Mtg: Top 25 Strixhaven Cards!

what up wizards it's dev sp mtg we like your magic and you've come for the big one today we're looking at the top 25 strix haven cards and yeah to answer your first question hello ziggy where'd you come from buddy anyway to answer your first question yes ziggy is here but to answer your second question yeah i was able to find 25 cards in the set that i really really liked when i first sat down and tried to write out all the cards from the set that i thought could make this list it came close to 50 cards and i had to make some heartbreaking cuts and some creative decisions with how we did this list it's a little more than 25 cards trust me but you know at the end of the day i've come to the conclusion that the set is criminally underrated i hope i can convince you of that by the end of this video because i know a lot of the community is underwhelmed by this set and at this point i don't get it i think there are a lot of good cards here so let's talk about it and i'm your favorite magic channel's favorite magic channel best believe that the professor go bananas for my deck tech so come correct like a porn star slicing up all these other suckers with my sword and we're back and uh ziggy is just so cute you're just the most adorable kitty but anyway let's go ahead and start class today with a few honorable mentions i probably shouldn't do too many school puns in this video honestly i think wizards has provided us enough school puns in this set for a lifetime so i shouldn't be doing too much of that but let's talk some honorable mentions because again there are like 50 cards i wanted to put on this list so there's gonna be some honorable mentions but at the end of the day i was able to pare it down to just a few cards that i want to talk about but i'll go ahead and say snarls let's get that out of the way these exist they'll go in some decks and not in many others but some of these have very specific decks that they want to be in there are some aggro decks that want like the boros one for instance so i do think these will see some play but they're not the most impressive dual lands let's talk about stuff that's slightly more exciting than snarls which perfectly described my reaction to seeing the cars snarl let's go ahead and talk about dina for a second it was actually one of the cards i'm most excited about in the set but i'm also not like dumb i know i know this card probably isn't super good and the first line of text is heavily mitigated by the fact that she's legendary but this is still just the kind of card that i typically really really like and i don't need an excuse to play veto again i like veto so i'll play like a two mana veto that's not as good as vita but also functions as a sort of nantuco husk or something like that i just i like a lot about dina let me like those things and finally for the honorable mentions if you can believe that there's plum the forbidden i just really really like this card from an aristocrat player's perspective and i'm one of those this just has so much to do in so many different game states your opponent points a removal spell at a creature i sacrifice it in response get a little card advantage i don't care if i lose a life or maybe you just haul off and sack all your guys to it for some kind of value it's an aristocrat stack we're talking about so it's not too far-fetched you get all that value you draw a bunch of cards maybe you draw into a combo piece end of your opponent's turn sacrifice a couple of guys you got laying around to draw into a big finish here there's a lot that this card does depending on the game state even if you only have one permanent on the board this can be a viable option to cast so it's not going to sit in your hand too often there's some wombo combos with sedgemore witch that i'm interested in sejmore which is another card actually that didn't make the list but you could be an honorable mention because there's so many cool combats get in here sejmore witch you're an honorable honorable mention you two i'm interested in but i'm just a little apprehensive about a two toughness creature for three mana in a bone crusher giant format but i do like you sedge more with this is a card that i really like and i want to shine a spotlight on it especially during the honorable mentions because i think it's probably the best card that didn't make the list of course that begs the question well then what's good enough to make the list smartypants youtube craig i don't know where that came from but anyway i wonder no longer because number 25 is pestilent cauldron now if i like cards that do a lot of things i gotta like pestle and cauldron you know on the front half it does three things it creates creatures it's mill it's card draw those are that's all pretty good and then on the other half it creates card advantage out of your graveyard and gains you a little bit of life which is actually really good if you draw this in the late game getting a couple of cards back from your graveyard and gaining enough life to kind of get you back in the game four life isn't nothing all right so if you're a control deck that's a pretty sweet pretty sweet way to mitigate tapping all of that mana on your turn right at least you gain a little bit of life protect from the crack back or whatever he said i do like the second half of this card but let's turn it back around again thank you this card is fine too you know just a card that can create a board presence if you draw dead for the turn it can you know create a way to put cards into your graveyard if you want to be doing that a lot of decks do nowadays you can mill your opponent if you want to i guess that's the worst part about the card to me at least but you know it can also draw cards in the late games just does kind of everything and that makes for the kind of card that i enjoy number 24 is silver quill silencer and i think some people are going to be like boo 24. well here's the thing every card on this list is good i seriously think every every single card on this list is good and this card is probably only truly good in standard clerics decks or like some sort of wars of disruption tempo based aggro possibly if you're gonna you know expand the mono white seasoned haloblade deck to include black maybe this card gets a slot but i don't think that's a good enough reason to go off mono white to play this card you lose your faceless haven to play this card i don't think so so this is probably mostly a black white clerics card in standard in historic you have collected company and modern you have collected company too but i'm not sure the creature is