So happy to hear the Skullbriar shout out from Tomer. Such an absolute house of a commander that continues to get stronger and stronger. Playing him feels like playing an unstoppable force, and I love how optimizing the first 4 turns are so crucially important for success. I love my list too. It feels like my commander magnum opus.
I just built him a few weeks ago. I think he was slept on after ikoria introduced trample counters but now hes just insane. Espeically since the tuck rules got changed a bit and your commander doesnt actually go to hand or library with bounce spells and chaos warp. Its really not possible to stop him when he gets going without outright hate pieces, and even then youre in golgari so just kill it
Richard I have a sick crop rotation story: I had the 3 mana Vivian on board (the one that gives your creatures flash). One of my opponents dumped a huge threat in the bin and cast reanimate, they were going to win the game. I flashed in a spellseeker to tutor for crop rotation and crop roatationed for a bojuka bog to blow them out at instant speed. It was the sickest play.
Crim's so real for calling out card draw that way. It really is just the illusion of getting to play the game against commanders that outdraw the rest of the table.
It's weird so many people deny this premise considering for the longest time people understood there's a degree of self awareness required to realize the difference between losing slowly, as opposed to having a legit chance to turn around a bad board state.
I do agree, but it will also lead to playing night of soul's betrayal effects to make bowmaster and notion thief to die immediately. Which I already play because someone in my play group is a Crim and plays those cards.
Sure seems that way. Both Richard and Tomer were talking about proposed versions of what a "legendary instant" would do (Richard saying only one on the stack; Tomer saying you only get one in your deck), even though the rules for legendary instants/sorceries exists.
@@another505Crim knows, it seems like he just wasn't sure if that was an inherent part of the card, and when he asked everyone made up joke rules like it didn't exist. This honestly happens a lot on the main cast. Seth or Crim will have a vague memory of something mostly correct but will ask for confirmation from the two other hosts, who don't remember it at all.
The crew losing their mind about bouncelands entering the battlefield untapped while describing the literal play pattern of Archelos, Lagoon Mystic since 2020
-Richard: “I’ll finally play an edict when it lets me literally choose the creature they sacrifice.” -Make An Example exists (plus it’s even better than what he asked for.) -Richard: “yeah but Teferis Protevtion!” Honestly though, I wish we could have a discussion about removal that didn’t have Richard ignoring valid points and spouting the conversation-ending “Dies to removal”-style response that is “yeah but Tef Pro!”
The go to Richard response to invalidate a card, "doesn't get around Teferi's Protection or gets removed by Farewell." Richard creates the perfect scenario where a particular card would be bad when he is on the opposite side of an argument. Often times it honestly feels like Richard just enjoys being a contrarian.
@@MrGeoghagan Richard being such a contrarian is what creates interesting discourse imo. I appreciate that this podcast isn't just an echo chamber like many channels which discuss commander are. I don't agree with him always but sometimes I do, and he backs up all of his talk by consistently beating everyone while using the same mindset which he argues with.
@@CupcakeWarlock I would agree with you if it wasn't for the fact he often defaults to creating exact scenarios in which a card would be good or bad when he is describing why he is for/against a card. That doesn't create interesting conversation, IMO. As for winning games, he isn't winning as often as proponents of his playstyle seem to think. And when he does win more often than not he had to smooth talk his way out of getting killed earlier, it isn't his card choices saving him. No hate on doing what you gotta do to stay alive, but I'd take his opinions on cards more seriously if it felt his wins actually came from his card choices.
@@CupcakeWarlockYeah I agree with the above commenter. He always uses cherry-picked scenarios, AND also his logic is self-contradicting and just flat out stupid sometimes. If the counterpoints he brought up were actually good and thought provoking (which they are like 10% of the time) I would consider that interesting. But they just rarely are. If you want to be a contrarian, you have to have consistently solid logic, otherwise it’s just obnoxious.
Crim is speaking facts with edicts. I have an Anhelo deck running a hefty amount of edicts, and it being a sacrifice effect matters pretty often due to how much protection is available on creatures or being held in hand nowadays. Soul shatter, make an example, szats will, sheoldred's edict, and vona's hunger do a great job keeping the board clean with most being at instant speed which also matters pretty often.
Amen. Though one point there is that they scale with the rest of your removal. If you can't clear a mana dork efficiently, an edict generally looks pretty bad. But if your control decks have ways to effectively keep all of their creatures in check, edicts are a great compliment to that. They also scale really well with themselves in that regard, probably another reason Crim the control pilot likes them and the others less so. One Plaguecrafter probably doesn't hit everything you need it to, but three definitely does. That's why I've been super impressed by Wasteland Raider. I'm playing it in Henzie, so it has some extra upside, but it's routinely able to collect like a seven or eight for one.
Does Curse of the Cabal count as an edict effect? I've generally found it quite good in both the suspend mode and getting hard cast with Coffers or in a Golgari deck. It feels similar to the new spree edict in ending one person's while career.
I am an avid fog believer. The past couple of years, I've been adding one or two in every deck, and it has saved me countless times. Never angry when i draw one. "Blessed respite" is my favourite sleeper fog
Cards that get better all the time based off the first couple of topics are the nonbasic hate cards like Ruination, Back to Basics, Wave of Vitriol etc.
@@yoyoguy1st That hasn’t been my experience, I play them both a lot and most people just think it’s funny, especially since basics are the most accessible cards in magic so they are very easy to play around. If they really make someone so salty that they don’t want to play then that person was probably going to get salty at anything I did against them anyway. Also the salt level isn’t relevant on Commander Clash because all of them have to play against each other every week anyway, blood moon or not.
@@OceanicBacon I was trying to kid but I guess that didn't get through text. Really think it depends on the decks people play. I play mostly only mono color decks so I wouldn't really care but 3 or more colors playing a high number of basics does have a high cost. If your playgroup is ready for stuff like that and pretty high power it's not too bad to fetch basics but in general stuff like blood moon I really don't think meshes well with commander, playing prison pieces like that just doesn't work with a casual format.
38:09 - And here Richard has a minor meltdown over Mind's Eye, because it showed him that despite oodles of extra card draw, his deck was terrible in that last game (they all were).
On the topic of edicts, a favourite of mine lately has been shadowgrange archfiend. It's affordable with the madness cost, also decent rate to just play, but is also a great reanimation target and it gains a bunch of life, i really like it.
