Hello and welcome back to another edition of A Seat at the Table.
This time, let’s talk about a Commander I have a soft spot for: Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. Sitting at a single quarter for a copy, Sidisi used to be about $6. I built a deck for her back in 2015 with a ton of really cool cards and synergies. I was headed to my friend’s place after a show and had the deck in my car which was broken into. All my decks, Meren, Zur, and the Sidisi, Brood Tyrant deck were gone.
I haven’t revisited her because it’s a painful memory, and now with the reprint of the Sultai self mill Shaman Sidisi, it’s the perfect time for an article on her.
For 1BGU, Sidisi sits at 3/3 with a enters the battlefield AND attack trigger for you to mill three. With many, many Sultai cards being able to make great use of the graveyard, this is already incredible. However, whenever one or more creatures are put into your graveyard from your library, you create a 2/2 black Zombie token.
That means mill, but also graveyard tutors like Buried Alive, Gravebreaker Lamia, and, of course, Entomb.
Let’s shore up some spice for this Naga mamma!
You make a lot of Zombies in a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant deck. Zombies tend to die a ton. This means with Archghoul of Thraben is either you draw a Zombie or surveil 1 for each Zombie that dies!
Archghoul and Sidisi on the board, a Zombie token dies, you look at the top card – it’s a Gravecrawler! Send it to the graveyard, make a new Zombie token, spend a black mana, play the Gravecrawler. Do you have Tormod, the Desecrator? Boom, another Zombie token.
I expect this card to be one that people forget triggers for, to be honest. Try it out!
This card is so much better than people realize. In a deck that builds a crazy graveyard, Split the Spoils allows you to Fact or Fiction with five permanent cards from your graveyard. Your opponent picks a pile for you to bring back to hand and the other pile goes to your graveyard.
This means that unless your opponent gave you a 5-0 pile split, you’re probably going to get at least a Zombie, not to mention likely two or three permanents back to hand from your yard.
People read exile at the beginning of this text box and don’t realize that the cards go to hand or graveyard, none stay in exile! Try this one out!
Put creatures back on top of your library for you to get more Zombies and to avoid decking yourself. But more importantly, set yourself up to play that Aboleth Spawn from your graveyard by putting it on top, swinging in with Kagha or Sidisi, getting a Zombie and then just casting it from your graveyard. There are lots of moving parts here, but I think they are worth it!
You will have no shortage of sacrifice-worthy creatures in your Sidisi decks and chances are, Sivriss’ ability will make you one more. Best case, this is draw three with a Zombie token or it could even be mill three, take away nine life, and get a Zombie token. If you have Tormod, the Desecrator, if an opponent doesn’t pay three life, that’s an extra Zombie token!
Self-explanatory include here. It’s just a new card and it counts all players, not just you, for token creation for creatures milled. It’s basically another Sidisi with an activated ability to mill you or an opponent instead of attacking with your Commander. Solid lil guy!
Fill up that graveyard! Doom Whisperer lets your surveil twice per two life. That’s a hell of a deal. Turn your life into Zombie tokens and let them swing at your opponents. Taigam skips your draw step in favour of card selection. Now you don’t have to worry about milling yourself out of a game. This is the same reason to run Underrealm Lich, a more resilient version of this effect and more insistent one as it replaces all of your draws. Underrealm Lich sees play in 52% of Sidisi decks on EDHREC, so I’m not including it in my list, but if you’re reading this attentively, consider this a B-B-B-BONUS.
I have always really liked Taigam, but never figured out how to make him feel right as my commander. He is a very interesting card, but the control style he leans to is difficult for me to get on board with.
This artifact is built for token decks. Exile a token to reanimate a creature from your graveyard for 2B? Sign me up immediately. Mill yourself into a Massacre Wurm? Looks like that Zombie I just made is being sacrificed to the Lord of Murder and bringing back the Wurm to wreck face. Incredible card that has over-performed in all the decks I’ve seen it in. Truly remarkable!
This is a nice little bit of tech for those Sidisi, Brood Tyrant players looking to play with +1/+1 counters. Moss-Pit Skeleton gets back on top of your library every time a +1/+1 counter is placed on a creature you control. That means a guaranteed Zombie token when you buff Sidisi with Unspeakable Symbol and go slapping. I saw NeoRoyal at CommandFest playing this and I thought that it was fun tech for this niche version of the deck.
You’re filling up your graveyard, might as well use it. I love Araumi of the Dead Tide. Araumi is one of my fave commanders to pull out and drudge with. Encore is a lot of fun and the ability to make use of fallen creatures while eating up no longer relevant lands and artifacts to get the job done is worth a play-test at least. Try it out!
