Agreed that fogs are the most underrated category of cards out there, but I think a fog effect by itself just isn't enough to warrant a deck slot. TefPro, FoF, and cards like it see more play because they're also protection from the somewhat common boardwipe; them having a fog effect on top is icing on the cake. Therefore, my advice is to look for fogs that do more than just prevent combat damage. Arachnogenesis is great for token/go wide strategies, Dawn Charm has other modes, and Obscuring Haze has the upside of not preventing the damage your creatures are dealing which means it can manage huge tempo swings.
There are plenty of "one sided" fog effects as well, like the one that prevents non-human sources or non-werewolf. There are fogs that care about keywords, like trample and most importantly fogs counter unblockable too
I absolutely love Fog effects. It's almost like an extra turn spell in the right situations. My friends really hate when I have a Genesis + Spor Frog combo. Such big impact for a single mana.
Dawn Charm. Fog, counterspell, or regenerate, all super useful protections. And Batwing Brume, hooboy, does that one always pay off. Two mana fogs are not ideal, but they can come with such stellar upsides that I can't resist.
Came here to say this - Dawn Charm can be a blowout in several different ways and it's hard to be a dead card (and something many don't see coming in white).
My friends have played “fog” as a bit of a joke for the past year now. It has actually been such a prevalent card in our group that I now hold open counterspells or some form of interaction when playing against “the deck full of fog”
I once played my golgari graveyard deck. There were 2 other guys. One with green stopmy deck and one guy with his deck( but he was screwed - he like never frew his 4th land). I managed to survive 5 turns of lethal swings reanimating spore frog over and over again. Meanwhile I manager to draw my own wincons and pull a win. One of most instant games i played. Never did as much being so under pressure and manager to survive thx to 1 mana fog on a creature.
Fog is very underrated but it can saves you very easily. Also can be use to help another player or stops to that players whos made infinite token army and swings to get the game.
We asked ourselves this exact question when my roommate made a group hug/slug deck lately (she often comes to me before ordering the deck, just to be sure she did not forget anything). When your deck is likely to be a bit hated by the entire table (groupslug for example), you know people will hit you as often as possible, and not expect fogs. Last game night it was key to allow her to survive all the aggression. Also, I'm a big believer in the free fog, which is cheap and underrated, and being a one-sided fog you can also use it during your combat step. Just a very good card that nobody plays. I have to add that most decks can't win through a constant mist, the card is really back breaking, but hey, that's why you need several wincons !
I’ve not played too many real games with my new Manifest deck, but Frontline Strategist (a fog for all non-Soldiers on a faceup trigger) has saved my life in at least half of them.
Fog effects are common in my play groups. To mitigate the effects of fogs, I started adding Skull Crack and other cards to respond to fog effects as I usually have access to red in my combat focused decks. Call in a professional and flaring pain which has flashback are other examples.
My absolute favorite fog effects are Spore Cloud and Blessed Respite. They're so versatile. Blessed Respite fills a graveyard hate slot. Casting Spore Cloud after damage when an opponent swings on another opponent is a dream of mine. Taps down TWO boards so you can swing freely. It's worth the three mana any day. And they're dirt-dirt cheap.
I love me some fog effects, especially asymmetrical ones! My favorite cheap under the radar one is Thwart The Enemy from Ikoria- 2G Instant - Prevent all damage that would be dealt this turn by creatures your opponents control. Sure it's 3 mana but it's totaly worth it and nobody ever expects it
I have a voltron deck with an oversized Sigarda, Host of Herons card. I run a few different Fog-like cards. My favorite are the couple I have that, for just one additional mana, allows a single creature to still deal damage like Terrifying Presence, which then lets me use my massive Sigarda as removal in addition to the protection.
I also almost forgot to mention Angel of the Dire Hour, Aetherize, and Settle the Wreckage. There are a lot of great options for stopping your opponent for running you over.
I have a Vren, The Relentless Dimir control deck. It was down to just me and one other guy. I had one black mana open and he had a huge board (mono green Yorvo) and i just had my commander and like 2 rat tokens out. He was like go to attacks, swing with everything, GG. I was like hold on. I cast Darkness. The look on his face was priceless! I proceeded to untap cast armor of shadows on my commander into damnation. Wiped his entire board and had 18, 19 19 rats. I counterspelled all his next plays and then killed him the next turn. One of my greatest moments in MTG.
I put Chant of Vitu Gazi in my St Traft and Rem deck becuase it’s got a convoke theme and that card had convoke. I thought I’d take it out someday but I’ve cast it three times I think and it’s been great each time.
The irony is that, in my first play group, Fog effects were EVERYWHERE. Everyone and their grandmother used Fog. It was like the number one most used card across every player among us. Once I found others, Fog is almost never seen.
I have an interesting deck building idea for you. Take a random number generator and have it pick out 4 or 5 different sets from the millions of sets we now have. Build a deck out of cards ONLY from those sets as well as a commander ONLY from those sets. Enjoy. For more of a challenge, your commander has to come from the OLDEST of all the sets randomly chosen. Go forth and create. PS: Doing this has really spiced up my pod of players and forced us to be more creative and imaginative in our deck building skills. We roll at the end of each of our sessions (to keep it honest) and determine in front of each other exactly which sets can be used and the potential commanders available to them. Two weeks to build. Surprisingly, we've only had one real blow-out game where one player smashed everyone due to random sets seeming to align perfectly.
My favourite "fog" effect is Reins of Power. If you cast it after they declare attackers it's a fog, if you don't run a lot of creatures and cast it on your turn it's a game breaker! At my LGS I only had an Archivist on the field while the guy across the table from me had a ton of dragon tokens from Miirym. After he read and re-read Reins of Power for a minute, I won the game.
100% agree, though I think a fog needs to have more upside to be fully worth a card slot these days. Example: in my Hazezon, Shaper of Sand list, I run Constant Mists. That's not just a fog for me, it's a repeatable land sacrifice, and I've used it for both reasons to win games. Curious what your favorite fog is! There's a ton and they all function just a bit differently.
100% agree fogs are an auto include in green, but i think where white does it better is stopping the damage or stopping the change of life total. The red noncombat damage player would still get the win in that scenario, but you are right in saying the majority of decks go for the late game combat damage win. I’ve also been on the attacking side and been stuffed by an obscuring haze and arachnogenisis.
I have a cat deck that's mostly a fog deck. I call it Catfog. Helmed by Mirri, I create a bunch of cats and swing out and control combat by fogging as often as possible.
ayyy nice I run my Rin and Seri deck with a similar strategy only 1 fog ( blessed respite hoping to switch to tangle soon) but cards that control the combat or tap down a players field at instant speed really help those small cats and dogs get through for damage.
Darkness, Batswing Brume and finally Inkshield (I was using a Mardu deck) during a 4 player match last night at my local LGS Commander night when a player swung eleven 10/10's at the three of us (all of us at 20 or less life) with a total of 40 at me!
When you think about it, whenever a spore frog pops up, everyone freaks out and wants it gone I picked up 5 copies of Obscuring Haze for a about 80 cents each a while ago (the free commander one-sided fog that does all creature damage, not just combat) They're so good
My most requested deck I get asked to play is my Thantis Fogs deck with 12 fog affects. a fog most defiantly 100% completely alters the outcome of any game. And ill add, it is fun to save someone else life if they where about to be knocked out too early. "Your win con is my win con."
Fogs are great - I try to include at least one in every deck, sometimes more. There are some decks that literally cannot beat a Constant Mists or Spore Frog as well. Fog-adjacent cards like Aetherize and Settle the Wreckage are also incredibly good.
Pause for Reflection is one fog that I feel is often overlooked. It is too expensive to hard cast it for it's effect, but it's a Convoke spell so you don't even need open mana to cast it.
Sure a fog can save you, the downside is that it saves your opponents too during a "kill all opponents at once" swing. Which is ok if you're playing archenemy or are the only one being attacked, but it's often the difference between you surviving, winning on the crack back after they're open with no other opponents, and that alpha swinger surviving because the next rotation not enough damage can swing in while still leaving shields up.
I lump the removal and protection spells into an interaction category; 20-25 per deck. The line between the two is blurry. Is Fierce Guardianship a removal spell or a protection spell?
Pure fogs that don’t also progress the board always have felt bad in my hand. Take the Bait, Arachnogenesis, Galahdrim Ambush, Comeuppance, INKSHIELD!?! Now those are the kind that put in the work. They get better too, when your opponents know they are in your deck, as just holding up the correct mana can psyche opponents out, essentially making them free fogs if you can also utilize that mana in other flash spells or mana dumps. Then you’ve got the ones that are so replayable that they can lock out games, with Constant Mists, Dawnstrider, Kami of False hope, and Sporefrog. They can be much more effective, but also to a point of becoming so strong of a pillowfort effect as so to transform into stax. Finally, I prefer having flexibility over a straight fog. Dawn Charm is the best, but in my 5c matters Jared deck, Undergrowth’s flexibility is such a workhorse. Some fogs don’t protect Plansewalkers, but this one does, and because most of my creatures are all colors, that means in a lot of board states, it can variably be one-sided, which provides the omph I want from my fogs. Everything else is synergy based. For example, Druid’s Deliverance in a tall token deck, and quite a few can gain you chunks of life if that helps your strategy. That’s all I can remember on fogs off the top of my head.
I run fog and obscuring haze in all my green decks; my landfall deck has constant mists (which is now up to $20 since i guess it only has one printing and may be RL)
I love fogs in Voltron decks best, I had a really strong Slogurk the Overslime deck based on yours where I could usually kill one player and fog whichever swing would kill me. The dream was to get constant mists but I never did buy it.
Instant Fogs are a do nothing card unless you're behind. It's better to build cards that help you prevent it from getting that way. Not bad to have a few, but I prefer them on cards that are more proactive (Boromir, Warden of the Tower for example). Really depends on the fragility of your deck.
I think fogs can be a bit of a trap too. It doesn't matter how many fogs you have if you can't win the game. I've seen several people fog or even teferis protection and get nothing out of it just to die the next turn
With that said, I only currently play a fog in one deck, Toski, because I'm constantly hitting people and have no blockers. I should find a few more to play it in though, I realize that.
Ok, hear me out. I’ve won multiple games with Jaheira's Respite. For 5 mana, it’s a pretty expensive fog, but grabbing (sometimes almost all of remaining) lands from your deck and putting them on the battlefield can make the crackback pretty hard. (I play it in a Jinnie Fay deck with a bunch of token creating X spells)
I like this video.. i know turbofog is a decent strat. But is 1-2 fogs really worth it? You either trade it to prevent one turn of mild damage, or you hold it for an alpha strike that may or may not occur. If you draw it at the right time at all. I will consider them, and again i think its a good idea, Demo. I just wonder if its too dependant on drawing the correct card at the correct time. I guess id ask myself: Is it better to have a 1 mana fog to hold for defense? Or a 1 mana Sol to go offense faster?