They need to introduce mass non-basic land destruction into the game... like A LOT of it. Put it in every single color. Basic runners wont get hurt at all and everybody else will cry and they deserve to cry.
I love how Richard constantly shoots down everyone's valid points only to essentially say" bounce lands = rhystic study on a land" . God I love the episodes where he's absent . Crim and Seth you guys are great .
I did a quick scryfall search. There's some instants and sorcs that do it (Sudden Impact, Khorvath's Fury, Gaze of Adamaro, Runeflare Trap), some creatures that do it conditionally (Balor, Emberwilde Captain, Stormbreath Dragon) but they all seem either overpriced or too conditional. Runeflare trap might be the best of these by being a one mana instant for situations where you want to use it. Toil/Trouble let's you have the effect for 3 mana, but you're in Rakdos now, which also gives you Sycorax Captain at sorc speed. The weirdest find from the search was Storm Seeker, a four mana instant that burns someone equal to the cards they have in hand, but the quirk is that it's green for some reason.
Dress Down mentioned! One of my favorite cards that is nearly always a nuclear blowout when I play it, always has good targets, and cantrips to boot. Such an amazing card.
As someone with a blinged out, equipment voltron deck (Raiyuu), I can say Richard's argument is bad. Seth's idea of using Sunforger to get these Sprees is high tier sauce. The main issue with richard's argument is that youre obviously going to be playing the cards he mentioned already in the deck (The one ring and yada). Games are not always that smooth where you have tons of card draw established or just dont have the wrath in hand. The whole point of Sunforger is that it allows equipment decks to tutor for the very few yet powerful instant spells we will be using. Between wanting to tutor out a Teferi Protection, Everybody Lives!, or Deflecting Swat & Boltbend, I would love having Spree (an instant speed 1-side boardwipe) available to my package. This can be vital not only to clear the board cause of "big bad creature" but maybe the target you wish to attack has a a very specific blocker that you cant get by - Like for example, this happens often if you have tons of Sword of XnY stacked up but the 1 guy you wish to kill has a colorless creature.
One of the things about Amulet of Vigor that was left out is that Blind Obedience style effects have been becoming more common lately. And Amulet of Vigor negates all of those effects.
1:20:15 If it hasn't been mentioned already, Khorvath's Fury is a 5-mana sorcery from Battlebond that burns each player you want for their hand size and lets everyone else discard their hand and draw that many plus one. It's the only one that comes to mind but I can imagine some weird old cards having a similar effect.
I think the cards that often get better in general are cards that play off of other cards rather than solely doing something themselves… thus keeping up with power creep. Just as an example - re-animate or animate dead. These are good in that they return a creature to play from a graveyard but as creatures get more and more powerful, so too do these cards making them better and better…
@1:18:00 I totally agree, especially those green/blue value decks that just draw cards for doing what they want to do as well as ramping. So they actually have mana to do everything and still hold up counters, or protection and for some reason a good amount of removal in green/blue because the just keep printing color pie break removal in those colors.
I am not sure if it fits entirely for this episodes theme but a card I am always impressed by when I cast it is Final Parting. I have always heard from people that 5 mana is too much for a tutor but like this one lets me set up sweet combos like pitching a Villis, Broker of Blood and putting a Reanimate into hand to refill the hand. Or grab a Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and throw Lord of Extinction in the bin to just end the game after a reanimation spell. The card just has cool built in synergy with a lot of strategies.
I like what your thinking. Might I suggest if your going that route to try Cadaverous Bloom, exile the cards you don't need for more mana! This card goes off the rails in Yargltani with Greater Good or really any creature power matters strategy in Golgari ;p
Love that card, it's a double tutor for 5 mana when you use it right, as your example. And there are a lot of ways of just getting value from it. It's probably just that everything happens so fast, you have to go for those huge plays instead of other neat things.
I like the discussion on Fetch lands. Often I hear people will say things like fetches are overrated or they're not necessary. This paints the picture well. You can always find a reason to load up on fetches. They're so good. Just don't run them if you don't want to. run them. The surveil lands have been fantastic. I've been very impressed by them. I do have a rule about surveil lands though. Don't just jam all of them in unless I'm ready and willing to increase my land count. Going to heavy on tapped lands is very real.
I think the argument against fetch lands is often more about their cost and how people may be using them and whether that cost is justified (ie. to thin out lands or some early mana fixing). It’s the same argument as with OG dual lands. Of course they’re good, but they are very overrated for those players that have a budget. Unlike OG dual lands on the reserved list, fetch lands have not held their value either… the example in the video was Verdant Catacombs. At its peak in 2021 it was up to $80. Currently, it’s at about $17. That’s one of the worst investments you could have made in MTG cards.
@@Dragon_Fyre I agree that most people consider fetches overrated by what you just said. I should've been more specific. I was referring to the times where (in my experience) people tried to argue against using fetches by saying things like "the 1 life isn't even worth it" or "the deck thinning doesn't make a difference". Both of these arguments are incredibly short sighted. As for considering them overrated on a budget I suppose that's a bit more of a category difference. I'd think most of the time fetches aren't even a consideration because they won't even make the budget. I would say there's a narrow budget window where you're working with a budget that isn't dirt cheap but also isn't super expensive. In that case I would say it probably doesn't make sense to soak up so much of your budget on fetches. Something like a 200 dollar budget.
@@d.a.d.-ohgosh I think that fetch lands for deck thinning is just not that impactful in Commander. In 60 card formats it’s a far more significant impact (not just due to the 60-100 card differential, but that you can have 4 of each fetch land; when you have for example in a 3 color deck, 12 fetch lands in 60 card decks versus 3 fetch lands in a Commander deck, the deck thinning will snowball by comparison). Excluding recursion effects, you can remove up to 20% of the deck versus 3%. The life loss is insignificant in Commander. That wouldn’t even be a factor in my decision on whether or not to include them. I think the best usage (aside from landfall effects) is mana fixing where you can go get Triomes (especially in 4+ color decks) or when it’s necessary a shock-land that will enter untapped.
@@Dragon_Fyre 3 is only the case of you play a two colored deck. In a three colored deck you can play 5. And despite whether or not you can have a lot of them, every time you draw them and crack them, you're essentially drawing two cards out of your deck. Sure, you're not getting the same overall results as having multiples of them, but each individual fetch is still just as good on their own regardless of whether you have multiples of them.
