Deceiver Exarch

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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
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Deceiver Exarch

Creature — Cleric

Flash (You may cast this spell at any time you can cast an instant.)

When Deceiver Exarch enters the battlefield, choose one —

  • Untap target permanent you control.
  • Tap target permanent an opponent controls.

Dani3377 on I got to Tomorrow

8 months ago

Have you considered throwing something like Burning Anger + Bounding Krasis or Deceiver Exarch in there as a combo? That card equips auras too.

zachz on Tap 'em Out!

1 year ago

Really enjoy the concept of the deck. I think you have, if you pardon the terrible pun, an untapped potential that can be added to your deck.

Untap mechanics can accelerate your own card tap abilities, and give you the rare opportunity to tap an opponent creature multiple times per turn. There's several that I found worth suggesting:

StopShot on B&R February 15 2021

3 years ago

@TriusMalarky While Twin can force a land to get tapped on turn 3 to prevent 3 mana spells from getting cast you do need to remember doing so leaves the combo piece open to sorcery speed removal such as a Dreadbore , Flame Slash or Declaration in Stone in the first game and in the second and third game it allows cards like Torpor Orb or Blind Obedience to be played - tapping all out to put the combo piece down means you won't have counter-mana up to stop these effects from hitting the board and often the Twin player will instead choose to cast the combo piece on the endstep of their opponent's turn incase if there is a sorcery-speed threat such as T-orb that needs to be countered on their opponent's turn instead. The Twin player will (in most cases) only choose to preemptively tap down the land if they know their opponent is mana-screwed, if they don't have a counterspell in hand or if they know their opponent is running Twin to further stall the opponent's combo. With that said I wouldn't entirely discount 3 mana answers that can be made uncounterable by Cavern of Souls or Aether Vial or 3 mana spells that completely disable the deck beyond repair such as Unmoored Ego if they resolve.

I also think it would be more problematic for Twin decks to also splash in a third color for enchantment removal. One aspect that made Twin decks so oppressive was a solid portion of them would include copies of Blood Moon in the mainboard in order for it to be more difficult for their opponents to interact with their combo. Dedicating to a third color to run Dovin's Veto is going to come with not being able to run Blood Moon while being easier for the Twin deck to also get disrupted by an opponent's potential Blood Moon as well. On the other hand, Blood Moon has also been made weaker in the meta as Cleansing Wildfire and Force of Vigor make effective get out of jail free cards from sideboard.

Plus, I think you're undervaluing some cards in your assessment. Back when Twin was around the only one-mana spells that could remove an endstep flashed-in Deceiver Exarch was Path to Exile , Rending Volley , Vendetta and the ever so infrequent Skred and Lightning Axe and out of those, the only cards that were mainboard worthy was Path to Exile and Skred (which only worked if you were running a niche deck and you were going first with extra technicalities). Fatal Push has had a huge impact on the format being loads better than Vendetta which gives many more decks greater flexibility when holding removal mana up especially in game 1 given how playable it is in the mainboard. There's also Veil of Summer which also deserves mention and while you may see it as a simple upgrade to Autumn's Veil , fundamentally it's not. In the event I toss a Path to Exile or Fatal Push at a Pestermite and the Twin player responds with a Dispel , or as you suggested a Dovin's Veto , if I play an Autumn's Veil (which would effectively counter either counterspell), it would be a 2-for-2 trade. I lose the kill spell and veil to remove the Twin player's combo piece and counterspell. This lukewarm outcome is the reason why Autumn's Veil saw none if any modern play as Silence typically did its job better enough to warrant a splash in white over it in most cases if such an effect was absolutely needed in sideboard. Veil of Summer surpasses both because it has a built in cantrip that turns the interaction into a 1-for-2 trade in your favor and if the interaction happens while your opponent is trying to put a Splinter Twin on the combo piece it becomes a 1-for-3 trade in your favor. Veil of Summer 's value is by no means merely replacing Autumn's Veil or Silence 's role in the format, but more accurately it's replacing the clunkier Krosan Grip and Sudden Death that were typically used against the Twin-combo instead which makes it its own unique answer against the combo in my opinion.

