This is actually a really neat concept to cover more often. It's nice to weed out those pesky trap cards that seem really neat at first but ultimately have drawbacks that can cripple your game plan or stipulations that make them unable to quite do the cool thing when you need them to do it.
I love constructed and commander deck tech videos. Because even if the cards focused on mean nothing to you. The deck building strategies and rules are true whatever deck your building.
I love how he says wording is important but ignores the may. The card has an extremely potent effect. The downside is choosing whether to do it or not on someone else's turn. That's the risk. I feel like this card is way more potent in something like a Urabrask storm deck where you just chain more damage and exile more cards while generating the red mana to do so at the same time and just storming off.
Protection racket does not actually stop you from getting lands at the same rate as you would when it is not out. Every single turn you will draw the card in your library that is forth from the top, which has the exact same likelihood of being a land. As the top card of your library. You will draw lands at the exact same rate with this card out as you would without it out
I just cant understand why you hate modal cards so much… they cant be efficient AND do everything. That would be worse than any of our most recent power crept cards
Agreed. The whole point of modal spells is not to get every mode, it's to get the exact mode you need AT THE TIME without expending more card slots in your deck. Three Steps Ahead is at worst a regularly-costed Cancel, but it can also card cycle and/or make a token of your best artifact or creature. It's never a dead draw and you can always do something with it.
The only deck I run Vasta Nerada in is my Toxrill Horror kindred deck. It works decently there. And I run Structural Assault in my Ognis treasure deck, since it counts all treasures sacrificed before it was cast as well. This card works excellently in treasure decks because if you only use mana from treasures, you have a guaranteed 5 damage to all creatures. Plus, you can float the mana from you remaining treasures beforehand to cast stuff after boardwiping with Structual Assault. It's amazing!
It’s also super fun in captain N’gathrod, just get in for essentially free mill triggers. Not super great but, it can have some payoff. Also it’s just such a cool card. It might also be good in a proliferate style deck…? Maybe?
Sure people are gonna mention this but the Protection Racket doesn't lower the chances of you drawing lands since it does not replace your draw step. It's just as if you milled 3 in your upkeep. No real downside.
@@edhdeckbuilding That is only true given that there are lands at the top of your library. Since it is hidden information there is no difference except maybe psychologically a feel-bad. Imagine this scenario: the top card is a nonland and the second from the top is a land. No matter if you have the Protection Racket or not, you will not draw the land (unless your opponent wants you to have it, although quite unlikely). Or this: The same as above but the fourth card is also a land. Now you will get a land only if you have the Protection Racket.
Yeah, it's gonna be me disagreeing here about Last March of the Ents. I love that card to death. It's the Timmiest of Timmy cards and you really do feel like you're calling forth a massive army. Total flavor win. It's my favorite LotR card, and maybe favorite green card, full stop. 10/10 will march on Isengard again.
I think the card is OK as a “look, I got to 8 mana. I win” type of card, but it’s not particularly a fun card in casual. It’s the kind of card you cast once or twice, it does the thing and after that, it’s rather boring and anti-climactic. Craterhoof for green decks that would rather go tall than wide. More of a card for decks you play at an LGS rather than with friends.
@@Dragon_Fyre I highly disagree. It's big and splashy and still random, not even necessarily game winning card. I'm very glad to cast this if I have a creature with six power for example and see what cool big or small creatures I dump on the table. It's one of those cards that if an opponent answered with a board wipe after, you still feel like you did a cool thing.
@@Blacklodge_Willy You “could” do that, but it’s not how it is typically played. It’s a card that scales up… You could basically make the exact same argument for Dockside Extortionist.
I like Secret Rendevous. A friend of mine plays it and Wedding Ring without haggling on the weakest player in any given situation and it always is a moment of camaraderie, usually followed by flirtatious table banter and someone commenting "Get a room!". I love cards that do this to a game. :)
Protection racket is very good if you play it before turn 5. There are many cards that aren't good late game but the Virtue card says may... so you don't have to risk exiling anything if you don't want to.
I love “three steps ahead” personally. I think it’s a fun card and I love having options. I enjoy the spree cards from OTJ. They seem pretty great for their flexibility. Smugglers surprise is another spree card I really love lately. Great video!
It’s like, he says “You’re not going to want to use more than one mode.” Okay? It’s a draw spell if I’m land screwed. It’s a clone spell. It’s a counterspell if I have no others. All three of those things are things you want in a deck. Getting to choose multiple modes lategame is just a bonus.
@@davidhower7095 sometimes I counter a spell, draw 2 cards and discard wonder for an alpha swing in the air lol. Does it happen always? No, but when I defend my board state, draw and discard something like that/flashback interaction etc. it feels so good! I agree completely!
I see giving an opponent cards as more of a combat direction instead of a combat deflection. Use it to force one player to attack another instead of bargaining for a turn of not attacking you. Cheaper to buy an ass kicking than to pay to stave one off.
Except if you do that you will be getting an attack from the guy you are ploting against, which will make the effort pointless. And the guy who you bargained with already had 50% chance to attack the third anyway.
I think eye of ojer taq would be decent if it didn’t enter tapped on the backside because then at least it could basically refund your mana by cheating out a big creature
I just built a Mono-Blue deck with "Jalira, Master Polymorphist", where I play many cheap legendarys and big nonlegendary artifact creatures, so basically all my permanents are historic. "Desynchronisation" and a few other cards from Asassins Creed work really good there. Yesterday I had a match, where I had 2 emblems on the field, it turned out to be a pretty cool deck I think :)
I have it in my Urza deck. Cards like Desync definitely aren't an auto-fit into just any blue deck. You actually have to put thought into placing them where you can play the limitations to your advantage.
