The Most Overplayed Cards In Casual Commander 

The reason I use the signets is because they don't die to creature-based boardwipes. Mana dorks, in my experience, tend to be less useful than mana rocks because board wipes are a dime a dozen and creatures (be they token or utility or even commanders themselves) are so meta, that mass creature removal is a *must* as an answer if you fall behind.

Gotta call cap on the ornithopter vs signet argument. Ornithopter is twice as vulnerable as a signet which is enough to make it significantly worse

Big agree on just about everything. I'll refute signets though for a few reasons. 1) They're incredibly budget 2 mana rocks. Sure ornithopter, liquimetal, fellwar, etc. But these are still good outside green. 2) They can convert colorless mana to colored mana. 3) In later turns past 2, coming in untapped lowers the tempo hit from playing them. I still think they're overplayed in decks with more than 2 colors, but in 2-color decks I would probably start with them included and only remove if there were enough more synergistic ramp. Also, harmonize is overplayed, but it's not a bad option for some unconditional draw. If you're prone to overcommit to the board in green and end up with an empty hand, it can get you back in the game after a wipe.

Agree with all of these. I’d go so far as to say a few of these are really great cards, but tired nonetheless. Worth mentioning that a lot of these bad removal options like Putrefy have stuck around because many players have erroneously decided to only play instant-speed removal. Flexibility is nice, but removing threats on your own turn has a lot of its own advantages! I think this would be a great topic for a video: the pros and cons of sorcery-speed removal.

signets get played not only because they are decent but because how accessible they are compared to talisman (at least they were for very long time). you also put thopter of paradise over signets. If you don't have some pump effects that are good for thopter than you are paying 2 for ramp that will get removed by the first board wipe. Players choose mana rocks to have ramp not affected by board wipes. supreme verdict is popular as it improves on every aspect of general board wipe that is 5 mana and just destroys creatures. Cost less and can't be countered. A lot of players has that from playing different formats so it get played. I disagree with these 2. There are reasons why they are played both from their functionality and availability. You are arguing for these 2 cards in general while providing specific situations where they don't really compete against each other in terms of choice (non-creature rock vs creature-ramp, 4 mana board wipe vs 7 mana board wipe).

I love the vids, but oof on some takes. Negate is 30 cents and An Offer You Can't Refuse is $4. For those can't or won't always proxy, I'm not sure you can discount budget and accessibility so much when calling something overplayed.

I don't think Brainstorm is overrated or "horrible", it's just misplayed often. You can always use it in conjunction with fetch lands to put bad cards on top, crack the fetch, then shuffle or a variety of other ways to shuffle. It's great in Nekusar to manipulate his deck before a wheel. Etc. The problem isn't the card, the problem is the way people play it, which imo, distinguishes it from some of the other cards you highlighted (like Mortify and Harmonize)

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Negate is excellent because 90% of the time it's as effective as straight up counterspell, because I so rarely care about countering a creature spell. It's typically noncreature spells that warp the game. The spell in many cases could even be better if you're playing in more than 2 colors including blue because if playing on a budget mana base you may not consistently be able to keep 2 blue up. Everything else I agreed with totally, brainstorm seems like such an obvious #1, biggest trap card ever unless you have like 15+ shuffle effects or some other sweet brew. Card draw effects are so powerful now, I would easily wait the extra 2 turns and not due the flashy brainstorm lock my hand play and instead play something even like a chart a course which can filter cards into my graveyard or consistently be sign in blood if I'm playing an agressive commander that comes down early. IDK brainstorm fits in so few decks archtypes I can't see why it'd be in ~40% of blue decks

Overrated and overplayed are two different things in my mind. Overrated are cards that require a huge financial investment for a relatively very small effect, Jeweled Lotus is a great example. Overplayed cards are ones that, even in budget, there are better options. For overplayed I’d add Wrath of God/Day of Judgment. There are so many good 5 CMC symmetrical board wipes now to use instead.

I think I'm starting to see a pattern in your card evaluation. My theory is that it's pretty heavily influenced by threat assessment expectations at the table. This is ok but it won't translate well to other play groups, and may explain the discrepancies between your experience and everyone else's re: mass removal, ramp and synergistic draw. For example, my former group leaned heavily towards greedy play and bad threat assessment, and board wipes were extremely powerful because they were resetting at least two players. This made people shy away from creature payoffs, which made spot removal less impactful, and in the end settled into a board wipes vs countermagic meta with horrible threat assessment and big snowball games. Not sure if EDHRec data reflects similar patterns, but it could explain why what you're seeing diverges so much.