@@OddMidnight The effects are cumulative though… if you have a combo deck where it is essential to thin out the deck, you want to do so as much as possible. In a 60 card format deck, where you can have 4x as many fetch lands, the more you thin the deck out the more likely you are to keep drawing into more fetch lands and keep thinning the deck out further. Think of it like if you were going to include a Doubling Season in a deck. If you had 12 cards that benefit significantly from it, it may be worth including. If you had 3 cards that benefit from it, it’s probably not worth including… The whole point of thinning the deck is that it is important to your strategy and should be an impactful focus of your deck. In regard to how many per deck, I guess it depends on what you are defining as a fetch land. I was referring to the classic 10 count land cycle of fetch lands.
The biggest problem I have with fogs is this idea that they will guaranteed save you. From what the Goldfish Crew is saying, every deck is going to try to surprise kill you with haste (or haste like) combat damage, in which case a fog is very useful. The problem with that argument is that is assumes you'll only ever get hit with one surprise kill in a turn cycle. I have played so many games where the dragon player tries to go off with concordant crossroads, is stopped, and then the rakdos reanimator deck kills everyone with a rise of the dark realms and a haste enabler, or anything similar to that. You can't really use the idea that "fogs protect you from the constant surprise alpha strikes," because that argument also assumes you'll get hit by more than one surprise alpha strike a turn cycle. Now, to be fair, certain cards like Teferi's Protection, The One Ring and Constant Mists get around this issue. That's why those cards are actually good as fogs. But most fogs aren't like these cards, most fogs only protect you from one person in a four person game. And this is to say nothing about how Teferi's Protection and The One Ring can also save you from combos, which lets be honest, do still happen in commander. I know the Goldfish crew doesn't play against many combos, but that doesn't mean they don't exist, and you also have to take into account spellslinger wincon's like a massive crackle with power or guttersnipe. All in all I just think that fogs in general (with like two or three exception's) just still aren't good enough. Even in a combat meta, they are too narrow and only protect against one person.
Blind Obedience is the truth. It gets people in ways they don't expect, no one disenchants or beast withins it. It just sits on the board until a universal wipe. It has corner power against stuff like Displacer Kitten loops, too. Absolutely adore it.
Huge shoutout to the Skullbriar spotlight! Every other set for the past 2 years have had huge hits for the deck and he becomes increasingly more enjoyable to pilot. Benevolent hydra, scavenged brawler (especially if you have some sort of entomb package), kodama of the west tree, Ozolith the shattered spire, vraska joins up just to name a few of the newer hits 💚
There are edicts that are old cards that have certainly gotten better: the Fleshbag Marauder like options. Recursion options for 3 cost permanents has improved massively. Great episode! Bouncelands are underated for sure!
16:27 I firmly believe that in any heavy ramp deck spelunking and it are amazing. Everyone knows that tireless provisioner is good. These effects enable degenerate sequencing. Tiller engine is another good card. Also imo bounce lands function as two lands when counting cards, so I like them for that factor
Crim, here's a great white edict: Gideon's Triumph. Ignore the Gideon text, this is just 2 mana sacrifice removal at instant speed. I've found it's so easy to catch the creature you want because you can get involved in any combat and go after damage dealt too. It absolutely wrecks voltron but more often simply deals with one problem attacker coming in at you. You guys on commander clash don't go too crazy on protection pieces like greaves, but in a meta like that it's great.
1:10:00 I believe skullbriar still loses the counters to a cyc rift. Your commander changes zones before you put it into the command zone which is why we get death triggers now.
They only changed moving to GY or exile. Going to graveyard or exile now happens as an sba after moving to the new zone but moving to library or hand (hidden zones) still happens as a replacement effect like before.
Seth, the card you wanted to remember that does damage equals to hand size is Runeflare Trap. The red trap from the trap cycle of og zendikar. It costs 6 mana and deals damage to target player equals to its hand size, but if an opponent drew 3 cards this turn it only costs a single red mana.
Around 1:20:35 the card Seth is thinking of is called Sudden Impact which is the red version of Storm Seeker that was originally a green card in Legends.
I ran a deck that was full of Kederect Parasite effects, and often made it so people couldn't pop off or they would lose. It was great, and I was simultaneously the tables worst enemy and the greatest ally.
For a single target Notion Thief/Orcish Bowmasters kind of effect give it some activation condition to punish. For example, when this creature deals combat damage to a player, until your next turn if that player would draw a card other than the first in their draw step . You would want some caution though as printing something like that into commander product still means Legacy gets to use it so it can't be too absurdly punishing or value generating.
Hard agree with Crim, edict style cards that get all opponents: Szat's Will, Soul Shatter, Crackling Doom, Olorin's Sealing Light, etc just keep getting better with time. Also agreed with Seth on the fetch lands, sure maxing out is the optimal play but it "feels" better to limit to the actual decks colors and prismatic vista / fabled passage if you really want more fetches.
I'm actually interested in Skullbriar! What a sweet lukewarm commander! As someone who plays mostly people with precons, I like to find commander options that are fun and unique, but unassuming. I've been having a ton of fun with Kambal, Profiteering Mayor in this vein as well.
something lacking in the discussion about bounce lands is it can also smooth out your land drops, it gives you a land to drop on your next turn, also there's the point were it puts a card in your hand that you can cycle away with looting/rummaging effects when you're in red or blue.
The basic land typed tap lands I put in all my multicolored decks. I don't have fetches and I only one 1 shock land. But I do have the cheaper multilands that need for you to show a land of the correct type, or for you to have a particular land type in play for it to enter untapped (reveal and check lands I think they are called). The multilands that enter tapped are important because they help smooth out your other multilands that need the land types. Also, they are fetchable with Farseek, Nature's Lore, Three Visits, etc (I play mostly green).
My playgroup builds decks with proxies so we have access to the full card pool with limited cost and I for one play off-color fetches in whatever color is the deck's primary, typically green when available for things like Nature's Lore and other tutors.
Tales End is good in dedicated graveyard decks to protect you from graveyard hate. Stifling a bog is protecting your win condition in those deck, the counterspell mode is secondary.
Love my skull briar deck. I got back into the game around Ikoria. I was going through my old cards and I found Skullbriar. It was love at second sight. I wipe the floor with tables at my LGS with Skullbriar. Love to see a glow up.
