The Best Commander Cards From... Onslaught
Welcome back to The Best Commander Cards From..., a series looking at the most powerful Commander cards from across Magic: The Gathering's rich thirty-year-long history. Today's focus is Onslaught, the twenty-seventh expansion set, which was released in October of 2002 and is the first set in the Onslaught block.
Onslaught Lore
In Onslaught, we check back in on the Cabal, Kamahl, Jeska, and the Mirari. The Cabal has turned Jeska into a monster, Kamahl has become a druid, and the Mirari that everyone fought over is... still doing weird magic stuff. While all this is happening, some guy named Ixidor discovers that he can warp reality with his mind. As you might have expected, there's a book about this, and yes, it's also called Onslaught.
Onslaught Mechanics
If you're a fan of cycling, you're in luck, since it makes a return here. Morph was introduced in Onslaught, and evidently it caught on pretty well. Additionally, fear was given a keyword rather than just being written out like it was before. Finally, there's a number of unnamed mechanics and featured themes, including the Gustcloak ability seen on cards like Gustcloak Runner. We'll cover anything important as it comes up, so let's get right into the cards!
Akroma's Vengeance
You might have seen Akroma's Vengeance in a preconstructed deck at some point, and you shouldn't be surprised to see it there. Cycling is a perfect ability on a board wipe, and since it conveniently ignores planeswalkers, it's even better for planeswalker decks. With the printing of cheaper and more selective board wipes, Akroma's Vengeance has fallen from favor a bit, but it's still a classic.
Astral Slide
You don't know how powerful Astral Slide is until you've watched it bust a game wide open. Cycling is already a strong ability, so adding extra value on top is pretty sweet in certain decks. Since cycling is a very popular mechanic, you can expect Astral Slide to get incrementally better over time.
Battlefield Medic
Sure, Battlefield Medic is significantly less impactful than, say, Mother of Runes or Giver of Runes. That said, getting to save a creature from certain death during combat is still strong, and I'd expect any Cleric deck to at least consider this. As a bonus, it can target opposing creatures, so use those table politics to your advantage!
Gustcloak Savior
Unlike most of the other Gustcloak creatures, like Gustcloak Harrier, Gustcloak Savior grants its ability to all of your creatures. Combine that with its relatively affordable flying body and you're on the right track to make any attack a free one. Keep in mind that this ability only works if your creatures are blocked, so it's very different from vigilance.
Weathered Wayfarer
Fetching out lands is a very strong ability, and Weathered Wayfarer doesn't ask very much of you to do it. These days, if you're playing against a Simic deck, you can probably activate this every turn. Of course, you can probably still only play one land each turn, so you might consider a discard outlet to turn those extra lands into something better.
Annex
I toyed with having the entire blurb about Annex just be a bunch of laugh emojis, but here we are. A Control Magic that hits lands is wild, and I can't imagine how much salt a card like this inspires. Play this if you want to be the unapologetic villain at the table.
Arcanis the Omnipotent
The upside of drawing three extra cards each turn has kept Arcanis the Omnipotent relevant in the format despite the downside of usually having to untap with a relatively fragile creature to do so. I've personally seen this lad combo off more times than I can count, so don't be dissuaded by the high mana cost.
Blatant Thievery
While you could spend an additional two mana on Expropriate, Blatant Thievery is still perfectly serviceable and extremely strong. Sometimes you're just taking a commander or land, but I've cobbled together enough combos with this card to know that it's well worth the mana.
Chain of Vapor
I almost overlooked Chain of Vapor before remembering how often it finds its way into competitive decks. Sometimes you might sacrifice a bunch of your own lands to bounce mana-positive rocks, like Sol Ring and Mana Crypt. Other times, you might interact with a problematic permanent that an opponent controls. In both cases, it's quite flexible.
Future Sight
Not to be confused with the set, Future Sight, or the novel, Future Sight, this card is the value engine that dominated games long before the advent of Bolas's Citadel. Some of you combo players might turn up your nose at the idea of actually having to pay mana for your spells, but I still think Future Sight is pretty cool.
Trade Secrets (Banned)
This card is banned, and for good reason. Imagine if every blue deck had access to a three mana card that let them and one other player draw basically their entire library while everyone else sits there and watches. That's what Trade Secrets would do, and I don't think most of us want two players at the table to have a borderline insurmountable advantage because of it.
Wheel and Deal
You already know where Wheel and Deal is going. Nekusar, the Mindrazer, that's right! Perhaps someday we'll get a commander that cares more about wheels, but in the meantime, there is no real substitute for Nekusar. While Wheel and Deal doesn't deal you a wheel, you could consider ruining your opponents' hands... a real steal.
Cover of Darkness
A wide variety of kindred decks, from Assassins to Ninjas and more, can make use of Cover of Darkness. In spite of how common multicolor decks are these days, you can almost certainly find an opponent to freely swing at if your creatures have fear.
Doomed Necromancer
A Reanimate on an installment plan, Doomed Necromancer is a very nice way to cheat in an overcosted creature. Since there are no timing restrictions, you can easily discard a card and activate your Necromancer to give your opponents a nasty surprise. It's a remarkably elegant and simple design.
Oversold Cemetery
Dedicated graveyard-themed decks will rarely have a shortage of creatures in the graveyard. With that in mind, Oversold Cemetery is a phenomenal way to rebuy your expired resources. Granted, you do need to have this return at least two creatures to really feel like you got good value, but it only gets better with each passing turn.
Patriarch's Bidding
You might fool yourself into thinking you get a good deal if your opponents cast this; you would usually be wrong. Sure, you get back your random value creature, but they get back an army of synergistic beaters, lords, and more. If your opponent is playing Dragons, be very afraid.
Syphon Mind
At the end of this exchange, you'll have a lot of extra resources and your opponents will have fewer. That's a pretty good exchange, but be warned that, in my experience, this card tends to draw a lot of ire from the table. Even with how much extra card draw most decks are packing, a lot of people really don't like forced discard.
Aggravated Assault
You'll usually see Aggravated Assault alongside cards like Savage Ventmaw or Ancient Copper Dragon. Really, anything that is vaguely evasive and capable of making enough mana to activate Aggravated Assault can often be enough. Extra combats are very strong, folks.
Goblin Sharpshooter
Strap a Basilisk Collar to this gobbo and you've got a machine gun of death. Otherwise, you're kinda just picking off every one-toughness creature unless you have a way to pump up that damage. As you might expect, damage-doublers and similar cards are also quite good with Goblin Sharpshooter.
Gratuitous Violence
Speaking of damage-doublers, here's one now! Dictate of the Twin Gods affects all sources of damage, regardless of whether or not they're from creatures, but it also affects all players evenly. Gratuitous Violence offers you a bit less versatility in return for not having you take double damage back.
Insurrection
By the time you can cast Insurrection, it's often enough to win you the game. Even if you can't take out every other player, you can probably get rid of the biggest threat, and that can buy you valuable time. Of course, you'll need to play this at tables where there are lots of creatures, so watch out for spellsinger decks!
Mana Echoes
Famous for going infinite with a wide variety of cards, Mana Echoes doesn't ask much of you in return. Even if you aren't going infinite, most kindred decks can still make great use of this mana. However, you'll still most often see this with cards like Sliver Queen.
Skirk Prospector
I'm trying not to cover every single kindred staple in the set since there's way too many type-specific playables to cover them all, but Skirk Prospector is about ubiquitous as a card can get in Goblin decks. Invariably, Goblin decks find a way to flood the board with a bunch of Goblins, and Skirk Prospector is a perfect way to get a rebate on all the mana you've spent.
Biorhythm (Banned)
You may be wondering why an expensive card like this would get banned. Consider a board where you have six creatures in play before dropping a Craterhoof Behemoth. You'll probably be able to beat at least one player with that! Now consider the same situation, but you played Biorhythm instead. Now instead of probably being able to beat one player, you put everyone else to anywhere between zero and five life.
Enchantress's Presence
This classic piece of the enchantress deck got its start here in Onslaught, and although we've had quite a few other pieces see print over the years, Enchantress's Presence is still one of the popular ones. No matter which direction you're going with enchantments, draw engines are quite powerful.
Explosive Vegetation
After all these years, there's almost nothing that's deposed Explosive Vegetation from its place high above most of the other ramp cards. It's seen reprints, a couple of alternatives, like Circuitous Route, but it's still included alongside most of those. If you're going big, Explosive Vegetation is almost certainly on your radar.
Krosan Tusker
Older Commander players might recognize Krosan Tusker as a card that saw print in several preconstructed decks. Unfortunately, the years haven't been kind to creatures without game-warping abilities, so Krosan Tusker has dropped dramatically in popularity. That said, cycling decks and some graveyard decks still like it.
Overwhelming Instinct
There are a handful of draw engines in other colors that rely on attacking or connecting with creatures, and three is a big number, but Overwhelming Instinct is only a little bit harder to use than a card like Chivalric Alliance. I'm routinely trying to attack with at least three creatures in my own Selesnya deck, so I think it's worth trying out.
Tempting Wurm
Have you ever been tempted by the Wurm? I've tried all sorts of ways to get this big guy into play under the control of an opponent, but the best way is The Beamtown Bullies. Some brave souls may choose to just play this to cause chaos. It's me, I'm the brave soul.
The Cycling Lands
To this day I adamantly maintain that all of these are fantastic inclusions in almost any deck. The added utility of being able to cycle a land away if you don't need it is well worth the penalty of the land coming in tapped. Considering most cycling costs are two mana, one mana is a steal.
The Ally-Color Fetchlands
Fetchlands are format juggernauts at this point. Between the Ravnica shocklands, like Breeding Pool, the original duals, like Tropical Island, and the tri-lands, like Raffine's Tower from Streets of New Capenna and Ikoria, the fetchlands aren't going anywhere anytime soon. The only real downsides are cost and the time you'll spend shuffling your deck.
The Kindred-Matters Lands
The only real connective tissue between these lands is that they all come in untapped, tap for colorless mana, and care about a specific creature type. Wirewood Lodge and Starlit Sanctum are my favorites, but they all have at least a small degree of utility, and that's cool.
Grand Coliseum
Five-color decks and commanders that care about you taking damage will love Grand Coliseum, and it's easy to see why. Is the added utility of pain-free colorless mana worth the price of having it come into play tapped? I'd say yes, but its popularity in the format suggests others might not agree.
That's All, Folks!
Even after cutting out a lot of cards, this is still way more cards than I had originally intended. Brightstone Ritual, Aphetto Alchemist, Shepherd of Rot, and many more got cut along the way, but here we are at the finish line. You might be able to tell that I'm not super enthusiastic about the story of this block, but I love the cards themselves, and there's so many playables! At any rate, I've been Luka Sharska, and I hope you'll join me next time when I cover Legions.
