Port Town

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy 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
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Port Town

Land

As Port Town enters the battlefield, you may reveal a Plains or Island card from your hand. If you don't, Port Town enters the battlefield tapped.

: Add or .

Balaam__ on Azorius Merfolk No1

2 days ago

Welcome back. I found myself in a similar boat when I started playing again around 2019. Yeah…there are encyclopedia’s worth of new rules, abilities and even card types to learn. It’s daunting. Good news is all the core principles are mostly the same.

For instance, taplands are bad (especially in Vintage). If you already own them or if budget allows, definitely run duals, fetches or shocklands. There are also variations, like SeachromeCoast, Port Town and Prairie Stream and these are much easier on the wallet while still being playable.

Also, running 1-of’s in a non-singleton format is usually a bad idea for the purposes of consistency, although certain OP cards that are restricted to a lone copy are still run for obvious reasons. Vintage gets away with bending the rules, in that sense. Specifically, I see you’re running just one Aether Vial. I would either commit to 4x (which plenty of Merfolk decks accommodate just fine) or remove it, as the odds of drawing just one copy are low to the point of being unreliable.

Max_Hammer on Shorikai go vroom

1 year ago

So, right now, Commander included, you've got 126 cards. Seeing as you're only 26 over the cap, this shouldn't be too bad.

This is a low mana cost deck with a lot of draw, you probably only need 34-36 lands if you're being generous. If I were you, I'd drop some of the slower lands, such as Temple of Enlightenment, Skybridge Towers, Prairie Stream, Azorius Chancery, Castle Ardenvale, Castle Vantress, or even Port Town.

You might also want to include more fetch lands, too. Flooded Strand, Fabled Passage, and Flood Plain all come with a pretty high price tag, but they're all good.

On the other side of the coin, Brokers Hideout, Obscura Storefront, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Myriad Landscape, Esper Panorama, and Bant Panorama are all cheaper fetch lands that you could use.

Drawing mana late game can be a dead draw a lot of the time, so being able to remove that excess from your deck can be a really nice tool to have, so you can draw just what you want. Maybe take out cards that are fast, but not necessary such as, Skycloud Expanse, Sea of Clouds, Mishra's Factory, and Crawling Barrens.

Changing it to this (or a list of just 35 mana), should bring us down to 122 cards.

As for non-land ramp, you have a lot. I’m going to say you want to kick out Silver Myr, Gold Myr, Mind Stone, and Ornithopter of Paradise. Normally I’d say more, but for this specific deck that seems to love ramp, this seems more than fine.

118 left.

For the rest, I’d say Ondu Inversion  Flip, Access Denied, Tezzeret the Seeker, Tezzeret, Artifice Master, Phyrexian Metamorph, Cultivator's Caravan, Invoke Justice, and An Offer You Can't Refuse, all mostly because they’re too expensive.

That leaves you with 109

Okay, so, this decklist is surprisingly tight for being 30~ cards over and I don’t know where to kick the last 9 off. Maybe Artificer Class? Maybe some of the creatures/vehicles? Idunno, good luck.

multimedia on I want this deck to …

1 year ago

Hey, this is by far your best deck of the decks you've asked for help on. There's good deck building with a purpose.

The area that needs improvement is the manabase. 16x basic Plains is not going to cut it compared to many less Forests and Islands. The color pie of your deck shows primary white, but it's deceiving since you want a more balanced amount of land sources for each color to consistently cast Arcades. I say consistently because you need to control Arcades or most of your defenders are really not worth it.

Because you're playing green defenders who ramp and green ramp spells then it's important to have green mana more than the other colors in the early game, this isn't shown by the color pie. White and green are the two most important colors then blue. The majority of blue sources should come from dual lands that way the land can make another color except just blue. 8 sources of blue is not enough sources, you want more sources of blue which at the same time will increase sources of each other color.

On a low budget to balance the manabase for equal color fixing play some more always ETB tapped lands. This can unfortunately slow the game down some which means you want to make up for it with card quality.

Why are you playing so many cards that give you hexproof? Leyline of Sanctity and Shalai, Voice of Plenty are second and third most expensive price cards, but they don't help the strategy or have really any interaction with Arcades. If playing Leyline and Shalai then Ivory Mask and Aegis of the Gods aren't needed. Teyo, the Shieldmage is fine since it at least does something else, creating up to two defenders for draw with Arcades. Honestly, keep Shalai for this effect plus other effects and cut the others?

multimedia on Phantom Premonition Customizations

1 year ago

Hey, well done so far upgrading the precon on a budget.

Some cards from the precon to consider adding.

Windfall is a powerful draw spell in multiplayer Commander where opponents can have huge hands of cards. Empty your hand of spells quick then Windfall to draw a whole new hand. Ghostly Flicker is one of the better instant blink spells since it can target two permanents not just a creature. Ghostly Prison can be a helpful effect to have in multiplayer Commander.


I don't think many of the Spirit anthem effects are needed. Some anthems are helpful, since Ranar is a Spirit cards that give him other abilities such as hexproof or flash, but cards that only increase power/toughness are subpar. Coat of Arms is the exception, no other little anthem effect can compare to it.

You're best game plan is to create infinite Spirits on an opponent's turn and then attack with them on your next turn. Infinite Spirits don't need an anthem to be a wincon. Infinite attacking Spirits are however shut down by opponent's Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, Windborn Muse, etc. thus it's important to have consistent removal for these cards. Cutting most of the anthems for more repeatable draw could help gameplay. Consider more repeatable draw options when you create a 1/1 Spirit?

Palace Jailer is powerful with blink, it's a unique card that makes you the monarch when it ETB, you draw a card at your end step and it's repeatable as long as you are the monarch. Only one player in the game can be the monarch at one time and it can change players.

If an opponent does combat damage to you or plays a card that makes them the monarch then that opponent becomes the monarch and you lose the monarch. You can get the monarch back by doing combat damage to the opponent who's the monarch. Flying Spirit tokens are fine fodder for blocking and flying makes them good attackers. Use Spirits as defense to keep the monarch for repeatable draw?

Jailer also does something else when it ETB, exiles an opponent's creature and the only way for opponents to get back their exiled creatures is if you lose the monarch. Each time Jailer is blinked you get to exile an opponent creature.


Skyclave Apparition is a Spirit and is another powerful blink target since it exiles any opponent nonland permanent 4 CMC or less which covers a huge amount of targets in multiplayer Commander. It's a good way with the strategy of blink to get rid of Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, Windborn Muse, etc.

Like with all precons the manabase is subpar and it's going to be difficult on a low budget to make many land upgrades, but here's some lands to consider.

Good luck with your deck.

multimedia on vehicular homicide

1 year ago

Hey, well done list so far on a low budget. Elsha with Vehicles is an interesting choice.

Some advice to get started on revision/optimization is to streamline creatures and lands to make Elsha better. Consider reducing the creature count down to 10 of the best creatures here for Vehicles strategy and/or crewing? (ordered by CMC)

The less creatures the better for Elsha. Cut most creatures for lands and ramp? Elsha doesn't work with lands thus having less can also make Elsha better. Consider 32 lands with many budget low mana cost mana rocks to replace some lands?

To help with deck building add all the lands you want to play, even just basic lands, to see how many spots are left to fill or how many cards you need to cut to add more lands. Some budget lands to consider adding:

Good luck with your deck.

multimedia on Blue/white merfolk tribal deck

1 year ago

Consider cutting some nonMerfolk creatures for more Merfolk and cutting some control for more Merfolk?

Spreading Seas is a good control card for draw, opponent land disruption and because against nonblue opponents it activates islandwalk with Master of the Pearl Trident making your Merfolk unblockable in any matchup. Master is a reason to play Merfolk, 4x of him gives you more chances to draw him and more of him in your control makes all your Merfolk more powerful.

4x Silvergill Adept is more draw and more Merfolk. Cursecatcher is one drop Merfolk who can also be control. Merfolk Trickster because it has flash can be control and it can do a lot for a two drop Merfolk.

Islands are more important than Plains with Merfolk. Consider cutting some basic Plains for some budget Azorius dual lands? Port Town and Prairie Stream care about Islands and Stream is an Island. Cutting basic Plains for dual lands will also help to cast mana cost cards such as Counterspell.

Swords to Plowshares is the best control card here for Merfolk, you don't really need all the other removal instants. Counterspell is good, but Negate is a sideboard card for more control in some matchups. Disenchant is a sideboard card to bring in matchups if an artifact or enchantment are giving you problems.

Example of a budget core for Merfolk control.

Good luck with your deck.

legendofa on How do you, personally, balance …

1 year ago

Pip percentages all the way. I start off with "5-color basics" in play testing; I use tokens or off-color lands or other generic cards to fill land slots and pretend they enter untapped and tap for any color, no downside. So play testing with perfect mana. All nonland ramp and fixing should be in place at this point. Lands are the last thing I work on.

Once I get the main deck in a good spot and start looking at color balancing, I count the total pips and pips of each color, and divide them proportionally into basic lands, including hybrids as full pips. Let's say I'm putting together a EDH deck and have landed on 38 land slots. I count the green pips and get 50, blue pips are at 66, and white pips are at 45, for a total of 161 pips. I want at least 50/161 of my mana base to be green, 66/161 to be blue, and 45/161 to be white. That's 31% green, 41% blue, and 28% white.

The next step is to put that into the 38 land slots. I start with basic lands to ensure the balance. Using the percentage above, that's 12 Forests, 16 Islands, and 11 Plains, for a total of 39 lands. Cut one from the highest (rounding error), dropping Islands to 15. Next, check if any colors are overrepresented at mana value 1-2, and take 1-2 from the highest and give it to that color. In this example, let's say I loaded up on low MV green cards for ramp, so cut one more Island for a Forest. Final basic land totals are 13 Forest, 14 Island, and 11 Plains.

Finally, because I want multicolor lands in there, I switch basics out for nonbasics, keeping the colors as proportional as possible. So I'll take out a Forest and and Island for a Breeding Pool and Yavimaya Coast, a Forest and a Plains for Bountiful Promenade and Overgrown Farmland, a Plains and an Island for Port Town and Nimbus Maze, one of each for Seaside Citadel, Treva's Ruins, and Spara's Headquarters, and so on. Fetchlands are treated as lands that can add mana of the colors it searches for, and single-color lands like Eiganjo Castle are switched out one for one with their basic lands.

I always try to keep enough basic lands to cast any spell in the deck off basic lands alone. If I have cards that cost and in the deck, I will keep at least five basic lands. At least two of those will be Islands, and at least one will be a Forest and a Plains each. You never know when a Back to Basics or Ruination will come by to mess up your day.

Finally, colorless lands. I add these on a case by case basis, usually skimming from the color I have the most sources for.

So it's a process, but I've found it to be very reliable in the long run.

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