That does it for today’s edition of A Seat at the Table. Check in again soon while I continue to cover Double Masters 2022 legends!
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If you have ever gotten tired of your favourite trading card game, you can feel a little lost. Perhaps you want to change things up a bit, or a specific mechanic has really gotten on your nerves. What is left to do? Where are you to go?
Have no fear – we have four alternative TCGs you may not have heard about elsewhere. If you love the games below, make sure to check out the related card game!
(*Note: This list is reversible – if your favourite TCG is the suggested option, then check out the first option!)
Suggestion: Force of Will
Force of Will is what you get if you mix Standard and Commander without the possibility of mana blocks. Each deck has their own Ruler/J-Ruler that players can cast to the battlefield with the right amount of mana and conditions. Each turn, a player draws a card from their main deck and from their mana deck. No longer are you left feeling that you have been cursed by the Trading Card Gods for not being able to do anything with your cards!
While some feel that Force of Will has passed its prime, the game is still alive and kicking. New sets are always on the horizon with brand new cards, mechanics, and everything in-between.
Suggestion: GATE RULER
Speed and brutality are the name of this game. GATE RULER is a TCG all about taking out your opponents with incredible speed and powerful combos. Developed by game designer Yoshimasa Ikeda, the mind behind Future Card Buddyfight, GATE RULER is a game that requires you to strategize on-the-fly and burn through your deck while doing so.
Like Yu-Gi-Oh, GATE RULER is a heavy combo building game. Each deck has their own special combo pieces and heavy hitters. Chain these combos in order to remove creatures from the board, negate damage, and attack your opponent’s life points directly. For an added twist, there are multiple kinds of Rulers that you can build your deck around, each either their own summon and play abilities. There is limited space on the board for both creatures and trap cards, so make sure you are using your hand to your greatest advantage!
Suggestion: Flesh & Blood
1v1 is the name of the game here. Instead of a board filled with creatures, you have solo fighters locked in combat. While Pokemon has your creatures only knocked out for the fight, Flesh & Blood is not so kind. This is a fight to the death.
Flesh & Blood is a solo fighter game where you build up your fighters’ armor, weapons, and abilities throughout the combat. Each player turn involves drawing cards, taking to combat to attack or block your opponent, and triggering special abilities through the combat chain. There are a lot of floating values in this game, so make sure to keep track of all of your items. However, once you have properly catalogued your items and abilities, there is nothing sweeter than seeing a perfect attack chain go off.
Suggestion: Digimon
Levelling up your creatures into more powerful abilities each turn comes a deep satisfaction. While there are a lot rules and floating modifiers to focus on in Cardfight!! Vanguard, sometimes you might want something a little more ‘tame’ to relax after a game.
Enter Digimon!
Digimon is all about digi-volving and swinging at your opponents. Build your board with monsters as you slowly digi-volve your digi-egg into a powerful Digimon creature to summon to the field. Every time you digi-volve, your creatures will gain a boost to their power, abilities, or other bonuses for your side of the field. Once you digi-volve up to your most powerful monster, you will be able to sweep your opponents board with vicious attacks!
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Hello and happy Double Masters 2022 era! I hope you all opened good stuff whether cracking packs or drafting.
It isn’t lost on me that there a massive gap between money spent and the cards in the rare slots. We can’t all open Dockside Extortionist!
That said, you can make the best out of your Double Masters bulk by taking an inexpensive legend and turning it into a new deck.
Let’s talk about a legendary Vampire who was overshadowed by its original face Commander. That’s right: Edgar Markov’s precon came with two other new legends and one of them was reprinted for the first time in Double Masters 2022.
Mathas, Fiend Seeker is a very fun Commander. I have a Mathas deck myself that I affectionately have dubbed Mathas “Everything Feels Like a Curse but Isn’t One” where I play stuff like Polluted Bonds and Vicious Shadows.
Before we move forward, let’s take a look at what Mathas, Fiend Seeker does.
“Menace
At the beginning of your end step, put a bounty counter on target creature an opponent controls. For as long as that creature has a bounty counter on it, it has “When this creature dies, each opponent draws a card and gains 2 life.””
With one look at Mathas’ text box, it becomes pretty clear that he needs your opponents to have some creatures and for your opponents’ creatures to die to really benefit from that second ability. The more your opponents’ creatures die, the more that Menace becomes relevant.
Because you have to choose a creature an opponent controls to gain the ability to give its controller’s opponents to gain advantage, Mathas, Fiend Seeker is a political Commander. You’ll have people pointing fingers at each other and suggesting creatures they think are going to die next or promising to use their Generous Gift on a problem creature if you put a bounty counter on it. This is flavourful as hell and brings a fun dynamic to the table.
