Flash

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Flash

Instant

You may put a creature card from your hand into play. If you do, sacrifice it unless you pay its mana cost reduced by up to .

Coward_Token on Lost Caverns of Ixalan

5 months ago

Yeah I think blinking is less worrisome than stuff like Flash and Animate Dead

Mortlocke on The Predator of Predators

11 months ago

LandoLRodriguez, as much as I ask people to engage with me on these deck pages I don't check the comments section often enough. Sorry for leaving you hanging so long! Thanks for the compliment on the deck page formatting - I honestly thought that people either didn't care for it and that I was the only one enjoying it. Seedborn Muse is a curious card to me - truly a green staple but is only good in decks that can regularly play on other player's turns using cards like Flash. In the case of my own deck, it's great when Zacama, Primal Calamity is on the field but wouldn't make much of an impact otherwise. Previously I had Atla Palani, Nest Tender in the deck but after a few games I quickly determined it's not a great fit. With Atla on the field the Eggs serve as a great deterrent but don't do anything else without Zacama or maybe Pyrohemia on the field. Currently i'm thinking of focusing on an ETB subtheme in this deck with the upcoming inclusion of Etali, Primal Conqueror  Flip and Sword of Hearth and Home as the focus of this sub-theme. Of course this year also holds a new Ixalan set so there will be even more Enrage Dinos to consider in the future. Thanks for bringing suggestions though, please feel free to comment on any proposed swaps I have planned for the deck and thanks again for swinging by.

FolkOccult on What Commander Do You Think …

1 year ago

TheOfficialCreator Sick, I was just wanting to be cautious, in some Discord Servers and a Reddit forum prior I was asked about reducing post lengths. Just wanting to respect a precedent I suppose.

Grubbernaut The opposing view is just as valid, and more insightful than having mostly the same repeated points towards this subject.

Ideally, I'd imagine, in a game about playing cards and constructing decks with those products; to ban a card is never the company's motive. They want to sell every card they have and for us to buy them. When a card is banned, it's usually for the health of the specific format to preserve as many cards as possible while allowing player's to access the game.

I think it's in this accessibility that cards get banned due to a perceived "power level" of the current "meta" that might have taken advantage of the card, or the effect of the product in question was so ill-received. Opposition Agent was one of the few cards I saw, and was rather excited about. Every player under the sun screamed "ban" and wizards didn't. I found this quite the impressive result because I'm skeptical that WotC tends to listen when their player's cry wolf; just look at the ban list.

It's obvious that certain gameplay strategies are favored. Feather, the Redeemed is obviously loved as shown by this forum, and that's super cool, but it's the player's choice to play that deck against an opponent they might not know and I believe accept the risk that their deck's strategy may be flat out exploited and shut down. I also believe that it is that deck's responsibility to have at least a couple of answers specific or otherwise to answer cards you, the deckbuilder expect to see shut you down.

I'm going to use Korvold, Fae-Cursed King as an example. I know plenty of people want him banned, and I can easily see why. Dude is sick, he's one of my prized commanders, but I enjoy how he plays. Of course I'm biased and don't want him banned, and he probably won't as up to this point they have yet to ban a preconstructed deck's face-card. I'm fairly certain that's by choice, otherwise WotC would have. But, is it unfair of me to ask that they ban Yasharn, Implacable Earth because it shuts down my deck's main strategy (I know not entirely, because you can still sac lands, and that's how I built my deck, but I did that because of this interaction. As a form of fail-safe and deck protection. Because my opponents counterplay every deck I bring because I even made Korvold). Is it fair, to counter a commander deck? I don't know. I'm not here to debate the ethics of playstyle entirely, but more the "legality" of rules as written, because otherwise why else would this discussion stand?