impactful enough on the game state to really do much i mean i guess in a bone crusher giant format i think i would rather have a two mana two three then a two mana three two so and you know in the deck that this goes in again likely clerics you're not it's not really a full-on aggro deck so you don't care about the extra point of power you'd kind of rather have the extra point of toughness in a lot of cases because clerics is trying to build a board state there's a lot of problems i have with this card and like it doesn't say your opponent can't kill it it just says if your opponent casts the spell that you named they lose life and you draw a card which isn't like i mean it's good don't get me wrong it's pretty good you get to draw the card and all that but like i don't think it's good enough to make all this fuss about but the reason i put cards in the list is not to talk about how bad they are right this is actually again like i just said a pretty good card you know on rate it's not terrible in terms of stats at least it's a three two five total power and toughness for two mana is not a terrible deal a lot of the time so at least you get that and if your opponent does decide to cast the sweeper you've named or you know they decide to cast stomp or bone crusher and you've named that then suddenly yeah it creates some value for you and i do think it goes in some decks but honestly i think i'm making the case here that even though this card is very good there's a whole bunch of cards in the set that are actually better than this card like for example and this might make some people mad double major now you hear me out here i'm trying to be objective even though i'll say it again this is my list and you know my personal feelings will will put some weight on certain entries and i really really like this card and i'm excited about it mostly for all the janky stuff we're gonna do on stream with it you know everyone is talking about what this can do with orvar and standard but of course they are if you give janky johnny players a chance to talk about orvar they will but i think there's a chance this actually has something broken to do in standard or historic or modern or even legacy you know you can make the case that the farther back in time you go in a format this actually has more broken stuff to do so it has more of a chance of seeing like modern play you know it's one of the cheapest ways to copy a legendary in the history of the game the only regulation on it is that you have to do it when you cast that legend and that's not really that big of a deal you know you have to wait a couple of turns to get the lands but i still think that there's enough broken stuff to do that it's not slow enough but in some cases there probably will be a lot of just wombo combo decks built around this car not only now but in the future and even if all of those constructed playability plans fall through there's still commander where i'm sure this will see play for freaking ever and is majorly broken even if it isn't in any competitive environment so just for commander play which i've already said is weighted on this list too this card needs to be talked about because i'm pretty sure commander players are going to be in love with it until the end of time but again i'll reiterate i do think this has a chance to do something real in a competitive format number 22 is hall of oracles i really like this card too i think that it's kind of one of the most undervalued cards in this it can fix your mana sometimes you can just tap for colorless mana other times and when you do have a spell to cast a tab that's put a counter on a thing and it really shouldn't be too hard to sling mana around there's a mono white or white ex spells deck in this upcoming format there's obviously the red blue spells deck that always exists but especially exists now we have cards like sprite dragon and whatnot so if the blue red spells deck the white x spells deck has extra mana laying around it often will because you know it tends to flood occasionally then this will just put extra counters on a clever lubamancer or a sprite dragon or whatever and i think that's really really good and it will also again help fix your mana on some turns as well and that's something that a deck like that's probably going to need on occasion so i think that even just for standard play this is something we're undervaluing but it's another card that might see some commander play while we're at it so i just like a lot about this and it's only about a buck 50 to buy right now which i think it's kind of a steal but number 21 is valentin dean of the veen they just all have to rhyme or it hurts my brain somehow but either way i think this card's actually very very good just one mana a solid a one black mana for all the stuff the card does you know just on its front face it has another side to it but i'm mostly interested in this first side because a one drop with two keyword abilities is kind of cool in and of itself but it's the first line of actual text on the card that i'm most concerned with whenever your opponent's creatures die they just get eggs out which is actually super annoying to deal with and you've got it on your one job if they use removal on your one drop okay you didn't use it on my two or three drop which is fine with me but either way you know if creatures do go to the graveyard they're gone forever which actually kneecaps a whole lot of strategies in standard alone right but later on in the game if you've got extra mana laying around you can create value when your opponent's creatures do die which does if you've got open mana that makes attacking or blocking especially awkward for your opponent and even if they trade with your creatures in combat you still get bored presence over them almost in the form of two for ones basically so you know if your opponent if you remove one of your opponent's creatures you get one of your own that's a two for one and you exile the guy just everything about the front half of the card is really good to me i like one drops to get better as the game goes on but have immediate impact on the game and i think this does but if you draw in the late game it's a solid four mana threats got a 4-4 body can actually do some real attacking for you some real blocking for you as well and if you happen to gain life you can do some really kind of broken stuff some of the time depending on what you're doing so both half of the card are really interesting to me and i think more than just being interesting to me on a personal level i do think that it'll end up seeing some standard play at some point number 