Power Sink - Najeela: Mean Girl(s)

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Looking Forward to Happier Times on Blue Bayou</h2>
Welcome to Superior Numbers, where I try to do numerical analysis on cards and deckbuilding trends using a little bit of math.
Let's finish up the Sultai colors for this little series, shall we? Most of these are cards from Magic’s earliest days, when a card that either utterly destroys your opponent or is totally worthless depending on which deck they picked up was considered good design. Luckily we've learned (Companions) from those mistakes (free spells) and no longer see disruptive cards (<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Oko, Thief of Crowns" href="#" target="_blank">Oko, Thief of Crowns</a>) that prevent people from playing the game (<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Teferi, Time Raveler" href="#" target="_blank">Teferi, Time Raveler</a>) show up in our sets.
EDH is a multiplayer format, though, and it’s way less likely that you’ll wind up with a dead card in hand just because your opponent isn't playing a certain deck. You generally have three or four of those opponents as well, which means that there’s a greater likelihood that one of them will be playing the color that interacts with what you have in hand. As a result of all of that, some of these older, forgotten cards that fixate on a particular color wind up putting in a decent amount of work in Commander, and I'd like to take a look at a few of them.
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Oh, 'cause Blue Skies are Coming</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Abjure"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Inundate"></div></div>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Abjure" href="#" target="_blank">Abjure</a> is going to be one of the two cards here that more care about you playing blue as opposed to your opponent playing blue, but I want to talk about it because it's an absolute house in <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Talrand, Sky Summoner" href="#" target="_blank">Talrand, Sky Summoner</a>. There, it's basically a one-mana hard counter, and it's sometimes better than that, as you often swap a tapped Drake you attacked with for a newly-created untapped one that can block and may even proc a trigger from something like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kindred Discovery" href="#" target="_blank">Kindred Discovery</a>. Sure, it's dead if you don't have a blue permanent to sacrifice, but the reality is that if you don't have a Drake to spare you're probably in such a bad position that a counter isn't going to save you from whatever is being cast.
While Talrand is the only commander that makes a replacement permanent when you sacrifice one to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Abjure" href="#" target="_blank">Abjure</a>, commanders like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Alela, Artful Provocateur" href="#" target="_blank">Alela, Artful Provocateur</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Breya, Etherium Shaper" href="#" target="_blank">Breya, Etherium Shaper</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer" href="#" target="_blank">Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Meloku, the Clouded Mirror" href="#" target="_blank">Meloku, the Clouded Mirror</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Oona, Queen of the Fae" href="#" target="_blank">Oona, Queen of the Fae</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="The Locust God" href="#" target="_blank">The Locust God</a> all provide disposable sacrifice fodder, in the form of tokens, from the command zone. Decks like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Edric, Spymaster of Trest" href="#" target="_blank">Edric, Spymaster of Trest</a> also have small, disposable bodies on board to spare, making it a really solid choice there, too.
It's currently in just 1,100 decks, and it really should be in more, especially the ones mentioned above.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Inundate" href="#" target="_blank">Inundate</a> is in 1,272 decks, which also isn't nearly enough. Yeah, it's six mana with trip blue pips, and yes, it's sorcery speed, but in a mono-blue deck it's a mass bounce spell that doesn't touch your stuff. The main downside is that, as we're about to see with the rest of the cards in this article, there're a whole lot of blue commanders out there showing up in EDH pods.
