As with my previous Ass-Kicking update, all I want to do today is share some overlooked gems that have turned out be really good in multiplayer. Some of them I have kicked ass with, and some of them have kicked mine, but all of them are capable of kicking ass for you. None of that theory nonsense today—these are battletested veterans that deserve to be in more decks. Today’s Chaos Edition focuses on red cards (with one card that just feels red). Let’s get it on!

Spellshock

And before some whining, would-be politician chimes in that it draws too much attention, let me say that this view is overrated¹ for three reasons:

1. Smart players will realize that a card that hurts everyone gives them opportunities—especially if they are getting hurt less than others. In many situations, a smart player will leave you alone and take advantage of the damage you’re dealing to other opponents.
2. You can make it asymmetrical if you plan ahead. One option is to just be more aggressive than anyone else—as long as you aren’t casting twice as many spells as they are, you should do okay. A second is to add white for Balefire Liege, Wall of Essence, Lightning Helix, and Beacon of Immortality. Or consider starting your deck with play sets of some of the following cards: Spellshock, Bloodchief Ascension, Spiteful Visions, Underworld Dreams, and Kederekt Parasite, washed down with an Exsanguinate and some Sadistic Sacraments to neutralize their enchantment removal.² It won’t take long before you are in an absolutely unassailable position no matter how many opponents you have . . . I mean “had.”
3. Your opponents are trying to kill you anyway; that’s what opponents means. You need to balance this whole staying-under-the-radar’ hing with a healthy amount of beating your opponents to death with powerful cards like this one.

I promise to look at the age-old question of whether aggro can succeed in multiplayer in a future article, but let me mention this now: Any card like Spellshock that can carve big chunks of life out of each opponent for a very low cost is going to go a long way toward making that aggro deck more effective.

And if you’ve ever complained that your multiplayer games are taking too long, whether you win or lose, you can enjoy shaping the environment and shortening the game with a powerhouse like Spellshock. Even if you are the first one out, you won’t have to wait long before the next game starts!

Sensation Gorger

And there was much rejoicing.

Wheel of Fortune is among the original broken cards in Magic—a lot of fun and highly abusable. But more generally, this mechanic has become a part of red’s color identity. Everyone discards; everyone draws . . . including those who don’t want to because of an extremely large or well-crafted hand. Who tends to benefit the most? The aggro player with the empty hand. What is the best color for aggro? Red. That’s why my Ruhan deck from last week included both Windfall and Incendiary Command in addition to the Wheel—being able to empty the control player’s hand and refuel the aggro deck is just good strategy. Sensation Gorger is among the few ways in the game to get this as a repeatable effect. If you play Goblins (or Shaman—Shamen?) and find yourself running out of gas or being ground down in the long game, Sensation Gorger is the answer to your prayers.

Charmbreaker Devils

Here’s what I wrote about Charmbreaker Devils in my Innistrad preview article:

The best value I ever got out of the Devils was in my Urabrask deck:

Turn four: Geosurge for Charmbreaker Devils

Turn five: Return Geosurge to my hand, play a land, and play Urabrask

Turn six: With the Devils’ ability on the stack, cast Price of Progress, regrow Price of Progress as the only instant or sorcery in my graveyard, play it again, and swing for 12 with the Devils (opponents always forget that +4/+0!).

That was basically the game right there, but just to be sure, next turn I used Geosurge again to cast Kozilek early and take the table.

Obviously, Price of Progress did most of the damage in that scenario, but being able to recast it quickly with the Devils changed it from a heavy-hitter to a howitzer.

This game illustrates two advantages of playing the Devils. First, you’re able to “waste” cards such as Geosurge in the early game rather than saving them for later when you can get more value out of them. With any other 6-drop, I would have been torn between casting it early with Geosurge or waiting until I could use it to cast Kozilek, but instead, the Devils turned this relatively innocuous acceleration spell into an MVP.

In this event, I returned the Tutor instead of the Ultimatum, but then I just tutored for a Vengeful Rebirth, recovering the Ultimatum and clearing the way for my Devils to smash some poor sap for 12 damage (there’s that +4/+0 again!). It died before I could get another go out of it, but not before giving me two extra tutors and over 20 points of damage for a mere 6 mana.

I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that playing with powerful instants and sorceries is good for business, but some of you probably need reminding that there’s a presumed junk rare out there that lets you double up on your best spells.

