Best Card In Your Deck

[WWolfe]

Stealing this from a Command Zone I watched today, what do you consider the best card in each of your decks? What I mean is, what is a card you're always happy to see when you draw it because you know it's going to make your deck run or does exactly what your deck is meant to do.

Like my OG Purphoros deck, I love seeing Norin the Wary. That little one drop does so much damage over the course of a game and it's so hard for players to interact with. I kept up with it one game, it did 18 damage off of Purphoros triggers to each opponent over the course of a game.

My Karador Shadowborn Apostle deck, I love seeing Edgewalker and Bloodbond March. I know both are going to get me an insane amount of value. Edgewalker specifically makes all my Apostles free while Bloodbond returns all the graveyard Apostles to the battlefield for the cost of casting one.

Sidisi I love seeing Mesmeric Orb. Not only am I going to get triggers off of it without having to turn Sidisi sideways, but it annoys the crap out of my opponents which is always a fun side effect.

Varina I would say Alhammarret's Archive. Doubling both of Varina's ability makes the deck hit on a different level.

What are some of yours?

[Landale]

Delina, Wild Mage deck's best is probably Fanatic of Mogis or Red Dragon. I always tend to get good rolls on them, so they end things pretty quick.

Alandra, Sky Dreamer deck's best is probably Tolarian Winds, though the similar effects I have in there come close. If I have a lot of drakes, that's a win. If I'm behind but have a Psychic Corrosion or Psychosis Crawler out, that often becomes a win by chaining into the more expensive but similar effects.

[Bonethor]

Aminatou, the Fateshifter - it would probably have to be Parallax Wave; it multiplies my blinks and protects Ami from aggression. It just has proved itself to be very handy and oppressive time and time again.

Gyruda, Doom of Depths - Rite of Replication is great with the etb trigger and sometimes there may be even better targets on the field like an opponents Reaper King..

Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage - Teferi's Puzzle Box can either dig you deeper by itself, ruin your opponents' hands or give you tons of mana in combination with Narset, Patter of Veils or Smothering Tithe.

Malcolm, Keen-eyed Navigator + Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar - Academy Manufactor just makes things nuts especially if you can copy it a few times. Current record for most artifacts is just shy of 15 million but I know I can break that if I ever get Brudiclad on the board with a few spare treasures and a copy of Academy Manufactor.

Those are some of the easier ones to figure out personally. Looks like thus far there's a tendency for people and myself to pick cards that are enablers & force multipliers - makes sense!

[Cosmic_Insight]

For my Teysa Karlov deck, it's the holy trinity of skullclamp, Phyrexian Altar, and Reassembling Skeleton, representing the three pillars of the Aristocrats deck: sac outlets, death payoffs, and recursive creatures. A close second would be Elenda, the Dusk Rose simply for its ability to draw hate and end games.

For my Daryl, Hunter of Walkers deck, it's a tie between Seedborn Muse for its ability to give me a ton of value and Aether Flash because it fits the deck perfectly.

[Morganator 2.0]

This was a fun little question to ponder over. It was nice to go over my decks and think about what the single best card was. I'm assuming we mean the best card that isn't a combo piece.

Brudiclad: Probably Irenicus's Vile Duplication. Being able to have a non-legendary copy if a legendary creature is a game changer. I can have a bunch of brudiclads, or a bunch of Krenkos that exponential increase. And to top it off, they also have flying (for some reason). Very good.

Edric: Of all the extra turn spells this deck uses, Notorious Throng is the best. But the card I like to see every game is Gaea's Cradle. It gives me more mana than I know what to do with.

Haldan + Pako: For this deck its probably Chandra's Ignition. It wins games. Pako gets big, so it's nice to have a damage spell that scales with him. I also like Rishkar's Expertise in this deck for the same reason.

Harbin: This deck is awful. But if I had to pick a single card it would be Myrel, Shield of Argive. She runs away with the game.

Krenko: Definitely Skirk Prospector. It's mana ramp and a combo enabler. I also really like it when I get Goblin Sharpshooter or Goblin Assassin to keep everyone's creatures down.

Licia: Bolas's Citadel. The lifegain in this deck is pretty good, so being able to turn that into free spells is wonderful. The only issue is that this deck does not—for the most part—have a way to get the lands out of the way. I also really like Fire Covenant and Hatred, as they are other way I can weaponize lifegain.

Mishra: Possibility Storm of course.

Scarab God: This one has a three-way tie. Like WWolfe's Sidisi I also like Mesmeric Orb. It gives me a lot of cards to work with so I always have a response. The second pick is Training Grounds. Halving the cost of The Scarab God's ability is very good. That gives me twice as many activations. Lastly, Sphinx of the Second Sun. In this deck it effectively gives me an extra turn. Any one of these three cards is a game-changer.

Tinybones: Waste Not. I like getting a little bit more from my discards.

[robort]

Very interesting question so lets start with....

Rith, the Awakener with the card Fighter Class. This card always performs in this deck and I always use it to search for skullclamp. Then putting it to level 2 and then skull clamps equips for 0 and it just draws mad on the tokens I get.

Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer and it is the background I use with it. Raised by Giants works every single time. Just having a 10/10 commander whilst everyone else has to attack each other and me swinging willy nilly is great.

Hans Eriksson is probably going to be Pathbreaker Ibex whilst attacking with it and another creature never mind multiple creatures which makes it absurd.

Araumi of the Dead Tide is a no brainer. Gray Merchant of Asphodel and the massive life swing just from encoring gary is massive.

[WWolfe]

I love seeing peoples' thoughts on their own decks so seeing this has really been enjoyable.

[12aptor1nfinity]

My deck is mostly Clerics with Liesa, Forgotten Archangel as its commander.

These cards always suit me very well:
- Children of Korlis
- Righteous Valkyrie
- Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
- Shriekmaw

Evoke lets me use Shriekmaw as a Terror each turn (since Liesa brings it back at the end of each turn).

With Children of Korlis, I can let huge damage through if I don’t want my blockers to die, then sac it and heal everything back (and it combos well with lots of my other cards).

Righteous Valkyrie is just insane value in my deck.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician is also super high value and the main sac ability always feels stronger in game than when I read it outside of the game.

Someone else said Elenda, the Dusk Rose, bonus shout out to her - always fun and good in my deck as well.

[xuin861]

For me I play a lot of black and Sudden Spoiling has always been my go to, to buy time, 2nd would be Deflecting Palm.

[stuffnsuch]

I just introduced a MTG club to my students afterschool this week.  I was showing them one of my first EDH decks, with Teysa, Orzhov Scion as the commander, just to explain the basic concepts.  They had the same question, "what's your best card?"  I pulled out Darkest Hour, which, with my commander, makes any sac outlet infinite.  I explained that it was probably the best card to draw while playing the deck, then went on to explain that it would easily be the absolutely worst card in every single other deck I own if I were to add it.  It was a great teaching moment as they started to see that Magic isn't always about just having a pile of the best cards, it's about having cards that support each other and work together.  What a great lesson for a bunch of beginners to learn right off the bat.

[WWolfe]

I just introduced a MTG club to my students afterschool this week.  I was showing them one of my first EDH decks, with Teysa, Orzhov Scion as the commander, just to explain the basic concepts.  They had the same question, "what's your best card?"  I pulled out Darkest Hour, which, with my commander, makes any sac outlet infinite.  I explained that it was probably the best card to draw while playing the deck, then went on to explain that it would easily be the absolutely worst card in every single other deck I own if I were to add it.  It was a great teaching moment as they started to see that Magic isn't always about just having a pile of the best cards, it's about having cards that support each other and work together.  What a great lesson for a bunch of beginners to learn right off the bat.

I think that's a very neat lesson for them to learn early on. Awesome!

[Rhoderick_45s]

I made myself a secret Grave Titan / Blight Titan commander deck https://deckstats.net/decks/162493/2943402-secret-commander-grave-titan- where the object of the shenanigans was to trigger, duplicate, flicker his etb and attack abilities. In playing this deck, I discovered the key card to this deck was not a duplicator or flicker card but in fact Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness as it took over the game completely. If everyone in my Pod knows my secret commander is Grave Titan or Blight Titan, then they dont know the real secret commander is Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness

[Aetherium Slinky]

Lurrus of the Dream-Den says Memnite.

Sure, Krark-Clan Ironworks is a good one, so is Skullclamp but I think out of the things in the deck there's just way too much synergy going on with Memnite. It's a once-a-turn free action. Free mana with KCI, Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod's Altar, free cards with Skullclamp, free scry 1 with Viscera Seer, a free recurring attacker with Cranial Plating, you can get it with Urza's Saga, a free 1 life with High Market, a free land with Path to Exile... It's just so much more than what it seems. Innocuous. I always tell people to Path or Swords it.


Ioreth of the Healing House says Nexus of Fate.

The deck makes stupid amounts of mana that can be sunk into X-draw spells. Decking is an option and since I don't run Labman-effects Nexus of Fate becomes infinite turns pretty easily. Before that it's basically a free untap / combat step. Since the deck makes so much mana it's easy to have a setup turn and then go off on the second one. The other option is Chromatic Orrery which is just a stupid amount of mana in the deck.


Kami of the Crescent Moon says ... Mind Over Matter ...?

There are so many bonkers cards in this deck it's hard to decide. I've rarely lost a game with Mind Over Matter, though, so maybe it's the strongest card in the deck. The other option is Windfall which is basically either early game refill, mid-game parity break (with a draw doubler) or a late game finisher to force my opponents to draw from an empty deck. The third option is Dream Halls but it's very risky without a good setup (i.e. a strong hand).

[AlltheTokens]

For my Krenko, Mob Boss deck it is Thornbite Staff with Goblin Bombardment and Skirk Prospector close behind

Ezuri, Claw of Progress loves to see the Sage of Hours

Thrasios, Triton Hero wants the Biomancer's Familiar or Training Grounds, but Nissa, Resurgent Animist, Lotus Cobra, and Tireless Provisioner are all welcome.

Zellix, Sanity Flayer was built to win with Altar of the Brood, but Altar of Dementia gets there just as quickly.

Ok I have too many active decks.  I am stopping now.

[anjinsan]

I have a lot of decks built around specific random cards, which makes for some obvious picks:

Sivitre, Dragon Master could be built a lot of ways, but in my case it's around Hoarding Broodlord (and Machine God's Effigy).

A Licia, Sanguine Angel deck where Tainted Remedy is my top card.

My Yarok the Desecrated deck really wants Isochron Sceptre.

I have a Veyran, Voice of Duality deck built around Spellweaver Helix... though I do have to say that the "best card" there is actually Dragon's Approach.