These Cards Are Up to No Good! | EDHRECast 352 | Magic the Gathering

DON'T let these cards stick around!
Proud partners with DragonShield: www.dragonshie...
Get trading on Cardsphere! cardsphere.com...
Access to exclusive content, Challenge the Stats spreadsheet, EDHRECast Discord, & more on Patreon! / edhrecast
Want to see the decks we play? Check them out here: edhrec.com/art...
Follow the cast on social media:
@EDHRECast
@JosephMSchultz
@danaroach
@mathimus55

[@OneMoreMana]

Excellent. We see Matt is becoming one with the petty.

[@Ranhert]

Dana's intro joke really set a high ... bar

[@subiskier1]

Love this channel so much! Thanks guys, a highly needed bright spot these days :)

[@fishsoccer9845]

While I do agree that, with the right commander, Spore Frog can be a problem, I run it in my creature heavy decks because, in my experience, it almost always fogs several turns just by sitting there. I’ve gone through several turn cycles with it on my board just because people don’t want to attack when they can see a fog staring them in the face. No one wants to be the person to force the activation and potentially leave themselves open to a counterattack.

[@timbombadil4046]

The lost art of rattlesnakes

[@styfen]

Sounds like your opponents need to get better at the politicking; a fair spore frog should almost always result in an agreement between the other three players for one player to swing in for the good of the table and the other two agree to at a minimum not attack them for the turn cycle (perhaps even going as far as to agree to protect the attacking player as much as possible from the frog's owner counter attack).

[@Controlqueen31]

​@@styfen Exactly. With a good conversation about "That thing is going to let they survive if we don't get rid of It right now" the other three can make an agreament for a turn

[@tanvirrahman7339]

they also don't need to commit everything to an attack. Chipping in against the spore frog player can put them in a tough spot after a while. 4 life here, 3 life there, 5 life again, it adds up.

[@MetallicMutalisk]

I've been putting Diresight in almost all of my black decks lately, probably my favorite card from that set.

[@pauldyson8098]

All this talk of cards that "aren't that innocent," yet not a single Britney reference? For shame!

[@kaipography]

That reference would be a Toxic 1

[@screwthisin]

That really hit me one more time!

[@rulamagic]

Oops!

[@Toleezu6]

Leave Britney alone

[@Groovegandalf]

I mean, they're not THAT innocent

[@alexcurtis6180]

39:13 the rule 0 discussions for my Tayam, Luminous Enigma deck, and Ghave before it, boils down to "if you see Ashnod's Altar, exile Ashnod's Altar"

[@WMDistraction]

23:36 YES, there are certain play groups that I CANNOT play with cuz they don’t have a lot of game knowledge except, “This guy knows Magic better than us,” and that gets me killed on sight. The most egregious thing that got me killed was playing a turn 2 Blind Obedience on an empty board. Another player got multiple massive tokens and was able to two shot any player on the board by turn 5, and I was STILL priority number one!

[@canbeone7277]

Last night I got flooded with lands and mana rocks. People were scared, I had a lot of mana! But literally no cards in hand and my commander was Isshen, who I hadn't cast because I had literally no other creatures for pay off and the other players would kust kill him... I'm down to 20 something life, and I top decked a Triumphant adventurer, play it (but dont have enough whit emana to cast my commander). Sure enough a player swords to plow shares it because, "Deathtouch is a problem". I laughed, beauce a different player had a board full of threats, and I had played ONE creature which had deathtouch... Lmao.

[@greggsplaylist]

Island is the card I look out for. Once I see that I know they are up to no good.

[@biopnumonic4676]

You made a reference to a potential new category on edhrec. A symmetry category I think could be useful for potential cards that are more niche for builds and don't necessarily belong in every deck for a given commander.

[@biopnumonic4676]

To be more clear it was in the valgavoth discussion, I'm making it a reference for a category, you simply mentioned the word symmetry while talking about perforating artist.