But if you happen to hit a land the opp can just pay 0 life to exile it so after a while it seriously can eat your lands, especially with 3 opps for it to trigger on.
@@someperson7622are the expected number of lands among the 4th, 8th, 12th and 16th cards of your deck different than the number you would expect to find among the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th? No. Any card in your deck should have an equal chance of being a land if you shuffled well so the fact that each turn you take one from a few cards down shouldn't change the number you draw through drawing for turn.
I’ve slowed down on adding generically strong cards to my decks so I can fit more theme pieces. Using Esper Sentinel as an example, I’m not throwing it in any white deck. I’m putting it in white decks with themes that involve humans or artifacts. That’s why I don’t just shove Last March of the Ents or Craterhoof in my green decks, I won’t shove Demonic or Vampiric tutor in all black decks, etc. If I’m building a deck to win, I’ll go all out, but I only have 2 decks actively built that way and sleeved at the moment. Winning is fun. It gets boring when you start to see a chunk of the same cards.
Great video! I actually have or have had some of these cards in my decks lol. I found myself cutting infinite combos pretty early on. They tickle part of the brain when you put them in because of how powerful of a play it is to be able to instantly win the game but ultimately they never feel clever or satisfying to actually play. Yeah, I win and if that was all that mattered, fine. But I don't actually feel like I out-maneuvered or genuinely beat my opponents. I just put down a pair of cards that won the game FOR me and it felt like a false, hollow victory. Now I just avoid them entirely when building.
Chandra's Ignition - I cut it after a few wins, because neither of them felt like I accomplished something. Farewell - Had this in hand a couple of times, but I could never bring myself to cast it. Somehow the situation always seemed like that while the card would deal with the strongest board, at the same time it would take out another already struggling player completely out of the game.
A good bit of wisdom ive found is that if i see a card ive never seen, and my first reaction is "oh my god, this is so good, why have I never seen this?" There's a reason
Structural Assault is an odd one, because it's at-home best in artifact decks that want to get rid of their stuff, with the upside of wiping the board. The main idea is not so much that you can turn it into one-sided advantage, but rather that you can seriously disrupt your opponents while minimizing your own losses. I use it in Farid due to running lots of eggs. It'll wipe the board and generate a lot of scrap, and the old scrap it gets rid of ensures it'll probably be big enough.
protection racket is probably pretty fun in smeagol. you get to steal lands from their deck, and they get to exile your lands. sometimes you get to snag some lands for your turns sometimes they get exiled, but most of the time you will be safe since you have more than enough land form smeagol. he's defintely not worth removing
dont have any specific examples off the top of my head but this happens to me ALL the time. And whenever I build a new deck, after my first couple of games, any card that has been sitting in hand or getting discarded is taken out and replaced with whatever I needed instead of that card
I kind of agree on Virtue of Courage. It reads like an amazing addition to a burn deck, but I found that after spending the 5 mana, I often don’t have the mana to cast anything I exile the turn it’s played, and I’d often exile cards that I want to hang onto and use on opponents’ turns, like removal spells. It also comes across as a scary enchantment to opponents and can get removed pretty quickly, unfortunately.
I picked up a copy for Ojer Axonil. With a creature that taps to deal 1 damage (converted to at least 4) it can let you see a lot of deck while saving mana to actually use them that turn.
Yeah, I had the exact same experience with Vashta Nerada. Had him in my slimefoot the stowaway deck where I want to be sacrificing my saprolings, and even there it wasn't really worth it.
A lot- a lot, and I mean "a lot" of cards like these are either: A) local meta breakers, or B) stellar tech picks for that one build. As an example, my group is super heavy into long games and token artifacts (food, clues, treasures, the whole nine). Structural Assault rocks their world all game, any game. Same for the rest of these to someone I imagine.
I haven't tried it since I don't really play with Universes Beyond cards but I imagine Desynchronization would go great in superfriends decks. A lot of permanents you have are historic, being planeswalkers and manarocks and supportive artifacts. Most oaths you wanna play again. and bouncing all creatures back to hand is probably what you want most to protect your walkers.
Most of the cards Ive taken out of my decks are ones that Ive never cast. Thats the point. I repeatedly found that when I had them in hand I didnt want them.
Just had a play against a Last March of the Ents! Someone cast it while they had a 20/20 in play and I used Wrong Turn in response to give someone else the 20/20 and the only other creature he had was a 1/1. Not super related to your point with the card, but I felt super slick
Wreck hunter for my "Vraska the silencer" deck. That double black is quite limiting when most of my removal spells are black mana and never really had a turn where I felt like playing it over holding mana for another removal spell or playing a better creature. Bit sad about that, thought it could could be a really cool card to use, but didn't work in practice
Last March of the Ents is not comparable to Torment of Hailfire or Expropriate. It firstly requires a board to function, in a creature. Then it also requires you to be a creature-based strategy, which neither of the other two remotely care about. Lastly, creatures are the easiest card type to interact with, both allowing you to mitigate the March themselves, but also the result of the casting.
Casting Desynchronization against creature decks is good, and if you’re playing artifact creatures it’s like a cheap cyclonic rift. I get the feeling that he doesn’t play against many creature based decks so most of the threats he’s worried about are legendaries and artifacts. If that’s the meta you play in yeah it’s not a great card, but when there’s a Krenko player creating 5,000 goblin tokens…it’s fantastic!
