Aphetto Grifter

Creature — Human Wizard

Tap two untapped Wizards you control: Tap target permanent.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (8)

Idoneity on Korvold's Feast

3 years ago

Ah, yes. I have a Jund sacrifice deck myself with Mr. Oakenshield at the helm, though Korvold is quite the powerful engine.

I see a few things problematic with the decklist. First, a distinct lack of ramp. Two, a lack of early game, which can be fixed by ramp. Three, there are a lot of places to fit creatures to die.

So, what I would recommend:

Mana dorks are fantastic in aristocrat decks, for they can be sacrificed if they must. Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Elves of Deep Shadow, and Boreal Druid each fill the best role at one mana. I've enjoyed Skull Prophet greatly, for it fills the graveyard with fodder.

Other than that, two mana ramp is best. But you're in Green! Get those Arcane signets out of here. Rampant Growth, Nature's Lore, Into the North (try a few snow basics), Cultivate, and Kodama's Reach are all lovely.

Then, of course, there are some includes that should go in most aristocrat lists:

1. So, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician is the single greatest card for this style of deck. It offers draw, murder, sacrifice, and cannot be tapped by Aphetto Grifter. Run it despite the ten-dollar price limit.

2. Midnight Reaper and Grim Haruspex each fill a smiliar role, though Liliana's Standard Bearer is one I have much enjoyed. Dark Prophecy does much.

3. More sacrifice outlets! Goblin Bombardment is fantastic, Carrion Feeder is cheap whiles growing massive, New Erebos draws some cards, Rankle is an engine by itself, and Yawgmoth is the best.

4. There are some things that offer much to die. Goblin Rabblemaster and Legion Warboss each fill the board apace.

5. So, let's add far more creatures than is deemed sanely necessary. Satyr Wayfinder, Gatecreeper Vine, and Sylvan Ranger can fill the slot of a land. Reclamation Sage can be a removal spell.

6. Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip transforms far too eath in strategies such as this. Grisly Salvage can fuel graveyard chicanery. And Once Upon a Time is something I put in literally every green deck I own, for it is most potent.

7. Living Death ends games. It gets back all from the bin, then murdering all opponents withal Blood Artist.

Alright, now upon what I would ablate:

Chittering Witch is too slow for fodder and the sacrfice ability is not gratis. Thrashing Brontodon is too much mana. Mazirek just doesn't do enow; she wishes to put counters upon creatures that are meant to die. Deathsprout is too much mana. Deflecting Swat seems lacking. Find / Finality is just too much to cast. Taste of Death is actually just useless. Witch's Oven is too limited.

Okay then. That shall be all from me! You may peer upon my list here if you care.

Happy snuffing!

SynergyBuild on Izzet's Divide and Conquer

5 years ago

Two stax lists, a midrange list, and five combo lists, all are tier one, and this had not won a single game against them.

I understand that "Competitive is far more than rushing through the first turns for a win, it about gaining of hold of every advantage the deck offers with the given hand and draws." I started this by going over the three competitive archetypes, combo, stax and control, this lists offers about nothing to all three of those archetypes.

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Your list runs no powerful combos, no stax locks, and extremely little control. Your commander synergies very little with the deck, and runs no ramp, minimal card draw, and bad countermagic.

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Lets take a look at this deck considered competitive:

What can you do turn one to a random hand against Food Chain Tazri, they can turn one a Bloodstained Mire into an Underground Sea, and cast an Vampiric Tutor for a Food Chain on your end step.

The best you can do is a Tome Scour, of course this won't mill the card on top, as they did it on your end step, but whatever.

Wow, you have all of 1 card that is actually castable turn 1. Half of your non-land cards require 4+ mana to cast. Many cEDH decks require 3 or less mana to cast every spell in their deck. You run all of 0 pieces of ramp, and no efficient way to win a game against those decks cosnidering even your commander won't cheat them out until turn 8 on your curve.

