Chains of Mephistopheles -Does not affect the first card drawn in draw step -When you would draw a card, discard one card. If you did, draw one card. If you did not discard a card, put the top card of your library into the graveyard. Also, Upwelling + Braid of Fire sound fun in Commander.

Mana tithe and dawn charm could be explained: Mana tithe is a tax Dawn charm protects yoy

I thought this series was over. Great to see it back! :D

if the title was white on a time spiral card, it meant that the exact same card already exists but it has a different color and name. So mana tithe is a copy of force spike

I personally think mana tithe does make sense a bit in the color pie, it's taxing a spell and taxing spells is a common white ability. the other ones really don't make any sense.

Khruphix god of horizons is another card that keeps it through turns but it turns colorless.

I love to run the mono white counterspells in my Mono white commander decks just to see the look on someone's face when the mono white player counters their spell

Chains card, makes sense once you think about it, but isn't all that clear. If you draw for the draw phase this card doesnt activate. if you draw outside of the draw step you must discard a card from your hand before you draw a card. If you can not discard a card from your hand you instead take the card that you would draw and instead, put it into your Graveyard. That would be the best I could make of it and if I'm wrong then damn

You made me love you more by saying you love playing commander

There were some creative ways to use protection from colors back in old school magic. Like Force of Nature deals damage to its controller as a draw back of having good stats for its mana cost. Since it’s “dealing damage” and not a cost, you can use a card that gives you protection from green.

Chains of meph: whenever you would draw an additional card discard a card first. If you cant discard a card, instead of drawing a card, mill it.

Here's a fun way to wreck an opponent's ability to cast anything. 1. Play Deathgrip/Lifeforce. 2. Cast Alter Reality on it to change the color type Deathgrip/Lifeforce can counter to the main color type an opponent is playing. 3. Cast Demonic Tutor to grab another Deathgrip/Lifeforce from your deck and put it in your hand. 4. Your next turn play the second Deathgrip/Lifeforce. 5. Flashback the Alter Reality in your graveyard to change the color type on the second Deathgrip/Lifeforce to the secondary color type previous opponent is playing. Can repeat this for all 5 colors with tutors, copy enchantment, clever impersonator, etc... plus color type hacking spells/effects.

Chains of Mephistopheles doesn't seem that complicated? Other than your first card draw per turn, every time you draw a card you have to discard a card first. And if you can't, you're milled for 1 before you draw.

The first omnath also lets you keep unspent mana in your mana pool

The only card I can think of that is similar to upwelling is Omnath locus of mana, The difference is it only affects you and your green mana.

There is Kruphix, God of Horizons that does almost the same thing as Upwelling

I give Mana Tithe, Withering Boon, and Illumination credit. They still do something that sticks with the color pie. Mana tithe has the taxing effect common in white spells, Wither Boon has the do something in exchange of a resource effect that a lot of black spells have, and illumination is almost like a Swords to Plowshare version of a counterspell.

Love this Des. Commentary was great.

How to explain Chains of Mephistopheles: -Opponent is attempting to draw a card -Is it their draw step? If so, proceed as normal -Otherwise, before that player can draw their card, they must discard a card first -If that player has no cards to discard, instead of drawing, they put the top card of their library into their graveyard and do not draw a card This would make casting a spell like Opt (scry 1, draw a card) work more like casting Radical Idea (draw a card, jumpstart) from exile, where you have to discard a card in order to draw one.

I believe the original Omnath lets you keep Mana between phases and turns too. (Only green, IIRC, but still. Cool in commander.)

Chains of mephistopholes: what it seems like is that it does nothing to the draw step, but for any additional card that person draws, they have to discard a card, or if they can't, mill a card. It seems like it's for shutting down draw-heavy decks.

Bonus points if you give Aisling Leprechaun protection from green

Chains of Mephistophcles: Except for the first card drawn during the draw phase, if a player would draw a card, that player must discard a card first. If a player cannot discard you thought it was the rest of the card description, but it was me, Dio!

This series was the series that got me into this channel.