In my playgroup everyone plays strip mine and permanent bounce and people are punished for playing bounce lands every single time. They are the first cards people remove from every single deck
I looooove Amulet of Vigor, Tiller Engine, and Spelunking. Even Stone-Seeder Hierophant. I think they do belong in land decks mostly but in them they are so worthwhile. Amulet is great against certain Blind Obedience type effects which is not very broad but 1 mana and a bounce land is a mini ritual but you're up a card. I feel running the fetchable tapped lands is more relevant in lands decks too and they are all og duals with Amulet out. Tiller Engine is one I would think Richard would love. It does what Amulet does for lands but it turns fetch lands into one-off Mazes of Ith! Spelunking cantrips and ramps. It's literally Amulet + Explore stapled together and with a bounce land, it's like you draw 2. Stone-Seeder Hierophant costs 4 and has summoning sickness which makes it significantly worse than the others but the upside is greater. If you are putting one land into play it ramps you 2 or X+1 lands you play per turn.
On the topic of amulet: it’s S tier in land based decks but if you’re not a land win con deck it’s not worth, that being said archelos gate combo is my favorite casual commander deck.
Archelos, Lagoon Mystic is an amulet in the command zone. I run him in my “powerfull” lands deck and I feel like amulet is a slept on card. Mazes end can be ran in 3 colors along side magosi combo as well as the mdfc and channel lands we love. All can be found in my turtle lands deck
I love Tale's End. I have it in my Mirko deck. It doubles as Graveyard Protection. And it ALWAYS hits something valuable. Yeah legendary spells are rampant plus you can counter commanders, but activated abilities are also very rampant and extremely powerful. I hit someone's command beacon in their Eldrazi deck when their commander costed 12.
I don't buy the bounce land ish outside landfall loops. Playing all these tapped mdfc or bolt mdfc just on the off chance that i might being able to turn them into spells later seems suspect at best. It feels counter productive to delay all of my plan a turn for the chance at a mdfc later down the line.
As a response to Crim's Draw Hate, the best solution for Card Draw ever printed is Chains of Mephistopheles. They still get to sculpt their hand but they don't get to keep a giant grip of answers to everything. I recommend playing MORE WHEELS. Specifically wheels like timetwister and time spiral that shuffle (unless you're in a mill deck). It doesn't matter if a player draws 30 cards if they have to shuffle them away. Obviously if you are built around the graveyard, then go with the discard wheels. Add to those Pox and Fraying Omnipotence and similar effects. The answers exist... people just don't play them enough because other whine. Its a bit of a pick your poison situation.
1:19:40 What would make fevered visions be good enough to play is if the damage was 2 for each card in the opponent's/player's hand beyond the 3rd or 4th. Player's would keep the card cheaper to cast, but that also requires Wizards to be willing to let a card have a potential downside for the player casting it
Crim as a disciple of Bolas you've forgotten to mention that God Pharaoh got better with the printing of Displacer Kitten. You can cast most if not all of your opponents decks for free off the +1 by flickering it off the non creature spells
Goldfish crew:
Seth: Howdy 🤠
Biggest takeaway from this episode is that Seth can pull off a cowboy hat (even if it is a bit crooked)
He. Looks Australian
@@Donovarkhallum Considering that Australians are what happens if old west people go unchecked, that tracks.
@@BootiSwet more unlike a bunch of stray convicts but yeah
It’s crooked like his Wild West code of justice, pardner!
It’s crooked like his Wild West code of justice, pardner!
So happy to hear the Skullbriar shout out from Tomer. Such an absolute house of a commander that continues to get stronger and stronger. Playing him feels like playing an unstoppable force, and I love how optimizing the first 4 turns are so crucially important for success. I love my list too. It feels like my commander magnum opus.
Got a list? I was thinking on building him and a place to start would be nice :)
I just built him a few weeks ago. I think he was slept on after ikoria introduced trample counters but now hes just insane. Espeically since the tuck rules got changed a bit and your commander doesnt actually go to hand or library with bounce spells and chaos warp. Its really not possible to stop him when he gets going without outright hate pieces, and even then youre in golgari so just kill it
I could be wrong but Me, The Immortal seems like a stronger, more interesting deck due to its better access to keyword abilities though.
Seth petting his beard whenever he is anxiously waiting to rebuttal is entertaining.
Richard I have a sick crop rotation story:
I had the 3 mana Vivian on board (the one that gives your creatures flash). One of my opponents dumped a huge threat in the bin and cast reanimate, they were going to win the game. I flashed in a spellseeker to tutor for crop rotation and crop roatationed for a bojuka bog to blow them out at instant speed. It was the sickest play.
Crop rotation counters strip mine
That's sick.
Crim's so real for calling out card draw that way.
It really is just the illusion of getting to play the game against commanders that outdraw the rest of the table.
It's weird so many people deny this premise considering for the longest time people understood there's a degree of self awareness required to realize the difference between losing slowly, as opposed to having a legit chance to turn around a bad board state.
This is a symptom of the "catch-all" approach to edh wotc has taken. It's so casual it hurts.
I do agree, but it will also lead to playing night of soul's betrayal effects to make bowmaster and notion thief to die immediately. Which I already play because someone in my play group is a Crim and plays those cards.
I think it proves Crim point that Legendary non-permanents are so bad everyone forgot they've been around for 6 years and were in Lord of the Rings.
I think he knows it, he was asking if the new ones have to have a legendary creature/pw to cast them which are so bad.
Sure seems that way. Both Richard and Tomer were talking about proposed versions of what a "legendary instant" would do (Richard saying only one on the stack; Tomer saying you only get one in your deck), even though the rules for legendary instants/sorceries exists.
@@another505Crim knows, it seems like he just wasn't sure if that was an inherent part of the card, and when he asked everyone made up joke rules like it didn't exist. This honestly happens a lot on the main cast. Seth or Crim will have a vague memory of something mostly correct but will ask for confirmation from the two other hosts, who don't remember it at all.
The crew losing their mind about bouncelands entering the battlefield untapped while describing the literal play pattern of Archelos, Lagoon Mystic since 2020
Archelos storm was a deck I played that pretty much drowned people in ramp spells, while charging up for a Tendrils of Agony kill. Good times!
I want to see a week where the team have a budget of like $15 specifically for lands so they can't play obscene land bases.
Petition to update Seth's thumbnail pic to be with the cowboy hat 🤠
Life is just not fair
-Richard: “I’ll finally play an edict when it lets me literally choose the creature they sacrifice.”
-Make An Example exists (plus it’s even better than what he asked for.)
-Richard: “yeah but Teferis Protevtion!”
