We Draft the Best “Gotcha" Spells in Commander | The Command Zone 619 | MTG EDH Magic Gathering

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Show Notes:
The fantasy draft format is back and, this time, you should expect the unexpected! JLK, Jimmy, and Rachel are drafting the best “Gotcha!” spells in Commander. We’re talking about the tricks that catch your opponents totally off guard and turn the game on its head. But which of the format’s obscure surprise spells will take the top spot? And who will emerge victorious once the dust finally settles? Come find out, and you might even pick up some new tech along the way!
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More info here: magic.wizards.com/en/news/ann...
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Game Knights Isn’t Scripted, BUT… | The Command Zone 605:
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Commander Rules and Ban List:
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:03:43 - Game Knights Live At Gen Con
00:04:39 - We Draft The Best “Gotcha” Spells
00:05:04 - What is a “Gotcha” Spell?
00:14:05 - Round 1
00:24:45 - Round 2
00:39:39 - Round 3
00:50:30 - Round 4
01:01:19 - Round 5
01:11:48 - Final Drafts
01:13:27 - No Green Cards?
01:16:00 - Honorable Mentions
01:26:15 - To The Listeners
#magicthegathering #mtg #commander #mtgcommander #edh #podcast #commandzone

[@danielgolinski2265]

When you were talking about Fury Storm, Josh talked about how you can't get salty when someone makes a copy of something you brought to the table. I had a game recently where I played my Essix, Fractal Bloom deck. One of my opponents had a non-legendary Eldrazi with annihilator-2. I made 3 copies of that creature. Oh the salt that was at the table. My reply was exactly what Josh said. "You brought this to the table... not me"

[@adamrobinson6951]

I became the archenemy in a game for stealing someone's Gray Merchant of Asphodel off the top of their deck and casting it. Somehow the other players decided that my casting such a powerful effect meant I was the biggest threat at the table, even though it didn't come from my deck. I wasn't even playing Black...

[@the_r4ts]

Only three copies? That player was very lucky XD

[@ALTR_no_EGO]

Josh: "That blue spell isn't a gotcha, it's another day at the office."

[@crilleedara]

Classic JLK 😜

[@Just-a-Canuck]

My favourite “gotcha” moment I had a large board state with my Ovika enigma Goliath deck, the person before me in the turn order also had a large board state and played rivers rebuke targeting me… I played bolt bend for 1 red mana and switched the target to him. Ended up casting a finisher next turn and killed the last two players 😃

[@johnathanward867]

Love it!

[@BrootalMetalBanjo]

Jeskai is the ultimate Gotcha color pie. Deflecting Palm, Domineering Will, Reins of Power, Gideon’s Sacrifice, Comeuppence, Take the Bait, Illusionist’s Gambit.

[@jamespatterson5644]

commandeer, will bender, deflecting swat

[@jamesfilyawDigginGabe]

Fury storm, narsets Reversal

[@KRSorba]

Magnetic Theft, Mandate of Peace, Arcbond

[@davidh5840]

omg the wholesome nerdery in this thread is everything. 💕

[@TK-zd7ym]

Tell me about it. We have a guy in our group that has a Jeskai deck and I swear EVERY FRICKIN' time he has some sort of combat trick or response to everything.

[@stephenball2108]

My best Gotcha moment was playing Rakdos Charm when an opponent made a wide token board and tried to kill me with Triumph of the Hordes. “How about all your infect creatures kill you instead?”

[@Marie_U_Ahner]

Rakdos Charm is called the „Anti-Combo-Charm“ in our Playgroup for these exact moments.

[@DeineKreativeSeite]

My best was rakdos charm against a Ghyrson Stark. Pinging him for +2 for each creature

[@pawmo3162]

I hit 124 Scute Swarms with a Rakdos Charm one time. It was glorious lol

[@masterbd0505]

My favorite loss was against my Kasla deck where I had all of every token and I was about to win the game and someone Rakdos Charmed me for a CRAZY amount. It was great.

[@danz107]

I'm still waiting for rakdos charm to be the gotcha! for me when someone goes wide like that! It's the one thing that really drew me to it.

