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Top Ten Cards from Midnight Hunt

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Hello happy readers! I hope that you are having a kicking day today! Today I want to look at my choices for the Top Ten (New) Cards from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. This is a deep set, and in my initial look over the spoiler I pulled out 59 cards that are worth mentioning, although 5 of those are a cycle, that are strong additions to casual play and formats like Commander, Five Color, multiplayer, and loads more!

Today we'll be looking at Top Ten Card and 2 Honorable Mentions, so we'll hit 12 cards overall. Then we'll do it again next week, and maybe the week after that! In today's list we have three commons, no uncommons, six rares and three mythics, which is a little common heavy for my normal Top Ten list which often goes without any or maybe a token common. Ready to check it out? Let's do it do it!

And now it's time for a breakdown...

Honorable Mention #1 (#12) - Electric Revelation

Electric Revelation

I know that it's not the same power level, but the first thing that Electric Revelation reminded me was of another flashback card powerhouse named Faithless Looting. Faithless Looting saw you draw and then discard two cards, and it cost a card to do so, here you discard and draw two cards. And both have flashback.

Now Faithless Looting was cheap enough that it became a powerhouse, whereas this is just three mana the first time and four the second. But discarding two cards to draw four over two turns at instant speed seems really strong, and because you aren't spending two cards to do so but just one, this is card advantage unlike most of these effects, as you are our three cards (discard two, and the Revelation) to draw four, which is good math for a non-drawing color like Red. You can also discard the worst card you drew to draw two more cards. Don't sleep on the instant status here either. Discarding is also key in decks that want discards, like madness, or want stuff in the graveyard for various synergies. This is an amazing card from the set and, in my option, the best discard to draw effect ever printed in Red. Good stuff!

Honorable Mention #2 (#11) - Lunarch Veteran // Luminous Phantom

Lunarch Veteran // Luminous Phantom

This is the only disturb card on today's list. Soul Warden is to this 1-drop what Faithless Looting was to the previous card. Soul Warden and friends is ubiquitous at the kitchen table, and there is a deck archetype named after them - "Soul Sisters." Gaining a life each time a dork arrives at the battlefield is incredibly good, and it's even better in 20 life formats like Five Color than it is in the 40 life Commander, but don't sleep on it there either.

However, the Veteran is half of a Soul Warden - you are only gaining life if the creatures arrives under your control. It trades that loss for disturb for just two mana when it dies, and it can come back as a 1/1 flyer that gains life as things leaves your battlefield. Where it really seeks strength is in decks with a lot of self-sacrifice like Aristocrats where you don't mind either side since you'll be sacrificing and bringing back a creature over and over again, and you'll gain life as a 1-drop or as a two-mana disturb. It's pretty good for the cause!

#10. Curse of Silence

Curse of Silence

This card hits number 10 due to its power in just one format - Commander. It would be higher in a Commander-only list and lower in other ones. This 1-drop in White is a Curse that lets you name a card and then that card costs the cursed player two more mana, and when they do you can sacrifice the Curse for a card. In casual gaming, how will you know their deck well enough to make this work? Name their Commander! You get wait two more turns to see their Commander for the first time, and then sac to draw and replace itself, which is rare card flow in White. It's a great card in the casual format that most folks play.

#9. Consider

Consider

Opt is heavily played in casual town. 31,489 decks use it over at EDHREC.com for 10% of all decks. That's a lot of use, and this card is arguably better than Opt since you'd rather throw the card into the graveyard that you don't want rather than to the bottom of your library. If I don't need any more lands, I can just bin it and draw another card, rather than potentially draw that extra land later after shuffling my library. It's better than Opt in a non-graveyard sensitive deck, but in one that cares about the graveyard? This is an essential card. For example, it's playable in the Modern graveyard spells matter deck that uses Dragon's Rage Channeler that wants the right stuff in the graveyard to get to 3/3. You'll note that they gave this a generic name to enable reprinting in future sets as well. This is our highest charting common. Welcome to the team!

#8. Memory Deluge

Memory Deluge

This fun 4-drop will instantly dig down four cards and then let you draw two of them, which is pretty good for the cause. As you can see, this thing will flashback for 7 mana and then dig seven and let you choose two cards again, making this a sweet investment of cards and digging for body parts. You net two spells cast for your instant/sorcery spell triggers like Guttersnipe, and you netted four cards and looked at eleven. Since it's an instant you can do it at the end of your turn. I adore it for formats like Commander. Good stuff for the winning!

#7. Arlinn, the Packs' Hope // Arlinn, the Moon's Fury

Arlinn, the Pack's Hope // Arlinn, the Moon's Fury

Our penultimate charting daybound/nightbound card is this planeswalker. As you can see, she arrives to the battlefield with two abilities, none of which will kill her with four loyalty and four mana. The fun stuff happens with the +1 that let's you flash out creatures, but I really like the -3 to drop two 2/2 Wolves onto the battlefield and stay alive for more fun times. If you flip her, you get a +2 to make two mana which is pretty keen as well as a nice 5/5 to swing at someone face. I like her a lot for casual town, but she's not a Top 5 since I think she'll be better at Constructed play than in Commander.

#6. Sludge Monster

Sludge Monster

Our final card before the Top Five proper is the Monster of Sludge. This is a 5-drop that's 5/5 and that's on-curve for the game. When it arrives to the battlefield (or attacks) you can place a slime counter (preferably) on a non-Horror creature. Said creature loses abilities and becomes a 2/2 dork.

I love this in Commander as a way to shut down a nasty Commander that needs to be answered and you don't want to kill or exile it so that they'll recast it with the Commander Tax, you need a more permanent answer. Enter Sludge Monster. If said leader isn't a Horror you can shut down the nasty Commander as long as you control the Monster. Do note that you do need to target the Commander, so you may need to get through a field of hexproof or shroud.

Make sure to run the lands that will shut them down for a turn. Shadowspear can stop hexproof. This is a worse version of the powerful Imprisoned in the Moon because it's a more easily answered creature and the Commander is a 2/2 creature that can block and die in combat so you may not want to attack on the ground. It's really nice, and the fact you can swing and put a slime counter on another Commander is also pretty good, so it's got chops! Welcome to the Commander Answer Suite, oh Monster of Sludge!

Now it's time for the Top Five proper! They are a Full House in Poker with three rares and two mythics.

#5. Mask of Griselbrand

Mask of Griselbrand

This is the only equipment in today's countdown, and it cracked the Top Five! Good job Mask of Griselbrand! This costs three mana to drop and equip, and gives the equipped dork flying, which is good because it's evasive and lifelink, which is good for the next ability. Both of those are abilities that the super powerful Griselbrand had, so that's on queue. When the equipped dork dies, you can (you don't have to) pay X life and draw X cards where X was the equipped creature's power.

On a creature that was a 3/3 dork, that's three life lost and three cards drawn. Pretty good. One combat damage hit with the creature will have gained you enough life to make this a life neutral card.

I love it in an aggro Commander decks alongside Skullclamp as the 'Clamp increases the power by one so you'll draw two cards off of killing a 1/1 by equipping it with the 'Clamp. I love it in an Aristocrats build that is regularly sacrificing its creatures for the team as you can draw some serious cards with it. Please welcome the best piece of equipment from the set to the kitchen table!

#4. Tovolar's Huntmaster // Tovolar's Packleader

Tovolar's Huntmaster // Tovolar's Packleader

This is our highest hitting Werewolf and daybound/nightbound card. On the front side, the Huntmaster is a 6-drop that makes a pair of 2/2 Wolf tokens, so that's 10 power and toughness across three bodies for six mana - a good result. That means this card, at a baseline without ever flipping it, is at worst a Green Grave Titan.

In the color of ramp, this is likely a better home for the Grave Titan, and that's a card that's run in 16,739 decks over at EDHREC.com. If it flips then you get more Wolf tokens in double amounts just like Grave Titan. But it's better since you can fight opposing stuff with your Wolf tokens or another Werewolf you might control. Pretty good for the team. I like it a lot for casual play.

#3. Augur of Autumn

Augur of Autumn

Three mana? Check! 2/3? Check! You can look at the top card of your library whenever you want? (Which is better than others that reveal it to everyone?) Check! You can play lands from your to Library to the battlefield? Check! If you trigger Coven you can cast creatures from your Library? Check! This lady has all of the checks!

Two cards, and two mythics, left!

#2. Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset

Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset

Our highest-scoring planeswalker is this fun version of everyone's favorite Teferi. Versions of Teferi are more heavily played at the kitchen table than versions of Jace. Jace, the Mind Sculptor? 9,278 on EDHREC.com. Teferi, Time Raveler is only legal in decks that run both colors, so it should be less, right? Nope, 12,843 decks for the top Teferi. Teferi is really loved at the kitchen table, and we've got a new version.

As you can see, this is also a 4-drop, 2-color 4-loyalty 'Walker. This version of Teferi can +1 to untap an artifact, land, and creature you control. In Commander that could easily be a Birds of Paradise, Sol Ring, and Azorius Chancery or more than he cost to drop. And that's a common situation - Ancient Tomb, Guildless Commons, or Temple of the False God can also tap for 2 mana. Mana Crypt taps for 2, and Mana Vault, Thran Dynamo, Basalt Monolith, and Grim Monolith can tap for three easily enough and make even more mana than 5. From Llanowar Elves to Scuttlemutt you have tons of dorks that can tap for a mana, and you have some that tap for more than one like Palladium Myr.

Getting 4 or 5 mana from his +1 is easy in Commander. And if you target opposing stuff then you can tap then instead. You also gain 2 life by the by as if that were needed, and that's a very powerful free adjunct.

Then you can -2 Teferi to dig down three cards into your library and select one to put into your hand, so it's an Impulse for 3 for -2 loyalty. You can do that twice on a naked board where his tap and untap won't do anything from his starting loyalty making him draw two cards and dig six. This version of Teferi is amazing in Commander and other kitchen table formats! And it's my second to last card overall.

What is my top charting card? Let's look!

#1. The Meathook Massacre

The Meathook Massacre

I love this legendary enchantment a lot! In multiplayer formats like Commander, you need answers to things. A simple Damnation cannot deal with indestructible or cards that give it instantly, like Heroic Intervention. A simple multiple sacrifice like Barter in Blood often misses the good stuff you want to kill as your foe has cheap stuff to sacrifice instead.

How does Black kill everything? Mass -X/-X effects! Enter The Meathook Massacre, which actually is a card that starts with the word, "The" and is legendary unlike recent printings like The Biblioplex or The World Tree which are big flavor fouls to me for that reason. You could have just called them "Biblioplex" and "World Tree."

Anyways, no flavor issues here! You can spend X mana when you drop this bad boy and when you do you get to -X/-X everything, which is pretty good. It's really strong in mono-Black with its mass mana makers like Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold where you can easily load up X with enough to kill everything. Then it stays in play.

As your creatures die, your opponents will each lose a life, including the creatures that bit it when this arrived at the battlefield. Whenever a foes' creature dies, you'll gain a life! It's great in control builds, mono-black, it's another option for Aristocrats builds in this list, it's strong in many places. Love it a lot! Now you will love it too!

And there we go! So, what did you think of my Top Ten and the two Honorable Mentions? What are you most excited to play? Anything I missed or did I have the wrong order? Just let me know!

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