Griselbrand v. Connecticut @orb_warded_kor_warlord@wubrg.social

“Got any Magic cards to trade? I’m looking for Dismiss and a Breeding Pool.”

My LGS is running in-person events again! I went 1-2 at their final Strixhaven draft with All-In Silverquill Aggro (ft. a sometimes very uncooperative mana base) and went 2-1 at the AFR prerelease with BR Treasures

People there are good about switching over when I mention going by “she,” and at the AFR event I got to play and banter with another trans girl

Scum
4G
Sorcery
Destroy target noncreature permanent.
Fuse
//
Villainy
2B
Sorcery
Destroy target creature.
Fuse

#CustomMTG

Rabid Elephant

https://scryfall.com/card/ody/263/rabid-elephant

This is somewhere between a worse Bushido (only triggers on being blocked) and a better Rampage (triggers on the first blocker too), for a creature that's not great on defense but hard to profitably block.

Hmm, I bet Rampage has been benched for almost never mattering, but I'd like to see a Menace + Rampage creature...

Fight as One

https://scryfall.com/card/iko/12/fight-as-one

This shows off Ikoria's "human/nonhuman collaboration" theme, with art of a bonder in "monster cosplay." It's quite efficient, and can be a huge blowout in the right circumstances, and a good way to incentivize weird deckbuilding choices that don't go all-in on either WB human tribal or non-human Mutate targets. It's like how Zendikar Rising required a balance between specific-class tribal and filling out a party.

Craven Hulk

https://scryfall.com/card/khm/127/craven-hulk

The only card to actually have “Coward” on its typeline, with some adorable but semi-confusing art. It’s an efficient beater, with Kaldheim’s neat stony-mask design for giants, and I love how the type line doubles as an insult.

Lingering Souls

https://scryfall.com/card/mb1/162/lingering-souls

Funny how both of Innistrad block’s white-black flashback spells (this and Unburial Rites) ended up being good in multiple formats. This one even got banned in (defunct format) Block Constructed!

It’s a very efficient token-maker, still valuable if you pitch it to Liliana or somesuch, and even has strong tribal synergies!

Rock Hydra

https://scryfall.com/card/sum/173/rock-hydra

Some amazingly goofy templating from Alpha, on a fairly decent creature - "all damage dealt to it has Wither" is frustrating, sure, but you can easily prevent damage and make it bigger. Fantastic storybook/Ray Harryhausen art, too.

Orc Sureshot

https://scryfall.com/card/frf/78/orc-sureshot

A neat go-wide payoff in black, and with some excellently stark first-person art - though is it me, or is that arrowhead weirdly bent? Maybe the first-person aspect was added once it was too late to change the central orc, I dunno.

Thought Collapse

https://scryfall.com/card/rna/57/thought-collapse

The same effect as Didn't Say Please, but with some very neat art and flavor text that both call back to Glimpse the Unthinkable's type of flavor, which I absolutely love.

Now that Dimir is (partially) public, I love the idea of them depicting themselves as the Noble Stewards of Infohazards (with the nuclear option of *not* doing that.)

Dark Maze

https://scryfall.com/card/hml/25b/dark-maze

This is on the high end of playable for a Homelands card, and it has a genuinely neat flavor premise - a maze that gets sick of lurking and comes to beat your ass. With some retooling and power level adjustment, a similar card could definitely exist today.

Kor Sanctifiers

https://scryfall.com/card/hop/3/kor-sanctifiers

One of a few Zendikar cards (Zendikards?) previewed in the original Planechase decks, and a nicely efficient disenchant-creature that, sadly, doesn't work with blink effects and has generally been outclassed by Reclamation Sage/Knight of Autumn.

But it's quite good if you have a kicker-matters theme, or even a return-to-hand theme with efficient cards like Kor Skyfisher!

Stoneforged Blade (Token)

https://scryfall.com/card/tc14/30/stoneforged-blade

The first Equipment token in the game, from Nahiri's first named appearance! The only subsequent one has been Toggo's Rock token (barring cards like Bloodforged Battle-Axe and other copied tokens), and it's a vein of design that's pretty neat though understandably not really something that can be done in high volume.

Illusory Angel

https://scryfall.com/card/pca/19/illusory-angel

Originally from a cascade-themed Planechase deck, since cascading into it negates the drawback nicely. It’s also the only mono-blue Angel in the game, with some excellent flavor text that nicely blurs white and blue themes.

Supreme Verdict

https://scryfall.com/card/rtr/201/supreme-verdict

Part of a "can't be countered" guild cycle from Return to Ravnica, and probably the most-played one after Abrupt Decay. It's a very efficient wrath, one of the last "4-mana unconditional wraths with upside" for a long time, until at least Kaya's Wrath.

I love the wonderfully Hitchhiker's Guide-style flavor text, too.

Thought Scour

https://scryfall.com/card/jmp/185/thought-scour

(Surgical horror at the link)

For a brief window after Khans of Tarkir was released and Delve spells ran rampant, this was a 4-of in the best deck in Modern, Delver. It still shows up here and there in competitive play, but it's no longer a disgustingly efficient way to power out Treasure Cruises and Digs Through Time.

Fantastically gruesome art and flavor text, too, with a very fun quote from Gerald.

Wheel of Fortune

https://scryfall.com/card/vma/192/wheel-of-fortune

Another iconic, influential, and ludicrously broken card from Alpha! Wheel effects have been a staple of Red ever since, but typically more cautiously costed and/or only drawing as many cards as you discarded.

The name would make a lot more sense on an artifact, but here we are, and “wheeling” has become the general term for this effect.

Blazing Specter

https://scryfall.com/card/wc01/tvdl236/blazing-specter

A straightforward, powerful creature from Invasion block, the first explicitly multicolor-themed block in Magic. You can't power it out on turn 1 with Dark Ritual, but if you play both fairly they can both start swinging on turn 4.

The next set, Planeshift, gave us Doomsday Specter as a blue-black specter variant, but sadly the enemy-color-themed Apocalypse set didn't have any WB or BG specters.

Vastwood Zendikon

https://scryfall.com/card/jmp/440/vastwood-zendikon

Part of a land-animating Aura cycle, turning a land into an undercosted Craw Wurm!

Lands that can animate themselves are playable as a way to give decks late-game reach, but sadly creature-land tribal has never really caught on, and the Awaken mechanic was disappointingly anemic. I'd like to see it emphasized someday, maybe as part if a broader "noncreatures-into-creatures" theme?

Misfortune’s Gain

https://scryfall.com/card/ptk/13/misfortunes-gain

Portal Three Kingdoms, a set created to be an intro product for the Chinese/East Asian market, is themed around the classical novel Romance Of The Three Kingdoms. (And not even in an evocative-fantasy way: the exact characters, locations, and events of the story!)

White removal that gives compensation is common enough, not many would specify “owner” and not “controller” (though the set has no control-changing effects)