Welcome back folks to EDH, A to Z. We’re looking at the...I gotta say disappointing...white cards of Theros Beyond Death.
Most of these are decent, but aside from the top choice, there’s nothing here I view as must have.
5) Archon of Sun’s Grace
Grade: C
Home: Enchanment Deck, Permanent Blink Deck
Range: Narrow
Pegasus tokens have an odd relation with lifelink, like with Storm Herd, a nice clunky card for Big Life decks. A 3/4 LL Flyer is solid, and the Lifelink anthem affect is self supporting. The potential to make a small army of Pegasi through conventional play, or a massive army with a dedicated blinky deck, is also a fun potential.
4) Transcendent Envoy
Grade: C-
Home: Voltron, Enchantment Decks
Range: Average
Discount cards, especially ones at such a low CMC, really help things snowball. Even better, it can be the target for what it enables, so a Voltron deck can really work with this
3) Banishing Light
Grade: C+
Home: Any White Deck
Range: Very Wide
I love a O-Ring effect, and Banishing Light has been one of my EDH go-tos ever since Nyx. A catchall removal, even at sorcery speed, is worth 3 mana for - Unconditional removal that can deal with indestructible or otherwise hard to kill creatures is excellent.
2) Shatter the Sky
Grade: C+
Home: Control Decks, Board Wipe Decks
Range: Narrow
4 CMC wraths rarely get added to EDH these days, so every Shatter the Sky we get makes Fumigate and the typical standard legal 5 CMC wiper look like trash. The last board wipe I really liked was Wings of Abandon, and that was in Modern Horizons at 6 CMC.
1) Idyllic Tutor
Grade: A-
Home: Any Deck with Enchantments
Range: Wide
Since most every EDH deck packs enchantments for removal, utility, value, or win-con, Idyllic Tutor is an old friend we haven’t seen since Morningtide. A great reprint of an EDH beloved card that sees moderate usage but a two digit price is very welcome.
Highly recommend of buying a single when you can.
Honorable Mentions:
My fave cards that don’t quite cut it.
Eidolon of Obstruction - A super niche card, but it can really annoy a superfriend player’s day. With good stats and a creature type for a 2 drop, it’s fairly solid - but in a format like EDH where mana
Elspeth Conquer’s Death - Dear heavens, this card is clunky and slow, but I love every step of it. Hard exile removal which can hit a lot of problem creatures is great. Messing with your opponents ability to spellcast is also nice, but niche. Resurrection with a buff is also nice, but your opponent had several turns to deal with the Saga or use GY hate. It’s like White getting The Eldest Reborn, but not nearly as good.
The Birth of Meletis - A great card for a Control deck to have. It gets you land (fixing mana with Dual lands in Multicolor Decks), it has some early defense, and a touch of lifegain. It’s like a more specific Angelic Wall.
Sentinel’s Eyes - A very cheap, recursive-capable Aura has some potential
Hi Folks, back at it again with my favorite five blue Theros Beyond Death cards. This list is highly subjective, and I’d love to hear your picks for your favorite blue cards of this set. Have any fun plays in Arena? Let me know, I’d love to hear about it!
5) Stern Dismissal
Grade: C-
Home: Spellslinger Decks
Range: Narrow
Finally, after all these years - a strictly better Unsummon! Since Unsummon is always at the verge of being played, and I think this pushes that type of card to playable. Blue has occasional problems with Enchantments, and the ability to deal with them, albeit temporarily, feels like a nice extra bit of functionality.
4) Thassa’s Intervention
Grade: C
Home: Blue Utility Cards
Range: Very Wide
Options are great, especially on Counterspells with “Cost Extra” which can end up dead in later turns. This insulates from that since the cost is pretty hefty, making it a spell I don’t mind playing at 4 or 5, which I hate doing for Counterspells. Digging for cards at instant speed and usually drawing the best two is a great fallback, especially at instant.
3) Thassa’s Oracle
Grade: B-
Home: Lab Man Deck
Range: Very Narrow
Alt Win-Cons can always be abused, and this can be redundancy for Lab Man decks. That alone gets a mention on the list.
Aside from that, the digging is rather tame.
2) Nadir Kraken
Grade: C+
Home: Kraken Tribal, Literally any Blue Deck, Draw-Go, Sac Fodder
Range: Narrow
Hello, annoying creature. Assuming you just keep paying, netting a decent sized kraken and an army of chump blockers is chief and efficient. Being able to do this at least once a round is nice. It’s also odd for other players to try to justify to themselves using single target removal on such a creature - it’s slow to become a threat, doesn’t have evasion, leave it for others to deal with.