[@NoctisVigil]

My favorite gotcha card is in fact a counterspell. It's called Withering Boon, and it's amazing to see people react to it, because LITERALLY NO ONE ever expects the counterspell from the mono-black deck.

[@bendy471]

I feel like the ultimate goal with these videos is to make the most JANKY commander decks using all the cards drafted. Would be a pretty interesting concept

[@justinmontemar5879]

My friends and I are checking legit every day to see if tickets pop up for the live show. Still hoping to get in but if not we're all doing some drafts of bloomburrow over the weekend and enjoying the food trucks!

[@crawdaddy2004]

44:16 Pretty sure Aven Mindcensor is the card my play group has most gotten hosed by - myself included. 😂 That said, I was the person who introduced the card to our group.

[@Marie_U_Ahner]

Turning a Demonic Tutor into an Impulse is kinda hilarious tbh

[@Fettsbounty07]

Something special feeling about nabbing someones planeswalker with Word of Seizing and stealing the ult from it. "Oh you've worked so hard getting all that loyalty on it.... Mine now."

[@willtactix]

I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve interrupted someone’s infinite combo with Word of Seizing.

[@Zorualex]

I would say seedtime. It feels so good when someone opts on your turn or casts a measly blue spell and you gain a whole extra turn.

[@Flyboy245]

I absolutely love seedtime. It’s so narrow, but so much fun. I play it in my naya stompy deck. So when the blue player counters my haymaker, I come out of left field with 2 open mana and an extra turn spell. And then I drop another haymaker and swing out

[@inquisitorofkozilekgames4478]

When I first started EDH in 2013 the two meme cards in our group were seedtime and withering boon(a bad black counterspell). Good times!

[@austinturgoose]

You should make an extra turns where you can only build with your draft picks! I don’t know exactly how it would work, but it would be cool

[@MikhailHudon_ZerithFarron]

Just last night while I had no cards in hand but open mana, I used a fetch land into Mystic Sanctuary to pull a Render Silent out of my grave to stop a Torment of Hailfire blowout. I as a player always like to build in weird defensive tech. My personal favourite is using Tower of The Magistrate to protect my Luxior, Giada's Gift voltrons from creature removal and boardwipes.

[@natehiggins6441]

My greatest gotcha! moment came shortly after Dr. Who released. I was the only one really in my playgroup that bought into Dr. Who (Timey Wimey). My friend was playing his Gishath deck and had an absurb number of dinos on board. I was wide open and he swung out. I got to shout, Everybody Lives! as his attack did nothing. He remembers it to this day. That game also took place on his birthday haha!

[@vanniej]

i hit my friend with that card on monday haha.. i still lost but it bought me a turn to beg and pray a little longer. bro swung at me for like over 40 damage (i had no blockers) and i was like ...i could do the funniest thing rn

[@theknight660]

My most recent gotcha was casting Entrapment Maneuver with a Cathars' Crusade out in response to a lethal swing. Notably they had a transformed Hollowhenge Huntmaster so no one could interact with their board to remove anything to prevent lethal.

[@Moto1987]

I've just built a deck with 20+ gotcha spells in it, it runs surprisingly well and makes for a super interactive game where everyone still gets to do their stuff....it just backfires sometimes.

[@ahagz]

Would love to see the list if you are willing to share!

[@CHEFPKR]

Echoing truth is my pet gacha spell 1 and a Blue Return target nonland permanent and all permanents of the same name to their owners hand. It's so good against token decks or just as a single target bounce. Awesome both defensively and offensively.

[@abecascade]

My Number 1 Gacha card is actually green, it's called Constant Mist. Landfall is my favorite archetype and there was 1 time I said I would fog if any of the creatures attacked me and they forced the issue. I fogged, bought it back, and said the same thing. I was not attacked for the rest of the game and won that way.

[@ThisIsACommanderChannel]

I literally just made a video on the most interesting gotcha cards released in a long time. Return the Favor is a unique card that does things no other Magic card can do.

[@digitalworldsvr7881]

Saw that episode yesterday, it's my favorite trick you've covered so far. I bought 5 copies of Return the Favor for my red decks today.

