Readers!

I realize I keep monkeying around with the format for my set reviews and since I get the chance to do it every month, now, I am getting pretty close to where I want to be. Instead of listing a bunch of cards that are probably bad but could work in a 75% context, I'm going to talk about the 10 cards I care most about as a 75% deck-builder. I'll go into which decks could use the cards, how they could be deployed, and what makes them specifically good in a 75% context. I'll likely have a few honorable mentions because this set is so good for Commander and if you think that's cheating, realize I likely wanted to do "7.5 cards I can't wait to use" as a 75% joke and I didn't do that, did I? Let's talk about what I DID do. I made a list.

In alphabetical order so I don't have to agonize over ranking these, here they are.

Archmage's Charm

Cards that are modal occupy several deck slots at once by virtue of being effectively different cards, and I like them a lot. I tend to eschew hard counters like Counterspell and Force of Will in favor of modal cards like Desertion. Need to counter a game-ending Cyclonic Rift? Desertion is game. Want to steal a Consecrated Sphinx? Desertion has a mode for that. Charm, to me, has even more utility. I have a hard time justifying including a card that counters a spell in a 75% deck, but being able to swipe a Mana Vault or Skullclamp and disrupt a combo or make yourself draw to an empty deck with new Jace out seems fun to me. I think this has room in a lot of my Blue decks and while is a tough sell, I don't typically want to play this on turn four anyway, so I should be able to make the mana. I don't know if I like this more than Desertion, but I do know I could play both.

Echo of Eons

It's obvious that this card is very good - it's basically a Power 9 card with a more fair mana cost and a way to get a discount by doing some work. My best idea for a card like this, though, is using it to reload in an Izzet deck that uses Aetherflux Reservoir. I must admit I really do like the Conley Woods Wheel deck in Modern that uses Notion Thief and Narset to make Echo and Day's Undoing a beating. Decks that mill themselves very greedily likely benefit the most and since my 75% builds tend to eschew cards like Laboratory Maniac, you actually want a way to reload the library rather than mill yourself out, dredging a ton until you get an Echo in there and resetting is a nice safety valve. A deck I want to highlight in the context of this card is my Tatyova deck. I have cards like Dreamscape Artist to pitch this to and I can shuffle lands back into the deck and re-buy some of my landfall triggers. It's easy to mill yourself with that deck and having a reset that works if you mill it or it's countered can be very useful.

Fallen Shinobi

You can play their spells? I love playing their spells! This will require a fairly specific deck since we're going to have to get through with a creature in order to make this happen, but there are plenty of unblockable creatures that enable ninjutsu and they don't have to be ninjas. This could be the only ninja in your deck.

A while back, I spotlighted a deck designed by my Brainstorm Brewery cohost, Douglas Johnson. The deck was doing stuff I was all about - playing their spells, attacking them with creatures in a way that was actually effective in a format where you have to deal 120 damage to kill the table and making their life hell. I like cards like Notion Thief, Crafty Cutpurse, Archaeomancer, and Mystic Snake and a lot of those can go in a deck like this. Spellstutter Sprite sees a lot of fairies here and you should ask a pauper player if Spellstutter Sprite and ninjas area good pairing.

I like how many ways we have to steal their resources in Blue and Black. I think we can find a few decks to slot this card.

Goblin Engineer

It's hard to overstate how good I think this card is in a lot of my decks. Part Goblin Matron, part Goblin Welder, this Gamble on a stick has two good modes in one card. The deck I immediately thought of won't surprise you - it's my Xantcha Mindslaver deck. Of all of the decks I designed last year, that one was easily my favorite and while it's underpowered for a 75% deck, it's a lot of fun and you should get an unprepared group who isn't sure what you're up to at least once. Engineer has two roles in that deck and both are important - finding Mindslaver and getting our cards like Jinxed Idol out of the yard and into play. It can't help you find the Goblin Welder you need to get Mindslaver out, but it can be searched up with the same Moggcatcher or Goblin Matron as Welder, making the deck even more robust and toolboxy rather than a deck that runs Demonic Tutor as a second copy of a card we need. Lots of Daretti decks will make good use of this but mine in particular can't wait.

Hall of Heliod's Generosity

Are you kidding me? What a card! It's the Academy Ruins we've all been waiting for and while this is a bit narrow on the surface, if you look at how many decks I brew run a TON of enchantments, you'll see how many decks this can go in. Anyone who has ever played against my Estrid deck (which used to be Rubinina Soulsinger) knows how brutal it can be when I am recurring Sterling Grove every turn to get a new piece of the puzzle. Really, all that deck needs is a win condition other than Heliod when they don't play creatures to steal but I'll take this, instead. This doesn't help if you run into a lot of Merciless Eviction unless you have a way to sac all of your Enchantments and throw them back out with Second Sunrise - a trick I learned to keep from getting blown out. From prison decks, to enchantress, to deck that run Mind's Dilation, Sylvan Library, and Phyrexian Arena, most 75% decks could benefit from getting enchantments back and a few of them will run this without question. What a card!