Honestly though, I wish we could have a discussion about removal that didn’t have Richard ignoring valid points and spouting the conversation-ending “Dies to removal”-style response that is “yeah but Tef Pro!”
The go to Richard response to invalidate a card, "doesn't get around Teferi's Protection or gets removed by Farewell." Richard creates the perfect scenario where a particular card would be bad when he is on the opposite side of an argument. Often times it honestly feels like Richard just enjoys being a contrarian.
@@MrGeoghagan Richard being such a contrarian is what creates interesting discourse imo. I appreciate that this podcast isn't just an echo chamber like many channels which discuss commander are. I don't agree with him always but sometimes I do, and he backs up all of his talk by consistently beating everyone while using the same mindset which he argues with.
@@CupcakeWarlock I would agree with you if it wasn't for the fact he often defaults to creating exact scenarios in which a card would be good or bad when he is describing why he is for/against a card. That doesn't create interesting conversation, IMO. As for winning games, he isn't winning as often as proponents of his playstyle seem to think. And when he does win more often than not he had to smooth talk his way out of getting killed earlier, it isn't his card choices saving him. No hate on doing what you gotta do to stay alive, but I'd take his opinions on cards more seriously if it felt his wins actually came from his card choices.
@@CupcakeWarlockYeah I agree with the above commenter. He always uses cherry-picked scenarios, AND also his logic is self-contradicting and just flat out stupid sometimes. If the counterpoints he brought up were actually good and thought provoking (which they are like 10% of the time) I would consider that interesting. But they just rarely are.
If you want to be a contrarian, you have to have consistently solid logic, otherwise it’s just obnoxious.
@@MrGeoghagan I find it entertaining but to each their own.
Crim is speaking facts with edicts. I have an Anhelo deck running a hefty amount of edicts, and it being a sacrifice effect matters pretty often due to how much protection is available on creatures or being held in hand nowadays. Soul shatter, make an example, szats will, sheoldred's edict, and vona's hunger do a great job keeping the board clean with most being at instant speed which also matters pretty often.
Amen.
Though one point there is that they scale with the rest of your removal. If you can't clear a mana dork efficiently, an edict generally looks pretty bad. But if your control decks have ways to effectively keep all of their creatures in check, edicts are a great compliment to that. They also scale really well with themselves in that regard, probably another reason Crim the control pilot likes them and the others less so. One Plaguecrafter probably doesn't hit everything you need it to, but three definitely does. That's why I've been super impressed by Wasteland Raider. I'm playing it in Henzie, so it has some extra upside, but it's routinely able to collect like a seven or eight for one.
Does Curse of the Cabal count as an edict effect? I've generally found it quite good in both the suspend mode and getting hard cast with Coffers or in a Golgari deck. It feels similar to the new spree edict in ending one person's while career.
@@DoctorWhoBlue I had no idea about that card, but I love it and definitely want to run it in my Zevlor deck. Thank you for showing this to me!
@@MrGeoghagan Glad to help! It's a very fun card (for the person casting it).
Agree about Edicts. Make an Example is the biggest overperformer printed in the last few years. It plays way better than it reads.
Tbh I see it as a board wipe, coz it scales to the boardstate. It’s very cool
I am an avid fog believer. The past couple of years, I've been adding one or two in every deck, and it has saved me countless times. Never angry when i draw one. "Blessed respite" is my favourite sleeper fog
Tangle is my personal fav. Though it's not very budget friendly.
I have a few decks with Aether Spouts or Inkshield, and both have won me games.
I love Seth calling Blind Obedience a "crim con" instead of a "win con"
Cards that get better all the time based off the first couple of topics are the nonbasic hate cards like Ruination, Back to Basics, Wave of Vitriol etc.
Not really? They don't get better if no one lets you play with them.
@@cablefeed3738cowards mindset. become the archenemy
Fun fact: Blood Moon and Back to Basics are actually legal and you can play them!
Sure you can play them once but then nobody will ever want to play with you again
@@yoyoguy1st That hasn’t been my experience, I play them both a lot and most people just think it’s funny, especially since basics are the most accessible cards in magic so they are very easy to play around. If they really make someone so salty that they don’t want to play then that person was probably going to get salty at anything I did against them anyway. Also the salt level isn’t relevant on Commander Clash because all of them have to play against each other every week anyway, blood moon or not.
@@OceanicBacon I was trying to kid but I guess that didn't get through text. Really think it depends on the decks people play. I play mostly only mono color decks so I wouldn't really care but 3 or more colors playing a high number of basics does have a high cost. If your playgroup is ready for stuff like that and pretty high power it's not too bad to fetch basics but in general stuff like blood moon I really don't think meshes well with commander, playing prison pieces like that just doesn't work with a casual format.
As someone from Oklahoma I can verify, people do indeed tip their cowboy hats.
Truth. I live in Tulsa and if someone has a cowboy hat, you get the nod and hat tip.
Can confirm. Also from Oklahoma
The best part is that these guys actually argue back and forth peacefully and I find myself agreeing with everyone at some point
Path To Exile started off as a removal spell. But now can be hailed as THE best ramp spell in the format! 1 MANA GET A LAND!
Field of Ruin gives a land to EVERYONE, you can't be better than that
Especially if an opponent is playing Slicer.
@@laytonjr6601ahh free stuff for everyone, the perfect recipe to lose
Jokes aside I’ve actually been using it as such on tokens and shit…..always feels kinda good lol
@@scottricks1676 i mean in feather? goated
38:09 - And here Richard has a minor meltdown over Mind's Eye, because it showed him that despite oodles of extra card draw, his deck was terrible in that last game (they all were).
Lookin sharp Seth!
On the topic of edicts, a favourite of mine lately has been shadowgrange archfiend. It's affordable with the madness cost, also decent rate to just play, but is also a great reanimation target and it gains a bunch of life, i really like it.
They need to introduce mass non-basic land destruction into the game... like A LOT of it. Put it in every single color.
Basic runners wont get hurt at all and everybody else will cry and they deserve to cry.
"during every players upkeep that player sacrifice two nonbasic lands and search for one basic land and put it into play." 😂
I’m with Crim about Edict effects. Check out Shadowgrange Archfiend in Be’lakor. We be discarding and we be blinking.
I love how Richard constantly shoots down everyone's valid points only to essentially say" bounce lands = rhystic study on a land" . God I love the episodes where he's absent . Crim and Seth you guys are great .
