Heartmender

Creature — Elemental

At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a -1/-1 counter from each creature you control.

Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)

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
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (13)

lagotripha on $25 MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction

2 years ago

Nevinyrral's Disk has been printed recently, so its fairly cheap and helps the gameplan.

In terms of dies triggers, Thragtusk or Whisperwood Elemental are the ideal 'leaves behind a body', persist creatures like Safehold Elite or Heartmender offer some extra options. Blisterpod and the like exist, but 1/1s are rarely a fast enough clock to close out before the boardstate gets big again.

Alternative cheats include Blizzard Brawl , Darkmoss Bridge cycle etc.

If I was trying to push this to fnm competitive, I'd throw in Upheaval and mana rocks to try and get a reliable '6 mana, win the game' turn.

lagotripha on B/G Demon Midrange

5 years ago

This is a good start. I feel like you are starting to look at cards the right way- assessing how to balance their disruptiveness and value, but the deck still feels a little unfocussed.

Lets look at a core concept in magic- card advantage- and build to that.

There are enablers; cards that don't do things on their own (lands, ramp spells, combo pieces, most 1/1s, etc). Proactive cards that are very good when your play them on their own (kitchen finks type stuff, planeswalkers) Reactive cards that are good at trading 1-for-1 with proactive cards (mana leak, fatal push), Card advantage spells (things that mean you effectively have more cards played, even if they don't always read 'draw a card'.)

If you have more relavant answers than your opponent has proactive cards, then they'll mostly find it difficult to hit you. If you have more playable proactive cards than your opponent you'll probably be able to race them. If you have cards that slot into multiple categories in useful ways, you have virtual card advantage, and can pick the appropriate approach for the particular matchup. These are the core concepts that you need to build midrange.

Lets look at what your deck wants to do. A build around Demonlord of Ashmouth and Demon of Catastrophes, with enablers in the form of small creatures and ramp spells, and a few spot answers with light card advantage tools to clear the way. You're prepared to give up cards to demonlord of ashmouth or demon of catastrophies to have a big threat hitting your opponent. This is a really good start that the rest of your deck should build to support. A big threat that goes over aggro and fights through answers.

So general principals- you want enough card advantage to offset your enablers, or to make those enablers useful in other ways. You want enablers that also help you race down other decks with big flying demons. And you want tools to protect those demons.

Budget lists can't afford the 'universally good' stuff, like Collective Brutality or Cryptic Command, so you need to look at larger groups of teir 2 cards with good synergy and large print runs, preferably with deckbuilding restrictions that cut the price further. So lets cover some general options, explain the why, and then leave you to find things to fill out the list.

You want things that make small creatures and make these big things easier to cast. Llanowar Elves(price listing on this is busted) and Elves of Deep Shadow will let you cut the land count some- and they'll let you slam a big demon earlier whilst providing a body to sacrifice. Turn 1 extra mana is strong enough for people to spend their lightning bolt on it- and thats one more thing not pointed at the threats.

While Sylvan Caryatid is a great card, spending an extra mana to 'blank' a removal spell with hexproof is less relevant when your big stuff doesn't also blank removal, and likely isn't worth the extra mana (its great when your threats are stuff like enchantments or combos which are hard to disrupt).

Scavenging Ooze should be maindeck- its a graveyard meta, and its a decent body that likes you sacrificing creatures, lifegain is relevant, and even against decks that play no creatures it hits their snapcaster targets. Its both a threat and an answer. Cards that give you lots of options are good.

Cards that let you play with +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters are good in sacrifice lists- much like Gavony Township makes Kitchen Finks nigh-unkillable, Cauldron Haze and cards like Exemplar of Strength or Hapatra's Mark/Heartmender/Nest of Scarabs with Young Wolf and Safehold Elite or Black Sun's Zenith can really put in work. You just need to be sure to pick cards that all work well together. While individually they are worse than high value cards, as a group they can outperform- and most importantly, choose them to be versatile.

