Soul Shatter is sooooooo good. Instant speed… so many times the whole table casts out their commanders thinking it is safe… then before I untap… set them all back two turns.
There have been so many over the years that I've actually recently taken all of those cards I've been wanting to play but don't make the cut, and shoved them in a deck of their own under some generic Sultai commander. Stuff like Prognostic Sphinx, Bounty of the Luxa, Reaper of the Wilds, Ashiok Nightmare Weaver, etc. It's still getting tuned, but I've been really happy with the results of the deck so far even if it doesn't have the highest power level.
I had quite a few of these cards that were just generically good. I decided to just build the mono black good stuff deck that has very little synergy (besides mana doublers) and just great cards. I know everyone says those decks suck and aren't creative, but it's fun to play.
Mirage mirror is almost worth running always if you are in multi color with green and running a creature deck. Getting a second gaea’s cradle for turn can win games even tho you’ll have to sac the real one if it’s you who controls cradle. I use mirage mirror in my mono green Kodama of the west tree deck. When I do get two gaea’s cradles uses for turn it’s usually gg
Have played wandering Archaic on the back side before. I was in a pod that was really light on instant and sorceries and so I knew it's front side wouldn't trigger much. Played the back side and all my opponents wiffed, plus I got a cast trigger too!
Like, wow. I was scrolling through scryfall just the other day, and thought I was a genius for discovering Vermiculos. It seems like a bit of a sitting duck as a 5 mana 1/1 with no keywords, but +4/+4 on such an easy trigger gets it big enough to be worth it real fast. Definitely a good consideration moving forward, especially with a Horror tribal commander precon on the horizon.....3-4 days from this comment.
Casting an entwined Wail of the Nim with a Pestilent Spirit on board gets you a pretty solid instant speed, one-sided board wipe. One my favourite moves in my Inalla, Archmage Ritualist spellslinger deck.
I love Halo Fountain in Emmara. Untapping is powerful in general it functions as pseudo-Vigilance or ramp on mana dorks. But with just Emmara out it adds 2 tokens to the board, 3 if you have a tap effect. It can be played the turn after Emmara comes down too... Awhich is making me think I should switch my ramp in a Emmara to dorks.
I also don't have Wandering Archaic in any of my decks because I'd just rather be doing more on theme stuff for the deck instead of generically powerful stuff too so you're not alone Dana. I also have seen it cast for the backside once before and was just completely shocked and didn't know what was going on cuz I'd never seen it before, lol
Is archaic better than the worst card in your deck? Probably. Does that matter in a casual format? Nope! Unless you’re doing some weird copy stuff or playing colorless I see no reason to include it
@@Shulwelld Couldn't have said it better myself! I don't want all my decks to just end up being generic "good stuff" piles. It's one of the reasons I love commander, I get to do some weird fun stuff that just wouldn't work in more competitive Magic.
@@jamescooley5241 True. There are ways to copy/replay the effect of course. Not that i really recommend using this card combo in a commander game anyway tbf
I cracked a Halo Fountain and put it in my Maja, Bretagard Protector deck. It pushes me to attack a little more than I normally would, but I enjoy the deck that way and it’s a fun trick. It’s definitely better in Katilda.
I love this topic. There's so many neat cards that just never leave the maybe board, or they do and then then you're sad about it and put it back in the maybe board. I mostly play Lifegain decks so unlike the Zendikar Resurguence discussion, which could be expanded to apply to all enchancer style effects in that they come down and do nothing now but something later, unlike that lifegain decks tend to really like enchancer effects and can afford a turn off to drop a panharmonicon. The cards in my maybe board tend to be payoff cards of differing types. For example my Heliod Sun Crowned deck has some 2 drop creatures with infect in the maybe board, as well as Rune-Tail Kitsune Ascendant, and Phyrexian Processor. Alot of cards also actively work against each other like Anthems and Mentor of the Meek effects, which muddle's the waters abit keeping one set or the other in the deck. And there's always a support section for cards like Serra's Blessing which I'm never sad to play but never miss either. So ya, it seems very personal what goes in or out of that pile. One thing I've started doing is building a pile of the eternal maybes. Alot of 'staples' like Felidar Soveriegn and Aetherflux Resevoir live there, and I visit the pile to add a touch of doubt into my brewing by discarding those boring cards when they get confused and end up in a deck, and I reach instead for Chant of Vitu-Ghazi and Storm Herd to keep life spicy. I'm inspired now to mess around with some planeswalkers that live in my maybe board and give them a real shot. Great topic guys, and thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Oooh i have played the back side of wandering archaic. Because its somewhat friendly less people will counter it and it helps mana fix you and helps people that have fallen behind due to missing land drops so keeps people who were on the back foot be kinder to you later in the game and does not require any coloured mana so i love it immensly.
