Essence Capture

Combos Browse all Suggest

Legality

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

Essence Capture

Instant

Counter target creature spell. Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature you control.

BahamutDX on Azorius Aggro

1 year ago

What cards most likely to put out in favor for other cards:

I'll leave this down here for useful additions for the deck in the next sets :D

multimedia on Umezawa of the Swamp

2 years ago

Hey, if you're looking for other potential cuts then look at the amount of removal you're playing. I count 19 removal sources including counterspells. That's a lot of removal and some of it could be cut for more draw and ramp.

Having a more balanced ratio of draw sources to ramp sources to removal can help gameplay. 10+-10-10 (draw-ramp-removal) is a good start. Overall more draw than the rest, with ramp sources potentially being less since on a budget there's not a lot of good ramp options in Dimir. More draw can replace some ramp since it can help to find lands. I don't consider Ecologist's Terrarium and Armillary Sphere ramp since these effects put basic land(s) into your hand not onto the battlefield. This effect is more draw than ramp and both of these could be cut for ramp, Terrarium is better card than Sphere.

The current ratio here of these three areas is 11-4-19 (draw-ramp-removal). Other than Nezahal, Primal Tide and bouncing Baleful Strix with ninjustu most of the rest of the draw is coming from one-time effects. One-time effects are fine, but repeatable effects are better. Number of ramp sources here is low. Prosperous Thief is in NEO set and it's good ramp for Ninjas since it also counts Rogues and many Rogues here are unblockable. It's two mana ninjutsu can be helpful for a potential turn two play after getting creature turn one.

Twisted Embrace, Essence Capture and Clawing Torment are some removal here that are worse than the rest. If you're getting Kaito Shizuki that's great, Twisted Embrace could be cut for him. Negate could replace another removal spell if you want to play it, it's better than Essence Capture, but If not I don't think you need it.