A card that gives an aggressive and defensive option is perfect for midrange. When building the spine of your deck, look for groups like this to fill it out. Having interseting choices makes the game fun.

Most of all, playtest, and have fun playing. Because thats how you get a top-notch deck. I'd take a look at Rite of Belzenlok decks in standard right now, they showcase a lot of the tools you'll be looking for, and its a good card for the archetype (even if its a little slow).

lagotripha on [SUPER BUDGET] Color me stupid

5 years ago

If you're running them, just mainboard Qasali Pridemage.

In terms of hyper-budget deckbuilding, I find its a lot easier to focus in on a 'gimmick' strategy than look for pure value, which is why a 'multicolour matters' build is good. I'd give some thought to degenerate Vizier of Remedies/Heartmender/Safehold Elite interactions myself, but pure multicolour matters can be strong.

Cute interactions- its what sets a budget deck apart from being a worse version of an expensive deck. Wild Pair and Trostani's Summoner. Playing to a value 3-4-5 drop plan can do a lot. Worm Harvest and similar offer a lot of value to back up Knight of New Alara. There are countless strategies around.

Well is worth a look for sideboard tech.

Giantbaiting has done well in some of my past budget lists, as has Boggart Ram-Gang. Spirit Bonds is an interesting engine to run alongside a more traditional wheenies list, which might help against 'value oriented' midrange metas.

The main thing is to settle into a gameplan. For aggro, its 'how do I do early damge, how do I bypass a strong board to close out the game'. Cards with haste, cards that want to attack turns 1-3, cards that deal a ton of direct damage turns 4-5.

For midrange its 'how do I make my hand worth enough more than my opponents and cash it in for damage'. Cards that do things when you do something you are doing anyway- jamming a ton of Brindle Boar variants with a Gutter Grime works in some metas.

For control its 'how do I stop my opponent closing out the game and slowly win'. Its real tricky on a budget.

For this specific deck, you need to make a choice- The 2-3-4 drops are very strong, but you need to commit to either producing creatures which are hard to remove an create a lot of value midgame, or end the game. Keep that choice in mind when picking cards and you'll get something great.

Madhava on Kondo + Tevesh & the Persisters

6 years ago

I had Heartmender in an earlier version, along with Midnight Banshee. :D

Puppeteer Clique is awesome. But what to cut?

cmsrDPM on Kondo + Tevesh & the Persisters

6 years ago

Heartmender, Woodfall Primus, Puppeteer Clique, and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed?

BlaineTog on Much Snake Great Wow

7 years ago

Cultbrand Cinder, Kulrath Knight, Pyrrhic Revival, Everlasting Torment, Growing Ranks, Safehold Elite, Gravelgill Axeshark, Grief Tyrant, Heartmender, Fate Transfer, Reknit, Scar, and Scuzzback Scrapper aren't legal with Hapatra as your commander. Hybrid mana counts as both colors for the purposes of color identity. Maybe it shouldn't, but it currently does.

Myfler on Cockroaches Company

7 years ago

Also, I just want to throw out that even if they do kill your Melira, Sylvok Outcast, it's definitely not game over. Abzan Company is a deck that runs the infinite life combo, but wins many of it's games just by out-valuing it's opponents, which is a strength of your deck, your opponent will essentially have to kill all of your creatures twice, plus you basically can block infinitely with your Heartmender, as long as they don't have removal after a block.

I almost forgot to mention, some number of Gavony Township's seem like they would be amazing in your deck, since the +1/+1 counters would cancel the -1/-1 counters, so then all your creatures could persist again. While it is slow, it would help immensely in those grindy games I was mentioning.

Baelfyre on Cockroaches Company

7 years ago

dotytron the only reason i would leave Mikaeus, the Unhallowed out of the deck is because of his high mana cost whereas Heartmender also deals with the -1/-1 counters, and, although it would be fun to have both undying and persist in the same deck, it takes away from the speed of the deck to add flexibility, and I don't often deal with creature destruction anyway. Thanks though!