Best Cards to Stay Alive | Commander Clash Podcast 109

The crew discuss the best ways to stay alive in Commander and rate them in a tier list!
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[@kaszael]

Tomer, you actually killed me in a game while I was under Teferi,s Pro and you proliferated me to 10 poison with you Ixhel deck.

[@DHGcrimson]

gross lol

[@gibbysg8143]

Died under teferi’s protection?! OP ban poison now!!!!

[@charleswu830]

Dear god

[@Bleuchz]

I love that during the intro Tomer waves to us, the audience, and Crim waves back to Tomer lol

[@eulefranz944]

Couple goals

[@iota7037]

super adorable, the best smile on them too

[@patricewalker1920]

So wholesome 😃😃😃

[@felipeguidolin1055]

I side with Seth and Tomer on the board wipe discussion. I play 2 to 3. I have my draws to try to find them. If I lose, I lose, it's fine. It's maddening to play a game with a wipe every other turn.

[@timbombadil4046]

Used to play the other way with more sweepers. Games tend to take too long, feel like you're doing too little since you're always setting up for your next sweeper so committing to the board isn't worth it.

[@peewee0224]

Yeah I think playing more sweepers is probably optimal but it just ruins commander games when 2 board wipes get set off in the same game.

[@micahhonig1575]

Tbh 1 mana 1/1s with deathtouch like moss viper are really underrated for staving off early attacks

[@jamesmoore1476]

I stuck the 1 mana 1/1 with deathtouch from Kamigawa in my Anikthea deck for that very reason, Fang of Shigeki, maybe? Obv, has enchantment synergies too.

[@zoeysheldon5634]

@@jamesmoore1476 Hell yeah, it is Fang of Shigeki, and I personally love that card in my Pharika snake enchantress deck.

[@Kestral287]

Absolutely. Baleful Strix is legitimately the best version of Ghostly Prison ever printed.

[@QuietlyHere666]

My lovely little sickly rat

[@peewee0224]

@@Kestral287bro thank you I’ve been debating on putting it in my deck but when you put it that way it’s actually insane because even late game it’s a two mana cycle that’s still a good blocker

[@zemineriver8043]

Hoping to see inkshield on here it's one of my favorite forms of protection because it also wins you the game if you use it right

[@Will_Morand]

Inkshield is incredible! Once used it against a Voltron deck swinging for 25 commander damage and was able to wipe out the entire table next turn.

[@felipeguidolin1055]

Inkshield is completely broken! I love it

[@ivrissgaming8006]

Lol, the first time my buddy used inksheild I was swinging for 40+ damage to win game. He inksheilded thinking he would win, then I responded with my own fog...

[@zemineriver8043]

@@ivrissgaming8006 that's hilarious

[@Dynme]

@@ivrissgaming8006 I don't think that interaction works. As the person being damaged, your friend would get to choose whether to apply his Inkshield or your fog.

[@BloodMoonGo]

Richard: "don't play so much spot removal and counters, have a good board state." Me: "why didn't I think of that? I'll just tell my opponent not to interact with me."

[@blainerodgers5294]

Playing swords can impact your opponents’ interaction? Maybe hate bears?

[@MiguelMaravilla]

Pretty sure Richard's whole playstyle and philosophies involve not being a noticeable threat, or deterring/disincentivizing people from attacking him, which I would assume comes from a "good but subtle boardstate". From his thinking, playing spot removal draws aggression from the person he hit. And then he has "insurance" or failsafes like Maze of Ith when someone does swing at him.

[@BloodMoonGo]

@MiguelMaravilla that's fine in theory, but he assumes other players will always remove the threat so he doesn't have to. I prefer to have my own answers and be able to deal with any board state. Completely different play-styles. I'm closer to a Crim than a Richard

[@peewee0224]

@@MiguelMaravillahonestly that makes complete sense but that gets blown up by smart people who can see that.

