This might be useful in Edgar Markov decks, particularly cheap vampires. Scoop up your vampires, and put a bunch more tokens down. Dig for answers if you need them.
Four-card, four-color rococo combo is the best combo.
But seriously, I have to say, Leave is obviously good, and I'd play Chance if I had enough reason to play cards to double my card draw. But mostly, Leave is obviously good. I smash stone tablets over the heads of anyone who doubted.
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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!
Ahhh I remember when it first came out. Tons of people tried it out because it looked so fun. I always liked how people would only aim that at me thinking they're gonna get a cool dragon or a big ramp/draw spell. Every single time they wind up getting a counterspell or have spent 4 mana for a signet and I never saw this card again until this thread.
In our department of 'cards I really want to like but fall short of that in practice'. I do play it in Jeleva though, but that's because of the deck's theme of stealing stuff and being able to copy this a couple of times.
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X Hope of Ghirapur Swordpile W Ghosty Blinky Anafenza U Nezahal- Big, Blue and HERE! B Gonti Can Afford It R Etali, Primal 'Whatjusthappened?' G Polukranos Wants More Mana WU The Exalted Vizier Temmet WB Home, Athreos WR Basandra, Recursive Aggression WG Karametra, Momma of Lands UB Wrexial Eats Your Brains UR Arjun, the Mad Flame UG The Fable of Prime Speaker BR Hellbent, Malfegor Style BG Jarad, Death is Served RG Running Thromok WUB Varina and ALL the Zombies WUBYennett, the Odd Pain-Train WUR Zedruu the Furyhearted WUG Arcades' Strategy, Shmategy, Sausage and Spam WBR A Case of Mathas' Persistent F*ckery WBRLicia's League of Legendary Lifegain Layabouts WBG The Karador Advantage PackageWRG Gahiji Rattlesnake Collection UBR Jeleva... does... things UBG Damia's Just Deserts URG Yasova's Has More Power Than Sense BRG Wasitora, Bad Kitty WUBRBreya, Eggs, Breya'd Eggs WUBG Tymna and Kydele, Extended Borrowing WURG Kynaios and Tiro, Landfall Impersonations WBRG Saskia Pet Card EnchantressUBRG Yidris of the Chi-Ting Corporation WUBRG Tazri's Amazing Allies
I think it's ironically better with lower powered metas.
I remember a time ages back when we'd be playing tonnes of beatsticks, not so much in the realms of removal, and all of the ramp-and-mana as possible. good ol' battlecruiser days. Nowadays, we're doing lean, mean efficient decks that have a lot of counters and the like.
Well, we all know the "mystery boxes" or "power cubes" or whatever they're called at Walmart are a scam, right? Same logic applies here.
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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!
Funny enough, its Doomblade as it can hit artifact creatures, which is of course seems irrelevant because it can hit all artifacts with its third mode, but can come up in some odd corner cases where the creature you want to kill isn't an artifact but could become one in response thanks to Liquid Metal Coating or Memnarch.
Definitely one of the best charms. Its just so damn versatile, its never really dead and all three modes are relevant. Boros Charm might be the best because of how high impact each mode can be even if they need the right circumstances to truly shine. Bant Charm is probably better than Crosis as well, because its creature kill mode is better (hits everything and tucks!), and countering an instant can be higher impact than a bounce spell, but Crosis is probably 3rd. I actually think Dromar's Charm is the most underrated. Its best mode is 3 color Cancel, true, but your paying for flexibility, and in a pinch it can kill a utility creature or hate bear, and 5 life at instant speed is relevant more often than you'd think.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
All three modes are relevant BUT they are usually all trying to do approximately the same thing - remove something from the battlefield. So despite having 3 modes, it mostly plays like a LESS versatile version of anguished unmaking, which only has one "mode". Yes, you can choose to bounce your own permanent, but that's pretty rare to be the right play. Making it even tougher is that it's 3 colors, which drastically reduces the places you might play it. So overall...it's fine. But I wish one of the modes did something a little less targeted-removal-y. Bant Charm did it way better.
