What's up, Wizards? It's time for Rule Zero, the show that helps you prepare for the best game of Commander. I'm Sean. It is our hope that through our decades of experience of playing EDH and cultivating a great playgroup, tons of great decks, and also trying a lot of outside the box variants and homebrew rules, that we can pass that golden knowledge on to you. This week, we're What has me excited in the world of magic is none other than the set being released on September 27th, Dusk Mourn. I am super hyped for a set that is about more modern horror styles and not necessarily just the gothic horror of Innistrad. You see, I've been a horror fan, um, since renting movies like Rawhead Rex and Nightmare on Elm Street, three Dream Warriors from my little video store called Alessi Video in Independence, Louisiana as a small child. I think I was like seven or eight when I was watching those movies. Probably not appropriate for a kid, but here we are. I got through it and, uh, I have gotten a love for horror ever since. And we are literally litera, we are literally living through a horror Renaissance of types right now. As you see, a lot of horror movies are hitting theaters and making buku bucks, good, bad, mediocre. Doesn't matter. Um, we have a lot of options now, whereas in the nineties and two thousands, when I was kind of in my prime, like twenties and thirties, well, it was a dry spell. Let's say it was pretty bad. Unless you like the schlockiest cheesiest horror of all. Anywho, I'll keep you posted. Uh, the channel may have some box openings in partnership with the local game store, gamers haunt. Perfect name for a horror theme set. If you ask me and, uh, I'm able to get some box openings in before the release date, so that will be a little exciting. Anyway, we are here for something that is mildly horrific to some players. None other than an overlooked card type, the rattlesnake card. Let's get into it. First off, what is a rattlesnake? Definition, Oxford English Dictionary, a heavy bodied American pit viper with a series of horny rings on the tail that, when vibrated, produce a characteristic rattling sound as a warning. Hopefully I can insert a rattle sound right there. Um, if you haven't been on a trail in the East or the West, I mean, there's different diamondbacks and rattlers in both places. Uh, it can be kind of scary to come upon one. I've certainly almost stepped on one while hiking out in the wilds. And, uh, sometimes they're like asleep and they don't even rattle. So if we're lucky. A rattlesnake will rattle and it will keep us away. And in magic terms, what that means is there's information on the table that either you are presenting in your deck or an opponent is presenting in theirs that says, stay away. Don't step on me. Don't tread on me. The hilarious libertarian flag that comes from a more real life source of, Hey, there's a rattlesnake there. Don't mess with me. Why anybody would want to personify themselves as a rattlesnake. I don't know. Anyway, you do you in EDH. There are a lot of reasons to play rattlesnake cards, and we want to go over some of those as well as giving you a top 10 of my favorite. Those may not be your favorite, but more than happy to hear what you have to say in the comments. Another thing I want to highlight really quick is that. You may think Rattlesnake card, one of the originals, came out of Innistrad, actually, it was called Ambush Viper. Now, this is kind of, uh, controversial, because I don't think this is a Rattlesnake card at all, because, for one and a green, a 2 1 snake, it has flash and deathtouch. This is more of a, what I would call, a gotcha card. The fact of the matter is, people don't know you have it, and so It's not sitting there like a rattle snake does. It's not making the rattling sound now. There is a case in magic where you can actually just reveal cards out of your hand. And in that case, it would be a rattlesnake. I don't know why you would want to do that because with ambush Viper, you really want to get maximum value and kind of get the gotcha moment where you kill their big thing. However, I just wanted to put it out there that it is an option. There is nothing stopping you in the rules of magic. As far as I know, revealing one of your own cards. Totally doable, particularly in a casual commander format. There may be other rules in different formats that I'm not aware of. So this is not really a rattlesnake, but people often say it is online, which is why I wanted to bring it up and kind of get it out of the way first. Now, before we get into the top 10 and maybe a couple other honorable mentions, um, what decks want rattlesnakes in the first place? In my mind, mid range, which is often a kind of murky archetype, which is basically I'm trying to stabilize through getting incremental value from like mid power creatures, kind of like mid power spells. I am not the aggressor right off the bat. I'm not casting like turn one, uh, uh, or whatever, trying to, you know, get at people's life totals immediately. And I'm not like aiming to get through to the late game, although I can certainly play in the link late game. Mid range is a more patient style that tries to accrue incremental value. One of the most famous mid range decks out there is John in modern. If you're talking about competitive scene, um, and it was just creatures that were a little above the