New cards!

We have the next injection of new cards to consider for casual tables everywhere. What cards from the set really seems to have the stuff? What has the potential to be the best at your kitchen table? Whether you are playing Commander, multiplayer, or some sixty-card format, we have a new injection of cards for our addiction.

Because these cards are entering formats that have a ton of established cards and decks, it’s easier to figure out what will truly impact the metagame. For example, we’ve never had a mono-red, artifact-focused Planeswalker before (Daretti, Scrap Savant) and certainly not one with a Goblin Welder–style ability. But we’ve had Goblin Welder. We know how good that can be. We can suss out the potential for stuff like Feldon of the Third Path and Scrap Mastery just by considering other cards that do similar stuff.

So here are my choices for the ten best cards from Commander (2014 Edition). Take a look, and tell me what you think!

10 – Wave of Vitriol – “No more crap!” That's basically what this spell says: no more indestructible crap, no more nonbasic lands that are brokenly nasty, no more Gods or Darksteel Ingots. All of everybody's artifacts, enchantments, and nonbasic lands are being sacrificed and hitting that ’yard. No more crap! Now, folks who lose a land can go fetch a basic to replace it, so it's not as though you are setting folks back in terms of mana—you are just cleansing their mana bases of unsightly junk. It doesn't matter what dopey combo tricks or cards your foes were running; they are gone. No more crap!

9 – Lifeblood Hydra – I've been increasingly impressed by the quality of the Hydras that have been printed. I think recent printings like Hooded Hydra and Genesis Hydra were both great entries for green-based magi. You begin the Lifeblood Hydra with a trampling beater. And when it invariably dies, you gain a bunch of cards and life. It's a great way to draw you some cards after mass removal in order to restock. Plus, you can gain a bump of life. Mono-green has just tied Sphinx's Revelation to a Hydra. That's pretty interesting from where I'm sitting. And if you push the Hydra with ways to increase those counters (from proliferate to Hardened Scales), you can rock and even deadlier dork.

8 – Necromantic Selection – Mass removal for the win! We can kill everything at the table in order to bring things back to equal. Sure, folks sometimes have really annoying creatures that survive your removal, but you can, too, by building around it. You also bring the best dead creature right back into play on your side. Maybe it was in play and just bit the big one. Or perhaps you've just cleared a path for some nasty that was already dead and awaiting the selection of your necromantic call. But for whatever reason, you've swept the board of annoying crap and led the way with the big creature of zombified strength, waiting to attack whichever foe you desire. You are the first to recover!

7 – Scrap Mastery – Living Death has always been an amazingly powerful card. Because it combines a better Wrath of God (that forces sacrifices so it avoids indestructible crap) with a potent Twilight's Call, it was a strong card. It was among the best cards, of all time, to singlehandedly swing a game from you losing to you winning. And now we are fortunate to introduce you to an artifact Living Death. Oh, the shenanigans are about to begin! We are going to sacrifice an artifact prior to playing it to enhance its value. We are going to add in stuff with death triggers like Mycosynth Wellspring. Get ready, Casual Land; it's about to get downright abusive out there. Living Death, artifact style, has hit the house. Lock up your valuables, and get ready for a horde of barbarians to rifle through your trash.

6 – Domineering Will – Do you know what's so fun about Domineering Will? Everything! If someone attacks you, thinking you are open, just steal those creatures from some other folks to block on up. And if some creatures die in the process: Oh well, sorry about that! Meanwhile, you've reduced the size of the armies in play while just playing one spell and paying 4 mana. And that's all strong stuff. But you can also give the three creatures to someone else in trouble. Maybe it's not even you who’s being attacked. Perhaps you want to keep a potential ally alive, or maybe you just want to kill some really disturbing critters. So give those fun blockers to another player, and let him or her trade on up. It's like a Fog, a Fight to the Death, and a clever combat trick, all in one.

5 – Nahiri, the Lithomancer – Equipment is awesome. Set aside the best Equipment that we have. Everyone always has some little favorite piece that he or she likes to bring out of the shadows. I like Strider Harness. Maybe you really like Slagwurm Armor. There are so many great pieces of Equipment after the obvious powerhouses of Sword of Fire and Ice, Skullclamp, Lightning Greaves, and Batterskull. And Nahiri is the first ’Walker we've ever seen that plays well with Equipment. That +2 ability to both make a creature and equip it is something new, something fun. Follow that with the Equipment recursion or dropping one for free, and you have a solid combination of abilities. Because of how high it is, I want to skip the ultimate for now. She's just a great adjunct to a lot of decks, and I can't think enough good thoughts about her potential. That's why she's my second favorite Planeswalker from the set.

4 – Dualcaster Mage – Flashing a 2/2 onto the battlefield that can Fork a spell is nasty. It's arguably broken in the current Commander metagame. For example, did someone just play Rite of Replication? Then flash this out to make infinite Magi. (Copy the Rite, which is still on the stack. Make it copy your now-in-play Mage. It resolves first. Use the newly made copy to dupe the Rite again, and keep that up until you grow bored.) It's a fine enters-the-battlefield creature to Flicker and have fun with, and it can give you combo potential that's a lot stronger than Mischievous Quanar ever ran. So we've added a potentially problematic combo to the table. It's a strong option for your red decks, so enjoy!

3 – Angel of the Dire Hour – Flashing is fun. Getting a 5/4 flyer is even better. You can flash it out to chump-block something smaller to kill. Or you can flash it out to trade with bigger, flying attackers of draconic or angelic size. As a combat trick, the Angel is a nice card. Oh yes, and we have an ability, too. It says here that, "When Angel of the Dire Hour enters the battlefield, if you cast it from your hand, exile all attacking creatures." Whoa, that’s dire indeed (for your foe). You make a flying beater, and someone gets a face full of dead stuff. Now sure, you can’t abuse it by reanimating or flickering it, but it's still a pretty strong card. And the exiling is even better since people with indestructible creatures often send them into the red zone. From Zurgo Helmsmasher to Avacyn, Angel of Hope, it's about to become quite dire.

2 – Titania, Protector of Argoth – Suppose I have Titania in play, I drop Terramorphic Expanse, and I crack it for a land. What happens? Well, when the Expanse is sacrificed, it goes to the graveyard. That triggers Titania, and now I have a newly minted 5/3 Elemental running around, ready to avenge the dead Expanse. What is great about Titania is that she rewards us for things we want to do anyway. It's not hard to build around her. Just toss her into a deck with lands. Last year was the first time we saw this Restore ability on a spell. I was very keen on it. Today, we see a Restore as an enters-the-battlefield (ETB) trigger on Titania, and it's even bigger news. Now consider her size (a 5/3 for 5 mana is no joke) and her token-spewing. She's among the best of the best from the set.

1 – Daretti, Scrap Savant – I think a lot of people have forgotten over the years that red has an odd love–hate relationship with artifacts, not just a hate one. There's more pro-artifact love in red than in modern green, for example. From old cards like Goblin Welder to stuff like Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer, Bosh, Iron Golem, and Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient, we've seen some solid, red-styled love. And perhaps Daretti is the best we've ever seen at that. He can churn through your library for cards (while filling your ’yard with stuff to bring back). Then, you can pull 2 loyalty off to Trash for Treasure something good into play. And you can threaten that Lifeline emblem for your artifacts. Strong stuff! Daretti is a master of red artifact love, and he can be the leader of an intriguing and different artifact deck.

So, what did you think? What cards are you really looking forward to trying out? Anything strike your Spike, Johnny, or Timmy fancy?

New cards!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent