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Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Archenemy | Legal |
| Arena | Legal |
| Block Constructed | 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 |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Exclusion Mage
Creature — Human Wizard
When Exclusion Mage enters the battlefield, return target creature an opponent controls to its owner's hand.
thefiresoflurve on
1 year ago
Nice brew! I find Lavinia of the Tenth does a ton of work in my Esper blink deck - maybe test it out in place of Exclusion Mage, or Barrin?
Also, what do you think of Cavalier of Dawn to replace Meteor Golem? It works well enough for me in Esper, so I would think would be easy enough to cast in dual color. IME, giving someone a 3/3 body is 100% worth saving the 2 mana.
And finally - Ghostly Flicker and/or Illusionist's Stratagem could be solid includes if you want to change up how your "value" works: Since you have lots of creatures that return instants/sorceries, it goes from with Momentary Blink to , but repeatable as long as you have Archaeomancer or friends out. These also fill a different role than Semester's End since they return the targets to the field immediately, and not at the next end step. (Can also go infinite mana/draw with Peregrine Drake as the second target).
Lastly... (I promise, lol) how well do you find Mind Flayer works in blink, out of curiosity? I run Agent of Treachery and I find if it isn't immediately removed after casting, I pretty much win.
Happy blinking!
Frostfrenzy on
Naban's School of Witchcraft and Value
3 years ago
You miss a ton of ramp. You have only 4 ramp pieces, while a deck wants a minimum of 8 with approx 38 lands. I suggest (budget in mind) adding Wayfarer's Bauble, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone Mind StoneAlso, remove both Trinket Mage and Tribute Mage. Having but 1-2targets for them to fetch really doesn't validate their use in this deck. If you go for the ramp suggestions I made, keeping Tribute Mage might be worth considering. When it comes to speed, your 4-slot is incredibly heavy, way to heavy. You could play some more removal in the form of cards like AEther Adept, Exclusion Mage etc. and more effects like Ghostly Flicker in the form of Essence Flux, Teferi's Time Twist Displace etc., which can be alot more powerful when combined with more instant and sorcery recovery like Archaeomancer, Salvager of Secrets and Shipwreck Dowser to repeatedly abuse your ETB triggers. Conjurer's Closet might be one of the few worthwhile more expensive flicker setup cards next to Thassa.
HELLcaster19 on
Bra-let's-go
3 years ago
I like the decks theme of tokens and the life gain sub-theme. In terms of protection and removal, I would point you to my own Brago deck.
He is more of a control deck (or at least, tries to be) until I can get my little engines online to go for the combo win.
Venser, Shaper Savant, Man-o'-War and Exclusion Mage and some neat creatures that work like the Reflector Mage that you already run. Venser can also be used to bounce any other permanent, which includes lands, if you want to be that guy!
Venser is also a beautiful addition, as it can also put spells back into players hands when it enters. This allows you to stop the uncounterable spells, along with Narset's Reversal.
I hope there are some cards in my list that you may consider adding to your own for more protection. You have a couple in your list that I will be considering for mine. +1 for another fellow Brago player!!
bossomus on
Thassa Infinite Turns
4 years ago
If you want to make this deck more competitive, I have a handful of recommendations of cards to remove as well as cards to add.
------------Remove------------------
-
Gadwick, the Wizened. Only draws the cards when you first play him. Tap ability is only OK.
-
Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea. Paying 1 extra mana in competitive can mean a lot, but this is also a very niche tax. Rarely will this cause opponents to end up even paying 3 extra mana (going even).
-
Dream Eater and Exclusion Mage. Both perform a similar task except Dream Eater does it better. Only issue is that Dream Eater is expensive mana wise and Exclusion Mage is a little specific (and also doesn't create that much pressure). There are better options out there (Galecaster Colossus).
-
Master of Waves. When you blink him, all the elementals that he created the first time immediately die since they are 1/0 's. Makes lots of tokens, but what does that do for your gameplan?
-
God-Eternal Kefnet. I counted the number of spells you made sense to cast off of Kefnet's trigger. There are 13 cards which are good for this. This puts you at a roughly 15% chance of hitting something from Kefnet off of your first draw each turn. Would be better to have something more consistent or some way to combo with Kefnet (e.g. Brainstorm looping an extra turn spell to cast the copy each turn with Kefnet and then putting it back on top).
-
Heraldic Banner. How often do you swing to kill? If it's not that often, maybe consider putting a different rock in here? This one is weird.