[@gabecastillo1634]

It’s really just a fork/deflecting swat with a bigger cost including spree

[@craig1287]

​@@gabecastillo1634Maybe there is more to it. The video he mentioned does talk about how it is the only card in all of Magic that lets you make a copy of an activated ability or triggered ability that an opponent controls. You can copy someone's card with storm, you copy the storm trigger to make a bunch of copies of that spell. You can also use it to copy a Planeswalker's ult, which is crazy.

[@Blacklodge_Willy]

No ​@@gabecastillo1634

[@ThisIsACommanderChannel]

@@digitalworldsvr7881 Thanks, I know I've seen your comments on videos for a while, on some of my earlier episodes. So for someone that's been watching them for so long, that's great to know. I really liked the episode as well. One of my favorites.

[@elementalphoenix346]

Would love to see a 4th person on these so we get to dig a little deeper on the cards!!

[@jrickey]

I'm a big fan of Bolt Bend as a budget/unexpected Deflecting Swat. I'm always surprised by how many decks I can reliably use it in.

[@shadowmyst9661]

I love Deflecting Palm so much. Deflecting Palm along with the original Narset were the cards that actually got me into Magic to begin with when my Uncle taught me how to play and handed me his old Jeskai Monk deck. Now I have my own Narset Commander deck that emulates my favorite parts of how my Uncle’s old deck played, and has my own unique inclusions to truly make it my own. The whole deck is one big Combat Trick with a ton of flexible pieces of interaction that can be used for offense and defense.

[@thebrystradamus8541]

I would love to see this list sometime! Do you have a link?

[@shadowmyst9661]

@@thebrystradamus8541 This is the list for my Narset, Enlightened Exile deck: 1 Akroma's Will 1 Arcane Denial 1 Arcane Signet 1 Archmage Emeritus 1 Arena of Glory 1 Austere Command 1 Azorius Chancery 1 Azorius Signet 1 Boros Charm 1 Boros Signet 1 Brainstorm 1 Brainsurge 1 Cascade Bluffs 1 Clever Impersonator 1 Command Beacon 1 Command Tower 1 Cyclonic Rift 1 Deflecting Palm 1 Demonic Ruckus 1 Detective's Phoenix 1 Elsha of the Infinite 1 Exotic Orchard 1 Fellwar Stone 1 Fists of Flame 1 Flooded Strand 1 Frantic Search 1 Great Train Heist 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Hinata, Dawn-Crowned 3 Island 1 Izzet Boilerworks 1 Izzet Signet 1 Jeskai Ascendancy 1 Kykar, Wind's Fury 1 Legion Leadership // Legion Stronghold 1 Leonin Lightscribe 1 Mana Drain 1 Maze of Ith 1 Meticulous Archive 1 Monastery Mentor 3 Mountain 1 Mystic Gate 1 Mystic Sanctuary 1 Narset of the Ancient Way 1 Narset Transcendent 1 Narset's Reversal 1 Narset, Enlightened Exile 1 Narset, Enlightened Master 1 Narset, Parter of Veils 1 Perilous Landscape 1 Pinnacle Monk // Mystic Peak 3 Plains 1 Pyretic Charge 1 Raugrin Triome 1 Reconnaissance 1 Reconstruct History 1 Requisition Raid 1 Return the Favor 1 Rising of the Day 1 Rugged Prairie 1 Scalding Tarn 1 Sea of Clouds 1 Sensei's Divining Top 1 Sevinne's Reclamation 1 Shorikai, Genesis Engine 1 Siege Smash 1 Sink into Stupor // Soporific Springs 1 Slickshot Show-Off 1 Smothering Tithe 1 Snap 1 Sol Ring 1 Steam Vents 1 Stella Lee, Wild Card 1 Storm-Kiln Artist 1 Stroke of Midnight 1 Sundering Eruption // Volcanic Fissure 1 Swiftfoot Boots 1 Swords to Plowshares 1 Take Up the Shield 1 Talisman of Conviction 1 Talisman of Creativity 1 Talisman of Progress 1 Three Steps Ahead 1 Thundering Falls 1 To Arms! 1 Trickbind 1 Triton Wavebreaker 1 Twinferno 1 Twisted Fealty 1 Unauthorized Exit 1 Vandalblast 1 Veyran, Voice of Duality 1 Whirlwind of Thought 1 Windfall

[@Onirikas]

Portal Manipulator is a great new card from Clue Edition, its a callback on Portal mage but way better, it lets you redirect all attackers.

