One of the truly fun things you can do as a Magic writer is to officially spoil a card for a set. There is something iconic and empowering about writing a preview for a card that no one knows exists. Luckily, we have just such a card here, and it is certainly worth the interest. As more and more cards are revealed by previews, the better this set looks. I’m glad I’ve already preordered this stuff weeks ago!

There are some strategies in Commander that are more successful than others. Due to the randomness of deck creation and multiplayer, the format rewards some strategies more than others. It’s harder to build a powerful Commander deck with a lot of one-for-one trades. Lots of strategies employ trades in duels—counters, land destruction, discard, bounce, removal, instant pump (my Giant Growth for your creature), and certainly combat with even trades.

A simple Terminate is effective in a duel. In multiplayer, that same card is basically included as emergency instant removal that is not as effective as it could be, because you are getting outdrawn 3:1, 4:1, or more every turn. That’s not to say there isn’t any place for these cards or strategies—but they have to work harder.

Let’s take discard and look at it more. Some of the best discard spells of all time are cheap. Examples like Duress and Thoughtseize abound. They are card-for-card trades, so they represent power in duels due to a cheap cost or powerful effect. In multiplayer, where Commander is played, they don’t do much. You get one card from one person. All that does is annoy him. Imagine the megapowerful Hymn to Tourach in Commander. Even getting two random cards from a player is still just hitting one player. Plus, the person you hit is about to get severely ticked off at you.

With discard being one of the more common themes played by casual players, there is a disconnect between power level and use. People are playing cards like Hymn that aren’t too hot against multiple foes. Meanwhile, they are rocking Megrim and Liliana's Caress, plus a few specters. They might have one each of Mind Twist and Mind Shatter. Perhaps a few permanents to help out the theme, like Bottomless Pit. This is your normal discard deck in Casual Land.

In Commander, with so many powerful spells and creatures seeing play, discard’s role is altered. You have some difficulty getting the reliable permanents you need, so you end up using discard as an adjunct to another strategy. Just use the good discard cards.

With the recent printing of M11, we’ve gained more multiplayer-friendly discard. There have been some cards that push multiplayer discard.

From Urza’s Saga, we have two. Cackling Fiend is a 4-mana 2/1 that forces all opponents to discard a card when it enters play. That’s pretty nice. It means that no matter how many players are rocking Commander at the table, you’ll still be able to have true card equilibrium with your discard. Another card from Saga is Unnerve. This 4-mana sorcery forces each of your foes to discard two cards. Again, the card advantage potential from this is huge. As a tool for discard, this really works well in both discard strategies and just in general.

A later card that mimics Unnerve a bit is Syphon Mind. It has the same cost, but all foes discard one. However, you draw a card for each one discarded, so it yields the same card advantage as Unnerve. It might actually yield a bit more, since an opponent with one card in hand would only be out one card, whereas with Syphon Mind, he would discard the one and you’d get it back, too.

With just these three good tools in the “all opponents discard” tool shed, M11 helped the theme out a lot with Liliana's Specter. It’s cheaper than Cackling Fiend, and flies to boot. With the same enters-the-battlefield trigger, it’s definitely a winner.

While those cards were the best of the lot, there are some weaker ways to force everyone to discard. You could kill a Noxious Toad or Screeching Buzzard. Technically, you could pull the divinity counter off a Myojin of Night's Reach to make every foe discard his whole hand—that’s nice. Finally, you could activate Words of Waste or hit kinship on Squeaking-Pie Grubfellows. (The 7-mana Cabal Conditioning is also discard for all foes.)

Of course, Bottomless Pit and its fellows could force everybody to discard over time, but they hit you as well as your enemies. They also nail any allies you may have. If you are playing Commander decks in something other than chaos multiplayer (such as Emperor, Secret Alliances, Star, etc.), you don’t hit allies with Unnerve, but you do with a Bottomless Pit. That’s what makes these core four discard cards that both have the ability and are cheap and easy to play so useful. You can easily play Liliana's Specter et al. outside of discard decks.

Today, we no longer have just four core cards that are both good and force every opponent to discard. We have five.

Reveal!

