Hello multiplayer fans!!! I hope your new year is going super mega well!!! Today is the third of my Advanced Multiplayer Theory articles about all formats, from Commander to Five Color to Modern multiplayer.

So let's unpack the Tresure Trove effect, which I created and named for y 'all here way back in 2013 here. I had just done a series of articles counting down the Top 100 Cards in Multiplayer of all time and this was after, and I wanted to make one key point that many new players to multiplayer forget. And then they lose, and they don't know why!

What is the Treasure Trove Effect?

Let's consider a multiplayer game in action and let's suppose it's a four player Commander game. Here are our players:

• Player 1 - Simic Landfall Matters with Tatyova, Benthic Druid.
• Player 2 - Orzhov Aristocrats with Teysa Karlov.
• Me - With mono-Blue with Lu Xun, Scholar General.
• You - Naya with Mayael the Anima again.

Now let's fast forward to the sixth turn.

Here's what everyone has played:

• Player 1 - Turn two - Rampant Growth, turn three Kodama's Reach, turn four Tatyova, turn five Consecrated Sphinx, turn six Aesi of Gyre Strait. Missed a land drop on turn 6. They have 7 mana total.
• Player 2 - Turn two Arcane Signet, turn three Teysa, turn four Solemn Simulacrum, turn five Grim Haruspex and Zulaport Cutthroat. Turn six Black Market.
• Me - Turn two, Sky Diamand, three - Lu Xun, turn four attack, draw, Treasure Trove. Turn five Mulldrifter, attack for card, turn six Teferi, Unraveler of Secrets, +1 draw and scry,
• You - Turn 2 - Farseek, 3 drop Mayael, four Spellbreaker Behemoth, five Rampaging Baloths, six you top deck Generous Gift and this is a busy board, so you want to drop out something now.

You can take anything from lands to dorks to others. So, what do you like here? One has the nasty Consecrated Sphinx to kill now, before they draw more in the meantime, they have already drawn one round of two cards each. Player two has the nasty card drawing trigger of Grim Haruspex to draw their deck once they find a sacrifice engine and with Teysa out they'll draw twice per death. And if it makes mana like Ashnod's Altar they can cast it, that's a good choice. Then I have a planeswalker to draw.

So, what is the most abusive thing for you to target? The Sphinx? The Haruspex? My Jace? I think you are likely to find the Sphinx and the Haruspex to matter the most since a power-based creature heavy deck like yours can slip past my defense and kill Jace fast, so any planeswalkers won't be long for this world if you care. Also, one extra card per turn isn't' nearly as powerful as the Sphinx and the Haruspex. Also, note that I have two mana open for a counter, but the Simic player only has one mana available, which could be Swan Song or the free Fierce Guardianship, but that's possible. So, you take out the Sphinx/Haruspex and move on. Here's what you won't target, my Treasure Trove!

Why? That's because of the Treasure Trove effect! As long as there is something else to target that people care about, your stuff won't get targeted. A card doesn't have to be one of the classics of multiplayer to make the cut, it just needs to work!

People see Treasure Trove, and what they don't see is a card drawing threat. EOT, as a mana sink, you can draw the occasionally card for four mana. No one sees that as a threat. And that's why it's better here than you might think. If something doesn't draw opposing ire, then it will often gain you much more advantage and survive than something that doesn't. When you run a bunch of multiplayer's biggest threats and hits, you are much more likely to pull interaction like removal or counters.

"But Abe," you say, "if I run a bunch of them in my deck, then my foes cannot all target all of them!" I hear you, and nice counterpoint. But if you do just run all Consecrated Sphinx and Skullclamp and Mana Crypt and Academy Ruins and Mind's Eye and Rhystic Study and Esper Sentinel and Smothering Tithe and stuff like that, then you might think you are immune to getting it all destroyed by targeted removal, but you do have a few issues. Firstly, mass removal of your permanents will end you fast. Secondly, it's not really your deck if all you do is run good stuff and everyone else does too. Where's your own deck building fun times? Finally, they'll just gang up on you instead by attacking you and make you the Archenemy. So don't run all of the format's greatest hits, which often have auto-target on them, instead run more unique things for you!

You can run what you own. Just shuffle up and play! I had a friend in my multiplayer group back when we played in Michigan more than 15 years ago when Five Color was the default casual format, including our table, which also embraced Highlander combined with it. He waited around two years until he collected the best stuff in multiplayer and Five Color before actually playing that. He played other decks he owned while collecting the best of. Don't do that! Just shuffle what you have and play. Then slowly over time as you trade or buy cards or open packs, you can add stuff that you need for your deck.