[@thomashanks1649]

Reflect Damage has always been a favorite for me. Blasphemous Act? No no, you take 200 damage

[@IVISMiLESIVI]

Mercadia's Downfall is absolutely going in my Otharri deck and my Balmor deck. I can always count on Rachel to show me a card I haven't seen before and fall in love with it immediately.

[@Thessik73]

I am going to GenCon again this year (only missed one in the last 16-ish years) and would love to meet you guys.

[@servillo8723]

I'm surprised Rachel was able to kill Jimmy with Mercadia's Downfall. Wouldn't that required him to have drawn enough lands for it to matter? Also, shoutout to the Queen Marchesa mention at the end. Building her taught me how many effects similar to Deflecting Palm exist in Rakdos, and it gets so much better when I spend the whole game playing Group Hug to build up my opposing armies and then turn them against their owners. Not only do I have so many gotcha cards, but I work to make them even better than normal.

[@Cef21]

I can't believe this is your first time at Gen Con! Rachel it's like 3 hours from Chicago! Anyway, I mainly sign up for Commander Pods. They're open events where they pair up pods of 4, and cost like $10 to play, but you're guaranteed to get in some games and you can win tickets to turn in for prizes. Varies in power levels so have a range of decks. Or you can just try to recruit people to create a pod and have some casual encounters. Which for you guys should be no problem. Hope to see you there! Only way it could be better is if you can drag The Professor along ;)

[@kesskin5823]

#1 is Mystic Reflection for me. I sac'd my 27 power Chasm Skulker to Greater Good, drew 27 cards, cast Mystic Reflection, created 26 copies of an opponent's Archon of Cruelty. All for 1 mana at instant speed with the right board state.

[@CrazyEyeOptics]

My favorite gotcha moment occurred a long time ago with one of my old play groups. Back then everyone had at least one Voltron deck, with some people having multiple. I liked the strategy so I enjoyed it, but I noticed something concerning. Everyone was running Lightning Greaves and almost no one was running Swiftfoot Boots. It concerned me that everyone would risk their commander being killed by instant speed removal for a one mana reduction in cost. The de facto leader of that group said that it wasn't too much to worry. Later that day we were playing a game and a situation came up where a fully equipped Voltron commander the leader was playing was about to be equipped with Lightning Greaves. He looked to me and asked me if I had the removal and I said I did. He said I'll show you how easy it is to recover and went to put the commander in the command zone when I stopped him. "Put it into your hand" I said and then revealed that my removal spell was Fumble. His face turned white and everyone laughed because it was the perfect gotcha to everything he had been lecturing me about all day. Fumble has remained one of my favorite spells to just trip people up with to this day.

[@xNemesiSxPR]

havent see the video full but for what ive seen. Rakdos charm is amazing, exiling someone GY when they gonna make their win move with a mass revival or whatever is priceless. reflecting palm is amazing also, i got one player with it once and next day he wrote in our friends group chat "oooo no you didnt won that game, the creature was hexproof!" i knew this was coming lol, i said reflectic palm doesnt target, so doesnt matter. boom, good card. i use many of them in my queen marchesa aikido kinda deck.

[@paulbuckley2301]

Mid-clip comment! My favorite "Gotcha!" was from a few months ago. The Beamtown Bullies, my Haakon Dimir, and two others. He had Leveler and Eater of Days in Graveyard, obviously. I had Chapter 2 on Founding the Third Path, with a Patriarch's Bidding in my Graveyard, I warned the table in advance of my intentions. Chapter 3 hit, Bully player gave me Leveler in response, I exiled my Library, resolve Bidding, I choose Leviathan. He gets his own Eater of Days back and skips his next two turns. Goblin player got Goblins and wiped out the fourth player, not worried abiut me at all because I die at Draw step. Skip Bullies turn. On my Upkeep, I cast Gravepurge and refill my library with the 13 creatures in my Graveyard, Draw, attack Bullies and drain out Goblin player. Skip Bullies, I attack and win. Two huge Gotchas from me that were so clutch in that game. Rakdos Charm! In another game, I exiled someone else's Graveyard, we each took 10 damage from his Syr Konrad, killing the 3rd and 4th players, then I Simic and Boros Charm my Niv-Mizzet Guildpact for +3/+3 and Double Strike and kill the Konrad player. Both were glorious wins out of nowhere, except for the dirty feeling I felt for killing two players with Black's Autopilot Commander.

