The trick with Magic cards is that it's really hard to have a favorite. I mean, favorite decks I can understand. But a favorite card? That's tough.
I suppose it comes down to the card that, when you're up against the wall, it helps to define how and why you play.
I play a lot of EDH, which, due to its singleton nature, doesn't really get to have a signature card. Looking back to when I played Standard, I usually played a lot of silly decks, and Quest for Ula's Temple isn't a great pick for Favorite Card. So, we'll go to the only Tier 1 Standard deck I ever played: Vampires, right about when Vampires, America Control, and Jund were the big three in the Alara block. And the one card I would take from that deck, the one card I wish was still in Standard after all these years, the card that saved my bacon over and over and still got to swing in for 2, is...
Gatekeeper of Malakir.
There are more explosive cards, more utility cards, more game-changing cards, and more expensive cards. But when I sit down, look at a Standard card pool, and look for the inevitable mono-black aggro deck in it, I don't look for the next Nantuko Shade, or Desecration Demon, or Phyrexian Obliterator, or Geralf's Messenger, because there will always be a card like that. But there has never been as efficient a creature for mono-black aggro, in my opinion, than turn 3 Gatekeeper.
(Fans of Nekrataal and Shriekmaw, we'll continue this discussion later.)
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- Blees
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Oddly enough, the one I missed is mislabeled on your list. The token made by Broken Visage was originally a Shadow, but has been errata'd to be a Spirit.
I also noticed that you're missing the X/X Green Elephant for Elephant Resurgence. If you'd like, I still have the digital image from my current Elephant token.
The spreadsheet
Yes, I know that Artifact and Legendary aren't abilities and that colorless isn't a color. It keeps the organization of the sheet better.
Cosi's Trickster is the closest thing I can find, but it only triggers on opponent's shuffles.
Scarecrone
Skeleton Shard
I have 14 EDH decks. I can afford to have a deck that just gains life absurdly and either wins with Felidar Sovereign or just lives the longest.
Purphoros, God of the Forge procs off of creatures entering the battlefield, including tokens.
Raid Bombardment lets you swing into blockers and still deal damage.
Goblin Bombardment turns all your tokens into one-time instant speed damage, making board wipes against you fairly pointless.
Warstorm Surge means your creatures are guaranteed to do damage.
The first kind is the powerhouse player that knows he's a powerhouse and knows that he's going to get focused. These are the multiplayer Spikes. There's a few in my playgroup (plus one guy that has 1 powerhouse deck and the rest are pretty chill). These players don't get super mad if you focus them because either they recognize their own power, or they are confident that they can win regardless.
The second kind are the powerhouse players that don't want to admit that they are powerhouses. That was me for a while when I played my Azami or planeswalker super-friends decks. These are the guys that will get mad when they are focused, because they don't admit their deck's power. It's obnoxious, but if they rage, you'll just have to deal with it.
Now, as for proper "dealing with them" methods, you have to take into account the two different kinds of powerhouse deck endgames.
The first way is the player that alpha-strikes and wins early. This is usually due to some kind of combo, whether they are using Experiment Kraj to exile everyone's decks, or
Lich and Repay in Kind to make everyone's life 0, or Thraben Doomsayer and Intruder Alarm to have infinite tokens (all examples from my playgroup). If you find yourself unable to disrupt their combo, follow these two pointers.
Firstly, congratulate them on their win, then continue playing with them out of the game. Explain that, while they have won, the rest of you would like to determine second place, since there's still so much more game to play. If they want to complain about you playing without them, keep on telling them that you're just finishing the game and he can join in the next new game.
Secondly, after the game, look at your deck and figure out what you can add to disrupt the combo. Maybe running an extra Naturalize effect or two would give you a better chance of drawing it in time. Maybe running Fog will help you survive the alpha strike in time to Wrath of God the board. This is the harder of the two steps, but it's an essential part of morphing your deck to match the meta. Plus, once you can disrupt the combo, then he won't be winning so much, so you won't have to worry about focusing him as much.
Right. The second way a powerhouse wins is by overpowering control that drags the game out. This is how my powerhouse decks win, and let me tell you, once I starting thinking about it, I realized that it's obnoxious for me and my opponents. With these players, it's a lot less logical to just declare them the winner and keep playing. For these guys, it's more important than ever to look at your deck and see what you can add to stop them. If these are the players you have to deal with and they don't recognize that their decks are obnoxious and time-consuming, then your only recourse is to focus them, and when they complain about it, politely let them know that you were merely responding to their deck's late-game power in the most direct method possible: killing them before you got to the late game. If that doesn't work, make sure that the rest of your playgroup agrees with you concerning their deck's power and their attitude, then refuse to start a game with them. They should soon realize the reason why you won't play with them, and either change their deck or their attitude. And if they don't change their deck or their attitude, then hey! You aren't playing with them, so you won't have to focus them!
