Writing in the week before the Dark Ascension prerelease, I don’t really have a chance to pick the best multiplayer cards in the set, but I’m going to give it a try anyway. Of course, WotC’s official spoilers tend to be more top-heavy than Anna Nicole Smith, with all of the mythics spoiled before the first dozen commons, and for the casual player on a budget, that may feel a lot like torture. That’s why, to help out the budget deck-builders, I’m going to talk about three cards at each rarity that I think are going to shake up your kitchen table.

Mythics

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Sorry, but I can't help but start off with the sexy, black elephant in the room: Sorin 2. I was absolutely blown away when I first saw him, and judging by the fact that he’s being preordered for $50 or more, I reckon I’m not alone. However, as with any new romance, it isn't long before that new relationship high fades and you start seeing your new girlfriend/boyfriend/[insert fetish here] in the cold light of day. Sorin offers a lot, but he isn't quite the answer to my prayers that I first thought he was.

Sorin’s allure, as with most planeswalkers, comes from his ultimate, but that means you’re hoping he’ll go off when your opponents have three awesome fatties in play but you have time to make it up to 6 counters, kill those creatures, and claim them. I hate to burst your bubble, but that’s less likely than you want it to be. As a simple rule of thumb: Anything that can be held off by a 1/1 Vamp token isn't worth killing with Sorin, and anything worth killing is probably going to have some way of slapping Sorin around.

Don’t despair, though; there are at least three options for getting maximum value from the multiverse’s best-dressed traveler. The first thing I want to do when I see a W/B planeswalker is add green for Doubling Season, but then I have more B/G/W Commander decks than I have Doubling Seasons. In the mid- to late-game, Sorin might be the best planeswalker in the game to combo with Doubling Season, essentially presenting the table with an Insurrection that just don’t quit.

The second option is to play prison, which is where the white comes in. Moat may be a bit pricey, but there are a ton of other effects that you can use to keep folks from attacking you. The black approach is too kill everyone’s creatures, but by taking a plainer path, you can save the tastiest treats for Sorin to snack on, then take over the board with them.

The third option is to play him in an Emperor deck. The minion tokens will do just fine when you pass them to your lieutenants, and while they hold off the onslaught, you can build up to a critical mass of loyalty counters and selectively sweep the board. For preference, kill three creatures from the same enemy lieutenant and send those creatures at the other one—that way, the creatures will be able to smash all the through to the opposing Emperor without disappearing if their owner dies.

Alternately, you can just use Sorin to supplement an already-strong strategy, secure in the knowledge that he’ll help you on your way to victory whether he hits his ultimate or not. Here’s a little something that might be a good marriage of black and white, with a mix of tribal and token beatdown, a strong spot-removal suite, and a little bit of reach for the long game:

"Sanguine Virtue"

• Creatures (19)
• 3 Pawn of Ulamog
• 4 Blood Seeker
• 4 Bloodline Keeper
• 4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
• 4 Vampire Nighthawk

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

• Spells (15)
• 2 Return to Dust
• 3 Mortify
• 3 Urge to Feed
• 2 Vigil for the Lost
• 2 Sanguine Bond
• 3 Intangible Virtue

• Lands (24)
• 14 Swamp
• 6 Plains
• 4 Isolated Chapel

Buy This Deck

There may just be too much going on here, but I do love the thought of virtuous, vigilant Vamps getting it done on both offense and defense. And while Vamps have always enjoyed their Sanguine Bonds, usually with Blood Tribute, I thought it would be fun to turn the fairly crappy Vigil for the Lost into a fearsome combo piece of doom. “Sure, you can attack Sorin, and I can only block with this little 1/1, but I do have all of this mana untapped, so I can promise that it’ll hurt you more than it hurts me!”

Pawn of Ulamog isn't great—five years ago, I suppose it would have been the only 3-drop in a Vampire deck, but now we’re really spoiled for choices—but it works so well with Intangible Virtue that I had to give it a try. If the Sanguine/Vigil combo doesn’t work, you can always sub them out for Butcher of Malakir, which is easier to cast and easier to trigger with the Pawn out. Actually, I might have been a bit cute with these design; the best idea might be giving up your Virtue faster than Mitt Romney on the campaign trail and instead adding more copies of Sanguine and Vigil—or perhaps just add tutors for those combo pieces. Remember that multiple Bond triggers stack, but more than one Vigil in play is just a waste, so adjust the numbers accordingly.

There might also be another card on this list that forces me to revamp this deck before I've even put it together, but we’ll get to that in good time.

Vorapede

Can you believe green used to be mocked as the color of silken-winged Sprites and androgynous Elves? Well, no more (except on Lorwyn, of course)! Green has been the color of unapologetic skullcrackery for a long time now, and this is another gem. Now yes, a lot of people (including yours truly) have complained that it isn’t hasty like Vengevine, and that would have been so much cooler, but once you get over this, you can see that this card is among the most efficient multiplayer beaters of all time. Vigilance and trample give it the double-deterrent effect of munching on any attackers and hitting those creatures’ controllers back harder than they can handle. And undying? Undying is the real deal, folks. If opponents strike it down, it shall become more powerful than they can possibly imagine . . . or at least bigger, tougher, and, if it ever becomes necessary, untapped.