White has the best one mana fog card, in Ethereal Haze, that can prevent all creature caused damage in a turn, including enter effects and pinging abilities.
i've been slowly working on a list with angus mackenzie as the head to just perma fog whenever i want lol, thinking to do unblockable/horsemanship creatures for that but then i've not worked out how but gonna try and have a bunch of fog set ups, like i said taking it slow lol
I made a thantis, the warweaver deck a few weeks ago and in it i put a bunch of green fogs and omg they really do come in clutch! in one game a player was going OFF with dinosaurs had like 14 of them out and was going to kill the two other players I made a deal with them saved them with a fog It screwed the dinosaur player over so badly. He did not see it coming. We where able to kill him with our next turns
I must be a weirdo. I like Alt-win-cons. But I still have plenty of combat-focused decks. I've won with Biovisionary, Barren Glory, Approach of the Second Sun, Painter/Stone combo, Helm of Obedience combo, Revel in Riches, some Solemnity combos, Baneful Omen, Door to Nothingness, Undying Flames, Neverending Torment, Eternal Dominion, and Decimator Web.
To be fair flare of fortitude does NOT prevent combat damage so it’s not 100% like a fog. This matters because you can still be killed via commander damage and the opponents combat damage triggers still proc if i am not mistaken.
While I would say fog is underplayed I would also say fog effects and especially teferi's proc are incorrectly valued in what they do as I see people too often act as if they are a catch all to preventing losing when they only do so for a turn and for specific circumstances. I see people treat fog effects as if they are equivalent to removal or boardwipes in terms of card slots when deckbuilding rather than properly valuing them as their own thing and identifying how they compliment boardwipes and removal as ways to change the tempo of the game. Fog effects are able to be used in a variety of gameplans and ways but I see too many people not use them in a more flexible manner or try to make them fill a role they don't fit.
(Sorry got kinda long) Playing a fog for the sake of playing a fog is silly to me personally. I don't like circumstantial cards in my decks very much, every game now feels like I need to be drawing relevant cards in order to keep pace with my opponents and/or gain traction in a game. Might have something to do with my refusal to pay for expensive singles. Point for me is I will play a "fog" if there is something else to it besides just preventing ALL combat damage, usually it will be particularly synergistic with my deck as well. Playing Fog (the actual card) gives the possibility to "time walk" your opponent if you are ahead (but if you are ahead then it's less likely that you would have use for such a card) or you can effectively "time walk" yourself (you play Fog to prevent your opponent from killing you just so you can draw the card you would have drawn last turn if you didn't have Fog on top of your deck). There's a narrow chance that Fog could pull you back into the game if you made really good use of the rest of your mana that turn and then you are able to quickly rebuild which I have seen decks do and my decks have also done, but the whole idea is just so circumstantial. I'm only going to play Fog (the card) when it's going to prevent the most possible damage to me (which does not prevent effect damage which can and will defeat you more often now). Now Arachnogenesis, the king of all "fogs", is fairly worth the slot in general; if you play a token deck or a sacrifice deck then it's really even better. Arachnogenesis is a "fog" and it is a token generator AND it is a REMOVAL SPELL, as it prevents the combat damage from NON-SPIDER CREATURES already, so blocks are unnecessary but you can gang block on something and potentially get a kill; but then even more than that you have a blocker for each attacker that came FOR NEXT TURN too AND THEY HAVE REACH. I can play Arachnogenesis when I'm behind and actually have a decent chance at getting back into the game, I can play it when I'm slightly ahead and pull even further ahead, I mean I can play it mostly any time except for when I am far ahead with my board state and nobody will attack me. That is much less dead in hand than drawing Fog (the card) which is only really good sometimes and even then it doesn't guarantee that I'll actually be saved, can likely just stall my opponent for a single turn while they develop further, and then there's Questing Beast too (and Arachnogenesis will work even with him on the battlefield). Now there are some other options that are also similarly solid cards, Galadhrim Ambush being a different Arachnogenesis (Elves don't have reach though), Safe Passage is an old one that nobody uses which only prevents damage from OPPONENT creatures, Batwing Brume (as shown in the video) has the option to burn your opponents which gives it more flexibility... there are just better options than Fog specifically. It's too redundant to be running several Fogs, I have a hard enough time trying to pack enough removal WITH enough ramp AND enough card draw AND still be able to play all of the cards that I actually want for my main strategy. That's pretty much my take. I'll play Arachnogenesis in Baba Lysaga for example, because it's a SLAM DUNK. I WILL get attacked with that deck and I have NEED for bodies to sacrifice. I will play Teferi's Protection in Trostani SV because it protects my board without killing my own tokens which is important because I need a token to populate and my board and my life total will grow quickly so it incentivizes opponents to hit me with a board wipe. I don't play Fog itself or the white equivalent Holy Day (at least Ethereal Haze can stop effect damage from creatures for what that might be worth). Too many other cards to play. Better options IMO.
One way that I've used fog is to make the ultimate political swing. Protect one opponent from being wiped or killed so that they can turn around the next turn and kill the player that attacked them.
I think when people ask "what's your wincon", it's understood that it's via combat damage unless otherwise stated. The more important question *how* you win with combat damage, which varies from deck to deck.
