"Feroz, Ulgrotha’s Warden: Birds, Bans, and Bant Stax"

"Feroz, Ulgrotha’s Warden: Birds, Bans, and Bant Stax"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

Feroz, Ulgrotha's Warden was a good person.

He was a wizard, a teacher, and, perhaps most importantly, the husband of Serra.

Yes, that Serra.

The Serra who had her own realm.

The Serra who created angels.

That Serra.

Feroz, as his planeswalker card proclaims, is the Warden of Ulgrotha. He protected the plane from threats such as Baron Sengir, as well as incursions from other planeswalkers. Those incursions eventually became the reason he created Feroz's Ban—at least, that's how the lore tells it.

So, on to the card.

Feroz is a six-mana planeswalker in Bant colors, requiring three generic mana and one each of green, white, and blue. He enters the battlefield with five loyalty counters.

His +2 ability creates two 1/1 blue Bird creature tokens with flying.

These are probably the albatrosses associated with Feroz, and honestly, getting two flying bodies every time you activate the ability isn't a bad way to protect your planeswalker.

But his second ability is the one that really excites me.

It's a 0 ability.

You draw a card, and then you may put a permanent card with mana value 4 or less from your hand directly onto the battlefield.

Yes, you can put lands into play this way.

But that's hardly the most interesting thing you can do with it.

There are so many permanents with mana value four or less that could benefit from being cheated directly onto the battlefield. Creatures, enchantments, artifacts...

Maybe even some Stax pieces.

Boooo.

But let's be honest: if you're playing Bant and your planeswalker is giving you a free permanent every turn, someone is probably going to find a way to make the most annoying permanent possible appear on the battlefield.

And then we get to his -7 ability, which allows you to create Feroz's Ban.

It seems more anti-creature than anti-planeswalker to me, but hey, this is just another Stax piece to add to the collection.

At least it follows one of Feroz's most important beliefs: summoning creatures for battle is immoral.

He apparently believes that so strongly that he's willing to make sure everyone else has a very difficult time doing it.

Birds.

Free permanents.

And a Ban that tells creatures to stay home.

Feroz may have been a good man and a devoted husband to Serra, but as a Commander?

He might be an absolute nightmare to play against.

"Sifa Grent: Blood, Politics, and a Little Bit of Rakdos"

 

"Sifa Grent: Blood, Politics, and a Little Bit of Rakdos"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

I can just see it now.

The smile on the faces of those blood-sucking, Aristocrats-loving players who finally have a planeswalker commander in Rakdos colors, giving them another way to build their favorite blood-soaked sacrifice decks.

And honestly?

I can't blame them.

Sifa Grent originally came from the plane of Grixis. Her spark was ignited when the Demon Malphegor attempted to steal it so he could escape that sliver of a plane.

Because, of course, Grixis was originally just a small piece of Alara.

Sifa was also Dack Fayden's archnemesis in the comic book series.

Rest in peace, Dack.

Oh, and you too, Sifa.

Apparently, this all happened before Sifa eventually met her end at the foot of Vitu-Ghazi on Ravnica.

So what exactly would make Aristocrats players happy about Sifa?

Her static ability, of course.

Whenever a creature dies, a target opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

Bring out the dice, counters, or whatever other recording devices you use, because there is going to be a lot of upticking and downticking going on in games with Sifa.

And notice that it simply says whenever a creature dies.

Let's say each of your three opponents has at least one creature on the battlefield. You then cast Fleshbag Marauder, forcing everyone to sacrifice a creature.

Even Fleshbag Marauder itself ends up in the graveyard.

That's four creatures dying.

Four life lost by your most hated opponent.

Four life gained by you.

Interesting.

Very interesting.

Sifa can also get surprisingly political.

Her +1 ability allows you to goad two creatures at once. That means those creatures can't attack you—or a planeswalker you control—but they can attack everyone else.

Now imagine that you've goaded two enormous creatures on opposing sides of the table. Maybe they're both 8/8s.

Suddenly, you're forcing one player to send their giant creature into another player's giant creature.

They could trade.

They could take each other out.

And if both creatures die, that's two more life lost for an opponent and two more life gained for you.

Hmmmmm.

Protective and political.

I like it.

Then there's the -6 ability, which gives you a form of impulse draw while disrupting everyone else.

Each opponent exiles the top two cards of their library.

Hopefully, you just exiled a piece of the combo they were building.

Or maybe that board wipe they were hoping to draw.

Perhaps you just ruined the plans of the player who has been digging through their deck all game with Sensei's Divining Top.

Hahahaha.

That's not card advantage in the traditional sense, but it is certainly disruption.

