Mortarpod

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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
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Mortarpod

Artifact — Equipment

Living weapon (When this Equipment enters the battlefield, put a 0/0 black Germ creature token onto the battlefield, then attach this to it.)

Equipped creature gets +0/+1 and has "Sacrifice this creature: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature or player."

Equip

slasherturtle on Equip Me Daddy

1 year ago

This will be long, probably.

The first thing I notice is your land base. It's pretty important for this deck to reliably get Jor out on turn 2 consistently, and you may be a bit short on lands for that. To that point, you also want to limit lands that tap for colorless or enter tapped to only the ones you absolutely need. While the lands that tap for both and enter tapped (like Alpine Meadow or Sacred Peaks) are nice for fixing, they are slow and ultimately it's up to you whether to run those or not. The biggest one that pokes out to me is Reliquary Tower. Not only does it only tap for colorless, I'm also not sure you're going to be drawing enough cards for it to be any better than a basic Plains or Mountain. I'd keep an eye out for Slayers' Stronghold and Sandstone Bridge in playtesting, depending on how often they go off they might also be worse than a basic. All in all though, land base is pretty good, you just need more. Maybe 2-3 more of each basic to get started and tweak from there.

I really like the amount of nonland cards that grab you lands you have (like Wayfarer's Bauble and Navigation Orb). They're better than Evolving Wilds and cheaper than fetch lands, but if you ever do get the chance to pack some fetches in here, I think you could take one or two of those out and replace them with some more equipment or creatures that like them. You can also never go wrong with adding a Solemn Simulacrum.

I really like almost all of your nonland cards and can think of very few cards I'd want to swap for better alternatives, but I think some are pretty safe cuts if you're trying to trim down to 100 cards.

  • Some of your Living Weapon cards are really expensive and don't do much other than make an equipped creature, but their cost is so high that you should already have enough to trigger Jor by the time you can even cast them. Others just feel like they won't impact the board enough to warrant a spot in the 99. The ones that stick out to me are:

  • Mortarpod, which takes up a 2 drop spot and conflicts with casting Jor

  • Sickleslicer, which just feels a bit underwhelming
  • Skinwing, which feels exceptionally steeply priced, even for an equipment that grants flying
  • Strandwalker, which is also very steep

  • There are also some cards which I think either hurt more than they help or don't do you much at all:

  • Prophetic Prism doesn't offer you any ramp and takes up a 2-drop spot. As someone with a 2-drop commander, you want to minimize the amount of other 2CMC cards in the deck because they get really awkward, especially in the first four turns. Turn two you're forced to choose between playing your 2-drop and your commander, and then turn 3 you have to decide between whichever you didn't choose and whatever good 3-drops you may have access to. It fucks up your whole curve.

