The release of a new set heralds the addition of new strategies and new cards for deckmongers all across the casual landscape. From sixty-card brews to Commander decks and more, kitchen-table metagames are always under assault by the latest releases.

Khans of Tarkir brings a nice set of wedge-based fun that should prove to bring a lot of tools to deck-builders who are rocking three (or more) colors in their decks. That means the cards here could see play for years to come. We’ve only seen wedge-colored cards in one classic set (Apocalypse). After that, only sets such as Commander and Planechase 2012 have the tri-color cards that involve one color and both of its enemies.

With that in mind, what are the best of the best? What’s the cream of the crop?

For casual Magic, what cards are the real winners? Let’s take a looksee!

Honorable Mention 1 – Embodiment of Spring

It's essentially a 0/3 wall for 1 mana, so you can throw this out there on the first turn and use it to block stuff for a while. Then, you can chump-block later on and sacrifice it to go grab a land, so it does a lot of work early. Or you can just drop it turn one, sacrifice it on turn two a la Rampant Growth to grab a land if you have the need. Either way, it works very well to either ramp or block early on. Plus, it puts a body in the 'yard in case you have a deck concept that harnesses your discard pile. The only thing keeping it from charting in the Top 10 is that annoying tap requirement. If it just cost and its sacrifice, the Embodiment would notch much higher, but because you have to tap it to use it, it has to be out for a turn. That's an annoying requirement. It lacks the ability to be played and used at once, unlike similar cards from Dawntreader Elk to Silkwing Scout.

Honorable Mention 2 – Bitter Revelation

These are the sorts of cards that decks are built on. Two cards head to your hand, and two head to the graveyard, at the loss of 2 life, such as with Sign in Blood and similar friends. It digs deeply, provides card advantage, and builds your graveyard as a nice resource. Any deck that uses a graveyard (which is quite a few in Casual Town) can use this as mainline card-draw spell. I intend to pick up quite a few for my deck stock and add them to many decks, from reanimation to delve to self-recursion and many more. From Esper artifact decks to Rakdos Goblin Welder tricks, it works well with artifacts, too, and don't forget that. It loves Grixis spell decks with a lot of flashback, too! It's a great card!

10 – Deflecting Palm

I like Sunforger. I love cards like Captain's Maneuver and Reflect Damage. I once used Captain's Maneuver to send 2 of the damage that Phage the Untouchable was going to deal to one opponent back to the controller in order to kill two people with one Phage attack. Deflecting Palm is a cheaper version of these cards, which is great! It's a powerful addition to your Sunforger package in Commander as well. Deflecting Palm can be sprung from hiding regularly. This is a powerful spell. Obviously, it lacks some of the power and flexibility of more expensive cards such as Divine Deflection or others.¹ But it works. Enjoy Palming your foes. It's a good team player.

9 – Ashcloud Phoenix

Think of Ashcloud Phoenix as a 4-mana Thragtusk. You make a 4/1 flyer for 4 mana, and then, when it dies, you have a 2/2 for free. That's not bad at all since it has some built-in removal resistance. Plus, you can unmorph the 2/2 post-death to shoot someone and reload your surviving Phoenix. It seems pretty sexy from where I'm sitting. Unlike a lot of Phoenix effects that cost mana to recur, you just kill the original to make another.

8 – Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Sarkhan is a solid entry to the red Planeswalker suite, as red is a color that typically disappoints when playing casual Magic.² Sarkhan comes down and swings for 4 in the sky and sets himself on 5 loyalty. That's not bad for your mana investment at all. I love Gideon Jura because you can Wrath of God and then swing with him on a naked board. Sarkhan is the same. Drop Rolling Earthquake or some such, and then swing for some serious smashery. Sure, Sarkhan can shoot something for 4 damage, but it's an incredible loss of loyalty, and I'm not sure how often I want to be using that. The ultimate is rough. It needs a dedicated deck to really work. So instead, I'll just play Sarkhan as a big, fat, Dragon beater who threatens the other stuff.

7 – Abzan Charm

Without question, the Abzan Charm is the best of the lot. First of all, it can exile a creature of 3 or more power, which is a great default setting to use to blow stuff up nice and easily. Exiling removal is great, and most of the creatures you want to kill at the kitchen table meet the requirements. Then, you can use it as a combat trick to add 2 +1/+1 counters as you choose. That's incredibly flexible, and the counters stick, so it's a combat trick with some real bite to it. Plus, you can also use it to keep something dying to damage-based removal, just as a burn spell. Finally, you can just use it to draw two cards and lose 2 life, like Sign in Blood and similar friends. You can always play it. This combination of exiling removal, combat trickery, and card-draw creates an extremely flexible card to run.

6 – Rattleclaw Mystic

It took me a while to realize just how good the Mystic was. Note the morph cost. Because you can unmorph it for colorless mana, you don't even need to be running green for it. Just play it morphed on turn three, and then unmorph on turn four, and tap for a mana—you will have made 2 mana and can play a 6-drop on turn four. That's solid acceleration in Casual Town from one card. Sure, it's not Sol Ring or anything, but it works. And in green, you can just play it as a good 2/1 beater early on to give you 4 mana on turn three. Since it hits three colors for you, it can fit into a lot of decks. Now in Commander Land, due to the color-identity rule, you can't run these tricks outside of a Commander deck that runs all three colors (so it would have to be either a five-colored deck or Temur). That reduces the tricks you can run with it, but outside of Commander, it's a truly flexible horse for your deck-building skills.

5 – Narset, Enlightened Master

Yes, it's just a 3/2 for 6 mana. It has just first strike and hexproof as well. These are sad occurrences. So what ability could Narset have to make her worth the cost? What about when Narset attacks, you can exile four cards deep and play all of the noncreatures for no mana? Does that sound appealing? Want to drop cards the likes of Searing Wind and Time Stretch all over the place? Well, you can now! Some of the nastiest spells of all time can be played for free—and that's not all. You can drop artifacts, enchantments, and Planeswalkers. Consider some of the vicious things you can run: Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Enter the Infinite, Omniscience, Darksteel Forge, or Dragonstorm. Even if all you do is play Tidings or Dack Fayden, you've accelerated your board position massively. And if the stuff you play can keep Narset going (such as extra turns, extra attacks via Relentless Assault effects, and tempo), you can win in a few turns. There's a lot of potential in this 3/2.

4 – Surrak Dragonclaw

Surrak reminds me of legendary creatures from the original set, Legends, that often had big Humans for no real reason. Anyway, this Human has flash and can't be countered, so it can come down anytime without a response. I think that's very nice of our good friend. Oh, and then once down, Surrak keeps your other creatures from being countered, too, and that's a lovely bit of assistance. There's a lot of countermagic at casual nights sometimes, and Surrak is a nice foil against your, well, Foil. And he doesn't stop there! Nope, he also gives your other guys trample, so they can smash face with the best of them. Plus, Surrak does all of this, combined with a 6/6 body, for just an investment for 5 mana. Doesn't that sound like a good deal? I for one would like to welcome our new Dragonclaw master.

3 – Hooded Hydra

There have been a lot of great Hydras printed recently. Yay Hydras! They fit green ramp strategies quite nicely since you can make them as big as you want and abuse that extra mana you can produce. The great thing about this Hydra is that it can hit your opponents in one or two different ways. Sometimes, you just want a big, dumb beater to smash through an opponent's defense. One giant creature is the best way to push through. Other times, you need a large army to slip around an opponent’s defense. Well, guess what? With the Hooded Hydra, you have both! When the big, giant creature bites it, you can just churn out a ton of 1/1 Snake tokens instead. So if the big guy is not the right strategy, just attack suicidally, and then make an army instead. In addition to having multiple angles of attack, it survives a Wrath of God effect quite nicely—just like established cards such as Symbiotic Wurm. That's a great creature! And then, don't forget that you can just morph it early, beat or block, and then unmorph it into a 5/5 Hydra. Because of the sheer flexibility of the dork, I suspect that the Hooded Hydra will prove to be among the top five Hydras for casual play of all time. So grab a few, and run them out there.

2 – Clever Impersonator

Everybody loves Clone effects! Over the years, we've seen some potent ones that cost a little more than the original's 4 mana (Vesuvan Doppelganger, Mercurial Pretender) and some that are cheaper (Phantasmal Image). Making a Clone for 4 mana, but with the added flexibility of duplicating any nonland is great. Copy an opponent's Planeswalker, artifact, or enchantment. Are you sad that Johnny has this great permanent out and you don't? Don't fret little one; just make your own! From Sphinx of Uthuun to Consecrated Sphinx, from Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre to Liliana of the Veil, and from Mind's Eye to Survival of the Fittest, you can copy anything. So why don't you?

1 – Utter End

My evaluation of these exiling answers that we've had in spades for about a year is hinged on the prediction that they will fade once the indestructible Gods of Theros rotate from Standard. However, if the shift to printing many exiling answers represents a permanent change in how removal is doled out, cards like this, Perilous Vault, and Silence the Believers will drop in value considerably. However, for now, this answers many unanswerable problems at the kitchen table, from Planeswalkers to creatures, from artifacts to enchantments, and all at instant speed. It's an instant, 4-mana Desert Twister that exiles. That immediately makes it among the most powerful removal spells of all time.

And there we have the Top 10 cards from Khans of Tarkir for your next causal night!

Which cards are you looking forward to cracking? What did you like (or dislike) about my list? Here we go!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent

¹ First of all, Deflecting Palm only protects you from damage; it's worthless in helping a creature out (or another player for that matter). Second, it redirects the damage dealt to the controller, so you can't use it to kill other creatures. Finally, it only redirects the damage that would have been dealt to you, not all of the damage the source deals. Take Reflect Damage as a counterexample. It will often kill an opponent who plays a card like Wildfire, Hurricane, or other damage-based removal. All of the damage is dealt back to the controller, so if a Wildfire was going to deal 44 damage to all of the creatures in play, now the controller is dead. That's a far nastier spell than Deflecting Palm. While the Palm is strong, it's important to understand its limitations compared to previous effects that cost more mana but that were a lot more potent.

² For example, what is the worst 'Walker of all time? It’s probably Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded, right? Then add in stuff like Chandra Ablaze that require the perfect home or a weaker selection of 'Walkers such as the original Chandra Nalaar, who just doesn’t have a lot of power.