Magus of the Will

Creature — Human Wizard

{2}{B}, {T}, Exile Magus of the Will: Until end of turn, you may play cards from your graveyard. If a card would be put into your graveyard from anywhere this turn, exile that card instead.

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
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

1empyrean on Your favorite, wait this works! …

8 months ago

seshiro_of_the_orochi - They do.

For more fun, check out the exile clause on Magus of the Will, Invoke Calamity, Maestros Ascendancy, and Sword of Once and Future.

Profet93 on Edgar Allen poe

1 year ago

shrieking affliction is listed twice

Deserted Temple - Untap coffers, politics and combo piece.

Rings of Brighthearth - Synergy with your commander. In conjunction with deserted temple and coffers allows you to make infinite black mana. If you were to add fetches (which you should for crucible of worlds, as well as top deck manipulation), then it would be a way to ramp without artifacts and would further fuel coffers. It has synergy with 10 other cards, not including your commander

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Not necessary but allows you to perform the above combo with less swamps and allows you for more nonbaiscs in your mana base which you should take advantage of being in black.

Blinkmoth Well - Synergy with Static/Winter orb + politics

Expedition Map - To find coffers, temple, blinkmoth, not miss land drops, etc...

Buried Ruin - Not really needed but nice to have. Allows for recursion of rings. Moreover, it brings back crucible and crucible brings buried ruin back. Combine with fetches to not miss a land drop.

Infernal Darkness - Similar to contamination but A) Doesn't shut off big mana producing lands (pro + con) B) Doesn't require a creature but rather some life and mana. At worst, it's counterspell bait. At best, it timewalks them. Being unable to cast spells gives you a greater probability of being able to make them discard.

Bitterblossom/Reassembling Skeleton - Tokens for skullclamp, blockers and soft lock with contamination. \

I would add some tutors (can provide more detailed suggestions of those later if you are interested, let me know) to ensure consistency. Tutors are blacks greatest strength and are valuable

Crystal Chimes - I personally hate this card, but given over 20% of your deck are enchantments, it might be worth considering. Especially given how you don't run Yawgmoth's Will or Magus of the Will. Deliver Unto Evil is another recursion spell worth considering.

Ill-Gotten Gains - Not an entirely serious suggestion, but worth noting.

While not a combo I enjoy, bloodchief ascension + Mindcrank = Good times.

I would remove some of your win-more discard damage enchantments for interaction, draw, recursion, utility or whatever you feel your deck is lacking.

All these enchantments and no Necropotence, I'm assuming due to the exile clause?

Let me know what you think of each idea and if you want more suggestions for cuts.

Profet93 on Lucky 13

1 year ago

The reason I ask about your meta('s power level) is to determine what level of power you want this deck to be. For example, Spine of Ish is a good card for a more casual meta in a black deck, as 7 mana is okay to remove an artifact or enchantment (Ex: Rest in Peace) that could disrupt your plans. Other times, black decks don't mind utilizing a card like Nevinyrral's Disk because even though it comes in tapped and is telegraphed, it costs 3 less mana that Spine and hits everything rather than just one target, albeit, at the cost of your boardstate (excluding your commander). As such, I was going to potentially recommend Nev disk. I understand the synergy with your commander, but its impactful isnt enough to be warranted IMO. If you find it works for you, then all the more power to you!

In my mono black deck, one wincon is Necropotence + Profane Transfusion. I saw the leechridden swamp but wasn't good for my deck, it's great for you. Profane does what you want, even though it's 9 mana, you seem to be okay with higher costed cards. This is on theme with your deck.

Given another wincon of your deck is Tree + "Trisk," you need a way to recur either, particularly Trisk. Black has a variety of creature recursion but little non-creature. Cards to consider are .....

Deliver Unto Evil - Politics. While most people hate giving an opponent a choice, this usually plays out something like.... A) Draw B) Tutor C) Recursion D) Wincon. Either way, you get benefit.

Ill-Gotten Gains - Not an entirely serious suggestion, but it works nevertheless.