Verity Circle sits in my pile of cards to consider for almost every blue deck I build. I always cut it because there are just too many decks nowadays that seem to only tap to attack or don't run a bunch of creatures. As there are more and more mana rocks, people are moving away from mana dorks. It just seems like the meta needs to change for it to be the auto include I feel like it should be. I would put it in a deck that can tap down opposing creatures, or in an enchantress deck where it can do stuff just by coming into play or being on the board, but what I really need is a playgroup that is actually using creatures' tap abilities consistently enough that it isn't ever a dead card.
Matt, you spoke the essence of my emmara(emmaura as I call her) deck with that challenge. Can not wait to slam that card into the 99 once I get my hands on it xD
@Matt I think you should use Planeswalkers as a way to misdirect your opponents away from your creatures. If they have a spell that says "Destroy target creature or planeswalker.", the planeswalker can be beneficial there. I think it would be fine to have a single planeswalker effect and simply treat it like a sorcery where you get 1 effect (similar to a charm) and then if you get around to having another turn to gain another effect, great! Just a thought. If you still can't find room for a planeswalker there, that's fine, but I think it's worth a shot.
I play Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Liliana, Dreadhorde General in my Shadrix list. They often make a really big impact on the turn they enter and they also fit the deck perfectly. I would never replace them :).
I have casted Explore the Vastlands more times than I willing to admit, my Kozilek deck is focused around colorless instants and sorceries (also, plenty of colorless utility lands, like tron pieces). But mostly I'm in the same boat as Dana, Wandering Archaic is just an amazing value card that doesn't push any theme, I only run it because I already have plenty of restrictions in a colorless deck, so a little more juice is never a bad thing
I have cast the backside to wandering archaic not once, but twice in the first game I used it. I was stuck at 3 or 4 mana and made the hard decision. Then brought it back to my hand and did it again. Needless to say, it was a rough game.
Joey, I have also cut Doomed Artisan out of SO many of my decks with a tear rolling down my cheek! I even tried putting it in my new Jinnie Fay deck so I could get a free 3/1 dog with vigilance at the end of each of my turns, but then I realized that there are just better cards that make so many tokens for 3 or 4 mana that just felt better each time.
I have Definitely used Explore the Vastlands, the back side of Wandering Archaic. I run a political Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire deck which uses the second part of her ability to try and gift things to my opponents after giving them tokens to sacrifice. My 99 contains no instants or sorceries so having a MDFC that counts as one is part of a secret "Achievement Unlocked" for the deck
Stuff I usually add to my Maybeboard are cards I never wind up drawing in play. Perhaps the card *would* be awesome...but I've never seen it, so I wouldn't know. So I take it out for something else, but keep it in the board just in case.
I've cast the backside of Wandering Archaic! (even though I can't remember the spell name). I play it in Ruric Thar and an opponent was really struggling for land so I cast it out of pity to lend them a hand. It was.... fine
I've cast the backside of wandering archaic once in a Nikya of the Old Ways deck, the deck runs only creature spells, lands and 1 sorcery, I was short one mana for my commander so I used the backside as a ramp source. not the best ramp but i was desperate for the 1 missing mana
I love my mayael deck. I had mirri's guile, stomping grounds, and the card that lets me look at the top card of my deck on upkeep and put a land down and doesn't count towards land for turn. Trying the whole time to survive getting attacked my zacama.
Joey needs to bring the sass to Matt and Dana's barbed compliments/all-out insults even more! This episode was a masterclass of it! 29:18 is a great one, but the "Oh, honey..." earlier in the episode was a highlight too!
The backside of wandering archaic one me the game once. I was playing politics and another player who hadn't drawn lands all game and myself had to team up against the arch-enemy and archaic's back half gave my ally the removal spell we needed, the land they needed to cast it, and since the arch-enemy knew my ally had the removal spell, they tried to alpha strike my ally, but he survived at 3 life.
The secret to making Elvish Piper still be good is play her in a Samut deck. Like, yeah, sure, I'll play this, activate immediately, untap it, activate again, and then anything I dropped has haste too. "But that takes seven mana!" I hear you cry, and to this I say that in a deck like this, once Samut is active, producing that much mana should be child's play. Not to mention you should definitely have multiple huge monsters poised to deploy.
Once upon a time is one that started being cut from a lot of my decks as it was just to low impact (I was mostly useing it in cedh decks) land grant was another that falls into the same category. Felton of the third path was another card I tried in a lot of decks that just ended up being to slow and hard to set up for the value.