Another counter to the counter point is that synergy is more important than power. Understanding the battlefield is more important than the most powerful card in a closet. That's why the Haruspex was on the level of the Sphinx when doubling the death trigger from the Commander. Know how stuff like that works. Also, when building your deck, run things that work well with your Commander or deck archetype rather than just a list of the best cards. Did the non-land matter or landfall trigger of the Sphinx work with the concept of the deck? Nope? Then pull it for something that does!

Finding Treasure Troves

Now let's turn to finding cards that are great Treasure Troves that are rarely targeted and cheap here on CoolStuffInc.com. I am citing prices so you see them locked in time from when I wrote this to publication to when you read it.

This pair of bulk rares under 50 cents each are great for card flow from evasive dorks. There is a reason I led with Lu Xun as my Commander. Both are 1/3 bodies like classic Ophidian but you add evasion and then they can deal damage and draw too, so they do both. See also flying Thieving Magpie.

Under a buck for each and they are legendary for Command Zone purposes. The mono-Blue one costs three, and then will draw one when your combat dorks deal damage, but just one, so it's more limited than things that might get targeted like Coastal Piracy et all in a going wide brew. It's also has the ability to self-bounce attackers that get combat trick killed like with Giant Growth effects or from combat damage from blockers which is a nice boot too. The Dimir one costs four, for a flashable 3/2 body that counters an ability or spell or destroys a dork or planeswalker, but they draw like Vex so people won't get as upset at you for doing so. See also Vex for spell that will keep people happy. All of which are much cheaper than multiplayer classic Arcane Denial.

0.75 and 0.25 so a buck total! Check out this Green token making duo that're in 1% of Green decks. The artifact is rare, has a free upkeep sacrifice trigger you can sacrifice a token and then toss an Acorn counter and your Squirrels grow a bit. That'll trigger death stuff like Blood Artist and sacrifice stuff like Mayhem Devil. Then you can tap this with a mana to make a 1/1 Squirrel base could be bigger with enough counters. Then the Aura enchants a land and you can tap it for nothing to make a Squirrel token too. As you can see, these can make them any time, so you can make chump blockers on the ground or in the air if you add reach or flying to them. You can use these to save planeswalkers and yourself or make attacks EOT to win with too! Love this pair loads!

Seal of Doom and Seal of Fire are only a quarter each. This initially printed as common duo drop on the battlefield, and then you can sacrifice them to kill a non-Black dork like Doom Blade or Shock something. Why are they here? A few reasons! First, you can cycle and bring back and do it again with recursion like Muldrotha, the Gravetide. Then you can keep these out and folks won't attack since you can destroy their dork if non-Black or 2 or fewer toughness so they'll swing elsewhere. Love this pair so much!! Also, if your foe has an artifact/enchantment dork then Seal of Cleansing and Seal of Primordium can keep them stopped too. Lieutenant Kirtar is amazing at exiling attackers and just costs 0.49 too.

Silklash Spider and Whirlwind are also only a quarter each. This section is really about the awesomeness of the Spider, but I tossed in Whirlwind too. The 5-drop Spider has a big 2/7 size with reach to block and survive many attackers from Akroma on down. Then it can sweep the board of flyers at instant speed, so you won't see flyers hit once it arrives to the battlefield save for ones with triggers like Mulldrifter. See also the toughness matters brews in this color combo like Doran or Arcades. Love this thing Spi-der loads!

Just 0.25 and 1.99. Now let's turn to epic flying blockers that can block everything and used to be pretty heavily played. The Wall costs two for an 0/2 flyer that cannot take damage in combat. But it can take damage from non-combat like Lightning Bolt and Flametongue Kavu. The Bird costs four, is legendary for Command Zone purposes, has a 2/4 flyer size and protection from dorks, so nothing dork-ish can ever dealt it damage or target it like Ravenous Chupacabra. Then you cannot stop it from attacking you either since all defenses are dorks, so it's a win con or eternal flying blocker. Shout out to Guard Gomazoa.

Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer is under 50 cents, and in play it's a three for a 2/2 with a tap ability that puts a Bribery counter on something and then they cannot attack and draw a card too, so they won't mind like Vex or Ertai before. Teyo, Geometric Tactician was just printed is also a three-drop this time as a planeswalker with three loyalty and arrives with an 0/4 Wall with flying to block all day and night attacks on him or you. Then you can +1 him to draw and have a foe draw too, so who would hurt him if they are drawing? Then you can -2 him to have everyone only attack right or left for a round of turns. You can run Teyo in a Gwafa deck.