My reason for liking harmonize is that it's unconditional. Synergistic card draw is definitely better until you've been exhausted of resources and you just need to reload without hoops.

Growth Spiral and Explore are good in decks where you NEED a turn 2 ramp spell in your opening hand. Which I would argue is 15 copies of an effect. Those are my favorite turn 2 ramp spells in a deck like that because when I draw them later they just cycle away unlike a lot of turn 2 ramp. I think people in Commander almost play a completely random number of ramp spells and a lot of the time the ramp is not doing what it is supposed to do because people don't play enough lands for the ramp to have done anything for them on the following turn after they played it.

You already said it, but I think precons are the reason many of these are played so much. I also think these are prime examples of “eat your vegetables” cards. In other words, people have a few key cards around which they want to build their deck, and as far as the necessary ramp/removal packages are concerned, they just go with the simple, generic, and affordable options they have lying around in their collection to fill the space and enable their deck to do what they want it to do. I’m guilty of doing that a lot of times, if I’m honest.

In defence of Growth Spiral, it's a budget card, so is very accessible for people. Also, in my opinion, it's not a bad rate for ramping 1 (same as something like Rampant Growth or Farseek). There's obviously the chance it could whiff, but then it has the upside of being an instant (i.e. can hold up interaction / bluff interaction and use this as a backup play), and can also be effectively cycled when drawn later in a game, which can be very important. Personally, I don't use it outside of having great synergy (e.g. in Kalamax), but it's a pretty solid ramp option I think. Side note on deck thinning: a cantrip card like this doesn't really make a difference in commander, as you say. However, deck thinning is definitely possible and effective, e.g. with Land Tax removing a lot of lands from your deck to ensure you draw more "gas" as the game goes on :)

Happy new year from my family to yours. Keep up the awesome content. :)

Signets are not overrated for not green decks. We run them with the talismans with the them to increase our chance of opening up with a turn two mana rock.

Disagree a bit on Mortify, to me it's a fantastic (and deserving of the praise) budget option, as (at least in my groups) creatures and enchantments are the most likely "kill on sight" cards, 3 mana is an amount of mana that isn't too painful to float for the instant speed, too. I do mostly agree with the take on petrify, as I find artifact removal to be more common, and somewhat less important, especially if you have access to red. I personally take mortify as a good 3rd of 4th removal spell for the colors, or in cases where I dont want to drop wads on more powerful options like Anguished Unmaking.

Ornithopter provides a mana of any color and might be a relevant attacker/blocker. But it dies to much more removal as well. There are as many arguments against as there are for it.

While synergistic card draw can be vastly more powerful, call it having a higher ceiling, there’s nothing worse than having your creatures destroyed with an empty hand, and then drawing a Rishkar’s Expertise. At least with Harmonize as long as you have the mana, you’ll get cards. I also tend to play in games with way more creature removal and board wipes vs artifact destruction, so an ornithopter of paradise (or most dorks for that matter) end up as collateral damage a lot of the time. Meanwhile that turn 2 signet tends to stick around and continue to provide mana quietly in the background.

My big one is cultivate/kodama's reach (in general but mainly for 4 cost commanders), if your commander costs 4 ramping at 3 is very awkward when there's easily 10+ 2-mana Land Ramp, for the benefit of like a bundled Ley of the Land. Its the harmonize of ramp in most decks.

I think people downplay Harmonize too often because it's not “cost effective” or because it lacks the creature sinergy. But let me ask you, what if you've got no creatures to play, or you've just been board wiped? Return of the Wildspeaker, Shamanic Revelation, Guardian Project and the countless other iterations of this effect won't serve you any good when things aren't going according to plan. Even Rhystic Study and Mystic Remora may draw you zero cards if your opponents play around them. That's why it is so important to include card options that draw you cards anytime, no questions asked.

Don’t see many people use Dark Ritual in a different way. In my experience you use it to cast your big rock (gilded lotus, thran dynamo) and sling shot ahead of the table.

