Stranglehold

Legality

Format Legality
Tiny Leaders Legal
1v1 Commander Legal
Magic Duels Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Vintage Legal
Leviathan Legal
Legacy Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal

Printings View all

Set Rarity
Commander Anthology (CM1) Rare
MTG: Commander (CMD) Rare

Combos Browse all

Stranglehold

Enchantment

Your opponents can't search libraries.

If an opponent would begin an extra turn, that player skips that turn instead.

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Stranglehold Discussion

Rahvin_dom on ZOa

19 hours ago

It sounds like you want to:

  1. Slow down opponents' ability to cast spells, which forces opponents to keep cards in hand
  2. Force opponents to discard, limiting their options
  3. Use discard triggers to punish opponents

This sounds like it can work with Bolas. The risk I'd point out is with the discard punishers, specifically ones like Megrim and Liliana's Caress. They can be a little fragile - once the opponent no longer has any cards, you stop getting triggers. They're nice incidental damage and can add up, but you can't rely on them to actually close out the game. Bolas is also not ideally suited to the stax plan - he doesn't inherently break symmetry, so there are much better options for hard stax.

Your MVP cards in a discard-based strategy are going to be Geth's Grimoire and Waste Not, with Notion Thief as a runner-up. You're playing a control game, and control requires keeping your hand full.

Wheels that discard are going to be excellent for you, getting a ton of discard triggers. Ignore wheels that shuffle and then draw without discarding.

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur would be a pretty amazing, synergistic reanimation target. You should definitely run some reanimation effects if you plan to force opponents to discard - you can grab tasty targets from your own deck or theirs. Reanimate, Animate Dead, Necromancy, Dance of the Dead are a good start.

For the stax package - Back to Basics is going to be your best target. Use it with Frozen AEther so that all opponents' lands enter tapped, and Basics can keep them tapped down.

Back to Basics doesn;t stop you from using your own fetches (even budget slow-fetches) since you only use those once - they don;t need to untap. Blood Moon works, and it sets your nonbasics to one of your actual colors, but it also turns all your fetches into Mountains. Watch out for that.

I'd also look at Ruination. It's MLD...but it only blows up non-basic lands. It's exactly what you're doing with the enchantments, but with removal.

You already seem to know the mana rock drill from your Nekusar deck. You want to lean heavily on the mana rocks - all of the 2CMC signets/talismans/Fellwar Stone. Fellwar is going to get much less useful once you land Bloood Moon though. Star Compass is useful since you'll be loading heavily on basic lands. Coldsteel Heart is useful to plug a specific color hole. Obviously Sol Ring. You're going to be looking for color fixing more than anything, so Chromatic Lantern is worth the extra mana, and any Mox you can afford are worthwhile (except Mox Amber, that one's less useful).

You need land fetching. Grixis Panorama is normally not a recommendation, but it can find any of your three colors, not just two, and you're already basically excluding fetchable duals with the stax effects. Journeyer's Kite and Thaumatic Compass  Flip, Armillary Sphere, Pilgrim's Eye, Skittering Surveyor, Solemn Simulacrum, Sword of the Animist, Wayfarer's Bauble are all at least playable. The ETB creatures are useful if you plan to abuse Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  Flip's ETB effect - you can use blink effects and Panharmonicon to get extra triggers.

Blood Moon and Back to Basics are great, but they likely are not enough to consistently slow opponents enough to be wroth all of this workaround by themselves. Even Ruination doesn't add enough. Unfortunately Grixis doesn;t have any of the neat land-untap triggers like Nature's Will or Seedborn Muse - if it did, you could abuse things like Stasis and Rising Waters and Static Orb more easily. Still, you could support Winter Orb with enough mana rocks. Be sure to run good one-sided artifact removal like Vandalblast to keep opponents from using their own rocks.

And of course Omniscience can let you blow up all the artifacts and lands and still play what you want. You'll be running a ton of rocks anyway, which could ramp you into it fairly early.

Void Winnower can majorly cripple opponents, and Stranglehold and Ob Nixilis, the Fallen can stop them from tutoring answers (or lands...).

