I love that every time i watch one of this guy's videos, I end up with a whole list of cards that I want. Seriously, this is the most criminally underrated edh channel on youtube
I have to agree 100%. I've maybe more than a hundred hours going over old sets looking for cards to power up my commander deck in a niche way and i STILL am like 'When did they print THAT' for a ton of these. Even for cards I knew existed, these videos kind of open my eyes to how useful they really are (which has been great for me just getting into commander xd!)
Funny thing about Skullclamp, it wasn’t supposed to be this way. It actually boosted toughness in most iterations. But after playtesting was done, almost at the laast minute, someone changed it to +1/-1, and it fell through the final few cracks into print. Great picks as usual, farsight mask doubles as a budget slam dunk!
additional note for skullclamp, it actually does have a mistake on the card, originally the card was going to give equipped creature +1/+1, but wotc thought that would be too strong so they changed it's stat line to the +1/-1, which is significantly stronger because it can function as it's own sacrifice outlet
I do think Slate of Ancestry is severely underrated. It's easy to shut it down, but if you are playing the right deck it's a great way to respond to a board wipe about to happen and be more ready to rebuild. So much power there.
Honorable mention for "Infiltration Lens" for equipment and/or forced block decks, which costs 1 to cast and 1 to equip "whenever equipped creature becomes blocked, you may draw two cards." This and "Nemesis Mask" equipped to "Stuffy Doll" = someone takes a lot of damage and you draw a lot of cards.
The thing about Clamp is the broken part? The +1/-1? That was added RIGHT BEFORE printing. It was a +1/+1 but they thought it needed a downside. And the rest is history.
I have to thank you for this and the white card draw video. I’ve built a mono white voltron deck, and I’m putting in the immortal sun, war room, and inheritance as soon as I can get them.
I think Howling Mine is one of the best colorless draw cards, but it really gets great when you can tap it for other things. Urza, Clock of Omens, and Improvise for instance break this card. So great. You have some good options on here, but I think this one goes above some of them. You do add the caveat that this is your opinion and that it's really about options, but maybe rename it. Maybe this title gets more clicks, so you stick with it, but I think that's where the comments will come back to bite you. Still I think it's a good list.
Someone who understands how great The Immortal Sun is! Even if you run a planeswalker or 2 it's good because opponents aren't gonna let this or the walkers stay on the board long.
Skull clamp was created instead of another card that was removed from the set in last minute so it didn't go through any play testing until it was too late
you're both in luck. i will be posting all my personal decks in the next couple of days. i've been working on it for the last few days. should be coming up soon, so stay tuned.
5:30 well... I sometimes have a planewalker or 2 (will +rowan), and in other decks I have a bridge more than a creature or a slumbering isle. I like jank. On the Kenrith Brothers btw I don't have a single creature. Having said that I think I'll totally use it on a couple decks with lots of creatures. Amazing card I didn't know.
lol, I was pretty actively playing during Mirrodin block and when this card hit, the meta swarmed around it and it got banned the week after I got to play my affinity deck with it in there at FNM for the first time. It was crazy
I've lookdown upon warroom and endless atlas untill I've run it in my monowhite deck (which thrives on holding back mana), and dear god they are so good, makes the deck runnin butter smooth, would recommend.
I play Diviner's Wand in my Zirda deck. It's the only colorless mana-sink I can think of that allows you to draw your deck without tapping. You have to equip it and wait to draw a card to use it, but if you have infinite mana, which is easy with Zirda, you can draw your deck and one-shot someone with a massive flyer at the same time. Plus it's got so much text people don't readily understand what it can do.
I get the point you're trying to make with Rhystic Study/Mind's Eye but either way Rhystic Study is still vastly superior. Study can pretty easily go out turn 2, and with a lucky draw turn 1 even. But more importantly- if your playgroup "Always pays" - and let's be real here, no they don't - that still means everyone else at the table is playing behind the mana curve for the entire game or until Study gets removed, which also takes removal away from something better. I'm not saying this because I love Study or what it does to the game- it's just true. I have own 1 copy and I do play it in one of my (40) decks, but over all I agree it's not a very 'fun' card for the format. But we can't pretend for a minute that Mind's Eye holds a torch to it as far as value. It is in my opinion probably the best value engine in the entire format.
Wow. As someone who only really got into MtG last year (before the pandemic hit), I didn’t know how crazy of an impact Skullclamp had when introduced. It’s basically the Dark Armed Dragon of Magic the Gathering in terms of making the player base plummet! Haha.
