Crovax, Ascendant Hero
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Block Constructed 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
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Crovax, Ascendant Hero

Legendary Creature — Human

Other white creatures get +1/+1.

Nonwhite creatures get -1/-1.

Pay 2 life: Return Crovax, Ascendant Hero to its owner's hand.

Recommendations View more recommendations

Tur on Hidden Power - Mono-Color - …

1 year ago

Hello everyone! This will be a forum post for a "Commander - Hidden Power" series. My goal is to show relatively inexpensive cards which are often overlooked by commander players in semi-competitive and casual play. (This post is not designed for competitive play.) If you enjoy the topic, please upvote the post or provide positive feedback and I will consider creating similar posts.

The powerful cards I plan on discussing are mono-color cards which are strong with big mana in commander.

I will provide one card per mono-color identity. These cards will not include x-spells nor multi-color identity spells. (I.e. no Torment of Hailfire nor Zacama, Primal Calamity)

It is obvious that big mana is a huge part of semi-competitive play. Whether it is from ramping through creatures, artifacts, enchantments, instants, sorceries, or lands. Big mana is pretty fun. Mana doubling effects from lands are especially useful. In this article, I'll be focusing on mana doubling from lands, but other ways to generate big mana are always possible

Here are some common big mana effects for each mono-color identity:

This is not an all inclusive list as Mana Flare, Heartbeat of Spring, Keeper of Progenitus, Sword of Feast and Famine, et cetera would work just as well. In each mono-color identity the artifacts Caged Sun, Gauntlet of Power, and Extraplanar Lens can be used, however the black and green color identities have an advantage for mono-color double mana effects. Furthermore, green contains cards such as Seedborn Muse, Awakening, and Wilderness Reclamation which allow for more interactions.

Well, let us begin in WUBRG order!

White: Sacred Mesa

This card is relatively unused. According to EDHREC, Sacred Mesa is played in 1511/849227 (0%) decklists and is under one dollar. You'd be surpized how powerful this card is with double mana. Imagine making some number of pegasus at instant speed as either blockers or attackers for your next turn. (The upkeep cost can be paid by making a summoning sick pegasus during your turn.) Not to mention power and toughness buffing effects are ideal with Sacred Mesa, examples include Dictate of Heliod, Cathars' Crusade, Caged Sun, or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite.

It is often compared to Luminarch Ascension because they have similar effects. Yes, it makes a 4/4 angel instead of a 1/1 pegasus.

However, Luminarch Ascension has many downsides:

  • You have to have four quest counters to use the ability. (That is, you have to not lose life during an opponents turn four times.) This creates a huge target on your life total and you'll see it surely chip away.
  • Bounce effects, such as Cyclonic Rift really mess it up. Welcome back to square one!
  • Common cards, such as Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider prevent quest counters from even occurring. Vampire Hexmage or Hex Parasite are also options to remove the counters.

Sacred Mesa is way more versatile and does not have such downsides. Not to mention is it only three mana, ideal for Sun Titan recursion.

Blue: Compulsion

It is very rare to see this wonderful card. According to EDHREC, Compulsion is played in 1000/945324 (0%) decklists and is under one dollar. Having an activated draw ability with very little downside on a blue enchantment is insane. Ideal when paired with Teferi's Ageless Insight or Thought Reflection. There are a few cards which have a similar effect, such as Triskaidekaphile or Kefnet the Mindful without having to discard a card, but having a two mana activation is much more versatile. I suppose that an argument could be made with Training Grounds, but that is too much just to make the Kefnet the Mindful ability more cost effective. Furthermore, discarding a specific card like Echo of Eons, Wonder, or a shuffle Eldrazi such as Kozilek, Butcher of Truth has some nice synergy. (In fact, it should be played in most bant enchantress decks, such as the commander Tuvasa the Sunlit. Replenish for life!)

Black: Chainer, Dementia Master

This is a wonderful card, but a little pricey compared to the previous two cards. According to EDHREC, Chainer, Dementia Master is played in 6344/983251 (1%) decklists and is approximately ten dollars. Yes, we all know that you can abuse Chainer, Dementia Master with Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Kokusho, the Evening Star with sacrifice outlets such as Phyrexian Altar. Suppose we don't want to abuse this card into the ground is it still just good card? Yes. We can fill up or graveyard with Buried Alive or Entomb and get back a creature card, or we can grab a creature card from an opponents graveyard. It can also be used to interrupt graveyard combos, such as Aristocrats by using the ability on an opponents Butcher Ghoul with the undying trigger on the stack.

Red: Scourge of Kher Ridges

An extremely powerful and undervalued card. According to EDHREC, Scourge of Kher Ridges is played in 1005/912333 (0%) decklists and is under three dollars. If you're able to untap with Sourge of Kher Ridges and double mana, your opponents are going to have a rough time. As you can put multiple activations on the stack, it provides you with a very high on-board presence. Even within a response to removal. I've heard players complain that Scourge of Kher Ridges dies too quick to removal and my answer is "from your opponents perspective it needs to die before you're able to untap". Ideal with lifelink (and deathtouch) equipment such as Basilisk Collar or Shadowspear.