curve. With some recursion built in and or things, um, that would allow you to kind of like get an extra card off the top or, you know, just little extra bonuses. And through that incremental value, you were able to eke out a win. There's a very grindy sort of style. It's a style that I really enjoy, um, in commander and in competitive formats. But rattlesnake cards can go in there because you're the value that you're accruing is basically I am saving my life total by people not attacking at me. Um, so the other style, which I think is more prevalent for what you want to run a rattlesnake in is combo. Now, Combo wants time to accrue cards and prevent people from killing them first. So there's going to be a lot of cards in here that you could certainly play out in a combo style deck in order to get to the point where you finally have that win in hand and protection to back it up. So it's okay. If you're not interested in attacking early or. Um, using your rattlesnakes on an aggressive sort of, or in a, using your rattlesnakes in an aggressive sort of way, that's totally fine because that's not really what they're there for. Now, I do want to present a pitfall to playing rattlesnake cards. And this is kind of timely because depending on the type of person you're playing. across the table from there is an effect in which a rattlesnake might be seen as a challenge or a rattlesnake might be seen as more threatening than it is and this can happen a lot in particular With cards like Nevenral's Disc. Put it up on the screen right now. Nevenral's Disc is a 4 mana artifact, that for 1, you can tap it. It destroys all creatures, enchantments, and artifacts in play, including the disc itself. Um, it starts in play tapped, but after that it untaps, and it just kind of sits there. And the reason it's timely is because Rachel weeks and Jimmy Wong from the command zone recently did an episode on cards that were the quote, most annoying cards. And in that episode, about halfway through, I can't remember the exact timestamp for you. Um, Rachel talks about her experience with Nevinral's disc, and in particular, players that do sort of zany things like making one indestructible so it doesn't actually destroy itself. That makes her feel as if she's being held hostage. And she shared that the way that she responds to that is to attack players Who make her feel that way. And I can relate to that in a lot of ways. Like I see a ghostly prison or a propaganda style enchantment on the board. And for those who don't know, that's like a white and two or blue and two. And all it says is you have to pay one extra for every creature that is attacking that player. And it just kind of makes it expensive to attack that player. It's a good card, but I always play aggro decks. I always play creature decks. So if I ever see anything on the board that. tells me I can't attack that person. I actually try to kill that player first. That's not everybody, but occasionally, I just wanted to let you know, you will run into people like moi, or perhaps like Rachel Weeks from the Command Zone, who kind of see those roadblocks more as like a challenge. And we'll push through them. It's kind of like there's an old phrase in magic, make them have it. And by that, they mean, if they, if you think they have a counterspell or you think they have removal, you have to push through that in order to get to the point where you can enact your game plan. And eventually, hopefully they will run out of those answers. And then you will be able to freely do what you want to do. Always make them have it. And by that I think it's a very courageous sort of brave style that comes from more competitive players. Um, but I think it's often correct. So if you ever play against rattlesnake cards, sometimes it may actually be in your benefit to sacrifice something on the altar or like dare the rattlesnake player, like, okay, If you really want to knock out my 4 4 with your death toucher, Go ahead because then that's going to open them up to all of the other players at the table For attacks and they may not actually take that they may be saving that for better value or something down the road So don't be as afraid of rattlesnakes if you're playing against them, but if you're playing them Here are some of the best. These are the cards that will help you get to that late stage in the game that will help you not take incremental chip damage as we call it along the way, because players will kind of, there's many players out there who will just bypass you, who won't attack you at all. Like I've seen people respond to things like propaganda would never attacking the person with propaganda that is mystifying to me. Um, but I can, if I try to put on my therapist hat, like I can. I can kind of understand it, right? It's like, maybe they don't see the person who plays that as a threat. Maybe they have a way to win that doesn't require them to attack people. But when I sit at the table, I have to attack people. So it does kind of like threaten me or set off alarm bells. Um, so in no particular order. Number one, one of the most famous rattlesnake cards there is Baleful Strix, blue and a black artifact creature bird. It's a one, one flying and deaf touch. Amazing. Chef's kiss right off the top. When Baleful Strix enters the, enters the battlefield, draw a card. Even better. I mean this card replaces itself. It