[@twaddc1390]

I love Force of Despair - not only having the benefit of being cast while you are tapped out but creating a tempo change for others who now need to reassess how they use their board wipes can be brilliant!

[@lordfarquaad9097]

I'm so happy you're doing this video. I've just been getting into gotcha cards.

[@tswl3163]

My favourite is Domineering Will, so versatile, acts as removal/protection. It can be used outside of combat if you have haste or if the creatures don't have summoning sickness. Activated abilities etc. I always find a use for it

[@jtherealist8766]

As i tell my friends all the time, "dont mess with the gruul player!" I love gruul and despite what youd expect, i play fun gotcha spells. My pet card is Green Slime for a reason😅.

[@danielskroeker]

Rachel Weeks, I am such a massive fan and If I see you at Gen Con; I will cry. You are my mtg hero and my motivation to keep playing and deckbuilding, I will be frequenting the area near bloomburrow drafting.

[@colton8692]

I like “Slip out the back” often it is used as a protect my thing but it can also be used to phase out an important Combo creature or fog a single creature. Which is super cool for a 2 mana blue spell

[@eyceguy]

A favorite gotacha of mine is Ertai's Meddling, a "counterspell" that is more disruption than anything else. Love the look on opponents when I use it against their Teferi's Protection (x = 1 or course)

[@RyzinUpLoL]

My favourite is tainted strike. It gives target creature +1/+0 and infect at instant speed until end of turn. Doesnt have to be a creature you control. So if anyone does not block a big flyer or eldrazi you sneak it in there and boom one opponent less at the table.

[@jkattack2640]

Big fan of a lot of these in sunforger decks. Special inclusions there: wild ricochet and debt of loyalty. That being said, I think narsets reversal has to be my #1 pick. It hits the sweet spot of versatility by being 2 mana and yoinking an early ramp or draw spell, but retains the insane blowout potential against big spells like rift or torment. And it has one of my favorite interactions of all time with any effect that automatically forks your spells It's pretty niche but basically whenever anyone casts something narsets can target while you have an auto fork out you can: cast narsets, copy it, redirect the copy to the narsets card, returning it to your hand and getting another copy to point at the original spell you wanted to narsets, retaining the card in your hand.

[@theinvisiblegentleman1142]

I was playing orvar against my friend's krenko. It was late in the game (turn 5) and I knew I was almost certainly going to lose on my opponent's next turn. I had one tiny sliver of a chance, he had enough damage on board to kill me, but only just barely and I had two mana up. But he got sloppy, he tapped krenko to create 40 goblins. I tapped my last two mana and played mystic reflections, causing his goblins to come in as copies of my mulldrifter. He decked himself out and mystic reflection became one of my favorite cards of all time.

[@Grumbl3cakes]

I'm thrilled to see time stop here. The upside to just skip somebody's turn is great, but ill never forget casting it in response to the cosmic imposter tibalt ult threatening to recast jeskas will. Guy was so certain he completely forgot to play a land that turn!

[@Nr4747]

My favorite "gotcha"-spell is also my favorite Magic card of all time (and totally symmetrical you guys, I mean: C'mon it even says: "Players") is Shadow of Doubt. I love everything about this card, how its name and function align, how very, very Dimir the name, flavor text, artwork and even mana cost are etc.

[@Dragon_Fyre]

My favourite would be Ezuri’s predation. 5GGG: for every creature your opponents control, you get a 4/4 beast. Each beast then fights a different one of those creatures.