Magus of the Will - Budget Yawgmoth's Will

My apologies, yes, sever the bloodline is 4 mana. I also asked about the meta because I didn't realize token decks were prevalent enough for you to warrant it's inclusion. For 4 mana, a lot of black decks just use boardwipes like Toxic Deluge. This is more true for your deck because A) Its on theme with lifeloss and can be used to set up repay in kind/profane transfusion B) Your PW commander will still be alive. Alternatively, black decks can utilize Virulent Plague as a permanent anti-token measure along with Bloodline Culling, which acts as instant speed removal and is flexible to kill most midrange creatures or destroy most tokens. I understand Sever's appeal, if it works for you, keep it. Most higher power black decks opt for cheaper (usually instant) removal in order to interact with opponents during their turn to disrupt their plans. That being said, if Sever works for you, I respect your decision even though I disagree with it, you know your meta best. I can only imagine the green player's face as all of their plant tokens with +1 counters from Avenger of Zendikar are suddenly exiled, must be a pretty good feeling. Not to mention they can't bring their creature back which is helpful against graveyard based decks. Flashback is nice as well.

Are you looking for cuts for your maybeboard? Are you okay with infinite combos?

Regarding Golden Throne, it can be helpful. I say test it out. But personally, I wouldn't feel comfortable telegraphing my only card to save myself. Alternatively, Stunning Reversal can be swapped in should you find your opponents holding removal for your throne too often as it is telegraphed.

BishopAtavist on Abzan Graveyard Recursion Help

1 year ago

I think I need some more experienced minds to point me in the right direction with my Nethroi deck: Things That Are Not.

I thought I was in a decent spot with it, but then I got my ass handed to me 4 games in a row playing with some more experienced friends. My deck was just too slow to get things off the ground.

I determined that I needed to add in some Dredge and Self-Milling to sped up filling the graveyard. My biggest worry with those mechanics and strategies (which is why I avoided them until now) is that I can only recur creatures with Nethroi, not artifacts, enchantments, sorceries, etc.

My current strategy is to use Fauna Shaman and Golgari Grave-Troll to empty my library into the graveyard each turn. This has seemed to be pretty effective in playtesting, but the potentially issue is that I'm never actually drawing any new, non-creature cards.

I can use Eternal Witness to grab a card from the Yard or Bala Ged Recovery  ^Flip and I've thought about fitting in Glissa, the Traitor to pull some of the artifacts back out. but what else might you suggest? Would Magus of the Will be a decent option for this? Maybe Creeping Renaissance for Enchantments at least?

What would you cut to add these?

Noholdmine on Garth One Eyed Cheater

1 year ago

Some easy ways to add interaction to this deck would be to add some enchantment and creature removal spells. Krosan Grip, Return to Dust, Rapid Hybridization/Pongify, Arcane Denial to replace Dissolve, Anguished Unmaking, Damn, and Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile are all clean and efficient methods of interaction. Saryth, the Viper's Fang, Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, and Veil of Summer/Heroic Intervention are solid protection options for your creatures as well. Right now you're running Anger with only 2 Mountains in the entire deck, so that means either the mana base needs to be reworked or Anger needs to be replaced. Some easy ways to rectify the mana base a bit is to swap out some of your duals for the Red/x options (i.e, Blood Crypt, Stomping grounds, etc.). We can also make the deck more efficient by changing up the ramp so that it has utility or generates more than one color of mana. Cards like Deathrite Shaman, Kiora's Follower, Noble Hierarch/Ignoble Hierarch, Faeburrow Elder, and Birds of Paradise are all decent options. Right now Anger and Chainer, Nightmare Adept are the only cards that can give Garth haste. Since we only have a few creatures that actually benefit from the haste, cards that generate value outside of simply providing haste would be beneficial. Rhythm of the Wild would not only give our creatures haste, but would make it harder for opponents to counter the creatures and combos with the persist creatures in the deck by giving them +1/+1 counters. Temur Ascendancy is another decent option since we can draw cards even when our creatures don't benefit from haste and it synergizes with our Flicker and Undying/Persist effects. An infinite combo option would be Jeskai Ascendancy + Garth One-Eye + Any haster + Deadeye Navigator and even if we're not comboing, we can still generate value from each card individually. I personally feel that cards like Frantic Search and Careful Study are too good to not have in this type of deck, since a good majority of our cards benefit in some way from being in the graveyard or we have easy ways of getting them back. In tandem with this idea, I think that cards like Regrowth (even though Garth One-Eye already has a Regrowth) and Eternal Witness are musts, especially since Eternal Witness generates value with the Flicker effects and other revive effects in the deck. An honorable mention that didn't quite make it into my comment but could be effective is Spark Double since it would allow us to have multiple versions of legendary creatures if we so chose, 2 Muldrotha's could lead to quite the turn! Unfortunately, however, Commander has a deck maximum, which means that cards must be let go to make room for all the new fun stuff we want to play with. For this deck I suggest cutting Diamond Lion, Thespian Stage, Dark Depths, Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle, Kitchen Finks, Desperate Ravings, Nim Deathmantle, Harrow, Magus of the Will, Gaea's Will, Scapeshift, Chronozoa, Raving Visionary, Thought Courier, Dissolve, possibly Twilight Shepherd, possibly Rampant Growth, possibly Seize the Spoilsand possibly, Purphoros, God of the Forge. At the end of the day, this deck is yours and you should play it and build it in the way that best suits you! Have fun gayming!