[@destinyhero]

Taunt from the Rampart is the BEST NEW CARD and it goes into EVERY Red/White deck. The more people start losing to this card the more they will realize the strength of it.

[@peewee0224]

Super mid

[@itsthatguyarc7186]

I'm definitely in the camp of blockers as deterrents matters. The case I make (feel free to call it a cope case) is my pet card Wall of Frost. It exists only to block. It contributes nothing to advancing my deck's main strategy, it won't ever outright remove value from the table, and even in its one role it can be defeated by evasion. Despite every argument against it, though, my experience with it has been that nobody wants to impede their strategy when the choice presents itself and the alternative is just not being impeded; people don't ramp into their attack-for-value commanders and give them haste boots just to attack with them every other turn. At times it doesn't even matter that the 0/7 would die for it; if somebody's racing to get value and lower life before their threat is removed, the math of spending two turns just to get rid of one guy I don't need to win just isn't there. Sure, the tit-for-tat of people spot-removing each other's stuff still happens and there'll be a time when a board wipe is the answer, but through that process I'm avoiding losing my life and important pieces by not getting caught in the scuffles. If I end up ahead I'm the archenemy either way, but if I don't end up ahead the next best thing is to not be the one that's closest to being knocked out, and in the end that's what blockers do.

[@RyanEglitis]

Tomer, playing onboard value creatures isn't "blockers." Baleful striix, Solemn, and Wood Elves are where you want to be.

[@zeroisnine]

I prefer Swords to Gifts, generally, because mana is so important. I like Gifts fine, but 1 mana is so much easier to fit into your curve than 3 mana.

[@austinbrown2833]

We now need a tier list for “fog” cards just to see Crim melt lol

[@crazedzealots]

They already did that one.

[@brendans1983]

Fun fact: you can still attack a player that has resolved a Teferi's Protection. They wont take any combat damage, but you still get to declare attackers and receive any bonuses that may provide you.

[@winter945]

And get them with the questing beast still doing damage

[@Ktjnn]

I have been saved by Trickbind countless times. I've saved the table from Basalt Monolith combo, Deadeye/Temur Sabertooth combo, Thoracle, and more so many times. The clause that they can't activate the abilities on the card again is super understated.

[@kaiwolf6020]

In the latest Commander Clash Episode S15E11 Richard has shown us at 01:18:00 how important spot removal is! It prevented an opponent from winning the game. I still do not get why he rates spot removal so low....nevertheless love your content! :) EDIT: But I want to give him credit for pointing out that fog-effects are worth considering. I was sceptical, tried it, and turns out somtimes they are life-saving as he argues :)

[@starchaser6024]

Because everyone else runs spot removal for him 😂

[@buberoini]

He is against running a lot of spot removal. He has 1-2 spot removal just for those moments

[@redcar28]

I play Blessed Respite in basically all of my green decks these days. It's similar to Angelsong, except instead of having Cycling it has the added value of being a panic button against opposing graveyard shenanigans. It can also save your graveyard from being exiled if that's something you care about, and buys you a whole lot of time against mill. I find the card to be very rarely dead.

[@erikohman2294]

Authority of the consuls! It deters attacking, because their new stuff cant block, Also tons of lifegain. Its a bit of a half measure, but it really makes you able to hold your wrath for a while extra.

[@zoeysheldon5634]

A half measure that's still a really good half measure for 1 mana is still really good. Definitely love that card.

[@erikohman2294]

@@zoeysheldon5634 Played it alongside crowd favorites like approach of the second sun and glacial chasm. It acrews so much value, but it reads like nothing, so people just cant find it in their heart to use a removal. Wonderful.

[@blue9393]

Tomer and Crim are so wrong on fog. Almost every time I have a fog in my hand it has lead to me winning the game. They are so good.

