Commander Overperformers: Cards that are Better than they Look in EDH (Part 5)

These cards pull their weight and then some! They are always playing better than we thought they would! So we made this list for you to keep an eye out and maybe pick these cards up yourself!
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[@MINEvsWILD1]

You guys are the Bert and Ernie of the MTG community ❤️

[@jeffreylong1478]

Now that you mention it I totally see it haha 😆

[@maybeisuckatlife]

LMAO it's so true

[@NitpickingNerds]

Which one is which!

[@MINEvsWILD1]

@@NitpickingNerds i definitely see Cherries as Ernie and Beezy as Beer lmao

[@DarkX64]

@@MINEvsWILD1 lmao the misspelling of Bert as Beer xD Please keep the typo, it is great

[@spencerhayward9312]

Let’s be honest, the NN are the true Overperformers. 654 video day streak = 🔥 🔥 🔥

[@NitpickingNerds]

Pretty freaking cool!

[@brucanthwood]

It's insane!!!

[@BurnByMoonlight]

My Braids Arisen Nightmare is an absolute blast to play. Everyone always goes “oh yeah, draw a card and I’ll lose 2.” And then they end up takin. 8, and then they’re very low on life, and my things keep coming back and they have no way to deal with me.

[@Hyxtrem]

Yeah, also a Braids player here. I didn't take the discard (tergrid's style) way, I forced the Artifact Theme and oh boy things are going crazy fast. You're essentially drawing 4 per turn which is crazy good for Mono Black. My favorite deck since 2 years BY FAR.

[@vauk5081]

I absolutely love my Braids deck. I went token sacrafice with things like Tergrid and Syr Konrad to encourage people NOT to sac. I just want the draw to be honest.

[@RevnaVarea]

Lifegift is one of my favorite cards in my Beledros Witherbloom aristocrats deck. So much value in a deck that wants to pay huge chunks of life every turn.

[@midnightlemon4255]

I've been wrecked by some of these cards and didn't think highly of them beforehand! Lifegift is for real, it gains so much life but exactly as described, always feels just below the threat level when figuring out where to point removal. Last one standing is great too! totally agree, 3 mana for a boardwipe is toxic deluge territory, and look how much that costs. I think "the chaos warp of boardwipes" is the perfect description lol

[@deadNdivine12]

Chaos warp of board wipes hahaha nice description.

[@kamilwhaley-kalaora4839]

I really like braids in my ratadrabik of urborg deck :) I sac her on my endstep to her own ability and then get a copy of her, then I reanimate the original and start sacrificing my other legends with TWO braids for lots of value

[@lunarlight3131]

yeah pretty much

[@MrCamel254]

I have braids and rancor in my henzie deck because i wanna give trample to my big blitzboys and when i have to sac my blitzboy i just let braids resolve first, sac rancor (which i will get back for free) and draw 2 cards at minimum because enchantments are not that frequent on the board and if they do they are definitely enchantments their owners do not want to lose. Its silly. I love it.

[@Angel-gr7de]

1:48 I run Approach of the Second Sun in an Elminster (Baldur's Gate) deck, he innately reduces casting cost AND lets you scry your deck in massive amounts if you build around him right.. It's not uncommon to have Approach cast for less than half it's cost, and get found again within the same turn or next turn, assuming I don't also have Narset's Reversal in hand from the already copious amounts of deck searching that had been prior ongoing. With so much scry, I've even forgotten to put in tutors or recursion so I -know- the deck can be built even better.

[@char6547]

Honestly when I optimized my osgir deck, reckless fireweaver was easily the most consistently good card in the deck because every artifact in my hand represented 9 damage and 6 in my graveyard and 15 or 12 respectively if I had a card that doubled osgir's ability

[@char6547]

well obviously besides sol ring because even top deck without a free outlet, it represents paying 1 to tap it for spend 2 to sac it and bring it back to generate 4 to 8 and even potentially 16 mana.

[@mikecantwell77]

Just on Thopter Spy Network, the card draw potential (outside effects like taking multiple combat phases) is 6 per turn. 1 for each opponent but it triggers each time the player takes combat damage from you. That means if each opponent gets hit with either double striker or a mix of first stike and regular, they'll have take combat damage in the first strike phase, draw a card, and then again in the normal strike phase, draw another card. Now you're not going to be able to reliably do that but I think the card draw on it is much better than a lot of people initially realise.