Here’s an example of a Devils-based deck for sixties that should speed things up in your playgroup.

"Playing with Fire"

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Chandra's Spitfire
• 4 Charmbreaker Devils
• 4 Kiln Fiend
• 4 Pilgrim's Eye

• Spells (22)
• 4 Staggershock
• 2 Banefire
• 2 Devil's Play
• 2 Nightbird's Clutches
• 4 Arc Trail
• 4 Geosurge
• 4 Wheel of Fate

• Lands (22)
• 18 Mountain
• 4 Smoldering Spires

Buy This Deck

Retaliator Griffin

In a duel, the Griffin basically means that if your opponent is on less life than you, he can’t really come at you until he can either kill you in one shot or deal with your flyer first—a flyer that just happens to be in the colors of life-gain and trample. It was in just such a situation that I discovered Retaliator Griffin—playing a duel with my old Alara-block Naya deck while my buddy Mike piloted my Rite of Re-Plantation deck. I was pretty much kicking his butt with a regenerating Cliffrunner Behemoth and a Retaliator Griffin when he cast Rite of Replication on my Griffin! Suddenly, the fact that I had twice as much life as he did ceased to matter . . . if I swung again, I was dead. Before I could draw an out (Naya Charm, in this case—an absolute must-have in those colors and possibly the best Charm ever), he had me.

In multiplayer, things are always more complicated, and the deterrence the Griffin provides isn’t quite so simple. Swinging haymakers back and forth like a fight scene from Rocky may work in a duel but not a Royal Rumble; you may put enough counters on the Griffin to kill any other player at the table, but you have much less chance of having the time to use it. On the other hand, the Griffin does have two advantages in multiplayer.

1. With more attackers and more targets for each attack, you’ll find that the Griffin is going to deter more opponents, sending them at other players. Just like Propaganda—which is more valuable in multiplayer for the attacks that it redirects than the ones it merely prevents—Retaliator Griffin could shift the dynamic of combat in your favor for as long as you can keep it alive.
2. With a Griffin in play, you might find yourself being attacked by someone whose interests align with yours. Explicitly or implicitly, that person might want to make your Griffin large enough to deal with a mutual foe. That’s not a bad position to be in—he may think he’s manipulating you, but at the end of the day, you’re left with a bloody-great, talony, beaky thing and the choice of which opponent to savage with it. It’s good to be in the driver’s seat!

Avarice Totem

Avarice Totem is perhaps the second-best way of dealing straight-up with a planeswalker (the best being Word of Seizing, but that doesn’t really qualify as secret tech). You get to ignore the ’walker while its controller slowly builds up to the ultimate or everyone else goes nuts trying to deal with it (sometimes both!), and if it ever gets up to full strength, you can just pay 6 mana and take it; the timing rules allow you to activate the planeswalker before your opponent has a chance to steal it back.

Being able to ignore a planeswalker gives you a lot of strategic freedom—pretty much in proportion to the awesomeness of the ’walker.

With Elspeth, Knight-Errant, for example, whoever played her probably gets to make two blockers a turn (one card, one token), and most other players will send at least one attacker at her each turn. In the process of trying to attack or defend her, a lot of removal spells are going to be wasted by players who aren’t you. The long and short of it is that you're likely to be the only one at the table increasing his relative power . . . and that’s before you steal Elspeth and take 8 counters off her. With the most powerful planeswalkers, Karn and Nicol Bolas, you have two options: pay the 6 to steal it and make it commit suicide or ignore it (possibly with a comment to the effect of “I won’t attack it if it doesn’t hurt me,” if you like that sort of thing) until it’s time to pop the ultimate!

Of course, Avarice is far from limited to dealing with planeswalkers. It is the only non-red card to make the Chaos Edition because it sows chaos like few other cards. For example, let’s say you swap your utility weenie for the best creature on the table; you can reasonably expect to lose that creature right away if its owner has 5 available mana—or whenever he untaps. However, there are at least four situations in which you won’t have to play dueling totems with an opponent:

1. When you take something and sacrifice it immediately
2. When there is doubt about what the best permanent on the table might be
3. When you take something that is more meaningful to you than to your opponent
4. When there is something else that is more meaningful to your opponent

Avarice Totem is the perfect card to just add as a one-of to any deck. At best, you can take advantage of your opponents’ best cards, and at worst, you’ll find that the chaos it sows can be both fun and strategically beneficial! For extra fun, combine it with cards such as Privileged Position or Asceticism (and Sterling Grove to protect your enchantments) that protect your stuff from the Totem and some combination of tokens and self-removing critters (Ball Lightning variants, evoke critters, living weapon tokens, and I believe attacking creatures with a phasing trigger from Teferi's Veil would come back under your control, too). Erratic Portal and Crystal Shard are fun, too, but then, they always are!

