Illusionist's Gambit

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy 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
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Illusionist's Gambit

Instant

Cast Illusionist's Gambit only during the declare blockers step on an opponent's turn.

Remove all attacking creatures from combat and untap them. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase. Each of those creatures attacks that combat if able. They can't attack you or a planeswalker you control that combat.

carpecanum on Fast Bnuy

10 months ago

Your creatures are low power so maybe Meekstone, Citywide Bust or Fell the Mighty. Crackdown maybe.

Black Vise if your opponents start getting big hands.

Illusionist's Gambit and Reins of Power can make aggro decks take each other out instead of you.

Licecolony on Goaded With The Sauce

11 months ago

I really like your manifest take on Jon. Consider Dulcet Sirens. It's a clever way to mitigate risk of having those horrible creatures for yourself. I'll definitely be adding Crawlspace and Endless Whispers to my list.

Suggested removals from deck Plague Reaver. While it's a nice card to give away, the turn you play it you'll have to sacrifice Jon Irenicus to Plague Reaver's trigger regardless of which order you put the abilities onto the stack. You'd rather not lose Jon.

Gisa, Glorious Resurrector. It's something you can't give away, which means it's good when you're ahead, but not great when you're behind,. Your mileage may vary, but I think getting something more immediately impactful on the board tends to be best.

Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker. You're not running a mill strategy, you'll only be filling the graveyard of dedicate graveyard decks.

Taniwha. I love this creature and totally understand running it for the memes, but phasing triggers before your upkeep, which means that when you give it away, it'll be phased out for the first turn under your opponent, so they'll keep their lands and you won't draw a card from Jon's ability. The turn cycle has to make two full rounds before Taniwha does anything.

Tergrid, God of Fright  Flip. Unlike Sheoldred, Tergrid doesn't make the opponent do either of its effects. It's another creature you don't want to give away, and Jon makes cards unsacrificeable. It just won't trigger much unless you're against a sacrifice deck.

Ensnaring Bridge. The creatures you donate will often be quite big. Ensnaring bridge will prevent them from attacking your opponents and deny you card draw.

Chromatic Lantern. It's only good if you need the mana fixing. You don't need the mana fixing. Try something like Thought Vessel or Decanter of Endless Water or Midnight Clock instead.

Assault Suit doesn't goad the creatures itself. Often they'll swing at you if possible.

Dissipation Field. Not as good as it looks. Doubles ETB triggers. Anti synergy with cards like Endless Whispers.

No Mercy Jon just has better options for this slot. If you can replace a non-creature with a creature in this deck, you usually want to.

Grave Betrayal. That's 7 mana for a card that could ruin your game by forcing you to revive bad cards you do not want.

Diplomatic Immunity. You want instant speed protection and protection from board wipes. Something like March of Swirling Mist is more versatile offensively and defensively.

Dark Ritual. I'm uncertain what you're trying to ramp into so quickly that you would need this. Maybe I'm wrong.

Countersquall. You may as well play the one mana version in An Offer You Can't Refuse.

Redirect may be bested by Narset's Reversal? That's a matter of opinion.

AEtherize risks bouncing creatures attacking other opponents such as those you've goaded but want them to keep. Try replacing this with a more versatile effect like Reins of Power or a more aggressive effect in Illusionist's Gambit.

Damnation. Jon prefers sacrifice board wipes so that your opponents keep their shit creatures.

Overall I think you could run less counter-magic in favor of more proactive effects.

Cards to Consider Creatures Generally I want to focus on adding creatures that you can give away and then steal back later to win the game.

With Jon, you often want cheap evasive creatures to give out for early card draw with his ability. Right now you have 1 two-drop creature. Throwing in a Changeling Outcast or a Slither Blade can mean you can give a creature away for cheap and still hold up mana for other things. Slither blade wouldn't die to Heartless Summoning too.

In the two-drop slot, you can run creatures that are more defensive like Baleful Strix, or give you card draw like Sygg, River Cutthroat or just more powerful creatures like Flesh Reaver which is a goaded 6/6 that can deal 12 damage a turn or Wretched Anurid. Heck, you can even add a versatile two-drop in Dimir Infiltrator which can be given away in the early game or used as a tutor in the late-game.

In the three drop slot, I think your idea of adding Steel Golem is a great one to make sure the only creatures your opponent has are the ones you're giving them. It's a brutal card. Rotting Regisaur is a card you don't mind giving away early, and can take back later to win. Phyrexian Soulgorger can be donated to an opponent as a goaded 10/10. They won't have to pay the upkeep, but that's a great body to give someone as a political tool. Cephalid Facetaker is also worth consideration though I personally don't run it.

In the four-drop slot, like you mentioned, Grid Monitor is a proactive creature counter. Abyssal Persecutor can save you from death. Archfiend of the Dross is risky but fun (it comes back to your control after the opponent dies).

In the 5-drop slot, both of the evil-eye cards are absolute ALL STARS. They work so well every game I've drawn them. They can also replace some of your weaker defenses like No Mercy and Dissipation Field

As a sidenote, I also like Deep-Sea Kraken as an unblockable 8/8 that can win you the game with homeward path.