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">How I Got These Lonesome Johnny Blues</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Lightning Dart"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Parch"></div></div>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lightning Dart" href="#" target="_blank">Lightning Dart</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Parch" href="#" target="_blank">Parch</a> are both spells you'd probably only consider in mono-red, and even then probably only in a fairly narrow meta. Still, I think they're both playable in the right situation, specifically as cheap, instant-speed ways to deal with problem commanders. Which commanders? Well, it just so happens that:
<ul>
<li>9 of top 20 most popular commanders in the last week are blue with 4 or less toughness</li>
<li>10 of the top 20 most popular commanders in the last month are blue with 4 or less toughness</li>
<li>6 of the top 20 most popular commanders in the last week are blue with 4 or less toughness</li>
</ul>
How many does <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lightning Bolt" href="#" target="_blank">Lightning Bolt</a> hit as a comparison? Less than <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lightning Dart" href="#" target="_blank">Lightning Dart</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Parch" href="#" target="_blank">Parch</a>:
<ul>
<li>6 of top 20 most popular commanders in the last week</li>
<li>7 of the top 20 most popular commanders in the last month</li>
<li>3 of the top 20 most popular commanders in the last 2 years</li>
</ul>
Again, I don't think you run it everywhere, but if you're in mono-red and you're seeing <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kalamax, the Stormsire" href="#" target="_blank">Kalamax, the Stormsire</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kess, Dissident Mage" href="#" target="_blank">Kess, Dissident Mage</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Atraxa, Praetor&#039;s Voice" href="#" target="_blank">Atraxa, Praetor&#039;s Voice</a> in every pod, it's possibly worth a slot.
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">She's a Child of the Wild Blue Yonder</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Heat Wave"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Magistrate&#039;s Veto"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Magnetic Mountain"></div></div>
Green has what seems like infinite ways to blast through damage if an opponent has a dense board state, but things are a little harder when you're in red and want to go send in the troops. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Heat Wave" href="#" target="_blank">Heat Wave</a> is an enchantment in red that lets you punch through combat damage against blue decks. How effective is it?
<ul>
<li>14 of top 20 commanders in the last week are blue and can't block creatures you control</li>
<li>14 of the top 20 commanders in the last month</li>
<li>12 of the top 20 commanders in the last year</li>
</ul>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Magistrate&#039;s Veto" href="#" target="_blank">Magistrate&#039;s Veto</a> is even better, as it also makes your stuff unblockable by both white creatures and blue creatures, raising the stats to:
<ul>
<li>18 of the top 20 commanders in the last week are blue or white and can't block your creatures you control</li>
<li>18 of the top 20 commanders in the last week are blue or white</li>
<li>16 of the top 20 commanders in the last week are blue or white</li>
</ul>
There are fewer white and blue bodies on the creature list, with only 40% of the top 100 most frequently played creatures in the last two years being blue or white, but still, having 4 out of 10 blockers be unable to actually block is pretty effective.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Magnetic Mountain" href="#" target="_blank">Magnetic Mountain</a> doesn't really help poke through damage, but it's an enchantment that can shut down blue creatures, and, in particular, a lot of the ones mentioned in the section on <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Abjure" href="#" target="_blank">Abjure</a> above. The stats from <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Heat Wave" href="#" target="_blank">Heat Wave</a> show what percentage of commanders get locked down and require an exorbitant four mana to untap. This is, again, probably a meta call, but, in a meta where it consistently works, it's an absolute nightmare to see hit the field.
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">She Wore Blue Velvet</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Seedtime"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Snake Pit"></div></div>
Extra turns? In green? It's more likely than you think. Enter <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Seedtime" href="#" target="_blank">Seedtime</a>, a card in a mere 458 decks, that lets you take an extra turn for two mana if an opponent casts a blue spell on your turn. How often can that happen? Are many instants blue? It turns out yes, many are.
<ul>
<li>3 of the 5 most popular all-time instant spells are blue</li>
<li>45 of the 100 most popular of all-time instant spells are blue</li>
</ul>
Counterspelling me? That's an extra turn. End of turn <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Brainstorm" href="#" target="_blank">Brainstorm</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fact or Fiction" href="#" target="_blank">Fact or Fiction</a>? Extra turn. Flashing in a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Notion Thief" href="#" target="_blank">Notion Thief</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Venser, Shaper Savant" href="#" target="_blank">Venser, Shaper Savant</a>? Extra turn.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Snake Pit" href="#" target="_blank">Snake Pit</a> puts Snakes on the field so fast you'll think it's a twitter feed, and it's not just blue spells that do it; black ones proc the snek, too. It's in 330 decks, which isn't very many for a card that gets triggered by so many things.
