My favorite card ever since 5DN however, Eternal Witness, is a well known staple. The only reason to not run her in everything green is if I don't find my tenth copy or something like that.
EWit is an interesting one. I used to auto-include it in any deck with green, but I've been coming round more and more to the power of Regrowth and Noxious Revival. The former is a mana less than Eternal Witness and gets round things like Torpor Orb (something which, probably mainly due to me demonstrating how good it is, has been increasingly common in my meta), while the latter, although card disadvantage, is "free", instant speed and can double as grave hate if you're desperate. Eternal Witness of course gives you the body, which makes it often easier to reuse, is a much easier tutor target in green, and can be used as fodder for things like Birthing Pod or Natural Order after you've used the recursion. So between the 3 cards, I don't think one is clearly better in a vacuum - there's good arguments for each of them. Of course, running all three is an option, and one I've taken in some decks, but if I've only got one or two slots for green recursion, my choice between these cards depends on the deck, so none of them end up being an auto-include.
I recognize the OP's purpose is not about staples, but about pet cards. Granted there's rather a spectrum from "pet card" to "staple" based on popularity, but I'll try to stick to the "pet card" end.
W
Reconnaissance — This could potentially be considered a staple, but it's also a pet card of mine. I will run this over almost any other vigilance effect.
Bubbling Muck — Because usually I just need one burst, and because people like to blow up the permanent-based doublers.
Head Games — Fun card. It's fun to put answers to other opponent's stuff in an opponent's hand, nerf their hand-sculpting, or basically tutor their deck for stuff you want if combined with discard.
Reap — Black is such a popular color this is usually good. Combine it with Spectral Shift and you can probably get everything back to hand. Shift also makes Carpet of Flowers and Urborg more interesting.
Holistic Wisdom — Slightly build-around, but makes for some very interesting recursion.
Artifacts
These are definitely somewhere between "pet card" and "staple", but I usually want to includ them in every deck: Vedalken Orrery, Mimic Vat.
Ice Cauldron — Pretty much every deck I consider putting this in.
For Blue: Counterbalance, Future Sight, and Aphetto Alchemist.
Counterbalance goes in my casual blue decks just because it's funny to try my luck at countering people's random spells. Future Sight is just really fun, especially when I'm able to just keep on casting the top card of my deck during one turn. Aphetto Alchemist has a lot of utility for such a little guy, and it's hilarious to see people try and guess what he is when I play him face-down.
White: Valorous Stance. It's almost as good as Swords or Path, but the modality really adds something. It's not an auto-include per se, but it has found its way into a lot of my white decks.
Blue: Leyline of Anticipation This card really changes how you play the game, and allows you the maximum parity for your counterspells. No more waiting to have mana up for countermagic plus your main phase actions; just play on their end step. Tabling it once sucks, but, the permanent type is difficult for most colours to interact with, and it will pay dividends in the future. I also like Tolaria West: It searches for Tormod's Crypt, Pact of Negation, and Ancestral Vision. There are a ton of bad search targets, but some conditionally great ones as well (like Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx).
Black: Shred Memory remains a huge pet card of mine. Take out the most significant part of a graveyard at instant speed, tutor for Black Sun's Zenith, Lightning Greaves, Gate to Phyrexia (if you play it), some generic 2-mana creature removal spell like Go for the Throat, and Bloodghast if you already found your Skullclamp. In a pinch it'll find Demonic Tutor, making a 5-mana tutor for anything. For similar reasons, I like Dimir House Guard: It covers the bases of being a sacrifice outlet, a half-decent sword carrier, a tutor for the 4-cmc slot (finds Damnation, Grave Pact, Crypt Ghast, Agent of Erebos, others). It's pretty hard to say 'no' to that kind of versatility.
Red: This probably doesn't sound like secret tech, but almost all of my red decks have Vandalblast. It counters really fast artifact mana, and can be a real haymaker later in the game.
Green: Hunter's Insight. At instant speed, it often sneaks in for a fair bit of card draw, and it doesn't have to be a jackpot. It's slightly more risky than Harmonize, and doesn't have the same pre-combat power of Rishkar's Expertise or Soul's Majesty/Garruk, Primal Hunter, but it's cheap and has great potential. I also appreciate the design: a green effect parasitic on the strength of their creatures appeals to me.
Blue: Corrupted Conscience. As far as nonstaples are concerned, this card is stacked. A Control Magic on someone else's creature can, at worst shift the focus onto you, since you now control the biggest threat. CC, however takes it and makes it not only more deadly in most cases, but also a rattlesnake (due to infect's built in wither mechanic) thus the blame for this play is often not so much attributed to you, the caster of CC, but stays the person who played the problem creature, since it is their fault the creature came into existence. Compulsion essentially gives all of your cards cycling, which is very underrated, as it means no cards are really dead in your hand (and also help with threshold and madness) and help you dodge the Word of Command type cards.
