Ten Great Gold Cards Often Overlooked in Commander

So, this is the penultimate article in this series. I went over every color so far as well as artifacts (Artifacts, White, Blue, Black, Red, Green). This week I am going for the gold! With the Olympics just ending too, I could probably have timed it a little better, but - oh well. This was a tough one to find a lot of cards for this list, as most folks already know about anything of value in the multicolored department! This is evidenced by the real gems being relatively high-priced, like Reparations and Wellspring. Not to mention Phyrexian Purge (which is most awesome in my demon deck - "Oh, my Living End put your dudes back on the table? NOT ON MY WATCH!").

Well, here are "The Other Guys":

10. Winter's Night - Most people who use snow-covered lands in Naya colors have already figured this reserved list card out, but it is more-or-less a one-sided Mana Flare. When combined with other mana-pumping effects like Mana Flare and Overabundance, this gets a little bit disgusting. The drawback is that they stay tapped for a turn, but with Jorn, God of Winter, this becomes less worrisome. I had a combo with Storm Cauldron and Seismic Assault some years ago which, unsurprisingly, worked really well.

9. Corrosion - Some folks have already noticed this little gem of a reserved list card. Black has precious few artifact removal toys, but this one (even though it is red as well), is a pretty strong actor. Relatively cheap at three mana casting and a low cumulative upkeep of one mana, it slowly removes people's mana rocks over the next couple of turns.

8. Army Ants - While this is not the most efficient spot removal for nuisance lands, it is repeatable. The fact that it is an insect may or may not be relevant, especially in red/black, but this is still a neat little card. Its uses alongside Crucible of Worlds, doubling up with Dust Bowl, or even Dingus Egg (ouch!). I also like the flavor of a tiny ant om-nom-nomming a man-land.

7. Seer's Vision - Like knowing what your opponents are up to? Unlike Telepathy, this enchantment ~only~ affects your opponents. Because of the limited cards in commander that do this function, it is a pretty good multiplier for that. The added benefit to force a discard might be timely in the face of potential removal or when an opponent has a particularly disruptive card.

6. Urza's Guilt - This card is particularly nice when one or more opponents has one or less card in hand. Looting cards is rarely bad, even when the cost is relatively high as in this case. The fact that it hits opponents as well makes it sweet gravy. Another nice part is that it puts the affected cards in the yard so spells/creatures-in-yard-matters decks benefit greatly.

5. Keldon Twilight - With the advent of goad, this card takes on a new relevance. In the right build, this becomes a card that has the potential to net a good deal of cards, especially in commander. It also has the potential to paint a target on your forehead! "Oh, I have to attack? Let me attack the jerk that is making me attack then!" Cards like Koskun Falls and An-Zerrin Ruins make it a titch harder to do that though. Also, lots of little sacrificial blockers help. Skeletal Swarming is a pretty interesting Jund addition as well.

4. Destructive Flow - Speaking of Jund, here is a neat little toy where the keyword is "non-basic". If you are running a build that is a bit green heavy that fetches lands, use a bunch of basics, etc., this will get one-sided in a hurry. The low casting cost makes it quick to get out, but the three colors might make it problematic in a deck with mostly basics (unless those lands are fetches)...

3. Aether Rift - Like free dudes? This cheap enchantment poops 'em out on the regular. I was surprised to find this at below a dollar on TCGPlayer. This is a really good card. It was difficult to pull off a good deck with it when it came out back in the late 90s, but with commander decks being full of fatties and Throne of Eldraine being full of dudes-who-are-also-spells, this gets a LOT better.

2. Guided Passage - This is another card that I was surprised to find at under a buck. This shows your cards to your opponent, but it nets two cards! If you limit at least one of the choices of creature or noncreature/nonland to only bad or worse choices, then the low cost of this card becomes a very small price to pay, especially late-game when you leave your opponent few choices to make.

1. Elemental Augury - This card is and has been always so good in this format. While it doesn't net any cards, it has the benefit of being able to target any player's library multiple times per turn and changes the order of cards. This could be used to control clash, card draws, and any number of factors throughout the game. Its inclusion into Grixis colors is a pretty good placement for control builds centered on Nicol Bolas and his ilk.

Honorable Mentions

Diabolic Vision - While nowhere near as powerful as Lim-Dûl's Vault, it still digs five deep for two mana and has the added benefit of putting a card into your hand. As a sorcery, it still meets the criteria for spells-matters decks like Delirium, spellcraft, etc. I always used this in Grixis and Dimir decks because, why not?

Spatial Binding - I added this here because it is an excellent foil for Teferi. Both his Protection and the planeswalker himself. More and more decks use one or the other or possibly both to be cute so if your playgroup or metagame deals heavily with them, consider using one of these in your deck if’n you got blue & black.

Cloud Cover - I liked that this affects your permanents and not just your creatures. As a two-color gold card, it is more flexible than some of the others on this list. Still, with sagas and other ETB effects, this could have a double payoff. Think of Yorion, Golos, or any number of other Azorius/Bant commanders and this card is...well...gold.

That’s all I have for this week. Next week is the last article in this series: Lands. I have made a bunch of awesome picks (even though it is by far the hardest segment in which to find hidden gems). After I am done with this series, I will probably start writing about Standard for a bit and my many misadventures playing Arena. I will probably delve a bit further into some Commander stuff when I feel inspired again. Until then, stay cool!

“If you constantly underwhelm, they will eventually ignore you.”