I'm genuinely surprised to see Coveted Jewel for Osgir appear in challenge the stats here. I've been playing it in my Osgir deck since Osgir came out and it's absolutely the strongest value piece in the deck, it's an absolute MVP. I just assumed anyone who was playing the deck was playing it, I wouldn't have expected to see it as low as 28%!
So Dana basically doesn't do auto-includes for generically strong Colorless/Artifacts. I basically do that for even Command Tower, Sol Ring & Arcane Signet. Flavor & self-expression matters!
Cruel entertainment has been sitting in my maybeboard for every black deck since I first read it in 2018. I always end up talking myself out of it as alluring as the effect may be.
@1:03:00 I keep cutting Praetor's Grasp. It's so close. I think it might be the 101st card in ANY list I make that runs black. I ran it more when Thassa's Oracle was the menace it used to be.
Archon of Emeria seems like a great include if you are cheating things in without casting them, or if you are playing on everyone's turn--like Ephara or God-Eternal Oketra. I think the play is to hold it until it can be your 2nd spell for the turn and you have some engine piece(s) out. A lot of these examples, though, sounds awesome if the plan is to detune and be a bit more sporting, such as when playing with newer players, or for some other reason to vary the power level, such as budget.
Halo Fountain went straight into my Emmara vehicles deck the day I could lay my hands on it. With vehicles in the mix for that you would not believe how fast opponents have to start worrying, and even before that step it's a great draw piece.
I've cast Explore the Vastlands once or twice in my Imoti deck with Keruga as companion. Makes sure I can get to Imoti smoothly and can smooth out my next few turns by getting a good instant/sorcery to ramp or get an answer for the board. Could potentially be dangerous as others are also getting a land and instant/sorcery but can be used politically too. One person is really ahead and needs to be answered immediately or the game will be over. Cast this, 3 people who might find an answer in their top 5 cards. 2 people who have full mana to cast the answer. Could mess up the bottom of the library a little bit from a Grenzo, Dungeon Warden deck. They should've made the backside instant speed.
I’ve cast Explore the Vastlands in my Vadrik, Astral Archmage deck because it is a free spell which ups my storm count and basically draws me two cards. I don’t care if it helps my opponents, because at that point I’m storming off for the win or to at least knock out one player.
The main problem with anything over 7 mana is that unless it immediately gets value/wins the game, it can easily get removed. While saying that something dies to doom blade in and of itself isn’t a sufficient argument, tapping out for a card that can be rendered useless for 1-3 mana leaves you so vulnerable and now unable to interact/stop what your opponents are doing. That’s not even mentioning the ridiculous mana exchange when your zendikar resurgent gets natures claimed or something like that.
I actually finally built the perfect deck for Archon of Emeria, which I've wanted to play for a long time as well! A monowhite Ao, the Dawn Sky deck. It has light stax cards along the lines of Archon, mostly to make sure that as the monowhite player, I don't fall too behind too quickly. But since the deck is designed around killing my own commander over and over again to play permanents for free (not casting), it works out really great!
My personal favorite place for that card is in Teshar, where I can sacrifice it at the beginning of my turn and then reanimate it at the end, so everyone else is stuck casting 1 spell a turn while I get to pop off (and if anyone complains, I just point out that I'm playing monowhite)
@@thegarunixking1101 Love it! Teshar is so dope, I almost built that one instead of Ao. I do the same in that Ao deck actually, haha. It has tons of sac outlets and plenty of reanimation. Sun Titan and Emeria land have proven to be insane value in the deck, for example.
I've used transverse wastelands in my group hug deck but what's cool about it is that I run Kenrith so after it goes to the graveyard it turns back into a creature then kenrith can return it for the same cost if the ability isn't already reduced
Sometimes I feel like my deck has just too many staples and is almost like it just builds itself, so I'll take cards from my maybe board and just put them in anyways. Sometimes they can be a powerful surprise.
I think Halo fountain takes longer to catch on because people think it is just too easy to win. I play it in my Bant Populate deck featuring Rubinia Soulsinger, it has been full of untap- and high value token-shenanigans forever, and I think Fountain would just make for unsatisfying wins.
I feel like peer into the abyss is a kill spell. Have something like underworld dreams and make them take 30 damage from drawing cards after losing half their life. Add Orcish Bowmasters which is now a thing and you probably kill 2 players if not more…and have a huge orc army. Oh, and if you happen to be the one with smothering tithe…whelp.
Let’s put those challenge the stats together and add Halo Fountain to Osgir. Now you have an extra untapper for Osgir to tap and copy artifacts, while being an artifact itself that can be copied.
