Keeping My Eye On

I really like reusable effects in the commander format. Who doesn't? But I was noticing how many times I go through a deckbuilding exercise and cut reusable cards that I like to slot in cards that I can only use once.

This habit comes from years of building decks for tournament formats, cutting the mana costs to speed up the clock. The result is drawing and playing nearly inconsequential cards on turn 9 in a commander game.

So, here's a few cards I've been keeping my eye on to go along with Temporal Aperture, Mimic Vat, Proteus Staff, Scroll Rack, and the equipment cards.

Predator, Flagship

I can use it to hand out flying to my own creatures or even to an opponent's creatures that are headed somewhere else. Plus, it kills flyers. And if push comes to shove, for 7 mana it can make a creature fly and then shoot it out of the sky. Expensive, but colorless and reusable creature kill with some tech on the side.


Darksteel Pendant

Along with Sensei's Divining Top, this is a low-cost way to smooth draws. Plus, it protects itself by being indestructible. Handy. The activation cost is cheap, so it can help hit land drops early and then push the land draws away later in the game. I've been looking for ways to duplicate the library manipulation "feel" of blue, but while staying mono-black.














Slate of Ancestry and Sorcerer's Strongbox

I haven't actually played with this card yet, but it looks like a very "demon" way to draw. Do I want to keep what I've got, or go for what's in the box? I often have three or four creatures out, so this could be a good way to refill a failing hand or to refresh and hope for what I need. Plus, it can drop things in the yard for sweet, sweet reanimation. Sorcerer's Strongbox gives me an excuse to flip coins, but is probably not worth running over Dreamstone Hedron.




And to protect them all...

Guardian Beast

Not the cheapest card when it comes to actual cost, I ran across this while looking for ways to not get my ass handed to me by Aura Shards. Take that! Aura Shards shuts me down something fierce and mono-black doesn't have many ways to deal with enchantments directly. This guy at least buys me some time to use my artifacts until they find removal for him.

Guardian Beast
Creature — Beast 2/4, 3B (4)

As long as Guardian Beast is untapped, noncreature artifacts you control can't be enchanted, they're indestructible, and other players can't gain control of them. This effect doesn't remove Auras already attached to those artifacts.