  • Shuko equips for free but basically does nothing else after that. The same is true for Leather Armor. It may or may not be worth it, up to you.
  • Invulnerability may be slightly overcosted with buyback and you may be better running retroactive protection like Norn's Annex or Ghostly Prison.
  • Keen-Eared Sentry may not do as much as it seems. Having Hexproof is nice and makes you feel safe, but I ran Aegis of the Gods in Azor for years and it almost never saved me from anything, not only because having hexproof isn't as strong as it seems but also because people will want to kill it very quickly if they do need to target you.
  • I love the amount of repeatable combat effects in this deck, but they are worse than nothing if you don't have a board state that can take advantage of it. Some of those slots may be better used on other equipment or cards that care about them. If I were to cut any, it'd probably be Relentless Assault because it's not repeatable like Akki Battle Squad, Aurelia, and Waves of Aggression. This may also apply to Response / Resurgence since you can't fetch it with Sunforger and it's other half isn't super great.
  • As wonderful as Lightning Greaves is for commander protection, it also prevents you from being able to attach any more auras or equipment to whichever creature it's attached to due to Shroud and I tend to not recommend it in Voltron decks. It's also a 2-drop. That one is just personal choice though.
  • You may have one or two too many cards that reduce the cost of your artifacts. Yours are all so cheap and you may find yourself better off having something that draws you cards or cares about equipment than a card that only helps if you're trying to cast expensive artifacts. Since it's easy to kill and doesn't do much else, Starnheim Courser may at least be worth a cut, if not also Jhoira's Familiar due to mana cost alone.
  • Quietus Spike and Scytheclaw have the same effect, which also isn't good enough to win the game on it's own since the damage cut happens after you deal damage, meaning you can literally never kill someone off of that trigger alone unless you leave them with exactly one life. Since Scytheclaw at least has Living Weapon, you may want to consider cutting Quietus Spike.
  • Sword of Feast and Famine is good, but it isn't insane. If you don't already have one it's probably not worth spending 50 bucks on.
  • The Ward you get from Amulet of Safekeeping in your Maybeboard might not be worth making all of your living weapon and Assemble the Legion tokens weaker.
  • I love Assemble the Legion so much. It is one of my favorite cards in Magic. It may be my favorite enchantment period. It is also balls ass slow, expensive to cast, and doesn't synergize with your strategy. That one is up to you. I'd run it just because I like it, but it'd be the first card I cut if I needed to trim some fat.
  • Mask of Immolation gives you an equipped creature, but it doesn't do much else for 2 mana. If it equipped for free it'd be different, but it's equip cost isn't cheap given how weak it's effect is. It's also a 2 drop.
  • Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith is much better when you can throw his rocks, which you don't want to do in this deck because you want to keep them attached to things for Jor - meaning you're spending three mana for a guy who gives you one equipment that does nothing a turn.
  • Leonin Shikari isn't something I'd say you should take out immediately, but you should keep an eye on it during playtesting. If you find you aren't taking advantage of her ability enough, cut her and replace her with something that isn't a 2-drop.
  • Wrath of God may be better than Vanquish the Horde. That's just my opinion though.

All in all, what you keep and what you cut is up to you, this is just what sticks out to me personally. The closer you get to 100, the better. If you're able to cut it down to at least 104 or 105, try just playing without 4 or 5 of the cards you aren't sure about and playtest from there, then use those 4 or 5 as your maybeboard. Also this deck is really cool and I like it a lot.

Metalcop on Dennick

1 year ago

Hi igniteaxiom

Would you consider Jinxed Idol, Bennie Bracks, Zoologist, Nimble Obstructionist, Lion Sash, Read the Runes, Golden Guardian  Flip or spellshapers like Toymaker, Mageta the Lion... for this deck?

The idol is a cheap sacrifice outlet to put Dennick in the graveyard. On every opponents turn, it assures you creatures going into the graveyard since the other players won't like taking damage for a long time. Plus, if it comes back to you, you can tap it with shimmer dragon and then sacrifice one of your cheap creatures to give it back before taking damage.

@suarkdivad :

Can you unattach an equipment if you don't have another target to equip it? Cause if not, you won't be able to "sacrifice" if Dennick or your creature is alone on the battlefield.

Don't get me wrong. I really love Grafted Wargear but I would rather use Mortarpod here.

Slashdance on Forest Tribal, LoL

1 year ago

Thanks for the comment, SmirkyDog593. =)

For Mortarpod to work, it seems we'd need to also add haste. In order to equip it to a land, it would have to be a creature, in order to sacrifice it, it needs to be a creature, and in order for our commander to bring it back, the land has to be a creature. So, if we have a continuous effect that turns our lands into creatures to do all that, then come back into play with summoning sickness. Thus, we are unable to tap the new lands for mana to continue to equip Mortarpod and going near-infinite enough to kill everybody. Unless, of course, we initiate an infinite mana effect prior to do doing so, so there's a lot more moving pieces to get that concept working. Unless I'm wrong, lol.

Spitting Spider honestly doesn't excite me for the cost, and it absolutely requires our basic commander/enchantment combo in play in order for it to work. That's not necessarily bad, but if I were that concerned about flyers I'd rather the removal not be as conditional. I think I'd prefer a good old fashioned Hurricane or maybe Arashi, the Sky Asunder that's the same cost as the spider. Silklash Spider is pretty efficient, too.

I do like your suggestion of Perilous Forays, thank you!

I also like Nemata, Grove Guardian, but the cost is high. I know we can get a ton of mana, but it's at the expense of maybe not doing something else. I'll have to think on it, but I like it!

