Hello awesome reader and if you read this on Friday when it's published, happy Friday to you as well! Today I want to take another look at some of the best cards from the deep set that was just released in stores a week ago today. In order to make my cut, these cards must be good in casual table formats like Commander, Type Four, Five Color and specifically multiplayer.

This is my third week in a row I've dedicated into doing a deep dive, and like those two, I am also pulling aside two Honorable Mention slots to really make 12 slots not ten. This then is really #36-#25. Ready?

Honorable Mention #1 (#36 Overall) Eater of Virtue

Our only colorless card and 1-drop is this rare. For one mana and one equip, you get the power of a +2/+0 to your equipped creature, which is so good that despite that originally being on a common originally in Bonesplitter, we've never seen that high power of pumping since oriented that cheaply for an equip cost.

They added a "sorta" disadvantage to this, the equipped dork is exiled when it dies, which will preclude its use in some Commander and other causal builds that might want to bring it back with things like recursion or Nim Deathmantle. It won't matter on commanders who will head back to the Command Zone after dying and being exiled. Tokens don't care either. This is very strong in Voltron decks where you equip your leader. As long as an exiled dork has one of the long list of abilities, the equipped creature gets it, which is very strong alongside Commanders with a few abilities like the three abilities of a Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh. It has enhanced value in "ability matters" builds around things like Akroma, Vision of Ixidor and Crimson Vow's Odric, Blood-Cursed. Love its power a lot here at the kitchen table!!!

Honorable Mention #2 (#35 Overall) Brilliant Restoration

I know this thing costs a bajillion White mana, that's why it's on my third list. Seven mana overall and it will recur all of your artifacts and enchantments from your graveyard to the battlefield. There have been a small number of these mass recursion spells and all are in mono-White. This is the first mass recursion spell for artifacts and enchantments that does not also let your foes Open the Vaults. If you are looking for a cheaper enchantments-only version of this spell you have Replenish, but that's a very expensive card since it's on the reserved list so that price tag may not be for everyone.

#10. (#34 Overall) Hinata, Dawn-Crowned

Our own Jason Alt just wrote up a Commander deck around this fun thang. You can check it out here. Hinata is an on-curve 4/4 flying and trampler for four mana in three colors, a bit rough to cast that early. This Kirin Spirit will drop the cost of your stuff by a generic for each target it has, which is a lot of fun in builds. It will also increase the cost of your foe's things by a mana each target. Jason had a ton of instants and spells and X spells with multiple targets that are pretty cheap for the mana cost like Mass Manipulation. It's very flexible.

I like the idea of running it in a Jeskai colored enchantress theme where you load up with Auras that cost one fewer. You could also do a Heroic brew where you self-target your stuff and get discounts for each of your self-targets that enable your Heroic shenanigans. You could even run a Curse deck with this dropping the costs of your Curses. It's very synergetic with many builds, so folks, do me a favor, and don't build it around tempo and Taxes since it's both White and Blue...

#9. (#33 Overall) Lizard Blades

As of right now we only have 5 pieces of equipment that grant double strike - this, Fireshrieker, Holy Avenger, Embercleave, and Grappling Hook. That's it. Just two of those are colorless, and one of those is way too much mana for normal use. Double strike is very valuable to add to a given creature. From Voltron to Commander Damage killers there are many places where double strike will quickly end a game. Now this is Red, but it's just two to drop and two to reconfigure, which is similar to the cheaper side of life options we have. This is a 1/1 with double strike when not equipped, and I love the idea of hiding that by equipping it onto a big dork and then you can swing and block with the best of them after mass removal. However, this is more killable when not on a dork as creature removal that every deck runs can answer it as well. Naturalizes and Murders will kill it. Fun stuff for the wins!

#8. (#32 Overall) Invoke Calamity

Our lowest scoring of the Invoke cycle is this 5-drop instant. I can't imagine this getting played outside of mono- and two-color brews. And two color probably only in Commander with its heavy use of cards that will make any color in your Commander's identity like Arcane Signet and Command Tower. This instant will let you cast, for free, two instants and or sorceries from your graveyard and/or hand as long as their total mana cost is 6 or fewer. That's a big brake on an otherwise powerful effect and it drops it's power on my list to my last place Invoke card. It's still not bad as you could free cast a used Fact or Fiction and Opt in an Izzet Spellslinger deck for two more triggers. Nice stuff! But that's a big fat brake considering it's hard to jump through casting cost. If you get six mana for five, unlikely, then that only gained you a single mana.

#7. (#31 Overall) Reckoner's Bargain

Our first common in today's list is this 2-drop instant. It's awesome in formats like Commander! You sacrifice an artifact or a dork, you draw two cards, and you gain life equal to the mana value of the sacrificed thing. That's fair. You sacrifice a Treasure or a Blood token then you just draw two cards. If you need life, you can sacrifice a bigger dork or your Commander for a nice boost of life and a pair of cards. This compares favorably to heavily played cards like Altar's Reap (8,728 in EDHREC.com) that are heavily played since you gain life and can sacrifice an artifact like a mana rock about to die in a foe's Vandalblast. It's also amazing in Type Four. In that format, your creatures and artifacts tend to be very pricey like Darksteel Colossus and Sphinx of Uthuun pricey, so you should be able to net a big parcel of life and card draw from something about to die to mass or targeted removal. Great card!