[@umpatte0]

If you aren't going to pay the 1 to prevent a card draw, you'll never pay the 2 to attack.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

Even playing Archon of Absolution, which is a Ghostly Prison but only costs 1 to attack, people would just rather play their spells than attack when given the choice, and it very much does force that choice to be made.

[@jamesmoore1476]

Richard is the sole reason I started playing a couple land removals in every deck. Not MLD, just a few ways to get rid of Maze's, Gaea's Cradle/Growing Rites, etc. I have seen Richard completely control games with Maze and the rest of you are severely underestimating it. I usually use the lands that blow up non-basics.

[@baconsir1159]

I’ll take Ophiomancer over Ghostly Prison every time lol

[@shayneweyker]

Not in enchantress decks. Also they didn't talk about the importance of flying creatures. Prison/Propaganda works on those while Ophie doesn't. I would play him in most sacrifice decks though.

[@baconsir1159]

@@shayneweyker "works" on them, unless your opponent chooses to just pay the 2. As for enchantress, I'd probably just go with Authority of Consuls or Blind Obedience at that point. Functionally similar in saving you life, but also do other things (like stopping/delaying combos or draining) and don't give your opponents any choice.

[@leonnarem7227]

They're a little mana intensive, but I have a real soft spot for Time Stop cards. Functionally they won't often be better or even as good as a Cryptic Command, but those edge cases where it ruins a plan are great.

[@itsthatguyarc7186]

I'm also a fan of Time Stop. I agree it's definitely more of a defensive card and won't help you push for a knockout like Cryptic Command can, but I honestly think of it as blue's premium version of Teferi's Protection, since the only way Teferi's Protection can do its job better is to not even let the opponent advance their board state or get you with an alternative win condition. With its cost though I do think Time Stop mostly makes sense in decks that are either good at making treasures or having other mana outlets at instant speed.

[@Skuntdilly]

I really love Lightmine Field for this purpose. Really underrated card vs token heavy decks

[@michaelcollins4534]

I just read that card, and as a token player, I must quote the heavy: "I fear no man, but that thing... it scares me."

[@jjvh500]

I don't think I've ever seen that card. That's a really cool "don't attack me" card!

[@Pinfeldorf]

If you really don't want people attacking you, pair the Lightmine Field with Repercussion.

[@starchaser6024]

It hits your own creatures as well so what is the plan here exactly?

[@michaelcollins4534]

@@starchaser6024 stax em out

[@PalPlays]

Here are my two favorite removal spells: Mystic Subdual: I value the ability to turn off a broken commander at instant speed. This can often neuter a deck. Baleful Mastery: "Exile target creature. Draw a card." is how this reads to me. Every game has an archenemy. Every game has an underdog. It's the removal version of Hunted Horror (which I think is good).

[@lxyacht]

Seth, the Rhystic Study only drew 20 cards because you wouldn't pay the one.

[@xaropevic7918]

He needs to be teached by arena zoomers to pay the one

[@timbombadil4046]

"In my aggro decks I'd play like 9...You can't out aggro the board" If you're looking to sweeper your opponents out of the game, you're not playing an aggro deck.

[@happybrain2674]

isnt playerremoval the best protection (and removal)? if the opponent is ded, he cant harm anyone!

[@Schmanton]

You can't compare swords to plowshares to an efficient Artefakt removal. Swords is good in every deck because there is not a Single deck without creatures. But there are decks without enchantments, or even without Artefakts, except maybe an Solring.

[@colbybastian17]

Spot removal for creatures and counter spells when available is absolutely mandatory because every single commander is kill on sight, and sometimes even spot removal isn't enough because the combos are instant speed themselves.

[@Dynme]

53:00 Also bear in mind that a lot of the fogs are in green. Guess what green doesn't have much of. If you guessed wraths, good job, you've been paying attention.

[@marsrocks247]

The people that complain about interactions, counter magic and sweepers are also the people aggressively dumping their entire hands onto the board in a mad dash to say "I win!" That's why to be good to them, and help teach them that magic is about more than having a good opening hand and dropping it onto the table, we punish them.

