Command Beacon

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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
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Command Beacon

Land

: Add . ( represents colourless mana.)

, Sacrifice Command Beacon: Put your commander into your hand from the command zone.

ASalesman on Unesh, Ultimate Guide (Tribal)

6 months ago

GHoag thank you for your most critical feedback. I agree with a lot you have to say on this. There are a few things I'd like to discuss further. I'll mirror your format so you know how I am responding to what. Thank you for the praise on the list so far, there is definitely some things to be worked out still. "The pinnacle is a concept only to the unambitious" -flavor text from a card I don't remember lol. (sorry for the novel below)

Regarding Fetchlands, I think the deck thinning is negligible or very hard to notice at most. This aspect of them definitely can't be a bad thing. But playtesting has shown that the negative effects of including them are negligible. I have never been upset about running all 4. Also, the synergy these lands has with Vantress Visions (Virtue of Knowledge) feels reeeally good.

Rite of Replication is expensive mana wise. The purpose of Rite is to get through your whole deck in one go assuming Unesh is on the field, which is not always the case. In my playtesting, it has been very hard to resolve due to mana cost, and when you do meet the mana requirement it is never safe from interaction. Given these flaws, this card might as well say "if you are targetting Unesh and this card resolves, you win the game." With the FOFs, you can pick up all counter magic and free mana rocks on the way down your deck to cast & protect Thassa's Oracle. A non-negligible side effect, this makes choosing piles easier to do because you no longer have to grab sphinxs or other wincons. This wincon is still relevant at this mana cost. I think the jury is still out if this is the best choice though. With inifinite mana you can do something similar, and I'll talk more about this below. Q: Why not add Personal Tutor? Simply because you don't need 3 copies of Rite. I already don't like Mystical Tutor, but the versatility to grab any instant makes it worth it. By the time you meet the mana requirement, you will have seen Rite or Mystical Tutor. Personal Tutor is too narrow to have in a slot, even on the 'Rite' plan.

cEDH meta talk, there is Turbo, midrange, and stax (early win, midgame win, lategame win respectively.) The average win without any interaction is turn 6-7 on this revision. This solidly puts Unesh into midrange. I think he can be sped up a bit with more revisions. Turn 4 is a late win for Turbo, but with enough interaction to stop the turbo player we can get to the midrange and win the game. Unesh suffers against a a few stax pieces. The main ones being Torpor Orb (which doesn't see a ton of play these days), and Null Rod and Collector Ouphe. Collectore Ouphe doesn't feel so bad with our interaction suite, and Null Rod is even more of a nuissance. If both are on the field, it is an absolute nightmare for Unesh.

Creatures: Yes a lot of fat was trimmed, and it took some time to really narrow down the best Sphinxs in these slots. There is still room for improvement here. For instance Vexing Sphinx feels awful. The reason I added it a while back was because he can be played early game for a bit of card draw. The card draw from this is not worth the mana spent, the fact that even with Unesh out he is 2 blue to cast also feels very bad. I will definitely replace him with another Sphinx, probably Argent Sphinx or Metallic Mimic. For 2 blue I am much happier to see the mana sink on Argent Sphinx. And for 2 colorless I am happy to see possibly the next cheapest sphinx not already in the deck. Enigma Thief though high CMC, I can reliably cast him for his prowl cost at 2 cmc, and his removal is top notch. Dream Eater though the removal is not the best, it is still good. The kicker here is honestly the surveil 4. You do Unesh FOF first, then surveil 4 and hopefully you can put all 4 in the graveyard. Still dream eater does feel a bit slower than everything else. Scholar of the Lost Trove, upfront I feel very strongly about this card. It's not because this is a pet card, it's because I think its very powerful in this deck. Even at 5cmc which is what I normally cast it for, it feels like insane value. You get the Unesh trigger, and a wincon from the graveyard that the opponents thought they didn't have to deal with anymore. After doing some math on this, the average cost of an Unesh trigger with Unesh on the field is ~2.25 cmc in the current revision (that is the cmc of a card generating the FOF divided by the total number of things generating FOFs excluding Rite). At 5 cmc, casting the Scholar gives you a 4 cmc game winning artifact and a ~2.25 cmc Unesh trigger. Not to mention, it gives you flexibility in choosing piles. For instance, If an opponent erroneously puts Panharmonicon in a pile by itself, you can shamelessly take the other 3 cards in that FOF. Palinchron is also rather expensive to set up, but not as expensive as Rite. I think it is a good back up win condition. If Rite doesn't resolve, or if Isochron w/ dramatic reversal doesn't resolve, we need at least one other way to combo off. With ways to tutor for High Tide this win condition has been online surprisingly often, and is definitely threatening. That said having this AND Rite feels too heavy mana wise. I think I am pretty much sold on Isoscepter because of how inexpensive it is. With recent mana rock additions as well as Mox Diamond and Grim Monolith (mentioned below) the wincon is online for far cheaper than Rite and effectively does the same job, also dramatic reversal can be used as a one time use now which makes it good on it's own.

