Hello, Nation! Today I want to give you a few cards for Commander and multiplayer and casual that I think fly way under the radar, and give you a lot of "bang for your buck." I have identified ten cards that I think will really add something to your decks and to the table generally.

Before I begin, I just want to point out how tough it is to write Magic articles right now. I adore Magic, and I played it just yesterday (the day before I'm writing this, not the day before you read it). But I just got Pokemon White, and it's very hard to concentrate on writing about anything other than Pokemon. Gotta catch ’em all!

In some ways, I suppose there are some similarities between Pokemon and Magic. Cards have different value and rarities, and some cards and decks are better against other decks than normal, so if we went into tournaments with six decks, and you could try to match your deck against your opponent, that would be very similar to Pokemon indeed. When you lose, you just shuffle your next deck and start again. Last deck standing wins!

Magic is my universal standard, and I've been wanting to write this column for a bit now. I've picked the cards, and I've got them all ready to go, but every minute I don't play Pokemon is like a day without sunshine, you know?

So I'm going to sit down, try to write this, and put Pokemon out of my mind. Just say no . . . to Pokemon.

What cards am I going to recommend you check out today? Why? Let's take a look!

Battlegrace Angel – An Alara Angel should have a higher value, especially when it is pretty good. You can get the card for very little and the foil for less—signs that it is going under the radar. We all remember a time when any Angel would have a high value and get played a lot—simply for being an Angel. The same was true for Dragons. With so many rares in the post-mythic world hitting the streets, this is no longer the case. The market cannot support the Dragon fans alone, or the Angel fans alone. That's why amazing Dragons and Angels like Flameblast Dragon and Battlegrace Angel are super-cheap, and average Angels and Dragons are bulk cards. Battlegrace Angel's Exalted-plus abilities mean that not only do you get a good body for your board position, but it can contribute immediately—the turn it is played! Exalted is a good excuse to nip someone for damage. Send over anything from Beloved Chaplain to Soltari Priest in order to get a nice little hit in. This Angel is also probably not going to be targeted by foes because it's unlikely to be the biggest threat at the table.

Radiant Kavu – Recently, I've begun to look over every card in Magic, because I've found a few cards I've dismissed a few times, but then had to wonder why. Radiant Kavu is on that admittedly short list. It's a really strong card that you should consider if you are running the colors. Running the right colors is the main hindrance on Radiant Kavu. It's a solid 3/3 for 3 mana, and then you've got a really interesting ability. The activation ability does require some serious mana investment, but it can be used on the turn Radiant Kavu is played, or after you've tapped it to attack someone. It can also be used politically. Feel free to save another player from combat damage from the Black and Blue creatures of the world. Even though Kavu only works on roughly 40 percent of creatures, imagine it in combination with many other prevention effects in your colors, from Kor Haven to Spike Weaver. Imagine Dawnstrider and Horn of Deafening and Safeguard. It's just another tool in the damage-prevention toolbox, only this one can attack as well.

Notorious Assassin – You saw this card in a recent article, since I included it in the mono-Black control Commander deck from last week. It's definitely a card that flies under the radar. It's a great example of the Seal of Doom vs. Dark Banishing issue that I've discussed in this column several times. If you keep it untapped, with a few cards in hand and the mana available, people will expect you to use it. They will play around it. Attacks will go elsewhere. You may not even have anything in your hand that you want to discard to the Assassin, but your foes don't know that, do they? As attacks go elsewhere, and creatures don't annoy you as much, you can see the impact your little 2/2 creature has on the board. It's not as obvious as the impact Avatar of Woe has. Because of the mana + tap + card requirement to use it, it flies under the radar on the board, just like it does in your mind. It's time to dust these off and throw one or two into your decks again.

Trolls of Tel-Jilad – In addition to being a strong card in Type 4, the Trolls of Tel-Jilad are strong for your Green Commander decks, especially one that's mono-Green. In Magic, Regeneration is generally a pretty powerful ability. The ability to Regenerate one of your creatures is very useful in a ton of situations. From making Go for the Throat swing and miss, to keeping your creature in play post–Day of Judgment, to putting combat more in your favor, Regeneration has earned its stripes as a powerful ability. Few cards have the ability to Regenerate another creature. It's too powerful to allow all over the place. The cards that do, such as Yavimaya Hollow, have a lot of value. These guys are another useful card. They can swing, block, and contribute significantly to your red zone. Then they can Regenerate any of your players if you desire. The ability to spend 2 and Regenerate anything Green is very powerful, especially when tacked onto a 5/6 body.

Ghosts of the Innocent – Not every deck is looker for the latest beater du jour. While many players will find a spot for the latest 6/6 flyer or 5/5 Intimidate creature, not every deck wants that. This 7-mana creature suits a different sort of deck than the above Trolls. Sure, you get a 4/5 creature out of the deal. There's nothing wrong with beef! That's not why you play this card. You play this card in decks that don't want to die from opposing burn or creatures. You play the Ghosts of the Innocent, and they slow down your foes with their innocent-ness. Meanwhile, you assemble the pieces of an engine that will kill innocent and guilty alike. This is great for combo decks wanting some space, or control decks wanting some breathing room. As a reminder, this card halves all damage dealt, to anything (all halves rounded down, brought to you by Rounders Anonymous). Creatures, players, your stuff, their stuff, you and them. All damage. Everything. Your Ghosts of the Innocent can block anything up to a 9-power creature and still survive. With a starting life of 40, this thing can essentially drag the game out until someone finds an alternate way of killing folks, takes out your Innocent Ghosts, or manages to deal 1,500 damage to someone to get around this.

