Hello! I hope you are having a great day today! By the time you read this, I should be flying to a vacation in Marrakesh, Morocco. I won't be back for around 10 days or so. I wrote this article in January for you, so you'd have something to read. What I want to do is look at what I consider to be the best cards for Type Four of all time. Next week, we'll be looking at what I consider the most overrated cards in Type Four too, so there'll be a fun little back to back there for you. Because I am physically unable to respond to anything, and I won't be on my normal EST schedule, I won't be available to answer questions, comment on your responses, or anything else. Sorry!

I will when I get back though, promise!

What is Type Four?

In short, it's a format where you can produce any number of mana that you want, of any type. Snow? Colorless? Fifteen Red? Sure! But you can only cast one spell per turn. So that's one spell on your turn, and one spell on each of your opponent's turns.

This game is typically done with a large Type Four stack which is typically drafted. It's often played in multiplayer, but duels are common as well. Due to the nature of the format, you have all of the best cards available. It really twins Spike and Timmy/Tammy, as you'll want to drop big giant beaters and swing for game, as well as big giant effects like Time Stretch and Insurrection.

As a quick caveat, any card cast with an alternate cost, like Foil will not count for your card for the turn, but those are typically card disadvantage. You just have to pay the alternate cost instead of the normal one to do so. Foil can't be used (requires an Island) but otherwise, this gives you a good example of what works!

The best effects are ones that can push you to a dominant position, and give you a strong chance of success. Here are my choices for the best cards in the format.

Honorable Mention #1 - Tempo Beaters

In the older days of Type 4, you would have a number of big fat dorks that would win you the game like Krosan Cloudscraper. Or, if you preferred, you could run a tempo card or effect that would slow folks down. Upheaval comes to my mind (there were many others.) Today, however, the format has altered. We have a number of beaters who, like Slinn Voda, add a powerful tempo element to a large body. Slinn Voda can go lethal in three hits if no damage was dealt prior. That ain't nothing. And we have others out there like Shipbreaker Kraken, Breaching Leviathan, and others. A quick shout out to beaters like Void Winnower can shut them down too.

Good job big beaters that slow stuff down!!! But you aren't the best slate of beaters...

Honorable Mention #2 - Beaters that Sweep

On a similar note, there are also a number of beaters out there that sweep (sorta) the board on arrival. They tend to be better than the above group as they are a hard, card-advantage laden answer as well as a problem. While there are smaller dorks like Desolation Giant that always did this, most of these bigger bodies are more recent additions to the game. Enjoy the pain!

All right......top ten time!!!

10. Avacyn, Angel of Hope

There are two major ways to protect your stuff in Type 4. Indestructible and hexproof/shroud. You ideally want to draft answers to both, like sweeping removal that avoids indestructible, such as Terminus that tucks to the bottom of the library or Final Judgment that exiles dorks instead. A permanent that gives your whole team that protection is strong, and thus even something like Archetype of Endurance has value here. When it has the flying and vigilant face-smashing nature of Avacyn? It's hard to deal with. This is a winner of games.

9. Flashy Fun Times....COMMENCE!

There are a small but strong number of cards that will help to push your team into Flash Fun Dance. I put them for you in my order from top to 5th most, but they all have strong value in Type 4. When you can cast more stuff on other turns, you are better able to punch people in the face. Casting a dork on my turn and then yours gives me double the dork-age. That's how you win. There are some weaker flash-effects out there too, like Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage or Yeva, Nature's Herald that you can look at too. But these five are great. (There's also another that hits up higher on this list, but it does a lot more.)

8. The Resounding Cycle

Resouding Roar isn't as powerful as the others, but the entire cycle is awesome. Getting a free, instant, card-drawing effect that's both big and can't be answered traditionally is pretty strong! My fave is the Wave, but I have broken backs of folks with Thunder, Silence, and Scream, all day long.

7. Karn Liberated

Arguably the 2nd best planeswalker (character) for Type 4 is Karn. His Liberated version can force foes to exile stuff from their hand or any permanent out there. You'll never want to use his ultimate, as you'd always rather just exile target permanent. Exiling is the answer you need for this, and you can take out lands, anything else, in a tough-to-answer way. Karn is worth the price of admission.

By the way, Karn is much better than Ugin for this format. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is good, but he's no Karn. You aren't looking for Lightning Bolts, and his -X is, at best, a one-trick pony that will often leave things alive that you wanted to sweep. Similarly, Garruk, Apex Predator is good, but he's no Karn either. He can destroy 'walkers or critters, and make 3/3 deathtouch Beasts, but that's not where you really want to be to dominate a table like Karn or the walker that charts below. Garruk, AP is probably a little better, than Ugin, but there's not really a big difference in the two.

6. Tooth and Nail

A resolved Tooth and Nail is hard to deal with. I like to get a feel for the game before I decide what's coming. Do I fear sorcery mass removal on their turn? Okay! Let's grab two big hasters and punch face now. Do I think they have post-arrival answers instantly? Okay, I'll look at something burly like hexproof or indestructible. I actually like getting one of each, and something like Carnage Tyrant and Darksteel Colossus or Sphinx of the Final Word. There are also a number of dorks with powerful enters-the-battlefield triggers or that have a strong tempo game added that I can grab, like Dragonlord Silumgar or Shipbreaker Kraken. Tooth and Nail can also grab a combo that'll win you the game, like Bosh, Iron Golem and any artifact dork with a casting cost of at least 12 (or fewer if they've taken damage). Just a humble Colossus of Sardia is 17 damage from the two of them. That will kill most right there. Tooth and Nail is a powerful card, that either wins games, or puts you in a dominant position to do so.

