Secret Tech II

So a quick cut to the few rares I thought I'd spotlight featuring 2 cards that you need to build around and a third which is criminally underplayed. Let's start with the most common first.

Hallowed Burial:
"But everyone plays Hallowed Burial!" you say. Unfortunatly, they don't. Everyone should play Hallowed Burial, even before Wrath of God, but players don't do this because WoG is the traditional staple, players don't want to pay 5, players don't want their creatures "tucked" (placed on the bottom of their library) or be see as a player who tucks other player's creatures or players simply just don't realise how strong it is.

Do you remember when we spoke briefly of the importance of graveyard hate in EDH, well the reason is mostly because it's often too easy to bring creatures back from the dead to hand or directly into play. When you're choosing a card to wipe all creatures off the table, putting them into the graveyard is often just delaying things by a turn or two. "Buried" just isn't what it used to be, as Miracle Max said, there's a little dead, mostly dead and Dodo. The Graveyard nowadays is barely even some loose soil scuffed over creatures with the toe of your boot.

So, what are your options? There are very few "Exile all creatures" effects: Decree of Annihilation, False Prophet and Final Judgement being the only other blanket ones. Decree also exiles pretty much everything else and False Prophet can be tricky to control. Final Judgement is another underplayed card and would see more play if it dealt with generals better. The "move to the commander zone" rule allows any generals to be saved from a Final Judgement making it, well, not so final after all. When it's a general you need to nerf, Final Judgement doesn't cut the mustard.

What Hallowed Burial offers, in addition to dealing with all the Indestructibles the traditional WoG leaves behind, is putting pesky generals in the one place that's really very hard to get at with any regularity: Underneath a player's deck. If they don't have a tutor quickly, it's possible they won't get to play with their general at all for the remainder of the game. I hope their deck works well without it! It also neatly sidesteps all the shennanigans that the shallow grave[yard] provides. It's not the ultimate solution because shuffle effects can bring a general or difficult creature back, but in general [heh!], it's a harder lock on a tough general that any other wrath or exile effect.

Portcullis:
I dreged this up as a potential solution for early game defense in my Thada Adel deck. While it can occasionally bite you, you should be able to control the number of creatures on the battlefield. What does it do? It sticks the number of creatures in play at 2. If you control both of those creatures, all the better.

There's a very simple reason why this is an excellent "build around me" card and that's in the first line: "Whenever any creature enters the battlefield....". It may seem a little obvious, but it's important that the creatures actually enter the battlefield as that triggers their CotB effect. Portcullis will then remove those creatures if there are already 2 (or more) creatures on the battlefield. When Portcullis eventually leaves play, those creatures will once again CotB and their triggers will fire all over again. You're essentially getting double duty.

Another important point is the "Leaves play" trigger of Portcullis: it's not a "goes to the graveyard" trigger, so anything that bounces, blinks, exiles or destroys it will work, essentially like an artifact Reveillark. If you can manage the multiple entries and exits of the Portcullis, it can get pretty crazy.

The only hole in your plan is that it works for your opponent's creatures and any 187 abilities of their creatures will also do double duty. You can't have it all! That said, I've seen some pretty crazy card advantage using Portcullis with Acidic Slime and Duplicant being just two of the CotB effects that you really want to see happen more than once.

For you, of course.

EDIT: I totally forgot to mention what I was looking for defense against when I included this in my Thada-Adel deck, which is relevant because it can completely shut down the strategy until the Portcullis is dealt with and that is Tokens. Unlike non-tokens, once a token is exiled with Portcullis, it will cease to exist and will not be re-created once the Portcullis leaves play. As long as you can keep the Portcullis in play and have 2 other creatures in play, no tokens will make it onto the battlefield and survive.

