Aura of Dominion

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature

(1), Tap an untapped creature you control: Untap enchanted creature.

Combos

• Arbiter of the Ideal + Aura of Dominion

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	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
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (34)

lagotripha on All the Powerstone Shards

2 years ago

This was a deck in standard where you got 7 mana powerstones for Cogwork Assembler right?

There are some interesting alternatives in modern - untap effects, Saheeli Rai and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer. Clock of Omens shenanigans, Voltaic Construct or Aura of Dominion shenanigans with Singing Bell Strike as a combined removal/combo piece, trying to stick a Dramatic Reversal on a turn with temporary clones. Voltaic Key/Manifold Key can do a lot too.

In terms of powerstone alternatives, Gilded Lotus and Nyx Lotus is popular, while Liquimetal Torque opens up creature combos. Chromatic Orrery is pretty much built for this kind of combo.

Cloning effects - Mirage Mirror, Mirrormade, Mizzium Transreliquat, Prototype Portal are notable.

There is a lot to work with in terms of artifact support, even for cloning, so best of luck.

kpres on Merieke Ri Berit*

3 years ago

My very first EDH deck was based on Merieke. I didn't know the format very well, so I didn't build it very well. However I did use a few good auras that don't appear in your deck:

• Freed from the Real - : Untap

• Aura of Dominion - The creature you steal can be used to pay the cost of untapping with this one, if you steal an untapped creature.

• Crab Umbra - Doubles as protection for Merieke, but untapping is expensive

• Immobilizing Ink - Kinda bad, but better than nothing. Half the time you might put this on an opponent's creature.

Tzefick on Ellen, the Generous

3 years ago

It's definitely an interesting cards, but I must say that the most recent iteration's second ability still seems too powerful for just 2 mana, even if it grants the opponent a card draw.

It's a legendary creature at 3 CMC that is Esper colors. Most people dislike the additional costs that Grand Arbiter Augustin IV entails. Granted that is to all players and is passive and not active. However it being an active may actually be an upside because then it can be manipulated to basically lock out a player. What's the risk in giving them card draw, if they cannot cast anything?

Althought most single-target kill spells are instant speed, so you're still just making that player increase their chances to find one to kill the Advisor... There's a bit give-and-take / risk-vs-reward.

However consider cards like Aura of Dominion, ( Crab Umbra ), Freed from the Real, Pemmin's Aura, and Vigean Graftmage can relatively easily untap it.

For 5 mana and giving that opponent 2 card draws and gaining yourself a bunch of life, you make everything they cast cost more... That's pretty brutal in terms of taxing. And it can be your Commander. Factor in that the opponent wont play many cards - at least at sorcery speed - and you will be gaining increasingly more life for each activation, in Esper colors that could easily turn that life gain into kill pressure through Sanguine Bond, Vizkopa Guildmage, or Aetherflux Reservoir.

Thinking about it, it's not actually all that powerful (compared to many other things in Magic), but it REALLY would suck to be on the receiving end, especially in a color that either has very few instant speed cards or nothing effective to use it on. Being locked out of the game is an even worse gameplay experience than being killed - at least IMO.

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May I suggest an alternative that is more flexible?

alternative Show

Ellen, the Generous

Legendary Creature - Human Advisor

Vigilance.

, : Target opponent chooses clue, food or treasure, then creates a token of the chosen kind. Until your next turn, creatures that player controls cannot attack you or planeswalkers you control.

, : Target opponent draws a card, then you gain life equal to the number of cards in that player's hand. Until your next turn, spells that player casts costs an additional to cast. That player may pay 2 life to pay for each of this cost.

2/2

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This way you still get to tax them, but they can opt out by paying life. So you cannot lock people down, you can just make it very costly to cast spells - 4 life per spell is still quite a ratio for 2 mana and tapping a creature. Additionally in formats like Commander you cannot hinder players that early in the game, as most people are willing to pay the life to continue playing magic. I got rid of the timing perspective by simply stipulating a "Until your next turn." to increase the power of the ability - or rather decrease the power of instant speed versus this effect.

Overall I think this makes the card less problematic. It also more easily doubles as a way to drop people in life - rather efficiently might I add - than keeping people from playing.

It could be considered to make it a group hug effect that affects all players - including you. So you choose what hinders the table from round to round and what compensation you give. Since you control the activation, you can choose when to apply it so you are the least hindered by its effects. You can also delay the activation so other players might not be hindered and thus use it politically.

Anyway, food for thought.

ilovemydoghisnameistuna on

3 years ago

Uuuh, what is the goal with this deck? Constantly chaining together equal CMC cards over and over won't really tutor anything, and a graveyard strategy would seem pretty hard in PDH. Speaking of which, you have several illegal cards in this list: Aura of Dominion, Pemmin's Aura, Baleful Strix, Nightveil Predator, Nightveil Specter, Siren of the Silent Song, Lightning Greaves, and Swiftfoot Boots.