Red: Crash Through and/or Expedite are beautiful cards that at their worst, replace themselves and at their best give your creature(s) the extra push needed to eradicate a player. Frenzied Fugue is probably my favorite way to deal with planeswalkers, but it is just so stupidly useful and silly: it's forced sharing! Disrupt Decorum is a budget red Time Warp in many cases, except this one will take the focus away from you and, tap down all nonsummoning-sickness-effected and nonvigilance creatures, allowing you to take your pick at who you attack on your next turn.
Green:Respite costs more than Fog, but the more colors you are playing, the less players are expecting you to gain life from being attacked. Mana Bloom is stupidly helpful 90% of the time. Back to Nature is an often overlooked card and I honestly don't understand why it isn't run in every nonenchantmentcentric deck.
Black:Tainted Strike. Though I admit that I agree with an earlier post that said no one ever expects Darkness, no one expects you to play Tainted Strike DEFENSIVELY. This means in a noninfect game you can simply not block something with 8 power and have it just disappear as poison counters since you will never see that type of damage for the rest of the game. Also OTHER people's big trampling creatures can be turned into Blightsteel Colossus for a single black, eliminating them said third party from the game. Lastly, infect never cared about how much life your opponent has. Surprise infect will deal with someone with triple+ digits of life if done correctly, all with a common card valued under an American quarter that has 1 cmc.
White:Riot Control is even better than Respite, even with the extra cmc. Sure this isn't as cheap as Fog/Holy DayDarkness, but Riot Control only protects YOU, not your opponents and absolutely no creatures, meaning if someone taps out to go wide and you are the only two left, you didn't block anyway, so you still have all of your creatures to clean up on your next turn.
RG:Voracious Cobra is a beautiful deterrent. Loved it since I first used it. Sure it isn't "real" deathtouch, but it does the best it can considering when it was printed.
Land:Throne of the High City is the easiest way to get the Monarch mechanic into your deck and it is a mechanic enjoyed by most. Having this as a one of doesn't guarantee it will happen every game, just once in a while so as to add more spice to the game.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
EWit is an interesting one. I used to auto-include it in any deck with green, but I've been coming round more and more to the power of Regrowth and Noxious Revival. The former is a mana less than Eternal Witness and gets round things like Torpor Orb (something which, probably mainly due to me demonstrating how good it is, has been increasingly common in my meta), while the latter, although card disadvantage, is "free", instant speed and can double as grave hate if you're desperate. Eternal Witness of course gives you the body, which makes it often easier to reuse, is a much easier tutor target in green, and can be used as fodder for things like Birthing Pod or Natural Order after you've used the recursion. So between the 3 cards, I don't think one is clearly better in a vacuum - there's good arguments for each of them. Of course, running all three is an option, and one I've taken in some decks, but if I've only got one or two slots for green recursion, my choice between these cards depends on the deck, so none of them end up being an auto-include.
Sire of Insanity
Notion Thief
White: Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Return to Dust, Oblation.
Black: Phyrexian Arena, Demonic Tutor.
Blue: Cyclonic Rift, Hinder.
Red: Chaos Warp.
Green: Beast Within, Kodama's Reach, Cultivate, Eternal Witness.
Artifacts: Sol Ring, Solemn Simulacrum, Chromatic Lanturn in all 3+ color decks, Duplicant
Land: Temple of the False God.
Legacy - GW Enchantress
Modern - U Urzatron (In construction)
Multiplayer - B ZOMBIES
Casual - B Suicide Black
Casual - WURx Krark-Clan Ironworks
Pauper - URBx Affinity
Pauper - B Pestilence
Pauper - W Steel Soldiers
EDH - W Isamaru, Hound of Konda 1V1
EDH - GRB Kresh the Bloodbraided
EDH - GW Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
EDH - UR Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
EDH - RB Lyzolda, The Blood Witch
EDH - UW Bruna, Light of Alabaster (Reworking)
EDH - UB Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
EDH - UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
EDH - WUG Phelddagrif
EDH - BGR Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
Pauper EDH - G Garruk's Packleader
Pauper EDH - RG Bloodbraid Elf
CUBE:
500 Peasant Cube (52% Foil) Cube Tutor Page
W
old thread
old thread
old thread
R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
Blue - Dungeon Geists
Black - Shriekmaw
Red - Faithless Looting
Green - Birthing Pod
There are other obvious staple auto includes but these are personal pet cards of mine that I fit into every deck I build with the respective colors
Draft My Cube!