Serra the Benevolent

At first, this seems optimized for Modern. When I look at my decks that use tokens, though, even Serra's +2 ability can deal a lot of damage. The main appeal for me is being able to make a Worship emblem, which is even harder to deal with than the Worship card and which is fairly easy to achieve with Serra and some blockers to protect her for a turn. Got Doubling Season? Even better.

Every deck of mine that makes creature tokens can benefit from this because it's easy to recover from board wipes when you can make tokens and ensure you always have the Worship condition fulfilled but token decks tend to go wider, making the +2 ability very useful. Making angels is good, too, but that's a better mode in Modern where you slam this on turn three off of a Hierarch and immediately put a threat in the air that you spend the rest of the game pumping. Is that good? I doubt it. But don't ask me, I play Affinity in Modern so I clearly don't like to think too hard.

The deck that wants this off the bat is Teysa. I have done a lot of work to reduce the CMC to a reasonable amount and that meant cutting cards like Butcher of Malakir which was sort of difficult to rationalize until I stopped goldfishing and got trounced by real, faster decks. I won't entirely be able to make the deck fast since all of the good cards are expensive, but four mana is reasonable, making an Angel is good since Teysa gives it lifelink and vigilance, and having a Worship can help me from getting burned to death since I pay a lot of life to draw a lot of cards. You can still die to loss of life even with the Worship emblem, so watch out.

Soulherder

The one knock against this card is that it does an existing thing slightly better rather than doing a new thing but this still make the cut because this also plays well with Seance, and that's pretty important to me. Growing every time a token is exiled at the end of the turn and also blinking your utility creatures? Sign me up. Unfortunately, there really aren't many groundbreaking decks to put this in because it just sort of goes in the Roon and Brago decks that already did a ton of blinking, but that's not a bad thing. I can't wait to pair this with cards like Seance and Conjurer's Closet and Panharomonicon.

Unbound Flourishing

What deck of mine CAN'T use this? You double your Genesis Waves and Hooded Hydras? I have a lot of Simic decks that will make good use of this and people are even talking about decks like Rosheen Meanderer that run Red Hydras. If you're only going to run this to make your one copy of Villainous Wealth better, you're better off running Heartbeat of Spring or something and getting less explosivity for more utility. Or not, what do I know? I'm the guy who is going to try and Genesis Wave his entire deck with this bad boy.

This isn't quite Doubling Season and the things it lends itself to are a tad more fair but if you think about Hydroid Krasis and Exsanguinate and Walking Ballista, there is a lot to like here. My Vorel deck has been cannibalized to build Pir and Toothy but I think both builds could benefit with some tweaking.

Urza, Lord High Artificer

It's perhaps a little obvious to be excited by this card, but I play a lot of artifacts in Commander like Helm of Awakening and Heartstone that suddenly tap for mana. We made a better Grand Architect who also happens to create a Master of Etherium when he enters play? Seems nuts. This is going to be a very boring deck and it may get Paradox Engine banned, but for a few glorious weeks, this is going to be super powerful and I can't wait to build this deck then take it apart. Will it be possible to build this 75%? Yes, and I'll try. But it will be tempting to go full bore with this. If I don't put Urza in the command zone, I think the Secret Commander deck I built when Kaladesh came out is an excellent home. You don't realize how many static artifacts you have in a deck until you suddenly have the freedom to tap Sapphire Medallion or Crucible of Worlds for mana. Happy free spell day, everyone!

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

This card is pretty nuts and while it obviously goes in our Hapatra or Scorpion God decks, it could go in a lot of others as well. I could use a sac outlet like this in Teysa, and being able to proliferate in a deck with lots of counters is great. Being able to draw a card for 1 life is incredibly useful in Black and there aren't too many decks that can't use the card draw plus the ability to weaken or kill creatures. If we didn't do this list alphabetically, it's likely this would be in first or second. This card is really cool and if you have expendable creatures, you want this. Basically, Ctrl+F decklists and if they have Blood Artist, they should have this. How many of your decks run Blood Artist? Buy twice that many Yawgmoths because you'll want more later.

Honorable Mentions!

There is nothing particularly 75% about this card. I just think it's perfectly designed, should go in a lot of decks and will look amazing in foil. This is the card I am most likely to put in any given deck of mine but there isn't much to say about it other than "read the card, you could be doing that thing" so it didn't need a paragraph.

I don't see many people talking about this card but they should be. It's a fixed Darksteel Mutation. Did you hate them having an infinite blocker? Well now they don't. This isn't an indestructible beetle. In fact, it can't even block Boldwyr Intimidator. Take THAT you reprobate!

Next week I'm going to brew a fresh new decklist for you and you don't want to miss that. In the mean time, tell me your favorite card in the set in the comments or on social media. Until next week!