Every time I hear him mention this idea that "The way most decks win the game is through combat damage" it makes me wonder if he truly doesn't understand what people mean when they ask the question. Most people know that "How do you win?" Usually means "what is the plan with the deck?" Are you trying to combo? Are you making a massive army of tokens and creatures to attack everyone with? Are you trying to pile it all on one creature to kill someone? Are you planning to deny your opponent's resources so they can't stop you from hitting them with a 2/1 every turn? Sure at a base level the goal of the game is get your opponent to 0. To say that "Well most decks are going to try and win through combat damage" feels like an intentional misunderstanding of what people mean when they ask that. I think he has some decent thoughts on things, like maybe people should play more fog effects as he states in this video, but that first video he refers to just seems so unnecessary lol
I have a feeling the misunderstanding is in the other direction @@Linkdude74 Many players genuinely cannot fathom not playing "combos" that btfo and win on the spot, attrition is a viable and common "win condition" that many decks utilize without needing to identify as such. Really, the default is winning by attrition and every deck with a different specific "win condition" is the outlier, which is exactly his point. It's an important difference of perspective.
100% i’ve won countless games because players assumed they could kill me on board before i responded with darkness (diehard black player) or even a tainted strike to eat 6 to 9 poison counters instead of dying lime they expected
Everydeck that I have and always had a darkness in it, and else an other card with that effect. One deck I have zero boardwipes for you get punised if you doing it, has 6 cards with a fog effect in a black blue white deck.
Next underrated card? Fountain Bell. I know it's a new card but I'm putting it in every one of my 23 decks. Even my mono colored decks. How many times are you hoping your draw is a land so you don't miss your land drop? At the very worst it's 2 mana draw a card.
The flavor text on Fog kept from italicizing "can". It almost feels intentional, due to the purpose of the word "can", like underlining a specific word in a sentence.
I played in an fnm many years ago, my opponent went for an alpha strike. He was like "gg." And I was like no... and he was like what do you mean. Showed him fog and my open mana. I won next turn. Dude was so mad
Red has Glacial Crevasses, a repeatable fog enchantment that requires you to sac snow covered mountains. I've played it in some weird landfall/staxy decks (Enris//Street Urchin for example), or just for giggles in mono red. It can be surprisingly effective and almost always draws out "what the heck is that card?"s from random pods.
Blue has -X/-0 effects, which have a lot of functional overlap with a Fog. They can work particularly great against someone going wide with a ton of tokens/weenies and since they aren't preventing damage on your side, can lead to some very favorable trades via blocking. But of course they're less effective in other scenarios like against a single huge Voltron attacker.
The issue with Fogs is that they generally don't instantly turn the tide. Inkshield makes you a massive board, but a boardwipe after kinda makes it mute. Someone like Constant Mists is 'better' because it a recurable fog that you always build around. My Soul of Windgrace deck uses it not because it's a fog alone, but a way to keep my alive while letting me loop lands over and over.
The fog meta is upon us! Codfather be praised!
Came to say this. The fog meta is real, boys! Get on it!
Same here. FOG META!!!!!
Dawn charm is my favorite underused card. a modal fog
@@moedark4390Comeuppance is my favorite
Our playgroup has embraced the fog meta, and it can really swing games. I love them. So underated in the internet discourse
Batwing Brume is one of my favorite pet cards. People just don't expect to die on their combat step.
Agreed that fogs are the most underrated category of cards out there, but I think a fog effect by itself just isn't enough to warrant a deck slot. TefPro, FoF, and cards like it see more play because they're also protection from the somewhat common boardwipe; them having a fog effect on top is icing on the cake. Therefore, my advice is to look for fogs that do more than just prevent combat damage. Arachnogenesis is great for token/go wide strategies, Dawn Charm has other modes, and Obscuring Haze has the upside of not preventing the damage your creatures are dealing which means it can manage huge tempo swings.
The Arachnogenesis reprints recently were absolute blessings
Riot Control for life gain
Blessed respite is one i use a lot. It can counter mill, stop reanimations and fog. So good
Big fan of blessed respite. Never not happy to see it
There are plenty of "one sided" fog effects as well, like the one that prevents non-human sources or non-werewolf. There are fogs that care about keywords, like trample and most importantly fogs counter unblockable too
Darkness wins games in my mono black deck. And if you’re like “well, what if I don’t need it?”
Not needing it is a great problem to have.
3:20 I think you missed "Holy Day" which is quite literally a white fog
Tangle is an mvp is many decks. Not only does it fog, but it leaves them completely tapped for their entire next turn!
Dawn Charm has been a pet card of mine for years. There's always one mode making it worth it.
I absolutely love Fog effects. It's almost like an extra turn spell in the right situations. My friends really hate when I have a Genesis + Spor Frog combo. Such big impact for a single mana.
it's even better than an extra turn sometimes since your opponent has probably wasted some of their resources.
Dawn Charm. Fog, counterspell, or regenerate, all super useful protections. And Batwing Brume, hooboy, does that one always pay off. Two mana fogs are not ideal, but they can come with such stellar upsides that I can't resist.
Came here to say this - Dawn Charm can be a blowout in several different ways and it's hard to be a dead card (and something many don't see coming in white).
Nothing is funnier than making the token play die out of nowhere with Batwing Brume.
Yeah man, Dawn Charm can be such a lifesaver
My friends have played “fog” as a bit of a joke for the past year now. It has actually been such a prevalent card in our group that I now hold open counterspells or some form of interaction when playing against “the deck full of fog”
Tangle and Respite are two Fog effects that can straight up end a game.
