History, Restapled - Tills, We Meet Again

Welcome back for another History, Restapled, a Commander-focused column which attempts to validate a newer card’s status as a staple by looking at how cards that are similar, synergistic, or competing have fared in the past financially.

You won’t find any of this week’s cards gallivanting around Middle Earth. But will this be the final History, Restapled entry to make that claim? Only time will tell. For now, we have Tillers galore worth snagging, and a Story that reads a bit too familiar…

Tiller Engine

Amulet of Vigor is a $30 card and, it turns out, grafting most of that card onto a 1/3 body for one additional mana is still quite good. For $4, you can perform miraculous transformations: Golgari Guildgates become Bayous! Rocky Tar Pits become Bloodstained Mires! The financial savings alone are enough to make Bernie Madoff question his investments. Most importantly, every ramp spell now operates on an untapped basis.

The card lacks Amulet’s ability to untap nonland permanents, but adds additional utility to late game land drops by allowing Rampant Growth to tap down an opponent’s fatty, or keeping a Blightsteel Colossus at bay by fetching a Triome. The longer we go without an Amulet reprint, the higher this card’s value is going to climb.

STATUS: Vigorous staple, vigorously

Staff of the Storyteller

Here’s a recent addition to the format via Commander: Phyrexia: All Will Be One that is objectively worse than Idol of Oblivion. For two mana, you get an Idol that can tap to draw a card right away if you’ve already created a token for turn, in what is presumably a token-themed deck. Maybe not the first few turns, fair enough. Staff of the Storyteller holds the same mana value but requires white mana, which immediately relegates it to far fewer decks.

In any case, this card draw spell in white also mandates you pay a white each time you use it, adding to the amount of mana you must spend over the course of the game to draw. Plus, it only triggers on the creation of creature tokens.

Meanwhile, you can sacrifice Idol of Oblivion late in the game for a 10/10 Eldrazi token.

$1.26$1.29

It’s hard to justify spending $6 on Staff of the Storyteller when a similar version, superior in nearly every way and able to fit in literally any deck, is less than a dollar after numerous reprints. Start by testing Idol of Oblivion, and if you think there’s more to the story of the poor and oppressed white mana mage simply trying to draw cards, go nuts and purchase the extended edition of the effect even if, like the releases of the original Star Wars trilogy, they added bells and whistles that simply drown out the excellence of the classics. I prefer the one that ends with a beefy 10/10 Sebastian Shaw over the scrawny 1/1 Hayden Christensen.

STATUS: No staple, just an idle threat

Tiller of Flesh

It took me a few reads to fully parse what Tiller of Flesh does, but the keywords here are “spell” and “permanents.” The innocuous 2/4 doesn’t discriminate by type of spell cast, nor who has to control the permanents targeted by the spells. This means it triggers on removal, pump, and preservation spells alike. In the right deck, this effect can get out of hand.

The reward for this targeted behavior is an Incubator token with two +1/+1 counters on it; admittedly, not the strongest of incentives. Think of it as a Clue in a deck that wants to draw cheap creatures or create artifacts en masse. Barring specific synergies and strategies, an Incubator token might be preferable to a Food token. Inspiring Statuary and Ghirapur Aether Grid certainly don’t care; and Feather, the Redeemed and Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice might appreciate incidental creatures upon which to bestow spells in a pinch.

Is this a barn-busting sleeper hit worthy of Reserved List-caliber buyouts? Only time, or what would be a curious Reserved List inclusion, will tell. But in a world where Chrome Host Seedshark and Manaform Hellkite are $3-4 cards, I could see Tiller of Flesh becoming an auto-include in, yes only a sliver of decks, but enough to bump the price up a few dollars when people stop cracking March of the Machine packs.

STATUS: Don’t knock it: Till. You, try it.

Tiller Engine	CardKingdom $3.99	TCGPlayer $2.60
Tiller Engine (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $5.49	TCGPlayer $3.26
Staff of the Storyteller	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $4.33
Staff of the Storyteller (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $4.24
Tiller of Flesh	CardKingdom $0.35	TCGPlayer $0.15

Bros Before Goes

Now’s a great time to revisit The Brothers' War. Packs aren’t actively being opened at their previous rates, but enough supply exists that we’re probably seeing the floor on many cards. Act now before it fades from history like a good deal on Fade from History.

Check out these other articles:

Tom the Bomb by Jason Alt

The Big Things - Aftermath's Correction by Harvey McGuinness

Price of Knowledge - Cyclonic Rift by Ryan Cole