I also cut excise from my deck, but the white pips are the main reason. My white deck are 3 colors, so it is a bit harder to cast and i am really sensitive to the Floor for my removal
Unless you're decking yourself you're not really "losing" the cards you don't play from Protection Racket or Virtue of Courage - it's similar as if they were on the bottom of your deck and you just didn't draw them. You don't get land locked from Protection Racket since you get your other regular draws...
Secret rendezvous: I also tried it in several decks, but whenever I wanted to actually cast it, it was too dangerous, so I didn't. And then also took it out.
I gotta say I love last March of the ents in my wurm deck 😂😭. It hits so hard with a massive wurm in play, do you also not like things like triumph of the hordes and overwhelming stampede ? I guess you do need a board state for those
When it comes to Last March of the Ents - I think the same about cards like Cyclonic Rift or Farewell. It's so strong that it just feels unfair. It doesn't matter what you do your whole game, once you drop its pretty much over.
I totally agree. I’m starting to really dislike putting generically insane cards in my decks. They aren’t fun for me nor are they fun for the table - all they do is bump up my winrate which I couldn’t care less about tbh.
Cards like Three Steps Ahead are cards that you decide your going to cast on the next spell anyone cast, that is worth it. You hold the mana, and know that your going to be countering a spell and copying a creature/artifact regardless of what others do on their turn. I guess it is like Mana Drain. You plan to counter anything, just because you want extra mana on your next turn.
I did run Protection Racket in a few decks, then took it out of all of them except Rakdos, Lord of Riots. Like you said, lost a lot of lands to it, and most of the time, the life loss isn't a big deal (usually small spells). For Rakdos, though, it has been pretty great (most of the time). I have lots of high mana creatures, so a lot more life paid to exile them. Even if they do get exiled, it enables me to cast Rakdos and/or reduces the cost of my creatures by the life paid. Example: Ulamog. Do you want to pay 10 life and reduce the cost of all my creatures by 10, or do you want me to have Ulamog?
Vashta Nerada works really well in Brimaz blight of oreskos if you build around brimaz' own end step trigger, you can double dip on the counters in each turn.
Whenever anyone has told me that I should run a 4+ mana modal spell or 3+ mana counterspell that generates value I generally don't listen to them. If I have to leave up a ton of mana to interact with something when i could leave up less mana and actually progress my boardstate rather than be reactive and hope I can react well enough or efficiently enough doesn't sit well with me. Modal spells on the other hand rarely have enough to them that makes me feel their worth running. Even the cheap escalate spells don't make the cut in my deck unless I'm really short on cards.
I think indestructible has been power crept out of being a useful protection keyword by exile spells that have good synergy with a deck. Every time I slam down an indestructible threat, I never untap with it. Even with a hate bear or two making it harder to interact.
I agree with all except virtue of courage. Red’s weakness is running out of steam with no cards in hand, this keeps you afloat and digs really deep for you in the right deck. I use it in my Imodane deck and i’ve won plenty of games because the card advantage is great regardless of use it or lose it because imodane herself is your win condition so it works in burn decks but i can see why not in your shark deck
Eye of Ojer Taq seems only accessible for Tetzin or Archelos. Tetzin can make use of it being a double faced card to trigger off of and a mana rock while Archelos can fix the downside of the back side entering tapped.
Three steps is great because its never dead. Counter spells are often left dead in hand and every mode is relevant. Id much rather run this than having a negate thats dead half the time.
I mean THATS the problem lmao. The card is so good it just wins instantly by itself, and it can’t even be countered AND it can be recurred. I personally don’t enjoy playing a card that essentially reads 8 mana win the game, and assuming its in the right deck (deck with a lot of creatures) thats what it will be. Demo doesn’t like those kinds of cards.
Modal counterspells are useful for decks that let you cast stuff from your library for free (like cascade), and spree does not work with that either...
I had to cut Skyclave relic from my decks, I was never willing to cast it without paying the kicker cost, even when I really needed the 1 manna now rather than the 3 mana later. I think its the same trap people fall into with modal cards, squeezing the maximum value out of something can really hurt its versatility, which was the big draw of the card in the first place.
The argument against protection racket sounds just like when my friends get mad because I randomly mill a land off their library then they don’t draw a land. It might, by a very small margin, lower the number of lands in your library which changes the odds for future draw steps. Similar to how people use fetch lands for deck thinning. But you’re also revealing nonland cards and removing those from your library. So it all should even out.
Demo, if you think secret rendezvous is too many cards, you should try “Your Temple is Under Attack”. I think it is significantly better; easier to cast, instant speed, combat trick, or only 2 cards. A lot more dynamic
How do you feel about Three Steps Ahead in Vadrok? I feel like it works pretty well there, since it can be replayed later and pay for the additional costs from the graveyard after you use it as a counter. I already only run 1 counter in the deck (supreme will) since don't like them doing almost nothing on later turns since they're not as recurrable as other spells in that deck.
I just removed Last March from my Jasmine deck after two games where I just held it in my hand because I felt bad playing it. Secret Rendezvous is the truth though. It puts two opponents 6 cards down for 3 mana. I've never felt bad playing it. It's all down to threat assessment. There's always someone who's behind enough for 3 cards not to matter too much.
Wait what's wrong with Excise the Imperfect for mono-white? It's almost a strict upgrade from Generous Gift at 3 mana. I'll absolutely take the exile over hitting the occasional land.
