Braid of Fire has to be the best one. Because it USED to be super bad due to mana burn. But once Mana burn was gone? It's 100% pure upside. If you have something with a mana sink ability or enough red instants in your hand, you can cast them for free.
Probably deserved to be on the list, but I think Mystic Remora and Glacial Chasm are still better. Though I think it also suffered from just bad timing on things. Basically everything on this list except Chasm and Remora have fallen off in modern day play, and now that the rules have changed to make Braid of Fire pure upside, it's just not what decks really want to be doing either. It's at best a niche commander card that never really got its day in the sun.
As Glacial Chasm just shuts down a complete wincon of your opponents deck, it instantly makes it better than Braid of Fire, who gives u mana that you'll lose when you main phase starts.
I was expecting to see Braid of Fire, that thing is awesome. Also, now that Mana Burn doesn't exist anymore, it doesn't have any downsides (beyond having to use that Mana during the Upkeep or lose it)
It's just very slow as a ramp piece, it can definitely pay off big time against control decks that can't remove it, but outside of that you're likely better off using a mana rock or going for Mana Flare
@@QuantemDeconstructor there's another card that deals burn damage with a cumulative upkeep of 1 mana. Combine the two and you basically just put your opponent on a timer. They have six turns MAXIMUM to either kill you or remove it from the field. Considering the most likely choice for that kinda combo is going to be a aggro burn deck...
@@NeroLordofChaos a fair point but 6 turns is a pretty long timer for that style of deck, I find they normally empty out their hand before Braid of Fire would be giving more value than a mana rock, the main value it has is helping cast high or X cost spells like Fireball late game for that style, unless you go for something gimmicky like Repurcussions + Blasphemous Act
@@QuantemDeconstructor braids is wayyyy better as a payoff for activated abilities of permanents than to cast spells. Aspiringspike had a build with it and did pretty well some time ago.
Mystic Remora is a lot like Maxx-C in Yugioh, where it basically lets you draw a card every time your opponent does something that is currently the meta staple, which is why Maxx-C is banned in the TCG (English/international format), but strangely enough not in the OCG (Japanese format) or Master Duel (Konami sanctioned digital version), where it is basically a must have for literally every deck It's interesting how effectively the same effect is much more valuable in YGO though. As you said, in MTG it often better to just stop the opponent's spells in the first place, but in YGO, since there is no mana system, the ungodly handsize you get puts you in a card advantage that is probably unheard of in even the snowballiest of Vintage games.
@@dudono1744 Not an MMTG player either, but from my understanding: Mystic Remora, like all the cards in this vid, is a "permanent", a card that stays on the field when you play it. Permanents in MTG include card types Creature, Plainswalker, Enchantments, Artifacts, and Lands. Mystic Remora is an Enchantment, which is probably the closest MTG equivalent to YGO's Continuous Spell card type. Which probably means you can't catch an opponent off guard or mindplay them with Remora like you can with Maxx-C
The difference between the two is that you can play around mystic remora. There are cards that can bypass the tax effect of remora, and on top of that your opponent can decide to save resources in case they can't pay for one or bite the bullet and give your opponent a free draw. Some decks usually lay one spell a turn since a resource system exists. Yu-Gi-Oh on the other hand is a different story. You really can't play around Maxx C at all, especially how powerful drawing cards are. You either have to give up your turn or lose the game if a Maxx c goes off.
@@Kei-ye8if mystic is garbage in low resource since ur opponent will just play nothing and u cant play anything too to keep it in play, in fact its just garbage in 1v1 in general
@@wiltheavatar depends on the deck you’re playing against. If you’re playing against a deck that wants to cast non creature spells but can’t do it at instant speed rhystic is just a explore. It’s good for slowly rebuilding your hand from a bad mulligan or just staling the game for abit. Though in 1v1 formats there are WAY better options but it can situationally be okay.
I got the notification on my phone for this but as phones are want to do the title was cut short to Top 10 Best Cards With The "Cum. And I just needed to share that cause it gave me a sensible chuckle.
