Clique is great because it is instant speed non land hand removal. I don't think there is any other card in the game that is instant speed Duress, especially with a relevant tribe flyer. I give 10/10 even in multiplayer.
Discordant Dirge, although it needs at least a turn cycle before it can do anything Mardu Charm literally has Duress as one mode (Duress can't hit creatures, but Clique can, and Dirge can also hit lands) Venarian Glimmer, although you need to pay sufficient mana to get X where you can hit the card you want
There are also a number of instant-speed effect to have one or more opponents discard cards without you choosing what they discard (and some of them are discard at random, so they don't get to choose either).
Clique is great because it is instant speed non land hand removal. I don't think there is any other card in the game that is instant speed Duress, especially with a relevant tribe flyer. I give 10/10 even in multiplayer.
Discordant Dirge, although it needs at least a turn cycle before it can do anything Mardu Charm literally has Duress as one mode (Duress can't hit creatures, but Clique can, and Dirge can also hit lands) Venarian Glimmer, although you need to pay sufficient mana to get X where you can hit the card you want
There are also a number of instant-speed effect to have one or more opponents discard cards without you choosing what they discard (and some of them are discard at random, so they don't get to choose either).
All of your examples all serve different purposes, but I would say overall if you want a solid general use of this kind of effect, Clique is the "best" and has a variety of uses.
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"People are the worst. The worst thing about music is that people play it." - Mike Patton
Clique is a card that is exactly solid in EDH. If you have the faintest idea of what someone is up to, it can really trash their plans.
The card's price and strength in other formats I think generates a kind of underwhelming feeling that players get when casting Clique in EDH.
It's good, but it has a lot of hype from outside the format that I think makes people undervalue it.
They're really good in blink or Animar. Once you're good at playing I know you know I know, it can save you more than once. At worst, you can gain near-perfect information.
It's also cute in Nekusar.
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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!
Clique is great because it is instant speed non land hand removal. I don't think there is any other card in the game that is instant speed Duress, especially with a relevant tribe flyer. I give 10/10 even in multiplayer.
Discordant Dirge, although it needs at least a turn cycle before it can do anything Mardu Charm literally has Duress as one mode (Duress can't hit creatures, but Clique can, and Dirge can also hit lands) Venarian Glimmer, although you need to pay sufficient mana to get X where you can hit the card you want
There are also a number of instant-speed effect to have one or more opponents discard cards without you choosing what they discard (and some of them are discard at random, so they don't get to choose either).
All of your examples all serve different purposes, but I would say overall if you want a solid general use of this kind of effect, Clique is the "best" and has a variety of uses.
You said "I don't think there is any other card in the game that is instant speed Duress". Mardu Charm is literally instant-speed Duress with its third mode.
Not a bad Boros card at all. With the help of duals (Give us a Tango and Cycle dual for enemy colours already Wizards!) it's easy to fulfill it's conditions. 3 mana for a 2/2 that can nuke 2 permanents is actually very powerful - compare to green staple Reclamation Sage. I should probably pick one up for my Basandra.
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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.
This and Orim's Thunder are probably the best reasons to have both red/white in this format.
I recently got caught because I Sunforger'ed for an Orim's Thunder in my Alesha deck not remembering I never added it. It was going to be an awesome play to blow up their enchantment and kill their attacker, and it felt really bad I couldn't do it. I was just thinking I should work on finding a cut to make to fit Thunder in that deck. I already run it in Gisela, Blade of Goldnight where it is pretty good.
Speaking of those two decks, and getting on-topic with today's card, I run the Hedge-Mage in both of those deck.s It is not very difficult to get to two plains and two mountains so for 3 mana I get to destroy the most powerful artifact *and* enchantment on the board. With Alesha, I can potentially do it over and over again. It is strong and I think should be in any 2 or 3 color deck running red and white.
This whole cycle has a huge advantage in EDH, since you can only use them if you're in both colors. This is probably the best of the five. Hag Hedge-Mage and Gwyllion Hedge-Mage are pretty good too, but the blue ones are pretty much useful only because of the blue ability, though if you can blink Noggle Hedge-Mage infinitely, you're either going to be able to attack unobstructed or just do infinite damage to everyone. I'm sure there's a way to break Selkie Hedge-Mage, but I don't see it.
For this one, it reminds me of Hull Breach, also a good card.
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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!
