Strangleroot Geist

Creature — Spirit

Haste

Undying (When this creature is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter on it.)

Legality

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

Discussion (50)

Gidgetimer on EDH Merens Reanimator

3 days ago

The most compact Hulk line is going to be Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista which requires you to add only Protean Hulk and Walking Ballista both of which are decent outside of the combo. The combo does require a sacrifice outlet, and I was having trouble thinking of how to grab one since the combo already uses all 6 CMC of the tutor and I am most familiar with the combo in Abzan where you get Karmic Guide. Luckily DreadKhan supplied the missing piece, if you add in Activated Sleeper you can tutor the Sleeper and Viscera Seer to provide the sacrifice outlet.

Combo I am describing in case you are not familiar with Mike and Ballista. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed gives non-human creatures +1/+1 and undying, so the Ballista enters as a 1/1 and doesn't die. Sacrifice Walking Ballista and it comes back with a +1/+1 counter. Remove the counter from Ballista and deal 1 damage to an opponent. Repeat loop of sacrificing Ballista and removing counter until all opponents are dead.

You are also already running Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, so you can add in a few low cost undying creatures and get that combo with low opportunity cost. Young Wolf and Butcher Ghoul are the easiest to cast ones since they only have a single colored pip. Treacherous Pit-Dweller, Geralf's Messenger, and Strangleroot Geist are perfectly defensible options too, though the pit dweller is more all-in on having a way to sacrifice for value before the trigger to give an opponent control resolves and as such I think isn't a great fit here.

In general you can also up the power level of the deck by adding tutors. The "good" ones you are not running are Worldly Tutor, Grim Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor.

Fluggleshmuggits on Cube Eternal

1 month ago

Cube somehow got over 450. Strangleroot Geist was the last card. Still need to fit it in. And it's hamster time.

IN
Strangleroot Geist
Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes

OUT
Trumpeting Herd
Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip

Fluggleshmuggits on Cube Eternal

1 month ago

IN

Anointed Procession
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
Touch the Spirit Realm
Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
Stonehewer Giant
Stalactite Stalker
Dauthi Voidwalker
Inti, Seneschal of the Sun
Firebrand Archer
Strangleroot Geist
Wrenn and Realmbreaker
Molten Collapse
Murderous Redcap
Bartolome del Presidio
Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord
Radha, Heart of Keld
Boseiju, Who Endures
Otawara, Soaring City
Kaldra Compleat

OUT

Seeker of the Way
Archetype of Courage
Banishing Light
Shalai, Voice of Plenty
Reveillark
Changeling Outcast
Eliminate
Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner
Mizzium Tank
Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
Archetype of Endurance
Rakdos Charm
Angrath's Rampage
Sin Collector
Anguished Unmaking
Ancient Grudge
Pendelhaven
Teferi's Isle
Eater of Virtue

wallisface on Selesyna Midrange

6 months ago

As far as cards I would ditch:

• Garruk Wildspeaker feels too slow/midrange orientated and not useful for what you’re trying to do here. Same goes for Elder Gargaroth.

• Blossoming Defense feels kindof meh here to me. None of your creatures are crucial to keep alive - i’d rather these slots be used for more creatures.

• I don’t think you need/want Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx at all… if your deck is benefitting from it then your mana curve is too high.

I think you should be running Tail Swipe instead of Prey Upon. And i think you can run the full playset if there’s room.

As far as creatures to add/consider, i have a bunch of suggestions that aren’t beasts, but would help you a lot. At the moment your only reason to running mono-beasts is Descendants' Path, which imo isn’t a strong enough card to warrant restricting your creature options soo heavily.

Anyway, creatures that cpuld be good here: Pelt Collector, Experiment One, and Strangleroot Geist. There is also the option of going down to 18 lands, running playsets of Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic (you ditch Arboreal Grazer in this situation), and playing 3x Khalni Hydra as a terrifying finisher (they make your Aspect of Hydra back-breaking).

Andromedus on Progress and Poverty

10 months ago

wallisface Whether this deck ever places in any tournaments remains to be seen, but I'm not about to throw the concept out in favor of making just another scales or taxes deck. If I wanted to do that the copy/paste function would have saved me a lot of time.

I'll answer much of this when I get the description written on how to pilot it. To hit an easy one: Anointed Peacekeeper is a replacement effect, not an ETB trigger, so Hushbringer has no effect on it.