jvitag on Abzan Attrition

3 years ago

jaymc1130 I greatly appreciate your interest in my lists. I'm going to respond to the comment you left me here, since you specifically asked for my opinion on this list. This list looks extremely well planned out! It looks like a pain in the a** to play against, lol, but those seem to be the decks I get the most enjoyment of; the ones that torture and punish my opponent. lol. I wish there was a way to play you remotely, this would certainly put my lists to the test. Unfortunately I don't play a ton of edh anymore primarily because my favorite decks got banned by my play group. I have 6 edh decks total, 3 are pre-cons that looked cool, and I have a Sliver deck using Sliver Legion as commander, an Olivia Voldaren deck that has never been beaten by my play group (hence it was banned) and my Zur the Enchanter deck which has also never been beaten and was banned by my play group. Then I dropped out of MTG for about 6 years altogether and I am now starting to come back into the fray. The best place to start, I have found over the years, to get reaquianted with Magic (I have dropped in and out of this game many times since I started playing in grade school!) is through Standard. The learning curve tends to be much less so my focus, at the moment, is Standard. I am slowly dusting off legacy decks of mine, Stasis/Prison is one of my faves, Millstone which seems better using a host of Standard cards, Pestilence, and I have been toying with the idea of throwing Necropotence into my Bad Girlfriend deck now that Cauldron Familiar isn't legal in Standard or Historic. But I digress and I apologize. Tinybones, Trinket Thief is a ridiculous card and it certainly checks off all the boxes: cheap to play, generates value, and the mana sink can be killer if properly synergized. I typically tend to avoid ALL mono-color decks. I can't remember who the heck I was reading, but I was reading an article by a former tournament heavy-weight and he was specifically talking about mono-colored decks in the old block tournaments, but I think his words of wisdom ring true here and what he said was something along the lines of, 'when you opt for a mono-color deck, you are essentially relegating yourself to the 9 best rare cards in that color identity. When you opt for a second color you are now looking at the 18 best rares in that color identity, and when you opt for 3 colors and you can make it work, you are usually able to capitalize on the best cards in the format.' Again, he was talking about block tournaments and probably also Standard format a bit, but I think his basic point holds true for most formats. A single color identity is self-limiting. Sure you could run an all-discard mono-black strat and probably have a good win-rate, but if you synergize that discard mechanic with something else the result is usually greater than the sum of it's parts. I could envision a deck with Tinybones as a commander, even with the huge gaps in my MTG knowledge due to my various sabbaticals I have taken from the game, that would be fun and possibly competitive to play, but is he strong enough to play in the #1 spot? Probably not. You have included him essentially as a wrench in a well-built deck, and that is probably where he belongs. Whenever I am choosing cards to go in a list, and I admit this strategy to deck building works a hell of a lot better in Standard where choices are finite, I tend to think of card choices this way: 'by including this what can I not include as a result?' In other words, is there a better card choice, a card that does something just a little bit better or synergizes/generates value from other card interactions better then what I have chosen? I'll give you an example. Essence Capture and Essence Scatter. Both cards counter a creature spell. One gives you a +1/+1 counter but requires while the other one costs an easier to swing without the +1/+1 counter. In a mono-blue deck the Capture is better obviously because if you have 2 mana open they are both going to be blue. In a 3 color deck where I am including a creature counterspell then I am almost certainly taking the Scatter because mana is already a problem for a 3 color deck and most 3 color decks I play with blue are control decks anyway, I need to spend mana efficiently and keeping 2 blue up might mean not casting another blue spell on my turn. Tinybones is fairly limited in his use. You only get 1 card whether your opponent discarded 1 card or 7, and his activated ability needs 2 things to happen: an empty hand, and 6 mana. Is there a better value piece you could include in place of Tinybones? Maybe. What else could synergize with Tinybones? Most of the best decks I have ever played won not because they contained individually powerful cards, although that does happen, they won because of synergy. My Bad Girlfriend deck is a perfect example. Essentially every card synergizes with and generates value off of every other card in some way or another. Most of the individual cards aren't particularly powerful and some are just downright costly (I'm looking at you Priest!) but when combined with other cards (Chandra, Woe Striker, Mayhem Devil, Bastion) become powerhouses in and of themselves. So back to Tinybones. In order to capitalize the most on Tinybones, you need to have him going off during your turn and your opponent's turn, so your goal should be to do just that. You seem like you are doing that fairly well. You have tutors and various ways to fetch what you need. The real question is, how often does Tinybones generate good value for the deck? Without playing it I can't say for sure, you would be a better judge for that since you have been playtesting for a week.

DadHumanPraetor on Wizard won

3 years ago

Wrap in Vigor and Heroic Intervention instead of regenerate. Also Shared Summons or even a Fierce Empath might be worth including. Way more instant speed interaction. You could run things like Counterspell Dispel Mana Leak Swan Song Essence Capture Negate Mystical Dispute to protect your board or to NOPE another players win condition. Berserk Hatred Triumph of the Hordes are all a few bucks but will help end games and shouldnt feel dead to draw. Looking at your entire list, I dont think your support cards really synergize with your creature base. I get why youre using cards that function with the commander but when Kadena costs 8 to cast its not worth it to save 3 mana for a facedown and draw a card, so including ways to win without him should be a priority. Hit me up if you wanna play later bro

Barbarian_Sun_Pope on Curious Horseshoe Crab

4 years ago

There aren't a lot of straightforward replacements some of the cards here (particularly time walk) and some might be a little worse and you'll definitely lose some of the synergy, but that doesn't mean we can't keep the game plan. Also this is for the modern format (what used to be extended) and not the current standard. That being said:

Creatures

  • Horseshoe Crab/Thieving Magpie - Still modern legal/Surge Mare also works.
  • Thornwind Faeries - Prodigal Sorcerer.
  • Raven Familiar - Augury Owl/Sea Gate Oracle.
  • Rayne - No functional replacement that affects all your creatures/Monastery Siege might be able to serve a similar purpose of making it harder to target your permanents rather than discourage your opponent from targeting.