20 is killian another legendary thing but this is actually to me one of the better legendary uncommons in the entire set now it's tempered a little bit because there's a lot of removal that can deal with this right that it's heavily played so i'm not saying it dies to removal it's just that it basically dies to everything and especially we're in a format where like most decks play bone crusher giants so long as they're not soul tie ultimatum or rogues and soul tile tomato and rogues have removal spells that can deal with this too obviously so i'm just not sure how good the creature is considering it's a little bit fragile but at the same time right maybe you play it on turn three where you have then open mana to use protection spells on it to protect it and then you know imagine how well it goes with say loris because you can just use lures to get it back from the graveyard if it dies at which point then you can cast spells for a massive discount whether you're casting removal on your opponent's creatures you know whether it's in the form of instance and sorceries or whether it's in the form of auras like meyer's grasp or whatever you can still get a reduced rate on those and that's really important um or maybe you're putting all the glitters on your creatures or you're casting sagiri shelter or something like that you know killian reduces costs on all of that and so i think this is actually a pretty powerful card despite how fragile it can be number 19 is an orzov creature that i'm even more excited to play with and that's ecstas this card looks really good to me more so i think than it does to a lot of players but i give the second half of it a ton of credit where i don't think many people do but i actually think this has the chance to be a massive blowout especially for decks that are prepared to cast it by sacrificing serrated scorpions and the like stuff that you can get back from your graveyard later like a woe strider which by the way provides two bodies to sacrifice to cast this at a reduced rate i just think casting the second half at a reduced rate can be just bodying to a lot of opponents so i'm not ready just to completely discard this card or discount this card and say that it's not good enough i actually think that on both halves it could end up doing a lot of work you know it has double strike on the first half and a really cool ability that can probably win games for you if left unchecked but of course this is a little bit susceptible to removal just like every other creature that doesn't do much to turn it enters the battlefield however again on the second half this is a potentially game breaking card that you can cast i think a lot earlier than people are giving it credit for so i'm down for 36 mafia for life i think this is a better card than a lot of people think it is but number 18 is an uncommon from the set that's sitting at about 2.25 right now bet you didn't know there was one of those there's actually multiple of them the first one we'll talk about is solve the equation pretty excited about this stupid thing right it is sorcery speed but i think that enough combo decks or possibly even control decks are gonna want access to one or two copies of this in their deck and it might not even be specifically combo or control decks although i guess the example i'm about to make is kind of a control deck but you know emerging ultimatum might want one copy of this in their deck they have 80 slots they might confine one slot for this and then it's effectively a fifth emergent ultimatum and that's probably good enough it can also just go get a counterspell for you and seal the game up or go get a removal spell if that's what you need in late turns it goes and gets like a sweeper and you might have the mana left to cast the sweeper on the same turn just a lot that this card does not only for combo but control decks as well i think it's probably going to see some sparing standard players of one or two up here and there i'm excited about it for those combo decks because it's the kind of piece they needed to really work more consistently for a few sets now and they finally got it at a pretty desirable rate number 17 is another uncommon but this one's like 35 cents and i don't get it because expressive iteration is really good this is two mana to draw two cards and people say it's only really can trips draws two cards in this case two cards in the late game but i don't necessarily think that's the case you know even on turn three you can wait till you you know you can wait to do your land drop cast expressive iteration get the land from the top of your library and exile it that way you can play the land untapped and you've still you know put a card in your hand from this card you still have mana left you have one mana left in that case to cast other spells and whatnot i just think that even in the late game this can help you hit a land drop and find the sweeper for the next tournament that's really important is it dex especially we've got a set coming out in strix haven that really cares about slinging spells and whatnot and this really keeps the instant and sorcery gravy train going when you're trying to do mage craft stuffed or you know prowessy kind of things you know any deck that just wants to play a bunch of spells in the same turn and kind of storm off is gonna love a spell like this because it almost guarantees in some cases that you'll cast three spells that turn and imagine what that does for magecraft so i like a lot about this card and i actually think it goes in multiple decks just like day one and i'm not surprised there's not more people talking about it but while we're talking about card draw let's talk about the biblioplex and at number 16 here it's not it's it's not library of alexandria i mean i don't think anybody ever said that it was because anytime anybody wants to talk about this card on the internet somebody has to come in and be like it's no library both countries like we know we know and that's why it's all the way down here what i think some people think is a low number but again there's a lot of really good cards in this set and i think this probably ends up seeing a fair amount of one-off play and control decks not only in standard but possibly historic and even commander which i imagine is probably going to play you know a lot of commander decks will want to one-up biblioplex i guess you can't play more than one of the singleton format but still you know there's a bunch of formats where i think this card is somewhat viable even if it's a little bit restrictive i still think it does just enough to be a key card on certain