Magic is a game, right?

Sometimes I feel Magic is a lot like basketball or other sports. We spend more time talking about it than actually playing or watching it.

But that’s off. This game is about playing. It’s about shuffling, playing, and having fun. Winning is good. Trying to break the puzzles works too. But fun is part of any game as well. So since you are playing the game, you have times when a card breaks through, times when a card shows what it’s made of. And today’s article is simple. These are cards I saw in a last few weeks that impressed me. These were played. They worked. It’s not just talk.

So let’s take a look at this list of cards, and hopefully you can find one or five that spark your passion.

10. Woodripper

Alright, Woodripper has always been a bit outside of the box, I admit. Yet, I’ve long held a deep fondness for it. As a Beast, it plays well with other Beasts in the right color. You can play it and then destroy up to three artifacts as needed if the battlefield is overly artificial. Plus, unlike similar mass artifact slaying machines (such as Bane of Progress ), it doesn’t take out your own stuff, or people’s mana rocks, which invariably makes enemies. Plus, as Green is often working with blink or reanimation or self-bounce themes, Woodripper is a solid body for those archetypes. I just destroyed three more heavy hitters with my ‘Ripper the other day with Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy (My own 3000+ card deck). It was Joy-Tastic!

9. Aven Mimeomancer

Aven Mimeomancer has two major roles it plays. The first is to turn big giant beaters into smaller 3/1 flyers that are killable. Every upkeep you can toss a feather counter on some dope-y Akroma, Angel of Wrath or Sphinx of Uthuun. Now it’s less of a threat. It also denudes a big, mean Commander that might feasibly kill with Commander damage, such as Zurgo Helmsmasher or Ruhan of the Fomori. But there is another way to use this 3-drop a lot of folks forget. You can turn your own smaller creatures into a 3/1 flyers. I did that with some Soldier tokens and flew over a grounded defense for some damage. And you can dial back a beater to a more reasonable size as well. Both are very useful methods for getting your Mimeomancer on.

8. Jedit Ojanen of Efrava

Jedit Ojanen, Take Two has always been a popular character for the swing-age at casual tables. But he fell off the map in a major way as landwalking stuff is often good, but not a guaranteed hit. His ability to bring out a Cat Warrior anytime he attacks or blocks is really powerful. (Just give him Vigilance for both!) And since both him and his token horde have Forestwalk, there is a path to be hewn in the unblockable sections at the kitchen table, especially since Green is a very commonly played color, especially in good ol’ Commander. And that’s where I saw Jedit Ojanen really break someone open and slay them recently. He broke past defenses and smashed for game after bringing a few kitties out to pet. Cat Stomp!

7. Thunder Dragon

Don’t forget this top-end Dragon is a useful option in a lot of builds and shells. Since it’s only been in Starter or promo releases, it’s not the obvious card people think of when they dream of Dragon Beatdown. But it suffices, and it sweeps. I’ve seen it dropped, kill some small stuff on the ground, and then swing over the rest. It’s also a very useful one-of tutor for Dragon centric decks that run Dragon tutors like Sarkhan's Triumph, Dragonstorm or Imperial Hellkite. And you don’t need any of that. Just run it as a solid flyer that can kill some stuff on arrival. You can play some in-color tricks with it (like Splinter Twin) or just swing and win. I just saw it slay four bodies on arrival and was reminded by how strong the card is. (And it’s cheap considering the low quantity of cards out there). (See also: Akoum Hellkite for another unheralded Dragon at the kitchen table that’s been impressing me).

6. Wargate

I know its colors are wonky for Commander. I get that. But man Wargate is good. Any deck that can run the colors should consider if Wargate is good enough to run (Don’t forget you can play it for no mana in the X to fetch out a zero cost card, such as any land, and put it into play). It fetches every permanent type ever made, and I like to use it to pop out the perfect planeswalker, artifact, or creature on a regular basis. From combo parts, to control decks looking for the perfect answer to, aggro decks looking for the perfect beater, everyone gets something! It’s unprecedented in how powerful and flexible it is. And I’m still using it to fetch out stuff with my Equinaut deck and grab cards like Equilibrium or Azorius Aethermage. Its sheer power is amazing. (See also Lavalanche for a similar power in Jund).

5. Soul Foundry

I still love dropping the Foundry at Magic Nights, imprinting something compelling and then bringing the heat with its tokens. Virtually any creature in the game you consider would be awesome on a Soul Foundry. Ghitu Slinger? Mulldrifter? Phyrexian Plaguelord? Sakura-Tribe Elder? Elvish Visionary? Goblin Ringleader? Imperious Perfect? You get the idea. Everything looks better when it’s getting forked around, right? Just take this list, as a good example. There are seven creatures on it. One’s the legendary Jedit Ojanen, so that’s not really in the cards. Of the other 6, five are really good off a Soul Foundry, and the 6th is sitting at #2 protecting your stuff, not really a Foundry-style card. That’s a lot of synergy from just this list. And I didn’t add any cards to here to make the list more Foundry-friendly, either.

4. Fathom Feeder

I think Fathom Feeder fits strongly into what I call the Fox Offering Syndrome. (Read more about it here)There are cards out there in Magic that are perfectly acceptable as is, and do a good job at the multiplayer table, and among them is Patron of the Kitsune. Anytime a creature attacks (you, one of your enemies, when you attack, etc) you gain a life for each one. That’s a lot of life. And it’s a 5/6 to boot, so it’s beefy. It’s a great card. But with Fox Offering, people often just mentally assign the creature to Fox decks and then don’t run it elsewhere, even where it’d be awesome. I suspect Fathom Feeder is in a similar place. It’s a 2-drop that has Deathtouch and allows you to spend five mana and draw a card. Now a lot of people look at the devoid/ingest abilities plus the card draw as tied to exiling opposing cards. Because of that, they mentally assign the Feeder to a role alongside the Eldrazi and their various Processors. But it’s fine outside of those as a 2-drop which kills anything that attacks into it just like other cheap deathtouchers, and can draw you cards (at instant speed). Just recently, I drew a passel of cards off it, kept someone from dropping an Enlightened Tutor, and more. But it’s getting no real looks by many. That’s unfortunate.

3. Confirm Suspicions

Confirmed! Early in this card’s preview, I was overjoyed at the potential power of it. Then it was released and it took a few months before I was really able to see it in action. One player countered another, and then drew cards from her Clue over time as she had the mana free. And with artifact decks? This card just sings in that environment, but it certainly doesn’t require it. In fact, I’ve seen a lot of Clue-cards not really being played in places where they’d be good because people are expecting them in pro-artifact shells. And of course, cards like Goblin Welder, Disciple of the Vault and even Master of Etherium are going to like the Clue-dom. We all get it. But let’s not get so tied down we forget the cards are good on their own in other shells. Consider Tireless Tracker in Landfall, Thraben Inspector in a blink deck and Bygone Bishop in a small creature deck. And Confirm Suspicions has finally proven itself in any late-game deck that wants to draw cards from its counters (like control at the Commander table). Suspicions Confirmed!

2. Devoted Caretaker

I’ve talked before about how great the Devoted Caretaker is in casual-land, and I was just reminded as I used it to keep my Commander free from some instant pointed at its head when they forgot about the Caretaker. Because it protects both creatures and other permanents with the protection from instant/sorcery trick, as well as itself, it’s a very flexible creature for protecting your stuff. Many players forget that after reading it, seeing it as a variant of Mother of Runes. Targeted stuff often heads elsewhere when it’s untapped with a White mana. Don’t forget this does not give Hexproof or Shroud, although it usually plays that way. It gives something else. And you can (as I recently did) use it to keep a creature alive from a non-targeted damaged based removal spell like Earthquake, Rolling Earthquake, or so forth.

1. Gravedigger

I don’t know if you all really get how freakin’ good Gravedigger is. Heading all the way back to Tempest and Portal, I have been rocking the Digger of Graves. It’s never let me down. It’s amazing in everything from graveyard-based shenanigans to Pauper to the most expensive and fun formats and decks you can imagine. And everyone knows about the Gravedigger chain. (You play a Gravedigger and return another from your graveyard. Then block, sacrifice, etc, and play that one next turn to return the one that died to your hand). It’s also a Zombie for tribal madness. I used to have a Five Color deck designed to abuse all of the various small creatures with Enters-the-battlefield costs (I called it Bear Beats) and had great cards like Thornscape Battlemage, Nekrataal, Man-o'-War and other classic small creatures with those triggers. Want to know what tended to be the most feared? Grave freakin’ digger. It’s that good. From recovering from removal to bringing back your best dead creature for another go, Gravedigger still doesn’t get heat from anyone. It’s a card people just don’t really respect, despite the cachet, the play, and the massive amount of copies out there. Maybe it’s run in Eternal Masters will prove value again.

And there we have it. From Woodripper and Aven Mimeomancer to Gravedigger and Devoted Caretaker, we have a lot of fun, zest, and power in here. You can Soul Foundry Gravedigger, get some cards from Fathom Feeder or Confirm Suspicions, grab the perfect permanent from your deck onto the battlefield with Wargate and more. You can see the cards alight, right?

Hopefully a few cards in this list speak to you.

So what cards have stood up and demanded to be discussed? What card won a recent game of Commander, multiplayer, or casual fun. What card has dominated your Limited Universe? What worked?