Card that you need to own in your collection: Part 2!

YA BOY IS BACK WITH THE GOOD STUFF!

Today we are going to look at more super underrated cards that I believe people should consider running in their decks! The aim of these articles is to help people look beyond the norm and meta and experiment which some sweet hidden treasures in Magic’s large card pool. In this article, I’m going to highlight 5 more cards that I don’t see people playing as much as they should! So, without further delay, let’s get into it!

1. Dawn of the Dead (No, not the movie)

Oh boy, this card is amazing, and I love it so much. Not only does it reference one of my all-time favourite horror films (Romero was a B movie genius), but it works wonders in aristocrat decks. During your upkeep, you get to put a creature from your graveyard into play which you must exile at the end of your turn. However, the best thing about this card is that you get to play creatures like Plaguecrafter each upkeep. This makes Dawn of the Dead a value engine because creatures like Plaguecrafter do not get exiled on your end step due to you sacrificing them to his own ability. This means you clean up the board and make playing creatures pointless because they will end victim to your recurrable edict abilities! Even though you have to pay 1 life on you upkeep, if you have a Blood Artist out or a similar card you will gain so much life it won’t matter.

Honestly this card is such a value engine I’m surprised not that many people are playing it. It does so much that the 5 cmc cost pays for itself. If left unchecked you can really set up a board state where you can machinegun the table down to a pulp!

2. Nix

This is such an underrated counter spell and it always catches people by surprise. I understand that this spell is very, very restrictive but if you are playing against cEDH decks or players who enjoy playing free counter spells like Force of Will, Fierce Guardianship, Pact of Negation, and Mental Misstep then this spell will stop them in their tracks. It only costs one mana, which is great because you are forcing a counter war with your opponent who will have to counter Nix if they want to play their spell, meaning you can keep up more mana for more counter spells and interaction. It’s a card that players do not want to deal with which is great for you. This card is very dependent on your meta because if not one is playing counter spells for free or cascade abilities then it’ll be a dead card more times than you’d like it to be.

If you find yourself wanting to answer free spells in your meta for cheap, then I would consider checking this out!

3. Bitter Ordeal

This card is insane mainly because of how tokens interact with the graveyard. Before disappearing from the face of the earth, tokens go to the graveyard first, which triggers Gravestorm on Bitter Ordeal (which is basically Storm but counts cards going to the graveyard rather than spells casts in that turn), meaning you can sacrifice 20 treasure tokens and get 20 copies of Bitter Ordeal. Insane, I know. If you can make an infinite sacrifice loop (which isn’t hard to do in edh) you can exile your opponent’s library. What also makes this card unique is that is it the only card with the Gravestorm mechanic, so it is always worth having a copy because graveyard shenanigans are always fun to play with! I use this alongside the Worldgorger Dragon combo in order to exile my opponent’s decks and win the game. Yes, it is as fun as it sounds to pull off.

I like this card not only can it be easily abused, but you can still work up a decent number of Gravestorm copies to either win or exile everyone’s win cons to put you in a much better position for the rest of the game. It’s a very fun and different win con to consider so I urge you all to check it out.

4. Lapse of Certainty

Oh man, this card is such a sleeper and I really believe it to be a EDH staple white card. No one expects the White counter spell, especially in a white deck that’s not running blue as an additional colour! That’s the best part of this card. No one will expect it be cast so it will really throw your opponent off. They will play their bomb, game winning spell thinking they will be safe, but NOPE! WHITE COUNTER! It’s a hilarious card to play and it is definitely worth a point in your deck, even if it just to be play tested.

Many of you may be looking at the bottom line text, the part that reads “put it on top of it’s controller library”. This isn’t as much of a draw back as you think it is. Not only are you stifling their next draw, but they have to spend resources to play the same spell again, effectively putting them back one whole turn, which is especially powerful and game saving in EDH.

5. Mirage Slow Fetches

This next card on my list is more a cycle of cards that are long due a completion and reprint into other magic sets like Modern (I’m looking at you Modern Horizons 2. Give me more fetch land options!). However, they are amazing in EDH and more budget players need to pick up their copies. For those that are not aware of what I’m referring to, the cards I’m talking about are: Grasslands (GW), Rocky Tar Pit (BR), Bad River (UB), Flood Plain (UW), and Mountain Valley (RB). The best combination for budget mana fixing is these Slow Fetches combined with the Battle Lands from Battle from Zendikar. The perfect way to fix your mana base on a budget!

These cards are criminally cheap and really need to be picked up by more people! The only difference with these against regular fetch lands is that you do not pay life to activate them. The only drawback is that they come into play tapped which in most cases is fine.

So there we have it! Part 2 is finished. I once again hope to shed the light on some unknown cards that deserve a bit more love! Let me know if you play these cards, are there other cards that you play that are particularity obscure? Any pet cards that catch your opponents off guard? Let me know in the comments below!