Regarding Hushbringer hitting only three decks in the meta, based off MTG Goldfish data this assertion simply isn't true. In addition to hitting Scam (Dauthi Voidwalker, Seasoned Pyromancer, Grief, Fury), Omnath (Endurance, Omnath, Locus of Creation, Fury, Solitude, Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines), and (both Jeskai and Azorius) Control (Solitude, Wall of Omens, Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines), it also hits Creativity (Archon of Cruelty), Hammertime (Kor Outfitter, Stoneforge Mystic), Temur Rhinos (Fury), Living End (Architects of Will, Grief, Subtlety), Mono-Green Tron (Wurmcoil Engine), Yawgmoth (Young Wolf, Blood Artist, Strangleroot Geist, Endurance, Geralf's Messenger), and Scales (Hangarback Walker, Zabaz, the Glimmerwasp, Arcbound Ravager).

So the decks that Hushbringer doesn't touch are Burn, Murktide, Underworld Breach, and Domain Zoo.

The top 15 decks represent exactly 80% of the meta (per MTG Goldfish), with the four above decks that Hushbringer doesn't touch representing 21.5% of the meta. So assuming Hushbringer has no impact on the missing 20% of the meta not represented by the top 15 decks (definitely untrue, Death and Taxes, Eldrazi Tron, Merfolk and Amulet Titan being four obvious examples that Hushbringer hoses just off the top of my head, but let's pretend) it still prevents something in 58.5% of meta competitive decks.

Granted it's not a great card against all of those decks, but it still disrupts something, while sitting on a 1/2 flying lifelink body.

Regarding those decks that Hushbringer's static ability doesn't impact at all, four quick points:

1. She can be an excellent chump blocker or damage trader in a deck with 4x Giver of Runes when the opponent lacks trample, plus lifelink is naturally strong vs burn.
2. Not all +1/+1 counters are created equal, you get a lot more mileage on a lifelink flyer than on most other creatures, especially if you're trading.
3. Those four decks are generally hosed by other aspects of the deck (by design), i.e. Archon of Emeria hoses Murktide, as does much of the list, frankly. That's not to say it always beats Murktide, but it does hold its ground respectably (at least in my playtesting).
4. Our sideboard is designed to help us most vs our weaker matchups, and since it's white it's a pretty solid toolkit. I do think the sideboard could probably be further improved.

In general, since we're trying to deny value and slow down the game, we're looking for mana dumps and value engines that help us grind ahead. The +1/+1 counter engines help us do that, and when placed on a lifelink or vigilance creature punch above their weight.

If you think it's a garbage deck concept then that's fair. I've playtested vs a handful of the top competitive archetypes with surprisingly good results, but it may be that despite my best efforts I'm just no good at piloting other decks. In any case I'll entertain feedback that helps it do what it's meant to do better, but I'm not looking to create just another deck that everyone's seen a million times except with a slight two-card tweak just so I can call it innovation. I hope that makes some sense.

When I get a description written up I hope to make things a bit clearer. Undoubtedly the deck isn't for everyone, and may not ever end up on a meta list. That's ok.

wallisface on

1 year ago

Some thoughts:

• you’re only at 58 cards - you need 60 for a legal deck.

• I’d suggest going up to 20 lands (and also ditching the mana dork).

• you currently have no other warriors in your deck, making Bramblewood Paragon pretty useless as you’ll almost never be gaining counters off it.

• you’ll never be gaining counters from Scute Mob either - with only 18 lands you won’t have 5 in play until around turn 9-10… no game is lasting that long.

• both Forced Adaptation and Hydra's Growth are super risky/unideal cards to run as your opponent only has to use one killspell to remove both the creature & enchantment (costing you 2 cards for their 1).

• your deck currently feels very rag-tag/clumsy as far as being very slow to look threatening (Avatar of the Resolute and Rancor are the only cards that look strong in your deck currently. The rest feel weak/awkward/slow). Cards i’d suggest considering include Pelt Collector, Experiment One, Strangleroot Geist, Aspect of Hydra, Quirion Beastcaller, and maybe Servant of the Scale.

Delphen7 on Yawgmoth Combo Question

1 year ago

I understand the general idea behind the deck; looping undying creatures with Yawg for infinites, but in this video (timestamp 13:20-13:40) I saw AspiringSpike scoop as soon as Yawg hit the table with Young Wolf and Strangleroot Geist, and I don't understand why.

The Yawg player could only loop the two undyers back and forth, essentially paying a life to draw a card each iteration; they had no payoffs on the field, and last I checked there was no Blood Artist effect in red. They didn't even have the mana to Chord of Calling

Is there something in the deck they can cast that wins them the game, or did Spike prematurely scoop?

Best I could tell, they'd loop a couple times, draw some cards, and then Spike could burn them out of the game.

Ouroboros_47 on Counters Evolution

1 year ago

I think you need some bigger creatures to go with your evolve cards like Steel Leaf Champion as an example to get the most out of them. Also Pelt Collector has honorary evolve. Strangleroot Geist could be decent as well, especially with hardened scales.