I agree, structural assualt is good in a Kibo Uktabi Prince deck where there are lots of artifacts because of the bananas and it wont kill the monkeys and apes because they just got that much bigger. other than that its a pretty poor choice of a card for artifact hate or board wipes.
I hear you about vashta nerada. I have it in my Gix deck though, and he is a bit mana expensive for the effect, but I have as many low-cmc evasive creatures as I can, and the indestructible helps
Vashta Nerada is great in the Masters of Evil precon it’s from, because you need sure fire ways to damage opponents for the villainous choice proc from Davros. You do need two counters on it, but I have never found that difficult to achieve.
Structural Assasult would be effective at specifically removing a wide board of Tokens and Ramp (most dorks/tokens are ×/2 or less) Downside: its unpredictable, could be doing 0-10 damage, wiping more or less than expected
I am very surprised to hear you come down on Structural Assault. I run Creeping Corrosion in every green deck, Vandalblast in any red deck that does not have green, and Structural Assualt in any deck that has both. It is the same function with upside. Don't think of it as aboardwhipe. Just artifact removal in your deck with no artifacts, with a bonus of kill chaff.
"bad counterspell" I mean... if you fill your deck with only 2 or 0 mana counterspells... I would not dare call this card unneeded in a deck that wants more than 1 counterspell.
I feel like Structural Assaultfeels at home in a treasure theme deck. You can cast it by sacrificing 5 treasures so it's already garantied 5 dmg. Then if you have more treasure, you just deal a lot of dmg. Almost garantied boardwipe. But I agree it's a niche card for sure
The Eye is probably made for green decks but I am running it in my Eldrazi deck. You know 6 mana is a lot but you know what's even more mana? 12. That's why this card is a solid mana rock for it.
@@nanoglitch6693 What's your deck like? Mine is only focused on Annihilator. The salt is sometimes unreal but nothing is slapping harder than telling your opponent he needs to sacrifice 32 permanents. "Have you ever seen a world fall to its knees? Watch, and learn." - Ob Nixilis
@@TOTFAHRER I actually have two eldrazi decks. I took the recent precon and split it to build Azlask and Ulalek with different strategies. Azlask focuses on the spawn/scion tokens and hits with a huge annihilator wave like yours sounds like. Ulalek focuses on the big mana eldrazi and is where I'd try and squeeze The Eye into. It already has darksteel monolith though which is probably better.
@@nanoglitch6693 lol I actually have a theoretical azlask deck on my archidekt. My deck also has darksteel monolith but also quicksilver amulet and monster manual :)
Last march of the ents is just a finisher card usually, whats wrong with that? Same with cards like craterhoof or overwhelming stampede. I dont see your point at all here
I actually have cut Most(not all) of the "Role" cards that came woth thrones of eldraine. I jammed as many as I could into Uril the mistwalker. But I'm usually better served by an actual enchantment/aura card.
This is actually a really neat concept to cover more often. It's nice to weed out those pesky trap cards that seem really neat at first but ultimately have drawbacks that can cripple your game plan or stipulations that make them unable to quite do the cool thing when you need them to do it.
I love constructed and commander deck tech videos. Because even if the cards focused on mean nothing to you. The deck building strategies and rules are true whatever deck your building.
No way it's grimlock
Agreed
Last march of the ents is insane, love that card lol
Virtue of courage says "you may exile" so if you deal damage on your opponents turn's just skip the exiling part.
Came here to say this
I love how he says wording is important but ignores the may. The card has an extremely potent effect. The downside is choosing whether to do it or not on someone else's turn. That's the risk. I feel like this card is way more potent in something like a Urabrask storm deck where you just chain more damage and exile more cards while generating the red mana to do so at the same time and just storming off.
@@voidprism_studios666 Protection Racket also says may pay life. Reading the card really does explain the card.
the lack of lands with protection racket can be helped with MDFCs
Protection racket does not actually stop you from getting lands at the same rate as you would when it is not out. Every single turn you will draw the card in your library that is forth from the top, which has the exact same likelihood of being a land. As the top card of your library. You will draw lands at the exact same rate with this card out as you would without it out
@daren5393 seriously he's falling for the trap that it effects how many lands you get
I just cant understand why you hate modal cards so much… they cant be efficient AND do everything. That would be worse than any of our most recent power crept cards
Agreed. The whole point of modal spells is not to get every mode, it's to get the exact mode you need AT THE TIME without expending more card slots in your deck. Three Steps Ahead is at worst a regularly-costed Cancel, but it can also card cycle and/or make a token of your best artifact or creature. It's never a dead draw and you can always do something with it.
Or just get every mode with cost reducers. 3 Steps Ahead is insane with Mizzix or if you're in Simic with Seedborn Muse.
The only deck I run Vasta Nerada in is my Toxrill Horror kindred deck. It works decently there.
And I run Structural Assault in my Ognis treasure deck, since it counts all treasures sacrificed before it was cast as well. This card works excellently in treasure decks because if you only use mana from treasures, you have a guaranteed 5 damage to all creatures. Plus, you can float the mana from you remaining treasures beforehand to cast stuff after boardwiping with Structual Assault. It's amazing!
Vasta Nevada seems like a good mutate target
It’s also super fun in captain N’gathrod, just get in for essentially free mill triggers. Not super great but, it can have some payoff.
Also it’s just such a cool card.
It might also be good in a proliferate style deck…? Maybe?
Horror tribal and an Ognis deck? My horror deck is Umbris, but you clearly have good taste!
Sure people are gonna mention this but the Protection Racket doesn't lower the chances of you drawing lands since it does not replace your draw step. It's just as if you milled 3 in your upkeep. No real downside.
