Illusionist's Bracers

Artifact — Equipment

Whenever an ability of equipped creature is activated, if it isn't a mana ability, copy that ability. You may choose new targets for the copy. Equip 3

Discussion (51)

bushido_man96 on Shalai, Voice of the Mana Dorks

10 hours ago

lifemtg, I don't think Strionic Resonator will work; Shalai's ability is an activated ability, not a triggered ability. Illusionist's Bracers , on the other hand, would do the trick.

I'm leery about trying to cram too many Planeswalkers into the deck. I think the green ones mentioned earlier would be better fits, too. The Ajanis here seem ok, but for the casting cost they require, and the amount of hate Planeswalkers tend to draw, I'm not sure they would be worth running.

When I look at running a PW, I usually look at the + effect and the - effect, and rarely consider the ultimate. Most tables are going to make sure an ultimate doesn't happen. When the PW hits the board, I want to get some value out of the first activation. Freyalise, for instance, can drop a mana dork; this is great, because the deck runs on mana dorks; the minus is a removal spell essentially, so good bonus on both sides; and the ultimate isn't really a game winner; I can live with running that one, as I think I'll probably get good value out of her. But when I look at the turn I cast her, I'm looking at essentially a 5 CMC Llanowar Elves , or a 5 CMC Naturalize on that turn. Neither of those is good value on it's own, so I really am not getting any real value until the next turn it's on the table.

Now, take Nissa, Voice of Zendikar . Three to cast, and the turn she comes down, I can - her, and get + counters on all my creatures; that's Shalai's ability for less, which is good. Or I can + her for a plant token; these tokens don't really fit the theme, but at least they don't have defender, so I can buff them and they can attack. And her ult is just card draw again, so maybe not so threatening that the table looks to annihilate her.

Now examine the Ajanis. Their + ability is pretty similar; limited counters on a limited number of creatures, and one is a 4 CMC while one is 6 CMC. For 6 CMC, I activate Shalai once, and get counters on all my creatures, and they have hexproof. Their - abilities are ok, but not great (getting some dorks out of the graveyard would be ok), and the ults I'm not really considering, as stated above.

Anyways, that was a bit of a windy reply. Hopefully that all makes sense. I do appreciate all your suggestions, though, and do hope you keep them coming! I love bouncing ideas back and forth and sorting things out.

bushido_man96 on Mayael, the Power of 5

1 day ago

Stacking the top of your library with Mayael is great. Sylvan Library , Mirri's Guile , and Sensei's Divining Top are great for this. Illusionist's Bracers is a solid piece of equipment for Mayael, allowing you to perhaps get two creatures out. She's mana-intensive, too, so you need ramp: Mirari's Wake and Zendikar Resurgent are worth considering.

I see the appeal of playing with Mayael, but I've found her to be way to slow and too mana-intensive to be worth playing. A great card that fits the same theme is Call of the Wild , which has a cheaper activation that is repeatable. Zoologist is better, than Mayeal, even though she has to tap, too. Both are great to run for some redundancy.

thymecop on Life Or(zhov) Death

2 days ago

Some card suggestions... Creatures: Captivating Vampire Patron of the Vein Anowon, the Ruin Sage Rhox Faithmender The Haunt of Hightower Necropolis Regent Bloodline Necromancer Serra Ascendant Instants: Path to Exile Beacon of Immortality Return to Dust Teferi's Protection Sorceries: Exsanguinate Death Grasp Torment of Hailfire Merciless Eviction Artifacts: Well of Lost Dreams Lightning Greaves Illusionist's Bracers

ToshiroU on Fried Salami

3 days ago

Hey Archwizard,

here we are, recieving a ban that hurts our deck quite a lot. I see that you changed your list into a storm based combo with Aetherflux + Paradoxical Outcome. My approach was shifitng more into control (see my List).

There are some cardchoices you are running I'm quite curious about. Gonna list them here:

• Fabricate over Tezzeret the Seeker ?

