Welcome back to our retrospective series on every traditional expansion set’s most underplayed, powerful, and unique cards. Today we’re looking at the first set released in the 21st century, Nemesis. It’s the second set in the Masques block and the small-set follow up to Mercadian Masques (which was covered last month here. Welcome back to the Commander Corner.
It’s easy to feel like there should be a big jump between 90s design space and early 2000s. But, hardly any actual time had passed between the release of either. Of course, the design of Nemesis had also concluded by the time the year rolled over as well. There’s only 143 cards in this set, quite a few less than Mercadian Masques, which had a staggering 350. While covering Masques, I intentionally skipped over a lot of cards people tend to know very well in the interest of saving time. It was time to discuss some hidden treasures in the set. If you notice a few cards you already recognize, it’s only because the card pool is less than half as large by comparison. I had to dig a little deep. That means there are no honorable mentions, as almost every card made it in!
The set itself tells the story of the initial stages of the first Phyrexian invasions into Dominaria. There’s a wild cast of characters, some very interesting themes, and a whole lot of searching libraries. There’s mercenaries, rebels, and quite a few creatures with only 1 power and 1 toughness. Thanks to an errata Sneaky Homunculus is indeed the first homunculus ever printed, with the second ever being printed in the next set, Prophecy! But enough about homunculi, let’s actually dive into some cards. Starting with…
From Stampede Driver to Stronghold Machinist and everywhere in-between, there’s a lot of these little folks running around the set. Collectively, they’re called spellshapers. Most of them are pretty underwhelming, but I encourage you to take a look at them and see if any seem worth playing to you. You can find each and every spellshaper from Nemesis here.
Aether Barrier is a very potent card at tables where creatures reign supreme. Often it will make creatures functionally cost one extra, but sometimes one mana is too much. Bonus points if you start bouncing creatures to make their controllers pay again! Just remember, this will punish any player, not just opponents. Somehow this card hasn’t seen a single reprint.
This might be a pale imitation (Well err.. Dark imitation?) of Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, but it still commands respect against many creature tokens and utility creatures. Maybe it won’t be wiping the board, but it will certainly turn heads. Also, this guy randomly can fly, even though he definitely doesn’t look like he’s flying. Don’t accidentally attack your Kinjalli’s Sunwing into it. Me? No, I’d never make a mistake like that.
A lot of the spellshapers in this set are lackluster, but straight up exiling creatures is a great way to use extra lands, setup Madness cards, or discard anything which retains value in the graveyard. Plus, like any on-board trick, half the power is in the threat of activation, meaning players see a reason to avoid sending creatures your way! Despite seeming like an amazing inclusion in a Commander Legends set, this card has not been printed since its debut in Nemesis.
Skipping entire phases is rare, but this card makes it happen. You can take the wind out of someone’s sails pretty quickly if you can routinely hit them with this sweet angel. Beginning of combat, combat damage, and attack triggers are all very prone to this kind of interaction, and Blinding Angel is one of the few cards to do it. Although a few cards can skip a combat phase as a one-time deal, like Stonehorn Dignitary, the only other card that can repeatedly do this is Fatespinner
Believe it or not, they put Demonic Consultation on a creature. Yes, we did already talk about the spellshapers earlier, but this one is the most notable, so I’m double dipping a tiny bit. If you’ve ever used Consultation for value instead of combo, you now have an outlet to do it more than once. Additionally, this card is ultra-cheap, so if you’re looking for super casual Laboratory Maniac combo outlets, this is a great way to get it done. I’m picking one of these up for sure.
If you’ve ever wanted the control player to tap out, this is a great card to get it done. Of course, you’ll want to sit to their left for maximum value. This card works a lot better if you Rule 0 mana burn back in, or Rule 0 to prevent players from wasting the mana on nothing. Regardless it will still be fun against more reactive decks.
If you can routinely spit out expendable creatures, this can tear apart an opponent’s hand quickly. I’ve personally seen this card do great work in decks like Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, where it quickly became unmanageable, but I’m sure it would also do well alongside Chatterfang, Squirrel General or Thalisse, Reverent Medium.
If you’re a sincere goblin enthusiast, you may have seen this card before. Since it has only one printing, it’s a bit on the pricier side, but it’s still one of the most powerful ways to dump goblins straight into play on anyone’s turn! But don’t ask why they’re catching the goblins. Shout out to the other variants, Seahunter and Skyshroud Poacher, which fetch other creature types instead.
Now we’re talking. Free spells are definitely in my wheelhouse, and this one doesn’t disappoint. Although it will play better in decks which don’t care about life gain, especially decks looking to end the game by Commander damage, you can still play this if you’re brave enough. With this I plan on replacing Back to Nature and other effects which actually cost mana, because paying for spells is for chumps.
Stax? Stax. If you thought Back to Basics was a frustrating and needlessly powerful mono-blue tool, Rising Waters is there to make things even more fun. Sure, you could play Winter Orb, but aside from the fact Rising Waters is a fraction of the price, why not play both?
Pulling key cards from an opponent’s deck can be quite the play, and although you’ll have to do some work to make it happen. A Sadistic Sacrament you can reuse is pretty cool. This slots right into casual decks like Anowon, the Ruin Thief or Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive, although the singular printing has made the price a bit higher than I’d like.
…And it’s black counterpart, Seal of Doom. The appeal of these cards is twofold. Not only do you get a big boost to enchantress decks looking to get extra value from cards like Eidolon of Blossoms, but you also get a powerful piece of deterrence. Instead of leaving your opponents wondering if you have a removal spell in hand, you get the benefits of having one sit on the battlefield daring your opponents to even think about crossing you. While there are seals in other colors, they aren’t nearly as versatile and strong as these are.
I’m trying to remember a game where this wouldn’t have ruined my Blasphemous Act or turned a huge attack into a disaster for me. It’s difficult. If you’re seeing red in a lot of games, you can do worse than a free fog which also doubles as wrath protection against the person who always has Mystical Tutor for Blasphemous Act at just the right time. As a bonus, most people have probably never heard of it, and that’s always fun.
Although fans of Cube might know this card, many others don’t. Thanks to being able to tap itself and the ability to profitably stack triggers on your upkeep, you’ll always get the good part of this deal. If you can proliferate the counters this only gets more oppressive for your opponents. While I don’t recommend this for most decks, especially if you want to keep your friends, it’s still one of the most powerful cards in the set.
Although this was a small set, and I did have to dig a bit deep, there were still some pretty cool cards I didn’t know existed up until recently. Most of these are pretty cheap, so I’m picking quite a few of them up for my trade binder if not for a deck. Even though I’ve always loved Mercadian Masques, I hadn’t taken a close look at Nemesis. I’m kicking myself now for overlooking it all this time. I guess it’s the point of the series though, isn’t it? Thanks for joining me on the latest chapter in this journey of discovery. As always, I hope you have a blast. I’ve been Luka “Robot” Sharaska, and this has been the Commander Corner!
[Luka V. Sharaska (they/them) earned the nickname “Robot” by having a monotone voice, a talent for calculating odds, and a perfect poker face. Robot has been playing Magic for more than a decade, starting during the days of New Phyrexia in 2011.]