Hello folks! Are you ready? Are you ready for the Conspiracy of Blue? A brand new set is here, and that means one thing. One of the most important things in the history of Magic . . . 

New Cards.

And this is a follow up to a highly unusual set.

There has never, in the history of Magic, been a more wonky, off-the-wall, unusual set (which is legal with the black borders fully intact) than Conspiracy. Draft actions? That’s just outside the norm. And cards that have abilities based on the draft? That’s also bizarre. Take a card like Lurking Automaton. Outside of a draft format, it’s a 0/0 creature for 5 mana. You aren’t playing it anywhere. Inside of a draft, it’s really interesting, because the longer you wait to draft it, the better it becomes. I run one in my Commander Draft, and it typically goes around pick 6 or 7. Sometimes a bit later, and sometimes earlier, but usually then. Draft actions are just a beyond-the-box experience. We’ve never seen that before. And then we have Conspiracies as well, which are draftable things that help your deck in a way beyond the 40 cards.

Given the admittedly avant-garde nature of what is going on here, we are in an odd place for the second set. We are covering territory that we saw before, but which was so unusual. Standing on the shoulders of giants, so to speak. Wherefore to now?

Let’s take a look at the various blue options.

Arcane Servant — Many of the new Blue cards are smaller draft-triggers. At a kitchen table, outside of the Limited environment, there’s something to be said for a powerful draft trigger. And I don’t think stuff like Spire Phantasm or Illusionary Informant are the sort of fun power you want to unleash in Cubes or anything. But Arcane Servant is different in kind, and has a lot to offer.

If you are drafting, then you can get a free spell. So you draft, and then exile a spell. Then drop it later and get that spell for free. The result is a 3/3 creature for 5 mana that’s only a little under curve and comes with a free spell. How many drafts are out there where you grab a powerful card from another color surprisingly late? How often do you see a card at pick 9 or 10 that should be 3 or 4? What about when you started with one color, and then switched later when it dried up? What about that spell that’s good, but costs too much mana to rely on? Well you can use the best (sorcery or instant) spell you drafted, but aren’t playing from that color. And you can switch the card you use for the Savant as well. After Game 1, you may like that Infest to clear out small stuff your foe seems to have a lot more of than the normal Burn Away you have. You can suit the choice to the foe and the situation. (Plus, the card is not in your deck and thus does not impact your color identity. So in my Commander Cube, I can run Arcane Servant, and then post-draft, play any sorcery/instant I drafted that’s not on color and get it to play.)

Hired Heist — One of the new spins on Conspiracies this time around are these color-matters ones. Hired Heist is a useful addition to your deck, if you are running Blue. The last time around, I remember stuff like 1-drop Typhoid Rats doing good work keeping folks away and being used for Conspiracies. These ones work with the common creatures, since you have the best chance of getting a few in the draft. I remember once having four Custodi Squires. You could use Illusionary Informant as a 2-drop that flies and gets the draft trigger as well. Vaporkin is more beater that blocker, but plays a similar role. The Blue mana to draw a card when you smash is a lot better than the simple Loot effect I figured this card would be, and adds a powerful reward for the right deck.

Illusion of Choice — What about Illusion of Choice? It replaces itself, and can be used for some fun chicanery. What could you do with it?

Choose Your Illusion ? Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (12)
• 2 Docent of Perfection
• 2 Sphinx of the Final Word
• 4 Archaeomancer
• 4 Fog Bank

• Spells (24)
• 2 Dismiss
• 2 Ghostly Flicker
• 4 Illusion of Choice
• 4 Scatter to the Winds
• 2 Coastal Discovery
• 2 Expropriate
• 4 Plea for Power
• 4 Coercive Portal

• Lands (24)
• 24 Island

Buy This Deck

Here we go! A quick a simple decklist that is trying to use Illusion of Choice to get the Will of the Council or Council's Dilemma stuff to trigger. Then we layered in stuff like Awaken to give you creatures off your spells, bring back good spells. Stuff like that. And as Illusion of Choice is a spell, you can get two spells off, draw a card for the first to replace it, and more. And you know what? This deck is just a rough draft, my next one might run stuff like Isochron Scepter and such after I gave the deck a couple of whirls to see how it played.

While some of the Council’s Dilemma stuff isn’t something I’d want outside of Limited (Messenger Jays) I can still see some value in a few Blue cards in this mechanic. Expropriate is certainly one of them. But there’s another you might miss. It might look like draft chaff at first, but so did Stinkweed Imp and a lot of the dredge cards, so let’s take a look under the hood . . . 

