn’t that powerful in a modern context. But there is a lot of eventful frolicking to have here, so enjoy!
6. Illicit Auction
This card is great. Choose a creature and then start the bidding. Who wins? That person gets the creature! Congrats! How much life are you willing to pay to gain control of that beater? That Commander? That nasty force? Note that this a Red answer to a Commander that you can’t kill because it’ll just come back with the Tax on its owner’s side. It’s also fun! Sheer unadulterated fun. Push your joy to the max!
5. Liar’s Pendulum
Ah yes, the Pendulum. I would call this arguably the best kept secret among event cards. It’s a bit like a reverse Cursed Scroll. “All right Kevin, I name a card — how about Swamp? Is there a Swamp in my hand? What do you think? Okay, I do have a Swamp? Is that your final answer Kevin? All right, let me reveal my hand. See how there’s no Swamp here Kevin? All right, I’m drawing a card then!”And invariably I’d tap it again and look for something not in my hand last time that I might have drawn. “All right Kevin, you missed last time, this time, the card is Guardian Idol. Is there a Guardian Idol in my hand? No? All right, here’s my hand. See what I just drew? Ah yes, that Guardian Idol. I’ll draw another card then, thanks Kevin!” Liar's Pendulum is a great bluffer, a powerful card, and a strong event each time. Who is the weakest link at your table you can exploit and draw some cards off (Yes, for 2 mana each time and revealing you hand, but it’s a much more fun and accepted way than that janky Mind's Eye crap). Liar on!
4. Temporal Aperture
This is one of the best “Reveal the top card and play it” variants for a bunch of reasons. First, it’s fair. This is a random flip, so you have to shuffle your library first. There’s no chance to set it up with Vampiric Tutor or Sensei's Divining Top or anything. Shuffle, then flip, and you get the card for free! Now, because the Aperture is unable to be broken in the classic sense, it’s nicer, and therefore much more of an event when you play it. In fact, I ran this thing so often in my playgroup, that we nicknamed it, “Rat-a-tat-tat” which is the sound I made when I activated it. “What am I going to get? Rat-a-tat-tat!”It’s also one of the cheapest fun houses on the Reserve List Carnival. So,“Rat-a-tat-tat,” today my friends!
3. Goblin Charbelcher
Tap some mana. Tap the Charbelcher. How much damage we are about to do, no one knows!This card is epic, and the stories from it are incredible. I have killed people when I dug down 11 and hit a Plateau in by 3000+ card deck called Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy, or hit 20+ cards once. It’s so awesome. People play around this. I have a Mono-Red Commander deck with this and some first strike stuff like Bloodmark Mentor. And no one attacks into my stuff. What I get off a big enough Charbelcher to deal enough damage to your creature that I can finish it off with my first strike blockers? This is one of the best, coolest, funnest, and biggest cards out there! Every time you tap it, you begin another event. How much? I don’t know, let’s find out! (And of course, some folks would toss this with Mana Severance to get an auto-win, but it’s still fun without that jank). Create your story!
2. Warp World
There are a lot of these chaotic little cards running around. But Warp World is truly the most eventful of the lot, because it works on everything by every player. As long as it’s a permanent, it’s getting shuffled back. And as long as it’s a creature, land, or artifact, it can hit the battlefield. It’s a powerful reset after someone is about to win with their one or two big beaters, or you have a bunch of land or mana rocks late and nothing else. But beyond that, it’s just fun. What will you get? I don’t know! Let’s shuffle and see what you flip over!
1. Eureka
No card ever printed has been a bigger event at the kitchen table than Eureka. It drops every player’s stuff once at a time, in turn order, as they see fit until everyone is done. It builds momentum and suspense. Some players play their haymaker first, and others last. Some won’t play anything good for a while and drop cheap lands or something until they are forced to do more. Eureka is a great group hug card, and lets everyone get their big giant stuff out. Mana screwed? No one cares! Have a giant card like Eldrazi Conscription to play? You got it! And then layer and have all of those sweet sweet enters-the-battlefield triggers go off. This is it folks! Oh, and check out Show and Tell or Hypergenesis as well.
What else are fun events? Check out some of these effects, keywords, and concepts for more events!
Voting –Cards from both Conspiracy sets like Custodi Squire and Magister of Worth or Expropriate.
Join Forces Mechanic - Collective Voyage / Minds Aglow
Tempting Offer - Tempt with Immortality
All fun!
So what did I miss? Any fun event cards out there that your playgroup just adores? What cards make people smile while creating an event at the table? What makes Magic . . . well . . . Magic?
