In a normal set review, I’d select everything I had a cool idea about and tell you, but this time, I’m focusing on cards I know I will play. Why? The Shiny New Toy Syndrome.

How many times have you looked at a new card and said to yourself, “That would be awesome in my Elves/burn/Shared Fate deck,” then perused your deck and realized you didn’t have a spot for it? Be sure to caveat before emptoring, as regretting a Magic purchase is among the worst feelings the game can offer. So, for the bulk of my card comments, I’ll tell you what I think of the card and what I’m doing with it. This is especially important with a Commander list, since you can’t make your new purchase the one-hundred-first card. You have to know what the new card replaces before you can use it. After writing this article, I know exactly what I need to buy from the new set, saving me time and money later. So, let’s get to it!

Zedruu the Greathearted

OUT: Mana Maze, Serra Angel

IN: Curse of Exhaustion, Drogskol Reaver

My Zedruu Commander deck is prison control, winning with flyers. The deck came with Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, and Windborn Muse (and was sent to me by Windborn Muse, a.k.a. GM’s own Bruce Richard—freaky!), and I added Norn's Annex. Most other enchantments don’t care about their controller, so I can donate them (Gravitational Shift, Faith's Fetters, etc.). Mana Maze is of this type—a cheap global effect (so you can donate it for fun and profit) that mimics Arcane Laboratory for some players.

That’s great in theory. So far, all it’s done is make opponents go, “Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.” My last game with the deck was against Glissa, the Traitor, with a bunch of artifacts that navigate the Maze effortlessly, and Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, whose flash in my colors (thanks to Leyline of Anticipation) meant he could cast white and blue spells during my upkeep and ruin my turn.

I love Mana Maze, but it’s doing nothing for me. Curse of Exhaustion costs more, which is annoying for the slow-loading Zedruu, but it does about what Mana Maze typically does while reliably doing something all the time. That’s plenty worth it.

And Curse of Exhaustion isn’t illustrated by Rebecca Guay. Score!

Drogskol Reaver goes with the flying plan as well as the life-gain. Drogskol Reaver, Zedruu, and you controlling my Curse of Exhaustion let me draw a card and gain a life from Zedruu, then draw another card from the Reaver. Serra Angel was good filler, but filler nonetheless. The switch is easy.

Karador, Ghost Chieftain

OUT: Baku Altar

IN: Lingering Souls

For a Spirit tribal deck like this one, Lingering Souls generates a more consistent stream of tokens for less mana investment than Baku Altar . . . and adds flying. It’s function over flavor here.

The Mimeoplasm

OUT: Living Hive, Dauthi Mercenary, Dimir Guildmage

IN: Ghoultree, Tracker's Instincts, Havengul Lich

If you want to use your own creatures as fodder for The Mimeoplasm, normally you’re looking for Part A or Part B options. A is what The Mimeoplasm would become, while B is just there for the counters. Ghoultree, a clear B creature and a reasonable midrange casting option, will replace Living Hive, a creature intended to be Part A but I don’t think ever was.

Ghoultree fits with an Animar strategy, but my deck’s running better creatures. A 10/10 with no downside looks good everywhere. For non-Commander, you could pair this with Doomgape for a ton of fun.

Tracker's Instincts complements Mulch and Forbidden Alchemy already in the deck. Is it better than the occasional Part A Dauthi Mercenary? I don’t know, but flashback cards rarely disappoint.

As for Havengul Lich, it isn’t as good as Constructed players are saying, so buy into the post-hype on this one. Lich has Standard droolings right now, affecting the casual market too much. I don’t think it’s $12 better than Geth, Lord of the Vault, which only recently started to escape junk mythic prices. Havengul Lich lets you cast your own creatures, lets you bring those creatures in untapped, and occasionally lets some activated abilities matter (though, remember that if they aren’t tap abilities, it’s likely irrelevant, since you can activate the reanimated creature’s ability anyway). On the other hand, Geth mills opponents, provides himself with increased future targets, hits harder, and reanimates in the activated ability rather than the ability letting you cast a spell. They have different applications, but they’re not miles apart on value.

But the question for this deck is whether Lich is better than Dimir Guildmage, and it is.

Radha, Heir to Keld

OUT: Wall of Razors

IN: Grim Flowering

First, I will rant.

Harmonize is $1.50. Concentrate is $0.25. They do the same thing. If you told Random Person you were building G/U Commander, he’d say Harmonize was good and forget Concentrate (maybe because he didn’t . . . well, you know). Why? Because Harmonize’s reputation has exceeded its utility.

I love Harmonize. I love Planar Chaos, and I love green. But if you’re playing Harmonize with blue in the deck, you’re missing the point. Harmonize is good because it lets nonblue decks draw cards. It isn’t good simply because it draws three cards for 4 mana.

Grim Flowering is of similar benefit to Harmonize, although it’s swingier by half. Blue has more reliable options that cost less than 6 mana, but nonblue decks are in a different position and can take advantage of this card. Therefore, Grim Flowering helps out Radha, a midrange stompy deck, the main vulnerability of which has been running out of cards.