New drinking game : take a shot whenever he says "combat damage"
On most of the videos on this channel, "in the format" is my go to drinking game phrase
I once played my golgari graveyard deck. There were 2 other guys. One with green stopmy deck and one guy with his deck( but he was screwed - he like never frew his 4th land). I managed to survive 5 turns of lethal swings reanimating spore frog over and over again. Meanwhile I manager to draw my own wincons and pull a win. One of most instant games i played. Never did as much being so under pressure and manager to survive thx to 1 mana fog on a creature.
Fog is very underrated but it can saves you very easily. Also can be use to help another player or stops to that players whos made infinite token army and swings to get the game.
We asked ourselves this exact question when my roommate made a group hug/slug deck lately (she often comes to me before ordering the deck, just to be sure she did not forget anything).
When your deck is likely to be a bit hated by the entire table (groupslug for example), you know people will hit you as often as possible, and not expect fogs. Last game night it was key to allow her to survive all the aggression.
Also, I'm a big believer in the free fog, which is cheap and underrated, and being a one-sided fog you can also use it during your combat step. Just a very good card that nobody plays.
I have to add that most decks can't win through a constant mist, the card is really back breaking, but hey, that's why you need several wincons !
I’ve not played too many real games with my new Manifest deck, but Frontline Strategist (a fog for all non-Soldiers on a faceup trigger) has saved my life in at least half of them.
Fog effects are common in my play groups. To mitigate the effects of fogs, I started adding Skull Crack and other cards to respond to fog effects as I usually have access to red in my combat focused decks. Call in a professional and flaring pain which has flashback are other examples.
My absolute favorite fog effects are Spore Cloud and Blessed Respite. They're so versatile. Blessed Respite fills a graveyard hate slot. Casting Spore Cloud after damage when an opponent swings on another opponent is a dream of mine. Taps down TWO boards so you can swing freely. It's worth the three mana any day. And they're dirt-dirt cheap.
I love me some fog effects, especially asymmetrical ones! My favorite cheap under the radar one is Thwart The Enemy from Ikoria- 2G Instant - Prevent all damage that would be dealt this turn by creatures your opponents control. Sure it's 3 mana but it's totaly worth it and nobody ever expects it
I have a voltron deck with an oversized Sigarda, Host of Herons card. I run a few different Fog-like cards. My favorite are the couple I have that, for just one additional mana, allows a single creature to still deal damage like Terrifying Presence, which then lets me use my massive Sigarda as removal in addition to the protection.
Shout out to Selfless Squire. Love me a good clean fog-ish effect.
I also almost forgot to mention Angel of the Dire Hour, Aetherize, and Settle the Wreckage. There are a lot of great options for stopping your opponent for running you over.
I have a Vren, The Relentless Dimir control deck. It was down to just me and one other guy. I had one black mana open and he had a huge board (mono green Yorvo) and i just had my commander and like 2 rat tokens out. He was like go to attacks, swing with everything, GG. I was like hold on. I cast Darkness. The look on his face was priceless! I proceeded to untap cast armor of shadows on my commander into damnation. Wiped his entire board and had 18, 19 19 rats. I counterspelled all his next plays and then killed him the next turn. One of my greatest moments in MTG.
I put Chant of Vitu Gazi in my St Traft and Rem deck becuase it’s got a convoke theme and that card had convoke. I thought I’d take it out someday but I’ve cast it three times I think and it’s been great each time.
The irony is that, in my first play group, Fog effects were EVERYWHERE. Everyone and their grandmother used Fog. It was like the number one most used card across every player among us. Once I found others, Fog is almost never seen.
I have an interesting deck building idea for you. Take a random number generator and have it pick out 4 or 5 different sets from the millions of sets we now have. Build a deck out of cards ONLY from those sets as well as a commander ONLY from those sets. Enjoy. For more of a challenge, your commander has to come from the OLDEST of all the sets randomly chosen. Go forth and create.
PS: Doing this has really spiced up my pod of players and forced us to be more creative and imaginative in our deck building skills. We roll at the end of each of our sessions (to keep it honest) and determine in front of each other exactly which sets can be used and the potential commanders available to them. Two weeks to build.
Surprisingly, we've only had one real blow-out game where one player smashed everyone due to random sets seeming to align perfectly.
My favourite "fog" effect is Reins of Power. If you cast it after they declare attackers it's a fog, if you don't run a lot of creatures and cast it on your turn it's a game breaker! At my LGS I only had an Archivist on the field while the guy across the table from me had a ton of dragon tokens from Miirym. After he read and re-read Reins of Power for a minute, I won the game.
Angus Mackanzie fog tribal ftw! 🎉
I love fogs, I played the darkness in my urza deck and it saved me a lot of times . I think "damage CAN'T be prevented" is more underrated
Chandra and her cats in the corner:
Main thing holding back Fog is it can't protect against boardwipes. Utility is king.
Safe Passage will do red ones
100% agree, though I think a fog needs to have more upside to be fully worth a card slot these days. Example: in my Hazezon, Shaper of Sand list, I run Constant Mists. That's not just a fog for me, it's a repeatable land sacrifice, and I've used it for both reasons to win games.
Curious what your favorite fog is! There's a ton and they all function just a bit differently.
100% agree fogs are an auto include in green, but i think where white does it better is stopping the damage or stopping the change of life total. The red noncombat damage player would still get the win in that scenario, but you are right in saying the majority of decks go for the late game combat damage win. I’ve also been on the attacking side and been stuffed by an obscuring haze and arachnogenisis.