I have an earthcraft that I bought 20 years ago that needs a home. You have to have a lot of creatures, a consistent way to play basic lands, and want a lot of mana to get value out of earthcraft. I recently built Jetmir and thought that that would be the deck, but there is so much token support out there that earthcraft got cut.
If they ever give me a great "fun police" commander in jund. I have plans to make a deck using only basic lands and running a ton of non-basic land and artifact hate. Destructive Flow is a card that has been on my radar for a long time.
I played the back half of Wandering Archaic, *because* I realized the front side was so generically good, that I decided to try the back half in a game with my Queen Marchesa deck. I did not win that game. Not saying causation equals correlation, but, that's the way the cookie crumbled.
Zendikar Resurgent is game winning in a specific deck. Again this speaks to intention. In a deck where it is the 2nd or 3rd copy of that effect, not great. In a deck where it is the 6th+ version, it is phenomenal. "This effect is great so I am putting it in" is vastly trumped by "This is what the deck does so I need to get to the critical mass of this effect to break the game in half."
My ultimate white whale "I'll keep it in a deck someday" card is Death or Glory, the fact or fiction alike for mass reanmation. Every deck it could theoretically work in I've found it too slow, either in that everything must survive the rotation to act again or in that I will either be victorious or dead well before it would do cool stuff.
The big problem I find with Death or Glory is that it's not ACTUALY FoF. It's much worse, because it gives your opponent the choice of what to exile. If THEY were the one to make the piles, and you got the choice of which pile to keep, it would be awesome and you'd use it all the time. But it's always going to exile the creatures your opponent wants to see the least, which means it's rarely going to help you out of a jam.
Peer into the abyss is a card you should cast and win the game on the spot with because it belongs in degenerate fast mana/free spell storm/combo decks
ive cast explore the vast lands before useing a wheel. ended up winning after throwing Bojuka Bog down and exiled everyones win-cons and drew into mine. dont recommend casting unless its for the memes
I've cast the back of wandering archaic more than a few times. I have a Nevinyrral political reanimator deck and it's just an easy way to get the archaic into the graveyard to reanimate it later
I would totally play Halo Fountain in my Thalisse tokens deck if it didn't have a "win the game" clause. That gets you targeted immediately and I like to play commander not watch 3 others play it.
Am I the only one who expected Dana to say: “They are 5 cards which never made the cut into my decks: Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain and Forest”?
Soul Shatter is sooooooo good. Instant speed… so many times the whole table casts out their commanders thinking it is safe… then before I untap… set them all back two turns.
Right? I basically run it in any black deck as a 3 for 1 on turn 3 or 4.
There have been so many over the years that I've actually recently taken all of those cards I've been wanting to play but don't make the cut, and shoved them in a deck of their own under some generic Sultai commander. Stuff like Prognostic Sphinx, Bounty of the Luxa, Reaper of the Wilds, Ashiok Nightmare Weaver, etc. It's still getting tuned, but I've been really happy with the results of the deck so far even if it doesn't have the highest power level.
Mirage Mirror is a big one for me! I am always excited to put it in the decklist, then sad to take it out again as the 101st card 🙃
I had quite a few of these cards that were just generically good. I decided to just build the mono black good stuff deck that has very little synergy (besides mana doublers) and just great cards. I know everyone says those decks suck and aren't creative, but it's fun to play.
One of my favorite cards, but only goes in my "all clones" deck
Mirage mirror is almost worth running always if you are in multi color with green and running a creature deck. Getting a second gaea’s cradle for turn can win games even tho you’ll have to sac the real one if it’s you who controls cradle. I use mirage mirror in my mono green Kodama of the west tree deck. When I do get two gaea’s cradles uses for turn it’s usually gg
I love Fresh Meat, but it might as well be infinite mana to hold up even if Im planning on saccing my creatures and then using it
Have played wandering Archaic on the back side before. I was in a pod that was really light on instant and sorceries and so I knew it's front side wouldn't trigger much.
Played the back side and all my opponents wiffed, plus I got a cast trigger too!
Like, wow. I was scrolling through scryfall just the other day, and thought I was a genius for discovering Vermiculos. It seems like a bit of a sitting duck as a 5 mana 1/1 with no keywords, but +4/+4 on such an easy trigger gets it big enough to be worth it real fast. Definitely a good consideration moving forward, especially with a Horror tribal commander precon on the horizon.....3-4 days from this comment.
Casting an entwined Wail of the Nim with a Pestilent Spirit on board gets you a pretty solid instant speed, one-sided board wipe. One my favourite moves in my Inalla, Archmage Ritualist spellslinger deck.