• is Arcum's Astrolabe worth its slot?

• is Gilded Lotus really viable? Why no Basalt Monolith as well then?

• Illusionist's Bracers seem very slow to me. While comboing with Aphetto and creating value with Azami, that card is kinda situational I think. What are your results from testing?

• also no Time Spiral ?

enpc on [PRIMER]Parley Girl cEDH

6 days ago

darioeirene: Have a look at the deck description. Illusionist's Bracers is for Seeker of Skybreak . Plus it works with all of the other non-mana activate abilities.

jaymc1130 on ad12341987

6 days ago

"i have no idea how to send messages on tapped out."

No worries, me neither.

"i appreciate your concern for my understanding of cedh and would love to get any feedback concerning what you believe i may be missing in terms of general knowledge of the way it is played, i assume you are more specifically referring to interactions between meta based threats such as answering in turn order things like graveyard interaction, (s)tax pieces, etc etc."

I wasn't actually referring to any one specific thing, I was more just making a general statement that the reasoning given for various card suggestions doesn't exactly jive with how the cEDH meta actually works in practice. For example, the suggestion of Aphetto Alchemist and Illusionist's Bracers and the reasoning behind employing them isn't at all unsound, it's just that this is an extremely inefficient combo (both card slot wise and mana investment wise) that doesn't accomplish very much towards an Urza deck's main goal and requires a creature to not be summoning sick in mono blue. In no world is this a combo that is remotely viable at the competitive level, even if the reasoning for suggesting it to do what it does isn't off base.

"I really was not trying to be a know it all or imply i have more skill or intelligence on the subject of cedh but i can assure you the post i made in that thread was to both offer insight into another playstyle based on raw calculated numbers."

I totally get it mate, and I certainly don't fault you for chiming in. I just kind of wanted to nip an sort of argument that might begin between you and other parties before it started so as not to bug ToffMcSoft. We've already had one person in that deck list's comment thread being a deliberately rude, ignorant, and arrogant tool and it's clear that set a bit of an example that was followed. It should go without saying that I did not care for the rudeness of tone others displayed toward you, it seemed rather insulting to me and clearly was something that might have caused a commotion. I was just trying to get ahead of that possibility. Me, personally, if you want to say snide and mean things about me I just won't even acknowledge your existence. I don't need to argue merits with some internet troll who has never won a professional tournament in his life and will never match my accomplishments at that level.

"the things i said concerning my own experiences were entirely true and i am without doubt extremely confident in both my playstyle and deck building strategies, though i do not play as much as i used to as i spend most of my time theory crafting and calculating best in slot cards for generals as they come out. I would like to state I have no intention of arguing any details about these statements but if you would like to discuss further please feel free to let me know how to use a messenger on this website as I use it mostly to save lists i have built for people."

Again, no worries mate, and if you figure out how to use the message service please do inform me. I haven't got a clue how it works!

"i have a deep knowledge of the card base compared to most as i have been in the magic scene since 1995, so if you would like to discuss more please feel free to hmu anytime."

It was very clear you've got a wealth of knowledge about cards and the nifty things they can do. I certainly never meant to infer otherwise. I merely wanted to try to express that I don't think that necessarily translates to knowledge of how the competitive level meta works and how these individually nifty and useful concepts work in such a meta in actual practice for a variety of reasons.

"as a closing note i would like to add that what most people know, view, and see as a meta game and interaction based on cards currently being presented in a large portion of decks, both in cedh and eternal formats, is often mistaken as being the only correct way to arrange a given deck type, often utilizing "best in slot" strategies. synergy and cmc to card power value are often overlooked in a game that is turn based and scales thus."

Preaching to the choir on that note. I like to take a more holistic view and not just consider that a card like Cursed Totem is the best card at what it does in a given card slot but look at if the card actually increases the win rate of the decks it's utilized in when it's utilized (and a wealth of data I track proves rather unequivocally that just playing one of the totem effect cards actually decreases your chances of winning a match when measured against the whole metascape).

zjepsen on Yawgmoth - No Infinites

1 week ago

I like your list. It is similar to mine, eschewing infinite combos and going for value. Plus, you are running Coffin Queen . I love Coffin Queen. Kudos.

