End the Festivities 2021 - PlayEDH favorites - 2/5
Let’s continue with some PlayEDH favorites of 2021 by asking people about their favorite cards.
The other articles in this mini-series can be found here:
https://www.playedh.com/articles/etf-01 - onceisonce, Markus, Dukeblock
https://www.playedh.com/articles/etf-03 - Rahvin, Mormonator(Josh), Alchmyst
https://www.playedh.com/articles/etf-04 - Chief, Senatorious, Reyemile
https://www.playedh.com/articles/etf-05 - Thehealbus, Sydelio, Exxaxl
Necro, bead umbra, Cryptic
Necro
Favorite non instant, non ‘can be your commander’ card:
Expressive Iteration. To me this is arguably one of the best cards printed all year. It’s one of the most efficient filtering/selection effects we’ve ever seen for 2 mana. The ability to draw, bottom and play 3 different cards is just fantastic, it makes sense that the card made such a splash in nearly every format it’s legal in.
Favorite ‘in response…’ card:
Wash Away. While Cleave is probably one of the clunkiest formatted keywords they’ve printed in a long while, it did provide some gems for EDH. At 1 mana having a hard counter for commanders is nothing to scoff at - whether it’s stifling an early game commander to slow down the person with the “Sol Ring and then …”-start or a late game tempo swing on a high cmc commander, Wash Away is almost never not good thanks to the cleave cost.
What commander caught your eye the most:
Wulfgar of Icewind Dale. At first glance I was a bit on the fence about Wulfgar. 5 Mana for a doubling effect that is deceptively specific, I wasn’t entirely sure how a deck with Wulfgar at the helm would turn out. I quickly realized how good it can be once building the deck.
There are a lot of really strong “on attack” effects, especially in Gruul. With a deck full of cards like Inferno Titan, Elder Gargaroth, Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger and tons of ramp it quickly became one of my favorite decks to play in mid power. “Big creatures smash face” has found a soft spot in this Storm player’s heart.
beard umbra
Favorite non instant, non ‘can be your commander’ card:
Sanctum Weaver is a card that I am excited about playing with for years to come. WOTC has a pattern of designing cards that allude to members of the Reserved List, and this enchantment creature version of Serra's Sanctum really gets me going. Setting aside the combo potential with Freed from the Real, this dork can pump out a ton of any color mana for my favorite archetype, Enchantress. Please be nice to her!
Favorite ‘in response…’ card:
Out of Time is so powerful as a creature wipe, it feels as though a rule should change or it should be banned. Phasing out commanders is one of the few ways of permanently restricting opponent's access to them, and even though Out of Time has Vanishing, placing even six time counters on it seems both achievable and too long for Vanishing to matter (My current highest time counters on Out of Time stands at 34!).
Once you start talking about enchantment recursion like Hall of Heliod's Generosity, there is no limit to just how long you can keep the board free of creatures. Planeswalker commanders like Aminatou (or Calix in Conquest) easily break parity on this effect, and benefit from all creatures being removed, too. If Out of Time doesn't convince you to start playing more enchantment removal, I don't know what will.
What commander caught your eye the most:
While Sythis, Harvest's Hand struck the fancy of Enchantress players everywhere, one Commander I do not think has gotten enough attention is Katilda, Dawnhart Prime. Her second line of text is her most powerful and important, turning all your Human creatures into mana dorks.
Human is an often-recurring creature type, and tokens are more commonly typed Human nowadays too. Not only is she a flexible commander in her own right, she slots in nicely to higher-color Human decks, like Sisay, Weatherlight Captain or Chulane, Teller of Tales.
The dream is having her in play with a Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy, and having the flexibility of spinning Kinnan's wheel or pumping the team with Katilda.
Cryptic Majorian
Favorite non instant, non ‘can be your commander’ card:
Dauthi Voidwalker. It provides you with neat card advantage and graveyard hate in one compact package.
Favorite ‘in response…’ card:
Sacrificing Dauthi Voidwalker. Put it in your deck, use it and see.
What commander caught your eye the most:
Extus, Oriq Overlord. Commanders with card advantage are pretty important in the game, but creatures that simply say "draw a card" are generally a bland inclusion. Extus being able to bridge a variety of strategies together, most obviously aristocrats, using value spells that RBW has access to is very neat.
Your ability to reuse powerful creatures like Dauthi Voidwalker or something like a Cavalier of Dawn allows you to generate a powerful engine. For those that enjoy combo games, Awaken the Blood Avatar is an interesting outlet, but a card that also doubles as a neat piece of removal. While a high mana investment, AtBA and Molten Primordial is a very dramatic way to swing the state of a board.
Next time: Rahvin, Mormonator, Alchmyst
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