And when you combine that disruption with the life-drain engine and the political manipulation from her +1, Sifa starts looking like a very interesting commander.

Card Advantage. Disruption. Life Drain. Politics.

Better still.

While I don't normally play these types of decks, I have to admit that if I eventually decide to build an Aristocrats deck, Sifa Grent will probably be at the top of my list for commander.

I may not normally embrace the blood-sucking lifestyle.

But if Sifa is offering?

I might just make an exception.

"Thomil, the Destroyer: Five Mana for a Lot of Sacrifices"

 

"Thomil, the Destroyer: Five Mana for a Lot of Sacrifices"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

Thomil, the Destroyer has the template of Liliana Vess, but with significantly weaker text than that wonderful black planeswalker.

Honestly, I find Thomil a little ho-hum for his mana cost.

Five mana is a significant investment, although in Magic Christmas Land, you can probably find a way to get him onto the battlefield as early as turn three.

His +2 ability creates a 2/2 black Zombie token. That's certainly useful, especially in a deck that wants creatures around for sacrifice effects.

Then there's his 0 ability, which allows you to sacrifice a creature for three mana.

It's essentially a weaker version of Culling the Weak. You're giving up a creature to generate mana, but instead of getting four black mana, you only get three.

Still, in the right deck, sacrificing creatures can actually be part of the plan.

And then we get to the big one: his ultimate summons a Lord of the Pit token.

A monstrous 7/7 flying, trampling Demon that gets hungry during every upkeep.

And by hungry, I mean you need to sacrifice a creature to it.

If you can't—or don't want to—feed it, Lord of the Pit takes seven life from you instead.

In an EDH game, where everyone starts with 40 life, seven damage doesn't sound like an enormous price to pay.

But you are now on a clock.

Once you summon this Demon, you need to win—or at least be building toward a win—before that recurring seven damage starts eating away at your life total.

Fortunately, anyone playing Thomil is probably going to have plenty of creatures that they don't mind sacrificing. Zombies, token creatures, and creatures that want to go to the graveyard anyway could all make Lord of the Pit considerably easier to manage.

That makes Thomil potentially useful support for mono-black token and sacrifice strategies.

But here's my problem with him.

I feel like Thomil is ultimately a watered-down version of Liliana Vess. Liliana is simply more efficient at doing what I would expect a black planeswalker to do, particularly when it comes to generating Zombies and providing value.

Thomil isn't terrible.

He's just not particularly exciting.

I can see him working in the right sacrifice or token deck, and I'm sure there are players who will find some wonderfully evil combinations with him.

As for me?

I hope I can pick up Thomil cheaply enough to add him to my collection.

But I probably won't be building him.

Five mana is a lot to spend for a planeswalker who asks me to sacrifice so much.

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day — 3 Reasons Why It Worked for Me"

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day — 3 Reasons Why It Worked for Me"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

“Superhero fatigue” has been thrown around as a term ever since the Marvel Cinematic Universe decided, perhaps in all its hubris, to expand far beyond the basics of simply entertaining people.

You could say they started taking things too seriously and simply lost the plot.

You could also say they managed to lose it on multiple levels.

So I went into Spider-Man: Brand New Day with an open mind.

I honestly enjoyed No Way Home, especially seeing three different Spider-Men interact with each other, but I also knew going into this movie that there were probably going to be some sad parts.

So why did it work?

Why did I leave the theater feeling entertained?

I think there are three reasons.

1. You Didn't Need to Do Your Homework

Aside from perhaps watching No Way Home as a refresher, there was no need to finish an entire assignment just to understand what was happening in this movie.

They carried forward the consequences of the previous film and made sure there were enough callbacks to remind you where Peter's story had been.

Even something as simple as the coffee cup from the donut shop works because it connects back to Peter's last encounter with MJ.

You don't need to remember every single MCU project that has come before this one.

You just need to remember Peter Parker.

And honestly, that's refreshing.

2. They Kept It About Spider-Man

Unlike Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, or even Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, where the titular character sometimes feels like they are sharing the spotlight with a much larger story, Brand New Day feels like it is actually about Peter Parker.

The movie focuses on how Peter has been coping with everything that happened in the previous film and how difficult it has been for him to move on.

You feel his loneliness.

And that's particularly interesting because Peter is still surrounded by people who care about him. But the people who loved him most—MJ, Ned, and even Aunt May—are no longer able to be part of his life in the same way.

That's a very different kind of superhero problem.

Peter isn't trying to save the multiverse.

He's trying to figure out how to live with what he's lost.

And sometimes, keeping things personal makes a superhero story much more effective.

