This is the first 'Y' card, meaning we've now done a card for each letter of the alphabet, and it only took us 13 months.
Anyway, about this card/cycle. Obviously, this one is the most broken of all of them because it taps for blue AND green. When I was still working on my mana base I used to run these a lot because the pain was worth the offset of having them ETBT. Now I've cut them from all of my lists except maybe I'll occasionally play them in two color decks. They're decent, but you can make an argument for or against them.
The simple fact that they follow two criteria makes them worth the effort for me:
1: They come into play untapped
2: They can tap for colored mana that same turn - this is what Graven Cairns & Co lack.
I won't consider them staples, but in reality, every 2/3 color deck I have runs the appropriate painlands, with the Coast in two of them (Sidisi/Intet). These lands are especially good if you're not made out of money. Like I myself will never shell out over a tenner for a single land, so fetches and ABU duals are out. Then these ones push up in the rankings a fair bit. Behind Shocks and Checks for sure, but after that, these come in nicely.
They ARE slightly better for Enemy-color pairs as there are some cycles those lack, which is why I'm especially happy M15 reprinted them.
As for the damage, eh, it's unfortunate, but manageable, especially since often enough you can tap them for colourless anyway. Consider them moreso as lands that give you flexibility in your mana fixing. In a pinch, they hurt you but give you the right mana, and later on, when you have like 6 lands of each colour anyway, these guys can just tap for colourless and thereby still pulling their weight.
I rank these as solid near-staples. If you got the money for Fetches + Shocks + ABU duals, these might not make the cut. Anyone below that cut should definitely give them a spin.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Fine for budget players, and extremely good in very fast metagames, but I personally do not like these lands in this format. The most recent printing of this cycle gave me lots of stuff to trade for EDH stuff I wanted.
Whether they're the right land for your EDH decks is going to be very metagame-dependent. In more competitive metas, the answer is probably "yes." The meta I play in is enough to the other end of the competitive/casual axis that you can get by fine playing a couple of CIPT duals instead.
These are fine lands, but they're probably the seventh or eighth best dual for any given color combination (and in a few cases, even lower).
ABU Duals, Fetchlands, Shocklands, Filterlands, Checklands, Manduals, and Shrines, are all things I look to include before I would consider these. And there are only so many slots available for nonbasics in a given deck. I think I've run Painlands in two color enemy-colored decks before Shrines were printed (and would still do so in the case of very aggressive decks like Edric, Varolz, Nath, etc), but that's about it. Three color decks will never have room for these if you have access to all 9 possible fetches.
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As one of the most heavily printed cycles of dual-lands to exist, it says something to their value that players will still shell out $3-$6 a piece for these. I'm wondering when they'll just print these as uncommons and be done with it ala Serra Angel . They're one of my favorite ways to get a little extra value out of a card trade, as pretty much everyone has an extra copy or two lying around, and will toss them onto a trade pile fairly quickly if it will seal a deal.
As to their playability, I'm of the sort that still prefers coming in tapped over paying life, but these cards definitely have their uses. They're at their best in decks that run ample amounts of manarocks/artifacts in general, as you can get setup with no loss in speed/tempo while still having access to colored effects when needed.
As a budget player, I really need to get my hands on some more copies of these. Certainly there are much better lands, but I'm the kind of player who opens a shockland and immediately sells it. These are right in the sweet spot of being better than guildgates but not too expensive.
2: They can tap for colored mana that same turn - this is what Graven Cairns & Co lack.
What are you talking about? The Shadowmoor/Eventide filter lands can tap for colored mana the same turn you play them. Or do you mean just on turn one?
Meant turn one, sorry. Should've reworded that one.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
I'm not very hot on these. Generally, I don't play in fast metas and don't see the need for these, or Mana Confluence/City of Brass.
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As a budget player, I really need to get my hands on some more copies of these. Certainly there are much better lands, but I'm the kind of player who opens a shockland and immediately sells it. These are right in the sweet spot of being better than guildgates but not too expensive.
At the moment, the most expensive of these (at least the enemy ones) are similar in cost to Shocklands.
