9:34 as of Commander 2017, tokens can be phased in and out with no issues. It definitely used to be the case that phasing out a token would make equipment become lost forever, but that is no longer the case.
I as well have never and will likely never play canlander but their review of these cards rings true for many formats. These boys are special! Love these three specifically
Correction - Phasing a Token does not in any way negatively impact the token or any things attached to said token. The ORIGINAL ruling was that Phasing was "leaving the battlefield" and thus the token disappeared, along with everything on it. The CURRENT ruling is that Phasing simply treats the thing as if it doesn't exist until it phases back in.
Surprised to not see "You find the Villains'' lair" not talked about, I know 3 mana for a counter isn't amazing but the have a choice to draw two, discard two has to be worth the discussion
I just think that you will never play it over saw it coming, neutralize, dissolve, or sinister sabotage, and unless you are playing seinfeld, you don't need 5 cancels
Curious about plate armor, it seems like it would be pretty good in equipment-based decks because even knocking the equip cost down to 2 makes it so much more reasonable. Also, Wizard class is a bit do-nothing on level 1 but it feels worth considering or at least discussing why it isn’t playable.
I guess it might be coming up in the "lands" section, but Cave of the Frost Dragon is like a monocolor Celestial Colonnade, but can be untapped early game.
Hey serge, what do you think of Commander exclusive white card, “Mantle of the ancients” for sanctum stompy” replenish that can just kill the turn you play it? Is the deck lacking or is this too sketchy? Could you turn this card into a sudo embercleave late game? Doing great guys. Always love your stuff
So looking through the set I did see 4 cards that I think might have been worth talking about. In white the dancing sword seemed like it was an efficient enough equipment for highlander between it's stat bonuses and the cheap equip cost, and it can turn into a relevant body if needed, plate armor might be in a similar vein but might be to mana intensive. In blue their is the Blackstaff of waterdeep, which made me think of non-combo artifact synergy decks which are maybe interested in being able to throw random 4/4s at opponents, and lastly was the clever conjurer because there are always ways to abuse twiddle effects in highlander and maybe a deck wants it's x version of that effect even on a sub par creature.
Demilich in storm? like after casting the fourth instant and sorcery add 1 more storm count from casting the Demilich and have a pseudo Yawg Will for instants and sorceries and win from there? Rebuys your tutors and rituals for the storm turn or at least for the set up turn and leave a body to survive. Edit: It has to attack so nvm, just free storm count then XD.
I'm new to this format and haven't played with or even against all the deck archetypes yet so I might just have no idea what I'm talking about, but is Moon-Blessed Cleric a good enough Pattern Rector include or does it do what it does too poorly? Also Jer talking about Aluren made me think about it in there too if it's of any relevance.
Hey could you guys give an overview of Dancing Sword, The Blackstaff of Waterdeep, and You Find The Villains' Lair? The sword is cheap, easy to cast and equip, and can hold equipment for no extra cost if the creature its attached to dies. Blackstaff just makes things into creatures, which can help with a beatdown artifact strategy and also it grows the Hovermyr (and any other nontoken artifact creature), and You Find The Villains' Lair might be an expensive counterspell but it also has a draw two discard two option that makes it really flexible. If you want to play Contact Other Plane, you might also consider You Find The Villains' Lair first because of the card selection.
I was a little surprised to not see Plate Armor mentioned, especially with all of the other mentions of cards that were fantastic with equipment. Are there just not really decks that want to be playing the 15 or so equipment that you'd probably need to make the Plate Armor worth running?
Great review as always. What are your feeling on "You find the villains lair" seeing as both options are relevant and I think this is one of the better "cancel with upside" we've had... How does it compare to the other ones, do you still even play those in your decks? Dancing Sword: The equip (1) and 2 power boost plus 1 thoughness on a equipment that can become a Stormfront Pegasus on its own seems pretty good. Becoming a threat to equip other equipments to in certain decks?
So I’ve played no canlander whatsoever but Paladin Class seems pretty good for Sanctum Stompy. Its an early drop that serves as protection and helps you ramp with Serra Sanctum which in turn helps it pay for its own level 3 and since the level 3 gives double strike even attacking with as single chungus you just slapped a couple random auras on to it becomes really scary.
With the steadily increasing number of artifacts that have indestructible I was curious to see if you might think the black staff of waterdeep was worth using but I can completely see why it wouldn’t be.
