We React to Reddit's Secret Tech Cards | Commander Clash Podcast 144 

Richard pretending he would play retraced image when he was just on a mono black deck with 5 swamps

58:02 "A fog counters inkshield..." Noooot true. damage prevention is a replacement effect. Therefore, whoever is being dealt the damage can choose the order in which they choose to apply replacement effects. So if you're the one being hit and cast your inkshield. Opponent cast Fog. You get to choose which one applies first. Obviously you choose Inkshield's, at which point Fog has no reason to apply. You still get your Inklings.

Riftsweeper combos with Mana Severance. After you remove all your lands from your deck you begin to regret your decision, so you can use Riftsweeper to put the lands back into your deck.

Split second doesn’t stop treasures as cracking them is a mana ability. 7:25

Titania's Song is a continuous effect that continues when it leaves the battlefield, there's no trigger

You guys should make a regular segment where comnenters can submit underrated cards (maybe from a community post) for you guys to look at.

My secret tech for mono black is running more than 6 total swamps

It's crazy how Seth and Richard are arguing Inkshield is bad because it is too telegraphed so no one will swing at you when they see 5 mana up. That means by leaving up 5 mana I don't get hit, my opponents get hit, and I don't even have to use my "bad" card to prevent the damage. Eventually when I do I can create a team of flying 2/1s that will likely be swinging back for a good chunk of damage, maybe even lethal. Their reasoning for why it's bad does a pretty good job at justifying its place in the decks of those who enjoy it.

1:00:44 Ashnod’s Altar ability is a mana ability so even a card with split second couldn’t stop you from sacrificing a creature and getting mana

The thing with Batwing Brume and Inkshield is they're both replacement effects. The event they replace is combat damage so the affected player chooses in which order to apply them. As the attackee, you can choose to apply the Inkshield first, which would make Batwing Brume's damage prevention wouldn't get to be applied (it'll already be prevented by Inkshield's) and since the damage would be prevented by Inkshield, you still get the tokens. If {B} was paid to cast Batwing Brume, the life loss still occurs: the spell does not fizzle, it just has no combat damage to prevent.

I always get frustrated hearing people say "Inkshield is too expensive, everybody sees it coming when you hold up the mana". You don't play Inkshield in a tap-out deck and suspiciously hold up 5 mana sometimes. You play it in a draw-go deck where holding up mana isn't suspicious.

Here’s the combo, hive mind, mana severance, opposition agent. You remove no lands from your deck but all your opponents lands from theirs.

Titania’s song does not trigger when it leaves. The oracle text uses the word “if” which does not denote a trigger. Triggers are denoted by “when”, “whenever”, or “at”.

I also just learned about Green Slime and I can't BELIEVE more people aren't running it. I even learned the hard way yesterday how tricky it can be when someone tried to Green Slime my Vexing Puzzlebox - I said "I'm not sure you can target the puzzlebox because I tapped it for mana, don't mana abilities not use the stack?" and they responded with "I'm targetting the trigger on puzzlebox to put charge counters on it from the roll" SO FREAKIN GENIUS

The thing with Tower of the Magistrate is that you **respond** to the equip trigger of boots. People keep forgetting that Equipping goes on the stack and you can reply to it.

Minor thing regarding Richard's point about Ashnod's Altar with Trickbind, Ashnod's Altar's ability is a mana ability so Trickbind can't ever target it (same with Green Slime).

The OG reddit comment on Green Slime is really funny. Of the 3 things listed the only one it truly works on is Lightning Greaves. Sol Ring is a mana ability so it doesn't work. Yes, it DOES works on Rhystic Study but you still have to cast the Slime into it so they're getting at least 1 trigger no matter what - (Rhystic in play, someone casts a spell that triggers it, slime in response to that trigger, rhystic triggers to the slime cast and asks you to pay the 1)

8:19 Crims goblin smile and moving about as Tomer explained his traumatic experience is hilarious.

