Dollar Menu Dynamite, Part 6

Another day, another dollar. Er, this is true if "day" is the shorthand way you refer to powerful and unusual cards that take your deck design to a whole new level. Wait, you don't? Huh. Regardless, I'm sure you know the drill by now - I've pulled together ten unusual, underplayed cards that have something to offer even a relatively competitive deck but cost one dollar at most. Think of your favourite builds, peruse the list as follows and keep an eye out for anything that might improve or at least spice up your games!

Vodalian Illusionist: It can be hard to dodge every kind of removal. Hexproof stops targeted spells but is no good against a boardwipe. Indestructibility withstands mass removal but can't help when it's being exiled. The Illusionist here, however, can help a creature against any of these and more by invoking the ancient art of Phasing. Phase out to dodge kill spells, boardwipes, after chump blocking - basically to get out of jail free versus any imaginable threat. You even get to keep any local enchantments and counters on the targeted creature, preventing a Zur or Bruna build from giving itself card disadvantage. Since creatures phase in on their controller's untap step, you can also get greedy with "each upkeep" abilities like on Braids, Conjurer Adept by phasing her out before anyone else can benefit. Phasing is especially broken with "at end of turn" triggers like on creatures with Unearth or ones brought back by Puppeteer Clique. If the creature is phased out when the end of the turn rolls around, the trigger will go off harmlessly and the creature will phase in for a lifetime of service on your next turn. Of course, the Illusionist isn't limited to only targeting your guys. Remove an opposing attacker or blocker from the equation, phase out an enemy lord to mess with combat math, or tie up an opposing piece of equipment by removing its host creature, and the equipment with it, for the turn. Use the Illusionist on your opponent's turn then again on your turn and you can take TWO blockers out of the picture. All this for two measly mana apiece!

Haunting Wind: Old and almost certainly unfamiliar to any opponent you play with, the Wind is happy to punish a foe who leans too heavily on mana rocks. Any artifact that is used to draw cards or make mana will slowly whittle its owner's life down, including even the humble Treasure token. Artifact creatures aren't safe either, dinging their controller every time they attack. If you really want to ruin the day of everyone else at the table, follow it up with a Mycosynth Lattice!

Remembrance: White decks can struggle with maintaining a steady flow of cards in hand, and creature-based strategies can falter under mass removal. Solve both problems at once with this four-mana insurance policy. Anytime one of your creatures bites the dust, you can immediately fetch an identical replacement to put in your hand. Undoing the card parity of removal spells and buying time when you chump block is swell, but there's no reason you can't purposefully ditch some critters for a bit of insurance fraud. Evoke creatures such as Mulldrifter or Shriekmaw, as well as those with Echo, can cheaply use their comes-into-play abilities and immediately load another in your hand. Any creature that sacrifices itself for an ability can now easily have encore performances, as well as any nice comes-into-play ability so long as you pair it with a good sacrifice outlet. But is turning every one of your creatures into four creatures not good enough? Alongside any critter that shuffles itself back upon death, such as Avenging Angel, Alabaster Dragon or Purity, Remembrance can immediately stick them right back into your hand - how's that for card advantage! Is the list of creatures that reshuffle themselves a little too thin? Well, combine Remembrance with Wheel of Sun and Moon or Mistveil Plains and suddenly every one of your creatures that die immediately go right back to your hand. Enduring Renewal, eat your heart out! But what if simply putting the next creature into your hand is too slow? Thrown in a Deathrender and the successor can immediately show up to inherit the blade, meaning any slain creature is automatically replaced on the board. Good luck beating that resilience.

Helm of Possession: It can be hard to always have the best creature in play, especially if you're building on a budget. So if your opponent ever has the top dog around... just steal it! This 4-mana artifact from Tempest is colorless (letting it go into green or white decks that normally couldn't dream of stealing creatures,) lasts indefinitely and is pretty cheap to activate. The main problem is that you need to funnel a creature into it, but trading in your saproling token or Perilous Myr for your opponent's dragon isn't too hard a pill to swallow. Of course, if you'd rather not turf your own hard-earned creatures, the Helm combos with other, temporary forms of theft, fittingly enough. Borrow a creature "temporarily," then use the Helm to trade it for a more permanent prize before it's due back. Another easy thing to overlook is that the Helm can be used at instant speed, making it an excellent deterrent. Chump blockers can be traded in for their aggressor, and any untapped creature on the board is fair game for you to block with, meaning the lurking threat of the Helm can often make opponents look elsewhere in a multiplayer game. And if something better ever comes along? Hey, you can just let the Helm untap and grab that instead!