Commander should be casual in this sense, you should be allowed to play what you want, because if you don't, how much fun are you really having? I think this is why we have a rule 0. Excluding professional competitive environments (and there's a debate to how professional those really can be depending on the LGS or players) for the moment. To allow each player what they wish from the game, Rule 0 exists to please all parties with compromise if not mutual agreeable terms. "You want to play Feather, the Redeemed, I'd love to see how you built yours! Just letting you know, I have an Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief as my newest deck, are you alright with me playing this?" literally how every interaction before Casual play should begin, as dictating by the website and thousands of videos on the internet.

For the sake of peace at the table and respect for all players present, I'm entirely for this discussion. Like D&D (and I'll only reference this momentarily because it is also a WotC IP) it shows a sense of social courtesy to fellow players, that you do care about their deck, or cards, experience, or playstyle. That you are considering their participation at the table you joined, or the table they've come to play at. It's a game, and the first rule is "talk". This may be a touch rude, and absolute, but I've experienced a plethora of players too concerned over their commander and not being able to play it that I believe them sometimes at fault for gatekeeping their table from players building decks with the newest cards that have come out. I'm on occasion guilty of this (not wanting to have to switch out decks or else I'd get counterplayed, because my opponent didn't want to change commanders) but it's unfair to presume a player using a controversial commander like Jodah, the Unifier who I think is perfectly fine, would have ill intentions towards you the player, personally (in casual play).

Competitively. I feel like the game sports an entirely different flavor, one that is fast, calculated, and just as rich with players and their own method of interacting with this medium. When a player brings something like Urza, Lord High Artificer to a table to play for a prize. You've signed a social contract in a setting that'll require you to play. To counterplay. To out pace, out think, and like chess, determine your best route to seek victory. cEDH is a wonderful and freeing battlefield to be apart of, I think it's unfair to proceed as if both are the same formatted gamemode when they both interact quite differently. The ramp is different, the mana base is different, most of the spells will either be counterplay picks for decks you'd expect to see, and everyone there (or majority I'd expect) has literally signed up for this. Paid their LGS, and is wanting to win.

Now. Does that mean your neckbearded-odorous-shop-dwelling-compking is going to show up and try to sweep everyone with their 3,000. cEDH deck because they are compelled to win here, because they have short comings in life? And does this hobby support and enable this behavior? Kind of. It happens, sure, but no one wanting to have fun should care, and anyone trying to win now has a baseline to work off of. If it does happen, you literally know what they'll play, use, or at least what to expect. That's the magic to competitive play. To be (and this will be a wild example) Goku standing across from Cell at the Cell Games... is sort of how it feels in cEDH 1v1 shop comps. It's, really fun. I don't know, I'm not too experienced on this side of the format, I've literally lost every shop competition I've attended, but I see the value and joy it has and wish to respect it.

I do believe there is an argument to removing Sol Ring, I think it's a crutch of a card. Though I just count it with my lands at this point. It's the first card in a deck 99% of the time without it being said. Printed in every preconstructed product, the card makes the format what it is, and that's kinda dumb. No one (I'd hope) wants to play the same deck, but here we have staples, and Sol Ring is sort of one of them. It's our Ki-Blast, our standard poke-ball, it's the Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, it's literally engrained into the game with so many printings and secret lairs. I'm baffled to suggest if we got rid of it, would it be just as "necessary" as any of the other cards on the ban list? I don't think so, most of them could probably see play with that Rule 0 in a casual game, but the ban list, is upheld for competitive players and that's kind of baffling.

That Casual players can scream to High Hrothgar and back about something like Hullbreacher or Opposition Agent and be bummed that both didn't see the same fate. But someone who plays cEDH now has to suffer the consequences of players who want to play competitions at their LGS but don't realize that their preconstructed product might not hold up. Sad to say (and I do realize this is an extreme variable based on literally whoever shows up, it's that random whenever you're new to the game until you notice who plays, what they play, and how they tend to play. Then you learn what to expect, and the fun of cEDH or what I enjoyed personally arises to the surface.) but most preconstructed products now, seem to sell a concept with the intention of being improved by the player and encouraging they buy more cards to do so. (I enjoy this aspect of encouraging the player to deck-build instead of relying on what they purchased, they can rely on creativity or the advice of their closest friend or the player across from them)

