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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 |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Pauper Duel Commander | Legal |
| Pauper EDH | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Minister of Impediments
Creature — Human Advisor
((W/U) can be paid with either (White) or (Blue).)
Tap: Tap target creature.
TheVectornaut on
Black and White - please help!
2 years ago
I'll go ahead and play devil's advocate here and suggest that orzhov humans is a great budget deck archetype that can be both aggressive and controlling at the same time. It also easily supports Grand Abolisher , Kambal, Consul of Allocation , and even Starfield Mystic if you have a critical mass of Oblivion Ring s, Pacifism s, and such. Champion of the Parish is a key card of the deck, as is Thalia's Lieutenant . After that, it depends on what kind of gameplan you want to build around. My take on orzhov humans, Assassination Squadron makes use of tappers like Gideon's Lawkeeper and Minister of Impediments to combo and destroy creatures with assassins like Royal Assassin and Gideon Jura . With access to the legacy card pool and a bigger budget, King's Assassin and Deathbringer Liege could be on the table too. Tribal support like Adaptive Automaton , Metallic Mimic , or Door of Destinies is nice, but it certainly isn't a requirement. (Fun fact: when I built this deck years ago, Lieutenant cost much more than the Door. Funny how things can change so drastically.)
Creating tokens tends to work well in this kind of deck because both human lords can buff and/or be buffed by them. Gather the Townsfolk and Thraben Doomsayer are the usual suspects, and I personally like Mentor of the Meek as a way to keep the hand topped off. If you want to go for a lifegain plan with Kambal at the helm, Vizkopa Guildmage is a budget Sanguine Bond on a stick. While certainly not budget, Serra Ascendant and Westvale Abbey Flip can also work in such a build. Now that I think about it, a lot of soul sisters staples happen to be humans ( Auriok Champion , Martyr of Sands , Ranger of Eos , Soul's Attendant , Soul Warden , Speaker of the Heavens , etc.) Another idea is to focus on maximum destruction and exile. High Priest of Penance is a good way to make opponents think twice about their decisions in combat, and I've been having reasonable success with Mangara of Corondor as a sort of slow O-Ring that happens to trigger the lords. Humans are such a common tribe that there's no end to the number of directions you can steer them in if you really want to.
TheVectornaut on
Blue/White Life and Defenders
3 years ago
I think a good place to start would be to evaluate what goals are the most important for your deck while making sure you don't have too many ideas that compete against each other. When I look at the deck now, I can see the general idea of a U/W control list that takes advantage of freeze and lifegain to prolong the fight until you can win. However, I see some major problems with the plan as it is now.
First, the deck lacks a clear win condition at the end of all the control. You'll either need to chip away over the course of a slow game with your smaller creatures or hope you have enough freeze effects to get your big guys in late-game. Control deck usually opt for some type of haymaker that can reliably close the game. Some like AEtherling and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar are designed to protect themselves, some like Celestial Colonnade and Shark Typhoon place emphasis on evasion, some like Torrential Gearhulk and Snapcaster Mage give you as much value as possible, and some like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Teferi, Time Raveler deny your opponents of counterplay. There's a lot of overlap within those categories and not all of these cards will be played as a wincon, but having a clear plan to win is better than only playing to not lose. The closest cards you have are probably Serpent of Yawning Depths and Archipelagore. Sea monsters are certainly a fine casual deck but slotting them into something else can be awkward at best and ineffectual at worst.
The second problem I see is the missed potential of your chosen colors combined with your chosen tribe. Right now, you have very few ways to take advantage of the clerics in the deck. Clerics are intended to be W/B since you get access to powerful new tools like Orah, Skyclave Hierophant, Taborax, Hope's Demise, and Cleric of Life's Bond along with classics like Sin Collector, High Priest of Penance, and Skirsdag High Priest. The lifegain/drain synergy in clerics also benefits from orzhov colors to play threats like Angel of Destiny, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Marauding Blight-Priest, Speaker of the Heavens, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Twilight Prophet, Pious Evangel Flip, Drana's Emissary, and Cruel Celebrant.
Incidentally, black also synergizes quite well with tapdown effects because of Assassinate cards like Royal Assassin, Deathbringer Liege, and Murderous Compulsion, although white does have its share of Vengeance with Sunblast Angel, Deadeye Harpooner, and Swift Response. Anyway, now that I'm on this tangent, it's worth mentioning that including strong freeze effects is important if you want to make such an underused mechanic work. I'm partial to Dungeon Geists and Icefall Regent as permanent taps, but there's also Guardian of Tazeem, Niblis of Frost, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Time of Ice, Lorthos, the Tidemaker, Frost Titan, and Hands of Binding. Alternatively you can use cheaper cards that can retap a creature each turn like Gideon's Lawkeeper, Blinding Souleater, Fatestitcher, Hidden Strings, and Minister of Impediments. The final category I'll mention are other cards that take advantage of tapping enemy creatures like Palliation Accord and Verity Circle, except I'd only ever recommend the latter.