I am 100% with Richard on Retraced Image. I have heavily considered playing it in cEDH because you know without a doubt every player is playing the best lands, rhystic studies, etc. and if it's a dead card, pitches to forces, snapback, and more. Playing blue farm in a pod against another blue farm player, it's likely 80% of your deck is the same cards if not more. Upside potential is crazy lol

Im sorry Seth, i've gotten multiple wins and crackbacks with Inkshield. the thing is that I'm usually holding up mana for Aristocrats abilities, so nobody suspects the 5 mana

I feel like Richard was the only one that realized Mitotic Manipulation checks everyone's permanents. You can get your own Rhystic Study if someone already has it.

The super secret tech with Retraced Image is to run it in an Azorius deck to get a plains onto the battlefield. You could easily pull it off with like 2 plains in your deck if you also run it with all of your regular catch-up ramp and a full grip of 4 bounce lands. AKA the Richard special.

My hot tech is Ruthless Technomancer; it makes treasures on ETB without targeting, so it's safe from removal, it can be flickered, and it recures creatures by sacrificing artifacts. It's really good in most black and any artifact deck that can support it.

Titania's song doesn't have a trigger since it doesn't use "when", "whenever", or "at". It's just a continuous effect with a duration.

Standstill seems awesome with plot as you just plot every turn and wait for someone to break it then you just have a bunch of free spells ready.

Inkshield shines in that part of the game where you start running out of gas and have to land pass. All the sudden the open mana doesn’t seem suspicious. Richards stuck in the 60 card mindset of making the highest value play when in commander sometimes playing less value to politic is correct

Titania's Song is so good it stops Treasures, food, clue decks, also any artifact deck, Equipment deck, shuts off mana rocks, and stops big crazy artifacts such a good card.

My secret tech is the best fog you guys have never considered: Mandate of Peace At first glance it's just a 2 mana off color fog, which I think is already decent, plus it stops attack triggers. It has a lot more utility than that though. If you catch someone going to combat before casting spells you can skip most of their turn. It can be used as protection against Ink Shield, Aetherize, Settle the Wreckage, Cyclonic Rift etc. Finally, you can use it during your own turn to resolve something big like a combo or whatever without any fear of being interacted with. Top 10 white card imo

Crim knows whats up. Dogs are really, really good.

No-one mentioned that Titania’s Song also makes The One Ring lose indestructible in addition to turning off its card draw. It’s a minor benefit but it’s still something.

"Secret" tech to the land meta ala Tomer's line of thinking: From the Ashes Not my fault you don't play enough basics.

Praetor's Grasp is criminally underrated, since most people still consider it as 'steal a sol ring.' In reality, there's so much treasure generation (and cards that make your lands tap for anything), you can easily use the card as a 3-mana tutor for an answer to any scenario on the board. It also has the upside of also stealing your opponent's Kaldra piece face-down.

I run Tower of the Magistrate in NInjas. It can help give them protection to get attacks in where Intimidate and Fear aren't quite enough, but also you can use this in response to the equip trigger for boots so the boots fall off and they can't re-equip it. For voltron this does still completely shut them down.

I can say Aether Snap would destroy EVERY deck I have

@ 58:35 You guys got that incorrect. Multiple Prevention Effects is handled similarly to multiple Replacement Effects, not like Time-Stamps which you mentioned. If there are two Prevention Effects attempting to apply to the same event then the affected player would choose the order in which they apply. So the person that would be dealt the Combat Damage could choose to have the Inkshield apply first and prevent the damage and be given a token for each damage prevented, and then whatever other fog effect to apply next, but at that point it is trying to prevent damage that has already been prevented.

Standstill - regarding Notion Thief/Bowmasters, you'd need to have them on the field already - Standstill sacs itself and draws cards at the same time - if you were to respond with Notion/Bowmasters, it'll just trigger again and everyone will draw before they're on the field.

You can still play rocks, dorks or generate treasure after you play Mana Severance so it’s not like you are permanently locked at a set mana

I really like shifting shadow in reanimator decks, because it launches out giant threats and fills the graveyard, all at once. It is a bit slow, but it is such a fun card. It also doubles as extremely risky removal

With mana severance and MDFC cards you can still hit your land drops later in the game! Just run all the land MDFC cards in a 3+ color deck!

