Weekly Recs - 07/29/24

Get these powerful staples before they creep back up in price!

Into the Flood Maw

1 year ago - N/A

Today: $0.27

Chain of Vapor is a staple in cEDH decks because it is a great piece of removal. You play it to bounce a stax piece before your turn, or maybe just their Rhystic Study, so you can maximize actions on your turn. Into the Flood Maw is just a slightly worse version. In more casual blue decks, blue's interaction revolves around counterspells and not so much being able to get rid of Planewalkers, enchantments, or artifacts already on the board. Being able to bounce ANY nonland permanent is huge. I'd expect this uncommon to go up in price depending upon how impactful giving your opponent a 1/1 is, but I'd wager it is definitely worth the upside.

Types of decks to put it in

• High powered blue decks

Transmutation Font

1 year ago - N/A

Today: $3.86

When Transmutation Font was spoiled, I knew it was going to go into my Gyome, Master Chef deck just based on the first ability alone. When paired with Academy Manufactor, you'll have plenty of differently named tokens, to sacrifice, to cheat into play a game winning artifact like Bolas' Citadel. Being able to create a Blood, Clue, or Food each turn (maybe more if you can untap Transmutation Font) is extremely synergistic with any decks where you primarily create these types of tokens.

The second ability is a worse Kuldotha Forgemaster. Would I run Transmutation Font over it? Probably not, unless I also cared about making Blood, Clue, or Food Tokens. Even so, it's cheaper than Kuldotha Forgemaster and has the benefit of creating the artifacts that you can feed into its own ability.

Types of decks to put it in

• Food/Clue/Blood token decks
• Artifacts

Grand Abolisher

1 year ago - $19.66

Today: $4.92

Grand Abolisher more or less reads "stops all of your opponents from stopping you from winning this turn." It is a great card that has come way down in price due to recent reprints. It is always good to have one of these lying around in your collection.

Types of decks to put it in

• Stax
• Any deck where plan on winning in one big turn

Necropotence

1 year ago - $23.35

Today: $9.60

Is Necropotence the best black card draw spell? I sure think so. Combine Necropotence with something like Reliquary Tower to gives yourself unlimited card draw. It may be hard to fit into multicolored decks with black due to its triple black pips requirement, however. But if you can, you will be able to craft the perfect 7 cards, in your hand, every turn.

Types of decks to put it in

• Mono black decks that do NOT have self-discard synergies

Howling Mine

1 year ago - $2.35

Today: $1.86

For just two mana, you can draw an extra card each, admittedly with the downside of giving your opponents extra cards. Where Howling Mine shines is as a cheap mana value draw spell, that fits great into group hug decks, where you want your opponents to draw extra cards, and punishes them for doing so. Nekusar, the Mindrazer and Xyris, the Writhing Storm see Howling Mine as a great way to advance your gameplan, whether its making your opponents take extra damage or creating lots of snakes.

Types of decks to put it in

• Group hug
• Wheel/draw

End step

What all of the cards, not including Into the Flood Maw, have in common is that they were recently printed as parts of "bonus" sheets in regular draft (or play) booster packs. I wanted to highlight them because these bonus sheets bring the cost way down for EDH staples like Necropotence, Howling Mine, and Grand Abolisher. For brand new cards like Transmutation Font, the bonus sheets actually can end up being a negative due to their limited supply, so I would suggest picking them up a few months after release when hype has died down and the market likely has max supply. If none of these particular cards are speaking to you, check out the rest of the bonus sheets to see if there is anything else worth picking up, because now's the time!