Cloudstone Curio:
Another artifact and another "build around me" card. What's the deal with the Curio? When Ravnica came out there was a minor buzz about the card but that was quickly swallowed up by how easy it was to play your ultra-efficient gold/hybrid cards, the speed of the format with Boros as the new posterboy and a relative lack of cards that you really wanted to use with the Curio in the format. Most cards in Ravnica did what they did when they were in play, rather than when they came into play. I honestly believe that Cloudstone Curio would have been an excellent rare in a different block but, sadly, it was pretty much chaff in Ravnica.

What does it do? When a permanent other than an artifact comes onto the battlefield under your control, you can return any other permanent of the same type to your hand. Firstly, why did they exclude artifacts? It was just too easy to play a couple of 0cc artifacts, gain free infinite storm and win. As cost reducers on other permanent types generally only reduce generic mana, not coloured mana, there's a good chance that free infinite storm would be harder to achieve. Land being the only other permanent with no mana cost though with a built-in 1-per-turn restriction, it was a pretty good fix excluding artifacts. There are still two legacy-legal "free" infinite storm combos however the individual pieces are underwhelming in a format that can't afford dead cards.*

What Cloudstone Curio provides you with is the ability to return a permanent to your hand, however, you're only likely to do that if you're set to gain from doing so. Let's start with something very basic:

You have a Nekrataal in play. You want to re-play the Nekrataal somehow. Your options are:
1.) Play Blue to bounce the Nekrataal back to your hand. You'll spend mana on the initial Nekrataal, a card and mana on the bounce spell and again, mana on the Nekrataal. You'll still only have a Nekrataal in play at the end of it all.
2.) Play White to blink the Nekrataal. This isn't strictly "re-playing" the Nekrataal, though you'll get the desired effect. You'll spend mana on the initial Nekrataal, a card and mana on the blink spell and again, mana on the Nekrataal. You'll still only have a Nekrataal in play at the end of it all.
3.) Play Cloudstone Curio and another creature. The first advantage is that you don't have to go outside black. The second advantage is that you pay 3 for the Curio and it stays in play, it's not a one-shot. In the case of blinking and bouncing above you're down a card to get the Nekrataal. Here, you will have a second creature in play when the Nekrataal is back in your hand so your board presence is not diminished and, when you re-play the Nekrataal, you can return the other creature to your hand to repeat the process again and again. You'll end up paying 3 and the cost of the two creatures over and over but you're slowly destroying their resources and you're using no additional cards. In the first two examples it was essentially a one time deal until you drew another bounce or blink spell.

Imagine now that the second creature in our little Cloudstone Curio loop is another 187 Nekrataal-like ability. Each creature kills something and sets you up to be able to do it again. Now substitute Nekrataal for Acidic Slime or Mulldrifter or Flametongue Kavu etc. and watch yourself develop CA and all without spending any more cards than the 2 creatures and the Curio in play.

That's the basic version utility, which is already pretty decent. Let me come at it a different way. One of the avenues to building a great deck is to break the basic rules of the game: Play 1 land per turn, draw one card per turn. If you can find a way to play multiple lands per turn consistantly, you can do bigger things earlier than your opponent and, ideally, win. If you can consistantly draw more cards per turn than your opponent, you provide yourself with a much higher quality card selection and, ideally, can overwhelm your opponent through sheer CA.

We've already seen how we can constantly draw more cards with something like Mulldrifter but, let's face it, 5 for Mulldrifter and 4 for Nekrataal is a lot of mana. What about if we did this with lands instead of creatures? You tap a basic land for mana, you play a basic land, the Curio triggers and you return the tapped basic land to your hand. You now have 1 mana in your pool, 1 land in your hand and an untapped basic land in play. From this point, once you have Cloudstone Curio in play and a land in hand, you will never miss a land drop for the remainder of the game. If you increase your land drops, you will increase your mana count so we can add something like Exploration or Azusa, Lost but Seeking which allows us to do this multiple times.
  
Now, let's change those basic lands out for a Gaea's Cradle and a Temple of the False Gods. Suddenly, you're not producing 1 mana you're getting 2 or GGGG or more with each loop.