Yea its weird he talks about it like its a fateseal effect when it does nothing to the cards you actually draw
it lessens the chance you draw lands since your opponents are exiling them.
Also you are revealing cards to your opponents AND they have the option to refuse you getting really impactful cards
@@edhdeckbuilding That is only true given that there are lands at the top of your library. Since it is hidden information there is no difference except maybe psychologically a feel-bad.
Imagine this scenario: the top card is a nonland and the second from the top is a land. No matter if you have the Protection Racket or not, you will not draw the land (unless your opponent wants you to have it, although quite unlikely).
Or this: The same as above but the fourth card is also a land. Now you will get a land only if you have the Protection Racket.
The downside is your opponent gets to exile any lands you hit with her ability for free.
Structural assault is a meta call if you play against a lot of docksides. Cause if they sac the treasures in response it still trigger the damage
Yeah, it's gonna be me disagreeing here about Last March of the Ents. I love that card to death. It's the Timmiest of Timmy cards and you really do feel like you're calling forth a massive army. Total flavor win. It's my favorite LotR card, and maybe favorite green card, full stop. 10/10 will march on Isengard again.
This and Greater Good are my personal favorite green cards.
I think the card is OK as a “look, I got to 8 mana. I win” type of card, but it’s not particularly a fun card in casual.
It’s the kind of card you cast once or twice, it does the thing and after that, it’s rather boring and anti-climactic. Craterhoof for green decks that would rather go tall than wide.
More of a card for decks you play at an LGS rather than with friends.
@@Dragon_Fyre I highly disagree. It's big and splashy and still random, not even necessarily game winning card. I'm very glad to cast this if I have a creature with six power for example and see what cool big or small creatures I dump on the table. It's one of those cards that if an opponent answered with a board wipe after, you still feel like you did a cool thing.
@@Blacklodge_Willy You “could” do that, but it’s not how it is typically played. It’s a card that scales up…
You could basically make the exact same argument for Dockside Extortionist.
@@Dragon_Fyre except dockside is a 2 mana spell and march is a 8 mana spell. Seems like a huge difference you are leaving out with that argument
I like Secret Rendevous. A friend of mine plays it and Wedding Ring without haggling on the weakest player in any given situation and it always is a moment of camaraderie, usually followed by flirtatious table banter and someone commenting "Get a room!". I love cards that do this to a game. :)
Protection racket is very good if you play it before turn 5. There are many cards that aren't good late game but the Virtue card says may... so you don't have to risk exiling anything if you don't want to.
I love “three steps ahead” personally. I think it’s a fun card and I love having options. I enjoy the spree cards from OTJ. They seem pretty great for their flexibility. Smugglers surprise is another spree card I really love lately. Great video!
It’s like, he says “You’re not going to want to use more than one mode.” Okay? It’s a draw spell if I’m land screwed. It’s a clone spell. It’s a counterspell if I have no others. All three of those things are things you want in a deck. Getting to choose multiple modes lategame is just a bonus.
@@davidhower7095 sometimes I counter a spell, draw 2 cards and discard wonder for an alpha swing in the air lol. Does it happen always? No, but when I defend my board state, draw and discard something like that/flashback interaction etc. it feels so good! I agree completely!
I see giving an opponent cards as more of a combat direction instead of a combat deflection. Use it to force one player to attack another instead of bargaining for a turn of not attacking you. Cheaper to buy an ass kicking than to pay to stave one off.
That's brilliant
Except if you do that you will be getting an attack from the guy you are ploting against, which will make the effort pointless. And the guy who you bargained with already had 50% chance to attack the third anyway.
I think eye of ojer taq would be decent if it didn’t enter tapped on the backside because then at least it could basically refund your mana by cheating out a big creature
Plus it technically costs 5 as you can tap itself before crafting
I see this as part of the process of narrowing down the niche uses that each new card has, sharing which decks they have been effective in (or not)
I just built a Mono-Blue deck with "Jalira, Master Polymorphist", where I play many cheap legendarys and big nonlegendary artifact creatures, so basically all my permanents are historic. "Desynchronisation" and a few other cards from Asassins Creed work really good there.
Yesterday I had a match, where I had 2 emblems on the field, it turned out to be a pretty cool deck I think :)
I have it in my Urza deck. Cards like Desync definitely aren't an auto-fit into just any blue deck. You actually have to put thought into placing them where you can play the limitations to your advantage.
Jalira gang RISE UP!!!!
Protection Racket doesn't prevent you from drawing lands, you're just as likely to get them with your regular draw step.
But if you happen to hit a land the opp can just pay 0 life to exile it so after a while it seriously can eat your lands, especially with 3 opps for it to trigger on.
@@someperson7622 Does Cemetery Tampering also eat your lands by milling 3 each upkeep?
@@someperson7622are the expected number of lands among the 4th, 8th, 12th and 16th cards of your deck different than the number you would expect to find among the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th? No. Any card in your deck should have an equal chance of being a land if you shuffled well so the fact that each turn you take one from a few cards down shouldn't change the number you draw through drawing for turn.
Thanks for throwing out these trap cards. You're one of the hardest working nerds in the game.
I’ve slowed down on adding generically strong cards to my decks so I can fit more theme pieces. Using Esper Sentinel as an example, I’m not throwing it in any white deck. I’m putting it in white decks with themes that involve humans or artifacts. That’s why I don’t just shove Last March of the Ents or Craterhoof in my green decks, I won’t shove Demonic or Vampiric tutor in all black decks, etc. If I’m building a deck to win, I’ll go all out, but I only have 2 decks actively built that way and sleeved at the moment.
