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Top Ten Cards I Love Right Now

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When you get your Magic on, what has been working for you? We all try out new cards from the latest set or see if an older card will work as well as you hoped. Sometimes a card surprises you by how good it plays compared to how it looked. And sometimes you are reminded about just how much you love an older card.

So what cards have been really working for you recently? What have been your all stars? Has anything been punching above its weight? Are there some cards you have taken to leaning for recently?

I wanted to take a look at some cards that are on my hotlist right now! These are the cards that have either newly impressed me or impressed me anew. Are you ready for my list?

10. Morbid Curiosity

Morbid Curiosity

I recently added Morbid Curiosity to a bunch of decks, both Commander and not. And I’ve been very pleased with how it has played thus far. There is always something I want to kill to swap for cards. A creature enchanted by Faith's Fetters? Morbid Curiosity! An artifact or creature, like Triskelion, having used up its counters? Morbid Curiosity! An earlier drop that is antiquated by the better stuff that is on the table now? Morbid Curiosity! There are a lot of fun objects coming at your face! Draw cards and take names.

9. Dual Casting

Dual Casting

I recently added Dual Casting to my Commander Cube to sub in for some underperforming junk out there. And let me tell you, this thing has been doing good work. Now I’m sure you’ve noted that Dual Casting won’t work on opposing sorceries/instants. But it still is strong on your own, because all you have to do is tap the enchanted creature and a Red mana for a Fork. Unlike many auras, it has built-in card advantage. Play it, cast something, and then use this immediately. Profit!

8. Night Dealings

Night Dealings

Since I just made my Vela the Night-Clad Commander deck, I’ve been reminded of just how much of a house Night Dealings is in casual formats, especially Commander. It’s an engine of card tutoring fun that likes it when you hit something. So get your hit on today!

7. Desertion

Desertion

I re-fell in love with this again post-Conspiracy: Take the Crown. It is the perfect counterspell for any sort of multiplayer action, and particularly Commander. Most counters like this that do something really cool will only target a subsection of spells, like Overwhelming Intellect, that only counters creature spells. But this will counter anything, and just give you the key artifact or creature if that was countered, so it’s always free and ready as an answer and I’ve often used it to save my life from Death Grasps and Insurrections and such. The new reprint has massively cut the price of the card too, so there’s every reason to pick up this awesome force of counter-age.

6. Minion Reflector

Minion Reflector

Today’s goal is apparently to remind you that Minion Reflector exists. Any creature you play just adds 2 colorless to their cost (when you want) to make a hasted copy that dies at the end of the turn. Double the enters-the-battlefield triggers! Get a free hit in! And Minion Reflector’s haste giving status often forces people to keep creatures back for defense rather than swing, because they don’t want to leave themselves open to attack. It’s a pitch-perfect card with a lot of value in today’s Commander metagame. So folks, don’t forget this card from Shards of Alara!

5. Sunforger

Sunforger

I have always had a soft spot for Sunforger. But lately I’ve been reminded of just how good this thing is. I have a five color Commander deck that runs this. The more colors you run, the better this grows, because you have access to more options with gold cards, like Absorb as counter magic due to the White in its cost. And it’s just amazing with the latest set of Charms and such, especially in a Commander shell, where the highlander aspect allows you to really enhance the number of options you have out there. Take Khans of Tarkir as a good example. You have four charms, Abzan Charm, Jeskai Charm, Mardu Charm, and Temur Charm all available and ready to break stuff. And that’s in addition to powerful options from the past, like Dromar's Charm, Crosis's Charm, Jund Charm, Grixis Charm and more. And then don’t forget the various guild Charms, as a full 7 of the guilds are either Red or White. Orzhov Charm? Azorius Charm? And there are so many more — Atarka's Command? Kolaghan's Command? So many options! And I’ve just been abusing the crap out of Sunforger with the passel of options available! It’s so good.