-
The Magic Mirror. Ends up usually being 6 mana to draw 3 unless you can manage to stall the game out heavily (or someone else can). It's also VERY easy to remove which sets you really far back. Someone Vandalblasting will hit this, and no one won't pay an extra mana to By Force away your card draw.
-
Finale of Revelation. I personally love this card, but it's bad unless you can do it for 10 or more. It's not instant speed which means you can't really hold up counter magic. The instant speed versions of this give you the opportunity to cast something else when you really need to which is more important 9 times out of 10.
-
Shadowspear. You only have a handful of spells that even target. I also don't see anything in your deck that destroys. Most of your spells hit everything. I'd leave this out even though it's a really fun card.
-
Mass Manipulation. Requires a TON of mana to do anything meaningful. You'd be better off with a creature that can steal a creature until end of turn and then blinking that creature to keep it permanently.
------------Additions---------------
-
Ponder, Preordain, Serum Visions. This package is basically just deck thinning and card selection at the same time. Great for finding combos easily.
-
Glen Elendra, Sage of Fables. Combo which allows you to deny people of casting non-creature spells for only 1 blue. Combos really well with other wizards such as...
-
Galecaster Colossus, Azami, Lady of Scrolls, Patron Wizard. Each of these gives a payoff for tapping wizards. Blinking allows you to untap one of them at end of turn if you have nothing better to do.
-
Just more counterspells. There are plenty out there. You can't win if someone else does!
-
Venser, Shaper Savant. This guy can bounce permanents (this includes lands which can matter sometimes) AND spells. Someone cast a high CMC spell? Bounce it!
--
Overall, these suggestions are going to raise your power level a lot, so if you're trying to keep things casual still, maybe don't employ all of these. But, if you want to make this deck a lot more powerful, these are some of the best ways to do it.
ChrisHansonBiomancin on
Plant-People Pod (M20 Std)
4 years ago
Awesome deck man, +1. I recently got back into Magic, and Vannifar also stood out to me as one of the main cards I wanted to brew around, so I've built 2 different BUG archetypes with her as a key cog. Since you've been brewing with Vannifar for a while I'd be interested to hear any ideas you might have.
The first (Neoristocrats) is quite a bit different from your deck, as it's mostly Black & uses a low curve with Aristocrats-style fodder creatures like Gutterbones & Orzhov Enforcer in order to generate value while pod-ing with Vannifar & Neoform or locking down the opponent's board with Priest of Forgotten Gods .
The second (Yarok's Toolbox) is much more similar to your deck, as it's mostly a Green ramp toolbox build. As the name suggests, it's more heavily focused on ETB triggers, but it's largely the same concept with a lot of the same cards, & also has some combo-style finishes. I really like what you're doing with the infinite turns combo tho, so I might have to think about working that in. Right now I'm using Gruesome Scourger +Yarok & End-Raze Forerunners as my big insta-win bombs.
Anyways, if I could give some tips for your deck, in general I have always found that "building around a card" works much more consistently if there are another 4-8 cards that can also synergize well with the cards that are designed to work with the featured card; there is only a ~40% chance that you will see a given 4-of in your opening hand, versus ~65% if you have 8 cards for a similar role. If you think about it in terms of a 3-game series, that's almost one extra game on average per series that you'll have what you need.
IMHO this is doubly true for Vannifar since she has to survive a turn on the battlefield to be used & is vulnerable to removal, so any strategy involving her needs some backup plans. For a Green ramp deck like this, I think the best pairing is Finale of Devastation , giving you much better odds of being able to utilize your toolbox when you need it, and making an immediate one-time impact in contrast to Vannifar's slower but repeatable ability. It also would give you the ability to get Vannifar or a non-CMC-friendly combo piece if you want to set up the infinite turns win.
Some other nice pod-ing options from my deck that you might consider are Plaguecrafter , Plague Mare , Exclusion Mage , Biogenic Ooze , Tishana, Voice of Thunder , and Dream Eater .
Best of luck with the deck!
TuckCity99 on
Mono Blue Tap Control
4 years ago
+2 River's Rebuke -2 Exclusion Mage
I needed a board clearer for when the opponent can outpace my control. Flowing much better now after this latest alteration.
DovinBaanned on None
5 years ago
Hey guys! One of the members of Magic the Gathering in China posted in a japanese blog the future changes that comes with Wrath of the Spark. The entire post is in japanese, so I'm tried to translate the best I can do. There are interesting things in that.