I did indeed enjoy this video Thanks for creating n posting

Definitely some controversial takes like you said, but I also think our deck building philosophies are like polar opposites lol. I dont think Arena or Harmonize overrated but not in the way youre talking about them, most people in my experience just dont find them to be good cards at all to even be considered in this conversation. If someone ramps out their commander through dark ritual or other means and the immediate response is to remove it then it's either really bad threat assessment (i.e someone going "well just for getting it out 2 turns early I cast swords to get rid of it) or a KOS commander, but being able to cheat the cost of a card is objectively good. I think the problem is actually people not knowing when not to play it imo being 3+ color decks where you could draw it and not have anything to use the black mana for, whereas 1-2 color decks dark ritual should always be a live card. I 100% agree with Putrefy and Mortify being dated removal just not your recommendations, but that's more because I like cost efficient deck building where my removal & playlines are mostly is low to the ground so I can accomplish multiple things on my turn and still hold 1-3 mana for spot removal, some decks I dont even play boardwipes. I dont like the idea of needing to hold up 5 mana for an instant because it usually leads to choosing between that removal spell or making the play i need to advance my board + if they do have protection against the instant thats 5 mana gone plus missing out on my turn actions. Personally would go with Abrupt Decay, Assassins' Trophy, Beast Within, Anguished Unmaking, etc before playing a 5 mana removal spell. On the topic of cost efficiency I dont think reducing peoples deck building theory to "Oh it's banned in another format so it must be good" is a good angle. Maybe could apply to a grade-school player, I know at that age I loved the idea of getting to play banned cards, but beyond that you're just not giving other people enough credit. Those cheap "draw" cards absolutely have a floor and ceiling , so of course getting the maximum value from them is ideal but their floors really arent bad either. Cards that at worst replace themselves + did something else for a single mana isn't going to lose you the game vs a 4+ mana draw card where you draw a ton of the answers to the threat but are now short mana to use those cards and do lose. On the opposite side of that though digging 3 cards into your deck isn't going help you win but if you're in a position to cast some big splashy card that draws a ton of cards odds are you were already in a winning spot and didnt need to cast that card either. Basically I think the mentality has nothing to do with if a cards banned or not elsewhere and more the efficiency offered + the benefit of manipulating the top of your deck. I can 100% agree it's much less impactful in 1v1 60 card formats, but being able to have more control over your topdeck not being a missed land drop early game or a dud draw late game I think is what people find most appealing when playing these cards generically. Again though I do I think we have very different deck building philosophies. I like for the early game; build low to the ground, always have something to play and always try to keep my decks CMC average to 3 or less, usually winning from accumulated advantages. I get the vibe you prefer getting through the early game fast and getting wins through playing a series of explosive big mana cards until the table cant recover and either runs out of answers or already did from earlier interactions amongst themselves such as the "you played your commander early so Im gonna waste removal right away" player. It's a strategy I can say is mostly unexplored for myself but is just as viable a strategy as leaning more into the early game cards I think I like a little more than you might 😅

Good take on Brainstorm, but I will correct you: It is not the best card for putting something back. That's a white card called Penance; I have one in my Elminster token deck - there's no spell slinging going on. At any time, put a card from your hand on top to prevent all damage from the next red or black source of your choice. The implications regarding red boardwipes are staggering - oh and notice that it doesn't say "target" so you don't require any red or black players at the table. I agree with Dark Ritual in the vast majority of cases, but I did include one in my Tevesh Szat deck so he can start churning out 0/1 thrull tokens asap, who in turn block for him (it's a tribal thrull deck. No joke, I made sure to fit in Ebon Praetor). There's even a Will-o-the-wisp to block for him, which always gets a lot of looks, followed by a lot of frustration when no one is willing to burn good removal to get rid of the thing I HAVE A GREEN SPELL SLINGER! It is... strange. Yes. Strange. In all seriousness though, don't discount harmonize in a bog standard green deck. Yes, it has a pretty low power ceiling for green, but it's floor isn't 0. This is from someone who has giggled madly to himself as he drew his entire library in mono green on turn 5, killing myself when I could have easily stopped at 70 cards Something to consider with removal: There is no such thing as perfect solution, only trade offs. Timing, coverage, quantity, style (sacrifice, exile, destroy, bury etc), mana, color restrictions, things granted to the opponent. You can't simply write one off because it's not your favored balance of those consideration. Now there are simply bad cards, but those are things that cost 4+ and are a simple terror. Mortify and Putrefy are not those. Not even close, even if Mortify specifically has a lot of fierce competition in its space. Even Desert Twister has a home in a handful of decks, and that's a 6 mana sorcery beast within - yuck - but if you need another catch-all removal spell or if beast within's token isn't something your deck can tolerate, you put up with it if you can afford it.