The big thing, though, is how you want to win. Stax doesn;t work super well on its own - you need to be using stax to slow your opponents down so that you can pull off your own win condition. Do you have any ideas on how youd like to win, even if just generally? Combat, combos, punisher effects like Megrim, mill, etc?

hkhssweiss on Soldier of Fortune, Boros' Final Stand

2 days ago

BMHKain

Sorry I should have clarified. I meant how I helped TheErebos not asking him for advice. To go with your questions.

How well do you know cEDH? You do know that unless your running a combo deck multiple pieces of cards as a win con is too slow. You said you want to make a Boros color as competitive as possible. The cards you listed are not optimal and subpar.

You mentioned that you want to build a value town/stax(prison) hybrid. You are delving into combo pieces and not part of the lines you set your self up for. The main reason I listed the partners as commanders is because in a competitive meta life is a valuable resource if your going against Ad Naus type of decks the pressure Akiri gives is great. Having all the mana rocks in addition to stax/hate pieces will boost up her power and rack up damage as well as staxing the board. You break parity by gaining additional creatures for the value and go hatebears to swing and chip away at their life slowly while Bruse helps micro manage and enables higher outputs of damage.

Hatebear/Value Creatures:

Artifact Stax/Tax:

Enchantment Stax

Prison is a type of Stax, if you want to add in combo. The most efficient one in Boros is Kiki-Jiki and any creature that can untap him ex. Restoration Angel/Village Bell-Ringer.

BMHKain on TheErebos

3 days ago

Hello, TheErebos. Someone suggested to you about a certain thing; but I'm unsure if you'd agree w/ my cause...

deck chart

Soldier of Fortune, Boros' Final Stand

Commander / EDH* BMHKain

SCORE: 4 | 64 COMMENTS | 636 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

Yep. cEDH Boros. I was using Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, switched to Aurelia, the Warleader, & now Partners Akiri, Line-Slinger & Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder. My deck is based on three archetupes: Value Town, Stax, & Prison (Though that might just be another part of Stax.). I wonder if you are interested in this kind of thing; I believe Boros can win w/o going Aggro at all. I intend to try & bring these (& potentially Aurelia 1) to Tier 3. While there are things lack in some ways, I believe they can improve on such ideas in their own way...

Also, I wonder how one can Break Parity, & what Parity even is. I just wonder if these are the right CMDRs for this... (Both are on at least Tier 4.) What options would you recommend for this; given I have stuff that Combos out (Eldrazi Displacer, Fiend Hunter + Sun Titan, Potentially many others.), & stuff that locks down opponents Glowrider, Vryn Wingmare, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Thorn of Amethyst, Sphere of Resistance, Winter Orb, Static Orb, Icy Manipulator, Grafdigger's Cage, Ashes of the Abhorrent, Stranglehold, Kismet, among many others all apply here. What do you think might be a better combo for Rule of Law/Eidolon of Rhetoric than Possibility Storm + Knowledge Pool? What do you think is best here for reaching CMC 2 or less here? Also, would Village Bell-Ringer + Smoke help here? Finally, this'll sound stupid, but I'm thinking of a Design for a Partner Commander Related Mat; but I dunno how to make it GP/Pro Tour Legal. Ideas, if any?

cdkime on Stuff that's important for what ...

6 days ago

"That Said, I can't fragging believe you guys would think either Prototype Portal, & Ugin's Nexus is considered good in cEDH."

If you look back at what I posted, I never said whether it was good or not--I merely answered your rules-related question without any feedback on the card's viability.

To provide some thoughts on Ugin's Nexus's viability, I do not see it as that great a card. It can serve two functions, neither of which it is great at.

First, it can be a card to build-around, but, as griffstick noted, it might not be that viable as a build-around competitively. This is particularly true if you don't have Blue to help draw and find combo pieces.

Second, it serves as a substitute for the better Stranglehold.

Neither of these is all that exciting.

SynergyBuild on Commanders by Power Level [EDH Tier List]

6 days ago

Aphoticate perfectly fine double posts happen to the best of us xD.

Now onto why I doubt Kess Stax will work in tier 1.

TO start, 99 card commanderless colorless stax was a Tier 3 deck meant to prove every deck is worth tier three when built competitively. I would never call it tier one as is.

Now, mass discard? I would want some examples of that. I mean, I would love to see that.