All right, top five time!

5. Every Nicol Bolas Planeswalker

Yup. These will win games quickly. They also pretty much answer everything. Steal a dork? Destroy a non-dork? Draw? Force them to discard? Shoot their pretty face off with your sexy fire breath? You can see just how nasty these Bolas' can be in a Type Four stack! I even run Dark Intimations in my stack and have gotten another loyalty counter from my Bolas. Nasty!

4. Force of Will & Misdirection

As a reminder, if you cast a spell with its alternate cost, then that doesn't count as your spell for the turn. Force can be hard cast for countering something normally or used as a surprise pitch ability to counter when you've already countered. Misdirection plays a similar role. The Misdirection is better at times, although FOW will typically be the one you lean more on. Other alternate cost spells are here too, but most just aren't good enough for Type 4 (Abolish and Vine Dryad aren't here) or their alternate cost isn't do-able (Thwart self-bouncing Islands is a good example of a non-starter). I've seen Sunscour alternate costed once or twice, but that's it. Reverent Mantra is the only other good, reliable alternate cost.

3. Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

Now, just so you know, my play-testing has showed this card to be so onerous and potent that I pulled it from my Type Four stack. The combination of flash, drawing a fistful of cards every turn and forcing your enemies to all top-deck is easily game winning. I pulled it, but if you like this sort of Spike card, then it's here for your consideration. It's a great card, and its small 5/4 size means little when you are topdecking answers against it. (Depending on when it's cast, you may not. I've seen it dropped on your main phase so you draw seven immediately. If you have a resolved Jin, you have a full turn to find or cast a sorcery speed answer before discarding, so there are ways to take it out without it being anything more than a scary must-kill-on-sight - that's why it's only #3.).

2. Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir

Teferi is so powerful! He flashes, which is great. Your foes can't counter your stuff, which is greater. They can't cast stuff on your turn at all, so their ability to cast things in a duel is halved and in multiplayer is really dropped down. And you can cast all dorks with flash, so you ensure that your stuff flashes down. First Teferi is so good that's it's hard to explain. Just try to deal with him and see what I mean!

But he ain't #1.

1. Decree of Silence

Ever since I began playing Type 4, I think Decree of Silence has always been the best card of the format. It's never been equaled. It's simple and elegant. Cycle. Counter target spell. At first it may look like a fancy Dismiss, but when you play it, and see that it's a free counter that doesn't take your spell for the turn, so it's amazing. You always feel safe with Decree of Silence in your hand. In enables you to counter aggressively, rather than passively. You aren't (often) casting it on someone else's turn. You are casting it on yours. You cast a nasty spell on your turn, like Expropriate or something like an Eldrazi Titan that will likely push you into a game-winning state. And then someone comes along and counters your big ol' spell, thinking that's it. That's the end of the conversion. Then you smile, and drop Decree of Silence, draw your card, and likely win the game. It's just awesome!

And they we are! These are my choices for the best cards in the format. How about yourself? Agree with my list?

If you are looking to start a new Type Four stack and try it out, then a lot of these are pretty cheap. While some of these cards are very pricey (cough, Force of Will, or Karn, cough) and have a big ol' price tag attached, there are tons of cheap stuff. Slinn Voda? Decree of Silence?

Just make sure that you don't run any one-hit-kill cards like firebreathing Shivan Dragon or a burn spell like Fireball. Look for cheap (in terms of price) enablers for haste, flash, indestructible, and more, like Surrak Dragonclaw. You can find lots of removal sitting in your card collection, bulk rare stacks, and draft reject piles. Look for giant Green beaters like Sifter Wurm and Pelakka Wurm that you likely have sitting around. Look for cards with cycling triggers that can get you a free spell. I run stuff like a big cycling beater so you can either cycling it or drop it like Greater Sandwurm or Scion of Darkness.

Check out Oketra's Attendant that you can cycle to replace itself, and then embalm, so you get a free 3/3 flying Bird Soldier Zombie that didn't count as your spell and replaced itself so you didn't use a card. Fleetfeather Cockatrice? There ain't nothing wrong with a flash, 6/6 flying deathtoucher.

There are some solid cheaper bulk rare lands too that really work, in addition to Alchemist's Refuge. Dropping a non-basic land can give you another powerful option. There are some more expensive lands that work well, like Volrath's Stronghold, Winding Canyons, Maze of Ith, or Academy Ruins. But these are good too. Also make sure that you have some land answers, like creatures than can hit non-basic lands among their potential targets.

And that's it! Put it together and play it!

So what did you think of my list? Any suggestions or changes you want to make? Just let me know!!!

P.S. - I published a book!!!!!!!! Yup! A book! It's called, "Love for One Another." Now, to be fair, its genres are Christian and Auto-Biography. If that's not your thing, that's fine!

I use as the basis of my book the scripture passage in John where Jesus charges his disciples, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

If you are interested in reading it, then here it is! https://www.amazon.com/Love-One-Another-Abe-Sargent/dp/1644162008 . Check it out and let me know what you thought! You can add me on Facebook (I'm Abe Sargent)!