Open the Gates

Sorcery

Search our library for a basic land card or Gate card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.

Discussion (15)

swaretappedout on Simic Hydra commander

3 months ago

You have a cool flavorful concept with Vorel of the Hull Clade . If I may suggest a great resource for starting out in commander, the Command Zone has a great video for this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ6m_3J1hjI

The general ratios they suggest like 10 ramp, 10 card draw, 5 single target removal etc are pretty good to go by in EDH.

Looking at your decklist, you may want to lean more into green's natural strength of land-based ramp as opposed to artifacts like Simic Cluestone or Manalith . Cards like Rampant Growth , Farseek , and Cultivate are format staples as they are some of the most efficient ways of ramping/fixing mana, and your mana dorks like ( Llanowar Elves are susceptible to a creature wrath/board-wipe like Wrath of God . As well, if you are looking to synergize with Vorel of the Hull Clade , cards like Pyramid of the Pantheon or Astral Cornucopia fulfill dual purpose of matching the theme and ramping out your big hydras.

For card draw, your list seems to be a little on the light side, however luckily since you are in blue, you have the best options available to you. Going along with the +1/+1 counter theme with Hydras, a card like Tezzeret's Gambit may serve you well by both drawing cards and enhancing the creatures you have on board. Since your list includes so many big creatures, a card like Rishkar's Expertise or Soul's Majesty will be overperformers, drawing you 5 cards or more at a time.

You do have a healthy number of Mana dorks, but even still your curve is a little on the high-side, as most of your hydras will actually be cast for 5+ mana. I would bring up your land count to 37 or 38, and some great lands that could fill those slots are Hinterland Harbor , Yavimaya Coast , Oran-Rief, the Vastwood , and Blast Zone . If you have the budget for it, Breeding Pool is always nice, and can be fetched with Farseek directly into play.

With regards to cards to cut to make room for these, The Chain Veil is one of the first I question being on the list. It is fairly overpriced and doesn't interact with your hydra theme. A card like Open the Gates is the perfect card to replace with Rampant Growth or Farseek as in EDH, a land directly to the battlefield will be better at most parts of the game.

Overall, I'm not sure what your meta is like with regard to competetiveness or what your background in Magic is like, but I think the suggestions above will enhance your list. Definitely do your research and I'm sure you will find cards that are better than the ones i've suggested.

I hope I didn't come off as overly-critical as that wasn't my intent. Welcome to the format! And happy brewing!

Sedohr on Rioting against Humans

4 months ago

I would love to trim down the land to open up more cards. One thing I've noted in play though is sometimes I won't don't enough mana by the time I can realistically/effectively drop my CMC 7+ cards. With Domri, Chaos Bringer that would help with the extra mana from his +1, but if I was already struggling to get my CMC 7+ cards on the field before removing land I feel it would be even harder after. Maybe the solution though is just to drop both End-Raze Forerunners and maybe Wrecking Beast (but I like my foil cards haha) and put in lower CMC creatures (5/6).

On that same note if I drop more land but keep the gates, Open the Gates might be a good add. It still uses up a green mana, but makes sure I'll be able to find gates for mana flexibility or a normal land that I need more of (if I get a forest flood but mountain drought for example).

ShadowAblaze on Niv-Mizzet Reborn (into poverty)

4 months ago

Haha, thanks for tagging me here. I think land base shouldn't stop you and I believe you can find your way into a solid mana base here.

Danielisaias is certainly right is the idea that guild gates may be a good approach but there are certainly many ways to get the mana base right. IF you want to go the guildgate path, here is the cards you want for that build.

Guildgate Build

Lands Now I am not entirely sure, but I believe that around 10 gates is the best way to build this. Since our ramp and mana fixing is primarily green, we will include 1-2 copies of all gates that include green. Then add 0-1 of the other gates as relevant. IF you were to run all of the following ramp, you will most definitely not need more than one copies of most gates. In addition Gateway Plaza is a great gate that effectively taps an additional land when it enters. You can probably run 4x Evolving Wilds and put in mostly forests and 1-2 of each of the other basics if you want.

Land Fixing

Open the Gates - A land of your choice that you can play the next turn. Like a wildcard land

District Guide - Will build a board presence and get you a extra land of choice

Circuitous Route - Terrific ramp straight onto the battlefield and includes gates

Support creatures and spells

Gatebreaker Ram - Powerful when 2+ gates are in play

Gateway Sneak - Ok card draw, guaranteed when gates are played

Gates Ablaze - Great for board stalling. Should never kill Gatebreaker Ram

Guild Summit - Great way to refill hand late game and good set up in the early game

If THAT wasn't enough, here's more!

If you don't want to build a gate deck, you are already almost there. All the "land fixing" cards from the gate build are still relevant here but not as good without the synergy.