One of the important parts of Glacial Chasm is that you don't really need to pay the life either. One thing Lands decks are very good at is bringing lands back from the graveyard. So you can just pay the life until you have a recursion engine set up, and then stop paying the life and instead replay it again. Then your only issue is needing to sacrifice an additional land every turn. That, however, can be an upside, as Lands decks can also easily start playing multiple lands per turn, and the problem then becomes finding enough lands to take advantage of that. If you can recur lands from the graveyard however, that makes it real easy to keep replaying those lands and hitting multiple lands per turn. Though that's a bit more of commander value, as legacy Lands can just kill before reaching that point, and doesn't really rely on landfall triggers that happen when you play a land, or cards like Titania that do something when a land goes to the graveyard.
I am a huge fan of Glacial Chasm. I made a land only deck many years ago, based around Squandered Resources, Zuran Orb, Fastbond, Crucible of Worlds, a bunch of rainbow lands, and Glacial Chasm. It was a bonkers fun deck, because you could save one or two slots for whatever kill condition you wanted, because it generated infinite life and mana, and could turn-1 kill.
@@chrisreeves3991 what lands based combo did you run that could win turn 1? Even with something like fastbond and all other gas lands I don’t know what you’d do to win turn 1, turn 2 though is reasonable-ish.
@@NotSoSerious69420 Rainbow land, fastbond, rainbow land rainbow land, squandered resources, sack all lands for 3 mana, crucible of worlds, prosperity for 15 or so, into zuran orb (infinite life to keep up the crucible+fastbond loop) or glacial chasm (to take no damage during the crucible+fastbond loop), at which point you have infinite mana and probably another prosperity, win with whatever win condition you stuck in your deck (or if you're on the play, prosperity for the remainder of the your deck, and your opponent loses during his/her draw step).
While definitely true, and there's a few other commanders who can get use out of it: There's very few cards that Aren't useful with the right commander. Badly statted vanilla creatures and heavily powercrept cards are about it. Even One With Nothing sees use in some Anje Falkenrath decks. Some people run Wood Elemental in Titania or Gitrog decks. Which still isn't a good choice, TBH, but it can be fun for the meme of it.
@@calemr I completely agree with you. I just wanted to add that there's even "the right commander" for vanilla creatures. Ruxa, Patient Professor returns them from the graveyard to hand, gives them +1/+1, and allows them to assign combat damage as if they weren't blocked. I think you're right that pretty much every card has a spot in some commander deck.
They made Eon Hub, a 5 cost artifact from Fifth Dawn, to overcome these downsides as the card itself makes you skip your upkeep step. Doing this negates the cumulative upkeep costs that you would have to pay in order to keep the card around.
You missed something pretty big here. Jötun Grunt's selling point wasn't ever its stats. It was used as graveyard hate back when hate was a lot more spread out and less efficient. Psychatog decks in Legacy and Extended, as well as Dredge decks in those formats as well as standard, hated seeing this card because it was "free" hate on an efficient clock.
I see a few people saying Braid of Fire, but I feels it’s more an honourable mention as the card doesn’t really see play anywhere since you need to be able to use that mana in your upkeep
@@astuteanansi4935 very few *good* cards do that. If you are going to use it having a mana sink for it is the way to go but basically no decks want to do that at all let alone in your upkeep.
Braid of fire if designed around is a fine card, honestly better than some cards on this list. The biggest issue is that it hasn't found competitive success IIRC, it's just nice in some EDH decks designed to use mana during upkeep.
I tend to use Jotun Grunt in any commander deck where I expect that I’ll be cycling, milled, forced to discard, or just plain going through a lot of cards throughout the course of the game. For my decks, the cumulative upkeep cost is what makes me play Jotun Grunt in the first place, not a downside I have to contend with to use a cheap 4/4. Against discard and milling decks especially, I get great value from it since it gives me access to any vital cards that I wouldn’t have access to otherwise after being forced to mill/discard them.
Unless I'm mistaken, if you have the ability to flicker enchantments that would remove the age counters letting a lot of these stay at manageable costs?
I remember a kid in my school years ago who played an Illusions of Grandeur deck. It was so frustrating because the Illusions also gained you 20 life in the process, so if you couldn't take them out before they got out Illusions, they basically had a starting life of 40 rather than 20. Then with Capsize having a Buyback cost, they could pull off the combo a second time with just a second Donate.
