MTG Salvation

Hello everyone.

I am putting together a list of staple cards, for those like me, who may not have started since the begining, , 2nd quarter or heck 3rd quarter of the magic history and who may not remember some of the great cards that came out before.

Everything from artifacts, enchantments, lands, sorceries, instants AND planeswalkers based on colors. whether they be accelerants, bombs, or just beatsticks for cheap, we will have them here. Just reply here and I will add them to the list after short discussions. I will start with a few that I know and if you have any objections on any cards on the list, just post it up here and will will discuss it for the betterment of all.
Lets split them by color:

Best Commanders by popular vote and mention on the forums :rate3.5::
Jhoira of the Ghitu - Kaervek the merciless - Doran, the siege tower - Gaddock Teeg - Scion of the Ur-Dragon - Zur the enchanter - Lyzolda, the blood witch

G
Vigor - Eternal Witness - Yavimaya Elder - Explosive vegetation - Genesis
Worldly tutor - Sylvan scrying - Reap and Sow - Life from the loam
Survival of the fitest - Harmonize - Chord of Calling - Sylvan library - Garruk Wildspeaker

U
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - Arcanis the Omnipotent - Empress Galina - Merchant scroll
Careful consideration - Tidings - Mystical teachings - Gifts ungiven - Ponder- Brainstorm
Concentrate- Cryptic Command - Sift- Fact or Fiction
Hinder - Mana Drain - Rewind- Counterspell- Desertion -Spin into myth - bribery

B
Visara the dreadful - Avatar of Woe - Kagemaro, first to suffer - Graveborn Muse
Dread - Kokusho, the evening star - Decree of pain
Pyrexian arena - Demonic tutor - Vampiric tutor - Diabolic tutor - Beseech the queen
Promise of Power - Mutilate- Damnation - Liliana Vess - Decree of pain - Necropotence

R
Flameblast dragon- Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker - Greater Gargadon - Akroma, Angel of Fury
Fireball - Startstorm - Word of seizing - Bogardan Hellkite - Ryusei, the falling star

W
Akroma, Angel of Wrath - Eternal Dragon - Exalted angel - Condemn- Oblivion ring
Wrath of god - Austere Command - Oblation- Swords to Plowshares - Hallowed Burial - Enlightened Tutor - Catastrophe - Elspeth, Knight-Errant - Reveillark

Artifact
Solemn simulacrum - Sword of fire and ice - Sword of light and shadow
Loxodon warhammer- Sensei's Divining Top - Nevinyrral's disk
Journeyer's Kite - Mind's Eye - Oblivion stone - Proteus Staff - Lightning Greaves - Vedalken orrery - Sundering titan - Coalition relic - Platinum Angel - Mana Vault - Sol Ring - Grim Monolith

MulticolorGBURW
Spiritmonger - Vindicate - Pernicious Deed - Savage twister - Mortify
Putrefy - Terminate - Crime/Punishment -Bant Charm

Lands
Reflecting Pool - Wasteland - Forbidden orchard - Volrath Stronghold - Maze of Ith - kor Haven - Cabal Coffers
Grand coliseum - City of brass - Vesuva- Vivid Grove
Vivid Crag - Vivid Marsh - Vivid Creek - Vivid Meadow - Tolaria West

Protean Hulk is banned, but other than that I don't see any problems with this list.

Do not forget Mind's Eye. It's probably the best nonblue card draw in the format.

Genesis needs to be on the list; he's best buds with Survival of the Fittest. I've found Indrik Stomphowler to be terrific.

Red also has two complete combo/badass engines: Kiki-Jiki, Mirror-Breaker and Squee, Goblin Nabob (see Survival of the Fittest again). Also, I think Greater Gargadon is one of the best sac-engines, and Akroma, Angel of Fury is really hard to deal with outside of mass removal.

You missed two of white's best spells in this format: Swords to Plowshares and Hallowed Burial. Both are great at screwing up generals. Eternal Dragon and Enlightened Tutor should make this list, too.

I wouldn't consider Spiritmonger a staple. He's great but there are more important multicolored cards: Putrefy, Izzet Chronarch, Kitchen Finks, Terminate, Crime/Punishment to name a few. I think some Alara cards are going to be tremendous in this format.

Cheers,
rant

Also, for Blue, Tolaria West

A few comments:

Kor Haven is a little sub par. Best to run Maze of ith or Icy manipulator unless you are running mono-white, otherwise it will tie up mana.

Izzet chronarch is the same thing. Rather than run a 2/2 5cc creature with that ability, I would rather run another instant/sorcery for acceleration or a bigger stick for that cost.

Tell me what the rest of you think?
- Note: Added Oversoul of Dusk. Pro three colors is always great..

You really want to have stuff that either searches your library, or returns something from your grave. That way, you have more control over the cards you have in your hand. Each of them is only once in your deck, so if you need one, you want to tutor.
For tutors I'd like to add:
B

• Demonic Tutor
  
• Diabolic Tutor
  
• Beseech the Queen

(Just found out you already use the above)
U
Ponder

Furthermore, you want to reclaim some cards.
Flashback is a great way to do this. A newer version is Unearth, of which we will see more.

B

• Entomb
  
• Buried Alive

R
Lava Dart
U
Think Twice

And of course (mass) removal:
B
Terror
R
Firestorm
U

• Pongify
  
• Capsize

One request: Could you please put the cards in your first post in card tags? In a format like EDH, your deck will contain at least 50 different cards, so it's nice to be able to read the cards.
One more idea: Could you collect the best legends that can be Elder Dragons? I'm very curious. I know Doran is a great general for its ability, but I find Lyzolda, the Blood Witch very interesting too. In a dedicated black/red deck, you can get massive card advantage, while burning away the opposition.

Unfortunately the text box is limited so I cannot add any more text verticaly. I will have to add card tags around each card name and it will take too much room. I will try, but i might end up running out of text room all together.

You missed Hinder quite possibly the best counterspell outside of Desertion in the format.

Added Hinder, Mana drain and Counterspell.

Keep em comin fellas...

WOOPS, okay, I get it now. kor Haven is definetly staying on. LOL, blocking and killing off a creature for free... I are teh convertedz. I must have misread it at first.

Oblivion Stone poor man's disk
Academy Ruins self explaining I guess.

if you have problems with the text box size use spoiler tags.

Sylvan Library and Abundance are two cards I always add if I'm playing Green.

you can also evade having to say (card)card(/card) again and again like this:
[cards ]Card1
Card2
Card3[/cards ]

It will look like this:

• Card1
  
• Card2
  
• Card3

And if I wanted to keep your first post clear, it may look like this:


If you quote my text, you will see that the code isn't that hard.

I don't know you guys...kitchen finks...reap and sow? These are definitely good cards but I don't know if I would consider them EDH staples. You could definitely do without land destruction but if you are going go with land destruction go big. Sundering Titan for example could completely shut a five-color player down. Reap and sow will destroy one land, which, in the big picture isn't going to make a huge difference since this game is no where near as fast as standard or even legacy.
What I consider to be important in EDH is wrath, for one.
Any kind of Wrath of God, Decree of Pain, Plague Wind is good (these spells may cost a lot but this game goes on for hours). Things definitely get out of hand and to wipe the board is the most important thing to fall back on.
As far as creatures go...overcosted cards that would normally suck can be amazing in the format. Some examples are Multani, Maro-Sorceror or Kaervek, the Merciless. After all this is primarily multi-player. Multani is bound to be a 30/30 shrouded mf and Kaervek is going to do a worth-while amount of damage before he gets killed by something that can target him (he is a black creature: harder to kill).
Another important type of card is one that would hide a general. I'm suprised you didnt include spin into myth, hinder, or bant charm in your list as they are cheap ways of getting rid of a general forever (or at least until searched out again). Proteus Staff is another one...while risky this can be used on your own useless creatures to hopefully get better ones too.
Other cards that are fun and very effective are insurrection, cultural exchange, and ixidron. The latter of the three can be Vedalken Wizarded back to your hand for recurring Wrath effects in BLUE. Cultural Exchange is a great way to manipulate things and Insurrection needs no introduction.

Reap and Sow is actually pretty awesome. I like to wait until I can entwine it to cast it, but regardless the ability to find any land and put it directly into play is groovy. There aren't many ways to search out nonbasics (Academy Ruins is one nice choice) and Reap and Sow is one of the best available.