<ul>
<li>17 of 20 top commanders in the last two years are blue or black</li>
<li>18 of 20 top planeswalkers</li>
<li>9 of 20 top enchantments</li>
<li>8 of 20 top sorceries</li>
<li>12 of 20 top instants</li>
</ul>
Basically, aside from artifacts, if someone plays a spell it has a better than 50% chance to make you a Snake, and that's an excellent rate for a Set It and Forget It enchantment. And if your opponent decides to not cast spells to avoid giving you the body? That's a win and worth the price of casting the card, too.
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Pyroblast"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Red Elemental Blast"></div></div>
So, as of writing this article, <a href="https://articles.edhrec.com/author/joseph-schultz/">Joey Schultz</a> has successfully used one of these two cards to blow up a game-saving or game-ending counterspell three weeks in a row. He's right to be running them in red decks that lack blue, too. They have SOOOOO many targets. The same stats apply here as to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Heat Wave" href="#" target="_blank">Heat Wave</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Magistrate&#039;s Veto" href="#" target="_blank">Magistrate&#039;s Veto</a>:
<ul>
<li>14 of top 20 last week die to a single red mana from <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Red Elemental Blast" href="#" target="_blank">Red Elemental Blast</a>/<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pyroblast" href="#" target="_blank">Pyroblast</a></li>
<li>14 of the top 20 last month</li>
<li>12 of the top 20 last year</li>
</ul>
There're plenty of other great ways to use both, obviously, but, for me personally, I'd pay one red mana for a modular spell whose modes were:
<ul>
<li>Counter/destroy 2/3 of the most popular commanders in the last two years</li>
<li>Counter 99% of counterspells</li>
<li>Counter/destroy target <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rhystic Study" href="#" target="_blank">Rhystic Study</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cyclonic Rift" href="#" target="_blank">Cyclonic Rift</a></li>
</ul>
And they both do so much more than that.
<hr />
<h2 id="lyric-body-text" class="lyric-body wselect-cnt" style="text-align: center;" data-lang="en">You're Sailing Out on a Blue, Blue Sea</h2>
I’d like to leave off with a decklist of mine actually running <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Abjure" href="#" target="_blank">Abjure</a> and that has ran <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Inundate" href="#" target="_blank">Inundate</a> in the past. How many of you out there are running any of these color-specific cards focused on blue or are interested giving them a look? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below. Thanks for reading, and as always, may your numbers be superior.
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Talrand, Sky Summoner: Drakestorm" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
[/Commander]
[Instants]
*1 Abjure
*1 Anticipate
*1 Boomerang
*1 Brainstorm
*1 Counterspell
*1 Cyclonic Rift
*1 Dig Through Time
*1 Echoing Truth
*1 Fact or Fiction
*1 Fierce Guardianship
*1 High Tide
*1 Impulse
*1 Into the Roil
*1 Keep Watch
*1 Lat-Nam&#039;s Legacy
*1 Mind Games
*1 Mission Briefing
*1 Muddle the Mixture
*1 Mystical Tutor
*1 Narset&#039;s Reversal
*1 Opt
*1 Perilous Research
*1 Polymorphist&#039;s Jest
*1 Pongify
*1 Quicken
*1 Rapid Hybridization
*1 Reality Shift
*1 Swan Song
*1 Telling Time
[/Instants]
[Sorceries]
*1 Chart a Course
*1 Distant Melody
*1 Hands of Binding
*1 Hidden Strings
*1 Mitotic Manipulation
*1 Ponder
*1 Portent
*1 Preordain
*1 Retraced Image
*1 Serum Visions
*1 Treasure Cruise
*1 Winged Words
[/Sorceries]
[Creatures]
*1 Docent of Perfection
*1 Murmuring Mystic
[/Creatures]
[Enchantments]
*1 Coastal Piracy
*1 Favorable Winds
*1 Gravitational Shift
*1 Kindred Discovery
*1 Reconnaissance Mission
*1 Teferi&#039;s Veil
[/Enchantments]
[Artifacts]
*1 Arcane Signet
*1 Bident of Thassa
*1 Caged Sun
*1 Coat of Arms
*1 Everflowing Chalice
*1 Extraplanar Lens
*1 Fellwar Stone
*1 Gauntlet of Power
*1 Heraldic Banner
*1 Mind Stone
*1 Primal Amulet
*1 Sapphire Medallion
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Thought Vessel
*1 Throne of the God-Pharaoh
*1 Veilstone Amulet
[/Artifacts]
[Lands]
*1 Ancient Tomb
*1 Castle Vantress
*1 Mystic Sanctuary
*1 Reliquary Tower
*1 Scavenger Grounds
*25 Snow-Covered Island
*1 Strip Mine
*1 Tectonic Edge
*1 Terrain Generator
*1 Wasteland
[/Lands]"></div>

Superior Numbers - Cards Caring about Colors: Blue

<h2 style="text-align: center;">I see a red door and I want it painted black</h2>
Welcome to Superior Numbers, where I try to do numerical analysis on cards and deckbuilding trends using slightly more math and slightly less snark than in my usual column.