One of your vids was listed as suggested, and boy it was a good find! Very well presented, and good info! Looking forward to binge watching and new uploads!😅
I always hoped WotC would bring back Cumulative Upkeep, but as an effect you can place on an opponent's permanents! Kind of like Ward replacing Hexproof, allowing spells or abilities to apply a Cumulative Upkeep effect allows an opponent time & gives options/counterplay, rather than just destroying or exiling the permanent.
@@omarortiz9660 Exactly, only with more variety (i.e. Cumulative Upkeep - Pay 1 life or Cumulative Upkeep - Discard 1 card, etc.) Obviously, that would quickly lead to them not wanting to pay the cost (or not being able to), therefore losing the permanent & getting the desired effect, just delayed.
I personally like herald of leshrac, the upkeep cost is taking lands, but it's more a commander thing than anything else. Few upkeep costs are net gains like braid of fire lol
Regarding Dystopia: I have not played Vintage competitively since around 2010, but I was all over it in the 2000's. It was a perfect sideboard card because it was one of the silver bullet cards against decks which were Teir 1 and below, with S tier being the best. Blue White Fish, Gush-a-Tog, Oath of Druids, Bomberman and more. I used to ply mono black Null Rod agro and placed top4 or better (even winning some) 30+ man vintage events in Califorina. Dystopia was a staple in my sideboard and blew people away the first few times they saw it. It was backbreaking for opponents to see turn one ritual Dystopia and I just paid life to attack into an empty board.
Varchild's War-Raiders is my favorite cumulative upkeep card as it starts fuelling by girlfriends Baeloth commander deck. 1 mana 3/4 with trample rampage and a positive upkeep cost? Count me in.
Varchilds war raider is the center piece of my vile consumption and pain artist deck. Punish people for having creatures, then force them to have creatures so they can be punished. Deck also runs pendril mists, hunted phantasm, and blade of the blood chief
Varchild's is fun with cards like Dingus Staff and Night of Souls' Betrayal... force feeding the enemy 1/1 creatures that instantly die and then punish them for it. You can also do it in mono red with Repercussion and Aether Flash. Burn with red is expected, but a casual table is often surprised when the burn is the MTG equivalent of catapulting them with burning corpses.
You realize for Jötun Grunt, not all cards need to be from same graveyard. Each age counter can take 2 cards from different graveyards. You have 4 age counters on Grunt and there are 4 players in game. You can choose to have each player do 2 cards from their own graveyard, not all 8 from just one graveyard. I use 4x Ritual of Subdual in my green/black elf deck, and can usually get it out by turn 3, sometimes even by turn 2. Add in an Eon Hub and *POOF!* no more cumulative upkeep!
Why would you think being able to take cards from any graveyard would make the deck better? Also often you don’t even want to do that unless they’re a graveyard based deck and much better ways to get around it.
@@NotSoSerious69420 It makes grunt better to be able to bottom cards for it's upkeep cost from different players. If it could only pay it's cumulative upkeep cost with cards from your own graveyard the card is trash because part of the power of jotun grunt was sticking around many turns and making tarmogoyf small by emptying out graveyards. Many decks use the graveyard in magic in some way.
Back in 2007/2008, Jotun Grunt was used in "Blue White Fish" in Vintage (also known later as Null Rod agro). It is a 5 turn clock on its own, and it was never alone. Because other players often paid life for fetch lands and FoW and Dark Confidant and so forth, that means that Grunt often only had to swing twice to help win the game, or your oppoent might have won already.
Herald of Leshrac is nasty 6 and a black 2/4 Cumulative upkeep-Gain control of a land you don't control. Herald of Leshrac gets +1/+1 for each land you control but don't own. When Herald of Leshrac leaves the battlefield, each player gains control of each land they own that you control. Especially if you have a way to sac or exile the lands you steal
Some of the things that you missed in this video: Dystopia is legal in Commander which in a format like Competitive EDH feels almost like a god send as it just removes some of the most annoying stax pieces which are predominantly green (Collector Ouphe) and white (most relevant being Dranith Magistrate but there are a lot) as well as a consistent way to remove certain enchantment stax that are very hard to remove for a black deck otherwise (read Rule of Law) Thoughtlash is good only in commander when you are playing a deck that does not have access to black and win via the Doomsday line you mentioned, but i do feel obligated to also mention that the faster way to win with Thassa's Oracle would be to play it and the cast with the ability on the stack either Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact and win instantly that way. but i do have to mention that this way is only possible in Commander as tainted pact can be pretty iffy in other formats and Demonic is banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage also some other great but under rated cumulative upkeep card would be: Corrosion, Herald of Leshrac (a bit expensive mana wise but still pretty good), Naked Singularity (is a fun and wacky card that will screw some players), Tombstone Stairwell (for your very own zombie army)
Braid of Fire. It's so hilariously broken nowadays that it can near single handedly pay for cumulative cost cards so long as it's red or colorless mana. INCREASING Burn damage every turn is a VERY viable combo with it.