I can't believe nobody's caught Graveborn Muse sitting in the green section. Did you perhaps mean Seedborn Muse?

I'd keep cards like Oversoul of dusk off the list. Its crazy mana intensive, and hence only really playable in g/w decks (note that it doesn't work in mono-w or mono-g). Kitchen Finks is a decent card (again in g/w), but don't mistake it's popularity in standard as value in edh. 4 life is nothing, so all you have is a creature that can die twice. There are better.

Anything that generates card advantage can go on the list, especially utility creatures and two-or-more-for-one removal. Shadowmage Infiltrator, Ohran Viper, Tidings, Hull Breach, Crash of Wurms, Kodama's Reach, Woodfall Primus etc. Cards that aren't inherently card-advantageous ought to be cheaply unfair ("Animate Dead your Sundering Titan?") or so backbreaking in their effect that they completely warp the game - Mirari's Wake, for instance.

Personally, I'm inclined to take issue with your 'best generals' list. Jhoira is the only playable in her colors and Zur is a shoo-in, but Lyzolda ain't what you'd call a good general. Try some standbys like Sisay, or solid color enablers like Garza Zol. Or just Nicol Bolas - everyone likes Nicol Bolas.

You have mystical teachings under blue even though it has black in its flashback cost, perhaps it should be under multicolor?

IMO, Manamorphose fits any RG deck.

All my R decks tend to have Aftershock, Puncture Blast and sometimes Fissure.

I've been using Chill to the Bone a lot. Night's Whisper too.

I'd probably put Kagemaro on the elite generals list, but I don't know if anyone else would agree.

I like Spin into Myth, Proteus Staff and Bant Charm for hosing generals. IMO Gather Specimens will probably also prove to be strong. Anyone have opinions on Dominate?

And I will always love Puca's Mischief, especially when a Galepowder Mage is fighting for me.

I'm a pretty casual player though and don't have a lot of old school stuff, so see what others say.

Beacon of Unrest is pretty awesome in this format. Reanimate is pretty gross too. Phantom Nishoba is fairly decent if you have the mana acceleration or the reanimation power. Silklash Spider helps a lot in the defense, and not at too high of a cost. Armadillo Cloak is kinda broken, especially on Phantom Nishoba (maybe not broken, but a power house). Austere Command, I have found this card very useful, since it gives you 4 options to chose from(where's your mana vaults/sol ring now!). Plow Under is ammmmmmmmmaaaaaazing. A couple times, I plow under and they scoop, kinda funny, especially with Mirari(Butting 2 bounce lands and 2 vivids ontop of someones deck is a fist fight waiting to happen). Spiritmongeris pretty beastly, and Debtor's Knell is just crazy. These are the cards that I find to be very helpful majority of the time for me.

Kitchen finks, graveborn muse/seedborn muse and Oversould of dusk are out. Added Tidings, Spin into myth, Bant charm and Kaervek the merciless.

Again fellas, we are not adding good cards in the list here, we are adding cards that SHOULD BE IN EVERY DECK OF THE COLOR.

Example: If you play blue, you should play spin into myth. Why? because it hoses the general and gets rid of it until the oponent can toot it, then play it.

Example 2: If you play black, you SHOULD play Phyrexian arean. Starting at 40 life and loosing only 1 life to draw a card? you can gain speed/advantage and even win your life back with things like loxodon warhammer, corrupt, tendrils of corruption, consume spirit etc..

Not good cards, just cards that SHOULD be in a deck of the specified color/s.
Keep in mind that i am new to the format, but the big idea here is these cards are preety much the auto includes of previous formats, or just power cards that costed maybe 1 or 2 mana too much to be included in some formats, whereas here, they shine since most games can easily go into turn 10+

Quote from nevaziah

Again fellas, we are not adding good cards in the list here, we are adding cards that SHOULD BE IN EVERY DECK OF THE COLOR.

Sorry, I did get a bit tangental there.

I do think the Aftershock, Puncture Blast and Fissure warrant some discussion. R doesn't have a whole lot of fat killers, and these spells seem pretty key. Or am I crazy?