RambIe on ugg i need help

2 years ago

Thank you, for taking the time to respond
Squirrel_of_War, the deck tempos till combo. Stalling the game till turns 5-7 would be much easier then stalling the game till turns 7-9 wich would greatly increase my win%. That's why I'm focused on power level.

enpc, this deck does self milling, Crucible of Worlds is the only option in these colors to get lands back with out giving opponents there lands also, plus it being a 3 cmc permanent makes it a reanimate target.
Nirkana Revenant is never hard casted it's a reanimate target. I have actually had games were turn 0 gemstone-exile Rev, pull from eternity, turn 1 reanimate
Apprentice Necromancer was swapped for Priest of Fell Rites & Doomed Necromancer was swapped for Magus of the Will

Night's Whisper & Sign in Blood are fantastic suggestions cantrips are the key to frija

Jack32226 on Rot and Ruin (Muldrotha EDH)

3 years ago

Thank you for the suggestions kpres!

I'll go ahead and say that a few of the cards you suggested are cards I've already been considering. Many of the other cards are cards that I don't include for meta reasons. I'll try to explain my thoughts on these cards in the order you suggested them.

Also, as a quick disclaimer, I should explain something a little counter-intuitive about the deck. In my deliberations of the cards you suggested, I often bring up tempo issues with mana costs being too high. Although this deck's goal is to make very large amounts of mana for X spells, I am attempting to do so in a relatively fast-paced meta. Intuitively, high costed cards shouldn't be an issue if I plan to make lots of mana. However, I can only afford to spend large amounts of mana once I've reached a critical mass of ramp. Once I reach that critical mass, the deck wants to win as soon as possible via X spells. Due to that fact, the deck is pretty polarized with how much mana I spend on any one card. For the most part, I don't like investing any more than four mana for a card before hitting that critical mass (the biggest exception being Muldrotha if I can afford it) and, of those cards, they should be immediately impactful or help to reach that critical mass. Once I reach the critical mass, then the new plan becomes dumping 10+ mana into powerful game winning cards.

Kodama of the East Tree - This card is definitely powerful and I highly suggest it for more casual metas! Unfortunately for my meta, it's a little too slow. As you said, it could replace something for putting down extra lands. What options I have now though are either low cost (and can therefore be acknowledged as early game ramp), or serves a second purpose such as card draw. I think this card shines more in creature-based strategies, where cheating things in directly pressures your opponents rather than bides for time. For this deck however, where many of my removal options are low-costed anyway, the six mana investment for Kodama doesn't pay off nearly as fast as I would like.

Second Chance - My original list had Second Chance with Necropotence to bring me down to 5 life. While this is certainly effective, personally I found that it wasn't a fun way to win (for me or my opponents). Not much of a criticism, I know. If I had to criticize it though, its main downside is that it's a completely dead card until it wins. It can even be a liability against less experienced opponents who might rush to kill you out of panic. It's certainly still a good win condition; it's not in my deck out of personal preference.

Glacial Chasm - I've been considering this card for a long while now as a replacement for Spore Frog. It covers the frog's two weaknesses: not being able to fog multiple opponents and not preventing noncombat damage. The reason I haven't included it thus far is because contrary to frog, Glacial Chasm is not a neutral deterrent. Whether you pay the cumulative upkeep or replay it by saccing a land, you are paying a price. For my particular meta, combat is mostly meant for small amounts of chip damage rather than large attacks. For that reason, frog simply sitting on the board is enough to stop that incoming damage; there's not much reason to replay it. The only exception to that is a dastardly Kaalia of the Vast deck I play against, but frog is a good enough answer for that deck. It's a bit of a tossup for this list whether it's worth running, but in other metas it might be a good idea to run both.

