Hello awesome MTG fans! If you like kitchen table fun times then I hope you like my Top Tens from the latest set with a view for you like Commander, Highlander, Five Color, Type Four, Peasant, and multiplayer. We just had a chance to get a deep dive into the latest set, and today I am going to give you my first initial Top Ten plus a trio of Honorable Mentions! Each of my last two 1^sts had an instant at the top, of the rare and uncommon variety, but this time we have a common instant. Very rare to have a common as my top card. Ready to take a look see?

Let's do it to it!

Honorable Mention #1 (#13. Overall) - Saheeli, the Sun's Brilliance

Everyone's favorite planeswalker from the plane of Kaladesh is here as a two-drop non-planeswalker version with an on curve 2/2 body. She's legendary for Command Zone purposes. You can tap her with Izzet mana to copy another artifact or creature you control for the turn but it's an artifact too if you copied a creature. Then it has haste for the turn. She is very strong with artifacts and dorks that have ETB abilities for you to copy in Izzet like Flametongue Kavu or Mulldrifter or Ichor Wellspring or Spine of Ish Sah. So, I like her leading a midrange abilities, also with blink effects too. She's also a win con in the red zone by copying things like Blightsteel Colossus or Eldrazi and swinging to win. She is the highest scoring two-color legendary dork in the set but more will hit later!

Honorable Mention #2 (#12. Overall) - Intrepid Paleontologist AND Poison Dart Frog

Two-drop mono-Green stuff that taps for any color of mana is pretty commonly played in kitchen table formats as well as Standard too by the way. From Sylvan Caryatid to Gemhide Sliver, you see these all over, and each of these two new options and something useful to it besides just tapping for that mana. The Human has a strong 2/2 so you can block or swing after you don't need the mana. Then you can spend 2 mana to exile a card from a graveyard so it's graveyard answers, and if you exiled Dinosaurs you own, you can cast them from exile with a finality counter on them.

The Frog has a smaller body at 1/1, but it can block flyers with reach and then give it deathtouch with 2 mana so if you have it untapped and ready, people might avoid attacking you with grounded or flying stuff too in order to not trade down with a 2 mana 1/1. I know mana is boring, but you need to concentrate on it to make it work!

Honorable Mention #3 (#11. Overall) - Echoing Deeps

Our top land, Cave, and second-highest colorless card is this rare land! When it ETBs you may have it copy a land in any graveyard and it's a Cave too! With so many sacrifice lands like fetch lands like Terramorphic Expanse or Windswept Heath you can copy to fetch away again! Or you can copy sac destroy land lands like Strip Mine or Wasteland or to copy a channel or cycling land in your graveyard like Boseiju, Who Endures or Barren Moor and get your ability and tap away. Did you see? You can copy opposing stuff in graveyards too, so this is very strong in multiplayer as you have more and more options to copy!

#10. Bringer of the Last Gift

This eight-mana 6/6 flying powerhouse Vampire Demon is my second-favorite card in the set for Type Four, the next card is my top card for that format. With infinite mana and then one spell per turn, you can drop any turn. When it ETBs, you Living Death everything else. Since it sacrifices, you get past protection like indestructible and since you didn't target, hexproof for protection won't help either. Then everyone gets their dead stuff back, which is nasty here! But note there is a break here that's not on the next card - just if you cast it, so if this is blinked, reanimated, or dropped from your library to the battlefield like Tooth and Nail, no thanks, this won't work. But Black is the color of Cabal Coffers effects. You get your Living Death on a stick!

#9. Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant

Another eight-drop is next, this time a tight 12/12 with trample so you are really breaking the red zone with this powerhouse. Then when it ETBs, you can put any number of creatures from your hand to the battlefield! Nasty! With no breaks like "Cast" or this exiles when you resolve it or it gets shuffled or anything else? Nastyx2! This is also a legendary dork for your Command Zone affinities. Wow!

