Conspiracy: Take the Crown has only begun to widely circulate, with players exploring all that this drafting-focused set has to offer. Yet thanks to a surprising spoiler season, full of unforeseen reprints and a bevy of eye-catching new cards, the set has generated quite a bit of buzz leading up to its release.
Putting out an extra set for people to buy every year doesn’t hurt their bottom line either.
The purpose focus of both Conspiracy sets undoubtedly rests on drafting and then playing those decks in multiplayer free-for-all games. This gives the set a distinct and original flavor apart from Limited, bolstered heavily by a number of cards included in packs that only function during a draft. The result is that you’re able to draft this set and enjoy it as such, but there’s also plenty of cards that will be holding your attention long after the draft is over.
In a somewhat ironic twist, however, it’s the non-drafting part of the set that’s garnering so much attention. One reason are a bevy of surprising sough-after reprints for Modern and even Legacy players, dispersed across all rarities. Wizards had been trying for quite some time to come up with a way of reprinting powerful staples for these tournament formats without putting them in normal sets (and therefore them being Standard-playable), and they sort of stumbled across their answer, perhaps even accidentally, in the original Commander precons.
By exploring this idea, they were able to create new cards and reprints while completely circumventing their Standard problem – even in products where tournaments weren’t the focus. Hence Legacy-capable cards in EDH sets. Once they realized their experiments worked, albeit not without some bumps (looking at you True-Name Nemesis), they invested heavily on the idea with the first Modern Masters. Following that came the first Conspiracy with an admittedly lighter touch, likely because Modern Masters was only a year old.
Wait…is that Koth???
Conspiracy 2 pulled no punches in this regard. From Berserk and Show and Tell down to Serum Visions, in many ways Conspiracy 2 is offering a better per-pack value than Modern Masters 2015 and a better volume of cards for your money than Eternal Masters on average. Thanks to it being a full print run and having standard pack prices, this has set caught the attention of many Eternal players (and indeed all of us) a little by surprise.
The other reason Conspiracy has been so interesting its slate of new new cards, many of which are going to find fast homes among the casual and Commander crowds – and a couple even with Legacy players. It’s for those cards why we’re here today.
Continuing the trend of looking at a set for reasons other than its principal purpose, we’re going to inspect Conspiracy’s new cards and look at the top ten most versatile cards for the Commander format. It certainly wasn’t easy, and there are plenty not listed that will surely find their way into EDH decks. In this case, the focus is on which cards can be utilized in the most situations and deck styles more so than those that are simply the most powerful or most valuable.
Let’s get to it!
Honorable Mention #1: Selvala’s Stampede
That’s also the card’s only real caveat, being, that the card is both situational and has some swing to its usefulness. In the early to mid stages of the game, for instance, or in cases where you have a flush hand, you’re personally almost always likely to vote ‘free’, letting you drop any permanent from your hand onto the battlefield – assuming you have something that costs more than six mana to justify the spell. In those cases your opponents in turn will probably roll the dice and let you dig for creatures. It’s possible to land a Darksteel Colossus and friends, making you scary in a hurry. But it’s also possible that you hit a utility creature that won’t help much.
The longer the game goes on, the more this flips. While Green isn’t as devoid of card draw as it used to be, it’s not uncommon for Green’s hand to dwindle over time. When that happens, the card’s efficacy drops substantially, possibly even to a point where it won’t be much of a stampede at all, to a point where you – and only you – will be the one voting to go wild.
Honorable Mention #2: Adriana, Captain of the Guard
Well, if you embrace the melee, as it were.
At worst, you’re always getting +1/+1 by attacking a single opponent, putting it on par with abilities like prowesss, bushido and battle cry. With access to expendable creatures, it’s entirely possible to take huge advantage of Melee’s scaling ability. For example, sending one token creature at an opponent, a second at another, and the bulk of your forces of a third, you give your entire army a powerful +3/+3 buff, enabling you to do some serious damage.
The concern with Adriana isn’t her efficiency insomuch as her political implications. Melee is great for Conspiracy free-for-all games, but with larger life totals and more answers, use of Melee in Commander may be a little tricky, as attacking lots of people simultaneously often invites reprisal. Prepare for that though, or simply not care, and Adriana will easily lead the way.
Honorable Mention #3: Queen Marchesa
Not only does she grant you Monarch, but she also gives you 1/1 deathtouch creatures when you aren’t. The implication here is that either she or her minions will run at someone and (ideally) not be blocked, ensuring that if you aren’t the, she’ll get it back easily enough.
The thing is, that’s a lot of effort and saber rattling at the table simply to be drawing an extra card each turn, especially with access to Black. It’s a nice inversion of using 1/1 deathtouch creatures offensively since in EDH they’re usually only used on defense. Still, while she’s flavorful and could make an interesting theme-based Commander, her innate powers may not be as far-reaching as they seem.