0late armour. In equipment decks its basically free and the ward means that low mana decls that have a very specific mama budget for their removal might stumble
It's not exciting, but I think 'you find the villain's lair' has some utility. It's a three mana counterspell (which you have said in the past is fine, though not great) and in a matchup where you might not want a counterspell and/or if you are overloaded on counters and want to find something else, you can use it as a faithless looting. I think it might be particularly useful in something like a blue based control/reanimator deck that wants both sides. You can counter a piece of hate/threat/combo, or you can instant speed faithless looting to set up your combo. I don't think it's an 'oh my god, this card is nuts' type, but I do think it is a reasonable include in some decks.
So with the Bant giant from the commander decks, Storvald Frost Giant Jarl, you can Natural Order for him, make you're Glistner Elf a 7/7 and the opponents best blocker a 1/1, Berserk your elf and attack. Probably bad, but sick maybe I think *nervous laugh*
I'm surprised Moon-Blessed Cleric didn't get a mention from Serge. I'm not familiar with enchantress decks so maybe there are better cards for it but having part of an enlightened tutor stapled to a 3/2 seems reasonable.
Talking about Eldraine and “every card was busted”, except the majority of artifact matters cards from it, and it had a significant amount of them, were conveniently forgotten. People also vastly exaggerate the number of good Adventure creatures.
They exaggerate the great adventure cards. I've played a lot of the ones often forgotten about, and they're still just fine. The flexibility does make up for being lackluster on either side.
@@Mordalon I mean, standard was dominated by an adventure combo leaning deck, then they banned all of the combo pieces, and the adventures deck just became a midrange value deck that's still dominating standard. I think that speaks volumes about the power level of the cards. They've also been a pretty significant influence on eternal formats, which isn't the best sign for a set going through the standard rotation. And it's also made significantly worse by Eldraine being the first set released into a new standard environment. War of the Spark was on somewhat similar levels of power, but it was on the tail end of a format, so it got relatively little time in the limelight before rotating out. But yeah, adventure isn't a blatantly busted mechanic, but when you look at it closer it's pretty clear why it overperforms. You get two cards of value from one card, and each side is priced either slightly more mana or on par with how much you would normally pay for that effect. The most blatant offenders are definitely Bonecrusher Giant and Brazen Borrower, for who either half of the card would be reasonably costed without the other part. But going beyond that, cards like Rimrock Knight are slightly below playable if you just factor one half in, but together make up for the extra cost with flexibility. Combat tricks are extremely powerful in the right situations, but a lot of decks have a hard time justifying a situationally powerful card. Rimrock Knight gives the buyout of an overcosted 2/1. That's not great, but it's something when the card would otherwise be dead. There's a whole bunch of cards on par with or straight better than meta defining cards of Standards past that aren't even seeing play because adventure cards just outperform them. I mean, I personally loved Eldraine. I don't play Standard, and adventure tickles my love for the evoke mechanic. In fact, there's a lot of the set that reminds me of Lorwyn block, which is when I started playing and I still look back on very fondly. The cards in it have contributed heavily to making a lot of my decks go from a pile of jank to a pile of jank that can win a match. I really couldn't be happier with Eldraine, but it really isn't hard to see why Standard players, or even players from older formats are fed up with the set. Adventure is just a very powerful mechanic that has pushed a lot of cards out of formats.
maybe its more of a limited card but no mention of Dancing Sword? Dawnbringer cleric has some solid flexibility that i think would have value in highlander.
Engage the engagement! Also I love these set reviews - it's such a different perspective from how I usually play Magic, but it's so interesting to see regardless.
Not necessarly things I believe are must plays but more-so sth I‘d want to inquire about. Secret Doorand Keen-Eared Sentry. Keen-eared is Aegis of the Gods but doesnt die to recsage The Door can win the game if you got infinite mana through some form and can be found of Trinket Mage etc. are these viable enough thoughts to include the cards?
I was under the impression that the game got more board based because of the monarchy? Did I miss something? Why is it more common to play go creatures?
The long-suffering background“Yap!” From James(?) after Serge asked if they wanted to move on from the “Rolloff to deny each other deck archetypes” story killed me XD
Tokens do stay, as of Commander 2017. I remember people being upset that it made Sapphire Charm unplayable, as it couldn't permanently remove Batterskull anymore.