Reclaimation Sage isn't instant speed and you have to pay all at once.

Abjure has been handy in Marchesa, the Black Rose. You usually have something blue (including the commander) to loop out of the graveyard. If there's an ETB on the creature, even better.

Brume is a good card, inkshield is a good card. I have both in a Breena list and both have won me games outright.

Green Slime is well known in my playgroup we all yell YOU GOT SLIMED when someone falls prey.

I still don't understand why MLD is not accepted. If land ramp is accepted, my counter to land ramp should be accepted.

I can’t believe Crim, of all people, dropped the ball on the Nekusar/Standstill tech. I play standstill and break my own standstill by casting WoF. The whole table takes 3 off the draw, discards the 3 cards, draws a whole new hand and takes 7 more? That’s a *chef’s kiss* hellified combo.

Riftsweeper is for all of the extra turn spells that exile themselves. So your friend's simic deck can be that much more miserable.

My card evaluation procedure is listening to what Richard thinks about a card and then carefully examining all of the myriad counterpoints that come to mind when he's finished giving his opinion. 90% of the time, the responses that come to mind are valid but occasionally he doesn't have a garbage take

I love playing Titania's Song in Myrkul, sacrificing my Sol Ring creature, and then getting a Sol Ring enchantment token that taps for mana and doesn't care about Titania's Song.

Tomer is right 16:56 It's a replacement effect (if), not a trigger (when).

I'm a bit sad that "Eye of Singularity" (Visions) didn't make it on the list, Crim would LOVE that card.

Titania's song is probably my favorite card. I run it in every green deck that is non artifact based. Totally worth it even if you get beat to death with signets.

Here's my tek for you: BELBE'S PORTAL. I love using this card to get creatures out at instant speed. Even if im in elves or something where 3 mana is about as big as the creatures get, its still worth it to put the creature out at instant speed for protection, and it can help a lot of otherwise slow creature strategies. Even tutors just put something into your hand, so belbe's portal really does some work for you to get it out on the battlefield.

Talrand for Abjure is pretty genius comparision. Like, Swan Song GIVES in of your opponents a 2/2 flyer. In Talrand Abjure takes a 2/2 flyer away from you (well, and then replaces it because you just cast a blue spell).

25:25 - Spy Kit doesn't work like that. Jin-Gitaxias (in any creature form) is legendary.

Abjure would work well in new Gisa since the zombies are blue/black and Abjure is a crime. 1 mana sac a zombie counter target spell, get 2 zombies.

I think the tech aspect of Abjure in Yuriko, is that if you sacrifice Yuriko to the Abjure, all of your cheap evasive creatures threaten to connect as Yuriko when they swing. If Yuriko was being stopped by blockers, it can be a way to get her through again.

My first EDH deck ever used Trade Routes and I also put it in my most recent one. I just love it because it can be the best card in ever in your Slogurk deck, or super nice in your Ojer Pakpatiq deck, or just generally helpful in all other decks with MDFCs, Mystic Santuarys, and giving all lands Cycling 1.

10:40 SEE, here's what you ACTUALLY do. Don't run Riftsweeper. Run one of the Eldrazi Processors. Not only can it shut down all of that plot shenanigans, but you also get REWARDED for shutting it down. Blight Herder can go into any deck and rewards with ramp when you do, but otherwise Void Attendant is good in green since it can do it repeatedly. I've done this before, but I threw down an ulamog's Nullifier, put two foretold cards into their graveyard and countered the spell. Fucking MEEEAAAANNN

Eye of Singularity and energy Tap. RICHARD you love these both

Fumble is my secret tech card - it has so much utility. 3 mana blue instant, return target creature to its owner's hand and gain control of all equipment that was attached to it, and attach it to another target creature. The obvious use case is to steal someone's voltron equipment, but you can do a lot more because the targeting is very flexible - you can use it on your own stuff to dodge removal and re-equip all of your stuff onto another creature at instant speed, you can use it to equip someone else's creature with a load of your equipment so you get a bunch of triggers and you can also "gotcha" kill people in some cases.

