@@lach10211 I don't agree. It takes 3 turns to check everyone's hand. And since Richard and Seth stated that carddraw is free, your information is outdated almost the instant you saw someone's hand.
Assassin's Creed podcast, June 25th: Seth - Abstergo Entertaintment is better Scavenger Ground and Buried Ruin, no? And it color fixes? Richard and Tomer together - No! Why would you want to exile your graveyard? Trash! This podcast, December 3rd: Richard - Abstergo Entertaintment is better Scavenger Ground and Buried Ruin! Busted! Seth - But why would you exile your graveyard? Richard - No, if you need your graveyard, just pretend it's an island! It color fixes itself! Almost exactly 5 month to perfectly swap arguments. Richard and Seth are truly two peas in a pod))
@@TheWoelrat I would love to see that. "The Richard Podcast, where Richard argues with himself about cards so people can't nag on him about one opinion"
In casual commander, I personally think thats the right thing to do. Be honest about what your deck is trying to do. Maybe not in the way of :next turn I will win, but more like: My deck wins by going wide and then play Craterhoof, or my current board is this card or these 2 cards away from winning the game. If everyone else their plan is to be really secretive about their deck/game plan then I'm going to play stax/control.
(Richard) Yall having a field day with Glasses of Urza, but it's been living rent free in my head since this podcast. In every game with hidden information, "scouting" is always broken af. Why buy pink wards in League of Legends instead of DPS items, why sacrifice your first Overlord in Starcraft? I can use Richard logic on myself though too. It might be "so good" that it gets you killed, accomplishing nothing. lol.
I genuinely think it's solid. It's a new point of interaction above the table taking advantage of known knowns (your opponents know you know) and known unknowns (your opponents know they do not know the same information as you). It's a sleeper for sure in higher powered tables.
Haha I don’t think anyone will target you because of the glasses’ power. Maybe they just end up being so annoying that player removal is the best option though lol
I used to run Glasses of Urza and I came to the conclusion that even though it seems really good and it’s a really funny card that cards that force your opponents to reveal their hands over and over again or even indefinitely tend to annoy them enough to swing at me instead of an opponent who’s getting ahead. What I’ve done is started to play telepathy or gitaxian probe the turn I plan to combo off, which has yielded better results than using urzas glasses throughout the game.
Lively Dirge is such a banger and i'm so happy phil noticed it. It's so flexible: it tutors/reanimates/fills graveyard/assembles combos and it's not even that costly really since it tutors a 4 drop directly on the batllefield for 5. I love that card.
“I would say that Glasses of Urza is better than Swords to Plowshares.” -Richard, the Codfather. I don’t know what to say other than this man needs help.
@@tomdoetsch8603 Honestly I don’t play Swords anymore either. I think that’s one of his rare good takes. I’d rather pay more for more flexible removal than have a premium-cost removal spell that only hits one permanent type. Idk if he’s onto anything about Glasses or not but it’s an interesting idea.
I love this card. I have it in Bombadil and Atraxa. It does so much work in both and there are plenty of nonbasics to get with it. Wish it came in foil!
That card is just *really* good. If anyone ever thinks about the delay, ask them how many times they cast a Loyal Warhound or Knight of the White Orchid on turn 3, because nobody ramped ahead.
Yeah 100%. Commuting a crime is niche enough that people don’t talk about it, but with enough redundancy several innocuous artifacts suddenly become insane. I played against gisa the hellraiser a few months ago and 4 3/3 menace zombies per cycle is terrifying, especially with her ward. I’ve been brewing the new magda and getting up to 4 treasures a cycle definitely piques my interest
I can't believe it took so long for Phil to mention the coolest part of Scholar of New Horizons: removing counter! Removing counters is not an easy thing to do and Scholar does it with UPSIDE. Wanna retrigger your saga? Yes please! Remove finality counters, you bet! Cumulative upkeep begone! And do it all while ramping or drawing!
@@therealkami Doesn't work, Heroes Remembered isn't a permanent. Removing time counters from permanents with cumulative upkeep is great though, with the two mentioned above and Herald of Leshrac being the best.
Urza's saga fetching urza's glasses is hilarious. Makes the saga be just a wholesome story of old man who lost his glasses and found them. I play glasses in my crime deck. It's free crime trigger.
I’m pretty sure he read it as “at the beginning of your end step” and then realized after Phil’s comment that it’s at your upkeep, but it was too late to go back lol
@@andyspendlove1019I mean, he read it out loud as he introduced it, so I doubt it. It really feels like the epitome of his “magical Christmas land” tactic he uses every time when arguing his case. I would not put it past Richard to try to sell this by saying “Yeah, obviously you get Reliquary Tower and a big draw spell every game, this is cracked!” Completely deflecting the fact that you won’t see Reliquary Tower in time for Ivory Tower to matter in more than half your games. Cuz that’s what he does.
Duuuude ivory tower is a sleeping dragon in my kami of the crescent moon deck, starting the game and turn one gaining like 3 compounded with later in the game when my hand is 50 cards, it’s so good. People don’t think it’s threatening enough to destroy most of the time until it’s too late and you’re at 160 life by turn 5
I will say: For someone who has a rep for playing the same cards in most decks, it was really cute and fun to see Richard get excited about so many new (to him) cards ❤
I will add it's underselling glasses a bit to say looking at someone's hand is effectively nothing. I've "made them have it" many times where I would've rather just known they had it and looked elsewhere, be it getting blown out by a fog or T pro or a hard counter, whatever.
@@zeroisnineI'm not really sure why I'm supposed to surmise some hidden meaning of "effectively nothing". In fact, I'd argue the large majority of people who upvoted the comment probably did mean "effectively nothing" in the literal sense, and I would also argue that in the majority of decks this will do effectively nothing. Only in specific circumstances would this do effectively something, I was just pointing out that sometimes the information could be pretty substantial for 1 mana, and it really comes down to how common those circumstances are.
Kind of sad, that no one thought of tallion + glasses (and of course telepathy) so it would be easier to name a number. Thinking of a tallion deck with faeries and clones to name more numbers or the same number more times >:)
To be fair, for all the hype he got in spoiler season i think i have seen him once in a game, in a fairy deck and thats exacly where i also have a copy of him (except i haven't drawn him yet).
This is the very first podcast that I outright agree with Richard.That urzss glasses was nuanced and considered abstractly. Literal opposite of "dies to Farewell". Thanks for the video!!
Lively Dirge is pretty nuts when you consider it tutors a 4 mana creature directly into play from the deck. When you think of it like that - it’s a 1 mana sorcery tutor that you use to grab any 4 mana creature and cast it. It’s rate is incredibly good!
I like the ghost vacuum for sniping reanimation targets instant speed or creatures, like the enduring ones from Duskmourn, when they bounce by the graveyard.
Was literally discussing one of these with some people earlier today: Rolling Earthquake {X}{R} Rolling Earthquake deals X damage to each creature without horsemanship and each player. Played in only 1% of red decks on edhrec but it’s pretty cheap and very flexible, like why isn’t this in every group slug deck?
Rolling Earthquake is great! I've played the card on MTGO a long time. In paper magic Rolling Earthquake used to be hard to pick up because it was a p3k card, so maybe it struggled to become popular because of that. Normal Earthquake can be a pretty nice sweeper with some damage to players too. I think the instant speed on Magmaquake and Starstorm can be very nice.
@ yeah and now that Blasphemous Act is so cheap a lot of people will run that and and call it good, but there was a good two maybe three years after double masters where it was 10% the price of Blast Act and it just never seemed to grab a foothold. 38% of red decks vs 1% of them.
I don't know if Talion counts as a sleeper pick anymore, seeing him get used more and more on cEDH channels. Ghost Vaccuum was my favorite card to use in limited, even though I'd get stuff like Unholy Annex.