Two more cards that I think also deserve further assessment is Sinister Concoction and Dovin's Veto . To say Dovin's Veto is just an upgrade to Negate I think is an understatement. "This spell can't be countered" is the reason Abrupt Decay was a banger of a card at thwarting Twin's machinations and I think the fact a Dovin's Veto can stop a Splinter Twin on cast makes it good enough to be a Twin-killer too. You suggested Twin might have to go into white to run its own Dovin's Veto es and Path to Exile s but I think the fact this card can also be used against Twin may be a more compelling reason for Twin to splash green over white just to have Veil of Summer as a necessary means to put up with the combined pressure Abrupt Decay and Dovin's Veto would have in keeping Twin in check as the Veil is the only card that can universally counteract both spells. (And even so Veil of Summer isn't a 100% failsafe as it has nothing against Rending Volley .) As for Sinister Concoction , I'm not going to pretend this card sees much Modern play, but this thing is a serious contender at throwing a wrench in Twin's plans and outside of Twin it's not an unplayable removal spell either. The reason why is it works much like your explanation for why Authority of the Consuls works - you can play it turn one and your opponent has no means to remove it without splashing a third color. Now Authority of the Consuls may be the more ideal card to use over it, but if your multicolor black deck can't splash white this is your next best thing and it even has some upsides over Authority of the Consuls . Sinister Concoction may be more fragile to effects like Stifle and Tale's End or effects like Spellskite and Apostle's Blessing , but it makes up for it when enchantment removal is thrown at it, as you can crack it in response to dumpster one of your opponent's creatures, in this case most likely a combo piece, while also rendering the enchantment removal as a waste in the process. This in turn is going to make the Twin player more cautious about playing their combo pieces before drawing into enchantment removal which can potentially delay the Twin player's progress harder than an Authority of the Consuls otherwise would. And if the Twin player doesn't have an answer, you'll always crack the Sinister Concoction in response to whatever creature they'll try to enchant with Splinter Twin to inflict the most damage. Even if you're playing on the draw or you draw into the card later, much like Authority of the Consuls , Sinister Concoction also bypasses quite a couple of Twin's favorite counterspells too such as Dispel , Spell Snare and Remand which is why I think the spell has much merit as yet another Twin-hate specific sideboard card that just wasn’t available to be utilized before in the past.

Lastly, the list I put up above was something I compiled over a quick gatherer search. I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed a few cards that may be just as worthy of discussion on countering Twin as well.

Swim_ish on Hehehehe

3 years ago

PaulaTicks, I am aware the conscripts do not work with Obeka’s ability. I have them in here because they go infinite with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Splinter Twin, as do Pestermite and Deceiver Exarch.

RNR_Gaming on Grixis Reanimemer

3 years ago

Having your own suite of creatures comes in handy too. Buried Alive, Entomb, Phyrexian Delver, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Deceiver Exarch were my bread and butter. I also had Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur cause I'm a horrible person. Consecrated Sphinx and Vilis, Broker of Blood make for excellent value plays if you're not into being a degenerate but still love value. Lastly, wheels come in super handy for this type of deck Wheel of Fortune and Windfall fill the yard up and provide you with a nice reload.

SynergyBuild on Sultai Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

3 years ago

Surely I can help. You want to look for how many forests/elves you have to start. Quirion Ranger/Wirewood Symbiote are great for the first activation, however easily you could go for something else like a dork.

I like going for tutor chains that give value. However, if you have enough mana for two activations and an additional you can win on the second turn you activate him, as long as you got one of the two untappers previously mentioned!

Getting Thassa's Oracle, then responding to the trigger by untapping and tapping Yisan, getting a Spellseeker to find a Demonic Consultation can work for a win.

If you want another chain that takes less mana on the win scenario, here are some choices you can try out! Corridor Monitor on two, Hyrax Tower Scout/Deceiver Exarch/Pestermite/Bounding Krasis on three, and clones, for further levels if you just want to get to another combo you like.

Galvanic Alchemist deserves a mention in my opinion, as it allows for one of the best lines I know of, specifically in Tasigur.

Deathrite Shaman -> Biomancer's Familiar -> Galvanic Alchemist -> Wirewood Channeler. The channeled at that point taps for at least two, so with the alchemist makes infinite mana of all 5 colors, but getting infinite blue and filtering it back in, however you can remember that Yisan would just cost 1 Green mana for the last two activations, so is much cheaper near the end.

