EDH Help: Essential White Cards

Here are some white cards to really consider for your EDH:

Swords to Plowshares

Seriously, there is no reason for a deck with white to not run this. Exile for ONE! The life gain in negligible, especially when you get an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre out of the way.

Path to Exile

See the above notes, except with "land fetch" replacing "life gain".

Wrath of God

BOOM! That is all.

Okay, now that the painfully obvious cards are out of the way...

Tithe

This is instant-speed land fetch for 1. It may only be able to look for plains, but remember that the shock-lands from Ravnica have two basic land types as well as the original dual lands from Alpha. At the very least, this can look for up to 2 plains and put them into your hand at instant-speed. 

Grand Abolisher

Locking your opponents out of your turn? Ensuring that an opponent in a one-on-one has to do everything on their turn? Why would you not run this card? It's a bear that tells everyone to shut up!

Land Tax

It's a triggered Weathered Wayfarer, except free and better (despite the fact it only looks for basic lands). 'Nuff said.

Mother of Runes

This card makes your general fairly unblockable (unless your opponent has 2 colours of creature) but more importantly it protects your creatures. Instant-speed, free protection? Why not?

And now, a personal favourite:

Aven Mindcensor

Kind of like Grand Abolisher above, this card makes your opponents sad. Also, it makes people who run cards like Praetor's Grasp sad since it specifies "if an opponent would search a library...". It really slows down decks that require specific combo pieces as well as hoses decks that have a lot of search in them and that's why I like this card.

There are some cards that I consider essential in white EDHs.

Then and Now: Guild Champions

Welp, I forgot to do the Guild Leaders (maybe sometime down the road), so I'll cover the champions today. I'm also placing bets on who'd win on a one-on-one fight. Not based on the cards, but based on the story.

Boros: Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran vs. Tajic, Blade of the Legion

Starting out with a completely unfair fight eh? Agrus is great, but he's only human, so he dies really easily but he buffs everyone else. Tajic, on the other hand explodes into Konda, Lord of Eiganjo whenever he brings friends to the party. Seriously, that guy's a badass!

Ratings:

Agrus Kos: 3/5

Tajic: 5/5

Who I'd Bet On In A Fight: This one's a toss-up. I'm going to say Agrus just because.

Dimir: Circu, Dimir Lobotomist vs. Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker

Both of these guys have their advantages and disadvantages. Circu costs 4 whereas Mirko costs 5. Circu's ability is easier to trigger, but requires more cards. Mirko is going to get more cards a turn on average than Circu, but Circu exiles them as opposed to just milling them. Both have their pros and cons, but I'm going to have to give a slight edge to Circu since he can lock down opponents by exiling a copy of a really good card (let's just say Thragtusk) and making sure that they can't play another copy. That, and he doesn't need to swing to be effective.

Ratings:

Circu: 4/5

Mirko Vosk: 3.5/5

Who I'd Bet On In A Fight: Probably Mirko. Circu can kill you if you're strapped to a chair, Mirko can fly. 'Nuff said.

Simic: Experiment Kraj vs. Vorel of the Hull Clade

Ugh, this one's not going to make me many friends: the question here is "is baby Glider Bairn better than Experiment Kraj?" and the answer is "Eh". In EDH, Kraj wins since he'll come in with a bunch of really nice abilities and then put on some Lightning Greaves (don't ask me how) and use some right away. In non-EDH, Vorel will be the better choice because he's cheaper and putting counters on creatures (such as Nimbus Swimmer), artifacts (such as Lux Cannon), or lands (such as City of Shadows) is really nice. And for those of you crying "Vorel's terrible since he can't put counters on planeswalkers", Gideon Jura and his best friend Gideon, Champion of Justice would like to have a word with you. Outside. Now.

Ratings: 

Experiment Kraj: 4/5

Vorel: 4/5

Who I'd Bet On In A Fight: Hmm... Tough choice. Giant, angry ball of goo that can subdue a demon or a fish guy? I'm going to bet on the goo.

Azorius: Isperia the Inscrutable vs. Lavinia of the Tenth

Is this even a fair fight? Isperia was probably considered the worst champion from original Ravnica by most people and Lavinia is really, really good. Isperia is a sometimes tutor (defeated by your opponent having no hand) and she's really under-powered for her cost. Lavinia is a 4/4 for 5 with a relevant protection and literally locks down the vast majority of everyone else's board when she shows up. Her and her magical Conjurer's Closet make for some fun times...

