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Readers!
It's been 3 weeks since I wrote a "Cards I can't wait to play with" article and I hope you like them considering there will be another one in a few days. The pace at which sets release now is breakneck and I'm having to constantly adjust my decks. This is an entirely voluntary process, mind you, so it's not like I'm complaining about how often I have to spend money on my favorite hobby-turned-jobby, but I AM, as they say, "just sayin'." I was prepared not to find anything I really liked from this set, honestly, and that might have been almost a relief. I preach the gospel of "not everything is for everyone" and while I like Dungeons and Dragons and have been playing since High School (I won't tell you when that was but I bought a 3rd Edition PHB the day they came out), I am not feeling the combination of DnD and Magic. To some people it's chocolate and peanut butter but to me, it's beer and ice cream - two things I like but a combination I don't really enjoy. However, this is still Magic: The Gathering we're talking about and without specifically setting out to do so, WotC wasn't going to be able to make a set with 0 cards I liked and which would slot into my existing decks. So, while I wasn't jazzed for this set, there are quite a few cards to be jazzed about. Let's do another set review.
You Find Some Prisoners
Modal cards are the best. Essentially, they take up two spots in your Limited deck space at once and you always get the best possible version for the situation you're in. The thing I like about this card is that I don't view it as a Shatter with upside, I think the sometimes Shatter is the upside. In a 75% deck, being able to play cards from the top of their deck is very good, and in a world full of Vampiric Tutors and such, swiping their top card at instant speed is often a real beating. With tons of ways to generate a ton of Red mana as needed with cards like Jeska's Will and Mana Geyser, you're going to get something good with this a lot of the time, and it's the perfect addition to a deck with cards like Stolen Strategy.
I have been playing my Valki deck a TON lately on webcam and it may be my favorite deck. Playing their spells is something the deck does routinely, and stapling one more of those effects onto reliable removal is too good to pass up. I don't play Shatter anymore, but if you're asking if I want Shatter stapled to a spell I'm definitely going to play, I say yes every time. Sure, this isn't the sexiest card in the set but I don't know what is because I don't... evaluate cards like that? Three cheers for modal cards.
Honorable Mention to this beast
Xanathar, Guild Kingpin
I wrote about this as a commander last week and I would be remiss if I didn't mention it again. With Valki sort of hitting all of the notes I wanted to hit, and my mana-hungry, weak to sweepers, inconsistent Inniaz deck falling out of favor a bit, I am on the lookout for a new 75% deck. I think Xanathar is very mana-hungry, but I like the idea of loading up on ways to steal their mana rocks. I had a 90% completed Anowon the Ruin Thief deck I never got around to finishing and I think those ruins will end up a Xanathar deck. There isn't really a deck I own that this would fit in the 99 of, even the Gyruda deck I mentioned last week, which is a shame. However, a deck built around Xanathar that doesn't just run cards like Lantern of Insight and instead runs cards like their Sol Ring and their Mana Crypt should be a lot of fun, even on webcam.
Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar
This may be my favorite card in the entire set. The effect seems like it could be a big problem for you since you'll have to recast your creatures if you want them to not die in combat, but there are quite a few decks where a card like this is absolutely bonkers. The first of which is my most recent deck, Lonis. I didn't brew a Lonis deck for this series, but I have been playing it quite a bit and it's a ton of fun. I recently won a webcam game with Mechanized Production on a food token and it felt good to be up to some total BS in Simic that didn't involve putting 100 lands into play and drawing 100 cards. The deck is fairly casual and it was snake-themed for a while, but I am slowly paring snakes away and replacing them with real cards, making the deck even more focused on being brutal and hilarious. Here is the list in its current state.