will single handedly Sit on the table and scare away the biggest attackers. It's crazy. How well this card does its job number two tower winder creature snake a 1 1 this comes from the outlaws of Thunder Junction Precons I picked up a couple copies because I kind of I dig it what this card does It's reaching death touch, so it operates in the same way as Baleful Strix. It doesn't draw you a card, however, when it enters the battlefield. Search your library and or graveyard for a card named Command Tower. Reveal it, put it into your hand, If you search your library this way shuffle, it's not as good as drawing a card. Let's be honest. However, it does get you a card in hand, um, index that mill themselves, which often in green, you can make that happen or decks that can recur. This creature, this can be a very powerful effect because you're always going to have a blocker for their biggest monstrous flyer, whatever that will take it out and getting a command tower is color fixing. So. While this card is sort of medium on the power level, I have played with it a lot. I do recognize this does scare away opponents from attacking you. And that is what these cards are all about. These cards are not necessarily needing to kill your opponents, creatures, what they're there for, and you can kind of. Add up the damage mentally in your head is like, by the time they do get rid of this creature, you will have saved like four, six, perhaps like 10, 12 life. And that matters a lot. These cards have a really outsized effect, but it's not inherently visible from the start. But just look at all the people who bypass you on attacks when you play them, and you'll start to see the pattern of like, oh, this is actually really good. Like this is not only saving me life, it's actually causing my opponents to take more damage. Number three, Michiko Kanda, Truth Seeker. For a three and a white, you get a 2 2 legendary creature, Human Advisor. Whenever a source and opponent controls deals damage to you, that player sacks a permanent. Now, this used to be an absolute crushing all star. Sure, it's a creature. All these things are creatures. They're up to removal. It is what it is. If somebody spends a removal spell on these, I say good, right? That's a removal spell on a creature that isn't really the main focus of your deck. It's not on your commander or whatever. Fine. I'll take that deal any day. However. If this stays on the board, it doesn't really threaten anybody. Just like a rattlesnake sitting over in some boulders, 300 feet away. Like you don't care, but when they attack you sacking a permanent, that's huge. I add the kind of asterisk on there though, because. With treasures and clues and all that kind of stuff out there nowadays, this is a lot worse than it used to be. But I think it still deserves a spot on the list because you won't always be running into decks that run treasure, clue, food, et cetera. And in those cases, sacking a permanent is a huge, huge deal. Number four. Defense of the heart. Now, this is kind of a peculiar pick. This is going to come at it on a different access. This isn't about people attacking you. This is, however, about controlling the board in a different way. So for three and a green in enchantment during your upkeep, if one or more of your opponents control three or more creatures, sacrifice defense of the heart, search your library for up to two creature cards and put those creatures into play, shuffle your library afterward. This card's insane. Like the power on being able to tutor up. Any two creatures in your deck and put them directly onto the battlefield is so powerful. The opponents will have to remove this at some point because particularly if you're playing against like token decks or anything else, they're not going to be enabled to enact their game plan without giving you the two best creatures in your entire deck. And these days creatures are off the charts, powerful, who knows what you can fetch out. So it's a very scary card in that regard. It will draw removal, but again, Oh, it's so sweet when it works so worth it. And if it eats removal, just like any of these cars that we're going to share, I'm kind of okay with that. That means removal gets spent on a thing that wasn't worth it. really the main focus of your deck. None of these cards are going to be the focus of the deck. They are rattlesnakes. They are cards that are just there almost like. Kind of like you jingling some keys up above a cat's head or something like, come on, hit it, hit it. If they hit it fine. It doesn't matter because they've spent their resources getting rid of a thing that wasn't going to kill them in the first place. Number five seal of cleansing. There's a whole kind of cycle of these seals, but we're going to pick just the white one for now. One colorless and a white for an enchantment. At any point, instant speed, you can sacrifice Seal of Cleansing to destroy target artifact or enchantment. These kind of effects will prevent people from putting out their big scary things. Somebody's not going to play Portal of Phyrexia into Seal of Cleansing unless they are absolutely desperate. Because that portal is going to go bye bye instantaneously. Great hinge. See ya. That's the kind of artifacts we're aiming for with this. And that's the kind of artifacts and enchantments we're hoping to keep people from playing at least for