[@kevinstemmle6698]

Where would you put Stunning Reversal? It stops both combat damage as well as combos but does not stop infect/commander damage. But the one thing i love about it is draw 7 usually gives you a good chance of getting a card you need to get out of the bad situation

[@RyuPlaneswalker]

You all Forgot about the Second best blocker behind Baleful Strix. Gonti, Lord of Luxury. Also Specifically to Richard : Have you ever tried Nadaar, Selfless Paladin? It seems like a card that specifically is built for you. He provides Value, gets in Small bits of Chip damage and can Block.

[@ivrissgaming8006]

Fogs are amazing, i once soft locked my opponents by using constant mists with a unflipped thaumatic compass so 8 could keep sacing lands for buyback, then search up a new land for next tirn

[@bennettwadekamper8238]

Y'all love sweepers way to much. They don't let you win. Richard goes hard on advancing board state, except when it comes to blowing all your mana and letting your opponents deploy before you. Have 1-3 as a safety valve in case you need it. But usually you're losing out by being the one wrathing.

[@FrankPalombo]

Barrier breach can be used as multi target removal (especially against enchantment creatures) or card draw

[@jassemsleiman5257]

come on.. Fog Meta babyyyyy.. I've recently become a believer in the fog meta. My LGS EDH Night has a fair amount of "one-shot by Commander", and the fog meta has saved me quite a few times.

[@alexanderramos3273]

I believe you can proliferate the final poison counter onto an opponent after Teferi’s Pro

[@colbybastian17]

I FIGURED IT OUT! Richard is terrible at evaluating spot removal cards because he assumes everyone else plays like him and doesn't have "arch enemy" cards.

[@kevinthecarpathian]

If someone told me they ran 9 board wipes I would probably just play with them the one time lol

[@Muongoing.97c]

My boros voltron deck runs many of the board wipes that leave just one thing alive for each player, but it also then wins the game.

[@yodabuddy2112]

The thing with infect is that it still deals damage, the damage is just in the form of poison counters instead of changing the life total. You will still need to stop damage prevention if you go pure infect, but as long as the teferi's pro player has poison counters you can always proliferate since it is targeting the counters, not the players

[@TenshiArix]

I think Nature's claim is just as, if not better, then swords when it comes to single target removal that's narrow It covers 2 types that tend to be win conditions. Stuff like KCI, Bolas citadel, miraris wake, Zendikar resurgent, fiery emancipation etc.

[@foosandbrews4680]

Back in my day we used walls and COPs.

[@tribalmattersmtg5532]

I think at the top they should have had a discussion around whether you want to stay alive because halfway through this Seth defends his choices by saying he would rather die and start another game and several agreed with that. So the choice of staying alive is probably an important thing to consider before putting cards in your deck to achieve it.

[@marsrocks247]

Fog can be used at instant speed to prevent an opponent from alpha striking another opponent, thereby leaving the attacker who thought they had a kill completely open to a revenge death, and you buy yourself a temporary ally.

[@cannibalskitchen8421]

I agree that life gain is a B. It does nothing against any sort of infinite combo, and every deck has a way to negate it in the form of commander damage, but obviously this might not be applicable to all decks.

[@willmcgraw5237]

Richard’s ghostly prison argument fell on deaf ears. He literally wins most of his games because he has light pillow fort and is out of lethal range but not doing anything super scary until he wins. He’s playing like good defense vs gambling on a steal to go with a sports ball metaphor

[@alexandrelima2766]

I like how everybody is so down on fogs even though nobody has won a game against a constant mist player in commander clash history

[@zeroisnine]

Nesting Grounds plus Glacial Chasm

[@stormtrooperjeepjk]

i was playing my own frodo food deck the other night... we had three wraths.... and i popped offcreated a bunch of squirrel tokens.... had nadier nightbalde out and wrathed myself to kill the table :)

[@Chris-yb8bg]

I like Angel's grace for oracle combo.

