Empress Galina

Legendary Creature — Merfolk Noble

{U}{U}, {T}: Gain control of target legendary permanent. (This effect doesn't end at end of turn.)

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
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Azoth2099 on March of Mordor

4 months ago

Cheers m8, happy holidays!

So having tested Sauron, the Dark Lord into the dirt since his release, I think you're gonna need to get him on the board waaay faster than this list is currently doing if you really want to be mean like that. I'd recommend a few of the following "means" lol:

Rocks: Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Creativity, Talisman of Indulgence, Dimir Signet, Rakdos Signet, Izzet Signet, Fellwar Stone & Springleaf Drum

Rituals: Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Culling the Weak, Burnt Offering, Sacrifice, Rain of Filth, Bubbling Muck, High Tide, Rite of Flame, Infernal Plunge, Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Ritual & Seething Song.

Cost Reducers: Nightscape Familiar, Sapphire Medallion, Jet Medallion, Ruby Medallion, Cloud Key & Urza's Incubator.

And then there are other value pieces like Conqueror's Flail to go along with The Reaver Cleaver to help you get out of hand once he's summoned, & Faerie Mastermind to draw you cards while your commander builds your board from your opponents actions. Mystic Remora is also great in this sense and is still pretty cheap compared to Rhystic Study. Teferi's Ageless Insight is another banger post-commander that should be considered imo, especially since you can't run Necropotence as efficiently as other {U}{B}{R} decks can.

For more villainy, consider Dauthi Voidwalker, Opposition Agent, Praetor's Grasp, Mnemonic Betrayal, Bribery, Acquire & maybe even something like Empress Galina to really peeve your pod.

Peace!

joni1707x on Merfolks Counting

5 months ago

Rasaru Firstly I want to say thank you for your help so far. Secondly, I updated the decklist, made the changes with the cards that arrived as you said. Respectfully, I wanted to try to play Empress Galina as my playgroup plays strong commanders and I like the idea of stealing them, maybe only once (just for the sake of doing it), but I can imagine excluding her after the first tests/steals. :D

Thirdly, I updated the maybe-board, thank you for noticing the doublings.

Tomorrow I will meet my playgroup, I will write a comment on how it went. Have a nice Day!

Rasaru on Merfolks Counting

5 months ago

If I were to only look at your pending deliveries, I'd make the following changes.

Empress Galina --> Lord of Atlantis

Kumena's Speaker --> Master of the Pearl Trident

Shaper Apprentice --> Realmwalker

Storm Sculptor --> Merfolk Skydiver

Rootwater Diver --> Svyelun of Sea and Sky

Lotus Blossom --> Hadana's Climb  ^Flip

Afiya Grove --> Utopia Sprawl

Thornwood Falls --> Flooded Grove

Vivid Grove --> Rejuvenating Springs

Littjara Mirrorlake --> Dreamroot Cascade

Quandrix Campus --> Windswept Heath

Battlegrowth --> Barkchannel Pathway  ^Flip

Once you make some additional updates and clean up your maybe list (I see some cards there that are also in your main board), I'll be happy to take another look! However, some other cards you should consider (that I don't see in either list) are Emperor Mihail II, Murkfiend Liege, Simic Ascendancy, Kindred Discovery, and Guardian Project. A more more expensive card option could be The Ozolith, but I'd wait on that to see if you like how the deck plays after some changes.

NV_1980 on

1 year ago

Nice deck idea. I think it could benefit a lot though in terms of speed, from changing out some of the higher cost spells for some of lower cost. I play-tested this a few times, but usually had to wait until turn 4 before I could cast my first spell. In terms of cheaper ramp, there's plenty to choose from, but some of my ideas would include Burgeoning, Exploration, Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar Elves, Lotus Cobra, Nature's Lore and Rampant Growth.

As for other ideas, Helm of the Host seems nice if you want to copy legendaries. I've noticed you've also included a stealing-theme. Maybe Empress Galina strikes your fancy. Great thing about her is that the legendaries you steal with her remain under your control even when she leaves the battlefield.

Have fun with the deck!

carpecanum on Flying Merfolk

1 year ago

Empress Galina is a merfolk in errata and Thada Adel, Acquisitor is amazing.

I would cut Coat of Arms and maybe a card draw enchantment (you have a ton). Coat of arms can really bite you on the ass.

RNR_Gaming on New secret lair Alert!

2 years ago

Anyways with that whole kickstarter thing going on I noticed that the professor hasn't made a video so in case anyone was wondering

Some regular guys non-foil/foil

Void Winnower - 16.07/20.46

Vengevine - 10.71/12.95

Collector Ouphe - 5.63/33.07

Goblin Settler - 48.71/N/a

Non foil: 81.12 Foil: 115.19

Foil: B / non-foil: C+

There's a good bit of value with this secret lair. Goblin settlers getting its' first foil printing is definitely noteworthy. Also, if you're into the Adventure Time art style you'll like be picking this up anyways.