Winning is fun. It gets boring when you start to see a chunk of the same cards.
Great video! I actually have or have had some of these cards in my decks lol. I found myself cutting infinite combos pretty early on. They tickle part of the brain when you put them in because of how powerful of a play it is to be able to instantly win the game but ultimately they never feel clever or satisfying to actually play. Yeah, I win and if that was all that mattered, fine. But I don't actually feel like I out-maneuvered or genuinely beat my opponents. I just put down a pair of cards that won the game FOR me and it felt like a false, hollow victory. Now I just avoid them entirely when building.
100% agree with you. Casual edh about the journey to Victory. I hate winning with a one drop win/kill cards...
I like this types of videos where you explain a card you thought good and explained why or why not. The perspectives and reasons you give really help.
Structural assault isn’t a boardwipe. It’s a fully loaded overload with creature pinging as a bonus
Chandra's Ignition - I cut it after a few wins, because neither of them felt like I accomplished something.
Farewell - Had this in hand a couple of times, but I could never bring myself to cast it. Somehow the situation always seemed like that while the card would deal with the strongest board, at the same time it would take out another already struggling player completely out of the game.
Virtue of courage is insane. If I slap it down I'm usually winning this turn if not next turn.
A good bit of wisdom ive found is that if i see a card ive never seen, and my first reaction is "oh my god, this is so good, why have I never seen this?"
There's a reason
Structural assault could be a ton of fun in an artifact deck where you're creating a ton of tokens, but it would still be niche
Structural Assault is an odd one, because it's at-home best in artifact decks that want to get rid of their stuff, with the upside of wiping the board. The main idea is not so much that you can turn it into one-sided advantage, but rather that you can seriously disrupt your opponents while minimizing your own losses. I use it in Farid due to running lots of eggs. It'll wipe the board and generate a lot of scrap, and the old scrap it gets rid of ensures it'll probably be big enough.
protection racket is probably pretty fun in smeagol. you get to steal lands from their deck, and they get to exile your lands. sometimes you get to snag some lands for your turns sometimes they get exiled, but most of the time you will be safe since you have more than enough land form smeagol. he's defintely not worth removing
dont have any specific examples off the top of my head but this happens to me ALL the time. And whenever I build a new deck, after my first couple of games, any card that has been sitting in hand or getting discarded is taken out and replaced with whatever I needed instead of that card
Protection Racket can't give you lands, but it won't decrease the expected number of lands you draw normally either.
I kind of agree on Virtue of Courage. It reads like an amazing addition to a burn deck, but I found that after spending the 5 mana, I often don’t have the mana to cast anything I exile the turn it’s played, and I’d often exile cards that I want to hang onto and use on opponents’ turns, like removal spells. It also comes across as a scary enchantment to opponents and can get removed pretty quickly, unfortunately.
I picked up a copy for Ojer Axonil. With a creature that taps to deal 1 damage (converted to at least 4) it can let you see a lot of deck while saving mana to actually use them that turn.
Yeah, I had the exact same experience with Vashta Nerada. Had him in my slimefoot the stowaway deck where I want to be sacrificing my saprolings, and even there it wasn't really worth it.
A lot- a lot, and I mean "a lot" of cards like these are either: A) local meta breakers, or B) stellar tech picks for that one build.
As an example, my group is super heavy into long games and token artifacts (food, clues, treasures, the whole nine). Structural Assault rocks their world all game, any game. Same for the rest of these to someone I imagine.
I'm all about the journey of the game as well. The adventure to winning. Not just winning. I hate winning cheap.
I haven't tried it since I don't really play with Universes Beyond cards but I imagine Desynchronization would go great in superfriends decks. A lot of permanents you have are historic, being planeswalkers and manarocks and supportive artifacts. Most oaths you wanna play again. and bouncing all creatures back to hand is probably what you want most to protect your walkers.
I put enough artifacts in my deck that Structural Assault always does work
Most of the cards Ive taken out of my decks are ones that Ive never cast. Thats the point. I repeatedly found that when I had them in hand I didnt want them.
Just had a play against a Last March of the Ents! Someone cast it while they had a 20/20 in play and I used Wrong Turn in response to give someone else the 20/20 and the only other creature he had was a 1/1.
Not super related to your point with the card, but I felt super slick
Wreck hunter for my "Vraska the silencer" deck. That double black is quite limiting when most of my removal spells are black mana and never really had a turn where I felt like playing it over holding mana for another removal spell or playing a better creature. Bit sad about that, thought it could could be a really cool card to use, but didn't work in practice
I feel that Virtue of Courage is better with Reckless Fireweaver whenever you impulse draw a mana rock off the top of your library.
virtue of courage is unbelievably broken in Eruth, Tormented Prophet.
Last March of the Ents is not comparable to Torment of Hailfire or Expropriate. It firstly requires a board to function, in a creature. Then it also requires you to be a creature-based strategy, which neither of the other two remotely care about. Lastly, creatures are the easiest card type to interact with, both allowing you to mitigate the March themselves, but also the result of the casting.
protection racket exiles the cards they don't let you have so you have the same chance to get land as you would without any additional card draw
I cut Master Warcraft after one match.
Three Steps Ahead will be in my Chun-Li/Zethi deck soon. I'm looking forward to casting it repeatedly.