This went off the rails at the discussion for Negate where he said Fierce Guardianship, Force of Will and Mana Drain are better counterspells and then immediately acknowledges the budget factor with the craziest comment I have ever heard, that Negate is “not that much cheaper”… Really ? Just googling the TCG prices of $40, $70 and $55… and Negate comes in at $0.13 those are comparative values ? Even just going back to an Offer You Can’t Refuse for card comparison, it is listed at $4. If I had a $50-100 budget on a deck, I am not replacing cards like Negate with An Offer You Can’t Refuse.

I like Harmonize, it gives you three card as it resolves. For return of the wildspeaker you need a creature, guardian project needs creatures, as does great henge. All these can draw you more, but you need other stuff to happen. And great henge is expensive for a casual deck, at least I haven't seen it in a precon lately. I will keep my harmonize.

re: Ornithopter of Paradise. When this card first came out it went into all of my decks. However, I tend to play in a Wrath-heavy environment & Ornithopter came out of all but one of my decks. On the second Turn, a signet is not immediately useable, but is an investment - later in the game it's fine.

I like Harmonize. I admit it's not as good as the color's "best". But, imo it's "in too many decks" most likely because of being a redundant effect in green. Like redundancy in removal, ramp, etc... I think pay 4 draw 3, in a color that laughs at mana cost, is good. I would also argue it does does do enough in every deck it's in, as it finds your "core" quicker, amidst your other draw spells.

No, dark ritual is a bonified powerhouse. It’s in a small group of cards that are the closest thing we have to a legal black lotus. The opportunity cost is low and the ceiling is high. You’re tripping for this one Demo.

The one thing I could see Brainstorm used for is to get a look at three new cards in a pinch when drawing one of the two that won't help immediately is less of a concern. Paying 1 mana for three chances to get a counter spell in a clutch doesn't seem like a stretch, especially when you're sitting on one combo piece for just the right time. When you draw it next turn, you still have it available when the time is right...

For Dark Ritual there are some niche areas where I play it. I play it in Skithiryx for that surprise haste-infect, and I play it in Rowan to give me enough black pips for my combo pieces. Also run it in Narfi for that first cast.

Dark Ritual is great when used smartly My best Orzhov play was Dark Ritual to Bolas' Citadel on turn 3 after everyone just played ramp

Dark ritual and growth spiral are always awesome to see when you have access to other card draw. If you drop your whole hand tapping out for your commander turn 1 or 2 thats just irresponsible 😂

I agree with the sentiments about dark ritual. I do play it in my mono black korlash deck because i can draw A LOT of cards so gaining 2 mana is worth the hand resource most the time :)

You just convinced me to add brainstorm and other clones into my galea deck

I’m building a Red/Black Spellslinger deck with Judith, Carnage Connoisseur as my Commander. I’m specifically adding Dark Ritual and Seething Song because they are Instants that let my specific Commander do what they want to do quicker and more efficiently.

On the topic of Mortify, one card that came out not too long ago that has totally replaced both Mortify and Vindicate in my decks is Legions to Ashes. Being able to exile something while at the same time having the ability to eliminate a swarm of tokens (same as Maelstrom Pulse, thanks for showing me that one!), which often times can only be done with a board wipe, has been huge in my play experience. The down sides of sorcery speed and non-land permanent are not a big deal at all given the aforementioned benefits in my opinion!

I think one of the biggest factors is the playgroups you are in. My playgroup board wipes 3 to 5 times per game. Having car draw or manor rocks on an artifact or enchantment that won’t die of that is always better than on a creature in my plague group. Are you supreme verdict if it’s an option because 50% of my board wipes are countered. It’s interesting how different my playgroup is from yours.

