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Originally titled: CasualNation #17 - Koskun Falls and Other Cards You've Never Heard Of (But Should Have!)
Hello Nation! I hope that your last week has been full of Magic, fun, and Magic-fun! Welcome back to the column for the casual side of all of us. Today I'm going to look in detail at a few cards that have probably fallen through the cracks of most player's minds. I'll try to dig them up, talk about them, and give you some deck ideas for the cards. Perhaps I'll even build a deck or two here, just to round out the article!
Do you want to rock multiplayer with a few hidden gems? Are your Commander decks in need of a bit of refreshment? Let's take a look at the goodies below, starting with the one from our title!
Koskun Falls
Did you know that the very first Propaganda effect ever printed was in Black? Let's say you are rocking a Dromar deck (or Esper) and you want to play some Propagandas. There's Collective Restraint, The Propaganda itself, Ghostly Prison, Windborn Muse and…? There's not a lot of other options for you. So you grab Gatherer and take a look to see if you can't find another Propaganda. You find Elephant Grass, but that's Green and has cumulative upkeep – not your style. Then you find Koskun Falls – a Black Propaganda.
At first, you wrinkle your nose. It costs four mana, not three. It's an Enchant World. As such, it can be killed by anyone else playing an Enchant World. Then it has a major issue – an upkeep of tapping a creature. If you fail to do it, it goes away. That's not insignificant. However, increasing your options to five from four is pretty good. How can you alleviate the issues this card has?
Tapping a creature every upkeep is not great. If someone cleans out your creatures, or plays a Wrath of God, then you'll lose the Falls. Or will you? You know, you could up the number of creature lands in your deck. Let's play Celestial Colonnade, Creeping Tar Pit, Faerie Conclave, Mishra's Factory, Mutavault, and Blinkmoth Nexus. Perhaps Guardian Idol would be a nice addition as well. Now you can make a creature during your upkeep and then tap it for the Falls. That would only cost you two mana for some of those (one to tap, and the creature/land tapping takes away two mana).
This also has a place in Black decks that could use a Propaganda effect. If someone sweeps the board, just bring back an Ashen Ghoul or Nether Shadow during your upkeep and tap it for the Falls.
Kulrath Knight
I think this has got to be one of the best, subtle cards printed by WotC in the last five years. I adore it, and it has a lot of fun things that interact with it. Obviously, in a set with wither and an emphasis on -1/-1 counters, Kulrath Knight was meant to play along well with others.
Imagine the fun things that you could do with the Knight in block. All of those cards are still available to you today. Take a look at cards like Puncture Bolt, Scar, Cultbrand Cinder, and Incremental Blight (among others). There's also the devastating combo of Kulrath Knight and Midnight Banshee. Take a closer look at Necroskitter too. Ouch. Even Pyrrhic Revival won't help your enemies, as they will be unable to attack or block with the creatures that came out.
You can use all of these tools, along with cards from Serrated Biskelion, Grim Poppet, and more.
The cool thing about Kulrath Knight is that the combos don't end with -1/-1 counters. You could put it in a Red/Green deck with Spikes. Add in the Green graft creatures and you've got some deck ideas right there. Now when Jugen dies, up to five opposing creatures will grow a bit, and find themselves totally unable to attack or block. Forgotten Ancient will make this deck sing, and it can put counters on an opposing creature that has shroud or protection from Green.
One clever way your foe can get past your defenses is to play manlands. My recommendation is to rock Obsidian Fireheart. It will put counters on lands, and then even if they are turned into creatures, they cannot attack or block.
You'll find all sorts of cards that are better with a Kulrath Knight. Forget Act of Treason or Threaten – take a look at the awesome power of Mark of Mutiny. The +1/+1 counter it gives the creature when you grab it and attack will keep it from doing anything later while the Knight is around
Not only does Kulrath Knight take cards that were so-so and make them great (Mark of Mutiny) but it also takes cards that absolutely sucked and makes them work. Bomb Squad is a horrible card, but since it reads tap, put a fuse counter on a creature, it becomes deadly with a Kulrath Knight out. Another card that goes from suck to super is Aku Djinn. It single handedly puts every creature at the board that you aren't controlling on lock down by Kulrath Knight. Dragon Blood was never that good, but now it can keep those creatures off your back.