Talion gets better the more competitive your pod is. The more competitive the pod, the lower the Mana average and mana curve gets. This allows Talion to trigger multiple times a turn let alone a round. The lower the pod's power, the harder it is to find the right number. Don't get me wrong, he will trigger. Just not as much.
@@k9commander I play in a pretty low power pod and I swapped Talion in as the commander of the fae dominion precon - it draws me somewhere around 2 cards a turn cycle throughout the mid game if I pick 2 or 3 - in addition to 3 often being the middle of a deck’s mana curve there are a ton of 2/3, 3/2, 3/4 creatures out there.
It depends on who you're playing with. If you're in a pod with strangers you'll never play with again, go ahead. Lying in that case, is a great strategy. If you're going to play with those people again, DON'T. It might help you win that game, but you will hurt future games. The player you lied about will target you from the very beginning. You also triggered a Boy Who Cried Wolf situation. That will negate the strength of the glasses.
Refusing to reveal the information would be the way to go. After all, you traded another card for the ability to do that. In Richard's case, it was Swords to Plowshares (Heliod, help this man). Your opponents expecting you to tell them what your card revealed is bad manners on their part.
The thing that they didn't mention about ghost vacuum is that you can wait to respond to your opponent's reanimation spells before activating the vacuum. It is the cheapest mana value card that can blank reanimation in response. I see way more single target reanimation than mass reanimation these days and ghost vacuum completely shuts that down.
I have a friend who has been having a lot of success with Dino DNA, which has a sorcery restriction on the active ability. Making dinosaur copies of things is really fun, though. I am an Agatha's Soul Cauldron enjoyer but the card is too expensive to have a lot of paper copies.
The longer I listen to richard the more I agree with him. He is either the voice of reason or the voice of insanity. Either way, the community needs him
Hi, Goldfish crew! I'd like to begin with some gratitude. I'm a long time listener but haven't yet made a comment to express how thankful I am for your shows. I reconnected with the hobby a few years ago, and not long after that, I found the Commander Clash podcast, and from there the other podcast and the channel. Your knowledge, humour, and chemistry on the show has given me a new appreciation for the game, and I wait eagerly for each episode of both podcasts, Commander Clash, and the history of Magic series run by Seth. I could go on (and I will in time), but given we're supposed to be cookin' on this episode, I'd like to further the love of catch-up ramp by presenting Tazeem Raptor, a three mana 2/2 bird in white with flying with an ETB of bouncing a land of your own. With the best bird Cartographer's Hawk, some bounce/depletion lands, and Sand Scout, Tazeem Raptor adds some versatility to the white ramp package in both the early and late game, as well as giving a sturdy body for Dowsing Dagger. If you want to go even further, Delney lets you bounce two lands with it, which can turn on Surveyor's Scope and Claim Jumper. Anyway, I'm enthralled by the discussions, diversity of perspectives, and archetypes you explore. I feel this allows your audience to find something to identify with, or at least shape their own identity through referencing veteran players and their evolving opinions. Thanks for continuing to produce entertaining and insightful content; I hope I can make it to a US Con from Australia to meet you someday. Keep cookin'. Cheers, Sam.
I tried talking to Richard about Scholar of New horizons at magic con Vegas, and he scoffed that it had to tap to ramp, but I'm glad to see he is seeing the light.
My new experimental tech is *They Came from the Pipes* in my blink deck! As long as you can blink non-creature permanents, it's like a mulldrifter that nets you two bodies that you can flip (and they could be anything - even a Panharmonicon!) I've been screaming from the rooftops about how cracked this $0.21 card is, but no one believes me! Phil played it in his blink deck on Commander Clash and I felt so validated! Phil - you're a king!
I know it was like... his assignment that he created, but Richard definitely understood the assignment this week. Everybody else is pitching tutors, and modern rares and mythics as cards they're "not sure about" but Richard is at least bold enough to have cards that read very badly and try to create a use case for them
Richard advocates for a 1 mana artifact that lets you look at ONE player's hand and might let you politic your way into some value (but more likely gets the table to bully you until it's gone so they don't have to worry about you constantly looking at hands. Not because it is strong, but because it is annoying.) and a 1 mana artifact that strictly gains life ONLY if you have more than 4 cards in hand , but struggles to see the value in a 1 mana artifact that actively hates on one of the most effective strategies in commander (graveyard strategies) and will either get you a ton of value later or force interaction from someone to remove your 1 mana artifact. Certainly one of the takes of all time. I like the idea of Cosmium Confluence and Talion. There's some pretty good caves and Talion seems just good enough to work, but not scary enough to warrant immediate interaction. Plus Talion seems pretty fun.
Yeah that's the problem with glasses IMO too salty for casual play, not good enough for competitive play. Maybe in a high power crime deck, but outside of that it's hard to find a home for the old man's glasses.
I wil say, for as much heat as Richard gets, I will respect him for putting his insane ideas out there time and again, and is willing to stick to his guns. Hes like the wild card of the group. Man cooks. Though sometimes he doesnt feel like he knows the recipe...
Important to note that Cosmium Confluence can fetch Planar Nexus and Echoing Deeps which can copy a land in the graveyard so you can use it decks built around non-basic land types like deserts or gates. Super hard agree on Lively Dirge. It's good as generic value, it's good as a combo enabler, it's good as a budget Beseech the Mirror, and it's under a dollar! My favorite card from the last year.
[[Shadow of the Second Sun]] is my sleeper pick. What most people miss is that you get a new beginning phase on the 'post combat main phase', so if you play it on your first main it is free as you untap everything on the post main and draw a card - from there you basically double your mana every turn or can develop board + keep interaction it is super good
That's not quite how the card works - the trigger happens at the beginning of your pet combat main phase, and the trigger says "after this phase", so the following happens: Combat - Main Phase, Shadow of the Second Sun trigger happens here - Beginning Phase, given to you by the trigger - End Phase. You don't get another main phase to use your untapped mana and such - though it is a great card with flash enablers like Vedalken Orrery. Sphinx of the Second Sun works in a similar way.
ivory tower actually seems like a good card in a will, scion of peace deck, since most of the other lifegain doesn't happen during your turn, but in the will, scion of peace deck you want to gain as much life as possible with as little mana as possible before you cast anything because that gives you some nice discounts on your big spells. even if it just gains me 3-5 life, thats a 3-5 mana discount for 1 mana that I could pay last turn, this genuinly seems like a great card in that deck. I put in in my decklist!
my ultra giga sleeper pick: Trade Routes. get yours today! Land MDFCs being as popular as they are will be a mainstay of game design from now until the end of time, and trade routes lets you use the spell side of the MDFC when you need it. are you flooding too much? no problem, use trade routes and and draw again. do you need to pop that Surveyor's Scope for its maximum value? Trade route's gonna turn that dream into a reality.
Richard, I love you. I am a spot removal hater, an F-Word believer, love my bounce lands, catchup ramp and secret rendezvous. But you're lost in the sauce man. You had great knowledge of magic fundamentals from 60 card formats to show why some commander staples were bad. Now you've looped all the way back to round to 1999, 12 year old kids on the playground thinking. "Card disadvantage isn't real. If I know their hand theres no possible way I could lose! Glasses of urza is broken!"
While the card choice is meh, he didn't know about Telepathy, which is actually a super powerful game warping effect that more people should play. He's on the right track.
That wasn't exactly his argument. It was more for the function of having the known knowns and your opponents known unknowns. It creates a new point of interaction above the table.
40:00 Ivory tower singlehandedly won games for me. In draw decks if it comes in your hand, downside -1 mana, -1 card from your 20 on this turn (30 on the next). So the whoul board focuses you and just revind your life total. You drop this and one more protection enchantment, so you're invinsible and start doing your azorious game plan... Great card!
This episode mentioned so many of my tech cards. Cosmium confluence is great! 5 mana ramp 3 is really good at a baseline. When you need to, its enchantment removal. Ramp 2 remove an enchantment for 5 is also a really good card. And when you have already ramped enough, or no longer have any caves in your deck, you can make a big creature and pick off enchantments. That's all without mentioning the caves themselves. Urza's cave is obviously good, but that's not the only hit. This card works best in graveyard decks. Sunken palace gets value off the graveyard, while echoing depths can come in as other utility lands you've already milled or used. I also run the hidden caves, which serve as the color fixing for cosmium confluence, and late game desperation plays. They're honestly not bad, and they get better with sunken citadel too. I usually pair it with sand scout and a desert plan because of planar nexus. Planar nexus also allows the package to include the urza's lands for even more ramp. And this card is only going to get better as they print more and more caves. Sunken palace was a boost to this card. Peach garden oath is also amazing! Well, actually I play festival of trokin because who doesnt like a good sale? Obviously it has to be in a token deck, but I've consistently gained 10-20 life, pulling me from the oblivion of being almost dead to being nice and healthy. The burst life gain for 1 mana is an insane boon, and I've had multiple instances of tutoring for the card because it's so valuble. Obviously it has to be in a meta where combo kills are nonexistent, because there life doesn't matter nearly as much. But if you're in a grindfest this card is worth looking at.
I would like to put forward ‘Spy Network’. Costs - U Instant Look at target player's hand, the top card of that player's library, and any face-down creatures they control. Look at the top four cards of your library, then put them back in any order. Glasses of urza and mishra’s bauble as a spell plus setting your top 4’s order is kinda nuts.
A huge oversight in the discussion around the glasses. You can't truly lie about someone's hand. Well, you can, but they can literally just reveal their own hand and show they aren't actually a threat. No point in lying unless you are trying to make an alliance. Good luck with making a deal not letting people know what is in your hand. I do think getting an opponent to deal with another opponent based on knowing what is in their hand is very good. And slow playing around counter spell or removal can be decent.
Here is my pick for Richard. Energy Field. Hear me out. If fogs are good, what about fogging every turn until someone can remove an enchantment. With auto-include Reliquary Tower, that is exactly what this card is. Particularly if you are in a permanent light deck. Obviously this is particularly good in an enchantress deck where you can protect and recur it, but I think it deserves to see more play just as a sorcery speed fog, similar to the One Ring ETB.
Telepathy 100% is a card that will get you killed. Even if you arent ahead, people just hate it so much that you will be targeted doen I used to run it in every blue deck
@@brandonjensen586 Not in my experience, if your deck is of a certain power level, people will usually attack each other or whoever has the best board/hand combo. It's annoying but often gets overshadowed by the real threats in hand, in my experience anyways
However, super worth it in competitive pods where everyone is an equal threat, or if you are already the archenemy. Excellent in Sen Triplets because people already hate that deck, really any kind of UBx deck that people "hate" and target, fairly or not. A BIG issue with the card though, is that a lot of the value in any scenario is your ability to use the information revealed, where that's from a decision-making perspective, or card quality perspective. All this in mind, I Totally Agree it shouldn't be in every deck, but in the red deck or playgroup, phenomenal card.
@@salem326 I actually think it might be more powerful in a typical 'Richard style deck' that is less 'scary' than most decks. Because you can be like, hey I'll reveal my hand, it's got a bunch of birds and jank, but look at that guy, he's got X and Y in his hand, kill him. And that strategy is remarkably effective
Poor threat assessment is what gets you killed. People will attack someone with a telepathy while they ignore the player with a Ivory Tower and a Propaganda with 20 cards in hand because of Sea Gate.
I love the idea of the cave package, Seth! The problem the Crew faced is considering the package as additions to current deck building philosophy, but what if you could have a Cave-based deck? I think it’s not far-fetched to bring two commanders to a table, one being Hazezon, Shaper of Sand. Just communicate that you’ve made a change: every instance of “desert” on his card is Cave instead! Boom! Also, @WotC, please give us a Cave commander. I’m thinking Abzan is most appropriate (also, my personal pick), though a Sultai deck might be fun too. Just not another Jund or Naya commander that cares about lands.
I recently came across Archmage Ascension. Requires 6 quest counters to turn on, checks each endstep if you've drawn two or more cards. Turns all subsequent draw into tutors once turned on. Not a huge fan of tutors but seems like a fun challenge while still achievable considering how many draw effects we have now. Has the potential issue of being scarier than it is good, but with 0% on EDHREC I'd like to try it.
Sun droplet is the card I think of when discussing cheap cards that gain you a bunch of life. It's 4 life per rotation once you've been hit. It either lets you soak up all the early game damage or, even better, makes people not bother attacking you so the damage goes elsewhere. If you have lifegain synergy it gives you a reliable trigger every turn. I've been very happy when experimenting with it, but it's definitely situational.
Crazy how Richard will not run a decent card because it will make opponents target you and then advocate for a life gain artifact. Especially one that doesn’t give you a bunch of life at once but consistently 2-3 life a turn. Ivory Tower seems like it just puts you at the highest life total and makes you the target.
For Cosmium Confluence, Pit of Offerings is a cave that exiles up to three cards in graveyards, and that card slaps to search up! That can be a multi-color cave, but only if you exile cards of different colors from graveyards.
@40:45 The obvious solution to having to wait for upkeep is run it in every Obeka, Splitter of Seconds deck. You drew to 15, and if Obeka gets through for damage who knows how many upkeeps you might be stacking.
Talion works really well early game to name a low number and then flicker it for the ETB and then name a higher value number. You get flexibility to adjust the number as you need.
Lately, I've been organizing my collection to build a couple cubes and get rid of some cards I no longer need. As I have been doing this, I've been looking at all these cards from Revised and 4th edition that used to be staples and still seem fun to play. It's tempting me to build an "olde school" cube. Glasses of Urza and Ivory Tower are two of the cards that give me these nostalgic feels. Other potential sleepers that give me these feels are: The Rack, Cursed Rack, Black Vise, Mishra's Factory, Simulacrum, Library of Leng, Meekstone, and Land's Edge.
You are showing some of my favourite cards some love ❤ I think all of them need the right deck. But nowadays we have so much choice to fine tune every deck down to the last inch of synergie. Scholar of New Horzons is insane in my Boros Lulu deck. Lot of haste enablers, counters and most importantly untappers. I love Ghost vacuum in my Nezahal Voltron deck. I run it as a backup Trinket Mage target alongside Manifold Key. It‘s like a stax piece that still get‘s you value. Lively Dirge I‘m considering strongly for a Talion Clone Group Slug Deck. There are only so many legend clones and Lively Dirge has so much other different „modes“ that it‘s never bad.
Love how phil accidentally said farewell while making fun of Richard, almost saying it Thanks for the awesome janky episodes, always a card or two I'm immediately ordering ❤
Targeted graveyard hate is underrated in commander. Played enchantress with Klothys in the 99 and getting to exile the best card from my opponent's yard without "nuking" my own yard was was surprisingly effective.
with talion you just bounce it and you can change your number as well. Use those Urza glasses to scan hands and then choose your number 1-10. Talion works great with telepathy as well.
26:46 I feel like Lively Dirge is the type of card that will get better as cards constantly get better. It's 2 4 cost cards for 4 mana, and an Entomb for 5. It's got some restrictions on it, but look at it as 2 Animate Deads stapled together without the Aura drawback, and we're cooking with gas. It's one of those cards that is good; I'm simply not exactly sure how good.
We definitely went through some neat cards here. Seth is 100% correct on Scholar of New Horizons btw. This card rules. If you think the delay is an issue, think about how many times your Knight of the White Orchid had to be played as a 3-drop, because nobody had a turn 2 ramp spell. And for the Jumper and Space Scout, 3 is basically the same as 2 + wait. 1W is also very splashable In my oloro deck, this has a weird synergy with the Lifegain creatures that put +1+1 counters on creatures when gaining life, like Archangel of Thune or Nykthos Paragon. Great card!
Lively Dridge is awrsome, I usually use it to cast 4 drop(lol just got to end of the video, I often pick Talion from it) for 5 from my library, but there were instances where it was drain combo enabler in my sauron deck, searched for blood artist and reanimated forsaken miner from grave with phyrexian altar on the battlefield
This is one I have not tested, but seems possibly cool: untap all your lands effects. Specifically, I’m thinking of Early Harvest and Turnabout. Many decks win in big pop-off turns late in the game, and what is the biggest gate to popping off in modern commander? Mana. If you look at Turnabout like a ritual that adds +4 mana, it looks strong for a big turn. And the ceiling is much higher, especially if you’re in green and landramp a lot. I don’t think it’s crazy to picture these cards adding upwards of 8 mana near the end of the game. And early game? I’d argue they aren’t even a totally dead draw in the early-mid game. Even being a ritual for just 1 or 2 extra mana can be the difference between a mediocre turn and a strong one.
The Command Zone did a great episode about Talion, Kindly Lord when it was brand new. Based on EDHRec data, you should pretty much always choose 2, even in casual pods. 3 isn't too far behind so you'll likely still draw a good amount of cards with 3, but statistically 2 is the best choice.
I’m currently trying out What Must Be Done and The Night of the Doctor in my wrath package. WMBD being modal and hitting artifacts is really nice for flexibility. The Night of the Doctor reanimating on chapter 2 and being on an enchantment in white gives it a lot of power in my experience. Throw a Hall of Heliod’s Generosity into the mana base and it means you can wrath every few turns while still threatening value off your commander or another legend you have in the grave.
I had a foil Word of Worship I used to always include in Oloro just to have an excuse to run it alongside Well of Lost Dreams and it was fun. I didnt regret having an excuse to show it off.
Real sleeper picks for Richard: Strionic Resonator, The Peregrine Dynamo and Abstruse Archaic. You want to get 4 different cards with Urza's Saga? Now you can. Also you don't want to see one person's hand but all 3 of them, you can do that with Dynamo and Archaic. What about doubling or tripling the lifegain of Ivory Tower? And they are colorless so they fit in any deck.
As someone who actually plays Talion in casual commander I can confirm that he is indeed Dimir trouble in pairs. Naming 2 or 3 usually gets a lot of the core pieces of any deck and with a 4 player pod you usually get at least one to two cards a cycle.
I've seen Scholar of New Horizons used to great effect in a friend's Zoraline deck. By removing the finality counters off the things you've brought back, you can get repeats when you wouldn't otherwise. Seal of Cleansing or Dauthi Voidwalker are pretty good when they can come back every turn.
I can't believe fetching Glasses of Urza off Urza's Saga was mentioned - unless you're in an Urza tribal deck, no way lol. The card itself is fine and fun, but off Saga when you can get sol ring... Nah
The problem with ivory tower and 1 mana lifegain is simple, you play it on turn one and by turn 3 you are at 45 life. Therefore you are “ahead” and become the punching bag for the table while keeping your opponents life total higher too. It only works well in the late game as a play after seagate, and then you still have to wait a turn to see dividends.
Hello, avid Ivory Tower enjoyer here. The card is absolutely cracked if your deck can maintain any kind of good hand size. I run it in a ton of decks and it secretly sits around being a non-target all game, and makes you invincible. Would highly recommend trying it out!!
I've been saying this for a few years now but Mirror of Fate is so good. One of the few cards in the game that gets cards back from exile, colorless to go in any deck, and if you are looking to deck yourself and autowin with labman or Jace WoM, this just does for you for 5 mana. It's the main way I win with my sweaty Lier deck.
I play Glasses of Urza in an Isperia, the Inscrutable deck. I'm not sure I would play it any deck that couldn't take special advantage of the information you get, but it does lead to some entertaining moments. See a hand of all land and pretend it's powerful, make deals, lie to your opponents, react in a way that just makes everyone curious, etc. I can also confirm that people really don't like having their hand *revealed* to the whole table, which is what happens when Isperia hits, and which is why I don't play telepathy (at least not yet).
The idea of Urza going on an entire saga just to find his glasses is hilarious to me
Shoutout to Alice Blackblade for predicting this video
Legit seems decent. Being able check who you need to kill.
Please let this be top comment it's perfect and we can finally escape the f word.
@@lach10211 I don't agree. It takes 3 turns to check everyone's hand. And since Richard and Seth stated that carddraw is free, your information is outdated almost the instant you saw someone's hand.
Assassin's Creed podcast, June 25th:
Seth - Abstergo Entertaintment is better Scavenger Ground and Buried Ruin, no? And it color fixes?
Richard and Tomer together - No! Why would you want to exile your graveyard? Trash!
This podcast, December 3rd:
Richard - Abstergo Entertaintment is better Scavenger Ground and Buried Ruin! Busted!
Seth - But why would you exile your graveyard?
Richard - No, if you need your graveyard, just pretend it's an island! It color fixes itself!
Almost exactly 5 month to perfectly swap arguments. Richard and Seth are truly two peas in a pod))
I was looking for this comment. Some of these takes are insane from the get go, and then they somehow age even worse
Maybe they share one braincell across time, like some strange content creator Animus.
Now I want to see someone make a clip of Richard arguing with Richard from half a year ago about Abstergo Entertainment.
@@TheWoelrat I would love to see that. "The Richard Podcast, where Richard argues with himself about cards so people can't nag on him about one opinion"
I guess they both were convinced by the other one after sleeping with the idea😂
That phil "HOLY SHIT" to richard Glasses > Swords made my week.
Thanks guys
Phill is the player you never need to check for the combo; he always tells the table that his next turn is gonna be insane 😂
It's too funny
In casual commander, I personally think thats the right thing to do. Be honest about what your deck is trying to do. Maybe not in the way of :next turn I will win, but more like: My deck wins by going wide and then play Craterhoof, or my current board is this card or these 2 cards away from winning the game.
If everyone else their plan is to be really secretive about their deck/game plan then I'm going to play stax/control.
I agree with you, but Phil is on a whole different level. Phil is committing political suicide at every opportunity lol @@TheWoelrat
(Richard) Yall having a field day with Glasses of Urza, but it's been living rent free in my head since this podcast. In every game with hidden information, "scouting" is always broken af. Why buy pink wards in League of Legends instead of DPS items, why sacrifice your first Overlord in Starcraft? I can use Richard logic on myself though too. It might be "so good" that it gets you killed, accomplishing nothing. lol.
I genuinely think it's solid. It's a new point of interaction above the table taking advantage of known knowns (your opponents know you know) and known unknowns (your opponents know they do not know the same information as you). It's a sleeper for sure in higher powered tables.
Haha I don’t think anyone will target you because of the glasses’ power. Maybe they just end up being so annoying that player removal is the best option though lol
I love how much a good a sport Richard is
I used to run Glasses of Urza and I came to the conclusion that even though it seems really good and it’s a really funny card that cards that force your opponents to reveal their hands over and over again or even indefinitely tend to annoy them enough to swing at me instead of an opponent who’s getting ahead. What I’ve done is started to play telepathy or gitaxian probe the turn I plan to combo off, which has yielded better results than using urzas glasses throughout the game.
Is Richard a Zerg player?
Sleepiest pick is Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle. He's an Explosive Vegetation that becomes a 12/12 and he is literally sleepy.
So good in zimone ☺️
Bonus points for flavor
Glasses of Urzas is one of the cheapest ways to repeatedly commit crimes - it's one of the best cards in my Magda hoard master deck
Also really good in Gisa crime decks
1 mana commit a free crime every turn is pretty awesome
I'm wondering if you'd rather have a Relic of Progenitus
@Kryptnyt you run both!
So is Ghost Vacuum
Lively Dirge is such a banger and i'm so happy phil noticed it. It's so flexible: it tutors/reanimates/fills graveyard/assembles combos and it's not even that costly really since it tutors a 4 drop directly on the batllefield for 5. I love that card.
“I would say that Glasses of Urza is better than Swords to Plowshares.” -Richard, the Codfather.
I don’t know what to say other than this man needs help.
He not cooking well for sure.
@@tomdoetsch8603 Honestly I don’t play Swords anymore either. I think that’s one of his rare good takes. I’d rather pay more for more flexible removal than have a premium-cost removal spell that only hits one permanent type.
Idk if he’s onto anything about Glasses or not but it’s an interesting idea.
Scholar of New Horizons being an instant speed ability means you can activate it in response to cracking a fetch land holding priority.
It also goes nicely with sagas, there are even 2 in white (at 2 and 3) that grab a plains on their first chapter as well.
I love this card. I have it in Bombadil and Atraxa. It does so much work in both and there are plenty of nonbasics to get with it. Wish it came in foil!
That card is just *really* good. If anyone ever thinks about the delay, ask them how many times they cast a Loyal Warhound or Knight of the White Orchid on turn 3, because nobody ramped ahead.
Glasses of Urza could go very well in any deck that "commits a crime"
Yeah 100%. Commuting a crime is niche enough that people don’t talk about it, but with enough redundancy several innocuous artifacts suddenly become insane.
I played against gisa the hellraiser a few months ago and 4 3/3 menace zombies per cycle is terrifying, especially with her ward. I’ve been brewing the new magda and getting up to 4 treasures a cycle definitely piques my interest
I can't believe it took so long for Phil to mention the coolest part of Scholar of New Horizons: removing counter! Removing counters is not an easy thing to do and Scholar does it with UPSIDE. Wanna retrigger your saga? Yes please! Remove finality counters, you bet! Cumulative upkeep begone! And do it all while ramping or drawing!
Yes! I'm surprised Richard didn't draw the connection to Glacial Chasm or Mystic Remora.
They talked about that Suspend 10 card like 30 seconds before as well haha. Turn 1 Heroes turn 2 Scholar is like a Richard dream!
@@therealkami Doesn't work, Heroes Remembered isn't a permanent. Removing time counters from permanents with cumulative upkeep is great though, with the two mentioned above and Herald of Leshrac being the best.
Urza's saga fetching urza's glasses is hilarious. Makes the saga be just a wholesome story of old man who lost his glasses and found them.
I play glasses in my crime deck. It's free crime trigger.
Love having Phil in the podcast.
Phil is my spirit animal. I'd love to see him in more podcasts
Richard was cooking with the glasses and then proceeded to fall off with ivory tower.
I’m pretty sure he read it as “at the beginning of your end step” and then realized after Phil’s comment that it’s at your upkeep, but it was too late to go back lol
Ivory tower is so ass, and saying it is better than a fog is insane. Fog's also stop combat damage triggers and are instant speed! Insane take
Even glasses is a bit dicey but tower sucks. People mostly swing to even life totals, you 100% "direct the traffic" as Crim says
@@andyspendlove1019I mean, he read it out loud as he introduced it, so I doubt it. It really feels like the epitome of his “magical Christmas land” tactic he uses every time when arguing his case. I would not put it past Richard to try to sell this by saying “Yeah, obviously you get Reliquary Tower and a big draw spell every game, this is cracked!” Completely deflecting the fact that you won’t see Reliquary Tower in time for Ivory Tower to matter in more than half your games. Cuz that’s what he does.
Duuuude ivory tower is a sleeping dragon in my kami of the crescent moon deck, starting the game and turn one gaining like 3 compounded with later in the game when my hand is 50 cards, it’s so good. People don’t think it’s threatening enough to destroy most of the time until it’s too late and you’re at 160 life by turn 5
I will say: For someone who has a rep for playing the same cards in most decks, it was really cute and fun to see Richard get excited about so many new (to him) cards ❤
Richard will refuse to play a mana rock but will actively put a 1 mana artifact that does effectively nothing into his deck. I can’t make this up
I will add it's underselling glasses a bit to say looking at someone's hand is effectively nothing. I've "made them have it" many times where I would've rather just known they had it and looked elsewhere, be it getting blown out by a fog or T pro or a hard counter, whatever.
@@yScribblezHDits also INCREDIBLY disingeniuous to take the statement literally, rather than at his substantive meaning.
@@zeroisnineI'm not really sure why I'm supposed to surmise some hidden meaning of "effectively nothing". In fact, I'd argue the large majority of people who upvoted the comment probably did mean "effectively nothing" in the literal sense, and I would also argue that in the majority of decks this will do effectively nothing. Only in specific circumstances would this do effectively something, I was just pointing out that sometimes the information could be pretty substantial for 1 mana, and it really comes down to how common those circumstances are.
@@zeroisnine Why would I engage with a bad faith argument in a way that doesn't address what they say literally?
If you understood anything more than the most papega strategies in magic you'd get why the glasses are good
Crim's gonna push Talion as revenge for how low the crew ranked Dimir last time
Kind of sad, that no one thought of tallion + glasses (and of course telepathy) so it would be easier to name a number. Thinking of a tallion deck with faeries and clones to name more numbers or the same number more times >:)
Calling Talion a sleeper pick is absolutely insane.
Literally. Name 2 or 3 and you'll draw a near rhystic study level cards
To be fair, for all the hype he got in spoiler season i think i have seen him once in a game, in a fairy deck and thats exacly where i also have a copy of him (except i haven't drawn him yet).
yea the card is just really good
At 1:05:26 we finally get decisive proof that the concept of being kind is so alien to Crim that he doesn't even recognize the word "kindly".
Broke: Glasses of Urza
Woke: Sunglasses of Urza
Joke: Urza's Miter
This is the very first podcast that I outright agree with Richard.That urzss glasses was nuanced and considered abstractly. Literal opposite of "dies to Farewell". Thanks for the video!!
Lively Dirge is pretty nuts when you consider it tutors a 4 mana creature directly into play from the deck.
When you think of it like that - it’s a 1 mana sorcery tutor that you use to grab any 4 mana creature and cast it. It’s rate is incredibly good!
I like the ghost vacuum for sniping reanimation targets instant speed or creatures, like the enduring ones from Duskmourn, when they bounce by the graveyard.
Was literally discussing one of these with some people earlier today:
Rolling Earthquake {X}{R}
Rolling Earthquake deals X damage to each creature without horsemanship and each player.
Played in only 1% of red decks on edhrec but it’s pretty cheap and very flexible, like why isn’t this in every group slug deck?
Rolling Earthquake is great! I've played the card on MTGO a long time. In paper magic Rolling Earthquake used to be hard to pick up because it was a p3k card, so maybe it struggled to become popular because of that. Normal Earthquake can be a pretty nice sweeper with some damage to players too. I think the instant speed on Magmaquake and Starstorm can be very nice.
@ yeah and now that Blasphemous Act is so cheap a lot of people will run that and and call it good, but there was a good two maybe three years after double masters where it was 10% the price of Blast Act and it just never seemed to grab a foothold. 38% of red decks vs 1% of them.
I don't know if Talion counts as a sleeper pick anymore, seeing him get used more and more on cEDH channels. Ghost Vaccuum was my favorite card to use in limited, even though I'd get stuff like Unholy Annex.
Ghost Vacuum was an insane card in limited. Won me a few games between the grave hate & the mass reanimation. So much value!
Talion gets better the more competitive your pod is.
The more competitive the pod, the lower the Mana average and mana curve gets. This allows Talion to trigger multiple times a turn let alone a round.
The lower the pod's power, the harder it is to find the right number. Don't get me wrong, he will trigger. Just not as much.
@k9commander exactly my feelings about Deathrite Shaman in Commander, in lower power pods it does literally nothing.
@@k9commander I play in a pretty low power pod and I swapped Talion in as the commander of the fae dominion precon - it draws me somewhere around 2 cards a turn cycle throughout the mid game if I pick 2 or 3 - in addition to 3 often being the middle of a deck’s mana curve there are a ton of 2/3, 3/2, 3/4 creatures out there.
Ghost Vacuum is typically not as good as Stone of Erech. I've seen Scrabbling Claws and all sorts get played in EDH, though, so its not terrible.
Glasses of Urza has to be the most unhinged Richard take today and I'm absolutely here for it. 🤣
"just run demonic tutor" is probably the best argument for running "lively dirge"
You can demonic tutor for "lively dirge"!
The best part of Urza's Glasses is that only you get to look at the hand. You can just lie if you want to!
You shouldnt lie though. Thats bad
It depends on who you're playing with.
If you're in a pod with strangers you'll never play with again, go ahead. Lying in that case, is a great strategy.
If you're going to play with those people again, DON'T. It might help you win that game, but you will hurt future games. The player you lied about will target you from the very beginning. You also triggered a Boy Who Cried Wolf situation. That will negate the strength of the glasses.
Refusing to reveal the information would be the way to go. After all, you traded another card for the ability to do that. In Richard's case, it was Swords to Plowshares (Heliod, help this man). Your opponents expecting you to tell them what your card revealed is bad manners on their part.
@@k9commander I think people that would do that would not be very fun to play with.
@@lobbynotlob
Do what?
The thing that they didn't mention about ghost vacuum is that you can wait to respond to your opponent's reanimation spells before activating the vacuum. It is the cheapest mana value card that can blank reanimation in response. I see way more single target reanimation than mass reanimation these days and ghost vacuum completely shuts that down.
I have a friend who has been having a lot of success with Dino DNA, which has a sorcery restriction on the active ability. Making dinosaur copies of things is really fun, though. I am an Agatha's Soul Cauldron enjoyer but the card is too expensive to have a lot of paper copies.
I have Vacuum in my Urza's Saga package in Mothman. I use it for the grave hate, and the reanimation is just gravy
Unlicensed Hearse is still better for me, it's twice as good for twice the mana and then becomes a massive creature to attack/block with.
The longer I listen to richard the more I agree with him. He is either the voice of reason or the voice of insanity. Either way, the community needs him
There’s too much Richard hate on here. I love the balance of genius and insanity.
Hi, Goldfish crew!
I'd like to begin with some gratitude. I'm a long time listener but haven't yet made a comment to express how thankful I am for your shows. I reconnected with the hobby a few years ago, and not long after that, I found the Commander Clash podcast, and from there the other podcast and the channel. Your knowledge, humour, and chemistry on the show has given me a new appreciation for the game, and I wait eagerly for each episode of both podcasts, Commander Clash, and the history of Magic series run by Seth.
I could go on (and I will in time), but given we're supposed to be cookin' on this episode, I'd like to further the love of catch-up ramp by presenting Tazeem Raptor, a three mana 2/2 bird in white with flying with an ETB of bouncing a land of your own. With the best bird Cartographer's Hawk, some bounce/depletion lands, and Sand Scout, Tazeem Raptor adds some versatility to the white ramp package in both the early and late game, as well as giving a sturdy body for Dowsing Dagger. If you want to go even further, Delney lets you bounce two lands with it, which can turn on Surveyor's Scope and Claim Jumper.
Anyway, I'm enthralled by the discussions, diversity of perspectives, and archetypes you explore. I feel this allows your audience to find something to identify with, or at least shape their own identity through referencing veteran players and their evolving opinions. Thanks for continuing to produce entertaining and insightful content; I hope I can make it to a US Con from Australia to meet you someday.
Keep cookin'.
Cheers,
Sam.
57:23 FINALLY. I’ve been singing the praises of this card forever, I’m so happy someone else finally sees the vision.
I tried talking to Richard about Scholar of New horizons at magic con Vegas, and he scoffed that it had to tap to ramp, but I'm glad to see he is seeing the light.
These secret tech podcasts are my favorite episodes please keep them coming! XD
My new experimental tech is *They Came from the Pipes* in my blink deck! As long as you can blink non-creature permanents, it's like a mulldrifter that nets you two bodies that you can flip (and they could be anything - even a Panharmonicon!) I've been screaming from the rooftops about how cracked this $0.21 card is, but no one believes me! Phil played it in his blink deck on Commander Clash and I felt so validated! Phil - you're a king!
Richard can look at any good removal spell and say that any other card is better even some thing that dose nothing
I know it was like... his assignment that he created, but Richard definitely understood the assignment this week.
Everybody else is pitching tutors, and modern rares and mythics as cards they're "not sure about" but Richard is at least bold enough to have cards that read very badly and try to create a use case for them
Yeah I was like - Lively Dirge? That card sees play in cEDH tournaments, should be a decent sign the card is decent at least lol
With Scholar of New Horizons you could remove time counters from Cumulative Upkeep cards.
Great point!
Richard advocates for a 1 mana artifact that lets you look at ONE player's hand and might let you politic your way into some value (but more likely gets the table to bully you until it's gone so they don't have to worry about you constantly looking at hands. Not because it is strong, but because it is annoying.) and a 1 mana artifact that strictly gains life ONLY if you have more than 4 cards in hand , but struggles to see the value in a 1 mana artifact that actively hates on one of the most effective strategies in commander (graveyard strategies) and will either get you a ton of value later or force interaction from someone to remove your 1 mana artifact. Certainly one of the takes of all time.
I like the idea of Cosmium Confluence and Talion. There's some pretty good caves and Talion seems just good enough to work, but not scary enough to warrant immediate interaction. Plus Talion seems pretty fun.
Yeah that's the problem with glasses IMO too salty for casual play, not good enough for competitive play. Maybe in a high power crime deck, but outside of that it's hard to find a home for the old man's glasses.
I wil say, for as much heat as Richard gets, I will respect him for putting his insane ideas out there time and again, and is willing to stick to his guns. Hes like the wild card of the group. Man cooks. Though sometimes he doesnt feel like he knows the recipe...
"Isn't it better to just run ___?" Why not both? It increases your chance of getting the same effect. I never really understood that argument
If you want the effect once who wouldn't want it twice?
Farewell in the obvious sleeper pick in this video, soooooo underrated 😅
You just gave them permission to use the F-word next episode
@TheMagicRat933 HAHAHAHA 😂
Important to note that Cosmium Confluence can fetch Planar Nexus and Echoing Deeps which can copy a land in the graveyard so you can use it decks built around non-basic land types like deserts or gates.
Super hard agree on Lively Dirge. It's good as generic value, it's good as a combo enabler, it's good as a budget Beseech the Mirror, and it's under a dollar! My favorite card from the last year.
Talion is definitely going in the 'Dimir fun pile' deck that I'm brewing, could even use him as one of the interchangeable commanders.
Regarding Urza’s Glasses, the ability to keep your other opponents from seeing the players hand is big.
[[Shadow of the Second Sun]] is my sleeper pick. What most people miss is that you get a new beginning phase on the 'post combat main phase', so if you play it on your first main it is free as you untap everything on the post main and draw a card - from there you basically double your mana every turn or can develop board + keep interaction
it is super good
That's not quite how the card works - the trigger happens at the beginning of your pet combat main phase, and the trigger says "after this phase", so the following happens:
Combat - Main Phase, Shadow of the Second Sun trigger happens here - Beginning Phase, given to you by the trigger - End Phase.
You don't get another main phase to use your untapped mana and such - though it is a great card with flash enablers like Vedalken Orrery. Sphinx of the Second Sun works in a similar way.
@@hadrianj oh wow that is true! i was playing it wrong hehe
One of the best cards in my Shanna, Purifying Blade deck. Let's me keep mana up or draw as many cards as I can.
@@hadrianjThat card and the sphynx are the most misunderstood in mtg history
Richard bringing up the Glasses but not liking the Ghost Vacuum blows my mind. Dudes crazy
And then he mentions Ivory Tower. Bro is on the copium
ivory tower actually seems like a good card in a will, scion of peace deck, since most of the other lifegain doesn't happen during your turn, but in the will, scion of peace deck you want to gain as much life as possible with as little mana as possible before you cast anything because that gives you some nice discounts on your big spells. even if it just gains me 3-5 life, thats a 3-5 mana discount for 1 mana that I could pay last turn, this genuinly seems like a great card in that deck. I put in in my decklist!
my ultra giga sleeper pick: Trade Routes. get yours today!
Land MDFCs being as popular as they are will be a mainstay of game design from now until the end of time, and trade routes lets you use the spell side of the MDFC when you need it.
are you flooding too much? no problem, use trade routes and and draw again.
do you need to pop that Surveyor's Scope for its maximum value? Trade route's gonna turn that dream into a reality.
Trade Routes is a card I've liked forever but haven't found a place for.
Richard, I love you. I am a spot removal hater, an F-Word believer, love my bounce lands, catchup ramp and secret rendezvous. But you're lost in the sauce man. You had great knowledge of magic fundamentals from 60 card formats to show why some commander staples were bad. Now you've looped all the way back to round to 1999, 12 year old kids on the playground thinking. "Card disadvantage isn't real. If I know their hand theres no possible way I could lose! Glasses of urza is broken!"
While the card choice is meh, he didn't know about Telepathy, which is actually a super powerful game warping effect that more people should play. He's on the right track.
I love Richard too, but this is why I love Richard
Maybe Richard is just the luckiest player but I've tried playing some of his staples and the success is so mixed 😂
Richard is cooking as always. I have confidence in whatever he's up to
That wasn't exactly his argument. It was more for the function of having the known knowns and your opponents known unknowns. It creates a new point of interaction above the table.
40:00 Ivory tower singlehandedly won games for me. In draw decks if it comes in your hand, downside -1 mana, -1 card from your 20 on this turn (30 on the next). So the whoul board focuses you and just revind your life total. You drop this and one more protection enchantment, so you're invinsible and start doing your azorious game plan... Great card!
One of my favorite themes for an episode, this year!
Please revisit this!
My sleeper pick is spellseeker. It's basically a 3 mana spirited companion that draws you an Open the Way instead of a random card.
not a sleeper but good card
This episode mentioned so many of my tech cards. Cosmium confluence is great! 5 mana ramp 3 is really good at a baseline. When you need to, its enchantment removal. Ramp 2 remove an enchantment for 5 is also a really good card. And when you have already ramped enough, or no longer have any caves in your deck, you can make a big creature and pick off enchantments. That's all without mentioning the caves themselves. Urza's cave is obviously good, but that's not the only hit. This card works best in graveyard decks. Sunken palace gets value off the graveyard, while echoing depths can come in as other utility lands you've already milled or used. I also run the hidden caves, which serve as the color fixing for cosmium confluence, and late game desperation plays. They're honestly not bad, and they get better with sunken citadel too. I usually pair it with sand scout and a desert plan because of planar nexus. Planar nexus also allows the package to include the urza's lands for even more ramp. And this card is only going to get better as they print more and more caves. Sunken palace was a boost to this card.
Peach garden oath is also amazing! Well, actually I play festival of trokin because who doesnt like a good sale? Obviously it has to be in a token deck, but I've consistently gained 10-20 life, pulling me from the oblivion of being almost dead to being nice and healthy. The burst life gain for 1 mana is an insane boon, and I've had multiple instances of tutoring for the card because it's so valuble. Obviously it has to be in a meta where combo kills are nonexistent, because there life doesn't matter nearly as much. But if you're in a grindfest this card is worth looking at.
I would like to put forward ‘Spy Network’.
Costs - U
Instant
Look at target player's hand, the top card of that player's library, and any face-down creatures they control. Look at the top four cards of your library, then put them back in any order.
Glasses of urza and mishra’s bauble as a spell plus setting your top 4’s order is kinda nuts.
Also facedown creatures is somehow relevant with manifest dread.
A huge oversight in the discussion around the glasses. You can't truly lie about someone's hand. Well, you can, but they can literally just reveal their own hand and show they aren't actually a threat. No point in lying unless you are trying to make an alliance. Good luck with making a deal not letting people know what is in your hand. I do think getting an opponent to deal with another opponent based on knowing what is in their hand is very good. And slow playing around counter spell or removal can be decent.
I loved all the sweet new tech for my black panther deck! Thanks yall!
Here is my pick for Richard. Energy Field. Hear me out. If fogs are good, what about fogging every turn until someone can remove an enchantment. With auto-include Reliquary Tower, that is exactly what this card is. Particularly if you are in a permanent light deck. Obviously this is particularly good in an enchantress deck where you can protect and recur it, but I think it deserves to see more play just as a sorcery speed fog, similar to the One Ring ETB.
Telepathy 100% is a card that will get you killed. Even if you arent ahead, people just hate it so much that you will be targeted doen
I used to run it in every blue deck
@@brandonjensen586 Not in my experience, if your deck is of a certain power level, people will usually attack each other or whoever has the best board/hand combo. It's annoying but often gets overshadowed by the real threats in hand, in my experience anyways
However, super worth it in competitive pods where everyone is an equal threat, or if you are already the archenemy.
Excellent in Sen Triplets because people already hate that deck, really any kind of UBx deck that people "hate" and target, fairly or not.
A BIG issue with the card though, is that a lot of the value in any scenario is your ability to use the information revealed, where that's from a decision-making perspective, or card quality perspective. All this in mind, I Totally Agree it shouldn't be in every deck, but in the red deck or playgroup, phenomenal card.
@@salem326 I actually think it might be more powerful in a typical 'Richard style deck' that is less 'scary' than most decks. Because you can be like, hey I'll reveal my hand, it's got a bunch of birds and jank, but look at that guy, he's got X and Y in his hand, kill him. And that strategy is remarkably effective
Poor threat assessment is what gets you killed. People will attack someone with a telepathy while they ignore the player with a Ivory Tower and a Propaganda with 20 cards in hand because of Sea Gate.
I love the idea of the cave package, Seth! The problem the Crew faced is considering the package as additions to current deck building philosophy, but what if you could have a Cave-based deck? I think it’s not far-fetched to bring two commanders to a table, one being Hazezon, Shaper of Sand. Just communicate that you’ve made a change: every instance of “desert” on his card is Cave instead! Boom! Also, @WotC, please give us a Cave commander. I’m thinking Abzan is most appropriate (also, my personal pick), though a Sultai deck might be fun too. Just not another Jund or Naya commander that cares about lands.
I recently came across Archmage Ascension. Requires 6 quest counters to turn on, checks each endstep if you've drawn two or more cards. Turns all subsequent draw into tutors once turned on. Not a huge fan of tutors but seems like a fun challenge while still achievable considering how many draw effects we have now. Has the potential issue of being scarier than it is good, but with 0% on EDHREC I'd like to try it.
Sun droplet is the card I think of when discussing cheap cards that gain you a bunch of life. It's 4 life per rotation once you've been hit. It either lets you soak up all the early game damage or, even better, makes people not bother attacking you so the damage goes elsewhere. If you have lifegain synergy it gives you a reliable trigger every turn. I've been very happy when experimenting with it, but it's definitely situational.
Crazy how Richard will not run a decent card because it will make opponents target you and then advocate for a life gain artifact. Especially one that doesn’t give you a bunch of life at once but consistently 2-3 life a turn. Ivory Tower seems like it just puts you at the highest life total and makes you the target.
For Cosmium Confluence, Pit of Offerings is a cave that exiles up to three cards in graveyards, and that card slaps to search up! That can be a multi-color cave, but only if you exile cards of different colors from graveyards.
@40:45 The obvious solution to having to wait for upkeep is run it in every Obeka, Splitter of Seconds deck. You drew to 15, and if Obeka gets through for damage who knows how many upkeeps you might be stacking.
Richard, you're sleeping on the best lifegain burst card: Fruition.
1 Green mana and you can gaina ton, especially when combined with Yavimaya
Lively Dirge is crazy good on Abzan Greasefang. I've been playing with it and it's a perfect match.
Talion works really well early game to name a low number and then flicker it for the ETB and then name a higher value number. You get flexibility to adjust the number as you need.
I feel like Mono Green could use the cave package. You have a lot more space in your mana base to make it work.
Lately, I've been organizing my collection to build a couple cubes and get rid of some cards I no longer need. As I have been doing this, I've been looking at all these cards from Revised and 4th edition that used to be staples and still seem fun to play. It's tempting me to build an "olde school" cube. Glasses of Urza and Ivory Tower are two of the cards that give me these nostalgic feels. Other potential sleepers that give me these feels are: The Rack, Cursed Rack, Black Vise, Mishra's Factory, Simulacrum, Library of Leng, Meekstone, and Land's Edge.
You are showing some of my favourite cards some love ❤
I think all of them need the right deck. But nowadays we have so much choice to fine tune every deck down to the last inch of synergie.
Scholar of New Horzons is insane in my Boros Lulu deck. Lot of haste enablers, counters and most importantly untappers.
I love Ghost vacuum in my Nezahal Voltron deck. I run it as a backup Trinket Mage target alongside Manifold Key. It‘s like a stax piece that still get‘s you value.
Lively Dirge I‘m considering strongly for a Talion Clone Group Slug Deck. There are only so many legend clones and Lively Dirge has so much other different „modes“ that it‘s never bad.
Love how phil accidentally said farewell while making fun of Richard, almost saying it
Thanks for the awesome janky episodes, always a card or two I'm immediately ordering
❤
Targeted graveyard hate is underrated in commander. Played enchantress with Klothys in the 99 and getting to exile the best card from my opponent's yard without "nuking" my own yard was was surprisingly effective.
"The first card: Glasses of Urza", ok no way this isn't trolling.
Wait until next week when he’s pitching ashnod’s coupon
@@TrostnikRoseau The errata ruined that card 😥
with talion you just bounce it and you can change your number as well. Use those Urza glasses to scan hands and then choose your number 1-10. Talion works great with telepathy as well.
26:46 I feel like Lively Dirge is the type of card that will get better as cards constantly get better. It's 2 4 cost cards for 4 mana, and an Entomb for 5. It's got some restrictions on it, but look at it as 2 Animate Deads stapled together without the Aura drawback, and we're cooking with gas. It's one of those cards that is good; I'm simply not exactly sure how good.
We definitely went through some neat cards here.
Seth is 100% correct on Scholar of New Horizons btw. This card rules. If you think the delay is an issue, think about how many times your Knight of the White Orchid had to be played as a 3-drop, because nobody had a turn 2 ramp spell.
And for the Jumper and Space Scout, 3 is basically the same as 2 + wait. 1W is also very splashable
In my oloro deck, this has a weird synergy with the Lifegain creatures that put +1+1 counters on creatures when gaining life, like Archangel of Thune or Nykthos Paragon.
Great card!
Talion is fantastic in regular EDH. I named 2 and it did so much work. Sooooo many creatures have a 2 somewhere on the card.
Lively Dridge is awrsome, I usually use it to cast 4 drop(lol just got to end of the video, I often pick Talion from it) for 5 from my library, but there were instances where it was drain combo enabler in my sauron deck, searched for blood artist and reanimated forsaken miner from grave with phyrexian altar on the battlefield
This is one I have not tested, but seems possibly cool: untap all your lands effects. Specifically, I’m thinking of Early Harvest and Turnabout.
Many decks win in big pop-off turns late in the game, and what is the biggest gate to popping off in modern commander? Mana. If you look at Turnabout like a ritual that adds +4 mana, it looks strong for a big turn. And the ceiling is much higher, especially if you’re in green and landramp a lot. I don’t think it’s crazy to picture these cards adding upwards of 8 mana near the end of the game.
And early game? I’d argue they aren’t even a totally dead draw in the early-mid game. Even being a ritual for just 1 or 2 extra mana can be the difference between a mediocre turn and a strong one.
The Command Zone did a great episode about Talion, Kindly Lord when it was brand new. Based on EDHRec data, you should pretty much always choose 2, even in casual pods. 3 isn't too far behind so you'll likely still draw a good amount of cards with 3, but statistically 2 is the best choice.
I suggested scholar of new horizons during your stream! thanks for the shout out!!
I’m currently trying out What Must Be Done and The Night of the Doctor in my wrath package.
WMBD being modal and hitting artifacts is really nice for flexibility.
The Night of the Doctor reanimating on chapter 2 and being on an enchantment in white gives it a lot of power in my experience. Throw a Hall of Heliod’s Generosity into the mana base and it means you can wrath every few turns while still threatening value off your commander or another legend you have in the grave.
Fountainport Bell is my sleeper pick. I run it in 18 of my 23 decks and it never fails to be useful.
I had a foil Word of Worship I used to always include in Oloro just to have an excuse to run it alongside Well of Lost Dreams and it was fun. I didnt regret having an excuse to show it off.
I used to play seer's vision, an enchantment similar to telepathy, and tables usually come at you for making reveal their hands
Richard actually cooking for once. A person just got top 4 in 64+ player cEDH Tournament with Urza’s glasses in their deck
Real sleeper picks for Richard: Strionic Resonator, The Peregrine Dynamo and Abstruse Archaic. You want to get 4 different cards with Urza's Saga? Now you can. Also you don't want to see one person's hand but all 3 of them, you can do that with Dynamo and Archaic. What about doubling or tripling the lifegain of Ivory Tower? And they are colorless so they fit in any deck.
The problem with telepathy is that *your* hand is still concealed. So you end up directing aggro back at yourself. The glasses have the same issue.
As someone who actually plays Talion in casual commander I can confirm that he is indeed Dimir trouble in pairs. Naming 2 or 3 usually gets a lot of the core pieces of any deck and with a 4 player pod you usually get at least one to two cards a cycle.
I've seen Scholar of New Horizons used to great effect in a friend's Zoraline deck. By removing the finality counters off the things you've brought back, you can get repeats when you wouldn't otherwise. Seal of Cleansing or Dauthi Voidwalker are pretty good when they can come back every turn.
I can't believe fetching Glasses of Urza off Urza's Saga was mentioned - unless you're in an Urza tribal deck, no way lol. The card itself is fine and fun, but off Saga when you can get sol ring... Nah
You go: "hang on urza needs his glasses".
I think they house-banned Sol Ring on Clash, so I think they might be more likely to look for other Urza's Saga targets than the average player.
All of these are amazing picks! Now to the moon!
The problem with ivory tower and 1 mana lifegain is simple, you play it on turn one and by turn 3 you are at 45 life. Therefore you are “ahead” and become the punching bag for the table while keeping your opponents life total higher too. It only works well in the late game as a play after seagate, and then you still have to wait a turn to see dividends.
Hello, avid Ivory Tower enjoyer here. The card is absolutely cracked if your deck can maintain any kind of good hand size. I run it in a ton of decks and it secretly sits around being a non-target all game, and makes you invincible. Would highly recommend trying it out!!
I've been saying this for a few years now but Mirror of Fate is so good. One of the few cards in the game that gets cards back from exile, colorless to go in any deck, and if you are looking to deck yourself and autowin with labman or Jace WoM, this just does for you for 5 mana. It's the main way I win with my sweaty Lier deck.
Phil why you say that Gisa looks like Tom Cruise, now I can never unsee it XD
You know what will help you decide what number to pick with Talion? Urza’s Glasses
I play Glasses of Urza in an Isperia, the Inscrutable deck. I'm not sure I would play it any deck that couldn't take special advantage of the information you get, but it does lead to some entertaining moments. See a hand of all land and pretend it's powerful, make deals, lie to your opponents, react in a way that just makes everyone curious, etc. I can also confirm that people really don't like having their hand *revealed* to the whole table, which is what happens when Isperia hits, and which is why I don't play telepathy (at least not yet).