Readers,

I have done about 25 different versions of a 75% set review and I think I have narrowed it down to something I'm happy with, finally. We don't need to talk about suboptimal cards no one will ever use just because they exemplify 75% principles, for example. I thought that was a great idea when I conceived of it and while it was, you know, clever of me to think in those terms, and while it meant I was writing about cards basically no one else was and doing a truly unique set review, at the end of the day I was talking about bad cards I never used. You don't want to hear about bad cards I won't use because they technically contribute to a 75% build because guess what? If you never use them, they're not 75% cards because 75% cards go in a 75% deck and if a card doesn't go in any deck, it doesn't go in a 75% deck and is therefore not a 75% card. You know what DOES go in decks? Good cards that I like. The good thing about good cards that I like is that I like talking about them, you like hearing about them, and if I put them in decks, they're probably going in a 75% deck. So, ironically, thinking less hard, being less clever, and focusing more on a set review I like writing will lead to a better product for the reader. That's you, the reader, unperturbed by this weird preamble paragraph. I know how to do a set review by now, so let's review this set already. It's a good set, full of great cards and I'm excited.

Keeper of the Accord

They finally figured out a way to help White keep up with ramp decks. Out of every attempt they've made, this is the best one, and it's quite a bit better than the others. They all felt too fair - this not only feels like it's not concerned with being too fair, this seems abusable. If you can trim the number of lands you have out, you can always be thinning your deck. I think this is a great pairing for Dust Bowl. It doesn't hurt that this can give you tokens for free. Pair this with Zuran Orb and Divine Visitation, or just don't do anything and use it to catch up to the stupid Green decks. I think the Trostani deck I built with Ryan Bushard will love this.

Mnemonic Deluge

This whole cycle is pretty nutty, but I wanted to highlight the Blue one specifically because it's pretty 75% to cast their spells, and if they have something very juicy in their yard, you can get a ton of advantage casting it a bunch. They don't want this happening a lot, so you not only exile that spell, you exile Mnemonic Deluge. Just about anything you copy with this can be back-breaking to your opponents because most Magic spells aren't designed to be played three times and when they are, they start to exceed the original scope of intended effects. Time Warp is a good card, three of them should end the game. You can cast your own spell, you can cast their spells - for 9 mana, you should at least be able to count on some flexibility. Look at the Top 100 sorceries in our format on EDHREC - a lot of innocuous ones get insane when tripled. Urban Evolution, Rishkar's Expertise, Eldritch Evolution, Treasure Cruise - spells like this are cast every game and left in the 'yard, waiting for you to get an unbelievable amount of card advantage. This costs 9 mana, but it's worth it. This is as 75% as it gets and I love it.

Court of Ambition

I like this entire cycle - introducing the Monarch into a game of Commander makes it go faster as one player either generates obscene card advantage or everyone attacks a lot more than they would - either way, the game wraps up a few turns faster on average. This one is particularly crushing and I think it's very nasty. I play a lot of Enchantments, I don't think that's a 75% thing - it may just be a Jason Alt thing. Lately, I've been wanting to play with more Black Enchantments because a lot of them are really nasty and fun and it's been a long time since I sleeved up anything with Waste Not or Painful Quandary. I don't like the idea of building Tinybones, but if I did, an asymmetrical Bottomless Pit that can also draw me cards is going to figure heavily into my plans, and the fact that this is sometimes also a super Megrim puts it way over the top. I have an Estrid Enchantress deck, but maybe it's time to build another one that has some nasty group slug enchantments like this. After seeing @lennywooley play Abzan Enchantress against me and loving how punishing the Black cards were, this was the last push I needed.

Opposition Agent

This card is very controversial and even if it weren't, it's got some real problems if you try to play it on webcam. I think using Scheming Symmetry to get a card from their deck is very, very good, but I think this also lends itself to a super obvious and boring Maralen the Mornsong deck that I hope no one plays against me. This card has problems, yes. That said, I unabashedly love this card anyhow. You can cast their spells, and you can keep them from tutoring. I think tutors are pretty boring in Commander, I think cards like Kodama's Reach should be accessible by other colors through trickery (but not through WotC printing cards like that in other colors) and I am generally a fan of disrupting them when they tutor and getting a lot of value out of it. I'm not going to play this on webcam, unfortunately, but when Magic Fests are back, you better think twice about trying to cast Explosive Vegetation when I have untapped. I'll get you with this card, early and often.

Plague Reaver

I love hot potatoes. My Xantcha deck specialized in both hot potatoes and making the opponent make bad moves and this card does both. If you couple this with enough discard that someone can't get rid of it, you nuke their board. In a way, this creates another subgame the way Monarch does. Will the opponents work together, sending it to someone who can sac it, trading a blocker with it to end the misery or using removal on it? Will they spit each other hard with it until one person has no more cards to feed into its ceaseless maw? Players can't do the things they planned when this comes to town and even if it ends up hurting you, it was worth it to throw everyone off of their game. This card is a blast.