Ratings:

Isperia: 1/5

Lavinia: 5/5

Who I'd Bet On In A Fight: Person vs. sphinx. Do I really need to say more?

Rakdos: Lyzolda, the Blood Witch vs. Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch

Lyzolda wins this battle of crazy women. Initially, I gave her the win because instant-speed sac for a good-to-great effect is always amazing, but then I realize why I truly didn't like Exava: her cost. Honestly, if WotC had switched their mana costs, they'd be on the same level, but Exava costs too much. In an Unleash deck, you want to be winning by turn 4 (since you can't block and are probably about to be whumped) and she comes out a turn too late. In block, she'll give 3 things in her guild haste: Chaos Imps (which would be nice), Bloodfray Giant (eh), and Spawn of Rix Maadi (another resounding "eh"). For someone who proports to be all about speed, Exava is just too slow.

Ratings:

Lyzolda: 4.5/5

Exava: 2/5

Who I'd Bet On In A Fight: Neither. Knowing Rakdos, they'd both lose to kill the other one.

Orzhov: Teysa, Orzhov Scion vs. Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts

Holy synergy Batman! Teysa belongs in a Teysa deck and she'll work great with Teysa! New Teysa is a little on the expensive side, but when you take into consideration the vigilance, the protection from creatures, and the super-No Mercy attached to her, you can see the reason for costing. Old Teysa is costed great with two amazing effects (especially when she works with new Teysa). There's not much else to say than Orzhov may have the most consistently awesome champion!

Ratings:

Teysa, Orzhov Scion: 5/5

Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts: 5/5

Who I'd Bet On In A Fight: Teysa.

Izzet: Tibor and Lumia vs. Melek, Izzet Paragon

I slightly prefer Tibor and Lumia to Melek, but only barely. Melek lets you dig through the top of your deck quickly and doubles your spell count, sure and Tibor and Lumia only give flying and hurts everything on the ground, but there are a couple reasons why I prefer T&L to MIP (Melek's new nickname as far as I'm concerned). First, T&L's cost is a lot more in-line with what a speedy Izzet deck would want. Also, they're a centaur that might be able to fly. The big thing that separates these two in my opinion is that while MIP can turn your Shock into an Aladdin's Ring, Tibor and Lumia can turn make it a Shock with an Ashen Firebeast thrown in. All I'm saying is I like T&L's mass control potential over MIP's duality. Also, MIP costs 6, which is a little much for an Izzet deck, don't you think?

Ratings:
Tibor and Lumia: 3.5/5
Melek: 3.5/5

Who I'd Bet On In A Fight: It's two-on-one, so Tibor and Lumia get my vote.

Selesnya: Tolsimir Wolfblood vs. Emmara Tandris

Selesnya: what have they done to you? Tolsimir was really, really good for 6 mana, especially since he came with a 4/4 friend (I know it's a 2/2, but it was a 4/4 really). Emmara, just... Well, let's put it this way: if you can be replaced in EDH (the only place a 7-coster will see regular play outside of Limited) by a 3-drop Kamigawa creature (Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant), you've DONE YOUR JOB WRONG! Even IF she saw play, she barely does anything in any environment! Most boardwipes don't do damage (and that's how you usually deal with tokens) and even if you used a Blasphemous Act, she dies to it, so she's basically a fog! She also fails on a flavour level since 5/7 is not the body of an elf.

Ratings:

Tolsimir: 4.5/5

Emmara: 1/5

Who I'd Bet On In A Fight: Again, it's a two-on-one fight. Tolsimir wins.

Gruul: Ulasht, the Hate Seed vs. Ruric Thar, the Unbowed

Both great cards. Ulasht usually comes in as a 4/4-6/6 in non-EDH games and is able to deal a lot of damage quite quickly or fling Teds out like nobody's business. Ruric AND Thar (seriously, they're two separate entities) comes in late game and starts beating your everyone equally. The thing that gives Ulasht the slight advantage is that it doesn't have to attack every turn like Ruric and Thar do. If they had some sort of evasion, then I wouldn't count it against them, but since they might have to swing into a Typhoid Rats, they get docked slightly.