[@metricarea7546]

I cast it on a board full of scute swarms, friend scooped. Then a second later I realized I had Elemental Bond out... Decked myself hahahaha

[@Natedogg2]

Two of my favorites are Reiterate - most of what was said with Fury Storm applies here, but you can copy different spells. And you can also cast it, then leave it in your hand for a few turns so your opponents forget about it, then cast it later on. I have a MTGO screenshot from years ago where I Reiterated someone's Villainous Wealth with X=20, and managed to put all of my opponent's libraries onto the battlefield under my control. My second is Prismatic Strands. It prevents all damage of one color, not just combat damage, and has flashback, so you can also cast it early, then flash it back turns later when your opponents have forgotten about it.

[@McLongSausage]

My fav reason for running Narset's Reversal is for when your pod is running some cards that say "This card can't be countered", there always seems to be a fight over it which is always fun to win and the copy effect is just the cherry on top lol.

[@cardwizz1471]

This is Awesome I wish we could see the whole list!!

[@mufasafalldown8401]

Tainted Strike and Ram Through.

[@as_tehtpyoking]

I'm so glad Backlash came up. I also run a Queen Marchesa deck with a handful of "Gotcha" spells in a Sunforger package and it is *SO* incredibly satisfying to grab Rakdos Charm, Deflecting Palm, Backlash or Fury Storm in the perfect moment. I find that my line in that deck is often to try to disincentivize folks from attacking me (Goad, Rattlesnakes, Ghostly Prison, etc) for most of the game and position myself as one of the final two and then judo throw my final opponent into the bin.

[@jordancarlson6556]

A couple of the big hits I've made recently are with force of despair, ashiok's erasure against a persistent petitioner deck, and seedtime. I also like mystic reflection, sudden substitution, and commandeer

[@graysonchristian2668]

In this Gotcha category my favorite Op Agent moment is when my friend and I used it not to screw each other over to use a mystical tutor with Op Agent to find a removal spell and keep a 3rd player from winning

[@Mageami]

My best to Gotcha moments were when I won the game with 1 single mana. First one was a guy who played a Etherium Sculptor/Divining Top combo and then attacked with an infinitely strong Glassdust Hulk. I had Sanguine Bond in play and payed 1 white for an Awe Strike. It was glorious. Second one was when an opponent played Consecrated Sphinx into Timetwister and drew 49 cards. I happened to draw Runeflare Trap with exactly 1 red mana open. Also glorious :)

[@t-kila3675]

Lads you got the only ads i dont skip, great work

[@zlk42]

I love running Avoid Fate. Nobody expects a green counterspell, even if it’s a narrow one

[@greyderpanite3344]

I can't wait for the game knights where they have to build a deck out of there draft picks

[@zargaden]

Arcbond. My favorite card in magic. The floor can be low, but that ceiling is just 🤌 My dream moments with it: -Casting it with an Ink-Treader Nephalim in play and doing 38 damage, living and winning with 1 life. -Casting it with Fiery Emancipation in play and stopping a Gishanth deck from killing us all -Casting it on my friend's chump-blocking Plague Stinger and killing two people with infect when I wasn't playing infect -Casting it on a Zurgo Helmsmasher with indestructible and lifelink (from my Dihada commander) after my opponent chump blocked

[@Jindistinct]

I don't know about number one pick (or if it'd ever make it onto a list even) but a card I always regard fondly is Sublime Epiphany. Obviously it costs a lot to cast and there are plenty of situations where it's a really bad card to have in your hand but the times where I got the most out of it make it have a special place in my heart.

[@Wasto1]

I have mirror weave in my shorikai vehicles deck and turned all my opponents creatures into uncrewed vehicles, swung out and win that turn. Was the best magic moment I’ve ever had

[@dcanilai2191]

My personal favorite gacha moment while playing was something akin to Inkshield, but something I prefer. My friend was hitting us with an infinite mana combo that ends with a fireball for way too much, I dropped Selfless Squire. The joy I felt when I asked him to give me exact numbers and then had a giant creature instead of him killing us and everything.

[@foxrogge6298]

Crop rotation tutpring out glacial chasm or obscuring haze are best gotcha

[@jeffnosdivad3080]

Archive Trap is a pet card of mine. Love having it when someone tutors to the top of the deck.

