“Elder Dragon Highlander: Collector’s Edition Part II” – BY JEREMY BLAIR

Thursday, April 15th – In this weekly edition of his EDH column for The Game Academy, Jeremy shares valuable information about some of the biggest EDH staples. Jeremy has been a pioneer of the EDH format since it’s creation, and has more experience with the EDH format than just about anyone. Check his amazing EDH coverage on YouTube by clicking HERE.

*Editor’s Note* – The Game Academy hosts an EDH league every Sunday; tournament signups begin @ 2 PM and tournament entry is $7. All entry will be given back to top finishers in store credit to use towards anything in the store. Jeremy is always in attendance to play EDH in our league, offer deck advice, and record matches for his popular YouTube channel. If you don’t have an EDH deck, don’t worry, we normally have a few extras if you want to play. See you here!
Elder Dragon Highlander:  Collector’s Edition Part II

This week we will pick up where last week left us.  We embarked on the journey into Magic the Gathering.  Some follow the path for competitive purposes, others will to amass a giant collection.  Many players seek fun and most of us are in for a little of each.  We perused a list of the top EDH cards for each color.  If you did not get a chance to catch the list, I have decided to copy it here one more time.

White: 1 Adarkar Valkyrie 2 Akroma, Angel of Wrath 3 Akroma’s Vengeance 4 Ajani Goldmane 5 Aura of Silence 6 Austere Command 7 Condemn 8 Decree of Justice 9 Elspeth, Knight-Errant 10 Enlightened Tutor 11 Eternal Dragon 12 Exalted Angel 13 Evangelize 14 Faith’s Fetters 15 Ghostly Prison 16 Martial Coup 17 Oblivion Ring 18 Hallowed Burial 19 Land Tax 20 Path to Exile 21 Stonehewer Giant 22 Swords to Plowshares 23 Weathered Wayfarer 24 Wrath of God 25 Yosei, the Morning Star Blue: 1 Blatant Thievery 2 Brainstorm 3 Bribery 4 Capsize 5 Compulsive Research 6 Cryptic Command 7 Desertion 8 Draining Whelk 9 Fact or Fiction 10 Force of Will 11 Future Sight 12 Gifts Ungiven 13 Glen Elendra Archmage 14 Hinder 15 Honden of Seeing Winds 16 Impulse 17 Keiga, the Tide Star 18 Mulldrifter 19 Mystical Tutor 20 Rhystic Study 21 Spelljack 22 Spin into Myth 23 Time Stretch 24 Treachery 25 Trinket Mage Black: 1 Ambition’s Cost 2 Avatar of Woe 3 Beacon of Unrest 4 Beseech the Queen 5 Corrupt 6 Damnation 7 Decree of Pain 8 Demonic Tutor 9 Graveborn Muse 10 Liliana Vess 11 Necropotence 12 Night’s Whisper 13 Phyrexian Arena 14 Plague Wind 15 Profane Command 16 Promise of Power 17 Puppeteer Clique 18 Reiver Demon 19 Shriekmaw 20 Skeletal Vampire 21 Syphon Mind 22 Tendrils of Corruption 23 Tombstalker 24 Vampiric Tutor 25 Yawgmoth’s Will Red: 1 Anger 2 Arc-Slogger 3 Blood Moon 4 Bogardan Hellkite 5 Earthquake 6 Fanning the Flames 7 Flametongue Kavu 8 Fork 9 Godo, Bandit Warlord 10 Grab the Reins 11 Greater Gargadon 12 In the Web of War 13 Inferno 14 Insurrection 15 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker 16 Molten Disaster 17 Obliterate 18 Price of Progress 19 Reiterate 20 Ruination 21 Rolling Thunder 22 Starstorm 23 Taurean Mauler 24 Wheel of Fortune 25 Wild Ricochet Green: 1 Defense of the Heart 2 Eternal Witness 3 Explosive Vegetation 4 Fierce Empath 5 Forgotten Ancient 6 Garruk Wildspeaker 7 Genesis 8 Harmonize 9 Hunting Wilds 10 Indrik Stomphowler 11 Kodama’s Reach 12 Krosan Grip 13 Krosan Tusker 14 Masked Admirers 15 Primal Command 16 Regrowth 17 Restock 18 Rude Awakening 19 Seedborn Muse 20 Survival of the Fittest 21 Sylvan Library 22 Tarmogoyf 23 Tooth and Nail 24 Verdant Force 25 Worldly Tutor

Multi: 1 Ajani Vengeant 2 Angel of Despair 3 Crime/Punishment 4 Death Grasp 5 Debtors’ Knell 6 Divinity of Pride 7 Fires of Yavimaya 8 Hellkite Overlord 9 Knight of the Reliquary 10 Loxodon Hierarch 11 Magister Sphinx 12 Memory Plunder 13 Mirari’s Wake 14 Mortify 15 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker 16 Pernicious Deed 17 Privileged Position 18 Putrefy 19 Sarkhan Vol 20 Savage Twister 21 Simic Sky Swallower 22 Terminate 23 Unmake 24 Vindicate 25 Wrecking Ball Artifact: 1 Coalition Relic 2 Darksteel Ingot 3 Duplicant 4 Engineered Explosives 5 Extraplanar Lens 6 Gauntlet of Power 7 Journeyer’s Kite 8 Lightning Greaves 9 Loxodon Warhammer 10 Mind’s Eye 11 Nevinyrral’s Disk 12 Oblivion Stone 13 Relic of Progenitus 14 Scroll Rack 15 Sensei’s Divining Top 16 Skullclamp 17 Solemn Simulacrum 18 Sol Ring 19 Sun Droplet 20 Sword of Fire and Ice 21 Sword of Light and Shadow 22 Sundering Titan 23 Thousand-Year Elixir 24 Vedalken Shackles 25 Wayfarer’s Bauble Utility Land: 1 Academy Ruins 2 Ancient Tomb 3 Dust Bowl 4 Faerie Conclave 5 Gaea’s Cradle 6 Ghost Quarter 7 Kor Haven 8 Krosan Verge 9 Maze of Ith 10 Miren, the Moaning Well 11 Mishra’s Factory 12 Mutavault 13 Nantuko Monastery 14 Reliquary Tower 15 Scrying Sheets 16 Strip Mine 17 Thawing Glaciers 18 Tolarian Academy 19 Tolaria West 20 Treetop Village 21 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 22 Urza’s Factory 23 Volrath’s Stronghold 24 Wasteland 25 Yavimaya Hollow

When I first started playing EDH, I found deck lists mind boggling.  Hundred card singleton lists are very difficult to comprehend without some framing or explanation about card choices and synergies.  Some folks try to assemble a good stuff type list that just plays a bunch of powerful cards, but this is nearly almost always a sure-fire way to end up with a suboptimal list.  Synergies and card interactions put EDH decks over-the-proverbial-top.  Therefore, you need to identify the most amazing cards that fit together to accomplish your given game plan.

With that disclaimer, it still seems relevant to create lists that collect the most powerful cards.  I love these lists and having discussions about the best cards in a color.  These discussions can help players consider cards they might have missed or may allow a deck builder to double up on effects that fit a deck’s theme or enhance the function.

Back in the day (you know the one), when I started playing EDH.  If followed deck construction advice from community forum members like Zerg (may he rest in peace) and others on various EDH forums.  I would follow Sheldon Menery’s columns and updates on the banned list, and would scour the internets for a reasonable explanation of popular deck lists.  Here are some interesting words of advice from Zerg in his forum post concerning some of the most important card to include in your EDH decks.  His descriptions are brief, but you get the general idea.

“Colorless

• Sensei’s Divining Top – anywhere. Period. Unless your playgroup is excessively annoyed by it.
• Lightning Greaves – for any deck that plans on attacking or has creatures that need to stay alive.
• Journeyer’s Kite – supplies you with lands forever, or until blown up. Mandatory in any nongreen deck.
• Gauntlet of Power and Extraplanar Lens – any monocolored deck. These cards are stupidgood.
• Nevinyrral’s Disk and Oblivion Stone – essential effect in any EDH deck and only available on two cards outside of white.
• Mind’s Eye – one of the best card draw engines in multiplayer, and available to any color.
• Solemn Simulacrum – Just really, really good.
• Sol Ring – Best artifact mana accel in the game.
• Thawing Glaciers – fills the same role as kite, every other turn.
• Maze of Ith – Surprisingly few creatures can get around it, it’s hard to remove (being a land) and fits in every deck.
• Strip Mine – utility nonbasics come with a lot of drawbacks, such as not being not fetchable by most land search cards, not benefitting from gauntlet/lens/etc, and usually not producing colored mana. However, some utility is just too strong to ignore. Same applies to every other land that made a cut to be on this list.

Black

• Yawgmoth’s Will – best card in Magic.
• Necropotence – best card draw spell in EDH.
• Cabal Coffers – Gauntlet of Power #3 in monoblack.
• Volrath’s Stronghold – Many decks would spend an actual card slot on this effect. Stronghold doesn’t even cost you a slot.
• Demonic Tutor &Co. – obvious card is obvious.
• Myojin of Night’s Reach – everyone’s hand goes “bye”. 9000 style points if whoever played it doesn’t activate the ability immediately, passes priority, and you sudden death it.
• Transmute cards – Yes, any card that merely searches for Yawgwin is good enough to make the “best of the best” list.
• Reanimation – one of the key strengths of black. Reanimation is often cheaper, more flexible, and more powerful than that creature you were thinking of adding to your deck.

Blue

• Control Magic &Co. – just like reanimation, it saves you mana, but also serves as removal, albeit usually less flexible than reanimation
• Countermagic –  often underrated in multiplayer because you “can’t counter everything”. The key is to use it to protect your other cards, not try to remove every threat.
• Magus of the Future / Future Sight – absurdity is directly proportional to the amount of mana you have, multiplied by the number of shuffle effects and tripled with Divining Top in play. The only two cards that have the potential to be dumber than Yawgwin.
• Hinder –  the easiest way in the game to say “bye, general!”
• [s]Gifts Ungiven[/s] – combo deck wins (for best results combine with Yawgwin or Eternal Witness in hand).
• Academy Ruins – See Volrath’s Stronghold.

White

• Land Tax and Weathered Wayfarer – these can be as good as green’s land search, but it’s only two cards.
• Sweepers – being able to remove anything and everything at once is white’s main strength. Be sure to include some, this is the only color that has plenty of options. Final Judgment, Hallowed Burial, Austere Command, and Rout, are usually the best.
• Condemn – Right below Hinder.
• Return to Dust – It might be silly to include a random artifact removal spell in this list, but I’ve been owned by this card so many times.
• Mistveil Plains – Probably one of the most underrated cards in the game. Combined with a tutor, you have the ability to fetch anything back from your graveyard. Also searcheable with fetchlands and hoses reanimation targeting your graveyard.

Green

• Eternal Witness – green is the only color with “return any card” effects, which are incredibly strong. Witness is by far the most abuseable of these.
• Far Wanderings – I have no idea why this isn’t in every green deck. Fetching 3 lands for 3 mana is nuts. (Keep in mind that you have threshold for about 80% of the duration of the game).
• Mana Reflection – see Gauntlet of Power.
• Tooth and Nail and Chord of Calling – chances are you have some fat creatures in your deck that you’d like in play. These are the best ways to do that.

Red

• Wheel of Fortune – the only card in red that’s on par with blue and black card draw. It’s damn good, but sadly, it’s the only thing red has.
• Reiterate – redirection/copy effects are great in general, but reiterate is head and shoulders above the rest. Nothing like copying an opponent’s cruel ultimatum. Twice. And still keeping the reiterate. In fact, this card is pretty much the only reason I want to play red.
• Gauntlet of Might – monored red gets an extra gauntlet of power, if you can afford one.
• Insurrection – usually enough to kill one opponent in multiplayer.

Multicolored

• Mirari’s Wake – Mana reflection, but better.
• Cruel Ultimatum – Just reminding you this card exists. If you don’t know what it does, click the link and read it.
• Vindicate – Tie fighters.
• Maelstrom Pulse – Not quite tie fighters.
• Terminate / Mortify / Putrefy – no reason not to have these.
• Debtor’s Knell – You’ll find something ridiculous to do with this every time you play it.

Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion – double strike is potentially very powerful and having it on a land means it’s reusable, doesn’t cost you a card, and wastes no slots in the deck.”

These thoughts do not totally match up with my thinking about EDH deck construction.  Some of the cards I find to be underpowered, too specific, or generally outclassed (e.g. Cruel Ultimatum, Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion, and Journeyer’s Kite).  However, the advice runs fairly consistent and helped shape my early thinking.  Eventually, I made it a goal to form a collection of EDH staples and core cards that would serve as the foundation for my deck construction.  I made this decision some time ago along with the idea that I would snatch up foils of my favorite staples and copies of the dual lands and older cards.  Subsequently, the Legacy format has jumped off and my collection of staples has turned into a nice investment rewarding not only in terms of the playability and fantastic aid in deck construction but also financially.

I would like to share some of the hottest movers on the EDH scene and would emplore those wishing to build a similar style collection to act fast.  Every couple of months the cards seem to take a dramatic leap in cost/value.

Buy Now:  For Fun and Profit

Let’s start with some of the cards that are both going to bowl you over and that might be a little obvious.  They might be apparent, but some folks are still out there with holes in their collections.  These are among the first cards that I would obtain and should always be on the “needed” or “wanted” lists.  At times these cards trade like a second currency, but time has proven them to be a stable investment that offers little risk.  If you are ever done with these cards you can ship them for about what you paid or more.

Dual Lands

You don’t have to play with dual lands to be successful in EDH.  However, they are simply the best lands that you can play with if you are looking to fix colors and diversify your mana-base.  If you need to be in both Blue and Black, then you have some options.  The pimped out choice is Underground Sea.  The runner up is Watery Grave, and somewhere following are cards like Underground River, Sunken Ruins, and tap lands that generate the needed colors. Here is the hitch:  as of March 24, 2010 the most inexpensive Underground Sea on popular retail sites (in near mint condition) will cost about $85.  Twelve months ago, you could have landed them for around $60.  Some of the dual lands have nearly doubled in price.  The lands with “less popular” (read as non-blue) colors have shot up from around $25 to over $40.  In early March, Wizards of the Coast announced that they will never reprint the revised (original) dual lands.  Therefore, they are likely going to continue their rise in price.  Pick these up now.

3^rd Edition/Revised

Badlands                    $40

Bayou                         $50

Plateau                       $40

Savannah                   $40+

Scrubland                   $40

Taiga                           $50

Tropical Island          $60+

Tundra                       $70

Underground Sea      $90

Judge Foils/Promo Foils

The DCI and folks at Wizards of the Coast have had their eye on EDH for a long time.  The format expanded its popularity in the judge community and Aaron Forsythe, head of Magic’s research and development, explained in an interview conducted on Youtube (Elderdragonhighlandr Interview Series) that EDH has been on the mind of developers for some time now.  Evidence pops up when you see a hefty multi-colored legendary general or giant octopus like Lorthos.  Further evidence can be found in the printing of the Judge promo cards released as payment and thanks for judges working at sanctioned events.

If you look over some of the staples listed in the format, you can nearly cross reference some of the most popular cards with the Judge promo list.  Let’s browse a couple of selections:

Promo Versions

Sol Ring                      $50+

Maze of Ith                 $40

Yawgmoth’s Will       $20

Demonic Tutor          $40

Wheel of Fortune      Unreleased (coming soon)

Foil Fetch Lands        $30-60

Aside from these judge foils, there are any number of FNM foils and promotional foils that cover the staple cards in EDH.  Eternal Witness and Necropotence can each be found reasonably.  Basically, any of these foil, promotional staples are desirable for EDH collectors.

From the Vault:  EDH Staples

Another area that Wizards has shown love to the EDH community involves the limited release, From the Vault series.  The first set was dragons and offered foil versions of some of the game’s most desirable foil dragon generals.  My favorite is Nicol Bolas.  However, the second From the Vault release secured foil versions of cards that were either impossible or improbable to find in foil.  Examples include the now banned Gifts Ungiven and the oft used staples of Mystical Tutor and Sensi’s Divining Top.  If you can find these products they are surefire EDH winners.  I keep a set and open a set for play in my decks.  Make sure to check out the upcoming From the Vault: Artifacts.  There are going to be even more EDH staples in that set.

Foreign Black Border and Rare Foils

Some cards cannot be found in foil.  For those cards, many players chase the foreign black border versions or original Alpha/Beta cards.  My dream is to own a complete collection of foreign black border dual lands.  If you are chasing the dream, you will have to be vigilant.  Stores might take a wants list and could notify you if the chase cards come through the doors.  You might happen upon them on eBay, but they are hard to find.  Occasionally, there are EDH staples or great cards that were in very short print like Moat and Mana Drain from Legends and the ever-popular Force of Will.  Those cards are likely going to increase in price and should be eventual additions to your collections.

Finally, folks should take the time to note that some cards are barely found in foil.  Merchant Scroll is a great edition for an EDH deck, but the 8^th edition foil is the only foil printing.  The uncommon is worth about $1 but its foil version is worth $25.  This situation happens occasionally.  Some promo cards are rare (like Swords to Plowshares) or the foil just drives the price.  You might watch for deals on these cards or find them in a foil bin for a great price.

I hope this series has been helpful and informative.  Thanks to the forum posters and folks who chase all of these amazing cards.  The hunt is half of the fun.