The Great Klaid

Deflection is a rare from Ice Age, seen here in its 5th edition printing.

So, this is a bit of an odd one just cause normally spells of this kind copy the spell and let you change targets for the copy. But this is effectively a narrow counterspell which also gets you a copy. All that is fine in blue's colour pie btw, and honestly I'm happier with that than blue just copying something on the battlefield.

I think this technically lets you steal auras, since they target by default. There's a surprisingly large amount you can do with this spell. I also like how the oracle text doesn't mention the "legal" part, since obviously, if the target is illegal it is, by definition, illegal, so the spell can't do it.

Deadly Rollick is a rare from some commander thing.

So, this in most black commander decks is pretty much a free spell, since you kinda always have your commander in commander. Like, they are obnoxiously difficult to remove permanently. I wondered what was stopping you casting this with a nonblack deck until I remembered the stupid colour restrictions on commander decks, so no worries there.

Sesame Street (1969-Present)

Spider Sense is a rare from that Spiderman tie-in product.

Web-Slinging is a sort of variant on Ninjitsu. It mostly just needs you to return a tapped creature to your hand and can go on noncreature spells, as seen here. I guess this is one way to show the preparedness that Spiderman's weird psychic powers give him. More accurate would be to flip a coin beforehand to see if it works, but really that's more of a knock on the source material. In theory, you could use this spell to counter a combat trick and bail something you control out of a bad attack, but I wouldn't expect that to happen all too often.

Who's the geist who won't cop out, when there's removal all about?

TRAFT!

You're damn right.

Geist of Saint Traft is a mythic rare from Innistrad, seen here in its Duel Decks: Blessed vs Cursed printing. Looking like he died a great deal YOUNGER in fact.

This is one of the first cards with hexproof after they replaced shroud with it and it showed off a good way to be completely unbalanced and unfun. Unlike the Invisible Stalker, who couldn't be blocked, the Geist was just straight up too good value, being able to pick up an overpowered sword and then just charge in, and on the off chance it was killed somehow, you still eat 4 to the face from a temporary 4/4. And if not, you just kind of lose, since it's doing so much damage. Didn't help that the swords it was paired with got you value for hitting the opponent as well, so the boot was REALLY in if you managed to hit an opponent before their board was ready. Pretty sure it was part of the Caw Blade decks before they decided to go full bird and tutor for their creatures. This guy just goes to show how important interaction is to the game and how many of the overpowered pieces of cardboard they print are only balanced due to kill spells existing.

Six is a rare from Modern Horizons 3.

Weird having a card be only one number(Hex doesn't count). This is the treefolk that the planeswalker Wrenn bonded with to become Wrenn and Six. Not really sure about the backstory behind the name there.

This guy gives all the nonland permanent cards in your graveyard retrace, a keyword which had previously only appeared on instants and sorceries, and never given to something else. I can only assume that the retrace, combined with the easy way to get more lands via Six itself, makes for some frustratingly samey gameplay and card combos. All you need is, say, an enchantment keeping Six from being blocked or targeted, and you've just made it VERY hard for a single opponent to ever take it out.

honestly that is the only situation in which that feature should ever be brought back

and so then they also maybe don’t know that it’s what drove john green off of tumblr??? (wait actually was that the whole reason or just part of the reason? I wasn’t actually here for that, i’ve just heard the story)

Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer is a mythic rare from Magic 2020, seen here in its Jumpstart 2025 printing.

This planeswalker was originally made for the Chinese-only cardset they made to try and tempt the Chinese into Magic. Not sure how well that worked. I don't really know much about this character, so I'll have to talk purely about the mechanics, which is always difficult for planeswalkers. So much to cover, but they mostly all boil down to "Play me, opponent must throw all caution to the wind and destroy me or win the game, probably losing a fair few cards in the process".

And this one is no exception. Low cost, but TWO ways to defend itself on its first two abilities, and the ultimate ability, yeah, kind of just wins you the game. Overall, probably pretty powerful!

As anyone who has ever listened to @hardcore-gaming-101 will tell you. You are 100% correct.

Traverse the Ulvenwald is a rare from Shadows Over Innistrad, seen here in its Shadows Over Innistrad Remastered printing.

This is a pretty simple and unimpressive card: pay a green to fix yourself a land of any kind, seen it a bunch before, but never at rare. If you're late in the game and have Delirium, however, you can get any CREATURE you want for only one mana! A pretty good way to find your delirium payoff, especially if you happen to be running a three-or-more colour deck(though that admittedly is a pretty damn specific deck).

I do like the idea of turning a tiny cheap land tutor into a tutor for something better, I just kind of wish it did a little more in its normal mode to be worth putting into the deck in the first place. I guess in high-variance-deck formats like Commander, however, the juice may well be worth the sqeeze.

Aggro - Win as fast as possible

Control - Win as slow as possible

Midrange - Win the opposite of what the other guy is trying to do.

This has held up pretty good for me for years. Its always been good advice for my own deck building, and helping others. And it carries out even in to other games.

But to further the idea. Aggro cards are best defined as fast cheap early value. I think the defining aggro card is Goblin Guide. It is a card that gets increasingly worse as the game goes on. Whats a free land to hand turn 1 or 2? Your opponent probably didn't keep that few anyways. And its for some ridiculous damage.

The defining control card is Celestial Collonade. Weird choice, but I think it examplifies my point. You can play it for free, keeping up mana for answers. But it only gets better as the game goes. Vigilance means that at a point it can attack and block. And as a flying 4/4 its real good at both.

Aggro - Win as fast as possible

Control - Win as slow as possible

Midrange - Win the opposite of what the other guy is trying to do.

This has held up pretty good for me for years. Its always been good advice for my own deck building, and helping others. And it carries out even in to other games.

But to further the idea. Aggro cards are best defined as fast cheap early value. I think the defining aggro card is Goblin Guide. It is a card that gets increasingly worse as the game goes on. Whats a free land to hand turn 1 or 2? Your opponent probably didn't keep that few anyways. And its for some ridiculous damage.

The defining control card is Celestial Collonade. Weird choice, but I think it examplifies my point. You can play it for free, keeping up mana for answers. But it only gets better as the game goes. Vigilance means that at a point it can attack and block. And as a flying 4/4 its real good at both.

The creators are Marxists. The way that Disco Elysium analyzes the world is informed by Marxism. I myself am an anarchist communist and our politics are enormously more critical of what is commonly equated with communism (various forms of Leninism) than Disco Elysium is, even if the narrative is grappling with unavoidable historical failures. I can tell, for instance, that it’s not truly an anarchist critique, even with the nods to anarchism it makes. The critique is directed inwards.

Unfortunately, mistaking communist self-critique or conflict between fundamentally opposed types of communists as anti-communism is nothing new even when you know what the authorial intent is.

It's kind of like Animal Farm, now that I say out loud. Orwell never stopped being a socialist, but I wouldn't call Animal Farm a communist work. Both not only a rejection of Communism, but saying Marxism won't work.

The creators are Marxists. The way that Disco Elysium analyzes the world is informed by Marxism. I myself am an anarchist communist and our politics are enormously more critical of what is commonly equated with communism (various forms of Leninism) than Disco Elysium is, even if the narrative is grappling with unavoidable historical failures. I can tell, for instance, that it’s not truly an anarchist critique, even with the nods to anarchism it makes. The critique is directed inwards.

Unfortunately, mistaking communist self-critique or conflict between fundamentally opposed types of communists as anti-communism is nothing new even when you know what the authorial intent is.