Lonis Round | Commander | Jason Alt
- Commander (1)
- 1 Lonis, Cryptozoologist
- Creatures (24)
- 1 Academy Manufactor
- 1 Adrix and Nev, Twincasters
- 1 Coiling Oracle
- 1 Dream Stalker
- 1 Erdwal Illuminator
- 1 Ice-Fang Coatl
- 1 Kaseto, Orochi Archmage
- 1 Lotus Cobra
- 1 Mystic Snake
- 1 Orochi Sustainer
- 1 Reclamation Sage
- 1 Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro
- 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
- 1 Sakura-Tribe Scout
- 1 Sakura-Tribe Springcaller
- 1 Scryb Ranger
- 1 Seshiro the Anointed
- 1 Shizuko, Caller of Autumn
- 1 Shrieking Drake
- 1 Skullwinder
- 1 Sower of Temptation
- 1 Tireless Tracker
- 1 Trusted Advisor
- 1 Wandering Archaic // Explore the Vastlands
- Instants (11)
- 1 Arcane Denial
- 1 Beast Within
- 1 Confirm Suspicions
- 1 Counterspell
- 1 Cyclonic Rift
- 1 Essence Flux
- 1 Growth Spiral
- 1 Illusionist's Stratagem
- 1 Plasm Capture
- 1 Run Away Together
- 1 Second Harvest
- Sorceries (4)
- 1 Crack Open
- 1 Neoform
- 1 Seeds of Innocence
- 1 Triumph of the Hordes
- Enchantments (12)
- 1 Aluren
- 1 Burgeoning
- 1 Cryptolith Rite
- 1 Mechanized Production
- 1 Mind's Dilation
- 1 Ongoing Investigation
- 1 Parallel Lives
- 1 Primal Vigor
- 1 Season of Growth
- 1 Trail of Evidence
- 1 Ulvenwald Mysteries
- 1 Weirding Wood
I was looking for the deck to shed some of its awkward snakes in favor of a less tribal, more value-oriented approach and this is as good a reason as any to do that. We already have cards like Essence Flux that are in there aspirationally more than anything else since the plan was always to cut snakes and add more ETB creatures. Anything from Acidic Slime to Man-o'-War could fit well since you get a Lonis trigger when you play the creature, draw a card from Grazilaxx if it isn't blocked and get another Lonis trigger on replaying the card if they block. Aluren makes the deck even sillier with Grazilaxx.
It's not just Lonis that benefits, either. Any Flying Men deck, any Ninjitsu deck, any deck with ETB triggers, basically, will want to take a look at Grazillax. This card is pretty broken in the right deck and I'm looking forward to giving my opponents the unenviable decision of either letting me draw more cards or letting me get more ETB triggers. Lonis is a lot of fun to play and with Lonis able to steal cards from their deck, who even needs Xanathar? I mean... me, I do.
Gretchen Titchwillow
I feel like there are potential scenarios where this is better than Thrasios and that seems... Incorrect to me. I don't know if I want to jam this in every deck like I was with Zimone, but this certainly gets a look. This would be a good time to re-read this article that I'm very proud of.
There isn't a ton to say here - this is obviously very good so this was all a ruse to get you to re-read that article about running more lands. I am gradually shifting toward cards like Sakura-Tribe Scout over cards like Llanowar Elves and I think my addiction to cards with Landfall may be behind it, but also, drawing enough lands early is good and you should try it sometime. A Llanowar Elf that gets Wrathed doesn't produce more mana, but since almost nothing blows up lands, putting extra lands into play versus playing mana rocks or mana dorks means you recover from sweepers better than your opponents. This helps you do that and that's a good thing.
Rogue Class
If I were so inclined to build that Anowon Rogues deck, I'm most likely cannibalizing for parts for Xanathar (not that I even need to, I have a lot of 75% cards, turns out), this would be in there for sure. All of the Class cards are pretty cool, but Rogue Class is the most 75% one and it allows us to play their cards. It costs a lot of mana to get Rogue Class up to Level 3 but it's worth it in a 75% build. Don't underrate anything that gives you access to their cards, and don't underrate anything that does nine mana worth of stuff at the top end if you can run it out for two mana and start to benefit immediately. Rather than sit in your hand all game the way Mind's Dilation does, Rogue Class can impact the game right away, especially if you give everything Menace early. All of the class cards are worth a look, but this one was taillor-made for me and I dig it.
Are there a few other cards, too? Absolutely. This set is very flavor-focused and not for everyone and it focuses a lot on dungeon-crawling, a mechanic unlikely to be revisited (often, anyway). But it also has a lot of treasure-focused cards, solid modal cards and the Commander preconstructed decks are really well designed. What cards are making it into your decks? Leave it for me in the comments below. That does it for me this week. Until next time!