Again, Familiar, Deathrite, and Alchemist are good value, with Alchemist you can bind it to Yisan for tons of value, and the familiar works with the Arcanist, Yisan, and Tasigur! There are a ton of replacements for both Wirewood Channeler, like Zaxara, and a ton more for Deathrite Shaman, as any elf would work, or often even no elf! The issue is that summoning sickness is pretty sad.

Sylvan Safekeeper is a good turn one get for protection, Caustic Caterpillar, Gilded Drake, etc. for removal. These pieces help protected the combo.

SaberTech on Animar, Soul of Combos | Animar cEDH

3 years ago

Hi. Saw you asking for advice on the Animar Discord but didn't want to clog up the channel so I figured I'd leave some comments here. I'll try to focus on more budget friendly changes since you already know about the more expensive recommendations.

The first thing that stands out to me is that you've doubled down on a lot of redundancy of similar effects to make your combo options more consistent. Since you don't have Imperial Recruiter and Weird Harvest, I can see why you would do that for a more casual meta. What has happened though is that you have filled up slots that would normally go to the other cards that help Animar function faster. A number of cards could be trimmed out to put in important lower-curve cards.

To start with, you actually have too many combos in the deck that are clogging up cards slots. You already have Ancestral Statue + Walking Ballista, which is Animar's bread and butter. Competitive decks generally focus on assembling that as quickly as possible and protecting the combo.

The typical secondary combo line in cEDH Animar is the Kiri-Onna loop, but that requires you to put a lot of money into your mana base to make sure nearly all you lands produce blue mana for maximum efficiency, so lets skip that for now.

Another backup combo is Barrin, Master Wizard/Temur Sabertooth + Dockside Extortionist, which you already have. Barrin is generally favoured because of its versatility, but the Sabertooth works too and the combo can potentially produce infinite mana without Animar. The combo works well in the cEDH meta because of all the cheap mana rocks and enchantments that get played, but there's a chance it won't be as consistent in more casual metas.

In addition to the main combos, you often see Purphoros, God of the Forge as a backup kill condition. Since you have that too you are fairly well set for win-conditions.

On top of that though, you also currently have the Kiki/Twin combo package, Cloudstone Curio with a couple morph creatures and eldrazi, Deadeye Navigator + Peregrine Drake + Acidic Slime, and Oracle/Labman to win by decking off of "enchantress" effects like Beast Whisperer. You honestly don't need all of that. Some people may run Thassa's Oracle as an option for when damage might not win the game, but the rest could be heavily trimmed to make room for other important ramp and interaction.

So, cards to cut:

Deadeye Navigator is an easy cut. The higher cmc creatures clog up opening hands and force more mulligans. Cloudstone Curio can't be tutored for in your list, which makes it unreliable. Taking that out makes Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger unwanted. That leads to taking out Nettle Drone and Thought Harvester because they are just redundant effects that you already get with Ballista and Purphoros. Laboratory Maniac can come out because it will generally be a more fragile Thassa's Oracle. You could take the oracle out too because there are ways to just bounce and kill with Ballista, even when you are being forced to draw cards off of Glimpse of Nature or Beast Whisperer. I can see why you might want to leave that one in though.

The Kiki/twin package takes up a bunch of slots with cards that don't really do a whole lot on their own except for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, which some people think is too unwieldy to cast consistently because of the RRR in its casting cost. Splinter Twin isn't tutorable in the deck, so it's unreliable. Bounding Krasis and Breaching Hippocamp are just redundant bodies that don't even have the same versatility in their effect that Pestermite and Deceiver Exarch, and even those can be a little lack-luster.

If you aren't looking to take all the unnecessary combos out, I can see leaving some of the Kiki stuff in as a 2-card combo that isn't reliant on Animar. Just Kiki, Pestermite, and Deceiver Exarch on their own is enough. If you want to double down on it a bit though, you can consider putting in Zealous Conscripts. With the Conscripts, you can open up a 1 turn combo line with Vannifar.