Animar, Soul of Elements

OUT: Tower of Calamities

IN: Grim Flowering

Yes, Animar has blue, but I have more green mana symbols than blue and red combined, I have over forty creatures in the deck, and with Animar out, I might cast most of what I draw immediately. There isn’t a blue analog to Grim Flowering for this barely blue deck.

Soramaro, First to Dream

OUT: Glacial Wall, Summoner's Bane

IN: Beguiler of Wills, Bone to Ash

I’m just starting to power up Soramaro, my newest Commander deck, as you can see by what I’m taking out. Soramaro doesn’t draw immediate hate like other blue options, but it can take out an opponent very quickly, even as the rest of the deck plays a Kederekt Leviathan/Inundate–style slow game.

Creature theft that doesn’t leave an enchantment-based paper trail is criminally underrated, and the Beguiler is among the top paperless stealers, headlining a suite of Dominate, False Demise (kinda), and Spelljack (sorta) in this deck.

Bone to Ash draws a card. Summoner's Bane makes a token. Soramaro, like many Commander decks, wants the card more than the token.

Lady Evangela

OUT: Sadistic Sacrament, Fiend Hunter, Etherwrought Page

IN: Increasing Ambition, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Havengul Lich

Increasing Ambition’s splashability makes it a great way to smooth a deck out. My Lady Evangela deck is tribal Clerics and Zombies, and even with blue as a very light splash, it has mana troubles from the best Clerics having double-white frequently (one reason that Fiend Hunter is going). This makes Sadistic Sacrament a liability even as it works well in the deck. I’m going to pick up more Ambitions while they’re cheap in case other decks want them. It promises three cards over the game for no more than one at a time; there have to be plenty of decks that want it over at least Diabolic Tutor.

Being Clerics and Zombies, the deck’s built around the best of the Zombie Clerics; Boneknitter, Rotlung Reanimator, Shepherd of Rot, and Withered Wretch play pivotal roles. (Apologies to Fallen Cleric and Ragamuffyn.) Changelings/Ultimus aside, Mikaeus is the seventh Zombie Cleric, and given the deck’s dual tribal nature, that would be enough for me to slot it in. It’s worth the more than Sadistic Sacrament at least.

While Mikaeus’s intimidating 5/5 body matches Geth’s for largest creature in the deck, the undying ability affects more creatures than I thought. I assumed most of my Clerics were Human, but you could be a Cleric while a(n):

• Avatar (Doubtless One)
• Bird (Celestial Gatekeeper, Glarecaster)
• Cat (Leonin Relic-Warder)
• Kithkin (Battletide Alchemist)
• Kor (Devout Lightcaster, Kor Sanctifiers)
• Nothing at all (Entomber Exarch, Suture Priest)
• Soltari (Soltari Monk, Soltari Priest, Soltari Visionary)
• Spirit (Geist of Saint Traft)
• Zombie (See above)
• Or get your degree!

That list plus random Zombies are nasty with undying. I can get Mikaeus to notice my Humans as well if I put Nim Deathmantle on them. It will bring them back as Zombies to whom (or is it which? How personal are they?) Mikaeus will grant undying. That seems ripe for abuse which, given the zombification, I hope is the only ripe thing.

Havengul Lich is a Zombie, and I have so many cheap Clerics to recur that I can get good value out of the ability. Recasting Rotlung Reanimator for the umpteenth time will give some decks fits. Unholy Grottoing Geth, Mikaeus, or the Lich is many kinds of wrong as well.

60-card Fun

Séance

My W/B Sundial of the Infinite deck doesn’t have room for this, but it’s a clear build-around that seems fun to break. The Johnniest thing I know so far is to pair this with Riftsweeper. You could exile a Riftsweeper, make the token, and shuffle the just-exiled Riftsweeper back into your library. Séance also looks promising with Corpse Connoisseur. Maybe there’s a deck with all three . . .

Ravenous Demon

I threw together Jund Humans a couple months ago, and it’s fun if not cohesive. Village Cannibals, Rage Thrower, Bitterheart Witch, and Thunderscape Master are all contextually powerful, and you can be effective from several angles with them.

Ravenous Demon would love to eat some of them—especially Bitterheart Witch (the only Curse in there right now is Curse of Death's Hold, but that could change). If I include Ravenous Demon here, I’ll take out Hamlet Captain, as I’m attacking less with a vague swarm and more with 9/9s in the air. Where I’ll get the Humans for constant feeding, I don’t know, but I’m sure there’s something.

If I don’t go this route, I could build around Ravenous Demon, Myr, and Xenograft/Conspiracy. I’ve been wanting to make Myr Human for a while—it seems so wrong on every level—and the Demon is sufficient incentive for it.