While you could shut the life gain down with Erebos, God of the Dead and Tainted Remedy, I think there are more fun ways to lean into the mayhem that you’ll sow.
Here are a handful of cards I think will really shine in a Mathas, Fiend Seeker deck.
Starting with a card that you can get for cheap soon thanks to Double Masters 2022, Forbidden Orchard is a card I’d assume would be a staple of any Mathas deck regardless of theme. Not only does it fix your colours in a colour combination not known for its mana, it also provides your opponents with creatures and remember saying something about opponents having creatures die being a pretty important part of gaining anything from Mathas’ ability. Pick this up now, though. I cannot recommend this card enough in 3+ colour decks regardless of theme. There’s always someone who will offer a favour. In my experience, there’s a lot of fun to be had by partnering with the opponent with a sacrifice outlet by giving them a Spirit token for them to sacrifice after you put a bounty counter on it. Just make sure you’ve got Vicious Shadows on the board and then you can target the player with the Reliquary Tower and Consecrated Sphinx.
Are you really looking to make a friend? Why don’tcha marry ‘em!
Wedding Ring is a card I’m embarrassed to say I paid way too much for when it came out considering it hasn’t gone into all the decks I thought it would. But the one deck it did make the cut in was Mathas, Fiend Seeker’s Everything Feels Like a Curse but Isn’t One. If your partner decides to pop one of the creatures you’ve marked with a bounty counter on their turn, as long as it wasn’t theirs, you’ll draw two cards and gain four life. But if your partner becomes wise to this and decides to save their removal for your turn so they can benefit from it, not only are you getting them to use their instant-speed removal, but you can probably convince them to do it while you’ve still got a main phase to play with and they’ve just given you a card. You’ll either get somebody generating you a ton of value or basically a minion with a cannon pointed at the creatures you target on the board.
Most of the time, the other opponents get jealous, but who will they come for first? Probably the one putting in the work to destroy. It’s classic Jerry Springer where the guy cheats on his girlfriend but when she comes out she attacks the other woman when she should be coming at the guy. Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!
Sometimes, you need your counters to serve multiple purposes. With Nils, you turn your bounty counters into taxes should their controllers wish to send some hurting your way. Each end step, you can even make them bigger, but I don’t think that’s the best thing to do. Stack those bounty counters instead, because when Nils is gone and they swing at you, a well placed Terminate means you’ll get to draw three cards and gain six life if you piled on the bounty counters this way.
I didn’t want to give too much away earlier, but Mathas having Menace is a bigger deal with you’ve got this Background on the battlefield. What better way is there to have a creature with a bounty counter die than to have it attack into someone’s deathtoucher or bigger creature? With a bounty counter on it, the likelihood of the attacked player not blocking and killing the bounty hunted creature drops significantly because no one can resist the siren’s song that is drawing cards and getting rid of something an opponent controls. If you can force a situation where you can get two bounty counter having creatures to smash into each other to send them to their graveyards, that’s just chef’s kiss, baby. Well done.
Finally, I’m ending with a card that I have a really soft spot for. Combat Calligrapher was in the Silverquill Statement precon with Breena, the Demagogue and it creates flying Inkling attackers that can negate your opponents life gain from the bounty counters going off. But it also creates Inkling creatures for your opponents if they attack someone other than you. This means that every time there is a combat scenario, your opponents will likely take two extra damage per Inkling created.
What’s more is as long as the Calligrapher sticks around, those tokens your opponents create can’t attack you or planeswalkers you control. But that doesn’t matter since you’ll be putting bounty counters on them and your opponents will be very tempted to smash into each other for that sweet, sweet card draw.
Yeah, yeah. Thematically, it fits and mechanically, it destroys any creature with a bounty counter on it. However, the bounty counters it puts on other creatures do not carry the rest of the ability granted by Mathas at end steps. Just a heads up. This wasn’t originally on my list, but I figured I’d cover it since it’s a rare from Tempest that hasn’t had a reprint and sits at $5. I think it might see a reprint on The List as a nod to Mathas being in Double Masters, but that’s a bet that I won’t put much on. I also didn’t want to include it primarily because it’s like the first card people find when building Mathas while searching bounty counters on scryfall.com and I wanted to provide you with some cool stuff.
Thanks for reading! I’ll be back next time with some more to claim that seat at the table.
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The time has come to become a true hero of the Dragon Ball Universe! Theme Selection: History of Son Goku and History of Vegeta are two brand new box releases from the Dragon Ball Super TCG! Gather these limited edition reprints into your next Super Deck and save the universe from dangerous monsters and men alike!
