We get it. We all get it. Good decks are built out of good cards. If the cards aren't good... How can we expect the decks to be? For a set like Guilds of Ravnica, with so many cards that are both aggressively costed and high utility, it is easy to dismiss some cards out of hand. But you know what? Some of them might just be great. They just need to be in the correct context. I'm not saying any of these eight cards is going to be the next Jace, the Mind Sculptor... But any of them could certainly be the next Elixir of Immortality. The great tool. The surgical matchup destroyer. For one!

Let's start with one that you might have looked really hard at (before you initially dismissed it):

Vicious Rumors

Let's ignore for a moment the idea of a group game. In a group game you might just snap the table in half on the first turn. With lots of opponents, one mana can translate into lots of discarded cards and a huge life swing. Can Vicious Rumors find a home in a competitive Constructed deck?

Initially I would have said no. Vicious Rumors does a lot of things, but it doesn't do any of those things well. One life in either direction is not worth a card, and the "Millstone" ability might actually benefit the opponent. Can you imagine accidentally flipping, say, a Narcomoeba? That would be a disaster!

But it has that other ability; forcing the opponent to discard a card is itself worth a card. You might not choose Vicious Rumors for the one-mana discard job. It's worse at that than, say, Duress or Thoughtseize (both of which cost the same).

So why is it worth a second look?

It' does all the things! You might not want to rely on Vicious Rumors to disrupt a combo deck... But against a Burn deck? I think this card could be great!

Collective Brutality is one of the most celebrated cards against a Burn deck in Modern. The ability to drain for two damage combined with the ability to trade one-for-one an additional time or two just takes a ton of wind out of the good guys' sails. No aspect of Collective Brutality is overpowered; in fact, the card makes you pay a card for each additional bite at the Burn apple. But its combination of speed and tempo-stealing makes it, well, brutal on Burn. Vicious Rumors can't remove an Eidolon of the Great Revel from play, but it does some of the other work while trading with a card in hand.

That card in hand is substantial almost regardless of what it is. A land can be heart-wrenching, especially on turn one. For a Burn deck that just declared a mulligan? Paralyzing. Everything other than a land is better, of course, but the floor on Vicious Rumors ain't bad.

Last, this card is incredibly cheap! It doesn't punch like Timely Reinforcements, but it is only one mana. What do you really expect?

Vicious Rumors isn't the kind of card you want in every deck. I think it's almost exclusively a sideboard card. In fact, it's not only a sideboard card, but a sideboard card for one of these decks that is like a one mana theme deck... But those decks exist! Some decks just prefer Extirpate to Leyline of the Void, Dismember to Terminate; Vicious Rumors is going to LEGO into one of those sideboards and the Burn opponent is going to have to read a lot of text, not immediately familiar, before his face gets redder than his spells and he figures out what he's going to have to discard.

Nightveil Sprite

Not only do I think Nightveil Sprite will be good enough; I think Nightveil Sprite might be good enough in more than one kind of deck!

Already we are seeing a Mono-Blue Aggro deck headlined by Tempest Djinn proving viable in Standard. In a strategy like that, Nightveil Sprite is not only a cheap, evasive, attacker... It's one that can help keep your gas coming out. That's the softball take.

Initially I didn't think this card was so exciting. Then I remembered Looter il-Kor.

Looter il-Kor was, generally speaking, a weaker card than Nightveil Sprite. It had less toughness, and its fixing ability required connecting whereas Nightveil Sprite's only requires attacking. For a Standard-level implementation of Looter il-Kor we have to look no further than Ravnica version 1.0.

U/G Control Killer | Greg Poverelli

• Creatures (20)
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Looter il-Kor
• 4 Plaxmanta
• 4 Ohran Viper

• Isntants (12)
• 4 Mana Leak
• 4 Psionic Blast
• 4 Remand

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Call of the Herd

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Moldervine Cloak

• Lands (20)
• 4 Island
• 5 Forest
• 1 Pendelhaven
• 2 Simic Growth Chamber
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Yavimaya Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Repeal
• 3 Krosan Grip
• 3 Stonewood Invocation
• 3 Trickbind
• 3 Carven Caryatid

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Scholarship Series Champion Greg Poverelli played this deck to 2nd place at the 2006 New York State Championship. This was a serious creature deck with a full eight-pack of one-mana accelerators. It was its format's most brutal anti-control decks, but also offered a relentless clock.

The Control Killer deck didn't have an overwhelming number of graveyard incentives - really just Call of the Herd and Moldervine Cloak - but Looter il-Kor didn't just have to fuel those. If the deck had a lead, it could just help keep that lead by finding Mana Leak, Remand, or Plaxmanta.

Straight up, I think Looter il-Kor's fixing ability is stronger than Nightveil Sprite's... But not by a mile. Fixing your hand fixes things you have while fixing your draw fixes things you might have. Especially when we're talking about a permission deck, the immediacy of a card in hand is magnified. But this set offers so many playable incentives to Surveil and semantic proxies to Surveil that it is difficult to compare them purely in the abstract. For example...