3. There Were Funny Moments—But Man, the Action Was There!

There were definitely funny moments, but what really stood out to me was the action.

This has some of the best Spider-Man action sequences I've seen in quite a while.

That sequence involving The Hand was particularly cool, and the movie really takes advantage of just how dynamic Spider-Man can be when he fights.

Web-slinging.

Wall-crawling.

Flipping around.

Using the environment.

Moving in ways that a normal human being simply couldn't.

They really went all-in on what makes Spider-Man's fighting style so much fun to watch.

And then there's the fact that we watched it at the Uptown Tempur Cinema in BGC.

Thanks to my wife for arranging all of that!

My back was relaxed, I had all the snacks I wanted, and I was there with my family.

So maybe I'm giving the movie a little extra credit because the entire experience was great.

But that's also part of going to the movies.

You don't just watch the film.

You experience it.

And for me, Spider-Man: Brand New Day was a great experience.

The movie entertained me, gave me a Spider-Man story that actually felt like a Spider-Man story, and reminded me why I still enjoy sitting in a theater and watching someone swing across New York.

For all the talk about superhero fatigue...

Maybe sometimes we just need to let Spider-Man be Spider-Man.

"Worzel, the Protector: Ten Fairies and a Whole Lot of Loyalty"

"Worzel, the Protector: Ten Fairies and a Whole Lot of Loyalty"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

Worzel, the Protector is a mono-white Commander-eligible planeswalker who makes her appearance in Mystery Booster Commander Edition.

She is the sixth planeswalker I've talked about so far, and I think she can be effective even as part of the 99 rather than necessarily being the commander of the deck.

At four mana, with a cost of 1 colorless and 3 white mana, there is certainly a heavy commitment to white. You're probably going to want to play her in a deck that is heavily invested in white, if not outright mono-white.

Whew. That was a lot of white!

Fortunately, that's not really a problem.

White has no shortage of planeswalkers, so there are plenty of options for building a deck around her.

And at only four mana, Worzel is considerably easier to get onto the battlefield than some of the more expensive planeswalkers I've looked at so far.

Now, on to her abilities.

Her first ability is a 0 ability that creates a 1/1 Cat token. But this isn't just another disposable creature token. The Cat can eventually tap to put a loyalty counter on each planeswalker you control.

Well, well.

A creature worth having around!

Not only does it give you another body on the battlefield, but it can also help get Worzel closer to her ultimate while simultaneously helping every other planeswalker you happen to have in play.

That's a pretty useful little Cat.

Her second ability is a -1 that lets you look at the top six cards of your library and dig for either a planeswalker or a basic Plains.

What you choose depends on what you need at the moment.

Are you behind on lands? Grab the Plains.

Are you setting up your next big play? Find the planeswalker you need.

Everything else goes to the bottom of your library in a random order. It's a simple ability, but being able to look six cards deep for exactly one of two things you are likely to want is pretty useful.

Let there be Plains or planeswalkers!

And then we get to her ultimate: -8 to create ten Scryb Spirit tokens.

Ten 1/1 flying Faeries that are, rather oddly, green.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Green.

Which makes me think that Worzel might have a home beyond mono-white planeswalker decks. She could potentially fit into one of those Trostani/Selesnya token decks as well.

Ten flying creatures represent a potential ten points of damage coming from the air, and suddenly that doesn't look so insignificant.

Especially when you remember what token decks tend to do.

Doubling Season.

Second Harvest.

These decks are already perfectly capable of turning a modest army into an absurdly large one. Add ten flying tokens to the equation and things could get very interesting very quickly.

And because Worzel only costs four mana, getting her onto the battlefield and working toward that ultimate isn't quite the investment it would be with a more expensive planeswalker.

I think Worzel is worth considering for mono-white planeswalker-centered decks, but I also wouldn't be surprised to see her find a home in Selesnya token decks.

A Cat that helps your planeswalkers gain loyalty, a little library digging, and an ultimate that gives you ten flying tokens?

That's a lot of loyalty for one protector.

"Dyfed: The Original Phyrexian Tour Guide"

 "Dyfed: The Original Phyrexian Tour Guide"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

Before the Brothers' War, Dyfed had a chance encounter with Yawgmoth, who at the time was still a Thran physician. Yawgmoth claimed that he wanted to find a paradise for the Thran, and it was Dyfed who ultimately led him to Phyrexia.

Not Mirrodin after it had been converted into a Phyrexian world, but the original Phyrexia—the plane that would eventually become the foundation of Yawgmoth's greatest ambitions.

Dyfed was also instrumental in opening a permanent portal to Phyrexia, allowing Yawgmoth to enter the plane and eventually fuse with its core.