1) Kiora Bests the Sea God
Grade: C+
Home: Steal Decks, Sacrifice Decks
Range: Narrow
Casting anything over 4 mana, especially when you get to 6+ CMC, always feels riskier thanks to the prevelence of counterspells in a multiplayer game. But sometimes, a card is so splashy you make an exception for it.
A hexproof 8/8 Kraken to start is great. That brings up all kinds of shenanigans for recursion and Flickering, like Sentinel of the Pearl Trident or Venser the Sojourner.
The hard tapdown effect and stealing effects as well? Just gravy. Sure, it targets a player (not scaling well to Multiplayer), but opening up one player to get ganked by the table is a great idea. A finale of stealing the best permanent on the board makes this a godly card in a battlecruiser game.
More so than White, Blue has some great cards at all rarities - here are a solid bunch I felt worth mentioning.
Honorable mentions -
Wavebreak Hippocamp, Stinging Lionfish, Naiad of Hidden Coves - A lot of decks like playing on other turns anyway, and Draw-Go can get some utility out of these. The fact that they’re all enchantment has some potential synergy with White tutoring or Constellation, but that’s just ambient synergy - I don’t see a build-around.
Sphinx Mindbreaker - Scales fairly into EDH, and flickering it like crazy is a good way to end a Mill game.
Serpent of Yawning Depths - For all your Kraken needs! Kraken and Co support is rather rare, and for a casual Whelming Wave style decks, this can do some work
Sorry about the slow post - I left the draft for this open (alongside other work I had for MTG) and lost like 3 hours of work when it wouldn’t save. Oof.
Clackbridge Troll
Grade: C
Home: BBC (Big Black Creatures)
Range: Narrow
I typically view cards that let opponents tap down your creatures, or give your opponents things, or allows them to have choices, rather negatively. Clackbridge here has enough abilities and sheer power to muscle through value.
Most fun making some diplomatic scenarios - seeing if someone will sac something to save a player from dying. It makes it fun to ponder what fun can happen.
Compare with Boldwyr Heavyweight, another fun not-quite hug card.
It can also work well defensively in a pinch, played in the second main phase as a 5 mana 8/8 blocker, which is tolerable.
I also like following him up with a low to mid level sweeper, like Pyroclasm or Languish, to remove other players options to sacrifice, so even if they want to do so, they’re gonna have to lose something that matters.
Murderous Rider
Grade: A
Home: Any Deck. Really.
Range: Very Wide
IMO, the best card in the set.
Hero’s Downfall for 2 more life is worth it every day of the week, and it doesn’t lose a card slot in just being removal. The 2/3 lifelink body is underwhelming, but its bottom deck ability has some interesting possibilities with Divining Witch - Laboratory Maniac plays.
At the end of the day, I wish I could survive a non-aggro game in MTGA without getting ganked and stonewalled by this dude. Thems the breaks
- Me, playing Piper of the Swarm
Grade: A-
Home: Sac Synergy, Rat Tribal, Most Black Decks
Range: Average
This card goes to work.
In Rat (or changeling) tribal, it can quickly get to work in stealing the best creatures on the board. Sure, it can die really easy (not passing the Bolt test even) but since a lot of removal in EDH is unconditional or otherwise really good, then this guy is eating removal that would otherwise hit more important creatures you’re running.
Menace is a decent buff as well, especially if you’re running Ink-Eyes that can really benefit from it.
Even with zero support, it’s a decent growing threat to drop early and dump mana into.
Taste of Death
Grade: C+
Home: Most Black Decks as Board wipe
Range: Average
Scaling to EDH really makes it worthwhile - sure, WOTC stuck it into the Brawl deck, but if this is what we get, I’ll take that every day.
Going three creatures goes deep - unless I’m running tokens or a wide board, I may only have a single creature I feel like losing. The fact that this doesn’t care about targeting at all, and gets around every conventional form of protection makes it even more amazing.
A trio of food offers some nice life, or artifacts, or Food synergy. Makes a nice gift to stabilize with.
Witch’s Vengeance
Grade: C-
Home: -X Removal Usage?
Range: Narrow
I debated having this on the honorable mentions list, as it’s more niche than it could be.
Hitting one creature types makes it attractive against tribal decks - unless they’re packing lords (like Elves or Merfolk) or are too big to be affected (Angels, Dragons, Giants).
