Since its release, MTG Avatar Jumpstart has had a pretty big impact on both Commander and Legacy. Powerhouses like Katara, Waterbending Master received a lot of hype during spoiler season, and it didn’t take long before players found some nice homes for them.
Other cards, however, have only recently started to garner more attention. In fact, a few days ago, one particular modal sorcery put up its first major result in Constructed. Despite flying under the radar, it offers strong synergy with popular Legacy tempo elements.
MTG Desperate Plea in Legacy
On the surface, Desperate Plea is a pretty difficult card to use. First of all, you need a creature in play to sacrifice to even cast it in the first place. Secondly, unless you’re able to get value from both modes at once, the reward you get just isn’t worth the investment.
The good news, though, is that in this deck, Desperate Plea actually has a lot of utility. Right off the bat, the sheer presence of Orcish Bowmasters makes it much easier to get things going. The Orc Army token serves as solid sacrifice fodder for this sorcery.
Plus, many opponents will be heavily incentivized to use removal to get Bowmasters off the table, setting you up to use Desperate Plea to bring Bowmasters right back and kill an opposing creature in the process. Of course, if Bowmasters sticks around, trading in the Orc Army token for a copy of Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student or Gran-Gran that perished earlier in the game is a solid line of play, too.
Speaking of Gran-Gran, this archetype’s Lesson-centric gameplan helps you take full advantage of the Ally’s discount. Soon enough, Desperate Plea will only cost one mana to cast, giving you the opportunity to cast a flurry of spells on the same turn. Desperate Plea gives you a clean answer to monsters like Murktide Regent that Fatal Push won’t cover, while simultaneously increasing your Lessons count for Accumulate Wisdom.
With all of these points added together, this Lesson certainly has applications in the right shell. It’s unclear if Dimir Lessons will prove strong enough to pick up steam in a format as brutal as Legacy, but the deck’s ninth-place finish in a Challenge showcases that the deck can compete with the best.
MTG Desperate Plea in Commander
In the right setting, Desperate Plea can also make for a nice interactive element in Commander. You just need creatures you’re willing to sacrifice. The bigger they are, the more likely you’ll be able to resurrect something beefy from your graveyard.
With this in mind, there’s no better Commander option for Desperate Plea than Edea, Possessed Sorceress. All you have to do is make it into combat, and you’ll get to steal an opponent’s big bomb temporarily. Then, during your second main phase, you can sacrifice that creature to Desperate Plea, get rid of a different problematic creature for good, and draw a card for your efforts.
Otherwise, your best bet to get the most out of Desperate Plea is to play it in a deck that either pays you off for sacrificing other creatures or provides a consistent flow of sacrifice fodder. Rakdos, the Muscle, for example, has a gnarly triggered ability that helps you generate card advantage after casting Desperate Plea. Other options such as Gisa, the Hellraiser are capable of flooding the board with tokens to sacrifice. Desperate Plea also commits a crime assuming you kill an opponent’s creature, which in turn nets you additional Zombie tokens.
All in all, Desperate Plea may not be the spiciest inclusion, but it’s hard to find a more efficient reanimation and removal spell hybrid. It’s easy to forget a Jumpstart card like this exists, so remember to keep it in mind when you go to build your next black deck.
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