Benevolent Geist

Creature — Spirit Wizard

Flying

Noncreature spells you control can't be countered.

If this would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile this instead.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (4)

Gidgetimer on Why Was Ward Worded as …

3 weeks ago

It definitely isn't about having non mana payments, since they already have Terror of the Peaks which is formatted in the way you suggest.

The large difference made because of it being "counter unless you pay" instead of a static ability is that it allows other ways of getting around the ward besides paying the mana. I don't know if this was intended, but WotC is obviously aware of this because Long Goodbye was in the same set as Disguise. Benevolent Geist  ^Flip, Boseiju, Who Shelters All, and Abrupt Decay also provide counter play to Ward. I can't provide you with a "why" since I have no inside information, but the most likely explanation IMO is that it was in fact intended that "can't be countered" can be used to counteract Ward.

DreadKhan on Zur The Enchanter - casual stax

1 year ago

I don't think you can use Vanishing to be unblockable, but I think you could wait until someone decides to block him, and if Zur would die, you can Phase him out and he's removed from combat, you'll still have gotten his attack trigger though.

You've got quite a few solid stax creatures (people often call them Hatebears) in here already, but I run Opposition Agent, Dauthi Voidwalker, Drannith Magistrate, Malevolent Hermit  ^Flip, and Archon of Emeria, as well as Wandering Archaic  ^Flip, which is very effective piece if people run lots of non-creature counters, such as more competitive playgroups.

Well, there are various ways you can win via Zur's ability, in my Zur deck my plan is to lock up the board and then win from a fairly safe position. To go with Spirit of the Labyrinth you could run Teferi's Puzzle Box and Necropotence to lock people out of having cards except you, who can draw via Necropotence. I also use Walking Ballista and Heliod, Sun-Crowned as a half-fetched combo. Because it only needed 1 card, I use Second Chance + Hall of Heliod's Generosity + Necropotence to get infinite extra turns, but you might need a way to get rid of Necropotence to let you draw cards normally, a thing Zur can also help with. Another option that people use (but is pricey) is Rest in Peace (or Voidwalker) and Helm of Obedience, which can help remove players by milling them out, if this seems bad keep in mind that with Mirrormade you can duplicate the Helm on the 2nd turn and eliminate up to 2 players that turn, which should close out a game. While it won't quite win you the game on the spot, there is (back of Hermit) Benevolent Geist and Dovescape so that only you can cast non-creatures. If you're worried about birds you can just use Detention Sphere to clear them out each turn via Estrid's Invocation, but if you've got the most birds, you can keep them around. I like my Zur decks to have a janky feel, so I also don't run Thassa's Oracle.

One of my favourite ways to win is All That Glitters with stuff like Copy Enchantment, Estrid's Invocation and Mirrormade to generate a Voltron win off of Zur's ability. For protection I just run Greater Auramancy, which helps both my Voltron and my general supply of enchantments I don't want targeted. The already mentioned Luminarch Ascension can be a solid win con once it's set up, 1W for a 4/4 flyer is really, really good value, even in cEDH people play the card in control decks.

DreadKhan on

1 year ago

I play Zur in cEDH, I used to use Web of Inertia with Rest in Peace to make me immune to attacks, handy vs stuff like Eldrazi (or Najeela) where even a single swing can be a disaster, even if I don't take damage. There is also Energy Field that works with Rest in Peace fwiw. At the moment I use Solitary Confinement to be immune to a lot of stuff, and I give it Shroud via Greater Auramancy. Confinement is a bit more onerous than Island Sanctuary, but it's also a much bigger effect.

I also like using Dovescape and Malevolent Hermit  ^Flip (well, Benevolent Geist) to turn off a lot of my opponent's spells while not affecting my own (other than giving me birds now), all of your 'tax on attack' effects make those birds feel very bad. Hermit by itself is a pretty handy card to have down, U to counter anything big, and it's an ability so it's hard to interact with. Dovescape is a really big deal if you can resolve it, even if you don't have Geist down. If you're worried about Zur getting blocked, there are some Unblockable auras you can run, or even Thassa, God of the Sea if you want to run something really weird.

I find the card War Tax is a surprisingly relevant effect to have around when a game is going badly for me, I can sink spare mana into it to make sure a player cannot swing, technically at anyone. You can use the card as a politics piece, taxing anyone who won't agree to attack who you choose, which is a very annoying ability to have. Duelist's Heritage and Michiko's Reign of Truth  ^Flip are nice ways to help close a game out with Zur.

Grasp of Fate is a really funny card Zur has access to, it feels like one of the 'they made this card for Zur players, didn't they' cards. The Restoration of Eiganjo  ^Flip is probably worth a look, at it's worst it's an enchantment that finds you a land drop, it's ability to recur anything small can be useful (and can be land ramp in white) as well, and the body it becomes is just big enough to matter.

enpc on Newbie Formatting Question: "FLIP"

1 year ago

In theory you shouldn't have to do anything extra for flip cards, they used to at least generate the [flip] by themselves. Testing on one of my deck pages, Malevolent Hermit  ^Flip no longer showed this up however mousing slowly to the right of the card showed Benevolent Geist  ^Flip, making me think that this is an issue with the website and the new appearances (classic/light/dark).

If you want to reference the back of a card directly however, you can by referencing the backside name the same way you would the front.

Edit: looks like the flip text appears fine for comments, but it might be different for deck descriptions.