Showcase: Streets of New Capenna

Atraxa, Praetors' Voice - 30.77/35.53

Breya, Etherium Shaper - 7.98/9.84

Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder - N/A/8.84

Non-foil: 47.59 foil: 54.21

Non-foil - D foil: C-

This grade pains me because I REALLY think the art on these is beautiful and they'll likely include a Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis in the same style as a bonus card but putting personal preferance and speculation aside the value just is not here.

Special Guest: Matt Jukes Foil Edition

Glacial Fortress - 3.71/11.25

Drowned Catacomb - 7.28/17.46

Dragonskull Summit - 3.79/6.96

Rootbound Crag - 3.81/6.55

Sunpetal Grove - 3.89/5.96

Non-foil: 22.48 foil: 48.18

Non-foil - F foil - D-

The value in these really speaks for itself.

Artist Series: Magali Villeneuve

Mother of Runes - 4.91/Varies

Death's Shadow - 6.12/10.19

Elvish Mystic - .45/9.97

Forest - N/A

Non-foil - 11.48 Foil: N/A

Non-foil - F Foil - D-

The biggest thing out of this lair is the foil Mother of Runes the prices fluctuates so much with the older foils it's hard to set an exact price to obtain a foil one; if we look at the previous secret lairs those versions of Mother of Runes are sitting at about 6-10 a piece.

Artist Series: Sidharth Chaturvedi

Concordant Crossroads - 46.87/N/A

Nomad Outpost - 1.06/5.74

Ghost Quarter - 1.12/16.90

Island - N/A

Non-foil: 49.05 foil: 69.51

Non-foil: D- foil: C

Essentially this lair is being carried by the fact that Concordant Crossroads only has 1 printing and has never had a foil printing. If you need one or would like to get a foil one knows your chance but outside of that its just some bulky cards with nice art.

Artist Series: Wayne Reynolds

Sram, Senior Edificer - .25/6.09

Torbran, Thane of Red Fell - .95/1.89

Depala, Pilot Exemplar - .23/1.65

Balthor the Defiled - 10.95/59.61

Non-foil: 12.38 Foil: 69.24

Non-foil - F Foil - C

This lair is also being carried by 1 card that has only 1 printing the rest is bulk.

Finally! Left-Handed Magic Cards

Sisay, Weatherlight Captain - .98/6.02

Empress Galina - 18.31/206.82

Geralf's Messenger - 9.89/34.48

Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh - .26/.41

Garruk, Caller of Beasts - 8.20/23.41

Non-foil: 37.64 foil; 271.14

Non-foil - C Foil: A

While Empress Galina is definitely the chase card out of this; it still has value in the other slots too outside of Roger - but even Roger is still highly playable.

Anyways, after doing all the math and putting this all together I appreciate the professor doing this and compiling it a video format. Also, which secret lairs if any are you planning to get?

ClockworkSwordfish on The Strangest Voltron

2 years ago

A lot of great picks here for fun abilities to slap on Mairsil. A great one I think you might appreciate is on the ol' stinker Infernal Denizen. Tapping to steal a creature is no mean feat, especially if you have a sacrifice outlet to go with it.

Of course, it looks like you plan to bounce Mairsil out of play regularly, and that doesn't play too great with the Denizen's ability. In such a case, you could also consider Empress Galina, Memnarch, Helm of Possession, Aladdin and maybe Simic Manipulator (to go with Anthroplasm or Phyrexian Devourer?)

LandoLRodriguez on The Lost Art(ifact) of Keeping a Secret

2 years ago

Changes, 02Nov2021 continued:

In:

Improved mana rocks!: (Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, Chromatic Orrery, Mox Opal, Voltaic Key). Little explanation needed here. The key can do more than be a mana rock, but considering how many of my rocks can now make 2+ mana per tapping, that's gonna be a lot of its purpose.

More turns: (Time Sieve, Expropriate). Seems like a better theme to splash in than pillow fort, and both of these cards are also about my main themes: artifact love and theft. Speaking of which...

Artifact love/recursion: (Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge, Tezzeret, Artifice Master, Sai, Master Thopterist, Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Dakkon, Shadow Slayer). This deck loves artifacts. It kinda has to love Tezzeret too as a result.

Your stuff is mine now: (Thief of Sanity, Nightveil Specter, Opposition Agent, Xanathar, Guild Kingpin, Empress Galina). I wanna take your stuff. All of your stuff. And not "until this card leaves the battlefield", either. Once I take it, it's mine. Bonus points for denying you access to them in the first place before making them mine.

Improved Lands: (Urza's Saga, Exotic Orchard, Glimmervoid). Urza's Saga is pretty much the card that made me realize I needed to update this deck.

Other: Fabricate is better than Diabolic Tutor by just about every measure. The only drawback being that it can only get artifacts is practically a moot point in this deck. Lithoform Engine just seems really good in here. I can't wait til I can copy an Expropriate with it... Finally, Paradox Haze cuz I love the way it can interact with not only The Ladies themselves but with Xanathar as well.