Lands: After a day of listening to cEDH podcasts, this is what I came up with. Urza's Saga is nuts. After playtesting with these lands I felt a big power spike. Thank you for mentioning Mystic Sanctuary again. I didn't think about it being able to retrieve a wincon which is pretty relevant. I will consider slipping this one back in there. I also think that losing just one more Island wouldn't be very impactful. What do you think about Command Beacon? After playtesting, I think there is such a niche case when this card is good in cEDH. I think I prefer an Island here given the more recent revisions.

Enchantments: Agreed, all of these are great cards. Not much to change here.

Instants: I don't think there are any cuts to be made here. After playtesting I think I need to add more Instants to more reliably shut off early combo wins. Demonic Consultation and Ad Nauseum are rampant. Even fitting in a Dispel or Spell Pierce to the deck would go a long way.

Artifacts: Work needs to be done here. I agree with a lot of what you are saying. Lightning Greaves feels bad because board interaction is light and stack interaction is high in cEDH. Caged Sun is usually too expensive to play without cheating it in with Scholar. But scholar wants to hit other game winning cards anyway, so Caged sun needs to go. Grim Monolith and Mox Diamond need to go in. I have been reluctant to add them to the list because I don't have paper copies. You are spot on with these two though. I am not high on Moonsilver Key, but I do like Wayfarer's Bauble. The bauble putting a land into play is important to getting palinchron online, and this also sees great synergy with Vantress Visions similar to the fetch lands. Though bauable is definitely worse than mox diamond and grim monolith, it would be my last cut. Mox Amber indeed doesn't power Unesh out, but we don't need it to. I will say that my playtests have really favored this card. Being able to play more mana artifacts after a FOF for free will keep the FOFs rolling. Mox Amber feels very good. Mox diamond is superior, but I won't take out Mox Amber for it.

REVISION: After synthesizing both our viewpoints, here is a revision that I will go ahead and push. I think you will like this mostly, but let me know your doubts.

EXPLANAITION: This rev cuts the Rite wincon and adds the less expensive Isoscepter wincon. There is still backup wincon in Aetherflux. Isoscepter is backed up by Palinchron, and Aetherflux is supported by Palinchron. Obviously, the goal with infinite mana is to play Thassa's eventually. Dramatic Reversal is good enough on its own now because of the artifacts added recently. I honestly think this is the cheapest that the wincon package can be while still being robust enough to not fizzle out. With these wincons, Unesh doesn't have to be on the field, which makes the deck less reliant on him, mitigating one of the deck's biggest flaws. Cutting Lightning Greaves will likely be inconsequential due to low board state interaction. Muddle and Spell pierce add some more stack interaction while Muddle can find combo pieces. I went with Spell pierce over Dispel because it can hit stax pieces as well as stopping an early combo win. Cutting a sphinx now relies on Ghostly Flicker to be part of the 20%. Mystic Sanctuary and Scholar of the Lost Trove are used to retrieve wincons from the grave if necessary.

I heavily considered subbing Dream Eater for Argent Sphinx. I will need to playtest that change before committing to it.

Phule451 on Batman.

6 months ago

Surprised you don’t have the Batsignal: Command Beacon. Also, though it seems you haven’t updated in awhile, but Protective Parents is about the most Batman card I’ve seen since Grappling Hook!

Rasaru on BANE! (Maraxus voltron)

9 months ago

How has the deck been playing recently? Any weaknesses to note?

I absolutely love this deck list, but have a couple of questions and/or suggestions for you.

A. It looks like you have a total of 16 instants/sorceries. Do you ever have an issue with producing treasures with Storm-Kiln Artist? It's an excellent card, but I'm unsure (since I haven't played this list) that you would get enough value here. In it's place you could play something fun like Kazuul's Toll Collector or something that helps you cheat equip costs like Brass Squire. Imagine paying only 3 mana to play a creature, then immediately attaching 3-4 equipment to it for free! lol

B. Although I've played my share of Nettlecyst, I think you have some better options here. It has the opportunity to pump your commmander a great deal, if you're able to take advantage of your treasure generation and get some equipment on the battlefield. But what happens when you play this after all your artifacts get destroyed or exiled? I think in the long term, you'd get more value out of Sword of Forge and Frontier and/or The Reaver Cleaver. The sword costs the same, provides protection, card advantage and has the ability to pump your commander by playing additional lands. While the Reaver Cleaver is not only on theme, but helps put treasures back onto the battlefield, pumping your commander and progressing your Hellkite Tyrant alt win-con strategy.