Casting Desynchronization against creature decks is good, and if you’re playing artifact creatures it’s like a cheap cyclonic rift. I get the feeling that he doesn’t play against many creature based decks so most of the threats he’s worried about are legendaries and artifacts. If that’s the meta you play in yeah it’s not a great card, but when there’s a Krenko player creating 5,000 goblin tokens…it’s fantastic!
I also cut excise from my deck, but the white pips are the main reason. My white deck are 3 colors, so it is a bit harder to cast and i am really sensitive to the Floor for my removal
I could see Eye of Ojer Taq being good in a Iname as One deck.
Unless you're decking yourself you're not really "losing" the cards you don't play from Protection Racket or Virtue of Courage - it's similar as if they were on the bottom of your deck and you just didn't draw them. You don't get land locked from Protection Racket since you get your other regular draws...
Secret rendezvous: I also tried it in several decks, but whenever I wanted to actually cast it, it was too dangerous, so I didn't. And then also took it out.
I gotta say I love last March of the ents in my wurm deck 😂😭. It hits so hard with a massive wurm in play, do you also not like things like triumph of the hordes and overwhelming stampede ? I guess you do need a board state for those
When it comes to Last March of the Ents - I think the same about cards like Cyclonic Rift or Farewell. It's so strong that it just feels unfair. It doesn't matter what you do your whole game, once you drop its pretty much over.
I totally agree. I’m starting to really dislike putting generically insane cards in my decks. They aren’t fun for me nor are they fun for the table - all they do is bump up my winrate which I couldn’t care less about tbh.
Cards like Three Steps Ahead are cards that you decide your going to cast on the next spell anyone cast, that is worth it. You hold the mana, and know that your going to be countering a spell and copying a creature/artifact regardless of what others do on their turn. I guess it is like Mana Drain. You plan to counter anything, just because you want extra mana on your next turn.
I did run Protection Racket in a few decks, then took it out of all of them except Rakdos, Lord of Riots. Like you said, lost a lot of lands to it, and most of the time, the life loss isn't a big deal (usually small spells). For Rakdos, though, it has been pretty great (most of the time). I have lots of high mana creatures, so a lot more life paid to exile them. Even if they do get exiled, it enables me to cast Rakdos and/or reduces the cost of my creatures by the life paid. Example: Ulamog. Do you want to pay 10 life and reduce the cost of all my creatures by 10, or do you want me to have Ulamog?
Vashta Narada got great mileage in Volrath deck, but mostly because I could spend 1 and make my commander indestructible and virtually unblockable.
Vashta Nerada works really well in Brimaz blight of oreskos if you build around brimaz' own end step trigger, you can double dip on the counters in each turn.
At least with the virtue of courage, it's a "you may exile" so idk. I think it would still be really good
Whenever anyone has told me that I should run a 4+ mana modal spell or 3+ mana counterspell that generates value I generally don't listen to them.
If I have to leave up a ton of mana to interact with something when i could leave up less mana and actually progress my boardstate rather than be reactive and hope I can react well enough or efficiently enough doesn't sit well with me.
Modal spells on the other hand rarely have enough to them that makes me feel their worth running. Even the cheap escalate spells don't make the cut in my deck unless I'm really short on cards.
Iv found that with spree cards they get much better the moment you add a lil cost reduction
I think indestructible has been power crept out of being a useful protection keyword by exile spells that have good synergy with a deck. Every time I slam down an indestructible threat, I never untap with it. Even with a hate bear or two making it harder to interact.
Vashta is in my horror deck. But that’s probably the only deck it’s good in.
I agree with all except virtue of courage. Red’s weakness is running out of steam with no cards in hand, this keeps you afloat and digs really deep for you in the right deck. I use it in my Imodane deck and i’ve won plenty of games because the card advantage is great regardless of use it or lose it because imodane herself is your win condition so it works in burn decks but i can see why not in your shark deck
Eye of Ojer Taq seems only accessible for Tetzin or Archelos. Tetzin can make use of it being a double faced card to trigger off of and a mana rock while Archelos can fix the downside of the back side entering tapped.
Yeah, but you should see Last March of the Ents in my Tiamat-Deck - Wins game on spot, Dromoka also enters 😁
Three steps is great because its never dead. Counter spells are often left dead in hand and every mode is relevant. Id much rather run this than having a negate thats dead half the time.
Virtue of Courage performs well in my Norin decks, where I often empty my hand pretty quickly.
Agreed with just about all of these EXCEPT Last March of the Ents…that card has just about always been great for me!
I mean THATS the problem lmao. The card is so good it just wins instantly by itself, and it can’t even be countered AND it can be recurred. I personally don’t enjoy playing a card that essentially reads 8 mana win the game, and assuming its in the right deck (deck with a lot of creatures) thats what it will be.
Demo doesn’t like those kinds of cards.
Modal counterspells are useful for decks that let you cast stuff from your library for free (like cascade), and spree does not work with that either...
I thought Spree kind of works as the modes are additional mana costs that can be paid.
spree works just fine off cascade (if you have the mana to "kick" it)
Meria Scholar of Antiquity I thought would be a slam dunk in my Animar deck but it always ended up being dead weight.
Ngl Eye of ojer is a sleeper. Reanimation decks like them and i love the fact its a mana rock that can be a pusedo delirum catch
Richard from goldfish poisoning the well again, I see
I had to cut Skyclave relic from my decks, I was never willing to cast it without paying the kicker cost, even when I really needed the 1 manna now rather than the 3 mana later. I think its the same trap people fall into with modal cards, squeezing the maximum value out of something can really hurt its versatility, which was the big draw of the card in the first place.
