My last article was about my small four-man group and some of the current tool-box style decks I like to run. However, to put in bluntly, my decks are kind of expensive. My one deck ran forty rares! It's just very tough for me to make a fun deck and not decide on a card because I've gone over some arbitrary rare quota. In my last article, I made a comment that many of the rares are worth the money because they are staple group game cards that can be played in almost any deck of the appropriate color.
This article expands upon the idea of “staple” group game cards which I think are worth the investment. Since most groups allow almost any card from any legal format, I have reviewed all of the rare cards from the very beginning of Magic. There aren't many cards from the dawn of Magic (pre-4th edition) or from recent sets. Even somewhat playable cards from Legends are expensive, so I'm not here to recommend buying a $10 card for a $1 effect. The same is true for the most recent expansions, since they're still in high demand from both the casual and tournament Magic player and haven't stabilized in price enough for me to recommend them as a value buy.
The cards that do make the list are mostly from this middle time period (circa 1995 - 2004), where the cards are popular enough that you can find them, but have prices stable enough so you know what to expect if you want to buy them this year and sell them next year. I have also purposely tried to stay away from cards in hot demand by the current Extended/Legacy/Standard tournament scene. There are always exceptions to the rules, but overall, I think my picks will reflect these criteria.
I have listed ten cards alphabetically for each color (including artifacts, land and gold cards) and included comments for each. Enjoy.
White:
Balance (restricted)
Commander Eesha
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
Eternal Dragon
Glory
Hand of Justice
Orim, Samite Healer
Pristine Angel
Pulse of the Fields
Rout
Comments:
In multiplayer games, White normally fills one of four key roles in a deck: Protection, global creature removal, large fat flyers, and life gain. What I looked for is cost-effective cards that fill these roles . Eight-and-a-Half-Tails, Orim, Samite Healer, and Glory are good protection cards, Balance and Rout are very good at mass creature removal (and Balance is half the cost of Wrath of God), Eternal Dragon and Pristine Angel are good utility flyers, and Pulse of the Fields is a great life-gain card.
As for the remaining cards, Commander Eesha and Hand of Justice (which has been very easy to trade for lately) are just good creatures for the cost.
Blue:
Bribery
Desertion/Spelljack
Gilded Drake
Misdirection
Rainbow Efreet
Sakashima the Impostor
Stroke of Genius
Time Spiral (restricted)
Tradewind Rider
Treachery
Comments:
These Blue cards all have the common theme of "undercosted power." Now that R&D is reining in the power level of blue (and redistributing some of its older abilities to other colors), many of the cards listed above will never be printed at such a cheap cost again. In Tempest and Urza Block, Blue was insane, abusing the “free” ("untap lands after you cast this spell") and buyback mechanic better than any of the other colors. Even Blue's creatures back then were good, with great utility cards and finishers like Tradewind Rider, Morphling, Gilded Drake. These cards may cost you $5-$10 each (or a good Type 2 rare in trade) — but when you understand there will probably never by anything like them again, having just that one copy to bounce around between your decks is great.
Besides the old stuff to keep a look out for, I have also included the
"counter and steal" cards (Desertion/Spelljack), the best misdirection spell (Misdirection, obviously) and a couple of good, difficult-to-kill creatures (Sakashima is a poor man's Vesuvan Doppleganger, and Rainbow Efreet is an annoying little creature to play against). Bribery is a very annoying card (and is a debatable choice, since many groups hate it), but it is currently extremely easy to get since it didn't get reprinted in Ninth Edition, and when it's not Standard-legal, it's not as valuable.
Black:
Decree of Pain
Demonic Tutor (restricted)
Gravepact
Hecatomb
Living Death
Mortivore
Thrashing Wumpus
Visara, the Dreadful
Will-o'-the-Wisp
Yawgmoth's Will (restricted)
Comments:
Unlike Blue, Black's rares are incredibly deep and redundant in their ability to do a few things in group games very well. Black Trick Number One is mass creature destruction (oftentimes with a pleasant bonus), Black Trick Number Two is creatures with great triggered or activated abilities, and Black Trick Number Three is "fun with graveyard recursion."
