I don’t have that much experience with either set and I would rather do this later, when I’m more familiar with it, but on the other hand, my job won’t let me play very much after my summer vacation, so I might as well do his now.

First, honorable mentions and I can’t help, but think of these three.

I just don’t like those characters, so killing them seems good. Here’s two more:

[scryfall]Struggle[/scryfall] is kind of boring, but [scryfall]Survive[/scryfall] has enabled me stop all sorts of shenanigans. [scryfall]Cut[/scryfall] is similar to [scryfall]Struggle[/scryfall] in it’s meh-ness, but [scryfall]Ribbons[/scryfall] has that strange inevitability, which the opponent always seems to forget.

Now, about the list, this is not about power level. This is about cards I enjoy for one reason or another. Sure, some of them are powerful, maybe even some of the most powerful cards in the block, but that’s not what I’m listing. These are the cards I’d like to play rather than the ones I’m going to play.

Previous winners:

That should tell you something. Maybe.

10. [scryfall]Consuming Fervor[/scryfall]

Once upon a time, there was [scryfall]Unstable Mutation[/scryfall]. Sadly, it was in the wrong color and thus fairly useless. Especially since the fixing wasn’t as good back then. It might not be as good now, but there’s the nostalgia value (even if I’m not very nostalgic).

9. [scryfall]Driven // Despair[/scryfall]

In the attrition battles of today, it’s not as good as you might want, but it is still good. However, the real draw is in making blocking decisions very awkward for the opponent.

8. [scryfall]Vizier of the Menagerie[/scryfall]

The pure value of this card is nice. It has synergies with so many commanders in EDH and can work with quite a few different cards in the format. I have a special fondness for using it with [scryfall]Courser of Kruphix[/scryfall] to maximize the benefits.

7. [scryfall]Blur of Blades[/scryfall]

So innocuous and yet so powerful. In general paying two mana for killing a X/1 is quite weak, but somehow this always seems to be the card I want to draw.

6. [scryfall]Champion of Wits[/scryfall]

Did you know they had to add a new rule because of this card? You can no longer draw negative amount of cards, which could come up with this and [scryfall]Grasp of Darkness[/scryfall] among other things. Looting for two is good, but being able to use something like [scryfall]Become Immense[/scryfall] on this is just great.

5. [scryfall]Torment of Hailfire[/scryfall]

Punishers are always pretty bad, but this one is fun, because it can be good at times, but awful in many situations. You do need to design the deck around it for it to work and there are many other win conditions that are better, but has that ever stopped me? Not really.

4. [scryfall]Curator of Mysteries[/scryfall]

Cycling decisions are hard on their own. This one makes it a bit easier, but also more interesting. These two abilities are quite skill intensive, so at least I can claim to be skillful when playing this.

3. [scryfall]Dreamstealer[/scryfall]

Discard has been a favored tool of mine since ’94. How can I say no, when there’s finally a new efficient way to do it?

2. [scryfall]Imminent Doom[/scryfall]

Valentin Mackl actually played this in the PT. He didn’t do very well (didn’t make day 2), but he had the right idea. He would play [scryfall]Burn from Within[/scryfall] to fix the curve. This feels like the kind of card you want to figure out how to use. I don’t think there really is a competitive way to use this, but you never know.

1. [scryfall]Ammit Eternal[/scryfall]

I love the weird pressure this puts on the game. It might just die to random things being played, but because of it’s size and the Afflict, it can also be basically a one sided [scryfall]Abyss[/scryfall] for a few turns that also happens to deal a lot of damage. It makes decisions just that much more intricate and interesting. Just today we were testing a few decks and couple of them played this. There was always this weird pull into different directions. I mean, I couldn’t exactly just [scryfall]Shock[/scryfall] it despite my [scryfall]Soul-Scar Mage[/scryfall]. It could easily get rid of the counters. Therefore, I needed to maneuver the game into a situation where I could do this safely when it was blocking me, but in the mean time I had to take plenty of damage from it. It’s not impossible to beat and can sometimes be a liability, but it’s also very efficient in what it does. And friend’s with [scryfall]Hapatra’s Mark[/scryfall].