MTG Salvation

Quote from d0su »

Top 5 is too many... here is my top 1 for each color, from decks past and present:

Goblin Lore
Dimensional Breach (Man I wish I had a home for this card)
Life from the Loam
Gifts Ungiven (I know)
Necropotence
Static Orb

Looking at this list I think I just like card advantage that is mechanically interesting.

One of my previous playmates used dimensional breach in a blinky rampy rasputin dreamweaver deck where it put in pretty good work. Kind of a pricey commander these days though (I think it's like...#4 behind angus, hazezon, and sliver queen?).

EDIT: Lady Sun is also in the running.

Hmm, fun idea. Here are my initial thoughts after going through some of my decklists, although to really be sure I'd need to look through all my cards. Which takes a while.

In no particular order...

White
Orzhov Advokist - I've become a true believer in this card. Getting to know in advance who's going to attack you, plus giving them a good reason not to, is excellent politically, and it doesn't draw removal like ghostly prison etc.
Pulsemage Advocate - ___mage advocate cycle is a great cycle in general, but resurrection is definitely the most powerful effect of the bunch. The real value is in being able to recur exactly what your opponents need to counter your other opponents, though.
Tragic Arrogance - So satisfying to pick exactly the permanents you want, and none of the permanents your opponents want. Amazing one-sided-ish board wipe at a reasonable cost.
Council's Judgement - depending on board state, this can kill 2 permanents a decent percentage of the time. the politics are just really amusing.
Austere Command - A great, flexible board wipe. Not much else to say.

Blue
Telepathy - Oh man I love this card. I've gone into it at length in my Phelddagrif primer, but suffice to say that this effect is wildly, wildly underrated in commander.
Intuition - So many ways to play this card - stack it with recursion, put your three best bombs in there, or play some politics to convince other players to give you what you want. Plus it's an instant-speed to-hand tutor. Gotta love that.
Disallow - As much as I like the higher powered mana drain and lower-commitment FoW, disallow is my favorite counterspell. Whatever you're doing...no.
Search for Azcanta - I love the flip lands way too much. Search isn't my favorite of them, but it's still just great incremental value.
Dig Through Time - My favorite draw spell in the game. Pulling out the answer you need, at instant-speed, is so sweet.

Black
Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed - Unblockable, gives recursion that black ought not have...and that p3k flavor. Gotta love it.
Corpse Dance - Buyback is kind of gross, but I love the nonsense you can pull off with this card. Grave order matters was super cool too, even if it's a pain in the butt.
Head Games - Another hilarious political card. You can just blank an enemy hand, but it's way funnier to give them the tools to kill another player for you.
Demonic Tutor - Not the most exciting spell, but it goes in every black deck I've ever built. Gotta respect that.
Liliana, Heretical Healer - spiciest design of the flip walkers, imo. All of her abilities are super cool, and I like the flavor of the card the most as well.

Red
Reiterate - Having this in your hand really does feel amazing. It turns so many annoying effects on their heads. Buyback of consistent effects can be boring, but when it's dependent on other factors, like this, it gets way more fun.
Diaochan, Artful Beauty - Being able to take out multiple enemy creatures with one tap is hilarious. The biggest weakness is that stupid timing restriction. Really ruins a lot of the p3k cards for me, sadly.
Grenzo, Havoc Raiser - Stealing is great, chaos is great, choices are great, low-cost value engines are great. Plus he keeps making your attacks safer by forcing the enemy elsewhere.
Zirilan of the Claw - one of my oldest decks. Dragons generally don't excite me, but ripping them into play at instant speed makes them way more fun. You can exercise a surprising amount of control over the game with this little viashino.
Karplusan Minotaur - This one doesn't see much play, but it's a really funny card. Getting to conspire to demolish someone's board state one ping at a time is hilarious.

Green
Life from the Loam - I love hitting land drops, and I like treating my utility lands as permanent resources, so being able to find them more often and keep them alive is a big win. Not to mention the synergy with cycling can get really out of hand, and even simple fetch lands make sure you get great value every time you cast this.
Exploration - for some reason, this feels better than burgeoning to me. Not sure why. Being able to play two lands per turn always feels awesome to me.
Beast Within - not the most exciting, but I love flexible removal, and beast within is amazing at what it does.
Sylvan Library - I never liked forced draw like phyrexian arena as much as optional draw like this. If you're low on cards, fill 'er up. If you're not, no problem, enjoy some selection. And choices are always nice to have, and this provides a lot for just two mana.
Pir's Whim - This card really packs in the value. I love nonbasic land tutoring, and the option to play nice with other players who are behind is a nice bonus.

Land
Arch of Orazca - I'm amazed at how much I like this effect. It's pricey, but it really does a great job at keeping you topped up when you're playing a deck that's planning to wipe the board frequently.
Scavenger Grounds - Finally a great graveyard control card in a utility land. This has gotten tons of play in my decks since it came out, and it's always been fantastic.
Thespian's Stage - Clones are great, flexible clones are even better, and utility lands are the bees knees. There's a lot of things I like about this card.
Kor Haven - Amazingly good at keeping people off your back, and all it costs is one utility land slot. Highly underrated imo.
Fetch lands - I love having reliable mana, and I love showing off my duals, and these do both those things. They also provide a free shuffle and the option to recur or delve for value, which I also love doing.

Multicolor
Sunforger - this felt like my little secret when it first came out. Since then it's gotten a lot more popular in the format and is a known powerful card, but I still love the feeling of sitting on it, knowing how many situations I have the perfect answer to, thanks to this bad boy.
Mirrorweave - The relative simplicity of this card really belies just how many options it gives you. There are some really cool, gross things you can pull off if you use this at the right time, on the right target.
Phelddagrif - Obviously this was going to be here. Master of politics and the most underrated commander in the format. Bow down to your hippo overlord.
Kaya, Ghost Assassin - When this came out I was immediately blown away by the design. The -1 and -2 are fine, run of the mill abilities (though the CA on the -2 is pretty solid) but the 0 is just genius. Being able to play a planeswalker that is functionally invincible for the first turn, so you can follow it up with a board wipe, feels amazing in a format where keeping planeswalkers alive for extended periods can be tough, and the 0 is also shockingly good at dealing with enemy board states as well. And she doesn't do any of that stupid annoying stuff with doubling season, proliferate, etc.
#1 planeswalker for me, for sure.
Path of Mettle - This is such a cool flip land. The condition is very tough, but when it flips it's so sweet. Do they attack? Well prepare to get punished, and no you don't get to know which creature to protect before its destroyed. Do they hold back? Then chip in that free damage.

Artifact
Mirage Mirror - I didn't love this at first, but after playing with it I'm a huge fan. This is another card that really pays you off for knowing the board state and seeing the angles, and that's what I came into magic for.
Primal Amulet - this is probably the funnest minigame of the flip lands - my favorite trick is triggering the last counter off a board wipe that would have destroyed it. And the actual land is very cool too.
Crucible of Worlds - I don't love it as much as life from the loam, but it does play very nicely with exploration and fetch lands. Playing stuff from the grave is cooler than reanimating it or returning it to your hand first - don't ask me why, I don't know.
Umezawa's Jitte - I think this is a bit overrated in terms of threat level, but it's still a very cool card. Being able to rack up counters even without great attacks, and then deploy those counters whenever desired is awesome. You're just storing up change in your piggy bank to buy yourself some huge tempo later.
Thaumatic Compass - Yet another flip land. Maze is a fine card, but I hate trading a land drop for it. Now, you don't need to play it as your land for turn, it taps for mana as well, and it generates value in a great way, flipping when you probably don't need that value anymore anyway. Great design.