[@JonReid01]

Don't they already have that?

[@biopnumonic4676]

@@JonReid01 they have synergy, my thought came from them saying perforating artist does work directly with the 4 mana valgavoth while at the same time it would fit into a similar punisher style deck theme. So the new category could highlight cards that may be tempting to put in a deck but not be an auto include because they only fit part of the function of the deck.

[@goldbergbrain]

I run all the Grand Abolisher, City of Solitude style effects in one deck. It's not even a combo deck; I just get tired of surprises and want to play like it's 1994.

[@cigbhungus3359]

You should build Kutzil or Dragonlord Dromoka then

[@goldbergbrain]

@cigbhungus3359 Dr. Omoka is in the 99 of Yasharn. I wanna keep treasures under control, too, and to keep it '94, I also run some old school direct damage from WG: storm seeker, cleansing, and a sweet enchantment called Primal Order.

[@T_Peazy]

Counterspell was in alpha. Mana dra8n was in legends.

[@goldbergbrain]

@@T_Peazy of course, but as a person who played in 1994, the pace and interactivity at instant speed of today's magic is insane vs 1994. The brain load of "what can they have" is what I aim to reduce with this one deck, usually pulled out at the end of a session

[@tanelorn6102]

Great episode. I'm guilty of the occasional Aluren or Hermit Druid myself. I admit, the first card that came to my mind when I saw the topic was Freed From the Real. That card never plays as innocently as it reads.

[@Bloodcaliber]

It was ironic (in a surprising but not bad way) watching this episode as someone who really runs Grand Abolisher to stop counterspells. I go to an LGS that is fortunately proxy-friendly, but a negative consequence of that is cards like fierce guardianship, force of negation, and force are everywhere. And the people at my LGS aren't playing those cards because they want high-power games, they play them because they see free counterspell and get giddy. In my opinion, those free counterspells are some of the most poorly designed cards so I play Grand Abolisher to have a little more agency over my play experience. Grand Abolisher is my act of resistance to force a little more normality in the game. I just wanted to share this so people can see that Grand Abolisher isn't always a sign of something more sinister underneath, it really can just be to stop those pesky counterspells (at least in some cases)

[@ethanboyd2981]

Actually, I have Grand Abolisher in a deck of mine that isn't nefarious. It's in my Duskana deck, and is only in the deck because it's a 2/2 with a small upside. I'm not trying to do anything busted in the deck. I just happened to own a Grand Abolisher, and I shoved it in the deck.

[@styckykeys2200]

How to spot combos 1) untappers 2 Haste enablers, especially with 1) 3) "Whenever a thing that you want to do more than once happens" it will happen approximately avogadro's number of times 4) killing their own things

[@HomeCookinMTG]

Any card with an activated ability that starts like this “Sacrifice a creature:”

[@barrytdrake]

Thanks for letting me know about Spawning Pit! I think I'll pick up a copy for my Jinnie Fay deck. With token multipliers and ways to tap tokens for mana, I can make infinite hasty cats.

[@Toleezu6]

Perforating in Vagavoth: seems decent. I'm OK with non-sysnergy cards with a decent effect. 3 mana, deathtouch, and the raid effect is fine if the effect is desired as a retainer or to advance the game in general. I find many Light-Paws lists over commit to the synergy of auras and lose utility for negligible to zero (or negative) gain in win rate by including too many. I challenge YOUR stats, Light-Paws players out there!

[@jacquesdespadas]

I’ve played more than my fair share of “kill it with fire right now!” cards, but I’ve never seen a card eat removal faster than a Midnight Guard in my Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds deck. In a similar vein, I have successfully played out the Rosie Cotton/Herd Baloth combo. 😁

[@Aquatos00]

RE: The aluren problem. I had a game where I was playing Ukkima//Cazur, and someone dropped an aluren, and handed me the game on accident. Cast Ukkima, Stalking Shadow, allow to resolve. Cast Cavern Harpy, allow to resolve. Return Ukkima to hand, drain life, repeat process. Make sure that when you cast Aluren, you have the win IN HAND. You don't wanna give someone else the chance to abuse it before you can.