Glacial Chasm just won me a game today. Was up against a "group slug" deck and I would have died twice over before I reached Maze's end were it not for Chasm.
Psychic Vortex is incredible for Gravyard decks in a more casual format. Since it’s down sides are entirely mitigated by being able to play stuff from your graveyard.
To my knowledge, it doesn’t have to be a downside, it just only has been in the past, if wizards wanted, they could make cumulative upkeep: Gain 1 life or gain a colorless mana. They likely won’t. But nothing is stopping that from happening.
Braid of Fire, was a bad card bcuz of mana burn, but you can use it to keep in play strong cummulative upkeep (1) or (R) cards like Mystic Remora or Brand of Ill Omen
I don’t know if you’d want to run any of these in that deck tbh. Paying WBURG each turn for any of them to come back feels worse when you just have better cards to bring back.
I love the card, but it's a seven mana creature. Too slow outside Commander, won't survive three players targeting you in it, and doesn't do anything until your next turn unlike the other entires. It's a very interesting design, but definitely not powerful.
I think the only cumulative upkeep card I have ever actually used is Wall of Shards. It is a 1/8 Flying for 1W with a cumulative upkeep that gives your opponent 1 life. I played it in a deck with Pulse of the Fields so in addition to being a great blocker, it also gave me a bunch of life.
Jötun Grunt was ery popular for some time in Legacy bc it was bigger than a Bolt and also very likely bigger than a Tarmogoyf. When graveyard usage was primarily Loam that was a good tangential disruption but obviously too slow for Dredge and other shit. Infernal Darkness doesnt shut off stuff like Tron or Ancient Tomb, it just turns the colour black though, which makes it considerably less powerful than Blood Moon. Mind Harness had exactly 1 purpose: card that breaks Tarmogoyf stalls in RUG mirrors. and that also explains why it vanished.
Dystopia was created for the meta-game of its time--the fact that it isn't relevant in the current vintage and legacy meta games doesn't seem that relevant to me. Back in old school necro deck sideboards, it was a beast.
I use to run chronotog and glacial deck back in mir/vi/wl block. Wasnt my tourney deck, but i use to piss my friends off. Stasis and kismet and all sorts of annoying shit, sittin on force of wills just in case. It was brutal.
Glacial Chasm was also part of one of (if not THE) first infinite mana combos in Magic, as a way to stop Fastbond from damaging yourself. Comulative upkeep can also be bypassed by cards like Power Conduit, which allow you to remove a counter from a permanent you control (without specifying the kind of counter) to activate its effects. You still have to pay the amount for the first age counter, but without letting them accumulate on the permanent.
The only reason why Braid of Fire isn't on the list, as I can see, is that you can't use that mana elsewhere. To wit, you can only use it during your upkeep, which means you can only use instants and cards with flash. And trust me, sorceries, creatures, and planeswalkers are more of backbones than you think they are. That and the card isn't making mana fast enough until an opponent screws that up with something like Disenchant. The other candidate, Psychic Vortex, has a brutal penalty. You'll end up losing more cards than you get to play them unless you got cards like Azusa, Lost but Seeking alongside Crucible of Worlds.
@@calemr true. But in general, you want mana that can be used all the time. Not just in one particular step. And you want to get a lot of mana now. Upwelling is a good card to synergize with Braid of Fire, but that also paints a huge target for itself. Again, it's all about speed and usage.