Many of the cards on my list have a similar card that's as almost as good. Decree of Pain has Dregs of Sorrow or Mutilate, Visara has Royal Assassin or Avatar of Woe, and Gravepact has Call to the Grave. However there are two restricted cards on the list that do not have backups: Demonic Tutor and Yawgmoth's Will. Although Yawgmoth's Will is a fairly pricey card, you know it's a card that will always be the best at what it does. The same is true for Demonic Tutor (which is half the cost of Diabolic Tutor). Investing in these cards isn't a loss of any money, since they will almost surely keep their value.
My last comment about the Black selections is there a few extremely good cards in Kamigawa block which are locks to make the list once they are priced accordingly. Kokusho, the Evening Star and Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni are absolutely amazing in group games. I think once both rotate out of Standard next year, their price will fall (although Kokusho will always be fairly high) so keep an eye out to get at least one or two for your decks if your don't have them by 2007.
Red:
Avatar of Fury
Bloodfire Colossus
Goblin Sharpshooter
Godo, Bandit Warlord
Insurrection
Obliterate
Shivan Hellkite
Starstorm
Sulfuric Vortex
Urza's Rage
Comments:
Red is probably the most aggressive color in multiplayer Magic. It's hard to maintain your “be quiet, and hope no one picks on me” strategy when you play Red, since the spells and creatures definitely draw attention to themselves. Like Black, its spells and creatures over the past five or six blocks have been fairly redundant. There are big fat dragons, global “blow-up-the-world” cards and weird “through all permanents in a pile” type stuff. I tried to go through and pick the best of the best, but by no means do you have to have Obliterate when Jokulhaups will do, or possess an Avatar of Fury when Shivan Dragon is still pretty good, or take a Starstorm over Earthquake, or windmill-slam a Shivan Hellkite when there's Kumano, Master Yamabushi in your hand.
A couple of rather unique cards on the list include Goblin Sharpshooter, Insurrection, Godo, Bandit Warlord and Sulfuric Vortex. All of these cards are very good to own, and offer unique effective ways to win magic group games. I like Sulfuric Vortex in particular, just because every now and then a player in your group will go with the “gain a ton of life” route and make your games last three hours. Having this card handy really helps this situation.
Green:
Biorhythm
Forgotten Ancient
Genesis
Magnigoth Treefolk
Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
Seedborn Muse
Silklash Spider
Tranquil Grove
Ursapine
Verdant Force
Honorable Mention:
Primal Order
Comments:
It's not surprising given that this is Green, but eight of the ten spots on the list are creatures. I understand there are some very interesting and unique enchantments in Green over the years, especially cards that allow manipulation of your draw step. There are just so many that no single card jumped out at me to include on the list. I figure some may disagree, but it's my call.
But we shouldn't disagree on Green's efficiency when it comes to creatures. In particular there have been a few printed over the years seemingly meant for group games. Verdant Force (each upkeep), Forgotten Ancient (each spell cast) and Multani (total cards in all hands) just get that much better with four, five, and six opponents. I had a debate between Silklash Spider and Arashi, The Sky Asunder (which I think is one of the coolest names ever), but the Spider is cheaper and can actually block fliers. If you have an Arashi, though, it's not much of a power level change to use him instead.
Biorhythm is a questionable call, but it's an extremely unique and game-changing ability that can't be overlooked. Like Insurrection in Red, eight mana seems to be the windfall for some insane game-breaking effects in multiplayer games.
I listed my only “honorable mention” in this color because there probably isn't a more annoying card sometimes than Primal Order (Back to Basics is similar, but a lot more expensive). If your group is like many out there, the table is full of dual lands and special lands — and with the new duals from Ravnica, expect even more multi-colored decks and nonbasic lands floating around. But you shouldn't expect a lot of friends (at least for the rest of the night) if you win this way.
Artifacts:
Darksteel Colossus
Duplicant
Gilded Lotus
Ivory Tower
Mind's Eye
Myr Matrix
Oblivion Stone
Platinum Angel
Staff of Domination
Sword of Fire and Ice
Comments:
Although I shouldn't be surprised, I still can't believe how much this list is dominated by Mirrodin Block cards: nine out of ten. Believe me, I tried to find others. Legacy Weapon is pretty good, but the necessity of playing with five colors didn't make it seem like an artifact (and it certainly lowers its "throw it into every deck" factor). Coat of Arms is an obvious choice — but that's a card I've always considered overpriced to start with, so why would I recommend trading for one?
