For those of you who are unaware, my favorite Magic: the Gathering card in all of existence is probably Pandemonium.  It pretty much captures my personality perfectly, what with all of its random kookiness combined with its insatiable urge to kill.  Well… alright, not so much that last part.  But, suffice it to say, if I could somehow include this card in every one of my decks, I would.

I wrote an articlea few months back detailing which cards, in my opinion, were the best to use with the Timeshifted enchantment-from-Hell.  However, the most recent expansion to have been released at the time was Alara Reborn, and so I didn’t include some cards that I would have had I written the article, say, after Zendikar had been released.  This coupled with the fact that I discover new cards from all over time and space every single day makes for a pretty long list of other cards that I feel would work wonders with Pandemonium.  I can’t very well keep quiet about them, now can I?  Nope!  So, I’ve created the Pandemonium Strategy Minute to share my crazy ideas with the world.  Today’s guest: Norin the Wary!

This is a card that I actually neglected to mention in my original article; I was reminded of him by one of my friends and fellow writers and made a note about it in the comment section.  Now, I have finally decided to give him the spotlight he deserves.

The thing about Norin is that he seems to have been designed with Pandemonium in mind; sure, there are other “enter the battlefield” effects that he could work with, but honestly, with Pandemonium he’s essentially a free Shockevery turn (including those of your opponents, unless they decide to purposefully lock themselves out of the game just to avoid him).  He’s also almost completely unkillable; the only way to get him is to target him with an activated ability of a card that’s already on the table, and if it’s a creature ability you just need to get rid of said creature before your opponent can use it.  A Pandemonium deck design that includes Norin should be able to maximize creature output with cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, but the great thing is that even if you aren’t able to get a creature into play on your turn, you can just attack with Norin and still get use out of his ability (since it triggers when he attacks, too).  Your deck can get away with using just one of him; two copies is alright if you want to increase the chance that you’ll draw him, but since he’s basically worthless without a Pandemonium in play, I’d rather be drawing more useful creatures more often than Norin.  I almost always keep an opening hand that includes both Norin and Pandemonium, however; as long as you’ve got a stable mana base early in the game, there aren’t too many better hands to keep.  A Norin blinking in and out can pretty much disable one or more of your opponents’ early-game creature strategies.  I would seriously consider using him as a one-of in most, if not all, Pandemonium deck archetypes.  He’s far too worth it to pass up.

Bonus Creature!

I’m featuring Saltskitter as an added bonus in this article, because it’s a similar card to Norin the Wary.  It’s definitly more expensive, but it’s worth it for the extra power and toughness.  This card only blinks when creatures come into play, making it an even more important combo with Kiki-Jiki than Norin is, but its 4 toughness should be able to ward off most direct damage spells and effects, and he also functions as a good blocker.  If you decide you want to use white in your Pandemonium deck, give this card ample consideration.

Bonus Decklist!

Of course, I have my own Pandemonium deck, the current incarnation of which pretty much just kicks ass.  It’s a bit mana-intensive, but I’ve included enough helpful cards in that regard that it runs relatively smoothly most of the time.  It’s changed quite a bit since I first made it; I don’t see it undergoing too many major changes in the future unless some crazy balls-to-the-wall card comes out of which I might feel the need to insert more than one copy.  Here’s the list as it stands right now:

9 Forest

10 Mountain

2 Swamp

2 Savage Lands

1 Norin the Wary

3 Llanowar Elves

3 Sakura-Tribe Elder

2 Mogg War Marshal

2 Penumbra Bobcat

3 Flametongue Kavu

2 Mycoloth

2 Deus of Calamity

1 Shivan Wurm

3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

1 Rampaging Baloths

2 Dragon Broodmother

3 Broodmate Dragon

2 Kodama’s Reach

4 Pandemonium

3 Heat Shimmer

As always, feel free to comment!  Let me know of any ideas you can come up with for Pandemonium, or how the decklist may be improved (I’m always open to criticism).  See you next time on the Pandemonium Strategy Minute!