Interesting takes and I mostly agree! As a CEDH and casual player just overall commander addict, signets are important budget ramp for people who don’t have the talisman and the alt you suggested dies so easily albeit being better mana fixing Supreme verdict is just hands down the best board wipe available in those colors for the cost and uncounterable is highly relevant when you suggested cards like An Offer You Can’t Refuse as better counters than negate (which I highly agree) Mortify is dookie butt stinky doodoo Putrefy “ “ Dark Ritual absolutely makes you archenemy with the plays it facilitates, but as you already mentioned, in the decks where it’s good it’s very good Lotus pedal is also incredible in an opening hand and can be looped from the gy with certain enablers. Brainstorm… tough one, I agree with it doing nothing at times but I’d say brainstorm is ultimately dependent on the overall card quality of the deck so it’s up to the deck builder how strong of an effect it can be

Harmonize is underated. Unconditional draw is very good. Yes it doesnt have the ceiling other draw spells have. But its floor is higher and the consistency is very important. You cant draw from return of the wildspeaker after a board wipe. Harmonize you can. You also cant get blown out by instant speed removal with harmonize. This consistency is underrated and under appreciated.

props to you for actually playing different cards than signets. I dont care if signets are more reliable and whatever...the whole format plays the same cards in every single deck

I tend to only play Growth Spiral if I've already got a land in hand. Of course, that pretty much means I'm playing it early or I have a ton of draw that ensures I have more lands in hand, but... I mean, two mana for draw a card AND put a land on the field (untapped, assuming no tapped conditions on the land itself) is not horrible. But I think that really only works IF you have the land in hand to start.

The commercial placement is supreme in these videos. Right when he’s about to drop the knowledge BOOM commercial. I don’t necessarily enjoy it, but I respect the hustle.

2 things to consider: 1 ornithopter of paradise dies to every wipe, making it a mana rock you no longer get to use. 2: growth spiral being late game being a 2 mana draw 1, is still better than the alternative of a late game rampant growth, or worse mana rock, or even worse, and ornithopter of paradise. I think youll have to cast ornithopter of paradise 10 times to see it perform better than even a daimond. i get that it did great for you in that one game, but I want you to noticed every time your OOP dies, how often youll be one mana shy of doing what you'd prefer in future turns.

Regarding negate there are other more flexible counterspells as well like cryptic command (only for mono blue) mystic confluence, sublime epiphany, arcane denial, swan song, on top of all the ones you listed. Negate is still totally fine, but there are so many good counterspells

You have an Omarthis deck list? Where can I see this at if I may?

For my experience, the problem with card that are synergistic with your deck it's they are not good enough if they are stand alone, so they can't help you to recover in case of board wipe or target removal, if I am at turn 6 with 3 card in hand after a one sided boardwipe , I don't need a guardian project, but something that let me draw/loot my deck to find answer

in defense of signets and the same(2 mana rocks) is that they're Cheap, makes your deck do something in the opening, and helps cast your commander in later stages of game. I play casual and this is a fast way to bring out jank high cost rares :)

At low power tables i think Negate Is better than An Offer You Can't Refuse because keeping one more mana untapped and play a bit slower is better than give your opponent a pretty big mana boost in the form of treasures that he can use right away or keep for later

13:53 Negate is not a double blue spell and An Offer You Can't Refuse is $3-4 and Negate is 20 cents. Some people are really on budget.

Harmonize...I put it back in all my green decks because Return of the wild speaker and R. Expertise don't work after a boardwipe, they are just death cards in that situation. Harmonize is the only card that puts me back in the game after the boardwipe.

If you have cards that are good enough I don’t see any issue with playing them even if there’s a better option. Would nature’s lore be better than moss diamond in my gruul deck? Yes, but my copies of nature’s lore are already in other decks and I don’t care enough to buy another one when moss diamond doesn’t stop my deck from functioning. To address the point about budget, there are approximately 64 deck slots in a commander deck, if you have a lot of decks that’s a lot of cards and the difference between already in my collection or even 50 cents and 2 dollars can be significant.

Good list. Definitely all very overplayed. 👍

I play phrexian area and dark ritual in my chainer nightmare adept deck. I mainly use dark ritual to help hard cast creatures from my graveyard and give them haste like arcon of cruelty and phyrexian area for card draw

i've got lotus petal in my silas renn artifact recursion deck and its pretty based, with things like master transmuter i can turn cheerios like that into cool stuff AND use it as a worse burnished hart for when i dont pull burnished hart

I still like to run Phyrexian Arena in a lot of my decks with constricted themes. It's not explosive card draw, but it's consistent and the cost is very negligible. Same with Negate, I'm not always very concerned with my opponents casting specific creatures so the "non-creature" stipulation just makes it a super cheap counter spell. And I like Supreme Verdict because my douche bag pod LOVES counter magic, so I crutch really hard on "This spell can't be countered" being printed on a lot of the spells I choose to build with. Still, this is a fairly accurate list, there are way more efficient and interesting spells to replace a LOT of these cards with, and a lot of them just get overlooked because they're older and have faded into obscurity.

In the signed vs talisman vs mana dork debate, it's been my experience that in a 2-3 color deck, the Signets are by far superior, because they're not just ramp but also fix your mana. If you only have swamps but need red and blue, the signet will sort you out. Talismans and mana dorks don't do that. So the more colors you have in your deck, I will argue that the Signets become all the better. If you have 1 signet and 1 dork you have access to up to three colors. 2 Signets will give you up to 4 colors. Based on my experience, they deserve their spot in my decks.

I run Phyrexian Arena in my Queza deck simply cuz its a free card draw and deal a damage to someone each turn and i dont even lose a life but outside that yeah i dont run it in anything really. But aye good video i know everyones got their preferences but i truly enjoy the content man keep it up.

Will never agree about Swords lolol, but spot on with all the others!

Funny you mention it but Ive actually been cutting swords to plowshares from a few decks lately. Mostly because of synergy reasons it's still a great card though

Disagree with growth spiral. Draw+ramp on 2 mana. Also easy synergy with drawing, landfall at instant speed.

The only card that caught me by surprise was growth spiral. So many youtubers have been crapping on that card for at least a year now, to me it feels like the hate came out of nowhere lol

Interesting list. I disagree with Growth Sprial, Dark Ritual, and Brainstorm. Growth spiral does what blue does (draw cards) and what green does (ramp) at instant speed. Dark Ritual is a nice suprise mana jump when you need it. Brainstorm gives your nine options and what your next two turns will look like. I agree that it all depends on what your deck is trying to do. Thanks for posting.

I agree with a lot of the others, phyrexian arena especially but hard disagree for the non green signets. They are the most accesible 2 mana rocks that filter your mana super well (including colorless mana). I also don't like ornithopter very much since it'll always take a turn to use unlike a signet which can be used right away if you draw one after turn 2, and ornithopter also dies to sweepers. Ornithoper isn't bad mind you but you have to be a heavy creature strategy outside of green for it to be worth it

Ornithopter of paradise is great, buteverything should be deck dependant. I like signets in decks where i already have flying creatures, and having a creature artifact makes it easier to remove, also sometimes i need double pips which signets are better at. And i play more phyrexian arenas because i like the enchantment, and i dont need creatures in play, and Nostalgia FUN! And dark ritual has helped me win so many games and make plays turns where I just didnt have enough mana and its so fun and explosive😎👍🏻 and theres no problem with playing precon cards. Not every player needs to “upgrade” to “better” cards. Maybe players like the precon cards art, its theme, flavor, etc. and thats totally cool. Again, commander deckbuilding to me is reaching the point why i stopped playing mtg... is reaching this endgame of “competitive only” super overtuned optimal decks and thats not fun. My philosophy for casual commander is play what you want and do what you want for more surprises, laughs, unpredictability, and FUN

You should definitely do a collab video with the MTG Goldfish gang!

Signets are good in 2-3 color decks, imo. More often than not, you won't have a follow up on a turn 2 rock anyway. After that, it is all upside, where you get all your colors, or 2/3.

Not sure if you read these comments but I’d say most people save their removal spells for the first commander play or at least the most threatening commander at the table.

I want to use my mass removal as late as possible that is why I like Supreme Verdict. I may not need everything to die (blacksmith skill example given) but it's important that enough things get destroyed that I'm not left dead on board. So it not getting countered allows that. Play removal that gives people less options to deal with it

You NEED to play brainstorm before a fetchland or some way to shuffle.