That is fine though, that means you aren't a fast-paced combo build, it doesn't mean you are not competitive though, stax and control can be great decks, that win very late in the game, turn 8-20 occasionally are when they win.

Stax decks attempt to shut out their combo opponents, you opponent over with Food Chain + Eternal Scourge trying to make infinite mana? Sphere of Safety shuts them down. Try to go off with turns in Narset, Enlightened Master, Stranglehold that. Trying to beat my face in with Blood Pod, Moat that. Then I will go off with infinite flying Pestermite tokens turn 13 with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker after all of you can't do anything.

What does this deck have in terms of stax?

Well, it has War Tax, which require mana that you cannot efficiently use against a Blood Pod deck, as they will stax you out before you them, Armageddon and Ravages of War are a blowout to this deck since you don't run artifact or creature mana. Propaganda would be a better choice, despite not being good enough a choice to make this deck competitive.

Opposition and Aphetto Grifter are decent options for token builds with tons of creatures, on the upkeep of an opponent's turn, you tap down all of their lands, it is pretty good, but as this deck can't do that before it will die, they aren't very good at a competitive table.

Frozen AEther this is truely the best stax you run, it can stop some Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combos, slows down other peoples mana in terms of dorks, rocks, and lands. It is also good as it doesn't affect you, if you could run a Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault or anything to make it come down before your opponents win, then it might be useful.

Urabrask the Hidden it is a bad version of Frozen AEther, you don't need haste to combo out or anything, and it just is slow and clunk and easy to remove.

Fatespinner at least it is in your tribe, otherwise it would just occasionally deny 1 or 2 damage, any time a player needs combat, they win that turn. If they do, they you deny a card, and die immediately after, otherwise they take away a combat they wouldn't need anyway.

Orbs of Warding good card if it was a couple mana less, or you could control/stax a game to pull it off, otherwise it doesn't need to be here.

All in all, you aren't a stax deck, you run little to no good stax cards, the few you run that sees play require ramp.

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Well, I guess this is a bad cEDH deck, or control. You run 21 spells that could be used as removal or countermagic, 10 that are 4 or less mana. This is awful for a control deck, unless they are Force of Will and just look like 5 mana, or you run a lot of ramp, sadly neither are true.

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Again, this is not a bad deck, simply a casual one, not cEDH material. That is why your list isn't competitive, yes, I have run a spellshaper tribal Damia deck at state level play, not a tournament at state level, just a game at a grand prix side event. That deck isn't good, but it is fun. State level play means nothing. cEDH is actual competitive decks, unlike this one, playing at the upper echelons of the format, in fact, it is so different compared to normal EDH, that is it called cEDH.

This may be winning games where you play, but I have tested it, and I implore you to sit down next to some good stax and fast-paced combo players, against $5600 The Gitrog Monster builds, $6000 General Tazri builds, $5000 Teferi, Temporal Archmage builds, and tell me this deck will win a game against them.

You are wrong, not based on my own opinion, but with playtesting a deck that supposedly wins by turn 10 at the slowest, goldfishing it.

I have yet to see another deck in ALL OF CEDH, that goldfishes a win, or complete stax lock down past turn 6, ever.

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Your deck is misleading by using the hub "competitive", all I want is for you to remove it.

cklise on Help me make this work: …

6 years ago

Some other options: Supreme Inquisitor, Kyren Negotiations, Crackleburr (can potentially both tap or untap your creatures, and return choice wizards to hand), Springleaf Drum, Crookclaw Elder, Sigil Tracer, Mothdust Changeling (a sneaky wizard), Aphetto Grifter. That should cover the most fitting cards for tapping your stuff.

apohl13 on Azami, Reeder of Buks

6 years ago

Love this deck- building it but making a few changes, adding in Galecaster Colossus and Aphetto Grifter to give more options for the wizard tap abilities.

