First today on Cards That Don't Suck Mold Shambler:

This Creeping Mold with legs recently saw some tournament play at Grand Prix Oakland as an answer to the "Thepths" deck. If you saw the coverage of GP Oakland you may have noticed a few chuckles at the mention of its name. As it turns out this fungus is quite the utility.

It has been along road for fungus in magic from the perplexing Mold Demon and the fungus heavy, over printed and underpowered Fallen Empires to the more recent Mold Adder and Mycoloth. Until last December, when Eldrazi Green won states running Mycoloth sideboard, I had never seen a deck running fungus win a major tournament.

Which brings me to Mold Shambler why does the magic mushroom (all puns intended) not suck, especially with her tribe's questionable past; let's take a look. Think about your deck, whatever you maybe current build maybe, do you have any creature removal? Of course you do every winning deck has a way to deal with creatures. Now do you have a card that deals with every other permanent? Probably not.

Mold Shambler is your all purpose sideboard card. If you are unfamiliar with the metagame and are running green she is a safe bet to back you up. If you are familiar with the metagame this shroom will make Jace trip face or blow out your O-ring.

Now you may say "I'll just run Maelstrom Pulse and sideboard Ghost Quarter, you scruffy nerf herder." I would say I never said it was great I just said it didn't suck.

Next up Ghost Town 2.0 Oboro, Palace in the Sky:

A small caveat lector before we begin this card may suck. It definitely has the stink of suck on it being a child of the set that dare not be named. Look at that lonely pagoda piece *sigh* not since the days of Samurai Pizza Cats has Japanese culture experienced such shame.

I want to like this card for one it does not come into play the battlefield tapped. I know what will help a nickname that will help me connect on a personal level. Let's see something nerdy possibly Lord of the Rings or Star either Trek or Wars related. Cloud City? Too obvious. Bespin? Not sexy enough. I got Lando's House! I say whose house?

So Lando's House loved by all and friend to all children. Doesn't enter anything tapped that's good. Can bounce itself to hide from Goblin Ruinblaster, Molten Rain, etc. also good. Guarantees landfall every turn that's just the bee's knees.

Imagine you are rocking a U/W control deck running Steppe Lynx and Hedron Crab you are out of fetch lands and your wife left you and took the kids. Lando's Heezy as a one of can keep your guys pumped long enough to mill your opponent down to nothing and your wife will come running back to your arms not your kids though she sold them.

Any landfall heavy deck should run a single copy of this at worst it is a colorless mana and it just might give you the edge. Then again most landfall deck are in Standard like Boros Bushwacker and the only card making waves in Extended is Hedron Crab and that is in Dredge. Son, maybe the hizouse won't see much play past casual tables but I never said it was great I just said it didn't suck.

How about a card for aggro players like Elvish Piper:

Why is no one playing this! Let's say you run any form of mana acceleration Llanowar Elves, Birds of Paradise, Lotus Cobra, Noble Heirarch, Rampant Growth or even an Explore you get a turn four Progenitus. That is a pretty hard dork to deal with.

If you do not want to run Progenitus over fear it will be a dead card there are many more choices even just in Standard. Terastodon on turn four targeting their lands will mana screw them long enough to get the edge in the game. A Rampaging Baloth hitting the table as early as possible to make sure its landfall ability is taken full advantage of. Then there is the vanilla there is tons of vanilla big green beats in Standard like Craw Wurm and Enourmous Baloth as well as some guys with a little extra like Terra Stomper and Kalonian Behemoth.

I remember this former All-Star and hometown hero from back in the day: Turn one Llanowar Elves, turn two something, turn three Elvish Piper and Turn four Thorn Elemental. Usually at that point the game was locked up. If they had a removal spell in hand they had to make a decision take out the big guy and risk a threat being powered out with Elvish Piper next turn or take out the Elvish Piper and hope an answer to the big guy comes up in two turns.

This mono-green beat down had many bombs like Verdant Force and Avatar of Might and was unstoppable on the kitchen table circuit. Then Apocalypse came out or more specifically Spiritmonger came out. It was just more efficient to pump out a big guy on turn three. Mono-green turned into Dark Fires and Elvish Piper was relegated to obscurity.

Now you may say "Isn't Jund the modern equivalent to Dark Fires?" and you go on to say "In a competitive tournament wouldn't Elvish Piper have such a big bulls eye on her head that she would attract removal like a magnet and as a result slow down your game?" I never said it was great I just said it didn't suck.

Next we have the ally color "protection from" creatures from Conflux the Outlanders:

Never underestimate the power of protection. Just look at White Knight and Great Sable Stag making waves on the top table of Pro Tour San Diego. The trick is to know the metagame; everyone is running Jund therefore Prot. Black is an asset.

For an historical perspective on protection lock up the deck list for Pro Tour Tokyo 2001. Hall of famer Zvi Mowshowitz ran a blue white control deck dubbed 'The Solution.' Most of the field was running red so Zvi ran Crimson Acolyte, Galina's Knight and Voice of All shutting down the competition. He went on to win that Pro Tour.