Although I do prefer this in the 99 in Commander and I just tossed this into my mono-Green Commander deck earlier this week to break things late game. Check it out here. See why this is my favorite card for Type Four? You can cast it on the first turn and drop much of your hand and win on the next turn with 8 power stuff and no sweepers or other answers. You don't have to wait until a Living Death is needed later, you can drop it and the earlier the better since it'll be more powerful. Ghalta has all of the power here for your needs from the Command Zone to Type Four Stacks to your multiplayer decks all up and down the block! Let's turn to another legendary permanent next!

#8. Quintorius Kand

Our only planeswalker in the set is good enough to make my Top Ten list! This five-drop Boros 'walker is a bit behind the curve on loyalty, but you net four abilities. His static will drain your foes for two life each whenever you cast a spell from exile. So, he's a win con tied to that cast matters, and Red is dense with exiling from your library and casting it like Act on Impulse. Then you can add in suspend, adventure, and loads more mechanics that cast from there too, to your deck! You can +1 him to make a 3/2 beater to protect him from key attacks that might kill him or to kill others. Then you can -3 him once with his starting loyalty to cascade four, er...um...discover four. Then if you have six you can ultimate him and exile your graveyard and add mana for each one exiled and you can cast them with that cast exile trigger too if you still have a loyalty on him. He's so cute!

#7. Kutzil's Flanker

This flashable three-drop 3/1 rare in mono-White is our middle card in the countdown! It's splashable, and when it arrives to the battlefield, you have three ETB triggers you can abuse! It's like a Charm on a stick and flash makes this so much better since it's instant speed and you can play combat tricks and trade with 3 toughness or smaller things that attacked you. All three options are great! You can toss a +1/+1 counter on this for each dork that left the battlefield this turn under your control, so that's great EOT to make a beater after a foe casts a mass removal spell on their turn or yours. Then you can gain two life and scry two, not bad card precision. And then, saving the best for last, is exiling a players graveyard. That's why it's here! Graveyard use and abuse is rife in casual formats like Commander. Do this in response to a recursion spell or someone with threshold style abilities. You can cast it at instant speed and then really toss a wrench, or just play it EOT to kill someone or gain some life and scry two.

#6. Bonehoard Dracosaur

Our penultimate hitting mono-Red card is this five-drop on-curve 5/5 Dragon with both flying and first strike. I'd like haste in this color to push to the Top Five, but it's still good at casual play just based on size and abilities and upkeep trigger. What is that trigger? In your upkeep you exile two cards and then you can cast them this turn, so that's card flow. Card flow for you for free each turn! And it's on your upkeep so you haven't spent mana on the ability, you can do it with your mana free. Then if you exiled a land you make a 3/1 Dinosaur token and if a nonland you'll make a Treasure to help cast them. Free card flow attached to an on-curve beater? Love it loads! And if you make some 3/1s or Treasures in your upkeep you'll really rack up value over time.

#5. Tishana's Tidebinder

Another flashable three-drop rare dork is next in our Top Ten. This has one ETB ability not three, but it's more powerful! You can counter an activated or triggered ability, and those are harder to counter with your answer suite as most counters only counter spells. And if you countered an ability of a dork, 'walker or artifact, they are shut down as long as you control this Merfolk Wizard, so those are permanently answered! This combines rare counters with shut down ability of the most common things you'd want to counter anyway. It's great in decks with its size of 3/2 for 3 mana and in a pair of creature types to build around!

#4. Get Lost

When I mentioned that I had an instant at the top of my last two lists and another here, before I mentioned it was a common, did you think it might be this one? I hear ya! This mono-White two cost instant can destroy three different commonly played and abused permanent types - creatures, planeswalkers and enchantments. You can destroy them all, and you'll give them a gift since this is common for White like Path to Exile or Generous Gift. What's the gift? Two Maps to explore twice. Love this ability to answer something major without giving them too much of a reason to complain at multiplayer tables since they get something out of it. This can also hit enchantments, which is important to note given how many high-value ones run around in Commander. That's a nice addition to the normal planeswalker or creature removal at this cost with benefits for the one destroyed. And then there were three! For the next two spots, let's knock out some legendary stuff!

#3. The God Cycle

All five of the Gods and their transform Temples are here. They have strong sizes to casting cost, a strong ability when they are on the battlefield, and when they die they turn into their Temple, which taps for their mana and then heads back with a tap at sorcery speed but with a harder to do activation. Let's do them in color wheel order! Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation says when creature tokens would be created under your control? Triple them. I just cannot imagine how powerful that would be leading or in a token deck.

Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch costs four for a 4/3 flyer - on curve and evasive. When you cast an instant from your hand, you'll get a free copy on your upkeep so that's pretty strong! Note that there are no brakes here like once a turn and this does count as casting from exile for those triggers.

Check out the Bat God next! This is a five-drop 4/4 with both flying and lifelink so it's a double life swing when it engages in combat! When it attacks, each opponent discards a card, so that dials up in power the more opponents you are facing. If they cannot? You draw a card instead, so every attack here is a big card advantage swing. Then when your foes discard lands, you make free 1/1 Bats with flying and Black, so that's a win con Waste Not for any lands discarded like with cycling or channel as well as to this attack trigger. I love him leading a discard matters brew or a Saboteur where you attack over and over again and keep him alive with unblockable things.

Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might cots four too this time for a 4/4 trampler. Then your Red sources that deal noncombat damage less than its power to a foe, will deal that damage in power instead, which is a unique take on monored burn. That's a base of four, so if you Lightning Bolt a foe you'll now deal four unless his power rises. I love this with damage splitters like Arc Lightning.

Now let's finish this with my favorite one, and then one I've already built around, and my favorite Commander from this set too! Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth costs five for a 6/5 trampler, which is beefy. When you deal combat damage to a foe, you dig that many, reveal one land and/or creature and toss them onto the battlefield! Note that can do both if you reveal both, by the by. Since he has a base 6 power with toughness, even if chump blocked by a one or 2 toughness thing, you can still dig and play free things from your library of the right types. I love this so much for the beatings, and Temple of Cultivation also is easy to transition back if you have the city's blessing.

#2. Chimil, the Inner Sun

Our top colorless card, artifact, non-common, permanent and legendary card is this six-drop amazing card! Your 6 mana nets you two key things! First? Your spells cannot be countered, so go away Blue! Nasty! Note that this works on abilities that would counter your spells not just spells like Mystic Snake. It also work for copies of spells too that you made with Fork effects. Second? In your end step, cascade...er...discover five! And since those are cast spells, they also cannot be countered as well! Note that discover is better than cascade since you can just put it into your hand if you reveal something you don't want to cast, like Hero's Downfall when you have no major targets, so it's always card flow or draw. Since this is colorless, it can fit into any Commander deck no matter its color identity, making it pretty good with stuff. Nasty duo of dominating options to unfurl on your next multiplayer night. And then there was one!

#1. Fanatical Offering

For your two-mana investment, you sacrifice a creature or an artifact too, don't sleep on that last one. Then you can draw two, and you'll also make a Map token as well, and then you have the ability to draw the top card of your library if it's a land, so you could get a three-for-one for this spell instead of a two-for-one, and you make an artifact for sacrificing to things like Goblin Welder to recur a big artifact from your graveyard or just to maybe grow your Commander for a faster Commander Damage kill fi you don't draw the land. This is also great in +1/+1 counter decks since exploring will often net you that as well as in many other decks. Since you sacrifice at instant speed, you can sacrifice something targeted for removal, caught up in mass removal or after chump blocking. And this ability is iconic in Black since Village Rites effects are heavily played there. It's strong!

I hope that you enjoyed my fun take on the best cards from LCI! What are yours?