Black Lotus

Artifact

{T}: Sacrifice this: Add three mana of any one colour.

Legality

Format	Legality
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (48)

kamarupa on Population Bomb

2 weeks ago

I don't count mana dorks as lands. They are mana accelerators - they help allow you to have more mana FASTER, but aren't a 1:1 substitute. Dorks cost mana to cast, meaning you need [the right color] land to cast it (sans something like Black Lotus or Chrome MoxGC, etc). They also are easily removed and come with summoning sickness. More importantly, they only function as a "ramp" if you are able to make land drops every turn. You don't have to take my word for it - you can learn the lesson the hard way on your own. I certainly did. When I first started playing over 10 years ago, I was determined to ignore all rules of thumb and advice and run 16 lands with 8 ramps spells in my decks. And when it worked, it was great - 1xArbor Elf + 1xUtopia Sprawl + 1xForest and I was tapping for 4 mana on turn 3. But often, it stopped there because I wasn't making any more land drops. I could have been tapping for 6 mana if I'd have had lands to play on my first 3 turns, but instead I was gambling with my opening hand and putting all my proverbial mana eggs in one basket - and you can bet your bottom dollar my opponents took advantage of that weakness with removal spells all too frequently, leaving me 2 mana at the start of turn 4. And those were the good opening hands. On bad starts, I was drawing down to 5 or 6 just to get a land. Which is an even bigger gamble! Over time, my mana base kept creeping up. I tried playing decks of nothing but 1MV spells and 16 lands. I tried playing 1-3MV Elves with 17 lands. I tried playing 1-2MV Humans with 18 lands, then 19, then 20. Eventually, I started to learn - I need 22 lands minimum. 24 if I want to ever cast anything with a higher MV than 3. In a very rampy, low MV Elf deck, I think one could probably get away with 20 lands, but it would be not only leaving the deck exposed to creature removal, but also greatly limiting the viable spells to low MV. And I'll add, as little as I like it, it's good to have spells that cost more than 2. Not loads of them, but 4-8 3MV spells and 2-4 4+MV spells are often what pushes a deck over the top to get the win.

Maybe it helps to think of it this way - Ramp, no mattter the type, allows you to play more mana sources on a single turn. It only helps you if you can play a land every turn. Otherwise, it's just a riskier way to have the same amount of mana you'd have if just added more lands. The only possible advantage you get from playing a dork nstead of (vs in addition to, which is definitely an advantage) a land is that a dork can chump block. Which you probably won't get any mileage out of because tapped creatures can't block and if by chance you don't use your dork for mana and you do block, now you're out a mana source that you probably needed.

So again, if you want lots of mana sooner than you'd have playing 1 mana per turn, then include a ramp. If you want to mana-fix for multiple colors, use dual lands. If you want to consistently be able to cast spells up to 4MV, then you need 22-24 lands.

Also, having more spells won't make your deck work better. What makes a deck work best is having a stable mana base, consistently playing value-packed spells, disrupting opponent's strategies, and maintaining advantages (boardstate, card draw, lifegain, etc.) If a deck isn't managing to achieve an advantage, it's not for lack of cards, it's for lack of good cards/synergy.

Flarhoon13 on Garth, where are the bodies, Garth?

2 months ago

Turn 4 was my first spell Reclamation Sage, "call me Rec" for Jesse's Eidolon of Rhetoric... I wanted my opponents to flood the board for my Phyrexian Rebirth. The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride had already hit me for 7. Turn 5, Mirari's Wake. Turn 6, Phyrexian Rebirth took out 4 of my opponents' creatures plus Rec Sage. I had floated enough for Garth One-Eye as well. Turn 7 my excitement for a giant Villainous Wealth was entirely dampened by Ethersworn Canonist. I cast Hydra Broodmaster with six mana available from lands plus a possible Black Lotus for 9, so I could monstrify for four 4/4s. I realized in this turn cycle, though... I should have just Disenchanted the Ethersworn Canonist. I ended up using Garth to cast his Disenchant, which worked out fine. Turn 8, I untapped, cast Black Lotus into Villainous Wealth for x=10, targeting Seth (The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride). It was the right choice. Among 8 total nonlands, I hit a Rune-Scarred Demon, which fetched the Palinchron. I used my remaining 5 mana from Orzhov Basilica and City of Brass to Time Warp. Turn 8, again, I generated infinite mana with the Palinchron and Mirari's Wake, so, creating a million hydras of enormous size. Garth One-Eye cast Regrowth on the Time Warp, allowing me to kill my opponents on my next extra turn

legendofa on Why Did WotC Change the …

3 months ago

DemonDragonJ It would be a good way to take advantage of a quirk in the rules, but when it's functionally equivalent to a Black Lotus, that's just too much power even when it costs a land drop for the turn. Smaller effects might have gotten away with it better, but Lotus Vale is not the card to do it with.

sergiodelrio on MASSIVE EDH RC ban list …

5 months ago

I see what you are saying and I've been overexaggerating things to show a point. There is a big gap between what has been banned and the "next big thing" and that might cause deckbuilders to weigh between a generically good card versus a card that would be more fitting and synergetic in the context of the rest of their deck.

