Spike Breeder

And objectively, yes, Salt Road quartermasters is a spike. Unfortunately, though, not a very good one. Although it follows the common spike rule of +1 counters = CMC - 1, the movement ability costing three mana hinders Quartermasters where it could really shine. 

At 3 mana per, it’s almost pointless to activate Quartermasters without Heartstone or Training Grounds in play. 

Persist effects like these are our best option to defend against destroy effects. You could say ‘What about Heroic Intervention?’ but besides being ungodly overpriced, Heroic Intervention doesn’t net us value like persist does. 

Using persist lets us capitalize on Spike Feeder’s unique ability of being able to kill itself. Unlike Intervention, persist allows us to kill our own Feeder for life gain, fizzling our opponent’s spell and bringing it back to the field. Also, entering with counters eliminates persist’s clause, allowing us to abuse the effect as much as possible. 

Today we’ll focus on Ramos, Dragon Engine , a rather open-ended commander that lets us flex how we want. At five color, ramos lets us include all the +1/+1 counter staples, while allowing us to include some of the flashier options, like Training Grounds  to increase our spike exchange rate. 

However, the real focus using Ramos is that ability. Five counters for ten mana. At the going spike exchange rate of 2 mana per counter, Ramos himself nets us a break-even point. This way, any value generation we throw into the mix nets us pure value as, once a turn, we don’t have to worry about wasting mana to chase those gains.

Five counters can be a lot, especially without any value effects, so it’s important to monitor the situation of your spikes and not overexert them just to chase a synergy. Ideally, we want to activate ramos for as little as 3 mana, and no more than 8. 

Of course we all know that’s just the basics, and there’s many more options to fit your deck. However, at the most basic level, it’s these two effects that are going to make our spikes worth it. 

But there’s eleven. Yes, Eleven. Eleven criminally underplayed Spikes. Eleven completely playable spikes.