Tormod, the Desecrator - If you're playing a creature-based deck or if you want a more drawn-out win con this card is pretty decent. However in this deck, it doesn't quite fit the theme. With a lack of sac outlets, the card doesn't synergize with most of the deck either.

Insidious Dreams - You're absolutely right about the synergy with Windfall, it's very powerful in most metas. My one gripe with the card, and the reason why I can't run it in my meta, is discarding is part of the cost. Unfortunately, there is way too much counter magic for me to play this reliably. Paying four mana to One with Nothing myself would be too common an occurrence.

Forgotten Creation - A good alternative to Jace's Archivist. I can't really justify running both though, I don't find myself needing wheels all that often. The reason I run Archivist instead of this is flexibility. Archivist can be used anytime rather than just at your upkeep, it can interrupt your opponents' hands at instant speed, and it shuts down your opponents when combined with Narset, Parter of Veils or Notion Thief. Otherwise, Forgotten Creation is a great card and is perfectly viable for Muldrotha.

Skull Prophet - I can't say I'm a fan of ramp spells that require decent fixing to cast. Simply because of that, I feel all the ramp I'm currently running is good enough to make up for the mill. I will admit though that at the time of this comment I have Coiling Oracle in the deck, which is somewhat hypocritical. I hope to revise the deck soon though, and I plan to take Oracle out.

Night Incarnate - Another card I've been on the fence about for a while. As I've mentioned, there isn't necessarily a whole lot of combat in my meta, and of the decks that do use combat, none of them use a "go wide" strategy. The impact of Night Incarnate then is not as big as I usually would like. That being said, there are still a number of value engines and mana dorks that this card does remove. I can certainly imagine adding the card to the deck in the future if I start encountering more small creatures in my meta.

Tunnel Vision - Tunnel Vision is certainly a fun card, but it's a little too slow for my taste. This is especially clear when you compare it to Hermit Druid. Hermit Druid can be used repeatedly, can mill my whole library so long as I fetch all my basics, and can be immediately useful even if I don't have Muldrotha (since the basic land goes to my hand rather than the top of my library). Hermit Druid also costs 2 mana and can be replayed with Muldrotha if need be. In more casual metas, Tunnel Vision can be used more effectively, but I would still recommend Hermit Druid over it if you're not including both.

Sewer Nemesis - I don't like this card for a few reasons. For four mana, I think the card is overcosted. The mill effect is not very substantial, requiring you to cast several spells to make good use of it (and if you have the ability to cast that many spells, you're probably in a really good place anyway). Probably the biggest problem I have with it is that it doesn't have any form of evasion, so opponents can easily chump block it. Also, in a meta with plenty of graveyard hate, this creature can be removed from the board very efficiently. For your own deck, I would actually recommend Splinterfright as a replacement. It only gets bigger from creature cards, but I think the addition of trample more than makes up for it.

Raven's Crime - Now here's a card I haven't actually considered before. Looking at it now though, I really like it. The only potential downside is that my meta (especially with that Kaalia player I mentioned before), has a habit of running lots of recursion effects like Reanimate and Animate Dead that greatly benefit from being able to discard large creatures from hand. In spite of that, Raven's Crime is low costed, has great synergy with the rest of the deck, and can disrupt opponents effectively. I'll have to pick myself up a copy and playtest it. It's not really a clear upgrade to any one card in the deck, so I'd have to think about what to take out for it.

Magus of the Will - I like Magus, but not for the reason you specified. I feel like I have enough recursion effects for my X spells as is. What I like about Magus though, is that it provides an earlier, cheaper alternative to Muldrotha for a turn. It's not uncommon that I have to go a while without casting Muldrotha because I can't afford to dump 6 mana into her. The reason I haven't included it thus far is because of the exile clause for cards entering your graveyard that turn, and that it is still rather expensive to use this card. It's still a 6 mana investment, just split across two different turns. As it stands, it's a good tech card, but in practice it's a bit of an awkward card to set up. Spending 3 mana with no immediate effect is usually bad, but if you don't do that, you can't use the card immediately for an emergency. For that reason I haven't included it, but I would still recommend it for other Muldrotha players.

kpres on Rot and Ruin (Muldrotha EDH)

3 years ago

Oh, I also wanted to mention that Magus of the Will with Kaya's Ghostform brings him back instead of exiling him, and this will let you play any of your big X spells that somehow made it into the graveyard from a sad counterspell or which were milled.