----------------
War of the Spark is the conclusion of a monumental story that starts in Oath of the Gatewatch, and the end comes with news, like news rules text, template and such. Let's take a look the most important changes. Next articles with be for the minor changes. For obvioulsy reasons, I can't use cards of the WAR set yet, so for this post, I'm going to use most recent cards to give appropiate examples.
1. Ney Keyword: Fury Some creatures are so excited to crush its opponents or have bad humour that have an uncontrollable thirst to battle. Fury is a new keyword that represents an existing ability. A creature with fury must attack if able.
This ability was in Magic since its born with cards like Juggernauth, so give it a keyword is the natural next step (it takes most than 25 years! So...slooow step). The big reason for keyworded the ability is for giving official rules to clarify some situations that people may don't know (like, if a creature with this ability have a cost associated with attack, its controller may choose not to pay it. iF the cost isn't paid, the creature can't attack at all, even if it has fury). Other reason is we wanted to use this ability more often, but not as much to become an evergreen ability. Let's say that the ability now become decidious: we can use it in every set, but that doesn't mean that this ability would appear in all sets onward. And now, the color pie would take this ability more serious: Now Fury is primary in Red (in form of creatures with fury and effects that grants fury permanently/temporary), secondary in Green (in form of creatures with fury), and terciary in Blue (only in form of effects that grants fury temporary). The ability is no longer in Black and White, even if some old white and black cards interact with it in the past.
Example
Old
Creatures your opponents control attack each combat if able.
New
Creatures your opponents control have fury. (They attack each combat if able.)
Old
Rubblebelt Recluse attacks each combat if able.
New
Fury.
In WAR, and maybe in the two or three next sets we would try to always put the reminder text of this ability for people to familiarizyte. Gradually, we would put that reminder text less until we don't needed to put at all (at that point, this new ability also would save space in card's text).
In most cases, "must attack if able" becoming a keyword doesn’t represent a functional change. There are two exceptions: - Previously, if a permanent must attack if able by a resolving spell or ability (such as Imaginary Threats), and then that permanent lost its abilities, it would still must attack if able. This was because "must attack if able" wasn’t an ability; it was just something true about the permanent. Now, the permanent will gain the ability fury, and it will lose this ability along with its other abilities. - Previously, if a group of permanents must attack if able by a resolving spell or ability, permanents that joined that group or entered the battlefield after that spell or ability resolved would also must attack if able. This was because the effect that cause them to attack if able wasn’t changing any of those permanents’ characteristics. Now, a permanent that enters the battlefield or comes under your control after the spell or ability resolves won’t have "must attack if able" as it wasn’t under your control at the appropriate time to gain it.
2. New Rules Term: Revive
The War of the Spark set introduces the wording shortcut "revive." The word "revive" on a Magic card simply means "put X creature card from X graveyard onto battlefield." The two phrases are interchangeable. Similarly, the word "revived" means "was put onto the battlefield from a graveyard."
The term "revive" is used only if a creature is moving from a graveyard to the battlefield. (The complete phrase "Put X card from a graveyard onto the battlefield" is used if the object is likely to have a different card type that isn't a monster.)
Many older cards will be updated in the Oracle card reference to use this new term. This is not a functional change.
Like dies, the word "revive" is too intuitive, but for safe reasons (and like the ability Fury), we would try to put a reminder text on cards that revive to clarify that word, only for some sets.
Unlikely dies, "revive" has some variations. Let's take a look:
EFFECT THAT PUT A CREATURE CARD FROM YOUR GRAVEYARD TO THE BATTLEFIELD UNDER YOUR CONTROL
(Don't target) Revive your creature card.
(Target) Revive your target creature card.
EFFECT THAT PUT A CREATURE CARD FROM AN OPPONENTS GRAVEYARD UNDER YOUR CONTROL
(Don't target) Revive one opponent's creature card under your control.
(Target) Revive target creature card from an opponent under your control.
EFFECT THAT PUT A CREATURE CARD FROM ANY GRAVEYARD UNDER YOUR CONTROL
(Don't target) Revive one creature card under your control.
(Target) Revive one target creature card under your control.
When an effect that revives says "your creature card", that means a creature card in your graveyard. When says "one creature card", it can be a creature card in any graveyard.
Examples
Old
Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
New
Revive your target creature card.
Old
Put target creature card from an opponent's graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. It gets +2/+0 and gains haste until end of turn. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
New
Revive target creature card from an opponent under your control. It gets +2/+0 and gains haste until end of turn. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
Old
Flying, haste
At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you've cast three or more instant and sorcery spells this turn, return Arclight Phoenix from your graveyard to the battlefield.