Diregraf Captain

An easy include in my Grixis-colored Zombie deck. Aside from Call to the Grave and Cemetery Reaper, it’s running an unorthodox group of Zombies, with Metathran Zombie, Nightscape Battlemage, and Crypt Champion all playing key roles. Diregraf Captain is at least better than the two Anathemancers in the deck, and possibly the two Gempalm Polluters. As of this writing, I’m on the fence as to whether the Polluter’s cycling is more relevant than the Captain’s static abilities, as well as which one will cause more life loss.

Side note: Pick up the uncommon tribal lords of this set regardless of your plans for them. The Lorwyn ones are basically chase rares in terms of availability and price. If you don’t want them in a few years, somebody will trade you for them.

Chalice of Life

I have a semi-casual Martyr of Sands deck that I’d convert to Modern if ever I encounter a tournament for it. To make that easier, four Chalices and a Plains will replace the two non-Modern cards: Dawn Elemental and Nova Cleric. The thing with building around Martyr of Sands and Proclamation of Rebirth these days is that there are so many good white 1-drops, which definitely wasn’t true in Martyr’s heyday. Serra Ascendant is obvious, but Student of Warfare is good, too.

In Commander, white’s the natural ally of the Chalice, but black has enough Exsanguinate effects in normal play that it might be worth a look there, too. If you want to get funky in regular multiplayer, I can testify to the life-gain inherent in a mono-blue Eye of the Storm/Kraken's Eye deck. Since everyone casts the copies off Eye of the Storm, you can get to 50 life without much trouble, and Chalice could be a win condition there.

Jar of Eyeballs

I had two personal requests from my playgroup to add this to my mothballed Eye deck; with that much love, I have to do it, yes? It used Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore, Evil Eye of Urborg, Mimic Vat, and a host of Clone and copy effects to make sure most of my creatures were Eyes and therefore free to attack; failing that, it was an okay Vat control deck. It was slow, but obviously fun; I’m attacking with eyeballs!

Jar of Eyeballs doesn’t immediately fit there, but it makes some sense with the rest of the deck shell, and it wouldn’t mind more ways of finding important pieces. Other than the oddity of an Evil Eye giving two eyeball counters, it should fit in. I can put eyeballs from an eye in a jar, then put the eye in a vat. Because that makes sense.

A Baker’s Dozen I Don’t Have Plans For

Archangel's Light

Probably decent in W/U mill decks. In Commander, you won’t get much value by putting this in a deck that actively puts things in its graveyard because your graveyard has a target on it. You don’t ever want a spell neutered cheaply, and this one’s fragile. The easy solution is not to put in a graveyard-matters deck. Let opponents exile each other’s graveyards so you can gain 30ish life and get your stuff back. It sounds like a worthwhile card in that context, but not too many others.

Hollowhenge Spirit

Partner to Familiar Ground and Nacatl War-Pride; we simply haven’t seen much of this ability before. A deck that wants to stop attackers probably looks very different from one that wants to stop blockers, but each one should find value.

Call to the Kindred

Putting this in blue is pretty restrictive. Few tribes have creatures low enough on the curve to make this a good cheat-out enabler. I’m sure it does something cool.

Curse of Echoes

The copy ability is optional. Hive Mind players, stop drooling.

Gruesome Discovery

That morbid ability is the only card that lets you choose two cards for an opponent to discard. Last Rites can do it if you discard two other cards, but a creature dying is an easier trigger to meet. That uniqueness suggests a home in multiplayer; like with Hollowhenge Spirit’s ability, we’re not used to someone taking our two best cards.

Tragic Slip

It kills Blightsteel Colossus. Good card, I say!

Alpha Brawl

If you’re a mono-red Commander and need an extra sweeper? Killing only one person’s creatures seems underwhelming for.

Blood Feud

Two Blightsteel Colossi could kill each other. Good card, I say!

Flayer of the Hatebound

While black’s the natural pairing, don’t forget that green has persist and white has persist and reanimation. And if someone builds a Warstorm Surge/Flayer deck, I will applaud the nastiness.

Gravetiller Wurm

It barely missed the cut in my green Commander decks, but you might want to try it out.

Lost in the Woods

If you can get someone to attack you with a lot of creatures, you can do Abundance-style tricks to stack most of your library. Lost in the Woods + Fumiko the Lowblood + Stomping Slabs = ???

Huntmaster of the Fells

The fact that I’m not paying to put them in my decks doesn’t mean I wouldn’t find room if I opened one. I’m writing this before the prerelease. C’mon, Sealed pool!

Grafdigger's Cage

Another tool for red Commander decks to get everyone else to play fairly. There seems to be some strange combo deck you could make with this as a centerpiece, but my creativity isn’t matching my senses on this one.

Conclusion

This set has tons of Commander playability. The tribal lords play well in normal multiplayer, but the set feels strongly tilted to Commander for casual players, which has been my concern since last year’s Commander product. I don’t want WotC to assume that casual equals Commander equals casual, and Dark Ascension doesn’t make me feel too good on that front. But there are plenty of interesting choices, and the set looks to be as flavorful and fun as Innistrad.

So until next time, remember to have a jar for your creatures’ eyeballs. It’s the humane thing to do.