Stick with me now because we're going to look at some rules: When a permanent leaves play and then returns to play, the game treats the permanent as a new object. If you had an effect that said "Target land can't tap for mana until the end of the game" and the target leaves and re-enters play later in the game, even if it's physically the same card, the game treats it as a new permanent and the original effect would no longer apply. Let's apply that to Azusa: I have Azusa in play. I play the additional lands that Azusa allows me to. I return Azusa to my hand somehow and play it again. I can now play two additional lands again. Let's break that down with Candy Bars:

- Land drops = Candy Bars
- You get one free Candy bar every turn
- When you have Azusa in play, she gives you two extra candy bars. You can choose to eat them or not (But don't forget to say which candy bar you're eating is the usual free one or the Asuza ones!) but if you don't eat them, they are lost.
- If Azusa leaves and re-enters play, you get two extra candy bars. You can choose to eat them or not.
- Repeat for every fresh instance of Azusa.

So, what this is telling us us that we're probably going to be eating a lot of candy bars but also that, if we can find a way to return Azusa to our hand cheaply with a Cloudstone Curio in play, we can re-play her again and again if we can generate enough mana from the extra land we're looping in and out. Gaea's Cradle should take care of the mana, even give us some extra but returning Azusa will require a Dryad Arbor or a Khalni Garden. The first is a creature and the second produces a creature and is a land so it can do double duty (2 permanents CotB, so the Curio will trigger twice).

What makes most of this academic is that it doesn't really do much unless you've got enough creatures in play to generate a lot of mana from the Gaea's Cradle. You'll probably only break even most of the time but it's patiently insufficient without other creatures or cards in play, though the Khalni Garden allows you to kick off by generating a little army of Plant Tokens netting you +1 mana each loop with the Cradle. Without either of the Cradle or the Garden you're not going far and we're already at 4-5 cards just to turn the wheels. What it does provide you with is the ability to add a card or two and create a snowball effect.

Imagine that, in addition to the above cards (in a colour that has issues tutoring for anything other than Lands & Creatures), you have a Horn of Greed in play. How many lands were we intending to play again? When you add in the simple expedient of drawing a card when you go through your loop, you suddenly have access to your entire deck. While you may have reservations playing a symetrical card like Horn of Greed because you really need to draw more cards than you have opponents for it to be worthwhile, this is one instance when you can see that it's worth it.

You can draw your entire deck, in mono green, without Staff of Dominantion, by the simple expedient of playing a land. Is it convoluted and stupidly difficult to achieve with any regularity? Yes, it is. Perfect for EDH and Cloudstone Curio allows this.

Ok, I can hear the groans from somwhere in the back there that this is a stupid combo and shouldn't be played in EDH etc. etc. but I believe it all comes down to intent. Would I like it to come off in a game? Sure! Does it? Rarely but, in the meantime, Cloudstone Curio is still garnering CA through bouncing a few 187 creatures, allowing me multiple instances of landfall and allowing me to draw an extra card or two a turn.

"Stupid Combo" would be pairing Cloudstone Curio with Aluren though never has flavour text been so apt when it comes to your playgroup's reaction to a card:

A Kidney and a Speeny indeed.

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* The two free Legacy legal infinite storm combos with Cloudstone Curio are:
1.) Curio + 2x Kobolds, the 0cc red 0/1 creatures
2.) Curio + Tangleroot + 2x 1cc green creatures, probably Elves.

Technology Segment: SECRET TECH

I caught up with the new EDH Podcast "Commandercast" last week and Andy and Byron put a Secret Tech section together to espouse their favourite underplayed cards. It got me to thinking about my own favourite cards, underplayed or not.

Some were mentioned by the guys: Dreamscape Artist, Mystic Remora, Brooding Saurian and Spitting Image, but I have a few extra that I'd like to highlight here. Apologies in advance if any of these are everywhere in your playgroup.

Commons:
I have none worth mentioning that you're not probably playing already. So far off to a bad start. It's not that there aren't good cards out there, just none that I can honestly say "This is not getting played enough!"


Uncommon:
Uncommon is a different story however. I actually had to trim this list down to get my favourite 3 cards and what's on here is a combination of what's seemingly underplayed (and where it's seemingly underplayed) and the effect it has on a game.

Avarice Totem:
You've seen this played by that big-mana, blue-based, artifact deck but that's generally it. You may not have seen it in Big Green or Group Hug or that annoying Chaos deck that just wants to screw with everyone's heads.

It's a very simple idea: You give someone the Totem and they give you a non-land permanent. In and of itself, the Totem is a blank card but has the potential to become ANY card and that's where it's base power lies. Much like Clone can be anything from a Bird of Paradise to an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Avarice Totem can be any other targettable non-land permanent in play. It's a classic Rattlesnake card: anything that comes into play can be stolen. The classic play is having someone try to destroy or bounce it with a CotB effect only for you to steal the source in response. They get nothing and you get whatever they just played.

There's more to the Totem than meets the eye. First of all, it's a permanent swap, you don't give anything back unless it's taken back. Secondly, it's an activated ability that can be activated in turn by whoever it is given to so choosing your moment carefully as to when to pass it on is advised. Thirdly, it's an activated ability that doesn't require you to tap it to activate the ability which means that you can activate it as many times as you want. This can be just the once if you want the Totem to be out there for everyone in either a Chaos or Group Hug setting, it can be multiple times in a big mana deck like Green that likes to steal multiple permanents to clear a passage to charge through for a turn, just be sure to pass items that can't block.

It is possible to activate this ability in response to itself and generate some odd combinations. For example, if you control this card and another permanent, you can use this card's ability and target the permanent you control. You can then use this card's ability again and target a permanent your opponent controls. The second usage resolves first and you get your opponent's permanent in exchange for this one. The first usage then resolves and swaps your other permanent for the Totem so you get it back. The net effect is that you can swap any non-land permanent you have for any of theirs if you can activate this ability twice. Note that your opponent does get the chance to use the Totem in between the resolutions of your two usages if they have the mana. You see what I meant about being good in a chaos deck? This requires paying strict attention when you are resolving the stack but is otherwise just a chaotic blast.

Can it be abused? Obviously yes, but it can be used to create a lot of fun situations too. Don't forget some important details if you decide to play the Totem:
1.) you can bounce it back to your hand when you want to get it back and you don't lose the item you received in return;
2.) you can play Brooding Saurian to "yo-yo" it back to you at each end of turn turn allowing you to profit for a turn and start afresh without worrying too much about what your opponent does with it. This is particularly good with Seedborn Muse as you can steal things every turn, you always have mana open. As creatures without haste are required to pass an upkeep under a player's control to lose summoning sickness, if you steal something and they take it back right away, they will not be able to attack with it that turn. This set-up essentially becomes an expensive Maze of Ith blanking huge threats turn after turn. It also stops people attacking you if they have two creatures as you can just steal one to block the other.
3.) Sacrifice effects and rendering untargettable become golden abilities as you will steal someone's shiney Bomb and either sacrifice it for fun and profit (saccing is generally in the payment part of an effect so, by the time an opponent can respond, their permanent is already dead) or make it impossible for your opponent to steal it back by adding a Lightning Greaves or similiar.

Altogether too many tricks in a 1cc artifact.

Seedguide Ash:
My pet hate in EDH (and all Magic) is being without mana whether simply land count or a colour requirement. My current Rafiq deck, which leans towards mid-game control rather than early game explosiveness, is an excercise in always getting the right mana at the right time. Even this deck suffers if someone decides to destroy all lands or play an Obliterate effect. Adding Life from the Loam and Crucible of Worlds can still be insufficient as both require you to have the requsite land in hand to play them out afterwards in order to recover. One means of getting around this is the effect that Seedguide Ash provides, when he dies you get +3 Forests directly into play tapped.

Now the first thing to note is that, one the face of it, this is not a very splasy effect outside of what I have just explained or simply using him to accellerate your mana off a chump-block or a sacrifice effect like High Market. If you allow that the "splashy" will happen elsewhere, then including the workhorse cards in your decks is perfectly acceptable.

What about the vanilla test? He's a 4/4 for 5 with no direct effect on your hand or the board. That's a bit weak. Even with Rafiq, he'll only get a boost to 5/5. For 3GG, there's obviously better around. However, no-one is going to want to kill this guy, he's a useless dork, and killing him is your plan so players will be even more reluctant to waste a creature or a spell on killing him unless they absolutely have to. This may occasionally even deter players from attacking into him. In addition, if you have him on turn 4 and an opponent kills him, they waste a card or ability to do so while you jump instantly to 8 mana, potentially 9 once you untap. There's a LOT more you can do with 9 mana in EDH than with 5 and players realise that. You have a vanilla 4/4 for 3GG that people will do their best not to kill.

Wait, there's more! He gets Forests, but not basic Forests, so he can find dual lands. As he puts them into play tapped in any event, it's the perfect time to search out Ravnica Duals and just forego the annoying choice of taking 2. He finds Dryad Arbor too, if that's your thing. Playing Seedguide Ash probably won't garner any "WOW!" from your playgroup, but it may put you in a great position to take over the game when needed.

Stonecloaker:
It's unlikely you haven't seen this card at some point but, if you haven't, you're in for a real treat!

One of the things we're always harping on about in Magic is Card Advantage (CA).

One of the things we're always harping on about in EDH is graveyard control.

One of the things you never expect is the Spanish Inquisition.

Stonecloaker is all three (ok, maybe not the Spanish Inquisition but definitely unexpected.) He's a creature. He attacks, flies, blocks and, because of Flash, you can play him any time you want. Your only requirements are 3 open mana and a creature in play: your general, a good utility creature, something with a great CotB effect or just any old dork (obviously better if it's not just a dork) You want to re-use their ability or save it from combat damage or a removal spell or ability so you throw down the Stonecloaker and return the other creature to your hand. Stonecloaker doesn't target the returned creature so you can bounce something Pro-white or untargettable. Your opponent has use card or ability X for no gain. You have an untouched 3/2 flier in play and the one he wanted to kill is safe in your hand. You have paid 2W for +1 CA. Actually, you've paid 2W for something more.

One of the most powerful resources in the game is your Graveyard. If your deck is set up to exploit it, your Graveyard can function as an extension of your hand. When you have a hand of 7 cards and a Graveyard of 14 cards, you have the potential for an accessible resource of 21 cards. In addition, cards that you take from a graveyard to use in play will eventually return to the graveyard making it an open door of reusable creatures & spells. This is precisely the reason why it's important to pack Graveyard hate against your opponents' Graveyards and Mr. Stonecloaker now has his hand up.

In addition to saving your poor creature, Stonecloaker exiles a card in a graveyard. This can be in your own in response to somone's reanimate effect, or in an opponent's for the same reason. As Stonecloaker has Flash, you can wait patiently until someone starts targetting their cards and remove them in response. Here we get back to our CA again. Your opponent is using a resource (a card or activated ability) to get something back and you're paying 2W to prevent that with no loss of physical resources on your part.

It gets even better. Imagine if you don't want to return a creature, or you have no creatures in play when you want to remove a card from a graveyard. Stonecloaker swoops in, exiles the offending card and then you return Stonecloaker to your hand. As he doesn't specify "another" creature, he's as good a candidate as any to bounce back up to your hand, ready to swoop again.

Like I said, no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition.


That's it for the uncommons. Check back soon for my 3 rares.