Number Ten: Expropriate
Yet that’s what we get with Expropriate, a card that has Commander written all over it. It costs two more mana than Blatant Thievery, which means it may take a few extra turns to pull off, but since it’s not uncommon to sit on a Blatant Thievery till the time is right anyway, this shouldn’t make a huge difference in the middle of a game.
In exchange for this added cost, players have an opportunity to prevent the caster from stealing one of their permanents by voting to let them take an extra turn instead…except the majority of the time they’re not going to let you do that.
This is especially true since you also get a vote. And since you’re not going to steal your own cards, you’re getting a minimum of one extra turn. It also means you’ll be able to use those stolen permanents before the inevitable board wipe to come. All of which is well worth the two mana difference.
Number Nine: Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
The reasons for that are twofold. For one, he’s a legendary Goblin, and for some that automatically makes him interesting. (It’s a thing.) More importantly is that he’s fun in that chaotically anarchic way that only Red can pull off.
He himself isn’t like to attack too much with his small 2/2 frame, but he is easy to get out. When that happens, he changes the nature of your army completely by giving you even more incentive to hit your opponents as often as you can, yielding two different but equally lucrative rewards.
The first reward is to Goad a creature, which is amazing for EDH games that have stalemated or against someone heavily walled up tight. Goading means the creature must attack on their turn – but it can’t attack you. This gives you the ability to either force them to attack with a creature they don’t want to, or, alternatively, ensures that whatever their heaviest hitter is it can’t attack you. It’s a bit of puppeteering, but it definitely shifts the status quo.
The second option is Red’s new ‘impulse cast’ ability, letting you cast something from the deck to use either this turn or not at all. However, in this case, you’re casting it from your opponent’s deck, which is a win-win scenario all around.
Now take into account that you get to do either of these for each creature that gets through…yeah, he’ll find an easy home in many token creature decks.
Number Eight: Subterranean Tremors
Traditionally, monored has trouble in long games with multiple opponents. They’re really good at blowing one person up, but multiplayer settings – especially those with people starting at 40 life – can be really difficult because most normal Red cards don’t scale well damage-wise. There has been a rise in more powerful Red EDH cards (mostly from the Commander precons themselves), and it’s been well received. Subterranean Tremors is a continuation of that.
Subterranean Tremors proves to be an X damage spell worth investing the mana is, with good reason. At the low end is a Breath of Darigaaz. The middle stage adds a Shatterstorm to the mix, and the final stage dumps out a massive 8/8 creature. Any of those alone would make you at least consider it for a Commander deck, but all together, it makes for an impressive combination of abilities and flavor.
It may not let you damage players or flying creatures, or giant creatures without serious mana investment, but that can also play to your benefit too since taking out all ground units and artifacts is already going to rile some people up a bit. Of course, you can also cast it to only set off just part of the spell too, giving it some flexibility. Power and options makes it precisely the kind of card this color needs in EDH, and they get a new addition to the arsenal here.
Number Seven: Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
Well, Daretti is back, albeit a little more spiteful than he used to be.
This Red / Black version of Daretti will be enjoyed by several contingents, possibly even Eternal players thanks to it being a three-cost planeswalker. For Commander purposes though it’s entirely because of his three abilities, because although still artifact-based, he’s fully capable of being useful all alone.
His first ability constructs a 1/1 token every turn for defensive purposes, which is nice if not minor. More importantly, they also factor strictly into his second ability, allowing him to load them up as fodder for repeatable spot removal of artifacts or creatures. If kept alive, those abilities together are able to blow something up every other turn single-handedly.
His ultimate is also highly effective in EDH since there’s rarely ever a shortage of potent artifacts. This is doubly true because while it allows you to copy artifacts multiple times, it’s not an emblem – a big factor towards reducing a planeswalker’s threat potential on the board.
What? People don’t want to deal with emblems.
Number Six: Capital Punishment
Capital Punishment ensures that no matter which way you vote, everyone but the caster is going to suffer. Any ‘death’ vote forces players to sacrifice creatures, which is huge in EDH as a means of dealing with untargetable or indestructible creatures. Voting this way could be very political, for instance, if one problematic person has a lot to lose. ‘Death’ votes likewise are a way of emptying out players’ hands, significantly hampering people’s ability to have options and wrecking those who like to sit on response cards. Death votes fittingly puts everyone on equal footing.
Either way, the vote will be great for you since you’re immune to the effects. This makes it an incredibly useful punisher card, but it won’t make any friends doing so. Fair warning.
Also, all of a sudden Grudge Keeper and Ballot Broker take on entirely new dimensions.
Number Five: Regal Behemoth
Regal Behemoth sits squarely in the middle when it comes to cards that double your mana. Because you can lose the ability thanks to the Monarch trait, Regal Behemoth likely won’t sit there begging to be blown up like Wake, Mana Reflection, or Zendikar Resurgent, and it’s going to generate wayyyyyyy less hate than Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. At the same time, although the ability can be lost, thanks to the 5/5 trample frame, getting it back shouldn’t be that difficult. Think of it as preservation mode.
At worst, Regal Behemoth is a 5/5 trample for six mana that lets you draw a card the turn you cast it. At worst. At best, it can accelerate your deck with the best of them, and could easily find a home in almost any Green deck.
Number Four: Recruiter of the Guard
Admittedly, Legacy players will be way more excited about this card than the casual crowd players due to it fitting into several deck archetypes, but that hardly means this card lacks value in the Commander settings.
For one, tutoring for any nonland card outside of Black is always going to have value in formats with large decks, even if it is seemingly restrictive. Just look at Muddle the Mixture, Enlightened Tutor, Tinker, Green Sun’s Zenith, and so on. This is doubly so in White, which barely outnumbers Red for the color with the least amount of available tutors. (It’s sort of a cruel irony in that way when you think about it.)
This ability also sort of makes more sense in White than Red anyhow. Both colors have a fair amount of small creatures, but White has plenty of highly useful creatures on the smaller end of the scale, allowing you to grab whatever you can to help your situation. And that assumes, of course, that you only stick to White cards. In reality, any small creature in your deck is fair game. It seems restrictive, but there are far more options here than you think.
The biggest benefit to Recruiter of the Guard over Imperial though? You’ll actually be able to find it.
Number Three: Leovold, Emissary of Trest
So, welcome Leovold, Rayne’s spiritual successor. Aside from the tricolor investment, it’s an impressive upgrade with a slightly bigger frame. Leovold removes Rayne’s Aura rider and instead pairs it with Spirit of the Labyrinth – except that it only affects opponents. This probably explains why Leovold is Blue / Black instead of Blue / White – though aside from the elf creature type, Green’s influence here is admittedly elusive.
Still, when these two abilities are put together, it will generate even more notable card advantage than Rayne did. The first ability prevents others from drawing faster than you, which can significantly curtail decks designed around drawing cards or ramping quickly, and the second, while situational, eases the pain when things in Commander inevitably go awry. Rayne herself is often seen as a nuisance when people are trying to pick on you, and Leovold ups the ante significantly.
Number Two: Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
For just three mana, Selvala’s two abilities speeds up your tempo whenever she hits the table – and she’s down right scary if used as the Commander itself. The first half of the card is a universal effect, a sort of group hug style ability where whoever puts the biggest creature on the board will draw a card. You know, like a Green deck. While it’s fair game for anyone, it hardly mitigates her as a threat, especially since it ties well with her far scarier second ability.
Worst case scenario with Selvala’s activated ability is that she nets you one mana of any color. Worst case. This effect ultimately feeds on itself, however, by generating more mana to put out bigger creatures, always giving you N-1 mana of whatever colors you want, with N equal to your biggest creature. This in turn gives you more mana to put out more things, and, well, you get the idea. Bad things happen.
Selvala is useful at any stage of the game, be it early game for ramp, after a wipe to rebuild, or in later stages to fuel potent spells. She both musters and fuels an army by herself, making it both amazing to use and terrifying if you let her sit for long.
Number One: Sanctum Prelate
Until now.
Santum Prelate, while restricting the idea to white, is Chalice in creature form, with three minor but distinct differences. First, it’s only ever going to cost you three mana – the number to block casting spells is simply just stated when it comes out. This makes cards casting six or higher – very common in EDH – much easier to counteract. Second, it doesn’t counter the card. Instead, it merely makes it unable to be cast in the first place. It’s a corner case thing, but the Chalice can sometimes catch people not paying attention, causing them to waste their spell. This doesn’t have that advantage. Finally, it doesn’t affect creatures, which, while not as all-encompassing as the Chalice, certainly cuts down plenty of other spells, artifacts, and enchantments to make it well worth the three mana cost.
The latter two differences don’t undercut the advantage of the first, however, and as such the impact of this card can’t can’t be understated. Sanctum is incredibly powerful, and can find a home in any White deck with ease. You could put it out early to prevent mana rocks or land ramp cards from being played or later in the game to prevent counterspells, fog effects, spot removal, and more. It’s a slight gamble in Commander, but you’ll be surprised how easily it stops cards in your meta – especially if you play with the same people regularly. It can be dropped at any point in the game to devastating effect.
The only down side to Sanctum Prelate for Commander players, really, is that this also happens to be Conspiracy’s True-Name Nemesis. For a number of reasons, of the new unique cards the Prelate will be the chase card of the set for Legacy players, which means it could make getting this one somewhat difficult. If you do come across one though, you won’t be disappointed in her performance. And if that’s the biggest problem, you know you have a hit.
Would these cards have been on your own top ten? Tell us over on our social media!
Do you have a particular Commander card to suggest for us to shine a future Spotlight on? You can send suggestions to ryan@cardboardrepublic.com