But Wait, There’s More!

Most of you will have heard about the upcoming From The Vaults: Realms release. After the previous FTV set, Legends, was ridiculed by most casual players (including yours truly), I haven’t heard much interest in this new set, but I think that could be a mistake. After carefully scouring the online Reserved List,⁴ I came across a number of cards that we would be glad to see reprinted and that seem to me to meet the entirely subjective and unofficial criteria of: cool to own, fun to play, nostalgic, balanced, and not too expensive (important to consider, because otherwise, collectors and tourney types will snatch up every available copy of the product, leading to the unfun availability issues that plagued FTV: Dragons). Here is a list of cards that are not on the reserved list and that would make some degree of sense to reprint. My top fifteen⁵ picks are in bold.

From the Vault: Realms

• City of Brass (Arabian Nights) – This is the card I’m most confident of seeing.
• Hammerheim (Legends) – It’s relatively weak, but you should never underestimate how much fun it is to tell your opponents, “Stop . . . Hammerheim.”
• Karakas (Legends) – It’s banned in Commander—although some of us think it would be fine if it wasn’t allowed to bounce commanders—but this is still strong in both casual and tournament decks.
• Glacial Chasm (Ice Age) – Actually, this is the card I’m most confident of seeing, but only because Wizards spoiled the art when they announced the set, and it screams, “Glacial Chasm.”
• Maze of Ith (The Dark)
• Ancient Tomb (Tempest)
• Wasteland (Tempest) – It’s $45 for the plain old standard version, never mind the two different reprints; this is probably too pricey to reprint.
• High Market (Mercadian Masques) – I’m willing to bet that either this or Miren, the Moaning Well will be reprinted.
• Kor Haven (Nemesis) – Ditto either this or the Maze is probably coming back, and the Maze would be a better choice.
• Rishadan Port (Mercadian Masques) – In a land-based set, the anti-land!
• Tower of the Magistrate (Mercadian Masques)
• Cabal Coffers (Torment)
• Crystal Quarry (Odyssey)
• Cloudpost (Mirrodin)
• Miren, the Moaning Well (Saviors of Kamigawa)
• Academy Ruins (Time Spiral) – Too broken, in my opinion. It’s better to let the people who want to abuse it pay full value for it.
• Vesuva (Time Spiral)
• Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (Planar Chaos)
• Reliquary Tower (Conflux)⁶
• Emeria, The Sky Ruin (Zendikar)
• Command Tower (MTG: Commander)
• Homeward Path (MTG: Commander)

This set as I’ve picked it would be great value. However, I’m not going to discount the possibility that we get the bounce lands from Ravnica, the Urzatron, Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper, and Hall of the Bandit Lord. The ball is in WotC’s court, and I am hopeful (but not certain) that they will regain our trust with this product.

¹ Not that the argument never has any validity—just that too many people seem to think that “it might draw attention” is the most important factor in multiplayer card selection, but it isn't.

² I actually have a B/r Dreams/Visions deck for multiplayer, and it is an absolute blast to play! Sure, I draw a lot of attention, but drawing attention from people whom I’m going to kill soon doesn’t worry me too much. Let me know if you want to see the list.

³ If you guessed Pithing Needle, go to the back of the class! Pithing Needle stops your opponents from using their planeswalkers while Avarice Totem allows you to use them for yourself; absent Doubling Season or Contagion Engine shenanigans, Totem is usually better in multiplayer.

⁴ Curiously, Phyrexian Tower is not on this list, but it is a rare from a reserved set, so I expect this is an oversight. If it really isn’t on the reserved list, I’m pretty sure that it will be reprinted in this set—and if so, it’s among the best sac outlets in black, so make sure you preorder!

⁵ Yes, I know that FTV sets have always included a preview card from the upcoming big set, but I’m not going to waste time trying to predict what that might be, am I?

⁶ Actually, Ryan Bushard pointed out that this is like a $5 card now, which I didn’t realize; that means that it will almost certainly be in Realms, but I didn’t realize that until after I’d made the list. No substitutions!