I feel it better hits vocation style, like aiming for Advisors, Druids, or Clerics, and view this as -X removal, killing one target, and getting additional kills by happenstance.
Blacklance Paragon - I view this as a Black kill spell with limitations - like Doom Blade, a conditional piece of removal, hitting attacking creatures that can be blocked by Black creatures and aren’t indestructible.
Order of Midnight - I like playing Gravedigger in a lot of decks. Splitting the effect from the creature is an interesting choice - I lose out on ETB abuse for an easier to use piecemeal creature.
The Cauldron of Eternity - The replacement effect of messing with your graveyard is a deal breaker for me - what’s the point in doing a GY deck if you’re not restocking it?
Chitterling Witch - It scales, but it’s a weak scaling. Removal is okay, but I think Phyrexian Plaguelord is a better go-to.
Specter’s Shriek - Nice for those control sadists who run a Thoughtsieze type package - for the same cost and speed, there’s way less restrictions on what can be
Been a while, but Eldraine has been...inspiring. The full set got dropped, and I’m pumped.
I love Disney, and the fairy tales their based off of. I’ve hopped into Magic Arena, so feels like the right time to blog again.
Eldraine doesn’t seem overpowered, and has far more that I hoped for for EDH.
Check out my Top 5 picks, and some honorable mentions. Let me know what you think.
Top 5
All that Glitters
Grade: B-
Home: Voltron
Range: Narrow
For Enchantment based Voltron Decks, this is pretty great. Like Ancestral Mask this can snowball really well.
It’s a straightforward and elegant spell, and feels as balanced as can be hoped for - until you’re on the receiving side.
Giant Killer
Grade: B
Home: Any Deck, really
Range: Wide
Feels like Intrepid Hero’s cousin. I like Smite the Monstrous effects, and a tapper attached to that for W is fine - Fan Bearer is a decent creature in a pinch.
Harmonious Archon
Grade: B+
Home: Counters/Anthems/Buffs, Control Oriented Decks, Token Deck, Archon Tribal?
Range: Average
Effecting Base Power has always been interesting to me.
Playing this alone is 10/11 PT, some of which has flying, over three bodies, for 4WW, which is EDH playable on it’s own in my book. Given the large average creature size in the format, reducing base power to 3/3 is quite a damper on things.
Buffing a potential army of 1/1 Saprolings, Humans, Soldiers, Goblins, or other tokens you have is also potent, functionally acting as a +2/+2 aura for them - like Dicate of Heliod!
Changelings and Archons won’t be affected, so there’s also some synergy with other archons, Blazing Archon and Silent Sentinel have seen some niche play in my group, so letting them stay big is nice.
Realm Cloaked Giant
Grade: B
Home: Board Wipe Indestructible, Giant Tribal
Range: Average
Giant tribal doesn’t get much love.
If you’re playing a big tribe like Giants, board wipes hurt a lot. So being able to slam down some sweepers that’s one sided feels pretty dope. While multiple copies are synergistic in Standard, we’ll have to settle for not killing our own dudes.
For the board wipes deck, it’s a sub-par board wipe, but offering a big body offsets that.
The Circle of Loyalty
Grade: B+
Home: Token Deck, Knight Tribal
Range: Narrow
This has it all. Legendary Synergy, token production, Tribal Buff, and Tribal discount. Being as cheap as WW is pretty great.
I’m a sucker for big flashy spells, and this is phenomenally fun to look at. A big buff, tons of Knight creation, all of it makes a Legendary Knight deck a serious subtheme option. Even as a 6 or 4 drop it’s very attractive. Sure, it’s a priority target for Shatter’ing things, but what big artifact isn’t? EDH lets you bring out the big toys - embrace it and make an army of knights.
Honorable Mentions
Archon of Absolution - It’s no Windborn Muse, but it’s another annoying defensive card.
Charming Prince - None of these modes are overwhelmingly interesting, but they’re nice, especially the slow blink.
Deafening Silence - there’s some serious utility as an Anti-Combo Control card, as well as players who wanna force others to play battlecruiser magic
Happily Ever After - every alt win con is inherently interesting, and the hoops to jump through here make it very fair. A great name for a fun card.
Hushbringer - Yet another control loving card, this will probably replace Hushwing Gryff in a lot of my decks.
Mace of the Valiant - Better in a token deck. Given the iffy time I had playing it in MTG Arena’s Brawl pre-con, I think the hoops to jump through as too much.