Ratings:
Ulasht: 4/5
Ruric and Thar: 4/5

Who I'd Bet On In A Fight: Ruric and Thar would probably gets stumped by trying to count how many heads Ulasht has, in which time it's eaten them.

Golgari: Sisters of Stone Death vs. Varolz, the Scar-Striped

Finally, we come to Golgari, where the Sisters lose horribly to Varolz. There are already decks (like this one made by yours truly) that abuse his omni-scavenge ability to destroy opponents at a remarkable rate. The Sisters... cost 8. And require a lot of mana. And a huge gamble, since you are going to be tapping out to play them.

Ratings:

The Sisters: 1/5

Varolz: 5/5

Who I'd Bet On In A Fight: Doesn't matter how trolly you are, being turned to stone kinda means you lose the fight Varolz. Also, it's a three-on-one.

Final Scores:
Ratings: Old Ravnica 3 - 3 New Ravnica (with 4 ties)
Fights: Old Ravnica 7 - 1 New Ravnica (with 2 ties)

EDH Help: Some Essentials

I've decided to start writing posts aimed at helping new players get into my favourite format: EDH. For those who don't know, EDH stands for Elder Dragon Highlander and is also known as Commander. It's a format wherein you pick a legendary creature to be your "general" and you make a 99-card (100 with the general) highlander deck (you can only have one copy of each card except for basic lands) using only your general's colours. In this article, I'm going to talk about some essential cards that certain EDH decks need. Now, there are obviously some exceptions to these rules, but these are good for 99% of decks they're prescribed for.

Solemn Simulacrum

Who needs it: Every deck

"Sad Robot" is never a bad choice for an EDH deck and should be an automatic inclusion in every deck. He's colourless mana-ramp as well as colourless card-draw. I've never been sad to draw this card. In my Maga, Traitor to Mortals deck, I've reanimated other people's Sad Robots just to get extra land out so I have less chance of drawing them on my turn. He also makes a great attack deterrent since no one wants to give you free card draw.

Spine of Ish Sah

 Who needs it: Every mono-coloured deck

Now you may be saying "it's 7 mana to destroy one thing; it's too expensive", but consider the fact that not every colour can deal with every problem. Let's go in WUBRG order to explain. 

- White cannot deal with lands. Now, this may not seem like a huge issue, but when you're staring down a black deck with a Cabal Coffers, you'll be saying something completely different. 

- Blue can't really deal with anything once it's hit the field. Sure, it can Boomerang anything and then Rewind it, but by then you're spending 6 mana over 2 cards to do that, putting you at a huge card disadvantage.

- Black can't deal with lands, enchantments, or artifacts. Older cards like Sinkhole and Phyrexian Tribute do exist, but they are either too expensive money-wise to get a hold of or are too bad to run.

- Red can't deal with non-artifacts or non-lands. Chaos Warp exists, but that's a whole one card in red's arsenal to deal with creatures, enchantments, and planeswalkers. Red does have direct damage spells, but many of them are too weak to warrant running in EDH (remember, you're opponent has 40 life, so those spells are at half-power essentially).

- Green can't deal with creatures in general. Cards like Wing Snare exist, but they're situational at best. Beast Within is an omni-solution, but it's only one card and you may need it for another problem. 

This should also be in a lot of dual-colour EDHs as well, especially if the two colours don't cover each other's weaknesses (blue-black, for example still can't deal with enchantments, lands, or artifacts whereas white-red can deal with anything).

Weathered Wayfarer

Who needs it: Every deck that runs white

Mono-white land search. Need I say more? It allows you to keep up with your opponents' ramp. Also, it lets you look for non-basics. Again, need I say more?

Rewind

Who needs it: Every deck that runs blue

Free counterspell. FREE counterspell. Free COUNTERSPELL. 'Nuff said.

Puppeteer Clique

Who needs it: Every deck that runs black

Now this may require a little explanation. The reason I love this card is because no one expects it to do as much as it does. First, it steals then exiles a creature from someone else's graveyard but it also acts as anti-boardwipe tech. This is a rough transcript of what happened in a game between my Maga deck, a Kresh the Bloodbraided deck, and a Kaalia of the Vast deck:

Kresh: I put Darksteel Plate on Kresh.