Coveted Peacock — Like Wizards of the Coast, I find the value of creatures that have to attack to get something good to trigger is really valuable. I can attack with my Avenging Druid or Sword of the Animist-ed creature in order to get some damage, get a trigger, and then fake it like all I wanted was the land or something. Meanwhile life totals are tricking down. The attack trigger, or combat damage trigger, is a powerful intoxicant to force the game into action. After all, everyone wants to maximize the value of their cards. A card like Lu Xun, Scholar General ain’t doing you any good sitting on the sidelines. You need to swing with that guy to get the full value of the card. That’s where something like Coveted Peacock fits in. If you swing, then you can goad away. That’s how you maximize the value of the Bird. And you can get that cool 3/4 creature to swing, and potentially hit for some damage. Attacking someone else with the goaded creature keeps the game moving and away from you at the same time, so there’s a double whammy there. Plus I could easily see it in a Commander decklist.

All right, so now that we’ve gotten to see some of the interesting cards Blue has to offer, what else intrigues me from the set? What are my favorite cards?

Top Three Favorite Blue Cards

3. Stunt Double

Cloning Your Flash is fun. Barry Allen is great at stopping evil-doers, but he needs some assistance. Even the best heroes can’t get stuff done. So Clone your best hero now, in order to either get better fighting, or to grab a useful ability. And if your opponent has a bad villain, why not Clone that and bring it to the side of light? You get all of the benefits of Cloning, at Barry Allen levels of speed. Seems like a win-win scenario to me! You know how good Clone is. Clone variants are very good in the right build. And you know how good Flashing is. It’s powerful in virtually any build. So this is a no-brains-needed-even-a-Zombie-will-like-it card. Just add water and stir.

2. Keeper of Keys

I like the Keeper of Keys. Remember a card which says "You become the Monarch" is essentially stating that, "You draw a card." But it's slower and harder to abuse with stuff like Ghostly Flicker and Nephalia Smuggler or Cloudstone Curio.

So with the Keeper, you play it, and you’ll eventually draw a card, so it replaces itself. If you survive as the Monarch for a full round of turns, then you’ll suddenly begin to unleash a destructive force of unblockfulness. None of your stuff can be stopped; you are the Monarch after all. It’s not as powerful as something like Sun Quan, Lord of Wu, but it’s also not as egregious. Want to stop it? Just take away the Monarch. I love this as a potential win-con for a pillow fort shell. Like, say . . . 

Keeper for the Win ? Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (16)
• 2 Draining Whelk
• 2 Jeering Homunculus
• 2 Keeper of Keys
• 2 Sphinx of Magosi
• 2 Thieving Magpie
• 2 Wall of Wonder
• 4 Looter il-Kor

• Spells (20)
• 4 Aetherize
• 4 Dissipate
• 4 Fact or Fiction
• 4 Propaganda
• 4 Rhystic Study

• Lands (24)
• 22 Island
• 2 Maze of Ith

Buy This Deck

That works right! Obviously you could flesh it out with other stuff like White’s Windborn Muse. But you get the idea. You keep yourself from smashery, and then keep the Monarch, and keep drawing cards and stuff. We also have the Looter il-Kor which I love even more post-Monarch-y. It gives you a way to steal back any Monarch tricks. Even if no one attacks you, they could steal it with a card like their own Keeper of Keys or similar cards. So forget that! You are going to look good and smell better with this dose of win. (I even tossed in Jeering Homunculous. Why not give it a spin and see what you get?)

1. Expropriate

Against a group of people this is going to be a Time Walk and a bunch of Confiscates. And then you can swing with your stolen creatures on your free turn. You will normally steal a bunch of creatures and then get that swing on. But there are times when you could grab a Planeswalker, especially one close to going off all ultimate like. Maybe you want to pilfer that enchantment or snag a powerful aura. It’s even an answer, a la Annex, for lands. You’ll find a wonderful trove of opportunity here. And don’t forget that we have a few ways here and there to pump out some powerful stuff quickly. Not just the obvious Dream Halls. You’ll find a few ways of getting free cheap spells here and there. Maybe Galvanoth. And if you fork it with Pyromancer's Goggles or Mirari or something, holy crap. Like, say, this:

Chaining the Big Stuff ? Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (16)
• 2 Keranos, God of Storms
• 2 Uyo, Silent Prophet
• 4 Galvanoth
• 4 Man-o'-War
• 4 Sigiled Starfish

• Spells (20)
• 4 GeistBlast
• 1 Searing Wind
• 1 Urza's Rage
• 1 Expropriate
• 1 Time Stretch
• 2 Goblin Charbelcher
• 2 Pyromancer's Goggles
• 2 Temporal Aperture
• 4 Sensei's Divining Top
• 2 Mirari

• Lands (26)
• 13 Island
• 13 Mountain

Buy This Deck

And this is a quick and dirty shell built around the powerful Expropriate. This deck only wants the one copy, but others could easily toss out more, and you can run stuff like big splashy spells, fun U/R sorceries that go big, and really exciting effects. Timmy isn’t always about the big fat creatures. He’s often about the big fat spells. Use your tools like Sensei's Divining Top and Sigiled Starfish to find the good stuff, and then toss it on top for a Galvanoth trigger. Or you can shuffle up and get a useful flip from Temporal Aperture. And other cards and here to party as well. Go big with Expropriate!

And what about reprints for your Blue fun?

Top Three Reprints in Blue:

3. Kami of the Crescent Moon

We have never had a reprint of this card. So it’s about time. While I’m not the biggest fan of Howling Mine effects normally, tons of people are. And you can’t deny the fun 1/3 body that comes with our good friend. This is a card that has earned another turn for the newer players, and another feature or two at the kitchen table.

2. Show and Tell

It seems like most of these sets have one or three big, dumb, solid, hits just to get the reprint wagon moving. We’ve seen a metric ton of quality cards hit the shelves recently. Sneak Attack. Force of Will. Doubling Season. We’ve seen Jace, the Mind Sculptor selling both From the Vault: Twenty and Eternal Masters. And Show and Tell plays that role quite nicely indeed, thank you very much. Get them while they’re hot!

1. Desertion

Ah yes. Desertion. I recently named it the third best casual counter of all time. I included it in my Underused Hall of Fame long before Commander became a thing and it found the perfect home. In fact, it was in the first class, and the top blue card inducted. It’s that good. Desertion rules. It really is as simple as that. It’s the Monarch of Blue countermagic. It wins games. And it’s rare that anyone can say that about a Counterspell.

Honorable Mention: Followed Footsteps

While we are looking at funky reprints, let’s have a shout out for our good friend Followed Footsteps. It deserves an honorable mention. It was close, but it just missed my list. It’s a fun card from way back in the first Ravnica set. It’s never been reprinted sense, and it has an odd ability that’s not been duplicated. It’s a powerful fun card, and one that I suspect a lot of current players may not have realized existed. So check it out too!

And there we have it. We have fun reprints and powerful new additions to the abattoir of multiplayer butchery. And fun. Don’t forget the fun. Cards like Desertion remind me of Misdirection in the first set, while stuff like Arcane Servant evokes the best draft-matters cards from the first iteration. We’ve got the beat.

What about the artifacts?

There’s only one new artifact, but I love it:

Spy Kit — This is a huge flavor win and Johnny tool. What do spies do? They can take the identity of others. So this equipment gives you that ability. Your creature has the names of all of the (nonlegendary) creatures out there. So that’s a great checkmark on the flavor list. Previously we only saw this ability on Blankman. The ability to use and abuse this is big. You can’t use it for stuff like grandeur of Korlash, Heir to Blackblade, but there’s enough out there for you to tease. Here, let me give you a handful of (unresearched) examples that are popping into my mind as I write this:

• Ivory Guardians
• Shadowborn Apostle
• Plague Rats

But here’s a deck for all of my Johnny friends out there:

Spies and Wizards ? Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
• 2 Clone
• 2 Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
• 2 Vesuvan Doppelganger
• 4 Aether Adept
• 4 Biovisionary
• 4 Fog Bank
• 4 Wall of Blossoms

• Spells (12)
• 2 Mask of the Mimic
• 2 Worldly Tutor
• 4 Fact or Fiction
• 4 Spy Network

• Lands (25)
• 10 Forest
• 11 Island
• 4 Yavimaya Coast

Buy This Deck

There you are! You play a bunch of cards that are Biovisionaries, duplicate them, or drop Spy Network on a wall like Wall of Blossoms. Then you win since you have at least four. Use Mask of the Mimic to duplicate your Biovisionary by sacrificing another creature to get to your four. Then we have some tempo, some Walls, and some card drawing and tutoring to get the needed stuff. Spy Network for the win!

That’s a sick deck. Biovisionary for the win. Spy Kit is funky and frolicking fun.

What about the reprints?

My Top Three Artifact Reprints

3.Psychosis Crawler

I love the Crawler. It’s subtle, it slowly lowers life, it’s a win condition and a decent beatstick in one card. It combos well with Magic. Are you drawing cards? Then you are slapping folks for life. So as long as your aren’t Fasting or hiding in an Island Sanctuary, you should be fine. It loves card draws like Howling Mine or Font of Mythos, Merfolk Looter, Enclave Cryptologist, and Stroke of Genius. It’s one of the better secrets out there, and you should run it. Now.

2. Platinum Angel

You can’t lose the game. That’s a powerful statement. After all, we play games to win. So dropping something that prevents your foes from winning and keeps you from losing is a great card to use as a foundation to build a winning position from. As long as you can keep it alive, you are alive. Simple. So let’s get another round of Platinum Angels for everyone!

1. Horn of Greed

The Horn of Greed is almost like a better Howling Mine. You have it in your deck, so you can build around it more than others. It’s harder to purely dominate and run, but everyone still benefits, like Fecundity. That benefits leads folks to often skip taking out the Horn. I’ve seen these lay on the battlefield for much longer than they should have. (And remember, you don’t draw cards off land fetching like Rampant Growth, just on playing the land. Something like Exploration will trigger it.)

Who’s excited for multiplayer drafting fun? This guy!

Are you ready for the Blue and the artificial? Buddies forever in the Conspiracy space. Take the Crown this Friday!