Cards that Surprised People in your Group that worked well

[anonymos]

Share the tech people! A lot of us are spread out enough that we won't end up using it against each other outside of major side events.

Things I've stumbled onto -

Angry Mob (cause my whole group seems to play urborg)
Debt of Loyalty
Graceful Antelope

[DownSyndromeKarl]

My play group all seemed to question playing Gatekeeper of Malakir mainboard in Eva, but they're believers now.

not Legacy, but I played Qasali Ambusher in my Extended Zoo when it first came out. Just two of them, but I never had to pay for that 2/3 Reach.

[Baumeister]

Giant Growth.

Seriously, I killed somebody with that card and now my entire playgroup plays a whole lot more conservatively allowing me time to set up for monstrous fun. Even when I don't have the card in my deck.

Go try it. It's a blast.

[DrJones]

Tempting Wurm. That card surprised even myself.

[hyc8028]

Red Elemental Blast/Pyroblast. I thought they are good in legacy, but they are even better in EDH. There are a lot of people who play blue. They are never dead cards in multiplayer. Being able to handle any blue card for one mana is huge.

[MattH]

Heart of Bogardan
People will let this grow without even reading it. Then I drop Hostility and they pay attention.

Withering Boon
No one, and I mean no one sees a counterspell coming from a mono-black deck.

Dense Foliage
This was insane when we had multiple Uril decks running around. It's still pretty good, assuming you don't use spot removal of your own (I onyl have 1 card in Kresh that cares about this, Slaughter - every other targeted effect is an ability, not a spell). Kind of surprising that there isn't anything that simply gives every creature shroud.

Illuminated Folio
In mono-colored decks that need some card drawing (so not blue), this is spectacular. It draws tons of cards for cheap, but doesn't do it in a threatening way, so it flies under the radar. Great for red or white decks, also strong in black.

Phthisis
Never suspended this. Obviously just for MBC with Coffers. Nailing a Kresh or DSC or something is often lethal. People forget that it does BOTH power and toughness.

Eastern/Western Paladin, Douse, Deathgrip
These can really screw the living fuck out of some people. Douse in particular is a nightmare for red to deal with.

I haven't tried it yet, but I have a good feeling about Thada Adel.

[Anusien]

Progenitus. It's surprisingly castable, and it's sort of hard to deal with. Almost every blue deck has Ixidron now.

[MattH]

Progenitus. It's surprisingly castable, and it's sort of hard to deal with.

Lol, sadly this needed to be said.


Almost every blue deck has Ixidron now.

Although they should probably just be using Evacuation, or Inundate. I know I really hate turning my own guys down, and I really like playing my own guys.

[badjuju]

I haven't tried it yet, but I have a good feeling about Thada Adel.

I recently built a deck around her.
If someone doesn't deal with her quickly, the whole table is in for a ride. A very sad one, that is.

Back to the topic...hummm....just a few things off the top of my head:

Reroute - I know, wtf right? This thing has actually messed up some very important activations.
Bosium Strip - originally suggested by Yawg, has now managed to find its way into many of my friends' lists.

I'll update when I think of more stuff.

[dahcmai]

Not sure how many of these you know, but they are some of my favorites.