I have a cat deck that's mostly a fog deck. I call it Catfog. Helmed by Mirri, I create a bunch of cats and swing out and control combat by fogging as often as possible.
ayyy nice I run my Rin and Seri deck with a similar strategy only 1 fog ( blessed respite hoping to switch to tangle soon) but cards that control the combat or tap down a players field at instant speed really help those small cats and dogs get through for damage.
Darkness, Batswing Brume and finally Inkshield (I was using a Mardu deck) during a 4 player match last night at my local LGS Commander night when a player swung eleven 10/10's at the three of us (all of us at 20 or less life) with a total of 40 at me!
comeuppance is another good one to add to that list!
When you think about it, whenever a spore frog pops up, everyone freaks out and wants it gone
I picked up 5 copies of Obscuring Haze for a about 80 cents each a while ago (the free commander one-sided fog that does all creature damage, not just combat)
They're so good
My most requested deck I get asked to play is my Thantis Fogs deck with 12 fog affects. a fog most defiantly 100% completely alters the outcome of any game. And ill add, it is fun to save someone else life if they where about to be knocked out too early. "Your win con is my win con."
Fogs are great - I try to include at least one in every deck, sometimes more. There are some decks that literally cannot beat a Constant Mists or Spore Frog as well. Fog-adjacent cards like Aetherize and Settle the Wreckage are also incredibly good.
Moment's Peace is a fog with flashback. It makes you feel INVINCIBLE when you get it back with your Regrowth or your Eternal Witness.
I started to put more protection spells in my deck since a few months now and it works, even better than removal in most cases
Wholeheartedly agree! I run a lot of fog effects in my group hug deck and it's great!
Pause for Reflection is one fog that I feel is often overlooked. It is too expensive to hard cast it for it's effect, but it's a Convoke spell so you don't even need open mana to cast it.
For me Tangle is the best option for preventing in green.
Sure a fog can save you, the downside is that it saves your opponents too during a "kill all opponents at once" swing. Which is ok if you're playing archenemy or are the only one being attacked, but it's often the difference between you surviving, winning on the crack back after they're open with no other opponents, and that alpha swinger surviving because the next rotation not enough damage can swing in while still leaving shields up.
I lump the removal and protection spells into an interaction category; 20-25 per deck. The line between the two is blurry. Is Fierce Guardianship a removal spell or a protection spell?
I think fog effects with additional upside to turn the tide is where it’s at, i.e. Galadrhim Ambush.
Pure fogs that don’t also progress the board always have felt bad in my hand. Take the Bait, Arachnogenesis, Galahdrim Ambush, Comeuppance, INKSHIELD!?! Now those are the kind that put in the work. They get better too, when your opponents know they are in your deck, as just holding up the correct mana can psyche opponents out, essentially making them free fogs if you can also utilize that mana in other flash spells or mana dumps.
Then you’ve got the ones that are so replayable that they can lock out games, with Constant Mists, Dawnstrider, Kami of False hope, and Sporefrog. They can be much more effective, but also to a point of becoming so strong of a pillowfort effect as so to transform into stax.
Finally, I prefer having flexibility over a straight fog. Dawn Charm is the best, but in my 5c matters Jared deck, Undergrowth’s flexibility is such a workhorse. Some fogs don’t protect Plansewalkers, but this one does, and because most of my creatures are all colors, that means in a lot of board states, it can variably be one-sided, which provides the omph I want from my fogs.
Everything else is synergy based. For example, Druid’s Deliverance in a tall token deck, and quite a few can gain you chunks of life if that helps your strategy. That’s all I can remember on fogs off the top of my head.
I run fog and obscuring haze in all my green decks; my landfall deck has constant mists (which is now up to $20 since i guess it only has one printing and may be RL)
I love fogs in Voltron decks best, I had a really strong Slogurk the Overslime deck based on yours where I could usually kill one player and fog whichever swing would kill me. The dream was to get constant mists but I never did buy it.
Instant Fogs are a do nothing card unless you're behind. It's better to build cards that help you prevent it from getting that way. Not bad to have a few, but I prefer them on cards that are more proactive (Boromir, Warden of the Tower for example). Really depends on the fragility of your deck.
Fogs are awesome, i wouldnt play more than 1 or 2 though.
I have a Constant Mists in my Lord Windgrace deck, helps close out the game even without playing it out.
I love spore frog in my muldrotha deck. Fog frog is op if you can cast it every turn, only grave yard hate or ability countering can shut it down
I think fogs can be a bit of a trap too. It doesn't matter how many fogs you have if you can't win the game. I've seen several people fog or even teferis protection and get nothing out of it just to die the next turn
With that said, I only currently play a fog in one deck, Toski, because I'm constantly hitting people and have no blockers. I should find a few more to play it in though, I realize that.
Ok, hear me out. I’ve won multiple games with Jaheira's Respite. For 5 mana, it’s a pretty expensive fog, but grabbing (sometimes almost all of remaining) lands from your deck and putting them on the battlefield can make the crackback pretty hard. (I play it in a Jinnie Fay deck with a bunch of token creating X spells)
Darkness from the Necron precon I have has saved me numerous times, or it stops the craterhoof player from winning for one mana.
Sunstone and Glacial Crevasses are also options if we have snow lands
Constant Mists is my favorite fog card followed by the Spike Weaver.
Nice take on this.
I think MTG focus too much on creatures. They should diversify more.
I like this video.. i know turbofog is a decent strat.