I mean, Oppression, Bottomless Pit, and Necrogen Mists aren't exactly great unless you are really a black stax deck like Nath, and nath is about it. I mean monoblack stax can use it, but Kess breaking parity on that isn't really worth it.

You could run some good Blue/Red Stax (Blood Moon, Stranglehold, Back to Basics, and Arcane Laboratory) and just like have a couple cards that make opponents discard cards, but that is about it.

Also, you claim now that you aren't a cEDH guru, yet before you claimed that the reason behind Ishai's impressive showing in the competitive tier was due to her commander damage ability, and that with Vial Smasher, until I explained that outside of Yuriko/Edric/Blood Pod, a cEDH deck that deals damage through combat in general is bad, and you caved. (November 20th as archived)

Or, when you kept insisting that Wort was a tier 4 deck on this when it was listed Tier 3, and claiming that my 99 card colorless commanderless stax lsit was impossible, before again, caving under the realization you were wrong. (November 9th as archived.)

Or, when you claimed that Liliana, Heretical Healer  Flip and Erebos, God of the Dead weren't worth the spot they were given, until Soren841 and I explained to you how breaking parity and mono-black stax worked. Guess who caved? Hint, you. (November 8th as archived)

Or, when you were randomly asking people on this list about decks you should make outside of cEDH, completely wasting the use of the comment system, forgetting that the forums exist. You also dissed on Sidisi and Razaketh a bit. (November 6th as archived)

Or, when you wanted to know about Nath elfball, claiming it was too janky for cEDH, and I had to explain to you how the deck worked, and that tokens were a wincon, even without Earthcraft and Squirrel Nest. After I explained, you didn't respond. (October 23 as archived.)

Or, when you claim that Anafenza, the Foremost, a powerful stax hatebear deck that can shut down tons of Tier 1-2 combo decks on her own without an answer was 'unsynergistic' and Abzan Falconer was better than Gaddock Teeg. You caved to DangoDaikazoku, ForsakenxEDHx and me (October 20th as archived)

Or, when you enthusiastically claimed that something absurd was true or something considerably powerful was trash, someone else or me explains with common, rational sense that you are wrong.

And you cave

(Always as archived)

Do you see why I think you are conceited and have no idea what you are talking about?

BMHKain on Stuff that's important for what ...

1 week ago

NOTE: This is a topic regarding cEDH Boros. If you think there is no hope for it, do NOT post on this. (The Bold should be warning enough...)

After trying to cut some stuff to 100 for some things, I realized, there is some others to do regarding one deck:

deck chart

Soldier of Fortune, Boros' Final Stand

Commander / EDH* BMHKain

SCORE: 4 | 58 COMMENTS | 583 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

I previously wanted this to be Tier 3, as one joke cEDH deck (Depala, of all things.), did this. But this is a serious attempt by all means. That said, I'll mention some things worth note to get at least just a little bit closer to my goal:

Both of their most recent prints state their abilities differently. Pyroblast has:

Choose one — • Counter target spell if it's blue. • Destroy target permanent if it's blue.

Red Elemental Blast?

Choose one — • Counter target blue spell. • Destroy target blue permanent.

This seems written differently; but I dunno how this is different from the others. Regardless, cEDH usually smiles upon . So I'll leave it to you to decide...

This is a biggie. One person not known for cEDH believes this is a real dud of a wincon. But I'd like some opinions o this. If this really does suck, at least that's 3 cuts so far. Aside from this, Grand Abolisher does wonders here.

This is new as I found that Magistrate's Scepter is just one target for counters; something I know FOR A FACT Boros is NOT good at in the slightest (There, a minus. See? I can agree w/ you too. 0-^) Prototype Portal can imprint any artifact; which can range from an infinite mana via Lotus Petal, or Infinite Turns w/ Ugin's Nexus. Problem? I have little to nothing to destroy the copy is opposed to exiling it. Plus, this is quite expensive; but I don't want to use Final Fortune + Sundial of the Infinite loops; they can be disrupted; besides, this is the only option left (Gonti's Aether Heart is more expensive anyway.). Bonus points for infinite mana in case Ugin's Nexus is a skip. I'll let you decide.

I'm confused about this; happy, but confused. Usually stuff lower than 3 CMC would be fine; but one cEDH Staples lists actually lists her on the main list. runs Dorks, & so few even reach a 3+ toughness. Should I get rid of her for CMC's sake? or should I keep her as a Gamekiller?

W/ so many doing stuff outside of Lifeloss/lifegain, this should be very important to note as others would either Self-Mill via Laboratory Maniac, Maze's End a game, basically put; Wincons that don't depend on Life Total. So, should I put in stuff like these, Goblin Chainwhirler, or other things that can kill life totals? Otherwise, I at least have Altar of the Brood to mill everyone else... XP

After knowing about creatures outside of that can produce Mana, I decided Neheb, the Eternal is no longer enough (It actually requires Damage dealing to make it work; so, I'm thinking of cutting him; considering nobody really wants to damage anyways.). While I could flicker [Farrelite Priest]] & make her new, w/o previous memory, I want to leave it to you; w/ so much Devotion to , Should I rather increase the amount of Plains & decrease the number of Mountains? (I have Blood Moon Anyway...). If she is crap to you, I want to know why; I cannot run Avacyn's Pilgrim you know.

Yes, I get it. Tamiyo's Journal is the only Target of this inspector. That said, Tamiyo's Journal can search for anything. Problem? One target. Not consistent enough, & nobody is recommending a card like Tamiyo's Journal that can also work on its own... Ideas are welcome.

This combo came to me in the form of an Epiphany. After I blow up all lands, I can flicker Fiend Hunter exiling Sun Titan to bring all my lands back; yes, this is possible. Since Lands are 0CMC Permanents, I can bring them all back to my side. even a combo like this can't be stopped by the next part of this charade...

Some of the best cards in this deck so far. It promotes a Prison-Lock for all Graveyards in play. Since this deck should be able to have effects that bypass both of these; I just want to know what to cut due to these...

This also applies to what I can use for Arcane Laboratory in . This combo has been looked up, but I dunno how it'll work here... It should be useful, but I dunno if it's cEDH competitive or not; much less how it works. If this is good both ways, I'm keeping them. At least tell me how it works, please...

  • Squee Sucks?

Squee, the Immortal + Goblin Bombardment was meant to be used as a combo here. But since this uses Eldrazi Displacer to flicker ETB/CIP Creatures, I'm thinking of cutting the former 2 unless I can find a card that mimics Displacer's effect, so I don't have to have just one of such effect to waste... Felidar Guardian?

  • The Emancipation Proclamation NEVER happened...

Emancipation Angel is something not to be cross with. She can return any permanent you control to your hand. Simple as that. Since it's an ETB ability, Eldrazi Displacer can bounce her, & she can do this again. If you want a list of Creatures in my deck that are ETB/CIP based, SUGOI! LET'S KICK As- Captain Janeway: Asteroids. Seven of Nine: Fun will now commence.

(Yes. I LITERALLY pulled off a Star Trek: Voyager.)

Duergar Hedge-Mage Fiend Hunter Goblin Chainwhirler Goblin Settler Imperial Recruiter Mentor of the Meek Mikaeus, the Lunarch Priest of Urabrask Recruiter of the Guard Solemn Simulacrum Sun Titan Thraben Inspector Village Bell-Ringer Wall of Omens Wily Goblin

(Damn, that's a lot... I need to lessen the lot...)

Paradox Engine is the only thing I have to Isochron Scepter imprinting Dramatic Reversal, so it NEEDS to stay; plus, I could've sworn it was a staple here... While this has quite some ETB/CIP effects, that doesn't have to mean things can't be cast either. Even stuff like Sunforger when casting instants are still considered cast. Even Mistveil Plains can bring them back. I really just wanted to throw in Reito Lantern, though; but cards like Grafdigger's Cage might mess w/ it; so it's now a skip.

Recently, I wanted to take this deck to a differing route; Value Town/Stax/Prison. This in turn meant a lot of stuff; Glowrider, Thorn of Amethyst (How fitting as it's my birthstone; but I still hated how STEVEN UNIVERSE personified her as a character since the beginning... :/), Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Vryn Wingmare, Ethersworn Canonist, Kismet, even Sphere of Resistance is damn good here. While a lot would think stuff like this is crap here, even stuff like Stranglehold, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Grand Abolisher, even Ugin's Nexus & Defense Grid are all great here. Irony? Many wouldn't see all this as competitive enough. So, w/ all that said, one last thing...

  • Any ideas for a new CMDR?

Alright, we're almost done with what might be my longest post here ever... I've been thinking for the longest time; I need a new commander; Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is too much now. Since I took the liberty to change from Stax/Control (Or Value Town/Stax? I dun remember...) to Value Town/Stax/Prison. From there, I decided to make a change of CMDR. But there were bigger flaws w/ most, so I decided to make some regulations:

  1. No Tier 5 CMDRs.
  2. No Tribal Commanders (Stuff like Depala, Pilot Exemplar apply here.)
  3. Partners are only Allowed if not from BBD (Battlebond) (Khorvath Brightflame + Sylvia Brightspear for instance is not allowed.)
  4. Equipment/Aura Based CMDRS are out; I don't have any of that anyway...

I guess this is alright? The reason I left out 5. It must be Aggro Based is, well, the rest of the Tier 4s w/o only counting none of them.

Now I leave all this to you: What should I cut for a legit Tier 3 cEDH deck? I apologize for the Mammoth Sized Text, but it should be worth the effort.

I am open to Constructive Criticism only. I hope this is of good help for what is worth of help to me. I'll let you decide on my fate on this deck now.

SynergyBuild on Land Destruction: A social conversation

1 week ago

A player who drops a ton of lands onto the field with Sakura-Tribe Elder, Cultivate, Farseek, etc. and complains about Armageddon is just as much a hypocrite as the player who drops a Consecrated Sphinx and complains about the Swords to Plowshares, or the player who drops Counterbalance and Sensei's Divining Top and complains about Abrupt Decay, or the player who drops Expropriate and complains about Counterspell.

To run a game-winning effect, or an effect like Expropriate that helps you to win and claims players that run the appropriate answer is 'ruining their fun' is being hypocritical.

From what I have heard from Azdranax, Rabid_Wombat, Icbrgr, ERoss8, clayperce and everyone outside of this post that the 'issue' with land destruction is twofold:

  • It isn't 'fun', generally predicated by the fact that they cannot play.

  • It stops players from winning, therefor isn't fun.

In that case, should we accept players frowing upon any deck that's goal is to stop others from winning or playing?

Well, on the surface, everytime a player wins the game, both conditions are decks. By a lot of the people on this forum's logic:

Banning winning is acceptable.

This is downright stupid. Even excluding this, any control deck is now banned, from permission to stax. Discard stops people from playing the cards they discarded, so it should be banned? Counterspells - banned. Removal - Banned, Hate - banned.

In fact pillow fort should be banned too, by the fact that it can stop your opponents from playing if their only play is to attack you, but your Glacial Chasm is stopping them or something.

At this point, by that logic, you can't defend youself, stop your opponents, or even win, when that is taken to its logical extremes.

Separately, even to Azdranax slightly better variant on this argument, if stalling the game and not immediately winning is bannable, should every single board wipe be banned? They can also ruin people's fun, so can single target removal when in a specific situation.

In fact, a Blind Obedience, Stony Silence, Peacekeeper, Stranglehold, or any well-timed hatepiece can do this. Your argument would ban tons of normally played, fair, balanced cards. Unless you want every card like this to be banned or frowned upon, you are the hypocrite.

Even if you were to say these previously mentioned examples would only sometimes stall out a game, so would MLD, many times every player has an abundance of dorks or rocks, and wouldn't be affected in any meaningful way. Sometimes it accelerates the game, under effects like a Dingus Egg effect, or a deck aiming to abuse their own lands being destroyed, such as Titania, Protector of Argoth or The Gitrog Monster.

hkhssweiss on The Revenge of the Titans

1 week ago

Cyberseb

What kind of budget do you have in mind? Since you plan on bringing to an cEDH table eventually, I'll list some staples that can be considered.

So far what I can recommend for your general game plan, is ramp to accelerate to a T2/T3 Jodah into a T4 Eldrazi smash. You should run a lot of interaction spells as well as tutors to guarantee get what you want every time, Time of Need is also great for this.

Hope that helps!

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