I love Halo Fountain in Emmara. Untapping is powerful in general it functions as pseudo-Vigilance or ramp on mana dorks. But with just Emmara out it adds 2 tokens to the board, 3 if you have a tap effect. It can be played the turn after Emmara comes down too... Awhich is making me think I should switch my ramp in a Emmara to dorks.
I’ve cast the backside of wandering archaic so many times because I like to help the table make land drops and have a good game
I also don't have Wandering Archaic in any of my decks because I'd just rather be doing more on theme stuff for the deck instead of generically powerful stuff too so you're not alone Dana. I also have seen it cast for the backside once before and was just completely shocked and didn't know what was going on cuz I'd never seen it before, lol
Is archaic better than the worst card in your deck? Probably. Does that matter in a casual format? Nope! Unless you’re doing some weird copy stuff or playing colorless I see no reason to include it
@@Shulwelld Couldn't have said it better myself! I don't want all my decks to just end up being generic "good stuff" piles. It's one of the reasons I love commander, I get to do some weird fun stuff that just wouldn't work in more competitive Magic.
Underworld dreams + Peer into the abyss = game over
For one player though yeah
@@jamescooley5241 True.
There are ways to copy/replay the effect of course. Not that i really recommend using this card combo in a commander game anyway tbf
I cracked a Halo Fountain and put it in my Maja, Bretagard Protector deck. It pushes me to attack a little more than I normally would, but I enjoy the deck that way and it’s a fun trick. It’s definitely better in Katilda.
I love this topic. There's so many neat cards that just never leave the maybe board, or they do and then then you're sad about it and put it back in the maybe board. I mostly play Lifegain decks so unlike the Zendikar Resurguence discussion, which could be expanded to apply to all enchancer style effects in that they come down and do nothing now but something later, unlike that lifegain decks tend to really like enchancer effects and can afford a turn off to drop a panharmonicon. The cards in my maybe board tend to be payoff cards of differing types. For example my Heliod Sun Crowned deck has some 2 drop creatures with infect in the maybe board, as well as Rune-Tail Kitsune Ascendant, and Phyrexian Processor. Alot of cards also actively work against each other like Anthems and Mentor of the Meek effects, which muddle's the waters abit keeping one set or the other in the deck. And there's always a support section for cards like Serra's Blessing which I'm never sad to play but never miss either. So ya, it seems very personal what goes in or out of that pile. One thing I've started doing is building a pile of the eternal maybes. Alot of 'staples' like Felidar Soveriegn and Aetherflux Resevoir live there, and I visit the pile to add a touch of doubt into my brewing by discarding those boring cards when they get confused and end up in a deck, and I reach instead for Chant of Vitu-Ghazi and Storm Herd to keep life spicy. I'm inspired now to mess around with some planeswalkers that live in my maybe board and give them a real shot. Great topic guys, and thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Oooh i have played the back side of wandering archaic. Because its somewhat friendly less people will counter it and it helps mana fix you and helps people that have fallen behind due to missing land drops so keeps people who were on the back foot be kinder to you later in the game and does not require any coloured mana so i love it immensly.
Green is great at draw-go. It's the color that has Wilderness Reclamation and Seedborn Muse. You can hold up mana for fogs all day long in green.
Narset’s Reversal for me, whenever I draw that card I’m always doomed to not have a good target for it.
Verity Circle sits in my pile of cards to consider for almost every blue deck I build. I always cut it because there are just too many decks nowadays that seem to only tap to attack or don't run a bunch of creatures. As there are more and more mana rocks, people are moving away from mana dorks. It just seems like the meta needs to change for it to be the auto include I feel like it should be.
I would put it in a deck that can tap down opposing creatures, or in an enchantress deck where it can do stuff just by coming into play or being on the board, but what I really need is a playgroup that is actually using creatures' tap abilities consistently enough that it isn't ever a dead card.
Matt, you spoke the essence of my emmara(emmaura as I call her) deck with that challenge. Can not wait to slam that card into the 99 once I get my hands on it xD
@Matt I think you should use Planeswalkers as a way to misdirect your opponents away from your creatures. If they have a spell that says "Destroy target creature or planeswalker.", the planeswalker can be beneficial there. I think it would be fine to have a single planeswalker effect and simply treat it like a sorcery where you get 1 effect (similar to a charm) and then if you get around to having another turn to gain another effect, great! Just a thought. If you still can't find room for a planeswalker there, that's fine, but I think it's worth a shot.
All of my decks have about 10-20 cards sitting on top of their deck boxes....