I can’t tell you guys how much I love the podcast I look forward to them constantly

Riftsweepeer might be good as combo protection, but if the Plot mechanic becomes real prevalent, it might be able to foil your opponents plotted plan. 😅

So here's the thing about not walking into an Inkshield - it functions a lot like a counterspell! Every time you don't attack into it, it's a free fog!! Not to mention, you run it in decks that want to hold up their mana anyway!

Tower of the Magistrate: great at removing troublesome Swords of X and Y off attackers so you can properly pants them if you dont have the artifact removal in hand (or are playing mono black)

I want Richard’s opinion on Farsight Mask, “whenever a source an opponent controls deals damage to you, if farsight mask is untapped, draw a card. “ been wanting to try it out and see if it’s better or worse than minds eye.

I used Mana Severance in my Zur cycling deck to help me churn through my deck once I have 5-6 lands, you still leave lands with cycling to continue making land drops if you want.

on the subject of brume, a card i love to death: also cauldron haze. not only can give your board persist in response to a non-exile wipe, but can give opponent's stuff persist as well to help politically/convince them to attack whoever tried to wipe.

If anyone actually wants to know, titania's song is the only card in all of magic that says "this effect continues". It's leaves the battlefield thing seems to be completely unique

@Crim You’re on the right track to hate out the nonsense ramp and draw by playing red. Bust out some Zo-zu, Manabarbs, Burning Earth, Spellshock (nice cards bro, go ahead and play em all), new Magebane Lizard, and all the damage doublers you can jam. I’m working on a Taii Wakeen deck that does exactly this because it can sit on 6 mana with Manabarbs out and just dare people to tap out into a Wakeen activation (each ping from Manabarbs would do 7 damage in this scenario).

My favorite loop w/ Riftsweeper/Pull from Eternity are because of cards such as Time Spiral, Echo of Eons, Commit to Memory, Past in Flames, Snapcaster Mage or even anti removal such as Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, and/or Force of Negation.

Muldrotha can recast Standstill each turn lmao

Verity Circle and Insight make budget replacements for Rhystic Study. Ornithopter of Paradise taps for any color mana, doesnt require a color to play, and can block and wear equipment well. Thawing Glaciers can draw you several lands over the course of the game and make sure you consistently hit land drops. If you can untap it, you get multiple lands a turn.

Actively using Mana Severance in my Mothman deck as a combo finisher but also it just always guarantees you mill a nonland to lose rads. You need Mothy, Scurry Oak, Altar of Dementia and a token or counter doubler on field first but it effectively allows you to mill thru the deck til you amass an unstoppable army in a chain that you can end at any time by not targeting Oak. ❤

Watcher in the Water loves Abjure. He plays on your opponents turn, makes tokens, and has a payoff when you sac them.

Abjure is super secret tech with Tarland Sky Summoner and other blue token generators! Instant cantrips FTW!

So with rift sweeper you are not realizing. You can rift sweep your teferis protection back into your deck for a second use. Always wanted to build a blink deck that tpro every turn just for the troll

Congrats for reaching 100k subs. Doing some good work, here's to a million! Keep up the good work lads.

an underrated card that can pull double duty is Whir of Invention. In the early game you can cast for X= 0 and go "ramp" an artifact land into play at instant speed and in the late game you go your big spell.

What about Break the Ice as an anti-utility land sweeper? Since most utility lands produce colorless mana.

Ive been on green slime since it came out in baldur gate. I took out an aetherflux reservoir that someone paid 50 life, into since it hits triggered abilities as well. Its a great card.

The best place for mitotic manipulation is a scry deck, or any deck running top deck manipulation really. There are so many effects that do this listing them would be silly, but the color you're going to use them in most often is blue.