Each Theme Selection will contain some powerful cards of both Son Goku and Vegeta throughout Dragon Ball Super TCG history. Son Goku will include such cards as Ultra Instinct Goku’s Kamehameha, SS4 Son Goku, Protector of the Earth, and Ultra Instinct Son Goku, the Unstoppable. For Vegeta, get ready to collect SS4 Vegeta, Rise of the Super Warrior, Vegeta, Prideful Transformation, and Vegeta, Unison of Fury!
But don’t think that all you will be getting are fifteen run of the mill cards out of this set. Each card will be a special holo, and three cards will be gold stamped holos! These special editions will not be available anywhere else, so make sure to pick up your copies as soon as possible for your collection!
Theme Selection: History of Son Goku and History of Vegeta are out now! Get your copy of History of Son Goku here, and your copy of History of Vegeta here!
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A brand new hero cluster is upon us! A New World Emerges… is the next Force of Will booster set release coming this year! A new age is coming to the TCG and it’s time to prepare for all the madness in store.
There are a lot of new things coming to Force of Will in this brand new hero cluster. This set will include a brand new Ruler type with a brand new moon mechanic. Known as ‘Moonchild’ Rulers, these new Rulers will allow you to special summon J-Rulers into play.
This set will include:
This set will also have it’s own starter decks! Play as either the J-Rulers Asuka or Aristella, each with their own cards and powers! You will be able to pick up your starter deck on the same day as the booster box release.
A New World Emerges… comes out on August 26th, 2022! Pre-order your booster box set at Three Kings Loot!
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Uprising is the newest booster set release coming to Flesh & Blood! Enter a world of strife and civil war as you claim the land of Volcor as your own.
Volcor has descended into chaos. The Imperial rulers, led by the illusionist Dromai, have set upon crushing revolutionaries every chance they get. Fai, the leader of the insurrection, faces off against the Imperial oppressors at every opportunity. Take control of the battle with Dromai, Fai, or any of the leaders of the Imperial army or the Uprising! But keep an eye out of Iyslander, who has stepped out from her home in search of answers about her life…
This booster set release will also see the release of the Uprising Blitz decks! Jump into the fight as Fai or Dromai and fight for the future of Volcor!
If you are searching for a collectors bonus, then look no further. This booster set will include brand new “Marvel” cards! With these special edition cards, you will be the talk of the town both with collectors and on the battlefield!
Uprising comes out on June 24th, 2022!
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This June commemorates ten years of Cardfight!! Vanguard! To celebrate this amazing achievement, you will be able to get your hands on the new booster set, Triumphant Return of the Brave Heroes!
In this new booster set, we will have the return of some fan favourites from Awakening of the Twin Blades! Draconic Overlord the End, Majesty Lord Blaster, and Phantom Blaster Overlord will all be making an appearance. Make sure to also keep an eye out for Burning Horn Dragon, Blaster Blade, and Skull Witch, Nemain!
But these will not be the only powerful monsters to enter the field. There will also be crossover cards from the Vanguard novel Cray Chronicles! Play multiple characters from the story as you fight your way to victory.
Make sure to also check out the new Ride Line units that will be released! Special Vanguards will be coming out for every Nation, including Kheios for Dark State and Tamayura for Dragon Empire. These Vanguards will also have their own special support units, such as Mikani for Kheios and The Doll Twins, Ririmi and Rarami for Tamayura.
Triumphant Return of the Brave Heroes comes out on June 10th, 2022! Pre-order your box set at Three Kings Loot here!
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Welcome to the Streets of New Capenna, a den of vice and violence. In this upcoming Magic: The Gathering set, step into the world of organized crime as you face off against the most dangerous crime lords of New Capenna.
When you step into the world of New Capenna, you have some choices to make. There will be plenty of cards that will hold allegiance to one of the five crime families in the city: Obscura, Maestros, Riveteers, Cabretti, and the Brokers. In this former city of angels (literally), demon kings run the streets now. It is even suggested that our old friend Ob Nixilis is responsible for one of the families.
But that does not mean that crime pays. Elspeth herself is apparently in the city, ready to ruin the fiendish kings and their shadowy cabal. Perhaps not all the good has been stolen out of this city after all…
One of the biggest announcements about this set is that we are going to see the return of three-mana cards! Be prepared for some powerful new deck builds, regardless if you are a Abzan or Temur player. However, each family has their own colour combination for their allegiance:
If you break from these combinations into your own, be prepared – organized crime does not appreciate outsiders.
Streets of New Capenna comes out on April 29th, 2022! Pre-order your pre-release box here!
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