I play Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Liliana, Dreadhorde General in my Shadrix list. They often make a really big impact on the turn they enter and they also fit the deck perfectly. I would never replace them :).
I have casted Explore the Vastlands more times than I willing to admit, my Kozilek deck is focused around colorless instants and sorceries (also, plenty of colorless utility lands, like tron pieces). But mostly I'm in the same boat as Dana, Wandering Archaic is just an amazing value card that doesn't push any theme, I only run it because I already have plenty of restrictions in a colorless deck, so a little more juice is never a bad thing
I have cast the backside to wandering archaic not once, but twice in the first game I used it. I was stuck at 3 or 4 mana and made the hard decision. Then brought it back to my hand and did it again. Needless to say, it was a rough game.
Joey, I have also cut Doomed Artisan out of SO many of my decks with a tear rolling down my cheek! I even tried putting it in my new Jinnie Fay deck so I could get a free 3/1 dog with vigilance at the end of each of my turns, but then I realized that there are just better cards that make so many tokens for 3 or 4 mana that just felt better each time.
I have Definitely used Explore the Vastlands, the back side of Wandering Archaic. I run a political Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire deck which uses the second part of her ability to try and gift things to my opponents after giving them tokens to sacrifice. My 99 contains no instants or sorceries so having a MDFC that counts as one is part of a secret "Achievement Unlocked" for the deck
I also used to play sever the bloodline like ten years ago. Basically unplayable now though...
Stuff I usually add to my Maybeboard are cards I never wind up drawing in play. Perhaps the card *would* be awesome...but I've never seen it, so I wouldn't know. So I take it out for something else, but keep it in the board just in case.
I've cast the backside of Wandering Archaic! (even though I can't remember the spell name). I play it in Ruric Thar and an opponent was really struggling for land so I cast it out of pity to lend them a hand. It was.... fine
Super important topic for me! Thanks for this one ;)
I have played the back side of Wandering Archaic in my Veyran, Voice of Duality deck. More than once, too.
I've cast the backside of wandering archaic once in a Nikya of the Old Ways deck, the deck runs only creature spells, lands and 1 sorcery, I was short one mana for my commander so I used the backside as a ramp source. not the best ramp but i was desperate for the 1 missing mana
I love my mayael deck. I had mirri's guile, stomping grounds, and the card that lets me look at the top card of my deck on upkeep and put a land down and doesn't count towards land for turn. Trying the whole time to survive getting attacked my zacama.
Joey needs to bring the sass to Matt and Dana's barbed compliments/all-out insults even more! This episode was a masterclass of it! 29:18 is a great one, but the "Oh, honey..." earlier in the episode was a highlight too!
The backside of wandering archaic one me the game once. I was playing politics and another player who hadn't drawn lands all game and myself had to team up against the arch-enemy and archaic's back half gave my ally the removal spell we needed, the land they needed to cast it, and since the arch-enemy knew my ally had the removal spell, they tried to alpha strike my ally, but he survived at 3 life.
The secret to making Elvish Piper still be good is play her in a Samut deck. Like, yeah, sure, I'll play this, activate immediately, untap it, activate again, and then anything I dropped has haste too. "But that takes seven mana!" I hear you cry, and to this I say that in a deck like this, once Samut is active, producing that much mana should be child's play. Not to mention you should definitely have multiple huge monsters poised to deploy.
Halo Fountain works wonderful in my Rin&Seri deck. It doesn't take long to make 15 tokens and use halo fountains win game condition.
I've only had success with Aid from the Cowl in an All Permanents Vaevictus deck myself.
Once upon a time is one that started being cut from a lot of my decks as it was just to low impact (I was mostly useing it in cedh decks) land grant was another that falls into the same category. Felton of the third path was another card I tried in a lot of decks that just ended up being to slow and hard to set up for the value.
Peer into the Abyss is a great card off the top of your library with Bolas's Citadel. That's the only way it's played in my meta.
I'm genuinely surprised to see Coveted Jewel for Osgir appear in challenge the stats here. I've been playing it in my Osgir deck since Osgir came out and it's absolutely the strongest value piece in the deck, it's an absolute MVP. I just assumed anyone who was playing the deck was playing it, I wouldn't have expected to see it as low as 28%!
So Dana basically doesn't do auto-includes for generically strong Colorless/Artifacts. I basically do that for even Command Tower, Sol Ring & Arcane Signet. Flavor & self-expression matters!
Joey, I 10000% thought it was Whale of the Nim.
Cruel entertainment has been sitting in my maybeboard for every black deck since I first read it in 2018. I always end up talking myself out of it as alluring as the effect may be.