Mana Geode - This is a simple card, effective for ramp into any color and scry can fix your draw.

Beanstalk Giant - Not only is he mana fixing/ramp but he is also a giant threat!

Deathsprout - Harder to build in, but is a awesome combination of removal and ramp!

Whisper Agent - in this deck would simply be a pseudo-removal while draw fixing

Faeburrow Elder - I haven't played with him before so I don't know how good he is. Seeing as he can only ramp you mana you already have access to he is hard to judge. However, know that cards like Whisper Agent or Sphinx of the Guildpact will give Faeburrow Elder substantial bonuses.

… I think I went overkill with suggestions. Sorry ;)

John_TItor05 on Sultai Food

6 months ago

@9-lives This deck doesn't run gates, so Open the Gates could only take a Swamp or a Forest, which isn't ideal. This deck also didn't really need ways to search additional land as there's no land matter card like Guild Summit or Field of the Dead in this deck. But, thanks for the suggestion!

9-lives on Sultai Food

6 months ago

Nice! I have never heard of the food mechanic until now! Perhaps Open the Gates would help?

77hi77 on Omnicience Combo Deck

9 months ago

Hey Everyone!

Brand new user here, brand new player (been toying with MTG Arena to figure out builds I want to invest in).

I've been playing around with Omniscience . I've seen the build that combos it with Overflowing Insight to make the opponent deck out, but that just doesn't seem fun to play with or against. Instead, I've been trying to play as many big creatures as possible and win the same turn in comes out.

Here's where I'm struggling: Omniscience is a big card, so I know the deck needs to ramp quickly. I also know I need to have a constant inflow of cards into my hand. Also fine. The problem is that, when I put together the ramp cards and the drawing engines, there isn't really any room in the deck for anything else. I can fit a few big hitters, and not much to protect me until turn 5+ when I can get all of this out. Here's what I'm running right now on Arena:

CREATURE

4x Arboreal Grazer

2x Llanowar Elves

2x Druid of the Cowl

1x God-Eternal Oketra

1x God-Eternal Bontu

1x Goring Ceratops

1x Zetalpa, Primal Dawn

1x Torgaar, Famine Incarnate

1x Ghalta, Primal Hunger

ENCHANTMENT

2x Gift of Paradise

2x New Horizons

1x Omniscience

SORCERY

2x Open the Gates

2x Divination

2x Sleep

3x Blood Divination

1x Finale of Revelation

INSTANT

2x Growth Spiral

ARTIFACT

1x Arcane Encyclopedia

2x Mana Geode

PLANESWALKER

1x Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter

2x Samut, Tyrant Smasher

LAND

8x Island

8x Forest

1x Hinterland Harbor

2x Simic Guildgate

4x Woodland Stream

The idea is to ramp, draw cards, get Samut, Tyrant Smasher out so all my big hitters have Haste and take the game the turn they come on. I know I'm doing something inefficiently, I just don't know what. Any help would be really appreciated here.

Thanks!

Stevedave_007 on Simic Hydroid Ramp

11 months ago

Although I love this deck, I recommend putting a bit more mana ramp, like Open the Gates for early plays

9-lives on

11 months ago

natetc95Murphy77

Adventurous Impulse only lets me choose one out of three, while I'm guaranteed a land card from Open the Gates . It seems that Open the Gates is more advantageous for lands.

I see that Opt is kind of useless unless I really need to draw a card; any alternatives?; Chemister's Insight is too much mana cost. I could also drop Opt, but I think I'll need them for drawing High Alert or Arcades, the Strategist .I don't think I really need Tower Defense when I have the other four instants as it costs 2 mana, especially one green which is rare for my deck, while Dive Down will be useful for bolts on Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive as it grants hexproof. And when I do get him on the field along with High Alert or Arcades, the Strategist and wall(s) then Aegis of the Heavens will be very useful.

I think removing Suncleanser would be useful and adding more mana cards in its stead as I have only 18 along with 4 Open the Gates , and I've tried the draw mechanic on the website on this deck, and I rarely draw enough land cards that I need. If I could entirely use blue and white except for Arcades, the Strategist, I would be a happy camper, but I think I'll really need reach from Grappling Sundew . Is there a Standard Legal flying card with 1 or less offense and high defense? I was thinking of Concordia Pegasus but only 3 damage is kind of a waste for 2 mana.

It all depends on my luck of the draw in this deck, as I need High Alert or Arcades, the Strategist with Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive early in the game with enough lands along with walls/creatures to sustain my game.

The only reason I'm playing Bant is for Arcades; otherwise if I could double my High Alerts then I would play Azorius. That would require drawing strength I do not know of in order to draw High Alert with only four of them in my deck.