One Magic: The Gathering Card a day.M-F

Avid Magic Player and L1 Judge (Rules/Policy Questions welcome!) Cards and Photos owned by me.

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On Hiatus

Hey folks.  Just making a little post here that I’m gonna be pausing this blog altogether.  I haven’t played magic in well over a year, and while I do still pay attention to the game and the stuff going on around in it, I haven’t found the drive to go out and play.  

So with my break from magic, I’ll be taking a break from this blog.  It’s not being deleted, and if I get back into it I’ll start posting.  Expect a Card post every so often when I feel like it, but not really on any sort of schedule.  I still love this game.  Just need some time to myself.

Take care all, and I’m sorry if I let you down.

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Topi’s Daily Card #1364:  Eternal Witness

This card is the staple of green decks everywhere.  A simple utility creature with an ETB trigger that get back any card in your graveyard.  Regrowth with a 2/1 stapled on for one mana more.  There’s lots of descriptors for this card, and I don’t think I can do them any justice more than the card itself.  It’s Eternal Witness.  She wins games.

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Topi’s Daily Card #1363:  Blue Sun’s Zenith

Probably one of the better blue draw spells out there, Blue Sun’s Zenith does a whole bunch in the late game.  It’s either a way to refill your hand at end of turn thanks to the instant speed, or if you can go infinite with mana, you can use the Zenith to merely just kill a player by making them draw their whole deck and then some.  It’s the versatility of being both a quick draw spell and a game ending card which makes this pretty neat, and fair for the fact it shuffles back into your deck to hopefully find again instead of going to the graveyard where it could be recurred more easily.  The triple blue might be a problem sometimes for tricolor or more decks, but in two colors or less, this is one of the top tier draw spells.

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Topi’s Daily Card #1362:  Phylactery Lich

This is a really neat creature, and with its reprint coming in M19 I figured I’d put in my two cents.  The lich itself is really powerful, and with the right deck pretty darn annoying to get rid of.  You can’t really target the lich that well due to the indestructibility, but if you’re able to take out the artifact, it might be an easy two for one.  If you can blink the lich to get multiple phylactery counters you’ll have a much tougher to deal with creature, or of course have the counter go on an indestructible artifact like Darksteel Ingot or Darksteel Citadel.  Because of its stubbornness, Phylactery Lich is great for combat and swinging some equipment or auras around.  Just be careful for exile effects, and of course keeping your artifacts untouched as well.  

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Topi’s Daily Card #1361:  Molten Disaster

Now, this card is in italian, so I’ll give a rundown of the spell. One, it has a kicker of one red that grants the spell split second.  Just XRRR and you have an uncounterable sweeper, which is pretty darn neat.  That damage text is X damage to each creature without flying and each player.  That nonflying clause can be a bit of an annoyance and it can take a bunch of mana to clear the board, but split second on a kill spell isn’t something to be underestimated.  

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Topi’s Daily Card #1360:  Karn, Scion of Urza

Now this is a pretty awesome planeswalker.  A lot of loyalty for the cost, and Karn goes to six when you plus one, which is normally reading as ‘draw the worst card of your next two’.  The wording is really nice for the fact that if one Karn dies, you’ll be able to get anything with a silver counter from a previous Karn activation.  On top of cool card draw, his ‘ult’ merely creates a 0/0 creature with power toughness equal to the artifacts you control, which means at the worst he makes a 1/1.  In a dedicated artifact deck, it’s like dropping something like a Broodstar without flying every turn, making them bigger with every artifact out there.  There’s a reason Karn is still worth a good amount:  He’s good in tons of decks, and can go anywhere.  He doesn’t do the good removal Suite like Karn Liberated, but this Karn is more than able to win matches for less mana.

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Topi’s Daily Card #1359: Traverse the Outlands

I love ramp spells that can get tons of lands, and this is one that scales depending on your deck and gamestate.  If you’re running this, there’s a good chance you’ll be finding at least three or more every time to make it worth it, and in the right deck can get six or more easily. Mayael, Yasova, Lord of Extinction, if you’re running anything that goes into double digits, perhaps this is the ramp you need to take your mid-late game into not having to worry about mana at all. Provided you run enough basics, that is.

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Topi’s Daily Card #1358:  Danitha Capashen, Paragon

Danitha is an amazing addition to any equipment or aura deck, and with all of those keywords she wants to have those auras or enchantments put on her.  Even if you don’t though, the fact that your aura and equipment spells are one mana cheaper is something that builds a lot of advantage over time.  She’s a fine aggressive commander and a fine new support that I’ll be considering for any deck that goes heavy on buffing creatures.

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Topi’s Daily Card #1357:  Bosh, Iron Golem

Until color Identity was a thing, Bosh could not be your commander due to it being colorless, but having a red activation.  With color identity now Bosh can easily be your commander, but honestly in my opinion he makes better support.  He’s got a decent body and is slightly overcosted, but it’s the activated ability that can make him shine.  Just dealing damage equal to CMC to a target can be that burst of damage that you need, and in a pinch he can throw himself for 8 damage.  More often than not it’ll be averaging 4 damage or so, but with things like Spine of Ish Sah or other artifacts you want to die and recur, Bosh can be a fine way of doing it and getting a sizable benefit to boot along with the activation.

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Topi’s Daily Card #1356:  Qasali Slinger

Not a whole lot of commentary about this one, as Qasali Slingers kinda speaks for itself.  Another Aura Shards for a G/W cat deck that just happens to trigger with cats.  Reach, decent body for blocking, there’s not too much to hate about this card in the right deck.

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Topi’s Daily Card #1356:  Evra, Halcyon Witness

This is a commander or support that’s a little high risk, high reward.  Four mana allows you to make Evra’s power equal to your life total, meaning that if you’re unscathed you suddenly have a 40/4 lifelink and make all that life back in a swing of damage.  There’s a few ways you can make them more able to be hit.  Things like Whispersilk Cloak, Protection equipment, or even just simply using like Soul’s Fire to have the damage be dealt in a non-combat way is pretty great.  You just have to be careful that you’re not stuck at a precarious life total, or else one instant can be the death of you.

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Topi’s Daily Card #1355: Godo, Bandit Warlord

Godo is one of my favorite red creatures to throw into deck that focuses on either artifacts or equipment.  For only a cost of one red he’s easily spashable and is a good artifact tutor, putting it right onto the battlefield.  Now, that second effect is a little less likely to happen to creatures other than Godo, but that won’t stop him from attacking with powerful equipment attached.  Easily splashable and plenty powerful with enough equipment, Godo is definitely worth thinking about either as a commander or late game support to get the equipment you need and keep up the pressure.

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Topi’s Daily Card #1354:  Dread Shade

Shades are pretty easy to understand.  Just count up the mana they can produce, and you have an estimation of just how much damage they can do.  You have the problem in EDH though dealing with things like Cabal Coffers, Nykthos and other mana ramping lands that can make Dread Shade incredibly powerful.  It’s the most potent starting body for that cost, so unless you want a shade with other little effects tacked on for more of a cost, Dread Shade is the newest one and possibly the most powerful printed.

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Topi’s Daily Card #1353:  Descendants’ Path

Now, it’s pretty easy to see that this card is meant to be in a tribal deck.  Best part is, it can help any deck even if you’re not going tribal hard.  Having similar creature types even when you’re not trying is surprisingly common, so getting to potentially get a free cast of a creature is pretty neat.  But honestly, I didn’t choose this card because of how good of a tribal card it is.  I chose it because of the art.  Terese Nielsen once again knocks this one out of the park with imagery portraying generations and time passing, the latter Terese does in many of her works.  The characters pictured as well are some of her own relatives from black and white photos way back when, making this piece much more personal and really cool to know the story behind.  If you’re interested, you can find the story HERE.  It’s worth a read to know the lore behind this card, and it’s that reason that I love this card and chose it for this blog.  Sure, it’s good in tribal but for me, the story means so much more.

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Topi’s Daily Card #1352: Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep

Now this is one commander who I’m actually happy to see.  There’s that silly theme that’s been rolling around in blue regarding it’s favorability towards those big old sea monsters.  Previously your options for flavorful commander probably rested on Lorthos the Tidemaker, but Slinn Voda is a new addition and is a fun commander to lead your undersea army.  Sure, it’s not super great in most aspects, with a high cost for what’s essentially a one sided Evacuation with an essentially vanilla 8/8 tied on, but in the right deck it’s the commander or support you’ve been waiting for.  It may not be the commander for me, but it’s a commander that I can really appreciate for existing.

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Topi’s Daily Card #1351:  Tiana, Ship’s Caretaker

Tiana is a fantastic commander for any type of voltron deck, or as a support in the 99.  She’s got an okay body at 3/3 as well as first strike and evasion, but it’s that chunk of text that makes her really neat.  Any equipment or aura is put into your hand if Tiana’s around at the end of the turn, allowing you to recast them and just keep recurring should the creature they’re attached to die.  While you’d still have to pay equip costs, the benefit of recurring auras you wouldn’t normally be able to is much more apparent.  Enchantment recursion is somewhat rarer than others, even if it’s a little narrower on Tiana, so anything that aids in that is more than welcome.

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Topi’s Daily Card #1350:  Orcish Vandal

I love uncommons when it comes to commander.  That’s your bread and butter utility, where you put the cards that go in every deck, or they’re a card that fits your deck exactly.  Orcish Vandal is the latter, slotting into a partly red artifact deck that wants to kill their own artifacts, assumingly to recur them again.  While this doesn’t repeat like Kark-Clan Ironworks into an infinite combo without a bit more work, you do get 2 damage out of it as well, which helps tick down planeswalkers or remove a utility creature or small token.  Are there better options?  Perhaps, but I do have a big soft spot for flinging metal things at people for damage.