Nils as a commander is... not great. White isn't hurting for Ghostly Prison effects... and Baird does it better anyway. However Nils shines when you run him in conjunction with other cards that benefit from putting counters on your opponents' creatures (or your opponents' creatures just having counters generally). He goes VERY well in Kros, Defense Contractor. Whenever you put a counter on an opponents' creature with Kros out you get to goad it and give it trample. His colors also give you access to Generous Patron (which draws you a card when you put a counter on a creature you don't control), Experiment Kraj (which gets all activated abilities of creatures with +1/+1 counters), and Cytoplast Manipulator (which can steal creatures with +1/+1 counters on them).
WOAH Hallowed Burial, that is gnarly, but I think Polymorphist's Jest is my pick of the litter. I'm just getting going with Fblthp, lost on the range deck, and it uses a bunch of cheap spells to plot out thigs that discourage people from attacking me. When I plot it, you see what I'm going to do, but I don't care at all because it will most likely dissuade you from attacking me. Thanks again Mango, another banger as always!
I could see Death Watch in an orzhov+ deck with a lot of aura recursion. As a one-shot effect it's not great but it gets MUCH better when you can keep bringing it back.
I think currently my favorite under-rated card is Court of Ambition. It definitely makes you a target but pair it with fog effects and this card can be brutal. If other players are not familiar with this card, it can kften fly under the radar for a couple of turns at ehich point the light of realization goes off. I also like to try to pair it with a Wound Reflection and/or Exquisite Blood. If you can get both out, you KNOW people are going to be xhoosing tondiscard, and a turn or two later, they are empty handed anyways, praying for a topdeck removal card, and racking up the damage while you gain a ton of life. My friends learned very quickly to go after me when this hits the board, but that was when I started putting putting the fogs into the deck. Fun card.
Death Watch is an awesome card. As your other commenter mentioned, its better when you can recur it, I've only ever had a couple of times where, even as a one off, it didn't do great work. My favorite is when I end up playing against a fling deck that drops a large creature. Even better if they build it up hoping to fling it next turn rather than doing it all in one turn. Stops those creatures being sacrificed REAL fast. Also, its even better if you can flash it out like with a Vedalken Orrery or something similar.
Also ward of bones its a really annoying 6 mana artifact with (Each opponent who controls more creatures than you can’t cast creature spells. The same is true for artifacts and enchantments.Each opponent who controls more lands than you can’t play lands.)
As someone who tried playing Ox of Agonas back in standard, the Ox is not underrated, it's just trash. Exile 8 is a big cost, especially in red where self-mill is nowhere to be found. It's statline sucks, especially in 2024. Discard and draw is not that rare in Red. I fail to see how that card works well, do you have ANY games where this has actually done something useful or when you were able to cast it from escape even twice, let alone once?
I just played a game a few days ago against someone running a rakdos hellbent deck, where the entire point of the deck was to have no cards in hand and use a massive graveyard for tons of flashback and escape. The person piloting the deck used Ox of Agonas as essentially free card draw, and exiled only the cards they didn't need from their graveyard. Sure, the Ox isn't *great*, but it's not terrible if you play your hand (or lack thereof) right
@ I guess Hellbent can make use of the card, that is interesting. Thank you! I normally don’t play decks that want to play without a hand (“normally” because I do have a Flubs deck) or with strategies that haven’t gotten much support in the last 3-5 years, but for 90 cents that is a good card draw engine. Wouldn’t Phyrexian Dragon Engine be a better card for card draw in hellbent decks, though? Off the top of my head, there are some 3-4 mana creatures and sorceries that would do Ox’s effect without the pre-requisite of exiling 8 cards from your graveyard. I guess you’d still run Ox for redundancy reasons.
Haunted Cloak is one of my top underrated cards. It's so overlooked
Nice one! Haunted Cloak looks sweet. Might keep this one in mind for future videos. Thanks :)
Nils as a commander is... not great. White isn't hurting for Ghostly Prison effects... and Baird does it better anyway.
However Nils shines when you run him in conjunction with other cards that benefit from putting counters on your opponents' creatures (or your opponents' creatures just having counters generally).