The red card you were looking for to punish a large hand size is: Vicious Shadows. If only it was less mana :P
I did a quick scryfall search. There's some instants and sorcs that do it (Sudden Impact, Khorvath's Fury, Gaze of Adamaro, Runeflare Trap), some creatures that do it conditionally (Balor, Emberwilde Captain, Stormbreath Dragon) but they all seem either overpriced or too conditional. Runeflare trap might be the best of these by being a one mana instant for situations where you want to use it.
Toil/Trouble let's you have the effect for 3 mana, but you're in Rakdos now, which also gives you Sycorax Captain at sorc speed.
The weirdest find from the search was Storm Seeker, a four mana instant that burns someone equal to the cards they have in hand, but the quirk is that it's green for some reason.
Dress Down mentioned! One of my favorite cards that is nearly always a nuclear blowout when I play it, always has good targets, and cantrips to boot. Such an amazing card.
As someone with a blinged out, equipment voltron deck (Raiyuu), I can say Richard's argument is bad. Seth's idea of using Sunforger to get these Sprees is high tier sauce.
The main issue with richard's argument is that youre obviously going to be playing the cards he mentioned already in the deck (The one ring and yada). Games are not always that smooth where you have tons of card draw established or just dont have the wrath in hand.
The whole point of Sunforger is that it allows equipment decks to tutor for the very few yet powerful instant spells we will be using. Between wanting to tutor out a Teferi Protection, Everybody Lives!, or Deflecting Swat & Boltbend, I would love having Spree (an instant speed 1-side boardwipe) available to my package.
This can be vital not only to clear the board cause of "big bad creature" but maybe the target you wish to attack has a a very specific blocker that you cant get by - Like for example, this happens often if you have tons of Sword of XnY stacked up but the 1 guy you wish to kill has a colorless creature.
1:22:36 Richard with the "conounding confundrum" 😂
One of the things about Amulet of Vigor that was left out is that Blind Obedience style effects have been becoming more common lately. And Amulet of Vigor negates all of those effects.
When they’re talking bout sunforger, I love how they all forget that cyclonic rift is 7 mana too.
Crim, I have unironically considered running Isildur's Fateful Strike for draw hate.
I think we need a 2-3 mana version that doesn't have the legendary restriction though.
1:20:15 If it hasn't been mentioned already, Khorvath's Fury is a 5-mana sorcery from Battlebond that burns each player you want for their hand size and lets everyone else discard their hand and draw that many plus one. It's the only one that comes to mind but I can imagine some weird old cards having a similar effect.
I think the cards that often get better in general are cards that play off of other cards rather than solely doing something themselves… thus keeping up with power creep.
Just as an example - re-animate or animate dead. These are good in that they return a creature to play from a graveyard but as creatures get more and more powerful, so too do these cards making them better and better…
@1:18:00 I totally agree, especially those green/blue value decks that just draw cards for doing what they want to do as well as ramping. So they actually have mana to do everything and still hold up counters, or protection and for some reason a good amount of removal in green/blue because the just keep printing color pie break removal in those colors.
Scornful Egotist is secret tech for beating Crim's conditional sac meta.
Yes, Tomer i wanto to have a bad manabase now and build a deck around amulet. You guys convinced me
Howdy from Texas Seth!
9:38 Staff of Titania in a Mono Red deck feels great when you can include Yavimaya!
My friend loves to play Vicious Shadows to punish hand size. Balor does a good job of it too.
As a Dimir+ supporter, I also like the typed tap lands, snows included, for making cabal coffers better in 2 and 3 colors
I am not sure if it fits entirely for this episodes theme but a card I am always impressed by when I cast it is Final Parting. I have always heard from people that 5 mana is too much for a tutor but like this one lets me set up sweet combos like pitching a Villis, Broker of Blood and putting a Reanimate into hand to refill the hand. Or grab a Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and throw Lord of Extinction in the bin to just end the game after a reanimation spell. The card just has cool built in synergy with a lot of strategies.
I like what your thinking. Might I suggest if your going that route to try Cadaverous Bloom, exile the cards you don't need for more mana! This card goes off the rails in Yargltani with Greater Good or really any creature power matters strategy in Golgari ;p
Love that card, it's a double tutor for 5 mana when you use it right, as your example. And there are a lot of ways of just getting value from it. It's probably just that everything happens so fast, you have to go for those huge plays instead of other neat things.
Love how one of Richards taglines is "dies to Doom Blade" while simultaneously hating on/never playing spot removal.
I like the discussion on Fetch lands. Often I hear people will say things like fetches are overrated or they're not necessary. This paints the picture well. You can always find a reason to load up on fetches. They're so good. Just don't run them if you don't want to. run them. The surveil lands have been fantastic. I've been very impressed by them. I do have a rule about surveil lands though. Don't just jam all of them in unless I'm ready and willing to increase my land count. Going to heavy on tapped lands is very real.
I think the argument against fetch lands is often more about their cost and how people may be using them and whether that cost is justified (ie. to thin out lands or some early mana fixing). It’s the same argument as with OG dual lands. Of course they’re good, but they are very overrated for those players that have a budget.
Unlike OG dual lands on the reserved list, fetch lands have not held their value either… the example in the video was Verdant Catacombs. At its peak in 2021 it was up to $80. Currently, it’s at about $17. That’s one of the worst investments you could have made in MTG cards.
@@Dragon_Fyre I agree that most people consider fetches overrated by what you just said. I should've been more specific. I was referring to the times where (in my experience) people tried to argue against using fetches by saying things like "the 1 life isn't even worth it" or "the deck thinning doesn't make a difference". Both of these arguments are incredibly short sighted. As for considering them overrated on a budget I suppose that's a bit more of a category difference. I'd think most of the time fetches aren't even a consideration because they won't even make the budget. I would say there's a narrow budget window where you're working with a budget that isn't dirt cheap but also isn't super expensive. In that case I would say it probably doesn't make sense to soak up so much of your budget on fetches. Something like a 200 dollar budget.
@@d.a.d.-ohgosh I think that fetch lands for deck thinning is just not that impactful in Commander. In 60 card formats it’s a far more significant impact (not just due to the 60-100 card differential, but that you can have 4 of each fetch land; when you have for example in a 3 color deck, 12 fetch lands in 60 card decks versus 3 fetch lands in a Commander deck, the deck thinning will snowball by comparison). Excluding recursion effects, you can remove up to 20% of the deck versus 3%.