I tried to keep these ideas in the Black or Red colors of Kulrath Knight (except for the Green ideas above that hit me). There are lots of other counter heavy colors out there as well. The Kulrath Knight can easily be the lynchpin to several deck ideas, especially new ones from Scars of Mirrodin (such as Contagion Clasp, Contagion Engine, infect creatures, and a ton more) so good luck finding them!
Overwhelming Instinct
Outside of a Planar Chaos card in Harmonize, Green has to work for its card drawing. Its drawing is almost always dependant on creatures. Cards like Soul's Majesty, Nature's Resurgence, and Collective Unconscious all prove this easily.
What I love about Green card drawing is that you can usually play a janky enchantment for cheap, and then leave it out while you benefit, just based on how your deck is built. Take a look at cards such as Kavu Lair, Enchantress's Presence or Primitive Etchings. They are all just oozing card advantage for decks with larger creatures, enchantments, or a large number of creatures.
While Green certainly has some interesting options in the card advantage front, Overwhelming Instinct has tweaked my "This-is-Better-Than-it-Seems"-radar (My TIBTIS-dar). Green decks regularly play lots of creatures, and a lot of Green effects are about spawning a slew of creatures all at once (One Dozen Eyes, Acorn Harvest, Grizzly Fate, Squirrel Nest: I could go on all day).
Token decks will easily attack with three or more creatures, thus netting you a precious card from Overwhelming Instinct. There's also the obvious swarm deck, from elves to Stompy, there are a lot of options here for an average aggro deck, and this will help to ensure that you draw enough cards to fuel the fire or to have ammo post mass-removal.
Even if you draw, say, three cards from the Instinct – wasn't that worth the three mana investment? Even just two cards drawn is at the Divination level of drawing. What if you end up drawing a lot more? Plus, these stack in a very nasty way. At a multiplayer table, you can split your attacks, and send one creature at Bob and two at Ray. That still counts, and you draw your card. Heck, if you've made a temporary alliance (or playing a variant with an ally such as Secret Alliances from last week's article), you can attack with a Birds of Paradise and two 1/1 creatures and she'll block with two 0 power walls and you draw for free every turn.
I think there's a solid amount of power behind this card.
"Powerstone Minefield"
I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Powerstone Minefield. Caltrops had become one of my favorite cards to draft around, and then a few sets later, we saw the Powerstone Minefield of awesomeness. It's a great card to shut down opposing attackers.
Obviously, if an opponent has a creature that would die in the attack, then that guy stays back. It also damages them severely. Are you attacking with a Fire Elemental into a Grizzly Bear with this out? Nope. Just add cards to your deck with really high defenses, protection from Red (and since you are playing White already, I think that can be arranged), or janky abilities like Dawn Elemental. Between Cho-Manno, Revolutionary, and Indomitable Ancients, and perhaps even Voice of Law and you'll be fine.
The beauty of this card is seen when people attack you and take damage, and then you exploit that with secret cards (aka instants) that TRAP them. I know that it's a third color, but look at Fatal Blow, as a good example of such a trap card. Your opponent attacks with a Hellkite Overlord, thinking it will shrug off that two damage from the Minefield, and then, all of the sudden, BOOM! Fatality! It's just too bad that Final-Sting Faerie doesn't have flash. However, there is one unusual card that will abuse this – Witch's Mist. Attack into it, and I'll tap this enchantment and kill your dude. That's a nasty defense.
Red has some cards that will help you out. Take a look at Opportunist and Initiate of Blood and Crushing Pain. They can help finish off a creature that the Minefield damaged. You can easily flip the Initiate into a creature that will keep your opponent from even thinking about attacking you.
Imagine you get out two of these boys. That's a shutdown defense.
In order to swing though, might I suggest a creature like Soltari Priest? Shadow can usually break through a defense, and its pro-Red state will keep it from dying to your own card.
I wrapped up this deck with a few tricks to keep the damage coming. Antagonism starts killing your foes if they aren't damaging you. They can settle into panic mode early. I also included a single copy of Aurification, so if they manage to get in a hit with a creature once, they won't again. Since I have Idyllic Tutor, I wanted a few extra options. I also added Orim's Thunder for removal of cards that could end your deck's plan and Fireball either as emergency removal or late game killing.