I've no rational experience in regards to having specific cards banned that I wished to play, unless Korvold sees the hammer, but even then, I'm not taking him apart. I'm just going to continue with Rule 0 and play him casually. I wish the game wasn't so ambiguous that these sorts of topics had clear and defined answers so that all could just agree on a single experience, but that's so restrictive and against the nature of the format. Perhaps Modern and Legacy see this, Standard certainly does (and I believe that's what makes Standard a rather fascinating format due to the fact that none of their rules are as ambiguous as EDH's Rule 0, which is necessary but rather counter productive when compared to cEDH. You can't argue Rule 0, but you can't abuse it either. More ambiguity.) and Draft as well.

I don't believe by having a ban list, you're helping, solving, or relieving a problem. I'm very much a casual, and believe you should be able to play what you want. "I'll suffer the wrath of Braids?" Cool. I want to see what you built that represents you, how you play, how you have fun. It's going to be my job to do likewise and hope it's a fun game for both sides. Now being mana flooded, mana screwed. It feels like more of a personal issue across all players, sometimes you hit a pocket because you over shuffled and all your lands have ended up together, I feel like not enough people take into account some players face this problem and blame a card, a player, a format and take that personally when mathematically they've added too many lands, not enough, over shuffled, didn't have enough protection, removal, boardwipes. The requirements for a "good" deck, in cEDH sounds excessive, but that's that format. Casually I think you should be able to build what you want and move on.

Also, apologies if it sounds hypocritical by the end, but I'm pro-Sol Ring for the simple fact that it enables some exciting combos with Salvaging Station & Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer. But that's just extreme biased, anyone could say the same about Flash, Tolarian Academy, or my favorite Panoptic Mirror. I'm certain they all had really cool interactions, I'm certain with the latter; and I'd understand why WotC could ban Sol Ring or be encouraged to, and I wouldn't be mad. I'd just adapt, it's all we do as players. Communicate, adapt, play/build, repeat.

LilLandi on EDH Banlist

1 year ago

DemonDragonJ Flash was banned because of the combo with Protean Hulk that instantly wins the game for 2 mana at instant speed

Rhadamanthus on Will Dovescape counter all permanents …

1 year ago

Enchanted Evening doesn't add anything to Dovescape's "countered list". The only way the two cards interact at all is that the tokens created by Dovescape will also be enchantments in addition to being creatures.

For any quality, an object is either "[quality]" or "non-[quality]". A creature can never be a "non-creature" unless an effect specifically removes the creature type from it. Dovescape won't counter spells like Courser of Kruphix or Walking Ballista because they're creatures, even though they have other types.

Only spells on the stack can be countered. Something that enters the battlefield without being cast as a spell can't be countered itself, but the spell/ability causing it to happen (Zombify, Flash, etc.) can be countered.

Decrepit_Angel on [Primer] Colored Mana is for the Weak

1 year ago

Profet93

Yeah, that is an unfortunate downside of mono-colorless. Collector Ouphe, Null Rod, and Stony Silence are really bad cards for this deck to see. I always try to tutor or mulligan for an Inspiring Statuary when I expect to see those cards as it allows me to still use my artifacts to cast stuff like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Karn Liberated, All Is Dust, Emrakul, the Promised End, etc. Typically I try to outspeed the artifact hate but as that is not always an option, Inspiring Statuary or politics tends to be the best option. It also helps that other decks tend to get hurt by such artifact hate so I am not always the one that has to deal with it.

