Octavia, Living Thesis

Legendary Creature — Elemental

This spell costs {8} less to cast if you have eight or more instant and/or sorcery cards in your graveyard.

Ward {8} (Whenever this becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter that spell unless that player pays {8}.)

Magecraft — Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, target creature has base power and toughness 8/8 until end of turn.

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 (9)

jimjam_ on Danny DeVito

4 weeks ago

Okay so I'm putting together this budget deck so that I can start to fill out my mono-color commander decks. After this one, I'll only have to build Octavia, Living Thesis for my blue deck and then all mono colored decks will be complete!

carpecanum on

10 months ago

I might trade out Opal Palace for colored mana and maybe trade Octavia, Living Thesis (or something else) for one more ramp item (maybe Midnight Clock). The only card that's hard to cast in this deck is your boss because of the all colored mana cost. All the cheap spells aren't nearly as cool if you aren't getting the benefit from you boss.

Max_Hammer on Can I save my creature …

1 year ago

If I have a creature such as Ornithopter and an opponent casts something like Cut Down, my poor Ornithopter dies. ):

However, if I have Octavia, Living Thesis and cast Opt or something to trigger her ability, targeting my Ornithopter, making it an 8/8, does it save my baby by making it an invalid target or is it a waste?

Does the same work for Dimir Charm or other cards like that?

lagotripha on How can i combine Omnath …

1 year ago

The only must haves in precons are sol ring/signet/tower, and you already have those. Its more about what you like to play than what should be played once you have land search+mana fixing.

Buying singles is almost always cheaper and gets a better result overall.

Reasons not to to do singles - it can be hard to find awkward cards and get them shipped, and shipping costs can tilt things the other way if you need multiple senders.

You can load the deck into here with a copy paste like this to get an idea of the cards and prices.

The deep sea stuff has had a lot printed over the years. If you set CMC to >6 and ask for a blue creature, you'll see a lot of options from Octavia, Living Thesis to Aethersquall Ancient, its all fairly inexpensive and good for commander. There are some decent ones with hexproof/shroud/return to hand if you're tired of them getting hit by condemn and whatnot.

Lands wrath has a fairly solid spine to build on - its mostly search basic so adding islands is simple. You might want to flesh that out with more Cultivate effects and whatnot if you have trouble ramping, but thats about it.

Personally, I'd go for a spells and creature tokens landfall deck, grabbing stuff like Urban Evolution Eureka Moment, Growth Spiral and some creatures like Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy before grabbing bigger stuff like Guile or Liege of the Tangle. But I like drawing cards to make up for less big spells, and sometimes just more big cards does better.

TheCardPool on Canned Calamari (Octavia EDH)

2 years ago

Aceh Using Octavia, Living Thesis to make Cephalid Constable an 8/8 would be awesome! Forcing a player to block or return 8 of their permanents to their hand is powerful. However, without the commander on the field it falls a bit short. That being said you could make that same argument for Willbreaker, which would be the card I would swap out for it. It's definitely a great suggestion, but I don't like how it will need to sit on the field for a turn before it can impact the board with an attack.

Coward_Token on Adventures in the Forgotten Realms …

2 years ago

Sword of Hours: Sigh. Pretty good for e.g. Skullbriar, the Walking Grave . I have to say I'm not fond of this kind of randomness on decent cards and it makes me wish these two products were silver-bordered.

Ride the Avalanche: Nothing super special but I'm curious about the cool flavor; is it referencing something in D&D in particular?

Cattie-Brie: As much of a callback it is to e.g. Hankyu and Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile , I don't see the removal ability being used much except in emergencies or as a response to removal. Anyway, a cheap white+ commander that basically generates a Golem-Skin Gauntlets each turn isn't bad, tho she suffers for lack of innate evasion.

Belt of Giant Strength: Neat design that the Equip cost isn't reduced by just base power, giving it Voltron synergy

Winged Boots: compare Wings of Hubris

Robe of the Stars: Yesss, more phasing.

Mantle of the Ancients: A more focused Replenish . It's good to see that Aura voltron in particular is getting more love, I feel it's been largely overshadowed by Equipment.

Holy Avenger: See above. It's white ramp too. And yes, each double strike will trigger it, and yes, the second strike will benefit from the first Aura you cheated in.

Fey Steed: Meh. You can do better if you want indestructible voltron I think, and Shapers' Sanctuary makes it kind of insulting as an attempt at mono-white draw.

Storvald: Probably should take a peek at e.g. Octavia, Living Thesis and Volrath, the Shapestealer decklists; low-power creatures with scaling abilities like Cold-Eyed Selkie and Blighted Agent seems like the way to go. Note that he can target himself with the 7/7 ability in case you don't want to touch anything else for whatever reason.

Bucknard's Everfull Purse: See Sword of Hours, tho this is at least held back by being somewhat opponent-dependent (can't pass it back and forth either). With dice support, you could cast & activate it on the same turn and get 4 treasures for profit.

Hurl Trough Hell: Neat design but kinda overcosted as far as removal go (lol, Gilded Drake ). Correct me if I'm wrong, but since a replacement effect is involved and it doesn't explicitly say "from exile" in the second sentence, you can cast commanders from the command zone with this, right?

Fevered Suspicion: Two guaranteed opponent-only Etali, Primal Storm for eight is kinda meh tbh. I'm glad they made a reference to Beholders being paranoid maniacs tho.

Bag of Devouring: You know the drill by now.

Wild-Magic Sorcerer: Yay, more impulsive draw support! Does my tolerance of cascade over dice make me biased? Maybe.

Share the Spoils: Well. Certainly chaotic but at least it's appropriately costed, and in the right deck.

Lorcan: This is a Demon and you can't tell me otherwise! Anyway, kinda high cost for something that's kind of stuational and potentially very self-harming, but casting this followed by killing board wipe seems fun. Hope you got life gain! No commander stealing here tho. I also like the flavor of someone getting their life saved in return of servitude.

Hellish Rebuke: idk why the templating needs to give out abilities, could have just said

Whenever a permanent an opponent controls deals damage to you, its controller sacrifices it and loses 2 life.

Ability-removing shenanigans, as well as permanents that enter after this resolves, will rarely make the distinction matter. OH! And if someone takes control of the spell or copies directly onto the stack, I think you're still the one "who cast Hellish Rebuke". Also note that it doesn't just affect creatures; fuck off Impact Tremors !

Grim Hireling: I still think this is more appropriate in red; black ought to ramp tied to creature death/sacrifice/life payment/swamp-related things IMO.

Death Tyrant: Sorry legendofa but I chuckled when I read "Zombie".

nugosunes on Question on ETB effects and …

2 years ago

Let's say i have a Octavia, Living Thesis on the battlefield and i play a Champion of Wits . If i play another instant while the champion's ETB trigger is still on the stack, and make it become an 8/8, will i draw 8 cards as it resolves or only the 2 original ones?

the_unseen89 on The Sea is Woke - Noyan Dar Control

2 years ago

JANKYARD_DOG I honestly had not thought about Octavia, Living Thesis but that would absolutely work. I might have to try that out. It seems like a lot of fun.