New
Flying, haste
At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you've cast three or more instant and sorcery spells this turn, revive Arclight Phoenix.
3. "[Permanent card name]" to "This [permanent type]"
Abilities on a permanent that functions on the battlefied now refer to themselves as "this [permanent type]" rather than by using their card name.
Furthermore, abilities on a permanent that functions in zones other than the battlefied refer to themselves as "this card".
Examples
Old
Flash
Enchant creature
When Capture Sphere enters the battlefield, tap enchanted creature.
New
__Flash_
Enchant creature
When this aura enters the battlefield, tap enchanted creature.
Old
When Angel of Grace enters the battlefield, until end of turn, damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.
{4}{W}{W}, Exile Angel of Grace from your graveyard: Your life total becomes 10.
New
When this creature enters the battlefield, until end of turn, damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.
{4}{W}{W}, Exile this card from your graveyard: Your life total becomes 10.
Old
Hexproof
You can't cast noncreature spells.
2: Nullhide Ferox loses all abilities until end of turn. Any player may activate this ability.
If a spell or ability an opponent controls causes you to discard Nullhide Ferox, put it onto the battlefield instead of putting it into your graveyard.
New
Hexproof
You can't cast noncreature spells.
2: This creature loses all abilities until end of turn. Any player may activate this ability.
If a spell or ability an opponent controls causes you to discard this card, put it onto the battlefield instead of putting it into your graveyard.
This change remove the problem for card's text that are long only because the name of the card is long. Also, this change now let us put names a little bit larger on cards without the fear to increase the size of that card's text.
This change would not affect legendary permanents or planeswalkers. Instants and sorceries are also unaffected. Lightning Strike would not say "This sorcery deals 3 damage to any target." Those cards would still use their card names.
3. Cast certain card type
The phrase "Cast a X Spell" has been changed to only "Cast a X". In a Magic game, the only, and only thing that can be "cast" is a spell. You can't cast a token or your library (belive me, you can't). So, since all players already knows that and there is no confusion with that concept, it's no more necessary to remember to players that they are actually casting spells, so the word "spell" would be removed in phares that says "Cast a X Spell".
Examples
Old
Whenever you cast an instant spell during your main phase, you may return Dovin’s Acuity to its owner’s hand.
New
Whenever you cast an instant during your main phase, you may return this enchantment to its owner’s hand.
Old
Aura and Equipment spells you cast cost 1 less to cast.
New
Auras and Equipments you cast cost 1 less to cast.
This change would not affect abilities that don't care type of spells. Abilities that only say "cast a spell" (without specifyng what type of spell) would not be changed in any ways. Furthermore, abilities that preclude a type of spell would also not be changed. So, for example, an ability that says "Non-creatures spells you cast..." would not be changed.
4. Owner's
We are removing the word "owner's" from texts since we noticed this clarification is unnecesary. If a permanent return to the hand, always return to its owner's hand, even if the controller of that permanent when it left the battlefield was not its owner. When you gain control of a permanent, you don't really gain ownership of that permanent (this is not the 95s when the ante was still legal). Removing that word would save space in texts and remove redundancy. This also applies to cards returning to library.
Examples
Old
When Exclusion Mage enters the battlefield, return target creature an opponent controls to its owner's hand.
New
When this creature enters the battlefield, return target creature an opponent controls to the hand.
Old
Put target creature on top of its owner's library.
New
Put target creature on top of the library.
Some few cards care about the owner of a card, or only allowed to return a card to a specific player's hand/library. Those cards would not be affected by this change.
Uff! Those are interesting changes. To end this (huge) post, I would revel two minor changes. The complete minor changes will be revealed one week before the prerelease in the official page. So stay tuned.
1. Attacks/blocks and activate/trigger
We would replace some phrases: a) "attack and/or block" --> "battle". "activated abilities can (or can't) be activated" --> "abilities can (or can't) be activated" c) "triggered abilities can (or can't) trigger" --> "abilities can (or can't) trigger"
Those change are maded only to reduce the size of card's text.
Triggered abilities are not more considered activated when they trigger. So, the only thing that can be activated in Magic is an activated ability (this is not a functional change). So, an effect that prevents abilities to be activated (like Lawmage's binding) only prevent the activation of activated abilities (too redundant right?). That effect DON'T prevent a triggered ability to trigger.
Old
Enchanted creature can't attack or block, and its activated abilities can't be activated.
New
Enchanted creature can't battle and its abilities can't be activated.
End of the post.