If Black Lotus is legal in a format it would be a no-brainer to try and include it (if you have it), but if Lotus gets banned, P9 Moxes get banned, etc, you will look for cards that don't just improve ANY deck, but instead YOUR specific deck. Unless you have a 0-cost artifact theme and that WAS your deck synergy all along, in that case you need to pick a new theme (or play around with what's left).

legendofa on MASSIVE EDH RC ban list …

6 months ago

One more armchair analysis, then I'm going to step back. Watching the PK video, it struck me (almost literally--I had to pause the video and think about this) is that the Reserved List exists to prevent exactly this sort of price collapse. The means of creating a potential price collapse differ (fast mana bans = reduced demand, Reserved List reprint = increased supply), but the hypothetical result is the same: High-value cards lose their value, investors get upset, stores lose inventory value, and the card economy takes a massive hit. Would Juzam Djinn be worth $1,500+ in a world where it's reprinted beside Ravenous Giant? If Black Lotus got reprinted tomorrow with a promise to reprint again, would it still be worth as much as a used car? The Reserved List is an artificial way to protect investments, for better or worse. The fast mana bans show what happens when investments aren't protected.

Is this a false equivalence? As long as the effect is it the same, I don't think it matters too much what the cause is. And the Reserved List is pretty much forever, while bans can be unbanned. (That would really make people go crazy.)

Balaam__ on Ok, Boomer - "The Deck"

8 months ago

I remember checking a Wizard’s price guide as a young boomer lad and being shocked at the exorbitant $400 price tag for an Alpha Black Lotus.

nuperokaso on Win Turn 0 vs Yu-Gi-Oh

9 months ago

If you actually playtest the deck, many times your hand is not that great.

1. 8 of your tutors put the card only on the top of your library rather than into your hand. I suggest you play Demonic Tutor rather than Imperial Seal.
2. You have problems with color fixing. You end up being unable to play your cards because you don't have right combination of mana. If your plan is solely to play only one turn, then Lotus Petal is better than Mox Jet or Mox Sapphire.
3. With Dark Ritual and 8 Lotuses, It's reasonable to get to 5-6 black mana. Some 2 Ad Nauseam and/or Yawgmoth's Bargain would improve your consistency.
4. Ceremonious Rejection looks bad. If your only plan is to play for one turn, play Pact of Negation. You'll save 1 mana and have more possible targets. It's better if you start the game. If your opponent starts the game, Ceremonious Rejection only works if you have Leyline of Anticipation. And if you have that, you should able to win even with Pact of Negation trigger.
5. Play 4 Gitaxian Probe and 4 Street Wraith. Your deck doesn't care for life, and you need to get your relevant cards.
6. If you are allowed to play 4 Black Lotus and 4 Blacker Lotus, then I assume anything is playable. If so, you forgot to include the most powerful card in the entire history - Contract from Below

legendofa on The Baron's Coterie

1 year ago

Welcome to the club, Barone_di_Morti!

Mono-black Vampires are one of my favorite major tribes. Let's see what's going on here.

First thought is that you should put this either as the Casual format, or add the Casual hub in the deck editor. Vintage is the most powerful format in the game, and leaving it as Vintage with no other details carries certain expectations that you're willing to buy and use the most powerful cards. Legacy + Casual would also work, unless you have Black Lotus and Mox Jet lying around.

What's the intent of Buried Alive? I see the Bloodghasts as returnable creatures, but those are easy enough to play and bring back normally, and there's not mich else pointing to a reanimator or graveyard theme here.

There's a lot of 2x and 3x cards, which means the deck is going to be a little less consistent and reliable. Try to get the full four copies of the cards you most want to play.

Also, 20 lands seems a little low, especially with some key cards being at 4-5 mana and X-cost. The Dark Rituals help, but there's no real reason to be using Polluted Delta and Bloodstained Mire. All your Swamps are basic lands (Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth only affects lands in play, not in your deck), so you might as well just replace those with more basic Swamps, or other utility lands. 22 lands would be my starting point.

I see the core of a sacrifice theme in your creatures, with Bloodghast and a few "whenever a creature dies" effects. If you wanted to, you could lean into that aspect a little harder by adding some sacrifice outlets, like Viscera Seer, Ashnod's Altar, or Yahenni, Undying Partisan.

Above all, have fun!