The first one for this article is Barishi. This green Weatherlight 3/4 creature ( casting cost) has a very useful special ability for mages who specialize in creature decks or need to recycle the ones you do play. If Barishi is put into any graveyard from play, you remove Barishi from the game, then shuffle all creature cards from your graveyard into your library.

As always I like creatures with abilities, and as you may have noticed from my previous articles I like to play large creatures with correspondingly large casting costs. The practicle result of this is that I don't cast many creatures during the course of a game and the bulk of my decks consist of cards to support and augment those few creatures I do cast. Please note also that since I rarely play black or red the large portion of damage that I do comes from creatures. This means that I can't afford to have many creatures killed during a duel. That is where Barishi comes in. Not only is it a creature, but when it dies, I get all the creatures that previously died back and shuffle them into my library (which also protects me from being decked so easily).

I have a deck that is built around Stampede and Overrun, both green cards that give creatures trample. I call this deck my trample deck (really strained my creativity there). It consists mainly of Scaled Wurms (Ice Age), Craw Wurms (Fifth Edition), Jungle Wurms (Mirage), Crash of Rhinos (Mirage) and, well you get the idea. You had better believe I've got a Barishi in there! It takes seven mana to start really casting things, so Terrors do not make my day when I'm playing that deck. Barishi also lets me recover if I have to discard some of those big guys early due to a lack of mana; and I hear it tastes just like chicken.

(Ulrich here, I would like to say that Barishi does NOT taste just like chicken, it's got more of a nutty aftertaste.)

The second one for this article would be Mawcor. This is a Tempest rare that costs to cast. This is a 3/3, flying, Tim (Prodigal Sorcer). What more can I say?

The third and final card for this article is Killer Whale. Killer Whale is an Exodus uncommon, it cost to cast and is a 3/5 creature with the special ability: , gains flying until the end of the turn.

First of all let me say that the artwork is cool on this card, and for that reason alone, even if it weren't so useful I would include it in one of my decks; I'd find a spot for it. Fortunately, Killer Whale is also very useful.

Having trouble with a flock of flying weenies, you know what I'm talking about here, a flurry of Scryb Sprites and Mesa Pegasii pecking away at your life total? I have found that a Killer Whale or two will keep them at home. It will even make a Sengir Vampire think twice about attacking. After all, block with a Killer Whale and tap a Mawcor to do that fourth point of damage and that is a very tidy end to Mr. Vampire.

Killer Whale is big and it can fly, but it doesn't have to fly, which protects it from those Hurricanes and Lured Cockatrices, it can even get out of the way of an Earthquake. Since I play a lot of white and blue I naturally play a lot of flyers. Let me tell you how many times back to back Hurricanes have been instrumental in my loss of a duel. Having a Killer Whale or two in a deck means that I will have some creatures left over after those unfriendly Hurricanes have hit the table. Och, my poor, poor flyers.....
—Helva