I love Green Slime. Foretell can be a great mechanic to exploit...especially if you are playing Saw It Coming. I play a Chulane deck that leans into creatures that have removal abilities; I believe I have five foretell cards in this deck.

Richard arguing for ink shield 😂 don’t attack me then 😂

I run Riftsweeper in my Myrkul deck, since it regularly exiles its own stuff face up all the time and runs Birthing Pod and Fiend Artisan. You can play Riftsweeper, get something back, then sacrifice it and exile it with Myrkul, and then when the token ETBs use its trigger to put Riftsweeper back in your deck. Its durdley and dumb and fun.

Who plays Mind's Eye in MONO BLUE?!?!?!

Titinia song is one of my favorites to get treasure players and construct players that get plus one plus one for all artifacts

Richard out here with his 4 swamp monoblack land base saying that he would play mitotic manipulation. Lol.

I could feel the slap of Seth's facepalm when the fair mana severance came up.

I play Green Slime in a Gruul "Midrange" deck with Neyith as the commander and it's such a house. All of the triggers that it stops from Smothering Tithe to Paradox Engine (my group has it unbanned) to even minor things like equipping creatures with Swords/Boots, Commanders that happen to be/become artifacts there are just endless applications to it. You can't have it as your only Rec Sage effect I'll agree however when you have other Naturalize effects in the deck you can 1 for 1 your weakest version with this and it works out so well. I initially put it in because I have Delayed Blast Fireball in the deck and I wanted one more Foretell card in the deck so that it was always a guess of what it could be and it was the best card with Foretell in Gruul outside of Delayed so I put it in and I've never looked back since.

44:18 They already gave you an "amazing" FISH card in - Island Fish Jasconius. 🤣

Skyhunter strike force is an avenger's level threat in isshin go wide. As long as u got isshin and you're attacking all your opponents, all those creatures get +6/+6 even if skyhunter strike force isn't attacking.

I haven't seen anyone talk about or play it, but replication technique is the true blue ramp spell. Instead of janky 3 mana rampant growth you have 5 mana Explosive Vegetation on crack. Just like how you can assess the gamestate and make a calculated Secret Rendezvous or Skullwinder play, you can politic with Replication Technique to make it work for you AND get two more copies of your best land! Mono blue has a lot of basic island synergy (not like black or white has basic synergy but still plenty there). If you're in Dimir? OH BABY! Is that two more cabal coffers?? Two more Maze of Iths, 2 more Vesuvas to hit anything your opponents have. Two more Lost Vales (mana positive btw)! Two more FotDs if you're Richard and have no basics even in mono colored. And at the very worst you paid one extra mana to get an effect that is nigh non existent in blue. I was surprised they didn't bring up the Demonstrate cards on the Secret Rendezvous tier list because this one is a banger.

Holy shit! You picked up my comment on Abjure! So it was with a £30 Yuriko list and Abjure was £0.05. There were no good attacks for Yuriko on board but I had an unblockable creature, so I sacc’d her to abjure which enabled me to recast her when my attacks went through

I definitely played Mana Severance in Narset, Enlightened Master long ago.

Love Titania's Song so good especially in my area with fools play fast mana that dies the moment I play it.

Abjure is great in Alela, the original one. Since she makes blue tokens constantly and you want to protect her having the 1 mana counter is great and pretty much always on.

Tower of the Magistrate keeps people from wanting to attack me with their commander in a land slot, auto include. Also if you're worried about boots, you can tap it in response to the equip if you're worried about one specific commander getting hexproof or shroud.

My spicy tech is Nicol Bolas God Pharaoh with Displacer Kitten to sometimes infinitely exile/cast my opponents decks with his +2. Needs a little help to get going because sometimes you hit creatures which doesnt trigger kitten to flicker Bolas to repeat the +2 ability but cheap cantrips can fix that

Abjure is great in my Watcher in the Water deck. Sac a tentacle to counter a spell, stun a creature, and untap Watcher.

8:53 Riftsweeper on a Brenard deck is infinite source of tokens if I manage to find a 2ay to draw, tutor or cast from the library.