Creeping Chill

For sure this card is too expensive on its face. Four mana for a Lightning Helix is too expensive... Especially when you can only hit players. I'm a Burn player in Modern and even my Lightning Helixes target creatures like 25% of the time.

But how about for zero mana? Creeping Chill is pretty cool if you never actually have to cast it. Not only does it become free if you're Surveilling it (or something), it becomes very difficult to counter. The opponent needs a super specialized one, like a Stifle.

Creeping Chill might as well be called "can you do eight" because there are incentives to ride it exclusively. Last week we looked at a card that no one needs to give a second look to:

Doom Whisperer can put a large volume of cards into your graveyard without spending mana. When combined with Creeping Chill, Doom Whisperer's ability actually gets stronger because one Creeping Chill actually fuels the next 1.5 Doom Whisperer activations. If you can figure out some way to Millstone your entire library you only need to deal eight total because the Creeping Chills will consistently do twelve for you.

I think this card is pretty exciting, at least in terms of possibility / ceiling. It's like Narcomoeba. No one is so excited to pay two mana for a 1/1 flyer, but when you're consistently making them for zero mana and flipping three or so per game all of a sudden you have the best deck in the format. Nay, like three or so formats.

Integrity // Intervention

Do you remember Warleader's Helix?

Warleader's Helix was a tournament Staple around Ravnica 2.0. It coexisted with cards like Boros Charm and Stoke the Flames. My hot take on Warleader's Helix was lukewarm. Twice the mana cost of Lightning Helix for only 33% incremental damage output? It was a reasonable hot take.

What I underrated at the time was how compelling a Red Deck you could make in Standard with so many "deal 4" cards available. At some point you just drew any two of the "deal 4" instants and had already won.

I like Integrity // Intervention for the opposite reason I didn't love Warleader's Helix (initially) last time around. Rather than being a linear job-doer, this Boros addition is all about the flexibility. A four-mana Lightning Helix certainly feels steep. I'll point out that it will do much of the same job as Vraska's Contempt at four, while gaining 50% more life. Not 100% of Vraska's Contempt's job, but a decent amount. Players were already compromising to run Essence Extraction. Now that is a surgical job-doer. I kind of hated it every time I saw someone with an Essence Extraction (or four) in his deck. Such a bad Lightning Helix, right?

Except, unlike Lightning Helix, Essence Extraction was actually legal and in-color. And for the job that had to get done (keeping oneself alive against the Red Deck) it did the job. Warleader's Helix is, again, a little more expensive than the version that was still getting run this past weekend at Worlds... But with the bonus of being able to hit players.

What if we shift our focus away from the Intervention side for just a second. Clearly the "terrible Lightning Helix" side is more compelling eye candy than the "terrible Giant Growth" side.

... Until we wrap our heads around the pedigree of the terrible Giant Growth.

Rebels | 2009 Standard | Kai Budde, 1st Place Pro Tour Chicago 2009

• Creatures (22)
• 1 Rebel Informer
• 1 Thermal Glider
• 2 Defiant Falcon
• 2 Defiant Vanguard
• 2 Ramosian Sky Marshal
• 3 Longbow Archer
• 3 Steadfast Guard
• 4 Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
• 4 Ramosian Sergeant

• Instants (4)
• 4 Wax // Wane

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Parallax Wave

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Chimeric Idol

• Lands (26)
• 16 Plains
• 2 Dust Bowl
• 4 Brushland
• 4 Rishadan Port

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Lightbringer
• 3 Mageta the Lion
• 3 Wrath of God
• 3 Seal of Cleansing
• 4 Armageddon
• 1 Defiant Vanguard

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When Kai Budde won Chicago 2000, he did so splashing Green for one card: Wax // Wane. There are no other Green cards in his deck or sideboard. Just Wax. You'll notice Wax is just a terrible Integrity. Not only is it available for ... It's somehow available for . Kai splashed an entire extra color for Wax. You get Integrity for free in either a or a deck.

Let me ask you this: How does Intervention compare with Wane? Wane isn't a perfect card by any means. It couldn't kill a Chimeric Idol, for instance. But for Kai's purposes, it not only accomplished a job efficiently, it offered - along with its Green twin - an additional level of flexibility for a creature deck. Integrity // Intervention is more Wax // Wane 2018 than Essence Extraction 2018... But I'm sure it'll be happy to take any such appellation.

Risk Factor

Risk Factor: It's like Browbeat... But worse!

And nobody played Browbeat, right?

Is it now?

And / or "didn't they"?

First off, Risk Factor isn't exactly worse than Browbeat. Instant versus Sorcery is a big game. You don't need me to spell out the ability to start forcing a control opponent's mana on his end step or getting any opponent worried about what might happen if you draw three burn cards. For a card that can potentially draw three, instant is a really huge incentive.