[@kylekovacs497]

90+ minutes and no mention of Peacekeeper 🥺

[@shayneweyker]

It's cool but fragile and mana-intensive and outside of pure combo most people don't want to ban all attacks. With Moat you can at least play fliers.

[@thetrinketmage]

Glacial Chasm is probably one of the best ways to stay alive! Many decks can really struggle against it especially if you have a way to reset the age counters!

[@ChrisEllis007]

Don't play fog, but play one sided fogs, like comeuppance and riot control. Everyone else dies to the hoof but you're safe 😉

[@sir_quirkus7206]

Fogs have saved my ass way more than most of these other cards. So I don’t get the hate on them in this. Craterhoof is a huge problem in my playgroup. I do like to run settle the wreckage and aetherize as well for these scenarios

[@billiumdollars]

Propaganda effects are very mana efficient compared to wraithing a bunch or using spot removal

[@keeganbham]

Ulamog is the best spot removal 😎

[@Bubblenuts13]

Custom card idea: Field of Pozeys. Land (T): Goad target creature. Activate only during non-combat steps. Would this be busted? I wouldn’t want to actually see it, but the cast made it come to mind

[@soleo2783]

Its not sol ring busted, but for casual commander, this is significantly better than your average utility land, goad for small utility creatures/commanders might aswell be removal most of the time.

[@TheObstalace]

As someone with a firkraag half goad half dragons deck i can safely say people just hit you with every non goaded creature possible bc it makes them feel better to "choose" their own attacks

[@BobardeZanzibar]

Seth's card should have been stunning reversal.

[@MTGGoldfish]

Don't remind me

[@shayneweyker]

They should have probably have put Parallax Wave in with Ghostly Prison effects or targeted removal.

[@crss29]

STOP WHATABOUTING OTHER COLORED CARDS

[@Shimatzu95]

Verry much agree with richard. Play creatures that you can block with, either because they already got their value or because they ate just straight up expendeble. To go even further on this: tokens And if someone asks of course i have a token deck in all 2 color combinations.

[@kjellegilhustad2095]

I think you can be milled out when you are under Teferis protection.

[@TransformersBoss]

I didn’t know when the video ended because nobody said “seeya!”

[@SheetsInc]

I run 6 sweepers per deck if I can. My alara deck runs 12

[@aerikl3556]

I owe my life to Spore Frog. All hail the frog!

[@PaulSzkibik]

I still don't really like beast within and and generous gift. Call me a scrub but it'd still rather play super cheap removal than a 3-mana spell with downside in exchange for the flexibility. That or, say, a reclamation sage. Instead of giving my oponent a 3/3 when I blow up their Rhystic Study, I can give myself a 2/1 to block, equip or use skullclamp on. I think I'd rather soften up my own gameplan by playing more "inflexible" removal with an upside (cheaper, extra stuff) in my deck than playing less universal removal with a downside.

[@diggerdog9205]

I dont think they'd like my Dihada superfriends with nothing but board wipes, humility, and peace keeper

[@jeremiahchamberlain4179]

Ya seth everything is a ghostly prison. Blocker thats a ghostly prison. Rhystic study thats a ghostly prison. Sweepers ya thats a ghostly prison. The game is just various versions of ghostly prison.

[@santaclauseking]

Fogs are incredibly underrated! Tomer and Crim are crazy.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

Fogs don't go infinite or win the game on the spot, so of course Tomer considers them F tier.

[@atk9989]

​@@dontmisunderstand6041I can't count the number of times a fog has given me the lethal backswing to win a game. My play groups all keep in mind that I run fogs.