Rakshasa Debaser

I'm talking about a lot of Black cards, but Black got the most 75% cards in this set. This is fairly straightforward - you hit them and you take their stuff. This goes into Teysa Karlov immediately. She even gives the Encore tokens lifelink and indestructible and the deck has Annointed Procession in it. This card is rude, generates a ton of card advantage when it connects and the Encore ability will cause me to cackle like a lunatic. I give this card a 7.5/7.5.

Coercive Recruiter

I almost didn't talk about this card because I don't have a deck ready for it to go into, but I can easily make one. You can build Admiral Beckett Brass or cobble together an Izzet Pirates deck with Breeches and something Blue, perhaps. There are finally enough Pirates in this set that you will have some synergy, you won't have to play bad creatures and you can trigger this stupid thing a ton and make those creatures walk the plank before you give them back. This is a very, very 75% card and I think the deck can include a bunch of cards that are just good that I would play anyway like Captivating Crew and Crafty Cutpurse. Best of all, it's likely to be pretty affordable to build, giving me 0 reason not to do it. Yo ho, it's a pirate's life for me and I couldn't be happier about it. This card is pure fun.

Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh

Very briefly, it's my intention to build a Cheerios deck with the 0 mana cost Kobolds, Cloudstone Curio, Equilibrium and other effects like that, resulting in a huge Storm count that will either let me Empty the Warrens for a ton or just dome the whole table with Aetherflux Reservoir. It's probably bad but I'm committed to at least testing it.

Apex Devastator

THIS is a Magic card. There is so much good cascade in this set that I'm building a second Maelstrom Wanderer deck. I could easily build Yidris because I don't already have a Yidris deck but I am not going to. It's funnier to me to have 2 Maelstrom Wanderer decks to choose from. I have 4 Omnath decks, so why not? This doesn't have a slot in my tight, non-75% Maelstrom Wanderer pile but you better believe I am slotting this into the casual one.

Reshape the Earth

A lot of people are calling this a bad Scapeshift. They're wrong. This isn't a Bad Scapeshift, it's a good Boundless Realms. Since Boundless Realms is already pretty good and lots of fun, this is a very good card. All four of my Omnath decks want this. In case you don't win, not having to sac anything makes me like this a bit more than Scapeshift, a card I'm not cutting from those decks, so I guess that doesn't matter a ton. I have cast Boundless Realms for a single basic before and that won't happen with this and that feels great. Omnath, Locus of Creation especially will like being able to get fetchlands because you can bounce of flicker Omnath and be sure to have more landfall triggers when he comes back, something you can't do with Realms. I like this card a lot and hope people don't do boring stuff with it.

Archelos, Lagoon Mystic

Sometimes you just see a Magic card and immediately your head is swimming with ideas, a deck assembles itself and you can't wait to get your thoughts down on paper because they're coming quickly and on top of each other and you don't want to forget anything. This is not one of those cards. I know this is good, and I know I'll do something good with it eventually but I don't know how yet. It reminds me of Kethis from Core set 2020 - obviously good but it wasn't obvious how. This card is making me work for it and I like that.

Averna, the Chaos Bloom

Both of my Maesltrom Wanderer decks will play this. What I like most about this is that it makes cards like Shardless Agent with a low CMC much better. Shardless Agent always hits a mana rock, and hitting a land, too, means you can almost always get Maelstrom Wanderer down a turn early. I think this fixes one of the more unpleasant aspects of Cascade which was watching fun utility lands go away forever, and this is just fantastic design. I'll take two, please.

Blim, Comedic Genius

Let it not go overlooked that there is another way for hot potato decks to donate Enchantments. Black has dozens of very pernicious Enchantments from over the years from Lich to Demonic Lore and this can hand them off in a way Bazaar Trader only dreamed of. This is a very cool card, and is very 75%.

Obeka, Brute Chronologist

To quote Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV, I must break you. I don't know how yet, but this page is a great start.

Zara, Renegade Recruiter

Do I have to build 2 pirate decks? I really want Breeches in the Command Zone, but Zara is just so 75%. You don't have to pay for the creature, which is an advantage, they don't get to have it in play, which is an advantage, you can sac it, essentially making them discard a card, you have a 4 power Commander with evasion which means you could actually kill someone with Commander damage - the list goes on. The only drawback is that this is a bit awkward on webcam since you can't easily see their hand without alerting the table to what's in it. That said, nothing was stopping you from blurting out that info before and now the table can help you decide what to take.

This card is the most 75% card in a set where you can control them while they tutor, cast a card from their 'yard 3 times, get a free creature from their graveyard and quadruple cascade. Don't sleep on Zara - I won't because I'm building around her next week.

Until then, stay safe and healthy, buy a webcam so you can play Commander with me and always be looking for ways to scale your deck to their level. Until next time!