a few turns. And if you get that few turns, you've already set their tempo back. Dramatically. You've gotten what you wanted out of this card. And in a pinch, obviously you can sack it to remove a thing, you know, as soon as you play it as well. So it could act as just a disenchant. Number six. No mercy. Two and two black enchantment. Whenever a creature deals damage to you, destroy it. That's it. This is a scary, powerful card. Now, I believe that people are definitely going to try and remove this thing from you. I know I would, because I am attacking with creatures constantly. And if I see this on the table, it sends shivers down my spine, into my toes, into the ground, back around the earth, then into the top of my head again. And it cycles until I get rid of this thing because I can't do anything against this thing. So I'm always going to be running plenty of enchantment removal in my decks just in case. Something like this comes out. So it's a really powerful rattlesnake card. There's gonna be so many people who don't bother to attack you at all because they just don't want to lose their creatures. And the truth of the matter is if you're ever playing against No Mercy, it is sometimes worth it to amass a small board state and just YOLO style attack that person anyway. Cause their life total, life total is going to go down. You're just not going to have any creatures left. So maybe before a board wipe of your own or something, just YOLO style straight into the no mercy player. Cause they deserve it. Number seven, cunning rhetoric, another black enchantment, one that Sheldon Minnery, I believe helped work on because this was in the Strixhaven pre con or not. not the Strixhaven, but it was in Strixhaven. It was the silver quill guild or class or whatever, pre con two and a black enchantment. Whenever an opponent attacks you and or one or more planeswalkers, you control exiled the top card of that player's library. You may play that card for as long as it remains exiled and you may spend mana as, If it were any color to cast it, this is a little on the slow side, however, it can be pretty powerful. And in practice, when I've seen it operate, it has this effect on other people. Like they do not like you casting their cards. It doesn't matter what you draw off the top. Um, You being able to play their stuff is never something they really want. So it does act in that rattlesnake sort of way. It will keep people from attacking you or your planeswalkers. That's an extra little addendum that I think is helpful because these other cards are like. You know, only if you damage you or only if they attack you or whatever. Um, this will protect your planeswalkers as well. So I think in those type of decks, it's probably a shoe in to put it in there. Number eight, propaganda. One of the classics, right? Two in a blue enchantment creatures can't attack you unless their controllers pays two for each creature that they control. That's attacking you. So it's even more than I initially said when I was just going off the off the top So it can be very expensive tax. Um, it makes attacking that person very difficult Um, especially with decks that just have like a bunch of one ones like paying two to attack with a one one is silly So if you're a deck that has that kind of token army, this is really going to put a stop on you You're going to have to remove this as soon as you can Um, but for bigger decks, like you can afford if you're a Voltron style deck or something like that, and you're going to do 10 damage to a person by all means, please pay the two. They deserve it. Number nine, brash taunter four and a red, a goblin, a one, one, it is indestructible. When brash taunter is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to target opponent. Then it has this added ability of pay to a red tap. Brash taunter fights another target creature, and then it has the flavor text. You hit like a cobalt. This card's a menace. This card's really cool. It can be used in a lot of interesting ways. For instance, like bread loves to cast things like blasphemous acts. So you might deal 13 damage to brash taunter and then brash taunter just gets to deal that damage to a target opponent. But it also acts as a rattlesnake and it just sits there waiting for anybody to come on and attack. Wait, you've got an eight eight or a 10 10 monster that you want to get through. Please bring it. And sometimes it will even antagonize by picking a fight and paying that two in a red to tap and fight another creature. Even if it knows it can't win the fight, doesn't matter because it's going to do an enormous amount of damage. It's going to pick the biggest creature on the whole board, fight it, and it doesn't matter. It's indestructible. And it'll do that every turn on the end step before that player on taps every time. So great value, really cool card. Let's move on to number 10 martyrs. Bond. Whenever Martyr's Bond or another non land permanent you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, each opponent sacrifices a permanent that shares a type with it. This is 4 and 2 white for an enchantment. Martyr's Bond is scary. It is so scary because not only does it prevent opponents from kind of removing your stuff, they would hate to have to sacrifice their own things, and sacrifice is a really powerful effect, but you can enact this game plan as well because anytime