[@dizzynarutofan100]

Approach is my main win con in my Elminster. Its not difficult to scry 6 or 7 and then draw when every scry creates a cascading effect of cheaper scrys

[@simonchi5372]

For me its Truffelsnout.

[@vauk5081]

Braids, Arisen Nightmare performs as well as she looks, I called that day one. When she was spoiled I started building a list and it's an absolute banger.

[@Fuschia_42]

Can I have the list lol

[@ChaosEve]

I actually built my very first commander deck around Braids. She’s amazing. 😍

[@ollmeister4632]

Braids performes like an absolute monster in my Lord Windgrace deck. I started putting her in most of my black decks because she gets always value and the art is sick 😍

[@thekwjiboo]

I had both Doubling Season and parallel lives in play with a scute Swarm when I cast reshape the earth once. We had to stop and find a calculator to figure out how many scutes I ended up with.

[@YouLikeBosch]

Grim Hireling is such an underrated card. I built out a Blue Black D&D inspired deck in arena, it's nasty because you can sneak through damage with 1 or 2 drop creatures and the opponent is willing to eat it until you start dropping 3 and 4 drops for almost no mana. Free treasures. I don't think I've ever seen someone else use it against me in their deck, either.

[@TheDARKNESS8030]

While not as good as evolutionary leap. I think industrial advancement is pretty decent to of your not playing green. I put it in my be'lakor deck and it can turn a small demon into a bigger one. Not to mention skipping through the lands that I dont want to draw the next few turns.

[@triplethree4331]

Last week I put 'Last laugh ' in my deck, and see the chain reaction when any fetches land can wipe the board. 🤣

[@MachinaBahamut]

I got Braids, Arisen Nightmare in my Muldrotha deck with Dread Presence, Sacrifice a Swamp, Replay the swamp from the grave and trigger Dread Presence

[@Chaoslorden]

Last time I played Evolutionary leap I had Smothering Abomination out, in a Beledros tokens/utility creatures deck and it was disgusting. Smothering Abomination is a card you guys should highlight!

[@pauldyson8098]

Beezy's hair straight on point.

[@shadowless2960]

The first time i played with the braids, I got her out turn 1 as the first player to take a turn with jeweled lotus and then also had spellbook to sacrifice lol game snowballed so heavily

[@DinoBoy31]

Reshape the earth in tatyova is pretty solid. Basically gain 10 draw 10 for 10.

[@davidgoulding1386]

Thropter spy network is also great in a blink deck. If they get rid of your artifact you can just blink it again

[@Wojtek36762]

The first time I won with Second Sun, it was because a friend played Mesmeric Orb to make everyone mill for each permanent they untap. I sacced a token for one mana, tapped six lands for approach, then milled the 6 cards above it on my untap step.

[@jamesdavidson6976]

Ingenious artillerist works great with grafted exoskeleton.😁

[@JessBritvec]

I built Braids and have had a ton of fun with it, you do draw 3 cards the majority of the time without much convincing. The only problem is I can't think of any interesting win cons besides basic mono black aristocrats stuff, so I think I'll get tired of it after a while. Its great in the 99 of my Mazirek deck so I might just have to be happy with that. The most fun I've had with her as the commander was a turn 1 Sol Ring into Mindstone, turn 2 Braids and Liquimetal Torque, then sacrificing Mindstone to Braids. Nobody wants to sacrifice their mana rocks if they even had them, and on turn 3 I cast Karn the Great Creator (that I drew into the last turn) and make my opponents regret all of their decisions. Of course they killed me first 😂, but getting to deal with artifacts in a mono black deck and having the political leverage of Braids, Karn, and Liquimetal Torque out at the same time was fun enough for me.

[@jeremyblackheart]

My Braids deck wins with Chain of Smog + Professor Onyx / Sedgemoor Witch, or Necrotic Ooze + Asmodeus + Phyrexian Skirge + Torment of Hailfire / Exsanguinate. You can also run mono b Treasures and win with Revel in Riches. But that's more risky.

[@vauk5081]

My wincon in Braids is Torment of Hailfire/Exsanguinate, or I loop Gray Merchant of Asphodel/Kokusho, the Evening Star untill everyone is dead. I absolutely love this deck.

[@JessBritvec]

@@jeremyblackheart My deck is a little too casual to have Prof Onyx combos as a win con, but I do think Braids would be the most fun as a cEDH stax commander. Even though I don’t really play cEDH and I don’t know if its a good enough commander in that meta.

