Hello amazing people! I hope that you are having a fantastic day! Today we are going to spend some time looking at another set of Top Ten cards from the latest set Crimson Vow. This is a very deep set with loads of cards that are great for kitchen table play.

In order to make this list, a card must be good for casual formats like Commander, Highlander, Five Color, Type Four, or multiplayer generally. A card that is a big hit in Limited, Standard, or Modern but is a swing and a miss here won't make my list or won't hit as highly.

Here are my first three articles:

• Week 1 - This week we had ten cards and an honorable mention that was pretty nice, and we had some great cards including two in the mythic "Cemetery" cycle and a rare cycle at #3. We also had, for the first time, an uncommon hit the top spot of my list, and some buzzworthy cards crack other spaces. You can check it out here (Top Ten Cards from Crimson Vow | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com))
• Week 2 - This week I featured another 11 awesome cards, and we had an uncommon hit #2 so we almost had back-to-back weeks with uncommons in the top spot. Love it a lot! We had cards like Welcoming Vampire and Toxrill, the Corrosive hit, as well as two more cards in the "Cemetery" cycle. You can check it out here! (Top Ten Cards from Crimson Vow #2 | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com))
• Week 3 - This week I featured another 11 awesome cards and we finished the "Cemetery" cycle. This had a great common in Honored Heirloom and a powerful card like Hullbreaker Horror, but where did they hit? Great questions all! You can find out here! (Top Ten #3 from Crimson Vow | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com))

Today we are looking at another Top Ten and an Honorable Mention, and we will be counting down cards that hit from #44 - #34 inclusive. Today we'll have a common at the top of my list and two commons of that color in my Top Five! Ready? Let's do it to it!

Honorable Mention (#44 Overall) - Mischievous Catgeist // Catlike Curiosity

This is our token uncommon (and Cat) on today's list. After a big emphasis on uncommons earlier and them hitting in the Top Two once each in the first three articles, they only hit once here. Sorry fans of the silver set symbol! I love this a lot! The Cat Spirit has a natural Curiousity ability to draw cards as it smashes players that sort of debuted way back with Ophidian, which was heavily played (although there you had to skip your combat damage to draw the card). Later creatures with the combat damage to a player trigger for card flow were usually three-mana 1/3s without any evasive abilities, and the ability was spread out to Green which likes dorks and dealing damage, which first appeared on Hystrodon.

Here we get a very unusual 2-drop with the combat trigger, which is much faster in the early game. Because your combat trigger needs to happen to acquire those cards, you cannot waste a combat getting blocked by something like a Fog Bank. You always attack the open player, and in multiplayer, these are better than in 1v1 duels because you are more likely to run into an open defense to keep the cards flowing. Getting a 2-drop that can swing a full turn earlier means you'll draw another card before the board gets cluttered with defenders and then swept by a Damnation. After it dies, you can disturb it for three mana and then get a Curiousity on a creature you control, which is great after a sweeping removal spell killed your Catgeist. Cast a creature, like a Commander, then pre-combat next turn cast this and attack an empty player and draw and keep on drawing until the board is overly full again. It's great on its own without support like Auras, or Rogue's Passage, or in Spirit decks. But its value is enhanced there!

10. (#43 Overall) Hopeful Initiate

I also adore this 1-drop. As you can see, you get a one-mana 1/2 that can get bigger with training. You can pull two counters off of your stuff and Disenchant. Unlike Cathar Commando, you can keep on trucking after the Disenchant. I loved that card and tossed in in decks and things like my Type Four Stack, but having to sacrifice it means it doesn't bring the same level of card advantage that Initiate does. However, the resource this does use, +1/+1 counters, is pretty limited to brews that care about them, hence it hitting back here at the 10 spot of my fourth article. It's still really strong in aggro as a 1-drop with limited growing as well as in +1/+1 counter brews.