[@camoyuki]

I never thought about using something like Fury Storm to counter a counterspell by copying an opponent's counterspell when they are countering something important. That's pretty cool

[@nebulousram674]

Time Stop is really good when someone whipes the board because they though you were the problem. Now they don't recover next and your going to recovery from their whipe and they wont.

[@SWNJim]

I have a Queen Marchesa deck that plays Backlash. It’s packed full of “gotcha” cards like Delirium and Mirror Strike. Instead of goad and prevention, I go with redirect effects like Gideon’s Sacrifice and Captain’s Maneuvers. My Extus deck has nearly every “Fork” spell in the game, ironically not including Fork. It has Twinning Staff so I can basically copy your stuff basically infinitely. Kelsien, Licia, and Edgar Markov don’t have many of these types of spells, they just have a more unorthodox play style that people aren’t expecting.

[@mufasafalldown8401]

One of the more brutal gotcha's I've done was using Containment Priest to shut down a big Atla Palani turn.

[@ImGamerDad]

My favorite Gotcha card is "Mana Short", cast it during combat and there goes any plans for that 2nd main. Has won me several games.

[@L1ndormen]

Personally, my best Gotcha moment is that when I played Blame Game, one opponent was out, I drew Take The Bait and my opponents teamed up against me. Then one full swinged at me and I played the card. Then I swinged in with a 25 power 25 toughness selfless squire against one (with rogues passage, fiendish duo or gisela blade of goldnight and duelist heritage) to deal 100 damage against one opponent and the rest at the other (I think it was like 30 damage). I WON!

[@chickennoodles4491]

I had a great gotcha moment when someone was playing sovereign and was expecting me to fog, but was okay with it because they would still get their attack triggers, but then I played Mandate of Peace

[@elitefourblue3761]

The Baldur’s Gate instants (Wyll/Gale/Jahira) are all fantastic imo!

[@maruhto3508]

I like playing darkness in mono black. My biggest gotcha moment was an inkshield against a full attack of big dinosaurs (polyraptor army) and it won me the game in my very first commander match ever. I was using the silverquill precon. Wont forget :D

[@TK-zd7ym]

Archamandrite is the ultimate "Gotcha" commander I've ever played against. The entire deck is full of "oh, ok I'm gonna gain 38 life and all my creatures are +38 now" kinda spells.

[@drakko95]

My favorite gotcha cards are clone effects, especially now that we're getting more of them with interesting takes on the ability. Other than those, I'd say Return the Favor is probably the best.

[@XerexB]

backlash is an all time favorite of mine. it's in just about every rakdos color deck i make, and it really shines in my Kelsien sunforger deck

[@NerdHerder545]

Reins of Power has to be one of my favorite responses to a cyclonic rift.

[@onniraunio1839]

Rains of Power is the card that holds most wins by itself from my collection, followed close by Vorpal Sword. Reins is just so versatile spell, never played a game where I had it in my hand and did not find a use for it.

[@rulamagic]

Until end of turn happens during the Cleanup step where no one has priority. It's different from "At the beginning of the end step" effects which have a window to be put on the stack after the end step has begun.

[@MirinMeBro]

Game knights with a draft stipulation beforehand sounds amazing

[@Wadupitdog]

Oh man one of my favorites has got to be Theoretical Duplication. Was absurdly behind in a game & cast it in response to a massive Living Death, it was beautiful :,)

[@mn6334]

I've had some fun with Illusionists Gambit and there's the new one Boros one that is similar that I haven't had a chance to use yet. Tower of yhe Magistrate is also pretty neat. It shuts down equipment decks pretty hard and nobody sees it coming before it happens.

[@tanyushing2494]

A good green gotcha spell is weathering the storm. Sometimes gaining just that little bit of health is enough to steal a win from an agro player when playing green.

[@harrisonheppelmann7938]

Missed my top gotcha of all time: skull crack. It makes an opponent die from commander damage even through a teferi’s protection. It un-fogs the fog. It cancels half exsanguinate. It deals the last three damage to an opponent who thought they could save their combo piece creatures and win on their turn. And it stops plansewalkers from dropping an emblem. Can’t always beats can.