Me: Okay

Kresh: I Jokulhaups, sending my giant Lord of Extinction to the graveyard, making Kresh HUGE.

Me: I take it. It's bigger than Kresh since every graveyard now has around 30 cards in it.

Kresh: Damn it. Fine, I'll just wait for you to exile it at the end of the turn and kill you next turn!

Me: At the end of my turn you mean?

Kresh: Damn it! Fine, I'll wait until the end of your turn! I end my turn.

(Kaalia is sad for a turn)

(My turn comes around)

Me: I play a Swamp then Innocent Blood.

Kresh: ...I scoop. This game is dumb...

Chaos Warp

Who needs it: Every deck that runs red

This is red's omni-solution. 'Nuff said.

Beast Within

Who Needs It: Every deck that runs green

This is green's omni-solution. 'Nuff said.

That's the first part of my possibly-many-parted EDH post series. Hope you found it helpful!

P.S. My next post has been in the making for 2 weeks now, so sorry for the wait.

P.P.S. Kaalia won that game because Kresh destroyed my Cabal Coffers, Vesuva, and Caged Sun, as well as about 8 Swamps. I hadn't hit any tutors yet.

Werebear

What can I really say about this card? It's Llanowar Elves with a vengeance! Threshold is one of my favourite mechanics because it essentially evolves your creature and spells in the late game (Level up is a failed example of WotC trying to recapture that glory). Sure, this costs one more than Llanowar Elves, but it has the potential to be a 4/4 for 2! There's not much else I need to say about it other than that.

Pros: Potential 4/4 for 2, taps for mana, flavour text

Cons: Costs 2 for a 1/1

Rating: 5/5

"Barry could barely bare to bury the barium that bared burying barely beside barren burial grounds bearing Barry's bear-born brethren." 

Shadowmoor Mentors

Who knew Lorwyn had such an extensive education system?

Bloodmark Mentor

First strike is powerful, m'kay? It gives all of your under-tough creatures a great chance to survive combat. Giving all of your red creatures first strike is really powerful. This little guy also comes out really early and is a goblin to boot. Too bad he's so tiny.

Pros: Costs 2, gives red first strike

Cons: 1/1

Rating: 4.5/5

Corrosive Mentor

Wither is powerful, m'kay? It really leaves a lasting impression on the board even after the creature with it dies, either in the form of life loss or weakened creatures. Giving all of your black creatures wither is really powerful. It comes out early game since it only costs 3 (drop it on turn one with a Dark Ritual perhaps?). This thing's also on a pretty beefy body (at least toughness-wise), so it's a really good card.

Pros: Gives black wither

Cons: Only 1 power

Rating: 5/5

Deepchannel Mentor

Unblockable is powerful, m'kay? It means, well, your stuff can't be blocked. Giving all of your blue creatures unblockable is really powerful. However, this guy costs 6, which means he won't be around until the late game, and by then you might already be dead. Great in EDH though.

Pros: Gives blue unblockable

Cons: High cost

Rating: 2.5/5

Resplendent Mentor

Tapping to gain a life is really weak, m'kay? It doesn't really do much in the long term. Giving all of your white creatures "tap to gain a life" is really underwhelming. I guess you could block with creatures then tap them (that's tech right there). This mentor also costs 5, so it's underwhelming in the late game.

Pros: Gives white the potential for lifegain

Cons: Little lifegain, causes creatures to tap, costs 5

Rating: 1/5

Roughshod Mentor

Trample is powerful, m'kay? It makes chump blocking pointless since you'll be taking damage anyway. Giving all of your green creatures trample is really powerful. It does cost 6, but since it's in green, that's turn 3 or 4. It also has the biggest body of all the mentors, which is great.

Pros: 5/4, gives green trample

Cons: Costs 6

Rating: 5/5

Needle Storm

Green doesn't like flying creatures, does it? This is a pretty decent card, even though it only hits flying creatures. For green, it's a decent card because it does a good chunk of damage to flying creatures, which green tends to have a little bit of an issue with (although it has cards like Wing Snare). The fact that it does 4 damage means it'll probably kill creatures up into the mid-game (probably up to turn 5). It's also well-costed (Pyroclasm costs 2 for 2 damage). All-in-all, it's a decent card.