Your best bet is to pick up both shocks and fetches while they're relatively cheap, or just stick to things like the the Khans Refuge lands.
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For most 2-color decks, running painlands is perfectly reasonable. If you are running a "perfect" mana base, you might not need it once you put in 7 Fetchalnds plus your ABU and Ravnica dual lands. For someone like me that has multiple decks, running the max number of fetches in each deck is not a viable solution so painlands fill in the void nicely.
For 3-color decks, I mostly don't run painlands unless I am really skewed towards a particular 2 colors and need more fixing. But after 3 ABU duals, 3 Ravnica Duals, 3-6 Fetchlands, 3 Checklands, 3 Filterlands, and Command Tower, running any more mana fixing cuts too far into your slots for specialty lands and basics.
I will say that I would definitely run Filterlands over Painlands if I had to choose between the two. The number of 1-drops that must be played turn 1 are so minimal that the fact that a Filterland can't tap for colored mana on turn 1 is almost negligible. For the most part, the only turn 1 play I almost always want to make is Sol Ring which a Filterland obviously has no problem with.
The Apocalypse painlands (the enemy pairs) are useful simply because there a fewer options for enemy lands.
Let's take two colorpairs, RG and GU and compair:
Lands that make RG
Copperline Gorge
Firelit Thicket
Fungal Reaches
Grove of the Burnwillows
Gruul Guildgate
Gruul Turf
Highland Weald
Karplusan Forest
Kazandu Refuge
Mogg Hollows
Mossfire Valley
Pinecrest Ridge
Ragine Ravine
Rootbound Craig
Rugged Highlands
Shivan Oasis
Stomping Ground
Taiga
Temple of Abandon
Timberline Ridge
Lands that make GU
Breeding Pool
Flooded Grove
Hinterland Harbor
Simic Growth Chamber
Simic Guildgate
Skyshroud Forest
Temple of Mystery
Thornwood Falls
Tropical Island
Yavimaya Coast
There are twice as lands that make RG than GU. If you're running a two-color enemy deck, your options for lands are limited, so painlands become a viable possibility.
Great for a budget. I'm not willing to shell out $$$ for better mana but $3 is pretty reasonable. The downside is offset by the fact that you start at 40 life, giving you plenty of time to draw other color options (like a signet). I'd play it in any dual/tri color deck as quick and easy fixing.
1) simic is the best 2 color pair that exist, imho. love the crap out of it, you can cause so much sillyness people can hardly react.
2) this particular one means you can have sylvan scrying in the deck, so if you are unsure of what color you will need more of in the early turns, it is one of the best choices to go for if you are lower on options, or looking for a more temporary land so you can drop something like lotus vale earlier without feeling like you lost something more valuable
3) because it is green, you should have at least a couple decent life gen options in your deck, making the pain part easy to negate
I don't like these lands very much. Shocklands? Sure, I get it. Sometimes you need the mana now, but it's only two damage and has the added bonus of counting as both its land types. The painlands, if you get unlucky and end up being stuck with them as one of very few lands for a while, just keep draining and draining. The rest of the time, you might not even use the colored ability because you have plenty of mana already.
It's probably because I don't play very competitively, but I've never had a desire to run one of these. I'd rather run another basic and avoid getting blown out by a possible Wave of Vitriol or Blood Moon and the like.
Now if you're benefiting from damaging yourself, however, we have a different story. I might put all ten of them in a Darien, King of Kjeldor deck if I could put any in, and I might find the three for my Marchesa, the Black Rose deck to help keep me off the throne.
The assumption a lot of people make with ETB tapped lands is that they don't need to make early plays because their meta is slower so they're fine, but that's not the biggest reason.
If you're on 5 lands and need to play a spell to save your butt like austere command or merciless eviction, choosing an ETB tapped land over a painland can lose you the game on the spot.
While not every time will be that important, sitting on 4 lands with 2-3 5 drops in hand then drawing a painland hurts your heart a lot.
For a 2 color deck I feel these are a stable. 8/10. For three color lower it to 6.5/10.
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Other: URGRiku of Too Much Mana, WUBRG Sliver Queen Enchantress
Pain lands are great and criminally underplayed in budget lists. This is an auto
Include in my mind for 2 color and a excellent choice in some 3 colors list and almost any budgeted 3 color list.
The assumption a lot of people make with ETB tapped lands is that they don't need to make early plays because their meta is slower so they're fine, but that's not the biggest reason.
If you're on 5 lands and need to play a spell to save your butt like austere command or merciless eviction, choosing an ETB tapped land over a painland can lose you the game on the spot.
While not every time will be that important, sitting on 4 lands with 2-3 5 drops in hand then drawing a painland hurts your heart a lot.
For a 2 color deck I feel these are a stable. 8/10. For three color lower it to 6.5/10.
This.
A lot of people focus on the "I don't have enough Turn 1 plays to make this worth it", but when you draw a ETBT land that you needed to cast a 4 drop on T4, you will wish it was a pain land instead. Also, these scale when you play them early on because once you have an abundance of mana you can simply tap these as a colorless land. I would guess that over the course of a game, I probably only lose a handful of life from them when I played them.
I almost always run these in 2-color decks, especially enemy-pair. Exceptions if I need a lot of basics (i.e. Wort).
For 3-color, they rarely make the cut, but I could see it happening, especially if you're splashing a color.
For 5-color, definitely not.
The downside is almost negligible, but the fact is that a 2-color land isn't actually good enough in a 5-color, and sometimes even in a 3-color, deck without additional upside. Shock and dual are hittable by fetches. Fetches are functional rainbow lands that shuffle, fill grave, etc. filters can fix multiple mana at once (as can ODY filter). Karoos give you functional CA. temples scry.
I think these are good lands and I use them in most of my wedge decks. Usually I'll go 3 shocklands, 3 checklands, 3 fetchlands, and 3 painlands. 1 damage is nothing in EDH and I will always choose these over any "Enters play tapped" land. Plus the affordability makes these an auto-include.
Painlands are, as a rule, better than taplands. I'd put them below ABUR duals, shocks, fetches, and checks, but above just about everything else. Believe me, the life won't matter much. If you're in three-color, you'll probably run City of Brass and Mana Confluence first, though.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Once I had all the revised duals, shocks and fetches, these fell out of favour, though I think it could be a matter of taste (I used the temples from Theros Block in place of pain lands).
I think Pain lands are a perfectly usable option. Not optimal, but unless you're sporting a thousand dollar manabase, they're as good as you can get.
I'd love to have been in a meeting when they created this creature.
Person A: "A thing that walks in flames and soot is going to get dirty, so let's give it protection from white."
Person B: "Pro white? You don't think that's too powerful for Standard, do you?"
Person A: "Hmmm... good point. Make it 'can't be blocked' then."
Person C: "Um... guys. Guys. Hey guys. You could play Painter's Servant naming white, and this card would be COMPLETELY UNBLOCKABLE! Baller, yo!"
*collective gasp*
This is pretty much how I envision a typical ay at WotC R&D to take place.
On the plus side, he's both an elemental and a rogue, so if you're strapped for choices in those tribes for whatever reason, he can sit on the sidelines while telling you to grab more changelings .
This guy (and his cycle of colorshifted friends) were useful for Shadowmoor/Eventide limited, as they pretty much guaranteed you to have some 4-drops with minor upside, and let you worry more about the rest of your curve, just as having morphs in a format lets you worry less about your 3-drops. You'll be hard pressed to fit these guys into a deck somewhere, but I suppose that if you're trying to build a pauper/peasant Commander deck, then some of them could be used for various tribal shenanigans.
This role can be fulfilled by better cards, like Bloodchief Ascension, Genju of the Fens, Illness in the Ranks, Phyrexian Reclamation, Tortured Existence, Planar Void, Quest for the Nihil Stone, if for some reason you wanted to build an EDH deck based around 1-mana black enchantments. I love Grim Guardian too, but Weakness is still just too bad to play for any reason.
FINIALLY!!!!!!!!!
This is the first 'Y' card, meaning we've now done a card for each letter of the alphabet, and it only took us 13 months.