"An Offer you can't refuse" cost around 2,50. "Negate" costs less than 5 cents. I have 15 decks, 7 of them are blue. And i am a strict budget player, rarly spendig more than 2 bucks on a piece of cardboard. "Saw it coming" is okay, but i dont think its better. Even if you foretell it, it cost you 1U to cast it, the same as Negate, with the only upside that it can counter creature spells. So all in all i dont think that Negate is overplayed. It is simple, cheap and effective, and perhaps one of the best options for budget players The Signets i like in two colored decks that don't have green. In decks that have more than 2 colors orni of p. is far better than any of those signets. Regarding "Putrefy" and "Mortify" you are 100% right. I don't use any of these because even on a low budget there are better options like "Generous Gift" "Beast whitin" "Vindicate" and "Tear Asunder" nami g just a few.

Explore is an incontrovertibly superior cantrip to Growth Spiral. It’s the exact same spell for just 1G. Personally, I would skip the single draw, play *Exploration* and double my land-drops from then until my Enchantment is removed, or pay 1 more and play either Tireless Provisioner or Azusa. Burgeoning has an even higher ceiling. I disagree that Green has *better* card-draw than Harmonize. It has many options with higher ceiling, but the vast majority of them *won’t do jack during your next Untap after a boardwipe* . There are few moments that feel worse than being hellbent in the wake of a Farewell, and topdecking Return of the Wildspeaker. EDHRec did an entire statistics-backed section of their “Veggies Cards” video that explains why Harmonize will very often be the superior option when you’re either the only one behind or there’s just been a boardwipe. (An all too frequent occurrence, when people drop a symmetrical wipe the *instant* they fall behind on the regular.)

Disagree on the signets. You're not considering the scenarios where you cast these after turn 2 and they enable you to double spell or keep reaction mana up. Thopter of Paradise sidegrades this into a chump blocker and some untap synergies, but the sequencing is fundamentally different. Honestly, what's the scenario where you're sad to tap out for these turn two outside of a CEDH table? Why would having double spell or reaction mana on T2 more important than the ramp to 4 on T3? And shouldn't you be looking into pitch spells and T1 ramp if it is?

I have removed all of them from my decks, but when starting and a limited budget, i had some of those for a while (and mostly because it came from precons)

I think Growth Spiral is just a worse explore, which is a decent 2 mana ramp spell. So the main question would be: is a farseek effekt better, because it never fails to ramp (early game) or a explore effekt, cause it cycle itself to maybe find something better (late game)? But in a landfall deck like tatyova you probably want to play all the 2 mana, land based ramp. So I can absolutly understand why growth spiral is played in land focused decks. Outside from that you are probably.

Why I love Harmonize: I like having 2 pure card draw options. No matter what board state I have, card X will draw me 3 or more cards. I still load my decks w synergistic draw, but I have a couple like harmonize

For my mono blue decks the only counter spells I personally prefer are negate, wash away, mystic confluence, cryptic command and sublime epiphany

In other countries, the prices of cards does not translate in the same way. It is not only the different currency, the proportions are not the same. So, cards like Negate and Mortify can be signifficantly cheaper than the better options. Maybe it is because the supply chain is different. These other countries also use the EDHREC as a database and echo chamber.

Ornothopter of paradise is the best! Favorite after Sol ring

A key note about arcane signet and Ornithopter of paradise in colorless decks. Colorless is not a color. You can not generate mana outside of your commander identity - it becomes colorless normally. The catch is you can't generate mana with them if you can't produce colored mana. They don't actually produce mana in colorless decks at all as a result. Nor does command tower.

I think there are scenarios where you would just prefer to use signets over talismans. An example would be any deck that uses Nyxbloom Ancient, or a deck that is already burning through life with minimal lifegain

I agree with Brainstorm but Ponder and Preordain are great. If you're in blue playing 36-38 lands, you can easily cut a land for a ponder. It makes a starting hand with a couple lands significantly better and its a much better draw than an island when you already have a lot of lands in hand or in play. I will say brainstorm is also good if you're in five color and can afford fetches

To me that growth spiral is all about the possibility to have an untapped Land at instant speed entering the Battlefield what enables some trix withe Mace of it and stuff like this

25:24 I managed to cast my commander Post, Son of Rich on turn two thanks to Dark Ritual. Of course someone in my play group was salty and popped it before my next upkeep

Edhrec guy just challenged the stats on negate in Talrand decks. Great minds think alike.