One card I considered heavily was Grand Melee. It forces all creatures to attack and block each turn, and forcing your opponent through one or two Minefields would really help to push them over the edge. Only, then you'd have to swing every turn as well. The deck would look a lot different, but it could be even more damaging. (Take a look at Dingus Staff). Another card I was looking at was Bullwhip, which would not only damage a creature, but also force it to attack and thus die.
Crystal Chimes
One of the cool things about Replenish is that's it has always been a tool you can grab for recurring dead enchantments. You can use it to be the card that puts together an abusive enchantment deck or just a card to recur those that have died to get them back. The only problem has been that you are forced to play White in order to do so. Although it doesn't put them right into play, perhaps Crystal Chimes is more up your ally.
You can recur cards like Pernicious Deed, Saproling Burst, Fists of Ironwood, Seal of Doom and Seer's Vision for another go around. I'm sure you can find a ton of abusive enchantments to recur, and without the hang up of being forced to play White in order to play Replenish, your color selection can be based solely on the power of the enchantments.
Obviously, enchantments that sacrifice for an effect are good choices. I mentioned a few above. The Seals are a great choice, Pernicious Deed getting recurred is downright nasty, and things like Smoldering Tar and Seer's Vision have interesting effects when sacrificed.
Enchantment based creature recursion gives you another go if the creature dies. Take a look at Necromancy and Animate Dead for ideas. No Rest for the Wicked is both an enchantment that sacrifices and is a form of recursion for your deck.
You could bring back the Parallax cards for another go. Parallax Tide, in particular, seems rather naughty.
Another idea would be to let the cumulative upkeep on a valuable card expire, and then recur it and play it again. Perhaps you could restart a Brand of Ill Omen or Energy Storm. Heart of Bogardan is particularly nasty with a way to recur it. By the time they have recovered, it's ready to blow up again.
A particularly valuable enchantment that sacrifices for an effect is Legacy's Allure. Imagine recurring a few of those back to steal even more creatures.
Some of the Quest enchantments get sacrificed for their big effect. Bring them back so you can build them up a second time.
There are clearly a lot of interesting cards out there to combine with Crystal Chimes. You don't have to play White anymore. It's still a good idea for Mesa Enchantress, Replenish, Auramancer, Academy Rector and Idyllic Tutor, but it's not required.
How about a quick deck?
"Crystal Blue Persuasion"
- (60)
- 4 Crystal Chimes
- 4 Legacy's Allure
- 4 Seal of Doom
- 1 Seer's Vision
- 1 Persuasion
- 2 Necromancy
- 4 Undermine
- 4 Probe
- 2 Copy Enchantment
- 2 Compulsion
- 4 Halimar Wavewatch
- 2 Skull of Orm
- 4 Creeping Tar Pit
- 4 Jwar Isle Refuge
- 2 Academy Ruins
- 8 Swamp
- 8 Island
This deck uses the engine mentioned above. I also added a pair of Skull of Orm for more enchantment recursion. Knowing that I would love to reuse the Crystal Chimes, I included a pair of Academy Ruins to bring them back so I can bring back my enchantments.
Seal of Doom, Seer's Vision, and Legacy's Allure all sacrifice for effects. Copy Enchantment, Persuasion, and Necromancy are going to see the graveyard a lot. Bringing these guys back is an obvious way to abuse the deck.
I added Halimar Wavewatch to the deck to give you some early defense, and then you can turn them into beaters later. One level up counter makes them a nice 0/6 wall you can sit behind. I also added four Creeping Tar Pit to give you a few more winning conditions. You do have the ability to steal and animate creatures your foes throw at you, so you have more than it may appear at first sight. Since you can recur the Legacy's Allures and Seals of Doom over and over again, you also have more removal than it may seem at first.
I gave you a bit of card drawing/sorting/discard with Probe, and some backup emergency counters with Undermine. Finally, I rounded out the deck with a pair of Compulsions, which can sort through your cards, put enchantments in your graveyard just prior to a Chimes going off, and can be recurred themselves after you sack one. My last cut was Drift of Phantasms, because many of your cards cost three mana. I felt the Wavewatch was a better defensive creature in this deck for the early game since it could be a beater later.
Today's five cards are those that fly under the radar. In some cases, they are real unknowns! There are some great cards in Magic that have become relative unknowns. That's very sad to me. Find some and abuse them!
See you next week,
Abe Sargent