[@dantel666]

My favorite gotcha moment was playing a tainted strike in my lord of the nazgul deck when attacking with my commander against someone with flying blockers and they chose not to block and taking them out with infect due to the extra buff. I even asked “how mean should I be this combat?” And the player I attacked was like “as mean as you can”. Not knowing what was coming. 😂

[@alexmarinescu1506]

One of the funniest one: playing mono-white, there was only 3 of us left, I was archenemy at that moment and one of my opponents sent his entire board at me. Windshaper Planetar to the rescue, redirected everything at the other opponent and killed him and the proceeded to attack him, with all his creatures tapped. Glorious!

[@Flyboy245]

Shoutout to to imps mischief and seedtime, and the people that have already mentioned them. But I think “wrong turn” is so funny, especially because it’s in blue, which is a bit of an odd effect. It comes out of absolutely nowhere, completely wrecks someone’s potentially game winning attack, could give an unexpected blocker, and then can have so many different effects on the game. Like giving it to the player in last. It’s just so funny

[@SMuasGames]

My fav gotcha spell is Sudden Spoiling. 1 and 2 black. Target players creatures lose all abilities and now are 0/2. And this card has split second. So it ends the stack.

[@ninjafished]

This is one i was looking for here. When someone's alpha strike turns into a one sided board wipe....

[@SMuasGames]

@@ninjafished i play in a pod with all of make everything indestructible...ie Avacyn. so it funny when a Wrath sticks.

[@WardReacts2]

It doesn't end the stack. More like pause it.

[@VincentWolfeye]

Yay new commandzone video 😊

[@olivierdebilde4292]

My Jon Irenicus deck limited at Urza's block era usually wins through gotcha spells. Hatred, Reins of power, ray of command,... I love it ! I had an awesome gotcha moment with reins of power against a token deck in Amsterdam. "Wait this card does whaaat? 😮"

[@Marie_U_Ahner]

It’s the usual blue bs, but why does it also grant haste?

[@olivierdebilde4292]

@@Marie_U_Ahner I know, right; but the point of my whole deck is giving old cards from the history of MTG to my opponents. What's more fun than grab them all back and turn it into a huge killing swing ?

[@jamesknowles9236]

I still play reverse damage in most monowhite decks (which is a powered down ink shield), ut my favorite gotcha moment was playing a mana tithe after an opponent tapped out for an overloaded cyclonic rift.

[@brandonsaling7701]

My favorite gotcha spell is Seedtime! Not the most consistent, and certainly depends on the power of your play group, but oh man when it works

[@00BBaker]

I have enjoyed playing arachnogenesis in Esix, making the tokens ulamogs (with mirror box out), avengers of zendikar, orhan frostfangs… lotta good times 😂

[@jaronsky8290]

Wow great episode, I must green cards… my fav green card is a forgotten gem gotcha spell… it’s Hall of Gemstone… when I’m behind in the game this slows everything down and it’s fun to watch when I play mono green 😋

[@justinmm2]

The basketball music is called Roundball Rock, and it's by John Tesh!

[@jorgecrespoapastegui]

A commander game between you 3 using only the picks of this series of videos would be AWESOME.

[@jakepetruolo1847]

Delirium from mirage is my favorite gotcha card, I've played it so many times after watching someone stack counters on a big creature

[@andrewbowser9492]

Reins of power is one of my favorite "gotcha" cards, one use that wasn't really talked about in multiplayer is to take Player "A"s board when player "B" is attacking you to use as blockers to reduce both their board states by killing both players creatures and hopefully not taking as much damage yourself

[@borislibaque1558]

I love this, such a fun category. My favourite card might be Master Warcraft. Great episode :)

[@rav5373]

My Favourite "gotcha" card is Green Slime(3 mana 2/2 with flash and Foretel 1G, ETB: counter target activated or triggered ability of an artifact or enchantment and destroy that artifact or enchantment). "do you pay the 1 for Rhystic Study?" "no, but don't draw the card yet, i have something special". Your Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study? gone! I also saved myself a few times from my own Descent into Avernus

[@HughMurphy395]

My favourite cEDH gotcha spell is Endurance for when my opponent casts Thoracle and exiles their library.

[@FriendlyNewt]

One card you didn't bring up that I've found surprisingly strong is Theoretical Duplication, of course I did have it once against a flicker deck.