Really loving the channel! I thought your mono-white episode was very informative, and you've convinced me to try Book of Rass that I've been passing over literally since I started playing. I realize the other colors have more robust ways of drawing cards these days (even red) but personally I would enjoy episodes of obscure or underrated draw effects for the rest of the color pie if you're inclined Also, I might have some insight why you don't see certain cards. I can only speak for myself, but I play on a budget which usually means splashing for cards up to $4-ish depending on how much I want the card. Once it gets above $6 I will usually pass over most cards, and for other players with less of a budget restriction - and this is just speculation - they are more likely to play multiple colors or draw effects in the $20 and up range. That wouldn't leave as much market for cards like Imortal Sun except for people who already have and run it
@@edhdeckbuilding Well I fit Book of Rass into my Crovax, Ascended Hero deck since it would like some more cards and is looking to swap life with someone anyway. Was able to get it out on turn 4 and it was really clutch, letting me leave up 3-4 mana for responses and then sinking it into drawing cards when nothing happened. I actually discarded a Skull Clamp to hand size late in the game if you can believe such a thing! I will say if I hadn't had it out early, or if my life total had been getting pressured more, it probably would have played a lot worse, but for this game it done good
Problem for using Mind's Eye to shore up draw in white is that it struggles to have the mana free for activating. It is also a terrible rate requiring too much mana to be good. 6 mana draw 1? 8 mana draw 3? its awful unless you are in a deck you find yourself with excess mana often ie not white
why do people do that? i think josh from the command zone started that crap. it's 5 mana. stop. 1 mana, draw 1. 1 mana, draw 1. 1 mana, draw 1. and so on. also the no mana argument is awful. you don't have 3 mana to draw 3 cards? so then a white sorcery that costs 3 mana and draws 3 cards is no good? you're using your mana to draw cards. in what way is that bad?
Ummmm...Horn of Greed isn’t Landfall. It’s when you PLAY your land (I.e., make your land drop). It’s good with Exploration effects, but it doesn’t do anything extra for fetch lands.
If you're playing an EDH deck with your commander that attacks frequently (which tbh if you're in boros or mono red you probably are) I highly highly recommend "tome of legends".
agree. i almost included it. i ended up putting farsight mask on instead though because i always like to lean towards cards that people maybe haven't heard of.
I'm missing Tome of Legends, it's less specific than Endless Atlas, probably. Mind's Eye is especially good in combination with Smothering Tithe. The thing about Mind's Eye in mono white is that people used to not have a lot of mana to spare to draw cards, because their ramp wasn't up to snuff either. Nowadays I think most people want their decks to be faster than 6 mana for your first card drawn. I still play it, but I've seen plenty games that are over by the time you're able to spare the second mana to draw a card from Mind's Eye. If Rhystic Studies is not drawing your cards, it's very much slowing your opponents down, giving you time to come up with another plan to catch up. If Mind's Eye isn't drawing you cards, you skipped your turn to put it into play, giving your opponents time to run away with the game.
I almost never see folks pay for Rhystic Study and keeping all that mana for Mind's Eye often just meant I couldn't cast the thing I wanted to cast. I mean if your group is always paying for Study I guess use something else. I'd say force them to use their mana for other things personally, muhahaha. Mind's Eye still has a place in my colorless deck though since options are limited for good draw.
Skullclamp got past the playtesting since it gave +1/+3 in playtesting so it was hard to kill the creature it was on and so they didn't draw that many cards. Then, they "nerfed" it to +1/-1, then made their biggest mistake of thinking it didn't need playtesting after that since it was "nerfed."
Oi, many of these options are too high on cmc. I can think of 4 off hand that would deserve more consideration: Sensei’s divining top Scroll rack Eye of vecna Idol of oblivion
Really happy to see war room. Very good! I love your videos cuz your old school commander like me so you get a lot of things newer players miss. I started playing commander before it was official then they dropped the first 4 commanders. I still have my mimeoplasm deck and upgrade it every set. Check out my long-form deck techs on my channel if you have the time or are into card effectiveness discussions
Skullclamp was originally +1/+0 but they thought it was too strong so last second switched it to +1/-1 to nerf it and ended up breaking it beyond belief
so many people asking for my patron of the kitsune deck, i love it. lucky for you i will be doing a massive deck tech with all my decks to celebrate 5000 subs so stay tuned.