turns that you'll be really unhappy if you don't have access to but in at number 15 let's talk blade historian for a moment mostly because this is probably the best chance winoda has of like getting over you know didn't need at any point in standard it's like the card massively affected the historic environment right but it just hasn't really done enough in standard up to this point but i think that this might be the card that makes winona a truly playable and dangerous tag in the standard format so i gotta talk about this but hey this could also go in a mono white deck or a mono red deck or a cleric's deck look at that it's cleric ladies and gentlemen so you know the car just has a fair spread of playability and i like that it effectively does do something the turn it enters the battlefield i mean in some decks you know like in mono red after tour brand rotates this could effectively be a thor brand in a lot of cases for a lot of creatures you know there's just a lot that i do like about the card it could also go in like the red white equipment deck it could be you know a redundant version of halvar in some decks just does a lot of cool stuff but number fourteen is kazmina it's kazmino really 22 dollars right now it's ridiculous it's a mythic planeswalker and all that face of the set but wow 22 i don't think it's 22 good but i do think this is better than a lot of people have judged it you know it comes down puts a body on the table and leaves a plane's walker behind even though it's just a one one and a one loyalty planeswalker it still gives you a blocker right threatens to let you untap the next turn with a planeswalker on the table that can plus and scry do cool stuff so i think the card is a little bit harder to answer than some people think it is and i do love the implications in a super friend's deck you know this gives some planeswalkers like war the spark uncommon planeswalkers and garrick the six-man garrick that's in standard right now it gives those planeswalkers a plus ability which i think is really cool you know it gives planeswalkers with a high loyalty when they enter the battlefield like ugin for instance the chance to just make a huge creature too so i like what this does in super friends decks and stuff and all that but i'm not sure that it just creates a new super friends archetype and standard on day one or anything but i do think the card is really really cool and will probably at least be labbed with and i don't put it past seeing some real standard play by the end of it all so the card's on the list and it's one of the few planeswalkers from the set that actually made the list i think that there's going to be some people that wanted a card like luca for instance to be on on this list over this card or like will and rowan to be on this list over this card but honestly i think this is a better planeswalker than either one of those number 13 is culling ritual again commander viability does come into play some of the time when i'm making this list and i think this is a really really good card in commander where it's going to blow up a bunch of rocks and one and two mana artifacts and enchantments to people who based half their deck around or whatever it's going to be a very annoying card in commander and it's going to give you a lot of mana it's going to give you so much mana in like a 4 to 8 person game of magic the gathering but even in standard i think it could be a viable card where it blows up every permanent side besides lands i mean that's a pretty big spread of things to do you know blowing up you know even little stuff like maze mine's home or trail of crumbs these two mana artifacts and enchantments is a thing that matters right so i like that um it sweeps the board of tokens which is a thing that i think is important as well and there are a lot of important one and two drop creatures in the format right now whether we're talking about aggro or even dexton aren't necessarily aggro play some pretty important two drop creatures so i think culling ritual is good and i especially think the mana that you get back from it is going to make this an unbelievable card i don't think it's the absolute best sweeper in the format or anything but i do think as a sideboard option it's going to see a ton of play but number 12 and this is where we get into some really good stuff and we're officially halfway through the list too congratulations by the way on that achievement number 12 is blex love this card like it's one of the few mythics i suggested you craft for standard play in the crafting guide and there's a reason for that i think the card just does too many things a three minute three two not the best body in the world but it will trade on blocks and when it does trade and trade on attacks too sometimes and when it does trade right you get four life off of that which which i've already established is not no life that's actually that's actually really really good you know trading with the creature going up for life not too shabby but on the other half of it it's not a terrible card draw spell you know it's not great at getting you your sweeper in control right because if you're casting it on turn four you're probably looking for a card that keeps you alive a lot of the time like up sweeper for instance and if you have to even if you get your sweeper you've spent your entire turn for paying the mana for it and you paid three life which probably puts you in the red zone in terms of of your life totals so i don't know if it's good at finding the sweeper i really don't but i do think it's good in a whole lot of other gameplay situations that will matter and even just looking at the top five-year library and getting one of those cards for three life is pretty good that's actually pretty good if you have the life to get two or three of those cards the card becomes unfreaking believable and remember that even if you don't want to cast the second half of it you've always got a creature on the first half that'll do something you know if it gets distinction evented or something like that then it exiles it doesn't gain you the life and that's a feel bad but for the most part i still think there's enough stuff this card can do against enough decks that it's probably worth the opportunity cost of playing it so i like this an awful lot and i think it's destined to see a ton of play just in kind of mid-rangey decks if those exist but number 11 always kind of an honorable mention for the top 10 which which remember means that this is a very good card it is mavinda i don't think it's feather right i've said this every time i talk about the card i feel like