#6. (#30 Overall) Akki Ember-Keeper

Back-to-back commons that cost two mana! Crazy right? I love the card. I love the power here in decks with cards that sacrifice like Jund, Gruul, Boros and Rakdos sacrifice builds where you can net two sacrifices with this card, all you need is a modified starter, like mana-maker Workhorse. Imagine this combo:

You control this, Ashnod's Altar, Workhorse, and a recursion engine like Enduring Renewal. Pull off three counters from Workhorse. Make three colorless mana. Sacrifice Workhorse with a +1/+1 counter to Ashnod's Altar - make two colorless mana and make a 1/1 Spirit. Sacrifice Spirit with Altar. 2 more mana. Net - 7 mana.

Recast Workhorse for 6 mana, made a colorless mana.

That's pretty powerful stuff, and this is a big enabler at the kitchen table in the right brews.

Top Five Time!

#5. (#29 Overall) The Reality Chip

Ah yes. The signature Equipment Creature. Crazy right? This is a two mana 0/4 Jellyfish that can let you look at the top card of your library any time you'd like! And then you can reconfigure/equip it for three mana to a dork you control. Then as long as the Chip is attached to something you can cast spells and play lands from the top of your library, which is a massive amount of card advantage as any player of Future Sight will know. And if this is so equipped, then if mass removal happens it will not die in the Damnations or Blasphemous Acts of the world, and you can toss it onto the indestructible Stuffy Doll that survived or drop a dork and keep on trucking. Nice! Again, just like Lizard Blades, the double ability does make it weaker on the front end. This can also be a Commander, which our own Mark Wischkaemper built around here - check it out!

#4. (#28 Overall) The Kami War // O-Kagachi Made Manifest

I love this a lot! This is our highest-scoring Saga in today's list. This is back here due to the five colors it takes to run It out there, but I get it. You get a Saga that, on arrival, exiles a non-land permament. Exiling removal is very valuable at the kitchen table in formats like Commander where indestructible is heavily used. Then on chapter two, you can Regrowth a non-land permanent card back to your hand and then force your foe's to each discard, which dials up in multiplayer. Then you exile and make the 6/6 Dragon Spirit. Note that it exiles and lacks haste so you cannot attack with it post-transform until a turn lapses. The Dragon Spirit is a nice 6/6 with trample and flying, so it has two levels of evasion. When this fun little card swings, you can force the defending player to choose a nonland card from your graveyard and Regrowth it and then it gets big. This thing is massive card advantage by Chapter 2 and can really push a game your way once it starts swinging. It's so nice I'll play it twice!

Three cards left!

#3. (#27 Overall) - Invoke the Ancients

Easier to do in ramp decks than other Invokes, so this is more playable there. This makes two 4/5 dorks so that's 8/10 of power and toughness for 5 mana, pretty good. Then you can give each one, or both, one of three ability counters based on the battlefield, reach, vigilance, or trample. Vigilance is better in multiplayer than duels where you can attack an open player without becoming open yourself. That would be my default playing against multiple people, but against flyers I'd go reach and against potential chumps like Fog Bank I'd go trample. On a naked board after a mass removal spell, I'd still go vigilance with these two since they could keep you from being attacked by hasters. Great stuff for the mana and easier to cast due to its color identity leads to a strong card. I'm tossing it into my Type Four stack too, by the by.

#2. (#26 Overall) Atsushi, the Blazing Sky

Our lowest-scoring Dragon Spirit is this 4-drop 4/4 flyer with trample which is great for the curving and features double evasion as well. When this fun thing dies you have two options. You can exile two cards and then play them this turn, or you can make three Treasures, just one fewer than its cost. The card advantage from the first ability is a bit hard to manage and is a whole lot worse than just drawing two cards or getting two things back from your graveyard like the Blue Dragon Spirit in this cycle. If it died without trading in combat or eating a pinpoint removal spell, then it may not be card advantage like the others are. Therefore, it's back on my third list. However, with the three Treasures, you can also play into the infinite mana game. For example, sacrificing this to an Ashnod's Altar will make two mana and you will have made 5, and you can recast it over and over again making a colorless mana each time. If you are getting it back with something like Enduring Renewal, then you have found another infinite mana package in red in this set. So, it has value in that more limited role, but it's not nearly as potent as the cycle. But hey, it's the penultimate card on today's list so there is that!

And then there was one...

#1. (#25 Overall) Kaito Shizuki

This is the top card and an even number 25 on our overall list, nice, right? Kaito is pretty good, with three mana making three loyalty. And then at the end of your turn in which it entered the battlefield it phases out, so it won't be attacked for a round of attacks in multiplayer formats like Commander unlike normal 3-drop 'walkers so it should last another turn before it dies to combat damage. That gives you another round of loyalty. You can +1 it to draw a card and then discard if you didn't attack this turn, which is good looting on a 3-drop and just straight up card draw in a more aggressive deck that is looking to swing, which is less common in Dimir Commander builds that tend to lean towards Control or Reanimation or Milling. That lack of synergy is one reason it's my lowest ranked planeswalker in the set.

Then you can -2 to make a 1/1 Blue Ninja that cannot be blocked, which is really nice in decks that are looking for unblockable bodies, like Ninja, but otherwise is less powerful in a 40-life format. Again, a great synergy with one build, Ninjas, but less with the color combo overall. However, don't sleep on it as a reanimation enabler with discarding a big fat dork on the third turn with the +1 and then Reanimate for the win. There is value there. Good stuff!

Thanks for reading! So...what did you think of my list? Anything missing or in the wrong order? Let's do this one more time next week and then we'll turn to the Commander set that debut with NEO. Enjoy!