Just for fun, the other charms, since they also have annoying design flaws imo:
darigaaz's charm - the design is cute - pick an iconic spell from all three colors and made it modal - but the fact that all three source spells are 1 cmc kiiiind of makes this a bad deal for 3 mana in 3 different colors. Still fine for limited and the versatility is pretty decent, but none of the modes are impactful enough to justify in commander imo, even with the flexibility.
dromar's charm - This is one of the ones where one mode is clearly better than the rest. Counter target spell is a great mode, even if it's not exactly a great standalone card as a 3-mana cancel. But that's where you'd hope flexibility would save it. And we get...an effect that's rarely playable at 1 mana and an effect that's not playable at any cost. You tried, Dromar.
Rith's Charm - Rith's might be the second best balanced of the cycles - destroy a nonbasic is on-par for the cost, and 3 tokens is pretty decent too. The damage prevention is a bit boring, but when you need to not die you really need to not die. That said, as a 3-color card where the most frequently useful mode is making a reasonable but not amazing number of tokens, it's a pretty niche card.
Treva's Charm - Ok seriously, what is that third mode doing? You paid 3 mana to end up down a card? Was it supposed to be draw 2? The other two modes are both decent, but basically just a mirror of Crosis (conditional creature removal + noncreature permanent removal) with a terrible third mode instead of the always-useful-to-some-degree boomerang mode on crosis. Crosis' might slip into some builds at least as a budget option, but given how strong of removal white has, there's really no reason to run this over other options.
In final analysis, I think most of the charms from this cycle have gotten pretty eclipsed by other options, and I'd be surprised if I wanted to run them for something other than flavor.
Grixis has no shortage of good removal options, so this often ends up on the chopping block. I do like the charms, but as Dirk mentioned above, they're not that amazing these days.
Of charms in general, I think Bant and Boros charms are the ones that have consistently stayed in my decks of same color combinations. Rest are more hit or miss.
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X Hope of Ghirapur Swordpile W Ghosty Blinky Anafenza U Nezahal- Big, Blue and HERE! B Gonti Can Afford It R Etali, Primal 'Whatjusthappened?' G Polukranos Wants More Mana WU The Exalted Vizier Temmet WB Home, Athreos WR Basandra, Recursive Aggression WG Karametra, Momma of Lands UB Wrexial Eats Your Brains UR Arjun, the Mad Flame UG The Fable of Prime Speaker BR Hellbent, Malfegor Style BG Jarad, Death is Served RG Running Thromok WUB Varina and ALL the Zombies WUBYennett, the Odd Pain-Train WUR Zedruu the Furyhearted WUG Arcades' Strategy, Shmategy, Sausage and Spam WBR A Case of Mathas' Persistent F*ckery WBRLicia's League of Legendary Lifegain Layabouts WBG The Karador Advantage PackageWRG Gahiji Rattlesnake Collection UBR Jeleva... does... things UBG Damia's Just Deserts URG Yasova's Has More Power Than Sense BRG Wasitora, Bad Kitty WUBRBreya, Eggs, Breya'd Eggs WUBG Tymna and Kydele, Extended Borrowing WURG Kynaios and Tiro, Landfall Impersonations WBRG Saskia Pet Card EnchantressUBRG Yidris of the Chi-Ting Corporation WUBRG Tazri's Amazing Allies
This and Rith's Charm are really the only dragon charms worth playing in commander. The Commander artwork is vastly superior because why the hell would these dragons go through the trouble to carry trinkets without having opposable digits hello?
Crosis charm seems pretty good, but somewhat limiting in EDH. I feel like i'm on the far other side of EDH deck building, where i'd rather have a significantly more powerful and more niche effect on a card rather than a weaker, but more flexible and broad effect. I think it's probably just a bad habit i've gained from playing other formats of magic, where i just need my cards to do more.
I can imagine crosis charm being a complete beating in limited or back in type 2 though, but i'd rather have echoing truth or devour in shadow/reckless spite or shattering pulse.
EDH decks: 1. RGWMayael's Big BeatsRETIRED!
2. BUWMerieke Ri Berit and the 40 Thieves
3. URNiv's Wheeling and Dealing!
4. BURThe Walking Dead
5. GWSisay's Legends of Tomorrow
6. RWBRise of Markov
7. GElvez and stuffz(W)
8. RCrush your enemies(W)
9. BSign right here...(W)
(U/B)(U/B)(U/B) JUMP IN THE LINE, ROCK YOUR BODY IN TIME
(R/W)(R/W)(R/W) RISING FROM THE NEON GLOOM, SHINING LIKE A CRAZY MOON
(U/R)(R/G)(G/U) STEALIN' WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYIN'
Four-card, four-color rococo combo is the best combo.