you have to address that a card's probably no feather right but i still think the card is very good and will function similarly to luris in a lot of games right where you play it when you have more than three open mana right you play when you have four mana and a one mana instant or sorcery in your yard you play when you have five men and a two men answer your scores from your yard that way you can protect it or the fight is one or jerry shelter or some similar card like that for a turn that way you guarantee untapping with it and that's when you can do some really righteous stuff for the card like this it only lets you play like one extra card a turn and when you do play it it's gone forever it's not like feather where you just play the card over and over each turn or you play the card once a turn in this case you get everybody gets one one extra shot at life so you know i think there's gonna be times though where that basically cinches the game for you i like this card a lot i think it's destined to see some amount of standard play even if i don't think it's as good as other iterations of cards like it i still think that vinda is a card that's gonna see the play so it's on the list like a lot of play so it's on the list but number 10 is gala zeth prismari one of just a couple of elder dragons to make this list and that's not to say i don't like the other elder dragons i specifically love the lorehold elder dragon i that is what a dragon you are buddy look how yes i want to play that card really bad but it actually didn't make the list galazeth prismari makes the list because i think this is just a really strong card in competitive play the stats aren't incredible and i will give you that because i know that's what you're typing in the comment section right now four minute three four isn't very good now as a four-man three-four flyer is not amazing i've recently poo booed on four minutes four four players i don't think they're as amazing as they used to be so this stat line is what really impresses me about the card what impresses me is that it gives you some value when it etbs and it's actually really really good value right if your opponent does point a removal spell at it you can tap the treasure that this put into play and either cast a spell before this leaves play right and that way you don't have to pop your treasure you'll still get further further use of your treasure later on down the line or maybe you already have treasures or small artifacts or maze mined home or something when you cast galaxy which leads you to double spell on the turn that you cast this or have enough mana open for a removal spell or importantly a counter spell to make sure galazar stays on the table right just the battle just the enter the battlefield value on this is good enough but the intrinsic value of turning all of your treasures and other artifacts into moxes that tap for any rainbow moxes that stick around is just unbelievable this plays very very well with gold span dragon for a fair number of sometimes even subtle reasons you know there's a lot of like little interactions this has with goldsman that i'll talk about in a video very soon because right now is it like prismari dragons is winning the patreon poll for first deck of the season but i'm sure soon enough we'll talk about all the interactions that galaxeth and goldspan have because they're they are numerous but i just like the way this plays with a lot of stuff i like it as a threat on curve that has an etb trigger that's actually worth something if you don't get your fifth land drop this is effectively your fifth land drop that matters for more than just gold span right so there's just so much about this card that i like even if your opponent devotes a removal spell towards killing it you still get something out of it and it's not nothing it's blue red ramp i'm always into that especially when it comes on a decent enough body so huge fan of this card in terms of competitive playability i think it's got a lot going for it but number nine is harness infinity i'm not sure what this card does yet but uh look at that text box it's just too powerful not to do something eventually and i really want to hit this against rogues like halfway through the game like thanks for letting me draw 20. i still got time to play them this plays really well with like a seagate restoration or some other effect that basically means you don't have a maximum hand size you know it works very very well with those effects but even if you do have to discard the hand size you still get these seven best cards that were in your graveyard and that probably wins the game even if you haven't built your deck to specifically generate value for this purpose this can probably still win the game for you and i haven't even talked about the fact that you effectively discard your hand you know like one with nothingness style so maybe there was something in your graveyard that can reanimate something that was in your hand or maybe something that was in your hand has escape you can get out of your graveyard you know just get rid of the other cards that were in your hand and escape the thing that actually matters to you so you know there's there's also that to consider there's a lot of angles to this card it's a brilliant late game piece that again i'm sure at some point has something to do number eight is another golgari piece that i guess i can say that about it's rushed rebirth the card's all the way up here in the top ten and there's no like deck for it yet right but at the same time this is the kind of card that like the text on it is too powerful not to do a thing and i do tend to sometimes overvalue i know this about myself i'd sometimes overvalue these tutor for a creature and put it on the battlefield abilities you know like i was able to temper my expectations with pirate heroes which was way down the list for uh caldheim for that top 25 but i still i still thought that card was really good and it still has the chance to be really good it's only been one set since it came out so like i know that sometimes i tend to overvalue those tutor for a creature and slam it onto the table things but you know and in the past i've been trying to get better about that but with rushed rebirth i think there's just too much value inherent in this for like an aristocrats deck you know we freaked out or at least i did when fiend artisan hit the hit the scene and i think that this is a lot better than fiend artisan for the decks that would want to play a card like fiend artisan you know for just two mana you go and get whatever creature you want and it's again sorry