I love this ugly thing. The Hedge Mage has always done super solid work in my decks. Feels good to pop two dangerous permanents. When I had my Boros deck as an ETB deck I had serval games where I took out huge chunks of enemy boards with it. I recommend playing it in any Boros deck, at least to try it out.
It has some interesting utility as a Disenchant in that Spellskite can't redirect the enchantment removal mode. Ultimately, though, I find Duergar Hedge-Mage difficult to support in decks that are the right colors. The artifact destruction mode is the mode you want reliably early, but two mountains is a pretty steep requirement if you're playing in a fast meta.
I can't run it in Tajic because the deck's mana base is tuned toward Emeria with all of my red sources being non-basics. With the recent cycles of lands, it's going to be easier to do when those cycles are eventually completed because the easiest way to make it work is with fetches + duals.
If a white Reclamation Sage existed, I think I'd rather run in most decks instead despite the 2-for-1 potential. To me, Wear // Tear has more potential in that realm both because you merely need colored mana rather than land types, but also because it's an instant. This of course, may change when those extra duals are printed.
I feel like in some cases Manic Vandal, Seal of Cleansing, Reliquary Monk might be better due to local meta speed / threats, though there are just a lot of red artifact destruction spells that might be better were that the case.
It's a matter of budget. You can easily get two plains and two mountains when you have access to Plateau and Sacred Foundry and Arid Mesa and (we really need those enemy counterparts to the Cinder Gale and Fetid Pools cycles). But the real trick is to minimize your number of nonbasics. I make a rule that even in five-color, unless I'm abusing Hermit Druid, half my lands will be basics. And not just for this, just for Blood Moon and Back to Basics. A Stax deck can even cause some real damage with Primal Order.
Of course, it is removal, so you're not going to be dropping it on t3 anyway, mostly.
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!
In hindsight, DTK pre-spoiler season was kinda weird. Lots of people thought the art for Contradict was going to be Force of Will (HAHAHAHAHA) and this was speculated to be Scroll Rack - which at least is more believable than Force of Friggin' Will in a standard product.
Anyway, Learn from the Past. 4 mana instant speed GY shuffler isn't good, the cantrip doesn't really save it either. Still, if you have a need for GY recursion that can double as GY hate, you could do worse.
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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 play it in a budget Mizzix list. I can usually cast it for U in response to some sort of graveyard hate or when I'm about to cast a big Epic Experiment when half my deck is already in my graveyard.
It's a matter of budget. You can easily get two plains and two mountains when you have access to Plateau and Sacred Foundry and Arid Mesa and (we really need those enemy counterparts to the Cinder Gale and Fetid Pools cycles). But the real trick is to minimize your number of nonbasics. I make a rule that even in five-color, unless I'm abusing Hermit Druid, half my lands will be basics. And not just for this, just for Blood Moon and Back to Basics. A Stax deck can even cause some real damage with Primal Order.
Of course, it is removal, so you're not going to be dropping it on t3 anyway, mostly.
If I had a second fetchable dual, it would be amazing. Plateau is not within my budget, but I did strongly consider it on numerous occasions. I run four fetches for plains in Tajic, but I can't run more than two mountains because the deck is effectively mono-white to capitalize on Emeria which has a much higher upside. It has three total mountains in it and only the dual is fetchable. The problem isn't that it doesn't work on-curve. The problem is that it doesn't work on turns 5-7 when I need my removal to be the most reliable. I do run it in Alesha, because when it works, it's great and that deck is already focused on grabbing mountains for Anger.
I'm running Kor Sanctifiers instead in Tajic, though I may change it to Reliquary Monk instead at some point until those land cycles are finished.
Regarding Learn from the Past, I don't have any applications for it in commander, but I suppose it's an option available to certain decks in certain metas. Where I really like it is in a very specific mill environment I've constructed where it buys you more time to attack people to death.
I suppose that if you've Mind Over Matter'd someone in Niv amd need to get someone else and Timetwister is out of your price range Learn can get your deck back. Pretty not great though. That cost is unfortunate.
In hindsight, DTK pre-spoiler season was kinda weird. Lots of people thought the art for Contradict was going to be Force of Will (HAHAHAHAHA) and this was speculated to be Scroll Rack - which at least is more believable than Force of Friggin' Will in a standard product.
Anyway, Learn from the Past. 4 mana instant speed GY shuffler isn't good, the cantrip doesn't really save it either. Still, if you have a need for GY recursion that can double as GY hate, you could do worse.
While I won't use it, it could probably "counter" a graveyard deck unexpectedly.
Great card for decks that can cast stuff from the grave. Like Zombies. Such a coincidence.
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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.
In general i prefer synergetic - especially unexpected instant speed - gy-hate over artifact ones. Krosan Grip is a thing and it's just so rewarding if you Anticipate the gy-combo correctly and slam that disruption down.
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!
Mardu Charm literally has Duress as one mode (Duress can't hit creatures, but Clique can, and Dirge can also hit lands)
Venarian Glimmer, although you need to pay sufficient mana to get X where you can hit the card you want
There are also a number of instant-speed effect to have one or more opponents discard cards without you choosing what they discard (and some of them are discard at random, so they don't get to choose either).
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
All of your examples all serve different purposes, but I would say overall if you want a solid general use of this kind of effect, Clique is the "best" and has a variety of uses.
The card's price and strength in other formats I think generates a kind of underwhelming feeling that players get when casting Clique in EDH.
It's good, but it has a lot of hype from outside the format that I think makes people undervalue it.
Draft my Peasant Cube.
It's also cute in Nekusar.
On phasing:
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Not a bad Boros card at all. With the help of duals (Give us a Tango and Cycle dual for enemy colours already Wizards!) it's easy to fulfill it's conditions. 3 mana for a 2/2 that can nuke 2 permanents is actually very powerful - compare to green staple Reclamation Sage. I should probably pick one up for my Basandra.
Speaking of those two decks, and getting on-topic with today's card, I run the Hedge-Mage in both of those deck.s It is not very difficult to get to two plains and two mountains so for 3 mana I get to destroy the most powerful artifact *and* enchantment on the board. With Alesha, I can potentially do it over and over again. It is strong and I think should be in any 2 or 3 color deck running red and white.
This whole cycle has a huge advantage in EDH, since you can only use them if you're in both colors. This is probably the best of the five. Hag Hedge-Mage and Gwyllion Hedge-Mage are pretty good too, but the blue ones are pretty much useful only because of the blue ability, though if you can blink Noggle Hedge-Mage infinitely, you're either going to be able to attack unobstructed or just do infinite damage to everyone. I'm sure there's a way to break Selkie Hedge-Mage, but I don't see it.
For this one, it reminds me of Hull Breach, also a good card.
On phasing:
amazingly epic sig courtesy of DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Planes.
Shaman is also a relevant creature type if you're also in green.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
I can't run it in Tajic because the deck's mana base is tuned toward Emeria with all of my red sources being non-basics. With the recent cycles of lands, it's going to be easier to do when those cycles are eventually completed because the easiest way to make it work is with fetches + duals.
If a white Reclamation Sage existed, I think I'd rather run in most decks instead despite the 2-for-1 potential. To me, Wear // Tear has more potential in that realm both because you merely need colored mana rather than land types, but also because it's an instant. This of course, may change when those extra duals are printed.
I feel like in some cases Manic Vandal, Seal of Cleansing, Reliquary Monk might be better due to local meta speed / threats, though there are just a lot of red artifact destruction spells that might be better were that the case.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
Of course, it is removal, so you're not going to be dropping it on t3 anyway, mostly.
However, for you, may I recommend Wear // Tear?
On phasing:
In hindsight, DTK pre-spoiler season was kinda weird. Lots of people thought the art for Contradict was going to be Force of Will (HAHAHAHAHA) and this was speculated to be Scroll Rack - which at least is more believable than Force of Friggin' Will in a standard product.
Anyway, Learn from the Past. 4 mana instant speed GY shuffler isn't good, the cantrip doesn't really save it either. Still, if you have a need for GY recursion that can double as GY hate, you could do worse.
I'm running Kor Sanctifiers instead in Tajic, though I may change it to Reliquary Monk instead at some point until those land cycles are finished.
Regarding Learn from the Past, I don't have any applications for it in commander, but I suppose it's an option available to certain decks in certain metas. Where I really like it is in a very specific mill environment I've constructed where it buys you more time to attack people to death.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
While I won't use it, it could probably "counter" a graveyard deck unexpectedly.
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Great card for decks that can cast stuff from the grave. Like Zombies. Such a coincidence.
In general i prefer synergetic - especially unexpected instant speed - gy-hate over artifact ones. Krosan Grip is a thing and it's just so rewarding if you Anticipate the gy-combo correctly and slam that disruption down.
On phasing: