Dollar Menu Dynamite, Part 2

For as long as there have been Magic cards worth more than a buck each, people have had to pick and choose what they spend their hard-earned dosh on. Seeing as it is a collectible card game, however, some cards are more desirable than others, and as a result, those cards are generally going to be worth more than others. As the old adage goes, "you get what you pay for." Now, normally that's true when you're picking between the $25 pair of shoes and the $300 pair of shoes. The game of Magic has so many pieces, however, and all of them inevitably subject to format rotation, that it can be harder for this to remain entirely true. Often powerful cards from the past that have been forgotten writ large can end up being quite cheap, giving you a card that punches above its pay grade!

A couple weeks ago I started a new series called "Dollar Menu Dynamite," introducing you to these kinds of cards that you and your play group might be unfamiliar with, but come with tons of play potential. Powerful though they may be, however, any cards suggested in the article can be purchased for one dollar or less (at the time of writing.) Today I have another ten cards nominated - many of them not even Modern-legal, but all of them sure to make a splash in the casual playgroup.

 

Bösium Strip: This is something of an unusual one - it cares about graveyard order. The "Bosom Strip" is essentially a Recoup machine, letting you pay three to play instants or sorceries from your graveyard for pseudo-flashback. Do note, however, that the Strip's ability doesn't target the top card of your graveyard, but essentially gives you free reign for the entire turn: you can keep playing instants and sorceries off the top as long as you have the mana. In that way, this is more like a colourless Past in Flames - especially if you set it up with Fossil Find or a card with Delve beforehand! Bösium Strip can be a potent source of card advantage in the late game, especially for decks with lots of cheap spells that they can play quickly but tend to run out of gas (burn decks, anyone?)

Righteous War: One of the best features of the infamous Sword of Light and Shadow is the Protections it offers: anyone who has run one can attest that that is enough to shut down virtually all targeted creature removal asides from direct damage. How about getting that type of Protection for your entire army? Gold creatures are a little more developed than they were in 1997, with a few iterations of Orzhov block an easy starting point for critters that are both white and black. This can be a potent tool in a deck where all of your creature are both colours, dodging most removal and getting valuable evasion if your opponent is playing similar colours. What if he isn't, though? Painter's Servant comes to the rescue, ensuring all of your creatures have Protection from every card your opponent is running! You can also pull your own tricks with black damage-dealing cards such as Pestilence or Withering Wisps. This is a card with more depth than you'd expect from the average colour-hoser.

Citanul Hierophants: This is a creature with a unique effect - it's the "mana dork" lord, letting all of your creatures tap for green mana! If you can't afford the mighty Gaea's Cradle, this rare from the same set can accomplish similar things. Token strategies can result in massive mana production, so if you funnel that mana into stuff like Supply and Verdeloth the Ancient, you can quickly get a snowball effect of fueling bigger and bigger effects.

Moonring Mirror: There are a number of cards that let you trade in your current hand for a new one, but Moonring Mirror is unusual in that it lets you keep switching between two different hands that are on the go at once. It's slow to get going, but it costs no mana past the initial investment, and protects your cards against discard as you build up a second hand to swap to. Note that the Mirror matches your contributions for any card drawn, not just the one in your draw step. So a casting of Concentrate means three more cards in reserve - but then, so does Brainstorm for only one mana! If you want serious card advantage coming down the pike, combine it with Teferi's Puzzle Box or Sylvan Library to have a huge reserve of cards pile up each turn.

Shard Phoenix: This card turned heads when it dropped in 1997, but it's been mostly forgotten now. That need not be the case, since it brings some very handy abilities to the table! The Phoenix is a flyer that can inherently recur itself, giving it the kind of inevitability a control shell wants in a winning creature. Sure a 2/2 flyer isn't very scary - but infinite 2/2 flyers are, aren't they? In addition to always coming back to attack or block, it can also wipe the board of weenies, including all sorts of utility creatures your opponent might be keeping around that steer clear of combat. It can even tack on some damage after combat to help finish off creatures with larger bodies. The phoenix doesn't work fast, but it's an evasive attacker and board clearer that can keep coming back from removal and countermagic.

Dominating Licid: The licids are notorious for having confusing and finicky mechanics, but play with them for a bit and you'll find they're not as bad as you might think. Licids are capable of some serious trickery, and perhaps none better than the double-blue Dominating Licid. It's essentially Ye Olde Vedalken Shackles, able to steal a creature but still switch to a better one if it shows up. Unlike the Shackles, however, it's deviously difficult to destroy: if your opponent tries to blow up the aura, just change it back to a creature! Creature removal pointed its way? Swap to an enchantment! Opponent tries to destroy the fattie you stole from him? Hey, hop off and grab the next best thing - you'll be happy to take that two-for-zero! You can also block an attacking creature with the Licid, then turn into an aura to remove it from combat, and if you enchant one of your opponent's attacking creatures, that one is removed from combat, too! A single Licid can keep a small army at bay, using their biggest creature as a barrier and dodging removal and combat damage with ease so long as you have mana to spare. This is a potent defensive tool and win condition for any blue control deck. 

Heretic's Punishment: We've all had fun with the classic Erratic Explosion - how would you like a repeatable one that's maybe even less likely to whiff? The Punishment mills you for three cards and then takes the highest mana cost among them - no more getting foiled by some puny elf if you can't stack your deck! If you're planning to dump high-cost cards in your graveyard with this, though... why, that could be the perfect setup for reanimation. Or if you're binning high-cost Eldrazi that shuffle your graveyard back into your library, you could flip the same cards time and again. Heretic's Punishment can keep the board clear while setting up any number of graveyard-based strategies, or just blow your opponent's head off if you flip some expensive enough cards. 

Summoner's Egg: The Egg seems like a decent way to cheat out a huge fatty - play it for four mana, feed it to the sacrifice outlet of your choice and boom, instant Emrakul. You won't always have some huge beater to whisk into the Egg, however - but that need not mean you keep it in the nest. You can play the Egg and imprint a noncreature card as a bluff: it can buy some time if your opponent doesn't want to attack into it, fearing the worst even though you've imprinted a land. Another thing to keep in mind is that the Egg doesn't have Defender, even though it might be natural to assume so. There's no need to remind your opponent of this fact until you've equipped it with a Ogre's Cleaver or Sword of Fire and Ice and start swinging! A careful opponent will be hesitant to kill your rampaging Egg, fearing something much more deadly hiding within. 

Undead Gladiator: The Gladiator is surprisingly versatile, providing two different avenues of play. A 3/1 for three can trade with a decent number of creatures, and then he can return to your hand the next turn for just two mana. Black decks never resent having a discard outlet, however: you can discard some enormous creature to be reanimated, cards with Flashback, Incarnations or even Bridge From Below. This is where the Gladiator's other utility shines: he doesn't even have to pop into play to die off, you can just cycle him to draw something else. Don't like what you drew? Swap it for the Gladiator and cycle him again! He puts creatures in your graveyard and cards in your hand when you need them, and provides long-term card-sifting if you have the breathing room.

Holistic Wisdom: Don't have the right tool for the job? With this classic engine card, you can pay two mana to toss out a card in your hand for any card in the graveyard with the same type. If you thought Tortured Existence was versatile, this is like the same thing for every card in the game! Swap out some cheap utility creature in the lategame to give that big bruiser another go, or just keep exiling some little sorcery to replay a huge draw spell like Tidings, or maybe drop Time Warp turn after turn... essentially, every card you draw is another copy of the best card in your graveyard with the same card type. An engine like this can ensure you always have the right tool for the job once your graveyard is well-stocked.

 

That's another ten cards that can be had for cheap but will really impact the board of most any game. The Standard format often ends up being a "solved" game, with every eligible card being well-understood and analyzed, and anything that seriously contributes to a winning deck being the pricey cards of the day. This is not true once you start considering every card ever made: but if you discover a card you've never seen before, it's just as exciting and unfamiliar as seeing the spoiler for a brand-new card that's just coming out! I hope one or more of the ten cards mentioned here tickles your deck-building fancy... and more importantly, gives you the ammunition you need to crush your friends!