Pros: Mass 4 damage for 3 mana

Cons: Only hits flying creatures, sorcery speed

Rating: 3/5

Raging River

Long card is long. Basically, whenever you attack, your opponent's blockers get put into 2 piles (chosen a la Do or Die) except with a few differences. First, they divide the piles, not you. Second, you gets to pick which pile each creature can be blocked by (your Commander Greven il-Vec gets blocked by one pile while your Qumulox gets blocked by the second pile).

This card is awesome. Seriously. It halves your opponent's blockers, and if you make the stacks correctly, it can force them to effectively sacrifice some important creatures via blocking. It's also a really cheap card mana-wise, making it a perfect fit for aggro decks. Now, it doesn't split the flying blockers up, but that's not a huge drawback (honestly, if it did split all blockers, this card would be crazay broken). Still, awesome card!

Pros: Allows some choice in blockers by attacker, halves available blockers, cheap
Cons: Doesn't split flying blockers, allows opponent to split blockers
Rating: 4.5/5

Artist: Darrel Riche

Time for another artist review! What is there to really say about Darrel Riche besides that his art is great? Well, he seems to have a predisposition to drawing people with with one arm up (Ana Disciple, Disruptive Pitmage, Dusk Urchins, Forcemage Advocate, Gilt-Leaf Seer, and Lava Dart (I swear, it's Disruptive Pitmage in that art!)).

Best Art: Far Wanderings

Yeah, I know it's a common, and not that great of a common either, but I think this art is great. This is something that I'd like to have a 3' x 3' canvas painting of so that I can hang it on my wall. The simplicity of it is what makes the art great. Art doesn't have to be busy to be good.

Worst Art: Rorix Bladewing

Something about this art just doesn't feel right. Maybe it's because Rorix looks like a cross between a giraffe and a T-Rex or the fact that the wings look a little tattered, but I'm just not a fan of this art at all. 

Funniest Art: Phyrexian Infiltrator

This art makes me giggle a little every time I see it. It looks like the Phyrexian Infiltrator just exploded out of some guy's chest and only now are the elves realizing it. I kind of wonder what the instructions were for the art on this card. It probably said "A phyrexian has infiltrated a group of elves" but didn't specify how it got there. Good on you Mr. Riche!

Darrel Riche's art is pretty top-tier. I can see why WotC has kept him around for so long.

Reweave

Ah Reweave, the situationally-better Polymorph. This is card also serves as a lesson as to why making new card types can be dangerous if you don't pay attention to older stuff (before errata, a Reweaved Diviner's Wand could become a Consuming Bonfire because there were both Tribal cards). Anyway, let's get back on track. This card is great because it's one of blue's only hard permanent destruction cards  (Reality Acid is blue's only other destroy permanent option without going into colourless) and it cause the permanent to be sacrificed so it gets around indestructible too (so you're Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre is now a... Chimney Imp). This is also at Instant speed meaning you can pull off some great combat tricks (like turning your opponent's Akroma's Memorial into a Wayfarer's Bauble). However, the major problem with this card is that it costs 6. Sure, it only costs 4 when you splice it onto an Arcane spell (Splice is an underrated mechanic in my opinion since it's essentially Buyback) but you're paying at least 1 for the Arcane spell so you're actually paying 5. However, Polymorph only costs 1 less for Sorcery-speed creature destruction, so I guess that's not too expensive...

Pros: Hits any permanent, forces controller to sack it, Instant speed

Cons: Controller gets a replacement, costs 6 (or 5)

Rating: 4/5

Perilous Research

Scientist: "Hey Sad Robot, do you want to help with my experiment?"

Sad Robot: "...Okay"

Scientist: "Good! Now, can you reach over and hand me that test tube?"

Sad Robot: "I guess..."

*WHACK*

Scientist: "Huh. I guess robots aren't immune to golf clubs..."

This card is pretty great. It's draw two at instant speed! Sure, you have to sacrifice a permanent to do it afterwards, but that probably won't be a problem for blue. Blue has a lot of cards that only have ETB triggers (such as Sage of Epityr or Augur of Bolas) and thus have served their purpose by the time you sacrifice them. If you're worried about not having a blocker, use the counter magic you just drew to prevent the thing from being summoned in the first place. Actually, you could probably build a nice deck around cards like this...

Pros: Draw 2 at instant speed for 2

Cons: Sacking a permanent

Rating: 4/5