Besides which: "Nobody" didn't play Browbeat. In fact, Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Famer Raphael Levy played Browbeat to one of his many Top 8s back in 2007:

Browbeat | Raphael Levy

• Creatures (18)
• 2 Wildfire Emissary
• 4 Blood Knight
• 4 Keldon Marauders
• 4 Magus of the Scroll
• 4 Sulfur Elemental

• Isntants (6)
• 2 Sudden Shock
• 4 Fiery Temper

• Sorceries (12)
• 4 Browbeat
• 4 Disintegrate
• 4 Rift Bolt

• Lands (24)
• 21 Mountain
• 1 Molten Slagheap
• 2 Fungal Reaches

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Wildfire Emissary
• 2 Word of Seizing
• 3 Greater Gargadon
• 3 Avalanche Riders
• 4 Serrated Arrows
• 1 Eron the Relentless

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There are two additional reasons you might want to give Risk Factor a second look.

Hypothesizzle

This is a complicated card.

I'm guessing some players looked at it, thought it might be cool, got confused (I know I did initially), and then just moved on.

It's complicated, but it has good bones. It's kind of like a terrible Jace's Ingenuity that is also a pretty good (but imperfect) Prophetic Bolt and / or Bituminous Blast.

First off, if you want a Jace's Ingenuity... This is not a great Jace's Ingenuity. Drawing two cards for five mana isn't a record breaking rate. It might in fact be the world's worst Think Twice. Hypothesizzle is like the opposite of Vicious Rumors that way. I think the important thing here is that it's some kind of Jace's Ingenuity, and if you're casting it that way you're probably doing okay.

Fun Fact: I don't think I've ever lost a tournament match where I've cast a Jace's Ingenuity.

However Hypothesizzle is also a Prophetic Bolt type. It's kind of a bad Prophetic Bolt in that you can't target players. Prophetic Bolt also digs for four, while this card draws two. On the other hand, Hypothesizzle gives you more options + helps to fix your hand. Those are very valuable abilities worth a second look, or at least a first try.

It doesn't give you the mana advantage of a Bituminous Blast. However, it also doesn't give you the randomness of a Bituminous Blast. I mean sometimes you could Bituminous Blast and make a Putrid Leech, or even a Rampant Growth.

Wand of Vertebrae

What the!?!

I know. I know! This card does basically nothing.

Except it doesn't do nothing. In a deck with a lot of graveyard / Surveil synergies going on, it's an exceptionally cheap enabler. For one mana... For one mana you probably tapped on your first turn, Wand of Vertebrae can actually go pretty far.

Just for illustrative purposes: Imagine you have the cards Narcomoeba and Creeping Chill in your deck and you DON'T have Wand of Vertebrae in play. You are just the schmuck drawing 1/1 for two mana and four mana Lightning Helix. Conversely, now imagine you DO have Wand of Vertebrae. You use it completely randomly, but consistently. Sometimes you get free Narcomoeba and / or free Lightning Helix. Isn't the one better than the other?

At some point you may have multiple Wands. While still random, you will get more and more bites at the apple, more and more free value. How many times do you need to hit before the Wand paid you back? Personally, I think if you hit two times per Wand, you're probably ahead.

But that's not all!

Being able to shuffle some cards back into your deck is going to be worth a card in certain long games.

Even that's not all!

You're not always blind. For example, you might Surveil a card to the top of your library, but then the situation changes. You now know the top card of your library is terrible and you must, under great duress, get rid of it: Wand of Vertebrae lets you do that.

While I think there may be an upper limit to the amount of nonsense durdling we can cram into a single deck, there is something to be said about Wand of Vertebrae with Experimental Frenzy in play. The Wand can help clear away consecutive lands or irrelevant spells, such that the rest of your library can flow with frenzy. Experimental Frenzy likes 1 mana spells anyway.

Bounty Agent

Picture this: The smug combo player drops a Lotus Petal. Then a City of Traitors. He taps them both, clearly holding back a Force of Will. The spell that cost him potentially his first two permanents?

Please don't be Griselbrand, you think to yourself. If it's Griselbrand, this is going to suck; or at least not be nearly as cool.

"Sure," you say.

Both you and the hated villain flip over your prospective permanents. He's quite proud of himself.

Whew, you say to yourself. Just a 15/15 with "protection from colored spells."

"That doesn't have protection from 'colored creature abilities' or anything, does it?"

The smug combo player looks with horror on your Bounty Agent.

"And you don't get an extra turn this turn, do you? Just making sure."

It's not like Death & Taxes needed so many more tools to beat Sneak and Show; not with Karakas already. I would actually guess that many of you immediately played some imaginary situation like this one out in your minds when you read the card. That's not the reason I think it deserves a second look.

Just to note: Emrakul, the Aeons Torn... No problem. The vigilance is a nice touch actually! But if you're going to try to kill a Planeswalker with Bounty Agent? It's going to be the old fashioned way: Two loyalty at a time. Like I said... The vigilance is a nice touch!

LOVE

MIKE