0.99 and 3.99. Now let's turn to defensive stuff that used to get played in Bant colors. The enchantment costs five mana for a way to stop attacks. Note that you cannot be attacked, but unlike Moat proper they can attack each other, so this is less likely to bring the heat. Also, in multicolored formats like Five Color and Commander this will allow folks to attack you with a majority of their stuff still, less powerful to remove. The dork costs four for a 3/3 body. Then you can pull off counters for a mana each to Fog this turn, and three turns of Fogs, and you can move counters around for two each. Nasty defensive pair that used to get all of the play but don't get the hate.

0.15 and 0.75 and 0.49. Now let's turn to equipment that was originally printed as rare, uncommon and common all under a dollar. Giving haste to things with colorless equipment is very good at getting in hits with Commanders to kill faster and be the first to smash on a naked board after mass removal. Lightning Greaves is obviously broken, giving haste for zero mana and very expensive on the secondary market. The next best is Swiftfoot Boots that equips for one for haste and hexproof too. After that, all haste giving things cost two or more to equip, save for Strider Harness. That also gives a boost to power so you can kill a turn faster with moving from 4 to 5 power from a Commander with the power boost. The Sword equips for three, gives a double power boost and then loves to key a parcel of keywords from haste to evasion in trample and first strike and vigilance too. And then the Hammer equips for three, gives a three-power boost and trample and lifelink. When your foes are running equipment's greatest hits like Sword of Fire and Ice or Batterskull or Lightning Greaves, why would they spend their time taking out this trio?

Soothsaying is 1.99 and a shoutout to Mirri's Guile which is pricy but similar. Soothsaying's first ability is that you can spend X to sort the top X cards of your library as a mana sink. Then you can spend the five to shuffle. Alongside classics like Sensei's Divining Top and Sylvan Library, these are never targeted since they are just mana intensive enchantment's that also add in shuffle for your sorting stuff but never draw you a card.

Abundance and Foster are just 50 cents each. This bulk rare pair has been heavily printed into cheapness. The former costs four and when you would draw a card any time, you can choose to draw a land or nonland from your deck instead. You reveal so your foes will know what you drew. The value here is ensuring that you never draw lands when your mana is set. Or you can draw just lands after an Armageddon gets fired. The latter one has a death trigger for one mana to reveal until you reveal a dork and draw it. Again, your foes know what you got. When people are running nasty card draw machines like Sylvan Library, Mind's Eye and Liliana, Dreadhorde General, and Consecrated Sphinx, who will waste time on this pair?

Elemental Augury costs three, then you can spend three mana to look at the top three cards of any player's deck, and then rearrange it. That flexibility is nasty, but mana heavy and doesn't give you cards, so who would target it for removal? Armistice costs three too and has one activated ability too - draw a card and a foe gains 3 life. I like splitting who is gaining the life from one foe to another. You can also save someone and make friends. Who would target this for removal when they are gaining life? And neither costs more than a dollar!

Just a quarter for Vodalian Illusionist, which taps with two mana to phase out something. You can do that to save your stuff from targeted removal, or itself, or a chump blocker. Or you can do it on an attacking dork that cannot be blocked or an annoying Commander you don't want to kill and recast, or a blocker to swing and kill. And since nothing dies or needs to be recast, no one cares. Starke of Rath taps to destroy a dork or a rock and they get Starke. Since Starke goes to them, they can tap and shoot something too, thereby saving it from removal since they can turn it against you. Nasty tapping pair! I'm also sure you noted that Starke can lead a Commander deck too...

$1.99 and sold out here but less than a buck on other sites. Let's finish with this white pair! The first rare costs six mana for an undersized 5/6 and is legendary for that format. Then it has Fox Offering that suggests it leading a mono-White Fox brew. Then it has a trigger that when a dork attacks you gain a life! Note that there are no restrictions here like when you attack or when your attacked or anything else - all attackers everywhere.

The second rare costs three for a smaller 1/1 and has a tap ability with two mana. Then a dork that someone controls becomes an enchantment and stops being a dork until someone casts a dork. So, you can use it to save your best dork, it, or your Commander from targeted or mass removal or chump blocks, or you can use it on a foe's dork to shut down an attack, block, or take out a dork until someone answers. I also love turning a foe's dork into an enchantment and then killing it with a Disenchant effect. It's also in very few white Commander decks.

And there you go! So, what did you think of my Treasure Trove Effect or the cards and concepts listed for cheap? Enjoy!