He goes VERY well in Kros, Defense Contractor. Whenever you put a counter on an opponents' creature with Kros out you get to goad it and give it trample. His colors also give you access to Generous Patron (which draws you a card when you put a counter on a creature you don't control), Experiment Kraj (which gets all activated abilities of creatures with +1/+1 counters), and Cytoplast Manipulator (which can steal creatures with +1/+1 counters on them).
Thank you for the in-depth response with additional suggestions. Very much appreciated.
WOAH Hallowed Burial, that is gnarly, but I think Polymorphist's Jest is my pick of the litter. I'm just getting going with Fblthp, lost on the range deck, and it uses a bunch of cheap spells to plot out thigs that discourage people from attacking me. When I plot it, you see what I'm going to do, but I don't care at all because it will most likely dissuade you from attacking me. Thanks again Mango, another banger as always!
Hallowed Burial looks real dirty. Gets around SO MANY opponent's shenanigans
I could see Death Watch in an orzhov+ deck with a lot of aura recursion.
As a one-shot effect it's not great but it gets MUCH better when you can keep bringing it back.
Yeah it's a cool card :)
I think currently my favorite under-rated card is Court of Ambition. It definitely makes you a target but pair it with fog effects and this card can be brutal. If other players are not familiar with this card, it can kften fly under the radar for a couple of turns at ehich point the light of realization goes off. I also like to try to pair it with a Wound Reflection and/or Exquisite Blood. If you can get both out, you KNOW people are going to be xhoosing tondiscard, and a turn or two later, they are empty handed anyways, praying for a topdeck removal card, and racking up the damage while you gain a ton of life. My friends learned very quickly to go after me when this hits the board, but that was when I started putting putting the fogs into the deck. Fun card.
Oh wow , Court of Ambition looks awesome and I love the monarch mechanic! Thanks for the share :D
You should look at Ceaser, Legions Emporer. Not to many seem to talk about it but it can move a lot of damage.
From the fallout set, it's a cool card! Thanks for sharing :D
Death Watch is an awesome card. As your other commenter mentioned, its better when you can recur it, I've only ever had a couple of times where, even as a one off, it didn't do great work. My favorite is when I end up playing against a fling deck that drops a large creature. Even better if they build it up hoping to fling it next turn rather than doing it all in one turn. Stops those creatures being sacrificed REAL fast. Also, its even better if you can flash it out like with a Vedalken Orrery or something similar.
Also ward of bones its a really annoying 6 mana artifact with (Each opponent who controls more creatures than you can’t cast creature spells. The same is true for artifacts and enchantments.Each opponent who controls more lands than you can’t play lands.)
Nice recommendation, thank you :)
Pattern of Rebirth makes me think of Ornithopter + Ensoul Artifact but also Birthing Pod (Magic Boomer lol)
Cool card
Yessss :)
You "lose" the instant speed ability if you play it this way, but Death Watch is basically a Kicker of 1 Black on any kill spell you play
Yeah cool card
As someone who tried playing Ox of Agonas back in standard, the Ox is not underrated, it's just trash. Exile 8 is a big cost, especially in red where self-mill is nowhere to be found. It's statline sucks, especially in 2024. Discard and draw is not that rare in Red. I fail to see how that card works well, do you have ANY games where this has actually done something useful or when you were able to cast it from escape even twice, let alone once?
I just played a game a few days ago against someone running a rakdos hellbent deck, where the entire point of the deck was to have no cards in hand and use a massive graveyard for tons of flashback and escape. The person piloting the deck used Ox of Agonas as essentially free card draw, and exiled only the cards they didn't need from their graveyard. Sure, the Ox isn't *great*, but it's not terrible if you play your hand (or lack thereof) right
@ I guess Hellbent can make use of the card, that is interesting. Thank you!
I normally don’t play decks that want to play without a hand (“normally” because I do have a Flubs deck) or with strategies that haven’t gotten much support in the last 3-5 years, but for 90 cents that is a good card draw engine.
Wouldn’t Phyrexian Dragon Engine be a better card for card draw in hellbent decks, though? Off the top of my head, there are some 3-4 mana creatures and sorceries that would do Ox’s effect without the pre-requisite of exiling 8 cards from your graveyard. I guess you’d still run Ox for redundancy reasons.