Loxodon Gatekeeper

Creature — Elephant Soldier

Artifacts, creatures, and lands your opponents control enter the battlefield tapped.

Combos

• Hokori, Dust Drinker + Loxodon Gatekeeper
• Loxodon Gatekeeper + Winter Orb

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 (50)

Necramus on Gonna Need A (Myrkul)

3 weeks ago

RufusTheGrufus thanks, mate! I absolutely appreciate your insight!! Those are some spicy suggestions. I really like Ondu Spiritdancer. I hadn't considered her! I did have a number of your suggestions in my original 150+ card pile I started building this deck from.

I think Loxodon Gatekeeper and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician are both in spirit of the deck and would make great additions, as well. I love playing cards that absolutely make my opponents roll their eyes!! Lol.

I actually have a Syr Konrad, the Grim deck, as well. I kept him out, out of principle. He does absolutely fit perfectly, though!

Thanks again for the great suggestions! Feel invited to check out my other decks and leave any suggestions you feel, as well! I enjoy your feedback!

RufusTheGrufus on Gonna Need A (Myrkul)

3 weeks ago

Okay, Necramus, as promised here are some 'spicy' suggestions for you to think about:

-Yawgmoth, Thran Physician: A creature-based sac outlet, source of card draw, and a way to incrementally whittle down opponent's creatures; I really like Yawgmoth in Myrkul personally.

-Similarly, while I see you are running Viscera Seer, you may also benefit from running other creature-based sac outlets such as Yahenni, Undying Partisan or Carrion Feeder. Fanatical Devotion is another interesting sac outlet I've considered running but haven't taken the time to playtest yet.

-Syr Konrad, the Grim: triggers twice, once when your creatures die, and also when you exile them to make enchantment tokens with Myrkul.

-Ondu Spiritdancer: With Myrkul, Lord of Bones and Grim Guardian on the battlefield, playing Ondu Spiritdancer and finding a way to kill it will infinitely ping all opponents to close out the game.

-Tyrite Sanctum: Offers a backup way to give Myrkul indestructible

-Windborn Muse: Build-your-own Ghostly Prison on a creature with Myrkul

-Loxodon Gatekeeper: Build-your-own Kismet on a creature with Myrkul

-Stinging Study: offers a big burst of card draw while also lowering your life total to make Myrkul indestructible.

-Options like Plumb the Forbidden and Deadly Dispute could be fun to both sacrifice creatures to turn into enchantments with Myrkul as well as generate card advantage.

In my tinkering around with Myrkul I can definitely relate to wishing that you could run more than 100 cards; I had the same problem with both Myrkul and Anikthea! They're both pretty open ended and also lean into super supported strategies, (enchantments, graveyards, tokens), so there's an over abundance of fun cards to build with; and ultimately I just ended up messing around with multiple builds for both of them. Overall I think your deck looks like a lot of fun to play, +1 from me!

TheBestMagicCard on Hokori, Dust Drinker - Prison/Stax/Value Creatures

2 months ago

I realized that the most powerful thing Hokori can do is totally lock opponents out of playing anything, as long as there a couple support cards, mostly Mishra's Helix, God-Pharaoh's Statue, and maybe Kismet and Loxodon Gatekeeper.

This is more powerful then hate bears, and like "you can't do something" cards, as well as other cost-increasing cards. If I can just prevent opponents from casting anything by leaving them no untapped lands ever, it doesn't matter if the have a board wipe, or an enter-the-battlefield effect, or graveyard recursion, because they just can't cast anything...

Even if I could keep people from casting things for a few turns, if they gradually build their mana back up and could cast a threat that one of my dinky-conditional-hatebears didn't affect, then that sucked for me... Way better to just try and lock them down outright and not ever give them the chance...

I've decided to take out some more conditional/reactive cards for some better threats, so that I can have some recourse if opponents manage to cast a threat, and to try to close the game out a little faster. The deck also needs card draw to help stay ahead of opponents, and not stall out. I'm also realizing that removal is very powerful in this deck. Usually a one-to-one trade off for targeted removal can be questionable, but in this deck it's a little different. If I Swords to Plowshares a creature that cost 5 mana to cast, my opponent might have been saving mana up for a few turns to cast that card, now I just spent 1 mana to nerf it, and ideally Hokori is in play so now they will have to wait several more turns to cast something else, so spot removal turns into huge tempo advantage also. Even better than one-for-one spot removal is board wipe, and repeatable removal.

I've switched in new cards that present threats, draw cards, and remove opponent's cards, they include: Battle Angels of Tyr, Aerial Extortionist, Mass Calcify, Unexplained Absence, Magus of the Tabernacle, Champions of Minas Tirith, and Archon of Coronation.

