Brainstone
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Legality

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

Brainstone

Artifact

, , Sacrifice this: Draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order.

kamarupa on How to Capture and Consume a Soul

8 months ago

I gotta be honest, I feel like they've printed quite a few of such cards ('has X ability of X graveyard targets') and as decent as they seem in theory, I've always felt the payoff was never good enough to warrant the effort. But you sir, have proven me wrong because this deck is nice.

I'm curious - did you consider self-mill cards like Stitcher's Supplier? and perhaps in combination with spells like Brainstone or Mystic Speculation?

Conversely, did you consider trying to overdraw to discard? It seems like a pretty unlikely strategy, but there is Inspired Idea... Maybe a fork brew might explore that more...I do think some broad spectrum counterspell might be useful, if only in the sideboard - your creatures have a goal of entering with some kind of built-in protection, so only a counterspell could offer anything extra. Rebuff the Wicked seems like a rough fit with your color scheme as is, but it doesn't really do anything Hexproof doesn't do. Whereas a general counterspell like Mana Leak could stop a Priest of Forgotten Gods from entering play or a Diabolic Edict from resolving.

I wonder if you plan on occasionally casting discard targets like Vampire of the Dire Moon - that strategy seems dynamic (good) but also less focused/committed (bad?). To that end, did you look into spells that might both sacrifice themselves and also provide abilities once in the graveyard? I didn't do any searches to see if those even exist, but imagine at least one or two does.

Collective Brutality seems way too good to only include 2x copies.

As good as Collective Brutality is, I still want to see at least 2 more slots devoted to removal. I see you have two in your sideboard, but I have a sideboard rule that violates: You have to have mainboard spells to remove to have a functioning sideboard. Extrapolate from that: mainboard removal sideboards out for sideboard removal.

I wonder if something like Pull from Eternity might be useful in the sideboard. I'm thinking that since both your beatsticks need to exile creatures themselves, being able to reuse the same creature could be useful?

So long as there's a splash of white, I'd like to see some Enchantment/Artifact removal in the sideboard. Those spells can sometimes wreck mono-black and white is the best at that. To that end, I'd probably try to run more dual lands. There are just so many useful white spells!

I'd love to see some more draw card here. I like Sword-Point Diplomacy because it has a chance of drawing 3 cards for 3 mana, which is pretty much as good as it gets for card draw. Otherside, Night's Whisper or Sign in Blood are among your best options, which are both decent.

kamarupa on Cloaked Whispers

1 year ago

I love the concept of this deck, but it is def not going to be easy to make it work well. You have some obvious needs in 1) getting the combo pieces 2) having enough mana to cast them all before your opponent stops you 3) having room for defense and removal and 4) making sure your cloaked creatures die.

1) You not only need have some way of assembling your combo, you also need a way to put a spell on top of your library. I have to do this with my deck Cover Girl. The only spells I could find that made sense in that deck were: Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Brainstone, and Scheming Symmetry. I suggest running 2x of each of the first. Scheming Symmetry is a pretty big risk, so I advise against that here. The upshot of Jace is that you can cycle through your library 3 cards at a time, so you not only get to control your top card, you also get to filter for what you need.

2) Provided you employ some added filtering with Jace and Brainstone, I think you can remove some of your extra threats. This will allow for a little ramp. I guess I'd probably go with Birds of Paradise unless you're worried it will get bolted for being a bird. Then I'd probably go with a land enchantment like Fertile Ground. I think with the high-ish cost of your combo pieces, a little ramp is going to be helpful in creating a consistency in speed. (not to be fast, just to be as fast as it can be more reliably)

3) It occurs to me that cloaked spells could be blockers IF you both don't have all the combo pieces in place AND you whiffed with Hide in Plain Sight. Those are somewhat narrow conditions, so it's probably best not rely on that. I see you have room for 35 more cards, approx 24 of which will probably be lands, so I'll have to wait and see how much room you have for more defense and removal, but I think you have to include Bone Splinters. It's not as fast as I'd like but it pulls double duty in kicking off the final step in your combo and it does it for 1 MV instead of 3 like Start / Finish. I'd probably throw in 1x Fog, too. And Assassin's Trophy and Abrupt Decay would be excellent additions to the mainboard and sideboard. I'd probably go 4xBone Splinters, 2xAssassin's Trophy, 1xAbrupt Decay in the main and then extra of the instants in the sideboard.