@@kennydarmawan13 Sure, it would be EVEN BETTER if you could spend the mana at any time (or have other effects that let you keep it, like Horizon Stone). But this is an amazing edh card for commanders with activated abilities, especially in metas where games often go 10+ rounds. In xantcha or grenzo there’s no card I’m happier to see in my opening hand. (Well. Maybe heartstone in grenzo…)
@@normative True. But in the end, EDH matters less. For certain, I wish to see a list where a ruling change made a card a lot better. And Braid of Fire is among them. You have to build around Braid of Fire, which, again, has a lot of cards that can destroy it before it gets good. Light of Hope comes to mind.
I would like to point out that while its basically always a downside there is an exception to this rule. Herald of Leshrac is expensive to cast at 6 and a black but has an upkeep of "gain control of a land you dont control" which is literally just land theft as the "upkeep cost." its so stupid
You give them back when it goes literally anywhere. Gotta wait for your first upkeep steal one land then another for two. It’s just to slow even for casual commander.
notably, if you play solemnity along with cumulative upkeep cards, it can bypass the downsides of the cards, leaving you with just upsides. A lot of zur the enchanter decks for commander take advantage of this as solemnity is one of the most broken build arounds in the game
Illussions of Grandeur was devastating in the NecroDonate deck. Illusions+Necro meant they had 20 more lives to spend on necro to locate the donate they needed. Hated having to play against that deck.
Dang Mind Harness would be great in Izzet or Dimir decks since a lot of those have cards that let you sac creatures for effects! Or even something like Witch's oven could cook your opponent's big beatsticks
Power Conduit is the perfect counter to cumulative upkeeps, free +1/+1 counter every turn and get the benefits of the cumulative upkeep card for nothing.
You just showed me a way to make magic even less fun to play.... Jotun giant in a mill deck that constantly replenishes the opponents deck every turn then mills it every turn leaving them in a perpetual state of never being able to win or lose or play the game.
Glacial chasm feels like mystic mine but balanced. Not sure how exactly it ends up working in MTG, but if you had an increasing maintenance cost every turn for mystic mine, I feel like that would entirely resolve the issues people have with it unless there was some way to infinitely loop whatever resource that cost was
I'm surprised Stasis wasn't one of the 10 you listed. First card that always comes to mind when I think of cumulative upkeep. Due to the combo with Chronatog. But also, if you haven't done it yet. A video about top 10 phasing cards would be interesting.
thought lash is incredibly broken in an elsha of the infinite deck as long as she's on the field. land on top? thought lash. trying to find your combo? thought lash. plus anything you cast from the top is instant speed.
you didn't mention that the whole point of decks like death and taxes played jotun grunt was an anti graveyard card and it was mostly played in sideboards...
Counterpoint to the downside of Mind Harness: Sleight Of Mind and similar cards that let you change color words of cards on the stack. True, this makes it more expensive, but at two mana, it's still the most efficient method. Except when it comes to colorless creatures.
Top 10 vehicles? Said only me lol Vehicles aren't the greatest thing in magic but I find them interesting and may have a bias towards them since I started playing in kaledesh
What about Herald of Leshrac? Being able to take opponents lands can be VERY powerful, especially if you cards like Dakkon Blackblade and/or Blackblade Reforged. It takes away opponents ability to interfere with you while you get powerhouses to slam them.
i have to ask how the costs that could end the game work if platinum angel is out. you cant lose while its out, but that doesnt mean the cost doesnt need paid. so if youre at 0 you have no life/cards to pay. so would that cause it to die?
demonic consultation is probably the best card to exile your entire library. but it's too good so it's banned in legacy D: still legal in commander (for cedh), and you can put it in a cube too :)
It's been awhile but IIRC, part of the problem with cumulative upkeep is that it's bugged in MTGO, so cards that might see play in legacy and vintage aren't used. Those two formats rely on MTGO for building a metagame moreso than other formats.
Jotun Grunt says"a single graveyard" not an opponents graveyard. What the card intends vs what it says is a different story. Technically, your graveyard is "A Single Graveyard" so I put teo cards from my graveyard onto the bottom of my library every turn.
This card was printed in coldsnap in 2006, far before someone at WotC dreamed up endurance as a card. It was a really good card at the time because tarmogoyf was basically everywhere, and jotun grunt beat it up by removing all the card types from graveyards.