Other cards worth cutting are Guardian Project (can't be tutored or cost-reduced), Soul of the Harvest (expensive and Primordial Sage is better), Vigean Graftmage (don't have enough +1/+1 counter synergies for this to be worth the slot), Farhaven Elf (better off with a 1 CMC mana dork), Solemn Simulacrum (better off with a 1 CMC mana dork), Tidal Barracuda (it may protect you from counterspells on your turn, put there is just too much risk with letting your opponents cast all their stuff at instant speed on every other turn). There are other cards that could be cut, but those are the ones that really stand out.

To replace the cards you take out, you'll be wanting the 1 cmc mana dorks and mana acceleration that was recommended on Discord, some more card draw/cantrip creatures like Mulldrifter and Generous Patron, and some cheap/free counterspells.

Anyway, I know this is a long wall of text but I hope the feed back helps give you a place to start making tweaks to your deck. And, of course, the people on the Animar Discord are always happy to offer advice.

arcane_trouper on MagicalHacker - List of All Anti-Infinite Cards

3 years ago

Wow, great work MagicalHacker. Reformatted with card links and averages (rounded up) of the range of decks the combos are in. I figure a single number for each 2 card combo makes it easker to tally up and figure percentages later. So 120,411 two-card combos total.

7293 Deadeye Navigator + Peregrine Drake

6255 Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond

4652 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts

4545 The Gitrog Monster + Dakmor Salvage

3688 Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth

3073 Demonic Consultation + Thassa's Oracle

2990 Demonic Consultation + Jace, Wielder of Mysteries

2957 Niv-Mizzet, Parun + Curiosity

2658 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed+ Triskelion

2445 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind + Curiosity

2410 Grand Architect + Pili-Pala

2370 Demonic Consultation + Laboratory Maniac

2333 Mindcrank + Bloodchief Ascension

2315 Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead

2242 Umbral Mantle + Priest of Titania

2132 Niv-Mizzet, Parun + Ophidian Eye

2129 Mindcrank + Duskmantle Guildmage

2010 Godo, Bandit Warlord + Helm of the Host

1957 Aurelia, the Warleader + Helm of the Host

1852 Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame

1809 Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron

1673 Worldgorger Dragon + Dance of the Dead

1714 Traumatize + Fraying Sanity

1689 Necrotic Ooze + Buried Alive

1679 Exquisite Blood + Vizkopa Guildmage

1662 Umbral Mantle + Elvish Archdruid

1598 High Alert + Axebane Guardian

1558 Combat Celebrant + Helm of the Host

1532 Ad Nauseam + Angel's Grace

1523 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind + Ophidian Eye

1514 Traumatize + Keening Stone

1483 Mindcrank + Syr Konrad, the Grim

1466 Eldrazi Displacer + Peregrine Drake

1429 Staff of Domination + Priest of Titania

1388 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Felidar Guardian

1390 Fleet Swallower + Fraying Sanity

1358 Worldgorger Dragon + Necromancy

1311 Aggravated Assault + Sword of Feast and Famine

1302 Grim Monolith + Power Artifact

1304 Reiterate + Mana Geyser

1279 Umbral Mantle + Karametra's Acolyte

1263 Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista

1245 Sage of Hours + Ezuri, Claw of Progress

1251 Exquisite Blood + Cliffhaven Vampire

1239 Time Sieve + Thopter Assembly

1227 Fleet Swallower + Keening Stone

1231 Necrotic Ooze + Entomb

1223 Food Chain + Eternal Scourge

1218 Aggravated Assault + Savage Ventmaw

1225 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Combat Celebrant

1170 Najeela, the Blade-Blossom + Nature's Will

1167 Basalt Monolith + Power Artifact

1188 Aggravated Assault + Neheb, the Eternal

1155 Helm of Obedience + Rest in Peace

1153 Exquisite Blood + Defiant Bloodlord

1112 Niv-Mizzet, Parun + Tandem Lookout

1107 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Deceiver Exarch

1103 Devoted Druid + Vizier of Remedies

1087 Freed from the Real + Incubation Druid

1076 Umbral Mantle + Marwyn, the Nurturer

960 Najeela, the Blade-Blossom + Cryptolith Rite

1025 Splinter Twin + Zealous Conscripts

1011 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind + Tandem Lookout

1008 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Pestermite

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