[@solarmyth1945]

I feel called out on that grand abolisher take. I just want to be able to play a big haste creature and turn it sideways without it being countered or killed on the spot. No combo lol

[@brendans1983]

I don't run infinite combos; i can choose to stop/continue my loops at any time!

[@patrickweiss4788]

One upside of playing relatively obscure combos is that players often let your combo pieces through. The best example of this in my decks is Espteric Duplicator which looks like a repeatable clue on the surface but which forms the centerpiece of an infinite turn combo. I suppose what all of this really means is that it's always important to consider the worst-case scenario for what your opponents might be doing.

[@ospero7681]

29:00 My experience exactly. Nanogene Conversion in The Celestial Toymaker sounds awesome, but it's probably not going to end well for you. What exacerbates this problem is that CT is not usually a particularly creature-heavy deck - you need space for all those pile and guess effects, after all, and most of those aren't on creatures. So even if the Nanogene'd CTs don't immediately kill you, chances are you'll take way more damage (okay, life loss) than you'll dish out.

[@hanschristopherson8056]

An old obscure card that is up to no good is Last Laugh, which deals damage to each creature and each player every time a permanent goes to the graveyard

[@danaroach29]

Hey now, I run that card in a deck, and I I use it exclusively to do things that are good. For me.

[@jimharris5320]

43:51 Does Druid/Vizier actually work? Isn't putting the -1/-1 counter on the Druid a cost to activate the untap ability? And if you can't put the counter on the Druid, wouldn't the ability fizzle?

[@robertprueter3292]

When I first built my Dina, Soul Steeper I put the Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood combo in without realizing it goes infinite. I immediately removed one b/c that's not how I wanna win games. I think the inverse would be a neat episode idea. "Cards that indicate a fun time."

[@pretty_fly_for_a_jeskai]

I dont know if it ends up mentioned but Authority of the Consuls is not only a bane in Standard but a very nasty first turn drop in Commander that just has to go as soon as possible

[@maxleveladventures]

I literally just finished playing a game with someone playing Carmen and I had to get one of the other players clued into the fact that people aren't playing Carmen and not making their opponents sac stuff (and Carmen still ended up winning). The game before that someone else played Grave Pact. It was a wild night for "7" lobbies... RE: Hermit Druid. I run this in my Kathril deck. It's easily the best card in the deck (because I don't play tutors). I only run a handful of basics and it's always insane. RE: Exquisite/Sanguine combo: I always tell people I'm not running the other half of the combo before I even shuffle up my Tivash deck. It's still extremely dangerous, but it's a whole lot more problematic when there's the risk of the other half coming down and just winning the game on the spot.

[@KirbytronicWouldLiketoBattle]

It took me a while to realize that Joey wasn't saying 'Commander, Dada, and Dad Jokes' and was confused what Dadaism had to do with anything. No, it wasn't right this second, but it was a while

[@Wojtek36762]

Re: blink decks going infinite, I’ve only ever built blink for PDH and it still goes infinite. The hardest part was finding infinite blink payoffs at common that actually end the game.

[@Zananos]

26:24 I found Kira from a flying key word search for my Inniaz deck lol

[@Niedomysm]

I forgot about kami of false hope. That fits into my scam deck nicely

[@ethanglaeser9239]

Is Commander Spellbook still being maintained? I tried to find a way to submit combos to it, and I was unable to.

[@rheasmith896]

A deck im building right now is being called out SO hard in this video XD

[@imaginarymatter]

"Yeah, Hermit Druid" "Hermit Druid always up to no good"

[@mistmoorex]

If I have 5 copies of Iron Man then Aggravated Assault goes infinite and it’s exceptionally fun because if my opponent wants me to play it out I can still go for the tools to get through whatever they’re presenting.