As for the power level, I tried to make it as powerful as possible for the sake of having a decent chance at a cEDH power level table. A max power level Kozilek is typically around the power level of a budget cEDH deck so it tends to play well at that kind of table. Given the ridiculous speed of the deck though, I have had good matchups against full pods of max power cEDH decks. Very few decks can shrug off Annihilator 4 on turn 3. Also, Mindslaver effects are hilariously good against cEDH decks. Especially with how many Necropotence, Ad Nauseam, Tainted Pact, Demonic Consultation, etc. effects are common in cEDH. Even outside of that, just using their own removal spells on their stuff or exiling their commander if it is a deck that relies on it to win (and choosing to put it into exile of course) can completely kill off opposing players on the spot. Emrakul, the Promised End is my go to answer for cEDH decks as the cast trigger almost always just kills an opponent on cast, even if she gets countered.

As for additional stax, I already run Torpor Orb and I quite like it. Cursed Totem is interesting (and if nothing else is a good budget option). I liked Cursed Totem a lot more when Flash + Protean Hulk was a thing. Perhaps it is just my meta but I don't see too many decks that make me want a Cursed Totem effect. Winter Orb has been underperforming of late so I might trade those out and see if I like it. It cuts off my Metalworker, Palladium Myr, and Burnished Hart but I think that is acceptable given how much it can hurt some decks. Worst case scenario, I could always just treat it the same way I use something like The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale where I just mulligan or Bazaar of Baghdad it away if it is a meta that it isn't useful.

jaymc1130 on cEDH is going to have …

1 year ago

At least, that is what some of my preliminary data is suggesting. There is a particular 15ish card package that fits into any deck with green that covers a deck's ramp needs, control needs, and combo win needs while also having synergy with each of the independent components leading to some unbelievably robust and powerful play patterns. Right now, in a limited sample size mind you, this package is winning better than 40% of it's games.

There aren't many instances of this occurring in our group's data set. In fact, there are 3.

  1. Paradox Engine. Before this card got banned we were seeing a vacuum win rate potential for this card of 40%+, which was absurd. We assumed it would get banned, about 6 months later, it was.

  2. Hullbreacher and Opposition Agent. When these cards were spoiled our group knew immediately they would eventually be banned, they are that fundamentally broken in cEDH settings. Sure enough, this 2 card package instantly began posting vacuum win rate potentials of 40%+ (over 50%+ before we learned play patterns to cope with how abusive the play pattern of this package was). Hullbreacher got banned, Oppo Agent is awaiting it's inevitable ban hammer.

  3. The Inception Package. This was a concept focused around using Extract and targeted discard to neuter fast glass cannon combo archetypes back in the hey day of the Flash Hulk meta. The concept dominated the meta completely and utterly 4 and 5 years ago and posted vacuum win rate potentials of 40%+ because the cEDH community had yet to realize that running 10+ critical cards devoted to a single combo line of play was very ineffective in the face of any exile effects hitting those critical combo pieces and turning the remaining 9+ cards into dead card slots for the remainder of the game. Over time, as more new cards were printed, the resilience of the metascape improved and the printing of Veil of Summer largely brought the Inception package back to parity within the metascape. Post Flash banning the concept became a less enticing option. Lucky break, no bans needed.

Which brings us to the current issue. The Summer Bloom package that has been powered up as of late with new card printings. It's too soon to tell if this package is problematic enough to require a ban, but it's possible that Summer Bloom should simply get the axe at some point, it is a degenerate combo card after all. The crux of the issue is that the play pattern enabled by this package covers every requirement of a competitive deck within these 15ish cards. Accelerated board development, covered. Combo win line, covered. Card advantage, covered. Consistent deployment of primary game plans by turn 3, covered. Ability to interact with and control opposing board states, covered. Now, it's not too much to ask for all these things from a set of 15 cards in competitive settings, but usually these 15 cards won't all work together to enhance each other's effectiveness and make those 15 cards feel more like 30 cards worth of value in game. This could be a real problem in due time, particularly since the package can be used in any deck with green as a color at the moment, which means the package can be ported into a wide variety of shells.