4. Smoldering Werewolf / Conduit of Storms

Smoldering Werewolf
Conduit of Storms

When I gave my set review for Eldritch Moon, I discussed just how good I thought the “invest mana and then flip them once” mechanic would be for the Eldrazi Werewolves in that set. I figured that the whole set of them would be good — Tangleclaw Werewolf, Ulvenwald Captive, Vildin-Pack Outcast, Conduit of Storms, Kessig Prowler, Smoldering Werewolf, and Shrill Howler. And they have been. All of them have very competitive power and toughness for their cost, like Kessig Prowler as a 2/1 for g or the 1/2 Defender with the ability to tap for mana of Ulvenwald Captive and the 4/4 trampler for 5 mana of Vilden-Pack Outcast. Because you control the transformation, you can do them anytime, like during combat, or when you need something with a little more juice. And all of them are powerful. They all played as I hoped, although the Shrill Howler and Tangleclaw are the weakest of the seven. Take the Captive as a good example. It’s very suitable 2 mana creature accelerant, and later when you have mana you can flip it to a 4/6 threat that also taps for 2 mana. But two of these are just awesome at stuff.

The Conduit of Storms is perfect. Drop it on turn three and make that 2/3 creature. Then play a land on turn four. And swing. Make a R mana. Now you have access to 5 mana without any land fetching, artifact sources or other ramping. Now transform it to that 5/4 beater and you are hitting with a 5/4 on the 4th turn without any acceleration. And in future turns, that 5/4 is making 2 mana while swinging and taking people out. Plus you don’t have to worry about deciding if you want the mana or the swinging. Both work.

And then you have the lord of all, Smoldering Werewolf. When it arrives, it’s a bit of a Flametongue Kavu variant. Sure, it only does one damage, but it splits it so you can potentially take out two creatures. It plays well with FTK and I find a space for it any deck that runs the FTK as well. And it plays into the flickering enters-the-battlefield trigger loving as well. And then two turns after you’ve played it, you can invest 6 mana and flip it into a 6/4 giant monstrosity that will Shock something every time you swing. So its ETB ability is a little weaker, but it’s board presence post-arrival is better than FTKs.

Get your Eldrazi Werewolf on!

3. Soul of Ravnica

Soul of Ravnica

After Commander 2016 hit the shelves, everyone is playing four color Commander decks, led by a variety of awesome options, from partners to the full on four color machines. Every deck that is running Blue should have a spot for this Avatar. It’s so good in four color Commander shells. You drop it, and then you begin going to town. As a 6/6 flyer for 6 mana, it has a strong board presence already. And then on the next turn, when you are likely to get to 7 mana, activate it and draw 3 or 4 cards every time. And when it’s inevitably killed, countered, or otherwise answered, you can still exile it once from your graveyard for a final injection of card hotness. The Soul is everything you want in a card!

2. Ashes of the Fallen

Ashes of the Fallen

Ashes of the Fallen is awesome. It was originally placed in the Kamigawa Block as a way to make your whole graveyard rock the Spirit type so that you could abuse the soulshift ability of a card like He Who Hungers or Gibbering Kami as now you could recur anything when they died, rather than just those with the Spirit creature type naturally. And Ashes did a great job in that role. I immediately used it to call out Nightstalker so I could run it with Return of the Nightstalkers. It’s a key card in any Horde of Notions Commander deck to make any creature in your graveyard an Elemental for recursion of anything you have there. Zombies? Anything from Zombie Apocalypse to Gisa and Geralf work. Elvish Eulogist and Scarred Vinebreeder and suggest calling out Elf for your Ashes. Scarecrone becomes a one-card engine with Ashes out, making them all Scarecrows, so you can recur one, and then sacrifice it for mana, and keep going. You get the idea. So many combos and tribal synergies are improved by Ashes of the Fallen! I am finding more and more homes for it!

1. Viashino Heretic

Viashino Heretic

This is awesome vs. the uptick in artifact play. During and after any set with a heavy mechanical theme there is an increase of that theme at kitchen tables, both in real life, and casual games online via Magic: the Electronic. Given that upswing in play, Viashino Heretic is playing better than ever. Drop this 3 mana 1/3, and then start going to town. Tap a little mana and get your Shatter on. Plus, you are doing some damage too. Now a format like Commander may not care as much about the damage at first given the 40 life starting line, but that stuff will increase pretty quickly. And meanwhile you are getting serious card advantage out of the lizard. Oh, and this also really puts a damper on ways to cheat out expensive artifacts like Metalwork Colossus, Tinker, or Goblin Welder. And don’t forget that while you cannot kill someone’s indestructible artifact, like Darksteel Colossus, you can still shoot them for 11 damage with this! So much value.

And there we are! A bunch of cards that I am just totally in love with right now. I mean I don’t expect to make a wedding registry online for you to buy me a nice gift, but there are a lot of great cards right here! What did you think of my list? What’s been great for you right now?

Are you ready to get your kitchen table Magic on?


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