I started looking for the top 5 multiplayer creatures by looking at my own multiplayer deck.
It included:
It was at this point that I realized that I am a Bad Person. I’m the Blue Mage in my group, and they don’t grumble about my decks because they’re jealous, but because my decks really are obnoxious.
It was clear that I’d have to find some other criteria to answer this question. Specifically, what do I want out of creatures when playing multiplayer?
Card Advantage Is Good
The first thing that comes to mind is Card Advantage. When Geordie Tait and company were arguing about card advantage last year, my group discussed it a bit in terms of multiplayer: we came to the conclusion that if you play an Akroma, Angel of Wrath, and I cast Swords to Plowshares, everyone else at the table is +1 CA.
With that sort of math, nothing short of a Contract from Below is going to get you enough card advantage to stay even, but the goal is to be less behind than everyone else. Fortunately, some creatures can recoup card advantage every turn. Shadowmage Infiltrator (along with Ophidian and Thieving Magpie) draws a card every time it hits your opponent. As long as you can get it through, you’re whittling their life down and gaining cards. Benalish Heralds act as a significant defender, while also letting you draw cards whenever you’ve got the mana open. Genesis recursion can be very powerful in multiplayer - and something like Grim Lavamancer, or Kiku, Night’s Flower provide other ways to get card advantage turn after turn.
Of course you don’t always need to wait for summoning sickness to wear off. Flametongue Kavu does his damage on the way in, and then provides a significant threat to anyone without adequate defenses. Boneshredder can act as Dark Banishing and a wall for a turn, or you can keep it around for the evasion. Mask of Memory, anyone? Other cards in this vein include Viridian Shaman and Solemn Simulacrum.
The point is not that card advantage is good, but that it’s even more important in multiplayer, particularly if it’s reusable.
Please Don’t Wrath
Another thing I would like from my creatures is for mass removal not to make me cry. Clearly this can be accomplished by not over committing to the board, but there are a variety of other ways to make Wrath of God better for you than for other people. The dragons from Kamigawa immediately spring to mind - although the Red, Blue and Green ones lose a lot of their threat if the whole board is empty. Yosei, the Morning Star can at least punish whoever cast the Wrath, and rumor has it that whatever creature finishes off that cycle might be okay, too. Academy Rector and Yavimaya Elder are other creatures in this category.
Another option would just be to dodge the removal. Blinking Spirit is the original, though Anurid Brushhopper and Hikari, Twilight Guardian spring to mind. Regenerating creatures survive some Wrath effects, and manlands can continue to attack as long as they weren’t animated. A personal favorite is Wormfang Drake, because a quick 3/4 flyer is nothing to sneeze at, and he’ll leave a threat on a (hopefully) empty board.
That Does What?
I also like creatures that change the way the board works. Shortly after Champions came out, I was sitting behind a Samurai of the Pale Curtain, and one of my friends had a Jens he wanted to turn into a card. He remembered Bushido, and so swung into the Samurai - assuming, correctly, that I’d block. This was not the strongest play.
The Samurai also shuts down a few of the other cards we’ve talked about. Dosan the Falling Leaf always makes me cringe and Ascendant Evincar can give some decks fits. It’s also worth pointing out Windborn Muse and Kira, Great Glass Spinner, both of which encourage your opponents to look in some other direction.
The Right Tool For the Job
Sometimes creatures just do the job better than anything else. Withered Wretch is a great way to deal with graveyards, which can always come in handy. Carrion Feeder gives you something to do with your creatures when they die, Thornscape Apprentice can lock down a creature, or make yours harder to block - and if you want to redirect abilities, Willbender is just about your only option.
Another thing that creatures are good at is being threatening. I’ve always scorned the creature rush in multiplayer, but a recent Genju of the Cedars attacking on turn 2 went a long way to changing my mind. Similarly, if Exalted Angel stays out very long you are going to be in a much better position than you were. It’s usually good to have some sort of built-in protection, like Iridescent Angel or Quicksilver Dragon - but sometimes they just won’t have the Terror or Counterspell, and getting to swing for four or five damage adds up pretty quickly, even in multiplayer.
We Are Playing Multiplayer!
Finally, some of the best multiplayer creatures get better the more people there are. Many of these are Green - such as Seedborn Muse, Verdant Force, Multani, Maro-Sorcerer or Forgotten Ancient - but other colors can play too. Rumor has it that there’s a black dragonish thing from Champions who fits the bill - maybe The Ferrett can remind me?
Clearly, there is some overlap between these categories, and some of the concepts are a bit vague, but these are the guiding principles which I used to select the five best multiplayer cards.
#5: Kira, Great Glass Spinner.
With Kira out, almost all of your opponents' removal is more difficult to use, which means that it will be pointed somewhere else. It’s not that they can’t kill your guys - just that it’s easier to look elsewhere.
I may be overvaluing her slightly since I’ve only played a few games, but Kira’s ability illustrates an important part of multiplayer: In a duel, since they have to target you, they’ll figure out how. In multiplayer, she’s a lot more likely to just point removal at every other part of the table.
#4: Shadowmage Infiltrator.
He still draws into good cards, has evasion, and is relatively cheap. I have trouble envisioning a Blue/Black deck that I wouldn’t put him in.