Removal I recommend running more sacrifice-based removal since it'll mean your opponents keep the crap you give them. Things like Tergrid's Shadow or Vona's Hunger or All is Dust (one of my favorites) or Killing Wave. I also prefer Toxic Deluge to some of your other removal since it goes through hexproof. Curse of the Swine is also an exile effect that can be selective and works really well. You can also run single-target removal like Reality Shift or Pongify if you'd rather instant speed interaction. Feed the Swarm is quality. If you really don't care about cruelty, you can run Torment of Hailfire, but that card is honestly always too boring for me to want in my decks.

Card Draw Jon has access to some great card draw that most decks can't take advantage of. Fateful Handoff is a card draw spell that also donates (though does not goad). Sygg, River Cutthroat works well with evasive threats you give away (though should not be donated). Verity Circle works great with Jon's ability since it donates the creature first, and then taps it down. Teferi's Ageless Insight allows you to double your draw triggers from Jon.

Equipment Remember that you can donate creatures while they're equipped and you still control the equipment so they can't re-equip it. Pact Weapon makes the attacking creature bigger, while ensuring you can't die, and will draw you another card whenever the donated creature attacks. Dowsing Dagger  Flip works effectively on evasive creature to get you ramped. Vorpal Sword is a win condition on your unblockable evasive creatures.

Goad Dulcet Sirens, Bloodthirsty Blade.

Misc Graveyard removal is king. Throw in a Scavenger Grounds. My favorite card to run is Reality Shift. Make an Avenger of Zendikar spawn a dozen Wretched Anurids. It's not GREAT, but it is always funny. Cultural Exchange is a fun time too with all your manifest and shitty creatures.

That is all. Hope it was helpful.

legendofa on Dragonlord Ojutai (EDH)

1 year ago

Welcome to the club, mudkipdude!

Looking at this, I'm guessing you're leaning toward a subtheme of Dragon tribal and working with a moderate-to-high budget? (Budget is relative, but the Ancient Dragons suggest you're not restricting this to $1 cards.)

(This is my usual disclaimer that I'm not a high-end EDH builder. I design around self-imposed challenges and whatever looks interesting at the moment.) With the high-mana cards and lack of ramp in these colors, you're going to want to play defensively. Look for cards that give your opponents reasons not to attack you, like Ghostly Prison, reasons for them to attack other people, like Curse of Verbosity, and fail-safes for when they don't play along, like Supreme Verdict or Illusionist's Gambit.

Dragonlord Ojutai wants to attack, but doesn't want to tap, so look for effects that grant vigilance or untap your creatures.

carpecanum on Firkraag, Goad + Dragon Tribal

1 year ago

Bedlam, Illusionist's Gambit, Dragon Hatchling, Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor, Clout of the Dominus

Do tokens created by Myriad "have to attack" since they enter tapped and attacking? That would make myriad creatures and Blade of Selves useful in this deck.

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's …

1 year ago

Ancient Gold Dragon is pretty sweet. It's nice to see white get one of the strongest iterations in the cycle. I think the black one is still the best though.

Ancient Bronze Dragon is a bit underwhelming, but green having the weakest of the cycle is good for once.

Wild Magic Surge will be Chaos Warp v2.0. This is an instant staple in all mono-red decks, as well as probably Rakdos and Izzet decks. Not sure G or W aligned red decks will want it since they can already deal with most permanent types. The card definitely has a higher worst-case-scenario probability than Chaos Warp does, but I think it's flexibility will outweigh the negatives.

I really like Vexing Puzzlebox. It's a nice payoff for dice rolling decks that isn't too powerful.

Windshaper Planetar is interesting. On one hand, it's a better Portal Mage/Illusionist's Gambit, on the other hand, it costs 5 mana. Not sure how to rate this one yet.

Barroom Brawl is freaking hilarious and I love the card. Probably not terribly strong, but I think it creates a fairly entertaining play pattern.

I think Earthquake Dragon is going to be really strong in certain decks. This will reliably be a 3-5 cmc 10/10 with Flample in dragon tribal decks.

Eldritch Pact seems cool. My Balthor the Defiled deck may want this for mass card draw late game. It's also a decent finisher for mill decks after a Traumatize is fired off.

A few more decent reprints like Nature's Lore and Traverse the Outlands are trickling in, but I really hope they spoil a few more tomorrow.

I am pretty sure I know the answer to this already, but I'd like some quick clarification on Acolyte of Bahamut. Your commander has to be on the battlefield for the ability to take effect correct? So if it were paired with Ganax, Astral Hunter, it couldn't actually be used to reduce the cost of Ganax correct?

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's …

1 year ago

Coward_Token - I personally wouldn't build the deck around exchanges since your commander does it for you. I'd just run a lot of evasive creatures to donate/goad, bounce effects and Homeward Path to get things back, some Strionic Resonator effects to double donate, and maybe some combat manipulation like Illusionist's Gambit or Dulcet Sirens to direct the creatures that aren't goaded away from you. Could be an interesting control deck that isn't necessarily removing every threat. It also doesn't fall flat against primarily creature-less decks which is nice.

YourNeighborhoodGhost on

3 years ago

hey nice deck mate, had a very similiar some time ago. some suggestions: Collective Restraint , Illusionist's Gambit , Reins of Power , Domineering Will , Edric, Spymaster of Trest , Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist , Thaumatic Compass  Flip, Dawnbreak Reclaimer . i think thats enough :) good luck with your deck

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