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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom 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

Back to Basics

Enchantment

Nonbasic lands don't untap during their controllers' untap steps.

Andramalech on Domain Zoo-Pact

3 weeks ago

TheRoaringRegisaur while I agree with what you propose, I'm not capable of hitting Domain on turn 2 without the Guildpact if I include basic lands. Besides, Blood Moon and Back to Basics isn't really a concern right now. Path might hurt, but my Force of Negation to the Path is what I'm gonna bet on. Thanks for the feedback though, because I could probably designate a spot or two to basic lands in the sideboard.

Zobeth on Omnath 9.22.2022 preEdit

2 months ago

Some new cards to consider after you become a multi million dollar engineer

Lands: All of the New Capenna sac lands. Obscura Storefront, Maestros Theater, Riveteers Overlook, Cabaretti Courtyard, Brokers Hideout. These will trigger landfalls 2x and let you search for the colors you need.

Instants/Sorceries Entish Restoration - If you have Omnath in play you hit 3 of his triggers in just one card Awaken the Woods - Pay X mana to make that many land creatures. Seems pretty good for landfall

Enchantments/Artifacts Conduit of Worlds - You can play lands from graveyard and if you are in a bind, cast spells from there too. Spelunking - Lands come in untapped Back to Basics - Ruins peoples lands if they arent playing basics

Creatures Nissa, Resurgent Animist - Pricey but another mana generator Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer - Another Token Generator Rootpath Purifier - Niche card but allows you to search for any land in your library

SufferFromEDHD on Vendilion clique combo

5 months ago

This is a solid first EDH deck! Straight forward combo.

Retraced Image would act as ramp with that many basic lands.

Back to Basics a hefty tax that you don't have to pay.

Planar Portal the only tutor you are missing.

SaberTech on Zurtron

5 months ago

If you are going for a Voltron style of Zur there are a few auras that are often seen in those sorts of lists:

Darksteel Mutation and Oubliette complement Imprisoned in the Moon as ways that neutralize commanders. They make it difficult for your opponents to immediately get their commanders back to recast if they don't have enchantment removal. Darksteel Mutation is much better than Kasmina's Transmutation because the indestructible that the Mutation gives means that the enchanted commander will live through a board wipe and not go back to its owner's command zone. Oubliette could replace Pendrell Flux.

There's a bit of a call to make between Flaming Fist and Battle Mastery. Flaming Fist won't trigger the turn Zur puts it into play because Zur will have already been declared as attacking at that point. However, Flaming Fist does stick around if Zur happens to die since it's not an aura. Battle Mastery will let Zur hit with double strike the turn it enters but dies with Zur. It's a call to make depending on how aggressive you want to be. Duelist's Heritage is also generally better than Flaming Fist but not if Zur has shroud from a card like Diplomatic Immunity, so that depends on what auras you choose to run in the end.

If you aren't running Stony Silence as a silver bullet to shut down opponents' artifacts then it could be worth considering Nettlecyst as another creature/pump effect in the deck, even if Zur can't tutor it up. It could potentially replace Gray Merchant of Asphodel since the current list doesn't look that geared to reliably get a big hit off the Merchant's ability.

One of Zur's biggest strengths though is that he can tutor up Necropotence, so that's a card you should aim to add as soon as you can get your hands on one.

Rest in Peace is a strong card for messing with decks that utilize the graveyard.

Back to Basics can punish decks with greedy mana bases.

Stroke of Midnight is better than Expose to Daylight.

Seal of Cleansing or Aura of Silence are targets for Zur to tutor up to get rid of enchantments and artifacts.

Sevinne's Reclamation and/or Sun Titan could be worth considering for getting key permanent cards back from your graveyard.

nbarry223 on Colorshift Land Control

6 months ago

I just want to elaborate on above, forcing them to redraw the land you just made them topdeck is a lock in and of itself. It's a softlock, that shuffle effects can get around, but then they are just denied that mana as well. That's why Plow Under is disgustingly powerful against non-aggro decks. It's just a shame that almost the entire meta is aggro since MH2.

I really don't think any other land denial strategies are build around enough unless we see some hate cards become modern legal through MH3 or something to help slow down the format. Things like Back to Basics and Contamination come to mind as potential land hosers, but those are global effects like Blood Moon.