Dark Ritual is such cap. You can use your dark ritual to put your commander out and keep mana up to prevent it from being killed. It puts you so far ahead.

Gonna disagree about Harmonize. In a Gruul deck, for example, yeah there are better options but they’re also dependent on your board state. Sometimes you just need to draw cards regardless of what you have on the table

Gonna have to defend Growth Spiral here. Think of it like a rampant growth with cycling (and flash). In a 2 mana deck where you dont need the manafixing and play this early, it's just a rampant growth. You draw a card and remove one from your hand for an extra landdrop, except you can cast it at instant speed. And blue likes to keep mana open. Now theres a down and an upside. The downside is that it might miss if youre manascrewed and therefore becomes „2 mana draw a card“. The upside is that it also becomes „2 mana draw a card“ in the lategame where drawing rampant growth is horrible.

Ornithopter is a creature, therefore its vulnerable to board wipes. Don't get me wrong, its a great card, but the signets tap for mana mid-late game as soon as they enter. Ornithopter is better than signets only in creature decks or mostly budget 3-4-5 color decks (because your mana base may not be as good as a non-budget deck)

My Rashmi deck wants to be casting spells on every turn, and Growth Spiral works really well there. There are not a lot of instant speed ramp options.

"Listen, all it does is add two mana, thats ALL it does"... ...it puts Necropotence out on T1, THAT'S what Dark Ritual does 😈

On Growth Spiral. 2 mana ramp is used for different things in different colors and obviously ramp but it highly depends on the colors. In a mono green deck, imo, there isn't a huge difference between explore and natures lore. Early/Mid game it puts the land into play untapped like you want. Sometimes it misses, you're absolutely right, but its 1 out of your 10 ramp cards. . and late game Explore cycles. And mono green generally plays the higher end of land to make it even more likely to nab the top deck land. In Simic again there still isn't a MASSIVE difference between the two. How many non-basic forests that come into play untapped are you actually running for fixing? Shock and Dual. To me again, the power is it coming in untapped, and now having 2 of your 10 ramp spells have cycle attached to it, with the bonus that growth spiral is instant speed. You hold up mana for a counterspell, see nothing scary to counter, last endstep before your turn, cycle! Bonus points for instant speed landfall lol. In 3 colors and beyond, growth spiral and explore are god awful, like you mention. They don't fix, I'd really really really rather go grab a basic land with rampant growth just to make sure I have a balanced mana base. And even late game, grabbing another basic its probably better because the fixing is SO important in these decks. Having double red or triple black in your 5 color could genuinely make the difference between winning and loosing. 2 mana ramp is at its worst in the late game, and strongest in the early. Explore/Spiral are at their weakest mid game, and strongest early and ok late game. If you understand what the card is doing for you, and understand the cost of them sometimes just missing. . I think it has a place. I love the faster play patterns it lets me eek out in the early game, and the slight flexibility it has in the late. Also a very niche use but, sometimes Ill draw like 10 cards, and get 4 lands, I dont wanna discard them all, but explore/growth spiral can help you play an extra one so you dont have to pitch as many. Is that really a reason to play it? no, but its another tiny use that makes me love it. Absolutely shouldn't go in every deck, but of all dual colors to get this effect, simic can definitely use of it imo

Phyrexian Arena synergizes in my Willowdusk deck well. So life shenanigans I suppose.

I play brainstorm in my odd Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign deck with other topdeck manipulation. Other than that, you're totally right: its just a blue=draw a card.

Used to love Growth Spiral and Explore, but yeah for sure it often was just a 2 CMC draw a card. Still like them, but not as much

I agree growth spiral is generally nothing special in Commander but I been having pretty good success with it in my Arargorn, the uniter deck since you get the added effect of scry 2 and +4/+4 pump. May not sound like much but the scry 2 really does help with increasing the odds of you dropping that 2nd land into play. Great card if you can find some kind of synergy, not great playing it on it’s own.

Funny how much I agree with you almost everytime. You are a bit more extreem but you are right non the less.

I run Growth spiral in I think one deck: Tatyova landfall/mill and only gets played if I have a land and multiple triggers.