The package in question: Bala Ged Recovery  Flip, Life from the Loam, Summer Bloom, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, Lotus Cobra, Tireless Provisioner, Gaea's Cradle, Boseiju, Who Endures, Strip Mine, Cloudstone Curio, Crucible of Worlds. Personally, I recommend a supplement to the package of Green Sun's Zenith, Dryad Arbor, and at least 5 mana dorks. Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth can also be used to supplement the ramp efforts, but aren't critical to the concept and are, in fact, vulnerable to opponents who employ the concept themselves.

Why is this package a potential problem and why is it posting win rates over 40% at the moment in testing? Well, it largely boils down to some fundamental principles of cEDH. Those principles? Playing more cards than opponents is good and improves the odds of winning, seeing more cards from your deck than opponents is good an improves the odds of winning, and using fewer cards than opponents to achieve a desired result is good and improves the odds of winning. Conversely, opponents that see fewer cards, play fewer cards, and who use more cards to achieve desired goals also improve your odds of beating those opponents. This particular package hits along each of these axes, it plays a lot more cards because it keeps reusing the same cards over and over again, it sees a lot more cards because it's constantly thinning it's deck as part of this play pattern reusing lands in particular, and it gets to save space because the core components every competitive deck needs are included already in just these 15ish cards meaning it needs to use less card slots to achieve more things, and the gameplans are consistently able to be deployed and put into place in the early turns of a game. Simultaneously the play patterns of this package are an extreme hinderance to opponents because their board states have a very tough time developing into useful configurations when their lands, artifacts, and enchantments keep getting wiped every turn cycle.

Again, it's very early in this, and I would hesitate to say it's Boseiju that's putting this package over the top right now, but something about this set up is very clearly problematic for the health of the format. I'd abuse this set up while you have a chance, the cEDH community is incredibly slow to adapt to new trends so there's a good chance this package will be abusable for a couple extra free wins per 100 games played for about a year or so. At some point I kind of expect some portion of this package to get the ban hammer, but I don't expect it soon. It took them almost a year for Hullbreacher and Golos after all, and I thought those were cards that ought to be preemptively banned from the format the day they each got spoiled.

jaymc1130 on Just watched some Playing with …

1 year ago

x12721 When I first got into cEDH (our whole playgroup actually) watched a ton of PwP and Lab Maniacs. It was a huge help in terms of introducing ourselves to the most basic fundamental elements of cEDH. We quickly learned, within about a years time or so, that while these creators had done a great job of providing a stepping stone into the pool of wider cEDH game play, none of them had ever played MTG at a professional level while our entire playgroup played MTG professionally for most of the decade from 2000-2010. We very rapidly began to realize that the skill level of play seen from such videos was NOT conducive to learning to play cEDH at a high level of competitiveness, these players force everything, tap out constantly, throw out combos as soon as they assemble the pieces in hand (regardless of whether opponents are shields up or shields down), make constant errors in game state evaluation for multiplayer (cEDH is NOT exclusively a competitive format, it is simultaneously also a COOPERATIVE format, you must team up with every other player against every other player and those alliances are short lived and fluid) and don't use advanced analytics or metrics to collect data about their own play to discover if certain cards under or over perform in certain environments. These are the folks who got Flash banned because they all complained so much about Flash Hulk, a deck that was literally unplayable in our groups meta because we found archetypes that easily dismantled all glass cannon fast combo strategies (while the PwP community and LM never even bother to look for a counter strategy, they just moaned and whined and browbeat wizards into banning a card that couldn't even post a 20%+ win rate over a 1000 game sample size).

You can disagree as much as you'd like, but facts are facts. The quality of play you will find from these channels is NOT high level cEDH. It is amateur cEDH and you MUST recognize this as a player if you want to improve your skills beyond that amateur level. I'm sad too that this is the case because I do have very fond memories of these channels when I was first picking up cEDH, but I have to state it, time and again, as I have for most of the las 4ish years here on TO, that these are fine places to learn THE BASIC FUNDAMENTALS but you will need to find other sources and superior players to improve beyond that level of play.

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