ASalesman on Unesh, Ultimate Guide (Tribal)

6 months ago

One more rev and talk about a strong new Synergy

  • Take out Nexus of Fate for Ledger Shredder and move Back to Basics to the sideboard. The Nexus is great casually, but if I am paying 7 mana for a spell it better win me the game. Nexus of fate just doesn’t do that. Ledger Shredder is another card draw engine, it gets you deeper in to the deck. In cases where nexus of fate sits dead in your hand doing nothing, ledger shredder can be on the field generating excellent value, and it is 5 cmc less. I understand that infinite turns will no longer be wincon, and I think that’s okay. Thassa’s and Aetherflux fill those roles well enough. I will be updating the guide soon to talk about these recent additions as well as remove irrelevant info.
  • Take out an Island for Lorien Revealed. Another deck thinning card that is basically still a land, but it has other synergies. The island cycling is another effect that can be copied by Virtue of Knowledge. This card can also be cast from the graveyard by Scholar of the Lost Trove. You will rarely hard cast this card, but you can in dire straits.

Speaking of Scholar of the Lost Trove, this card has some great synergy with recently added Orvar, the All-Form. When you cast Scholar of the lost trove while Orvar is on the battlefield, you can cast all bounce spells in your graveyard, then still get your value engine from the graveyard after that. If Unesh is on the field when this happens, you can get through a lot of your deck. If Aetherflux Reservoir is on the field you can get a large storm count. The cycle goes like this:

  1. Cast Scholar of the Lost Trove while Orvar, the All-Form is on the field.
  2. Scholar ETB cast a bounce spell from graveyard targeting Scholar.
  3. This triggers Orvar and makes a token copy of scholar.
  4. Return to step 2 for all bounce spells in your graveyard. If there are no bounce spells proceed to step 5.
  5. Cast a big payoff artifact like Caged Sun or Aetherflux Reservoir to end the cycle.

So in this stage of revision where I am ruthlessly cutting high cmc cards, I will probably not cut Scholar of the Lost Trove because it can be such a huge payoff card. It also makes you less likely to care about tossing your big artifacts in the bin during your BFOF because you might be able to get them back later with this card.

nbarry223 on Modern Horizons 3 Predictions/Wishlist

6 months ago

Honestly, I could see cards like Swords to Plowshares, Back to Basics, Toxic Deluge, Archaeomancer's Map, Tainted Pact and Animar, Soul of Elements being downshifted to modern. Anything that either: 1. Empowers control, 2. Encourages deck diversity instead of 4 copies of everything, or 3. Encourages go wide creature strategies would be a positive for the format in my opinion. Right now, the format is far too many tempo aggro type decks, with combo coming in as a close second (usually with tempo/control elements to back up the combo).

Control is near non-existant if it isn't there to slow you down enough for them to get their combo off. I'm not asking for something like Celestial Colonnade to become the all star finisher of a control deck again, but I would like to see an uptick in control to rebalance the current meta. Honestly Animar, Soul of Elements is probably too slow for the format, but you should get my point.

treeforcorvus on Make this better

6 months ago

Cataclysm can work against you based on opponents' picks and though Enter the Infinite is impressive & works with Omniscience, I don't see Thassa's Oracle or Laboratory Maniac, nor do I see Grapeshot. Consider instead Boros Charm + Armageddon which most people will hate & sometimes outright scoop after.

Mana Vault is more of a risk than you might think without untap mechanics (See Derevi, last paragraph). Consider Thought Vessel or even Library of Leng.

Replace Lion's Eye Diamond with Land Tax. The latter also helps offset the pain from Need for Speed, which is a cool find.

Consider Smothering Tithe instead of Mystic Remora: Remora usually only nets a few cards at beginning, and will often slow you down more than it helps. The former performs MUCH more consistently, and will net you more mana to focus on spells and counters.

Concerning your SB: If you want to go maximum lock-stax, I'd recommend Derevi, Empyrial Tactician. Use Winter Orb, Static Orb & Stasis, use Kismet and Loxodon Gatekeeper, maybe even Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines. Use fetches + basic lands, huge ramp, and Back to Basics just to spite opponents. NB: Mana Vault smacks with Derevi.

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