My group plays with Chains (because it’s a great annoyer for my grixis mill) and we play as “if you draw anything but your draw step card then discard before you do. If you can’t discard then mill one”

Fade Away: Very weird card that essentially is a blue board wipe at uncommon if people didn't have untapped lands. Personal Sanctuary: weird card that does nothing in pure mono white strategies but breaks symmetrical damage cards like sulfuric vortex. Dash hopes: yet another off color Counterspell for black but now damages the opponent if they want it to resolve. Very solid card. Temporal Extortion: Mono black time walk for 4 mana unless people wanna lose half their life, which I've never seen someone care enough about it to take action on that.

For the Mana staying through turns kruphix does that but the Mana becomes colorless

It seems like Black, Blue & White were each in a competition with each other to see who could be the most effed up and degenerate and I'm actually impressed by this petty competition of "Hold my beer."

Chains of Mephistopheles is _super_ simple. Any time they draw an EXTRA card, they have to discard a card. And if they cannot do so (which seems like it'd usually be impossible), they must mill 1.

if you are reading this, now your friends will all conspire and bring the chains of mephistopitcles card to your next multiplayer commander game

Chains of mephy is actually really fun. The basic idea behind this card is if you go to draw during draw phase you ignore the effect for that 1 card. If you use say jace belereen well everyone discards a cards but still gets to draw. If they didnt have a single card in their hand before the drawing they put it into graveyard instead of drawing at all. So easy way to explain. When you draw you discard a card before you draw then if you have no cards in your hand as you draw that card instead it goes to graveyard. But you ignore this during your basic draw step. I cant simplify this any more than this honestly.

Dawn charm, does three things normally not associated with white (Fogging - Green, Regenerating - Black and Countering - Blue). Planar chaos was a set that focused on screwing with the color pie.

on the Tees, when looking for catchphrases, 'ban this broken garbage'

The chains are actually surprisingly simple, if you would draw (except the first draw on draw step), instead discard a card and then draw a card, but if you can't discard (you have no cards in hand), you mill one from your library and DON'T draw a card.

I have 2 crazy cards for you. Timesifter and Mist Dragon. Nuff said

Favorite series!

The way that exile was suposed to work before eldrazi started screwing with it was that exiled permanents do not even exist any more. They have been removed from the game.

Lapse of Certainty- Esper. Super authoritarian from what I know. Makes sense mechanically (pun intended).

Chains of Mephistopheles caused a legit fist fight in my LGS way back in the day. Kind of unheard of, but also comical watching two nerds who didn't have a single combat skill between 'em go at it.

Chains of mephostopheles: draw a card after the first in your own draw phase? Wait, first, do you have cards in hand? Yeah? Okay, discard a card before you draw. If you don't have any in hand, mill 1 instead of drawing. Or at least that's how I understand it

I loved planar chaos. Green ball lightnings and such.

:D! Des is talking about Upwelling!

Well, the way I see it, Withering Boon does fit Black's role in the Color Pie. Paying life to do something that you normally wouldn't be able to do is a Black staple.

OMG, the Fatespinner IS self-aware!!

Chains of Mephistopheles: Whenever a player would draw a card, if they have already drawn a card this turn, they instead discard a card then draw a card. If the player had no cards in their hand to discard in this way they instead put the top card of their library into their graveyard.

what happens if you have a card in exile due to a seal away type effect when sway the stars happens would the card enter the battlefield then get removed or come into play after the stars resolve

I have 3 copies of Deathgrip. There is also a green version called Lifeforce that does the same against black, I have a couple of those also I used to play them against my buddy and his mono black deck back in the day. Nowdays they don;t see as much play as, especially green, usually doesn't have 2 mana (or more) to hold in reserve to counter things. Still, in the right type of deck a defensive style play could lend itself to a late game power type of deck build. Chains of Mephistopheles: Everyone gets to draw thier one card per turn as usual, the enchantment has zero effect on that. Any time a player would draw a card for any other reason, ability, spell, etc: They must first discard a card. If they can not discard a card, they have to self mill one card into the graveyard before they can draw. Example: PLayer is playing a blue deck. This odd black enchantment is on the table. Blue players turn: He draws for his draw step as usual. Nothing wierd happens, the enchantment doesn't do anything. Now the player decided to play Opt. He scrys one card, then he gets to draw. HOLD UP! First, he has to discard a card, as per the enchantment. If he doesn;t have a card to discard(maybe that Opt was what he drew earlier) he must place the top card of his library into his graveyard, THEN he can draw the card. It's not that hard to follow.