And we may finally have a use for all of those copies of Predatory Urge we opened during Zendikar, so there’s that.

Havengul Lich

Recently, I’ve had the feeling that WotC is printing cards specifically for me. The Lich plays exactly the kind of zero-sum game that I love most about multiplayer. Sure, killing everyone else’s critters is fun, but twisting them into your puppets and then using them to terrorize their owners? That’s why I love playing black!

Granted, I mainly play Commander these days, and the color identity rules make it impossible for you to cast anything that isn't black, blue, or colorless, but that still leaves you plenty of options, starting with the ubiquitous Solemn Simulacrum and Pilgrim's Eye and going all the way up to Platinum Angel and Ulamog (with a little creativity). This might just sound like a poor man’s Geth, Lord of the Vault, but there are two big differences: You can get your own stuff, which makes the Lich a kind of Enduring Renewal,¹ and the Lich gets all of the activated abilities of whatever you return. That makes him less of a Geth and more of a Necrotic Ooze, and those are two of the most powerful and comborific black creatures in the game. Never mind that he can hold a knife for an Assassin who’s still a bit woozy from summoning; we’ll be reading about Lich-lovin’ combos for many years to come!

Two ideas to start you off for Commander: Mycosynth Lattice and Bleach. For everyone else, there’s Exotic Orchard and Fellwar Stones.

Now, if only there was already a U/B Commander who filled up your opponents’ graveyards . . .

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

Bruce called dibs on his guy, but let me just say: “Believe the hype!” He will be in Command of one of my Zombie decks very, very soon . . .

Rares

Flayer of the Hatebound

Here is my pick for the best multiplayer card of the set. Flayer puts the “demon” in Pandemonium, combining one of the most powerful ways of dealing damage in the history of the game with arguably the most dominant strategy in multiplayer. Yessir, I do love it when my critters come back from the ’yard, especially when they have haste, but being able to do damage before they even start lurching across the table is the very definition of “good times.”

A while back, I wrote about my Thraximundar build, and that is exactly the kind of deck that is going to burn people out with the Hater-Flayer (not to be confused with Hateflayer, which is a different kettle of seething, Elemental rage altogether). In fact, this card is so good that the second-best multiplayer card in Dark Ascension is Cauldron Dance, and it isn’t even in the set! Imagine casting Cauldron Dance with two of these bad boys: 12 points of damage by the time you're done with combat, and an extra 5 points of burn at the end of the turn, at which point you still have an untapped 5/3 blocker. How about Victimize on Hater-Flayer in order to get back a couple of Dragons—that’s 15 to the dome if I’m not mistaken—or responding to an attack by casting Corpse Dance on Hater-Flayer, burning out one attacker, trading with another, and then coming back permanently as a 5/3 and axing your would-be attacker right between the eyes for its insolence!! If anyone needs me, I’ll be in my bunk.

While I’m doing that, you may enjoy this:

”From Innistrad, With Hate”

• Creatures (17)
• 3 Avatar of Discord
• 1 Balthor the Defiled
• 4 Flayer of the Hatebound
• 1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 3 Murderous Redcap
• 4 Viscera Dragger
• 1 Sedris, the Traitor King

• Spells (19)
• 3 Cauldron Dance
• 4 Faithless Looting
• 4 Terminate
• 4 Victimize
• 4 Rakdos Signet

• Lands (24)
• 5 Mountain
• 7 Swamp
• 4 Dragonskull Summit
• 4 Graven Cairns
• 4 Rakdos Carnarium

Buy This Deck

Murderous Redcap,² Balthor the Defiled³

Lost in the Woods

Nothing says, “Don’t bother,” like Lost in the Woods, especially if your playgroup is characterized by timid newbies. Add a little bit of deck manipulation and the threat of an aggressive counterattack, and you can guarantee that you’ll be receiving less attention than the rest of the table. Obviously, the actual odds of nullifying an attack are no more than 40%, and then only in a mono-green deck, but I think multiplayer encourages most people to be risk-averse to the point that combining just the possibility of wasting an attack with the near-certainty of incurring your wrath will create a strong incentive to leave you alone.

Of course, it may not combo so well with the ever-popular Oracle of Mul Daya—but then again, maybe it does if you don’t mind leaving a land on top where everyone can see it—but it combines nicely with Sensei's Divining Top to get rid of excess lands, and the possibilities with Scouting Trek alone make it worth a spot on my Most Interesting list.