Epicurus on Your Cards Lookin Nice

3 years ago

Cool deck! Lol'd at "I ain't got no green." You do have a generous amount of mana ramp, though, so it doesn't seem like as big of a problem as all that. I hear what you're saying, though, but I'd still suggest Treachery.

And the clones aren't a bad idea either. Cloning and stealing both fit the same thematic identity. No reason to choose one over the other, so long as you have more of whichever one is a) helping you more, and b) helping you early. Also, though, Faerie Artisans is my favorite such card. And Sakashima's Student is another fun one, as is Cryptoplasm. And on the other side of the equation, Domineering Will is hella fun in multiplayer, while still valid in 1v1.

As for the untappy stuff, it's always useful to have cards that potentially can tap as well as untap. So if you're stuck with them and no Merieke, they still serve the purpose of disruption. Tideforce Elemental, Freed from the Real and Ghostly Touch are all good for that. Also, Pemmin's Aura is really a must for the deck because it can grant protection in addition to its untap ability, and Aura of Dominion is another cheaper untap card.

Finally, you do have a minor mana curve issue. For any of my suggestions, if you thought about including any of them, I'd first start looking for cuts from among anything that has a similar effect but costs more. Also, simple, single use ramp spells like Dark Ritual, Culling the Weak, High Tide and so on are fairly prevalent in blue and black. Also, Land Tax, while not budget friendly, is worth every penny when you ain't got no green, and Knight of the White Orchid is also useful in the right situations. And Arcane Signet should be an automatic add to any EDH deck, especially if it's more than 2 colors.

I know I said finally in the last paragraph, but also Swiftfoot Boots is a slightly slower but slightly better version of Lightning Greaves, and honestly you're better off with the boots than the greaves because you can target the Boss Lady with your untappy stuff without having to scoot the equipment around. Hexproof > Shroud.

Sorry that this is so damn long of a comment, but please note that I have all of these ideas because I really would like to build a deck like this as well. There's a lot of them I've seen that are full of infinite loops, and I appreciate that yours isn't. That's how I'd like to build mine too. It's not easy with Merieke, because she doesn't have haste, and she doesn't have a built in way to either untap or protect herself. I really like what you have going here, and I'm going to folder it for inspiration.

Cheers!

Curlytailx on Best tap abilities in bant …

4 years ago

If you make the deck heavy on creatures, artifacts, and utility land based, you could run Arbiter of the Ideal along with Aura of Dominion to play the top of your deck for 1 mana. There is also Beguiler of Wills to add onto the fun tap effects. If you use Gilder Bairn with planeswalkers, and Paradise Mantle and Biomancer's Familiar you can get infinite loyalty counters, of course you can simply make up for the lack of paradise mantle and such with derevi's ability to help accelerate till you get them as win cons.

piawesome on Let Me Drive

4 years ago

So take everything I say with a grain of salt, I don't really play control decks that much so this is just more of a feeling on my end. 1. The deck looks cool. While this might not make you a ton of friends at the table especially if you get Narset, Parter of Veils out, it does look good. To that end though I'd just make sure you have some solid win cons in your deck and an idea of how to get there. 2. As silly as it sounds I feel like you might want a little more direct card draw as opposed to just card advantage or card selection. Something like Stroke of Genius or even Blue Sun's Zenith . 3. I also feel like your a little low on actual removal. You have a bunch of tap effects but not a ton of hard kill spells. Your also in white which has some of the best ones, Swords to Plowshares , or any number of cards similar to Wrath of God . While it might not feel like it right now if you ever end up behind on board your gonna wish you had those. 4. A bunch of your tap effects are based around tapping creatures you control, specifically Aura of Dominion and Freed from the Real . I'm not sure if you have enough creatures to make those super useful. However, I certainly could be wrong cause you have quite a few token generators. Those are just cards that stood out to me as possible cuts, though I don't really know what to replace them with. I guess Sun Titan is never bad? Ps. Whats up with Mimic Vat ?

xiehr on MDN - UW - Merfolk Mill

5 years ago

The goal of the deck is to mill (make it so there's no cards left in their deck/library) your opponent to secure victory. In order to do this, we rely on a combination of 3 different cards - a mill engine, a tap source, and and untap source.

Other mill decks that I've viewed don't have they combinations, but rather rely on powerful single cards to mill a chunk at a time. The issue I find with these decks is that you can mill 20, 30, 40 cards in big chunks at a time, but if you can't mill that last card before getting killed off, then it was all for naught.

These combinations provide for a reusable loop that means once you have the combo, you win the game. It also means this deck is much more competitive in 3+ player games since you don't have to rely on a Traumatize that can only target 1 of your 2+ opponents.

Mill Engines:

Drowner of Secrets

Grimoire Thief

Altar of the Brood

Tap Source:

Drowner of Secrets

Paradise Mantle

Aura of Dominion

Untap Source:

Aura of Dominion

Freed from the Real

Intruder Alarm