9. (#42 Overall) Ulvenwald Oddity // Ulvenwald Behemoth

This is our penultimate scoring Green transform card! As you can see, the Oddity is a powerful on curve 4/4 for four mana with trample and haste that has a big punch of power. It gets in a hit prior to sorcery speed removal like Damn. I adore it in formats where a 4/4 with two relevant abilities smashes face, like Commander, Standard, and more. It also can be transformed for seven mana and becomes a powerhouse 8/8, trample, haste, and grants other stuff +1/+1, haste and trample at all times. Mass haste granting on a Green dork? And unlike Werewolves this will never flip back. I also really enjoy the power of this in Type Four where you can flip it immediately and swing with a 8/8 on the turn it arrives. Good stuff!

8. (#41 Overall) - Headless Rider

Did you know that we already had a take on the Headless Horseman way back in Legends? It's also a Zombie but they added the Knight type to it. This Zombie loving card is great in single opponent games where your non-token Zombies or the Rider itself dying will make a great 2/2 Zombie token without decayed that can swing all day long and block and arrived untapped. It's strong there! It's not as good in multiplayer and Commander where it's a bit more restricted, since it's just a 2/2 token that can be answered with removal. For example, if someone casts Planar Cleansing and sweeps the board, you'll normally be happy since you'll maybe have an army of 3-5 2/2s. Good stuff in a 20 life game. But in a multiplayer one with 40 life there are more players to answer your post-sweeping removal problem with more removal of a sweeping nature, and there is more life to attack. If it had an ability to force all of your foes to lose life instead of just making a Zombie, then it would have scored higher in my list.

What other Tribal card hits #40 on my list?

7. (#40 Overall) - Necroduality

Back-to-back Zombie Tribal cards! This Blue mythic is very different and I like what it is going for. If every tribe out there has the same things from its pumpers, then it all feels the same. Consider Zombies. You get your regeneration from Zombie Master. You get your +1/+1 from Lord of the Undead, among many others. When a tribe just plays into the same space, then Tribal decks all play the same, here is your first strike enabler, here is your trampler giver, here is the Lord that gives you flying. It gets pretty boring. But this? This plays into a brand-new space. Your nontoken Zombies? They get Cloned on arrival to the battlefield. Great power and synergy here, and I hope that we'll do more to make sure that each tribe has its own unique feel. However, it's back here at #40, just like the card below it, since it's just a Tribal Card and thus doesn't have the same ability to make the cut in as many decks. Shoot, even some Zombie decks may not run it if they are a Zombie token deck.

6. (#39 Overall) - Avabruck Caretaker // Hollowhenge Huntmaster

This mythic Werewolf transforming Mono-Green 6-drop is just outside of the Top Five. As you can see, your six mana gives you a hexproof 4/4 on the day side and a 6/6 on the night. If you have it transformed to the night side you can keep other stuff with hexproof which is unusual as normally your hexproof granting stuff doesn't have it itself. You can fight the hexproof granting by flipping it to the day side, so it's unreliable. On each side you can put two +1/+1 counters on another target dork or all of your dorks. Good stuff, but it's a bit small on the day side for its cost and a bit easy to answer the night side, but otherwise it's really powerful. Good card!

And now... what are my Top Five cards?

5. (#38 Overall) Persistent Specimen

Let's consider the card that this Skeleton compares to - Reassembling Skeleton. It's a Commander Classic with 19,689 entries in decks registered over at EDHREC.com, which is very strong. It's a great 2-drop 1/1 Skeleton that can come back to the battlefield for two mana each iteration, tapped. This is one more mana to bring back but one fewer mana to cast. Both arrive tapped and unable to block for a full turn. They have strong use in Aristocrat builds that sacrifice them for triggers on dorks like Blood Artist and then bring them back over and over again. I don't think it'll crack 10k, let alone hit the 19,689 numbers of its predecessor, but I do think that it'll find some nice space alongside it in certain brews. Welcome to the Danse Macabre!