you put a treasure in the graveyard, every opponent's going to be sacking artifacts. Like, It gets scary. If you run this with seal of cleansing, for instance, not only do you get to destroy one of their target artifacts or enchantments, but you also then trigger the effect of this and make every opponent sacrifice an enchantment as well. Um, I mean, this is a mean card that you're going to draw so much fire for this, but it is, it is mean. Anyway, some honorable mentions. In the world of rattlesnakes, this one's a really bizarre one. I love it. Um, perplexing chimera four and a blue enchantment creature chimera, a three, three, whenever an opponent cast a spell, you may exchange control of perplexing chimera and that spell. If you do, you may choose no new targets for the spell. So basically you've got this goofy dog or whatever it is, a three, three, that's just bad. And what you're daring everyone to do is please cast something that's more valuable than this. And in commander, 95 percent of things are more valuable than this. And then. You get to play the game of, do I want that thing? And if you do, you get it. It doesn't matter if it's like a time warp, nobody would cast a time warp into this. It could be, you know, just a bigger, better creature. Somebody's going to have to trigger this thing. At some point, it could be a doom blade. I'm going to give you this perplexing chimera. And you're going to try and doom blade this thing, but we're going to switch control of those two things. So now you have the perplexing chimera and then I get to doom blade a thing. It's a really funny card. It presents really interesting sort of game states where the perplexing chimera is actually trading ownership around the table. It's kind of chaotic, but I enjoy that quite a bit. Another honorable mention, mine's dilation five and two blue and enchantment, super expensive to get this thing out, however. Whenever an opponent casts their first spell each turn, that player exiles the top card of their library. If it's a non land card, you can cast it without paying its mana cost. So, steep heavy investment early. However, opponents are not going to be able to cast spells without giving you free stuff. And that's scary. Like, people aren't going to love that at all. So, um, Yeah, see how people react. They tend to squirm with this one. I'm sure it will draw removal as soon as possible. And the last, but not least one of the oldies, but goodies, one of the original rattlesnake sort of cards. I remember playing this in type one, uh, myself and really just honestly holding my opponent hostage. Much as Rachel weak shared Nevin your Rawls disc for Mana for an artifact, pay one and tap it. Destroy all creatures, enchantments, and artifacts, including the disc itself, which is the old wording, but I put it on there. Anyway, disc begins the turn tapped. So this card is just so much fun to play. Um, it's an oldie, but a goodie. I mean, the fact that a card from 30 years ago can still see play today is honestly pretty impressive because power creep has been real. Um, Good old Larry Nevin's disc, which if you don't know, Larry Nevin is an old author who wrote a book called Ringworld. You know, if you have had a chance to play some of these Rattlesnake cards before, I would love to hear how the experience went for you. These are a card type that I don't get to play as much as I would like because I don't run combo decks a whole lot and I'm pretty aggressive. Sort of mid range or even fast aggressive in my decks, typically, but I love a lot of these cards. They do just present other players with an interesting puzzle that they have to solve. And in particular, you know, things like Baleful Strikes will never get old. I mean, that card is just so good. Brash Taunter is so funny to play. Cunning Rhetoric. Stealing other people's cards just because they dared to do damage to you or a planeswalker or like even perplexing chimera. I mean, imagine sitting on the table and being like, yep, I'm going to exchange my dog for that omniscience or whatever. You know, like it's just, then it's nuts. The things you could do with this card and it's sitting there being a threat is just really funny to me. So if you've enjoyed this episode or you want to talk with me about magic, happy to. You can find me at rule zero podcast. That's the number zero on Twitter, or you can email us at rule zero podcast at gmail. com. You know, do the things please. If you would like subscribe, if you're on the YouTubes, it really helps us out. Um, I've been so happy with the progress we've made so far, but I do have hopes dreams that we're going to get a little bit more reach. We always appreciate a good review on the podcast side of things too. So if that's where you're hearing us on those Monday morning episodes, basically the video comes out on Sunday, the Monday morning episode, however, will be the podcast version of that comes out 5. 00 AM Eastern standard time, just in time for any kind of drives to work that you all might have. I know I tend to enjoy listening to podcasts when I'm driving into, you know, the boring old job or whatever. Next time you're at your kitchen table or at your local game shop, just remember one thing, and I know sometimes this can be a controversial thing, but I truly believe that in magic, there is no problem that a rule zero conversation cannot solve.