Hey look, when you look at the wackiest things Wizards of the Coast has ever done in black borders, Conspiracy has to qualify. We have cards that are draft actions, like Canal Dredger or Deal Broker. They give you abilities during the draft, and seriously, that alone is outside the box. Plus these abilities often link with real game play. Aether Searcher and the ability to search for something you drafted or something like Lurking Automaton that’s as big as where you drafted it. These sorts of draft-interactive cards are pretty strong.

You have the Conspiracy type as well. You can draft them to really improve your draft deck with additional options, and cards like Double Stroke or Brago's Favor or even better yet, a Backup Plan. Because every deck needs a Backup Plan, right?

These add another layer of drafting to the mix. And then you have the Will of the Council votes, and cards like Custodi Squire and Coercive Portal and even Magister of Worth all play really well. In fact, most play better than you might think at first. After playing with them for years, you know all of the little tricks here and there. Shoot, we even have cards that care about voting, like Grudge Keeper or Brago's Representative.

And don’t forget Parley giving G/W a potential and occasional card drawing angle that’s people friendly. Like a fun little pigeon.

Oh, and the set’s balanced for Casual Multiplayer Limited.

Just think about that.

All of that made the first iteration of Conspiracy a highly unique and special set. Nothing, not Modern Masters, Eternal Masters or Abe’s Commander Cube works like this did. It was something special and magical. And yes, Magic-al too!

So let’s delve into the good stuff here and unpack some value.

There are some cards in this set that I have always played. And some I’ve often heralded. I’ve talked about just how good Deal Broker is as a colorless 3-drop of some size that Loots. You don’t need a draft-centric Cube or something to make it work. Commander deck can use it. Custodi Squire is awesome because you almost never fail to get the card you want, so long as you aren’t targeting a broken card from your graveyard. And hey look, by now we all know the value of a Brago, King Eternal Commander deck (or even one built around Marchesa, the Black Rose) or the value of Dack Fayden in Eternal formats. We get it.

But other than cards I’ve long pushed, as well as cards we all know about, what else is what? What cards sell you? And what 10 cards are unsung from the first Conspiracy?

Here are some quick and dirty cards that sell me on the good stuff:

10. Canal Dredger

There are times when you want a good, strong, colorless wall that can tap to reload stuff to your library. Maybe you want to do it in response to graveyard removal, or because you have a Demonic Tutor in hand or shoot, even a Planar Portal out. Perhaps you just want to not die to getting decked. I don’t know, but it’s there. Before the Dredger, you only had Junktroller to look too, and now we have another, which is a good amount of redundancy for formats like Commander to use.

9. Flamewright

Why are you not running this in your Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer Commander deck? There certainly are some fun and useful ways to harness the Flamewright in a lot of interesting shells. Oh, and don’t forget that Flamewright taps and makes constructs. With Kaladesh coming down the pipe soon, there’s a strong potential for some serious Construct love.

8. Plea for Power

Let’s face it. You are never taking another turn. So it’s basically an easier-to-cast Concentrate. And that’s fine. And if the stars align, and the table wants to give you a Time Walk instead, then the option is there. I’ve seen it used to attack and kill someone who is too powerful. (See also, combining it with something like Grudge Keeper, and it basically shoots your foes for 2 damage and you draw three cards). There are a lot of folks out there running worse card drawing than Plea for Power. Forget the voting and the Time Walk ability, and just think you’ll always draw three, and you’ll be fine.

7. Extract from Darkness

As it was recently reprinted in Eternal Masters, I’ve found it’s getting a little more play, but don’t sleep on this powerful variant of a Zombify effect twinned to a powerful milling one. Because the card you are reanimating is coming from any graveyard, mass milling everyone for two first gives you more options! (Note it does not target the animated creature card unlike traditional reanimation stuff, so someone cannot counter it by exiling the targeted card).

6. Treasonous Ogre

Ah yes, the Ogre of Treasons. Ever since it was released I’ve played with it, and it’s got some stuff to recommend. In Commander in particular, I like the combination of life-for-mana where you are starting with 40 life. And don’t forget that dethrone works well in a multiplayer game. You get both a real creature for the swinging and a mana-making threat that fuels combos, storm counts, and does a lot of good work for your team.

5. Dack's Duplicate

As far as Clone variants go, getting both haste and dethrone on one for 4 mana is pretty much at the top of the heap. It’s up there with Evil Twin for pure power. I get your creature, only enhanced! “Anything you can make, Dack can make better.” (To the tune of, “Anything you can do (I Can Do Better)”)

4. Deathreap Ritual

I think there are a number of people out there with decks where this is a strong card drawing tool, and they’ve forgotten about it. You are drawing a card at the end of any turn in which a creature died, and there’s a lot of death in multiplayer. You are losing cards, foes are losing cards, Commanders are dying constantly. And you can manipulate the board to get better use out of this. I’ll attack dangerously ,suicidially with a creature in the hope that someone will block, kill it, and let it die. It’s downright insane. So grab your Sakura-Tribe Elder, Nekrataal, Damnation, and Greater Good, and load this thing up!

3. Selvala, Explorer Returned

There’s a lot of value in making friends. There’s more in drawing cards. There’s even more in making mana. So this card does all three. You gain some life each time you tap Selvala. Then you make some Green mana too, and you get to give everyone a card, even you. But since you have the mana and card, and it’s usually your turn when you tap her, you are in the best position to use her, and that ”best position” value piles up over a game.

2. Grenzo, Dungeon Warden

One of the things I’ve always liked about our good Goblin Rogue is that there is not an obvious way to build around him in Commander. I mean, I know how to build around an Elf Lord like Ezuri, Renegade Leader. Just insert Elf and shuffle. But Grenzo? He’s not obvious. And I love that. Sure there may be a few tricks that work with him, but he’s not obvious. (Oh, and combine him with Canal Dredger, btw. Tap the Dredger to put a creature at the bottom of your library small enough to count, then tap 2 mana for Grenzo Boy and it’ll wind up right onto that battlefield all ready to rock and roll).

1. Scourge of the Throne

I’m actually a little surprised that this card has retained it’s secondary market value because I never see it get played any more, other than by me. It’s just not getting hits. And it’s worth it. It’s got super dethrone. Did you attack the idiot with the most life? Well then let’s Relentless Assault this thing and give you another attack. You don’t even have to hit anything with the Scourge – you can have it Maze of Ith’ed or blocked by a Fog Bank or whatever. Now the trigger doesn’t work if you have the most life. Sorry. But you can usually get two attacks for your team with the one body. And frankly, we all know just how good that can be, right? Right! So get your Scourge on!

And three we have it!

And don’t forget hits like Council's Judgment, Dack Fayden, Coercive Portal, or casual cards like Realm Seekers, Marchesa, the Black Rose, and Muzzio, Visionary Architect. We have a lot of powerful and useful cards under the hood from the set.

What Conspiracy cards were your favorites? When you look back, what are your thoughts? Any other unsung heroes from the set?

And get ready to Take That Crown!