How many times in a game of Magic: The Gathering have you wondered if you should use your removal or a counter on a card, choose not to, and regret it? What causes this kind of disconnect between a card's text, and its actual threat level? Here are a few categories of card that can sneakily win you the game, or-more scarily-lose you the game.

Creature-Based Mana Production

It's no secret that cards like Birds of Paradise and Elvish Mystic are good creature ramp. The phrase "Bolt the Bird" doesn't come from nowhere. However, this doesn't always seem like something we should waste a removal spell on, especially in Commander when players might play a spell that wins them the game. Hear me out, though. Mana production is how they get to that win. Big spells need mana. Slow that down, if you can. You can counter one spell, but with enough mana they can try again.

What are some creature based mana production? Circle of Dreams Druid, Somberwald Sage, Fanatic of Rhonas, Llanowar Tribe, and Karametra's Acolyte are some cards that can ramp so suddenly into big green spells that are game ending like Finale of Devastation or Last March of the Ents. This small bump in mana by the next turn might lead to a player dumping out tons of creatures and giving them +X/+X. It's why everyone scoops when they see a Craterhoof Behemoth: It's decisive.

How does creature-based mana production win you the game? Kami of Whispered Hopes, Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, and Gyre Sage are far worse, creatures that scale up far beyond their initial costs. With more value you could cast a Torment of Hailfire or Exsanguinate to drain out the table, with unprecedented amounts of mana. This kind of mana is scary because it bursts over in a turn or two into unexpectedly long and efficient turns. Creature after bigger creature that fuel the mana production of these cards.

Recurrable Draw

When talking about some of the strongest cards in Magic: The Gathering, Rhystic Study is a card that always gets spoken about. It's a kill-on-sight card. However, what makes this card so good? It is a way to create a huge card advantage on your turn and on others' turns. With card advantage you have more options to stop others' wins or further your own win by getting your pieces. Drawing and mana production are the two strongest things you can do in Magic: The Gathering. But what other cards are like this?

What are some recurrable draw cards you should be playing? Necropotence gives you big bursts of card draw that are reactionary, which is good, but often slow and reliant on others, which isn't sneaky. Consecrated Sphinx. Faerie Mastermind, Esper Sentinel, and Trouble in Pairs are not truly recurrable enough. It is usually once per player per turn at the most. Three cards a turn are good, but they aren't the sneaky ones.

What are some sneaky recurrable draws? There is a trend here. Elemental Bond, Guardian Project, Garruk's Uprising and Up The Beanstalk. These spells are juiced by cards you play and there isn't a limit to how many it can see and draw you for. If you have multiple out it could be 3-4 cards per creature spell. In Green, the mana is no issue. Soon there is an engine of throwing your whole hand out and drawing more and more.

Pingers

Orcish Bowmasters, is the direct counter to recurrable draws. This makes this card extremely effective. Pingers in general are cards that seem like a small issue that grow gradually to bigger issues. The effect only being 1 damage at a time, leads us to believe that it might not be much, but these pings stack up. In this case, I'm talking about any loss of life one at a time.

Which ping effects should you be playing? Disciple of the Vault, Mayhem Devil, Blood Artist, and Mirkwood Bats. These are situational, I understand, but each functions the same. Treasure synergies with Disciple of the Vault makes it a pee-shooter trained on the player that is the biggest threat.

Mayhem Devil is even more heinous because it triggers on all sacrifice triggers, even opponents, and it can target anything. It can go straight to face or to that unassuming Scute Swarm over there. Mirkwood Bats is great because it triggers from the creation and sacrificing of tokens, and it hits every player. Cards like Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin are so powerful because of the effects of cards like this.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read. I hope this helps in your next deck-building session! @cashinds on X