phone it's very easy to turn that downside into an upside when you sacrifice a creature and get value off of it or reanimate the creature sacrifice an escapeable thing it doesn't matter it's very easy to sacrifice something and get value out of the fact that you sacked it this is instant speed if somebody points a removal spell at one of your creatures you can just sack it in response and go get something sometimes even better depending so you know this can go and get combo pieces for you in certain decks which again might matter in formats like modern and legacy that have very specific combos they're trying to set up and all you got to do is play junk creatures that get you some kind of value once that value is done stack them and go get what really matters to you bub so there's a lot that i love about this card and i would be extremely surprised if it didn't eventually have something super broken to do in standard and beyond now number seven i've cheated a little bit and i've actually stayed away from cheating on this list for the most part but i'm gonna i'm gonna cheat again before it's all over number seven is two cards uh because i didn't want clever lubamancer and leonan lightscribe to be in different places on the list even though i actually think lumamancer is the better card like if if mono white or white x spells is a deck it's probably more because of clever luminance than it is light scribe but i imagine every deck that plays light or lumamancer is also going to play lightscribe these two are going to go together like peanut butter and ladies and when you see one you probably see the others so big fan of both of these and i do think they have the chops to hack it in standard which is currently the question on everybody's mind you know i think everybody likes the white x spells deck they want it to succeed but we're not quite sure that it can but i'm pretty sure that it can i'm pretty sure that having a monastery swiss spear and a creature that puts counters on all your guys whenever you deign to play a spell and i hear you're playing a lot of spells is i'm pretty sure those are good enough cards to make the deck a thing this is wizards trying to signal that the deck is actually playable i think they've done their job because these cards look unbelievable number six i'm cheating again already actually number six is uh commands but some of them are better than others and i want to point out three in specific right we'll start with wither bloom command mostly because it can blow up any permanent type on one of its modes and i like that i think i really really like that a lot but i also like quandrick's command i'm not sure how amazing this is but i do like the instant speed on it and the ability to sometimes blow opponents out depending on what you're doing for just three mana at instant speed again so this has a lot of pretty desirable modes on it no matter what the game state is but there are specific modes that just completely body some opponents you know they're trying to put an ember cleave on an annex so just pop the annex back to their hand and counter the ember cleave you're done kids like there's a lot that i like about fondric's command but i think the best of these is prismari command you know all of these modes are castable almost no matter what the game state is even if you can't find a second mode that you really like just make a treasure token it's fine right you're basically ramping at the end of your opponent's third turn at instant speed while also killing one of their guys or like drawing two and discarding too i like the ability to say on turn three kill your opponent's two toughness guy but also dig for a sweeper at the same time this card does so many things at instant speed that i think this is possibly playable in more formats than just standard it just does so it does so freaking much that's desirable again almost no matter what the game state and then sometimes even in very specific game states your opponent has an artifact for instance the card is very very good too so i just like it i think that the versatility on this is especially key that's true of any modal card and all of these commands but as far as the spread of playability on all these cards i think this just has the best you know range of modes but number five is ecological appreciation which i'm a little surprised is all the way up here but it's it's fluctuated at one point this was out of the top ten and then it was in the top three because i'm crazy but i guess having the top five is still a little weird to some people but this is probably one of the cards in the set that we've agreed upon the least is this card good or not i mean i think that it's it's got all the trappings you know it's got all the looks of a card that was designed for some competitive play at some point when someone breaks it but is it that or is it all just a traps now your opponent does get some agency over what you actually end up with which does temper the card a good bit but still for six or seven mana going and getting a couple of three or four drops is probably going to help a lot of decks out almost no matter what your opponent gives you access to so i am a fan of this card and i'm looking to do some pretty fun janky stuff with it but that does not mean that it's a purely jank card again i've said it before in this video just a minute ago i tend to overvalue go grab a creature and slap it on the battlefield but i don't think that's what i'm doing here i do think this is a powerful card number four is belladros witherspoon did i say witherspoon reese witherspoon belladress witherbloom witherspoon witherbloom is probably the best elder dragon let's get right down to it even at the cost of paint and life untapping all your lands is broken you know wizards has tried and tried and tried to make this ability not broken and they just can't pull it off you know like extra mana value on cards like fires of invention were enough to get that card banned untapping all of your lands on a card like wilderness reclamation was enough to make that arguably the most important card in the format for like a year no matter how bad you try to make it it's pretty good and untapping all your lands even if you only get to do it once is probably going to give you enough mana value and ramp to win the game that turn that's the whole point of it right so if you got 10 life to pay you better be doing something cool and even though you can argue that by the time this thing comes out you might not have 10 life to pay i don't really think it's going to be that much of a problem especially when you consider how easy it