[@felipeguidolin1055]

Play Inkshield. A fog that wins you the game

[@shayneweyker]

They left out one of the better fogs in Tangle that makes attacking creatures not untap next turn. It prevents two attacks by the affected creatures and allows two counter-attacks. And allows for the fun trick of playing it after someone has already damaged an opponent with a big attack so the damage isn't prevented but the attacking creatures are still tapped an extra turn cycle. Also with all the new proliferate and hardened scales type spells the ignored Spike Weaver keeps getting better.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

@@atk9989 Back when the original Innistrad block was still new, one of my playgroup made a werewolf fog deck that got pretty gnarly. Fogs are just really good utility cards. They protect your creatures, protect your life total, help you pump through extra damage that you otherwise wouldn't (in the case of the one-sided fogs).

[@hanschristopherson8056]

Crim and richard love boardwipes too much, guys this is why commander clash is soo long

[@WiLDRAGE777]

Master Warcraft is a great card for staying alive and also killing people. Unlike Rampart it is instant so you can actually save yourself and you get to decide everything about combat that turn. The blowouts this card can create are insane.

[@2turnt11]

LESSON LEARNED : save your bacon

[@josepharmstrong6852]

If you talk about a card you should show that card. Helps for newer players if you talk about the ring show it I didn't know what it does I'd like to know so yea

[@alexkluck4959]

Normal people: "fog" Seth: "faaahg"

[@markusrows1096]

Not Seen the Video: Richard named Teferi's Protection

[@zeroisnine]

The first card he named

[@eon2330]

LoL. Just saying. If your defense is only board wipes thats come out turn 3 or 4. Thats ragavan, elves, baleful strix, espee sentinel, thieving skydiver etc having hit you 1 or 2 times and drawn a few cards while making treasures because you got cursed and then your wipe is hit by countermagic anyway. Seriously. You are gonna be 8/12 life down plus your self damage lands if you don't interact or defend for 4 turns.

[@KerDogg]

I personally hate board wipes unless it's one sided and you should have the decency to kill me. I've had my board wiped just cause someone couldn't do anything else and the game lasted another 2 hours because of it instead of 20 minutes.

[@tygy3088]

Personally, I like glacial chasm to keep myself alive, because the only one who's allowed to kill me is myself

[@zeroisnine]

Play Nesting Grounds. You can remove the age counters, so you only lose 2 life per turn.

[@tygy3088]

@@zeroisnine Holy shit thank you I didn't realize that card existed, I was already playing hex parasite but nesting grounds is even better.

[@Wijjum]

Someone tried to villainous wealth me for about 30 mana and I teferi's pro lol

[@bigfootfighter4132]

Skyscanner GOAT

[@notsm]

I don't quite believe in Richards math when he says that 1for1 puts you down compared to the table. Because following that math even his favoured Spirited Companion assuming it trades for one other creature it still is a -1 trade towards the table.(Playing the card makes it -3, draw one makes it -2, trade 1for1 makes it -1 compared to the table.) Even a Sign in Blood would make you go down one card compared to the table which it obviously isn't the case. You go down mana that'S true but cards wise you don't.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

So, 1 for 1s. You spend 1 card plus mana to remove 1 card from 1 opponent. You are down mana compared to that opponent, though depending on the mana they paid to get it you could argue you gain from that trade. The two other opponents both paid nothing, lost nothing, and got an opponent's card taken care of for them. That's in general. Spirited Companion is a net 0 the moment it hits the table. It replaces itself in your hand with another card. You're already at 0, with only 2 mana spent on it. If you chump block with it, it's effectively life gain on top of that net 0 cards. If you trade block with it, you are at net 0, with life gain, AND a 1 for 1, for just 2 mana. However, that's still not favorable because you have net 0, one opponent is -1, and the other two opponents effectively removed TWO of their opponents' things for free. Richard's math is conceptually solid, if the explanation is lacking a bit. Card advantage and mana advantage are always inherently judged by perspective, as it's literally a comparative measure. It's better to think of, instead of +1 for that player, think of it as a relative -1 for everyone else, and that makes more sense. Each card matters more because it affects more people, but also each turn matters more because you are losing more advantage per turn. In a 1v1, you're net 0 in cards per round compared to your opponent, but in a 4 player free-for-all, you're -2 per round. However, it's important to remember that fact as it tells you how much advantage you need to keep up to one opponent vs all 3 simultaneously. If you manage to go net 0 against the entire table, you should confidently be able to 1v3. If you're keeping a steady -2 per round against the table, that means you haven't fallen behind.

