#favouritecards

As I wrote earlier in the week, I’ve been playing MtG for a while, starting around Dissension, and getting into EDH when Ravnica block rotated out of standard. Along the way, I’ve picked up a number of cards that I have a disproportional affection for, cards which I try to cram into as many decks as possible, whether they’re good or not. Here are 5 of them:

1] Maelstrom Archangel One of last standard legal 60 card decks I ever built was a 5 colour Maelstrom Archangel deck, designed to cheat Nicol Bolas Planeswalker onto the battlefield. I’m a Jonny / Timmy player, which means I like combos that give you a rush of exhilaration, and cheating out big monsters certainly counts! I now play the Archangel in my Horde of Notions cascade deck, where her trigger can set off an enormous cascade chain.

2] Dragon Mage Is there any phrase sweeter in Magic than “draws seven cards”? If there is I don’t know it! Dragon Mage has had a home in my Niv-Mizzet deck from the very beginning, but he can do so much more! Nekusar decks want everyone to draw 7, every turn. He can dump cards in the graveyard for reanimation, or give mono-red decks some much needed draw. Apart from Niv, I play Dragon Mage in my Intet, the Dreamer Dragon tribal deck, where he can wheel away cards you don’t need for more fire-breathing monsters.

3] Unexpected Results Seeing a theme? I love the rush of potentially big effects that are random, or semi-random. I love the thrill of playing Unexpected Results and just seeing what happens, and I’m almost never sad with the outcome - unless you flip a useless removal spell. Unexpected results is also in my Intet deck, where it has the most chance to drop a 7+ drop creature onto the table.

4] Elemental Mastery Imagine the following scenario - Elemental Mastery on a Sigil Captain (1GWW 3/3 Rhino Soldier, that if you put a 1/1 into play it gets two +1/+1 counters). Then drop doubling season. Ever since I tapped my Sigil Captain for 6 5/5 elementals with haste, I’ve been in love with the card. It’s great in Omnath, Locus of Rage where each token can deal 5 damage when it dies. It’s very powerful with Zada, Hedron Grinder decks, giving you a huge army to copy spells onto. But currently Elemental Mastery is living in my Anax and Cymede heroic enchantments deck, where it gives a heroic trigger on Anax and Cymede, and then an army to be boosted by other effects later.

5] Deadbridge Chant Another semi-random effect, I love the rush of dropping 10 cards in your graveyard, followed by the game of trying to manipulate which ones you get back. It’s a very powerful enabler in general, and is great with another of my favourite cards, Paradox Haze, which can double the return triggers. I’m currently playing Deadbridge Chant in my Tasigur delve deck, so I can delve away all the chaff and reanimate large demons onto the table.