is to reanimate this or maybe use the five mana luka to put it into play in a jun deck and imagine that there's some scary ways to get wither bloom into play and then suddenly untapping all your lands yeah that's actually worth 10 life that's the thing is i think that wizard screwed up here and don't get me wrong i love the design of the card but i honestly think that even paying 10 life is not enough to make this an unbroken ability this is very good but we're in the top three everybody and number three is like the biggest cheat on the entire list but i honestly think this deserves the number three slot removal and counter spells in this set have you seen them i don't know why people are underwhelmed by the set i think that a lot of people just want like big bomby rares and mythics that do obviously crazy stuff until they're too good and then we complain about them we want them banned and stuff as a community but i think that the the the just base level good cards in this set are getting severely discounted for no reason because there's a ton of amazing uncommon level removal encounter spells in this set you know test of talents amazing counterspell that's probably going to see a ton of maybe even main board play considering we're in an ultimatum format whether it's emerging or genesis we're talking about this will have a lot of spells to counter not even just those but you know when it counters like a counter spell it's a pretty good card in that case too but you know there's also decisive denial an amazing counter spell for cimic decks that's removed it's kind of like a drown in the lock you know it's removable on one mode and then counterspell on the other and i think that's awesome but you know there's also stuff like baleful mastery which a lot of people are freaking out over i don't think is incredible but i think is a playable card that's pretty decent removal nonetheless you know there's stuff like rip apart which in some game states is basically says destroy target permanent you know there's just such a huge spread of targets on a card like this that i don't see it not seeing play you know we got a card like divide by zero which is both removal and a counter spell that does like a remand impression like it's a remand that costs one more mana but also can affect the board state if you don't have a spell on the stack at the moment and i actually think for three mana that's very very good like i think divide by zero is incredible so like let's talk about that for a second they're just really really fantastic cards in this set what mortality spear is another one no one's talking about but for life game decks and i mean it's pretty easy to gain life in this format even if you're not a life game deck this is a two mana destroy target permanent like non-land permanent the mortality sphere is really good too and i haven't even covered all the bases for good removal and counter spells in this set it's like if you if you're a fan if you're if you're a nerd that likes answers this set gave us a ton of answers and i just don't think we're talking about it enough these are among the best cards in the set easily and if any cards from the set are going to full-on impact you know standard or command or standard or historic play it's cards like this you know vanishing verse is what i haven't talked about and that card looks freaking bonkers this just takes out a lot of important stuff gee what else fracture fracture looks incredible out of the sideboard maybe not even in the sideboard or one oven control or whatever like just all the removal in this set is banana bread and we're not really addressing it we're allowing ourselves to be underwhelmed even though there's tons of standard playable cards in this set just in the form of answers so good good cards number three but my number two is elite spellbinder now this can be hit by collected company and modern and historic and i think that matters greatly it's also got the correct creature types right it's a human so that matters but it's also a three power flying body at three mana which could be worse right but the best thing about this is obviously all that tech you see all that text on it that's what usually makes a card good this is no different i don't know why i even started in on that train of thought you still look good as the text of course idiot but anyway um the ability for like mono white aggro or a similar deck to look at their opponent's hand is actually kind of really good just in and of itself but delaying the sweeper or the removal or the creature that invalidates your creatures for a couple of turns or the counter spell or the thing that blows up your mall the sky claves you know there's just so many ways to take your opponent off an important spell for a couple of turns and very often that's all they need like just imagine in a lot of matchups delaying extinction event by two turns if not more because your opponent has to draw the extra two lands even if they kill the elite spellbinder the card is still exiled they still have to pay the extra two mana even if they get rid of the spellbinder so just an unbelievable card again not only in a collected company format but in a format like standard where this does have a decent creature type right um it's a solid body you know even outside of you know clerics and other specific creature type stacks this is probably just a really good turn three play in mono white for backing up the sweeper again just imagine if you're a model wide player just think of how many games you would have won in the last year if you could have backed up extinction event by a turn backed up shadow's verdict by a turn those games become unwinnable for your opponent and that's what spellbinder does in multiple formats i think this is a very very good magic card do you guys hear igb snoring up there during that last entry that's igb snoring in the cat tree just so you know he's he's better now i guess you know right buddy yeah he's fine but anyway i'm i'm delaying number one that's how you that's how you content create right there drum roll let's talk about the cats for a second but anyway number one since you've made it this whole time is jazzy but i think you expected that because i hadn't said jazzy yet right is this are we going by the kaladesh naming conventions where jays are actually pronounced softly so this is kind of pronounced yahtzee because that's what you'll be saying you'll throw this down at yahtzee um i i'm pretty sure i win did i win what's high score mean um it's just an unbelievably stupid card on both halves you know flip it over for a second because there's a ton