Hidden Gems

[Potato Chop]

Decisive Denial. Counters counters, noncreature combo pieces, removal, and rifts, and doubles as a removal spell. All on a 2-mana package? Way underplayed, especially considering it’s an easily-accessible uncommon worth basically nothing.

[ApothecaryGeist]

Decisive Denial.

Thanks for that.  I'm going to be rebuilding my Mimeoplasm deck soon.  I'll keep this in mind as a great counter/removal option.

[The Golgari Guy]

Reviving this for a quick minute to talk about Flumph. Is it just me or is this an underrated draw spell? First it has flying and high toughness, so it deters small attacks and chip damage. More importantly, it draws you cards when you do get attacked, and you can use this as a political tool. You can convince an opponent to attack you so you both get to draw. Or if someone attacks with multiple creatures you can have a different opponent draw a card out of spite. If you can convince everyone to throw small creatures at you they each get 1 card per turn cycle, but you'll get three. Nice.

I haven't had an opportunity to use it yet, but I've seen a friend use it and it performs well.

It may be worth a try in mono W or Boros! Another card that I think is underplayed in these colors is Secret Rendezvous. The drawback is not as bad as it seems, as you can target someone who's behind, and you get the three cards immediately.

[anjinsan]

In a similar vein, Soul Manipulation. It's a bit too situational but great card advantage when at its best (compare Bone to Ash).

[Cosmic_Insight]

Blessing of Frost is fairly good in any deck that runs snow lands and needs card draw.

[The Golgari Guy]

I was recently thinking about the fact that Overgrowth is underplayed in mono-G and GX decks.

If you look at its EDHREC page, it's mainly included in Enchantress decks (https://edhrec.com/cards/overgrowth).
It sees play in 2% of decks which can play it. Compare this with Cultivate, for example, which sees play in 48%.

I think that Overgrowth should see much more play and not only in Enchantress decks.

Why, do you ask? Well, there is basically no other 3 mana value card that can by itself give you access to 6 mana on turn 4.

Sure, enchantments can be removed more easily than lands, but they are pretty difficult to remove anyway, and is someone really wasting a removal spell on this with Rhystic Study and Smothering Tithe popping around in most casual games?

Of course, this only applies to heavy-G decks, so mostly mono-G and GX decks. But I think this should definitely see more play!

[anjinsan]

I play Overgrowth quite a lot. It's essentially a three-mana rock but it "taps" for two, and two green in fact rather than two colourless. Honestly I think a lot of the land enchantment ramp is a bit underplayed.

On that note, I recently started considering Frontier Siege. Again, it's a big ramp but compare with something like Skyshroud Claim. The mana being split amongst phases it a bit annoying but costing 4 mana and giving 4 mana is still pretty great.

Many decks probably want fast mana more than "big" mana; these don't really replace the cheap stuff and, conversely, they don't work with most (any?) mana doublers, which might explain why they don't show up so much. I definitely prefer Overgrowth to Cultivate, though.

[Soren841]

Wild Growth better than Overgrowth if you havent seen it. Not really an unknown card tho

[Landale]

I don't see Wrap in Vigor as much as I'd expect to. It's significantly cheaper, moneywise, than Heroic Intervention but accomplishes more or less the same thing in most situations where you'd want it.

[Soren841]

Tokens would be lost and stuff too unfortunately, and heatproof stops targeted exile. I agree it's underrated but it's definitely less flexible. Interesting that regeneration and indestructible are functionally very similar, not something I've really thought about.

[Slyvester12]

Tokens would be lost and stuff too unfortunately, and heatproof stops targeted exile. I agree it's underrated but it's definitely less flexible. Interesting that regeneration and indestructible are functionally very similar, not something I've really thought about.

Why would tokens be lost? Wrap in Vigor is less useful because Swords to Plowshares still goes through, but I think it's mostly just a card people haven't seen much.

[Soren841]

Tokens cease existing when they change zones. Also counters like +1/+1 and stuff would also go away.

[The Golgari Guy]

Tokens cease existing when they change zones. Also counters like +1/+1 and stuff would also go away.

There is no changing of zones with regeneration though.

I agree that Wrap in Vigor is an excellent budget replacement for Heroic Intervention. Another great one if you're in Golgari colors is Golgari Charm.

[The Golgari Guy]

Wild Growth better than Overgrowth if you havent seen it. Not really an unknown card tho

Sure, but Wild Growth is in 11% of decks according to EDHREC.

Utopia Sprawl is in 7% (probably also because it's significantly more expensive money-wise).

The one that is severely underplayed (imho) is Overgrowth. A bit slower, sure, but very powerful. If you play it later than turn 3, contrary to Cultivate / Kodama's Reach, it immediately refunds you 2/3 of its cost.

[Soren841]

Tokens cease existing when they change zones. Also counters like +1/+1 and stuff would also go away.

There is no changing of zones with regeneration though.

I agree that Wrap in Vigor is an excellent budget replacement for Heroic Intervention. Another great one if you're in Golgari colors is Golgari Charm.

Ah ur right MB. Hiatus hurt more than I thought.