The Best Commander Cards From... Planeshift

Diabolic Intent by Josu Hernaiz

Welcome back to The Best Commander Cards From..., a series focusing on the most powerful Commander cards from across Magic: The Gathering's rich thirty-year-long history. Today's focus is Planeshift, the twenty-second expansion set, which was released in February of 2001, and is the second set in the Invasion block.

More Multicolor Madness

While Planeshift is a small set, there's a lot to love. Most of the multicolor fun from Invasion is back, and the ever-popular kicker mechanic is here, too. There are entire cycles of multicolor support cards, modal spells, lands, and more. This is also one of the few older sets that I think I'd be very eager to draft, but that's enough about all that. Let's get into the cards.

Terminate

By far the most popular card from Planeshift, Terminate earns its keep pretty well in spite of how many other premium removal spells have popped up over the years since. If you have to pay mana for creature removal, two is a decent deal. In spite of the reasonable mana value, however, I think it's going to eventually fall out of favor if we get too many more options as strong as Bitter Triumph.

Aura Blast

There's a lot of valuable enchantments seeing play these days, and most of them cost more than two mana. Getting to blast a Rhystic Study without being down a card is sweet, and Aura Blast does exactly that. It's not especially flashy, and the effect isn't always dramatic, but reliable and efficient interaction should always be something you consider.

Diabolic Intent

I consider Diabolic Intent to be the most powerful card from Planeshift. Sure, it's just a poor planeswalker's Demonic Tutor, but that doesn't make it weak. It doesn't specify nontoken, it still only costs two mana, and it puts the card directly into your hand. Make no mistake: sacrificing a creature is not a very big hoop to jump through.

Cavern Harpy

You might recognize Cavern Harpy as being a card frequently seen alongside Aluren, which goes infinite in a number of ways. Outside of that interaction, though, this harpy doesn't get a lot of appreciation. I think that's a mistake. I've seen Crystal Shard played to reset enters triggers, and Cavern Harpy can do similar work multiple times each turn if you've got the mana.

Hull Breach

I love Hull Breach. Getting a two-for-one special on removal is always a treat, and not having the same targeting caveats as Decimate is certainly nice. Of course, I would prefer if you could target two artifacts and/or enchantments, but I'm hardly a choosing beggar when it comes to efficient answers in Gruul.

Cloud Cover

Yes, Cloud Cover is an arguably less powerful variant of Privileged Position in one different color. Even so, the effect is pretty similar. You're putting up a roadblock for any opponents that want to mess with your stuff, and in many cases the prospect of seeing those cards enter the battlefield again is enough to ward away interaction for anything besides the Cloud Cover itself.

Eladamri's Call

Most two-mana tutors are quite strong, and Eladamri's Call is no exception. Its flexibility is only limited by which creatures you've chosen to play. As a bonus, every year we get a few hundred new creatures. The sheer volume of new cards means we're gonna get something new and spicy to fetch out on a regular basis.

Destructive Flow

I think the only thing holding back Destructive Flow from being one of the saltiest Commander cards is the fact that this costs three different colors of mana. It's pretty difficult to have perfect mana to cast this while also avoiding getting sniped by it yourself. Of course, the wording means that your opponents will have to sacrifice first, so why not try it out?

The Familiar Cycle

Sunscape Familiar, Stormscape Familiar, Thunderscape Familiar, and Thornscape Familiar, alongside Nightscape Familiar, fill out a cycle of allied-color cost reducers that see varying levels of play. Nightscape is the most popular, and I'm not really sure if that's due to the regeneration ability or the popularity Grixis. Either way, if you're playing one of the classic shards, these can be pretty good.

Flametongue Kavu

While Flametongue Kavu might not be as universally powerful as a card like Ravenous Chupacabra, it's still perfectly playable in many red decks. Given how many different ways we have to crank out extra copies, from Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink to Calamity, Galloping Inferno, this classic removal-on-a-stick staple can still do great work.

Primal Growth

If you've ever wanted a Harrow that could sacrifice something besides a land, Primal Growth might be exactly what you're looking for. Sure, it's a little awkward in the earlier turns of the game if you don't have an expendable creature or two laying around. In spite of that awkwardness, getting a two-mana rebate on your investment is a big game, and you'll be up two lands rather than the net increase of one provided by Harrow.

Goblin Game

I'm gonna do my best not to make any jokes about gobblin' anything besides life totals here. How much would you pay to keep your life total from getting halved? What if you don't have a lot left to spare in the first place? If you're willing to spend the mana, your opponents will have to play the Goblin Game and answer those questions. You can even ramp it out with "Name Sticker" Goblin if your group is cool with it.

Orim's Chant

You get a whole lot of utility with Orim's Chant. Sometimes you need just one more turn without getting attacked, or one turn where the blue player can't possibly counter your spells. Occasionally you can even stop a combo or save an opponent that can help you out later. Really, you're just getting a lot of value for very little mana.

Keldon Twilight

You'll be happiest with Keldon Twilight when you don't care which path your opponents are taking. Either life totals are moving or people are having to sacrifice creatures. Most of the time there's an obvious target to attack, and this often motivates opponents that would otherwise be hesitant.

Noxious Vapors

It feels a little dirty to play a hate card against decks that are only playing one color, but Noxious Vapors is at its best if that's exactly what your opponents are doing. It's not always terrible against players with more colors, but you're gonna need your opponents to have progressively more cards for this to accomplish anything of note.

Phyrexian Tyranny

Realistically, nobody's going to spend two mana to prevent the life loss from Phyrexian Tyranny. If you're looking for a more resilient draw-punisher that doesn't have to take up a spot in your command zone or get wiped by a Blasphemous Act, this might be worth a slot. Don't forget, of course, that you can just as easily play this alongside Nekusar, the Mindrazer if you want.

Surprise Deployment

I had not heard of Surprise Deployment before today, and I'm a bit surprised to see that it's white. I suppose the intention is to put a big blocker into play to surprise some dorky attacker, but these days I can't help but see the lovechild of Flash and Through the Breach. Sure, you don't necessarily get death triggers, but dropping a Craterhoof Behemoth into play at the beginning of combat sounds pretty cool to me. Don't forget to add haste-enablers, and remember that you can't flash in white creatures!

Lord of the Undead

Perhaps it's my imagination, but I feel like Zombies haven't had nearly as many lords as a few other iconic creature types. No, I'm not going to check. This is a vibes-based blurb. I think you can handle the card analysis on this one. Hey, did you know that most cards starting with "Lord of the-" aren't even lords? Seriously, most of them are just like... Big Demons and stuff.

The Charm Cycle

This cycle consists of Crosis's Charm, Treva's Charm, Dromar's Charm, Darigaaz's Charm, and Rith's Charm. These are inspired by the legendary Dragons from Invasion, and they have varying degrees of playability in the Commander format. There are usually at least two modes that are decent, with a distant third that's usually much more narrow.

The Battlemage Cycle

In this cycle, you get Thornscape Battlemage, Thunderscape Battlemage, Sunscape Battlemage, Stormscape Battlemage, and Nightscape Battlemage. To be honest, they're all a bit overpriced for what they offer, but they also feel very... Commander? I hope that makes sense, and I'm not saying so just because the Stormscape variant was reprinted in Commander 2013.

That's all I have for you today. While there aren't as many true staples in Planeshift as there were in Invasion, I'm still very happy with the overall card quality, especially from a small set. I didn't have to cut much here, but I hope you'll let me know if there are some cool cards I missed. I've been Luka V. Sharaska, and I hope you'll join me next time when we explore the best Commander cards from... Apocalypse.