Slightly.
Let's take a look back at Magic's earliest days, a distant time when it seemed like a good idea to design cards that functioned based on the colors your opponent chose to play. Hey, it was a long time ago. We were young in those simpler times, lining up at the theater to watch Keanu Reeves blast random dudes with hand cannons. Times have changed, and we've grown beyond that. Now when we line up at the theater to watch Keanu Reeves blast random dudes with hand cannons he does so with a beard. Clearly we've learned from those past mistakes.
Still, those cards are Commander legal even if it's a design space the game no longer visits, and by virtue of EDH being a multiplayer format, it's way less likely you'll get burned by an opponent's color choice. You have three, four, or sometimes even five times more opponents, which means five times greater likelihood that one of your opponents will be playing a color that boosts the strength of your cards.
For the next few Superior Numbers articles, I'll be taking a look at some of these more popular cards that hate on or care about other colors. For this first installment, we'll be starting with the color black.
Note: All statistics presented are as of 03/17/2019.
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">No colors any more, I want them to turn black</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Absolute Grace"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Elephant Grass"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Light of Day"></div></div>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Absolute Grace" href="#" target="_blank">Absolute Grace</a> gives all creatures protection from black, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Elephant Grass" href="#" target="_blank">Elephant Grass</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Light of Day" href="#" target="_blank">Light of Day</a> alter combat for black creatures. If you're not playing black, that isn't much of a downside for you, but what's the upside?
<ul>
<li>Commanders
<ul>
<li>7 of the top 10 and 13 of the top 20 commanders of <a href="https://edhrec.com/commanders">all time</a> are black</li>
<li>4 of the top 5 and 15 of the top 20 commanders in the last month are black</li>
<li>4 of the top 5 and 16 of the top 20 commanders in the last week are black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Creatures
<ul>
<li>2 of the top 20 are black</li>
<li>27 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/creatures">top 100</a> are black</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
One note that is relevant here is that the top 20 creatures list tends to be dominated by broadly useful utility creatures and mana dorks. In other words, creatures that don't really present combat threats. When we pull up a level and look at the top 100 creatures, the numbers are less dominated by those types of utility creatures. We also see that black, which represents 20% of the color pie (or less, if you count colorless) takes up 27% of the creature slots.
These stats are also useful for <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cleanse" href="#" target="_blank">Cleanse</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Reclamation" href="#" target="_blank">Reclamation</a>.
The following numbers are also important for <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Absolute Grace" href="#" target="_blank">Absolute Grace</a>:
<ul>
<li>Instants
<ul>
<li>3 of the top 5 targeted instant removal spells are black</li>
<li>7 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/instants">top 15</a> targeted instant removal spells are black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sorceries
<ul>
<li>2 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/sorceries">top 5</a> targeted sorcery removal spells are black</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
I should also note these things are somewhat meta-dependent as well. If you're playing in a small, tight group with predictable color matches, the value of these cards is fairly easy to gauge. If, however, you are playing in a much more volatile environment, hopefully these stats will help you better judge just how game viable these cards may be. In general, I'm not sure these particular cards warrant the cut for their specific color-hosing potential. Let's look at a few more, though.