Counterbalance goes in my casual blue decks just because it's funny to try my luck at countering people's random spells. Future Sight is just really fun, especially when I'm able to just keep on casting the top card of my deck during one turn. Aphetto Alchemist has a lot of utility for such a little guy, and it's hilarious to see people try and guess what he is when I play him face-down.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Check out my competitive Ezuri, Claw of Progress primer!
And right after that, I find it impossible to justify not playing Abrade for similar reasons.
Orzhov Charm is potent removal and sometimes a combat trick that far too many people sleep on.
Me, but with Wildfire, haha.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
White: Valorous Stance. It's almost as good as Swords or Path, but the modality really adds something. It's not an auto-include per se, but it has found its way into a lot of my white decks.
Blue: Leyline of Anticipation This card really changes how you play the game, and allows you the maximum parity for your counterspells. No more waiting to have mana up for countermagic plus your main phase actions; just play on their end step. Tabling it once sucks, but, the permanent type is difficult for most colours to interact with, and it will pay dividends in the future. I also like Tolaria West: It searches for Tormod's Crypt, Pact of Negation, and Ancestral Vision. There are a ton of bad search targets, but some conditionally great ones as well (like Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx).
Black: Shred Memory remains a huge pet card of mine. Take out the most significant part of a graveyard at instant speed, tutor for Black Sun's Zenith, Lightning Greaves, Gate to Phyrexia (if you play it), some generic 2-mana creature removal spell like Go for the Throat, and Bloodghast if you already found your Skullclamp. In a pinch it'll find Demonic Tutor, making a 5-mana tutor for anything. For similar reasons, I like Dimir House Guard: It covers the bases of being a sacrifice outlet, a half-decent sword carrier, a tutor for the 4-cmc slot (finds Damnation, Grave Pact, Crypt Ghast, Agent of Erebos, others). It's pretty hard to say 'no' to that kind of versatility.
Red: This probably doesn't sound like secret tech, but almost all of my red decks have Vandalblast. It counters really fast artifact mana, and can be a real haymaker later in the game.
Green: Hunter's Insight. At instant speed, it often sneaks in for a fair bit of card draw, and it doesn't have to be a jackpot. It's slightly more risky than Harmonize, and doesn't have the same pre-combat power of Rishkar's Expertise or Soul's Majesty/Garruk, Primal Hunter, but it's cheap and has great potential. I also appreciate the design: a green effect parasitic on the strength of their creatures appeals to me.
http://www.commandercast.com/category/articles/generally-speaking
Follow me on Twitter: @generalspeak
Compulsion essentially gives all of your cards cycling, which is very underrated, as it means no cards are really dead in your hand (and also help with threshold and madness) and help you dodge the Word of Command type cards.
Red: Crash Through and/or Expedite are beautiful cards that at their worst, replace themselves and at their best give your creature(s) the extra push needed to eradicate a player.
Frenzied Fugue is probably my favorite way to deal with planeswalkers, but it is just so stupidly useful and silly: it's forced sharing!
Disrupt Decorum is a budget red Time Warp in many cases, except this one will take the focus away from you and, tap down all nonsummoning-sickness-effected and nonvigilance creatures, allowing you to take your pick at who you attack on your next turn.
Green:Respite costs more than Fog, but the more colors you are playing, the less players are expecting you to gain life from being attacked.
Mana Bloom is stupidly helpful 90% of the time.
Back to Nature is an often overlooked card and I honestly don't understand why it isn't run in every nonenchantmentcentric deck.
Black:Tainted Strike. Though I admit that I agree with an earlier post that said no one ever expects Darkness, no one expects you to play Tainted Strike DEFENSIVELY. This means in a noninfect game you can simply not block something with 8 power and have it just disappear as poison counters since you will never see that type of damage for the rest of the game. Also OTHER people's big trampling creatures can be turned into Blightsteel Colossus for a single black, eliminating them said third party from the game. Lastly, infect never cared about how much life your opponent has. Surprise infect will deal with someone with triple+ digits of life if done correctly, all with a common card valued under an American quarter that has 1 cmc.
White:Riot Control is even better than Respite, even with the extra cmc. Sure this isn't as cheap as Fog/Holy DayDarkness, but Riot Control only protects YOU, not your opponents and absolutely no creatures, meaning if someone taps out to go wide and you are the only two left, you didn't block anyway, so you still have all of your creatures to clean up on your next turn.
RG:Voracious Cobra is a beautiful deterrent. Loved it since I first used it. Sure it isn't "real" deathtouch, but it does the best it can considering when it was printed.
Land:Throne of the High City is the easiest way to get the Monarch mechanic into your deck and it is a mechanic enjoyed by most. Having this as a one of doesn't guarantee it will happen every game, just once in a while so as to add more spice to the game.