Trouble in Pairs seems like it could be powerful, but it is also reactionary and conditional upon opponent's doing something advantageous.

treeforcorvus on Make this better

7 months ago

Cataclysm can work against you based on opponents' picks and though Enter the Infinite is impressive & works with Omniscience, I don't see Thassa's Oracle or Laboratory Maniac, nor do I see Grapeshot. Consider instead Boros Charm + Armageddon which most people will hate & sometimes outright scoop after.

Mana Vault is more of a risk than you might think without untap mechanics (See Derevi, last paragraph). Consider Thought Vessel or even Library of Leng.

Replace Lion's Eye Diamond with Land Tax. The latter also helps offset the pain from Need for Speed, which is a cool find.

Consider Smothering Tithe instead of Mystic Remora: Remora usually only nets a few cards at beginning, and will often slow you down more than it helps. The former performs MUCH more consistently, and will net you more mana to focus on spells and counters.

Concerning your SB: If you want to go maximum lock-stax, I'd recommend Derevi, Empyrial Tactician. Use Winter Orb, Static Orb & Stasis, use Kismet and Loxodon Gatekeeper, maybe even Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines. Use fetches + basic lands, huge ramp, and Back to Basics just to spite opponents. NB: Mana Vault smacks with Derevi.

I-HaveNoManaAnd-I-MustScream on WIP Control Deck

1 year ago

Awesome! Didja take a look at my maybe board? I don't have much in the way of a budget for the time being so I'd probably be planning out purchases instead of executing. I have Azor's Elocutors and was considering that but I felt it might be too inconsistent and hard to pull off to build towards. I'll take a look at your recommendations and add that some other players at my local shops recommended Meekstone, Defense Grid, Blind Obedience, Loxodon Gatekeeper, Ensnaring Bridge, and Ghostly Prison.

Vessiliana on Boros Legion

2 years ago

I have found Loxodon Gatekeeper and Baird, Steward of Argive to be useful, on-theme bits of pillow-fort, while Reverent Hoplite brings in some nice extra soldiers, and Bastion Protector can help keep Saskia alive.

I don't really think that Frontier Siege would be much use to you, and Angelic Accord seems pretty unreliable, though fun if it works.

Also, for a tribal deck in black, Patriarch's Bidding got a recent reprint!

DemonDragonJ on Random New Cards

3 years ago

I have created several new cards, and, rather than make a separate thread for each card, I have decided to post all of them in this thread, for everyone here to review.

Infernal Witness Show

Infernal Witness

Casting Cost:

Creature - human warlock

Power/Toughness: 2/1

When infernal witness enters the battlefield, return target card from your graveyard to your hand, then you lose life equal to that card's converted mana cost.

This creature is a black version of Eternal Witness; normally, black can return only creature cards or cards of its own color from the graveyard, but I feel that returning any card in exchange for loss of life is an acceptable bend.

Gift of Erebos Show

Gift of Erebos

Casting Cost:

Sorcery

Search your library for a card with converted mana cost less than or equal to your devotion to black, reveal that card, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.

I am very surprised that WotC never made a card such as this during either the original Theros block or Theros: beyond Death, because it is such a simple and straightforward design. In my opinion, 2 mana would have been too low of a cost for this card, and 4 mana would have been too high, so I compromised and gave it a mana cost of 3.

Champion's Belt Show

Champion's Belt

Casting Cost:

Artifact - equipment

Equip Cost:

Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and has ": this creature fights another target creature."

As long as equipped creature is legendary, it gets an additional +1/+1 and has first strike.

This card was inspired by, and modeled after, the ridiculously large and fancy belts that are given to winners of fighting events, so it naturally has abilities that focus on combat; it was also partially inspired by Champion's Helm, so it provides additional bonuses to legendary creatures.

Soul Evasion Show

Soul Evasion

Casting Cost:

Instant

Exile target creature, then return that creature to the battlefield under its owner's control.

Soul Evasion is the name of an epic song by an obscure death metal band named Chastisement, and I knew that I had to make a card with that name (because the Phryexians are very much this game's equivalent of the death metal genre), which is modeled after Cloudshift, but, because of its more flexible casting cost, it cannot be used to permanently take control of an opponent's creature.

Phyrexian Gatekeeper Show

Phyrexian Gatekeeper

Casting Cost:

Artifact Creature - construct soldier

Power/Toughness: 3/4

Vigilance.

Artifacts, creatures, and lands that your opponents control enter the battlefield tapped.

This creature is a Phyrexian version of Loxodon Gatekeeper, but with a higher overall mana cost to balance the fact that its cost is more flexible, and I also increased its power and toughness and gave it vigilance to balance the increased cost (and because I believe that a 2/3 for 4 mana was a terrible bargain in the original card).

What does everyone else say about these cards? Do you like them?

DadHumanPraetor on Derevi Stax Combo

3 years ago

Looks like an older list, but I am cirrently building derevi stax because I took the mana denizl cards out of my chulane teller of tales deck in favor of a more proactive model. I am surprised not to see Loxodon Gatekeeper he is my favorite in stasis decks. Thanks for posting there are a lot of interesting card choices I will consider.