But is 1-2 fogs really worth it? You either trade it to prevent one turn of mild damage, or you hold it for an alpha strike that may or may not occur.
If you draw it at the right time at all.
I will consider them, and again i think its a good idea, Demo. I just wonder if its too dependant on drawing the correct card at the correct time.
I guess id ask myself:
Is it better to have a 1 mana fog to hold for defense? Or a 1 mana Sol to go offense faster?
Fogs also allow you to swing out without blockers and feeling safe for counter attacks late game.
Fogs really are a blowout. When you're talking about games won or lost on a single attack, a one mana answer is very good.
White has the best one mana fog card, in Ethereal Haze, that can prevent all creature caused damage in a turn, including enter effects and pinging abilities.
i just lost a game to chandra's ignition. that would have totally stopped it.
I made a green ooze turbo fog deck and it was a blast!
I have learned so much from your channels.😊
i've been slowly working on a list with angus mackenzie as the head to just perma fog whenever i want lol, thinking to do unblockable/horsemanship creatures for that but then i've not worked out how but gonna try and have a bunch of fog set ups, like i said taking it slow lol
I had a fog deck. After a couple of times playing it, my playgroup would groan when I would take it out. So, I dismantled it. Que sera, sera.
I made a thantis, the warweaver deck a few weeks ago and in it i put a bunch of green fogs and omg they really do come in clutch! in one game a player was going OFF with dinosaurs had like 14 of them out and was going to kill the two other players I made a deal with them saved them with a fog It screwed the dinosaur player over so badly. He did not see it coming. We where able to kill him with our next turns
I have a thantis deck as well, absolutely love the fogs
Tangel is a killer. Two turns swinging on the biggest threat on the table, by you and the rest of the table.
I must be a weirdo. I like Alt-win-cons. But I still have plenty of combat-focused decks.
I've won with Biovisionary, Barren Glory, Approach of the Second Sun, Painter/Stone combo, Helm of Obedience combo, Revel in Riches, some Solemnity combos, Baneful Omen, Door to Nothingness, Undying Flames, Neverending Torment, Eternal Dominion, and Decimator Web.
The meta been dominated by Alpha strikes for a while but as more removal has been adopted protection has become the winning play
My Gitrog is just turbo fog and spot removal. It’s so damn fun.
To be fair flare of fortitude does NOT prevent combat damage so it’s not 100% like a fog.
This matters because you can still be killed via commander damage and the opponents combat damage triggers still proc if i am not mistaken.
correct. in this situation a fog is even better.
While I would say fog is underplayed I would also say fog effects and especially teferi's proc are incorrectly valued in what they do as I see people too often act as if they are a catch all to preventing losing when they only do so for a turn and for specific circumstances.
I see people treat fog effects as if they are equivalent to removal or boardwipes in terms of card slots when deckbuilding rather than properly valuing them as their own thing and identifying how they compliment boardwipes and removal as ways to change the tempo of the game.
Fog effects are able to be used in a variety of gameplans and ways but I see too many people not use them in a more flexible manner or try to make them fill a role they don't fit.
I’m all in on the fog-redemption arc.
One card I don't see often is An-Zerrin Ruins. Seems perfect for commander.
i have recommended it many times.
(Sorry got kinda long) Playing a fog for the sake of playing a fog is silly to me personally. I don't like circumstantial cards in my decks very much, every game now feels like I need to be drawing relevant cards in order to keep pace with my opponents and/or gain traction in a game. Might have something to do with my refusal to pay for expensive singles. Point for me is I will play a "fog" if there is something else to it besides just preventing ALL combat damage, usually it will be particularly synergistic with my deck as well. Playing Fog (the actual card) gives the possibility to "time walk" your opponent if you are ahead (but if you are ahead then it's less likely that you would have use for such a card) or you can effectively "time walk" yourself (you play Fog to prevent your opponent from killing you just so you can draw the card you would have drawn last turn if you didn't have Fog on top of your deck). There's a narrow chance that Fog could pull you back into the game if you made really good use of the rest of your mana that turn and then you are able to quickly rebuild which I have seen decks do and my decks have also done, but the whole idea is just so circumstantial. I'm only going to play Fog (the card) when it's going to prevent the most possible damage to me (which does not prevent effect damage which can and will defeat you more often now). Now Arachnogenesis, the king of all "fogs", is fairly worth the slot in general; if you play a token deck or a sacrifice deck then it's really even better. Arachnogenesis is a "fog" and it is a token generator AND it is a REMOVAL SPELL, as it prevents the combat damage from NON-SPIDER CREATURES already, so blocks are unnecessary but you can gang block on something and potentially get a kill; but then even more than that you have a blocker for each attacker that came FOR NEXT TURN too AND THEY HAVE REACH. I can play Arachnogenesis when I'm behind and actually have a decent chance at getting back into the game, I can play it when I'm slightly ahead and pull even further ahead, I mean I can play it mostly any time except for when I am far ahead with my board state and nobody will attack me. That is much less dead in hand than drawing Fog (the card) which is only really good sometimes and even then it doesn't guarantee that I'll actually be saved, can likely just stall my opponent for a single turn while they develop further, and then there's Questing Beast too (and Arachnogenesis will work even with him on the battlefield). Now there are some other options that are also similarly solid cards, Galadhrim Ambush being a different Arachnogenesis (Elves don't have reach though), Safe Passage is an old one that nobody uses which only prevents damage from OPPONENT creatures, Batwing Brume (as shown in the video) has the option to burn your opponents which gives it more flexibility... there are just better options than Fog specifically. It's too redundant to be running several Fogs, I have a hard enough time trying to pack enough removal WITH enough ramp AND enough card draw AND still be able to play all of the cards that I actually want for my main strategy. That's pretty much my take. I'll play Arachnogenesis in Baba Lysaga for example, because it's a SLAM DUNK. I WILL get attacked with that deck and I have NEED for bodies to sacrifice. I will play Teferi's Protection in Trostani SV because it protects my board without killing my own tokens which is important because I need a token to populate and my board and my life total will grow quickly so it incentivizes opponents to hit me with a board wipe. I don't play Fog itself or the white equivalent Holy Day (at least Ethereal Haze can stop effect damage from creatures for what that might be worth). Too many other cards to play. Better options IMO.