of decks that are going to play you know 30 plus lands and a non-yorion day like a 90 card deck even 60 card decks can easily play 30 plus lands with all the mdfcs we have running around so it won't be hard even on turn four to just throw the other three or four cards in your hand down they're all lands you know it won't be hard even to discard another card to pop this back to your hand and then play your jazzies so you know the lands that you play off of this allow you to play more stuff that turns you can double spell it's just a ludicrous card on both halves because on turn four a lot of the time decks are looking for you know ramp decks are looking for something that puts two lands into play a migration path or something similar this can put this has the ability to put fewer lands in a play don't get me wrong but it can put even more lands into play than that on turn four and then obviously later on in the game this gives you the ability to play stuff for nothing for one i mean you have to pay the one but who cares right so just the that one line of text on jazzy makes it unbelievable but at the same time jazzy is a five mana body or a five power body that's really difficult for your opponent to do anything about because it's got built-in protection on it you can even easily turn discarding a card into an upside there's ways to do it so especially in blue and green yeah you can do that so just everything about jazzy looks crazy to me even though especially the one half of the card cost all of the mana i still i still think that it's pretty easily playable so i just like everything about this card and i think it's one of those cards that meets at the intersection of stupid you know combo johnny jank play and competitive viability because i don't think there's any question the card is in some way competitively viable even if this doesn't do anything day one which i think is highly unlikely it will do something eventually in standard and is a pretty sweet commander by itself when you think about it so i just think there's too much cool stuff you can do with this you can reanimate it into play by the way if you don't want to ramp it out you can animate it and play you can luca it into play on like turn four which is a good way of doing it too there's just so many ways of getting jazzy early and starting to do broken crap and even if your opponent has a way to say no and remove your jazzy just pop your jazzy back to your hand it's not a problem dog so like it's just it's just such a dumb magic card and it's been a while since i've seen like a truly broken simic mythic um been a few sets i thought we were done with that but now here we are here we are but they just can't help themselves here's jazzy i am excited about it maybe that's the joke do like a shining joke here's jazzy that doesn't work either either way even though i can't think of a truly great joke for this card i don't have to because the card is not a joke the card is very serious oh we made it everybody can pat yourselves in the back you made it through more than 25 cards that was like 30 something cards that we had to talk about and i hope i was able to convince you that this set might be a little better than you judged it at first glance and there are some things on the list i waited more heavily for commander player waited because i like them personally but i do think that there are objectively a ton of really playable cards that in some way or another will affect the standard or historic environment so i don't think the set's a bust i think the set is way better than a lot of other people think it is and i think we'll come to realize that in time we don't have a throwable drain in our hands but we do have a set with lots and lots of playable cards that i think will affect standard and the sky is not falling right so in any case that's all i've got for this one but of course this is the last video before we get real serious crack our knuckles with this season and start building decks i've been in the lab for a few days now and especially once the set truly drops an arena i will lab but this weekend we will have our first deck tech the patrons are already voting on deck techs and if you want to get involved in that process it's just a dollar a month to do so you can vote on what decks we do during strix haven standards so i'll leave a link in the description if you're interested in that if you want to pick up any of these cards on pre-order you can do so again through a link in the description my buds a tcg player if you're going to buy cards you might as well buy them at the cheapest prices so if you want any of these in paper hit the link in the description i've got every card on the list in a deck list on tcgplayer for your ease of purchase but aside from that you can watch me play magic on twitch at twitch.tv spmtgdev or again a link in the description down there if you're interested in following me over there because you know probably want to see us play with these cards once they come out and if you're interested in it but i do that good for you good luck good congratu fortunate for you i do those things aside from that that's it i guess i mean make sure you like and subscribe especially subscribe because we got a lot of content coming up i think you'll like so if you're into it you like this stuff i'm a decent person whatever you can stomach me make sure you subbed at the bell for notifications and all that but for now i'll turn it over to you it's your turn how do you feel about my takes all the cards on the list and of course all the stuff that's not on the list you think should make the list but of course go watch our top 10 sleepers list before you just go saying oh this card should be on this maybe it's on the sleepers list leave a link in the description for that one too i think that's the last link in description but anyway i'm done for this one just make sure you let me know how you feel down there in the sideboard area and i'll catch you cats later i'm dead from the place thanks for watching wizards spread love and be kind

Channel: Strictly Better MtG

Views: 49,128

Keywords: edh, strictly better mtg, sbmtg, dev, tolarian community college, mana source, desolator magic, best, decks, deck tech, budget, opening, draft, mtg, magic, magic the gathering, new, news, mtg news, strixhaven, stx, review, standard, commander, modern, historic, jadzi, beledros witherbloom, deck, decklist, top 10, top 25, list, cards, analysis, mtgo, mtga, mtg arena, arena, full, set, spoilers, previews

Id: pDK_xhXN96o

Length: 44min 42sec (2682 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 14 2021