Yes, that’s right, bask in the glory of Scythe Specter. Earlier this week, I pointed out that Evan Erwin, of SCG fame, often goes crazy enthusiastic over his previews. We buy into the power of the card because he sells it. Well, I wanted a chance to do that. Therefore, I recorded myself and attached it here, so just hit play:

[audio:http://s3.gatheringmagic.com/uploads/2011/06/10/O My stars and garters.mp3]

Fun, huh?

Get a chance to look over Scythe Specter some more. It does everything you expect from a Specter. It attacks, and then, when it hits, it forces a discard. However, it forces a discard from every single opponent. (And then it will hit someone for life loss, too!) The card advantage potential in this thing is nuts. Just attack whoever is open, and then hit everyone for a card loss (except for you and your friends).

Of all of the Specters ever, only Silent Specter matches this one for power and toughness (even then, it spends part of its time in a hidden 2/2 form). It has power and a powerful ability all wrapped into one delicious package.

Just having it untapped and ready to attack will change how some people play. Will they want to attack with their flyers, thus keeping themselves open? Not usually. No one wants to get hit for 4 and a discard, (perhaps some life lost, too) even with a 40 starting life total. You can find the path of least resistance, and punish everybody at the table.

It works with a lot of cards that are quite good for the format. It will clearly be a target of removal, so slap on Lightning Greaves. Then swing with a newly hasted, shrouded harbinger of death and discard. Without anyone seeing it, you should be able to hit someone for damage and a card loss for all. It also works with Whispersilk Cloak—both protection and a guaranteed way of hitting for damage. In fact, it looks tailor-made for the Cloak.

The discard is chosen, so you want to hit multiple times in order to force opponents to play their goods. There are ways to do that, too. All of the cards in the Relentless Assault category can do it. All of the cards in the Time Warp category can, too. I’m sure you can find many extra attacks between these two colors.

Another way to give it a bit of extra steam is to give it Double Strike. Can you say “Unnerve and 8 damage,” boys and girls? Every time it gets through, it is shearing off 20% of your starting life total with that scythe. Apparently, scythes work well with Fireshriekers and Grappling Hooks. In the right colors, cards like True Conviction and Rage Reflection can join your team. (True Conviction, with its Lifelink? Wow. That’s a nasty card combo.)

Anyway, this is a good card for your consideration. Since we have this whole Commander article, wouldn’t it be sad if we didn’t have a Commander deck with the new card? I know it comes out in a deck and all, but I just like making decks!

While a deck built around a discard theme would make sense, I have another idea. Let’s take this deck in a different direction.

"Wrexial and Scythes"

• Creatures (34)
• 1 Avatar of Woe
• 1 Butcher of Malakir
• 1 Cackling Fiend
• 1 Chancellor of the Spires
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx
• 1 Dimir Cutpurse
• 1 Dimir Guildmage
• 1 Draining Whelk
• 1 Ebon Dragon
• 1 Guiltfeeder
• 1 Liliana's Specter
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Nekrataal
• 1 Nemesis of Reason
• 1 Nezumi Graverobber // Nighteyes the Desecrator
• 1 Puppeteer Clique
• 1 Sangromancer
• 1 Scion of Darkness
• 1 Scythe Specter
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Stinkweed Imp
• 1 Wonder
• 1 Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor
• 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1 Ashling, the Extinguisher
• 1 Chainer, Dementia Master
• 1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Sygg, River Cutthroat
• 1 Szadek, Lord of Secrets
• 1 Visara the Dreadful
• 1 Wrexial, the Risen Deep

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Liliana Vess

• Spells (28)
• 1 Desertion
• 1 Expunge
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 1 Opportunity
• 1 Rend Flesh
• 1 Spelljack
• 1 Beacon of Unrest
• 1 Black Sun's Zenith
• 1 Compulsive Research
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Glimpse the Unthinkable
• 1 Life's Finale
• 1 Profane Command
• 1 Rise from the Grave
• 1 Syphon Mind
• 1 Twisted Justice
• 1 Unnerve
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mycosynth Wellspring
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Vengeance
• 1 Talisman of Dominance
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Whetstone
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (37)
• 10 Island
• 11 Swamp
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Faerie Conclave
• 1 Halimar Depths
• 1 Jwar Isle Refuge
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Mystifying Maze
• 1 Polluted Mire
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Remote Isle
• 1 Salt Marsh
• 1 Tolaria West
• 1 Underground River
• 1 Watery Grave

Buy This Deck Export text format

Here is the deck for your perusal and enjoyment. What I chose to do was build a deck for Scythe Specter in a Wrexial deck. I wanted to use some light discard and milling elements to fill opposing graveyards with fuel for Wrexial. Since both Wrexial and Scythe Specter want to hit an opponent to work, I added some equipment to help.