One way that I've used fog is to make the ultimate political swing. Protect one opponent from being wiped or killed so that they can turn around the next turn and kill the player that attacked them.
I think when people ask "what's your wincon", it's understood that it's via combat damage unless otherwise stated. The more important question *how* you win with combat damage, which varies from deck to deck.
Just watched more of the video, I'd say Myr Incubator in your example is a perfect example of a wincon!
Every time I hear him mention this idea that "The way most decks win the game is through combat damage" it makes me wonder if he truly doesn't understand what people mean when they ask the question. Most people know that "How do you win?" Usually means "what is the plan with the deck?" Are you trying to combo? Are you making a massive army of tokens and creatures to attack everyone with? Are you trying to pile it all on one creature to kill someone? Are you planning to deny your opponent's resources so they can't stop you from hitting them with a 2/1 every turn? Sure at a base level the goal of the game is get your opponent to 0. To say that "Well most decks are going to try and win through combat damage" feels like an intentional misunderstanding of what people mean when they ask that. I think he has some decent thoughts on things, like maybe people should play more fog effects as he states in this video, but that first video he refers to just seems so unnecessary lol
I have a feeling the misunderstanding is in the other direction @@Linkdude74
Many players genuinely cannot fathom not playing "combos" that btfo and win on the spot, attrition is a viable and common "win condition" that many decks utilize without needing to identify as such. Really, the default is winning by attrition and every deck with a different specific "win condition" is the outlier, which is exactly his point. It's an important difference of perspective.
100% i’ve won countless games because players assumed they could kill me on board before i responded with darkness (diehard black player) or even a tainted strike to eat 6 to 9 poison counters instead of dying lime they expected
Undergrowth carries the potential to be a one sided dog if you’re in Gruul.
I love using fog-effects. Don't forget Aetherize for blue.
Yes, i knew i would have Fear, Fire, Foes! be useful. I always put it in against One Ring players but haven't seen one yet.
I try to run at leaast one fog in every deck I play just that one extra turn to draw a card or to cast a boardwipe is so valuable
Everydeck that I have and always had a darkness in it, and else an other card with that effect. One deck I have zero boardwipes for you get punised if you doing it, has 6 cards with a fog effect in a black blue white deck.
I have fog in my tasigur deck. if that hits my graveyard I will get it back through politics every time. It literally shuts down the game.
Glacial Crevasses on my monored burn works wonders.
Next underrated card? Fountain Bell. I know it's a new card but I'm putting it in every one of my 23 decks. Even my mono colored decks. How many times are you hoping your draw is a land so you don't miss your land drop? At the very worst it's 2 mana draw a card.
When it comes to fogs, Spikeweaver in any green +1/+1 counter strategy is straight broken.
Questing beast laughs at your fog
Usually when I resolve Inkshield on my Raffine deck, I win.
The flavor text on Fog kept from italicizing "can". It almost feels intentional, due to the purpose of the word "can", like underlining a specific word in a sentence.
"almost"…?
When you unitalicize a word in an italic passage (like flavour text), it's the equivalent of italicizing a word in a regular passage.
I played in an fnm many years ago, my opponent went for an alpha strike. He was like "gg." And I was like no... and he was like what do you mean. Showed him fog and my open mana. I won next turn. Dude was so mad
totally agree a fog won me a game against my buddy's sliver deck last turn 😂
I want a count for the amount of times he said "combat damage"
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no fogs at my lgs, so good, im cutting blessed respite for it
I like fog effects I try to get one or two in most of my decks
I remember this game! I was the Ajani player!
yes you were
Of course, red and blue don't have Fog effects.
Or do they? I feel like Illusionist's Gambit needs to be mentioned here.
Red has Glacial Crevasses, a repeatable fog enchantment that requires you to sac snow covered mountains. I've played it in some weird landfall/staxy decks (Enris//Street Urchin for example), or just for giggles in mono red. It can be surprisingly effective and almost always draws out "what the heck is that card?"s from random pods.
Each color can run sunstone (3 mana artifact, pay 2 and sac a snow land to fog)
Blue has -X/-0 effects, which have a lot of functional overlap with a Fog. They can work particularly great against someone going wide with a ton of tokens/weenies and since they aren't preventing damage on your side, can lead to some very favorable trades via blocking. But of course they're less effective in other scenarios like against a single huge Voltron attacker.
The issue with Fogs is that they generally don't instantly turn the tide. Inkshield makes you a massive board, but a boardwipe after kinda makes it mute.
Someone like Constant Mists is 'better' because it a recurable fog that you always build around. My Soul of Windgrace deck uses it not because it's a fog alone, but a way to keep my alive while letting me loop lands over and over.
Worst part is when you play multiple and you draw them in your opening hand