[@JessBritvec]

@@vauk5081 All of those I would classify as typical black aristocrats win cons, which I enjoy, but I have a bunch of aristocrats decks already. I thinks Braids isn’t bringing a fresh way to do it to the table, even though I love sacrificing creatures and drawing cards.

[@vauk5081]

@@JessBritvec I see Braids as more of a draw engine. Which gets you to those win cons a lot faster, without tutors.

[@Miztickow]

Speaking of Lifegift, you should play Shattered Angel. It's the most powerful card in my lifegain deck. It's got a decent body and gains a ridiculous amount of life.

[@thomasmccrory6495]

Approach of the Second Sun has a great home in Elminster

[@zackkelley2940]

Urza's Silex... against a green deck? That's adorable.... Splendid Reclamation.

[@fosterdawson7339]

Splendid Rec against a white deck? Super cute… exiles your graveyard

[@zackkelley2940]

@@fosterdawson7339 i WOULD be impressed if a white deck had enough mana left to actually DO that after dropping AND activating an Urza's Silex.^^

[@Polyoctopus1]

Reshape the earth in my archelos deck is always fun to play. I was able to get so far ahead because of that card

[@loganfonteneau2161]

Interestingly enough, Ingenious Artillerist is a good card, but it gets outclassed by Reckless Fireweaver, which cost one less and triggers for each artifact (not "one or more"). That matters for Torbran-like effects and damage triggers (Like Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator)

[@Schiedog]

Thanks for the happy birthday, as today is my birthday! Busy/stressful day at work, but this video will help me relax.

[@NitpickingNerds]

So glad to hear it. Hope your day gets better :)

[@Schiedog]

@@NitpickingNerds I finished my lesson observation and learned that my family can finally visit (COVID restrictions finally lifted) so it is a great day! Thanks for the response, love the channel!

[@willleonard7439]

Approach can be clutch in my Arcades deck.

[@TheAvatar5261]

Second sun is my favorite card in magic I have a 60 card blue/white deck that I love

[@somerando6215]

My boys Reckless Fireweaver and Ingenious Artillerist

[@groundswelllegitcoffeeandb3810]

Whoa! I didn’t even think of that! That Braids is another way to do enchantment removal in mono-black!

[@NitpickingNerds]

Kinda sorta, yeah! The opponent gets the option, but if they don't sac it you get cards!

[@yavivanov6650]

It's only removal if they're on 2 life.

[@Farfetchd.]

Grim hireling is nuts with first/double strike too.

[@vincent-antoinesoucy1872]

I got my approach of the second sun with alt art japanese arcane thingy in my council of 4 deck because it's mvp, it's pretty much this card to win, or try to wind something with my 2/2s ahah.

[@maxvinzi]

Its so good. Main wincon in sythis pillowfort for me

[@vincent-antoinesoucy1872]

@@maxvinzi last time I won with it, played it, had one card left in hand, was weak on board, my last card was sphynx's revelation, one guy says, "lets hope he doesn't have sphynx revalation" had to keep a damn poker face for 2 turn cycle to cast it on end step before my turn, draw into approacha second time and win. It was hilarious with the guy face with "I knew it" written all over.

[@JohnSmith78098]

New vid? Just what I needed!!!

[@mr.m4302]

And besides all of that, Bruse can also be played in a Ally deck : )

[@Elmarias777]

Artillerist and fireweavet plus thopter assembly and ashnod or phyrexian altar. Constant pings and mana every turn

[@veerkillerx]

Braids would be nasty in Elenda or Lathril

[@kingvire]

With braids I only sac lands in my treasure deck or I sac a treasure to get rid of other artifacts

[@dirtyfrench2926]

Archfiend of Depravity tops this list for me. I never see it played and it's well worth 5 mana in 90% of metas.

[@TheSureBlock]

It’s honestly INCREDIBlE that you guys make amazing content every day.

[@fosterdawson7339]

Fireweaver is definitely better in my opinion. 1 mana cheaper, higher toughness means it survives pyroclasm, and the individual triggers are super relevant. For example, if you get a curiosity effect on it it’ll draw a LOT of cards. Or one I used to do was play out Malcolm and then make fireweaver a pirate to infinitely burn the table

[@mrjey3434]

Yes its obviously strictly better, but that doesnt make the other one bad. If a deck wants one of them, it probably wants both

[@miguelruiz5502]

Ran a Boros tron deck with Bruse Tarl And Akiri, Line Slinger as my commanders, its mutated into a mardu deck now but it was so nasty Akiri would usually get up to 14 power then i would cast or attack with Bruse Tarl and get all this yummy life gain Best part is they have such a cheap MV that commander tax is barely an issue!