Silverwing Squadron - Scaling is always appreciated in EDH. While I’ve never likes “P/T equal to number of creatures you control” the Flying and Vigilance work well together, and dropping, say, three Knight tokens a swing, goes a long way to fixing that.
Worthy Knight - The low CMC knight enabler that makes plenty of “squires” for a knight army.
Youthful Knight - Honorable mention for giving me flashbacks to the XBOX game Magic BattleGrounds. YOUTHFUL KNIGHT YOUTHFUL KNIGHT
While I normally have a top 5, I felt only these three were really EDH worthy. Plenty of cards are worth an honorable mention, but I felt the following are a cut above the rest.
Faerie Formation
Grade: C
Home: Token Deck, Faerie Tribal Decks
Range: Wide
A 5 mana 5/4 flyer is good, especially for a tribe that rarely gets that big - only Oona compares in P/T and cost. Making extra Faeries and drawing a card for 3U is nice as well.
The card is straightforward and usable in a lot of decks. Disappointing it’s only available from the Brawl precons.
Mirrormade
Grade: C
Home: Clone Decks, Artifact Decks
Range: Narrow
Ideally you want your own things to copy, like a Sword of X and Y or Propaganda but what I really want to do is copy an even better card one of my opponents brought to the table that I need in the moment.
Functionally acts as a duplicate for a lot of noncreature permanents that can’t be traditionally cloned in a singleton format allows significant versatility I haven’t seen before.
The Magic Mirror
Grade: C
Home: Spellslinger Decks, Combo Decks
Range: Narrow
Potentially as cheap as UUU, this rolls together some massive draw potential with the utility of Spellbook (what every draw heavy player needs).
Synergizes easily into spellflinger decks, as it likes instants and sorceries in the graveyard. Also a good choice for artifact reanimation - another reason to play Argivian Restoration!
Drawing one, two, three, four, and so on cards makes it magnet for removal, so be prepared. A backup of a Reliquary Tower or Thought Vessel helps if you get heavy handed.
Honorable Mentions
Animating Faerie - As the first Adventure card I was exposed to, I have a soft spot for this. Getting a 4/4 on turn 2 is still pretty good for EDH, especially if it’s a Mana rock or small utility Artifact - or that Sol Ring you landed early. Casting both sides is ultimately a 6/6 for 6 over two turns, some of which have flying.
Faerie is a relevant tribe as well, so this makes even better.
Brazen Borrower - There’s yakking back and forth whether this is a good mythic or not. Regardless, it’s an efficient card, and it looks to be a good workhorse.
Fae of Wishes - I love a good wish card, but I also find that it slows everything down. Being repeatable is nice for a big casual game,
Folio of Fancies - Circular draw is fair, and milling that doesn’t hit you is great - if someone feels like drawing heavily into their deck, this may give them pause.
Frogify - Shutdown. Doesn’t always work, but monoblue could always use some more removal, even if it is soft.
Hypnotic Sprite - I’m not jazzed about the limitations of a counterspell, but being a counterspell + body makes it more attractive.
Into the Story - Draw 4 for 4 at instant Speed! Technically there’s another requirement, but 7 cards in any other players graveyard? Easy pickings in EDH, especially in a mill deck, discard deck, or against GY decks.
Midnight Clock - It’s just a rock until Cinderella’s Clock strikes 12, and then the spell ends! Hitting yourself with a Timetwister effect has always been powerful, but I think this is pretty slow, even with payments over time.
Shimmer Dragon - decent big blue creature in an artifact deck with lots of synergy.
Vantress Gargoyle - sure, it has limitations, but it’s still really big for a 2 drop, and it has flying.
And you know what that means! New toys and reprints for EDH!
Gotta grind these before the next set spoilers come out…this week.
Archmage’s Charm
Grade: A-
Home: Most Blue Decks
Range: Very Wide
Ah, charms. Who doesn’t like 3 options!
Feels like Cryptic Command lite, and you can do a Cancel, Divination, or steal a nice Mana rock. She’s never the best counterspell, but she’s a swiss army knife most of the time.
Bazaar Trademaster
Grade: C
Home: Blink Decks, Graveyard Decks
Range: Narrow
Getting some draw, filling the yard, and having a solid body makes for an attractive creature. I don’t like net card loss, but EDH makes use of a lot of graveyard strategies, so there’s some serious potential here.
On the other hand, beware of net card loss if you can’t take advantage of it, and at the end of the day a 3/4 Flyer isn’t huge for EDH.
Echo of Eons
Grade: A-
Home: Sadistic Blue decks
Range: Average
Doing this twice feels mean.
I love messing with other players, and stocking up on a new hand of cards. On top of getting a ton of discard triggers (Leovold would have loved this, but other mill or discard commanders will love it to) and draw triggers, flashback for 2U makes it even more fun to play out of the yard - that’s if you’re not already casting it for free.
Flusterstorm
Grade: A-
Home: Any deck going into multiplayer
Range: Very Wide
EDH faces far more Instants and Sorceries that can be game ending out nowhere, or board wipes to interrupt your lovely board state, or a pumped up Fireball about to kill your weakest opponent - and put you on the chopping block.
Optimally you can make this cost more than your opponent has available to deal with. Usually this will be a minimum of (2), but can be higher from other players interacting - some may help you if they know you have a Flusterstorm, or you can play cheap spells first.
It can whiff (it always seems to whiff for me) as it can’t deal with creatures, planeswalkers, enchantments, artifacts, so there’s plenty of scenarios where it fails you, or your opponent has extra mana up to deal with your tax, but (U) is a fair cost for an occasional ace in your sleeve.
Fact or Fiction
Grade: C+
Home: Any Blue Deck
Range: Very Wide
Usually a draw 2-3 at instant speed for 4 is fine. I’ve even done 4-1 splits when I know something is an opponent’s combo piece.
And even if they get put in the graveyard, so what? That’s basically your second hand in EDH.
Force of Negation
Grade: B+
Home: Blue Counterspells, Combo Decks
Range: Narrow
While it doesn’t replace Force of Will due to the limited card types, having a second free counterspell is never a wrong choice. Exiling the counterspell is occasionnaly useful, but doesn’t really make the card. Being at Cancel cost makes it okay to hard cast as well as a backup use case.
Future Sight
Grade: C
Home: Spellslinger Deck, Any Blue Deck
Range: Very Wide
Always a nice toy for EDH decks that want to cast a lot. And I mean a lot of spells. Functionally at least an extra card in hand, it lets you really play out of your library well. And if you can remove all your lands and make your spells free...well, you’ve already broken the game, and this just makes it smoother.
Marit Lage’s Slumber
Grade: C+
Home: Snow Decks
Range: Narrow
Solid usage in a Scapeshift deck that can cheat out extra basic snow lands, as well as a deck that recur the enchantment and utilize Mirror Gallery effects to pump out Marit Lage tokens.
Honestly, if your opponents can’t deal with one big token, they didn’t bring the right removal.
Mirrodin Besieged
Grade: B
Home: Artifact Decks, Cheerio Artifacts
Range: Narrow
An artifact synergy spell is nice, and not having a clause that limits it to once a turn helps a lot. Then you can blink it and choose Phyrexian and have an alt win con ready to go.
In an artifact deck that can really spit out cheap artifacts (and some back from the graveyard that you’re stocking), it makes a great alternate win-con alongside Mechanized Construction.
Rebuild
Grade: C-
Home: Cheap Mana Rocks, ?
Range: Sideboard
Nice removal against artifact heavy decks, good at recycling mana rocks, good for dodging mass artifact removal against you.
Probably has some wicked combo I’m not capable of thinking up.
All that on top of the option to cycle it out makes it a solid choice to have in your collection, if not in any particular deck.
Tribute Mage
Grade: C+
Home: Any Artifact deck needing 2 CMC tutoring
Range: Very Wide
Two mana is the right size for Signets, which every multicolor deck can utilize, as well as fun equipment like Illusionist’s Bracers and Nim Deathmantle. Fun 2 CMC artifacts include Baleful Strix, Ethersworn Canonist, and the Mana Myr cycle.
A solid swiss army knife to have.
Urza, Lord High Artificer
Grade: A
Home: Artifacts, Combo Decks
Range: Wide
The high synergy with artifacts, ability to combo out a ton of mana, and being able to dump that out into your library, Urza is a butt-kicking card.
Decent target for blinking a Karn-made token.
His second ability feels like something like Opposition-level power - just tapping artifacts (equipment and creatures doing double duty) instantly, and color fixing to Blue if you need. It’s not game breaking, but certainly is powerful.
With shuffling, it’s a lot harder to cheese this ability - assuming you haven’t exiled all but 1 card of your library, a la Doomsday.
