Magus of the Mind

Creature — Human Wizard

U, t, Sacrifice Magus of the Mind: Shuffle your library, then exile the top X cards, where X is one plus the number of spells cast this turn. Until end of turn, you may play cards exiled this way without paying their mana costs.

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

Discussion (33)

Massacar on Riku! Reku! Rikoo!

3 years ago

Personal opinions on what to cut, feel free to completely ignore or disagree with anything/everything. I tend to construct lower curve decks, so I know that's a bit different.

Cut: Reshape the Earth , It's super expensive and while it can definitely be used to help thin out lands from your deck in the late game it will also act as a dead draw for quite a while. With all this other ramp you're packing it feels superfluous.

Search for Tomorrow , there are better 3 cost basic land fetches if that's what you're using it for.

Peregrine Drake , if you aren't running this with a combo piece like Deadeye Navigator I personally wouldn't include it. I understand cloning it on ETB could net you a +3 mana advantage on that turn, but it seems a little cumbersome to be worth it to me.

You have other ramp pieces I would probably cut, but it would depend on what other pieces throughout the deck you decide to keep etc.

Cast Through Time , I don't think it's worth the CMC for the number of Instants and Sorceries you run considering this isn't spellslinger/storm.

Hazoret's Undying Fury not worth it for it's CMC and downside. This would be best cut, or just replaced with an Escape to the Wilds .

Mizzix's Mastery / Magus of the Mind I would cut them for the same reasons, that this deck isn't super spellslinger/storm and that the spots could be better used.

Pull from the Deep , it's fine, but meh.

Volcanic Vision , to me it's CMC is too high for what it brings to the table.

Those are my cuts for now, but I'm going to second Omniscience_is_life in suggesting you add Tatyova, Benthic Druid and The Great Henge , as well as suggest Elixir of Immortality as a general utility recursion card.

Tzefick on Defender of the Heart, revised

4 years ago

enpc I understand that was your intention, but that seems to be from a standpoint that you want to lower the CMC. My point is that the creature itself would be more whole, if you kept it expensive but viable by itself without necessarily needing additional help, unlike a 2/2 trampler. It reminds me of a similar issue with Spawnwrithe. Spawnwrithe is often too small, even in Commander pre-cons to actually be able to function and do what it wants to do. Then it just ends up being irrelevant all together.

If you consider the Magus creatures, they are often costed and stat'ed to match what they intend to do and how their counterpart functions. Magus of the Bazaar is low stat'ed and cheap to cast because its main function is a creature-version of the Bazaar of Baghdad, so it doesn't need high stats as it needs to be used early and readily. It's not there for combat, it's there for the active ability. You want it early.

In difference to Magus of the Coffers who mirrors Cabal Coffers. Here the Magus is higher stat'ed and more costly, despite the counterpart is also a land. The Cabal Coffers is usually used as a late-game tool to explode some mana advantage, and the creature reflects that.

Magus of the Arena is also a very expensive creature, that is better stat'ed to better go with the fight-ability of it's counterpart Arena. If the Magus was weak, it would need help to function - on top of being a creature, whereas Arena is a land with no further inherent cost and is much better protected than a creature.

Magus of the Mind has the CMC of its counterpart Mind's Desire but also a more fair stat'ed body with a cheap activation to get the actual spell - in many ways it is better positioned to function than Mind's Desire itself, as it is very mana cheap the turn you break it, which opens up mana to cast spells to grant its active good value. The downside is that it is a creature and has summoning sickness, so opponents can deal with it or plan accordingly.

Magus of the Balance is the most different as it carries the CMC of its counterpart Balance, but with a heavier activation cost on the ability. And all the Maguses who mirrors a sorcery can still go off at instant speed, despite WotC's ability to limit it, and without adding to the cost of the active ability compared to the cost of the original counterpart. Granted Balance is also banned in all formats and restricted in Vintage, so it speaks more volume to the wrong costing and effect of Balance than the Magus itself being an outlier.

CyborgAeon on Vannifar Evolution 101 *Competitive*

5 years ago

CONVERSELY! If you want to be fancy - you can always pod your way into Magus of the Mind & just meme the whole table by flipping your deck and sliding it across your playmat like a true simic player.