[@notsm]

@@dontmisunderstand6041 All that and we both missed what was actually bothering me. Let's say you played a Darksteel Relic. It cost 0 mana and it does nothing but you spend a card. So according to that theory relative to the table you went -3 as every other player went +1 relative to you. Now instead you played a Mishra's Bauble. It also cost 0 mana and does nothing but you spend a card. So according to that theory relative to the table you went -3 as every other player went +1 relative to you. Now you crack it however and draw a card. Contrary to what I stated above, you don't go up +1 but instead +3 relative to the table. That's why it didn't add up to me. I guess trying to explain the problem does help solve it sometimes.

[@charliewalsh5678]

i really wanna see seth with all of his hair down :DDDD

[@FutureOverYou]

My pillowfort group hug deck is actually kinda miserable to play against, haha. I have like 12 board wipes, some fogs, counters, deterrents, etc. And my wincons are generally 4 ways. I stick my big, flying Archon dude that says you can't attack me; Approach of the Second Sun, mill them out with my artifact that taps to mill equal to their graveyard or this Gruul spell (Treacherous Terrain maybe?) that deals damage to them equal to their land count, when I've been ramping everybody hard all game.

[@aaronwindham6065]

Sporrseeee frog. I'm screaming out here

[@Summer_Snows]

Lifegain is easily B tier and more people should play it!!! You don't need to run bad creatures like Skyscanner if you have enough incidental lifegain cards that enable you to keep your life total high while you work towards your endgame ;)

[@sonicdueler]

1S and 3 Bs averages out to be, yall need to a rk on the math

[@zachariahhuey9876]

Now we need a whole episode about life gain!!!

[@shogun452]

Not to yuck on anyone’s yum, but I hate these tier list format shows. It’s much more fun when it’s just you all having an organic conversation about the cards you like to use, without pedantic arguments on where the card falls on some arbitrary list.

[@gsestream]

just dont die

[@happybrain2674]

btw where is lifegain? if you gain more life then enermies could ever deal you... you are staying alive. just be sure commanders arent ever a thing xD

[@shayneweyker]

1cc creatures that gain you life on creature etb are good at keeping your life total up enough that you have the time to get the mana and cards to win. and they can enable and neutralize infinite etb combos as well as effectively fog one infinite 1/1 haste attackers combo.

[@Deviltrigger44]

You stay alive if you kill all your opponents

[@delailama736]

The best staying alive card is Crumbling Sanctuary.

[@brendans1983]

Curse Of Opulence targeting yourself is the ultimate move. It sounds worse than it plays.

[@roelofftan8814]

so glad i will NEVER play aginst richard. if my friends play 9 boardwhipes and pillow fort, im building 2 card combo winconditions. thx richard for forcing your friends to play thassa oracle combos