POSSIBLE
Choking Tethers - I really like the utility of opening up one player to get pounded on by the rest of the table, and Cycling makes sure it’s never dead
Cunning Evasion - Feels like a Blue Reconnaissance, which I occasionally like for fun shenanigans
Everdream - Tacking on a cantrip for 2U feels weird, but when you’re doing a ton of 1 CMC Instants, it might be worth it
Faerie Seer - Small fliers can find some play, ETB is fine, creature types are relevant
Iceberg Cantrix - Might have some Snow fun Scapeshift style, but I’m including it for the memes
Man O’ War - A workhorse even in EDH. Not spectacular, but fun for Blinking decks, or the padding out the fist version of a deck shell
Mist-Syndicate Naga - Not sure how good it’ll be unless it’s constantly swapping out for Ninjas, but it has some potential. Extra bodies is always good, but 3/1 doesn’t impress me much
Moonblade Shinobi - Decent Ninja, and adds a Flying Illusion that makes follow up attacks with Ninjutsu work
Phantom Ninja - An unblockable creature with a relevant creature type. Nominal usage in the gimmicky Ninja deck
Rain of Revelation - Instant speed triple draw and beats Sift now, makes for a decent Blue card for slower decks that want to play on other players turns
Oneirophage - In draw heavy decks, an evasive creature that can have explosive growth makes it much better than your average big dumb flyer
Scour All Possibilities - Sorcery really hurts this, but doing it twice helps. Digging three deep can be interesting.
Scuttling Sliver - Weak for a Sliver IMO, as tapping rarely seems to be relevant, as you’re always kinda snowballing anyway, and Untapping for tricks and extra abilities doesn’t seem to compare to flooding the field with bodies.
Smoke Shroud - More fun for Ninja Tribal - evasion, cheap recursion of an aura and a buff
Spell Snuff - Strictly better Cancel, so decent
Watcher for Tomorrow - Draw this slow feels week, but okay for a 2 drop
NAY
Blizzard Strix - Weak ETB with a condition on meh stats
Chillerpillar - Too much of a hoop to jump through for too little rewards
Exclude - It’s fine, but limitations on
Eyekite - Weak best case scenario
Phantasmal Form - Trick not worth a slot or cost
Pondering Mage - Expensive for a 3/4 with Ponder
Prohibit - Two weak cases for EDH, and paying more without a hard counter, this is trash
Scour All Possibilities - Weak double draw is disappointing
Stream of Thought - Unless it’s part of an infinite mana combo, not worth it. Even then, there are better options.
String of Disappearances - Cute call back, but not for EDH.
And you know what that means! New toys and reprints for EDH!
Gotta grind these before the next set spoilers come out...next week.
Force of Virtue
Grade: B+
Home: Go-Wide, Token Decks, MonoWhite
Range: Wide
Another Enchantment always help Go-Wide decks, and the ability do flash it in and not pay anything is even better. A solid Anthem, even paying the casting cost for, is always worth it.
Generous Gift
Grade: C+
Home: Any White Deck
Range: Very Wide
Never look a gift elephant in the mouth, eh?
A color-shifted Beast Within is always is welcome here. Removal of any permanent at instant speed is fantastic.
Giver of Runes
Grade: B
Home: Voltron
Range:
Mother of Runes that can also protect against colorless.
Yes it is Patrick, no matter what Maro tells use.
Unlike Mom, she can’t protect herself, so no chump block > tap to protect self.
On Thin Ice
Grade: B-
Home: Constructed Snow Decks
Range: Average
Hey, it’s Chained to the Rocks, but not Boros colored! Make all your Basic Lands snow lands, and it’s 1 Mana Sorc removal with no downside, and easy to use.
Ranger-Captain of Eos
Grade: C
Home: Niche decks that need a specific tutor
Range: Narrow
Good Blink Target, and there’s almost 800 creatures you can tutor with this, so there’s always something you can use. Locking out removal and other noncreature spells is also very useful. Anything from Mikeus to Kid-eon to the new Giver of Runes makes a great tutor target, and that’s just in White.
Solid stats and a good creature type round out a good creature.
Serra the Benevolent
Grade: A
Home: Angel Tribal, Flyers, Any White Deck
Range: Wide
My absolute fave of White. It can make a Serra Angel the second it comes down, or when Doubling Season hits with it, it can get it’s Worship Emblem.
She draws removal like a champ, hence the good protection the Angel provides.
Sisay, Weatherlight Captain
Grade: B
Home: Legendaries
Range: All over the place
It can tutor any sort of Legendary permanent - artifacts, creatures, planeswalkers - all good stuff. Sisay has a max size of 7/7, which is pretty good for a 3 drop.
