My top ten

Hey guys, it's your friendly neighborhood doofus with another list. Because people love lists.

Nothing special this time, just something that means something to me. My personal top ten cards in magic.
Most of them are commander related but obviously not all of them. I just thought this would be a fun discussion and maybe you can give your own top ten in the comments below. As you will see I adore stax effects so don't hate me too much ok? Also Land destruction....and kicking puppies
Also if Red is your favorite color...I'm sorry.





Honorable mentions

Narrowing it down to ten was real hard but twenty was too many so these wonderful cards had to be put to the side for now.

Vraska, the unseen - Personal favorite walker art. When she was spoiled I had to have her to the point I traded a Liliana of the Veil for a foil one, Whoops. Even still while she doesn't impact formats that art is fucking beautiful and I have an unnatural bias towards golgari colors.

Mental Misstep- There is nothing better than surprising a player than a Mental Misstep on turn one. Knocking out someone's turn one Sol ring or mana vault before you even draw is so satisfying.

Time Walk- One of my favorite pieces of art and one of the most exciting trades I've ever done. When your trade for a single card takes an hour and has people walking by saying wow you know you did well. I love the trades I had for power but Time walk specifically makes the cut because I love the effect and that art.

Doomwake Giant- Probably the weakest card on the list but my god have I grown to love it in my Enchantress deck. With the right cards it leads to one sided board wipes and when paired with another card on the list things get very spicy.

Master Transmuter- Another art card but I adore that effect. The ability to surprise people with anything ranging from Clock of omens to Mindslaver makes this card so much fun. She also can protect herself by bouncing herself.

Kederekt Levithan- My favorite card from Reanimator. Pair it with enchantment reanimation and you have mass bounce over and over. Pair it with necromancy and you'll never be hit again. It's so satisfying.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite- Arrtt.....wow. That phyrexian judge foil art is....it makes me just grin. Took forever for myself to get one and it was well with the time.

Knight of the Reliquary- Probably placed 11th on this list. Love the art and the effect is so good and fun to use in a lands deck, the ability to ramp yourself with Knight or search up any utility land and then surprise players for 8+ damage is great for three mana. Helps that Knight was the main attraction in my first legacy deck years ago.




10: MINDSLICER

I love making players Hellbent. I don't care if I'm included in that because I exploit it to the max in my enchantress deck. There's nothing quite like sneaking this guy in and saccing him while he has a Pattern of Rebirth of skullclamp on him. He is ripe for abuse and one of my favorite things to see in my hand.

Favorite Moment:
Opponent has Omniscience on the board, I have Mindslicer and casts he casts Time spiral. We both draw, he casts armageddon and in response I Nature's claim the Omniscience and Crop rotation out a land to get Phyrexian tower and sac the Mindslicer. He's left with no lands, hand, or Omniscience and dies to my mana dorks turns later.






9: LAND EQUILIBRIUM

Forget Ward of Bones, this is where it's at. Having players abandon land drops after a wipe is so satisfying. This card is fantastic for abuse since you can ramp via mana dorks or artifacts and play plenty of land destruction to bring everyone down to 0 lands. Now you have mana via dorks and rocks while opponents have pretty much nothing and no way to ramp. They better already have rocks or dorks on board because the game will be unwinnable otherwise. Of course, the deck that runs this will likely have plenty of ways to deny players from that as well.

And before you ask, yes hell is quite nice this time of year










8: DEATHRITE SHAMAN

Fun fact, at one point I had over 80 of these guys. Not because of speculation or whatever, but because I fucking love this card. I traded almost all of them by this point in my trades for power so I just have my foils but they're a beauty to behold. Return to Ravnica really made Golgari shine for me and this was the main card. That beautiful art, that unique ability, and the work it does in legacy made this card rise to one of my favorites very quickly. Not to mention you're insane if you're running any Green/Black variant in commander and not running this card. Have you read what it does?!
The first one mana planeswalker and still one of the best.










