Let’s face it. We all do it. When a new set is released, we spend a lot of time poring over the new cards, either in real life at the prerelease or at home in front of the visual spoiler. We have already started the process of assessing the quality of cards and of mentally assigning them to various categories.

So it’s natural for some cards to fall through the cracks. Considering the sheer number of cards out there, I’m sure that I’ve been wrong on a lot of cards. Some play better, and others play worse.

I’ve discussed this before in regards to my piece de resistance – Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy, a singleton deck clocking in at around 2,700 cards. I’ll sometimes toss a card into the deck to try it out for a year or three and then become disappointed with the play and pull cards.

For example, after the 2011 Commander decks were released, I wanted to experiment with the five Vows (such as Vow of Wildness and Vow of Malice). They weren’t the best cards in their respective preconstructed decks by Wizards, but I thought that in a deck like mine they could shine. They look like they would have some value. One player attacks another with a creature instead of attacking me or my buddies, Liliana Vess, or her Ajani Vengeant pal. But nope, they didn’t work. They sucked. Game after game I’d drop one, and it would have a marginal impact on the boardy at best. Here’s how I would have fixed them:

Vow of Malice Uncommon Enchantment – Aura Enchant creature Enchanted creature gets 2/+2, has intimidate, and can’t attack you or a planeswalker you control. Enchanted creature attacks each turn if able.

Now that would have been interesting—it would have removed a blocker from the equation (minus some trick like vigilance) and watched as one creature initiated the beats, perhaps dying by being blocked or via removal by someone else who might be losing too much life. But instead, people would keep back this blocker, which I made bigger, and they occasionally nipped over for a bit of damage when they were safe. The Vows lacked the power needed to make them good, and a few months ago, I cut them from my deck entirely.

I’m used to these sorts of disappointments by now. A few cards here and there never seem to pan out as I wanted them to.

But then you have cards that go in the opposite direction—cards that I mentally assigned to the trash bin but that play better than expected. I have to admit that I just ran into one of the best examples in my life. I have been playing the Commander (2013 Edition) decks recently, and I’ve had a chance to roll with the Power Hungry deck a few times. One of the creatures in the deck struck me with how good it was in play—despite all of the negative associations I had given it. You might even know which one! If you are like me, when you saw the decklist, you spied this creature and wondered why Wizards was even bothering to print it.

All I have to say is, Well done, Wizards of the Coast! You put a card in Power Hungry that plays very nicely indeed, and it now makes me wonder why I had not been playing it all along. Therefore, I am naming this little syndrome after the appropriate card:

I thought it was an interesting design, but it seemed like an obvious callback to Jalum Grifter, a card from Unglued that was never that powerful. And I had played the Grifter a lot, so I “knew” the relative power of the card. That’s what we do when we see a new card: We compare it to old effects and cards.

After playing around with Power Hungry, I have seen the light. And Power Hungry isn’t even the perfect home for the Efreet either! So let’s drill into the Capricious Efreet and look at why this thing plays so well.

Capricious Efreet Investigated

Now, note that the Efreet, despite being red, won’t destroy lands. So you cannot use it as a deus ex machina to destroy nasty lands such as Volrath's Stronghold or Maze of Ith. However, within that restriction, you can kill anything else. You can mow down planeswalkers, creatures, artifacts, and even enchantments. That’s a lot of versatility. Any nonland permanents that are bugging you are good to be targeted by the Efreet.

Having used it a few times in various games to target stuff, it doesn’t seem to bother people that much. I mean, hey, there’s just a one-in-three chance that I’ll even destroy that Mirari, and there’s another chance I’ll blow up my own Fecundity and another chance that I’ll pop another player’s Djinn of Infinite Secrets. If it works, it was just random—annoying perhaps, but random.

Note that you cannot use the item destroyed in response to the random determination of destruction. If I target your permanent, there is a chance to do something, such as tap it or bounce it. But once we resolve the ability and flip a coin or roll a die or whatever, that item must be destroyed.