Vesperlark
Grade: B
Home: Blink Decks, Rez Decks
Range: Narrow
The Lesser Reveillark, getting back one creature with power 1 or less, which is still surprisingly good. Much easier to get into play on turn 1 that the Rev and then abuse.
Pulling the new Deep Forest Hermit and flickering Vesperlark or the hermit it the tip of the iceberg when it comes to shenanigans.
Winds of Abandon
Grade: B-
Home: Any White Deck
Range: Wide
What’s better than a Board Wipe? A one-sided board wipe!
A good removal effect for 2 mana Sorc, the Overloaded version dodges any type of protection, and getting “compensated” with a basic land is harsh - especially when multicolored decks might not even run many Basic lands, so they can fail to find, making it even more one-sided.
On the Maybe List
Ephemerate - Double blink is pretty decent at instant.
Face of Divinity - Cheap abilities especially as you stack on Auras onto your Voltron creatures
First Sliver’s Chosen - Maybe if you want one big creature attacking, but I think Slivers like attacking more in a swarm.
Imposter of the Sixth Pride - Tribal options may be this card’s salvation
King of the Pride - Solid Cat Lord
Lancer Sliver - Decent
Martyr’s Soul - I think a 5/4 for 3 mana is interesting, but possibly not right for EDH. The mana rocks and Convoke can help, but I’m not sure yet
Recruit the Worthy - White’s worse Sprout Swarm for 1 less
Reprobation - Nice alternate to Pacifism
Rhox Veteran - Battle Cry and targeted tap down are a potent mix, letting you whale on a target
Segovian Angel - Ah, finally the White Angel one drop the tribe’s needed forever. Nominally interesting, but probably out of the league of being competitive
Splicer’s Skill - Not sure how well Splice works outside of the Arcane family, so this is probably worth checking out for cheap casting Jeskai decks maybe
Valiant Changeling - Possibly nice as a WW 3/3 Double Strike
Wing Shards - You can usually kill 2-3 things if you do it well, which is more than you need to kill Unblockable Souped up Voltron creatures with Protection from X
Not for EDH
Answered Prayers - Might be cute for the LG or Opal decks, but I feel it’s underpowered
Astral Drift - While it’s had it’s time in the sun in cycling decks, it’s not for EDH
Battle Screech - More for pauper than EDH
Dismantling Blow - Disenchant and Divination at this cost? No way!
Enduring Sliver - Slow, slow, slow. A decent bear, but I feel slivers can do better, even for a card slot
Gilded Light - Cycling is fine, but self protection could be found better with True Believer
Irregular Cohort - Does fair work, but unless you can really abuse the Changeling or ETB, not really worth it. Even when you can, there are other options.
Knight of Old Benalia - Decent ETB, but not enough
Settle Beyond Reality - I wanna remove something at Instant speed, for much less mana
Shelter - Other options make for better card slots
Soul-Strike Technique - Weak aura with replacement is disappointing.
Stirring Address - Hey, Overload in White! Still trash combat trick though
Trustworthy Scout - Functionally a bear with an ability that doesn’t work in EDH
Wall of One Thousand Cuts - I hate paying for mediocre things to be less mediocre
Zhalfirin Decoy - Tapping and weird antics does not make for good EDH creatures.
Sure, I’ve played with plenty of Draft chaff for fun, or when I had no other option, but the cards below will be ones you’re happy to get in trades, and add value to your decks and collections.
At 4 mana, you’re getting 4/4 of stats, and it get’s more and more efficient as you pour mana in. At 10 mana, it also makes that many Angels. It also doesn’t stop making them if you keep pouring mana in. It’s good early game to stabilize, it can offer tremendous value later, and becomes a “deal with it or die” quickly.
For everyone else...bring your board wipes.
Gideon Backblade
Grade: C
Home:
Range:
Almost impossible to kill on your turn, and also hard to deal with on other turns, Blackblade is a solid, and cheap, addition to any combat heavy deck, or the every meme-worthy Gideon tribal.
Making a creature Indestructible, like your commander, to end of turn is a great +1, and permanent removal is a nice Ult for a 3 CMC walker.
God-Eternal Oketra
Grade: A
Home: Weenie Deck
Range: Wide
I find it kind of unfair to the original Oketra that this, at W more, is a massive upgrade over the original. Less vulnerable to exile effects, better tokens, no drawbacks.
Spam X or 0 or 1 cost minions to get cheap 4/4 Tokens, which are pretty impressive, even for EDH. Really goes well with any deck, as it’s hard to get rid of for good, and it’s a great resurrection target.