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">I see a line of cars and they're all painted black</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Compost"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Lifeforce"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Reap"></div></div>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Compost" href="#" target="_blank">Compost</a> cares out cards being put into graveyards. Unlike <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Absolute Grace" href="#" target="_blank">Absolute Grace</a>, where we only counted targeted spells, here we primarily want to look at the flat amount of instant and sorcery spells that are black, as they're the type of spells mostly likely to wind up in a graveyard without any added interaction.
<ul>
<li>Instants
<ul>
<li>3 of the top 10 instants are black</li>
<li>29 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/instants">top 100 instants</a> are black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sorceries
<ul>
<li>3 of the top 10 sorceries are black</li>
<li>36 of the top <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/sorceries">100 sorceries</a> are black</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lifeforce" href="#" target="_blank">Lifeforce</a> just cares about black spells, period, regardless of type, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Reap" href="#" target="_blank">Reap</a> cares about black permanents in play:
<ul>
<li>Commanders
<ul>
<li>The top 7 <a href="https://edhrec.com/commanders">most popular commanders of all time</a> are all black</li>
<li>13 of the top 20 commanders of all time are black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Creatures
<ul>
<li>28 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/creatures">top 100 creatures spells</a> are black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Instants
<ul>
<li>29 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/instants">top 100 instants</a> are black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sorceries
<ul>
<li>36 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/sorceries">top 100 sorceries</a> are black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Artifacts
<ul>
<li>8 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/artifacts">top 100 artifacts</a> are black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Enchantments
<ul>
<li>23 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/enchantments">top 100 enchantments</a> are black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Planeswalkers
<ul>
<li>28 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/planeswalkers">top 100 planeswalkers</a> are black</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
These cards look much better than the ones above; they count for any spell, and a whole lot of the categories here are dominated by an over-representation of black cards (black is just one-fifth of the color pie, for example, but takes up one-third of the most popular sorceries). We have a well-above-average chance to encounter one if not two opponents playing black in their decks, and for a large number of their spells in those decks to be black, too, which makes the cards here definitely worth consideration.
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">I look inside myself and see my heart is black</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Greater Realm of Preservation"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Righteous War"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Snake Pit"></div></div>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Greater Realm of Preservation" href="#" target="_blank">Greater Realm of Preservation</a> basically mashes together <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Circle of Protection: Black" href="#" target="_blank">Circle of Protection: Black</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Circle of Protection: Red" href="#" target="_blank">Circle of Protection: Red</a> into one enchantment that very few people run. Should more people run it? Well, let's look at how effective it might be:
<ul>
<li>Commanders
<ul>
<li>17 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/commanders">top 20 commanders of all time</a> are either black or red</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Creatures
<ul>
<li>40 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/creatures">top 100 creatures of all time</a> are either black or red</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Righteous War" href="#" target="_blank">Righteous War</a> is a pet card of mine. Almost any deck that can run it (save a few exceptions like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Alesha, Who Smiles at Death" href="#" target="_blank">Alesha, Who Smiles at Death</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="General Tazri" href="#" target="_blank">General Tazri</a>) feature commanders that are both black and white. This means Righteous War also gives that commander protection from both those colors, rendering it unblockable by black or white creatures, turn it into an indestructible blocker when blocking a black or white creature, and making it impervious to any black or white spell or ability. So how frequently is that important?
<ul>
<li>Commanders
<ul>
<li>The top 8 most popular commanders of all time are either black or white.</li>
<li>15 of <a href="https://edhrec.com/commanders">top 20 commanders of all time</a> are either black or white</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Creatures
<ul>
<li>39 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/creatures">top 100 creatures of all time</a> are black or white</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Targeted instant or sorcery spells
<ul>
<li>8 of the top 10 single-target <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/instants">instant</a> or <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/sorceries">sorcery</a> spells are white or black</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Snake Pit" href="#" target="_blank">Snake Pit</a> makes a token every time one of your opponents casts a blue or black spell. It requires no input from you to do so, either.