Enchantments

Counterspells. This one is a bit tricky as they moved away from the classic Counterspell and there's a lot of variety here and counters have changed a lot. So I'm just going to recommend a few to consider:

Spell Pierce, Negate, Muddle the Mixture, Remand, Archmage's Charm, Condescend, Deprive, Essence Capture, Force of Negation, Hinder, Rune Snag, Wizard's Retort, and Thassa's Intervention.

Well, that took a bit of time, but I hope this helps.

Fatknight13 on Simic Hydra Stompy

4 years ago

Okay so as someone who once tried to make this work in standard let give you some recommendations. Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig is a good card in mono green however in a multi colored deck like this one he isn't the best especially when you could be ramping with those card slots. Negate is a good card to have but not 4 in this deck. Another counter spell would be better or even going to 2 and then have 2 Essence Capture with more of each in sideboard. This biggest issue with this type of deck is lack of removal so once Theros Beyond Death releases this type of deck will probably need to add black for removal and Polukranos, Unchained . Stonecoil Serpent should be main-boarded since you don't have Hydroid Krasis . Arboreal Grazer is also better than Gilded Goose because you aren't running a food deck so you will have to spend 2 mana to get 1 on a later turn. A lot of the sideboard needs to be reworked as well because it just kinda feels like cards you wanted but couldn't justify main-boarding. So wait for Theros Beyond Death and add black so that you can get Cry of the Carnarium Polukranos, Unchained and Murderous Rider in the deck and you should see pretty good results in my opinion.

SynergyBuild on Magic_Aids

4 years ago

Hey! I assume you have seen a fair amount of the standard metagame's insistence on only a few real decks being runnable, if you want to try and stomp the metagame, the best cards against both Fires and Jund Food happen to align. Here is a tester of the UW hatebears list I have been testing.


UW Standard Hatebears

Standard SynergyBuild

1 VIEW | IN 1 FOLDER


Run down of some cards and the deck a bit: Hushbringer stops the Familiar's ETB, the Korvold etb, all of the Cavalier etbs and death triggers, Frilled Mystic, Gadwick, Massacre Girl, etc. Lavinia, Azorius Renegade kills Fires, slows the fast ramped Nissas and crushes the Rakdos Knight's Embercleave reliance, as well as occasionally hurts the few Golos and Drill Bits lying about. Tithe Taker is a mainstay sideboard card against jund food stopping most of the familiar loops from being affective on your turn, as well as hurting Brontodon and Murderous Rider too.

Outside of that, Simic Ramp and Flash builds would be problematic, as this deck would die to Nissa, Ambusher, and Hydrioid Krasis, but with Teferi to stop flash and hurt Nissa, Giant Killer to stop Ambusher and Krasis a bit, as well as being a strong 1-drop against a variety of decks, Stonecoil Serpent as a powerful threat, and more interaction in the form of Conclave Tribunal , Essence Capture , Dovin's Veto and Spell Pierce to stick the win.

Sidebording Hushbringer s into Deputy of Detention s seems good, but more options like Aether Gust and Citywide Bust make the list even stronger.

Murphy77 on M PAW M

4 years ago

Thanks for commenting LotusBrun

I appreciate your concern - I suppose that there are problems in designing a deck according to a formula. Generally, I base the number of lands in a standard deck on 10 + 3 times the number of land colors + 3 times the average cmc of the deck. In this case that gives me 22 lands. Although Evolution Sage becomes more valuable with a higher number of landfalls, Growth Spiral and Growth-Chamber Guardian also act to thin out the deck and make landfalls more likely.

Having said the above, I have considered losing 1 Passwall Adept and 1 Essence Capture for 2 extra Forest s. This deck would really be magic if we could play 8 Growth-Chamber Guardian s, but we can only dream. On a Modern version of this deck, I also play 2 Nissa, Steward of Elements (with Hardened Scales ), which all tend to speed up the deck.

Load more
Have (0)
Want (1) brow1ng