Anyway, about this card/cycle. Obviously, this one is the most broken of all of them because it taps for blue AND green. When I was still working on my mana base I used to run these a lot because the pain was worth the offset of having them ETBT. Now I've cut them from all of my lists except maybe I'll occasionally play them in two color decks. They're decent, but you can make an argument for or against them.
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1: They come into play untapped
2: They can tap for colored mana that same turn - this is what Graven Cairns & Co lack.
I won't consider them staples, but in reality, every 2/3 color deck I have runs the appropriate painlands, with the Coast in two of them (Sidisi/Intet). These lands are especially good if you're not made out of money. Like I myself will never shell out over a tenner for a single land, so fetches and ABU duals are out. Then these ones push up in the rankings a fair bit. Behind Shocks and Checks for sure, but after that, these come in nicely.
They ARE slightly better for Enemy-color pairs as there are some cycles those lack, which is why I'm especially happy M15 reprinted them.
As for the damage, eh, it's unfortunate, but manageable, especially since often enough you can tap them for colourless anyway. Consider them moreso as lands that give you flexibility in your mana fixing. In a pinch, they hurt you but give you the right mana, and later on, when you have like 6 lands of each colour anyway, these guys can just tap for colourless and thereby still pulling their weight.
I rank these as solid near-staples. If you got the money for Fetches + Shocks + ABU duals, these might not make the cut. Anyone below that cut should definitely give them a spin.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Whether they're the right land for your EDH decks is going to be very metagame-dependent. In more competitive metas, the answer is probably "yes." The meta I play in is enough to the other end of the competitive/casual axis that you can get by fine playing a couple of CIPT duals instead.
ABU Duals, Fetchlands, Shocklands, Filterlands, Checklands, Manduals, and Shrines, are all things I look to include before I would consider these. And there are only so many slots available for nonbasics in a given deck. I think I've run Painlands in two color enemy-colored decks before Shrines were printed (and would still do so in the case of very aggressive decks like Edric, Varolz, Nath, etc), but that's about it. Three color decks will never have room for these if you have access to all 9 possible fetches.
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As to their playability, I'm of the sort that still prefers coming in tapped over paying life, but these cards definitely have their uses. They're at their best in decks that run ample amounts of manarocks/artifacts in general, as you can get setup with no loss in speed/tempo while still having access to colored effects when needed.
RRR - Bosh's School of Hard(cover) Knocks
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Currently Piloting:
EDH
BGGlissa, The Traitor - Recursion (Primer)
WBRKaalia of The Vast
URGRiku of Two Reflections
WUBSydri, Galvanic Genius
UBRamirez DePietro
GWKrond, The Dawn-Clad
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician
RGOmnath, Locus of Rage
Modern
UG Infect
At the moment, the most expensive of these (at least the enemy ones) are similar in cost to Shocklands.
Your best bet is to pick up both shocks and fetches while they're relatively cheap, or just stick to things like the the Khans Refuge lands.
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For 3-color decks, I mostly don't run painlands unless I am really skewed towards a particular 2 colors and need more fixing. But after 3 ABU duals, 3 Ravnica Duals, 3-6 Fetchlands, 3 Checklands, 3 Filterlands, and Command Tower, running any more mana fixing cuts too far into your slots for specialty lands and basics.
I will say that I would definitely run Filterlands over Painlands if I had to choose between the two. The number of 1-drops that must be played turn 1 are so minimal that the fact that a Filterland can't tap for colored mana on turn 1 is almost negligible. For the most part, the only turn 1 play I almost always want to make is Sol Ring which a Filterland obviously has no problem with.
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Let's take two colorpairs, RG and GU and compair:
Lands that make RG
Copperline Gorge
Firelit Thicket
Fungal Reaches
Grove of the Burnwillows
Gruul Guildgate
Gruul Turf
Highland Weald
Karplusan Forest
Kazandu Refuge
Mogg Hollows
Mossfire Valley
Pinecrest Ridge
Ragine Ravine
Rootbound Craig
Rugged Highlands
Shivan Oasis
Stomping Ground
Taiga
Temple of Abandon
Timberline Ridge
Lands that make GU
Breeding Pool
Flooded Grove
Hinterland Harbor
Simic Growth Chamber
Simic Guildgate
Skyshroud Forest
Temple of Mystery
Thornwood Falls
Tropical Island
Yavimaya Coast
There are twice as lands that make RG than GU. If you're running a two-color enemy deck, your options for lands are limited, so painlands become a viable possibility.