Twisted Justice - this card is just flat mean.
Skyshroud War Beast - P/T = to # of non-basics? Sign me up.
Twilight's Call - Talk about setting up the win
Shaman's Trance - Stupid good
Predatory Advantage - Amazingly good and fairly innocuous.
Righteous Cause - Annoying, but people don't care until they check the life totals and realize you gained like 50 life off it.
Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker - Turns off people attacking you
Aurification - Same as above
Cessation - So annoying, best general killer ever
Rhystic Study - Broken!
Inheritance - No one will care until they notice you got like 10 cards off it.
Nova Pentacle - Quite fun and redirects hate from you to others.
Mind's Eye - Noticeable, but damned good card draw.
Stronghold Machinist - Protects himself
Magnetic Web - Gets rid of crap like Goblin welder and stuff that likes to sit back.
Lu Xun, Scholar general - Ophidian on crack.
Liar's Pendelum - another good card drawer in colorless
Planeswalker's Scorn - Probably the best creature killer in EDH I found.
Overwhelming Forces - Probably the best Wrath in EDH.
Veteran Explorer - one of my favorite make manas and make friends cards
Spearbreaker Behemoth - If you have't already realized this guy is overly hard to kill, go play it
Guided Passage - If you can pull off the colors, it's stupid good.
Explosive Vegetation - Amazing mana fixer
Death Mutation - Pretty amazing creature kill
Sun Quan, Lord of Wu - Dumb, truly dumb
Proteus Staff - No one pays attention to this thing until you use it.
Midsummer Revel - Another card that people ignore and regret it.
That which was Taken - Busted
Blatant Thievery - Rediculous.
Citanul Druid - Cute how quick this guy gets huge.
Journeyer's Kite - Another amazing mana fixer
Wrath of the Marit Lage - There's always one guy you just want to hose for playing Azami over and over.



Bonus underrated general - Xia Arien - card draw for 3 mana in Jund colors? Suck it Kresh.

[Phoenix Ignition]

Not sure how many of these you know, but they are some of my favorites.

Twisted Justice - this card is just flat mean.
Skyshroud War Beast - P/T = to # of non-basics? Sign me up.
Twilight's Call - Talk about setting up the win
Shaman's Trance - Stupid good
Predatory Advantage - Amazingly good and fairly innocuous.
Righteous Cause - Annoying, but people don't care until they check the life totals and realize you gained like 50 life off it.
Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker - Turns off people attacking you
Aurification - Same as above
Cessation - So annoying, best general killer ever
Rhystic Study - Broken!
Inheritance - No one will care until they notice you got like 10 cards off it.
Nova Pentacle - Quite fun and redirects hate from you to others.
Mind's Eye - Noticeable, but damned good card draw.
Stronghold Machinist - Protects himself
Magnetic Web - Gets rid of crap like Goblin welder and stuff that likes to sit back.
Lu Xun, Scholar general - Ophidian on crack.
Liar's Pendelum - another good card drawer in colorless
Planeswalker's Scorn - Probably the best creature killer in EDH I found.
Overwhelming Forces - Probably the best Wrath in EDH.
Veteran Explorer - one of my favorite make manas and make friends cards
Spearbreaker Behemoth - If you have't already realized this guy is overly hard to kill, go play it
Guided Passage - If you can pull off the colors, it's stupid good.
Explosive Vegetation - Amazing mana fixer
Death Mutation - Pretty amazing creature kill
Sun Quan, Lord of Wu - Dumb, truly dumb
Proteus Staff - No one pays attention to this thing until you use it.
Midsummer Revel - Another card that people ignore and regret it.
That which was Taken - Busted
Blatant Thievery - Rediculous.
Citanul Druid - Cute how quick this guy gets huge.
Journeyer's Kite - Another amazing mana fixer
Wrath of the Marit Lage - There's always one guy you just want to hose for playing Azami over and over.



Bonus underrated general - Xia Arien - card draw for 3 mana in Jund colors? Suck it Kresh.

Please! If you post cards use the [cards] tags! I have never seen most of them and need to look up all of these.

[Aleksandr]

Shaman's Trance? You're kidding me? Is this poor man's Yawgmoth's Will?

Must try it!

[anonymos]

Veteran Explorer - one of my favorite make manas and make friends cards


We love this guy to the point where there is a custom one running around here. He has a bullseye on his face and his text box is blackened with the words "kill me" visible through it.

[Tychoides]

Overwhelming Forces - Probably the best Wrath in EDH.

Not as good as Decree of Pain in multiplayer though. Read the Oracle text. :(

[dahcmai]

Forgot the tags, sorry bout that. Ooops.

[Bryant Cook]

Shaman's Trance? You're kidding me? Is this poor man's Yawgmoth's Will?

Must try it!

This card seems awesome. I wish I could play it in Godo. However, not too many people play red in my area.

It seems like a possibility in Thraximundar...but I'm not even playing Will in there.

