Merchant of the Vale

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander 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
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Merchant of the Vale

Creature — Human Peasant

. Discard a card: Draw a card.


(You may cast Merchant of the Vale from exile if you sent it on an adventure.)


Haggle

Instant — Adventure

You may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.


(You may cast Haggle for from anywhere that you have the permission to cast this, then exile it on an adventure instead of putting it into your graveyard. When you have not chosen to cast Haggle, this card is treated only as Merchant of the Vale in whatever zone it is in.)

(Example scenarios for Haggle: You may cast this off of Melek, Izzet Paragon. You may not target this with Snapcaster Mage. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben increases the cost of this. Electrodominance requires X=1. You may cast this from a cascade spell if the spell has a cost greater than Merchant of the Vale's cost. If you cast a Haggle that another player owns, only you may cast the Merchant of the Vale that got sent on an adventure, not the owner.)

Mousemke on Balls Lightning

1 year ago

i'll throw my own example into the comparison ring 8 ball

interesting takeaways -

Fulminator Mage is an elemental and can be Unearthed

Merchant of the Vale for 1 mana looting and a later body (body not always relevant but can loot if a game goes that long)

Spark Elemental is just a little baby ball lightning!

Skin Invasion  Flip is... dunno. probably a bad card bad i love it in this deck

zapyourtumor on Goryo's Toys - Modern

1 year ago

Yeah so the best discard outlet, Faithless Looting, was banned a while ago (victim of HOEgaak that disgusting deck).

The best 2 mana discard outlet in red being played in most reanimation decks is Bitter Reunion currently, because after Persisting an Archon of Cruelty you can give it haste and attack for another trigger which is backbreaking. Here, the second ability is probably less relevant since Goryo's gives haste, but I still think it's better than the other options. The main issue with Faithless Salvaging is that its both slow and you're also going down on card advantage, UNLESS: you play it with cards in your hand, and then cast all cards in your hand, so you only draw a card on rebound (breaking even). Or you cast it with no cards in your hand, drawing two cards over two turns (generating card advantage).

Unfortunately many of the other good discard outlets are in blue, examples being: Prismari Command, Faithful Mending, Tainted Indulgence, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  Flip, Ledger Shredder, etc.

As I said the kind of discard outlet you run generally depends on what you want the deck to do: I'd say they are all tradeoffs between speed and power. On the fastest side we have Haggle, which can be used for turn 2 hasty Boar + Emmy although it requires 4 cards in hand. Somewhere in between but still towards the faster side we have all of the 2 mana discard spells in red. And then further toward the power side we have cards like Collective Brutality. And further still we have all the generally good cards like Fable, Spyro, etc. So basically you need to decide what balance between speed and grinding power you want the deck to have. To try and make it easier I rated all of the options in jund colors I think are worth considering along three criteria: speed, power, and flexibility. Given that this deck is a grindy midrange deck at heart (or at least I think that is what you are aiming for), speed can be useful but power and flexibility are more important in my opinion.

Speed 9 Power 1 Flex 1: Merchant of the Vale (1 mana discard spell, fast but that's all there is)

9, 2, 4: Bone Shards (also fast, but generally more relevant mid/late)

7, 5, 1: Cathartic Reunion (powerful but inflexible, seen in dredge)

7, 2, 4: Cathartic Pyre (flexible but weak)

7, 3, 2: Thrill of Possibility (less all in version of Cathartic Reunion)

7, 3, 4: Bitter Reunion (more flexible vers. of Thrill)

7, 5, 8: Collective Brutality (most flexible 2 cmc discard outlet in BRG)

6, 3, 4: Faithless Salvaging (slow, weak, only generates CA in late game)

5, 6, 5: Territorial Kavu (even slower because requires attack trigger)

4, 7, 7: Seasoned Pyromancer (both powerful and flexible, can generate bodies or CA)

3, 7, 8: Liliana of the Veil (powerful and flexible, threat + removal + discard)

2, 8, 8: Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  Flip (slowest 3 cmc option, tons of grind power + flexibility)

Additional notes:

MusicGoat18 on Goryo's Toys - Modern

1 year ago

My question is, from the following, which is better: Haggle (from Merchant of the Vale), Faithless Salvaging, Cathartic Pyre, Cathartic Reunion, Bitter Reunion, or is there something better that I'm missing? I've been thinking of the different decks played in modern, and I would like assistance in deciding which one is best to play.

zapyourtumor on Goryo's Toys - Modern

1 year ago

I'd say the one thing that does feel kind of bad is you don't have the turn 2 Goryo nuts combo play after cutting Merchant of the Vale (besides thoughtseizing yourself), but that combo requires 4 cards + 2 lands in your hand anyways which is already 6/7 (Merchant, Goryo's, Ilharg, and Emmy). It kind of sucks that all of the 3 mana discard outlets (Spyro, Fable, Lili) are super strong, but there aren't many good 2 mana options with no Faithful Mending or Tainted Indulgence. If you happen to think that you need a 2 mana discard outlet I would say the best one you could run is Bitter Reunion. Unfortunately adding that card would dilute the midrange plan significantly -- its all up to your choice on how you want to balance the reanimation combo with the midrange grindiness.

zapyourtumor on Goryo's Toys - Modern

1 year ago

You definitely don't need Thud or Fling in my opinion. After swinging with Ilharg and Emmy, any jundy midrange deck should be able to straight up win. Also, Thud being sorcery speed is definitely relevant because there's more stuff that can kill emrakul now, the biggest offender being Solitude.

I would recommend adding just straight up good cards that happen to be discard outlets, as opposed to mediocre cards like Merchant of the Vale which is only good as a discard outlet. Spyro is great for sure, but I'd also recommend Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  Flip and Liliana of the Veil.

I think you should also run Wrenn and Six if you can afford it. W6 is obviously really strong in midrange decks but also works well in combo-midrange type decks like creativity, because she guarantees your land drops making it easier to hit 5 lands for Ilharg. She also synergizes well with many of the discard outlets I suggested, specifically Fable and LotV.

Grim Flayer allowing you to put Ilharg in the graveyard seems okay, but that requires Ilharg to be in your top three cards. I feel like Tarmogoyf might be straight up better, and even if you discard emrakul you still have your opponents graveyard's card types. It kind of sucks that you only have 3 sorceries though, but if you run walkers like wrenn it is probably fine.

Lastly, I think Fury is stronger in these kinds of decks than Grief. Since you aren't all in on the combo, I don't think you need Grief's combo protection and Fury's midrange power seems more valuable.

Kashai on Replicators

1 year ago

Strife_Delivery_Service

I definitely hear what you're saying about the lack of mana and goblins! Lets add a few more lands and some extra mana/token generation with Dockside Extortionist and Wily Goblin.

While we are adding more goblins:

lets switch Counterspell for Goblin Flectomancer

Merchant of the Vale for Rummaging Goblin

and although we cant pump up its toughness, Siege-Gang Commander is not a terrible alternative for Myr Battlesphere

Idol of Oblivion looks super cool I also found Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII for more tokens!

Stardragon on

1 year ago

seshiro_of_the_orochi- Most are likely to be additions to a EDH deck as this is my experience is in i don't play any other format since oathbreaker is dead (at least in my area) so take anything i suggest with a gain of salt. With that said Vivien, Champion of the Wilds for flashy badgers, Domri, Anarch of Bolas for mana and removal or Xenagos, the Reveler for his whole kit. since you have discard subtheme hows about Bazaar of Baghdad (Lol), Geier Reach Sanitarium to help fuel you discarding. IDK how you feel about non badgers in this deck but Merchant of the Vale is repeatable rummaging as is Glint-Horn Buccaneer that also burns you opponent. it one for mana more Honor the God-Pharaoh instead of Thrill since it will give a token and helps you draw and discard, this is a big maybe again edh player always looking to sqeeze out as much value as i can

Delphen7 on Blood token and Dredge timing …

1 year ago

In order to activate the Blood token, you'll need to discard as part of the cost, so Grave Troll will be in the graveyard by the time the draw trigger resolves.

But if you have something like Haggle it'll work too. Dredge is a replacement effect for a draw, so you can discard then dredge in the same action.

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