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2) this particular one means you can have sylvan scrying in the deck, so if you are unsure of what color you will need more of in the early turns, it is one of the best choices to go for if you are lower on options, or looking for a more temporary land so you can drop something like lotus vale earlier without feeling like you lost something more valuable
3) because it is green, you should have at least a couple decent life gen options in your deck, making the pain part easy to negate
reaper king and the superfriends
It's probably because I don't play very competitively, but I've never had a desire to run one of these. I'd rather run another basic and avoid getting blown out by a possible Wave of Vitriol or Blood Moon and the like.
Now if you're benefiting from damaging yourself, however, we have a different story. I might put all ten of them in a Darien, King of Kjeldor deck if I could put any in, and I might find the three for my Marchesa, the Black Rose deck to help keep me off the throne.
If you're on 5 lands and need to play a spell to save your butt like austere command or merciless eviction, choosing an ETB tapped land over a painland can lose you the game on the spot.
While not every time will be that important, sitting on 4 lands with 2-3 5 drops in hand then drawing a painland hurts your heart a lot.
For a 2 color deck I feel these are a stable. 8/10. For three color lower it to 6.5/10.
Aggro: WUBRGHorde of Notions Goodstuff, RUB Cheesy Aggro, GR Xenagod Gruul Goodstuff
Control: GWBGhave, Guru of Adaptability, UBWrexial, Milling Deep UAzami, Lady of No Infinite Combos GWU Derevi, Tempo Beats
Other: URGRiku of Too Much Mana, WUBRG Sliver Queen Enchantress
Include in my mind for 2 color and a excellent choice in some 3 colors list and almost any budgeted 3 color list.
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This.
A lot of people focus on the "I don't have enough Turn 1 plays to make this worth it", but when you draw a ETBT land that you needed to cast a 4 drop on T4, you will wish it was a pain land instead. Also, these scale when you play them early on because once you have an abundance of mana you can simply tap these as a colorless land. I would guess that over the course of a game, I probably only lose a handful of life from them when I played them.
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For 3-color, they rarely make the cut, but I could see it happening, especially if you're splashing a color.
For 5-color, definitely not.
The downside is almost negligible, but the fact is that a 2-color land isn't actually good enough in a 5-color, and sometimes even in a 3-color, deck without additional upside. Shock and dual are hittable by fetches. Fetches are functional rainbow lands that shuffle, fill grave, etc. filters can fix multiple mana at once (as can ODY filter). Karoos give you functional CA. temples scry.
Still, they're nice to have in 2-color for sure.
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Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
On phasing:
I think Pain lands are a perfectly usable option. Not optimal, but unless you're sporting a thousand dollar manabase, they're as good as you can get.
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I'd love to have been in a meeting when they created this creature.
Person A: "A thing that walks in flames and soot is going to get dirty, so let's give it protection from white."
Person B: "Pro white? You don't think that's too powerful for Standard, do you?"
Person A: "Hmmm... good point. Make it 'can't be blocked' then."
Person C: "Um... guys. Guys. Hey guys. You could play Painter's Servant naming white, and this card would be COMPLETELY UNBLOCKABLE! Baller, yo!"
*collective gasp*
This is pretty much how I envision a typical ay at WotC R&D to take place.
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
This guy (and his cycle of colorshifted friends) were useful for Shadowmoor/Eventide limited, as they pretty much guaranteed you to have some 4-drops with minor upside, and let you worry more about the rest of your curve, just as having morphs in a format lets you worry less about your 3-drops. You'll be hard pressed to fit these guys into a deck somewhere, but I suppose that if you're trying to build a pauper/peasant Commander deck, then some of them could be used for various tribal shenanigans.
RRR - Bosh's School of Hard(cover) Knocks