Evolutionary Leap is pretty great, yeah! Thanks!

Altar of Dementia was already in the Maybe pile, so I agree. ;)

SmirkyDog593 on Forest Tribal, LoL

1 year ago

I cannot express how much I LOVE this concept. As soon as I played the first test and got the infinite combo I was estatic about it. I do have some suggestions.

Mortarpod would be good if you had a way to sack one of the two lands tapped to equip it. Insta kill all players. Sustenance is another Insta kill method as well.

Spitting Spider is a good flying removal creature Perilous Forays will let you draw out every forest in your deck.

Nemata, Grove Guardian creates saporlings and works in conjunction with the treefolks and Life and Limb cards.

Evolutionary Leap lets you get all your creature cards out if you wanted.

I would also suggest you put in Altar of Dementia as another way to win.

StopShot on Mono Red infinite combos???

1 year ago

Birgi, God of Storytelling  Flip + Hazoret's Monument + Grinning Ignus

Someone already mentioned a variation of this, but with these three cards you can generate infinite colorless mana and draw as many cards as you need. (You'll also have a free red mana floating at any given point in time.) You then draw into your wincon which will be either Cogwork Assembler, Comet Storm, Conflagrate, Fireball, Meteor Shower or Walking Ballista.

You could also make Blasting Station, Fiery Bombardment, Goblin Bombardment, Makeshift Munitions, Mask of Immolation, Mortarpod or Weaponize the Monsters a wincon here. With your infinite colorless mana you could just cast your commander, sacrifice her to deal a damage and then recast and repeat. Birgi, God of Storytelling  Flip will refund whatever red mana you spend throughout any of these processes.

Mortlocke on New hubs to be added

2 years ago

Hello legendofa,

I propose a new hub to be added: Phyrexian. During Modern Horizons 2, 225 creatures were retconned into having the Phyrexian creature subtype to join Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider . Additionally, there were a smattering of Enchantments, Artifacts and etc that ether have the Phyrexian subtype or create creature tokens that do. Thanks to this retcon I now have a deck that has a Phyrexian tribal theme. For your reference, below is a full list of spells that were affected by WotC's Phyrexian errata.

Source: https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Phyrexian

Mavalava on Living Weapon Slayer

2 years ago

CaveBoy - LOL, Thud is fantastic. I do have Fling in the Maybeboard. Thud economically is good value for sure -- 1 Red to fling our buffed creature? Fantastic! My only concern is the sorcery speed of Thud , however since a part of the idea of this deck is to lean more on the casual side, Thud does make a good fit if you wanted to go through the fling-card route. I'm holding off on that personally to give more of a chance for the Living Weapon themed Mortarpod to shine in combination with a pumped up Fireblade Charger , in terms of big damage. Thud / Fling is technically better, as it's basically doubling Fireblade Charger 's effect, but this is supposed to be a Living Weapons deck! I wanna use Mortarpod ! Haha. That being said, it does become even more compelling to use if you were to swap out Warren Instigator for the Maybeboard-card, Korlash, Heir to Blackblade . A lovely card for the deck in many aspects and to myself (I love the look of that Future Sight border sooo much -- they're my favorite aesthetically), Korlash, Heir to Blackblade with a Lashwrithe and/or Cranial Plating will make him a big boy. If you happen upon a 2nd copy in hand, you can buff while also ramp, and of course if you were to have Thud or Fling , you're dishing out some spicy damage. Lots of fun ideas here!

Gontilordofmtg on The Dwarven Toolbox

3 years ago

Mortarpod That's actually super funny, considering that I've really only seen Worldgorger Dragon played in high powered games alongside Animate Dead . In terms of removal, Spine of Ish Sah is the first thing that comes to mind as direct removal. Mirage Mirror can become a protection piece depending on what is on the battlefield. Hoarding Dragon can provide an interesting interaction where you get a big flying blocker for whatever is coming at you, and provided it dies in combat, get to tutor an artifact to your hand. My favorite card is Colfenor's Urn . If you have three or more of your big dragons/artifact creatures, you can instantly recover from a boardwipe and will have a massive advantage.

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