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

Platinum Angel, Pact Weapon, Serra the Benevolent's emblem, those are all effects similar to Teferi's Protection, when it comes to stopping you from dying. Platinum Angel is the gold standard, obviously, NOTHING can make you lose while it exists, period. Not infect, not mill, not commander damage, not even other people "winning" the game. You just do not lose. Pact Weapon likewise stops life total based losses. Serra the Benevolent's emblem drops if you untap with her once, super easy to get, but as far as these effects go it's weak. It only stops specifically damage from taking you below 1 hp. The only instants and sorceries that even count as keeping you alive are board wipes. Spot removal only works to keep you alive if it's a triggered ability of a permanent that you spam multiple times per round. My favorite "keep yourself alive" card is Revenge of Ravens. It's not the strongest, but I just like it. It's relatively low cost, sticks around, and protects you in two separate ways from combat damage, both lowering the effective amount of damage you take AND discouraging your opponents from even trying. Of course, I also hate hard stax effects. I like the "yes, but" effects rather than "no, you can't" effects. As a good example of what I mean, Ghostly Prison yes, Blazing Archon no. Life gain as an archetype is so powerful for keeping you alive. You can easily outpace the damage from multiple other players if they aren't focusing you hard with heavy removal suites, which you don't actually care about because the life gain isn't the way you win, it's just helping you reach the late game where you overpower them with the raw power of your synergies and bombs. As a general rule, on the tier list of "ways to keep you alive" spot removal is a D, and board wipes are a C. They do not do it very well at all. Genuinely weaker than just life gain, which probably also fits in at a high C or low B. You probably want some forms of removal, and board wipes are better than single use 1 for 1s, but you don't want more than two or three in your deck, and having 0 in your deck is just as strong. Asymmetrical board wipes are probably an A. Stuff like Cyclonic Rift or Fog, several tiers above Damnation. Playing blockers yourself is the archetypical B tier. It is THE example of how to not die in a game of Magic The Gathering. Teferi's Protection IS a Fog. It's the best Fog by far, but it's still a Fog. The One Ring is 3 fogs stapled together AND draws cards AND stops your opponents from targeting you. Settle the Wreckage is a Wrath. To wrap up... in order, the "staying alive" tier list goes: S tier is anything that removes entire methods of losing the game permanently, or anything that removes most or all ways of dying temporarily. Basically fogs and powerful rule-setting effects that change the rules to make it harder for you to die. A tier are asymmetrical mass nopes. Stax and asymmetrical board wipes, basically. Probably pillow fort stuff too. B tier is stuff like life gain, blockers, repeatable spot removal, the basics. Bread and butter, almost everything fits in this tier. C tier are symmetrical board wipes and more efficient spot removal that ISNT a 1 for 1, they only help you if you play draw-go in a permanent heavy deck. It takes extremely specific niche strategies AND decks built around them to make them good, but the fact is that they CAN be good. Hence, C tier. D tier is one-time spot removal 1 for 1s. it's never a good strategy, no matter what the meta is and no matter how you built your deck. You will lose every 1v1 with that strategy, let alone a multiplayer format where all you're doing is king-making.

[@MTGPlayer10]

I believe Ghostly Prison should either be a high A rank or an S rank. If Tomer hates "do you pay the one" from Rhystic Study then he should absolutely hate this card as well. GP makes it so if you have say..5 mana and you want to do 5 mana worth of card/ability and attack..welp..you have to choose one or the other. Either do some combination up to 3 mana and then attack with ONE creature or do something else. It disrupts your plans (both in building your board and attacking) and makes YOU choose between something instead of being able to do what you want. Its a great card so if you're using white cards (in most cases) use this card.

[@BJAD]

Let’s listen to Richard not knowing wtf he’s talking about again!

[@MakeVarahHappen]

You should do an episode where the audience submit to you under played cards and you talk about it (maybe let them explain in like, 180 characters or whatever).

[@dylanthomas2393]

I love the cast but I would love more if I never had to hear them talk about Swords to Plowshares ever again 😂

[@bennettwadekamper8238]

It angers us, so they must keep doing it.

[@hanschristopherson8056]

Richard’s spot removal take is so bad and it makes me want to slam my head against a wall lol

[@jeremy45672]

@@hanschristopherson8056literally his words “it doesn’t stop a craterhoof” then rates counterspell a B. His opinions are incredibly inconsistent with each other

[@peewee0224]

@@jeremy45672not just that hardly anything stops a craterhoof that’s why it’s so strong.