#3: Flametongue Kavu.
I believe Wizards has called this the biggest mistake of Invasion Block, and I’d have to agree. When all he does is kill something and then trade with something else he’s pretty good, but yesterday I saw Flametongue plus an active Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker - which is just not pretty.
#2: Seedborn Muse.
I wanted to recognize cards the get better with more people - and Seedborn Muse fits the bill perfectly. I’m a Bad Person, and so I want to use it to lock down everyone every turn, but there are plenty of uses for it that won’t have your playgroup wanting to kill you.
#1: Willbender.
Just remember to play a few other morphs as well... and if anyone asks, that colorless 2/2 is always Willbender. I guarantee that once you use it once or twice, your playgroup will be much more careful with their spells. That’s when you pull out your Quicksilver Dragon or Exalted Angel and beat their faces in.
Honorable Mentions: Windborn Muse, Multani, Maro-Sorcerer, Genesis, Graceful Antelope. The Muse has a bit too much of a target without doing quite enough, while Multani lacks trample. They’re both great, but didn’t quite make the cut. If you can get Genesis recursion going, it’s truly amazing, but any multiplayer group should have multiple answers to this guy: if they don’t, he definitely vaults up near the top of the list.
Brokealope, as my group affectionately refers to him, isn’t actually all that amazing in multiplayer - but his ability can target any land, not just the player he attacked, which can be a very useful political tool.
Finally, since Silver-Bordered Land breaks all sorts of other rules, I’m going to include #6 on my list, from Unhinged: Richard Garfield, Ph. D. I’m not sure that he lets you Fact or Fiction into Deep Analysis - but lands get to be Moxes, and extras are either Morphling or Force of Will, making him some good.
To illustrate some of the principles I’ve talked about, here are two decks that each managed to take a game during my last multiplayer meeting.
Red-Green Utility:
4 Llanowar Elves
4 River Boa
1 Dosan, the Falling Leaf
4 Eternal Witness
4 Ghitu Slinger
2 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Flametongue Kavu
1 Forgotten Ancient
1 Copperhoof Vorrac
2 Genesis
2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
2 Seedborn Muse
1 Tornado Elemental
2 Mask of Memory
2 Skullclamp
12 Forest
8 Mountain
2 Shivan Oasis
2 Treetop Village
Almost every creature in this deck has a comes-into-play ability, which makes Kiki-Jiki even better. Skullclamp and Mask of Memory provide card drawing, Genesis gives you an answer to board sweepers, while Copperhoof Vorrac and Forgotten Ancient can get out of hand very quickly. At one point, this deck had out a Seedborn Muse, Kiki-Jiki and Flametongue Kavu. That’s pretty good. Uktabi Orangutan provides an answer to artifacts, and Tornado Elemental can help to deal with flyers.
This deck does depend heavily on other people at the table. It has no answers to Unquestioned Authority, for instance. Were I to tweak it, I would try to find room for Elvish Lyrist or Viridian Zealot, probably at the expense of Dosan and Tornado Elemental. Clearly, Multani, Maro-Sorcerer would fit in as well as Copperhoof Vorrac, but we must deal with the tools that we own.
The second deck I built was a slightly more controlling Black/Blue deck, though with a similar focus on utility creatures.
Blue-Black Control
2 Nezumi Graverobber
4 Willbender
3 Bone Shredder
1 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
3 Man o' War
3 Raven Familiar
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Wormfang Drake
2 Bane of the Living
1 Mortivore
2 Chromeshell Crab
1 Quicksilver Dragon
2 Curiosity
1 Equilibrium
2 Spite / Malice
1 Twilight’s Call
2 Faerie Conclave
10 Island
4 Salt Marsh
8 Swamp
This decks biggest problem is its curve, which is more of a blob at the three-mana slot. The echo creatures are particularly problematic here, and should probably be cut. Also, casting a Wormfang Drake on turn four after playing a Man o' War is not the best defense against Wrath of God, nor is it as impressive as it would be on turn 3.
I’ll probably cut three Bone Shredders, three Raven Familiars, and two Man o' Wars for four Spiketail Hatchlings, two Nekrataals, and two more Kiras as soon as I get them. Spiketail is surprisingly effective in multiplayer, because your opponents will forget about it, so the only way it won’t counter something useful is if you forget about their elves. Willbender has plenty of friends here, and Bane of the Living, Chromeshell Crab and Quicksilver Dragon are all sizeable threats. Mortivore is an amazing late-game card, and Equilibrium is strong with Willbender, though after cutting the comes-into-play creatures it should probably also get the axe... perhaps for a second Twilight’s Call.
The Nezumi Graverobber is not ideal, since early on it’s vulnerable to removal and later it will be difficult to flip, but it’s easier to cast than Withered Wretch, and gives you some answer to graveyard recursion. I feel a bit vulnerable with only two counterspells, but Spite/Malice is versatile, and there’s only so much room in a sixty-card deck.
Both of these decks have a problem with enchantments, and a big creature like Akroma or Multani. However each is able to use its creatures both as threats and to keep some control of the board. This means that you’re likely to have a strong board position and more cards in hand than most people; you’ll just have to hope that the more flexible decks can deal with the problems that are too big for these decks.
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