During the 1998 and 1999 Pro Tour season there was a white weenie deck that took advantage of this powerful ability. Using creatures like Soltari Priest, Soltari Monk and Paladin en-Vec in conjunction with Pariah and certain en-Kor creature in order to redirect damage therefore nullifying it. It made many top 8 appearances and had many incarnations. Truth be told this is one of my favorite decks of all time.

Back to today; let's see where these guys fit in. Vedalken Outlander fits easily in blue white control in Standard as a stopgap against aggressive Naya, Jund and mono-red builds. Valeron Outlander, possible the best of the bunch, fits in either Naya, Bant or Junk, but best in Junk, against Jund and Vampires. Most likely if you are running one of these decks you are also running exalted which makes Valeron Outlander even better. Jund and Blightning Beatdown, if anyone still plays it, could benefit from Goblin Outlander. It can hold its own against mono-white, Boros, Bant, Naya and Junk. By the way how fun is it to have an un-Path-able creature. Zombie Outlander may have a home in Extended in Faeries or Thepths as a line of defense against Elves or any other aggressive green heavy deck. Nacatl Outlander makes an excellent drink coaster. See they are all useful.

Now for the bad news, These Pro level decks are I mentioned are fine-tuned and play tested over and over again to see the best possible combination of cards. I never said they were great I just said… you know what they are great they are cheap stopgaps for us non-Pros. If there is an empty spot in your main deck or sideboard one of this will almost defiantly fit. Moving on.

Her is one for the players of the eternal formats Primal Order:

There has been a lot of criticism of the eternal formats specifically due to the average $300 land base decks run. To the dismay of, let's call them, long term investors Primal Order punishes them for what popular belief branded mandatory. Who would have thought there was an answer to the land base problem in Homelands.

Combo Elves, winner of Grand Prix Oakland and currently making headway in Legacy tournaments. The Legacy version of this deck is basically a Goblin Charbelcher variant of this deck uses tons of free mana fro Lion's Eye Diamond, Lotus Petal and Elvish Spirit Guide shenanigans.

It seems possible to make this a mono green version of this deck, all shenanigans included, for less then $200 and still being competitive. If you can find a way to cut the Lion's Eye Diamonds from the deck you might be able to make it for less then $100. It is possible to run green fetch lands, at the time of the writing of this article Misty Rainforests are rocking a ten dollar price tag, and Land Grants to thin the deck.

It's a Manabarbs that triggers automatically or a Price of Progress that recurs every turn. Certainly it seems promising, but in practice I do not know. Is it to slow? Is the current array of Legacy decks to aggressive? Is the $300 buy in truly necessary? Also aren't there decks currently that run two lands or no lands or even the Painter Servent deck that runs almost only Mountains.

I can only hope this card doesn't suck. I have no way to prove it outside running it in a sanctioned Legacy tournament and doing well. I can say if you are paling a friend with a tournament quality deck and goad her into a casual game this card will destroy.

Does it suck? No. Is it the Great Green Hope? I do not know. If any of you are brave enough to rock this hypothetical deck I would like to hear your results. I myself will chance a build and track down a test group or tournament.

Finally on this volume of Cards That Don't Suck a card that didn't suck Shock:

We are gathered here today to mourn and remember a good dear friend. A friend who was taken from us after a long and arduous battle with power creep. Charles de Gaulle once said, "The graveyards are full of indispensable men spells." Unfortunately there is not even a place in the graveyard for our dear friend Shock.

Shock began her life as a common in the middle set of the Rath cycle, Stronghold. Hitting the tables in February of 1998 she quickly became part of Sligh the deck dominating in block format. Then on October 1, 1999 when Fourth edition and with it Lightning Bolt rotated out of Extended.

At the top of her game over the next decade she appeared in every top deck running red Ponza, Goblins, Counter-Burn and far too many more to name. Little did she know that she was not long for this world plane.

With the release of Lorwyn came Tarfire. Functionally identically to Shock the younger sexier Tarfire filled her spot in goblin decks due to it's tribal status. Then with Magic 2010 came worse news: Lightning Bolt was coming out of retirement. Shock was reduced to back up burn/removal to Lightning Bolt in mono-red. The final nail came with Zendikar and Burst Lightning.

Her time at an end with no home in any format she spent her last days at her home outside Phoenix. She passed away peacefully surrounded by friends and loved ones Mogg Fanatic, Cursed Scroll and Jackal Pup. She will be missed.

You can join the funeral procession via twitter @letsbuildrogue.

Thank you for reading my piece. I am a long time Magic player who is more impressed by a Rogue deck then a tried and true tournament winner. This definitely skews my opinion of cards, which most likely came across in this article. Feel free to comment below on cards you believe are under rated or simple assert your dominance anonymously by insulting my opinion or mother. Once again you can find me on twitter @letsbuildrogue.