[Phoenix Ignition]

Shaman's Trance? You're kidding me? Is this poor man's Yawgmoth's Will?
I'm pretty sure you still need to use an enabler like Yawgmoth's Will. The card just says you can play them as if they were in your graveyard (but you can't play cards in your graveyard anyway unless they have flashback or you use bosium strip style things.

Though bosium says "your" graveyard so probably doesn't work either.

Forgot the tags, sorry bout that. Ooops.

No problem, overreaction. I'm getting into EDH though and have no idea what these cards are.

[Bryant Cook]

I'm pretty sure you still need to use an enabler like Yawgmoth's Will. The card just says you can play them as if they were in your graveyard (but you can't play cards in your graveyard anyway unless they have flashback or you use bosium strip style things.

Though bosium says "your" graveyard so probably doesn't work either.

That card is now utter shit. Forget my last post.

[dahcmai]

I play it with other stuff to enable it, that's the only reason I listed it. It's also an answer to reanimator style cards which are heavily played in EDH. You want to get that back from your graveyard? Nah, I don't think so. It's handy as hell in a lot of odd situations and half the time will get you something worth grabbing out of the deal for 2R. You need to tailor a little bit for it, but it's surprising how much it accidentally hits.

[xXxBretWeedxXx]

That card is now utter shit. Forget my last post.

Yeah, I was thinking about finding a way to play that card myself as I read it the same way you did. Card sucks now though.

[MattH]

I play it with other stuff to enable it, that's the only reason I listed it. It's also an answer to reanimator style cards which are heavily played in EDH. You want to get that back from your graveyard? Nah, I don't think so.
You are aware that playing, say, Animate Dead and getting a creature out of the graveyard is NOT stopped by Shaman's Trance, right?

Also, be aware of the oracle wording on Skyshroud War Beast: you have to pick just one player and count that player's nonbasics. You don't get to count everybody's. For that, you need Wilderness Elemental.

[Zlatzman]

Skyshroud Warbeast should still be decently large for 1G as people often play almost all nonbasics. Shame it dies when the chosen opponent dies though (if I have understood the wording correctly).

[Offler]

well i got lot of such cards...

Rhystic study - already mentioned. It does not do anything? If it entered play i mostly won the game every time this happened.
Ambassador Laquatus - no one ever counted with such thing as infinite mana. i know five people around here who started to play Gaeas blessing because of him
Wake Thrasher - "oh? its 1/1? cute." "Ok, you untapped all your permanents so its 7/7, i get it, but i still have 20 life and Damnation on hand " Well after moment or it was 100/100 and my opponent had no blocker at all.
Psychic venom - why do you play this? i dont believe you that you can kill me with it.
Coral Atoll - "but this is really a bad card" "not its not" "yes it is". 1 turn later i had infinite colorless mana produced by this land.
Jinxed choker - "omg you must be kidding" i dont :D you got 40 counters on it, and its going right to you this turn. pay it or die.

[swarm187]

Alright, my playgroup has been playing EDH for about 8 months now and the level of deck design has really gone through the roof. Here are some of our favorites:

Lifeline: Read the errata on this card, it is absolutely broken. Even when mass removal is used, creatures still come back. Disgusting.

Gate ot Phyrexia: Originally this was used in response to Lifeline, but it quickly became an instant artifact killer for a color that has very little of that. Mono-black can now deal with artifacts!

Fatespinner: In the right deck, this thing signals big trouble in a 1 on 1 game. In multiplayer, it gets gross.

Brown Ouphe: Again, massive artifact hate. Sorry, NO DISK FOR YOU!

No Mercy: Mono-black's best friend. It may get hated on, but other players avoid you like the plague when you play this card.

Cursed Totem: Creatures cannot play activated abilities. Enough said.

Noetic Scales: More creature hate.

Wild Ricochet: Using this in a multiplayer game when an opponent targets you with a Traumatize/Identity Crisis is just plain dumb.

Midnight Banshee: Wither is ridiculous in EDH, and popping everything for 1 every turn gets really good really fast.

Orb of Dreams & Amulet of Vigor: Together, they stall out almost any multiplayer game for your opponents.