Darsul on Budget Inalla

6 years ago

Aphetto Grifter, Diviner's Wand, Ghosthelm Courier, Information Dealer, Nameless One, Stonybrook Banneret, Voidmage Prodigy, Vedalken AEthermage and Supreme Inquisitor

lower CMCCaller of Gales, Cosi's Trickster, Dakra Mystic, Dimir Guildmage, Goblin Electromancer, Ink Dissolver, Inkfathom Witch, Nezumi Graverobber and Nightscape Apprentice

libraryjoy on R/U Wizards deck

7 years ago

Without knowing what other cards you have, it's hard to make suggestions, but you might check and see if you have any Guttersnipe (not a wizard, but a serious threat in an instant/sorcery based deck), Distant Melody, Roar of the Crowd, Vedalken AEthermage (love that Wizardcycling), Sage of Fables (combo with Glen Elendra Archmage) or Goblin Electromancer. Spellheart Chimera might be an interesting finisher. Or possibly Information Dealer, Nameless One, or Aphetto Grifter (if the deck isn't meant to be modern legal). Looks like you've got a lot of flying, so maybe Archetype of Imagination or Gravitational Shift? You've got plenty of card draw and some mill, so something like Jace's Erasure or Drowner of Secrets?

Krapak on Mermander

8 years ago

Nice deck! +1Drowner of Secrets, Coralhelm Commander, Sage of Fables, Wake Thrasher?If you like wizard subtheme; Aphetto Grifter, Azami, Lady of Scrolls, Patron Wizard,

kengiczar on Looking for a fun commander …

8 years ago

For the ultimate budget commander I suggest Zedruu the Greathearted. Play pillow fort or Voltron with cheap auras.

Another cheap to build commander is Merieke Ri Berit. The strongest way to build her is actually Wizard tribal. Yes I know she's not a wizard herself. It actually stops Shattergang Brothers incredibly well and it's matchups are much less polarized than Azami, Lady of Scrolls. I have seen several builds with Merieke in the last few years but it wasn't until I saw the power of ESPER Wizards that I became a true believer.

Here's a starter list of cheap CMC (and $$$) Wizards to run with Merieke:
Azorius Guildmage
Coffin Queen
Patron Wizard
Lighthouse Chronologist (Go for damaged or heavily played) Magus of the Unseen (Sometimes good sometimes not)
Oracle en-Vec (Much better than he looks. Combos with wizards or spells that tap down their stuff.)
Azami, Lady of Scrolls (Cheap card draw)
Apprentice Necromancer (Bad early good late game.)
Aphetto Grifter (Really means "Tap a wizard other than this one and stall forever")
Aphetto Alchemist (Makes your commander into a kill spell and helps other wizards.)
Captain of the Mists (Combos with Gilded Lotus + Illusionist's Bracers
Musician (Slow but an ok starter Wizard)
Glen Elendra Archmage (Expensive but it's a flying Negate)
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder (Optional, helps vs things like Dictate of Erebos)
Ertai, the Corrupted (Good with Endrek or enchantments that return to hand after they leave he battlefield, which there are 2-5 of in esper colors for 2-3 mana)
Rayne, Academy Chancellor (AMAZEBALLS!)
Sage of Fables (Slightly less amazeballs)
Juntu Stakes + Meekstone (HA HA you play Wizards!? F.U. then buddy!)
Sigil Tracer
Sower of Temptation (Expensive, will be an upgrade)
Stonybrook Angler (More commander combo stuff)
Supreme Inquisitor (This is very powerfull once your in the mid to late game)
Tolarian Entrancer (Don't laugh, play like this is your win condition, eventually they will have to block it and you profit.)
Voidmage Husher
Wandering Mage (Maybe)
Havengul Lich (Maybe)
Vedalken Mastermind
New Prahv Guildmage
Mistmeadow Witch (Filler)
Venser, Shaper Savant
Magus of the Abyss - If you play Darksteel Plate or later get Avacyn, Angel of Hope or can just make tokens each turn.

So yeah...that's probably more creatures than you know what to do with eh? Esper Wizards 4 life.