Wredny_Dziad on THE Maelstrom Wanderer EDH

5 years ago

Hi, first thing I noiticed is that you have only one point removal on instant. My meta shifted to more competetive recently and I had to disrupt very fast voltron commanders like Rafiq of the Many . Try these: Rapid Hybridization , Pongify , Reality Shift , Krosan Grip and Cyclonic Rift <- this card is great, because in early game you can buy some time, cascading into it isn't bad, but casting it from hand with overload will hurt your opponents so much (casting it at end of opponent's turn means no blockers). Try out Thunderfoot Baloth - trample and +2/+2 to all creatures is sweet, and Selvala's Stampede - after first commander cast you won't have mana to play cards from hand, this card allows to put permanents (not only creatures) and one is guaranteed. Putting creatures from library is also very good. Magus of the Mind if you have one blue mana left after cascades you can sacrifice him (Wanderer gives him haste) and exile 4 cards from top and play them for free (try it out with Strionic Resonator or clones if more mana is avaible)! Look at Kessig Wolf Run - with commander on battlefield and no cards at hand still you can be dangerous. I don't know why you use: Domri Rade - his first ability is some kind of draw but it won't work in every case, second ability is on sorcery speed and that could be too late, Blood Sun distuption isn't very harming and cascading into it would give nothing.

Kogarashi on I need some help with …

5 years ago

Basically, whenever a card's ability references itself by name, such as with Pack Rat or Magus of the Mind, you treat that reference as if it said, instead, "This object." So "create a copy of this object" or "sacrifice this object" instead of the card names.

Caerwyn on I need some help with …

5 years ago

DrkNinja - you are incorrect. From Mairsil, the Pretender's Rulings:

"If an activated ability of a card in exile with a cage counter on it references the card it’s printed on by name, treat Mairsil’s instance of that ability as though it referenced Mairsil by name instead. For instance, if Mairsil exiles Magus of the Mind, the cost to activate the ability includes sacrificing Mairsil, not sacrificing Magus of the Mind."

DemonDragonJ on Guess the Green Magus!

5 years ago

In the Time Spiral block, three cycles of magi were printed: one cycle inspired by iconic lands (i.e., Magus of the Tabernacle), one cycle inspired by famous enchantments (i.e., Magus of the Moat), and one cycle inspired by famous artifacts (i.e., Magus of the Disk).

In the past several Commander sets, there have been magi inspired by iconic instants and sorceries: Magus of the Will, Magus of the Wheel, Magus of the Mind, and, most recently, Magus of the Balance.

That leaves only a green magus left, so I now wish to speculate on what that magus shall be, and, more specifically, after what green instant or sorcery it shall be modeled.

As with the first four, such a magus will likely be modeled after a card that is on the reserved list or otherwise has not been reprinted in a long time, and also one that is both iconic and powerful; therefore, both Desert Twister and Tooth and Nail, for example, are not likely candidates.

What does everyone else say about this? What green instant or sorcery shall be used as the model for the final magus of this cycle? I eagerly await your responses.

Majorparker on Maelstrom wanderer

5 years ago

Nice list! Pretty similiar to mine ([http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/maelstrom-cookies/?cb=1535366481]

Cards I could recommend are:
- Prime Speaker Zegana: a bit awkward when you wander into her and she's the only creature on the board, but most of the times she draws you between 4-8 cards and is a threat on her own. Strongest draw engine in the deck. Soulbound her with Deadeye Navigator and well, you could almost draw as much as you want.
- Dragonlord Atarka: creature removal which you can split and a very heavy hitter. Cannot go wrong with it.
- Magus of the Mind: fun and incredibly powerful card in Wanderer. The turn you play Wanderer you could cast 4 spells (or more) from your library.
- Sunbird's Invocation: casting spells from your deck is alot of fun, especially if you can dig that deep into your library with that many expensive spells we got in wanderer
- Selvala's Stampede: great value card. You will dig into your library and play cards from your hand for free. Puts great pressure on the other players
- Somberwald Sage: strongest ramp card in the deck. In my opinion a must have in every wanderer list. Lets you cast wanderer three turns earlier and can be used repeatedly

This is more a personal preference but I'm not the biggest fan of the Artifact Signets and Mana Vault. It feels really horrible to wander into them and they only give you one additional mana. I almost play every ramp spells which gives me 2 lands so that I can at least cast wanderer again if he gets destroyed. With this I usually get on average Wanderer one turn later but the cascades have in general also more impact. Tatyova, Benthic Druid is a really nice inclusion if you are playing a lot of ramp spells and fetchlands.
I am also not sure if Bloodbraid Elf and Shardless Agent are that useful in a multiplayer list. They don't really do that much.

I like your inclusion of Sarkhan's Unsealing! Think I will add it to my list as well. Sounds really effective on paper. Target removal with most creatures in the deck and board wipe with Wanderer.