Wrexial can’t always hit with its double landwalking abilities, so Whispersilk Cloak is a must. I also included Trailblazer's Boots as a similar way to get in hits. Then I put in a pair of Haste-makers in Lightning Greaves and Sword of Vengeance. The Sword also gives Trample to break over a defense to deal combat damage to a player.

Since I had these equipments in the deck, it only made sense to increase the attacking/graveyard theme. Scion of Darkness is a nice beater, cycles early, and when he hits someone, you get to recur a creature. Ink-Eyes is similarly helpful to your team, while also sometimes coming out of nowhere with its Ninjitsu. I’ve never found a place before for Szadek in a deck not explicitly built for his rulership, but this is a great home for him. Ashling, the Extinguisher, Dimir Cutpurse, and Guiltfeeder all want some equipment to make them unblockable as well

Further helping the deck is Nemesis of Reason. (Which, by the way, is a horrible name for a Blue card!) You want to attack as many times as you can, in order to mill decks. Therefore, you might want to equip it to keep it from dying to a big o’ gang tackle. (Or Silvos, Rogue Elemental). You’ve got Chainer, Geth, and Puppeteer Clique that all use the graveyard fodder the other cards make. Even Chancellor of the Spires wants a nice spell to play.

To make the fodder, I included all five of the cards I discussed before, and not just Scythe Specter. Liliana's Specter, Unnerve, Cackling Fiend, and Syphon Mind make appearances. I also tossed in Sangromancer to gain you a bunch of life (while also draining it with its other ability). When considering a few beaters to add, I settled on Ebon Dragon to support this mini-theme. You also have both Dimir Cutpurse and Dimir Guildmage.

Check out how awesome Liliana Vess is for this deck. She not only causes discards to pump her loyalty and fill graveyards, but she also can reanimate all of those creatures you have milled/discarded into people’s graveyards. Even if you have to use her second ability to tutor occasionally instead of going off, that’s still a very sexy thing. She’s the only planeswalker I feel is worth playing in this deck. Jace Beleren is too hard to get to the ultimate, which is the only part of him I like in this deck. His first activation doesn’t give you the power I want. Even Jace, the Mind Sculptor isn’t that super-hot here.

Beyond what has been mentioned, we have ways to fill up the graveyard. Take a look at Whetstone. This mills everyone (yourself included). You have a Dredge card and an incarnation, so perhaps you’ll get lucky and hit one. Otherwise, you can use this as fuel for your reanimation spells. I usually chose those that can hit an opposing graveyard too—Rise from the Grave and Beacon of Unrest. I shied away from any enchantments at all.

Just in case you mill something very bad, I tossed in Nezumi Graverobber // Nighteyes the Desecrator and Bojuka Bog. You can nuke a problem card or the whole graveyard with these tools.

Other cards are your typical entries. I have card-drawing (Consecrated Sphinx, Mulldrifter, Fact or Fiction, etc.), pinpoint creature removal (Go for the Throat, Nekrataal, etc.), sweeping removal (Damnation, Life's Finale, Black Sun's Zenith, Massacre Wurm), and even Twisted Justice. I also have a few counters that are very powerful. Draining Whelk is long a favorite of mine as a counterspell/Dragon. Desertion and Spelljack both take something and make it yours. Rawr!

You have creatures that we rely on—Avatar of Woe, Butcher of Malakir, Aboshan, and more. I think Sheoldred also works very well in this deck, as both removal and reanimation. After that, I just added a few cards here and there to wrap things up. I wanted Glimpse the Unthinkable, so I put it in. I wanted two Mazes, so I made sure to include them. I thought Profane Command was too powerful to ignore, so in it went as well. Tolaria West goes in every Commander deck I have that includes Blue, and this qualifies.

Once I fleshed out the deck, I gave it a once over to make sure it looked all right. Then I finished the mana base and called it a deck!

There have been many great cards previewed for this release. I’m super-glad that I was able to review this card. I think it has many happy days ahead. Enjoy them!

I want to go ahead of Father Time with a scythe of my own.

— H.G. Wells