<ul>
<li>Commanders
<ul>
<li>18 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/commanders">top 20 commanders of all time</a> are either blue or black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Creatures
<ul>
<li>51 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/creatures">top 100 creature spells</a> are either blue or black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Instants
<ul>
<li>64 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/instants">top 100 instants</a> are either blue or black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sorceries
<ul>
<li>51 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/sorceries">top 100 sorceries</a> are either blue or black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Artifacts
<ul>
<li>13 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/artifacts">top 100 artifacts</a> are either blue or black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Enchantments
<ul>
<li>43 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/enchantments">top 100 enchantments</a> are either blue or black</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Planeswalkers
<ul>
<li>55 of the <a href="https://edhrec.com/top/planeswalkers">top 100 planeswalkers</a> are either blue or black</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
More than half of the most commonly cast spells create a Snake. Even if your opponents in a four player game each only cast one spell per turn, you will on average create 1.5 snakes per trip around the board, at least in looking at the most popular spells in each category.
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black</h2>
Thanks for reading! I’d like to leave off with a tentative decklist of mine actually running <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Compost" href="#" target="_blank">Compost</a>. This is an evolution of the <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kess, Dissident Mage" href="#" target="_blank">Kess, Dissident Mage</a> Petitioners deck put together on the <a href="https://articles.edhrec.com/edhrecast-ep46-brew-battle-persistent-petitioners/">EDHRECast episode #46</a>. Eventually I'll hit most of the color-hosing cards that see some EDH play, and perhaps take a look at the land hosers, too, but in the interim, if you have any suggestions for other topics to cover in a future Superior Numbers, leave a note in the comments below!
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"></div>
[Creatures]
*1 Murkfiend Liege
*25 Persistent Petitioners
*1 Seedborn Muse
[/creatures]
[Artifacts]
*1 Chromatic Lantern 
*1 Herald's Horn 
*1 Sapphire Medallion 
*1 Sol Ring
[/Artifacts]
[Enchantments]
*1 Aggravated Assault 
*1 Awakening 
*1 Compost 
*1 Curse of Bounty 
*1 Intruder Alarm 
*1 Leyline of the Void 
*1 Quest for Renewal
[/Enchantments]
[Instants]
*1 Benefactor's Draught 
*1 Chaos Warp 
*1 Cyclonic Rift 
*1 Dramatic Reversal 
*1 Intellectual Offering 
*1 Pongify 
*1 Rapid Hybridization 
*1 Reality Shift 
*1 Savage Beating 
*1 Turnabout 
*1 Vitalize
[/Instants]
[Sorceries]
*1 Breaking Wave 
*1 Doubling Chant 
*1 Farseek 
*1 Insurrection 
*1 Into the North 
*1 Mizzix's Mastery 
*1 Mob Rule 
*1 Mobilize 
*1 Nature's Lore 
*1 Pir's Whim 
*1 Rampant Growth 
*1 Traumatize
[/Sorceries]
[Land]
*1 Ancient Tomb 
*1 Ash Barrens 
*1 Breeding Pool 
*1 Cascade Bluffs 
*1 Cinder Glade 
*1 City of Brass 
*1 Command Tower 
*1 Exotic Orchard 
*1 Fire-Lit Thicket 
*1 Flooded Grove 
*1 Forbidden Orchard 
*1 Frontier Bivouac 
*1 Homeward Path 
*1 Karplusan Forest 
*1 Mana Confluence 
*1 Misty Rainforest 
*1 Mutavault 
*1 Scalding Tarn 
*1 Scavenger Grounds 
*1 Shivan Reef 
*4 Snow-Covered Forest 
*4 Snow-Covered Island 
*4 Snow-Covered Mountain 
*1 Steam Vents 
*1 Stomping Ground 
*1 Strip Mine 
*1 Tectonic Edge 
*1 Wooded Foothills 
*1 Yavimaya Coast
[/Land]
[/Deck]

snake pit

Power Sink - Najeela: Mean Girl(s)

Superior Numbers - Cards Caring about Colors: Blue

Superior Numbers - Cards Caring about Colors: Black