Magic's Forgotten Sixth Edition Gems
by Boldo
In every Magic set there are cards which, for one reason or another, end up being forgotten. The basic set is perhaps the most overlooked, perhaps because few players buy it and thus are not sure what is in it or perhaps because many players do not own these cards. What ever the reason, there are a lot of good Type II playable cards which are not being played, so perhaps we should be reminded of what we are missing.
Ankh of Mishra almost always heads my lists for underused cards as, in most fast decks, it really puts the hurting on a slower deck or a control deck without much down side. It is particularly good in red or black where a few land are all you need and there is a lot of creature kill, but it also works fine in the green stompy type decks which are so popular today in Type II.
Is it just me or does Meekstone crush the green stompy decks, black skirge, black beefy creatures, black control, and the blue control decks? Is it just good against Masticore? Or am I unsure of basic Magic dynamics?
Are Nightmare, Derelor, Necrosavant, and Fallen Angel perfect big Black nasties...all with great size and some with evasion. Blue control is becoming very popular again with cool cards like Treachery, but why is Desertion not played when it steals a creature and can not be disenchanted? Recall, Diminishing Returns, and Zur’s Wierding are also very tournament playable cards which have not shown up in decks.
With creatures being more popular, does anyone remember that Maro is in the set? It is, after all, as big as your hand. If smaller cheaper creatures are wanted, what about the Elvish Archer. Slap on a Rancor and you're ready for even more hurting. Green has also had problems with Black killing all their creatures but Dense Foliage would fix that. Finally, there is this little gem, Call of the Wild, which just puts creatures into play and is not a bad combo with Soothsaying or Brainstorm.
Jokulhaups requires quite a bit of play skill in its timing but Reckless Assault and Final Fortune are both game winners in a red deck and Shatterstorm is the best artifact hoser yet.
Finally, to kill creatures is good but to gain life with it is better. How about Exile? If multiple creatures are getting you down try Wrath of God as it kills all creatures, regeneration or not. If you are really adventurous try a little Armageddon. It used to be a good card just like all the rest of these.
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