Thanks, Dyfed!

You probably don't really want to know what happened to her afterward. Just know that her fate was about as Phyrexian as you could possibly imagine.

So, on to the card!

Dyfed, the Guiding Hand is another five-mana planeswalker commander, this time in the mono-blue variety.

And this is one I am actually excited about adding to my Atraxa Superfriends EDH deck.

Her +1 ability creates two tapped Powerstone tokens. That's pretty useful for powering out even bigger things, particularly artifacts. More mana is always welcome, especially when your deck is already planning to cast some very expensive toys.

Her second ability is a -X that untaps X target artifacts.

Now this is where things start getting interesting.

Imagine a whole collection of mana rocks waiting to be untapped. Or perhaps an Isochron Scepter with Dramatic Reversal imprinted on it.

There are plenty of possibilities here, and suddenly Dyfed starts looking less like a simple value planeswalker and more like someone who can enable some very explosive turns.

And then we get to the wonderful -6 ultimate.

You get to search your library for an artifact card, put it directly onto the battlefield, and then shuffle your library.

That is a very open-ended ability.

Portal to Phyrexia seems particularly fitting, considering Dyfed's history, but the best choice really depends on what you need at the time.

Mindslaver would certainly be high on the list.

A Blightsteel Colossus is another possibility.

Even something like Planar Bridge could be an interesting choice if you're looking toward the long game.

That's what makes this ultimate particularly appealing. You're not locked into one particular artifact. You get to find the tool that best fits the situation—and you get to put it directly onto the battlefield.

Dyfed is pretty high on my list.

Sorry about what Yawgmoth eventually did to Phyrexia.

But hey...

Thanks for showing him the way!

"Venser, Visionary Traveler: Wait... Isn’t Venser Dead?"

"Venser, Visionary Traveler: Wait... Isn’t Venser Dead?"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

Any Phyrexian worth his salt knows that Venser is dead.

He sacrificed his spark—his very life—to free Karn from the Phyrexians. And one can only imagine what might have happened if Karn had remained the Father of Machines. Would we have lost the war? Would Wizards of the Coast have ever explained why Phyrexian oil could be incredibly deadly one moment and seemingly ineffective the next?

But I digress.

Knowing that Venser is dead merely means that Venser, Visionary Traveler might be a younger version of him—or perhaps an entirely different version from another timeline.

And why does he look so much like Hugh Jackman?

Are they trying to get him to play Venser in some unnamed Planeswalker project?

Again, I am getting distracted.

I checked my collection binder, and there have actually been quite a few planeswalker versions of Venser over the years. The last one we saw was essentially a corrupted version of his own corpse. So perhaps the fact that Venser keeps showing up in different forms shouldn't surprise me anymore.

Still, here we are.

This five-mana planeswalker in Azorius colors looks like a mid-to-late-game advantage engine. However, if you've ever played with these particular colors, you know that Azorius isn't exactly known for attacking with hordes of creatures. They would much rather lock everything down until you eventually rage-quit.

So the static ability on this Venser is particularly interesting because it seems to encourage you to play with creatures that have been Suspended, are sitting in Exile, or have somehow made their way into your graveyard. Foretell also fits the bill.

Non-token creatures entering the battlefield with two additional +1/+1 counters is certainly useful.

But creatures coming out of Exile or Suspension bigger than when they went in?

That doesn't exactly scream Azorius to me.

His first ability, a +1, allows you to bounce a target permanent you control and return it at the beginning of the next end step under its owner's control.

Now this sounds like Azorius.

You can temporarily remove one of your own permanents and then take advantage of either its leave-the-battlefield or enter-the-battlefield ability when it returns. There are plenty of ways to turn what looks like a simple defensive trick into additional value.

And then there's the -2 ability, which lets you return up to one target nonland permanent that a player controls to its owner's hand.

That's a pretty useful bit of disruption when an opponent is pulling ahead with powerful permanents. Of course, there's always the downside that you're potentially helping them reuse something with a particularly nasty enters-the-battlefield ability.

Still, that's the sort of interaction you expect from an Azorius planeswalker.

At five mana, though, Venser feels a little underwhelming.

Nothing here immediately makes me think, "I absolutely need this card." The abilities are useful, the synergies are there, and there are definitely decks that can take advantage of what he offers.

But perhaps that's the point.

Having Venser as a commander might be exactly what some Azorius player is looking for right now—a planeswalker who rewards patience, careful sequencing, and making the most out of creatures that keep leaving and returning to the battlefield.

And considering how many times Venser has already shown up after supposedly being gone for good...

Maybe we should just stop asking whether he's dead.

He'll probably be back anyway.