Karmic Guide
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy 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
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Karmic Guide

Creature — Angel Spirit

Flying, protection from black ((Remember the acronym debt.) This can't be damaged, enchanted, equipped, blocked or targeted by anything black. Anything black attached to this immediately falls off.)

Echo (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this came under your control since the beginning of your last upkeep, sacrifice it unless you pay its echo cost.)

When this enters the battlefield, return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Gidgetimer on EDH Merens Reanimator

2 days ago

The most compact Hulk line is going to be Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista which requires you to add only Protean Hulk and Walking Ballista both of which are decent outside of the combo. The combo does require a sacrifice outlet, and I was having trouble thinking of how to grab one since the combo already uses all 6 CMC of the tutor and I am most familiar with the combo in Abzan where you get Karmic Guide. Luckily DreadKhan supplied the missing piece, if you add in Activated Sleeper you can tutor the Sleeper and Viscera Seer to provide the sacrifice outlet.

Combo I am describing in case you are not familiar with Mike and Ballista. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed gives non-human creatures +1/+1 and undying, so the Ballista enters as a 1/1 and doesn't die. Sacrifice Walking Ballista and it comes back with a +1/+1 counter. Remove the counter from Ballista and deal 1 damage to an opponent. Repeat loop of sacrificing Ballista and removing counter until all opponents are dead.

You are also already running Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, so you can add in a few low cost undying creatures and get that combo with low opportunity cost. Young Wolf and Butcher Ghoul are the easiest to cast ones since they only have a single colored pip. Treacherous Pit-Dweller, Geralf's Messenger, and Strangleroot Geist are perfectly defensible options too, though the pit dweller is more all-in on having a way to sacrifice for value before the trigger to give an opponent control resolves and as such I think isn't a great fit here.

In general you can also up the power level of the deck by adding tutors. The "good" ones you are not running are Worldly Tutor, Grim Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor.

kirbysan on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

3 weeks ago

New angel spoiled today for:

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1bvpf3d/otc_angel_of_indemnity_desert_bloom_mtg_muddstah/

Angel of Indemnity

5W - Angel Warrior

Flying, lifelink

When Angel of Indemnity enters the battlefield, return target permanent card with mana value 4 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Encore 6WW

I like this card but not sure if it'll replace Karmic Guide for me. Costs 1 more than Guide and doesn't have an echo cost. It can hit all permanent types but only CMC 4 or less, so similar vein as Serra Paragon but you can do some blink shenanigans with it. The encore effect at 8CMC is only one more than Emeria Shepherd and can hit 3 targets if all opponents are still in play and gives you 15 attack power on board, much more if pumped with Giada.

Crow_Umbra on The Terrible Two/Twos

1 month ago

I started a Duskana brew about a month ago, and Illustrious Wanderglyph was definitely one of those ones I had to double take on lol.

Karmic Guide is another card that's good on its own, but gets that much more pushed with Delney & Duskana (if you don't sac it). Karmic Guide could also open up some combo options with Kiki Jiki and something like Goblin Bombardment, but that might be too niche for inclusion.

Crow_Umbra on Where in the world is Carmen

5 months ago

No prob! Tombstone Stairwell is def a cool recommendation. I'd recommend checking out Scryfall for updated text on older cards.

In terms of stuff that you could potentially swap out:

  • I'd recommend swapping Feed the Swarm with Generous Gift, Stroke of Midnight, or Cathar Commando. Gift & Midnight each offer more flexibility in what you can answer, but Commando is a recur-able body. I'd mostly recommend Feed the Swarm if you were playing a color combo that didn't have the type of enchantment removal that White has access to.

  • Skrelv's Hive could possibly be a swap out, mostly because the Mites can't block. I get it that they're there mostly for sac fodder and they do have Toxic 1, but you don't really have any other Toxic/poison synergy beyond this & Crawling Chorus. Similarly, Chorus could be another potential swap out.

  • Bone Splinters could be a swap for a removal effect on a creature. I think in some cases some of your non-creature spells can be replaced with creatures that fill a similar role, especially in a deck that wants to recur beneficial bodies.

  • Speaking of beneficial ETB effects, it could help to have some creatures that can also recur bodies when they die or ETB, so 1) it takes some pressure off Carmen being your primary means of recursion 2) you can recur multiple creatures in a turn, and have an extra body for whatever.

  • Sun Titan is kinda like a 2nd Carmen. Karmic Guide and Reveillark can also bring stuff back, and are part of a combo loop when used in tandem (if you're into that sort of thing). This loop can work with basically any free sac outlet.

  • Archon of Cruelty is a card I'm always kinda torn on. Strong effect for ETB and attack, but is so steep at 8 cmc. Def seems like an reanimation target more than a hard-cast.

Azoth2099 on [KFC] Kaalia Friended Chickens

6 months ago

jameswarlord

Hey man! Good to hear from you, nice job refining this list so far!

Yeah, Avacyn, Angel of Hope is stupid expensive lol, she probably always will be just because of how awesome she is. Proxy it in the meantime? Hell, I'd proxy an Ancient Copper Dragon too, they both win games.