In summary, I think you should decide whether you're more interested in clerics or in freeze since they don't synergize with each other that well. For clerics, switching to black and taking advantage of lifedrain and sacrifice is advisable. For freeze control, find ways to abuse tapping, implement a strong win condition, and generally include more card draw and countermagic. If you are dead set on combining these styles, I'd at least invest in some tribal support cards to give the clerics more impact than just weakly contributing to the party mechanic. Adaptive Automaton, Door of Destinies, Obelisk of Urd, and Coat of Arms are some popular options. Finally, if your budget doesn't allow you to purchase many new cards, prioritizing the acquisition of additional copies of your strongest but cheapest cards is a good way to upgrade. For this deck, I think those cards are Attended Healer, Cleric of Chill Depths, Hypnotic Sprite, Kor Celebrant, Luminarch Aspirant, Queen of Ice, Shepherd of Heroes, Skyclave Cleric Flip, Concerted Defense, Dovin's Veto, Negate, Inscription of Insight, Staggering Insight, Trapped in the Tower, and maybe Silundi Vision Flip. Good luck with your build and let me know if you have any questions!
austintayshus on
Esper Advisor
4 years ago
Cool idea! +1
Minister of Impediments could be fun in this deck.
Trusted Advisor could also be fun.
Since most of your creatures are small, you could also wreak some havoc with Meekstone . That card will definitely draw some hate tho, so be careful.
Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker could deter some attackers.
Also, I'd recommend a few more ramp spells, perhaps Wayfarer's Bauble and Coldsteel Heart ?
TheVectornaut on
B/U Royal Assassin Control
7 years ago
From what I understand, most competitive control lists want win conditions that fall into the category of "inevitability". Such conditions will inevitably close out a long game because of their inherent resilience. Pearl Lake Ancient and AEtherling are two such cards. Demon of Death's Gate, by comparison, could easily die to an errant kill spell if your pool of counterspells runs dry. At the very least, I'd add more copies and/or related alternatives to insure a win condition will stick. On that note, Lightning Greaves will often be too slow since it must be equipped at sorcery speed.
Most control decks support those win conditions with a wide range of counters and other removal spells. Creature count is usually low, but I'll make some suggestions regardless. Vampire Nighthawk and Gifted Aetherborn could be replacements for Black Knight and Pestilent Kathari. They provide the threat of deathtouch, and the lifegain is a nice boon in the control game. If you're set on using Royal Assassin as removal, I've had some fun synergizing him with Minister of Impediments. If you are into the demon theme, Desecration Demon, Bloodgift Demon, and Ob Nixilis Reignited are some other beaters. Playing a wider variety of threats could also make Diabolic Tutor stronger.
In no particular order, some control spells in U/B are Killing Wave, Hero's Downfall, Dissolve, Mana Leak, Summary Dismissal, Disallow, Black Sun's Zenith, Cryptic Command, Victim of Night, Remand, Thoughtseize, and Echoing Truth. Some alternative win conditions are Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, Liliana, the Last Hope, and good old Elixir of Immortality.
TheVectornaut on New player requires help with …
7 years ago
With Royal Assassin, it seems like a shame to not run some tap synergy in there- something in the vein of Gideon's Lawkeeper or Minister of Impediments. There's also King's Assassin for the kitchen table if you want some redundancy there.
The focus on Vraska the Unseen could also make Oath of Ajani and Oath of Nissa possible things to consider.
RedUndead40 on What are the best colors …
7 years ago
Considering building a deck around the traditional pinger cards like Vulshok Sorcerer, Prodigal Sorcerer, Prodigal Pyromancer, etc.
Lots of throwing small damage around with tap effects. What are the best colors for this deck?
Red and blue are obvious but what about the third color? I've heard some people recommend Temur for green's cool untap abilities with Quest for Renewal, Seedborn Muse, etc.
However white also seems interesting with all of the archers and cool ones like Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile, on top of more controll-y options like Minister of Impediments.
Thoughts?
Snaggler on
Min-Maxos of Meletis
7 years ago
"don't hit me, I'm scared"
Norn's Annex Crawlspace Wall of Nets Wall of Denial Silent Arbiter War Tax Sphere of Safety Propaganda Dissipation Field Ith, High Arcanist Isperia, Supreme Judge Minister of Impediments Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer Embargo
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