I can tell you that this method works (partially). One of the combo-only players in my meta made an aggro Boros deck after we brought his deck's obnoxiousness to light...repeatedly, and while he still plays the combo decks sometimes, he's been playing Boros a lot. When he started playing the deck, we did have to remind him that you can attack before turn 20.
Anyways, both of them pale in comparison to Volrath's Stronghold, which doesn't cost life or a card slot, but can only be used once per turn and it's REALLY EXPENSIVE compared to the other two.
Other people have covered creature mix, so here's some other cards you may want to make room for:
Deadbridge Chant: Self-mill and reanimation.
Debtors' Knell: Similar effect, but no self-mill and you can pull from any graveyard.
Anger and his buddies: Since you're going to be leaving creatures in your graveyard, let's let some of them be useful while they're there.
So this format was birthed at the Con-vergence sci-fi convention in Minneapolis, MN back in...2011, I think. The convention is the only place since that I've been able to play that format, but if you want to give it a go, then here's the rules!
Step 1: Make sure you have 7 people. This is a hard rule for DEQLA; the game can only be played with 7 people. If you want less, it can't be helped. If you want more, DEQLA 2 is the 8-player variant, and we haven't tested any higher player numbers.
Step 2: Understand the rules of Emperor. This is the Daily MTG article on the format; it's a bit wordy, but it explains it well enough. For those that want to see the nitty-gritty of the rules, they are here.
Step 3: Got Emperor down? Good. Now understand Archenemy. Luckily, unlike Emperor, there's an MTGSalvation wiki entry on it here.
Step 4: We're getting there, folks. It's time to brush up on your Planechase. This is the wiki page for it.
Step 5: Last one, guys. Time to tackle Vanguard, the oldest of the official casual formats. Find the wiki page here.
Step 6: Let's take a breather. While we do that, you may have noticed that I've been covering pretty much all the major casual variants. You, sir, are perceptive. The more perceptive among you may also have noticed that DEQLA is all caps, meaning it's an acronym. Well, you're still right, and we've already seen the E for Emperor and the A for Archenemy.
Step 7: But, Blees, you may be asking, there's no V or P in DEQLA. Why did you make us learn about Vanguard and Planechase?
Step 8: I'm glad you asked. Let's take a break from DEQLA and learn about the stand-alone casual format that grew into DEQLA as we know it:
Quantum Leap!
Here's how Quantum Leap works, complete with backstory. (A casual format with backstory? Unbelievable!)
We'll start with where the concept and the name came from. The TV show Quantum Leap follows Scott Bakula as he jumps into the lives of others, maintaining his mind but changing his body and his skills.
Now, the backstory of the actual format. So you (meaning the planeswalkers that represent the players) are pulled to the Caves of Koilos (where the Mightstone and the Meekstone were taken) by the sudden reopening of the portal that once led to Phyrexia. You find that you are able to manipulate this portal, but that it requires a physical presence to maintain the manipulated portal. Because of the nature of planewalker sparks, you realize that one of you can stay behind to control the portal, yet still send his spark through the portal, allowing it to temporarily reside in a host on the other side.
Right. Here's how the format works functionally. First, you are playing with Vanguard and Planechase simultaneously. Whenever you are the active player that causes a planeshift, you change your Vanguard card randomly. The generally accepted way to do this is to, after each player has their starting Vanguard card, set the others in a stack face down. When a player planeshifts and needs to change, you put your old card aside and take the next card off the top of the Vanguard stack. The "starting life total" part of the card doesn't do anything at this point, but the "maximum hand size" now applies, and may force you to discard cards at your cleanup step.
Step 9: That was a really long step, but that's where the QL comes from. We're ready to...start getting supplies.
Step 10: To properly play this format, you'll need lots of unique Vanguard cards (preferably the entire set of 32), at least one of the Archenemy scheme decks, and at least one of the Planechase plane decks. Our group used all 4 Planechase plane decks from one of the print runs shuffled together, along with any promos that came out around that time. We also crafted a custom Archemeny scheme deck, but if you choose that route, remember that it can only have 20 cards, and no more than 2 of any scheme.
Step 11: Got the supplies? Good. Now you need to divvy up the teams. Any fair way you can devise is fine, but you eventually need 2 teams of 3 and 1 team of 1.
Step 12: The teams of 3 are Emperor teams. The team of 1 is the Archenemy. Each player has a spell range and attack range of 1. Make sure your teams are seated properly, that is, the Emperor teams are seated next to their teammates with the Emperor in the middle, and the Archenemy is seated by himself, preferably on a better chair for effect.
