Dominaria United is a really exciting time for Magic: The Gathering. The start of its 30th anniversary, the kicking off of its year-long Phyrexian invasion story, and the departure of not one, but two key Planeswalkers in the story made this feel like a bigger event than any other set released this year.

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With so many things happening, TheGamer’s Magic: The Gathering team decided to weigh in on which cards they’re most excited to play from the new set. Whether they play Commander, Modern, Pioneer, or Pauper, there’s something in this set for everyone to enjoy.

Image of the Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief  card in Magic: The Gathering, with art by Evyn Fong

Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief

Joe Parlock, Tabletop Editor

While mutate remains one of my favourite mechanics in all of MTG, I’ve never really clicked with the few commanders built around it. Right now I’m running an Archelos, Lagoon Mystic deck that combines the usual Archelos resource denial stuff with blue/black/green mutate goodness to sweeten the deal, but I think Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief may be what I’ve been looking for to replace it.

Ivy does a lot of things, but I’m most excited about casting mutate creatures and copying them onto Ivy for double the value. The really cool thing is that, as long as you put some protection on Ivy, she undoes the usual mutate deck problem of putting all your eggs in one basket. I could spread out and mutate onto multiple creatures, and Ivy will pick up the copies and keep them all in one, big, trigger-friendly stack at the same time.

Being able to copy Aura enchantments and combat tricks from other players is a really nice extra, making Ivy more than enough to drop the black from my current Archelos deck and go full Simic (blue/green) instead.

Tail Swipe

Tail Swipe

Chris Stomberg, List Writer

Thanks to Blizzard Brawl, players familiar with Standard have already seen the power of this effect at sorcery speed. Coupled with powerful creatures, for which the green section of the color pie is already known, this cheap removal spell brought Mono-Green to the forefront of the Standard meta for months. Now that Blizzard Brawl is rotating, it’s being replaced with a similarly powerful card in the form of Tail Swipe.

Tail Swipe may not share the powerful ability of making your creature indestructible until end of turn, but what it lacks there it more than makes up for due to its instant speed and ability to be played in decks outside of Mono-Green. Tail Swipe’s instant speed makes it much less likely to lead to a blowout on your side of the battlefield. Even more importantly, though, is the card’s viability alongside colors other than Mono-Green.

This facet of Tail Swipe means that it can be used with a much larger pool of powerful creatures, including Shakedown Heavy, Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, and Reckless Stormseeker. Furthermore, it gains access to targeting creatures with keywords like lifelink or deathtouch that make the fight mechanic even better. Needless to say, you’re looking at green’s new premier removal.

Liliana of the Veil DMU

Liliana Of The Veil

Brad Hill, List Writer

I’ve been tangentially into Magic: The Gathering since 1995, but wasn’t competitive until the original Innistrad block. I bought a fat pack for the first time and pulled a Liliana of the Veil and Garruk Relentless. Unfortunately, I didn’t comprehend Liliana’s power level, so I traded her off for a card I don’t remember. I was probably ripped off too, because I was naive.

I think she’ll shake up the formats she hasn’t been legal in (Pioneer, Explorer, and Standard) in a big way. Since I play Pioneer and Explorer, I’m looking forward to dropping her after a Graveyard Trespasser to get around its Ward cost. Or playing her against control decks. They want to play Narset and stop me from drawing extra cards? Fine. I’ll make them discard their hand one card at a time while I fuel my graveyard for Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger.

Martina Fackova’s artwork is nothing less than stellar. I haven’t owned a physical Magic Card in some time (playing digital only), but I may buy a solitary Liliana of the Veil from Dominaria United, simply because of that artwork.

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Shadow Prophecy

Shadow Prophecy

Johnny Garcia, List Writer

Pauper is far and away my favorite format in Magic. My first deck will always be my favorite, Reanimator. Nothing is quite as satisfying to me than swinging an Ulamog Crusher with haste as early as turn two. I’m always looking for new ways to try and innovate the deck, and Shadow Prophecy might just be the card I’m looking for.

If you have multiple land types, it’s essentially a Pauper version of Memory Deluge. In three colors, it’s easy to dig through three cards, putting the cards you want into your hand and the rest into the graveyard. You don’t even have to put them into your hand, you can just dump them all into the graveyard.

I’ve been experimenting with a Reanimator Control list using Grixis (blue/red/black) colors. With the new common dual land cycle giving basic land types along with the Kaldheim snow duals, hitting three land types will be an easy task. Shadow Prophecy lets you not just dig through your deck and kill bad draws, but dump reanimation targets into the graveyard and put the reanimation spell into your hand as well. It’s also an instant, making it perfect for a Control list.

Vesuvan-Duplimancy-1

Vesuvan Duplimancy

Martin Harp, List Writer

When it comes to MTG, my go-to format is no format. Kitchen table Magic is what I’ve always loved and what I’ve played with friends since falling in love with the game. Building decks around one card, or making an extremely unreliable but fun jank deck are the ways to go in my eyes.

Vesuvan Duplimancy is a card that has quite a lot of potential, and looks to be a card that can make a wonderful hit-or-miss jank deck. Looking to combo with cards like Orvar, the All-Form and Mechanized Production, it seems like it can turn into a token nightmare. The potential for chaos when you throw the mutate mechanic in a deck with both Vesuvan Duplimancy and Orvar is exciting.

This is the card for me that is going to lead to some of the most chaotic, and enjoyable matches in Magic. It could miss nine out of ten times, especially in a jank deck, but that one time it lands is going to be worth every single miss.

Jodah, The Unifier card and artwork in Magic: The Gathering.

Jodah, The Unifier

Paul DiSalvo, Guide and List Staff Writer

As much as I love formats like Pauper and Modern, Commander is by and large my go-to format and my favorite way to play Magic. Between the massive available card pool and consistent access to a select legendary creature, I’ve always had a blast when it comes to Commander deck construction. Despite this, there’s never really been a five-color commander option that has resonated with me, and I’ve never felt inclined to delve into constructing a five-color deck. However, that changes with the printing of Jodah, the Unifier.

As a commander that effectively provides all legendary spells you cast with an effect comparable to a legendary version of Cascade, this iteration of Jodah can allow you to include all of your favorite legendary creatures from Magic’s past in a single synergistic deck. As this ability doesn’t require the legendary spells to be creatures, Jodah is a stellar choice for those looking to play five-color superfriends, allowing any Planeswalker in the game’s history to be featured!

I’m personally looking forward to using Jodah to brew a five-color Legendary Elf tribal deck, that features legendary elves of a wide range of color identities, comprising the likes of Edric, Spymaster of Trest, Grand Warlord Radha, Lathril, Blade of the Elves, and Kethis, the Hidden Hand, all flying under the same banner.

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