The life loss is insignificant in Commander. That wouldn’t even be a factor in my decision on whether or not to include them.
I think the best usage (aside from landfall effects) is mana fixing where you can go get Triomes (especially in 4+ color decks) or when it’s necessary a shock-land that will enter untapped.
@@Dragon_Fyre 3 is only the case of you play a two colored deck. In a three colored deck you can play 5. And despite whether or not you can have a lot of them, every time you draw them and crack them, you're essentially drawing two cards out of your deck. Sure, you're not getting the same overall results as having multiples of them, but each individual fetch is still just as good on their own regardless of whether you have multiples of them.
@@OddMidnight The effects are cumulative though… if you have a combo deck where it is essential to thin out the deck, you want to do so as much as possible. In a 60 card format deck, where you can have 4x as many fetch lands, the more you thin the deck out the more likely you are to keep drawing into more fetch lands and keep thinning the deck out further.
Think of it like if you were going to include a Doubling Season in a deck. If you had 12 cards that benefit significantly from it, it may be worth including. If you had 3 cards that benefit from it, it’s probably not worth including…
The whole point of thinning the deck is that it is important to your strategy and should be an impactful focus of your deck.
In regard to how many per deck, I guess it depends on what you are defining as a fetch land. I was referring to the classic 10 count land cycle of fetch lands.
Just here for Seth’s cowboy hat vibes
The biggest problem I have with fogs is this idea that they will guaranteed save you. From what the Goldfish Crew is saying, every deck is going to try to surprise kill you with haste (or haste like) combat damage, in which case a fog is very useful. The problem with that argument is that is assumes you'll only ever get hit with one surprise kill in a turn cycle. I have played so many games where the dragon player tries to go off with concordant crossroads, is stopped, and then the rakdos reanimator deck kills everyone with a rise of the dark realms and a haste enabler, or anything similar to that. You can't really use the idea that "fogs protect you from the constant surprise alpha strikes," because that argument also assumes you'll get hit by more than one surprise alpha strike a turn cycle.
Now, to be fair, certain cards like Teferi's Protection, The One Ring and Constant Mists get around this issue. That's why those cards are actually good as fogs. But most fogs aren't like these cards, most fogs only protect you from one person in a four person game. And this is to say nothing about how Teferi's Protection and The One Ring can also save you from combos, which lets be honest, do still happen in commander. I know the Goldfish crew doesn't play against many combos, but that doesn't mean they don't exist, and you also have to take into account spellslinger wincon's like a massive crackle with power or guttersnipe.
All in all I just think that fogs in general (with like two or three exception's) just still aren't good enough. Even in a combat meta, they are too narrow and only protect against one person.
They don’t answer the creature, just the one combat. Another will roll around
Constant Mists is such an incredible fog effect, especially in ramp decks
I can't find a way to fit it in Titania.
@@sethlennberg4516you’re a good person. It’s literally a “counterspell me or lose” card but in the lamest way
Blind Obedience is the truth. It gets people in ways they don't expect, no one disenchants or beast withins it. It just sits on the board until a universal wipe. It has corner power against stuff like Displacer Kitten loops, too. Absolutely adore it.
Huge shoutout to the Skullbriar spotlight! Every other set for the past 2 years have had huge hits for the deck and he becomes increasingly more enjoyable to pilot.
Benevolent hydra, scavenged brawler (especially if you have some sort of entomb package), kodama of the west tree, Ozolith the shattered spire, vraska joins up just to name a few of the newer hits 💚
Vicious Shadows, whenever something dies you deal damage to a player equal to the cards in their hand
Richard's argument against any card: "I'd rather play [literal best card in the meta]."
There are edicts that are old cards that have certainly gotten better: the Fleshbag Marauder like options. Recursion options for 3 cost permanents has improved massively.
Great episode! Bouncelands are underated for sure!
16:27
I firmly believe that in any heavy ramp deck spelunking and it are amazing. Everyone knows that tireless provisioner is good. These effects enable degenerate sequencing. Tiller engine is another good card. Also imo bounce lands function as two lands when counting cards, so I like them for that factor
I look forward to when Crim dresses up as an assassin for the next one :D
Crim, here's a great white edict: Gideon's Triumph. Ignore the Gideon text, this is just 2 mana sacrifice removal at instant speed. I've found it's so easy to catch the creature you want because you can get involved in any combat and go after damage dealt too. It absolutely wrecks voltron but more often simply deals with one problem attacker coming in at you.
You guys on commander clash don't go too crazy on protection pieces like greaves, but in a meta like that it's great.
The card draw punisher you're looking for is Vislor Turlough from the Dr. Who decks. If they can't remove it immediately, they literally explode.
Tomer: Noone plays Black Suns Zenith anymore, its gone!
My haptra deck:
Zaxara as well gets great value from it
one alternative to Runeflare Trap is Toil // Trouble - the Trouble side is essentially 3-mana Runeflare Trap
1:10:00 I believe skullbriar still loses the counters to a cyc rift. Your commander changes zones before you put it into the command zone which is why we get death triggers now.
I stand corrected, it says instead. Can someone explain how we get death triggers from a commander dying if you put it in the command zone instead?
They only changed moving to GY or exile.
Going to graveyard or exile now happens as an sba after moving to the new zone but moving to library or hand (hidden zones) still happens as a replacement effect like before.
@@mn6334 Thank you.
Seth, the card you wanted to remember that does damage equals to hand size is Runeflare Trap. The red trap from the trap cycle of og zendikar. It costs 6 mana and deals damage to target player equals to its hand size, but if an opponent drew 3 cards this turn it only costs a single red mana.
First 5 minutes and Richard is already adding cards to be able to shuffle more XD
I like the bit at the end, I have been thinking of a card that makes players sacrifice a land each end step if they have more than 7 cards in hand.
Tomer, I cared about Darien. He was my first commander deck!
Around 1:20:35 the card Seth is thinking of is called Sudden Impact which is the red version of Storm Seeker that was originally a green card in Legends.
I love Amulet of Vigor in my Jodah Archmage deck playing all 10 triomes. In my opening hand, it is such a treat.
Sunforger + Inventory management feels like a solid combo.
I ran a deck that was full of Kederect Parasite effects, and often made it so people couldn't pop off or they would lose. It was great, and I was simultaneously the tables worst enemy and the greatest ally.