Sway of the Stars + Teferi's Protection seems good, if it weren't banned in Commander.

Chains of Mephistopheles isn't too hard to figure out: 1: This doesn't affect the draw step 2: If someone gets an effect to draw a card after the draw step, they have to discard a card first, then they can draw. 3: If they CAN'T discard a card, they mill one off the top of their deck instead of discarding.

If you're ever making a tcg and creating s card, just imagine DesM reading it like the cards he reads in this video

It's pretty simple if you only have one Chains of Mephistopheles on the field. If you have one or more cards in hand, you discard a card and draw a card instead of drawing a card. If you have no cards in hand then you can't discard, so you mill the top card of your library. The replacement effect already happened once, so it doesn't happen again (CR614.5). If you have two Chains on the field and one card in hand, you discard, then the second Chains replaces your draw from the first Chains. You now have no cards in hand, so you mill one card. If you have two Chains on the field and two cards in hand, you discard, then the second Chains replaces your draw. You discard the card in your hand and draw. Basically, if you have less cards in hand than the number of Chains on the field, you discard your hand (if you have any cards in hand) and mill one. If you have the same amount or more cards in hand than Chains on the field, you discard a card for each Chains then draw one.

I used to run Upwelling in Omnath Locus of Mana years ago, the only problem was that whenever I play it, I die by Mono Blue artifacts before my turn comes back, so it's not there anymore.

Mephisto is easy: you draw during your draw phase as normal but if you would ever draw card otherwise, you have to discard first. If you can't, instead of drawing, you mill.

faithless looting got banned, waiting for the video, but godamn this will bring a lot of decks down a few pegs

"Color pie" didn't really exist as it does now in the 90s (i.e., as prescriptive definitions of what colors can/can't do) but was created c. ~2000 to describe what the colors already did. This is why there were a lot more offbeat cards and top-down/flavor-based designs like, say, Sylvan Library, that fit thematically with a color but don't fit with the mechanics of the color pie.

I picked up Upwelling after your Braid of Fire video.

I recently bought a booster pack and it had "Animate Dead" and i can't make heads or tails of what it does. Something about enchanting a creature in your graveyard and if the creature enters the battlefield the card moves or something. Very confusing.

Yayyy I love these :)

They're back

That green enchantment = my second Omnath, Locus of Mana

I remember playing Sway the Stars in limited once. And I mean actually playing it, not just putting it in my deck. I can't remember the full context, but it was presumably in a very controlling deck.

Should do a vid on the weird red chaos spells, like warp world and such!

Ooh scourge I like that and Abzan appreciated ; )

Upwelling + braid of fire would be insane

Kruphix is very similar to Upwelling, but he turns it into Colorless. Needless to say, he is a very popular Eldrazi Commander

2:30 I have a friend who uses The Rack, which refers to upkeep in its description.

Upwelling is a symetrical effect, if you put that out in commander you will be helping your opponents which you have 3.

Aura Swap is a keyword that was only used in one card: Arcanum Wings

Darn des missed the red counter spells this video, image building a casual RWB counter spell deck.

Chains of Mephistopheles it's not that complicated. You draw normally during your draw phase. Any other drawing of a card outside of your draw phase is then changed to a rummage effect. If you can't discard a card (example, your hand is empty) You must mill a card at which point you do not draw a card.

Durkwood Boars is a vanilla green creature. What's weird is the flavor text is a passage from the Bible. Odd considering how Wizards of the Coast like to write their own lore for MTG.

Boi we're back!