A few fun suggestions: Grimoire of the Dead and Aetherworks Marvel . Both can be proliferated and both work well with Yawg as a sacrifice outlet.

Were you running a few more creatures, I'd recommend Deathrender . You can do some silly things in one turn by having Yawgmoth draw into more creatures to feed into it.

Any reason you're running Illusionist's Bracers over Rings of Brighthearth (other than budget)? The rings interact with more of your deck. Always fun to copy planeswalker effects. You could even throw some fetch lands in to get more value out of it. Biggest downside would be putting a bigger target on yourself, if folks assume you'd be running Basalt Monolith alongside it. I do not.

Good stuff, thanks for posting!

KhaosKontrol on aarnok

1 week ago

Hi aarnok! I'm not familiar with how to reply to you on my deck thread, or if you'd be notified, so I figured I'd try sending you a comment this way to see if it works.

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions! Here's some insight as to my process:

Sword of the Animist is definitely a bit of a corner case inclusion, but I've gotten plenty of value from it. If my Feldon is on the field and has no targets in graveyard, at least he can get me some lands by swinging away. Plus I've got plenty of low CMC creatures that can be equipped and ramp me some land. It's performed well in all the games I've seen it!

Liquimetal Coating is bonkers with things like Ingot Chewer and Manic Vandal . It turns Feldon activations into "destroy any permanent". I've used it to take out Gaea's Cradle , Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and even planeswalkers. It's fantastic.

Chandra, Flamecaller is used exclusively for the 0 effect. Dumping my hand and drawing a new one plus one is fantastic and desirable since I'm often dumping a ton of threats for Feldon to activate or a bunch of cards I don't need. Yeah, she costs 6 but it's not a huge problem most games.

Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded is absolutely a bad card. I run it for the fun of it. I'd definitely say Sarkhan is better in all cases and may consider adding him in addition, but Tibalt is just a fun pet card that I enjoy. :)

Nahiri's Wrath is a newer inclusion but I have it in the deck as an alternate way to pitch big dragons and other buff creatures to the graveyard. It's removal and a discard outlet in one. It's tested adequately thus far, but it's definitely closer to the "gonna get replaced soon" side of things at the moment.

Rowdy Crew is a sleeper hit. Discard effects on creatures is great as Feldon can recur them to keep fueling the graveyard more and more!

I used to run Gauntlet of Power and Caged Sun but removed them to tone the deck back a bit as it was getting a little too powerful. I tone a lot of my decks to match my meta which is pretty casual, so sometimes I sacrifice some super-powerful cards for the betterment of the group. GoP was why I had so many basics, but you're right - I could do to add a few more nonbasics.

Goblin Engineer and Drakuseth, Maw of Flames are both on my "to buy" list. Hazoret's Monument is a great idea and I'm not sure why I'm not running it already, thanks! Endless Atlas seems cool too! Warstorm Surge is definitely powerful but it's another card that was sacrificed for playgroup purposes. The deck is already quite strong, and Surge is a bit "win-more" in my opinion. Godo, Bandit Warlord isn't a bad idea either but I only have four legal targets in the deck. Sure, grabbing Illusionist's Bracers would be slick but getting Boots or Greaves would feel underwhelming for the cost.

Worldgorger Dragon seems super interesting as some insurance to protect against board wipes (though the delayed trigger getting Stifle 'd would feel really bad), but I'm not sure how much else we could really abuse him since all my creatures would get summoning sickness again. It would untap my lands so if I had something like Hanweir Battlements in play I could give Feldon haste and use his effect again, but I just don't know that I run enough instants / flash stuff to warrant it. I'll have to consider trying him out.

Thanks a ton! I'll take a look at your list and let you know any feedback there!