I think there are a few lists that would find Remand acceptable. Any tempo-based deck is going to like pushing back without card disadvantage. There's also some interesting political angles with this card (along with Delay, or Ertai's Meddling). It's not truly an answer, and other players are made aware that a colossal threat is still pending; if you Remand a huge Genesis Wave or Primal Surge, other players know they have (maybe) a turn to leverage their own threats against the offending player.

Currently, I play Remand in Isperia the Inscrutable. The information there is rather handy, and I can usually tutor an answer in the form of a creature with flying, so the non-answer part of it usually doesn't matter.

Have we talked about Rite of Belzenlok yet?

Pretty much any good Cleric commander would suffice. Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim would let you sacrifice the demon for life gain. Clerics also go very well with enchantment-based decks.

Next: Golden Guardian.

Like most cards that generate tokens, Brudiclad is on the table here. But I feel like that answer has been used too much. Does anyone have a better one?

I think this card is *so* bad; it's not surprising that we haven't had a confident answer in two weeks. So much mana for vanilla 4/4s, even without considering how you're going to flip it (i.e. with what creature)...

All that in mind, I think it could possibly, maybe, sorta have a home in Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer. The reason I say this is that it could be made to fight anything, and as long as you don't mind losing the target, Slobad is just as happy to chuck it once the ability has resolved. Another possibility is Daretti, who can just Trash for Treasure it into something else once it's done fighting whatever you fought with; the only concern I have is that you will probably have to activate and table Daretti in the same turn, which is going to be 6-8+ mana.

So, Slobad is probably the most likely candidate to get it rolling, but what does Gold-Forge Garrison do for Slobad? Well. I guess it could be a wincon. Slobad can sacrifice half the golems to save the other half in the event of a board wipe, etc. Or, other important pieces. Or, perhaps just with Darksteel Forge? There's a certain inevitability if there isn't land hate for it.

Speaking of terrible cards, I have a soft spot for Personal Incarnation. It was one of the first magic cards I had ever seen, and I still think it's sweet (even though that 'lose-half-your-life-for-a-terror' is objectively awful).

Can I be playing for ante so I can make it into a copy of Tempest Efreet/Timmerian Fiends and transfer ownership of it to an opponent, then reanimate it?

haha!! I came back to this thread JUST to use Personal Incarnation next!

I have a Life Swap deck in mind and PI is for sure going in. You could be a jerk and put Pariah on it and stall the game

So naturally you had to pick a much worse card. Well, I think I'll answer Firesong and Sunspeaker. Damage-based sweepers gain you so much life that you can afford to redirect damage to yourself to keep it alive, and risk losing half your life. Basically any indestructible creature seems better, but at least it's on-curve, unlike most of them.


The stalling would mostly consist of trying to figure out how it works. Each replacement effect can only apply to an event once, so I think it's like this: Damage that would be dealt to you is dealt to PI unless you activate its ability in advance. If you do, that much damage is redirected back to you. But if damage would be dealt to PI it's more complicated, and depends on the order you apply the effects. Once you've applied some of the PI effects, Pariah applies to them, and (maybe?) now you can apply the remaining PI effects to the already Pariah-ed damage so it actually is redirected to you, or to the other damage. So you can redirect up to half the number of activations, rounded down, to yourself. And if you activate more times than the amount of damage, you must redirect at least the excess to yourself.

Next up: a card I'm considering for a deck, Lifespark Spellbomb.

Oh, of course; the terribleness is a bar we ought to limbo under.

And as a matter of course, you pick a godawful card as well.



My first instinct is Glissa, the Traitor because it draws easily and has some marginal utility. As for what's interesting that you can do with it...

I remember there was a mill exercise on MTGsalvation years ago to mill your opponent out with the least number of cards and fewest turns. It assumed that your opponent was 99 mountain Ashling. My solution was to animate a land (my solution used Animate Land), and then play Eradicate. Obviously, the fewer colours they have, the more exciting this is, but it it's at least a little mean.

But, yeah. Glissa, because it's some trivial draw you can recur. I'm not really sure it does much for any general. I'm curious what you're going to do with it in your own deck; care to share?

Next up: Priest of Forgotten Gods; not Savra or Endrek (edit: or Shirei; I feel like there are a bunch of generals that are 'gimmes' and I don't find much value when someone trots out the easiest answer).

I run this in my Izoni deck, I have been thinking of making a Judith Priest deck (I crack myself up...)

What about Surprise Deployment?

I'm working on Tatyova pauper. It enables an infinite mana combo with Freed from the Real and a way to make a land tap for more mana. I'm not sure how many slots I want to dedicate to this combo though. Creatures that untap lands may be more relevant by themselves, but have to survive a turn cycle, and Spellbomb can be tutored by Dizzy Spell or Trinket Mage.

DAAAAAMN YOUUUUUUUUU!!!!


Obviously can't be a mono-white deck. Gains value from ETB effects. I'm thinking something like Roon of the Hidden Realm.

How about Amplifire?

I think Brion Stoutarm is probably the deck that is going to get the most mileage out of a big/big with no evasion. You are probably also running all of the cards that turn it into a stupid/stupid like Malignus and Serra Avatar.

(I have already killed someone on turn 5 revealing Malignus to this guy in my elemental tribal)

Next Up:
Awaken the Erstwhile

I'd play this in The Haunt of Hightower. You're already playing a discard game so they won't have many cards (and so won't get as many zombies), and the cards they do have turn into +1/+1 counters on Haunt. You're also definitely playing Waste Not so you might create extra zombies, get mana for another spell, and/or draw cards. I suggest also playing Dark Deal, and consider Phyrexian Tower and Priest of Forgotten Gods if you think you'll have enough creatures and zombies going on in your game plan.

One with the Machine

That's pretty open-ended... I guess Saheeli the Gifted? She has the necessary artifact focus and is also able to power out expensive stuff relatively early with her second ability.

Next up: Biogenic Ooze

I think this one is an obvious Experiment Kraj Simic tribal. With Arcane Adaptation and innumerable Simic activated abilities.

Next card: Synod Sanctum