But seriously, I have to say, Leave is obviously good, and I'd play Chance if I had enough reason to play cards to double my card draw. But mostly, Leave is obviously good. I smash stone tablets over the heads of anyone who doubted.
On phasing:
This card is pretty hearthstone.
(U/B)(U/B)(U/B) JUMP IN THE LINE, ROCK YOUR BODY IN TIME
(R/W)(R/W)(R/W) RISING FROM THE NEON GLOOM, SHINING LIKE A CRAZY MOON
(U/R)(R/G)(G/U) STEALIN' WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYIN'
It's like all the pirates can steal are mystery boxes that they can never open until they are already out to sea.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
I remember a time ages back when we'd be playing tonnes of beatsticks, not so much in the realms of removal, and all of the ramp-and-mana as possible. good ol' battlecruiser days. Nowadays, we're doing lean, mean efficient decks that have a lot of counters and the like.
stolen goods would have loved my old, battlecruiser days. Nowadays, if i cast that, i'd be lucky if i hit a phyrexian metamorph or something, and not a flusterstorm.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
On phasing:
Boomerang/Shatter/Terror. 3 iconic removal spells in one.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
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
Funny enough, its Doomblade as it can hit artifact creatures, which is of course seems irrelevant because it can hit all artifacts with its third mode, but can come up in some odd corner cases where the creature you want to kill isn't an artifact but could become one in response thanks to Liquid Metal Coating or Memnarch.
Definitely one of the best charms. Its just so damn versatile, its never really dead and all three modes are relevant. Boros Charm might be the best because of how high impact each mode can be even if they need the right circumstances to truly shine. Bant Charm is probably better than Crosis as well, because its creature kill mode is better (hits everything and tucks!), and countering an instant can be higher impact than a bounce spell, but Crosis is probably 3rd. I actually think Dromar's Charm is the most underrated. Its best mode is 3 color Cancel, true, but your paying for flexibility, and in a pinch it can kill a utility creature or hate bear, and 5 life at instant speed is relevant more often than you'd think.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
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Just for fun, the other charms, since they also have annoying design flaws imo:
darigaaz's charm - the design is cute - pick an iconic spell from all three colors and made it modal - but the fact that all three source spells are 1 cmc kiiiind of makes this a bad deal for 3 mana in 3 different colors. Still fine for limited and the versatility is pretty decent, but none of the modes are impactful enough to justify in commander imo, even with the flexibility.
dromar's charm - This is one of the ones where one mode is clearly better than the rest. Counter target spell is a great mode, even if it's not exactly a great standalone card as a 3-mana cancel. But that's where you'd hope flexibility would save it. And we get...an effect that's rarely playable at 1 mana and an effect that's not playable at any cost. You tried, Dromar.
Rith's Charm - Rith's might be the second best balanced of the cycles - destroy a nonbasic is on-par for the cost, and 3 tokens is pretty decent too. The damage prevention is a bit boring, but when you need to not die you really need to not die. That said, as a 3-color card where the most frequently useful mode is making a reasonable but not amazing number of tokens, it's a pretty niche card.
Treva's Charm - Ok seriously, what is that third mode doing? You paid 3 mana to end up down a card? Was it supposed to be draw 2? The other two modes are both decent, but basically just a mirror of Crosis (conditional creature removal + noncreature permanent removal) with a terrible third mode instead of the always-useful-to-some-degree boomerang mode on crosis. Crosis' might slip into some builds at least as a budget option, but given how strong of removal white has, there's really no reason to run this over other options.
In final analysis, I think most of the charms from this cycle have gotten pretty eclipsed by other options, and I'd be surprised if I wanted to run them for something other than flavor.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
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
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
Of charms in general, I think Bant and Boros charms are the ones that have consistently stayed in my decks of same color combinations. Rest are more hit or miss.
I can imagine crosis charm being a complete beating in limited or back in type 2 though, but i'd rather have echoing truth or devour in shadow/reckless spite or shattering pulse.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom