Spellbreaker Behemoth

Creature — Beast

Spellbreaker Behemoth can't be countered.

Creature spells you control with power 5 or greater can't be countered.

Discussion (51)

TheDizzyLlama on Xenagos, God of Heavy Hitters copy/bday prototype

1 week ago

Suggestions:

Creatures: Hydra Omnivore Siege Behemoth Spellbreaker Behemoth Beast Whisperer Eternal Witness Nylea, God of the Hunt

Instant: Heroic Intervention Temur Battle Rage Signal the Clans

Sorcery: Decimate Explosive Vegetation Hull Breach Vandalblast Overwhelming Stampede

Artifact: Swiftfoot Boots

Enchantment: Guardian Project Blood Mist Colossal Majesty Warstorm Surge Fires of Yavimaya

Land: Rogue's Passage Kessig Wolf Run

Tzefick on New Alara

1 week ago

Again I have to emphasize that without something tangible to compare to, I don't know what makes your Soulbond idea work better than the idea of Caretaker. Please provide some tangible ideas of how you would make this mechanic and put it on some creatures.

---

"First-off, it’s too similar to old Naya."

• Well... you do actually want to make it feel like it came from Naya, don't you?

"But more importantly, it doubles down on what made Naya the least popular shard- that is, that “power 5 or greater” is really tough to secure because most creatures in that range cost four or more mana, which basically disqualifies it from most competitive environments. It’s just too slow to be functional."

• Are you seriously saying that 4+ CMC is non competitive? In what format? Modern, Vintage and Legacy? Sure in most settings hard casting a 4 CMC dumb Beast is likely not something you want to do in those formats, but are we really designing cards for the sole purpose that they should appear in competitive eternal formats? In Standard? No way is that too slow.

I strolled through War of the Spark standard decks on MTGtop8.com. We have a group of Esper Midrange who utilizes fringe amount of Hostage Taker , a bit more uses Elite Guardmage and all uses Teferi, Hero of Dominaria . That's a midrange deck with no efficient ramp access.

We have Gruul Aggro, featuring cards like Nullhide Ferox , Rekindling Phoenix and Skarrgan Hellkite . They also have a selection of ramp creatures.

Even Red Deck Wins have 4 CMC cards, although for a slightly different reason, Chandra, Fire Artisan and Experimental Frenzy .

And these are just the most present aggro decks and only one of whom utilizes mana ramp. If I go to UR aggro (next in line) they have Arclight Phoenix (although they may not actually cast it) and Crackling Drake

So I think it's wrong to say that 4 CMC cards are non-competitive.

It's also quite possible to make cards with the Caretaker idea that is definitely going to see play in eternal formats. It's just a matter of pushing the cards far enough.

---

Additionally the border for Naya's threshold doesn't necessarily need to be at 5. It could be at 4 instead to push the mechanic as a baseline a bit more.

But as you said yourself; "Not only that, but both the power # and whether it’s “greater than X” or “less than X” makes it very broad design space, and gives me a lot of good knobs to work with. It’s also the furthest thing I can think of from a parasitic mechanic (which one could argue old Naya’s “power 5 or greater was, given nearly all of the decent power 5+ creatures below 4-5 mana were from Naya at the time, and kinda still today- most are either flip cards or have a serious downside)."

The Power X or greater/lesser than X does grant a certain amount of design space.

---

I also fail to see how a shifted Soulbond that forces a particular pairing (you said yourself you wanted it to be restrictive pairing) is a better transcending mechanic outside block than a mechanic that have you play lower CMC creatures that can bounce themselves to gain a powerful effect when you play a higher CMC creature.

Thematically, Caretaker plays into the same space as Exploit, except it's the other way around where you first play the mechanic and THEN the enabler, and you only lose tempo and not resources like you do with Exploit - which was a liked mechanic on the Storm Scale.

Based on MTGTop8.com's historic data, the only Soulbond cards who ever made it to competitive eternal formats (here Modern, Legacy, Vintage) are: Deadeye Navigator and Silverblade Paladin . Deadeye is used in 1 Legacy deck back in 2013, and ended up in rank 5-8 out of 8. Silverblade has occurred a few more time, 4 in Modern (3 of whom back in 2012 - 1 year after Modern launch) and 4 in Legacy (mostly in Death & Taxes decks).

Now these data are all taken from one source, granted, but Soulbond as a mechanic doesn't seem like it has shown much competitive potential or at least result. One of the present cards is a combo component. The other is a Double Strike enabler on a body. Double Strike is an incredibly powerful keyword, especially when you can grant it to any creature. The best alternative is Battle Mastery for a permanent Double Strike ability.

I don't think I'm stretching the truth when I say that Deadeye Navigator and especially Silverblade Paladin were both pushed cards.

Actually looking at it, Spellbreaker Behemoth has 5 entries in Modern but it dies there for him. Woolly Thoctar had 4 in Modern and 2 in Standard. So either the data is just not there for Alara Standard or they made more splashes in Modern than in Standard. Ah and Woolly made 41 entries in Extended (yeah, it was back in those days). I think Naya was kinda overshadowed by the Naya zoo archetype featuring Wild Nacatl .

---

As for Soulbond's entrance on the Storm scale, MaRo states that the mechanic is very popular but the design space is medium. The template for Soulbond is mostly in P/T upgrades, Evergreen Keywords and occassionally other abilities. Another hindrance is that both paired creatures gets the same effect.

They also say their data may be skewed toward more enfranchised players who are more likely to be competitive. In Standard Soulbond was used quite a lot, especially Wolfir Silverheart , beating Silverblade Paladin but sharing a lot of decks too under Aggro. However Wolfir shows up nowhere in competitive eternal formats.

They haven't made a Storm Scale article about Shards of Alara (or they have hidden it beyond the reach of Google) so where do you get your data on Naya's Power 5 being unpopular with the players? I'm genuinely curious.

The Storm Scale is also a strange way to measure popularity TBH. It kinda pitches the block's mechanics against each other, so if there's a mechanic that overshadows the rest, then you may get a skewed picture compared to considering the mechanics individually. Food for thought I guess.

---

In conclusion, I don't think a restrictive Soulbond is that much better of a mechanic than what you could do with Caretaker and "Gargantuan". I do however think there's a flavor break on using Soulbond - I don't see the soulbonding between a massive beast and their worshippers. Unless the beasts somehow got way more sentient and actually starts having empathy for their worshippers.

I think you yourself have a dislike of the Naya Power-5 mechanic, so a mechanic that goes somewhat close to what it was is something you dislike. Unless you provide some sauce on the unpopularity of Naya's Power-5, I don't think it's right to say it is disliked as a mechanic. It may not have been a competitively pushed mechanic, but that doesn't mean the mechanic is disliked.

VexenX on [[Primer v3.4]] - OM_RATH!!! (M20 Update!!!)

4 weeks ago

Hey everyone! Sorry for my absence. I am currently deployed in the Middle-East, and I didn’t bring this deck with me (didn’t want the sand to destroy it..). However, I want to be more active from now on with replying to the comments and stuff. There has been quite a dry-spill with new cards for a while, but we have quite a few new goodies to look at now! (More on that in a bit).

---

GeminiSpartanX, Guerte, Dankey, Sylvanrush BlackShads, Wurmlover: As you can tell by this list, it seems like a ton of your metas deal with quite a few blue players. I guess I have been blessed enough to not really have that problem in my meta. Most people I play with (which is a good pool of 20+ people) are not really fond of blue as a primary color, so counterspells are pretty rare for me. However, I realize I am the exception here, so I decided to add a section of the Primer dedicated to “Anti-Blue”. This also got me thinking that I should add an “Anti-Artifact” and “Anti-Enchantment” sections too. I hope that you guys are excited about this! It will be part of my v3.4 update in the next couple days. I want to get your opinion first before I post the update. Ill list what I can think of myself, so please let me know if you have any other ideas! (Note: There might be some repeats among the list, and please fill free to mix and match as needed.

Anti-Blue: Boseiju, Who Shelters All , Spellbreaker Behemoth , Vexing Shusher , Rhythm of the Wild , Leyline of Lifeforce , Prowling Serpopard , Gaea's Herald

Anti-Artifact/ Enchantment : Song of the Dryads , Beast Within , Krosan Grip , World Breaker , Chaos Warp , Bane of Progress , Ingot Chewer , Acidic Slime , Cindervines , Decimate , Vandalblast

That is what I came up with so far, please let me know if you have any other ideas!

---

On another note, Odysseus_97: Crop Rotation will likely be making it was back into the deck. I still have to think about cuts, alongside recent cards that might be added.

Ripwater: Welcome the the Om_rath family! (sorry for the 3 month delayed welcome…). I’m glad you like the decklist! It’s cool you are building it with the pricy stuff first, most do it the other way around lol. Are you done building yet? I don’t know how your games have gone so far, but I win in a few different ways. The two most common methods are through attacking with a hoard of tokens, or sacking tokens to burn everyone to death. Better yet, Where Ancients Tread and Warstorm Surge are the most effective way to burn. However, Purphoros, God of the Forge , Craterhoof Behemoth , Akroma's Memorial and Genesis Wave are all great win-cons too!

I am not a fan of three card combos, even more so when one of the pieces are not the commander itself. The expectation is when each piece of the combo are great in the deck by themselves anyway. The problem with the Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle + Prismatic Omen + Scapeshift combo is that only Scapeshift is good in the deck by itself. Not enough Mountain s for Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and Prismatic Omen is pretty useless. However Zendikar's Roil is fine in the deck!

---

New for some potential changes!!!

POTENTIAL ADDS (trying a new thing where I rate them 1-10)

• Prismatic Vista 10/10 - Best card for EDH in years! It is right at home in Om_rath!

• Springbloom Druid 9/10 - A strictly weaker Harrow on a stick! Pretty sweet!

• Wrenn and Six 8/10 - I spent a LONG time starting at this card, trying to figure out if I like it or now… Then it accord to me that it is pretty much a Ramp spell in a deck with 11 lands that sack themselves! It makes me more included to keep Evolving Wilds around.

• Crop Rotation 7/10 - I have been milling over this card for a while. When I play games, I try to think to myself, “would I want Crop Rotation right now? I have realized that the answer is almost always yes. So, it is coming back. But I must fork over $100 for a stupid foil one…

• Force of Vigor 7/10 - Lets be honest, this deck is with a splash of , so this spell will always be free!

• Circuitous Route 6.5/10 - A third Explosive Vegetation never hurt no-one!

• Living Twister 6/10 - Out of all the cards suggested, I am the most skeptical here. The fact that it is an Elemental does not matter to me. I am curious what you all think (for those who are not playing tribal).

CHOPPING BLOCK (MAYBE!!!)

• Boundless Realms – I love this card but have come to except that this deck does not really need it. I rather have a cheaper ramp spell 90% of the time.

• Sylvan Awakening – A bit conditional for a wincon. Most of the time it ALMOST wins and then pissing the survivors off.

• Hour of Promise – Not sure if I want to cut it. For some reason always seems so much more then !

• Sylvan Scrying - Much rather have Crop Rotation

• Evolving Wilds – IDK…

• Blighted Woodland – Not bad, but if another good land comes out this might go away. Or it might be worse than Evolving Wilds , what do you think???

Please let me know what you think about these potential changes!!!

---

Stefouch: I am not a fan of Nissa, Who Shakes the World in this deck. I think it is generally fine, but not worth a slot overall.

It was good to finally catch up with you guys. I am really looking forward to what all of you think about some if my thoughts. Quite a bit going on here, but it is an exciting time to be an Om_rath player!

TypicalTimmy on Dinos & Dragons

3 months ago

Looks really fun. I'd recommend swapping out that Fires of Yavimaya with the newer Rhythm of the Wild :)

Also, it's not a Dino or a Dragon, but Spellbreaker Behemoth may be a good idea if you are going up against an unusually high amount of counter spells. Including your Commander, there are 17 creatures Spellbreaker will help protect from being countered. Might be worth looking into, just for that alone.

TypicalTimmy on Card creation challenge

4 months ago

I'll save you the Esper and do Naya. Here is my Mardu Soul Sisters deck, btw. Just bought it for $120 with S&H. I pieced the cards out: Non-land on Card Kingdom and lands on TCG Player where you can usually find heavily discounted prices for played cards. I'm personally not a fan of the 11 shipments that TCGP does, but sometimes it's worth it over CK's +$40.

I see we are also not going the route of Tarkir's , as I botched that anyway lol.

---

Mayael, Spirit of Alara

Legendary Creature - Spirit Avatar

Hexproof

Creature spells you control with power 5 or greater cost less to cast.

Creature spells with power 5 or greater can not be countered.

Whenever a creature with power 5 or greater enters the battlefield under your control, draw a card.

Sundered by hate and rage, peace is no longer a viable option. War may only be a means to an end, yet an end nonetheless.

5/4

---

Spellbreaker Behemoth anyone??

Esper & Grixis are left.

TypicalTimmy on Favorite Voltron Commander and why?

4 months ago

Just looking to have a fun discussion :)

I love Atarka, World Render for her massive 12 Commander Damage in the air. Stacking her up is just an incredible force to reckon with. But I feel Gruul has it's limitations in viable protection.

Green is good for things like a once-off Fog , sure. Green also ramps and can occasionally draw . Red is good for, in this case, draw as well. Both can produce mana too, though red is often limited to things such as Geosurge and Seething Song . But protection is rather limited and you are forced to stack up equipment to give her Indestructible or Hexproof, though an occasional green Enchantment or something like Archetype of Endurance can do the trick.

I find you need to balance Gruul Voltron a bit more. You have ways to make her uncounterable - Prowling Serpopard and Spellbreaker Behemoth to name a quick two.

Keeping her alive is difficult at first. Commander Tax makes it harder and harder. So politics play heavily into this design, because you want to get her out ASAP and keep her equipped. Not an easy task, mind you.

But at the end of the day, I find Atarka Voltron to be unexpected and fun.

So, what Voltron Commanders do you enjoy and why? :)

Ultralord on BIG BOMBS

4 months ago

und vllt noch Spellbreaker Behemoth

Natalbee on The Old Fashioned Way

4 months ago

Gotcha. When you said "from bulk" I thought maybe that meant cards you had laying around haha

Having 0 interaction or protection outside of creatures, you should def put in that Prowling Serpopard and Spellbreaker Behemoth . Soul of New Phyrexia protects all your creatures from a board wipe. Ruric Thar, the Unbowed punishes control players. Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip is a fantastic mana sink (as is Genesis Hydra ). Treasure Keeper and Woodland Bellower could be interesting? And Conduit of Ruin makes everything cheaper while tutoring for Decimator of the Provinces , Mockery of Nature , Nullstone Gargoyle , etc. Spearbreaker Behemoth and Stonehoof Chieftain also give some protection.