4) Bone Splinters helps make sure you creatures die, but a board wipe like Killing Wave would probably be useful as well late game.

DeinoStinkus on I solved mana screw and …

3 years ago

"Unplayable chaff Brainstone"

Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Sharuum the Hegemon, Zur the Enchanter, mid-power affinity decks... it's not going to be winning any tournaments anytime soon but it is certainly not unplayable.

estoner on I solved mana screw and …

3 years ago

My apologies, I'll elaborate. Artifacts should cost any kind of mana but be weak while colored spells are more powerful but harder to cast. The design space of most artifacts is negated by the existence of most spells that are colored but splashable.

Look at unplayable chaff Brainstone. In the current ruleset, you would never play a card that is just an overcosted jank version of a U instant. If the game used color screw as negative variance instead of manascrew, suddenly a control deck could run one or two as insurance in case they were drawing badly.

Cards that require heavy devotion SHOULD be more powerful. Look at Necropotence. I think all cards that take three or more pips should be pushed just as much as high CMC cards are, because then you have to balance ramp against your color access, making power levels a graph with both an X and Y axis instead of just an exponential curve that goes parabolic at 7, where any spell instantly wins the game.

I was testing variants of the manabase rules in paper. Obviously I couldn't play as both players AND record at the same time. I was just commenting on my observations.

Wastes is the best-designed card in the game. By incorporating it in the structure of the game as the default land, suddenly even drawing a basic Island feels like a relief. If I can just play fetches and 4x Trop, 4x U-sea, 4x Volcanic, why do we even have colors at all?

Choosing between land and nonland on draw when you have a 5-drop in hand you lack the colors for and you're losing on board is interesting. Do you gamble on hitting the the correct colored mana source from your manabase or just take a spell from your library you know you can cast?

Regarding Khans of Tarkir, you have to remember that most 3+ color lands either come in tapped or ping you like City of Brass. Colorless cards being easy to cast but weak while colored spells are sick but hard to cast is interesting, and that's how the game was meant to be played anyway.

Brimaz is a great example. No deck that runs Brimaz would ever be screwed off casting him because YOU WOULD BE PLAYING DUALS ANYWAY. And why would 3+c control want a 1CC potato that dies to Day of Judgment?

I still believe that color screw should replace mana screw and bad artifacts like Armillary Sphere should get another chance

Andramalech on Dingus Tribal

3 years ago

Found some!

Formatting won't allow me to show the retro frame, but all of these do various bits to your end, and have a retro-framed alternative printing. And minus Force of Vigor, most of these are relatively cheap. I hope it helps!

Coco910 on The Weenie Hut General

3 years ago

Brainstone, Wayfarer's Bauble, and Ancient Den could be solid ramp and draw additions to grab with urza saga

lagotripha on Modern Mono Green

3 years ago

If you want judge/denizen to be more reliable, you can grab some Oran-Rief, the Vastwood or lean into spells running Hall of Oracles/Inspiring Call. There are some great budget counters cards in the 1 mana slot - Experiment One, Generous Visitor, Willow Geist etc. Mutant's Prey offers light removal and Servant of the Scale/Swarm Shambler some survivability.

Other sources of cardraw exist - Brainstone is notable, as is Harmonize.

hiddengibbons on Rakdos Wheel

3 years ago

@ Balaam__: I have thought about that. I think it would be more useful than the Hellspark Elemental, but drawing a Reforge the Soul off of it is a possibility I’m not thrilled about. Brainstone would then become more important in the deck.

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