Legality
| Format | Legality |
| Magic Duels | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Penny Dreadful | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Pauper EDH | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Unformat | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
Printings View all
| Set | Rarity |
| Magic 2013 (M13) | Common |
Combos Browse all
Bond Beetle
Creature — Insect
When Bond Beetle enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
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Bond Beetle Discussion
SynergyBuild on
Ancestral Animar
1 month ago
I play with more stax/control then combo, so I may have a scewed veiw on this, but I only mentioned cards you sounded like you wanted, not ones I specifically thought were strictly better than ones in the deck.
To be entirely honest, If they do print a few more cards like Mulldrifter, Bond Beetle, and Birds of Paradise. You know, like 2-3 of each, then this deck could be a sweet storm build, going off faster than many Grixis Storm lists.
SaberTech on
Ancestral Animar
1 month ago
@JMCraig When you say that the Oracle nets you 3-4 cards the turn it enters, is that just cards being filtered off the top of your library or is that the count of cards that you are also casting from exile that turn?
@SynergyBuild I think that, for me, it's a tough call between a new Bond Beetle or a new Mulldrifter (assuming the new Mulldrifter could also be cast for 3-4 mana without Animar's reduction). But considering that we have just been given Dark-Dweller Oracle for more draw power, I think that I lean more towards another Bond Beetle to help increase the chances of more explosive turn 3 plays.
SynergyBuild on
Ancestral Animar
1 month ago
Clamp is better on the field, Oracle in the deck, the fact I can't easily tutor Skullclamp (You have to go through Trinket Mage) and I think that it why I like Oracle more.
Unrelated question, would you rather a good colorless card, something like a new Spellskite or Phyrexian Revoker, a new Bond Beetle, a new Birds of Paradise, or a new Mulldrifter type card?
SaberTech on
Ancestral Animar
1 month ago
Well, Hardened Scales gives you the effect for just 1 mana right off the bat. Pir, Imaginative Rascal requires you to jump a couple hoops to get the same effect for the same cost, but comes with the benefits for being a creature you can tutor up and putting a counter on Animar when you cast it.
I guess a big question to address is if the effect is one worth using a tutor on to begin with? Pir doesn't have the early game speed and mana efficiency that Hardened Scales does, but I think that it might be a little better later in the game if the board has been wiped and you are in recovery mode.
That being said, I personally don't run Hardened Scales. It has its moments where it shines, but in the early game I find it doesn't offer that much more speed for its mana invenstment than if it had just been a 1 CMC creature, particularly a mana dork, instead. If WotC would print another 1 CMC version of Bond Beetle I would take that over a Hardened Scales type effect any day.
galaxyman7 on
Rainbow Roids (5 color +1/+1 counters)
1 month ago
Lessons learned:
There were a few games where we had just a few too many 2 and 3 drops, and not enough 1 drops to fill in. As a result, we lost some games by being a little bit too slow. I have a few options to fix this:
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Ramp - noble hierarch or avacyn's pilgrim for the budget - advantage is that we can do bigger stuff fast, but it also isn't a threat itself.
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More servant of the scales - a more resilient threat, but doesn't do much against an empty board
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Animation Module - has some sweet synergy with Nissa, walking ballista, etc, and gets us extra guys. Works well on turn 1, but probably won't do much until mid-game. It also doesn't do much by itself.
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Skarrgan Pit-Skulk - A possibly evasive threat that can be pretty quick and is a good target for anafenza. Not great on turn 1, but if it gets buffed later it could be sweet. Might be too swingy.
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Bond Beetle - combos nicely with ballista and hangarback, and still comes in as a 2/3 with a hardened scales. Still not great on turn 1.
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Cenn's Tactician - not super fast, but it fits our theme of being a standalone threat with hardened scales. Plus it combos with anafenza and servant of the scale, and makes combat harder for aggressive decks.
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Simic Initiate - Gets lots of value with hardened scales, providing 4 +1/+1 counters for 1 mana. Works very well with ballista, hangarback, and anafenza, and is another target for mirrorweave. However, its not a great without the hardened scales or snake.
If you have any other suggestions I would love to hear them! Otherwise I am leaning towards cenn's tactician or simic initiate
We also had a few games where mirrorweave was a dead card on game 1, for instance against control or burn. So I decided to move it to the sideboard, and get rid of stubborn denial, which was iffy anyways because our creatures need time to heat up. It's disappointing because mirrorweave can be such a huge blowout against a lot of decks, but I want game 1 to be the most aggressive deck possible.
TheHex2020 on
Garruk Beast
2 months ago
If i go the +1/+1 counter theme that means i could use Primeval Bounty. Some cards I found are Bond Beetle, Dragonscale Boon, Travel Preparations, and Timberland Guide
AMJacker on
Casual Simic (budget)
4 months ago
8 Burst of Strength? maybe replace 4 of them with Bond Beetle ? or another +1/+1 like Battlegrowth, it is an instant.
SaberTech on
Ancestral Animar
5 months ago
When Ancestral Statue first came out I took out Earthcraft, because the Statue did in one card what I needed three cards to do (bounce creature + earthcraft + basic land). I didn't miss it that much and only put Earthcraft back in as I started trimming other fat from the deck. The non-creature combo cards don't actually show up that much for me because they are outside the usual tutor chains that Animar uses. There has been the odd time that Earthcraft has given me the mana to play solitaire for a turn and combo out, but the times I naturally draw into it are few and far between. I rarely see Cloudstone Curio too, although I don't think that I would ever take that out. In fact, if you are trimming cards, perhaps it's worth looking at Trophy Mage to help make the Curio more accessible?
Rishkar didn't impress me when I gave it a test run. Whenever I cast it, I usually wished it was something else. The ramp it offers is nice but I found Animar didn't really need that mana. I suppose it helped when Animar died and I needed to rebuild him quick, but he always felt lackluster if Animar already had at least two counters. With two counters Animar is usually set to threaten a win the following turn, and at that point I was usually looking to cast a creature that let me draw more cards or tutor for something.
I also don't run Hardened Scales for the same reason. Unless you are trying to rebuild Animar after it died, I found that the extra counters didn't help speed up Animar's clock that much. Since Animar doesn't need that many counters to combo off I found that the counters from Hardened Scales quickly became redundant. Most of the time, just having a 1-drop creature to play instead of Hardened Scales got me to where I needed to be. In terms of ramp options, if I had to choose between the Scales or Bond Beetle I would probably take the Beetle 4 times out of 5.
Kozi is a little harder for me to cut because I've found being able to get cards off him to be really helpful on a number of occasions. I can understand the argument for cutting him, but I've always liked having him as a possible target for Fierce Empath during those times where I'm trying to basically storm off and I want the cards more than I want Ulamog. In theory, a creature like Soul of the Harvest could fill that role, but I've been in situations where not having to pay the double green let me leave up a Tropical Island to cast a card like Peregrine Drake if I drew into it.
The deck doesn't lose anything vital if Kozi is taken out but I think it would lose a useful option, so I would base the decision on your own situational experiences. It's one of those cards where its value is at least moderately affected by play-style.
Why can't you use Sylvan Safekeeper to protect Ancestral Statue with the bounce trigger on the stack? The bounce trigger doesn't target, so it should be fine to give the statue Shroud then let the trigger resolve. The only bounce creature that doesn't work for is Man-O'-War.
GSZ is meh because your search options probably mean you are using it as a reactionary card instead of a progressive one, but I would give it higher points if Sylvan Safekeeper and Dryad Arbor are also in the deck. Without the Safekeeper I think that something like Brainstorm would be better for digging for combo pieces.