For a single target Notion Thief/Orcish Bowmasters kind of effect give it some activation condition to punish. For example, when this creature deals combat damage to a player, until your next turn if that player would draw a card other than the first in their draw step . You would want some caution though as printing something like that into commander product still means Legacy gets to use it so it can't be too absurdly punishing or value generating.
Seth, I think the card you might have been thinking about at the end was Molten Psyche. It's a wheel that can punish your opponent's card draw.
Hard agree with Crim, edict style cards that get all opponents: Szat's Will, Soul Shatter, Crackling Doom, Olorin's Sealing Light, etc just keep getting better with time.
Also agreed with Seth on the fetch lands, sure maxing out is the optimal play but it "feels" better to limit to the actual decks colors and prismatic vista / fabled passage if you really want more fetches.
I'm actually interested in Skullbriar! What a sweet lukewarm commander! As someone who plays mostly people with precons, I like to find commander options that are fun and unique, but unassuming. I've been having a ton of fun with Kambal, Profiteering Mayor in this vein as well.
something lacking in the discussion about bounce lands is it can also smooth out your land drops, it gives you a land to drop on your next turn, also there's the point were it puts a card in your hand that you can cycle away with looting/rummaging effects when you're in red or blue.
Bounce lands are great in crop rotation decks. Instant speed pick your boseiju to kill an enchantment is pretty cool
"98 lands, Price of Progress, and whatever the heck Seth just said" LMAO
Year 2024: Richard finally realizes fetch lands are good. Still waiting on Swords to Plowshares...
The basic land typed tap lands I put in all my multicolored decks. I don't have fetches and I only one 1 shock land. But I do have the cheaper multilands that need for you to show a land of the correct type, or for you to have a particular land type in play for it to enter untapped (reveal and check lands I think they are called). The multilands that enter tapped are important because they help smooth out your other multilands that need the land types. Also, they are fetchable with Farseek, Nature's Lore, Three Visits, etc (I play mostly green).
48:09 perfect counter for The One Ring
Edicts are pog, but I will still complain about Ward Kekw. Voja is just something I don't want in my general vicinity.
I play Amulet and bounce lands in my Gitrog Monster deck. With the additional land drops and the sac for two colored mana lands it goes ham!
Darkness may be the only real fog in black, but sudden spoiling can be used as one as well, has more utility AND has split second.
My playgroup builds decks with proxies so we have access to the full card pool with limited cost and I for one play off-color fetches in whatever color is the deck's primary, typically green when available for things like Nature's Lore and other tutors.
18:00 if amulet vigor is your game plan then you want ways to get it out fast. like urza saga and trinket mage
Tales End is good in dedicated graveyard decks to protect you from graveyard hate. Stifling a bog is protecting your win condition in those deck, the counterspell mode is secondary.
2 weeks in a row! Love you guys.
Love my skull briar deck. I got back into the game around Ikoria. I was going through my old cards and I found Skullbriar. It was love at second sight. I wipe the floor with tables at my LGS with Skullbriar. Love to see a glow up.
Seth’s hat reminded me how sad I am that there is no reference to my favorite western movie, John Wick, in Outlaws of Thunder Junction
In my playgroup everyone plays strip mine and permanent bounce and people are punished for playing bounce lands every single time. They are the first cards people remove from every single deck
I looooove Amulet of Vigor, Tiller Engine, and Spelunking. Even Stone-Seeder Hierophant. I think they do belong in land decks mostly but in them they are so worthwhile.
Amulet is great against certain Blind Obedience type effects which is not very broad but 1 mana and a bounce land is a mini ritual but you're up a card. I feel running the fetchable tapped lands is more relevant in lands decks too and they are all og duals with Amulet out.
Tiller Engine is one I would think Richard would love. It does what Amulet does for lands but it turns fetch lands into one-off Mazes of Ith!
Spelunking cantrips and ramps. It's literally Amulet + Explore stapled together and with a bounce land, it's like you draw 2.
Stone-Seeder Hierophant costs 4 and has summoning sickness which makes it significantly worse than the others but the upside is greater. If you are putting one land into play it ramps you 2 or X+1 lands you play per turn.
Amulet and Spellunking are both in my gates deck. Perfect deck for those cards.
On the topic of amulet: it’s S tier in land based decks but if you’re not a land win con deck it’s not worth, that being said archelos gate combo is my favorite casual commander deck.
Archelos, Lagoon Mystic is an amulet in the command zone. I run him in my “powerfull” lands deck and I feel like amulet is a slept on card. Mazes end can be ran in 3 colors along side magosi combo as well as the mdfc and channel lands we love. All can be found in my turtle lands deck
I have Amulet of Vigor on my Yuma, Proud Protector deck and it’s amazing there, since I have a lot of tapped lands.
Blind Obedience is amazing. Always alters the flow of the game.
Seth embraced the Midwest look lmao
I love Tale's End. I have it in my Mirko deck. It doubles as Graveyard Protection. And it ALWAYS hits something valuable. Yeah legendary spells are rampant plus you can counter commanders, but activated abilities are also very rampant and extremely powerful. I hit someone's command beacon in their Eldrazi deck when their commander costed 12.
I don't buy the bounce land ish outside landfall loops. Playing all these tapped mdfc or bolt mdfc just on the off chance that i might being able to turn them into spells later seems suspect at best. It feels counter productive to delay all of my plan a turn for the chance at a mdfc later down the line.
Bounce Lands garanties you your next land drop (unless you have to discard to hand size) so they are card advantage in a way
As a response to Crim's Draw Hate, the best solution for Card Draw ever printed is Chains of Mephistopheles. They still get to sculpt their hand but they don't get to keep a giant grip of answers to everything.
I recommend playing MORE WHEELS. Specifically wheels like timetwister and time spiral that shuffle (unless you're in a mill deck). It doesn't matter if a player draws 30 cards if they have to shuffle them away. Obviously if you are built around the graveyard, then go with the discard wheels. Add to those Pox and Fraying Omnipotence and similar effects.
The answers exist... people just don't play them enough because other whine. Its a bit of a pick your poison situation.
1:19:40 What would make fevered visions be good enough to play is if the damage was 2 for each card in the opponent's/player's hand beyond the 3rd or 4th. Player's would keep the card cheaper to cast, but that also requires Wizards to be willing to let a card have a potential downside for the player casting it
Crim as a disciple of Bolas you've forgotten to mention that God Pharaoh got better with the printing of Displacer Kitten. You can cast most if not all of your opponents decks for free off the +1 by flickering it off the non creature spells