@1:03:00 I keep cutting Praetor's Grasp. It's so close. I think it might be the 101st card in ANY list I make that runs black. I ran it more when Thassa's Oracle was the menace it used to be.
Archon of Emeria seems like a great include if you are cheating things in without casting them, or if you are playing on everyone's turn--like Ephara or God-Eternal Oketra. I think the play is to hold it until it can be your 2nd spell for the turn and you have some engine piece(s) out.
A lot of these examples, though, sounds awesome if the plan is to detune and be a bit more sporting, such as when playing with newer players, or for some other reason to vary the power level, such as budget.
I think it could even more fun to replace all staples with those maybe boards... winning isn't always everything
In today’s episode: Why Challenge the Stats is Challenging.
Halo Fountain went straight into my Emmara vehicles deck the day I could lay my hands on it. With vehicles in the mix for that you would not believe how fast opponents have to start worrying, and even before that step it's a great draw piece.
I've cast Explore the Vastlands once or twice in my Imoti deck with Keruga as companion. Makes sure I can get to Imoti smoothly and can smooth out my next few turns by getting a good instant/sorcery to ramp or get an answer for the board. Could potentially be dangerous as others are also getting a land and instant/sorcery but can be used politically too. One person is really ahead and needs to be answered immediately or the game will be over. Cast this, 3 people who might find an answer in their top 5 cards. 2 people who have full mana to cast the answer. Could mess up the bottom of the library a little bit from a Grenzo, Dungeon Warden deck. They should've made the backside instant speed.
For planeswalkers consider teferi master of time. With him being able to activate every turn you can get to three activations rapidly.
I’ve cast Explore the Vastlands in my Vadrik, Astral Archmage deck because it is a free spell which ups my storm count and basically draws me two cards. I don’t care if it helps my opponents, because at that point I’m storming off for the win or to at least knock out one player.
The main problem with anything over 7 mana is that unless it immediately gets value/wins the game, it can easily get removed.
While saying that something dies to doom blade in and of itself isn’t a sufficient argument, tapping out for a card that can be rendered useless for 1-3 mana leaves you so vulnerable and now unable to interact/stop what your opponents are doing. That’s not even mentioning the ridiculous mana exchange when your zendikar resurgent gets natures claimed or something like that.
I look at elvish piper as a removal remover…you cast it to get someone to use their removal before you play something you want protected
I've cast the backside of Wandering Archaic in my group hug deck for players that were struggling to keep up in game before.
I actually finally built the perfect deck for Archon of Emeria, which I've wanted to play for a long time as well! A monowhite Ao, the Dawn Sky deck. It has light stax cards along the lines of Archon, mostly to make sure that as the monowhite player, I don't fall too behind too quickly. But since the deck is designed around killing my own commander over and over again to play permanents for free (not casting), it works out really great!
My personal favorite place for that card is in Teshar, where I can sacrifice it at the beginning of my turn and then reanimate it at the end, so everyone else is stuck casting 1 spell a turn while I get to pop off (and if anyone complains, I just point out that I'm playing monowhite)
@@thegarunixking1101 Love it! Teshar is so dope, I almost built that one instead of Ao. I do the same in that Ao deck actually, haha. It has tons of sac outlets and plenty of reanimation. Sun Titan and Emeria land have proven to be insane value in the deck, for example.
I've used transverse wastelands in my group hug deck but what's cool about it is that I run Kenrith so after it goes to the graveyard it turns back into a creature then kenrith can return it for the same cost if the ability isn't already reduced
Sometimes I feel like my deck has just too many staples and is almost like it just builds itself, so I'll take cards from my maybe board and just put them in anyways. Sometimes they can be a powerful surprise.
I think Halo fountain takes longer to catch on because people think it is just too easy to win. I play it in my Bant Populate deck featuring Rubinia Soulsinger, it has been full of untap- and high value token-shenanigans forever, and I think Fountain would just make for unsatisfying wins.
Also a bomb with Marieke Ri Berit. Probably more of a "fair" utility piece than a wincon in that deck.
I think you guys are the best mtg theory channel our there.
The BEST "when opponent attacks you" card is Revenge of Ravens. It's so dang good!
I feel like peer into the abyss is a kill spell. Have something like underworld dreams and make them take 30 damage from drawing cards after losing half their life. Add Orcish Bowmasters which is now a thing and you probably kill 2 players if not more…and have a huge orc army. Oh, and if you happen to be the one with smothering tithe…whelp.
I play coveted jewel in osgir and I agree with this stat challenge. Several other things have related to me heavily in this video.