Song of Blood: With a little luck, Purraj's jaunty tune can give your entire army as much as +4/+0 for a measly two mana. When each goblin token is swinging for five damage, only one or two should need to get through to finish a wounded foe off! Of course, you aren't always guaranteed to mill off four creature cards, so you might need a little setup to get that game-ending swing. Goblin Recruiter and Dwarven Recruiter can both easily line up four scapegoats to motivate the rest of your army if you're piloting a tribal deck. With a splash of black, Footbottom Feast can repurpose the bodies of the fallen. Even if you aren't getting optimal numbers, Song of Blood provides a self-mill effect in red, something which is highly unusual. Stock up your graveyard for reanimation, draw closer to Threshold, dump a copy of Anger, or do any number of handy little tricks without having to ditch anything from your hand.

Fade Away: Blue isn't exactly known for its creature-kill, but this three-mana common will reliably wipe out entire swaths of them. The effect is symmetrical, so it is best in creature-light decks, but since you're the only one that sees it coming, it's easy to simply wait until your opponent taps out and then put him in a sticky situation. More competitive builds will try to curve out every turn, tapping all of their mana for some kind of advantage, but you can also help put your foe in a tight spot by combining Fade Away with mana-taxing effects such as Pendrell Mists, Winter Orb and Exhaustion. Want to really make him squirm? Splash red for Price of Glory and/or Burning Sands and your opponent could be left with nothing!

One With Nature: If you can get even a single trigger off this one-mana enchantment, it's a half-cost Rampant Growth that already paid for itself. Anything past that is flat-out excellent value for your tiny investment! One With Nature is best in evasion-focused creature-based decks, such as ones piloting Invisible Stalker or lots of flyers. What might not have occurred to you is that it's still profitable even on an opponent's creature. Stick it on his first-turn critter and every time it hits you, you get to ramp. Either he's deterred - which is creature removal for one mana in green, not something you see every day - or he quickly ramps you into your late game, where your opponent's early creature won't matter anymore.

Urborg Justice: Grave Pact has been making waves for a while now as a nearly foolproof way for a creature-based black deck to deal with opposing threats, even through hexproof or indestructibility. Urborg Justice is a budget option that only works once, but it's a steal at two mana and can catch your opponent by surprise thanks to its instant speed. Allow your dearly departed chump blockers to get their revenge from beyond the grave, or purposefully set up a massacre by feeding a swathe of tokens to the likes of, say, a Phyrexian Ghoul that's happy to hear your opponent is about to be without blockers.

Mogg Infestation: Don't feel like cranking out nine mana for a Plague Wind? This five-mana red spell is a cheap one-sided board wipe, swapping out your foe's army for a bunch of measly 1/1 tokens. Your own creatures should be able to walk all over them, but if even that feels too generous, you can pair it with Aether Flash, Goblin Sharpshooter or Leyline of the Void to nix any resulting tokens. Of course, if you have a number of low-value creatures kicking around, you can always play the Infestation on yourself to double the size of your army. Follow it up with a Goblin War Strike, Goblin Bombardment or even another Mogg Infestation and your opponent will be wishing you had played it on him.

Bottled Cloister: Still looking for reliable card draw outside of blue or black? You might remember Grafted Skullcap from a previous installment; this forgotten rare from Ravnica also gets you another card each turn in exchange for your hand - albeit only temporarily. Your hand is off-limits on your opponent's turns, meaning instants are a no-go, but a creature- and sorcery-heavy deck could happily use the extra card. Besides, why not capitalize on the drawback? The Cloister leaves you virtually immune to discard effects, and it combos perfectly with cards that care about a small hand size: Null Brooch is a free Negate every turn, and Ensnaring Bridge holds off even the smallest attackers while still letting your creatures swing on your own turn. Just watch out if the Cloister gets blown up - any cards it's currently storing are gone for good.

Another article, another attempt to find a clever way to wrap it up. If you've got a ten-spot to your name, though, let the cards do the talking instead - any one of these should make a splash in future games without breaking the bank. The only thing you've got to worry about is if your opponents found this article first! One other guy picking these cards up probably won't drive their price up or anything, but they're nasty enough that you don't want to find yourself on the receiving end of them if you can help it.