C. I have some suggestions on your landbase

Great Furnace -> Snow-Covered Mountain - "2008-04-01: A permanent that’s more than one of these types (such as an artifact creature) counts only once." So an artifact land would only pump Bane by 1/1. Ditch this land for another snow-covered mountain to increase your chances of utilizing Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle in the mid/end game.

Darksteel Citadel -> Snow-Covered Mountain - See above comment

Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance -> Snow-Covered Mountain - I appreciate that this can make blockers (Bane should be the only attacker you care about), but cards like Bedlam make them irrelevant. Let's add a snow-mountain to continue to improve our Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle potential.

Cathedral of War -> Command Beacon - Bane is going to be a target. Why bust treasures, when you can just send him to your hand and cast him for way less.

Bonders' Enclave -> Valakut Awakening  Flip - besides your commander (who is going to be a major target), you only have 4 other creatures with 4+ power. You don't want to have to spend mana to equip something, just so you can turn around and spend 4 more mana, to draw a card. This mdfc offers at least 1 card, for 1 less (floor), which is already better.

D. While, Endless Atlas can stick around for awhile, I think (maybe) you might get more immediate value from Seize the Spoils. It's only once, and yes it's sorcery speed, but you get 2 cards immediately, 2 treasures to pump Bane, and can feed your graveyard, giving Goblin Engineer and Goblin Welder more targets.

E. A fun card you could consider, and is a pet card of mine, is Surestrike Trident. It's so fun to watch people's faces when this hits the battlefield and they read what it does :D

SufferFromEDHD on Shauku, End-the-game-bringer

10 months ago

Crucible + Command Beacon = Shauku always cost 7.

I might cut Lili for Prismatic Vista.

SufferFromEDHD on Date Night with Phage

10 months ago

Phage is a great commander as she has one of the most unique restrictions in the game. Your list is really well balanced and focused.

Crucible of Worlds to recycle Command Beacon.

Hall of the Bandit Lord crucial.

The Golden Throne the more of these effects the better.

The only cards that seemed weak in your list were Street Wraith and Greed.

HatchMichael18 on 5 color 0 creatures v3.0

10 months ago

Crucible of Worlds and Command Beacon makes it where you no longer pay command tax Divine Reckoning Slash the Ranks The Eternal Wanderer and Hour of Reckoning are decent board wipes to consider

very janky but hear me out

Avacyn's Memorial and Leyline of Singularity i noticed your only using token creatures Mirror Box when your against snowball goblins or elves this combo comes in handy

shock7123 on The Four Horsemen

11 months ago

You have a solid deck concept, but I have a couple options you might consider throwing in at some point:

Cut Thran Dynamo and toss in a Land Tax. Colored mana means more than colorless mana in the long run. Land Tax also has the added benefit of letting you get lands out of your deck, making it harder to miss land drops, and is a solid tutor target early on.

Weathered Wayfarer and Deep Gnome Terramancer are excellent adds that let you try to keep up with your opponents, especially if you have a green player at the table that's ramping out of control.

I know some people don't like cheap "you win the game" cards, but lifegain goes well with things like Aetherflux Reservoir and Felidar Sovereign. You still have to work to meet the win condition of Sovereign, since most players will be focusing on trying to keep your life total down.

Smothering Tithe is a card I personally refuse to run, since I don't like asking people if they want to pay for me not to get a treasure constantly, but it is another solid early-game engine that can help you keep up with your opponents.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth pairs really well with Cabal Coffers and allows you to dump a ton of black mana into your mana pool at a time.

Making your wipes one-sided with things like Eerie Interlude and Rootborn Defenses can be incredibly helpful. You may be able to rebuild quickly, but there's no need to rebuild when you can just not have your creatures destroyed in the first place. Alternately, if you don't want to pay ridiculous levels of commander tax, a Command Beacon can help in a pinch.

Other extort effects like Crypt Ghast can really stack up quickly if you have multiple of them out at a time. Gaining 3 life every time you cast a spell works wonders, especially when your opponents are each losing one.

UltimateRoxas40 on Hinata, the Morning Star [Spellslinger Primer]

11 months ago

Thanks for the suggestions Crow-Umbra! I like Command Beacon and Apostle's Blessing as defensive options. Hinata kinda lets everyone know what's going to happen, and yeah, it's a removal magnet, so more shields would be effective.

Eerie Interlude is nice, but it removes tokens. I haven't played with this enough to know how many tokens/ token creators are too much, so until I find the right balance, I might hold off on this one for now.

Between Magnus the Red or Battlefield Thaumaturge, which do you think is more efficient? I'd probably stick to Battlefield Thaumaturge for redundancy since the majority of my X spells only really scale with the number of targets, not the amount of mana spent. But that does depend on the type of spells one is running.

I've thought about Willbreaker before, but I decided against it. I've only got a few spells that would deal damage and not outright destroy a creature, so it takes up a slot that could otherwise be used to directly destroy things.

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