I don't understand Jer's complaint about Icingdeath. If you don't have the token and you forget what the (fairly simple) equipment does... Just grab Icingdeath out of your graveyard and check? I don't get how this is any more cumbersome than any other card that makes a token (that isn't just stats with maybe a keyword) when it dies.
I'm not sure this is the whole reason, but with how far back Canadian highlander card legality goes, theres a non zero amount of cards that care about graveyard order. Plus pulling it out to remind your opponent everytime is just kinda annoying
Your best bet is to just check the site daily if you really want to get early. Otherwise it'll be announced on TTC. It's not usually immediately after official release, I think it's like 2 weeks later
Icingdeath should definitely turn into the equipment when dead similar to how they did it in Kaldheim with the troll. How are you gonna reanimate him after you make a sword out of his mouth?
Why wasn't Vivien Reid discussed, yes I know she isn't in the set, yes I know she is green and this was the uw show. But she is highlander playable and still just should always be brought up.
The white anthem class card agree looks good, but its only a tax of 1 on your turn, it costs 4 total mana to make it an anthem, and 9 mana and having multiple creatures and 1 being evasive after have spent 9 mana on an enchantment seems unlikely to ever be relevant. And have fun leveling it up just to get teferi or brazen borrowered, or knight of autumned. So the base ability is probably worth 1 mana, but not a card, the first level is way over rate and borderlibe worth a card, the level 3 is way overate and probably under power to cathars crusade or true conviction and is to expensive for basically ww in any format ever. Playing overcosted non creatures in white aggro just isn't a thing basically ever if its not an equipment with living weapon you can cheat out(new kaldra and batterskull).
Other potentially playable illusions, errant ephemeron, dream stalker, jaces phantasm, maybe Jaces projection if draw 2 is a sub theme, krovikan mist seems really good in a min deck, narcomeba, oneirophage, palichron, phantasmal bear, phantasmal image, phantom steed, riftwing cloudskate, spark double, toothy, mistform ultimus. Cards that make illusions castaway jace(which with doubling season or vorinclex makes infinite jaces and illusions), inscription of insight, meloku, Mesmerizing benthid(which also has hexproof if you control an illusion), moonblade shinobi, murmuring mystic, veiled apparition, phantasmal form which also draws and triggers murmuring, phantom steed which both protects something then makes a copy every attack, your opponents skyclave apparition. Phantasmal abom, phantasmal dragon, phantasmal dreadmaw, pulsating illusion, Illusionary wall(I assume has been erratad to be an illusion), mordekhiem, krovikan mists, inscription of insight all notable for the power for minns second ability Illusion payoffs: krovikan mists, Lord of the unreal, minn, mordekheim. Assuming ugb to search up your payoffs and op oko shit changelings and ninja synergies: bloodline pretender, chameleon collusus, changeling outcast, automaton, gladewalker ritualist, graveshifter, masked vandal, moritte, mothdust, orvar, realmwalker, bears of litjara. Then a few do nothings that make every one of your creatures, notable being maskwood nexus which also makes illusions. Tribal payoffs: Adaptive automton, distant melody which synegizes with all the payoffs, kindred discovery, metallic mimic, reflection of litjara etc. And then all your go wide anthem payoffs or when a creature deals damage draw, opposition, tutors and recursion for the good pieces and generically good ugx stuff including all the can trips in u and g, and maybe Jolreal sincre draw 2 and pumps the board later. Probably mostly just stick in the good phantoms: spark double, phantasmal image, Morrite, the suspend cards, toothy(and his partner), the lords and artifact pseudo lords, phantom steed, mordekeim, krovikan mists, basically all the makes illusions cards, maybe on orvar but probably, the draw card ninjas, the illusion creating one, the illusion one and shinobi, the strong walkers, all the 1 mana can trips or at least all the draw ones, a handful of creature centric draw, probably doubling season since we make tokens have walkers and it infinites with shitty jace and some ramp. You probably dont need more than 20-25 creatures and get to play with most of the strong cards in a strong color combo. And as long as you are drawing cards a wrath with minn out and a decent board is not even harmful. Also seems like potentially a good opposition deck. And doubling season seems actually playable due to a bunch of token makers and it combos with mordekeinan and crappy jace.