7: SMOKESTACK

Nothing quite like dropping this card on turn one or two and seeing people sweat to remove it. Sure it's eating your resources too but you can control when it ticks up, can sac first then tick it up so you never sac more than opponents and you're the deck abusing this card, you have plenty of resources to get rid of.

Favorite moment:
This guy was bragging about how his deck was so good and wanted to play. I look at my hand with plenty of ramp and a vamp tutor. I play a land and vamp tutor for smokestack. He plays a land and passes. I play a land, mana crypt, and then smokestack. He reads it, looks at me, reads it again, then looks at me. He plays a land and a signet. I sac 0 and tick it to one, then strip mine his land and vindicate the signet. Pass.
Oh, my was he upset.






6: JUZAM DJINN
You can really only get so far based on art but my god...look at that art. I actually own art for this card because of how sweet it is.
I also traded for it a while ago (Before 93/94 magic was a thing thankfully) and I think it's the only card I own that I have no intention of ever playing. He's not broken in much but with art like that, it's hard for me to not want it.

I've also gotten insane offers on my copy that Mark Tedin signed and I refuse them all. There is no way I'm parting with this masterpiece.

(Yeah I know he's not a masterpiece card shut up)








5: ARMAGEDDON/RAVAGES OF WAR

This list is probably not too surprising to those who know me well. I love casting these cards. There is nothing quite like ramping with creatures and rocks and then dropping these to end the game. Playing them after a Boundless Realms followed by bitter ordeal or even playing it then dropping a tabernacle. It's so satisfying and leads to plenty of free wins because of it







4: ELVISH PIPER

Probably the oddest card on the list to the people who know me but yeah I love this card. The art is fantastic and when I first started playing the game I wanted to make decks around this card. I even took a terrible 140 card deck with elvish pipers, Progenitus, Rite of Consumptions and natural orders to a legacy event and somehow went 3-1. This was far before I even knew what legacy really was and the best part was during the event I had JTMS ultimate against me while I had a piper on the board. I shuffle my hand in and draw Progenitus and then kill him the following turn with it.

I know a lot better know but still having that moment and remembering it fondly makes me adore this card even more. I own foils, Russian versions, and original art for it.





3: CATACLYSM
Another land wipe but that's not all it does. Taking out extras of people's artifacts and creatures and leaving them just one of each is brutal against certain decks. Follow it up with the fact that you likely will have extra mana floating to remove those threats makes it even better. Drop it when you have a Bloom Tender and a Gilded lotus and you can easily go to town ahead of other players by 4-5 mana.

Not to mention this just obliterates all the planeswalkers on the board. With Atraxa, becomes more popular and superfriends decks popping up everywhere this is my favorite card to play against them. It does so much for a tiny mana cost.







2: BRAIDS, CABAL MINION

 A lot of my friends expected this card to be number one and I don't blame them. I've messed around with it in commander before it was banned (RIP) and as a general when people don't care what I play. I love smokestack but putting it on a creature that can be searched up easily and removed easily whenever I feel like it makes it much better.
Plus again, look at that art. Helena Bonham Carter is taking out your lands and resources with that big grin and satisfying doesn't even begin to describe it.













1: LIVING PLANE

I don't think it could have been anything else. My favorite card in my favorite deck is clearly number one. It does so much for such a simple effect and works so well with all the other cards I love.
Play it, now fetch lands can't search the same turn because of summoning sickness, they're pretty much worthless.
Pair it with Pattern of rebirth on a land that sac's itself to get Elesh Norn or Doomwake.
Pair it with Gravepact and every sac land is now an edict (General is also Ghave)
Pair it with Humility and now lands are just generic 1/1's that can't tap for mana.
There is so many interesting things this card can lead to and plenty of brutal kills for your opponent. It was fairly tough to narrow down my top ten in order but there was no doubt in my mind that Living Plane was number one.






Well, there you have it guys, my personal top ten. What do you think? Anything surprising? Anything too evil?
Let me know your own personal top ten and let's start a discussion.


Until next time



DoomBlade, signing out.

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