The argument against protection racket sounds just like when my friends get mad because I randomly mill a land off their library then they don’t draw a land.
It might, by a very small margin, lower the number of lands in your library which changes the odds for future draw steps. Similar to how people use fetch lands for deck thinning. But you’re also revealing nonland cards and removing those from your library. So it all should even out.
Demo, if you think secret rendezvous is too many cards, you should try “Your Temple is Under Attack”. I think it is significantly better; easier to cast, instant speed, combat trick, or only 2 cards. A lot more dynamic
agreed
Well I have the same experience with Vashta Nerada and Eye of Ojer Taq. Especially the Eye, it feels like a waste of space.
Vashta Nerada in Lazav the Multifarious is some excellent tech still.
The issue with protection racket is that palantir is just a straight better version of
Mostly, though it is several times the cost.
Desynchronization is great in my Alistair deck
How do you feel about Three Steps Ahead in Vadrok? I feel like it works pretty well there, since it can be replayed later and pay for the additional costs from the graveyard after you use it as a counter. I already only run 1 counter in the deck (supreme will) since don't like them doing almost nothing on later turns since they're not as recurrable as other spells in that deck.
Vashta seems like it needs to be in a deck that shuffles counters around-Reyhan and the like.
Secret remdevous is great with narset parter of veils, but short of that its just ok unless you have some gimmick to break the symmetry
I just removed Last March from my Jasmine deck after two games where I just held it in my hand because I felt bad playing it.
Secret Rendezvous is the truth though. It puts two opponents 6 cards down for 3 mana. I've never felt bad playing it. It's all down to threat assessment. There's always someone who's behind enough for 3 cards not to matter too much.
Only home I got for Vashta Nerada is my Shirei deck. That's a guaranteed counter every end step, hopefully.
Wait what's wrong with Excise the Imperfect for mono-white? It's almost a strict upgrade from Generous Gift at 3 mana. I'll absolutely take the exile over hitting the occasional land.
I agree, structural assualt is good in a Kibo Uktabi Prince deck where there are lots of artifacts because of the bananas and it wont kill the monkeys and apes because they just got that much bigger. other than that its a pretty poor choice of a card for artifact hate or board wipes.
I hear you about vashta nerada. I have it in my Gix deck though, and he is a bit mana expensive for the effect, but I have as many low-cmc evasive creatures as I can, and the indestructible helps
Vashta Nerada is great in the Masters of Evil precon it’s from, because you need sure fire ways to damage opponents for the villainous choice proc from Davros. You do need two counters on it, but I have never found that difficult to achieve.
Structural Assasult would be effective at specifically removing a wide board of Tokens and Ramp (most dorks/tokens are ×/2 or less)
Downside: its unpredictable, could be doing 0-10 damage, wiping more or less than expected
Virtue of courage performs well for me in my imodane deck. Game winner in most cases.
I am very surprised to hear you come down on Structural Assault. I run Creeping Corrosion in every green deck, Vandalblast in any red deck that does not have green, and Structural Assualt in any deck that has both. It is the same function with upside. Don't think of it as aboardwhipe. Just artifact removal in your deck with no artifacts, with a bonus of kill chaff.
"bad counterspell" I mean... if you fill your deck with only 2 or 0 mana counterspells... I would not dare call this card unneeded in a deck that wants more than 1 counterspell.
desynchronization is budget cyclonic rift for me :)
I feel like Structural Assaultfeels at home in a treasure theme deck. You can cast it by sacrificing 5 treasures so it's already garantied 5 dmg. Then if you have more treasure, you just deal a lot of dmg. Almost garantied boardwipe. But I agree it's a niche card for sure
Vashta Nerada seems awesome in a Shirei deck. Haven't actually tried it though and still feels abit slow
At least with Virtue, you don't have to exile anything, the impulse draw is also a may trigger.
The Eye is probably made for green decks but I am running it in my Eldrazi deck. You know 6 mana is a lot but you know what's even more mana? 12. That's why this card is a solid mana rock for it.
I have a lovely foil eye, I've been meaning to find a spot for in my eldrazi deck. Maybe today is the day.. 😏
@@nanoglitch6693 What's your deck like?
Mine is only focused on Annihilator. The salt is sometimes unreal but nothing is slapping harder than telling your opponent he needs to sacrifice 32 permanents.
"Have you ever seen a world fall to its knees? Watch, and learn."
- Ob Nixilis
@@TOTFAHRER I actually have two eldrazi decks. I took the recent precon and split it to build Azlask and Ulalek with different strategies. Azlask focuses on the spawn/scion tokens and hits with a huge annihilator wave like yours sounds like. Ulalek focuses on the big mana eldrazi and is where I'd try and squeeze The Eye into. It already has darksteel monolith though which is probably better.
@@nanoglitch6693 lol I actually have a theoretical azlask deck on my archidekt. My deck also has darksteel monolith but also quicksilver amulet and monster manual :)
@@TOTFAHRER Haven't seen Azlask used for the big drazis usually. What inspired you to pick him?
Last march of the ents is just a finisher card usually, whats wrong with that? Same with cards like craterhoof or overwhelming stampede. I dont see your point at all here
I actually have cut Most(not all) of the "Role" cards that came woth thrones of eldraine. I jammed as many as I could into Uril the mistwalker. But I'm usually better served by an actual enchantment/aura card.
Makes sense. You also have the problem that they aren't good in multiples.
I have vashta nerada in my mutate deck as it’s a really good target to mutate onto
apex observatory may be neat in an eldrazi deck. craft with two dinky eldrazi