Not Creature? THEN DIE!
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 111 | 56 COMMENTS | 21580 VIEWS | IN 69 FOLDERS
I finally done did it... —June 12, 2025
...and by that I mean "set whimsy/sentimentality to the wayside" and cut some pet cards that have been kicking around this list since time immemorial: the last few years of Magic product releases have for whatever reason - the whole "it is always spoiler season!!!" probably had something to do with it, alongside particular WotC decisions + them continuing to endlessly release exactly the sort of cards I otherwise would collect resulting in my no longer having any real desire to collect them - have passed by in a bit of a blur, where I wasn't really paying the best attention to new set releases and their content (to the point where despite definitely knowing about it initially I had just "memory-holed the entire existence of Bloomburrow" for a bit, then later had that "...oh yeah! THAT came out!" realization).
Having now exited that fugue state and having gone back to pore over and actually properly read various sets (some of which I'd basically skipped entirely reading at all because "Commander product"), I've belated realized a bunch of cards exist and that I should play them: not a single one of those are cards I just put into this deck though, ha ha!
No, these ones I just cut some of my pet cards to make room for are all cards I did know about, but had sort of glossed over/not really thought properly about and then, because I was making revisions to other decks to account for cards I straight up did not realize ever existed at all (or if I was aware of them, managed to not form any lasting memory of them), I re-encountered these cards that I did at least know existed, but had never given proper consideration to/contemplated axing spots that sacred cows occupied on the list to include them; whimsy & sentimentality were, I was forced to acknowledge, holding me back from playing with some cards that are hella rad (in the parlance of the youth who are now "being called boomers by the actual youth").
- Boseiju, Who Endures
- I should have been running this for just ages and the funny bit is that I literally already owned the copy I just swapped in... but it was in a binder of the sort of various cards that I collect "to have in a binder" for art treatment/non-standard card frame reasons, along with the rest of that cycle, also in full-art & foil, and I think that at the time I just didn't feel like buying a 2nd copy because the associated price tag "is not low". WotC managing to stamp out my obsession with collecting stuff via just overwhelming me with too much to collect though allowed me to shout down/ignore the internal voice insisting I couldn't just take the game piece I already own out of the binder it was inside of to use it because it was "the binder copy" however, so now it is in a more useful place where I still get to look at it because it is in a deck that I play (I did of course still move a random other borderless card I'd collected into its spot though, because "the binder was full"). - Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest - I saw this during/after spoiler season, in that space where I skimmed through the card list & special art treatments of Bloomburrow right before I then somehow memory-holed the entire existence of the set for a while, and I believe my thoughts were "oh hey, a bird dragon" and that the borderless treatment "looked cool"; I probably did actually read what it did, but clearly not well enough or with the presence of mind to properly work through the ramifications of what the ETB & attack trigger would look like, in a deck just rammed full of creatures that tick the particular criteria it checks for (else I'd have found a home for it sooner).
- Muerra, Trash Tactician - While I was likewise "at least broadly aware it existed" I really don't think I ever properly read what this card did at all, beyond thinking "aww, what a silly raccoon; the art in this set is adorable". I have subsequently actually read what the card does, and what the card does has me seriously contemplating finding a way to incorporate "more raccoons" (boy is that not a sentence I ever expected I would one day be typing, about Magic: The Gathering).
- Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth
Flip - Now this one I definitely did know about and even knew what it did/contemplated running it... but I don't remember why I originally ruled it out, until I was reminded of its existence recently and had that "oh right! THAT card: why aren't I playing that?" reaction to it, which is why I'm playing it now.
- Vaultborn Tyrant - I never seriously contemplated incorporating this when I first became aware it existed - I do remember thinking that it was cool though - but upon reexamination I have concluded that past me "was crazy" because the Tyrant "is bonkers good".