Vault of the Archangel

As I write this, the Vault is selling at about $4. Run, do not walk, to your local cardboard crack dealer and get your hands on a playset of this monstrosity, which provides all of the following goodness in one neat little package:

• Mana – Okay, obvious, but you know you tend to skimp on land, and this replaces all of your just-in-case life-gain spells with an always-useful land-drop.
• Rattlesnake – Don’t mess with me—my token can kick your expensive creature’s ass!
• Spider – Too low on life to alpha strike you, am I? Have some of this!
• Gorilla – Giving your creatures deathtouch automatically allows them to punch outside their weight class, either getting through for damage that they otherwise couldn’t have dealt or trading with something bigger and nastier.
• Cockroach – Multiplayer is a game of resource management, and being able to get so much of a valuable resource—life—so easily whenever you need it gives you a huge edge in the long game. Of course, it’s also a cockroach in the simpler sense that you can activate it every turn, which is always nice.
• If ever there was a shoulda-been-Legendary land, it’s this one. Get it now before a W/B tokens build ravages Standard and this becomes a $10 (or more) card!

Uncommons

Strangleroot Geist

One of the oldest theoretical questions in multiplayer is, “Does aggro work?” My answer is very simple: I don’t care; I just wanna smash face! Geist is awesome for aggro players, giving you hasty beatage, a tasty 3:2 power-to-cost ratio, and redundancy against removal and chump-blocking.

In addition to the aggressive perfection of a 2/1 hasty undyer, I’m a big fan of the Spirit type, and this could easily do horrible things in a suitable tribal deck. Elder Pine of Jukai, Forked-Branch Garami, and Rootrunner seem like a good place to start; just stay away from Briarknit Kami and you can’t go wrong.

I also think it’s beautiful that WotC was able to put an aggro tribe like Werewolves into green and still left us with an aggro alternative, combining Strangleroot Geist and good stuff like Boneyard Wurm and Splinterfright for a highly effective beatdown build that plays very differently from the fang gang.

Skirsdag Flayer

Kill the Humans! Kill them all!! They are a virus with shoes, and I love the idea of wiping those whiney, worthless little turds in order to nail one of your opponent’s meaningful critters! I also have an appointment with a therapist on Thursday, but that’s a story for another day.

There’s an interesting subtheme across the horror flick tribes that involves saccing Humans for gain, and I think there are a lot of possibilities there. For example:

”Misanthropy”

• Creatures (30)
• 4 Reckless Waif
• 4 Skirsdag Flayer 4 Golgari Thug
• 4 Manic Vandal
• 4 Village Cannibals
• 4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
• 4 Highway Robber
• 4 Ravenous Demon
• 2 Anarchist

• Spells, because you can’t rely on Humans to get anything done (6)
• 4 Terminate
• 2 Soul Burn

• Unsleeved Basic Lands (20)
• 10 Mountain
• 10 Swamp

Buy This Deck

Falkenrath Aristocrat⁴

Afflicted Deserter // Werewolf Ransacker

The biggest knock on the cool, new Werewolves was the uncertainty—would you get the ferocious, furry fury or the pathetic, mewling Humans? However, this new mechanic—which I will discuss more next week—completely changes the way that we interact with them. Make my Werewolves transform back to Human? No problem, I’m happy not to cast any spells this turn in order to transform them back—or play more critters and put someone else under pressure to cast a spell that he’d probably rather hold onto. Best of all: Now I can gain value from the act of transforming if nobody can keep up with the game pace that I’m trying to set. Did I mention that I love aggro?

Commons

Havengul Fengraf

Part of me thinks this is pointless; if you want to return your creatures, just play black! On the other hand, being able to squeeze a little bit more recursion out of any deck is fantastic. This is going to go into at least as many decks as Command Tower, yet the decision to use this powerful and versatile land is not without tradeoffs—both in decks with complex mana bases and mono-colored decks that earn value from a particular land type (with cards like Cabal Coffers, Dungrove Elder, and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle). It’s brilliant design, a skill-tester for deck-builders, and the kind of common that you can probably never get enough of.

Thought Scour

Necromancer’s poetry:

That’s so beautiful I’m starting to get a little misty-eyed. Of course, Thought Scour is like a Gitaxian Probe for mill decks, combining beautifully with such staples as Drowner Initiate and Circu, Dimir Lobotomist, but the card makes the list purely on the basis of having the most twisted flavor in this most twisted of sets.

Until Next Time . . .

I hope you found that helpful. Good luck at the prerelease, and don’t forget that you can often get good value by trading your prize packs for prized cards, especially if you identify the tourney Spikes and trade with them for casual gold. Join me next week when I take a more in-depth look at what Dark Ascension brings to the tribes that go bump in the night. Let me leave you with a Haiku until then:

¹ Actually, that’s not a bad idea!

² I really prefer Puppeteer Clique in multiplayer, but unfortunately, the creature that the Clique returns doesn’t trigger the Flayer. Sad face . . .

³ Yes, this will win you the game! Patriarch's Bidding is the headliner of black’s mass reanimation effects, but I do like doing creature reanimation with creatures. Besides, I’m pretty sure Balthor is the cheapest option.

⁴ While Magic’s various feline tribes are usually white or green, I’m pretty sure there are enough in black and red to justify a Falkenrath Aristocrat theme deck. I’m just putting it out there.