Hello happy Magic readers! I hope that you are having one of the best days in your life! Today I want to look at some of the most underrated cards in the Commander '95, sub-format of everyone's favorite casual default format.

I created Commander '95 as a format that only allows cards that were initially printed until the end of 1995, so that's Alpha-Homelands and the Promo cards as well. Any card that is banned in Commander normally is banned here as well. Unlike some other formats that use only old cards, you are encouraged to use more recent printings and if you want to proxy, I won't stop you.

There are a lot of obvious all-stars for this format that are similar to ones in the standard format, like the original dual lands, Sol Ring, City of Brass, Mana Crypt, Lightning Bolt, Counterspell, Swords to Plowshares, Regrowth, Demonic Tutor, Wheel of Fortune, Sylvan Library, Land Tax, Strip Mine and loads more good stuff! It's a deeper format than people realize, but it has its quirks. Here are some great underrated cards in the format that you might not think about, but you should!

Let's look at a few places to start!

Honorable Mention #1. Pyrotechnics

I love this card in Commander '95 (C95). It has all the potential for card advantage as Fireball but with a lower mana cost for a set ability to split. You can easily get a 2-for-1 with these and I've seen a 3-for-1 once. This is especially true in multiplayer formats where your targeting options have increased. I find it to be a very powerful addition to your burn suite, and it's one of the reasons that red is the deepest color in the format.

Honorable Mention #2. Fumarole AND Fire Covenant

I love this Rakdos duo of removal from Ice Age! As you can see, both pay life, which is easier to do in a 40-life format than in the 20-life one that this pair was designed for. Both are card advantage. The Fumarole is a sorcery at 5 mana that trades 3 life for destroying both a creature and a land. Pretty good right? Fire Covenant is better as a three-mana instant that will let you trade life for damage as you choose among any number of target creatures. I've regularly seen this thing trade 7 or 9 life at instant speed to be a Plague Wind that leaves you as the only one with creatures. They are a potent duo!

#10. Elemental Augury

This Ice Age rare is doing something that is very rare in this era. What is it? library manipulation. You pretty much have Portent and the card loss of Natural Selection and Visions. This was not an era of library manipulation, but here you can reorder the top three cards of any player, yourself or your foe, for three mana. This card was good in it's time but it really good in a 100-card Highlander format! You'll often have the mana to target multiple players. This would hit higher, but it's color identity is an issue. Only Grixis can run it, but every Grixis deck should aim for it.

#9. Baron Sengir

The Baron was a very popular character after he was released but he's fallen out of favor since. But here there are very good reasons to run it! The #1 card is one reason, but the others are simple. He's big, efficient, flies, and regenerate Sengir Vampire or Krovikan Vampire. Don't sleep on him! Especially here. I run him in multiple real-life brews.

#8. Musician

This cumulative upkeep fun powerhouse is a 1/3 for three mana that won't be around forever, but its upkeep is pretty easy. Since it dies eventually, it often will dodge past removal since no one wants to burn a Lightning Bolt, Psionic Blast or Incinerate on it. In the meantime, it can tap to place a music counter on any creature. The original bard with an odd Wizard type gives the creature it taps a permanent upkeep that lasts even after the Musician dies, so it's pretty good at slowing things down until it dies. It's fun! I love Drew Tucker's art for this card as well, what about you?

#7. Basalt Monolith

After Sol Ring and Mana Crypt and often Mana Vault as well as Fellwar Stone in multicolored decks, that's pretty much where most deck builders end. But Basalt Monolith shouldn't be ignored. It's not mana-positive like Mana Vault but it is mana-neutral, unlike most mana rocks. Your untap doesn't cause you to lose mana, and you can do it at the end of a foe's step, then untap your lands and you get a more reliable source of mana. It's pretty saucy!

#6. Broken Visage

One of the most powerful targeted creature removal colors in the history of the game is Black with its load of Murders. In the early days we don't have that many options - Terror, Dark Banishing and then the sweeping removal of Hellfire. That's it, save for Broken Visage, which is why it's often skipped by new players, but it's pretty good. When someone attacks with a non-artifact creature you can destroy (without regenerate), targeted attacker. Then you create a token of that size, so if you killed an attacking 3/3, you get a 3/3 Shadow token which will die at the end of the turn. You can block with your token, stop damage from two sources, and maybe kill two creatures with one card. It's pretty good!