Green: Kamahl, Fist of Krosa

Typically unseen in play. According to EDHREC, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is played in 4786/880991 (1%) decklists and is approximately five dollars. It is odd how unused Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is compared to Ezuri, Renegade Leader when they basically have the same effect. Overrun as an activated ability which is stackable multiple times. I agree that Ezuri, Renegade Leader is better in elf tribal decks, however Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is great in most big mana decks. Ideal for wide aggro. Tall aggro will gain the benefit of trample. If you don't have extra creatures you can animate your lands as 1/1 attackers, correction 7/7 attackers. (Pretty interesting because these attackers get around Cyclonic Rift, they're lands.) You can also get some payback by animating your opponents lands in response to a creature board wipe. (From that reasoning it can be paired with cards such as Ascendant Evincar and Crovax, Ascendant Hero to destroy opponents lands through animation.)

All in all, these are relatively unused cards which have a lot hidden power with big mana. If your deck is mono-colored and designed for big mana spells or abilities, think about giving these cards a chance. See if they work well for you and your playgroup.

multimedia on Ranar precon upgrade

1 year ago

Hey, well done upgrading the precon on a budget. Blink is the way to go, good job adding the blink combos.

6 cards to consider cutting to get to 100 cards.

The spell side of these double faced cards is terrible, they aren't worth playing for the rare occasion that you might need to play them as a land. You don't need them for their land side, 36 lands and 13+ ramp sources is enough mana. Resolute Archangel, Supply Runners, Crovax, Ascendant Hero are the weakest cards here of each of these mana costs. 3.6 avg. CMC is high, cutting some of these lesser high mana cost cards can reduce that number to improve gameplay.

I have some suggestions for card upgrades to improve gameplay. Are you interested?

Good luck with your deck.

IHATENAMES on No Pain No Lifegain

2 years ago

On one hand. This is what magic was meant to be. I havent played a few of these cards since i first put a deck together. Crusade. won't even show the image.. That is a discussion for another time...

Suggested additions

Loyal Warhound ramp in white

Skullclamp card draw

Sun Titan recursion

Abzan Falconer can give mass evasion

Some amount of board wipes my favorites atm are Tragic Arrogance Martial Coup Vanquish the Horde Ondu Inversion  Flip .

Cathars' Crusade it wins games. You may want to not use this so you focus on lifegain but this cards does work

Crested Sunmare lifegain payoff

Crovax, Ascendant Hero Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Soul of Eternity Celestial Mantle Axis of Mortalitykinda slow for my meta but might work for you.

Dawn of Hope card draw and can make tokens

Alseid of Life's Bounty protection w/ lifelink

Well of Lost Dreams card draw

Shattered Angel Angel of Vitality to keep with the angels if u want

Palace Jailer monarch is card draw also fun. and removal

Ajani's Pridemate lifegian payoff. its gets huge here because each attacking creature has its own trigger to grow the pridemate. i think 1 or 2 cards make essentially copies of this card. they might be worth looking for

Blind Obedience staxy and lifegain

Moon-Blessed Cleric you run a lot of enchantments your enchantress sub theme can be supported with this

Akroma's Will protection/ finisher

Noble Purpose unnoticed lifegain card that would be good here maybe

Lunarch Veteran  Flip Soul Warden Soul's Attendant Daxos, Blessed by the Sun Suture Priestlifegain dorks

Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr  Flip lifegain with enchantment payoff as well

now how do u win? atm you focus on going wide with weenies but have a focus on gaining life. Possible ideas Aetherflux Reservoir Archangel of Thune Felidar Sovereign Serra Avatar Starfield of Nyx Nykthos Paragon True Conviction

this is just some ranting. Its up to you how you want to build your deck! Other areas you should look at it your mana base (use tech lands you have almost all basics), ramp to your bigger stuff and card draw in general.

Megaspell on Elesh Norn's Anthems & Taxes

2 years ago

IHATENAMES thank you for your comment. I will test Expedition Map and Crovax, Ascendant Hero seems really great, too.

Dave-writer90: I absolutely love your suggestion. But before Overwhelming Splendor can be put inside the deck some talking with my playgroup needs to be done. :D

Spell_Slam on Card creation challenge

2 years ago

Remove Soil

Instant

Cast this spell only during your opponent's draw step.

Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a land card from it. That player exiles that card.

The mage pulled the stopper from his bottle... Torric was swept off his feet.

Colour-shift your favourite legendary, like Crovax the Cursed -> Crovax, Ascendant Hero.

PinnedPhoenix on

2 years ago

this deck is fun! it has nice creature synergies and a solid mana curve.

I would consider getting a few more one drops in there. Figure of Destiny is a great card that only gets buffer as the game goes along. in terms of the late game, Crovax, Ascendant Hero is a personal favorite of mine. Righteousness is also great!

if you ever happen to take the plunge into buying some cards specifically for this deck, consider consolidating the creatures you only have one of into four of the best of em. it'll make your deck run smoother and take some of the guesswork out of how a given game goes.

Cyb3rguerrill0 on

2 years ago

Jabberjaw46 thank you for this awesome suggestion, but I got one question: if I return Crovax, Ascendant Hero during the upkeep I will only be able to let him enter the battlefield during the first main phase resulting in giving away my priorty for instants of opponents and therefore need to speend mana which I might not have (enough) to resolve this combo? Or am I missunderstanding your advice? Thanks.

Jabberjaw46 on

2 years ago

hehe you should run Axis of Mortality, it combos with Crovax, Ascendant Hero. Pay 2 life to return to hand while holding priority, then activate again paying 2 life. Continue until you're at 1 or 2 life then switch life totals.

I know it isnt part of your main strategy but it can be a fun backup win con.

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