Sway of the stars could be decent if you have less then 7 life and your opponents board is huge. Not only that but if you were running a really fast haste deck you could scoop the game in two turns. (or if you can figure out the trick to casting sorceries at instant speeds, interrupt a finishing attack and reverse the game.)

The original text for chains is more clear than the Oracle text

I just had a stroke from those chains, geez. Also yeah withering boon, I uses that becuase no one expects that

I actually use upwelling in my commander deck-becuase visier of remedies and devoted druid is a fair and balanced combo. i basically use upwelling as a contingency plan

Every time u draw a card, (other then the first card u draw that turn), u must discard a card or if u have no cards us must discard the card u where going to draw.

Sway of the stars sounds like a less risky worldfire

If a player would draw a card instead they go take an hour long shower and think about the life choices that led them to this moment.

Wow, Des... did you look through my rares binder to make this video?

I can’t decide which shirt to get! Des help me out here, do I get “in response, table flip” or “nice deck my mom runs that too”?

Multiple people in my commander group have chains of mephistopheles you get used to hating it for what it actually does

Rite of the Lightning Rager (I think) very fun for group games

The original omnath has the same ability as upwelling. Oh yay redundancy..... there’s also an artifact that doubles floating mana.

Upwelling doesn't see much play in commander since omnath and kruphix are better since they don't help your opponents

I am not mortal: Chains of Merphistophcles makes every draw while that card is on the field, a discard+draw instead. Causing all cards that would allow you to go + in terms of cardadvantage, instead go 0. This effect however does not work on the very first card drawn, stated in the rules, that is drawn at the start of your draw phase. If however the affected player would draw a card outside the drawphase, that player mills that card instead: this to prevent that player to activate that one card at flash speed in response of the chains activation. Card text of this card is entirely wrong, however the effect is not unknown/ the card is not unplayable.

Sway of the stars is banned in commander because it really has the potential for bad beats. 12 and 15 manna available isn't the exception but the norm. floating your extra mana, casting things like sway of the stars then casting you general is very easy and turns a game reset into a massacre.

Sway of the stars in a blue/white/green Mana ramp, exile into sway of the stars. Exile your best stuff and then reset

The red counter spell from amonkhet. It says end the turn for its effect for like 3 or 4 mana.

Chains of Mephistopitles isn’t that hard to understand. Yeah, there are extremely obvious grammatical errors, and the last sentence would fit better as part of the first, but other than that it makes sense. Every time you would draw an extra card on your draw step, discard a card before drawing. If you can’t discard a card, put the top card from your library into your graveyard instead of drawing.

Sway of the stars+phasing or sway of the stars+adventures would be cool

Omnath, Locus of Mana has a one sided upwelling effect (only for green mana). Brutal vsing as a commander.

Can you imagine playing "turn to mist" into sway of the stars? Or eerie interlude?

If you're covering Deathgrip, you should have also mentioned Lifeforce, it's the exact same except it's green and counters black spells.

oh please, i could understand Chain of Meph easily. Basicly, you have to discard a card to draw a card for any reason except the first card drawn during any players draw step. so if you have say effects making people draw more cards, they must discard one card for that draw. a 1 for 1 scenario after the first card. secondly, if you have no cards in hand, you mill instead of the discard which is a replacement that still doesnt effect the first card drawn during any players draw step. so even if you have no cards in hand when your draw phase comes up you still get a free draw, but if anyone tries to make you draw, or you activate a draw ability with no cards in hand, you draw none and mill that many instead.

Death grip and life force, are the same card via video colors and they’re great Guttural response a gruul hypid mana (1cmc) that’s states “ counter target blue instant spell” A mono red (1cmc red) instant with counter target blue spell or destroy target blue permanent, along with red elemental fire. Same cmc same cost All 3 are great cards to stop a card d yours from being countered Great cards

8:09 would you say the design team had a lapse of certainty.

For weird counters, look at mystic denial from portal

This whole video: "you weren't supposed to do that"

Upwelling; I need it for my mono green commander.