One trick is to run something like Darksteel Ingot that cannot be destroyed. Then, if it resolves and destroys your own thing, nothing happens, and we move on.

That’s where the Capricious Efreet becomes good. Just make its target illegal, and you will destroy an opposing nonland thing. Pretty good, right?

However, there is one more level of rules quirk the Efreet has. Note that you can choose up to two nonland permanents you don’t control. Instead, choose just one. Perhaps you might do this because you really have to stop something, and you’ll risk the one-in-two shot to hit your own card in order to increase the chance to hit the opponent’s permanent.

But remember that if one target is no longer there, the others are impacted. So select one of your own nonlands, select just one opposing permanent, make your target illegal in response, and then you will always destroy an opposing nonland permanent of your choice each of your upkeeps. That’s a powerful card!

And without giving it a chance in Power Hungry, I would never have seen how deep the interactions of this “bad rare” were. This is a card that has been in print for years, and I’ve missed it.

A week or so ago, I had out a few Kobold tokens from Prossh, Skyraider of Kher and the Efreet. I would target a Kobold and an opposing permanent of power, sacrifice the Kobold for some effect, and then destroy the card. There was no stopping me unless you killed my Efreet (which was wearing Swiftfoot Boots at the time). The Efreet is a nasty engine in a deck that can use it.

Other Ways to Use Your Efreet

Some decks have a Flicker theme. They tend to have a high number of creatures with abilities that trigger when they enter the battlefield (ETB). You can expect smaller creatures such as Eternal Witness, Acidic Slime, Mulldrifter, or Shriekmaw alongside bigger ones such as Rune-Scarred Demon and Sphinx of Uthuun. These decks often have quite a few ways to Flicker a creature by exiling it and then returning it to play to gain another ETB trigger.

During your upkeep, you can target one such creature with the Efreet and what you really want to destroy, and then Flicker your guy away while blowing up your foe’s thing. As long as you can Flicker at instant speed with a spell or ability, you are good to go.

You can also bounce your target. Again, many decks are built around self-bounce already, via cards such as Crystal Shard, Erratic Portal, or a creature with an ability like Blinking Spirit. (Outside of Commander, you could use Karakas.)

Let’s not forget that you can also make the target illegal by giving the targeted permanent an ability like shroud, protection from creatures, or protection from red. Not only are there some effects that would work, but many creatures would be able to protect themselves. All you have to do is spend a mana to make creatures such as Sturdy Hatchling, Morphling, or Advanced Hoverguard have shroud. You can also tap something like Hisoka's Guard to do the same.

(For tech, take a look at Petrahydrox.)

(For super-secret mono-red tech, take a look at Keeper of Kookus or Thick-Skinned Goblin.)

Capricious Efreet does not suck. Here is how it reads with a simple Giant Crab, Sighted-Caste Sorcerer, or Advanced Hoverguard in play.

Capricious Efreet Rare Creature – Efreet At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay . If you do, destroy target nonland permanent you don’t control. 6/4

Again, you can spend with Sturdy Hatchling, with Keeper, with Crimson Acolyte, 2 snow mana with Frost Raptor, and so forth. You’ll find other cards that’ll work.

(For mega-secret tech, see Neurok Stealthsuit.)

(For a mana-free, uber-secret-tech option, see Jodah's Avenger.)

There is a lot of power underneath a card that I previously thought was a bad rare. I put one immediately into Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy. I wish I had given it a chance back when it was printed, and I’m confident that I would have had a lot of stories about it.

I’ve learned to give more cards a chance before moving on. There are players out there that I didn’t realize. What are they? Let’s uncover some more!

What “bad cards” have you missed out on? What gems have you uncovered that you wish you had found earlier? What stories do you have about the Capricious Efreet Syndrome?

See you next week,

Abe Sargent