Corpse Connoisseur – Using and abusing your graveyard is virtually a requirement of Commander decks. Everything from recursion to incarnations to Flashback to Threshold to Dredge will regularly see play. Cards like Restock and Nostalgic Dreams and Praetor's Counsel can bring back goodies. Playing a card that stocks the graveyard with great cards to recur is common. You see Buried Alive or Entomb all over the place. Wanna know what you don't see? This. To be fair, this costs you 5 mana to get just one great card to your graveyard. Also to be fair, it's not like anyone is doing anything for the first few turns except getting their mana base taken care of. Karoo lands, Signets, Sakura-Tribe Elder—it's all part of the mana phase of the game. Playing this on turn five to get something is about when you would be doing stuff anyway. It's not like there are a lot of similar effects running around, and you can always benefit from one more card in the graveyard. Oh, look—an Anger. Oh, look—a Vengevine. Oh, look—a Bloodghast. Oh, look—a really useful card in Corpse Connoisseur.

Dueling Grounds – The cool thing about Dueling Grounds is that everybody is forced to play by its rules, including you. Of course, you can build your deck around it. Lots of Commander decks have some big fatties from the days of yore through Mirrodin Redux. They can still deal some damage by attacking with just one creature per turn. That means Dueling Grounds feels pretty fair. What Dueling Grounds does is basically two things. It prevents anyone from tipping the scales too far by playing something like Plague Wind or Insurrection and attacking with tons of creatures to win. The second thing it does is hand you a severely awesome defense with just one other card. It doesn't matter what that card is, this becomes awesome with it. Maze of Ith plus Dueling Grounds is broken. Commander Eesha plus Dueling Grounds is rough. Kor Haven plus Dueling Grounds is nasty. Trap Runner plus Dueling Grounds is tough. This is a card that really works well with others.

Angelic Arbiter – 5- or 6-power flyers for 7 mana with a cool ability or two are fairly standard in Commander. Many of the other creatures on this list can contribute to the red zone, but a 5/6 flyer really can. Getting flying enables it to fully participate in the skies, where battle so often occurs. Dragons and Angels and Vampires and Djinn and Elementals and Spirits wage a battle skyward. While Trolls and Beasts and Zombies battle on the ground, their masters battle above them. Angelic Arbiter will do so as well. The Arbiter has two abilities that work well together. Because your opponent can basically choose the order in which they apply, he has control over the ability. When he has control, he feels that the ability is not as bad as it could be. He can play as many spells on his turn as he wants, but then he skips attacking. He can attack with as many creatures and as many targets as he wants, but if he does, he can't play spells on his turn. It's a choice you leave to him—cast spells or attack. Often, he'll just play spells and skip the attack. That's the more common choice. Note that someone who feels particularly constrained by this guy will take it out. Many will like it, because it helps to protect them, too. My general impression when playing it is that foes either don't care, or think it's a minor irritant.

Vodalian Illusionist – Phasing was a lousy ability. Even though they cleaned it up recently, it still has a lot of problems. What happens to the enchantments? What about tokens? It's in play but not in play? What does that even mean? If it is treated as if it is not in play, how does it know to return? Yup, Phasing's got problems. Once you suss out what it means, you can start rocking this: , , and do something amazing. Let me count the ways. You can Phase out a creature in response to removal or a Mind Control. Your creature comes back later none the worse for wear. You can have one of your creatures dodge a Wrath of God or Hallowed Burial. It'll survive with no problem. You can also lock down an attacker that was unruly and attacked you. Shame on it! Is there a creature with an ability that is nasty for you? Phase it out! You can remove a blocker and then swing for serious damage. This also is a great diplomatic tool. Save someone else's key creature, or the Silent Arbiter that is keeping you alive. Use it and abuse it.

Bringer of the White Dawn – I just have one big "WTF?" to ask all of you out there. Why are you not playing this anymore? What happened? Did you get knocked on the head? We are in an artifact block after an artifact block two sets ago, and you can't find a place for this in your decks? Look online at deck lists. What happened to your senses? To be fair, maybe you didn't play in the last Mirrodin set, so let's talk about Bringer of the White Dawn. It costs a pretty penny to play, but you can easily overcome that with anything from Dreamstone Hedron to reanimation to Show and Tell or Eureka-style effects. It's a 5/5 with Trample, and every upkeep you can reanimate, for free, an artifact back into play from your graveyard. Does that sound useful? Heck, sacrifice the aforementioned Hedron for three cards and then recur it. That alone is awesome, and you didn't even have to build around it. This is mega-easy to build around and super-powerful when you do. Imagine playing this in the later game in an artifact-friendly deck. Suddenly, things start coming back. You win the war of attrition, and thus you win the game. This card can give you anything from massive creatures to massive combos to massive power. Just play it.

I hope that you find a card or three in here to try out. For some of you, there may be old friends you've forgotten or cards that have slipped through the cracks of Magic. Find them and give them another day in the sun. Vodalian Illusionist, I choose you!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent