Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. This week, March of the Machine: The Aftermath desparked a planeswalker we hardly know!
Calix, Guided by Fate is a 2/2 Legendary Enchantment Creature Human Druid for 1GW with a textbox that’ll bring OG Theros heads a ton of joy.
Time for a textbox:
“Constellation – Whenever Calix, Guided by Fate or another enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
Whenever Calix or an enchanted creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you may create a token that’s a copy of a nonlegendary enchantment you control. Do this only once each turn.”
Welcome back to Constellation town, population: me. I love this mechanic. Landfall for enchantments! Who could hate on that? Not to mention a really, really powerful combat effect. Personally, I’m going to toss him into my Estrid, the Masked deck and my Myrkul, Lord of Bones deck to try him out!
A few things to note:
Let’s pick some cards!
Since you need Calix or an enchanted creature to hit your opponents, you’ve gotta have ways to get through. Cards like Unquestioned Authority, Spirit Mantle, and Holy Mantle give the enchanted creature protection from creatures which makes it essentially unblockable. It does also mean that Calix can’t put +1/+1 counters on them anymore, but whatever, they serve another purpose now!
How about different kinds of protection? Flickering Ward allows you to pick a colour so you can reset and get through blockers as you need, plus it allows you to trigger all your enchantresses and Constellation triggers. Pentarch Ward and Benevolent Blessing are the other Auras I like in this vein.
What about making harder to block but not impossible? Canopy Cover is so much ridiculous value on an Aura. Alpha Authority defies your opponent to block your biggest creature. Shield of the Oversoul gives protection and evasion. Beastmaster’s Magemark makes blocking your creature a definite trade down. Angelic Gift draws a card and sends to the air and Shielded by Faith makes your creature indestructible. When all else fails, Rancor or Unflinching Courage for some trample damage.
Eldrazi Conscription, Beastmaster’s Magemark, Empyrial Armor, Gleam of Authority, Hope Against Hope, Ordeal of Nylea, Mantle of the Ancients, Sage’s Reverie: you’ll already have ways to buff your creatures thanks to Calix’s Constellation trigger, but here’s a handful of Auras that give you a buff for smacking down.
All That Glitters, Ancestral Mask, and Ethereal Armor all care about how many enchantments you have and in this deck, you’ll have probably at least five every time you get in for a swing, making your opponents stare down a bunch of beefy creatures. Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr has this buff already but when you cast her for Disturb, you get another Aura for your trouble. Sage’s Reverie, and the relatively new Mantle of the Ancients give your enchanted creature a buff per Aura while also providing another upside respectively.
Ordeal of Nylea lets you crack in for a hit, get some lands out easy. Gleam of Authority sees those +1/+1 counters and rewards you for spreading them around. Hope Against Hope hopes you’ve got lots of creatures to buff your modified guy while Empyrial Armor looks at your hand size instead.
But the biggest and the baddest is Eldrazi Conscription. Get that cost down with Cloud Key and many other effects and drop it down slam with annihilator 2, trample, and an extra +10. Yowza!
I’ll keep this simple: enchantments are some of the most powerful cards in the game. The card type runs deep and has a lot of fun to it. That said, some of them are more utility based and others win more. Let’s get into a few categories.
Let’s be honest, if you’re using your commander to copy the cards that copy tokens that you’re making, you’re already in a great position. Yes, Doubling Season is dope because you’re doubling your +1/+1 counters and turning that All That Glitters into a second, AND a third All That Glitters when you connect with Calix or an enchanted creature. But you’re already doing well, let’s be honest.
While you’re already in a great position if you’ve got one Smothering Tithe or Nyxbloom Ancient, you can have another, and another, and then what? Helix Pinnacle for the win by tapping one mana?
I think all of these are worthy of an inclusion, not just to be copied but to get you there. Ramp is necessary to allow you to play your resources!
Make it difficult to attack you. “Why are you crying! It’s not impossible! You just have to pay 56 mana to attack me with one creature, that’s not crazy!”
Having a few of these are just gas to keep the engine going. Don’t copy Eidolon too much, you might deck yourself!
If you have enough Hardened Scales out, any of Calix’s Constellation triggers can be downright deadly. Clear the way with Grasp of Fate. Make Spirits with Hallowed Haunting. Protect your creatures with totem armor and use the best Umbra to get more mana for post combat. Cherry on top with Unnatural Growth doubling and doubling and doubling every combat. Here comes a big damage dot deck!
Make your removal enchantments! Grasp of Fate already got mentioned, but consider turning your removal into Constellation triggers and cards from Enchantress’s Presence effects.
Darksteel Mutation, Song of the Dryads, Kenrith’s Transformation, Oblivion Ring, Aura of Silence, Seal of Cleansing, Seal of Primordium, Chains of Custody, Planar Disruption, and many more to choose from that are fun and good to run.
You need good creatures to enchant! Yavimaya Enchantress, Setessan Champion, Mesa Enchantress, Femeref Enchantress, Satyr Enchanter, Archon of Sun’s Grace, Nylea’s Colossus, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Kodama of the East Tree, Karametra, God of Harvests, Heliod, God of the Sun, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Nylea, Keen-Eyed, and Nylea, God of the Hunt.
These creatures either care about, benefit from, or are enchantments that are hard to deal with, and therefore are perfect for wearing those Auras. The exceptions are probably Mondrak and Kodama of the East Tree just being great value. Copy an enchantment and get an extra land from hand to play? Thanks, Kodama. Copy an enchantment, get a second copy for your troubles? Thanks, Mondrak. Also, you can make it indestructible? Nice.
If you want to lean into Auras heavily…
Xenk, Paladin Unbroken gives Auras exalted which can get out of hand if you’re swinging with a single creature at a time. Kodama of the West Tree turns all those Aura-wearing and +1/+1 counter carrying creatures into Rampant Growths on combat damage.
Umbra Mystic gives all Auras Totem Armor, Kor Spiritdancer draws cards and gets huge, Sram, Senior Edificer draws you cards a bunch, and Light-Paws, Emperor’s Voice is a toolbox creature that can be fun in the right build, but I personally am not a fan.
Ramp with big stats: Kami of Whispered Hopes, Gyre Sage, and Viridian Joiner each tap for mana equal to their power or their +1/+1 counters which means Calix’s Constellation trigger will have a few targets that’ll be big team players. Combine these with Tribute to the World Tree, you’ll have dorks that tap for two or three or four right when they can finally activate.
Weaver of Harmony is a fun little guy to remember in an enchantment deck, especially on Calix’s trigger. Helm of the Host is also great to put onto Calix because each instance of him will trigger independently. Calix, Destiny’s Hand is fun flavour to include that also is removal and recursion on a planeswalker.
Don’t forget to pack your lands. Yes, they’re expensive but they’re worth it. Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth, Hall of Heliod’s Generosity, and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx are all huge role players in this deck. If you can get your hands on a Serra’s Sanctum, go nuts, but $400 is a hard one to swallow.
That does it for this one! Who should I cover next? Let me know @mikecarrozza!
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Hey everybody! With March of the Machine: The Aftermath releasing at the end of the week, I thought it’d be fun to talk about my favourite cards for Commander from the 50-card set. I’ll go through my top five and I’ll save room for commentary on cards I know folks will like a little blurb about.
The disclaimer is that I am just a guy who plays Commander. I have my ear to the ground, I like certain play styles, I am just a person. I have my opinions, I like what I like, and this top five might not match your own. But I will highlight cards I think are worth picking up and trying out.
I will say that despite Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin and Niv-Mizzet, Supreme being among my favourite cards in the set, I will not include them in the top five here because I have already written articles for each of them.
Without further ado, let’s get into it!
This is the Cyclonic Rift that isn’t a Cyclonic Rift. There is a lot of buzz about this because some key Enchantments and Artifacts in cEDH are worth getting rid of for only three mana en masse. Not bouncing creatures is not necessarily a downside when so many creatures have incredible ETB effects that outweigh them just being in play.
I think Filter Out will be annoying to some, but also a boon to others. I believe putting it in an eggs deck (Artifacts with 0 mana value) or an Enchantress deck to prock more and more triggers is the best use of this. Being proactive against stax at the end of the turn before yours is also a great use for Filter Out.
Arni Metalbrow is very cool. Arni is a new red legend that isn’t just copying what you’ve got but slamming down your hand as long as you’ve got high enough mana value swinging. The fun part about this is that it is obviously capped, but it means having to use some high mana value creatures that nobody wants to play otherwise to get the chain going. And it’s a chain because as long as you have the mana, you can keep getting your board swinging. What’s the nut draw? Anything that keeps going. It is Balefire Dragon into Inferno Titan into Terror of the Peaks into Goldspan Dragon into Professional Face-Breaker. There’s a lot to like about a deck that can just zoom!
This is the card that is going to be most expensive from this set. No caveat, just absolute certainty. It is a three mana Lotus Cobra with a better body that when you Landfall a second time gets you an Elf or Elemental to hand if you have any in the deck. That second part could also just not be there and Nissa would still be a welcome addition to land decks. Yes, Lotus Cobra is already a staple, but it is fragile. However, it has an ability that has fans and therefore redundancy is an ally here! Having a curve of Lotus Cobra into Nissa means that your Evolving Wilds just paid for your four drop and you still have your other lands ready to use.
A Boros flicker card that lets you get more value out of your creatures and artifacts entering the battlefield. It’s selective, it allows you to protect them from players on your turn. You can have symmetrical become asymmetrical by exiling them at your end step, so only you benefit from them. Cadric, Soul Kindler focusing on legendary creatures can stack the Dockside Extortionist ETB trigger to the top and then pay for all the legendary clones you’ll make. Cathars’ Crusade is already a nightmare, have some more nightmares why don’t you – toss it in the deck! Impact Tremors, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Reckless Fireweaver – pick your enemies’ poison and go to town. This will leave you up for attacks, but you don’t have to exile everything to bring them back. This card is insane!
I can’t spend too much time on Narset because she’s just so freaking open-ended. Incredibly powerful commander meant to lead a deck. Creatures you control have prowess is massive if you want to just play cards like Dragon Fodder and Ral’s Reinforcements the whole game, but I will point out that Narset doesn’t need to target your own graveyard and doesn’t specify that you absolutely have to pick an instant or sorcery or enchantment or artifact or planeswalker or battle. You can pick any of these. You don’t even need to specialize or stick to a theme! What a wacky card.
That does it for me! Make sure to get your packs of March of the Machine: The Aftermath on May 13th!
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. This week, March of the Machine: The Aftermath keeps on giving. Niv-Mizzet, Supreme is going to show you how it’s done with colour pairs.
WUBRG Supreme is a 5/5 Legendary Dragon Avatar with a textbox that’s going to make brewers’ brain-gears turn.
Time for a textbox:
“Flying, hexproof from monocolored
Each instant and sorcery card in your graveyard that’s exactly two colors has jump-start. (You may cast that card from your graveyard by discarding a card in addition to paying its other costs. Then exile it.”
A new WUBRG Niv-Mizzet!
A few things to note:
I will say that these are only my opinions. I know that people will have strong opinions about this, but remember: I chose my personal favourites.
Let’s get into the 99. Let’s pick the best instants or sorceries in each colour pair.
Nominees: Absorb, Dovin’s Veto, Emergency Powers, Faithful Mending, Fractured Identity, Render Silent, Sphinx’s Revelation, Supreme Verdict, Time Wipe
Winner: Spinx’s Revelation
I realize there are a ton of great board wipes here and you’ll need to pick more than a single card per colour pair, but there’s something about Sphinx’s Revelation’s simplicity. Instant speed draw for X with X life gain. I favour instants a lot more in this deck with jump-start allowing you to chain a few in a row. Sphinx’s Rev is a classic hand filler. I love it and you should too.
Nominees: Boros Charm, Campus Renovation, Deflecting Palm, Heartwarming Redemption, Lorehold Command, Reconstruct History, Razia’s Purification
Winner: Boros Charm
Extremely popular card in Commander, Boros Charm is a versatile all-star. Being able to hit a play for four is great, but nothing compared to saving your permanents from a board wipe. Hell, even discarding Boros Charm to play your own board wipe like Time Wipe and then discarding a land or something to play Boros Charm! Everybody hates you now! Finally, you can give your 5/5 commander double strike. That can mean a surprise win!
Nominees: Ancient Excavation, Connive // Concoct, Deny Reality, Drown in the Loch, Extract from Darkness, Glimpse the Unthinkable, Lim-Dul’s Vault, Memory Plunder, Mind Funeral, Mind Grind, Mnemonic Betrayal, Recoil, Shadow of Doubt, Siphon Insight, Whispering Madness
Winner: Memory Plunder
The colour of mill and theft, I was tempted to pick Siphon Insight or Mnemonic Betrayal, but it has to be Memory Plunder. Being able to cast it once is strong enough in some cases, but with enough mana, being able to cast it twice is pretty wild.
Shout out to Ancient Excavation which allows you to double your hand and then sculpt it back down to exactly what you need in hand, and in your graveyard.
Nominees: Abrupt Decay, Assassin’s Trophy, Casualties of War, Culling Ritual, Deadly Brew, Deathsprout, Golgari Charm, Harness Infinity, Revival Experiment, Rushed Rebirth, Windgrace’s Judgment
Winner: Assassin’s Trophy
One of the best spot removal spells printed in the colours. It’s hard to pick anything but this. Takes out any permanent an opponent control for the low price of letting them have a basic land. Honorable mention for Harness Infinity, which might have a spot in this deck somehow, but I’m not sure how exactly.
Nominees: Artifact Mutation, Atarka’s Command, Decimate, Escape to the Wilds, Frenzied Tilling, Hull Breach, Klauth’s Will, Manamorphose, Treacherous Terrain, Vengeful Rebirth
Winner: Manamorphose
Woof, Gruul is thin. Manamorphose can fix you and replaces itself. You can get your commander out a little easier. Try it out.
Nominees: Collected Conjuring, Counterflux, Double Negative, Epic Experiment, Expansion // Explosion, Expressive Iteration, Galvanic Iteration, Izzet Charm, Magma Opus, Practical Research, Prismari Command, Reinterpret, Steam Augury, Teach by Example, Teleportal
Winner: Galvanic Iteration
This card is just excellent value. Getting to copy your next spell is great, being able to double cast it for five right away with flashback is great. Jump-starting it saves you a mana, but in the end, you’ll get some extra value out of your spells thanks to this little gem.
Nominees: Anguished Unmaking, Batwing Brume, Castigate, Cauldron Haze, Culling Sun, Debt to the Deathless, Despark, Dire Tactics, Exterminatus, Fracture, Immortal Servitude, Inkshield, Kaya’s Guile, Merciless Eviction, Obzedat’s Aid, Rite of Oblivion, Utter End, Vanishing Verse, Vindicate
Winner: Inkshield
As much as I think Anguished Unmaking, Merciless Eviction, and Batwing Brume deserve a whole bunch of shine, there’s something about Inkshield that’s just freaking wild. Stay open for an attack, make a whole bunch of evasive 2/1s that crack back and then some. It’s hard to argue with that.
Nominees: Backlash, Bedevil, Blood for the Blood God!, Cauldron Dance, Delirium, Dreadbore, Fevered Suspicion, Grave Upheaval, Hurl Through Hell, Kill! Maim! Burn!, Kolaghan’s Command, Macabre Mockery, Rakdos Charm, Skull Rend, Spontaneous Combustion, Terminate, Torrent of Souls, Unlicensed Disintegration, Wrecking Ball
Winner: Rakdos Charm
Rakdos Charm has so much utility! Got a graveyard deck in the game besides yours, well, say goodbye to them being the problem. Immortal Sun? Not anymore. Token deck? Knocked out, easy.
I do like Fevered Suspicion a lot, and there’s Blood for the Blood God!. That’s just a beating and a new hand!
Nominees: Aura Mutation, Cosmic Rebirth, Eladamri’s Call, Fracturing Gust, Hymn of Rebirth, Join Shields, Join the Dance, March of the Multitudes, Mercy Killing, Reborn Hope, Safewright Quest, Sylvan Reclamation
Winner: Safewright Quest
Selesnya is very into creatures, so it’s a little thin here given that everything is pretty creature based. Safewright Quest in the early game allows you to fetch a Triome or something to fix your mana, and then does the same from the graveyard if you have Niv out in play. Reborn Hope is also a bit of a sleeper int his deck. Also, Hymn of Rebirth was a surprising discovery!
Nominees: Aether Helix, Biomantic Mastery, Body of Research, Bring to Light, Decisive Denial, Double Major, Eureka Moment, Growth Spiral, Incubation // Incongruity, Neoform, Repudiate // Replicate, Simic Charm, Spitting Image, Unexpected Results, Urban Evolution, Voidslime
Winner: Bring to Light
I’m a hater on tutors, but in a five colour deck, you have to run this powerful card to search up your best creature, instant, or sorcery at 5 or less mana. It’s just very solid and can set itself up perfectly. Do I think Growth Spiral is probably better? Yeah! I’m just a huge fan of making sure your deck can play.
That’ll do it for this edition of A Seat at the Table! Let me know which commander you’d like covered next time @mikecarrozza on Twitter and Instagram!
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. This week, March of the Machine: The Aftermath has given us a lot to chew on, but of course, for anybody who knows me, I have to talk about Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin.
A Rakdos Demon in a pinstripe suit, our newest Ob is a 4/3 Flying and Trampling legendary Rakdos Demon for 2BR with a textbox that’ll have some Prosper, Tome-Bound players including it in the 99, or straight up pivoting.
Time for a textbox:
“Flying, trample
Whenever one or more opponents each lose exactly 1 life, put a +1/+1 counter on Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin. Exile the top card of your library. Until your next end step, you may play that card.”
EXCUSE ME! What a tank! The Ping King!
A few things to note:
Let’s get into the 99. There’s a lot to talk about!
There are so, so many ways to trigger Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin. The moment there’s a Laboratory Maniac or Thassa’s Oracle for red or black, this deck won’t have anything to fear. How about using lands to deal damage?
Hecatomb turns all your swamps into pingers. Manabarbs turns all lands into pain lands while Burning Earth only does it for nonbasic, so be sure to pack your basic lands and watch your opponents’ greedy mana bases run them into the ground. Leechridden Swamp has an activation ability where the condition is easy to meet and reads “ping a player and impulse draw a card” that’s not bad for the investment. Noxious Field and Barbed Field can turn a land of yours into a pinger as well.
Do you want your creatures to hurt your opponents? Impact Tremors gives all your creatures, even tokens, an ETB ping for each opponent. Kessig Flamebreather and Firebrand Archer hit each opponent for one when you cast noncreature spells. Electrostatic Field does the same if you play instants and sorceries. Just like the new Urabrask // The Great Work, but only pinging one opponent. Soot Imp punishes your opponents for playing nonblack cards and gives you card advantage. Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat reward you for creatures dying and ping opponents. Gibbering Fiend hits on ETB and per upkeep, potentially drawing you an extra four cards a turn cycle. Kyren Negotiations turns all your creatures into pingers. Goblin Bombardment lets you dispose of creatures and trade them for damage and cards.
Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor turn your opponents’ combat step into an extra draw for you and them, not unlike Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant. With Fate Unraveler and Kederekt Parasite, Nekusar all-stars found a new commander to team up with, punishing your opponents for drawing.
Pestilence, Pyrohemia, and Last Laugh all work together to ping down your opponents, get you cards, and pump up your commander. Fuel the laugh with little guys, like Goblin or Devil tokens.
Extort also works! Crypt Ghast and Pontiff of Blight particularly shine in this deck to get the party started.
Vicious Rumors is a lot of bang for your buck at one mana. Aether Sting tacks a tax onto each creature spell your opponents play.
Barbed Wire, Copper Tablet, and Roiling Vortex are all passive, like Gibbering Fiend, and net you cards all the way around the table if Ob Nixilis sticks around.
Wanna gamble? Rakdos Charm! Say hello to potentially your entire library!
The combo card we just saw last set is back with another infinite combo. That’s right All Will Be One goes infinite with Ob Nixilis. Just ping something, put a +1/+1 counter on Ob, rinse and repeat. Boring! But effective.
I prefer to lean into Mindcrank. Mill everybody else out! Why not! It’s your party.
I’m going to be honest, I blew my word count with that first section, so I’m going to be pretty economical with the rest of this article.
You need hella mana and lots of cheap stuff to cast from exile to get most of your value. Rituals like Dark Ritual, Seething Song, Cabal Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Ritual, Battle Hymn, Brightstone Ritual if for some reason you’ve got a ton of Goblins (hint hint), Burnt Offering, Culling the Weak, Infernal Plunge, Sacrifice, and of course, the best rituals, Jeska’s Will and Mana Geyser. I also really quite like Rousing Refrain, but if you’re playing competitively, leave it out of your list. Don’t forget to pack a Dualcaster Mage!
What about mana rocks? Mana Crypt, Mox Amber, Chrome Mox, Jeweled Lotus, Lotus Petal, Mana Vault, Sol Ring (duh), Arcane Signet, Grim Monolith, Fellwar Stone, and if you’re packing, Mox Diamond and Lion’s Eye Diamond.
What about creatures? Dockside Extortionist, Storm-Kiln Artist, Birgi, God of Storytelling, and another mention for Urabrask! Hmmm, feels like we’re missing a big one: Neheb, the Eternal! Making your post combat a real slam, Treasonous Ogre allows you to trade life for mana which can make a huge difference here. Hoarding Broodlord can tutor a card for you and then put your creatures to work to cast more stuff from exile!
Caged Sun is a big boost. Ghirapur Orrery will allow you to drop multiple lands, making sure you don’t miss any from exile. Empowered Autogenerator gets stronger every time it taps. Glittering Stockpile does a similar thing for one shot cash in, but does it nonetheless.
Maybe a Vedalken Orrery belongs in this deck with an Unwinding Clock and Inspiring Statuary. Pack a Ruby and Jet Medallion too! How about a Cloud Key?
Birgi got a nod but there’s a creature missing that deserves his own section…
Prosper is a slam dunk in this deck. Birgi being a mainstay in his 99, she can team up with the Tiefling and take a step to ONCK’s 99, bringing a whole bunch of goodies.
Pingers such as Mayhem Devil, Reckless Fireweaver, Disciple of the Vault, Nadier’s Nightblade, Ingenious Artillerist, and Hedron Detonator all think you should lean into treasures and tokens, and they’re right. Ghirapur Aether Grid lets you use your Treasures and turns them into cards without needing Professional Face-Breaker if you’ve got ONCK in play.
Passionate Archaeologist, Keeper of Secrets, Nalfeshnee, Wild-Magic Sorcerer, Delayed Blast Fireball, and Kami of Celebration pay you off for playing from exile. Pain Distributor turns your opponents’ Treasures into cards for you and gives you a little boost when you’re playing your first spell each turn.
No matter what, you’ll need your commander. Darksteel Plate, Swiftfoot Boots, Lightning Greaves, and Whispersilk Cloak are all ways to protect ONCK with Equipment. You might be losing a lot of life. Keep yourself out of reach with Shadowspear. That lifelink is more relevant than ever. Malakir Rebirth and Deflecting Swat keep your opponents from having it their way when they target the bossman.
You can play a lot of cards in a turn. Cards like Grapeshot, Tendrils of Agony, and to an extent Empty the Warrens will end a game if you boost your storm count high enough. Aetherflux Reservoir can keep you in the game and tear it down on the same card.
My favourite way to end a game with this big beefy mafia don is to toss him at your opponents faces. Chandra’s Ignition, Fling, and Rite of Consumption will turn ONCK’s power into a game over. But my favourite of the cards to end the game with in this way is Fiendlash, an overlooked piece of Equipment from Forgotten Realms Commander. Slap this on Ob Nixilis and start paying for Pestilence. I’d say give it five activations, and you’ll deal five damage to each opponent for a total of 15 damage. There with triggers for five, six, seven, eight, and nine damage to toss around for a total of 35, taking you to 50 damage total.
What an insane commander. I can’t believe this in the 50-card lil’ baby set! Be sure to pick up packs of March of the Machine: The Aftermath.
That’ll do it for this edition of A Seat at the Table! Let me know which commander you’d like covered next time @mikecarrozza!
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. This week, a pair up legend from March of the Machine that has Dimir once again in the combo seat but isn’t completely wedged in that direction.
Hidetsugu and Kairi are one of at least two Dimir coloured commanders from this set that have unique play patterns and interesting builds for them. It’s quite exciting to see that the treatment Rakdos got in how fresh and new designs have been for years is translating to Dimir now.
Let’s start with the card!
For 2UUB, Hidetsugu and Kairi are a 5/4 Legendary Ogre Demon Dragon with a familiar enters the-battlefield trigger and a death trigger that’d make Vial-Smasher the Fierce proud.
“Flying
When Hidetsugu and Kairi enters the battlefield, draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order.
When Hidetsugu and Kairi dies, exile the top card of your library. Target opponent loses life equal to its mana value. If it’s an instant or sorcery card, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.”
A few things to note:
Let’s get into the 99.
The best way to reduce mana in a format like ours is to play cards with Delve or Affinity. Delve lets you exile cards from your graveyard to help pay down the cost and Affinity says you get a discount depending on what its Affinity is toward. I say this because you won’t always get to play these for free.
Cards like Treasure Cruise, aka budget Ancestral Recall, can be exiled with your commander or played for a single mana, assuming you’ve got seven cards in the yard you don’t mind exiling. Similarly for Dig Through Time and Temporal Trespass costing a single blue more and more cards from the graveyard. Dig is a super powerful card selection spell and Trespass gives you an extra turn which… I don’t have to tell you how powerful that is.
Other big mana spells that are fun are Rise of the Dark Realms, Decree of Pain, Sea Gate Restoration, Expropriate, etc. I think my favourite one is Beacon of Tomorrows which you can cast when you exile it and then it goes right back into your library.
Of course, don’t forget that you can play Omniscience, you just have to be okay with potentially exiling it for good.
Aside from your commander setting up the next two cards on top of your library, you should probably have more ways to manipulate the top. Sensei’s Divining Top allows you to pay one to rearrange the top three cards of your library, making sure you avoid exiling anything you’d rather keep.
Future Sight is an oldie but a goodie that The Reality Chip does a decent impression of, allowing you to extend your hand into the top of your library. Haunted Crossroads can put creatures from your graveyard back on top from your graveyard if want to nug an opponent for its mana value or just to recur the card at your next draw.
Your commander wants to die, come back, and die again so that it can be a value cannon. It’s time to make sure they keep coming back.
Beacon of Tomorrows is good, so it stands to reason that Beacon of Unrest is going to do a lot of work in this deck. Getting to hit somebody for five mana and reanimate your commander as a free roll is pretty sweet. Fated Return is seven mana and grants indestructible to whatever you reanimate (your commander probably). Grave Endeavor can bring your commander back potentially as a 15/14 and drain each opponent while already having hit one for seven. Rise of the Dark Realms gets you everybody’s creatures from their graveyards and hits someone in the face for nine. There are a lot of reanimation spells that are worth running in this deck that otherwise don’t see much play because they’re deemed too expensive in today’s meta. I am ecstatic that this is changing. Pick up your Breach the Multiverses!
Sacrifice outlets are some of my favourite cards. Altars in particular are among my favourite designs. So clean. Ashnod’s Altar, Phyrexian Altar, and Altar of Dementia when paired with Feign Death or Malakir Rebirth or Undying Evil can get a whole run of effects going and even might enable a mill win with Altar of Dementia. There is no Warstorm Surge in these colours, so save a copy of H&K for Be’lakor, the Dark Master if that’s how you want to build it.
Hidetsugu and Kairi are a legendary creature and how does one kill a legendary creature without sacrificing it? Turn the legend rule drawback into a massive game winning plan by making copies of H&K. See Double, Rite of Replication, Quasiduplicate, Cackling Counterpart, Sublime Epiphany as well as just clones like Phantasmal Image, Mirrorhall Mimic, and Stunt Double – all make a copy of H&K which nets you a Brainstorm and an immediate death trigger. Do you keep the token or the original? Who knows! Pack a Drivnod, Carnage Dominus to double up their death triggers and really tell your opponents to say hello to your not so little friend.
That’ll do it for this edition of A Seat at the Table! Let me know which commander you’d like covered next time! Check me out on Twitter and Instagram @mikecarrozza!
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Hello! Welcome to my set review of March of the Machine Commander where I pick my favourite 10 cards from the MOM Commander set. I’ll also chat a little bit about some other cards that deserve a shout in the honourable mentions, specifically the commanders because I will likely be writing an A Seat at the Table for some of them down the line. I think they’re all pretty cool!
Without further ado, here are my favourite cards from the Commander set.
This is my favourite mana rock in a little while. Is this in a cycle with Cursed Mirror? A three mana coloured mana rock for 2N seems like a cycle to me.
For 2W, you get a tapped mana rock that only taps for white. Not a good start. Why do I like it so much then? Because I have been waiting for a card that gives other cards Convoke in non-green colours. Even green gives creatures mana abilities with Cryptolith Rite and that’s not really Convoke. Finally, Boros swarm decks can tap Wand of the Worldsoul and cast a Sun Titan on turn four or something. If you want fancier, then Gisela or Aurelia, but either way, you can use your creatures to cast spells! It ostensibly just costs you one mana to tap your creatures instead of lands. Kykar, Wind’s Fury decks get to double dip with this one. I’m excited to use this in my The Ever-Changing ‘Dane deck to keep upping to the next level since it’s a high mana value creature deck.
I think Mirror-Style Master asks so little of you to pay you off with one of the quickest extra combat escalators. If you have an extra combat outlet and the Master is modified, you’re getting more Backup triggers and when they attack, they trigger for each modified creature on their own. So if you have Anger in the graveyard and something like Cathars’ Crusade, play Mirror-Style Master, Backup another creature, attack with both – you get your whole board twice, and your Crusade goes off big time. That’s without the extra combat. I think this card rules and is going to be a big story card someday. I hope you play it with friends who want to see crazy stuff happen.
I love Treasure creation and hate on the same card. This guy punishes your opponents for sending artifacts to the yard from play but tells everybody that each turn, their first spell costs one less retroactively.
A group slug deck that is great in Prosper, Tome-Bound decks and great against them. Give your Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer playing friends hell when you slam this and board wipe. This being a three mana 2/3 with menace also means it’s probably getting through and procking Professional Face-Breaker and Grim Hireling. This lil guy rips!
All the decks that Pain Distributor would be good against, Hedron Detonator would be good in. This isn’t quite Reckless Fireweaver as it only targets a single opponent, but it makes up for that with a buffer body and an outlet to turn those artifacts into new cards. Prosper, Tome-Bound, yada yada, of course he loves this card. It requires two artifacts to sacrifice, but ultimately red is the artifact reanimation card. Goblin Welder and Goblin Engineer will be happy to see Hedron Detonator, a fellow Goblin Artificer, join them in their quest to hurt some opponents and get some more scraps.
Cutthroat Negotiator feels like it could have been legendary. Parley on a Pirate card? Good flavour! Ostensibly, this reads “2UR for a 4/3 Orc Pirate. When this attacks, draw a card and create up to four Treasure tokens.” This is a great direction for Izzet and it’s cool and interesting. This goes in all your favourite Pirate decks. It goes into decks that want more card draw and Treasures! Group Hug? Sure! You’re giving everybody cards! Why not?
Cutthroat Negotiator is such value for the table that some players might not even remove it, but ultimately this is a really powerful card for you.
As far as self-wheels go, this is on the expensive side like Khorvath’s Fury. While Valakut Awakening is probably the better card on rate just for filtering through cards, Khorvath’s Fury and Path of the Pyromancer both have other upsides. Fury hurts your foes while Path gives you mana equal to cards discarded. Think about it this way: The Locust God draws a ton of cards, plays this, draws tons more, makes little bugs, and has enough red mana to slam down a big haymaker.
The fact that this can enable a big windmill slam is very cool and enough to play it over Khorvath’s Fury. Let’s not even talk about the planeswalking ability that is only relevant if you’re playing with Planechase cards.
Henzie “Toolbox” Torre, your new Wurm is here. For a single green pip, you can probably Blitz this out for four mid-game for a 4/4 hasting creature that digs for a permanent card with mana value four or less (so you can always at least ramp) while putting three +1/+1 counters on another creature to do the same. Hell, you could make this a 7/7 and get a beefcake from your library, but I’m advocating for the double dip. Backup is such a cool mechanic, but unfortunately that precon is the least supported of the bunch.
White got a lot of goodies this set and this card is just the bee’s knees. Two mana enchantment that draws you a card when you attack with two or more creatures. So simple, so effective. But you can spend two to dump a card and make a 2/2 with vigilance. Excuse me? I can fuel my graveyard for reanimate shenanigans and set up to draw another card next turn? Genuinely shocked that people haven’t been freaking out over this more!
This is the card that’s been pounding people’s wallets in the prerelease season. It’s a better Generous Gift in every way but that extra white pip in its cost. It exiles a non land permanent and gives its controller an Incubate token with +1/+1 counters equal to the exiled thing’s mana value. They still have to pay two mana to flip over the thing, otherwise it’s almost as useless as a Scrap token.
Another card mentioned because of its high price tag, Uncivil Unrest is Rhythm of the Wild for decks that don’t run green. Not to mention, it’s a Gratuitous Violence for your creatures with +1/+1 counters on them. That’s all for the same price and less mana colour restrictions of Gratuitous Violence. It’s a very good card! It’s pretty damn strong and that’s why people are flocking to pick it up! But personally, I think it’s a little boring! Sorry!
I won’t be mentioning every card here, so I hope you see things you like.
That does it for March of the Machine. Let me know what commander you want me to cover! Message me @mikecarrozza on Twitter or Instagram!
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Hello! Welcome to my set review of March of the Machine, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.
Given that March of the Machine (aka MOM) also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.
This article is going to be heavier on the honourable mentions because they all have their own applications. There are only two artifacts worth mentioning and most of these cards are battles. I will give more thoughts in the mentions than usual, but will have a little less to say about my top picks.
Without further ado, here are my favourite artifact and non-legendary multicolour cards!
Non-green decks that struggle with ramp have a way to target a graveyard full of lands to push onward! With Realmbreaker, the upfront cost of 3 is quickly forgotten when every turn, you just need to tap a Sol Ring to go get an opponent’s fetch land. You’re also milling them so hello mill decks, enjoy a new toy.
The second ability costs 10 and a tap to get all the Praetors in your deck and put them into play directly. When combined with Maskwood Nexus/Conspiracy/Arcane Adaptation, this reads “get all your creatures from your deck into play. Have fun!” You’ll probably only ever pull it off once before your playgroup gets wise, but it’ll be a thrill regardless.
This is the splashiest of the battles and I wanted to highlight it because it is very cool and flavourful. When this enters, you pseudo-cascade into two cards with four or less mana value, casting one for free and drawing one to hand. This is on ETB, not cast! Get your blink on, baby. Yes, seven defence is a lot to get through, but then you get a five colour spell with basically a bit of everything. I think this is the kind of fun I want to have when I play Commander.
Are we surprised that I love the Invasion of Kaya’s home? I love Kaya so much and this plane seems nuts. It’s a permanent reanimation battle on ETB. I am in love. Give me Brago, King Eternal, give me Abdel Adrian, Gorion’s Ward, give me Flickerwisp, give me Yorion, Sky Nomad… Blink city, baby. The front side is the best part. Easily. It can’t reanimate battles, but whatever! The backside is a great boon to creature tokens, giving them a boost and lifelink while making you a 1/1 flying Spirit at your end step. Solid, solid, solid.
This isn’t Snapcaster, per se. There’s no flash. It’s two colours. It costs three. But it is all esolved in one ETB ability. And it’s not limited to your own graveyard. This is truly a wild uncommon. It should be a rare, if I am being honest. This is a really powerful creature with a crazy ability, 3/1 with relevant creature types – Faerie Rogue. I cannot get over how cool this is.
This is just solid at its rate. Everybody mills three and then you draw one while opponents discard one. That’s like a Disinformation Campaign. But this one can get defeated and turn into a Body Double that stays a 4/4. It’s a reference to The Scarab God’s activated ability for sure. As someone who loves clones and reanimation, I really appreciate this design.
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Hello! Welcome to my set review of March of the Machine, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.
Given that March of the Machine (aka MOM) also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.
I will not be counting the legends I’ve already written about in A Seat at the Table toward the top 5 despite Ayara, Thalia and The Gitrog Monster, and Zimone and Dina are definitely at the top of my list, personally. I know the internet agrees about Z&D and Froggy Thalia, but Ayara is my Queen and I can’t wait for her!
Without further ado, here are my favourite legendary multicolour cards from the main set!
I am very into Quintorius, Loremaster. Whether as a themed spell commander like instant or sorcery or enchantment or artifact or planeswalker… or battle! Quint does it all! Expensive spells cost three and a Spirit now. There are lots of ways to make Spirits in white and being able to bottom the spell instead of exile it is also an upside. Also no timing restriction!
With Magewright’s Stone and Thousand-Year Elixir there are ways to untap Quintorius and get some extra value before the big boy gets sniped. Vigilance also means that you don’t have to spare him from the red zone. Loving this version of him before he’s a planeswalker! Will this be my next Boros commander? Very possible.
Omnath is finally five colours. We’ve seen mono green Omnath, Locus of Mana, red green Omnath, Locus of Rage, red green blue Omnath, Locus of the Roil, red green blue white Omnath, Locus of Creation, and finally five colour Omnath, Locus of All.
Five colour Omnath is really cool but seems a little directionless, which is not a trend I’ve missed in five colour commanders. You can basically build it however you want, but to truly optimize it, you should build with cards that have three or more coloured pips in their casting cost. This is the first Omnath that is not lands focused but it does have a mana retention ability that is a sort of mana sink as well. I am excited to see how people build this.
Acting as a restricted Cryptolith Rite in the command zone, Inga and Esika has the capability to be a total snowball commander. I would personally pack a ton of flash creatures or a Leyline of Anticipation / Vedalken Orrery since your creatures have vigilance and can swing, hold back on defence and then slam a Hornet Queen, an already great card that now replaces itself and now is ramp. Tendershoot Dryad and other token strategies that cost three or more are great additions to this deck. Maybe this is a Trinisphere deck to make even your two mana creatures cantrippers.
In the 99, Inga and Esika can be in a ton of decks and add to it without even trying. Keep an eye on your creature’s mana costs because you’re going to miss a lot more draw triggers than you think!
I love Kroxa and I love reanimating. I think that exiling five cards is tough, but to trigger reanimation on ETB and attack, that perks up my ears!
There’s already an infinite combo with Kroxa on ETB where you can use Altar of Dementia to mill yourself six cards, then exile five of them to bring back K&K and repeat the loop. This basically can empty your deck into your graveyard and pair that with Warstorm Surge or Stalking Vengeance and you’ve got a win going. They’re such a big beater that can make a difference in the red zone. Panharmonicon and Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines, let’s go.
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