Let's turn to my Top Five!

#5. Sedge Troll

A three-mana 3/3 that has a key ability to regenerate feels like a modern take on creatures since it's very on-curve. I am confident that it influenced the next set's Kird Ape that was a one-drop that got bigger if you controlled a Forest and was one of the most iconic and best cards ever printed. Sedge Troll's only weakness is that it has to be run in decks with both Red and Black mana and that's just three possible options in C95 - Rakdos, Jund, and Grixis. That's why it's here at number 5.

#4. The Mana Battery Cycle

There is a mana rock cycle that exists in the format that was printed in Legends and then reprinted in the core set. For four mana you get a Battery that you can tap for one color of mana. Did you not need it this turn? Great, at the end of someone's turn, tap two mana, this, and put a counter on the Battery. Later on, you can tap the Battery for some or all of that stored mana plus one. They are pretty good in decks in a format that goes long. They are also, very cheap to purchase. Even their original form is very cheap. For example, right now as I am writing this, there are played versions here on CoolStuffInc.com that are less than $5. Core set copies are bulk rares at $0.49 each, so you can easily find a very budget friendly set of artifacts that play well in the longer Commander '95 games you'll have running around. Shout out to the Storage Counter lands printed two sets later.

#3. Tranquility AND Essence Filter

This three-mana sorcery duo is very powerful in C95. Why? Let's look. Here are your ways of destroying a target enchantment - Arenson's Aura which is in two colors and thus is harder to play, Disenchant, Desert Twister, and...the very janky Remove Enchantments. That's it for targeted removal. Now we are deep in creature removal, and have more than enough artifact removal, but enchantment removal is very light, so people playing green will usually run at least one of these sweepers as a generic answer, maybe both. Essence Filter can destroy only non-White enchantments if you want so it's better to run in a Selesnya-colored deck that is running cards like Land Tax, it might want to save. Don't forget to run these!

#2. Arena

Arena is one of the better lands in the format as you can tap it and some mana to fight a creature your opponent chooses. Both creatures tap as they are used for the turn. Note that you do not target their creature, they choose it, so it plays like a Diabolic Edict effect where they send in their worst creature, rather than a better creature. You can send in your best though, and this is great card advantage over time. Every color has creature kill (Psionic Blast, Desert Twister, Fireball, Swords to Plowshares, Terror) but this is a great adjunct to that.

Let's finish this with a deep dive!

#1. Wall of Swords with a shout out to Wall of Air and Dancing Scimitar

What do the following creatures have in common?

Blue:

• Mahamoti Djinn
• Serendib Djinn
• Sibilant Spirit

Black:

• Baron Sengir
• Yawgmoth Demon
• Lord of the Pit

Red:

• Shivan Dragon
• (Shout out to Dragon Whelp and Nalathni Dragon)

Green:

• None, not even Cockatrice

Gold:

• The Elder Dragon cycle

Those are the only flyers prints up through 1995 that can kill a 5-toughness flying defender. White's biggest flyers are Seraph and Serra Angel. Cockatrice, which would normally kill a blocker that dared to jump in front of it won't work on Walls for flavor reasons, so only Dancing Scimitar will die to it. You are going to have to pump Dragon Whelp or Nalathni Dragon to kill a 5-toughness flyer and the latter will die. Lord of the Pit and Yawgmoth Demon are rough and require massive commitments and sacrifices to make work. Sibilant Spirit forces the person it attacks to draw a card so that isn't heavily played. That's a trade your opponent will happily take. Serendib Djinn forces a sacrifice of a land each turn which is pretty hefty in this format and rarely gets played.

That leaves just three options in Red, one in Blue, one in Black, and the gold cycle as ways to defeat a flying 5-toughness defender. So, they are played as great ways to gum up the works! I like them a lot!

And there we go! What did you think of my list? Anything in here that you liked, forgot about, or never knew about? Anything I missed? Just let me know!