Peer into the abyss + psychic corrosion won me a 6 man pod on Thursday funny enough
It was so cool to see your maybe boards! This episode should of been unchallenged stats!
I cast explore the vast land to get my 4th land and then used late for dinner to bring back the wandering archaic
Let’s put those challenge the stats together and add Halo Fountain to Osgir. Now you have an extra untapper for Osgir to tap and copy artifacts, while being an artifact itself that can be copied.
I have an earthcraft that I bought 20 years ago that needs a home. You have to have a lot of creatures, a consistent way to play basic lands, and want a lot of mana to get value out of earthcraft. I recently built Jetmir and thought that that would be the deck, but there is so much token support out there that earthcraft got cut.
If they ever give me a great "fun police" commander in jund. I have plans to make a deck using only basic lands and running a ton of non-basic land and artifact hate. Destructive Flow is a card that has been on my radar for a long time.
I played the back half of Wandering Archaic, *because* I realized the front side was so generically good, that I decided to try the back half in a game with my Queen Marchesa deck.
I did not win that game. Not saying causation equals correlation, but, that's the way the cookie crumbled.
Stunning reversal. I love the flavor sooo much, its so fun to play it, but 4 mana in a black deck kinda feels awful
Zendikar Resurgent is game winning in a specific deck. Again this speaks to intention.
In a deck where it is the 2nd or 3rd copy of that effect, not great. In a deck where it is the 6th+ version, it is phenomenal. "This effect is great so I am putting it in" is vastly trumped by "This is what the deck does so I need to get to the critical mass of this effect to break the game in half."
Halo fountain can be great in artifact decks aswell not just token decks. Turn halo fountain to a creature and you could have quite a good combo
My ultimate white whale "I'll keep it in a deck someday" card is Death or Glory, the fact or fiction alike for mass reanmation. Every deck it could theoretically work in I've found it too slow, either in that everything must survive the rotation to act again or in that I will either be victorious or dead well before it would do cool stuff.
The big problem I find with Death or Glory is that it's not ACTUALY FoF. It's much worse, because it gives your opponent the choice of what to exile. If THEY were the one to make the piles, and you got the choice of which pile to keep, it would be awesome and you'd use it all the time. But it's always going to exile the creatures your opponent wants to see the least, which means it's rarely going to help you out of a jam.
If you’re playing peer into the abyss you’re winning that turn, if not what’s the point of it?
I would have loved to hear basic lands from Dana 😂
Love to hear from you guys 😄
Greetings from germany 🤘🏾
Ive cast the back side of wandering archaic for the back side, only to immediately reanimate it...
Halo fountain and Osgir is nuts and really crazy if you run a some myr creatures and similar ones for mana.
Joey play cedh and then peer into the abyss will be chef's kiss 😁
We deserve a card called Whale of Denim
Glaze fiend Is 1b and gets +2+2 for each artifact etb
Peer into the abyss is a card you should cast and win the game on the spot with because it belongs in degenerate fast mana/free spell storm/combo decks
Halo Fountain is big in my Lin Sivvi deck
I cast wondering a case backside to stop a goblin deck from win
A card I love, yet never makes the cut is Master Warcraft.
ive cast explore the vast lands before useing a wheel. ended up winning after throwing Bojuka Bog down and exiled everyones win-cons and drew into mine. dont recommend casting unless its for the memes
Came to say that from the thumbnail I use Wail of the Nim in my main deck of Strefan
I run aid from the cowl in my lord windgrace deck
I actually agree with Dana about wandering archaic
Uro decks I think would like Aid From the Cowl
An opponent cast the backhalf of Wandering Archaic to kill another player with extort because if they got another turn it would be GG.
I'm really tired of people saying a card is really good with dockside extortionist. Everything is good with that broken card.
i play the back side of wandering archic in my group hug deck
I've cast the back of wandering archaic more than a few times. I have a Nevinyrral political reanimator deck and it's just an easy way to get the archaic into the graveyard to reanimate it later
I would totally play Halo Fountain in my Thalisse tokens deck if it didn't have a "win the game" clause. That gets you targeted immediately and I like to play commander not watch 3 others play it.
I want to see a doomed artisan deck anyways. Maybe just make a deck around it just for a stream.
peer... I play cEDH turbo so... I will say great card, at least in cEDH never played it in EDH.
I have a hole deck as a maybeboard thats cause all my other decks are just far more fun xD
i think Dual Nature would be more appropriate for Joey's two wolves than Parallel Lives. boomer points?
Archon of emeria... broooo you have to cheat stuff in lmao. Winota by example.
Peer into the Abyss used to be a staple in cEDH storm decks as a 2nd copy of Ad Nauseum.