Top 10 Defender Creatures 

Fun fact: Tinder wall actually saw play in the pauper wall deck mentioned earlier for the brief times of experementation when running both a damage and mill engine with your wall deck is nessesary for the format. its ability to add red mana allowed the deck to stay purely simic for the most part aside from running a fireball or two in main. this helped with the matchups that, at the time, were the decks that were the only graveyard decks. now that there is enough good graveyard support in all 5 colors in the pauper meta, that arguement for running a hybrid victory that has one of the wincons being mill makes it a less compelling arguement than going all in on something that isnt going to give your opponent resources to stop your combo. basically, it was good for the burn wall strat and not really the mill strat but could bridge either, and because there were just that many better options that were more for the all in focus of burn made it just barely not viable enough for modern pauper.

Wall of Denial is one of my personal favorites for actual blocking, even if it’s narrow in use as a gold card.

I'm surprised Shield Orb is not on this list. A zero drop with 6 defence. It depletes with use, but can buy you time, without a mana investment.

This is sort of a weird list, because all of the best defender cards are so redundant. You''ve got Blossoms/Omens, Tuktuk/Drawbridge, Battlement/Axebane, and to a lesser extent Caryatid/Wall of Roots. Plus the 0 cost walls which were skipped in favor of random cards that were okay in Standard, which fit the unique role of being zero cost artifact creatures for Glimpse of Nature cheerios strategies in Legacy (though jank enough that excluding them is definitely understandable). I think consolidating half the best defender cards into a single "Pauper Walls combo" slot really warps the list, but it does make some sense to avoid having to double up on half the slots with near-identical cards. That said, Drift of Phantasms felt like a bit of a weird pick for this role, since I put literally every other card mentioned alongside it higher on the ranking.

Im pretty sure that you don't actually say the M in Mnemonic.

A few honorable mentions: * Sunscape Familiar- Cost reduction is just always good. * Wall of Omens - A 2 mana flying 1/8 is nothing to sneeze at. The downside of giving your opponent life isn't relevant if you plan on winning with the aforementioned wall combo anyway. * Shield Sphere - A 0/6 cheerio? Yes please! And the best part is, its negative effect doesn't trigger when attacking * Wall of Blood - This one is busted if you can allow it to attack, since you can pay life to pump its attack. * Concealing Curtains - A one mana 0/3 that, for 2B, flips into a 3/4 menace with a thoughtseize effect.

Yuta Takahashi won World Champions with an Izzet deck featuring Smoldering Egg, saying it was the best card in his deck

Drift of Phantasms is very underrated in Commander purely as a transmute tutor. Blue doesn't have a lot of access to non artifact/instant/sorcery tuutors and 3 mana value is a sweet spot for plenty of combo pieces... and Rhystic Study.

Thanks for this. I might add _Wall of Shards, Wall of Blood, Silent Arbiter_ and perhaps _Woolly Razorback,_ for the flavour.

I think the only thing cariatid needs to be playable in modern is a 4 mana threat good enough to be worth the tempo drop. With stuff like jace and rhino power crept out of the game there’s nothing really worth accelerating to 4 that can compete with current explosive early games

Amazing!!!!

"can't ramp into a spell on turn 2 with a dork that costs more than 1 mana" Manacrypt, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox: "Am I a joke to you?" Also my favorite wall has to be "Wall of Denial", thing is a fucking 3 mana 0/8 wall with Flying and Shroud. Thing is quite literally the best at being an actual wall.

I'm generally happy with Hornet Nest in my Xira the Golden Sting Insect deck. It's one of two effects like it, and can be flashed out via the deck's tricks.

Charbelchwr actually has a simpler way of playing non-lands. Have all your lands be MDFCs, since their front face is a spell, its not a land technically

fog bank not being on the list makes me irrationally angry

I wish you’d talk more about edh on your videos

*cries in Crashing Drawbridge*

I always loved mnemonic wall

I'm confused, how does wall of roots work with Agatha's Soul Cauldron? The ability reads "Put a -0/-1 counter on Wall of Roots", naming the card. What use is a Shivan Dragon that can put counters on an non-existant (exiled) wall of roots?

Thermo-alchemist is one of the key pieces in my blue/red burn deck. He's a value engine in the right deck

I really wish Hornet’s nest had flash. I took it out of my Arcades commander deck Becuase no one wants to swing into it lol

Slightly surprised to not see Fog Bank on the list, it's one of the defenders that is used as a defender more advantageously

Fog bank could be up there

I actually run my nest in derevi where I pong it for damage and use the blocker to killl creatures

Best/Worst Exalted cards?

Flumph!

Surprised not to see surge engine

Oh wow, I didn't know you could use Wall of Roots' ability on your opponent's turn!!

But Thermo-Alchemist did see a decent amount of Standard play unless im mistaken.

defender isnt purely negative. especialy against red when they force u to attack them

like me some crashing draw bridge

Aboreal Grazer is an honorary defender.

Hornet Nest makes me wonder if there's a more consistent way to activate it other than battle. Maybe an enchantment that just deals a tiny amount of damage each turn to target creatures?

you forgot tree of perdition)))

I actually play 4 of these, and I've never played a single constructed tournament or made a meta relevant deck. Hornet Nest is in a Insect-tribal EDH deck, and Drift of Phantasms, Wall of Roots and Wall of Tinder are in a Songs of the Damned OTK deck.

Lets go with a list of the best worst cards in magic

No Grozoth. Lame.

Wall of boom!