Concerning Burning-Rune Demon: This card tends to get cut from a lot of decks that aren't running winning lines for it. Personally, my Kaalia of the Vast list also includes Dockside Extortionist, Corpse Dance & Disciple of the Vault, which enables Burning-Rune Demon to grab Razaketh, the Foulblooded & Reanimate to enable either a same-turn win or a next-turn win by generating infinite Treasures (and infinite Life via Children of Korlis) and nuking the board. It's also really good in Reanimator lists that are running the aforementioned pieces, as well as cards like Animate Dead, Necromancy, Buried Alive, Victimize & Karmic Guide to accelerate sheer board value if you don't want to run combos like that. If you apply it creatively, it essentially acts as an uncounterable Intuition in the deck, but for no mana cost & at Sorcery speed. Not the worst...

Concerning catching Ws: the #1 thing that's going to snag you wins here is making sure that you capitalize on the Commander's value as quickly as possible, as well as making sure that your deck doesn't necessarily need it's Commander on the field to dominate. You need more ramp and card draw, simply. I'd add the following ASAP:

Ramp: Culling the Weak, Dark Ritual, Burnt Offering, Cabal Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Ritual, Seething Song, Talisman of Indulgence, Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Conviction, Fellwar Stone Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff, & Deep Gnome Terramancer

Draw/Tutors: Archivist of Oghma, Moon-Blessed Cleric, Tectonic Reformation, Diabolic Intent, Gamble, Grim Tutor, Idyllic Tutor, Steelshaper's Gift & Sarkhan's Triumph.

Also, I know you've stated that you are trying to stay withing certain budget constraints, but Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor & Enlightened Tutor have seen recent reprints, and are cheaper right now than they will be in the future. Just something to consider.

All of these will help you get on and stay on! Let me know what you think.

enpc on Need help with Samwise Gamgee

7 months ago

I run a Saffi Eriksdotter list and there was a bit of discussion about Samwise Gamgee in Saffi when he was first spoiled.

If you wanted, you could look at coming at it from the other angle with Samwise as the commander and then use Saffi Eriksdotter + cards like Karmic Guide / Sun Titan + Blasting Station / Altar of Dementia to close the game out. The benefit in this case with Samwise as your commander is you can pair him with cards like Kuldotha Forgemaster (easy enough to tutor in green/white as it's a creature) to generate some tokens and then cheat Blasting Station into play. And the fact that Sam gives you graveyard recursion in case an opponent removes your sac outlet is nice tech.

Long term, I would also look to try and obtain an Archangel of Thune, though I appreciate that it's currently out of your price range.

Azoth2099 on Kaalia, help wanted

7 months ago

MarioDargon

Hey dude! Good Commander choice, Kaalia of the Vast has been my main option for years now.

I'll try to keep this brief lol.

The most important thing to remember when brewing this one is to not get distracted by the possibilities of all those Angels, Demons & Dragons. Focus on card quality above all else, the Spells that are going to win you the game.

Razaketh, the Foulblooded & Vilis, Broker of Blood are the top dogs here, their power as individual cards will oftentimes win you game from sheer value. Other pieces like Rune-Scarred Demon, Burning-Rune Demon & Hoarding Broodlord will do the same if you build around them with Spells like Ephemerate & Saw in Half.

I'd also recommend more Treasure tokens! I see you're already running Smothering Tithe & Goldspan Dragon, which is a great start. Adding Ancient Copper Dragon, Cavern-Hoard Dragon, Monologue Tax, Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff & of course Dockside Extortionist will make sure that your deck doesn't necessarily need it's Commander on the field to function. There are also a few lines via Dockside Extortionist & Razaketh, the Foulblooded that deal infinite damage, produce infinite Mana and yield infinite Tutors, which we can get into later if you decide to go that route.

Wrapping up on Mana, I'd also recommend more Rituals and Rocks. Dark Ritual, Burnt Offering & Seething Song are great, as are Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Conviction & Talisman of Indulgence. A Thran Dynamo could be good too. Oh man, Hellkite Tyrant can steal your opponents Rocks, which counts as Ramp I guess?

Anyway, moving on to card draw! Kaalia of the Vast runs through a lot of cards if you build her right, and keeping your hand full is a priority. Necropotence, Black Market Connections, Dark Tutelage, & Dark Confidant are great ways to turn your Life total into more gas. Esper Sentinel & Archivist of Oghma scale with your opponent's activity. None of them will do as much heavy lifting as Vilis, Broker of Blood, but that's honestly asking a lot of any card other than Ad Nauseam.

Onto the deck engine! I see you're running a few things to double down on your Commander's effect, like Aggravated Assault, Blade of Selves & Isshin, Two Heavens as One. While this strategy seems like a great idea on paper, it's actually not as efficient for the deck as it seems. Running a Reanimator strategy to ensure that the deck can continue to cheat creatures out without having to rely on it's Commander to do so is a far more powerful & consistent strategy. Spells like Entomb, Reanimate, Final Parting, Buried Alive, Victimize, Animate Dead, & Karmic Guide will pull a lot of weight in this context.

I could talk about Kaalia of the Vast all day, but I'll stop here. Let me know how you feel about these suggestions.

Also, here's my own list if you want to check it out: ANCIENT DRAGON TEMPEST (KAALIA)

Cheers!

Azoth2099 on Cheap cards for Kaalia

9 months ago

Steel Hellkite, Karmic Guide & Drana and Linvala are good places to start.

Other options like Rune-Scarred Demon, Burning-Rune Demon & Vilis, Broker of Blood are a few bucks each, but worth it.

Cheers!

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