[@avatarofpapermagic]

As everyone has said, you are the true over performers! Love you two!

[@tacothursdays6546]

Bruse Tarl and Last One Standing are absolute all stars in my Niv Reborn

[@NitpickingNerds]

Mine too, actually! -beezy

[@thomasdick6797]

After playing hearthstone it was very obvious to me that last one standing was great. Most things in hearthstone cost less mana than mtg but this card is either 2 mana less or the same cost than the hearthstone alternative

[@circolocofanatic]

We were way overdue for a field of the dead reference ❤️

[@NitpickingNerds]

I never let the fans down!

[@nicolechansawang4054]

Approach in Sythis, people already knew

[@Nr4747]

Grim Hireling is great, but it "only" gives you 2 treasures per turn because the triggered ability says "one or more", unless you're getting through with first strike combat damage and regular combat damage. Still a great card, just wanted to point out that you might have played it wrong or at least explained it somewhat ambiguously. Edit: It triggers per opponent, I misread the card.

[@christianknudtsen5763]

No, It triggers both per combat damage step (first strike) and per player. So if you attack two different players with two double strike creatures you woud get 8 treasures if none of them are blocked

[@Nr4747]

@@christianknudtsen5763 Ah, thanks for the heads-up, I misread the card, my bad.

[@zackfro]

Lifegift is the best you NERDS

[@saladtop8499]

I use that Braids in my Meren deck and it’s so dirty if I keep sacrificing the land that Dredges for 2 cuz with the draw I can just dredge it back for next turn and draw 2

[@elreykered]

I’m sure you’re very aware but you know who ‘Austin Post’ is under the ‘BUY JOE CHERRIES A CEDH DECK” section, right? That’s my man Post Malone!

[@Trenjeska]

The last Last one Standing chose my commander they wanted to get rid of :p

[@tmon3y777]

Bought some shirts using your link on Black Friday, I like them quite a bit.

[@NitpickingNerds]

Right?? They're actually really cool!

[@PerfectPencil]

Bruse is a cEDH commander. People need to know that. lol

[@DLselduto]

yes, one of my favorite series

[@Fuschia_42]

Reshape the earth and a landfall deck... The one card that lets you play an extra combat turn...

[@AngelusNielson]

I put approach of the second sun in my Sythis deck.

[@fosterdawson7339]

LETS GO AMBERS BACK

[@NitpickingNerds]

Amber HYPE

[@SirGrimLockSmithVIII]

Oh shit secret Braids tech in a Gitrog Monster deck

[@elias1579]

Inquisitor greyfax is low key really strong. Vigilance and her other effects are strong

[@Goodthrust69]

Haha I won a game yesterday with life gift in my Dina deck. I tutored for it turn 2 because someone was playing 4 color omnath. Hehe how did you not know this was good?

[@momentaigamer3168]

One of my favorites is Chaos Wand.

[@TacoWednesday08]

dangit @Beezy for blowing up the strategy of saying "boop" on your big threats and having everyone assume it's a big cute nothin

[@JD-gk7eh]

I'm surprised about Thopter Spy Network because I think that one underperforms. There's three options for strictly better cards that compete with it. Coastal Piracy and Reconaissance Mission are strictly better as they trigger on any creature hit (not just per opponent) and have no restriction on the type of creature; sure, they don't make a 1/1 the next turn, but who cares? Bident of Thassa is also probably strictly better because while it has an additional type that makes it more vulnerable, if you're in an artifact deck, that's an upside because you'll be able to recur that artifact so much easier.

[@thomascuba3444]

That is not the definition of a strictly better card. Making a 1/1 every turn is half the point of TSN and the other coastal piracy effects do not do that. Obviously, you only play TSN if you DO care about the 1/1. Board presence and card advantage in a single card is extremely useful - not to mention the large amount of artifact payoffs that require you to sac artifacts for a powerful effect.

[@NitpickingNerds]

I think it's possible Bident is better in the artifact deck, but either way TSN has overperformed relative to what we thought of it

[@JD-gk7eh]

​@@thomascuba3444 It really comes down to the purpose. If you want a token maker, Thopter Spy Network kinda sucks. If you want to draw cards, the other options listed are strictly better at that. If you want to make tokens, there's much better ways to do that too. Sure, you get both of these things in one card, but just because a card has two effects doesn't mean that both are "half the reason" you play it. I disagree that the token making is worth nearly as much as the card draw and what should motivate you to play this. I think it's more like 80% for the draw and 20% for the token because you don't get the token immediately.

[@JD-gk7eh]

@@NitpickingNerds Is that a nice way to say "We thought this card really sucked but it turns out it's better than that"? :p

[@kartenspieler0863]

I like Evolutionary Leap for my Savra sacrifice deck.

[@brotendo]

Bruse Tarl looks like Braun from League of Legends

[@marcodarsie5936]

braids overperform as a commander for sure. In the 99 it is as much effective or it lose something?

[@Y0kAiS]

Yeah that’s what I found out.

[@NitpickingNerds]

In the 99 it still seems great!

[@fosterdawson7339]

In the 99 it’s definitely strong. I play her in my Sefris deck and that value adds up quick. Being able to sac a random treasure I make, or a creature to fuel sefris is nice, and drawing cards is never hated especially with life loss tacked on

[@Y0kAiS]

@@fosterdawson7339 Thats funny, this is actually how I utilize her. Shes great for a graveyard/reanimator deck

[@joshmartin533]

Random moxfield as guess: 10:27

[@tristanherrick7273]

654! You're machines!! Never stop!! 💛💜

[@NitpickingNerds]

WE CAN'T STOP

[@gusonthecomputer2]

last man standing is good but a pain to truly randomly pick something in large board state. Thats is the only reason i cut it

[@Buchaus]

Moxfield ad guess: 9:18

[@tacoedits3302]

I'm guessing Moxfield ad @ 7:40, check back to see if I'm right

[@tacoedits3302]

NOOOO IT WAS JUST AFTER

[@NitpickingNerds]

OOOOF

[@jacobyspurnger8488]

Now I want to build an adrix and nev zombies deck

[@jeromekoutsoulis4298]

Happy to see some of my pet cards 😊

[@willstebbins5338]

I'm going with 8:24 for Moxfield

[@NitpickingNerds]

Quite the guess

[@joeycrack1213]

I don’t like last one standing because of how long it takes to resolves sometimes

[@SaltyProductionsHD]

Roll a d20

[@joeycrack1213]

@@SaltyProductionsHD some games have more than 20 creatures . It can take more time than your usual boardwupe to resolve in some scenarios

[@yavivanov6650]

Just roll a single die to determine which player gets to keep a creature, and then roll for the creature. It's really super easy and fast, if you're not lazy

[@NitpickingNerds]

Line up creatures left to right clearly on each mat, count the number, then just use a random number generator on your phone, shouldn't take longer than about 30 seconds :)

[@Elentirion]

Going to guess the Moxfield ad is at 5.55 because this is part 5.

[@megamaniak27]

Braids basically says draw 3 and all opponents take 2

[@veerkillerx]

I would use the affiliate link but I've been buying local. :c

[@NitpickingNerds]

No worries, that's important!

[@energetek661]

Amber and first! What could be better!!!

[@NitpickingNerds]

literally nothing! Maybe two ambers?

[@jacobglass5744]

7:47 moxfield

[@joltaikv2340]

Can you guys upload tomorrow? It's my birthday and i'd love to hear the happy birthday

[@matthewbell4897]

my blind moxfield guess is overperforming 10:55

[@matthewlugo2417]

Can partners be played in the 99?

[@JustRightPinedo]

Just remand your own approach then win the next turn.

[@mariobattaglia8063]

Will you be doing another video for fan submissions at 100k?

[@NitpickingNerds]

Something cool to celebrate, but not sure what yet!

[@kevinreese5656]

Third! Still top eight!

[@edwardphillips4586]

Hey Joe. You don't have to say they/ them and beezy. You don't have to be he/him. Let just let us call you guys by your names. It's doesn't matter he/him,they/them,she/her. Someone with real respect would not care about your sex/sexual preferences they would care to treat you as a character that you deserve to be treated

[@Grekko11]

Would Darksteel Colossus be a good commander card?

[@NitpickingNerds]

We don't think it's impactful enough personally

[@Grekko11]

Oh okay. I made my first deck around it XD.

[@NitpickingNerds]

@@Grekko11 well commander is format of many power levels snd intended for fun. I’m sure that deck will be awesome!

[@JonReid01]

Budget BAAAAAAAAAAHMS oh wait

[@NitpickingNerds]

Close enough

[@ANeonGenesis]

Moxfield 9:34

[@BumBumTheBarbarian]

6:39

[@russelravellette6612]

10:56