The one nice thing about all the Mirrodin Block cards is they are cheap. With the block just rotating out of Standard, all of these cards are either going down in value. As with all my picks, I'm trying to find unique, cost effective abilities that apply to many decks. Obviously there are a plethora of artifact cards that have insanely strong abilities, but many require certain decks or combos to abuse and use effectively. Hopefully, my list is a broader selection of artifacts that can easily fit into your deck at home without gutting the whole thing and starting over.
Equipment is a good example of finding something that can fit in most decks, but was difficult to choose. Wizards R&D undercosted a lot of equipment cards. Most are playable and even the poor equipment abilities are much better than equivalent creature enchantments. I selected Sword of Fire and Ice as my one equipment on the list, but there are plenty of exceptional selections (and a lot cheaper to get).
(You forgot the can't-miss Sol Ring, though — The Ferrett)
Land:
Arena
Contested Cliffs
Dust Bowl
Kjeldoran Outpost
Kor Haven
Shivan Gorge
Thawing Glaciers
Volrath's Stronghold
Yavimaya Hollow
Comments:
I have tried each of these lands in recent group game decks. Three of Wizards' “mega-mega-cycle” legendary lands make it (Volrath's Stronghold, Yavimaya Hollow and Kor Haven). There are also the two Arena style cards (Arena and Contested Cliffs) which I think are very useful in certain situations. I purposely left off any man-lands, because there are quite a few good ones to choose from in the uncommon slot.
Note that every color is represented by at least one land on the list except blue. You'd think since blue was so broken in the past, Wizards would have printed one land that was insane, but the closest you'll get is Soldevi Excavations, which I considered including as my tenth selection (it is only a $1 probably), but its ability is pretty weak (I don't like the "sacrifice an island" part either).
(I'm not sure whether he's purposely ignoring Tolarian Academy, or is invoking the "exclude cards that need too many support cards to work effectively" rule. It's true you either need to build a deck around it or have heavy Power Nine stuff – The Ferrett)
Multi-Colored Cards:
Fiery Justice
Mirari's Wake
Pernicious Deed
Phantom Nishoba
Shadowmage Infiltrator
Sol'Kanar the Swamp King
Soltari Guerrillas
Vindicate
Spinal Embrace
Crosis, Darigaaz, Dromar, Rith, and Treva (Dragon Legends)
Comments:
Gold cards were very difficult to select, because Ravnica has thrown me a curveball. I wanted to list many from the new set (I'm as excited about the new cards as anyone), but I would be breaking my rule of bargain shopping (most Ravnica singles are at their peak right now). Obviously, if you're buying and trading for Ravnica regardless of price, there are great selections to keep an eye out for (I particularly like Dimir Doppleganger and Vulturous Zombie).
The cards I do list offer extremely good abilities at much reduced cost as compared to mono-colored choices. Again, I look for creatures with some evasion or way to damage opponents (the creatures above either have fear, flying, trample, shadow or landwalk). Vindicate and Pernicious Deed fall into the “great ability for their cost” that I have a feeling will never be duplicated, so investing in the added cost to purchase or trade for a couple is worth it. Fiery Justice is a fun card in group games, because it's extremely flexible while providing a little politics with the life gain.
Whew — that's it! If you've stuck with me thus far, I appreciate the interest and hope my lists offered at least one or two ideas (or additions) to your multi-player decks. Please feel free to debate or suggest cards I missed in the forums. I will be checking frequently, and I'm very curious what other people consider good cards for the investment - especially from the casual gaming group. Please remember I kept the list to Rare cards only; I know that there are plenty of gems in the uncommons and commons. I also tried not to include combo cards, or cards that need too many support cards to work effectively.
To reiterate the main point of the article, there are plenty of great group game cards out there at very reasonable costs. I am amazed at how many people complain I play with “broken” cards in my decks, when most of them cost much less than the Pithing Needles, Umezawa's Jittes, and Chars in their Standard decks.
Part of the real fun of multiplayer is finding the diamonds out of all the choices you are given. Just adapting your Standard deck is really taking the lazy way out. If you take the time and actually look through the older cards, you'll find plenty of choices that are better and cheaper than what you're playing now.
Joel Christman
Delaware, USA
deljzc@comcast.net
deljzc on MTGO
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