A nice color shift on Thrummingbird which works well in any deck where the bird fits. Not much to say, just a nice small creature.
Ignite the Beacon
Grade: C-
Home: Superfriends, Legendary Deck
Range: Narrow
White just gets the best superfriends deck toys.
Outside of the superfriends deck, if you have ‘walkers that function as combo pieces, win-cons, or removal, it may be worthwhile to run this in a deck with 4+ PWs.
Grab this while it’s a penny rare.
Parhelion II
Grade: D+
Home: Angel Tokens, Vehicles
Range: Narrow
I’m a little prejudiced thanks to my love of angels, and this card is such Battlecruiser MTG, it deserved a mention.
You crew it with an Angel (traditionally 4 power), it has angel abilities, it makes two angels a swing, it can play defense, it dodges some Sorcery speed removal.
It’s also 8 mana, and without some Haste, it takes forever to take off - and you need value fast. It’s more for casual, big-spell magic, but I really love how big it is, and how big it gets.
Prison Realm
Grade: C
Home: Anywhere where O Ring works
Range: Very Wide
We lose some of the versatility of Oblivion Ring, but creatures and planeswalkers make up 90% of what we want to remove anyway. Tacking a Scry 1 is like half a card draw, so nice for white heavy decks.
Ravnica at War
Grade: D+
Home: MonoColor Board wipes
Range: Narrow
I view this as “kill most commanders/legendaries” than anything else. Most commanders are multicolor, and a lot of great creatures are too, so if you want to gamble or play casually, this has some merit. Exiling is also a nice touch, especially for indestructible creatures that often feature in commander.
Otherwise, it whiffs too often for my taste - it’s inability to be an actual board wipe hurts.
Tomik, Distinguished Advokist
Grade: A
Home: Land Tech, Hatebears
Range: Very Narrow
Solid body, and he’s amazing at what he does, but it’s very narrow. Unless Gitrog, Titania, and Omnath are trampling through your meta, leave it in the binder.
The D section - Just Meh
Ajani’s Pridmate - fine card for the lifegain deck, but only that
Bonds of Discipline - 5 Mana is a lot, but hitting every opponent is nice, especially if you want everyone to hit the player that just passed turn to you.
Defiant Strike - Solid combat trick for the Feather deck
Gideon’s Sacrifice - I know there’s some fun here with a tapped Boros Reckoner and blocking stuff, or other interesting damage plays.
Law-Rune Enforcer - Decent, but limitations plus small body (and not scaling well to EDH) prevents this from being useful
Martyr for the Cause - Might find a home in a Proliferate deck, but it’s just a bear with upside.
Single Combat - feels better than Divine Reckoning, as it uses sacrifice over destroy, but I hate giving other players reasonable choices.
Sunblade Angel - A ton of fun abilities - that fails to pass the Lightning Bolt test.
Teyo - Planeswalkers will always have niche usage, especially with all the existing superfriends and proliferate support, but Teyo is so purely defensive, I find it hard to recommend him
The Wanderer - Nice abilities, but it’s a narrow use case, and limitations on removal hurt it.
Everything else is an F, and here’s why:
Battlefield Promotion - I always rate Combat tricks low - they don’t scale well to EDH. This does a lot of things, but winning one battle in EDH doesn’t justify this card
Bulwark Giant - I love giant GF, but she doesn’t make the cut. Giant tribal is pretty bad, so this doesn’t have much support.
Charmed Stray - Bad in Limited, bad here
Divine Arrow - Limited level removal, leave it in the bulk bin
Enforcer Griffin - Griffin tribal is nonexistent, vanilla flyer that could be replace by a Serra Angel or Baneslayer
Gideon’s Triumph - F- for the creepy art, and for the weak functionality
Ironclad Krovod - Trash vanilla
Loxodon Sergeant - Vanilla with ETB
Makeshift Battalion - Battalion was a fun ability, but it didn’t work well for EDH in the past (small number of cards, required to rely on board, very aggressive in Multiplayer), and this isn’t special
Pouncing Lynx - Trash Vanilla
Rally of Wings - Trashy combat trick
Rising Populace - Cute, but not impressive.
Teyo’s Lightshield - A 1/4 is not useful.
Topple the Statue - Cute. Pathetic, but cute.
Trusted Pegasus - Tribal pegasus just isn’t there yet.
Wanderer’s Strike - Exile and proliferate are nice on paper, but Sorcery speed at 5 CMC doesn’t fly