4. (#37 Overall) Jacob Hauken, Inspector // Hauken's Insight

This is our highest transform card and Blue card. It feels like the Innistrad version of Abraham Van Helsing, who would also likely be a Human Advisor. As you can see, this is a 2-drop 0/2 that can sorta block 1 powered attackers, but that's about it. You can tap it to loot a card (draw and then discard) however instead of discarding you'll exile it, which is usually pretty bad. When you tap him, you can transform him for six mana, which is very reliable. Once you do, you get a legendary enchantment that will exile the top card of your library during your upkeep, and you can play one exiled card in your turn for free, which is a nice reduction. Note that the card(s) exiled with Jacob's 0/2 side count. Also note that these cards are exiled face down, so your foe won't be able to know what you can play. You can play lands or cast a spell, whichever you prefer, from the exile zone. I really want add this to my Type Four stack which can flip it immediately on tapping. It's strong, free, card advantage and abuse, but it's back here at #37 overall because it's a bit harder to use and flip than the card it is trying to emulate in Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. I do love what it can bring to a casual table over time!

3. (#36 Overall) - Dreadfeast Demon

As you can see, this 7-drop 6/6 flyer is my second of three Mono-Black cards to hit my Top Five section of my chart! It's a powerful flyer with a lot of options to consider. During each of your end steps you have to sacrifice a non-token (note that it's not a "may" effect so you have to do it). When you do you get a Dreadfeast Demon copy token, which will, next turn, be two triggers of sacrificing fun times until they are all Demons! It's great as a game ender in a going wide deck like tokens or aggro. I also like in Dimir decks that steal creatures with temporary measures like Control Magic that will inevitably be answered with enchantment removal, flickering or bouncing fun times since you'll get a permanent card from it. Loads of fun! I wish the sacrifice were at the beginning of your combat so that you could add it to temporary steal decks like Rakdos with cards like Threaten, or haste enablers to swing that turn although I prefer an end step to an upkeep one, since it will happen at least once before sorcery speed removal comes online like Obliterate. Love it a lot!

2. (#35 Overall) - Alchemist's Gambit

I've talked before about how amazing cleave is in Type Four. The rules for Type Four are pretty basic. You have an infinite amount of mana that you can use for anything. And then you are limited to only being able to cast one spell per turn, as if everyone controlled an Omniscience and an Arcane Lab. However, if you cast a card using its alternate cost, then that does not take up your spell for the turn, so, as an example, if Force of Will is pitch cast, then it's free, if not, then it takes up your spell for the turn. Cleave will always be free. Time Walks in Type Four are more limited since you cannot cast anything on the turn you cast your Time Walk effect, so they are much weaker. They are just a glorified Relentless Assault that replaces itself. But this is a free Time Walk with the cleave cost, and that means you can cast your creature of size, and then cast this for free and take another turn, and then attack on the next turn. That's pretty powerful. It's my favorite cleave card for Type Four with the mechanic, as we do have the occasional free Wrath of God (Damn) or Counterspell (Decree of Silence) but barring the awaken on Part the Waterveil (which I've never seen anyone pull off), it's something we've never had before, and that's pretty nasty stuff.

Outside of Type Four, it's a different Final Fortune that costs one more mana and is a sorcery rather than an instant and self-exiles so it cannot be recurred and abused that way with the potential of becoming a strong Time Walk later in the game. However, it is two colors for purposes of Commander so it's more limited in deck usages, hence it hitting here. Enjoy its power!

1. (#34 Overall) Mindleech Ghoul

I love the power of Mindleech Ghoul. Ever since Ravenous Rats, we've had a 2-drop 1/1 that forces the discard from a foe. That was just 1:1 discard in single player games and that was fine, but single targeted discarding isn't nearly as strong in multiplayer where people are outdrawing you 3:1 in a four-player game naturally, so 1:1 is card disadvantage. That's why discard that hits all foes, like Liliana's Specter, is so good here. The problem with normal discard in casual town is that a lot of players use their graveyards as a second hand. Giving someone the ability to get a fat dork in a recursion deck without costing them a spell or resource, or a card with flashback or disturb or jump-start that can still be cast is rough. You could even just get a land replayed with effects that let you play lands from your graveyard, like Crucible of Worlds. Here, you have the best of both worlds! If you exploit this 2-drop 2/2 Zombie (And you can also sacrifice itself to its ability if you don't have any fodder) then you force everyone to discard a card to keep up with the Joneses and you exile the card so it cannot be brought back again. This is a great card and a powerful common for multiplayer formats!

And there you go! So...what did you think of my list? Anything in here that I missed or got in the wrong order? What did you like and are excited to run? Anything I sold you on? Just let me know!