[@inkliizii]

Hey now, I play a spore frog as a one-time fog effect. Don't make people more scared of me than they need to be lol

[@joelthejedi1]

You're saying people who run budget options should be targeted??? (Spawning Pit) Paranoia much?

[@marcusthompson3431]

Though aluren is very high one the kill on sight enchantment, though no love for earthcraft, opposition, mind over matter or survival of the fittest?

[@codypratt3590]

I thought that ultimate guard was the sponsor. When did dragon shield take their slot? Not complaining, personally love my dragon shields.

[@claytronifon]

Would love if y'all did bookmark timestamps. Chapters? is that what they're called? And I can't believe you didn't talk about Ghave lol

[@dakillaklown715]

I play Grand Abolisher and Drannith Magistrate casually in my Kyler, Sigardian Emissary deck..

[@timbombadil4046]

Yeah they can be fair hatebears that shut down a lot of nonsense. Grand Abolisher could be doing things as innocent as protecting your creatures so they can be enchanted without easily getting 2-for-1ed.

[@bmorr]

The only time I take the deal from The Second Doctor is when I can kill them with non-combat damage, or if I don't have enough of a board to really swing in. If I have a mid-sized board and I skip drawing, my pod gets on edge because they think I'm about to nuke them.

[@brodyadamsthatsme]

You take Grand Abolisher off this list right now. My big boy isn’t here to do anything wrong! He’s just here to hangout.

[@FernandoGonzalez-hu3id]

i once accidentaly stumbled into a 4 card infinite combo in my zombie deck, i was running Nantuko husk, Pleague Belcher, Rot Hulk, and Mikeus the Unhallowed, just becouse they are good zombies for an Aritocrats/Reanimation hybrid zombie deck Realizing mid game that i had an infinite combo already on the field was so weird... probably one of my favorite MTG moments

[@sorenvanaheim776]

Oooh this is interesting, I'm gonna try giving some examples from my own decks and I'm gonna start with Thornbite Staff, Intruder Alarm and Jeskai Ascendancy are pretty spicy as well. Also Excavation is a pretty wild one too, needs some extra help but it's great. I also think there is merit in lands that can easily give haste because something wild could always come outta nowhere.

[@HomeCookinMTG]

I don’t think there’s anyone out there who doesn’t know what’s up when intruder alarm or thornbite staff hit the table lol.

[@snarlbuckle]

Grave pact + smokestack in my token deck. Nobody else is allowed to have creatures, and before long they won't be allowed to have any permanents at all. Or Manabarbs and Grievous Wound. It leaves you with about 6 mana left to use before you kill yourself.

[@Controlqueen31]

Every decent draw engine is a threat in my experience. Because the more cards you have the more things you do. If someone plays a turn 1 Remora and don't do anything in turns 2/3, don't feed the Remora. You are almost not playing, only dropping lands or creatures (except mana dorks. Those are great against Remora) but they aren't playing either. Similar thing happens to Esper Centinel. But in later turns, if you see a Rhystic, a Beast Whisperer, a Welcoming Vampire... Kill them that same turn if you can, or counter them. Because if your opponents have no cards in hand, they cannot play the game or stop you later.

[@syctheofsymphogear4290]

an other kind of fog would be child of korlis, if you have it, they still get the damage but if you survie you jsut sacrife them to get back the life or even more. what i also find funny in that regard , enduring Angel and rhox faithmender, opponent muhaha i overrun you with my board and okay, i will just bolt him after he ges back to 3, nope, because if something sets your life to something its counted as gaining or losing life you will get a huge life totLal and an big Angel.

[@leonfriedemann9151]

Aura shards just felt like hard stax, everytime i have seen it by now 😅 I am sure other people thought the same, when i had toxril, gravepact in my decks 😂 I stil like toxril a lot ... I teached me priority, when an opponent had it out at the same time 😅

[@paperwatt]

Yeah man Spore frog the second I see one I'm bringing-wait is that one in white? Oh. Oh no.

[@NoobgoesMtG]

Does Beacon of Immortality trigger Life Gain?, I thought it just sets the life total to a new value.

[@Doujinking]

I put perforating artist into my davros deck for extra life lose a deathtouch creature to reduce attacks and another almost villainous choice affect.

[@Grumbl3cakes]

I feel like I'm one of the few fair spore frog players. I just wanted a fog in my henzie + umori companion edh deck. All creatures and lands!

[@joewaid]

Matt's joke game has been perfect lately

[@Kaltes1]

I think It should be said, that a Grand Abolisher played in a mono white angles deck is very different then when hes run in a white blue combo deck. Now I say this as someone who runs him in a Captain Sisay deck so take that for what you will. In said deck I did have to take Dosan out due to the blue players not being able to counter other peoples BS spells. symmetrical fairness isn't always an ideal.

[@matthewjl87]

I have the Dictate and grave pact in my vihaan deck and if they stay on the field it's a continuous one sided board wipe.

[@simonnice9030]

Matts joke is doing double duty for me as a Swede, seeing as fisk literally means fish in swedish.

[@GridIRONization]

What about sagas being flickered every other turn?

[@Tsukuyomi500]

Lol I just bought a Grand Abolisher at my locals today!

[@PhilPetrella]

Ashnod’s Altar? Do you mean Sir Bedivere’s Scales?

[@Agumame]

Im not saying its the right choice, but I think theres still a good argument for Perforating Artist in Valgavoth decks. While Perf. Artist doesnt trigger Val’s draw effect, it does create a situation where players either lose even more of their dwindling life totals or they have to give up their resources that theyre likely trying to use to win before your thousand paper cuts on their turns win you the game. It furthers the overall gameplan of burn opponents while out resourcing them, even if it doesnt specifivally trigger Val himself. Is that worth it? Maybe not but I think its definitely worth a consideration still as long as player’s know it wont trigger Val

[@curtissearle6462]

I use Grand Abolisher and Myrel I my Ravoshima deck so people can't stop from beating them to death with dorky creatures lol

[@mark5617]

If you have to stop and ask "wait what's that do?" Your fallow up question needs to be "now why is that in there?"

[@wunderbar5702]

Yeeee Joey's joining glasses gang let's gooo

[@DAsrada]

If you let a Displacer Kitten exist, nothing good can come of it.

[@ZargX76]

I play Spore Frog as a Frog effect for what it's worth 🐸

[@raonair]

Honestly, I always see people say Aura Shards is bad thing, a red flag, or whatever you wanna call it. My only reaction is: what kind of monsters are you people playing against that will actually want to blow up even harmless artifacts like mana rocks? I have Aura Shards in my Leinore deck, and all it's there for is making sure decks heavily built on artifats and/or enchantments are kept honest, cause I can't run an infinite number of removal to take down an infinite amount of problems.

[@GrizzneyGames]

(Haven't watched the video yet) No! Don't tell my secrets! 😂

[@freeejazzz]

Did Joey always have glasses?! Am I that unobservant?

[@ericray6144]

The fact that you just said the phrase "I am reading this 2nd paragraph...." makes me very sad for MtG.

[@brendans1983]

Never trust a Blood Artist...

[@famousstranger8468]

Noble heritage is not a political tool Played it with burakos and a 1 card different precon became a gruul big stompy deck in orzhov

[@thorbalt1]

Small note for Kira, its not shroud. Its more like ward: 100000, because you can still target them. Shroud wont even let them be selected as a legal target

[@eliotgardner9681]

Heavy metal band😂

[@vanham437]

4.09 for intro skip

[@travisauruss]

This is cringe 👍🏼

[@jperry253]

Literally only play grand abolisher so I can resolve spells