I don't like immortal sun. Not because I want to activate my plains walkers, but if timmy across from me wants to use his walkers, he's got to shut off my 6 mana investment, often before I get to replace it. It probably wouldn't always happen, but why draw that kind of attention? I would play every other card on this list before it.
Immortal Sun isn't even that bad with the WotS planeswalkers. They have static abilities, and you probably don't want to down-tick them for just that reason 🤷♂️ And if you have only 1 planeswalker, I think it's still worth playing even if you manage to hit the nombo (which is way more unlikely than you playing either separately game-to-game)
I really doubt they printed the Immortal Sun just for Atraxa. It's probably more likely to be printed because it's an important relic from the lore of the game. And it doesn't see more play probably because it's a flat 6 mana you have to wait on to get any value out of. The reduction and +1 +1 are also really neglible at times in regards to that cmc.
Also, it did see play in Standard, it was a great sideboard card against the planeswalker control decks. I've had FNM opponents scoop on me after resolving one.
Bonders enclave, mazemind tome, julum tome, jeymday tome, sunset pyramid, castle lockthwain, and staff of domination. Yes I'm aware I spelled some of these wrong. These cards are the best of the best. I may have missed 1 or 2 lmk what I missed.
i always feel like its the intro song is like that tiktok dance where the guy does a pose and extends his arm and squats and goes up like a robot or a hydraulic press xD
@@schlockfather wow, i had no idea mox opal got banned. so many cards get banned in modern and standard lately that things just get lost in the shuffle.
@@edhdeckbuilding I'm well aware rhystic is blue and this is a colorless list. Maybe I got you wrong but to me this sounds a lot like you prefer a mind's eye to a rhystic study *when* you're playing blue. 12:51 "If you really really need cards I'm gonna rely on something like mind's eye that's gonna guarantee me a card rather than something like rhystic study (...)"' I get that there's no guarantee of drawing through rhystic, but generally you'll draw *a lot*. Even when your opponents agree to pay, it's most likely slowing down the game. If your point is to illustrate conditional draw vs. unconditional draw (I agree mind's eye isn't really conditional) and preferring the latter I totally get your point even though I think the comparison is a bit unfair Woa that was a lot
@@gamermomentshq9500 yep, if you really need cards, rhystic study can actually draw you zero. as i stated in the video, if everyone at the table decides to pay then you draw literally zero cards. not very good if you NEED to draw i would say. mind's eye on the other hand guarantees draw since your opponents are required to draw a card on their draw steps. you said "rank mind's eye higher than rhystic study" and than of course adding the laughing emojis to show how serious you were about your point. and i didn't "rank" rhystic study here at all. overall i would say that it's better than mind's eye yes. but there are plenty of people out there telling the world how fantastic rhystic study is in commander. we don't need anymore videos like that, so i try to give an alternative opinion about why you might not want to play it. that's what i do on this channel. taking the popular opinion is always the easy route.
@@edhdeckbuilding Fair point. I think misunderstood with the way you put it. On providing alternative content, good on you. There's def an overabundance of content being recycled. Don't get me wrong, I like your videos
Farsight is not a good card. paying 5 mana and some life to draw your first card is not a good investment what so ever. book of Rass is even worse. 8 Mana to draw 1 is horrible.
For some cards that expensive in mana I would prob turn to another of card advantage like Tamiyo's Journal, Ring of Three Wishes or Planar Bridge. these effect tutor a card to your hand which is essentially drawing a card but better and cost less. other card draw effect like well of lost dreams, coercive protal, mask of memories, infiltration lens, arcane encyclopedia, memory Jar, tower of fortunes, karn scion of urza and tome of legends. staff of domination is also a good pick if your deck can use it efficently even though Its a bit expensive. I dont remember every card you went over in the vid but these are all great replacements for the 2 cards I really had an issue with.
@@iceicejay9569 planar bridge is 12 mana to get a card, tamiyo's journal is 7 and you have to wait until your next upkeep. seriously you think that's better? staff of domination is 8, tower of fortunes is 12. you said that 8 mana is too much but now you're naming things that are even more expensive. your argument doesn't hold water at all. also book of rass is repeatable. so after the initially 6 mana its just 2 every time. farsight mask requires no mana at all after the initial investment. it just sits there and draws you cards. infiltration lens requires your creature to be blocked, and memory jar is only temporary. tome of legends is the only one i would give consideration for this list and it requires you to be attacking with your commander alot, so it only works in specific decks.
