More people should be playing these
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Aug. 1, 2019, 2:36 p.m. by griffstick
More people should be playing
They all feel like they are breaking the rules of magic in some way. At some point in your lgs or your group of friends someone had pointed at and said that one on those cards are busted.
Champion of Rhonas cheats creatures into play just by attacking. That's cheating of mana cost.
Elvish Piper cheats creatures into play for only green tap. Again cheating of mana cost is very busted.
Blade of Selves makes in most edh games up to 3 copies of the equip creature. That crazy good. Its repeatable too. Imagine that on Terrastadon.
And like the blade of selves, Helm of the Host let's you break the rules of the legendary rule. WOTC started putting legendary on creatures because they were to strong in formats where you can have up to 4 copies of the same card in a deck. Such as for example Brimaz, King of Oreskos , this card was super strong in its block but making it legendary made it fair in its block. So back to Helm of the Host , the card does things in magic that were never intended to happen. Especially in Cmdr. Mirror Gallery does a similar effect. I'm sure wizards of the coast didn't think that they'd see a gidion equipped with helm of the host when designing helm of the host.
Lastly Mirage Mirror the fact that this card is like 2 bucks says alot about how many people are playing this card. The card does so man amazing things. Your opponent has the Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play. Mirrage mirror, boom! You also have that much mana now. Your opponent is doing busted things with urza? Boom mirrage mirror, now you can do busted things with urza too. Is that a Gaea's Cradle ? Boom mirrage mirror, me too. Want to get more value out of a card in play like Sunbird's Invocation ? Boom mirrage mirror. I think you get the point.
Are these cards underplayed in Cmdr? Sho6more people be playing these cards in cmdr? What are some other cards that people should be playing in cmdr? Did I miss any underrepresented cards in Cmdr that people should be playingm
Honestly the card I'm surprised not to see more in decks is Spellbook . It's a 0 drop artifact that ensures you no maximum hand size. Plus it counts as an noncreature artifact spell for decks that have effects for those.
August 1, 2019 3:09 p.m.
I mean, the thing with all the cards you stated other than Helm of the Host is they're only as great as what else you have and they're only really situational.
Elvish Piper and Champion of Rhonas are only amazing if you're looking to get creature from your hand into play. That's not great if you're playing something like Muldrotha, the Gravetide .
Blade of Selves and Mirage Mirror both rely on either your stuff or your opponents stuff. Blade of Selves can be degenerate if you have the right card to pair it with, but otherwise it's lacking. Mirage Mirror falls into the category of clones: it only work out well if your opponent is playing huge jank.
Helm is almost always good if you have a good commander. But that's about it.
August 1, 2019 3:36 p.m.
Blade of Selves works nicely with Reyhan, Last of the Abzan . The copies come in to play with the counters. The copies get sacrificed and the counters can be moved thanks to Reyhan, Last of the Abzan ability.
August 1, 2019 4:22 p.m.
SynergyBuild says... #6
dbpunk and a lot of commanders don't work with Helm of the Host . Take many voltron commanders, like Uril, the Miststalker , you can only enchant up one effectively, as the enchantments are honestly best when in a massive pile, but with Helm, you just get some nearly useless 5/5s with hexproof. Other commanders, like all of the walker commanders, many of the Theros block gods, and a few others can rarely have them attached in the first place.
Eminence commanders often don't hit the field to be doubled up on, and a ton are just kind of useless in multiples Feather, the Redeemed just gives you more 3/4s with flying, you don't get any other benefit than if you just had one. Brago, King Eternal may seem fun, until you realize if you get multiple triggers since you have to target them on both at the same time, when one resolves, the other will fizzle. Jodah, New Sisay, and a lot of others are just extra bodies, kind of useless.
Again, none of these cards are bad, they just are specific, and none of them are underplayed.
August 1, 2019 5:03 p.m.
Megalomania says... #7
I’m not sure if these are underused cards but i’ve always looked at Chain of Smog and Words of Wind as cards that have great potential in Commander. Chain can be used in Muldothra, Gitrog and similar decks while Words of Wind seems like a great stax/control piece in general.
August 1, 2019 6:16 p.m.
That's also a good point. Although some of them work out well having multiples to protect them, but even then it's an interesting addition in any deck, but not always the best.
August 1, 2019 6:16 p.m.
griffstick: My issue with a lot of these is that they lend themselves to big creature beats strategies. So if you're not playing this, the extra value you generate is less than the rest of the cards in the deck. And I'm saything this even though I'm running Helm of the Host in one of my decks (almost entirely as a combo engine).
Don't get me wrong, they're not bad cards, but they feel a lot more situationally specific than this post would lead me to believe.
August 1, 2019 7:32 p.m.
griffstick says... #10
Everyone made good points. You've all changed my opinion on all of these cards. Like most of you believe that they are good but not great. Except in the right deck.
August 2, 2019 1:34 a.m.
SynergyBuild says... #11
griffstick as with nearly all cards. Even incredible ones like Sol Ring or Mana Crypt , they aren't run in the best Animar lists, because they need so much colored mana.
August 2, 2019 7:58 a.m.
ScionsStillLive says... #13
I don't really know if people play that card a lot or not since I'm not a big fan of commander (that rule of one type of card per deck except basic lands is annoying).
SynergyBuild says... #2
Nope, all of these cards are very fair. Piper and Champio nrequires no opponents to mess with them over a course of a turn cycle, while being 4 mana a piece, and only getting cards from hand, and only creatures. Thran Temporal Gateway and Quicksilver Amulet will often beat either of these, but obviously each to their own.
Mirage Mirror is a colorless Clever Impersonator that requires payment each turn, and can't get ETB effects. That is really fair too.
Helm of the Host is where it starts getting more busted, but only because of Godo, Bandit Warlord , where you spend 5 mana, instead of an ungodly 9. The whole deck is built to abuse it, where in most lists, you spend 9 mana, and in response to equip someone Swords to Plowshares the creature, Wear / Tear 's the helm, or you spend 4 and they counter it. It is just incredibly slow and most a bad card, some usage, but still not underplayed.
Blade of Selves is also actually possibly the weakest. In most decks, this card is either win-more, like the Terastodon scenario, or is useless, as with most commander-based decks, legendary will mostly remove the usage of this card. Additionally, attacking with a value etb creature, making copies, etc. will only put the original etb creature in harms way, not necessarily that good of an idea.
Can these card be decent? Sure. Are they seeing a ton of play? No, but that doesn't make them underplayed, they are appropriately played.
August 1, 2019 2:51 p.m.