Step 13: Victory conditions are as follows. If both Emperors are defeated, the Archenemy wins. If the Archenemy and one Emperor is defeated, the team with the surviving Emperor wins.
Step 14: We use a custom method for distributing the Vanguard cards fairly and semi-randomly. Deal 1 Vanguard card to each of the non-Archenemy players face down. They look at those cards, then decide, without revealing them, whether they want to keep them or not. If they keep it, they leave it face-down. If they don't, they reveal their card, it is placed to the side, and a new card is dealt to them face down. Once the second card has been dealt, they are stuck with it (until they planeshift, of course). Once everyone has a card they like or are stuck with, all players with cards reveal them. Now, the Archenemy, since his plans are incredibly nefarious, looks through all remaining Vanguard cards, including those discarded by the other players, and hand-picks his Vanguard card. Once chosen, he shuffles those that remain into a pile to prepare for when a new card is required from planeshifting.
Step 15: Everyone draws their starting hand, noting that their Vanguard card may change the hand size. We found that because of the large setup, Emperors should start at 20 life, as should their generals (plus or minus what their Vanguard card states). The Archenemy starts at 40. It could be higher, but the odd team dynamic allows him to survive at this lower life fairly well.
Step 16: The turn order begins with the Archenemy, who gets to draw for his first turn. The turn then progresses around whatever table setup you're using clockwise. Unlike true Archenemy, the Archenemy's opponents do not play simultaneously.
Step 17: The standard rules of Archenemy apply, as far as when schemes are put into motion. The same thing goes for Planechase, as far as rolling the plane die and doing their effects, with the added rule of changing Vanguard cards when you planeshift.
Step 18: As the clearly predetermined victor, the Archenemy is tasked with making his eventual subjects lives easier for the moment. That means he is in charge of maintaining the Vanguard cards and issuing new ones when the rules of Quantum Leap demand it, as well as the planes deck.
Step 19: Play! If you want to be silly and play EDH, make sure you double the starting life totals and change the name of the format to DEQLAE.
The full name of the format is Double Emperor Quantum Leap Archenemy, btw. In practice, I've found that despite having all these casual formats and extra oversized cards thrown into the mix, players are able to follow everything fairly easily. The addition of temporary teamwork to the standard Archenemy gameplay can result in allies turning on each other before the Archenemy is defeated if they feel they will lose once the Archenemy is gone.
This format isn't for everyone, since it does require practically all the WotC-issued oversized casual cards. But if you can set it up, it will be the craziest multiplayer game you've ever seen. If you have the time for multiple games, letting each player try the massively different playstyles of the different roles will show you just how many different ways you can play Magic in a single game.
1. Turn 4 8/8 Deus of Calamity, start wrecking faces.
2. Played Prime Speaker Zegana for 6 cards, copied it with Sakashima's Student for 7 cards, realized afterwards that Nekusar, the Mindrazer was in play.
3. I watched a guy who had the board on a Cyclonic Rift lock lose to Bosh, Iron Golem. He cast and flung Bosh THREE TIMES in one turn.
4. Note to anyone considering Timesifter: don't let anyone copy it. Having 2 in play makes the game really weird.
5. You haven't truly lived until you've played a 3-hour four player game that ended when you milled someone out with...Thought Dissector for 3.
While you may have won Magic forever, there's another way to do that that requires one less Donate:
Notion Thief, donate the Notion Thief, Consecrated Sphinx.
Downside: you'll probably lose as many points as your opponent will, since you're both part of the combo. Upside: you get to make all the decisions that kill your opponent by choosing to draw cards whenever he draws cards...over and over again.
With a good defense up, you can afford to use your opponents as your offense. If you end up playing Bant, you have access to Edric, Spymaster of Trest, one of the best attack deterrents. Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer is another good one, since it both deters attacks and becomes a politics tool as well.
If you go the Doran way, you can have High Priest of Penance.
Emeria Angel gives you some good survivability while scaling into your ridiculous combo end-game, if you can manage it.
Seer's Sundial gives you another Mind's Eye-type effect, but for a fraction of the real-money card cost.
Lifegift can help early.
What I would tailor the deck towards is token-style (I know, a Selesnya deck that uses tokens. How original). It gives you a decent presence early, and your late-game will be played similarly with Emeria Angel and Avenger of Zendikar anyways. In addition, the tokens would allow you to play cards like Soul Warden and her sisters to give yourself even more survivability.
Oh, and you should play Erratic Portal. In rare cases, it will allow you to bounce a troublesome opposing creature, but in most cases, you bounce your own creature back to your hand unless you pay 1 (which you don't, of course) and then you can play it again.